Something I'm actually keen on doing is spliting the Demonmancy school into two disciplines and having herbamancy and vitamancy cannibalize Noxomancy. If you moved necromancy into the Lues School and Obligatio was purely two opposite things within what now fall under demonmancy would be best. Split it up into the people that are eventually going to fall and become demons and the people who are basically demon hunters and use aspects of the Inferno that are not directly related to summoning demons. At the beginning they would start out the same obviously but which school you were doing would become obvious after you pass into the Adept rank. This way you could just balance the two against each other and have sufficiently rearranged enough power from the main tree to keep the other mage blood competitive.
Note: Lucius has been talking about something similar for awhile atleast in regards to demonmancy.
The reason Inferno magic was even put in was because apon creating my character I kept pointing out to Lucius how I could abuse it. (and others could.) Not having it or simply baring demonmancers from summoning demons that can use other elements would nerf them quite a bit. The Inferno magics were designed to be different from the normal magics because they were more limited and specific in scope to all the mage bloods.(not to mention Baulder couldn't exist) So removing it would be a horrid idea as it would either by proxy buff or nerf Demonmancy quite a bit.
Though I agree with Noxomancy needing to be retooled, it honestly seems borderline useless right now. I like the idea of plague crafting but they need something else to do as they arn't terribly useful in combat (unless your a master) and only really seems suited to be used by a big bad mage blood.
Having Cyromancy and hydromancy taught at the same time to students would be a good buff for them as like you said their better together. Though it might seem weak do to a lack of creativity, because if you really wanted you could just rip Sub-zero's moves from Mortal Kombat and have a bad ass ice ninja.
I honestly think Pyromancy and electromancy should should both either merge with each other or the thing they accompany as they again are both useful in combat and not much outside of. Hell these problems might be fixed by allowing people to specialize in the school rather than either of them individually. (this would require that demonmancy and necromancy be split up though as OP.)
Name: Vebra Mirthios Species: Zabrak (1/8th human coming from his father's side) Age: 36 Gender: Male Faction: Republic army (on "leave" with the jedi rescuers) Rank: Republic Special Forces lieutenant
Appearance:
Standing at 1.9 meters tall Vebra is physically imposing to most, as he is rather muscular. While in between missions or deployments he is usually constantly eating. It is hard for him to keep much fat on himself which while aesthetically pleasing works to his detriment in the field. His features are predominantly Zabrak. Has a Jato on either side of his neck with the smaller ends pointing towards the middle of his throat, both of these are tribal tattoos given to him after completing his rite of passage. Everything below the neck line is tattoo'd like that. He has seven small orat on his crown in a V pattern with the tip of the V being on the transition between his forehead and crown. All of these fit into his helmet and are a lighter caramel color while his skin is a dark-caramel. His eyes are an intense purple. Given his human lineage he also has eyebrow hair, though he does shave this off. Otherwise he is hairless.
His body is and especially fore arms have massive burn scars on them from either explosions or from blocking light sabers. He also has multiple burn wounds from where blaster shots that his armor saved him from being lethal on both his left thigh and left pectoral which burned off his nipple.
With his casual wear he is not at all picky and will wear whatever is given too him. Though the set of clothes the Republic gave him for when he is out of his armor looks like this.
His rifle is compact and designed for medium to close range, can have a fixed bayonet if the situation calls for it. The weapon is designed to work much as an SMG and he is quite proficient with it. He also carries carries a slightly shortened beskad(40 centimeters) which he picked up off a mandolorian during a boarding action during the mandolorian blockade of the Hydian way, his ship was on it's way to the front lines when the blockade originally arrived. The mandolorian ended up in what could only be called a "fist fight" with Vebra, however he won. He would fix this to the end of his two foot long blaster if needed. He also has five tranquilizer darts that are all loaded and ready to fire from a wrist mounted mechanism on his right wrist if he finds himself in a situation requiring him to either slow down a raging Sith or subduing a turned Jedi. He has 5 more of these tranquilizer darts in his left thigh pocket and 5 poison darts if the situation calls for it, these cannot be reloaded mid combat however. His final piece of equipment is cortosis weaved arm guards for his forearms. While they will block a light saber sustained contact will begin to burn his forearms.
Notable Characteristics of Species:
Bone structure: Being near pure Zabrak Vebra has developed much thicker and more durable bones than an average Human. Can withstand much more pressure and punishment to his bones before they will break.
Orat and nails: Having multiple orat on the crown of his head makes his skull more resistant to downward blows from opponents. His nails are also filed down to fit his gloves and are not of use in combat.
