[OOC] Something Wicked This Way Comes

[rextremendum]

Very quick question before I get started: I really want to play a particular type of character, one who innovates and is constantly curious for ways to increase the accuracy of his knowledge of the world. HOWEVER, the avenues to do that appear to me as being either be magical, or be a more mundane variety of "scientist", if people can even be described as such yet. I want to avoid magic if there is sufficient technology to be interesting, but to dedcide that I need to know at what level the current technology of the world is at. Do we understand Newtonian mechanics, conservation of energy et al.? What chemical or biological knowledge is understood, for example is there gunpowder or fertilizer? Do people understand the way the body works, or are we still in the realm of Humors and medieval dogma? A basic corresponding year would work wonders for me, but the more detailed you are willing to be with some randy who showed up late to the party, the better.

[Twistedgrin]

I have two still incoming I am just taking a tad bit too much time with developing their back stories

[Gowi]

Making us wait in deep anticipation, huh? Damn, that's cruel.

[rextremendum]

Character app super WIP, but I am reluctant to go any further until I know whether or not I am going to be playing someone who can use magic. I made this character under the assumption that she could, but it is highly limited and something she is not particularly interested in performing herself, styling herself more as a scholar of magic, trying to understand it. [Also, I was going to play a man, but after half an hour of searching for a picture of a normally-dressed fantasy man in a scholarly environment, I gave up.]

Thomas Milliner

Name: Thomas Milliner Age: 24 Gender: Male Personality: Thomas is a rationalist, or at least he tries to be. Instilled at a young age, he attempts to make decisions through utilitarian ethics, informed by his constantly-improving understanding of the world. An optimist at heart, Thomas always attempts to make the most of a bad situation, and has a great deal of faith in humanity to achieve great things and scrape the heavens by their own ingenuity and power. An affable, if occasionally awkward man, he tries to be as friendly as possible to others, and looks to do all in him power to improve he lives of others. Despite this, Thomas is clearly not one to trust others easily, and hates to burden others with problems facing only him. Thomas is obviously more comfortable in the company of books than in the company of people, and has a sharp distaste for the dogmatic or simple-minded members of society. Creativity, awareness and self-improvement are Thomas’ driving principles, dreaming of improving all of humanity through the greatest power of all: knowledge. Role: Adjunct-Professor of Meta-Magical Research at the Imperial Academy of Caradia, Thomas is knowledgeable in Natural Philosophy of all stripes, most focused on physics, medicine and the science of magic. His powers over magical phenomenon is limited, using what little power he has as accurately as he can for any challenges he cannot overcome by him intellect. Thomas is not ignorant of the less-reputable skills of thievery and lawlessness, and uses them as him morality dictates, usually in the pursuit of additional books, his personal addiction. Thomas is not a combatant, and his initial reaction to danger is to flee, but when such courses of action are impossible he meets danger with him limited, though highly accurate powers of tele- and pyro- kinesis [Thomas always wanted to throw fire like in the books, but never had the power for it. He contents himself with being able to make things rather hot, or rather cold, and move them around a fair bit] History: Thomas was born to loving parents in the town of [WIP]. Him father was an engineer under the employ of the ruling lord, and him mother tended to a flower garden and sold carnations on the street in front of him house. An adventurous youth, Thomas had difficulty stopping himself from trying to learn. He read all him father’s books until he understood them [a project years in the making, despite Thomas’ predisposition to mathematics]. Punctuating this arduous task, Thomas would frequently find himself in trouble exploring places he should not be, and accessing things he should not be accessing. Thomas is no prodigy in the realm of physical activity, but he learned how to not be seen, how to look out for danger, and more importantly the finer points of picking locks and palming purses from him seedier acquaintances in [WIP]. After being schooled by his father for the first decade of his life, he applied to and was accepted into the Imperial Academy. He managed to earn a small scholarship, but is still thankful to his parents for accepting the daunting costs for him to attend. Spurred on by him parents’ sacrifice and him natural disposition to learning, he threw himself into study with reckless abandon. Magic caught his eye, but with minimal talent for it, he did his best to equip himself with the arcane before moving onto the esoteric fields of study. Physics and Medicine caught his attention next, as well as a continued academic study of the causes and specifications of magical phenomenon. For almost a decade and a half Thomas learned from the college, earning a wage as a scholar and assistant teacher within a few years to offset the costs put upon him family. He is not particularly respected, still being young in the realm of academia and only having reached the rank of Adjunct-Professor. He dreams of making big contributions, and being immortalized either physically through magical research, or figuratively in a grand statue, one of the many portraying great minds that dot the Academy.

