Haydrian Cindel

Elemental Monks and Godly Items

This sounds like a total blast, I'd be down to play and help world build where you need. If you still need a Co-GM I've got some experience, though not as much with D&D specific rules if that's what you need.

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

That's not Abigail. That's A-Bagel. The perfect disguise.

@Stitches

Doesn't that make her a cannibal though? o.O

Side note: Show me a human being that can successfully disguise themselves as a bagel, and I will willing call her A-Bagel XD.

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

Haydrian glanced back at the Sedan. Huh. She had a point. He tapped the hood and spun his pointer finger in a circle, signaling the group to take a drive. There was some general grumbling and scuffling as Harry, who was riding shotgun, clambered into the drivers seat. The engine turned over and away they went. He took a deep breath. He could already tell this was going to be a straining interaction. It wasn't that he dislike people, or didn't have patience for them, on the contrary he loved them, and considered patience one of his greatest attributes. But it was just that, well he was busy. He didn't like things distracting him from his plans, and this trip alone was already an annoying enough distraction. While he genuinly found the girl interesting, and was inclined to help her, she was currently a distraction from his main goal, finding the people who sent him the note. Oh well, nothing he hadn't dealt with before. In his mind a replica of him walked across an imaginary living room to an equally imaginary record player. he shuffled through the records until he found "Trance to Study by, By Delta Notch". Mental him breathed a sigh of relief, and queued up the record.

(youtube.com/watch?v=A4lz8EXvOzA
Background music slash video. Haydrian replays this in his head when he's feeling anything from bored to angry. He finds it both relaxing and amusing, helping him to keep his cool.)

Turning back around Haydrian was caught off guard by her next comment. Bagel? He wasn't sure whether that sad of a nickname deserved a laugh or scorn. Perhaps both. Poor girl, the way she pulled her cap down even harder confirmed she was way out of her element. Haydrian wasn't sure how, but her body language somehow blared loud and clear that she had been waiting to think of a cool name for her mysterious persona for months, then blanked and sputtered out something stupid. He actually had to pause and think about that for a moment, he wasn't certain it was humanly possible to telegraph so clearly that amount of information, and yet there was no doubt about it.

He was stumped. How on earth was he supposed to respond to that? She was clearly extremely embarrassed. These sort of situations always confused him, people tended to get so flustered about the strangest things. She quickly began talking again, attempting to outrun her own words. Haydrian decided to let her finish before replying.

One part of Haydrian catalogued the information concerning vibes for future reference, another part did it's best to keep his eyes from glazing over, and the rest of him joined mental Haydrian in his little arm chair, listening to Delta Notch. Ugh. Vibes. She was either crazy or she'd spent to much time with crazies. Haydrian checked himself. He could see ghosts and raise the dead. Who was he to judge someone who claimed to feel vibes?

He really wasn't all that interested in what sort of vibes she got from him, as long as they didn't negatively affect the likely hood that she would trust him. Though it did make him laugh that she thought it possible he was a serial killer. It was the first time someone had said he reminded them of one. Though he found it absurd. He'd literally never killed someone, nor had he ever wanted to! He'd even gone so far as to avoid killing when playing his political games, to the point that he could only count two assassination's that he had ordered.

The part of Haydrian that had been left on watch realized that the girl was slowing down. Seeing his queue, he turned from the window that was Haydrians physical eye and hollered down the trap door that lead to the living room where the rest of his mind still was. His separate mental states snapped back together like rubber bands, though the original mini Haydrian shook his head and rolled his eyes. Who had time for reality when you had Delta Notch? he settled deeper into his armchair and turned up the volume.

Haydrian's mental reaction was fast, but not fast enough. As he came back to reality he realized this and checked to see if his programed responses had kicked in. He breathed a sigh of mental relief. As soon as she'd stopped talking his body had reacted with it's prerecorded response. He'd laughed. It was only automatic for a split second, but still. He cringed a little. It was one thing to be practiced in dealing with other humans, but it pained him just as much as it pleased him that he'd mastered the skill to the point that he didn't even need to pay complete attention to someone to respond properly to them.

