Here is where we'll discuss plotting, planning, and characters for the SB, In The Wake of A Calamity! If you want to reserve a character, do it here!
WFP
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Character Profile Template
Please delete all text that is within parentheses, and just put your character's info in there! Thank you!
Spoiler! :
- Code: Select all
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Role:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b] (can be anywhere from a teen to 80 something, but take into account that plays into their story, abilities, and why they’d be chosen for such an important task in the first place)
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Magic Element:[/b] (if applicable)
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b][i]- Strengths:[/i][/b]
[b][i]- Weaknesses:[/i][/b]
[b]Brief Backstory:[/b] (include how long they’ve been a part of the guild, where they’re at in their magic training/how proficient they are, are they a teacher, student, veteran? are they just a part of the guild family? they don’t have to have magic to be a part! they can be a weapons’ specialist, or even the guild chef or something too!)
[b]Other:[/b]
Coding For Posts
I dunno about ya'll, but I like having a uniform look to an SB, so we've got some rules. No worries, tho, it's simple. For the sake of aesthetic, please use the following codes for headers/divisions in posts!
Spoiler! :
- Code: Select all
[b][center][i]Character Name[/i]
[size=50]cowritten with @User[/size][/center]
If you're not collabing, you can just take that line out!
- Code: Select all
[center]--<>--[/center]
Use this one for divisions between scenes and time-skips!
- Code: Select all
[b][center][b][size=150]Title of Arc[/size][/b]
[i]Character Name[/i]
[size=50]cowritten with @User[/size][/center]
And, if you're the first poster of a new story arc, you'll use this one! Just with the arc's title added in
and again, collab-line can be taken out if not applicable!
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Guilds, Mages, and Magic
Spoiler! :
Mages and Magic:
The magic in this world is an elemental type of magic. There are no spells or magic scrolls. Human magic (along with other creatures) is limited. They can only manipulate what already exists: they can't create anything out of nothing, and they can't make anything more magical than it is. Only dragons can do that, but dragons are likened to gods, and hardly anyone has ever seen a dragon and lived.
People can only manipulate one kind of element. The most common are water, earth, air, or fire. There are more niche ones, like light, electricity/lightning, or plants.
Not everyone has magic, and not everyone has the same amount/strength of magic. Some people have weaker magic than others, or have to work a lot harder to become stronger with their magic. Others, it comes more naturally to, but they have to work harder to learn how to control it. It varies from person to person, but magic is a genetic thing. So if you come from a line of strong mages, you are 99.9% likely to inherit strong magic, because magic runs in the blood.
But genes don’t make up for skill, and magic is a skill that must be worked just like any other. The more practiced and the more trained, the better the mage.
There is one kind of magic that has a distinction though, and that is healing magic. Healing magic is much like a transference of life, so there are limits to how much you can heal at once without passing out (or at worst, killing yourself to bring someone else back from near-death, if you try to heal them fully instead of just stabilizing them).
As a healer, you can heal others, but you cannot heal yourself. You can heal the body, but you cannot heal the mind. Most mages with healing magic who want to become a healer by profession also study practical medicine/doctoring to supplement, because healing magic can only be used so much.
Each guild has a guild master who oversees all of the members and activities. At the North Point guild (yours) your master is named Idina Lynn, aka Master Lynn.
What Guilds Are:
Your guild is your family.
Guilds were established hundreds of years ago as an organization for people with magic to learn, be trained, and form community. It’s more than a school. Teachers and mentors function individually under a guild leader who oversees all of a guild’s activities. There are only a few organized classes, but for the most part, most teaching happens through mentorship between one mentor and one or two mentees.
There is a culture of mentorship among the guilds. Those who reach a certain level of proficiency are encouraged to take someone under their wing and teach as they’re still learning because learning is a lifelong process, and you learn a lot as you teach too.
But guilds aren’t just for those with magic. There are many weapons’ experts, survivalists, adventurists, and the like among them, and they all pass down their skills in the same manner.
Guilds also serve as a place for mages to find work and for those seeing mages w/certain skillsets to hire. People come to guilds to commission mages or guild members for certain tasks - sometimes they’re looking for people to kill a monster that’s harassing their town. Sometimes they need a mage with earth magic to help stabilize a bridge they’re constructing. The jobs you can find or be offered vary greatly.
But what about OUR guild? The Northern one, yeah?
Well, normally it’s a lot busier and a lot more lively. People coming in and out. But since the massive landslide and being cut off from the world? You’ve been on, so you say, the “struggle bus.” You’re running dangerously low on supplies - food, being the most important - and it’s either get help or die buried in the mountains.
The magic in this world is an elemental type of magic. There are no spells or magic scrolls. Human magic (along with other creatures) is limited. They can only manipulate what already exists: they can't create anything out of nothing, and they can't make anything more magical than it is. Only dragons can do that, but dragons are likened to gods, and hardly anyone has ever seen a dragon and lived.
People can only manipulate one kind of element. The most common are water, earth, air, or fire. There are more niche ones, like light, electricity/lightning, or plants.
Not everyone has magic, and not everyone has the same amount/strength of magic. Some people have weaker magic than others, or have to work a lot harder to become stronger with their magic. Others, it comes more naturally to, but they have to work harder to learn how to control it. It varies from person to person, but magic is a genetic thing. So if you come from a line of strong mages, you are 99.9% likely to inherit strong magic, because magic runs in the blood.
But genes don’t make up for skill, and magic is a skill that must be worked just like any other. The more practiced and the more trained, the better the mage.
There is one kind of magic that has a distinction though, and that is healing magic. Healing magic is much like a transference of life, so there are limits to how much you can heal at once without passing out (or at worst, killing yourself to bring someone else back from near-death, if you try to heal them fully instead of just stabilizing them).
As a healer, you can heal others, but you cannot heal yourself. You can heal the body, but you cannot heal the mind. Most mages with healing magic who want to become a healer by profession also study practical medicine/doctoring to supplement, because healing magic can only be used so much.
