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- Booked characters are booked to return at the next event.
- Played characters have appeared at an event, but are not currently booked for the next one.
- Deceased characters have appeared at an event, but are not going to appear at future ones.
- Retired characters are like deceased ones, but have instead retreated beyond the reach of others.
- 1 New Characters
- 1.1 The Penitent Order
- 1.2 The Valtarian Kingdoms
- 1.3 The Walkers
- 2 Booked Characters
- 2.1 The Liberated Skies
- 2.2 The Penitent Order
- 2.2.1 An Endless Falling
- 2.2.2 At Dawn And At Dusk
- 2.2.3 By My Crooked Teeth
- 2.2.4 Calm Merchandiser
- 2.2.5 Carrion Comfort
- 2.2.6 Changing Of The Tide
- 2.2.7 Endless Radiance
- 2.2.8 From The Source, The Flow
- 2.2.9 Illuminating
- 2.2.10 Of Many Faces
- 2.2.11 Patient Guardian
- 2.2.12 Rain Falls On The Snow
- 2.2.13 Soar Ever Upward
- 2.2.14 Subsidiary
- 2.2.15 The Tears Fall Gladly
- 2.3 The People's Combine
- 2.3.1 Hegemonic Engineer Aether, of the Victor Ascendant
- 2.3.2 Liberator Arclight
- 2.3.3 Fusilier Barrage, of the Symphony Of Purpose
- 2.3.4 Engineer Cam, of the Symphony Of Purpose
- 2.3.5 Engineer Crankshaft, of the Heart Of The Machine
- 2.3.6 Liberator Flare, of the Victor Ascendant
- 2.3.7 Rhetonomic Engineer Fluidity, of the Victory Through Persistence
- 2.3.8 Liberator Joule, of the Forge Of Unity
- 2.3.9 Liberator Petrol, of the End of the Line
- 2.3.10 Lieutenant Balthazhar Piston Bennet
- 2.3.11 Volunteer Pivot, of the Victory Through Persistence
- 2.3.12 Engineer Rebar, of the Victory Through Persistence
- 2.3.13 Rosie Ratchet
- 2.3.14 Liberator Spectrum, of the Thunder Of Salvation
- 2.3.15 Liberator Switchgear of the Victory Through Persistence
- 2.4 The Valtarian Kingdoms
- 2.4.1 Aadiahe, the Feasting Flower
- 2.4.2 Aestival, Heart Of Summer
- 2.4.3 Her Torturous Turpitude, Ariadne, the Irritant
- 2.4.4 Astrape, the Living Storm
- 2.4.5 Starqueen Celestine Brightheart, Blade of Truth
- 2.4.6 Vogelchevalier d'Eon – Tempered Blade of the People, Ash of the Revolution
- 2.4.7 Heloise Dragon-Hearted
- 2.4.8 Archon Kerebos, Wielder of Dragonsfire
- 2.4.9 Guardian-General Kystennin, The Unyielding
- 2.4.10 Demoiselle Lapin, The Lady Of The Golden Rabbit
- 2.4.11 Her Glacial Majesty Mariana, Oceanheart, The Undrowned
- 2.4.12 Her Illustrious Extravagance Pandora, the Libertine
- 2.4.13 Push, Until It Hurts
- 2.4.14 Raziel, The Light In The Shadows
- 2.4.15 Ronan, Guardian of Outworld, Child of Shadow
- 2.4.16 Her Exalted Beneficence Serennia, the Illustrious Conqueror of Drakenhold
- 2.4.17 Telador Silverhand, Lance of the Stars
- 2.4.18 Theobald, the Unbroken Shield
- 2.5 The Visions of Opportunity
- 2.5.1 2²
- 2.5.2 Asset Sin
- 2.5.3 Auspicious Paradigm
- 2.5.4 "Debts" Mett
- 2.5.5 Desiderata Violet
- 2.5.7 Flick LaLune
- 2.5.8 Flux Wildly
- 2.5.9 Intriguing Glint Anki
- 2.5.10 "Lace" Nichols
- 2.5.11 Scarlet Crave
- 2.5.12 The Shaper Formerly Known As The Loveliest Lies
- 2.5.13 Tableau BOOM
- 2.5.14 "Talos" Perchik
- 2.5.15 Thoughtful Spider
- 2.5.16 Trilogy
- 2.5.17 Trojan Force
- 2.5.18 "Wage" Slayv
- 2.6 The Walkers
- 3 Played Characters
- 3.1 The Penitent Order
- 3.2 The People's Combine
- 3.3 The Valtarian Kingdoms
- 3.3.1 Alaccastia, the Dead Heart
- 3.3.2 The Golden Lady, Laszvelar's Hubris
- 3.3.3 Commander-Vindicate Kaldaria, the Vanquisher of Dark Despair
- 3.3.4 Lorentz, The Bulwark, Darkened, Awakened
- 3.3.5 Milisandia, She Who Takes The Harvest
- 3.3.6 Her Most Tragic Grace, Vallora, The Open Wound
- 3.3.7 Beloved Seer-Protector Yaztromo, Archmage of the Seven Winds
- 3.4 The Visions of Opportunity
- 3.5 The Walkers
- 4 Deceased Characters
- 4.1 The Penitent Order
- 4.2 The People's Combine
- 4.3 The Valtarian Kingdoms
- 4.4 The Visions Of Opportunity
- 5 Retired Characters
New Characters
The Penitent Order
Knight Of Pentacles
Player Ronny Jackson
Background The Walkers
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Failure
Alignment Quill
Affinity Bastion
Motives Supremacy
"...We were - are - the Order. We were chosen for our prescience and for our wisdom. Ours was meant to be the calm hand on the tiller of the realm, steering the nations of this world through the dangers ahead of them and shepherding them to greatness. Even with the fall of the Oracle, we should still have been more than capable of preventing the mistakes of Homeworld occurring once again.
I was wrong once, and I accept that - the Oracle lied and lied and lied and left us with the unenviable task of rebuilding from the ashes left in its wake. And yet, even without its malign influence, the Shapers currently within the Nexus have been allowed to drag Outworld to the edge of a pit from which there would and could be no return. We have been granted a unique opportunity to craft a fresh, bright new world. I will not see that squandered..."
- - Knight Of Pentacles, Hellion
The Valtarian Kingdoms
Player Iestyn Evans
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Companion
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
"What can be seen and believed of the megalomaniac is but grist to the mill of invention and destruction. The community is strength, the exigencies of the single are devoid of power, or purpose. They shall fall."
- - from 'On The Proprieties of Fate' by Hugo Menscler
"You were useful. You were... beautiful in your own way. You may go."
- - fragment
"Two options are open to the individual, succumb to what has happened to you, or use it to empower you. To make a difference. To become something else. To be a better person with a grander dream."
- - from 'A Slaves Manifesto' by J Stice
Her Magnificent Benevolence Dolorea, the Blood Mother
Player Rosie Best
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Advisor
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Dolorea was once a simple healer and midwife at the court of a long-forgotten Monarch-Victor. But her discovery of the Shaper's arts has brought her to a far deeper understanding of the physical form and a much loftier calling. The Blood Mother now stands at the head of an army of physicians, midwives, chefs and courtesans, devoted to the cause of understanding and manipulating the mortal body for the good of all.
The sick and injured travel from far and wide to reach her walls, and indeed some are brought there, unconscious or even against their will, to receive the Mother's treatments. Many a wounded soldier, Valtarian and Combine alike, has blacked out on the battlefields of the Shattered Front and awoken to find themselves deep within her keep's labyrinthine walls. None leave the monastery without undergoing some change, though it is not always the change they might have desired.
Comfort, pleasure, release from pain and sickness are all within the Blood Mother's gift to grant to those who she finds agreeable. For those who offend her, well, a fascination for the mortal body can be turned to all sorts of uses, as can any reasonably well-kept liver or spinal column.
Santiel, the Sentinel, Justice Enforced
Player Oliver George
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Peasant
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
"The lands remember him as a man accused and incarcerated by his Monarch, a man denied freedom and tortured for sport. The people remember the night they broke him finally, when the suffering because too much and his mind snapped. They remember the awakening, they remember the destruction."
- - Anon
"From ashes of injustice strode a man unrecognisable. A great rage burned inside and fervour for revenge and justice inseparable. He declared himself Justicar, Marshal and Executioner to the lands and so they named him Justice Enforced."
- - Journals of Maximus Antus
"Santiel, slayer of Poliminus the Sword in the Dark, the freedom of The Vale of Autumn, the chaser of [CONCEPT EXPUNGED], the fire that burned the unrepentant peoples of Aloria."
- -Inscription in the books of the Monarch's library.
"Santiel sought to build a prison to hold all who would commit crimes and injustices in his eyes, crossing the Breach to realise his goal and build a land for his own and his people. Let those judged run in darkness."
- - A Children's Modern History, J.A. Milyn.
Sétanta, The Pierced Heart, Sage of the Forest, The Opening Gambit
Player Karl Willis
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Companion
Affinity Tempest
Motives Knowledge
"The recovered child is gifted. Mouldable. Mine."
- – Diary entry of Monarch-Shadow Maeve, Rose of Agony, post Curruid Incursion.
"Tell me, truthfully, Who will be my downfall?"
- – The Fateful Question, The Lady Maeve
"The prisoner shows no remorse or desire for clemency, merely sitting in his cell and muttering lowly to himself."
- – Guard report, Citadele De Fleur
"Aye, I was there. So was the rest of the people. We all saw what happened when the Lady *spits* tried to kill that poor sod. Got his revenge, he did, but died in the effort, I think. All that were left was a burning wicker skeleton and a pool of blood"
- – Witness account, day of execution.
"We've heard reports of a mysterious sage in the forests around here, who will help those he comes across before vanishing. We don't know if he is a shaper or not, but we did get a name – Sétanta"
- – Intelligence report, given to d'Eon
"Of the Pawns who undertake this People's Crusade, only Sétanta truly understands how to best utilise our curse. Behind his youthful eyes lies ancient knowledge and truths - that even linear causality bends to our will. I value that imagination."
The Walkers
Player Henry Prestige
Path Red
Vocation Warden
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"They came from the skies, which we thought we were ready for, yeah? Because of those Combine ships, we 'ad flak cannons for that innit, tears those skysails to shreds! But these bastards were on skimmers, too fast to be safe. **** me, a fistful of 'em died from crashing into things! The rest of 'em, they cut the meatheads into chunks of, well, meat. They had these guns, that shot splinters filled with acid an' parasite eggs. I saw Dennings get eaten up from inside.
Those they didn't kill on the first run, they 'ung upside down from poles they stuck in the dirt. Whipped 'em with chains an'ooks. As they loaded our goods onto their bikes, yeah, their leader strolled up to me, like a demon from kids 'orror story.
"You, get to live, Margin Licker. If simply to run and tell your bosses. This is Agony's turf now. Feel free to keep sending tribute if you think your guards are tough enough."
Then they cut open the rest of the guards and stuck grenades in em, laughing as they flew off to a backing score of the gory explosions of my friends."
- - Dismissal statement given by "Ironside" Bilson
Player Alice Manuel
Path Green
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
Amaryllis is not your typical amnesiac. Well, unless, amnesiacs suddenly become nomadic druid-like motherfuckers. They care not for a life they don't remember and now live to create, to rebel and to embrace their new-found identity as a walker. Uncaring of the abuse and shunning that their kind bring, they live a solitary existence, choosing to go about their business alone and joining others when needed, spending time creating mischief and plants, tree-running and learning new ways to fuck people up. Apart from that their existence is simple: restore the verdant wastes to their former glory, by any means necessary.
Player Karl Jepson
Path Green
Vocation Warden
Affinity Bastion
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
"It's… well… it's weird. For weeks I thought it was a pet of one of the other Walkers, or perhaps a slave taken in a war. But after watching for a while I noticed that other Walkers consulted it for advice before they launched their attacks and listened when it spoke. I didn't truly understand what it was until it tore my comrades throat out with it's teeth."
