I wonder if there are any other archetypes that a dandy ranger could take? Let’s go look at the SRD . . . The answer is no, not at all ~ some variant 3rd party combat styles is all.
Rangers have d10 hit points, so rolling 2d10+16 (let’s make Forsetilafom the same level as Boanerges, y/n?) gives them 26 hp. A ranger’s 6 skill points per level results in Forsetilafom having 21 skill points to spend. Diplomacy, Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility), Sense Motive, and Perception all feel pretty core to Forsetlafom’s history and role as High Reeve. Conveniently, they’re also class skills, thanks to the dandy archetype; let’s max them out at 3 ranks each, leaving only 6 more points to spend. I find myself liking Craft (clothier), Heal, Intimidate, Spellcraft, and Stealth as secondary skills ~ that’s 5 skills, so we just decide that Intimidate is the most important, enough to get 2 ranks, and we’re all set.
Instead of a favored enemy, dandies have favored nations, gaining bonuses to a variety of social skills when used against them as well as to attack and damage. Normally, taking one’s own race as a favored enemy or one’s homeland as a favored nation might indicate either a murderer or an outcast. Forsetilafom is neither, but they also haven’t made their name protecting Nosleborre and Natsiyaasim from external threats. Quite the opposite: Forsetilafom has stood against corruption and rot that comes from within. We give Forsetilafom Natsiyaasim as a favored nation. In choosing Forsetilafom’s combat style, I’m tempted by Deceitful until I realize that, as the name implies, feinting requires Bluff and we didn’t give Forsetilafom a very high Bluff >.< So, I turn to Inner Sea Combat, which has a listing of divine combat styles for rangers. Obviously, Forsetilafom’s life doesn’t center around religion (though they, of course, honor Blessed Imye and the raskokabajhon who followed him as he wandered the world), but I’m hoping a nice, flavorful style can come out of the list. If not, I’ll just default to the bog-standard AD&D Driz’zt-made-it-trite two-weapon style. Looking through, Cayden Cailean’s style weirdly doesn’t include anything about drunken fighting, but is actually very much like fencing. The SRD even calls it “Fencing” since they can’t use IP content! At 3rd level, we can choose from Catch Off-Guard, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, and Weapon Finesse. Combat Reflexes and Weapon Finesse are both hella attractive, but Weapon Finesse is only so because it would mean an additional +3 to Forsetilafom’s attack rolls! Mebbe I’ll pick it up with some generic feat slots; I take Combat Reflexes for now, cuz it feels much more thematic.
A dandy’s other class features don’t require (or, in the case of favored terrain, allow) any other choices. Rumor empathy allows Forsetilafom to manipulate the rumors that fly through a community to make them better or worse for the people they’re about, while Endurance and Track give minor bonuses to Aragorny like activities that are easily guessable by their names. Favored terrain gives a bunch of bonuses in cities; because of the dandy archetype, these will increase but not spread to other terrains as time goes on. Next level, Forsetilafom starts gaining spells!
Next thing to choose is Forsetilafom’s two feats. This is always a bit of a slog, which makes choosing Weapon Finesse rather enticing, just to cut through all of that, but let’s give Heroes of the High Court and Ultimate Intrigue a chance. I am also thinking about Amateur Investigator ~ I’ll have to give that one a glance or two, as well. After doing that and looking through Heroes of the High Court, Ultimate Intrigue, Inner Sea Intrigue, Horror Adventures, and Horror Realms, I still don’t see anything featwise that jumps out and says “I’m perfect!”, but I get drawn more and more to the Street Smarts tree and the Unimpeachable Honor tree. Vacillating between the two for a little bit, I finally settle on Street Smarts + Sense Relationships. Sense Motive is a weapon for Forsetilafom, and those two feats really help to establish that.
My reluctance had been based on Sense Relationship’s benefits to Bluff, which I hadn’t given to Forsetilafom, but I also took good note of the Enchanting Courtesan prestige class in Inner Sea Intrigue. It DID jump out at me and beg to be added to Forsetilafom, though I resisted for a little bit because its emphasis on poison was a bit heavier than I would have liked. However, the prestige class wouldn’t leave me alone and I finally figured that the poison focus would add a little bit of George R. R. Martin into the Jacqueline Carey that is inspiring Forsetilafom. That recipe, if one is careful to not overdo the GRRM (he’s very much like cinnamon in that way ~ amazing as a background note in all kinds of dishes you wouldn’t expect, like macaroni and cheese, but just takes over the dish if you don’t use an absolutely miniscule amount), sounds wonderful. The requirements for Enchanting Courtesan include being able to cast 2nd level spells including at least 2 divinations and 2 enchantments somewhere in there, Spell Focus (divination OR enchantment), 2 ranks each in Knowledge (arcana) and Perform (act OR dance ~ and I’ll modify it a bit to accept erotic arts as an option, too. Cuz duh.), and 5 ranks in Sense Motive and . . . Bluff. Whatever are we to do!?
Well, aasimars don’t provide any specific favored class bonuses for rangers and, while we could co-opt the cavalier favored class bonus with some slight tweaks, doing more damage to people from Natsiyaasim doesn’t exactly fit Forsetilafom’s style. So let’s take 3 extra skill ranks and dump them into Bluff. Since they won’t meet the spellcasting requirement for the prestige class until 7th level, we have plenty of time to spend the 6 skill ranks we still need to qualify.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
The face is not always the same as the heart, sadly (Traveller Tuesday #11)
We've got religions on Ishee of every size from tiny to immense. Let's see what's up with this one . . . 1d20 gives us 13 ~ ah! Deism, with its watchmaker God who created the universe, set its rules and systems like gears in a watch and then walked the eff away. This is the most remote divinity of the theistic religions of Ishee Rolling a 9 on 2d6+1, we see that believers perform charitable acts to create a better society for posterity. I've been thinking about this option in terms of the Rose Brothers ~ that family of traditions seems to suffer from an over-focus on Great Scientists and a lack of focus on using technological breakthroughs to actually like, I dunno, help people?
The faith requires devotional services only once a year (12 on 2d6+2). I wonder if this religion doesn't have a bit of a chip on its shoulder about it being the Rose Brother tradition to actually engage with the problems of the people. Perhaps this annual devotion is largely composed of dedicating everything one has, including all technological possessions, scientific knowledge, and innovative inventions, towards helping those less fortunate than them. It's one day where everyone does this.
Only those within easy communication can effectively make decisions about how to help those who need it, so there's no hierarchy above the planetary level (11 on 2d6+5). We also get some more information about that day of helping: evidently, it emphasises communal teaching with only limited ritual, which fits my image of it pretty well, I think. Some theological and ethical teaching and a whole lot of passing on science and technology to those you're helping, and a little ritual mixed in as well.
