SB in Dragon Pass [Empire Builder]

SB, the future Kings Of Dragon Pass (Empire Builder)

The setting:
Glorantha, where Dragon Pass is located, is basically your mostly generic fantasy world. Ghouls and skeletons, dragonewts, trolls, humanoid ducks (Donald would be right at home), spirits and of course dwarves, elves and men. Cow is the standard high unit of currency among clans, though precious metals like silver is used as well. Keeping the gods and ancestral spirits happy is of prime importance, fair amount of people are illiterate, a form of caste system exists, clans go raiding one another etc. Leather, metal and scale armor, horseback riding, swords and bows and so forth. Though stories of a strange dwarven metal called Steel and mystical Firepowder that explodes, at times circulate among the human population despite the dwarf's isolationism and jealous guarding of secrets.

Magic is both fairly commonplace (almost everyone knows a spell or two) but at the same time mostly of the subtler kind: rituals for crop growth, to protect a home from disease spirits, cantrip-level healing spells, divine blessings, laying a temporary curse of bad luck etc. It is mostly cast by contracting or compelling spirit entities, or using tools such as runestones. Dedicated practicioners of magics (and/or divine mysteries) have a chance to do more some slightly more powerful overt magics, like harnessing the power of flight or causing the earth to burst open beneath an enemy warrior in a shower of stone and blood every now and then.

Large ritual sacrificies to deities, or re-enacting their myths and stories from ages past, can bring greater powers to bear or even recover mythical artefacts during such heroquests, but in turn carry their own price either in wealth or risk, tend to fail as often as they succeed, and are clan-wide endeavours. At times, several clans might collaborate on performing a single quest, usually in hopes of the extra assistance giving greater chances of the hero succeeding in bringing an end to unnatural weather plaquing several clans or curing a disease affecting entire herds of cattle.

Anyway, Dragon Pass is a distant corner of Glorantha. It is a largely unexplored and untamed mountaneous area, recently settled by Orlanthian clans looking to escape the wrath of the Pharaoh, the ruler of Flat Lands, who's people have strange customs and stranger gods in their mighty empire. Locals of course are at the Pass already, in the form of previous Orlanthian settlers, bestmen and monsters, and various indignious hazards. Summers are warm, during the winter it is stormy and snows. Travel is consistently possible for war parties, caravans or brave explorers only during three of the five seasons.

Certain liberties with the source material are taken for the purposes of this RP, but I'll try not to stray too far from the original concepts.

Objective:Make your clan succeed in face of major difficulties, unite with others into a tribe and finally, should you survive that long, a true kingdom.

--

IC situation
Your clan arrived from Heortland, near the Flat Lands and the empire there, 19 years ago to Dragon Pass as part of a large migration of over dozen clans. Hoping to find land and fortune, your clan was happy to settle in Dragon Pass.

Years were not kind however. Your few feuds from Heortland continued to the Pass, leading to raiding and death on all sides. A long drought killed several of your- and neighbouring clans' – crops several years in a row. Packs of trolls are a continuing pest and the dead often do not stay dead. Disease spirits settled in to the animals and rodents of the forests, often making your clan farmers and hunters sick as well.

The clan lost several of its elders to failed heroquests attempting in vain to turn the fate of the clan, and to enemy raids looking to benefit from your weakened state.

Your ancestors have not been honored with proper sacrificies, your few shrines and temples to gods lay all but abandoned, your meagre fortifications have been repeatedly overrun and never properly repaired. The forests around your clan are infested with disease spirits, carrion eaters and rodents - hunting is poor. Your traders are having no luck peddling your crafts and your reputation among other clans is in the mud. Your fields are in poor condition, you have almost no horses, your herds of sheep and pig are at an all-time low and you have less cows than you have children. Your weaponthanes, only two surviving of them, are more adept at drinking themselves silly than fighting. Your carls and cottars have a hard time plowing and maintaining sufficient number of fields to crow your crops in. All in all your clan feels like it is doomed, like a man with a bleeding gut wound simply waiting for the inevitable death to assert itself. The clans you are feuding with often kidnap your people and demand ransoms, or simply steal your cattle, and even take liberties in moving your established borders. They feel like their victory over you is about to be made final.

