Sexual preference: Leans Straight, though open to alternatives
Parent-God: Jormungand
Appearance: Elisa is very short; rising to only a hair over 5ft tall. Her hair is bright blond and her eyes light blue - both almost unnaturally so. Her skin is white, but always seems to have a greenish tinge to it. In addition, her eyes are rather snake like giving her a off-putting appearance. She otherwise appears as a fairly normal demigod mortal. Because of her skin condition, she tends to wear makeup to cover the worst of it whenever possible. Due to the strange snake-like qualities of her eyes, she wears glasses. She dresses almost exclusively in black, with purple and green accents - favoring long victorian-esk dresses and stockings; figuring that if she looks odd, she may as well "own it" and go all the way.
Personality: Elisa is one of the most sickeningly sweet and kind people you will ever meet. She'd happily give the shirt off her back to a stranger in need. She is generally a wonderful person and hates anything violent or unruly. An eternal optimist, it's almost impossible to keep her down for long. She smiles constantly and wears her emotions on her sleeve. She loves anything "cute" and has been known to spend enormous amounts of money on frivolous things because she finds them adorable. She has a particular love for cute dragon plushes - she's not sure why.
Power:Serpent's Walk: Elisa's connection to the powerful beast is potent. Because the Serpent is wrapped around the Midgard, she's able to walk "on top" of her father to nearly any location in the world instantaneously. She must be in contact with water to use this ability, though this water need not be physically connected to the ocean (thus she carries a bottle of water with her). She in turn can appear from anywhere where there is water. While the water she enters to teleport must be very pure (at least Sea Water level pure), the exit water can be of any purity. If this water is inside something too small to contain her, she either bursts free from the container or the container crushes her - depending on what it is. While she can appear from people (who are 70% water) she cannot use this power to actually harm someone. She's never tried to take anyone else with her when she teleports, but it's theoretically possible (she takes her clothes and all she caries with her after all). What effects such a teleportation would have on others is unknown (and left to the GM to decide should it be attempted)
Minor attributes: Immense Weight: Just as the Midgard Serpent's weight is nigh-impossible to measure, Elisa weighs far more than her size would suggest. She's as dense as concrete, though her body still feels in all ways like a normal human body (i.e. her skin feels like normal skin, she just weights more). To maintain this mass (and her powers), she must drink enormous amounts of water per day. Her current weight is nearly 2000 lbs. This increased weight puts her at the stronger end of the demi-god range. Her "Olympian-like" strength is higher than the average demigod's, but still within the demi-human range (i.e. she's not gonna be able to punch out Thor or a demi-god with super-strength as a main power, but she can hold her own against most others)
Endurance: Jormungand is destined to fight Thor to their mutual demise. As such, the beast is able to take hits no other being could withstand. Elisa has been gifted a tiny fraction of this endurance, allowing her to withstand forces many times greater than a normal human. While hardly invulnerable - weapons will still harm her - she can withstand such onslaughts much longer than other creatures and can maintain movement for a longer period of time. Her "Olympian-like" endurance is higher than the average demigod's, but still within the demi-human range.
Serpent Touch: The blood of the Midgard Serpent flows through her veins. Unlike normal demigods, she has some reptilian traits - mostly the look of her eyes and skin. She "sheds" her skin in large patches several times per year. Each time she does, her weight increases slightly as does her size, though the difference is miniscule. The main result of this trait however is making Elisa appear somewhat diseased looking. Her skin is mostly white, though it has hints of green forming a barely visible scale pattern. Her eyes seem overly large for her face and her pupils are slightly elongated in the vertical direction (similar to that of a snake). These characteristics only affect her normal abilities slightly (she's slightly nearsighted and therefore wears glasses)
History: Astra Bjorndottir was a fisherwoman living in North Head, Maine. She'd lived on the ocean all her life as had her parents and their parents before them. She was an expert at the art of sailing and fishing, having spent most of her life on the waves in search of lobster. She knew how to weather the worst of storms and all the best places to make her catches. That's why it was such a shock when, one cold clear December evening, her boat failed to return to port. Many search parties were sent out from the small town, but none found any evidence of her or her ship. It was as though the sea had swallowed her up. Everyone in the tiny town had given up hope when, three weeks later, she walked back into town without a single memory of what had happened.
Needless to say, the entire town celebrated her return and, before the week was out, they'd raised enough money to get her another boat. For a time, things returned to normal in the small town. No one expected what was to come. It was a month before Astra realized something was wrong and another month before she worked up the courage to discuss the unforeseen truth with anyone. She was pregnant without the slightest idea who the father was.
To the small New England town, it was a great embarrassment. Suddenly, the town felt they'd been betrayed. Where they thought Astra'd been shipwrecked and washed ashore by the grace of God, now they knew she'd been off "cavorting" with some secret lover and tricked her friends and family out of their hard earned money.
The next few months of the pregnancy left the town broken and resentful. That is, until the day of delivery. Nearly nine months after disappearing from their town, she was giving birth to Elisa. The moment Elisa entered the world, it shook. The earth seemed to rage against the new child, bringing the town to it's knees. The sea seemed to churn and boil and all manner of sea life beached itself to avoid the horrors of the deep. Many of the towns older buildings crashed to the ground during the quake, including the small proctorship where Astra was giving birth. Astra lost her life in the quake, but Elisa lived.
Though the town held little love for what Astra had done, none could fault Elisa for the actions of her mother and, though some of the more superstitious townsfolk thought the quake was a sign from God, many were willing to help raise the child. Or rather, they were until their eyes lay upon the small child. The small girl was strange and alien it seemed; with inhuman eyes and sickly skin. Between the damage of the quake, the superstition, the actions of Astra, and her daughter's strange appearance, none were willing to take in the child. With no next of kin, she was sent south and put up for adoption in an orphanage in Augusta.
Elisa moved between foster homes for much of her younger youth. Because of the constant instability in her life and her weird appearance, she developed as a child with few friends and family. To compensate, she did everything she could to make others like her - always doing acts of kindness in hopes of being accepted. It never seemed to work, but to this day she keeps trying.
The one fortune she had was the orphanage. Between several anonymous donors (most people from North Head who regretted not helping her as a child) and medical professionals interested in her strange skin, eye, and weight condition, the orphanage never lacked money and she was able to squirrel away a small sum of money for her own needs. It was because of these fund that, when she turned 18 and left the orphanage, she was able to travel to her birth-home of North Head. She wanted to visit her mother's grave and find out what she could about her family - perhaps ferreting out her father and the cause of her disease.
She spent nearly a week searching the small town to no avail. No one in town shared any of her distinct appearance and even her mother's grave was no longer present (given no one existed to maintain the site). She was about to give up and head south to try and make a life of her own when, on a whim, she went down to the docks. She was just planning to look at the waves and wonder what her mother thought of the sea. However, when she touched the water, the world shook once more. Though nowhere near as violent as the quake of her birth, it was no less dramatic. The world shifted and turned as she looked. It took her a split second to remove her hand from the sea, but by then the world was completely different. She found herself sitting on a dock on a tropical island in some distant corner of the world.
As though that were not enough, a few minutes later strange men and women in foreign clothes appeared as if from the sky, all of them armed with spears, bows, swords and - at least one of them - hammers. Fearing for her life, she reached out into the water, twisting the world again and appearing elsewhere.
She's encountered the armed strangers several times since then, each time escaping before they could say a single word or strike her down, or whatever else they might have been after. In the eleven months she's been running, she's learned to control her powers - picking her destinations and even managing to teleport through normal water. When the game begins, she's still running.
