It has been a little over a year since the virtual reality video game, Pariah Online, has become an international hit.
Designed from the studies of a yet-to-be-named cyber-neurologist, the video game was always intended to be a breakthrough in changing the way the human mind perceives things when it is in a dream-like state. During the early development of these theories and experiments, the idea of applying it to a virtual world seemed like the only sensible conclusion. The true nature of Pariah Online is hardly public knowledge for very legal and serious reasons, and for the most part, there have been no detrimental issues that endangered the people in the game or the company's legal and financial security. That is until a few hours ago, a massive glitch spread throughout the game. The ramfications of this glitch appears to be deadly and financially damning for the company. As they race across the clock to fix the issues, players locked into the virtual world are about to have everything they know about Pariah and their lives change in an instant.
With server technicians, neurologists, and software specialists trying to figure out the source of the problem, a different threat within the virtual world itself is awakening. How will these "Wayfarers" handle their responsibilities, anxieties, and doubts? Only time will tell.
I started Pariah Online a few years ago as an interpretation of the “trapped in a video game” trope that is so often seen in anime and manga. I looked at the works of Kazunori Ito, Mamare Touno, Ao Jumonji, and Fujino Omori as starting points – though I did want to put my own spin on it. I looked at the concepts of dreams and science fiction related to that and decided to frame a story that is tense, adventurous, and exciting.
The World As We Know It
In the world of Pariah Online, there exists a divide between the inhabitants of the world and the players who choose to interact with it.
From the moment that the players entered the world there was a tension. The inhabitants of the Kingdoms of Aetheria, otherwise known as “denizens” by the players of Pariah Online, have always looked at the powerful outsiders as a dangerous precedent but one they needed exactly at the time of their appearance. They dubbed these alien adventurers from another dimension as “wayfarers”, a fitting title given their nature as homeless vagabonds and travelers. But why would these denizens exactly need wayfarers in the first place? Why were they met with a weary welcome rather than one at the end of a sword?
The answer is not a complicated one, nor a strange or particularly unique one. Before the arrival of the wayfarers and their impeccable talents the denizens of Aetheria had been losing their heroes year-after-year to coordinated attacks from supernatural monstrosities. Their origin? Supernatural dens that would create and empower them. Supernatural dens they had come to know as “dungeons”. The wayfarers served a purpose to clear these dungeons and destroy them; as the heroes of Aetheria had done the same before them. But as more wayfarers arrived as did more dungeons and more kingdoms and cities found themselves in danger. Some denizens speculated their appearance was only making things worse, though their critique was heard on deaf ears as hordes of orcs, goblins, golems, and all sorts of monsters began to push against the walls of the cities that depended on the wayfarers to protect them in an era where heroes of their own were at an all-time low.
Even with the support of the fraternities to arm, educate, train, and direct the wayfarers, a problem continued to brew. But the Council of Monarchs saw little choice. Their hands were tied.
The Fraternities, hero-adventurer guilds that had been established for centuries, found a new life by the flood of wayfarers. Denizen recruitment had been at an all-time low and fraternity leaders saw this as a chance to return to prominence; to propagate a newfound Age of Heroes even if the heroes were men and women whom had no idea what they were doing at first and were by the denizen perception certifiably insane. The five fraternities – Draethir, Drox, Queon, Sikth, and Tyhrien – were more than happy to deal with the eccentricities of the wayfarers as long as they served their role.
And for a year, they have served that role indeed.
The Domains of Magic
According to the ancient texts dating back to before the Kingdoms of Aetheria had been raised from the earth, magic is said to have originated from the twin gods Arcanen and Primora, who have ruled over their respective fields since the dawn of all things. The two primary branches of magical study originate from these gods: the Arcane, the domain of Arcanen, and the Primordial, the domain of Primora.
The primordial domain contains all magic based upon the elements that make up the world, ranging from the ice that fills the tundra, to the fire that burns in every hearth, to the stone that makes up the very ground we walk upon and everything else in between. Primora's magic is wide and varied, possessing no shortage of uses in everyday life. When combined with utility and a little bit of creativity, there exist few bounds to the limits of magic's potential. For most Wayfarers, however, this power is seen primarily as a weapon to be used against the monsters that lurk in the depths. The offensive might of primordial magic cannot be overstated, and it is most often found at the forefront of the war for the world's survival.
The arcane domain, on the other hand, is seen more for its potential utilitarian uses than its usefulness in direct contact with the enemy. All magic that does not fit the mold of the primordial domain is typically associated with the arcane, showing a great breadth of uses: from transmutation of matter to the enhancement of the human body, enchantment of weapons, and the creation of alchemical potions, there is little that an experienced mage can't do if they have access to the proper training and tools.
When wayfarers enter the world they realize two principal things:
They are immediately taught by the fraternity they choose the basics of magic, just like they are taught the basics of the world. As such a fraternity mage teaches them how to use one type of primordial magic and one type of arcane magic. Beyond that, the sky's the limit depending on their interests.
That these magics are numerous in number and through the right applications wayfarers can combine the arcane and primordial like few spellcasters have been able to do in centuries with little practice.
Once they understand both of those principles wayfarers look to expand their horizons or focus on what they are given as specialists. The more domains someone knows, the less potent their magic, though this can be mitigated by use of potions, artifacts, and extremely enchanted items and armor. The use of magic exhausts a person’s stamina depending how powerful a spell is and how much the spellcaster’s body has been conditioned to withstand the strain of being connected to the aspects of two gods.
A list of some of the known schools of arcane and primordial magic are listed below.
Primordial Magic is the innate ability to wield the power of the elements that make up nature.
This includes the primal elements of fire, water, frost, lightning, wind, metal, and earth. Within the esoteric this compounds light and darkness.
The applications for these fields are endless and varies depending on hybridization and the interest of the caster. While primordial magic is often classified as having only combat uses this is more of a cliché than something that is objective fact. A wayfarer may choose to use metal to create armor or to create shortcuts in basic crafting as one example. Primordial magic’s one truth is that it is raw. It is the bones of what keeps the world’s heartbeat beating, and for that a healthy planet is one that has many primordial battlemages.
Arcane Magic is the innate ability to wield the power of energy that weaves the universe together.
The manipulation of arcane energies can result in different results depend on the approach of the user. It can be used to empower, enhance, alter, restore, protect, and create. If the primordial school is the heartbeat of the world, the arcane is the glue. As it is more complex than the primordial elements, listed below is an explanation of what each basic school of arcane magic composes.
Alteration: The ability to weave arcane energy into item enhancements.
Conjuration: The ability to transmutate arcane energy into physical items.
Convokation: The manipulation of arcane energy to summon and bind creatures beyond the veil to the caster.
Divination: The ability to use arcane energy to find and see things unseen to the naked eye.
Enhancement: The manipulation of arcane energy to enhance the physical body or weapon.
Illusion: The manipulation of arcane energy to create tricks of the mind.
Manifestation: The ability to transfer arcane energy into manifestations of powerful constructs such as orbs, fields, and such things.
Protection: The ability to channel arcane energy into protective wards and fortifications.
Restoration: The transference of arcane energy to mend physical wounds and ailments.
The Kingdom of Aetheria
The lore of Pariah Online speaks pretty clear in its European anachronisms.
The Kingdom of Aetheria is the sole piece of central human civilization on the world of Nidus. It has been around for several centuries, dating back to when several human societies agreed to rule as one in the face of a great universal threat from beyond the veil exposed itself in its attempt to destroy all life on the planet. This abyssal creature became known as The Nameless One, its true name stricken from the records.
This creature created all things unnatural to spite the gods of Primora and Arcanum, claiming its place as a third god. The Striga, twisted corruptions of humans and abyssal corruption sought to eradicate all humanity. To pair with the Striga, The Nameless One planted demon seeds into the soil and into what were majestic, legendary creatures. The offspring of these seeds would turn into monsters and inhumans; basilisks, orcs, ogres, goblins, lycans, worgs, and so much more. At the end of the First Age the legendary heroes faced the Striga Queen and her army on the southern fields of Aladar. The Striga retreated into the darkness with their queen banished, one day plotting a return to bring about The Nameless One’s plan to feast upon the life force of all living things.
Upon the Striga Queen’s defeat, the heroes would form The Fraternities of Aetheria, hero-adventurer guilds meant to train the next great heroes in case a new Striga Queen reared its head.
Problem is, for centuries outside of aimlessly wandering monsters and inhumans, there was nothing. The other kingdoms gathered more autonomy under the King of Aetheria, turning themselves into city-states that only had loose association with one another. Eventually, the city-states agreed about a egalitarian council of monarchs over a high king, especially considering the extinction of the original imperial dynasty. While the city-state of Toraenis appointed the leader of the heroes who felled the Striga Queen as its new leader, things began to take shape. The Council of Monarchs would convene anytime the realm was in unilateral danger. Beyond that the fraternities that would found themselves in each city would continue their goals as set about by their founders, though eventually it seemed the interest in magic and heroism seemed to diminish as the centuries rolled on.
By the Fourth Age, things were mostly stable with few heroic events to keep note of. That is, until a new Striga Queen appeared, unearthed by foolish adventurers in the Great Desert. A magical burst of energy left the ruins of the Castle they were excavating and a burst of magical energy spread across the land. Strangest of all, massive structures—Dungeons—began appearing. With no heroes capable of breaking the magic from these dungeons all over Aetheria, a sense of hopelessness came over the general populace, though it did inspire a new generation of heroes. The Fraternities of Aetheria started to feel a renewed presence, though these new heroes seemed to perish and disappear as quickly as they declared against the Striga threat.
That is, until the Wayfarer’s arrived five years later.
The City-States
The Kingdom of Aetheria is divided into five kingdoms based around a central city which has its own towns, villages, and strongholds under its control. Since the defeat of the Striga Queen in the First Age the kingdom allows its subjects complete autonomy, only uniting for national matters under the Council of Monarchs. Each city-state is endorsed by a Fraternity and as such wayfarers who select different fraternities have very different experiences and are exposed to different facets of Aetherian culture.
To go in further detail, see below.
“Those who do not have magic will not understand it.”
Monarch: Wizard Queen Celestine Pathos Affiliation: Queon Element Associations: Wind & Fire Ideologies: Knowledge, Responsibility, Understanding, Compassion. Location: Southern Desert Climate: Desert with lush Savanna climates in pockets.
“A wise man enlists caution over impulse.”
Monarch: King Ier IV of House Khtar Pathos Affiliation: Sikth Element Associations: Shadow & Lightning Ideologies: Unity, Prudence, Perceptiveness, Patience. Location: Northwestern Highlands Climate: Continental; dry and windy beyond the crater lake forged by a waterfall where it is sub-Temperate.
“Power and Glory are two sides of the same coin.”
Monarch: King Janswald "The Red" of House Theremic Pathos Affiliation: Draethir Element Associations: Metal & Frost Ideologies: Strength, Perseverance, Resilience, Courage. Location: Northeastern Vale Climate: Alpine in the steepest hills, but fairly temperate in the lowlands.
“It is the duty of the hero to protect the helpless.”
