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Personality

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Appearance

Sam stands at 6'0", moderately tanned, and built well enough. His eyes are brown. He usually wears his 'cowboy/rancher' get-up of a hat, light-brown leather jacket, matching pants, and a white shirt. He has dark brown hair, a bit messy, with some stubble he keeps around the chin. He's got a few scars along his face, with his stories for them change every now and then. His default expression is a sly smirk.

Background:

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Skills and Equipment

Samuel has an uncanny talent of being a good shot with just about any ranged weapon, provided he's had a chance to test out its range and accuracy first. From handheld weaponry to mounted cannons on the ship, Sam is reliable when a good aim is needed. As a hunter he knows well enough about cooking to prepare his own meals, but by no means is he a professional chef.

Ol' Faithful: A lever action rifles with a revolver chamber, holds up to six shots and meant for long range.

Trusty Seven: A seven chambered revolver, considered to be his 'lucky side arm', with some engravings on it meant to help its 'luck'. Plenty of stories around it, primary used for medium range combat.

Bear-killer: A double barrel shotgun used for close-ranged combat.

Weed-trimmer: A standard Machete used for general purposes, though also a last resort weapon if he ever runs out of ammo.

Waterskin: Water is an important resource and Samuel always make sure he has his filled whenever he goes out.

Jerky: For his personal rations he prepares his own dried meat, willing to share a few over long journeys when needed.

Name: Annastasia (Anna) Fairchild
Age: 34 years old
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Appearance: Yeehaw

Background: Annastasia is born from a fairly rich and noble family of Yuncay. Her family owns a private little floating island that is, just the same the whole nation, a small piece of heaven upon which the family's manor is built upon. Annastasia grew up surrounded by vast gardens of exotic flowers of unparalleled beauty, tended by the most devout of attendants and cared by parents who saw their only child as their pride and joy.

As she developed a penchant for intellectual domains as she grew up, Anna's parents sent her to study general science at Gokhan, but her drive for learning sciences was just so much she decided to stay longer at the capital to further learn about medicine. Being a promising student, she was urged by her peers to undergo her Manifestation to further help achieve greatness as a scholar. Not only did it help her into becoming a scholar, but shortly after she realized she could become so much more.

And so her thirst for adventures led her to join with the crew of the Fornacis, two years after the original crew had formed. She served as one of their most trustworthy medics until the very "end". When the captain fell dormant, Anna was busying herself in developing remedies for the captain while she left the exploration of potential new and foreign cures to the second-in-command. Eventually, she gave up on relying on her medical knowledge to fix what seemed to be beyond the domain of healing. She instead returned to Gokhan to study magical engineering. If she couldn't heal the captain, perhaps she could find a way to transfer captain-ship to someone else. Someone extremely devoted to the crew.

A foreboding omen brought her back to the seemingly-lifeless Fornacis. She still had no answer on how to help the captain or the ship, but Annastasia felt compelled to return to the Fornacis. Maybe she thought it was time to move on and bid her farewell to the ship.

Ship role: Medic
Pyxis strength: Focus
Pyxis Appearance: Anna's pyxis has taken the form of a floating glass prism, in which sparks of colors are ever-changing inside.
Pyxis skill list:

• Hyper-focus - Allows Anna to deeply concentrate on her task at hand, allowing her to maintain incredible focus under most deranging situations.
• Enhanced Senses - Anna concentrates so heavily on a single of her five senses, she is able to detect any slight variation regarding that sense.
• Pinpoint Accuracy - Anna synchronizes her mind and sight to achieve exceptional body motricity and aim, allowing her to achieve skills and mastery that would take a lifetime of practice.
• Time-lapse - Anna hyper-stimulates her visual focus to "slow time". Time isn't really slowed down, but her focused perception allows her to mentally react much quicker to detected events during hyper-focus.
• Perfect Timing - By extending her hyper-stimulated focus to her whole body, Anna can move just as quickly as she can perceive incoming events. This effectively can allow to achieve super-human reflexes, so long she is concentrated on a single event happening within line of sight.

Name: Reyansh Maidaan (Gokhanized to “Rhain”)

Age: 39

Gender/Sex: It matters less and less over time. Originally male and marginally more comfortable as male.

