[PF-1e] Way of the Wicked

[LeoByron]

More apps manifesting!

[DaniLore]

[GleefulNihilism]

More Apps! Mwahahaha!

[Dylan Scott]

[triedtherest]

Midas can Heal out of combat through his Alchemy Sphere Formulae, and will later have the Followers Talent: Healers for even more out of combat healing, as well as whole other bunch of out if combat support.
Everything that an Evil Organization could want or need!

[Unforgiven]

Luthien Darkweaver Name: Luthien Darkweaver Race: Sun Elf Class: (Side 1) Conscript Class: (Side 2) Incanter Intended Role: Damage Dealer(melee), Some Blasting, Some CC Alignment: LE Crime: Witchcraft   Height: 5'6" | Weight: 97 lbs Age: 240 | Skin: Bronze Hair: Red-Gold Eyes: Golden Usual Attire: Luthien commonly will wear elven chainmail over gambison, as well as a brightly colored riding skirt and matching leather accents, as well as a fashionable cloak if weather demands. She normally carries a large Elven curved blade upon her back that is simple in appearance and has a heron on one side of the hilt and guard, as well as two blades at her waist, a thornblade and a leafblade. She has a number of pouches and a want attached to her hoghide leather belt as well. Her skin is a golden bronze color, and her hair a beautiful, vibrant red-gold that she wears open and flowing down to her waist. If she knows she will be going to into combat, she will put her hair into a ponytail, or sometimes a long braid or tight bun depending on the time available to prepare. Luthien's face is nearly perfectly symmetrical, with the sole exception of a large scar that starts at her left temple, and goes across her eye, nose, and down to her upper lip that causes her to constantly appear to be in a foul mood. More recently, she has had a magical tattoo placed around her scar and incorporating it, it is a clear mark of her magical prowess and increases her intimidating visage. Both of her bright, golden eyes shine with a predatory glean in them, though the rest of her face remains in a passive scowl at nearly all times. Were one to see her without her armor on, she would appear very thin(even for an Elf) and somewhat frail with a small bust, though she has tight lean muscles and magic seeming to thrum within her arms. Luthien has a war horse that she raised and trained from a foal called Kalahandi. Kalahandi is a large midnight black draft horse that was a gift from Luthien's father when she turned 230. She spent a number of years training her horse for battle, and was successful in her attempts. She enjoyed training horses in her past time, though not all the trainers agreed with her methods of completely breaking the will of the animal before training it to do as she wanted. She once attempted to train a Unicorn, but was unable to break the animal. Kalahandi however, takes her rider into battle with a longbow strapped on one side of the saddle, as well as an elvish branched spear on the other. He has two saddlebags strapped on behind the saddle, and wears steel lamellar barding over most of his body, with heraldry for Luthien's house over the top of the barding. He is a vicious horse in a fight, but otherwise passive unless anyone other than Luthien attempts to ride him. Then he tries to kill them.   Luthien, as she is currently, is polite to a fault. She abhors rudeness and the lack of manners that many seem to have. She lives her life with precision, determination, and dedication, fully devoting herself to whatever path she decides to follow. She has her own code of honor, and more recently has taken oaths of power to compensate for the frailty she was born with. She looks down on pretty much every non Elf, and doubly so for males, and carries an air of arrogance around her that is rarely mistaken by others. By her oaths though, she cannot lie, have intimate relations with males, nor can she show mercy to those that surrender to her in battle. She has always abhorred mercy and believes fully and completely, that the strong should rule the weak, and anyone too weak to defeat her in battle deserves nothing but death. She would expect anyone that beats her in battle to do the same towards her. In conversation though, she attempts to be polite, if blunt and cold, respecting the rules of civility. She is as short and to the point as she can be, while not trespassing on the rules of civility. Her voice itself is soft and melodical, though she has never had any interest in pursuing the arts, and finds people who do pursue more artistic paths to be weaklings and cowards. More recently, she has delved into more existential paths, and found herself engrossed by death. She loves talking about military tactics and strategies, and all aspects of death and dying, as well as undeath.   Chapter 1: Early Years   Luthien Darkweaver, originally Luthien Ilirieth, was born to a wealthy family of Elvish nobility. Her father, Farien Ilirieth, was a true Blademaster and wore his herons proudly. He was a rigid and cold man to both the outside world and his family, focusing almost entirely on his practice with a blade. To him, his family was more of an afterthought, a means to continue his legacy and train what he hoped would be a prodigy Blademaster. Her mother, Yrathea Ilirieth, was a Sun archmage of the high order. She was a much more loving and caring parent than Farien, but had her flaws as well. As Farien was consumed with his mastery of the blade, so was Yrathea consumed by her studies into sun magic, mastering the channeling of the sun and being one of the more destructive mages around. It was somewhat a surprise to both of her parents when she was conceived, as divinations had indicated that they would not have a child for some time yet, so neither of her parents were ready to have their first child. So it was the Luthien came into being, as the unexpected child of a Blademaster and Archmage. With such prodigious parents, Luthien had a pedigree most people would consider a blessing of blessings, but that in turn had led her to have a lot to live up to. Her early childhood was fraught with high expectations and disappointment as she was born with a weakness and frailty to her that caused her to frequently become injured. This persisted through most of her life, but it hit the hardest when she was a child. Her parents hired a wetnurse to tend to her while they worked, and she had to be on alert all the time to ensure that Luthien didn't accidently hurt herself due to her weakness. She was also smaller and lighter then those normally of her age, causing her parents to worry that they had birthed an invalid. Regardless, when she turned ten years old, her father immediately began training her in the arts of the blade. He hired a cleric to heal her broken bones as they trained, as he had no patience for failure, and did not pull blows during her training. While she trained with her father during the day, she trained in the arts of calligraphy and studied everything