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RE: =Elemental Championships 2019= OOC & Tournament Signups

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6/28/2019 22:08:52   
  Starflame13
Moderator


 The end of the first week has passed, with tons of original ideas, old friends, and new faces being seen. Keep up the excellent work!

@Dragonknight315 - Thank you for making the needed updates. Keep a close eye on balancing Morrigan's mana in the fight itself, and be sure to avoid bunnying with your abilities. Approved!

@Oddball - The fire manipulation looks a lot better now. Excited to have you joining us this year! Approved

Two weeks remain to enter! Get those bios submitted!
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 26
6/29/2019 1:36:29   
ergotth
AQW Lore-titician


 Name: Granthese
Race: Human
Age: Unknown due abusing time magic
Class: Chronomancer
Element: Ice

-Appearance
Granthese can be a very inconspicuous figure, not easy to discern from the crowd as he avoid dressing fancy like most magi and Warlocks, dressing with a long-sleeved, pure white shirt unbuttoned at the start of the chest and brown, plain wool pants fit for a librarian, his most distinct feature is his shoulder-lenght hair that is pure white on one side and pitch black on the other and his eyes lacking irises and pupils whatsoever, a trait he hides with blue-tinted glasses to avoid startling people who share a glance with him.He carries a heavy book attached to his belt which he opens and flickers through the pages to get the right spell and craft out of the regenerative pages the most complex incantations.
Portrait

-Gear
As a caster, Granthese uses primarily his hands for spells and his large tome, the Chronomicon, for his most complex spells. The record have this unique feature of shapeshifting the pages, from sheding a large number to launch a barrage of frozen paper to creating a several feet-long page like a scroll to wrap around something and even increasing in size to make the cover a shield for average physical and magical attacks. If in any form the chronomicon is damaged, it will revert to it's original form of a small, handwritten diary with a frostbitten cover, and will take a few seconds to regenerate for further use. While it regenerates, Granthese is limited to his most basic forms of magic. From inside the book he can also create a staff that, although it seems made out of frozen ink, it's deceivingly sturdy and can be used for parries, blocking and some nasty concussions.

The Chronomicon have, fully charged, 500 pages.
-Abilities
Being one of the chronomancers, Granthese specializes in time magic, and adapted most of it to fit the need of the lord of the elemental plane of Ice. He focus in solidifying the flow of time and freezing it and anyone caught in it, draining the seconds and minutes like frost spreading on exposed skin. Granthese's fighting style consist of mostly crippling the movements of his opponents and leaving'em sluggish and paralized to the point the sheer icy grasp of static time causes their mind to go numb, as he prefers to approach battles with non-violent solutions.

-Specific spells

Stasis Blast
The Chronomicon, in it's default form of a large book, will open facing the opponent and release a long-range blast of cryogenic energy, leaving a strong sensation of numbness and frostbite that last for several seconds, leaving most people shivering. By concentrating long enough he can launch a large, thick blast or without much thinking, small bursts that travel a few feet ahead of him, needless to say, the former is much stronger while the small blasts need constant firing to match in strenght. They also create a freezing aura that leaves the surfaces nearby covered in frost, curiously in the shape of gears and clockwork.

Murder of minutes
By sheding pages of the Chronomicon, they will turn into white "origami" crows (around 10) that will swarm the opponent and create an incresingly cold air around him as they slow the passage of time in the air around, causing the target to feel cold and frostbitten after a while surrounded by the murder (term for a flock of crows). When casting the spell, he have the choice of directing them to either swarm around the target as a distraction and a slow cripple or directly launch each crow as a projectile that will casue a very painful frost if they happen to hit anything not covered by armor. Each individual crow will shatter upon contact. This spell however consumes pages of the Chronomicon, if too many pages are removed, not only Granthese's spells are compromised, the Chronomicon will revert to it's true form and recharges. This spell consumes from 10 to 20 pages of the Chronomicon and the crows do not have a mind of their own, they are merely projectiles directed by Granthese and require visual contact between him and his target.

Chrono Wall
By creating a thin wall of "frozen time", the wall only covers a radius of a few feet in front of Granthese for about 180º, meaning his backside is unprotected. Granthese shields himself from small projectiles be it physical objects or magicaly-created projectiles (lets say, a fireball, for instance). They will slow down to almost a halt for 9 seconds and can't be too large (lets say, anything heavier than a boulder) or be composed of complex living beings, such as a person charging towards him. After the 9 seconds, they will resume their trajectory, the speed and strenght unnaffected. Granthese must be careful to not step back towards the projectiles when the time runs out. He can only cast one wall at a time.

Literary insertion
During an emergency, Granthese can warp himself inside the book like a pocket dimension, leaving most enemies confused on why he suddenly vanished and left a seemingly harmless book behind, until Granthese find himself safe enough to leave. For obvious reasons, this can only be used once, as the enemy won't fall for the same trick twice, and damaging the book can forcefuly ejects him out of the pages. Inside the book, Granthese have little awareness of what is happening in the outside world, just being able to hear the sounds and sense nearing sources of life. If the ground below isn't suitable for the safety of the book (water, burning embers, mud...) the book will float a few inches off the ground, but it will remain anchored to that spot unless picked up by someone else. This ability functions similar to a turtle entering it's shell. Can work for a while, but have the drawback of leaving him immobile on the spot. The book have a safety magic that, anyone not permitted to carry the book will have their hands freezing upon contact. The frost immediatly recedes when they let go of the book.

Thief of seconds
His magic can consume quite a lot of mana, to compensate this drawback, he will attempt to come up closer to his target and "steal" seconds of his life, replenishing his mana reserves little by litte as his target "ages" a few seconds (emphasis on "a few seconds", Granthese is NOT able to age anyone to the point of years passing by). This spell requires physical touch and will remain as long as Granthese holds the target. Too much aging can leave marks of frostbite around one's body and a persistent chill down Granthese's spine. Abusing this spell can be painful to the own caster, as the cold will feel like pure hypothermia, even worse for the victim. The aging effect is, however, limited to a few seconds of the user's life, nothing above hours or days, just a few seconds and ending contact with the target after prolonged use can leave a very slight feeling of lapse. This spell does not require the Chronomicon and must have physical contact.
DF AQW  Post #: 27
6/29/2019 21:00:51   
  Starflame13
Moderator


 Reminder to people that the arena OOCs have been revealed! Go and vote on your favorite here! Now, bios!

@ergotth - there are a few spots in your bio where I asked for specific clarifications/edits and, instead of providing them, you fully removed reference to these sections. For example, I stated that Stasis-blast was too strong to pierce through all solid objects and gave a few suggestions of how to adjust its piercing effect - but the current version makes no mention of the effect differing depending on what it hits. As some advice to everyone: removing specificity is not the same as addressing the root issue. While abilities CAN be written/balanced without putting in hard limits, changing something from hard limits to vaguer ones or neglecting to fully explain/answer questions just causes me - and your fellow writers - to ask MORE questions - whether now in the bio phase or later in the ability phase.

That said, how you have adapted the abilities have given me more freedom to make assumptions about them. Those assumptions are as follows:

Statis Blast - the effect listed occurs fully when striking unprotected (or barely protected) skin, and lessons with the more insulation they are wearing.

Murder of minutes - This is ok if the target is able to shatter the crows with physical/magical blows, thus decreasing the intensity of the cold. (As an aside, I like the visibility requirement!)

Chronowall - any items that are too large/too complex/too many to be blocked by the chronowall pass directly through it without impacting the other frozen projectiles.

Thief of Seconds - the frostbite begins where the physical contact is initiated and spread with prolonged contact. While the person may feel strange, they are not actually missing several seconds of what's happening in the battle field.

If you agree with the above assumptions, make a post stating so, and we can approve Granthese! If not, added clarification needs to be added those abilities for me to be sure that they are balanced.
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 28
6/29/2019 21:55:22   
ergotth
AQW Lore-titician


 All these assumptions are 100% correct ^^
DF AQW  Post #: 29
6/30/2019 21:19:11   
  Starflame13
Moderator


 And we're moving on to the second week! Hoping to see many more bios coming out in the next few days!

@ergotth - thank you for the clarification! Fully approved!
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 30
7/3/2019 11:11:32   
roseleaf320
Creative!


 Name: Bassareus Laverne
Race: Human
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Element: Ice

Description: A most notable member of the esteemed Laverne house, Bassareus is a prominent performer in the entertainment industry whose chilling talents are unrivaled. Using powers unknown to any other man, Bassareus is able to transform his own body into solid ice, which he can manipulate with his own thoughts. This talent, paired with his heavenly appearance, has stunned and enchanted all those lucky enough to attend his performances, creating quite a following for the dashing young man. His thick, flowing hair reaches down to his shoulders, the color of rich chocolate. A perfectly-groomed stubble covers much of his sharp jaw and circles around his lips, thick and soft, ideal for many a stolen kiss in the dark of night. And he has been told that his dark eyes pierce right into the hearts of men and women alike, beckoning their very souls to come out and dance in Bassareus’ majesty.

His outfit consists of a cloth under-layer and an elegant leather coat which covers his shoulders, arms, and chest. This was specially made for his public appearances, featuring two large flaps that droop over his shoulders, and a cape that reaches past his knees. All of this is a brown color that slowly turns to black at the lower thresholds. As a nod to Bassareus’ immense wealth of knowledge and talent, the coat/cape duo is adorned with elaborate gold designs outlining each fold and curling out of each corner, embroidered with actual gold thread. Even his leather boots are created in this fashion. In summary, the young Bassareus looks more stunning than any work of art could hope to portray.


Abilities: Bassareus’ magic is a peculiar form of magic dealing with the freezing of his own body. Quite literally, this is the ability to change parts of his body into solid ice, which he can then exercise limited control over. By splitting the ice at the molecular level, he can shape it however he desires, fracturing his forearm into a million tiny pieces only to reform it into a spear, or a bouquet of flowers. He can then choose to transform this ice back into bodily matter as long as it is within five feet of him. Once the ice has been shaped into something, it must reattach to Bassareus and transform back into flesh before he can use it again. It does not have to finish its transformation before Bassareus can will it to reform into its normal state, but it must be reattached to Bassareus before he can change it back into flesh.

He may have multiple body parts transformed at once (for example, one finger on his left hand transformed into a tiny dagger, while a finger on his right is taking the shape of a sphere), though this does take concentration on his part, as he’s maintaining two separate entities instead of one. Distraction may cause this ice to lose form and drop to the ground. While this is very unlikely with a single object, the likelihood increases with each extra object. In total concentration, Bassareus can maintain control over a maximum of four similar objects, or three different ones: and in total, about 10% of his body at once. Any more would break his concentration, and leave him exhausted from overuse.

If body matter would be connected in its normal form, it must somehow stay connected as ice: it can be stretched and manipulated, but cannot become two unattached objects.

While ice is transforming, it is able to float in midair, but once fully transformed, gravity will take effect normally. It cannot move on its own, and Bassareus must propel it manually if he wishes for it to move. Bassareus also has the ability to attach the ice to something else, such as a person’s hand or sword, and this will negate the gravity involved. If attached to bare skin, it can cause frost bite as if that person had dunked their hand into a bucket of ice and left it there. Bassareus still has to concentrate to keep this ice attached.

Damage and Strength of Ice: Bassareus’ ice is much more densely packed than normal ice cubes you might put in your drink, preventing it from shattering as easily, but bludgeoning attacks (such as a club or axe) would shatter the ice easily if a moderate amount of force is used. Piercing attacks, however, and more lightweight weapons, are more likely to bounce off or become embedded in the ice itself. In the case of ice being used by Bassareus to stab or hit, contact with heavy metal could also cause parts or all of the structure to shatter. Very thick leather or soft metal might be enough to stop any damage from the ice, depending on its shape (Bassareus can create very sharp edges, which may stab through lighter armor), but might not cause enough damage to shatter it.

Technicalities of Wounds: To prevent himself from bleeding out while parts of his body are not attached, Bassareus keeps a thin layer of body-ice attached to the open wound while the rest of the ice is being used. He may also use this technique for wounds acquired in combat, but this takes concentration similarly to how it would if he was maintaining control over multiple similar objects.

If ice moves greater than five feet away from Bassareus, he is no longer able to command it to reattach to him and revert to body matter. If a small piece of a larger object was knocked away, that respective piece of his body will be missing when he reattaches and transforms the rest (for example, a chunk of forearm may be lost this way, or the end of a finger). If he picks up this missing ice later in the fight, he can reattach it normally.

Timed Bomb: At the start of an ice transformation, Bassareus has the ability to command a set time at which the ice is to de-transform- violently. At this time (say, ten seconds after it fully transforms), it will shatter outward at high velocity into many small, sharp ice shards. These shards could travel up to twenty feet away from the center of the blast, and embed themselves inches into flesh depending on how close a person was to the blast: at point blank range into bare skin, it has the possibility to pierce into vital organs. Bassareus is in no way immune to these shards or the damage they could do. All other stipulations apply normally to this ice: Bassareus cannot control it once it is fully transformed, and cannot take back or change the time at which it is to explode.


Post #: 31
7/3/2019 23:22:20   
  Starflame13
Moderator


 More bios, yay! Lets try to get a few more before the weekend!

@roseleaf320 - welcome back! I'm very impressed with the amount of balancing that went into Bassareus - he's also an easier character to work with because nearly all the abilities focus on self-manipulation, rather than effecting your opponents.