Other: How Elisa came to be is a mystery best left unsolved. The mysterious figures chasing her are the Norse Gods, though the exact motivations for chasing her (to protect her, kill her, capture her, or something else) is left to the GM to decide.
Jormungand (pronounced "YOUR-mun-gand;" Old Norse Jormungandr, "Great Beast"), also called the "Midgard Serpent," is a snake or dragon who lives in the ocean that surrounds Midgard, the visible world. So enormous is he that his body forms a circle around the entirety of Midgard. He?s one of the three children of Loki and the giantess Angrbooa, along with Hel and Fenrir.
The god Thor is his particular enemy. Two battles between them are recounted in the Eddas. In one, Thor fishes for Jormungand, and fails to pull him up only when the giant Hymir, terrified that this will bring about Ragnarok, severs the line, sending the snake back down to the depths. When Ragnarok does arrive, however, Thor and the Midgard Serpent are destined to slay each other.
Jormungand likely already featured in the religion of the original Germanic tribes, as evidenced by his existence in the later pre-Christian religions of different branches of the Germanic peoples. For example, continental Germans attributed earthquakes to his movements well into the Middle Ages.
Now with additional information on the Serpent's touch, some slight appearance changes, and a slight modification to her core power to cover any attempted "group" teleports.
As before, Comments/Suggestions/Questions/Criticisms/Shared Back-stories/etc welcome.
Parent God: Susanoo, the Japanese god of seas and storms
Appearance:
Tall, well-muscled and broad-shouldered (about 6'0 weighing 300 lbs), with tanned skin, short black hair, brown eyes and friendly features. he prefers to dress casually, his usual outfit consists of a navy blue t-shirt with a gold monkey outline on the front underneath a black leather jacket, jeans, black fingerless gloves, and tan hiking boots, and well as a pair of thick yellow headphones that often hangs around his neck. He also carries a katana slung across his back, a good will gift from his father.
Personality:
Shiro can be a bit headstrong, brash, impatient, and tends to speak/act without thinking, but he is at heart, a sweet and friendly person who would gladly help out his friends in a pinch. Shiro is very active and outgoing, and prefers to be outside than inside all day. He has a bit of a competitive streak, especially when it comes to sports like baseball, football, judo and kendo, plus he is an avid swimmer. He isn't exactly the best student - not that he's stupid or anything, Shiro just doesn't have a good attention span for the things he's not interested in (though he at least does has rudimentary grasp on the English language, as he hopes to visit the US someday). He has a good heart, a strong sense of justice, and is very loyal to those he calls his friends.
Power:
Like his father, Shiro has the ability to manipulate the weather for various effects, such as wind, rain, snow and fog. He can also create and control electricity - either generating it in his hands or using nearby sources to pull electricity from - and can easily induce heat or cold. It is also possible that he can create updrafts to fly on, but given his stature, this may not happen anytime soon. He is also able to sense and predict weather patterns as well as sense natural changes in the weather patterns. Finally, Shiro is able to easily adjust to any atmospheric environment, including underwater.
Minor Attributes:
-Athletics: Shiro's size and strength are useful not just for sports, but in case he ever needs to move heavy objects or run fast.
-Aquatic Proficiency: Thanks to his heritage, Shiro is just as at home in the water just as he is on land. He is a surpsingly fast swimmer despite his size, and can hold his breath longer than most people.
-Swordsmanship: after learning of his parentage, Shiro has taken up kendo to help enhance his swordsman skills, which he has taken to surprisingly quickly.
History:
It was on one of his many travels around the earthly plains that Susanoo met a beautiful woman named Suzuru in a night club in Kyoto. The two hit it off, but Susanoo soon grew bored of her and moved on.
Shortly afterwards, Suzuru found out she was pregnant, causing her strict traditionalist parents to kick her out of the house. Fortunately, she was taken in by sympathetic relatives, who helped her give birth to her son Toushiro. With her help, she raised him as best she could, and Shiro grew up with a mostly normal life.
Then when Shiro turned 16, he came home from school to find his mother arguing with a strange man in their apartment. The man introduced himself as Shiro's father... and the storm god Susannoo. Naturally, Shiro was disbelieving of this statement... until the man created a miniature storm in their living room. Amazement turned to anger as Shiro realized the man had abandoned his mother years ago. Susanoo explained that he had chosen to seek out his wife and son, but was otherwise vague on the details. Instead, he gave Shiro a katana, calling it a good-will gift. He then placed his hand on the boy's forehead, telling him to "prepare for his return" before vanishing in a flash of light.
Ever since then, Shiro's powers have slowly began to emerge, and he has spent years learning how to control them as well as practicing with the sword his father gave him.
That's what I got, lemme know if I can make any improvements.
Let's hear it for finished/reworked/excessively spoilered sheets!
Name: Faith (Real Name: Helen McAvore)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Parent God: Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense], the goddess of pain and pleasure
Appearance: The first things you'll notice upon looking at Faith are her scars. She has a lot of scars. They cover every inch of her otherwise striking self, crisscrossing in no particular manner or pattern. The scars themselves vary quite a bit, as well. Some are cuts and others burns, and some are large with others small. They even differ in intent, as Faith at times willingly scarred herself while other scars are the result of some trauma forced upon her. If it were possible to look under the scars and to the person, then one would see a rather conventionally attractive young woman with bold crimson hair, a gently angular visage and blood-red eyes that can stare straight through yours and peer upon your soul.
Moving on to artificial adornments, Faith's wardrobe primarily contains clothing that fits her loosely as she's not a fan of tight or restrictive clothing. Other than that, Faith doesn't have much of a typical outfit or color to fall back on. As a result, she's accumulated an interesting collection of clothes over time and she takes advantage of that.
Although she avoids traditional armaments due to hubris and practicality, Faith has over time honed her fingernails into points and sharpened them. Not to the point where she could draw blood while scratching an itch, but if she gets a hold on exposed skin (human-level thickness skin, anyways) Faith will draw blood if she wants to.
Her two more notable possessions that she carries around with her are a stuffed bull she gave to her father, then it found its way back to her after her father's death. The second is a set of ten idols from her mother, so that Faith may never forget where she came from.
Personality: Faith is a woman who wears many metaphorical hats. Off the top of her head, Faith can recall times when she's been coy, aggressive, honest, a virgin, shy, passive, masochistic, flirtatious, austere, nymphomanical, manipulative, abusive, hedonistic, sadistic, and so on and so forth; you get the point. At her core, though, Helen is an introvert trapped in the shell of extroversion. At least, that's what she thinks; she's not sure yet. The reason for her uncertainty is mostly trepidation; Faith is afraid of what she'll see when she stares into the mirror too hard. She has spent so much time as different identities that she can't remember who she was in the first place.
Power: Faith manipulates people's senses with regards to pain and pleasure. She can induce levels of pleasure high enough to cause insanity (theoretically, she has yet to test this) as well as minimize someone's pain to the point where it's barely noticeable, and vice-versa. Naturally, she can sense these emotions in the beings around her and in herself. While this power becomes more formidable the more you think about it, it isn't without restrictions: First, the fine control she has over someone's pain/pleasure (P/P) correlates directly with how involved Faith was in that P/P. For example, here are three situations where Faith can manipulate pain, and the order of her control over the pain in that situation: 'someone next to Faith is randomly injured' < 'Faith orders someone to be hurt' < 'Faith wounds someone herself'. Second, Faith is limited to manipulating P/P only and she can't turn one kind of P/P into another (she can't make someone who just went through a bad breakup feel like they were shot, nor can she make a person who just accomplished something difficult feel like they just had an orgasm). Third, Faith cannot generate P/P in her targets from nothing nor remove it completely; the person must already be experiencing some kind of P/P for Faith to be able to use her power.