"Listen I'm not a serial killer," He said, letting his laughter peter out before it seemed anything but friendly and polite. "Though I suppose any real serial killer would say the same thing." He shook his head at the ground with a smile, and laughed lightly again. He took the opportunity to approach her, allowing his stride to appear reactive, as if it were natural that he would approach her at this point. And it was, but Haydrian knew that it was best to keep his assumptions within his own mind, and avoid leaving them written in his body language.

"You know I don't know if I can call you Bagel with a straight face," He said as he sat down, facing the same direction as her so that they were parallel to each other. "But I had another idea." He paused for dramatic effect, looking in her eyes. "Anonymous." He let his eyes leave hers as he faced forward again, and then allowed them to trail upwards into the sky. "I don't know why but it's just the name that comes to mind when I see you." He said, continuing to stare into the sky nonchalantly.

He turned his body so he was now at an angle to her, and placing his arms on the edge of the tire behind him, leaned back. "You know if you need some help I'd be more than willing. No weirdness, scouts honor." He said making the scouts sign with the wrong hand. "If all you need is money that's fine, but in return you'd have to tell me your story over lunch. My treat." He let his head hang back, looking straight up at the sky with an air of carelessness. "Your choice." He said shrugging his shoulders.

He raised his head just enough to look her in the eyes again and say, "Listen I've been in rough straights myself a few times, and some of my closest friends were homeless when I met them. You've got no reason to be ashamed of what your going through, it's not easy." With that he let his head drop back again. Wow. The clouds were beautiful today. A bit cold out though, he thought with a shiver. He glanced at the sun. Hm. He'd guess it was around three O'clock. Hopefully Dennis would find the people they were supposed to meet. He didn't want to spend any more time here than necessary. Nor did he like the idea of having to get a room in town. He had work to do back in New York, and if there was nothing for him here then he'd visit the Burial Grounds and be on his way.

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

@Stitches It's official, Abigail is amazing! I freaking love her personality!

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

Haydrian heard a tennis shoes scraping concrete nearby. He turned from talking to the people in the Sedan and saw a young girl sitting on the sidewalk. Haydrian was surprised. Not to see a young girl there, after all young girls can exist and grow up anywhere. Homeless young girls were a different story, and this young girls was clearly homeless, thus Haydrians confusion. Homeless in general tended to congregate inside and around big cities. It was basic math, the more people they had access to, the more money they were likely to make. Leaving big cities/densely populated areas for any period of time was literally dangerous for homeless, to the point that it could be considered akin to self harm, or suicide. Brightwell was so small that homeless should have been avoiding it like the plague, not sitting outside of it's only gas station staring people. So why was she?

Haydrian met her gaze, and examined her overall appearance again, occasionaly bringing his eyes back to meet her gaze. She was clearly in rough shape, if Haydrian had to guess he'd have assumed she was fairly new to this homeless gig. The way she sat all of her weight was clearly being kept off of her heels, where she probably had blisters, implying she wasn't accustomed to walking as much as she recently had been. Haydrian cocked his head with interest. The way she was peering at him from under her baseball cap was nagging at him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why. he continued staring at her as he tried to figure it out, eventually deciding that the way the cap was pulled so tight on her head, and the way she was generally hunched in on herself was providing her with a sense of security, perhaps even anonymity. He smiled, it was a familiar concept for him, many of the homeless he had befriended claimed to find great comfort in their anonymity. He'd always found this to be strange when contrasted with the homeless that claimed the anonymity was lonely agonizing.

Haydrian smiled at her and waved, choosing to keep his distance for the time being. Personal bubbles tended to be much larger for people who found themselves in unfamiliar environments, and circumstances. He suspected this girls was rather large at the moment. Best to show he wasn't a threat before approaching her.

"My name is Haydrian miss, what's yours?"

Veda: The World We Once Knew...

Hey guys, I posted a soft interest check for this roleplay about a week ago. We had a lot of interest so here's the application post.

This roleplay is a mix between casual and advanced. There's plenty of lore and information to create super in depth characters and stories if your into that, but if not that's chill. This particular storyline will be following a group of humans from random walks of life within Veda. They start their day just like they would any other, never suspecting that by the end they'd be in unique positions to watch/alter the fate of their world. For any newcomers this is roleplay a mashup of fantasy, Eldritch horror, steampunk, and political intrigue. There are sentient monsters who's strength is matched only by their horrific cruelty. Titanic protectors of humanity whose powers may know no bounds, but find themselves trapped within their God's laws. And of course good old humanity, whose technology once far outpaced our own, but today utilize steampunk technology due to a Armegedon level that reduced humanities numbers to mere hundreds, and completely reset their technological level. Veda is a world of magic, terror, adventure, heroes, traitors, and in need of adventurers.

