Great! Then I think your CS is good to go! Feel free to add it to the Character Tab when you have a moment. :)

Here’s what I’ve got so far - will be making the actual CS and more finished art before Friday, but just wanted to get the foundation
I’m thinking for her disguise @ERode the duke could say he can’t go anywhere without his lute/harpist who helps him sleep or something (tried to think of what position a woman would have in a duke’s retinue XD)

The most basics of basic CS [+]

Throwing my hat in with a character sheet! Straight out the air-fryer. I cooked. Somewhat...

A bit of a wildcard but consider her part of the duke's entourage! For now.

Duchess Altina Freya Bastille, The "Valkyrie" [+]

Duchess Altina Freya Bastille, The "Valkyrie"

38 | Human, ♀ | 6'5 ft, 204 lbs

"Don't let that gentle gaze fool you. There's a devil lurking beneath those eyes."

---

Goal:

An individualist with hedonistic tendencies, Altina makes no effort to veil her disdain towards any authority wishing to force her duchy under a system of unilateral rule. Be it for peace or for plain tyranny, she cares not for the ends that such governance would achieve. Thus, out of principle, she opposes the Wizard Queen, just as she opposed Ludwig II, despite ultimately bowing her head.

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History:

From a young age, Altina always felt like a bird trapped in a cage. To marry, to bear children, to serve her husband and family faithfully — the strict traditions of House Bastille kept her confined to a singular, predetermined destiny, one she believed she was powerless to rebel against. At least, at first. Altina was the first-born of Duke Alfred Sigurd Bastille. Typically, the rites of succession dictate that the first-born male would rise to the post of Duke when the time comes. However, as Altina was a woman and considered unfit to lead, she did not qualify. Thus did the status of "heir" fall to her brother, Altair Sigmund Bastille.

The battlefield was Altina's calling, and from the first time she swung a sword, she knew immediately that to master the blade was her true lot in life, something to set her apart from others. Unlike her peers, Altina possessed a strong body, and as she grew, she began to tower above even most of her suitors in height. But alas, despite all of her pleading, she was expressly forbidden from joining the military, with her father insisting it was not appropriate for a lady of House Bastille to sully her hands with calluses.

"And so, Altina resigned herself to the whims of her father, locking away her innermost desires, practicing etiquette, and patiently waiting for the man with whom she would spend the rest of her life."

If Altina were so spineless, then perhaps the strings hanging taut upon her limbs would have never been cut. And perhaps the future that her father had designed for her would have come true. It would have been easy to simply perform her part; to recite lines timeless and traditional. Easy. And boring. Therefore, behind her father's back, underneath the clandestine glow of moonlight, she studied the art of swordsmanship, modeling her stance and each of her strikes after her younger brother, who she could observe every morning swinging his blade from her bedroom window.

Although no amount of pleading could change his mind, the Duke did not reject every request Altina threw his way. One request he did honor, and to Altina's mild surprise, was her enrollment into a magical academy. With practiced words, Altina convinced her father that magic would serve as a means for her to protect herself. Of course, realizing her father's protective nature, she knew he would seriously consider it. Eventually, he relented, and she was off on a carriage to the most prestigious magical academy in all of the Arrowfell Province. There, she would become a proficient user of levitation and earth magic.

An exploration of the world at large further assured Altina of her views: that she was missing out; that she was truly akin to a bird in a cage. The cage would only begin to show cracks following the untimely death of her older brother. "An expedition gone awry," she heard from the rumors. Working up the courage to ask her father, she ultimately discovered that Altair had perished fighting a fearsome monster that had been terrorizing their lands for some time. She had never seen her father in such a state before: so broken; so vulnerable. But instead of sympathy, Altina felt a different emotion welling up in her chest, one born from a warped sense of morality. Chink. The next morning, the Duke was found dead in his chambers, a teacup on his bedside table, along with berries as black as obsidian. To most, it was unmistakable what had taken place. "Stricken with grief over the death of his first-born son, the duke killed himself, unable to cope with the loss."

Altina was quick to fill the power vacuum left by her father, though it was certainly not without its trials. Now able to freely join the military, she rose the ranks with breakneck pace, establishing rapport with the people through leading various excursions against the monsters that lay outside Agrovia's walls. In particular, she felled the very monster that even her late brother, in all of his ability, could not fell. With that, she had proven her worth in the eyes of Agrovian people. A woman they saw not, but a protector, strong and capable. Still, there would be factions within Agrovia that would resist her claim to the duchy. Some acted out in the open, waging outright war against her, while others took to the cover of night to assassinate her. None of them would succeed. Altina would stamp out each faction herself, one by one, playing the role of judge, jury, and executioner.