Current appearance:

Ship role: Magical “Fuck You” Stick

Pyxis appearance: A small blue feather with streaks of gold running through it. Usually resting in Rhain's hair.

Pyxis strength: Lightning Elemental Magic

Pyxis skill list:

1. Thunder: Ability to generate sounds, in essence. Over time this has of course grown in scale, but more importantly precision, with a preference for generating deafening explosions directly into one’s ear.

2. Flash: Ability to generate light. Like the above, enhanced precision has been the focus of the ability as its user has grown in power. Disorienting, but the light only lasts for an instant, causing no long term damage even at its brightest.

3. Static: If two objects are able to hold a charge, then enhanced static cling can make them almost impossible to remove from each other. Works best with objects that naturally generate large amounts of static electricity, and worst on those that don’t.

4. Magnetism: Similar to the above, but distinct. The ability to generate magnetic fields either centered on, or away from the user. Only affects magnetic objects.

5. Shock Immunity: The user is unaffected by electricity. More powerful users can more or less keep this ability on indefinitely.

6. Discharge: The user is able to pump electricity into any object they are touching, organic or otherwise. Scale naturally involves the voltage of the discharge.

7. Arc Lightning: Discharge can be extended away from the user, arcing between their body and any unobstructed target within a certain distance.

8. Call Lightning: Generates a lightning strike at the desired location, regardless of atmospheric conditions. This includes the accompanying thunder clap and all other implications of a natural lightning bolt. (Rhain’s preferred method of dealing with serious threat, though even now its use is still taxing. A dozen bolts is the farthest she’s push herself under normal circumstances, so the crew had better be prepared to pick up the slack afterwards. Range seems to be “Anywhere visible under open sky”.)

9. Plasma Ball: Contains all of the energy of a lightning strike within the palm of the user’s hand. In this condensed form the sphere is almost unrivaled in destructive capability where it strikes, and the user can direct its movements at will. (Naturally this is incredibly taxing, to the point that even longtime crew members can count on one hand the number of times they've seen it used. Rhain will be dead weight for some days after this ability is used, so it’s a good thing anything it touches will be very very dead. Maximum distance unknown, but it’s unlikely Rhain would waste it on anything that was not in very close range.)

10. Flashstep: Becoming one with lightning itself, the user is able to transform and travel at incredible speed across vast distances. Effective teleportation between two points that the user can see. (Range of 20-25 miles. This is not simply moving quickly, the user becomes a bolt of lightning and then returns to their normal self where it strikes. However, they never reform completely the same, and while Rhain was able to maintain something resembling his natural form at first, with every use the changes became more drastic. Now she seems to become an entirely different person each time it’s used, with rare exceptions. The user, as a note, feels the strain of having moved that distance with their own two legs, though this can be mitigated somewhat with endurance training.)

Some background: Rhain’s origins are a mystery outside of the few close friends made aboard the Fornacis. He was born Reyansh Maidaan, to the Thunder Tribe on the steppe-island of Ghar. This tribe was unusual in that almost everyone was adept at magic to a small degree, and anyone who acquired a Pyxis acquired one adept in the lightning element. While curious, none ever acquired a Pyxis of significant strength, and this tribe remained an obscure curiosity.

Until Reyansh.

The details of his life since obtaining his Pyxis (The feather of a Demi-Roc, a bird his tribe held sacred above all other things) are many and rarely told. He left his tribe soon after becoming a man, and became an “adventurer”, although “mercenary” is likely more accurate. His wealth was used to apprentice himself to a more knowledgeable wizard, and his powers rapidly grew from there.

Eventually word reached him of a ship looking to retain a wizard for a good sum, and he gladly joined up. What was intended to be a temporary contract ended up consuming a decade of his life. His strength on this journey grew more rapidly still, until he finally unlocked the mysteries of Flashstep. Unexpectedly, this too became one of the pivotal moments of his life, as Rhain’s appearance and identity began to change rapidly.

At first he fought these changes, and sought the services of one of the Sky’s few bodysculpters to change his appearance back. And though the wizard still keeps a photo of (currently her) original self, she has stopped longing for who she used to be.

