Otherwise there's a legitimate concern that folks will continue to point to the P.O.D.
That is no different than pointing at the current 2nd hand copies you can get on amazon or ebay. The only difference P.O.D. makes is increasing the already sizeable amount of copies in existence. If those folks you mention are that concerned, then they will not stop until older copies are branded with a "defective" stamp or are outright burned in a pyre.
In layman terms, pursuing such endeavor is beating a dead horse.
WotC hasn't modified their POD, I see no reason Paizo should. Censorship of past editions is not the answer, editing them is opening a whole can of worms since everybody has their own ideas of what must be edited and we will end with print copies as functional as Robocop in the 2nd movie (1990) that no one will want to buy.
It would be nice if Paizo published a calendar of what titles will be available and when. WotC sometimes publishes more than one in a month, then no new POD for months, it is quite frustrating for those waiting for certain out of print/overpriced 2nd hand books.
Finally Paizo is doing POD in DTRPG. WotC has been doing so for years now. Maybe this means we might get a reprint of Shackled City, since neither should have any objections now. Maybe the powers that be will also give us print editions of Age of Worms and Savage Tide.
My prediction is that just like in the days of AD&D, we will see many 2nd edition products labeled "1st ed compatible". Not from Paizo, they want (for economical reasons) to bury 1st edition asap, but 3pp companies will want to benefit from both userbases and if Paizo makes 2nd edition totally incompatible with 1st, they risk repeating the mistake WotC did with D&D 4th edition. Pathfinder (unlike windows) does not have a nag screen reminding you to upgrade (writing this post from windows 8.1 >_< )
Wouldn't it be ironic if WotC decides to jump into the pathfinder 1st edition retro-bandwagon?
... and that Wizards of the Coast stopped printing copies of 3.5E's rule books. Neither of these are the case for Pathfinder transitioning to a 2nd Edition.
Mhh, I do not think it is co$t effective for Paizo to do another print run of their old books once PF 2.0 is officially released. The real question is whether they will allow OBS or other similar store to sell POD versions of 1.0 books, maybe cheaper B&W softcovers?
I haven't worked with Dreamscarred Press for awhile, but back when I was still with them my understanding was that this project was dropped.
Thanks for the info. IMO then they should officially announce they have dropped it (unless they plan to snatch the title of longest delayed vaporware from Duke Nukem Forever) and release an art-free free pdf.
Does Paizo has made a pact with Radiance House and the GoLS print will only be available for sale here or for at a later date it will appear at OBS (maybe a softcover edition?) or at amazon?
Any chance that books like this that Pathfinder deems there are not enough buyers for another printing to become available via OneBookShelf (drivethrurpg) Print on Demand services? Maybe there are not thousands, but probably a few hundreds of people want a dead tree copy, you may call it service for the community.
That got me thinking, we are already in 2017, 4e is no longer the latest D&D edition, the pathfinder vs 4e war is part of history. So I was thinking if Paizo could ask permission out of WotC to print a book with conversions of classes, monsters and whatnot that were not part of the 3rd edition OGL and could never be officially converted to Pathfinder. It could be called "The Lost Handbook".
I suppose profits could be distributed evenly or be donated to some worthy cause. In the end players and DMs would benefit from all that cool material that was out of reach for pathfinder campaigns.
Of course, if atm Paizo and WotC are still fierce opponents and not frenemies, maybe a 3pp could negotiate such a deal.
Regardless of their size or distribution network, it makes thematic sense for both companies given the Legendary Planet AP product line.
For Encounter Table: Adventure Path great to use with the Aethera Campaign Setting.
For Legendary Games: Extra rules and a Campaign Setting into which to insert the AP.
Wouldn't then it make sense to search for synergy with d20pfsrd.com? They recently released their very popular and thematically relevant Starjammer book and also own the open gaming store.
Out of curioity, how come Lore of the Gods is listed here on Paizo as a book by Bastion Press (and therefore not part of this offer) but at One Book Shelf they say it is a DragonWing Games book?
