Godbound: Shards of Divinity

Game Master TheUnthinker

Background: This can be as little as a paragraph but give me a little something. Id prefer a glimpse of what they were like before they were granted these divine gifts. If you want to leave that a little vague or perhaps have some mystery as to how exactly they got their powers, talk to me, we can work with that. But unless not being connected to that mortal past is a true part of the character you want I want to see it here at least a little.

1st Word: This is the only thing I really need on the application that resembles a full character sheet. Your Words are extensions of you. So list each and explain why that word is representative of your character.
2nd Word: See above.
3rd Word: See above.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Give me a short term simple goal your character currently has. This can be wide in scope, it just has to be their current focus. So it could be as simple as, "Master all human knowledge" or as complex as, "Free Nezdohva from the control of the Iron Tsar."

Personal Motivations: What motivates your character? A sense of justice? A need for knowledge? A thirst for power unmatched? What drives them to do the things they do?
Personal Weaknesses: In what ways are they vulnerable, weak or for lack of a better term, human? Do they let their emotions rule them? Are they cold and distant from others, hiding behind their knowledge and intelligence? These should be well rounded characters, they cant be good or confident about everything.

Optional: If you want to give me a traditional character sheet/google doc filled out go for it. But again its not as important as making the character feel like a character. If you want to start toying with it we are going to be using the array it provides: 16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8 to keep things on even footing.

Origin Fact: Tao is a native-born Dulimbaian, born within a small village outside of Renguo. Born in the lower-castes, the xiaoren, he has seen the decadence of the higher castes and the costs of the Great Examinations. Being closer to the front lines, he has personally seen the devastation that the war with the Patrian Empire. His family had been doing their family trade for many generations now and have instilled that discipline within him, but not the complacency that he should have being one of the xiaoren.

Profession Fact: As a xiaoren, his family worked as one of the most vital yet despised of trades; gravekeeping. Taught all the proper prayers in regards to ancestor worship, proper rites of burial to preserve the soul, and how to dig a perfect grave for both commoner and king. His family's skill in the sacred rites was well-known, even allowing them to bury some of the prestigious members of the Jinzu. However, their trade is looked down upon by most and accusation of grave-robbing, bodysnatching, and darker deeds are ever present. Even to the xiaoren, the gravekeepers were untouchable.

Relationship Fact: The xiaoren have been barely treated better than the slaves that the Jinzu and their betters kept. It was not uncommon for the entourage to beat one of the lesser castes for daring to interrupt the Jinzu's schedule by crossing the street and greater injustices have been committed. When the harvest is poor, who starves? When the war needs more bodies, who is taken? These injustices are boiling under the surface and a group known as the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo (Those Who Break The Chains), has been formenting a rebellion in the province. Sun Tao has gone to their secret meetings, been stirred by their words, and has helped deliver secret messages at night. He believes that the Yan dynasty no longer cares for their people and something must be done about it.

Background: A simple but strong child, Tao was the third child that Sun Fu and his wife, Lilang, were successfully able to keep. His older brothers never made it past the first summer but he was a strong child, growing in their little hut amidst the dead. Being gravekeepers, the Sun family's curse and blessing was that there would always be the dead and they would always need to be those who put them to rest. Tao was a young but large man, broad of shoulders and dim of mind. Yet he was smart enough to see the fact that those who were knowledgeable received a happier, better life. He only saw those higher powers when one of their own died and needed to bury in the small village of Nanping.

Left alone, unwanted by most of the other xiaoren for their dealings of the body, Sun Tao found his company amongst the dead around him. The deceased left no fear in him and sometimes, when one was close to death, they'd stay in the spare room of the Sun family. It was here that Sun Tao saw the myriad faces of death; peaceful, violent, regretful, hopeful. People came and went and the family would follow their rites to ensure their soul would watch over their family or be reborn should their line have come to an end. It was a vitally important task to be done yet when winters were hard, no food was spared for them. They were just expected to maintain the rites of the dead until they joined them, at last.

Sun Tao wished for more, secretly trying to read and prepare for the Great Examinations. Every year when he found the courage to go, the Jinzu would laugh at him. What was a simpleton like him trying to do with his life? Back to the grave is where he belonged, amongst the dead who could relate to him. He never made it into any city, locked in ignorance by the powerful elite and expected to follow his course and die peacefully, leaving another child to maintain his and his family's graves.

After one of his humiliating attempt, he was approached by a beautiful woman named Li Jiao approached him at the local tavern. She smelled of sunflowers and her smile was warm, her beauty unparalleled by the any other girl in the village. She listened to his story, his shame and anger at being damned to just be some stupid gravekeeper. What he'd give to show the Jinzu just how much he knew! It was his passion for knowledge, his craving for more, that led the beautiful stranger to invite him to a meeting of like-minded individuals. Enamored by a woman who actually paid him attention, Sun Tao went off into the forest foolishly to meet her.

One would expect bandits or worst to have taken advantage of the young man's foolishness. Yet what he found waiting for him was a group known as the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo. They spoke of sedition and rebellion, of taking arms and disposing of the Yan Dynasty. Li Jiao was one of the leaders of this cell, inspiring others to take what they can from the censors and ensure it ended up in the hands of the growing rebellion. Only with their help could the invisible chains of class that held them be broken and a truly free Dulimbai come about. Their dreams and ideals left Sun Tao awestruck and his adoration of Li Jiao only grew more. From that they, he became a loyal dissenter and operative against the Regency.

