I wouldn't worry too much about "filling gaps" in the group as much as I would making a character that will be enjoyable for you to play. I mean, heck, one of the characters making up the current group is basically a non-combatant whose only useful traits seem to be the ability to universally understand languages and that he's generally a likable guy. Your character can basically be anything, as long as it adheres to the rules of the Prophecy universe.
That said, if you do want to specifically fill a vacant "role" in the group, I suppose they're missing (a) mage(s).
I might also be interested. I need to do some fishing in your compendium and see if anything really stands out to me as inhibiting my participation. But I am definitely calling myself primarily interested.
You'd certainly be welcome to. I realize that I'm repeating myself, but I'll reiterate as many times as needed that you are free to ask if there's anything you want to know.
So I have tried to find some other character sheets in order to get an idea of the form used here and subsequently stitched something together. I hope it's halfway up to the quality standards of this RP!
Please note that this is to be considered a draft that is not yet complete as annotated.
Athanar
Basics Name: Athanar Gender: Male Age: 32 Race: Demonspawn
Appearance At first glance Athanar is not exactly impressive as he occupies no more than very average-ish five feet and 10 inches of height from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. However upon touching him one can notice that his bodily constitution, flappantly speaking, is that of a solid brick: He is extremely muscular all around and it is safe to assume that his bones are at least equally densily packed.
His face still resembles that of a human, but certain features clearly betray his true nature. He has like small fangs growing from his lower jaw and his ears are very much enlarged. With their pointy ends and solid rims they almost seem to be a persiflage of elvish ears. Also his skin has become darker and with a very leathery touch, its complexion now only encompassing variations of grey. Two different pairs of horns grow out of his forehead, the first one being very massive and reaching up to about seven feet of height measured from the ground. The second one is much smaller and more linear. Hair no longer is to be found anywhere near his forehead, but it grows all the more richely on the back of it. It too has lost its color and now is an impressive mane in white almost reaching down to his knees. Just like with any demonspawn his eyes lack any pupil or iris, but instead have the appearance of curved, black mirrors.
The demonic influence doesn't stop around his hands or feet. All twenty nails have mutated from their ordinary state to small tools of destruction. They are not exactly razor-sharp, but with enough force still are perfectly suitable to dig into flesh and rip through weaker materials alike.
As it is common with demonspawn these features are not static, but are bound to develop as the infernal influence consumes more and more of his soul. It is safe to assume that Athanar is bound to grow noticeably larger, to pick up very considerable amounts of weight and to experience more changes over time and in dependency of the frequency with which he uses his demonic power.
Personality For a demonspawn Athanar is surprisingly sociable. At least so far he has neither eaten any of his victims for dinner nor did he claim many victims in the first place. His general stance can be described as reactive-aggressive, meaning that he will respond to any offense with violent ferocity but will rather seldomly be the one to initiate this level of aggressive behavior. That is... unless his is convinced that doing so will serve his purpose, his craving.
Aside from this parts of his humanity still remain. He is capable of experiencing compassion, but no longer love. He can value loyalty and distinguish it from betrayal that is to be disdained, also he still knows the meaning of friendship. The issue he most often is confronted with is that this is not reciprocated by other people, resulting in frequent frustration that can stack up to fits of rage.
Demonic power People have presumably been looking up into the sky for as long as people have been in existence, but each time they do the pressure on their feet reminds them of the fact that they are all stuck at the very bottom of this seemingly endless ocean of air. From all things worth mentioning the invisible force that never tires and neither alters direction nor strength at any moment probably is the most constant one. Something that makes your sword-hand tired, your ship sink and the weight of your growing gut an actual issue doesn't have many friends, but still difficulties are bound to occur should it ever become less reliable.
Since no scholar so far had a chance of scrutinizing Athanar in-depth there is no description of this inherent ability to be found in any book, but for the outstanding observer it can best be described as some kind of telekinetic influence. However unlike telekinesis this magic doesn't make you feel its force in addition to gravity, but it replaces it to a more or less considerable degree. Secondly it is not necessarily unidirectional and thus only capable of moving objects, but Athanar is capable of creating gradients and even seemingly chaotic fields filling a certain area. The effects, in principle, are exactly the same as with a celestial body coming too close to another one: The object experiences mechanical stress and can even be torn apart as a result of it.
