I gave Novalie a picture - not too bad - a blue outsider monk.
If you'd like to tie your background into mine and Freya's you're welcome too - work is a bit hectic this week, so it might take some time for me to respond if you message me. (I'll check at home in the evening PDT.)
Happy Tuesday everyone!
I am cutting off completely new submissions.
By virtue of the work you've already put in, these characters are in, just keep in mind I will be combing through character sheets in more detail later this week:
Nempura
Freya
Novalie
**
The players that I still need more detail from, so please give me an update on when I can see some backstory, name, etc:
sebecloki
Ellioti
I'll decide tomorrow, whether I wanna flesh out my submission or drop out.
Cool, I appreciate the update!
(this will be placed in the undan philosophy page tomorrow!)
For all their differences concerning River, the Swem and the Traders have many similarities in their beliefs. Both value healing, doctors, teachers, feeding the hungry, and protecting the weak from the Dark. Though they have different methods (trade, currency, and politics versus magic, faith, and individual will), the desired end is the same: the ease of suffering in the land.
This stands in stark contrast to the ifrits, whose deities and indeed way of life is centered around slaying enemies and eliminating problems. This contrast between healers and soldiers ; protectors and slayers is the heart of why many undines move to the cities -- a chance to strike back at the Dark that has taken so much from them.
Traders largely believe that new ways, no matter how uncomfortable, must be found.
The Swem believe in tradition - what has kept the undine races alive all these centuries.
Watersingers are universally revered in undine society. While many noble families tend to produce more singers than those of commoner heritage, in truth any family can give birth to a watersinger. The chief watersinger el (called the Chord) is the spiritual leader of his pod, and occasionally his village. In general, nearly all watersingers decide to become Swem and forsake dry land.
Maelstroms are respected, but more as warriors rather than holy. Intense physical and mental training to pass the exams and earn the curved blades (scimitar and kukri).
Healers and teachers are the two most respected professions (after watersingers and maelstroms)
Relationships with Oreads
For undines, where physical demand and intense study meet is with their maelstroms, whereas with oreads it is with their monks.
Undines are the closest to oreads in their introspective nature, but they take different forms. There are small shrines dotted all over the south, which are used for ancestral contemplation and elemental contemplation (water elementals are somewhat common), but this is highly individualistic as opposed to the communal nature of the orean tribes and schools.
Thank you!
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Do you have more information on the society that believes ocean used to rule everything?
I'll have some more tomorrow. I'm trying to think how to incorporate the frost variant into my character concept. I see him as someone who believes he was descended from nobles who ruled a mythical city on the top of the world, or whenever a glacier would be. His family see ice as water magnified, and so the greatest form of water. He and his family are a subgroup within his boss family. They are paradoxically ln criminals. They believe they follow a set of laws that was written on tablets of ice in their mythical home, which were then memorized. These tablets were Braille artifacts that froze the keening of ancient immense whales who were seen as the avatars of ocean. By feeling them, a trained individual could understand their sound pattern. These are considered to be the highest and deepest law of the ocean. The ancient whales then disappeared somehow, so the frost undine are the only recipients of this wisdom.
His family memorize these laws as humming patterns which are also reproduced as Braille patterns on their skin created by aesthetic body modifications. They are thus the living law of the ocean.
They assert control over traders by offering to protect them from the dangers of journeying outside settlements. They force those who accept their protection to swear oaths they don't understand in this harmonic whale language that bind them to strictures they can't read or understand. They perform the same body modifications on themselves and their client to reproduce the harmonies of the path and it's conditions in this Braille pattern.
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My characters, Duc Traan, is going to be the surviving member of a set of twins. The other died at birth. I want to maybe use the drawback about having a monstrous shadow to reflect this. One of the spiritual leaders of his family believes that he was not the twin that Ocean intended to have survive. His lost sister sometimes appears to him in dreams.
He believes he has some kind of Destiny to set a right the error of his surviving instead of his sister.
Cool, I appreciate the update!
Currently trying to figure out, what is needed crunchwise. Because, as I see it, there are maybe four melee already. two divine, one arcane, one skilled. I'd say the bases are covered, except for ranged combat.
I am mostly ranged/support, so I could always use someone else if you want to take up that primary role.
My characters, Duc Traan, is going to be the surviving member of a set of twins. The other died at birth. I want to maybe use the drawback about having a monstrous shadow to reflect this. One of the spiritual leaders of his family believes that he was not the twin that Ocean intended to have survive. His lost sister sometimes appears to him in dreams.
He believes he has some kind of Destiny to set a right the error of his surviving instead of his sister.
Could you clarify what you mean by drawback? I love the idea you have, I just want to know if you are referencing something specific like flaws (which I don't allow). If this is a setup for backstory hooks etc I like it!