Intro

Veda is an alternate reality earth, where we humans were Not the first ones to show up to the party. The geography is similar, but the history is radically different. First came these powerful beings called Elder Things. Elder Things can be anything from a giant intelligent spider, to a human with fish scales. Whatever they look like, they are all very powerful and usually dangerous.

They wield a nameless power akin to magic, with which they have performed terrifying acts of power that have altered whole continents’. They had developed their culture and way of living for centuries before man ever came to Veda. They warred with each other, becoming very reclusive for the most part, hiding in the most remote parts of the wilderness, though a handful built grand cities. They never cared much for science, though some did dabble in alchemy, enchantment, and thaumaturgy.

The God of Veda created six Elders before anything of the others, these Elders were his representatives on Veda and he gave them very specific tasks. One of these tasks was to prepare for the creation of humankind, and when the time came to protect them to some extent. The day finally came and the God created humanity.

Humans were born into a savage land without any magic of their own and no real way to protect themselves. The Six saw to it that they survived long enough to get by on their own, and then they stepped back to watch what happened. Humans quickly changed the established order of things. In their normal fashion, they created colonies, grouped together, and began to tame the land, destroying the forests and various wild habitats that the Elders preferred for their places of residence.

Humanity progressed, quickly this time. Technology came naturally to them, and they had no problem inventing complex machinery. Within a few short centuries they had progressed so rapidly that we were as technologically advanced as humans on earth are today, and then we advanced beyond that. Why did humans strive to progress so quickly? Necessity.

The threat of extinction has always been very real for Veda humans, due to the envious and hateful Elders. Peace was a rare thing in Veda before the Humans arrived, and after they did, there was no cooling the ancient boiling blood of the Elders. War became regular, the Elders strove to enslave the Humans, while the Humans constantly played on the political tension between all the Elders to take some of the pressure off of themselves while they tried to advance far enough to compete.

These wars and political games though very real, were never to big of a threat to either side, after the humans figured out how to play on the Elder's pride, neither side willing to invoke the wrath of The Six by over stepping their boundaries. Then something world changing happened.

A member of the legendary Six Elders, named Prometheus, fulfilled his final mission on Veda. He gave his power to one human who he deemed worthy of it. Prometheus has touted as the very strongest of all Elders, surpassing all with his spell weaving and shear brute strength. All of this was gifted to this one human, along with two other things. The first was the task to protect humanity in Prometheus’ stead, as he would die shortly after giving away his power. Second this man was given the power and responsibility to give something called Talents to humanity.

Talents are the closest humans have ever come to being able to wield magic like the Elders. This was the final straw for many Elders. With Prometheus out of the way, and with humans now obtaining magic, they declared all out war on humanity. A period of time known as the Elder Wars followed, ending in the near extinction of mankind. They were only saved by a treaty created by the human carrying the Prometheus Talent, and a man known only as the Mirror King.

They convinced the Elders to leave what was left of humanity alone if human promised to remain within the walls of a city they would build. Elders agreed. Humans built the proposed city, eventually leaving it due to disease, and building another that would come to be known as either “The Kings City” or simply “The City”. The carrier of the Prometheus Talent disappeared eventually, having had no children to pass his Talent on to. The Mirror King however never aged and was elected to be their literal king. He has been ruling for a hundred years now, a hundred years after the Elder Wars ended. This is where our story begins.