At the end of it all, a crown would make its home atop her head.

Seed:

The Convictus Lavalliere.

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A fanciful necklace upon which dangles a shimmering diamond. It protects the bearer from all mental-based magic. It also nullifies any magic that attempts to take control of its bearer, or otherwise compromise their agency.

Magic:

• [Levitation Magic] Gravitas Armament: The spell that earned Altina the moniker of "The Valkyrie," it involves the application of fine levitation magic to achieve an effect. In Altina's case, she makes both her armor and weapons levitate ever so slightly, maximizing her mobility and allowing her to move as if she is unencumbered by the weight of her gear. In essence, most of the heavy-lifting is done by her magic.

• [Levitation Magic] Sterling Cerberus: A feat of magical endurance, Altina can passively float 3 greatswords without much exertion. These blades form a defensive perimeter around her, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Altina can also treat her blades like projectiles, hurling them with worrying speed towards her foes.

• [Earth Magic] Scaleskin: Altina can siphon any mineral within the immediate area to reinforce herself or others, providing an extra layer of protection. Once made a target of Altina's siphoning, steel and other metals will inevitably lose their integrity. Likewise, earth that has been stripped of its lifeblood will also start to turn to mush.

• Shatterblade: With each swing of the sword, Altina projects magical energy outwards to extend her effective range. Intending to imbalance her foes, or simply repel bombardments coming from a distance, if she is given enough time to concentrate magical energy on her sword, Altina can even uproot trees in one strike, like a hurricane ripping through a forest.

• [Earth Magic] Cortège of the Einherjar: "To split the ground into intricate slabs, and then put them together, architecting the visage of the human form and imbuing it with human-like sentience." Such a painstaking process prefaces the activation of this spell. However, in spite of the time it takes to cast, its benefits far outweigh its costs. In short, the spell manifests an army of humanoid golems numbering to the dozen, equipped with weapons made of enchanted stone. What makes Altina's creations particularly fearsome is their ability to regenerate from the ground or nearby rocks, or even by re-attaching the severed parts. Conversely, the spell can become rather taxing to maintain the more her creations are injured. She will be forced to dispel it if its magical expenditure reaches heights she cannot effectively manage.

Skills: Swordsmanship, martial arts, military strategy, leadership, magical expertise, sewing, tea-making.

Faction: Altina is both the figurehead of her duchy, as well as the chief commander of its military. Often, she takes to the front lines herself, with her golem army in tow. Though she is secretly aligned with the rebel faction, on the surface, she pretends to pledge her allegiance to the Wizard Queen. It is an obvious facade that she puts on, but she knows that as long as she capitulates to the Wizard Queen's demands and more, the Wizard Queen will likely not act against her. After all, showings of goodwill met with sudden betrayal would foment the brewing rebellion that the Wizard Queen fears so much. Towing the line between loyalty and disloyalty puts Altina in an admittedly precarious situation, but it is only a matter of time before her mask falls, revealing her true colors.

City / Assets:

Altina presides over the duchy of Agrovia, known for its bountiful farmlands, horticultural goods, and imposing walls. Though, the latter part was not always so. Situated to the north, ever since its inception, Agrovia has been plagued time and again by beasts of the forest. At first, escape was the only means of "defense" for the fledgling city, if one could call it that. Perhaps "preservation" would be the more apt term. Regardless, fearing for their lives, the denizens of the agricultural city began to build catacombs hidden deep in the earth, to which they would retreat during monster attacks. These catacombs would prove effective in keeping the people safe, but up above, one could not say the same for their crops. Untended to and therefore left unprotected, they were all but trampled afoot by the rampaging monsters. "Such a way of life is not sustainable." This would soon dawn on the Agrovian people. Realizing their plight, the early leaders of Agrovia started to form alliances with the nearby cities, the most notable of which was with Rockhold. A union that has endured for generations, the partnership between Agrovia and Rockhold was one where both cities stood to gain: the people of Rockhold would be hard-pressed to ever go hungry, while the people of Agrovia now possessed weapons with which they could beat back their adversaries.

Owing much to the city of Rockhold, Agrovia benefited greatly from their exports of silver and iron. For the first time, the people of Agrovia no longer cowered in their caves during monster attacks. Instead, they fought. And fight tooth and nail they did, even retaking land that the monsters had occupied for so long in the process. To keep out the monsters for good, the Agrovian people also erected sweeping walls around their city, which are collectively called the "Bastille," a name in honor of the ruling family.

