Magella's early life was spent in bowed reverence to the goddess Shelyn's messages of love, beauty, art, and music above all else. As a child she felt drawn to these feelings, understanding the simple messages of her parents' faith as law. Of course, the protection of art and other living things seemed to be the obvious way people should behave.
This unerring devotion to her goddess's teachings was seen by many in her community as incredibly naive, and the local children would tease and chide her for her pure heart and belief that others would see in her the teachings of Shelyn, and come to the light of her love by that. Magella never preached or proselytized, but chose to instead serve as an example of goodness and expression. Her chosen forms of art at a young age were simple wooden carvings and poetry. As she grew, her interest in exposing this poetry to the world grew as well, but rather than singing it like some members of her congregation chose, she decided to scrawl this poetry on the walls of the city, taking Shelyn's message to the streets. Her beautiful calligraphy and artistic displays of faith came to earn her a bit of a reputation. One day while working on a particularly involved depiction of one of her favorite hymns from the Melodies of Inner Beauty, the holy text of the church of Shelyn, she was discovered by one of the clerics of her congregation. In an attempt to channel her energies toward a more lawful expression of her holy impulses, this cleric chose to take Magella in as his apprentice.
Quickly, her skills as a battle-ready instrument of faith became apparent. It seemed, indeed, that Shelyn had a chosen emissary for spreading her gospel, but that Magella may actually be used more as a fist of the faith than a mouthpiece. Realizing this, the clergy of her congregation prepared a proposal for Magella's parents: Enter her into the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers for more seasoning in adventuring, so as to help grow her survival skills. Her parents flatly refused.
Unfortunately for them, though, Magella had already come around to the side of the church in this debate. Working with the head of her now-former church (her parents had already started attending services out of a neighbor's house rather than associating with a "bloodthirsty sect" of their religion), Magella created a scheme wherein she pitched the idea of a clergy apprenticeship with another church of Shelyn, across the city from her their previous church. Contacts within the clergy worked out different contacts for Magella's parents so they could keep her parents from learning the truth: Magella would indeed serve as the closed fist of Shelyn against her enemies, and would receive extra training in this from the PSYCHE academy.
Within the academy though, Magella's... quirks... were still an issue with the class in general. However, this led her to forming tight bonds with some of the less-appreciated youths in her class. In particular, she was fond of Raiden, a large half-orc boy whose gold heart shone through his otherwise intimidating exterior, and of Graceela, a young gnomish prankster who had quite possibly the funniest jokes Magella had ever heard.
Nerd Night @ The Manor
Friday, September 19, 2014
Yume Bloodstone
Yume Bloodstone's earliest memories are running in a field with her mother, emulating some of the squire boys she had seen by wearing discarded armor she'd found in their camps, trying to learn the hunting and trapping skills her mother employed so easily. Of course, this was harder for her due to the inflexibility of her armor, but over time she learned techniques to compensate for it.
At the age of 12, Yume's mother received a message from her biological father, a human man from the city of Absalom. He had been selected to help teach in an academy within in the city, an academy designed to keep the Society of Pathfinders from dying out as the wildlands grew ever stronger. Yume's mother had indeed noticed more demons in the area, and stronger ones as well. Could it be true that the Worldwound had opened further? Or worse, were the demons winning the ever-lasting Mendevian Crusades? Either way, the idea of moving to an actual human settlement was not something that Yume's mother much liked, but keeping her daughter safe called for any and all precautions to be taken.
Arriving in Absalom, Yume was instantly taken in by the charm of the massive City at the Center of the World. She felt immediately at home, although she would steal through the gates at the drop of a hat to enjoy the woods on the other side of the walls. Between two worlds, she grew up beautiful and tall, proud and strong, and her father had her entered into the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers just as soon as she was able to. To his dismay, her peers looked down on her instantly. Professor Bloodstone was known as one of the surliest, toughest professors in the academy, due to his serious nature and stern reactions to any horseplay. This drove his daughter from the more popular student body toward the group of outcasts that had bonded together. Frustratingly enough, this group also contained his least favorite student, a wise-cracking gnome who seemed to constantly be laughing at the administration of the academy that he felt so graciously allowed her to attend classes, despite her advanced age.
Outside of classes, Yume was blessed and cursed with an otherworldly appearance, which made most humans at least slightly uncomfortable. They would gawk and stare, trying to decide whether she was uncommonly pretty, or just... "off." This feeling of otherness drove her closer to her band of misfit friends.
At the age of 12, Yume's mother received a message from her biological father, a human man from the city of Absalom. He had been selected to help teach in an academy within in the city, an academy designed to keep the Society of Pathfinders from dying out as the wildlands grew ever stronger. Yume's mother had indeed noticed more demons in the area, and stronger ones as well. Could it be true that the Worldwound had opened further? Or worse, were the demons winning the ever-lasting Mendevian Crusades? Either way, the idea of moving to an actual human settlement was not something that Yume's mother much liked, but keeping her daughter safe called for any and all precautions to be taken.