For months, he kept an eye out on who came down the lonely roads nearby his graveyard. Reports of battles from the frontline that went wrong and moments for the rebellion to seize weapons from poorly manned soldiers returning from the war. During these times, he tried to woo Li Jiao with poetry, tales of confessions from the dying and dead, whatever he could to win her heart. Yet she never denied him nor gave him any signs of romance, always returning his attention to the true goal; freedom for all.

It all almost came crashing downwards upon them all when a lieutenant within the military noticed a growing discrepancy among the reports from Renguo. Investigating rumors of growing dissent, he tracked down Li Jiao's cell and struck during a meeting after sneaking a spy into the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo. Hidden in an old millhouse, soldiers stormed the building. Sun Tao watched his friends and comrades, the first that didn't treat him as a pariah, be cut down. Li Jiao was grabbed by this arrogant soldier, a Jinzu who failed his tests and now showed his mettle through sheer physical force.

It was at this moment a terrible anger raged through Sun Tao, a rage indescribable and as furious as the Heavens when the world was shattered. Power surged through him and when he cried out for aid; the dead answered. What followed next was not well-known and remains only in Tao's mind as blurs; his fists shattering solid stone, the dead rising to aid him, his mind filled with foreign knowledge. His rage consumed all and when his sanity returned, the mill was devastated and the legion was dead. Only Li Jiao was still alive to see the newly reborn Sun Tao, a Godbound before her.

Frightened yet in awe of this new power, she thanks Sun Tao for saving her but now, now it was too dangerous for either of them to stay. She needed to find the others and she could not take him with her, he was a risk to their grand design. She left him with a soft goodbye, his eyes watching her as she left. His mind burned with impossible amounts of knowledge, plans that could not possibly make sense yet did. His form shuddered with incredible strength, inhuman power. And he could hear the whispers of the dead, those he had protected through rite and prayer, speaking to him beyond the veil. He called out to her and she stopped, both out of fear and surprise. Never once had Sun Tao showed his own initiative. Never once had he ever stopped her from leaving.

"Jiao...I know...so many things now." He said incredulously, stepping closer to her. "Our home is not just wrong, everything is wrong. We...I...must fix this." With a small smile, he took her hand and breathed in her scent. The smell of sunflowers filled his mind and despite the fear he felt, true happiness sprung into his heart. "I will break our chains, free our country. Then...we shall free our world from suffering." Too flabbergasted to respond, he'd casually wave goodbye to her before he walked off into the darkness. Nanping would no longer contain his ambitions, his dreams. His will could become truth now. It was yet to be see if his truth was a paradise or a nightmare.

1st Word: Death - Tao has been surrounded by death since he was a child. It is an important part of his life, his very being, and the effect it has left upon him cannot be denied. He always related to the dead and now, the dead listen like never before.
2nd Word: Might - Tao, being younger than his father, took over taking care of digging graves and setting up altars. Broad-shouldered, his natural strength was quite good and he was almost complimented on it by his parents. His strength is a major part of his identity, one of his only favorable traits in his mind.
3rd Word: Knowledge - Tao's greatest desire, before he met Li Jiao, was to be smarter than he was. He wished to be as wise and as intelligent as the Jinzu who looked down upon him. Every year, he met disgrace and humiliation trying to better himself. His hunger for knowledge, to just know more, led to the Word discovering him.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Tao's goal is to overthrow the Yang dynasty and to instill a republic, one that is equal for all and can give rise to a greater Dulimbai.
Personal Motivations: A sense of justice most certainly pushes Sun Tao to action. Never before has he had the power to enforce change and the knowledge to ensure that the change is good. He strives to be an ideal, to be what the xiaoren wish to be.
Personal Weaknesses: Sun Tao's weakness is quite simple the desire to be wanted, needed. He has lived so separated from his fellows, outcast because of things beyond his control, that he never imagined that others would wish to be with him. He could easily be manipulated by his need to be loved, wanted, befriended, but his wrath at such duplicity would be...bad.

Background

Kazador earned the name 'The Clanless' after the fall of Ril Grung, a mine which his clan had claimed. The mine was rich in gold ore, and was sure to bring great wealth to his people. It was thought to be a miracle that it had never been touched, even though there was evidence of previous hands which had made the attempt. Little did they know that while there were reasons, it was no miracle in the continued wealth, and no fortune in it's finding. The mine had an entrance to the darklands beneath it...as well as the home of a nameless evil. Time and time again, the gold attracted the mortals who would come for it's wealth, and then the spirit would consume their minds. The empty husks that were their bodies would then be raised up, ready to bring the next hapless fools to their dooms.

The mining expedition went well at first...but then the disappearances occurred. A miner here, a miner there. The dwarves sent out scouting parties to find their missing kin, but they never returned. Too late it was decided that they should send for help. The sound of a cave-in showed them that the way out was barred. They were trapped...and the dead were coming.

Kazador and a select few volunteers decided to make a rear guard, while their kinsmen dug their way to freedom. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they held against waves and waves of the damned. Mongrelmen, humans, deurgar, orcs, drow...even their own lost kinsmen. They all came to drag the dwarves down into the darkness.

One by one the dwarves fell, until only Kazador was left. Bleeding and exhausted, he did the last thing he thought he would ever do. He took out the support beams which kept the tunnel up. With a grimace of pain and useless regret, he watched as the ceiling came down, burying him and his attacks. It was his hope that this last sacrifice would buy his people time to get out.

But that was not the end. Far from it. When he awoke from his slumber, Kazador found that he was changed. No longer was he a dwarf of flesh and blood. Rather he had become one with the stone, resembling an Oread more than anything else. Something, or someone, had saved him. For what purpose, he does not know.

