The 100 - Sign-Up//OOC - Accepting!

[Zarko Straadi]

OK, will do.

@Brea:

Oops, I just noticed that Esme is too young to fit with Rhea's bio (that Rhea was designated successor for 14 years). So, which would you prefer: A) That I modify Esme's bio and choose an older pic to make her fit with Rhea's bio, or B ), have it so that the leader that Rhea was supposed to replace supplanted her with Esme instead because Esme "is" the "Chosen One" of the old leader's "prophecy," setting Rhea back to become Esme's successor; hence, drama between the two depending on Rhea's reaction?

I'm fine either way.

 

[Stiorra]

I think the drama bit is interesting >:) if anything I'd suggest making her a teesny bit older. By a few years.

 

[Zarko Straadi]

No, actually this is perfect :p your character is more of a pacifist, if I am correct? This will be an interesting dynamic.

Could you just add leader/commander to your status so it's obvious :p

She'll be a "pacifist" in relation to her own people, i.e., she doesn't want the indigenous people of the island killing each other anymore. Her initial reaction to the sight of the drop-ship landing on their island will be closer to "TO WAAAAARRRRR!" Well, she'll want to observe them to see how many of them they are, how well they're armed, etc. (she won't be expecting then not to be armed), probably propose that one of them be covertly kidnapped in order to learn their intentions before confronting the 100 openly.

Then (especially if the kidnap victim should happen to be one of the 13 year-olds) she'll be shocked and distressed to discover that they're ordinary people rather than all-consuming instruments of mechanized death. Yet, there's still the cold hard fact that there's thousands of them up there on the Ark, with leaders who (presumably she'll discover after awhile) are willing to send unarmed children down to be coal-mine canaries. Furthermore (assuming her bio is accepted and any modifications I need to make to fit with Rhea's bio don't change her basic story), she will have enough history (from the books in the Shelter) to know that the Native peoples SHOULD NOT HAVE HELPED THE PILGRIMS, with an obvious, if grim, lesson for her own people vis a vis the 100. This should put her in a very conflicted state, as she won't want to kill children/teenagers, while she will want to make sure the grownups don't follow them with guns and other superior weaponry.

 

[Zarko Straadi]

I think the drama bit is interesting >:) if anything I'd suggest making her a teesny bit older. By a few years.

Well, I was going to make her 26, using a post-apocalyptic/Steampunk girl picture I have, then I found the picture I ended up using, kinda fell in love with the adorableness of it and her story emerged from there. :) I figured that 18 is about as old as the current picture can plausibly support, but I can change things depending on what Brea wants. I kinda like the idea of her being young, so she's in the same age-group as the 100, and also if she's in her 20's or 30's, she'd have had more time to develop martial skills and become more assured. With her current bio, she feels a bit precarious in her position because she's so young, and not yet an accomplished warrior.

 

[Stiorra]

Well, I was going to make her 26, using a post-apocalyptic/Steampunk girl picture I have, then I found the picture I ended up using, kinda fell in love with the adorableness of it and her story emerged from there. :) I figured that 18 is about as old as the current picture can plausibly support, but I can change things depending on what Brea wants. I kinda like the idea of her being young, so she's in the same age-group as the 100, and also if she's in her 20's or 30's, she'd have had more time to develop martial skills and become more assured. With her current bio, she feels a bit precarious in her position because she's so young, and not yet an accomplished warrior.

It will make for an interesting..struggle? I think is the word I am looking for :p with someone in her position being so young. I mean, in all fairness it could have been projected the next commander was going to be such and such age, but events changed when the previous one died so unexpectedly?

 

[Stiorra]

I do love her picture though :)

 

[Akashi]

Hmm. I feel that my grounder should be more than just a warrior.. Perhaps a General o.O

Honestly if anything, a coup from the people who respect him may occur, you never know.

