@imia it is a very interesting, original, and broad concept for a support mage that I haven't heard of before. I think that it's an acceptable start, and could definitely have a place in the roleplay. The things I would need to know for sure are:
What exactly is the reason this magic exists in the world? Is it involved with a specific god, religion, or culture? Is it for some reason a unique psychic (or empathic) ability that has only manifested in this one person? Making the lore fit the power is key for me.
Are your character's powers changing based on what person they're linked with, or do you simply need a connection to activate your own buffs? Are these buffs effecting both parties every time? I'm not worried so much about balance here as I am wanting a clear definition of what happens when you're linked with someone and why. Why would someone want to serve as your conduit? What's in it for them, and what might the drawbacks be for them.
I would honestly be very interested to see a character with rather powerful spells, but their spells drain their own mana AND their conduit. I think this concept sounds very fun.
If you can give me those answers, it should work out just fine.
@shylarah I love the sheet as it is so far. I do have a few questions:
You mention the golems can help you fight but you don't mention exactly what their capabilities are: how fast can they move, how hard can they hit, can they float, how far away from Shiara can they get before the spell deactivates, etc.
I saw you included their size, which is appreciated.
In addition, do the spirits you raise need to be put into a golem to participate in combat or do they have the ability to interact with the physical world on their own? In which case mortals should probably be able to see them if it's the ladder.
In any case, I believe Shiara is best suited out of the characters so far to be our scout. Maybe later on she could become truly gifted at sneaking, stalking, and infiltration by training with her thief friend? The image of her sneaking into a British fort with the ghost of a master thief whispering tips to her is cool as fuck to me. He doesn't have to whisper because only she can hear him, but it's a force of habit from his life. How spot on am I???
@Izurich I thought of another question for you, too, we need to nail down. I feel like to make it balanced your Excruciating Exsanguination spell shouldnt be able to discriminate between friend and foe. So your crew mates need a warning to vacate the area before use. In addition, it's mana drain should probably be pretty high. Not one-time-use-only high, but say 3 per battle unless Beth is really pushing herself.
@RoseKnightJason No, the spirits cannot fight on their own. They need bodies of some kind to be able to fight -- such as a golem. And let me add a bit about the golems.
B A S I C S
Name: Shiara Cazarin Age: 19 (born in spring) Height: 5'6" Weight: ~110lbs
A P P E A R A N C E
Shiara is a slender young woman with deeply bronzed skin in the way of the Peledan islanders. Her hair is untamably curly, a problem she solves by tying it back most of the time, or occasionally putting it in lots of little braids. She has a round face; dark, gently tilted eyes; a wide, flat, and slightly upturned nose; high, thick brows; and full, expressive lips. She has an athletic build, with gentle curves in the right places.
She likes going barefoot, though usually she does wear either sandals or shoes of supple leather. She loves bright colors and patterns for her clothing. She has a variety of jewelry, mostly made of beads or shells. She'll sometimes braid such things into her hair, or add a bright flower behind her ear. One particular necklace she always wears, a simple leather thong with two pendants. One is long and thin, like a claw or a tooth. The other looks more like a large scale or shaped piece of abalone.
She always has one of her knives on her person, sometimes two or three depending on where she's going. While she knows how to fight with her fists, she's not particularly intimidating and a sharp blade does a lot to convince people to leave her alone if they give her too much trouble. Shiara often carries a small satchel either on a shoulder strap or belted at her hip. It's a good place to put a bit of money, and anything else she might need.
Shiara's speech carries a gentle Peledan accent imparted by her father and grandparents. She carries herself with confidence, and moves with more energetic athleticism than grace. This is not to say she's clumsy, but she's disposed to large gestures, her movements and stance saying just as much as her words.
P E R S O N A L I T Y
Shiara started as a bright, cheerful girl. She loved watching the stars or playing in the waves. She enjoyed wandering the beach or the woods, and was eager to try new things. She was always rather independent, encouraged to be self-sufficient from a young age. The questionable acceptance of the townsfolk was never an issue in the mostly-Peledan part of the outskirts where she lived, and she never saw any reason to bother with people that didn't want her around. She took to her grandmother's teaching with solemn dedication, eager to prove herself worthy of her gift of magic, and the sort of respect she saw people giving Nisme. She absorbed stories and music with a wide-eyed eagerness, as if they could show her a glimpse of the world beyond her horizon. Shiara wasn't sure she wanted to be a bone woman despite her dedication to the training. She craved adventure, and there was always a driving curiosity in her constant questions on anything and everything.
Unfortunately such wide-eyed idealism doesn't last long in the real world. A raid by the Church's Witch Hunters on her town drove the dismal reality home for her, and resulted in the death of her mother and father. Now Shiara resents the Church passionately, and she's driven to find a better life for those with magic. Her respect is hard to earn, and only given to those who show themselves to be intelligent, able to look at the facts instead of trusting blindly in what "everyone knows", willing to back up their words with actions, and possessing a certain level of integrity.
She wants to travel, to see other countries and have real adventures. She wants to learn about other peoples, too, and about things where the answers the Church give her aren't ones she trusts. They have so much wrong about the Peledan people, after all. Who knows what they've screwed up beyond that? Above all, she wants to show all the world that they are as backwards about magic as they accuse the islanders of being in general. She'll be a hero like in the stories, maybe, or she'll find some brilliant use for her magic that helps everyone. Or maybe she'll just write songs and tell stories like her grandfather. But she's sure there's an adventure waiting for her just beyond the horizon.
H I S T O R Y
Shiara's father came to mainland Australia as a teenager with his parents and elder sister in the wake of a volcano eruption that devastated their island home, along with a number of other refugees. His mother, Nisme, is a bone woman -- a spiritual leader among the Peledan tribes native to the eastern archipelago. The Peledan see necromancy not as a curse but as a highly-regarded skill, and it approaches divine blessing. The bone men and women work with the healers as medicine men; they work with the rare speakers of souls to placate restless ghosts; they are the ones sought for blessings and guidance, and to ease the passage of the dying. Nisme's husband Yuriah is a musician and a keeper of stories, and though their daughter returned to the islands they decided to stay with Zelias following his marriage. The Peledan are a highly communal group, and if their son and his wife would not join them on the islands, they would bring the community to the young couple.