Adherents are active in their proselytization efforts ~ again, there's a recruitment drive but no intense push ~ and it only reaches out to a limited number of sophont species (4 on 2d6+2). Probably, they've determined that Hermachis of the Horizon built other rules into the clockwork of the universe to help those beings and so any efforts by the church would be wasted. One does wonder how they came to that determination, however . . . .
These conversion efforts seem to have paid off! A 10 on the 3d6-4 roll gives us tens of billions of adherents! I daresay that this religion is what most of the galaxy thinks of when it comes to the Rose Brothers, and would be quite surprised to visit the Azeyrenawt-dominated Guild-State. Random.org gives us 81,874,634,730 followers in total. Considering the respective numbers and my positioning of this religion as a fourth splinter sect of the Rose Brothers, I'm just gonna say that it accounts for all of the remaining Isheeans. Although, double-checking, the Clarencians have like 10 times as many faithful as this religion, so they're probably the actual galactic face of Rose Brotherhood.
Now we roll dWikipedia for a name: the Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood.
The religious landcape of Ishee:
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood (generally called Assistants, (the) Rite, or Rose Brothers)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
The faith requires devotional services only once a year (12 on 2d6+2). I wonder if this religion doesn't have a bit of a chip on its shoulder about it being the Rose Brother tradition to actually engage with the problems of the people. Perhaps this annual devotion is largely composed of dedicating everything one has, including all technological possessions, scientific knowledge, and innovative inventions, towards helping those less fortunate than them. It's one day where everyone does this.
Only those within easy communication can effectively make decisions about how to help those who need it, so there's no hierarchy above the planetary level (11 on 2d6+5). We also get some more information about that day of helping: evidently, it emphasises communal teaching with only limited ritual, which fits my image of it pretty well, I think. Some theological and ethical teaching and a whole lot of passing on science and technology to those you're helping, and a little ritual mixed in as well.
Adherents are active in their proselytization efforts ~ again, there's a recruitment drive but no intense push ~ and it only reaches out to a limited number of sophont species (4 on 2d6+2). Probably, they've determined that Hermachis of the Horizon built other rules into the clockwork of the universe to help those beings and so any efforts by the church would be wasted. One does wonder how they came to that determination, however . . . .
These conversion efforts seem to have paid off! A 10 on the 3d6-4 roll gives us tens of billions of adherents! I daresay that this religion is what most of the galaxy thinks of when it comes to the Rose Brothers, and would be quite surprised to visit the Azeyrenawt-dominated Guild-State. Random.org gives us 81,874,634,730 followers in total. Considering the respective numbers and my positioning of this religion as a fourth splinter sect of the Rose Brothers, I'm just gonna say that it accounts for all of the remaining Isheeans. Although, double-checking, the Clarencians have like 10 times as many faithful as this religion, so they're probably the actual galactic face of Rose Brotherhood.
Now we roll dWikipedia for a name: the Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood.
The religious landcape of Ishee:
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood (generally called Assistants, (the) Rite, or Rose Brothers)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Intensity in tent cities in ten cities (Design Domingo #11)
An Example of Trauma in Action: You swing your holy leaden mace at a wizarding weirdo, and make a rank-4 CrFU 41 roll to do so. You have Hardened Helplessness 2, but that doesn’t do you any good. You only have Hardened Unnatural 2. You have to check the unkept dice, of which there are three. One of them comes up higher than 4, and so you increase your Failed Unnatural by 1 and flip your lid, attacking the mage with mindless frenzy. The wizard defends herself by using a magical attack which lets her tear chunks out of you with her bare hands. Your Reflex roll to defend against the spell is a rank-5 CoHU 33 check, but since you are already out of your mind, you don’t even have to look at your unkept dice. You just increase your Failed Trauma for the first one. If, instead, two had been higher than 4, you would change Hardened Unnatural to 3.
Sample Intensities for Violence Rolls
1 ~ Defend against a weapon—shot at or slashed.
2 ~ Witness an act of torture.
3 ~ Get attacked at random. Resist brief torture.
4 ~ Strike a killing blow against someone in a fight.
5 ~ Be present at a massive battle, with hundreds of deaths on both sides.
6 ~ Perform an act of torture.
7 ~ Deliberately kill a helpless target.
8 ~ Resist torture for an hour or longer.
9 ~ Witness a brutal mass execution.
10 ~ Watch as someone you love is tortured to death.
Sample Intensities for Unnatural Rolls
1 ~ Experience a preternaturally strong deja vu.
2 ~ See a creature or machine that cannot logically exist.
3 ~ Realize that a vision you had of the future has come true.
4 ~ See convincing proof that 2+2 does not equal 4.
5 ~ Be successfully attacked with magic.
6 ~ See someone you know killed by magic, without any visible or “rational” cause.
7 ~ Have a conversation with a loved one whom you know is dead.
8 ~ See an animal with human features.
9 ~ See the dead rise.
10 ~ Realize that the reason you and your husband of ten years have never had children is that he’s not really a human being.
Sample Intensities for Helplessness Rolls
1 ~ Unintentionally humiliate yourself in public.
2 ~ Be exiled from a land you love.
3 ~ Fail at something when it’s imperative that you succeed.
4 ~ Get dumped into a pit of maggots.
5 ~ Spend a month in gaol.
6 ~ Watch your spouse committing adultery.
7 ~ Be placed in a situation where you have to either saw off one of your limbs or die.
8 ~ Watch someone you love die.
9 ~ Watch someone you love die because you tried to save them and failed.
10 ~ Be possessed, yet conscious, as your body commits unspeakable acts against your will.
Sample Intensities for Isolation Rolls
1 ~ Spend a day without seeing anyone you know
2 ~ Spend five hours deprived of sensory input.
3 ~ Spend three days without talking to another human being.
4 ~ Be abandoned by someone you love and trust.
5 ~ Spend a week in solitary confinement.
6 ~ See someone you thought you knew intimately behaving in a fashion completely contrary to her normal behavior.
7 ~ Spend a month in a country where no one speaks your language and where you can’t make yourself understood no matter how hard you try.
8 ~ Be deeply, painfully, and violently betrayed by someone you love.
9 ~ Be treated like a stranger by your closest friends.
10 ~ Spend a month deprived of sensory input.
Sample Intensities for Self Rolls
1 ~ Break a minor promise.
2 ~ Be confronted with proof that your self-image is incorrect. (“I’m very responsible; I’m sure I’ve written you back every time I said I would.” “Actually, you’ve ignored me so many months I started keeping track in my journal. Lessee, November, December, . . . January . . .”
3 ~ Secretly gratify an urge that is unacceptable to your upbringing and background. (Spit on a religious icon of your faith, date a person of another race if raised in a racist home, have a homosexual affair if you come from a homophobic background, etc.)