Arriving in Absalom, Yume was instantly taken in by the charm of the massive City at the Center of the World. She felt immediately at home, although she would steal through the gates at the drop of a hat to enjoy the woods on the other side of the walls. Between two worlds, she grew up beautiful and tall, proud and strong, and her father had her entered into the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers just as soon as she was able to. To his dismay, her peers looked down on her instantly. Professor Bloodstone was known as one of the surliest, toughest professors in the academy, due to his serious nature and stern reactions to any horseplay. This drove his daughter from the more popular student body toward the group of outcasts that had bonded together. Frustratingly enough, this group also contained his least favorite student, a wise-cracking gnome who seemed to constantly be laughing at the administration of the academy that he felt so graciously allowed her to attend classes, despite her advanced age.
Outside of classes, Yume was blessed and cursed with an otherworldly appearance, which made most humans at least slightly uncomfortable. They would gawk and stare, trying to decide whether she was uncommonly pretty, or just... "off." This feeling of otherness drove her closer to her band of misfit friends.
Graceela Silvershaper
Graceela Silvershaper was born in a place much different from Absalom. About as different as a place can be on this plane of existence, truly. She was born in an underground home to gnomish magical tinkerers in the countryside of Andoran. As such, she has been practicing the arcane arts for quite some time now. It was always said of her family that someone must have primal roots, considering the familial penchant for the arcane arts. This is, in fact, true. Somewhere in her bloodline, one of Graceela's ancestors found themselves enamored of a fire elemental, and its arcane powers still course through her family tree, manifesting themselves in some generations of her family.
In fact, she herself discovered this one day while out with her father. They were exploring territory close to home after a torrential rain, when suddenly a great owlbear appeared before them, driven from its home by the rising waters. Calmly, her father muttered a few ancient-sounding words and raised his hands. With a flick of his wrist, a great cone of fire erupted from his hands, scorching the feathers of the owlbear and sending it screeching into the woods from whence it came. Ever since that day, Graceela promised herself she would learn to control the strength living within her blood.
As a gnome, her propensity for wanderlust, deep curiosity, and desire to master odd or esoteric skills and languages made her a natural adventurer. Without realizing it, as she grew older she found herself ranging farther and farther from her home, until one day she ended up at a small harbor town on the Inner Sea. Here, she saw all manner of people coming and going on boats out across a seemingly never-ending sea, and in the taverns she heard tell of a city at the Center of the World, the city of Absalom.
There would truly be someone there that might be able to assist her in understanding her magic abilities, she thought, and boarded a ship headed to the city.
In Absalom, her naturally curious nature led her to the Pathfinder Society's Grand Lodge. Because of her youthful gnomish appearance, her love of gamesmanship, and emotional volatility, members of the society took her as a youth, and enrolled her in the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers upon learning of her thirst for adventure. She decided to go along with it. She liked the young humans better anyway -- they were less dreadfully serious and boring, and could follow her fun tales and silly rhymes.
Panian Graveltoes
Panian. A name known round the districts as belonging to a real talker, what he lacks in height he makes up for boasts, tricks, and secrets. Always curious and always stealing away from being caught red-handed, Graveltoes made a bit of a name for himself as a youth by playing tricks on the local clergy of Cayden Cailean's "temples," such as they are. This was perfectly in the spirit of The Drunken God's disciples though, these few worshiping spaces typically doubling as local after-hours speakeasies, ordering more sacramental wine than all of Iomedae's temples twice over, making Panian's tricks even easier for the halfling, and even more approved of by his fellow Cayden devotees.
As Panian grew, though, his stealthy nature started to turn to a more... financial boon than when he was younger. Sure, sleight of hand "magic" tricks would earn him a copper or two in the streets while he was younger, but he started to learn that secret-trading would earn him more silver or gold to line his coffers with. Being a halfling, some of the citizens of Absalom would treat him poorly -- "he was, after all, only half a man..." -- and so this sort of disdain for his kind started to affect him, causing him to turn to less law-abiding means to find justice against the discrimination he and his kind face. In a city like Absalom, a halfling never knows what wrong turn may end them up in shackles, being sent off as slaves for Chelaxian owners. This kind of fate is something Panian has absolutely no interest in, so it seemed obvious to him that the best way to protect himself would be to sign up with the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers.