from math to history to engineering to magic theory. Her mother was an Arch Mage after all, and felt that her daughter would have the best chance at succeeding as a mage due to her weaknesses. The result was a childhood filled with pain and agony during the day, as well as nights filled with intense study. Luthien had virtually no time for herself growing up, no time for playing with other children either. She worked in the practice yard or her mother's mage tower day in and day out. She grew lofty and arrogant in her time training, she looked down on the other children that she saw from day to day, as they had not the resources that she had to better themselves, meaning she was obviously meant for greater things than them. The teaching of the church contradicted this, but as her parents had little time for religion, she herself merely found the church teaching to be an annoyance and largely ignored them, deciding that if her parents had no time for it, neither did she. Luthien pushed herself hard on her studies, but harder on her martial training. She was determined to earn her heron marks, even with her health problems. So she struggled and persevered through trials that most people never had to go through, let alone children, and she relied on her self discipline and determination to see her to the end. Through broken bones and constant healing, Luthien battled her way through a hundred years of training until she had, at long last, mastered the blade. She had managed to earn her first heron at the age of 110, and she was absolutely ecstatic! On the side of her studies, she was just as determined to succeed and make her mother proud. To this end she worked hard and found she had some magical talent for destruction, though unlike her mother, she was not able to focus herself to become a sun mage. It saddened her mother, but her mother was just happy that her daughter had the aptitude for magical talent and tried to focus her on building that up. What surprised both her mother and father, was that she was able to integrate her magical ability with her combat training, sending magical blasts through her blade and into targets, causing them to explode in a most spectacular manner. As she strove to meet the expectations of both her mother and her father, she found that she was lacking on her mother's side. Despite her best efforts and inborn ability, she found it harder and harder to meet the expectations her mother had put upon her. But she would not allow a lack of inborn talent to hinder her, she couldn't, it was not an acceptable outcome. Thus she did as she always had, she steeled her will and pressed forwards, driving herself to do better and work harder, and in doing so, she discovered something new. Through apparent sheer willpower, she found that she could boost her magical talent by tearing the life from around her and converting it directly into magical power. This should have scared her, but it did not. It allowed her to accomplish her goals, and that was what was most important. Her parents did not know what to think about this new turn of events, but they knew the church would see it as witchcraft, and thus they restricted her magical training to their private grounds, and hired one of their trusted friends to cleanse and repair the ground after Luthien had blighted it. While her mother was glad to see that Luthien was progressing as she had planned, even catching up from before, but the means at which she did... It worried her. Thus they made it clear that Luthien was not to blight anything outside of their personal grounds, as it would draw too much attention. Everything changed for Luthien, once her little brother was born. She was considered an adult at that point, but she had still been the only child in the family, and all their hopes and dreams had lain on her, until her little brother came along. For Luthien though, this was a great day, she exalted in having a new sibling, and in the freedom that she would get with her parents refocusing their attentions to her brother instead of her. As time moved on, Luthien had moved into a small mage tower of her own, with it's own martial practice ground and magical floors for her to start on her own experiments and studies. She, of course, could borrow any of her mothers books or equipment, but prided herself on being able to acquire everything she needed without their help, outside of acquiring the tower itself anyway. She had a small horse training ring built behind the tower, and hired a horse trainer to help her learn how to train horses herself. Those were some of her best years, spending her days studying magical theories, testing with her destruction magic, continuing to pursue her second heron through training and duels, and learning the art of training horses. Chapter 2: Broken   As she trained, she began to notice men more, and took a keen interest in one particular prodigy of the blade, Xaleos Elliaen. He had attained both his herons already! She could barely believe it, and found herself enjoying just watching him work in the practice grounds.... along with every other blade maiden in the grounds at the time. None of whom had her particular disability.... This bothered her, but did not dissuade her from her practice with the blade, and her duels to increase her competence ranking. Luthien figured at the time, that the best day in her life was when Xaleos asked her if she wanted him to tutor her in the blade, as the higher forms had been giving her some trouble. She would get to spend hours working with Xaleos in the ring, with just him and her.... It was almost like a dream come true. And it was hours that she spent in the ring, sweating and straining to improve her forms and stances, she flowed and danced through the stances with him matching her moves. They moved like a paired set of dancers around the ring, and she loved every minute of it. The eyes of the other blade maidens glared jealous hatred into her back as she trained with Xaleos, but she didn't care, because in those moments, the only people in the world were herself and Xaleos, performing the deadliest dance there was. It was ten years into her tutelage when she began spending more time with her little brother. She tried to show him the love that her parents never showed her, and gave him as many tips and tricks as she could, trying to save him from learning so many things the hard way growing up as she did, though he did not have her bodily weaknesses. She still loved him so very much, and for the time, life seemed perfect. Her days spent with the love of her life, and her nights spent tutoring her beloved brother. That was unfortunately, not to last for Luthien. Whether it was some twist of fate, or perhaps a grand scheme from the hells themselves, it was a higher ranked blade dancer, Andelrine, that started her on her spiral downward. Luthien had challenged an older woman for her ranking among the blade