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Looks great so far! I'm impressed you're making the artwork yourself. :)

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Hello! Very impressive CS! I like the connection with Rockhold going on. Would you be willing to point out where on the map you would like your city? Or I can approximate it.

I don't have any issue with your spells, as long as they use life-energy/mana accordingly. Please feel free to drop them over at the Character Tab. :)

Circled Map [+]

Well now. That makes two dukes that met their untimely end at the hands of their daughter.

Well now. That makes two dukes that met their untimely end at the hands of their daughter.

Regicide is all the rage in Arrowfell, apparently...

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Sure thing! I was thinking maybe here? Pic below.

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Great, I've added it to the map in the first post! Lemme know if it looks alright.

Whaddya mean? He clearly committed suicide due to grief. 😏

@Estylwen I have a pair of NPCs for you to look over:

Kronos [+]

Kronos

Unknown | Genderless | Dremora

Description: A Dremora who governs over the concept of time and space. The combination of being territorial yet peaceful makes for a reclusive entity, Kronos cares not for the material plane with its bickering mortals and their mortal problems, and in relation, it too disdains its envious brethren, always craving to consume the light of the All-Force. It does not and will not understand, all it wishes is to be left alone... until a vexatious feyling forcibly dragged Kronos out of its peaceful Shade and into another being's body, and the rest is history.

Though it has learned to tolerate its new lot in life, Kronos remains a cynical and callous entity, it's slow to forget and even slower to forgive. If it sees an orphaned urchin begging for scraps of food, it'd assume some kind of ruse is at play. If it's given a gift, it'd immediately try to deduce what the giver expects in return. In its mind, no good deed goes unpunished. Clearly, it distrusts everyone by default and so far, only its host, Melisande, has managed to foster what can be discerned as affection from it.

Assorted Powers (Spells, Seed, Skills, Artifacts, etc.):

❖ United Souls: Kronos is Melisande and Melisande is Kronos, distinct yet united. They share each other's powers and skills.
❖ Distinct Minds: Melisande is Kronos and Kronos is Melisande, united yet distinct. Mind-affecting conditions that afflict one of them do not automatically afflict the other. They're considered as two separate entities for this purpose.
❖ Consciousness Substitution: Kronos can control Melisande's body or Gemini clone as if it were its own, becoming the primary consciousness of the vessel.

Jezebel Tearmoon [+]

Matriarch Jezebel Tearmoon

44 | Female | Lilim

Description: The reigning Matriach of the Tearmoon Coven and Melisande's mother. Though she may initially appear like a spitting image of her daughter, their similarities are merely skin-deep. Behind the cordial and unassuming persona lies an ambitious woman of many schemes. She firmly believes that her people are the most suited to unlock the true potential of the Seeds, yet the Wizard Queen unwisely squanders their potential by favoring those incompetent simpletons in the Royal Gardeners instead of her coven. No matter, whether under the sanctions of the Wizard Queen or the Duke of Rhineclfif, Tearmoon will be the exclusive custodian of the Glasic Fields. She’ll see to it.

Aside from being a coven leader, Jezebel is an accomplished magus and scholar in her own right. She's routinely invited to conduct lectures at the College of Hathforth, in fact, she's a good friend of Caveus Ashan the headmaster. In relation, though Jezebel won't hesitate to curry favors and pull strings in order to ensure Melisande's enrollment into the prestigious academy, she doesn't need to do so as her eldest daughter is talented enough to qualify for the scholarship anyway.

Assorted Powers (Spells, Seed, Skills, Artifacts, etc.):

❖ Arcane Appraisal: Through the combination of vast knowledge, experience, and shrewdness, Jezebel is able to instinctively detect when a magical spell in being cast within her vicinity, analyze its methods, and then given time, eventually unravel its purpose. This ability only concerns the appraisal and identification of spells, whether she can replicate the spell or not is another matter entirely.
❖ Counterspell: Disrupts a target's casting process, causing the spell to prematurely fizzle if the target fails to resist.
❖ Magic Missiles: Conjures and launches a hail of solid magical projectiles to one or several targets, said projectiles possess extraordinary homing capabilities, in other words, they're exponentially harder to dodge than block.
❖ Power Word: Obey: Utters a statement laced with powerful magic to compel a target's body to perform a single action. It can be resisted through sufficient willpower, resisting targets will instead be paralyzed in place for a brief moment as their mind struggles to regain control of their body. Each target can only be affected by this spell once per day.
❖ Defy Death: The caster engraves a crest upon the target which essentially functions like a dormant healing spell. The mark activates if the host is dying, healing their wounds enough to stabilize them. The crest is invisible to the naked eye and lasts for a week or until triggered, whichever is shorter.

