[OOC] The Relics

[Fallenreaper]

Ellri said
this is the point we'd insert a whimsical grin.

Allow me:

[WilsonTurner]

I prefer this, it's much more intellectual, and a better reflection of my inner self:

[Apokalipse]

I believe I will be able to post tomorrow since my exams end then.

[Ellri]

With Alida dropping out... We're wondering if there's anyone willing to step up a little to help advance the plot. We know Fallen's helping out, but we also know she's got enough on her GM plate...

Also, don't be afraid to discuss random stuff here. The OoC is far too quiet.

[WilsonTurner]

Myth might come into town soon. Depends on if my writer's block is on or off.

[Ellri]

ok.

We've begun writing for a new IntCk to try to get some fresh blood in here.

[Ellri]

Ok, we posted up that new IntCk. You'll find it here:
http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/73407/posts/ooc?page=1

[Despair]

I posted a character sheet on the character sheet page, but was that a mistake? either way its there for you to look at.

[Ellri]

It'd have been preferred if you posted it here first, but thats too late now. We'll give you a semi-quick review.

First of all, we made a mistake in the CS thread. Its been mentioned somewhere else that we don't want further characters who are not aligned with some pre-existing faction. At this point, the preferred factions for people to be aligned with would be:
The Order of Idris
The Kalesian Empire
The Kingdom of Othea

Intriguing relic design. We're rather skeptical to the idea of it granting immortality, even taking into account the fact that it doesn't mean invulnerability. Also, relics either bond with someone, or they utterly ignore them. They can't be forced into a bond. Please give him an actual age. Relics can extend lifespan, but it is always at a cost.

The abilities do feel a touch too powerful, though. Combining the fact that it prevents him from dying of age, can kill most anyone, summon powerful spirits who have powerful abilities and provide him with a powerful weapon makes it extremely powerful. It doesn't feel like it has sufficient balancers. We would recommend cutting down a bit on the boons and adding some flaws to it.

Here are some suggestions you might explore to lessen the overpowering abilities of the relic:
- Perhaps it draws on his spirit/soul, making him somewhat wraithlike (think a bit like what the Morgul knife was trying to do to Frodo in Lord of the Rings)
- perhaps instead of summoning physical beings with mighty powers, it can summon a few spirits of those it has consumed? Those spirits would probably not last long before they return "home", but could be rather ravenous and potentially very dangerous to their targets (think a bit like powerful wraith-spirits). You could perhaps think up "roles" for said spirits, roles like defend, attack, spy, etc.
- Explore concepts where it could perhaps change his personality or skills rather than grant actual powers.

The scythe in itself feels too powerful Anything with "impossible" in it calls up our skepticism.
Also, we'd very much prefer it if you made him less grim-reaper like. That entity has nothing to do with the world of Azukhar.

Appearance: Try to go with a somewhat more realistic appearance. The laws of physics and anatomy still exist here. Aside from the relics themselves, the world of Azukhar is a plain medieval society, following many of the norms, but with some nations having significant cultural deviances (gender equality, for example)

History: The people all know about relics. In Othea they've in recent years become less welcome due to the Order of Idris gaining more influence, but the people still know of them. Also, relics don't have age-restrictions (other than the obvious of not activating for infants). They can activate for essentially anyone. The older he is, the more people knew of relics. The people of Azukhar are all descendants of people who lived in the Old Kingdom.

Personality/Motivation:
This doesn't work. Refusal and inability to connect with others inevitably results in characters that are loners, that don't get involved in the rest of the plot. Give him a realistic personality, please.
Relations: See previous point.

one final note: Once bonded, it can be very dangerous to get separated from one's relic. If the distance is too great, it is lethal.
Edit: Having relations does not mean that your character has to be an outgoing fellow. Not everyone are suited for playing such. (ourselves included)

[Apokalipse]

I really enjoy this RP, you guys, but I'm going to have to drop this. There is too much going on in my life right now, so I have to lighten my RP load and I'm sorry that I had to leave this one, but this one requires the most which I can't give right now. You may use Lavica as you wish, but please retain her original personality as I worked hard on her. I hope this RP does well. (:

[Ellri]

That is most unfortunate to hear, Apokalipse. Should you ever get more time available, don't hesitate to return. Considering that your character right now isn't tied down to any other, we don't see any need to meddle with her.

[Maki Casanova]

:| I'm waiting on her reply, lmao.

[Ellri]

drop by the IRC, maki. in #aftermath. the people there can help ya fix that.

[Maki Casanova]

Is anyone here willing to help me get Kaiden out of flirting with air?