IMO the bestiary book cover art is a underwhelming (minimalist if ok if done right, i.e. tome of horrors) and the name is a bit long (reminds me of japanese lite novel titles), would have preferred Spheres of Power: Beastiary.
However, since Frog God was the group that organized the bundle, they're the ones with the direct downloads from their own store. Just the way that Humble Bundle sets things up, they deal with a single company as their point-of-contact.
Mhh, the direct download links you get immediately after paying are from the humble bundle, not frog god games. In the webpage with the download links you get this message "Want access to your purchased bundle in the future? Click here to learn how!" with a link to google forms (outside humble bundle and frog god games website) that asks for your e-mail and asks if you want to opt to also get a backup of the pdfs in the frog god games, it should have been trivial to also add an option in the form to do the same for the kobold press and green ronin pdfs. Unless of course is business as usual and the business models expects customers to buy more than once the very same product(pdf) -_-
I got this humble bundle and I must comment that only the Frog God Game PDFs can be added to your account in their web store. Even though both Kobold Press and Green Ronin have their own web stores where you could add said pdfs to your account, for some reason they do not offer said option, which imo is short-sighted since they could attract customers to their stores with said option. Worst case scenario they do not have faith their web stores will be online five years from now :/
I am in, only a quick question, why is "Feats of Necromancy" not part of the deal/not available at all in OBS (rpgnow/drivethru)? Also, not part of the deal are Amazing Races: Goblins!/Hobgoblins!/Halflings!/Kitsune!/Ratfolk! & Astonishing Races: Grippli.
Your own line of thinking is the same reason Gygax sunk TSR.
When Gary Gygax was booted from TSR, it was a perfectly healthy company which did not go bankrupt for doing the D&D cartoons (which back then were more expensive since there was no CGI and coloring was made by brush). BTW, said cartoon was animated by Toei http://youtu.be/5xOoWEFBOx8 , which years later would do Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon.
Alzrius wrote:
NenkotaMoon wrote:
To add, I believe Overlord is getting a second season.
Citation please? Nothing would make me happier, but I can't seem to find confirmation of this.
AFAIK there will be a chibi OVA http://youtu.be/NSU6Rpb9b0A bundled with the latest light novel. It is worth to mention that it has become common to do cheap flash manufactured episodes at the same time the actual series airs, Re:Zero has made to explain things about the fantasy world and Overlord has been doing it to show the funnier side of the series.
But even the RPG adaption of Robotech (a hugely succesful anime/spin-off) isn't played in Japan.
This is a bit off topic, but Robotech does not exist, it was a Frankestein made of three different anime series (Macross, Southern Cross & Mospeda), sewed together by Carl Macek. To make things worse, Robotech (as a legal entity) is the reason we do not see any of the new Macross anime. No, that is not old news, right as we speak, the latest cour (Macross Delta http://youtu.be/9lYKrckqNa4 ) is being broadcast in japan, but it will not be streamed in America for the previously stated reasons. If you want more info you can pm me or google it. So no go, trying to sell anything with the Robotech label in japan will be met with a cease and desist letter.
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Have you considered that the reason that there hasnt been a japanese translation in nearly forty years is that there isn't a viable market?
I can clearly picture it, how more than a decade ago when doing a sale pitch for a Lord of the Rings movie the very same argument was used, but instead of four decades they would be talking of nearly six and to add insult to injury, they would mention the cheap Ralph Bashiki adaption who was neither popular nor award winning.
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It's a lot easier to sell somethong that somebody wants rather than getting people to want what youre selling.
Under that line of thinking, anything that uses electricity from the light bulb down to your smartphone would have never seen the light of day. Any business has always a level of uncertainty, specially if is something no one else has done before.
On the other hand microsoft has yet to gain a major foothold in japanese sales.
That is akin to saying "Russia has not invaded Ukraine". Back in the day japan had their own pc hardware and operative system (made by NEC) but they were utterly defeated by Microsoft Windows, whatever games/visual novels not made for consoles are written nowadays to run in microsoft windows.
