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The Xen'Drik Chronicles OOC

Isida Kep'Tukari

Adventurer
Supporter
reel_big_gish said:
Shiny.

Se'ket is certainly an unorthodox choice for a Morgrave University associate, but I must say it's well done. Feel free to flesh it out with appearance, personality, allies/enemies you've made at Morgrave U or elsewhere, and anything else you would like to add.
Se'ket has great affection for Tugor, the man who found her and helped raise her with the Children, along with several others in her small sect. He stood in as a foster father, and Se'ket has great love for him. Irigane, the leader, was a stern but fair woman who was responsible for Se'ket's education. She taught her both the philosophy of the sect and the manners she needed to learn.

"Most people regard us as fanatics, and indeed there are many who spread our word with the tact of charging moose and the subtlety of a tornado. We must help temper their enthusiasm with persistence and logic, for if we are written off as insane, no one will be able aid the Coming of Winter," was something she said often. Se'ket understands persistence, and her own human blood helped her understand the logic, so she brings Irigane's presence with her whenever she starts speaking of the Children.

At the university, she's made a few friends, alienated a few others, and probably made at least one real enemy. Professor Rugalt and his two doctoral students, Sharrin and Festral, have become her little family away from home. There are about a dozen others in programs of naturals sciences and entomology who she counts as casual friends or friendly acquaintances. Some people, however, found her presence offensive.

"She's not a scholar, she has no references, is not even a native of Breland, has never been enrolled here... you got her out of the sewers for gods' sake!" Professor Toffin has said frequently and often whenever the subject of Se'ket comes up. He doesn't like the fact that Rugalt has been teaching her in his classes without asking for tuition, that he is willing to pay for her lodgings on campus, or that her skills have brought Rugalt significant fame in the entomological field. Toffin is an academic rival, most of his bitterness stems from the fact that Rugalt found her first. Predictably Toffin's own students and research assistants try to make life hard for her whenever they can get away with it, but they have expressed nothing more than petty jealousy towards her, not real hatred.

Hatred towards her comes from one man, Suvarin Tu'gesh, a Warden of the Wood and also a druid. However, he sees all live as worth preserving, even city life, and fights against unnatural death with every fiber of his being. Someone dying of a disease is not necessarily a tragedy, unless that disease was given to him by letting diseased fleas into his home. He has come across the works of the Children of Winter before, and finds Se'ket's presence an offense to his morals. He is at the university to learn about the mindset of those that live in cities, while simultaneously learning about animals and plants he might never see himself.

He tried to get Se'ket banned from the university shortly after he found out her sect, and when that didn't work, has tried many forms of harassment to get her to leave. Se'ket feels that he may do anything short of death to keep her ideas out of Morgrave.

As for Se'ket herself, she had short, straight blue-black hair cut in a sleek cap around her head. Her skin is a dark ivory, with odd flat features, and her eyes are nearly black. She is slender, short, and graceful, and tends to wear body-hugging clothes in silk, usually in shiny hues of blue, blue-black, or blue-green, like a beetle's wings. She really doesn’t resemble any of the races of Khorvaire, which led the Children of Winter to believe her mother was a foreigner from across some distant sea.

Se'ket doesn't trumpet her friendship with insects and her membership to the Children of Winter, but she doesn't care to hide it. She has a large bombardier beetle that sticks by her side as a friend, and she casually speaks of the Winter to Come in a calm and logical manner when asked of her beliefs. She has never had the occasion to lie, though has found ways of honey-coating the truth to avoid unnecessary hardships in her life. She knows that though she has found some friends in Sharn, her sect is not well loved, and some would see her harmed or dead before spreading her philosophy around.

Despite her preoccupation with the Winter to Come, Se'ket is not morbid. However, she is very accepting of death. Her affairs for such things are always in order, and she finds the life-risking behaviors of healers to save the lives of the dying as curiosities. She often helps people work to an acceptance of death, which means she can often be found at the sites of fires, plagues, and other disasters as a very strange grief counselor.