Since the breakup of the crew, word has circulated around the Skies of a figure who comes and goes in a flash of lightning, but stories of what this person looks like are never consistent. Man, woman, old, young. Rhain has built a bit of a personal legend over the last four years, though one that could never compare to the time she spent as part of the Sky’s most legendary crew.

Derevi Dants has always sought to help those who cannot help themselves- raised on the teachings of Ravishaan from youth, Derevi learned to heal others and sought the best outlet to do so: he found the Fournacis. In his time healing the crew, he was introduced to his true passion- the magic of machinery. The beauty of a well oiled machine like the Fournacis drew him in, enraptured him. What he learned of healing magics he began to apply to his new work as a mechanic- unorthodox, but effective.

Guided by the light of Ravishaan, Derevi sought to Manifest a Pyxis, and he spent many cycles seeking enlightenment through this. Eventually he attained his goal of manifesting a pyxis, but failed his goal of attaining enlightenment, so turned his eyes to the future in the hopes of an opportunity presenting itself.

This opportunity did present itself, or so Derevi thought, in the Fournacis' final journey. As the crew fought valiantly through Ysir's horde, so did Derevi fight valiantly in search of a cure for Ysir's curse, turning back to his roots as a healer. He performed some of his best work attempting to deconstruct and reverse engineer the curse, but it was work done in vain. Derevi made no breakthroughs in counteracting Ysir's curse- he only managed to give himself a very mild case of the curse. Enough to take his good arm, and to give him a constant haze of fatigue, but not quite lethal. Not yet, at least.

For four years, Derevi sought new meaning in life. He could not bring himself to ever attempt healing magic again, for fear of failing spectacularly again, and his skill with a wrench was crippled with the loss of his arm. Ravishaan offered no enlightenment, no answers, no salvation. In order to combat the constant haze he was under, Derevi became reliant on more illicit healing magics, giving him just enough drive to make it from one day to the next. Day after day, hoping, pleading for some glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Then, he had a dream. Chatter on the streets say that many people had that same dream. Derevi had a calling. Derevi had a purpose.

Name: "Merry" Achillea
Age: 20
Gender/Sex: Female
Race: Sanyan (Deer)
Ship Role: Chef. Apparently.

Pyxis Strength: Strike

Background: Just a free-wheeling gal in search of love and adventure.

Her background comes in bits and pieces, trickling to any who stick around the mess hall long enough. Her father is an Izman merchant. She has an uncute but precious twin sister named Siusan. She loves romance novels, radio shows, and the latest fashion trends - anything cute. She spent most of her teen years at some special boarding school. Doesn’t like to talk about it much, she’s insistent on brightly and clumsily changing the subject when anyone prods, but considering the quality of her swords and the fact that they’re only produced on one particularly militaristic taiva, it’s not difficult to put two and two together. It seems that she’s on a break from whatever she was doing prior, if not retiring completely.

No matter. She knows her way around a kitchen (or the knives at least) and thanks to one of her father’s acquaintances, she’s got a job on an airship. How exciting! It seems that the ship was super famous back in the day but Merry was up to her antlers in training until recently, way too busy to keep up with the newspapers.

At least it bodes well for her break (and her street cred). If she’s gonna find herself anywhere, it’s gotta be in the open skies.

There really isn’t much of anything that’s remarkable about Nia. Her life, by all metrics, had been entirely normal. Which, to her, was entirely unsatisfactory. She craved adventure and played with the idea of trying a Manifest, but never did. All she knew was that she would never be happy as long as she stayed on the island she was born on.

So, when she got the chance, she got onto a ship. Not just any ship – the ship. At least, it was to her, having grown up following stories of the Fornacis’s adventures. She had no real skills, but she could swab the deck well enough and was willing to work for nothing but room and board (and adventure).

Well, so she says. No one is actually sure who hired her.

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Name: "Nuungat"
Gender: Non-binary
Age: 31
Race: Phuvata
Ship Role: Navigator

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Impressively tall yet somehow unimposing, Nuungat is delicate both in body and mannerisms. Xe is dark-skinned and dark-haired, with light purple eyes. Xe tends to wear scarves or shawls that match xir eyes, though otherwise xe keeps xir outfits plain and simple, sometimes supplemented with a thin military sword. Xir horns are small and curled, and somewhat asymmetrical, though xe bears them proudly. Xe also likes to wear braids in xir hair. Xir relationship with jewelry is complicated.

