XSilentWingsX

Allevent: the Sky Pirates of Oceanica

I'm definitely feeling some firefly and stardust inspiration for this RP. But maybe that's just me.

Allevent: the Sky Pirates of Oceanica

I could go either way really with the color vs. no-color. I DO want to talk about the ship a bit, because I was thinking about it earlier. I know it's a brigantine ship, but does it look just like a flying ship, or are there visible add-ons on the exterior? Alsoooo, when it comes to the ship's helm, what are we dealing with (I figured this is probably important for me since I'm supposed to be flying the thing)?

Is it just a nice looking wheel and or double wheel kind of scenario? Or is it a bit fancier, with other controls or dials showing things like latitude, etc.? I could see a valid argument for either kind, really.

random picture of slightly fancier situation

Or should I just be making it up as I go along?

Allevent: the Sky Pirates of Oceanica

Hey, quick question but, when it comes to airships, is it more correct to say flying an airship or sailing an airship? Or both? Or something else completely? I've just been wondering.

Allevent: the Sky Pirates of Oceanica

Elara Rennway stood at the helm, frowning slightly as she directed the ship away from one of the many cloud towers that covered the sky in these parts. She’d been in the navigation room all day, and various maps and charts were spread out on every nearby surface. The clutter served as evidence that she’d been going over the ship’s current course, checking and rechecking every aspect of the journey, not that she was likely to make a mistake in the first place.

The sailing master was not extremely happy at the moment. The Aleph Null had been sailing less and less smoothly over the course of the last day or so, and she hated to keep it at this kind of pace. She had felt the ship lurch in the sky only moments earlier, as she was sure every other crewmember had as well. The captain wanted them to go undetected and so they would. This particular stretch of sky had an ample amount of cumulonimbus clouds reaching up into the blue. It was perfect for sailing unnoticed, though she supposed that itself could be both a blessing and a curse if their target decided they didn’t want to be seen either. Fingers tapping lightly on the helm, Elara kept her eye on the skies, like always.

At least the winds seem to be somewhat favorable today, she was thinking to herself as the captain and first mate came into the room. Elara looked over at them. “Captain,” she said, nodding her head in greeting. She gazed out at the skies as she spoke, traces of unease detectable in her voice.

“I’ve been going over the maps,” she started, briefly gesturing to a few of the frankly extensive amount of papers currently out in the open. “If the information we have is good, this is just about where the target’s going to be. Frankly, I’m surprised we haven’t seen them already. As you can see, there are plenty of cloud towers out here, so it’s possible they’re just out of view.” There were all kinds of possibilities really. The target could’ve been delayed, or it could’ve been warned ahead of time. However, Elara had an uneasy feeling. Maybe the winds were a bit too favorable. Something was probably going to go wrong, she thought. Something usually did.

She paused, clearly irritated. Elara had never been skilled at hiding her feelings, and she truly never bothered to try. “With the way we’ve been going through the chop these past couple of days, maneuverability’s going to be down when it comes to fighting. Especially at this speed, a quick getaway’ll be hard on the ship. In short, we probably should’ve come across the target by now, and the ship’s not in the greatest flying condition to boot.”

Allevent, Realm of Caith

Swearing is fine with me. I think Elara curses a bit more than people would first expect, especially when she gets frustrated or is trying to get the ship through a particularly nasty storm.

The Lucenrai Chronicles: The Fallen Kingdom

Corra walked along the roof of an old stone building, gazing down at the city streets. It was strangely quiet, the lack of noise being something the young thief was not used to. Where were the shrieking children, the merchants trying to sell their wares, the fanatics preaching in the streets? Arrvern had always been a city filled to the brim with colorful life. Now it was all but empty, as if the city was struggling to take its last breaths before it died completely. The normally bustling streets were silent. The few figures that walked along them went with a hurried, anxious pace, heads down and huddled against the cold breeze. The air was filled with a sense of hopelessness, fear, and dread. It was bleak in a way it never had been.

With a sigh, Corra slid over the edge of the roof and began to climb down the side of the building. Her hands and feet easily found purchase in the cobbled siding, and she dropped gracefully to the ground. The soft padding of her feet as she walked down the street was the only sound to be heard. She was in a nicer district of the city, and anyone who lived in these buildings had left weeks ago. She was heading the wrong way if she wanted to get to the caravans, but she wasn’t ready to leave the city just yet, and she found her feet taking her into the poorer neighborhoods of Arrvern, an area she knew like the back of her hand. Here there were a few more people, mostly those too weak or too old to flee the city. They’d be left behind.

