Well, at long last, here is ze applicationation. Or just the application, if you prefer. :V
"This one has examined the circumstances and detected an approximate 25% reduction in your rational decision-making ability. It recommends an immediate detour from the current course of action."
(There isn't a Wiki page for this character's race so far, but I think Twhirtley said I didn't need one... yet. I'll help him with the pages for associated items presented here if he wants.)
"This one has examined the circumstances and detected an approximate 25% reduction in your rational decision-making ability. It recommends an immediate detour from the current course of action."
Name: Priestley
Race: Animata (Animated Structure)
Gender: N/A (Usually Identified as Female)
Age: 401
Birthday: 44th of Jadeyan, 101 ML
Birthplace: Unknown
Resides in: Mobile
Occupation: Unemployed
Appearance:
Personality:
As one might expect, Priestley's personality is quite... scarce. As in, it's very hard to tell if she even has a personality.
She speaks in a very robotic, emotionless manner and has a preoccupation with statistics and empirical analysis. She was not designed to be social; as such, she has very little in the way of social skills. Most notably, she will always state the blunt truth, whether others want her to or not, and her practical analysis of almost everyone she meets inevitably leads her to make inadvertantly rude comments about people. A trait she shares with most of the Animata is that she tends to refer to herself in the third person, to lend a sense of impartiality to her statements. For instance, she will usually say 'This one', 'Priestley', or for occasions of import, 'Animata Priestley'.
There are some hints of a personality under her cold exterior, however. She seems to take pride in her skills and abilities, but usually not to the point of arrogance, and apparently has some hidden understanding of sentimental value and gratitude, considering that she named herself after her saviour. Plus, sometimes when her blunt statements of fact are brought up during inconvenient or disadvantageous situations, it can almost sound like she's being sarcastic. Of course, it's entirely possible that this is an accident and she has no understanding of what sarcasm actually is.
History:
Skills:
Intelligence - 20
Observation - 12
Cryptography - 10
Mathematics - 10
Investigation - 10
Physics - 10
Stealth - 8
Copying - 5
Weapon (Slim Sword) - 5
Magic:
Animata Transmutation - 30 (+30 Racial Bonus)
Possessions:
Talan Priestley's Cold-Iron Sword (pictured above).
Ledger:
N/A (she never paid for that sword)
Story List:
Date - URL - Characters involved
Race: Animata (Animated Structure)
Gender: N/A (Usually Identified as Female)
Age: 401
Birthday: 44th of Jadeyan, 101 ML
Birthplace: Unknown
Resides in: Mobile
Occupation: Unemployed
Appearance:
Personality:
As one might expect, Priestley's personality is quite... scarce. As in, it's very hard to tell if she even has a personality.
She speaks in a very robotic, emotionless manner and has a preoccupation with statistics and empirical analysis. She was not designed to be social; as such, she has very little in the way of social skills. Most notably, she will always state the blunt truth, whether others want her to or not, and her practical analysis of almost everyone she meets inevitably leads her to make inadvertantly rude comments about people. A trait she shares with most of the Animata is that she tends to refer to herself in the third person, to lend a sense of impartiality to her statements. For instance, she will usually say 'This one', 'Priestley', or for occasions of import, 'Animata Priestley'.
There are some hints of a personality under her cold exterior, however. She seems to take pride in her skills and abilities, but usually not to the point of arrogance, and apparently has some hidden understanding of sentimental value and gratitude, considering that she named herself after her saviour. Plus, sometimes when her blunt statements of fact are brought up during inconvenient or disadvantageous situations, it can almost sound like she's being sarcastic. Of course, it's entirely possible that this is an accident and she has no understanding of what sarcasm actually is.
History:
Priestley no longer knows it, but she was originally created over a hundred years before the death of magic by the Kellin, an isolationist coalition of multi-racial Mages who lived in a city-state deep underground and had mastered the magical school of Animation. Using their skills, they created armies of Animata, metal forged into the shape of men and given life through repurposed souls. They came to rely heavily on the Animata, as they laboured away as miners, manufacturers, domestic servants and security forces, leaving the Kellin themselves free to pursue knowledge, art or philosophy... for a time, at least.
The Kellin owed their power to their God, Ordin-Cotac, the Master of Puppetry, who apparently resided inside a grand machine that had outlets throughout their entire city. Ordin-Cotac was a rather enigmatic and private God; considering himself less of a manipulator and more of a patron towards all those given life through artificial means (and, according to a more broad interpretation, those who find happiness in servitude), he deliberately communicated with his followers using a complex cipher which would only be understood by specially-constructed Animata, forged from a Magic-conducting metal called Kellidium (his reasoning, apparently, being that if he just handed everything to them on a plate, there would be no servitude, and thus, life would become meaningless).
