Raevis Rogarvia's page

First off, many thanks to Vayelan and his players for offering an opportunity for some of us!

My last fully written submission for the AP was this alias, though that was for a fresh start, and some elements in the backstory might have to be altered. Perhaps the class too, since he was orginially intended as a swashbuckler going into inquisitor or bard. I could easily remake him into any class relating to Erastil, such as a cleric, hunter or ranger. His kingdom posts would depend on the exact build but generally favor High Priest or combat-based ones with Str, Dex or Wis requirement.

In short, Raevis was once part of house Rogarvia, far down the inheritance line and skilled if somewhat of a rogue. He was disinherited after losing an arranged duel against Jamaldi Aldori, which left his swordhand permanently injured. Though this was the official reason for exile from the Royal Court, no doubt past transgressions against his father and his political allies played a role as well. For some reason, or perhaps *because* he was severed from the house, he didn't disappear afterwards when the rest of them did, and started rebuilding a new life among settlers of the stolen lands down south as a follower of Erastil. This worked until he one day returned to find his new wife murdered, which prompts him to come out of hiding. He was intent on making a deal: offering his services in return for aid in his revenge.

A second concept I had for an earlier recruitment was Aerin, a half-elven diplomatic ambassador for Kyonin, who was originally also written for a partway entry.

As a result of a dalliance between an elven aristocraft and a human from the experimental human town of Greengold, Elvish elitism and looking down on 'less cultured races' left her father in an awkward spot on what to do with his bastard daughter. Eventually, he figured the best he could do was make her a diplomactic envoy of sorts in a far-off region. Aerin herself accepted and decided to pick the burgeoning kingdom of the stolen lands for specific reasons: first, it made for a much greater opportunity to leave her own mark on it. Second, while no settling attempt normally ever lasted there, she figured chances of finding lost Elven or Fey relics in this 'untamed land' were much higher than most other places. She views this as a double opportunity to make her worth realised by Elven society at large. The mystery of 'why' nothing ever lasted also intriques her more scholary side.

Aerin is intended to be a Lore Oracle (leans towards knowledge and social skills instead of healing, fights martially with divine buffs) or a shaman with the Life and Lore spirits (intended to be a full caster relying on hexes, great healing, and offensive save or suck spells. Lore spirit grants shamans a limited number of wizard spells of their choice to help out here). For kingdom posts she probably fits High Priest the best for shaman and Grand Diplomat for the oracle build.

If interest among the group is high I'll gladly make Aerin into a full alias.

[ooc] Sigh, I should have delayed answering to get in on this IC train goodness! Well, better late than never? [/oo]c

The seemingly simply huntsman walks forward next to his horse and examines the strange creature asking the riddles on the road south, then simply smiles as he confidently starts answering with much more eloquence than might be expected...

1. "A circus dog - probably."

Met with disbelieving stares from his companions, he waves with an apologetic smile. "All right, all right. Let's break this down, shall we? See, the obvious answer is 'Man' if we take the question metaphorically. But does that make sense? A man doesn't have four *legs* starting out, but rather two. Nor does he have three in the eve of his life. Unless a male wizard woke up one day decided to enlarge and animate his... ah... 'poppy' to serve as an actual spare one. Who really knows what they're up to when they get bored in their towers?"

He tips his hat to Gardolf the Green with a rogueish grin."And my friend is right, of course. To count a crutch as a third 'leg' seems like cheating. Unless the crutch is made from a table leg? Though surely whoever came up with this question didn't seriously think all crutches were made from demolished furniture?"

He pauses a moment to think. "And if we're going for 'Man', we should specify it to 'A smart man', instead. The ones less so surely do not make it to stage three. Definitely not adventurers like us, am I right?"

"So that leaves us at the circus dog. They have four legs starting out, and learn to walk on the hind legs somewhere on the way. But unfortunately, one of their ever present smilodon coworkers eat one during a rehearsal accident one day and she's left with three when she dies. Of course, a similiar answer is possible for most circus animals, but given that the question seems to include a lot of arbitrary generalisations I went with an arbitrary answer. Simple logic, really!"

2. After clarifying whether it was Mwangi or Avistan and not having the questioner spontaneously fall off a bridge, Raevis nods. "Twenty point one miles per hour. But good of you to ask that! There seem to be a lot of misconceptions concerning swallows, especially prevalent among mustache twirling Taldans in their budget forts with Cow Catapults. They seem to think the Avistan variant flaps their wings forty-three times per second, when it's actually only twelve. They also weigh less than an ounce against the excessive claim of five. So to assume one could carry an average coconut of one and a half pounds..."

He gestures at the sky. "In other words, a fruit weighing around thirty-four times heavier than the actual bird, the only conclusion is that Taldans are full of shit. The real question should be if a coconut is a fruit, a nut or a seed!"

When asked how he knows so much about Swallows, Raevis blinks and waves it off, blushing a bit. Privately, he remembers asking his tutors that exact same thing around twelve years ago, and he'd never taken their words seriously until this very day. "As a potential future king, you're supposed to know things like that!"

3. Just as it seems he's about to engage the creature in another philological debate, he stops and looks at it in concern. "Hm... I'm afraid I've broken it." Placing a comforting hand on the creature's shoulder, he proceeds to walk past it. "Get some rest... maybe some magical help. If you can't tell what I am or what the plural of a pocket is, you have issues - way more important issues than what's in my pocket."

Ah, hey there Erik! Nice to see you here too.

I finished turning Raevis into an Alias for ease of reference. Good luck on finishing the concepts/the selection process, all!

Ah well, I tried. Grats to the dual act who got selected, and have fun!

All right, I went through Raevis again and altered, added and removed things to/from the various parts of the alias until I couldn't think of what to improve anymore. (If anyone would like to know in detail: the start and end of the comedy part were changed a bit, I changed the last part of his backstory to include less stereotypical dialogue and suit the rest of it better, expanded a bit on his personality, and added a note on how he could also become a reach fighter with a sword in the build explanation since I forgot about the swordmaster's flair earlier)

I think this is about as good as I could have made it without feedback. To everyone else: good luck on your submissions too!

@Dario and Alberich: Thanks! :)

Whew, finally done! This is my (Trevor86's) submission. I'll probably edit the layout a bit more and rework on the writing at the end of his backstory a bit, but it should do as a good first impression for now. I hope the backstory and build are compelling enough to warrent consideration and that whomever reads it at least gets a laugh or two from the comedy skit on his party role.

Have a nice day, everyone!