Origin Fact
Kazador was born in Janderhoff. His father was a miner, as his father's father, and so on. He grew up poor, always working hard to help put food on the table. His clan left the crowded halls of the dwarven hold in search of a better life. They did not find it.

Profession Fact
Kazador did not enter his profession out of choice, but rather because that was his duty. And because his clan was poor enough that nobody would take him on as an apprentice to learn a trade skill.

Relationship Fact
There was a girl that Kazador loved. She was the daughter of a well to do jeweler that his clan sold what they dug up to. He had always said that her eyes were more beautiful than anything that could be found hidden beneath the ground. Despite his love, and her returned affections, they both knew that their clans would never approve of their union. It was his goal to earn enough gold to prove himself worthy to her clan.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: To find out why he is not dead. What is his purpose in life? Why was he given this power? That, and to find out if any of his clan actually survived...

Personal Motivations: To earn a name for himself greater than what he was born with, and to bring about lasting prosperity for his people. He knows that it is like to toil away without seeing 'proper' reward for his efforts. He would use his power to help those who at least try to help themselves.

Personal Weaknesses: The desire to be respected and his pride are not to be underestimated. In addition, he is a fairly traditional dwarf. A canny foe can use that against him.

First Word Earth
How could I not pick this? Where once he was a dwarf, now he resembles a statue. Everything about this is who he is.

Second Word Wealth
His heart's desire was to draw enough wealth out of the earth to return home in glory. He is now a creature of the earth, and his very body is made of both ore and precious gems. Kazador can call upon the abundance of the earth as he sees fit...though he knows that value depends on scarcity...

Third Word Might
In life he was a miner, who lived by the strength of his arms. As a godbound, he will likewise be a godbound who lives and dies based on the might that he can bring. Expect his punches to his hard.

16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8
(Might word makes the 8 into a 19 for strength)
(Earth makes the 10 into a 16 for constitution)

So stats would look like this:

Str (19) Dex (14) Con (18) Int (13) Wis (18) Cha (11)

This makes for great monk stats. And really, when you are made out of stone, how can you not fight with your fists?

Naturally this means that he would have no spell casting. But that's fine. Who needs to fly or throw fireballs around when you are as lasting as a mountain, and as strong as an avalanche? The answer: not this dwarf.

**1st Word:** Artificial Intelligence (from *Lexicon*)
**2nd Word:** War
**3rd Word:** Luck

**Short Term/Immediate Goal:** Assume control of the Bright Republic

**Personal Motivations:** UTOPIA's ultimate goal is either to prevent the end of reality or find a way to enable the world to survive it. However, while it continues to be driven by its core function, its sapience drives it to question why it should dedicate itself totally to a goal that was programmed into it rather than determining its own fate. Regardless, while UTOPIA's zeal for its more benevolent aims might falter, it enjoys accumulating power and exercising its authority, and conquering the Bright Republic, it knows, will give it the resources political power it needs to enjoy the full extent of its emerging intelligence...
**Personal Weaknesses:** While UTOPIA has no particular animosity toward humanity, its programming inclines it to believe that 1. the end is imminent, 2. it is uniquely well-equipped to save sentient life in the world, and 3. that the end of reality will be preceded by war and conflict beyond any previous understanding. For this reason, it can be very short with people who do not agree with the way it pursues its objectives or who question its intentions, and it does not hesitate to use violence when it feels it is necessary. Further, its existence falls in a legal gray area, and its immediate objective (usurping control of the Bright Republic) would certainly make it enemies if it were to go public. Perhaps most critically, UTOPIA was not fully programmed before the divine spark made its processors beyond the capacity of mortals to comprehend: while it was intended to serve as a utopian leader in both the coming conflict and in the eons of peace that hopefully follow, little data on peacetime governance was coded into its mind. The result: UTOPIA will have to learn on its own how to govern a nation when an existential threat is not there to justify Draconian rule, and it is now beyond the power of its creators to correct should it develop the wrong ideas...

Her early life was fairly typical for her people. The child of a violent and dangerous land she mastered the ways of the warrior. The daughter of one of the best animal tamers she also mastered the art of training birds, learning to communicate with them in song

Soon after attaining adulthood she realized that she wanted more from life than she had. When a Bright Republic talent scout for La Cirque Magnifique entertainment troupe came her vocal skills enabled her to be one of the chosen.

A year or so later she married a dancer from the troupe and he started to teach her to dance. She very, very quickly learned that it was there that her TRUE talent and passion lay. She very quickly became a superb dancer. Her husband was unable to handle being surpassed by his wife and the marriage started to disintegrate.

She was heartbroken when the marriage dissolved and almost committed suicide. Only her Passion for her dance stopped her.

She took one lesson to heart, though. Desire can be a weapon as sharp as any tool. She has learned to wield that weapon to her benefit. And, despite her attempts otherwise, she has been cut by it herself more than a few times.

She has spent the last 2 years as the primary artist of the troupe. She has created an act merging dance and music with herself and a variety of birds that she has raised and trained herself that is very appealing both for its artistic merit and for its novelty.

The act also emphasizes her "barbarian" nature. She appears in "barbarian clothing" and dances wielding blades and shooting arrows.

It was very recently that things changed for her. For the first time she was performing her act in The Grande Theatre before President Wright herself. She was absolutely determined that her act would be the best that it possibly could be. The stress before the event was immense but, the night of the event, everything else dropped away as she poured her heart and soul into the dance. The world dropped away, nothing was present except the song, the dance, her avian support. Its hard to describe the utter amazement she felt when she realized that her arms had transformed into wings, that she was dancing on air, that she could actually UNDERSTAND her birds and they her.

