Character Creation: Stage 3a: Background: Prologue

Finally, your character has a name! We already know a lot about Solvaron but there is more to decide! In the last step, you chose his origins and early life. Now, we will build on those choices, and the ones before, to decide on what Solvaron was up to before coming to Hessen. This section will focus primarily on the way in which Solvaron acquired his skills. Decisions made her will have both mechanical and story impact and may go a ways to informing your long term goals here on the Malgravian Wingtip.

Now, an update!

You are Solvaron, a Striking elf from an Enclave in the Mirror Marches. Raised outside of the Fleeting world, you have been brought up to greatly Pride your skills and heritage. Others may find you haughty or superior but those who truly know you know your Honest and Kind heart. Yet, you are a Slayer and a Mesmerist; a warrior, wielding both light weapons and the powers of your mind with lethal precision. Sometimes, you have found the better parts of your nature at odds with the savage power you wield.

Here is what is on the voting schedule for this stage:

1. Mesmerist Training: In which you will decide the nature of your Mesmerist powers and how you came to develop them.
2. Slayer Training: In which you will decide the events that lead you down the path of the killer.
3. Major Life Event: Life is more than training. What else has shaped you into the person you are and placed you on the path you walk?
4. Appearance (2 of 3): In which you will continue to add adjectives to describe your appearance.

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Mesmerist Training

Magic, on Tremia, takes a wide variety of forms and can be used for an even wider variety of purposes. Some are born with magic, while others train to acquire it. Some, even, bargain with otherworldly entities for a fraction of their power or come by it by even stranger means. As a Mesmerist, you wield magic but it is not with the power and singular focus of a wizard or sorcerer. Instead, your magic is a thing of tricks and edges, used to augment or better leverage your other skills, instead of replace them entirely. Presented below are a number of possible scenarios that would have led you to develop your unique skills.

[] Dreamer of the Garden
Few not born to the nobility of the Golden Arch ever set their sights on the Garden of Dreamers. However, through ancient pacts, your Enclave occasionally sends their gifted scions to learn for a time within that fabled place. You spent several years at the Garden and within the shares dreams hosted at its halls. In that time, you learned to harness the powers of the collective Dream. While others focused on manifesting the Dream into Reality, you found a talent for touching the minds of others through the Dream. Your Mesmerist powers are phantasmagorical, allowing you to tug at the most treasured desires and deepest fears of others with just a glance.

[] Enclave Tradition
The Solusair Enclave hides in plain sight. It has for generations. The best way to stay safe from the endless strife of the Fleeting world is simply not to be noticed by it. Your Enclave, the Solusair, has perfected the magic of the mind for this purpose. It is ringed by mists that eat memory and warded by glyphs that turn away scrying. But even these protections are not enough. The magic of the Fleeting of the Mirror Marches is ever advancing and, should the wider world come to know of the ancient secrets the Solusair guard, the consequences could be devastating. Since you were young, you were trained in the ways of the Solusair by Elder masters. Yours is the subtle art that twists away thoughts and perceptions. While not dedicated master of mental magic, you have more facility with enchantments and formal spellcraft than other Mesmerists.

[] Innate Magic
Even with thousands of years of Elder study, magic's nature is still ill-understood. No one truly understands why certain children are born with the inherent power to manipulate magic. You are one such "gifted" child. From a young age, you could hear thoughts. As you got older, you begun to be able to change them. Although there were many powerful mages at your Enclave, none had the same specialty as you. You received instruction from many masters of magic but, in the end, had to figure out everything about your power on your own. You will have greater control of the exact nature of your magic but no additional specialities.

[] Otherworldly Guidance
The Mirror World of Dust is a reflection of stories forgotten and secrets better left buried. The Outsiders native to Dust, psychopomps, are rarely seen in Reality but, when they are, their business is inscrutable and quickly forgotten. Except, not all forget. As a young man, you met the Psychopomp Eighteen Veils and struck a soul bargain with it. You spent years within the Mirror World of Dust, serving Veils and learning at its feet to harness the power it gifted you. Now, you've returned to Reality to live the rest of your life, however, Eighteen Veils still has need of you and will call upon your services, when the time is right. Your Mesmerist powers manifest with swirls of grey dust and the cries of carrion birds. You wield the wind that scours minds and wear the mask that hides hearts. In addition, you may summon effigies of Dust to aid you.

