Seekers Of Ash | OOC | Spots Full

[DaedAir]

Sorey....you had a question posted there. Did you still want me to answer it? No question is a dumb question to me.

[Iliad]

Oh, I had originally posted asking if the roleplay was going to start right after/before/whenever else in relation to the beginning of the journey, but I figured that you would be elaborating on that later...

[DaedAir]

Haha. I can answer that now. I don't mind.
We will be starting just before the journey. When the Council of Vultien brings us all forth to tell us why they summoned us and why we were picked to go on the quest.

[Kirorokat1132]

Really, no one's ever sure how serious her threats to kick someone in the shins are until it actually happens, and God help the poor soul that isn't wearing armor when it does.

Never have I ever before been so glad that Isa is not the provoking type?

Hahaha!

EDIT: Ah, that's good to know, actually. I was kinda wondering how we'd start out, too.

[skwerl56767]

These characters are awesome! XD Dang, I might have to rewrite my sheet to prevent a bunch of duplicates... duplicates are never any good. Though before I finalize anything I have a question about Skinwalkers: can they still communicate one way or another in animal form (telepathy, innate ability, etc.), or is that one of the restrictions of shifting?

EDIT: Another question just came to me: since magic exist do mythical beasts also exist? I can't imagine they're common, but I'm wondering if I can toy with my character's history a little more.

[Duragi]

Here's Davey. I assumed multi-classing is a thing (since I saw on your form you did it).
Tell me if I need to change anything.
Davey is the most unprofessional dude here.
Aw yeah.

Appearance: This dude
This armor
Name: David (Davey) Crowcall
Age: 24
Race: Human
Class: Angel/Mage
Retainer To: High Lord Rovan Dirang
Personality: Davey is known for his ability to keep up with The High Lord's chatter and even respond. In fact, he's generally known as a good guy who's willing to chat with anyone, and is hardly what you'd call judgmental. Far from a stiff, stickler for the rules type, it's a wonder how he rose to the position. Many attribute it to his prodigious skill and charisma. Oftentimes, if the High Lord needs to be found, he's the one who can do it. And usually they're chatting it up as he returns. Rank and position mean little to Davey, it's all about a person's own merit. Whenever he's hounded on for “thinking he's worthy of fraternizing with the high lord,” he simply shrugs. Davey figures she's like a mother to the people, and shouldn't you be friendly to your mother?

He is the product of parents from two separate tribes coming together. One tribe takes hunting very seriously, and this can be seen in his philosophy of the hunt. He believes that engaging in the struggle of predator and prey is a sign of respect, and also that those roles can switch if not careful. In fact, it is creatures capable of that which are worthy. He oftentimes goes out of his way for a dangerous hunt, risking his life even. He has a characteristic smile in which his canine becomes prominent, signaling he is really enjoying a hunt. Sometimes, Davey can be taken up by this and lose sight of what he needs to do, but if it is important he will eventually snap out of it. In this way, he can be seen as a danger junkie, seeking to literally risk his life to, as he puts it, “test his worth.”

The other tribe was a very spiritual tribe, which had a strong base in magic. Officially, he's considered a shaman, not a mage, but tomato tomato. This actually ties into his hunting, in that he believes once the hunt is finished, the prey deserves final respects in the form of quick prayer. A strong connection to the world around you is also important, and he does this through people. He has many connections, being on good terms with most of the tribes that wander the land.

History: During a time where two tribes were traveling side by side, a member from each fell in love. David was the result of this, and grave importance was put on which tribe he would reside. In the end it was decided that his time would be spent equally divided between the two tribes.

The spells of the shamans and the skills of the hunter. A combination that suited him well. And it was this very same combination that saved his life when he was separated from the tribes, trapped in the wilds. It was a hunt gone wrong, a pack of wolves had intervened. Davey had to survive the next few months on his own, hunting and surviving in the wilderness.

On a particular hunt, in which he was actually targeting wolves whom where originally after him, a retainer to the High Lord got caught in the middle. Witnessing Davey's great skill, she offered him a chance: Live in the capital as a respectable retainer. Well, Davey had always wanted to meet people outside his tribes, so he took the opportunity. Besides, the whole “struggle to survive” deal was losing it's charm.