The fact of this skill being a demonic power makes it infinitely energy efficient compared to other magic, but there is one important drawback: It doesn't protect its wielder from Newton's second law. Rendering a person weightless will result in his or her weight acting upon Athanar, trying to push an object away will also try to push Athanar away to the same degree and any distortion will find its inverse twin around Athanar himself. Similarly concentrating a limited amount of force onto an infinitely small space would not only result in a nearly infinite density of force at the destination, but also inside himself. His own ability to sustain these effects is the limit to what he can unleash. Of course this very fact makes it even more tempting to use it often, simply because Athanar can already foresee where his further demonic development might go.
Demonic craving According to Himyth's words the world as it is is suffering from a piece blatant assimetry that the inhabitants of Reniam know as The Divide. Why does such thing exist between Reniam and the Underworld, but not between the mortal plane and Heaven ? Any why can mere mortals pull demons through the devide while demons hardly can move through it themselves ? It could simply be a random occurrence that has come out of the myst of creation just like everything else, but it could also be an artificial thing. As such it could be analyzed, weaknesses identified and the whole thing ultimately be disabled. The Underworld is not a playground for over-enthusiastic or simply foolish human mages to abduct its inhabitants by summoning and dispose of them at their will, but it is time to turn the tables. Also Heaven is an enemy who has been enjoying the advantage of The Divide for far too long.
Himyth's offsprings have the unique advantage of roaming around freely in the mortal plane. They can probe the Devide from the other side, something that demons normally can't. The task of investigating the Divide in order to find a way to damage it is excessively abstract and has unknown chances of success, but still Athanar will happily kill for any knowledge and greedily steal whatever item promises to be helpful. It is not unlikely that other demonspawn share this craving.
History to be done
Posessions
Armor made out of steel chainmail with leather and woolen padding underneath that covers his body from shoulders down to his lower limbs. It is not of very high quality since it is actually stitched together from several pieces. It isn't like he, as a demonspawn, could easily buy new stuff. Also he has noticed that he keeps getting bigger slowly but surely and whatever he wears has to be replaced sooner or later anyway.
An iron flail
A riding horse capable of carrying him around, at least so far.
Overall I think Athanar sounds pretty good and interesting, actually. I'm particularly interested in how his power will end up playing out; I have another universe I write about in which telekinetics adhere to very similar circumstances of still being subject to Newton's Second Law, though those telekinetics could at least, with enough practice, compensate somewhat by exerting opposite forces on different objects to cancel out the effect on themselves. But I digress; I don't think I have any objections to that part, at least.
The part I am somewhat confused about is his demonic craving. Either it isn't stated clearly in the CS, or his craving is supposed to specifically be garnering knowledge about the Divide? You could possibly convince me to go with that if you had a good reason, but Hymith's cravings are usually one-word directives and typically not that specific. They don't usually get the directive "kill this person in particular", for instance, but rather just "kill", if that's their directive. You could conceivably make it so that Athanar's craving was simply one of knowledge in general, and that the interest in the Divide is one he decided on himself. The result would be the same, albeit with the freedom to shift focus, and it would adhere completely to the existing norms of demonspawn.
I can see your concerns with regard to the craving and will adjust it according to your suggestion. Thinking over it I concur that the possibility to shift focus might be very benificial on the long run. Also, as a spontaneous idea, a general craving for knowledge could also include a certain greed for items that are said to hold knowledge or at least to be a great mystery whose solution would be some kind of feat. This could add more concrete targets to Athanar's repertoire as, as far as I understood it, Rheniam certainly doesn't lack artifacts and magical items of great value with associated rumors and stories.
Actually I think that Newton's second law doesn't need to be a disadvantage in all circumstances. When I designed the spell I also thought about potential applications such as boosting the height of a leap by giving the ground a blast of this ability directed downwards, propelling Athanar upwards like the brief ignition of a virtual rocket engine. This wouldn't be possible without Newton's second law. But still it primarily serves as a limiter to the scope of this ability since I thought it might be too powerful otherwise. And it gives potential to grow, quite literally, since any increase in Athanar's size and weight only increases the threshold that will blast himself off his feet or overburden him.
Partially popping in to say hello to everyone, but also doing so to say "How is it that your RP and the world it is set in are so incredible that they keep pulling me back into their orbit?"
