Terminal

Dragonball: Final Hours

@BCTheEntity I can maybe clarify a few of those points.

As to the racial ability concern - such as the scouter - are not things you MUST have. As you can see in @Thess' profile, they have actually removed some of their own racial abilities and replaced them with other things. They did not do so insensibly - there are established reasons why those abilities are not present. As for the regrowth ability, I'll simply point out that regenerating a limb has historically been tremendously exhausting in terms of Stamina for Namekians.

Energy Sensing would not even count as a technique, incidentally. It's literally just a utility.

The Seven Cities

Nation sheet posted.

The City of Yearning awaits, to accept your unwanted masses with open arms.

The Seven Cities

The City of Yearning

Yearning

Foolish Hans went down to Yearning,
it was just around the bend!
He didn't trust the stories,
which he thought were all pretend!
Foolish Hans went down to Yearning,
he had done it as a dare!
He slept late in the tavern,
'cause he didn't even care!
Foolish Hans went down to Yearning,
And he never went home again!

Common Children's Rhyme

-Government Type: de facto Aristocratic Particracy

Curency

Although Yearning has no official currency, a particular medicinal drug referred to as Praeum is accepted nearly throughout the city as legal tender, including by the Guild of Motion and the Guild of Astrologers. The drug is a clear, golden coloration similar to that of honey which is wholly fluid (and so can be mistaken for neither honey nor, as is a common misconception by outsiders, urine). It is known to induce heightened recollection of past events within the individual when imbibed. Praeum is brewed exclusively by the Starshine Brewery, which has a prearranged agreement with both Guilds and shares all brewed Praeum out between the three of them, and distribution is independently managed.

Individuals carry Praeum in small wooden or metal flasks usually kept on their person within pockets or tied to belts, although places of business sometimes will store Praeum in large, cast-iron jugs (which customers which pour measures of Praeum when issuing payment for goods and services rendered). Permanent residences also usually have a similar jar secreted away where family or personal funds too great to be carried in person are kept. All flasks, skeins, jars, jugs, kegs, and other holders of Praeum must be specifically marked with the Starshine Brewery seal of authenticity in order for any Praeum stored therein to be worth anything, as a measure to prevent exploitation by outsiders (however brief their window of opportunity might be).

Praeum's value is measured in milliliters, centriliters, deciliters, and liters. Specific wooden and metal pipettes for specific milliliter and centriliter updraw are a common sight throughout the city, while personal flasks and jugs are often measured to specific volumes of deciliters and liters. A single milliliter of Praeum is worth a loaf of bread. A centriliter is worth a decent meal, two would get you excellent service and board for a night at an inn or else a good time, and three might be used to purchase certain luxury goods. A deciliter could be used to buy a sword or armor. A liter could buy a small house.

Due to the general atmosphere of Yearning, prolonged habitation has something of a dulling effect on the memory. Citizens of the city use Praeum not only as a currency, but as a recreational substance in order to remember bygone times with greater clarity in order to compensate.

Opprotunists from outside the city have made numerous attempts to exploit the system of currency used to their own gain. Historically though, the cost of brewing Praeum, smuggling large quantities in and out of the city, and finding enough 'misplaced' authenticated containers to hold it all, in conjunction with many smugglers failing to leave the city, has proven to be too high to be worth it.

Outsiders are not expected to carry, pay with, or be paid with Praeum. It is commonly accepted that outsiders who are merely visiting or passing through are to be paid in variants of refined Heelstone, vouchers, or services.

-Population: ~112-144,000

The Curse of Yearning

Visitors to the city of Yearning are gradually impressed upon by an inability to muster the willpower, conviction, and motivation to leave the city. No force, magical or otherwise, will physically restrain anybody who attempts to leave, but the insidious influence of the City's curse inevitably drains even the most keen and sound of mind of the power to exit the city of their own volition.

The curse pervades the entire city, but its influence is most strongly felt around the entrance to and within the Heelstone Mines. Visitors to the city can generally stay for one to two days and reasonably be expected to be able to pack up and leave unless they are particularly weak-willed. However, this time is drastically reduced if they venture too close to the Mines, and some can find themselves ensnared within a matter of hours upon wandering into the Mines proper. Although it is common knowledge that a strong will provides some resiliency to the curse, ultimately such only affords perhaps an extra day at the most - even the strongest and most disciplined minds are hobbled in short order by the curse of Yearning.