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Though initially shy and reserved, Nuungat is friendly and sociable to those who try to get to know xir. It's abundantly clear that xe struggles with self-confidence, suppressing xir wants and opinions, though xe makes a good effort to overcome or at least hide it. Xe doesn't like to talk about xirself, but will listen eagerly to what others have to say. Because of xir receptiveness and propensity to remain neutral in most situations, Nuun makes a natural mediator.

In xir own time, Nuungat is a zealous scholar. When asked about xir studies, xe avoids the topic, conversation, or even the interrogator entirely, though nosier people will notice that the things Nuun studies are just normal subjects - technology, history, astronomy. Xe also knows a lot about the Celastin faith, though celebrates no holidays. Xe will participate when invited, though.

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Nuungat was one of the earliest members of the Fornacis, though wasn't always the navigator. Xe doesn't like it when people bring up xir past, though it can be gathered that xe spent a fair amount of time both in Yuncay and in Ortzi. If asked about it, xe will dismiss xir childhood as uneventful, and claim instead that xir years on the Fornacis were much more impactful. Though of course, xe doesn't talk about this, either.

During the Fornacis' final voyage, xe was stricken with Ysir's curse, and was unable to participate in the final battle atop the Cloud Spire. When the captain fell into her coma, Nuun was one of the first to leave. Xe disappeared with barely a farewell, and didn't take to the skies again.

"Stephanie" Erona / 25 / Female / Human / Janitor

Stephanie looks, acts, and talks like a noblewoman of high standing. Her speech is refined, she wears the latest fashions, and she appears to be skilled at both commanding and manipulating people with her words.

And yet, she's the janitor. She works hard, doesn't complain, and is excellent at cleaning, yes, but she's still a janitor.

When asked, Stephanie will just reply with a short description of her family situation– a failing noble line needed influence and a hand in the latest developments and as such needed to send their first daughter to work on the Fornacis. After all, such a reunion of a legendary crew could only mean that the world was changing once more. That meant taking any possible opening. Unfortunately, Stephanie's lack of experience in navigation, cooking, and combat greatly limited her options.

Name: Talon "Tally" Aurora

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Race: Phuvata

Ship role: Engineer

Appearance: The first thing one notices about Tally is that she’s very tall, even among men of her race. The second thing one might notice is that she’s absolutely ripped, though she tends to keep most of her muscles covered under a large gray coat and an old red scarf when she’s not working. Under that, she wears a plain white undershirt and a well-worn pair of blue jeans, a tool never far from her belt. Other than that, her features are rather fair, such as her pale skin and light blonde hair that tend to end up colored by various forms of dirt and grime. Her brown eyes always manage to shine through, though. She’s got an impressive set of large brown horns, which she’s rather proud of.

Personality: Tally, around those she doesn’t know, prefers to project the more intimidating exterior of the gruff, silent type. She’s bigger and stronger than just about everyone she meets and she knows it. She’s someone who likes to think, though, and her interests tend to lean towards more intellectual pursuits. She’s happy to talk to those she likes, maybe even get loud and rowdy when she feels truly comfortable, though if she feels bothered or annoyed by someone she’ll just as easily switch back to glares and single-word sentences.

Background: Tally grew up in Mehrnez, working in factories to support her family pretty much from the second she was physically able. Which was very young; she grew like a weed. It wasn’t too long before she was bigger than all her superiors, which prompted her to start thinking. It was a good way to pass the time.

In her teens, when she got her Pyxis, and people started treating her as something slightly more important than a nice pair of arms, she began thinking even more. There was something distressing about it, working and working in a system that made countless arms for a taiva that was obsessed with wars it never fought, and for what? So she could change her name that she hated? Her body that she hated? And then just keep on working until she died? As soon as she had made those changes, she left to become an Empyrean. It was easier to think on an airship. It stood a better chance of being honest work, too, by Tally’s standards.

With time, she founded it to be a fulfilling calling. A lot of her old skills transferred over nicely, and she was still learning new things every day. It wasn’t long before she felt like a comfortable and experienced engineer, and when she got the chance to work on a ship as renowned as the Fornacis, it only made sense to say yes.

