Another thirty minutes passed whilst Lady Buxton and Sir Chester sat idly waiting in the Inn, and both of them were struggling to provide small talk. Although they had contrasting personalities, the two of them got along well enough, but not so well that they could comfortably talk for hours on end. Buxton found herself taking one of the knives for her boot, a small bronze dagger with a leather wrapped grip. It was as sharp as it could be, but nevertheless she couldn’t help pulling out a whetstone and begun grinding along its edge.
“Who’s this?” asked Chester, giving his colleague a quick nudge with his elbow. He did not so much as blink whilst he let his eyes glide over the olive skinned beauty, appreciating most her enthralling amber eyes and her soft facial features. Even though she was draped in furs and linen, he could tell that beneath she probably boasted some attractive curves. He had always had a thing for ‘exotic’ girls from the far south, and on the rare occasion that he saw one he became uncharacteristically smitten and dirty minded. Buxton herself looked up in response and saw the graceful figure that was now walking towards them. She was not as impressed as her colleague, although she was happy to see a recruit that wasn’t some brainless brute of a man.
“Lady Buxton and Sir Chester, I presume? My name is Karen ibn Nahal. I was send over from Southarbour to join the Consano. My commander regrets he couldn’t send anyone else with me. Here is a letter of recommendation from my commander.” She said and pulled out a small envelope from her bag. “I served as advanced scout and infiltrator, my abilities and skills should already be described in the letter.” Chester reached forward with a smile and received the letter, immediately opening it and examining its contents.
“You presume correctly.” Buxton replied with a hearty smile, and with her hand she signaled for the recruit to take a seat. “I am Lady Buxton, Knight of the King’s Table and leader of the Consano.” She continued, “And this gawking gentleman is Sir Chester.”
“Pleasure.” He smiled. “The letter seems legitimate, the Commander seems to think quite highly of you. “Excellent fighter”, “A marksman with knives”, “Skilled infiltrator” - I’m sure you’ll make an excellent addition to our little band of merry men. We will be conducting a full brief tomorrow morning at dawn, but before then is there any questions that you wish to ask?”
I am done with my character sheet. I am not such if it's clear of any mistakes. If you find one, tell me so I can fix it.
EDIT: I also think that I should change my backstory a bit.
I like your character but there is just a few little things. Firstly, you provided a picture but didn't provide any written detail. I suppose that's fine if your character looks exactly as they do in the picture, but even then I'd like at least a line or two with details about height, size, etc. Secondly, you didn't put anything in the 'Skills and Abilities' section. Whilst you've alluded to his skills in his history, it would be nice for you to clarify and expand upon them. And thirdly, although people would have stayed in Fort Cain it was mostly evacuated by the time the horde reached Rundorm. That means that the events at the fort which you described are fine, but you might want to explain why your character didn't flee South when everyone else did. Also you said he went to the Cross Roads because 'the nearest town also was crowded by the inflected', but unless your character had only been slightly ahead of the Plague the entire time, he could have gone to Boulder Town, Titus, Minorhold or any number of small villages dotted about. So you might want to clarify why he chose the Cross Roads (e.g. He thought it would be better to get as far ahead of the horde as possible).
^I know that's looks like a lot of criticism, but really those points are very small and easily fixable. And as I said, I do like your character :)
I know how the recruitment process is going to work, I just don't know how the posts about it are going to work. It'll be Lady Buxton and Sir Chester basically just interviewing anyone suicidal enough to sign-up. Given that hardly anyone is joining (as you'll see in the IC), they're having to resort to accepting anyone capable of wielding a sword.
Ah, I'll just post it and see what happens I suppose xD
Would probably be needed to check the different people if they have some useful skills they could offer. The slave trader is an exception as they can't really lose his founding but the others should at least be asked what they can do, if not tested in case of battle skills involved
I mean as in how the posting about the recruitment is going to work. Don't want like 10 characters trying to speak to the same person at once about joining.
p.s. your characters don't need to attend the recruitment thingy, but it is recommended.