Until a strange god-talker with a strange three letter name of Rob came to your clan hall, and told of a way to survive. Maybe even be recorded into the annals of history and Orlanthi lore as a clan of legend. The clan, undeniably in dire straits, takes the advice.

You are the firstborns of your clan in Dragon Pass, born 19 years ago under auspicious signs with god-talkers saying you were blessed and carried a great destiny. You must, despite your young age, be made the new clan leaders. You show promise in your respective fields of study and craft within the clan, certainly, but your ability to lead the clan is unknown and your wisdom is untested. Feeling like the clan has nothing to lose and hoping to regain even partial favour of your ancestors and gods, they give their oaths to follow your lead, and confirm you as the new Clan Ring.

It is the year 1349, and now your clan looks up to you to perform a series of vertable miracles, and to take prompt action to save the clan.

At this point in time, seven players will be accepted as the the clan council proper, though the peanut gallery is free to comment and give suggestions.

This is not first-come first served. Put a modicum of effort to your application. Decision regarding those to be accepted as primary players will be made only after 24h, from this post, to ensure people with interest regardless of timezones have an equal chance of participation.

Updates once the game starts are at this time expected to happen once every day or two, depending of course on the players and IC situations.

Those who wish to join, post your interest along with at least the following information:

1. Character name IC
2. Your character's primary deity in Storm Tribe pantheon (select 1):
   • Orlanth, the King Of Gods, the Chief Lightbringer, the Storm King.
   • Elmal, the Guardian, the Loyal Thane, Sun God.
   • Urox, the Storm Bull, The Berserker, the Chaos Smiter.
   • Humakt, the Foe of Undead, God of War and Death.
   • Issaries, the Talking, God of Trade, Conciliation and Travel.
   • Lhankor Mhy, the Lawspeaker, God of Writing and Knowledge.
   • Odayla, the Bear Friend, God of Hunting.
   • Chalana Arroy, the Merciful, Goddess of Healing and Life. (Warning: Followers are sworn to personal non-violence regarding all life: may not participate in combat or practise offensive magic)
   • Ernalda, the Earth Queen, Goddess of Crops and Harvest, Wife Of Orlanth.
   There are other gods of course, from major and minor deities to the powerful darker aspects of life (much less other pantheon Tribes), but as you are (at least, in the beginning) clan leaders of proper Orlanthi and followers of Storm Tribe pantheon, so one of the above is a suitable selection for now.
3. Your primary specialization / major skill (select 1)
   • Traditions, laws and customs of Orlanthi people (Must be chosen as primary by followers of Lhankor Mhy)
   • Deities of Strom Tribe and their myths
   • Rune magic
   • Spirit Lore and shamanism
   • Plant Lore and farming
   • Animal Lore and -care
   • Bargaining
   • Combat (choose melee or ranged) (May not be chosen at all by worshippers of Chalana Arroy)
   • Leadership
   • Craftsmanship
   • Healing (Must be chosen as primary by followers of Chalana Arroy)
4. Your secondary specialization / minor skill (select 1, from same list as above, may be the same as primary skill for additional talent in the subject)
5. Character Flaw (such as physical disability, slow in the head, an obession, known liar, supremely ugly, becomes sick easily, afraid of crowds, etc. You get the idea.)
6. Short visual description, and freeform fleshing out of the character.

Current players:
1.Berzerker (Garran Kaldwell, Humakti fighter)
2.Brain_Caster (Hadran Orlafson, Chalana Arroy healer)
3.Vizzi (Ortossi, Orlanth magic-user and chaos hater)
4.Darkandus (Ulf Hreda, Uroxi fighter)
5.AceRaptor (Kevmoln Milner, Orlanth crafter)
6.HecateGW(Astrid Hjortsdottir, Ernalda plant- and animal carer)
7.DIT_grue (Tolar Gunnarson, Issaries trader)
8.Lilithium (Erina, Lhankor Mhyian Lawspeaker)

Wait List / Reserve Spots:
1.Necron_Lord
2.Dxnatta
3.

I find myself disappointed that Eurmal isn't an option. You gotta have a Trickster on the council, you know; it's good luck.