I reached out with you to clarify a bit about the basics of the ability, since there's a LOT of detail here. Put simply: Bassareus can detach parts of his body and turn it into ice, manipulating it into the form of some object. Once the transformation is complete, the former-limb acts like a normal, if very cold, object - subject to all rules of physics/gravity. My assumption is that Bassareus does NOT have complete control over the ice, but is merely able to wield the object (i.e, if his ice-dagger shatters, he can't command the pieces to fly at his target). Similarly, objects that are separated from him can't be changed/reformed until he gets within range to command them to return to him as normal body parts - and they must return to normal before he can convert them into anything else.

With that assumption in place, the character is Approved! Please let me know if anything stated is incorrect, and we will adjust as needed.
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 32
7/6/2019 0:02:35   
  Starflame13
Moderator


 Just over one week remaining to submit your bios! The deadline is 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, July 13th. Any bios that have been submitted, but not yet approved, at that point will have 24 hours to be approved. This is one day LATER than stated in the initial thread - it's looking like we'll get a handful of last minute bios and I'd like to give everyone an extra full weekend day to get submissions in!

Now, I know everyone is excited about which arenas will be used this year! Official arenas will be revealed on when the deadline for submitting new bios has passed, and unlocked when either all remaining bios are approved or at the end of the day Sunday. That said, here are the four potential trials your characters could be facing this year:


Let me know your guesses!

(This many arenas can fit 32 people - so if you want to force one of the others to be revealed, convince your friends to come join in the fun!)
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 33
7/6/2019 0:33:28   
nield
Creative!


 Guesses:

Mystique: Sky
Menace: 45/45 Spike/Cellar
Illumination: No clue
Dancing Blades: Factory
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 34
7/10/2019 20:04:28   
Kooroo
Member

Name: Theia Eris Fhe?nn d’Astra, otherwise known as Theia Fhe?nn Astra

Titles:
  • The Fastest Blade in any Cardinal Direction
  • The Astra

    Gender: Female
    Element: Energy
    Age Business Identification Number for Tax Purposes: 73 968 5521 8723-F
    Race: 50% Human, 50% Fast.
    Height: 1.88 meters
    Weight: That’s private

    Occupation: Professional Murderer-to-go. It’s like takeout; convenient, but bad for you.
    Residence and Origin: Off-realm. Expect some strangeness
    Class and subclasses: Nuisance, Spiffy Dresser, and Completely Insane

    Motivation: Weightloss

    Appearance: Theia is a rather striking figure among the masses; which is generally not something you’d normally expect or want from a hired gun. Being rather tall, thin and lanky, her appearance is not very intimidating compared to majority of mercs you might come across. Her physique, coupled together with her… interesting choice of clothing, usually results in her being spottable from a mile away. The one thing she does share in common with assassins and hitmen (some of them, anyway) is that she exudes a certain air of confidence; both in her attitude, and the way she holds herself.
    She sports long, dirty blonde hair that is typically tied up in a ponytail. Atop a pair of a somewhat sharp nose sits two, mismatched eyes. Her left eye is a bright, fairly normal green. The right eye—a prosthetic—shines a bright red. It’s not particularly noticeable during the day, but it is remarkably inconvenient at night. Theia also has dark, gunmetal plates set into the skin on top of her temples, and into the hinges of her jaw.

    Her style of dress is a touch outlandish by most peoples’ standards, starting with her hat.
    She wears a black leather hat that is a cross between a tricorne and a fedora. The back edge of the hat is not as long as the two front edges, making the hat longer than most. Unlike a tricorne, however, only the front sides are pinned up, with the back of the brim remaining completely flat. Each edge has an intricately detailed, gunmetal metal trim. A leather band wraps around the base of the crown, with a dark green pin in the center. The pin depicts a pair of crossed, curved swords pointing downwards. There aren’t really any notable properties about the hat, except for how she never seems to lose it.

    Theia wears a hip-length, half-cape on her right shoulder, on top of a double-breasted waistcoat. The cape is emblazoned with a pair of crossed, golden daggers. A white, cotton shirt with a silver collar bar and black string tie lie underneath. The shirt is missing its right sleeve, revealing Theia’s mechanical arm. The left sleeve is ends with a French cuff. It holds a cufflink depicting a golden triangle, outlining 3 outward facing swords. Her left hand is covered by a black leather glove. She wears nothing on her right hand, showing the dark, metal prosthetic as it is.
    Below the waist, Theia wears a pair of dark brown, leather pants buckled with a black belt. Rounding off her attire are a pair of silvery, metal boots. The boots are jointed at the ankle, and always project a holographic sparks from the backside of the heel.

    Weapons and Equipment:
    Vulcan — Thermonuclear Energy Core:
    It’s safe. Promise*.

    The Vulcan Thermonuclear Energy Core is a tad overkill for Theia’s purposes. A creation of both magic and technology (or magitech), the Vulcan harnesses the power of a somewhat-miniature star and converts it into energy for Theia’s use.

    Besides being the main power source for many of Theia’s abilities, the Vulcan is also responsible for regulating, improving and replacing many of her body’s functions and needs.
    For example, Theia’s stamina has improved far beyond that of any human, and she is able to (almost literally) keep running all day. Her reliance on oxygen is somewhat negated by an unknown process, though she still does need some oxygen to survive. And unlike most people, sleep isn’t a requirement for her; she can be knocked unconscious (found that out the hard way), but she can’t naturally fall asleep.

    Besides being a caffeine replacement, the Vulcan is also the main source of Theia’s incredible running ability. If she’s out for a morning jog, she’s able to comfortably match an accomplished sprinter. At a full out sprint, it is pretty impossible for any human to match her. Her top speed would be capable of matching a racehorse.

    There are a fair few drawbacks to having a one-of-a-kind, sun-powered generator. The first one is the obvious drawback if the generator should get critically damaged or ruptured. Normally, the resulting explosion would be something spectacular, however, Theia assures (and has been assured) that there is a perfectly functional containment failsafe that would contain and dissipate the would-be explosion, and that the Vulcan is either extremely durable or incredibly secure. She’s had plenty of times where she’s been roughed up or thrown around, and she still hasn’t exploded. She hasn’t discounted the fact that she might have just been very lucky.

    The Vulcan still continues to function within anti-magic fields, however its energy output is diminished slightly, which will affect Theia’s speed among other things. It has been engineered to keep operating in such conditions, as a complete shutdown might adversely affect the star’s containment.

    Despite the immense energy capacity of the Vulcan, there’s occasionally a few seconds of a lag before Theia’s able to work at her full capacity. This can be mitigated with the burst of energy given off from a couple of her weapons. The startup lag will only be an issue again if Theia stops moving or stays mostly stationary for around 8 seconds.

    The last, and least significant drawback is its energy signature, which can be very clearly detected within a hundred or so meters of it. The amount of energy the Vulcan gives off is easily detectable by any competent mage, or anyone with the right equipment. Sneaking up on someone that knows you’re coming isn’t exactly the most ideal way to start off a job.
    It does tend to make it far more interesting though.

    *Does not constitute a legal guarantee.

    1. Indus — Energized Blade Thrower:
    ”Sublime.”

    A hefty, complex-looking, single-barreled revolver that acts as Theia’s primary weapon. The butt of the gun has a bulky, extended stock, which houses a lot of the inner workings of the weapon and also helps to ‘balance’ it. The handgun’s cylinder usually glows a soft red, making it inconvenient to operate at night. According to the operating manual, the weapon is powered by the remnants of a star.

    Indus fires off short sword-shaped energy bolts. Upon impact, the bolts detonate and cause minor electrical burns, a slight staggering effect and induce a sensation that has been likened to being burnt by a sun. The magically induced burning feeling is quite agonizing, but it only lasts a few seconds, which is usually enough to disrupt a target. A hit on a target will also decrease the target’s magical resistance. Every hit on a previously shot target will also cause a slightly larger detonation and stagger, but only to that target.

    Each bolt flies at about the same speed as an arrow, and has a maximum effective range of just 4 meters. Anything past this range, and the bolts do nothing except for give a sharp jolt. Each shot fired from the gun vents a lot of excess energy, which is channeled back into the Vulcan, giving Theia a short burst of speed. It has a maximum fire rate of 1 shot every 4 seconds.

    The gun can fire off 4 shots before it must be primed before it can fire again. Once the last shot is discharged, it’ll be about 6 more seconds before Theia is able to fire again.

    Indus produces an incredible amount of recoil, and thus, can only be fired from Theia’s stronger, synthetic right hand. Firing from her left would most likely dislocate her shoulder, or (at the very least) rip the gun from her hand.

    Unlike her other weapons, Indus doesn’t have a holster. Theia can summon the weapon when she requires it, seemingly ‘drawing’ it out of thin air. It can be banished or ‘holstered’ on command as well, which Theia likes to have fun with (ie. throwing it away). When summoned, Indus will be in the exact same state as when Theia left it, meaning that this doesn’t serve as an easy reload. The amount of time it takes to summon is only about a second, which is pretty much the same amount of time Theia needs to draw any of her other weapons.

    The Fourth Shot:
    The Fourth and final shot fired from Indus is a bit different compared to the previous 3. When Indus is primed for its final shot, the cylinder emits a bright, red glow and a soft, but audible crackle. On firing, the gun discharges a magically charged short sword at a target. Where this sword comes from is anyone’s guess, as it certainly too large to fit down Indus’ barrel.

    The speed and range of the shot is the same as all of the others, but the speed boost Theia receives is slightly stronger. It has more recoil compared to Indus’ other shots, and will normally cause Theia to adjust her stance slightly (even while running) to accommodate for it.

    When it strikes an object, the blade releases its magical charge. If it penetrates an object, then the energy is released into the target, causing a sensation that has been likened to ‘being stabbed by the sun’. If it doesn’t stab anything, then the charge is released into a concussive, electrical blast capable of a mild taser effect. The sword is about as sharp as you’d expect from a decent craftsman, and it’s fired with a considerable amount of force behind it. Not quite enough to penetrate plate armor, though it might dint it (and you’d probably be more worried about the electrical discharge). The sword is definitely capable of damaging chainmail and it would go through leather fairly easily.

    The sword created from the shot will persist until Theia finishes reloading Indus. Once Indus is reloaded, the sword fades out of existence, until the next time a Fourth shot is fired. Unlike the other shots, the Fourth Shot does not lower any magical resistance.
    ”Because, you know. They’ll hopefully be dead.”

    2. Themis — Kinetic Energy Sapper:
    A pistol with an extremely long barrel, Themis fires off thin, stiletto-shaped bolts of energy. The bolts are slightly faster than the bolts from Indus, but they do absolutely no damage. The bolts instantly sap any struck object of their kinetic energy. It’s especially useful whenever she’s being chased by someone, or needing to interrupt say, a sword-swing. Sapped energy is channeled into the Vulcan, and gives Theia a small burst of speed.

    Themis only holds one shot, and it automatically recharges this shot once every 15 seconds. It has a maximum range of 6 meters, and its projectiles are faster than that of Theia’s other guns. Theia keeps Themis in a holster on her right thigh.

    3. Chiron — Scattershot Energy Donator:
    ’July 19th. Shot someone into an oncoming lorry today. Not sure if it was the right guy. Will search for more of his pieces tomorrow.’

    A snub-nosed revolver with a large, crescent shaped stock. Chiron fires 4 kunai-shaped energy bolts in a small ‘X’ pattern. The bolts detonate with a concussive blast, and also impart a short anti-gravity effect on a target. Combined together, Chiron is capable of sending foes flying away from Theia, either for encroaching on her personal space, or for amusement.

    Chiron isn’t particularly damaging nor dangerous by itself. The main danger for anyone shot by it would be in the distance launched, and when the anti-grav wears off. Theia’s recorded a maximum launch distance of 7 meters, with optimal trajectory and personal space violations. The launch distance varies according to how close they are when they’re shot, but the main determining factor is how many bolts they are hit by.

    Chiron’s maximum range is about a meter and a half. It holds enough charge for 1 shot, and requires about 15 seconds in its belt holster to be recharged.

    4. Phaeton — The Fourth Gun:
    And on the Fourth day, the Lord said…

    Unlike all of her other weapons, Phaeton is meant to be used—and can only be used—whilst stationary. The gun is created by combining Indus, Themis, Chiron, and some other components into a very, very large rifle. Channeling power straight from each gun’s own power source and the Vulcan, Phaeton fires brilliant, greatsword-shaped energy bursts to explosive effect. Being hit by one of Phaeton’s blasts is akin to being hit by 3 of Indus’, in regards to the damage taken and the knockback.

    Due to Phaeton’s size and weight, it has multiple requirements before it can be used.
    Firstly, it requires Theia to be completely stationary. The only movement that Theia’s capable of while holding Phaeton is pivoting via her right foot, to track a target.
    While Phaeton can be disassembled easily enough in a few seconds if required, but it takes at least 8 to set up. The gun has incredible recoil, and requires Theia to take certain precautions; she must be set up in a proper firing position with both feet firmly on the ground, and she must not have taken too much damage to her prosthetics and torso/abdominal area.

    Phaeton fires at a rate of one shot every 4 seconds. The gun makes an incredible amount of noise once it’s powered, which is comparable to a jet engine on the decibel scale. It holds 4 shots, before it automatically disassembles into its original components. Reloading it requires 10 minutes, and cannot be done in combat.

    The Fourth Shot:
    The cue and effect of Phaeton’s Fourth Shot is very similar to Indus’; a magically charged, oversized greatsword is launched at a target.

    The range of the Fourth shot is exactly the same as the other 3, however, it has much more force behind it. On a direct hit, the shot has a chance of penetrating or breaking through plate armor, though it is far more likely to glance off. In reality, though, even a glancing hit from something that large is probably going to take someone off their feet.

