This week’s
random rolls brought me a challenge. I found myself with an android, living
in Kyonin with a family of sorts. How to go about reconciling these oddities
was quite a challenge. Tying in a love, a hated, and a god who represents a
search for self, added to this conundrum. But first of course I had to choose a
class.
I wasn’t really feeling any magical abilities, although a
decent intelligence and exceedingly high wisdom meant he could of excelled as
either an arcane or divine caster. The high wisdom and dexterity combo with a
decent strength mean
Monk would have been my first choice if he wasn’t neutral good. So I sought
inspiration by looking at the
androidentry on the PFSRD and this is where I found the Living Weapon
Brawler archetype. And that was the launching off point
for everything.
So a few mechanical notes before we get started. I knew I
was going brawler so a warrior and I knew he was raised by elves or at least
educated by them so I wanted to add something mechanically into this portion of
the story. I went with the elf race trait Warrior of Old.
Secondarily I realized that two parts of his background
pointed to emotion; committing his theft out of hatred or malice, and having a
current lover. At their base androids are emotionless which posed a problem.
Luckily there is an alt racial trait called Anomaly. This made our character
not only subject to emotion, but being overwhelmed even by it. I thought it
added a lot to the story and I love it when mechanics can tie in nicely.
Aufeillian
Morgethai
Some two-thousand years after their return from their
homeworld to Golarion the elves of Kyonin are still reclaiming their ancestral
lands. Much has changed through the age of darkness but they continue to make
the lands once again their own. One of the most successful families to stake
their claim in their forest home are the Morgethai.
The town of Riverspire is now the home of the Morgethai
clan and all those who marry into the family. At one point the clan was
incredibly fecund, forcing the town to grow around the stone tower that is home
to the family leaders. In this day and age that has slowed to the point that
many aren’t reproducing at all. Such was the case for Aleeriead Morgethai and
his wife Valiani.
With his wife’s inability to bear children Aleeriead took
up adventuring. His major work was with parties of elves that sought to explore
and reclaim portions of Kyonin. It was with one of these parties that his
family would begin to grow, for Aleeriead made a great discovery.
After the elves left Golarion – although possibly before
Earthfall and the Age of Darkness – there was Rain of Stars. Much of the
falling debris from the space between Golarion and the outer worlds hit in the
desolate plains of Numeria. But apparently some pieces had fall far afield.
Aleeriead uncovered a small pod which contained within it a creature the shape
of a humanoid, but whose flesh and bone were metallic.
Ever curious Aleeried took this being back to Riverspire
to be studied. His initial attempts to determine its origin and purpose proved
fruitless, until – quite by accident – the being stirred and opened its eyes.
Its initial words were garbled and it seemed confused. But Alleeried with the
aid of Valiani worked tirelessly to find a way to communicate.
Language took it some time, but after months and years it
had a grasp of the elven tongue. And although it had the ability to walk, talk,
and process complex ideas, much of its memory – save snippets of the blackness
of the void – was missing. Aleeriead and
Valiani took him in as their own child and taught him how to be an elf. They
called him Aufeillian after Valiani’s grandfather.
Although his “parents” never hid how he was different
without any history of his own, Aufeillian always consider himself elven. He
was especially fond of the tales of the elven warriors of old and he studied
the combat techniques of his parent’s forbearers. Like the elves Aufeillian
aged slowly – if he aged at all – and he would spend hours, days, even weeks on
one task to master it to elven standards.
Aufeillian was a skill combatant and despite his
non-elven heritage he was taken in by one of the elven masters as an
apprentice. He trained in his masters dual dagger style and eventually himself
begun winning combat competitions. He was quickly becoming renown among the
elves of Riverspire as one of their greatest warriors.
The turning point for Aufeillian was he finally had to
compete against his master. Something had been creeping into the android’s
mind. He had sense of confidence – even overconfidence – that had not been
there before. No feeling had been there before. Aufeillian battled and lost but
in defeat he also felt anger.
The android’s anger manifested itself in an act unlike
any he had ever committed. With pure malice in his circuitry one night he stole
his master’s daggers. Although he regretted his actions soon after, he could
not return what he had stolen. To this day – even though he was never caught –
he denies his envolvement even to himself.
Emotions were new to Aufeillian. With no sense of what he
really was or where he came from he had no idea if these sensations were common
to his people. He could find no answers from without so he sought answers from
within. He took up a form of elven meditation and began to plumb his own
feelings.
In his mind he touched what felt like another presence.
He had never needed to sleep, so he had never dreamed and when the visions came
he didn’t understand. Pictures of an Ibis headed woman guiding him to find
other emotions within himself. He pressed some of the elven scholars as to what
these visions might mean and learned of the lost Empyreal Lord Shei. This being was a powerful agathion who taught
self-actualization over the course of life and aging.
