Author Topic: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation  (Read 6793 times)

JeVondair

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A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Topic Start: December 30, 2016, 10:22:08 PM »
Introduction: This started as an OOC conversation b/w BarticaBoat and JeVondair. I asked for his character Godric's help with the creation of a new advy. The following is the play by play of a Choose Your story character creation narrated by JeVondair. Decisions made by Godric
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JeVondair

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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #1: December 30, 2016, 10:23:18 PM »

let me draw your attention back to a darker moment in Selenia's history as Xerarch...


http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/JeVondair_Family/Selenia#Robb_the_Defiler


Robb Starfall was a desperate man. His army was defeated and driven back, his kingdom had been all but taken from him, and his enemy was overwhelming. So, to combat Xavax he whipped his people into a frenzy of hatred, demonizing the people of Xavax and Selenia in particular as infernal, less than human. This would not have bothered Selenia if not for the atrocities this dehumanizing effect allowed the desensitized nobles and soldiers of Alara to commit: The systematic rape and genocide of commonfolk of every Xavax region they could reach. Every time the Phoenix fell back to refit, the raiders would pour forth from the Black City together with their Minas Novan allies and new reports of terror and debauchery would reach Selenia's Throne. Selenia, who had been a serf to the type of nobleman who could do this sort of thing. Selenia, who had been the unwanted result of a nobleman who could do this sort of thing.
To say that the Xerarch of Xavax was enraged would be a small, understated thing.

When she could see other colors besides red, Selenia immediately wrote the other rulers of the East, denouncing Starfall as a dishonorable rapist and murder not fit to wear a crown, swearing that she would take the crowns of Alara and Minas Nova and wear them re-sized as anklets, declaring her everlasting hatred for Minas Nova for joining in persecuting these travesties upon her people. She commanded into Law that the names of Alara or Minas Nova never be spoken again, forcing her subjects to instead refer to them as the bandits of Itorunt and Semall respectively. She called upon her fellow queens of the East to rise up and denounce him with one voice. Most of the rulers, however, were content to sit and watch silently. Most, but not all. First Lady Catherine of First Oligarch publicly answered Selenia's call (and earned Selenia's respect), and, eventually, so did High Queen Teniel of Caligus. Not publicly, but she did threaten to withdraw her restraints on Fallangard which would allow Xavax's only ally to enter the war and thereby grant Selenia the strength she needed to take the Black City once and for all. While Starfall had been foolish enough to insult Selenia, he was smart enough to realize that Fallangard entering the war would be his doom. And sure enough, the reports of rape and genocide stopped. A relieved Selenia met with her people, the victims. Who, incidentally, were mostly former Alaran's that she had conquered. She stayed among the women and girls in particular, promising that their needs would be taken care of, that she would accept them into her personal service at the capital if they so desired. To the boy-children who were also victimized, she made certain that they knew of her offer, she tried to relate to them. But few responded to her the way the women had. Many, male and female alike, would take their own lives within months, and few of the survivors would ever achieve normalcy again. So instead of protection, Selenia gave them swords. She trained them and empowered them to take their dignity back in blood with steel. To be Fearless (The name of Selenia's fighting unit).


In searching for Lagertha memes, I came across a badass character model that I intend to weave into the story as an orphan Selenia rescued during this period who would grow up to serve in Selenia's Fearless. This character will be a violent, warmongering fanatic, a dark vanguard of justice unconstrained by morality and embodying all the most extreme aspects of Selenia. In short, she will be the person Godric always wished Selenia were: Devoid of mercy or restraint, a creature of consummate cunning, A huntress he stalks the night because there's no place in daylight for what her pitiless heart will allow her to do.


I want Godric to have gotten a hold of her after Selenia fell and Fearless was all but wiped out and set up as militia. I want him to nurse her back to health and teach her the ways of the  Tórrarin.


I do not know here name yet, but I know what she will look like...


« Last Edit: December 30, 2016, 11:22:25 PM by JeVondair »
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JeVondair

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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #2: December 30, 2016, 10:24:44 PM »

So let me flesh this out. She was born Itor Bass and lived there until age 11. At the time, Sayuki Kuriga was lord and had defected from Alara and war had erupted with Greater Xavax, but this was way beyond her ken. when she returns to her village from the foraging in the woods to find the town sacked by bandit raiders. Her father lay dead outside the house, and men bearing the Alaran banner reveled inside. She does not know where her mother or siblings are, but the house is dark and she fears the worst. She is 11 years old.


