Okay guys, the first IC post is up. To help everyone keep track of where everyone is, please use this handy tag at the beginning of your post.
[color=???][b]Character Name:[/b][/color] [color=???][b]Time of Day:[/b][/color] [color=???][b]Location:[/b][/color] [color=???][b]Interacting with:[/b][/color] *Mention anyone that you're interacting with like this: CharacterName([@Mention])*
I know I probably should have thought about this earlier, but do you guys want to have uniforms for novices or would you rather not have a dress code?
The early morning sunlight was reflected off the pale stone walls and brilliantly colored roofs that made up the city of Alsijan so that it appeared to shimmer radiantly, fully deserving of its title as the jewel of the sea. Though the day was still young, the city was already blanketed by a humid heat that was only somewhat lessened by the occasional salty breeze blowing in from the sea. Despite the warmth, the wide, cobblestone-paved streets of the city were filled to the brim with people hurrying on about their business, their activity lending the city a cacophonous hum that made the city seem as though it were almost alive.
As usual, the port was filled with hundreds of ships, their masts swaying rhythmically as the wind and waves rocked them. These ships came in every shape and size imaginable, and had come to the city of Alsijan for as wide a variety of reasons. A great many of them were the ships of merchants who had been drawn to the city by the promise of wealth, while some belonged to crews that went out into deeper waters to catch fish and other seafood. Still, some ships were for transporting people to different ports, often bringing with them people who were looking for a fresh beginning in the bustling city.
At the headquarters for the Mage Guild of Alsijan as business largely proceeded as usual. Most of the novice initiates were occupied with attending classes that would help them master their abilities or performing chores that helped keep the Guild running smoothly and tidily. The more experienced members of the Guild kept themselves occupied with business relating to the various jobs that the Guild was tasked with completing, though a significant number decided to serve the Guild by teaching classes and supervising novices instead. Still, a great many of the people that passed through the main doors of the Guild were outsiders that came to the Guild in order to request help dealing with issues that were magical in nature.
Character Name: Anyu Time of Day: Early morning Location: The primary guild hall and then the dormitory Interacting with: No one
Squinting slightly due to the bright sunlight reflecting off the nearby buildings, Anyu surveyed her surroundings nervously as the wagon she was riding came to a gentle stop outside of the Guild’s stable. Her observations were cut short, however, when Malvin, her Sun Elf escort from the Guild, instructed her to dismount and follow him inside through the large wooden doors of the main building. Afraid of getting into trouble and being left behind, Anyu quickly climbed down from the wagon and hurried after Malvin before he got too far away.
Once inside, Malvin made straight for the large desk on the other side of the entrance hall and began talking with a thin human man that seemed to be working behind it. A few of the people who appeared to be waiting in line at the other end of the desk scowled at Malvin’s back as he passed, but the tall Sun Elf seemed completely unaware of their existence as he talked with the receptionist, removing some important-looking papers from his bag and handing them to the man on the other side of the desk. The conversation only lasted for a few minutes before Malving was saying farewell to the receptionist and heading towards a large set of stairs behind the desk.
Before Anyu could question what she was supposed to do next, the man behind the desk came around and motioned for her to follow him back outside. ”Your name is… Anyu, correct?” the man said as they walked through the doors of the main building, briefly glancing at the papers he had been given by Malvin. At her slight nod, he continued talking while they made their way across the cobbled pavement towards some of the smaller buildings. ”It appears that you’ll be put in with the… Meadowmist House, which is the name for one of our groups of novices. They’ll be around to help you adjust to living at the Guild. There’s also a House mentor that can help you with classes and the like, though I can’t seem to remember who it is for your house. Anyways, here we are at your dormitory.”
