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.
 
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Peoples: The Orime
Peoples: The Orime

Description:
The Orime are a strong race, known as much for their appearance as their way of life, and indeed they are subject to legends, lies, and rumors as to their nature. The Orime are a tall people, with builds that tend towards the broad and thick, often with both muscles and fat aplenty, to survive the cold climates and provide them with the strength and energy for living as they do. The average male Orime was 6'8 feet tall, the average female 6'7 ½, and an Orime was thought dreadfully short if they were under six feet, and there were healthy Orime whose heights surpassed eight feet, though too far beyond it and health problems began to be evident. The skin of Orimes varies, with different tribes and lineages having different tones, which grey being the most common. But one variety is known for their grey-blue skin, and another for their dark green skin.
Either way, they have strong teeth, with several teeth that seemed to be made for tearing, rather than grinding. Their eyes varied as much as their skin did, but red was not uncommon, and neither were gold or silver eyes.

Their size came with considerable strength, and the kind of endurance that allowed them to work longer and harder than most humans, and survive more, though they, like humans, had their limits. This strength and stamina are usually considered in the context of war, but Orime farmers had little trouble breaking even the frozen ground of their native lands, and the blacksmiths found the simpler than it might be, though also rather too warm.

Orime men and women are physically closer than human, with a more similar bone structure and facial structure, and only minimal height differences. This can make it somewhat difficult for humans to tell them apart, especially since Orime tend towards egalitarianism, and thus merely being a warrior doesn't necessarily demonstrate that they are a male Orime.

Orime tend to live longer than humans by some years, due in part to their physiology, and in part to their culture.

Society: As a people, they are divided into 'tribes' of sorts, among which there are different villages, each of which has alliances within and without their 'tribe', which often describes impossibly extended kin-groups with shared history. Where Confederations have come into being, they tend to be the local governments and systems writ-large, and the ever-shifting alliances, feuds, and disagreements conceal a unity that is only sometimes broken.

Villages and tribes are run by councils that consist of different groups. A representative of the warriors, of the Skalds, of the farmers, and so on, each of whom is equal, and has an equal voice. Only in times of war is there a single leader, and then only briefly, and this council itself makes the day to day decisions, rather than all decisions. Within the various professions (such as warrior, or farmer) more than a few decisions are entirely individual, or chosen by vote, and for the truly contentious decisions, the entire village might gather to argue it out and vote.

The Orime do not have slaves, nor even bound servants, and any captive taken into the village, or any who lives in an Orime village, is by definition an Orime, whatever their origin. While some tribes have, at times, tried to get around the religious prohibitions that lead to this, such as by temporary locations outside of the village, or by selling off captives of war to other humans, these are highly disreputable acts, and are liable to be punished by other tribes when they are found out.

Orime warriors have a code of honor and a sense of their own importance, but are also taught that their needs and desires should be subordinated to the good of the village, and that they shouldn't think themselves better for their prowess. This is reasonably effective, though many young fools, men and women alike, tend towards reckless behavior to try to prove themselves.

The Orime do not have priests, as well be discussed below, instead they have Leritel, or teachers, of religious doctrine.

Culture/Life:

An Orime's trade and life are certainly partially determined by those of their parents. But tradition and religious law requires children to be exposed to other trades, often in short 'apprenticeships' of a few days or a week, and thus there is a good deal of mobility between careers, as well as a greater willingness to marry outside of a trade.

Orime tend to raise people partially communally, with every child having many aunts and uncles, as it were. Everyone was responsible for everyone else's child, should the need arise, and while this sometimes led to debates, and disagreements, it was habit and custom.

Should two Orime disagree, or one Orime be accused of misdeeds, they would be put before a collection of other Orime, guided by the Leritel in outlining any necessary laws or precedents to them, but no more, before they made a decision, which had to be conclusion.

When an Orime reached sixteen years, they had a ceremony in which they were lightly bled, and in which the whole village turned out for a celebration, along with any who reached the same age in that season. From then on, they were an adult, with the responsibilities of an adult, though many were still in training, and would be for some time.

