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Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

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Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

Riley Everett | Rathello

Riley Everett /// Rathello

O V E R V I E W

_{N A M E}

---

Riley Everett

_{A V A T A R}

---

Rathello

_{A G E}

---

24

_{G E N D E R}

---

Male

_{A P P E A R A N C E}

---

Wiry and lithe, Riley had the build someone might have expected from an athlete, though it's clear that in the recent years his physique hasn't been nearly as well taken care of. While never particularly tall, Riley often appears deceptively shorter due to being more or less confined to his wheelchair. His left leg has been amputated below the knee, and while he wears a prosthetic most of the time, walking has still proved a challenge to him. Riley's dark brown hair has been dyed blonde, is regularly in an unkempt mess, and a scowl adorns his face near permanently. His skin is pale and the lack of sunshine has resulted in a rather dire vitamin D deficiency. He generally wears baggy clothes to hide his figure, but his fashion sense can be regarded as 'vaguely techwear'.

Rathello

In Tales of Endorath Riley chose the Firbolg race, regarded as both the smallest of the Giant-kin, and the largest of the available races in the game for players. Rathello stands in at about ten feet in height, with blued skin and hair. In a single word, Rathello is brawny. Large and imposing, Rathello very much plays to the idea of a giant turned adventurer. Rathello is dressed in much a typical fantasy adventurer, well maintained but patchwork pieces of leather, linen and steel. Riley is not particularly attached to any one piece of Rathello's appearance, and changes out gear and style as his tastes- and the equipment's stats, change.

_{P E R S O N A L I T Y}

---

According to friends and family, before the accident, Riley was a veritable ball of sunshine, gregarious, friendly, social and personable. Following the accident however, Riley has gotten considerably more sullen and irritable. Borderline antisocial, Riley is extremely quiet, and spends the bulk of his days indoors, avoiding communication with all but a few. Conversations he does have are widely regarded to be short, curt and argumentative. Due in part to his injury, Riley is insecure and avoids physical interactions when possible.

In stark contrast, Rathello acts very much like Riley did before his accident. Brave and bold, Rathello, while not part of a guild at current, is well reputed among raiding guilds as a reliable team player. Selfless and stalwart, Rathello will regularly throw himself into harms way for both party members and strangers in need. While generally more than happy to help when asked, Rathello has a habit of not exactly thinking things through and occasionally be a bit headstrong and stubborn. He's fairly competitive, and understands most of the games mechanics, but isn't quite as deep in as the no-lifers- though it's debatable how much of a life he has irl anyway. As a part of his own personal enjoyment, Rathello roleplays his character when interacting with NPCs, but generally talks like a gamer when dealing with other players.

_{B A C K G R O U N D}

---

Riley grew up generally removed from the digital world. Born in Los Angeles before moving to the Chicago suburbs when he was 5. He was born the oldest of two, to an upper middle class family with plenty of access to resources. Riley took naturally to sports from a young age, joining various school teams as he was growing up. Well regarded as the prime example of a scholar-athlete, Riley did well in sports and school alike, earning himself a full ride to UChicago on a sports scholarship for soccer. While not destined for a career in professional sports, with no student debts to worry about, Riley was all but guaranteed a bright future.

The summer after his first year in college, Riley was struck on his way home by a drunk driver.

Riley woke up in the hospital to find himself with a broken leg, and a missing one. Due to complications with the injury, and the state he was found in, his left leg had gone septic and needed to be removed in order to save his life. He survived but spent the next several months in and out of the hospital.

While the accident itself didn't cause Riley to lose his scholarship, it did effect how he interacted with the world around him. He more or less closed himself off from everything. His friendships broke, his grades began to fall, his scholarship going away with it. Close to dropping out of school, it was only through a miracle that Riley managed to graduate, though not in his original field.

Now a graduate, stuck in a thankless, soulless job to pay off his student debts and medical bills, Riley found Tales of Endorath while trawling the internet and ended up buying himself a VR kit and copy of the game on impulse. The game quickly took over what parts of his life were available, and he immersed himself in the world so much different than his own, bleaker one. Riley spends more or less all of his free time when not at work or physical therapy in the game- though he does work from home, so sometimes he also spends his work hours in game as well.

A T T R I B U T E S

_{R O L E}

---

Tank, secondary melee DPS

_{P R O F E S S I O N}

---

Barbarian/Druid

_{W E A P O N O F C H O I C E}

---

Gauntlets of the Storm Bear (Legendary) - Technically not a weapon, the Gauntlets of the Storm Bear are 1 of a 6 part 'Primal Guardians' druid set that Riley spent the better part of 3 months grinding for. While the gauntlets themselves can be used as unarmed weapons, infusing melee strikes with additional lightning damage, their primary ability allows druids to access the Storm Bear wildshape form.

