Character Sheet
The Mysterious Orphan

Name: Lotte, daughter of Henrik and Anelie
Sexuality: Pansexual
Age: 18
Species: Lamia, Central Lands Human Culture
Level: 3
Class: Hunter
Weapons: Bow, Knife

XP: 2/18

Description: A tall lamia, with short blond hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a protective vest and a noble's hunting shirt. They are muscular, well-formed and handsome, and have slightly yellowish eyes and a forked tongue. Their snake-half is in a forest pattern that helps for blending in, except for the occasional splash of Tyrian purple.

Traits:

Just Devotions (Racial--Human, Central, Cultural)(Level 0): Humans in some parts of the world worship the Gods, vast and sometimes unknowable beings that do grant blessings to those that believe in them, magical blessings. But even the lowliest of the pious knows how to pray to them, how to do the right supplications, how to act in the proper ways. This knowledge can sometimes be put to good use, though the Gods rarely turn their eyes to every little prayer.

Wholesome Farm Looks (Human, Central, Physical, Level 1): Though most of the people of the Central lands, that mass of Kingdoms, Princedoms, Dukedoms, Duchess States, and more, are of course quite poor, they are a hardy, hard-working people, and sometimes this life less beats a person down and more hones them. They have reasonably good looks, and even more importantly, look trustworthy, clean-cut, and otherwise like the kind of person who'd never lied a day in their life or slacked off a single hour, either. This remains even after becoming a lamia, though it is... tempered, obviously.

Snake Eyes (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You can see in the dark pretty well. It isn't perfect, but the night is not nearly so dark and full of dangers as you expected it would be, for whatever reason.


Forest Wanderer (0, Pre-Class): The forest is a fascinating place for a child, as long as they don't go too far. As one gets used to it, one learns more about its ins and outs, and while some of it only applies to the forest that such a child lived in at first, much of it is quite helpful later.

Forest Eyes (Level 1. Class): As one could have eyes that pick out every tiny detail of the tundra, so can one be used to seeing in the dark forest tracks, possibilities, old growth, traps, and anything else, especially when one knows how to use your ears and nose to aid it. It is remarkable how much you can see, when you see what is actually there.

Hunter's Mettle (Level 1, Class): To hunt, one needs a bow, an arrow, and perhaps a knife for self-defense. Having some skill at them is inevitable, having solid skill at them is admirable, and quite useful.

Steady Arm (Level 2, Class): You have a strong, consistent aim. You're not a superlative archer, at least by the standards of adventurers, but you don't have off moments, and you don't waver from being able to hit your target, even if you're not doing the fancier tricks.

Leave Few Traces (Level 2, Class): The experience of being on one side of the hunt makes you wonder how you'd hide your tracks if you were being hunted, or tracked by hostile enemies, as sometimes does happen in adventures. You've begun to practice how not to be followed in the woods, and perhaps elsewhere.


Mending Knowledge, Basic (Level 0, Pre-Class, Healing Priest): You know how to apply poultrices, and you know the basic ingredients of a number of potions that cure headaches, deal with common pains, put someone into a gentle sleep, and other minor things. You can also bandage someone properly. You are not very good at this, merely adequate... but that's more than what most people are.


Whitlin' Ways (Level 1, Common): A man or woman who knows how to whittle will never want for whistles, or spoons, or any number of goods. It's a useful, solid sort of skill, and one that could be made into a trade. It also makes a pretty decent way to pass the time, and the person who whittles never lacks for a knife in sticky situations.

Penny Pincher (Level 1, General): You know the value of a Pfin, and how to keep from wasting all of your money, even if you're far from a merchant. Money is something you're familiar with.

Steel Nerves (General, Level 3): You've seen enough strange places and done enough fantastic things that you are less likely to panic in terrible situations, and more likely to think things through, however difficult. This doesn't mean you can't panic at all, but you have a grip on those nerves. In battle and danger only, this unfortunately doesn't help at all with social anxiety.


Divine Sense (Level 0, Divine): You can sense when someone is a Demigod, and there's at least the potential ability--though you have not figured it out yet--to try to track people through their divine 'scent.' A person's 'scent' gets stronger as they get more magically and divinely powerful... but on the other hand, you now have a 'scent' of your own, that will allow other demigods to know you for what you are, increasingly as you grow more powerful yourself.

