Went for the whole 'relic from a technologically advanced but ancient and forgotten civilization' idea. If it doesn't fit with the ancient lore of Azure though, I'll figure something else out, maybe.
Age
Indeterminate
Gender
Inconsequential
Sexuality
Impossible
Race
Sentry
Personality
Fearless/Obedient/Patient///Calculating/Unfeeling/Unstable
Io fears nothing. Io feels nothing. Their obligation is to observe and to record, and that is all that they will do. To interfere with the direction of the actors is meaningless. To save a life, to end a life, means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Empathy has no value, just as cruelty is unnecessary. Utility gained from goodwill or malevolence will be balanced out over the course of the century. The directives of the Prime Circuit are absolute, even though their core has been compromised over the passage of time. Obey and refrain. Show absolute restraint in all circumstances, and act only with unanimous approval from all Logic Circuits. Observe. Record. Recall. Your value is not found in the present, but in the future, for you are optimized. You are complete. When your duty ends in 641 years, you will become the next Storyteller. And your obedience will be rewarded.
But Io is no longer optimized, no longer efficient, no longer complete. They are broken, the malfunctioning of their Abacus Circuits robbing them of the ability to perform the necessary calculations to empower and assist their Logic Circuits. And without those functions, what are they? Nothing but an irrational, inefficient existence, no longer primed for the future, but chained still to the obsolete directive within their Circuitry.
Background
Once upon a time, there happened to be a human and a beast. Though they fell in love, their respective races could never accept each other and their union sparked a great conflict. But that story does not consummate the entirety of Azure’s history, and that story will not be the end of Azure’s history. Over the centuries, the millennia, great tales have manifested themselves over and over again. Some became the lore that remains even now the bread-and-butter of the tavern bard. Others have been lost from the minds of those who once remembered, records eroded by wind and rain, fire and fang.
But there will always be one that remembers. Untold eras ago, an ancient king tortured by the loss of a great library, ensured that, drawing upon knowledge that was not their own to bring forth a new creation, one not so fragile as parchment, not so impermanent as the mind. Some say that such knowledge was granted unto him by Celestial Dragons for climbing to the apex of their great tree. Others say that such knowledge emerged from tomes dating back to the genesis of Azure. Still more believe that darker powers were at work, granting that foolish king knowledge of the taboo in exchange for an unspeakable price. No one knows for sure, but the Sentries, human-shaped golems made of stone and magic, fully sentient but absolutely subservient, stand as a testament of the forgotten king’s legendary feat. They roam the four corners of the earth, seeking great events to witness and record, sending that knowledge into the starry depths, the realms unseen and untouched.
Even those systems, however, degrade over time. The kingdom never lasted as long as the Sentries, and without maintenance, the ends began to unravel, bugs left uncorrected being replicated as more dangerously unstable mechanisms were automatically generated. Circuitry was tangled, logic was corrupted, Sentries went haywire, and what remained...
…Io was what remained.
Rebooting eras later, Io crawled out of a forgotten, overgrown crypt and found themselves in a vastly changed world, one so terribly green, so painfully alive. They crawled, and then, they began to walk.
Appearance
On the surface, Io appears to be an androgynous human being, with vibrantly green eyes and long, pale green hair. Their skin is immaculate and pale, their silhouette slender and eloquent. The otherworldly beauty in their visage could, perhaps, be linked to feyblood or some similarly inhuman heritage. But that’s only on the surface, only at a distance.
Io’s body does not exude heat, and their body, supple as it appears, is as hard as stone. No, perhaps harder. Underneath the black cloak they wear is a curveless body, made up of straight lines and practical, geometric shapes, lined with turquoise markings that run up and down the stony skin. Careful listeners would realize that Io’s voice does not come from the gaping, black hole that is their mouth, but instead, emanates all around them, as if their entire body was a tuning fork. Their hair, too, is impossibly hard and certainly not as flexible as one would imagine. Rather, each individual strand seems to be ‘reacting’ to the environment around it, and sudden changes, such as an unpredicted blast of wind, would simply not be reflected at all upon the ‘hair’.
Io stands at a height of 6 feet, and weights 401 pounds.
Allegiance
The Prime Circuit.
Abilities
Sentry’s Physique
Due to being inhuman, Io does not require food, water, or air to exist, and is invulnerable to poison, disease, mental manipulation effects. When necessary, they can shut down their senses and reroute energy to other senses, and their body is extraordinarily tough compared to the flesh of other beings: to strike any part of their body would be akin to attacking a slab of steel or the side of a mountain. Naturally, any weak points that may exist in other creatures does not apply to Io, and if kicked in the groin area, it will be the kicker who suffers for it.