In his Storm Bear form, Rathello has increased strength and defense, and massively increased health stats. The Storm Bear itself takes the shape of a giant bear with motifs of thunderbolts on its claws and a thundercloud like 'mane' of sorts around the neck. Its claw strikes are infused with lightning element and it can do thunder damage with a short ranged roar. While in this form, the Storm Bear is resistant to lightning damage, and while he can use class abilities, he cannot cast spells.

_{O T H E R E Q U I P M E N T}

---

Belt of the Blade Wolf (Rare) - The Belt of the Blade Wolf is 1 of a 6 part 'Primal Guardians' set for druids. The belt itself passively boosts the user's movement speed by a small amount, but it's primary function is to unlock the Blade Wolf wildshape form for druids.

While in the Blade Wolf form, Rathello has increased speed and strength stats, and minorly increased health stats. The form itself takes the shape of a grey Dire Wolf gripping a greatsword in its jaws. The attack boost granted by this form is directly influenced by the user's currently equipped weapon, which is required to be a bladed weapon.

Orcsteel Greatsword - An uncommonly found drop from the Green Tide theme dungeon. Its attack stat is only marginally higher than that of a standard steel sword, but has considerably better durability stats.

Druidic Tattoo - Divine tattoos inscribed onto the arms to allow for Druidic spellcasting in place of a traditional focus like a staff or wand.

Traveller's Pack - A set of useful tools for those in the wild. Waterskin, climbing rope, pitons, and dried rations along with a small knife and bedroll.

Basic Health and Magic Potions - Small potions to restore health and MP respectively. Any good player never leaves town with at least a few.

_{M A G I C}

---

Wildshape - Rathello's primary focus with his Druidic magic revolves around wildshaping. Rathello can transform into any beast-type creatures that he's defeated. While primarily used for combat, he can also use other forms for scouting, traveling, or even pranks. Rathello currently has access to 2 of the 6 Primal Guardian forms, though uses them sparingly due to their high MP cost and his comparatively low MP pool.

Basic Druidic Spellcasting - While not his primary focus, Rathello is capable of low level druidic magic. He can promote the growth of plants, create acid claws and conjure thorn traps, as well as create small sparks of fire or shift small amounts of earth.

_{O T H E R S K I L L S}

---

Frenzied Rage - Rathello's primary combat skill allows him to enter a Barbarian Rage. While in his Rage state, Rathello's attack, defense, and speed stats drastically increase and he is immune to status effects such as fear, charm or exhaustion, but he cannot cast spells. While Rathello can tell the difference between friend and foe, while in this state he cannot prioritize enemies and must target the nearest foe within sight.

Power Strike - As simple as it sounds. Use a small amount of MP to make an attack with increased damage.

Unarmed Expertise - While his class is capable of wielding weapons of all types, Rathello has specialized with unarmed and natural weapons.

Keen Perception - A must for frontliners and raid leaders, Rathello is well practiced in spotting traps and ambushes, and has a natural sense attuned to incoming danger

Outdoor Survivalist - As an adventurer style player who often journeys far from towns, being able to navigate and survive in the wilderness is a must. Rathello knows how to hunt and forage as necessary to help keep himself and his party alive

Natural Bulk - In TOE there are two main ways to tank- Soak and Dodge. Rathello subscribes to the former. As his combination of classes limit the amount and types of armor he's allowed to wear, Rathello instead focuses on having a massive HP pool to tank incoming damage.

Intimidating Pressence - While not nearly as useful in PvP combat, in PvE Rathello is able to draw rather large amounts of enemy aggro, often forcing enemies to focus on him instead of his party members. When interacting with NPCs, when necessary Rathello can use the force of threat to influence them.

Wildspeak - Rathello can communicate with most Beast Type creatures, though his low charisma stats often relegate his communication and requests to simple or basic questions or commands.

Permanent Lockpicking - A literally brute force method of opening locked things. Rathello can usually smash open doors, chests, or any other method of preventing someone from accessing something. Usually with mixed results, and ineffective against magic.

_{R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y}

---

Rathello has been in Tales of Endorath for almost two years now. Initially Riley spent almost no time at all in character creation, picking Firbolg 'because it was the biggest' and Barbarian 'because it was the biggest'. With little care for any of the backstory or world building portions of the game, Riley threw himself into the game because he was bored and had nothing else to do. He spent the first couple hours of the game walking around. 6 hours later, he realized he loved he game. He spent some money on a character appearance change token and tried began to replay the game in earnest.