She looked around at the buildings lining the street, some of them had clearly been broken into. The careless damaged showed that the looting had already begun. The house to her right had a door hanging on only one hinge. The shutters were open and broken, with shards of cheap pottery scattered in the dust where items deemed worthless had been thrown. She stood for a moment, considering the building thoughtfully, when someone came through its door. Corra was about to turn away when she realized she knew the boy. He was just a few years older than her, of an average height with greasy blond hair and an eternally red complexion. He was also surprisingly fat for a thief, and a bit of a bastard in her opinion. He had a dirty potato sack thrown over his shoulder, filled with all manner of things, none of which were potatoes.

“Bann Erin,” she said in greeting looking at him with raised brows and a slight smirk from beneath her hood. “While it’s not surprising in the slightest that you’re out here looting, you won’t be able to fence any of those baubles if you end up dead in the city streets. Thought someone like you’d be long gone already.”

At first he looked surprised at being caught coming out of the house, though it wasn’t as if anyone would report him to the guards now. When he recognized her he visibly relaxed, giving her a sneer. “Well if it isn’t the little raven,” he said, nodding to her. Corra grimaced, she’d never understand how she earned that nickname around the city in the first place. “Now’s the best time to get things quick and cheap. A scavenger like you should be making use of it.” He looked her up and down, noticing the pack strapped to her shoulders and the heavy cloak. “But it makes sense that a little coward like you’d be running out at the first chance.”

Corra stared at the boy, clearly unimpressed. She wondered why she had even stopped to acknowledge Erin in the first place. He was an idiot, even more so than most of the common thieves from Blackdirt Alley, where he spent most of his time. However, she realized with a tight feeling in her stomach, he was also quite possibly the last familiar face she’d see from this city. Time to let go, she thought. Turning on her heel, she continued down the street.

“Have fun, Erin,” she said, not bothering to look back at the boy. She heard him scoff as he went on, presumably to the next abandoned house he could find.

She shifted her pack, walking by houses she’d seen hundreds of times before, now empty and deserted. She should’ve been heading out herself, however she couldn’t help but walk through the streets one last time. Corra wasn’t usually one for sentimental attachment. She knew that people came and left in life sooner or later, but the city had seemed to her something outside of it all, something eternal that always was and always would be. Her mother had left, her friends had left, her gang had left, but the city had never left, and she had never left the city. She hadn’t even known she felt that way about the place, but she could feel it clearly now, passing by all of her old haunts. There was the tavern where she’d sung with the barkeep and stolen the dagger now strapped to her hip. There was the abandoned warehouse where she’d planned jobs with the other kids in her gang. She walked through the streets without any notion of how much time was passing, until she found herself standing outside of an old wooden building. It was nondescript, two stories with rickety stairs, just like countless others in the city. This was the building she had lived in as a child. There was the apartment she had shared with her mother. She hadn’t even glanced at the place in years, hadn’t lived there in eight years exactly.

The place had been looted, that much was clear, but even if it hadn’t, it wouldn’t have looked anything like it had eight years ago were she to go inside. The furniture they’d had was probably sold, her mother’s sewing thrown away, the rag doll she had cherished as a child probably burned in the fireplace. She knew that and yet she almost wanted to go inside, walk up the creaking stairs, and let her fingers glide up the worn rail. Almost. But she didn’t. She turned and walked away, headed for the city gates. It was time to leave Arrvern behind. It had been hers, but it had been temporary, like all things. She’d move on, like she always did. She’d have memories, but maybe it would be better to forget... That was a lie, she thought, shaking her head lightly. She would never forget, and she wouldn’t want to. If nothing else, Corra’s memories were her own.

She walked through the streets, taking shortcuts through alleys and climbing over walls when necessary. She sang softly to herself, the words and melody no more than a whisper. It was some silly song about a girl who sold flowers, something her mother had sung to her long ago. With every step she felt both lighter, and more anxious. She was leaving behind the only place she’d ever known, but she was committed to doing so, and somehow that made it easier.

