Medieval Fantasy. Or pirates. Pirates are always good. When it comes to reading, however, a good steampunk is always great. Above all, however, I would definitely have to say my favorite is Dark Fantasy.
@Ruko I know we're slow but we decided Shakumi was best fit for Dragoon House.
@Kestrel I like it, well thought out and makes sense. I had intended for people to take some liberties with history, that's why there's no national history plastered everywhere :P Accepted.
@LeVen Let me know when you're done editing the bio.
As for me, I will be making my art teacher soon enough...
So... from what I've see, a lot of the characters in the RP are currently from the scholars house. My inner GM says I should play as a Sentinel or Dragoon house character to even things out, by I really want to play a scholar
Medieval Fantasy. Or pirates. Pirates are always good. When it comes to reading, however, a good steampunk is always great. Above all, however, I would definitely have to say my favorite is Dark Fantasy.
Play what you feel you would play best! I thought Sentinel house would be the most popular to be honest, but I stand corrected! Even still, if I don't have to make more teachers (and teachers are filling at a decent rate) then I'm making a student who will be a Sentinel.
Nah sentinel is a boring type of character. I make them occasionally, but all out offense people are so much more fun to play as. You get to actively make actions instead of raising your massive amounts of defense and waiting to be hit.
I assume we're allowed to make up our own hometowns/cities/regions we come from? I'm guessing the setting is the typical medieval-magical fantasy world right?
Medieval Fantasy. Or pirates. Pirates are always good. When it comes to reading, however, a good steampunk is always great. Above all, however, I would definitely have to say my favorite is Dark Fantasy.
The way I think of the Sentinels is much different than what @Ruko is describing.
It's not that their powers are only defense, but that their motivation for being at Nova is to defend against the wraiths, rather than to actively go after them. For example, I voted Dragoon house for Shakumi not because her powers are offensive, but because her reason for being at Nova is to develop her powers to help her tribe domesticate the trolls like cattle. In contrast, Arukab (Head of Sentinel House) has a personality centered on defending others and doing what he believes is right (and yes, that may involve being an active participant in war).
Whereas the Scholars are motivated simply to know more about the world.
That's the way I had been conceptualizing it all. And I feel like given the world, there is quite a bit of room for defense-oriented personalities. But people will create the characters they want, and we will use NPCs where there is a lack of characters.
Oh that does make a lot more sense. It didn't really make sense for me that there'd be a house filled with people whose powers were defensive since they'd always be inferior to those who had offensive abilities, I didn't consider it would be motivation based.
A sub-species of humans, Aerans are a species of humans native to the Sky Islands of Ediea. Anatomically identical to humans, Aerans are extremely similar to normal humans and have little to no difficulty integrating into different societies. Due to their origins in regions of high altitude, Aerans are notably shorter and thinner than typical humans. Their frame is typically more frail when compared to that of a typical human, and their lungs are more sensitive to harmful substances in the air. Aerans typically sport better eyesight than normal humans and are more difficult to blind with light. Aerans typically have lighter hair and eyes than normal humans, and their skin is typically fair.
Culturally, Aerans are generally considered whimsical and flighty in demeanor, and a large number of them are seen in trade caravans. Among their traded goods are typically luxurious fabrics and silks as well as spices. Aeran culture could be considered this universe's version of Arabian-mercantile culture.
As combatants, Aerans very rarely don heavy metal armors, as it is unsuited to their thinner builds. Aeran warriors generally favor archery as a form of combat, as well as quicker, more fluid combat styles. Regarding magic, Aerans typically gravitate towards fire and air magics, but a large number of them also favor the routes of mysticism, illusion and summoning.
Age: 18
Personality: Soft spoken yet curious, Hart is a gentle hearted but adventurous individual. Highly perceptive and with an apparent thirst for knowledge, Hart is very enthusiastic towards learning anything. His speech is normally quiet and reserved, though he can make emotional outbursts when stressed. Hart is highly intelligent and considers those who value knowledge with great regard. He has a kindly personality and though he generally has difficulty opening up to others, he places great value on those who understand and have interests similar to his. Hart prefers to avoid conflict and typically relies on his summoned spirits for a sense of confidence and control.
