Question about cores: how exactly do they work? Do they require specific technology to activate, or are they more magic-y and can just be used "raw" as in "someone holds up a fire core and fries someone"? In my sheet I'm assuming they're magic-y, but I'll edit if I've got that wrong. Also, first version of character sheet and sample day below. [hider=Character Sheet, pending answer to question about cores] [b]Name:[/b] Thanar Zey [b]Age:[/b] 23 [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Birthplace:[/b] Argos, Arcarus Province [b]Current Home:[/b] Zey Manor, in Argos [b]Personality:[/b] Scholarly and always looking for the next piece of knowledge, Thanar's courage belies his physical stature. He is not afraid to venture into dangerous places and bad situations if he thinks there's something worthwhile at the end of it. His near-obsession with cores causes him to be something of a loner, but he is fiercely loyal to the few friends he manages to make. [b]Bio:[/b] Born to the wealthy Zey family, Thanar was expected to grow up and take over the family trade: core brokering. The Zey dynasty have become extremely rich through transporting and selling cores, despite the fact that they never had any interest in the things. Thanar proved an exception, delighting in the powers of cores from an early age and showing a natural ability with them. He would spend long hours experimenting, and quickly became skilled in their use. His father, though not a cruel man, despaired at his son's complete disregard for the mercantile world, and began to resort to increasingly harsh punishments to get Thanar to "stop playing with those damned cores and get on with some [i]real[/i] work." When he threatened a beating, Thanar finally snapped and ran away. Aged only thirteen, he had to live on the streets. The cores he had with him kept him safe, and he continued his research, managing to earn some money from fixing and improving the core technology of passers-by. Six years later, when he was nineteen, his father died. The sole remaining member of the Zey family, he proved his bloodline with the family ring he had received from his dying mother and inherited everything. Selling Zey Cores to another business, he used the money to fund his ever-increasing body of research and development. Delving into the ruins of the floating city, he began to glean hints of great powers beyond what he had already found. Deep in the ruins, he discovered the secret of fusing cores, found knowledge of core harmonics (resonating and cancelling to increase or block a core's power respectively), and forged his Corestaff. Since then, he has run a small business dealing in core repairs and alterations to provide funds for his ongoing research. [b]Appearance:[/b][img=http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/192865/Niles_the_Relentless.jpg] He is fairly short and a bit weedy. [b]Traits:[/b] [i]Core Mastery[/i] Thanar has spent his entire life around cores and is very, very good with them. He can coax more power and more accuracy than nearly anyone else out of any core you hand him. He knows how to fuse cores, even those of different types, and how to enhance them beyond what they would normally do. He can combine the powers of his cores or cancel out those of enemies. [i]Scholar[/i] Thanar is knowledgeable on many subjects, and often has just the right piece of trivia in his head. He can read ancient languages. [i]Spirit Strength[/i] Thanar's spirit is extraordinarily strong, far above the human norm. This is what gives him his affinity with cores. [i]Tinkerer[/i] A skilled mechanic, Thanar is adept at fixing, custom-building and altering all sorts of technology. [b]Equipment[/b] [i]Corestaff[/i] Always in his hand is Thanar's long staff. It seems to be a uniform silver, as if made of steel, but under bright light it shimmers in many colours. It's actually made of cores, worked and fused into a long pole. On close examination, there are strange patterns carved lightly into it. [i]Core Rings[/i] The five rings Thanar wears each have a different colour jewel in. Though they look ordinary, they are actually cores cut down to resemble gemstones. He has a fire core, a wind core, a water core, a lightning core and a land core. [i]Shield Amulet[/i] A kinetic core set in a necklace, this amulet produces a kinetic shield about twice as strong as normal thanks to the patterns that Thanar engraved into the setting and core. [i]Zey Ring[/i] A ring carrying the Zey family crest, this piece of jewelry was given to him by his mother when she was on her deathbed. --- [b]Kage Type:[/b] Kamikage [b]Kage Name:[/b] Sulaan [b]Kage Primary Power: Spirit Share[/b] Sulaan can intermingle her spirit with that of Thanar's to increase his strength and control. This allows him to draw more power from cores with less concentration and danger. [b]Kage Secondary Power: Awareness[/b] Sulaan's bond with Thanar boosts his senses. His senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste are at about twice the level of an ordinary human. He can also process sensory data much faster than the average human, allowing him to read at a dizzying pace and take in the main features of an area in little more than a moment's glance. [b]Kage Personality/Description:[/b] Bubbly and inexperienced, Sulaan often comes across as ditzy, but is actually quite sharp. She is a young Kamikage, and enjoys seeing new things and learning new information. This allows her to get on well with Thanar, who likewise seeks knowledge and experience. Thanar often lets her take over his mouth, as he is quiet by nature.[/hider] [hider=An average day]Thanar opened his eyes and stared upwards. The light core in the center of the ceiling was glowing softly, on morning mode. Groaning, he dragged himself up out of bed and staggered into the bathroom. Washing and dressing quickly, he wolfed down a large breakfast before jogging down to the hangar where his aircraft was parked. Opening the maintenance panel, he checked over the custom engine he'd built himself. One of the cores was slightly out of alignment - nothing a normal engineer would have picked up, but Thanar could feel that the resonance was off slightly. Adjusting the offending core, he shut the maintenance hatch and left for his shop. On arriving, there was a small queue of people outside. This was not uncommon, as he was fairly well-known as a skilled (if expensive) mechanic, and people often came to him for custom alterations as well as more traditional repairs. The day passed slowly, as it always did when there was nothing interesting brought to him. Eventually, lunchtime came, and he closed the shop. Heading down to his favourite cafe, he sat in his customary seat in the corner between the front window and the wall, affording him a view of the whole room and the street outside. He ate slowly, watching the city pass by the window. At the end of his lunch, he went to see the bureaucrats. Presumably they had titles and offices; he never bothered to find out. If they told him, he didn't remember. There was always some problem or other they had for him to fix, and today it was that one of the ornamental fountains had become faulty - apparently a problem with the water cores. Approaching the offending fountain, he sent out a pulse and immediately found the problem. The water cores were not only faulty, they had been installed misaligned. Focusing on his landcore and windcore rings, he gestured, and a large chunk of the plaza lifted up out of the ground. Dropping into the hole, he cancelled out the water cores' effect with a conflicting resonance before gesturing again and opening up the piping inside the fountain. Removing the faulty cores, he replaced them with the new ones he had brought along, aligning them as the previous engineer has failed to do. Floating easily up out of the hole with the aid of his windcore ring, he replaced the piece of plaza, sealed it with his landcore ring and stopped the cancelling resonance, allowing the water cores to do their work. The fountain worked perfectly. After receiving his - substantial - payment, he returned back to Zey Manor and began his daily training routine, a rigorous mental workout thoroughly testing every limit he had. Although taxing, the benefit was worth it. Every day he got stronger, his control became finer, his knowledge greater. And one day he would reach the point where he would no longer need cores, where he could simply draw from the energy itself - channeling, as he had come to call it. After training, he went to the laboratory - an entire floor of the house turned into a research center where for an hour or two every evening he could learn the secrets of the cores. By the time the research was done, the sun was setting. His evening meal was, as always, substantial, to replenish the huge amounts of energy his training required. Despite the meal's size, he finished it quickly and retired to bed. Tomorrow would be the same, a slow morning in the shop - perhaps, occasionally, with something new and interesting - followed by some banal task for the bureaucrats who always had something new for him to do (although there was no denying they paid well), and then finally what he really loved to do - training and research. [/hider]