Throughout the years he had done many a mission and gained ranks fast, becoming the most trusted retainer of Dirang, mainly due to his charms. And, before you ask, he never forgot his family. On days of leave he often visits, able to track their location. When Dirang left, she knew Davey would try to follow her (and he'd probably do a pretty good job). So, she had him distracted with tales of a hunt. However, instead of a beast, he found a handwritten note, explaining the situation.

Davey had no problem with the stand in lord, though Davey treated him like everyone else, much to the stand in's chagrin. However, it is because of his closeness to the high lord that he was chosen to go.
Weapons: A powerful bow that can double as a close range staff, with a quiver of arrows. He also has a spellbook for complicated rituals. Carries a Dagger "Just in case"
Other: Respects self-reliance, and dislikes stiffs.

[DaedAir]

These characters are awesome! Dang, I might have to rewrite my sheet to prevent a bunch of duplicates... duplicates are never any good. Though before I finalize anything I have a question about Skinwalkers: can they still communicate one way or another in animal form (telepathy, innate ability, etc.), or is that one of the restrictions of shifting?

EDIT: Another question just came to me: since magic exist do mythical beasts also exist? I can't imagine they're common, but I'm wondering if I can toy with my character's history a little more.

Good question! They can communicate with other Skin-walkers, provided said Skin-walker is able to transform into the same creature as the former. (why didn't we think of that before hand??? Haha)

Mythical beasts do exist. But like most stories go, they are not very common. HOWEVER, due to the Council banning any sort of sport (hunting, games, etc) on mythical beasts, they have made a small comeback. So rather then being rare, they have become uncommon. So it wouldn't be unreasonable if someone saw one or was connected to one in some way, shape, or form.

@Duragi - You are Accepted.

[skwerl56767]

All right, submitting this before I hold you guys up with my incessant tweaking.

Spoiler

Appearance: Sasha is about 5'6", and wears light leather armor hidden underneath her equally-light cloak. Her choice colors are drab, dark blues and faded greens; colors that aren't too rich or bright to be noticed every time, but still something better than the same old brown. Her armor completely covers her entire body; from the tunic, to the gloves, to the boots, each piece fits together and isn't meant to come apart. Her armor is accented with black just for the sake of making it even duller.
In terms of her natural appearance, Sasha has a slightly tanned complexion due to living in the sunny plains. She has short black hair, although it can grow out quite long; she keeps it cut back so it doesn't get in the way all the time during duels. Due to a lack of fashion sense she simply keeps it straight, and usually forgets to brush it. Her face is a bit on the thin side and she has sharp brown eyes; it often has a perpetually thoughtful or grim expression, though she isn't afraid to crack out a smile now and then. One of her cheekbones is slightly asymmetrical due to a hard punch someone once threw at her; she doesn't expect people to notice it, but if it's brought up she shows a lot of pride in her minuscule scar.
Name: Sasha Thornheart
Age: 23
Race: Female elf
Class: Skin-Walker/Dancer; her shift is a small crow with a slight sheen to her feathers.
Retainer To: High Lord Baltic Stern
Personality: Sasha is a bit wacky, to say the least. Sometimes she sings tunes or laughs to herself for no apparent reason, and her gaze is always bordering on judgmental and knowing; some say Lord Stern accidentally influenced her to be this way, though if you ask her she says she can't remember a time when she wasn't like that. Most insults she ends up laughing at in a weird, casual manner, though if you find one of her hair triggers all pretenses of an easy-going nature vanish in favor of a more vengeful one. Many of her comrades never liked working with her, because there was always this unease of "you're not going to attack me in my sleep, are you?" Sasha hasn't lurked a bedroom closet yet, but no one wanted to tempt fate. Instead, most relationships with Sasha were awkward, down-to-the-point conversations and grudging partnerships. Sasha seems ignorant of the awkwardness; she just thinks that everyone is naturally nervous, as she herself can be high-strung during tense situations.

Sasha isn't one to remember culture, economics, or anything like that, but boy does she remember everything about her job! She'll willingly forget even basic skills in favor of becoming deadlier with each step; the caretakers at the outpost tell vivid stories of having to re-teach her trivial things because "she discovered a new way to stab something". Part of this is what ended up with her being hired in the first place, though she still encounters this forgetfulness regularly; in an attempt to counter it, she carries a small journal around with her with simple facts in it to help refresh her memory. She also has a few spells written in her journal, but her magic abilities are beyond sub-par so she never uses them. Instead, she frequently uses her shift, especially when going undercover to track a target.