Shiara's mother Rosalie lived in the coastal town where most of the Peledan refugees settled. She was studying to be an herbalist like her own mother, and her father worked as an assistant to the harbormaster. She and Zelais met during the worst of the difficult times that faced town and refugees, and married several years later. Shiara was born within a couple years into a warm and happy household that didn't care what the townsfolk thought of the mixed family.
As a toddler the child was much like any other. She was extremely curious, and loved stories and the sea. If other children gave her a hard time she shrugged it off, and played instead with the children of refugees-turned-citizens and the raven Ainel, who'd adopted her as his. Nisme recognized the girl's magic as soon as it started to manifest, and began lessons the moment they would be retained. Shiara learned of her rich island heritage from her father's side of the family, and while she didn't disdain the more structured life her mother encouraged, she was never very good at sitting still. There was always something to do, somewhere to explore or an adventure to find. Skirts and "proper" clothes were restrictive and got dirty or ripped. She did pick up bits of herbcraft from the instruction of mother and both grandmothers, but she heeded it only because it was her duty to learn in order to fulfill the responsibilities of her magic. She greatly preferred "playing" her grandfather's various flutes and whistles.
When Shiara was seven, Witch Hunters raided her town, killing both her parents and devastating the small islander community. Many decided to return home to Pelecola, including her grandparents, and they took Shiara and her two-year-old brother with them. It was Shiara's first ship voyage, and she loved the sway of the deck and the wind in her hair. It was partially this voyage and partly her grandfather's stories of adventure that prompted an adult Shiara to decide on a life of piracy. She knows killing is generally wrong, but the world's a mess and sometimes you just have to hoist your flag and take what you can.
A B I L I T I E S
Shiara can play flute, ocarina, and lute. She's got a good singing voice, too, though most of the songs she knows are either Peledan or the sort of thing one might hear in a tavern.
She swims like a fish, and she loves the ocean. The river's okay, but it's not at all the same. She's pretty good at paddling a coracle about, and her aunt has taught her a bit about sails and how to manage them. She can't do more than the basics for a small sailboat alone, though. On a large ship, she knows the names for all the different masts and sails.
She knows how to cook and make tea.
Shiara knows the basics of first aid.
She is skilled with a knife, and always carries at least one on her person, usually more. She can use them hand-to-hand or thrown.
Shiara knows how to use a flintlock pistol or rifle, and how to care for either. She's a decent shot, but much prefers knives.
She has a little experience using a rapier, but again, knives are her go-to.
She is bilingual, speaking Peledan and English.
She knows how to sew and repair clothing. Her stitches aren't the most even, but they're perfectly serviceable.
M A G I C
Magic Type: necromancy (bone magic)
Basic Effects: Shiara can speak with the dead, both human and animal. She serves as a focus point for spirits that have not yet crossed over, carrying them with her until they are ready to move on.
Advanced Spells:
Channeling: Shiara can make use of the powers of a single spirit to help her with what she's doing. Currently she carries with her a thief named Senki and a rapier-wielding pirate named Rokkal. She can channel animals too, but it's more difficult and gives her less of an advantage.
Necromantic Golems: Shiara can fashion golems (generally one to two feet in height) and invest them with an independent spirit. Alternatively she can use spirit fragments and her own magic to animate a golem, but this requires her full concentration. The former sort of golem moves at roughly the same speed as the spirit animating it did in life, and in the same manner. It hits a bit less hard than the spirit did in life, due to the limitations of materials, but Shiara has found that knives make great weapons for her golems. A bludgeoning weapon is the best way to destroy them.
Raising the Dead: Generally Shiara does not raise the dead. It is a delicate process, and may only be done with the dead creature's permission -- at least ethically. That's not to say she can't, just that she normally won't.
E Q U I P M E N T
Shiara has several knives that she carries on her person.
She has jewelry-making tools, as well as a small bag of string, beads, and shells.
She has a small first aid kit.
She has a sewing kit.
She carries materials for basic golem-crafting -- pieces of clay and obsidian, as well as a collection of small bones.
O T H E R
Ainel, Shiara's companion raven, is often found perched on her shoulder or flying overhead. He is smart enough to talk, as are most of the ravens from Pelecola. He is not a pet in any way: Ainel comes and goes as he pleases, and his girl has no authority with which to tell him to do things (not that she doesn't try). It's simply that he chooses to stay with her, like a small feathered guardian.
There. Also I love the idea of Shiara and Ainel and the spirits scouting like that, omg what an image.
@shylarah that should be about it then! I believe we have our scouting unit, those little golems covering extra ground, not to mention whatever information the souls of the dead tell you, should get us any leads we could ever want as a band of thieves lol.
Go ahead and put her in the character sheet section, please!
Now for a position aboard the ship, Shiara should do well as the cook! Would you mind updating her Occupation as Scout/Cook in the sheet? Welcome aboard!
@imia it is a very interesting, original, and broad concept for a support mage that I haven't heard of before. I think that it's an acceptable start, and could definitely have a place in the roleplay. The things I would need to know for sure are:
What exactly is the reason this magic exists in the world? Is it involved with a specific god, religion, or culture? Is it for some reason a unique psychic (or empathic) ability that has only manifested in this one person? Making the lore fit the power is key for me.
Are your character's powers changing based on what person they're linked with, or do you simply need a connection to activate your own buffs? Are these buffs effecting both parties every time? I'm not worried so much about balance here as I am wanting a clear definition of what happens when you're linked with someone and why. Why would someone want to serve as your conduit? What's in it for them, and what might the drawbacks be for them.