Monarch: King Medrian II of House Toraendel Pathos Affiliation: Thyrien Element Associations: Water & Light Ideologies: Honor, Honesty, Gracefulness, Generosity. Location: Midlands Climate: Temperate with cool wind off the Great Oceans eastward and the warm heat from the south.
“Those who respect nature are empowered by it.”
Monarch: Queen Katla of House Thorinnar Pathos Affiliation: Drox Element Associations: Earth & Wind Ideologies: Service, Humility, Conservation, Nature. Location: Southwestern Reaches Climate: Subtropical as indicated by sprawling riverbeds and humid summers.
Description.
Codex
Chapterhouse
A wayfarer-owned property meant for business.
Guild of Acquisitions
Every major city in Aetheria has an Acquisitions Guild. They are the “quest boards”. Denizens operate and hand out missions here. Wayfarer’s used to use them as places to look for groups beyond solo questing, though through the lore of the setting they have other uses. You can find any freelance job list at an acquisitions guild as well as advertisements for concerts, performances, and other seasonal activities.
Fraternity Hall
A large compound that serves as a base of operations for a fraternity, the organizations descended from the original hero-adventurer guilds of eons past. They offer an information network to its members, a map of safehouses, lodging, general information, and faction-specific specialists.
Striga
A race of demihumans with demonic lineage.
Wayfarer's Hall
Taverns that have been repurposed as meet-up places for dungeoneering jobs (after they have been posted at the guild) unique to wayfarers.
Application
Pariah Online is a invite only RP.
Applicants will be provided entry to a discussion channel on discord and given access to the character sheet.
Full Name - Andrew Gray Age - 20 Place of Origin - Indiana, USA Occupation - Gas station clerk
A V A T A R
Character's Name - Graves Pathos Affiliation - Draethir Role - Tank Profession - Bounty Hunter Weapon of Choice - Nodachi Domains - Water, Darkness; Restoration, Divination, Enhancement -
P E R S O N A L I T Y
Arrogant It isn't just that Graves thinks highly of himself. He doesn't believe he's the best- he knows he is, and the only reason he fails is when others are holding him back. There is no challenge he won't take on, no enemy he's afraid to face; he has mastered the art of combat in Pariah Online and he's eager to show that off.
Belligerent His mentors always hammered into his head that the one thing a good fighter had was aggression. A full-bodied willingness to commit violence, directed violence, against their opponents. To hesitate was to admit you were the weaker combatant. To allow the enemy initiative was the equivalent of surrender. Graves has taken those lessons to heart, allowing that belligerence to seep into every aspect of his personality.
Driven For all his many, many faults, none can deny Graves's desire to succeed. He is driven beyond rational boundaries, to the point where Graves believes he can do anything he wants- often times bending the situation to make this fact true. He doesn't allow himself to slip, to lose, to give in, ever.
B E N C H M A R K S
Violent Transfusion The linchpin of Graves's fighting style is his ability to heal himself by wounding his enemies. He strikes at them with his signature weapon, drawing the blood from their bodies using his unusual primordial magics, and then transmutes it into a healing energy that stitches up his own wounds at a rapid pace. This allows Graves to maintain full throttle aggression without putting himself in total mortal peril.
Surgical Precision Studying the anatomy of wayfarers and monsters alike was a necessary component of Graves's chosen battle strategy. He's learned the best places to strike to disable his opponents, or to produce the greatest flow of blood. In addition, He's also internalized where he can safely wound himself if the need ever arises.
Human Bloodhound Graves pursues his targets like a predator tracks a wounded animal. He treks across great distances, following even the most subtle of clues for weeks at a time. Nothing ever seems to deter or distract him, so singular is his purpose.
Pain, Life's Great Motivator Pain is something every wayfarer is familiar with. Some shy away from it, while others manage to grit their teeth and soldier onward despite it. Graves revels in it. He practically falls into his attacker's blade at any given opportunity. It makes for a terrifying display when he walks through a debilitating stab wound to make his counterattack.
Physical Description
Andrew is unusually tall, measuring more than a few inches over six feet- a trait he inherited from his father. He's far thinner, however, with an unhealthy gauntness to his long face. Dark circles around his eyes stand out against harshly pale skin, and long hair falls down to his shoulders. Most wouldn't regard him as particularly good-looking, owing in no small part to a lack of effort and little self confidence.
His persona's appearance in Pariah differs significantly. While Graves stands just as tall, he's extraordinarily well-built, with a chest as broad as a barrel and muscle coiled like steel cable. Scarring earned from many an encounter pepper his body thanks to his light armor and penchant for reckless aggression. Graves is much better put together, too, with shorter cropped hair and strong features his player could only dream of.
Andrew Gray: A Family Matter
Words.
Graves: Solo Hunter
Graves is a controversial bounty hunter whose history stretches back to the first days of Pariah Online. He’s renowned for doggedly pursuing his targets no matter where they run or for how long. Quick tempered and arrogant to the core, Graves is a difficult man to work with if he believes you’re holding him back- and he thinks everyone does. The few friendships he still holds are troubled, to say the least, yet it wasn’t always so.
Back when the game first launched, Graves was a member of a guild called the Strange Reign Club. They were a highly competitive group of raiders and PVPers with a reputation for extraordinaire toxicity. It was hard to argue against their results, however. Graves showed great promise as one of their earliest recruits, competing with some of the Club’s best duelists. He’d stay with them for many months before, without much warning, he’d be cut from the team and blacklisted by its raid leaders.
A solo player ever since, Graves has been quietly grinding away at his profession, stewing on whatever drama had happened behind the scenes...
Transfusion: The primary vehicle of Graves's unstoppable aggression and the core aspect of his kit. Transfusion allows Graves to transform any blood into lifeforce, healing physical wounds of nearly any kind. The blood must be drawn through an open wound. The amount of healing received and how quickly it takes to stitch a wound depends on the volume and quality of the blood provided. This ability is typically used by cutting open an enemy's major arteries and healing himself, but it is not limited to this function.
Defiant to the End: One of his strongest abilities, and the most dangerous to utilize. If Graves has suffered enough damage to be near unconsciousness or death's door, he can temporarily convert the flow of blood from all his wounds into life-force, providing an incredible burst of healing power. This magic has the potential to harm or eve kill him if it consumes too great a quantity of his blood.
Meditative Healing: Another aspect of Graves's advanced blood-based restoration magic. By sitting in a meditative trance for at least an hour, he may use his own blood to close his own wounds. This consumes his blood, much like Defiant to the End. How long it takes depends on the severity of said injuries. The stance is extremely taxing, essentially requiring he rest immediately afterward. In addition, it can't repair grievous wounds such as broken bones or eviscerated organs.
Blood In The Water: Using a concoction of a creature's blood and a number of other ingredients, Graves may consume it to cast this spell to locate that creature if they are within a thousand feet of him; if they're moving he knows the direction. This spell can be blocked by most magic or materials meant to disrupt divination.
Sight Beyond Sight: Sight Beyond Sight allows Graves to concentrate, blocking out all other senses to activate a sort of 'sixth sense.' This sixth sense allows him to feel the presence of bleeding targets within a thirty meter radius of himself, though it can be blocked by sufficiently thick walls or anti-divination magic. It acts similarly to echo location, wherein he gets a 'blip' of the target(s)' movement every couple of seconds.
“I've always liked the feeling of looking down from a high place. The wide world all spread out below me, so small and insignificant. It's all just so...
...So far out of reach.”
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
Weapon of Choice Pure Magic. Specifically, Yomi's specialty is using Manifestation magic to conjure up projections of various different armament types, switching fluidly between them as they break. She's not particularly skilled with any one kind of weapon, but makes up for this deficiency with her adaptability and potential for confusing mix-ups. The complexity of these projections does, however, limit her magic exclusively to a very short range, depriving her of one of the main advantages of playing as a pure caster.
Playstyle & Attitude - Crafter main who dabbles in exploration and sidequest content. - Her favorite pasttimes are inventing new ways to use her magic and making fun things for herself. She's primarily practiced her tailoring and cooking skills in order to craft a variety of cute outfits to wear and tasty treats to snack on. - Insatiably curious. Wants to know where that tunnel goes or what that button does. Will push it to find out. Do not let her. - Knows where the party finder option is, but gets anxiety whenever she thinks about using it. - Her inventory is full of valuable and potent consumables she's crafted, but she'll sooner die than use them. What if she needs them more later? - Used to be better at faking a smile. - She's fine, okay? - Basically just very tired emotionally.
M I Y O K O H I R A S A K A: S M I L I N G L I K E A N I D I O T M I Y O K O H I R A S A K A: S M I L I N G L I K E A N I D I O T
Miyoko Hirasaka was a girl with a bright mind and a brilliant smile.
Gifted from a young age, Miyoko's interests always lay with her art. While her classmates were diligently taking notes, she would scribble sketches in the margins of her notebooks. It was fine, right? All this was easy for her, after all -- until it wasn't. She wasn't even sure when it happened, or how, or why. She'd done so much while barely even trying -- she was smarter than this!
So, she kept on trying, and kept on smiling. This was just a little rough patch. Things would work themselves out eventually. Somehow or another, she managed to make it through the rest of high school without repeating a year -- but what awaited her at the end of the road was a future devoid of prospects. Unable to earn a decent scholarship, and with her family's finances already in a rather sorry state, Miyoko couldn't even consider going to college.
But that was alright. She had two younger siblings coming after her. As their older sister, it was her duty to help pave their way. So, she kept on smiling, and looked for some way even someone like her could do just that.
She found it in her art. Fresh out of high school, Miyo debuted as a virtual streamer. Using an avatar she drew up and animated by herself -- a cute and colorful little bird girl she regarded as her personal masterpiece -- she started out independent, taking drawing requests from her viewers, giving artistic pointers, and showcasing her creative process. It was slow going at first, but little by little she found herself a following. Her smile had become something contagious -- something that could give joy to others going through hard times.
Something that could be bought and sold. Miyo found herself scouted by a famous talent agency, and smiled like she had never smiled before. This was her chance! Finally, she would make it big! It would just take a little bit more work here and there. Some small investments here to buy new recording equipment, a few extra expenses there to commission some music so she could try her hand at song covers, or to buy newly released games she could stream to get attention -- once she had more viewers, the agency would surely reimburse her.
Miyo smiled, even when she tripped in one of her virtual live events and became the butt of her senpais' jokes. She smiled, even when her computer's hard drive crashed and she had to spend the last of her savings to replace her PC. She smiled, even when her managers wouldn't answer her e-mails asking them to cover part of the costs.
And once her smile had no more value, they fired her. She lost the rights to her character -- all her creations -- her very name.
As if she'd forgotten how to do anything else, she kept on smiling right up until the end, like an idiot. While she had been smiling, the world had gone and left her behind. So, with nothing else left, she decided to leave the world behind too.
Y O M I: T H E F A L L E N I D O L Y O M I: T H E F A L L E N I D O L
Enter Yomi. Born from a mishmash of the traits short and scruffy little Miyoko has always wished she had, and reminiscence over the appearance of the avatar she had come to regard as a second self, she's a halfhearted attempt to be everything the real Miyoko isn't.
