Freeform on RPoL: Grimholme, urban dungeonpunk

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God_of_Awesome
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Freeform on RPoL: Grimholme, urban dungeonpunk

Post by God_of_Awesome »

So yeah, my last two threads were filled with ulterior motives. I was testing the waters about these two hot words to see if anyone would be interested to join my Magic Tea Party:

http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=39186&date=1258482533
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Definitely considering it, but I'm not going to join a second game until I reestablish a reliable Internet connection at home. Fortunately, that should happen any day now.

Apparently I need to register to view your threads. How open would this game be to some kind of water/weather magic user that was partway through the process of turning into an elemental being in some ways similar to a D&D marid (water genie)?
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God_of_Awesome
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

I would be open to something like that. It's a very magic heavy setting.
Last edited by God_of_Awesome on Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Established home wifi and registered at RPoL. Apparently, att.net has this site blacklisted, so I had to make a backup email. Will check the game out now.
Surgo
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Post by Surgo »

I can't read any of the threads because I'm not signed up -- can you describe the setting and the type of game you have in mind more?
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Surgo wrote:I can't read any of the threads because I'm not signed up -- can you describe the setting and the type of game you have in mind more?


I'll quote the text I've seen so far.

Grimholme: The Order of Darkness
Welcome to Yaodune. A world so big that the room for adventure as well as divinity is nigh-boundless. Here, the gods have forgotten united morality in the face of their own dogmas, clerics can no longer claim without doubt the goodness of their god, the angels become hard to tell apart from demons and devils, necromancy is just as viable a trade for a kind wizard as abjuration and paladins have lost all meaning.

Welcome to Empire of Iron. Split into a dozens of city-states, it has been ruled by the Emperor of the Iron Glove and the Silk Fist for a thousand years. The War of the Monster's Rise, the thousand year old war, gave prominence to the war lord that united the monstrous races and made them equal to the humanoid races in stature and civility. Now civilization rules the land as cities rise up like tree and the wilderness falls like ancient civilizations.

Welcome to Grimholme. The local government is rife with corruption, the various Elven Mafias compete for power, goblin gang run amok, unlicensed wizards and unsanctioned necromancers walk openly and their are even demon cults washing the streets with innocent blood.

Welcome to the Order of Darkness. You are a secret alliance of vigilante, private detectives, watchmen and other 'concerned citizens' that are out to clean up Grimholme of crime.

Setting Information

World Map
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4246/yaodune.png
(Rivers not shown. Just assume plenty exist)

Starting from the top-left and going clock wise the continents are Cresh, Russ, Iropa, Mederak and Zamor. The Iron Empire is set in the souther portion of Iropa. South of the of the empire is lots of ice and barbarian hordes. North of it is a magic forest that strangely serves as this world's equivalent of Japan. Although global travel isn't impossible, I won't describe the rest of the world unless necessary.


Races
The races of Yaodune number in the hundreds. The races of the Iron Empire resembles the list of the core races of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and all their racial variations and supplemental race. All city dwelling races are assumed to speak Common.

Elves: The Iron Empire supports 3 variations of elves. The Eladrin High Elves, the Sylvan Wood Elves and the Drowish Dark Elves. All three are closely associated to what is collectively called the Elven Mafia, the most power criminal organization in the empire. It is, in fact, three seperate organizations, to each respective elf type, that are enemies as much as allies. The Drowish Mafia is the most vicious, the Eladrin the most corrupt and the Sylvan the nicest. Elves discovered druidics in the early days of the Age of Legends. The Elven language is seperate into three dialects for each elf type. Elves live about 150 years on average but never age past adulthood. They just fall down and die.

Dwarves: Also come in three varieties in the empire. The Moradis Hill Dwarves, the Delzoun Mountain Dwarves and the Duegar Deep Dwarves. Technically, only the Moradis Clan are apart of the empire. The Delzoun Clan are close allies but have their own fiefdom up in the mountains. The Duegar Clan lives underground, worshipping their bearded god and arising to wage war on the surface. Each clan has ties with an elven family, stemming from ancient alliances. All but one are now broken. The Hill Dwarves were allies with High Elves but the elves betrayed them one too many times. Now their relationship is cordial but strained. The Deep Dwarves allied with the Dark Elves but the dwarves betrayed them some time after the Age of Darkness. Only the Wood Elves and the Mountain Dwarves remain allies. Dwarves invented runes and created the Runeforged in the Age of Heroes. The Dwarven language is split into High and Low in which all dwarves are equally proficient. Low is for everyday use and High is for important events. Elves LOVE hearing High Dwarven, for it sung rather then spoken and beautiful beyond elven measure. This is almost the basis of all Elf-Dwarf alliances. Dwarves live about 200 years on average and age very little.

