“He stared but did not stir, Long’d but had no money: The cunning merchant bade him taste In tones as smooth as honey…”
Nicknames: Mama, Mama Tia, Tia Race: Gnome Gender: Female Age: 51
Appearance: Tiana has a bit of an aging motherly vibe to her appearance, with more visible lines on her features than shown in the photograph. Though she wears a circlet on her forehead all the time, her clothes are modest and humble. She typically wears no shoes. Her body is littered with scars.
Personality: You would expect a manipulative sanguinist to seem dark, sultry, and coy; the outright truth of the matter is that Tiana is none of those things. She’s a bit ambiguous, sure - but she’s friendly, welcoming, and often quite endearing due to her small stature. She makes friends easily, and her age and experience makes her somewhat respectable. Tiana lends a hand in classes, she checks in on the novices often and is quick to organise and enjoy many a festival, feast or party. She didn’t earn the title “Mama” for nothing - she always goes out of her way to make sure the homesick and the lonely have a place by her hearth.
That is what makes her such a dangerous person to be around. She’s honest about her actions, but one can never gleam her intentions. She will always tell the victim of her spells precisely what she is doing, but not why - she will always withhold the right amount of information without making it seem too obvious. Questions are easy to dismiss when you’ve earned the trust of the clientele. The truth is, it is almost impossible to tell whether or not Tiana likes you or is simply using you until her plan actually comes into fruition - by which point she already has an alibi and she’s gotten rid of the evidence. She is meticulous. She leaves no paper trails and no evidence.
And yet it is frustratingly obvious that Tiana isn’t out to get absolutely everyone, and her crimes are so difficult to pinpoint or so insignificant in hindsight that it is very well possible that she does genuinely care for the people she claims to help. Her ‘act’, if you were to believe it, is hardly an act when there are many people she has protected and looked after without calling in for her dues. Her moral ambiguity calls for wariness but does not deserve a prison sentence...and so, Mama Tiana walks free, unshackled and unchecked, capable of heinous acts yet beloved by many.
Biography: Tiana’s story is known by basically everyone, but the details change so often depending on who is spinning the tale. She came from a far-off land, where the climate was more temperate and the trees denser. Snow clumped around your skirts and the cabins were made of logs, and a fire could mean the difference between life and death. It used to be owned by a lenient mage lord, who left the gnomekin to their own devices deep in the pine forests of the mountains. When the great Alsijan empire took over, her homeland was turned into a logging operation. She was shunted out of her abode and travelled towards the centre of this nation, for reasons unknown.
In Tiana’s old world, there was no such thing as good and evil magic - only different sorts. There were no laws and rules to restrict the people. Your survival depended upon your wit and your determination. Tiana had learned the craft from a very young age, from a very long line of matrons who taught her all she needed to know. She travelled towards the centre of this nation, with a mind full of curses and a bag full of knick-knacks.
The tale becomes more twisted around this time. Some Tiana she killed for sport - others likened her to a leech, draining unsuspecting victims of their blood in order to gain power. The most-recounted tale was that she only truly preyed upon beasts and monsters but was still branded a witch and a bloodsucker. She was arrested, and put onto trial, but her silver tongue let her slip her bonds. She travelled towards the centre of this nation with a criminal record and a rumour.
Tiana was stopped at the city gates, brought into question once more and then given the right to do business within the city. She toyed with the citizens, unsuspecting and fat on imports from the land they conquered. She earned money and favours. She became too much of a nuisance for the guild who had such difficulty policing her mischief that they decided (with a bit of persuasion from Tiana’s behalf) to simply keep her right under the guild’s nose so she cannot scheme away in the back-alleys. She seemed to quieten down, become complacent in her lavish halls and even went as far as to help the guild in their endeavours to educate their new and prosperous nation.
The story goes that a young gnome was torn from her burning homeland and tricked her way into luxury, but who’s to say what the true story was? Mama Tiana changes it every time.
Affinities: Sanguination, Enchantment
Craft: Infusion (Intermediate Skill)
Magic: Tiana, like the vast majority of her kin, is a trickster and a fraud - she is simply very good at making people believe otherwise. Posing as some sort of seer, she delves into the memories of others and beguiles them into believing her false prophecies for coin - those who wish for a more decisive tool to protect them against the uncertainty of the future may be able to receive enchanted trinkets, or special runestones. Everything has a cost, however, and the price must be paid off eventually...
