Post em here. The more detail, including NPCs, the better: I'll be linking the threads ASAP.
[ic=Drabein (Primalist/Alienist)]
A twisted and wizened twig of a man, time and the hardships of nature have ravaged Drabein's body and stripped away fat to leave nothing but the whipcord muscle of a survivor behind. Utterly rejecting the trappings of civilization, Drabein wanders the open grasslands like a ghost, naked but for a cloak woven of wild grasses and small shrubs and a long matted beard infested with wild herbs and stained a motley brown with natural dyes. Watching the world through feline-slitted and mismatched eyes – one flecked with the yellow-greens and browns of the steppes and the other swirling with the whites, greys and blues of the spirit-world – the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient shaman's long years are marked upon his skin in piercings, tattoos and ritual scars.
An initiate into the Lath shamanic tradition of revelatory insanity practiced by the Beroam tribe of the rolling steppelands, Drabein's main powers are over the earth and all that grows within or upon it and the divine wisdom-madness that is the source of his strength, though he also shares a special kinship with the hyenaeic totem-creatures called the laith and their many spirit-kin. Chief among them is his spirit-guide, the nine-tailed, six-legged, three-headed ancient laith-spirit of madness known as Lalaith, whose appearance may herald life or death or the madness that lies in the liminal space between.
His main servitors are the hyenaeic Lath-yana - large felines with mottled steppes-coloured hides and fearsome jaws and who are able to imitate the voices of humans to lure their prey near and to give off a cackling and maddening laugh that tears at the sanity of their enemies. His other servants are conjured elementals of wind and blades of the razor-edged wild kern-grass that grows wild throughout the steppes, called and commanded by the sound of a simple reed-pipe carried by the faithful breeze.
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[spoiler=Starting Information]
Class: Primalist w/ Frenzy swapped out in favor of madness
:Starting Location: N4WL
Research Directions:
- Enhance the power of his wind elementals by enhancing them with various species of plants to cause hallucinations and confusion and drain life force
- Develop the ability to summon other forms of elementals (earth elementals, weather elementals, straight-forward air elementals, more general plant 'golem' elementals)
- Further develop his bond with the Lath-yana and their various cousins leading up to the ability to manifest Lalaith out of the Otherworld (possibly exchange for sending prisoners in/going for a jaunt himself
- Grow an underground base within a hollow hill that is conterminous with many parts of the steppes and also possesses some degree of independent 'travelling' ability
- Deepen and enhance his ability to connect to the land to be able to speed his own progress through the steppelands and slow the progress of others
- Gain access to the concept of the 'All-Steppes' - that is, be able to fold space and make all of the steppes conterminous (provided that there are no defining geographic features to interfere) to allow for instantaneous travel/indefinite imprisonment)
- Develop various forms of astral projection/spirit voyaging for various purposes not least among them long-range elemental workings and madness sendings
- Gain access to 'scrying'-like divinations through the prophetic tradition of divine madness
[/spoiler]
[ic=Of the Departure of Jacob Cooper]
Theme (http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=HIJPxxoF7dw)
Jacob Cooper was always given to flights of fancy. From his earliest days as the son of the only barrel maker in the ancient village of Rookhaven nestled deep in foreboding shadow of Dome Mountain, his play was more than just mundane child's fare. His daydreams were darker than most and carried an air of certainty about them; his imaginary friends a little too fleshed out, but all of this only made him the most popular among the other children. His imagination would take them all to worlds even the most sagacious never conceived - lands beyond time and space where only the antediluvian rhythms of forgotten races pulse through the ether and inconceivable forms pay homage to the Great Old One who lies at the center of all things. To fantastic landscapes of vibrant bluish-greens speckled with the remains of rotting Cyclopean cities under a bilious sky, they ventured.
As young Jacob grew, to his parents' dismay, so too did his delusions. He claimed to hear the whispers of the Ancient One on the winds and in the walls. He claimed to bear witness to strange visitations in the night the likes of which he refused to report details in fear of his inquisitors' sanity. He claimed that what everyone thought were once little more than a child's musings, were, in fact, glimpses past the veil of reality with which the gods so kindly graced humanity as protection against the horrific truths of reality. No demon or imp or dragon or undead mockery of life was so terrible as even the most benevolent of horrors from Beyond.
In time, Jacob opened his own barrel shop and did quite well for himself. The frugal habits of his father served him well, and in time, he amassed much money. This he used for a truly singular purchase in the remote marshes of Eastmire far from Rookhaven. Little is known of this place, but before his final exodus, he was known to meet with many strange travelers noted particularly for their strange accents and queer appearances. A tall, dark-skinned man whose hair and beard were greased and rolled into what can only be described as spider legs or tentacles draping from his head; a diminutive, crooked fellow with eyes nearly closed as if to shut out some horror he cannot bare to see; a long, leggy woman of exotic beauty, dark olive skin, and large liquid eyes whose presence was known to excite men in ways their wives cared little for. It was whispered that these acquaintances were driving Jacob from the town; although, the most canny rumormongers reported that they were helping Jacob seek out something.