    When the blade strikes into or off something, the effect is similar to the Fourth shot from Indus but on a larger scale. As Theia is most likely unable to reload Phaeton while in combat, the greatsword will remain where it lands.

    Other equipment:
    Heavy Duty Magitech Synthetics:
    A fair bit of Theia’s body has been replaced by synthetic replacements. Her right arm, legs, abdomen and roughly half of her torso are all robotic; a perfect blend of magic and technology according to... someone. They function just as well—if not better—than normal, biological body parts, though they are fairly heavy.

    All of the synthetics are quite durable, being able to withstand the rigors that Theia puts them through on a nearly continuous basis. The surface or outer shell of the prosthetics are resistant to magical manipulation, and are strong enough so that they won’t be marked or defaced from random mishaps. Compared to other types of armor out there, they’d probably sit just above leather armor, but definitely below chain. The one exception are the legs; namely, anything from below (and including) the knee joint. The casing and metals used for these parts are especially strong, as they have to be able to support Theia’s weight and survive the stress inflicted from daily heavy use.

    The prosthetics are self-repairing, with a repair rate on par with the human body’s natural healing. Anybody with sufficient technical skill would be able to repair or replace the components much faster, but on the off chance that she doesn’t have anyone available, the repair system will eventually get the job done.


    Ecliptic Optical Shield and Vocaliser:
    Stored in the metal plates on Theia’s temples and jaw, and formed at a mental command.
    The Shield is a pair of metal goggles with bright, glowing amber lenses, and the Vocaliser is a smirking, metal face mask that covers the lower half of Theia’s face.

    Their primary purpose to protect Theia’s eyes and mouth from dust, rain or other environmental effects while she’s working. The Shield has a minor tinting effect in cases of bright sunlight, and the Vocaliser magically dissorts her voice, but aside from this, they have no affect on her combat ability.

    Sonorous Magitech Audio Player:
    Unfortunately, Theia’s left her earphones at home. Again.

    A small, disc-shaped device that Theia keeps on her belt. Charged via a universal connector, the audio player holds enough charge to play through its speakers for up to 12 hours straight. It easily holds thousands of songs, though Theia has been considering getting a new one with a larger capacity.

    The device doesn’t have any speakers on it. By default, it automatically plays songs through any wired (3.5 mm) connections. In the absence of any wired connections, it will magically project the sound through the air around it.

    Theia’s is still technically covered by the warranty, but she thinks she may have thrown away the receipt.

    Combat Prowess/Physical Ability:
    As touched on before, Theia’s core strengths are her magitech enhanced stamina, exceptional marksmanship and outstanding running speed.

    Complementing these, Theia also has rather impressive reaction speed, coordination and balance. The strength and durability of her mechanical components grants her a very strong core giving her multiple benefits; an example is the crucial ability to fire Indus while running, and not falling over from the recoil. However, the strength in her left arm and her close combat skills are lacking, or average at best. Her focus in CQC would be in trying to disengage and put distance between her and a foe, as anyone adept in it would easily beat her in an extended engagement.

    She has a very mean right hook, though.

    Skills and Abilities:

    On a Dime:
    A hybrid of both her own magic, Vulcan’s magic, and the magical engineering in her boots lets Theia retain sufficient grip on suboptimal surfaces (ie. sand, waxed tiles, wet grass, etc.). It lets her take sharp turns and corners without losing too much speed, and also means that she won’t just skid and crash into a wall. Especially useful for indoor fighting, or where the area is naturally a bit tighter and less open.

    The ability is usually quite reliable, but it falters slightly on ice and magically slicked-up surfaces. Anti-magic zones negate the effect completely, and really sends home how bad of an idea it is to have fully metal boots.

    Quickdraw:
    Theia’s able to levitate and maneuver her weapons using a sort of off-brand telekinesis. The range of the ability is little more than past her arms, and she can’t move the weapons especially quickly, nor can she actually fire them. She is able to levitate multiple weapons at once, but she can’t do it while running or moving too quickly, as it requires some concentration. The control of the weapons isn’t particularly strong either; a solid slap to a floating weapon would be enough to knock free.

    The main practical use of the ability revolves around setting up and disassembling Phaeton, as the former would normally take close to a minute without the extra ‘help’.

    The other less-practical use is for party tricks and just showing off. Which, Theia would argue, is absurdly practical.

    Haste:
    By drawing more energy from the Vulcan, Theia further increases her speed for roughly 10 seconds. The ability is only usable once, as the cooldown required would be longer than that spent in the Arena.

    Immediately after the ability ends, her current speed will momentarily drop by half.

    Other skills and abilities:
    Juggling.
    Exceptional piano and violin.
    Dislikes hedgehogs. Not a skill.
    • AQW Epic  Post #: 35
    7/10/2019 20:13:11   
    Caststarter
    Member

    		Because it has been bugging me for quite some time now...

    "Phoenix Trail: Scraping the spearhead against a surface allows the spearmaster to craft walls of white fire as tall as her for a few seconds, burning away physical projectiles, searing away flesh that dares to be in the roaring flames and even minor forms of magic.

    May the start be editted to "Sliding the tip of the spearhead" and the rest the same? That way... we don't have confusion madness over words?
    DF  Post #: 36
    7/10/2019 21:46:07   
    superjars
    Member

    		Shandrae Vellura
    Shaman, Keeper of the Five
    Half-elemental, earth

    Clothed in naught but abundant greenery, it is difficult for any but the most devout to peel their gaze from the beautiful, lithe form of Shandrae upon catching sight of her. But upon closer examination, the dark, gnarled skin - bark-like in appearance - that peeks out from beneath the vines flowing from her head and wrapping around the small figure causes many to turn away. Her garb is accented by flashes of red, yellow and orange as flowers cascade across it. Her eyes are dark and gleaming, like twin points of obsidian staring from her ebony face.

    Shandrae has control of five earthen spirits to which she has bonded herself over the last several years. Each can be activated separately, but only one at a time. Additionally, the powers of different spirits can be combined, such as grafting a metal axe head onto a wooden haft. The shaman must concentrate on the spirit while it is being controlled and each is able to do different things, as noted below. It takes her several seconds to switch between them, but there are no limitations on how often or to which spirit she can transfer. Her spirits are only able to control the materials already under their control at the time of Shandrae’s arrival in Bren. Additional material for each is only bonded via a lengthy ritual between shaman and spirit.

    The spirits are all hidden within the materials they control. In whatever form that material takes, the spirits are able to have them float around Shandrae. They must be within ten feet for the bond between them to be maintained or activated.

    Gaes: Spirit of growth - controls a handful of mud and herbs that Shandrae can use to staunch wounds, dull pain or deal with poisons or diseases.

    Ferrul: Spirit of metal - controls enough metal to form the hilt and blade of a single short sword. Activating allows Shandrae to change it’s form, even being able to split into two separate pieces.

    Vezzin: Spirit of the jungle - controls about ten to fifteen feet of vines and the ability to grow some more herbs for Gaes. When Shandrae is activating them, they can be divided or combined at will. Their primary use is for striking or lashing out at enemies and are unable to be maneuvered with enough fine control to grasp or encapture anyone.

    Xalia: Spirit of the forest - controls enough wood to form an eight foot pole about one to two inches in diameter. While activated, it can be reshaped and reformed at will, but must remain whole at all times.

    Zacile: Spirit of the desert - controls enough sand that can be gathered into a ball with a diameter of eight or nine inches. The sand can be densely packed, allowing it to slow projectiles and weapons and packs quite a punch when striking someone.

    Shandrae is always trying to innovate with how to utilize her spirits, seeking out others that she might bond with and to learn how to use more than one at a time, but has not yet reached these goals.
    AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 37
    7/10/2019 23:26:01   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 More bios, yay! As a reminder, there are now **THREE** days left to submit your characters!

    @Kooroo - good to see you again! The forum sometimes throws a fit at certain accents, so take the chance to preview further posts that use Theia's full name.

    I'm going to start by saying that Theia has a *lot* of items, and abilities associated with them. Usually characters with this many abilities don't have the time or the opportunity to fully utilize all of them, so I would suggested narrowing it down to a few of your favorites that you can really develop during the ECs. That said, I've given balancing feedback for each item/ability, starting with your Vulcan Energy Core.

    First, can we get some clarification on exact size/location? It reads to me like this is a replacement "heart" of some sorts, but I'd like official confirmation. The speed that it gives Theia is also a bit much - especially once you add in the speed boosts from the weapons and the Haste ability. I'd suggest toning back the base speed slightly so that her "jog" is a hard run, rather than an all-out sprint, and have her max un-aided speed be a bit faster than the normal sprint. That way, we can balance the speed boosts from the items/Haste by having her only hit the "racehorse" speed with these abilities. Additionally, I'd like clarification on the potential explosion. Is this something only mentioned for flavor reasons, or is it actually a significant possibility if someone stabs her through the "heart"? If so, please provide an approximate power level/blast radius.

    Now, Indus. I'm slightly concerned with the potential domino effect of stacked detonations - can we also limit this so that it resets upon a reload? A speed boost per each shot is also very powerful, even without the limitations on speed discussed before. I would suggest adding a drawback to the speed boost - either by having it slightly shock Theia's own system, or perhaps choosing between a speed boost and firing the fourth shot? In terms of the fourth shot, I'd like to nerf this slightly as it has tremendous damage potential with stack-up. This can be done by either decrease the range or lowering the speed of the shot - I'll let you decide what fits Theia best!

    For Themis - this is a bit too powerful as a blanket "stop all kinetic motion". Can we find a way to scale it? Perhaps the more mass or inertia an object has, the less kinetic energy the shot saps, but there are other options! For Chiron - I'm acting under the assumption that the 7m flight is the max when a non-armored person is struck with all four bolts - what's the approximate spread of the bolts?

    On to Phaeton - is the speed of the bolts the same as Indus? If so, I'd recommend making the weapon a bit weaker in other areas - either a slower firing rate or specifying that it's harder to aim/manipulate. It also needs a similar nerf to the fourth shot - either decrease the range or the speed of the giant mega great sword please!

    Most of these are minor clarifications - this is rather well balanced on the whole! My final comment is that I reserve the right to request a song change for her Audio Player :P Looking forward to seeing the revised bio!

    @Caststarter - noted! Will make that edit for you shortly.

    @superjars - Well, there's a new/old face! Hello Hello! Let's take a look at Shandrae.

    Actually, Shandrae looks very well done! We clarified via Discord that the non-bonded materials take the form of orbs that float/trail her - and that she has to physically wield the bonded items directly. There's going to be a lot you can do with creativity here so looking forward to seeing her in action. Approved!

    Keep the bios coming, everyone! You have three more days!
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 38
    7/12/2019 6:41:31   
    Oddball
    Member

    		It's saddening that I have to do this, but I'd like to ask to be withdrawn from this year's EC. Family-related stuff is happening and I'm just not going to get the time to compete ;-;
    (Next year for sure, though. <3)
    AQ DF AQW Epic  Post #: 39
    7/12/2019 8:01:22   
    Necro-Knight
    Member

    		Name: Roth
    Race: Formerly human, now wraith.
    Element: Darkness
    Age: 152

    "I won't pull my punches.”

    Appearance/Equipment: Inhabiting a heavily-changed suit of enchanted “Crystarmor”, Roth stands at a rough 6 feet (or 1.8 meters) tall from head to foot. His armor, originally meant to house a stolen soul and used as a puppet during the war 100 years prior, has been altered with an artistic touch from Roth's closest friend. The once-jagged and craggy black sapphires are now carved in a smooth and organic design, almost resembling a muscle-like flow across both hands, arms, shoulders, pectorals and a solid-geode “head.” resting upon a mechanical neck.

    The smooth surface of the pectoral geode is broken by only one trait: a small slot in the sternum-area that houses the suit’s source of magical fuel and essence. Three inches long and a half-inch in thickness, this compartment is where Roth’s soul gem rests, emitting a bright violet glow that spreads to the black sapphire and resembles churning violet clouds within. Made of deep-indigo charoite, Roth is all too-aware of the obvious vulnerability at the center of his being, and took it upon himself to wrap leather binding across the breast area of his suit, trying to hide the weakness from obvious view. Despite his efforts, purple light peaks through gaps in places.

    The stomach area of the suit is protected by a black set of leathers wrapped around the ribs of the suit itself, to protect the vital magi-circuits within the body. While the original model floated on magical force alone, they outfitted the suit with a set of simple-yet-effective prosthetic legs once Roth voiced his displeasure with hovering from place to place. While he doesn’t need them, Roth wears a pair of black combat pants and has wrapped his feet in a light-weight fighters-cloth that protects him from the elements while also keeping his feet unrestricted by heavy boots or shoes.

    Fighting style: To best wield the shadow magic learned during the war, Roth’s style is very familiar to that of a boxer of olden days. With his right foot forward and his left foot slid back to support his weight, knee’s slightly bent, this fighter’s stance allows for a solid grounding while unleashing devastating shadow spells at enemies that prove too dangerous to close in on. It also provides a good starting position if he suddenly finds himself in melee range and needs to move quickly.

    His shoulders are rotated slightly, with his right shoulder a few inches forward, to present less of a direct target and allow him to bring up his defenses if given proper forewarning. His arms, unless extended in a punch or spell, are brought up and his hands rest a few centimeters where his eyes would be on his geode head.

