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=Where Powers Collide 2024= OOC & Tournament Signups

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12/30/2023 0:01:57   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP



There exists in every realm two Powers whose authority exceeds that of all others. Greater than the magic of the Elements, greater than the might of the Gods, greater even than the influence of Good and Evil: the primeval forces of Chaos and Order. Their conflict stretches across eons, each struggling to sway the balance in their favor. Thrice now, Order has pushed at the scales, tipping them heavily in their favor, pushing the world towards controlled refinement.

But Chaos is evermoving, and rises once more to balance the scales and strive against Order. The call goes out again, reaching the edges of every realm under the twin influences. The content, and those who yearn. The heroic and villainous. Any who they deem worthy of fighting as pawns, rising as knights, has been sought out, called forth, and issued one command: Tip the scales in favor of your Alignment, and let the scales of your life be tipped favorably in turn. Those who fail the Trials shall be lost… but perhaps remembered forevermore.



Welcome, writers and poets, fighters and mages, heroes and villains, and everyone in between! Welcome to the place Where Powers Collide!

Similar to the Elemental Championships, Where Powers Collide is a combat-style role-playing tournament. ANYBODY on the AE forums, regardless of prior roleplaying experience, is welcome to participate in the event! I, Chewy905, have the pleasure of being this year's Director and Judge.

In Where Powers Collide, characters are “summoned” from different countries, realms, multiverses, versions of Lore, etc. to serve as Pawns in the ancient war between Order and Chaos. While you do not need to name the specific AE game/location your character is from, their race/abilities/equipment should all be something that would not be unusual to see in one of the AE games. Your character should in some way be aligned with Chaos or Order - either through ability themes, personal beliefs, their role in their own realm, etc. The choice of Alignment does not need to be immediately noticeable or extremely obvious, as there are many different options to explore unique expressions of the two concepts. That said, a character who follows every rule to the letter is unlikely to make a good representative of Chaos, just as someone with absolutely no code (legal, personal, or other) will not fit well in the ranks of Order. Additionally, Good and Evil are on a different scale of Alignment - and you can find characters from any position of the former scale on either side of the line between Order and Chaos.

To sign up, you will need to provide a character biography that passes my inspection and includes the following general requirements:

quote:

Name/Title
Alignment (Order or Chaos)
Age Range
Race
Appearance (Build, hair, skin, clothes, etc.)
Equipment (Armor, Weapons, etc.)
Skills, Spells, Special Abilities
Personality/Backstory (Optional)


Please note that like last year’s competition, character alignments will be public and must be included in your bio. While there are no creation limits like the element-lock in the Elemental Championships, keep in mind that power levels should be similar. Your characters are “the best fighters”, not “invincible, unbeatable, ‘I-can-do-everything’ fighters”.

Any action performed in the tournament itself, including but not limited to spells, special attacks, and magical abilities, must have some reference in your biography. You may use spoiler tags to hide certain abilities, though this does not guarantee other competitors will not peek. I will be reading (and judging) the complete bio, and there will be consequences for those who attempt to pull off actions in the tournament that I was not aware of prior. It is based off of the listed abilities, skills, and so forth that your character will be balanced and admitted to the tournament. If you are new to balancing, I recommend checking out our Balancing 101 Guide.

Applications will be open until 11:59 PM (EST - or AE Server Time) on Saturday, January 20th. Any bios still under review will then have 24 hours, or until 11:59 PM on Sunday, January 21st, to get their characters approved. Once submissions have completely closed, I will reveal the Battlefields that will be utilized this year, and randomly assign participants to each based on the number of bios that are approved. Approved bios will be added to a list at the bottom of this post. If your initial submission is not approved, you have until submissions are locked to either re-submit an updated version in a new post, or submit an entirely new character. To assist with re-submissions, characters not approved will be given an explanation why and feedback for future attempts in this thread. Further clarification may be requested via PM. DO NOT edit your bio after posting without express permission. You must submit a new post to correct an error or to update your character, and only the most recent post submitted will be evaluated.

In the Trials of The Fallen, your characters are fighting to earn a spot in the armies of either Chaos or Order. The Trials will begin on Sunday, January 21st and last for approximately three weeks. Currently, the period is expected to end at 11:59 PM EDT on Saturday, February 10th, but I will keep everyone posted of potential date changes. At the end of the Trials, the top four writers from each Alignment will be selected as Knights to move on to partake in the Battle of Order and Chaos. Here, you compete for victory, fighting with your Alignment in the attempt to take down the opposing force. At the end of the final Battle, a single victor will be chosen to receive a blessing from the Power that they follow. As they have fought in this war to tip the scales in favor of their side, upon returning to their own realm, the scales will thus be tipped in their favor in some type of conflict or struggle they are involved in. It will likely take about a day to process decisions and get the Finals thread ready. Anticipated start date of the Finals will be Sunday, February 12th. More information on the Finals and their exact format will be released when they are closer.

Now, the Official Rules:

All normal RP Boards Rules will apply. In particular, please read and be aware of the definitions of Bunnying, God-Modding, and Meta-Gaming. Violators will be immolated, electrocuted, drowned, and pulverized. Survivors will be undone at an atomic level. Lists are kept of violators, and depending on severity, you may be barred from future participation. In addition, by participating in “Where Powers Collide”, you recognize my role as Judge and my say as final.

1. Characters must engage in combat.
This is a combat RP event. Your character must be willing and able to both initiate and take part in combat.

2. You must post regularly.
Consistent activity is required. Please do not enter the tournament if you are not committed to remaining active for the full duration. During the Trials, any fighter who does not post at least once every 4 days (counted from the time of your last post) will automatically be disqualified. Your character will then be considered free for the slaughter - any other character in the battlefield will be allowed to kill him/her/them/it. You are allowed to request up to 36 hours in extension, in 12 or 24 hour increments (so, either one 24 hour extension and one 12 hour extension, or three 12 hour extensions). Make extension requests via a forum post in your Battlefield’s OOC thread. Barring emergencies, no further extensions will be granted. If an emergency does occur, reach out to me via PM.

3. Do not edit your posts (or your bios) once they have been submitted.
You may only edit your posts or your bios with the express written permission of me, myself, and I. Editing of bios or of posts without foreknowledge creates the suspicion of foul play. Proofread and double-check formatting prior to posting, and live with any errors you might have made once a post is submitted.

Once more; Do not edit your bios or your posts once they have been submitted.

4. Each entrant is allowed one and only one character.
You may not enter in pairs, squads, platoons, battalions, armies, or swarms.

5. Death has Consequences.
Characters who die in Where Powers Collide are dead in the AE RP forums. This is a Canon event with regards to normal RP Board rules. Characters who die during the Trials are still eligible to be chosen as Finalists, but this is the only free pass to revival. Dying in the Finals is permanent.

6. Have fun!
All these rules and regulations may seem daunting, but while this is a competition, the entire objective is to have some fun. We all like to win, sure, but try to enjoy yourselves along the way!

The penalty for failing to follow the rules may result in immediate disqualification from the tournament. Failure to comply with the direction of the Judge may also result in immediate disqualification from the tournament. While discussion of a ruling may be allowed, as has been stated prior, I have the final say.

General Information and Tips:
On Collaboration: Though this is a competition, collaboration is both useful and necessary. Your character is in combat with other characters, but you are not in combat with the other players. If you are attacking another character, involving yourself in someone else’s duel, or performing some other action that will impact other writers’ plans, they should be made aware of your intentions prior to your posting. This is especially true given the tight time limits of WPC, as surprise posts and encroaching deadlines do not make for an enjoyable writing environment and can result in emergency extensions and confusing situations.

I urge you to discuss combat and options with your fellow contestants. You are free to make collaborative posts and elaborate battle sequences. Often such collaboration is what enables your characters and writing abilities to truly shine. OOC threads will be provided for each arena for the express purpose of communication with your fellow contestants and with us, and please keep records of any collaboration discussions held in PMs, as they may be requested depending on how close the competition is!

I say again: If your post involves another character, be it a direct attack or anything that would impact them in some way, make sure that character’s writer is aware of it BEFORE you post.

On Communication: The notification system of PMs for the AE Forums is currently down. If you are collaborating with someone via the forums, please either use the public OOC threads, or be sure to check your inbox regularly. Additionally, you may make use of the AEF RP Discord Server. All AEF Rules apply to this server. This server is a privilege, not a right. If you do not follow the AEF rules or are disrespectful to others in the server, you will be banned, and you will need to rely on the forums for communication. The Discord server may be found here.

If you need to reach me directly, you can do so via PM, posting in the OOC threads, or using Discord. I do ask that any formal extension requests be posted in the appropriate OOC threads for documentation purposes.

On Drafting: When writing your initial post, it is strongly encouraged to do this in any word processor that is NOT the forums. It has been known for the forums to log people out while they are drafting, which can result in losing an entire post when you go to finally submit it. Many people utilize Google Docs or similar so that they can share drafts in advance with others in their battlefields, either to get extra eyes for editing or to confirm actions with other writers.

If you need to reach me directly, you can do so via PM, posting in the OOC threads, or using Discord.

Good luck, writers!

List of Order Entrants: 6
Elysia, Storm-Bringer, created by Starflame13!
Rita Svulgir, created by Oddball!
Celerity Adore, created by Geddesmck! - Withdrawal
Ryuk D’vorak, created by Necro-Knight!
Valeria Valcove , created by kavyraya!
Ladd Nisent, created by markthematey!

List of Chaos Entrants: 4
Vale, the False Whisper, created by Roseleaf320!
Ephemera, created by Dragonknight315!
Margul, Heart of the Mountain, created by Sylphe!
The Crying Man, created by nield! - Idle Out



Master List of Accepted Entrants:
Vale, the False Whisper, created by Roseleaf320!
Elysia, Stormc-Bringer, created by Starflame13!
Ephemera, created by Dragonknight315!
Margul, Heart of the Mountain, created by Sylphe!
The Crying Man, created by nield! - Idle Out
Rita Svulgir, created by Oddball!
Celerity Adore, created by Geddesmck! - Withdrawal
Ryuk D’vorak, created by Necro-Knight!
Valeria Valcove , created by kavyraya!
Ladd Nisent, created by markthematey!

Total: 10

Rosters by Battlefield
Field of Sand
Celerity Adore, created by Geddesmck, fighting for Order! - Withdrawal
Ephemera, created by Dragonknight315, fighting for Chaos!
Ladd Nisent, created by markthematey, fighting for Order!
Vale, the False Whisper, created by Roseleaf320, fighting for Chaos!
Ryuk D’vorak, created by Necro-Knight, fighting for Order!

Field of Gemstone
Elysia, Storm-Bringer, created by Starflame13, fighting for Order!
Margul, Heart of the Mountain, created by Sylphe, fighting for Chaos!
Rita Svulgir, created by Oddball, fighting for Order!
The Crying Man, created by nield, fighting for Chaos! - Idle Out
Valeria Valcove , created by kavyraya, fighting for Order!




< Message edited by Chewy905 -- 2/10/2024 18:51:23 >
Post #: 1
12/30/2023 12:02:28   
Dragonknight315
Member

"... Ah, visitors! Have you come for cleansing?"

Name: Ephemera
Alignment: Chaos
Race: Wraith
Age: 23 at time of Transformation

Physiology:--- Ephemera is a wraith. Born of the unresolved feelings of a mortal at their death, their physical form has given way to a supernatural entity composed entirely of emotions and memories that fetter them to the mortal plane. This gives wraiths a dual nature, a being of the spirit world that is able to exist in and impact the material world. Ephemera's mere presence carries an unmistakable air of malevolence and sadness.

Wraiths have no biological processes, though they possess all the senses of a living mortal (though dulled). To sustain themselves, a wraith must gorge themselves upon the negative emotions of others. Just as a mortal would drink water, so Ephemera needs drink fear and anger. Because a wraith's body is not truly physical, they are unbound from many mortal limitations. They are especially durable to physical harm. A missing limb or even most of their supernatural body can be replaced given enough siphoned emotion and time. However, this damage does wear away at their essence, and sustained damage can suppress or end their existence. Furthermore, a Wraith's spiritual nature can be exploited. While a powerful wraith such as Ephemera is resistant to most methods of warding and exorcism, it is still far more effective as a means of ending her.


Appearance:--- Ephemera appears as a young adult girl. When standing upright, the wraith is around 6 feet tall, though she is often found in a slouch. She is dressed in a shrine maiden's garb with a robe and long skirt, though notably barefoot. The pure red and white fibers have long been stained. The smell of blood, smoke, and damp earth clings to her. Ephemera’s sleeves are torn, exposing her bare and cracked skin. It appears white, almost translucent, stretched thin over her gaunt frame. A black inky color runs through Ephemera's body, replacing her veins and arteries. The same color stains her lips and the area around her skin as ink steadily flows over from within.

Ephemera's hair is pitch black. Long and unkept, the frayed hair reaches over her shoulders and down to her knees. Two particular streaks stick out over her ears. The borders of Ephemera's hair appear blurry; one would have a hard time telling where her hair ends and her shadow begins. This is further obscured by a light smoke that eternally drifts from her hair. Tucked away in one of the long streaks is a small but ornate hair pin, a metal piece shaped into a flower with dangling beads. If one can peer behind the wraith's hair, they would see Ephemera's eyes– grey like stone, resembling an ancient ceremonial mirror.

Across Ephemera's skin are black tattoos of all shapes imaginable. These tattoos are unstable and in constant motion and can appear anywhere other than her hands. They instead bear her mostly grisly features. A piece of severed rope is tied around each of her wrists, and her flesh is scared from rope burn. From her scars down, Ephemera's hands are completely stained black, and her digits extend into thin, foot-long sickles that drip with ink.


Equipment:--- Ephemera carries little in terms of equipment, relying solely on her supernatural powers. However, three items are of particular note for the wraith.

The first is her shrine maiden robe. While the garb was originally blessed by the holy spirits of her homeland, what powers it once held are gone. Now, her robes are a symbol of Ephemera’s blasphemy, allowing the wraith to utilize her terrible powers to their fullest extent. The robe and Ephemera are one and the same as her clothes are also Over time, her shrine maiden garb will repair any damage to itself just as Ephemera recovers her body. However, nothing can restore the robe’s torn sleeves or cleanse the stains on it.

The second is her sin-stained claws. In spite of their seemingly unwieldy nature, Ephemera is dexterous with these claws and they do not interfere with her ability to hold things. Ephemera’s claws are extremely sharp, and combined with her inhumane strength, she can wear away at even some of the toughest of armors. Furthermore, her claws act as a focus for her other abilities.

Third is her hairpin. Similar to her robes, her hair pin is an actual physical object that is nonetheless still bound to Ephemera’s psyche. In stark contrast to her robes, the pin is perfectly clean and preserved. It is perhaps the last remnant of her humanity. In the event that the hairpin is ever disturbed or removed by someone, Ephemera will go into a frenzy and prioritize said person in an attempt to reclaim it, regardless of any self-preservation and strategy. Protecting her pin is so thoroughly ingrained in Ephemera that her frenzy will overcome almost any effect, magical or otherwise, that would otherwise persuade her.


Abilities:---

Brush Strokes of the Maiden:

"Take this brush and dip it into the ink–"

Ephemera can control and alter her hair as a means of tormenting her victims. At will, Ephemera can rapidly extend the two streaks of thick hair over her ears up to 10ft in reach. These thick ropes of hair are prehensile, able to grasp and lift objects with the same strength as human arms. However, Ephemera often uses her hair in a particular manner. Ephemera can shape the ends of her hair into claws similar to her actual hands. These ones are just as sharp. However, her hair is still hair, rendering it simple to cut. But it is just as simple for Ephemera to regrow it, requiring a negligible amount of focus to quickly replace any hair lost and continue her assault. If any of her hair is cut, the detached part immediately turns into smoke and fades away.

Ink-Scarred Paper:

"... Write on this paper. Don't think; just write whatever comes to mind and let the words run over."

In the event that Ephemera manages to injure the flesh (or an appropriate equivalent) of a sentient being with one of her claws (either her natural claws or ones created by Brush Strokes of the Maiden), then Ephemera’s signature ritual activates. Immediately after being wounded, a victim will feel an alien presence in their mind. The more grievous the actual wound, the harder it is to fight against the presence. If the individual does not fight against the presence or is unable to resist it somehow, then Ephemera’s ritual succeeds. In that moment, ink will begin to fill and slowly flow out of the wound. This ink is not inherently harmful to the victim; instead, it serves as a form of marker and terror tactic, an unmistakable sign of Ephemera’s supernatural presence. This ink lasts until the wound is healed or otherwise dispelled.

When Ephemera successfully performs her ritual and marks a target, she then draws out the deepest negative emotions from the victim and Ephemera experiences them for herself. This experience perceived by the wraith is captured as a “Burden.” While the exact circumstances depends on the situation, a Burden is not some all-encompassing form of mind-reading. Rather, Ephemera is made aware of the essence of the thoughts, at most gaining a two-sentence summary. But she feels the full impact of those negative feelings within her.

