Sierra

Servants of the Dark Lord

Three days’ hard ride. Three days it took her to get out this far into the ashlands. Whether from sorrow or fear it was too late for recompense. She wanted certainty she could not be found. The resources of the northern marches were considerable and no chance could be taken even with many hours head start. Her first leg, she rode for nearly eighteen hours out of the Godsfang range, making a stopover in some bump-in-the-road nowhere town she couldn’t remember the name of. It was all day from there to the next nameless hole and again here. Here she could take a day and set out at a slower pace.

She pondered the notion of why here? She set out with no map, nor any plan. She just rode west with no goal in sight at first. Yet somehow she felt like this place was her destination, as though she had meant to end up here. She only gave the thought a few more seconds as she rode into town. She and her horse were both exhausted. She practically fell out of the saddle in her dismount and made her way towards what she gathered to be a tavern. She wanted to find a place for both her and the horse to stay for the night and get them both some food. She hadn’t brought much in the way of survival gear in her huffed departure.

It had only been three days but the heat was just barely becoming tolerable. When the scorched ashlands air first hit her it had felt like fire. The mountains were much cooler to the point of almost snowing year round. For what she was used to, she was handling the heat remarkably well. She was handling her hunger somewhat less well, and sped up her pace towards what she presumed would be a reasonable place to eat.

The tavern was felt busy for such a small town. It was barely a tavern to start with, but had a hustled atmosphere to it. The tired crowd was too preoccupied with either food or alcohol to notice her. A little anonymity was never such a bad thing. The power recognition held was not always controllable or benevolent. She found a seat to the side somewhat near the door where she could rest her legs for a moment. She would need to hang around the counter briefly to ask about food for people & horses. The counter was also where most of the building’s current population were, save for a cloaked figure and smallish male struggling to play music off to the side.

Servants of the Dark Lord

I doubt I will have an intro post up tonight (past two days have been nonstop on the sheet) but that shall definitely come in time for tomorrow. I'm now properly excited since this is the first thing on this site that has actually taken and stuck. Glad to finally have something going. I've been out of practice for too long now.

Servants of the Dark Lord

Adrianna

Name: Adrianna Corvello
Race: Human
Nationality/Nation description: House Corvello of the Northern Marches
Situated in the Godsfang Mountains, House Corvello is the ruling chair of one of the Northern Marches controlled by Adrianna’s father Baron Durian Corvello.
Occupation: Warrior, diplomat, Baroness/Heiress (self-declared)

Religion:
“All men must die.” She does not believe Justinian is truly a demigod. Part of her suspects his seeming immortality is an elaborate hoax by the elders constantly surrounding him that creates the illusion thereof to control people through faith. The ruler and diplomat in her has studied the theory’s implications for government. She believes no religion, instead holding solely to her own code.

Appearance:
Adrianna is on the short side, but not significantly so. Her caramel blonde hair is a frizzed mess from wind riding through Nagath … still stretching down well past her shoulders. She pulls it back sometimes when she’s expecting a fight. She seems like a soft, caring person at first from her face but there is a fire in her eyes when one looks closely.

Her normal attire is far too elegant and valuable to have come from anywhere other than nobility. She sticks out like a sore thumb as an outcast from both the world around her and the world behind her, though she has grown not to care. She wears dark pants, shin-high leather boots, a loose fitting top, and parts of her armor all under a brown cloak. She keeps the upper chest piece, shoulder guards, bracers, and thigh pieces on most of the time, as she doesn’t fully trust anything in Nagath farther than she can throw it.

History:
Adrianna is the firstborn daughter of House Corvello. A son followed years later and only a year beyond that, twin boys. Her eldest brother is still four years her minor. Despite this, he is to inherit the kingdom. In all her studies and her fight training and her grooming to be a ruler herself, she was always told that it was the firstborn who would inherit the land. Nowhere was it stated it must be a son. She knew that in all the Northern Marches the daughters were married off yet Adrianna persisted with the intent to be a Baroness herself and not a trophy.