Yet contrary to what one might expect given her player's self-destructive dedication to the game and desperate desire to mean something to someone -- anyone, really -- Yomi is a character with very little presence within the world of Pariah Online. Spending most of her time doing sidequests, gathering materials, crafting items, experimenting with magic, and flying aimlessly from place to place, she has no particularly notable accomplishments to her name. She's never been a part of a guild, nor has she participated prominently in either raiding or the PVP scene -- since either of those venues would require interacting with and depending upon other players to some extent or another -- and, worse, being depended on herself. Unreliable as she is, she'd rather avoid such things at any cost, and spare herself the ridicule.
That's not to say she's entirely unknown, however. One cannot soar the skies upon blazing black wings and expect to go entirely unnoticed. She's several times been spotted by more gravitationally-challenged players, and every now and again gets her picture posted on some ingame discussion thread or another, asking whether she's a player at all or some kind of hidden boss. But eventually, they either lose track of her or lose interest, and, in the absence of any new sightings, she once again fades into obscurity.
Which is just the way she likes it, really. So long as she has a goal to occupy her thoughts, there's no time to feel depressed or lonely. She doesn't have to worry about how she'll have to face her family tomorrow, or what people might think of her. Instead, she can spend her dreams mastering magic, seeing fantastical sights, and doing sidequests where there's no real risk of failure, and she's free to experiment with whatever spells strike her fancy.
Vital Flare: A seldom-used and rather risky form of Fire Enhancement Magic allows Yomi to power her spells up by adding her own blood and life force into the mix. Unlike similar forms of blood-draining, she doesn't need to cut herself open or cause herself direct harm in order to activate this effect. Instead, a portion of her blood is directly transmuted and added to the output of the next fire spell she casts. The effect of this skill additionally changes depending on the amount of life force she has left. If she's already injured, provided she hasn't had her life drained directly in the process, she can still use this skill on blood she's already spilled, costing less health to use and producing an even greater effect. Yomi is at her strongest when she's on the very brink of death, allowing this skill to amplify her flames exponentially at almost no extra cost.
Mortal Flow: Compensating for her aggressive expenditure of her own vitality to fuel her spells, Yomi in turn employs Dark Enhancement magic to recuperate these losses whenever she defeats a foe. Using this ability, she can heal her own wounds and replenish lost blood and life force in proportion to the amount of damage she dealt to any target breathing its last. However, this ability only works against living targets, and only if Yomi was the one to score the killing blow.
Yomi's Shatterflame: A unique spell invented by Yomi herself to serve as the linchpin of her build, made by combining two preexisting Manifestation spells: Shadow Shell and Blazing Bulwark.
In order to function, Shatterflame takes advantage of a particular quirk of Pariah Online's elemental magic system. Specifically, Yomi noticed that Darkness spells often exert brute physical force as part of their effects, despite having no technical mass or substance themselves. For example, Shadow Shell is meant to serve as either a form of extra armor for an ally or a prison for a foe, encasing its target and repelling anything that tries to force its way in or out. The more defined the shadows in the area it's created in, the stronger the force output of the shell.
Blazing Bulwark, meanwhile, causes an explosion to burst outward from the point of impact when the object it's cast on is struck, meant to be overlaid over a more physical shield as a fiery retaliation when blocking an attack, or cast on empty space as a trap, sort of like a land mine. When cast, it emits a momentary flash of light, followed by a lingering halo of embers as a visual tell to warn keen observers that the spell is active, as a form of competitive balancing by the game's developers.
But by placing Blazing Bulwark on thin air, Yomi can then immediately follow it up by casting a Shadow Shell around it, specifically using the shadows cast outward from the initial flash of flame, dramatically increasing the potency of the resulting construct and turning Blazing Bulwark's primary disadvantage into a strength. What's more, since the "object" contained inside the Shadow Shell has no actual physical mass, she's free to reshape the shell however she sees fit, just so long as she leaves a hollow cavity inside to contain its flaming core.
Through this method, Yomi can thus create solid constructs which then explode violently once broken, and which she can conjure into a variety of different forms, ranging from simple shields to ultra-thin planes of weightless magic that direct Shadow Shell's repulsive force entirely outward along their edges, allowing them to cut like a sword or pierce like a spear -- then break off inside a target and explode for massive damage.
While this spell could likely be replicated by other characters with the right magical domains, it's actually a great deal harder to use than one might think. Restructuring the constructs produced by the spell requires envisioning the desired form with an extreme level of clarity, and a great deal of trial and error besides. Make the shell too wide, and the cutting force won't be sufficient to pierce a target. Too thin, and it'll lose integrity and break apart just from swinging it. The fact that she's managed to make this ability even work at all is testament to her dedication -- and the fact that she's managed to make it effective is testament to her extraordinary creativity.
Wings of Yomi: But even this advanced feat of magical engineering pales in comparison to Yomi's magnum opus. By extensively modifying her existing Shatterflame spell into an even more detailed and complex shape, she turned its shadowy exterior from an empty shell into an intricate and flexible set of appendages, mimicking the wings of a large bird in both form and function, and attaching themselves to her body just below her shoulderblades. Redirecting the repulsion formula outward along the full breadth of the wing's exterior allows the wings to apply lift when flapped downward, while their insubstantial and weightless nature means they don't hinder her movements at all, in spite of their massive size. By thus effectively cheating the laws of aerodynamics, she is thus able to achieve a limited degree of self-propelled flight.
Then, in the interests of increasing her mobility (and not blowing herself up should the wings end up damaged), she replaced the fire spell forming the core with a less volatile one, allowing her to instead release small amounts of fire in a steady stream from specific joints along each wing, like maneuvering thrusters on a spacecraft. As the fire within burns out, she replenishes it from her own life force as needed, allowing her not only explosive momentary bursts of acceleration, but also sustained maneuverability over the course of a drawn-out dogfight.
Although she's capable of conjuring the wings and dismissing them at will, to do so is inefficient, since banishing them wastes all the flames still remaining within them -- meaning once she calls them up, she'll often simply leave them manifested until they're destroyed, burn out, or crumble away.
The Angel in the Marble: Lacking both the range to control the battlefield from a distance and the actual combat experience to overwhelm her enemies in close-quarters through pure skill, Yomi has chosen a different path. First and foremost, her greatest talent is her imagination. Rather than building her playstyle around her physical capabilities, her reflexes, or any particular knack for fighting, she has instead developed her build entirely around precisely designing, shaping, and creating projections of what's inside her head. Between her artistic background, her dedication to perfecting her work, and her own extraordinary innate creativity, she's managed to achieve levels of both detail and function unrivaled by almost any other player in the game, both with regards to the items she crafts and the spells she has created.
Full-Speed Dancer: This isn't to say that Yomi lacks finesse when it comes to combat, however. While learning dance choreography as an idol never quite came naturally to her, the hours she put in practicing have given her a fairly good sense for how to move her body -- particularly unrestricted as she is in Pariah by things such as inflexibility or a life spent mostly indoors. Even without the aid of her wings, she's capable of quite gracefully avoiding most attacks that come her way; and with them, she's more or less able to dart into and out of range of her targets with relative impunity, dishing out quick and destructive hits without fear of reprisal.
Grin and Bear It: She dodges what she can, and does her best to block what she can't. As for what she can't block, well... Perhaps she's an unusually brave sort, or perhaps she just values her life a little bit less than the average person. Regardless, whether it's suicidal overconfidence, some kind of deeply held conviction, or simple apathy, Yomi is notoriously bad at acknowledging her limits. If there's a reason to fight, she'll be the last to flee or lay down her weapons -- no matter how much she's beaten down in the process.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None: Despite her unorthodox choice of build and set of skills, Yomi's most defining trait, for good or for ill, is her lack of specialization.
Between her personal mobility and numerous defensive options, it's rather hard to land decisive blows on her -- but the complexity of all her signature magic reduces its viable range. Consequently, she lacks the means to directly protect others without endangering herself in their place, making her a rather poor fit for the role of main tank.
Likewise, while she can restore her own health by draining life from those struck by her various projections, and can craft various consumables for use by others in a pinch, she lacks the capacity to serve as a proper healer or support.
And, while she can dish out a respectable amount of damage at close range with her explosive melee attacks, her constructs are too flimsy to trade blows head on with a physically powerful opponent without breaking prematurely, forcing her to instead resort to a somewhat half-baked hit-and-run fighting style that is ill-suited to being a front-line DPS.
Overall, her flexibility allows her to get surprisingly good results even when playing all by herself, and it's not as if she'd be a bad addition to most parties -- socialization issues notwithstanding. But on the other hand, nothing she brings to the table is particularly outstanding either, aside from her unique ability to fly -- and a more dedicated and focused build could in most other cases accomplish at least just as much as she can, while risking far less.
Kei’s life could be summarized as easily as his living conditions, a solitary bubble where his only interaction with the world outside was through food deliveries to his apartment, strangers on the internet and the occasional work calls by his employers. The clacking of fingers on a keyboard and the hum of electrical appliances were the only sounds he was familiar with, his own voice foreign to him during the few and far between times he was required to use it. If pressed, he couldn’t even tell someone what he looked like, doing the bare minimum for personal upkeep and entirely focused on his hobbies.
There was no decisive incident that caused him to shut himself inside, no traumatic or inciting event where he’d withdrawn from the world. It’s simply what happened after he’d graduated college, with no lasting friendships to keep him engaged nor family that cared enough to coax him out, Kei simply found no reason to leave the comfort of his home. Social interaction was a draining process, and while there were times he felt despondent over his lack of meaningful relationships, scrolling internet forums and conversing with fellow users was able to stave off the feeling. It wasn’t necessarily a fulfilling life, but with time it became his normal, and he wasn’t too hurried to change it.
If there was one thing to remember of him, it was that Kei was a cinephile for western cowboy movies and antique media. Early into his self-imposed solitary confinement, he had been emailed a zipped folder of files accidentally by a client during their correspondence, which instead of holding required documents was filled with video files dated at least a century old. Though at first it was only curiosity that made him watch the first, interest pushed him to watch another, and soon he'd completed the whole collection and ask the client for more. Stories of a wandering hero, a lone gunman freeing a town and riding off into the sunset, the tense duels where a single quick draw decided the matter of life or death. For the bored shut-in, who had already forgotten what the sun's rays felt like, they were like an injection of morphine into his flatlining life, and he'd quickly become obsessed with the ideals and virtues of the western gunslinger.
But in the recent years, another hobby had grabbed hold of his attention, and had taken over his life just as quickly. A VR Deep Dive game that promised a unique experience that no other platform could emulate, allowing the user to live a fantasy life as their ideal self. Spending his spare cash that did nothing but rot in his bank account, Kei quickly began to grind the game as soon as he realized it’s potential. Why watch a movie when he could live one? Going on larger-than-life adventures, not as a spectator, but as the protagonist. His already tenuous grip on the real world slipping away with each dive, it was a wonder that he still remembered to log off and feed himself when his body needed it.