Skills: Cooking. Baking. Speechcraft. Tailoring. Skinning. Foraging. Herbalism. Tiana has learned a great many professions in her lifetime, due to her long journey and a necessity for survival. She is very good with her hands - an extensive list would be impossible to write down, but she is only partially good at a great deal of things. Her mastery lies in trinket-making, an art of creating small, portable and alluring oddities that she can inscribe and enchant with runes made of blood or magic.
Other: For a character like this, cooperation is key. There’s no fun in finding the villain and thwarting their plans on the first day - mutual trust and a bit of OOC planning can make for good RP that suits us all!
Considering writing a relationship chart for Willow, how he views all the others. Might be fun.
Could be good to discuss the relationships between characters, too, and who lives with whom in the dorms.
I'm looking for friends for Tiana. Still, if everyone's coming in on their first day in the RP, it might be best done ICly. That said, I wouldn't mind being Willow's mentor, if you're down for that! We can have that pre-arranged before Willow arrives.
I'll go put my sheet in the character tab now and take a read of everyone else's.
EDIT: -So- many Mamas in these backstories. @Talipaendrag, can we make that into some sort of canon culture flair? It appears to be a common trope to use so perhaps there's a widespread acceptance that childless middle aged women can easily look after small, lost children.
Anyway, it looks like Orky (@OrkytheOrc, Hiasahi (@Compulsive86), and Willow (Already tagged) would be ideal candidates for Tiana to mentor and look after. I'd love to speak with you all about your characters but I would like to emphasise that Tiana is decades older than these kids and sitting at mentor/professional power level of magic. I'm incredibly worried that the students in this RP will try to 1v1 her or consistently detect her magic, and kick up a fuss when she doesn't roll over. It's a shame I even have to mention this but it's happened in the past way too often to forgo pre-warning people that my character will probably be able to beat yours in a fair fight...
Nevertheless, I'm not saying she's invincible or god-mode. I like to plan things OOCly and reach happy mediums. Tiana will slip up and make mistakes on the off chances she does use her magic against the students, which in and of itself will be rare indeed considering Tiana doesn't make a habit of using the full extent of her magic in general. Most of the spells she'll cast in a day-to-day setting will be novice-intermediate level, easy enough to detect, simple enough to figure out unless I mention otherwise. The exception to the rule is her enchanting magic which sits at a much more complex and advanced level than what the students will be taught and probably won't be detected since she's used it a great deal of times on fully fledged guild members, let alone novices. I will never use enchantment on anyone's character without OOC permission.
The reason I'm bringing it up is because Tiana uses a passive enchantment to make herself more likeable and charismatic. Not by a lot, but it'd certainly be a good plot device for the particularly wary characters (looking at you Hiasahi!) to be able to open up a bit easier and develop a bond with Tiana. I'd like to know if that's okay with you all - it's like 'baby's first enchantment' spell, but it is very carefully hidden. I would like to use it to be able to facilitate RP, no more than that.
“He stared but did not stir, Long’d but had no money: The cunning merchant bade him taste In tones as smooth as honey…”
Nicknames: Mama, Mama Tia, Tia Race: Gnome Gender: Female Age: 51
Appearance: Tiana has a bit of an aging motherly vibe to her appearance, with more visible lines on her features than shown in the photograph. Though she wears a circlet on her forehead all the time, her clothes are modest and humble. She typically wears no shoes. Her body is littered with scars.
Personality: You would expect a manipulative sanguinist to seem dark, sultry, and coy; the outright truth of the matter is that Tiana is none of those things. She’s a bit ambiguous, sure - but she’s friendly, welcoming, and often quite endearing due to her small stature. She makes friends easily, and her age and experience makes her somewhat respectable. Tiana lends a hand in classes, she checks in on the novices often and is quick to organise and enjoy many a festival, feast or party. She didn’t earn the title “Mama” for nothing - she always goes out of her way to make sure the homesick and the lonely have a place by her hearth.