Timeline

All Records preceding this time have been lost or destroyed.
1803 - Prometheus
1823-1824 - Elder War
1838-1344 - Kings Arrival
1838 - Mirror King's Reign Begins
1843 - Ban on Talents
1844 - City Plan Revealed (Construction Begins)
1845-1912 - Construction of the King's City
1847 - 1st Stage of City Finished
1857 - 1st Rebellion and Exile
1858 - 2nd Stage of City Finished
1865 - Black Market Problems Begin
1875 - 3rd Stage of City Finished
1890 - 4th Stage of City Finished (Largest thus far)
1892 - 2nd Rebellion and Exile
1900 - 5th Stage of City Finished
1907 - King Begins Plans for 100 Year Celebration in 1925
1912 - 6th Stage of City Begun
1920 - Groups Sent to Explore
1922 - Current Day

Current Day

I know this is a Skyrim map, and honestly it doesn't represent the actual city perfectly but it'll work for now. The City was created in a circle, and they've expanded five times, moving the walls farther out each time. It's divided by those rings of development, and then those rings are cut like a pie sectioning each ring into eight districts. They are numbered 1 to 8, followed by which ring their from. They are numbered from the top one on the right, all the way around to the top one on the left.

The world is at a general state of peace. It has been nearly a hundred years since the Elder wars, a long series of battles between humans and Elders over whether or not Humans would remain free, or become enslaved to the Elders, caused by humans obtaining Elder like abilities known as Talents. The Humans were on the brink of losing when a man calling himself The Mirror King appeared as their savior. He performed miracles that Humankind had not seen performed by anyone besides elders and high ranking S class talents. They immediately accepted him as one of their leaders. Thanks to the treaty created by the Prometheus Cion and the Mirror King, Humans would survive, but they were to remain enclosed within the walls of one city located on the American continent. This city would be allowed to grow of course, based upon population, but no one was to leave it. The briefly powerful humans meekly bowed their heads to this generous offer. The Mirror King helped them build their city and created a system of government and laws. The City expanded over the years and now encompasses nearly a quarter of the area we think of as the U.S. The Mirror King is still alive, he claims to be immortal, but is rarely seen. He remains within his gargantuan palace at the center of the city. He is only seen when performing miracles to reaffirm his divine calling. However as you might imagine there are those that are… skeptical to say the least, of him and his leadership. Many of the laws are controversial as well, a situation which is not helped by the social structure currently present. As an example Talents have been outlawed, the Mirror King claiming that possessing one is like a plague, it eventually drives the possessor mad.

Socio-Political

The unwashed masses, which is most people, are at the bottom of the food chain. These are commonly referred to as dusters, street rucks, and rags by the aristocracy. However the idea that is being pushed upon the majority of people is that everyone is being treated more or less the same. The government wants everyone thinking that everyone is equal. Everyone works, everyone has hard times, and everyone is thankful they are still alive. Sadly a lot of people still buy that, but there is an increasing number of people however, that are growing in suspicion. So while some live in a sense of safety, others are strong critics of the government and some are full on rebels planning to supplant the government. There is still a crime underground, and of course beggars and the like, but they have to be sneaky. The Mirror King doesn’t enjoy people dirtying up his city.

The high class of the society is government officials. The government is responsible for everything.
You might wonder if that's it, if the only humans that exist in Veda are within the City walls… well the answer is no. But here is something else about Veda. We won't just tell you everything about the world. Somethings you will need to look for on your own by asking around in game, others can only be found by listening in at rumor boards we have set up, and some you will need to ask experienced players or game managers directly. This is one of those things. Want more info on humans outside of the City? Shoot us an email.
Same with Elders, the in’s and out’s of their society are to be found within the dusty volumes of old texts. To get your hands on them you can go to the nearest library, or hang around the rumor boards. There are a few documents that are readily available to any player as they are considered the common knowledge of today.

Talents

This section is informational only, characters you create are to be Normal humans, without Talents. You can use Talented(enchanted) items but that's it. It's necessary for the plot of this particular roleplay.