Se’ket is an expert on insects; she knows their types and habitats, their behaviors, and even why they do what they do. She knows their affects on flesh and vegetable manner, and often has an educated guess as to when a person died, by observing the insects present. But she knows her knowledge is limited by where she’s been. She may be an expert in the Reaches or in Sharn, but not in Zilargo or Droaam or Xen’drik…
 

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Brogarn

First Post
Couple of quick questions. What time frame are you giving for apps? And would you accept one from someone who's still learning his way around Eberron?
 

reel_big_gish

First Post
@Isida: Nicely done.

@Brogarn: I was planning on taking submissions until the beginning of September. All I'm asking for right now is a rough concept (or a full-fledged background if you're so inclined), and I'll be making my choices of characters based off of that. Once I've selected a group, I plan on taking another week or so to create the characters, and hopefully have Chapter 1 under way by mid-September.

I have no problems with you being new to Eberron. We all were at one point or another.
 

Nalfeshnee

Explorer
I've been dying to play in an Eberron PBP for a long time, so here goes (hope it makes the cut ;)).

Joskar Waterholme grew up in Morgrave university. He never experienced the streets of Sharn in the same way other children did. He never jumped across bridges or explored dark buildings in the towers. Not that he cared. He was too interested in important things to take any notice. Outside the City, distant in his mnd, a war waged, a war he was confident would never reach his home. Instead of worrying about bloodhsed and battle, he emulate his parents; reading and studying. And therein his strength lies.

Both his parents were professors - his mother Iska, an accomplished anthropologist with many laued titles discussing the evolution of giant and human magic under her belt as well as a successful trip to Xen'drik. His father Gerald was a 'rich' collector of antiquities and somewhat of an adventurer, having explored many of the goblin ruins beneath the city of Sharn as well as ancient hobgoblin sites to the west. He was a benefactor of archeological expeditions, which is how his parents met during the War. Given their position in society the Waterholmes were nor required to serve directly in the War, though Iska's research into the nature of magic and Gerald's knowledge of artefacts (lostand recovered) both served their purpose in matters of intelligence. Despite the stigma of not fighting the war, they both served - and died - for their nation.

In the year 986 YR, Gerald made a startling discovery regarding magic. I na way this was what kept the family out of the war: Breland was not going to ignore such a boon during wartime. An expedition to the Lost Continent was arranged, and the Waterhlmes were to lead.

Accompanied by the few guards and mercenariess that could be spared durng the war, the Waterhilmes set off for the Lost Continent. They never returned. Perhaps it was Droaam corsairs or a far-ranging enemy fleet, but the expedition lost contact with the university only five days after leaving Sharn - well before it would have even reached the continent.

Joskar, left at home with the Waterholmes' friend and associate Illidraen (an elf scholar), was shattered by the news of his parents' death, and it almost destroyed his studies in the university, where he was continuing his parents fascination of history with the study of magic (after all, the two were inextricably linked). But, urged by his tutor and new guardian, he persevered and emerged from his studies with a thirst for knowledge, with a passion for the unknown secrets of the world... and with a dark shadow looming over his every thought.

He has never stopped mourning his parents' death and some colleagues at the university whisper that his obsession with Xen'drik and the study of giant magic and artefacts stems fromhis parents' loss and no true devotion. Also, the stigma of coming from a family that did not serve in the war has worked to his disadantage, as members of noble families look down on him for not having defended his country during its time of need.

He ignores the whispers and continues to study, restlessly delving into hidden libraries in the university's vaults, researching what remains of his mother's papers and encoded diaries on giant and human culture in Xen'drik.. and praying for his dean to allow him the chance to visit the continent, just once. In light of this, he's been studying more than just magic and history under the watchful eyes of his elven guardian - if one wants to go to Xen'drik, one must be prepared in more ways than one. It is useless being sound of mind if the body is neglected; for the continent is a harsh place to travel.



(Well, Joskar is a human, most likely wizard , perhaps with a level of fighter/swashbuckler/scout to represnt his training with the elf. I know most of the history concentrates on his parent's background, but in a way his parents' history is his own. I'll elaborate once i get some form of response :))
 
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ByteRynn

First Post
Ethan d'Orien

Ethan has never been one to do what his family asked.

