[CHAR] So an elf, a dwarf and a human walks into a tavern...

[Duck]

Sarna Fafnik, human female, 25

Although great care has been taken to ensure her not standing out, there is something about Sarna that attracts the attention of people. An aura, almost. She is dressed in simple travelers clothes, topped off with a brown hood and cape. She also carries a backpack with necesseties with her, and that's the most people usually see of her. Beneath hood she has shoulderlength, unkempt brown hair and vivid green eyes. She also has a small scar from a cut on her upper lip, and (if anyone should ever look there) a small tattoo behind her left ear in the shape of some kind of letter or symbol.

When speaking or interacting with other people, it's easy to see in which mood Sarna is on account of her mimicry. She wears her heart on her sleeve, almost to the point where you would suspect her of acting. She has a temper, but is passionate rather than fierce or aggressive. Sarna is an expert at glaring, and people who know her would say she could outstare a rock. It is also very obvious to local people that she's not from around here. It's just something about her that screams foreigner.

For those who hail from or are familiar with the lore of Junnia,

Read this is that fits your character

the tattoo behind her left ear would mean that she is a member of the Gilorn, an ancient and dying order of wizard knights. The order is dedicated to the preservation and control of magic and magical artifacts. It has a long history in Junnia, full of legends and myths. To see a Gilorn in the flesh today is rare, however.

[Forsythe]

Alchemists' guild

Organization: The Alchemists’ Guild

Founded:
Alchemy is one of the oldest jobs, dating as far as the invention of fire. The alchemists will often boast that their art predates that of wizards and even holy people, although the latter is debatable. The current guild was created several centuries ago, joining the many local guilds into one organization that focuses on expanding the alchemical knowledge and teaching new alchemists.

Structure:
The members are ranked. Alchemists wear special rings that are not only identifying them as members of the guild, but also from the appearance of the ring one can determine their rank and thus what skills they were tested in. A lower rank alchemist may take a job better suited for a higher ranking alchemist, but the guild makes no guarantee they will be successful and will not cover any damages the job may result in. The ranks are as follows:

• Apprentice: A novice that studies under a master. They are not allowed to take on any jobs unless assigned by their masters. Most of their time is spent studying. Their rings are usually only plain metal ones varying in material with the guild’s emblem engraved into it.
• Journeyman: After passing tests from herblore, metallurgy and basic engineering, the alchemist is permitted to create a member’s ring, which is then reviewed by their master to judge the quality and originality. Each of these has to be unique, as they also serve to identify the alchemist. They are usually composed of rare metals, low grade gemstones and decorated with symbols of the elements.
• Artisan: These members are required to prove greater skill in the occupations learned as Journeymen, on top of adding at least one specialization skill - most often pharmacy, precise mechanics or chemistry. Their rings are strictly made of gold alloys, and decorated with high grade gems.
• Master: After at least 10 years of being an artisan and mastering all of their selected areas, one is allowed to submit a masterpiece for review. These can be anything from studies to actual tangible items. If one’s piece is found worthy by the majority vote of the other masters, they are granted the rank, along with a special sel for their ring.
• Sage: A special rank bestowed upon any member of the guild that makes and subsequently describes a new important discovery. The most sought after is of course the art of transmutation, still waiting to be unlocked. But other notable works in history included the invention of paper, compass or distilled alcohol.
• Grandmaster: A Lifelong title bestowed onto one of the masters by a vote of the other masters. He serves to represent the guild in meetings with other organizations, city councils and the like.
• Rogue: While not an official rank, the term ‘Rogue Alchemist’ is commonly applied to any practitioner of alchemy that does not follow the guild’s regulations.

Aside from the ranks, the guild is separated into branches that deal with its various aspects, such as pharmacists, engineers and others.

Philosophy:
There are two factions of alchemists. The Purists focus their studies on obtaining the legendary Philosopher’s stone and otherwise achieving transmutation and gaining eternal youth. The Reformists on the other hand abandon these old ways to study nature itself in detail and trying to figure out its workings and how they can be used without any end goal in mind. Both factions are united in their common rivalry with wizards of any but the druidic school, believing that their way of manipulating nature through arcane means is impure. They are indifferent to churches, but the general mindset is that unlike prayers whose result depends upon the whims of deities, performing the same alchemy will always end in the same result.