 

[Stiorra]

Hmm. I feel that my grounder should be more than just a warrior.. Perhaps a General o.O

Honestly if anything, a coup from the people who respect him may occur, you never know.

My female is acting as general. Your grounder could be her 2nd if you'd like? I'm sure shed like that lots, wanting advice from another great warrior. She can also trust him in doing mini missions.

 

[Akashi]

My female is acting as general. Your grounder could be her 2nd if you'd like? I'm sure shed like that lots, wanting advice from another great warrior. She can also trust him in doing mini missions.

What position would that be?

 

[Brea]

Okay, then yeah. Change my female to lieutenant/general. :) I'll keep my male as bodyguard and occasional healer.

Done ♥

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all of your heart."

--Marcus Aurelius

Name:
"I am not Esme Alizadeh anymore. Until I die, I am..."
Esme of the Azure Waters Clan

Age:
"Will I ever be old enough, to be what I have to be?"
18

Status:
"Somewhere between 'spiritual leader' and 'incarnate deity.' It sucks a lot more than you might think."
Shaman and Lore-Keeper of the Azure Waters Clan (Commander)

Sexual Orientation:
"It'd be so much better if I didn't have one at all..."
Bisexual

Significant Other:
"I can't have one of those. It'd tear the Clan apart. 'Chosen Ones' don't get to fall in love and have happy families."
[Open]

Strengths:
"Does 'doing the best I can to be something I'm not' count?"
Esme is highly intelligent and determined. She has a talent for strategy, and a wide range of knowledge to employ. She has, by necessity, developed a knack for eloquent public speaking, as well as skills in ritual psychodrama and spectacle. She has a deep spirituality rooted in her mystical practice, and from some of the great sages of the past, like Marcus Aurelius, Rumi, and the Buddha.

Weaknesses:
"I'm not supposed to have those...but I do anyway."
Esme has below-average physical strength, and so far, not much skill in combat. She has a difficult time dealing with and relating to her people's Warrior traditions. The concept of hurting and killing other people is too much like the 'hard choices' the people in the Shelter made while she was growing up.

Personality:
"The one you'll see is what I have to be, for my people and for the future of life. Don't expect to get to know the girl underneath."
In her role as Shaman and Lore-Keeper, Esme is part Stoic, part guru, and part wild nature spirit. She strives to be at once a calm center, a well of enlightenment, and a conduit of ecstasy for her people. She is driven and dedicated, to finding a path for humanity to live in unity with each other and the rest of the planetary biosphere, so that the atrocities of the past will never be repeated.

Underneath all that, she is an ordinary girl who fears she can't ever be what her people need her to be, except maybe a thousand years after she's dead. In an earlier age, she'd have been a shy and bookish nerd, last to be picked for the team and wallflower at every dance. In the life she's been given, she has to shove herself into the spotlight and do her best to be larger than life. In trying to be the 'leader' of a warrior people, Esme knows she has a tiger by the tail, that things could go very badly for her very quickly, if she makes the wrong misstep.

Though she can't ever reveal her vulnerabilities to them, can't ever have a shoulder to cry on, she also admires and loves them. Their fierce strength got them through hells she can hardly imagine, and if turned in the right direction, she's sure it can overcome even a nuclear apocalypse.

She has a love of learning, and indulges it at every opportunity.

Biography:
"What I'm about to tell you, nobody can know..."
Esme was born in a bomb shelter that had been built by a group of survivalists three generations prior. It was powered by geothermal energy, and equipped with a closed-cycle life-support system similar to the ones on the space stations that became the Ark. Over the years, the group's numbers dwindled as systems broke down one by one and resources became ever more scarce. By the time Esme was born, only her parents and a few others were left, and she was the only child.

