I can't keep up with this along with all my other stuff I got going on IRL and with other hobbies/rps. I gotta duck out. Sorry folks.
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[OOC] Caravan: An Episodic Fantasy with Worldbuilding! [Always Accepting] Page 7
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Overlord Thraka That Which is Hateful
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Timemaster Ashevelendar
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@twannyman FYI of the above. As you were interacting with them.
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Sylvan Local Cryptid
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@Tortoise Finally finished the character I've been talking about in discord, hope she passes muster
Race, Age, Time in the Caravan:
History:
Personality:
Motivation:
Skills and Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Tools:
Eriwyn
Race, Age, Time in the Caravan:
Elf, 223, Newly Arrived
History:
Eriwyn was raised on stories of the noble hero-kings of ages past by her nursemaid, and the ideals these stories espoused landed and found fertile ground in her young mind. She is the 7th of 11 children of the Duke Aegnor of the Emerald Grove. By the Duke's reckoning, she was the most troublesome by far, caring about more than the family's wealth and power. To the Duke's disappointment, Eriwyn was nearly the polar opposite of her father, caring more for the people of the land than the profits they could produce.
This came to a head when, soon after Eriwyn’s 45th birthday, the capital city of the Emerald Grove was struck by a plague that ripped through the common folk while leaving the noble class relatively untouched. Beg and plead as she might, her father sent little in aid to the commoners who worked his lands, instead sending soldiers to enforce isolation and curfews with brutal authority. While effective at eventually bringing the disease under control, the city and Eriwyn both were devastated as nearly a quarter of the city's population lay dead in mass graves, or drifted away as ash from funeral pyres.
The ravages of the plague, and the shoddy efficacy of her father’s reactive measures, lead to a growing interest in medicine within the young woman, leading her to take up the study of medicine and biology alongside her other studies. This eventually culminated in Eriwyn starting a hobby clinic in the central part of the capital of her father’s Duchy, where she practiced and learned through experience and experimentation. Her father was none too happy, seeing this as below his daughter's station to be working amongst those who needed help but could not pay at a proper facility, or those who had an emergency that she was closest to.
As came to all elven girls of noble birth in their kingdom, on Eriwyn’s 200th birthday she came of age and had her official debut into society, alongside an announcement of her betrothal. Duke Aegnor had arranged a marriage for her that would benefit the family, a marriage to the up-and-coming young Count Beleg of Verdant Lake, whose lands bordered the Duke’s. Unfortunately for Eriwyn, the Count was a callous man whose treatment of his servants and serfs left her aghast.
Soon after learning of her betrothal to Count Beleg, and shortly after meeting the man himself, Eriwyn decided to run away. Over the following months, she carefully arranged for a carriage and horse to be readied through the many friends and connections she’d made through her studies and work in her clinic, before slipping away the night before the wedding and making for the Duchy's border.
Eriwyn traveled under an assumed identity of a well-to-do traveling doctor, charging those who could pay so that she could help those who could not. As she traveled, she heard rumors of the Uttering Monks and their Saying ways, and they reminded her of the whispers she would occasionally hear from her patients' bodies. Thus, she decided to visit them in the hopes of learning more of their arts. She spent nearly 10 years living among them and learning their ways before moving on, as rumors of a missing princess and a search party began to reach the Eld Marshes. With that stop behind her, she continued wandering, stopping wherever there were hospitals and places of learning to be found. During her travels, she supported herself by providing discrete services for nobles for anything from a cure for their son’s sniffles, to a powder to solve their marital issues, while using this money to help commoners and other folk. Eventually found herself in the Hold of Clan Buraq, hoping to learn about their unique biology and medicinal practices from their Shamans.
This came to a head when, soon after Eriwyn’s 45th birthday, the capital city of the Emerald Grove was struck by a plague that ripped through the common folk while leaving the noble class relatively untouched. Beg and plead as she might, her father sent little in aid to the commoners who worked his lands, instead sending soldiers to enforce isolation and curfews with brutal authority. While effective at eventually bringing the disease under control, the city and Eriwyn both were devastated as nearly a quarter of the city's population lay dead in mass graves, or drifted away as ash from funeral pyres.
The ravages of the plague, and the shoddy efficacy of her father’s reactive measures, lead to a growing interest in medicine within the young woman, leading her to take up the study of medicine and biology alongside her other studies. This eventually culminated in Eriwyn starting a hobby clinic in the central part of the capital of her father’s Duchy, where she practiced and learned through experience and experimentation. Her father was none too happy, seeing this as below his daughter's station to be working amongst those who needed help but could not pay at a proper facility, or those who had an emergency that she was closest to.
As came to all elven girls of noble birth in their kingdom, on Eriwyn’s 200th birthday she came of age and had her official debut into society, alongside an announcement of her betrothal. Duke Aegnor had arranged a marriage for her that would benefit the family, a marriage to the up-and-coming young Count Beleg of Verdant Lake, whose lands bordered the Duke’s. Unfortunately for Eriwyn, the Count was a callous man whose treatment of his servants and serfs left her aghast.
Soon after learning of her betrothal to Count Beleg, and shortly after meeting the man himself, Eriwyn decided to run away. Over the following months, she carefully arranged for a carriage and horse to be readied through the many friends and connections she’d made through her studies and work in her clinic, before slipping away the night before the wedding and making for the Duchy's border.
Eriwyn traveled under an assumed identity of a well-to-do traveling doctor, charging those who could pay so that she could help those who could not. As she traveled, she heard rumors of the Uttering Monks and their Saying ways, and they reminded her of the whispers she would occasionally hear from her patients' bodies. Thus, she decided to visit them in the hopes of learning more of their arts. She spent nearly 10 years living among them and learning their ways before moving on, as rumors of a missing princess and a search party began to reach the Eld Marshes. With that stop behind her, she continued wandering, stopping wherever there were hospitals and places of learning to be found. During her travels, she supported herself by providing discrete services for nobles for anything from a cure for their son’s sniffles, to a powder to solve their marital issues, while using this money to help commoners and other folk. Eventually found herself in the Hold of Clan Buraq, hoping to learn about their unique biology and medicinal practices from their Shamans.