Study of Interest: Most of Hart's studies revolve around the pursuit of knowledge, magical and otherwise. Most of Hart's classes are in Basic and Advanced Magics, though he enjoys artistic classes and acknowledges Archery as a good source of physical fitness- as well as a skill culturally relative to his people.
Years Attending: First Year Student
Requested House: Scholars House
Appearance:
A short and lanky male, standing at around 5'6", Hart has a thin and slight build, similar to many of his kind. His hair is medium length and a silky white, that frames his face and bright green eyes. Like many Aerans, Hart prefers to wear bright colors, and is never seen without his green scarf around his neck. His typical outfit is his orange jacket over a plain black shirt and loose fitting cloth pants.
Weapons: While capable of using a bow, Hart typically carries no weapons on his person, and instead relies on his magic to defend himself.
Magic:
Basic Wind and Fire Magic - As typical of Aerans, Hart is capable of basic control of wind and fire magic. As his control of elemental magic is relatively low level, most of his magical abilities are close ranged. He generally combines his wind and fire magic to make short ranged 'swipes' of fire at his enemies, though he is capable of other maneuvers as well.
Summoning Magic - A magical ability widely coveted by Aerans, Hart is capable of summoning and controlling manifested spirits. With an ability well advanced for his age, Hart is capable of controlling relatively powerful spirits, though he cannot control multiple spirits at the same time. Hart has made a pact with three spirits thus far
A lightning elemental spirit with the appearance of a glowing cat, Raijuu is generally considered the weakest of Hart's summoned spirits. Capable of launching bolts that at their most powerful could knock a grown man off his feet, Raijuu is primarily a long range combatant, as his small size and stature makes for a poor performance in close ranged combat. This friendly cat is the first spirit that Hart obtained, and has the simplest pact requirements. Raijuu's pact requires that Hart regularly 'feed' him sources of energy. When not summoned, Raijuu takes the form of a silver ring around Hart's finger.
A wolf spirit of fire, Kami was the second spirit obtained by Hart. A capable combatant that primarily focuses on physical strikes, Kami's natural heat and flame continues to serve as a deterrent to close ranged enemies and predators. Where Raijuu is friendly and playful, Kami is fiercely protective of her master, typically growling and expelling flame and heat when she believes someone is threatening her master. Kami's pact requires that Hart provides a yearly offering at her temple in his hometown. Said offering is supposed to represent a quarter of the 'wealth' he has occurred that year- though the definition of wealth is more than physical money. When not summoned, Kami takes the form of a silver band around Hart's wrist.
The third and most powerful spirit owned by Hart, Ferric is a humanoid dark spirit, taking the form of a hollow suit of armor. A capable close range combatant, with his black sword, Ferric also uses his dark magic to confound and hinder enemies at longer ranges. While Hart's other spirits have distinctive personalities, Ferric is impassive and silent, noiselessly following Hart. Ferric's pact requires that Hart offer up a year's worth of life force every decade. When not summoned, Ferric takes the form of a silver loop worn on an amulet.
Abilities: - I assume 'abilities' are physical skills for those who decided to pick up weapons instead of magic.
Skills: Hart shows an aptitude for a variety of artistic endeavors, from music to painting. He has some talent playing the harp, and has decent skill when it comes to sketching and painting. Hart knows how to do accounting and manage funds.
History: A child prodigy hailing from the Sky Islands of Ediea, Hart is the only child of an aristocratic merchant family. While not gifted with any potent inherent powers, Hart had a knack for learning, easily watching and imitating members of his family as a child. By the time he was 2 years of age, Hart was already fluent in his native language. While his father was often away on business, the family's wealth allowed Hart to receive high education very early on in his life- something his family emphasized throughout his childhood. By the time Hart was 10, he was already capable of managing the family accounts while his parents were away. Hart also obtained his first summoned spirit at this time, indicating to his family that he had potential for magic as well as speech.
When he turned 12, Hart began his education into the magical arts in earnest. While only showing average potential in the typical Aeran magical arts of Fire and Wind, Hart appeared to possess a greater than average aptitude for Summoning Magic- a widely sought after and valued ability in Aeran culture. By the time he was 14, Hart had obtained his second summoned spirit, a fire wolf spirit. It was at this time Hart was found by a scout for Nova Academy. Enticed by the idea of an institute for education well after his own formal education had completed, Hart devoted himself to his mastery of summoning magic, and obtained his third and final summoned spirit at age 16.