That is what makes her such a dangerous person to be around. She’s honest about her actions, but one can never gleam her intentions. She will always tell the victim of her spells precisely what she is doing, but not why - she will always withhold the right amount of information without making it seem too obvious. Questions are easy to dismiss when you’ve earned the trust of the clientele. The truth is, it is almost impossible to tell whether or not Tiana likes you or is simply using you until her plan actually comes into fruition - by which point she already has an alibi and she’s gotten rid of the evidence. She is meticulous. She leaves no paper trails and no evidence.
And yet it is frustratingly obvious that Tiana isn’t out to get absolutely everyone, and her crimes are so difficult to pinpoint or so insignificant in hindsight that it is very well possible that she does genuinely care for the people she claims to help. Her ‘act’, if you were to believe it, is hardly an act when there are many people she has protected and looked after without calling in for her dues. Her moral ambiguity calls for wariness but does not deserve a prison sentence...and so, Mama Tiana walks free, unshackled and unchecked, capable of heinous acts yet beloved by many.
Biography: Tiana’s story is known by basically everyone, but the details change so often depending on who is spinning the tale. She came from a far-off land, where the climate was more temperate and the trees denser. Snow clumped around your skirts and the cabins were made of logs, and a fire could mean the difference between life and death. It used to be owned by a lenient mage lord, who left the gnomekin to their own devices deep in the pine forests of the mountains. When the great Alsijan empire took over, her homeland was turned into a logging operation. She was shunted out of her abode and travelled towards the centre of this nation, for reasons unknown.
In Tiana’s old world, there was no such thing as good and evil magic - only different sorts. There were no laws and rules to restrict the people. Your survival depended upon your wit and your determination. Tiana had learned the craft from a very young age, from a very long line of matrons who taught her all she needed to know. She travelled towards the centre of this nation, with a mind full of curses and a bag full of knick-knacks.
The tale becomes more twisted around this time. Some Tiana she killed for sport - others likened her to a leech, draining unsuspecting victims of their blood in order to gain power. The most-recounted tale was that she only truly preyed upon beasts and monsters but was still branded a witch and a bloodsucker. She was arrested, and put onto trial, but her silver tongue let her slip her bonds. She travelled towards the centre of this nation with a criminal record and a rumour.
Tiana was stopped at the city gates, brought into question once more and then given the right to do business within the city. She toyed with the citizens, unsuspecting and fat on imports from the land they conquered. She earned money and favours. She became too much of a nuisance for the guild who had such difficulty policing her mischief that they decided (with a bit of persuasion from Tiana’s behalf) to simply keep her right under the guild’s nose so she cannot scheme away in the back-alleys. She seemed to quieten down, become complacent in her lavish halls and even went as far as to help the guild in their endeavours to educate their new and prosperous nation.
The story goes that a young gnome was torn from her burning homeland and tricked her way into luxury, but who’s to say what the true story was? Mama Tiana changes it every time.
Affinities: Sanguination, Enchantment
Craft: Infusion (Intermediate Skill)
Magic: Tiana, like the vast majority of her kin, is a trickster and a fraud - she is simply very good at making people believe otherwise. Posing as some sort of seer, she delves into the memories of others and beguiles them into believing her false prophecies for coin - those who wish for a more decisive tool to protect them against the uncertainty of the future may be able to receive enchanted trinkets, or special runestones. Everything has a cost, however, and the price must be paid off eventually...
Skills: Cooking. Baking. Speechcraft. Tailoring. Skinning. Foraging. Herbalism. Tiana has learned a great many professions in her lifetime, due to her long journey and a necessity for survival. She is very good with her hands - an extensive list would be impossible to write down, but she is only partially good at a great deal of things. Her mastery lies in trinket-making, an art of creating small, portable and alluring oddities that she can inscribe and enchant with runes made of blood or magic.
Other: For a character like this, cooperation is key. There’s no fun in finding the villain and thwarting their plans on the first day - mutual trust and a bit of OOC planning can make for good RP that suits us all!
First RP back after a difficult time IRL. Please be gentle!
I find that if anyone has disappeared without warning and is not posting on any of their threads, it is probably safe to say that some sort of IRL emergency has occurred and they are unable to sit down and take the time to reply. I was going to go through and read all of these posts this morning; but after seeing the way you have handled my unexpected absence, I would rather drop out of the RP entirely. Thank you, however, for your co-operation with making my character at the very beginning of the RP.