Since then he's run the gamut: solo dungeons, party raids, field bosses, even the occasional RP session in towns, quickly jumping up in levels and the global ranking. Often questing, Rathello finds little joy in any of the 'professions' people can do with their downtime in town. More often than not Rathello is often seen spending his downtime just, walking. Always a pretty good guy with numbers, Rathello balances the number crunching and optimization with the desire to keep a 'theme' to his character.

To the TOE community, Rathello has earned a reputation for a bold, yet reliable tank, readily jumping into party dungeons and raids with whomever wants to go. He's been scouted by a number of the main raiding guilds, but for the moment seems to enjoy the freedom as a 'free agent'. Nevertheless, he's formed many connections with members of these guilds and has a stellar reputation as the goto sub/backup when a guild's main tank is busy for some reason or another.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Galahad Caradoc

&

Rudolf Sagramore

---

The next few days had been a whirlwind of activity- most of it struggling to get back to Kugane in one piece, but they’d managed to make it back, beaten but not broken. It was a bit embarrassing really, to have left with such cavalier bravado, only to return with little to nothing to show for it, save for their injuries. The knowledge the High Caretaker granted them at the very least let them know they were generally on the right track, and as Hein had noted, of the three remaining stones, Drana Asnaeu’s was the most at risk.

For the moment they were given the chance to rest and recuperate, though for Galahad the days had been anything but restful. Organizing supplies, requesting repairs for their equipment- without getting caught by Valheim, heated discussions regarding next steps and policies, training, restless pacing, if anything Galahad felt more on edge than usual.

In the evening, Galahad found himself with a surprising amount of free time for once, and didn’t know what to do with himself. He’d resigned himself to another evening of restless pacing, and had only just started when he noticed he’d passed by Rudolf’s room, they’d all been spread out around the building, so finding each other’s rooms often felt like navigating a maze. Right. In all the movement and chaos, Galahad had almost forgotten that he had much to ask the young warrior about.

There were a quick three raps on the wooden frame of Rudolf’s door. ”Rudolf. It’s Galahad. May we speak?”

Not fully hidden by the thin walls of Osprean interior architecture came the sound of a heavy, likely full-bodied exhalation— possibly mixed with a groan. The young man had evidently been expecting this, reasonably enough, but far from looking forward to it. Whether or not he’d realized the reaction was audible, the muffled footsteps a moment later proved he knew better than to try and feign his absence.

With a faint creak, the door was pulled open, revealing the scrawny swordsman the dragoon had summoned, roll of parchment in one hand, with inkwell and quill carefully tucked off into a corner of the room behind him, watched over stalwartly by an ascending procession of seven blades in total. Nearby, the more familiar acids, oil, whestones, and the like sat in a less pointedly organized sprawl, ubiquitously Edreni examples of each, but the project clearly being abandoned. The pair of swords they had set upon, his main armaments, were still visibly in rough shape after trading blows with the Revenant.

On his face, his dismay had been carefully shoved down to concern, only a slight pull at the edges of his attentive expression. Whatever the truth was, he clearly intended to present it all politely, and approach at an even keel, not straying far from what he’d been like before they’d left on that ill-fated expedition.

“I’m here. What’s up?”

Perhaps unintentionally, or as a result of his natural perception, Galahad couldn’t help but shift his head slightly as he noticed the small mess within the room. The red wax of the Demet family seal wasn’t quite nearly as well hidden as Rudolf had perhaps intended. Galahad’s eyebrow raised as he glanced back at Rudolf, a mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face, nearing on suspicion, but not quite, at least not outright.

”Walk with me for a moment.” Galahad said plainly. Though his voice wasn’t unkind, it was also obviously not a request, as he gestured for Rudolf to follow him, turning lightly on his heel as he headed towards the house’s inner courtyard, his eyes glancing up towards the skies as they moved towards the open air.

”Are you familiar with the Demets as well?” Galahad remarked offhandedly, ”It’s been years at this point, but I’d met Earl Cadmon, and his eldest- Wulfric, some years ago. A tournament of some sort, when we were younger, about your age if I remember correctly. Are they well?”

”The Demets?” Rudolf asked, parroted really, as he loosed a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding since dutifully following the finest dragoon of the generation out. Following his gaze up, he noted clear skies. ”Ah, the seal on the missive. They sound well enough.”

The finest dragoon of the generation, looking skyward. While he didn’t sense any threatening intent the way Eve’d quickly displayed on the dunes from the Caradoc scion, nor any weapons on his person, that wasn’t a detail he was just going to ignore.

Luckily, this was nowhere near the same line of questioning, nor worst-case scenario. Even in the light of what the head of the mentioned house had told him regarding his identity, this was still nestled within the realm of safety. Immediately, he could apply a lesson embedded in the text.