Burdens of the Soul:

"As you cast the paper into the fire, so do you cast off the fetters that bind you to your suffering.”

Over her entire existence, Ephemera has collected countless Burdens. Once Ephemera gains a Burden, she can use her corrupted spiritual power to manifest them into reality. Each Burden has a focus, some particular detail that encapsulates the experience. This is determined at the moment the Burden is acquired. Manifesting a Burden requires a moment of intense physical and spiritual effort, and it can take one of three forms.

• Weapon: If the Burden is focused on a particular object such as a weapon, Ephemera can conjure the spirit of that object in her hands. Made from Ephemera’s own essence, the conjured object is a twisted and nightmarish version of its counterpart. However, it would be reduced to its barest form, holding little to no special properties of the original beyond its mundane physical function. Objects whose sole function is magical would be of little use. A magic wand would be rendered to just a stick, but a bow whose arrows never missed would still be a bow.

When Ephemera manifests a weapon or object, she becomes proficient with it, guided by the residual effect of the Burden. As stated before, the weapon imitates the physical properties of the original. However, if the manifested object is used against the progenitor of that Burden, then it supernaturally becomes more effective. Swords and arrowheads may pierce through stronger defenses. Bindings and armor may be harder to break.

Ephemera can only have one weapon/object manifested at a time. If the manifested object would require ammunition to function, then Ephemera can manifest one piece of ammunition in the process. She can briefly focus to manifest additional ammunition but this would require an escalating cost to her essence. Any manifested object is limited to Ephemera’s sphere of influence (around 20ft.) If a manifested object would fall outside this range, then it immediately vanishes into smoke.

• Creature: If the Burden is focused on a particular person or creature, Ephemera can channel the essence of their image into her own body. Ephemera would gain some physical benefit based off of the manifested burden. For instance, if she were to channel the essence of a murder, she could move faster. A fabled monster might bestow physical strength, or a forgotten lover could grant her grace and agility.

To most observers, there would be accompanying changes in appearance. These can range from a small detail (change in height or eye color for example) to more notable ones (growing small horns/tail, darker smoke or shadows, appearing frostbitten, etc). But to the progenitor of the Burden, Ephemera would in their mind completely take on the Burden’s appearance. As Ephemera moves, the illusion would appear to move in approximately the same manner. The full effect is left up to the individual circumstances, but the manifestation would attempt to portray Ephemera as the victim’s worst fears. This effect has a maximum range of 20ft. Outside this range Ephemera would appear as her true self. Stepping back inside the range would reapply the effect but with diminished results.

• Place or Event: Some Burdens do not focus on a person or an object. Simply being at a place may dredge up old, unresolved feelings. Burdens of this nature center on the setting and the experiences that took place there. It’s not about the murderer with their knife, but the house that has lost its innocence. It is the lake rather than the lady that drowned within it.

When manifesting one of these Burdens, the very environment seems to shift around Ephemera. At most, these manifestations can cover a range of 20ft, with more intense manifestations reducing its size to compensate. A thin coat of water might slick the floor around her, or shards of ice may orbit close to her body. Defensive barriers may instead manifest as a wide surface of metal tacks.

Once manifested, Ephemera cannot change how the Burden appears (the effect, radius, and intensity defined beforehand). Furthermore, it is centered around her. Using the example of the water slicking the ground, any water outside the boundary would immediately dry up. At the same time, the existing water would expand to cover any affected ground within her influence. In general, objects and phenomena created by this power take on a shadowy and brutalistic appearance. Smaller effects appear almost instantaneously, meanwhile larger instances may take a moment or longer to appear. The manifestations bear the physical qualities of the genuine thing, yet to a lesser extent (Spikes not quite as sharp, steel not quite as strong, water easier to push through, etc). However, this does not hold for the progenitor of the Burden. Rather, the manifestation is amplified, becoming more lethal or harder to fight against.

Ephemera can only manifest one burden at a time and can dispel the manifestation at will. All Burden manifestations have a maximum duration of one minute, after which the manifestations vanish. Once a Burden is manifested, Ephemera must endure a lengthy recovery before using a Burden of the same type again. Manifestations are fueled by the same emotional energy that maintains her existence. If Ephemera were to overuse her powers, she’d risk the unraveling of her being.

These manifestations are both physical and mental, fueled by raw negative emotions of a Burden. They are especially effective against their original source. However, in the event that a progenitor manages to shake off their emotional fetters and resolve the source of their burdens, then any attempt by Ephemera to use that Burden against them will fail and will have no effect. Objects shatter upon contact with the individual, and any mental effect fades away. Similarly, combatants with the capability to ward against evil spirits (such as exorcists) or have firm control over their emotions (such as those in monastic disciplines) can mitigate the effects of her manifestations.

Canvas of Shattered Mirrors:

"You are freed of your chains. Your burdens are now mine to bear. Your hopes are my desires."

Ephemera's body is covered in various tattoos that seem to rapidly change and move across her form as if they were alive. These tattoos are a portrayal of Ephemera's subconscious thoughts, often reflecting the Burdens she has taken onto herself. With each Burden acquired, Ephemera will hear a "voice" in her head. These voices are not separate personalities, rather residual emotions that have an effect on Ephemera’s psyche. The sum of all of the many Burdens she has collected results in a cacophony of impulses that drive Ephemera at a primal level.

" ... Ayane, are you there? Ayane!!!"
AQ DF AQW  Post #: 2
12/30/2023 13:24:53   
Sylphe
Member

Name/Title: Margul, Heart of the Mountain

Alignment: Chaos

Age Range: Around 1200 years old

Race: Vampire

Appearance: Margul is a muscular, tall man just a few centimeters short of two metres in height. It’s not paleness that strikes him as anything vampiric, as his skin is a warm brown with the slightest hint of gold. It’s in the wild, excited red eyes - full of flecks of orange and black that despite everything seem very natural. Mostly though, it is in the man’s absolutely oversized canines and a full, sharp jaw of teeth that could very well belong to a cougar instead of a man.

Margul’s hair is a long mane of brown hair, the kind of brown that likes to appear black under low light. Usually worn tied in a bun, the hairstyle is supported by a surprisingly delicately carved wooden pin. From this pin, a single phoenix feather hangs on a gilded thread. The feather casts fiery golden and red lights whenever hit with sunlight. Some of his hair is braided into a single braid on the left side, decorated with a carneol bead. His brows are rather bushy and with the same colour as his hair. Three small horns protrude out of the man’s head. One on each side of his head, dark brown as a cliff face and pointy. Closest possibly to an antelope's horn in shape, and pointed back. The final one is a growth on his forehead that isn’t quite a horn yet, but it’ll grow in time. The horns are usually hidden behind a wooden mask Margul wears. Carved out of ironwood (same as the pin), the mask is painted with warm colours to resemble the sun. It is also embedded with obsidian gems on the face and jagged spikes on its edges. It covers all except the teeth.

The man is adorned with countless tattoos made of sacred ash. They swirl and move as if alive, like smoke above a volcano. Few tattoos are more prominent, holding a fiery energy in their ink. A large phoenix spreads its wings over his shoulder blades, with its tail reaching all the way to his lower back. There is a beautiful and terrible inked serpent coiling around both his arms, its fangs chomping and snapping at prey it can never reach, locked in Margul’s right palm. The final large tattoo is a likeness of a faraway mountain, resting on the vampire’s stomach with beautifully inked smoke clouds curling over his heart and neck. Margul prides himself in wearing no armor, and so the only real clothing he wears is a terracotta red loincloth, hanging on a belt decorated with golden thread and obsidian gems. He wears a single decorative bracelet on his left wrist, made of small beads of rough gold and two lovingly polished pieces of pink coral, shaped like little antlers.

Equipment:

Obsidian mask: While the obsidian mask provides barely any additional protection, it can be used by Margul as a weapon should a time to shed it arise. Its jagged spikes are more than sharp enough to cleanly cut through skin and light armor, leaving nasty wounds behind. The obsidian of the spikes is thin and fragile, making it possible for the spikes to shatter into sharp pieces or a fine, equally sharp dust that can be harmful to breathe in or painful if stuck in a wound.

Sacred ash: Margul’s body is coated in protective ash that keeps him safe from sunlight. The ash can be washed off with water, or water and liquid based abilities. It takes in total three attempts to wash the ash off fully, with each layer down increasing the discomfort and pain sunlight causes the vampire.

Phoenixfeather pin: While only decorative, it is pointy and carved out of durable wood and could hurt if used as a makeshift stabbing weapon.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities:

Child of the First Night: Even ancient vampires cannot escape their nature - not easily, at least. Margul burns up in direct sunlight, causing him intense discomfort and pain and burning him away. Margul is able to withstand this for seven minutes before he would perish, with losing a significant portion of his strength three minutes and onward.

Abilities that draw from sunlight deal double damage to Margul. Wounds caused by sunlight disable the vampire’s regeneration for ten seconds. (More on the healing lower down!)

Conqueror: Margul possesses superhuman strength. His speed and agility are both around the level of a man who’s trained their whole life - but his fists hit harder than that, able to damage rock and even mildly bend steel if struck with enough force. The vampire is also skilled in unarmed combat.

Primal: Margul is able to perform small transformations such as sharpening his nails into short claws, or causing his horns to grow a few centimeters longer. He is also adept in using his natural weaponry in battle, including his teeth.


Divine Volcanic Lightning: Margul takes three seconds to charge a javelin of pure, crackling energy in his palm. This javelin can be yeeted at a distance of eight meters at most. It counts as both electric and fire in its elemental nature, and can cause a mild shock if it strikes a target wearing metal armor. The javelin’s magical energy is enough to pierce steel armor, but leaves no structural damage. The attack causes visible red lightning to form around Margul’s palm while it is being charged.

Margul may also use the javelin to perform a single melee attack instead of throwing it. In either case, the javelin dissipates into nothing either after the attack is made, or after five seconds. Margul is unable to cast this ability again for twenty seconds after the fact, requiring his natural electricity and warmth to recharge.


Gifts of the Bloodline: The vampire’s blood feels heated, though not enough to scald. Some of the vampire’s abilities are bound by blood into living tattoos made of sacred ash and ink. So long as Margul has those tattoos, he is capable of drawing from those abilities. However, the vampire is also able to bestow one of those blessings unto another living target, provided they have blood to be enchanted, and skin to be painted on. To bestow a tattoo onto another target, Margul needs to touch their body directly, and wound them - just a little is quite enough. By transferring the tattoo onto another target, Margul himself loses the ability. The affected target instinctively knows how to activate and use the ability. The same limitations and mechanics of the ability are in place, no matter if used by Margul or someone else.

To take the bestowed ability back, Margul once again needs to touch and wound the target. More than one blessing can be bestowed at a time, but no target can be affected by more than one at the same time (ie. Margul can give away as many as he wants, but one target can’t have more than one).

The process of bestowing or taking a blessing takes two seconds to perform.

Gift of Healing: The tattoo of the Phoenix promises eternal life. While this tattoo is upon a wearer, the owner’s regeneration is much faster than that of a simple human - minor scrapes heal within a few seconds, a small wound may take about thirty seconds to close, while a medium sized wound would take several minutes. This blessing is incapable of healing heavy wounds, but it will attempt to at least stop the bleeding where it can. Sunlight based attacks will disable healing for ten seconds, no matter if the phoenix aids Margul or another combatant.


Gift of Madness: The inked serpent wishes nothing more than to devour and destroy. While a creature possesses this tattoo, they can allow the serpent’s wrath to overtake them. They then get a boost in physical strength and speed for a five-second burst, but their mind burns with fury and impairs their ability to think straight. While the ability is in effect, the owner’s veins glow the blue-red of brimstone lava. This ability can be used consecutively, with a caveat: Without at least a short rest between uses, each use beyond the first causes ramping disorientation and nausea.

Gift of Basalt: The sacred volcano offers eternity to those willing to lose themselves in the fray. While this tattoo is upon a wearer, the owner’s skin is as tough as leather armor. This ability can only work for a creature that is not wearing armor already.

DF  Post #: 3
1/1/2024 21:55:20   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 And we begin with a Wraith and a Vampire! Let's start the balancing!



Welcome back Dragonknight! Ephemera is a beautifully complex character, which naturally means there is quite a lot to clarify and tweak. Let’s dive in!

Starting with her race; could you please include the basic statistics such as strength and speed of a wraith in comparison to a human? Additionally I’m understanding that a Wraith is far more durable than a human is. Could you define an upper limit to this (what degree of damage would be enough to end her existence), and define what “worn-essence” actually means as far as her continued capabilities? Injuring her enough should have a substantial impact on her ability to continue fighting, to be fair. Finally, I am assuming that the time necessary to heal her body is not an amount that would naturally occur within a battlefield. Please correct me if this is wrong (and then it may need further tweaking)

Moving onto her equipment, you describe her robe as “one and the same” as her, clarifying in DMs that it is also made of emotion and memory. Does damaging her robe cause her pain and wear-away at her essence the same as damaging her body would?

For Ephemera’s abilities, you are doing a lot with this character. I will be providing balancing suggestions for all of it, but I would honestly recommend toning down your total number of options to keep complexity for both yourself and other writers to a minimum. Some examples of this could be; limiting Brush Strokes to not be usable while utilizing a burden, removing Creature or Environment burdens (weapons is most-manageable), and/or limiting the Burdens so they are the same amount of physical and visual effectiveness towards all characters to avoid confusion. Onto the actual balancing!

Starting with Brush Strokes of the Maiden, I am slightly concerned about her ability to continuously regrow her hair while actively attacking with it. This should have a limitation such as preventing cut-away portions from being regrown while actively stretched out (or perhaps require it to regrow from closer to her than the cut-off portion), or requiring a greater amount of focus to do so.

For Ink-Scarred Paper, I am assuming that if the ritual is resisted, ink does not flow and Ephemera loses her chance to cause the ritual again until a new wound is created. Additionally, does this cause the target to re-experience the emotions? If so, it will take substantially more work to avoid bunnying, such as additional attempts to resist once it has started. If not, and only Ephemera experiences them, it should be more workable.

For the Burdens of the Soul, you include that “Ephemera has collected countless Burdens.” I am assuming she is only able to use ones she newly acquires, and will not be firing off a variety of burdens before actually activating Ink-Scarred Paper within the competition. Additionally, is she required to activate a Burden immediately after obtaining it? If so, this should be fine. If she can stockpile, the imposed recovery for same-burden types and the fact that it draws away her essence should be enough, but I would still like an additional delay between uses to avoid constant illusions that may become problematic for other writers.

For Weapons/Objects, I am assuming that “conjuring a spirit of that object in her hands” means the object must fit in her hands and cannot be any larger. If it can be, this may need rebalancing.

For Creatures, I would like a general limit to which Ephemera can increase her physical attribute, and confirmation that she can only increase one attribute at a time. Additionally, if the illusion includes additional limbs such as a tail, I am assuming that trait is purely illusionary, and she would not be able to physically use that new limb. Please confirm if otherwise. Also confirm the shape of this range; is it a 20-foot radius around her?

For Places and Events, I need a little more detail on the full extent of this ability. Firstly, I again need a specific shape for this range; is it a 20 (10?)-foot radius or a 20-foot square area? Small shards of ice or a thin layer of water on surfaces is fine, but coating the entire 20-foot area in tacks (essentially making it untraversable) is likely too strong. The wording of the ability implies more powerful environments are also possible, which may become problematic. Please provide an example of an upper-limit from which to balance from. If you wish to keep more dangerous effects such as spikes or dangerous ground, it should not be able to cover the entire range and should instead be scattered within it so it is avoidable. My suggestion, however, is to limit this to minor environmental changes such as the aforementioned layer of water, or changes in temperature and the like.

For Canvas of Shattered Mirrors, I understand this is primarily a flavor ability to impact your writing. If Ephemera is starting with Burdens beyond those gained within the competition, I again just need confirmation that these are strictly for the visuals and voices, and will not be able to be manifested (this could again be easily circumvented by requiring her to manifest burdens upon obtaining them, and leaving the tattoos and voices as an after-effect).

Finally, I want to note that you have designed a character that relies heavily on collaboration. Be prepared to work closely with other writers to make these abilities work as smoothly as possible, and be prepared to work smoothly around the possibility of not receiving that collaboration so as to avoid bunnying.

Let’s get these details ironed out so we have a more clear idea of just what Ephemera is capable of!


Welcome back, Sylphe! Nice to see a more traditional character from you (I hear geese in my nightmares). Margul is well-balanced overall, just needing a bit of additional detail to be rounded out. Let’s begin!

For abilities, could you please describe what Divine Volcanic Lightning actually does upon impacting a person? You include that it does not leave damage to armor, so I am assuming its damage to people is also more internal/pain-based than physically damaging, but would like a description.