Speaking of which, Sasha has a remarkably different attitude when shifted as a crow. She comes across as more affable and curious, poking at things with her beak, rustling her wings and hopping about comically while annoying passerby with her cawing. Or maybe it's just crow behavior that seems more optimistic than her usual demeanor? Regardless, she seems to be more willing to work with people as a crow, and may even perch on an ally's shoulder for a little while, scanning her surroundings with sharp eyes.
History: Sasha exact origin is pretty foggy due to the different stories about it, but things become more clear around the time she could stand on two feet. She was raised in an outpost near the border of Lord Stern's kingdom; the outpost was nothing more than a stumpy castle with a village huddled at its feet. She was actually spotted at first in her crow form, standing conspicuously in the midst of pigeons. No one suspected that she was actually an elfin child until she hopped into a bakery and decided to shift in front of everyone, thoroughly freaking out the shoppers there; though the end result was still shocking, as she was just a child. Deciding that letting a Skin-Walker run around was a bad idea, a few maids and the cook for the outpost decided to raise her, as the nearest orphanage was far off in another outpost; they collaborated together on her name, gave her a home with an extra room at the barracks, and made sure that her currently-torn clothes were replaced by something more proper.

Sasha was a pretty normal kid at first - sticking her fingers in pies, gawking in wonder at the armory, shifting for the sake of sneaking into someone's room and reading his books - and then a group of women came into the village intending to expand it, and decided to start a dedicated school there. Sasha was one of the few youngsters who were placed in the elementary classes, and while the other kids did fine Sasha suddenly became reserved and a bit temperamental, more prone to lashing out at the other kids. While the teachers were able to curb her temperament, they could never fully reverse her drawback, so Sasha ended up as the odd, slightly-unnerving person she's known to be now.
Granted, being odd had its uses; Sasha was still fascinated by the armory, and would go there to study instead of her own room. Noticing how she was drawn to it, one of the guards offered to try training her with a sword. It didn't seem like a bad idea, so no one objected to it; though Sasha had to be trained with a dagger instead, since a sword was too heavy for her.

The dagger grew on her. She skipped out on a lot of her studies - sewing, geography, cooking, mathematics... - just to learn more about the dagger and how to use it. Once she was bored with one dagger, she tried out two, then three, than several at once! After daggers, she tried out bows, then swords (she was old enough by that time), then short spears and long bows, pretty much went through every light weapon in the armory. Not everything stuck; long bows were too unwieldly, and large swords are hard to hide (as she found out when a maid discovered a stolen long sword peeking out from under her bed). Smaller things though - daggers and knives, short bows, shurikens... - she definitely loved handling them. Once she was old enough, her tutor directed her to a skilled warrior who could teach her how to become a Dancer; the art that she was leaning the most towards.
Long story short, several years of struggling to become a superior fighter made Sasha quite the skilled assassin. Most of her muscle was lean, built for endurance and speed so she could dodge fatal attacks, and she armed herself lightly so she wasn't hindered by tons of sheathed weapons. She was doing well enough that staying at the outpost would only dull her new skills, so she was sent of to Syain's capital to be hired as a retainer for Lord Stern.

Being a retainer was a life she quickly settled in to. She was confident that she would remain this way until she died. Then, Lord Stern went with the other six lords to raise some mythical beast called the Cinder of Ash; this left his kingdom under the care of his main adviser, Garreth. And Garreth disliked Sasha with a serious passion. He found her bizarre and crazy, advising Stern many times that she might go berserk and go "make a mess of things", as he put it. Stern ignored him in favor of having a well-trained retainer to enforce his army with. But now that Stern was gone - and certainly not coming back, it seemed - Garreth enjoyed putting Sasha to work, trying to make her job as miserable as possible so that she would retire and go somewhere where she was less of a threat.
Sasha had no clue that he was giving these subtle hints; in contrary, she saw the dirty work as a way to improve her skills, which only frustrated him more. Garreth did go a little overboard though with the pressure, which only knocked a few more screws loose in her head, but her patience hasn't shattered yet. Yet, a bit frightened by the result of his "experiment", Garreth ordered that she retire immediately. When Sasha stoutly refused, too engrossed in her job to even consider a week's vacation, he restrained her and threw her into (one of the more comfortable) dungeons on the basis that she disobeyed orders, and as such must be chained up for 7 days time.