Once they were inside the smaller building, he began leading her up the nearby stairs that ran up along the wall before he started talking again. ”Your room will be on the third floor with the rest of your House. Each of you will have your own room that branch off from a larger common room that you can use to spend your free time with your fellow novices.” As he finished talking, they made it to the specified floor, and he directed her to the second room in on the right side. While he worked at finding the right key to unlock the pale wooden door, Anyu looked around at the common room somewhat nervously. The first thing that Anyu noticed was that the room was well furnished with comfortable-looking sofas and chairs. There were also a fair number of end stands or small tables scattered throughout the room, usually near the sofas or chairs, as well as a couple of tall bookshelves that were currently pretty empty.
Before Anyu could get a better look around, the man had found the right key to the door and opened it with a small motion for her to follow him inside. The room where she would be staying was indeed somewhat small, of course, but it was certainly a fair bit larger than Anyu would have ever expected to have to herself. Each of the walls was easily three or four times as wide as she was tall, and the bed, nightstand, and desk all fit inside comfortably. There was even a small closet of sorts for storing any belongings that a student might have brought with them.
After allowing her to explore for a few moments, the man spoke up again. ”I understand that you do not have any belongings apart from what you’re wearing, correct?” he asked, continuing when he saw Anyu’s hesitant nod. ”The guild will provide you with some of the essentials, then. Namely a few changes of clothing and some writing utensils. They should be delivered within a couple of days at the latest.” With that, he handed her the key to the room and gestured for her to follow him back into the common room.
”Your mentor or fellow novices will be able to provide you with more specific information on when you should attend classes and where,” the man continued as soon as Anyu stepped into the common room with him. ”Your fellow novices should be returning from their classes or chores shortly and they’ll be able to show you around more. Now, I must be getting back to my work in the main hall. Welcome to the Guild.” As the man finished talking, he gave a shallow bow and made his leave, walking over to the stairs and heading down them at a brisk pace. Unsure of what she was supposed to do then, Anyu decided to look around the common room a bit more while no one was around.
@FurFox This might seem a little nitpicky, but I would kind of prefer that you not include the Enuri in your background. Due to the Enuri's isolationist tendencies, they would have settled quite far away from the town and teleporting that distance would be lethal, especially for a child. Apart from that, however, I think your character seems pretty alright.
@Etranger Your character looks pretty good to me. :D
@Stitches Sure, that works for me. :3 To be perfectly honest, I didn't really notice until you said something. Also, I greatly appreciate you being upfront about your character's intentions and your plans for them already so that everyone knows what to expect. :D
@ShwiggityShwah As has been mentioned by others, we do have a lot of reserved characters, so you might want to consider that. The way the magic works, it's almost impossible to avoid a little bit of overlap with other characters, so don't worry too much about that. I probably won't accept your character if they're a carbon copy, but being similar in some ways is generally fine.
I went ahead and made a discord server (as per Shard's suggestion), so feel free to chat in there and make plans.
As for the start of the IC, I'm planning on getting it up by tomorrow evening. So go ahead and start putting some ideas together about how you want to introduce your character. :D
@Moyai Rahele sounds like a good character to me. Go ahead and move your cs to the character tab.
@Lurking Shadow S'Hra checks out. Go ahead and put him in the character tab.
@Stitches Tiana's good to be moved over to the character tab.
@Avant You've got it. :D Go ahead and put Brandon's cs in the character tab.
@Sedjwick Hybrids are fine, but I'm going to have to veto the half-Enuri thing. As you said, we already have a lot of them for a race that keeps to itself.
@Shard I'm going to have to say no, at least for now. I feel that that might cause a bit too much overlap with Captain Marvel's character. Plus, having too many characters having animal companions without having an affinity for Conjuration makes it seem rather pointless.
@Compulsive86 This all looks pretty good. :D Feel free to move Hiasahi to the character tab.
@OrkytheOrc Looks pretty good to me. Go ahead and move him to the character tab.
@CaptainMarvel Thalia seems like a well-written character. :3 Go ahead and move your cs to the character tab when you get a chance.