Personality:
At her core, Eriwyn is an idealist and a pacifist. She is driven by a hatred of suffering in all its forms while craving the knowledge and power to do something about it. As such she has a hard time turning a blind eye to those in need, with little attention for her own safety as she works to save lives.
On the other hand, she also has the long memory and longer lifespan of her people, and is perfectly willing to play the long game to get what she wants, persistently (or stubbornly, depending on who you ask) working towards a goal over the course of years or decades if necessary.
On the other hand, she also has the long memory and longer lifespan of her people, and is perfectly willing to play the long game to get what she wants, persistently (or stubbornly, depending on who you ask) working towards a goal over the course of years or decades if necessary.
Motivation:
Eriwyn travels to expand her knowledge and help those in need, while also avoiding her betrothed. She knows they were searching for her, but does not know if they still are.
Skills and Strengths:
Eriwyn is a Sayer who speaks the languages of the Body and Plants
Body teaches and does in equal measure, as the body guides and is guided by the mind. A body can tell you what ails it and where the aches and pains are, and can help a doctor figure out the symptoms. It can also stimulate the growth of that once lost, or the modification of what is present. At present, Eriwyn has only used this within the bounds of what is normal for her subjects. She has theorized that going beyond may be possible, but is unwilling to try it on another and nervous about trying it on herself.
Plants speak quickly but do much. A plant may be coaxed to grow faster or out of season if provided with the right conditions and nutrients, or be taught to develop more potent versions of its properties, medicinal or otherwise. If properly prepared, a Plant-speaker can create medicines and rudimentary structures, or root their opponents to the ground with grasping vines.
Medical Professional: Eriwyn has spent nearly 100 years learning, practicing, and refining her medical skills with the knowledge available in her home. She can treat most normal ailments and accomplish other mundane medical tasks with what is on hand, and with her Utterance can even perform surgery and other invasive techniques with lessened risk.
Horticulture: With the help of her magic and many years of practice as a lady's art, Eriwyn has a green thumb and keeps a compact but flourishing garden on/in the roof of her wagon. The centerpiece of this garden is what she calls her rapid growth pots, which she uses to grow medicinal herbs and other useful plants as necessary
Unnatural Charisma: Eriwyn was always an outgoing woman, and learning Utterance only furthered this. She has a natural charisma about her that is bolstered by the vibrant aura of life and growth that flows with her every motion, catching and holding most people's attention and making every doctor's dream of a patient that actually listens come true.
Body teaches and does in equal measure, as the body guides and is guided by the mind. A body can tell you what ails it and where the aches and pains are, and can help a doctor figure out the symptoms. It can also stimulate the growth of that once lost, or the modification of what is present. At present, Eriwyn has only used this within the bounds of what is normal for her subjects. She has theorized that going beyond may be possible, but is unwilling to try it on another and nervous about trying it on herself.
Plants speak quickly but do much. A plant may be coaxed to grow faster or out of season if provided with the right conditions and nutrients, or be taught to develop more potent versions of its properties, medicinal or otherwise. If properly prepared, a Plant-speaker can create medicines and rudimentary structures, or root their opponents to the ground with grasping vines.
Medical Professional: Eriwyn has spent nearly 100 years learning, practicing, and refining her medical skills with the knowledge available in her home. She can treat most normal ailments and accomplish other mundane medical tasks with what is on hand, and with her Utterance can even perform surgery and other invasive techniques with lessened risk.
Horticulture: With the help of her magic and many years of practice as a lady's art, Eriwyn has a green thumb and keeps a compact but flourishing garden on/in the roof of her wagon. The centerpiece of this garden is what she calls her rapid growth pots, which she uses to grow medicinal herbs and other useful plants as necessary
Unnatural Charisma: Eriwyn was always an outgoing woman, and learning Utterance only furthered this. She has a natural charisma about her that is bolstered by the vibrant aura of life and growth that flows with her every motion, catching and holding most people's attention and making every doctor's dream of a patient that actually listens come true.
Weaknesses:
Pacifist: Eriwyn refuses to kill any sentient creature, no matter the circumstances, and will only defend herself with what she sees as the minimum amount of necessary force. Her fathers rule over his lands and the effects it had on its citizens left her with a deep-seated distaste for violence in all its forms, though her time on the road has taught her that having to defend oneself is sometimes unavoidable.
Naive: Eriwyn is wise to dark concepts like death and sadness, but is often unaware of the darker uses for many techniques and medicines and the finer points of betrayal and sabotage, and even though she has lived over two centuries most of that was sheltered within the halls of her family's holdings or the Royal court.
Stubborn Pride: Eriwyn can change her mind, and have it changed, but if she has firmly decided on a course of action it is incredibly difficult to change her course without physical intervention.
Naive: Eriwyn is wise to dark concepts like death and sadness, but is often unaware of the darker uses for many techniques and medicines and the finer points of betrayal and sabotage, and even though she has lived over two centuries most of that was sheltered within the halls of her family's holdings or the Royal court.
Stubborn Pride: Eriwyn can change her mind, and have it changed, but if she has firmly decided on a course of action it is incredibly difficult to change her course without physical intervention.
Tools:
Eriwyn has extensive medical supplies within her wagon, and has a pack she carries with her of the essentials. She also carries small balls of seeds packed in with dirt and fertilizers in a separate pack along with some basic sampling supplies. She also has her garden as part of her wagon, and the main room can also be converted to a doctors office when she is seeing a patient.
What They Most Want:
For her family and her betrothed to forget her.
If They Had a DnD Alignment, It Would Be:
Neutral Good
Three Likes:
Meeting new people
Helping others
Seeing new sights
Three Dislikes:
Violence
Greed
Suffering
Do They Follow Their Heart or Their Mind?:
Heart
Worst Fear:
Losing a patient she could have saved, no matter the reason.