Talents are the only form of Magic that Humans have access to other than enchanted items, which are known as Talent items. Prometheus gave the first Talent to humans and assigned that human to spread Talents to other humans. The ability to give Talents has been lost, but the ability to possess a Talent still manifests itself randomly among humans, and is often (but not always) passed down through blood. Sometimes the child of a Talent will inherit their parent’s Talent, but not always, and it’s completely random. Though there are inherited Talents that can be traced back to a human who was given a Talent by the Prometheus Cion.
Understanding Talents
Talents are slightly different from normal magic. One does not simply say
a few funny words, wave hands in a certain way, draw ruins, or think very hard of what they want to happen. Talents are more like another limb, or in some cases a 6th sense. They are unique to each person, and are simply something they can each do, if they learn/are taught how. People are also born with them, though they may not discover them until later in life. They also operate by very specific and measurable rules and parameters. The first parameter is called Energy. Energy is basically a persons Aura, and in this case only Talents can use it. The more Energy someone has, the power they have to fuel their Talent. Second, Talents are at least partly bound by science and logic. In other words the way they interact with the world has to be logically explainable. If a Talent can produce fire, then it’s because that Talent’s energy is causing molecules to move fast enough to catch fire. Please include a semi detailed explanation for how your ideal Talent does what it does. More on the rules below.
Also, Talents are raked according to their over all power. The ranking system used for talents is a classic one that you may have seen before, going from strongest to weakest it is as follows. S, A, B, C, D, E, F.
Talent rank is based off of 5 things. 1. Energy Level. 2. Focus Required. 3. Range. 4. Effect. and 5. Skill.

1. Energy Level. This energy level does not grow or shrink very much, it stays about the same for a person's entire life. This is what a Talent is fueled by. Talented generally have more energy than non-talented people, though just because someone is an A class, that does not mean they have half a metric butt ton of energy. Remember, several other things factor into this. Energy is important, but what good is it if the only thing the Talent can do is create light? Even if they can produce extremely bright light it's still a very limited ability.

2. Focus. How much concentration does the ability take? Can the owner juggle and do it at the same time, is it a passive and always active, must the owner be in a highly meditative state to use it?
Maybe it depends on what they are doing trying to do with their talent. Maybe sometimes it is super easy, and sometimes not. It is worth mentioning here that Talents Can have multiple abilities. For instance they can be super strong, and be able to fly. (btw more versatile abilities are stronger. super strength is very specific and sounds appealing, but being able to alter the molecular density/mass of an object and therefore performing what seem to be great feets of strength has many more uses.)
3. Range. This one is fun. Why? Because for it to be effective you must use your imagination. The questions in the form give some basic prompts, such as can you cast it as far as you can see, but what if you don't need to see what you are aiming at? Here are two examples. Gallet is a talent who can form shadow animals. His energy literally takes the form of tangible creatures, his range is very small, he can only create them 2 feet in front of him. That said, it doesn’t matter all that much because he can pre program them with a mission as he creates them . So he can create a tiger and tell it to go hunt him some food. Now the tiger 2 feet in front of him can leave his sight and go hunt completely anatomically. Once formed the beasts are not connected to Gallet at all, aside from their programming. of course this means he must have detailed programming. So he can just form animals and wait for them to come back to him. Low range? Or long range? technically long range. Cinder is another example of creative range. She can only cast her ability as far as she can see. However she does not need to see her target with her eyes. She is able to locate people thru their emotions which she can sense. So someone behind a brick wall is anything but safe from her, because distance wise he is in range and she can sense him instead of seeing him.
4. Effect. The skies basically the limit. You'll see people who bend and use lighting like it's a piece of fabric, pyromancers who can track enemies using heat signatures, people who can force objects to simply stop existing and a lot more.
5. Skill. How good is the Talent at using their ability? Of the 5 factors this one is one of the few that will actually change. As they get better at using it, the more they will be able to do with it. For instance the Talent Cinder can aim her ability using her other ability to sense emotions. But just because she can do that does not mean she knows that yet.

Do's and Don'ts
Donts
1:no resurrection. The energy type usage in this world does not allow for things like re-creating or catching a soul, it just can’t happen. However animating a corpse the same way you would a puppet or such a thing is allowed. It must however comply with the standard explanation for how Talents here work.
2: Talents may not be overly powerful. There are no perfect Talents in this world, no one just automatically has the upper hand. Even if someone has a ridiculous Talent there will either be a good reason for it (aka it aids over all plot line, they were able to tell a very good background story earning them that power if they asked for it etc, all determined by the game managers.) or they will have severe handicaps. That does not mean people cannot become more powerful if they try, but the main point of it is to avoid people trying to just bludgeon everyone with brute force and encourage them to develop finesse. We hope this will provide for a more entertaining game and story over all.

Do’s
1: There isn’t much to say here really, everything else is free game. If you can imagine it and can describe in a logical way how your powers work, then by all means go ahead.