The guild is not too restrictive, however they absolutely forbid practicing alchemy with living animals and sentient beings in any way.

Tala Halfelven

Name:

• Human: Tala Halfelven
• Elvish: Aranel Kuu`Datto

Age: 20
Gender: Female
Race: Human / Elven halfling
Job: Alchemist
Voice actor: Maaya Uchida
Theme: Epidemicsound - Light and Airy 4
Pic: Along these lines

Physical Description:
Due to her elven heritage, Tala has quite a nice figure, lean and dextrous. Her body build favors speed and agility over strength and durability. Despite being about 180 cm tall, she only weighs about 60 kilos. Her skin is a light tan mix of her human father and elven mother.

Her face is a bit more angular than that of a human, with prominent sky blue eyes common to elves and full rose red lips. Most of her features are shrouded in her clothing and wild mane of raven hair. Her ears are pointy, but of regular human size.

The thing everyone will immediately notice is her red cloak and hood, making her look like a part of a fairy tale. Her face is further covered in an equally colored scarf. Under that she wears sturdy traveling boots, leather pants and jacket reinforced with metal in key areas. Her gear is full of pockets and belts that can be used to store and hang stuff for her job. Last but most important to her is the leather satchel with a boobytrapped lock that holds most of her supplies and tools.

When in comfortable environment such as a house or ship cabin, Tala likes to wear a long grey skirt and loose blouse of the same color, coupled with her brown work apron, so she can have her tools at hand at all times.

The halfling wears a ring which is a symbol of her membership and rank in the alchemist's guild. The ring is made of gold with 4 runes and 4 gemstones spaced equally around its circumference, each pair representing one of the four elements. The ring ranks her as a journeyman.

The woman holds herself in a way that makes her look smaller than she really is, huddled up and slumped. Oftentimes she picks far corners of a room to sit, hiding behind a crowd or travelling in an enclosed carriage. She prefers to keep her face hidden behind her hair and hood when talking to others.

She doesn’t like large gatherings of people where someone could cause her trouble because of her bastard heritage, but in small groups or between four eyes, she opens up and is quite friendly.

Skillset:

Potion making: The most basic of alchemy, the half elf can create all sorts of potions, from healing salves through beverages to poisons. she allows herself a little vanity in the form of rose perfume.

Metalworking: Tala can refine and cast metals. She is no smith however, and her skills are more fit to creating jewellry and some smaller, specialized items such as locks. She could repair and strengthen a blade, but she couldn’t create a good one from scratch.

Machinery: Something the alchemist is studying in detail right now. She is good enough to create locks, components for firearms and the like, but her skill is not yet good enough to make delicate parts like clockwork, which is a requirement for the next rank in the guild.

Combat: Tala isn’t as good in combat as most other wanderers, specializing more in supporting them with her alchemical equipment or acting as a scout where her ranged weapon and good sight come into play - when she is force dot combat in the first place. She is also apt at laying traps.

Natural Abilities:

Dexterity: Not on par with an elf but greater than that of a human, Tala has easier time dodging blows and overcoming obstacles.

Archery: Due to in part to her heritage and part to her training, Tala is a spectacular marksman and can spot a target farther than most others.

History:
A daughter of a farmer, Tala spent her childhood working on the field. Her mother died giving her birth, leaving her without a woman figure in her life. Naturally a bit lazy person, instead of slacking off Tala found herself ways to make her work easier, tinkering with the tools. Having no desire to live without his wife, not even for his child, Tala's father withered and perished in the following winter, leaving the 10 year old Tala orphaned.

Taken by an alchemist from the orphanage at the age of 14, Tala worked in the house as a maid, and often as extra pair of hands for the scientist. Inspired to study the art, she begged her master to teach her, but was shooed away as a ‘lowly peasant woman’. It wasn't until she took care of the rat problem in the house with a poison she made herself that her master reconsidered, reluctantly taking her as an apprentice.