Duchess Mirie Agustria of Caelin [+]

Duchess Mirie Agustria of Caelin

35 | Human | | Female | 5’ 5” | 115lbs

Goal: To back an outcome most advantageous to the Isle of Caelin and its business interests.

History: Mirie is the daughter and only child of the previous Duke of Caelin, a proud and stubborn man guided by emotions that often stymied the development of his lands. Her mother, on the other hand, was an influential merchant lady who taught her much of what she knew in trade and statecraft before sadly passing to a sudden illness during Mirie’s twelfth summer.

At its core, Caelin was not a land that was abundant with resources. Independent and proud of it, it was a windswept isle, but prosperous and wealthy from the flow of Northern trade from foreign lands to the mainland, and from the financial institutions that sprung from it. This made the city of Grand Bank, at first named after its large land banks along the coastline, into the de facto financier of the province.

Aside from the small peninsula on the mainland opposite the Grand Bank that housed a lighthouse and ferry, the duchy was entirely contained on the Caelin Isle. Combined with a large merchant fleet that could be pressed into wartime service at any moment, it was a natural fortress that made Caelin nearly impossible to seize without outsize effort.

When Lugwig II unified Arrowfell, Caelin refused to bend its knee. Unfortunately for all involved, in the absence of the moderating influence of his wife, the Duke of Caelin’s governance of the Isle had become increasingly divorced from reality.

It resisted even past the fall of Rockhold and Aethera. It resisted nearly into ruin, for while it could not be taken easily, the strength of its institutions and merchants relied on its relationship with the mainland.

An idiot could see this, but the Duke could not. Left alone, the Isle would burn from the inside, but his daughter moved to prevent it.

In the twilight days of Ludwig II’s campaign to unify the province, Duchess Mirie donned the ducal crown at the age of fifteen, but her accession was not smooth. She would wear a reminder of the struggle that fateful night on her face for the rest of her life, and the mental scars for just as long.

In the end, as Lugwig assembled his fleet, he and the new duchess were able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, for Caelin needed Hathforth’s patronage as much as Hathforth needed the island. Mirie would kneel to the new king, but Caelin would enjoy greater autonomy in exchange for more favorable rates and services to the crown as Arrowfell’s bank.

As duchess, Mirie was not a good role model. Although blessed with good looks, she was extremely hedonistic; she drank, wore scandalous dresses, and most certainly slept around—it was hardly a scandal if nearly everybody knew she’d allegedly shared a bed with half the province. Nonetheless, she was a duchess that people respected, a woman that knew what her people needed and how to give it while enriching herself at the same time. She grasped the given peace and ran with it, making herself, the people of the isle, and its merchants more prosperous than even before under the reign of the king.

When the rebellion came, destroying the perfectly good status quo, she quietly stepped in line, for while the king was a good man, as it had been before, survival came with working with the new Queen, Hathford and the mainland. The discovery of the Glasic Fields served merely as further reinforcement.

As long as the new management would continue the mutually beneficial relationship between Caelin and the Crown, the duchess would not take issue with the Queen. Nonetheless, she began to look for alternative arrangements and mitigating steps. Given the queen’s dubious actions, what proper leader would not make plans? It felt likely that the woman would soon turn her full attention on the riches of the Grand Bank, and over ask.

However, she would remain to see where the wind would blow. For now, both the Queen and the good Duke Rhinecliff remained valued clients.

It was just good business.

Seed: The faceted ruby-red crystal that hangs on a necklace between her breasts is the Aequum Ventis. It allows Mirie to align up to three mundane crystals to the seed’s tune. Once aligned, she can instantly teleport herself to one of the assigned crystals even over vast distances, although the longer the distance, the longer it will take for it to recharge.