H U S T L E: L O N E W A N D E R E R H U S T L E: L O N E W A N D E R E R
Even in a world where you could live as the ideal self, Kei found many difficulties with overcoming his personal issues at first. Though his virtual body had none of the physical deficiencies he allowed to ruin his real one, the mental disconnect held him back, many of his first conversations in Pariah ending as the other party couldn't take his constant stuttering and inability to continue basic back-and-forth.
His appearance couldn't make up for the deficiencies of the person behind it, and eventually he realized he had to change his approach. While he wasn't well-versed in the subject, his time surfing the web made him knowledgeable of the roleplaying hobby, and he thought of no better way to embody the ideal his mind had crafted. Using a caricature of a personality to distance himself by a degree from other people, it became easier to interact with them, and with practice it became second-nature to slip into the role of Hustle.
Hustle was nothing like Kei. Kei was a nervous wreck who had difficulty looking delivery workers in the eye, someone who looked over everything meticulously at least five times before doing so five more, scared of even the slightest bit of conflict between people and unwilling to take risks. Hustle threw himself into problems without a second thought, bravely staring down both monsters and rival players with self-assured confidence, helping both NPCs and players no matter the risk before walking off toward the sunset. Emulating the western gunmen he idolized.
Though of course, he couldn't completely shed who he was at first, breaking down into incoherent stammering each time he messed up a line or froze up at the sight of something even remotely resembling an altercation between people. It took him several days before he could meet someone's gaze without flinching, and even more to finish a conversation without making a mistake. But thankfully, the NPCs were almost more lifelike than regular people so he had ample opportunity to practice during side quests, and the more he divorced himself from the character the easier it became. Something quite easy when his appearance wasn't even the same race. By the time he'd fully developed the Hustle persona, it became simple to chalk up anything he did in the game as simply something he was observing. Like watching a first-person movie.
But even after all his effort, Hustle settled with solo play more often than not. The personality he crafted was abrasive at times to other players, and no matter how good he got at faking his expressions, it was hard keeping up an act while being berated by someone who was annoyed by the archetypal quicks that came with his persona. Clearing dungeons took longer, and it took many weeks and nearly months before he figured out a playstyle that suited it, but eventually he began being known for completing content near entirely solo. With a flashy playstyle that looked good in replays, a unique themed attire adapted to the game's fantasy setting, and his strange internet persona he never let break while online, clips of his gameplay became viral on certain internet forums. Whether that be praising his highly technical gameplay, or as a warning to other players as to what an efficient but impractical build looked like.
Yet, completely unaware of his own infamy, Hustle continued to play the game as he liked, living up to the fantasy of a person he couldn't dream of being in the real world.
Lonely Are The Brave The centerpiece of Hustle's kit, a utility spell that allows the user to 'blink' across a targeted distance after a short delay, manifesting his own body at the new location by shimmering out of and back into existence. With a half-second interval between disappearance and arrival within forty feet, increasing up to three seconds at three hundred feet, the ability acts as both an engage, evasion, and traversal tool for a variety of situations. While able to be used consecutively, and appear and activate even in mid air, he can only activate the spell five times in a row before requiring a few moments to recover from nausea or risk violent vomiting.
The Long Riders Hustle’s ability to create illusionary copies may seem meager at first glance, materializing shimmering facsimiles of his figure after a moment of concentration within a hundred feet of his line of sight. Their shapes clearly fabricated through magic, the clones’ true purpose is to act as an anchor or a marker, accelerating the process of Hustle’s teleportation to near instantaneous and orienting him in a similar manner to the clone. Effective they may be at the task, they are limited, fragile and transient, only three maintainable at the same time, dispelled by any reasonably strong force and only lasting for half a minute after casting before naturally fading.
No Name on the Bullet Using a fired magitech bullet as a focus, Hustle can channel magical energy to form copies from wind, turning one projectile into dozens to rain down upon a targeted area. Perfect for suppressing groups of small fry, pinning down a mobile opponent behind cover, or slowing down sizeable foes, but not recommended for use when friendlies are within the line of fire. Limited by the use of high speed projectiles fired from the user's position, as replicating the velocity and uniformity of other projectiles is difficult without a loss in effectiveness.
They Died With Their Boots On Utilizing a combination of magical and physical force, Hustle can lock down area by executing a sheathed sword swipe at maximum speed enhanced by the aid of wind magic. Powerful wind blades appear within the target red location, assaulting anything within it with several cutting blows with sharpness no different than his own blade. If centered upon himself, the blades of wind instead spread out in a small dome around his figure, repelling close-range opponents and defending from small arms ranged fire. To a lesser extent, the ability can instead affect his crossbow bolts, increasing their speed and subsequentially penetration power by parting the along the projectile's path. Difficult to use in quick succession.
Lone Star Hustle's dramatic finishing tool. Requiring a long channel time and complete focus, when given ample opportunity the activation of this ability wreathes his body and weapon in a magical coat of wind. In this enhanced state, his body is unfettered by air friction and his usual bodily limits, moving with magnified speed. The swings of his blade strikes multiple times, blades of wind following its course only a moment later, allowing the several seconds the ability is active to become a frightening whirlwind of offense. When the coat fades, however, so does the enhanced abilities, leaving him exhausted and staggered for an extended period of time.
Keenly Perceptive While never able to check if he was suitable for it in the real world, Hustle's situational awareness during gameplay has proven to be one of his strongest assets, never befuddled by what happens around him during the chaos of combat. Cognizant of everything that happens within his sphere of influence and within his line of sight, perhaps in part caused by his need to constantly keep up his persona, its difficult to catch him off-guard without ample preparation. Similarly, even when his abilities move his body in ways that would disorient most, Hustle is able to tell exactly where and how he's oriented at all times, keeping up his momentum without losing a beat.
King of Frauds Everything about Hustle's persona is a lie, one carefully crafted by the person behind it and refined to the point of being near unrecognizable as an act. Finding fault in what he says, no matter how ridiculous, is frustratingly troublesome, and figuring out his true feeling on matters even more so. Unless, somehow, the person doing so makes a crack in his guise, coaxing out the human behind the idealized cowboy.
Obsessively Precise Playing as he does is not easy, nor is it practical, requiring inhuman reflexes far beyond what most people are naturally capable of. Something Hustle doesn't have. He instead relies on observation and numbers to do the job for him, using rapid calculations to determine the speed of approaching variables and acting accordingly. Memorizing frame data or timing, analyzing habits, taking mental notes of everything he perceives until his reactions become terrifyingly similar to precognition without actually being so.
Library of Random Facts Incredibly cagey about facts about himself, Hustle instead fills the lack of a reasonable answer with incredibly specific, mostly useless trivia he learned while surfing the web. With nothing better to do aside from watching movies during his free time before Pariah, he'd collected so many ridiculously fringe facts in his brain that you could probably ask him about anything and he'd have something to say about it. From insect biology to nautical nomenclature and cultural traditions to space discoveries, he'll say anything if it means staving off any sort of personal authenticity.
Playstyle & Attitude Counterattacker - In tandem with his Controller role via Illusion and Manifestation magics, Rolan specializes in deflecting and evading incoming attacks, each failed blow increasing the instability in the foe's stance and approach. Whether this is literally in their stance, or in their mounting frustration with the defensive playstyle varies, but Rolan rarely strikes with his sword unless he can ensure a critical blow. He maintains aggression with Manifestation based attacks, supported by his illusions.
Controller - Rolan deploys a combination of light infused illusions and frost manifestations to make actual navigation and targeting of himself, and allies by coincidence, difficult. Whether its using flashes of light to dazzle and disorentate, illusions to obfuscate his movements and actions, or mixing manifestation magic with either of his elemental choices, Rolan plays to narrow a threat's ability to maneuver and act, forcing them into a position where they have to start taking hits.
Loremaster Nerd - Rolan has always had an obsession with exploring the lore of Pariah Online. Whether it was getting all the information he reasonably could from NPCs, digging through descriptions of items, locations, and everything he could get his hands on. He would regularly wander off to just explore the land, looking for any sites of interest. Anything he could find to add to his ever growing collection of journals, notes, and scribblings as he gathered first what was told to him (and by extension the player base), and then began theory crafting and trying to fill in the gaps between what has been made apparent or confirmed. Both in game and outside of it, he would post his findings and theories, maintaining an online presence as one of the players obsessed with the lore in a game.
Lorenz was never exactly what one would call a stand out individual. In his youth, he maintained perfectly serviceable grades, never anything to be ashamed of but nothing to brag about either. It wasn't for a lack of trying at first either, pushing himself even when he felt no engagement with anything in his scholastic efforts growing up. But regardless of effort, he always maintained the same level of acceptable results, so he stopped applying himself. His social life was healthy, if a bit dull, and he had the usual routine of heartbreak that young love would bring. By the end of his high school, he had chosen to go to a trade school instead of college or straight into a career, the most inspired choice he had yet made in life.
Trade School went well for Lorenz, finding a knack for identifying impending problems, fixing them, and maintaining most anything he could get his hands on. It was the first time he had ever truly excelled at anything, which was an odd feeling for the young man as he graduated from his trade school and moved into a career helping maintain infrastructure critical equipment. It wasn't hard work, not for him at any rate, but he noticed very quickly that he never developed a rapport with his coworkers. No matter how many times he went out to company functions or after work drinks, he never felt any particular connection with them, and the feeling was mutual. He was professional, a model worker, but when the shift ended, he would simply go home.
It was during this tedium of routine that Lorenz would hear about the upcoming Pariah Online, and something about it grabbed him and would not let go. He had plenty of money saved up, having few hobbies to spend any real money on, immediately investing in the game and required equipment to be able to log in and play as best as he could. There was something about the idea of immersing himself in a world that was completely unknown, that he would have to learn from scratch, that was itching something in the back of his mind that he had forgotten was ever there. An urge to learn, and maybe this time he would actually be good at it.
R O L A N - O B S E S S I O N M A D E M A N I F E S T R O L A N - O B S E S S I O N M A D E M A N I F E S T
________________________________________________________________________________________ Rolan, as he chose his persona to be, is an old soul in Pariah Online, as far as one can be at any rate given the current amount of time the game has been up and running. He had joined as soon as he could at launch, but where some players became legends in raiding, in the art of PvP, Rolan found himself with a new feeling of obsession that he had never had to properly grapple with before. He couldn't tear himself away from the world itself, the stories, folklore, history that preceded the arrival of Wayfarers. He never wanted for companions, when needed, but his eccentric obsession with lore made him few permanent, long lasting connections.
He would hop from guild to guild, party to party, never sticking around for too long. Rolan was always chasing the latest rumor, the latest missing gap between the lore of the world. He spent as much of his free time on forums and creating video essays on the lore of the world of Pariah Online as he did exploring it and improving as a player. He went to whatever content was needed, be it PvP, Raiding, delving dungeons or just wandering the world itself. He never saw anything in borders or sticking to any one activity, instead sometimes spending days of time in game simply pouring over every source of lore he could find, talking with both fellow lore enthusiasts, when they crossed paths, as well as digging through all the information he could from NPCs.
