Galaeta Earthschild's page

Local Ties: You have ties to a prominent local in the town of Torch—the missing wizard Khonnir Baine. If you’re a wizard, alchemist, or other scholarly type, he may have been your tutor or teacher. If you’re of a more martial bent, Khonnir could instead have been a friend or business associate of your mother, father, or patron. He may even have been your adoptive father, in which case you likely have a bond of friendship or rivalry with his adopted daughter Val (your GM has more information on her in this case if you wish to know more for your character’s background). Your association with Khonnir has given you insight into how technology works. Choose Disable Device or Knowledge (engineering). You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with this skill, and it is a class skill for you. In addition, you are treated as if you possessed the Technologist feat for the purposes of resolving checks associated with that skill. If you gain the Technologist feat, your trait bonus for the selected skill increases to +3.

Resilient: Growing up in a poor neighborhood or in the unforgiving wilds often forced you to subsist on food and water from doubtful sources. You've built up your mettle as a result, and gain a +1 trait bonus on Fortitude saves.

Galatea doesn't remember much about the first days after her renewal; only the few inches of space around her and then the unending blackness. Those days were unmarked, without time or light or noise except from whir of the nanites and the slight glow from her circuitry as her body repaired itself. Ultimately, the monotony changed when a shaft of daylight shone through the glass window of the pod she was buried in. Some burrowing creature had unearthed a peephole, and Galatea began to attempt to force the pod open. It took days of attempting to force the doors open before she managed to do so.

Immediately, she felt a wave of nausea roll over her. The pod was barely buried - only an inch or two at most - and opened immediately into the scarred land around her. Few living things, mainly rats or moles, could be see on the flat waste around her, but the skeletal remains of dead trees rose above the dark plains. The capsule had obviously protected her from the danger of the outside world as her body rebuilt, but that didn't protect her as she took the first few steps outside into the blighted wasteland. Her nanites surged as she began her long trek across the land.

However, as much as the land harmed her, it also provided for her. That first day, as she grew weary, she found a small cave hidden from easy view, mainly by accident. Her nanites stopped fighting the diseases and dangers of the place so hard as her body adapted. The tracks and movements of the small animals that survived in the wastes showed her what areas to avoid and what water sources were safe. Slowly, Galatea went from ekeing out her survival to thriving in the land that birthed her. The land, as dangerous as it was, became the source of her power. The disease, however, continued to push her from the land, past the infected lake and into the local town of Torch.

Having lived the entirety of her short life without humans, she was confused and lost in the town, and on a few occasions, she was suspicious that some folk were more interested in taking her in as a slave rather than out of kindness. A local man, Khonnir Bane, offered her a place to stay and the freedom to come and go as she pleased, at least until she found a trade and was able to support herself. Being unskilled, however, meant that she wasn't able to do much, and she asked if he would mentor her and teach her an applicable skill. He taught Galatea the the inner workings of some of the technology in town, and she slowly learned more about the ways that water purification in town worked. Although she loves her new-found family and foster sister, Galatea yearns to return to the land that she came from and to find out more about the radiation that cradled her in her first years of wandering.

Galatea is soft-spoken and reserved, except around people she knows and trusts, such as her adopted father and sister. She doesn't understand much of human emotion or expression, though she is quick to accuses someone of being disrespectful of her or her family. Her trust is slowly gained, but once it is earned, it is difficult to break and comes with intense loyalty. In truth, her relationship with her family is what keeps her from leaving Torch and returning to the land where she first emerged. She is relatively quick to fight, though Val has convinced her to calm so as to avoid notice of the local sheriff and to maintain good standing with her job purifying the town's water.

Galatea tends to dress rather plainly in dark colors. Her eyes, hair and circuitry are bone-white, and more than a few locals have learned to back down once her eyes begin to glow. She considers herself to be Kellid in all important ways, and her right arm is covered with traditional Kellid tattoos that complement her circuits. Her left arm has the image of a giant weasel tattooed on it, in honor of the creature that first burrowed light into her world and the darkness that cradled her through the first few days. She's only been challenged to prove her Kellid nature a few times; each time, the challenger walked away with bruises.

Galatea's previous life, in the way that renewal works, was an Android that lived most of her life being only called "thing" and "it", rather than being called by her name of Shelah. Living her whole life as a slave to the Technic League, Shelah was able to access classified information about their plans as part of her duties. Eventually, she learned that the Technic League knew the location of an Fission Reactor that they were planning on experimenting with. Shelah spent several years planning to sabotage the experiment by having it violently explode and chose to bury her body near the radiation site in a protective pod, as she knew that the Technic League would not be able to retrieve her body. She wanted to ensure that the next soul to occupy her body would be able to live free, even if it took a painful process to return to the surface. Freedom, after all, was worth anything.

Galatea's story is ultimately going to be one that's more interested in redemption than anything else. Her entire backstory, which she doesn't know, is based on this and on earning freedom. At the beginning, she is angry and confused in ways that she can't truly comprehend. She's an android that will become slowly more human, hopefully eventually taking the Empathy feat that allows androids to experience emotions. In regards to her druidism, I want her to eventually see the damage that radiation does to people - she's used to seeing it as a source of power with no impact. Her character arc would definitely push her towards being the type of blight druid that uses their powers to heal the land and restore it to the way it was before the blight hit. While her alignment is currently N, she's closer to being NG than NE and will likely become NG as part of the on-going department. Of course, she's young and every event has a profound impact on her. I envision playing her as someone who's currently worried about protecting herself but want to ultimately take the right place. She's generally inclined to follow the suggestions of people she knows and trusts. In many ways, this is what has allowed her to adapt so well to Kellid society and Torch, as Val and Khonnir have both managed to convince her to act in appropriate manners.