The day before his 18th birthday, his little sister was taken by slavers. Drawing on his growing network of contacts within Absalom, he was able to track the trader who had captured her's whereabouts, but found that he had already placed her on a ship bound for Cheliax. Panian watched the trader cracking jokes with other slavers in a tavern by the harbor, like a lion might stalk its prey before attacking. Because of the general habits of humans to not look down, and his comfort in and familiarity with the shadows, Panian was able to pass undetected and wait for the trader to retire to his room in the inn for the night. At this point, Graveltoes entered the inn behind another patron, stole into the halls, and picked the lock, silently, on the door of the slaver's room. Panian didn't wake the trader before playing the man's throat like a violin using his dagger.
As Panian grew, though, his stealthy nature started to turn to a more... financial boon than when he was younger. Sure, sleight of hand "magic" tricks would earn him a copper or two in the streets while he was younger, but he started to learn that secret-trading would earn him more silver or gold to line his coffers with. Being a halfling, some of the citizens of Absalom would treat him poorly -- "he was, after all, only half a man..." -- and so this sort of disdain for his kind started to affect him, causing him to turn to less law-abiding means to find justice against the discrimination he and his kind face. In a city like Absalom, a halfling never knows what wrong turn may end them up in shackles, being sent off as slaves for Chelaxian owners. This kind of fate is something Panian has absolutely no interest in, so it seemed obvious to him that the best way to protect himself would be to sign up with the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers.
The day before his 18th birthday, his little sister was taken by slavers. Drawing on his growing network of contacts within Absalom, he was able to track the trader who had captured her's whereabouts, but found that he had already placed her on a ship bound for Cheliax. Panian watched the trader cracking jokes with other slavers in a tavern by the harbor, like a lion might stalk its prey before attacking. Because of the general habits of humans to not look down, and his comfort in and familiarity with the shadows, Panian was able to pass undetected and wait for the trader to retire to his room in the inn for the night. At this point, Graveltoes entered the inn behind another patron, stole into the halls, and picked the lock, silently, on the door of the slaver's room. Panian didn't wake the trader before playing the man's throat like a violin using his dagger.
Raiden the Reclaimer
Raiden's early childhood is a blur of campfires, fights, blood, and savage warcries. Most of this blurs together in dreams for him, which sometimes wake him in a cold sweat, other times he wakes frothing at the mouth, veins in his arms bulging, and the rage of his heritage boiling over.
The details of his birth are uncertain, but Raiden was discovered in the aftermath of a raid on an orcish warcamp in the outskirts of the Cairnlands, covered in blood but perfectly calm. Raiden was picked up by a knight and brought to his field commander, the knight wondering what should be done with this abomination of a toddler. His commander took the child and guaranteed that he would handle the situation -- for the most part, the child seemed very human, with the exception of a pale green tint to his skin.
The commander took Raiden in, teaching him the ways of humanity, convinced he could raise this child as his own, and help to show the world that anyone can know peace and law, respect, and goodness, regardless of their upbringing.
Raiden grew up quickly, stronger and faster than all of his classmates, and always feeling slightly different from the rest of his peers. When he reached puberty, though, was when the barbs came full-on at him. As he matured, his orcish features became more prominent - his tusks, which up until this point had merely caused his lower lip to jut like someone chewing tobacco, finally grew out past his lower lip, sitting extended in an underbitten snarl. His skin, which had maintained a slightly sickly greenish tint for his entire childhood, started to undertake a darker tone, like a suntan might look on a pale green base, and as the hair on his arms and chest started sprouting, it became apparent at first glance the gruesome history of his birth. Because of this, the city-dwellers of Absalom were increasingly unwelcoming to him if he chose to walk the streets without wearing the crest of his adoptive family.
Adventuring seemed most alluring for Raiden -- a chance to show the world that good can come from chaos and evil, and to make good on his family name. Upon seeing his strength, Balenar Forsend sent emissaries from the Society to recruit Raiden to the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers.
The details of his birth are uncertain, but Raiden was discovered in the aftermath of a raid on an orcish warcamp in the outskirts of the Cairnlands, covered in blood but perfectly calm. Raiden was picked up by a knight and brought to his field commander, the knight wondering what should be done with this abomination of a toddler. His commander took the child and guaranteed that he would handle the situation -- for the most part, the child seemed very human, with the exception of a pale green tint to his skin.
The commander took Raiden in, teaching him the ways of humanity, convinced he could raise this child as his own, and help to show the world that anyone can know peace and law, respect, and goodness, regardless of their upbringing.
Raiden grew up quickly, stronger and faster than all of his classmates, and always feeling slightly different from the rest of his peers. When he reached puberty, though, was when the barbs came full-on at him. As he matured, his orcish features became more prominent - his tusks, which up until this point had merely caused his lower lip to jut like someone chewing tobacco, finally grew out past his lower lip, sitting extended in an underbitten snarl. His skin, which had maintained a slightly sickly greenish tint for his entire childhood, started to undertake a darker tone, like a suntan might look on a pale green base, and as the hair on his arms and chest started sprouting, it became apparent at first glance the gruesome history of his birth. Because of this, the city-dwellers of Absalom were increasingly unwelcoming to him if he chose to walk the streets without wearing the crest of his adoptive family.