@Shard Your character looks good. Feel free to post him in the character tab.
I'm excited to see how everyone's characters are coming along! I can't wait to see how they all mesh together once we get started!
I didn't quite expect the Enuri to be as popular as they appear to be however, so I think that I'm going to cap the number of Enuri characters to what we have now plus my character. Also, for the same reason I'm going to reject necromancers until we get some characters with other affinities in the mix.
”I don’t get why being in the city makes everyone hurry around so much. They should all just slow down and relax.”
Nicknames: Anyu Race: Enuri Gender: Female Age: 15 Appearance: Standing at a height of 2’11” and weighing a meager 33 lbs, on the smaller side even for her race, Anyu’s petite frame means that it can be rather hard to notice her unless she wants to be seen. Though having spent the last several years living a somewhat active lifestyle of hunting and trapping has left her rather slim, it wasn’t really sufficient enough for her to develop any sort of noticeable muscular definition, which further emphasizes her small stature.
Born with albinism, Anyu’s skin is understandably quite pale. Unfortunately, this means that she’s very susceptible to getting sunburned, especially in a tropical city like Alsijan. Her porcelain skin also has a tendency to show marks really easily, meaning even light pressure can leave her with what appear to be bruises, though they often don’t hurt much, if at all. It’s also worth noting that she has a terrible time hiding any sort of blushing due to how light her skin is.
Anyu’s hair is a very light silver color that can often be mistaken for white in the right lighting. The fur covering her ears and tail has the same coloring as the rest of her hair, though her ears and tail are also marked with several spots that are darker in color. Anyu’s hair is rather thick and fluffy, with a soft texture that helps to retain her body heat, even if she doesn’t particularly need it anymore.
In contrast to her skin and hair color, Anyu’s eyes are actually a brilliant light blue color. Also, despite what her feline features may suggest, her pupils are round like most people’s due to the fact that her Enuri heritage is that of a large feline. Speaking of feline features, Anyu also possesses sharp claws that she can use to defend herself or gain purchase when climbing and teeth that are noticeably pointed.
Personality: As it turns out, Anyu is an incredibly timid individual and therefore often finds herself trying to avoid interacting with others or drawing attention to herself whenever possible. While Anyu has never been a particularly bold or outspoken person, a large part of her shyness stems from her complete lack of self-esteem and her fears of being hurt by other people if they were to get to know her. Anyu genuinely believes that she is a bad person, especially because she can use magic, and that means she finds it hard to believe that people would accept her if they did get to know her or that some people would even want to get to know her.
Interestingly enough, it is actually a lot easier for people to interact with Anyu than they might expect. This is because Anyu is usually too afraid of angering other people and being punished to try and hide when someone is making their way towards her or slip out of a conversation. Of course, she’ll still try and maintain a comfortable distance from the other person(s), and it might be rather difficult to get her to respond with more than a couple of words. This reasoning, and the fact that she has no confidence in herself, also means that Anyu tends to be obedient and agreeable to a fault, often becoming incredibly anxious and apologetic when she feels that she’s being disobedient.
As alluded to previously, Anyu believes that just being able to use magic makes her an evil person and that actually using magic is an evil practice. This belief has understandably made her rather hesitant to try and learn how to use her magic at all. However, upon hearing, somewhat extensively, from a Guild recruiter that magic could be used to help people and perform other good deeds, Anyu has become a bit more open to the idea that maybe she should learn to use magic. It still usually takes a bit of gentle encouragement to get her to actually try and do anything with her magic, but that’s better than the adamant refusal to try that she exhibited before.
Biography:
To her family, and the rest of the tribe, Anyu’s birth was not a joyous event. The fact that her mother had passed away while giving birth to her naturally broke the hearts of her father and older siblings, but it also branded her as a cursed child in the eyes of the tribe and her family due to their belief that such an event could only happen if the child took the lifeforce of the mother during birth. This stigma wasn’t helped by the fact that she always had incredibly pale skin and hair, which her people took to be evidence that she was born with a soul of winter and that she had been claimed by malevolent spirits.