I would honestly be very interested to see a character with rather powerful spells, but their spells drain their own mana AND their conduit. I think this concept sounds very fun.
If you can give me those answers, it should work out just fine.
OKAYYSOOOOO i have a draft for her cs (format COMPLETELY YANKED)!! everythings p much a placeholder especially her color lmao
but yeah i just wanted to get these ideas out of my own head so they can develop more. lmk any thoughts at all^^
edit: changed an age
Iava Blabla
"The weak die. The strong survive. Those are the rules of life."
(blahblah use this section to explain details about her characters that may not have arisen during the biography. e.g. how does she cope with her actions? she's fundamentally shaped by them. she was already broken after her first kill, and immediately after the rule flashed through her mind. "the weak die, and the strong survive." since then, she's used such rules to justify her actions. another rule of the tribe? "family first." this helped her cope with the actions she'd been forced to do, the countless missions she'd never asked to undertake. if she killed someone, they were weak, so they would have died anyways. if she stole from someone, the "family" mattered more than them anyways. they needed it. everyone is a thief and killer, so be the one who steals and kills first. even now theyre the driving factor behind her actions, the reasons why she can do the questionable things she can do, the only thing that brings control to her life. one big coping mechanism, essentially. ok besides establishing that part of her character u can just describe her personality lol)
BIOGRAPHY:
Iava hails from a spiritual people who'd settled along the southwestern coast of India. Iava was born as a twin, her brother being named Kusa. her and her twin's souls were connected at birth. her people called this a soul tie - and sure enough, Iava would always be met with a red string wrapped around the base of her finger. and whenever she would follow it, it always lead her back to her brother. through this tie, her and her brother shared everything. every sense, every thought, and not just their active minds but down to their memories. in her household the shelves were full of ancient texts and manuscripts. She remembers the colorful rangolis, carefully placed throughout the rooms of her stomping grounds when it was time for festivals. She remembers the personal altar which laid in her parents' room, the heartwarming light of the diya, and the tikka it housed - it'd been passed through her mother's family for more generations than she could've counted.
She was five, she remembers, when the bandit tribe attacked her village. they pillaged senselessly, running into homes to take what they want and kill anyone who resisted, yet they spared her and her brother. as to why? it's simple; children are easy to control. it was part of the tribe's practice to take the children and raise them as part of the tribe. as part of the tribe, the children were required to participate in an indoctrination ritual. an introduction to the rules of life.
The first rule? "The weak die, and the strong survive."
Each "batch," as she remembers them putting it, faces off in a series of one on one battles to the death. a pair is chosen. The winner lives, and is graced with the ability to live among the tribe. Then they pick another pair at random.
She and her brother were lucky - the girls fought the girls, and the boys fought the boys. Their survival was due in part to their unique abilities. While fighting, Iava had an outside perspective giving her knowledge about her opponent and the situation that she didn't have to think about. The two had also been the most resilient of the batch. When they made it through the culling with but a few scratches, it didn't take long for them to be put to work.
Her and her brother would be raised with the express purpose of killing, to be their tribe's strongest warriors. They soon provided an alternate source of income for the camp. while the bandits would always migrate from camp to camp (most often setting up shop in the remains of their latest & greatest triumph), they would send certain people out to the largest cities nearby to procure information on their general surroundings. what caught the eyes of their leaders had been bounties set on criminals, pirates, and the like. The twins were eighteen when they were sent on their first bounty mission of many, and there were few who put up resistance once found - if the two couldn't find their target in time, they would just steal from some settlement on the way back. It was for the family, so it were as easy as breathing.
What their parents taught them became the foundation of their magic. Her mother taught Iava spells to protect her brother, while her father taught Kusa spells to protect Iava from anyone else. Their specializations developed, bouncing off eachother in a way that made them nigh unstoppable in combat.
When power becomes so great it brings fear along with it. Iava and Kusa would never have rebelled. The rules the bandits bestowed upon them were their lifeline, the reason they could exist despite the atrocities they committed. Without them the two couldn't function. But their leaders were still scared - the twins could take control whenever they wanted in their eyes, with the strength they had. And so just as quickly as they had created their problem, the bandits set out to destroy it.
His death was rather predictable, really.
They were out on a mission too far from the camp for comfort, apparently scouting out the area for a raid. They didn't even know what they were really looking for out here. Something about the rivers. To look at the rivers. Which inevitably looked like rivers, and there'd been no settlements in direct proximity of the rivers - only ones far off, which the two had found in part due to Iava's refusal that they'd come all the way out here just to come back with nothing.
They were halfway through their first way back to the camp when it finds them.
It sneaks up on them, which is the first bad sign. She’s rarely surprised in the field, even with the poisoned luck they've had. Her first indication of the presence of anything in the woods but her is the sound of something whistling through the air towards her.
She dodges on pure instinct, and it saves her life. A hand, or perhaps some kind of tentacle, grotesque in nature, rips through the tree trunk that she had been about to step around.
She stopped when she saw the monster in its entirety.
It’s like nothing she had ever seen before. The top half looks close to human, but its arms quickly betray it with their length; long, dragging across the leaves blanketing the forest's floor. The bottom half is that of a horse, quadrupedal, the front legs ending in talons.
Iava dives to the side at the sound of an arm lashing through the air. The claws caught at her leg, lingering, and she knew it'd have cut deep had Kusa not been at her side. She hisses out pain through her teeth, stumbles, and keeps running.
Running when she'd never wanted to fight more in her life. But whenever she so much as thought about putting a halt in her step, it was blown away by a shot of panic and the intense desire - no, the need - to run. Each time she looked back, every time she saw him, standing strong, waiting for her help, it was thrown away. Why?
Please, just listen to me. Run.
She ducked through the bushes and went westward, towards the rivers and the village which stayed across from it. She crossed, leaping for her life, and landed in time to fall to a slash at her leg. Running deep, slow, purposeful. She'd looked to see a deep cut running along her knee, though her body dropping and mind flaring no sensations but pain told her otherwise.