Adventuring seemed most alluring for Raiden -- a chance to show the world that good can come from chaos and evil, and to make good on his family name. Upon seeing his strength, Balenar Forsend sent emissaries from the Society to recruit Raiden to the Pathfinder Society's Youth Chapter of Heroic Explorers.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Half-Elf Ranger
half-elf male ranger |
Half-Elf Basics:
The half-elven race began (and still continues to a small degree) as the product of relationships between humans and elves, but has developed into a true-breeding race since then. Half-elves combine human and elven traits, and as a consequence tend to be considered outsiders by both races. On the other hand, the combination of human skill with elven beauty makes them good artists and entertainers as well as well-traveled adventurers.[1]
Half-elven males on average stand a few inches taller than human males, while half-elven women stand a good deal taller than their average human counterparts: about five to six inches. Half-elves are shorter than elves, and have pointed ears, although not nearly as elongated as those of their elven ancestors. They retain the lean build and comely appearance of the elves, while their skin, while fair, takes its color from their human lineage. Some half-elves look more like their human ancestors, while others favor their elven progenitors in appearance. This variance can often lead to social stigmas, as the more human-looking half-elves are more-easily accepted in human society, and vice versa.[2][3]
Ranger Basics:
Rangers walk the line between warrior, hunter, and thief. Like the fighter, the ranger is a highly trained combatant, with skill wielding ranged weapons or using a weapon in each hand. Like the druid, the ranger has strong ties to the natural world, gaining the trust of animals, moving through the wild with ease, and eventually channeling the divine power of nature. Finally, like the rogue the ranger has some ability in learning the skills necessary to survive in the world.
Unlike the druids, rangers are more closely linked with civilization. They often favour the people of border areas, helping them to settle and protect small communities at the limits of expansion. Rangers might be more inclined to interact with such peoples, often taking residence in or near towns, and making frequent visits to trade goods or information. Rangers can be protectors, guides, hunters, spies, or even just wild hermits.[1]
Rangers often find employ with militias or armies as scouts and spies, or simply skilled warriors. They compliment the ability of the fighter with their knack for moving through rough areas undetected, and providing quick precision striking.
Gnome Sorcerer
Gnome Basics:
Gnomes are a misfit race, not native to Golarion and far from ideally suited to life in the mundane world. Cast adrift from their original home, the realm of the fey known to the people of Golarion as the First World, the gnome race is still shaped by the spiritual damage caused by their exodus.
A gnome is a short humanoid, one of the most bizarre and alien of the civilized races of Golarion. They tend to be around three and a half feet tall and unnervingly slender. Gnomes age as other mortals do (albeit more slowly than most, but not as slowly as elves),[1] but they also begin to fade and 'bleach' when they lose passion and fail to experience new things.
They have long spindly fingers and large heads, which have a subtly different shape than those of other humanoids. Compared to their bodies they have surprising toughness, as their bones are of a harder but lighter cast than those of humans. Their coloration, like their aging, is altered by experience. Their skin, hair, and eyes can run the gamut of colors that appear in nature, betraying their fey nature like no other characteristic. Many, though not all, have skin tones that match those of other humanoids who live in the region, often with tints of olive or gold. Their hair is often vibrantly colored; expressing their recent history and experiences in reds, greens and more, as often, if not more so than browns and blonds. They have very long expressive eyebrows above large eyes. Their child-like eyes can often cause other humanoids to be more trusting and protective of gnomes, though many find these traits along with the too-wide mouths and smiles of gnomish race to be alien and frightening.[2]
Sexual dimorphism is minimal in gnomes. Males tend to be slightly larger and not as slender. Females tend to be slightly smaller and more feminine, possessing longer eyelashes, slimmer waists, and many of the other differences also exhibited by humans.[2]
Sorcerer Basics:
Where other arcane spellcasters gain power through study, research, and diligent practice, the sorcerer draws forth her astounding magical prowess from within herself. Regardless of the source of her arcane bloodline -- a deity's special favor, a powerful magical lineage, a celestial or horrifying progenitor, or simply the whim of fate or a quirk in the magical weave -- the sorcerer is the product of an innate and unbreakable connection to the arcane that other spellcasters must devote their lives to mastering. And yet this very boon is also the sorcerer's potential undoing; the sorcerer is defined by her connection to the arcane, but can be just as easily consumed by it. Their sorcerous gifts and abilities manifest in numerous individual ways, reflecting their diverse sources of arcane power, and while some strive through disciplined practice and meditation to control their power, others give in to the temptation of unfettered magic and allow their power to control them.[1]
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