Captivating Eyes (Level 2, Divine): You can sometimes 'catch' people with your eyes. If you're concentrating, they'll find it slightly more difficult to look away, though any sense of threat or danger breaks it immediately, and they'll hear your words clearly, actually listening… or at least hearing them. There's no requirement to listen to them, nor does it seem as if anyone's mind is being altered in any way, but it's an interesting, if bizarre, power, and certainly is a new take on 'lost in their eyes.'

Slithering Shadows (Level 3, Divine): You can blend into the shadows better than you should be able to. At night, and in darker areas, you can seem to shift away from sight. It doesn't work well in a wide-open space, but that little bit of extra secrecy can be very useful as a hunter, and as someone who might need to sneak through various areas.
 
Last edited:
Well, you have to consider how much of a rat problem there would be without a piper?

He has bags of them at the ready for a reason, after all. But maybe there was a problem and someone called him to this town?

Apropros of nothing, I really liked Maurice's educated rodents. My first pretchett book, and an old favorite.

Not too much of a problem, unless the rats in this universe are some sort of Dishonored-esque piranha hybrids that devour people in sufficient numbers.

I mean, if I was a villager, I would pay a rat piper who provided honest services. It's like paying for exterminator services, only without extermination. If one was extorting me, however?
I dunno.

On the one hand, there's that enticing prospect of gathering an angry mob and shoving the rat piper's pipe up his... nose. On the other hand, I'm a poor villager who is used to having people with power above myself, who sometimes ( or often ) gleefully abuse it on my person. Like nobles, taxmen, highway robbers, merchants, soldiers, door-to-door salespeople, wizards, telemarketers and particularly angry polar bears.

:V
 
Now I'm picturing lots of wizards sitting in a tower with lots of cubicles, wearing circlet of divination-headsets, using Scrying, Sending and Message spells for telemarketing.
 
Last edited:
On the one hand, there's that enticing prospect of gathering an angry mob and shoving the rat piper's pipe up his... nose.
That would rupture his brain and cause him to die slowly. So, a lynch mob, basically. Not a big fan of mob vengeance, as cathartic as it could be.
Maybe have him be tormented by rats constantly squeaking in his ears while he is in prison stockades?

... not that much more humane, sorry.

Now I'm picturing lots of wizards sitting in a tower with lots of cubicles, wearing circlet of divination-headsets, using Scrying, Sending and Message spells for telemarketing.
They're polar bears, right? They probably have equal opportunity employment for their slave labor reasonable work for reasonable pay.
 
Last edited:
That would rupture his brain and cause him to die slowly. So, a lynch mob, basically. Not a big fan of mob vengeance, as cathartic as it could be.
Maybe have him be tormented by rats constantly squeaking in his ears while he is in prison?

... not that much more humane, sorry.


They're polar bears, right? They probably have equal opportunity employment for their slave labor reasonable work for reasonable pay.

Prison, what's that?
 
Oh, did I say prison? I meant the stockades!

Yeah, prisons were an important development that required both an expansion of technology, but also the expansion of the surveillance and control of the body. Foucault isn't completely right in these things, but he makes pretty reasonable arguments about the ways that imprisonment interacts with our sense of criminality.

Also, ask me questions, I might actually answer them now that I'm still slightly tipsy.
 
If you ping me I'll answer questiosn too! Admittedly, I'm not the loremaster here, so it'll probably be ominous hints and confused ramblings. But I do like giving those out, so!

And Maybe Laur is even tipsy enough to let me give details about the other characters, or something.
 
Lynx! They would have been neat, and maybe a recruitable character down the line, I was thinking?

Edit: And yes, I might have had a whole thing about Lynx research and hunting patterns, times of day they were active, and so on. If you'd gone that route.
 
Last edited:
Lynx! They would have been neat, and maybe a recruitable character down the line, I was thinking?

Edit: And yes, I might have had a whole thing about Lynx research and hunting patterns, times of day they were active, and so on. If you'd gone that route.
And the fluffiness of their fur, I hope. Would love to not die while give hugs.
 
@The Laurent what is the state of polar bears in this world? Are the ice caps okay? Is there enough fish for the bears of the world to eat?
What are the friendliness ratings of each faction we could meet/have met?
 