    To cast spells and wield the magics he learned during his time as a soldier, Roth follows a martial “combination” for each of them and channeled the mana in his body and expelled the power off his knuckles. Now that his soul has been relocated to his new form, he draws upon the natural magic in the crystals used in the war machines, crystarmors and other terrible inventions. While the suit itself could, in theory, fight endlessly as it has no organic parts to wear down, the soul fueling it was placed there by an artist, not a skilled spiritual-surgeon or necromancer. Thus, Roth’s spirit is only able to fight for so long before he simply loses the willpower and mana needed to command the armor to move.

    Abilities:

    Note: All Shadowboxer spells have a maximum range of 20 feet before the spell loses solidity, DO NOT track their targets and Roth must have his feet planted to cast all but ShadowPuncher's Chance.


    Shadow Jab: Roth’s most commonly used spell, this fist-sized bolt of violet midnight is launched always from a quick punch of his right fist. While it is usually followed up by a more potent spell, such as Reaper’s Crescent or Void Cross, a quick double-cast of this spell can still be a potent opener in a fight and is the least demanding to use.

    Void Cross: Channelled down the entire arm and even requiring a twist of the hips to make sure the mana flows properly, this attack explodes from only Roth’s left arm and rapidly expands as it travels. Reaching its maximum size ( roughly that of a dodgeball) about halfway along its path, the ebony-crimson spell will detonate with enough force to knock a full-grown person onto their back once it either reaches its target or the maximum of its spell distance. This is the most demanding of the shadowboxer's core attacks, both on mana and time, as it requires a slower, full-body motion to execute properly.

    Umbral Uppercut: Executed by a quick uppercut motion, this black-violet spell curls off of Roth’s fist and slides across the ground towards its target with a width of about eight inches. Upon either reaching its desired target, the spell violently snaps upward to land beneath the chin of a humanoid or blast against the weak underbelly of a war machine, as was the spells original purpose.

    Reaper’s Hook: Trailing immediately after a quick, tight punch that is thrown with the lead or front hand and is delivered in a semi-circular pattern, the spell follows the motion forward for half of its distance, before suddenly curving in a C-shape in an attempt to extend around enemy defenses and impact from the side. So if the punch is thrown with the right hand, the spell will curve to the left, and vice-versa. While other spells have an orb-like consistency, the Reaper's Crescent ends in a sharp tip of shadow, adding to its danger while also requiring more willpower to shape correctly.

    Abyssal Cover-up: Bringing both arms up in front of his head and putting his knuckles together, Roth forms a barrier of raw shadows, reaching from his fists and stretching down to his elbows. The barrier extends about four inches to the left and right of his form. If a smaller-scale spell( such as a basic fireball or bolt of ice) impacts the field, it’s dispersed across its surface and a portion ( roughly 25% ) of the mana within is recovered by Roth himself and used to fuel the crystarmor. If a few spells are absorbed in quick succession and don't break the barrier first, the shadowboxer may gather enough energy to freely cast a counter-attack once the shield is reabsorbed without a mana cost, but none of this acquired mana can be used if the barrier breaks and releases the stolen resources. It can also not be used to hold the shield longer than its intended duration ( which is a maximum of about five seconds).

    A physical projectile, such as a bullet or arrow, would impact the surface of the ebony-violet field as if it were striking a metal shield with no mana drain, unless the projectile is enchanted with a potent spell. At that point, the efficiency would depend on the size of the projectile and the potency of the enchantment. The biggest drawbacks to this ability are that the channeling requires Roth to lose vision of the area in front of him, as he is tucked behind his arms and a glowing field of darkness, and it drains him to perform such a small-but-complex barrier.

    ShadowPuncher’s Chance: Drawing upon the dark mana saturating the crystals across his form, the shadowboxer layers raw shadow across his forearms into a pair of umbral gloves that wisp like condensed crimson-black smoke as the black sapphire across his body emits a menacing crimson hue. Unlike his other techniques, Roth will engage his opponent in a direct melee, using the umbral gloves to bludgeon and tear at his target directly with the chilling force.

    While arguably the most violent technique in the shadowboxer’s arsenal, it is not perfect, and renders Roth unable to cast any other spells while he upholds this specific technique. Once used, he will have expended the willpower needed to cast even after he has dispelled the gloves and is left with only physical attacks for a lengthy period of time(Ranging from 15-20 minutes, at minimum). Trying to cast in this state runs an extremely high risk of over-exerting his soul and sending the shadowboxer into a death-like stasis to prevent the crystarmor from consuming its host entirely.
    DF MQ AQW  Post #: 40
    7/12/2019 12:51:53   
      Lorekeeper
    And Pun-isher

     

    		 Cutting it close! It's finally time to stop panicking about my schedule and submit Van the Moon-Broken for your consideration.



    Name: Van
    Real Name: Vance Maradan
    Age: Functionally in his mid-twenties, chronologically centuries old.
    Race: Human
    Element: Darkness

    Appearance: Van looks like a healthy, if inordinately hardened, young man who could hardly pass for a day older than his middling twenties. The only overt oddities in his fit body are the brown-flecked blue eyes and slightly curved canines. He’s fairly well groomed, with the exception of having given up on keeping his dense brown hair in any sort of neat arrangement and settled for keeping it just short of eyebrow-length.

    Abilities: The Moon-Broken is a skilled fencer with remarkable acrobatic prowess, able to turn fanciful maneuvers into practical combat tactics through careful application of his powers. However, for all of the showmanship that he’s capable of, Van’s single greatest asset as a combatant is a simpler one: Experience. Many tales carry the moral of fearing elders in professions where one often dies young. An exceptionally old man who has nonetheless been in the prime of his youth for a long time is very difficult to surprise, having seen a wide variety of foes and toiled through enough battles to become adept at interpreting their movements.

    Psionics: Van is a highly proficient psion who has leaned on both natural talent and extended practice to develop his skills in two fields of psychic power: In spite of his apparent age, he is an excellent mentalist and force manipulator.

    As a mentalist, he is purely specialized in wholly medicinal and introspective powers such as masking pain and removing obfuscating or controlling influences. This leaves him with no active abilities that could hinder a foe in a gladiatorial context, since safe contact with another mind requires time, care, and most importantly: consent.

    Where this power is relevant to the Championship is the ability to turn it inward. The Moon-Broken’s mind is a war-torn fortress where Man and Beast live in mutual siege. For decade after decade, Van has toiled to fortify his conscious mind against the ravages of the Beast, its urges and hunger always threatening to overflow when the moon or his emotions pull it closer to the surface. This constant strife leaves Van highly resistant to mental manipulation and able to quickly identify its use.

    Force manipulation offers some more concrete combat principles:

  • General limitations: All of Van’s mental powers impact his attention and stamina. Force manipulation goes further and requires balancing these against the variables of intensity, control and distance. At most, a given use of his powers can focus on two of these aspects. For instance, trying to manipulate a distant object would require sacrificing force or fine control, while combining force and finesse would result in an extremely constrained range. As a general rule, anything beyond a radius of 2.5 meters begins requiring enough additional concentration to impede force and control.

  • Bolt: A straightforward surge of blunt force, with a similar ‘wind-up’ to an involved punch or kick preventing them from being fired in quick succession. Bolts dissipate on impact and can originate from anywhere within the 2.5 control radius - But anything leaving this radius has its trajectory ‘locked’. While they don’t require a physical gesture to perform, each surge has a degree of visibility proportional to its intended intensity: Something comparable to a gentle but distracting slap might barely cause a haze, while a full-force or long range attack would be plainly visible from the wind-up to the point of impact. Their damage sharply falls off with distance, with the maximum force of a point-blank attack being comparable to a tackle, while anything in excess of a few dozen meters becomes comparable to a punch.

  • Telekinesis: The remote manipulation of objects by application of force. Static, simple objects are the only ones that can be affected quickly - And those that are far away need to be brought to him to be redirected with any finesse. Conscious bodies are utterly unmanageable, as they generally move around too much to properly distribute force around them. As Van would describe it, a moving being (and any object they hold) is too ‘slippery’ to affect with telekinesis, with thinking beings possessing a further resistance in the form of interference from their minds. The manipulation of physical objects is subject to the same origin and visibility constraints as force bolts, with a further limitation: As the object’s mass increases, the speed at which it can be ‘grabbed’ and moved decreases just as it would if Van were moving it himself.

  • Zero-Range Telekinesis: A narrow subset of the above, but one developed enough to be worth a separate mention. Van’s greatest specialty lies in forsaking distance entirely to be able to manipulate his own body and held objects with enhanced strength and versatility: As force can be applied at points other than the area of grip, this technique can be used to gracefully wield weapons with otherwise excessive mass or cumbersome balance. In addition, personal use allows for enhanced speed and impressive acrobatic feats through enhancing or arresting the momentum of Van’s body. While this doesn’t allow for levitation or outright flight, it could be used to alter the course of a jump in unexpected ways or try to decelerate into a safe landing after being launched. This is the easiest to manage out of his techniques, requiring the least effort and mental plasticity to handle.

  • Force Wall: Flat, quickly summoned barriers with a variable size of up to 3x3 meters that can be moved after projection, being more strenuous to both move and maintain the larger they are made. Their use feels like constantly pushing a heavy object and leaves behind a very slowly fading numbness that must subside entirely before another can be used. If dismissing another power to be able to put up a second barrier while the first or its after-effect is active, the new barrier is more strenuous to maintain and no further ones can be projected until the additional backlash subsides. Force walls aren’t shields in the conventional sense, but rather flat planes that apply force in a given direction (Chosen at the moment of casting, unalterable as of that point) to any entity crossing them.
  • If pointing directly opposite of an incoming object’s trajectory, walls could halt a thrown weapon or light arrow. Faster projectiles such as war arrows or higher-poundage crossbow bolts would only be slowed down enough to not pierce metallic armor. Bullets would be all but unaffected within the arena’s dimensions. This makes it more efficient to direct their force sideways, so as to more overtly affect the trajectory of flying objects and aid in active evasion. Combatants crossing a wall would be affected with an intensity that is inversely proportional to their mass and velocity, feeling as through they’d crashed through a sturdy pane but being unlikely to experience anything more severe than being unbalanced unless they chose to leap through. Sufficiently slanted or horizontal walls could be feasibly walked on. Most notably, energy based attacks are entirely unaffected by this defense.

  • Multitasking limits: While an excellent multitasker, Van can only use or maintain two powers at once. Extended maintenance of barriers can make one take up both ‘tasks’, as his concentration is taxed well beyond the ability to use other powers. This includes such things as preparing two bolts at once or trying to ‘hold’ multiple objects with Telekinesis. While several small ones could be kept floating about his form, this would make it so only one could be actively moved at once.

    spoiler:

    In reality, there is a third task being performed at all times. A part of Van’s attention is perpetually assigned to holding the Beast at bay. If he’s ever rendered unable to concentrate enough, or driven to push himself beyond the apparent limit of two simultaneous tasks, the consequences will be swift and unavoidable: The Man is dragged screaming into the confines of his own mind until his counterpart is sated or somehow incapacitated - And such a brutal horror is unlikely to elicit so restrained a response.



    Lycanthropy Through unique circumstances, Van’s curse is exceptionally strong - and has not faltered nor been brought to heel. As forcefully as he has contained the Beast’s effects on his conscious mind, its effects on his body cannot be held back by will or power alone. Its sheer vitality has vastly extended Van’s lifespan and improved his healing, preserving his body at its prime.

    The accelerated healing is not enough for the Man to recover from injuries during the span of a fight, but it does afford him to experience reduced blood loss from shallow injuries and a far lower risk of injury from overexertion. His senses are somewhat more acute than a normal human’s, but their increased sensitivity can be a sign of faltering control and the Beast’s approach. Its weakness to silver is present in the human body to a lesser extent - While silver weapons don’t deal additional damage in this form, silver held against his body (Or pierced into it, such as in projectiles) will eventually begin burning.

    When the Beast seizes control, Van’s body is wracked by a swift and excruciating transformation into a creature too large for his equipment, a step between a dire wolf and a muscular primate. Able to move on two or four legs, the powerfully built creature exceeds the peak physical strength of a human and possesses sharp enough claws and fangs to be able to pierce (But not cut) hide armor or deal grievous damage to flesh. Its hearing and smell are much more sensitive - Enough, in fact, to carry a risk of dazing it or even driving it away with particularly potent stimuli applied at close range.
    The cursed form recovers from minor impacts and shallow injuries very quickly, with blood loss ceasing remarkably quickly if no internal damage is present - Vitals cannot regenerate within the span of any battle, making most means of killing any other creature just as effective at dealing with it.

    The Beast is the end of reason. While a powerful creature and a keen predator, this manifest nightmare of Van’s is driven entirely by instinct. It will prioritize targets that either seem sufficiently vulnerable or attract its attention, and go to desperate lengths to avoid fire - the natural bane of its tough hide. This makes it a remarkably predictable combatant in spite of its speed, and deprives it of all benefits pertaining to Van’s powers bar one: Its mind is a maelstrom of emotion, and extremely difficult to influence by any mental effects.

    Once the curse is unleashed, the only way for Van to regain control is to be severely injured or somehow incapacitated, as the Beast’s crushing hold on the Man’s conscious mind is not nearly as easily relinquished as the opposite transition. If its injuries are caused by silver weapons, which burn its hide upon breaking it and deal amplified damage on impact, it may falter more easily. However, whether or not Van is in any shape to fight after inheriting its injuries without similarly retaining its healing potential is an entirely different matter...

    spoiler:

    A terrible truth is entirely unknown to Van. There is no Beast.