But I'm interested regardless. Character sheet will be up tonight.

Definitely interested. Details shall follow.

I considered that for a while, and then decided it would both force and allow too random acts on parts of the Eurmal-worshipping players without deeper consequences.

Your clan does have an NPC Eurmal worshipper though, and I fully expect the players will be throughouly pissed off at him within a matter of years

Oh, and the actual details of the clan will be decided by the chosen players, much in the same manner the computer game did your clan history. Setting your traditions and such to suit your preferences. But that's for later.

Name: Ortossi

Primary deity: Orlanth

Primary specialization: Rune magic
Additional specialization: Leadership

Character Flaw(s):Obsessed with destroying Chaos

Appearance: Tall, black hair and full beard, rugged face with a strong jaw and several scars, piercing blue eyes.

Personal history: He grew to hate Chaos upon the death of his family by the hands of its agents, he scoured and searched, leading groups of men and fighting to destroy it using the tricks he learned with Rune Magic. He grew restless and rejoined his clan. His skills learned soon enabled him to rise to the ranks of his clan.

Ah, I remember when my Trickster cultist gave away more than a hundred cows to a clan I was feuding with because "They looked funny".

I threw him off the council for that. Good times.

Also, out of curiosity; have you played RuneQuest, or just the Dragon Pass PC game?

Heh seems like this will be fun. Id like to play.

I have played RuneQuest, though this has been some time ago. I do have a friend with several of the latest edition books, though haven't really looked into them too much.

Might have to do so at some point.

I'd like to play as well, though I know practically nothing about this.

.....

Wiki away!

• Character name IC

Ulf Hreda

• Your character's primary deity in Storm Tribe pantheon (select 1):
  • Urox, the Storm Bull, The Berserker, the Chaos Smiter.
• Your primary specialization / major skill
  • Combat (melee)
• Your secondary specialization / minor skill
  Combat (melee)
• Character Flaw Pathological Liar
• Short visual description, and freeform fleshing out of the character.

Ulf is a giant of a man, standing head and shoulder above most of the tribe. He is heavily muscled and deceptively fast, all who know him must admit he is a mighty warrior who they can trust to fight viciously and brutally. Unfortunately, this is all they can trust him with. When he was a child, like most children he created fantasies while playing, worlds and deeds of wonder. Unlike the other children though he never grew out of it and it spread to every facet of his life. Even now it is hard to tell if he genuinely believes the clearly false things he says on a regular basis, or if he is simply incapable of telling the truth about anything.

This makes him rather popular with the children, who enjoy his impossible stories of heroism and bravery, but annoys the other adults of the tribe who have to interpret everything he says to discern the truth. Usually being better served asking someone who was with him for the truth of the matter. As he has grown he has become more taciturn, seemingly becoming frustrated with being known as a liar and keeping his mouth shut most of the time.

These things are true of him however. He has long black hair, braided carefully. A short, well groomed beard. He stands at 6'6". He is impressively muscled, and he dresses well, taking care of his appearance. He is also brutally efficient with most melee weapons.

Despite his failings he does genuinely seem to love his clan and want it to prosper.

Name: Hadran Orlafson

Primary deity: Chalana Arroy

Primary specialization: Healing
Additional specialization: Healing

Character Flaw(s): Squeamish with regards to physical violence (this does not imply that he's a pacifist philosophically). Poor eyesight.

Appearance: Medium height, brown hair and short beard, relatively handsome but not exceptionally so.

Personal history: Hadran was never much of a warrior. When he was a child, whenever the other boys' games would grow a little rough, Hadran would quickly retreat. He simply had utterly no talent for warfare or any of the other traditional "manly" pursuits. Even archery, which would have allowed him to fight his fears and foes from afar was not really an option for him due to his bad eyesight. Eventually, he ended up being apprenticed to the clan's healer, where his quick mind proved useful and his physical cowardice wasn't a handicap. Now, at the age of 19, he is finally a fully qualified healer.