Current Deployment: Orbit of Mars Current Time: 16:29, Earth Standard Time, 2207.
Humming echoed through the chambers….
Abigail was working on re-arranging most of the light fixtures. She was lowering them slightly, but it was a slow and time-consuming process which required multiple trips to and from the cargo bay to get some spare construction materials. She didn’t know who it was who tipped off the supply team for this mission, but clearly someone must have realised that Abigail was going to do some significant structural damage to the ship. There were replacement parts for pretty much everything - albeit in small quantities. Abigail made a mental note to limit her creativity according to her stock.
She was particularly avoiding any windows, for fear of a short peek into the vastness of space. Abigail wanted that experience all to herself; she wanted to retire to her room, call her mother and stare out into the stars in private. It was, after all, one of her dreams ever since she was a kid. That is why she did not know that they were landing until Victor quite helpfully reminded her. Abigail rolled her eyes.
V_STRADE ONE (1) NEW MESSAGE A_HARLOW: Asshole
This time, Abigail was more than prepared to land. She strapped herself in and gripped onto the armrests as the chair shuddered and shook. She hadn’t expected so much turbulence. Before Abigail even got a chance to helpfully volunteer herself to dig up the old man’s body herself, her comms went off - it was Mdazi, wanting to see her about her medical records. Despondent, she trudged her way to the medbay, knowing full well that she would have had to do this regardless of her own wishes.
Abigail knocked politely on the door and wandered in. “Evening Mdazi, I assume you want me to talk about my funny throat?”
Sue pressed her knuckles to her lips in a look of consternation as she stared at the Emperor for a long time. Her gaze slipped to the Templar, then over to the adventurers, then back to the Emperor as she mulled over her current situation for a good minute or so before heaving a great sigh through her nostrils and letting her hands swing down to their sides. “Okay,” she croaked, voice breaking just a little. “Fuck it. Fine. I’ll go. If only because I-”
Her train of thought was abruptly cut short as her head snapped up a fraction of a second before the greenish smog began to tumble out of Kean’s amulet. She steepled her fingers and shut her eyes tight as the raggedy man toyed with it for a while and seemed to twitch when he burst into loud, echoing guffaws at its antics. “...If only,” she continued exasperatedly, “because I’m probably the only one here who thinks that unleashing an unknown, incredibly powerful, and reportedly dangerous artifact in the middle of his majesty’s throne room might be a bad idea.” She shot an unimpressed glare towards Kean before jabbing a thumb behind her. Brennen was presently in the process of picking his own artifact and, once he had chosen his pendant, he silently pocketed it. Sue gave Kean a pointed look.
It didn't take long for Sue to pick her artifact, mainly because it seemed as if she did not pick any at all. The moment she had agreed to join in on the emperor's journey, a guard had left the throne room. She simply peered at the artifacts with a faint sneer, keeping her distance from the table and her arms folded across her chest. She seemed almost surprised when the aforementioned guard tapped her on the shoulder and wordlessly presented her with a pitcher of silvery-blue liquid, to which she let loose a faint chuckle. Leaning down to peer at her reflection on the surface, she slipped her fingertips into the fluid and asked it something under her breath.
There was a sharp cracking noise as the pitcher split into chunks of glass; the liquid shot upwards, twisting and writhing into a column of solid metal that seemed to disassemble itself near the top. Shards of blueish steel were suspended in orbit around the shattered head, held together by the absolute faintest pulses of blue. Sue did not have to hold this staff; it attached itself into a position hovering an inch or so behind her back. “Didn't mean to break that,” she mumbled guiltily as she picked up as much of the glass as possible, squished it into a mass of transparent slime and pulled out of it a precise replica of the one she had broken to hand it back to the soldier.
The introduction of her Greatstaff was the inevitable reveal of Sue's previous identity. For those who had heard of her antics or seen the artistic representations from the smaller villages, this blonde haired, bitter old woman had to be Lady Diamenthia - a member of the Hounds of Eon and one of the most powerful magi to work independently from the Empire's military. That said, it was safe to say that the ten years she must have spent in hiding were unkind to her appearance and soured her personality. Comparing this hag to her former self was almost pitiable; she had lopped off those long golden curls, abandoned her sumptuous robes and age had caused her whole body to eat away at itself, leaving her a skeletal mess instead of the curvaceous icon of Alidia that she once upheld.