Whenever a credible sighting of something new or unusual was posted or discussed, it was a fairly sure thing among the community that Rolan would not be far behind, carrying an ever growing collection of journals, notes, and books that he kept at his own player home when too dense or not relevant to what he was investigating this time. Sometimes he was recruited for a raid or battleground, given he was still a highly experienced player and one could not find all the lore simply in safety behind town walls and his eye for detail translated to a deadly accuracy in a fight, but he could sometimes be difficult to focus on the right task. He didn't care for the rewards of the content at times, seeing the story said content told as far higher value, and would sometimes take on sidequests and other minor content well below him just to review something he might have missed in the lore of it, however slight.
Rolan was a man obsessed, having finally found a calling in life that spoke to him beyond just the day to day drudgery of his real world life. He was further isolated from that life than ever before, and while his performance at work didn't suffer, his coworkers noted he was even more distant than usual. A few had tried to talk to him, but his focus on a game none of them cared about made it even harder to connect. So Rolan would continue to descend into Pariah Online, only caring about the real world in as much as it was necessary to keep funding his access to what he truly enjoyed, and found he excelled in, at long last. Even if it was an eccentric field of interest, someone had to know the story of Pariah Online, even if only a fraction of the players cared.
Hall of Mirrors - A mixture of light and illusion magic that Rolan is fond of, he utilizes his magical grasp on Light to bend it, removing him from immediate view while, at the same time, creating a number of false clones of himself. While they lack substance and can be dispelled in a single blow, shattering one of these mirrors is often accompanied by a flash of light that can leave unaware foes blinded, and even those ready for it dazzled and struggling to see briefly. More effective against singular targets, and notably ineffective against those that do not rely on sight. If he doesn't want to rely on Light, he can use Frost magic instead to cause the mirror image to burst in a cloud of frigid cold, sapping energy and stamina from those caught in the burst for as long as they stay in it, or until it fades.
Whiteout - Manifesting a field of frigid Frost and dotting it with orbs of Light, Rolan creates a field that is nigh impossible to see in, the Frost sapping the stamina and energy of those trapped in it, while the motes of Light that circle within the storm make it more disorientating and difficult to escape. While Rolan himself cannot enter the manifested storm safely, it creates good cover for escapes, maneuvering, or simply softening up a target before it escapes or the spell expires on its own. Rolan could maintain the spell for longer than the initial burst requires, however such a thing would prove increasingly taxing over time.
Lantern's Lure - A purely utilitarian spell, Rolan can manifest a number of orbs of Light, anchoring each of them over the shoulders of himself and a number of other people. These orbs let off soft light in most directions, but a beam of stronger light in the direction that the person looks at any given time. Rolan developed the spell purely because he got tired of having to keep a torch or lantern handy at any given time and would rather simply have a light source that tracked where he looked at any given time. The fact that it was trivial to expand the number to include allies was mostly coincidental.
Frost Light Arsenal - An entire set of spells designed to compensate for his far more defensive and patient swordplay, and for dealing with foes that are too large or dangerous to simply duel at close range, the Frost Light Arsenal is as close to a unique creation as Rolan ever gets when it comes to his combat capabilities. Utilizing Manifestation as its core, he can form a variety of temporary Frost or Light constructs, be it sharpened pillars rising from the ground or projectiles to launch at nearby targets. His favorite is a series of blade shaped forms that orbit him, providing both a barrier and a weapon to launch as needed. Using Light magic typically is less directly harmful, but the pattern and hues of the Light often are difficult to see past, while Frost magic is more directly damaging, though even split between stamina and actual physical well being.
Stance of Deflection - Rolan's method of swordplay lends itself to his entire approach to Pariah Online. Observe, record, and determine what it all means before delivering a thesis on a matter. In a fight, his fighting style revolves around deflecting, parrying, and patiently learning and observing his opponent. When settled into his Stance, it takes a great deal of force or skill to completely bypass his defense. The entire purpose is to draw a foe into more aggressive and, by extension, more exposed attacks until a critical flaw can be found. Then, much like his lore research, Rolan delivers a critical blow to a vital spot in his foe. The more enemies he fights at once, however, the less effective this becomes as he cannot as readily focus on any one foe long enough to deliver critical strikes, his blows less dangerous than if allowed to focus.
An Eye for Knowledge - Rolan cannot, despite his efforts, profess to know everything there is to know, fortunately for him. However, all his time spent gleaning everything he can from sometimes fragmented and especially under duress or other less than ideal circumstances makes him a natural at picking out details. Be it a faulty piece of construction, an old wound that could be targeted on a foe, or even a rare material easily overlooked, Rolan has a naturally high perception and awareness of his surroundings, making it difficult to ever catch him off guard or conceal things from him.
Methodical - Both a flaw and a boon, Rolan has a very particular, and measured approach to all things. Fights with him, by his own dictate, are measured and steady, moving at particular paces. Exploration, down time, all things have a very measured, controlled, and steady pattern to them. When in his element, Rolan is naturally more capable at what he puts his mind to, however being forced out of this by circumstance can be off putting and leave him on the back foot should he not adapt to this new pace or circumstance.
Lore of the World - Having spent his entire time in game towards the purpose of learning about the world he is in, Rolan has a near photographic memory for anything that happens to catch his eye when exploring, fighting, or otherwise spending his time in Pariah Online. He is also proud to state that he actually understands the world that existed before the existence of the players in it better than nearly anyone else who isn't a part of the world itself, instinctively treating the people of the world appropriate to who they are as people rather than just as NPCs in a game.
Tilly's life is defined by a constant swinging of the pendulum. Tragedy sparks growth, success leads to new mistakes.
Growing up the youngest in a family of four, Tilly was always in the shadow of her older brother, Edmond Gallagher, and experienced many liberties as their parent's focus remained primarily upon him. Her parents were well-to-do folk; the father an active member in local politics in her region of the American Mid-West, and the mother an inheritor of a long-time family business that bankrolled the family's rising repute in the local environs.
Edmond was their poster child, and Tilly's upbringing was swept under the rug by comparison. She was cared for and provided for, but the crushing expectations laid upon her brother were forgotten with her. His shining record only served to cover up her own struggling academics and social issues. His perfection blinded their parents to her shortcomings. He was her shield, and always had been.
He was her shield when her early pregnancy came to light. He was the most doting and caring uncle any child could ever want. When Tilly's boyfriend proved deadbeat and disappeared without a word, Edmond rose to the occasion and removed Tilly from their parent's home to live with him. The family was split over the affair, but in the end Tilly chose to keep the child and that forever removed her parents from her life. Edmond was her rock in stormy seas. Five years later when Edmond died in a freak accident, she was his sole inheritor. She and her son, Tobias, were the sole beneficiaries of his stock firm holdings. Tobias even had a trust fund in place for when he came of age.
Tilly did not handle the death of her brother well, and it is a regretful period of darkness in her life. As Tobias aged from five to ten, she was a wreck who could only partially be his caretaker. Considerable funds went into an au-pair program, and Tilly herself spent these turbulent years embroiled in therapy and alcoholism as she tried to find a light in the tunnel. It wasn't until she was shown Tobias' schoolwork, depicting his family as consisting of five separate nanny-mothers and zero mention of Tilly that she finally pulled herself together. Perhaps it was too late, but she began to make the effort at long last.
Five years of 'making it up to him' later, Tilly decided to try out the game her son had been talking about nonstop for the last six months. She slips into Pariah Online on a fateful day, as once more the pendulum swings.
X A N T H A: T I R E L E S S G R I N D X A N T H A: T I R E L E S S G R I N D
Xantha has not had long within the game, and thus has few abilities considered 'signature' to her at this time. This list will grow.
Zephyrric Convokation - This is Xantha's initial skill, the defining concept behind her skillset selection in the game's character creation process. The primordial aspects of Wind channeled into the calculus of Convoking Arcane; there is much room to grow in this, but her sole defining ability of unique merit is this uncanny capability to blend the two aspects of magic into one elemental 'pet summoning' ability. Her Wind based convokations will be superior to her other attempts for the time being. In short, the go-to will be birds or other creatures modified with aspects of Wind, but her gaming history has shown the 'pet-controller' to be a playstyle defined by its utility and versatility tools in a party and this guides her mindset as she begins the game.
As with the spells and abilities, Xantha is new to the game and thus has not had the time to define herself within Pariah's meta-strata. However, playstyles and mentalities from old gaming habits do transfer quite well into the new environment.
Treadmiller Xantha is tireless in the pursuit of more. When it comes to the mundane aspects of 'farming' or 'crafting', there will be few who can truly call themselves her peer; when this unwavering endurance for banality and repetition turns itself towards the study of more active skills and combat related talents, its dividends will show with time. Things may be slow to start for Xantha, but once the machine of Xantha's efforts begins to chug into motion the distances it will go with time will be incredible.
No Stone Unturned The natural repercussion of her 'Treadmiller' title, Xantha will be an unceasingly curious player defined by her dedication in the search for secrets and the collection of crafting supplies. Knocking on walls, climbing trees, looking under carpet, and turning up loose floorboards are all things that simply must be done in the search for useful things.
Weapon of Choice Asclepian Dressing: Vestments of arcane bandages which act as both a spell-casting focus, and serve to hasten the regenerative process of her self-healing.
Albie, who was very nearly “Albert” and who will only ever answer to “Alberta” under legal compulsion, has always sort of known what she wanted. Born to a nurse father and a therapist mother, she grew up surrounded by and constantly reminded of the absolute importance of empathy. No matter what, they said, she should always strive for kindness. People came from all walks of life, from all manner of circumstance, and though she would meet some she liked, and some she didn’t, it was imperative that she try her best to understand them, no matter what. Human interactions were ephemeral, and precious, and connections were made to be cherished.
She thought that was bullshit. People sucked. They were loud, and inconsiderate, and when they weren’t literally killing each other, they were arguing over the dumbest shit. Her middle and high school years were a protracted angsty, broodingly emotional not-a-phase spent lamenting that everyone else was just so annoying and couldn’t understand her. Except Linkin Park. And the people in the comments section of her Linkin Park AMVs.
Eventually she did grow up. With graduation approaching, and the fruits of her exceptionally studious labor opening the doors of higher education to her, Albie realized she didn’t really hate people—at least, not sincerely. Being annoyed with someone didn’t mean she had to treat them like shit. But being kind didn’t mean grinning through the things that annoyed her, either.
She finished undergrad early, and didn’t think twice before throwing herself into medical school. Surgery seemed to be her destiny, where her bedside manner wouldn’t matter and she could do what she ultimately had always wanted to do, and what her parents had wanted her to do—help people. That was her kindness. Not fake smiles, not endless patience or empty platitudes. Action.
H E C A T E : W O U N D T H I E F H E C A T E : W O U N D T H I E F
Actions have consequences. If you stand in fire, don’t pop your defensives for tank-busters, or drop aoe in the middle of the raid, your consequence is an irritable healer calling you a moron as she puts your stupid little body back together.