[Despair]

Ellri said
It'd have been preferred if you posted it here first, but thats too late now. We'll give you a semi-quick review.

I was actually going to redesign my character anyways! I knew I rushed it, and I didn't like the way it turned out. I want to keep the immortality because his character design doesn't suit him without it, but I'll remove any references to Grim Reaper. Rather I'll put him as someone who's been in the shadows, helping out on quests from time to time but mainly just wandering the lands in search of information. I'll figure out a way to make the immortality plausible, but I'll probably change him from being really old to less then a century old. It'll be better if he starts young.

Thanks for the help :)

[Despair]

Ohk I finished my my redesigned character, I decided to completely change him an his skills. Anyways, I'll be situated in Othea.

[Ellri]

Despair. We'll PM you a link to the CS review. It proved easier to review in a Google doc. We also had another relics player jump in to help.

[DELETED324324]

Garet

Name: Garet Havarr
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Faction/Allegiance: Kalesian Empire
Relic Description:
The Iron Band: The band has the memories and thoughts of thousands of long since dead generals. So this relic makes Garet quite the tactician and strategist. But the downside is he hears all of their voices inside his head, their thoughts are his thoughts, his memories are now their memories. And the Iron band uses this as well to it's advantage. The Band requires a constant feed of memories to it and it stores these memories like a bank, if not fed it will take memories and replace them with the memories of some stored into the ring. Giving those who wield it new memories comes at quite the shock, but if the wielder is not careful, it can make him forget himself. It also seems that this ring feeds off of victory and battle,
Appearance:
Image

Flaws: Without the iron band Garet is just about average at leadership, he is a man of honor even if it comes back to bite him, he will not lie, kill an unarmed opponent, he has a weakness for women and will often go out of his way to help them, his ultimate weakness is his family if his wife or child were to get hurt he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

Skills: Garet is a master of the blade the blade is an extension of his arm and he is known as a master of death with it, he's a fair shot with a bow and arrow, and even though he is trained in mounted combat he prefers to walk.

Biography: Born to parents that were either too poor or didn't care about him, Garet was abandoned, left on the steps of the Goddess' Sanctuary shortly after being born, who willingly took him in. The next six years he spent in that sanctuary along with other orphans and foundlings, being given the rudimentary education and upbringing any child deserved according to the priests and priestesses. A priestess named Alvera took the boy under her wing, teaching the boy how to set up the altar of the Goddess and to care for his fellow man, as well as some on how to care for the sick and bandage wounds.

It was in the shadow of the goddess’ holy symbol that the boy learned about faith. He couldn’t read the Holy scripture, but he didn’t need to in order to understand that she truly cared for him. His belief in the goddess made Garet the man he is today, transforming him from a child into a believer in honor and fair treatment. What he learned at the sanctuary formed the foundations of who Garet is. He was ready and willing to devote his life to the sanctuary, but fate had something else in store for him. A lord and lady, sadly unblessed by the goddess with children of their own came to the sanctuary seeking to follow the time-honored imperial tradition of adoption. Alvera spoke on the boy’s behalf, speaking highly of him hoping to get him the future she thought he deserved. Likewise, other priests and priestesses spoke highly of other children, but in the end, the lord and lady chose Garet, taking him home with them.

Discarding the name the sanctuary had given him, the boy took on his adoptive fathers last name. His father gave the boy a tutor, who taught him the two ways of reading and writing, the first way was simple and for civilian use, the second way was so the boy can get into more advanced writings and academics. Both seemed to help the boy grow, but the boy did not have the head for scholars’ writing. When the boy reached his tenth birthday the lord interfered directly and started teaching the boy how to fight. First with his hands, then with sticks and finally with training blades. When the boy reached twelve years old his father sent away to a military academy for proper training with some of the best instructors to be had anywhere.

The military academy ran Garet through the ringer. There seemed to be no rest no end to the training. Every day he woke up with a new bruise and a new ache, a new round of studying resumed. The boys and girls within his class were expected to learn not only how to fight, but also the finer details of combat tactics and battlefield logistics. Following each theory lesson was a physical session and visa versa. It was in these lessons that Garet showed a marked preference and aptitude for the much more flexible leather armor and the glaive, but the boy still practiced the sword on the side. After a year, one of the instructors took a personal interest in Garet and taught the boy how to master the blade. Garet made it his weapon of choice, even though he keeps his glaive close by. One thing he has learned is that it never hurts to have an extra option. His academy training lasted until the boy was a man of seventeen years, and he only returned home a few days each year, often being taken away from the academy for months at a time to train in the field. When the academy released him from its ranks, he came home for good, but that proved short-lived, as he missed the army life and formally joined the military a few months later.