She was also now in a habit of talking to her weapon. “You're not going out like that missis,” Sue snapped irritably to her staff. “I can't afford that kind of recognition anymore. Find something else to turn into.” The greatstaff hummed despondently in response, a low reverberation emanating from its very core. “Be creative; you've done it in the past.” The steely pole suddenly split along its centre and shattered, rapping the back of Sue's head with shrapnel but at a velocity that rendered the shards harmless. Sue ruefully rubbed the back of her neck as her staff reassembled itself into a thick band of metal, curling around her waist and sealing shut in some facsimile of a belt. It made a few pinging noises, to which its owner mumbled something else to it under her breath and then tugged her apron over the metal band.
“Unless there are any more stringent policies you have to force upon your so-called 'unconventional’ suicide team, I think I'll be heading out to buy supplies with the rest of your-...adventurers.” Sue uttered the final word with such bitterness that it almost felt tart to the ear. Now that she had well and truly saddled herself with the others, she seemed impatient to get going. Her belt was equally as excited, though perhaps for different reasons - it twisted and wove around Sue's waist, pleating itself into various alluring patterns and designs, writhing like a tangle of serpents chasing their own tails.
Now that we're about to pick our artifacts, I thought I'd finalise mine in here to see if it meets the standards - I've been back and forth with what abilities it might have for a few days now, since the ones I mentioned before were somewhat vague.
Lady Diamenthia's Greatstaff: Made out of an unknown material and conjured up from arcane magic itself, this staff was once used by Lady Diamenthia to spread her spells across a wider range. It is rumoured to have several other secrets locked away within it. The material has the appearance of a blue-grey metal but it is fluid, shifting and shattering and reconstructing itself depending on the wielder's mood.
It possesses, to some extent, some sort of independent thought within and appears to be choosing to withhold its true power. It, too, may change its appearance depending on its own attitude.
Current Abilities: - Range: Increases the range, but not the potency, of all spells casted by the owner. - Fluidity: With a deft flick, this staff can be turned into a one-handed sword. - Self-sufficiency: This staff can never be broken - it can be shattered, splashed onto various surfaces, crushed into slithers of metal and scattered across the winds but it invariably ends up back together again. The time it takes to fully repair depends on how far away the pieces are.
Future Abilities (In order of discovery): - Loan: If asked politely, and with the owner's permission, the staff can perform the three above abilities when in the hands of selected players. - Displacement: The staff can teleport itself to people it trusts. - Communication: Short scenes can be documented by the staff (on command) and projected into the air when necessary. TBC...
Age:56 Gender: Female Race: Human Motive Called in against her will, Sue is obligated to help the Emperor this one last time.
Personality
Sue is a self-made deplorable excuse for a human being. She has the social skills of a particularly sharp rock. Gruff and curt, she has very little to say about her company that tends to be positive and is all too quick to question, defy and argue with others. She does not like being told what to do. She does not work well with other people. She drinks herself into a state of tipsiness on the daily, smells bad, looks worse than she should and has absolutely no inclination to make any friends on this journey.
But as you come to observe this haggard woman for an extended period of time, this tough shell of poor manners and hard spirits seems to have its vulnerabilities. She often looks distant or morose, almost pensive in her expressions and muttering under her breath. She seems to curl in on herself when she is isolated from the rest of the party, looking fairly lost and upset over something as she regards the rest of the team apprehensively. Although she rarely has anything nice to say about her company, she always seems to come back and hover in the periphery of the group dynamic, attempting to add her mustard into the conversation without allowing people to become too comfortable around her.
Backstory
Their names used to echo across the verdant fields and gloomy forests of the country. Lily, Arthur, Torakk, Elynn, and Lady Dia.
The Hounds of Eon; a rag-tag group of adventurers, banded together under a common goal and given the Emperor’s blessing to rid the world of evil as they saw fit. Their reputation flowed through the rural trade routes and reverberated drunkenly through the taverns; it was whispered in titillation by the socialites in the cities, and mournfully wailed out in the slums.