Orcs: Naturally thickly built, skin varying shades of green and hair with colors ranging from the same as humans with more red heads and less blonde to more shades of green, lower lip tusks and somewhat upturned noses. Although with some boar-like features, they are not ugly as a whole but even the most attractive orc is savagely so. They are herbivores by nature and bare all the behavioral traits of those descended of prey. Orcish is often spoken out of the side of the mouth. They live about 80 years and often stop aging at around 40.

Gnomes: The most urban of all the races. Gnomes are at the head of running cities and their economies, especially the entertainment industry. If dwarves invented runes, gnomes exploited all the practical applications of them and basically perfected the art. Depending on the clan, some dwarves will deny it, begrudgingly admit it or give you a 'Are you really going to bring this up?' look. Gnomish is partly hummed and whistled. Gnomes live 100 years and almost always age very well.

Halflings: The least urban of all the races although city bound halflings are not unknown. Most are travellers however, moving around in caravans. They are pretty much the lords of trade in the Iron Empire and invented the Common language in the Age of Heroes. Halflings live about 80 years and stop aging between 10 and 20 years of age. The number of adult halflings that look like children is confusing for other races.

Humans: O hai thar! Yeah, humans are around. Very around as the most numerous and prolific race in the Iron Empire and possibly the world. The Iron Emperor is said to be a human. Humans and Halflings are close allies and share the Common language as their main language. Humans live about 80 years and share the distinction of aging at a constant, debilitating rate after adolescenes until death with Goblins and Beastfolk.

Goblins: Vaguely related to the orcs but are carnivorous. Nasty dispositions, natural scavengers and your standard goblin variant. They live in the cities but most often become criminals. Beauty standards differ from tribe to tribe. Some are impish monsters and some look like adorable green halflings. The life span differs from tribe to tribe as well, going from 50 to 100 years. Goblins speak Orcish.

Kobolds: Believed to be goblins that made deals with dragons during the Age of Legends, they are a proud and noble race. Like dragons, they like treasure, living in caves (Or the sewers in case of city kobolds) and traps. Well, that last one is a kobold thing. Kobolds learned wizardry from the dragon and taught it to other races in the later days of the Age of Legends. The live to be 120 and always grow stronger and wiser until they drop dead.

Beastfolk: Created by the Iron Emperor using animals in the last days of the Age of Darkness. They are humanoid animals but the actual scale between bestial and humanoid changes from individual to indidual. Most all will have furre, scales or feathers and the other immediatley noticeable features of their base animal. Their is basically a type for every sort of animal known, even domesticated ones.

Planetouched: Those with extraplanar origin, ranging from one of the Inner to the Outer planes.

Half-breed: Any sentient species with compatible sexual organs can interbreed. It's magic. Discuss the implications with me.

Undead: Their are sentient and non-sentient undead. I am more concerned with the sentient sort. Along with zombies and skeleton, you have vampires and liches common to the empire. The Emperor himelf is said to be a lich. The undead sustain themselves via a Negative Energy, the Energy of Death and Unlife. Zombies are pretty self-sustaining in that regard. Liches have dipped themselves in the extra-planar source itself, becoming well-springs of it and must use special seal to keep it from spilling all over the living. Vampires also draw on the extra planar source and use the consumption of blood as a way to keep the connection open.

Runeforged: Magic robots. Come in sentient and non-sentient varieties. Originally came to be by the Dwarves during the Age of Heroes, their creation process became more widely known after the end of the Age of Darkness.


Magics
Sorcerers, Wizards and Runes

The source of Sorcery, Wizardry and Runes is the God's Tongue. Draconic is a bastardization of the God's Tongue and all those who use any of the above may assume they can speak to dragons as an automatic trait. (So it doesn't fill up your trait slots). As the name implies, the God's Tongue is the language of the gods who first taught the language to dragons who taught kobolds. The racial gods in turn taught their chosen races and human picked it up along the way.

The God's Tongue in its written form is Runes and spoken is Wizardry. Dwarves were taught by Domathoin by runes in the walls while Kirith Sotheril taught the elves orally with wizardry. The other gods took a measure of moderance but this method has forever affected how the two races view magic, besided the earlier intervention of the elven goddess Sehanine.

