Character 99 - Mkpulunma Usweko

Picking a class for this week’s character was difficult. Although the high charisma screamed some kind of charisma caster; Bard, Bloodrager, Oracle, Skald, and Sorcerer all had magic that in the Mana Wastes would be unreliable at best and dangerous at worst. This goes to show that although the stats may lean toward one thing, background information may dictate another.

I was originally thinking that she would be some sort of charisma-monkey rogue. Then I remembered that constitution was the core stat for the kineticist from Occult Adventures. In looking through their archetypes I found one for specifically for changelings out of the Blood of the Coven book called the Arakineticist. Upon further delving I also found the Overwhelming Soul, which replaced con as the core stat with charisma. The fact that they stacked was just the providence I needed to make this character.

Mkpulunma Usweko

The Mana Wastes is a barren place, but life can be found here and there amongst the mutants and monsters. In many instances, these small towns and village fall along what few trade routes pass through these desolate lands. In one of these towns is where Yafeu Usweko made his home after leaving the jungles of Mwangi with his first wife and son.

Yafeu was a merchant among his people and used what money he made to expand his business upon his arrival in the Wastes. Just as his career grew, his family did as well. His late wife bore him one more child, although she passed before her youngest son even turned ten.

It took a few years but the merchant eventually remarried. The woman reminded him very much of his first wife. The married quickly and within a year she produced a daughter. But on the night of their child’s birth, the mother mysteriously disappeared leaving Yafeu to raise the child alone. The coming of a daughter and the loss of a second wife was bittersweet.

Mkpulunma grew the youngest child with two overprotective brothers. Even if she was only their half-sister they still loved her very much. As she grew up, the young girl exhibited a certain unnatural beauty that attracted many of the boys in their town. Nothing ever lasted and she often used her brothers to help her break off a romance that she decided she was over so as to protect her ego from the pain of being broken up with.

When she was spurned for another girl by a young man who she took a fancy to she became exceedingly jealous. She used her position as the daughter of one of the more prominent tradesmen to humiliate the young girl, who she felt stole the affections of the boy she wanted. Again her pride would not let her be hurt in this way.

Things began to change for her when Mkpulunma was sixteen. Aspects of her true heritage began to show themselves. The curse of her mother’s bloodline began to overwhelm her body with negative energy. The blood of a hag almost tried to kill her and those around her as she began to lash out with blasts of entropy and decay.

The young changeling began to hide from the world; her ego could not allow for those around her to see her so vulnerable. In her quest to remain unseen she turned to the lady of veils. She begged to be made invisible to those who would seek to know her. She also took up the wearing of many veils to cover the green hair and different color eyes that gave her away as the daughter of a hag.

The Mana Wastes are full of chaos. Magic has gone awry when it even works at all. Those who exhibit some of these wild talents do not go unnoticed. Although Mkpulunma’s abilities were neither divine nor arcane in nature they were still seen to some as a symptom of the anarchy of power in the region. One such person to take notice was the hunter Heracrix.

Heracrix’s powers came from the discordant nature of the land around them. His wild soul infused with the beasts of the land, but not so much that he could manage true druidic magic. As a member of one of the few druid groups in the region who looked to heal the land, he chooses to do so by helping others with wild talent to find some sort of balance within themselves.

The Hunter took Mkpulunma under his wing as her mentor and trainer. He found her strength in the force of personality she exhibited and helped her to learn to use that to control the power of her curse. Although it lessened what she was able to accomplish, it did keep her constant production of negative energy from eating away at her physical being.

Through years of constant study, learning to force her mind over her body, Mkpulunma eventually gained control of her curse. She still wanted very little to do with others, lest her fragile pride be hurt. She decided to leave all those who knew her in the past and make her way in the world where the new her was the only her people would know. What that will bring she is quite unsure of.

With that I give you a complete background but what class do you think this character would have become? Who was her mentor? Why was she jealous enough to humiliate someone? Where did her worship of Sivanah come from?

The CRB not only brings you the creative content you desire but helps you look inside for your own creativity. If you feel both inspired and pushed to create, please consider supporting your favorite content provider – that’s me, right? – by pledging as little as $1 on my Patreon or making a direct donation to my Paypal.

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Character 91 - Rangi

For this week’s character I went out of my way to write up my own halfling culture based in Tian-Xia. So this week’s character belongs to the Tagata halflings on Minata, which are based on Samoan culture. This choice certainly set the tone for the kinds of characters I would make. Having only a high constitution and charisma limited the choice of classes that he would be any good at. Then I had to fit in some of the background information: born to an omen, to a seafaring people, and worshiping the god of sea and storms. I jumped immediately to the idea of a kineticist.

Rangi

Born on the day of a raging storm that did not touch his people’s home island of Uali’a, Rangi was considered to be touched by the god Hei Feng himself. This meant from the time of his birth a lot more was expected of him than the other children of the tribe. Even though he was born to a pair of craftsmen and not a chief or a medicine man, his people treated him as though he was of a higher station.

When Rangi was old enough to understand why people treated him in such away he began to fear he would never live up to other’s expectations. Being somehow chosen made the young halfling want to run and hide. But Rangi was treated to a laundry list of mentors that his patron, the chief of the tribe, paid to discover what abilities the omen meant he would have.