Because of these beliefs, Anyu experienced a pretty rough time growing up. To put it rather bluntly, her family was neglectful and abusive when it came to interacting with her. Her father was so neglectful that days would pass before he acknowledged that she existed. Of course, when he did acknowledge her existence, it was usually because he felt that she needed to be punished for something, often leaving her with several bumps and bruises. When he drank, these sorts of violent episodes became much more common and were often punctuated with shouting and throwing things. It should also be noted that he also adamantly refused to provide her with any schooling whatsoever, though this was largely because of the idea that educating her would make her more useful to the malevolent spirits that had claimed her.
Her older siblings weren’t really any better, however. They would take pleasure in punching or kicking her out of nowhere, making fun of her appearance and intelligence, or insinuating that their mother would never have loved Anyu anyway. Growing up, it often seemed that the only time that Anyu got any reprieve from her siblings was whenever they were either running errands in town, going to school, or working on something that kept them too busy to bother noticing that she was around. In fact, the only thing that really changed as Anyu and her siblings got older is that her siblings became more devious in bullying her, often enlisting the help of the other kids in the neighborhood as well.
In a sort of bizarre contrast to Anyu’s regular home life, the other members of the tribe were often cordial, if never warm or friendly, on the rare occasion that they interacted with her. At their worst, they would merely go out of their way to avoid crossing her path whenever they saw her out and about or mutter quick prayers for the state of her soul as they passed. Generally speaking, this was because they believed that Anyu’s condition wasn’t something that could be helped, even if they did think that it made her dangerous to be around. This way of thinking gave the tribe as a whole a tendency to pretend that she and her family didn’t exist. As such, her family was generally isolated from village life, with the tribe ultimately refusing to interfere in her family’s affairs.
When she was about fourteen years old, her magical ability began to manifest itself. The first time Anyu noticed her abilities was when she accidentally froze a cup of hot tea that she had been about to drink. Knowing that the people of her tribe viewed magic as an evil practice, Anyu did her best to keep her abilities hidden. Unfortunately, given her lack of control, it simply wasn’t meant to last. It was eventually discovered that she had the ability to use magic when she subconsciously froze a section of the road behind her in order to escape from the local bullies her siblings hung out with.
With so many witnesses to her use of magic, she was quickly found guilty. Because of the tribe’s belief that only the great guardian spirits could truly decide if one was worthy of living or dying, she wasn’t condemned to death. Instead, she would be sedated and hauled deep into the wilderness where her fate would be up to the spirits. On top of all this, in the unlikely event that she survived, she would still never be allowed to return to the village. And so, Anyu found herself slipping into unconsciousness as she was carried away from the village and into the dark forest.
When she finally came to, she was lying in a small, snow-covered clearing, the thick dark clouds above swirling with the promise of more snow. Eventually, she managed to make it to her feet and begin walking out of the clearing, if a little unsteadily at first. As her mind cleared of the drug-induced haze, Anyu noticed with a start that neither the cold in the air nor the snowflakes that seemed to always be falling around her bothered her at all despite the fact that the clothing she had been sentenced in offered little more protection than her pajamas would have. Ultimately, she chalked this up to her cursed magic and refocused on finding a way to survive.
Anyu spent the next several days wandering through the woods and looking for food. Having never been taught any sort of survival skills, however, she had no idea what she was looking for or where she could find food. And so, each day ended with her hungrier than when the day had started. On the fourth day after she woke up, however, she happened upon a snare that had caught a rabbit by surprise. All too aware that she had no idea how to cook the poor thing even if she had the nerve to kill it, Anyu sat down and began fighting with the knot to free it. Just as she finished her good deed, however, someone else joined her in the clearing and demanded to know who she was and what she was doing.