Favorite Color:
Green
Most Like The Animal:
Golden Retriever
Favorite Time of Day:
Morning, with dew still upon the leaves
How They Dress:
At the intersection of fancy and practical
Favorite Season:
Spring
What Gods/Spirits/Whatevers They Worship (If Any):
Eriwyn follows the Wanderer, and holds great respect for Eld Frowen.
For her family and her betrothed to forget her.
If They Had a DnD Alignment, It Would Be:
Neutral Good
Three Likes:
Meeting new people
Helping others
Seeing new sights
Three Dislikes:
Violence
Greed
Suffering
Do They Follow Their Heart or Their Mind?:
Heart
Worst Fear:
Losing a patient she could have saved, no matter the reason.
Favorite Color:
Green
Most Like The Animal:
Golden Retriever
Favorite Time of Day:
Morning, with dew still upon the leaves
How They Dress:
At the intersection of fancy and practical
Favorite Season:
Spring
What Gods/Spirits/Whatevers They Worship (If Any):
Eriwyn follows the Wanderer, and holds great respect for Eld Frowen.
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GM
@Tortoise Finally finished the character I've been talking about in discord, hope she passes musterEriwyn
Race, Age, Time in the Caravan:Elf, 223, Newly Arrived
History:Eriwyn was raised on stories of the noble hero-kings of ages past by her nursemaid, and the ideals these stories espoused landed and found fertile ground in her young mind. She is the 7th of 11 children of the Duke Aegnor of the Emerald Grove. By the Duke's reckoning, she was the most troublesome by far, caring about more than the family's wealth and power. To the Duke's disappointment, Eriwyn was nearly the polar opposite of her father, caring more for the people of the land than the profits they could produce.
This came to a head when, soon after Eriwyn’s 45th birthday, the capital city of the Emerald Grove was struck by a plague that ripped through the common folk while leaving the noble class relatively untouched. Beg and plead as she might, her father sent little in aid to the commoners who worked his lands, instead sending soldiers to enforce isolation and curfews with brutal authority. While effective at eventually bringing the disease under control, the city and Eriwyn both were devastated as nearly a quarter of the city's population lay dead in mass graves, or drifted away as ash from funeral pyres.
The ravages of the plague, and the shoddy efficacy of her father’s reactive measures, lead to a growing interest in medicine within the young woman, leading her to take up the study of medicine and biology alongside her other studies. This eventually culminated in Eriwyn starting a hobby clinic in the central part of the capital of her father’s Duchy, where she practiced and learned through experience and experimentation. Her father was none too happy, seeing this as below his daughter's station to be working amongst those who needed help but could not pay at a proper facility, or those who had an emergency that she was closest to.
As came to all elven girls of noble birth in their kingdom, on Eriwyn’s 200th birthday she came of age and had her official debut into society, alongside an announcement of her betrothal. Duke Aegnor had arranged a marriage for her that would benefit the family, a marriage to the up-and-coming young Count Beleg of Verdant Lake, whose lands bordered the Duke’s. Unfortunately for Eriwyn, the Count was a callous man whose treatment of his servants and serfs left her aghast.
Soon after learning of her betrothal to Count Beleg, and shortly after meeting the man himself, Eriwyn decided to run away. Over the following months, she carefully arranged for a carriage and horse to be readied through the many friends and connections she’d made through her studies and work in her clinic, before slipping away the night before the wedding and making for the Duchy's border.
Eriwyn traveled under an assumed identity of a well-to-do traveling doctor, charging those who could pay so that she could help those who could not. As she traveled, she heard rumors of the Uttering Monks and their Saying ways, and they reminded her of the whispers she would occasionally hear from her patients' bodies. Thus, she decided to visit them in the hopes of learning more of their arts. She spent nearly 10 years living among them and learning their ways before moving on, as rumors of a missing princess and a search party began to reach the Eld Marshes. With that stop behind her, she continued wandering, stopping wherever there were hospitals and places of learning to be found. During her travels, she supported herself by providing discrete services for nobles for anything from a cure for their son’s sniffles, to a powder to solve their marital issues, while using this money to help commoners and other folk. Eventually found herself in the Hold of Clan Buraq, hoping to learn about their unique biology and medicinal practices from their Shamans.
Personality:At her core, Eriwyn is an idealist and a pacifist. She is driven by a hatred of suffering in all its forms while craving the knowledge and power to do something about it. As such she has a hard time turning a blind eye to those in need, with little attention for her own safety as she works to save lives.
On the other hand, she also has the long memory and longer lifespan of her people, and is perfectly willing to play the long game to get what she wants, persistently (or stubbornly, depending on who you ask) working towards a goal over the course of years or decades if necessary.
Motivation:Eriwyn travels to expand her knowledge and help those in need, while also avoiding her betrothed. She knows they were searching for her, but does not know if they still are.
Skills and Strengths:Eriwyn is a Sayer who speaks the languages of the Body and Plants
Body teaches and does in equal measure, as the body guides and is guided by the mind. A body can tell you what ails it and where the aches and pains are, and can help a doctor figure out the symptoms. It can also stimulate the growth of that once lost, or the modification of what is present. At present, Eriwyn has only used this within the bounds of what is normal for her subjects. She has theorized that going beyond may be possible, but is unwilling to try it on another and nervous about trying it on herself.
Plants speak quickly but do much. A plant may be coaxed to grow faster or out of season if provided with the right conditions and nutrients, or be taught to develop more potent versions of its properties, medicinal or otherwise. If properly prepared, a Plant-speaker can create medicines and rudimentary structures, or root their opponents to the ground with grasping vines.
Medical Professional: Eriwyn has spent nearly 100 years learning, practicing, and refining her medical skills with the knowledge available in her home. She can treat most normal ailments and accomplish other mundane medical tasks with what is on hand, and with her Utterance can even perform surgery and other invasive techniques with lessened risk.