Minor Attributes:
1) Self Defense: Her father forced her to take some self-defense/martial arts classes when she was younger and despite her distaste for them, the basics stuck with her. When she started to get more familiar with her power and incidentally be exposed more often to dangerous situations, she adapted what she remembered to mesh better with her power. This resulted in a "style" that is based around injury avoidance and quick contact, as the slightest nick gives Faith a chance to incapacitate her opponent with pain.
2)People Skills: While her heritage grants her good control over pain/pleasure, she still needs to be able to take an inch before she can run off with a mile. With this in mind, Faith learned the best ways to elicit pain/pleasure in others. She can cause either with a touch, and Faith taught herself ways to incite the desired responses with verbal means. This doesn't make her a master social manipulator by any means because she doesn't have the head for that level of coordination, but it makes tricking and duping small groups or individuals easier.
3) Faith is a classically trained pianist.
History: The father of Helen McAvore was named Danny, and her mother Hense. As to be expected of most divine-mortal relations Hense didn't stick around for long, leaving Danny with a "Little Rose" he valued more than gold. Unfortunately Danny McAvore isn't the best parent imaginable, at least on his own. To his credit, though, he loved Helen dearly and performed the absolute best he could as a father; in this case that just wasn't enough. He was too rough at times, his finances were sub-optimal, and Helen just needed a female influence at times (Danny couldn't bring himself to get back in the dating scene or remarry; his time with Hense just left too big a hole in his heart). Danny always raised Helen to be an agnostic and to always question, analyze, and criticize religious statements no matter if they were theist or atheist.
Helen's powers began to manifest when she was sixteen and in high school. She kept the use of her power subtle for the most part as she discovered her abilities and limits and played around with the possibilities. Once she had a good idea of what she could do, she began to experiment. Not with her powers, she was done with that at this point, but with pain and pleasure in general. Naturally, what she did garnered her a reputation as freaky and more than a little wild, but Helen never let things get too out of hand, as she didn't want to add more stress on her father, who learned of his lung cancer when Helen was 17. Helen graduated high school with grades floating in the 'B's and no particular drive. She attended a local community college instead of moving out so that she could stay with and help her father, but her wanton semi-hedonism continued like it did in high school with little differences. Her father's cancer, though, continued to escalate.
At the age of nineteen, Helen McAvore sat on the deathbed of her father, Danny. This wasn't a shock to anyone, and Helen was well prepared for this. She sat by Danny's side in his final moments, comforting him, when he spoke up; he had something to tell her. Like any dutiful daughter, Helen sat and listened as her father poured forth confessions and explained everything he kept bottled up since she was born. Danny told her about her mother, a goddess named Hense, who lived up in the sky and governed the pain and pleasure of this world. He confessed his anxieties over raising her and the doubts in his parenting. He revealed why he called her his "little rose", because she was quite literally the best part of his life, yet he was aware he couldn't be the father she deserved. He even explained the little things Helen had forgotten about, such as why he raised her to be an agnostic and why he formed at the stuffed bull she once gave to him for his birthday. As Danny finished, Helen reached out and hugged him as tight as he could, forgiving him in his final moments. As she let go of her father, a knock resounded from the door to the hospital room. Danny smiled and asked Helen to leave, ready for what was to come. Helen opened the door and walked out, only to find no one else there. Nonetheless, she respected her father's wishes and waited outside in one of the chairs there.
Ten minutes passed, and Helen remained outside, coming to grips with what she had just learned. The door to her father's room opened beside her, and it walked a strange woman. She wrote a black dress of mourning with a matching veil that contrasted with her face and eyes, which contained joy. She asked permission to sit next to a confused Helen, who reluctantly granted it. The two sat quietly grieving for several minutes until Helen broke the silence with a question: "Just who the fuck are you anyways?". With the slightest smirk, the Veiled Widow asked a question back: "Is that the mouth you kiss your mother with?". Unable to muster a reply, Helen leaned over and gave her mother a hug, something she had been waiting nineteen years to do. For the next several hours, all Helen and Hense did was talk to another. Hense answered many of the questions Danny had left unanswered while Helen had a chance to talk about her life and her identity to someone who could finally understand her completely. When the two came to the end of their discussion, Helen remarked that so much had changed for her in a single day that she didn't know where to go anymore. In response, Hense handed Faith a bag of ten idols, reminding her that "No matter who you become, you must never forget where you came from."
After the death of her father and conversation with her mother, Helen decided to finish her associate's degree she was working on and started introducing herself as "Faith" to the people she meets. When she got her degree she began to roam the country, working small and odd jobs to support herself, as she never stayed in the same place for too long. When Faith is "recruited" to go save the world, she accepts the offer fairly quickly. If asked why, she would reply with something along the lines of "How many people can claim that they helped save the world?".
Green Shoes said:
The character looks fine, but it is very similar to two characters already present. Also, who is Hense? Can't find anything on that deity.
I disagree with your claims of similarity, even though you have yet to tell me whose toes I'm stepping on, if the offended were part of the original crew or new recruits, or even if the infringing is in terms of powers or personality. I'm going to make two assumptions right now (correct me if I'm wrong): You are saying Faith is similar to Etna and Aria, and that you are talking about powers instead of personalities. I disagree because (as far as I can tell) in terms of her emotion manipulating abilities, Aria is only capable of making other people reproduce faster and supporting others in a conflict, and while Etna's power is worded ambiguously, I believe she can can generate any emotion regardless of what was there before, there's nothing that says she can reduce emotions, she works better with crowds, and her power takes time to grow in effect; also Faith's power is better suited for combat than either of the others. For the record, I did mostly rewrite the Power section, but the concept remained the same and all I did was define it better.
Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense] (another link is in the sheet) is the Caelondian goddess of pain and pleasure originating from the 2011 video game Bastion. There's not a whole lot of information about her, or any member of the Pantheon for that matter, but I feel that what is there is ripe enough for a character to spring from.
Let's hear it for finished/reworked/excessively spoilered sheets!
Name: Faith (Real Name: Helen McAvore)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Parent God: Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense], the goddess of pain and pleasure
Appearance: The first things you'll notice upon looking at Faith are her scars. She has a lot of scars. They cover every inch of her otherwise striking self, crisscrossing in no particular manner or pattern. The scars themselves vary quite a bit, as well. Some are cuts and others burns, and some are large with others small. They even differ in intent, as Faith at times willingly scarred herself while other scars are the result of some trauma forced upon her. If it were possible to look under the scars and to the person, then one would see a rather conventionally attractive young woman with bold crimson hair, a gently angular visage and blood-red eyes that can stare straight through yours and peer upon your soul.
Moving on to artificial adornments, Faith's wardrobe primarily contains clothing that fits her loosely as she's not a fan of tight or restrictive clothing. Other than that, Faith doesn't have much of a typical outfit or color to fall back on. As a result, she's accumulated an interesting collection of clothes over time and she takes advantage of that.
Although she avoids traditional armaments due to hubris and practicality, Faith has over time honed her fingernails into points and sharpened them. Not to the point where she could draw blood while scratching an itch, but if she gets a hold on exposed skin (human-level thickness skin, anyways) Faith will draw blood if she wants to.
Her two more notable possessions that she carries around with her are a stuffed bull she gave to her father, then it found its way back to her after her father's death. The second is a set of ten idols from her mother, so that Faith may never forget where she came from.