4 ~ Lie to conceal some aspect of your personality from a close friend or loved one who trusts you implicitly.
5 ~ Fail to act on one of your Virtues above 6 because it’s “too dangerous.”
6 ~ Deliberately deceive someone you love in a way that is certain to cause them terrible pain if they find out.
7 ~ Discover that you have inadvertently committed an act of cannibalism.
8 ~ Deliberately act completely contrary to one of your Virtues above 6.
9 ~ Kill someone you love.
10 ~ Deliberately destroy everything you’ve risked your life to support.
Sample Intensities for Violence Rolls
1 ~ Defend against a weapon—shot at or slashed.
2 ~ Witness an act of torture.
3 ~ Get attacked at random. Resist brief torture.
4 ~ Strike a killing blow against someone in a fight.
5 ~ Be present at a massive battle, with hundreds of deaths on both sides.
6 ~ Perform an act of torture.
7 ~ Deliberately kill a helpless target.
8 ~ Resist torture for an hour or longer.
9 ~ Witness a brutal mass execution.
10 ~ Watch as someone you love is tortured to death.
Sample Intensities for Unnatural Rolls
1 ~ Experience a preternaturally strong deja vu.
2 ~ See a creature or machine that cannot logically exist.
3 ~ Realize that a vision you had of the future has come true.
4 ~ See convincing proof that 2+2 does not equal 4.
5 ~ Be successfully attacked with magic.
6 ~ See someone you know killed by magic, without any visible or “rational” cause.
7 ~ Have a conversation with a loved one whom you know is dead.
8 ~ See an animal with human features.
9 ~ See the dead rise.
10 ~ Realize that the reason you and your husband of ten years have never had children is that he’s not really a human being.
Sample Intensities for Helplessness Rolls
1 ~ Unintentionally humiliate yourself in public.
2 ~ Be exiled from a land you love.
3 ~ Fail at something when it’s imperative that you succeed.
4 ~ Get dumped into a pit of maggots.
5 ~ Spend a month in gaol.
6 ~ Watch your spouse committing adultery.
7 ~ Be placed in a situation where you have to either saw off one of your limbs or die.
8 ~ Watch someone you love die.
9 ~ Watch someone you love die because you tried to save them and failed.
10 ~ Be possessed, yet conscious, as your body commits unspeakable acts against your will.
Sample Intensities for Isolation Rolls
1 ~ Spend a day without seeing anyone you know
2 ~ Spend five hours deprived of sensory input.
3 ~ Spend three days without talking to another human being.
4 ~ Be abandoned by someone you love and trust.
5 ~ Spend a week in solitary confinement.
6 ~ See someone you thought you knew intimately behaving in a fashion completely contrary to her normal behavior.
7 ~ Spend a month in a country where no one speaks your language and where you can’t make yourself understood no matter how hard you try.
8 ~ Be deeply, painfully, and violently betrayed by someone you love.
9 ~ Be treated like a stranger by your closest friends.
10 ~ Spend a month deprived of sensory input.
Sample Intensities for Self Rolls
1 ~ Break a minor promise.
2 ~ Be confronted with proof that your self-image is incorrect. (“I’m very responsible; I’m sure I’ve written you back every time I said I would.” “Actually, you’ve ignored me so many months I started keeping track in my journal. Lessee, November, December, . . . January . . .”
3 ~ Secretly gratify an urge that is unacceptable to your upbringing and background. (Spit on a religious icon of your faith, date a person of another race if raised in a racist home, have a homosexual affair if you come from a homophobic background, etc.)
4 ~ Lie to conceal some aspect of your personality from a close friend or loved one who trusts you implicitly.
5 ~ Fail to act on one of your Virtues above 6 because it’s “too dangerous.”
6 ~ Deliberately deceive someone you love in a way that is certain to cause them terrible pain if they find out.
7 ~ Discover that you have inadvertently committed an act of cannibalism.
8 ~ Deliberately act completely contrary to one of your Virtues above 6.
9 ~ Kill someone you love.
10 ~ Deliberately destroy everything you’ve risked your life to support.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Introducing Forsetilafom (Fantasy Friday #11)
In time, even this character’s watchfulness couldn’t see every gradual corruption. As questionable magical activities came into vogue amongst this character’s peers, they almost fell to the same subtle spiritual disease as everyone else, almost found themself transformed into a wrathful brute. The nobility of their spirit wouldn’t allow them to trip over the line, however, and that drove them back into study. The loremaster’s smug grin as this character sheepishly came to the library after some years of frippery and social engineering was a bother, but a small price to pay as the pair’s research unearthed ancient secrets and a creeping spiritual rot. Strengthening all the spiritual purity they had, this character managed to throw off the effect and once more act as the Bulwark of Courtly Virtue to exorcise it, finally. The old Gold Dragon in Strength gives two tokens it doesn’t actually have to Intelligence.
This character’s incipient devotion to study was somewhat cut short as they were given an actual position, with power as well as honor, within the court. As High-Reeve, this character served to decide cases brought to the court in their host’s stead. Though young, they served well, with justice and supreme judgment as such until they decided to go adventuring. Despite some grumbling at their age, the sheer force and easy joy of their presence prevented anyone from moving against them. Nonetheless, they felt the need to prove themself and that was what brought them to travel the realm as High-Reeve Adventurer. The Silver Dragon in Intelligence gives one of its tokens to Charisma.
This character’s final ability score array thus comes out as:
Strength 8 [-2 points]
Dexterity 14 [5 points]
Constitution 15 [7 points]
Intelligence 13 [3 points]
Wisdom 15 [7 points]
Charisma 14 [5 points]
Constitution missed a 16 by one point, giving one point to Wisdom and one to Charisma. Similarly, Dexterity has one extra point, which trickles down to Intelligence.
We seem to have already determined a race and a homeland for this character ~ they are an asimar (yes, it’s spelt that way in my world) from Natsiyaasim. We should probably name them; I rather like the idea of naming them Forseti, after the most just of the Aesir. One’s noble house is important to most of Natisyaasim’s populace. Each raskokabajho who settled there with Blessed Imye gave rise to several such noble houses, each descended from that raskokabajho. Looking over my notes, I determine that Forseti is a scion of the raskokabajho Nosilebo, patron of Natsiyaasim’s various houses of carnal love. Taking a peek over at a Kushiel’s Legacy series wiki, I see that Namarrese houses include L’Envers, Fhirze, Le Blanc, Le Doux, and Lafons. (Namarre is the region of Terre d’Ange settled by Naamah, the equivalent to Nosilebo; the equivalent region of Natsiyaasim is called Nosleborre). Looking at the meanings of these names, I decide Lafons (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lafond) is the most appropriate for Forseti and remove the end to make the name work better with Natsiyaasim’s langauge.