The God's Tongue is the very description of the universe that effects the universe. It is so utterly complex that mortals, even dragons, find themselves only capable of short phrases most of the time. These are called spells. Longer sentences are incantations and speeches are whole rituals and complicated equations should be written down on the floor with accompanying circles, pentagrams and other fun with shapes. Wizardry, the spoken form, requires a mixture of actual spoken word and the somantic hand gestures, arm waving and fingers waggling. Any of these can be replaced with concentrated though, and indeed the physical limitations of mortal beings requires that much of it is so. Runes, the written form, have complex symbols with squiggly lines interposed over them.

The God's Tongue in fact has a great deal many dialects. The 'Universal' dialect is the only one describable by Runes. With Wizards, it is often one of the many 'specialist' dialects ranging from 'necromancy,' 'pyromancy,' 'healing magic,' 'divination,' and any particular 'school' of magic. Sorcerers know some of the God's Tongue instinctually from a draconic heritage. Whether you are wizard who learned your magic or a sorcerer doesn't matter in the end. It's still called wizardry and comes out the same. The actual difference is those that develops their sorcererous talents do so at the expense of being able to learn a wider variety of spells that wizard learn but sorcerer often have a larger mana compacity.

Dragons, the older ones especially, inherently magical creatures that often sleep for years at a time, can awake to find they have nigh-godlike power. Not just from their size and natural ability to expell a wide variety of anything from their mouth, but they have an instinctual understanding of the God's Tongue and a mana reserve comparable to a large sea. Most mortal beings have a mana compacity comparable to a puddle to give you a good idea on what that means. The gods are thought be 'oceans' constantly fed from some cosmic source. Mana is the energy that makes wizardry something other then gibberish and runes other then doodles. Once empowered, most runes don't need much more power to activate (This balanced by the fact they need to be carved nigh perfectly while wizardry is a bit easier).

Mana capacity is like a muscle, it gets stronger by practicing it and refuels by resting. Sleep, supposedly the state in which the mind is drawn closer to the cosmic source of mana, is the reportedly the best method. Your average wizard has about a 'pond,' great wizards can upgrade to 'lakes,' archmages are 'small seas' and the legendary wizards can hope to equal elder wyrms. Utility spells are known to commoners, light, levitate small objects, detect magic and doable everyday on their puddle of mana although only those with a particular knack actually do so.

Clericy and Paladinhood
While the God's Tongue is divine in its original origin, its actual usage is in no way dependent on them. Clericy is. Instead of raw mana, a cleric uses mana pre-processed from their god of choice. It reacts to whatever language is associated with the god. Elven gods, for example, are generally associated with elven. Magic gods properly do draconic but your common god will make do with common, or old common if you wanna be fancy. A god will have a paricular set of spells you can get from their mana. The advantage over wizardry is often ease of use, potency and the kick ass power to just knock off some heals without an spells. The disadvantage is, of course, lack of variety and crushing dogma.

Paladins are worse of in the variety and dogma department but even better with potency and ease of use. They have a piece of their very god inside of them, giving them thematically appropiate powers and physical deformities. Other gifts includes a holy weapon and an extraplanar mount, also thematically appropiate.

Witchcraft
Now this is something everyone has a little bit of. This doesn't require any actual magical power and no godly intervention. This is just mystical know-how. Lucky charms, holy symbols, potion brewing, superstitions (That are true), ceremonies, etc, etc. Their are those who specialize in this kind of thing, but that isn't even magic, persay. It can be used to augment magic, though, like how bat guana can make for a more poten fireball. Also, a line of salt will stop a demon in its tracks. A gopher seeing its own shadow will result in an early spring. It's down right useful knowledge.

The Ages
As known by the Iron Empire

Age of Legends
This is back during the beginning of Yaodune, when foreign gods came together to create and when much of what would establish the world for the next 15 millenia came to be. This includes the banishment of the dark elves to the Underdark and the general splitting of elves, it is also when elves and dwarves would live far beyond mortal ken. Humans rose from barbarians near the end of this age and established and destroyed many empires in last 5 thousand years. In all, this age lasted ten millenia.

Age of Heroes
The god began to become distant from the world. As a result, raising people from the dead became alot harder and the mortal races, except for dragons, began to live shorter lives, good and evil became skewed concepts.. Another result were attempts by mortals to replace the gods. Some became such legends themselves that they ascended to godhood on sheer hero worship upon their eventual death. The dwarves delved further into their favored Runes and created the runeforged. This age lasted 5 millenia.

Age of Darkness
Many of the empires of old were now completely lost, divided into many small petty kingdoms. The races had completely settled into the average lifespan they have today, although to a lesser degree due to poorer medicine. Necromancers perfected their arts so that the negative energy spill out was a thing of the past, lichdom was attainable in a way that did not require mortal sacrifice and more and more undead became sentient. Rune magic became more wide spread although the rune forged remained a mystery. The man who would become the Iron Emperor was born in this age. In all, this age lasted 4 millenia.