[] Rosewater Student
For a time, you studied at Hyacinth University in Lemuria. Hyacinth University is the premiere institution for the study of Mentalism in the Mirror Marches. It has a long legacy and sprawling campus. You fondly remember long days by the lakes, laughing and studying with your fellow students. It is always difficult to be among the Fleeting, to see them change so much while you seem to stand sill in comparison. Still, your course of study allowed you to almost feel like you were one of them. Almost. But things just... piled up. You spent nearly a decade at Hyacinth and by the end of that time, you hardly recognized the fellows in your cohort. It wasn't their bodies but their hearts and mind that had outgrown yours. In the end, you couldn't complete your education. You left without saying goodbye. You are a formally trained mind mage, although that training is incomplete. In addition to Mesmerist powers, you have a small suite of magic of general applicability.

[] Wandering Master
One morning, a visitor arrived at your Enclave, looking for an apprentice. Rixxen Humblewrast was her name, a fellow Elder of the Gnomish breed. She felt the years catching up with her and her mind slipping. She knew better than most that a mind is a horrible thing to lose and she had resolved to give hers away to prevent that from happening. When all was said and done, you left the Enclave with Rixxen, to learn the mind magic she'd spent centuries perfecting. For decades, you travelled Tremia with Rixxen but all things end and you have since parted ways. As Rixxen's successor, your mind magic is whimsical but tinged with madness. At the cost of your own sanity, you may enter into a state of heightened power.

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Slayer Training

No one is born knowing how to kill others efficiently. Somewhere in your century of life, you learned the particular fighting style that makes you a slayer. Slayers combine the traits of Rangers and Rogues. They are excellent warriors who can stand toe-to-toe in combat but focus on striking the weak points in their enemies defenses to take them down quickly. Slayers are not knight and they are not line soldiers, their techniques are not suited for open battle but instead excel in assassinations and ambushes. The following scenarios propose ways in which you were trained to acquire this skillset.

[] Adventurer Apprentice
You were taken under the wing of the Mercenari adventurer Aurum Smythe. She was a rough woman who thought honor was made up by romance novelists and the cure to any moral quandary could be found at the bottom of a wine bottle. Aurum was one of the rare few adventures to earn patronage from the Frogsmoth Institute and she took you along on several expeditions to the Cetnral Azan Basin and Song Islands. You learned to stalk stealthily through jungles and ruins to take down enemies before they could see you, let alone hurt you or alert others. You parted ways when Aurum grew too old for adventure. She retired to a beachside mansion in Maysden while you left to start your own career.

[] Anti-Imperialist
Eleven years ago, Ladavi became the first nation bordering the Bay of Treste to fall to the expansion of the Holy Malla Empire. Soon after, the Mallans invaded Orthron. Although many in the Enclave argued against it, some decided that they could not stand aside while invaders pushed closer and closer to your homeland. You were along the number that left to defend Orthron. When you left, you knew only the basics of swordplay taught to any child of the Enclave. War changed that, it changed you. You learned to stalk and kill quietly, how to leverage superior skill to slow superior numbers. It wasn't enough. It has been two years since Orthron surrendered but you've seen more than enough battlefields for now.

[] Claim Mercenary
The Narrow Way is a thin channel that connects the Aquialic Ocean to the Sea of Sails and seperates Therexia from the Golden Arch of Vaakish. For centuries, cultural exchange has flourished between the regions and, in one corner of southeastern Therexia, marriage between noble families was a common practice. Before you were born, a Miffari Pharoah claimed that his lineage had a stronger claim to the thrones of the region than the ruling noble and so sparked a conflict that is measured on the timescale of the Elders. As a young elf, you signed up for the Vellistoriel-based mercenary unit known as the Ghosts of Zwanllen. You learned to fight and kill alongside hardened veterans and made some good coin selling your services to the highest bidder.

[] Clockwork Enforcer
Sometime during your youth, you travelled away from your Enclave and found yourself in the Clockwork Coast of Southern Therexia. The world was radically different from the sheltered upbringing of your Enclave and you quickly fell in with a rough crowd. Changing technologies and lifestyles in the Coast has opened the way for ambitious and unscrupulous people to prosper and you found yourself working for Boss Patrus, a key figure in the underground of Vaso. You did dirty jobs for Patrus for many years, graduating from petty crimes to hits in your due. You're familiar with the underworld, have criminal connections, and always get the job done. Of course, Patrus burned you in time but you made it out alive.