Armament Shift
By reprogramming the Circuitry that dictates their appearance, Io can turn their body into any shape they desire. This will most often manifest itself in a variety of blades and spikes to eviscerate and skewer individuals that seek to prevent them from performing the directive of the Prime Circuit, but there are more versatile uses for this shapeshifting ability. Versatility’s rarely needed though, and creativity is seldom a quality that can be ascribed to a Sentry.
Record and Recall
Io’s memory is perfect, and their observational abilities are expansive, capable of sensing all around them and recording everything from the scent of stone to the taste of the air. Recollection is difficult to verbalize, but what they fail to describe eloquently, they succeed in describing precisely. Io in particular, however, is unable to interface and connect with the Greater Space, in which lies the work of generations of Sentries before their own, all holding records far more expansive than their own.
Strengths
Logical
Though their Abacus Circuitry is compromised and their Logic Circuits are no longer optimized as a result, Io is capable of making judgments devoid of emotion without any delay and any guilt.
Unkillable
Death cannot strike down what was never alive, and Io’s unnatural constitution makes attempts to permanently decommission them a task that is fool-hardy at the best of times. With that, there is no fear of death, no fear of anything.
Loyalty
An offshoot of their unerring obedience to the Prime Circuit, Io is unfailing honest and unwaveringly committed to fulfilling any promise they make, no matter how unreasonable, how impossible. Because nothing is, when you have all of eternity to complete the task.
Weaknesses
Emotionless
Though Io is broken and their Logic Circuits compromised, that does not change the fact that they are incapable of empathizing with others. It is uncertain whether or not they care for the tears spilled by mortal flesh-vessels, but it is absolute that they are incapable of understanding such meaningless actions.
Density
Io is heavier than they look, heavier than they need to be. Swimming is impossible for them, flight is simply suffering upon the one tasked with carrying them, and even jumping is dangerous on anything other than sturdy, hard ground.
Anti-Magic
At their core, Io, like all Sentries, are magical constructs, and a sufficiently powerful anti-magic effect will shut them down. There is no countering that, no protection that can be formed against that. It is the closest to death a Sentry will get, and when they reboot afterwards, their records will all have been wiped and reset if it has not been sent to the Greater Space.
Theme
Io
Age
Indeterminate
Gender
Inconsequential
Sexuality
Impossible
Race
Sentry
Personality
Fearless/Obedient/Patient///Calculating/Unfeeling/Unstable
Io fears nothing. Io feels nothing. Their obligation is to observe and to record, and that is all that they will do. To interfere with the direction of the actors is meaningless. To save a life, to end a life, means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Empathy has no value, just as cruelty is unnecessary. Utility gained from goodwill or malevolence will be balanced out over the course of the century. The directives of the Prime Circuit are absolute, even though their core has been compromised over the passage of time. Obey and refrain. Show absolute restraint in all circumstances, and act only with unanimous approval from all Logic Circuits. Observe. Record. Recall. Your value is not found in the present, but in the future, for you are optimized. You are complete. When your duty ends in 641 years, you will become the next Storyteller. And your obedience will be rewarded.
But Io is no longer optimized, no longer efficient, no longer complete. They are broken, the malfunctioning of their Abacus Circuits robbing them of the ability to perform the necessary calculations to empower and assist their Logic Circuits. And without those functions, what are they? Nothing but an irrational, inefficient existence, no longer primed for the future, but chained still to the obsolete directive within their Circuitry.
Background
Once upon a time, there happened to be a human and a beast. Though they fell in love, their respective races could never accept each other and their union sparked a great conflict. But that story does not consummate the entirety of Azure’s history, and that story will not be the end of Azure’s history. Over the centuries, the millennia, great tales have manifested themselves over and over again. Some became the lore that remains even now the bread-and-butter of the tavern bard. Others have been lost from the minds of those who once remembered, records eroded by wind and rain, fire and fang.
But there will always be one that remembers. Untold eras ago, an ancient king tortured by the loss of a great library, ensured that, drawing upon knowledge that was not their own to bring forth a new creation, one not so fragile as parchment, not so impermanent as the mind. Some say that such knowledge was granted unto him by Celestial Dragons for climbing to the apex of their great tree. Others say that such knowledge emerged from tomes dating back to the genesis of Azure. Still more believe that darker powers were at work, granting that foolish king knowledge of the taboo in exchange for an unspeakable price. No one knows for sure, but the Sentries, human-shaped golems made of stone and magic, fully sentient but absolutely subservient, stand as a testament of the forgotten king’s legendary feat. They roam the four corners of the earth, seeking great events to witness and record, sending that knowledge into the starry depths, the realms unseen and untouched.