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Also, Japan has its own RPG market that they sell japanese made products on (Golden Sky Stories, Double Cross, LOG Horizon RPG). Theres a reason that DnDs popularity drops sharply outside of the US and western europe.
And the reason is because neither TSR (WotC/Hasbro) nor Paizo has entered said markets, you can't say that it is because they have tried and failed due to the oh so strong local offerings.
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Paizo is not nearly as prolific as nintendo
Today, but back in the 80s they were not as big as today.
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and cant necessarily afford huge risks, as Sundakan said. I may be cynical but I just dont see reason to consider a pathfinder anime as a serious prospect. It's about as likely as Palladium actually getting a movie.
From where I stand all I see is FUD. No surprise there on the palladium ip movie, hollywood had the rights to the parasyte manga for a decade and did not made a movie, so when the rights expired japan made two live action movies AND a two cour anime series. Hollywood is not revolutionary, they are slow to make new things, still remember how many believed the LotR movie would be a flop, but nowadays they only want to do sequels of it.
Likewise, there is already a steady pipeline of manga/light novel to anime, just like there is a pretty steady one for book to movie. Because studios see these properties and choose to adapt them.
That is a very common misconception. As I said before, most anime studios are work for hire, no different from american comic writers/cartoonists, they are paid a fixed amount since they do not own the intellectual property they work on.
You do not have to take my word for it. In example, Attack on Titan animation production was made by newcomer Studio Wit (if they had known it would be a mega hit inside and outside of japan they would not have chosen a newcomer studio). But the royalties are not for Studio Wit, if you look under Production (the proper name is Production Committee) you will see SEVEN company names (Kodansha, the manga publisher among them) http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=14950 , those are the ones that distribute the royalties.
So no, most anime studios are not in the look for what to produce, when we speak of light novel adaptions it is japanese publishers (like Kondansha, Kadokawa or Shogakukan), with one or two other investors (i.e. outside investors and music companies, which btw want to use anime to push their contracted musicians) the one placing the money because it has already been established that it is (at least in japan) a good investment to make animes out of intellectual properties they own.
p.s. From where I stand the difference between a pathfinder book and a light novel is that most paizo books are hardcovers and have more illustrations (in color) than a light novel.
Johnnycat93 wrote:
it's a real pain to sell western products to japan.
I can assure you that at first it was a real pain for Nintendo to sell their videogames to america for the very same reasons you mention, but it is clear to see that it was they right choice, with the added bonus that there is no big competitor (Atari at the time was huge) for Paizo in the tabletop rpg business (WotC has yet to translat 5e to other languages) in Asia.
Why not push for a western adaption? It'd be a lot easier without so many hurtles.
Let's just think for a moment that going for the asian market is too much for Paizo to handle, that they will wait another decade to see if some Japanese publisher will pick pathfinder for local translation. That does not change the fact that for decades now, most animation is made in Asia (Japan, Korea, China and I heard lately even the Philippines and Vietnam). Yeah, even most of the cartoon network and nickelodeon franchises. For high quality animation you need to hire a japanese anime studio, unless of course you are ok with a another piece of the (lack of) quality of Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
Also, for a western cartoon there is a higher hurdle, there is the expectation that it can't have graphic violence, blood or the so called adult themes (sex, drugs, politics and foul language). This on an adaption of table game that borrows a lot of elements from Robert E. Howard Conan, seems like a waste.
You're all missing the point of the anime: to introduce Golarion. Which Adventure Path would be used? Rise of the Runelords (Anniversary Edition, please)? Iron Gods? Legacy of Fire? And six Adventure Path books would be ...
I think it is a well known fact that doing adaptions is non trivial. Heck, there is an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Dragons of Autumn Twilight is an example of a poor novel adaption. IMO adaption from other media, like comic books or visual novels requires also experience and know how. The elephant in the room here is that nobody has ever done an adventure path (or module, as we called them in the good old days™) adaption into live action or animated media, it is uncharted territory and therefore a liability in a new venture. IMO it would be safer to pay someone to make an interesting story using the Core Rulebook characters and rules plus the Golarion setting as the basic requirements.