1.Character name IC: Kevmoln Milner
2.Your character's primary deity in Storm Tribe pantheon (select 1):
oOrlanth, the King Of Gods, the Chief Lightbringer, the Storm King.
3.Your primary specialization / major skill (select 1)
oCraftsmanship
4.Your secondary specialization / minor skill (select 1,from same list as above, may be the same as primary skill for additional talent in the subject.)
Rune Magic (Enchantments)
1.Character Flaw(such as physical disability, slow in the head, an obession, known liar, supremely ugly, becomes sick easily, afraid of crowds, etc. You get the idea.)
When crafting or smithing, Kevmoln becomes hyper focused on his work and is utterly oblivious to the rest of the world until he’s done. He is also fairly unskilled at combat and wielding weapons like swords.

1.Short visual description, and freeform fleshing out of the character.
Kevmoln is a physically imposing man, though young, his years as a smith and craftsman and all the physical labor they bring, has given him a sturdy body, Despite his age, he is a skilled craftsman, whos equally at home in the work shops or in the forge. He is fairly tall at 1.9 meters in height. When he speaks, he speaks clearly, he does not raise his voice, at least unless something is very important. TBA

Question: Can I use Rune Magic and Craftsmanship to create magical weapons? Say, a hammer with anti-undead properties?

SA's LP of this was hilarious beyond measure. I'll be watching this eagerly.

Finally, someone else who's played the game! As a fan of the old game, though, I have to say; the new Mongoose version mucked it up something awful.

Now then;

Character name - Garran Kaldwell

Your character's primary deity - Humakt, the Foe of Undead, God of War and Death.

Your primary specialization / major skill - Melee Combat

Your secondary specialization / minor skill - Leadership

Character Flaw - Intolerance

Short visual description, and freeform fleshing out of the character;

Garran was born to be a hero, a tall, dark boy full of passion and pride. As a child he was wild and uncontrollable; he learned without ever accumulating wisdom, became strong and brave but somehow failed to learn caution and patience. At the age of fifteen he was already accompanying the warriors, few as they were, on raids; at sixteen he left his kin carrying a sword and little else, loudly declaring that he would strike out and seek his own fortune somewhere away from a clan that was so clearly a failure. He strode out across the fields on a bright day in the middle of Fire Season, saying that perhaps he would return once he had found the glory and wealth that, he was certain, was waiting for him to come and take it.

He returned in the dead of night in mid-Dark of the next year, lacking both wealth and glory, walking up to the stockade with a broken blade in his hands and the scars of desperate battles lacing his starving body. Whatever happened in the seven seasons he was gone, it changed him; he was no longer the rash, arrogant boy who had gone off bragging of the heroic deeds he would do. The Garran who returned was quiet and grim, his fierce intensity turned outwards rather than inwards. He had given himself to the merciless Sword God, body and soul, and his conversion brought with it a self-flagellating discipline that drove him to return to the family he had abandoned and make amends for his previous dishonor. In the year since then Garran has remade his name among the clansmen; while his point-blank refusal to shade or soften what he sees as the truth, no matter how painful it is or who is hurt or insulted, is off-putting to many, his brutally effective swordsmanship has undeniably been of great value in driving off enemy raids, and his strict and straightforward honesty has won him many supporters among the young men of the clan.

while i likely will not participate in this myself, I am looking forward to it and crazy battle-magic shenanigans (throwing a javelin and having it turn into a lightning bolt that you then ride to its target so you can murder them if they survive the lightning bolt is an example of something that happened in the PC game)

That isn't precisely a specific provision of Rune Magic. That is, magic cast primarily by using runestones much the same way wizard of Harry Potter utilize wands.

However, minor and moderate enchantments both permanent and transitory can be arrived at with multitude of ways, from spirit-binding and yes, rune magic. It is also easier to make such enchantments permanent if done while crafting the actual object. There are dedicated Enchanters as its own magical dicipline, thought practically none exist amongst all of the Orlanthian clans in Dragon Pass.

Creation of major magical weapons (+4 or +5 or 'of Slaying' in D&D terms) is flat out thought to be impossible. Such weapons would be Treasures to clans, and if ever found on the world or recovered from the Realm Of Gods, would bring fame and glory and jealousy on the clan owning such. Of course, there is a lot the clans do not know, and proper skill and motivation combined with blessings of deities can accomplish much.

