The Lionhearts

Setting: the world in which this story is set is not too different from ours. In terms of technology and culture, it is roughly equivalent to early modern Earth (a mixture of renaissance and age of sail, with a bit of steampunk added in). However, in this world there is magic, and creatures which we refer to as myths wander the wilds and inhabit the cities (although Humans are the dominant species, there are other creatures which are sentient).
The centre of the world is the Great Peninsula. A number of nations, some ancient, some new, rule over the Peninsula, and the Peninsularites have carved huge empires over most of the world.
The lands they rule over are many times larger than the Great Peninsula, but those regions which remain independent from the Peninsularites are usually ruled over by minor tribes on the verge of destruction. Some great civilisations can be found outside of the Great Peninsula, but they rarely concern themselves with the outer world.

Plot: In the far north of the Great Peninsula, a collection of mountainous islands, which form the Oskaggar Archaepelago, have united under the banner of a savage tyrant, Karamaz, an ancient and malevolent dragon who has woken from millenia of slumber under the ocean.
To make matters worse, the isolated realm of Harroglaw on the southern coast of the Peninsular, where arts forbidden in the civilised world are practiced on a daily basis, has announced the thirteenth reincarnation of Amnash the Grey, the dreaded demigod who has led Harroglaw on devastating campaigns against the rest of the Peninsula in every previous incarnation.
When Oskaggarite emissaries are seen en route to Harroglaw, and the tribes of the outer world begin to raid Peninsularite outposts, global war seems inevitable.

Among the many forces which will stand with the Peninsularites should war begin are the Lionhearts, a mercenary band who, unlike others of their kind, are more concerned with the welfare of the people than their pay. Owning an Airship, the Crimson Pride, and with a variety of specialists of all professions and species, they were among the first to be contacted when Karamaz emerged. They are currently in the employ of Brimiscus, a small island just off the coast of the Great Peninsular which, with the aid of its huge Aerial Fleet and elite Cloud Marines, has forged one of the greatest Peninsularite Empires. The Crimson Pride is currently patrolling the Brimiscan coast alongside the Brimiscan Aerial Fleet.

You can have more than one character, but for now don't make too many in case lots of people want to join. If we have too many characters played by too many people, things could get confusing.

You can have magic - although magic is rare in the world, the Lionhearts are an elite group which chooses its members very carefully, so it would not be unreasonable for any of them to have magic. The same applies to magical, or otherwise extraordinary, items.

Name: try to be tasteful. Ideally, we don't want any common real-life name, but you can base your name on a real-life name (the name of Aksendrei, the captain of the Crimson Pride, is based on Alexander)
Gender: obvious. "Other" is an option for appropriate species.
Age: Most humans aboard the Crimson Pride are likely to be 16 to somewhere in their forties. They can be older if you wish, but younger humans can only be present in the case of civilian staff. Be imaginative with other species - typically, we wouldn't think a goblin would have a lifespan longer than that of a Human, but an Elf might live hundred of years or even be (potentially) immortal.
Species: You can be Human, or you can be pretty much anything that you can imagine being hired by an elite mercenary band. Preferably we won't have too many of the staple fantasy archetypes (Elves, Dwarves, Orks, Halflings/Hobbits, etc), but a few will be okay. It would be nice to see something along the lines of a centaur or gremlin.
Occupation: What is your character's role on the Crimson Pride? Is he one of the Lion Hearts? If so, does he specialise in anything? If he isn't a Lion Heart, he is a civilian staff member, so state what your job aboard the ship is.
Appearance: Either a picture or a textual description is fine.
Personality: Describe your character's personality.
History: What has your character been doing with his life? Where did he come from? This gives you the opportunity to describe new realms in the Great Peninsula and beyond.
Other: Anything else (including "up for love", as usual). Say what magical capabilities, if any, your character has here.

We need to keep this PG-13, so keep swearing and violence/gore to a sensible level, and no sex. Anyway...