”I’ve been instructed to keep the Earl in the loop regarding what we’ve discovered, once I linked up with Kirin. Sagramore does technically fall under his jurisdiction, even if he prefers to keep things hands-off that close to the heartland. With the gravity of the Blight and Valheim, I imagine my being here close enough to his responsibility to change that, somewhat— plus, he’s keen on consulting that big ol’ archive of his.”

Lies worked best, after all, when couched within the broader truth.

He nodded, before offering the older man a crooked smirk.

”I hadn’t known you’d met, they’re real far from Midgar. Would have expected Eliane, maybe, out of any of us. A tournament, huh…”

A shame he’d have been so young at that point in time. Wulf and Galahad must have been a real barnburner of a match— and even if they hadn’t, the fiery, brawny redhead ought to have made for a hell of a counterpart to the coolheaded, crisp gallantry the dragoon wore like a cloak just in conversation. Really, seeing them in the same room sounded like a hell of a time.

”Should I append your well-wishes to the end of my report before I send it off?”

That would definitely earn him a pageful from the scholar lord.

Galahad was quiet for a moment, glancing intently at the young swordsman, as if he were waiting for Rudolf to amend his statement- or just regarding the young man. Galahad was curious as to why Demet might have had one of Sagramore ride out to meet with the Kirins- or who instructed Rudolf to begin writing communiques to the Demets, but nothing screamed dangerous to Galahad, at least not compared to why he’d originally brought Rudolf out.

”Balmung is about in the middle of us. I saw them maybe once a year or so- at least before the war.” the dragoon gave a small snort, ”Ah, why not. I’d bet Wulf would enjoy hearing of my woes. Though the last thing I need is the braggart sending smug letters to me next.”

”‘Galahad says hi’, then.”

Galahad couldn’t help but chuckle mirthlessly to himself for a while, but the laughter faded as he turned back to Rudolf. The casually calm demeanor slowly replaced with a more serious look as he turned to fully face the young swordsman in the dim courtyard.

Well, it was hopeful of me.

”Onto more serious matters.” He sighed. ”Firstly, I owe you an apology. I’d meant to check up on you earlier, but with the chaos and how hectic our last few days have been, I’ve been unable to.”

“I’m sure more than one of the others have already asked you about it, but I need to hear it from you. During the fight with Izayoi’s old master. The shadows, the blackfire, something about it felt wrong. In the end, it saved us, so I thank you for that. If we were just another group of mercenaries, I’d leave well enough alone. But for better or worse, I find myself at the head of a party expected to save our world. The responsibility for the others’ safety ultimately falls to me. So I’ll ask you frankly. What was that?”

Rudolf inclined his head deferentially, studying the ground between them. He couldn’t protest any of these points, just as he couldn’t when Eve had taken him to task a few nights ago. If anything, these were even worse for him, driving home the responsibility he was running from, forcing others to take on.
His eyes still low, he opened a pouch on the belt, reaching inside. His movements weren’t slow, but they weren’t sudden either— the last thing he needed now was to even remotely look like he was drawing a hidden dagger when his counterpart had the courtesy to leave his Wyrmfang at home.

From it, he produced a green-black orb, seemingly made from glass, and held it aloft. A fellow warrior from Edren, Galahad was doubtlessly familiar with the low, thrumming undertone of compressed mana in the palm, feeding vibration back into his skin like being near live current.

He said the specific elements felt wrong. Rudolf wondered. Had he not bet properly on the arcane sense or education of his more martial compatriots? Or… had Eve decided she couldn’t abide the secrecy he’d asked of her? She seemed to have a budding friendship with the dragoon beneath her stoicism, for all the irony of it. If Sir Galahad thought she knew something and asked about it, who would sway her more between the two of them?

”I carry Shield Materia with me, for when things get worse than my ability can pull me out of. I’ve never learned any specifics of the creation process compared to other types, but I understand it’s pretty rare to come across. You won’t see it cast terribly often, in any instance. Even the naturalborn spell has a pretty terrible cost.”

Galahad was no fool. He couldn’t just throw smoke over the field and say everything within was as good as gone, the man would have gotten them killed thrice over if he wasn’t too perceptive for it.

Even so.

He looked him in the eyes, finally, his courage shored up by the framing to the point where he didn’t think he’d wilt.

”Have you seen it in action before?”

”Yes.” came the near instant reply.

Thought so.

The dragoon's arms crossed, his eyes narrowed, regarding Rudolf with a stare hard enough to pierce dragon scales. While certainly a rare materia, Galahad had spent the last 3 years of the war hunting officers, mages and other targets of value. The shield spell looked different from person to person, but he'd never seen it form like that. To be fair, he couldn't be certain that what Rudolf had cast wasn't the shield spell- but he certainly had his suspicions. It didn't feel like regular magic, what Rudolf had done. The way the skies darkened as though the light around them was being sucked away and into him.