Many learned individuals, including great sorcerers and mages from every corner of the world, have attempted to study the curse to little avail. There are few known methods of resisting it, either mundane or magical in nature - efforts to hypnotize, charm, and control individuals into leaving the city after being affected by the curse all inevitably fail. The only known of manner of freely moving through the city without fear is to possess an arcane object referred to as a Blue Moon Talisman. The members of the city's Guild of Astrologers are the only known makers of the Talismen, and as a rule only distribute them amongst their own order. The process of their creation is a carefully guarded secret, although it is known that each Talisman has to be specifically made for an individual, making stolen Talismen useless for the purpose of infiltrating the city.

When the city was still growing in size, stories and tales of people who managed to escape after falling prey to its curse became local legends whose names are still uttered in awe, often with fanciful titles and appellations appended - such as Graceful An, Poe Fatebane, and Forthright Mannet. In modern times, it is not an unusual practice for people to arrange for 'Curse Insurance' by hiring mercenaries to kidnap them from the city in the event that they overstay their welcome. However, these arrangements rarely end well for anybody involved due to the inevitable unwillingness of the would-be-captive, and the generally low remuneration for a successful job.

The Curse of Yearning is more than just an inability to leave, but has more pronounced effects after prolonged periods exposure vver months, years, and decades of time. All things the cursed experience fade. Memories of joy and passion blur, the faces of loved ones grow indistinct. The taste of food in one's mouth turns to ash and dust. The feel of the breeze, of rain splashing upon the skin, of a lover's touch - all turn dull and numb. The scents of all pleasurable things fade, leaving only that of rot and filth. Unlike the other aspects of the curse however, these detriments are more easily contended with. Some magical spells and arcane rituals can either delay or entirely prevent these effects, as well as medicinal solutions of various natures. The drug known as Praeum, know for enhancing the ability to to recall indistinct memories, is so omnipresent in the city that it is accepted as legal tender.

Heelstone Treatment & Refinement

Heelstone is a semiprecious ore of some rarity found in nature with less frequency than gold, but more than platinum. The city of Yearning is home to a particularly rich source of Heelstone and, more importantly, is the only place in the known world where the process needed to treat and refine Heelstone exists.

The process of refining treated Heelstone itself is something of a non-secret, easily learned through cursory inspection of the facilities throughout the city. All are mundane, nonmagical processes no more complex or sophisticated than those used to refine the various permutations of coal. The true secret is the treatment of raw Heelstone to prepare it for refining, which is a secret kept exclusively within the Guild of Astrologers, and only known to a small number of members. The details concerning Heelstone treatment are a complete mystery even to those who work within the Heelstone mines.

Heelstone itself, capable of being refined into a number of different forms, is a most singularly useful substance. A brief description of the more common forms follow:

Cohet: A highly compressed form of Heelstone that acts as fuel. Similar in nature to Anthracite, Cohet can burn for extremely long periods of time, producing a clear, dim flame that releases little smoke and producing little to no ash. Variants of Cohet with varying degrees of volatility and combustibility exist. It has a wide range of general utility, used for candles, fuel, cooking, oil, forges, and military purposes.

Pigstone: A form of condensed Heelstone that often come in bite-sized balls, Pigstone is an inexplicably edible variant of refined Heelstone. Surgeons and scholars throughout the land are completely baffled by this, as Pigstone has seemingly no great mineral content other than itself - normally being entirely indigestible and moderately toxic. Used for field rations in many armies or as emergency supplies in many settlements, Pigstone does not spoil or rot and can be stored indefinitely. Animals, including rats and insects, universally loathe Pigstone and will rarely if ever ingest any by choice (leading to its use as a pest deterrent). Eating two to three balls of Pigstone can keep a man satiated for a day. It tastes largely of rust, dissolves in water, and smells faintly of smoldering embers. It possesses no medicinal properties whatsoever, and a dying man will likely continue to die if only fed Pigstone.

Dirtgut: A gum-textured and pliable form of Heelstone often used as Mortar and Caulking agent, as well as a general-purpose adherent. Used nearly anywhere where large scale construction takes place.

Carmot: An extremely pure form of refined Heelstone, Carmot is a metal equal to steel in many respects, but possesses a lower melting point and is generally easier to forge with. It is additionally much more resistant to corrosion, and is known to not have quite the same degree of flex.