For Gift of Madness, is it a significant boost to strength and speed, like making a non-vampire simply become equivalent to Margul, while making himself significantly stronger? or is it a smaller boost? Next, while the ramping disorientation and nausea is a good limiter for the consecutive uses, I would still like a hard-limit for how many times it could be used before that disorientation is impossible to withstand. This way we can ensure characters with resistances to such things can’t stay in a permanently buffed state. Depending on the strength of this boost, I have reservations about allowing characters that may already be able to buff themselves to use this; you could add a limitation preventing it from being used concurrently with other self-enhancing abilities, or find some other limitation to prevent that.

A new post with those two details added should be enough to get Margul out into the moonlight!


And that's our first set! Keep the bios coming!
Post #: 4
1/2/2024 9:48:39   
roseleaf320
Creative!


 Name: Vale, the False Whisper
Alignment: Chaos
Pronouns: she/they
Age: 40s
Species: Vulpe

Species Details: Vulpe are a race of humanoid creatures, similar to humans in most aspects, that possess several fox-like features. Most prominently, their ears are fox-like in appearance and jut out from the top of their heads. Their nails are pointed like claws, and many have tails of varying lengths, though some are born without them. Vulpe hearing is superior to human hearing, and they are typically lithe and dextrous, while somewhat lacking in physical strength, though both still within normal human range. Their lifespan and maturing cycle is slightly extended compared to humans, fully maturing at around 30 years (compared to humans’ 25) and living for ~90-120 years. Lastly, some have a special attunement to the thrum of life, detailed later in the Abilities section. All other appearance and physical capabilities are aligned with humans.

Appearance: Vale is a lithe vulpe standing at about 5’7”. They are clad primarily in shades of a dull blue that seem to dimly reflect the light around them. They wear a layer of slightly baggy cloths that cover most of their body; over this is a layer of thin leather bindings that wrap around their torso, lower arms/wrists, lower legs, ankles, and the back half of their feet. Around a part of their torso and their waist are two plum-colored scarves that shimmer with elaborate, reflective designs. They wear a cape with a large hood that at first glance, seems the same dull-blue as the rest of their outfit, but upon investigation, seems to be strung with countless iridescent threads.

Vale seems to have a plain, unobscured face which, when considered, reveals itself to be a simple wooden mask with dully-glowing swirls of blue within it. Their eyes, usually a pale lavender that can be seen through the mask, glow a dull orange when using their magic. Across their bared cheekbones and neck, and continuing under the hem of their clothing, reflective tattoos shimmer in the same manner as their scarves. Their hair, reaching slightly past their collarbone, is a reflective blue-black that matches their vulpe ears and short tail which tends to hide beneath their cape.

“Like emotions, life’s perception is fragile. Just one little tug, and it all unravels…”

Equipment:

Fireworks: Vale carries a pack of 10 small fireworks approximately the size of a pea. She has 5 each of two different types: light- or sound-eliciting. To light a firework, Vale slides a fingernail across the firework to create a spark. The firework explodes 1-2 seconds after being lit. Light-eliciting fireworks make a bright flash approximately 2 inches in diameter, and an incredibly quiet popping sound that may be detected by those with sharp ears and focus. The sound-eliciting fireworks make a gunshot-like sound upon explosion, accompanied by a very dim flash that may be seen by sharp eyes.

Throwing Knives: Vale carries a sheathe with two throwing knives on the left side of her waist. They are vibrantly colored, and meant to reflect the light around them and confuse their target. The knives are magically enchanted to return to Vale; after 10 seconds, no matter where they are, they will dissipate and return to her sheathe. Vale can throw her knives with relative accuracy for about 30 feet, and to a maximum distance of 60 feet.

Sabers // Trick of the Light: Vale’s main weapon is a set of paired sabers approximately 20 inches long. Each blade is slightly curved and has a single side that is completely flattened save for a latch on the handle, allowing them to come together, parallel to each other, as a single blade functionally identical to each half. The blades can be latched or unlatched easily by Vale, who is intimately familiar with their construction and use. When the blades are latched this way, the only indicator that they are two separate pieces is a thin line that runs lengthwise down the very top of the blade.

Vale can channel her magic through the blades to distort the light around them to project a false appearance. When latched together, Vale may make the single sword appear a few inches shorter, longer, wider, or thinner than it actually is, or its shape may appear slightly different (a harsher curve, for example). Vale may only distort one aspect of the swords’ appearance at a time (length OR width OR shape), and her eyes will glow orange for the duration of the distortion. This requires concentration from Vale, and will tire her over time-- maintaining the distortion for 2-3 seconds has a small impact; maintaining it for an extended period, perhaps 20 seconds, would significantly tire her. The blades will always be discernible as a sword with one sharp edge. This deception, and thus the blades’ true shape, can be discerned with concentration, time, and/or familiarity with similar magic. When the blades are wielded separately, their appearances are always identical, and the deception is significantly easier to detect: it appears to most focused watchers as an oscillating distortion in the air rather than a false shape of the blade.

“The thoughts and feelings of life are chaotic; I can see each fading, breath by breath, as Chaos falls.”

Abilities:

Life-Sight: Vale can sense the chaotic thrum of thoughts and emotions that make up any sentient being’s life experience. This is constantly, passively felt by Vale, but with no concentration, is simply a dull sense that the being is, indeed, sentient and thinking. With a small bit of focus, Vale can parse out a person’s most immediate and vivid thoughts and emotions. This may come as occasional words in Vale’s head, but is most often a feeling and vague glimpses of the thought’s subject. If a person is daydreaming about their loved one, for example, Vale may feel a sense of affection and see an indistinct, blurry image vaguely matching the lover’s description, or may smell a flowery perfume. Vale can only focus on one individual at a time within 60 feet of her. The content of this ability will rely entirely on input from other writers, and nothing sensed by this ability will ever be written without collaboration and the other writer’s sign-off.

A person’s life, in Vale’s case, revolves around memory- and imaginative-based thoughts that elicit vivid emotional or sensory information. Vale has absolutely NO access to information in other parts of the brain, including logic-based knowledge, strategy, or motor planning: this will NEVER give her any information on a person’s next plan for combat, what a person is expecting her to do in combat, etc. Vale’s sight may be obscured with willpower or strong passive mental fortitude.

Voice of the Trickster: Vale is able to convey spoken words to another individual through telepathy. The voice appears as a whisper-- in the common language-- that is clearly inside the individual’s head. Tone, pitch, and other qualities that would make the voice identifiable are difficult to discern; Vale uses words to attempt to make the voice sound as if it comes from the individual’s own inner thoughts, but it may be easily identifiable as external with concentration, time, or by someone who has experience with telepathy. With strong willpower, Vale’s voice may be shut out of the mind entirely, and Vale will know when this occurs. Vale cannot verbally speak while speaking telepathically, cannot channel her magic through her Voice and swords simultaneously, and her eyes will glow orange while she is using her Voice. She may only telepathically speak to one person at a time within 60 feet of her. The telepathic messages hold no magical sway over an opponent’s perceptions, actions, or feelings-- only the natural reactions elicited by a voice they may or may not believe to be their own.

“What if you just… gave up? Would it really be that bad?”

Post #: 5
1/2/2024 19:46:19   
  Starflame13
Moderator
The world feels different, once you’ve been chosen as Paragon.


Name/Title: Elysia, Storm-Bringer.

Alignment: Order

Age Range: 35

Race: Human

Appearance: Elysia stands at 5’5”, posture straight and shoulders back, even if there’s a hint of bowleggedness about her gate that speaks to decades spent in the saddle. Thick muscles and broad shoulders give her a heavy build, extra pounds packed on over the years in the manner of people whose bodies knew to store energy to get them through lean times. Her short, spiked brown hair - bleached almost to blond - and deeply tanned skin hint to an existence spent exposed to sun and wind alike. A thick, faded scar stretches across her left cheek, barely an inch shy of taking one of her hard green eyes. She dresses simply, favoring functionality over form, the majority of her gear of various hides and leathers and the only hint of metal found in her weapons and at her fingertips.

Equipment:
Armor: Elysia wears a combination of tanned leather and thick hide armor. Leather braces on the legs and arms as well as a leather undershirt, with thicker furs on her upper half - mostly the dappled tan of various plains wildcats, with the silvery ruff of a gray wolf draped about her shoulders. Her boots are leather as well, with thicker than average souls, while her gloves have steel sewn in across the knuckles and in thin strips along her forearms.

Weapons: Even unmounted, Elysia’s most prominent weapon is her glaive, five feet of slim ash, the wood polished and treated both for water and for temporary brushes with fire, with 18 inches of curved, deadly sharp steel at its tip and capped with steel at the butt end. She has wielded weapons of similar caliber for as long as she could lift them, and thus possesses significant skill with the polearm whether mounted or on foot. In addition, she has her set of well maintained hunter’s knives, the longer a saxe knife nearly 20 inches of folded steel blade, razor sharp on one side and thick on the other for deflection, and the shorter closer to a throwing knife with a balanced blade less than 10 inches in length, with a weighted hilt. She is decently proficient in close-combat with her blades, as well as bare handed, but prefers to use the glaive to keep her prey at a distance.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities:
Lightning Caller: Elysia is able to call lightning to her will. The lightning she calls, though magical in nature, is otherwise similar in characteristic to natural lightning, and she herself is immune to the bolts and to those of similar properties. Other sources of pure electricity, while perhaps less effective, would still impact her in some way. The warrior is able to call the lightning to her in three separate forms:

Javelin: a single bolt of lightning summoned to an empty hand of about the size of a javelin, although slightly faster than a thrown mundane weapon. While not truly honing, its accuracy is improved by significant amounts of metal on the target. By her own skill, she has significant accuracy under 30 feet and decent in the 30-50 foot range, with each expanding by 20 feet for a target in full metal armor.

Web: A bolt of lightning that arcs down from the sky to Elysia, alighting upon metal she is holding - whether her glaive, a dagger, or even her gloves in a pinch - and from there splintering outwards in up to a half-dozen smaller bolts, depending on the amount of metal in her immediate vicinity. She herself is a safe zone in this web, meaning any of her mounts avoid getting jolted, but enemies and allies otherwise nearby are at risk. Even with her immunities, calling lightning through the metal of her gloves numbs her fingers to the point that grasping her weapons becomes difficult.

Sphere: Elysia summons a sphere of pure energy surrounding her, enough to vaporize or disintegrate smaller projectiles and severely damage larger ones. The sphere itself is extremely thin, meaning larger items or even people would still be able to pass through it, although wearing metal armor while doing so would perhaps be a bad idea. The sphere is extremely draining on her mana levels - at its absolute largest, she could surround herself and a mount for a few moments to avoid a barrage, but it would leave her pool of mana nearly barren as a result.

Calling lightning in any manner requires her focus and concentration, although she has gotten better over the years at narrowing her focus for the small amount of time it takes for the single-bolt javelins. While both javelins and webs of lightning do require that she has some mana in reserve, the amount is practically negligible compared to the drain of holding the sphere. The above lightning attacks buzz from the energy and crack in the wake of their path, slightly lower than the noise level of your average shotgun and significantly lower than true thunder. She does, however, have one ability that is louder:

Shock Wave: An unseen and unfelt wave of lighting arcs out away from her - unnoticeable save for the overwhelming crash of thunder that follows instantaneously on its heels and carries enough force to knock most nearby opponents off their feet. Weaker prey, like rabbits and birds, are often completely paralyzed for several minutes, but against larger and tougher prey, the impact is closer to severe disorientation for several long moments, and sensitive hearing can be temporarily damaged, or even permanently after multiple exposures. The greater force behind the wave reaches a few horselengths, although the sound carries significantly further without causing significant damage. Calling lightning - or more specifically, thunder - in such a way drains Elysia significantly of her mana and makes recovering her stores difficult without proper rest. Elysia herself is not immune to the disorientation, although she is used to it enough to shake it off quickly.

Constant use of her lightning abilities have given Elysia mild hearing loss, but the irregular reports of her shock wave have also given her a moderate case of tinnitus, and similar loud noises can also induce spikes of the constant low-level buzzing in her own ears.

Your body forevermore runs with static, in every beat of its heart. The storm gathers in your veins long before the clouds amass in the sky.


Elysia has twice come into contact with true, pure, Elemental Energy upon the scarlet sands of a distant Arena; once by Another’s will, and once by the accident of her own actions. The mark of these interactions has left a handprint, forever untouched, on her soul from which her well of mana swells. For good and for ill.

Static Sense: Elysia can sense the build up of static charge. A true thunderstorm she can sense for miles off - and being directly in one is enough to disorient her slightly due to the flickers of mirages and afterimages she constantly sees in the pattern left behind by its own lightning bolts. Her own bolts - and single bolts of similar caliber - she can sense up to their lower accuracy range (30 feet), while the charge an average, rapidly moving person would generate from their own friction is under 5. She cannot sense anything smaller than that without sinking deep into a meditative state.

Static Touch: Elysia’s nerves spark constantly with static, the sparks mild but ready to jump at any point of physical contact with anything that carries its own charge, particularly other living beings. While not painful enough to do more than irritate or inconvenience those she comes into contact with, the surprise of the sparks is often enough to turn a quick grapple into her favor - although given that she lacks the ability to suppress it, softer or kinder touches are withdrawn in equal measure. It has also had the side effect of numbing her sense of touch - skin wounds cause less pain, milder burns might not even initially be noticed - but the lack of pain is not the lack of damage, and more than once she has spent weeks recovering an injury that another would have stopped aggravating long before.

It does not matter if you never meet the Lords again. The storm pays homage to you all the same.

AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 6
1/2/2024 22:02:53   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 Tonight brings a fox and a champion from another time!

Welcome back, Roseleaf!

Vale is a very simple character, which makes my job much easier. We confirmed in DM’s that Voice of the Trickster requires line of sight to begin and maintain, and you have acknowledged that Life-Sight is a very collaboration-heavy ability. Continue to keep that in mind as you work to avoid bunnying!

With that, Vale is approved!


Well hey there Starflame, I spy a crossover character!

Elysia is well-balanced across the board, with an array of fun stuff to use without being too many. Approved!


Off to a strong start this year! Keep them coming!
Post #: 7
1/3/2024 13:10:06   
Dragonknight315
Member

Round two! Updates have been underlined!

"... Ah, visitors! Have you come for cleansing?"

Name: Ephemera
Alignment: Chaos
Race: Wraith
Age: 23 at time of Transformation

Physiology:--- Ephemera is a wraith. Born of the unresolved feelings of a mortal at their death, their physical form has given way to a supernatural entity composed entirely of emotions and memories that fetter them to the mortal plane. This gives wraiths a dual nature, a being of the spirit world that is able to exist in and impact the material world. Ephemera's mere presence carries an unmistakable air of malevolence and sadness.

Wraiths have no biological processes, though they possess all the senses of a living mortal (though dulled). To sustain themselves, a wraith must gorge themselves upon the negative emotions of others. Just as a mortal would drink water, so Ephemera needs to drink fear and anger. Because a wraith's body is not truly physical, they are unbound from many mortal limitations. While Ephemera is comparable to the average human in terms of speed and strength, she possesses exceptional resiliency. She is capable of surviving with a missing limb without much issue. Any further damage than that and her capabilities will rapidly weaken however (becoming slower, physically weaker, and unable to think beyond raw instincts.) Multiple limbs worth of damage would be Ephemera’s upper limit before she unravels (vanishing into smoke with her 2nd death.) Furthermore, a wraith's spiritual nature can be exploited. While a powerful wraith such as Ephemera is resistant to most methods of warding and exorcism, it is still far more effective as a means of ending her. Ephemera is able to use some of her siphoned essence to repair damage to her form, but this requires a lengthy period of dormancy and isn’t something that can be done on the battlefield.

Appearance:--- Ephemera appears as a young adult girl. When standing upright, the wraith is around 6 feet tall, though she is often found in a slouch. She is dressed in a shrine maiden's garb with a robe and long skirt, though notably barefoot. The pure red and white fibers have long been stained. The smell of blood, smoke, and damp earth clings to her. Ephemera’s sleeves are torn, exposing her bare and cracked skin. It appears white, almost translucent, stretched thin over her gaunt frame. A black inky color runs through Ephemera's body, replacing her veins and arteries. The same color stains her lips and the area around her skin as ink steadily flows over from within.

Ephemera's hair is pitch black. Long and unkept, the frayed hair reaches over her shoulders and down to her knees. Two particular streaks stick out over her ears. The borders of Ephemera's hair appear blurry; one would have a hard time telling where her hair ends and her shadow begins. This is further obscured by a light smoke that eternally drifts from her hair. Tucked away in one of the long streaks is a small but ornate hair pin, a metal piece shaped into a flower with dangling beads. If one can peer behind the wraith's hair, they would see Ephemera's eyes– black sclera with stone grey irises that resemble an ancient ceremonial mirror.

Across Ephemera's skin are black tattoos of all shapes imaginable. These tattoos are unstable and in constant motion and can appear anywhere other than her hands. They instead bear her mostly grisly features. A piece of severed rope is tied around each of her wrists, and her flesh is scared from rope burn. From her scars down, Ephemera's hands are completely stained black, and her digits extend into thin, foot-long sickles that drip with ink.