Upon his 18th birthday, Hart immediately applied to the Nova Academy. Hart made records for obtaining the highest written exam score the Academy had ever seen. Where he struggled however was on the field exam. Unused to conflict and confrontation, Hart relied heavily on his summoned spirits to help him pass his field exam. Having passed his entrance exam, Hart eagerly awaits the vast amounts of knowledge that await him at the Academy.
So, I noticed the use of "typical" a lot in your App. I was curious as to how many times you had actually used it. According to Ctrl + F, you used it 14 times in that one post :D
Awk. Yeah, I have that habit. I tend to repeat a lot of transitional words/phrases stuff like "typically, tends to, namely" etc. - especially when I'm making general descriptions of my character (and his race).
I'll go through my character again in a bit, I'm about to go out so I wanted to get the character finished before then.
Yeah I tend to keep using the same words over and over. It takes me forever to write sometimes cos I keep using a thesaurus to look up alternative words. I find myself using "since" A LOT recently.
Medieval Fantasy. Or pirates. Pirates are always good. When it comes to reading, however, a good steampunk is always great. Above all, however, I would definitely have to say my favorite is Dark Fantasy.
@Ruko Right, the houses are based on personalities rather than powers.
Although, I don't think stating purely defensive characters are at a constant disadvantage. Take Arukab for example, having a power that is entirely defensive in nature, it can be used as an offensive ability as well. Also, my character Saethos Lortalor, whom I may or may not be introducing as an NPC based on how many signups we get, has about as much defense as an iron fortress, but has been known to best great numbers of wraiths purely because he can live long enough to do so. It's not about weather or not you can attack, it's about how you use the defense you have in a way that can turn the tables. Of course my specialty is making very tactical warriors, Krego is one of my few offensive characters, and one of the even fewer mages of mine. I suppose Virgil could be considered defensive, but...He's complicated and also not very well trained for combat...But enough of characters you (probably) haven't seen before :P
Well, from a writing perspective defensive characters can work well, but I was coming at it from an RPG video game perspective. Sure you're gonna be able to withstand all their attacks, but your DPS is miniscule. I was playing the latest Dragon Age recently and I decided for the hell of it I was going to use 4 warriors against a dragon. (Warriors are practically immune to damage but deal max 300 damage per hit.) It took me 3 hours to kill the damn thing, and not a single health potion consumed in that time. I tried again on a higher level dragon using 2 warriors to draw the dragon's attention, a ranged rogue with 500-800 base damage per hit, and a mage with 50-100 dps per hit but with insanely powerful abilities and it took me 15 minutes.
Medieval Fantasy. Or pirates. Pirates are always good. When it comes to reading, however, a good steampunk is always great. Above all, however, I would definitely have to say my favorite is Dark Fantasy.
Well from a gaming perspective, being a frequent MMO player myself, even a DPS class can take the role of a tank given the proper equipment, but in terms of writing it's all about how the character uses the abilities.
DPS on Inquisition certainly can't take a tank role :D My archer-rogue has armour made of dragon scales, created from a masterwork schematic, which is the max possible armour value, and they still die in a couple of hits.
We worked together on this updated bio just for you Squee.
Name: Mishra Ayrie
Gender: Male
Race:
Presumably, he is the only one in existence by nature of having such changes forced upon him against his will. On his own, he can shift between being material and interacting with the physical world and being immaterial and being unable to interact with the physical world. Magic affects him regardless of whether he is material or immaterial. He is also able to levitate up to 90 ft above the ground with perfect maneuverability.
Personality: A madman by most accounts, but functional by the same. Unorthodox to a fault, monomanic at times for no reason, and one of the most unethical men one could ever hope to meet, Mishra is an improbability, shrouded in mystery, sheathed in an enigma. While easy enough to understand him now, it's quite obvious that a part of his mind is lost somewhere far back in time. He has a habit of spacing out, plucking at threads of thought until they are no more. Friendly enough, it becomes difficult to tell how close to the end of his rope he is. That is, until he shows the more sadistic side.