The days ticked by, and Garreth was left staring at Sasha's inevitable release; however, the war between Alria and Heelam was heaven-sent to him. The war meant fighting, which was something Syain was definitely prepared for. But Stern's last orders to him were to maintain a neutral position. This only bittered Garreth, who watched the fray from afar, ill-wishing that he would have the luxury of commanding entire armies to besiege an enemy one day. Instead though, he received the letter asking for Stern's best retainer, to be sent off along with several other choice retainers in an attempt to track down the missing Lords. Garreth didn't hesitate, and didn't give Sasha the extra days she needed for an official release; she was already sent off without further notice, still technically under detainment for order refusal.
Weapons: She has a sash going across her chest with several knives sheathed in it on her back, and a shortblade lies sheathed on her belt. On the other side of her belt lay several shurikens, designed only to slow foes and not to kill. She has an extra dagger strapped to her right calf and a hidden one on her left arm, which can be released to reach past her hand; this is her dedicated killing blade, so she only unsheathes it when she really means to do harm. If she doesn't have the element of surprise she will switch to her shortblade instead, so that the enemy remains ignorant of the hidden dagger. She does have a few pockets on the inside of her cloak as well, but so far she only uses one as a place to store her journal.
Other:
-Sasha's hair triggers include gooey romantic things, arrogant people, and badly-made pie (" If you're going to bake pie, DO IT RIGHT!" She says).
-She loves cats, birds, and spiders. She also really likes glazed ham and pie, and of course all manner of weaponry.
-Sasha is very anal retentive about her armor being damaged; as soon as a gash or a slice shows up she notices it, and it bothers her until she finds a seamstress to fix it up. Wounds, on the other hand, are barely noticed.
-Sasha acts more like a scout and less like a dancer in her crow form; she often needs to brush up her act after immediate transformation, but once she gets used to the body again she does a pretty good job of blending in, taking note of things, and harassing her targets for the sake of knowing more about them. Unfortunately though bird ears aren't the same as elf ears, so she can only listen and understand so much before she's too busy processing previously-gathered information to notice the rest of it.
-Because the change from an elf to a crow is so drastic, Sasha can only transform in a couple of minutes minimum, and even then it can be awkward to use her limbs right away. Transforming back is a bit more bearable though.

[DaedAir]

Accepted! Haha.

Thanks again for joining guys!

EDIT:

MUST READ
The Council of Five | Faceless Ones

Spoiler

As a note...the creatures I am describing as the Council are supposed to be haunting. But they rule over the Vultien Nation only with a guiding hand. Few have seen the Council, except for the Lords. The High Lords regularly seek guidance from the Council of Five. Anyone with a Calling (appointment) from the Council is seen as a High Treason Traitor.

But these creatures do exist in the same plain as our characters and are very plentiful creatures in the Vultien Nation. Due to their violent nature, all Lords have declared that these creatures [named "Faceless" or "Faceless Ones"] are a kill on sight. The only other creature to get such a reputation are dragons [all subspecies of dragons ie wyrms, wayverns, etc. included as well]. The Council is the only exception to these creatures - they are the only ones able to retain and control their violent natures.

Faceless live the longest lifespan known to any creature, putting even dragons to shame. With every day they live, Faceless grow stronger and more intelligent. Some say they have an endless access of knowledge. But despite this fact, no creature is immune to death itself. Faceless do eventually die of old age (if they aren't already killed by then).

The only known weakness of Faceless is that they can't stand the dark. Faceless are (ironically) creatures of the light. And this is what makes them so dangerous. They are Mages by default.

Anyone to cross a Faceless, is met with near certain death. Anyone who escapes is considered a VERY lucky man/women. Anyone not considered a Retainer that is able to kill a Faceless is met with praise and recognition.

And yes, Faceless do talk.

If you need anymore information on Faceless Ones, please let me know and I will provide it.

ONE SPOT LEFT

[DaedAir]

Alright guys, I posted in the ICT. make sure to read the above post before making your post in the ICT please!
Sorry for the double posts.