After Anyu fearfully explained what had happened as best she could without getting into too much detail, the strange woman introduced herself as Ilya and invited Anyu to follow her back to the edge of the woods where she and her friends were camped so that she could eat. As they walked in silence, Ilya would occasionally glance back at the small girl as if questioning how Anyu hadn’t already frozen to death or why snowflakes would occasionally fall around her despite the clear skies above. If the older woman suspected that Anyu could use magic, she never said anything, and Anyu certainly didn’t want to mention the fact that she was cursed to someone who was offering to help her.
Upon arriving at the camp, Ilya’s friends looked at her rather questioningly but made room for Anyu around the fire and rummaged around for a spare blanket she could cover up with while they finished cooking the meal regardless. Hungry as she was, the small, objectively bland meal tasted amazing to Anyu as she sat and listened to the strangers try and one up each other with ridiculous stories. Before too long, however, she was nodding off where she sat, prompting Ilya to lead her to a small tent where she could sleep properly. While Anyu drifted off, she was vaguely aware that the stranger’s had switched to more serious topics of conversation upon her departure, occasionally hearing phrases like “potential profit” or “rare specimen” until she truly fell asleep.
Over breakfast the next day, Ilya suggested that they knew of a place that would probably be pretty happy to give Anyu a place to stay for at least a little while and offered to take her there if she wanted. Though hesitant to burden the strangers any longer, Anyu figured that she didn’t have much of a choice and accepted their offer, helping them pack up as best she could so that they could get moving. Ultimately, it only took them a couple of days to reach their destination: a small village whose largest building was a squat stone structure that was attached to the town’s watchtower. The red-tiled roof was sloped to allow the snow to slide off and onto the ground, where a man shoveled it away to keep the path clear.
Upon entering the building, Ilya headed straight for the large desk that had a balding man behind it and began discussing something with him in hushed tones. In the meantime, her companions directed Anyu over to a bench against the wall and instructed her to sit there quietly and make sure to keep the hood of her borrowed cloak up while they stood nearby and chatted idly. Seeing that there were a lot of people in the large room, Anyu subconsciously curled up, wrapping her arms around her knees on the bench in order to avoid being noticed as she surveyed her surroundings.
The long room that they were in happened to be filled with tables that were occupied by all sorts of people, most of whom were writing meticulously or reading carefully. Occasionally, someone would stand up and deliver what they had been writing or reading to another individual behind the desk that Ilya was standing at, but that didn’t really help Anyu figure out where they were. The only place she knew of where people wrote like they were doing there was the schoolhouse back in her village, but everyone in the room looked too old to be in school to her.
Before Anyu could think about it for too much longer, Ilya was ordering her to follow along as she and the balding man went around a corner and into a side room. Once the door was closed behind them, the balding man gestured impatiently for Anyu to throw back her hood. After getting confirmation from Ilya that it was really okay to listen to the man, Anyu let her hood drop, her ears twitching slightly at the sudden freedom they now had. When the man had managed to get over his shock, which was a reaction that confused Anyu to no end, he and Ilya withdrew to the other side of the room and began arguing quietly enough that Anyu couldn’t hear more than a few words.
A few minutes later, the man sighed and put up his hands in a defeated gesture before pulling a hefty pouch that jingled slightly and it moved and handing it to Ilya. Having gotten what she evidently came for, Ilya gave a sort of offhand wave and left the room. Muttering under his breath about filthy poachers for some reason, the man directed Anyu to put her hood up again and follow him to a room upstairs. A few moments after leaving her to settle in a bit, he returned with a hot meal and explained that she was at an outpost for the Mage Guild of Alsijan. Though Anyu was initially frightened as the idea of being the guest of an organization focused on the evil practice of wielding magic, the man managed to allay her fears and explain that they sought to improve the world around them, even if he wasn’t quite able to convince her that magic wasn’t inherently evil.