Okay, then I can make weapons with some magic properties then I take it? Like never dulling and etc? Because that will be useful. Will edit my oob tomorrow with more detail and the like.

Yes, though that requires some training and experience in some form of magic, or gaining the favour of gods and then expending it for blessings. Or, if you're not interested in creating a wider range of enchantments, you can select one or two minor ones (pending approval) as magics you've simply learned over the years by cultural assimilation. Much the same way some learn minor healing spells despite never studying magic or being a follower of Chalana Arroy.

Of course, you are not required to do all that by yourself. Having helpers during the process is possible.

The most common form of magic, Spirit magic, takes the form of quick spells, generally ranging in rating from 1 to 5, that require an easy roll and have a temporary effect. It's possible, for instance, to know Bladesharp 5, which essentially turns whatever bladed weapon you happen to be holding into a +5 sword for several minutes at a moderate cost in mana, or Heal 5, which can heal a wound that would otherwise cripple you permanently and stop you from bleeding to death. It's the simplest and most widely-known form of magic, and many people will know a spell or two, because learning Spirit magic basically just requires paying some money and spending a few months learning from your village shaman.

The second form of magic is Rune (or Divine) magic, which comes only from the Gods. In RuneQuest, divine spells don't require a roll; you cast the spell and the effect just automatically happens. Each god has access to different divine spells that devoted followers can learn; for instance, worshippers of Humakt can learn Truesword, which doubles their damage for about two minutes. Doesn't sound impressive in DnD terms, but due to the way armor and damage worked in RuneQuest that basically guaranteed that you would incapacitate an opponent whenever you hit. Worshippers of Elmal can learn Shield, which at high power can give you the mystical equivalent of plate armor over your regular armor, Orlanthi priests can learn Lightning, which does damage to all of the target's hit locations at once and ignored non-magical armor, priests of Ernalda can learn Resurrection, etc. The limiter on Divine magic, though, is that Divine magic requires you to sacrifice points of a stat (POW, RuneQuest's luck and magical energy stat) to acquire it, which you can only regenerate at a rate of one point per year . . . and unless you are a high-ranking priest, the spells are one-use only. That being so, anybody who isn't a priest or a Runelord (high-ranking military and spiritual leader of a cult) generally only knows a few points of divine magic, if that.

There is also sorcery, which is the 'civilized' form of magic. It's a lot more difficult to use than spirit magic and requires a lot of training before it becomes useful, because there are five separate skills involved and they're all important. At the beginning sorcery is pretty weak; the spells take longer to cast than spirit magic, are weaker than divine magic, and have quite a high chance of failure for a beginning character. However, after you've gotten some practice sorcery can be the most powerful of the three types, because you can apply all of the magical skills to the same spell in order to make it stronger, longer-lasting, and/or affect more targets all at the same time. Learning Sorcery requires sacrificing POW, like learning Divine magic, but the spells aren't single-use.

However, it should be noted that Orlanthi like us tend to despise sorcery. It's unholy, offends the spirits, and is generally something that weakling city-dwellers do.

Of course, that's all from the RPG; SakSak may decide that magic works a little differently in his game.

Basically, Berzerker got most of the basics right for this RP. How things are going to work here:

Spirit magic can create permanent effects, primarily by bargaining or compelling a spirit to inhabit something for good/the next century, or by casting a temporary spell with otherwise permanent effects (such as a bad luck spell causing a maiming injury).

High level non-divine spells such as the Bladesharp 5 mentioned are available to true practicioners of Shamanism or Rune Magic only after years and years of study and experience. Basically, equal to D&D 8th or 9th level spells. It takes time and effort to reach that level.

Once you learn a Spirit spell, you know it and can cast it until the day you die. All spirit spells are powered by people's internal 'mana' reserves (usually restored by a good night of sleep), or utilize power from spirits directly as form of mana batteries. Or compel the spirits themselves. This is the most common form of magic found among Orlanthi. Shamans, or people who can cast their consciousness into the nebulous mid-realm spirits inhabit, have additional benefits because hey, they can act like spirits in these instances. Of course, such people are in greater danger as well and a major part of Shaman's training deals with protecting oneself from malevolent spirit-entities. Spirits can also offer protection, aid, knowledge or guidance, and almost every clan has a selection of ancestral spirits looking over them.