In English/D’Angeline, their name would thus be “Forseti Lafo”, but in the language of Natsiyaasim, such a name would be constructed as a genitive phrase (Forseti of Lafo). I based the genitive construction in this language on that of Sumerian, so they are expressed as a single word constructed as follows: OWNED.OWNER.m. In this case, Forseti is the “owned” and Lafo the “owner”, so their name comes out as Forsetilafom, the asimar (a word that means “pertaining to that which is of the angel”, much like D’Angeline is an adjectival form of the prepositional phrase “d’Ange”).
As an aasimar descended from Nosilebo, Forsetilafonsom gains +2 Wisdom and +2 Charisma, some protection against negative energy, a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Perform (erotic arts), the ability to cast detect desires once per day, and darkvision. As to Forsetilafonsom’s class, well, that’s not nearly as obvious (this is an interesting inversion of Boanerges’s process!) I think looking through the book Heroes of the High Court might be a good place to start . . . . The biggest things that jump out at me from that book are a couple of spells (one far in the future, as its 6th or 7th level) that would seem to entice Forsetilafonsom into becoming a cleric, inquisitor, sorcerer, witch, or wizard. And the silksworn occultist. At first, I was ready to pass on the silksworn, as psychic powers are a Scarhasi thing, but the silksworn occultist’s spells are arcane! For the moment, that puts occultist in the front running.
Heroes of the High Court also reminded me of Ultimate Intrigue, so I’ll check that out now. And the dandy archetype for rangers wins the day! It’s absolutely perfect! Forsetilafom is officially a ranger (dandy). 6d6 roll a dead average 21, making them 41 years old (significantly younger than Boanerges). I’ve been thinking about Forsetilafom’s gender, and I think I really like the idea of them being genderqueer. I often feel myself as an inside-outsider in a society so heavily binarily-gendered and have found that such a position can be both quite revealing and very powerful. Perfect for Forsetilafom. So I’ll average the heights and weights listed for male and female aasimar. Again, the dice come out right in the average; in this case, it’s 2d8 and that gives Forsetilafom 5’10” of height. They’re just a tiny bit skinny, at 140 pounds.
This character’s incipient devotion to study was somewhat cut short as they were given an actual position, with power as well as honor, within the court. As High-Reeve, this character served to decide cases brought to the court in their host’s stead. Though young, they served well, with justice and supreme judgment as such until they decided to go adventuring. Despite some grumbling at their age, the sheer force and easy joy of their presence prevented anyone from moving against them. Nonetheless, they felt the need to prove themself and that was what brought them to travel the realm as High-Reeve Adventurer. The Silver Dragon in Intelligence gives one of its tokens to Charisma.
This character’s final ability score array thus comes out as:
Strength 8 [-2 points]
Dexterity 14 [5 points]
Constitution 15 [7 points]
Intelligence 13 [3 points]
Wisdom 15 [7 points]
Charisma 14 [5 points]
Constitution missed a 16 by one point, giving one point to Wisdom and one to Charisma. Similarly, Dexterity has one extra point, which trickles down to Intelligence.
We seem to have already determined a race and a homeland for this character ~ they are an asimar (yes, it’s spelt that way in my world) from Natsiyaasim. We should probably name them; I rather like the idea of naming them Forseti, after the most just of the Aesir. One’s noble house is important to most of Natisyaasim’s populace. Each raskokabajho who settled there with Blessed Imye gave rise to several such noble houses, each descended from that raskokabajho. Looking over my notes, I determine that Forseti is a scion of the raskokabajho Nosilebo, patron of Natsiyaasim’s various houses of carnal love. Taking a peek over at a Kushiel’s Legacy series wiki, I see that Namarrese houses include L’Envers, Fhirze, Le Blanc, Le Doux, and Lafons. (Namarre is the region of Terre d’Ange settled by Naamah, the equivalent to Nosilebo; the equivalent region of Natsiyaasim is called Nosleborre). Looking at the meanings of these names, I decide Lafons (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Lafond) is the most appropriate for Forseti and remove the end to make the name work better with Natsiyaasim’s langauge.
In English/D’Angeline, their name would thus be “Forseti Lafo”, but in the language of Natsiyaasim, such a name would be constructed as a genitive phrase (Forseti of Lafo). I based the genitive construction in this language on that of Sumerian, so they are expressed as a single word constructed as follows: OWNED.OWNER.m. In this case, Forseti is the “owned” and Lafo the “owner”, so their name comes out as Forsetilafom, the asimar (a word that means “pertaining to that which is of the angel”, much like D’Angeline is an adjectival form of the prepositional phrase “d’Ange”).
As an aasimar descended from Nosilebo, Forsetilafonsom gains +2 Wisdom and +2 Charisma, some protection against negative energy, a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Perform (erotic arts), the ability to cast detect desires once per day, and darkvision. As to Forsetilafonsom’s class, well, that’s not nearly as obvious (this is an interesting inversion of Boanerges’s process!) I think looking through the book Heroes of the High Court might be a good place to start . . . . The biggest things that jump out at me from that book are a couple of spells (one far in the future, as its 6th or 7th level) that would seem to entice Forsetilafonsom into becoming a cleric, inquisitor, sorcerer, witch, or wizard. And the silksworn occultist. At first, I was ready to pass on the silksworn, as psychic powers are a Scarhasi thing, but the silksworn occultist’s spells are arcane! For the moment, that puts occultist in the front running.
Heroes of the High Court also reminded me of Ultimate Intrigue, so I’ll check that out now. And the dandy archetype for rangers wins the day! It’s absolutely perfect! Forsetilafom is officially a ranger (dandy). 6d6 roll a dead average 21, making them 41 years old (significantly younger than Boanerges). I’ve been thinking about Forsetilafom’s gender, and I think I really like the idea of them being genderqueer. I often feel myself as an inside-outsider in a society so heavily binarily-gendered and have found that such a position can be both quite revealing and very powerful. Perfect for Forsetilafom. So I’ll average the heights and weights listed for male and female aasimar. Again, the dice come out right in the average; in this case, it’s 2d8 and that gives Forsetilafom 5’10” of height. They’re just a tiny bit skinny, at 140 pounds.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Scapegoat or not, this alien religion is the one everyone worries about (Traveller Tuesday #10)
Let's roll yet another 1d20 for the God View of the next religion. Another 12 gives us another remote monotheim. That's actually kind of interesting: Azeyrenawt is the numerically dominant religion in the Guild-State (I think) and this gives it two foils: one with a very different take on shared origin and the other with a similar theology. That contrast continues into the religion's Spiritual Aim, as an 8 on 2d6+1 tells us that the faith's focus is more on the individual than on society as a whole like in Azeyrenawt. In fact, it shares an Aim with the Bio-Witches described in the last post, framing ethical decision as providing benefits in and of themselves. We'll see if this religion is more prescriptive about right and wrong than the Barnwells, however.