Magebane: A common misconception exists that Magebane Heelstone prevents the use of magic when, in reality, Magebane acts as an arcane attractor and lightning-rod analogue. Magebane attracts nearly magical and arcane influences, and absorbs it in the same manner a stone might absorb heat. A fireball conjured by a mage, in proximity to Magebane, would have the magical currents sustaining its flame sucked away into the Magebane, causing the magically sustained fire to gutter out - although any fires it lights which has sufficient fuel to continue burning will do so. Magebane's area of effect extends out to approximately one meter, and so ironically many Sorcerers and Mages are capable of wearing armor made of Magebane while still being able to effectively cast spells and arcane powers just beyond the range of the metal's influence.

The Yearning Golem Process

One of Yearning's most prominent and infamous exports is its clay golems. The process of making them is three-fold.

Within Yearning, there is A Courtyard Named Freedom. The stories say, if one wishes to escape Yearning by means other than committing suicide, they must go there. Arriving at dusk, a person who spends an entire night in the Courtyard, once the sun rises, will dissolve and be washed into the frame of their own shadow, which will be transformed into a semi-solid, film-like substance referred to as Straylight. Straylight has two particular qualities, the first being that it is both literally and figuratively clingy and the second being that it is extremely inimical in nature. Upon sticking to either a person or object, Straylight can cause its host to move and act in dangerous ways which often prove to be both highly esoteric and traumatic. The most popular horror story involving a person stuck with Straylight has them being forced to gorge themselves on rocks they found lying around on the ground until their stomach ruptured.

Since leaving Straylight to accumulate or wander out of the Courtyard would be extremely bad, it is harvested by members of the Guild of Motion every morning, who use it to animate specially pre-prepared bodies fashioned out of clay. The resulting golems are then inevitably sold outside of Yearning, and thus it is rumored that it is possible to escape from the city in the form of Bound Straylight.

Locales

The Tower of Starlight: The central tower of the city, which serves as the headquarters for the Guild of Astrologers. At its uppermost floor lies the Yearning Observatory, one of the most prominent stellar observatories in the known world. Constant shipments of luxury goods, mirrors, lens, and clothing make their way into the tower every day. The tower itself is built upon the large hilltop, underneath which the passageway into the Heelstone Mines resides.

The Aluminum Workshop: Despite their name, the many craftsmen work with gold and glass as much they do aluminum, for a singular purpose: The assembly of the finest mirrors in all of Avara. Many of them are shipped directly to the Tower of Starlight (nobody is quite sure what the Astrologers do with all of them - surely they would need good lens more than mirrors?), but the rest are exported as one of the single most expensive and ornate goods produced in the entirety of Yearning.

Heelstone Mines: The Heelstone Mines, possessing a single large entrance at the base of the city's central hillside, are a network of subterranean tunnels, shafts, boreholes, chasms, and caverns that riddle the underworld of the arid plains. Tens of thousands of laborers work ceaselessly in the mines, day and night, and so many supplies flow in and out of the surface passage that they almost qualify as a second city. Mineshaft collapses, poisonous gas vents, streams of the blood of the Earth, and generally unpleasant accidents are so common and expected that they generally do not even slow down tunnel foot-traffic. A logistics network that would shame the largest supply caravan on the surface operates with frustrated inefficiency. The curse of Yearning's influence is particularly strong here. The deeper you go into the Earth, the stronger it gets. Those who plumb its darkest depths are the quickest to either commit suicide or to abandon hope and enter The Courtyard Named Freedom on the surface above.

Purestone Refineries: The Purestone Refineries are a collection of forges, workshops, smithees, and craftshops that are tasked with refining treated Heelstone into its various different forms. The Refineries take up so much space that they fill nearly an eighth of the city, and employ nearly a quarter of its populace. It is often said that pebbles and small items on the ground here always tremble and shake due to the constant motion and energy pervading the area.

Starshine Brewery: A converted alehouse farm turned alchemical foundry on the Northern base of Yearning's central hill, the Starshine Brewery produces all the Praeum used by the city's populace, and authenticates all Praeum containers as well. A sizable security force of people extremely, severely desperate for a fight to the death plead with passerby to start trouble with them. The Brewery is famous for its massive brewing vats, which are all repurposed tower bells.

Fade Parlor: Named to remind you that if you don't keep the good times rolling hard enough, all joy will eventually fade from your life in the city of Yearning. The Fade Parlour is the preeminent relaxation and pleasure lounge in the entire city, featuring no less than four gambling halls, two bars, two brothels, an innumerable number of small 'medicinal' dens, luxury goods kiosks, and the only temple in all of Yearning. Many inhabitants of the city come here not only to unwind and keep their senses fresh from Yearning's curse, but also while on official business or while on-the-job. As such, the Fade Parlor is as much a consortium of business as it is entertainment.