- - Wrench of the Onwards To Glorious Victory
"Initial negotiations with the Walkers were unsuccessful as they do not appear to understand the nature of compromise. Then, on the third day, they dragged in a pathetic creature they called Maggot and let it to negotiate for them. By the end of the day we had agreed terms and believed we had gotten everything we wanted. What we didn't realise is that while we were talking, the rest of the Pack were burning our storehouses. If I ever see that little shit again I'll horse whip it"
- - Baron Aurelian of the Glorious Tower
"Maggot is fucked all the way up but after talking to it for an hour I came away with the sneaking suspicion it might have destroyed every part of itself that doesn't help it walk the path. Don't ever under estimate it"
- - Sinew the Red
Player Sol Craighead-Wheeler
Path Blue
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
I remember -
I know, inside -
of a calling to see the light in all its parts,
to embrace all as colours I loved.
I remember -
I know, inside -
of being taught by Kudzu,
beloved mentor, Skald of balance,
who saw in me my wildness,
encouraged me to use it,
and so I did,
and wandered,
and loved.
I remember -
I know, inside -
how to shape the colours around me,
how each hue is a family,
and in that to live without fear
even as my people left
I do not remember -
I hope I know, inside -
how I left Home,
how I joined Outworld,
how now to Shape the Colours around me
even as a god amongst gods.
But I remember -
I know in my heart -
my power can now shatter light.
- - Rainbow, Walker Nomad
Player Jenni Hill
Path Red
Vocation Warden
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"Did you leave the sacrifice on the altar?"
"Yes, I did."
"Of course!"
"Did you replace the empty wine bottles with new ones?"
"Yes, yes."
"Did you fluff up the gold pillows?"
"You didn't fluff up the pillows?"
"No… er, what's she going to do?"
"Either she'll tire herself out playing with the sacrifice and sleep for a week, in that 'look at me I'm so cute and harmless and would never claw anyone's eyes out' way she has, or…"
"Or you'll be the next sacrifice."
- - Conversation on the temple steps, source unknown
Complaints Made About Spite By Other Walkers:
- Playing with her food (the food makes piteous screams which disrupt the Skald's tales)
- Endlessly asking to be let out (and back in again, and out, and back in again)
- Sleeping in places she shouldn't (like Opportunity's penthouse suites)
- Pushing things off tables incessantly (also from cliffs, the tops of buildings, other heights from which one can kill a man)
- Fur. Everywhere.
- - As noted by Maggot
Booked Characters
The Liberated Skies
Captain Maximum Overdrive
Player Chris Killey
Corps Arm of the Revolution
Role Hegemonic Engineer
Profession Optimist
Affinity Tempest
Motives Devotion, Gratification
He sat there in his red pseudo-uniform with his hand held eagerly aloft, hair slicked back and his face full of enthusiasm. The other figures at the table looked at each other in stunned disbelief.
"Let's face it, we can either sit here waiting for consensus," a large number of people in the room spat onto the floor, "or we can give it to me, you know that I hold The Revolution in my heart and I will fight for what Captain Sparks believed in."
The muttering intensified. The figures broke off into separate groups and the politics began in earnest. But this was the citadel and politics came here to die. After less than half an hour it had been agreed, Max Overdrive will be given a chance, he was the best speaker after all. As each figure cast their vote the light grew brighter. Many in the auditorium flinched from it. As soon as the final vote was cast, the room was filled with pulsating energy. Max walked into the hollow centre of the table and embraced the spark.
The Penitent Order
An Endless Falling
- Patron of Ragweed
- Teacher of Mariana
- Muse of Wing
Player Jenny Witts
Background The People's Combine
Faculty Custodian
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Tempest
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"No. Your request is denied. In fact, I forbid it."
"I will not throw more good Initiates after bad. You are to stay away from An Endless Falling and from anywhere she has been these last few years. That should keep you away from him as well. Perhaps when she kills him and returns to my tutelage you may be the first archivist to speak to her. If you prove yourself capable until then."
- - Transcript of Archivist My Light Glows Dimly's first request to Master Acceptance of Fate, seeking permission to record the ongoing feud between two members of the Order.
"This is all his fault"
- - An Endless Falling, Custodian.
At Dawn And At Dusk
- Champion of Theobald
- Rival of Patient Guardian
- Student of By My Crooked Teeth
- Student of Astrape
Player Stephanie Edwards
Background The People's Combine
Faculty Custodian
Culpability Ignorant
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
Soulforges Mechanical
"There are as many versions of the truth as there are witnesses."
- - Aspirant Gatling of the Victory Through Persistance
By My Crooked Teeth
- Patron of Switchgear
- Tutor of At Dawn And At Dusk
Player Bill Smith
Background The People's Combine
Faculty Archivists
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"History is written by the victors. In the absence of victors, simply lie."
- - An extract from the lecture 'The Ethics of History' by Archivist By my Crooked Teeth
"See that man that rattles, with metal bones on his hip and grey across his back? That be By My Crooked Teeth. A wise man from far away. Always he sits and watches and listens. He helps now and then. But always he watches and scribbles his tales. I know not what he is after but be wary if he pays you a care. I do not trust a man who smiles falsely and speaks with pretty words. Be wary."
- - Vine, Sage of the Walkers (transcribed in the journal of By My Crooked Teeth.)
Calm Merchandiser
- Partner of "Lace" Nichols
- Patron of "Debts" Mett
Player Zeph Upton
Background The Penitent Order
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Abettors
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Do you have a want? Of course you do.
Do you have something of value to others? Again, of course you do.
What is stopping you get what you want? Calm Merchandiser is happy to offer you their service, and trade what you have for what you value more.
Carrion Comfort
- Patron of Ash
- Partner of Patient Guardian
Player Sam Griffin
Background The Walkers
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion, Influence
Don't mistake me for whatever you've mistaken me for. There are so many roles - so many masks- in this dance and I've worn them all. The difference is, I'm not afraid to tear them off…
There was a voice in my heart that told me to tear down the system I was tired of playing, and then another voice that called me away and promised me a better future for everyone. Turns out, both voices were mine, and I had the right idea the first time. So I kicked it over again and a lot of people got hurt and I'm not proud of that bit; but look…
It took me bloody ages to work this out and I'm trying to save you the time I wasted. If you want your opportunity or your freedom or your family then you grab whatever matters at your core, break yourself open until you bleed, and you prove it. Because nothing matters until it's been torn out of your hands, broken, remade and won back. And that, mate, is the purpose of existence. It's that simple.
Now that's clear, did you want help with something?
Changing Of The Tide
- Tutor of Leaf
Player Sam Goacher
Background The Valtarian Kingdoms
Faculty Archivists
Culpability Failed
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
IC Pronouns She/Her
Since I have been tasked with recording history, what better place to begin than with my own?
I was born and raised in the Valtarian Kingdoms, the middle of five scions and the "runt of the litter" as they put it. I was therefore the one most often used to face the forefront of whatever unpleasantness had hit our kingdom this time - yet I never suffered any injury. People eventually discovered that I had the gift, and tried to persuade me to join their ranks. After the way they had treated me? I think not!
I may have been cast out as a Pawn in the Kingdoms, but the Sublime Concord were very interested in my talents. That was, of course, before things went so horribly wrong. I heard of plans to sabotage the exodus, and agreed to help with a counter-offensive. Regretfully, we failed to stop the resulting disaster. Now we have re-banded with a simple goal - to rectify our mistakes. Perhaps the pen will prove mightier than the sword.
Endless Radiance
- Patron of Mariana
Player Liz Weir
Background The Valtarian Kingdoms
Faculty Custodian
Culpability Ignorant
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion and Influence
Soulforges Pestilent
OOC Pronouns She/Her
IC Pronouns He/Him
THROUGHPUT: "Why?"
[Throughput trails off into a grunt of pain.]
UNKNOWN: "Because it was ordered. But believe me - this is for the greater good."
- - Audio capture recovered after the murder of Hegemonic Engineer Throughput, 23 BF (Objective)
HOODED CHALLENGER: "What gives you the right to rule?"
ALTHALUS THE GOLDEN: "You ask that; you, who stand in nameless anonymity? You, whose words are naught but words? I speak, and legions march. I speak, and the world shapes itself to my will! I speak, and my enemies' blades fall as they clasp their hands in abject-"
[The HOODED CHALLENGER decapitates ALTHALUS THE GOLDEN]
HOODED CHALLENGER: "*sigh* Evidently not."
- - Clip from World's Funniest Deaths Compilation 133AF (Subjective); used under licence from Sidesplit Entertainment
From The Source, The Flow
- Partner of Adversity Breeds
Player Ruth Foster
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Failed
Alignment Quill
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
Profile to follow
- Patron of Ronan
- Tutor of Flood
Player Mairi White
Background The Valtarian Kingdoms
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Failed
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Bastion
Motives Influence, Knowledge
As a Valtarian, she was a scion, and when she became a Shaper she chose to advise others, seeking to try and shape much more than a single Kingdom through her actions. Sometimes an ally, sometimes an enemy, she travelled around a great deal. Her belief in Fate and Destiny brought her to the attention of someone recruiting on behalf of the Sublime Concord and she chose to join their number. After failing to stop what happened, she has decided to go back to doing what she did before, advising and trying to change things, only this time with a need for atonement she didn't have before.
Of Many Faces
Player Lizzie Vialls
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Hellion
Culpability Ignorant
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification
Soulforges Shimmering
If someone were to ask who Of Many Faces really was, so many answers would be given, and none would match. To the man who built an empire in the Walker's Territory, only to have it crumble thanks to a single poem, Of Many Faces was an old woman, whispering sweet poison in listeners' ears. To the one who asked for an advisor for their trade deal, leaving satisfied and only later discovering what had been taken? Of Many Faces was a young fresh-faced Margin Driver offering muscle and diplomacy in spades.
And to one woman, Of Many Faces was broken, and needed fixing. And that woman discovered that Of Many Faces was everyone and noone, and soon she was the newest receptacle that held the Many.
Patient Guardian
- Comrade of Bunny
- Partner of Carrion Comfort
- Rival of At Dawn And At Dusk
Player James Hadley
Background Walkers
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
He was always one of the brightest Blue Wardens we had , always willing to guard and teach, so none of us were really surprised when he was chosen by the Concord. He didn't want to leave, but we encouraged him to take the opportunity. Things like that don't come along every day.
What surprised us was when he came back. He was changed, broken. All of his energy and joy for life was gone, replaced by a forced, deathly calm, trying to hide a quiet, simmering anger. Everyone noticed it, but he didn't talk about it, so we didn't ask.
He didn't stay with us for long. I think he just wanted some people he knew to be around for a while.
One day, we woke up and he was gone again.
But, if you know where to look, you can see the little signs of him still being around. Nothing certain, just the little mentions. Listen to the stories about unlikely survival, about strange coincidences.
He may walk his own path now, but I am sure he is near. Deep inside, he is still a Walker.
- - Skald Ember, with a barrel-fire tale about the Walker-turned-Penitent Shield.
Rain Falls On The Snow
- Patron of Kerebos
- Tutor of Orb-Weaver
Player Stephen Borgars-Smith
Background Walkers
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Quill
Affinity Tempest
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Soulforges Mechanical
Identification: "Rain Falls On The Snow", "Rain"
Threat Rating: Delta
Notes: Shaper, Non-Client, No Contracts
Audit History:
X12-2Y-3F - Identified as target of opportunity during scouting pass on Walker camps encroaching on protected site.
X30-2Y-3F - Target passes too close to protected site during apparently random wandering, engaged by security team. Revealed as Shaper, eliminates four non-Shaper operatives, proceeds to destroy site. Upgraded to threat level Beta.
E24-6H-2J - Target encountered during operation in Valtarian territory, equipped with stolen Valtarian equipment. Eliminates two Shaper operatives and escapes. Upgraded to threat level Gamma.
Personal File Note, Vice-President Bright Fox, GG12-4R-3X: Why do we have some Walker idiot at threat level Gamma? Because he got lucky or someone screwed up? Bump him down to Beta again, save Gamma for the real threats, and have someone shoot him the next time he pops his head out of his little treehouse.
File Addendum, GH12-4-3X, Acting Vice-President Cold Tempest: Vice-President Bright Fox was found in his office last night with his throat slit, and a printout of this document stapled to his forehead. I'm raising the target's threat level to Delta and adding a No Contracts classifier.
Soar Ever Upward
- Seeker of Raziel
Player James Bates
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification
I've heard it said – though I can't confirm it myself, as I've only been inducted twenty years – that their feud began over the fate of a single Monarch-Victor. Perhaps it would have been one of the earliest indications of the Oracle's conflicting orders, had they bothered to report it. Anyway, even in light of the Betrayal, they've stuck fast to their respective philosophies. Soar's being pathological.