Circulatory system: All Zabrak have two hearts, the left one being the main heart which provide most the force in the flow while the right aids and hasten it. They both are located between the lungs, though they are set slightly more in front and the lungs are slightly smaller to account for the dual organs.
Quick metabolism: Having a quick metabolism due to the dual heart set up of Zabrak's gives Vebra's organs the ability to do their jobs quicker and for longer. His organs are unlikely to fail due to stress or to run longer in-spite of being poisoned. Does force him to consume quite a bit more food or stimulants to keep his body running/take effect.
Immune System: Increased though it will not protect him from everything, it provides a suitable defense against a great many natural diseases, poisons and drugs.
Pain Tolerance: Zabrak are known for their high resistance to pain when it comes to bearing through torture or serious wounds.
Extreme Heat Tolerance: He’s able to tolerate much higher temperatures of heat and for much longer periods without it taking a toll on him.
Iron will: Zabrak as a people and especially those from Iridonia are particularly hard to break as they are usually intensely self determined and constantly striving for excellence. This is so ingrained in most of them that it is well known that Zabrak make terrible slaves and their worlds are even more resistant to invasion then most races. It also happens that they are resistant to change and are incredibly stubborn as a rule.
Eyes Sight: Pupils are more feline in nature, enabling him to see in extreme brightness or almost pitch darkness due the pupil’s ability to contract or expand quickly and easily.
Hearing: Slightly above a human’s range, yet the lowest of his heightened senses, while he can pick up sound of foot steps from yards away he generally has his helmet on.
Scent: More akin to a bloodhound's ability, this is the strongest and most useful sense zabrak can use. It can pick out a drop of blood within a room easily, from how fresh to the very owner if they can manage to follow the scent back within less than a day. Though Vebra again tends to keep his helmet he will remove it if investigation is needed.
Taste: This is the lowest sense compared to his others making one of the good reasons why most zabrak are mostly carnivorous. Anything cooked well done seems to be bland and tasteless while bloody and almost raw meat has the best taste, making it difficult to tell if the food has been...’spiced’ in other ways.
Flaws:
Being that his bones are denser than those found in humans he is as a result heavier even if he appears quite lean. This can lead to increased physical strain on the rest of his body. With his heightened metabolism he is somewhat able to overcome the previous downside but this also requires consumption of a great amount of meat to maintain. If he is starved of food for even a day his metabolism can begin to slow down thus slowing him down greatly and even decreasing his natural resistances. Stimulants also have little to no effect on him unlike the rest of those in his Special Forces squad, thus making him unable to nullify the effects of missing food with stimulants.
The immune system of a zabrak can quickly purge disease and drug symptoms both will make their effects known much faster. This coupled with his quick metabolism will make enough poison or tranquilizer put him down hard. Given the high dosages needed to put him down the risk of killing him is also increased with such potent substances.
Being a Zabrak he also greatly dislikes the cold and this can cause great issues for him as he burns through energy at such a great rate. This can quickly lead to an unprotected Vebra passing out from exhaustion in very cold environments.
Having lived through so many of the people he considers dying in either covert operations or front line actions the only thing keeping Vebra from having a severe mental break down is his friends and his work. If he get's separated from both for two long he may stop being able to resist the mental wounds of his past. Though he is aware of these demons haunting him he tries not to put too much thought into it.
Vebra has a deep seeded fear of failure. Not only does most of his race strive for excellence and failure is shamed but due to his failure to become a Jedi Vebra carries around the idea that if he fails in his own goals or fail other people that he will forever dishonor himself. He also attaches some of his platoons success or failure on himself and constantly is striving to make things better within the specialized group.
Torture is something Vebra is so vehemently against that he is actively willing to put himself in harms way for people being interrogated in such a way. He also believes that it hardly produces any useful information if ever. There is no honor in it for those doing it or being tortured in his eyes and sees it as a disgrace and crime against all soldiers. He almost.... fears it.
The vast empty void of space makes Vebra feel... uneasy. The idea that he could simply miss a jump or grab could send him into an infinite abyss makes him want to vomit. That's why he likes to keep his helmet on at all times unless his feet are firmly planted on dirt.
Skills:
Iridonian heritage: Vebra was born on Iridonia while much of his childhood was spent in vain with the order as well as his rite of passage he still retained some of the culture. Among the skills includes speaking fluent Ul’ Zabrak, hunting and tracking as well as martial arts and combat practices.
