Glad to see submissions coming in! I'm thinking I'll let recruitment continue for this coming week and then we can see about getting started. Edit: I'll get a look at the ones just recently posted/reposted in a few hours! [quote=@shadowsaint007] Character Sheet up! [hider=The Mundane] [b]Name:[/b] Penny Grenoble [b]Age:[/b] 16 [b]Height:[/b] 5'3" [b]Weight:[/b] 109 lbs [b]Sanctum City:[/b] Siscia [b]Description:[/b] [hider=Picture][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1J5dg1p.png[/img] [i]Right: Ars Magi uniform, Left: Civilian clothes.[/i][/center][/hider] Penny is a slightly short, slim young girl with long, brown hair tied into a long braid, a heart-shaped face, and inquisitive green eyes hidden behind her glasses. A generous sprinkle of freckles decorates her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Penny's physique is slender yet toned from years of work and helping out the family in chores and work. She usually has a cheerful, helpful expression on her face unless she is deeply focused on something (like work), in which case, she assumes an expression of concentration and determination, and generally becomes inattentive to the world except what she's currently working on. She generally prefers practical work clothes, though she takes pride in her new school uniform. Penny is rather strong for her size, able to lug around 90 lbs without slowing down. [b]Personality:[/b] Penny is a smart, well-meaning girl who tries to be the best she can be in order to help the people around her. Always ready to lend a helping hand and a keen intellect, Penny can come off as a bit of a know-it-all, but doesn't intend to show off, merely help and explain. She is rather passionate about magitech, and will explain at length if allowed. However, she is still a friendly sort, willing to make new friends and acquaintances and will gladly help when asked. She's also a hard worker who believes in putting the effort, and does her best in anything she puts her mind to. In many ways, being at Nova Lux is a cultural shock to her; while not poor, the grand architecture and spaciousness of the academy is a far cry from the practically claustrophobic neighborhoods she's familiar with, and the idea of luxuries being not rationed is impressive to her. Also, she can come across as a bit of a penny(hah!)-pincher, mostly out of habit as back home, every bit of cash brought to the house was measured against the bills and necessities of nine people living under one roof. [b]Background:[/b] The third child of seven, Penny comes from a bustling household. Her mother is a sargeant in the Siscia Self Defense Forces, and her father is a local mechanic, granting her a low-income home but a loving family. Her two elder sisters (twins) are couriers in the city, and have taught her how to rollerblade (she's not as good as they are, though) as well as certain parkour skills she's developed further after her approval to Nova Lux, her remaining siblings are not of working age but help around the house. Her oldest brother (a year her junior) does have a peculiar habit of trying to make a living offering his services as a courier, message boy, or open various stalls with varying degrees of success, with big dreams of making it big to rise up in the world. Her remaining siblings are two brothers (twins) and a youngest sister. While the house is cramped and money is often tight, it's a good life with the family not lacking in necessities. For her part, Penny is a smart, studious girl with an emphasis on practical applications of knowledge, having picked up a flair for machine work from her father from a young age and had wanted to grow up to follow in his path. Penny grew up with precious little free time, between schoolwork and helping her father in the workshop, sometimes having to fix something her siblings broke given her skill as a handyperson. One of the few luxuries she's enjoyed aside from the pleasurable rush of a successful repair, is the TV show Divine Magical Maid Altea, a government-sponsored animated show generally designed to be propaganda but generally a decent show. Growing up watching the show, she had often wished to grow up to be a magical girl, but knew the chances of that were slim, so she focused on her other love; machines and magitech, and intended to grow up to be a Magitech engineer when she grew up. While she generally relied on public access terminals for knowledge and reading, Penny has taken to reading and supplementary self-education with a zeal, generally reading whatever scientific articles on magic and magitech she could. She intended to study up to prove herself at the local university, that she might get in on a scholarship, given her family's limited funds. Some time