As Aufeillian began to explore his emotions he found
love. At first he embraced the love of his parents and then his younger
siblings. He fostered a love for all elven kind next as he appreciated his
adoptive people’s acceptance. And then he found romantic love. Ulee another
warrior and master swordswoman had piqued his fancy and he learned the fine art
of elven courting. Sadly he was horrible at it, but she found that endearing.
Exploring his emotions mostly meant how he felt about
other people. But soon the gentle push of the Ibis Matron made him look at how
he felt about himself. He needed to know who he was, and what he wanted.
Aufeillian sat for a full cycle of the moon. He was unmoving under the trees in
his parent’s garden. And like that he had an epiphany, he was meant for battle.
At the next opportunity he set upon himself to challenge
his master one more time. Aufeillian moved quicker and more precisely than
before. Still has master had decades of training and the android lost one, and
then the other of his daggers. Reaching within Aufeillian still surged forward
and then he felt the power writhe through his limbs. From his hands daggers of
pure energy emerged and his battle raged on.
Aufeillian still did not win, but he did fight his master
to a standstill. He learned much about himself that day, beyond just his
ability to become a weapon. He now knew that he craved competition. The elven
raised android wasn’t meant to compete and he was meant to win. He desired the
fame that it brought. And so Aufeillian and his love left Riverspire to head
out into the world and test their skill.
I saw some great interpretations of these stats on
facebook this week, but it’s never too late to add yours. What class did your
android choose? Where did he find love? How did he become a champion? Who are
his noble parents? Why does he choose to worship Shei?
Bringing these characters to life is a second full-time
job. A pledge of as little as one dollar a month on Patreon, or a one-time
donation to my paypal can help keep the lights on while I concentrate on
producing new content for you.
The CRB has been growing as a community on social media.
Please join us on Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and Twitter. My inbox is open on
all forums for questions, comments, and discussion. If you don’t want to miss a
beat make sure you sign up to have the CRB pushed directly to your e-reading
device with Kindle Subscriptions through Amazon.
This week’s random rolls (link rolls) brought me a
challenge. I found myself with an android, living in Kyonin with a family of
sorts. How to go about reconciling these oddities was quite a challenge. Tying
in a love, a hatred, and a god who represents a search for self added to this
conundrum. But first of course I had to choose a class.
I wasn’t really feeling any magical abilities, although a
decent intelligence and exceedingly high wisdom meant he could have excelled as
either an arcane or divine caster. The high wisdom and dexterity combo with a
decent strength meant Monk (link monk tag) would have been my first choice if
he wasn’t neutral good. So I sought inspiration by looking at the android entry
on the PFSRD
(http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/advanced-races-11-20-rp/android-16-rp/)
and this is where I found the Living Weapon Brawler (link brawler tag)
archetype. That was the launching off point for everything.
So a few mechanical notes before we get started: I knew I
was going brawler, so a warrior, and I knew he was raised by elves or at least
educated by them so I wanted to add something mechanically into this portion of
the story. I went with the elf race trait Warrior of Old.
Secondarily I realized that two parts of his background
pointed to emotion; committing his theft out of hatred or malice and having a
current lover. At their base androids are emotionless which posed a problem.
Luckily there is an alt racial trait called Anomaly. This made our character
not only subject to emotion, but even being overwhelmed by it. I thought it
added a lot to the story and I love it when mechanics tie in nicely.
Aufeillian Morgethai
Some two-thousand years after their return from their
homeworld to Golarion the elves of Kyonin are still reclaiming their ancestral
lands. Much has changed through the age of darkness but they continue to make
the lands once again their own. One of the most successful families to stake
their claim in their forest home are the Morgethai.
The town of Riverspire is now the home of the Morgethai
clan and all those who marry into the family. At one point the clan was
incredibly fecund, forcing the town to grow around the stone tower that is home
to the family leaders. In this day and age that has slowed to the point where
many aren’t reproducing at all. Such was the case for Aleeriead Morgethai and
his wife Valiani.
With his wife’s inability to bear children Aleeriead took
up adventuring. His major work was with parties of elves that sought to explore
and reclaim portions of Kyonin. It was with one of these parties that his
family would begin to grow, for Aleeriead made a great discovery.
After the elves left Golarion – although possibly before
Earthfall and the Age of Darkness – there was Rain of Stars. Much of the
falling debris from the space between Golarion and the outer worlds hit in the
desolate plains of Numeria. However, some pieces had apparently fallen far
afield. Aleeriead uncovered a small pod which contained within it a creature
the shape of a humanoid, but whose flesh and bone were metallic.
Ever curious Aleeried took this being back to Riverspire
to be studied. His initial attempts to determine its origin and purpose proved
fruitless, until – quite by accident – the being stirred and opened its eyes.
Its initial words were garbled and it seemed confused but Alleeried, with the
aid of Valiani, worked tirelessly to find a way to communicate.