Horticulture: With the help of her magic and many years of practice as a lady's art, Eriwyn has a green thumb and keeps a compact but flourishing garden on/in the roof of her wagon. The centerpiece of this garden is what she calls her rapid growth pots, which she uses to grow medicinal herbs and other useful plants as necessary
Unnatural Charisma: Eriwyn was always an outgoing woman, and learning Utterance only furthered this. She has a natural charisma about her that is bolstered by the vibrant aura of life and growth that flows with her every motion, catching and holding most people's attention and making every doctor's dream of a patient that actually listens come true.
Weaknesses:Pacifist: Eriwyn refuses to kill any sentient creature, no matter the circumstances, and will only defend herself with what she sees as the minimum amount of necessary force. Her fathers rule over his lands and the effects it had on its citizens left her with a deep-seated distaste for violence in all its forms, though her time on the road has taught her that having to defend oneself is sometimes unavoidable.
Naive: Eriwyn is wise to dark concepts like death and sadness, but is often unaware of the darker uses for many techniques and medicines and the finer points of betrayal and sabotage, and even though she has lived over two centuries most of that was sheltered within the halls of her family's holdings or the Royal court.
Stubborn Pride: Eriwyn can change her mind, and have it changed, but if she has firmly decided on a course of action it is incredibly difficult to change her course without physical intervention.
Tools:Eriwyn has extensive medical supplies within her wagon, and has a pack she carries with her of the essentials. She also carries small balls of seeds packed in with dirt and fertilizers in a separate pack along with some basic sampling supplies. She also has her garden as part of her wagon, and the main room can also be converted to a doctors office when she is seeing a patient.What They Most Want:
For her family and her betrothed to forget her.
If They Had a DnD Alignment, It Would Be:
Neutral Good
Three Likes:
Meeting new people
Helping others
Seeing new sights
Three Dislikes:
Violence
Greed
Suffering
Do They Follow Their Heart or Their Mind?:
Heart
Worst Fear:
Losing a patient she could have saved, no matter the reason.
Favorite Color:
Green
Most Like The Animal:
Golden Retriever
Favorite Time of Day:
Morning, with dew still upon the leaves
How They Dress:
At the intersection of fancy and practical
Favorite Season:
Spring
What Gods/Spirits/Whatevers They Worship (If Any):
Eriwyn follows the Wanderer, and holds great respect for Eld Frowen.
An excellent character. A simple concept at first glance (wandering doctor), but given more depth by your writing and the way you thought her out, and by the way you connect it to the creations of other players. I noticed Expendable's Wanderer deity made an appearance as well as Utterance ;P
Approved. You can dump her in the Char tab and start posting whenevers. We should probably discuss how you intend to introduce her to the Caravan soon, unless you just want to wing it and have her bump into some Pilgrims along the way.
POOHEAD189 The Abmin
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Online
Is there potentially room for another?
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coGM
Timemaster Ashevelendar
Member
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1 mo ago
@POOHEAD189 Always accepting new players! Hop on our discord where everyone is :)
GM
Is there potentially room for another?
Absolutely! There's infinite room. The Caravan is bigger on the inside, I swear
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Expendable The Certifiable
Member
Seen
23 min ago
<Snipped quote by POOHEAD189>
Absolutely! There's infinite room. The Caravan is bigger on the inside, I swear
People have gotten lost. Remember to bring string and tie it well at the entrance. There will be stairs.
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Ooluut of Burrow Four
Race, Age, Time in the Caravan:
Diplat, 4 years old, To Join; her cubs (Tuli, Grul, and Thissik) are barely a few weeks old at this point
A diminutive and largely isolated race of four-eyed rodent-like creatures with thin dark red fur and leathery skin, barely two and a half feet tall at their largest and armed with hefty three-fingered claws and feet for digging. They are not particularly well known to most surface dwelling peoples, for their short lifespans and abundance of strange, monstrous predators has left them a cautious, skittish, and overly conservative folk. To their credit, they are generally friendly and cooperative, and are highly adept in the magic of Geomancy, allowing their burrows to cover only a very small distance but to contain vast networks of extradimensional space.
Also of note is that their lungs are not connecting to their mouths, which due to an odd confluence of features (such as “valves” poking out of their shoulders) means that their own languages are deeply alien to most other races. The descriptions vary, but can neatly be summarized as “a harmony of wind instruments... full of wet food”.
Also of note is that their lungs are not connecting to their mouths, which due to an odd confluence of features (such as “valves” poking out of their shoulders) means that their own languages are deeply alien to most other races. The descriptions vary, but can neatly be summarized as “a harmony of wind instruments... full of wet food”.
APPEARANCE & CLOTHING:
For the most part, Ooluut would not be anything particular by diplat standards – a little over two feet tall and half as wide, with short leathery arms and wide, stubby legs, and a very short round tail hidden behind thick, coarse and robe-like grey fatigues that wrap around her body. A distinct but mild odour of rain and mud follows her everywhere, and her short, dark red fur is constantly ruffled and dusty. Four beady pitch black eyes peer out from folds of skin above a short, flat nose. Beneath that is a mouth that appears to lack teeth only because of the curve of her lips, save for a pair of large incisors that form an almost beak-like dagger even when her lips are closed.
Her cubs are young even by diplat standards – barely a few weeks old, they each measure a little over three inches and are at this point little more than warm, fuzzy blobs that spend most of their time hiding in Ooluut’s pouch. Even so, she can already see and feel sparks of distinct personality between them, perhaps in ways the untrained human eye cannot.
The most distinctive trait would be that her fatigues are etched with small, pale green markings – these symbols glow brightly in the dark and are a mark of her office as a geomancer, a vital and powerful role in diplat society. Likewise she once possessed a small medallion etched with similar symbols of her status, though this was taken by her captors.