Personality: Faith is a woman who wears many metaphorical hats. Off the top of her head, Faith can recall times when she's been coy, aggressive, honest, a virgin, shy, passive, masochistic, flirtatious, austere, nymphomanical, manipulative, abusive, hedonistic, sadistic, and so on and so forth; you get the point. At her core, though, Helen is an introvert trapped in the shell of extroversion. At least, that's what she thinks; she's not sure yet. The reason for her uncertainty is mostly trepidation; Faith is afraid of what she'll see when she stares into the mirror too hard. She has spent so much time as different identities that she can't remember who she was in the first place.
Power: Faith manipulates people's senses with regards to pain and pleasure. She can induce levels of pleasure high enough to cause insanity (theoretically, she has yet to test this) as well as minimize someone's pain to the point where it's barely noticeable, and vice-versa. Naturally, she can sense these emotions in the beings around her and in herself. While this power becomes more formidable the more you think about it, it isn't without restrictions: First, the fine control she has over someone's pain/pleasure (P/P) correlates directly with how involved Faith was in that P/P. For example, here are three situations where Faith can manipulate pain, and the order of her control over the pain in that situation: 'someone next to Faith is randomly injured' < 'Faith orders someone to be hurt' < 'Faith wounds someone herself'. Second, Faith is limited to manipulating P/P only and she can't turn one kind of P/P into another (she can't make someone who just went through a bad breakup feel like they were shot, nor can she make a person who just accomplished something difficult feel like they just had an orgasm). Third, Faith cannot generate P/P in her targets from nothing nor remove it completely; the person must already be experiencing some kind of P/P for Faith to be able to use her power.
Minor Attributes:
1) Self Defense: Her father forced her to take some self-defense/martial arts classes when she was younger and despite her distaste for them, the basics stuck with her. When she started to get more familiar with her power and incidentally be exposed more often to dangerous situations, she adapted what she remembered to mesh better with her power. This resulted in a "style" that is based around injury avoidance and quick contact, as the slightest nick gives Faith a chance to incapacitate her opponent with pain.
2)People Skills: While her heritage grants her good control over pain/pleasure, she still needs to be able to take an inch before she can run off with a mile. With this in mind, Faith learned the best ways to elicit pain/pleasure in others. She can cause either with a touch, and Faith taught herself ways to incite the desired responses with verbal means. This doesn't make her a master social manipulator by any means because she doesn't have the head for that level of coordination, but it makes tricking and duping small groups or individuals easier.
3) Faith is a classically trained pianist.
History: The father of Helen McAvore was named Danny, and her mother Hense. As to be expected of most divine-mortal relations Hense didn't stick around for long, leaving Danny with a "Little Rose" he valued more than gold. Unfortunately Danny McAvore isn't the best parent imaginable, at least on his own. To his credit, though, he loved Helen dearly and performed the absolute best he could as a father; in this case that just wasn't enough. He was too rough at times, his finances were sub-optimal, and Helen just needed a female influence at times (Danny couldn't bring himself to get back in the dating scene or remarry; his time with Hense just left too big a hole in his heart). Danny always raised Helen to be an agnostic and to always question, analyze, and criticize religious statements no matter if they were theist or atheist.
Helen's powers began to manifest when she was sixteen and in high school. She kept the use of her power subtle for the most part as she discovered her abilities and limits and played around with the possibilities. Once she had a good idea of what she could do, she began to experiment. Not with her powers, she was done with that at this point, but with pain and pleasure in general. Naturally, what she did garnered her a reputation as freaky and more than a little wild, but Helen never let things get too out of hand, as she didn't want to add more stress on her father, who learned of his lung cancer when Helen was 17. Helen graduated high school with grades floating in the 'B's and no particular drive. She attended a local community college instead of moving out so that she could stay with and help her father, but her wanton semi-hedonism continued like it did in high school with little differences. Her father's cancer, though, continued to escalate.
At the age of nineteen, Helen McAvore sat on the deathbed of her father, Danny. This wasn't a shock to anyone, and Helen was well prepared for this. She sat by Danny's side in his final moments, comforting him, when he spoke up; he had something to tell her. Like any dutiful daughter, Helen sat and listened as her father poured forth confessions and explained everything he kept bottled up since she was born. Danny told her about her mother, a goddess named Hense, who lived up in the sky and governed the pain and pleasure of this world. He confessed his anxieties over raising her and the doubts in his parenting. He revealed why he called her his "little rose", because she was quite literally the best part of his life, yet he was aware he couldn't be the father she deserved. He even explained the little things Helen had forgotten about, such as why he raised her to be an agnostic and why he formed at the stuffed bull she once gave to him for his birthday. As Danny finished, Helen reached out and hugged him as tight as he could, forgiving him in his final moments. As she let go of her father, a knock resounded from the door to the hospital room. Danny smiled and asked Helen to leave, ready for what was to come. Helen opened the door and walked out, only to find no one else there. Nonetheless, she respected her father's wishes and waited outside in one of the chairs there.
Ten minutes passed, and Helen remained outside, coming to grips with what she had just learned. The door to her father's room opened beside her, and it walked a strange woman. She wrote a black dress of mourning with a matching veil that contrasted with her face and eyes, which contained joy. She asked permission to sit next to a confused Helen, who reluctantly granted it. The two sat quietly grieving for several minutes until Helen broke the silence with a question: "Just who the fuck are you anyways?". With the slightest smirk, the Veiled Widow asked a question back: "Is that the mouth you kiss your mother with?". Unable to muster a reply, Helen leaned over and gave her mother a hug, something she had been waiting nineteen years to do. For the next several hours, all Helen and Hense did was talk to another. Hense answered many of the questions Danny had left unanswered while Helen had a chance to talk about her life and her identity to someone who could finally understand her completely. When the two came to the end of their discussion, Helen remarked that so much had changed for her in a single day that she didn't know where to go anymore. In response, Hense handed Faith a bag of ten idols, reminding her that "No matter who you become, you must never forget where you came from."
After the death of her father and conversation with her mother, Helen decided to finish her associate's degree she was working on and started introducing herself as "Faith" to the people she meets. When she got her degree she began to roam the country, working small and odd jobs to support herself, as she never stayed in the same place for too long. When Faith is "recruited" to go save the world, she accepts the offer fairly quickly. If asked why, she would reply with something along the lines of "How many people can claim that they helped save the world?".
Green Shoes said:
The character looks fine, but it is very similar to two characters already present. Also, who is Hense? Can't find anything on that deity.
I disagree with your claims of similarity, even though you have yet to tell me whose toes I'm stepping on, if the offended were part of the original crew or new recruits, or even if the infringing is in terms of powers or personality. I'm going to make two assumptions right now (correct me if I'm wrong): You are saying Faith is similar to Etna and Aria, and that you are talking about powers instead of personalities. I disagree because Aria is only capable of making (more) babies happen and cheerleading, and while Etna's power is worded ambiguously, I believe she can can generate any emotion, there's nothing that says she can reduce emotions, she works better with crowds, and her power takes time to grow in effect; also Faith's power is more combat-suited than either of the others. For the record, I did mostly rewrite the Power section, but the concept remained the same and all I did was define it better.
Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense] (another link is in the sheet) is the Caelondian goddess of pain in pleasure originating from the 2011 video game Bastion. There's not a whole lot of information about her, or any member of the Pantheon for that matter, but I feel that what is there is ripe enough for a character to spring from.
Yeah... no, you can't use a goddess from a game. I'm not the GM, but it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP, and I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so...
Let's hear it for finished/reworked/excessively spoilered sheets!