Run.
There was a flash along her throat that lead to an explosion, a brief roar in agony. Waves of grief and power collected, images of people and places she hadn't seen in years shone brighter than the sun. And then came a burst of colors - a sensation that spread from her fingertips to the depths of her soul. It tingled at first, then evolved into a tidal wave of energy crashing through her body, filling it through with a pulsating warmth.
And then there was nothing.
For the first time in her life, Iava felt true silence. For the first time in her life, she thought and it went nowhere. Her words reverberated endlessly in her own mind, what now was only a void. She laid there along the forest bed, feeling talons and hooves whoop the ground in tandem with her own heart. Soon enough it'd been just her own heart which she felt.
Run, she heard, yet it was but a mere imitation. It echoed in on itself and then it were nothing.
She'd kept moving, found the villages, and kept moving after that. Family came first - she was to fulfill her brother's dying wish, or die herself. There was no other option. With her true family dead there'd been no reason for her to try going back to the life she once lived. The least she could do was honor her brother and run from it.
When she found her next settlement she was welcomed, for once, as a humble traveler rather than a violent invader. She asked them for directions to the nearest city and they humbly obliged. After getting to the nearest city, she made moves to find the fastest way off the continent. This lead to her first foray in piracy at the age of twenty.
Though she was not as much of a pirate as she was a mercenary, she'd been treated as a member of the crew all the same. It was on this ship where she was taught how to down a full calabash in less than a breath, where she'd been taught to speak English, to carefully stow away provisions, to lower the sails. Though those she were with held no emphasis on it, she'd never felt more like part of a family.
It was also on this ship where she learned what happened to her magic after her brother's passing. The red string which tied her to her brother had remained on her finger, yet it strayed for but a few inches before meeting its end. She came to the ship's captain one night for a drink, and approached him with a question. A hypothesis. He'd been wary at first, though his cooperation was out of respect for the dedication she'd shown towards the crew.
Iava held his hand and felt the energy from deep within her. It surged up and out, and she could see it - the red string, suddenly glowing before growing in length and moving towards her captain's finger. It wrapped around it several times and pulled, squeezing the bloodflow from it, yet his hand did not move. His eyes were bright and gaze steadfastly focused on Iava's own. There was trust.
After the tie had been made, Iava truly felt free. It was as if her mana reserves had suddenly unlocked themselves, even more mana than she'd ever known had flowed effortlessly through her body. She let go of her captain's hand and saw it. The red string. Tied to another, once more, as it had been for so long before. She learned then that, although her birth tie was no more, she could create (and sever) the same sort of tie with other people.
When their voyage came to an end in England, she was on the edge of twenty-two. The crew offered to let her stay and she rejected it. It'd been several factors behind her decision, but them returning to Asia was the one true dealbreaker. Family first; she was to run and never look back. Her years until now have been spent strong-arming her way into various odd jobs that require her muscle, mostly in the form of security for wealthy merchants. It's resulted in her floating around the cities of the country, no true aim or goal coming to her except survival.
On this night, she's floated her way back into the comforting arms of grog and mead, with no telling where her path leads her to next.
NATURAL ABILITIES:
Iava possesses two humans' worth of mana, though she doesn't have access to it at all times. With that comes a breadth of potential.
She has skills for combat, unarmed and otherwise. Being bred as a warrior for fifteen years, give or take, will do that to you. Her intuition in combat is also one of a kind; growing up with her birth tie resulted in her battle experience being double of what it should've been. What her brother experienced, she did as well, what he learned she did, and the same the other way around. Fifteen years more or less becomes thirty. It depends on how you look at it.
Her tolerance for pain is unnaturally high.
Iava's movements are almost beautifully efficient. These skills don't just end on the battlefield, though. She's an excellent dancer if you get her to do it.
The way she manages to burn a kitchen down is almost magical. If you were to trust her with cutting onions, you already failed. It's over.
She uses a sword. Her brother also used a similar sword. They both fought for years with these swords. She's a deadly swordswoman, dammit.
MAGICAL ABILITIES:
Magic Type: Kindred Link (Soul Magic)
Basic Effects: She manifests an arcane connection between her and someone else. The main drawback of this connection is that she can’t force it upon something; the other party would have to reciprocate and allow the connection to happen in the first place. The other party must also have a soul for her to bond her own to. However, once a bond is made, only she can break it. This bond takes the form of a red string that ties itself to the middle finger of the two parties. The string itself can only be seen by her or an extremely adept mage.
Without a bond active, Iava has no way of accessing her own mana. Regardless of the "level" of the connection, just having
The bond shares everything from senses, perceptions, magics, physical abilities, emotions, thoughts, and even memories between two parties. For instance, if someone knows how to do a specific motion that Iava doesn’t know herself, the knowledge required to do so can be shared and learned instantaneously through the connection. The extent of what is being shared depends on each party. As a rudimentary example, someone can choose to only share the memories they have up until their fifth birthday. What’s initially shared isn’t truly decided upon - when the bond is made, both parties already have a predetermined idea of what they want to share. It’s similar to a conversation; you aren’t just going to tell someone about the warcrimes you’ve committed for no reason. Thus, those memories that don’t want to be shared, and the thoughts and emotions associated with them are essentially “locked away,” to the point where Iava herself has no idea they exists.
The more two parties share with eachother, the more powerful their bond is and thus the two become. This is the main limit of the power; if a connection is created and both parties aren’t cooperative, it's useless at best and detrimental at worst. At the base level (the connection exists, that's it), Iava can cast all of her spells, but the power of each is limited. The first milestone would be sharing senses and perceptions. At this level, Iava can cast her spells 1 and 3, but her portal would only be able to span the distance of ten yards, give or take.
The main limit to the power of this magic is herself. There is much she won’t share. She’s also not very fond of the idea of giving any real part of herself up to other people. As a result, much of the way she maneuvers the bond revolve around her wanting to keep control over it. To not be more invested in it than the other.