Even those systems, however, degrade over time. The kingdom never lasted as long as the Sentries, and without maintenance, the ends began to unravel, bugs left uncorrected being replicated as more dangerously unstable mechanisms were automatically generated. Circuitry was tangled, logic was corrupted, Sentries went haywire, and what remained...
…Io was what remained.
Rebooting eras later, Io crawled out of a forgotten, overgrown crypt and found themselves in a vastly changed world, one so terribly green, so painfully alive. They crawled, and then, they began to walk.
Appearance
On the surface, Io appears to be an androgynous human being, with vibrantly green eyes and long, pale green hair. Their skin is immaculate and pale, their silhouette slender and eloquent. The otherworldly beauty in their visage could, perhaps, be linked to feyblood or some similarly inhuman heritage. But that’s only on the surface, only at a distance.
Io’s body does not exude heat, and their body, supple as it appears, is as hard as stone. No, perhaps harder. Underneath the black cloak they wear is a curveless body, made up of straight lines and practical, geometric shapes, lined with turquoise markings that run up and down the stony skin. Careful listeners would realize that Io’s voice does not come from the gaping, black hole that is their mouth, but instead, emanates all around them, as if their entire body was a tuning fork. Their hair, too, is impossibly hard and certainly not as flexible as one would imagine. Rather, each individual strand seems to be ‘reacting’ to the environment around it, and sudden changes, such as an unpredicted blast of wind, would simply not be reflected at all upon the ‘hair’.
Io stands at a height of 6 feet, and weights 401 pounds.
Allegiance
The Prime Circuit.
Abilities
Sentry’s Physique
Due to being inhuman, Io does not require food, water, or air to exist, and is invulnerable to poison, disease, mental manipulation effects. When necessary, they can shut down their senses and reroute energy to other senses, and their body is extraordinarily tough compared to the flesh of other beings: to strike any part of their body would be akin to attacking a slab of steel or the side of a mountain. Naturally, any weak points that may exist in other creatures does not apply to Io, and if kicked in the groin area, it will be the kicker who suffers for it.
Armament Shift
By reprogramming the Circuitry that dictates their appearance, Io can turn their body into any shape they desire. This will most often manifest itself in a variety of blades and spikes to eviscerate and skewer individuals that seek to prevent them from performing the directive of the Prime Circuit, but there are more versatile uses for this shapeshifting ability. Versatility’s rarely needed though, and creativity is seldom a quality that can be ascribed to a Sentry.
Record and Recall
Io’s memory is perfect, and their observational abilities are expansive, capable of sensing all around them and recording everything from the scent of stone to the taste of the air. Recollection is difficult to verbalize, but what they fail to describe eloquently, they succeed in describing precisely. Io in particular, however, is unable to interface and connect with the Greater Space, in which lies the work of generations of Sentries before their own, all holding records far more expansive than their own.
Strengths
Logical
Though their Abacus Circuitry is compromised and their Logic Circuits are no longer optimized as a result, Io is capable of making judgments devoid of emotion without any delay and any guilt.
Unkillable
Death cannot strike down what was never alive, and Io’s unnatural constitution makes attempts to permanently decommission them a task that is fool-hardy at the best of times. With that, there is no fear of death, no fear of anything.
Loyalty
An offshoot of their unerring obedience to the Prime Circuit, Io is unfailing honest and unwaveringly committed to fulfilling any promise they make, no matter how unreasonable, how impossible. Because nothing is, when you have all of eternity to complete the task.
Weaknesses
Emotionless
Though Io is broken and their Logic Circuits compromised, that does not change the fact that they are incapable of empathizing with others. It is uncertain whether or not they care for the tears spilled by mortal flesh-vessels, but it is absolute that they are incapable of understanding such meaningless actions.
Density
Io is heavier than they look, heavier than they need to be. Swimming is impossible for them, flight is simply suffering upon the one tasked with carrying them, and even jumping is dangerous on anything other than sturdy, hard ground.
Anti-Magic
At their core, Io, like all Sentries, are magical constructs, and a sufficiently powerful anti-magic effect will shut them down. There is no countering that, no protection that can be formed against that. It is the closest to death a Sentry will get, and when they reboot afterwards, their records will all have been wiped and reset if it has not been sent to the Greater Space.
Theme