Each guild has a guild master who oversees all of the members and activities. At the North Point guild (yours) your master is named Idina Lynn, aka Master Lynn.
What Guilds Are:
Your guild is your family.
Guilds were established hundreds of years ago as an organization for people with magic to learn, be trained, and form community. It’s more than a school. Teachers and mentors function individually under a guild leader who oversees all of a guild’s activities. There are only a few organized classes, but for the most part, most teaching happens through mentorship between one mentor and one or two mentees.
There is a culture of mentorship among the guilds. Those who reach a certain level of proficiency are encouraged to take someone under their wing and teach as they’re still learning because learning is a lifelong process, and you learn a lot as you teach too.
But guilds aren’t just for those with magic. There are many weapons’ experts, survivalists, adventurists, and the like among them, and they all pass down their skills in the same manner.
Guilds also serve as a place for mages to find work and for those seeing mages w/certain skillsets to hire. People come to guilds to commission mages or guild members for certain tasks - sometimes they’re looking for people to kill a monster that’s harassing their town. Sometimes they need a mage with earth magic to help stabilize a bridge they’re constructing. The jobs you can find or be offered vary greatly.
But what about OUR guild? The Northern one, yeah?
Well, normally it’s a lot busier and a lot more lively. People coming in and out. But since the massive landslide and being cut off from the world? You’ve been on, so you say, the “struggle bus.” You’re running dangerously low on supplies - food, being the most important - and it’s either get help or die buried in the mountains.
Setting
Spoiler! :
Typical medieval fantasy-type setting. No guns. No industrial revolution (lol). Still got swords and shields and all that junk. And no running water! Bummer. But at least they got magic! Sure that makes for some creative solutions to some ancient-medieval-day problems. But ya’ll probably wanna know where exactly you are, right?
You’re on the world of Nye. Here’s a map!
Note: Hallum, Midea, and Roth are predominantly all human nations. Ewhein is harpies, Gurak is goblins, and Alfary is kind of a catch-all, but predominantly human. But the boundary lines of nations are meaning less and less now... things are devolving into chaos.
You’re up where the star is marked right now, in the North Point Guild. Up in the north in the mountains? You get all four seasons, and in the winter there’s lots of snow. It’s starting to get cooler - it’s the beginning of fall, and you can’t imagine what it’ll be like in the winter if you can’t find a way out of this soon.
What about other fantasy races? Are there just humans?
Nope! We’ve got harpies, goblins, werewolves, and mermaids. There are also dragons! Here’s what you need to know about them.
What about money!!!! HOW DO I BUY THINGS?
Woah, woah, calm down. You’ve got bigger concerns than money. But we don’t got dolla bills here. Just gold, silver, and copper coins. I know, typical.
You’re on the world of Nye. Here’s a map!
Note: Hallum, Midea, and Roth are predominantly all human nations. Ewhein is harpies, Gurak is goblins, and Alfary is kind of a catch-all, but predominantly human. But the boundary lines of nations are meaning less and less now... things are devolving into chaos.
You’re up where the star is marked right now, in the North Point Guild. Up in the north in the mountains? You get all four seasons, and in the winter there’s lots of snow. It’s starting to get cooler - it’s the beginning of fall, and you can’t imagine what it’ll be like in the winter if you can’t find a way out of this soon.
What about other fantasy races? Are there just humans?
Nope! We’ve got harpies, goblins, werewolves, and mermaids. There are also dragons! Here’s what you need to know about them.
- > Harpies: They’re more of a reclusive people who live in Ewhein. They’ve traded goods with humans over the years but keep limited interactions. Tensions between harpies and humans, however, have been rising.
> Goblins: The goblin nation is called Gurak. Humans and goblins have been in turf wars for ages. Pushing back borders, pulling back, fighting again. Humans always consider goblins a danger, and goblins feel the same for humans. It’s been an ongoing war and humans and goblins have had a deep-rooted hatred for one another for as long as anyone in living generations can remember.
> Werewolves: There are lots of weird myths and rumors about them, but they hide among humans. They once had a homeland and a culture of their own, but they’ve long since been dispersed. People say they’re dying out, but most people think that's a good thing, because werewolves are considered beastly and dangerous.
> Mermaids: No one knows they exist. Don’t worry about them uwu.
> Dragons: Dragons used to have more presence in the world of Nye, but in the last 300 or so years, they’ve drawn away, and the only ones who can remember seeing them might be your great-great-grandmother. Dragons are creatures of legend, said to have created the very planet around the magical core that is the heart. For each existing element, there is a dragon that created it.
What about money!!!! HOW DO I BUY THINGS?
Woah, woah, calm down. You’ve got bigger concerns than money. But we don’t got dolla bills here. Just gold, silver, and copper coins. I know, typical.
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Preserving character profiles here because I'm paranoid:
Spoiler! :
Name: Jay Mournsky
Role: Messenger
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Magic Element: Healing magic
Appearance: Jay isn't a very tall man. He's 5ft 3' and fit, but slim. Stronger than he looks. He has deep dark skin and short dreadlocks. He wears loose-fitting clothes and walks around barefoot, so the calluses on his feet are thick.
Personality: Jay seems a bit jaded, and not just because of recent events. He's a bit withdrawn but seems sincere. He has a bit of a bite to his tongue, and tends to say backhanded comments without meaning to. It doesn't make him popular, but that's not really his goal.
- Strengths: clever, resourceful, quick-thinker, practical, doesn't care what people think of him
- Weaknesses: secretive, cynical, snarky, unempathetic, distant
Brief Backstory: Jay grew up in the deserts of Midea with parents who were traveling merchants of herbs, flowers, and jewelry. It was a humble life that he eventually left when he discovered his magic late, as a young teen. He joined the Burninghead Guild in the center of Nye in hopes of growing in skills as a healer, only to discover his magic was very weak, and there was nothing he could do to change that. He's picked up various other skills since - how to survive in the wild, medicine making, and tracking - a skill that came even more naturally than his magic.
He was at Burninghead before the mage-hunters attacked and raided his now-former home. What he witnessed was a massacre, but he managed to escape with his life.