Priestley was one of these Animata; imbued with the soul of a long-forgotten Kellin scholar or something similar (for the construction of Animata relies on souls to power them, and so many Kellin volunteered their souls upon death), it was her task to relay messages between Ordin-Cotac and his followers.
On one particularly dark month on the eve of the Kellin civilisation, when almost all of Kellin society had devolved into ungrateful idlers, it was Priestley and her kin who send out a message to the Kellin, telling them that they were becoming complacent and no longer really serving anyone, merely exploiting the souls of their dead and torturing their unaware subconscious in doing so. He even began to imply that he was starting to regret allowing the Kellin to become so reliant on the Animata, intending for them to work in tandem and provide happiness for everyone, including the world above, rather than for it to be a completely one-sided process and to remain in isolation, refusing to offer their gifts to the rest of the world out of fear that they might take it away.
The Kellin resolved to sort it out somehow, but of course, Ordin-Cotac's comments turned out to be especially prescient. A year later, the Death of Magic occurred. Ordin-Cotac seemed to vanish from existence, and every single Animata 'died', reduced to lifeless scraps of metal. As was the case with far too many civilisations at this point, the Kellin fell into panic and chaos; generations of relying on the Animata for security meant that no-one was fit to guard the city, and barely anyone knew the intricacies behind mining or food production. A fair few Kellin had even become illiterate, not seeing the point in learning how to read. With no God or interpreters to guide them, a civil war soon erupted over who should decide what to do, with the fighting almost comical in nature due to the participants' lack of skill in warfare, leading to long, drawn-out battles with comparatively few casualties.
However, the Kellin's Civil War was cut short after a small cult of Kellin, considering themselves the only true devotees of Ordin-Cotac who listened to his warnings, chose to destroy the city (considering it punishment for their compatriots' hubris) by systematically blowing up or demolishing the pillar network which prevented cave-ins, having been weakened already with no magical support. After detonating a series of explosives, a massive cave-in occurred and buried the entire city, killing nearly half the population and trapping the rest. A further two-thirds of that group eventually starved to death, while the rest managed to dig their way to the surface, whereupon they and their descendants eventually assimilated into surface society.
Unbeknownst to the surface, however, a fair number of the 'dead' Animata had survived the cave-in, with some even being brought to the surface and dismantled either as 'souvenirs' or to be sold to the surface-dwellers for lots of gold. There is, however, one family, the caretakers of the Animata Interpreters, who recovered the remains of any Interpreters they could find, took them to the surface, and buried them in various locations, in the hopes that one day, magic would return and they would reawaken to speak the word of Ordin-Cotac once more.
Priestley, as it happened, was one of the Interpreters returned to the surface. Almost exactly as the caretakers had predicted, the magic eventually did return, at midnight on the 1st Jadeyan, 300 DM. It was then that Priestley awoke, the soul that had powered her simply remaining dormant the entire time. However, she had no memory of her previous existence; her role in the communion with Ordin-Cotac, or even Ordin-Cotac's existence, or even the Kellin, or even her name. As far as she was concerned, she was a lost relic of unknown origin who may have served a purpose once before, but doesn't now.
The Kellin owed their power to their God, Ordin-Cotac, the Master of Puppetry, who apparently resided inside a grand machine that had outlets throughout their entire city. Ordin-Cotac was a rather enigmatic and private God; considering himself less of a manipulator and more of a patron towards all those given life through artificial means (and, according to a more broad interpretation, those who find happiness in servitude), he deliberately communicated with his followers using a complex cipher which would only be understood by specially-constructed Animata, forged from a Magic-conducting metal called Kellidium (his reasoning, apparently, being that if he just handed everything to them on a plate, there would be no servitude, and thus, life would become meaningless).
Priestley was one of these Animata; imbued with the soul of a long-forgotten Kellin scholar or something similar (for the construction of Animata relies on souls to power them, and so many Kellin volunteered their souls upon death), it was her task to relay messages between Ordin-Cotac and his followers.
On one particularly dark month on the eve of the Kellin civilisation, when almost all of Kellin society had devolved into ungrateful idlers, it was Priestley and her kin who send out a message to the Kellin, telling them that they were becoming complacent and no longer really serving anyone, merely exploiting the souls of their dead and torturing their unaware subconscious in doing so. He even began to imply that he was starting to regret allowing the Kellin to become so reliant on the Animata, intending for them to work in tandem and provide happiness for everyone, including the world above, rather than for it to be a completely one-sided process and to remain in isolation, refusing to offer their gifts to the rest of the world out of fear that they might take it away.