Could you clarify what you mean by drawback? I love the idea you have, I just want to know if you are referencing something specific like flaws (which I don't allow). If this is a setup for backstory hooks etc I like it!My characters, Duc Traan, is going to be the surviving member of a set of twins. The other died at birth. I want to maybe use the drawback about having a monstrous shadow to reflect this. One of the spiritual leaders of his family believes that he was not the twin that Ocean intended to have survive. His lost sister sometimes appears to him in dreams.
He believes he has some kind of Destiny to set a right the error of his surviving instead of his sister.
There is a mechanical flaw. We could just make it into an RP element if you're dead set against flaws.
Let's make it an RP thing. Thanks!
@Sebecloki - wonderful ideas you have! Whales being the singers of wisdom back in the age of Ocean is great. The imagery of marking your skin with the law is amazing too (nice parallel to the Yakuza tattoos as well)
In short, wow! Basically yes to everything you said. I will be putting this in the Vị Thanh document, as that is going to be my go-to for city details.
Re: traditional beliefs vs ice-believers
Belief in those ice-carved laws will not be very common outside the families that make up your larger criminal "family". The norm will be following the Whirl Mother and the Frost Giant and all of River in roughly equal measure, in accordance with old undine tradition. Since all of these families of ice-believers were ostracized in generations past (and thus less opportunities for seats of legitimate power), it would make sense to pursue other means of power (like organized crime)
So, by now I'm dead set on a Rimesoul Undine Eldritch Archer focussing on frosty spells and arrows. It's a class and archetype I always wanted to try out.
It also fits the melee-heavy party much better than my original suggestion of a brawler with an animal companion, which was two more melees.
He's from one of the ~10 hunter families, but he's kind of a loner (every party needs one! :D) and always wandering off -sometimes for days.
I'll finish up the basic background later today. Crunch for a 1st levle character is basically writing itself...level 1 and 2 will be a pain in the ass without Precise Shot.
What favored class bonuses are available?
Hopefully in combat situations there will be elevation and you can crouch to counter the penalty, Ellioti. If not, maybe I could raise an ice pillar under you with watersong
@Sebecloki - wonderful ideas you have! Whales being the singers of wisdom back in the age of Ocean is great. The imagery of marking your skin with the law is amazing too (nice parallel to the Yakuza tattoos as well)
In short, wow! Basically yes to everything you said. I will be putting this in the Vị Thanh document, as that is going to be my go-to for city details.
Re: traditional beliefs vs ice-believers
Belief in those ice-carved laws will not be very common outside the families that make up your larger criminal "family". The norm will be following the Whirl Mother and the Frost Giant and all of River in roughly equal measure, in accordance with old undine tradition. Since all of these families of ice-believers were ostracized in generations past (and thus less opportunities for seats of legitimate power), it would make sense to pursue other means of power (like organized crime)
Yeah, the yakuza tattoos were my inspiration.
Since I know you're okay with the basic outline, I can add some more detail to that -- another belief of my family is that the Frost Undine were both out of the mouth of a white whale, who disgorged them into the world.
There is a close symbolic connection between the enormous white whale and its pod who are the avatars of Ocean (known as the Sleepers and Dreamers), and the image of a glacier, which they sometimes appear as when drifting through the arctic waters.
According to their orally-transmitted cosmology, the White Whale emerged from the lightless depths, which are seen as an analogy to Darkness, which shows that it conquered the Darkness at the beginning of time, but was later swallowed up by it after the Great War 5,000 years ago. It originally conquered Darkness by singing the Song of the Sea, and it was swallowed when the Song was silenced by some nefarious means.
The myth is that, when the Song is sun anew, the White Whale and the rest of the Dreamers will arise again to conquer Darkness and reestablish the preeminence of Ocean.
In terms of my sister, his shadow is going to appear to be a female undine, even though Duc is male. There are several interpretations of this curious phenomenon. Some believe that Darkness devoured his sister, and that his soul was gifted with the Song which drove it off. However, it was his sister that was meant to sing the Song to the First Dreamer, the whale who bore them, but her destiny was subverted to his less capable hands. He does not know the Song, and it is believed he will be unable to sing it, should he learn it.
So, by now I'm dead set on a Rimesoul Undine Eldritch Archer focussing on frosty spells and arrows. It's a class and archetype I always wanted to try out.
It also fits the melee-heavy party much better than my original suggestion of a brawler with an animal companion, which was two more melees.He's from one of the ~10 hunter families, but he's kind of a loner (every party needs one! :D) and always wandering off -sometimes for days.
I'll finish up the basic background later today. Crunch for a 1st levle character is basically writing itself...level 1 and 2 will be a pain in the ass without Precise Shot.
What favored class bonuses are available?