When she reached the caravans, the sudden noise and movement of refugees preparing to leave startled her out of her quiet contemplation. It seemed as if some had already gone, and she was glad she had not lingered any longer in the city streets. Being around so many people made her feel more awake and less doleful than she had felt all day. She spent a moment observing everyone, watching as they readied horses and hugged their kin. She walked over to a caravan that seemed to be comprised of a few worn-out sellswords and children with spears. Some of the others looked to be about her age, some much younger. One had shining armor, one bright red hair and a bow, another came in riding an expensive-looking horse. An interesting bunch, she thought to herself. Inspecting the kids around her let her take her mind off of her own feelings, something Corra was happy not to focus on. She waded into the group and leaned against the side of a wagon. After a moment she sighed, lowering her hood and roughly running her fingers through her short, waving hair. She wondered briefly where this new chapter in her life would take her. Hopefully it wouldn’t be to an early grave.

Allevent, Realm of Caith

Okay, so I've got my character pretty much ready, though it's still work-in-progress-ish! I may go through and make a few edits here and there. I'd love to hear what you think, and I'm always open to making changes.

My Character

Name: Elara Rennway
Nickname/Alias/Title: No nicknames as of yet
Sex: Female
Age: 24
Race: Human
Occupation: Sailing Master of the Aleph Null

Past: Elara grew up in Greenglass, a small, colorful port city known for its lively streets and bustling trade. The Rennway family were spice merchants, and had been for as long as any in the family could remember. They lived comfortably among the middle class, and had a reputation for being fine spice merchants. In other groups, they had a reputation for being excellent smugglers, a profession the family had been continuing for just as long. As a child, Elara was expected to act like other young girls her age, wearing dresses and learning to sew. Her mother, despite being married into a family of smugglers, was very committed to her ideas of propriety and would have taught Elara to be a proper young lady, if the headstrong little girl had not had other plans. Elara was much more interested in her father’s trade.

Elara’s father, Verrin Rennway had a respectable number of ships he commanded for his trade, legal or otherwise, and while he originally worked by seafaring vessels like every Rennway who had come before him, Verrin had been one of the first merchants in the area to begin using airships as they became more popular. He currently was captain and sailing master of the Bluebird, an airship he had purchased the year Elara had been born. Elara was fascinated with the airships in Greenglass port, and when she wasn’t looking after her two younger sisters or doing her chores, she’d wander around the docks just to watch the ships come and go. Her father had already begun teaching the trade to Jacind, the eldest child of the family and seven years Elara’s senior, when he was a child, and Elara listened in on his lessons whenever she could.

Elara’s father did not have the same ideas of propriety as his wife did, and when he realized that his daughter had an aptitude for airships and the like, he began to teach her as well. He taught her how to read maps and star charts, how to plot courses, and how the airships worked. She eagerly absorbed everything she could get her hands on, and smuggled the maps into her room, where she stayed up late into the night planning voyages she would take one day when she had her own ship. Her mother eventually gave up on teaching Elara things like sewing and dancing, and watched with a somewhat exasperated look as her daughter ran through the house trailing maps and charts behind her.

Elara was seven when her father first took her aboard the Bluebird. She had never experienced anything like it before. He was just beginning to show her how to pilot the airship, as he had with her brother before her. To Elara it seemed as natural as breathing. Being up in the air seemed right to her. It was as if she could feel the wind moving against the sails. She was standing at the bow of the ship leaning against the rails when she saw another ship in the distance. She leaned farther over to get a better look, when a piece of rotting wood in the rail gave way and she began to fall forward with a yelp. Out of instinct she put her hands in front of herself and was suddenly thrown back onto the ship’s deck by a gust of wind that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Her father, who had begun to run toward her the moment she started to fall, saw her manipulate the air around her, and understood what his daughter did not. Her mother’s side of the family had a talent for aeurgy, a talent that had apparently been passed down to Elara.

From that day forward Elara spent her morning studying sailing and navigation, and her afternoons at the local spellcrafter’s guild in Greenglass, learning to control stannum. As she got older, she learned more and more about airships. When her brother left home to join the army, she became more involved with helping her father with the family business. She had a talent for flying airships, and her control of caith only added to that. She soon began sailing ships for her father, and had hopes of taking over the family business. While she was rather indifferent to both spice trading and smuggling, she knew she belonged on an airship, and her father could certainly use the help.
When her brother returned home, however, Elara’s father declared that he would be handing the family business down to Jacind. With him home, Elara was suddenly less involved in the business affairs, and was sent sailing less and less. This increasingly became a source of conflict within the family, and when the spellcaster’s guild offered her an opportunity to leave the city as one of the urgists on an expedition, she accepted.