A Courtyard Named Freedom: South of the central hill of the city, between The Last Horizon and the Heelstone Mines, lies a large open-air Courtyard. Decrepit, its stones millennia old, it is the only locale in the whole city which is purposefully left unlit. Those who become Hopeless may come here when nothing else remains. Those who stay in the Courtyard for a whole night will, upon daybreak, dissolve and be washed into the frame of their own shadow, transmuting into Straylight. Task mages from the Guild of Motion clean Straylight out from the courtyard every morning, hauling them away in extremely interesting barrels carved with curious runes. Sight Merchants linger about the Courtyard's outer walls, enticing any who might listen to sell their Fates.

Freemason Gallery: An ancient temple to the Old Celestials that had been refurbished and repurposed to act as the headquarters for the Guild of Motion. Here, a modest number of task mages and a much larger number of craftsmen produce Golems using Straylight retrieved from The Courtyard Named Freedom.

Prison of Eyes: The Guild of Motion produces many, many golems. So many that not all of them can be used or sold. Those that can find no purpose are stored in an isolated ghetto within the city - a sixteen block sector filled with nothing but Golems, unmoving, unfeeling - but always watching. Occasionally once in a while something will fall over and a Golem will move to put it back into the correct position. Amongst their number, mad and slavering Sight Merchants wander, looking for hints and evidence of a golem bound using particularly potent Straylight that might be put to better use with a thread of stolen Fate...

The Last Horizon: The gates to the city, a massive pair of stone doors always opened wide, with massive chains of stone crisscrossing them, holding them open against all efforts to see them shut. A single statue of an angelic figure stands here looking out of the city, its hand half outstretched, reluctantly lowering, stone eyes artistically rendered full of an anguish that can never be buried. Always, there is a large line of disbelieving souls standing just beneath the statue, staring with wide eyes at the open horizon before them, uncomprehending of their inability to cross it. Always here as well, is a stream of visitors and future inhabitants who stare, gawk, and jeer the despairing victims of Yearning's curse.

Redeemer's Embassy: Lying just outside the city proper where its path joins with the Mountain Valley route, the Redeemer's Embassy is the previously abandoned and condemned Embassy for Zar Dratha. A band of mercenaries, dour yet simultaneously seemingly infinitely more merry than the inhabitants of the nearby city, resides here. For a price, they will promise to kidnap you out of the city if you should find yourself unwilling to leave...although the price is rather steep. The Embassy grounds house a large inn, and the Mercenaries will also stoop to selling a few morsels and drink...But the prices for staying, and for supplying, are also steep. If a visitor to Yearning cannot stay at an Embassy for any of the City-States but are too frightened to spend the night in the city itself, staying at the Redeemer's Embassy is an expensive way to acquire exterior lodgings...and to have their pockets picked, their possessions rifled through, and their women inappropriately handled.

Senatorial Embassy of the Most Serene Republic of Violette: Colloquially called The Last Resort, the Veletian Embassy to Yearning is the result of a compromise arrived at between the Violette Senate and the Guild of Astrologers. The Astrologers sought to open up a profitable trade link with the Veletians, but the Senate was hesitant to allow its citizens to engage in commerce with Yearning. This hesitation was precipitated by two factors: the questionable morality of the process by which Yearning's famous golems are created, and, more importantly, the city's curse, which imposed a serious risk on any Veletian citizens who stayed too long within Yearning's dreary streets. The Senate eventually relented, allowing Yearning's golems, heelstone and other goods to be added onto Violette's trade networks, but on a condition—the establishment of the Senatorial Embassy, which would come to be known by most common folk as the Last Resort.

The Embassy grounds are located on Yearning's outskirts, far enough outside of the city to be well beyond the extent of Yearning's infamous curse. The embassy's territory is enclosed by a tall, steel fence, with a lone gate barring entry to all non-Veletians, as required by the agreement which saw to the Embassy's creation. Within the grounds are three separate buildings, all built in the traditional Veletian style. The largest, the residence of the Embassy's Envoy, resembles the mansions of northern Violette, in the shadow of the Palais du Peuple. It is tall and ornate, with curved, smooth lines defining the exterior and an exquisitely garnished parlour and numerous guest rooms to entertain and accommodate the more discerning of the visiting Veletians. Those visitors with fewer francs to rub together instead stay in the Last Resort Inn, a hostel providing safe night-time accommodation for Veletians doing business in Yearning. The Embassy's third construct isn't quite a building per se, being little more than a supported roof under which sits a meagre open-air market. It is home to a small general store providing travel essentials, a money-changer (converting Veletian francs to Praeum and vice versa) and one far more interesting vendor, operated by the Embassy itself, offering a service unique to Yearning. Similar in effect to acquiring the services of the Redeemers, Veletian citizens can pay a fee to place their signature on a contract of visitation—a legal document initiating a formal, temporary visit to the city of Yearning. If the citizen in question fails to arrive back at the Embassy at the time specified in the contract, Embassy authorities are then legally empowered to remove by force the individual in question from Yearning and detain them in the Last Resort until such a time as they are absolved of the curse's effects. This service offers Veletian citizens a more expensive but substantially safer method of ensuring their safe return from Yearning as compared to the Redeemers.