Language took it some time, but after months and years it
had a grasp of the elven tongue. Although it had the ability to walk, talk, and
process complex ideas, much of its memory – save snippets of the blackness of
the void – was missing. Aleeriead and
Valiani took him in as their own child and taught him how to be an elf. They
called him Aufeillian after Valiani’s grandfather.
Although his “parents” never hid how he was different and
without any history of his own, Aufeillian always consider himself elven. He
was especially fond of the tales of the elven warriors of old and he studied
the combat techniques of his parent’s forbearers. Like the elves Aufeillian
aged slowly – if he aged at all – and he would spend hours, days, even weeks on
one task to master it to elven standards.
Aufeillian was a skilled combatant and despite his
non-elven heritage he was taken in by one of the elven masters as an
apprentice. He trained in his master’s dual dagger style and eventually himself
begun winning combat competitions. He was quickly becoming renowned among the
elves of Riverspire as one of their greatest warriors.
The turning point for Aufeillian was when he finally had
to compete against his master. Something had been creeping into the android’s
mind. He had sense of confidence, even overconfidence, that had not been there
before. No feeling had been there before. Aufeillian battled and lost, but in
defeat he also felt anger.
The android’s anger manifested itself in an act unlike
any he had ever committed. With pure malice in his circuitry one night he stole
his master’s daggers. Although he regretted his actions soon after, he could
not return what he had stolen. To this day, even though he was never caught, he
denies his involvement even to himself.
Emotions were new to Aufeillian. With no sense of what he
really was or where he came from he had no idea if these sensations were common
to his people. He could find no answers from without so he sought answers from
within. He took up a form of elven meditation and began to plumb his own
feelings.
In his mind he touched what felt like another presence.
He had never needed to sleep, so he had never dreamed, and when the visions
came he didn’t understand. He dreamed images of an Ibis-headed woman guiding
him to find other emotions within himself. He pressed some of the elven
scholars as to what these visions might mean and learned of the lost Empyreal
Lord Shei. This being was a powerful
agathion who taught self-actualization over the course of life and aging.
As Aufeillian began to explore his emotions he found
love. At first he embraced the love of his parents and then his younger
siblings. He fostered a love for all elvenkind next as he appreciated his
adoptive people’s acceptance. And then he found romantic love. Ulee, another
warrior and master swordswoman, had piqued his fancy and he learned the fine
art of elven courting. Sadly he was horrible at it, but she found that
endearing.
Exploring his emotions mostly meant how he felt about
other people. But soon the gentle push of the Ibis Matron made him look at how
he felt about himself. He needed to know who he was, and what he wanted.
Aufeillian sat for a full cycle of the moon, unmoving under the trees in his
parent’s garden. Though he appeared to make no progress, a sudden epiphany
surged within him and he understood his purpose. He was meant for battle.
At the next opportunity he set upon himself to challenge
his master one more time. Aufeillian moved quicker and more precisely than
before. Still his master had decades of training and the android lost one, and
then the other of his daggers. Reaching within Aufeillian surged forward and then
he felt the power writhe through his limbs. From his hands daggers of pure
energy emerged and his battle raged on.
Aufeillian still did not win, but he did fight his master
to a standstill. He learned much about himself that day, beyond just his
ability to become a weapon. He now knew that he craved competition. The elven
raised android was meant to compete and he was meant to win. He desired the
fame that it brought. And so Aufeillian and his love left Riverspire to head
out into the world and test their skill.
I saw some great interpretations of these stats on
facebook this week, but it’s never too late to add yours. What class did your
android choose? Where did he find love? How did he become a champion? Who are
his noble parents? Why does he choose to worship Shei?
Bringing these characters to life is a second full-time
job. A pledge of as little as one dollar a month on
Patreon or a one-time
donation to my
paypal can help keep the lights on while I concentrate on
producing new content for you.
The CRB has been growing as a community on social media;
please join us on
Facebook,
Google+,
Tumblr, and
Twitter. My inbox is open on
all forums for questions, comments, and discussion. If you don’t want to miss a
beat make sure you sign up to have the CRB pushed directly to your e-reading
device with
Kindle Subscriptions through Amazon.
I’ve touched on the topic of dynamic magic before; noting that one can make their world seem more real by using
descriptions of how one casts spells. This kind of depth can be added to much
more than just immediate spell casting. Although I’ve talked about it before
with some of my groups, it dawned on me the other day while drinking some tea
to help defrost, “I wonder what different potions taste like?”
I’ve touched on the topic of dynamic magic before; noting that one can make their world seem more real by using
descriptions of how one casts spells. This kind of depth can be added to much
more than just immediate spell casting. Although I’ve talked about it before
with some of my groups, it dawned on me the other day while drinking some tea
to help defrost, “I wonder what different potions taste like?”