On that note, I ran into Soar last week. I found him tracking Fall northward with frankly unsettling singlemindedness. He informed me that she was probably bleeding out, from wounds he'd inflicted. Of course, he wasn't happy about that - said he had to watch her die. I wished him good luck (you know I always have to fill the awkward silences!), and he moved on quickly. Today, rather alarmingly, I received news that the two have been spotted together, preparing to travel to the Outworld. Both very cheerful, apparently.
The mind boggles.
- - personal communication from the Archivist My Light Glows Dimly, to the Hellion Rupture All The Things
"She can't honestly claim that this is all my fault."
- - Soar Ever Upward, Adjutant
- Partner of Teeth
- Tutor of Flood
Player Malcolm Campbell
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Quill
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
"I wasn't given a choice when I was taken to join the Order, I was just taken. So I've always believed in giving others a choice. Even enemies should decide their own destiny."
Subsidiary looked down at Domex, still paralysed from the Order stun-rod.. "So when you take a deal to sell our product, take an opportunity to steal from us and blame what you stole on the Jackson crew – maybe you should consider that you chose to do exactly what I thought you would."
He tapped Domex with the stun rod again, the sharp discharge leaving an acrid smell in the air. "Now, I'm just making sure you're here when Jackson reaches your office. It's important he has a choice too"
The Tears Fall Gladly
- Seeker of Ronan
Player Cynthia Zhang
Background The Valtarian Kingdoms
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification
Soulforge Mechanical
"In a tower a maiden stood. Watching, loving, waiting.
"She waited for the heroes' rescue. She loved them, each and every one. She watched them fail and fall.
"She knew it was for the greater good.
"Tears are what make tales beautiful.
"Sacrifice is needed, by all things beautiful.
"Then a seer came, promising perfection.
"'Is perfection beautiful?' She asked.
"'More beautiful than beauty itself.'
"And so she stood. Watching, loving, waiting. Ever longing."
- - A tale told in the Summit, some time before the Betrayal, as an answer to a question.
The People's Combine
Hegemonic Engineer Aether, of the Victor Ascendant
Player Tamsin Coton
Corps Revolutionary Corps
Role Hegemonic Engineer
Affinity Keystone
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
Soulforges Mechanical, Shimmering
"Comrades. Friends. Siblings. Although we have suffered a great loss, today is not a day for sadness.
No, my comrades. I stand before you and declare today a celebration.
Today we celebrate a woman who embodied the true ethos of the Combine spirit. She was intelligent beyond measures, breathtakingly stunning, and with an ability to recognise greatness that was unparalleled.
She was also my sister.
My friends. My glorious friends. I will not grieve her loss. No my friends. Instead I will dedicate each day to making sure we strive forward in her memory for that is how she would have wished us to go on.
For the glory of the Combine and for my sister - Aether."
- - Liberator Flare, of the Victor Ascendant, in a speech following the loss of Hegemonic Engineer Aether in battle over the Inner Sea
Liberator Arclight
Player Doug Kohler
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Zipline Lancer
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
Soulforges Mechanical
"And above all, remember this: ideology, however refined and perfected, when elevated above the lives of those on whom it would be imposed, is the seed from which tyranny inexorably grows."
- - Liberator Arclight, Reflections on Outworld
Fusilier Barrage, of the Symphony Of Purpose
- Comrade of Flare
- Student of Intriguing Glint Anki
Player Helen Dixon
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Fusilier
Affinity Tempest
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
(profile to follow)
Engineer Cam, of the Symphony Of Purpose
- Champion of Crankshaft
- Champion of Trip The Electric
- Rival of Maximum
- Rival of Petrol
Player Morgan Wilkinson
Corps Production Corps
Profession Engineer
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
IC Pronouns He/Him
OC Pronouns He/Him
"So, the Renovatory Flame of Progress made it back to dock?"
"Barely. And I've no idea how – most of the crew are dead, and the ship's so much junk at this point. I don't think there was much holding it together bar sheer stubbornness by the time they got back."
"How long will it take to repair? We'll need them back out there-- "
"Honest answer? It's past fixing. Best thing to do would be to break it down for parts and reassign what's left of the crew elsewhere. Not that you'd know it to listen to the engineer I spoke to."
"Who was that? Let me see those files…"
There's a pause, and a shuffling of paper.
"Engineer Cam, was it? No, you wouldn't get an admission of defeat from him; he'd have it up in the air held together with rubber bands and fuse wire if you left him to it. You're probably right that it's not worth it, though. Where were you thinking of sending them?"
"The Symphony of Purpose is still down on numbers. But if these kids are going to be difficult-"
"Not difficult, no, none of them want anything but what's best for the Combine. Convincing them – that one especially – that downing tools and giving up on their ship is what's necessary for the greater good, though? That'll be a job."
Engineer Crankshaft, of the Heart Of The Machine
- Comrade of Piston
- Enemy of Mariana
- Muse of Flood
- Partner of Whispers Of Autumn
- Patron of Cam
- Student of Last Lingering Music
Player Kiwi Apteryx Tokoeka
Corps Production Corps
Profession Engineer
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
Soulforges Blossoming
IC Pronouns They/Their
"We received final broadcast from the Liberation Made Manifest informing us they had been hit fatally, and were going down. We were the nearest ship, but we weren't going to get there in time. So I did what any Citizen would do, secured my tools and exited the ship by the nearest external access, directing my fall towards the Liberation Made Manifest." – Engineer Crankshaft
"We were going down, our Engineers dead, flames billowing everywhere and sparks flying from all the machinery. I was trying to do what I could to help, when someone landed in the Engine room, through the hole to the sky, rolling to a stop. They picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and having pulled out a Crowbar and Spanner, set about repairing all the damage I could see, and presumably, all that I couldn't. Don't know how they did it, but we were flying as smooth as the day we were commissioned by the time they finished."
- – After Action Report from the Liberation Made Manifest
Liberator Flare, of the Victor Ascendant
- Champion of Desiderata Violet
- Comrade of Barrage
- Enemy of Alaccastia
- Partner of Pandora
- Rival of Ribs
Player Kate Robins
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Fusilier
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
"What's your secret?" I ask. She pushes back her hair and grins.
"Secret? I don't have secrets. But if I did…" She leans forward and I can see the flecks of blood sprayed across her face. "It would be this" she caresses the flamethrower next to her, "this" she gestures to the ship we are now sat on, "but mostly them". She turns to the crew milling around us, some just fresh from the fight. "Together we have the ability to make anything happen. And if I can inspire these people onwards to such great victories, well just think what else I can do for the People's Combine."'
- - Extract from Flare of the Victor Ascendant's first interview
Rhetonomic Engineer Fluidity, of the Victory Through Persistence
- Comrade of
- Muse of Serennia
Player Amy Allen
Corps Revolutionary Corps
Profession Rhetonomic Engineer
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"Of course our world runs on gears and guns. Of course. And our true heroes are those who fire up pistons, throw grenades, swing battles: those who liberate: Liberators."
The camera pans from glaring explosions on the near horizon. A woman's dark eyes meet the viewer with a soft but surefooted smile.
"Someone has to come in afterwards, though, and that someone is me. The machines are our life, our joy. One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is to exalt our ProCorps for their mechanical prowess."
With a chipper little nod, she continues to hold the viewer's gaze.
"I'm in rhetonomics, but I like to think I run machines nevertheless. I machinate the final stage in processing unenlightened territories to functional Combine components. I oil the gears of our communications and stoke the flames of our reputation. That's how I think about it, anyway."
A particularly deafening explosion. The ground sways slightly, though she keeps her balance as though second nature. Her grin widens and one hand edges out of vision.
"I love it when I get to throw grenades, too."
- - clip from "A Day on the Victory Through Persistence"
Liberator Joule, of the Forge Of Unity
- Champion of Flux Wildly
Player Lucy Powell
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Zipline Lancer
Affinity Bastion
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
Black and white footage reels from an old propaganda video, showing a soot-smeared Liberator Joule climbing out of a crashed and smoking airship, sabre held aloft, grinning. She is bleeding profusely from a deep cut on the side of her face.
"Here we have a mighty comrade of the Combine in a blazing victory against the Valtarians! Her ship may be down but she's still standing – what a display of fortitude! Of might!"
"Liberator! Liberator!" The camera pans closer "That was amazing! How did you—"
Joule grins and shakes flecks of blood out of her blonde hair.
"Purpose! We did what we had to - and though we're down an airship, we took down the rest of--" a crackle of static interrupts the audio "-- show that you can stand strong, whatever the odds! The Combine forges on!"
Another louder explosion flashes just behind her, flinging her forward onto the ground, unmoving, and the footage goes white for a moment. Only sound can be heard.
"Liberator? Comrade!"
- - Deleted extract from 'A Joule in the Forgeworks' Clip #214
Liberator Petrol, of the End of the Line
- Comrade of Flare
- Rival of Cam
Player Tim Knight
Corps Liberator
Profession Medic
Affinity Tempest
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
Alias Volunteer Vector, of the Symphony Of Purpose
In a time long past, on homeworld, the vids showed stories of two Liberators, joined at the hip, named Petrol and Diesel, flying their ship "The End of the Line" on daring missions. Never seen apart, these two comrades were inexorably linked, until one day, Petrol vanished.
Volunteer Vector was spat back out of the re-education facilities, a medic, excelling at eeking out the lives of volunteers, spread thinly across the Combine. But also surprisingly good with the rifle, a left over piece of muscle memory.
Then in Outworld, everything changed. The two personalities, separated, walled off, were joined, in an event not seen before by the Rev-Corp. Where once there was Vector and Petrol, now there is only one person, keeping his most recent name. Vector has refound his Diesel, joined with his comrades, and looks to forge a new world with the Revolution and with the Combine.
Lieutenant Balthazhar Piston Bennet
- Comrade of Crankshaft
- Champion of Rosie Ratchet
Player Tomas Pilar
Corps Industrioclast
Profession Fixer
Affinity Keystone
Motives Loyalty, Challenge
'The mass coupler blew again, the guns are overheating but that maniac wants to blow another bridge. I swear I'll cut off his radio halfway through his speech next time.'
'He wants me to keep this junk flying for 2 more hours!? What am I, a frikking wizzard?!'
'We did it. The bridge is gone and we boarded the Combine flying locomotive. They couldn't believe we
were there, had no idea what hit them. And they've not yet made a locomotive good ol' Piston couldn't
Volunteer Pivot, of the Victory Through Persistence
- Comrade of Ariadne
- Comrade of Falconet
- Enemy of Pandora
- Partner of Mariana
Player Matilda Tempest
Corps Volunteer Corps
Profession Aerial Infantry
Affinity Tempest
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
The camera pans down over a battlefield, coming to rest on a rhetonomic engineer and a member of the volunteer corps. Though both obviously members of the Combine, they couldn't look more different, the engineer's patriotic outfit and bright smile contrasting with the volunteer's scorched jacket and vacant expression.
'While everyone can look up to the Liberators with awe and admiration, sometimes it's easy to forget the impact that even a humble volunteer can have. An entire base destroyed - tell me, what were you thinking?'
The volunteer starts, glancing up at the engineer and over at the camera. Her mouth moves silently for a couple of seconds before any sound comes out:
'I wasn't thinking anything. I just... did what I had to.'
She glances off to the side camera zooms back out again, showing a panorama of the battlefield as the engineer's voice extorts the virtues of the volunteer programme.
- - Excerpt from a patriotic documentary
Engineer Rebar, of the Victory Through Persistence
- Rival of Switchgear
Player Zachary Smith
Corps Production Corps
Profession Engineer
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"My role? I see to it that our airship's sturdy enough to cope with the tactical maneuvering dreams of our Liberators.
"Watch your head!
"You see, to dock with an enemy ship in a truly inspiring manner sometimes you have to dock through an enemy ship. And that requires a certain hard-headedness that -
"That you could certainly make use of! Haha ha! Anyway without me I'm sure they'd be calling our ship the 'Unfortunately Smashed into Twenty Separate Pieces Through Persistence'. Now get out of here before you cause more head-shaped dents in my precious equipment."
- - Cut short interview with Engineer Rebar of the Victory Through Persistence
Rosie Ratchet
- Muse of Leaf
- Muse of Spine
- Patron of Piston
Player Gillian Reynolds-Carr
Corps Industrioclast
Profession Shit-stirring, gun-slinging rebel
Affinity Tempest
Motives Influence
Soulforges Penumbral
This is a declaration of independence.