Hey Yoshua, hope you're doing all right. And, eh... with a prelude of a humble "I don't know if it's incredible", I suppose it's gotten this way because 1: I've had a lot of time to think about it, and 2: the RP and its players has kept me on my toes and made me flesh out the world even more to have answers to their questions. And, of course, everyone else have added their little bits to the world as well, so there is that.
Legegio is in a world-building mood. I've already done some things for Rodoria, but I've tried to steer away from treading on people's toes. The Far West, though... that's a different story. Welcome, weary traveller, to a bastion of humanity, far from Rodoria...
Far to the west of the lands of Rodoria, beyond even the lands of the Qetemak Steppe, and beyond the Yawning Gorge, stands a proud bastion of man, a beacon of civilisation amongst the warring savage empires of the Far West. This is Thessaleia, an old and mighty empire ruled by the iron fist of the Thessaleian Emperors from the great and sumptuous Méga Palátion, located within the heart of the eponymous capital city, Thessaleia. Thessaleian banners fly over all manners of lands and climates, from the snow-covered mountains of the Lefká Óri in the south and the harsh, jagged spikes of the Odontotá Vouná in the east, to the forests and humid jungled areas which mark the western borders between the Synoriakoús Archontes and the wild and untamed lands of the Eireannach Contaetha - but its heartland is the fertile, arable region around the capital city, now criss-crossed with canals and irrigation projects drawing from the mighty Rivers Archos and Basileis.
The Empire is split into various administrative regions for ease and efficiency of rule. The largest, and arguably most important, wealthy and influential, is of course the area surrounding the capital city, known officially as the Mitropolitikí Periochí, or the 'Metropolitan Region'. Then, expanding outward, are firstly the Themes, the lands of the Thessaleian nobility, and the vast majority of the realm's composition. There are eighteen Themes, each with their own provincial seat, ruled by a noble handpicked by the Emperor in a system of viceroyalty - known as the strategos (for men) or strategissa (for women). To further clarify, though the nobility oft have their own hereditary positions and seats of power, upon the death of the strategos/gissa of a Theme, the Imperial court in Thessaleia will be informed, and a selection of candidates placed forward for the Emperor's own consideration. It is often the case that the prospective candidates will be summoned to the Imperial Palace along with the message that a strategos has passed away, so that not only can the Emperor inspect the new candidates for the role of strategos personally, but it also prevents the possibility of a coup d'etat by various rival candidates, each wishing to cement their place upon the provincial throne before the agents of the Emperor are aware of the situation. It is not without precedent, however, for such a coup to occur, and when it does, the Empire in serious danger of civil war, particularly when it is a large and powerful Theme that has undergone such a 'crisis of succession' as Thessaleian historians have termed them - as a failure to act upon the Emperor's part may give rise to such crises of succession in other Themes, and the subsequent collapse of imperial authority. When such events do arise, the Emperor, almost without exception, calls his men to arms, and open war is made upon the usurper, usually with relatively little bloodshed due to the usurper's authority having been fatally undermined by his most treasonous act. It is also not without precedent that a particularly merciful (or perhaps bankrupt) Emperor has nevertheless allowed such a strategos to maintain their position, although such actions are likely accompanied with staggering costs in gold, which would beggar even the greatest merchants of the coasts.
Beyond the great Themes of the nobility, and particularly common in the west, are the Synoriakoús Archontes, or the Border Lords or Princes. The Border Princes are more minor, lesser nobles, but arguably command as great a military and national responsibility as any Strategos of a Theme - for it is their responsibility to defend (and sometimes expand) the borders of the Empire. Particular note should be given to the Western Border Princes, who are locked in a seemingly-endless struggle with the Eireannach of the Contaetha on their borders - such a struggle is greatly imbalanced, for the Eireannach consistently suffer defeat after defeat at the hands of the technologically-superior and much better disciplined Tagmata of the Empire, but the Western Border Princes nevertheless remain on the defensive, as for the most part they are reluctant to expand into the wilds of the eastern Eireannach - though for financial and economic reasons than cowardice. The wilds of the Contaetha are just that - wild, untamed, and economically backward. The monetary and human cost of colonising these lands are beyond the capabilities of even the most powerful Border Prince, and only the imperial household could possibly maintain a colonisation expedition into the Contaetha, which even the most vigorous Emperors have been loath to do, for they have been more concerned with the monsters of the mountains and pirates that raid from the seas, than bands of barbaroi from the west. Perhaps unexpectedly, given the attitude the Contaetha have towards the Thessaleians, the Eireannach nevertheless comprise a considerable portion of the population of the Western Border Princes' lands. Migrations of Eireannach displaced from their homes by war, plague, natural disaster or simple overpopulation have crossed the fortified lines of the Border Princes on more than one occasion, and there has been a degree of multiculturalism that has developed as a result. The Eireannach are seen as curiosities, and also powerful warriors, by the Thessaleians, whilst the Eireannach often find themselves enjoying a quality of life far beyond that available in the Contaetha, particularly in the military. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find several battalions of Eireannach fighters within Tagmata stationed in the Western Border Princes, fighting their barbarian kin alongside the men of the Empire.