She left Greenglass at age nineteen, and spent the next year working with the guild on various jobs, but the work was too structured, and the rules too rigid for Elara. Being so young and a female, it was difficult to find anyone willing to let her control their ships. The jobs she could find were often on ships in terrible condition or under ridiculous captains. At age twenty-two she found herself in Barberry, planning her next step. She was considering stealing a smaller ship and running her own little smuggling operation. Growing up in the Rennway family, she had a rather innate disregard for the law. When she heard that Captain Wilton Grady was at the Barberry docks and in need of a new sailing master, she found a chance she very much wanted to take. It wasn’t easy to convince the captain let her aboard in the first place, but due to the lack of other options and a job that needed to be done within a rather small time limit, she was able to get aboard with a deal that was supposed to be very temporary. When she got the ship through one hell of a storm with a considerable amount of skill and finesse, she was able to prove herself and earned her place on the ship for good.

Present: Elara Rennway has been the sailing master of the Aleph Null for just two years, but the ship is extremely important to her. Having grown up taking care of two younger sisters, Elara has a rather protective nature, and is now fiercely protective of the Aleph Null and its crew. Elara is very intelligent and mature. She enjoys reading, especially if the subject is history or exploration. She loves adventure and sailing more than anything, and is very meticulous in her planning. She can spend days with her maps and charts, planning out a course with a focus that is hard to shake her out of. If she has her head in a map, one might have to call her name several times loudly to get her attention. Despite this, she can change her plans in a moment, and thinks very quick on her feet. In general, she has a rather ambiguous moral compass, but considers loyalty to be extremely important, and she is very loyal to the captain and the Aleph Null. She has no time for nonsense, and can become impatient very quickly; she has a bit of a temper. She communicates with her family from time to time with letters, but her relationship with them is not the best.

Elara is slightly above average in height, standing at 5’8” with a thin build and lean muscles. She has a light tan and long, waving, dark brown hair that she often keeps tied back. She usually wears brown trousers tucked into tall, leather boots, a white shirt under a simple blue corset, and a long black coat with brass buttons.

Future: Elara is simply happy to finally have a good position as a sailing master. She has big plans for voyages she longs to take one day, and wants to experience adventure and travel the world.

Skills: Elara is a powerful aeurgist, and has been trained in the manipulation of caith from a young age. Her skills are strong, but her powers lack in finesse. She is able to control strong gusts of wind, but has never been able to use stannum to play a flute, like she often saw other aeurgists doing at the guild. Her abilities suit her well though and are quite useful when it comes to sailing airships, though they can also be quite useful in a fight. Elara also knows the ins and outs of airships, and has been sailing them since she was quite young. She has a natural talent for it, and has been known to proudly claim that she’s one of the best sailing masters in the skies. She skilled at using star charts, maps, and navigation tools, and is a navigation expert.

Strengths: [Intelligence, Perception] Elara is very clever and quick-witted, and between her father and the guild she has been well-educated in a variety of subjects. Elara can feel the slightest changes in the weather and wind, and is extremely observant. The downside of this is that she can become so focused on one thing that she misses another.
Weaknesses: [Attack, Charisma] Elara is a powerful aeurgist and can give out very effective punches with gusts of wind, but she’s more suited to defense than attack, and isn’t extremely talented when it comes to physical fighting. When it comes to people skills, Elara can be very friendly and sociable, she can become frustrated with people very easily, and becomes blunt and sarcastic. She doesn’t like wasting her time with fools, and may be vocal about it.
Equipment: Elara carries a pair of leather gloves and a dagger her brother gave her on her belt, along with a variety of tools, most of which are related to navigation, such as her compass or her sextant. She keeps another knife in her boot as well.

The Lucenrai Chronicles: The Fallen Kingdom

Corra Valerrus

Appearance:

Source: http://nixxical.deviantart.com/

Corra is somewhat shorter than average, and has a very slight build. She is thin, though not quite gaunt, with lean muscles that are hardly noticeable. She is extremely pale and has a fair complexion, with waving smoky brown hair that falls to her shoulders and gray green eyes.

Name: Corra Valerrus
Age: 17

Personality: Corra is extremely quick-witted, and while not formally educated in things such as reading or writing, she is extremely intelligent, and a very fast learner. Corra tends to be sarcastic and has a rather macabre sense of humor. She enjoys interacting with others and is usually lighthearted in her mannerisms, but often avoids showing her true feelings. She believes that at their hearts, everyone is only out to help themselves, and tries not to become attached to others. Having lost her mother at a young age, she sees most relationships as temporary, and has trouble forming meaningful connections with anyone. She is very observant, and distrustful. Corra has an easy smile and a talent for lying. She can be very friendly and persuasive, and can blend in or stand out in a crowd as she pleases. At her core she is a survivor, and trusts her own senses. Corra often tries to avoid confrontation when possible, and learned to shut off her feelings when necessary.