Over the next several days, the man would visit Anyu periodically and ask her a variety of questions, always jotting things down on the important-looking papers that he carried around with him as he did so. After the third day of her stay at the outpost, however, the man explained that the Guild would like to have her travel down to their headquarters in the city of Alsijan with an escort. Though it took a hefty amount of encouragement and coaxing from the man, Anyu eventually agreed to the arrangement. And so, just a few days later, Anyu found herself in a caravan on her way to the city of Alsijan.
Affinities: Evocation Craft: None, at the moment Magic: Anyu’s one and only affinity is for Evocation magic, where she displays a natural talent for manipulating water and ice. Due to her complete lack of training, her abilities at the moment are quite lacking, often being limited to subconscious uses or minor things like freezing a cup of water or accidentally causing snow to fall around her. Her magic also provides her with an immunity to the temperature of her environment, often causing her to dress inappropriately for the weather compared to other people. It’s also worth noting that a side effect of having an affinity for ice magic is having skin that is freezing to the touch. With some training, Anyu would be able to create walls of ice to defend herself or attack with icicles and jets of water.
Skills: Anyu also, like virtually all Enuri, possesses keener senses of sight, smell, and hearing than most humans. Anyu can also use her tail like an extra limb, though the fact that it’s not really as strong as one of her arms means that it doesn’t really have that much of a use apart from making daily life a little more convenient. Finally, her feline ancestry also provides her with a rather uncanny ability to orient herself while falling to minimize the chances of getting hurt.
Anyu can also draw somewhat decently, having doodled to occupy herself for most of her life.
Other: Anyu is left-handed.
Anyu has a bit of a phobia about being touched due to the abuse she experienced in her past.
It’s also important to note that Anyu lacks any kind of education whatsoever, which means that she lacks the ability to read, write, or perform any kind of mathematics.
I'm sorry again for the delay everyone. With moving several states away to go to grad school, moving in, and orientation over the past week, I wasn't really able to find any time to work on the OOC or give an update about my lack of progress. Now that I'm moved in, however, I should be able to find more time to spend on this. :D
All that said, I did spend most of the day today putting things together and I managed to get the OOC up! You can find it here!
Feel free to post your characters here in the OOC for review, but don't put them in the CS tab until I've approved them. :D
Actual Character Skeleton: [hider=Character’s Name] [center][img][/img] *Put your picture here*[/center] [center][h2]*Put the character’s name here*[/h2][/center] [center][i]*Feel free to put a quote here, either about or by your character*[/i][/center] [/hr] *Remove the slash here*
[b][u]Nicknames:[/u][/b] [b][u]Race:[/u][/b] [b][u]Gender:[/u][/b] [b][u]Age:[/u][/b] *New students are typically in the 16-20 year old range* [b][u]Appearance:[/u][/b] *Self-explanatory. Make sure to note any differences from your picture*
[b][u]Personality:[/u][/b] *Describe how your character tends to think and behave. What kind of a person are they? Try to write at least one paragraph.*
[b][u]Biography:[/u][/b] *What are the events that made your character who they are? How did they come to the guild? Try to write at least two paragraphs.*
[b][u]Affinities:[/u][/b] *Choose up to 2 schools for your character to have an affinity for* [b][u]Craft:[/u][/b] *Choose one magic craft your character would like to learn, or has some skill with* [b][u]Magic:[/u][/b] *This is essentially for describing your character’s “powers.” How do they use their magic? What kinds of tactics do they prefer? Do they prefer using one school over another?* [b][u]Skills:[/u][/b] *This is for describing your character’s more mundane skills. Things like knowing how to wield a particular weapon, knot-tying, cooking, etc. go here.*
[b][u]Other:[/u][/b] *This is for anything that doesn’t fit the other sections* [/hider]
Current Classes (Add this to your character sheet/post somewhere!) [list] [*]Class 1 [*]Class 2 [*]Class 3 [/list]
Punished GN