dancers, trying to creep her way ever forwards towards her second heron and the blademaster title. This woman however, happened to be one of the most jealous towards Luthiens relationship with Xaleos and she wasn't about to let Luthien get in the way of her dreams. The duel started as would be expected, each combatant had special sheaths put on the edge of their blades so that no serious injuries or deaths would occur, and in the event of an injury, there was always a priest of the church overseeing to ensure no laws were broken during the duels. Unfortunately, even the priests of the church weren't beyond corruption, despite what the clergy would have others believe. Thus Andelrine was able to bribe the priest in order to tamper with her blade cover. When the duel started, both combatants burst into a flurry of action, Luthien and Andelrine flowing through forms, Luthien moving through with wind stance, incorporating wide flowing swipes intended to keep your enemy away or fight multiple enemies at once, while Andelrine countered with the unbending stone stance, raining blows of rage down upon Luthinen, hoping to use her superior strength to batter her weaker opponent down. Luthien flowed around Andelrine, dodging her heavy blows and landing two out of three points with strikes to Andelrine's leg and thigh. She only needed one more point to win this duel, but without warning, Andelrine switched to fire stance, and threw defense to the wind, raining a hail of blows from every direction at Luthien. The move caught her by surprise, as fire stance is generally poor against wind stance, but before she could move into stone stance to begin her defense against Andelrine, she managed to land a single strike that would have been only one point as a glancing blow to the face, but when Andelrine struck, the part of the cover at the end of her blade failed, and the edge bit through, carving through Luthien's face from her left temple, across her nose, then through the right side of her top lip. Luthien was not expecting such an injury, a broken nose from the strike, maybe, but not what she received. Luthien screamed in pain, one of her eyes blinded. She held her sword up in a frantic defense, blood spraying from her face and getting in her good eye, as Andelrine continued to rain blows onto her, striking her three more times, breaking Luthien's right arm and leaving a massive gash from Luthien's hip to her calf. Xaleos leapt into the ring before any more damage could be done to Luthien, and in three swift forms, left Andelrine weaponless, rage and satisfaction creasing her face as she watched Luthien the cripple screaming and squirming on the ground from her wounds. Andelrine just sniffed and called her win at four points, leaving the ring to collect her blade. The priest finally stepped in at this point, and laid hands on Luthien, healing her wounds, but leaving a massive scar across her face and one on her right hip. When she was healed enough to move, Luthien saw herself for the first time, and broke down in tears at how she looked, a terrible scar marring her once perfect face... it was too much, Xaleos would never like her now, she lost any chance of being with the man she loved. She leapt up from the ring and ran, she ran as fast as she could, and had no idea where she was running, but she knew she had to run. Tears streamed down her face as Xaleos called to her to return. She couldn't face him though, he saw what she looked like now, there was no way she could love a woman like her! So she just kept running, and running. She didn't know for how long she ran, but eventually she collapsed, her pain and hate, and rage too much for her body, so it just gave out, her weakness catching up to her. She cried and cried, laying on the dirt, until she finally looked up and found that she was in a graveyard she had never seen before, and laying beside a massive headstone with marking on it mostly in a language she didn't understand. The gravestone had two words on it... Unkown Kadath. A soft hand laid upon her shoulder then, and Luthien would have jumped up if she had the strength left to do so. Instead, she just whimpered as she turned to see what appeared to be a kindly old woman in a black robe standing over her. Her skin was stretched thin, with pot marks all over it, and she was a lowly human missing too many teeth, but her eyes were kindly, and her face scrunched up with concern. Her long, knobby fingers had clutched Luthien's shoulder as she asked if Luthien was all right. Luthien could see the woman through her tears, and saw something in her robe moving, but figured it was just layers of clothing. The woman sat down beside her in the dirt, and asked simply if she would like help with her pain. She offered to take away the pain, and give her strength to do what she needed to do. All it took was a few oaths. One was the an oath against mercy, Luthien had been shown none when Andelrine disfigured her, so why should Luthien show mercy to anyone else, ever again? In her pain, she spoke the oath and immediately felt herself growing stronger, her arms began to reverberate with arcane energy granting her unnatural strength. Then she spoke an oath against lies, swearing to speak the truth always. And then her weakness seemed to get noticeably less, it was still there, but not nearly so bad as it was. The last oath was that of celibacy, and that was the hardest, as she wanted to be with Xaleos, but he would never lover her anyway now, so why did it matter? She took the last oath, and could feel the strength of her armor increase, becoming supernaturally hard. With a surprised look on her face, she felt better, and she felt her pain and worry wash away, even her love tried to wash away, but she held onto that, she held on and locked it away in her heart instead of letting it wash away like some of her other emotions seemed to do. She then stood up, her confidence returned, and wore her scars with pride now, though hate and rage for Andelrine flowed through her veins like blood. The old woman gave her a black leather bound book, with the image of a skeletal monkey and bird on the cover, though it made it look like the monkey had wings and could fly. It was a rather odd tome, but the old woman assured her that she would find answers and power within that tome to do what she needed to do in the future. Luthien thanked the old woman before taking the book and leaving the graveyard the way she thought she had come, though the graveyard was surrounded by mist, very odd at this time of day. When she emerged from the mist, she found herself at the edge of the woods outside of the Elven compound that she lived in, and when she looked behind her, all she could see was mist, receding across the plain behind her. It was strange, but the strength she gained from the oaths didn't leave her, so she pressed on towards her tower, her head held high and her pain left behind. Chapter 3: Death Rising   The next few years were a blur to Luthien. She had stopped training in the rings after the accident, and focused her efforts on learning to train horses and studying the book she had received. It was a strange text that was far larger than the book would appear. It drew her to read it, almost calling to her. It looked like it might have a thousand pages, but she had went through over ten thousand pages thus far in her studies, and had been taking extensive notes as she did so, filling up dozens of smaller, non magic books. Along with her studies of the book, which detailed death and death magic, she had begun capturing and killing animals in her experiments. She had all but forgotten about her love and family, except the times when her little brother came to her tower to ride her horses with her. When he came over, she felt like her old self again. When he wasn't there, she was consumed with a drive for knowledge, an insatiable need to keep reading the book. This caused her to delve further and further into the forbidden arts of death magic. Day in and out she worked between her two passions, barely sleeping, eating or drinking. To anyone else who visited her, she was cold and unfeeling, if still polite, assuming she answered her door at all. Her parents never bothered visiting her after her colossal failure in the ring, and Xaleos visited her only once, to let her know that he had fought to get Andelrine prosecuted for her crime. Unfortunately the church ruled it an accident, and used it as one more reason why even these ranking duels should be abolished. They waived any crimes that Andelrine might have been considered to have committed as hearsay, as a priest had checked the blade cover before the bout. Luthien took the news with a calm exterior, though inside she seethed with rage and hatred, causing her face to become shadowed in a terrible scowl, before she politely thanked Xaleos and asked him to leave. As soon as he was gone, she let out her frustration in a screech, throwing whatever happened to be close to her at the time, raging at that wench who had stolen her life and love. She could hear how he talked about Andelrine, he was probably going to her house to sleep with her now, all that talk of prosecution a lie. Why did this have to happen to her? WHY her? As her pain began to overwhelm her once again, she felt it suddenly all drain away, and she was left feeling, nothing. Her rage and pain gone, she simply went about fixing the damage she had done, and put everything back in it's place calmly and coldly. As Luthien continued her studies in this book over the years, she discovered that her draining of life around her was something more powerful and extensive then she had first imagined. It could be expanded and utilized as a weapon, desecrating and draining the life from animals as well as plants and the ground itself. She also found, that with practice, she could drain the life from the land at a distance instead of just centered on herself. She had to travel a few miles away from the compound she lived in to test her powers, and ended up leaving large swaths of land blighted and barren. She had to be careful or eventually the hunters would notice, and the church would send a witch hunter here to investigate... But she had to continue her studies, she was driven to continue her studies. So she decided she would try going to a different part of the woods every time she tested her powers, hoping that it might delay the inevitable findings. On one such incursion into the woods, she went to a place that she had never been to, and her people rarely ever visited. In a deep valley with a river flowing through it and cliffs on both sides of it. She had to scale down the cliffs in order to find herself at the bottom of the valley, where she could practice her magics and life draining powers in secret. Everything went without a hitch for the first few hours before she noticed something in the tall reeds by the river, a boot she thought. How odd to see one so far from her home. She moved to investigate, and she found something that struck her like a knife through the heart. The corpse that wore the boot, was Xaleos Elliaen. She could only stare at his body for a long time, the sight not truly registering in her for what seemed like forever. Then it struck her like a hammer, and she collapsed to the ground, tears streaming from her eyes as she grasped his body and pulled him from the river. Not him, never him. Why? Why had this happened? She spent a long time, just crying, her face buried in his wet clothes. For some reason, her emotions were not drawn away here, they were left with her, and it hurt so very much. When the sun fell in the sky, and Luthien had no more tears to cry, her pact finally kicked in, and left her feeling nothing once more. Her love for him was still tightly knit deep within her, but she had become cool and collected once more. She carefully, and reverently dragged his body to a small cave in the side of the cliffs nearby, and made a small fire to stay with him that night. She couldn't leave him alone in this dark place tonight, he would be frightened all alone, and that just wouldn't do. She carefully looked through the things he still had on him, his treasured blade, still dry from the sheath that protected the blade of the weapon perfectly. Then she found his minor belongings and set them aside in a pile. Then she found a single letter, written in what she could barely recognize as his handwriting. The letter was not sealed, and when she opened it, she could barely read the writing on the page, a good ink that had not completely been washed away by the water. It was addressed to Andelrine, and when she read that, her blood began to boil again as accusations formed in her mind. But she squashed those and kept reading the note. It turned out to be a rejection of betrothal. A rejection. He didn't want her. Luthien felt her joy and happiness rising as she read that, and continued reading. It concluded that his heart belonged to another, and he had not room in it for any but her. Luthien wanted to jump for joy before the situation suddenly came crashing back down upon her. Xaleos was dead. It was late in the night now, and she stared at his corpse, tears welling in her eyes once more as she carefully dried the letter and placed it lovingly into a pouch at her belt. For the rest of the night, Luthien sat beside the corpse, preparing his hair, and straightening his clothes, before just sitting beside him and thinking. She could convert life into magic. Could the reverse not be true then? Could she convert magic into life? It should be possible. The book would know, it could tell her how to bring him back. It HAD to be able to, she just had to find where it was. When the sun began to rise in the sky, Luthien finally rose, and kissed Xaleos gently on the forehead before stepping to the edge of the cave, and draining