Age of Cities
The Iron Warlord created the beastfolk to begin his empire. He also wrestled the secret of the runeforged from the dwarves and gave them the name they are better known by today, the warforged. Sentient undead became even more prolific and joined the Iron Warlord. Under promises of civilization, goblinoids, kobolds and giants joined his cause. The Iron Warlord struck the Underdark first, taking over the drow and duergar. He nearly eradicated all aberations, the illithid by fabricating a civil war and the beholders by a campaign of eradication. With dark elves by his side, the Iron Warlord, now calling himself the Iron Emperor, literally resurfaced, conquering the humans, the elves, the dwarves, the gnomes and the halflings one at a time. He tore apart their kingdoms and forced them to live together, along side the creatures they called monsters. This was called the War of the Monster's Rise. While a nasty business, under the Iron Emperor's rule, his empire has flourished. The only flaws being the remaining true illithids, beholders and the betrayal of the duergar, as well as all the corruption inherit in civilized society. This age has been going on for a millenia.


Local Gods
Honestly, the number of deities worshipped in the Iron Empire is limitless. You can make and import anything you desire. For simplicity's sake, will say the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realm's deities are pretty given except with all the 'Who's where' on the alignment double axis is out the window.

The Planes

I actually dislike alignments alot. On the other hand, I LOVE Planescape. Just the flavor of the setting makes me happy. The Outerplanes are deliciously AWESOME. So I hate alignments but I love the physical manifestations of alignments. Problem? I can think of way to make it less so.

Classifying the Planes

So, just to sate my own Planescape lust, I would have all the Outerplanes still their and intact and still seperated into the Higher Plane, the Middle Plane and Lower Plane. So what is the Lower Planes if not the places of absolute Evil? Well, you know what they say, "Hell is other people." The Lower Planes are where like-minded souls gather when they dies, and by like minded, we mean 'Major Assholes.' We have different Lower Planes for different sorts of assholes, but if you were villainous character with very few redeeming qualities, you go here. What actually qualifies is up to debate. In essential, the Middle and Upper Planes are the same thing but with different sorts of people. The primary theme is, with nothing but assholes, the places stinks like an asshole. If you realize this or your own flaws, redemptions become possible of course.

The different Outer Planes work like solar systems in their own right, with one primary plane being orbited by lesser planes. For the Lower Planes, the right of primary plane is shared by the Abyss and Baator which orbit each other like bi-orbital stars. They are circled by Gehenna, Carceri and Hades. One interpretation may even have Gehenna and Carceri orbiting Hades like moons while Hades orbits the Abyss and Baator.

For the Upper Planes, it's none other then the pinnacle of virtue, the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia orbited by Bytopia, Elysium, the Bestlands and Arborea. In the multidimensional sense, this is the order of which is closest to the farthest, but also smallest to biggest (In an infinite sense). Bytopia is closer to Celestia but if you're not in Celestia, your likely moving farther down the line down to Arborea.

For the the Middle Planes, you know it can't be anything else but the very bland Outlands, circled by Mechanus and Limbo which are circled by Arcadia and Archeron for Mechanus and Ysgard and Pandemonium for Limbo. In turn, Celestia and the Abyss/Baator pair orbit the Outlands as well, binding the Outerplanes together. Then the Outlands orbits the Prime Material Plane which is also orbited by the Inner Planes thus binding the Planes together. Of course, this is all in a multidimensional-infinite sense that really can't be comprehended by our limited-threedimensional minds.

The Inner Planes are made up of the Void Plane, the Energy Planes and the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Elemental Planes. The Void Plane is actually theoretical. Their is nothing in the multidimensional middle of the Inner Planes but that nothing is orbited by the rest of the Inner Planes and itself orbits the Prime Material Plane. The Positive and Negative Energy Planes orbit this empty center the closest, so much they were initially mistaken to have similiar relationship as Baator and the Abyss. Then you have the Primary Elemental Planes; Fire, Earth, Water and Wind. The Secondary Elemental Planes number in four as well, each making a figure eight around two Primary Planes. Metal, Wood, Ice and Lightning. The Tertiary Demi Planes are like comets that make their rounds around often two or three of the other Inner Planes. They are innumerous but good examples include the Demi Plane of Gems which flies between Metal, Earth and Positive, the Demi Plane of Acid between Water, Wood and Negative, and Sonic with Lightning and Air.

Let's not even get into the Farplanes.

Angels, Demons and Devils, Oh my!