YUL-KARROK, BURROW CITY OF THE DIPLAT
Ooluut’s history and the history of her family is closely tied to that of their once great city – Yul-Karrok of the Sandveins. Legend says that once, countless generations ago, it was founded as an outpost of a great empire that stretched across the deep caverns and tunnels of the world. But for reasons not well understood, the empire fell, and many of its towns and cities grew isolated from one another and from the world at large.
For generations Yul-Karrok maintained its independence and was little known by outsiders, save for occasional dwarf travelers and traders on its fringes. This was, for the most part, a result of the ancient diplat art of geomancy, of the careful use of leylines, stone and communal dreamwalking to compress and distort the fabric of space, literally “storing” more space in an area than it naturally should. By these means they could hold many more people, land, and supplies in what was to outside observers a largely unremarkable – if well-guarded and confusing – set of caves and tunnels.
Ooluut, specifically, was born into the families of burrow four, who were vital to the maintenance of these geomantic arrays. She was raised from a wee cub in this tradition, and as she entered young adulthood at the age of three she was already adept in this art, often tasked with patrolling the city’s edges to help maintain and stabilize the city's large network of 'geomantic arrays' - sets of symbols and glyphs in turn imprinted upon with the diplat's collective dreams and willpower, that were used to "layer" the geomancy and maintain the city's structure and secrecy.
Save, unfortunately, for those on the upper levels. So old were they, and so far removed from the city itself, that they had largely been forgotten about – it was only after a series of tremors had impacted the city, initially small but gradually larger and more frequent in the last few months, that she decided to investigate. Not long before that her cubs had been born, but they were still too young to even dream of leaving the pouch.
Despite the protests of her fellows, she decided to take the job on – it was her research that had rediscovered these arrays in the first place, damn it, she wanted to see them for herself.
THE GEOMANCER’S CALAMITY
It took her the better part of three days, navigating tunnels long abandoned and through burrows none had lived in for generations. A golem - a hefty, box-like beast of stone and metal - had come with her for protection, and once or twice they had been forced to fend off a direrat or a snaggle-toothed flower... but still, they had pressed on. Most worrying to Ooluut, however, was the tremors, and the tindalos – entities created by the fragmenting of the world that all geomancy involved, and often used as part of elaborate traps to hunt would-be intruders or predators.
But here, so close to the surface and with sunlight filtering through cracks in the stone, the tindalos were all gone - their forms subsumed back into reality. Ooluut's heart sank with terrible realization, for the geomantic arrays were not simply old. Oh no, the truth was far worse.
The arrays here were gone.
The etchings and symbols were faded, cracked and misshapen, and the lack of collective dreaming had almost completely stripped them of power. Worse still, something was leeching energy from them. Cracks in the surface revealed thick rain clouds, and… trees?! Hundreds and hundreds of strange and alien trees dotted the surface world, dwelt in by tall and monstrous insects. It was an impossibility. All of the legends and histories had clearly stated that Yul-Karrok was built underneath a great desert! In part it had thrived because no one had need of this place, and the disruption of the leylines typically caused by geomancy wouldn't attract any attention.
But as she looked over the markings of the now dead array, her mind racing for a solution that could buy the city time, Ooluut's quills quivered... and the trees of this strange landscape saw her. As the strange chittering insects turned to see her, as one they charged with claw, mandible and wing and began to breach the tunnels. All the while, the tremors that had been accelerating over the past few months were now growing ever more out of control, and a wicked realization entered Ooluut's mind.
Could she warn her people? Was there time?
‘No,’ she thought, feeling the warmth of her youngest, Tuli, nuzzling against her within her pouch, ‘There isn’t.’
But the insects broached the surface, and as they spoke to her in a foul tongue she couldn’t understand, she reached within herself. Geomancy was an art of patience and detail, but in this place, with the arrays hanging on by a thread…
The wicked thought lingered in her mind and heart, a cruel choice before her, and even as she knew she should wait her mind just as easily knew what would ensure the safety of her children.
So she did it.
She whispered the words, scratched the marking, breathed deep and reached within herself, tugging at the last dwindling thread of this ancient magic – a gift of the ancestors, the key to her people’s safety.
In a moment, it was over.
The walls that had kept Yul-Karrok a safe city were no more.
The closest array snapped like a twig, the weakest link in a great chain. In a matter of seconds, twenty centuries of magic and layered space were coiled in upon themselves and released, a spiralling rush of screaming light and coiling stone, engulfing the monstrous trees and their insects and the surface, Ooluut and her children only barely saved by the barest shred of shelter.
For what felt like an eternity, she blinked through a sky that was full of clouds and fog and shadows and dust. The world above was blinding and the underground was exposed – where the ruins of a vast city were now torn from the earth and intermingled with the broken trees of a dying, ruined forest. All around the magic was decaying, and bodies of every sort - diplat and moth and wild beast all the same - were torn and shattered against wood and stone and metal. She didn’t throw up, of course – the true immensity of it still wasn’t real, in her mind, how could it be? This was all a bad dream. A terrible nightmare.
She looked down at her pouch.
Her children were wriggling, chirping with nerves and confusion… but alive, she realized.
For the price of a hundred thousand other families, she had preserved this slice of her own.
Then something stirred, in the ruins. She felt it in her throat, her chest – a cruel hope. Survivors? Really?
But as she began to search the wreckage, already puzzling what she would tell them as her claws got shakier and shakier – ‘monsters, on the surface, they had been corrupting the array, I couldn’t stop them!’ – she started to notice something… off about the diplat in the ruins.
Whatever force had been feeding on the leylines diverted by her people's geomancy... it was not dead. Far from it - for shambling from the ruins came dead and wicked forms, monstrous creatures. Ghosts? This place was a graveyard of her creation, and as the things that used to be her neighbours and compatriots rose to claw at her and gnash their teeth, she could not stay.
So she didn’t.
She fled, as far from that wicked place as she could, and she didn’t look back.