The so-called People's Combine is a parasitic drain on the fabric of the world, depriving and denying individuals from achieving their full potential. These looters and moochers have benefited from individuals' hard labor long enough! They provide no honest pay for honest work and I reject this, withdrawing my labor. I invite any pioneering, self-reliant folk to follow me to the new world.
The People's Combine works entirely on propaganda and while they claim to be egalitarian, there are inevitably those who rise to the top – but not based on their talents or industrial merit but on how closely they parrot the lies they have been fed their entire lives.
How can a society be egalitarian when we have individuals who can literally shape the world walk among the rest?
Their world is based on falsehoods and I am here to ensure that this new world is founded as a refuge to ensure individuals are able to follow their true potential and earn their way in the world on their own merits.
Consider this a (courteous) warning shot across your bows, Combine.
- - Rosie Ratchet
Liberator Spectrum, of the Thunder Of Salvation
Player Charles Wilkinson
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Zipline Lancer
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
The ship lurched violently to port to the joint sounds of buckling hull plates, thunderous waves and roaring klaxon.
Around the bridge the crew worked frantically, hunched over consoles and relaying messages over the ships comms.
"Damage control to bridge, we've just lost compartment three, four is taking on water, we've got an hour tops before she goes under completely"
"Understood damage control, evac and seal the lower decks, get everyone topside ASAP."
The sailor turned to face the figure wresting with the ships wheel, heaving the ship into the waves in a desperate attempt to stop it capsizing.
"Calliper! Do we launch the life rafts?"
"They'll never survive this storm, let alone what else is out there. We've only got one hope now."
Straining to control the wheel with one hand they reached above them to grab the handset.
"This is an emergency broadcast from the trawler Righteous Haul. We're holed below the waterline and sinking fast. I repeat this is an emergency broadcast from the trawler Righteous Haul. We're holed below the waterline and in desperate need of assistance."
The bridge fell quiet as the crew strained to hear the response. They turned pale as nothing but static could be heard. Suddenly the Aethernet crackled into life.
"We read you Righteous Haul, Thunder of Salvation is go"
Liberator Switchgear of the Victory Through Persistence
- Champion of By My Crooked Teeth
- Muse of Desiderata Violet
- Partner of Desiderata Violet
- Rival of Rebar
Player Katie Moore
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Zipline Lancer (Swordsman/Boarder)
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion
Pronouns She/Her
"...and I guess you could say between me and Gatling we've got his back. We're a- DUCK!"
The Volunteer swings her energy sword and a beam of light arcs over the top of the camera and off screen, the following sound of Valtarian soldiers in agony just about audible over the melee.
"We're a team. We're the embodiment of Unity. We're the ones that make Monarchs-in-Shadow have nightmares about. And when I'm a Liberator, there's nothing that's gonna stop us finally Liberating the whole of Valt- oh? You were looking for Dy? He's over there..."
- Deleted clip from the Propaganda Vid "A Day on the Victory Through Persistence"
The Valtarian Kingdoms
Aadiahe, the Feasting Flower
- Partner of Mariana
Player Caroline Feltham
Status Monarch-Errant
Past Advisor
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Devotion
Last thing I remember there were tears of blood and just not mine
Any other day and I would save you from this cold decline
Everything they said about everything
Was a coming undone it's a life supreme
I do and I don't, well I do and I don't, oh yeah
Feasting on the flowers so fast and young
It's a light so bright that I bite my tongue
I do and I don't, well I do and I don't, oh yeah
The next dimension, show me in
We were moving in the world, expanding your realities
A force of nature on the verge, commanding abnormalities
Last thing I remember there was ringing in my selfish ears
Twenty-six a number much too small for someone's golden years
Everything they said about everything
Was a coming undone it's a life supreme
I do and I don't, well I do and I don't, oh yeah
Feasting on the flowers so fast and young
It's a light so bright that I bite my tongue
I do and I don't, well I do and I don't, oh yeah
The next dimension, show me in
You get a little bit more this time when
You give a little bit for your brother's kind
Like she always said, oh, don't look back, just look ahead.
Aestival, Heart Of Summer
- Comrade of Hand
Player Martel Reynolds
Status Monarch-In-Shadow
Past Advisor
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
Soulforges Venomous
Many's the poet quick in praise of summer:
the flowers spread, the first fruits ripening,
the endless golden days stitched in with thunder;
the hard-won glory of embattled spring.
They have not seen the name of Summer fall
all in an instant on a quiet land,
that made a kind of peace with winter's pall,
and never had a hope to understand
Summer full-armed in fire, plague and flood,
armoured in horror, swift in its advance
as poison burning through the fevered blood
beyond all help but hope; Summer that plants
its flag upon the wreck, bought at such price,
and calls it kinder than the peaceful ice.
- - Sonnets in the Aftermath, II
Her Torturous Turpitude, Ariadne, the Irritant
- Comrade of Pivot
- Partner of Flood
- Partner of Vallora
Player Sally Outen
Status Monarch-in-Shadow
Past Advisor
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Soulforges Venomous
"This time, my dear nemesis, I fear you have strayed into a trap you shan't escape nearly so easily. Observe, if you please, the selection of razor-sharp blades I have prepared for your demise – ha! – you can struggle all you like, but you won't be breaking these bonds, not unless you happen to have access to something with a particularly wicked edge.
Now… shall I spend our remaining time together immediately activating the mechanism and observing your final moments in person, or shall I gloat for a while longer, revelling in the intricacy of my plans? Choices, choices…."
With a penchant for overly convoluted, ludicrous schemes and an overtly spidery aesthetic, Ariadne has recently taken her place as a villain who, while perhaps easily bested last time, is liable to bounce back with a still stronger appetite for her own hubris.
Astrape, the Living Storm
- Champion of Marina
- Muse of Trojan Force
- Seeker of Trojan Force
- Tutor of At Dawn And At Dusk
Player Gwen Thompson
Status Monarch-errant
Past Companion
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
"...she is changed since her return. His death hit her hard - hit us all, we felt her grief like our own...
...You know, my lord, that I do not understand the Changes, that my eyes cannot watch the shifting of our realm like yours. You speak of ripples across reality like ripples across the Adrasteian's waters, that our mortal eyes can never see.
Still, I know that something has changed since that day. I know that this was not always our tale. I see similarities between us and the Margin Drivers and Euphoristas who visit us, more than sometimes I see in Yourself...
...I fear for her. Not for us, we will be kept safe. We will weather this as we have all else, we are made of stronger stuff than would fall to this idiocy. But she hides so much pain in her eyes that she thinks I do not see...
...and wakes screaming for vengeance... not a Monarch in Shadow, but how else should there be such hatred, such foul deeds?
... What was she? What is written on the first pages of this story?"
- - from a letter left for Aestival, Heart of Summer, from the Seneschal of the Grottos during his visit
Starqueen Celestine Brightheart, Blade of Truth
- Champion of Yaztromo
- Rival of d'Eon
- Rival of Telador Silverhand
Player Oliver Yanp
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Peasant
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge and Devotion
IC Pronouns She/Her or They/Them
"On the sixth day of the siege, there came from the west a shimmering host. Lead by a Warrior in White with starlight upon her brow, they descended upon the wyrds and abominations that beset the Wraithhold. In single combat, the Starqueen met the Archfiend-Malefic. They did battle for seven days and seven nights, before the Blade of Truth smote its ruin upon the hillside." - Sibling Agrimonde, librarian and remembrancer. Author of "The Song of the Second War."
"For six hundred lives of mortals has she watched over the free peoples of Light's Bastion. Where once packs of lycanthropic hunters descended upon villages, now vast legions of unnumbered horrors make it their mission to assail the Marble City. The days have grown longer and darker over the millennia, but even on the darkest of nights, the stars shine sentinel. So, too, does our immortal queen watch over us. Just as the Elder Valtarians once did, The Blade of Truth stands fast against evils that lurk in the depths of this world. Let us rejoice, for so long as she draws breath, Light's Bastion shall never be breached." - Ser Aulthiel, First Blade of the Starqueen.
"When stars go out and clouds of roiling Nothing blot the skies, so shall rise the Blade of Truth to pierce the veil of lies." - Unknown.
Vogelchevalier d'Eon – Tempered Blade of the People, Ash of the Revolution
- Partner of Ronan
- Rival of Celestine
- Rival of Pandora
Player Minna Wilke
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Companion
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Devotion
IC Pronouns They/Them
"Why do I follow d'Eon? Why d'Eon stands for us people! True, they started off serving the Monarchs, as a companion to Cardinal Richelieu the Resplendant. But as Richelieu turned from Monarch-Errant to the cruel tyrant of a Monarch-Shadow that's when Vogelchevalier found their fire and rebelled! d'Eon listens to our plight, and will pick up the blade when we cannot. That is why I follow d'Eon. They are not scared of any Monarch, and will keep fighting people like you and me! How could I not follow such a passionate individual?"
- - Noble Knight in service to d'Eon
"If I am made to burn, than you shall burn with me."
- - Vogelchevalier to Cardinal Richelieu
Heloise Dragon-Hearted
- Rival of Pandora
- Student of Adversity Breeds
Player Hannah McKay
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Companion
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Devotion
Soulforges Primal
IC Pronouns She/Her
OC Pronouns They/Them
"Once upon a time, there was a girl. Not a scion, but an innkeeper's daughter. The girl was nothing special. But she was brave.
So when a Monarch-in-Shadow came to her village, and her mother was in danger, the girl did something brave, and foolish, and caught his eye. And he offered her a choice. And because the girl was brave, she said yes.
And so she was reborn; stripped of her self, her name, her memories, recreated in the Monarch's own image. There are many tales told of Carrion-Queen Vermilion the Unrepentant, who bestrode the land with fire and fury at the head of an army of the slain. There are other tales told too, of an Enchantress-Supreme named Viridian, who called herself the Balm of Sorrow though others called her Cruel Kindness, glimpsed around the edges of her sister's tales.
None of those stories mention the girl who watched and waited and wept behind their eyes.
Once upon a time, though, not so very long ago, a name was spoken. And as we all know, names have power.
And so, a new tale has begun.
That of Heloise Dragon-Hearted, not Queen but Alpha."
- - Morgause, bard of the Wyrdwood
Archon Kerebos, Wielder of Dragonsfire
- Champion of Rain Falls On The Snow
Player Michael Chester
Status Monarch-In-Shadow
Past Scion
Affinity Edge
Motives Influence
Some Monarchs-in-Shadow are content to sit in their fortresses of doom, waiting for brave heroes to come to them. His Incandescent Malevolence, Abanox the Soulchainer takes a rather different approach – he is known to find those Monarch-Errants who have shown early promise, and terrorise them until they either make good on that promise and achieve greatness, are corrupted to shadow themselves, or die. So far, none have reached his standard of greatness.
Guardian-General Kystennin, The Unyielding
Player Thom Allen
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Companion
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
"...earned his first title, the Unyielding, during the skirmish for the town of Sevil Bridge, whilst serving as a Knight-Sergeant in the Shining Guard of His Majestic Eminence Florencian, The Coin Beyond Worth. Present for the assault by pure chance, the Knight-Sergeant opted to delay the assault alone while the peasantry made their escape, and his unexpected survival is considered the first sign of the Shaper's Gift.
"In the years that followed, he rose to become a valued member of the Court. Conservative, and perhaps without the same flair as certain other Monarchs-Victor, but a worthy bearer of the title nonetheless."
- - Excerpt from an unauthorised biography
"Consider THIS individual! Steadfast. Personable. Disposed to work in CONCERT with others. CAPABLE and INVENTIVE in battle and organisation, AND possessed of the Shaper's Gift. ALL qualities to value in our ranks!
"And yet, a TYRANT, a MONARCH! I could WEEP for the WASTED POTENTIAL, my friends. Every day that the CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS of this world remain, a potential comrade in arms is LOST to DEPRAVITY.."