EDIT: I just looked, and realized that there are in fact NO characters that do not have a connection to magic. I will brainstorm another character concept, but until the GM tells me the technology level I fear I cannot progress further. [if there are guns, or some variety of explosives, that would be grand, but I can figure something out no matter what.

[Gowi]

[Also, I was going to play a man, but after half an hour of searching for a picture of a normally-dressed fantasy man in a scholarly environment, I gave up.]

Searching for "fantasy scholar" or "fantasy alchemist" didn't come up with anything close for a reference picture?

[rextremendum]

I tried so hard, and got so far. But in the end, I didn't even matter. If you can find a picture of a young, average-looking, well-drawn man reading a book or doing some maths or what have you, please help me out. I am incapable though: my google-fu is not strong enough.

[Gowi]

I had a friend use this one in a RP a few moons ago for an eager alchemist-scholar, might not be up your alley though.

Prospective Image

[rextremendum]

I found that one too, was a little too "anime" for me. It is fine, but it is not really what I was going for: it is a little too fantastical to me, and I was imagining my character to be something very rather mundane. Thank you for the help, however - I really appreciate it.

[Gowi]

I had a feeling that was the case.

Second Try

Been trying to find something suitable per your request, but I'm coming up with few good examples. But it wasn't a problem at all and I look forward to writing with you.

[Zurnt]

Truthfully, my character doesn't really have any "connection" to magic, and he can't actually use it unless somebody goes through the painstaking effort to teach him. It doesn't really seem like something that easy to master, so taking into account the rate at which roleplays move, I'd be amazed if Hector knew how to cast a simple 'candle' spell by the time the thing ended. Regardless, from what Sana said, it seems like "everyone" but the rare example is capable of learning a bit of magic anyways.

Try 1

Try 2

[rextremendum]

Thanks! Don't worry about the picture, I am capable of finding one I like, but I am rather looking forward to playing a lady. I think it gives me a unique angle with the intellectual community, and will give me good hooks to write with. In response to the picture, that guy is excellent apart from his scruffy demeanor, which was not what I was envisioning for my character, and his frankly ridiculous spread-arms book-jesus pose.

[rextremendum]

Zurnt, you know what - I saw that first picture before, but upon looking at it again, I like the pretty boy angle, even though it was not initially part of the persona. Perhaps it is an affectation, who knows. Right, I'm changing my character back to a bloke due to the new angle and the good picture.

[Gowi]

I'm sure it'll be interesting for Pythia regardless. =)

[Zurnt]

Same here. Right now all of the "adult" characters have a fairly grim atmosphere to them. Is it odd that the most approachable character is seemingly the Emperor?

[rextremendum]

Hey! My character is very approachable! I did my best to make an everyday person, with some above average talents and massive aspirations, in a particular effort to offset the grimness of our cast of characters.

[Zurnt]

Ah, every "other" character, is what I was trying to imply. I was glad that we finally had an approachable guy in the group.

[Gowi]

Same here. Right now all of the "adult" characters have a fairly grim atmosphere to them. Is it odd that the most approachable character is seemingly the Emperor?

@Zurnt

Would you prefer approachable or awkward young adult conversation? Because we'll probably get a lot of the latter with our characters, haha.

[rextremendum]

Oh, got it. Playing the approachable character is my absolute favourite thing to do. I always get put into tabletop games full of devil-touched outcasts or misanthropic orphans with dark secrets. Nothing is more fun than playing the well adjusted person to act as the reasonable foil to overacted antiheroism [not implying that there is any here - our grim characters look well written at a glance], the guy there to pat people on the shoulder and tell them things are going to be alright, then go get a drink and flirt awkwardly with the cute barmaid or what have you

[Zurnt]

@Gowi Oh yeah. Hector is going to be incredible awkward around Pythia I think. He's 15 and at that phase where he's supposed to be "looking for a wife" if you know what I mean. That said, he also has a mother hen personality. The perfect clash of hormones and sensibility! +++ @rextremendum I love playing that character too, with just a bit of "possibly mad" cheerfulness added in. Alternatively, there's the "rub some dirt on it" drill-sergeant support character that's one my favorite versions of the approachable guy. I also love playing the wide-eyed newbie with a heart of gold.

[rextremendum]

I wish your characters were just a little bit older, so I could have Thomas fight tooth and nail to get Hector laid. As it stands now, it would be a little too creepy. Alas, opportunities missed. There could have been so many soap-opera caliber hijinks, it would have been hilarious.