Her parents did try. They found themselves however in a predicament as House Corvello was not in need of any diplomatic marriages. Adrianna knew this from her studies. She proved to be “quite the handful” as one suitor put it. Her hand was offered to three men from other marches. Her eagerness & tact for governance was often considered as ‘overbearing’ from the men who merely wanted a simple wife. She is famously (within the family at least) quoted saying “I am a warrior and a diplomat. I am not some housewife to a spoiled man-child,” after the second attempt to give away her hand. Though Adrianna had evaded attempts to marry her off, her father - ever the traditionalist - still decided it must be the eldest son who ascends to power.

At first she was shocked and could not believe that he would deny her birthright from her. She jumped at every opportunity to prove herself worthy, as her father had promised he would allow. Every task, every challenger, and every single time she pushed herself hard and was the best she could possibly be. Still she was told time and again “Better.” Her disbelief turned into cynicism and disgust that she was to be barred from having what was hers by right. She was constantly angry at her brothers for being given the golden spoon – at her expense nonetheless – while she had to work to her limits and past them in vain to regain her claim to the throne.

Her older adolescent years were far from her most pleasant or personable. In her cynicism she was snappy and perpetually disgruntled by the smallest of things. Her temper was always short. On her 18th, she saw an armorer who fit her for a quality set of plate leather. While it was acknowledgement of her skills as a fighter, she still was unsatisfied. She had spent hours studying politics & diplomacy while her brothers played. Token recognition did not suit her. Even though she felt the gesture underhanded, she was quite pleased weeks later with the end result. Her personal armor set is something to behold: as much a status symbol as sturdy protection.

Her spoiled brother constantly made jokes about how it seemed so plain. Adrianna hadn’t wanted any large plates or elaborate helmets or shoulder spikes and similarly ridiculous garb her brothers were all obsessed with. The decoratives were in the details. A light scroll pattern on the plate and nothing more. Her forearm bracers though were as much a fashion statement as their other two purposes. The armorer had said their plates were forged from the remains of some of the greatest battle-tested armor ever. Little did she know that the steel in her favorite accessory had once belonged to the Dark Lord himself; they bore a power all their own.

In her permanent frustration, she was vulnerable to suggestion. The subtle power within her gauntlet pieces led her down a darker path. Her cynical complacence turned to a stubborn refusal to accept no for an answer. She became convinced not to be turned away quietly. More than once she confronted her father far more aggressively now, at one point straight up demanding she be given what is hers. With each successive denial and with their relationship straining, her father became the object of her fixation, and her fixation treaded into dangerously hostile waters.

After a final argument escalated to the point of guards being summoned – and summarily beaten into submission by a very angry Adrianna – she stormed out of the castle, hell-bent on proving herself worthy, dying trying, or finding the key to claiming the kingdom she is owed by force if necessary … whatever that key may be. She isn’t sure what she’ll find in the scorched ruins of Nagath, but something calls her there to realize her goals.

Personality:
She was raised to be a baroness. She knows how to be a lady of many hats and which face to wear in which situations. She is who she needs to be. At first meeting, she’s cheerful and nice and someone most people want to keep around. This more outgoing persona however does not last more than a few days. With most people, she has conducted her business and is long gone by then making it irrelevant. Those that stick around come to know that her youthful optimism is heavily tempered by a gruff cynicism. She comes across as far more of a realist – sometimes overly so – always preparing for whatever can be thrown at her.

Choose the right topic of conversation with her and you can bait out her darker side. She doesn’t ever choose to reveal it to people, but get her talking about the right things and it just kind of happens. Her goals, her ambitions, her family, etc. These bring out a side of her born of years of frustration and dark influences upon her mind. This is the side of her that will move Hell and Earth to get what she wants. Her ultimate goal: reclaiming the throne she considers her birthright, only ever exists in the back of her mind most of the time. When the pieces fall into place and she grows close enough to taste her victory, she becomes fixated – dangerously tunnel-visioned in fact – on finishing what she started, everything else be damned.