The Kellin resolved to sort it out somehow, but of course, Ordin-Cotac's comments turned out to be especially prescient. A year later, the Death of Magic occurred. Ordin-Cotac seemed to vanish from existence, and every single Animata 'died', reduced to lifeless scraps of metal. As was the case with far too many civilisations at this point, the Kellin fell into panic and chaos; generations of relying on the Animata for security meant that no-one was fit to guard the city, and barely anyone knew the intricacies behind mining or food production. A fair few Kellin had even become illiterate, not seeing the point in learning how to read. With no God or interpreters to guide them, a civil war soon erupted over who should decide what to do, with the fighting almost comical in nature due to the participants' lack of skill in warfare, leading to long, drawn-out battles with comparatively few casualties.
However, the Kellin's Civil War was cut short after a small cult of Kellin, considering themselves the only true devotees of Ordin-Cotac who listened to his warnings, chose to destroy the city (considering it punishment for their compatriots' hubris) by systematically blowing up or demolishing the pillar network which prevented cave-ins, having been weakened already with no magical support. After detonating a series of explosives, a massive cave-in occurred and buried the entire city, killing nearly half the population and trapping the rest. A further two-thirds of that group eventually starved to death, while the rest managed to dig their way to the surface, whereupon they and their descendants eventually assimilated into surface society.
Unbeknownst to the surface, however, a fair number of the 'dead' Animata had survived the cave-in, with some even being brought to the surface and dismantled either as 'souvenirs' or to be sold to the surface-dwellers for lots of gold. There is, however, one family, the caretakers of the Animata Interpreters, who recovered the remains of any Interpreters they could find, took them to the surface, and buried them in various locations, in the hopes that one day, magic would return and they would reawaken to speak the word of Ordin-Cotac once more.
Priestley, as it happened, was one of the Interpreters returned to the surface. Almost exactly as the caretakers had predicted, the magic eventually did return, at midnight on the 1st Jadeyan, 300 DM. It was then that Priestley awoke, the soul that had powered her simply remaining dormant the entire time. However, she had no memory of her previous existence; her role in the communion with Ordin-Cotac, or even Ordin-Cotac's existence, or even the Kellin, or even her name. As far as she was concerned, she was a lost relic of unknown origin who may have served a purpose once before, but doesn't now.
She wandered aimlessly through the Tundra south of Frigmount where she unearthed herself, when she was attacked by a group of Bears. With no knowledge of how to defend herself, she was trashed. However, she was found by a local hunter, a man called Talan Priestley. Talan, intrigued by what he saw as a woman made of metal, first took her to the nearest Smith to fix her up. Then they first spoke, and Mr. Priestley asked her what her name was, she said she didn't know. The following conversation is what ultimately lead the formerly-nameless Animata to assume Priestley's name.
"You don't know your own name?" He responded. "How is that possible?"
"This one's archival records are... incomplete. They have been inactive for an abnormally long period of time." She explained. "All records within, if there were any before, have been erased."
"I guess that makes sense. But... wasn't there some kinda clue where ya... woke up or whatever?"
"This one cannot confirm the presence of any signs of this one's identity. ...This one did not query, what is the name you are known by?"
"Uh... well, in full, it's Talan Priestley."
"Based on logical naming structure, there exists an 87% chance that 'Priestley' is the name of your family. Is this hypothesis true?"
"Um... yes?"
"Then this one shall call itself 'Priestley'."
Her subsequent reasoning for taking that name was that it was in the absence of any alternatives that made logical sense to assume, 'Priestley' was the only option, and she couldn't take the name 'Talan' as well since that's a unique given name and would thus lead to confusion. The fact that 'Priest' also describes her former job quite nicely is just a coincidence.
Unaware of her origins or what she even was, T. Priestley came to the conclusion that she was worth treating as a human based on the fact that she could speak and had some awareness of what was happening around her. For several months, he answered almost all of her near-constant questions to the best of his abilities, and taught her how to defend herself with a sword so she wouldn't get trashed by Bears again. All in all, things went quite well, and Talan's local fur business thrived because his new assistant tended not to attract scent once taught how to be discreet.
Eventually, however, word of Priestley's existence reached the Draconic scholars of Pyresia to the south. Having unearthed some knowledge of the Kellin Animata, they sent in some Dwarf agents to learn more about her, in the hopes of convincing her to accompany them back to Pyresia for study. When they approached Talan's cabin, however, Talan immediately became suspicious of them, and accused them of wanting to dismantle his 'companion'. The confrontation eventually escalated to violence, with one of the Dwarves stabbing Talan in the throat in self-defence, but not before Talan managed to kill one of them. However, Priestley, who was collecting fur from further away, only returned at this point. Without the necessary context, she assumed the Dwarves were attacking and threatened them with violence. When another Dwarf, who was practiced in magic, got hasty and attempted to strike her with lightning, the magic seemed to pass into her harmlessly; in fact, it added energy to the soul core that was her power source, and she, almost automatically, turned the lightning against the 'attackers', driving them off for good.