Equipment:--- Ephemera carries little in terms of equipment, relying solely on her supernatural powers. However, three items are of particular note for the wraith.

The first is her shrine maiden robe. While the garb was originally blessed by the holy spirits of her homeland, what powers it once held are gone. Now, her robes are a symbol of Ephemera’s blasphemy, allowing the wraith to utilize her terrible powers to their fullest extent. The robe and Ephemera are one and the same as her clothes are also made of the same memory essence (with damage done to the robes also affecting Ephemera). While Ephemera is dormant, her shrine maiden garb will repair any damage to itself just as Ephemera recovers her body. However, nothing can restore the robe’s torn sleeves or cleanse the stains on it.

The second is her sin-stained claws. In spite of their seemingly unwieldy nature, Ephemera is dexterous with these claws and they do not interfere with her ability to hold things. Ephemera’s claws are extremely sharp, and combined with her inhumane strength, she can wear away at even some of the toughest of armors. Furthermore, her claws act as a focus for her other abilities.

Third is her hairpin. Similar to her robes, her hair pin is an actual physical object that is nonetheless still bound to Ephemera’s psyche. In stark contrast to her robes, the pin is perfectly clean and preserved. It is perhaps the last remnant of her humanity. In the event that the hairpin is ever disturbed or removed by someone, Ephemera will go into a frenzy and prioritize said person in an attempt to reclaim it, regardless of any self-preservation and strategy. Protecting her pin is so thoroughly ingrained in Ephemera that her frenzy will overcome almost any effect, magical or otherwise, that would otherwise persuade her.


Abilities:---

Brush Strokes of the Maiden:

"Take this brush and dip it into the ink–"

Ephemera can control and alter her hair as a means of tormenting her victims. At will, Ephemera can rapidly extend the two streaks of thick hair over her ears up to 10ft in reach. These thick ropes of hair are prehensile, able to grasp and lift objects with the same strength as human arms. However, Ephemera often uses her hair in a particular manner. Ephemera can shape the ends of her hair into claws similar to her actual hands. These ones are just as sharp. However, her hair is still hair, rendering it simple to cut. But it is just as simple for Ephemera to regrow it, requiring a negligible amount of focus to quickly replace any hair lost and continue her assault. If any of her hair is cut, the entire strand of affected hair vanishes into smoke (requiring Ephemera to regrow it from the start)


Ink-Scarred Paper:

"... Write on this paper. Don't think; just write whatever comes to mind and let the words run over."

In the event that Ephemera manages to injure the flesh (or an appropriate equivalent) of a sentient being with one of her claws (either her natural claws or ones created by Brush Strokes of the Maiden), then Ephemera’s signature ritual activates. Immediately after being wounded, a victim will feel an alien presence in their mind. The more grievous the actual wound, the harder it is to fight against the presence. If the individual does not fight against the presence or is unable to resist it somehow, then Ephemera’s ritual succeeds. If resisted, Ephemera must wound the victim again before reattempting the ritual.

In the case of a success, two things will happen. First, ink will begin to fill and slowly flow out of the wound. This ink is not inherently harmful to the victim; instead, it serves as a form of marker and terror tactic, an unmistakable sign of Ephemera’s supernatural presence. This ink lasts until the wound is healed or otherwise dispelled.

Second, Ephemera will gain insight into the victim’s deepest negative experience. In this moment, Ephemera will experience the trauma for herself (though notably this does not cause the victim to relive the trauma.) This is not some all-encompassing form of mind-reading. Rather, Ephemera is made aware of the essence of the thoughts, at most gaining a two-sentence summary. But she feels the full impact of those negative feelings within her. As a creature made of memory, this experience leaves a tangible impact on her psyche known as a “Burden.”


Burdens of the Soul:

"As you cast the paper into the fire, so do you cast off the fetters that bind you to your suffering.”

Over her entire existence, Ephemera has collected countless Burdens. After successfully attaining a new Burden, Ephemera can use her corrupted spiritual power and manifest it into reality. This must be done immediately after acquisition otherwise the opportunity is lost. Each Burden has a focus, some particular detail that encapsulates the experience. This is determined at the moment the Burden is acquired. Manifesting a Burden requires a moment of intense physical and spiritual effort, and it can take one of three forms.

Ephemera can only manifest one burden at a time and can dispel the manifestation at will. All Burden manifestations have a maximum duration of one minute, after which the manifestations vanish. Once a Burden is manifested, Ephemera must endure a lengthy recovery before using a Burden of the same type again. Manifestations are fueled by the same emotional energy that maintains her existence. If Ephemera were to overuse her powers, she’d risk the unraveling of her being.

In the event that the originator of a Burden manages to shake off their emotional fetters and resolve the source of their burdens, then any attempt by Ephemera to use that Burden against them will fail and will have no effect. Objects shatter upon contact with the individual, and any mental effect fades away. Similarly, combatants with the capability to ward against evil spirits (such as exorcists) or have firm control over their emotions (such as those in monastic disciplines) can mitigate the effects of her manifestations.

• Manifest Weapon/Object: If the Burden is focused on a particular object such as a weapon, Ephemera can conjure the spirit of that object in her hands. When Ephemera manifests a weapon or object, she becomes proficient with it, guided by the residual effect of the Burden. Made from Ephemera’s own essence, the conjured object is a twisted and nightmarish version of its counterpart. However, it would be reduced to its barest form, holding little to no special properties of the original beyond its mundane physical function. Objects whose sole function is magical would be of little use. A magic wand would be rendered to just a stick, but a bow whose arrows never missed would still be a bow.

Ephemera can only have one weapon/object manifested at a time. Furthermore, Ephemera must be capable of holding/wearing the object (in terms of mass, no more than a breastplate or a glaive as an example). If the manifested object would require ammunition to function, then Ephemera can manifest one piece of ammunition in the process. She can briefly focus to manifest additional ammunition but this would require an escalating cost to her essence. Any manifested object is limited to Ephemera’s sphere of influence (a 20 ft radius around her) If a manifested object would fall outside this range, then it immediately vanishes into smoke.

• Manifest Creature: If the Burden is focused on a particular person or creature, Ephemera can channel the essence of their image into her own body. Upon manifestation, Ephemera will gain a significant increase of one physical attribute based off of the manifested burden. For instance, if she were to channel the essence of a murderer, she could move faster. A fabled monster might bestow physical strength, or a forgotten lover could grant her grace and agility. To any observer, there would be accompanying changes to Ephemera’s appearance (though these changes are strictly visible and are an illusion) Ephemera’s form will alter to best resemble the person or creature that inspired the burden (including their voice).

This manifestation can only affect those in a 20ft radius around Ephemera. Outside this range Ephemera would appear as her true self. Stepping back inside the range would reapply the effect but with diminished results.

• Manifest Enviroment: Some Burdens do not focus on a person or an object. Simply being at a place may dredge up old, unresolved feelings. Burdens of this nature center on the setting and the experiences that took place there. It’s not about the murderer with their knife, but the house that has lost its innocence. It is the lake rather than the lady that drowned within it.

When manifesting one of these Burdens, Ephemera is able to create a single elemental effect in the surrounding environment. These effects are constantly, gradually being created in a 20ft radius centered around Ephemera. The phenomena is manifested uniformly across the affected area with any created environmental objects scattered throughout. When Ephemera moves, any effect outside of her sphere of influence disappears.

The manifested hazards bear the physical qualities of their genuine counterparts and take on a shadow-like and brutalistic appearance. Examples include:
• A uncomfortable change in temperature (hot or cold) around Ephemera
• Water that pools at Ephemera’s feet
• A current of wind that whirls around Ephemera
• Icy or metallic spikes that form on any nearby surfaces


Canvas of Shattered Mirrors:

"You are freed of your chains. Your burdens are now mine to bear. Your hopes are my desires."

Ephemera's body is covered in various tattoos that seem to rapidly change and move across her form as if they were alive. These tattoos are a portrayal of Ephemera's subconscious thoughts and often reflect the Burdens she has taken onto herself. With each Burden acquired, Ephemera will hear a "voice" in her head. These voices are not separate personalities, rather residual emotions that have an effect on Ephemera’s psyche. The sum of all of the many Burdens she has collected results in a cacophony of impulses that drive Ephemera at a primal level.


" ... Ayane, are you there? Ayane!!!"
AQ DF AQW  Post #: 8
1/3/2024 20:25:04   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 Another day, another approval!


@Dragonknight315 - And that’s round 2! Ephemera is much more manageable now. We clarified in DMs that Environment Burdens are not able to make significantly large hazards (the exampled spikes would be only a few inches long)

I would still like to warn of the amount of collaboration this character will require and your capabilities if you do not receive that collaboration, but that is a risk you have taken on and are aware of, so Ephemera is approved!
Post #: 9
1/4/2024 8:57:53   
Sylphe
Member

Hiiii! I had no idea Ferd had such an impact, haha. I’d offer advice on how to avoid him in your nightmares, but you might just be doomed. Anyway, let’s get to it!

I’m sorry for the block of text on Gift of Madness - I wanted to make sure I caught everything that could become a problem. The rundown of changes:

Divine Volcanic Lightning:
- Removed the “no structural damage”
- Made it behave like a javelin
- it makes a very small burn/zappy now

Gift of Madness (my brain is a pretzel now.)
- added a max of consecutive uses
- clarified the length of the ability’s drawback
- made it so that attempting to use Gift of Madness while already under the effect of a buff will negate the original buff
- clarified how much this ability buffs



Name/Title: Margul, Heart of the Mountain

Alignment: Chaos

Age Range: Around 1200 years old

Race: Vampire

Appearance: Margul is a muscular, tall man just a few centimeters short of two metres in height. It’s not paleness that strikes him as anything vampiric, as his skin is a warm brown with the slightest hint of gold. It’s in the wild, excited red eyes - full of flecks of orange and black that despite everything seem very natural. Mostly though, it is in the man’s absolutely oversized canines and a full, sharp jaw of teeth that could very well belong to a cougar instead of a man.

Margul’s hair is a long mane of brown hair, the kind of brown that likes to appear black under low light. Usually worn tied in a bun, the hairstyle is supported by a surprisingly delicately carved wooden pin. From this pin, a single phoenix feather hangs on a gilded thread. The feather casts fiery golden and red lights whenever hit with sunlight. Some of his hair is braided into a single braid on the left side, decorated with a carneol bead. His brows are rather bushy and with the same colour as his hair. Three small horns protrude out of the man’s head. One on each side of his head, dark brown as a cliff face and pointy. Closest possibly to an antelope's horn in shape, and pointed back. The final one is a growth on his forehead that isn’t quite a horn yet, but it’ll grow in time. The horns are usually hidden behind a wooden mask Margul wears. Carved out of ironwood (same as the pin), the mask is painted with warm colours to resemble the sun. It is also embedded with obsidian gems on the face and jagged spikes on its edges. It covers all except the teeth.

The man is adorned with countless tattoos made of sacred ash. They swirl and move as if alive, like smoke above a volcano. Few tattoos are more prominent, holding a fiery energy in their ink. A large phoenix spreads its wings over his shoulder blades, with its tail reaching all the way to his lower back. There is a beautiful and terrible inked serpent coiling around both his arms, its fangs chomping and snapping at prey it can never reach, locked in Margul’s right palm. The final large tattoo is a likeness of a faraway mountain, resting on the vampire’s stomach with beautifully inked smoke clouds curling over his heart and neck. Margul prides himself in wearing no armor, and so the only real clothing he wears is a terracotta red loincloth, hanging on a belt decorated with golden thread and obsidian gems. He wears a single decorative bracelet on his left wrist, made of small beads of rough gold and two lovingly polished pieces of pink coral, shaped like little antlers.

Equipment:

Obsidian mask: While the obsidian mask provides barely any additional protection, it can be used by Margul as a weapon should a time to shed it arise. Its jagged spikes are more than sharp enough to cleanly cut through skin and light armor, leaving nasty wounds behind. The obsidian of the spikes is thin and fragile, making it possible for the spikes to shatter into sharp pieces or a fine, equally sharp dust that can be harmful to breathe in or painful if stuck in a wound.

Sacred ash: Margul’s body is coated in protective ash that keeps him safe from sunlight. The ash can be washed off with water, or water and liquid based abilities. It takes in total three attempts to wash the ash off fully, with each layer down increasing the discomfort and pain sunlight causes the vampire.

Phoenixfeather pin: While only decorative, it is pointy and carved out of durable wood and could hurt if used as a makeshift stabbing weapon.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities:

Child of the First Night: Even ancient vampires cannot escape their nature - not easily, at least. Margul burns up in direct sunlight, causing him intense discomfort and pain and burning him away. Margul is able to withstand this for seven minutes before he would perish, with losing a significant portion of his strength three minutes and onward.

Abilities that draw from sunlight deal double damage to Margul. Wounds caused by sunlight disable the vampire’s regeneration for ten seconds. (More on the healing lower down!)

Conqueror: Margul possesses superhuman strength. His speed and agility are both around the level of a man who’s trained their whole life - but his fists hit harder than that, able to damage rock and even mildly bend steel if struck with enough force. The vampire is also skilled in unarmed combat.

Primal: Margul is able to perform small transformations such as sharpening his nails into short claws, or causing his horns to grow a few centimeters longer. He is also adept in using his natural weaponry in battle, including his teeth.

Divine Volcanic Lightning: Margul takes three seconds to charge a javelin of pure, crackling energy in his palm. This javelin can be yeeted at a distance of eight meters at most. It counts as both electric and fire in its elemental nature, and can cause a mild shock if it strikes a target wearing metal armor. The javelin’s magical energy is enough to pierce steel armor, but leaves no structural damage.The attack causes visible red lightning to form around Margul’s palm while it is being charged. The attack behaves like a regular javelin would, with the addition of mildly burning and shocking things it touches. The effect is weak, resulting in very mild burns on skin and material in the spot the javelin touched. The electricity is comparable to a small static shock (with the static shock upgrading to Mean when the target is wearing metal armor.)

Margul may also use the javelin to perform a single melee attack instead of throwing it. In either case, the javelin dissipates into nothing either after the attack is made, or after five seconds. Margul is unable to cast this ability again for twenty seconds after the fact, requiring his natural electricity and warmth to recharge.

Gifts of the Bloodline: The vampire’s blood feels heated, though not enough to scald. Some of the vampire’s abilities are bound by blood into living tattoos made of sacred ash and ink. So long as Margul has those tattoos, he is capable of drawing from those abilities. However, the vampire is also able to bestow one of those blessings unto another living target, provided they have blood to be enchanted, and skin to be painted on. To bestow a tattoo onto another target, Margul needs to touch their body directly, and wound them - just a little is quite enough. By transferring the tattoo onto another target, Margul himself loses the ability. The affected target instinctively knows how to activate and use the ability. The same limitations and mechanics of the ability are in place, no matter if used by Margul or someone else.

To take the bestowed ability back, Margul once again needs to touch and wound the target. More than one blessing can be bestowed at a time, but no target can be affected by more than one at the same time (ie. Margul can give away as many as he wants, but one target can’t have more than one).

The process of bestowing or taking a blessing takes two seconds to perform.

Gift of Healing: The tattoo of the Phoenix promises eternal life. While this tattoo is upon a wearer, the owner’s regeneration is much faster than that of a simple human - minor scrapes heal within a few seconds, a small wound may take about thirty seconds to close, while a medium sized wound would take several minutes. This blessing is incapable of healing heavy wounds, but it will attempt to at least stop the bleeding where it can. Sunlight based attacks will disable healing for ten seconds, no matter if the phoenix aids Margul or another combatant.

Gift of Madness: The inked serpent wishes nothing more than to devour and destroy. While a creature possesses this tattoo, they can allow the serpent’s wrath to overtake them. They then get a significant* boost in physical strength and speed for a five-second burst, but their mind burns with fury and impairs their ability to think straight. While the ability is in effect, the owner’s veins glow the blue-red of brimstone lava. This ability can be used consecutively, with a caveat: Without at least a short rest between uses, each use beyond the first causes ramping disorientation and nausea, Becoming worse and longer by 10 seconds for each consecutive use. The maximum of consecutive uses is three.

This ability cannot be used concurrently with other boosting abilities, no matter what abilities they affect - if such an attempt is made, Gift of Madness overrides the original buff and stops its effects.

*This scales off the user’s original ability. A person that hasn’t honed their physical ability and speed will find themselves as strong as if they trained their whole life. Someone who’s already strong in both aspects would be elevated to Margul’s level of strength, and the speed would also be slightly superhuman - reflexes too fast, moving a bit faster than you’d expect them to be able to. If the target’s ability was superhuman already, it’s only an additional bit of speed and strength: Margul would be able to break the rock he was only able to damage, or cause significant damage to steel. A target that had superhuman speed already would be just a bit more agile/faster than that.

Gift of Basalt: The sacred volcano offers eternity to those willing to lose themselves in the fray. While this tattoo is upon a wearer, the owner’s skin is as tough as leather armor. This ability can only work for a creature that is not wearing armor already.

DF  Post #: 10
1/4/2024 22:20:07   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 We're moving right along!