Rudolf stiffened, a jolt through the spine as Galahad’s gaze skewered him, like so many dragons. His breath seemed to hitch. Only perceptible to the keen warrior’s eyes, the orb in his hand seemed to waver.

”I'll only ask this once.” Galahad sighed, oddly feeling a bit older than he’d liked to admit. ”Would you like to amend your answer?”

”Only in that you can consider it similarly. Right down to the limits. A last resort. If you forced my hand with it now, put me in the same situation, I’d be as good as dead, alongside Izayoi.” He replied, pocketing the materia once more. He wasn’t so stubborn, or disrespectful, as to try and sell that lie to someone that had seen the real thing, but Galahad’s primary concern was the safety of the party, as he’d said prior. Certain truths were off-limits. Certain others were bad, but… survivable, framed this way.

If he could guarantee that much, he might be able to avoid revealing the real nature of his great mistake. Of admitting that he’d made a deal with something so similar, possibly even of a kind, with their existential enemy.

”I can tell you that, and that the toll it exacts is directly on me. Nobody else.” he stressed, an opaque conviction in his voice. Perhaps he wasn’t appealing solely to Galahad. ”Those are the important mechanics of it.”

The dragoon shut his eyes for a moment, pondering what possible outcomes there could be in his head. In some ways, these past few days felt more like military service than an adventuring party- threat assessments and risk management. Galahad was not much a fan of the unknown, but they weren’t exactly flush with assets, and Rudolf was of more use with the party. He let out a tired sigh, a pair of fingers massaging his temple, and nodded.

”Very well. We’ll leave it at that then.” Galahad agreed quietly. ”Though, the moment it is no longer within your control, or when it starts to become a problem, I expect you to inform me. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it then. Preferably, before it blows up in our faces. Understand?”

A relieved sigh saw the boy almost go slack before him. He had his head down again, as if he could dig into the grass with his gaze alone.

”Of course. Of course. Thank you. I won’t undercut your good faith. I won’t let you down for keeping me on.”

As Galahad took his leave, Rudolf remained in the courtyard for a time, letting everything that had transpired stew.

He took a seat, slowly letting himself down so as to not slump— he didn’t know why. Appearances seemed like the last thing he ought to have been concerned with. His heart had been hammering since Galahad’s eyes had met his. There was a pit in his stomach, something like a lead ball. And this was the second time he’d been under the lens, so much calmer than Eve’s— there, he’d felt like he’d run a marathon by the end.

Eve… was a creation of Valheim. Open with what she was from the jump, and still accepted readily into their ranks. She’d proven her intent time and time again, and hadn’t been questioned once. He certainly didn’t question it. Or Esben! Esben was bluntly saying he was a foreign agent, serving Skael’s needs first, and had still just gotten by because he was useful, helpful, and his goals at least aligned. Again, even he liked the guy, in the middle of saying all this! Did he need to go through the fear of being uncovered, time and again? Was he digging his own grave with his secrecy, seeing what was accepted?

”Hhhhhhhgh.” he sighed, breathing thick with a swirling emotion. No. He knew what happened. The two of them might have earned some caution by scrutinous eyes, but he had made a deal with the devil. He had chosen something that damn well might have been blight. “Survivable truths”, his ass. Once one thread frayed, you could keep pulling at it and it’d all unravel in time.

The very first thing his father taught him.

God dammit.

…All just to soothe his bruised ego. He couldn’t admit that. He couldn’t tell them he was such a petty, tiny, cowardly thing.

God dammit. Stupid fucking kid.

If he could turn his back on the light they sought for that little, what were they supposed to think?

…

Whether Galahad’s concerns were founded or not, he couldn’t say for sure. He had reason to believe they were safe on those specific fronts, given how long he’d lived with this…

But one thing was certain, as he brought a hand up to his brow, and tried to push his brain into the palm.

I’m not gonna be able to keep this charade up much longer.

The Things We Fight For, A Science Fantasy Space Opera

Lurking

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

Took a little bit, but here's my character, let me know if anything needs to change. I went with a tanky bearbarian

Riley Everett | Rathello

Riley Everett /// Rathello

O V E R V I E W

_{N A M E}

---

Riley Everett

_{A V A T A R}

---

Rathello

_{A G E}

---

24

_{G E N D E R}

---

Male

_{A P P E A R A N C E}

---

Wiry and lithe, Riley had the build someone might have expected from an athlete, though it's clear that in the recent years his physique hasn't been nearly as well taken care of. While never particularly tall, Riley often appears deceptively shorter due to being more or less confined to his wheelchair. His left leg has been amputated below the knee, and while he wears a prosthetic most of the time, walking has still proved a challenge to him. Riley's dark brown hair has been dyed blonde, is regularly in an unkempt mess, and a scowl adorns his face near permanently. His skin is pale and the lack of sunshine has resulted in a rather dire vitamin D deficiency. He generally wears baggy clothes to hide his figure, but his fashion sense can be regarded as 'vaguely techwear'.