Adrianna maintains strong loyalties with anyone she believes can prove beneficial to her intents. She has no interest in maintaining relationships that have no present or future benefit to her. Her studies in politics and the arts of persuasion & coercion were primarily focused on the types of people she would deal with as Baroness. She could rhetorically twist the arm of a nobleman to get exactly what she wanted without even batting an eye. In the harsh wastes of Nagath, however, the people are far different and her silver tongue is worth little more than pewter. Her powers of persuasion are limited.

Equipment:
Full set plated leather armor – custom tailored. The bracers are one of the heaviest plates and also well decorated with a light scrolling work, hand-etched. These pieces specifically are forged from steel that has been melted many times and traces its origins back to the dark lord Daigon himself. She wears the upper part of the torso armor, the shoulder pieces, and the bracers most of the time.

Read more

Her armor is durable enough to resist a slashing attack from many bladed weapons. Powerful stabs that land in the leather and not the plate however can go right through. While this example doesn't quite look like what I imagine her armor does, it gives the general idea quite well:

She took a horse from the stable when she stormed from her home, taking with her some supplies to help her make it to a small town where she could stop over. She is ill-equipped for spending nights out in the wastes alone.

Skills:
Adrianna is a pickup fighter. She claims no one weapon as her own, but instead fights hand to hand and uses an opponent’s weapon against them. This makes her skilled and dangerous against a human opponent. Against the many monsters that roam the scorched lands of Nagath, she is of little threat and would easily become food. Her armor can resist a man’s blade but not the crushing blow of a five hundred pound beast.

She is also a diplomat at heart. She can negotiate for anything, or appropriately strong-arm for it if negotiations fail. She has studied rule and knows the ins and outs of how governance works. There are a variety of possible applications for this both benevolent and nefarious that she could offer a group.

Motivation:
There is no glory to be had in saving the empire, not in her eyes. She is here for her own goals and her own goals only. She’s not at all sure how she’s going to make it happen, but something in her mind tells her that she’ll recognize the key to her succession when she sees it.

Servants of the Dark Lord

So Adrianna's sheet is finally done, yay. Posting below to get a review and proofing before I drop it in characters officially.

Expand

Name: Adrianna Corvello
Race: Human
Nationality/Nation description: House Corvello of the Northern Marches
Situated in the Godsfang Mountains, House Corvello is the ruling chair of one of the Northern Marches controlled by Adrianna’s father Baron Durian Corvello.
Occupation: Warrior, diplomat, Baroness/Heiress (self-declared)

Religion:
“All men must die.” She does not believe Justinian is truly a demigod. Part of her suspects his seeming immortality is an elaborate hoax by the elders constantly surrounding him that creates the illusion thereof to control people through faith. The ruler and diplomat in her has studied the theory’s implications for government. She believes no religion, instead holding solely to her own code.

Appearance:
Adrianna is on the short side, but not significantly so. Her caramel blonde hair is a frizzed mess from wind riding through Nagath … still stretching down well past her shoulders. She pulls it back sometimes when she’s expecting a fight. She seems like a soft, caring person at first from her face but there is a fire in her eyes when one looks closely.

Her normal attire is far too elegant and valuable to have come from anywhere other than nobility. She sticks out like a sore thumb as an outcast from both the world around her and the world behind her, though she has grown not to care. She wears dark pants, shin-high leather boots, a loose fitting top, and parts of her armor all under a brown cloak. She keeps the upper chest piece, shoulder guards, bracers, and thigh pieces on most of the time, as she doesn’t fully trust anything in Nagath farther than she can throw it.