The Shelter had a library of books selected to provide future generations with everything necessary to rebuild civilization, and Esme devoured them, reading them over and over again. They were her only solace in a life defined by ever-increasing resource scarcity and mourning for the beautiful, healthy world that had been destroyed. One by one, the adults in her life were "culled" as the group decided who had to go in order to extend the remaining resources as long as possible. Before Esme's birth, they had already adopted a resource-conservation measure that gave Esme nightmares from the day she learned of it: nothing can be wasted, including the flesh of the dead.

Above her, warlike tribes fought one another in a more openly brutal application of the same zero-sum logic. They over-hunted the animals, and cut down trees to make weapons and forge steel, sometimes using forest fire itself as a weapon. They could tell that if this went on, they would strip the island bare and ultimately die off, yet any efforts to conserve and share resources always got trumped by whatever group or groups decided to use more resources to gain immediate advantage. One of the shamans began to preach about a vision she'd had, that one day a Chosen One would come, end the fighting, and restore the world. This myth spread among the groups, each coming up with their own variation of the cargo cult. Some said the Chosen One would come from the sea, others from the sky, still others from the stars. The 'Prophecy of the One to Come' became one more thing for the groups to fight over.

When Esme was 12, her parents and the last two other adults made calculations, and came to a grim conclusion: if all four of them committed suicide, and Esme was very careful with the jerky she could make from them, the Shelter's resources would hold out until she was grown. It was at this point that they told her: the Shelter had audio sensors that could hear some of the activity going on above. There was life up there, human life, but it was savage. As a grown woman, she could face them, defend herself against them, perhaps even use the knowledge the Shelter contained to find herself a place among them. As a child, she would only be prey.

Esme begged them not to do it, pleaded with tears, then told them that if they did, she'd refuse to eat them, go to the surface instead, and let the 'savages' do whatever they wanted with her. "How are we any better than they are? We're cannibals!" she protested. "We can all go up there now! Maybe together we can all find a better way!" The adults decided that they were too weak to survive on the surface; fear and guilt were perhaps their true reasons for rejecting Esme's proposal. If they could survive on the surface, did that not mean they could have survived on the surface earlier, before some of the cullings they had participated in? That some of the fellow survivors they'd eaten 'out of necessity' could have lived? Still, in response to her desperate entreaties, they promised not to kill themselves.

They lied.

One morning she woke up, and didn't find them in the Common Room. She searched the Shelter, until she found their bodies lying on the drying racks on the bottom level near the geothermal plant. Esme crumpled to the cement floor and cried until she ran out of tears. Then she rose, and solemnly climbed the ladder to the upper level, to do as she'd promised. She monitored the sensors until she heard the sounds of people coming near. When they seemed to be about as close as they'd get, she turned on a stereo system and started playing Mozart to draw their attention, then activated the hydraulic lift to raise a steel plate hidden under soil to expose the hatch.

Two rival bands of hunters had been playing cat-and-mouse in the forest when they started hearing strange sounds, and then...music. Following it, they found each other--and a hole in the ground lit with flickering light. And from it, a slender dark-haired girl emerged, as if from the Earth itself. Who could she be, but the Chosen One come at last? Had she not been shaking with terror at the sight of the bands of ferocious-looking warriors, Esme might have laughed, or at least rolled her eyes. The 'Chosen One' trope? Really?! That was old before the world ended, if the Shelter's store of old novels and movies had anything to say about it. Besides, if there was anybody out there choosing Chosen Ones, wouldn't They have done it, you know, in time to actually save the freaking world?!

As ridiculous as the whole concept was (especially the part about her being cast in the role), it did have a benefit: for once, people actually listened to her. And as she learned more about their predicament, she came to a resolution that would define her life: no child would find themselves standing over the corpses of the last of these people, as she had over hers. That child would not see the last tree chopped down, the last wild boar hunted, the last bits of beauty and hope drained away.

Because the outside world was beautiful. More beautiful than anything Esme had ever seen for real. This time, people would learn from their mistakes. This time, people would become truly a part of their beautiful world. So yes, people would bloody well have to learn to become beautiful too. Or die not trying.