after her 13th birthday, however, Penny started having trouble around the workshop. Equipment she'd work on suddenly developed issues with static and feedback, making repairs and work difficult. Anti-static equipment helped, but the problems persisted. Eventually, around her 14th birthday, the problem returned stronger, and she was sent for a medical checkup. What began as a routine checkup soon unveiled magic potential, and she was sent to a military hospital to confirm that yes, she does indeed have magical potential. That changed her life, and she changed her life goals to become an Ars Magi, as that would help open more doors for herself and her family, and more importantly, allow her to help more people with her abilities.[/hider] [hider=The Magical] [b]Armgaus Name:[/b] Bright Emerald Spark [b]Gladius: [i]Grand Eisen[/i][/b] [hider=Grand Eisen][img]https://i.imgur.com/XubX69Q.jpg[/img][/hider] Grand Eisen is a 6'6", 70 lb two-handed power hammer with rocket boosters that can be turned on or off for additional attack power. It was designed and built by Penny once she learned of her magic potential and was awaiting her transfer to Nova Lux. While a sizable and effective instrument of blunt trauma on its own, Penny can channel her lightning powers into it, granting her the ability to do massive melee damage with lightning-boosted, rocket-propelled slams, or can focus her magic into one big "Meteor Slam" where she smashes Grand Eisen on the ground (or a suitable target) and causes a massive shockwave in a large (10') radius around her. She can also use Grand Eisen's rockets to propel her forwards on the battlefield, giving a couple spins in place to increase her speed before she lets the hammer pull her forwards with its boosted momentum. [b]Parma:[/b] Aside from a change of outfit, Penny's bangs become green, and her eyes become a more brilliant green color, with small lightning sparks visible in them when she's emotional or determined. Her outfit changes into something similar to her favorite show, Divine Magical Maid Altea, with a white/green color scheme, with her glasses becoming more futuristic in their design, more akin to a visor. [b]Combat Role:[/b] Penny's role in combat is generally that of assault, using her strength, speed, and toughness to mix it up close while swinging Grand Eisen to crush her enemies. [b]Elementum:[/b] Lightning/Electricity [b]Elementum Abilities:[/b] Penny can user her lightning ability for ranged combat, firing arcs of electricity at a target. However, she prefers to use her lightning abilities to power up her own physical abilities and attacks, emphasizing an assault-heavy style. She can either boost her physical strength or durability, and can focus lightning into her attacks to give them a powerful shock effect. Her preferred use of her Elementum abilities is to channel them into Grand Eisen for devastating heavy attacks. [/hider] [/quote] Penny seems good! The only thing I should note is that magical weapons generally manifest as part of your transformation. That said I think I'd be fine making an exception and letting Penny using Grand Eisen as her weapon. It'd just be that it becomes far more effective in her transformed state. Untransformed she could still use it to help her channel her magic, but she'd run out of juice pretty quickly. [quote=@Plank Sinatra] [hider=Nicole][color=ec008c][h3][u]The Mundane[/u][/h3][/color] [b][color=ec008c]Name:[/color][/b] Nicole Cognoscenti [b][color=ec008c]Age:[/color][/b] 17 [b][color=ec008c]Sanctum City:[/color][/b] Hasta [b][color=ec008c]Description:[/color][/b] Nicole is a girl of average height, a slender build, and irrepressible good cheer to cram inside it. Blue-eyed and always grinning, her sharp features are framed by scarlet hair, cut fashionably to the bottom of her neck with bangs that occasionally fall into her eyes. Hasta is one of the world's most fashionable Sanctum Cities, with all but its poorest denizens dressed beautifully in casual, flowing fashions and bright colors. Nicole is no exception, although she does her best to dress fashionably casual. Whether oversized hoodies or cropped tops, tight jeans or her school uniform's skirt, one of her only sartorial mainstays is the peach colored tassel scarf she's almost always thrown haphazardly around her neck. Sometimes she'll top her head in a cute little beret. [hider=Nicole][img]https://i.imgur.com/aKDqpZk.jpeg[/img][/hider] [b][color=ec008c]Personality:[/color][/b] A laid-back and cheerful girl who always tries her best at everything. Nicole may not be the most zealous fighter or the most charismatic presence, but she's a stabilizing force among what may otherwise be a chaotic ensemble of students. She exudes a quiet calm about most