He learned some medicine from the tribes Fofo, a type of witch doctor. Although he never achieved his own communion he worked with the Taula who could take the spirits within him. The tribe’s shaman taught him everything he needed to know about the spirit world itself, and how to get there. He even learned the art of tattoo from the tufuga ta tatau. Rangi took in all of these lessons but excelled at none of them.

With all these mentors – masters of their field all – it was someone with no practical life experience that helped Rangi find his calling. Lanuola was the first girl he ever loved and during their time together she would always tell him that he needed to be himself and not what others wanted him to be. She said he should be like the water that flows in its own patterns and when it meets an obstacle it goes around instead of through. Her words themselves were prophetic for his true power came when the two were swimming. That was where he learned he had the power over water itself.

Gaoioi’Suavai or water movers haven’t existed among the Tagata in ages. Legend says the great Gaoioi’Suavai left with the expeditions to find the homeland after the cataclysm that broke Minata in to small island. They would use their power over water to help move va’a tale at great speed across the ocean. A Gaoioi’Suavai had not been seen among the Tagata since then and Rangi was now the inheritor of their power.

After the manifestation of his power Rangi gave himself over to the sea. He could always be found out on a fishing vessel, diving for crabs, or just swimming around his island home. There was no one to teach him to use his power, although the storytellers could related tales passed down from the time before. He still had to learn everything on his own. The power did go a little to his head and he became obsessed with his reputation and being the ‘protector’ of his people.

When they oyster beds were mysteriously being ravaged Rangi took it upon himself to solve the mystery. He waited day and night for over a week, stalking the beds to which his tribe laid their bivalves. It was on the night of the full moon that he saw the crab-like creature devouring the oysters, particularly the ones that had pearls sitting with them.

The creature is it turns out was a rare elemental species – consigned to a physical form – called a tojanida. The one thing these creatures enjoy about their physicality is the taste and texture of food. The oysters with their pearls were something new that this particular creature had grown a taste for. The problem is that pearls are the only form of money that the Tagata have to trade with the outside world. So Rangi used his considerable persuasive power to convince him to eat elsewhere.

Now Rangi seeks other ways to grow his own legend. He wants the Gaoioi’Suavai to mean something to his people again and for himself to be the forefather of the new era of those with the ability. He expects that he is the first, but not the last and he needs to be ready to train those who come after him.

What did you do with your halfling? What class did you choose? What omen came at his birth? Did he live up to that omen? Why does he worship Hei Feng? What non-humanoid creature did he seduce?

The CRB not only brings you the creative content you desire but helps you look inside for your own creativity. If you feel both inspired and pushed to create, please consider supporting your favorite content provider – that’s me, right? – by pledging as little as $1 on my Patreon or making a direct donation to my Paypal.

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Character 66 - Batriach Ekeno

This week’s randomrolls gave us a high constitution and little else. Picking a class was exceedingly hard because of the stats, so I really had to work with the background tidbits for this character. It was the died at birth notation that really inspired me for this character and I even had a full build in my head. So without further ado I introduce you to a blood keneticist.

Batriach Ekeno

Batriach was born and died – the first time – in the former Chelish colony of Sargava. It was a hard birth for his mother and when he came into the world he wasn’t breathing. He was dead a good two minutes before the midwife was able to bring him back to life. Sadly the difficulty of his birth was hard on his mother’s body and although she conceived again – a sister – two years later, the damage he cause to her body made his siblings birth so traumatizing it killed her.

His father was set to raise two children while tending the field outside of Port Freedom. Through most of his childhood Batriach was sickly. He contracted almost every disease that passed through the town. It left his body ravaged with a severe limp as he grew older. He also died on two other occasions, from various bloodborne diseases, but apparently death was not in the cards at those times.

In his early teens he fell in with one of many bad crowds around Fort Freedom. He made enemies of the other small gangs that opposed his group. He was never a great fighter but he could certainly take a beating. All the abuse his body had received from his childhood hardened him to almost super human levels.

What he lacked in combat prowess he more than made up in keen observational ability. One rival found the town guard on his doorstep when Batriach helped some damning information find its way into their hands. He expected that the young man would be locked away or maybe lashed, but apparently the officials were looking to send a message after a recent rash of criminal activity and he was hung. Batriach always felt bad about this.

Batriach spent the next year or so looking for a way out. Not just of the group he’d gotten swept up in, but out of Port Freedom. He hitched his wagon to a disgraced noble who had been living on the outskirts of town. The man was finally looking to find a new place to start over and he’d used a number of the young ruffians to his own end, so the boy asked to go along. Their first stop was Crown’s End where they would find a path out of Sargava altogether.

Soon after Crown’s End there were boats and water, lots of water. Batriach began to feel something pulling at his very body while they were on the waves. His blood seemed to move with the pull of the tide. The boat was a rough place to begin with as most of the crew were scoundrels or even downright pirates. When one of them struck Batriach for “being in the way” – a massive blow which barely phased the boy – he lashed out. The beads of sweat on his body seemed to collect in a globe that struck the crewman. The water didn’t just splash on him it cut him deeply across his bare chest.

For the first time the boy saw that he had power. His whole life he had been unable to truly affect the world around him, but now he could. The fallen noble also saw the power of the boy and sought to guide him in their new life among the pirates of the Shackles. The power was now literally in Batriach’s blood and he intended to use it.

Did you find the power in his blood or did you find something different? Who was your character? What class do these stats and background coalesce into in your mind? How did this character’s mother die? What did his low dexterity represent?

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