Advanced Spells:
❖ Selfless: Iava channels her mana into the string to influence the connection. While she maintains this focus, she will take damage for the other party. Not only will they have increased pain resistance, but they will effectively be harder to hurt. It’s as if one was trying to inflict pain on two people in one. This spell takes concentration to keep active, but she can “flick” it on in time if she needs to. For effective use, she’d have to be standing still in a safe area. The same amount of damage reduction can be achieved by having a "complete" bond in the first place - if she were to activate this spell then, the other party would take zero damage and she would instead receive all of it, for better or for worse. ❖ Selfish: Iava channels her mana into the string, then back into the string to herself. Her current partner receives no mana from her. She uses her mana to resonate with her own soul, thus enhancing her body; she gains increased strength in all her muscles which leads to more power, endurance, speed, etc. than a human would be able to produce alone. The drawback of this is that she's effectively severing the connection on her end, thus it would continue to hold for no more than two minutes. This can be counteracted by the other party feeding their own mana into the connection at the cost of them being continuously drained at exhaustive levels. ❖ Helping Hand: Iava can teleport within a set radius of her target. This radius depends on the strength of the connection: if the connection barely exists, then she can only teleport within a couple feet of them. She can teleport to get into the radius, but can't escape it afterwards. teleportation could also be described like idk smth like she turns into a wisp and travels that way or instead of her moving with her body she uses the connection to move with her soul, which is faster/less limited? or she could just teleport lmao ❖ 4: Iava sends the bulk of her mana through the string. When it reaches the other party, it feels like an invitation.
EQUIPMENT:
❖ Her sword, Omen. ❖ Red armor <-- describe this in her appearance section goofball she's always gonna be wearing it
@imia so I have very little issue with her powers. I'm confused as to the mana sharing spell. The connected teammate gets access to lava's mana pool, is that it's basic Effects?
In addition, your character's history has a detail I'm missing as well. Was it the bandits who attacked the village who are sending Lava on these missions, or it was her village who raised/trained her and her sibling? In which case, what exactly constitutes a "mission" for what should otherwise be a fairly primitive 17th century Indian village.
I have no problem with her being from India, I'm sure a motivated Indian sailor could find themselves on the other side of Europe (eventually) but the backstory sounds less like she was trained to be a warrior through ancient rites and more like she was a CIA agent lol. If you could clarify what exactly she was doing there (doesn't even have to be IC) she should be acceptable.
I'd also like the "two pools worth of mana," bit moved to her magical Abilities instead of the natural abilities. Natural Abilities should be only your human skills, and anything gained from magic (like the extra 15 years of experience) should go there
@imia so I have very little issue with her powers. I'm confused as to the mana sharing spell. The connected teammate gets access to lava's mana pool, is that it's basic Effects?
In addition, your character's history has a detail I'm missing as well. Was it the bandits who attacked the village who are sending Lava on these missions, or it was her village who raised/trained her and her sibling? In which case, what exactly constitutes a "mission" for what should otherwise be a fairly primitive 17th century Indian village.
I have no problem with her being from India, I'm sure a motivated Indian sailor could find themselves on the other side of Europe (eventually) but the backstory sounds less like she was trained to be a warrior through ancient rites and more like she was a CIA agent lol. If you could clarify what exactly she was doing there (doesn't even have to be IC) she should be acceptable.
I'd also like the "two pools worth of mana," bit moved to her magical Abilities instead of the natural abilities. Natural Abilities should be only your human skills, and anything gained from magic (like the extra 15 years of experience) should go there
first of all thanks a lot!! this is rlly helping me hash out the details^^
the part about her training is true enough but idk if it could be described as "ancient rites" either. i guess her powers existing by itself could? i suppose it should seem less like she was expertly trained and more like she'd just been trained to be a ruthless warrior from a young age, as that actually fits her upbringing + it comes with some good questions for me to ask myself aswell 🤔🤔🤔
If you could clarify what exactly she was doing there (doesn't even have to be IC) she should be acceptable.
i'm sure i could, but lmk what you mean by there so i can focus on it
Was it the bandits who attacked the village who are sending Lava on these missions, or it was her village who raised/trained her and her sibling? In which case, what exactly constitutes a "mission" for what should otherwise be a fairly primitive 17th century Indian village.
her village got cooked! when i refer to "tribe" i mean the bandits though i could just easily call them smth else. what constitutes a mission for the bandit camp could be a host of things. hunting for food, mapping out the area around them, sending scouts to plan out their next raid, etc. they're not a village (they move from camp to camp), though they're still primitive. if anything it would have started out as a group of men wandering around in groups after some war, looking for some way to sustain themselves. their main source of sustenance comes from picking on anyone weaker than themselves and they organized themselves around that
@imia so this is what I was confused about is I couldn't tell if all this training came from her and her brother being forced to become warriors by the bandits or their original family/tribe. In which case, her abilities and linking to her twin was a magic effect between the two of them and had nothing to do with the training, am I getting that correct?
And by missions, you just meant whatever a bandit camp would make their slave/warriors do?
If that's all correct, I just need you to address this spell number four you have. Are you allowing that person to tap into your mana and cast their spells with it?
@imia so this is what I was confused about is I couldn't tell if all this training came from her and her brother being forced to become warriors by the bandits or their original family/tribe. In which case, her abilities and linking to her twin was a magic effect between the two of them and had nothing to do with the training, am I getting that correct?
And by missions, you just meant whatever a bandit camp would make their slave/warriors do?
If that's all correct, I just need you to address this spell number four you have. Are you allowing that person to tap into your mana and cast their spells with it?
yes and yes!!
also i changed the fourth spell nd made it so that the connected teammate's access to Iava's mana pool is part of her magic's basic effects. but look @ this draft and lmk ur thoughts/if anything's unclear
Iava Mehta
"The weak die. The strong survive. These are the rules of life."