Sundakan wrote:
Fun as it would seem, I doubt it would work. Animation is EXPENSIVE. And so is advertising. And making deals with people to air it.
For what return?
You make it sound like this idea is somehow novel and new. Yet for decades already, many light novels (which are books, just like the core rulebook) have been adapted into anime. This summer season alone I can count four (light) novel adaptions http://www.livechart.me/summer-2016/tv Don't make the assumption that only the award winning and/or most popular prose is ever made into an anime. The clear example here is Konosuba (God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! which is not about religion in the same vein The World God Only Knows isn't) which was a basically unknown, with low sales; ok, it got a low budget animation with only 11 episodes (one of the which was not broadcast and was included with the next light novel volume to maximize sales) but it was better than the old D&D cartoon by any metric you choose.
If it was such a low return endeavor we would not see each and every season new light novels being made into anime (next season I can count five, so it is far from a declining trend).
The clear advantage here is that unlike novels, the core rulebook does not become an old product on the bookshelves in only a year.
I do agree that on average the most popular animes are shounen, but there have been a handful of seinen series to become popular: One-Punch Man, Ghost in the Shell, Planetes, Chobits, Tokyo Ghoul, Mushishi, Monster, xxxHOLiC, Gantz, Elfen Lied, Berserk and Akira.
Do you want everyone as adventurers in their mid-twenties, or do we get the "chibi" version, with Seoni the nine-year-old sorceress? These are questions the studio needs answered first.
If has been said that an anime target demographic can be seen by the perceived age of the protagonists:
Chibis: Kids https://youtu.be/AJmlzlRDIZM
Teens: 13-19 https://youtu.be/afNYXz-AHBY
Adults: 20+ https://youtu.be/jMoVmSV4yA8 <-- Those drow are 20+ years old! >_<
*Gets flashback to animated Dragonlance movie, curls in a fetal position and weeps in the corner*
That is the difference between a low-cost japanese anime studio and a cheap/novice indian animation studio. Hey, I will admit that I am a bargain hunter, but doing something really cheap could damage the opinion the public at large have of Golarion (which is Paizo's most important ip atm). So having an animation studio that has successfully animated a fantasy series is basic, imo.
Also, no matter whether it is animated or live action, trying to shove twice the material into your allotted screen time is a bad, bad idea, it is always better to leave the audience asking for more than having them thinking "that did not make sense, at all".
... D&D fans have their peculiar tastes and those tastes are incredibly conservative.
You seem to be forgetting that half of the idea here is for Paizo to get into the asian market, so in a sense you are acknowledging that they need to appeal to their aesthetics aka make the artwork of japanese translated core rulebook and bestiary more anime like (and use those designs for the anime).
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You can, of course, g%& d*@n the torpedoes and ignore the traditional D&D gamer target and go for non-gamer audience, hoping it will draw them to your primary product. But this means you're trying to catch the attention of people who never heard of your brand in the first place, so you get no points for the license itself. In that event, you're trying to beat stuff like Seven Deadly Sins, SAO or even golden oldies like Escaflowne or Lodoss at their own game. Which means you need to be pretty freaking good to have a chance at getting a decent ROI here. Companies don't measure successes in Youtube views or MyAnimeList scores, they measure them in cash and new customers. And here you're not just trying to get a profit on the anime, you want to convert the customer. That's ... a whole additional layer of difficult.
Attracting younger customers (that have never played a tabletop RPG) is vital to Paizo, otherwise they risk having their userbase age and drop out of the scene, not trying at all is a ticket to oblivion.
You believe they have to beat big franchises like SAO or Attack on Titan to be successful, but that is nonsense in a world of free streaming (remember a pathfinder anime is but a 24 minute advertising), many series can be successful even if they do not have the biggest budget or a famous writer behind (i.e. Konosuba).