Name: Faith (Real Name: Helen McAvore)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Parent God: Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense], the goddess of pain and pleasure
Appearance: The first things you'll notice upon looking at Faith are her scars. She has a lot of scars. They cover every inch of her otherwise striking self, crisscrossing in no particular manner or pattern. The scars themselves vary quite a bit, as well. Some are cuts and others burns, and some are large with others small. They even differ in intent, as Faith at times willingly scarred herself while other scars are the result of some trauma forced upon her. If it were possible to look under the scars and to the person, then one would see a rather conventionally attractive young woman with bold crimson hair, a gently angular visage and blood-red eyes that can stare straight through yours and peer upon your soul.
Moving on to artificial adornments, Faith's wardrobe primarily contains clothing that fits her loosely as she's not a fan of tight or restrictive clothing. Other than that, Faith doesn't have much of a typical outfit or color to fall back on. As a result, she's accumulated an interesting collection of clothes over time and she takes advantage of that.
Although she avoids traditional armaments due to hubris and practicality, Faith has over time honed her fingernails into points and sharpened them. Not to the point where she could draw blood while scratching an itch, but if she gets a hold on exposed skin (human-level thickness skin, anyways) Faith will draw blood if she wants to.
Her two more notable possessions that she carries around with her are a stuffed bull she gave to her father, then it found its way back to her after her father's death. The second is a set of ten idols from her mother, so that Faith may never forget where she came from.
Personality: Faith is a woman who wears many metaphorical hats. Off the top of her head, Faith can recall times when she's been coy, aggressive, honest, a virgin, shy, passive, masochistic, flirtatious, austere, nymphomanical, manipulative, abusive, hedonistic, sadistic, and so on and so forth; you get the point. At her core, though, Helen is an introvert trapped in the shell of extroversion. At least, that's what she thinks; she's not sure yet. The reason for her uncertainty is mostly trepidation; Faith is afraid of what she'll see when she stares into the mirror too hard. She has spent so much time as different identities that she can't remember who she was in the first place.
Power: Faith manipulates people's senses with regards to pain and pleasure. She can induce levels of pleasure high enough to cause insanity (theoretically, she has yet to test this) as well as minimize someone's pain to the point where it's barely noticeable, and vice-versa. Naturally, she can sense these emotions in the beings around her and in herself. While this power becomes more formidable the more you think about it, it isn't without restrictions: First, the fine control she has over someone's pain/pleasure (P/P) correlates directly with how involved Faith was in that P/P. For example, here are three situations where Faith can manipulate pain, and the order of her control over the pain in that situation: 'someone next to Faith is randomly injured' < 'Faith orders someone to be hurt' < 'Faith wounds someone herself'. Second, Faith is limited to manipulating P/P only and she can't turn one kind of P/P into another (she can't make someone who just went through a bad breakup feel like they were shot, nor can she make a person who just accomplished something difficult feel like they just had an orgasm). Third, Faith cannot generate P/P in her targets from nothing nor remove it completely; the person must already be experiencing some kind of P/P for Faith to be able to use her power.
Minor Attributes:
1) Self Defense: Her father forced her to take some self-defense/martial arts classes when she was younger and despite her distaste for them, the basics stuck with her. When she started to get more familiar with her power and incidentally be exposed more often to dangerous situations, she adapted what she remembered to mesh better with her power. This resulted in a "style" that is based around injury avoidance and quick contact, as the slightest nick gives Faith a chance to incapacitate her opponent with pain.
2)People Skills: While her heritage grants her good control over pain/pleasure, she still needs to be able to take an inch before she can run off with a mile. With this in mind, Faith learned the best ways to elicit pain/pleasure in others. She can cause either with a touch, and Faith taught herself ways to incite the desired responses with verbal means. This doesn't make her a master social manipulator by any means because she doesn't have the head for that level of coordination, but it makes tricking and duping small groups or individuals easier.
3) Faith is a classically trained pianist.
History: The father of Helen McAvore was named Danny, and her mother Hense. As to be expected of most divine-mortal relations Hense didn't stick around for long, leaving Danny with a "Little Rose" he valued more than gold. Unfortunately Danny McAvore isn't the best parent imaginable, at least on his own. To his credit, though, he loved Helen dearly and performed the absolute best he could as a father; in this case that just wasn't enough. He was too rough at times, his finances were sub-optimal, and Helen just needed a female influence at times (Danny couldn't bring himself to get back in the dating scene or remarry; his time with Hense just left too big a hole in his heart). Danny always raised Helen to be an agnostic and to always question, analyze, and criticize religious statements no matter if they were theist or atheist.
Helen's powers began to manifest when she was sixteen and in high school. She kept the use of her power subtle for the most part as she discovered her abilities and limits and played around with the possibilities. Once she had a good idea of what she could do, she began to experiment. Not with her powers, she was done with that at this point, but with pain and pleasure in general. Naturally, what she did garnered her a reputation as freaky and more than a little wild, but Helen never let things get too out of hand, as she didn't want to add more stress on her father, who learned of his lung cancer when Helen was 17. Helen graduated high school with grades floating in the 'B's and no particular drive. She attended a local community college instead of moving out so that she could stay with and help her father, but her wanton semi-hedonism continued like it did in high school with little differences. Her father's cancer, though, continued to escalate.
At the age of nineteen, Helen McAvore sat on the deathbed of her father, Danny. This wasn't a shock to anyone, and Helen was well prepared for this. She sat by Danny's side in his final moments, comforting him, when he spoke up; he had something to tell her. Like any dutiful daughter, Helen sat and listened as her father poured forth confessions and explained everything he kept bottled up since she was born. Danny told her about her mother, a goddess named Hense, who lived up in the sky and governed the pain and pleasure of this world. He confessed his anxieties over raising her and the doubts in his parenting. He revealed why he called her his "little rose", because she was quite literally the best part of his life, yet he was aware he couldn't be the father she deserved. He even explained the little things Helen had forgotten about, such as why he raised her to be an agnostic and why he formed at the stuffed bull she once gave to him for his birthday. As Danny finished, Helen reached out and hugged him as tight as he could, forgiving him in his final moments. As she let go of her father, a knock resounded from the door to the hospital room. Danny smiled and asked Helen to leave, ready for what was to come. Helen opened the door and walked out, only to find no one else there. Nonetheless, she respected her father's wishes and waited outside in one of the chairs there.
Ten minutes passed, and Helen remained outside, coming to grips with what she had just learned. The door to her father's room opened beside her, and it walked a strange woman. She wrote a black dress of mourning with a matching veil that contrasted with her face and eyes, which contained joy. She asked permission to sit next to a confused Helen, who reluctantly granted it. The two sat quietly grieving for several minutes until Helen broke the silence with a question: "Just who the fuck are you anyways?". With the slightest smirk, the Veiled Widow asked a question back: "Is that the mouth you kiss your mother with?". Unable to muster a reply, Helen leaned over and gave her mother a hug, something she had been waiting nineteen years to do. For the next several hours, all Helen and Hense did was talk to another. Hense answered many of the questions Danny had left unanswered while Helen had a chance to talk about her life and her identity to someone who could finally understand her completely. When the two came to the end of their discussion, Helen remarked that so much had changed for her in a single day that she didn't know where to go anymore. In response, Hense handed Faith a bag of ten idols, reminding her that "No matter who you become, you must never forget where you came from."