the life from the area inside the cave. It would keep his body preserved, until she was able to bring him back to life. Then she began to hurl blasts of power above the cave entrance, screaming out her rage and frustration as she hurled bolt after bolt, draining life from all around the cave. When she was done, the cave was blocked, and there was not a single living thing for fifty yards in any direction, nor would there be for decades. Her climb out of that valley was one of the hardest things she had ever done. The only thing keeping her moving was knowing that she was the only one who could save Xaleos. She was the one who had to save him. Thus she put one hand over the other, and kept pulling herself up, until she reached the top. Then she had to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and take each new step to return to her tower. It was a long, tiring process, as she cried off and on the rest of the way, but when she arrived at her towers, she had been returned to blessedly feeling nothing but an unstoppable determination to find the secrets of that book and bring Xaleos back. She threw herself back into her studies, and found that there was a great deal of truth in her ideas. She could put magic back into dead things and bring them back to unlife. That wasn't what she wanted, but it was a step in the right direction. So she threw her caution to the wind, and drove herself harder than she ever had to find the answers she sought. The book itself teased and guided her deeper and deeper into it's dark secrets, showing her death and undeath in copious amounts, but only hinting at the means to return life to the dead. But it was enough for Luthien, and so she found herself so consumed by her studies, that she was completely unprepared for when the inquisition did finally arrive to her home. Chapter 4: The Hammer of the Inquisition   The witch hunter that the inquisition chose to find her, was Guimer the Unbreakable. A ruthless and relentless hunter who knew he was above the law, and utilized his power in any way necessary to root out and capture or destroy heresy and witchcraft in all it's forms. For he knew better than most, that an open mind was like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded. He had seen far too many people succumb to the temptations of evil, he had seen first hand how demons and devils could infect the minds of those unprepared to resist them, and turn them against what was good and right. It had been twenty years now since he had been forced to burn his own wife and daughter at the stake, after finding that both of them had signed contracts and consorted with devils. This pervasive infection in the land had to be cut out, and cleansed, no matter the cost. And Guimer was one of the chosen of the church to do this. So it was that Guimer the Unbreakable found himself in a quaint Elven compound, governed by Elven elder nobility and secreted away so they could practice their foul magics outside of the wider eyes of the kingdom. These scum skirted the edges of the law to isolate themselves, though there had never been any outright breaking of laws until now. He had heard rumors of blighted lands and undead stalking the land around this compound from traders who came to the compound to trade supplies for skins and master crafted weapons. One thing he had to credit the Elves here, was their smiths knew how to make some of the best weapons in the kingdom. As he looked over this compound though, he could feel bile rising in his throat, and could almost smell the corruption on the wind. There was a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing here, and he would reveal this wolf and force it to see judgement. When Guimer entered the Elven compound, he entered with a trading craven composed of men loyal to him. Men who had no qualms with doing whatever was necessary to expunge the corruption from their glorious kingdom. Guimer himself was dressed as a filthy beggar, smeared with filth and dirt, he hobbled into the town with his caravan, a tag along looking for scraps in this place of mage towers, arcane forges, and mansions. He hobbled around the town, begging for coin and listening to what was happening in the town, hearing the pulse and undertones of the society here. No one looked twice at a beggar, no one watched their conversations around one, no one cared about one. Beggars were odd here, but common followers of caravans that came here. So it was that he quickly managed to hear the rumors swirling about a witch of the woods, a necromancer at night, and a tormented girl who had sequestered herself in a tower, ignoring almost everyone but her younger brother. She had shunned her parents and the one she was to be engaged to for years, about the same amount of time that the strange happenings had been going on. A most interesting coincidence. Guimer did his due diligence though, he did not wish to convict innocents to death unless it was necessary to root out the corruption. He had trackers and rogues follow the girl, watching her every move when she left the her tower. He had her family watched, and saw many times her parents went to her tower to not be allowed entrance. He had her rival watched, and had planned to have the one her family was to betrothed to her watched, but found that he had vanished. Her rival however, was also not allowed entrance to this woman's tower, in fact, no one seemed to be entering or leaving but Luthien. He found it damning that she had closed off everyone that loved her, secluding herself so no one could see what she did inside her tower, and he suspected that perhaps Luthien was the cause of her betrothed's disappearance. None of his agents had been able to infiltrate the tower yet, as the protections put on it when it was built, stopped them from entering without blatantly breaking the laws. Thus, his hopes of finding this Witch was laid upon his scouts that followed her anytime she left the tower. He was pleased to have results after only a few days. Two days after the inquisitorial caravan arrived in town, Guimer received word from his scouts that they had personally witnessed this Elven woman committing witchcraft. She threw magical blasts too and fro, and as she did, the ground near here seemed to wilt and die with each consecutive blast. Finally, it would be time to apprehend this Witch and take her before a judge, once he had extracted her confession. He estimated he would have that before they reached his keep, Elves had no constitution for the kind of.... questioning.... that Guimer performed on prisoners. With enough proof for an arrest in hand, he gathered his faithful, and adorned his normal clothing along with his badge of office, before sending men to collect the woman's parents as he headed to her tower. Guimer arrived first, and had his men surround the tower as an increasing number of bystanders began to gather and watch what a bunch of armed inquisitors