Esme was brought to the old shaman who had "prophesied" her coming, and together they managed to broker an uneasy peace. The shaman taught her the ways of the natural world as it now was, and initiated her into the world of the spirits through the ritual use of magic mushrooms and ayahuasca, drums and dance and mystical trance. Esme taught the people how to make solar ovens out of salvaged metal so that they did not have to burn wood to cook their food. Between the books contained in the Shelter (which only Esme can read), and the shaman's direct knowledge, they were able to teach the people, now united to form the Azure Waters Clan, how to create Permaculture forest gardens.

Esme poured herself completely into learning, and teaching. When she was sixteen, the old shaman died, leaving her to try to fill the "Chosen One's" shoes alone. Of course no mere, real human can truly live up to the role of a messiah. Messiahs don't make mistakes. They don't get scared or lonely. They don't wish they could fall in love, or just be a normal person for once.

Esme hopes that one day she can do just that: shed her role as the Daughter of Gya, Chosen One of the Earth goddess, and let the Clan become an egalitarian democracy. But there is too much bad blood left over from the wars, and not everyone is happy with the course she has set for the people, to the point that she has need of a bodyguard to protect her. Nonetheless, the island has started to recover, and the people as well.

In order to keep the people's warrior traditions from tearing them apart again, Esme has sought to unite them against "the Consumers," the people who destroyed the world and even now look down upon it hungrily from their prison in the sky. In truth, she hates them too: they didn't just (almost) destroy the natural world; they destroyed all of humanity's achievements and wisdom as well, except (as far as she knows) for the contents of her Shelter. Mozart, Chopin, the Beatles, Casablanca, Star Wars, all almost certainly lost forever when the geothermal plant failed. The books, CD's, DVD's, artwork, and mobile artifacts are now kept in a Temple of Knowledge built above ground, and the steam that comes up through the Shelter's hatch is used to heat water for the Clan. Esme's hate for the Consumers erupts from a reservoir fed by guilt and shame for the terrible secret she can never share with anyone: that she was a Consumer of the worst order, when she lived in the Shelter. She now refuses to eat meat of any kind, especially pork. She can't stand the smell of it being cooked.

As difficult as her people are to deal with sometimes, isolated as she feels her role makes her, Esme has developed a fierce love for them. They are the Warriors who struggled through the holocaust of the Consumers' terror-weapons, who faced the Apocalypse head-on, and won. Now she hopes that, instead of fighting each other, they can fight together, to heal the world.

Markings:
"Our souls bear the marks of what we h ave done..."
Esme wears different types of body-paint depending on ritual context. She also wears coral jewelry and clothing of brightly-colored cloth (she has reintroduced the textile arts from the knowledge in her books, and her choice to wear only cloth is symbolic, representing her choice to refrain from life-taking).

Weapons:
"I lead a tribe of Warriors, but I can barely fight my way out of a paper bag. How's that for ironic?"
Esme's most formidable weapon is her knowledge, not only of the shamanic lore of her people (which includes the creation of hallucinogenic potions and poisons), but that contained in the books from the Shelter. She has a staff and a longsword, but has not yet had time to become very skilled in their use.

Theme Songs:
"Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
It doesn't matter.
We have fallen into the place
Where everything is music."

--Rumi

"Earth is not humanity's cradle, or even our home; rather, it is a whole, of which we are inextricably a part."​

Again, another character that I have fallen in love with. Your CS took me the longest to read, just because you put so much into your back story.

OK, will do.

@Brea:

Oops, I just noticed that Esme is too young to fit with Rhea's bio (that Rhea was designated successor for 14 years). So, which would you prefer: A) That I modify Esme's bio and choose an older pic to make her fit with Rhea's bio, or B ), have it so that the leader that Rhea was supposed to replace supplanted her with Esme instead because Esme "is" the "Chosen One" of the old leader's "prophecy," setting Rhea back to become Esme's successor; hence, drama between the two depending on Rhea's reaction?