Also, Yugoloths. So you have Demons, Devil and Yugoloths which our just the three classsifications of the Fiends, the things spawned from the Lower Planes. Since 'pure Evil' is out the window, you have something different. Fiends are beings made up of the dark beliefs of living mortals and the dead assholes stuck in the Lower Planes. Since, however, all of these guys are beings of free-will, free-will is conferred to Outsiders. So while most Fiends are what you could classify as Evil, very few are card carrying villains and even a few rise above their nature, somewhat.

Devils are of course the 'Just As Planned' sort, complicated schemers who are, more or less, out for themselves. Some may take a noble interest in something or other, and use their scheming abilities to help out whatever it is. They often become 'anti-villains' in their own right, indicating of what their mortaled neighbors could have been. Demons are 'MAIM! BURN! KILL!' The ones that develop a sense of right and wrong may curb their bloodthirst against the unworthy or the wicked or whatever the hell they have a beef again. In fact, like mortals, most do. Some wish to brutally slaughter pedophiles and some wish to brutally slaughter children. It gets pretty iffy. Yugoloths are just mean and cruel, not mindlessly so but not very schemey either. Most of them remain assholes.

The Angels are seperated into Archons, Guardinal and Eladrin. The Archons are considered the rulers of the Angels, being the schemiest and natives of Celestia. The greatest of them have plotted the advancement of civilizations that resulted in nigh-perfect worlds. The worst of them are no different from noble devils, except they are more arrogant. They may plot the genocide of an unclean race or somesuch. Such cases are indicative to the dead mortal what they could have become. Guardinals are the more common planeborn citizen of the Upperplanes and are generally the least likely to to become assholes since their your strangely (To cynics) uninspired good samaritan that just likes to help people. Yay for flowers and sunshine! Eladrin are militaristic and very 'Smitey.' Well respected as the soldier of the Upper Planes, they live on the edge, literally on the edge planes like Arborea or the Beastlands or even Ysgard when it orbits close enough. Some, like the Archons, can go too far.

The natives of the Inner Planes are called Elementals. Duh.

The natives of the Middle Planes have no centralized names. You have the Slaades, the Modrons, whatever the hell lives in the Outlands, Arcadia's ant people, Ysgard's goat people, lots of fighty type things in Acheron and insanity inducing abominations in Pandemonium. While they each embody philosophy, you still get the assholes that take it too far and the ones that pull it off just right.


And we still have the other cool stuff like the Blood Wars (Now they live next to each other!), Sigil, the Factions and other fun stuff.

Request to Join

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You must also confirm you will be able to post at least once a day.

Name: (Your character's full name and title and aliases, etc)
Display Name: (And what name will your username be?)
Race:
Marital Status:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Build:
Complexion:
Gender:
Sexual Orientation:
Age:

Appearance:

Personality:

Character Background:

History:

Reputation:

Secrets: (This will remain known only to me unless revealed IC)

Family:

Enemies:

Occupation:

Deity:

Character Customization:

1.)
2.)
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4.)
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6.)
7.)
8.)
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10.)

Magic:

1.)
2.)
3.)

Character Flaws:

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Sample RP: (Not required, especially if the rest of your rtj is good. But it doesn't hurt)

---------

For some reason, my players have assumed 'Traits' mean things like 'Polite' or 'Easily Angered.' I don't BLAME them because I should have been more specific. When I said, 'Traits', I sort of meant 'Fire Wizard,' 'Has A Pet Demon Dog,' 'Underworld Contacts,' 'Master Acrobatic,' 'Sweet Talker,' etc, etc.



That's some of the setting information, the premise of the game, and the thread on applying for the game. I could copy one of the character sheets for a existing character over as well, but I think I'll take at least a brief break from copying text and adding BBCode to it for now.
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God_of_Awesome
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Well first off, RPoL is worth signing up for. Being free and all that.

Now, I was going for a bit of a Ebberon feel for the game while not knowing that much about Ebberon beyond 'airships' and 'warforged' so I just went ahead incorporated everything I knew about Forgotten Realms as I imagined Forgotten Realms would be like if arcane and social advancement was a few thousand years ahead.