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And American and Japanese companies can work together, but it is usually incredibly difficult due to fundamental cultural differences in conducting business. Stuff like how a deal is struck (American way: as quickly as possible, hopefully on the first meeting, over the lunch. Japanese way: at some point during the 253th karaoke and sake binge, a year and half down the road) or how communication is handled (Americans follow the standard "24h for a response to an email, unless the roof is on fire" while for Japanese the roof is always on fire, and it's not a normal fire, it's demonic nuclear fire, and their emails must be answered within an hour tops).
Yet, every year most american animation is outsourced to asian countries, I do not mean to say it is easy, but it is feasible.
... making an anime towards a largely negative target audience.
Got any hard statistical numbers to back that? Here is an important seed for thought, there exist no such thing as a negative sale, the worst case scenario is people not buying, as simple as that. So even if you got 100 million people that hate a product, if 5 million love it and buy it, then it IS a success *cue to justin beeber*.
About what studio would be willing to do it, most anime studios are mercenaries work for hire, a production committee slaps them with a bill of money on the face http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqOW8FssDcY and they produce the animation they are asked for. If you are thinking "american and japanese companies can't work together" please remember that for decades most american cartoons have been animated in korea, china and of course, japan. Heck, recently there was this cool collaboration with studio 4c for gumball:
Like what age group aiming for? Shonen, seinen, shoujo? And what genre even?
It is a good question, which leas us to our next question, who would write the plot? IMO a good option would be to pay Gen "The Butcher" Urobochi to do it. But whoever writes it should be seasoned writer, it would be a dire mistake to think "any plot is just fine, here, I wrote one in a napkin".
Returning to the original question, it would depend on what product does paizo wants to promote, if it is the beginner box and/or the card game, you probably want it to be "shounen", but if they want to promote the core rulebook/bestiary and/or the computer game, it should be better for it to be "seinen". As long as female characters do not have DDD cups and there is no gravity defying face on crotch scenes the female public may also get interested (specially if male characters are cool like in many sports anime).
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
There would have to be so many safeguards on such a project, with an understanding that it would more than likely fail rather than succeed...
IF Paizo can't afford an anime (which seems odd to me since WotC can afford a live-action movie), they could at least kickstart an ova, it has been done successfully before:
Of course Paizo might have the money but starting with a smaller project might be a good idea since they have zero experience (unlike WotC that has already been part of the production of several movies).
a) Budget. Some studios specialize in flashier animations (MAPPA, Ufotable http://youtu.be/R7L1QOjv1d0 ) but those obviously are more expensive and some studios can do cheaper productions (Studio DEEN who recently did Konosuba http://youtu.be/zZ-J4eWy38U ).
Budget would also limit whether it would be just one OVA or short movie (Any remember this one about the classic computer game Wizardry? http://youtu.be/kOTHNoODYmY ) or a full fledged one cour (10-13 episodes, 24 minutes each) season.
2) Connections. Paizo would need some kind of broker to get some budget estimates. Also, some studios might want more freedom (as in, yeah, give us the characters and setting material and we will do the story and everything else) while others might be ok with supervision during the whole ordeal.
The thing is that Miyazaki would cost a lot more than your average director. It's like asking for Steven Spielberg to direct the next D&D movie for WotC. But there are lots of good anime directors out there judging by all the fantasy anime being done lately.
Lately there have been quite a bit anime adaptions of light novels with fantasy rpg elements (Grimgar, Overlod), not to mention animes about card games (Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, Wixoss) or computer games (Hyperdimension Neptunia, Tales of Zestiria).
It is quite obvious that this animated series are 24 minutes advertisements, so it boggles the mind that Paizo has not done their own. It would help to improve sales of many products.
1) It could help introduce Pathfinder in the Japanese (and other asian) market(s). Pathfinder has been translated to other languages, but not the H-U-G-E japanese market, that is akin of microsoft never selling windows in the asian market.
2) It could help advertise the Pathfinder card game.
3) It could help advertise the pathdfinder computer game Obsidian is making. If you are thinking "hey, that one will be released in one or two years"; well, if Paizo starts working in making an anime it will be released in one or two years also.