I'm fine either way.

I've remembered that in the show, the leader was always pretty young. So, I thought maybe I could just change Rhea's age to 17, and perhaps you can raise your characters age by just a year (if that's alright). If you are unwilling to edit your Bio (because you did do such an amazing job as it is), I can alter my own. I was thinking, we could have had Rhea picked out to be the next in line before the chosen one arrived. Then, a little after the "Chosen One" joined the clan, the leader died, and the clan decided that it was fate so the chosen one may take her rightful place as their leader, which is why Rhea remained the 2nd-in-line. Unless you have a problem with this?

 

[Zarko Straadi]

Done ♥

Again, another character that I have fallen in love with. Your CS took me the longest to read, just because you put so much into your back story.

I've remembered that in the show, the leader was always pretty young. So, I thought maybe I could just change Rhea's age to 17, and perhaps you can raise your characters age by just a year (if that's alright). If you are unwilling to edit your Bio (because you did do such an amazing job as it is), I can alter my own. I was thinking, we could have had Rhea picked out to be the next in line before the chosen one arrived. Then, a little after the "Chosen One" joined the clan, the leader died, and the clan decided that it was fate so the chosen one may take her rightful place as their leader, which is why Rhea remained the 2nd-in-line. Unless you have a problem with this?

OK, I'll raise Esme's age to 19. All the rest sounds great to me. I'm glad you like Esme. :D

 

[Stiorra]

What position would that be?

Erm I'm not sure what we'd call it.. As far as the show goes, they always call their little mentees "2nds". Generals 2nd?

 

[Zarko Straadi]

BTW, is there room for a 13 year-old girl on the dropship?

 

[Brea]

OK, I'll raise Esme's age to 19. All the rest sounds great to me. I'm glad you like Esme. :D

Great, I'll get to editing Rhea's bio now, and I'll let you know once I'm done so you can approve my changes ♥ (Funny how I'm the GM, and I'm asking for your approval, haha).

BTW, is there room for a 13 year-old girl on the dropship?

Of course there is! Are you planning on making one?

 

[Brea]

I've finished editing Rhea ♥ In case you don't want to read her whole bio again, the only added part is really just the fourth paragraph.

 

[Zarko Straadi]

Yeah, I have the basic idea and a pic in mind. :)

One little thing in Rhea's bio: In Esme's bio, I had her apprenticing under the old shaman/leader for 4 years before she (the shaman) died, so Esme would have time to plausibly learn the art. In Rhea's bio, the shaman died days after Esme was found, and Esme was put in charge. Otherwise, I think both characters are good to go.

 

[Brea]

Yeah, I have the basic idea and a pic in mind. :)

One little thing in Rhea's bio: In Esme's bio, I had her apprenticing under the old shaman/leader for 4 years before she (the shaman) died, so Esme would have time to plausibly learn the art. In Rhea's bio, the shaman died days after Esme was found, and Esme was put in charge. Otherwise, I think both characters are good to go.

Sahman and leaders are different, aren't they? I've always thought of Sahman more as something like a prophet, for a lack of a better comparison. Are we calling our leader a Sahmen?

 

[Akashi]

nah, i'll just stick to a warrior with a reputation, and possibly a few warriors who follow mine, but in the end obviously we all answer to the commander.

 

[Zarko Straadi]

My idea was based loosely on the way a Dalai Lama is chosen as a child, becoming the spiritual leader of Tibet. The back-story concept I'm working with is that there were originally multiple warring clans on the Island, but their constant wars were depleting their numbers and damaging the island ecosystem, threatening to lead to their ultimate extinction (basically, a microcosm of what happened with Earth as a whole and the major nations that fought in the War). The old shaman/Commander had a vision (open to interpretation, as such things usually are :) ) of a Chosen One who would come and fix things.