Failed padawan: Having been sent to the order to to train for about four years imparted atleast some of their teachings on him. While never being taught lightsaber combat directly he did have the privledge of watching masters and knights sparing which was always his favorite part. Knowing some of the lessons of the Jedi in regards to controlling himself has also helped him in his military career to not make rash decisions.
Veteran: Having been in the armed forces for so long and especially in a division crafted to assist jedi with eliminating Sith has given him a respect and knowledge of the battlefield. Like most of those in the military for a long period of time Vebra appears quite jaded to death and the idea of killing, in reality he has become good at pressing those feelings away for him to deal with later.
Sith hunter: The company Vebra has spent the last decade in was created in response to the jedi being overwhelmed initially by the massive amount of sith that had brewed in the empire during their exile. His squad or platoon will be deployed as a quick reaction force alongside jedi to deal with Sith that appear in various warzones. Most of those in the company either have low level force sensitivity or have been fighting with jedi for so long they know how force wielders operate.
Sith hunter cont.: Having learned how to defend himself in a melee fight he would rather avoid being that close if possible. Some of the jedi he's worked with have said that he uses a loose form of Soresu when in close combat. He has gotten rather creative with getting around most Sith's ability to deflect or block blaster shots fired at them.
Trader: Vebra became good at this in response to some of his longer deployments. While on the fleet eating a lot of meat was not a problem. But when it came to rations Vebra would have to sometimes barter and trade favors for enough meat for his metabolism.
Field mechanic: Vebra and by extension most of his team, have become quite good at repairing and riding speeders. During some of their longer deployments they were even forced to salvage speeders to get out of enemy territory. Riding speeders became even more useful of a skill to him when he and his team were unable to be air lifted to a location they had to drive several kilometers through entrenched positions of the empire to reach their target.
Force capabilities:
Being a weak force sensitive and spending quite some time around jedi and fighting sith Vebra has picked up a few things:
Precognition: While not nearly as good with this as a full fledged jedi he has managed to develop it enough to keep up with most jedi and sith. Though experts in some of the more aggressive forms would be able to out pace him eventually. Must be rather close for this to work.
Cleanse mind: Allows him to keep his head clear of potential sith corruption and jedi influence. He uses this if something manages to break his already force hardened mind to continue on with the mission. It can also be used in chaotic situations to calm himself hence his unnatural level-headedness even in dire situations.
Born on the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia into the traditional clan of Mirthios Vebra was always set up to become a warrior. Even at a young age play fighting with his brothers and other kids his age in the clan he always seemed like he enjoyed fighting. He has fond memories of almost being killed multiple times by people or things bigger than him. Even though began to mellow out at around the age of 8 and beginning to be introduced to the martial combat his people so loved. It was during this that he showed to be unnaturally good at picking out what someone was going to try and due to him. He even managed to push some things without even touching them. His parents took this rightly so of him being a force sensitive and it was then that he was taken to the Jedi Academy on Alaris Prime.
While not only did he come there at a rather late age for younglings he still tried his hardest to be good in his studies and learning of the force. For some reason though Vebra constantly struggled with connecting to the force or in being able to use his abilities in any meaningful way. His young self having been instilled since birth with the ideals of achieving excellence in all things tried futilely to keep up with his peers. However it was not all failure for him, he made a good friend in a young Epicanthix named Andri. She tried to help him with his connection to the force knowing how it could appear being that they were both young. Though that ended when she was picked up as a padawan at 10, being the same age he began to feel left out when left and right his friends were beginning to leave the academy with their new masters. This continued for several more years until Vebra turned 12 and the Jedi finally gave him the option to either join the service corp or go home. Being 12 and feeling left out as well as like he had failed elected to go home, but he was encouraged heavily by the jedi to continue doing good for the galaxy.
Apon his return he was welcomed back with open arms but he internalized those feelings of failure throughout the rest of his childhood. His primary escape from this feeling was in continuing his training in combat. Also at this time his Aunt had a child and Vebra was asked to help watch her and care for her. Between being given responsibility and continuing his combat training he managed to push down his feelings of failure and of not being good enough for awhile. This also meant that he started his rite of passage rather late compared to other members of his family. While his low level force sensitivity and being older helped him with his passage it was still one of the most grueling things Vebra experienced in his life. He did pass all three of the trials however and was tattoo'd accordingly.