Other: Jay has this uncanny ability to pinpoint your greatest insecurities and jab you where it hurts when he wants to. Of course, he doesn't do so just willy-nilly. He saves his insults for when it matters - like when he wants to prove a point or defend himself.
Role: Messenger
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Magic Element: Healing magic
Appearance: Jay isn't a very tall man. He's 5ft 3' and fit, but slim. Stronger than he looks. He has deep dark skin and short dreadlocks. He wears loose-fitting clothes and walks around barefoot, so the calluses on his feet are thick.
Personality: Jay seems a bit jaded, and not just because of recent events. He's a bit withdrawn but seems sincere. He has a bit of a bite to his tongue, and tends to say backhanded comments without meaning to. It doesn't make him popular, but that's not really his goal.
- Strengths: clever, resourceful, quick-thinker, practical, doesn't care what people think of him
- Weaknesses: secretive, cynical, snarky, unempathetic, distant
Brief Backstory: Jay grew up in the deserts of Midea with parents who were traveling merchants of herbs, flowers, and jewelry. It was a humble life that he eventually left when he discovered his magic late, as a young teen. He joined the Burninghead Guild in the center of Nye in hopes of growing in skills as a healer, only to discover his magic was very weak, and there was nothing he could do to change that. He's picked up various other skills since - how to survive in the wild, medicine making, and tracking - a skill that came even more naturally than his magic.
He was at Burninghead before the mage-hunters attacked and raided his now-former home. What he witnessed was a massacre, but he managed to escape with his life.
Other: Jay has this uncanny ability to pinpoint your greatest insecurities and jab you where it hurts when he wants to. Of course, he doesn't do so just willy-nilly. He saves his insults for when it matters - like when he wants to prove a point or defend himself.
Spoiler! :
Name: Idina Lynn
Role: Guild Master
Age: 63
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Earth
Appearance: Master Lynn is 5ft 10', wiry and strong. Her movements are graceful and intentional and she walks on light feet but is steady, and hard to knock over. She has thick, curly dark brown hair cut in a short bob and dark brown eyes with medium-toned tan skin. She wears her pants rolled up to her knees and gave up on wearing shoes, and has a necklace of red beads.
Personality: Lynn is confident and bold, and rarely seems unsure of herself. She's motherly in a protective way - defending the integrity and safety of her guild members with everything she has. She's a woman with a vision and a leader who aims to push everyone to their highest level of potential. She encourages the successes far more than she critiques the failures and teases a lot in a lighthearted manner as a way of showing affection, but nothing mean or cruel.
- Strengths: confident, sure, dependable, inspirational, passionate
- Weaknesses: resistant to change, stubborn, pushy
Brief Backstory: Lynn has been the guild master of North Point for over 20 years and has garnered great rapport with other guilds for training many a successful and capable mage. As a master of the guild, she's also become a master of earth magic, still being capable of feats of great strength and magical ability in her old age.
Role: Guild Master
Age: 63
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Earth
Appearance: Master Lynn is 5ft 10', wiry and strong. Her movements are graceful and intentional and she walks on light feet but is steady, and hard to knock over. She has thick, curly dark brown hair cut in a short bob and dark brown eyes with medium-toned tan skin. She wears her pants rolled up to her knees and gave up on wearing shoes, and has a necklace of red beads.
Personality: Lynn is confident and bold, and rarely seems unsure of herself. She's motherly in a protective way - defending the integrity and safety of her guild members with everything she has. She's a woman with a vision and a leader who aims to push everyone to their highest level of potential. She encourages the successes far more than she critiques the failures and teases a lot in a lighthearted manner as a way of showing affection, but nothing mean or cruel.
- Strengths: confident, sure, dependable, inspirational, passionate
- Weaknesses: resistant to change, stubborn, pushy
Brief Backstory: Lynn has been the guild master of North Point for over 20 years and has garnered great rapport with other guilds for training many a successful and capable mage. As a master of the guild, she's also become a master of earth magic, still being capable of feats of great strength and magical ability in her old age.
Spoiler! :
Name: Thea Forenode
Role: Leader
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Air
Appearance: Thea is moderately tall and thin with fair, warm-toned skin. She has thick, black hair in a tousled, slightly wavy bob with a few small plaits running through it. Her eyes are deep blue. Her lower right leg was amputated after an incident from her past, and is replaced with a peg leg (since no single healer can heal something that’s missing). She occasionally uses an intricately carved walking stick and/or her air magic to help her get around—and gets around at an impressive pace given her years of living with the disability. She can walk on her peg leg without a walking stick or magic if needed, but this is harder on uneven terrain or when running etc.
Personality: Thea is diplomatic, objective and level-headed. She is generally friendly to be around and shows care for others, however she doesn't talk about herself or her emotions much, sometimes giving the impression that she's slightly aloof. Her harmonious way with others and her deep ties to the Northern Guild give her an innate ability to rally people without conflict. Keeping the peace is her strongest impulse, and so any conflict between people makes her very uncomfortable. She'll go out of her way to try to diffuse hostility, and conflict that drags on for too long will start to eat away at her usually well balanced emotional/mental state.
She has a serious (and kind of grave) outlook on life. Her decision making prioritises rationality and caution (sometimes over-caution). Thea is open to listening to others, and makes it her priority to respect and understand each person of a group she's in, giving her a knack of knowing the individual strengths, weaknesses, and dispositions of each person better than most would bother to learn; in this way she cares a lot about her allies, and this care is probably noticed by them after some time.
- Strengths: Rational, friendly, harmonious, cautious, mentally/emotionally stable, focused. She knows her group well. Thea used to be a promising archer before the accident that cost her her lower leg; now she flings projectiles around with her air magic. She’s much, much better at long-range combat. Her air magic and skill with it is strong.
- Weaknesses: Taking things too seriously, over-caution, disliking conflict, aloofness, feeling like she needs to compensate for her physical disability, forcing herself to be strong/capable always.