THE PRESENT
Her memories of the past few weeks had become hazy save for glimmers – here, in this city of sand and giants, only the last few days provided clarity of purpose.
For days she had wandered, through dust and stone – rarely was there something to eat or water to drink. She had searched for safety, but traveling so far from home the tunnels in this place were often dead ends, or too tough for her to dig alone. During the day she had sought shelter among rocky outcroppings, hiding her sensitive eyes from the sun, and making a meal of scorpions or beetles. It was rarely enough – as her cubs desperately suckled she felt herself become weaker and weaker, until one evening amidst the cooling dark she saw a fire.
There sat a pair of large, stocky creatures – mostly bald save the heavy beards that surrounded their strange heads, and clad in silken armour. One of them saw her, and as they tried to communicate in some bizarre speech – while looking confused or making strange noises in response to her own attempts, she at last gave up on diplomacy and lunged for the food they were roasting.
It didn’t take them long to strike her, and as that gentle light gave way to darkness, so too did any chance at freedom being offered – not that she’d known it at the time.
For weeks now she has been kept in this cage, listening. Learning.
Day by day what was once mindless babble became words, meaning, commands, sentences. The conquests of this “Clan Baruq” are coming to an end, apparently – most of the other desperate souls in this place also lost their homes… albeit, not at their own hands, but she is a trophy just like the rest of them.
Three days ago they had taken her cubs, to be sold as pets to some rich merchant.
During the day she weeps and begs for them, in the hopes a stranger will take pity, but during the night she thinks, and grates her fangs, and makes markings into the floor of the cage.
Thin and eager markings.
Knowing.
Ooluut’s history and the history of her family is closely tied to that of their once great city – Yul-Karrok of the Sandveins. Legend says that once, countless generations ago, it was founded as an outpost of a great empire that stretched across the deep caverns and tunnels of the world. But for reasons not well understood, the empire fell, and many of its towns and cities grew isolated from one another and from the world at large.
For generations Yul-Karrok maintained its independence and was little known by outsiders, save for occasional dwarf travelers and traders on its fringes. This was, for the most part, a result of the ancient diplat art of geomancy, of the careful use of leylines, stone and communal dreamwalking to compress and distort the fabric of space, literally “storing” more space in an area than it naturally should. By these means they could hold many more people, land, and supplies in what was to outside observers a largely unremarkable – if well-guarded and confusing – set of caves and tunnels.
Ooluut, specifically, was born into the families of burrow four, who were vital to the maintenance of these geomantic arrays. She was raised from a wee cub in this tradition, and as she entered young adulthood at the age of three she was already adept in this art, often tasked with patrolling the city’s edges to help maintain and stabilize the city's large network of 'geomantic arrays' - sets of symbols and glyphs in turn imprinted upon with the diplat's collective dreams and willpower, that were used to "layer" the geomancy and maintain the city's structure and secrecy.
Save, unfortunately, for those on the upper levels. So old were they, and so far removed from the city itself, that they had largely been forgotten about – it was only after a series of tremors had impacted the city, initially small but gradually larger and more frequent in the last few months, that she decided to investigate. Not long before that her cubs had been born, but they were still too young to even dream of leaving the pouch.
Despite the protests of her fellows, she decided to take the job on – it was her research that had rediscovered these arrays in the first place, damn it, she wanted to see them for herself.
THE GEOMANCER’S CALAMITY
It took her the better part of three days, navigating tunnels long abandoned and through burrows none had lived in for generations. A golem - a hefty, box-like beast of stone and metal - had come with her for protection, and once or twice they had been forced to fend off a direrat or a snaggle-toothed flower... but still, they had pressed on. Most worrying to Ooluut, however, was the tremors, and the tindalos – entities created by the fragmenting of the world that all geomancy involved, and often used as part of elaborate traps to hunt would-be intruders or predators.
But here, so close to the surface and with sunlight filtering through cracks in the stone, the tindalos were all gone - their forms subsumed back into reality. Ooluut's heart sank with terrible realization, for the geomantic arrays were not simply old. Oh no, the truth was far worse.
The arrays here were gone.
The etchings and symbols were faded, cracked and misshapen, and the lack of collective dreaming had almost completely stripped them of power. Worse still, something was leeching energy from them. Cracks in the surface revealed thick rain clouds, and… trees?! Hundreds and hundreds of strange and alien trees dotted the surface world, dwelt in by tall and monstrous insects. It was an impossibility. All of the legends and histories had clearly stated that Yul-Karrok was built underneath a great desert! In part it had thrived because no one had need of this place, and the disruption of the leylines typically caused by geomancy wouldn't attract any attention.
But as she looked over the markings of the now dead array, her mind racing for a solution that could buy the city time, Ooluut's quills quivered... and the trees of this strange landscape saw her. As the strange chittering insects turned to see her, as one they charged with claw, mandible and wing and began to breach the tunnels. All the while, the tremors that had been accelerating over the past few months were now growing ever more out of control, and a wicked realization entered Ooluut's mind.
Could she warn her people? Was there time?
‘No,’ she thought, feeling the warmth of her youngest, Tuli, nuzzling against her within her pouch, ‘There isn’t.’
But the insects broached the surface, and as they spoke to her in a foul tongue she couldn’t understand, she reached within herself. Geomancy was an art of patience and detail, but in this place, with the arrays hanging on by a thread…
The wicked thought lingered in her mind and heart, a cruel choice before her, and even as she knew she should wait her mind just as easily knew what would ensure the safety of her children.
So she did it.
She whispered the words, scratched the marking, breathed deep and reached within herself, tugging at the last dwindling thread of this ancient magic – a gift of the ancestors, the key to her people’s safety.
In a moment, it was over.
The walls that had kept Yul-Karrok a safe city were no more.
The closest array snapped like a twig, the weakest link in a great chain. In a matter of seconds, twenty centuries of magic and layered space were coiled in upon themselves and released, a spiralling rush of screaming light and coiling stone, engulfing the monstrous trees and their insects and the surface, Ooluut and her children only barely saved by the barest shred of shelter.