26 | Female | 182cm (6'0") | 82kg (181 lbs)
APPEARANCE:
Iava is a woman shaped to be a warrior. The sun has shaped her skin into a golden brown. Her hair, a dense and fierce mane of black, floats down her back in waves. She dresses in what she needs to, and a situation where she believes she doesn't need her armor is rare. She dons fragments; a cuirass, vambraces, pauldrons and faulds made of a hardened leather. Unique are her gauntlets, a deep red painted over a steel canvas of swirling patterns. She never wears anything grander than a tunic and trousers underneath.
PERSONALITY:
To Iava, there are three kinds of people. Those who are her equals, those who she is to protect, and those who she is to slay. She cooperates with her equals, protects who she must, and slays when it's time to protect. There was once a time where her equals were outlaws, she protected them because they were her family, and slayed innocents because it would protect her family's future. She was only able to do so because she'd been playing by the rules.
She grounded herself in the rules, taught to her by the bandits, and lived by them. It helped her cope with the actions she'd been forced to do, the countless raids she'd never asked to undertake. If she killed someone, they were weak, so they would have died anyways. Family comes first. Everyone else is the enemy, only we can be trusted. Everyone is a thief and killer - better to be the one who steals and kills first. It was easier for her to drown herself in these lies when it was necessary for survival.
Kusa's passing changed everything. The newfound freedom from her old life was impossible to adjust to; especially when it feels as if it's lurking just around the corner, ready to take Iava back into it's clutches once again. She can't act and think like she used to, and it doesn't matter how hard she tries. It's different when the thoughts bounce back on her, and they are hers alone to face. When the fear and need for survival becomes replaced with guilt that compounds in on itself until she can't breathe. If everything were so set in stone, what did that make of her brother? He fought and was the weaker, so he died. But was the one who runs truly the strong one? You were strong enough to survive. But her strength came from him. Was she truly the strong one? Now, she grows sick of herself.
Iava knows the power and skills she has better than anyone else. It's been tested too many times in the past for her to doubt it when it counts, even in spite of her past failure. She believes that the only way to atone for what she's done is to use her power to protect others, and who is she protecting by second-guessing her strength? That being said, she would never let herself be controlled ever again. She's a cautious judge of character. Though her devotion is slow to start, once it's burning there's no brighter flame around.
Iava is... sensitive to the world, to say the least. There are many things which she'd never experienced during the time with the bandits. On top of that, each emotion and thought she has is almost brand new. Such things never lingered before as they do now. Much of what life has to offer is foreign to her yet. The prospect of others witnessing this sensitivity, this weakness, terrifies her. In response to fear, she immerses herself in the rules once more.
BIOGRAPHY:
Iava hails from a spiritual people who'd settled along the southwestern coast of India. Iava was born as a twin, her brother being named Kusa. her and her twin's souls were connected at birth. her people called this a soul tie - and sure enough, Iava would always be met with a red string wrapped around the base of her finger. and whenever she would follow it, it always lead her back to her brother. through this tie, her and her brother shared everything. every sense, every thought, and not just their active minds but down to their memories. in her household the shelves were full of ancient texts and manuscripts. She remembers the colorful rangolis, carefully placed throughout the rooms of her stomping grounds when it was time for festivals. She remembers the personal altar which laid in her parents' room, the heartwarming light of the diya, and the tikka it housed - it'd been passed through her mother's family for more generations than she could've counted.
She was five, she remembers, when the bandit camp attacked her village. they pillaged senselessly, running into homes to take what they want and kill anyone who resisted, yet they spared her and her brother. as to why? it's simple; children are easy to control. it was part of the camp's practice to take the children and raise them as part of the camp. as part of the camp, the children were required to participate in an indoctrination ritual. an introduction to the rules of life.
The first rule? "The weak die, and the strong survive."
Each "batch," as she remembers them putting it, faces off in a series of one on one battles to the death. a pair is chosen. The winner lives, and is graced with the ability to live among the camp. Then they pick another pair at random.
She and her brother were lucky - the girls fought the girls, and the boys fought the boys. Their survival was due in part to their unique abilities. While fighting, Iava had an outside perspective giving her knowledge about her opponent and the situation that she didn't have to think about. The two had also been the most resilient of the batch. When they made it through the culling with but a few scratches, it didn't take long for them to be put to work.
Her and her brother would be raised with the express purpose of killing, to be the camp's strongest warriors. They soon provided an alternate source of income for the camp. while the bandits would always migrate from camp to camp (most often setting up shop in the remains of their latest & greatest triumph), they would send certain people out to the largest cities nearby to procure information on their general surroundings. what caught the eyes of their leaders had been bounties set on criminals, pirates, and the like. The twins were eighteen when they were sent on their first bounty mission of many, and there were few who put up resistance once found - if the two couldn't find their target in time, they would just steal from some settlement on the way back. It was for the family, so it were as easy as breathing.
What little their parents were able to teach them became the foundation of their magic. Her mother taught Iava spells to protect her brother, while her father taught Kusa spells to protect Iava from anyone else. Their specializations developed, bouncing off eachother in a way that made them nigh unstoppable in combat.
When power becomes so great it brings fear along with it. Iava and Kusa would never have rebelled. The rules the bandits bestowed upon them were their lifeline, the reason they could exist despite the atrocities they committed. Without them the two couldn't function. But their leaders were still scared - the twins could take control whenever they wanted in their eyes, with the strength they had. And so just as quickly as they had created their problem, the bandits set out to destroy it.
His death was rather predictable, really.
They were out on a mission too far from the camp for comfort, apparently scouting out the area for a raid. They didn't even know what they were really looking for out here. Something about the rivers. To look at the rivers. Which inevitably looked like rivers, and there'd been no settlements in direct proximity of the rivers - only ones far off, which the two had found in part due to Iava's refusal that they'd come all the way out here just to come back with nothing.
They were halfway through their first way back to the camp when it finds them.