--Class/archetype is fine with me. I think I've mentioned to a few others - if anything gets out of hand in regards to abilities, I do reserve the right to make adjustments, but nothing seems crazy here.
--The "Add +¼ point to the magus’ arcane pool." seems pretty common, so that is what I would go with. For an ifrit I would probably allow the adding damage to fire spells one.
Yeah, the yakuza tattoos were my inspiration.
Since I know you're okay with the basic outline, I can add some more detail to that -- another belief of my family is that the Frost Undine were both out of the mouth of a white whale, who disgorged them into the world.
There is a close symbolic connection between the enormous white whale and its pod who are the avatars of Ocean (known as the Sleepers and Dreamers), and the image of a glacier, which they sometimes appear as when drifting through the arctic waters.
According to their orally-transmitted cosmology, the White Whale emerged from the lightless depths, which are seen as an analogy to Darkness, which shows that it conquered the Darkness at the beginning of time, but was later swallowed up by it after the Great War 5,000 years ago. It originally conquered Darkness by singing the Song of the Sea, and it was swallowed when the Song was silenced by some nefarious means.
The myth is that, when the Song is sun anew, the White Whale and the rest of the Dreamers will arise again to conquer Darkness and reestablish the...
I'm putting all this in a separate document (it will be linked in our main Vị Thanh doc). This is a great mythology!
When you say how your sister/shadow appears, does that mean Duc Traan has encountered this shadow before? How did those encounters go?
She has appeared to him a half dozen times previously in dreams, and he believes, for some reason peculiar to his family's mythology, that she will only manifest thirteen times in this manner. She doesn't speak, just opens her mouth -- which he believes is her attempt to voice the Song before Darkness silenced her. He believes that these moments happen when her spirit escapes darkness, but otherwise it has been overwhelmed by her shadow, which is the presence that seems to follow him. It is not permanent, but if he glances quickly sometimes when he is alone or in the company of only a few, his shadow will shift to a female shape. This has been interpreted as the shadow of his sister asserting itself.
Got it. I won't be coming back to this Recruitment thread (paizo pages aren't the easiest to navigate) so please make sure all this info is in your eventual alias please!
And actually that goes for everyone - make sure your relevant info is in your alias. Thank goodness that we can put text into spoilers for the sake of length!
Alrighty, things are shaping up nicely in Vị Thanh (with all of your help!), so I think there are two major pieces of business before we can get ready to get started:
1) I will make a map of Vi Thanh in google drawings and link it in the campaign header when it is done.
2) Once all character submissions are in, I will take a deeper dive into both mechanics and backstory of everyone's characters. This will likely be over the weekend.
Thanks to everyone for excellent submissions - everything looks great so far at first glance, and I will PM any questions/comments I have.
Great! Thanks for all the effort you’ve put in.
sick, definitely not updating tonight.
In the meantime I managed to put together my Magus: alias
I'll try to flesh her out a little bit more
Again, if anyone wants to work on backstory in conjunction with my character, feel free to PM me. Might as well do it while we are setting up, before character evaluation, and also now because the Gm is out sick.
Feeling human (or elen perhaps?) again. As I mentioned before, I'm planning on 1) Looking at everyone's sheet in more detail and 2) finishing the map of town.
I still need a final version of sebecloki's character, but they mentioned working crazy hours on weekends, so I'll look for an update on Monday or Tuesday.
Is there any remaining info/details any wants before we consider our starting date of play?
I think we're ready to go, at least opening up a discussion thread for the time being.
An excellent suggestion - it is done!
and sorry if it wasn't clear -
Nempura Babblebrook
Freya Argento-Mau
Novalie
Duc Traan
Iryani Kalyeer
you are all in!
I just wanted to chime in that I'm still here I can get something done Monday or Tuesday.
I work in the lab side of healthcare, and you may have noticed we're having a global pandemic right now, so things have been a bit crazy. My usual schedule is I work 50 hours Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and this has been a very stressful week for my health system.
Totally understood!
Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to withdraw my application, as great at this game seems.
I work in healthcare, and our current national crisis is really weighing on me mentally and spiritually. I don't really feel like I have the extra 'bandwidth' right now to participate fully.
EDIT: Do you mind telling me how you made that 'pretty map' of the village?
Sure, I can explain it to you. I'm sorry you are feeling that way. I know where you are coming from as I too have worked in that field for a long time.
Totally understood Sebecloki, and sorry to see you go.
Do I have your permission to still use the ideas you gave regarding the beliefs of the yakuza? They are amazing, but I'm not going to appropriate them without asking.
Yeah absolutely!
Sorry to go on for so long and then not follow through. I do love this setting, I just feel so drained by everything, I can't find it in me to sit down and actually finish a character.
Good luck Sebecloki! I hope you stay in good health through all of this and thank you for working to keep us well.