Does she A) Grab the foresting knife her father gave her and go inside to see for herself? B) Lodge the door shut and set fire to the home without knowing if any of her kin are alive inside? C) Run back to her secret place in the woods? D) Screams, waking the bandits and getting captured by them?
« Last Edit: December 30, 2016, 11:23:37 PM by JeVondair »
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #3: December 30, 2016, 10:28:38 PM »

(A) it is then. So she takes out her fathers knife and approaches her childhood home. But in order to do so, she must pass her fathers body. She loved him, he taught her how to walk the woods. She whiteknuckles the hilt of her knife.


It is the first corpse she has ever seen...


Does she A) Check for life. B) Know that he's dead and instead check the wounds to see if he died well. C) Temporarily succumb to her emotions and allows a sob to escape? C) Ignore it, there's nothing to be done. Others, including herself, are in danger and the culprits are within reach. D) Run away, it's too much to handle. She's 11.
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #4: December 30, 2016, 10:28:56 PM »

(C) That's her father, her papa, lying there. A sense of dread washes over her. She can go no further. She's rooted to the spot, unable to get past her father's corpse. Imagining that his spirit was silently telling her to run. But she can't Her chest is clenched. She doesn't have the air. She can't do anything. She-


Against he will, a sob escapes as her body forces her to suck down air, to live.


A rustle from inside the home. Cursing, male voices. Something inside clatters to the floor. The doorknob starts to wiggle...


Does she A) remain rooted, B) Find Cover, C) become enraged, D) Give into her fear and flee to the safety of the woods.
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #5: December 30, 2016, 10:29:14 PM »

(D) Before she even knows hit, her feet are flying back towards the woods like a startled doe. Tears stream down her face, her breath comes out in ragged sobs as she dodges through the trees. She's weak, a coward, afraid and alone.


She is prey.


Night lays her dark shroud over the forest, but her feet know well the way to her secret place, a child's fort her father had helped her build in a rocky culvert nestled in the hills of the wood not far from a stream. Her father had planted berry bushes all about years ago. She crawls inside, a prickly bed of pine needles and old toys greeted her as she laid down, breathless and tired, and curled into the tightest ball she could.


Night had fallen.


Does she A) Stay wake, to frightened to sleep, B) rest easy, feeling safe in the place her father made for her? C) rest fitfully, dreams punctuated by nightmares as her mind invents what she was too scared to find out for herself? D) Let her exhaustion claim her and fall deeply asleep
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #6: December 30, 2016, 10:29:43 PM »

(D) She was already tired when she'd returned home from the forest, and her panicked flight back only drained her further. By the time she laid her head down, the adrenaline and terror had worn off, leaving her numb.  Exhaustion clouded her mind, and sleep claimed her.


When she awoke it was light outside. She was hungry, thirsty, and dirty. Her back hurt from where an errant woodchip had dug its way into her side overnight. Her legs were sore and wobbly from her headlong flight. She has only the clothes on her back and her father's knife.


Does she A) mentally dwell on what happened, B) Head outside to harvest berries and get some water from the stream, C) Stay inside, cautious and fearful, D) Head back home
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #7: December 30, 2016, 10:30:10 PM »

(D) It was not the first time she'd spent the night here, as evidenced by the old toys that had accumulated in her secret little corner of the woods. Her parent's hated it, but they themselves had taught her to stay put if she could not make it home before sundown, for dark and evil things prowled at night.


She sets off back home. Her memory of yesterday already hazy. Perhaps it had been some nightmare? maybe she'd eaten a bad berry or something. Her parents were going to be so cross with her. It would mean a week of new chores for breaking curfew, but that was nothing new.


She followed the now-familiar way home. The cottage is there, but things are quiet...extremely quiet, and the door is ajar. She remembers her nightmare, with her father's dead body lying still. But it's gone. She sighs in relief. Just a dream. But still...her mother should be making breakfast. her father should be chopping wood. Where IS everyone?


Does she A) Open the door and step inside, B) Call out for her mother and father, C) Remain silent.
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #8: December 30, 2016, 10:41:16 PM »

(A) She opens the door. It's dark inside, the slant of the morning light failed to penetrate deeply into the cottage, leaving its furthest reaches shrouded in shadow. But from what she can see, the place is a complete mess. Pottery lies shattered on on the floor, feathers from the down comforter her mother had made were everwhere. From what she could see, it looked like a tornado had hit the place.


Does she A) Investigate Further, B) Call for her parents, C) Remain still, D) Fall back
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #9: December 30, 2016, 11:12:18 PM »
(B) A feeling of unease grips her like a cold, writhing serpent beneath her naval. She wanted to step forward, but could not. Her father had always warned her to listen to her gut, and the serpent within was warning her.


Suddenly, she sensed movement in the back of the cabin. It was still dark and difficult to see from the threshold, but she could make out the outline of a person moving in the gloom.