History:
Adrianna is the firstborn daughter of House Corvello. A son followed years later and only a year beyond that, twin boys. Her eldest brother is still four years her minor. Despite this, he is to inherit the kingdom. In all her studies and her fight training and her grooming to be a ruler herself, she was always told that it was the firstborn who would inherit the land. Nowhere was it stated it must be a son. She knew that in all the Northern Marches the daughters were married off yet Adrianna persisted with the intent to be a Baroness herself and not a trophy.

Her parents did try. They found themselves however in a predicament as House Corvello was not in need of any diplomatic marriages. Adrianna knew this from her studies. She proved to be “quite the handful” as one suitor put it. Her hand was offered to three men from other marches. Her eagerness & tact for governance was often considered as ‘overbearing’ from the men who merely wanted a simple wife. She is famously (within the family at least) quoted saying “I am a warrior and a diplomat. I am not some housewife to a spoiled man-child,” after the second attempt to give away her hand. Though Adrianna had evaded attempts to marry her off, her father - ever the traditionalist - still decided it must be the eldest son who ascends to power.

At first she was shocked and could not believe that he would deny her birthright from her. She jumped at every opportunity to prove herself worthy, as her father had promised he would allow. Every task, every challenger, and every single time she pushed herself hard and was the best she could possibly be. Still she was told time and again “Better.” Her disbelief turned into cynicism and disgust that she was to be barred from having what was hers by right. She was constantly angry at her brothers for being given the golden spoon – at her expense nonetheless – while she had to work to her limits and past them in vain to regain her claim to the throne.

Her older adolescent years were far from her most pleasant or personable. In her cynicism she was snappy and perpetually disgruntled by the smallest of things. Her temper was always short. On her 18th, she saw an armorer who fit her for a quality set of plate leather. While it was acknowledgement of her skills as a fighter, she still was unsatisfied. She had spent hours studying politics & diplomacy while her brothers played. Token recognition did not suit her. Even though she felt the gesture underhanded, she was quite pleased weeks later with the end result. Her personal armor set is something to behold: as much a status symbol as sturdy protection.

Her spoiled brother constantly made jokes about how it seemed so plain. Adrianna hadn’t wanted any large plates or elaborate helmets or shoulder spikes and similarly ridiculous garb her brothers were all obsessed with. The decoratives were in the details. A light scroll pattern on the plate and nothing more. Her forearm bracers though were as much a fashion statement as their other two purposes. The armorer had said their plates were forged from the remains of some of the greatest battle-tested armor ever. Little did she know that the steel in her favorite accessory had once belonged to the Dark Lord himself; they bore a power all their own.

In her permanent frustration, she was vulnerable to suggestion. The subtle power within her gauntlet pieces led her down a darker path. Her cynical complacence turned to a stubborn refusal to accept no for an answer. She became convinced not to be turned away quietly. More than once she confronted her father far more aggressively now, at one point straight up demanding she be given what is hers. With each successive denial and with their relationship straining, her father became the object of her fixation, and her fixation treaded into dangerously hostile waters.

After a final argument escalated to the point of guards being summoned – and summarily beaten into submission by a very angry Adrianna – she stormed out of the castle, hell-bent on proving herself worthy, dying trying, or finding the key to claiming the kingdom she is owed by force if necessary … whatever that key may be. She isn’t sure what she’ll find in the scorched ruins of Nagath, but something calls her there to realize her goals.

Personality:
She was raised to be a baroness. She knows how to be a lady of many hats and which face to wear in which situations. She is who she needs to be. At first meeting, she’s cheerful and nice and someone most people want to keep around. This more outgoing persona however does not last more than a few days. With most people, she has conducted her business and is long gone by then making it irrelevant. Those that stick around come to know that her youthful optimism is heavily tempered by a gruff cynicism. She comes across as far more of a realist – sometimes overly so – always preparing for whatever can be thrown at her.