    There is absolutely a curse, but everything Van attributes to this Beast has always, in reality, been his own fault. He believes its existence confirmed by his perception of his own mind, but what he senses is vast swathes of self-inflicted damage on a fragmented mindscape. The horrified denial of the ghastly deeds performed under the full moon's frenzy, the gut-wrenching hunger or overwhelming fury preceding a transformation that refuses to be delayed. Waking up between rags of flesh and clothing. All of these things would be damaging enough to any person. But to a psion who has spent many decades making a conscious effort to fight the curse by shaping his own mind? The results are much more complex.

    The so-called Beast is the escalation of his defense mechanism. His mind itself fighting back; every repressed impulse escalating to the point of overcoming his consciousness - And how could he possibly resist, when what was once the growing pains of developing feral instincts has escalated into a flood that carries the full force of his power?

    Perhaps the greatest horror of all is that, as this self-inflicted damage is not maintained by his curse... If he were to be cured of lycanthropy in any known way, his mind wouldn't be magically restored.


    Equipment:

    Mercy: An inordinately heavy executioner’s sword with the name carved into its dense pommel and a prayer for the souls of the wielder and struck alike inscribed across the flat. Its name may seem ironic, but it is every bit the prayer that its engraving is. This weapon is particularly sharp and heavy, making its cutting power exceedingly menacing - The weapon is meant to sever heads, after all. However, even with its counterweight, the weapon’s center of mass is far enough from the hilt to render it unwieldy in human hands - One would be carried along into any wide swing. The use of Zero-Range Telekinesis, however, entirely compensates for this flaw.

    Daggers: Van carries a small collection of four daggers as backup weapons. While finely crafted, they are largely mundane weapons save for a grim feature: Silver plating on the flat, pure enough to pose a threat to the Beast within.

    Composite armor: Van wears a well-maintained but ultimately mundane suit of leather armor with steel bracers, chest plating, back protection and shinguards. While a suit of plate armor would provide far better protection and still allow for certain acrobatic feats, he has elected to maximize flexibility. As a safety measure, the metallic guards conceal small silver plates on the inside of the armor. They don’t burn Van too intensely when the Beast is kept in check, but grow more painful as its hold grows stronger, reminding him to focus.
    • Post #: 41
    7/12/2019 21:15:49   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 Let the last minute bio rush begin! You have a bit over 24 hours to get your initial bio submissions in, and a following 24 for final approval. (See below)

    @Oddball - Real life comes first, as always. We will miss you and hope to see you back next year!

    @Necro-Knight - Hello! Fun to see a boxer here, let's get him to fighting condition!

    My first concern is with your choice of race - wraiths are usually intangible spirits, and it's a bit of an unfair fight if the only place your opponents have a chance to damage Roth is his soul gem! Clarify a bit for me if standard physical/magical attacks will hurt him - if not physically, maybe they drain his mana/willpower so it becomes harder to operate the armor?

    Secondly, please clarify how the shadows manifest in your different attacks. Are these physical objects that can be blocked/redirected? Do they pass through inanimate objects and just feel like a solid punch to something living? Shadows leave a lot up to interpretation - what would an opponent who get hit with one of these actually *feel*? Specifically, note what the hook on Reaper's Hook is able to pierce through - I would recommend it feeling more like a punch to someone in plate armor while slicing someone who was more unprotected.

    For Abyssal Cover-up: you specify that if it can absorb spells without breaking the barrier - what does it take for the barrier to break, and what are the repercussions if it does?

    ShadowPuncher's Chance also needs a bit more detail on what exactly makes a punch from a shadow-glove different than a punch from a normal glove - does it have more force behind it? Jagged edges to rip through skin? You mention chilling force - is there actually an aspect that feels opponents to feel the chill of shadows/death, or numbs the skin?

    On the whole a well balanced character, just give me more details!

    @Cray - Welcome back to the ECs! Telekensis can be tricky, but you've done a good job with Van for the most part. Just a couple quick touch-ups/clarifications.

    First, for Bolt. "A few dozens meters" is just over the entire length of the arena. As there are conventional weapons that travel this far (arrows come to mind), this is workable, but only if the travel speed is either equal or less than such a weapon, or the power drop off comes rather quickly after the initial 2.5m range.

    Second, Force Wall. How much force does this actually project? Can a projectile or a person running/moving with greater force pass THROUGH the wall, albeit at a much slower pace? If it's a hard stop regardless, I would like to limit this in some way - perhaps making it the one ability you can't use in tandem with the others? Otherwise, I'd look into scaling the amount of force it projects with the amount of concentration it takes - such that stopping, say, a super-speed person at full charge would take likely all of his mental fortitude.

    I am slightly concerned about the fast healing speed of the beast - but given the assumption that the Beast lacks the psionic abilities, this should be workable.

    Also, I totally made an error due to timezones and I will not go back on my word - so you now have just UNDER 36 hours to get bios posted! Good luck!
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 42
    7/13/2019 9:15:47   
      Lorekeeper
    And Pun-isher

     

    		 My apologies for the prior inconvenience. Writing while my screen is slowly imploding turned out to be a terrible idea, and I was too impulsive to not let a useless post stay up. It won't happen again.

    Underlined corrections and fixed my blasted formatting errors. I adjusted Bolt as discussed, improved clarifications on Force Wall so as to stress that anything faster than an arrow can go through even at the most disfavorable angle (And anyone can go through it, being slowed down or unbalanced in the process), and took the liberty of making the Beast's regeneration kick in quickly but slow down afterwards, effectively making it mostly good at keeping the Beast going - It should be harder to keep down, not punish other characters for not instantly overwhelming it.


    Name: Van
    Real Name: Vance Maradan
    Age: Functionally in his mid-twenties, chronologically centuries old.
    Race: Human
    Element: Darkness

    Appearance: Van looks like a healthy, if inordinately hardened, young man who could hardly pass for a day older than his middling twenties. The only overt oddities in his fit body are the brown-flecked blue eyes and slightly curved canines. He’s fairly well groomed, with the exception of having given up on keeping his dense brown hair in any sort of neat arrangement and settled for keeping it just short of eyebrow-length.

    Abilities: The Moon-Broken is a skilled fencer with remarkable acrobatic prowess, able to turn fanciful maneuvers into practical combat tactics through careful application of his powers. However, for all of the showmanship that he’s capable of, Van’s single greatest asset as a combatant is a simpler one: Experience. Many tales carry the moral of fearing elders in professions where one often dies young. An exceptionally old man who has nonetheless been in the prime of his youth for a long time is very difficult to surprise, having seen a wide variety of foes and toiled through enough battles to become adept at interpreting their movements.

    Psionics: Van is a highly proficient psion who has leaned on both natural talent and extended practice to develop his skills in two fields of psychic power: In spite of his apparent age, he is an excellent mentalist and force manipulator.

    As a mentalist, he is purely specialized in wholly medicinal and introspective powers such as masking pain and removing obfuscating or controlling influences. This leaves him with no active abilities that could hinder a foe in a gladiatorial context, since safe contact with another mind requires time, care, and most importantly: consent.

    Where this power is relevant to the Championship is the ability to turn it inward. The Moon-Broken’s mind is a war-torn fortress where Man and Beast live in mutual siege. For decade after decade, Van has toiled to fortify his conscious mind against the ravages of the Beast, its urges and hunger always threatening to overflow when the moon or his emotions pull it closer to the surface. This constant strife leaves Van highly resistant to mental manipulation and able to quickly identify its use.

    Force manipulation offers some more concrete combat principles:

  • General limitations: All of Van’s mental powers impact his attention and stamina. Force manipulation goes further and requires balancing these against the variables of intensity, control and distance. At most, a given use of his powers can focus on two of these aspects. For instance, trying to manipulate a distant object would require sacrificing force or fine control, while combining force and finesse would result in an extremely constrained range. As a general rule, anything beyond a radius of 2.5 meters begins requiring enough additional concentration to impede force and control.

  • Bolt: A straightforward surge of blunt force, with a similar ‘wind-up’ to an involved punch or kick preventing them from being fired in quick succession. Bolts dissipate on impact and can originate from anywhere within the 2.5 control radius - But anything leaving this radius has its trajectory ‘locked’. While they don’t require a physical gesture to perform, each surge has a degree of visibility proportional to its intended intensity: Something comparable to a gentle but distracting slap might barely cause a haze, while a full-force or long range attack would be plainly visible from the wind-up to the point of impact. Their damage sharply falls off with distance: While the maximum force of a point-blank attack is comparable to a tackle executed at an arrow’s velocity, the deceleration beyond the 10 meter mark is such that the attack will range from the force of a punch to an easily-averted nonchalant smack.

  • Telekinesis: The remote manipulation of objects by application of force. Static, simple objects are the only ones that can be affected quickly - And those that are far away need to be brought to him to be redirected with any finesse. Conscious bodies are utterly unmanageable, as they generally move around too much to properly distribute force around them. As Van would describe it, a moving being (and any object they hold) is too ‘slippery’ to affect with telekinesis, with thinking beings possessing a further resistance in the form of interference from their minds. The manipulation of physical objects is subject to the same origin and visibility constraints as force bolts, with a further limitation: As the object’s mass increases, the speed at which it can be ‘grabbed’ and moved decreases just as it would if Van were moving it himself.

  • Zero-Range Telekinesis: A narrow subset of the above, but one developed enough to be worth a separate mention. Van’s greatest specialty lies in forsaking distance entirely to be able to manipulate his own body and held objects with enhanced strength and versatility: As force can be applied at points other than the area of grip, this technique can be used to gracefully wield weapons with otherwise excessive mass or cumbersome balance. In addition, personal use allows for enhanced speed and impressive acrobatic feats through enhancing or arresting the momentum of Van’s body. While this doesn’t allow for levitation or outright flight, it could be used to alter the course of a jump in unexpected ways or try to decelerate into a safe landing after being launched. This is the easiest to manage out of his techniques, requiring the least effort and mental plasticity to handle.

  • Force Wall: Flat, quickly summoned barriers with a variable size of up to 3x3 meters that can be moved after projection, being more strenuous to both move and maintain the larger they are made. Their use feels like constantly pushing a heavy object and leaves behind a very slowly fading numbness that must subside entirely before another can be used. If dismissing another power to be able to put up a second barrier while the first or its after-effect is active, the new barrier is more strenuous to maintain and no further ones can be projected until the additional backlash subsides. Force walls aren’t shields in the conventional sense. They aren’t solid walls that will stop or deflect all attacks until overwhelmed, but rather flat planes that apply force in a given direction (Chosen at the moment of casting, unalterable as of that point) to any entity crossing them.
  • If pointing directly opposite of an incoming object’s trajectory, walls could halt a thrown weapon or light arrow. Faster projectiles such as war arrows or higher-poundage crossbow bolts would still cross it, only being slowed down enough to not pierce metallic armor. Bullets would be all but unaffected within the arena’s dimensions. This makes it more efficient to direct their force sideways, so as to more overtly affect the trajectory of flying objects and aid in active evasion. Combatants crossing a wall would be affected with an intensity that is inversely proportional to their mass and velocity, feeling as though they’d crashed through a sturdy pane but being unlikely to experience anything more severe than being unbalanced unless they chose to leap through. Sufficiently slanted or horizontal walls could be feasibly walked on. Most notably, energy based attacks are entirely unaffected by this defense.

  • Multitasking limits: While an excellent multitasker, Van can only use or maintain two powers at once. Extended maintenance of barriers can make one take up both ‘tasks’, as his concentration is taxed well beyond the ability to use other powers. This includes such things as preparing two bolts at once or trying to ‘hold’ multiple objects with Telekinesis. While several small ones could be kept floating about his form, this would make it so only one could be actively moved at once.

    spoiler:

    In reality, there is a third task being performed at all times. A part of Van’s attention is perpetually assigned to holding the Beast at bay. If he’s ever rendered unable to concentrate enough, or driven to push himself beyond the apparent limit of two simultaneous tasks, the consequences will be swift and unavoidable: The Man is dragged screaming into the confines of his own mind until his counterpart is sated or somehow incapacitated - And such a brutal horror is unlikely to elicit so restrained a response.



    Lycanthropy Through unique circumstances, Van’s curse is exceptionally strong - and has not faltered nor been brought to heel. As forcefully as he has contained the Beast’s effects on his conscious mind, its effects on his body cannot be held back by will or power alone. Its sheer vitality has vastly extended Van’s lifespan and improved his healing, preserving his body at its prime.

    The accelerated healing is not enough for the Man to recover from injuries during the span of a fight, but it does afford him to experience reduced blood loss from shallow injuries and a far lower risk of injury from overexertion. His senses are somewhat more acute than a normal human’s, but their increased sensitivity can be a sign of faltering control and the Beast’s approach. Its weakness to silver is present in the human body to a lesser extent - While silver weapons don’t deal additional damage in this form, silver held against his body (Or pierced into it, such as in projectiles) will eventually begin burning.

    When the Beast seizes control, Van’s body is wracked by a swift and excruciating transformation into a creature too large for his equipment, a step between a dire wolf and a muscular primate. Able to move on two or four legs, the powerfully built creature exceeds the peak physical strength of a human and possesses sharp enough claws and fangs to be able to pierce (But not cut) hide armor or deal grievous damage to flesh. Its hearing and smell are much more sensitive - Enough, in fact, to carry a risk of dazing it or even driving it away with particularly potent stimuli applied at close range.

    The cursed form begins to recover from minor impacts and shallow injuries very quickly, with blood loss ceasing remarkably quickly if no internal damage is present - Vitals cannot regenerate within the span of any battle, making most means of killing any other creature just as effective at dealing with it. However, the healing itself is not instantaneous. Small and shallow cuts only close enough for movement alone not to aggravate or reopen them, and impact recovery generally only applies to the dazing effects of small-scale blunt damage.