were doing at Luthien's tower. It took the whole day of Guimer negotiating with the council of elders and the girl's parents to avoid a fight in this commune, but the evidence inside of Luthien's tower was damning. She had unholy abominations caged in experiment rooms, unholy experiments ongoing on other rooms. Most notably however, were the many notebooks detailing the arts and magics of death itself located within her study. Luthien claimed to have learned it all from a tome of power, but no such tome was found when they had searched her tower, very thoroughly. Thus Guimer had his men drag every experiment and caged monstrosity out to the common grounds, as well as all her note books, so that the whole commune could see what she had done. Luthien had cried and made excuses at first, but after a few moments, she turned as cold as ice and merely accepted Guimer's judgement without further complaint. Such an odd change in personality, that Guimer thought perhaps she was actually possessed. He would need to watch her closely on their journey to Brandiscar. The townsfolk were silent in mourning as Guimer burned all of Luthien's decades of work, burning them in the common area for all to see. Luthien herself went without further complaint, she had resigned to her fate, but couldn't meet her family's eyes as she was dragged off in chains. How could everything have gone so wrong? Why did they hate her so much, she hadn't harmed anyone. She hadn't wanted to harm anyone, she had just wanted to be left to her studies and experiments. She guessed, in the end, she was a failure. She failed her parents, herself, and Xaleos. She cried off and on as she was thrown into a cage on the back of one of the wagons the inquisitors had come to town in. Every time her emotions threatened to overwhelm her, they seemed to get drained away, and she was left feeling nothing. She preferred not feeling anything, as it kept the pain and sorrow from her, that almost seemed debilitating when it shown through. Her questioning took longer than that inquisitor seemed to have liked though, which gave her some small bit of satisfaction. She held out through his torture for almost the entire trip to the prison. All the pain and suffering she had endured growing up had finally done some good for her. It wasn't just the physical torture though, the spikes and screws, straps and the iron maiden. They had used magical interrogation methods as well, trying to bend and mold her will against herself. She had endured a lot, and she had intended to endure this as well, though a day before she arrived at the prison, her resolve broke, and she confessed to the crime of witchcraft, and whatever else they threw at her. She hoped that one day, in this life or the next, she could get her revenge against the church for ruining her life. All she had wanted to do was be left alone.   Luthien couldn't feel much of her body as she was hauled out of the cold, metal cage. The humans that worked for that horrible man hoisted her by her arm pits and threw her out of the wagon. She hit the cold cobblestones outside of Brandiscar with the sound of her cheek bone breaking from the impact, as she had not the strength to catch herself. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth through the pain as she struggled up to her feet slowly. Her once bright and bronze skin was now covered in wounds with dried blood caked on most of her body. Her once beautiful hair was covered in mud and her own filth from the cage, and her eyes had seemed to dull some with her resignation to death. The inquisitors had only bothered healing her enough so that she wouldn't die before she was burned at the stake. As she made it to her feet, the two guards that threw her out of the wagon moved into grab her arms and haul her into the prison, but she shook her head and spoke with a hoarse voice, the melody from her normal voice lost to despair here; "I can walk myself in." The two guards hesitated as she took her first step forwards, then the next. Each step forward made the next become easier, and she remembered an old proverb that her father used to tell her; 'The most important step that one can take, is the next step.' And so she kept doing that, she took the next step, and the next after that. She walked with a terrible limp, but held her head high as she walked into the prison. The guards looked aghast at her visage, as few came in here looking as bad as she did, covered in blood, broken arms, one side of her face broken inwards, and a vicious scar across her face with arcane symbols surrounding it in a tattoo. They glanced to the inquisitors as she walked into the prison, who handed over the proper paperwork to the guards. The guards then cautiously opened the gates for them to enter, still watching Luthien carefully, as though they expected her to sprout horns and eat their souls or some nonsense. She limped down the hallway, and through a couple more before they had to go down stairs to the lower dungeon, reserved for those on death row. She had stayed strong thus far, and she would be damned before she showed anymore weakness in the eyes of these human wretches. These corrupt and wretched fiends. She hated every last one of them, and that hatred seemed like it would carry her all the way down the stairs, but halfway down the last flight, her weakness struck her, and she collapsed, falling down half a flight of stairs and gaining herself a nice compound fracture for her pride. Tears welled up in her eyes from pain, shame, and rage, she felt so very weak, and she hated it so much. Then it was all gone, all the rage and the shame and the pain. Her hate was still there, but the others were gone, and the pain seemed to be a miniscule thing now. The humans laughed out loud, and called names as she slowly got back up to her feet, then pulled her broken arm straight, forcing the protruding bone back into her arm before she turned impassively and began to continue walking to her cell. The human's laughter cut off abruptly as she did so, and they shared confused and worried glances at this strange Elf's behavior. She leaked vital blood onto the floor from her arm as she limped slowly towards her cell, some of the prisoners called to her and made suggestive gestures or calls. She pointedly ignored them, keeping her head high and a scowl on her face. The two inquisitors nodded to the guards, who unlocked a cell with some straw in one corner of the room, a small chamber pot in the other, and some rags on the hay that might have once been a blanket. That was the entirety of her cell. As she walked in, she glanced to the guards and spoke poorly with her broken cheek, but tried to sound as regal as she could; "I will take some water and my evening meal if it pleases you." The two guards looked to the inquisitors for confirmation, and they laughed at her, before drawing their batons, and moving into the cell with her; "Apparently