So magic robots and magic everything else. Even average peasants know cantrips while PCs are expected to have a couple tricks up their sleeves if not be outright wizards themselves. Everything over the top is magical to some degree, even barbarian rage. So set that in an empire where social advancement has brought most races, from elves and dwarves to goblins and drow, as equal law abiding citizens while dropping into a city that is basically L.A. at it's criminally worst.
Surgo
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Post by Surgo »

I think I'm interested in it then, but I'll need more time to read this wall of text.
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God_of_Awesome
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Heh heh, that's what I get for being a writer.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

My current character write-up is looking dangerously similar to a Shadowrun fixer. He's got a profitable business which includes "troubleshooting", he is willing to subcontract out jobs to freelance mercenaries, and he pays protection money to at least one criminal syndicate with the understanding that they will give him reasonable rates for arranging "accidents" for his enemies or calling in backup. He expects blatant corruption thanks to growing up in a very unpleasant area in whatever the closest analogue to Zakhara is in this setting, but doesn't like unstable levels of corruption. He wants a criminal element to society that doesn't change much from day to day, but allows individual freelancers to achieve significant amounts of success without being forced to align themselves with a particular gang or crime boss.

The "Order of Darkness" is dedicated to cleaning up the streets. I'm not sure how well this synergizes with my current character concept. Should I try rebuilding my character concept into something simpler that would fit into the organization more easily? If so, what sorts of things should I change?

It might also be nice to have some general guidelines on the types of characters desired for the game. We have a sort of character sheet, but that doesn't answer a number of questions about things like desired power level, acceptable agendas, how easily the character should be able to fit into the setting (how close to the "average" person the PCs are is more than just a question of power level), and so on.
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

The Order of Darkness thing was more or less scrapped. At least about being from the get go. It's rears it head at some point right now is it sandboxing in Grimholme so I can establish well your characters before busting out plot.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Alright. In that case, I'll finish the character write-up I've got right now. Maybe I'll post a first draft here.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

How viable is having a blatant Al-Qadim (Arabian Nights-esque D&D setting consisting of a number of islands with heavy genie involvement in the area) ripoff in between Russ and Iropa? I'm thinking of using that as my character's homeland.

Also, Akula may have some interest in the game. We are discussing it over the phone right now.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

I finished a first draft text file. Copied it below.

Azura, character for RPoL game.

======================

"You must confirm you are 18 years of age or older and may legally view adult material in your area."

Yes

"You must also confirm you will be able to post at least once a day."

Probably. And I will definitely try to let people know in advance if I don't think I'll be able to post.

Name: Azura, Sha'ir and Sea Mage, formerly known as Omar Zal'astro (Your character's full name and title and aliases, etc)
Display Name: Avoraciopoctules (And what name will your username be?)
Race: Human
Marital Status: Single
Hair Color: Grey
Eye Color: Cyan
Build: Slight, below average weight
Complexion: Normally pale, but naturally swarthy
Gender: Eunuch
Sexual Orientation: Asexual
Age: 46

Appearance:

Azura is a smallish human shrouded in cloth. White cotton pants and shirt are mostly covered by an undyed short robe belted at the waist with a sash. White silk gloves cover his hands, and his soft leather boots have been bleached to match. A transparent veil faintly obscures his face, and a pale silk scarf is wound around his neck. Over all this, he wears a heavy sleeveless sea-green overrobe, which hangs open to allow easier access to the pockets on the inside. His hair is short, greying, and wispy, and but what little skin on his head is clearly visible is plainly unwrinkled. It's hard to make out the details of his face through the veil, but his nose looks off, as though it had been repeatedly broken. Perhaps the most striking thing about Azura is his jewelry, as the dozen-or-so rings and amulets he is never seen without are all set with precious green-and-blue gems that glow visibly even in moderate daylight.

Personality:

Azura is a flamboyant, perhaps even hammy individual. He enjoys boldness, but likes approaching situations indirectly when he is even a little worried. He is fairly friendly when he feels secure, but often reacts to fear with a swift retreat from the situation, and can turn violent if he feels trapped.

Azura has an adventurous, risk-taking streak, but he often has to work himself up to it first. He can seize opportunities when they present themselves, but is slow enough to act that they often pass before he does so. He is generally kind to those he perceives as weaker than himself and in need of help, but can be very nasty to those he perceives as enemies. Once he gets significantly personally invested into a goal, he can be distracted, but he finds great difficulty in consciously giving it up.

Character Background:

Azura hails from far-off [Insert Zakhara-analogue here], a collection of sandy isles where genies reign as often as Caliphs, and the boundaries between Material and Elemental are weak. An orphan in a major city at 9, he simply survived until he saw the opportunity to join a band of Corsairs, barely-legitamite privateers who made their way through life making trouble for others and raiding those who their sponsors deemed acceptable targets. He survived, sometimes shifting from one ship and political affiliation to the next. Then he realized something after a long talk with a retired corsair veteran. There were many lifestyles both more comfortable and more profitable than this. And he was very unlikely to survive to be an old man.