Training was less a matter of Master and Apprentice, and instead a wide variety of teachers, to diffuse both responsibility and power.

Orime plant huge farms held and worked in common, with a large variety of crops which have been, sometimes with a purpose, selected for hardiness in the cold conditions of their land. It makes their diet, which often consisted of stews, bread, and and great deal of meat, relatively diverse in other ingredients as well. Some areas of Orime lands have extensive fruit trees, especially Winter Apples, able to survive into the early winter. Orime have come to notice that without such apples in their winter diets, they tend to get sick towards the coming of Spring, in what they call Apple Sickness, cured only by apples, and thus the Orime in those regions do a brisk trade with both human and Orime neighbors, often quite distant, who use the cider (which is drank regularly and medicinally), dried apples, and even preserves to supplement a diet that, no matter how they try, tends to still be lean by winter's end. But Orime are survivors.

Besides cider, which is viewed less as alcohol and more as necessity, Orime drink a good deal of ale, and drink what they call Gorzakle as for special occasions, and as a sort of pain medication. Certainly, humans from the south who have tried it have said that it distracts rather well from the bodily pains, burning as it does on the way down.

Orime tend towards raucous, celebratory drinking, but they have many other pastimes. Many love hunting, and there are traditional games, many of which come from pranks done in the mythic past, and they sing and dance at all times, even those who aren't Skalds. Music is central to the life of an Orime, and the Orime who is tone deaf is thought the most unfortunate creature in the village. They place much stock in being personable, and in getting along with others.

Orime may challenge each other to fights over disagreements, but the fights can be only with bare firsts, and to first fall, and are more common in some villages than in others.

When an Orime marries, they mingle their blood with the man and woman of their choice, and recite the vows as have been recited for beyond Orimeish memory, and often follow it up with poems or songs of their own composition, or the composition of a friendly Skald, in order to mkae it sacral. The Leritel and at least two or three other Orime usually are required to watch, so that all can know it was done well. Once married, an Orime might move into their spouse's house, or their spouse into theirs, or they might build a new home together, the customs there vary quite widely.

When Orime get sick, they call upon both Skalds, some of which can do quiet miracles with their magic, and traditional herb-husbands and herb-wives, who are sometimes also Skalds.

When they die, it is a Skald who ensures that they do not come back as a ghost, and their body is either burned, if they are thought wicked or full of regrets, in order to give their souls more time to consider things before they go beneath the earth (for the Orime have a vague but present understanding of what we'd call the Water Cycle), or buried if they have lead a life with few regrets.

Mythology/Religion:

The Orime believe in a multitude of Gods, all formed by a single Goddess, Orima, whom they were named after in memorial. These Gods no longer get involved directly in the world, out of compassion and understanding, but they taught the Songs of the Skalds, and they maintain the world even still, so worship is a matter of thanking them. Sacrifices aren't made, as they were in the days of the Priests. Instead, songs are sung, for what tribute is greater than the very thing which created the universe, Orima, and from her singing all the other Gods?

The Orime have a complex and expansive mythological cycle, which is both poetry and song at the same time, and which can be categorized in certain ways, as can all their songs.

First, the Tworzhist, the History of Creation. This tells of Orima, born of the sound of silence, and her lonely singing, which gave birth to the first Gods, who sang along with their mother, and on and on, as more were created and sang the world into being. It is filled with stories of hjinx and games, as well as their wonder at their creations, and ends with the creation of laws for the Orime, the naming of the Orime, and other matters.
Second, the Kreovak-Gesh, the Story of Blood, the greatest sung epic in Orime culture, which tells the story of Orime failing to live up to their promises and covenant, and of one such Orime raising an army of ghosts and nearly conquering the world, before being narrowly stopped, leading to the Gods creating new laws, but also agreeing to step back from rulership of the world, so that it may control itself. It is an incredibly popular epic, even to this day.