After the death of her father and conversation with her mother, Helen decided to finish her associate's degree she was working on and started introducing herself as "Faith" to the people she meets. When she got her degree she began to roam the country, working small and odd jobs to support herself, as she never stayed in the same place for too long. When Faith is "recruited" to go save the world, she accepts the offer fairly quickly. If asked why, she would reply with something along the lines of "How many people can claim that they helped save the world?".
Green Shoes said:
The character looks fine, but it is very similar to two characters already present. Also, who is Hense? Can't find anything on that deity.
I disagree with your claims of similarity, even though you have yet to tell me whose toes I'm stepping on, if the offended were part of the original crew or new recruits, or even if the infringing is in terms of powers or personality. I'm going to make two assumptions right now (correct me if I'm wrong): You are saying Faith is similar to Etna and Aria, and that you are talking about powers instead of personalities. I disagree because Aria is only capable of making (more) babies happen and cheerleading, and while Etna's power is worded ambiguously, I believe she can can generate any emotion, there's nothing that says she can reduce emotions, she works better with crowds, and her power takes time to grow in effect; also Faith's power is more combat-suited than either of the others. For the record, I did mostly rewrite the Power section, but the concept remained the same and all I did was define it better.
Hense [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Hense] (another link is in the sheet) is the Caelondian goddess of pain in pleasure originating from the 2011 video game Bastion. There's not a whole lot of information about her, or any member of the Pantheon for that matter, but I feel that what is there is ripe enough for a character to spring from.
Yeah... no, you can't use a goddess from a game. I'm not the GM, but it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP, and I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so...
Yeah... no, you can't use a goddess from a game. I'm not the GM, but it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP, and I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so...
Thank you for your helpful comments and criticisms regarding my character sheet.
Issue #1: "it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP"
What is the "theme" of the RP, exactly? I'm not well-acquainted with the RP, for obvious reasons, but based on the OP of this thread the game takes place in "a world inhabited by Gods, Goddesses, creatures and spirits, and everything in between". Hense is a goddess. What's the problem?
Issue #2: "I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so..."
... he actually didn't [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/540.406322.16917211]. To summarize that link: it takes place on the original thread where I brought up in jest the idea of writing up a child from the Bastion Pantheon. You express your doubts and the topic is never brought up by anyone else ever, not even GShoes.
Counterpoint: Nowhere does it explicitly state which deities or pantheons players must draw from. Referencing atypical deities as parents of a character is encouraged, even ("Obscure is always good!"). The OP here even says "The story follows the children of several deities from a variety of cultures; Greek, Nordic, Roman, Persian; though your character is most certainly not limited to common [p]antheons". If there was a statement somewhere along the lines of "Players are only allowed to draw from religions followed by cultures on Earth." then I would have followed it and we would be just dandy. This is mainly directed at GShoes, but please don't add that rule to the OP and then ban Faith; ex post facto rulings are for scrubs. Don't be a scrub.
Your character is mostly similar to Etna. This is an excerpt from her character sheet.
"With crowds, it is easier as the will is disturbed and diluted. Additionally, If there are any underlying emotions that match the one that Etna wishes to fiddle with, it is simply a case of bringing them to the surface."
This is your claim.
"there's nothing that says she can reduce emotions, she works better with crowds, and her power takes time to grow in effect;"
Etna is able to create and manipulate emotions. You claim that you only work with what is present, yet it states in your sheet.
"People Skills: While her heritage grants her good control over pain/pleasure, she still needs to be able to take an inch before she can run off with a mile. With this in mind, Faith learned the best ways to elicit pain/pleasure in others. She can cause either with a touch, and Faith taught herself ways to incite the desired responses with verbal means. This doesn't make her a master social manipulator by any means because she doesn't have the head for that level of coordination, but it makes tricking and duping small groups or individuals easier."
Setting aside the fact that the God you have chosen does not come from an established culture, the problems that come forthwith make it difficult to place in the setting. There is little to no literature and mythology surrounding the deity, making it difficult to both portray and derive powers from. As it comes from a video game, the only encounter we could have is in reference to that, which does not fit the somewhat serious theme of the RP; a theme while, not detailed in the post, does factor into my personal preference as the GM. I don't plan on adding that as a rule; the problems that stem from a video-game God can be applied to any other;
I only reply in such detail because you seem to be looking for answers where you have only found vague posts. Hope this helps.
Yeah... no, you can't use a goddess from a game. I'm not the GM, but it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP, and I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so...
Thank you for your helpful comments and criticisms regarding my character sheet.
Issue #1: "it obviously wouldn't fit the theme of the RP"
What is the "theme" of the RP, exactly? I'm not well-acquainted with the RP, for obvious reasons, but based on the OP of this thread the game takes place in "a world inhabited by Gods, Goddesses, creatures and spirits, and everything in between". Hense is a goddess. What's the problem?
Issue #2: "I'm very sure the GM actually said no to a bastion goddess in the first recruitment thread, so..."
... he actually didn't [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/540.406322.16917211]. To summarize that link: it takes place on the original thread where I brought up in jest the idea of writing up a child from the Bastion Pantheon. You express your doubts and the topic is never brought up by anyone else ever, not even GShoes.
Counterpoint: Nowhere does it explicitly state which deities or pantheons players must draw from. Referencing atypical deities as parents of a character is encouraged, even ("Obscure is always good!"). The OP here even says "The story follows the children of several deities from a variety of cultures; Greek, Nordic, Roman, Persian; though your character is most certainly not limited to common [p]antheons". If there was a statement somewhere along the lines of "Players are only allowed to draw from religions followed by cultures on Earth." then I would have followed it and we would be just dandy. This is mainly directed at GShoes, but please don't add that rule to the OP and then ban Faith; ex post facto rulings are for scrubs. Don't be a scrub.
Hm... yes, it was a Lovecraftian god, a Bastion god was just mentioned. It's much the same, although Lovecraft is a lot more established and older, so if any of the two were to be accepted, that'd be the first one, I believe. But yeah, you're right, it wasn't outright rejected back then, I seem to have mixed the two. Apologies.
Also, a quick question, if a character isn't all that fluent in English, will they still be understood by the others (as in, they all appear to be speaking the same language). Just checking.
Sexual Orientation: Lesbian (Though she's never had a long-term relationship)
Parent God: Kali: Goddess of Time, Change, and Destruction
Appearance: Alicia's olive skin, brown eyes and dark brown hair mark her as having a distinctly East Indian heritage, though at about 5'7" she's a fair bit taller, and her thinner face speaks of a mixed ancestry. Some would consider her attractive...if she gave the slightest thought to it, but between her line of work, and her general 'tom boyishness' that's not happening any time soon. Physically she's trim and fit, but no sculpted muscles or anything. Her clothing tends to lean towards the practical; cargo pants, a good set of broken in boots, plain shirts...stuff like that. The only piece of jewellery she owns is a gold pendant with the tantra of Kali on it.
Generally she has a military surplus duffle bag with her containing clothes, a notebook or two, her camera, four sheathed talwar bound together, and various odds and ends.
Personality: Quiet by nature, Alicia is none the less a friendly and cheerful person. More than a bit of a tom boy, she's happiest outdoors exploring, taking photos and generally getting some dirt under her fingernails. She can be quick to anger at times, and once roused can be difficult to calm down until the offending party has been conclusively dealt with.
Power: [Avatar of Kali] As the Avatar of Kali, she undergoes a significant change. A whorl of fire surrounds her, blocking her from sight for a moment. When she emerges, she appears as the personification of her mother. While her height is unchanged, her skin is now a deep cobalt blue, her eyes are ruby red, her tongue is now long and pointed, generally lolling from her mouth, and she has a second set of arms. Her clothing also changes, though unlike her mother, she forgoes the severed limbs. Whatever she was wearing is replaced by a loose sari silk skirt that comes to about mid-thigh, and nothing else. Fortunately her previous attire seems to remain unharmed, and returns to her when she regains her human form.