It sneaks up on them, which is the first bad sign. She’s rarely surprised in the field, even with the poisoned luck they've had. Her first indication of the presence of anything in the woods but her is the sound of something whistling through the air towards her.
She dodges on pure instinct, and it saves her life. A hand, or perhaps some kind of tentacle, grotesque in nature, rips through the tree trunk that she had been about to step around.
She stopped when she saw the monster in its entirety.
It’s like nothing she had ever seen before. The top half looks close to human, but its arms quickly betray it with their length; long, dragging across the leaves blanketing the forest's floor. The bottom half is that of a horse, quadrupedal, the front legs ending in talons.
Iava dives to the side at the sound of an arm lashing through the air. The claws caught at her leg, lingering, and she knew it'd have cut deep had Kusa not been at her side. She hisses out pain through her teeth, stumbles, and keeps running.
Running when she'd never wanted to fight more in her life. But whenever she so much as thought about putting a halt in her step, it was blown away by a shot of panic and the intense desire - no, the need - to run. Each time she looked back, every time she saw him, standing strong, waiting for her help, it was thrown away. Why?
Please, just listen to me. Run.
She ducked through the bushes and went westward, towards the rivers and the village which stayed across from it. She crossed, leaping for her life, and landed in time to fall to a slash at her leg. Running deep, slow, purposeful. She'd looked to see a deep cut running along her knee, though her body dropping and mind flaring no sensations but pain told her otherwise.
Run.
There was a flash along her throat that lead to an explosion, a brief roar in agony. Waves of grief and power collected, images of people and places she hadn't seen in years shone brighter than the sun. And then came a burst of colors - a sensation that spread from her fingertips to the depths of her soul. It tingled at first, then evolved into a tidal wave of energy crashing through her body, filling it through with a pulsating warmth.
And then there was nothing.
For the first time in her life, Iava felt true silence. For the first time in her life, she thought and it went nowhere. Her words reverberated endlessly in her own mind, what now was only a void. She laid there along the forest bed, feeling talons and hooves whoop the ground in tandem with her own heart. Soon enough it'd been just her own heart which she felt.
Run, she heard, yet it was but a mere imitation. It echoed in on itself and then it were nothing.
She'd kept moving, found the villages, and kept moving after that. Family came first - she was to fulfill her brother's dying wish, or die herself. There was no other option. With her true family dead there'd been no reason for her to try going back to the life she once lived. The least she could do was honor her brother and run from it.
When she found her next settlement she was welcomed, for once, as a humble traveler rather than a violent invader. She asked them for directions to the nearest city and they humbly obliged. After getting to the nearest city, she made moves to find the fastest way off the continent. This lead to her first foray in piracy at the age of twenty.
Though she was not as much of a pirate as she was a mercenary, she'd been treated as a member of the crew all the same. It was on this ship where she was taught how to down a full calabash in less than a breath, where she'd been taught to speak English, to carefully stow away provisions, to lower the sails. Though those she were with held no emphasis on it, she'd never felt more like part of a family.
It was also on this ship where she learned what happened to her magic after her brother's passing. The red string which tied her to her brother had remained on her finger, yet it strayed for but a few inches before meeting its end. She came to the ship's captain one night for a drink, and approached him with a question. A hypothesis. He'd been wary at first, though his cooperation was out of respect for the dedication she'd shown towards the crew.
Iava held his hand and felt the energy from deep within her. It surged up and out, and she could see it - the red string, suddenly glowing before growing in length and moving towards her captain's finger. It wrapped around it several times and pulled, squeezing the bloodflow from it, yet his hand did not move. His eyes were bright and gaze steadfastly focused on Iava's own. There was trust.
After the tie had been made, Iava truly felt free. It was as if her mana reserves had suddenly unlocked themselves, even more mana than she'd ever known had flowed effortlessly through her body. She let go of her captain's hand and saw it. The red string. Tied to another, once more, as it had been for so long before. She learned then that, although her birth tie was no more, she could create (and sever) the same sort of tie with other people.
When their voyage came to an end in England, she was on the edge of twenty-two. The crew offered to let her stay and she rejected it. It'd been several factors behind her decision, but them returning to Asia was the one true dealbreaker. Family first; she was to run and never look back. Her years until now have been spent strong-arming her way into various odd jobs that require her muscle, mostly in the form of security for wealthy merchants. It's resulted in her floating around the cities of the country, no true aim or goal coming to her except survival.
On this night, she's floated her way back into the comforting arms of grog and mead, with no telling where her path leads her to next.
NATURAL ABILITIES:
She has skills for combat, unarmed and otherwise. Being bred as a warrior for fifteen years, give or take, will do that to you. Her intuition in combat is also one of a kind; growing up with her birth tie resulted in her battle experience being double of what it should've been. What her brother experienced, she did as well, what he learned she did, and the same the other way around. Fifteen years more or less becomes thirty. It depends on how you look at it.
Her tolerance for pain is unnaturally high.
Iava's movements are almost beautifully efficient. These skills don't just end on the battlefield, though. She's an excellent dancer if you get her to do it.
The way she manages to burn a kitchen down is almost magical. If you were to trust her with cutting onions, you already failed. It's over.
She uses a sword. Her brother also used a similar sword. They both fought for years with these swords. She's a deadly swordswoman, dammit.
Iava's somewhat of a professional drinker. Test her.
MAGICAL ABILITIES:
Magic Type: Kindred Link (Soul Magic)
Basic Effects: She manifests an arcane connection between her and someone else. She can’t force it upon something; the other party would have to reciprocate and allow the connection to happen in the first place. The other party must also have a soul for her to bond her own to. However, once a bond is made, only she can break it. This bond takes the form of a red string that ties itself to a middle finger of the two parties. The string itself can only be seen by her or an extremely adept mage vastly familiar with such arts. Mana flows back and forth between the souls of both parties. Iava's partner cannot stop their mana from flowing into the connection while it's active. Both parties have the ability to "give" and "request" mana, but they cannot "take."