So he liquidated his savings and found a traveling Sha'ir, a mage who got most of her power from dealing with the genies, and he begged to become her apprentice. She accepted, and Azura began to learn how to successfully transact with genies without losing anything terribly important or making big enemies. He bound his first mephit, and acquired the beginnings of his magical repertoire. Azura parted with his teacher on very good terms, and they still exchange letters periodically.

After becoming a semi-competent mage, Azura retained most of the skills and contacts he had gained as a Corsair. He took to traveling around, looking for problems he could resolve and situations he could profit from. All the while, he honed his magical talents and learned more about the world around him. Eventually, he decided that he had learned most of what he could from personal experience, and he enrolled in a formal academy that specialized in magic, but also covered more mundane subjects. It was while studying here that Azura made a fascinating magical discovery while studying the Elemental Planes. Seeing it as sufficiently valuable to attract perhaps too much attention, he kept it quiet until he graduated.

Now an accomplished wizard, Azura decided to move to a foreign land where he could make a good living off of his magic while remaining more or less in one place so he could work on his magical discovery without drawing too much attention or worrying about his past catching up with him. He took a new name and eventually came to Grimholme, seeing it as striking a helpful balance between stability and unchecked criminal freedom. In the years since, he has come to be very pleased with his choice, as it provides a seemingly endless supply of interesting challenges.

History:

I think I'm seeing redundancy with the section above. See Character Background.

Reputation:

Azura has left most of his old renown behind him. In Grimholme, he is merely one of hundreds of troubleshooters and middlemen. Some groups like him, some don't. He is honest enough to be viewed as generally trustworthy, and is known for acting favorably to newcomers to the city.

Secrets: (This will remain known only to me unless revealed IC)

Azura is partway through the process of transforming himself into a true water genie. This requires expensive ritual components, protected magical lore, and some degree of favor from a significant power of the plane of Water. Presently his skin is tinted faintly greenish-blue, but not yet enough to be really noticeable. However, as time goes by, he will lose all his hair and grow almost translucent, as well as bulking up to around the size of an ogre. Azura's blood is a clear pink in color, rather than the normal red. Eventually, it will be almost indistinguishable from strangely thick and viscous water.

Being a former Corsair of several years, Azura is covered in scars and not a few brands marking him as a criminal from those occasions he was temporarily capture. There are a number of governments back in his homeland that might pay for his delivery, dead or alive.

Azura is missing several fingers and half a leg, which he has replaced with prosthetics of water solidified and controlled through his hydromancy. In his time as an adventurer, he encountered a marid who offered him greater magical power if, among other things, Azura repeatedly chopped bits of himself off to feed one of the marid's ghoul friends.

Family:

Azura has a few brothers and sisters, but he has no idea what has become of them and probably wouldn't recognize them if he saw them again.

Enemies:

There are a number of people who would like to see Azura hurt. Criminal syndicates he decided not to pay money to, former customers who feel he cheated them, and rival mages that feel he is encroaching upon their business.

Particularly, he has a rivalry going with an elven pyromancer named Katrosky and an assassin, Blacktooth (who has had his jobs foiled by adventurers hired through Azura more times than he likes), is growing increasingly upset with him. The Order of Bloody Knives (a local butcher's guild named to fit in with everything else in Grimholme) is rather annoyed at him for repeatedly buying wholesale meat through unlicensed farmers outside the city and distributing it to the poor through a charitable organization that is only partially a front for drug smugglers.

Occupation:

Azura is a wizard-for-hire, a problem solver, and a middleman. He can find adventurers for respectable people and buyers for loot brought to him by adventurers. If someone wants something done, but isn't sure who or where to go to, Azura can often give them advice or directions. He offers large discounts to recent immigrants in memory of the rather difficult time he had when he first came to Grimholme and the Empire.

Deity:

Azura's tendency is to swear by genie lords, not gods. These are not divine, but they do have considerable power. But he does revere a number of sailor's deities, as well as many that preside over chance.

Character Customization:

