Scout

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

<Snipped quote by shylarah>
I will when I need to, but I will also let you guys know, moving forward.

I haven't read the IC yet, but I'd like to clarify a bit about Father Ilya to everyone. He's really not an asshole, just dismissive half the time. If you've got an idea, he'll listen. If you've got a deal, he'll consider it. If you want to discuss something with him, he'll at least give you his position on the matter. Y'all seem to think he hates everyone and shuns people, but that's not true. He just doesn't want to deal with small talk or doing favors for people who could never repay him. (As Inquisitors, every single one of you could possibly repay him some day.)

Also, his racism isn't nearly as overt as people seem to think. It's lightened up a lot over time, but from the beginning it was being judgemental, not hateful.

Other than that, I've had 0 objections to people's character relationships.

@Draken

I figured he wasn't actually racist, but Viveca might not realize she is either. She's jealous, for sure. Not be all SJW, but he has a privilege and a luxury she can't even fathom. Plus, Mother Indira strongly disliked him at first, and Viveca likely has not yet let that go.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Love it. Or it could rep,America, or any major cultural melting pot.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@CollectorOfMyst I'll read it myself and we'll do some relationship talk, yeah?

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted this to be separate. I don't know WHY my hider is broken and won't work, so I'm messing with formatting to make it work. Bear with me. ANY questions/comments/additions/concerns you want to talk about, PM me. :) Looking forward to hearing from you guys.

EDIT: AHA!! IT WAS BECAUSE I HAD A BROKEN FORMAT CODE FOR ITALICS. Suck it, coding. I fixed it.

EDIT:EDIT: @shylarah That's really well thought-out, I like it, honestly. Don't know if I'd change Viveca's picture (despite the white-washing), but I definitely like it.
-----

Viveca's Relationships

As she has not met most of her fellow Inquisitors, many of them will be very brief and based simply on a first impression or from what Father Ragnar has described to Warband Leviathan. Though specifically, I’ll be talking to her fellow Leviathan Inquisitors about possible specific interactions. This list is literally just in order of the Character tab, for simplicity’s sake.

Father Rodion: Rodion… He’s that machinist in Phoenix, right? I honestly don’t know what to say about the guy, he’s not too different from the typical Inquisitors, to be honest. At least, in the way he acts; introverted, intelligent, abnormal from the commonfolk. From what I’ve heard, he’s a bit of a genius, but we all have our areas where we excel, don’t we?

Father Hasaan: I don’t trust him. Not that I’ve gotten to know him yet, but from what I understand of his etheric talents and how he views himself with them, he doesn’t strike me as priest material. He’d be better suited as part of the common military. However, skill and a perceived faith will get you far in the Seminary… I would know.

Mother Astraea: Father Antonin’s star pupil from Warband Phoenix? If there are any students in Varya’s religious war machine that I admire, she makes the top of the list. Such power and grace aren’t necessarily uncommon, but usually one has to lose a part of the triangle to achieve her level. Still, she maintains a humanity that even I fear I’m losing and does so without even realizing it. I’m honored to have her in the mission to El.

Father Yerokhin “Stina:” Callous and unwavering, I can say without a doubt that Stina, from what I’ve seen and heard, is a first class prick. And still, he reminds me of a man who nourished the part of me destined for priesthood, and so long as he follows the path he’s on, I know he’ll be more than a great warrior one day. Unless I see him losing sight of that path, I’ll follow him into the very pits of Hell and drag him back kicking and screaming for more.

Father Ragnar: Now that’s what I call an interesting guy. He’s so uncharacteristically bubbly and eager to please. Before meeting most of Warband Phoenix, he shared as much as he could about our sister class. I still can’t tell if that’s a helpful or hurtful thing and hope it hasn’t given me too many pre-conceived notions about them. However, I know for sure his intentions were good. Still, with that smile on his face and can-do attitude, I can’t help but feel unnerved when I see his eyes. It reminds me of an older pain, the kind which is unshakeable and almost genetic, like an Omestrian’s. I don’t think he’s dishonest, just unnaturally happy. Perhaps the simple fact that it’s so uncommon to be boisterous and excited in our position is what makes me feel it.

Father Galahad: On first impressions, he hardly seems to break free from the Inquisitor norm. He’s noble and intelligent, collected and reasonable. This is, of course, far from a bad thing. He tells it like it is; a lot of us live in a kind of… fantasy in our heads that makes us feel a bit more comfortable in whatever world we live in. It’s a survival mechanism. Galahad doesn’t, I can already tell he lives here, now, in this place and time. He’s loyal, and that’s the kind of Inquisitor we need. Plus, he has such a refinement and style about him, like a natural born leader. I can respect that, I don’t have the charisma or sophistication for it.

Mother Tatiana: She has a kind soul, that’s certain. But from what I understand, she’s a bit… hesitant as a priestess. Her privileged birthplace allows her to have her curiosity, whereas I can’t show that slightest bit of wonder or questioning. I don’t hate her for it, and honestly I envy her and wish desperately to tell her that I understand what she’s going through. But from me, that’s heresy, so I’ll keep my lips tight and my will forged in Lanostran steel.

Mother Ziotea: To be honest, I have mixed feelings on the woman. She shares the blood of my people, and unfortunately for her she’s only half of each. The life of a pure Omestrian is torturous, but at least we have a people and a cause, a culture. Being half-bred means that common society will always see you as an Omestrian, no matter what; conversely, Omestrians will only pity you for that, maybe take you in, but you’ll never quite feel as though you’re one of us. I don’t dislike her, but she has poor control over the fact that she isn’t the dutiful, faithful servant an Omestrian Inquisitor under The Ravenous Lord should be… so I pity her, and respect her, for she has the strength to feel what I dare not, and I pray that she isn’t devoured like a full-blooded Omestrian for her defiance. In battle, however, she is nearly an asset and, considering my own feelings on the non-secular military, I have no problems marching in with her, even if Mother Indira isn’t her biggest fan.

Father Ilya: Visions of grandeur and a lack of self-awareness I’ve never seen anywhere else are the only things that I see inside of Ilya that make him stand out. He’s cocky and abrasive and our years together in Leviathan don’t do anything to make me feel better about him. Mother Indira hated him until we were almost graduated and I don’t care if he handled her trials with Oren and I so well; we had to endure it all and more, he got to live in the comfort for years before facing her! He’s obsessed with control and scheduling, has no remorse or compassion… he wants to be a hero and yet finds little time or reason to get to know any of us. I don’t respect him any more than I have to, and the thing I hate about him most is one I can’t hide: he idolizes The Ravenous Lord. I would never say it, not even to Mother Indira, but his blind faith and allegiance make me sick. We might be missionaries, but the fact that I’ve had to spend all my time at the Seminary with supplementary lessons on how to ‘hide’ who I am, where I came from, and what I care about makes me bitter to the core that people like Ilya exist. He probably doesn’t even know I feel this way – I haven’t ever let it show as part of my “Omestrian Suppression.” He probably doesn’t even realize it was his family that owned the ether mine that had me imprisoned as a child.

Mother Indira: By and far one of the two greatest influences on my life so far, and possibly ever. Mother Indira took in those of us like her, or those of us she wanted to teach our pain, and taught us the things that one would think shouldn’t have to be taught in the Red Seminary. Perception is reality, so the view of our faithfulness and obedience had to be a strong one; citizens don’t realize that even the greatest priests of Varya struggle, mostly because we’re here to be warriors and missionaries who fight for the people from the most powerful place we can. Indira taught me not to hate The Ravenous Lord, she taught me to understand him, even if I don’t believe in his words and desires. Though I had hoped to learn more of our people from her, I see now why that was naïve, she was showing me to conceal that curiosity, not satiate it. I won’t let her down. Deep within me, there is a flame. I must never allow it to go out.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Scout Sounds good! Could you change the bit where it says “near endless supply of ether” though? I know her ether pool is pretty substantial but this wording makes it seem like it effectively never runs out, which would pretty much break the power ceiling of the story :p

@Lovejoy

Yeah, totally was typing too fast. Didn't mean endless, "Seemingly" Was a better word, as she doesn't really have any USE for it all. I'll re-word.

EDIT: Done.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy Ayyy, called it. I mean it literally fits everything from Native American to Scandinavian to Israeli to Indian... I LOVE it.

Also, I'm doing character relationships now, it's a lot of work but I'm trying to write them in-character.

Edit: Also, I've added this to Viveca's abilities, realized I never touched on weapon proficiency/fighting prowess.

"3. Underdog: Viveca was trained by an Inquisitor from a young age, and thus has a shockingly strong affinity for martial arts in all of their forms. The man was not tall, but he was built with the strength of Stina and Father Gregoroth. Seeing as her seemingly endless pool of ether didn't have much to offer in the way of magic or spells like it does for most, she was trained to use this resource in every moment of her fighting at just the right amount. Coupling this power from a young age with how much time she spent training with a weapons master before her enrollment at the Red Seminary, one might mistake Viveca for a citizen of Lanostre with her wide array of weapons specializations. Her uniform includes a boot knife, a dagger sheathed in the small of her back, and another combat knife strapped over her breast. On her left arm she has a black metal bracer that works like a shield when paired with an enchantment and her natural paling to provide defense. Her main weapon is a falchion sheathed on her left hip."

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

So on the topic of Omestrians, I was reviewing the other day because it seems they're pretty much a bastard race with little correlation to what we know as races of modern times. I honestly was comparing them to Scandinavian culture (as we didn't have an Omestrian already made we're trying not to use the old thread as a framework) and so I named Viveca based on that. However, it seems they have a more Indian/Middle-Eastern feel than I had initially thought. At least, when compared to Indira. Shy's Omestrian (Ziotea[sp], right? Still getting characters straight) is a pale redhead, mine is a blond-haired, fair-skinned woman, and Indira is a dark-skinned, tall, dignified type. I'm a little confused - if they have a language, what does it compare to? (Like LaNostre is Spartan/Greek, Varya is Russian/Slavic, T'sarae is the Middle East, etc.) I guess they don't all have to have an exact correlation, and Omestris with it's wartorn, decimated culture, is probably the biggest mixing pot of races defined almost solely by the golden eyes.

EDIT: They could be, come to think of it, based on a Jewish/Israeli correlation. That comes in all colors, sizes, and shapes and historically kind of lines up well. Just spitballing. I like cultural equivalents, gives me something to base it on.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

Alright *knuckle crack* on a spontaneous trip to Philly with a friend, but she's at a race right now, so I can get some work done before exploring in a few hours. :) Here it goes.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@ScoutHey I sent you a PM regarding that. Viveca did also have a vision but I haven’t gotten around to writing the ones for Leviathan yet. Will have it done today though.

@Lovejoy

Yyyyup! I was working on the reply, I just overlooked the one sentence that it wasn't done yet. :)

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@shylarah Yeah, my apologies for not getting these relationships hammered out. Working on a few things at once. I'm sifting through all these pages in the hopes that I'll find the visions... because Viveca didn't have a vision on the first page (cause she's Leviathan, not Phoenix).