    The Beast is the end of reason. While a powerful creature and a keen predator, this manifest nightmare of Van’s is driven entirely by instinct. It will prioritize targets that either seem sufficiently vulnerable or attract its attention, and go to desperate lengths to avoid fire - the natural bane of its tough hide. This makes it a remarkably predictable combatant in spite of its speed, and deprives it of all benefits pertaining to Van’s powers bar one: Its mind is a maelstrom of emotion, and extremely difficult to influence by any mental effects.

    Once the curse is unleashed, the only way for Van to regain control is to be severely injured or somehow incapacitated, as the Beast’s crushing hold on the Man’s conscious mind is not nearly as easily relinquished as the opposite transition. If its injuries are caused by silver weapons, which burn its hide upon breaking it and deal amplified damage on impact, it may falter more easily. However, whether or not Van is in any shape to fight after inheriting its injuries without similarly retaining its healing potential is an entirely different matter...

    spoiler:

    A terrible truth is entirely unknown to Van. There is no Beast.

    There is absolutely a curse, but everything Van attributes to this Beast has always, in reality, been his own fault. He believes its existence confirmed by his perception of his own mind, but what he senses is vast swathes of self-inflicted damage on a fragmented mindscape. The horrified denial of the ghastly deeds performed under the full moon's frenzy, the gut-wrenching hunger or overwhelming fury preceding a transformation that refuses to be delayed. Waking up between rags of flesh and clothing. All of these things would be damaging enough to any person. But to a psion who has spent many decades making a conscious effort to fight the curse by shaping his own mind? The results are much more complex.

    The so-called Beast is the escalation of his defense mechanism. His mind itself fighting back; every repressed impulse escalating to the point of overcoming his consciousness - And how could he possibly resist, when what was once the growing pains of developing feral instincts has escalated into a flood that carries the full force of his power?

    Perhaps the greatest horror of all is that, as this self-inflicted damage is not maintained by his curse... If he were to be cured of lycanthropy in any known way, his mind wouldn't be magically restored.


    Equipment:

    Mercy: An inordinately heavy executioner’s sword with the name carved into its dense pommel and a prayer for the souls of the wielder and struck alike inscribed across the flat. Its name may seem ironic, but it is every bit the prayer that its engraving is. This weapon is particularly sharp and heavy, making its cutting power exceedingly menacing - The weapon is meant to sever heads, after all. However, even with its counterweight, the weapon’s center of mass is far enough from the hilt to render it unwieldy in human hands - One would be carried along into any wide swing. The use of Zero-Range Telekinesis, however, entirely compensates for this flaw.

    Daggers: Van carries a small collection of four daggers as backup weapons. While finely crafted, they are largely mundane weapons save for a grim feature: Silver plating on the flat, pure enough to pose a threat to the Beast within.

    Composite armor: Van wears a well-maintained but ultimately mundane suit of leather armor with steel bracers, chest plating, back protection and shinguards. While a suit of plate armor would provide far better protection and still allow for certain acrobatic feats, he has elected to maximize flexibility. As a safety measure, the metallic guards conceal small silver plates on the inside of the armor. They don’t burn Van too intensely when the Beast is kept in check, but grow more painful as its hold grows stronger, reminding him to focus.


    • Post #: 43
    7/13/2019 10:41:49   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 Thanks to the timezone mix up, you now have closer to 20 hours to get the bio submissions in! I will be around as much as possible today and tomorrow evening to help with the last minute brainstorming/balancing, so expect revisions to be coming in quickly.

    @Cray - Thank you for the clarifications! I realize I somehow missed the entire second paragraph on Force Wall, which... literally answered all the questions/concerns I had about the ability. My apologies! Van is approved!
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 44
    7/13/2019 14:01:53   
    Kooroo
    Member

    		Name: Theia Eris Fhenn d’Astra, otherwise known as Theia Fhenn Astra

    Titles:
  • The Fastest Blade in any Cardinal Direction
  • The Astra

    Gender: Female
    Element: Energy
    Age Business Identification Number for Tax Purposes: 73 968 5521 8723-F
    Race: 50% Human, 50% Fast.
    Height: 1.88 meters
    Weight: That’s private

    Occupation: Professional Murderer-to-go. It’s like takeout; convenient, but bad for you.
    Residence and Origin: Off-realm. Expect some strangeness.
    Class and subclasses: Nuisance, Spiffy Dresser, and Completely Insane.

    Motivation: Weightloss
    The sound of the violins was abruptly drowned out, as Theia’s phone burst into song. The gunwoman blinked, turned off her music player, and raised a finger to her sole audience member as she checked her phone. “Sorry, got to take this. Won’t be long.”

    She answered the call. “‘Ello, this is… Yep. Ah, how’ve you been? Keeping busy?... Yeah, not much, not much.” She shot an apologetic look towards the man leaning against the window. He did not look amused.

    “Mhm... Mhm… Uh-huh. Yeah, well, you know how it is,” Theia scratched her chin in thought, staring out the window behind the man. It was raining outside; it’d been raining all week, and the week before that, and then some. Miserable weather, but work wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the skies to clear.

    “ Yep. Say, listen… I’m kind of in the middle of something. Could we make this quick? Otherwise, I’ll have to call you back.”
    She gestured, as though the caller could see her, waving the glowing gun towards the priest. Thunder clapped overhead, and her mark pressed up against the window and shrank even more. Theia frowned, a bit concerned that he was going to soil himself . The person on the other end of the line spoke, and she turned her full attention to the phone call, resting the gun on her hip and tapping her foot.

    “Yep, yep. Mm, sure. How much did you say again..? Really? That much?”

    Tap, tap, tap. The tapping of her foot was perfectly in time with the noise of the rain on the roof. Or at least, Theia liked to think it was. It was in time with     some of the rain drops, at least. Probably. Most likely.

    Theia nodded.
    “Okay, I’ll be right over. See you in... “ The Fastest Blade dropped Indus to the floor, and pulled out a pocketwatch from her vest. The priest dove towards the gun as it vanished, and Theia casually stuck out her foot, catching him lightly under the chin before he hit the tiles. He moaned. She smiled, and lifted her leg, until the portly man was pressed against the stained glass once more. “... Twenty minutes? Five? Yeah, I can do five. Let’s just say Four, to be safe.”

    More nodding. “Okay, thanks. See you soon. Okay. Yep. Okay. Bye bye now.”

    She hung up the call, and sighed. “Sorry about that. Where were we? Ah, yes.”
    The violins started playing again and the gun reappeared, dropping into her hand. A moment passed before she lowered it, and aiming the barrel towards the side of his head. “You’re a very lucky man, Father.”

    It boomed, and the window behind Father Theodore’s head shattered. He screamed, but Theia ignored him and continued talking.

    “I’ve got a new, much more profitable job that’s come up,” The hired gun fired again, this time knocking some candles onto the altar. The cloth caught quickly, flame brightening the dark hall. “Sorry,” she apologised, somewhat unconvincingly.

    “Anyway, I guess that means we get to know each other better. Honestly, I’m crushed. Would’ve been great, with lots of shouting, and screaming, and running...” A blade of light sliced into the ceiling, charring a century-old mural. “Unfortunately, money calls. It’s a shame, really. I felt we were really forming a bond in the past couple of minutes.”

    The cleric flinched at the last shot, but seemed to regain some of his composure. He stood a bit straighter, locking eyes with Theia as she threw the handgun over her shoulder and gave a snappy salute. There was a spark in the holy man’s eyes now, something he’d lost when Theia had blown down the cathedral doors. Was it courage? Faith? Maybe hope?

    “I’m honestly, really sorry that I don’t have any time to torture you,” she told Father Theodore. “So I’m just going to have to kill you.” The priest’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to protest. Theia flung her hand out with a flourish, sweeping it before his eyes.

    There was a bang, and the remaining windows exploded. A few seconds passed, then the Astra stepped out of the burning church. She reloaded her gun, then adjusted her cap, and strode out into the storm. It was time for a change in scenery.

    Appearance: Theia is a rather striking figure among the masses; which is generally not something you’d normally expect or want from a hired gun. Being rather tall, thin and lanky, her appearance is not very intimidating compared to majority of mercs you might come across. Her physique, coupled together with her… interesting choice of clothing, usually results in her being spottable from a mile away. The one thing she does share in common with assassins and hitmen (some of them, anyway) is that she exudes a certain air of confidence; both in her attitude, and the way she holds herself.
    She sports long, dirty blonde hair that is typically tied up in a ponytail. Atop a somewhat sharp nose sits a pair of mismatched eyes. Her left eye is a bright, fairly normal green. The right eye—a prosthetic—shines a bright red. It’s not particularly noticeable during the day, but it is remarkably inconvenient at night. Theia also has dark, gunmetal plates set into the skin on top of her temples, and into the hinges of her jaw.

    Her style of dress is a touch outlandish by most peoples’ standards, starting with her hat.
    She wears a black leather hat that is a cross between a tricorne and a fedora. The back edge of the hat is not as long as the two front edges, making the hat longer than most. Unlike a tricorne, however, only the front sides are pinned up, with the back of the brim remaining completely flat. Each edge has an intricately detailed, gunmetal metal trim. A leather band wraps around the base of the crown, with a dark green pin in the center. The pin depicts a pair of crossed, curved swords pointing downwards. There aren’t really any notable properties about the hat, except for how she never seems to lose it.

    Theia wears a hip-length, half-cape on her right shoulder, on top of a double-breasted waistcoat. The cape is emblazoned with a pair of crossed, golden daggers. A white, cotton shirt with a silver collar bar and black string tie lie underneath. The shirt is missing its right sleeve, revealing Theia’s mechanical arm. The left sleeve is ends with a French cuff. It holds a cufflink depicting a golden triangle, outlining 3 outward facing swords. Theia’s left hand is covered by a black leather glove. She wears nothing on her right hand, showing the dark, metal prosthetic as it is.
    Below the waist, Theia wears a pair of dark brown, leather pants buckled with a black belt. Rounding off her attire are a pair of silvery, metal boots. The boots are jointed at the ankle, and always project a holographic sparks from the backside of the heel.

    Weapons and Equipment:
    Vulcan — Thermonuclear Energy Core:
    It’s safe. Promise*.

    The Vulcan Thermonuclear Energy Core is a tad overkill for Theia’s purposes. A creation of both magic and technology— otherwise known as magitech—the Vulcan harnesses the power of a somewhat-miniature star and converts it into energy for Theia’s use.

    Besides being the main power source for many of Theia’s abilities, the Vulcan is also responsible for regulating, improving and replacing many of her body’s functions and needs. It is roughly the size of a baseball, and within the right side of Theia’s chest.
    For example, Theia’s stamina has improved far beyond that of any human, and she is able to (almost literally) keep running all day. Her reliance on oxygen is somewhat negated by an unknown process, though she still does need some oxygen to survive. And unlike most people, sleep isn’t a requirement for her; she can be knocked unconscious (found that out the hard way), but she can’t naturally fall asleep.

    Besides being a caffeine replacement, the Vulcan is also the main source of Theia’s incredible running ability. If she’s out for a morning jog, she’s able to comfortably match an accomplished sprinter at a hard run. At a full out sprint, it is pretty impossible for any human to match her. Her top, boosted speed, would be capable of matching a racehorse.

    There are a fair few drawbacks to having a one-of-a-kind, sun-powered generator. The first one is the obvious drawback if the generator should get critically damaged or ruptured. Normally, the resulting explosion would be something spectacular, however, Theia assures (and has been assured) that there is a perfectly functional containment failsafe that would contain the would-be explosion, and that the Vulcan is either extremely durable or secure. She’s had plenty of times where she’s been roughed up or thrown around, and she still hasn’t exploded. In reality, rupturing the Vulcan would cause a relatively small, explosion, capable of scorching anything within 2 feet of it before the failsafe kicks in.

    The Vulcan still continues to function within anti-magic fields, however its energy output is diminished slightly, which will affect Theia’s speed among other things. It has been engineered to keep operating in such conditions, as a complete shutdown might adversely affect the star’s containment.

    Despite the immense energy capacity of the Vulcan, there’s occasionally a few seconds of a lag before Theia’s able to work at her full capacity. This can be mitigated with the burst of energy given off from a couple of her weapons. The startup lag will only be an issue again if Theia stops moving or stays mostly stationary for around 8 seconds.

    The last, and least significant drawback is its energy signature, which can be very clearly detected within a hundred or so meters of it. The amount of energy the Vulcan gives off is easily detectable by any competent mage, or anyone with the right equipment. Sneaking up on someone that knows you’re coming isn’t exactly the most ideal way to start off a job.
    It does tend to make it far more interesting though.

    *Does not constitute a legal guarantee.

    1. Indus — Energized Blade Thrower:
    ”Sublime.”

    A hefty, complex-looking, single-barreled revolver that acts as Theia’s primary weapon. The butt of the gun has a slightly bulky stock, which houses a lot of the inner workings of the weapon and also helps to ‘balance’ it. The handgun’s cylinder usually glows a soft red, making it inconvenient to operate at night. According to the operating manual, the weapon is powered by the remnants of a star.

    Indus fires off short sword-shaped energy bolts. Upon impact, the bolts detonate and cause minor electrical burns, a slight staggering effect and induce a sensation that has been likened to being burnt by a sun. The magically induced burning feeling is quite agonizing, but it only lasts a few seconds, which is usually enough to disrupt a target. A hit on a target will also decrease the target’s magical resistance, up to a maximum cap on the fourth shot. As a result, each shot on a target will cause slightly more damage from all magical sources.

