Blight [Dark Faerytale/Steampunk]

[Mischief]

Oooh, a wyldling would be fun to play, with such a broken mind.

[glibglobb]

@Mischief We'll have a wyldling character I think, the player and I are still hammering out the details.

[Mischief]

@glib - I sure hope so, it could be interesting, to say the least.

[Elsa]

My character sheet is finished and ready for your perusal.

[Ichthys]

Hey, so I'm considering making a Wisp/Ghostly type character, except with some changes to make it less incorporeal. Basically, I'm imagining him to be a distant relative of pixies, but I need help in choosing an appearance. The choices are limited, but it's actually difficult to find quality images of these things, especially when you're trying to find something that could be male - seriously, there are hardly any males (or ones ambiguous enough to be interpreted as males) that don't look like death incarnate. Anyways, please let me know which ones will fit best into the RP, whether its all of them, none of them or just one. Oh, and if you find any better ones, please let me know, and in case someone wants to help with my search the criteria is as follows: the character should be able to be distinguished as a male, it must be ghostly somehow (whether through translucency, wispiness, whiteness or something else) and it shouldn't look too 'evil'.

Subpar Images

[Rata Tat Tat]

Good lord, all this time and I've only got a draft to throw up. I'll probably make some more edits, but this way you can at least tell me if the concept works. It's...a bit unorthodox.

Needle

Name: Alcibiades Wystragaunt
Alias: Needle
True Name: Balbaetrigaust
Race: Pixie
Court: Unseelie by association.



Background:

Pixies. They swarm and they scrabble, scramble and screw and in the end they flutter about like moths to the greenlight before ending their brief, hectic, violent lives beneath a boot, a hand, or in the net to some lab or another. Barely fae, let alone human, without purpose or function the feral things live out their days as much as vermin as fae.

Or at least, that's how it usually goes.

No one is really sure when Needle showed up or how. It was just a name that came with some fairy dust--”From Needle, baby”--or even a girl for a night. Then it turned into a name you heard at the tavern, where run down men muttered that they heard someone “went to visit Needle” or “made a little friend”. Then all of a sudden one of the cloth merchants was paying a troll for a needle that he tucked into the brim of his cap. And suddenly, when a wyrdling hustling a merchant with a needle in his hat winds up with pincushion for eyes, Needle stopped being such a little friend.

Needle is not like other pixies, but he can't help what he is. A naturally violent temper makes him dangerous and a vicious, consuming charm draws others to him. A great patron of entropy, he draws to him anyone who can feel the allure of just letting go and uses them until there's nothing left. When they've burned out, there's always another to take their place, but his disposable friends and accomplices have bought him a surprising amount of sway and muscle when he needs it.

And he does, because word on the street is that Needle wants anything he can get his hands on that has to do with sorcery, the really old stuff. Sorcery, Alchemy, Magic, Glam, bring it to Needle and you'll get what you want for it.

No one is sure that giving it to him is a good idea, but he's more of it already than anyone guesses,

Possessions:
Needle himself possesses little. Whatever his latest clothes are worn ragged, a tiny crown worn ironically and a long, thin needle are all he tends to have on him. What he has instead are contacts, people who owe him things or hold things for him or people on his payroll. And what's theirs can, and has before, very quickly become his when necessary.

The only things he truly cares about, that he keeps for himself and hides away where no one else can watch him, are the scrolls and books about sorcery and fae magic he's managed to acquire.

Talents:
Needle is an intensely social predator, a skilled liar and an expert manipulator. He replaces empathy with desire and is very good at manipulating what others want for his own ends. As a pixie he's quick and dexterous and quiet, of course, and more than capable of going unnoticed, but his true talent is his inability to forget. His memory is eidetic, to see is to know—and he has seen more than enough alchemical tricks and odd little secrets to know more than he really ought to.

Glamer:
Needle is, of course, an adept flier, capable of controlling his own natural weight and buoyancy to impressive degrees. He's had plenty of energy to practice, pumping himself up as much with the drugs his clients use as anything else--when you're a pixie, it doesn't take much. He's also learned to do the same with others, and for brief periods of time he can, with enormous effort, tug even something as large as a troll up into the air with him.

Though he constantly explores the old magics, the old ways for something, anything that will give him the desperate edge he needs over the wretched humans, he's never had an ounce of success.