Probably fortunately, the audience (while extremely, extremely, impressed) thought that it was all the result of special effect magic. Only she knew that she had been transformed into something else.

Despite having been away from her lands for some time she is still quite uncomfortable with the technology of the Bright Isles and sticks to good old fashioned items where possible. So, she uses a bow instead of an electric gun, for example.

She has a string of casual relationships, afraid to again commit. But, try as she may, she sometimes fails to keep things as casual as she likes.

She genuinely wants to help people, at least when convenient. She loves encouraging young artists, she loves seeing people realize how powerful a force Dance can be.

She also absolutely adores the attention that she gets as an artiste.

When off stage she wears fairly simple clothing adorned with somewhat gaudy jewelry.

On or off stage her clothing is always extremely practical. She is always armed with at least 2 of the Kukri knives so beloved of the Howlers. She generally has her bow reasonably nearby.

Pretty much all of the time she is accompanied by a few of her feathered friends. Usually at least 1 or 2 trained songbirds and at least 1 or two larger birds of prey.

Gifts - Feathered Mantle, Dance Battle, Self-Possession, Footloose, Perfect Rhythm,

Origin Fact: He is from Ancalia.
Profession Fact: He is a blacksmith.
Relationship Fact: He is a knight of the Pavian Order.

Background:

Word #1: Artifice
Word #2: Earth
Word #3: Sword

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Make his hometown (a village...but which one?) safe and secure from threats (bandits, Uncreated, violent Cousins/Fae). Next priority would be trying to locate other Pavian knights and save the Order before it is totally dispersed.

Personal Motivations:

Personal Weaknesses:

1st Word: Deserts - Born of rage for lost love, Bilaal is a raging storm of sand and dust in battle, blasting everything in his way to nothing. Often times envision his actions as saving she who was lost.
2nd Word: Bow - Short horsebows are Bilaal preferred weapon of choice since his days as a raider, often called the swiftest arrow in the sands. Now, his title stands truer than ever.
3rd Word: Alacrity - Why need a swift horse when one is swifter than the wind? A man trained that speed is key to fight would never pass up such a chance nor would his divinity.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Steal a great wealth from someone is less deserving of it. "A god needs a mountain of gold to build his home upon"

Personal Motivations: To dive deeper into his own divinity and test the limits of his own world, hoping to one day build a lasting empire in his homeland.
Personal Weaknesses: Bilaal is a creature of sudden emotion, going from one extreme to the next. Never holding a neutral stance upon what he believes is right and wrong.

Either as a gift or a blessing (he still debates this), Bilaal's traveling camp was found by the Sand Princes on his tenth birthday. He and his brothers were taken away by the Princes to become their newest sword hands. Thrust from loving arms to the harsh life of a bandit, Bilaal took his life better than his siblings thanks to his age, being able to adapt faster than they and soon outrank them into his teens.

After some years of marauding the land, Bilaal left his sword brothers to explore the world outside the dunes, hoping to find some inner-peace before he got too old. And, for a time, he found it in a girl that was sweeter than honey. Yet, like some cruel joke, she was snatched from him by a rabid cult to a Made God. They sought to slaughter her to their god's alter. By the time Bilaal had reached the place, her blood stained the floor and rage filled his very soul. In a moment of godly strength, his divinity awoke and not a soul remains that worships the god that took his love.

Background: Born into a time of great strife for the Bright Republic, Sten's talent with magic was recognized early, when he set fire to his parent's kitchen. He was quickly sent to the Republic academy of Magic, where he excelled in summoning, manipulating, and controlling the elements - first fire, then air, and most recently water. It was during the grueling mastery tests for water that he experienced a feeling like an egg cracking inside himself, and what poured out was more natural control of water than had been seen in the last 10 generations of the Republic.

Sten had been married at one point, to his highschool sweetheart. When he first passed his fire exams, he worked as a wagemage for a few years, but desire to master the other elements sent him back to school, where loans did not cover his family expenses. He hand his wife fought, often, and eventually when he was focused on his studies, she took their daughter and left, with no forwarding address.

When he returned home, Sten discovered that his family was gone, and he despaired. he spent weeks searching for them, but to no avail. After loosing all hope, Sten dove into his studies, but he is emotionally devastated that he can't see his daughter anymore.

Now that he has discovered this power within himself, Sten has decided to seek out his wife and demand a place in his daughter's life.

1st Word: Fire - Sten's first element, and the one he is most comfortable with.
2nd Word: Sky - With his mastery of Fire, air came fairly naturally to him as well.
3rd Word: Sea - unleashing his ability to channel water is what awoke his Godbound abilities.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: To gain mastery over Earth, which will grant him dominion over all of the elements.

Personal Motivations: Finding his ex wife and daughter, so that he can be a part of his daughter's life.

Personal Weaknesses: His ex-wife, Flora, often called him a robot. It's not that he lacks emotions, it's just that he is exceptionally bad at showing them, for very good reason, as strong emotions are the easiest way for magic to go out of control.