Oh, wow! It seems likely that this religion is much more willing to tell its followers what's right and what's wrong. What makes me say that? The 5 I rolled on 2d6+1 for Devotion Required. Unlike every other Isheean religion with their monthly, bimonthly, or once to a few times during your life requirements, here we have a religion that demands devotions several days per week! I can imagine that difference alone can build a distance between them and the overculture, complete with distrusting prejudices of them as a brainwashing cult.
Its Organizational Structure ~ roll of a 4 on 2d6-2 , which is a rigid hierarchy with most decisions made at the local level ~ adds yet more strength to both the religion's ethical proscriptivity and its image amongst the rest of Ishee as a brainwashy cult. Despite Azeyrenawt's human supremacist theology, this faith is probably the one considered dangerous by most Isheeans (and some of its resonances with the bioroid identity religion of Scientological Witchcraft probably doesn't help either faith).
Although . . . a 6 on 2d6-3 reveals that the faith's several required services a week consist of formal church ritual with only limited teaching. No, on the other hand, that makes perfect sense. The limited teaching amounts to a dripdripdrip of theological bits paired with a reminder that right and wrong are their own reward, followed by a list of good and bad things. It's honestly not far from the Roman Catholicism in which I was raised. Maybe this faith is descended from one of the Catholic faiths, one stripped of Heavenly rewards?
And yet another reason for the Isheean population to be wary of this faith: a 2 on d6-2 means that it's zealous in its proselytization efforts. Here, we have witnesses going door-to-door and people sitting and/or preaching at intersections, and friends who will inevitably mention that you should join their religion if you spend enough time with them. In fact, I'm now starting to see this faith as some sort of Calvinist Catholic faith tinged with elements from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Calvinist, because predestination of afterlife can create the view of ethics this faith possesses. That 2 also tells us that it's a one-species-only religion, the third on Ishee. It seems that there are deep, deep genetic rifts on this planet. The political conflicts ~ contractual hijinx, offworld wars finding a battleground here, etc. ~ seems to have at least two more societal conflicts joining them: the echoes of the schism in the Rose Brothers and conflicts between the species.
OK, let's work out the size and name of the religion before I begin speculating on what the one-species nature of this religion means. 5 on 2d6-2means there's hundreds of thousands of worshippers. I'm thinking that this will account for most of the remaining Ishee population, but random.org refuses to allow it, giving the faith 243,163 adherents, 78% of whom live on Ishee. And dWikipedia will name it . . . the Johnny Mellis Christian Church of the Blues-Metal Gospel? Naw, I don't like that. How about just Mellis?
OK, so that naming has pushed me to think of Mellis as an alien religion, rather than a human Christian-derived one. I don't yet rightly know the details of the alien species that follows Mellis, but I'll work that out! It does make me think that Mellis might be centered primarily in TCI, which tells me that TCI (which is a captive state) might be an alien outpost. Only, TCI has like ten times the number of sophots as Mellis does, so I think the dynamic needs to flip. Mellis is the dominant faith of the stateless captive state faction, the one that's pursuing an offworld conflict with TCI's masters here on Ishee. Might be time to name that group . . . Our Lord's Militant Mellis Church.
I'm not tryna decide right meow, but that does remind me that there's a stateless faction led by a messiah controlled by some sort of council. Obvi, that'll be tied to one of these religions . . .
The religious landcape of Ishee:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) not yet accounted for
Oh, wow! It seems likely that this religion is much more willing to tell its followers what's right and what's wrong. What makes me say that? The 5 I rolled on 2d6+1 for Devotion Required. Unlike every other Isheean religion with their monthly, bimonthly, or once to a few times during your life requirements, here we have a religion that demands devotions several days per week! I can imagine that difference alone can build a distance between them and the overculture, complete with distrusting prejudices of them as a brainwashing cult.
Its Organizational Structure ~ roll of a 4 on 2d6-2 , which is a rigid hierarchy with most decisions made at the local level ~ adds yet more strength to both the religion's ethical proscriptivity and its image amongst the rest of Ishee as a brainwashy cult. Despite Azeyrenawt's human supremacist theology, this faith is probably the one considered dangerous by most Isheeans (and some of its resonances with the bioroid identity religion of Scientological Witchcraft probably doesn't help either faith).
Although . . . a 6 on 2d6-3 reveals that the faith's several required services a week consist of formal church ritual with only limited teaching. No, on the other hand, that makes perfect sense. The limited teaching amounts to a dripdripdrip of theological bits paired with a reminder that right and wrong are their own reward, followed by a list of good and bad things. It's honestly not far from the Roman Catholicism in which I was raised. Maybe this faith is descended from one of the Catholic faiths, one stripped of Heavenly rewards?
And yet another reason for the Isheean population to be wary of this faith: a 2 on d6-2 means that it's zealous in its proselytization efforts. Here, we have witnesses going door-to-door and people sitting and/or preaching at intersections, and friends who will inevitably mention that you should join their religion if you spend enough time with them. In fact, I'm now starting to see this faith as some sort of Calvinist Catholic faith tinged with elements from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Calvinist, because predestination of afterlife can create the view of ethics this faith possesses. That 2 also tells us that it's a one-species-only religion, the third on Ishee. It seems that there are deep, deep genetic rifts on this planet. The political conflicts ~ contractual hijinx, offworld wars finding a battleground here, etc. ~ seems to have at least two more societal conflicts joining them: the echoes of the schism in the Rose Brothers and conflicts between the species.
OK, let's work out the size and name of the religion before I begin speculating on what the one-species nature of this religion means. 5 on 2d6-2means there's hundreds of thousands of worshippers. I'm thinking that this will account for most of the remaining Ishee population, but random.org refuses to allow it, giving the faith 243,163 adherents, 78% of whom live on Ishee. And dWikipedia will name it . . . the Johnny Mellis Christian Church of the Blues-Metal Gospel? Naw, I don't like that. How about just Mellis?
OK, so that naming has pushed me to think of Mellis as an alien religion, rather than a human Christian-derived one. I don't yet rightly know the details of the alien species that follows Mellis, but I'll work that out! It does make me think that Mellis might be centered primarily in TCI, which tells me that TCI (which is a captive state) might be an alien outpost. Only, TCI has like ten times the number of sophots as Mellis does, so I think the dynamic needs to flip. Mellis is the dominant faith of the stateless captive state faction, the one that's pursuing an offworld conflict with TCI's masters here on Ishee. Might be time to name that group . . . Our Lord's Militant Mellis Church.
I'm not tryna decide right meow, but that does remind me that there's a stateless faction led by a messiah controlled by some sort of council. Obvi, that'll be tied to one of these religions . . .