Remember that nowadays any anime is streamed almost simultaneously, so the advertisement would include as many countries as Paizo allows. If an english dub is also made it might even be shown in traditional channels like Toonami.
Yeah, I know making anime is worth a little fortune, but also doing computer games and IMO they go hand in hand quite well, if successful enough a Pathfinder themed anime might pay at least partially for itself (in disc sales and streaming rights royalties), unlike regular advertisement where you have to get your money back in sales of the advertised product.
Also, as I said before, an animated series is advertisement that could still be shown on YV years down the road (like the D&D Cartoon) so it is like the energizer bunny, it keeps going and going ...
p.s. It would also help get young new players into pathfinder.
The pocket editions are exactly the same in layout as their hardcover companions so if you could separate the HC version in such a way then you'll be able to do the same to the pocket edition (and if not, then not).
Thanks for the reply, but as I am digital only atm (I have plenty of dead tree books of 3.5 and earlier), I lack the first hand experience needed to be able to use the information you provide.
Can this softcover be easily cut and subdivided into three books? Chapter 1-8 (player's handbook), chapters 9-10 (spellbook) and 11-15) DM Guide? If chapters 8-9 and 10-11 are neatly separated in this softcover then the I could ask a local shop to bind them separately into three small hardcovers.
Full Name
Elmae Valmia
Race
Female Musetouched (Human-Descent) Aasimar Swashbuckler (Flying Blade) 1 | HP 08/12 | AC 16 | FF 13 | T 13 | FORT +2 | REF +5 | WILL +1 | CMD - 15
Gender
Female
Size
Medium
Age
19
Special Abilities
Panache Pool (3 points); Darkvision 60ft; Derring-Do
Misc Gear: Bedroll, Silk Rope (50 ft), Belt Pouch, Reinforced Scarf, Metal Canteen (filled), Silver Holy Symbol of Desna, Trail Rations (4)
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Skilled - +2 to Linguistics and Sense Motive
Spell-like Abillity (Sp) Aasimar SLA Chart #40: +2 INT
Physical Description:
Elmae is an aasimar of human descent, currently nineteen years of age. Her skin is a healthy peach color, while her eyes stand out as an odd fuchsia. Her hair is a messy blonde affair, coming just short of her shoulders. Elmae carries a flexible build, capable of performing acrobatic feats and dexterous showings with little difficulty. She tends to wear clothes leaning towards the loose side, giving her more ease of movement than tighter options. Whatever she wears, however, she's often dressed in bright colors or something resembling a patchwork quilt in terms of patterns, showcasing her past. Namely, her reinforced scarf showcases various shades of the standard color rainbow.
History:
Elmae was born in Almas of Andoran, the daughter of two veritable celebrities, well-known for the various dramas and plays they put on and participated in themselves. Of course, she still lived a modest life, as most of the earnings were used to support those less fortunate, or to help out the Desnan churches. Elmae followed in her parents' footsteps early on in her childhood, developing a love for the dramatic and flair, although her particular talents developed in another direction entirely. Growing up in a home, she learned of Desna's teachings early on, devoting her sleep to the Spherewalker's worship and entrusting her with those precious dreams. However devout she was, it was often difficult to keep her still for any extended period of time. As time passed, the problem only grew more obvious, and before long, she began vanishing when she was called, only to be found climbing some odd object, whether it was a tree, the side of a house, or something similar. While her parents were content with the artistic feel of plays and acting, Elmae seemed to be more at home in motion and acrobatics instead.