In the failing years of the last war, Orien was struggling as mightily as they could to stay neutral, to serve no nation more than the next. Ethan, a son of the wealthiest branch of house Orien in passage spent his evenings carausing in the city with good friends, none of which were from his house. One night, Ethan and friends got so fantastically drunk and were so devoted to making the local maidens swoon over their manliness, they all signed up for the army, swearing oath after oath that Aundair would come out of the war victorious, and their enlistment would make it happen. Ethan's family was mad, but he refused to let them grease the correct palms to get him out of his service.

Ethan was the only one of his friends to survive the war.

Returning from war, after Thronehold, Ethan went the only place that had to take you back, no matter how bad things got: home. His father, realizing that his sone had great potential as a mage wanted to send him to either Arcanix or The Twelve. Ethan had no desire to live under the thumb of extensions of his family forever, and wanted to travel, see the world, and explore...after all, he was of Orien blood. Ethan's uncle found a compromise: to travel with him to Sharn, enroll him in Morgrave, and get a job teaching wizardry there himself so that he might oversee Ethan's education. The house agreed.

Ethan hasn't gotten around to much travelling just yet, itching to get a chance to go on one of Morgrave University's famed "outings" to Xen'drik, the Frostfell, or Argonessen. His selection of spells up to this point has been ecclectic, but he has enlisted the help of his Uncle, Aaron d'Orien, and other mages of the University in finding interesting and useful spells that can be easily cast with minimal gestures. Ethan has refused to abandon the training he picked up in the military, and still favors bulky armor, light shields, and shining swords to robes and mystic trinkets. Ethan has studied the art of Conjuration primarily, with the hope of one day recovering the techniques of his family's ancient Orien Teleport Guides (wayfinder guide prc from CArcane).

Stat-wise: Fighter1/COnjurerX. Wears armor and uses martial weapons. Specializes in spells that use no somatic component and therefore have no arcane spell failure.
 

Watus

First Post
I doubt I'll have time to flesh this out today, but here's a rough concept:

Telan Talaraen Sivis: Male Gnome Archivist 4

A promising young scholar and librarian at the Library at Korranberg on sabbatical in the City of Towers to pursue some research in the libraries of Morgrave University. The opportunity to join any expedition to Xen'Drik would prove far more than he could resist.
 

Brogarn

First Post
Thanks for the reply, reel. I'm pondering a concept of a Warforged Fighter. There's a lot of meat there for inner philosophical turmoil. Being created by a weak mortal whereas flesh and blood races are created by the gods has got to lead to many internal questions. Along with the lack of purpose outside of what you were created for, how to do deal with others, love, lust, greed... sheesh. That's gotta be one hell of a burden of an existence!

Anyways, I'm going to read up on the geography of the campaign and try to get something written up in the next couple of days.
 

Watus

First Post
A general question about the missing expedition: what sort of thing were they after?

I'd like to tie Telan's research interests in somehow.
 

devrimk

First Post
Hi gish,
I have a warforged fighter idea.

Final decades of the Last War, a movement grew up to abandon national loyality and any pretense of allegiance to a united Galifar. This movement, called the Code of Honorable Devotion, is said to have roots in the political philosophy of the dwarves of the Mror Holds. House Cannith created a loyal soldier type for this movement. Blade was one of them, he served in Breland army.

After the war ended he met an elf maiden named Lessien Oronrá. He desperately fell in love with this beautiful elf. He couldn't name his feelings, but he knew his dreams would never come true. His mood was deppressive for a long time but then he faced the truth: He was a "War Machine" created to fight. He took permission to leave his duty, and decided to find out if he is human... or construct.

He finds an escorting job in the Morgrave University. In the ancient ruins of Xen'drik, he hopes to find a way to be flesh and blood. And later, maybe just maybe thinking of living together with Lessien.
 

reel_big_gish

First Post
@Nalfeshnee: Looks good so far. Perhaps you could expand on Joskar himself, or relationships he has forged while at Morgrave.

@ByteRynn: LOL. Not that i have room to judge. I've made my share of stupid decisions while intoxicated. I'm willing to wager Ethan learned his lesson though ;)

@Brogarn: Some warforged have problems just coming up with a name, let alone deciding how they feel about love, existence, et al. It certainly allows room for some complexity and soul-searching.

@Watus: The expedition was excavating a new set of ruins discovered south of Throne Gate.
 

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