"Papa!"


Does she (A) Rush in and hug him, B) Limit herself to only taking a step inside, C) Stay right where she is, D) back away?
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #10: December 30, 2016, 11:42:10 PM »

(B) That IS her father. Every moment that passes things get brighter, the gloom recedes. Though she can't quite see him, she knows it's him.




It had all been just a bad dream after all...




She steps inside. She is barefoot. Her toes almost slip in something wet, cool...


Sticky.




She looks down at the pool of blood creeping up between her toes.




Does she A) Make sure its really blood, B) Scream, C) Look back up to keep the whole cabin in her field of vision, D) Run to the safety of the woods
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #11: December 31, 2016, 12:21:38 AM »

(A) She could not imagine anything more surreal. Elements of her dream, her personal 'nightmare' came rushing back to her. For just a moment, she could think of nothing else but the blood at her feet. She knew in that moment that the feeling of curdled blood between her toes would stay with her forever.


Her heart began to race. The blood trailed deeper into the gloom of the cabin interior. But it began not at the door...but on it. She felt like a helpless bystander in her own body as her eyes traveled up twin bloody trails that terminated in hand-prints midway up the frame where two bolts of iron had been hammered into the wood.


They were covered in blood.


Someone had been nailed to the door by their hands.


Does she A) Touch her hand to the prints to gauge its size, B) Turn around and ask what happened, C) Run to her father, D) Give into her fear and run back to the safety of the woods.
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #12: December 31, 2016, 01:07:44 AM »

(C) She gasps and backs away, splashing deeper into the cottage in an instinctive effort to distance herself from the scene of torture. Someone had been nailed tot he door of her home, palms to the wood so low that an adult would be forced to bend over. More than anything, she wants her father, needs him to tell her it will be OK. Forgetting the signs she was too young and distraught to truly understand, she spins about and runs toward the form of her father. It is definitely him. He's still wearing the breeches mother made for him for the Solace festival years ago. They'd been his best pair until wear and tear had relegated them to his favored work garb.


He was making his way toward her, his upper half still shrouded  in gloom as the morning sun had not fully lit the house.


Does she A) Wrap her arms around her father, B) Stop moving, C) Ask where mother is, D) Run to the safety of the woods?
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #13: December 31, 2016, 03:13:54 AM »

(A) Silent tears of fear and confusion blurred her vision as she ran, stumbling, towards the only thing that still made any sense anymore. Her mind blocked out all the noise, all the images, and focused on a single point.


Her father.


She was a scrawny thing, her legs only just beginning to truly lengthen while the rest of her body followed suit. She was across the room in a flash and wrapped her arms around her father's midsection as she squelched into him.


Squelched?


A cold, wet sensations spread along her cheek, neck and chest. A part of her, a distant, logical part of her screamed that she knew this sensation, having just felt it. But that part of her was not in  control. She could smell the spice packs her father rubbed over his skin before climbing into bed each night. That was a comforting smell. So why did she still smell...


Blood?...


Fear and confusion twisted through her as she looked up. Blood. So much blood. Drenching his shirt and chest, neck and chin. staining his teeth, his lips pulled back in a rictus as his jaws worked woodenly. His stomach bulged strangely. Cold seemed to radiate from him. Glassy eyes moved sluggishly.


And slowly...


Focused on...


Her.


Does she A) Shake him and call his name, B)Fall back to the floor, screaming, C) Become frozen by fear, D) Run to the safety of the woods?
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Re: A new JeVondair Advy: Colab Character Creation
« Reply #14: December 31, 2016, 03:30:14 AM »

(B) Her body uncoiled like a spring, reflexively throwing all of her weight away just as his arms raised to embrace her. A moan, gurgling, sputtered from him as she landed hard from on the floor, coating her hands in dirt and blood.


Everywhere, blood.


Every child new the tales. Everyone had heard stories of the hordes, of entire villages vanishing over night, of brave adventurers going missing in the deep places, of shining armies raised by noble lords marching bravely forth to combat the darkness...only to be devoured.


She crabbed backwards on her hands and feet, hyperventilating as her mind struggled to make sense. And that's when her eyes, from her lower vantage point, saw her parents bedroom door ajar with a leg sticking out, leaving the rest of the body obscured. She would never be certain how here sight pierced the gloom in that moment, but she saw the birthmark on the legs ankle as clear as day. She'd always laughed with her mother about having birthmarks on the exact same spot.


And then she did scream, loud and piercing, as terror consumed her entirely his her father took a shambling step towards her, arms outstretched and moaning with need.


Does she A) Remain rooted to the spot, B) Clamber out of the cottage, screaming, C) Try to fight, or D) Run to the safety of the woods.
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