The Vitium Embassy: Built against Yearning's Western exterior wall, the Vitium embassy is a large, singular manse built in the Vitium fashion, containing all the amenities a visitor from Vitium who does not desire to remain within the city might require, containing a modest bunkroom and a grand, opulant tavern-room for feasting. Filled and adorned with velvet, brass, and other precious metals, the manse is constantly filled with the aroma of cooked sweet-meats and exotic incense. Only citizens of Vitium are permitted within the manse.

Grand Healiana Embassy of Yeodrothan: The Embassy of Yeodrothan follows the tradition similar to The Last Resort Veletian Embassy it is partly based on. No less wary of the strange magic of Yearning, the Embassy was built as a inn of sorts for Yeodrothan merchants traveling and doing business with Yearning. The large complex built in classic Yeodrothan gothic style was funded primarily by a rich merchant house that sits on the Crimson Covenant. Serving the same purpose as others like it; The Yeodrothan Embassy soon expanded on its services. The top edges of the main building possess ornate gargoyles, with statues like knights of old decorating the entrance.

The complex is built into in a fashion that has part of the building built into the cities walls. The Embassy outer ground is circled by a nine foot stone wall like rampart with two iron gates on either flank that allow entry. The main building is that of a tower like structure that houses the spare rooms and allows lounging for merchants visiting. In typical Yeodorthan fashion a small pharmacy, or Healiana, adjoins the main tower so as to distribute the medicinal compounds prescribed by the residential Red Priest there. Another larger building is also built into the base of the tower with no outside entrance; fashioned like a rocky dome like structure not unlike a prison in appearance. It houses the Bloodhulks used to load and unload for the visiting merchants. A small if basically armed garrison supplements these bloodhulks to discourage bandits and other thieves. These are housed in a barracks separate from the overall structure. The main building is circular and possess no more than four floors. The main floor holds the bar closed off from the kitchen. The Healiana holds a simple temple for worship to those inclined to strengthen their resolve. The Embassy has one residential Blood Magi in charge of the Blooddhulks stationed within the Embassy. The building vaguely gives off the impression of a mages tower to the laymen, forbidding and dark though the interior is surprisingly well furnished and well lit.

Demographics:
-Majority Race: Humans.
-Minority Races: Most races present in-setting.

TRADE
-Imports: Food (all kinds), luxury goods (artwork, narcotics, food, drink, fabrics), medicinals (heavy injuries, toxins, depression, narcotics), construction tools (shovels, spades, picks, hammers, carts, wheelbarrows, torches, lamps, rope, chain, etc.), craftsmen tools (various), lumber, PEOPLE.

-Exports: Refined Heelstone (Cohet, Pigstone, Dirtgut, Carmot, Magebane), Yearning Golems, Artisan Mirrors, Weapons & Armor, Praeum (small amounts), coal, minerals & ores, clay, fossiles & bones, curious unearthed specimens, precious gemstones.

RELIGION & MAGIC
-State Religion: Faithlessness. Religion has an interesting way of being shed once one realizes their stay might be a bit longer than they might like. The Fade Parlor contains the only temple in the city, a lightly-used Chamber of the Red Pantheon and its many gods.

-Magical Schools and Curriculum: The Guild of Motion will, on the rare occasion, train a few apprentices to become task mages. Training usually only lasts two to three years, with the resulting task mages possessing little more skill or ability than the far-flung hedge witch.

MILITARY
The city of Yearning has no standing army, and maintains only a token militia used to suppress crime. The Starshine Brewery is considered to boast the most 'thorough' security in the form of wayward volunteer vagabounds who are desperate for a fight to the death with anybody who creates even a hint of trouble.