@Sylphe - Thanks for the extra details, exactly what I was looking for!

Margul is approved!
Post #: 11
1/7/2024 22:34:02   
nield
Creative!


 Lo9oks like we're not quite Chaotic enough yet. Let's change that.

Note: Her Face and Her Face Too are sub-abilities of Another Love, which is much clearer in my google doc, but forum formatting hates me.

Name: The Crying Man

Side: Chaos

Age: 28

Race: Aberrant Human

Appearance: The Crying Man stands at 5’10” with short black hair laying flat on his head. His eyes are perpetually closed, although a torrent of tears spill forth endlessly, while a small, sad smile sits static upon his face. Scar tissue covers the entirety of his throat.

The Crying Man is garbed in a pure black three-piece suit with black gloves. What appears to be a feather made of fire adorns his collar, while a pair of glasses with shattered lenses are folded in his breast pocket, with the lenses on the outside of the pocket. Were he to be divested of his clothing, Fourth degree burns would be found to extensively cover his body.

Capabilities:

The Depths Of Sorrow: The Crying Man’s face exudes fathomless sorrow, which usually has some effect on people, comparatively to their natural empathy: Those who care naught for other people will be little affected, or even not at all, while those with natural high empathy are more likely to be heavily affected, although anyone can wrench free of the effect with sufficient mental exertion.

The effects tend to depend on the person being affected; some will feel sorry for The Crying Man, while others will reflect on sadnesses in their own lives while some simply fall into a depressive state

The Sword Honed By Sorrow: A plain black, double-edged blade made from an unknown metal The Sword Honed by Sorrow is nonetheless exceptionally sharp, able to cut through light armours like cloth and even capable of damaging heavy armour. However, The Sword is encapsulated by the tears that pour from The Crying Man, blunting its edge completely, leaving it struggling to cut so much as paper. The sword is quite sturdy, being well capable of keeping pace in direct clashes against larger and heavier weapons.

Combat Savant: Despite his young age, The Crying Man is an exceptional duelist, well-versed in single combat and his lack of sight does not slow him down in the slightest. While one would assume that this leaves him vulnerable to abilities that affect his hearing, this seems to not be the case.

Mourning Wear: The Crying Man’s suit is surprisingly resilient for what, by sight appears to be little more than cloth, dampening not only cutting attacks, but also bludgeoning and piercing blows. The Mourning Wear, despite its appearance, smells and feels like charcoal should one get close enough.

Another Love: While some of the tears that flow forth without end from The Crying Man’s eyes encapsulate his sword and yet more splash onto the ground, soaking the area around his feet, the lion’s share actually float into the air to create two images that consist of the head and upper torso of two women, through whose eyes The Crying Man can see.

Her Face: The first image is of a plain looking, bookish human with a bob cut and wearing a pair of glasses that matches those folded in The Crying Man’s breast pocket. She is garbed in a simple sweater. This image stays close to The Crying Man at all times and literally watches his back, allowing him to know what is behind him and focuses on defence, getting in the way of projectiles to at least slow them down.

Her Face Too: The second image is of a beautiful, non-human woman with shoulder-length hair and a pair of cat’s ears atop her head. From her back, although being made of tears dulls the effect slightly are a pair of magnificent wings that look to be made of flames. Her hands are a mixture between hands and claws, ending in sharp points fit to gouge a man’s eyes out. She is garbed in a backless top. This image faces forward and focuses on offence, battering enemies with her wings and slicing with her claws, although this is not very effective, since she is not made from solid matter.

spoiler:

All My Tears Have Been Used Up: The Crying Man’s tears stop flowing and his eyes open, revealing them to be red in colour. Even with the tears ceased his face still exudes fathomless sorrow. The tears covering The Sword Honed By Sorrow also dissipate, unveiling its wicked edge to the world. With the flow of tears stopped, the effects of Another Love also cease.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 12
1/8/2024 7:17:16   
Oddball
Member

“I request that you leave these Holy Grounds, lest you join your comrades in breathing your last.”

Name: Rita Svulgir
Alias: “Sister Rita”
Pronouns: They/Them
Age: 312
Race: “Human”
spoiler:

Has undergone major experimentation. While they retain the look of a human, it is more accurate to refer to them as an android.

Alignment: Order

Appearance: Rita stands at a staggering 7 feet tall, with short dirty blonde hair that appears to be a pale shade of white underneath. While in combat, the white in their hair slowly warps to a blood red as the fight progresses. This serves no actual purpose, and Rita themself is unaware of the changes. A similar progression happens with their eyes, starting off as a pure white and slowly filling as damage is dealt or sustained to a piercing red.

Rita is quite muscular for someone of their profession, but it is difficult to tell as they are almost permanently covered by a set of White robes that have undecipherable, Black, symbols scattered across them in seemingly random locations. In certain situations, these symbols emit a strange noise akin to a person humming.

Equipment: As the last of their church, Rita is tasked with watching over the orphans of the Fallen Deity, and has done so for 290 years without fail. Over their long existence, Rita has gained extensive knowledge of all kinds of weaponry, and has a small amount of training with most blades, blunt weapons, and firearms of any kind. However, they have only truly mastered a very select few weapons, noting that “Anything flashy is a waste of time and effort.” As such, they are rarely seen with anything other than a Combat knife and a Tomahawk.

”The experiments map my story, and my bones were simply the beginning.”

VXR9-Skeletal Replacement: To become the protector they needed to be, Rita underwent a staggeringly long experimental surgery that sought to cover their bones in a strange paste-like blastproof substance. The result of this is Rita becoming almost impossibly durable with them being able to push through injuries that would otherwise kill a normal person with relative ease.
However, this durability does have its limits, and Rita has been pushed to them on multiple occasions. While their skeleton is mechanical, Rita themself is still made of flesh and blood, and sustaining enough damage will affect them just as it would a normal person.
With a decent chunk of their body being mechanical, Rita also has a natural weakness to Lightning, and being directly struck can lead to deadly malfunctions.

B0EA-Divine Prosthetic: A near-indestructible prosthetic arm forged by the Goddess of Crafting as a gift towards the one who saved their temple. While outside of combat the arm takes an ordinary appearance and is very difficult to tell it apart from a regular, human limb. When combat occurs, the arm’s disguise falls, revealing its mechanical nature to the world.
There have been two separate ‘additions’ made to the prosthetic, both requested by Rita.

Addition One: Compartment One: A large section of Rita’s forearm that splits apart and breaks open, revealing a 2 and a half foot long Tomahawk folded within the compartment. This axe is suddenly propelled into Rita’s hand, and is attached to a razor thin wire that comes from their wrist. This wire proves very difficult to cut, and is used by Rita to influence the trajectory of a thrown Tomahawk while also providing them a way of pulling the weapon back into their hands with ease. The axe itself has no special properties and just appears to be a well-crafted weapon.

Addition Two: Defensive Upgrade: With their glaring weakness to Electricity, Rita requested a way to defend against lightning if there came a time where they needed to. With this upgrade, a small, black, orb was fitted into the back of their hand. Rita is capable of extending this orb out to cover roughly half of their body. While projected, the orb can protect Rita from a single attack before it returns and it is made of a sturdy, non-conductive material. Rita is only able to use this as a shield once every 12 seconds and after being deployed it will stay in front of them for up to four seconds, or after it has been struck once.

HJR1-Explosive Heel: A stack of 8 small explosive charges that are stored within Rita’s right calf down to their heel. These charges are inactive until Rita gives a nonverbal command for it to activate, or if the explosive finds itself outside of its storage space for more than 6 seconds. When activated, the bombs vibrate at a high frequency for a second before detonating. These explosions are small and used more to disorientate than actually deal damage, but they are strong enough to dent heavier armour.

“The Righteous”: The name given to the combat knife Rita wields in battle. Its mere presence is enough to unnerve those of a more demonic or spiritual nature. Against those kinds of enemies, the knife is capable of cutting them, regardless of physical tangibility and will also leave a mark on those it cuts. These marks do nothing but allow Rita knowledge of where the target is at all times. These marks will disappear after 12 seconds, or if reapplied by the knife. Only one entity can be marked at a time, and marking a second will cause the first to instantly disappear.
Humans are unaffected by the magical nature of this knife, and will come to find their wounds shallower than they may have thought.




Abilities:
”Despite everything. My Faith has never wavered.”

Blessing of a Fallen Deity The last remnants of the Crafting Goddess’ power is woven into Rita’s robes in the form of strange black symbols. This blessing causes their robes to become as sturdy as even the heaviest sets of armour and will always still clean no matter what situation Rita finds themself in.

Rita can channel this power through their body at the cost of one of the symbols disappearing, which also lessens the defensive strength of their robes. There are 8 of the symbols in total, and they will only return after an extended period of rest so Rita is very careful about using this ability.

Brilliant Flame: One of the two ways Rita can channel the Deity’s blessing is through a ball of Golden energy referred to as a “Flame.” While this energy takes on the appearance and properties of fire, it is not capable of spreading by any means. When hurled towards an opponent, the Flame gains a small resistance to wind and cannot easily be extinguished. However a strong enough gust or completely submerging it in water will be enough to cause the energy to dissipate.


If the energy reaches its intended target, it will swell in size before popping like a balloon, simulating the effects of a Flashbang.

Righteous Fury The other way Rita channels the blessing is by pouring all of the divine energy a symbol has into their next attack. The weapon used in this ritual (more often being their knife) begins to glow a beautiful mixture of reds and golds and lets off a soft humming sound. If The Righteous is chosen for this ability, its magical effects extend to all entities that can see the weapon. When striking an enemy while this ability is active causes a white scar-like mark to appear where the weapon struck. While the mark itself doesn’t do anything, Rita striking that exact location again will cause it to burn white-hot for a split second. After this, the mark disappears.
The mark disappears on its own after 12 seconds, or if another person is marked by this ability within the time.
AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 13
1/8/2024 22:19:42   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 Good to see more familiar faces and more bios!

@Nield - Good to see you again! The Crying Man is an extremely intriguing character with an overall simple kit, but does require a good deal of clarifications to ensure we aren’t breaking any rules. Let’s dive in.

Firstly, I’m assuming “Aberrant Human” has the same physical characteristics as regular humans. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

The bigger issue is Another Love. Because The Crying Man is relatively simple and weaker overall, I’m okay with Another Love being a stronger ability (as it is currently), but it still risks breaking the Multiple Characters rule. So, some clarifications: Firstly; I am assuming these are lifeless images, unable to converse or pass information onto The Crying Man beyond what he sees through their eyes. If this is an incorrect assumption, please tell me, and we will need to make larger changes as that is absolutely multiple characters. From there, are the images of Her Face and Her Face Too autonomous? Can they actively choose to move/not move in the way of attacks (Her Face) or swing at/not swing at enemies (Her Face Too) without any input from The Crying Man? If so, they break the “One Character Only” rule, and would need to be changed. If, instead, they always move in front of attacks and always swing at enemies in range no matter what happens, that should be more workable.

Additionally, are these figures able to turn their heads or rotate around The Crying Man freely? If so, I’m concerned about a character that has constant effective 360 degree vision. If they are locked in place, and the perpendicular sides of Crying Man are blind spots, that is fine.

Digging into more detail for Her Face, what exactly is the image capable of blocking? Does it simply slow down attacks that pass through it? Or can it stop them entirely? The former should be fine, but if it’s the latter, I need to know how severe of an attack it can defend against, and if it is capable of taking damage and being “broken”.

And for more detail on Her Face Too, you mention that because she is not made from solid matter, the attacks are “not very effective”. Does this mean that they are entirely ineffective, and do not hurt enemies in any way? Or are they simply akin to being heavily dulled?

Those extra details should allow us to keep The Crying Man in line with competition rules while maintaining the really cool concept you have going here.



@Oddball - Welcome welcome! Rita Svulgir is very well-balanced already, I just have one additional detail that is distinct enough to do additionally, rather than just as a clarification.

Firstly, we did clarify that despite her augmentations, Rita’s physical capabilities (outside durability) are the same as a regular human’s. As you already had race listed as human, I am including this here more for myself, and you do not need to include it in your second post if you do not want to.

What I would like are a little more details on “The Righteous”’ nature. You include that “its mere presence is enough to unnerve those of a more demonic or spiritual nature”. I would like to know if this requires them to be able to see the blade, or if it is proximity based. In either case, please include a range of this effect. Additionally, this unnerving feeling should be able to be resisted in some way so as to avoid bunnying.

That simple addition should be all I need to approve Rita!

Post #: 14
1/9/2024 3:17:03   
nield
Creative!


 Name: The Crying Man

Side: Chaos

Age: 28

Race: Aberrant Human

Appearance: The Crying Man stands at 5’10” with short black hair laying flat on his head. His eyes are perpetually closed, although a torrent of tears spill forth endlessly, while a small, sad smile sits static upon his face. Scar tissue covers the entirety of his throat.

The Crying Man is garbed in a pure black three-piece suit with black gloves. What appears to be a feather made of fire adorns his collar, while a pair of glasses with shattered lenses are folded in his breast pocket, with the lenses on the outside of the pocket. Were he to be divested of his clothing, Fourth degree burns would be found to extensively cover his body.

Capabilities:

The Depths Of Sorrow: The Crying Man’s face exudes fathomless sorrow, which usually has some effect on people, comparatively to their natural empathy: Those who care naught for other people will be little affected, or even not at all, while those with natural high empathy are more likely to be heavily affected, although anyone can wrench free of the effect with sufficient mental exertion.

The effects tend to depend on the person being affected; some will feel sorry for The Crying Man, while others will reflect on sadnesses in their own lives while some simply fall into a depressive state

The Sword Honed By Sorrow: A plain black, double-edged blade made from an unknown metal The Sword Honed by Sorrow is nonetheless exceptionally sharp, able to cut through light armours like cloth and even capable of damaging heavy armour. However, The Sword is encapsulated by the tears that pour from The Crying Man, blunting its edge completely, leaving it struggling to cut so much as paper. The sword is quite sturdy, being well capable of keeping pace in direct clashes against larger and heavier weapons.

Combat Savant: Despite his young age, The Crying Man is an exceptional duelist, well-versed in single combat and his lack of sight does not slow him down in the slightest. While one would assume that this leaves him vulnerable to abilities that affect his hearing, this seems to not be the case.

Mourning Wear: The Crying Man’s suit is surprisingly resilient for what, by sight, appears to be little more than cloth, dampening not only cutting attacks, but also bludgeoning and piercing blows. The Mourning Wear, despite its appearance, smells and feels like charcoal should one get close enough.

Another Love: While some of the tears that flow forth without end from The Crying Man’s eyes encapsulate his sword and yet more splash onto the ground, soaking the area around his feet, the lion’s share actually float into the air to create two images that consist of the head and upper torso of two women, through whose eyes The Crying Man can see. The images are just so; images of people, but not living entities themselves and are as such incapable of speech, or any other form of communication. When the Crying Man rotates the majority of his body to a new facing, the images will rotate with him, simply turning his head is insufficient.

Her Face: The first image is of a plain looking, bookish human with a bob cut and wearing a pair of glasses that matches those folded in The Crying Man’s breast pocket. She is garbed in a simple sweater. This image stays close to The Crying Man at all times and watches his back, allowing him to know what is behind him and focuses on defence, getting in the way of projectiles to at least slow them down.

This image will always move to intercept projectiles that The Crying Man is aware of, but stays away from melee opponents and while she can move around The Crying Man, her gaze is always focused behind him. What happens to projectiles that impact her depends on their nature; physical projectiles will slow down, expending some of their momentum as they would entering any body of water, but unless they are particularly slow to begin with are unlikely to stop entirely.

Magical projectiles will detonate on contact with the image. Such detonations will partially, or even fully destroy the image, depending on their power, but being formed of the unending torrent of tears from The Crying Man, the image will swiftly reform. During that brief interlude, of course, The Crying Man will be deprived of her vision and will be vulnerable to additional projectiles, regardless of whether she is simply damaged or fully vaporised.

Her Face Too: The second image is of a beautiful, non-human woman with shoulder-length hair and a pair of cat’s ears atop her head. From her back, although being made of tears dulls the effect slightly are a pair of magnificent wings that look to be made of flames. When fully spread her wings have a span of 4.5 metres. Her hands are a mixture between hands and claws, ending in sharp points fit to gouge a man’s eyes out. She is garbed in a backless top.

This image faces forward and focuses on offence, battering enemies with her wings and slicing with her claws, though due to being formed of tears, this is less effective than if she were flesh; while even light armour will turn her claws, she is still capable of slicing flesh and cloth. This image always faces forward of The Crying Man and will move around him to ensure she can always assault his enemies within her range.