With her love for the acrobatics in mind, her parents used their knowledge of construction and sets to build her a little exercise/jungle gym, so she had something other than a house that she could fill her time climbing. Of course, she took to it like a natural, using the equipment to climb, swing, leap, and the like, without a care in the world. However, even that wasn't enough to last, and by the age of about fourteen, she was right back to using the city as an obstacle course, putting her directly in the eye of the citizens when she decided she wanted to put on a show. However reckless it was, it certainly drew attention, not to mention rumors that would soon spread across the Inner Sea region. It wasn't long before Almas was getting far more attention than usual, and a few months after Elmae's fifteenth birthday, her hometown was visited by what could only be described as a traveling circus, calling themselves "The Wandering Braves"
With her curiosity piqued, Elmae begged her parents to take her to see this strange band of travelers, and so they did, all to happy to treat the excitable young teen to a treat. Once the show began, she fell in love in short time, watching the various acts, animals, stunts, and flair. To her, it was more than just an act. It was a group of like-minded people who could appreciate and enjoy the act of using one's body as a work of art, communicating such joy and emotion through the simple act of movement, even going so far as to devote it all to Desna herself. In short...she'd found a group of people who understood her. After several days of pleading, crying, and bargaining, her parents finally relented, allowing her to travel with the circus under the condition that the others would protect her, as they would be taking the place of her guardian while on the road. With a heart full of joy and excitement, she set out with the troupe, poised to travel Golarion!
And so she did, taking her already impressive acrobatics and training them further. No longer was it just something she entertained herself with, no! Now she could bring that same joy and entertainment to others who attended the shows and get better and better at it with each showing. Along the way, some of her elders taught her useful skills for defending herself, which she incorporated into her own act, such as the art of using a starknife not as a clumsy weapon, but as a way to pinpoint vital areas from a distance, bringing pain from afar. Elmae, seeing an opportunity, practiced during her shows. Combined with her impressive feats of acrobatic prowess, her precision earned her the nickname, "The Steel Angel".
Two years later, she was still traveling on the road, taking a well-deserved break while the troupe was on the way to their next stop, Kenabres. There was an opportunity to bring at least some form of relief and entertainment to the poor townsfolk, and it would be one of their largest shows if things went well. However, as it is with many things, disaster would strike at the worst moment. Once they arrived in Kenabres, Elmae lazied about the city to enjoy herself and take in the sights. Along the way, many whispered rumors of the Worldwound and the strange incidents it brought met her ears. Being as curious as she was and believing she was following Desna's guideleines. Surely it was better to explore and apologize later than to have never experienced such an oddity, right? She returned to her troupe in a few short hours, explaining that perhaps they could investigate this "Worldwound", as it might have such strange oddities that could enhance the circus experience. Even if it didn't, it was surely worth exploring! The others offered up one million reasons why it was a bad idea, but she would have none of them, and hesitantly, the other thirty individuals followed her into the Worldwound in the dead of the night.
She should have listened to the others and avoided it, of course. Within a few hours of entering, the sound of an almost hissing noise pierced her ears, and shortly after that, something else pierced her skin, leading her to a quick sleep, lulled by the twisted melody of screams all around her. When she awoke, she was in a dreadfully tiny cage with a few of her troupe mates, bound in shackles. The air was much damper than what she was used to, and there was something...sinister about this place. A sudden sharp pain on her back reminded her of what had happened earlier, and with a wince, she discovered it seemed to have been caused by a weapon of some sort, but where...
It would be a day or so before she had any visitors, and upon seeing the form of the one who greeted her, perhaps she would have wished for none. Towering above the prisoners was a marilith, proud and haughty. Had she been the one to injure her so?... As if to answer Elmae's thoughts, the demon unsheathed a scimitar, and the crimson liquid that stained its blade would become visible for all to see. It became obvious in a short manner of time that they were her prisoners, but she would not simply starve them. No, in a few days, they were brought into a massive dome and ordered to fight each other in gladiatorial combat, a sort of twisted war game for the demons' amusement...Something only a marilith would dare to think up. Elmae refused again and again to fight, distressed and guilt-ridden at the thought of being the cause of all of this madness, something her captors didn't take kindly to. With no regard for her health, it was decided that if she did not comply, she would be made to comply through force.