we didn't beat the insolence out of you well enough on the way here, witch! We'll have to remedy that eh Cal?" The other inquisitor just nodded with a morose look on his face as he drew his baton as well, and the moved in and started to beat her. Two hours, a few broken bones, and one violation later, Luthien found herself laying in the corner of the cell, on the hay, broken and bleeding. They gave her a small potion of healing so she wouldn't die from her wounds, but that was all. So she lay there, all the emotion gone from her as she stared out of her cell at the guard posted to watch her. She didn't have the energy to do anything else in rebellion, so she just stared at him, accusingly for what he'd allowed happen in these unhallowed walls. She hated them all, hated every last one of these people. She hated the church, and what they'd done to her, how they'd ruined her life. She had a few days before her execution, so she might as well try to plan something. With a deep sigh, she jabbed one of her fingers into the wound that her compound fracture had made, causing fresh blood to start oozing out of it, then started drawing arcane figures on the wall next to her pile of hay. She never stopped staring at the guard though, and he never seemed to notice that she was drawing on the walls in her own blood. RP SAMPLE HERE You can use the 10-minute Background to guide your character creation if you choose:   The 10 Minute Background is a tool to help you flesh out your character’s existence. This is optional. 5 Background and Concept Elements 1: Poor Parents 2: Failed Relationship 3: Permanent scar from a duel gone wrong 4: Discovered Death Magic 5: Committed Heresy/witchcraft 2 Goals for the Character. 1: Luthien had originally planned to gain mastery over death itself, creating her own death cult and eventually overturning the current religious order. As she has been sentenced to death, her goal is now to attempt the same after achieving power in the 9 hells and spreading her cult from hell before making her way back to the material realm to wipe out the weak religious order in power. 2: I just want to see her develop as a character, and see where this takes her. She has a secret love to whom she doesn't believe she will ever be good enough for, and I would find that interesting to develop. 2 Secrets About Your Character. 1: Luthien has secretly fallen in love with a full Elven blademaster named Xaleos Elliaen. She doesn't believe herself worthy of his love, and believes that because of her weakness of body, that she doesn't deserve him. 2: Luthien's father had been working on an arranged union between Xaleos and Luthien that was rendered void when she was found to be practicing forbidden magic and witchcraft 3 People That Are Tied to the Character. 1: Farien and Yrathea Ilirieth as well as Luthien's younger brother: She doesn't know if they are hostile or friendly towards her 2: Xaleos Elliaen: He has always been kind towards her, but she doesn't know how he feels about her witchcraft, though she wishes he will not hate her. 3: Guimer the Unbreakable: Guimer is a relentless crusader and witch hunter, a man versed in the most advanced arts of torture available and fully willing to turn that knowledge against the enemies of the church. He is the one who had tracked Luthien down and extracted her confession of heresy and witchcraft. 4: The old graveyard woman - A friend to the broken and downtrodden, but who is she and who does she serve? What is the real cost to her aid? 5: Andelrine - Rival and woman who left Luthien scarred. 3 Memories, Mannerisms, or Quirks 1: Luthien runs her fingers along her facial scar when she is nervous 2: Luthien has some obsessive tendencies. All of her possessions have to be in exactly the right spots at all times, clothes folded precisely, or hung up 2 linewidths apart. Her hair has to be done one of the correct ways she likes it every morning. She has to brush her hair 150 times before she goes out in the morning, and she has to tap on a doorknob 5 times, one with each finger, before she can open a door. 3: Luthien has an irrational fear of spiders   Karuz: An orc savage, I believe it's supposed to be a female variety? The filthy savages should have been exterminated ages ago. Why they hadn't been is beyond her. As long as she doesn't have to touch or smell the thing, she could ignore it as long as it helps her escape. Alister Gravebit: Ohh, a half vampire.... I read about those in the tome of death. I would very much like to dissect him and observe how he works compared to a full undead. Right, he's working to escape.... maybe I can find a way to bind him later, but help is fine, he is probably build solidly like vampires. Gunther Bontrielle: Another oversized human swinging a clunky blade around. Very typical. I suppose beggars can't be choosers, maybe he will die quickly and rid the world of one more human. "Victor": Great, a nameless, old, disgusting human who uses magic. I might be able to learn something from him if I could stomach his visage long enough. Humans become so foul as they grow old. Leidy Helloth: Hmmm, an interesting human girl with a penchant for death like herself, she could make a good partner in studying death. Midas bin Koil: Oh look, a peacock in human form. How quaint. I hate it. Pluck Flowers: EWWWWWWWW GOBLIN! Don't touch me or you won't get your hand back. Actually, just stay at least ten feet away from me at all times, you smell atrocious. Jegan: Well Just Jegan, at least you aren't a filthy human. I would love to study you sometime! You're part shadow right? So you can grow your limbs back? We should test it. Naegrion: Oh dear, a human bastard seeking vengeance against his wealthy father for abandoning him! He's only one of the hundreds of bastards in the country suffering the same fate. *sighs audibly while rolling her eyes* I think he should just be happy his father didn't have him executed to tie up loose ends. Danilore: Great, a terribly mysterious ally. I hope they can do something that's actually useful rather than just being terribly mysterious. I dunno, maybe they can cut crossbows in half with their mind. Haldis Damukaer: WOW, a shapeshifter. That could be really useful. Skrizzlenix: GIANT TALKING RAT!!!! Kill it with fire! Wait, it wants to help? Wellllllll, at least it isn't a spider. If you sneak up on me, you'll likely lose your head, I hate rats. Hargoth "Heathstreet Headcracker" Halheim: *sighs* Another big dumb human who hits things really hard. The gods must hate me. Baller, the Bold: Oh my..... a fallen human knight.... My hear it aflutter- No, actually it's not. Just another sword swinging human. I suppose I will have a lot of people to block arrows for me. *sighs deeply* We're all going to die here. Marcus Varus: Ohhhh, a demon spawn. He's quite horny *chuckles quietly to herself*. Well, a demon spawn is at least better company than humans at least. Ready For Review