1.) Knows how to make a decent living out of using his magic for money.
2.) Has memberships in good standing with a large number of libraries.
3.) Azura has received more than 15 years of formal education, including specialized magical training in several different forms of sorcery.
4.) Through a complex and costly magical ritual, Azura has removed a fragment of his soul and merged it with a mass of elemental water to create a loyal and intelligent undine whose power is linked to his own. It usually hides somewhere on his person, but he can summon it if given a few minutes access to his tools. In addition to the obvious abilities that come with being a water elemental with an infusion of all Azura's powers (though its magic is weak compared to his), the undine can reshape itself at will and heal quite quickly if in contact with water. It is vulnerable
5.) Azura has also bound a number of water mephits (weak, implike elementals that draw power from the Plane of Water) to magical rings and amulets he almost always personally wears a few of. Calling them in or out is but a moment's exertion.
6.) Azura owns a fairly nice house in the Foreign district.
7.) As a former career criminal and a current "freelance problem-solver" Azura keeps up with the criminal underworld. This is after all where he goes to subcontract jobs out to adventurers. He even pays "protection" money to several criminal organizations with the understanding that he can call on them for muscle or sanctuary if he needs it.
8.) Being a Sha'ir involves dealing with magical entities often dramatically more powerful than you are. Azura is reasonably diplomatic, particularly when it comes to flattering elementals.
9.) Azura isn't in the best of shape, but he does remember some of the hand-to-hand combat skills of his time as a Corsair and adventurer.
10.) Azura is reasonably respectable. He has filled out all the forms a mage in his position is expected to by the authorities, he pays his taxes, and in general, he is someone who wouldn't baulk at going to the city guards about a problem at his house or requesting an audience with a noble.

Magic:

1.) Hydromancy (magic that creates or manipulates water. Can interact with blood, but is much more limited in power. It can shape water into solid objects, and a favorite trick of Azura's is to throw a ceramic jar of water so that it shatters against an opponent and then shape the water into cuffs or bands that bind the target's arms or legs together.)
2.) Weather Magic (generally takes considerably longer to use, and requires considerably more focus. Calling up thick fog or changing the direction of the winds takes at least few minutes, and weather can't be turned into something dramatically different from its default state easily. Calling lightning out of a cloudy sky is pretty easy, however.)
3.) Elemental Conjuration/Channeling (With sufficient time, books, and materials for rituals, Azura can construct magical portals between the material and elemental planes, summon lesser genies, and do all sorts of stuff that involves imbuing the essence of a particular elemental plane into something)

Character Flaws:

1.) Much of Azura's hydromancy can be weakened or completely countered with the direct application of clean salt. The magic soaks into and discolors the salt, so just a little bit won't do anything significant, but Azura is in trouble if someone dumps an entire sack over him.
2.) Azura has below average muscle mass, poor pain tolerance, and less physical aggression than the average man. He is easily intimidated by a visibly powerful person in close proximity with only hints of imminent violence.
3.) Azura has committed a number of crimes, many of which he would like to keep quiet. He can be blackmailed, though someone would have to dig up something he felt especially keen on suppressing first.


Sample RP: (Not required, especially if the rest of your rtj is good. But it doesn't hurt)

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God_of_Awesome
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Question, do you have an account on RPoL?
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

God_of_Awesome wrote:Question, do you have an account on RPoL?
Yes, indeed I do. The name is Avoraciopoctules, and it should be a few days old. That's how I copied text over from your forum there.
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Oh. So, you know how when a GM enters you into his game, he gives a username for that game, generally an in-character one. When I asked about a username, that was what I was talking about. What name do you want showing up next to every post?
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

It would probably be best if my Grimholme username was Azura, same as my prospective PC's name. I just haven't hit the RPoL "request access" button yet since I am unsure how well this PC would fit the game.

Are there any areas of the character you'd like me to tweak or elaborate on before I join?
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Otherwise it works. Some of the traits, the magical ones, are just a little bit iffy but I can see they are essential to the character and I'll say they are extensions of his actual magic. In fact, I like that idea better and better as I write it.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

God_of_Awesome wrote:Otherwise it works. Some of the traits, the magical ones, are just a little bit iffy but I can see they are essential to the character and I'll say they are extensions of his actual magic. In fact, I like that idea better and better as I write it.
I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Otherwise from what?
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Otherwise from the username issues which is fixed. And since you have water magic and summoning magic, traits that work off that are fine.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Currently discussing Azura with Akula. Azura might need to be more maimed. Maybe missing a hand after it was chopped off for theft (Fantastic Arabia, wheee!), and the imagery of him wearing the veil to conceal the loss of a nose is appealing. While I'm at it, might as well throw in some ritual scarification in the form of shiny runes.

EDIT: also, water mephits might be a bit silly for the character I have designed if I retain their D&D flavor.

EDIT 2: corrected a minor grammar error ("chopped of" to "chopped off")
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

The setting is pretty DnD-esgue.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

But does having a swarm of incompetent comedians as his primary servitors and means of harassing his foes on short notice fit Azura? I'm not sure yet. Akula suggests I might want to go with a blander form of weak elemental.

I have given the PC a certain amount of flamboyance and whimsy, so there's room to argue either way.
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Post by God_of_Awesome »

Well, the RP is meant to have a semi-serious tone.
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