@The Laurent what is the state of polar bears in this world? Are the ice caps okay? Is there enough fish for the bears of the world to eat?
What are the friendliness ratings of each faction we could meet/have met?

Lotte hasn't hgeard of polar bears. She knows it's pretty icy up north. Fish are pretty common, though Lotte's never had a chance to fish. She's never heard of a fashion, but she does know that there's a noble in charge of a half-dozen villages, including her own, and that they fought a war some time ago.
 
Alright, so I've got a question. What are beast-people like, culturally speaking? Are specific beast-people cultures, or are they integrated into whatever society they happen to live in? And regardless of the answers, would Lotte know anything about the subject?
 
Alright, so I've got a question. What are beast-people like, culturally speaking? Are specific beast-people cultures, or are they integrated into whatever society they happen to live in? And regardless of the answers, would Lotte know anything about the subject?

Very little. She just knows that she hasn't heard of anyone speak well of beast-people, and that they're considered strange outcasts. She does know they come in a variety of beasts, but she's not sure how much of a variety. So there's a lot of lack of knowledge, but I'm sure received wisdom is completely correct on the traits ascribed to it. Theologically, there are folk beliefs that beast-folk are the negative side of the animals of the world made manifest. Central Lands human theology has very little against, say, a wolf-headed God (since they have one, after all.) So Beast-Folk can't simply be, "They're like animals, and animals are bad." No, it's more complicated than that.
 
Some Central Land Gods
So, I'm going to be keeping this to Lotte's understanding, which is decent? Not everyone in the village would know as much. But definitely not what a priest in training would know, or anything.

You have Wilfhuld, who you've already heard mentioned. His domain covers teamwork in a general sense, the sense of community that people see envisioned in the pack that hunts together but also raises wolf pups together. Prayers to Wilfhuld are simple and generally done while doing whatever you want his blessing for, so starting a project, going out to hunt together, or so on? It's not quite to the Orime's level of having a worksong, but it's an invocation more than offering, a lot of the time. If you do offer something, it could be a sacrifice of blood shed together, or part of some work done together? A scrap of cloth from a quilt that the women of a village were working on, or if many blacksmiths were turning out weapons for an army, one sword might be set aside for his pack.

There's the Nachtmater, a goddess of the night, who's animal icon is the moth. She has less of the folk hero qualities that some other gods have, and you wouldn't meet her, but you might see or feel her presence, or see one of her many children on a dark night, and know that your faith is rewarded, in some sense. If you're guided by a convenient star at night, or happen across a clear path, or the moon suddenly breaks out behind clouds, this could all be her favor? But she's a fickle goddess, transient just like her children are, and so no one Lotte knows is particularly faithful about the offerings. But it is traditional to leave lanterns lit in the woods, and burn offerings of fragrant smoke near houses, and so guide her children and in return receive guidance. When you wake at midnight, especially, it's important to leave something for her. And there are certain rumors of people who venture further out into the woods at that hour to do things that her mother refuses to explain to Lotte.

The Waldherz is a very important one for Lotte! It's said that once, long ago, a traveller planted a little bit of themselves in a tree in every forest across the continent. There are many variations, and sometimes the traveller is a woman, sometimes a couple on a long trip doing this together, and probably other variations besides, if you travel to the west. But Lotte certainly knows that you can see movement, deep in the woods, and although she's never met the Waldherz herself, many people have come across a walking tree, or heard it's voice, a deep rumbling that almost penetrates down to the bone. The traditional offering is to make a figure from sticks and branches and twine and leave them out in the forest, and try to make it resemble yourself or someone you're worried for. The idea is that this way the forest might see you as something closer to an adopted child, and that you're leaving something for everything you take from it's home.

Lastly, a foreign god, a somewhat new one to the people of this area, who didn't spread stories so much as come south on the backs of bogeyman stories and percolate through harsh winters and the wind that carried them. (To wax poetic, a bit.) Everyone has felt the bite of an unseasonable blizzard, occasionally, and it's said that these are the dying screams of Snefriid, the beautiful snows. She is not really worshiped, not down in the central lands, but more warded off or spoken about. If you travelled further away, you might hear rumors that Lotte hasn't, about people who walk too long in the cold, entranced by the beauty and pain of her voice, and what happens to them. The Kurzk speak better of those stories than the Nelklands do, generally.