He soon discovered the girl had natural talent for the job, partly due to her superior half elven intelligence and senses. When she reached the age of 16, Tala sold her neglected farm to the neighbors and used the money to craft her apprentice's ring finally gaining an official membership in the Alchemists' guild. She kept studying for another two years, passing the entry tests and gaining the rank of Journeyman. Bidding farewell to her master she left the house she came to call home to gain experience in the world.

In need of a job to keep financing her studies, food, clothing and shelter (in that order), Tala has been running around for a few months with local group of mercenaries, supplying them with poisons and medicinals along with occasionally joining them out in the field when the job required explosives and other things from her area of expertise. As a side job she also sold vanity items like perfumes on the markets when the group stayed in a town.

She has however grown weary of the band since not all of the jobs they sign on for are exactly legal, and the mercenaries are mostly male and giving her too many looks for comfort. Thus she started roaming Inns and taverns, listening if another opportunity would present itself.

Equipment:

• Blitzkrieg: Her precious ballista. Resembling a crossbow with its looks, the arms on the weapon are actually wound up by torsion springs. This allows for the barrel to have a wider bore and for each arm to be winded separately, reducing the strength needed to do so. It takes bolts from gravity loaded magazine that can hold 5 bolts. The weapon has very precise sights that allow Tala to precisely hit a target at 60 meters and quite reliably up to 200. As far as ammunition goes, Tala carries armor piercing bolts in the magazines, and the folding stock of the weapon can hold 4 extra pieces that she usually reserves for specialized ammunition, such as poison rounds or the boomsticks.
• Hunting knife: a longer blade strong enough to hold Tala’s weight if for example embedded in a wall to be used to give her a boost. It can also be mounted on the front of the Blitzkrieg in a bayonet lock. There is a capillary slit running the length of the blade to hold poison if needed.
• Boomsticks: the halfling can use her alchemy in combat rather effectively. The sticks are shaped in a way that allows them to be fired from her weapon, albeit at greatly reduced range, or they can be used separately. Tala can manufacture various types, form explosive through shrapnel to smoke, along with different fuzes, such as contact or timed.
• Deck of cards: She carries a deck of cards around with her. Nobody know if or how the deck is marked or whether the girl is just a good player, but she wins more often than not.

[Brink_]

NAME
Barrats Et'lhomme

AGE
Human equivalent of mid-forties.

RACE
High-blood elf.

High-blood elfs, or simply high-bloods, can be described as a "near-Human" race, though physically distinguished by their blue skin and glowing red eyes, which grow darker depending on the oxygen content of their surroundings. The more oxygen present, the more intense the color of both their eyes and skin tone. While their hair is typically jet black, it does, on rare occasions, go gray with age (many high-bloods believe that the development of gray hair is an indication of the siring of exceptional children). Their physical form has led to some speculation on whether they are an offshoot of some near-human species' ancient expansions into the galaxy or whether their physical form coincidentally matches that of humans. However, recent spiritual analysis indicates that they are an offshoot of near-humanity, and it was believed that moving underground thousands of years led to a divergence between them and baseline near-humans. Furthermore, this analysis indicates that their unique skin tone is the result of exposure to glacial minerals. Their blue skin, jet black hair and red eyes generally command attention once they are in a crowd of regular humanoids, and these features make them physically striking and instantly recognizable. Male and female high-bloodss tend to be more powerfully built when compared to humans but exhibit the same variances as humanoid sexes. A high-blood stands between either 1.6 to 2.1 meters in height, though an average height of an adult is closer to 1.7 meters.