On his 18th birthday the boy left home and the academy for life in the military, posted on the border with Kalnach near the field of bones. Even though he never stood out from other junior officers, his superiors soon ensured that he found himself leading small patrols into the field of bones. They also sent him on patrols into the nearby villages, dealing with petty disputes and searching for Kalnachi spies. Occasionally they would deal with small bandit packs and little groups of outlaws, but that was always uneventful. The Border was quiet the whole time, with neither Kalnach nor the Empire willing to commit to a full-scale war, satisfied with sitting quietly watching each other and running minor skirmishes.

Whenever he was granted a small amount of leave he returned home to his family, for though he enjoyed army life, he also missed his family. It was here where he met his future wife, Iceni. He fell in love with her on first sight. When he glimpsed her, he knew he had to get close to her, but was afraid to do so. That was the only time Garet had ever felt real fear since the earliest lessons at the academy. When he walked towards her, he made a fool of himself knocking people over and tripping over his feet, so her first impression of him was not very flattering. Many would have thought him a drunkard. Fortunately, she realized he was not a drunkard, but was actually just a clumsy fool. She thought his appearance comely and wasn’t used to men tripping over themselves trying to woo her. What exactly prompted her to give him a chance he never figured out, but give him a chance she did. Garet spent most of his spare time trying to win her heart. It took him a good while to do so, but by the time he did it, he had mere days left before he had to return to the Field of Bones.

Garet spent most of the next year on the border, rarely having time to return home to his beloved, but he took every chance he could to do so, for he missed his beloved Iceni deeply. When he could not visit, he sent messages and letters, continuing his courtship despite believing he had won her heart. Though the army was strict, they would not dare to offend the goddess by keeping lovers apart. When he, upon an extended patrol in the field of bones found a ring, he saw it as a sign from the goddess. He contacted his immediate superiors, giving them his reasons for requesting leave. As loyal servants of the Empress and firm believers in the Goddess, they did not hesitate to grant it to him.

Not truly sure he had won her heart, he dared not propose till he was sure. He wooed her for several weeks more before proposing. She made his every dream come true by accepting. As was tradition for couples that were to be wedded, each had to do a task for the family of the other to prove their love and commitment. What Iceni had to do he did not know, but Garet had to craft a sword that would live up to his soon-to-be father-in-law’s standards. As he was no trained smith, that was no easy feat. Garet had learned the basics of smithing in the past, but crafting a high-quality sword was no easy feat. For two weeks, he barely left the forge at all, eating and sleeping therein. His persistence was such that eventually several of the master smiths in the city took pity on him, giving him the advice he needed to finish the task. The sword he presented to Iceni’s father was of the utmost quality, not on the level of a master smith, but far above that of an amateur.

With both their tasks complete, the priests and priestesses performed the formal marriage ceremony, which turned into a celebration for more than half the city. It was, after all, not every month someone in the local nobility married. In irony, it turned out that his father-in-law had all along intended to gift him with the blade, which was precisely why he had so high demands for it. His father-in-law would not have the defender of his daughter have anything but the best. To this day, Garet keeps the weapon at his side, using it both in his duties and as a testament to his will.

Garet had presented Iceni with the ring he had found upon the border during the marriage ceremony. She in turn had presented him with a ring of her own. Unlike the work she usually did, which was intricate and often nearly ornate, the ring she gave him was quite plain. It was a narrow band of gray Iron, angled cuts on the sides. Despite the plainness, it was clear it was of the highest craftsmanship. She said it had been in her family for untold generations. He had felt truly honored by such a gift. The moment he put it on, he felt an odd sort of tingle he could not quite place. He had shaken it off as nerves then, but over the next few days, especially during their very private honeymoon and marriage consummation, he had begun to have strange thoughts. Thoughts of ancient days and battles long past.

He had not known what to make of it at first, trying to make sense of why he was suddenly thinking of old academy lessons. With each new day, he began to make more and more sense of those battles, seeing patterns he had never before seen. He had not shared his sudden revelations with his wife, somehow knowing she would not understand. By the time their honeymoon was over and he had to return to his duties on the border, he had gained a considerably better understanding of ancient tactics, some of them centuries, if not eons old.

Once back on the border, he had more time to think on the revolutionary combat theories. Some he used when commanding the small patrols he led, others he brought to his immediate superiors. The end result was a much more effective border control. At first, that was all that happened. But eventually notice of this moved higher up in the chain of command, inevitably ending up in the hands of someone who knew more, someone well-versed in ancient history. Someone who recognized the ancient tactics for what they were and what it meant. Within two days of that connection being made, he had been brought before the regional commander and the personal representative of the Empress, may she live forever. They told him exactly what had to be going on, eventually helping him figure out that the ring had to be a relic and that he had become an evoker. He was immediately assigned to a special training regimen to not only ensure that he could use his relic properly, but that he was utterly loyal to the Empress, may she live forever.