And yet currently, all is not well within the Empire. Athanasios IV, of the House of Tzimiskes, Emperor of Thessaleia for the past twenty-two years, has taken ill with a mysterious malady that has almost permanently confined him to the Imperial Palace, and, on occasion, to his bed for days at a time. Debate has beset the imperial physicians regarding the nature of this malady - are they cancerous growths, sucking the life from his body, or is it something else? Regardless, this impasse has led to the stagnation of imperial government, not least due to the machinations of Athanasios' sons, Athanasios the Younger, and Theodosios, both of whom are vying for the ever-coveted position of Kaisarios, or imperial heir-designate. And yet, waiting in the wings, is the ambitious, talented daughter of Athanasios, Stratonike, who has secretly plotted with several members of the imperial household, as well as several of the most powerful strategoi, to seize the throne for herself. Empresses have been few and far between for Thessaleia - the last was Zoe II over two hundred years ago - but their rules have generally been noted as golden ages for the Empire... perhaps now is the time for another Empress.
Though the Mitropolitikí Periochí is smaller than most of the Themes that make up the majority of the Empire's lands, there is no doubt as to where the monetary, military and political heartland of the Empire is. The Mitropolitikí Periochí's capital city is the Imperial capital of Thessaleia, a city of over half a million inhabitants, which sits astride the mighty River Archos, and is well-defended by rings of thick reinforced walls, with towers bristling with scorpions, ballistae and arrow-loops to allow the multitudes of crossbowmen within to pepper the enemy with bolts before they even reach the walls. Thessaleia is garrisoned by both the Tagmata ton Basileion - the Imperial Regiments - which number anywhere between thirty to fifty thousand men, and make up the Emperor's personal retinue of soldiers and the core of the Thessaleian Legions when they march to war, and also the Thessaleian City Guard, which are equal in number to the Tagmata ton Basileion, although lack the heavy equipment and truly awe-inspiring discipline exhibited by the Imperial Regiments. Thessaleia is comparatively well-ordered for a city of such size - city districts are clearly laid out and well demarcated, and district government is given over to councils of aldermen, officials appointed by the burgesses of the city to enact law and order and regulate trade. Until relatively recently, however, Thessaleia was also quite an unhealthy city to live in, as much of the hygienic infrastructure had been allowed to decay over the years, until the reign of Ioannes XI some eighty years ago. Ioannes XI constructed both two grand new aqueducts and, in response to several city fires, ordered that the construction of buildings should be regulated by city engineers and comprise as little flammable or combustible material as possible - as a result, much of the new construction within the city has replaced tile and timber with brick and limestone. Thessaleia is divided into several districts. The centre of the city is known as the Vasilikía Periféreia, or Royal District, and in it can be found the monolithic buildings and fortifications that make up what is known only as the 'Great Palace', or Méga Palátion. The Great Palace has been the home of Thessaleian emperors and their families for over five hundred years,
Outside the mighty walls of Thessaleia lie several smaller towns and villages dotted about the intensively-farmed countryside, each controlled by a very minor baron or even town mayor who owe their allegiance to the Emperor and the Emperor alone.
Wrote a post in about three hours total to keep the ball rolling.
Unfortunately, Claw has been kidnapped by an eccentric wolf-woman, and is likely to miss out on the tasty meats and bountiful amounts of liquor at Remdal Estate.
How likely is it that Rodorian noblepersons (such as Yanin's family in particular -- more on the minor side, and going only as far back as Yanin's father thirty years ago, but fairly mingled and, well, Yanin in particular has been focused on combat) would know who Freagon was?