Thea has had a fear of climbing high places since she lost half her leg, but flying doesn’t bother her in the same way.
Brief Backstory: Thea was born into the Northern Guild to a family line of fairly strong mages. As she grew she proved to be a quick learner and notably capable at many things—not just magic. Two that stood out were archery and climbing, and most of her time was consumed passionately by them. One early morning in her seventeenth year she went climbing with a friend, and became overly confident and trusting in the mountain cliff face and her ability to reach the top of it. Her friend watched from a lower ledge as Thea lost her gripping and fell thirty metres to the rocky ground below. Her skills in air magic at the time weren’t developed enough to save her. Her lower right leg was completely crushed and severed by the jagged rocks. She broke many bones but otherwise survived.
After that accident her entire life altered. Until she could move around quickly and flexibly she was bound to the Northern Guild building area with her amputated leg. Thea could no longer climb or do archery (since archery requires a secure stance), yet being forced to stay in one place for long lengths of time enabled Thea to pay more attention to the members of her guild, and in doing so she learnt to appreciate them better. Master Lynn sometimes kept Thea company when Thea was left behind in activities, and the two became close.
At age 22, when she could move at the same moderate speed as most others, she was teaching other mages air magic—because using it everyday to help her walk and manoeuvre improved her control and endurance rapidly. She also learnt how to use air magic to manipulate a glider. Thea hasn’t left the Northern Guild since she was seventeen, yet over the years she developed a reputation of being caring and understanding of the members that make up her guild.
Other: She can turn her walking stick into the handrail of a small glider by attaching the fold-out canvas and frame she keeps in her belongings to various points of it—but it takes a while to set up. This is a very fast and helpful way to get around for her.
Role: Leader
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Air
Appearance: Thea is moderately tall and thin with fair, warm-toned skin. She has thick, black hair in a tousled, slightly wavy bob with a few small plaits running through it. Her eyes are deep blue. Her lower right leg was amputated after an incident from her past, and is replaced with a peg leg (since no single healer can heal something that’s missing). She occasionally uses an intricately carved walking stick and/or her air magic to help her get around—and gets around at an impressive pace given her years of living with the disability. She can walk on her peg leg without a walking stick or magic if needed, but this is harder on uneven terrain or when running etc.
Personality: Thea is diplomatic, objective and level-headed. She is generally friendly to be around and shows care for others, however she doesn't talk about herself or her emotions much, sometimes giving the impression that she's slightly aloof. Her harmonious way with others and her deep ties to the Northern Guild give her an innate ability to rally people without conflict. Keeping the peace is her strongest impulse, and so any conflict between people makes her very uncomfortable. She'll go out of her way to try to diffuse hostility, and conflict that drags on for too long will start to eat away at her usually well balanced emotional/mental state.
She has a serious (and kind of grave) outlook on life. Her decision making prioritises rationality and caution (sometimes over-caution). Thea is open to listening to others, and makes it her priority to respect and understand each person of a group she's in, giving her a knack of knowing the individual strengths, weaknesses, and dispositions of each person better than most would bother to learn; in this way she cares a lot about her allies, and this care is probably noticed by them after some time.
- Strengths: Rational, friendly, harmonious, cautious, mentally/emotionally stable, focused. She knows her group well. Thea used to be a promising archer before the accident that cost her her lower leg; now she flings projectiles around with her air magic. She’s much, much better at long-range combat. Her air magic and skill with it is strong.
- Weaknesses: Taking things too seriously, over-caution, disliking conflict, aloofness, feeling like she needs to compensate for her physical disability, forcing herself to be strong/capable always.
Thea has had a fear of climbing high places since she lost half her leg, but flying doesn’t bother her in the same way.
Brief Backstory: Thea was born into the Northern Guild to a family line of fairly strong mages. As she grew she proved to be a quick learner and notably capable at many things—not just magic. Two that stood out were archery and climbing, and most of her time was consumed passionately by them. One early morning in her seventeenth year she went climbing with a friend, and became overly confident and trusting in the mountain cliff face and her ability to reach the top of it. Her friend watched from a lower ledge as Thea lost her gripping and fell thirty metres to the rocky ground below. Her skills in air magic at the time weren’t developed enough to save her. Her lower right leg was completely crushed and severed by the jagged rocks. She broke many bones but otherwise survived.
After that accident her entire life altered. Until she could move around quickly and flexibly she was bound to the Northern Guild building area with her amputated leg. Thea could no longer climb or do archery (since archery requires a secure stance), yet being forced to stay in one place for long lengths of time enabled Thea to pay more attention to the members of her guild, and in doing so she learnt to appreciate them better. Master Lynn sometimes kept Thea company when Thea was left behind in activities, and the two became close.
At age 22, when she could move at the same moderate speed as most others, she was teaching other mages air magic—because using it everyday to help her walk and manoeuvre improved her control and endurance rapidly. She also learnt how to use air magic to manipulate a glider. Thea hasn’t left the Northern Guild since she was seventeen, yet over the years she developed a reputation of being caring and understanding of the members that make up her guild.
Other: She can turn her walking stick into the handrail of a small glider by attaching the fold-out canvas and frame she keeps in her belongings to various points of it—but it takes a while to set up. This is a very fast and helpful way to get around for her.
Spoiler! :
Name: Velalis of Arete.
Role: Healer.
Age: 32.
Gender: Female.
Magic Element: Healing magic, quite strong.
Appearance: Vel stands at about 5'5 with green-blue-purple wings--rare for a harpy, but she does come from a very long line of mages, so that's hardly surprising--and long, black hair that almost seems feather-like that is complimented by piercing grey-green eyes. She has darkly tanned skin and wicked claws on the tips of her fingers, which make for a striking appearance. Above her eyes are two long blue-green feather-brows and coming up over her shoulders are more feathers that seems to cover what little cleavage one can see--also in blue-green but these have purple highlights. She usually wears a dark top (similiar to this) that drapes around her neck and over her front, leaving her back bare (for her wings), and thick cotton pants in dark brown paired with comfortable, dark brown boots.