In her hands she fights with the four talwar swords, a gift from her birth mother. Against purely mortal foes, her blades will pierce most anything outside of military grade vehicle armour; but against 'divine' armours, her weapons are no more effective than their mortal equivalent.
Talwar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talwar]
While her mother can manipulate time itself, she has to make do with altering time in her immediate area. Against a foe, she can warp time around her, letting her move at fantastic speeds, and strike before her enemy realizes she's moved. While this is very effective against mortals at close range, she cannot press the ability beyond a hundred meters at best, and has less affect on demigods...even more so if their divine parent can control time as well.
As befitting a demigoddess, most mortal weapons have little to no affect on her while she's transformed, though anti-armour weapons and up do give her some issues. Against a divine opponent she needs to be very careful, due to her total lack of armour.
While she's never discovered an upper limit to how long she can stay transformed, the longer she does, the more it fatigues her when she returns to normal. While being able to remain as an Avatar might seem great, a mostly naked, and four armed blue woman isn't exactly subtle; as well, she's much more impulsive while transformed, leading her to act on thoughts that might better be kept to herself.
Minor Attributes Ever Ready: Between her own outdoorsy upbringing, and possibly some help from her parentage, she has an impressive level of endurance that allows her to keep moving (and/or fighting for a long time).
Shutter Bug: A photographer's eye means she can be very good at picking out detail that others might miss.
Just a scratch: A boon of being a demigoddess is greatly improved vitality. While, as a normal woman, traumatic injuries are still a threat, the increased vitality means she never gets sick, or deal with the minor aches, pains, and other small annoyances that plague most of us.
History: Alicia was born somewhere in the Punjab region, though at the time nothing else was known about her as she was left at the door of an orphanage while still an infant. She lived there for a few months, until through a rather convoluted path, she was adopted by a young Canadian couple (She now suspects her birth mother had a hand in all that). She was then brought to Canada, and grew up on the West Coast, in the city of Vancouver. Her childhood was pretty standard, yes she knew from an early age she was adopted, but that was of little consequence. She loved being outdoors with her parents, going on hikes in the summer, skiing in the winter, and generally being a normal, if somewhat grubby, little girl. On her tenth birthday she was giving an old camera by her grandpa, and immediately fell in love with photography.
Just after her fifteenth birthday, her parent surprised her with the announcement that they were going on a trip to India. Alicia was excited, not only to see the country that she'd been born in, but because of the pictures she'd seen of the area; she wanted to take beautiful photos of her own. The trip there was long and relatively uneventful, but by the time they got to the hotel, even Alicia was beat. What caused her to awake, she still doesn't know, but at some point she awoke to find a four armed, dark skinned figure standing at the foot of her bed.
Now anybody else would've been shocked, to say the least, at such a sight, but Alicia knew at once that that was her birth mother. Now whether they were together for a minute or a thousand years, or if they spoke a million words in a million tongues or said nothing, she can't say; all she knows is that she woke in the morning knowing who and what she was, and that there were four swords laying beside her on the bed. Oddly enough then, as now, neither her parent nor anybody else ever seemed to be aware of the swords.
The rest of the trip went fantastically; she'd explore the land of her birth during the day, taking photos of anything that caught her eye, and by night she'd slip from the hotel to some quite spot and practice her new found gift. More often than not during the trip Alicia would be visited by her birth mother, sharing a million years in a second, talking without speaking. On her last night in India, Kali gave her the gold pendant before she left.
The next ten years were a bit of a blur. She threw herself into her photography even more, developing a reputation as a talented and fearless adventure photographer, especially for one so young, she 'came out' and had to deal with some backlash but was stronger, emotionally, for it. Add to that, graduating, moving out, and getting her first real photography gig left her with little time for a serious personal life.
Nowadays she travels the world as an independent photographer, selling her pictures to Reuters, the Associated Press, National Geographic, or anybody else who is interested. Most likely as a side effect of being the daughter of Kali, Alicia often finds herself drawn to areas of conflict.
Appearance:Standing at a height of 6?5? and with a muscular build, Jonathan has the body of a warrior. He has green eyes and black hair which he keeps in a warhawk style of haircut and has pale coloured skin due to his Irish descent. At nearly all points of the day or night, Jonathan has an angry look plastered across his face. This look is mainly due to either his uncontrolled anger or his dissatisfaction at the lack of violence in his present situation. Jonathan usually wears pair of cameo trousers, boots and a black T-shirt with an image of a white skull on it. He also regular wraps his fists in bandages to protect them as he almost constantly uses them when he is in a fight.
Personality: An incredible angry and physical individual, Jonathan prefers to solve his problems with violence rather than words, something which stems from his severe anger issues. A strong willed man; he rarely backs down from any situation or changes his mind unless it is clearly obvious that he is lost. Honest to the point of brutality, Jonathan has a strong sense of honour despite his heavy use of violence and will always try to up keep it, in whatever situation he finds himself in.
Power:Battle fury: When Jonathan is in the heat of battle his physical and combat abilities are greatly increased by his inherited ability; he gains almost super natural strength and toughness, which allow him to deal heavy damage to any opponent and allow him to shrug off all but the most devastating of injuries.
Minor Attributes:
1. Martial arts ? In an attempt to better use and control his anger, Jonathan has studied and became familiar in a range of martial arts, his main three being Taekwondo, Kickboxing and Pankration. This large bank of self-defence knowledge gives him the ability to combat and defeat a wide range of opponents.
2. Strong ? Born with a powerful physique. Jonathon is able to secure victory over any opponent, in matters of strength even without the gifts of his mother.
3. Baking ? Jonathan gained this unlikely skill in an attempt by his councillor to help him better control his anger. It didn?t work, but Jonathan discovered that he was quiet talented in the baking arts and he even became quite well known for his delicious bread, much to his dismay as he would rather have people know him for his fighting abilities.
History:
Orphaned at a very young age, Jonathan grew up without properly knowing much about his parents. His mother mysteriously disappeared, leaving her new-born son to his fate and he knew nothing of his father. Taking in by the Catholic Church and raised by a group of nuns who ran a local orphanage, Jonathan with his great strength and seemingly limitless rage was responsible for much of the grief that the Nuns experienced during his seventeen years of living within the orphanage.
Broking chairs and echoes of rage through the halls of the orphanage were all common events with Jonathan and despite the Nuns best attempts at trying to punish him or make him see the error of his ways, nothing worked effectively on the young berserker. So instead they used the old methods of denying him food if he misbehaved and forcing him to write out scriptures. These in some aspects worked, as the fear of going hungry and having sore wrists forced him to tone down his rage, although only for a while. Jonathan?s relationship with the other children in the orphanage was a difficult affair as his behaviour and violent tendencies forced many of them to stay out of his way or shun him. He was never really bothered by his forced isolation; however these events made Jonathan realise that he had little control over his anger and to an extent it actually controlled him. So to try and bring some order to his anger issues he enrolled in a local Taekwondo class as hoped that discipline taught within the martial art might help him better control his anger.
From an early stage it was quiet clear that Jonathan had great promise, as his natural strength and the speed of which he picked up the different patterns and techniques amazed his instructors. As he got older his skills increased and with them so did his control over his anger, although only to the extent were he didn?t lass out at someone who gave him a strange look. But despite this minor change in his behaviour, most people noticed an improvement in him and even the kids within the orphanage began to become friendlier with him, even if it was from a safe distance.
