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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doghead" data-source="post: 6109599" data-attributes="member: 8243">Rain Washes Away TearsI am going to go out on a limb here and make a slightly unusual request. I would like to use the Half-Dragon paragon for Rain. At a mechanical level, it is much more useful than the elf paragon. But more significantly, as I drafted a background to fit, I found it to be a rich vein of role-play potential.So thats the pitch. I've written a background built around the idea to give it some context. Its is a little longer than I planned. It kept evolving as I wrote. I hope that you like it.[sblock=BACKGROUND] Sound of Rain Falling on Leaves was born in Valenar, a member of the Bitter Wind war-clan. Rains's mother was a clan warrior fiercely free spirited and deadly with the bow. Her father was one of the clan's Keepers of the Past. He had a beautiful singing voice and a powerful way with healing. But unlike his wife he was a quiet man with a deep wellspring of anger inside. Despite his attempts to conceal it, Rain knew it was there. As children do, Rain believed that she was responsible for his anger because she was different.Rain's early childhood was much like that of any other child in the clan and Rain was much any other child; except perhaps in her ability to get into scrapes. Rain was a tearaway, driven by a desire to test her limits. She wanted to poke ants nests and explore caves. As she grew older, she wanted to be a warrior like her mother. Her parents wanted her to slow down, listen to the sound of the rain falling on leaves and spend more time mastering her abilities and developing her powers. Sorcery was not held in the esteem that wizardry was, but it was an arcane art nevertheless. But Rain had little interest in developing her powers. She wanted to learn to wield a sword and ride.As Rain grew, she came to understand that Bitter Wind was not like the other clans. Valenar clans are tied together by complex ties of blood, marriage and debt. Bitter Wind was different, made up of a disparate group of families and individuals whose only tie to each other was their shared loyalty to the clan. Bitter Wind did not fit into Valenar society in the way the other clans did. It was not that the clan was unwelcome. The clan's work keeping the dangerous north western borders safe ensured respect. It just that they were not welcome in the way other clans were. Rain also came to understand that her maternal grandmother was in some way central to her family belonging to the clan. Rain vaguely recalls her grandmother appearing when Rain was very young. Grandmother was tall, aloof and terrifying, despite the fact that she never carried a weapon or wielded magic in all the time Rain knew her. Rain remembers little of her grandmother other than the fact that she said little but watched Rain with unblinking intensity. Rain's parents watched Grandmother with a similar intensity. One day, in a swirl of anger and recriminations, Grandmother was gone. As Rain approached her maturity, she did try to develop her ability as a sorcerer. But despite her efforts, she developed in ways that were both strange and exhilarating. Rain did her best to conceal this, but she lived among people wiser and more experienced in the arcane arts than she and inevitably the truth came out. Bitter Wind never threatened to banish Rain, but Rain knew, even after she had ascended to adulthood in the clan, that she would always be seen as an outsider. After two winters as an adult, Rain decided that she could not stay. She had to learn what she was. The only person Rain knew who had answers was her grandmother, and the only place she knew to start looking was Xen'drik. So to Xen'drik Rain set off.The day of Rain's departure she changed her name to Rain Washes Away Tears. When she announced it, Rain saw something in her mother's eyes that she had never seen before, and did not recognise. Her father cried that day, something Rain had never seen before. "It was never you," he whispered to her as he gave her one last hug. Months later while watching the stars wheel overhead, Rain realised what her father had meant. Rain cried that day for the first time since leaving.Eventually Rain found herself on a merchant ship making its way to Xen'drik. Its not an impressive vessel, nor a reputable one. But it met one essential criteria. It was cheap. [/sblock][sblock=MISC NOTES]* Rain's grandmother has Half-Dragon paragon levels, possibly even the Half-Dragon template or something similar. She was banished from Valenar shortly after the birth of Rain's mother. Grandmother was allowed to return after the birth of her granddaughter, but on the condition that she carried no weapons and never manifest any of her powers. She stayed with the Bitter Wind for around a decade. But a terrible argument lead to her losing her temper and manifesting her powers, and she was summarily banished again. The Dragon blood skipped a generation with Rain's mother, but has reappeared in Rain.* Rain's mother was raised by her mother's sister of the Pure Diamond Water clan. Despite showing no evidence of Dragon ancestry, Rain's mother's ascendancy into the clan was resisted by all of the clan's Keeper's except one. He championed her cause, but he was young and his voice carried little weight. When it was clear that he could not prevail, he and Rain's mother left the clan and joined Bitter Wind. They were married a few years later. The intolerance and prejudice of Pure Diamond Water and elf society generally is the source of Rain's father's rage.* Rain's grandmother spent much of her early years in Xen'drik. It was there that she came to master her dragon heritage, becoming a powerful warrior and sorcerer. Although it was a few decades ago, there will still be many in Xen'drik who remember her name, and some who knew her personally. Whether she returned there after being banished a second time, is unknown (I will leave that up to you). It is also rumoured that she visited Argonnessen (true I think, but she was not welcomed, and never found what she was looking for).* I haven't selected a type of dragon. Given the history between the elves and dragons, any type of dragon ancestry would be problematic. Choosing a chromatic dragon would provide greater potential conflict. Choosing a metallic dragon would provide greater avenues for redemption. I thought that I would leave this open to see if you had any preference. * At this stage looking to take levels in Ranger (maybe 2) then Sorcerer next.[/sblock]thotd</blockquote>

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