Personality: Vel is a proud, moody harpy who usually keeps to herself--and keeps her mouth shut even when she thinks you're being an idiot. But if you screw up badly enough, nothing will stop her from calling you out on your stupidity, especially if she has to heal your dumb ass. She's confident in her magical skill, but not her in herself, and she's definitely not much of a people person--her bedside manner is atrocious. She gets along mostly fine with her fellow harpies, but there's just something about humans that she can't quite, well... connect to. Vel is also an observant harpy who likes to watch others--it helps when she has to heal someone--and that can often be mistaken for staring.
- Strengths: observant, competent healer, smart and witty.
- Weaknesses: prideful, moody, atrocious bedside manner, not very confident, not a people person, impatient (sometimes), stubborn to a fault.
Brief Backstory: Velalis hails from the small harpy village of Arete in the North-East of Ewhien. Arete sits on a high cliff overlooking the north-eastern coast of Ewhien, and as such, it gets pretty stormy and pretty cold. During one such storm, Velalis was born to a proud mage mother and father, the latest in a long line of proud mages. She was doted upon for her rare colouring and grew up well-cared for by the village.
One day, she was presented with an injured mouse and encouraged to heal it. At first, nothing happened, so the mouse was taken away. Every day for several weeks, she was presented with the poor thing and finally after about a month, her magic reared its head. She healed the mouse, but even that effort at such a young age wore her out.
From then on, Vel spent most of her time studying with village healers and when her wings finally grew out, she took to the skies. For the better part of nearly two decades, Vel's been splitting her time between studying healing--or teaching it--and training herself to fly better and faster, to be stronger. She traveled to the northern guild to offer her services as teacher to their healers in exchange for rare and hard-to-find healing herbs that don't grow near Arete that her village needed for medicine for the village chief.
She was about to leave when she got caught up in the landslide--a large, sharp piece of rock caught her wing and she hit the ground hard. It broke her wing in several places, but the worst was the nasty fracture right near where her wing met her back. It's currently strapped to her back in a comfortable, hopefully natural position. The worst of it was stabilized by some of the guild healers, but with the landslide blocking their only way in or out, there's no way that Vel is leaving the complex. Not anytime soon, that is.
Other: Vel specializes in the spear, or more specifically, Arete's special dual-headed spear; one blade is shaped like a feather while the other is a smaller, leaf-like design.
Role: Healer.
Age: 32.
Gender: Female.
Magic Element: Healing magic, quite strong.
Appearance: Vel stands at about 5'5 with green-blue-purple wings--rare for a harpy, but she does come from a very long line of mages, so that's hardly surprising--and long, black hair that almost seems feather-like that is complimented by piercing grey-green eyes. She has darkly tanned skin and wicked claws on the tips of her fingers, which make for a striking appearance. Above her eyes are two long blue-green feather-brows and coming up over her shoulders are more feathers that seems to cover what little cleavage one can see--also in blue-green but these have purple highlights. She usually wears a dark top (similiar to this) that drapes around her neck and over her front, leaving her back bare (for her wings), and thick cotton pants in dark brown paired with comfortable, dark brown boots.
Personality: Vel is a proud, moody harpy who usually keeps to herself--and keeps her mouth shut even when she thinks you're being an idiot. But if you screw up badly enough, nothing will stop her from calling you out on your stupidity, especially if she has to heal your dumb ass. She's confident in her magical skill, but not her in herself, and she's definitely not much of a people person--her bedside manner is atrocious. She gets along mostly fine with her fellow harpies, but there's just something about humans that she can't quite, well... connect to. Vel is also an observant harpy who likes to watch others--it helps when she has to heal someone--and that can often be mistaken for staring.
- Strengths: observant, competent healer, smart and witty.
- Weaknesses: prideful, moody, atrocious bedside manner, not very confident, not a people person, impatient (sometimes), stubborn to a fault.
Brief Backstory: Velalis hails from the small harpy village of Arete in the North-East of Ewhien. Arete sits on a high cliff overlooking the north-eastern coast of Ewhien, and as such, it gets pretty stormy and pretty cold. During one such storm, Velalis was born to a proud mage mother and father, the latest in a long line of proud mages. She was doted upon for her rare colouring and grew up well-cared for by the village.
One day, she was presented with an injured mouse and encouraged to heal it. At first, nothing happened, so the mouse was taken away. Every day for several weeks, she was presented with the poor thing and finally after about a month, her magic reared its head. She healed the mouse, but even that effort at such a young age wore her out.
From then on, Vel spent most of her time studying with village healers and when her wings finally grew out, she took to the skies. For the better part of nearly two decades, Vel's been splitting her time between studying healing--or teaching it--and training herself to fly better and faster, to be stronger. She traveled to the northern guild to offer her services as teacher to their healers in exchange for rare and hard-to-find healing herbs that don't grow near Arete that her village needed for medicine for the village chief.
She was about to leave when she got caught up in the landslide--a large, sharp piece of rock caught her wing and she hit the ground hard. It broke her wing in several places, but the worst was the nasty fracture right near where her wing met her back. It's currently strapped to her back in a comfortable, hopefully natural position. The worst of it was stabilized by some of the guild healers, but with the landslide blocking their only way in or out, there's no way that Vel is leaving the complex. Not anytime soon, that is.
Other: Vel specializes in the spear, or more specifically, Arete's special dual-headed spear; one blade is shaped like a feather while the other is a smaller, leaf-like design.
Spoiler! :
Name: Darunia "Runi" Vain
Role: Stealth
Age: 29
Gender: Female, she/her pronouns.
Magic Element: Light
Appearance: Even though she's twenty-nine, she looks to be somewhere younger than that - maybe closer to her early twenties, or even late teens if you're really bad at telling ages. She's got her dark purple hair up in a high ponytail, and her eyes are a pleasant shade of gold*. She's definitely on the tall side. Her body is clean and relatively free of blemishes.