Rathello

In Tales of Endorath Riley chose the Firbolg race, regarded as both the smallest of the Giant-kin, and the largest of the available races in the game for players. Rathello stands in at about ten feet in height, with blued skin and hair. In a single word, Rathello is brawny. Large and imposing, Rathello very much plays to the idea of a giant turned adventurer. Rathello is dressed in much a typical fantasy adventurer, well maintained but patchwork pieces of leather, linen and steel. Riley is not particularly attached to any one piece of Rathello's appearance, and changes out gear and style as his tastes- and the equipment's stats, change.

_{P E R S O N A L I T Y}

---

According to friends and family, before the accident, Riley was a veritable ball of sunshine, gregarious, friendly, social and personable. Following the accident however, Riley has gotten considerably more sullen and irritable. Borderline antisocial, Riley is extremely quiet, and spends the bulk of his days indoors, avoiding communication with all but a few. Conversations he does have are widely regarded to be short, curt and argumentative. Due in part to his injury, Riley is insecure and avoids physical interactions when possible.

In stark contrast, Rathello acts very much like Riley did before his accident. Brave and bold, Rathello, while not part of a guild at current, is well reputed among raiding guilds as a reliable team player. Selfless and stalwart, Rathello will regularly throw himself into harms way for both party members and strangers in need. While generally more than happy to help when asked, Rathello has a habit of not exactly thinking things through and occasionally be a bit headstrong and stubborn. He's fairly competitive, and understands most of the games mechanics, but isn't quite as deep in as the no-lifers- though it's debatable how much of a life he has irl anyway. As a part of his own personal enjoyment, Rathello roleplays his character when interacting with NPCs, but generally talks like a gamer when dealing with other players.

_{B A C K G R O U N D}

---

Riley grew up generally removed from the digital world. Born in Los Angeles before moving to the Chicago suburbs when he was 5. He was born the oldest of two, to an upper middle class family with plenty of access to resources. Riley took naturally to sports from a young age, joining various school teams as he was growing up. Well regarded as the prime example of a scholar-athlete, Riley did well in sports and school alike, earning himself a full ride to UChicago on a sports scholarship for soccer. While not destined for a career in professional sports, with no student debts to worry about, Riley was all but guaranteed a bright future.

The summer after his first year in college, Riley was struck on his way home by a drunk driver.

Riley woke up in the hospital to find himself with a broken leg, and a missing one. Due to complications with the injury, and the state he was found in, his left leg had gone septic and needed to be removed in order to save his life. He survived but spent the next several months in and out of the hospital.

While the accident itself didn't cause Riley to lose his scholarship, it did effect how he interacted with the world around him. He more or less closed himself off from everything. His friendships broke, his grades began to fall, his scholarship going away with it. Close to dropping out of school, it was only through a miracle that Riley managed to graduate, though not in his original field.

Now a graduate, stuck in a thankless, soulless job to pay off his student debts and medical bills, Riley found Tales of Endorath while trawling the internet and ended up buying himself a VR kit and copy of the game on impulse. The game quickly took over what parts of his life were available, and he immersed himself in the world so much different than his own, bleaker one. Riley spends more or less all of his free time when not at work or physical therapy in the game- though he does work from home, so sometimes he also spends his work hours in game as well.

A T T R I B U T E S

_{R O L E}

---

Tank, secondary melee DPS

_{P R O F E S S I O N}

---

Barbarian/Druid

_{W E A P O N O F C H O I C E}

---

Gauntlets of the Storm Bear (Legendary) - Technically not a weapon, the Gauntlets of the Storm Bear are 1 of a 6 part 'Primal Guardians' druid set that Riley spent the better part of 3 months grinding for. While the gauntlets themselves can be used as unarmed weapons, infusing melee strikes with additional lightning damage, their primary ability allows druids to access the Storm Bear wildshape form.

In his Storm Bear form, Rathello has increased strength and defense, and massively increased health stats. The Storm Bear itself takes the shape of a giant bear with motifs of thunderbolts on its claws and a thundercloud like 'mane' of sorts around the neck. Its claw strikes are infused with lightning element and it can do thunder damage with a short ranged roar. While in this form, the Storm Bear is resistant to lightning damage, and while he can use class abilities, he cannot cast spells.