Rune Magic is mostly separate from Divine magic. Rune Magic is previously moulded and stored pattern of energy cast by using runestones. Inferior versions are craftable by humans from some mystical materials (such as dragon bone) and are fairly commonplace. Runestone might be like dice or prayer-beads or such in form. Some spells, such as permanent enchantments require a set of runestones to be used as well as carving appropriate runes into the object/area. True runestones are small pieces of the God's Realms, marked and carved by the deities and then dropped/left/gifted to mortals. Essentially, superior and rarer versions of basic runestones. The spells themselves do not require permanent sacrifice to learn, mostly time and effort. Effects tend to be overall stronger than Spirit magic but again, no time stopping or such. They are one-shot deals and most people do not use them all that often, because Spirit magic is easier, less time-consuming and often sufficient. Practicioners of Rune Magic however develop a phlectora of tricks and methods for quickening the moulding and storing process, and shaping their own self to contain a wide variety and great number of Rune spells at any given moment. A master of Rune Magic can give a Sorcerer a run for their money or dominate a battlefield. Sometimes, gods can also grant otherwise unavailable Rune Magic spells, such as the Shield spell Berzerker mentioned.

Divine Magic is precisely that. Power of gods, made manifest on the world and thus the strongest of the lot. This is most often accomplished through prayers and worship and rituals, such as Heroquests or enactments of mythical events. For example, an Elmal warrior seeking to re-enact a famous battle where Elmal defended village can, if succesfull, for a moment become an avatar of Elmal. Such a warrior would then fight empowered with divine strenght and purpose. Or a follower of Maran Gor (goddess of Earthquakes, the dark sister of Ernalda) could command earth beneath her enemies to burst open - should the goddess like the follower, she will channel her power through the follower to make the earth burst open. Divine magic has no clear inherent limits and can be transitory or permanent in nature. Orlanth Wind Lords (aka 'Paladins') for example can trivially fly without aid, and followers of Chalana Arroy have been known to resurrect people.

Such methods also carry their dangers. The deities often demand payment or commitment, the darker deities are often capricious, and requests can be denied: ultimately the power and effect of such spells depends on the gods - whom may favour your enemy more than you, or judge your efforts and material sacrificies to be insufficient. Re-enactments also carry their danger - Elmal certainly could withstand boulder-shattering blows, but mortals cannot: the moment the belief of the actor waivers or they deviate too far from the script of original events or cannot, even empowered, fulfill the mythical feats, the power leaves them. But every wound and misfortune they suffered during the act stays. Worse, in Heroquests, the hero is literally travelling in the God's Realm as literal representations of mythical heroes and gods, taking their place in events of myths and legends, and fighting the actual foes. Failing to live up to the myth can have disasterous consequences. Even worse, loosing the way forward or back is not unheard of and there are plenty of dark corners in divine planes - including Death, various forms of hell and even pockets of anti-life or pure Chaos. Success however, is always richly rewarded and events in the divine realm are mirrored in the mortal one: slaying Drought during a heroquest will end an ongoing one in the world, or leading a herd of cattle home through tribulations can increase the number of your own cattle.

Enchantment is it's own cross-methodology form of magic, focusing on trying to re-create the splendor of divine items by imbuing mundane ones with essence and magic. Every 'school' of magic can do this to a degree with their own methods, but Enchanters dedicate their lives to perfecting this craft and this craft alone. Enchanters do exist in Dragon Pass and among the Orlanthi tribes, but are rare. The act of enchanting also takes time and effort beyond any other form of magic, but the effects are almost always permanent or close enought to not matter.

Sorcery is more akin to wizardry of D&D, but all you will potentially be seeing of that in this game is in the hands of NPC. Also, Sorcery is the strongest non-divine form of magic once mastered, but offers little to the layman. It falls short of divine power and the practicioners are only mortals at the base of things. A well-timed and -placed sword can end their life just as easily as any other.

Character Name: Astrid Hjortsdottir

Primary Deity: Ernalda

Primary Specialization: Plant Lore and Farming
Seconday Specialization: Animal Lore and Care

Character Flaw: Sickly

Description:

Astrid Hjordsdottir is a rather peculiar case. She was born to a tryst involving one of the younger apprentices in husbandry and a young, female farmer.