Her outfit currently consists of a black tank top, light purple jacket with t-shirt length sleeves, gray shorts, and black boots. She's also wearing black fingerless gloves. Those who get a good look at her hands would note the callouses, but most contribute those to her instrument playing.
Speaking of instruments, she keeps them in a black case that's constantly on her. It looks like it could house an arsenal of weapons, but the black container on her back holds a variety of musical instruments. The most notable are her lute and flute.
*Her hair is dyed, and her eyes are literally a trick of the light - her hair is actually dark brown, and her eyes are actually brown as well. She's just that extra.
Personality: The first word most people use to describe Runi is annoying, but the second word they would use is kind. Runi could easily be compared to affectionate kitten or puppy - she's always full of energy and eager to hang out with everyone around her. She doesn't have trouble befriending people. Even though she can come off as annoying to those not as extroverted as her, Runi is pretty in tune with how people around her are feeling. She's happy to distract or try to cheer someone up when they're feeling down. She also has a pretty strong moral code.
- Strengths: Her kindness, friendliness, and eagerness for adventure.
- Weaknesses: She can come off as annoying, irrational, and her emotions can sometimes get a little too strong - she's been known to give passionate rambles when she's especially upset.
Brief Backstory: Runi doesn't really know her heritage. She remembers seeing her parents when she was really little, and she remembers having a cabin somewhere in some kind of woodland area. But when she was around six years old, they suddenly were gone from her memories - that was when she started being passed around from relative to relative. By the time she turned fifteen and decided to set out on her own with her instruments in tow, Runi had been through at least five different homes. It was easy to lose track over the years. She's still not sure what happened to her parents; she just knows they went into the woods one day and never came back. They presumably were mages, too, but that's just a guess based on her magic.
She snuck out a lot as a kid, so the sneaking around just kind of...stuck. She learned how to manipulate light to make things dark, and learned how to fit in with a crowd so no one would ask any questions about her or her family. When she was about twenty, she stumbled onto the guild. She didn't officially join then. She was just too used to traveling, and wasn't really sure if she was ready to settle down. Five years later at twenty-five, she decided she really wanted a place to call home. So she returned to the guild just shy of her twenty-sixth birthday, and she's been staying there ever since.
Obviously her stealth skills is a good reason for being involved in anything important, but I'm pretty sure she does a lot of performing in the guild.
Other: Even though her magic element is light, it would be more accurate to say that she uses darkness - she specializes in taking away the light from an area to be more stealthy. She also plays with the light sources so shadows are larger or smaller, depending on the need at the time. And, when worse comes to worst, she'll blind whoever she needs to in order to sneak around with a strong burst of light.
Also, she's gay.
As a second-to-last important fact, Runi loves playing music and singing! She has an assortment of instruments, but she's especially fond of her lute because she can sing and play it at the same time. She'll perform for anyone who wants a performance, but she'll usually be found playing her music for little kiddos.
Last but certainly not least, she can't seriously cook to save her life. She can make the simple stuff, but she's definitely not a gourmet cook.
Role: Stealth
Age: 29
Gender: Female, she/her pronouns.
Magic Element: Light
Appearance: Even though she's twenty-nine, she looks to be somewhere younger than that - maybe closer to her early twenties, or even late teens if you're really bad at telling ages. She's got her dark purple hair up in a high ponytail, and her eyes are a pleasant shade of gold*. She's definitely on the tall side. Her body is clean and relatively free of blemishes.
Her outfit currently consists of a black tank top, light purple jacket with t-shirt length sleeves, gray shorts, and black boots. She's also wearing black fingerless gloves. Those who get a good look at her hands would note the callouses, but most contribute those to her instrument playing.
Speaking of instruments, she keeps them in a black case that's constantly on her. It looks like it could house an arsenal of weapons, but the black container on her back holds a variety of musical instruments. The most notable are her lute and flute.
*Her hair is dyed, and her eyes are literally a trick of the light - her hair is actually dark brown, and her eyes are actually brown as well. She's just that extra.
Personality: The first word most people use to describe Runi is annoying, but the second word they would use is kind. Runi could easily be compared to affectionate kitten or puppy - she's always full of energy and eager to hang out with everyone around her. She doesn't have trouble befriending people. Even though she can come off as annoying to those not as extroverted as her, Runi is pretty in tune with how people around her are feeling. She's happy to distract or try to cheer someone up when they're feeling down. She also has a pretty strong moral code.
- Strengths: Her kindness, friendliness, and eagerness for adventure.
- Weaknesses: She can come off as annoying, irrational, and her emotions can sometimes get a little too strong - she's been known to give passionate rambles when she's especially upset.
Brief Backstory: Runi doesn't really know her heritage. She remembers seeing her parents when she was really little, and she remembers having a cabin somewhere in some kind of woodland area. But when she was around six years old, they suddenly were gone from her memories - that was when she started being passed around from relative to relative. By the time she turned fifteen and decided to set out on her own with her instruments in tow, Runi had been through at least five different homes. It was easy to lose track over the years. She's still not sure what happened to her parents; she just knows they went into the woods one day and never came back. They presumably were mages, too, but that's just a guess based on her magic.
She snuck out a lot as a kid, so the sneaking around just kind of...stuck. She learned how to manipulate light to make things dark, and learned how to fit in with a crowd so no one would ask any questions about her or her family. When she was about twenty, she stumbled onto the guild. She didn't officially join then. She was just too used to traveling, and wasn't really sure if she was ready to settle down. Five years later at twenty-five, she decided she really wanted a place to call home. So she returned to the guild just shy of her twenty-sixth birthday, and she's been staying there ever since.
Obviously her stealth skills is a good reason for being involved in anything important, but I'm pretty sure she does a lot of performing in the guild.
Other: Even though her magic element is light, it would be more accurate to say that she uses darkness - she specializes in taking away the light from an area to be more stealthy. She also plays with the light sources so shadows are larger or smaller, depending on the need at the time. And, when worse comes to worst, she'll blind whoever she needs to in order to sneak around with a strong burst of light.
Also, she's gay.