Hecate has been joining pugs since Pariah launched, and while she finds herself malding every session, healing for the walking contraceptive endorsements that make up her groups, there is something strangely addicting about the whole ordeal. She’s not particularly interested in teaching, or lifting bad players up into competency, but no matter how bad a run goes, no matter how much yelling and fighting there is, she is the last to call for kicks and the last to vote for disbands. Apologies and removals are just band aid fixes; an entire gaming career correcting the mistakes of people who shouldn’t be able to tie their own shoes without medical intervention has taught her that any group is capable of clearing any content. No one is uncarryable.
But some people are much heavier than others.
Her reputation formed quickly. She was not a lone wolf; she was a healer, by definition she needed people to heal. Despite her prickly nature she was rarely seen alone, always tagging along with some group or another, having a small circle of regular players she ran with but never committing to something as serious as a guild. It was true that healers enjoyed a certain priority, but invites shriveled up quick if you were bad at keeping people alive. Hecate was not. When she joined a group, more often than not they cleared whatever dungeon they set off to challenge.
Climbing ranks didn’t matter much to her, she wasn’t competitive in the way some people were, which perhaps made her rise that much stranger. Despite being on the shortlist for some of the most prestigious guilds in the game, she could just as often be found healing for groups of nobodies who couldn’t move and breathe at the same time.
To her credit, she treats them all equally.
Signature
Martyr’s Rhetoric Hecate’s signature ability, which defines her spell-casting style. Passively allows her to both heal targets by transferring their wounds to herself, and damage targets by transferring her own wounds to them.
When activated, allows Hecate’s spells to apply instantly, preempting damage on a target by either taking it herself, or redirecting it onto an enemy. Cannot pass damage freely between targets without first going through herself.
Healing
Iaomai As long as she remains alive and is not silenced, Hecate’s mana regeneration is vastly increased, and her body will reflexively use it to repair itself. The rapidity and cost depend on the amount of damage taken, but if she is rendered unconscious it will burn through mana much quicker. Lost limbs can be reattached with less effort, but fully regrowing body parts takes more time and much more mana.
Passively grants her Narkosis, which allows her to divert mana towards reducing her sensitivity to pain.
While this makes her deceptively difficult to kill, she is no more durable than your average caster. As well, she is unable to heal severe damage to her brain and heart, making her entirely unfit for close combat.
Anodynamic Hecate takes a target’s wounds and ailments onto herself, healing them in the process. This can be done gradually, or rapidly.
When Martyr’s Rhetoric is active, Hecate does not need to wait for a target to become wounded or afflicted, and can instead redirect the damage or effects to herself. Unlike with the standard version of this spell, she takes this damage instantly.
Charity of Wounds With great pains, Hecate can apply Anodynamic in an aoe to heal multiple targets.
This spell works identically to Anodynamic when Martyr’s Rhetoric is active, however, when used on two or more targets she can temper the amount of damage directed to her, rather than tanking multiple attacks wholesale.
Damage
Symalgesia Targeting an enemy, Hecate can harvest the damage from her own wounds, manifesting it as a bolt of angry shadow.
Panthysia Hecate channels briefly, then divides the damage gathered from her wounds amongst multiple enemies.
Veteran Janitor : Hecate has been around the block, has seen just about every dungeon and raid encounter Pariah Online has to offer, and could probably explain the mechanics of most bosses with the accuracy of reciting her social security card number. She won’t, but she could. She’s not a great teacher; she can’t always tell you the right way to do something, but she sure as shit can tell you exactly what you’re doing wrong.
Who Asked : Hecate doesn’t talk about herself too much. Maybe one or two people in Pariah know her real name, and that she finished college early, but the information train usually stops there. It’s not that she’s paranoid, or wouldn't care to learn about others, it just hasn’t occurred to her. When your online career consists mostly of pugging with strangers, there’s not a lot of reason to get buddy-buddy.
I Want My Mummy : For as acrimonious as her interactions can be, Hecate is rarely short on invitations. Being a healer gets you invited to groups, being a really good healer gets you invited back even when you call the raid leader a skin toilet. Hecate has been kicked from a fair few groups, but she’s been reinvited to many more, and has garnered a small celebrity status for her capabilities. As long as you don’t mind getting your mistakes called out in less-than-delicate ways, you probably won’t have to worry about wiping to healing.
Brainy : By design, Hecate’s role in Pariah shares some overlap with her real life trajectory. While she’s no savant, Albie Klein has an unbreakable work ethic and a knack for learning. She’s good at problem-solving on the fly, and has eagerly implemented much of her medical knowledge into her kit. While ethics are paramount in medicine, she's glad she doesn't need malpractice insurance in Pariah.
Affluence. Privilege. Prestige. These words describe much of the life Charles Gaillard has led. While he was not born into the ultra-wealthy, Charles' parents skirted the margins just enough to ensure their son would never want for anything, be it material things or, as he grew from boy to man, opportunities to climb ever higher on the social ladder and secure a position even higher than their own. A natural extrovert and keen study, it was all but assured that Charles' schooling was an easy affair. He passed through his secondary schooling at the top of his class. When it came time for higher education, familial connections assured him a place in the Ivy League. As connections spawned connections and his magnetic personality won him fast friends during his raucous college years, a degree in business and finance transitioned him to a cushy position at a prestigious New York firm.
And so life turned and turned. Financially secure and content in the business of making money off of other's money, Charles' life played out like so many others. He tomcatted around for a while, met that special someone, tied the knot, and bought a house out in Queens. Their marriage proved fruitful, and three beautiful children followed. It was familiar. Comfortable.
It was boring.
For those so deprived, a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption seemed luxurious beyond measure. But for Charles, a lifetime of so easily achieving one's desires did little to quell his desires. So he found a thrill in other things. Alcohol, women, and the occasional illicit substance. Evermore he found himself at home less and less, focusing more on his career than his family. His excuses grew lamer and lamer. Eventually, his wife stopped asking what was on his breath, or where that glitter came from. Eventually, he stopped bothering to make up the stories. It was familiar. Comfortable.
Until it wasn't.
Three days after his youngest set off for Upstate, she served him in the papers. It hurt, at first. Then it hurt even more when he realized how much it hurt. It was easy to become bored with routine. With the constants in life. To take them for granted and push them from one's mind in search of something new and exciting. But all too often, only after it is too late, does one realize just how necessary they are. That was a lesson even Columbia failed to teach him.
The divorce went as smoothly as could be expected, after twenty years of marriage. And in the absence of his wife and children, Charles fell back into bad habits. But substance abuse, he knew, was a young man's game. So in place of the bottle, he searched for other frontiers to occupy his mind. Virtual reality was a strange one, especially for an old hound like himself, but it was cheaper than pills. Pariah Online swiftly became a refuge to escape a reality that, for the first time in a long time, ceased to readily welcome him.
A N D E R S : T H E W A L L W H I C H S T I N G S A N D E R S : T H E W A L L W H I C H S T I N G S
Anders has been playing Pariah Online since day one of its launch—as he pre-ordered it a few days after the lawyers finalized his divorce—and so considers himself something of an old hand, even if the game is relatively new. A smooth-talking wisecracker, he proves to be an amiable and entertaining partner, though popular as he may be with random party members, he's made only a few concrete bonds in the game. Instead, he fancies himself a wanderer, moving from place to place and helping out wherever newer players need it. His experience in dealing with more difficult raids and tendency to enable more reckless DPS players assures that he has little difficulty sliding in and out of parties.
The game serves as an outlet for Anders' less appealing qualities. It allows him to seek the thrills that keep him titillated in a risk-averse way, carefully weighing the pros and cons of every engagement with the assurance even a mistake ultimately costs little more than a few minutes of wasted time. His focus on crowd-controlling and directing the flow of fights allows him to maintain a sense of control over the situations he finds himself in. An appealing prospect, given what awaits him when the headset is set aside. Perhaps most importantly, though he would be hard-pressed to admit it, it gives him a chance to prove he can be what he was not for his family. A positive influence. A protector. To prove he can be there when he is needed.
Ready in Eight Directions Divination + Enhancement
A keystone of his defensive play, Anders rears back and assumes a wide stance with his weapon, enhancing both his senses and his reflexes in the process. Ready in Eight Directions allows him to enter an almost meditative flow state, immediately lashing out to intercept, parry, or otherwise deflect any attacks or enemies who enter into his reach with startling speed and precision, effectively turning him into a roadblock of flashing steel capable of warding off a great many enemies.
Thunderclap Rush Enhancement
Empowering the muscles of his legs, Anders moves in a direct line so swiftly as to almost appear instantaneous. He uses it to intercept or engage with enemies, or reposition himself while maintaining Ready in Eight Directions, as the rapidity of the movement allows his concentration to go unbroken. So named for the signature cracking noise caused by his displacement.
Liquid Steel Flow Enhancement + Metal
One of Anders' more underhanded, but doubtlessly effective tactics. Liquid Steel Flow allows him to alter the properties of his spear on the fly. Most commonly, he uses it to alter the length of his weapon, either shortening or extending its reach to best fit the situation he finds himself in. A favorite of his involves changing his weapon's range mid-strike, allowing him to keep his opponents constantly off-guard.
The Earth Flows Earth
A strictly utilitarian form of magic, The Earth Flows allows Anders to shape the terrain around him to better suit his purposes. Whether it's creating higher elevations to attack from, creating a quicksand pit beneath an opponent to throw them off balance, or hurling an ally out of the way using a sudden bulge from the ground, it has proven an essential tool to disrupting his enemies.
One of the only truly offensive tools in Anders' arsenal, Immortal Blade Triumphant can broadly be broken down into two parts. The first part is the actual spell itself: a ward placed upon the head of his weapon that sits dormant until such a time as his weapon collides with something. Whether it be an enemy's blow, their flesh, or even magical projectiles, his spear absorbs a small portion of the impact, storing away the force throughout the battle. The second part of the spell makes use of that stored power, allowing Anders to release it to empower his counterattack. Usually released in bursts by way of explosively empowered thrusts, Anders is also capable of venting all the stored energy at once, hurling the weapon at an opponent to avoid the resulting detonation.
Close Quarters Technician
Anders' is a masterful practitioner of defensive fighting, his style of battle akin to that of an out-boxer. His sense of timing and spacing are incredibly precise, and he leverages his reach and speed to counteract his opponent's attacks and corral them into favorable positions at spear-point, either shutting down their offensive potential or helping keep them off his less robust allies.
Long Haul Combatant
With his strategy being one of attrition rather than speed, Anders possesses a deep reserve of stamina and a living knowledge of how to best leverage it using patience and efficiency of movement. He is nearly impossible to exhaust and thrives in extended battles where an opponent might burn through their resources before he does his, whittling them down by a thousand cuts before they can land a telling blow to defeat him in kind.
Acute Awareness
Part of being a controller means having a sharp sense of the battlefield and the ability to keep track of multiple things at once with precision. Anders excels in this field. His spatial awareness and prodigious reflexes allow him to swiftly react to things mid-combat, whether it be allies losing their coordination or enemies launching unexpected attacks, and correct them before they manage to spell disaster, thereby dictating the flow of battle.
By Any Means
An inherent danger that is thoroughly hidden beneath his friendly, devil-may-care attitude, Anders is a ruthless pragmatist. He has little qualms in using underhanded or dishonest tactics to get an advantage over his enemies, whether it's extending his spear through them amidst a gesture of surrender, or using his earth magic to throw loosened soil into their eyes. History, he reasons, is decided by the victors, and he has no intention of letting his side be forgotten by it.