Looking good so far! Could you (and anyone else who has submitted an incomplete CS) please remember to notify me when it is completed :)
Not one to break a promise, the first post will be up later on tonight. I'm still trying to figure out how the recruitment part is going to work though.
Character Theme –Into the Fire --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zacharias is an uncharacteristically short man, at first glance. He barely reaches 1.75 meters, and often puffs himself up or sits on something large to make up for the height difference. He also seems fairly stocky due to his short height, muscles fairly prominent. It doesn't help that he likes his shirts as loose and open as possible.
Zacharias's face is relatively handsome, but it's really nothing special. The main attractive feature would be the blonde hair held back only by a bandana. However, the permanent grin on his face is just as much of a part of his face as his jawline, greenish-blue eyes, or strong nose, and equally dismissible. The most unusual aspect of his appearance would be the strange markings tattooed on his forearms. Zacharias has as many explanations for the tattoos as there are stars in the skies.
Given the climate of the North, which Zacharias is unused to, he generally wears his normal, loose-fitting clothes under his armor, which consists of chain and a small amount of hardened leather, as well as an iron shoulder-guard. When not in his armor, Zacharias prefers to wear loose, stylish clothing, generally something that a higher-class person would prefer. Style trumps practicality, even in some frigid wasteland.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 【Full Name】 Zacharias Morgan
【Alias】 Zach Hellacious
【Gender】 Male
【Age】 33
【Sexuality】 Homosexual
【Birth Place】 Lion's Keep, the Kingdom of Dawn
【Nation/Allegiance】 Deep down, he still believes in the Kingdom of Dawn, but won't even admit it to himself
【Profession】 Professional Soldier (Though he'd never just come out and say it)
Zacharias is the type of man to try to smile through the most grievous wounds. He delights in putting on a show, pretending to be something that he isn't. He comes across as an affable soul, almost infuriatingly easy-going. Of course, despite his affability and sense for the dramatic, his pride is a fragile thing, and easily bruised. The fact is, much of his cheerful personality is a constructed act, an attempt to seem more trustworthy than he feels that he is.
Underneath the apparent easy-going nature is a deep-set frustration: with his surroundings, with his circumstances, with himself. Funnily enough, this doesn't manifest during crises, like one might expect. It's during the down-time, when Zacharias has time to think and regret, that he snaps at people. Thankfully, though, he's a master at bouncing back from these times, and always has a quip and an apology prepared. Though it's quite the feat to find the difference between the two.
Zacharias may appear to be quite inconsistent, in both his stories and his behaviors,
But, for better or worse, Zacharias keeps up the act, even if he derides those around him in his mind. Despite his noble upbringing, which he fearfully hides from all those around him, he sees a life among the common people, even heretic barbarians, as preferable to living an entirely different lie. It can be difficult for him to truly be attached to someone, not just appear that way, but once a person has earned his loyalty and trust, it can never be revoked. After all, if there's one thing in this world that is an obvious virtue, it's the pure and durable bond between friends.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 【History】 Zacharias's life has been a pursuit of goals that he could never possibly reach. He desperately wished to earn the affection, and perhaps inheritance, of his father, but as the third son, never got so much as a second glance. He wanted to live as a holy man and attend a prestigious Academy of religion to achieve his dream, but was instead sent off to a military Academy to be a soldier. But perhaps the only thing that he could do to make his father proud was cruelly snatched away from him by his own nature: He would never produce heirs to the Morgan family name, due to his… Preferences.
Zacharias cannot recall much of his youth before the Academy. He has dim recollections, at best, of his mother's voice, or perhaps the voice of a servant, scolding him. To this day, he cannot recall his father's face. Instead, his first, solid memory is the sting of embarrassment, as his face was ground into the mud by an upperclassman. To his vindication, though, Zacharias also recalls the stern scolding that the boy got, after being caught.
However, for the first few years, Zacharias never understood how to quite blend in. Even when he tried his hardest; when he got up before the Sun had come up, made his bed, shoveled bits of food stolen from last's night dinner into his mouth, and used the privy, he still managed to be late for each and every single gathering of the student body in the morning. His teachers had almost come to expect him coming in late for their classes, for entire years in a row, with a different excuse every time. Understandably, Zacharias became very familiar with the school's various switches.