[LeoByron]

It has been pointed out to me that I did not explicitly state that Oaths from Spheres of Power are allowed. This was somewhat deliberate on my part since I did not especially want to encourage them but I did not want to ban them either. Since a few applicants have now discovered/used them, I should probably point this out more explicitly.

Note that character sheets are not required until after invitations are sent out.

[Battlechaser]

And Joaquin is complete. If you have the time, feedback will be appreciated.

[Kshnik]

What!?

[OneDarkness]

Originally Posted by LeoByron

It has been pointed out to me that I did not explicitly state that Oaths from Spheres of Power are allowed. This was somewhat deliberate on my part since I did not especially want to encourage them but I did not want to ban them either. Since a few applicants have now discovered/used them, I should probably point this out more explicitly.

Note that character sheets are not required until after invitations are sent out.

My personal opinions the oaths can be very powerful so if your including them I am assuming they are open to non spheres characters as well correct?

[LeoByron]

Originally Posted by OneDarkness

My personal opinions the oaths can be very powerful so if your including them I am assuming they are open to non spheres characters as well correct?

Yes and no. If you have absolutely no Sphere abilities and take an Oath and reap its benefits, you are now a Spheres character. Congratulations! You need not have any other Sphere abilities, however.

[JonnyGulliver]

Still putting an app together for Vladmutin, but work and concept confusion.

Thematically, Mesmerist is an easy sphere conversion. But Occultist is a headache to understand. At first I thought it sucked, but on second lookover, it seems actually pretty good.

But for now on an unrelated note, just thought I'd ask if this Martial Tradition looks alright to you:

BATTLE DANCER
Equipment Talent - Unarmored Training
Feat Zodiac Tattoo / No Armor or Shield Proficiency
Fencing Sphere
Masterful Defense Talent
Athletics Sphere / Risky Escape Drawback / Reflexive Twist Talent

[LeoByron]

The Battle Dancer Martial Tradition has 1 too many abilities, unless I am missing something. It should grant no more than 4 talents, 1 of which can be a Feat instead. Some premade traditions break this rule but I have explicitly limited custom traditions to 4.

Sphere-specific drawbacks do not affect this number, and do not need to be included in the Martial Tradition main text. (They are part of the MT but they are just confusing and should be listed seperately.)

[JonnyGulliver]

Alright. Can I just trade out my armor and shield proficiency for Zodiac Tattoo? Feat for feat swap? Armor is just not something I plan to use, thematically

[LeoByron]

You don't need to choose an armor talent, but you must have at least 1 Equipment Talent in your Martial Tradition. It can be any equipment talent.

The Custom Martial Tradition must still be capped at 4 abilities, 1 of which must be an Equipment Talent, no more than 1 of which can be a Feat.

If your class grants proficiency with Light Armor and grants a Martial Tradition, you cannot swap out the proficiency with Light Armor for a Feat, I'm afraid you're stuck with it. I do allow 2 Flaws, however, which each grant a bonus feat. You could choose a flaw and gain the Feat you want that way.