Unfortunately, while the couple lay in the fields, enjoying the afterglow, one of the weaker malevolent spirits took an interest in the spark of life that had been born of such a union. Normally, these spirits would move on as there would be nothing particularly fascinating of humans, except that this spirit noticed just how bright this spark of life was and decided to do what all malicious spirits do: cause trouble. However, the spirit found that this spark was difficult to eliminate, so, in a fit of anger and rage, the spirit channeled all of its meager power and its own lifeforce into harming the spark. And in this, it succeeded.

From the moment she was born, Astrid had always been prone to sickness. Sometimes she would cough for days on end as a baby as her parents would appear to visibly age faster with worry for the health of their young daughter. Other times, young Astrid would have no desire for food as a toddler as the nausea would become too much. Yet, her parents never stopped loving her.

All throughout her life, her parents passed down their collective knowledge of plant and animal care as she did not have many friends growing up due to the fear that whatever ailment poor Astrid had would spread to the other children. In this way, Astrid gained a much greater understanding of both growing crops and caring for the livestock because of the greater amount of free time that would normally be occupied with friends in a more normal life.

If it had not been for such a weak constitution, Astrid would have been courted by many of the more fetching young men for she was blessed in her looks by the mysterious deity.

She has hair as black as the moonless nights in contrast to her parents' brown, skin as white as alabaster despite the many hours spent on the fields, green vibrant eyes that seemed to show much life despite her weak nature, and a smile readily available on her face to greet her fellow clansmen despite the terrible times.

This looks fascinating, even if I've barely heard of any of the source material. (The proposed character will hopefully be a stretch for me, too.) Please tell me if I've missed the mark on names, culture, etc.

My apologies for being so late; I took my time writing this up, it was only half done when the forum started hiccuping, and the message about tuning the search hadn't been removed by the time I went to sleep.

Name: Tolar Gunnarson
Worships: Issaries, the Talking, God of Trade, Conciliation and Travel.
Major Skill: Bargaining
Minor Skill: Deities of Storm Tribe and their myths
Character Flaw: crippled right arm
Description: Brown-haired and of middling height, Tolar's right arm was severely broken when he was still a young child. In one of the earlier episodes of severe misfortune the clan experienced, it refused to set well despite everything the healers could do, remaining slightly but noticeably crooked to this day, and causing intermittent pain, especially when exercised. Rather than striving to overcome his new inabilities as some celebrated heros had done [I bet there's at least one canon character with an appellation like 'the one-handed'? Please consider them cited IC.] he instead sought ways to work around them. He avoided almost all physical occupations and activities, the more so since he had been right-handed, and this has resulted in a thoroughly unimpressive physique, especially compared to his neighbours.

He cultivates a short beard, and keeps his general appearance as neat as he can manage. For instance, while strenuous travel could reduce him to less than an incongrously dapper appearance, it would take a threat to his life to prevent him making the best repairs he could before entering a settlement.

Partly because he was looking for a way of making a living that wouldn't jostle his arm, but largely because he'd spent years trying to talk his way out of doing chores or any work at all, he has developed his skills of persuasion and bargaining to a fine art. Unfortunately, no-one likes being fleeced at market, and in a very physical, warrior-centric culture his lack of such skills fails to inspire respect. Therefore, Tolar has memorised every god-story and fable anyone would tell him, and his practised locution makes him a favourite entertainer around any hearth-fire. One day, he hopes, he may be known far and wide as Tolar Tale-spinner, or perhaps the Story-teller.

I have no idea as to what the setting is but I find this very interesting. Care to drop me some links? I looked at one wiki but it was dead and had little info.

Well, here is a quick and dirty one:

http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Youtube is also hosting several different let's plays of the 90's computer game, King Of Dragon Pass. Here is one:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL00C124F76DCCEF4E&feature=plcp

Though a passing understanding of generic fantasy worlds will get you far and I (along with those knowing the source materials better?) can answer specific questions.

DIT_grue, your character appears spot on.

@everyone: Decision regarding accepted players will be made in a few hours.