But perhaps worst of all, the thing that constantly tortured Zacharias was the constant reminders of his, as he puts it, “idle indulgence.” He was, after all, constantly surrounded by fit men that he held dear respect for. But he wasn't just going to just expose a potential weak points to the other boys, who he was still on bad terms with. Zacharias kept it hidden as long as he possibly could, but found it difficult to control himself. He had always been an emotional boy, and finally caved in and had a few flings (outside of the student body, of course) during his time at the Academy. Perhaps that was what set him on the path to becoming his own man. Acceptance of his actions, even if his father would have seen them as detestable, gave Zacharias a new, powerful maturity. Goals that he once pursued with fervor were left on the wayside, and he could decide his own path.
That path happened to be the military that he had once bawled into his mother's skirts about joining. His fellow soldiers gave him no small ribbing about that, you can be sure. But slowly, painfully slowly if you asked him, Zacharias was determined to be an equal to his comrades- No! Better than an equal, their superior! He knuckled down on his studies. Generally, students had to read about six dull, dry, irritating total tomes over the course of their training. Zacharias read twice that number, and actually understood a fair amount of it to boot. Despite the difference in their work ethic, Zacharias' classmates and he actually began to get along. The teasing, which had once been mean-spirited picking on perceived weakness, became good-natured.
Unsurprisingly, Zacharias's single-minded dedication to his education, including the school of hard knocks he was enrolled unwillingly in at the beginning, led to him graduating at the top of his class. Days out in the training yard and nights spent pouring over technical tomes had turned the boy into a man, and he accepted his stripes with pride. These days, it almost seems like a dream to him.
Inevitably, Zacharias enlisted in the military, full of confidence in his many, many years of training. That faith was shattered in his very first battle. Zacharias had always pictured wars as noble affairs, and his readings had only confirmed this. Knights, with noble banners unfurled, would line up, and charge each other, dying in a glorious affair. Many of the books had, unfortunately, neglected to mention everything else. Even with his extensive reading, nothing could have prepared Zacharias for the crunching of men and metal, the chaos of a general melee, men coming at you from all sides with swords drawn and you can't tell if they're yours or the enemy's and the acrid scent of smoke fills your nostrils and there's men thrashing on the ground and you CAN'T THINK-
Zacharias spent a long time thinking after that first battle. He wasn't even entirely sure who they had been fighting. All he did was revert, mechanically, back to his training- Find a target, engage him. Block, parry, strike home. Next target. It wasn't for several years that he managed to get a general sense of the very layout of a battlefield. Where to be, where not to be, who to engage and who to leave to the others.
Of course, Zacharias didn't spend all of his time fighting Vasili. As a professional soldier in an expert regiment of the Army, he had many responsibilities to attend to, and had to represent his fellow soldiers in the best possible way. What he had thought to be the boring parts of soldiering- Keeping watch, marching, war games, attending balls as a guard- had become welcome distractions from the horrors of Vasili skirmishes.
He never quite learned to love soldering as his fellows did. Zacharias was never what truly held him back from becoming like the sorry bastards still holding off Vasili assaults to this day. In part, he muses, it was sheer, dumb luck. His father had gotten wind of his sexual orientation- With the life as a soldier constantly on the move, Zacharias had felt that there was little harm in having some fun on the road. Obviously he was wrong.
Zacharias was not even given an ultimatum. After confessing to his father in a particularly heartfelt letter, he received a one-word reply: “Go.”
Well, that was all he needed. Zacharias turned in his formal resignation, adopted a fake last name, and went as far as he could from his father. In this case, North. He boarded a merchant vessel, promising to defend from any sort of pirate or Vasili privateer interference, and silently swore to himself that he would never return to the Kingdom of Dawn.