[cthulu]

@Rata I love Needle!!!!
@Ichya I think the two last ones or first one are the best choices, I've seen some ghostly things before and can probably find a few later but do you want this sort of 'chibi' cute style or would relatively...realistic? Be okay too?

[cthulu]

Here's a few I found.

Ghost images

My personal favourite is this

[Ichthys]

It doesn't have to be chibi or cute at all. Those are just the only ones I could find. The criteria I listed is really all I want.

Also some of those images are nice, except I don't really like photographs all that much, considering the art style that dominantes the OP and characters so far.

[Hank]

I'm reminded of a Dota 2 hero formerly known as Wisp, currently called Io. Look it up.

[Ichthys]

Thanks for the help, both of you. Io's appearance works great for my idea, so my hat tips to you, Hank. Yay! :

[glibglobb]

Sorry for the delay, Mahz was battling the site's demons all today.

@Elsa Excellent submission, very detailed. Accepted

@Rata Interesting. I like it but there is one problem. Fae in this story are limited to the magic instinctual for their kind. Only humans who have no inherited magic can even begin to 'channel' magic and even for them the results are chaotic and unpredictable.

There's a really good analogy in cellulose. If a cow eats a lot a fiber as in grass, it can digest it and use the energy. It can use that energy to make cow parts, horns, utters, big slimy tongues, etc. Fae and other magical creatures are like cows. They have the capacity to digest magic but their body can only use it in limited ways. Just like a cow can't turn the grass it eats into bird wings, a pixie can't use the magic she ingests to cast a fireball. Now when a human eats a ton of grass, their body can't do anything with the cellulose because they don't have a ruminant stomach. Instead of digesting it, they run to the bathroom and have explosive diarrhea. Wyldlings who drink mana or snort fairy-dust are like this and the explosive diarrhea is analogous to wyld magic.

There, a metaphor which matches the setting in terms of ickiness.

Don't worry if this doesn't completely make sense yet. Fully explaining it would involve major spoiler. Just trust me, it all will make perfect sense eventually.

@Ichthys I like the idea of wisps and I think we can make it work. Here's some things to remember when you write them up. One, magical effects should be limited. Glowing or turning intangible is a magical effect, a glamer, and it should tire them and burn energy. They can't stay in that state forever. Law of Conservation of Magic and all that. Two, fae races should always be at least vaguely humanoid, so you could have their glamer allow them to turn into a ball of light for limited time, but that can not be their natural form. Hope this helps and welcome. Awesome to see so much interest!

[Elsa]

glibglobb said
@Elsa Excellent submission, very detailed. Accepted

yesssss, it has been a while since I have written up a character sheet for a roleplay so I was expecting a list of things that needed changing or adding to.

[glibglobb]

That last post made me realize I completely left out the very basic issue of food. I added this to the intro and I suggest folks give it a read. It should be entertaining. Basically it's a play on the old myth that eating the food in fairyland will enchant humans and keep them from leaving. The fae basically must consume magical foods in order to survive and fuel their various glamers. Fae who don't get this magic basically starve, an affliction termed 'the wasting.'

As far as the game goes, I want to give new folks plenty of time to finish up their characters, but a formal OOC will be up soon. IC will follow sometime this week. For people waltzing in late to the party or those still working on characters, don't worry there's no cut-off date or anything. If you come in late, you come in late. That's fine. What story introduces every major character in the first few pages, after all.

[Ichthys]

glibglobb said @Ichthys I like the idea of wisps and I think we can make it work. Here's some things to remember when you write them up. One, magical effects should be limited. Glowing or turning intangible is a magical effect, a glamer, and it should tire them and burn energy. They can't stay in that state forever. Law of Conservation of Magic and all that. Two, fae races should always be at least vaguely humanoid, so you could have their glamer allow them to turn into a ball of light for limited time, but that can not be their natural form. Hope this helps and welcome. Awesome to see so much interest!

Don't worry. Already had all of this in mind. The glamer, which I've named transcendence, allows Wisps to 'transcend' the usual laws of physics, which is how they gain the ability to be all ghostly and intangible, although only for a very short amount of time (thinking a minute max, in ideal conditions). They also glow while using their glamer, just as a side effect. I'm trying to think of an actual semi-realistic reason as to why they glow. I'm thinking that, similar to Pixies, when they activate their glamer they give off a substance, only not Pixie dust. Instead, it's gaseous and a phosphor that is charged by [insert something that would work here] which is what creates the glow. All-in-all, the glow is just for aesthetics.