Eh, it'd probably depend on just what kind of company they keep. If they have had significant dealings with the deo'iel, for instance (by which I mean actually socializing with them rather than just calling them for help), it's certainly possible that Freagon's name could have come up. Otherwise, eh... there are a lot of small communities in Rodoria and its surrounding regions that would recognize a description of Freagon, but not know his name, except for whoever paid for him helping them... so I suppose quite a few community heads, nobles and merchants would be familiar with him, but would be unlikely to have spread word of him.
Basically the only way they'd be liable to know Freagon by name would be from the deo'iel, or from having received aid from him themselves.
I reckon Deo'iel don't really come with notable opportunities of social, economic or political power, and I doubt Yanin's father would ask for their help. So either Marcus or someone mentioned him at a social gathering (Yanin might be not the most charismatic individual, but his memory is nearly as good as mine) of some description or he encountered something about him during his and Jordan's time as guards. Let's give it 20% probability. *consults RNG* 4... Huh. I guess that makes it a yes?
Might even collab something with it if it was his guard time...
That could be interesting. I would be particularly interested in when this encounter was, particularly whether it was more or less than ten years ago... since if it was less than ten years ago, Jaelnec would have been there, too.
Well, ten or more years ago, Yanin would have been twelve or younger, so I reckon we could rule that out, at least in the scenario Yanin himself was present. If it was an involvement with his specific guards and Yanin himself (and potentially Jordan, who'd at least been around in the general sense), it was most likely a mere year ago...
I might have to drop from this (assuming people are still around to continue). My physical health (migraines) is keeping me away from writing to the level required for an RP like this, and I’ve been struggling constantly for any kind of inspiration to reignite my desire to write, and it’s not been coming.
I'm around as always, obviously, and have just been patiently waiting (not much else I can do at the moment). It's obviously unfortunate, both because it personally saddens me and because it's - at the risk of sounding overly pragmatic - inconvenient for the RP as a whole, but I've always maintained that if a player wants or has to leave it would be extremely inappropriate for me to try to convince them otherwise.
I could suggest solutions to this, but considering that we were already taking extra measures to accommodate you... eh, I'm not sure how much more we could do short of actually writing the posts for you altogether. So I don't know what to do either.
Eeh... I should be able to ask ypu about them if we were to keep your characters around as NPCs, I suppose.
As is, though, two sets of my characters are effectively deadlocked, and the third set is in the future, so I've been somewhat stumped for a while now.
I've been pretty clueless as to that myself for... quite a while, I suppose. It's gotten to the point where I don't even readily remember who was doing what, or even who various characters belongs to (luckily it's easy to check up on, I'm just pointing out that I can't immediately recall a lot of things). I've honestly been contemplating doing a soft reboot of the RP (basically forming a new party of characters but continuing the story in the current worldstate), but it both seems like the "easy" solution and a sub-optimal one.
Sigh. I suppose we could... I don't know, make some very rough transitions to get the RP to a playable state again? Sort of just going "Aemoten, Thaler and Olan left" (since that was already in the cards), and otherwise, eh... figure out what to do with the remaining characters? I mean, Claw is still off on whichever adventure he's on all on his own, Iridiel and Angora are sort of just there, now playerless (honestly, I'd hate to think how devastating it would be to Jaelnec if he ended up losing Aemoten, Thaler, Olan and Angora all at once; he hasn't grown quite as attached to Iridiel, but Angora certainly made an impression). On the bright side we have Domhnall still around (though I suppose he goes wherever Iridiel goes), Jaelnec is determined to complete his quest, and Yanin's group is waiting to join. There's also a few readily available courses of action, even if the group wants to stay in Zerul City for a while; they still have the Sister's of Torment in the city (though I don't think they've heard about that yet?) as well as a couple of other things waiting to be discovered, and the next stop on the journey - Mount Zerul - is all but decided already.
Another effort should be made to recruit new players, but as I said after the last failed attempt, I'm not going to do that unless I know the current players are ready and able to resume at least semi-reliable activity. Eh... so mostly, I guess my plan would be to handwave stuff that would require input that would be too troublesome/slow to get, and mostly just brute-force the characters into positions that would allow the story to continue as unimpeded as possible.