The religious landcape of Ishee:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) not yet accounted for
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Complications from die-rolling (Design Domingo #10)
OK, so now we know how to figure out if our character succeeds at what they’re trying to do. But wait, there’s more!
Before you get too comfortable with your chances of success, you should know that the dice can have effects on your behavior beyond merely indicating success or failure. We are rolling with traits called Virtues and Traumas, after all! Sometimes behavior takes precedent over conscious intent; most of us have experienced doing something without thinking, and every roll in Middens and Morals contains the chance for that to happen. Count the kept dice that have results equal or lesser than your score in the Virtue at hand. This number indicates whether your character acts from their best self, their worst self, or the usual combination of the two that most of us spend the most time acting from. Your character might not take the action you set out to do when you made the roll thanks to the result; if so, simply narrate a new version of your character’s actions.
Each result of a roll has special implications, and high or low trait values may influence interpretation. The Virtues quantify a character’s likelihood to act in one of two generally opposed ways. Therefore it is not enough to know merely that a character does not feel particularly merciful — the player must know whether the character actually acts cruelly. The binary traits of Middens and Morals define the chances of either. If all of the kept dice are equal to or lesser than your Virtue, write a checkmark next to the Virtue, and your character acts strongly in accordance with the Virtue. The action need not be outrageous or extreme, but ought to be apparent enough to be noticed enough by others, and to make the character feel that they have revealed strong emotions or perhaps even compromised etiquette, strategy, practicality, their word, or suchlike in some way. If there are some kept dice that are higher than the Virtue, but the majority are equal or lower, your character acts in accordance with the Virtue. This result indicates that your character felt, and was moved by, the feelings and values expressed by that Virtue. Thus, if they made a Merciful roll, they feel that they should grant mercy in this instance. You may decide precisely what action ensues within that limitation. Write a checkmark next to the Virtue if and only if the action is somehow significant to the story or your character. However, you may choose to have your character act in the opposite manner: The penalty for disobeying the roll result is a checkmark next to the opposite Virtue. If the majority of kept dice are higher than your Virtue, roll a single d10. If the result is less than or equal to your score in the opposite Virtue, your character acts in accordance with that second Virtue. Otherwise, you may choose freely how the character will act. No checks are written. If all of the kept dice are higher than your Virtue, the opposite Virtue gets a checkmark, and your character immediately acts in accordance with the checked Virtue. If, by some chance, the divide between higher and lower/equal to your Virtue is an even split, 50/50, no checkmark is written, and your character may do whatever the hell they wanna.
The next time your character gets a chance to rest and introspect after having achieved something of at least minor significance to them or the story, look to see which Virtues have checkmarks next to them. For each one, starting from the upper left of the list and proceeding from left to right, roll 1d10. If the roll is higher than the associated Virtue, increase that Virtue by one (make sure to reduce its complement by one to maintain the necessary total of 10).
One of the key tasks of the GM is to decide when an action performed by a character deserves a checkmark as described above. The action need not have been preplanned as a test or challenge, nor need it be the result of a roll. For instance, if a player decides that his character will slay a peasant who has insulted him, the Gamemaster is more than justified in giving that knight a checkmark for both his Proud and Cruel traits, even though no resolution rolls took place.
But wait! There’s even more!
Every roll also has an intensity level determined by the GM that reflects how rough the situation and the action can be on your character’s mental stability. Different stresses have different intensity levels, ranging from 1–10. These are also called ranks. The higher the rank, the more extreme the stress and the more you’re likely to suffer. If your Hardened Trauma of the same type as the one you rolled is the same as the rank of the stress or higher, however, you don’t have to worry about it. You automatically keep your head because you’ve faced this down before and prevailed. Example: You make a rank-4 CrFV 48 roll. You have Hardened Violence 5. You don’t have to roll.
Just like the dice you kept determined whether or not you acted in line with your Virtues, the dice you don’t keep determine whether you lose your shit. If the majority of these dice are higher than the intensity level of the roll, increase your Hardened Trauma of the type rolled by 1. If the majority are equal to or lower than the intensity, increase the appropriate Failed Trauma by 1 instead and choose one of three reactions: panic, paralysis, or frenzy; the roll may have other long-term effects as well. If you panic, you run away at high speed. You can take no action except to run full out in the direction farthest from what made you panic. On the other hand, disturbing events often produce paralysis: indecision, terror, and a general “deer in the lantern-light” effect that persists until the stimulus ceases. This can be completely silent, or accompanied by screams and moans. Frenzy is just what it sounds like. You attack the source of discomfort with any means at your disposal. You can’t dodge or attempt any fancy moves, like multiple attacks on a single target. You just swing or punch or start biting. You act like this until the stress that triggered the behavior is gone. Until then, you must follow your choice. If you frenzy against someone who can beat the holy heck out of you, you are not able to run away. You fight until you or your opponent is dead. While you’re in any of these states, the unkept dice of your rolls have no other or more effect on your mental state or Traumas. You’re too screwed up to process any other stresses. If, by some chance, the divide between higher and lower/equal to the intensity level is an even split, 50/50, neither your Hardened or Failed Trauma is increased, and your character may do whatever the hell they wanna.
Before you get too comfortable with your chances of success, you should know that the dice can have effects on your behavior beyond merely indicating success or failure. We are rolling with traits called Virtues and Traumas, after all! Sometimes behavior takes precedent over conscious intent; most of us have experienced doing something without thinking, and every roll in Middens and Morals contains the chance for that to happen. Count the kept dice that have results equal or lesser than your score in the Virtue at hand. This number indicates whether your character acts from their best self, their worst self, or the usual combination of the two that most of us spend the most time acting from. Your character might not take the action you set out to do when you made the roll thanks to the result; if so, simply narrate a new version of your character’s actions.
Each result of a roll has special implications, and high or low trait values may influence interpretation. The Virtues quantify a character’s likelihood to act in one of two generally opposed ways. Therefore it is not enough to know merely that a character does not feel particularly merciful — the player must know whether the character actually acts cruelly. The binary traits of Middens and Morals define the chances of either. If all of the kept dice are equal to or lesser than your Virtue, write a checkmark next to the Virtue, and your character acts strongly in accordance with the Virtue. The action need not be outrageous or extreme, but ought to be apparent enough to be noticed enough by others, and to make the character feel that they have revealed strong emotions or perhaps even compromised etiquette, strategy, practicality, their word, or suchlike in some way. If there are some kept dice that are higher than the Virtue, but the majority are equal or lower, your character acts in accordance with the Virtue. This result indicates that your character felt, and was moved by, the feelings and values expressed by that Virtue. Thus, if they made a Merciful roll, they feel that they should grant mercy in this instance. You may decide precisely what action ensues within that limitation. Write a checkmark next to the Virtue if and only if the action is somehow significant to the story or your character. However, you may choose to have your character act in the opposite manner: The penalty for disobeying the roll result is a checkmark next to the opposite Virtue. If the majority of kept dice are higher than your Virtue, roll a single d10. If the result is less than or equal to your score in the opposite Virtue, your character acts in accordance with that second Virtue. Otherwise, you may choose freely how the character will act. No checks are written. If all of the kept dice are higher than your Virtue, the opposite Virtue gets a checkmark, and your character immediately acts in accordance with the checked Virtue. If, by some chance, the divide between higher and lower/equal to your Virtue is an even split, 50/50, no checkmark is written, and your character may do whatever the hell they wanna.