Third, the Gesha-Lyud, the People's Stories, are really several different categories. First, there are a number of stories of great heroes and adventures, stretching to this day, including that of Kataival, the Skald who climbed the world, and Bogumah, the first Bearsarker of the Orime. These thrill people even to this day. Second, there are the histories, which often specifically refuse to name names, instead speaking of entire tribes, clans, or villages, and which are unique to each village, or so it seems.

The final category is everything else. The drinking songs, the occasional songs for funerals, weddings, and every other occasion, the comic songs of no particular origin, the songs made purely to dance to, the songs you sing a child to lull them into sleep… they have no specific ritual attached to them, and yet the Orime view them as sacred in their own ways.

The Orime live their life with their religion, their songs of thanks, their traditions, and the Leritel, who traditionally take three apprentices at once, so that they do not favor any one, are merely those who help remember the traditions, recite them and the songs and stories, and who provide wisdom but not rulership. Even the Gods do not rule over the world, merely guide it and protect it, as the warriors must protect but not rule a village.
History: The Orime are a broad group, more widespread than their sizeable traditional locations might indicate. But there are certain trends, such as their conflicts with the Kingdoms and other governments which they often neighbor or are even a part of. They have their own ways, and their own lives, and they don't always mix well with humans, at least in the sense that their belief that those in an Oremish village are Orime can create confused loyalties and cultural misunderstandings. At times, Orime have warred with human Kingdoms, raiding them or even bringing them to the ground, but they have in some ways been safe from many of the trends that have affected so many. The Sepult-Edelian Empire reached almost to their borders before it began to fall apart, and so while influenced by them indirectly, they never warred with them except very briefly towards the end, and were certainly never conquered in large numbers by them.

But they are not without history, despite that. And they are not outside of history, as they might yet learn.

Unique Classes:

The Orime, like any beings, can boast of many talents, and plenty become adventurers, either in the local sense, or in the traveling sense, as the villages can hardly, nor would they hardly, forbid Orime from leaving them to travel as the song of their hearts so desire. But among those who leave, two particular groups stand out even more than others, for any Orime in the land of humans will tend to stand out.

The Oremish Bearsarker is very different than that said, increasingly embattled, category in the Nelkaelands. Instead of unleashing their anger, they stoke it into a great fury… and then with all their iron will, hold it under control and use it with a cold, even calm in its own way, mind. It is a fury that might lead to chanting and shouting, but that was as much an artifact of the Skaldic arts and the intimidation tactics of warriors than anything else. Instead, this leashed, controlled fury makes them the hounds, or the sleep wolves, to the rabid dogs of Nelkeaish Bearsarkers. The most famed Bearsarkers are capable of super-Orimeish feats, though it is well remembered that the most famed warriors were not Bearsarkers.

The Skald, on the other hand, is a figure who flits between entertainer, religious figure, warrior, poet, healer, worker, necromancer and more. They are the chief magic-users of the Orime, and in fact all the other types of magic combined still don't have the hold that Skaldic magic does, and Skalds, being entertainers, often travel to learn more about the world for their songs, and for their art, for their magic is an art like any other, one which requires intelligence, skill, and even a sort of daring. They, like Bearsarkers and the Leritel, are highly respected in Orimeish society.

Other Locations/Misc: While there are traditional lands that are called Oremish, Oremish settlers have rather large settlements or groups in many of the lands to their immediate south, sometimes independent of the various sovereigns and nobles, at other times trading military service for independence otherwise. In somewhat lesser numbers, Oremish outcasts, mercenaries, and inquisitive Skald could find themselves in the Central Lands or the Golden Road, but very few find themselves in Edelish lands, let alone even farther to the west, though few are not none. As well, there are several prominent tribes that live in the Nelkaelands, whose history and culture are quite different at times than those of their kin.

Note: I'm posting this because we hit the third page, and to encourage discussion there'll be more lore dumps if we hit the 4th, let's say?