Background: A rather brilliant, and easily bored, young engineer from a tiny, backwater island in Ortzi called Rathall, the prospect of employment on a skyship - any skyship - had been something Kerry leapt at all those years ago, not realising the legend that the Fornacis would eventually become. She wasn't exactly the most experienced back then, and it's fair to say that her Pyxis was certainly more than a small factor in her opportunity. Nonetheless, she held her own, and quickly developed a love for the Fornacis. Back then, the girl was rather bright and excited for the adventures that awaited her. Indeed, one could even call her reckless in her enthusiasm.

And indeed, that recklessness was her undoing - though she won't elaborate exactly on how. It hadn't been planned for her to be in any sort of combat, of course, and she was supposed to stay out of harm's way; indeed, it wasn't in any official capacity that she was out. A few years into their adventures, Kerry had struck up a relationship with one of the other mechanics, Laurie, and the two had decided to distance themselves for the day at port, the second anniversary (at least, according to Kerry's data) of their relationship. Not some grand adventure or terrifying scheme, for on those there was the protection of the captains, the more capable fighters who'd take the hits.

No, Kerry lost her eye on what should have been a simple, peaceful, date.

All that any of the crew knew was the scene that met them that night; Laurie, distraught and sobbing. Kerry, leaning on her for support with face half-burned and the light gone from one eye, never to return.

Kerry never was the same afterwards. She grew paranoid of most things, overly cautious, and found comfort in the ship's workings. Things she could be sure of, that made sense to her. The outside world had become frightening and unpredictable, and the bitterness that lodged in her heart was apparent to most. Her moments of light and kindness, once ever-present, became reserved for her girlfriend alone. Her joy, though it would still spark up on occasion, seemed mostly concerned with the ship, with improvements and discoveries. Despite that, she was diligent in her work, even if she preferred the company of engines to people.

At the time that they parted, she and Laurie left together. Perhaps not as sickeningly saccharine as once they were, but they appeared content enough to leave their life of adventure behind them. To while out their days in peace, with an uneventful marriage and perhaps a family of their own.

Kerry's return to the Fornacis, without Laurie, tells another story entirely.

Pyxis strength - Analysis

Form of the Pyxis - A mechanical brass monocle, inlaid with intricate gears: oddly enough, it manifests over her ruined eye when in use.

Pyxis skills -

• Baseline: she can quickly get a measure of any non-organic subject she focuses on, gaining a somewhat bare-bones understanding of its measurements, purpose (though the explanation is often vague and never elaborated on), and material and magical composition.
• Spotting the Break: the Pyxis allows her to quickly analyse non-organic materials, devices, and structures, allowing her to understand their workings and discover flaws or weaknesses that can be fixed - or, in some cases, exploited.
• Monitoring: regarding people, it can provide a quick analysis of a person's measurable, physical, behaviours - a database to fall back on. The tics someone has when they lie, a habit of picking their nails. Small, mostly inconsequential details. She appreciates it, if only because her own abilities to keep track of human behaviour are apparently 'total crap'. Thanks, Laurie.
• Behind the walls: a simple enough ability, allowing her to, by choice, see through physical materials. However, it seems she can only see through one at a time - she can't tell you what's going on several rooms away, but could spy on the floor above easily enough.
• Thermal vision: does what it says on the tin, essentially. She doesn't particularly like using it, and claims it makes her head hurt.

Age: 25
Gender/Sex: Female
Race: Human
Ship Role: Combatant

Some Background: 8 years ago, on the streets of Ortzi, Alix began a new life for herself from nothing. Determined only to hold on to a select few lessons that made her the person she was, and a few others that taught her the things she needed to know, she began again from scratch. It was difficult for her at first; beginning from nothing means you have no stability to hold on to, but she was nothing if not determined, and after a year or two of floundering, she finally got her feet underneath her. She found the person she wanted to be, and that was a huge step for her.

She was positive that she would never allow herself to be a victim.

In Ortzi, a land almost driven to her knees, there were too many victims already. She found the best way to prevent herself from being preyed upon was to bloodily fight her way to the top of the food chain. Of course, having her Pyxis certainly helped; a lot of people that she found herself up against couldn’t defend themselves from her skills, and it was far easier to avoid death at the hands of some monster if you had the abilities necessary.