NATIONAL DRAMATIS PERSONAE
-Chief Astrologer Rinias Gehn - de facto ruler of Yearning)

-The Turquoise Lord - A god of the Red Pantheon who was summoned to the city in the hopes it would be able to free its inhabitants in exchange for souls. Not only did this not work, but the god became rather distraught once it found itself unable to leave. It now resides in the Chambers of the Red Pantheon within the Fade Parlor.

-Astrologer Iikka Guiomar - A worldly Astrologer who is an unofficial envoy for the city of Yearning, and spends most of their time abroad.

-Overseer Lornal - The seniormost tunnel supervisor in the Heelstone Mines. Knows the tunnels like the back of her hand, at least when she drinks enough Praenum to remember it all.

-Roden Husch, Task Mage - A task mage for the Guild of Motion, who spends their mornings sweeping shadows from the walls and their days binding them into clay husks.

-Cutthroat Kuro - A mercenary residing at the Redeemer Outpost. Easily the most professional of the bunch, which isn't saying much. Has something of a reputation for having a tendency to leaves lots of bodies in his wake.

CULTURE

History

Approximately seven hundred years ago, a surveyor returned to Vitium with a report of a previously undiscovered ruin in the middle of the arid plains, which contained what appeared to be an abandoned mining project. An industrious group of workers banded together and set out in order to restore the ruins and resume mining operations.

They never returned. The group sent to find out what happened to them never returned. Half of the bronze-ringed rangers sent to find out what happened to THEM returned, telling how they all still lived but seemingly could not leave the ruins of their own volition. The then-ruler of Vitium dismissed the issue, preferring simply not to deal with it.

Twelve years later, thirty six golems marched into Vitium with a message attached to one, begging Vitium to send people back and promising to provide more golems, and that next time they would carry gifts as well. Eager, the ruler of Vitium complied, and was pleased when six more Golems carrying crates laden with refined Heelstone arrived, along with a request for more people in addition to Astrologers. The ruler grew greedy, however, and with their next convoy of inhabitants along with the astrologers they sent a request for 'more fitting treasures.'

Deciding that Vitium could not be relied upon to supply the manpower that was required for their purposes, the newly revived settlement of the arid plains instead began to send Golems with shipments of Heelstone and invoices for laborers to every city in Avara. Thus, the city of Yearning was born.

<--- Angria: The Grey Wolf ---> Dungeons & Dragons

Lucretius performs a spot and listen check, rolling 8+2+3(13) and 6+2+3(11) respectively.

According to most charts these rolls are not sufficient to even detect a twelve headed Hydra standing in plain sight, so Lucretius does nothing for the time being.

<--- Angria: The Grey Wolf ---> Dungeons & Dragons

We either need the proverbial fourth ranger to chime in, or else the Druid needs to proceed.

Star Wars: Disintegration [adv. - NRP]

Oh Motdamnit.

Dragonball: Final Hours

Profiles up.

Since Tiamat will not be appearing initially (until a bit later), their profile is left blank. However, I will be sending a completed profile to @Thess so they can at least review it in advance.

Dragonball: Final Hours

Charis

"You have no idea how much trouble you're in for, coffin stuffing."

Charis

Name: Charis
Species: Human
Homeworld: Earth
Current Location: Solar System, Unknown Coordinate Location
Affiliation: Unaffiliated Party
Age: 25

Appearance

Personality

Charis is a firm believer in might makes right. She will take whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. Extremely confrontational, she will deliberately escalate any social conflict she is involved in to the point where she either asserts complete dominance, or violence ensues. When not taking things from other people or trying to start fights, Charis tends to be highly goal and work oriented, more concerned with getting the job done as efficiently and quickly as possible. She detests idle chatter and waiting around doing nothing.

Despite her attitude, Charis detests fair fights and challenges. Easily amused by inflicting pain on those weaker than herself, when presented with a true opponent she will pull out every stop to end the fight immediately, not being afraid to pull out her biggest moves right from the onset of the fight. She only cares about fighting insomuch as she can break others as quickly as possible, and takes little to no joy in sparring with an opponent of equal power and skill.

While in theory her personality would have gotten her killed early on, in practice Charis generally leaves most other people alone unless they have something she wants or else gets in her way, and so can function more or less normally in Human society. When not training or working, she spends most of her time swimming, attending concerts and hanging around recording studios, practicing with the flute, and studying martial philosophy as a student of the Leopard School. Leading a largely solitary lifestyle, Charis has yet to get herself into any truly significant trouble yet.