Studies have concluded that the fact that all high-bloodss often appear in very good physical shape is an indication that the species possesses an active metabolism which is responsible for their trim figure. Thus, this is believed to be responsible for preventing obesity that is commonly found within more sedentary humanoids. While the report concludes that they are indeed "near-humans," they have not determined a specific point of evolutionary divergence. There was, in fact, a number of near-human colonies established throughout much of the world, though records of this are virtually nonexistent and it remains unknown how a remote area of the galaxy could have been trailblazed so far back. They do display, physiologically, very few signs of evolutionary adaptations to their original icy environment with even their skin pigmentation not providing any apparent benefit. Beyond the obvious physical features, physiologically, high-bloods are similar to humans to the point that they possess a comparable circulatory, neurological, digestive and reproductive systems. The high-blood vocal mechanism is noted for being similar to those of humans but there are apparent differences which is evident in their capacity to speak their native language.

In addition, high-bloods experience a greatly accelerated growth rate compared to humans, which contributes to their reaching maturity faster than humans. Thus an high-bloods at the age of ten-years holds the physical maturity of a twenty-year old human. This in turn results in a culturally-imprinted emotional maturity that is many times above that of their human counterparts. They are capable of living up to eighty years old, at which point a high-blood is considered venerable; children are between the ages one to ten, and they experience a rapid adolescence from eleven to twelve and are considered full adults by thirteen or fourteen. Middle-age follows between the ages of fifty-one to sixty-two, and those aged sixty-three to seventy-nine are considered old.

BIOGRAPHY
Et'lhomme experienced an early life typical of most people, high-blood elf or otherwise, on the outskirts of a bustling market town. Days were spent hauling hay and preparing livestock for a journey to the slaughterhouse. However, after the outbreak of war amongst the many warring states surrounding the farmlands he'd grown up on, life took a turn for the worst. His parents were, among others, captured and ultimately executed for what was likely considered to be noncompliance, and the entire village was razed and its inhabitants, including Et'lhomme, launched into diaspora. It was because of this that he enrolled in an institution for higher learning and, eventually, the military.

At this point, and as his decade-long stint of fending off thieves and cults from various settlements neared its end, Et'lhomme had fathered several children. Upon returning home with his family after hearing word of restorations taking place, he became a humble playwright managed to put together a number of hits that became immensely popular among both the townspeople and those in the world's largest cities. The success of his plays helped fund the region's growing entertainment empire, and Et'lhomme himself became an influential trade guild baron. He kept much of his past shrouded in mystery, however, so it was not known how he was able to cultivate his information network that some claimed even rivaled that of the military, thereby making him somewhat of a legend. He spent some time working by refurbishing theaters and during that period, he gained a position as a statesman for the sizable township of Hochschule.

DEMEANOR/ATTITUDE
Et'lhomme is, by nature, a loner and an outcast, with a ruthless streak to him that makes him extremely dangerous when provoked. Despite this outwardly cold nature, however, his colleagues have noted that that behind his exterior lies a fiercely loyal friend, and a man of good humor and giver of sound advice. Records have shown that him to have many good friends throughout much of the world. He is also shown to be extremely adept at defusing difficult situations, and as a man who would much sooner have everyone return home than to draw his sword. His experience of at least three decades in the world makes him a world-weary man, often expressing disdain and veiled insults to those he considers cruel and foolish.

EQUIPMENT
Long, flowing cloak and robes common among government officials.

SKILLS/ABILITIES
Swimming
Martial Arts
Negotiation
Strategy
Navigation
Above Average Intelligence

WEAPONS
Elaborate, curved steel sword issued to all former military officers.

[Sombrero]

Name: Anya Torrmander
Age: 26
Race: Human
Appearance: Anya is tall, and facially magnificent, as the Paladins of legend are sung about. A braid like a golden chain down to the upper edge of her back, heavy but delicate eyebrows, a winning smile that perhaps has more teeth than someone who's seen as much combat as her should have, and hazel eyes that denote more wisdom than a woman of her age has any business having. (Definitely more wisdom than she actually has...)

There are certain other factors that may also detract from her stereotypical statuesque nature: She shares portions and appetites with most men, and can hold her ale as well as the next grizzled adventurer, but has the metabolism of most "normal" women. This has resulted in a curvaceous, flossy build. A fairly thick layer of fat that tries desperately and fails to hide the proverbial brick house of iron-like, Amazonian sinews rippling underneath it just enough to show. It suits her just fine, given all the travelling and fighting she is prone to doing.

