Selvan Kilvani 'tel Mintakia's page

About Selvan Kilvani 'tel Mintakia

MYTH WEAVERS SHEET

Selvan Azuresting
Male Elfavian
Clan Mintakia
Tactician(Combat healer) 4
Neutral Humanoid(Elf)
Init +4; Senses Perception +7

DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex,+5 Armor)
hp 16 (3d8 +3)
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +3
DR none; Immune sleep; SR none
Weakness

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., Flight 50 ft. (Good)
Melee MW. Bec De Corbin +8 (1d10+6) or CEstus +7 (1d4+4)
Ranged Composite+2 Longbow +5 (1d8+2)
Special Attacks

STATISTICS
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +6; CMD 18
Traits: Blatant (Drawback), Armor Expert, Warrior of Old, Focused Mind
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Power Attack
Skills Climb +8 Diplomacy +7, Fly +7,Know Arcana +6, Know (Engineering) +12, Know History +9, Linguistics +9, PRofession (Sailor) +7, Sense Motive +5, Spellcraft +12, Autohypnosis +6, Knowledge (Psionics) +12

SQ Collective, Coordinated Assault, Spirit of Many
Combat Gear: MW Bec De Corbin, MW Kikko, Fighter's Kit, Deluxe Dungeoneering Kit. Tattoos of Natural Healing x6, survival kit, simple lock, explorer's outfit.

Of the children of his family none doubted that Selvan was easily the brightest and most athletically apt among his siblings. None denied that the child was destined for great things.
As such he was raised with harsh expectations from his family trained both in body and mind to a sharp edge devoid of needless sentiments and instilled with a sense of duty to serve the interests of his clan. Unfortunately while this regimen, enforced by his father, did much to craft him into a weapon to advance the families designs to advance within the clan it did little to teach Selvan any sense of compassion or camaraderie those things that would be needed if Selvan was to have any semblance of a normal life. Joining the army shortly after his education he has never known what life is like without the ever pressing thumb of authority shouting at him about what to do.

His skills and intelligence made him a natural choice to be selected as a trainee into the elite Swarmlords training as and working with the elite tacticians of Clan Mintakia to form the elite fighting force that helps defend the clans mercantile interests from draconic incursions and keeps more hostile clans from even attempting direct conflict from the clan. Constantly sharpening mind and body Selvan was expected not only to be an excellent warrior but be able to command and direct troops while simultaneously parrying blows. Though his role was one of leadership his instructors noted that he had a distinct lack of compassion and empathy for those who were part of his collective. He was stubborn, and driven, prone to ill moods and harsh retaliations against those under his command who failed to meet his high expectations. Though brilliant his fellow tacticians expressed concern that he saw those he held in his collective as mere pawns and tools to be disposed at will of rather than people to be treated fairly and inspired to battle.

This eventually came to a head when a routine war game turned deadly. Recklessly commanding a pair of his troops to fly in a dangerous pattern the two became entangled and safety emplacements were not activated in time before they plunged to their death far below the clouds. Selvan's last feelings of them were the nausea and mental drain of a life being snuffed out of his collective.

Shamed, punished, and kicked out of the Swarmlord academy Selvan has spent the intermittent months wandering the city in a daze of depression and self loathing. The deaths of those of his collective weigh heavily on him as he realizes the price of his callous behavior and actions.
He has not confronted his family with his ultimate failure and fears the consequences of it far more than any amount of lashings he received as part of his penance.

Personality and Appearance:
Like most of his race Selvan is pale and wiry his muscles bunched like tight cords beneath his flesh. He does not move quite as gracefully as others but much more direct and controlled as if grace was an inefficiency to be expunged. His wings are not feathery but large, black and insectile like those of a spider hunting wasp. His eyes are a frosty blue and his hair a deep glossy black. His demeanor is usually very cold and analytical saying only what needs to be said and preferring brutal and direct honesty to subterfuge and lies. He is prone to bouts of unexplained depression in quiet moments where he's left to his own thoughts as he relives his failures over and over again nightly. Those whome he brings into his collective he continues to treat like pieces upon a board but his experience has taught him greater caution as he knows that those in his collective are not extensions of his will but thinking people prone to mistakes themselves and thus must be treated carefully is he desires them to live.
The Swarmlords:
Just a thought that came up when I read the tactician class and realized that although the tactician was limited in the amount of creatures he can have in his own collective he himself could potentially be in otehr collectives without penalty. I also considered the proper division of a 20th level tactician and how they might command an army. Ten lieutenants would be under them, we can say 7 more under those, and keep dividing until you got to the bottom ranks where your normal soldiers and psions would be.
Essentially the swarmlords do not fight in any way that a traditional army might. For them each individual squad is a single collective united by telepathic chains to a single high level tactician who recieves realtime combat information from each squad diffused telapathically by all his junior officers.

On a smaller scale that means tacticians would coordinate and command a small number of regular army troops (likely volunteers) while they received orders from their platoon leader who in turn received orders from their brigade commander etc. etc. Ultimately the result is a silent and highly organized battleforce. Unless an opponent can somehow intercept telepathy they cannot know the orders being filtered to troops . In addition this lack of actual power expenditure to communicate means that the need for analogue methods of communication are not needed which is necessary for the sort of three dimensional combat that is all too common in clan conflicts and air defense scenarios.

Had Selvan graduated he would have been telepathically linked to regular troops and have the role of boosting them with his psionic might, supporting them with psionic influence, and slaying enemies with his skill at arms while simultaneously relaying orders. He would have been trained extensively in small unit tactics, aerial dogfighting, and the use of combat psionics. Among the exercises included in his training would have been directing troops using only his mental powers while seated in a chair, simultaneously relaying memorized instructions to a squad member a hundred feet away while fencing a sparring partner, and navigatig an erial obstacle while blind using only the information relayed by squad members telepathically to succeed.

All done. The swarmlords were a thing I thought of while mulling over the tactician and its applications. The image of a hundred insectile elves not making a single sound except the buzzing of their wings while coldly and mechanically ripping a marauding dragon apart stuck in my mind.