    Each bolt flies at about the same speed as an arrow, and has a maximum effective range of just 4 meters. Anything past this range, and the bolts do nothing except for give a sharp jolt. Each shot fired from the gun vents a lot of excess energy, which is channeled back into the Vulcan, giving Theia a short burst of speed. The gun has a maximum fire rate of 1 shot every 4 seconds, which is coincidentally the same length of each speed boost.

    The gun can fire off 4 shots before it must be primed before it can fire again. Once the last shot is discharged, it’ll be about 6 more seconds before Theia is able to fire again.

    Indus produces an incredible amount of recoil, and thus, can only be fired from Theia’s stronger, synthetic right hand. Firing from her left would most likely dislocate her shoulder, or (at the very least) rip the gun from her hand.

    Unlike her other weapons, Indus doesn’t have a holster. Theia can summon the weapon when she requires it, seemingly ‘drawing’ it out of thin air. It can be banished or ‘holstered’ on command as well, which Theia likes to have fun with (ie. throwing it away). When summoned, Indus will be in the exact same state as when Theia left it, meaning that this doesn’t serve as an easy reload. The amount of time it takes to summon is only about a second, which is pretty much the same amount of time Theia needs to draw any of her other weapons.

    The Fourth Shot:
    The Fourth and final shot fired from Indus is a bit different compared to the previous 3. When Indus is primed for its final shot, the cylinder emits a bright, red glow and a soft, but audible crackle. On firing, the gun discharges a very-real short sword at a target. Where this sword comes from is anyone’s guess, as it certainly too large to fit down Indus’ barrel.

    The speed and range of the shot is exactly the same as the other 3 before it, however. it has more recoil compared to Indus’ other shots. As a result, Theia tends to adjust her posture and movements slightly to accommodate for it.

    The sword is about as sharp as you’d expect from a decent craftsman, and it’s fired with a considerable amount of force behind it. Not quite enough to penetrate plate armor, though it might cause a decent dent in it. The sword is definitely capable of damaging chainmail and it would go through leather fairly easily.

    The sword created from the shot will persist until Theia finishes reloading Indus. Once Indus is reloaded, the sword fades out of existence, until the next time a Fourth shot is fired. Unlike the other shots, the Fourth Shot does not lower any magical resistance. ”Because, you know. They’ll hopefully be dead.”

    2. Themis — Kinetic Energy Sapper:
    A pistol with an extremely long barrel, which is powered by the essence of a collapsing star. Themis fires off quick, stiletto-shaped bolts of energy. The bolts instantly sap some kinetic energy from any struck object, but do no damage. It’s especially useful whenever she’s being chased by someone, or needing to interrupt say, a sword-swing. Sapped energy is channeled into the Vulcan, and gives Theia a short burst of speed.

    Themis only holds one shot, and it automatically recharges this shot once every 15 seconds. It has a maximum range of 6 meters, and its projectiles are faster than that of Theia’s other guns. Each bolt saps a percentage of an object’s current kinetic energy, based on the amount being generated; things that are moving faster or are thus generating more kinetic energy will be more adversely affected. At the same time, things that are moving slowly will not be affected very much. Theia keeps Themis in a holster on her right thigh.

    3. Chiron — Scattershot Energy Donator:
    ’July 19th. Shot someone into an oncoming lorry today. Not sure if it was the right guy. Will search for more of his pieces tomorrow.’

    A snub-nosed revolver with a large, crescent shaped stock, Chiron is powered by a magically contained supernova. It fires 4 kunai-shaped energy bolts that spread into a 20-30 centimeter wide ‘X’ pattern. The bolts detonate with a minor concussive blast, and also impart a short anti-gravity effect on a target. Combined together, Chiron is capable of sending foes flying away from Theia, either for breathing too closely to her, or just for amusement.

    Chiron isn’t particularly damaging nor dangerous by itself. The main danger for anyone shot by it would be in the distance launched, and when the anti-grav wears off. Theia’s recorded a maximum launch distance of 7 meters, with optimal trajectory and personal space violations. The launch distance varies according to how close they are when they’re shot, but the main determining factor is how many bolts they are hit by. Through an unexplainable reaction, the more heavily armored targets are affected less by the anti-grav effect.

    Chiron’s maximum range is about a meter and a half. It holds enough charge for 1 shot, and requires about 15 seconds in its belt holster to be recharged.

    4. Phaeton — The Fourth Gun:
    And on the Fourth day, the Lord said…

    Unlike all of her other weapons, Phaeton is meant to be used—and can only be used—whilst stationary. The gun is created by combining Indus, Themis, Chiron, and some other components into a very, very large rifle. Channeling power straight from each gun’s own power source and the Vulcan, Phaeton fires brilliant, greatsword-shaped energy bursts to explosive effect. Being hit by one of Phaeton’s blasts is akin to being hit by 2 of Indus’, in regards to the damage taken and the knockback.

    Due to Phaeton’s size and weight, it has multiple requirements before it can be used.
    Firstly, it requires Theia to be completely stationary. The only movement that Theia’s capable of while holding Phaeton is pivoting via her right foot, to track a target. Tracking a small or fast target is much harder, and can take either take very long, or be downright impossible.

    While Phaeton can be disassembled easily enough in a few seconds if required, but it takes at least 8 to set up. The gun has incredible recoil, and requires Theia to take certain precautions; she must be set up in a proper firing position with both feet firmly on the ground, and she must not have taken too much damage to her prosthetics and torso/abdominal area.

    Phaeton fires at a rate of one shot every 4 seconds, with a maximum range of 20 meters. The gun makes an incredible amount of noise once it’s powered, which is comparable to a jet engine on the decibel scale. It holds 4 shots, before it automatically disassembles into its original components. Reloading it requires 10 minutes, and cannot be done while moving, nor in combat.

    The Fourth Shot:
    The cue and effect of Phaeton’s Fourth Shot is very similar to Indus’; a magically charged, oversized greatsword is launched at a target.

    The range of the Fourth shot is exactly the same as the other 3, however, it has much more force behind it. On a direct hit, the shot has a chance of penetrating or breaking through plate armor, though it is more likely to glance off. In reality, though, even a glancing hit from something that large is probably going to take someone off their feet.

    When the blade strikes into or off something, the effect is similar to the Fourth shot from Indus but with some extra bang. On impact, a concussive blast is released around the middle section and handle of the sword.
    As Theia is most likely unable to reload Phaeton while in combat, the greatsword will remain where it lands.

    Note: Theia can only wield one gun at any time. Whether it’s a case of refusing to duel-wield or an inability to is

    Other equipment:
    Heavy Duty Magitech Synthetics:
    A fair bit of Theia’s body has been replaced by synthetic replacements. Her right arm, legs, abdomen and roughly half of her torso are all robotic; a perfect blend of magic and technology according to... someone. They function just as well—if not better—than normal, biological body parts, though they are fairly heavy.

    All of the synthetics are quite durable, being able to withstand the rigors that Theia puts them through on a nearly continuous basis. The surface or outer shell of the prosthetics are resistant to magical manipulation, and are strong enough so that they won’t be marked or defaced from random mishaps. Compared to other types of armor out there, they’d probably sit just above leather armor, but definitely below chain. The one exception are the legs; namely, anything from below (and including) the knee joint. The casing and metals used for these parts are especially strong, as they have to be able to support Theia’s weight and survive the stress inflicted from daily heavy use.

    The prosthetics are self-repairing, with a repair rate on par with the human body’s natural healing. Anybody with sufficient technical skill would be able to repair or replace the components much faster, but on the off chance that she doesn’t have anyone available, the repair system will eventually get the job done.

    Ecliptic Optical Shield and Vocaliser:
    Stored in the metal plates on Theia’s temples and jaw, and formed at a mental command.
    The Shield is a pair of metal goggles with bright, glowing amber lenses, and the Vocaliser is a smirking, metal face mask that covers the lower half of Theia’s face.

    Their primary purpose to protect Theia’s eyes and mouth from dust, rain or other environmental effects while she’s working. The Shield has a minor tinting effect in cases of bright sunlight, and the Vocaliser magically dissorts her voice, but aside from this, they have no affect on her combat ability.

    Sonorous Magitech Audio Player:
    Unfortunately, Theia’s left her earphones at home. Again.

    A small, disc-shaped device that Theia keeps on her belt. Charged via a universal connector, the audio player holds enough charge to play through its speakers for up to 12 hours straight. It easily holds thousands of songs, though Theia has been considering getting a new one with a larger capacity. The device doesn’t have any speakers on it. By default, it automatically plays songs through any wired (3.5 mm) connections. In the absence of any wired connections, it will magically project the sound through the air around it.

    Theia’s is still technically covered by the warranty, but she thinks she may have thrown away the receipt.

    Combat Prowess/Physical Ability:
    As touched on before, Theia’s core strengths are her magitech enhanced stamina, exceptional marksmanship and outstanding running speed.

    Complementing these, Theia also has rather impressive reaction speed, coordination and balance. The strength and durability of her mechanical components grants her a very strong core giving her multiple benefits; an example is the crucial ability to fire Indus while running, and not falling over from the recoil. However, the strength in her left arm and her close combat skills are lacking, or average at best. Her focus in CQC would be in trying to disengage and put distance between her and a foe, as anyone adept in it would easily beat her in an extended engagement.

    She has a very mean right hook, though.

    Skills and Abilities:
    On a Dime:
    A hybrid of both her own magic, Vulcan’s magic, and the magical engineering in her boots lets Theia retain sufficient grip on suboptimal surfaces (ie. sand, waxed tiles, wet grass, etc.). It lets her take sharp turns and corners without losing too much speed, and also means that she won’t just skid and crash into a wall. Especially useful for indoor fighting, or where the area is naturally a bit tighter and less open.

    The ability is usually quite reliable, but it falters slightly on ice and magically slicked-up surfaces. Anti-magic zones negate the effect completely, and really sends home how bad of an idea it is to have fully metal boots.

    Quickdraw:
    Theia’s able to levitate and maneuver her weapons using a sort of off-brand telekinesis. The range of the ability is little more than past her arms, and she can’t move the weapons especially quickly, nor can she actually fire them. She is able to levitate multiple weapons at once, but she can’t do it while running or moving too quickly, as it requires some concentration. The control of the weapons isn’t particularly strong either; a solid slap to a floating weapon would be enough to knock free.

    The main practical use of the ability revolves around setting up and disassembling Phaeton, as the former would normally take close to a minute without the extra ‘help’.

    The other less-practical use is for party tricks and just showing off. Which, Theia would argue, is absurdly practical.

    Other skills and abilities:
    Juggling.
    Exceptional piano and violin.
    Dislikes hedgehogs. Not a skill.
    • AQW Epic  Post #: 45
    7/13/2019 15:11:43   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 @Kooroo - I like the touch of the increased recoil on Indus, and all the edits/clarifications seem to be in place. Again, keep in mind that this character is rather complex, and it is up to you to properly keep track of things like timing, speed boosts, number of abilities in use, etc. Approved!
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 46
    7/13/2019 18:22:34   
    theZOMBIEis_aLIE
    Member

    quote:

    BONK! (Click!)

    Name: Nadia Shieldforged
    Age: 34
    Gender: Female
    Race: Dragonkin
    Class: Rogue
    Element: Earth


    Appearance: (Click!)
  • Eyes: Gold
  • Hair: Red
  • Weight: 225lb
  • Height: 6’
  • Other notes: Red scales cover shoulders, lower abdomen. Lower half is dragonic in scales, but retains humanoid knee structure. A long, prehensile tail is used for counterweight and balance. Twin horns sprout from her brow, adorned with a band of gold. While her sense of style is whimsical, don’t let that fool you. Nadia is equipped with natural armor that is resistant to blunt force and cuts by traditional weaponry.


    Gear:
  • Bonded Chakram: Each adult of the Shieldforged line forges a chakram in the heart of the mountain as his/her coming of age ceremony. No two chakram are alike, as they are soul-bonded to their maker. This allows the user to sync to their weapon in a way that is particular to that individual. In the case of Nadia, she can manipulate the metals inside the weapon with pinpoint accuracy, molding it to different shapes, or redirecting the weapon to block attacks. Please note: the material density remains the same no matter how it is shaped, so the weapon could shatter if used carelessly. There is no way to add more metal to the chakram now that it is forged.

  • Forge’s Dozen: Smooth metal ball bearings expertly cast. These also can have their shapes changed mid-flight by Nadia, or they can merge into a larger mass. There is a set of a dozen, each at about a half inch in diameter, making a maximum mass of a sphere with 6 inches in diameter.

  • Dragon’s Teeth: Twin daggers usually housed in thigh sheaths. They can also be used as projectiles by Nadia’s abilities. The sheaths of these house a poison that mildly affects reaction time, compounded on each hit, but is completely non-lethal. After 1 hit, an individual can recover fully in about 2 seconds. After 5 hits, the victim will begin to experience blurred vision and headache. 7 hits is when the loss of balance comes in. She needs to refresh the poison on every two hits, but her opponent can be rendered unconscious in 10 poisoned direct hits to skin. The blade must break skin to transfer this ‘venom’.


    Abilities:
  • Maglev: By assigning one metallic object with polarity, Nadia is able to levitate using her own energy as the same pole. She needs to carefully keep track of each object’s polarity, however, lest her own weapons collide with herself before she can reverse the pull. For this reason, she tends to focus on two weapons at a time, to minimize the risk of collision. This can also be used to push or pull objects toward herself. If her opponent is wearing metals, she can apply this principle in short bursts to them, too. Their strength, the amount of metal on their person, and even their size play into how effective this ability is. In addition, energy bursts of enough strength have been known to break the tether. The range on all magnetic objects is precise to 40ft, and will drop out of her range of power at 100ft.