Silver-Tongued Devil
A skill born from a lifetime of experience and natural charisma, Anders is a smooth-talking man. Easy-going and sanguine, he is easy to like and difficult to dissuade when he decides to work his magic, carefully swaying others to his point of mind with rhetoric so carefully disguised as casual banter that few have the skill—or natural distrust—to see through it as a matter of course.
Playstyle & Attitude Protective and supportive. Beautiful spells that focus on defense or drawing enemy aggression, keeping the danger away from allies. Enthusiastic team player. A model prince charming overlaid on a tomboy who doesn't watch her mouth. Will fight you to defend a lady's honor, or just because you are getting on her nerves.
When Amelia's brother died, it hit her hard. Really, really hard. In between a paranoid, workaholic mother and an unreliable, ex-felon father, Austin was the single stable stone to which she could cling to. When they uprooted their lives every year or two and moved, he was there. When their parents fought until their dad finally walked out, he was there. When Amelia had to stay late for soccer practice, Oz would pick her up on his bicycle afterward, and when she got into a fight with a friend and cried about it at home he would pat her head and tell her the stupidest joke she ever heard. Austin and Amelia were best friends, so when he was gone, it left a huge hole in her heart.
Amelia's life did not revolve around Austin, but with the physical absence of her father and emotional absence of her mother, the heavy loss of her brother colored that life. She sought out male companionship, starting with Austin's friends. They understood what she was feeling, and still called her by the nickname he had given her, "Ames." When the Millers, down to two now, inevitably moved away she easily fell in with new groups of guys. Amelia was simple, sporty, and a little rough around the edges; her decently cute face and girl next door vibe didn't hurt either. However when she approached adulthood, her time spent chilling on the couch playing games with the boys turned to joining the dating pool.
She had always been a romantic at heart, and she had a desire she was sure a lot of other girls had: to fall for a kind man who would whisk her away from her dead end life. Especially now that she felt so alone. She didn't have the smarts, looks, or talent to escape it on her own. Unfortunately no matter how many men she dated, from sleazeballs to nice guys, it didn't work out for her. Her girl friends said she was too picky, her exes told her no one would treat a tomboy with no social filter like a princess. But as far as she was concerned, if they couldn't even beat a two dimensional love interest from a video game then what did they know?
She kept trying. Hitch-hiked out of the latest shitty little town she'd ended up in right out of high school, got a shitty job in the city and shared a shitty apartment with a friend. Then repeated the process in the next city. In between the cycle of losing work, finding it again and speed dating, she filled her life with games. Until she could find her white knight, someone who would stand up for her, ease her troubles, stroke her hair, treat her kindly.... until then, there would always be a simulacrum of him online.
S O L L U N E: T H E S T A R R Y K N I G H T S O L L U N E: T H E S T A R R Y K N I G H T
Short, fluffy maroon hair, a handsome face, a voice that leans alto, the attire of a knightly prince and a height that's a little tall for a woman, but about average for a man. Sol puts forth the image of a radiant pretty boy prince charming, so it can come as a surprise that Sol is, in fact, a girl.
For a while now the persona of "Sol" was her go-to in all kinds of RPGs. She got some kind of catharsis in embodying the perfect guy that seemed so unattainable in real life. Maybe it was a little pathetic, but being Sol was the next best thing. Pariah Online was no different - this was her ideal. Of course the knight in shining armor had to do more than just look the part. She worked hard and became strong, dedicated herself to the protection of others, and treated every girl, whether they were a Wayfarer or a Denizen, as a princess...
...for the most part. Because being Sol was not so much playing a character as it was projecting her own wants into the world. The same simple, boisterous girl that she was 'out there' was still 'in here.' She spoke her mind, called people out, and got into arguments. Even other girls weren’t spared if they annoyed her too much. Accolades from former party members for her performance in battle content and the fans she has gained due to her knightly actions outside of it keep her good reputation well preserved, though for some it's always funny to see Sol cuss a guy out and then turn around and speak sweetly to a girl like it didn't happen.
Sol isn't perfect, but she damn well tries to be. And she quite enjoyed the attention she got as her popularity climbed higher and higher. It wasn't unusual that some days she got more party invites than she could keep up with. Her heart fluttered after each stressful, but successful dungeon clear, or when she captured the attention of a pretty girl. Team play was her forte, and every raid pulled off, every community event that succeeded, and every grateful player that spoke with her made her fall deeper and deeper in love with the game.
Star Shimmer Shield The most basic part of Sol's kit, and the first spell she ever mastered. A defensive ability that manifests as a solid wall of glittering light that radiates out from a single bright point. Just as light moves swiftly, its casting time is ridiculously fast. The shield's size and strength increases proportional to the energy used to cast it, and interconnected constellations of lights can form a massive AOE shield around entire teams. As arguably Sol's most important skill, she is able to "debt cast" it if her mana is too low by burning off her maximum mana amount.
Dark Quasar A conjured point of light that swiftly implodes and creates a black hole effect which draws targets toward its center. The swirling dark mass has a pull powerful enough to suck in several enemies at once, so long as they aren't too large. Unlike a real black hole the spell itself has no other effect besides the pull. It is very effective at grouping troublesome enemies together for herself or someone else to take care of. Although it can be cast at range, the spell is called "quasar" because Sol usually casts it on top of herself to pull enemies towards her, functioning as the luminescence at the center.
Burst of Starlight An empowering effect that can be cast on herself or others. It is a straightforward increase to the target's stats; not just their defense but their attack, speed, and other capabilities. Like Star Shimmer Shield, the effect increases proportional to the energy used to cast it. Sol mainly uses it on herself when she is not acting as main tank, or on a DPS partner when she is. The indication of her Starlit buff can vary from person to person, but for Sol her hair glows golden and grows longer depending on the strength of the buff.
Umbral Obsession A single target debuff normally reserved for dungeon bosses or other highly dangerous foes. When the spell takes effect, it looks as though a shadowy shroud has fallen over the eyes of the target it was cast on. From the target's point of view, a very specific kind of tunnel vision is enforced. Looking anywhere other than at Sol makes their eyesight dark and fuzzy - thereby obscuring her allies and making it harder to focus on or hit them, while Sol herself remains perfectly clear in order to hold the enemy's attention.
Shooting Comets A somewhat weak ranged attack, though it can be cast manifold, rapidly, or both. Bright little stars form in the air around Sol, then shoot toward a target as a projectile of light. The projectile itself is fast, but the spell has an obvious tell in that fact that the stars must form first before firing. For the most part Sol uses it to ping distant enemies or quickly deal with very low level ones hen she's in the area doing something else.
Purest Shadow Sol raises her hand and summons a ring of darkness, which can then be placed on the ground to create a circular field of flickering shadows. It has a medium duration, but while active any allies that stand in the field are dispelled of their debuffs, Sol included. It does not happen instantly, as the darkness "consumes" each debuff one by one, but it works very well when fighting in a small area.
Simple but Stylish Some people seek out rare magic spells, exotic weaponry, or complex artifacts. Others practice like crazy to perfect long, intricate combos or enchantments. And then there's Sol, who ditched the physical shield that came with her starter weapon because it was easier that way. Sol is good with a sword, and her swordplay is a wonderful blend of elegant and aggressive. She makes attacking and defending with it seem almost effortless. The simple, polished movements easily show off her skill, and when paired with her pretty spellwork she cuts quite the dashing figure in combat.
Eye for Detail Sol is always the one that notices the treasure chest obscured in the corner, the faint glow of that forage-able item, the haircut or the little accessory her teammate recently got, the anxious fan or newbie assassin hiding behind the wall, the shooting star at night out of the corner of her eye. And she looks out for people just as much. Spending all that time looking for "The One" means she hardly misses a thing.
Pillar of the Community For Sol, being a strong player and a kind stranger wasn't enough. A real prince charming was truly helpful. Sol has been a large presence throughout Toraenis at community events, Wayfarer run shop openings, player projects such as charities, fashion shows, and much more. It wasn't an exaggeration to say her name was well known throughout her starter city-state, and word of mouth had carried it beyond. She's collected many titles and nicknames due to this; The Stellar Idol, Toraenis' Wayfarer Prince, Lord Sollune, and of course her personal favorite, The Starry Knight.
Your North Star Everyone that stands under Sol's starlight is under her protection, in more ways than one. She embodies her unwavering ideal, inspiring others with it. She takes charge in parties and lends her guidance to others. She emulates the best person she knew so that people feel that they could rely on her. And she is more than happy to give her opinion, asked for or otherwise.
Rikako, empress of the Moriyama business empire, loved flowers and butterflies. So it came as no surprise that her two twin daughters were named as such: the elder, Hanako; and the younger, Chou. The two were borderline inseparable through their younger years, all the way up through private high school, when Chou's life path was forever changed.
With her parents as they were, a calm and mild temperament, and a manner of speech and bearing so polite as to be strange at times, it was taken for granted that she would attend university as well. Even if she was only in her first year of high school, she certainly had the grades for it, she loved learning. Though she never really had a subject in mind--business? That was most likely, but what about literature? Philosophy? Studying abroad, even? She never could quite think of one--it felt like the world was opening itself up before her, full of wonder and promise.
And then Examination Hell began, and any desire Chou had of attaining higher education withered on the vine, burned to the roots.
With how much she'd been sheltered growing up, she had no idea what she was walking into. It was a nightmare. A pure nightmare. Her and her sister both barely functioning and yet required to, bags under their eyes, after coming back from yet more rounds of practice exams. Grades slipping from exhaustion. Locking themselves in night and day to keep cranking at exam booklets and textbooks ad nauseum. To Chou, it was like both enduring torture and watching a victim thereof, and in between rounds of bringing snacks up for herself and Hanako during long study nights (every night) and getting her own schoolwork done, she began to look further afield for a possible future. She wanted no part in this whatsoever. And during one of her brief searches, she came across a florist's shop nearby, owned by the elderly woman Satou-sama, who was in need of help to keep things running smoothly, and started working part time.
And she fell in love.
Her parents were...frosty a year or so later, when she told them she didn't want to go to university, and she would be continuing her apprenticeship as a florist. Very frosty. But after some cajoling (not quite enough, for what she was doing), they gave her the go-ahead, in a way that disturbed her just a little bit for how easy it was. Still. Here was her chance to make her own life, and she took it.
And so the years passed, and Chou found herself in a comfortable apprenticeship, as Satou-sama was aging more, and so more of the responsibility passed on to her young protégé. She has a comfortable, if quite small, apartment above that same florist's shop in familiar Kōriyama now, and a touch of disposable income that didn't come from her obscenely wealthy parents. And so just after dyeing a wisteria-purple streak into her hair, she started looking into something Hanako mentioned on one of their occasional chats: this crazy cool new VR game that she'd started playing called Pariah.
Well, hey, couldn't hurt, right?