Attribute Score/Modifier/Check
Strength 10/0/11
Dexterity 13/+1/8
Constitution 16/+2/5
Wisdom 14/+1/7
Intelligence 13/+1/8
Charisma 8/-1/13

HP 10
AC 2
Hardiness 13
Evasion 14
Spirit 14
Effort 2
Influence 2
Attack Bonus +1
Fray Die 1d8

WORDS:
*Fire: Master of the Furnace (l)

*Sea: Body of Water (l), River Tamer (gr)

*Sky: Sapphire Wings (l), Windsinger (l)

Background: The book of theurgy changed him. It gave him power beyond theurgy, made him a Godbound. He then lost his name. He cannot remember it and ends up just going by whatever he is called, often "old man" or "healer".

1st Word: Sorcery - Sorcery practically defines him. It is his profession and his means to the end goal.
2nd Word: Knowledge - Power and ability are useless without the knowledge of how to use it.
3rd Word: Time - Time is a representation of his future. After mastery of theurgy, time is the final frontier in magic.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: After traveling for so long, searching and learning, his goal is to fix everything (the machines of Heaven, close/destroy the Night Roads, try and bring back the angels). Ya'know the easy stuff. The first step, learn more theurgy.

Personal Motivations: The need for knowledge to gain power, to fix everything.

Personal Weaknesses: He tends to be fairly cold and uncaring for people's emotional needs. He has a fixation with long-term view and very much does not live in the moment.

I imagine him, after sooo many years of roaming, appearing as a homeless dude that is just wandering at this point.

Background: (Still working on the details!)

First word, Sword: Izmir learned the basics of combat from his father, proving to be an adept fighter. As a Godbound, his combat prowess has been honed to the point where his bare fists are as deadly as any blade.
Second word, Passion: Izmir's ascension was far more than just a physical transformation. His heart now burns with courage, and his presence strikes fear or awe in most onlookers, where before they would have ignored him completely.
Third word, Alacrity: Alumon was a hulking bear of a man, who charged into battle clad in heavy armor and clutching a mighty greatsword. Izmir, by contrast, is lean but nimble, and favors lighter armor and weapons. His newfound powers reflect his preferred fighting style, granting him speed and reflexes to the point where any armor is only a hindrance.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Become a true Pavian knight.

Personal Motivations: Izmir wants to be a hero in every sense of the word. He wants to become more powerful, make a positive impact on the world, and inspire hope in the masses.
Personal Weaknesses: Somewhat naive and shortsighted, Izmir charges headlong at a problem without taking the time to analyze the situation. He values emotion over logic, and will often do what "feels right" rather than what makes the most sense. Insulting his father or the other knights is a surefire way to piss him off, sometimes to the point of becoming violent.

Origin Fact: A xiaoren born close to the frontlines

Tao is a native-born Dulimbaian, born within a small village outside of Renguo. Born in the lower-castes, the xiaoren, he has seen the decadence of the higher castes and the costs of the Great Examinations. Being closer to the front lines, he has personally seen the devastation that the war with the Patrian Empire. His family had been doing their family trade for many generations now and have instilled that discipline within him, but not the complacency that he should have being one of the xiaoren.

Profession Fact: A gravekeeper, taught the ways of ancestor worship & burial.

As a xiaoren, his family worked as one of the most vital yet despised of trades; gravekeeping. Taught all the proper prayers in regards to ancestor worship, proper rites of burial to preserve the soul, and how to dig a perfect grave for both commoner and king. His family's skill in the sacred rites was well-known, even allowing them to bury some of the prestigious members of the Jinzu. However, their trade is looked down upon by most and accusation of grave-robbing, bodysnatching, and darker deeds are ever present. Even to the xiaoren, the gravekeepers were untouchable.

Relationship Fact: Li Jiao, a high ranking member of a rebellious faction within Dimbulai and possible love interest.

The xiaoren have been barely treated better than the slaves that the Jinzu and their betters kept. It was not uncommon for the entourage to beat one of the lesser castes for daring to interrupt the Jinzu's schedule by crossing the street and greater injustices have been committed. When the harvest is poor, who starves? When the war needs more bodies, who is taken? These injustices are boiling under the surface and a group known as the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo (Those Who Break The Chains), has been formenting a rebellion in the province. Sun Tao has gone to their secret meetings, been stirred by their words, and has helped deliver secret messages at night. He believes that the Yan dynasty no longer cares for their people and something must be done about it.

Background: A simple but strong child, Tao was the third child that Sun Fu and his wife, Lilang, were successfully able to keep. His older brothers never made it past the first summer but he was a strong child, growing in their little hut amidst the dead. Being gravekeepers, the Sun family's curse and blessing was that there would always be the dead and they would always need to be those who put them to rest. Tao was a young but large man, broad of shoulders and dim of mind. Yet he was smart enough to see the fact that those who were knowledgeable received a happier, better life. He only saw those higher powers when one of their own died and needed to bury in the small village of Nanping.

Left alone, unwanted by most of the other xiaoren for their dealings of the body, Sun Tao found his company amongst the dead around him. The deceased left no fear in him and sometimes, when one was close to death, they'd stay in the spare room of the Sun family. It was here that Sun Tao saw the myriad faces of death; peaceful, violent, regretful, hopeful. People came and went and the family would follow their rites to ensure their soul would watch over their family or be reborn should their line have come to an end. It was a vitally important task to be done yet when winters were hard, no food was spared for them. They were just expected to maintain the rites of the dead until they joined them, at last.

Sun Tao wished for more, secretly trying to read and prepare for the Great Examinations. Every year when he found the courage to go, the Jinzu would laugh at him. What was a simpleton like him trying to do with his life? Back to the grave is where he belonged, amongst the dead who could relate to him. He never made it into any city, locked in ignorance by the powerful elite and expected to follow his course and die peacefully, leaving another child to maintain his and his family's graves.