The next time your character gets a chance to rest and introspect after having achieved something of at least minor significance to them or the story, look to see which Virtues have checkmarks next to them. For each one, starting from the upper left of the list and proceeding from left to right, roll 1d10. If the roll is higher than the associated Virtue, increase that Virtue by one (make sure to reduce its complement by one to maintain the necessary total of 10).
One of the key tasks of the GM is to decide when an action performed by a character deserves a checkmark as described above. The action need not have been preplanned as a test or challenge, nor need it be the result of a roll. For instance, if a player decides that his character will slay a peasant who has insulted him, the Gamemaster is more than justified in giving that knight a checkmark for both his Proud and Cruel traits, even though no resolution rolls took place.
But wait! There’s even more!
Every roll also has an intensity level determined by the GM that reflects how rough the situation and the action can be on your character’s mental stability. Different stresses have different intensity levels, ranging from 1–10. These are also called ranks. The higher the rank, the more extreme the stress and the more you’re likely to suffer. If your Hardened Trauma of the same type as the one you rolled is the same as the rank of the stress or higher, however, you don’t have to worry about it. You automatically keep your head because you’ve faced this down before and prevailed. Example: You make a rank-4 CrFV 48 roll. You have Hardened Violence 5. You don’t have to roll.
Just like the dice you kept determined whether or not you acted in line with your Virtues, the dice you don’t keep determine whether you lose your shit. If the majority of these dice are higher than the intensity level of the roll, increase your Hardened Trauma of the type rolled by 1. If the majority are equal to or lower than the intensity, increase the appropriate Failed Trauma by 1 instead and choose one of three reactions: panic, paralysis, or frenzy; the roll may have other long-term effects as well. If you panic, you run away at high speed. You can take no action except to run full out in the direction farthest from what made you panic. On the other hand, disturbing events often produce paralysis: indecision, terror, and a general “deer in the lantern-light” effect that persists until the stimulus ceases. This can be completely silent, or accompanied by screams and moans. Frenzy is just what it sounds like. You attack the source of discomfort with any means at your disposal. You can’t dodge or attempt any fancy moves, like multiple attacks on a single target. You just swing or punch or start biting. You act like this until the stress that triggered the behavior is gone. Until then, you must follow your choice. If you frenzy against someone who can beat the holy heck out of you, you are not able to run away. You fight until you or your opponent is dead. While you’re in any of these states, the unkept dice of your rolls have no other or more effect on your mental state or Traumas. You’re too screwed up to process any other stresses. If, by some chance, the divide between higher and lower/equal to the intensity level is an even split, 50/50, neither your Hardened or Failed Trauma is increased, and your character may do whatever the hell they wanna.
Friday, August 24, 2018
But does it always turn out the same? (Fantasy Friday #10)
Let’s create another character with the Three-Dragon Ante system. It’s a test of the reliability of the system: if this second character comes out significantly different from the first, it’s a sign that the system is a robust and a useful one. If every character comes out the same, then this system wouldn’t be very useful, would it?
This character’s card spread is:
Nature: Blue Dragon 2
Spirit: White Dragon 4
Body: Princess
Mind: Brass Dragon 2
Nurture: Silver Dragon 8
Strength: Gold Dragon 6
Dexterity: Blue Dragon 1
Constitution: Blue Dragon 7
Intelligence: Silver Dragon 2
Wisdom: Gold Dragon 13
Charisma: Brass Dragon 7
Much more heroic than Boanerges, with six metallic dragons! And yet at the same time, three blue dragons, which hits a threshold of significance. Maybe this character is from the desert (Not!Sahara? The Scarhasi deserts? Somewhere further afield?) . . . Or mebbe the character has some electrical association. Ironic, since the name I stole from the Bible for the last character (Boanerges) means “Sons of Thunder” in Aramaic bastardized by Hellenic authors. Also, because I’m already thinking about Africa cause of Boanerges, I’m reminded of Shango, the Yoruba orisha associated with lightning, and his wife Oya, who is the thunder, and their rather . . . tumultuous marriage (storms occur whenever they argue, which is often).
This character’s nature is almost as vain, resilient, and forceful as the last’s; I give six tokens from Nature to Body and three to Mind. Not a great sign when looking for differentiation between the two. Luck pushed them, however, towards the speed, ferocity, and agility of a white dragon. My first thought is that, while Boanerges is a preening barbarian dandy (when not the Unseen Heart of the Flame, of course), this character is more akin to the arrogant villain of a racing movie. They know they’re the best and they are overly assured that anyone who contests that will be eating their dust. They don’t show off to convince people to give them whatever they want, they just win always. Regardless, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma all get a token each.
The next card, somewhat sadly, inspires chuckles as I read it. The Princess denotes something very different from anything in Boanerges’s spread ~ that being diplomacy and influence ~ but has (at least for now) a very similar result. Constitution gets 4 tokens and Dexterity 2. I’m going to say that, however this turns out, that Princess in the Body position indicates that this character is devastatingly beautiful. Who knows if that will be in line with the rest of their occupation and reality or just a three-dimensionalizing extra quality? Although, a brass dragon’s wise and very perceptive mind lurks behind those good looks, so maybe they really are a social character who fights in courts rather than blood-mudded fields or the fantasy fucking Vietnam of a dungeon. Wisdom gets all three of Mind’s tokens, in a dramatic departure from Boanerges’s stats.
The adult Silver Dragon in Nurture continues the welcome distinction from Boanerges, as its judgment and justice give its token to Wisdom. I’m starting to get an image of this character ~ a noble of an evil realm forced by an uprising to flee as a child to another kingdom which, despite (or perhaps because of) its own goodness took them in and gave her a home. All that remains of their home culture is a vanity and an unrelenting drive for survival; all the rest of them is filled with the wisdom and the empathy and the justice of their rescuers. At the same time, their noble status among the houses of the realm and the friendship of their host has given them a solid place in their host’s court but their lack of any sort of realm or muster has left them without any sort of power amongst that court’s intrigues. Some years before they came of age, they learned to rely on a creative wit and judicious use of their good looks when those intrigues threatened the virtue of that court, maneuvering the host noble into uselessness and leaving the strong will of this character as the only advocate for justice. It was very Jacqueline Carey. Which, in turn, suggests that the character comes from Aoqina, my campaign world’s Europe-equivalent, specifically the realm of Natsiyaasim, which is based on Terre d’Ange (with influences from the Vikings and a religion tracing back to the grandchild of a Presterjho archangel who fought at a Troy-equivalent with Jedi expies).
