shylarah

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy The issue is generally that you die, not so much the lack of healing (though that's totally an issue as well!) but I like this idea. A lot. ^.^ Even though it'd be fun tension if the only student the guy lost was because Ziotea is a heretical maniac with no control. *shot*

If he's never lost a student...hm. that's an oddity, at the Seminary. I guess either he trains them really well, he's lucky in who's in his classes, or he's good about telling when people aren't ready to move on and keeping them back.

I imagine that can generate a very different opinion of him among those he doesn't let pass. ^.^

Drawing Characters! [Open!]

@Mae yesss, I find that faceclaims and stuff are very rarely precisely what I want, and while dollmakers suck at facial structure and body structure and stuff, they ROCK for clothing. It's the one on [url=subeta.net], and while the items themselves, particularly custom wearables, can cost a lot of in-game or even irl monies, there's a thing in the wardrobe that lets you make avatars with EVERY ITEM ON SITE and it's glorious. I use it a lot, especially since I like making avatars of my characters, and then I'll use it as a drawing reference, and *flailing* It's particularly nice when I can't get the char onto paper myself. <3

Honestly if I get a pencil sketch I do not mind this -- all arts are good arts! -- but you are 1000% correct, copypaste (and undo!) are lifesavers. I cry when I put something in the wrong spot on paper.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy ah, fair enough. Sure, that's reasonable. Although if anyone hit a wall or something in such a way that they broke their neck, wouldn't be much at could be done about it. Maybe that happened once? Unless they're having students with certain powers go up against fully trained inquisitors so they truly don't have to worry about causing injury, there's some abilities that do not lend themselves well to being practiced before students master the art of defense.

OR. Maybe it wasn't a spar -- they expect people to get hurt then. Maybe someone tried to give her a hard time back when she was still really insecure, maybe tried to above her around a bit. She got scared, used her ether, and BAM. He hit wrong, broke his neck, and by the time anyone could get a healer it was too late.

I imagine she got in trouble for that. ^.^ would that scenario be acceptable? Up to you, I can take it out.

Although, you say this guy never lost a student -- does that include in the insane trials?

@vietmyke The other issue is her power was pretty strong even at the beginning -- her difficulties were controlling output as well as buildinup endurance. She'd use it once, and be worn out, and she couldn't control how much force she was using. Meanwhile, folks were still learninhow to defend. So no, she's not all that popular. I did mention that there are younger inquisitors that are terrified of her. Anyone in her class would know at initially she was very frightened, and aside from general mistakes where she screwed up and made an explosion instead of what she wanted, she was at her most unpredictable when frightened, stressed, or desperate. Initially she was pretty shaken when she hurt someone, but within a couple years she seemed to stop caring, or at least got used to the fact that her ether abilities ended up getting people hurt a lot of the time.

Her response if asked is probably something alonthe lines of "becoming an inquisitor is dangerous. It's not like it was deliberate, but yeah, people got hurt." (So?)

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@vietmyke it wasn't on purpose! And...maybe not killed? But she's hurt them badly. Hazard of having poor control of what's basically a magical bomb.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy If he never lost a student in training, who did Ziotea kill in spars? Perhaps that was under the purview of another instructor?

I love subeta's dollmaker

Drawing Characters! [Open!]

@Mae Yee, I'd love if you wanted to draw one of my chars. ^.^ This is so awesome that you're doing this! Any of those below would be lovely, though I've listed them in order from who I'm most wanting art of to least. ^.^ Adn thank you for considering!

Ziotea

official faceclaim || various images || fancy outfit
completed char sheet
Basically, Zt's a little ball of anger and far more dangerous than she appears. She's got explosive magic and that makes her pretty deadly. She's looking for meaning in her life.

Istara

album of references, including a close-up of her emblem in both color schemes
Istara has been around a while (she's a spirit, and long lifespan comes with that). She was only recently freed from a very long captivity, and before that she was a wartime general, and a fearsome warrior. But she's a bit tired of the fighting, and currently feeling out of place in a world that moved on without her. Any moderately composed standing sort of pose, a drawing sword pose, or an attacking sword pose, would suit her. She has dark eyes on the violet side of blue, strawberrish-blonde hair, and deeply bronzed skin.
She actually wears something more like a sleeveless duster than a scarf, for her casual wear, even though the pic my friend drew has her in a scarf. She's never without that leather upper armor and her gauntlets/vambraces, unless she's wearing a metal breastplate and vambraces instead. This includes for her casual attire. She also carries her sword most of the time, a gently curved blade with a simple hand guard in the shape of a D. She keeps her hair tied up, usually with beads woven into it, and nearly always has some sort of circlet. a bunch of poses (should be noted she's right handed, and that lady drawing the sword in the first set is left handed -- but that's the best idea of her sword I've seen in my files.)

Shiara (DRAWN! &lt;33)

several references, art someone did and she has a char sheet here. ^.^ Also some half-done doodles of my own: Shiara || Ainel || Ainel's head
She's young -- only fourteen at most, could be done a few years younger. Best done in some sort of active stance, like climbing or perching or running or balancing or leaping. The curtsey in her reference images would work, or I have a few other ideas. general ref 1 || general ref 2 || general ref 3 || general ref 3

Elian

sketch, pic, and fans concept
in-depth description
Any decently dancy pose works for her. If you look up Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao from Destiny Warriors, you can probably find some pose refs for her fans, though she's more of a caster than a fighter. Kitana from...uh...mortal combat? soul caliber? >.< might also work, though she shows a bit more skin than Elian generally likes to. Not that she won't show any, but I remember seeing Kitana in basically nothing and that's a bit /too/ much. She likes it to stay on, thanks. general ref 1

EDIT:
Most of these have new or moved references, so please ask me for the updated locations if anything's missing! I've tried to update the links.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy I'm good to go~

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Lovejoy *just realized her desire to make a fire-toned char might have determined the eye color of Omestrians* ^oops _{actually I'm not sorry at all}

I owe someone -- a couple someones -- posts, but after that I'll finish tweaking my char sheet and post it for a final review, along with the various character dynamics. It's practically done, just not...organized and coherent. ^.^;;

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Mercenary Lord
>campfire
>Last Embers
uh...did you mean ether...something...we need to figure out what the heck it's called.

The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

@Mercenary Lord nah, because there's still no combustion or flames... it makes my head hurt thinking about it too much, but I think I've figured out how to work with it. *amused* But as an amateur scientist, I have to point out that "something from nothing" on a large scale is problematic, but there actually is sort of a way to violate the laws of thermodynamics irl on the subatomic scale, with negative particles and such. Particle physics are even better than cosmic physics. ^.^

As a note, this vid about the science of Portal mentions it, explains it a little, and also happens to be pretty awesome. I may have watched it through again instead of just locating it. <.<

Personally, I've always figured settings with magic have a type of energy that we either don't have, or don't know how to harness, and it can be converted into and out of much the way the other kinds can. ^.^