The theme with all of these is that their domains are stuff Lotte deals with day to day. Certainly they're all practical gods, in some sense, and not necessarily as idealized or far off as other religions might be. There are others that priests in villages nearby would know, and ones that Lotte's Ma has tried to explain to her in litanies and stories that have simply slipped her mind. But these are four prominent ones that Lotte could be said to be pious about, or more aware of.
 
Last edited:
Very little. She just knows that she hasn't heard of anyone speak well of beast-people, and that they're considered strange outcasts. She does know they come in a variety of beasts, but she's not sure how much of a variety. So there's a lot of lack of knowledge, but I'm sure received wisdom is completely correct on the traits ascribed to it. Theologically, there are folk beliefs that beast-folk are the negative side of the animals of the world made manifest. Central Lands human theology has very little against, say, a wolf-headed God (since they have one, after all.) So Beast-Folk can't simply be, "They're like animals, and animals are bad." No, it's more complicated than that.

hmm

Well, that does imply answers to some of my other questions. There's definitely cultural significance to beast-people though, which I like. And I'd definitely be interested in getting a look at their perspective in the future.
 
Yeah, prisons were an important development that required both an expansion of technology, but also the expansion of the surveillance and control of the body. Foucault isn't completely right in these things, but he makes pretty reasonable arguments about the ways that imprisonment interacts with our sense of criminality.

Also, ask me questions, I might actually answer them now that I'm still slightly tipsy.
Well, since you started off with commentary on prison's role in society, perhaps you can give us a bit more of an overview of the society we're a part of, and our role in it?

That is, it's clear we're part of the medieval peasantry- but our society has enshrined a certain degree of, well, wandering and adventuring within itself. How does that work? It seems like it's just an accepted facet of society, that the youth will go off wandering the world- sometimes to return home, sometimes to not. How does that work, culturally?
 
Well, since you started off with commentary on prison's role in society, perhaps you can give us a bit more of an overview of the society we're a part of, and our role in it?

That is, it's clear we're part of the medieval peasantry- but our society has enshrined a certain degree of, well, wandering and adventuring within itself. How does that work? It seems like it's just an accepted facet of society, that the youth will go off wandering the world- sometimes to return home, sometimes to not. How does that work, culturally?

Well, labels are a spook, but I was honestly thinking, as much as they matter, that it's more Late Medieval/Early Modern. But the thing is there's not much of a difference because the change was gradual and sometimes non-existent?

Culturally, there's religious support for the idea of journeys and voyages? People are often less rooted than we imagine when we talk about 'peasantry.' Sons and daughters without a place move, yes, as do the poor, but there's also, by this point, an ever-growing body of folk-stories and ideas about what an Adventurer is. I hinted at it a little, but different societies have different reasons and different degrees of acceptance of Adventuring. To some extent, yes, I make it so that most societies are at least somewhat open to it being a thing, but often in very different ways.

Culturally speaking, men and women who are Adventurers are often regarded as without roots. There's almost a feeling of them being in a liminal space, sacred or profane or both at the same time. In fact, such a concept exists in differing degrees in many places?

To the extent that in some villages, in some lands a bit east of what's called the Central Lands, when an adventurer leaves the village they hold a funeral for them, for even if they return, the 'they' who they were had died.
 
Also, military history looks different in this world. While there are still armies and battles, there are fewer large mercenary bands, and often times conflicts that might have necessitated a (small) army are instead solved by groups of adventurers brought together for a common cause. In a bizarre way, Adventurers serve as a very-premature special forces for the powerful... well, that's how the powerful view them as being.
 
well, that's how the powerful view them as being.

That's fine and dandy until some adventuring peasant finds a sword lodged into stone and decides to overthrow you.

I mean, probably not, considering the societal view on adventuring, but you gotta admit that having personally powerful people without any particular allegiance to you or your cause in your employ has to carry certain risks.

Dunno about this world, but I've always wondered what in the nine hells some noblemen we're thinking when they consistently hired someone like, oh, a level 20 sorcerer to do their dirty work.

"That woman can burn you, your castle and a good chunk of your duchy besides."
 
[X] Go to the village headman, whom she has seen before, though never spoken to. Surely he might have some power to talk to the Rat Piper and warn him off of anything too drastic. At the very least, it'll be a help for later.
 
Back
Top