In time, Jacob had the last of his things transported from his domicile, presumably to his new marshland residence, leaving behind an empty husk of rotting wood, moldered flagstone, and countless nests of rats. The most inquisitive among the townsfolk speculated on the contents of the departed's tomb-house, but for months no dared approach it. The shadows about its eaves fell at strange angles. The light issuing through its windows seemed a little too bright. The creak of the planks of the front porch seemed to moan out unearthly melodies. Even the echo of handfalls upon the dilapidated door echoes from within to some preternatural rhythm that all bespoke horrors better unknown. To this day, that decaying shambles still stands in Rookhaved, shunned by the town, which has since slowly migrated further down the valley, out of the gloomy shadow of Dome Mountain and nearer the running water of Whippoorwill Creak. To this day, they still say that anyone who ventures up the valley had best guard themselves well, for anyone who approaches the old Cooper house never sleeps right again.
[/ic]
[spoiler=Starting Information]
<to be expanded as more is known of the game>
Starting Class: Alienist.
Starting Location: Tentatively M14EE.
General Research Interests:- Cyclopean horrors who can pass as human/natural creatures.
- STEALTHINESS
- Teleportation (Slipping between the angles)
- Dimensional travel/dimensional summoning (as an extension of teleportation)
- Dream powers, namely clairsentience and hypnotic suggestion via dreams
- Flying Cyclopean horrors that can pass as...um...flying manta rays or sky-jellyfish?
- STEALTHINESS
- Sleep-inducing powers
- Puppetmasters (http://images4.static-bluray.com/reviews/6883_3.jpg) from, well, The Puppetmasters (http://rocharchambault.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/robert_a._heinlein-the_puppet_masters.jpg)
- Invisibility
- MOAR STEALTHINESS
- Subterranean tunneling worm thing that leaves behind underground roads
- Scry wards
- STEALTHINESS SO STEALTHY THE STEALTHY ONES DON'T EVEN NOTICE THEMSELVES!
[/spoiler]
[ic=Necress]
Upon birth she take her first life: the one of her mother. Time passed and as much as she grow in beauty and wisdom, so her family became more gray and cold. One day none of them woke up. No matter how much she shake them, none of them move. And then in front of her she saw it. The Death itself. But she was not scared, she embrace it. In a scream the Death... perished. She then called her family. She called all the town.... and their corpses began to move. Death. Life. It was of no value now. She nourished on death. She nurtured on sorrow. And life was just a state from which sooner than later all beings should be "awoken".
She renamed herself as Necress and went away to plot her new found dream. A young woman who will make sure that no one, not even The Death, escapes from being awoken.
[/ic]
[spoiler=Starting Information]Class: Necromancer
Lair: M6EA
Research:
Undead Toxins/arrows (killed units "revived" by the necromancer)
Skeleton Field (Trap)
death plague
plague infiltration unit
bomb-upon-death unit
Flesh golems
on-the-go army creation (corpses :D)
Boom! Surprise research!! (I love surprises)
[/spoiler]
[ic=Unbound]
Though it cannot recall it's origins, the strange being identifying itself as "Unbound" was once human. Or perhaps that is too much of a simplification; it may be more accurate to state that the being whose flesh Unbound would be spawned from, was a human. That particular human was a truly rare spark of genius, even by the standards of Fleshshapers. And as is often the case with such sparks, ingeniosity tends to come with a roughly equal measure of insanity. For reasons probably only known to his or her self, the mad genius was not content to dabble with ordinary mutations and grafts, finding them frustratingly limited. The human was obsessed with researching for a way to transcend the most fundamental limits of flesh, thereby evolving into the ultimate organism - one wholly freed from the bounds of shape, size and structure, able to assume at will any form imaginable. At some point this feverish research must have yielded a promising breakthrough, for the Fleshshaper committed to a daring experiment that unmade him/herself, dissolving into a gelatinous pool of protoplasm. From this pulsating puddle on the laboratory floor, Unbound was born.
It was not the perfect creature that it's maker/progenitor/host had envisioned. It could not readily morph into every form and function imaginable by it's twisted infantile mind. Yet it possessed almost limitless potential for evolution, for it was endowed with the capacity to learn, to absorb, to consume - to Unbound these things are one and the same. What qualities it may lack for the time being, it could acquire from the lesser beings - the bound ones - by seizing their flesh and making it one with it's own. Each assimilated form would bring it one step closer to realizing the true limitlessness it was meant to possess. It pursues this goal tirelessly, driven by a barely conscious force of curiosity/desire/hunger, and regards such worldly interests as wealth and politics as ultimately meaningless, useful only as tools to further the absorbtion of ever more bodies.