things, a playful energy often expelled through practical jokes, and a willingness to laugh at herself and others. She's grown up into a fairly privileged life and tries to keep that knowledge in the back of her mind, so it allows her some measure of empathy for other girls who may not have had it as easy as she did. It makes her a solid, unifying presence among friend groups and just a generally good time to be around. Though she plays it close to the chest, Nicole is a deeply idealistic, romantic girl, with notions of true love and eternal good vibes that she tries not to espouse too often. She has a headful of dreams about some kind of nebulous "better life," although what that life would be like and how it would be an improvement over her own free-flowing existence is something she hasn't quite figured out. [b][color=ec008c]Background:[/color][/b] Nicole was born among the upper middle class of the beautiful, fashionable, (sort of) sunny Sanctum City of Hasta. One of the cultural capitals of the world, her childhood was cosmopolitan and largely peaceful, with a large pool of friends across all walks of life. Her parents did what they could to shelter her through much of her childhood, but they were politically active people, often taking up the causes of the downtrodden and unfortunate who were unable to share in Hasta's joys. Eventually, as she grew older, Nicole came to share their passion for altruism. For a time, like most girls, she dreamed that she was a secret princess - some long-lost member of a Duodecim family, someone who could achieve great heights and make a difference in a scary world. Eventually, she had given up on that dream and resolved to make change in meaningful, realistic ways somehow. It was realizing her magical potential at the age of thirteen that helped give her a sense of wonder again, made her dream of stopping Voids and serving as a paragon for all the world's helpless - someone with the power to make people listen. Having decided her dream was worth pursuing once again, in a decidedly [i]more[/i] fantastical direction this time, Nicole applied to Nova Lux Academy with stars in her eyes, and was overjoyed to be accepted. [hr] [color=ec008c][u][h3]The Magic[/h3][/u][/color] [b][color=ec008c]Armgaus Name:[/color][/b] Twinkling Scarlet Emerald [color=ec008c][b]Gladius:[/b][/color] [color=ec008c][i][u]Vedfolnir[/u][/i] [/color] A blued steel sabre balanced to Nicole's hand, with a small, polished chunk of red beryl at the hilt. Its size belies the potential reach of the blade, as combined with her Elementum Nicole's slashes can seem to extend three times longer than the length of the blade would suggest. [b][color=ec008c]Parma:[/color][/b] Nicole's eyes and hair glow a brighter orange, her skin begins to twinkle slightly, and she wears an all-white ensemble of her normal beret, a midriff baring top and shorts, with thigh high boots and a holster. [hider=Super Nicole][img]https://i.imgur.com/dUJYkyh.jpeg[/img][/hider] [color=ec008c][b]Elementum:[/b][/color] Wind [color=ec008c][b]Elementum Abilities:[/b] [/color] In keeping with her elementum and her own breezy personality, Nicole has a great degree of agility and levity, often joking that she can dodge any attack thrown at her as long as she's not feeling lazy. It may not be an entirely empty boast; though not a particular powerhouse, her agility makes her a capable duelist with her sabre. She can also use her ability to make great leaps, bordering on sustained flight if she can keep her concentration - although doing so obviously limits her effectiveness in combat.[/hider] [/quote] Also looking good! [b]Various answers:[/b] [quote=@Plank Sinatra] [@Inedible] just for the record, what exactly are the Six that founded the NOI? Separate entity from the Duodecim, right? [/quote] Whoops, that's from an old draft. It should be the Twelve, who the Duodecim families consider their originators. I'll fix it! [quote=@Onarax] [@Inedible] How fleshed out are the individual sanctums in your view of the universe? Reason I ask is primarily wondering how much freedom/lewee we have to shape the sanctums when drafting a character, assuming of course nothing is contradictory to what someone else has already done. EDIT: Also are we allowed to have characters that are a part of a Duodecim family? [/quote] It's perfectly fine if you want to make up some details about whatever city you choose. Likewise you can also be from a Duodecim family and make up details about them. [quote=@Gisk] [@Inedible] What are the names of the Jupiter cities? I'm not sure if they were left off or if I'm just not able to read them on that map [/quote] I forgot to name them! I've fixed the map, they are now respectively Danaster (North) and Norba (South).