These adventurers were heroes in their purest form, for they gained enough wealth from their adventures into long-forgotten ruins and the dens of many monsters that they often shared their bounties with the townsfolk to rebuild their lives using the local craftsmen. They never sat still, for evil never rests; they let their actions speak for themselves and spent most of their time on the road singing, dancing, or performing parlour tricks. They inspired children and comforted the bereaved.
Though their deeds did not spread across the entire continent, there's hardly a village near the capital that hasn't heard of the Hounds - even if it is just in passing.
Nowadays, however, the mere mention of the Hounds is enough to bring some to tears, and others into stony-faced denial - for ten years ago, the Hounds of Eon mysteriously vanished. Nobody has heard of them since. This tale has little to do with the Hounds, and everything to do with their downfall; it is the story of Lady Susanne Diamenthia, the sole surviving member of the Hounds of Eon.
Lady Diamenthia’s story is built on a lie. She is in no way a part of nobility, nor is her surname Diamenthia. In reality she was naught but a farrier’s daughter who inexplicably showed signs of magic from an early age, whereupon she was whisked away into the academy to undergo their rigorous training programme. She spent a fair portion of her life within those ivory halls, studying into the early hours of the morning and practicing until her nose bled from the exertion. Ever the perfectionist, her drive for constant self improvement gave her that well-needed edge in order to rise above her peers. The other benefit of joining the academy as a nobody was that she could completely re-write her life, taking on a new name of Miss Diamenthia in order to rub shoulders with the richer castes of magicians.
After around ten years of study, Miss Diamenthia decided to leave the academy before her skills surpassed that unknown threshold that brought a mage into the Templar Order of Arcanum. A socially awkward youth with a spell tome in hand was no easy mix with society and she found herself being belittled, teased and often reprimanded as she attempted to find work. At the time, she was still a bookish young girl, a fresh graduate from the academy with only a handful of coins to her name. Susanne was better received in the smaller towns, where her spells could be used for minor repairs and simple odd-jobs. She yearned for a change but was too afraid to initiate it.
It was around this time, during her early twenties, that Susanne met Arthur and Torakk en route to one of the villages near Cidanol. Though to call it a meeting would be a gross understatement, rather she felt Arthur’s body collide with the small of her back and send her sprawling onto her belly as they attempted to fend of a group of frenzied goblins. Impressed by the quick work Susanne made of them, Arthur offered her a position in their up-and-coming mercenary team. She tentatively accepted the offer.
Soon it became apparent that Arthur was by no means a mercenary (though Torakk could certainly pass off as one if he was not being held back by his close friend). He was, however, very selective on who was allowed to join this precious squad of fighters. It took them several years to find Lily, and the elusive ranger Elynn took a fair bit of persuading to convince to join them. Half of their time was spent repairing the damages to the villages that the monsters had caused, whilst the other half was fighting the beasts themselves. Susanne excelled in this combat-orientated lifestyle as it was what she was accustomed to from the academy, who often attempt to pressure their graduates into military service. What she was not expecting was the sudden rush of fame that came with their noble actions.
With it, Susanne could not help but weave her own story to match her reputation. She called herself a long lost noble, and though she initially pretended to be a disciple of Alidia, the goddess’ teachings started to rub off on her as she matured into a very skilled and incredibly deadly mage. Susanne thought herself the voice of reason within the group, who she found to be a little too idealistic in their plans. It had initially blossomed out of a growing concern for her friends’ safety. As time went on, these interventions began to become more and more self-centred; she wanted more fame and more glory for herself, as well as the wealth to continue upholding her lavish lies. She and Arthur often butted heads in conversations, only for Susanne to be placated by the level-headed Elynn. Lily, of course, actively attempted to spark the feud’s smouldering embers whenever she could manage. Torakk’s gentler soul always shone through when he stopped Arthur from doing things that he may come to regret.
As their fame and reputation grew, even the Empire itself started to take notice. They were sent personal missions from the Emperor and his family - top secret tasks that, whilst pressing, he did not wish to waste his templars on. Susanne finally got her chance to become a bit of a socialite herself, creating a network of nobility that she often conversed with. From time to time, she was even able to address the Emperor directly. Her greed began to level out at this point, where she was contented with how far she had gotten in life and worked hard to maintain her position instead of grabbing at the final dregs of power.