As a second-to-last important fact, Runi loves playing music and singing! She has an assortment of instruments, but she's especially fond of her lute because she can sing and play it at the same time. She'll perform for anyone who wants a performance, but she'll usually be found playing her music for little kiddos.
Last but certainly not least, she can't seriously cook to save her life. She can make the simple stuff, but she's definitely not a gourmet cook.
Spoiler! :
Name: Han Young
Role: Survivalist
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Magic Element: Water
Appearance: 5'8" and thin (though he's filled out a bit more since joining the guild). He has straight black hair that often falls over his forehead and sometimes into his dark brown eyes, and tanned skin. He doesn't care much about his appearance, so his clothing is all comfortable and functional. Both of his hands are covered in calluses.
Personality: Han is somewhat shy/aloof; he hasn't had an abundance of practice interacting with people in his life, so he can be quite awkward. Usually, he is quiet because he doesn't know how to comfortably approach people and he feels like he's bothering them; in a sense, he worries he's being tolerated out of pity. But sometimes (many times) he just wants to be alone.
- Strengths: adaptable, resilient, observant, resourceful
- Weaknesses: awkward/not great at communicating, reclusive, not confident in himself except for his survival skills
Brief Backstory: A native of the northern part of Hallum, Han doesn't remember too much about his life before the age of 11, except how to make shoes, which was his family's business. After his parents died, he was passed around by relatives who were unwilling to care for him. A couple of years later, he decided to leave on his own and went into the wilderness, where he learned to make traps for small animals, start fires, find helpful herbs, and grow edible plants, etc. He thought it was just as well, seeing as no one wanted him around and he could have peaceful solitude without bothering anyone.
However, he soon discovered that he had a mild water magic, which, though helpful for a survivalist, was often difficult for him to control. This frustration would often plague him for many years, to the point he simply got used to it.
Then he met a member of the Northern Guild, who, upon noticing his struggles with his magic, encouraged him to come to the guild and learn how to control it. Having felt lonely without frequent human contact for almost 20 years and thinking it would be a good idea to get help with his magic, Han agreed to try living there for a year and followed her back home. There, he became a student while also teaching survival skills at request. One year was almost over, and he had been planning on leaving the Northern Guild since he felt unable to get used to living in civilization surrounded by so many people (as much as he liked them) after so long, until the landslide and outside news came.
Other: He's not great at reading, just at a passable ability. His endurance is very impressive, though.
Role: Survivalist
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Magic Element: Water
Appearance: 5'8" and thin (though he's filled out a bit more since joining the guild). He has straight black hair that often falls over his forehead and sometimes into his dark brown eyes, and tanned skin. He doesn't care much about his appearance, so his clothing is all comfortable and functional. Both of his hands are covered in calluses.
Personality: Han is somewhat shy/aloof; he hasn't had an abundance of practice interacting with people in his life, so he can be quite awkward. Usually, he is quiet because he doesn't know how to comfortably approach people and he feels like he's bothering them; in a sense, he worries he's being tolerated out of pity. But sometimes (many times) he just wants to be alone.
- Strengths: adaptable, resilient, observant, resourceful
- Weaknesses: awkward/not great at communicating, reclusive, not confident in himself except for his survival skills
Brief Backstory: A native of the northern part of Hallum, Han doesn't remember too much about his life before the age of 11, except how to make shoes, which was his family's business. After his parents died, he was passed around by relatives who were unwilling to care for him. A couple of years later, he decided to leave on his own and went into the wilderness, where he learned to make traps for small animals, start fires, find helpful herbs, and grow edible plants, etc. He thought it was just as well, seeing as no one wanted him around and he could have peaceful solitude without bothering anyone.
However, he soon discovered that he had a mild water magic, which, though helpful for a survivalist, was often difficult for him to control. This frustration would often plague him for many years, to the point he simply got used to it.
Then he met a member of the Northern Guild, who, upon noticing his struggles with his magic, encouraged him to come to the guild and learn how to control it. Having felt lonely without frequent human contact for almost 20 years and thinking it would be a good idea to get help with his magic, Han agreed to try living there for a year and followed her back home. There, he became a student while also teaching survival skills at request. One year was almost over, and he had been planning on leaving the Northern Guild since he felt unable to get used to living in civilization surrounded by so many people (as much as he liked them) after so long, until the landslide and outside news came.
Other: He's not great at reading, just at a passable ability. His endurance is very impressive, though.
Spoiler! :
Name: Elani Ellonhav
Role: The Brawn
Age: Early 30's
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Earth
Appearance: 4' 11.75" tall, Ani looks like anything but a terrifying barbarian. In fact, the woman actually is quite homely, the sort of appearance that a mother hen might have--and, like a chicken, she can be far more vicious than she initially seems. She's an islander with olive skin, brown eyes, and short-cropped, messy umber hair that frames her round and somehow both friendly and stern face. Her attire is simple but neat (if a bit dirt-stained,) and she usually avoids wearing shoes (if she must wear them, they're sandals), and her clothes usually consist of some brown or green shirt and either capris or shorts rather than long pants. She always has dirt on her. Always.
She also collects rocks. They're almost always just...on her person. In her pockets. Bags. Belt. Belt pouches. All the pockets. She also collects just...random earthy things: sticks, bones, feathers, really cool leaves. Those are usually in her hair or maybe just stuck to her. Who knows.
She is never seen without her ever-shiny brass knuckles. Her build itself is stocky and well-muscled. As in, freaking ripped: seriously, she should've just been a body builder. She always has her lucky rock on a necklace, and it's a very smooth, round bluish rock that's otherwise pretty average.
Personality: In short, she could be described as a mama bear--she takes care of her partners, makes sure everyone eats breakfast, informs them bluntly of their problems, and lectures them about taking care of themselves, but when she's threatened or #$%^ goes down, she is a force to be reckoned with. She says things how they are but not without compassion. Generally, she has others' best interests at heart. She's very ethical and strongly adheres to her morals.
- Strengths: Loyal and steadfast; honest; caring; sensible. Obviously, physically, she's very strong.