_{O T H E R E Q U I P M E N T}

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Belt of the Blade Wolf (Rare) - The Belt of the Blade Wolf is 1 of a 6 part 'Primal Guardians' set for druids. The belt itself passively boosts the user's movement speed by a small amount, but it's primary function is to unlock the Blade Wolf wildshape form for druids.

While in the Blade Wolf form, Rathello has increased speed and strength stats, and minorly increased health stats. The form itself takes the shape of a grey Dire Wolf gripping a greatsword in its jaws. The attack boost granted by this form is directly influenced by the user's currently equipped weapon, which is required to be a bladed weapon.

Orcsteel Greatsword - An uncommonly found drop from the Green Tide theme dungeon. Its attack stat is only marginally higher than that of a standard steel sword, but has considerably better durability stats.

Druidic Tattoo - Divine tattoos inscribed onto the arms to allow for Druidic spellcasting in place of a traditional focus like a staff or wand.

Traveller's Pack - A set of useful tools for those in the wild. Waterskin, climbing rope, pitons, and dried rations along with a small knife and bedroll.

Basic Health and Magic Potions - Small potions to restore health and MP respectively. Any good player never leaves town with at least a few.

_{M A G I C}

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Wildshape - Rathello's primary focus with his Druidic magic revolves around wildshaping. Rathello can transform into any beast-type creatures that he's defeated. While primarily used for combat, he can also use other forms for scouting, traveling, or even pranks. Rathello currently has access to 2 of the 6 Primal Guardian forms, though uses them sparingly due to their high MP cost and his comparatively low MP pool.

Basic Druidic Spellcasting - While not his primary focus, Rathello is capable of low level druidic magic. He can promote the growth of plants, create acid claws and conjure thorn traps, as well as create small sparks of fire or shift small amounts of earth.

_{O T H E R S K I L L S}

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Frenzied Rage - Rathello's primary combat skill allows him to enter a Barbarian Rage. While in his Rage state, Rathello's attack, defense, and speed stats drastically increase and he is immune to status effects such as fear, charm or exhaustion, but he cannot cast spells. While Rathello can tell the difference between friend and foe, while in this state he cannot prioritize enemies and must target the nearest foe within sight.

Power Strike - As simple as it sounds. Use a small amount of MP to make an attack with increased damage.

Unarmed Expertise - While his class is capable of wielding weapons of all types, Rathello has specialized with unarmed and natural weapons.

Keen Perception - A must for frontliners and raid leaders, Rathello is well practiced in spotting traps and ambushes, and has a natural sense attuned to incoming danger

Outdoor Survivalist - As an adventurer style player who often journeys far from towns, being able to navigate and survive in the wilderness is a must. Rathello knows how to hunt and forage as necessary to help keep himself and his party alive

Natural Bulk - In TOE there are two main ways to tank- Soak and Dodge. Rathello subscribes to the former. As his combination of classes limit the amount and types of armor he's allowed to wear, Rathello instead focuses on having a massive HP pool to tank incoming damage.

Intimidating Pressence - While not nearly as useful in PvP combat, in PvE Rathello is able to draw rather large amounts of enemy aggro, often forcing enemies to focus on him instead of his party members. When interacting with NPCs, when necessary Rathello can use the force of threat to influence them.

Wildspeak - Rathello can communicate with most Beast Type creatures, though his low charisma stats often relegate his communication and requests to simple or basic questions or commands.

Permanent Lockpicking - A literally brute force method of opening locked things. Rathello can usually smash open doors, chests, or any other method of preventing someone from accessing something. Usually with mixed results, and ineffective against magic.

_{R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y}

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Rathello has been in Tales of Endorath for almost two years now. Initially Riley spent almost no time at all in character creation, picking Firbolg 'because it was the biggest' and Barbarian 'because it was the biggest'. With little care for any of the backstory or world building portions of the game, Riley threw himself into the game because he was bored and had nothing else to do. He spent the first couple hours of the game walking around. 6 hours later, he realized he loved he game. He spent some money on a character appearance change token and tried began to replay the game in earnest.

Since then he's run the gamut: solo dungeons, party raids, field bosses, even the occasional RP session in towns, quickly jumping up in levels and the global ranking. Often questing, Rathello finds little joy in any of the 'professions' people can do with their downtime in town. More often than not Rathello is often seen spending his downtime just, walking. Always a pretty good guy with numbers, Rathello balances the number crunching and optimization with the desire to keep a 'theme' to his character.