[/ic]
[ic=The Destroyer]
Clearly not a creature native to the Material Plane, Om-Magug resembles nothing so much as a strange melding of reptile, amphibian, and ape. Her shoulders are broad and stooped, her limbs long and corded. Her scaled hide is a peculiar shade of deep green, her luminescent eyes huge and round, and her mouth filled with row upon row of angular teeth so long and so large that it defies reason that she can even close her thin lips, much less speak in that high, squeaking voice of hers. She is one of the Destroyers, that ancient race of rapacious conquerors and collectors from a congerie of distant planes, and like all who pay homage to She Who Takes As She Wilt, she considers thievery both a high art and a sacred oblation. With a strange mix of naiveté and ruthlessness, she seeks to expand both her already-considerable collection and her own personal power: Destroyers grow throughout their lives and are known to embed their most treasured (and potent) possessions within their very flesh. In that regard, she the Destroyer is not unlike the wandering adventurer many young peasants dream about becoming, a notion that becomes rapidly less romantic once it is their village being raided by a violent stranger in search of wealth…
[/ic]
[spoiler=Starting Information]
Class: Fleshwarper
Research Directions:
- Grafts:
- Breath weapons: fire, acid, frost, etc.
- Eye attacks
- Invisibility
- Natural armor
- Immunities
- Flight
- Shapechanging
- Regeneration
- Enhanced attributes
- Natural weapons: claws, fangs, pseudopods, etc.
- Possible Sources:
- Aberrant
- Alchemical
- Construct
- Draconic
- Fey
- Fiendish
- Undead
- Grafted powers can also take the form of mystical tattoos and implanted artifacts?
- Semi-expendable frog-goblin servitors for labor and infiltration, possibly to be uplifted in the future.
- Tiny, cunning reptile-imps to direct larger, dimmer war-beasts.
- Some sort of creature to serve as a curator of her collection and overseer of her agents: giant intelligent fungus, tentacled horror, pillar of skulls, wyrmling, etc.
- Huge (and intelligent) flying beast along the lines of a hunting horror or fell beast, to serve as both mount and courier.
- Some other mounts for her retinue.
- Discover means to manufacture psuedo-oozes or similar servitors, for recovering specimens and artifacts.
- Discover means of imprisoning powerful entity (mid-level demon, faerie noble, etc.) and compelling their subordinates.
- Collect the heads of powerful magic-users for preservation, with the intent of harnessing their intellect/power.
- Acquire spell(s) for detecting various creature types (outsider, fey, undead, construct, etc.) as well as for binding and warding them.
More to come.
[/spoiler]
[ic=Y'vogg Droeth the Endless Maws]
In the ghastly unhidden which lies beyond the mortal veil rests the million mouths of the jabbering choir. Yvogg Dreth it is and it is not for the host has no name and yet each it's own. If ever one were to utter the name of each slavering mandible would then they set apocalypse upon the world. It is thus fortunate that the alienist known as Draev the Defiler only managed half the names before succumbing to starvation. Yet the echoes of his efforts did dribble forth into the black void where fangs did fasten upon his vocabulary, eating their way into the world, climbing them as if rope. The Yivog Droweth did ooze forth from the dank otherness in search of new mouths to feed madness and add to the expanding allness that is Yvg Dreth.
[/ic]
[ic=Princess Calista Corrine Pendrell]
Half a dozen ambitious elder siblings ensure that the Princess Calista will almost assuredly never wear the Imperial crown, but that certainly did not mean that she lacked her own ambitions-- ambitions that extended well beyond the usual arranged marriage to solidify the Imperial dynasty's political position that is usually the destiny of princesses well down the order of royal succession. Though such a marriage would certainly lead to a comfortable and secure life, it would also be an almost utterly uneventful one, at least in her mind. That's not to say she didn't enjoy the fruits of high society, as she was cultured and charming, but she also had other aims.
She showed something of an acumen for the arcane arts at an early age, and, fitting a lady of her position, she was enrolled in the finest academies that Hallith and Laerim had to offer. This education was, in truth, designed solely to allow her to create objects of magical art and healing potions destined for charity. In other words, nothing but the simple but refined arcane arts befitting a lady of leisure and high standing. Naturally, this would all make her a more attractive prospect for marriage, as well.
She had other ideas. She was a voracious student, and learned arcane arts well beyond the typical dabbling of a lady of leisure. Almost without anyone realizing it, she soon found herself immersed in serious arcane research. After her graduation, she managed to convince her father to sign a charter granting her a small staff of her own, allowing her to continue her work. She was doing many good things for the good of the Empire, and she should be allowed to continue.
While all this is certainly true, the most important goal for Calista is preserving her own freedom.
[/ic]
[spoiler=Starting Information]
Class: Thaumatologist (crunch TBD)
[/spoiler]