[] Enclave Defender
Enclave Solusair maintains its secrecy from the outside world. It's first line of defense is magic. Solusair knows secrets of magic that stretch back to the Summoning Kingdoms of old. Words written of Solusair disappear from the page and rumors die in the throat. This is part of the problem. The Mirror Marches are ever hungry for lost magic and Solusair's secrecy must be maintained. Sometimes, magic fails. Then, the knives come out. You were trained to be one of these knives; the hidden blades that defend your home. You have honed your ancestral fighting style, which focuses on the swift silencing of those who know to much or pry too closely.

[] Rosewater Duelist
The Dueling Leagues of the Mirror Marches are famous the world over. You attended a fencing school in perpetration to join in the Leagues yourself. You had some small career in the Leagues, won some small bouts, but scandal drove you from competition before your time. At the fencing school, you learned to strike at vital areas with pinpoint accuracy and special techniques to debilitate spellcasters. Your fighting style is built on formality, honor, and tradition but manages to be effective, nonetheless.

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Major Life Event

Your character is not just the sum of their training. They have a century of life experience before we meet them in Winter's Wings. Things have happened to them, some of which might be the driving force that now brings them to Orskeath in the first place.

[] A Friend in Need
You're already acquainted with one of the chosen sidestory companions. Sometime during your life, you became indebted to them. Now, you've met them in Orskeath to help them on their mission. The specific companion and the specific nature of your history will be included in later stages. The chosen companion will start in your party.

[] Eyes without End
Mesmerists are rare in Tremia. Once you thought you knew everything there was to know about the discipline. Then you met them and this illusion was shattered. They dropped you into a dream so vivid, so real, that you lived out an entire life as someone else. When you awoke, something precious to you was gone. You've tracked rumors of them to the Rimewild Woodlands and will continue following them until you meet again. Whether this meeting will be one to ask for guidance or to demand satisfaction, only time will tell.

[] Fallen Enclave
The Enclave you grew up in is no more. Depending on your choice of upbringing, you may have been there to defend it or you may have been elsewhere in the world. Regardless, you could not stop it. Now, your home is gone and your family dead. You are unmoored, flung out into the tumultuous world of the Fleeting. You have a lead on the culprits that brings you to Hessen but it is a frail thing that is sure to gutter out if not pursued carefully. The specific nature depends on selections earlier in the stage.

[] Loved and Lost
Young love is a beautiful thing but dangerous. You met and were swept off your feet by a humanoid, whose specifics will be decided on in later stages. When you met, you were both young, little more than children but that is the time when passions can burn hottest. You were married in secret and lived together for a handful of beautiful years before things fell apart. Your paramour grew up while you stayed the same and what you had could not bear the strain. They are lost to you now and, perhaps, so is the child you fathered.

[] Missing Mentor
You have received word that an influential figure from your upbringing has gone missing. They were last seen in the Rimewild Woodlands you have come to Orskeath to find them. The details of this option depend on selections made above.

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Appearance Selection (2 of 3)

What do others see when they look at your character? Over the next three stages, you may select any number of adjectives from the list provided below. These adjective describe salient features of your character's physical body. After each stage, the adjective that receives the most votes will be selected. Adjectives are often provided in pairs, such as Scarred and Unblemished. When one of the adjectives in a pair is selected, the other is also removed from subsequent votes.

Your character's appearance may change over the course of the story but this will describe their baseline. In the end, three adjectives are not enough to cover all of a character. Other than the attributes covered by the adjectives selected, your character's appearance will be what is typical for an Elf from their region of origin. In addition, your characters physical ability scores will affect their appearance. A Toned character with a low strength score will be ropy rather than bulky while a Soft character with high strength will pack serious muscle under their padding.

[] Beautiful
[] Dark
[] Disarming
[] Fair
[] Hirsute
[] Misshapen
[] Noble
[] Scarred
[] Short
[] Slender
[] Smooth
[] Soft
[] Tall
[] Thick set
[] Toned
[] Unblemished
[] Unsettling
[] Weathered
[] Write-in