After one of his humiliating attempt, he was approached by a beautiful woman named Li Jiao approached him at the local tavern. She smelled of sunflowers and her smile was warm, her beauty unparalleled by the any other girl in the village. She listened to his story, his shame and anger at being damned to just be some stupid gravekeeper. What he'd give to show the Jinzu just how much he knew! It was his passion for knowledge, his craving for more, that led the beautiful stranger to invite him to a meeting of like-minded individuals. Enamored by a woman who actually paid him attention, Sun Tao went off into the forest foolishly to meet her.

One would expect bandits or worst to have taken advantage of the young man's foolishness. Yet what he found waiting for him was a group known as the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo. They spoke of sedition and rebellion, of taking arms and disposing of the Yan Dynasty. Li Jiao was one of the leaders of this cell, inspiring others to take what they can from the censors and ensure it ended up in the hands of the growing rebellion. Only with their help could the invisible chains of class that held them be broken and a truly free Dulimbai come about. Their dreams and ideals left Sun Tao awestruck and his adoration of Li Jiao only grew more. From that they, he became a loyal dissenter and operative against the Regency.

For months, he kept an eye out on who came down the lonely roads nearby his graveyard. Reports of battles from the frontline that went wrong and moments for the rebellion to seize weapons from poorly manned soldiers returning from the war. During these times, he tried to woo Li Jiao with poetry, tales of confessions from the dying and dead, whatever he could to win her heart. Yet she never denied him nor gave him any signs of romance, always returning his attention to the true goal; freedom for all.

It all almost came crashing downwards upon them all when a lieutenant within the military noticed a growing discrepancy among the reports from Renguo. Investigating rumors of growing dissent, he tracked down Li Jiao's cell and struck during a meeting after sneaking a spy into the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo. Hidden in an old millhouse, soldiers stormed the building. Sun Tao watched his friends and comrades, the first that didn't treat him as a pariah, be cut down. Li Jiao was grabbed by this arrogant soldier, a Jinzu who failed his tests and now showed his mettle through sheer physical force.

It was at this moment a terrible anger raged through Sun Tao, a rage indescribable and as furious as the Heavens when the world was shattered. Power surged through him and when he cried out for aid; the dead answered. What followed next was not well-known and remains only in Tao's mind as blurs; his fists shattering solid stone, the dead rising to aid him, his mind filled with foreign knowledge. His rage consumed all and when his sanity returned, the mill was devastated and the legion was dead. Only Li Jiao was still alive to see the newly reborn Sun Tao, a Godbound before her.

Frightened yet in awe of this new power, she thanks Sun Tao for saving her but now, now it was too dangerous for either of them to stay. She needed to find the others and she could not take him with her, he was a risk to their grand design. She left him with a soft goodbye, his eyes watching her as she left. His mind burned with impossible amounts of knowledge, plans that could not possibly make sense yet did. His form shuddered with incredible strength, inhuman power. And he could hear the whispers of the dead, those he had protected through rite and prayer, speaking to him beyond the veil. He called out to her and she stopped, both out of fear and surprise. Never once had Sun Tao showed his own initiative. Never once had he ever stopped her from leaving.

"Jiao...I know...so many things now." He said incredulously, stepping closer to her. "Our home is not just wrong, everything is wrong. We...I...must fix this." With a small smile, he took her hand and breathed in her scent. The smell of sunflowers filled his mind and despite the fear he felt, true happiness sprung into his heart. "I will break our chains, free our country. Then...we shall free our world from suffering." Too flabbergasted to respond, he'd casually wave goodbye to her before he walked off into the darkness. Nanping would no longer contain his ambitions, his dreams. His will could become truth now. It was yet to be see if his truth was a paradise or a nightmare.

1st Word: Death - Tao has been surrounded by death since he was a child. It is an important part of his life, his very being, and the effect it has left upon him cannot be denied. He always related to the dead and now, the dead listen like never before.
2nd Word: Might - Tao, being younger than his father, took over taking care of digging graves and setting up altars. Broad-shouldered, his natural strength was quite good and he was almost complimented on it by his parents. His strength is a major part of his identity, one of his only favorable traits in his mind.
3rd Word: Knowledge - Tao's greatest desire, before he met Li Jiao, was to be smarter than he was. He wished to be as wise and as intelligent as the Jinzu who looked down upon him. Every year, he met disgrace and humiliation trying to better himself. His hunger for knowledge, to just know more, led to the Word discovering him.

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Tao's goal is to overthrow the Yang dynasty and to instill a republic, one that is equal for all and can give rise to a greater Dulimbai.
Personal Motivations: A sense of justice most certainly pushes Sun Tao to action. Never before has he had the power to enforce change and the knowledge to ensure that the change is good. He strives to be an ideal, to be what the xiaoren wish to be.
Personal Weaknesses: Sun Tao's weakness is quite simple the desire to be wanted, needed. He has lived so separated from his fellows, outcast because of things beyond his control, that he never imagined that others would wish to be with him. He could easily be manipulated by his need to be loved, wanted, befriended, but his wrath at such duplicity would be...bad.

Background: Mostly detailed above, but Anastasia's personality has been shaped by her hardships. When she was young, her father insisted that she act as a boyar was expected to, requiring her to be polite and somewhat imperious at all times in order to maintain her manners. After she was taken away to the Skerries, she was forced to be closed off and ruthless to survive against the other apprentices who also sought the Witch-Queen's favor. She's not as cold as she acts, but she maintains the act religiously for her own safety.