- - Rhetonomic Engineer Synergy of the Clarity Of Purpose, instructing a group of Volunteers
Demoiselle Lapin, The Lady Of The Golden Rabbit
- Champion of Adversity Breeds
Player Rosalind Irene Crane
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Scion
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Lady Lapin – A woman who relishes the finer things in life. Her names comes from her seemly innocent appearance and love for gold. She adores all things that are gilded and glitter. Despite her naive and complacent demeanor she is in fact cold and calculated, the large guillotine in her palaces forecourt often used to execute enemies (some say even her own sister who mysteriously disappeared). She uses her charisma and charm to get her way, preferring to have other people fight her battles for her as blood stains are so very difficult to get out of fine embodied baroque gowns…
Her Glacial Majesty Mariana, Oceanheart, The Undrowned
- Champion of Endless Radiance
- Enemy of Crankshaft
- Partner of Pivot
- Partner of Aadiahe
- Student of An Endless Falling
- Student of Trilogy
Player Ash Le Galloudec
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Scion
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Soulforges Shimmering
Hail to the great ocean, wild and free
Hail to the ocean's queen, gracious is she
Who keeps us here in love and harmony
- - excerpt from the Ildathach anthem
"… the circumstances surrounding her rise to power, however, remain a mystery and will continue to do so as long as the bottom of the sea remains inaccessible to any without the Monarch's gifts. What exactly befell her sister, therefore, is equally-"
- - fragment of text from burned manuscript, unknown author, Central Archives
We trust you will not disappoint us, Mariana. Your father and I would be most displeased to hear of another 'accident' within the family, after the scandal surrounding your brother – may he rest in peace. However given a choice between loss and widespread ridicule, I would expect you not to hesitate. Our honour and glory must be paramount in your mind, even as – especially as – you seek to be kind and gracious to your loyal subjects. Do not forget this, Mariana. Do not ever forget this.
- - letter from Her Most Radiant Grace, Violetta, the White Hart, never delivered
Her Illustrious Extravagance Pandora, the Libertine
- Enemy of Pivot
- Partner of Flare
- Muse of Ribs
- Rival of d'Eon
- Rival of Heloise
- Student of Raziel
Player Emma Bates
Status Monarch-In-Shadow
Past Scion
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Devotion
"Please, come in. May I offer you a glass of burgundy? It was gifted to me by Antoinette of the Fens; I assure you the taste is exquisite.
"I see you were admiring the portrait in the hallway. His Excellency Dorimant the Dissolute took an idiosyncratic approach to interior design; there is nary a room in this entire house that does not bear his image. Artistic appreciation came as easily to him as slaughter and spite.
"I have been told the resemblance is striking."
Scion of one of the most notorious Monarch-in-Shadows ever to grace the Valtarian Kingdoms with his malice, Her Extravagance Pandora the Libertine launched her campaign of terror no sooner than he was vanquished. Evil, she claims, is the greatest mode of artistic expression. If it is murder, torture and devastation she craves, then this is only by way of seeking out new sensation.
Push, Until It Hurts
- Comrade of Lorentz
Player Luke Cater
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Scion
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Soulforges Penumbral, Primal
Ghastly Whens, a one-time Monarch-Victor and ex-Scion, is no stranger to the hardships of mortals. They were a child of a famous Monarch-Shadow, whose rampage was infamous until he was finally crushed by 'The Shadow of the Shattered Front' moments before he was due to fight his nemesis.
Ghastly holds nothing but contempt for the mandate. Thrown against the toughest challenges, not only to survive, but to finally gain the shaper's gift was enough to tempt him briefly into the life of a Monarch-Victor. But it was not long before the cries of the people pierced his heart, and there they lodged firmly.
Valtaria is a place that has given way to many legends and stories; all of which control the lives of the actors within them. It is time those stories were put to better use.
"We are all born pawns, and without intervention we may all die pawns. It is those who still cling to the roles of Victors and Shadows that I pity the most; for they have not realised that they are doomed to take the stage; and only ever act the fool."
- – Excerpt from The Twisted Tale.
Raziel, The Light In The Shadows
- Muse of Soar Ever Upward
- Tutor of Pandora
Player Liesl Rowe
Status Monarch-Errant
Past Advisor
Affinity Keystone
Motives Knowledge IC pronouns They/them
"Once, I trusted them. I put my only daughter into their care and they promised to keep her safe, no matter what the cost. They lied." - Most Beloved Rikandel, The Incorruptible
"lt's alright, I'm not worried. I know I'm safe here. You're with me." - the final words of Athalia, scion of Rikandel
"Can't you see why I'm doing this? It's because of you. This is your fault. This is what you turned me into. Deal with it." - [Shaper Not Found]
Ronan, Guardian of Outworld, Child of Shadow
- Partner of d'Eon
- Patron of Lorentz
- Muse of The Tears Fall Gladly
- Champion of Illuminating
Player Lambie
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Peasant
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence
IC Pronouns They/Them
"There is, or was, a saying that the best omen for an Imperatrix's rule was the manner of their assuming it - a war, a coup, an acclamation, a treaty or an inheritance all mean something.
Consider, then, what it may mean that Ronan looked at the Sovereignty and saw a thankless burden made newly dangerous and volunteered."
- – Aestival, The Heart of Summer, Monarch-Victor
"Do you know, of all the Nexus Valtarians, I daresay Ronan is one of the only visionaries to actually possess a vision. It will be my privilege to aid and thwart them in equal measure - and I trust they shall not disappoint me! I have been grievously disappointed before."
- – Her Illustrious Extravagance Pandora the Libertine, Monarch-in-Shadow
"Ronan is a perfectly acceptable sovereign of Valtaria. To those who question their devotion to the ideals of Valtarian monarchy, I would point out that their quest to save Outworld from dissonance is just as noble as any of our own internal squabbles. I am sure that they will remain steadfast in the face of any opposition."
- - Raziel, The Light in The Shadows, Monarch-Errant
[ERROR – CONCEPT EXPUNGED] I remember him well. He was my friend, a monster, but my friend. A very different beast to Ronan, that's for sure. But I can't deny that Ronan has turned out unlike either of us planned."
- – Push Until It Hurts, Story Eater, Monarch-Pawn
Her Exalted Beneficence Serennia, the Illustrious Conqueror of Drakenhold
- Partner of Last Lingering Music
- Seeker of Fluidity
Player Theresa Austin
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Scion
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification
Soulforges Penumbral
"You just can't get the staff nowadays…"
Her Exalted Beneficence Serennia the Illustrious Conqueror of Drakenhold was a Monarch-Victor eager to ensnare the affections of the brightest and boldest up-and-coming new hero in court. Malefactor-Marshal Gedremonde, the Lightscourge dutifully answered the call, assuming the mantle of villainy and presenting an opportunity for valour that would prove quite irresistible. Forging a Dread Kingdom of Eternal Night and sending legions of eyeless bestial minions to terrorise and enslave the populace, Gedremonde awaited the dramatic arrival of her bright-eyed heroic foe atop a forbidding yet eminently infiltratable obsidian citadel filled with devious traps and monstrous creatures. A mighty duel in the Citadel of Eternal Night's command eyrie saw the young champion, named Ephraste the Undiminished, poised to collapse exhaustedly into her nemesis' waiting arms – when an overeager minion promptly struck her down and killed her. An enraged and profoundly disappointed Gedremonde proceeded to pour all her pent-up frustration into redoubling her efforts at bringing tyranny and ruin to the Kingdom of Eternal Night, levying a new army of twisted darkling horrors and hoping for the arrival of a new, stronger and more resilient nemesis with greater situational awareness..
Telador Silverhand, Lance of the Stars
- Rival of Celestine Brightheart
Player Thomas Glithero
Status Monarch-Errant
Past Peasant
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
"We are stardust, and that makes us kin of the stars above. When I call, they WILL answer."
When young Telador saw his home burn at the hands of an unknown Monarch in Shadow he did not give into despair. Alone and wounded, his hand severed in an act of callous cruelty, he staggered into an ancient ruin, and in so doing found his destiny. Through harnessing long-forgotten magics he called down the might of the sun to stand with him, taming its fire with his desire for vengeance. The Monarch in Shadow dared not face Telador's wrath, fleeing into the rift as the Lance of the Stars burned down upon their domain. By his silver hand Telador weaves the power of the heavens into his deeds and weapons, seeking to write his story and arise as Monarch-Victor.
Theobald, the Unbroken Shield
- Patron of At Dawn And At Dusk
Player Cameron Alsop
Status Monarch-Errant
Past Peasant
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence
Dearest Mother,
I am writing you this letter as I know how forgetful you can be when trying to keep track of all seven of your children. As I have mentioned previous, I have been chosen to Ascend to position of Monarch-Errant, and thus I have left the village, to seek what the future may bring.
Fear not, I will not be alone, for I travel with Bethany (you must surely at least remember her), as we seek triumph over the Monarchs-inShadow that continue to plague our lands. I intend to return to the village, victorious, and will no doubt indulge you all in the tales of my adventures, but for now this letter will have to suffice.
Your loving son,
The Visions of Opportunity
Player Leo Yoshikage
Vision Joy Effect
Division Euphorista
Affinity Bastion
Motives Gratification, Influence
(Profile to follow)
Asset Sin
- Champion of Lace
Player Bea Key
Vision Protean Dynamics
Divison Contingency
Affinity Tempest
Motives Supremacy
Soulforges Pestilent, Venomous
Personnel File: Asset Sin
Former Aliases: Saccharine Violet
Acquisition: Standard debtor reclamation and re-purposing programme. Asset acquired numerous debts via the Joy Effect Bodily Insurance Policies (assessor note: further targeting of the bloodsports and extreme stunt casts is advisable for swift return on investments) and was found unable to assure PD of sustainable repayments following viewer number declines over two quarters. Possession of Asset Sin was signed off by Gore-ious Entertainments and Executions Ltd.
Processing: Third level emotional adjustment programme completed. Output restrictor and capacity inhibitors securely implanted. Physical augmentations (spinal casting, musculoskeletal enhancement level two, processing boost level four) completed in simultaneous programming (high intensity adjustment agreed by Committee 17-B-3 in light of asset's original inability to cooperate). Following incident SR-567-UL, asset has been enhanced with remote directional command structure, lessening the potential for further losses of experienced Handlers.
Suggested Mission Parameters: Asset Sin has previously developed a specific but large following of fans on the Joy Effect Underground. It is suggested that this asset be deployed for targeted missions amongst this demographic. Income Dept have noted that many targets are willing to negotiate openly for personal attention from this particular asset.
Notes: Asset is birth-sister (estranged) to Desiderata Violet, known Shaper, deployed in initial expeditions to the Outworld. Additional monitoring of Asset Sin is recommended, and any suspected ability to be reported immediately to Special Committee XT-OP-1.
Auspicious Paradigm
Player Ian Gannaway
Vision Joy Effect
Division Exposeur
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Soulforges Mechanical, Penumbral, Pestilent
"Auspicious Paradigm has been a great asset to this company for over a decade now. It is clear that he fully understands the path we have laid out for Holovid 12 Media. Given his discovery as a Shaper, it is my firm recommendation to the board that he be given the authority needed to usher this company into the new age."
- -Excerpt from speech given by the CEO of Holovid 12 Media to the board of directors.
"Debts" Mett
- Champion of Calm Merchandiser
- Rival of Bogwort
Player Laura/Frank Bowman
Vision Margin Drivers
Divison Accounts
Affinity Edge
Motives Supremacy
IC Pronouns They/Them
OC Pronouns They/Them
A stained and messily printed flyer is hammered into the doors and windows of Opportunity:
COUPLE FOR HIRE. -Violence essential.
Any target, any time, any place. No questions asked, no returns.
Someone owe you a lump sum? Needs to be held accountable? Got a job you want doing but don't want your hands dirty? Hire Mett and Betsy from Accounts and cash in on the sum of their parts. Guaranteed outstanding handling of arrears. Limb retrieval and further division options available*
MAKE SURE YOUR DEBTS ARE MET. We always take interest.
*postage not included. Accrued organic tender may be unrecognisable as target. "Debts" Mett and Betsy reserve the right to declare tender's origins and hold organic tender indefinitely. Assets may be liquidated.
Desiderata Violet
- Partner of Switchgear
- Patron of Flare
- Seeker of Switchgear
Player Emily Room
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
Soulforges Shimmering
"Is there something you want more than anything? I can help with that. I specialise in working closely with my particular clients to find out what it is they really want, and then making sure they get it. I take individuals and make them feel special and unique, make their dreams come true, make them happy. Just answer a few simple questions to build up a profile, and the dreams and desires of your heart can be made reality. No desire too big or too small - but are the things that are going to make you happy really going to be small?"