Choose the right topic of conversation with her and you can bait out her darker side. She doesn’t ever choose to reveal it to people, but get her talking about the right things and it just kind of happens. Her goals, her ambitions, her family, etc. These bring out a side of her born of years of frustration and dark influences upon her mind. This is the side of her that will move Hell and Earth to get what she wants. Her ultimate goal: reclaiming the throne she considers her birthright, only ever exists in the back of her mind most of the time. When the pieces fall into place and she grows close enough to taste her victory, she becomes fixated – dangerously tunnel-visioned in fact – on finishing what she started, everything else be damned.

Adrianna maintains strong loyalties with anyone she believes can prove beneficial to her intents. She has no interest in maintaining relationships that have no present or future benefit to her. Her studies in politics and the arts of persuasion & coercion were primarily focused on the types of people she would deal with as Baroness. She could rhetorically twist the arm of a nobleman to get exactly what she wanted without even batting an eye. In the harsh wastes of Nagath, however, the people are far different and her silver tongue is worth little more than pewter. Her powers of persuasion are limited.

Equipment:
Full set plated leather armor – custom tailored. The bracers are one of the heaviest plates and also well decorated with a light scrolling work, hand-etched. These pieces specifically are forged from steel that has been melted many times and traces its origins back to the dark lord Daigon himself. She wears the upper part of the torso armor, the shoulder pieces, and the bracers most of the time.

Read more

Her armor is durable enough to resist a slashing attack from many bladed weapons. Powerful stabs that land in the leather and not the plate however can go right through. While this example doesn't quite look like what I imagine her armor does, it gives the general idea quite well:

She took a horse from the stable when she stormed from her home, taking with her some supplies to help her make it to a small town where she could stop over. She is ill-equipped for spending nights out in the wastes alone.

Skills:
Adrianna is a pickup fighter. She claims no one weapon as her own, but instead fights hand to hand and uses an opponent’s weapon against them. This makes her skilled and dangerous against a human opponent. Against the many monsters that roam the scorched lands of Nagath, she is of little threat and would easily become food. Her armor can resist a man’s blade but not the crushing blow of a five hundred pound beast.

She is also a diplomat at heart. She can negotiate for anything, or appropriately strong-arm for it if negotiations fail. She has studied rule and knows the ins and outs of how governance works. There are a variety of possible applications for this both benevolent and nefarious that she could offer a group.

Motivation:
There is no glory to be had in saving the empire, not in her eyes. She is here for her own goals and her own goals only. She’s not at all sure how she’s going to make it happen, but something in her mind tells her that she’ll recognize the key to her succession when she sees it.

As a character she's meant to bring someone of nobility into this hostile hellscape - a place you'd never believe she's welcome or even safe - and show over time that she's not at all what the stereotypes would have you believe. Far from it in fact. Not everyone in the Empire has such strong loyalties.

Servants of the Dark Lord

God it's late .... well I won't be getting Adrianna up tonight. RIP me. In any case, she's being written.

Adrianna is supposed to be an heiress denied her claim. Her entire history is effectively a falling out mostly with her father who insists on giving the right of succession to her oldest brother. Her oldest brother is still four years her minor mind you. That obviously doesn't sit too kindly with her. Combined with a little dark forces at work and you got a heck of a cocktail. She's far from the usual type you'd expect roaming the lands of Nagath ... but as you get to know her she's also hardly the nice Justinian girl she first seems.

Servants of the Dark Lord

Well I will write a character then. :)

Servants of the Dark Lord

I see recent edits. This is still recruiting then? I have some interest in poking in.

Imminent System Failure

“Sici … status?” Gasped words briefly replaced the sound of alerts on consoles and the groan of metal in the hull. “Slipstream exited prematurely due to excessive hull strains. Left and right stabilizers are heavily damaged and barely still attached. Half the ship systems are offline and the rest are critically damaged. Lieutenant we are running out of both time and options.”