The problem lies not in the appearance of the species as a whole, but on my character only. I mean, Io seems great for when their glamer is activated, but for the actual appearance, I think something similar to a pixie would work. Only a bit more 'celestial' in appearance, in order for their transcended form to make a bit more sense. Perhaps something like this, this or this would work fine. I don't think wings are necessary though, as they wouldn't be pragmatic or functional, as their glamer isn't like that of pixies. Unfortunately, I can hardly find anything that could be a male, and yes, I desire to character to be male. If I can't find anything good though, I'll just resort to describing it, but lo, the downfall of a written image is that words can't articulate what's in the mind well enough; there will always be a measure of interpretation with each reader.

Anyways, that second paragraph is basically the thought process of what led to the first choices I was able to get.

~~~

Actually, change of plans. Changing the character a bit to be a Shade or a More Traditional-type Ghost. So much easier now. :p

~~~

So here's my idea for the species, which I guess I'll call Wraiths or Reapers or something. The name can be decided later.
- The species looks completely humanoid or elven in most respects, except for odd coloured eyes (red, black, white, etc.) and unusually light or dark skin. Usually, women are white and men are black, although that isn't always the case. Other features, such as hair and hair colour and overall body composition, vary among them.
- Wraiths/Reapers/Ghosts/whatever were loyal to both the Seelie and Unseelie court.
- In the old times, they took a variety of roles, the most common roles being: spies, informants, messengers, strategists and general assistants for the court. Now, under human rule, they are still used as espionage units, often forced against their will to rat out on their own kind. Those that are not forced to betray the Fae are employed as menial tools, often being forced to use their glamer to do things that humans cannot. Therefore, most of them have poor occupations as servants and maids, barkeeps and house cleaners, if they aren't succumbed to living in metal cages, so that they are around whenever a human needs their assistance.
- Their glamer, called transcendence, makes them incorporeal for a very short amount of time, which allows them to achieve normally impossible feats of physics, such as intangibility, flight and the ability to phase through solid objects. The most gifted sorcerers can selectively and seamlessly make different parts of themselves transcended or not, allowing for a multitude of uses, and even the rarest and most powerful sorcerers can also transcend other items with them. Unfortunately, the glamer is not effective against metals like steel, as is the weakness of all Fae. Therefore, not only is their energy drained (as is the usual reaction of any Fae creature with metals) but their glamer is also rendered ineffective. In fact, some of them are equipped with metal restrains that keep them from being able to even activate their glamer, as well as providing constant torture, so that they don't escape when working. In ideal situations, they are only capable of being 'transcended' for about a minute. In the blight, the usual one can only be transcended for a few seconds, due to the lack of magic.

What are your thoughts?

[glibglobb]

Ichthys said What are your thoughts?

You were going strong until you went all gothic on me and decided to make them into ghosts. A race needs to be loosely based on a traditional fairy archetype and Wraiths and Ghosts are not fairies. The glamer functions fine for something like a will-o-wisp or sprite, though, and you have the concept of how faery magic works down pat. On a side note, your sig is awesome.

We should move this to PM because it could clog up the thread and, more importantly, explaining why something can or can't work often involves spoiler that other players don't need to read.

[Canoli]

Interested. I was thinking about a human being in the Blight at first. Possibly an individual who hates the fae (much like most humans) and whom as a punishment was sentenced to spend the rest of his possibly short life among them. Seeing the gray elf/human that is already in the RP, however, I might go with a troll instead, as it seems a better addition to the cast.

[glibglobb]

Canoli said Interested. I was thinking about a human being in the Blight at first. Possibly an individual who hates the fae (much like most humans) and whom as a punishment was sentenced to spend the rest of his possibly short life among them. Seeing the gray elf/human that is already in the RP, however, I might go with a troll instead, as it seems a better addition to the cast.

I always encourage people to play what they want, but I think you're right about a troll being a better balance to the cast at this moment.

[cthulu]

Yay Troll! :D can't wait we've got such a diverse crowd. Is the GM goign to be having a main NPC (aka one that follows us around?) Or simply popping in now and then with NPC's and plot guidance?

[glibglobb]

@cthulu No, I'm old school. I never play characters in my own game. My character is the world and to play it well I need to stay objective. This is not to say there will not be important NPCs in the form of both allies and villains.