Backstory: Corra grew up in one of the poorer neighborhoods of the capital city of Edessa. The child of a sickly herbalist and an unknown father, Corra was accustomed to hard times from an early age. Her mother’s illness made it difficult for her to support her daughter, and like many of the young, hungry children crowding the city’s streets, she soon began picking pockets and stealing bits and pieces from local merchants. Her mother, while physically weak, did her best to ensure that Corra was cared for, and often sang to her when her voice was strong enough. The nights spent falling asleep to her mother’s voice are some of Corra’s most cherished memories.

Corra’s childhood had been one of relative peace if not relative ease, but soon her mother’s condition began to worsen. It was Corra who then sang her mother to sleep, and though she always swore that Corra’s voice made her feel better with every note, no song was enough to stop her mother from dying. She was nine years old at the time, and soon found herself in the city’s worst slums as the landlord kicked her out of the small apartment she had shared with her mother, leaving her nothing but the worn clothing on her back.

The first year was the hardest, and Corra could barely keep herself from starving, stealing what she could and occasionally taking whatever work she could find around the city. It wasn’t until a local gang of thieves took her in that her survival was no longer in such a constant state of doubt. Running with this group of young street urchins like her allowed her to learn a few new skills and improve on some she already had. They taught her how to pick locks, scale buildings, and move unseen through a crowd. Kids like them were practically invisible to the rest of the city, and it meant that they could easily get away with all kinds of small-time theft without much worry about the city’s guards.

When some of the older kids in the gang began to be a bit too ambitious, everything started to go downhill. The jobs they did became riskier and more dangerous, but Corra stayed on. They were breaking into a wealthier merchant’s house one night when everything fell apart. Despite their planning, the group was caught and a fight between the merchant and one of the older kids in the group quickly ended in panic and the merchant’s murder. With the popularity of the merchant among the public, the guards quickly tracked them down, and the gang split up, each kid only concerned with himself. The leaders ended up behind bars, and most of the kids left the city, not wanting to attract any trouble. At fifteen, Corra found herself alone once more. However the city moved on, and she had to as well. She had long since realized that all relationships with other people were only ever temporary.

Corra began to work on her own, breaking into houses and stealing what she could fence quickly. She moved quickly, and worked efficiently. By now her skills were enough that she could get by comfortably enough, and thieving was what she knew. Now seventeen years old, Corra has come to realize that her best chance of surviving means getting out of the city she has lived in for all her life, but she’s prepared to move on if she has to, and thus finds herself among a caravan of refugees.

Skills and Abilities:

professional lockpicking - Corra is very dextrous and has strong senses. With a great deal of practice over the years she has become rather accomplished at getting past most locks, and this skill has been essential to her career as a thief.
adept climbing - Corra is light and agile, and has scaled countless building in the city to sneak through an open window, no matter how many stories up it may be.
adept acrobatics - Corra is very agile and fast.
novice hand to hand combat - Corra usually tries to avoid fighting in general, but can be effective when she needs to, and fights dirty.
novice knives - Corra was taught how to fight with a knife by the other children in the streets, and while she has only done so on a few occasions, she can hold her own with a dagger in hand.
adept persuasion - Corra is a talented liar, and very good at understanding and convincing others of whatever she needs.
adept singing - Corra has her mother’s voice, and often sings to feel close to her. She learned to love singing, and can often be found humming quietly to herself as she picks a lock.
adept pickpocket - Corra has a light touch, and has been lifting coin purses and other bits and pieces off of those wandering through the city’s streets since she was very young.

Equipment:

lockpicks, steel - Corra always keeps one set on her person, and an extra with her belongings. They are a well-made variety of picks.

dagger, steel, old - This item was stolen from a stranger at a tavern years ago.

coil of rope - Basic rope kept for a variety of uses.

brass knuckles, worn -This cheap weapon was purchased from a local vendor.

mask, cloth - This black cloth mask can be worn to cover the bottom half of Corra’s face.

The Lucenrai Chronicles: The Fallen Kingdom

I'd be happy to join!

Allevent, Realm of Caith

What are the common weapons used (especially by pirates) at this time in Allevent? I know there's pistols and various other firearms about, but are swords and the like still commonly used, or has the technology now available thanks to caith crystals made that kind of weapon outdated?