When he was 16 he was able to physically visit with Andri once more. He had maintained correspondence with her from time that she was first picked up by her master. Since she would be going to Alassa Major for several years both of the young angsty teenagers decided to have a fling. Even after Andri went to the resort world they both continued their flirty correspondence for several years. Though this did waver eventually and they decided to remain good friends. It was soon after the fling that Vebra learned of the war with the Empire. He decided that it was his duty to do good just like the jedi had taught him and enlisted at 18 when he was legally able.
For his first few years of service Vebra was shuffled around to several fronts and didn't actually see much action. Most of the battlefields had degenerated into vast no man's lands with little interaction of troops in any meaningful way. However, while awaiting reassignment to another front Alderaan was attacked. When news arrived of the capture of the royal family Vebra along with most of his garrison was lead by Jedi Satele Shan to assist in slowing down or even stopping the Imperial march on the capital city. While the forward forces had already engaged the army and the sith leading them Vebra was part of the wave of reinforcements that arrived with the Jedi.
While the fighting in the dense forest was brutal it eventually became the Republic's first victory in the war. Losing several friends in the fighting and the majority of his platoon Vebra was at this point reassigned into the newly organized Platoon dedicated to hunting down Sith or assisting Jedi in such matters.
His unit specifically bounced around from planet to planet fighting Sith acolytes and with the help of knights the occasional Sith apprentice. After nearly a decade of this and at the beginning of a newly redoubled offensive effort by the Imperials Vebra and his squad managed to bag their first Sith lord kill with the help of a Jedi knight. While half the squad was killed or maimed Republic command saw fit to expand the few squads they had into several more. While the ultimate goal was to create a whole company of troopers able to directly combat Sith Acolytes and apprentices on the battlefield it proved difficult to train people to do this. At this point the Republic reached out to the Jedi to specifically help them train men to combat these lower leveled sith.
While the Jedi agreed to loan a knight or two and few dozen padawans most of the trainers for this company were forced to be deployed to the front. While the project was not abandoned training had slowed to barely be able to replace the occasional death of a member of these squads.
Though after the loss at Serenno Vebra and his squad were barely able to escape the planet before it came under Imperial occupation his squad and most of the platoon was placed on Balmorra hoping they would help the resistance movement still active there.
Personality and/or Motivation
In combat he can be unnervingly calm, some would even say to the extreme of being despondent to those around him. Has long since stowed personal feelings about Sith/fallen Jedi and adopts whatever stance the jedi he is with has on the situation. He has a soft spot for abused soldiers or those who are disrespected and disregarded by their superiors. Even if the soldiers are apart of the empire he still respects them greatly, especially those he believes are good at their jobs. Is heavily against torturing of captives or combatants. Has been reprimanded for refusing to "extract" information from soldiers before. While intensely loyal to the Republic he has always harbored resentment against the sometimes too high minded goals of the Republic. While he doesn't particularity care about the Jedi Order as a whole he does feel a bond with those Jedi he has fought alongside in the war.
Player’s long term goals:
The jaded veteran
For this too occur it would require Vebra to be captured and tortured greatly emotionally and physically. Mainly the deaths of Andri and the death/complete fall to the dark side of Jayda would be required for this to be the case. Assuming he lives through that process he would either be turned as an agent of the sith through minor corruption and a blame of the Republic for not doing more or he would return to the special forces of the Republic and take increasingly more suicidal missions for the Republic.
All goes as planned
The state in which Vebra would remain in the special forces and continue on with what he was doing. If no one really dies and Jayda survives whatever that means. He would most likely retire after a few more years in less intense division of the Republic. He begins to have thoughts of finally settling down.
The road to hell
Vebra leaves the Republic special forces with his squad and starts a mercenary group. Gaining a hatred for the oppressiveness of both the Jedi and Sith, Vebra specializes his mercenary group to kill force users. He perceives both factions as running pointless ideological wars that do nothing but kill billions of people and leads to the abuse of the soldiers that they command. This would require both the Jedi and Sith to slight him in some great way. He wants to free his brothers-in-arms from the endless pointless wars of the force wielders and will begin actively hunting both groups in the outer-rim.
Relations:
Andri Perrin - Good friends through both Vebra leaving the order and Andri's jedi training. Regularly exchanged "letters", so regularly in fact that if they stopped coming on time one would assume the other was in trouble. Knows that Andri was on Coruscant during the sacking and is attempting to find out if she made it out.
Lyric Novan - Met on several fronts throughout the war most notably at Balmorra. Vebra respects the master if he does find him a bit lazy at times. Was contacted by the master to assist with some sort of rescue mission before the war ended.