With his high level of skill it wasn?t long before Jonathan had achieved his black belt in Taekwondo, but despite this he was still unsatisfied that he had learnt enough and within a few days he had begun enrolling in any marital arts classes he could find. Karate, Ju-jitsu and Kung-fu were just a few of the many other martial arts that he practiced and it wasn?t long before his understanding of different fighting techniques was nearly on the same level with any great martial art master. He fought in many competitions all across Ireland and the United Kingdom and in all he came out on top, his fury and skill leading him onto defeating the best that these countries had to offer.
When he turned seventeen, Jonathan took the decision to leave the orphanage. Packing a bag of supplies, Jonathan left in the middle of the night and made his way towards Dublin in the hopes of boarding a boat to Europe. His aim to learn every martial art there was so that he could become one of the greatest fighter who ever lived.
He mainly stuck to the backtracks preferring to walk rather than use public transport as he never really liked or could afford to ride the bus to his destination. Highway through his journey, Jonathan met a women dressed in what appeared to be ancient armour blocking his way over a bridge. At first he asked the women as politely if he could get by, but she flatly refused anger quiet clearly obvious in her tone. He then asked her a second time, his rage barely concealed if he could get by, once again she refused. The third time Jonathan?s rage exploded and he shouted a rather creative insult to the women which went along the lines of;
?Get out of my way you old bat, or I?ll kick your old wrinkly ass of this bridge. Just because you?re on the rag doesn?t mean you should bloke bridges on people shit-****?.
Obviously the woman was not happy by this statement and in response she too exploded with anger, throwing an insult back at him. This short sparring match of slanders continued for around five minutes, and was only ended when the women offered a challenge to Jonathan; declaring that if he could remove her from his path then he could cross the bridge. Obviously Jonathan nearly consumed with rage accepted the challenge and immediately jumped into action, confident that his strengths and fighting skills would easily sweep her aside. He was wrong, painfully wrong and despite his fast attacks, she simple dodged them showing no signs of difficulty and back fisted him to the face knocking him out cold. Jonathan awoke a few hours later in a cabin hiding deep within the woods with the women watching over him. When he saw this unfamiliar site, he let out something between a scream and a cry of anger as he was certain that she wanted to either kill him?or have her way with him.
Needless to say he was wrong on both assumptions and actual the woman was Nemain, a Gaelic goddess of war and his own mother. At first Jonathan found it hard to believe and even causally remarked that he couldn?t be her son as he was too good looking. This comment earned him a quick slap, but as Nemain further explained it begun to make more sense to Jonathan and eventually after several hours of debate he finally accepted her as his mother. Jonathan stayed with his mother in the forest for about week and during that time he learnt more about his mother and how to better control his power. He also learnt that his father who was a mercenary had been killed in Africa before he was born and his mother had abandoned him as a baby, due to her desires for him to grow independent without the aid of other people. This was quiet hard for Jonathan to take, but he learnt to accept it and when he was ready he left the company of his mother and continued on his way, evermore desired to achieve his ultimate goal.
Arriving in Europe from Dublin, Jonathan spent three years travelling from country to country learning all that there was to know about the nation?s way of self-defence or war. As he travelled, he grew strong becoming more reliant on himself and further developing his fighting abilities. Whenever he needed money or food he fought; in boxing rings, arenas or underground fight clubs it didn't matter. In almost every fight he won, and with ever victory his reputation grew. He was offered many jobs by men who needed his talents, but he turned them all down, as he still had a goal to reach and the road to achieving it would be long.
While studying the ancient fighting method of Pankration in Greece, Jonathan became aware of the ritual killings that were beginning to crop up around the country and the rest of Europe. He didn't really think much of it, as to him it was just a bunch of Hippies smoking some really strong shit?or maybe it was shit...who really knows with Hippies involved.
Finished character sheet. Comments, criticisms etc. all welcome
I find this undeniable. My claim about her not being able to reduce emotions is a result of me being nitpicky, tired, and/or stupid. When I was talking about how Etna and Faith are different from each other, I was for the most part about the powers they have as a result of divine heritage. The whole "People Skills" section of the sheet are mundane abilities Faith possesses, which she had to learn; they weren't natural.
I still maintain that Etna and Faith are substantially different from each other with regards to their powers, abilities, and skills; I shouldn't have to argue for personality and history. I have two primary reasons for saying this. The first is that Etna has control over each and every of the target's emotions, whereas Faith holds domain over only pain and pleasure (even then, arguments can be made that P&P are not emotions but biological responses, however I'm getting off-topic and semantical at this point). The second major difference is that Etna's control is over the moment someone realizes she is manipulating them (Terra, please correct me if I'm wrong as I'm not entirely sure what Etna's powers are because of how the description is worded). This can be contrasted with Faith's power, where the awareness of the target affects nothing; the only relevant factors are how involved Faith was with said stimulation and whether or not P/P was there in the first place. Another difference is that Faith's power grants her a rather horrific edge in combat, whereas Etna's emotional manipulation doesn't seem like much help when she's being chased with pointy sticks.
It's completely possible you meant "real-world culture" in which case sorry for the tangent, but the two big cultures of Bastion, the Caelondians and the Ura, are defined and described pretty well. You sound like you haven't played the game and if that's the case, then I could send you a Humble Bundle link for you to download it from. It's fairly short; you can beat it in an afternoon or two, and it's a pretty awesome game in its own right as well.
Green Shoes said:
There is little to no literature and mythology surrounding the deity, making it difficult to both portray and derive powers from.
This both kinda true and kinda not. Yes, there are only three lines in the game that specifically refer to Hense. However, given the common themes of the other deities and Caelondian/Uran piety in general, we can make draw several conclusions to flesh them out a bit more. First, 7/10ths of the deities are based around opposing concepts, i.e. Oath and Abandon, Order and Commotion, and Pain and Pleasure [Source [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/Gods]]. Second, the deities either have some sort of cosmic purpose to fill (Acobi, Hense, Micia, Yudrig) or serve to teach or remind people of certain things (Garmuth, Jevel, Lemaign, Roathus) [Source [http://bastion.wikia.com/wiki/History_Books]]. Sure, none of these really equate well to "god/goddess gets wasted and has a bunch of mortal babies", but I believe semi-divine offspring from these beings are possible without compromising the "canon" of this particular religion.
Green Shoes said:
As it comes from a video game, the only encounter we could have is in reference to that, which does not fit the somewhat serious theme of the RP
This part doesn't make much sense to me. Are you trying to say that the only way to incorporate a fictional pantheon from a video game into this RP is to have some sort of Max Payne-esque "You are in a video game" sequence in said RP? Why can't you just do what I did and have the Pantheon be worshiped by people in our otherwise contemporary world? I stated in the sheet that Faith carries with her an idol of each member of the Pantheon and worships them, but you don't seem to have a problem with that.
You really aren't paying attention to what he's saying. In the WORLD box of the OP, it clearly states it is in a world identical to ours, and that you are not limited to the common Pantheons. But exactly where in "our" REAL world, have people worshiped the Bastion gods? Honestly, if you actually took some time to look around, you'd probably find someone that is either close to, or right on, what you want to do with this god.
So quit complaining about him not accepting a god whose name is like 2 years old, and is not ancient, or even medieval, era origins. Sorry if I offended anyone, but if you really want to be a part of this rp, I think you're going to have to do more research than what you've offered so far.
But I'm not the gm or even connected to anyone in charge of this game, so take my words with a grain of salt, or whatever the new expression is.
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