Time and time again, the aasimar would find herself chained to a wall, being struck repeatedly until her punishment was over, marked by a pained scream and the sound of blood splattering against the walls. Two prominent scars came out of this, located on her upper back. Strangely enough, the placement resembled that of wings, though there was no such elegance to the wounds. Still devoid of a fighter, the marilith thought of a new wicked plan to force her captive into the arena, and for a brief period of a week, Elmae found herself resting peacefully, praying to Desna in her sleep. Of course, the crafty marilith knew of this, and reasoned that if she was denied proper rest, she could neither pray nor reason...For that purpose, she called for the services of a night hag. A single bite and a spell was all it took to begin the torture, placing Elmae into a deep slumber. Night by night, her dreams shortened and her rest grew more and more limited. Shortly after that, she grew weary and desperate, and finally gave in if she were allowed to rest. To her dismay, she was forced to fight against her fellow troupe mates one-by-one, but in her condition, she was hardly in a proper state of mind...So she was forced to fight to the death, slaying her own traveling family for the entertainment of others, all because of her own mistake, something she could have avoided.
Of course, it was not over yet. Nearing her eighteenth birthday, she was still being forced to fight, and her sleeping patterns only grew worse. Her dreams had been slowly replaced by terrible nightmares, images of her comrades' expressions in that terrible place. It was the night hag's fault, of course, for she had been blackening Elmae's dreams for so very long...It was a slow torture, painful in ways one would not imagine, but it mattered not, for the marilith got her entertainment. After a particularly grueling combat, her captor came to her with that same superior look on her face, bringing an offer. She'd seen Elmae fight, and offered her a position of power if she would offer her devotion to her. She wanted her as one of her officers, leading a small army of demons under her command. Of course, this position would come with some measure of rest and privileges, something she knew the aasimar wanted desperately. Just when she was desperate enough to say "Yes", several loud noises made themselves known, drawing the marilith's attention away for several moments. In such a short measure of time, a strange robed figure managed to unlock her cell, guiding her hand and legs to an escape. Though she could not see the mysterious figure's face, she felt some sense of connection with her at the sight of her holy symbol, identifying her as a worshiper of Desna.
Shortly after the daring escape, the figure cast some form of spell and shattered Elmae's bindings, almost seeming to disappear after that, with no words to respond to. She'd gone as quietly as she had arrived, and Elmae could find no words to thank her.
The circus never came to Kenabres that year...
With nowhere left to go at the time, and no nearby family to answer her support, she remained in Kenabres, performing tiny shows for gold, hiding what had happened to her under the guise of a happy face, always a happy face, for that was what made a circus entertaining, was it not? Over time, the two large scars upon her back seemed to fill with energy, taking the form of two butterfly wings. Was this the stranger's spell, or was it a sign from Desna herself? Whatever it was, she would force herself to carry on by herself for now, carrying with her the weight of her troupe's death.
Personality:
Elmae will more often than not appear cheerful and optimistic, always looking for the pluses of a situation, even if it means ignoring the negatives. Helping others is something that comes naturally to her. She absolutely despises bindings, whether magical or mundane, and jailers/slavers are enemies to her. She carries a large amount of emotional baggage inside of her, but she's able to hide it behind a pleasant mask. Lately, her sleep patterns have been deteriorating, due to the night hag's blackening, but she's careful not to let the others know, lest they be dragged into her problems.
Role:
Elmae's role in the party is primarily damage, and while she can deal it decently at close-range, she's much more proficient at dealing it from a range past level 3. Starting at level 7, she will also be able to deal single-target crowd control on command (without saves, mind you). If I'm doing my math right, she'll be able to fling starknives at a maximum range of...40 ft range increments. If I took Aim For The Eye, I believe that'd technically give me an 80 ft range, as it specifically says that any ranged attacks are counted as being one increment closer than they are. Add in the the full BAB, and she can do impressive things.
Motivation:
Her primary motivation is to strike back against the demons who captured her, though she does not wish to see the world taken over by demons, as that'd certainly go against the ideals of freedom and liberation that she cherishes so very much. She also wishes to right her wrongs in some manner, and if fighting against the demons accomplishes that, she'll do so. Perhaps if she can redeem her moment of weakness in the Worldwound, she can rest without seeing their faces...