Character Creation

Players will create denizens of the city. Character may not be talents, and they may not be high ranking government officials. They can be police man, or low ranking officials though. Otherwise you can be pretty much anything. There are criminal organizations, stores and shops, inns, rebellion's, take your pick. Don't worry to much about staying within the cannon of those organizations for now, after you submit your character sheet we will message you with any tweaks that need to be made. As far as storyline you need to know goes, there isn't really much. Most of it will remain secret for plot purposes. Decide your role in the city, your first post will be about you going about your normal day, and after charcters are accepted we'll let you know more.

Example

Haydrian Cindel

Age: 34

Appearance:
6'3", thin, shoulder length dark hair. Always in dark clothing. Green eyes, hollow cheeks.

Items: Talent dagger (when activated it's tip leaves a trail of energy that reflects light), notebook, flint and steel, whetstone, retractable spy glass (attached to his shoulder, when he pulls at the string that runs down his right arm it extends putting a spy glass in front of his eye.), crossbow, spring loaded knife thrower, throwing knives, short sword, steam gun (this gun is mostly used for torture, though it can be deadly. It produces a stream of steam so hot it produces third degree burns on contact.) coin purse, keyring.

Residence: Has no official residence, constantly on the move, though he has hideouts in ever city district, except the center ring.

Occupation: Assassin and Commando

Bio: (this ones a bit short, but it's just an example) Haydrian's past is largly shrouded in mystery, even to him. The earliest memories he has are of scavenging for food in City streets. He grew up never knowing parents, and found himself in gang's before he knew what hit him. One day they were pulling a job, robbing a local store owner. The store owner was killed brutally, and without cause. Haydrian was shocked. He left the gang he was with and began investigating. He discovered the gang he was in was actually a puppet organization working for the government. Haydrian made it his personal vendetta to tear the government down brick by brick. He's still at it today, and he's a force to be reckoned with.

Character Traits (at least six):
Vengeful
Short Temper
Analytical
Patient
Insightful
Trustworthy

Skills: (8 max for now)
Strategic Genius
Stealth
Dagger Combat
Sword Combat
Interrogation

Veda: The World We Once Knew...

Here and still in, reading and a few ideas are coming to mind. Main one stuck in head is an illegal smuggler/courier/criminal of sorts with the talent to bend light around him or her to become invisible.

@Fallenreaper

I like the criminal aspect a lot, the Talent works though it'd be a pretty low class. You could have an item that when activated does the invisibility thing if you want. Also remember your character actually needs to start out Not having a Talent. Just for plot purposes.

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

@Haydrian Cindel since we're doing our own thing, would you be okay doing more than one round before the GM replies so we can join the group faster?

@Stitches

Yeah, that's totally fine with me. From your post it sounds like Abigail isn't likely to speak to Haydrian first right? I was thinking we could start with Haydrian noticing her staring, and trying to talk to her. That'd easily be in character for him. I'm going to go re-read her profile again, but how likely is she to be trusting of charismatic people?

(Edit)
Oh my gurshe, I just looked up the song you have Abigail singing. I'd assumed it was going to be a Johnny Cash song or something, but the only one I've found is by The Wonder Kids, and it sounds like it belongs to a religious Teletubbies show or something. Maybe Barny XD

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

@Letter Bee As far as Haydrian goes though, I wouldn't worry about giving him something to do. I intend to bring him in really soon, character wise he just isn't going to walk in there on his own until he knows it's safe. If it's chill with you he'll probably just wait at the gas station I left him at until Dennis calls to give him the a-ok.

I do have a question though, does Gavin know what we look like? Is he at all likely to believe that Dennis is Haydrian, or does he see right through that?

Dawn of a New Age - The Return of Magic v3

@Haydrian Cindel A. What'd you do to Colin Farrell? And B. "...her attempting to drown a devil in a pond so she could keep his pitchfork". I really appreciate how you described Kai. Hella fantastic.

@silvermist1116

Hah! tbh I didn't even know who the guy was. I read Collin Farrel and I was like... what is silver talking about? Then I was like OOOHHHHH the picture.
And thanks! I wanted to provide some imagery that captured the level of distrust you describe her having, I was worried it was going to bomb though.