For what felt like an eternity, she blinked through a sky that was full of clouds and fog and shadows and dust. The world above was blinding and the underground was exposed – where the ruins of a vast city were now torn from the earth and intermingled with the broken trees of a dying, ruined forest. All around the magic was decaying, and bodies of every sort - diplat and moth and wild beast all the same - were torn and shattered against wood and stone and metal. She didn’t throw up, of course – the true immensity of it still wasn’t real, in her mind, how could it be? This was all a bad dream. A terrible nightmare.
She looked down at her pouch.
Her children were wriggling, chirping with nerves and confusion… but alive, she realized.
For the price of a hundred thousand other families, she had preserved this slice of her own.
Then something stirred, in the ruins. She felt it in her throat, her chest – a cruel hope. Survivors? Really?
But as she began to search the wreckage, already puzzling what she would tell them as her claws got shakier and shakier – ‘monsters, on the surface, they had been corrupting the array, I couldn’t stop them!’ – she started to notice something… off about the diplat in the ruins.
Whatever force had been feeding on the leylines diverted by her people's geomancy... it was not dead. Far from it - for shambling from the ruins came dead and wicked forms, monstrous creatures. Ghosts? This place was a graveyard of her creation, and as the things that used to be her neighbours and compatriots rose to claw at her and gnash their teeth, she could not stay.
So she didn’t.
She fled, as far from that wicked place as she could, and she didn’t look back.
THE PRESENT
Her memories of the past few weeks had become hazy save for glimmers – here, in this city of sand and giants, only the last few days provided clarity of purpose.
For days she had wandered, through dust and stone – rarely was there something to eat or water to drink. She had searched for safety, but traveling so far from home the tunnels in this place were often dead ends, or too tough for her to dig alone. During the day she had sought shelter among rocky outcroppings, hiding her sensitive eyes from the sun, and making a meal of scorpions or beetles. It was rarely enough – as her cubs desperately suckled she felt herself become weaker and weaker, until one evening amidst the cooling dark she saw a fire.
There sat a pair of large, stocky creatures – mostly bald save the heavy beards that surrounded their strange heads, and clad in silken armour. One of them saw her, and as they tried to communicate in some bizarre speech – while looking confused or making strange noises in response to her own attempts, she at last gave up on diplomacy and lunged for the food they were roasting.
It didn’t take them long to strike her, and as that gentle light gave way to darkness, so too did any chance at freedom being offered – not that she’d known it at the time.
For weeks now she has been kept in this cage, listening. Learning.
Day by day what was once mindless babble became words, meaning, commands, sentences. The conquests of this “Clan Baruq” are coming to an end, apparently – most of the other desperate souls in this place also lost their homes… albeit, not at their own hands, but she is a trophy just like the rest of them.
Three days ago they had taken her cubs, to be sold as pets to some rich merchant.
During the day she weeps and begs for them, in the hopes a stranger will take pity, but during the night she thinks, and grates her fangs, and makes markings into the floor of the cage.
Thin and eager markings.
Knowing.
Personality:
To those who had known her before the calamity at Yul-Karrok, Ooluut was known as a focused if wildhearted person, quick to seek glory and knowledge for its own sake and with the cunning and love of detail needed to succeed in her geomantic exploits. Motherhood had begun to dampen this in many ways, but she is often torn between her desire to protect her children and the part of her that wishes she could go back to her old life.
By diplat standards, however, she was remarked to be an unusually lonely person – prone to avoiding many of the vast social gatherings normal to their crowded and collectivist society.
MOTIVATION:
In the short term, Ooluut wishes to save herself and her cubs from a life of cruel mistreatment. From there, she desires safety for them – to find another diplat burrow city, and help them to avoid the same fate as her home.
SKILLS, STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES:
— EXPERT GEOMANCER: Ooluut is a talented and experienced geomancer, having been one of many responsible for securing and maintaining the geomantic arrays that helped keep Yul-Karrok safely hidden for generations. While the collectivist and circumstantial nature of geomancy limits its “immediate” effects, Ooluut is skilled enough to use it to warp the environment around her in ways that are strange and unpredictable to others.
Throughout the world there flow many Leylines - magical currents, carrying the 'essence' of physical matter which is transferred by the movement of such and leaves a magical 'echo' of the tangible reality. That is, magic permeates the world, but leylines are the 'routes' along which this magic becomes most dynamic, and tend to match up to geographic features like rivers or canyons, or the regular migrations of people and animals.
But somewhat ironically, because the magic in leylines is constantly moving, it is trickier to tap into through most magical systems - since it is not a magical 'source' you can't simply 'tap into it' and extract magical energy like you would by, say, using the power of a person's soul, blood, or stationary elemental sources. While some societies have mastered the art of creating 'reservoirs' of magical energy by filtering it from a leyline, geomancy is specifically the use of glyphs (symbols carved into a sensitive material) to redirect leylines. Depending on what the leyline is 'echoing' this can have several effects:
--- If the leyline is an echo of routine migrations of people or animals, it will 'encourage' or 'tug' the migration to shift its movement.
--- If the leyline is tied to a 'present' geographic feature, like a river or cloud formation, then it will alter the course of such.
--- If the leyline is tied to a 'negative' geographic feature - such as a deep pit, tunnel or canyon - then it will likewise change the position or direction of such.
But beyond this, the diplat specifically have mastered oneiric geomancy, a yet stranger art where one specifically uses dreams - collective dreaming - and overlays this onto sets of geomantic glyphs, usually called 'arrays'. These 'geomantic arrays' can affect leylines in the aforementioned ways (and thus geographic features or migrations attached to them) but because it does so by overlaying an element of dream logic, it in turn allows a number of strange and wonderful effects such as causing physical spaces within the boundaries of an array to be bigger on the inside than they appear from outside, and to contain internal structures that shouldn't normally be possible - noneuclidean spaces such as corridors that loop back on themselves, or which 'stretch out' to prevent ease of access so long as the visitor 'wants' to go there, or pits that seem to fall forever.