Without a bond active, Iava has no way of accessing her own mana for use. With it active, Iava possesses two humans' worth of mana.
The bond can share everything from senses, perceptions, physical abilities, emotions, thoughts, and even memories between two parties. For instance, if someone knows how to do a specific motion that Iava doesn’t know herself, the knowledge required to do so can be shared and learned instantaneously through the connection. The extent of what is being shared depends on each party. As an example, someone could choose to only share the memories they have up until their fifth birthday. But it's not always a concrete choice - when the bond is made, both parties already have a predetermined idea of what they want to share. It’s similar to a conversation; you aren’t just going to tell someone all your traumatic experiences, your deepest darkest secrets & greatest fears for no reason. Thus, those memories that don’t want to be shared, and the thoughts and emotions associated with them are essentially “locked away,” to the point where Iava herself has no idea they exists.
Although the two share pretty much everything, only magic of Iava's kind will inherently impact both parties. i.e. James turning into a beast won't turn her into a beast.
The more two parties share with eachother, the more powerful their bond is and thus the two become. This is the main limit of the power; if a connection is created and both parties aren’t cooperative, it's useless at best and detrimental at worst. At the base level (the connection exists, that's it), Iava can cast all of her spells, but the power of each is limited. There are milestones along the way, such as sharing senses & perceptions, They can be seen as goals to strive for in a connection since they enhance the powers of the bond.
Iava herself is another limiting factor. There is much she won’t share; she's not very fond of the idea of giving any real part of herself up to other people. Much of the way she maneuvers the bond revolves around her desire to stay in control of it.
Advanced Spells:
+ Selfless: Iava channels her mana into the string to influence the bond. While she maintains this focus, she will take damage for the other party. Not only will they have increased pain resistance, but they will effectively be harder to hurt. It’s as if one was trying to inflict pain on two people in one. This spell takes concentration to keep active, but she can “flick” it on in time if she needs to. For effective use, she’d have to be standing still in a safe area. The same amount of damage reduction can be achieved by having a "complete" bond in the first place - if she were to activate this spell then, the other party would take zero damage and she would instead receive all of it, for better or for worse. + Selfish: Iava channels her mana into the string, then back from the string into herself. Her current partner receives no mana from her. She uses her mana to resonate with her own soul, thus enhancing her body; she gains increased strength in all her muscles which leads to more power, endurance, speed, etc. than a human would be able to produce alone. However, she's effectively severing the connection on her end, thus it would continue to hold for no more than a minute. This can be counteracted by the other party feeding their own mana into the connection at the cost of them being continuously drained at exhaustive levels. It should go without saying that after usage of this spell (with no outward assistance), she's out of commission. Nearly comatose, even. + Helping Hand: Iava can make conjure a portal, its' destination being within a set radius of her partner. This radius depends on the strength of the connection: if the connection barely exists, then it's within a couple feet of them. She can use this spell to get into the radius, but can't escape it afterwards. Her partner can travel through it as well. + Your Turn: Iava sends her mana through the string, using it to resonate with her partner's soul rather than her own. The spell then gives the other party the same effects as she bestows upon herself with "Selfish." Unlike "Selfish," this spell does not sever the bond. It lasts until she runs out of mana (thus ending the bond) or otherwise stops.
EQUIPMENT:
+ Iava wields a double-edged straight sword (khanda) named Omen. It's housed within a sizable steel scabbard, with the weight making it suitable for striking. + An oil stone, for sharpening. + A soft cloth, for polishing.
TRIVIA:
+ Color Code: 846977 + Iava has an intense soft spot for cats. + Iava ties her hair up into a ponytail. When things are calm, she allows it to hang freely.
@imia this looks almost perfect. One last thing: could I get an image claim or at least a description of the sword? An Indian woman traveling to be a pirate in the Caribbean wielding a red katana is just too far from historically accurate for me lol
Could it be a shamshir, or a falchion perhaps? This is the last thing, and then you're accepted!
@imia this looks almost perfect. One last thing: could I get an image claim or at least a description of the sword? An Indian woman traveling to be a pirate in the Caribbean wielding a red katana is just too far from historically accurate for me lol
Could it be a shamshir, or a falchion perhaps? This is the last thing, and then you're accepted!
true!!! i found her a sword befitting her background and edited the last cs i posted
BUT ALSO i wanted to know how the other ppl playing in the rp felt abt her powers. mainly i didn't want her powers to be like idk forcing things on other players, theyre meant to involve both characters an equal amount yk. i just want to make sure the character is fun to play with so if u guys have anything to add on this front pls lmk so i can get to thinking^^ idrc abt anything else besides that, shes p much a blank canvas rn so ill change her however i need to, even if that means just trying another idea entirely @Izurich@shylarah
@imia I like it. I'm not sure how Shiara would feel about sharing a bond with someone she's only just met -- you're probably going to have to earn her respect first before she'll let you connect to her. Also not sure how it will interact with Shiara's channeling. But it's certainly interesting!
BUT ALSO i wanted to know how the other ppl playing in the rp felt abt her powers. mainly i didn't want her powers to be like idk forcing things on other players, theyre meant to involve both characters an equal amount yk. i just want to make sure the character is fun to play with so if u guys have anything to add on this front pls lmk so i can get to thinking^^ idrc abt anything else besides that, shes p much a blank canvas rn so ill change her however i need to, even if that means just trying another idea entirely @Izurich@shylarah
FYI, tagging doesn't work properly when edited in, the recipient won't get any notifications. I know, it's annoying.
As for the topic, the main thing to be concerned about is Iava's... sanity if she connects with Erzsebet. Unless she's particularly (Read: extremely) mentally resilient, one better not peek into the bloody abyss that is Liz's mind. It can certainly be a fun character dynamic tho!
@imia@Izurich I didn't see anything about mind reading on Iava's sheet. It's just a mana connection, isn't it? Because if it's mind reading, Shiara is probably going to hard pass. ^.^;;