Anyway, the adult Gold Dragon in the Wisdom slot gives two tokens to Charisma as the struggle for the soul of the court brings them much fame and skill at leading people with honor and nobility of spirit. That their host showered honors upon them as the Bulwark of Courtly Virtue only deepened the effect. Hilariously, the old Brass Dragon in Charisma just gives it right back. Where many would be tempted to just revel in the glory and the veneration of all the nobles around them ~ and this character was sorely tempted, considering their nature and early training ~ they resisted, and took the position of Bulwark quite seriously. Piercing eyes watched everyone, and discerned when and how to intervene without conflict to preserve the sanctity of the realm. Without conflict, to be sure, as this was a job of glittering laughter, not the dim and judgmental work of an inquisitor.
Of course, vanity could not be held at bay for long. It never hindered their work, but it is true that this character came to enjoy their position, the favor of their host, and the rewards of their good looks. Several relationships ended in tears and anger as this character’s incisive mind caught notice that they were founded upon the other’s desire for advancement, privilege, or ability to get away with some vice or crime, but for the most part, this character was free to indulge themselves in the gleaming giggles of play amongst the court. That old Blue Dragon in Constitution steals two tokens from Strength. The Blue Dragon in Dexterity isn’t so old, however, so it only steals one token from Intelligence, as these pleasures and this work call for time to be spent on them to succeed. Besides, studying with the castle’s loremaster was always yawn-inducing, so the distractions were quite welcome.
This character’s card spread is:
Nature: Blue Dragon 2
Spirit: White Dragon 4
Body: Princess
Mind: Brass Dragon 2
Nurture: Silver Dragon 8
Strength: Gold Dragon 6
Dexterity: Blue Dragon 1
Constitution: Blue Dragon 7
Intelligence: Silver Dragon 2
Wisdom: Gold Dragon 13
Charisma: Brass Dragon 7
Much more heroic than Boanerges, with six metallic dragons! And yet at the same time, three blue dragons, which hits a threshold of significance. Maybe this character is from the desert (Not!Sahara? The Scarhasi deserts? Somewhere further afield?) . . . Or mebbe the character has some electrical association. Ironic, since the name I stole from the Bible for the last character (Boanerges) means “Sons of Thunder” in Aramaic bastardized by Hellenic authors. Also, because I’m already thinking about Africa cause of Boanerges, I’m reminded of Shango, the Yoruba orisha associated with lightning, and his wife Oya, who is the thunder, and their rather . . . tumultuous marriage (storms occur whenever they argue, which is often).
This character’s nature is almost as vain, resilient, and forceful as the last’s; I give six tokens from Nature to Body and three to Mind. Not a great sign when looking for differentiation between the two. Luck pushed them, however, towards the speed, ferocity, and agility of a white dragon. My first thought is that, while Boanerges is a preening barbarian dandy (when not the Unseen Heart of the Flame, of course), this character is more akin to the arrogant villain of a racing movie. They know they’re the best and they are overly assured that anyone who contests that will be eating their dust. They don’t show off to convince people to give them whatever they want, they just win always. Regardless, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma all get a token each.
The next card, somewhat sadly, inspires chuckles as I read it. The Princess denotes something very different from anything in Boanerges’s spread ~ that being diplomacy and influence ~ but has (at least for now) a very similar result. Constitution gets 4 tokens and Dexterity 2. I’m going to say that, however this turns out, that Princess in the Body position indicates that this character is devastatingly beautiful. Who knows if that will be in line with the rest of their occupation and reality or just a three-dimensionalizing extra quality? Although, a brass dragon’s wise and very perceptive mind lurks behind those good looks, so maybe they really are a social character who fights in courts rather than blood-mudded fields or the fantasy fucking Vietnam of a dungeon. Wisdom gets all three of Mind’s tokens, in a dramatic departure from Boanerges’s stats.
The adult Silver Dragon in Nurture continues the welcome distinction from Boanerges, as its judgment and justice give its token to Wisdom. I’m starting to get an image of this character ~ a noble of an evil realm forced by an uprising to flee as a child to another kingdom which, despite (or perhaps because of) its own goodness took them in and gave her a home. All that remains of their home culture is a vanity and an unrelenting drive for survival; all the rest of them is filled with the wisdom and the empathy and the justice of their rescuers. At the same time, their noble status among the houses of the realm and the friendship of their host has given them a solid place in their host’s court but their lack of any sort of realm or muster has left them without any sort of power amongst that court’s intrigues. Some years before they came of age, they learned to rely on a creative wit and judicious use of their good looks when those intrigues threatened the virtue of that court, maneuvering the host noble into uselessness and leaving the strong will of this character as the only advocate for justice. It was very Jacqueline Carey. Which, in turn, suggests that the character comes from Aoqina, my campaign world’s Europe-equivalent, specifically the realm of Natsiyaasim, which is based on Terre d’Ange (with influences from the Vikings and a religion tracing back to the grandchild of a Presterjho archangel who fought at a Troy-equivalent with Jedi expies).
Anyway, the adult Gold Dragon in the Wisdom slot gives two tokens to Charisma as the struggle for the soul of the court brings them much fame and skill at leading people with honor and nobility of spirit. That their host showered honors upon them as the Bulwark of Courtly Virtue only deepened the effect. Hilariously, the old Brass Dragon in Charisma just gives it right back. Where many would be tempted to just revel in the glory and the veneration of all the nobles around them ~ and this character was sorely tempted, considering their nature and early training ~ they resisted, and took the position of Bulwark quite seriously. Piercing eyes watched everyone, and discerned when and how to intervene without conflict to preserve the sanctity of the realm. Without conflict, to be sure, as this was a job of glittering laughter, not the dim and judgmental work of an inquisitor.
Of course, vanity could not be held at bay for long. It never hindered their work, but it is true that this character came to enjoy their position, the favor of their host, and the rewards of their good looks. Several relationships ended in tears and anger as this character’s incisive mind caught notice that they were founded upon the other’s desire for advancement, privilege, or ability to get away with some vice or crime, but for the most part, this character was free to indulge themselves in the gleaming giggles of play amongst the court. That old Blue Dragon in Constitution steals two tokens from Strength. The Blue Dragon in Dexterity isn’t so old, however, so it only steals one token from Intelligence, as these pleasures and this work call for time to be spent on them to succeed. Besides, studying with the castle’s loremaster was always yawn-inducing, so the distractions were quite welcome.
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