- Weaknesses: Uh...all of the above, really. Loyalty can often lead to naïveté/falsely-placed faith; her stubbornness can cause her to get dangerously stuck in her ways; her impulsive honesty can be abrasive and interfere with subtlety. Physically, she's just...tiny...but mean...
Brief Backstory: Born in Hallum to a family of farmers that primarily grew buckwheat, she was in the fields before she could walk and was riding the plodding draft horse and oxen around for as long as she can remember. She was a rather friendly child, the sort that would run around and give people rocks that she thought were special--and, to her, they were. She loved animals and people and basically everything and everyone.
When she was 11, her magic started to manifest. She was undoubtedly talented in it, particularly shaping the earth to take certain shapes and forms. Soon enough, their then-very-old horse got a break and she was able to simply plow the fields with her magic. The fact that her abilities were so useful to her family made her positively joyous.
Things were pretty much normal for her childhood, honestly. She played with other kids and brought home all sorts of random creatures, including a weasel named Backster that she still has with her today. As a result, she has a lot of random skills in raising/rehabbing wildlife. She also grew tons of plants. She didn't have tons of friends--not because she was bullied or anything, just 'cause she was introverted--but had plants all over the house. All year round.
When she was sixteen, bandits existed. Her, her twin brother, and her mom were all survivors, but their farm got wrecked and her dad died. They moved farther south and started another, much smaller farm, and things went well. Ani and her brother couldn't quite shake the events of that fateful night, however and, finally, they vowed to learn and train so that they could protect people from the fate of their father and many, far less fortunate citizens of their hometown. So, naturally, they went to the guild for them both to train in magic (her bro is an air mage).
That was over fourteen years ago. Now, she's in her early thirties and still going strong. Both her and her brother mostly utilize their abilities to just...help out as much as they can. They're very active in the guild, and Ani has become the resident crazy animal/plant lady, just taking animals and the like in, as well as adopting plants that people are failing at taking care of.
At this point, she's quite strong in her magic, even teaching it to younglings. Her strongest (and most often used) ability is essentially making a mini mech-warrior and fighting in it. She might be small, but she's still got some serious bite.
Other: She has a pet weasel named Meanie-mo.
Role: The Brawn
Age: Early 30's
Gender: Female
Magic Element: Earth
Appearance: 4' 11.75" tall, Ani looks like anything but a terrifying barbarian. In fact, the woman actually is quite homely, the sort of appearance that a mother hen might have--and, like a chicken, she can be far more vicious than she initially seems. She's an islander with olive skin, brown eyes, and short-cropped, messy umber hair that frames her round and somehow both friendly and stern face. Her attire is simple but neat (if a bit dirt-stained,) and she usually avoids wearing shoes (if she must wear them, they're sandals), and her clothes usually consist of some brown or green shirt and either capris or shorts rather than long pants. She always has dirt on her. Always.
She also collects rocks. They're almost always just...on her person. In her pockets. Bags. Belt. Belt pouches. All the pockets. She also collects just...random earthy things: sticks, bones, feathers, really cool leaves. Those are usually in her hair or maybe just stuck to her. Who knows.
She is never seen without her ever-shiny brass knuckles. Her build itself is stocky and well-muscled. As in, freaking ripped: seriously, she should've just been a body builder. She always has her lucky rock on a necklace, and it's a very smooth, round bluish rock that's otherwise pretty average.
Personality: In short, she could be described as a mama bear--she takes care of her partners, makes sure everyone eats breakfast, informs them bluntly of their problems, and lectures them about taking care of themselves, but when she's threatened or #$%^ goes down, she is a force to be reckoned with. She says things how they are but not without compassion. Generally, she has others' best interests at heart. She's very ethical and strongly adheres to her morals.
- Strengths: Loyal and steadfast; honest; caring; sensible. Obviously, physically, she's very strong.
- Weaknesses: Uh...all of the above, really. Loyalty can often lead to naïveté/falsely-placed faith; her stubbornness can cause her to get dangerously stuck in her ways; her impulsive honesty can be abrasive and interfere with subtlety. Physically, she's just...tiny...but mean...
Brief Backstory: Born in Hallum to a family of farmers that primarily grew buckwheat, she was in the fields before she could walk and was riding the plodding draft horse and oxen around for as long as she can remember. She was a rather friendly child, the sort that would run around and give people rocks that she thought were special--and, to her, they were. She loved animals and people and basically everything and everyone.
When she was 11, her magic started to manifest. She was undoubtedly talented in it, particularly shaping the earth to take certain shapes and forms. Soon enough, their then-very-old horse got a break and she was able to simply plow the fields with her magic. The fact that her abilities were so useful to her family made her positively joyous.
Things were pretty much normal for her childhood, honestly. She played with other kids and brought home all sorts of random creatures, including a weasel named Backster that she still has with her today. As a result, she has a lot of random skills in raising/rehabbing wildlife. She also grew tons of plants. She didn't have tons of friends--not because she was bullied or anything, just 'cause she was introverted--but had plants all over the house. All year round.
When she was sixteen, bandits existed. Her, her twin brother, and her mom were all survivors, but their farm got wrecked and her dad died. They moved farther south and started another, much smaller farm, and things went well. Ani and her brother couldn't quite shake the events of that fateful night, however and, finally, they vowed to learn and train so that they could protect people from the fate of their father and many, far less fortunate citizens of their hometown. So, naturally, they went to the guild for them both to train in magic (her bro is an air mage).
That was over fourteen years ago. Now, she's in her early thirties and still going strong. Both her and her brother mostly utilize their abilities to just...help out as much as they can. They're very active in the guild, and Ani has become the resident crazy animal/plant lady, just taking animals and the like in, as well as adopting plants that people are failing at taking care of.
At this point, she's quite strong in her magic, even teaching it to younglings. Her strongest (and most often used) ability is essentially making a mini mech-warrior and fighting in it. She might be small, but she's still got some serious bite.
Other: She has a pet weasel named Meanie-mo.
Gender:
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Reviews: 174