Course: Advanced Magic
Years Teaching: 85
House Requested: Dragoon House Head
Appearance: Mostly humanoid in appearance, he stands at about 6'2" with black blue hair that ends a few inches above his shoulders. His eyes are cat-like with slit pupils and yellow irises. Very slender body type though some definition can be seen past his tight clothing. He dresses mostly in black, the only exception being a pair of white leather pants tucked into his heavy knee-high boots. A black long sleeve lab coat overlays a sleeveless shirt; the cuffs of the coat are gilt in metal to maintain a circular shape and the inside is lined with slots for vials. His nails are long, black and sharp, more claws than anything and his ears are large cat ears on the side of his head and a tail that nearly touches the ground, both of which are the same colour as his hair.
Weapon(s): Mishra choice of weapon is the Chaos Blade, a white katana that can be imbued with any of the six basic elemental forces and through which they can be manipulated by directing the blade.
Magic: Mishra is imbued with chaos magic as a result of his journey through the Blind Eternities. Chaos mage is the term reserved for those who can not only wield all six base elements of magic (fire, water, earth, wind, light, dark) but also command their secondary natures and properties in their spells. For example, using a wind spell, he could change it to lightning and rather than it be a bolt of lightning, he could take advantage of it's flickering property to create a lightning bolt that not only pierces but rips like a chainsaw.
Abilities: Alchemical Prodigy - While this truly only applies with what he did know, he has extrapolated and translated the old tongue into today's language. Though he is adept in today alchemy, he true prowess lies in the forbidden arts that have been lost to the ages and perhaps lost to the current age as well, given that some of the ingredients have yet to be translated and they're finicky little bastards.
Superhuman Reflexes and Flexibility - He's part cat, what did you expect?
Skills: Mishra is quick thinking when it comes to tactics, thinking beyond most in the terms of the 6th dimension. This does get him into trouble sometimes as he can think too far ahead and miss what's happening on the battlefield.
History: Mishra comes from an age eight centuries past, thrown forward in time, at least by his perception, to more current times. While only appearing 24, he had been out of what he calls the Blind Eternities for over one hundred years and despite that can claim to be over 800. Of course, he missed out on a lot of things between then and now. The odd thing is that no one seems to recognize who he is, or even the Empire he was a part of.
Over eight centuries ago there was a magically advanced land called the Reveantis Empire of whom Mishra was a part. He was an alchemical prodigy, catching the eye of the sorceror king at a young age for his skill and his habit of surpassing his masters in the course of months. His rise to power was accompanied with more experimental subjects but that mattered little to him. Of course, in all that time, you expect hings to go wrong.
As is want to happen in experimental procedures, things went wrong and most of them were small and barely noticeable. However, it was his work on weapons of magical and alchemical destruction that led to his current state. Due to several miscalculations in his assistants and those of the men and women who supplied his work, the mishap that would change his life cause an explosion that ripped through the fabric of space/time.
This is what thrust him into the Blind Eternities, where time does not matter and space will suffocate you. He managed to survive, physically if you could call it that, over seven centuries in the nothing before being spat back out, radically different than before and in a the same land far into his future. Granted powers even he didn't understand, he made his way through the world, eventually finding himself at Nova Academy where he began to experiment with his new powers but also in an attempt to find out what had happened to the Reveantis Empire.
By all historical accounts, the Empire never existed; it seemed to have been wiped out of existence. Even though history seemed to have been unaffected, the holes left filled by happenstance and other things, the Empire he served was gone. Part of his work at Nova Academy is discovering what exactly happened and potentially to recreate it, but also to find out what happened to the Reveantis Empire and see if it can be brought back, if at all.
@Kestrel I like it, well thought out and makes sense. I had intended for people to take some liberties with history, that's why there's no national history plastered everywhere :P Accepted.
As for defenders, they're not very popular archetypes. Especially if you played MMO's, you'll know that the line for instances for DPS is about twenty times as long as that for healers, while whenever I tank my instances are... Pretty much instant. That's not to say they can't be interesting though, just that the role is less searched after. Personally, I like the tanking role but I find it's more interesting when it's about controlling the fight than taking damage. Whether DPS classes can be viable tanks depends on the system you're dealing with. More than taking damage, it's often about maintaining aggro and this can be really tough if you don't have dedicated skills to do so or your party doesn't want to sacrifice their output so you can kite around the mobs.
Personally I picked dragoon and gave Astrid a history and skillset to suit that, because our other combat teacher is a sentinel. I figured that'd balance some things out. At least mindset-wise.