- - Holovid advertisement
Player Jacqui Crane
Vision Joy Effect
Divison Exposeur
Affinity Tempest
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Our coverage of the lethal strikes at the Torgue Munitions factory has been met with universal praise, and I'm personally very proud to have brought this important topic to the world's attention. Several of the comment-vids I've seen have asked how it was X3 happened to be on the ground so soon after it all kicked off, and I can only attribute it to pure luck. It's true that X3 does have an interest in industrial disputes, but I'd only sent him off to cover the Vitamin Glee Floral Symphony! How fortuitous!
In other news, I was delighted to have been asked to dine with Storm Starlite, the CEO of Total Fabrication Ltd. Quite the charmer, she told me how much she appreciated having the key political headlines on her desk every week, and straight from the horse's mouth, "If it weren't for Outworld Weekly, I wouldn't know WHAT to think!" You're welcome, Starlite!
- - ¡EXCLUSIVA!'s Editorial, World Monitor Weekly
Flick LaLune
Player Charlotte Wilson-Slight
Vision Joy Effect
Divison Exposeur
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
"They say I'm opinionated. Oh, Flick, she always has SOMETHING to say about what you're wearing. I say, if its right, it can be SO right, but if it's wrong...run. Hide. Get a makeover... Not that it'll make any difference, sweetheart. If I don't find you, the rumours will!"
Preferring to cut you down with words above blades, Flick doesn't hold back. If you're not upholding the reputation of Opportunity as Outworld's forerunner in all things stylish, you're in her sights. Her column about the titanic hits and tragic misses of the fashion world has ended the careers and brought low more than one Heartisan in its time.
"What can I say? Culottes with body armour?! Simply unacceptable!"
Of course, Flick holds herself to the same exacting wardrobes standards she insists everybody lives up to. The idea of being seen in something unsightly would be...well, "wouldn't be seen dead" isn't far from the truth. If it isn't beautiful, keep it away. Far away.
"Let's talk colour. You see this? This is FUCHSIA. I specifically stated amethyst and you bring me FUCHSIA? Amethyst is the centrepiece of the whole look! It is the foundation you build upon! How do you expect to build a foundation on FUCHSIA? So you're going to fix it for me. Now. I'll wait."
Flux Wildly
- Patron of Joule
- Seeker of C60 2AT8
Player Ben Dixon
Vision Joy Effect
Division Euphorista
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
"You all watched him rise through the ranks on the blood sports circuit!
You all enjoyed his witty narcissism in the Surreality show, "House of Euphoria!"
You all watched with interest, in real time, as his latest scandal unfolded!
Now, experience him in totality as he comes to you in fullsense!
"In Your Home with Flux Wildly" broadcasting tonight!"
- – Aethernet advertising media, property of Joy Effect
"Like many aspiring Euphoristas, Flux Wildly started his career in blood sports. He built up a large fan base through his distinctive fighting techniques and constant showboating though he was never one of the greatest contestants. Perhaps that's why so many of his fans were happy to see him retire from professional murder and move away from live sport. Since his time in the arenas he has been seen on Surreality TV, "Adult" shows, Entertainment, and most recently, his own talk show. Join us as we learn about the person behind all that, the man behind the emotions."
- – Blurb from "The Man Behind the Emotions – A biography of Flux Wildly"
Intriguing Glint Anki
- Champion of Glimmers Of Logic
- Tutor of Barrage
Player Rachel Durrant
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
Glint knows what you want and is willing to make it happen. The best of every season can be found coming for her workshops. Don't be fooled, though she never formally fought in the arenas, this inventor packs a punch. Coming to you now with Holovid 12.
"Lace" Nichols
- Partner of Calm Merchandiser
- Patron of Asset Sin
Player India Cottiss
Vision Margin Drivers
Divison Accounts
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification, Influence
"Whatever happened to Black List?"
"You didn't hear? He's dead."
"He finally take too much of the good stuff?"
"Nah, turns out one of his held a grudge, wasn't a pretty end that's for sure, very bloody, they didn't find all of him either."
"Shit, hope they don't hold any more grudges."
"….You have been selected for one of the highest honours that can be bestowed on any of us on this world, a chance to dedicate yourself to the creation of a new world, a better world, the Masters of The Sublime Concord themselves have decided …"
"I'll save you your breath, no thanks"
"What?..But" "I'm not buying what you're selling, alright? On your way."
- - Recorded by Steps In The Darkness during initial contact with subject.
"Requesting back up, extraction attempt has failed, repeat has failed"
- - Distress call received from Heaven's Open Eye. Extraction team found dead, note left by subject says "I said I'm not interested"
"We do not recommend further extraction attempts at this time. Continue observation of subject. If a reliable way to minimise losses can be found, then proceed."
- - Recommendation of the Faculty of Archivists, after the 5th extraction attempt.
Scarlet Crave
- Seeker of Thoughtful Spider
Player Laura Armstrong
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
Scarlet is the foremost authority on recreational alchemy in the Visions of Opportunity. Since a young age she has dabbled in the joy of finding new brightly coloured "sweeties" to bring joy, desire and various other feelings to an audience of friends and rivals. Enjoying close links with other Joy effect shapers, she is always happy to develop a new business relationship.
The Shaper Formerly Known As The Loveliest Lies
Player Hannah Kay
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion
>run: checkroot
>Checkrootanalysis: fatal compression artefact. All boot modes root through Optix.OS. Location containing Optix.OS is heavily fragmented. Run DEFRAG on this location to revolve this issue.
>Do you wish to proceed?
Tableau BOOM
- Patron of Flood
Player Anna Robinson
Vision Joy Effect
Divison Exposeur
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
Tableau BOOM has previously worked as a fact finder and inciter for All Our Agents, the famous reality show that pits our glorious repossession team against dreaded debtors. She is also the co-author of 1001 Ways To Live Happily Ever After: How To Make Your Dreams Come True. During her free time she can be found enjoying the city park or ghost-writing for those less fortunate in the library.
"Talos" Perchik
Player Matthew Chapman
Vision Margin Drivers
Division Accounts
Affinity Bastion
Motives Loyalty
"Good evening.
My name is Talos and I am from Accounts.
If you see me coming, do not worry, it means you retain some use to us and you will leave my presence unharmed. Well, mostly.
If you do not see me coming, then I hope you have kept your affairs in order because they will no longer be your concern.
If you threaten my charge, then your next action should be to place a pistol to your temple and end your existence, because if not I will rend apart the fabric of creation itself to find you and when I do, you will be begging for a bullet long before I am finished.
This man here would explain what happens if you threaten my charge, if he still retained the capacity for such things. Unfortunately for you, his account has been closed. I suggest you heed my warning if you do not want your account terminated in future."
- - Audio recording found on the eviscerated, dismembered corpse of an unidentified high ranking official
Thoughtful Spider
- Champion of Peregrine Suede
- Champion of Scarlet Crave
- Champion of Trojan Force
- Muse of Claw
- Muse of Scarlet Crave
- Rival of Orb-Weaver
- Student of The Void
Player Ben Reynolds-Carr
Vision Protean Dynamics
Division Contingency
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion
Soulforges Blossoming
Dear Director,
I regret to inform you, that owing to some… unforeseen abnormalities, the new Relations operative designated "Thoughtful Spider" will not be suitable for purpose.
Happily, we feel the operative will be much better placed as part of the contingency team, given his outgoing personality, willingness to learn on the job and the recent, brutal death of the Personnel operative assigned to prepare him for service.
Furthermore, it is my recommendation that he be assigned to bodyguard positions, especially to operatives who work far, far away from the preparation centre.
I look forward to your prompt response.
Clean Slate
Senior Personnel Operative
AKA "Pandora" Morozov
AKA Hope Was Locked Away
AKA Eclipse
- Tutor of Mariana
Player Alice Tordoff
Vision Margin Drivers
Division Sales
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
You want me to explain myself.
Fine, I'll be sum up. It's not exactly a secret.
I was born a Walker named Eclipse, then I ran to join the Order wanting to see more of the world beyond what my family showed me. When I was no longer an Aspirant, I became Archivist Hope Was Locked Away. I had two best friends and lovers who I worked with and shared secrets with on everything, except for my past.
When the Fall began I forgot everything so that I could run away again. That's how I ended up in Opportunity. A girl on a grave who was set to become Daniela 'Pandora' Eclipse and for many of you, that's who you've known.
I got my original memories back, but none of that erases who I became or who I am now. Nothing will change that. Ever.
Now, how else may I help you?
Trojan Force
- Muse of Bunny
- Muse of Marina
- Muse of Astrape
- Rival of Chain Dog
- Rival of Z60
- Patron of Thoughtful Spider
- Seeker of Astrape
Player Chris Paton
Vision Joy Effect
Division Euphorista
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification, Influence
Yo! Welcome back Force Fans to another hit of The BloodSport Report with me your host: the unstoppable, the irreplaceable, the invincible TROJAN FORCE!
You know me, you love me and you can never beat me. Can you dig it? CAN YOU DIG IT?
I'm coming at you live from the penthouse of Trojan Tower and we've got another challenger ready to put everything on the line, to play for the ultimate stakes and face the Force.
Stay tuned Force Fans for what is ultimately going to be another euphoric victory for the Sultan of Slaughter, the King of Carnage, the Monarch of Murder: The TROJAN FORCE!
"Wage" Slayv
Player Ben Stevens
Vision Margin Drivers
Division Accounts
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
(In the form of a poster nailed to various bulletin boards in Opportunity, in heavy bold text)
The Walkers
- Champion of Carrion Comfort
- Comrade of Red Tail
- Comrade of Wing
- Tutor of Bogwort
Player Rose Chester
Path Blue/Red
Vocation Sage
Affinity Tempest
Motives Knowledge Soulforge Infernal
"She spends most of her walk in the Tomb Cities scavenging, and only half of that above ground. She doesn't hang around groups much, and from what I hear groups don't last long around her either. There's dangers in those dark places.
She talks to herself, and the conversation she has sounds like two hyperactive kids. Too much time underground makes you crazy, but crazy doesn't mean stupid. One second she's giggling in the corner piecing tech together, the next she's frying Opportunity muppets with 'Zap-Zap Mines.' That's if she hasn't shot them to pieces, she can make mean firearm.
And that's just it, I'd tell you to steer clear of the crazy witch but the truth is some of that tech she hands out is good. And she'll give it free unless she really wants it. She told me this one time 'it's not about the final thing, it's about making it into that thing. Taking the old and discovering the new.'
There isn't much old to make new these days, tech is getting thin even in the Tombs. If it's true what I hear and Ash has gone shaper, it might be the best for her."
- - Anonymous Scald
- Comrade of Patient Guardian
- Seeker of Trojan Force
Player Thomas Tyler
Path Red/Green
Vocation Skald
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
The best thing about being a god is that things don't have to be unfair if you don't want them to. Sure, not everyone can get to the Shaping Engines or be basically immortal or whatever, but they can be able to make their own world. Just imagine! Freedom! True freedom from the tyranny of reality! No more objectivity! Everyone living in their own world, able to share with others at will! Madness made sanity! Isn't it brilliant? Isn't it – SQUIRREL!
- -One of many rambling monologues from Bunny The Walker, delivered to nobody in particular.
Dauntless Karash
Player David Stark
Leviathan Kraken
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Fly! On dazzling ships made out of chrome
Strike! We raid and plunder, our flotilla our home
Kill! Our clandestine enemies with full force, blasting forth without remorse
Rage! With bold supersonic velocity
Trust! In our patron to guide us past sanity
Die! For this new outworld that we are fighting for, to win the war, forevermore
For the Vanguards of Opportunity, the epic war arrives
We are heroes, of Opportunity
We are riding forth, to keep our people free
We are heroes, of Opportunity
We are heroes, legends we will be!
- - Gravboat Raider drinking song, provenance unknown, Ministry Archive #73
- Champion of Tableau BOOM
- Partner of Ariadne
- Seeker of Crankshaft
- Student of Illuminating
- Student of Subsidiary
Player Sebastian Atay
Path Blue
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Gratification
So much is lost. That's the hardest thing for Flood to take. Every second. Every moment. The perfect beauty of a fox pulling itself out of a trap, a reification of agony and triumph. The peculiar textures of a broken stone furred with moss. The half-sob of a found child that realises its cause for grief is sundered, but whose sorrow still lingers. All the experiences, the feelings, the manifestations of self-as-force. The missed connections. To walk free is to live in the moment, but can we really live –well- in the moment when there is so much that remains unrecognised?