Name: Aksendrei (abbreviated to Aksen or, less formally, Aksey) Makedor
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Species: Human
Occupation: Captain of the Crimson Pride and Commander of the Lion Hearts. Also a proficient swashbuckler, bearing a cutlass and pistol, though years of thinking have taken away much of his fighting ability.
Appearance: Looks like an archetypal pirate captain (including a tricorn hat), but without the missing bodyparts or dreads. He also wears some metal armour, and a red cape, in battle (he does not wear a full body suit, however - he prefers to have some mobility). He is bald, but wears a stylish white wig. The left side of his face is dominated by an impressive scar which just misses his eye.
Personality: Aksendrei is extremely adventurous, sometimes choosing to commit himself to unfavourable situations for the sake of heroism. He can come across as rude and patronising, but he usually means well. Very charismatic, and an excellent, though ruthless and somewhat unpredictable, strategist.
History: The Makedor family owns large estates in the south-eastern regions of the Great Peninsular, being the rulers of the city state which bears their name. Born to a lesser known wing of the family, in a lesser known city state, Krastos, Aksendrei was nevertheless destined to inherit a life's worth of riches. His father fell into debt, however, and after his death Aksendrei was forced to sell most of his father's land. He managed to keep hold of his father's airship, however, along with a small fortune. He hired a crew and offered his services to the neighbouring city states as a Privateer. After a few years, his exploits became well known globally, and he became a world-wide mercenary, naming his elite band the "Lion Hearts".
Other: Up for love. Aksendrei has no magic powers, though he has had enough experience with magical items to be able to use most basic magical items successfully on his first try.

Name:

I will post profiles for Karamaz and Amnash when it is most appropriate.

Name: Armand Aiden

Gender: male

Age: 16

Species: human

Occupation: Protector of fellow Lionhearts

Appearance:

Personality: Armand is quite a romantic character and he is very sweet and quite shy.

History: His history is unknown because not many years ago he was in an accident and banged his head. He completly forgot everything that had happened before.

Other: up for love. He seems to be able to push messeges into others minds.

Name: Cassandrea
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Species: Sorceress
Occupation: She's a Lion Heart and she works with the mechanics aboard the ship.
Appearance: She has long wavy red hair and changeable eyes. Most of the time they're violet. She's small and svelte. Very graceful features and an elegant stance.
Personality: Good Qualities: She's ambitious and likely never to quit, she's very flamboyant, very strong willed, brave, and independent, very active. Bad Qualities: She's very frank and sarcastic. If she doesn't like you, you can definitely tell by the way she regards you.
History: She lived on her own in a Empire more rugged than most. It was an empire that governed itself and it was made up of mostly nomadic tribes. She was toughened up and worked jobs set aside for men by successfully dressing up as one. She found that she was capable of magic when a huge bar of iron a coworker and her were hoisting fell. She stopped it from crashing just in time. She joined the airship when she found an ad disguised as something else in a herald. She now devotes her life on board.
Other: Up for love. (Why hello Armand. (hint hint) She is most magical in the field of disguise and telekineticies. Meaning that she can make herself look like anything with a few said spells and she can move things with her mind. Also, a shapeshifting creature follows her and is her closest companion. It's favorite shape is a black cat. Cassandrea carries a quarterstaff with her that acts as both a deadly weapon that she is a master at wielding and something that helps her cast spells.

"Hi Cassandra wink wink..... Are you aviable for my claimage" He grins.

"If you wouldn't mind. It would be my pleasure," she answered with a smile.

Name: Ballow Linx

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Species: Kender

Occupation: A Lionheart, he is adept in throwing daggers and anything to do with estimation accuracy.

Appearance: (general appearance is smiling and as you know kenders have pointy ears. Ballow is tall for his race.)
http://lone-momo.deviantart.com/art/Ace ... n%3Ascraps
http://shinne.deviantart.com/art/Red-Wall-85734737
http://kagaminoir.deviantart.com/art/Red-Angel-72583823

Personality: He is usually the happy one, the thinking one. The one who smiles when there is no escape. Sometimes this slips and a solemn expression will cross his face, this is when he is reminded of his past. He has an unusual sense of humor and generally is a nice guy. Just don't catch him when his smile slips. He is normally very light-hearted and in for some fun. Occasionally will steal things for fun.

History: *I'll create something interesting soon. Just wait. ^^*

Other: Up for love

Magical ability: He has the uncanny magic or making something hit what he wants. Say he saw a bunny sitting behind a tree, he just has to visualize it hitting the bunny and the magic will start. Of course he needs to throw whatever he wants to hit the object in direct direction first, so his power is sometimes limited.

Name:Malic Legem

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Species:Gremlin

Occupation: Highclass judge for the realm of Terrinsaw

Appearance: hight 3'11 hair silver almost not noticable. eye color silver. sharp claws and an all to knowing grin can alway be found on his face.

Personality:Weird sense of humor. weird and twisted. Thinks he knows alot and in most cases he does. Happy and joyouse but shows it in the way of mean and cruel jokes. He trys to be nice but has no concept of what being nice really is.