The first round of evoker training only barely finished in time for him to come home for the predicted birth time for his firstborn. In fact, she was born the night after he got back home. In their many letters they had arrived on the name of Shara. Prior to going home, he had submitted a request for his wife and child to be permitted to join him in the capital. He got notice of the permission being granted just two days after the birth. Her shock upon discovering the truth of her family’s minor heirloom was palpable. At first she had been miffed about him not explaining earlier, but understood that he had wanted to do so in person. She was overjoyed at the fact that he would be playing such an important part in the empire and that would live in the Capital. After they made it to their new home, the three of them celebrated alone before he returned to his duty.

Eventually Garet’s training completed. As befitted an Imperial evoker of talents like his, he had to move around many times, going where his abilities could benefit the empire the most. When going up against minor things like bandits and outlaws, she sometimes came along, but more often she stayed in their home in the capital. He was on a longer assignment in a more dangerous zone, having been away for many months when an imperial messenger reached him with the notification that he was going to be a father once more. When those news spread around the camp, a small celebration was formed and there was much happiness despite the grim nature of their assignment. He did not know whether it was chance or something else, but the next day the relic granted him a particularly devious tactic, letting him crush the opposition in one fell swoop. As he was a god-fearing man, his commanding officer sent him home to be with his wife during the final weeks of her pregnancy. The commander did not have any fair reason to keep him there in any case.

Arriving home he found that his second child, a son, had already been born. However, Iceni had waited for Garet to return before naming the child. Together they named him Elyias. Having received word that their parents truly wanted to have more time with their grandchildren, they both put in a request to imperial command to be allowed to move back there. It took very little time for the request to be granted, provided he make himself available for assignments in the future. In the Empire, it was common belief that none should mess with family. It simply wasn’t done.

For nine years Garet let his sword hang upon the wall, keeping to practice blades for his exercises. His days were spent as much helping his father-in-law craft blades and tools as it was dictating his tactics to a scribe, for though he had learned much in his years, he still could not compose scholars’ script. During these years time they both lived happily, having another child after a few years, naming her Lyra, as well as running a flourishing shop in their home city. The Iron Band, his relic, was not satisfied with this complacency. It wanted more. With each year of idleness, it lashed out more and more frequently, absorbing memories left and right. Towards the end, Garet had trouble functioning at all. In fact, Iceni had to send a message to imperial command to get help to figure out what was happening to him. Many high imperial officials came, some evokers, others not. In the end they determined that he had to use the skills granted by the relic or suffer as he now did. This devastated the till-then blissful Iceni, but she knew there was only one choice. Sending him directly to the Field of Bones once more, he was put in charge first of a squad, then of a company and finally a battalion. With each engagement, more and more of his old self returned.

Eventually, once fully back to himself, he got two choices, return home and risk it all happening again, or serve the empire and not risk that. The choice was simple. He offered once more to take up his old blade on the condition that his wife and children be permitted to accompany him wherever he was assigned. Imperial command said they’d have it no other way and sent him to a recently built city situated at the foot of the Karak Claw Mountains. It did not make much sense to him or his family, but he had no doubt they knew what they were doing.

Once there, he was officially promoted and given command of the entire tactical department there. He was, he soon realized, essentially in command of several legions of the Imperial army. Many, many times more than he had ever commanded before.

Personality/motivation: Garet is an honorable man who believes that everybody deserves a chance, he is fiercely loyal to the empress and his nation, he is kind and understanding and he can be sympathetic, but perhaps what he's truly loyal too and his true motivation is his family. He loves his child and his wife with a passion and will do anything for them.
Relations: N/a (Atleast with the players)
Final Point - Secrets:
Theme Song:N/a

[Maki Casanova]

Soooo I'm going to ask again, does anyone want/need some interaction with their PC? Kaiden is pretty free, and he needs to get out of flirting with ghosts.

[Fallenreaper]

Maki Casanova said
Soooo I'm going to ask again, does anyone want/need some interaction with their PC? Kaiden is pretty free, and he needs to get out of flirting with ghosts.

Currently Roan's collapsed, bleeding out and unable to move so if I could, I would. Though likely there was a few people as well as a dog who ran out of the alley Roan ran down, so it's not unreasonable that could create a bit of a scene you can draw on?