Flood will live well. They will experience as much as possible. To feel, to see, to understand. It is the only way to shape a legacy that is worthy of life itself.
- Comrade of Aestival
Player Tom Cole
Path Green/Blue
Vocation Warden
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"When presented with the options that reshapes the world, that dictate who lives and who dies; shouldering responsibility for the utterly monstrous things we were destined for, being one of those people who actually pushes the button that ends all that you ever knew - How are you supposed to feel?
"I was remarkably comfortable with it."
- - Extract from Hand's journal
- Comrade of Tor (SUNDERED)
Player Aleaha Stuart
Path Green
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Gratification
'She kissed her, tongue like a viper as they lay together in the royal chamber. Twas' only then The Cursed-Thrice Queen Velexise noticed the sharp acidic taste of her lovers mouth...'
- --Excerpt from 'The Monarch's Demise'
"9/10 That plot twist shook me to the core! Oh the betrayal!" - Their Highest Majesty, Mennador the Unshaken.
"10/10 Would totally have my exploits retold in a trashy valtarian novel again" - Anonymous Walker Sage.
"3/10, vulgar and highly distasteful" - Safe In The Mundane, Penitent Order.
"Challenge is an important aspect of the Green path, it encourages adaption and creativity, the vine and the flower, the birds and the bees, rivers and trees, wine and -"
"So that's why you threw me into a pit of snakes."
- - Excerpt from 'Walkers Overheard: An Opportunity Exposé'
Player Vicki Stephenson
Path Green
Vocation Skald
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion
Profile to follow
- Seeker of Rosie Ratchet
- Student of Changing Of The Tide
- Student of Glimmers Of Logic
Player Michelle Taylor
Path Green
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
Leaf? No-one tells stories about Leaf.
Leaf… just happens to be there.
Leaf just happened to be there when that Combine ship was shot out of the skies, and the Red-path Wardens crowded around to spill their blood, and then somehow there were a number of new tribe members with soot-stains in the next valley over.
Leaf just happened to be there when those Valtarian knights came charging down from the mountain, and fell straight through a false floor of palm leaves into the labyrinthine caves below, from which several new tribesmates emerged sobbing and reborn.
Leaf just happened to be there when the Opportunity restitution squad was swallowed whole by the carefully prepared carnivorous plant and we celebrated all night, but in the morning we found a rent in its side and no trace of a single soul.
No – no, we don't think Leaf was involved – she was always just running a message, or tending the fire, or setting rabbit snares and humming softly to herself.
Things just happen around Leaf.
That's all.
- Partner of Vermilion
- Rival of Hawk
- Rival of Thoughtful Spider
- Student of Rain Falls On The Snow
Player Chris Philips
Path Green
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"So I wake up and I'm hanging there, some sticky rope shit around my ankle and my back on fire. And this dude's there, all welding goggles and things crawling under his skin and he's taking advantage of my immobility to philosophise at me. "Why do we subject ourselves to such restrictions, such lack of ambition? We can be, or become whatever we desire at any given moment. We are simultaneously butterfly and cocoon, at once in a state of become and becoming. Now, my so recently ground-dwelling friend, let us see if you can fly." And with that, he severed the strand holding me above the abyss. And I flew." ~ Anxiety, Skald
A Walker, but his feet have not touched the ground in twenty years.
They say he's a crazy former high-up in Opportunity who want him back to suck out what's in his head.
They say he personally engineered the creatures that tore down the cities during the Walkers' revolt.
They say he had a hand in the life creation matrices of the great Geomantic machines.
Frankly most of that's probably bollocks, but the Weaver knows his shit when it comes to bio-engineering, and doesn't ask first.
- Partner of Bogwort
Player Kai D'Argenta
Path Red
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Tempest
Motives Devotion
He seemed small, at first. Didn't look like he took up much space. Then he... well, then he grew.
- Champion of An Endless Falling
- Comrade of Ribs
- Rival of Ribs
Player George K
Path Red/Green
Vocation Sage
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
The Walker commonly known as Ragweed is something of an odd inclusion on this list, being significantly less powerful than many of his comrades. Nevertheless, he should be considered a threat for three primary reasons:
Firstly, his rather unusual approach to the Walker philosophy, advocating the consumption, absorption and redeployment of aspects of enemies, and in some cases enemies in their entirety.
Secondly, his willingness to extend the Green- path doctrine of adaptation to culture as well as biology, something that troubles not only us but also, intriguingly, many of his own comrades.
Thirdly, much like his namesake, his refusal to just bloody die. This really can't be overstated.
- -Excerpt from Know Your Enemy: The Liberator's Guide to the Walker Menace
Red Tail
- Comrade of Ash
- Student of Trip The Electric
Player Lauren Ward
Path Red
Vocation Warden
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
Soulforges Penumbral
"We are coming at you live for a never before tested show! That's right, our brave fighters here will be competing as to who can take down what lies within this cave and claim one of our fabulous prizes!'
The camera shifts from the host to the two contestants, eagerly waiting to enter the mouth of smooth, brick lined cave.
Then nothing but static... an image showing the two contestants standing stock still, motionless, staring into the distance cutting to static once more.
Now only two remain, screaming at woman standing over one of the contestant, grinning with a club like sword in hand, her arms open in a cocky swagger as she walks towards them, "Contestant number two, COME ON DOWN!" she yells as he runs for her, only to have the blade buried in his skull after his weapons barely scratch her clothing. Static cuts the brutal scene to the end, with the woman staring into the lens, a pair of rats sitting on her shoulders as she inspects the device, before cutting to black.
- Camera recovered from outside the same cave. With a note attached 'Thanks for the new armour. Never return. Red.'
- Seeker of Rosie Ratchet
Player Topher Duffill
Path All
Vocation Skald
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"Tell me, child, how would your heart taste were I to feed upon it? Would I taste the sweetness of true freedom, or the sharp bitterness of bondage? Do not come to me and expect to like what you hear, for my wisdom is what you need, and not always what you want. Many have sought me out to ask me to bring meaning to their path. Like the seeds on the wind, you must flow with the world, and be taken where you are needed, and not harvested like so many others."
The skald's words rang true in the ears of the young folk. The old folk had heard it many times before. Did they dare seek out his knowledge once more? Were they truly so blind that they could not see their path ahead? Often the price was small; a token, a smile, a story, but they had heard tales of sacrifices so great, sacrifices equal to the words imparted.
- Partner of Subsidiary
Player Robin G
Path Red
Vocation Skald
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Gratification
IC Pronouns They/Them
OC Pronouns They/Them
D:\Figures of Note > Shapers > Tomb Cities > Walkers > T > Teeth
"Teeth's getting harder to track. Don't think they know I'm here, else I'd be dead - but they're avoiding everywhere I've got eyes on. Really need more intel to make an informed decision but if I had to make it now, I'd say kill them just in case. They're... unpredictable? Erratic. Not sure even THEY know what they're likely to do next, honestly. But they're zealous, way too convincing, and people are starting to listen. Properly listen."
- - 'Solid' Goldman, Sales, audio log
- - ETA: 'Solid' Goldman's audio transmissions ceased three weeks later, coinciding with the appearance of the Walker known as 'Ore'
"We - are all - made - of DESIRE! We are blazing primal flames held together by thin humanoid shells. Civilisation is a lie: cities are shells upon shells, and they will TRAP YOU. Stillness is death! Silence is death! Run free, and howl into the empty air! Are you angry? FIGHT! Are you horny? FUCK! Are you hungry? FEAST! Seek what you want, and take it. We are meant to be WILD and FREE. To deny your DESIRES is to deny your TRUTH. Honour your hunger. Feed it. Let it grow TEETH!"
- - Teeth
- Comrade of Hemlock (SUNDERED)
Player Anna McKie
Path Blue
Vocation Warden
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion
Soulforges Infernal
IC Pronouns They/Them
My dear supervisor,
It is with the greatest enthusiasm that I announce my resignation.
I understand that this may come as a surprise. In all my time working under you, I have filed no complaints. I have followed every order to the letter. I have been, by anyone's standards, a model employee.
The thing is, it's hard to complain when the possibility of something better, something more has been deliberately held out of reach. Why would anyone feel frustrated at the limits placed upon them if they don't know what they could be capable of without them?
I feel that frustration now. And as a parting gift, I'd like to give you the chance to feel it too. My companion tells me that the spores enclosed in this envelope are potent and remarkably fast-acting. I encourage you to struggle. Let yourself feel the anger that comes with realising how powerless you are.
Exhilarating, isn't it?
If you do survive, I hope you remember how this felt. And I hope that, just as I did, you will let it set you free.
Once yours; never again.
- -A letter of resignation now stored in a biohazard containment unit
Player Lizzie Upton
Path Blue
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Knowledge
I travel from place to place, fixing things - normally machinery, equipment and the like - so that they have a lasting effect on the population, world, that sort of thing. I want to ensure all the machines of the world are working to their full potential, and increase my knowledge of tinkering and upgrading.
Played Characters
The Penitent Order
Adversity Breeds
- Partner of From The Source The Flow
- Patron of Lapin
- Tutor of Vermilion
Player Gordon McDonald
Background The People's Combine
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Ignorant
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"He really didn't know?"
"No. But, you didn't tell him either."
"True. I suppose it was probably best we didn't include him, he has some odd ideas about the Sublime Concord. What did he say when he found out?"
"He just looked disappointed in me and mumbled about it delaying his work. He's packing for Valtaria now. Apparently he can find what he needs there."
Celestial Grid
- Tutor of Vespa
Player Andro Blinowitz
Background The Walkers
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Quill And Parchment
Affinity Edge
Motives Influence, Knowledge
There is no grey. There are only particles of black and white. Grey is imprecise, an approximation. Sometimes approximation is the most accurate representation.
There are no colours. Colour is illusion, temporary distortion of a spectrum which sums to black and to white. Colours are nonsense, and also very pretty.
Pretty is not for us. We are beyond joy. Even we – especially we – have not the conceptual tools to fathom our burden. We are beyond mourning. We may as well laugh. We laugh as we stab you. We are too polite to laugh aloud. We only slice to improve, to enlighten. We are the light beyond the morning.
All will is free. Every discovery is remembering. Memory matters and matter is metaphor. It is better to forget. Forgetting is an indulgence for the weak.
We were too weak. We still are. Yet our strength defines our ongoing guilt. We have no right to interfere. We have no right not to try.
Every Broken Clock
- Champion of Whispers Of Autumn
- Tutor of The Luxophage Sun
Player Shawn Major
Background The People's Combine
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Ignorant
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Bastion
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
"She's not exactly the kind of engineer who fixes things."
- - Fusilier Onslaught, of the Glory of Unity
Glimmers Of Logic
- Patron of Intriguing Glint Anki
- Tutor of Leaf
Player Andre Tcherepnin
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Failed
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Bastion
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Glimmers of Logic was a promising member of Protean Dynamics' Relations division, that is, until the Incident. Having taken a commission to oversee the restructuring of a set of rival Shaping concerns, the laboratory he was assigned to suffered a catastrophic geomantic collapse while he was commencing networking protocols.
Some claim that his later emergence as a Penitent Adjutant are proof that this collapse was nothing more than an aggressive hostile personnel reassignment attack, that it was a premeditated extraction. Whatever the truth, he and his business partner, [name redacted – you have insufficient KarmaCredit! Access here for more information!] have recently opened Luxolyte™, a moral consultancy start-up specialising in Dynamic Equilibrium, cross-pollinating the change-agency expertise of PD with a horizon-scanning mysticism at the cream of the Pentitents' game.
Last Lingering Music
- Partner of Serennia
- Tutor of Crankshaft
Player Jeanette Ng
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Adjutants
Culpability Failed
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
Last Lingering Music has been the aide to Glimmers of Logic for some time, assisting in the setup of Luxolyte™, a moral consultancy start-up specialising in Dynamic Equilibrium, cross-pollinating the change-agency expertise of PD with a horizon-scanning mysticism at the cream of the Pentitents' game.
The Luxophage Sun
- Student of Every Broken Clock
Player Kaida Jekri
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Custodians
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Quill
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification
- - Fact: The Luxophage Sun is known to have previously operated in Joy Effect.