History: Malic leads a life of pure and dutiful work in the real of Terrinsaw. He is one of the highest judges of the land and although he does try to be fair he uses the law to his benifit most of the time. The people fear him rather than respect him and most of the time shy away from him. His court history is very highly known among people of the world. His way with dealing with his cases is of sterness and duty alost. If he thinks you deserve to die for what you did 9/10 time you will. he has heard over 3000 cases in his life and has sent over a thousand people to the gallows with his judgements. His childhood was that of an orphanes he does not know his parents and has had to deal with criminals his whole life. He is a cynic and a cheat himselfe at times but not if he see's a way around it.

Other: has hunches about things exept his hunches are always right.

That reminds me (but what is "that"?!), we'll start when we have ten characters, give or take a couple.

Name: Raon Quinith
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Species: 1/4human 1/2 golem 1/4 griffin
Occupation: he is the ship technician and craftsmen and also an adapt fighter for it
Appearance: he the body shape of a body building human with a red lava shell,(that can be removed and then reformed when he sleeps) he has strong large grey wings and paw like feet. his face is mostly covered in rock unless he wishes to show it but so far has not.
Personality: even though he has a gruesome appearance even when compared to other creatures he is very gentle and kind and funny
History: he used to live in a small village in the mountains of the great Peninsula where he was raised among his fellow kind of golems though when he started to grow wings was shonwed and so ran away from home. He found his home in a cave delved in the mountains with other mix breeds like him. he finally gained enough courage to leave the caves and he went to a tow where at first he was showned until he found work at his own black smith shop where when people came learned to like him. he has only been on the ship for a year and was found when they stopped in the town for the supplies and found him wondering the streets and thought he would be a great addition.
Other: he can fly very fast. he has several magic items that he made with much difficulty.
1. a device that allows him to pass off as a normal golem, human or griffin when he wears it on his wrist so to appear more normal when needed.
2. a sword that can be turned to any element he wishes to use
though his skin is rock when he is under stress it is very frail and when in battle he is in much stress

Name: Ironfire
Gender: male
Age: 112
Species: a mix of a dragon and a griffin
Occupation: he is a technician along with Raon to fix things on the bottom easier
Appearance: He is slightly larger then a griffin with over sized paws. he has blue feathers and no beak but a large snout his tail is red and on friend he has scales on his wings and looks very young
Personality: he is good hearted and fun to be around and very wise
History: he lives in a large open area up in the mountains where the sun was very bright and the place very warm. He lived with a mix of griffins and dragons among other flying creatures and it was not uncommon to mix breed. He left the village when he was 30 to see the world with his mate, but when he was 35 she died from a sickness only here mix breed could obtain and he lost his interest in travel. he settled down in the same village as Raon and was his neighbor and best friend he was recruited with him.
Other: He is very fast and agile with a special fire he can turn to lightning and to ice and has the same device as Raon that allows him to pass has a normal griffin, a small dragon and even a human so to seem normal when in towns. he has a weakness that his skin his very thin and vulnerable and even the slightest hit can cause amour damage for him and also he can be very forgetful in battle from stress going sometimes to even attacks allies

Name: Jalliveri (pronounced yalli-veri) "The Wanderer"

Gender: Female

Age: 25

Species: Rakshasa (a kind of daemonic shapeshifter from Hindu Mythos)

Occupation: Illusionist, Probationary Lionheart (she's only allowed to stay as long as she doesn't eat anyone)

Appearance: Shapeshifter. Usually takes the form of a young woman with long, braided red-hair and golden catlike eyes. She wears a thick black coat which is bulk enough to accomodate any humanoid form she switches too. When in battle she often shifts to a Rakshasa form, with the head of a tiger.

History: Jalliveri's father was a man-eater who lived with his clan in a forest toward the southern end of the peninsula. As the nearby town began to expand, conflict between the villagers and rakshasa became inevitable. After Jalliveri's father led an attack on the village, full blown war erupted and soldiers were sent from the village's capital city to wipe out the rakshasa. Jalliveri bought a truce with her father's head, saving her people from annihilation. However, she went into a self-imposed exile, earning herself a name as a particularly ferocious do-gooder. Having heard of the troubles overseas and to the south of the peninsula, where her own people live, she has joined the Lionhearts in the hope of saving the innocents at risk.She only takes orders from Aksendrei, because he saved her from a mob of villagers before she joined the Lionhearts.