Magic:

• Ice Blade – Instantly condenses and chills the water in the air to create a wieldable solid blade of ice.
• Wind Blade – A sharp, fast burst of air that can cut into flesh and hard leather.
• Fair Winds – Manipulates a bountiful gust of wind that can do many things, from small things like dropping a piece of paper in the user’s hands, creating strong upward drafts to mitigate falls, to grander acts like propelling a sailing ship to cruising speed or blanketing a large area with windy weather.
• Wind Storm – An upgraded, violent version of the previous spell that create storm-like wind effects in a small area. The smaller the area the more concentrated it can be, allowing the user to blow down walls or send people flying.
• Wind Shield – Creates a violent thin layered section of air around the caster or a target that will deflect physically based attacks up to a point. Allows and accelerates outward attacks.
• Mental Shield – Passively shields the mind from intrusion or control. Greater intrusions require both mental effort and tapping into further life-energy beyond the initially crafted rune.
• Seal Room - Wards a room, preventing those outside the room from entering or eavesdropping through physical or magical means.
• Binding Contract – Similar to existing variants, this grants the ability to create truly binding signed contracts. Breached contracts will result in terrible side effects up to and including death, however lesser penalties can be specified.
• Reveal Element – Determines the rough composition of objects nearby, as long as the caster has an understanding of the objects.
• Detect Lie – Well, are you fibbing or not?

Skills: Swordsmanship, commerce, leadership, military strategy, logistics, seamanship.

Faction: Outside of being the head of House Agustria and ruling Caelin, Mirie’s own trading business, assets, and board seats give her de facto leadership of the Grand Bank Consortium, a body of companies based in the Grand Bank that make collective decisions for better business. While she cannot directly control the decisions the constituent companies make without overstepping, it allows her to leverage more assets and a network of merchants for information.

City: Mirie’s seat of power is the city of the Grand Bank, located on the Easternmost peninsula on Caelin, and three days from Hathforth by sea. Importing most of its food to feed its populace, the island itself is relatively barren land, with little resources besides scattered communities that grow a bit of wheat or the island’s specialty product, olives. Much of the splendor of the island is centralized in the Grand Bank, a bustling city of trade second only to Hathforth. A forest of tall ships make their home in the harbor here as the first port of landing with Arrowfell, carrying all sorts of goods from the Northern lands which often continue on to Hathforth. Despite the eye-catching merchant houses built of imported marble in its market center, it is perhaps the least religious city in the region. Hedonistic establishments galore cater to all walks of life, from weary sailors looking for a warm bed and a night’s companionship to high-class clubs where merchants and nobles drink, smoke, and gamble the night away as they conduct their deals.

The Grand Bank, although named after the geographical feature, has lately come to embody its true name as the banking capital of Arrowfell. Although the population of the city is on the smaller side for a trade city and ducal seat, its citizens rank among the wealthiest, chiefly among them the Duchess Mirie, financing and insuring merchant endeavors and high-capital projects across the province. Militarily, it has little in the way of a standing army outside merchants’ guards, but its trading fleet can easily be pressed into the maritime defense of the island if necessary.

Assets: As mentioned above, the Grand Bank is truly a grand bank, and little else. However, it does export olives and olive oil in limited quantities, in addition to the typical fisheries of a port city. Fermented fish sauce is another local specialty, although very divisive.

I'll get started on some second in commands for the company and I should figure out where to start location wise

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Love the CS! Just to be clear, Caelin is the island, and Grand Bank is the name of the city on the island, right?

Feel free to add her to the Character Tab when you have a moment!

Lets start with the simplest to write of them all, if throughout the game more knowledge comes to earth I'll update him

John "The Shadow" Jones [+]

John "The Shadow" Jones

Unknown | Male

Description: John is a tall figure, clad from head to toe in black clothing. Not much is known of him, even his appearance is one only a few have ever seen, this includes the Captain himself and the vice-captain. John is responsible for recon and espionage; his magic uniquely suits this task.

John and the Captain seem to share a common history, although few know what it is.

Magic/Seed:
x Shadowblend: A magic that allows the user to blend in with the shadows.
x Shadowleap: A small-distance teleportation spell that only works when teleporting into a shadow
x Shadowmerge: Allows the user to become one with a shadow, blending in perfectly
x Shadowstrike: Forces a shadow to lash out violently towards a targeted direction.

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Awesome! Yup, that's correct. I figure most people would generally refer to the city as Caelin anyway though, for simplicity's sake.

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Looks good! Just to confirm, he's human, right? I'll add his NPC sheet to the list today.

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Perfect! I've updated the map in the first post, can you take a look and lemme know if it looks alright?

Looks good! Just to confirm, he's human, right? I'll add his NPC sheet to the list today.

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Ideally it's Caelin Isle, but otherwise it looks correct.

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I want to go with yesn't. Was human now is a blend of human with a bit of Dremora