While in theory oneiric geomancy would be usable by any of Alwyne's peoples, in practice, most races lack the combination of collective dreaming, careful insistence on detailed texture, and the tenacity of the earth itself to make it work. For the diplat, who are deeply tied to the earth and collectively nest together in the tens or hundreds of thousands with little difficulty, this proved to be not merely theoretical but practical and powerful in a way that would allow them to form a mighty – if largely invisible – empire of their own and left their remnant cities undisturbed and secret for centuries.
But somewhat ironically, because the magic in leylines is constantly moving, it is trickier to tap into through most magical systems - since it is not a magical 'source' you can't simply 'tap into it' and extract magical energy like you would by, say, using the power of a person's soul, blood, or stationary elemental sources. While some societies have mastered the art of creating 'reservoirs' of magical energy by filtering it from a leyline, geomancy is specifically the use of glyphs (symbols carved into a sensitive material) to redirect leylines. Depending on what the leyline is 'echoing' this can have several effects:
--- If the leyline is an echo of routine migrations of people or animals, it will 'encourage' or 'tug' the migration to shift its movement.
--- If the leyline is tied to a 'present' geographic feature, like a river or cloud formation, then it will alter the course of such.
--- If the leyline is tied to a 'negative' geographic feature - such as a deep pit, tunnel or canyon - then it will likewise change the position or direction of such.
But beyond this, the diplat specifically have mastered oneiric geomancy, a yet stranger art where one specifically uses dreams - collective dreaming - and overlays this onto sets of geomantic glyphs, usually called 'arrays'. These 'geomantic arrays' can affect leylines in the aforementioned ways (and thus geographic features or migrations attached to them) but because it does so by overlaying an element of dream logic, it in turn allows a number of strange and wonderful effects such as causing physical spaces within the boundaries of an array to be bigger on the inside than they appear from outside, and to contain internal structures that shouldn't normally be possible - noneuclidean spaces such as corridors that loop back on themselves, or which 'stretch out' to prevent ease of access so long as the visitor 'wants' to go there, or pits that seem to fall forever.
While in theory oneiric geomancy would be usable by any of Alwyne's peoples, in practice, most races lack the combination of collective dreaming, careful insistence on detailed texture, and the tenacity of the earth itself to make it work. For the diplat, who are deeply tied to the earth and collectively nest together in the tens or hundreds of thousands with little difficulty, this proved to be not merely theoretical but practical and powerful in a way that would allow them to form a mighty – if largely invisible – empire of their own and left their remnant cities undisturbed and secret for centuries.
— QUICK THINKING: Diplat think quickly, a vital skill in their vast collectives and their ancient history as prey for so many monsters. Thus, while Ooluut’s keen, underground-attuned senses are vulnerable to bright light, she has fast reaction times and is able to quickly pick up new skills or memorize important information.
— DIPLAT PHYSIOLOGY: Both a strength and a weakness. Her small size and tough, leathery skin make her adept at moving through small confined spaces with ease, while sturdy claws and teeth and an instinct for digging also have their uses, and her highly sensitive eyes, ears and nose allow her to see with clarity even on a moonless night. However, she is not particularly durable to injury and her overall lack of strength or continuous speed leaves her and her cubs constantly at risk of harm by those with violent intentions.
— BURDENS BOTH WITHIN & WITHOUT: Ooluut is burdened by a deep, terrible guilt. Her captivity has given her little else to do but think and the true enormity of her crimes way upon her heart. While she has stopped herself from falling into total despair by focusing on how she might escape and rescue her cubs, that itself is a constant source of anxiety for her. The truth is, every victory – whether small or great – can only succeed in putting off the dark, inevitable reality of what she has done, and the knowledge that nothing she ever does will let her move past it.
— ALONE: While she can guess there are other diplat burrow-cities out there, the fact that most she has met have no idea what she even is or assume she’s some sort of strange animal fills her with a cold dread. On the surface world she is alone, and vulnerable, and little understood.
TOOLS & POSSESSIONS:
Besides the gray, robe-like fatigues she wears decorated in pale green glyphs of her rank and a worn out bag of supplies now lost and torn, there is nothing to her name.
What They Most Want:
If They Had a DnD Alignment, It Would Be: While once “True Neutral” might have been accurate, she has revealed a distinctly selfish streak that will act to preserve her children against any threat… no matter the cost.
Three Likes:
Three Dislikes:
Do They Follow Their Heart or Their Mind?: Ooluut fears following either too much, but trusting her instincts did ultimately saved her life and the lives of her children. Now stuck in a world alien to her senses and largely alone, she finds herself needing to trust her gut.
Worst Fear: Losing her children, but a close second would be losing what few possessions she still has from her fallen city.
Favorite Color:
Most Like The Animal:
That is, which animal they are most like- not which one they like the most.
Favorite Time of Day:
How They Dress:
Favorite Season:
What Gods/Spirits/Whatevers They Worship (If Any):
If They Had a DnD Alignment, It Would Be: While once “True Neutral” might have been accurate, she has revealed a distinctly selfish streak that will act to preserve her children against any threat… no matter the cost.
Three Likes:
Three Dislikes:
Do They Follow Their Heart or Their Mind?: Ooluut fears following either too much, but trusting her instincts did ultimately saved her life and the lives of her children. Now stuck in a world alien to her senses and largely alone, she finds herself needing to trust her gut.
Worst Fear: Losing her children, but a close second would be losing what few possessions she still has from her fallen city.
Favorite Color:
Most Like The Animal:
That is, which animal they are most like- not which one they like the most.
Favorite Time of Day:
How They Dress:
Favorite Season:
What Gods/Spirits/Whatevers They Worship (If Any):
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