  • Electromagnets: Nadia’s jewelry is made of highly polished copper for a very good reason. By rotating metal bearings around her at high speeds, Nadia can break falls and, if working with her brother, amplify his charge.

  • Ferromagnets: Given enough time, Nadia can permanently magnetize an opponent’s armor using a concept called ‘Ferromagnetism’. This is the strongest form of magnetism, and can overcome much stronger opponents. Each touch she lands allows her to align the molecules of a different section of armor, increasing the pull of her magnets to that area. If the opponent wields metal weapons, they may stick to magnetized portions of armor, or plate-mail could lock up and become immovable. It typically takes 10-30 touches to induce this level of strength, which may not even be reached in one bout of combat. However, should all conditions (time, amount of metal, physical touch requirement) be met, the consequences could be lethal. This technique requires a high amount of concentration, however, and takes up one of the two polarized weapon slots that she can maintain at once. As such, she usually only activates this ability in bouts of close combat, where a flurry of blows is certain to land. It can also be broken by the passage of time; if not renewed, Ferromagnetism will entirely revert in 5 hours, while the effects slowly fade.

  • Martial Strength: The Shieldforged dragonkin live in relative isolation atop their mountains. Nadia’s grandfather is a sage, and the warrior monk of the family. All her life, she has trained with this man in hand-to-hand combat, and she specializes in creatures with extra limbs. Unique to the ‘Shieldbearer’ fighting style is the prevalence of whip-like attacks with a strong tail, and a strong preference to using the opponent’s force against them.

  • Blood is Thicker: Nadia’s abilities synchronize especially well with her sibling’s, and the two share a limited telepathic connection. This is particularly useful should the two ever team up, as two heads are always better than one. The range on this link is only about 100 meters.

    _____________________________

    		•
    Post #: 47
    7/13/2019 18:57:33   
    Sanctus
    Member

    		Name: Exsecratus, Pawn Above the Board
    Element: Darkness


    Bio:

    The taste of copper, dirt, gravel, dust, each inhaled by shallow breaths, sluggish as the heart that beat in our chest slowed, stopped. And finally, a drawn out sigh, whispering across our tongue, as though our soul was made into wind. There was blackness, and I dreamt. And in dreaming, found memories long past.

    Before there was anything, there was a void, the infinite dark, and then in this absence, the weight of nothingness demanded for life. But the void was a land salted and cruel, and the life it bore was not beauty, nor sense. It was cancerous, a writhing mass of chaos and hunger, and it filled, it grew, unthinking in its ravenous expansion. And in this timeless place of sharp edges and grasping tendrils, my dear Sister, the self-crowned Queen, she stood over all that existed for she was all there was. A board of her choosing, a piece all her own. But games can not be had without players, and just as the void begat life, it soon craved balance, order. And as the chaos ate at itself for Her amusement, the first light pulsed in the dark, faded, neither piercing, nor bright, barely a light at all. But it was enough. And I swam amongst the dark emptiness and feasted upon her and all her children, claiming the curious, guilty mouths so that the many-angled, the sharp edges of this land would learn that this was a garden meant for more than predators.

    And with the fruits of my labor, innocence replaced horror, reality grew towards justice, even as She raged and screamed. Crimson clad, bloody handed, I became the last accursed beast, a relic of an Order long past. So I faded back into what dark remained, happy to gaze at a realm of youthful bliss and ignorance.

    I awoke in the everpresent light of the mask, cowering within the dark beneath the stairway. Looking out towards my hosts, my pawns, I saw as their precious honor, their hope in an Order of mercy bled out onto the arena floor. Cold purpose gripped me then. I reached a sharp taloned hand towards the boy, wrapping around what innocence remained, paying no heed to the old man’s cries and I took his life for my own. Muscle and sinew ripped through cloth as I climbed the stairway, taking the dark with me.

    Appearance: https://imgur.com/a/pY2NbQR

    Equipment:     Exsecratus is an eldritch beast adapted to the dark. A tough pale hide acts as a light armor akin to hardened leather, with chitin and scale to protect his forearms and thighs. Solid gold hued metal adorns his shoulders, they appear to be some kind of auditory conductors. For offense, his lower arms end in sharp piercing talons, as well as a barbed tail. Unequipped with a weapon, his primary arms are nonetheless capable of holding and using them. A horned crest makes for a capable charging attack. A symbol of the Blinding is seared into his chest, enchanting him with minor resistance to magical attacks. Exsecratus is quick and nimble, but not to any extraordinary speed.


    Abilities:

    Control    - Exsecratus’ reserves do not rely on magic, but control. Control is gained by meeting the purpose requirements of his prey as detailed by the form, expending/increasing depending on the form utilized. His hide/scale do *not* change their defensive capabilities across forms. Instead, each form beyond (excepting the pawn) constitutes an aura, with a range of 15ft, with a unique hallucinogenic effect. These auras are continuous, although they immediately dissipate out of range. Each has two tiers, Tier 1 (always a mild “feeling”, such as nausea) can broken by exertion of will, whereas Tier 2 fully alters perception (tunnel vision, shortness of breath), but can also be broken through exertion of will, albeit with thorough concentration. Tier 2 can only be achieved by the presence of an open wound/blood in the air.

    The Pawn Above the Board- Strongest of the forms, playing the pawn requires only an active hunt or engagement within darkness, passively building control for use in other forms.

    One Step Below (passive): When engaging an opponent, Exsecratus may become his shadow across the floor or wall nearby, free to hide within other shadow. This shadow form has no special protection, merely rendering him 2-dimensional and harder to detect.

    Formless: When hidden within another shadow while One Step Below is active, that shadow becomes infected, and opponents within it (standing over, or cast onto by the shadow) fall slowly to madness. This hallucinogenic effect starts as inconsequential whispers, but prolonged exposure may result in dizzying auditory hallucinations, and full on apparitions. However, while hidden in another shadow, Exsecratus’ presence is marked by a slowly pulsing light. Stab it, and you stab him.

    A Fair Hunt: After attacking Exsecratus, and being successfully cut by it, the hunt cannot be postponed without consequence. Enemies that try to disengage are marked. Marked enemies leave highlighted tracks, and experience paranoia the further they disengage, and at maximum range (100ft) begin to see imagined foes in their peripheral.

    Opened Box: Defeating an opponent allows the pawn to consume their form, healing its wounds. Apparitious effects can then use their image.

    The Tower- A defensive form, the tower loses control when its opponents block and absorb attacks without lethal consequences or blood loss. However, in exchange, its attacks cause localized rust and brittleness in armor, marked by a black corruption. This comes at the cost of its talons, which are no longer bladed, capable only of puncture wounding. They have no special penetrative capabilities compared to your average spear or blade, relying on the chipping of defence through the black rust to eventually penetrate metal or similar armor. The tail barb blunts to a club or mace. The Tower’s aura causes feelings of claustrophobia. Tier 1 is nausea, generalized claustrophobia, which can be exacerbated by enclosed areas. Tier 2 results in narrowed, tunnel-like vision and shortness of breath.

    Siege and Starvation: The first 3 blows dealt to a single spot break that area’s complete defence. All other attacks reset the black rust back a blow, and bring the total necessary to break armor to 5 blows, and take reduced damage thereafter. Shields are unaffected by the black rust.

    Self-made Prison: The Tower can expend control and choose to make the black rust *appear* to spread across armor. This grey rust bears no actual effect. Wary foes may take notice of this however, while the foolish may abandon their “infected” armor.

    The Black Plague: Using all Control, the Tower collapses into a cloud of airborne black rust (acting as 1 blow across the exposed area) in a radius of 10 feet, opponents weapons are similarly coated and can then deal black rust damage to one another for 2 attacks. Reverts to pawn form in One Step Below.

    The Hunter- An offensive form, the Hunter relies on its opponents heart. The tail barb sharpens and compacts into a precise, deadly stinger. Control is lost with each attack, regardless of hit. Getting hit in this form immediately depletes Control and ends the form. Hunter aura invokes feelings of fear, heightening blood pressure/flow as the heart beats. Tier 1 causes mild adrenaline release (crafty foes can use this to their advantage), and sweating. Tier 2 pushes this, as the pressure builds to pounding sensation. Peripheral vision catches apparitious hallucinations.

    Boon of the Chimera: The stinger barb deals a unique, slow moving poison. It can only spread through strenuous action, and at a faster rate when Tier 2 aura is active. The poison does *not* deal DoT damage, but acts a blood thinner, preventing coagulants. Opponents without means to staunch their wounds bleed more profusely as a result.

    Nuckelavee’s Curse: Expending all Control for an area of effect ranging 10 ft, the localized pain of an open wound spreads its sensation across the opponents body. The initial wound dulls in exchange for the now generalized pain. Scales dependent on the wound.

    The Spirit- A utilitarian form, the spirit has no talons, nor is the tail barbed. Instead it fights with misdirection and mirage. Control is gained slow but passively in this form, but only around spellcasters. Similar to the Hunter, the bishop immediately exits its form when struck by magical damage. Unlike the other auras, the Spirits’ aura shrouds itself in darkness and shadow, hiding its visage in dark places and offering increased magical protection. A telltale pulsing light will still occasionally give it away. At Tier 2 the light disappears, and only natural light can reveal it.

    Wraith: Sacrificing its protection, the Spirit can puppet the aura as a body double, moving it away from itself with concentration, the Wraith dissipates immediately on hit, but can interact physically, albeit without much complexity.

    Theft from Prey: At the cost of all Control, the Spirit can pull an important memory of a person from its opponent. Once stolen, an apparition of that figure can be summoned to taunt and distress foes. This apparition operates off of a limited memory of the figure it imitates, and skeptical foes can soon discern it from reality.

    Sacrifice from the Weak: The Spirit can use Pawn-Consumed apparitions who retain their ability to physically wound/interact, but none of their magical or special abilities. This skill is only available if the Pawn has consumed a foe.

    The Queenborn- The replenishing form, its talons and barb gain no unique qualities. It passively gains Control. The Queenborn has no aura.

    Conqueror’s Hunger: The Queenborn can feast on corpses and flesh to regain health.

    Daughter to Dark: Small cuts and bruises heal quickly in the presence of blood. Larger wounds regrow cancerous as tendrils, mouths, eyes. While healed these new growths become weak points. Can not be used in combat.

    Caligula’s Order: The presence of madness grants further Control. When foes or allies afflicted with insanity are nearby in a 50ft radius, the Queenborn can traverse omnidirectionally, to a height of 20ft.

    The Stairway- The pawn lies broken, and death awaits. With what strength remains it beckons you forth, and asks if you would accept their chains, and become a new pawn. The vision of peace is no one dream after all. Will you accept the mask, risk the anger of your Lord...or perhaps their pleasure? Would that not be any Lord’s wish, for you to play the pawn?
    Post #: 48
    7/13/2019 19:53:50   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 @theZOMBIEis_aLIE - Welcome! Things feel pretty balanced, just a couple tweaks/clarifications.

    For the Dragon's Teeth - what is the effect of the poison after the first hit? You state they recover quickly after the first few, but is there a tell-tale sign that the dagger is poisoned (skin slightly numbed, minor flickering of vision, etc.). Additionally, while the stack up is ok in short succession, as it is a toxin in the body, this should be something that a person can recover from eventually (as in, if it takes a few seconds after the first few strikes, they should recover from 5-7 after a couple minutes or so).

    Now, Maglev. My understanding is that she can use the magnetic properties of 1-2 other metal objects, and use that to shift her own pole in order to levitate. What exactly are the height/speed limits of the levitation? The further/faster she is able to do so, the more powerful that part of the ability, so something else would need to be adjusted, whether the range of her control, or the amount of concentration needed to support her. Additionally, does the Forge's Dozen count as one item, or a dozen for this ability? If the former, then the balls should be forced to stay fairly close to each other so as not to turn into a deadly golf ball attack on the entire arena. I would also request in the former case that she could only manipulate the shape of the balls at a much closer range to her. That said, the total range is a bit concerning - if the levitation is strong, then 40 feet direct control is too much - I'd drop it to closer to 20. I'd also like clarification on how much control she has during the range between precise control and drop off - if she is still able to move it in any direction (albeit with more variance) this should be limited to one item at a time.

    For Ferromagnetics - this is ok as long as the loss of concentration causes a total release of the armor, rather than the slow natural reversion.

    We did clarify via Discord that "synchronize" means that the abilities will work well together, rather than merging to form additional abilities. Additionally, note that the telepathic communication will not work if you end up in different arenas due to the magical barriers around them, and arena placement is determined randomly.
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 49
    7/13/2019 20:14:30   
      Starflame13
    Moderator


    		 @Sanctus - given the timeframe we have left to balance this year, this character is too complex. You have *5* separate usable forms, each with passive abilities on top of 2-4 other abilities. This is too much for one person to have access to, and even from a writing standpoint, you will never have the time to fully utilize all the forms/abilities to show of your skill as a writer. Either limit each form to 1-2 main concepts, or limit the number of forms to 3 maximum.

    The general concept of Control, with an aura for each form and the different tiers based on injuries, is sound. If you want to keep multiple abilities with each form, those of the Tower, the Hunter, and the Queen are likely the easiest to work with. If you wish to keep all the forms, I'd recommend developing the Pawn around either One Step Below or A Fair Hunt, the Tower and the Hunter around their physical shifts and auras, The Spirit's around its aura and Theft from Pray, and the Queenborn around Caligula's Order.
    AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 50
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