History

Charis was born in a third-world island country caught up in civil war due to a conflict between the renewed Red Ribbon gang and opposing elements of the local warlord. Mistaken for a boy, she was kidnapped and made into a child soldier at a young age, and through a series of incidents she got through by luck she quickly gained more notoriety and attention than was healthy. Her true gender was discovered shortly afterwards, and she was forced to kill the militia leader who had originally conscripted her before fleeing as a stowaway on a cargo ship. She was, however, caught by one of the ship's passengers - who coincidentally happened to be one Master Iikka Guiomar of the Leopard school of martial arts.

Taking pity on Charis and lacking any students, Iikka decided to raise Charis according to the principles of the Leopard School, instilling her with the discipline to help overcome her traumatic experiences within her homeland. As the years passed Master Iikka grew troubled by Charis' seeming inability to practice the martial philosophy he imparted her, as she would listen and understand but willingly flaunt the lesson in favor of pursuing her own utilitarian and abrasive mindset, still seemingly fixated in the world of her childhood. While Master Iikka considered dismissing her as his student due to her lack of reverence several times, he was always impressed by her drive and progress, as it was apparent she was one of the few rare Humans predisposed to match the strength and skill of stronger species. He was also entirely confident that, no matter how skilled or strong she became, she would never be able to defeat him personally unless she could learn to embrace the underlying teachings and principles of the Leopard school.

This plan backfired horribly when Charis abruptly killed Master Iikka in a sparring match, having apparently eclipsed him in power by an entire magnitude during the last month-long interlude between their infrequent bouts. How Charis suddenly gained sufficient power to defeat him when previously she had trouble even hitting him remains something of a mystery. With his death being ruled as accidental, Charis inherited his estate. Since that day she has consolidated the fallen Master's holdings and relocated most of his philosophical texts and training implements to an unknown location, while she uses a remote villa situated on the outskirts of Central City. She spends a fair amount of her free time in the city proper and the villa, but also vanishes for month-long periods of time without explanation. She has no listed occupation, which made certain individuals within the King's Guard suspicious when she kept making several large deposits in liquid Zeni every few weeks - though they were unable to discover anything untoward in her residence when they searched it during one of her prolonged absences.

Power Range: 1200:600:1500
Techniques:

Level 2: Null Driver

An extremely wide, cylindrical ki-blast that is a dull orange shade in color, with brown and cyan flecks of light. The Null Driver does very little damage, essentially only capable of momentarily stunning targets or breaking concentration. However, the blast is capable of completing negating even drastically stronger ki blasts that it makes contact with, as well as of completely dissolving and dispersing/blowing away ambient or radiant ki (including ki manipulated to achieve flight). The blast cannot affect ki contained within the body (so you can instantly resume flight just by putting out more ki even if knocked out of it). Opposing ki blasts or techniques directed at the Null Driver blast, from any angle, will be disrupted and dispersed unless they are more powerful by several orders of magnitude.

The blast has a long range and extends extremely quickly, making it hard to evade if caught in its field of fire due to its extreme width (although it's unlikely to hurt anybody directly). The beam cannot swerve, bend, curve, or home. The Null Driver takes a brief moment to charge up before Charis can unleash it - equivalent to the time needed to rear back and then throw a hook or cross (read: perhaps three quarters of a second). The period is just long enough that Charis needs to anticipate attacks in order to cancel them out; she will not be able to use the Null Driver in time if an attack is fired before she starts to use it (unless that attack is rather slow). Charis typically throws the Null Driver straight out from one or both of her fists, but she may also choose to simply project it from directly in front of her body if using either hand isn't convenient. Charis cannot project the Null Driver in any direction other than directly out from her front; if she wants to aim it she has to make use of one of her hands.

The Null Driver takes little energy proportional to its size for Charis to deploy, and is not considerably energetic - its efficacy comes from both the properties of the ki Charis has manipulated, as well as the manner in which the flow of ki throughout the length of the blast has been directed. In essence, the Null Driver is a testament to technique over raw power. Charis can therefore employ the Null Driver nearly as frequently as she likes without risk of wearing herself out, although it does notably take a great degree of discipline and focus to generate - meaning she would probably have trouble using it if she were in severe, constant pain or was otherwise similarly distracted.

Level 2: Ki Radical

Charis charges her aura to become extremely volatile. Upon contact with opposing ki, either in the form of another individual's aura or ki blast, Charis' aura will violently compress to the point of contact and will then violently detonate. The detonation of energy is harmless to Charis and does not appreciably impact inert matter, but is extremely inimical to any entity or object infused with either large amounts of ki or energy.