P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K P A P I Y O N: D E A T H I N P I N K
That wisteria streak, now spread across her whole head, and a pair of kind, warm magenta-purple eyes. Papiyon isn't far from Chou at just a touch under 165 centimeters, and could fairly accurately be described in appearance as the "typical" Japanese young lady thrown into a blender set to 'pink,' then dressed in a white and gold leather longcoat and gifted a very sharp weapon.
But more important is what it does to her personality. Which is to say, it unleashes her most powerful nurturing urges. With her most prominent character trait being how kind and sweet she is as a matter of course, she's here to give her all in making people smile as much as she possibly can. And in protecting those smiles, as well. Of course, not so much literally, as she's quite far from a support, but more in the emotional sense. She seems to have a hurt-person-radar, and those that ping it best be prepared for the Mom Friend to descend.
Both a newcomer to MMOs (and video games in general) and never one for super organized groups in any situation, Papiyon's never touched a guild, at least not up to now, and nor does she truly see the point. She prefers to meander around, either looking for and then sticking with pick up groups, or simply roaming and marveling at the incredibly rendered Pariah world. As of now, she's not managed to link up with Hanako at all, but that's all the better. University was stressful, she knew.
Well. Small world.
Lotus Petal Dance Leveraging both her illusion and enhancement magics, Papiyon becomes as a phantom; as she dashes around enemies and strikes from unexpected angles, afterimages are left in her wake, causing no damage but confusing monsters and hostile players alike with the graceful movements; like dancing across a pond on water lilies on tiptoes.
Butterfly Haze With a sound like falling leaves, a cloud of phantasmal butterflies envelops the area around Papiyon as she melds into it. The rustling of a thousand tiny wings hides sound, and the flashing of countless colors distorts vision; and by the time you realize that she'd circled around behind you, it's already too late.
Butterfly Flurry A mesmerizing purple gleam envelops Papiyon's nagamaki, and attempts to block it seem to land on thin air as its position wavers like water, slipping past guards and through cracks in armor. Using illusion magic, she is able to conceal the position of her sword, distracting the eye with an illusory feint.
Flittering Wing You may think you have Papiyon pinned down and a surefire killing blow. You may think that you've escaped her, put enough distance between the two of you that she could never close the distance. In both cases, you are very wrong. With no more than a breath's sigh and a flare of purple light, Papiyon can blink up to twenty or so feet in whatever direction she chooses She can't use it more than once or twice sequentially, but being able to blink through an attack and end up right at her enemy's throat is powerful nonetheless.
Painless Butterfly The most powerful spell in Papiyon's arsenal, Painless Butterfly sees her close her eyes and sheath her sword as pink energy builds within, crawling up the sheath like butterflies swirling through the sky. All sound becomes muted and distant to her, and the world slows to a crawl. Then, in one fluid motion and with a sound like lightning, she unleashes a single clean stroke from her sheath, trailing pink light and phantom butterflies as it rends through space and time. Finally, the blade is stowed once more; and with the deafening click of the guard on the sheath, destruction unfolds and time resumes.
Holly, Heather, Hydrangea Just because she's off the clock doesn't mean she loves flowers any less. She keeps a small plot of land in Thorinn where she grows an assortment of flowers both magical and mundane and sells them as she wanders to alchemists, tailors, and other crafters with an eye for magic and beauty.
Whirling Sting All of Papiyon's abilities to get close and empower her strikes are useless if the strikes themselves are weak. Luckily, not so; she's quite impressive with her nagamaki. Perhaps not as much as she would be if she were strictly martial; in any competition that completely excludes magic, she's certainly not winning. But with all of her powers and talents factored in, she does a lot of damage, either quickly or over time.
Open Mind, Open Heart For as kind as Papiyon is, and as committed as she is to emotionally protecting those around her--what good is that if people are so distrustful that they won't even let her? While her natural tendency is to hide how she's feeling, she curbs that as much as she possibly can. A constant flow of honesty is infinitely important, and that flow NEEDS to be two-way. All that being said, her mind can be a bit...too open. Because of her sheltered upbringing and tendency to always think the best of people, she has a tendency to be a bit naive and easily manipulated by more canny individuals.
Always There Still, even if she does alienate someone, she'll try her best to un-alienate them, regardless if there was any major fault to be had there. Running alongside the sweetness and kindness, Papiyon is nothing if not incredibly forgiving. Not infinitely so, of course, she has her limits just like everyone else does. But unless either you or her does something truly heinous, she'll find a way to make amends.
Playstyle & Attitude -A knight in every sense of the word and abides by an honor code -A roleplayer that stays in character almost every time. Basically ignores any questions about out-of-game life -No quest is too small for him. Will accept any party invite but especially from lower-leveled players to help out however he can. -Honorable as a knight. Pendragon is courteous, shows manners and never disrespects anyone. Always takes the high road. A true lawful good player.
Arthur Walsh is nobody special. He isn’t some enigma that people spend hours trying to figure out. He isn’t the center of attention at parties or family get-togethers. He’s not the guy you go to if you want to have a good time. Time spent with him wouldn’t be bad, but it wouldn’t be time well spent if you’re looking for a story to tell at the next office party. No, Arthur Walsh is just like any other guy in their mid-20s that works a 9-5. He’s smart but lacks the drive to achieve anything past what allows him to afford a comfortable life in a one-bedroom apartment.
If you’re looking for a sob story about how Arthur was mistreated, you might be disappointed, which is not nothing new for Arthur. He’s been a walking disappointment to everyone in his life for just how unbearably average he is. He had above average grades in school which allowed him to go to a decent college and get a degree in business management, which allowed him a cubicle job at an accounting firm. His upbringing was an interesting spectacle. Where his parents were thriving in their fields, one of engineering and another of being a lawyer, as well as his siblings who all have exciting jobs, Arthur grew up feeling like the outcast from them. He felt this way because he never amounted to anything. He couldn’t play sports like his sister nor could he achieve literary achievements like his brother, both in whom are older than him. What he did find himself good at was with numbers. Not outstandingly so but good enough that he didn’t suffer in his math classes. He has a strained relationship with his family and only sees them during major holidays.
So Arthur not only leads a very average life, but it’s a lonely one too. That’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone why he turned to the internet. It started with a few online forums, but he really found a love and a calling in online roleplaying games. Whenever he wasn’t working, he was spending time online in those games where he didn’t have to be just average joe, Arthur Walsh. He could really be somebody that mattered.
P E N D R A G O N: A K N I G H T ‘ S C O D E P E N D R A G O N: A K N I G H T ‘ S C O D E
And as Pendragon, he is someone. As Pendragon, he is someone people can depend on. Pendragon is a beacon of hope to those who cannot help themselves. Pendragon is a shining star in the sky that people only need to wish upon to bring him to their aid. Pendragon is a mighty knight whose values and morals align with the core aspect of his character of just wanting to help wherever help is needed.
As you might’ve deduced, while he is not entirely creative for choosing the name Pendragon, this character is every bit the hero that the Arthur Pendragon of legend was. Pendragon is the character that he’s been using for various online identities but MMORPGs specifically. As Pendragon, he can be someone that isn’t looked at a wimp or simply brushed aside. Pendragon is charismatic and good. For years, he’s been using Pendragon as more than just a means to be seen as someone worth taking note of, but in all truthfulness, Pendragon is also a form of escapism for him.
Arthur could shut off all of what made him weak and live through Pendragon as a strong, fierce, if not sometimes naive to the grand scheme of things, warrior.
And in Pariah Online, it was no different. Pendragon would amass a reputation as both a solo and a player who could be seen as reliable in parties. It’s the knight’s code to always help those and set an example and though his “this seemed like a better idea in hindsight” habits might paint a different picture, Pendragon, when confronted with mistakes, owns up to it and always tries to do right by those whoever he is trying to protect and/or help out. No quest is too small so long as there are people to help. Monetary gain is secondary to him and helping out is most important.
Perhaps that’s why he gets an above-average amount of party invites. Pendragon is somebody that people can count on and want around them. It better stay that way.
Guarding Wind - Wind + Protection - A mid-range protective ability that encases Pendragon and any allies within a spiraling protective wind barrier-like tornado. It guards them from most lower level damage but also acts as a minor offensive as it can simultaneously damage opponents who come in contact with it. It has a short timespan that is 100% dependent on just how much damage. Large scale attacks will likely dispel it but it will serve as a scapegoat and save the user/benefactor of it, but it can only work once before a recharge timer is placed on the one who cast it.
Divine Veil - Light + Protection - Pendragon conjures up a semi-transparent veil of light that can defend against most levels of damage. It works in two way: either Pendragon uses it for himself, in which case it is almost certain that it can withstand most levels of damage and only a matter of time before it gives way, or he can extend it to at least two other party members that will be protected from most moderate levels of damage and can act as a means to get from point a to point b before the veil timer runs out. In the case of the former, it can remain active for 60 seconds and in the case of the latter, 40 seconds.
Golden Might - Light - A light-based offensive ability that Pendragon has in his disposal. By concentrating his might into his sword, when he swings it or slashes it, arcs of light are sent forth and will hit any nearby enemy. It has a high hit ratio and only fails if the opponent is faster than his swings.
A Light Shines - Light + Enhancement - A self-enhancing ability that centers light magic within Pendragon's body and enhances base stats and gives him heightened strength, speed, defense, and endurance for a short amount of time. When the ability is used, a faint gold aura surrounds him and his eyes are a shinier golden color.
Heaven's Tornado - Light + Wind - A sort of ultimate, Pendragon concentrates a large amount of his magic into both sword and shield. His sword arm is extended away from his shield while his shield is held up. Wind gathers around him as light shines, a sort of continuing and extended visual of "A Light Shines". It produces a radiant tornado that is sent in a direct line of path in front of him. Being a sort of ultimate move, it will have the potential to deal great damage to anyone hit by it. The more they are in its direct path the larger the damage. Even those that manage to escape its immediate pathway might get hit with minor damage.
Hold the Line - Though a tank, Pendragon is not a significantly-offensive tank (though he is equipped for battle should he need to). A good amount of skill points, as well as the overall build was built around the premise of being able to protect others. To do that, he had to build up his defensive stats, which he has. Because of this, Pendragon’s strengths, ironically, lay within his ability to defend with a shield. And the way he fights has always been countering. He does have the sp to make first-round offensive measures, but it’s not in his nature as it would compromise the safety of those he might be trying to protect.
Ole Reliable - It’s what the locals and people he’s raided with call him. “Pendragon, the Ole Reliable Knight” is the name he received for not just how many raid parties he’s been apart of but the fact that he always came through for anyone that needed his help. He’s not a celebrity in any right (not like the stellar night), but he does what he can.
A Crafty Boy - Pendragon has invested some time in learning how to craft to the point that he can craft armor and weapons. SOmetimes for others but his main reason was to achieve a level so he could make the best sword, shield, and golden armor for himself so, if he was being honest, he could be a little flashy while helping out.
A Knight of the World - Pendragon is well traveled around the world of Aetheria. Through parties and general adventurer habits, Pendragon has been around to all the city-states at least once. He feels like he has a solid lay of the land and knowledge of where certain things are. Though, he has maintained a large presence in Toraenis and would even go as far as to call it his home.