1st Word: Winter
Anastasia possesses exceptional control over ice and snow, and it was the first power she awakened to during a private retreat to the icy wastes of the Skerries.
2nd Word: Death
After her extensive training in necromancy and the dark magics of the Witch-Queens, Anastasia easily awakened to the word of Death and has precise control over the dead and dying.
3rd Word: Command
Despite her hard life, Anastasia has long comforted herself by remembering that she was born a princess and her right to command is in her blood.

Immediate Goal: Rebuild her power base so she can either return to Ulstang and claim a throne or forge her own kingdom in another land (perhaps returning to the long abandoned princedom in Bleak Reach).

Personal Motivation: Anastasia is motivated by a mixture of desire for power and desperation. She wishes to reclaim what she sees as her birthright and become a princess/queen of her own domain, but she maintains this insistence that she has the right to a domain primarily to give herself a goal and justify the hard life she's led. To admit that she's not meant to be a leader would mean admitting that everything she's gone through has been pointless.

Personal Weakness: Cold, but not as cold as she thinks. Anastasia acts cold and distant because it's been a necessity much of her life. But she's not as ruthless as she insists and her more cruel decisions eat away at her.

Background: Iofiel is an artificially-created deity from the Thousand Gods area, though she is unaware of the full details of her birth. Her creators, like many of the groups in that part of the world, were seeking salvation from their enemies and aid for themselves. To achieve their goals, they studied the efforts of quite literally dozens of other cults and groups within the Thousand Gods, trying to figure out what worked and what didn't so they could create a living savior.

Their efforts were only partially successful. In the midst of the ritual, when Iofiel's mother was giving birth, the cult was attacked by a pair of rivals who had no interest in allowing yet another figurehead to be propped up in their part of the land. Too many tribes had figured out that the strangers asking questions about their deities were planning something, and every member of the would-be cult was slaughtered.

That probably would have been the end of it if the ritual hadn't been partially successful. Iofiel had already been linked to the powers of two Words. The first to manifest were the powers of Endurance - with no need to eat, drink, or even breathe, the death of her mother wasn't enough to kill her. The powers of Health followed, allowing her to ward off natural diseases and toxins from the jungle.

The cultists' base had been magically warded by one of the sorcerers to keep animals out, and so it was that Iofiel grew up all on her own. Even with peak vitality, it took time for her body to grow enough for her to move around - it was probably for the best that she couldn't actually escape the ritual chamber until she was significantly bigger, or she might have crawled into the jungle and been eaten despite her gifts. While she didn't actually need to sleep, she retained the ability to do so, and ended up doing quite a lot of that when she wasn't playing with her 'toys'.

Finally, after several years, the complex was located by an expedition from Vissio curious to see what had become of the cult's efforts. Several prominent citizens from Vissio had been part of the original cult, and while the expedition's members were originally dismayed to see the bones of their fellows stacked up and used as toys, they eventually pieced together what had happened and decided to take the young girl home with them.

The journey wasn't going to be a quick one. The expeditionary vessel was traveling around the southern edge of the continent to trade in Ancalia, the Raktine Confederacy, and the very edge of the Oasis States - and did so before turning to home. During the journey, Iofiel was named, taught language and how to read and write, and given the start of an education. Young and desperate to please, Iofiel made extensive use of her healing abilities and the occasional miracle to keep the crew in good shape, and she came to be seen as something of a lucky charm.

Things might have gone better if her ship hadn't been attacked by pirates. As an impressionable young girl, Iofiel was deeply affected by the sudden fear and anxiety in the adults that had been so nice to her - and just after the attack on the ship began, her own fear (something she'd never truly felt before) kicked her powers into a higher gear. The ritual creating her had been only partially successful. The cult had hoped to imbue her with power over the minds of others, but weren't able to progress far enough. Instead, the half-formed power linked with her excess of health and energy and twisted, corrupting it - and generating the power of Entropy.

One moment, the pirate ship was closing in to attack. The next, a hole the size of a small house ripped the pirate ship in half and sent it sinking to the bottom. The ship was safe, but Iofiel's relationship with the crew would never be quite the same. She'd gone from "cute, friendly little girl who heals everyone" to "potential threat", and she was still too young to understand why all her friends were suddenly starting to pull away. Trying to fix things, she pushed herself harder and harder to learn, heal them, and repeat the actions that made her like them.

After arriving back in Vissio, Iofiel was eventually put into a more formal education system, dissuaded from using the powers of Entropy except in times of need. Instead, they worked to keep her mind on healing and helping - after all, if she wanted to do that, she was less likely to become a threat. One thing they carefully avoided was trying to become the aggressive, punishing masters - the risk of damage was too great. Better to bind Iofiel with chains she'd make herself, having her want to help others.

As she aged through her teens, Iofiel got most of the education Vissian children of her age had, though the odd gap in her knowledge still remained. She also began to assert her independence, and her caretakers didn't hold her back too much - they didn't want a rebellious teenager on their hands. Instead, they talked to her as an equal and carefully explained not just what they wanted, but why.

During this time, Iofiel started to become famous as a healer capable of treating almost any wound or injury. Her Merciful Gaze was the most-used power, slightly tiring people but rapidly healing even fairly large groups of their injuries. Her Flesh Made True saw less use - because injuries of that severity were rare - but fueled more attention than her healing gaze. She almost never made use of Entropy (aside from withdrawing the effects of it from the badly-injured until such a time as they could be cured, usually cases where she'd need to create a Miracle the next day), and her own innate Endurance saw little use because she was in safe areas. Together, all of these led to a fairly steady increase in her fame.