This is how it was for many years. Though they only officially took on the most formidable of tasks, they would stop at every village along the way - if time would accommodate for it - to help the locals. There was notably less camaraderie amongst the Hounds of Eon during those days as it was eclipsed by a grim determination to uphold their reputation. There were many people who depended on them now; people who were abandoned by the Empire’s forces and left at the mercy of all sorts of horrors. It was their job to keep those people safe. Years of constant battle chipped at their spirits. At long last, they began to become wary in their plans. Susanne was merely thinking ahead of her time - one by one, her friends joined her train of thought.
The Hounds accepted an odd request to travel westward, given to them by an unknown sender. As they had not approached the lands of the Fae in many months and Lily was becoming frail from her use of magic, they decided to take the route cautiously and help those along the way. Once they approached the Ebony Mountain, the Hounds were ambushed at its base. Susanne watched as her friends were picked off one by one. In those distraught and terrifying instants, she asked herself what was more important - her new family, or her own life.
She chose the latter.
As she limped piteously towards the western gate, Susanne felt the weight of her riches dragging at her heels. Her silk robes felt as scratchy and as distasteful as burlap; her makeup was cloying and thick on her features, mingling with the blood to make greasy red smudges across a face that was once renowned for its beauty. She felt her mind, so sharp and vivid, begin to turn on her. She tore off her garments, discarded her items in the ferns and leaves, sobbed and wailed in the cold until a trio of dumbstruck guards took her in and immediately notified the Emperor of what they had seen.
In the palace, Susanne made one final request - a deal with the Emperor himself, in person. She offered him everything - her fake title, her knowledge, all of her money and where it was kept, all of the favours she had once gathered from some very prominent figures in the estates of Dramon - all in return for her secrecy. She wished to be kept hidden from the world, made into a nobody once more. She was granted her wish - Susanne spent the past eight years near Southgate in a tiny fishing hamlet, living a largely self-sufficient life. Her biggest fear was not discovery, but her own mind - the self-same organ that brought her from humble beginnings into magical greatness - that had begun to collapse in on itself like a dying star, overladen with such vivid emotions and thoughts and patterns that it overlapped with the currents of arcane energy that coursed through her veins and swept through her body, through her senses like a white-water rapid. Were she still Lady Dia, she would have asked the finest alchemists to concoct a potion to cure her ailing mental state. She did not have the means anymore. She found that alcohol was a sufficient substitute, as it dulled her thoughts to a manageable degree.
Two weeks ago, Sue was betrayed. She had given the Emperor her knowledge, and he wanted to use it - he hired her as an advisor for a single mission. Trusting him, she made the trip to the palace - then regretted every moment afterwards.
Magical abilities:
- Transmutation of organic material into inorganic material and vise versa with a great deal of precision - Conjuration, from small inanimate objects to mid-sized mobile constructs, and with the right time and energy, living people from one place to her own position (though the latter would require reagents and a summoning circle) - Evocation, from the smallest of arcane missiles to decently sized fissures of arcane energy that attack multiple targets
Combat abilities:
Sword Mastery; she understands the technique but her age has made melee combat difficult.
”Artifact” of Dramoria:
Lady Diamenthia's Greatstaff: Made out of an unknown material and conjured up from arcane magic itself, this staff was once used by Lady Diamenthia to spread her spells across a wider range. It is rumoured to have several other secrets locked away within it. The material has the appearance of a blue-grey metal but it is fluid, shifting and shattering and reconstructing itself depending on the wielder's mood.
It possesses, to some extent, some sort of independent thought within and appears to be choosing to withhold its true power. It, too, may change its appearance depending on its own attitude.
Current Abilities: - Range: Increases the range, but not the potency, of all spells casted by the owner. - Fluidity: With a deft flick, this staff can be turned into a one-handed sword. - Self-sufficiency: This staff can never be broken - it can be shattered, splashed onto various surfaces, crushed into slithers of metal and scattered across the winds but it invariably ends up back together again. The time it takes to fully repair depends on how far away the pieces are.
Future Abilities (In order of discovery): - Loan: If asked politely, and with the owner's permission, the staff can perform the three above abilities when in the hands of selected players. - Displacement: The staff can teleport itself to people it trusts. - Communication: Short scenes can be documented by the staff (on command) and projected into the air when necessary. TBC...
Mixtape Ghost N