However, by the time they were gone, Talan had already bled to death. Not knowing what to do with a corpse, Priestley chose to move it and the corpse of the Dwarf inside Talan's house to shelter it from the weather, thus making them easier for anyone to identify. She also proceeded to read a rather large collection of journals, in which it became apparent that Talan cared so much for Priestley because she reminded him of his wife, who had apparently left him some time ago, and he was suffering from abandonment issues (though mercifully, he knew better than to attempt anything 'dirty' with her). She also searched the body of the dead Dwarf, learning of their reasons for coming here via a note. The note was ambiguously worded, however, and lead Priestley to think that they wished to kidnap her. Thus, she chose to flee the house to avoid possible retribution, leaving the bodies behind.
From this point onward, she moved south, unwittingly heading towards Stone Crest, in the hopes of finding some place of refuge from these 'kidnappers'.
"You don't know your own name?" He responded. "How is that possible?"
"This one's archival records are... incomplete. They have been inactive for an abnormally long period of time." She explained. "All records within, if there were any before, have been erased."
"I guess that makes sense. But... wasn't there some kinda clue where ya... woke up or whatever?"
"This one cannot confirm the presence of any signs of this one's identity. ...This one did not query, what is the name you are known by?"
"Uh... well, in full, it's Talan Priestley."
"Based on logical naming structure, there exists an 87% chance that 'Priestley' is the name of your family. Is this hypothesis true?"
"Um... yes?"
"Then this one shall call itself 'Priestley'."
Her subsequent reasoning for taking that name was that it was in the absence of any alternatives that made logical sense to assume, 'Priestley' was the only option, and she couldn't take the name 'Talan' as well since that's a unique given name and would thus lead to confusion. The fact that 'Priest' also describes her former job quite nicely is just a coincidence.
Unaware of her origins or what she even was, T. Priestley came to the conclusion that she was worth treating as a human based on the fact that she could speak and had some awareness of what was happening around her. For several months, he answered almost all of her near-constant questions to the best of his abilities, and taught her how to defend herself with a sword so she wouldn't get trashed by Bears again. All in all, things went quite well, and Talan's local fur business thrived because his new assistant tended not to attract scent once taught how to be discreet.
Eventually, however, word of Priestley's existence reached the Draconic scholars of Pyresia to the south. Having unearthed some knowledge of the Kellin Animata, they sent in some Dwarf agents to learn more about her, in the hopes of convincing her to accompany them back to Pyresia for study. When they approached Talan's cabin, however, Talan immediately became suspicious of them, and accused them of wanting to dismantle his 'companion'. The confrontation eventually escalated to violence, with one of the Dwarves stabbing Talan in the throat in self-defence, but not before Talan managed to kill one of them. However, Priestley, who was collecting fur from further away, only returned at this point. Without the necessary context, she assumed the Dwarves were attacking and threatened them with violence. When another Dwarf, who was practiced in magic, got hasty and attempted to strike her with lightning, the magic seemed to pass into her harmlessly; in fact, it added energy to the soul core that was her power source, and she, almost automatically, turned the lightning against the 'attackers', driving them off for good.
However, by the time they were gone, Talan had already bled to death. Not knowing what to do with a corpse, Priestley chose to move it and the corpse of the Dwarf inside Talan's house to shelter it from the weather, thus making them easier for anyone to identify. She also proceeded to read a rather large collection of journals, in which it became apparent that Talan cared so much for Priestley because she reminded him of his wife, who had apparently left him some time ago, and he was suffering from abandonment issues (though mercifully, he knew better than to attempt anything 'dirty' with her). She also searched the body of the dead Dwarf, learning of their reasons for coming here via a note. The note was ambiguously worded, however, and lead Priestley to think that they wished to kidnap her. Thus, she chose to flee the house to avoid possible retribution, leaving the bodies behind.
From this point onward, she moved south, unwittingly heading towards Stone Crest, in the hopes of finding some place of refuge from these 'kidnappers'.
Skills:
Intelligence - 20
Observation - 12
Cryptography - 10
Mathematics - 10
Investigation - 10
Physics - 10
Stealth - 8
Copying - 5
Weapon (Slim Sword) - 5
Magic:
Animata Transmutation - 30 (+30 Racial Bonus)
Possessions:
Talan Priestley's Cold-Iron Sword (pictured above).
Ledger:
N/A (she never paid for that sword)
Story List:
Date - URL - Characters involved
(There isn't a Wiki page for this character's race so far, but I think Twhirtley said I didn't need one... yet. I'll help him with the pages for associated items presented here if he wants.)