Other: Her race has powerful illusionary magic, and she herself has become proficient in other basic magics. Her illusionary magic is such that if you believe in it, it is real for you. She particularly enjoys tricking people into thinking she is using an illusion, only to have them die because she is not.



*I don't know about everyone else but I kind of feel that Boltageman has overpowered his characters. This mix of species (which itself is rather odd...a human mating with a griffin and the offspring of that mating with a golem?), magic items and no discernable weaknesses kind of reeks of gary stue-ism. On the other hand my own character can use powerful magic, but then she's a daemon and common people will kill her if they aren't cowed by her first.*

One of the rules of storybooks is "no god-modding." no perfect characters kid.

***this one can be taken out for more room if needed to be***


Name: Andreo Nakli
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Species:part Hydra ( the 7 headed snake from Greek mythology) part Cerberus (the 3 headed dog from Greek mythology)
Occupation: he is more or less a on ground transportation and also a guard when the ship is docked
Appearance: he has the build of a large dog with 4 heads except the heads are from Cobra. he has scaly paws necks and his 3 tails. his fur is black with a violet tone to it
Personality: he does not speak much for lack of knowing the common language of human but from when he does he is generally nice but will be ruthless and mean when angry with someone
History: he had come from the pits of a sector in the south part of the peninsula where he lived in the mix breed sector where the shawned went. He had lived in the sector all of his life and when the ship docked there was helping a ship hand bring in some cargo when it took off and he was going to be let off at the next stop but he showed great skill and speed and was kept on board
Other: when his head is cut off it automatically regrows because of its hydran part. he also has special boots he wears that allow him to go faster and carry more people and the same device as my other charcters so he can look like a human an elf so to appear normal when he needs to. and he does have very weak body aside from his heads tails and paws.

Okay Rubric i see your point and so i have gone back and got rid of some of raons magic stuff and gave my guys some flaws and weaknesses. but if you feel that they are still to in god mode say and i will take a few more things away

Sorry for not posting earlier, it can be hard being British on the American-dominated web.

I personally have no qualms with Raon Quinth (I'm assuming he was considerably more powerful to begin with), though I do find it a strange mix of species. I'll be okay if you want to keep his species as it is, but I would like to suggest something slightly different. Originally, and in most modern fiction, golems were creatures created by wise humans (at first they were supposed to be made of clay, as it was believed that humans were made from clay, but recently we have seen things like iron golems, bone golems, etc). So perhaps he could be a golem built to resemble a human/griffin hybrid?

Ironfire is fine.

Andreo Nakli is also fine (so long as it is possible to kill him), but remember that there is no Greece is this world. So he either comes from an unnamed area in the southern region of the peninsula, or you can name that area, but it can't be called Greece. Also, don't describe Hydras or three headed dogs (Cerberi?) as being "Greek" when the storybook starts.

Which leads me on to my next point - we've now got nine characters, which is enough if you ask me, though I'm going to leave the storybook open to new characters for now. As it is, there are as many griffin-hybrids (assuming Raon remains the hybrid he currently is) as there are Humans, which doesn't go with the setting, where Humans make up the majority. For that reason, I bring you another Human character:

Name: Darrok Wealling
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Species: Human
Occupation: Lionheart sharpshooter
Appearance: Bald with a long brown beard, has a severely damaged nose, wears telescopic goggles, wears a long brown trenchcoat. He has a wooden right leg, the first being chopped off in a worker's revolt.
Personality: Darrok is usually very calm, though his tendency to give people the silent treatment for no particular reason can be quite unnerving. His calm is a result of bottling up his stress, however, so at times he simply explodes (not literally!).
History: Darrok was born in Thipa, a Brimiscan colony. He was recruited into the Brimiscan colonial army when he was 14, and displayed remarkable accuracy with a musket. After single-handedly defending a Brimiscan outpost (his comrades were in the wrong place at the wrong time) long enough for reinforcements to arrive at the age of 17, he was offered a place in the elite Brimiscan Imperial Guard. His illustrious career ended when he was 20, when, defending the Imperial Palace from a proletariat mob, his position was overrun and his leg was cut off (reinforcements arrived a few minutes later and slew the rebels). After having his leg replaced, Darrok chose to offer his services to the Lionhearts, rather than live a life of luxury in retirement.
Other: Up for love. He has no magic powers, though his trademark gun has been magically enchanted to improve Darrok's chance of hitting his target.

I will be creating a discussion thread soon. I think it would be best if we wait until tomorrow to start, just so that people can make any changes to their characters if they wish to do so.