The image does not strike indiscriminately at those who approach The Crying Man however, only responding to a determination to fight an entity by The Crying Man himself. That said, the image’s ability to fight opponents is not absolute; she can only attack what she can see, thus if an opponent manages to get past her vision faster than she can move around The Crying Man and escapes her vision, she will move back to her normal position, forward and right of The Crying Man, additionally, if an opponent can stay behind The Crying Man, she will be unable to attack them.

spoiler:

All My Tears Have Been Used Up: The Crying Man’s tears stop flowing and his eyes open, revealing them to be red in colour. Even with the tears ceased his face still exudes fathomless sorrow. The tears covering The Sword Honed By Sorrow also dissipate, unveiling its wicked edge to the world. With the flow of tears stopped, the effects of Another Love also cease.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 15
1/9/2024 12:10:45   
Oddball
Member

Round 2, baby! Additions are added in BOLD TEXT!!!!

“I request that you leave these Holy Grounds, lest you join your comrades in breathing your last.”

Name: Rita Svulgir
Alias: “Sister Rita”
Pronouns: They/Them
Age: 312
Race: “Human”
spoiler:

Has undergone major experimentation. While they retain the look of a human, it is more accurate to refer to them as an android.

Alignment: Order

Appearance: Rita stands at a staggering 7 feet tall, with short dirty blonde hair that appears to be a pale shade of white underneath. While in combat, the white in their hair slowly warps to a blood red as the fight progresses. This serves no actual purpose, and Rita themself is unaware of the changes. A similar progression happens with their eyes, starting off as a pure white and slowly filling as damage is dealt or sustained to a piercing red.

Rita is quite muscular for someone of their profession, but it is difficult to tell as they are almost permanently covered by a set of White robes that have undecipherable, Black, symbols scattered across them in seemingly random locations. In certain situations, these symbols emit a strange noise akin to a person humming.

Equipment: As the last of their church, Rita is tasked with watching over the orphans of the Fallen Deity, and has done so for 290 years without fail. Over their long existence, Rita has gained extensive knowledge of all kinds of weaponry, and has a small amount of training with most blades, blunt weapons, and firearms of any kind. However, they have only truly mastered a very select few weapons, noting that “Anything flashy is a waste of time and effort.” As such, they are rarely seen with anything other than a Combat knife and a Tomahawk.

”The experiments map my story, and my bones were simply the beginning.”

VXR9-Skeletal Replacement: To become the protector they needed to be, Rita underwent a staggeringly long experimental surgery that sought to cover their bones in a strange paste-like blastproof substance. The result of this is Rita becoming almost impossibly durable with them being able to push through injuries that would otherwise kill a normal person with relative ease.
However, this durability does have its limits, and Rita has been pushed to them on multiple occasions. While their skeleton is mechanical, Rita themself is still made of flesh and blood, and sustaining enough damage will affect them just as it would a normal person.
With a decent chunk of their body being mechanical, Rita also has a natural weakness to Lightning, and being directly struck can lead to deadly malfunctions.

B0EA-Divine Prosthetic: A near-indestructible prosthetic arm forged by the Goddess of Crafting as a gift towards the one who saved their temple. While outside of combat the arm takes an ordinary appearance and is very difficult to tell it apart from a regular, human limb. When combat occurs, the arm’s disguise falls, revealing its mechanical nature to the world.
There have been two separate ‘additions’ made to the prosthetic, both requested by Rita.

Addition One: Compartment One: A large section of Rita’s forearm that splits apart and breaks open, revealing a 2 and a half foot long Tomahawk folded within the compartment. This axe is suddenly propelled into Rita’s hand, and is attached to a razor thin wire that comes from their wrist. This wire proves very difficult to cut, and is used by Rita to influence the trajectory of a thrown Tomahawk while also providing them a way of pulling the weapon back into their hands with ease. The axe itself has no special properties and just appears to be a well-crafted weapon.

Addition Two: Defensive Upgrade: With their glaring weakness to Electricity, Rita requested a way to defend against lightning if there came a time where they needed to. With this upgrade, a small, black, orb was fitted into the back of their hand. Rita is capable of extending this orb out to cover roughly half of their body. While projected, the orb can protect Rita from a single attack before it returns and it is made of a sturdy, non-conductive material. Rita is only able to use this as a shield once every 12 seconds and after being deployed it will stay in front of them for up to four seconds, or after it has been struck once.

HJR1-Explosive Heel: A stack of 8 small explosive charges that are stored within Rita’s right calf down to their heel. These charges are inactive until Rita gives a nonverbal command for it to activate, or if the explosive finds itself outside of its storage space for more than 6 seconds. When activated, the bombs vibrate at a high frequency for a second before detonating. These explosions are small and used more to disorientate than actually deal damage, but they are strong enough to dent heavier armour.

“The Righteous”: The name given to the combat knife Rita wields in battle. Its mere presence is enough to unnerve those of a more demonic or spiritual nature. Against those kinds of enemies, the knife is capable of cutting them, regardless of physical tangibility and will also leave a mark on those it cuts. These marks do nothing but allow Rita knowledge of where the target is at all times. These marks will disappear after 12 seconds, or if reapplied by the knife. Only one entity can be marked at a time, and marking a second will cause the first to instantly disappear.
Humans are unaffected by the magical nature of this knife, and will come to find their wounds shallower than they may have thought.
The magical effects of this Knife extend to a 15ft radius around Rita, but is only active while they are wielding the weapon. Additionally, it is possible to resist and even ignore this effect if the entity affected has a strong enough will.




Abilities:

Even when taking the experiments on their body into consideration, Rita’s capabilities do not exceed that of a regular human being, with them sitting comfortably at near-peak human due to their extensive daily training regime.

”Despite everything. My Faith has never wavered.”

Blessing of a Fallen Deity The last remnants of the Crafting Goddess’ power is woven into Rita’s robes in the form of strange black symbols. This blessing causes their robes to become as sturdy as even the heaviest sets of armour and will always still clean no matter what situation Rita finds themself in.

Rita can channel this power through their body at the cost of one of the symbols disappearing, which also lessens the defensive strength of their robes. There are 8 of the symbols in total, and they will only return after an extended period of rest so Rita is very careful about using this ability.

Brilliant Flame: One of the two ways Rita can channel the Deity’s blessing is through a ball of Golden energy referred to as a “Flame.” While this energy takes on the appearance and properties of fire, it is not capable of spreading by any means. When hurled towards an opponent, the Flame gains a small resistance to wind and cannot easily be extinguished. However a strong enough gust or completely submerging it in water will be enough to cause the energy to dissipate.


If the energy reaches its intended target, it will swell in size before popping like a balloon, simulating the effects of a Flashbang.

Righteous Fury The other way Rita channels the blessing is by pouring all of the divine energy a symbol has into their next attack. The weapon used in this ritual (more often being their knife) begins to glow a beautiful mixture of reds and golds and lets off a soft humming sound. If The Righteous is chosen for this ability, its magical effects extend to all entities that can see the weapon. When striking an enemy while this ability is active causes a white scar-like mark to appear where the weapon struck. While the mark itself doesn’t do anything, Rita striking that exact location again will cause it to burn white-hot for a split second. After this, the mark disappears.
The mark disappears on its own after 12 seconds, or if another person is marked by this ability within the time.
AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 16
1/9/2024 18:51:05   
Geddesmck
Member
 

 Name: Celerity Adore

Alignment: Order

Age Range: Mid-20s

Pronouns: She/her

Heritage:
Half-Orc, Half-Human:

Celerity would be considered to have near-peak strength and endurance for a human woman as a product of her half-orc nature. She is very resistant to pain and the cold. Otherwise she is comparable to an average human woman.

Appearance:

Celerity is a beautiful woman who embraces her orcish heritage; she emphasises all six feet of her height with modest heels, her dresses are tailored to draw eyes to her powerful build and her makeup is tinted just right to take advantage of her grey-green skin. Thick, luxurious black hair spills from her head in waves of perfectly maintained curls. Her nails are trimmed short for practicality, but nevertheless painted a rich lilac; matching her striking eyes.

She wears an emerald green, off-the-shoulder dress with intricate symbols embroidered in gold-thread along its long sleeves. A belt of gold links sits snugly at her waist, before the dress flares to accommodate her hips. The skirt of the dress has embroidery that mimics that across the sleeves running down seams at either side.


Equipment:

Staff: A staff of dark wood, carved with symbols much like the ones on Celerity’s dress. At the top of the staff sits an orb of red stone that emits a very faint glow, enough to cast a red tint to anything within an inch of it. The staff is very durable, but is ultimately just wood. Enough force can destroy it, although the red orb can only be destroyed by an extraordinary amount of force. The staff acts as a magical focus for Celerity, allowing her more control over her abilities. With the staff she can cast spells while talking, moving or otherwise focusing. Without it, all her focus must be spent on spellcasting. In addition, the staff is thick and relatively heavy, making it effective as a bludgeoning weapon when needed.

Dress: Celerity’s dress is enchanted to offer some level of protection against harm. It cannot be cut by unenchanted edges and it will not burn from mundane flames. It lessens blunt impact as if it were thick layer of felt, but cannot ever negate it completely. Any skin uncovered, which includes Celerity’s head, neck, shoulders and upper chest, are offered no protection by the enchantment.

Parasol: A parasol that offers protection from sunlight and light rain. It is also holds a single charge of an incredibly powerful shielding spell. If Celerity places the open parasol between herself and a source of harm she will be protected completely from the initial impact. Once the parasol serves this purpose, it will be destroyed.


Spells:

Celerity is capable of casting a range of spells she specialises in. Casting any spell requires at least a few moments of concentration and expends Celerity's stamina. Casting more than 3 spells in the span of less than 30 seconds leaves Celerity winded and needing at least another 30 seconds to catch her breath before casting any more spells.

Barrier: Celerity creates a barrier of force no larger than 3 feet in length or width. It must originate within 10 feet of Celerity at a point she can see. It appears as a semi-transparent blue plane of no more than 1 inch thick. Celerity can maintain only one barrier at a time, but she can use other abilities at the same time and can freely move the barrier at will, unless something or someone is currently in contact with it. It can be shattered by anything that could break or bend a sheet of steel with similar dimensions. If a barrier is shattered Celerity will not be able to make a new one without a few seconds to refocus.

Push: A lance of force emits from either Celerity’s hand or staff. It has a range of 3 feet, after which its potency drops off dramatically until becoming completely impotent at 5 feet from point of origin. At maximum strength it delivers a kinetic impact equivalent to a punch from a human of peak physical strength, focused to a point 3 inches in diameter.

Store: A subtle aura of shimmering blue surrounds Celerity. The initial kinetic force of the next impact she receives within the next 30 seconds does not harm her, instead being stored for her own use. Any other sources of damage from the impact still have full potency, unless they relied on the kinetic force to impart their full effectiveness, such as the edge of blade, which may break skin but not penetrate deeply. Celerity must focus for at least 3 seconds to use this ability and her staff does not assist with this.

Release: Celerity releases stored kinetic energy. She can hold only 1 source of such energy, harvested with her ‘Store’ ability. This can be released from any part of her body. Energy does dissipate after being stored for more than a minute.

Stick/Slide: Celerity touches a point with her hand or staff. An area of 5 feet or less in diameter has its level of friction altered. It either increases to the point that anything touching it requires a significant expenditure of strength to separate, or decreases to the point where it is near impossible to stay in contact with at all. Celerity must be contact with the object or point for at least 3 seconds to cause this change, her staff does not help with this, and can only have it active on one point at a time. She can dispel the change at will. She cannot do this to something that is currently being held by someone else.


Other Abilities:

Aura’s of Virtue: Three invisible, but psychically detectable auras emanate from Celerity. Even those without psychic aptitude can understand what each aura is communicating:
    * Aura of Curiosity – This aura tells people that Celerity seeks new information and eagerly seeks it out. In return, Celerity is capable of learning new languages at an increased speed, although it still takes many days at minimum.
    * Aura of Honesty – This aura tells people that Celerity does not lie or deceive. In return, Celerity knows when someone is knowingly lying.
    * Aura of Resolution – This aura tells people that once Celerity makes a promise or vow, she does all she can to enact it. In return, Celerity has resistance to mind-altering effects or illusions that attempt to prevent her fulfilling a commitment.
If at any point Celerity does something that contradicts an aura, it immediately ceases to be active and she loses any benefits.


Backstory:

Celerity is the illegitimate daughter of Bartholemew Barrington, a lesser aristocrat of the Kobal Empire. Her mother, Sayal Adaraw, was a diplomat sent to the imperial capital who fascinated Bartholemew, but due to imperial attitudes towards non-humans, he refused to marry her. After Celerity’s birth Sayal left Bartholemew to return to her home, but left Celerity behind, hoping she would have a better life in the wealthy Barrington household. “Offer her the love you couldn’t show me,” were Sayal’s parting words. Bartholemew for his part did provide Celerity with a comfortable life and impeccable education, although he never provided his surname as official recognition of Celerity as his child. In time he married and had other children.

Celerity showed little aptitude for study, considering herself ‘slow’, but she prided herself in her persistence and curiosity. “If I think half as fast as my peers, I shall think twice as hard and twice as long instead,” she told herself. She was accepted into a prestigious academy for mages on merit alone at the age of thirteen.

Her heritage was a source of mockery among her peers. Her size and strength did not fit imperial ideas of femininity and beauty. A well-meaning friend suggested to her when they fifteen that she use her blossoming magical abilities to transform or disguise herself to fit in. “No, I will take pride in what makes me different, because it makes me beautiful,” she told her.

By the time she was twenty, Celerity was famous in the Kobal Empire for her striking fashion sense, her academic feats and her adventurous spirit. She began her study at the prestigious Cerulean University. In her first year discovered that the Archmage Alana, head of the university, was secretly using mind-altering magic to manipulate and control promising students in order to empower herself. Alana’s victims inevitably descended into madness or insensibility. Celerity vowed to stop the Archmage and make her pay for her crimes. It took three long years, much spent on the run from the Archmage, her supporters and her minions, but eventually Celerity stood over the defeated Archmage. “Mercy, please,” Alana begged.

Celerity said nothing as she took the villain's life.
AQ DF  Post #: 17
1/9/2024 20:39:04   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 Another bio! Excellent!

@Nield - Thanks for the clarifications! Additionally, we clarified on Discord that The Crying Man's tears do not dampen his own clothing. The Crying Man is Approved!


@Oddball - Looks good! Approved!


@Geddesmck - Welcome! This is my first time seeing you, but clearly you’re no stranger to these!
We confirmed via DMs that Release only releases kinetic force as a bludgeoning impact, forgoing other properties of absorbed blows. We also confirmed that Stick/Slide cannot be used on people. Finally, we established that her auras have an effective range of about 30-feet out from her person.

With those details confirmed, Celerity is approved!

We're just about halfway through the Signup period! Keep the bios coming!

< Message edited by Chewy905 -- 1/11/2024 19:31:57 >
Post #: 18
1/16/2024 7:50:26   
kavyraya
Member
 

 Name/Title: Valeria Valcove, alias “Heliades”

Alignment: Order

Age Range: 32

Race: Human (Artificer, Alchemist)

Appearance (Build, hair, skin, clothes, etc.): Valeria Valcove stands at an imposing 6 feet tall, her athletic build betraying her zealous dedication toward hunting creatures of the night. Her snow-white hair cascades down past her shoulders, contrasting with her piercing golden eyes— rumored to be once brown, but had changed due to failed alchemical experiments. Clad in a black leather trench coat adorned with silver ornate engravings, she carries a specially crafted heavy rifle infused with solar-powered ammunition. On her belt, she wears various arcane gadgets created to aid her in her vigilant quest.

Equipment (Armor, Weapons, etc.):
(W) Sta. Bedine, Heavy Rifle: Heliades’ signature weapon, this sleek, heavy rifle exudes power and precision, adorned with intricate alchemical engravings on its barrel. It features two exclusive modes of operation:
> Full-Auto Mode: With a flick of a switch, this rifle can unleash a barrage of rapid-fire shots with devastating accuracy, capable of striking multiple foes within a wide arc of 5-10 ft. Uses Silver Bullets.
> Heavy Recoil Mode: By activating this specialized mode, the rifle channels Ensnarement (cord and claw; see Ammunitions & Potions).

(W) Sto. Taquina, Handgun: Precision (Conflagration and Silver Bullets) Compact and sophisticated, this alchemical masterpiece signifies Heliades’ unwavering focus on precision and efficiency. The handgun's barrel is tipped with a small, enchanted crystal that infused with sunlight, providing long-lasting durability for its unique ammunition.

(W) Sta. Mercuria, Adamantine Brass Knuckles: These adamantine brass knuckles are engraved with alchemical symbols representing permanence and strength. If bullets or daggers won’t work, Heliades uses this pair in close-quarters combat, embodying her tenacity and resilience. Cannot be used while imbibed with the Diaemus extract.

(W) Sto. Loreno, dagger: It was said that this dagger was forged from a rare meteorite that crashed during the break of dawn. Its blade gently glows with an ethereal blue hue, and its hilt engraved with intricate solar motifs, hinting at the radiant strength that flows through the weapon. A single strike from this dagger can slow a creature’s regenerative capabilities—only due to the elixirs Heliades smears across the blade. Cannot be used while imbibed with the Diaemus extract.