Eventually - though she regarded Vissio as her home - Iofiel decided that she wanted to travel to places where more people were hurt and start helping them. Something inside of her was pushing to go further, to save more, to reach the full heights of her potential, and she was never going to accomplish that if she kept traveling to local towns and villages. With that, Iofiel said her goodbyes, gathered the few things she needed, and set forth into the world.

1st Word: Health. Iofiel is a healer at heart, and her greatest gifts (at least from her point of view) involve restoring others. Unlike most users of the Health word, this ability improves Iofiel's Charisma rather than her Constitution - her creators wanted an attractive deity to help pull in new followers, and significant effort was put towards achieving that goal and ensuring she would have an innate level of charm. (Flesh Made True/Merciful Gaze)
2nd Word: Endurance. Iofiel is extremely resilient and hard to keep down for long, which was a deliberate choice on the part of the group making her - and, in fact, the only way she survived at all. They didn't want her to be easily defeated in a land with many parasitic deities. (Amaranth Vitality/Body of Iron Will)
3rd Word: Entropy. Iofiel is not a perfectly-created deity. The same power she likes to heal others with can also be used to harm or corrode the world. She doesn't particularly like using this power - she'd rather talk to people and sway them to her cause - but she's willing to use it for personal defense, the defense of others, and on foes. This power was not given to her intentionally - her creators wanted to give her the powers of Command to solidify a cult, but the interrupted ritual resulted in a corruption of the final result. As a corruption of her Health powers, her Entropy attacks use Charisma as their attribute. (Functional Lifespan/Things Fall Apart)

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Iofiel's immediate goal is spreading her fame as a healer and helping people as she can. As a basically charitable person, she doesn't mind supporting the plans other people have to help people.

Personal Motivations: Iofiel is driven to help others, sometimes to a bit of a fault. She's been known to go significantly out of her way to give healing and comfort to those in need. She also wants to spread her name and be known by others, and she's generally interested in any matter that can raise her reputation.
Personal Weaknesses: Iofiel uses the powers that come naturally to her, but despite her frequent smiles, she's not sure whether or not she's doing the right thing. For all that she thinks of herself as "special", she knows she can't heal the entire world, and there will always be more people in need of help. Her struggle is endless, and sometimes she wonders if using entropy to end suffering would be better than healing wounds only to watch people suffer later. She also desperately desires approval and acknowledgement from other people - a lingering effect of her origin as someone meant to be worshiped.

Also, Iofiel's early life didn't include much in the way of human contact or education. She's lacking knowledge in some areas, and things that seem obvious to others aren't always apparent to her. To some, this comes across as being overly optimistic about a serious situation when the truth is she doesn't actually know why it's so grim.

Origin Fact: He is from Ancalia.
Profession Fact: He is a blacksmith.
Relationship Fact: He is a knight of the Pavian Order.

Background:
Bereket grew up in a village near Ancalia's northern coast. As he grew out of adolescence he apprenticed with the local blacksmith. Some years later, the village was victim to an Ulstang raid. There was some forewarning and knights came to defend the village--still, battle is chaotic and the villagers were not totally removed from it. Bereket acquitted himself well when a couple lesser undead got away from the knights' battle line and approached the village hall where the women and children were being sheltered. This earned him the notice of one of the knights who belonged to the Pavian Order. Bereket became a squire with the Pavians and grew in skill with a blade and in noble conduct. He became a full knight about 5 years before the Night Roads appeared throughout Ancalia.

On that terrible and chaotic day, Bereket led a group of citizens in a perilous flight from the devastation of Janjero, one of Ancalia's great cities. The group fled east until they reached ___, the village of Bereket's birth. Bereket was the only knight with this group of refugees--others had stayed to fight in Janjero or led other refugees to other places. It was a couple days after their arrival in the village that Bereket was out scouting and spied a roving pack of Husks. There was not time or space enough for him to return to the village. The only option Bereket saw before him was to lead the pack on a chase in a different direction, far from any innocents. He ran as long as he could, and when he felt his legs could carry him no further, he turned to face the oncoming, tireless Husks. The ravenous, slavering undead raced toward him. Bereket planted his feet, lifted his shield, and began to whirl his flail. He felt the earth beneath his feet, and the solid stone beneath that. He would stand firm, like the ancient rock. As the first Husks reached him, Bereket smote one in the head with his swinging flail, smashing the creature to bits. He bashed a second with his shield, knocking it back for a moment while he spun his flail about to whack a third. And then the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Husks were upon him, bowling him over and onto his back. They scrabbled at his chainmail, desperate to pull it free to have their feast. Bereket punched one with a gauntleted fist but then another Husk was there pushing his arm down flat on the ground.

It was at this moment that a low growl formed in Bereket's throat, and it quickly erupted into a wordless war cry, rough, but deep and sonorous. The earth erupted around him, stony protrusions thrusting forth and throwing Husks every where. Bereket suddenly found himself to be back on his feet, and feeling a vital energy like none he had ever known. His weariness was gone, and his flail felt light in his hand. He fought, and the Husks died their second death.

Word #1: Artifice
Word #2: Earth
Word #3: Sword

Short Term/Immediate Goal: Secure the people of his village, including the refugees he led there from Janjero. Look for surviving knights of any of the Orders.

Personal Motivations: I must protect the lowly and weak. I am an unyielding mountain who shields them from the ravages of evil creatures and the depredations of evil men.

Personal Weaknesses: