Samara

Furor Titanicus

Name: Maris (No last name. Nomads are known by their tribe’s name.)

Gender: Female

Age: 19

Appearance: 5’ 6”, stocky frame, with no feminine curves. She is strong and compact, built like a gymnast. She has sun-kissed skin, pin-straight, chin-length, sandy blonde hair, and gray-green eyes. She favors loose, cotton clothing in varying shades of tan and red. Normally, this consists of a long-sleeved undershirt, a short-sleeved tunic that reaches her knees, a pair of loose-fitting pants, and a long scarf that she wraps around her head and neck. Her shoes are crude, but sturdy, made of tough brown leather, and reach just above her ankles.



Titan: Locke

Origins: Nomadic tribe called the Sandmire

Personality: Adventurous and inquisitive, Maris is a restless spirit who is constantly on the lookout for something fun and interesting to do. She loves exploring new lands, especially those that are as different from a flat desert as possible. She values freedom, independence, and hard work. She is passionate in everything she does and can have unpredictable mood swings. Her emotions are intense, and she will unleash them on anyone, at any time, for any reason. But she can also reign them in whenever she feels like it. She may be angry at you one second and completely forgiving the next. Her changeability is her gift and her curse--it can win her friends easily, but rarely keeps them.

Likes: going for long, aimless walks; hiking; climbing trees and rock formations; meeting new people.

Dislikes: rules, limits, and constraints, both physical and nonphysical; making promises; routine; completely flat landscapes.

Backstory: Maris grew up a nomad, traveling the desert with her tribe, scavenging and stealing from small villages and other tribes. She hated her life: the same sights, the same plans, over and over ad nauseum. She dreamed of traveling to exotic places, discovering fascinating artifacts and socializing with entertaining people. She constantly got into trouble by wandering away from the temporary settlements and even trying to run away several times. She was notorious among her peers for her antics, and they often egged her on. Yet whenever she was caught and punished, the other kids laughed, told her it served her right for being so wild, and dutifully went back to their chores. She had three older brothers, and all were strong, obedient, and terribly dull. Her parents were exasperated by Maris, and often compared her unfavorably to her brothers. Her childhood consisted of being told “no!”, “be quiet!”, “stop that!” and “stay here!” By the time she was a teenager, her parents had completely given up on her and paid her little attention. She stopped participating in the tribe’s raids, and struck out on her own toward interesting sand dunes and the occasional tree, but still never leaving the tribe for longer than a few days. She was still afraid to leave her family, even though she wanted freedom more than anything. She lived for years with her internal conflict, until one day she was chosen...

Skills & Talents:
Living in the desert, where water is scarce and sacred, has given her an excellent talent for sensing when water is near--she can smell the moisture in the air, and knows how to dig a simple well.
Even though before pledging herself to Locke she had never been near a body of water larger than a tubful, she instinctively knows how to swim and can breathe underwater.
She has an uncanny sense for when someone is trying to sneak up on her--it feels like ripples in the air when they move.
She can move faster in the rain--nothing superhuman, but enough to give her a wicked edge.
She has basic survival skills--firemaking, making her own clothes, making a shelter, hunting, food preservation, and basic first aid. These are skills all nomads are brought up to have.

Equipment/weaponry:
Flint and steel for firemaking
A pouch of salt
100 feet of rope
A large brown leather knapsack that she keeps on her back. It has some small pockets attached to the inside of it for smaller items.
Swathes of extra cotton cloth
A bone needle
A few spools of strong thread made from various types of hair (human, horse, camel--whatever the nomads could find)
A large steel canteen with a leather strap
A simple wooden shortbow that she slings over one shoulder
A quiver of 20 arrows made of bone and fletched with vulture feathers

Reason for picking Titan/Branded: She felt instantly attracted to the power and mystery of water. Locke’s insistence on constant movement and goal-reaching also seemed completely in line with her own interests, which sealed the deal.

Furor Titanicus

Maris bolted up from her sleeping mat and gasped. A single lamplight flickered. She looked wildly around at her sleeping family. Her mother and father were across the tent behind a large curtain. She could hear her father snoring. Her brothers were all spread out around her on their own mats. Adam, the eldest, lay flat on his back with one arm by his side and one across his chest. Rylan lay at his feet, perpendicular to him. He was splayed on his stomach, arms and legs peeking out from underneath his blankets. And closest to Maris on her left, Lance, the youngest brother, was laying on his side facing away from her.

On her right, the slit in the tent that served as the door swayed gently in the cool night breeze and she could see twinkles of moonlight each time it opened. Maris threw off her blankets and stepped outside. Still in her night dress, she shivered at the chill desert night as she stole away from the tent. She felt a pull on her soul. Something was calling to her from the desert, and she intended to answer it. She found herself being drawn south toward the Rotten River’s bank; the Sandmire Nomads had been following it from desert to desert for some time now and were nearly always camped beside it. The dark peaks of the Ziri Mountains, most often called the Spears, pierced the sky above her as she walked to the river at its feet.

Upon reaching the water, Maris didn’t break her stride, instead splashing right into the river until she was submerged up to her neck. Then she dipped her head under and swam to the bottom. She felt the pull even more strongly now--it was like a chain tethered to her chest. She needed to go deeper to follow it, but wasn’t sure if she could hold her breath that long. You don’t need to, said a voice inside. Breathe. She slowed in her strokes and obeyed, and to her great shock, was rewarded with oxygen. She still felt the water enter her lungs, unmistakably wet and heavy, but it brought no pain--only the same relief of a gulpful of air. Amazed, she breathed in again as she resumed her swim to the bottom.

Deeper and deeper she went until at last she saw it gleaming on the riverbed. Locke’s trident. Her trident. She grabbed its staff in both hands and, holding it out above her head, kicked her way back to the surface. When she broke the surface, she smoothly expelled the water from her lungs--not a painful process, but natural, as if she’d been doing it all her life. She felt dazed as she pulled herself to the riverbank and lay on the sand for a moment to catch her breath, the trident at her side. As soon as she felt her breathing become even again she sat up and held the trident in her lap to get a closer look.

It was only a few inches shorter than she was, she reckoned, and a beautiful, brilliant gold. The prongs were barbed and wickedly sharp, and the middle prong rose taller than those on either side. The bottom of the staff was also sharp, though not barbed, and her immediate thought was that it would make a great hiking staff. But then she remembered her dream. Maris was a champion now, and she had a duty to fulfill. This was to be her weapon.

Fully awake now, the implications of her dream hit her for the first time since she awoke. The Sandmire had never been a religious group, thieving, conniving grifters as they were, but their general agnosticism did nothing to deter Maris from accepting her dream as reality immediately. She stood using her trident and strode quickly to her tent, her nightdress sopping wet and probably see-through by now. Luckily, no one in her part of the camp had stirred, and she took care to not wake her family either when she entered her tent. She moved behind the tall dressing panel, stripped out of her drenched nightdress, and dressed quickly in the day clothes she removed from her trunk, a red undershirt with tan pants and a long yellow tunic. She draped her long red scarf across her shoulders and stepped out from behind the panel. She grabbed her leather knapsack and slipped her leather shoes on as she left the tent. Now she needed supplies. Her knapsack already carried her needle and thread, flint and steel, and canteen, but for the rest she was going to need to raid the supplies tent. And for that, she’d need to overcome the two guards that sat at its entrance.

The girl sneaked in between the many tents, taking a roundabout way to the supplies tent in the center of the camp until she was nearly right behind it. She could sense the two guards at the front of the tent. She didn’t know if they were asleep or not, but she could feel them moving--ripples in the air emanated from them with every slight movement they made, even just the rise and fall of their chests. She grinned at this newfound power. Being a champion is going to have some great perks, she thought. But then her face fell. I know they’re there, but how am I going to get past them? I can’t kill them! They’ve done nothing wrong. She gripped her trident tightly to her chest, thinking. If only I could get in there without even using the entrance.

As suddenly as she thought it, she felt a cool liquid pool at her feet and she was slipping down into it. She at least had the presence of mind not to scream, but she was so startled that when she popped back up out of the puddle and found herself in the middle of the supplies tent, she dropped her trident on the rug-covered floor and fell over on her back. Sitting up, she looked at her feet with wide eyes and saw a small pool of water on the rug, rapidly receding into nothing. She felt the spot when it was gone. It was bone-dry, as if the water had never been there at all. She wanted to giggle with excitement, but now that her newfound powers had brought her here, she needed to get packing.

Maris ended up taking three two-inch spools of thread, several yards of off-white scrap cloth, a long length of sturdy rope, a shortbow and quiver with twenty arrows, a pouch of salt to dry her own meat, and as much food as she could stuff into the remaining space of the knapsack. She used her puddle to pop back out of the tent and snuck her way back down to the riverbank. She filled her canteen and took several generous handfuls of the water before standing back up and swinging her knapsack over her shoulders. She wouldn’t say goodbye to her family. She had fought with them for long enough--they’d be glad to wake up and see her bedroll empty. One less troublesome mouth to feed. She’d only never left before because she couldn’t come up with a concrete reason why. Now she had one. She was Locke’s Champion, and she would win her Titan the war.

Kingsglaive {Filled}

@FantasyChic ...I've totally been doing that too. I might bite the bullet and be the one to post first, but I'm a scaredy-cat for now and if someone else wants to post first...I'd be really okay with that.

Locked in a Room

Interested!! I've actually had this idea years ago for a short story but never could get it written out properly, so this is right up my alley.

Furor Titanicus

Putting my vote in for @Mag Lev. He had worked with Jhett on the magic aspects already so he knows that well, and he knows the general direction the RP was meant to go. And he's organized and motivated. He's also been the most active on this too, which is more than most of us. I think he'll be a good GM.

Kingsglaive {Filled}

I've been having some trouble coming up with my fight scene these last few days, guys. I've never really written one before and I'm just having trouble coming up with ideas. So that's why I haven't posted yet, hehe.

Furor Titanicus

Well I think you already know, Mags, but I'll stay too. :)

Kingsglaive {Filled}

Mirany heard the slight alarm in Nero’s voice as he summoned the team to his location. Immediately she pressed the button to view the map, scanning hurriedly until she found the point. Saga exchanged a worried look with her as she did the same. The women made their way to the area with little delay, luckily. Nothing was said as they walked, both sunk in a shared concern. What could have disturbed Nero so much?

The secret hallway they found seemed to go on forever, but Mirany couldn’t tell if it really was that long or if it just felt like it because they were in such a hurry. She decided that of course it didn’t matter--she needed to focus on going faster. Her nerves tightened more and more the closer she got to the blip on the map.

At last they reached an open door, a very old one with an outdated manual opening mechanism. Mirany frowned at it. That's odd. But when she entered the room and saw the massive creature in the tank, her face went slack. It was unmistakably a Behemoth. She was suddenly glad Nero had been so cryptic over the bluetooth. She wouldn’t have believed him. Likely none of them would. Slowly she came up to stand at Nero’s shoulder. She tried to elbow him in greeting, but the gesture faltered and fell short in her shock. Dimly she heard the others arrive, but she had eyes only for the monster. It terrified her in a way nothing else ever had. Well, almost nothing else, she thought bitterly.

Gradually she emerged out of her shock and turned away from the tank, though it chilled her to put her back to the creature. She said, “Even if Ivalice’s weapons research doesn’t pan out, this…" Mirany gestured behind her, “this would be devastating in battle. No wonder they haven’t made any significant progress--they don’t even need explosives.”

She wrapped her hand around the back of her neck in a stressed movement. “And I don’t think Algareth is the only place in danger. Ivalice could take out whoever they wanted to.”

Soul Seekers V 2.0

possible interest :)

Furor Titanicus

@FantasyChic Hey it's all good, thanks for communicating! I know @Jhett314 would appreciate it lol