Whether in armor or normal clothes, Anya has all the appearance of a woman clearly blessed by whatever gods made her, and whoever it was, their materials consisted of some incredibly tough stuff.

History:
Anya was born the first child of a knight with a sizable fiefdom in a high mountain castle in the Rift. The Fief was sizable because it was difficult to build on, and the land was often too snowy or rocky to use very much of, but it was still a respectable amount of land for anyone to hold. Now, traditionally, women in the Rift kingdoms inherit land the same way a ruler's bastard son would: They don't... Unless there is some sizeable body of proof that they're either divine, or so outrageously much more qualified than any earlier born/male siblings that it would be an insult to the people to leave them with the lesser heir.

And women, like bastard sons, have two paths in life outside of marriage, (Bastards don't usually have that option, and women rarely desire to choose the other two, but it's far from unheard of,) The army, the clergy, or the city guard. As a somewhat unruly girl who grew up with 8 roughousing brothers and often headed to the barracks to train with them, she showed all the signs of a military woman to be... But it was some surprise when she decided she would join the clerical military of Groen...

Perhaps it was because she wanted to prove that she was chosen by the gods to inherit, perhaps it was because she wanted to respond to her nagging mother's insistence that she find some form of discipline and nobility if she was going to keep refusing all her lessons in ladyship. The most probable answer, though, is that she was genuinely taken with the amazing tales of the earth coming to be, and of the magical beings and artifacts that roamed the earth before the days of Elves and Men. With a mind full of stories and a heart full of faith, she headed north one day for one of the holds of Groen.

The training was harsh, vigorous, and lasted years. A proficient slaughterer of bandits and beasts, she patrolled the forest for a winter before the brass, (and the many soldiers in the predominantly male fortress who foolishly took chastity vows when most of the ladies were at least one keep away) thought that she should instead become a knight errant, spread the word of the gods. Of course, the title of a Knight in the Paladin order is mostly ceremonial, and there's no real land or money that comes from it. There is, however, white, shiny armor, horses, and other fun equipment.

She's been adventuring to this day, making a decent living with her earnings as a quest-doer.

Skills:
As an elite Paladin, and a soldier in training before that, Anya is well versed in horseback riding, swordsmanship, lance combat, and manuevering about with surprising dexterity when wielding her heavy armor and shield. She's also adept at basic first aid, wilderness survival, and, while she has no formal training, has been in more than her fair share of unarmed scraps, and knows her way around her body almost as well as her blades. As someone who does chores for people in need just as often as she fights beasts and bandits for villages in fear, she also has some experience in cooking, log-splitting, and other menial tasks.

Personality:
Anya is a romantic idealist, with very little tolerance for thugs, bullies, and other such spritual riff-raff. She is quick to anger, and quick to jump into action and deal with problems head-on. She holds a hammer and lives in a world full of nails.

Equipment:
The most notable things about Anya's arsenal is her armor. One solid steel torso over a long chainmail tunic, and plates built for deflection on the joints, shins, and forearms. And, of course, the bucket helm. All of it polished and shiny, but starting to show signs of the wear and tear of battle. Above this, she wears thick cloth, spangled with the iconic white and gold heraldry of the Groen Paladins. Her black warhorse, Eldveg (named after an ancient saint to the God of Life) has similar armor. Except, of course, it's armor for horses. From beneath her tempered steel fortress, Anya strikes a powerful and imposing image indeed, and, unless she utters a battlecry or removes her helmet, it becomes rather difficult to tell that she's a woman.

For weapons, she wields a broad, sturdy kiteshield with iron reinforcements, (again, white-and-gold holy heraldry) and a glistening longsword. She also ocassionally throws pots full of Alchemist Fire during a melee to deny area access to less encumbered foes, and some throwing axes, to do battle with enemies that are out of her reach or on charging horses. She has opted to carry these instead of the more standard issue crossbows given to knights and paladins who haven't spent enough time training at the range with a longbow.

Aside from that, her horse carries a simple cot and provisions, and her belt carries a fine scabbard and a drinking horn across her chest.