To the TOE community, Rathello has earned a reputation for a bold, yet reliable tank, readily jumping into party dungeons and raids with whomever wants to go. He's been scouted by a number of the main raiding guilds, but for the moment seems to enjoy the freedom as a 'free agent'. Nevertheless, he's formed many connections with members of these guilds and has a stellar reputation as the goto sub/backup when a guild's main tank is busy for some reason or another.

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

@shylarah I might borrow your cs framework BTW, I like it lol

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

It wouldn't be a stretch for the MMO to have out-of-game message and video call functions- like a super app or something. They already have the infrastructure for it after all

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

The MMO servers could be city based- maybe everyone is living in the same city?

SPIRITUM

Gerard Biserus

"Have I ever mentioned that I love how optimistic we all are?" Gerard commented dryly as he floated a pen inside the truck cabin and hit the button to turn on the radio. The beat up truck began to roll its way out of the rest stop and back onto the road. By some miracle it was still functioning- and aside from a weird stutter every few minutes, the vehicle was as good as- well, not new, but as good as it was the day before. Where the day before they were driving through a mostly savannah like badlands, the Barghests now had a large expanse of forest on one side, and the remnants of the badlands and the petrified forest on the other.

The princess- while not necessarily chained up, was well under supervision, sitting in the middle of the group's formation in case she got any ideas of fleeing and making it on her own. Though, for her part, Collette seemed more than happy to stay in the relative safety of a squad of super-soldiers, even if they were technically enemy soldiers. She sat a bit rigidly on a shot out crate of MREs, her back against the back wall of the truck cabin, occasionally glancing out of one of the window flaps of the truck.

"There are few." Collette responded to Kalina, with a slight roll of her eyes at the not so subtle jab. "The Empire is a big place, but broadly speaking, most of our senate is split along three lines."

"The Imperialists, mostly nobility, career military, and industrialists are interested in the continued expansion of the empire- to what I would argue are unsustainable levels of growth and expansion. There are the Doves, myself and a not insignificant number of the landed merchants, corporations and younger nobility, who would prefer the Empire to achieve its needs through more peaceful venues. And lastly there are the Lay, made up of mostly middle class and laborers, who more or less want to keep the status quo. My father has final say on a lot of the Empire's proceedings and directives, whereas the senate mostly interprets his will, but they do still have significant influence over the Empire's decisionmaking."

More or less handwaving some of the complexities of a sprawling empire, Collette continued, "The Doves and the Lay are more or less in agreement that this war with Rassvet has done nothing but waste lives and resources that could've been better spent on our own people. The Imperialists are convinced that the Levistone that Rassvet sits on is a treasure trove worth committing those resources to.

"We had managed to impress upon the Emperor that a significant number of his people had no desire for this war, and that perhaps we could obtain what we needed through more peaceable means. Whether he believes it or not remains to be unseen, but he agreed for us to begin talks for a ceasefire at the very least."

Realizing that she had been going on at length for some time, Collette quickly shrugged and cut to the chase. "From Vangar, I suppose its possible that some of the more extreme from the Imperialist faction might think that the Empire would be better off with me dead." Collette's eyes lightly scanned the WARDENS in the truck. "From Rassvet, well I don't think there's exactly a shortage of people that wouldn't mind offing Vangar nobility."

"As much as I hate to interrupt this riveting discussion," Gerard chimed in, pulling his head back into the truck from having stuck it out the window to talk to the resident WARDEN sitting on top. "I think there's trouble ahead."

While the smoke could've been spotted from further, A small stream of acrid black smoke led to what appeared to be a large wreck a few miles down the road, a few hours into their journey. The wreck looked bad, the dirt and ground around it was torn up. An Etherium fuel truck- likely bound for the rest stop they had just left, and Sapple Springs after, laid rolled over across and blocking the road. Its side was crumpled like it had taken an impact and the engine smoked, and the tanker of Etherium fuel itself had fallen over and was currently emptying its contents onto the pavement and dirt around it, a sickly sweet smell already wafting into the air around it. The interior of the truck itself wasn't in view, but a hand, red with blood stuck out of the side window. Having run off the road and currently twisted its front around a tree was a family RV, its windshield was shattered but the rest of its chassis was in good shape.

With the road ahead blocked, the Barghests were more or less forced to a stop, the engine idling. as a few of them glanced out at what was ahead of them. "What the heck happened here?" Gerard asked aloud. "I see blood in the RV, no body though."

Tales Of Endoroth (A Slice Of Life MMO Roleplay)

@shylarah Howdy!

@Eviledd1984 How strict are we with the D&D class style? Are we going with an 'inspired by dnd' sort of ruling, or like actual dnd style characters?

Either way, I'm generally leaning towards a tanky avatar- either a sort of fisticuffs/boxer barbarian or a battlesmith with a shield and gun/crossbow