Charis may charge her aura rather quickly, requiring little focus to do so, and can even do so whilst flying or engaged in melee combat. Her aura takes approximately a full second to charge, and the shift is heralded by a wavering flareup. When active, Charis' aura will visibly burn in the air as a dull orange glow.

In practice, Charis uses this ability in melee combat either to grant her next attack an added punch, or else to fend off her opponent. While the ability could in theory be used to block incoming ki blasts, its (relatively) long activation period and its moderate energy cost make it both difficult to time properly and inefficient to use for such a purpose - and stronger ki blasts would likely swallow up the detonation regardless. This limitation is also the ability's weakness - even a single, weak ki blast directed against it will cause the aura to detonate and be completely wasted, meaning that at long to close range it is easy to dispel without risk. The technique is most dangerous when encountered at melee range.

Level 2 Leopard Combination

Charis fires a low-intensity scatter blast of Ki from both of her hands while gesturing in an attack posture, creating several dozen (harmless) ki-infused afterimages of her fists flying at the target's body from many different directions, creating the impression that Charis is launching simultaneous attacks that are too fast to be followed.

The next phase of the Combination depends on how the opponent reacts. If they charge into the barrage of illusionary fists or else launch any other form of melee attack, Charis' stance then allows her to effortlessly counter while simultaneously dispelling the illusory fists in a bright flash of light that can blind and disorient her opponent. However, if her opponent takes no action or else only attempts to guard themselves from the illusionary barrage of fists, Charis will spring forward with a devastating full-body slam designed to throw her opponent off their feet and then be pinned either to the wall or ground. The only response to the Leopard Combination that ensures safety is to retreat.

Armor: Charis' jumpsuit appears to be made of a similar material to the kind used for jumpsuits worn underneath Saiyan Armor.
Items: Charis carries most everything she might need to retrieve offhand in a simple gym duffel bag, but carries a number of important items in capsules secreted about her person as well.
Zeni: Until recently, Charis account had totaled in at several hundred thousand Zeni, until very recently when almost all of it was withdrawn and listed as being spent in a single transaction. For the moment Charis only has 4,000 Zeni to her name.

Tiamat

. . . . .

Tiamat

This character is not yet present in the story! Hang around and maybe they will be introduced later.

Name: Tiamat
Species: Android
Homeworld: Earth
Current Location:Unknown

RPGC #5 -- FEAR

Hey, not actually going to participate in this one. Just felt that I should comment on the Riddles.

Back during TTL: One, as some of you may recall, rather than dispensing Challenge Accolades I had 'Secret Bonus Challenges.' I didn't tell anybody what they were ahead of time. They were loosely associated with the theme of the Challenge, but ultimately they were somewhat arbitrary.

Bonus Challenges

In case your forgot, the Challenge for the First Labour was to write an unpleasant death scene for your favorite character.

The Darwin Award: Your character commited involuntary suicide. Whoops.

Double Whammy: Without reviving your character, you somehow managed to kill them twice. Impressive.

Criticality Accident: Submitted a winning entry that was 12,144 characters or more in length, not counting spaces.

You Have Entered the Twilight Zone: Your character hung around after they died to see how events unfolded.

Art After Death: Your character's body (or parts of it) was put on display in public.

TPK: Every character mentioned in your story was dead by the end of it.

Death and Happenstance: Submitted a winning entry that was three paragraphs or shorter in length.

The Spirit of the Challenge: Death was just a slap on the wrist for your character.

Vacuum Metastability Event: You killed your character using metacontextual means. How did you even DO that?

Schrodinger's Horizon: Your character is dead. Now if only anyone knew that...

Accessory to Murder: A part of your character's body or one of their personal effects was taken by their slayer.

An's Vengeance: Your character was killed via suffocation (death by hanging counts as their neck being broken, sorry).

The problem with the Bonus Challenges, and the reason I discontinued them, was because ultimately they had absolutely nothing to do with how good a written entry was. Your chances of winning any of those was down to pure happenstance. It did not encourage anybody to write in a specific way and it did not reward anybody who tried to experiment or think outside the box except for those who happened to think of the same arbitrary stuff I did (and only three of those categories happened to be stumbled across).

In essence, the Secret Bonus Categories were no better than lottery tickets (in this awful analogy, each submission counted as buying one).

The Riddles are a bit better (except for @mdk's, which is laughable (Hi @mdk!)) since at least it's somewhat cerebral and presents a challenge for people to work out. But I would argue that they are altogether less engaging than the regular bonus categories were for basically the same reason the Secret Bonus Challenges were not engaging. Case in point: Calling it now that at least one person is going to solve a riddle without even trying to.