Almost a year later, and Zacharias has made it as far North as he could go on his own. He's already feeling some chill in his loose garments (however, he refuses to wear something warmer) and, hearing of a group that both wants to help people and head further North, has decided to throw his lot in with the Consano.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 【Skills and Abilities】 Zacharias trained his entire life to be a warrior, and is the best of the best. He has both extensive theoretical study from his time in an Academy of swordsmanship and practical experience from exhaustive training and time spent in the field against Vasili forces.
While he has been trained to recognize many different styles of fighting, he only practices one: A Dawn-style combat stance that relies upon near-clockwork-like movements and regimented perfection. Were one to recognize the style, they would ultimately find it easy to counter, but Zacharias has not had to face such a foe yet. Thus, he has been able to utilize his rapier and buckler with deadly efficiency.
He may not seem it, but Zacharias is a practiced and excellent liar. Not only does he keep his cool under pressure, but lies practically roll off of his tongue. After living a life of entirely different lies, they've almost become a second language to him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 【Weapons/Tools and Magic】 Weapons/Tools Zacharias's first and foremost items that he cares for are his buckler and rapier, which he named Fortuitous for reasons that he can't entirely remember, but he suspects had to do with a drunken bet. The armor he wears is on the lighter side, he's far more accustomed to platemail, but a small amount of chain, hardened leather, and an iron-shoulder pad on his shield arm do all the defending he needs.
Of course, as mentioned, Zacharias was trained to recognize and exploit many other combat styles, and is equipped for such situations. He possesses a smaller, curved sword that fares far better against opponents wielding similar weapons, and a small, strange-looking dagger with several deep notches in it, colloquially known as a sword-breaker. Otherwise, he doesn't have anything of extreme note tucked away in his pack. Food, water, rope, essentials for surviving in the wilderness. What is conspicuously missing is any memento of home.
Magical Spells Zacharias has shown absolutely no aptitude for magic.
Yours.
It's been a while since I've actually made a CS (*cough*orroleplayeddatall*cough*), so, uh, pardon my rustiness.
Did you even bother to ask whether or not you could join?
No, nor did you need to! Your CS kind of asks that question itself, and fortunately it's a very good Cs. Accepted! Please add it to the list :)
Still open and yet to start! The OOC is mostly discussion about the lore; the results of which have been incorporated into the wiki (second post in the OOC).
(In other words, you don't need to read through the entire OOC before joining)
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[i][b][color=Orchid]Name:[/color][/b]
Kyle (Obviously)
[b][color=Orchid]Age:[/color][/b]
23
[b][color=Orchid]Gender:[/color][/b]
Male
[b][color=Orchid]Sexuality:[/color][/b]
I tend to like women
[b][color=Orchid]Occupation:[/color][/b]
Criminologist
[b][color=Orchid]Location:[/color][/b]
United Kingdom
[b][color=Orchid]Hobbies:[/color][/b]
Gaming; Reading; Writing; Drinking; Sleeping; Napping; Snoozing; Eating; More Drinking; Kipping; and Laser-Tag.
[b][color=Orchid]A Random Interesting Fact:[/color][/b]
I can make the dimple on my chin go up and down.
[b][color=Orchid]Warning:[/color][/b]
I [b]will[/b] vanish for months at a time because adult stuff. I'm also unlikely to post every day.
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[/i][/centre]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><hr class="bb-hr"><hr class="bb-hr"><br><span class="bb-i"><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Name:</font></span><br>Kyle (Obviously)<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Age:</font></span><br>23<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Gender:</font></span><br>Male<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Sexuality:</font></span><br>I tend to like women<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Occupation:</font></span><br>Criminologist<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Location:</font></span><br>United Kingdom<br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Hobbies:</font></span><br>Gaming; Reading; Writing; Drinking; Sleeping; Napping; Snoozing; Eating; More Drinking; Kipping; and Laser-Tag. <br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">A Random Interesting Fact:</font></span><br>I can make the dimple on my chin go up and down. <br><br><span class="bb-b"><font color="orchid">Warning:</font></span><br>I <span class="bb-b">will</span> vanish for months at a time because adult stuff. I'm also unlikely to post every day. <br><br><hr class="bb-hr"><hr class="bb-hr"></span></div></div>