And the vote closes tomorrow!
 
Oh, just to note. Nemo's my co-QM again, but I can't set her up as a collaborator, so she won't show up as a QM post.

But yeah, our Junior Debut as partners in fiction, adventure and queerness, after Wolf Spider and Jedi Initiate Quest.
 
Orime sound... Kinda utopic, to be honest. Maybe it's just informed by my bloodthirsty orc prejudices, but their society has very few of the flaws that traditional medieval societies hold.

They seem to have equality down pat, both gender and class, but what are their thoughts on sexuality? Are they fair in that regard too? Do they have prejudices against the speech or hearing impaired, due to the importance of music to their culture?
 
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Orime sound... Kinda utopic, to be honest. Maybe it's just informed by my bloodthirsty orc prejudices, but their society has very few of the flaws that traditional medieval societies hold.

They seem to have equality down pat, both gender and class, but what are their thoughts on sexuality? Are they fair in that regard too? Do they have prejudices against the speech or hearing impaired, due to the importance of music to their culture?

Their thoughts on sexuality are pretty accepting. Their epic involves a polyamorous relationship between a nonbinary godling, a female warrior, and a male Skald. There are some prejudices, and sorts of... assumptions involved with disabilities, but they don't cast people out, and they kinda do try to work around them? They're a relatively small group, comparatively speaking, surviving in hardy, dangerous circumstances, and so they have to band together to survive, and they have had pasts of being more aggressive and expansionistic. Still, they often, as a set of societies, keep away from involving themselves, which can be good... but can also leave them in danger if their borders are pressed while they weren't paying attention. They're also very, very divided, and while they only sometimes war, there are raids sometimes and the unity between tribes/clans/etc is imperfect, of course. Hence why the Orime backstory involves a tribe being left out to hang.

It should also be noted that this normative statement on Orime culture doesn't include the Nelk Orime, who seem to perhaps be slowly getting more hierarchial, or the Orime tribes/etc in some other Kingdoms, who trade military service for independence and freedom and land, which has had effects on the way they live and exist, changes that plenty of Orime living in the 'most traditional' way would regard as bad. It's a mixed bag, but they do in fact have a number of things figured out that others don't. They're a non-hierarchial group of tribes, and our picture of what the medieval period was like is... honestly really flawed?

Like, I'm guessing you could list the 'traditional flaws' and I could probably add long qualifiers on all of them. Democracy, for instance, which this sorta-kinda is a village version of it, has a long pedigree in medieval society at the local level.

(There's also more to be said about the mute, such as the focus on teaching them to use instruments, and so on, and the fact that there's always a lot of work to be done, but it's not that important.)

Edit: Ultimately, another thing to understand about societies is that they are neither static in place, nor do they stay the same if they move. If by some chance the Orime wound up in charge of an Empire (which some have tried to do in the mythic past, infamously) they wouldn't somehow be "Good Emperors" or whatever. They choose to live in ways that eschew some of the Imperial/Kingly ambitions of others, but if that stopped they wouldn't somehow be better Kings or kinder Emperors because they were Orime, hypothetically speaking.
 
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And to spur discussion around the vote a little bit...

I'm glad to see that everyone has at least one vote. There was a lot of thought and care about everyone's potential arcs and their characterization, and if we're lucky some of them can show up in the winner's story?

I don't have a specific vote closing time but we'll probably look in at noon tomorrow and close it unless it's really neck and neck, which doesn't usually happen.
Adhoc vote count started by NemoMarx on May 28, 2019 at 12:25 AM, finished with 56 posts and 42 votes.
 
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So we kind of know where three of the choices are from but what about the Prince and the Orphan? What kind of culture do they come from?
 
So we kind of know where three of the choices are from but what about the Prince and the Orphan? What kind of culture do they come from?