(W) Silver Stakes: A set of three intricately carved, slender, silver stakes, meticulously designed for repelling creatures of the night. These stakes are hot to the touch, as if left long under sunlight, and infused with alchemical elixirs. Cannot be used while imbibed with the Diaemus extract.

(W) Silver Bullets: These specially-crafted silver bullets, infused with reactive sun fire liquid, glimmers as if newly forged. They are capable of piercing through supernatural defenses and delivering a decisive blow to creatures, especially those susceptible to silver.
> Sta. Bedine, heavy rifle: 1 chamber holds 15 rounds of silver bullets. Heliades holds 2 back-up chambers.
> Sto. Taquina, handgun: 1 chamber holds 7 rounds of silver bullets. Heliades holds 5 back-up chambers.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities: (Ammunition & Potions)
Sunfire Spheres (5 feet, self): Heliades throws a glass sphere of liquid sunfire into a concentrated burst of light on any surface, unleashing a dazzling solar flare in a 5-feet radius. This burst disorients and temporarily reduces enemy’s damage resistance. Max of 5 charges; creation time for these spheres would take usually 2-3 days.

Conflagration Bullets (10-15 feet, ranged): Heliades fires a bullet filled with a fine powder and activator that splinters upon firing and causes burn damage on a creature for a duration. If these bullets do not hit a creature, the powder simply hovers in the air for 10 seconds as a glittering cloud (area of 5 ft.) before its activator wears off. Max of 10 bullets, used in Sto. Taquina.

Ensnarement (20 feet, ranged): Firing from Sta. Bedine, Heliades launches a strung bullet that expands into a three-pronged claw. The cord connected to this bullet expands to 20 ft. Both cord and claw are woven and made from silver and adamantine, and oiled in the same liquids used in Valeria’s sunfire spheres. Once it hits a target, Valeria can retract the cord to drag back the caught creature or be dragged herself. Can also be used for scaling walls. Max of 1 charge, rechargeable after 1 rest.

Beacon of Purification (15 feet): Containing a mix of Cinonyx and Quinoline, Heliades fires the specially crafted bullet in the air, where it explodes in a radiant burst. Allies within a 15-feet radius gain temporary defense and sharpened senses for half a minute. Max of 3 charges, used in Sta. Bedine.

Elixir of Pithega: This elixir, when consumed, enhances Heliades’ senses: sharpening her vision that allows her to see faint details from a distance, enhances her hearing allowing her to detect the softest of sounds, making them more aware of their surroundings. Max of five 5ml bottles, effects last for a duration of 5 minutes.

Potion of Cinonyx: Made out to be an adrenaline booster, this potion grants Heliades lightning-fast reflexes and heightened speed. When consumed, it floods her system with a surge of energy, allowing her to move with incredible agility and reaction time. Though she has perfected this potion for the moments where she needs a swift escape or precise strikes, it may have been the very one, because of multiple experimentations on the dosage, that has turned Heliades’ eyes into the gold color that they are. Max of 3 5 ml bottles, effects last for a duration of 3 minutes.

Quinoline Elixir: a renowned healing elixir that assists in faster recovery from wounds. It has a rejuvenating effect when imbibed, with ingredients that mend physical wounds. It also helps cleanse the body of toxins and rejuvenates stamina, providing a second wind in times of dire need. Max of five 5 ml bottles, effects last for a duration of 5 minutes.

Extract of Diaemus: This ominous potion, when consumed, transforms Heliades temporarily into a raging vampiric force, increasing her strength, speed, and durability, as well as elongating her nails and teeth like that of a vampire’s. During this mode, she cannot use her brass knuckles, stakes, or dagger, and would only rely on her vampiric strength and guns to take down her foe. Max of 2 10ml bottles, effects lasting for a duration of 10 minutes.

Xalium Shot: Also known as a versatile elixir that serves as a potent neutralizer against the harmful aftereffects of Heliades’ potions. This unique potion particularly nullifies the extract of Diaemus but renders the drinker vulnerable as they purge out the remnants of the latter potion. Max of 3 15 ml bottles, effects last for 5 minutes.

Notes on Potions: Heliades can only stack a max of 3 different potions before she needs to wash it out with 1 Xalium Shot.


Backstory:
In the frigid depths of the night, where the moon casts an ethereal glow upon haunted grounds, there lives a legend born of ancient bloodlines and whispered secrets. Valeria Valcove, known to the world as "Heliades," is a name steeped in mystery and intrigue. Her very existence sends shivers down the spines of the undead, for she is no ordinary woman, but a formidable force in the realm of shadows.

Heliades, with her sinewy frame and eyes as piercing as winter's sun, possesses an enigmatic allure that belies her true nature. Rumors swirl around her like whispers carried by the wind, speaking of a descent from a long-lost bloodline that worshipped and fought in the name of a sun god. It is said that her facial features bear a striking resemblance to those who once adorned temples with golden offerings under the noonday beams. Though she is an adopted child, the murmurs of her divine heritage persist, casting an otherworldly aura over her very being.

To the unsuspecting world, Valeria Valcove's life was a carefully crafted charade, a cover story for her true calling as the protector of humanity against the darkest of creatures. Adopted by a family whose motivations remained unknown, she was taken under their wing, seemingly for studies and apprenticeship. Yet, behind this veil of normalcy, lay the truth of her existence – a truth that only the night could understand.

It is said that Valeria's bullets draw their strength from a most extraordinary source. Whispers grow louder, weaving tales of a unique ability honed over years of hardship and sacrifice. They say that she possesses the power to channel the very essence of the sun, infusing her bullets with its divine energy. With a mere flick of her wrist, she can command the forces of light to pierce the malevolent heart of any vampire foolish enough to cross her path.

But behind this fantastical myth lies a more grounded reality, one veiled in her true expertise as a skilled alchemist and artificer. Her reputation, forged through endless nights spent in solitude, is not a product of divine lineage, but of her sheer dedication and cunning intellect. The sun's fire is not channeled directly into her bullets but meticulously crafted through a medley of potions and devices of her own creation, designed to harness the sun's essence and channel it with deadly precision.

Each bullet she fires echoes with her tireless pursuit of knowledge – a learned artistry that intertwines the realms of science and mysticism. Hidden within her workshop, she spends countless hours toiling over intricate formulas and concoctions, seeking to uncover the alchemical secrets that lend her weapons their supernatural might. Valeria's true strength lies not in her bloodline but in her mind, a mind that melds the laws of nature and magic into a glorious convergence.

Through her artifice and alchemy, Heliades has turned the legends of her bloodline into a weapon more potent than any born of divine descent. With her bullets as harbingers of justice, she wages her war against the undead, striking fear into the hearts of those who thought themselves immortal. Her adversaries, ignorant of the truth that lies beneath her enigmatic facade, fall victim to the belief that she wields the very power of gods.

But it is her immortal determination and her relentless pursuit of vengeance that truly sets her apart. Each night she stalks the darkened streets, driven by a thirst for justice that matches the insatiable hunger of the vampires she hunts. Her existence is shrouded in shadows, and her true identity remains a mystery to all but a chosen few who fight alongside her. Bound by blood and purpose, they form a clandestine brotherhood, standing with Heliades as guardians against the forces that would plunge the world into eternal darkness.

Valeria Valcove, known as Heliades, a woman shrouded in legends, a master of artifice and alchemy, stands as a beacon of hope in a world haunted by creatures of the night. Her face and demeanor may hint at divine ancestry, but her true power lies not in gods but in her own relentless resolve. With each bullet she fires, she personifies the eternal battle between light and darkness, and in her veins flows the spirit of a fierce warrior who will stop at nothing until every last evil creature is laid to rest.

Personality:
Valeria harbors an unwavering determination to rid the world of vampires and protect innocent lives. Fiercely intelligent, she prefers to approach situations strategically rather than resorting to brute force. She is skeptical of outsiders but quickly forms strong alliances with those who share her righteous cause. Though she possesses a stern demeanor, her commitment to justice and her unyielding loyalty make her a trusted and respected companion.
Post #: 19
1/16/2024 21:20:51   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 We're getting close now! Only about half a week left for bios! Tell all of your friends!


@Kavyraya - Welcome back, it’s been a while since we’ve seen you!

Valeria Valcove is a very fun character with a wide array of abilities. However there are likely too many of them, and the durations are much too high. We’ll dive right into balancing, but I do want to give a general warning:

Most writers Get 5-6 posts in the first round, and it’s best to be able to show me everything you can within these posts rather than count on finals to get to show off more. In this case, you have 5 distinct weapons, and an additional 8 distinct potions/abilities. I think it is highly unlikely that you will be able to make all of these shine while maintaining decent pacing and flow. I will balance all of them regardless, but I do suggest considering if there are any you will not be needing, and removing them to make things simpler on yourself. You could remove some weapons, and focus on being a potionmaster, or vice-versa, removing some potions and putting greater emphasis on weapons.

An additional note that I will detail more on individual abilities: Combat is fast and short. It can be equated to similar Tabletop Games, where a single round is 6 seconds, so most fights last somewhere from a couple minutes to less than a minute. Keep that timing in mind when setting durations on your abilities. Your writing and abilities do not need to adhere to strict numbers (it’s often better for it NOT to, as it ends up smoother), but it's good to keep in mind and use things like “a short while” or “a few seconds”.

Alright, let’s begin for real.

Starting with Sta. Bedine and Sto. Taquina, regular firearms are usually too deadly to fit in to these competitions. You can keep them as they are visually and aesthetically, but I would like it detailed that their actual firing speed, destructive capability, and effective range should be akin to that of a crossbow. If you would like you could instead make these silver bullets burn targets or apply extreme heat. Just something to tap down the power so it’s not that of a modern day firearm.

For Sta. Bedine, is it able to be fired like a regular firearm, or is that exclusive to Sto.Taquina? If it can be fired normally, please include how it differs from Sto. Taquina. If not, and it can only do Full-Auto and Heavy Recoil, it should be fine, though I would like to know if Full-Auto uses an entire chamber or not.

For Sto. Loreno, I would like a duration on how long the anti-regenerative properties last. Should likely only be a short while. (“A short while” is appropriate wording for this, if you would like to just use that)

Moving onto your spells and abilities, this is where I would especially push for removing some for the sake of simplicity.

For Sunfire Spheres, I would like a duration on how long the damage resistance reduction lasts, and I recommend reducing the charges to 2-3.

For Conflagration Bullets, I would like a duration on how long the burn damage lasts (the same 10-seconds as the cloud would be fine). I would also like to limit these to only having one or two clouds active at a time, so you can’t just flood the arena with burning dust clouds. This could be done with a hard limit, or by adding a cooldown period between uses of these bullets.

For Ensnarement, I am assuming a strong or agile enough creature could break or worm their way out of the claw. If it is more difficult than that, please detail.

For Beacon of Purification, Elixir of Pithega, Potion of Cinonyx, and Quinoline Elixir, all of these should have their durations reduced to 10-20 seconds at most, and none of them should be usable at the same time as another. I would also like these dropped to only having 1 or 2 bottles of each (1 bottle of the Quinoline Elixir especially). I am fine with keeping the 3 Xalium Shots, and using them to “cancel” the effects of another potion with or without the extended vulnerability afterwards, though if you do keep the vulnerability again reduce the duration.

Finally, Extract of Diaemus. I think your character has enough tools to not need this “supermove” of sorts, but if you wish to keep it the duration should be reduced to 10-30 seconds, and I would like a downside as a result. This could come in the form of breaking her weapons, or making her potions unusable afterwards. Something to signal this as a sort of “last-ditch effort”. Additionally, I think the increase in stats would be too powerful alongside her weaponry, so I would recommend limiting her to just her claws and physical force, and maybe Sto.Taquina without the Conflagration bullets.

That’s a lot! But once we tap down on the durations and add some limitations, Valeria should be good to go! Keep in mind if you want to cut anything for simplicity, or be prepared to have trouble getting to use everything if you want to keep your options open! Get a second version of the bio in and we’ll see if anything else will need a look!
Post #: 20
1/19/2024 0:37:02   
Necro-Knight
Member

Name/Title: Ryuk D’vorak, Bio-Contraband Retrieval.

Alignment: Order.

Age: 26

Race: Mutated Human

Appearance: Beneath his obsidian suit, Ryuk’s skin is deathly pale, almost resembling bleached marble at a distance and pulled taught against sharp cheekbones. Despite his young age, his hair is equally white, cut short so as to fit comfortably into his helmet. If his eyes were visible, they’d be seen as a pearlescent silver.

With his body constantly being barraged with its own radiation, his form is lean and pushing the boundary of unhealthily thin, his suit making up for the lack of physical strength.

His combat/life support suit is forged from a black alloy, its surface reflective and trimmed with crimson, diamond-shaped accents near the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. Each dark plate is shaped to fit to the contours of the young man’s frame, allowing for easy movement and maximum defense to the fragile form beneath in equal measure.

The helmet of the suit is assembled to resemble the face of an extinct flying night hunter, with sharp, angular eyes in a glowing crimson, a pair of fang-like spikes worked into the chin-plate and a pair of antennas protruding up from the back of his skull. Across the whole suit, reinforced lines of glowing, radioactive blood add a bright scarlet contrast to the dark plating as it circulates the fluid.

Equipment:

V.A.M.P.R.E armor - A combination of life-support, combat-enhancing gear and internal implants, Ryuk’s “Vascularatory-Assisting-Mechanized-Powered-Radioactivity-Enhancement” suit allows him to harness all the harmful defects and excessive radiation his genetic mutation curses him with. Linked directly to Ryuk’s vascular system and brain through points in his arms, thighs and helmet, the VAMPRE armor removes irradiated blood from Ryuk’s body and replaces it with clean blood from either stored vials across the suit or with outside sources if desperation proves the need.

Harnessing the released energy from the toxic blood coursing through its systems, Ryuk’s armor redirects that energy and provides him with hydraulic strength enough to bend a steel bar and a gel layer between his fragile body and outer plating allows him to endure projectiles equalling standard firearm rounds and extreme piercing force. Blunt force trauma still risks shattering outer plating or injuring his body within. Being connected to his brain, the armor’s visor display allows him to track the suit’s state of damage and his own radiation levels with a quick glance. The helmet’s antenna allow him to hijack communication frequencies and either use them for his own devices or listen in on conversations.

Located within the crimson diamond-trimming around the suit’s shoulders are a pair of audible geiger counters tied to its wearer’s level of radiation. While hampering Ryuk’s element of surprise, these ticking “warnings” assist in removing civilian casualties during operations.

F.N.G.-Blade - A retractable blade three feet in length built into the right gauntlet of his VAMPRE armor. The design of the blade is perfectly straight, its tip a sharp angle rather than a curved edge. Running down the length of the blade is a syringe-like device that allows Ryuk to draw blood from his target and deposit it directly into his own body, should his reserves be expended. Due to its collapsible nature and the device within, the blade's integrity is less than that of a solid weapon and thus is better for offense than defense, leading to Ryuk avoiding counters or parries with the weapon.

B.L.D. Shots - Worked into his left gauntlet over the knuckles, Ryuk features a specialized launcher that fills two syringe-like projectiles with irradiated blood before ejecting them a maximum of thirty-five feet, at roughly 32mph. If successful in hitting their target, the BLD shots will inject the poisonous bio-material into its target for immediate irradiation. Due to the nature of its design, the launcher can only fire both shots at once and requires a brief period to harvest more blood from its user. Without clean blood to replace the taken toxic blood, Ryuk risks suffering from blood loss and more severe radiation poisoning if utilizing this weapon too frequently.

SHDW Bolt - A diamond-shaped weapon, the suit redirects a large quantity of its radioactive power reserves and condenses these particles into a raw and wild bolt of scarlet energy. Reaching a maximum of 25 feet, the bolt is destructive but difficult to control, as the suit has to retain a certain amount of energy to continue functioning, thus making it unable to precisely hit the same targeted location every time. Once used, the suit is unable to produce another bolt for roughly a minute, as it must build up enough to sacrifice without issue.

GHUL Injection - A specialized adrenal injection housed in a compartment beneath his left forearm, the GHUL vial is a last-resort. Acting much like run-of-the-mill adrenaline, the GHUL formula is enhanced with a unique plasma, causing the usual adrenal effects to be accompanied with a large spike in radioactive power and aggression from Ryuk’s body, often clouding higher thought during use. This puts Ryuk in the unique situation of heightened fighting potential combined with the risk of both external and internal injury. To combat some of this risk, the VAMPRE armor’s plating lifts a few centimeters from the gel suit to vent the energy within and allow Ryuk to assault his foe in a feral, close-quarters style of swinging fists and crackling scarlet power.

Even with this failsafe, the young man is only able to maintain this state for roughly 30 seconds before the suit automatically cleanses the GHUL from his system and enters a reduced state of efficiency for a few minutes, until its systems can adjust back to normal operating levels. Ryuk himself is also left exhausted, often combating this with an injection of clean blood if available. If not, the young man is forced to recover for a few minutes.