The lieutenant breathed deeply. The ship atmosphere was thin to conserve what was left of the backup oxygen supply. “How much time is left on power and my oxygen?” Her breath frosted part of her facemask. Shards of plastic and metal floated by, broken off the gash left through the command room. The cold was overbearing. The compression clothes worn under uniform left the head and hands exposed to vacuum when the ship depressurized. “The rebreathers are not viable long term. Your unit has no more than 12 hours left in it. There may be additional filter cartridges elsewhere on the ship.” Sici’s voice was programmed to be stoic and unwavering in combat to keep crews level. In this time of distress it was failing and the computer began to show an almost-mortal emotional response.

“How long will power hold out? What are our options?” Lieutenant Daar’Tuura punched at a half-working console waiting for a report. “The reactor is compromised and slowly losing power. As levels drop, we will progressively lose the remaining systems. We will lose capacity for an engine burn in roughly eight hours and the reactor strain of thrust limits the vessel to one maneuver. Our damaged communications systems are broadcasting distress signals in every mode and frequency available and will lose power in roughly twenty four hours. Lieutenant … I don’t know what we can do.”

“Don’t get choked up on my Sici. Stay with me.” The lieutenant’s own desperation was almost more than she could handle. If she hyperventilated she’d burn through her remaining rebreather filter in twice the time. “Yes Lieutenant,” the system answered, “I can execute a thruster burn to bring us into low orbit, but the remains of the vessel are too structurally compromised to even attempt a crash landing. We can- … only hope for rescue.” The Lieutenant was a fighter but now as she faced her own mortality, her strength was beginning to fail. She nodded faintly, pulling herself around the bridge. The gravity systems had been shut off to preserve power. “Yes um… do it.” Her throat was closing up on her and her vision was beginning to blur. Her head throbbed from an injury she didn’t remember sustaining. “Understood. Are you okay Lieutenant?”

“I’m … I’m fine, Sici. Plot the maneuver.”
“I sense deception and distress Lieutenant Muriel. You should rest.”
“I can rest when I’m dead,” an old phrase she often said to her crew who sometimes showed concern at her working double shifts constantly, now held a cold air of truth to it that rattled the lieutenant to her core, “might be… sooner tha-“

“Lieu-… I…” Sici had nothing. Even in all her computerized intelligence, emotion and compassion she could find no words for a fellow soldier staring down the infinite darkness. With loss of connection to the relay network, she could not resync everything that had happened since connection loss back to the main network. It was the closest thing to death an AI could go through. “I’ve plotted the maneuvering burn. T minus ninety minutes.”

The lieutenant battled the console and her numbing fingers to quickly make a backup of Sici’s memory matrix. She tucked the data card into an inside jacket pocket. Her head hurt more and her ability to see straight weened. “Sici … wake me up if rescue comes,” she whispered. “Lieutenant? Lieutenant!” the computer panicked as Muriel passed out and floated gently around the command room. In ninety minutes the ship would make one final thruster burn into a relatively low orbit that would become its final resting place, with no rescue on its way.

(Alright @Eventua, this has been a bit too long coming but I'm finally done with it. :) You can safely fast-forward past thruster burn as needed. The ball is in your court for rescue.)

Star Wars: The Beat [Stormtrooper RP]

Well it doesn't give me a chance to write for my Sith apprentice .... but I won't pass up a chance to write for the Empire.

Critical Space [ Cyberpunk | Thriller ]

@Skald It's not so much that as what I really enjoy doing in these types of worlds is telling the stories not of the people who fight against the system through some heroic motivation, but the people who fight the system every day just to keep food on the table and frienDS & family alive and out of prison. What does someoND like that do if they have the choice to do something greater? How do they interact with people wgo are battling to bring down the system? When the setting becomes sufficiently fantastical, it's kind of cool to come back to the everyday life type of plot to explore that. Its sometimes refreshing instead of the usual angle. That's just my own preferences on this kind of stuff. You've taken your oen spin to break the cliche which is also awesome.