Alix knows her path. For her, the Fornacis is just another stepping stone on that path. She didn’t seek to join the crew for any reason other than it promised new adventure and new challenges for her to overcome.

#33ec06

Name: Robert James Morgan

Age: 64

Appearance: Robert stood about 195cm or about 6'5", though with a lanky build. He wasn't often seen without his overcoat and hat, and his right hand was obviously replaced by a crude looking contraption. He was also missing a right eye, hidden under an eyepatch.

Gender/Sex: Male

Race: Human

Ship role: Any.

Background: There was once a sky captain who haunted the skies of all six Taivas, in an infamous ship named the Red Mary, where even the sight of its faded red and black coloring threw even grown men into despair. A simple but mighty corvette, with its six engines the captain was rumored to have outrun and outmaneuvered many a warship. Its faded red and black was told to be from its forays into the Ash Range, where the soot stuck to it, and it was said the ship ventured fearlessly into the dangerous regions of the world, even into the Belt or or the Sky den. And those who did catch up to it, faced the full might of its captain and its crew. Guns would blaze from every inch of its side, and the captain taller, darker and stronger than any man, would tear apart any man that dared faced him. Said to be a ghost of an angry taruva, or the incarnation of one, the last stand of the Red Mary and her captain was said to be a legendary one, one ship against an armada, guns blazing in the skies like thunder, the red of burning ships lighting up the night's sky. At the very end, the Red Mary was boarded, and the captain fought like a wounded beast. He took 16 shots and several sword slashes and fought on, before being beheaded. It was said he rose up again, wreathed in the fires of vengeance, and swore vengeance upon all the six taivas. The Red Mary exploded into flames, wrecking several more ships and killing more men, before disappearing. It would be sighted again and again in the years to come, a ghost ship floating in the clouds, ready to pillage and kill any it comes across.

Robert, was not that person. He was rough and flamboyant, but whenever asked, he would always say he came from a simple farming family on a simple floating island community just off Araceli. He worked his arse off on a military ship for a bit before going on a whaling ship. With all the experience he had, he was confident in his skills on a ship, be it a navigator, a helmsman or even as an artillery officer. Experience, after all, was what he had in abundance, even if he was not as spry as he was years ago. As far as anyone was concerned, he was there to earn as much money as he can for his aging parents.

Equipments: His mechanical hand has a mechanism to shoot it out to about 25m in length, with a powerful motor to pull it back almost instantly. Other than that, his weapons were a brace of pistols, as well as a nice looking sword.

Name: Yslain
Age: 37
Gender/Sex: Male
Race: Sanyan (Reptile)
Ship Role: Helmsman
Background: Yslain was born on the streets of Ventius, to a poor Sanyan family. From this beginning, Yslain never stopped moving forwards, building on past successes and reaching to even greater heights. He is hell-bent on figuring out why Ortiz fell apart, and believes the information he is looking for is out in the Boundless, but he has yet to find even a clue. This devotion led him to become one of the few to successfully Manifest a pyxis in Ortiz, which lead him down the path to become an Empyrean. Yslain signed on with the Fornacis years ago, as a general crewman in the original crew, and later grew into his own legend as an unflappable Helmsman, able to stare down the worst the endless skies can throw without so much as twitching from his course.

After the Void Incident, and the Captains Coma, Yslain stayed in town, doing odd jobs to pay the bills, and keeping an eye on the ship until he had that dream. The Fornacis, falling. The next morning, he showed up at the Fornacis, bags packed and ready to board.

Pyxis Strength: Toughness
Form of the Pyxis: His Pyxis takes the form of a small shield, able to fit in the palm of his hand.
Pyxis Skills:

• Tank - Yslain can harden his Aura to greater resist attacks for a time. Harder hits drain more mana.
• Anchor - Yslain can focus his aura through his legs and feet, anchoring him to one particular spot.
• Resist - Tslain can focus his aura into armor for the soul, lessening its damagemitigation, but greatly increasing his resistance to curses and the like. (Doesn't work on Ysir's Curse, much to his dismay)