Skills, Spells, Special Abilities:

Radioactive Mutation - A disease that developed in his bones from the toxic living environment of his home, Ryuk’s marrow only produces radioactive blood. While his body grew adjusted to this over the course of his childhood, the mutation would eventually be terminal if the VAMPRE suit had not been developed to help with maintaining the perfect level of toxicity in his body. While some would call this a curse, Ryuk has learned to accept the mutation as a blessing, one that allows him to live a life of enhanced efficiency.

Self-taught combat-engineer - Often requiring repairs on the job, Ryuk has taught himself the many ways his VAMPRE suit can be repaired or rerouted to temporarily maintain functionality, even if performance is impacted. Maintaining his own well-being on the mean streets of his dystopian city also meant he needed to learn hand-to-hand combat, relying on an aggressive and forceful style of martial arts that uses the hard plating of his suit to his advantage.

Surgical Innovator - Due to the nature of his work of retrieving implants, internal contraband and biological operations, Ryuk has also learned how to both critically wound or repair the human body. Research into his own mutations lent him the knowledge to assist those who need it, as well as himself should something get past his armor.
DF MQ AQW  Post #: 21
1/19/2024 11:04:31   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 There is just about a day and a half to get a bio submitted, and another day to get balanced! Keep them coming, I'd like to hit 10 entrants to ensure we have a solid roster!


@Necro-Knight good to see you back again! Ryuk D’vorak is a really interesting character with balanced strengths and weaknesses, I just need a few more details on some abilities and traits.

Firstly, you’ve made it clear the suit gives a decent improvement to strength with balanced durability. Does it impact his speed and dexterity at all, or do those fall at or below regular human level? I would recommend leaving them slightly below, as it balances the strength out better.

For the V.A.M.P.R.E armor, about how much clean blood does Ryuk actually have with him? As these vials are located across the suit, can they be damaged or destroyed when the suit is struck (especially with bludgeoning blows)? An exact number is not necessary, but as it is something you will need to be tracking for F.N.G. -Blade and GHUL Injection, a general amount should be provided. Additionally, I would like a range on the hijacking capabilities of the suit, confirmation on if it only affects technology communications or if it can hack magical comms as well, and a requirement of needing to focus to perform such a feat.

For F.N.G. -Blade, I am assuming it can only extract smaller amounts of blood on small cuts, with multiple cuts being needed for a target to start feeling the effects of minor blood loss. Being able to drain larger amounts on extended contact is fine.

For B.L.D. Shots, do these apply the effects of minor radiation poisoning (nausea, fever, disorientation), and how long do these last for? If so, and they diffuse after a dozen or so seconds, it should be fine. I am also fine with them lasting longer, but ceasing/fading away quickly once the syringe is removed from the skin.

For SHDW Bolt, what exactly does “destructive” mean? I am imagining it as a small detonation, akin to a firebomb, perhaps leaving a small radius of hanging radiation. If so, this should be fine. Either way, please detail what exactly this does.

On to GHUL Injection. Because of the fast-paced nature of combat, 30 seconds will likely last the majority of a round. I’m still fine with that, if it is added that B.L.D. Shots and SHDW Bolt are unusable during the injection, limiting Ryuk to the riskier close quarters combat as described. If you’d like to keep those usable, halve the duration.

My last note is on the Abilities. These all seem mostly flavorful rather than direct abilities, which is fine. I would just like to confirm that Surgical Innovator in particular is more of a “general medical and first-aid knowledge” rather than a “I know how to heal major injuries” type of thing.

Those added details should be able to let me either take another pass at Ryuk or possibly just approve him outright!

Post #: 22
1/19/2024 20:56:14   
Necro-Knight
Member

( Round 2! :D )


Name/Title: Ryuk D’vorak, Bio-Contraband Retrieval.

Alignment: Order.

Age: 26

Race: Mutated Human

Appearance: Beneath his obsidian suit, Ryuk’s skin is deathly pale, almost resembling bleached marble at a distance and pulled taught against sharp cheekbones. Despite his young age, his hair is equally white, cut short so as to fit comfortably into his helmet. If his eyes were visible, they’d be seen as a pearlescent silver.

With his body constantly being barraged with its own radiation, his form is lean and pushing the boundary of unhealthily thin, his suit making up for the lack of physical strength.

His combat/life support suit is forged from a black alloy, its surface reflective and trimmed with crimson, diamond-shaped accents near the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. Each dark plate is shaped to fit to the contours of the young man’s frame, allowing for easy movement and maximum defense to the fragile form beneath in equal measure.

The helmet of the suit is assembled to resemble the face of a creature of the night, with sharp, angular eyes in a glowing crimson, a pair of fang-like spikes worked into the chin-plate and a pair of antennas protruding up from the back of his skull. Across the whole suit, reinforced lines of glowing, radioactive blood add a bright scarlet contrast to the dark plating as it functions.

Equipment:

V.A.M.P.R.E armor - A combination of life-support, combat-enhancing gear and internal implants, Ryuk’s “Vascularatory-Assisting-Mechanized-Powered-Radioactivity-Enhancement” suit allows him to harness all the harmful defects and excessive radiation his genetic mutation curses him with. Linked directly to Ryuk’s vascular system and brain through points in his arms, thighs and helmet, the VAMPRE armor removes irradiated blood from Ryuk’s body and replaces it with clean blood from a total of eight stored vials across the suit’s spinal plating or with outside sources if desperation proves the need. Made from a similar alloy as the armor itself, these vials can be damaged with sufficient force but have the same resistant properties to firearms and piercing force.

Harnessing the released energy from the toxic blood coursing through its systems, Ryuk’s armor redirects that energy and provides him with hydraulic strength enough to bend a steel bar and an average human reaction time, making up for what Ryuk himself lacks without it. His movement speed is roughly that of an in-shape human of his size, the suit being designed more for endurance over speed. A gel layer between his fragile body and outer plating allows him to endure projectiles equalling standard firearm rounds and extreme piercing force. Blunt force trauma still risks shattering outer plating or injuring his body within. Being connected to his brain, the armor’s visor display allows him to track the suit’s state of damage and his own radiation levels with a quick glance. The helmet’s antenna allows him to hijack only digital communication frequencies and either use them for his own devices or listen in on conversations. As this system is designed for subterfuge, combat hardware is unable to be used at the same time as the antennas.

Located within the crimson diamond-trimming around the suit’s shoulders are a pair of audible geiger counters tied to its wearer’s level of radiation. While hampering Ryuk’s element of surprise, these ticking “warnings” assist in removing civilian casualties during operations.

F.N.G. Blade - A retractable blade three feet in length built into the right gauntlet of his VAMPRE armor. The design of the blade is perfectly straight, its tip a sharp angle rather than a curved edge. Running down the length of the blade is a syringe-like device that allows Ryuk to draw blood from his target and deposit it directly into his own body, should his reserves be expended. On the occasion of a clean cut, only the blood on the blade itself will be harvested, the weapon needing a longer injection to continuously harvest from the same victim. Due to its collapsible nature and the device within, the blade's integrity is less than that of a solid weapon and thus is better for offense than defense, leading to Ryuk avoiding counters or parries with the weapon.

B.L.D. Shots - Worked into his left gauntlet over the knuckles, Ryuk features a specialized launcher that fills two syringe-like projectiles with irradiated blood before ejecting them a maximum of thirty-five feet, at roughly 32mph. If successful in hitting their target, the BLD shots will inject the poisonous bio-material into its target for near-immediate radiation poisoning symptoms(nausea, fever, disorientation), lasting until the shots are removed from the victim. Once removed, symptoms fade after a few seconds. Due to the nature of its design, the launcher can only fire both shots at once and requires a brief period to harvest more blood from its user. Without clean blood to replace the taken toxic blood, Ryuk risks suffering from blood loss and more severe radiation poisoning if utilizing this weapon too frequently.

S.H.D.W. Bolt - A diamond-shaped weapon, the suit redirects a large quantity of its radioactive power reserves and condenses these particles into a raw and wild bolt of scarlet energy. Reaching a maximum of 25 feet, the bolt behaves similarly to that of a bolt of lightning or industrial arc energy, severely burning with radiation whatever it makes contact with. Due to the briefness of the attack, no radiation is left after the bolt dissipates. This also makes the bolt difficult to control, as the suit has to retain a certain amount of energy to continue functioning, thus making it unable to precisely hit the same targeted location every time. Once used, the suit is unable to produce another bolt for roughly a minute, as it must build up enough to sacrifice without issue.

G.H.U.L. Injection - A specialized adrenal injection housed in a compartment beneath his left forearm, the GHUL vial is a last-resort. Acting much like run-of-the-mill adrenaline, the GHUL formula is enhanced with a unique plasma, causing the usual adrenal effects to be accompanied with a large spike in radioactive power from Ryuk’s body. This puts Ryuk in the unique situation of heightened fighting potential combined with the risk of permanent damage and disabling of his suit’s other weapon systems, to avoid an overload. To combat some of this risk, the VAMPRE armor’s plating lifts a few centimeters from the gel suit to vent the energy within and allow Ryuk to assault his foe in a feral, close-quarters style of fist and crackling scarlet power. Even with this failsafe, the young man is only able to maintain this state for roughly 30 seconds before the suit automatically cleanses the GHUL from his system and enters a reduced state of efficiency for a few minutes, until its systems can adjust back to normal operating levels.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities:

Radioactive Mutation - A disease that developed in his bones from the toxic living environment of his home, Ryuk’s marrow only produces radioactive blood. While his body grew adjusted to this over the course of his childhood, the mutation would eventually be terminal if the VAMPRE suit had not been developed to help with maintaining the perfect level of toxicity in his body. While some would call this a curse, Ryuk has learned to accept the mutation as a blessing, one that allows him to live a life of enhanced efficiency.

Self-taught combat-engineer - Often requiring repairs on the job, Ryuk has taught himself the many ways his VAMPRE suit can be repaired or rerouted to temporarily maintain functionality, even if performance is impacted. Maintaining his own well-being on the mean streets of his dystopian city also meant he needed to learn hand-to-hand combat, relying on an aggressive and forceful style of martial arts that uses the hard plating of his suit to his advantage.

Surgical Improvisor - Due to the nature of his work of retrieving implants, internal contraband and biological operations, Ryuk has also learned how to both wound or repair the human body at the rudimentary level. Research into his own mutations lent him the knowledge to assist those who need it, as well as himself should something get past his armor and prevent death with basic first-aid.
DF MQ AQW  Post #: 23
1/19/2024 23:46:02   
  Chewy905

Chromatic ArchKnight of RP


 @Necro-Knight - Looks good, thanks for the swift changes!

Approved!


Only 24 hours left for new bios!
Post #: 24
1/20/2024 0:50:55   
kavyraya
Member
 

 ***General Notes: No changes to Backstory, Personality, and other personal/aesthetic details. Added/changed details in italics. Removed the silver stakes, adjusted the potions’ number and durations / guns’ firing speed, capabilities.

Name/Title: Valeria Valcove, alias “Heliades”
Alignment: Order
Age Range: 32
Race: Human (Artificer, Alchemist)

Equipment (Armor, Weapons, etc.):
Sta. Bedine, Heavy Rifle: Heliades’ signature weapon, this sleek but heavy rifle exudes power and precision, adorned with intricate alchemicals on its rotating barrel. Heliades carries a max of 2 back-up charges for this firearm.
Firing Speed: Heavy Recoil. The heavy rifle has a slow firing speed due to its complex mechanisms. It takes one action to load, aim, and fire a shot.
Destructive Capability:
> Buckshot Mode: In this mode, the rifle unleashes a devastating spread of silver bullets. When firing in buckshot mode, the rifle creates a cone-shaped blast that sprays projectiles up to 10 feet away. 1 chamber has 2 shots, 1 shot releases 7 silver bullets (*only the normal silver bullets, NOT conflagration).
> Cord & Claw Mode: By activating this specialised mode, the rifle channels Ensnarement (cord and claw; see Ammunition & Potions).

Sto. Taquina, Handgun: Precision (Conflagration and Silver Bullets) Compact and sophisticated, this alchemical masterpiece signifies Heliades’ unwavering focus on precision and efficiency. The handgun's barrel is tipped with a small, enchanted crystal that is infused with sunlight, providing long-lasting durability for its unique ammunition.
Firing Speed: Fast firing speed with a max range of 15 feet, allowing Heliades to fire multiple shots in rapid succession. With quick reload mechanisms and a well-balanced design, it allows for swift and accurate follow-up shots. 1 chamber holds 7 bullets. Heliades carries a max of 3 back-up chambers for this firearm.
Destructive Capability: Destructive power decreases with increasing distance, making close-quarters combat more advantageous.

Sto. Loreno, Dagger: It was said that this dagger was forged from a rare meteorite that crashed during the break of dawn. Its blade gently glows with an ethereal blue hue, and its hilt engraved with intricate solar motifs, hinting at the radiant strength that flows through the weapon. A single strike from this dagger can slow a creature’s regenerative capabilities for a short while— only due to the elixirs Heliades smears across the blade.

Sta. Mercuria, Adamantine Brass Knuckles: These adamantine brass knuckles are engraved with alchemical symbols representing permanence and strength. If bullets or daggers won’t work, Heliades uses this pair in close-quarters combat, embodying her tenacity and resilience.

Silver Bullets: These specially-crafted silver bullets, infused with reactive sun fire liquid, glimmer as if newly forged. They are capable of piercing through and delivering a decisive blow to creatures, especially those susceptible to silver that leaves a burning sensation upon contact.

Notes on Gadgets: All cannot be used while imbibed with the Diaemus extract.

Skills, Spells, Special Abilities: (Ammunition & Potions)
Sunfire Spheres (5 feet, self): Heliades throws a glass sphere of liquid sunfire into a concentrated burst of light on any surface, unleashing a dazzling solar flare in a 5-feet radius. This burst disorients and temporarily reduces the enemy's damage resistance for 3 seconds. Max of 3 charges.

Conflagration Bullets (10-15 feet, ranged): Heliades fires a bullet filled with a fine powder and activator that splinters upon firing and causes burn damage on a creature for a duration of 3 seconds. If these bullets do not hit a creature, the powder simply hovers in the air for 10 seconds as a glittering cloud (area of 5 ft.) before its activator wears off. Only one cloud can be active at a time if it does not hit a creature. Max of 10 bullets, used in Sto. Taquina.

Ensnarement (20 feet, ranged): Firing from Sta. Bedine, Heliades launches a strung bullet that expands into a three-pronged claw. The cord connected to this bullet expands to 20 ft. Both cord and claw are woven and made from silver and adamantine, and oiled in the same liquids used in Valeria’s sunfire spheres. Once it hits a target, it will depend on Heliades’ strength whether or not she can drag a stronger creature, or be dragged herself, or if the creature is strong enough to wriggle or break out of the snare. Can also be used for scaling walls. Max of 1 charge, rechargeable after 1 rest.

Beacon of Purification (15 feet): Containing a mix of Cinonyx and Quinoline, Heliades fires the specially crafted bullet in the air, where it explodes in a radiant burst. Allies within a 15-feet radius gain temporary defense and sharpened senses for 10 seconds. Max of 2 charges, used in Sta. Bedine. Only one can be used at a time, no stacking.

Elixir of Pithega: This elixir, when consumed, enhances Heliades’ senses: sharpening her vision that allows her to see faint details from a distance, enhances her hearing allowing her to detect the softest of sounds, making them more aware of their surroundings. Max of two 5ml bottles, effects last for a duration of 5 seconds.

Potion of Cinonyx: Made out to be an adrenaline booster, this potion grants Heliades lightning-fast reflexes and heightened speed. When consumed, it floods her system with a surge of energy, allowing her to move with incredible agility and reaction time. Though she has perfected this potion for the moments where she needs a swift escape or precise strikes, it may have been the very one, because of multiple experimentations on the dosage, that has turned Heliades’ eyes into the gold color that they are. Max of two 5 ml bottles, effects last for a duration of 3 seconds.

Quinoline Elixir: a renowned healing elixir that assists in faster recovery from wounds. It has a rejuvenating effect when imbibed, with ingredients that mend physical wounds. It also helps cleanse the body of toxins and rejuvenates stamina, providing a second wind in times of dire need. Max of one 5 ml bottle, effects last for a duration of 5 seconds.

Extract of Diaemus: This ominous potion, when consumed, transforms Heliades temporarily into a raging vampiric force, increasing her strength, speed, and durability, as well as elongating her nails and teeth like that of a vampire’s. During this mode, she cannot use her brass knuckles, guns, or dagger, and would only rely on her vampiric strength to take down her foe. Max of 2 10ml bottles, effects lasting for a duration of 10 seconds.

Xalium Shot: Also known as a versatile elixir that serves as a potent neutralizer against the harmful aftereffects of Heliades’ potions. This unique potion particularly nullifies the extract of Diaemus but renders the drinker vulnerable as they purge out the remnants of the latter potion. Max of 3 15 ml bottles, effects last for 5 seconds.

Notes on Potions: Heliades can only stack a max of 3 different potions before she needs to wash it out with 1 Xalium Shot.
Post #: 25
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