When Esme came, the old shaman brought her forward as the hoped-for Chosen One, and brokered a peace between the remnant clans, unifying them into the Azure Waters Clan (name chosen to emphasize the waters surrounding the Island, and hence, the unity of the surviving people surrounded by them). Esme has since sought to strengthen the unifying ideology by pointing to the Consumers (as represented by the Ark) as the common enemy. They're the perfect enemy because their threat is undeniably real (the Ark is visible crossing the night sky, and "their kind" destroyed the world) but they're also not there to fight (so, no destructive war)...until the 100 show up.

Esme became the nominal leader of the new, unified Clan under the old Shaman's guidance, with Rhea as Esme's designated successor. The old Shaman could (probably would) have also been a more conventional Commander, but since her vision, she'd been more intent on promoting the hope of the coming Chosen One. Kind of a Ghost Dance/cargo cult sort of thing, until Esme turned up in seeming "fulfillment."

So, Rhea would have grown up expecting to become more of a conventional Commander, until her predecessor's vision, and later Esme's appearance shifted the ideology. While the old Commander/Shaman trained Esme, she and Esme formulated and promulgated the new ideology of unification under primarily spiritual, rather than primarily military leadership. For four years, Esme was like a child Dalai Lama or Pharaoh, nominally in charge (due to Chosen One status) but de facto under the regency of the old Shaman/Commander. When the old Commander passed, Esme fully took her place.

Esme has been trying to cement in place a "we don't kill our own" ethic, while directing the Warrior attitude outward toward the Consumers.

The idea behind all this is to reconcile the more canon-like character bios of the other Grounder characters with the existence of the differences I introduced. I hope it works. :)

 

[Brea]

My idea was based loosely on the way a Dalai Lama is chosen as a child, becoming the spiritual leader of Tibet. The back-story concept I'm working with is that there were originally multiple warring clans on the Island, but their constant wars were depleting their numbers and damaging the island ecosystem, threatening to lead to their ultimate extinction (basically, a microcosm of what happened with Earth as a whole and the major nations that fought in the War). The old shaman/Commander had a vision (open to interpretation, as such things usually are :) ) of a Chosen One who would come and fix things.

When Esme came, the old shaman brought her forward as the hoped-for Chosen One, and brokered a peace between the remnant clans, unifying them into the Azure Waters Clan (name chosen to emphasize the waters surrounding the Island, and hence, the unity of the surviving people surrounded by them). Esme has since sought to strengthen the unifying ideology by pointing to the Consumers (as represented by the Ark) as the common enemy. They're the perfect enemy because their threat is undeniably real (the Ark is visible crossing the night sky, and "their kind" destroyed the world) but they're also not there to fight (so, no destructive war)...until the 100 show up.

Esme became the nominal leader of the new, unified Clan under the old Shaman's guidance, with Rhea as Esme's designated successor. The old Shaman could (probably would) have also been a more conventional Commander, but since her vision, she'd been more intent on promoting the hope of the coming Chosen One. Kind of a Ghost Dance/cargo cult sort of thing, until Esme turned up in seeming "fulfillment."

So, Rhea would have grown up expecting to become more of a conventional Commander, until her predecessor's vision, and later Esme's appearance shifted the ideology. While the old Commander/Shaman trained Esme, she and Esme formulated and promulgated the new ideology of unification under primarily spiritual, rather than primarily military leadership. For four years, Esme was like a child Dalai Lama or Pharaoh, nominally in charge (due to Chosen One status) but de facto under the regency of the old Shaman/Commander. When the old Commander passed, Esme fully took her place.

Esme has been trying to cement in place a "we don't kill our own" ethic, while directing the Warrior attitude outward toward the Consumers.

The idea behind all this is to reconcile the more canon-like character bios of the other Grounder characters with the existence of the differences I introduced. I hope it works. :)

Okay, gotcha. I understand now. I changed Rhea's bio again, and I think that things should work out now ♥