Laur will tell this better, but the Prince is from and in the west, on the continent. Olund, where he was going to be married off, is an older maritime empire (formed to resist invasions from the Nelk), and in recent years has been trying to mimic and suck up to the continental kingdoms and build a power block. Olund is bordered by a few other countries we were initially calling the faelands, where he's run off to now. There's some very weird magic and protocol that he's mostly adjusted to, about that, and the politics between those nations already came up in his backstory, I can tell you? And as for the Fae... well, their territory is a little harder to define and talk about. The elves keep to an older culture than the humans, as an obvious thing.

Where the Orphan's from isn't something that's relevant at the start of the quest, but they are in a small logging and farming village, at one of the junctions of a larger trade route. It's surrounded by great woods, and the culture there isn't relevant in a political scale like the Prince's stuff, but is mostly about how the groups on the ground are interacting, the pressures from some trade routes to the east and west, and a surprise. The lands here are shaped, historically, by the fall of the greater Sepult empire, and the Orphan's village is in the shadow of the older Edelian-Sepult chunk of that. This is all more in the realm of dusty history, and I don't believe the village is really bothered or thinking about it now? The closest might be some River Sepult taking a detour to unload the shinier trade goods here.
 
It's surrounded by great woods, and the culture there isn't relevant in a political scale like the Prince's stuff, but is mostly about how the groups on the ground are interacting, the pressures from some trade routes to the east and west, and a surprise.
Oh yeah, this reminds me, how about the type of starting hooks each option is getting? Like the Prince will obviously deal with the Fae and Elves. The Street Rat looks like your fantasy!Italian city-state hijinks. The Orphan's is ground level and trade pressures?
 
Oh yeah, this reminds me, how about the type of starting hooks each option is getting? Like the Prince will obviously deal with the Fae and Elves. The Street Rat looks like your fantasy!Italian city-state hijinks. The Orphan's is ground level and trade pressures?

The Orphans is the woods, primarily. The trade and stuff is just what affects the village and region as a whole? But there's also stuff like missing people, beasts that might hurt someone's animals, and so on. Lots of room for some early adventure in the woods, and who knows what's out there if you venture deep enough. They're not exactly well charted, for sure.
 
Wouldn't be a Laurent quest without some twists and playing with the conventions, I say. I wouldn't turn your nose up at a quest about stabbing slimes in a sewer just because it seems cliche, for instance. :p

But every option on the list is coming from somewhere, and also going somewhere, it's true.
 
Hopefully we can meet some of the other characters in our story!
 
All characters were transsexual, mate. Some of them just don't know it yet.

Yeah, I got that.

But Lotte is a diminutive of Charlotte which is a female form of Charlot, in turn a diminutive of Charles. There's like fifteen variations of the name. Male, female, unisex, you name it.

Or is it a standard practice to take up an entirely new name on transitioning?
I don't know much about the subject, so sorry if what I suggest is some sort of a faux pas in the transsexual community.
 
But Lotte is a diminutive of Charlotte which is a female form of Charlot, in turn a diminutive of Charles. There's like fifteen variations of the name. Male, female, unisex, you name it.

Or is it a standard practice to take up an entirely new name on transitioning?
I don't know much about the subject, so sorry if what I suggest is some sort of a faux pas in the transsexual community.

Some people just change the gender of the name, some people prefer a clean break. That's basically what we might have you vote on later? (Mine is unrelated, but has a roughly similar meaning and starts with the same letter, which was as comfortable as I felt with having my old name.)

And of course "Lot" is an option too, theoretically.
 
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Some people just change the gender of the name, some people prefer a clean break. That's basically what we might have you vote on later? (Mine is unrelated, but has a roughly similar meaning and starts with the same letter, which was as comfortable as I felt with having my old name.)

And of course "Lot" is an option too, theoretically.

I see.
Honestly, my entire experience in this matter can be summed up by "I have read 'Machineries of the Empire' and 'A Civil Campaign', haha".
Maybe even without 'haha'. ( I could count Dragon Age: Inquisition and BG: The Siege of Dragonspear here, but maybe not. )
And no real life experience either.
 
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