- - Fact: this is the only confirmed fact about The Luxophage Sun.
Still Moon On Rapids
- Patron of Whispers Of Autumn
Player Loretta Lok
Background Protean Dynamics
Faculty Custodian
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Influence
Still Moon Over Rapids remains the only advocate specialising in Mergers and Acquisitions that has never declined a new client in her entire career. This publication can only speculate as to the fractal complexity of the Chinese walls that must exist in her firm. But impossible geometry aside, her client feedback has been stellar again this year, just like literally every single year since her call to the bar. Literally.
This year she announces that she will expand her practice to covering private client advisory services. No doubt the feedback from those clients will be similarly, uniformly excellent.
- - Partner Profile, The Opportunists Guide to Legal Services
Trip The Electric
- Patron of Cam
- Tutor of Red Tail
Player Myre Ince
Background Walkers
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"Contrast the adumbrate wild,
No ungainly hoop henceforth,
Time is too fast for only hope in a tailcoat,
Acknowledge my heavy custard."
- - Trip the Electric, by way of explanation
Whispers Of Autumn
- Champion of Still Moon Over Rapids
- Partner of Crankshaft
- Patron of Every Broken Clock
Player Sam Wood
Background The Visions of Opportunity
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Guilty
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion, Influence
++Message Will Dispatch To: Last Lingering Music++
++Holovid Recording Begins++
Sorry, but I'm not sorry. The whole thing had become so fundamentally pretentious and, well, you know what the Business-Desirable-Value-Development-Synth-Parental-Substitute used to say. Never be afraid to kill it all and start again. It's anyone's to play for now. Are we going to see the same calibre of insight generation appear instantly from whoever stumbles through the breach? Of course not - but give them a free enough market, and we'll see something better emerge. Enough competition, and it might even be perfect. Or at least not so terrible gauche.
Oh, this is your beloved brother by the way. I had to change my face. Some...unpleasantness with my line manager at PD. Incidentally, I no longer work at PD. And Contingency might be tracking me. Any freelance gigs going at Luxolyte? Only biomancy is expensive and I'm pretty sure my subscription for these cheekbones is about to expire.
++Your Credit Is Insufficient To Continue++
++Message Has Ended++
The People's Combine
Volunteer Abacus, of The Outworld
Player Mike Dyer-Evans
Corps Volunteer Corps
Profession Production Optimiser
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion
Dear Abacus
I don't know if you will remember me. I won't call myself by name. You are a good man. You are open-minded, but clever. You have great responsibilities, but you have your friends to help you see them through. Help them in return. You are a trained accountant. They will need your help. Trust the woman called Axle. Tell her that the person who wrote this letter is sorry.
You are the last. Leave a worthy legacy.
Armourer Bolt, of the Hammer Of Progress
Player Andrew Wride
Corps Engineer Corps
Profession Armourer
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
"Armourer bolt? You'll find him in the gun room, working on the portside repeating cannon."
"What's he like?"
"Kind of intense. You should see him work. Sat at his bench, parts all lined up. Aethernet screen running in the corner. Every weapon on the ship runs smooth as you like now."
"He ever go into combat?"
"Sure. Every so often the lib corp need someone to break some big weapon or other. He knows just how to wreck stuff like that"
Liberator Falconet, of the Unity Through Purpose
- Comrade of Pivot
- Muse of Razor Fine
Player Jay Jivani
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Fusilier
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"My inspirations? Oh, I always found Fusilier Gatling a great role model! She showed us that being in the Liberation Corps wasn't just about being the best fighters, it's about 'keeping our crew alive'. And that's what I do!"
The bright young girl looked down the barrel of her gun, through the cross hairs, and fired a single shot into the approaching enemy. As I turned to watch the fight below, I caught sight of an enemy falling to their knees in front of her crew, blood running from the hole in their head. They hit the ground just short of landing their first blow. As I turned back to congratulate Fusilier Falconet on her fine training, a call came out from the front of the fight;
"Thanks Fusilier!"
"Don't mention it." Falconet looked back to me with a winning smile. "It's what I do."
- - An excerpt from an article from the Homeworld titled 'Heroes to Watch; The Next Generation of Liberation Corps'
Lancer Maximum, of the Harbinger of Inevitable Freedom
- Rival of Cam
Player Kay Sharrock
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Smart Ammunition
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
"Reckless? Never let them hear you say it. They might prove you right."
Lancer Maximum, of the Harbinger of Inevitable Freedom, was picked up by the LibCorps at an early age, after showing a propensity for dramatic entrances and equally dramatic victories.
"… is that a cannon. Are they getting… Yes, they're getting into a cannon."
Never one to wait for a fight, Maximum prefers to get stuck in by boarding enemy vessels or fortifications at speed, trusting to stout armour and a good aim to see them landing safely. Many is the opposing commander who thought themselves safe, only for the last thing they see to be Maximum shooting from the sky like a human bolt of lightning to bring them freedom.
Engineer Wingnut, of the Harbinger of Inevitable Freedom
Player Robin Welsh
Corps Production Corps
Profession Engineer
Affinity Tempest
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
"See, the thing about progress is it's constant."
The camera pans up, framing Wingnut front and centre amidst a semi-circle of glass cases, each holding a retired suit of mechanised armour.
"Which means it's my job to keep on top of it, to make sure our beloved Lancers can keep their weapons revolutionary and their enemies guessing."
Wingnut winks, the camera following as they stroll past each set of armour with a look of nostalgic disappointment.
"I mean, who expects their liberation to come flying at them out of a cannon? But hey, what the Lancers want, the Lancers get. My latest suits are designed for that exact purpose."
They pause, one hand resting on their workbench; the walls behind them are covered in intricate blueprints with scrawling, elaborate notes.
"You never know what freedom's going to bring, after all, but you should always be prepared. That's why my latest range of blasters come with built-in deflectors – you can give a cheery wave to the camera in the mist of battle, and a friendly middle finger to your enemies. After all, comrades, nobody ever said progress had to be polite."
The Valtarian Kingdoms
Alaccastia, the Dead Heart
- Enemy of Flare
- Rival of Serennia
Player Ebony Stark
Status Monarch-In-Shadow
Past Scion
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
Alaccastia Dead Heart, has no trouble living up to her name. Priding herself on the destroying and tormenting of lovers and the exploitation of those in the grips of true love, she truly has no heart. Remorseless in her pursuit of the destruction of the weakness she calls love, she has built around herself a wall of hatred and spite, almost as great as her own personal vanity. The skulls of her victims will forever lie in the halls of her dominion and many more have joined them after journeying to recover the remains of their beloved. Her dead eyes and cold smirk are enough to send many under the influences of love into a panic that they may be on her list. A true villain of the ages, one wonders what it was that turned her heart so black and caused her to hate the very existence of love.
- - Chronicle of the Monarchs in Shadow
The Golden Lady, Laszvelar's Hubris
Player Megan Williams
Status Monarch-in-Shadow
Past Scion
Affinity Keystone
Motives Challenge, Devotion
"But I created you…"
Once noble, idealistic and perhaps, most importantly, alive. She remembers being truly alive, it was… Better. She remembers who killed her too, and how he brought her back into some semblance of life.
Now she haunts him, reminding him of his mistakes, cursing his name.
Commander-Vindicate Kaldaria, the Vanquisher of Dark Despair
Player Alex Helm
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Scion
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
Like all Scions, Kaldaria was cast into the Kingdoms to forge her own destiny. She gained it by issuing an outright challenge to the Monarch-in-Shadow known as Despoiler Hildebrand, the Bringer of Dark Despair. In order to defeat him, Kaldaria spent many years training with military forces, gaining skills in command and tactics. Only when she was ready, did she launch a mighty assault on his home of Gravin's Fury, leading thousands of troops into battle. Hundreds died, but she was ultimately victorious. She stormed the grand throne room, and allegedly slew Hildebrand in bloody battle (although some reports state that he may have sidled away and cast off his mantle of evil).
Kaldoria claimed Gravin's Fury for herself along with the title of Monarch-Victor, and has ruled over the region for countless years. Some now say that the dark legacy of the place may be affecting the great hero though – could she be turning to shadow herself?
For now, Kaldoria is adamant that she remains a great hero, the Vanquisher of Dark Despair and a Monarch-Victor. But thoughts of darkness prey on her consciousness… how long before she decides to become the enemy for a new hero to defeat?
Lorentz, The Bulwark, Darkened, Awakened
- Champion of Ronan
- Comrade of Push, Until It Hurts
Player David Ross Shaw
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Companion
Affinity Bastion
Motives Loyalty
"A life of servitude to a Monarch-Victor a great honour, to be in her presence each waking hour, a veneration rarely afforded, to take a Shadows blade to the back, the greatest privilege afforded to the devout."
- - The oath of the Guardia Real
"The foreshadowing of the oath was tangible given the clarity of hindsight, he slipped it between my ribs and through the left lung, I fell to my knee, terror for my Monarch my only energy when it happened, something snapped, clicked, and there was nothing but clarity of my awesome power, standing and drawing that self-same blade from my back the Shadow-Monarch known as 'Soul Rended Jagged' unsurprising fled aghast."
- – the histories of Lorentz, Ascension
"My people love me, the land is calm, fertile and beautiful.
My people grow fat and happy.
My people grow lazy and complacent.
My people are unproductive in peace, unable to look after themselves.
The solution is obvious, the solution is unpleasant, the solution is my duty.
I must fall so my people may thrive."
- - the histories of Lorentz, Darkening
"The system is broken, Errants, Victors and Shadows alike, all evil, I must lead the change, the people's crusade."
- - the histories of Lorentz, Awakening
Milisandia, She Who Takes The Harvest
Player Gail Carter
Status Monarch-Pawn
Past Peasant
Affinity Baston
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
The Last Crusade was not greeted by all. In the fields of the Kingdoms, some peasants bemoaned another chance for peasants to suffer and die under the thumb of their Monarchs.
When the Monarch that stood in control over the fields of wherein toiled Milisandia disappeared to the Imperitrix's call, a minor Scion tried to enact his own petty cruelties to prove himself. Itwould be his last mistake.
The legend she repeated to her followers says that the Gift fall upon her as she charged in defiance against her tormentors, ready to die. The smirk upon that scion's face turned into terror. Taking her title, she moved to slaughter all those standing with the Monarch. Each peasant in those fields was given a choice: Join her army to help bring about the New Way, or be deemed complicit and be slaughtered.
Her peasant-army gouged a line of fire and blood into the Kingdoms, 'liberating' peasants into her army, killing those that refused, burning villages that would not declare for a New Way of harmony with the land. All must fight! All must join the army of the Harvest! Refuse, and face the fire and flame!
Her Most Tragic Grace, Vallora, The Open Wound
- Partner of Ariadne
Player Ellie Griffiths
Status Monarch-In-Shadow
Past Companion
Affinity Edge
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
"I… Yes, I survived. She… She came down on us, all terrible to behold, face like thunder and eyes so cold; she killed two score and spared just me, huddled on the ground by the old oak tree. When she was done, and stood all alone, her composure broke, and she sank down to the stone; knelt on the ground, chest heaving with sobs, and she wept for her deeds, tears staining her robes… Hush, I am aware that bit didn't rhyme, I am a bard in distress, leave me be. I'm sure it's just a coincidence she left me, a talented poet, alive to tell the tale. Anyway, yes, she killed nearly my entire village, but, well, she cried so earnestly, her pain so clear, so maybe… Maybe it's just a lot of pressure to uphold, being recruited to be the handmaiden of The Bitter Knife, previous Monarch-In-Shadow overlord of this realm, having to maintain the family tradition of committing atrocities on the lesser folk. Maybe that's just really hard on a person."
- - Torien, Singer of Stories, unaffiliated and unbiased mortal
Beloved Seer-Protector Yaztromo, Archmage of the Seven Winds
- Patron of Celestine
Player Colin Love
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Advisor
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence
"You may have sealed me away in this crystal prison but it will do you no good! As I prophesised so long ago, the Righteous Blade shall soon be your undoing! By now they will have recovered their mother's sword and on hearing of my plight will have sworn to rescue me from your vile clutches!"
A master of prophecy and a mentor to heroes, Yaztromo has a long history of being there when Valteria's new heroes need him most and pushing them to the actions truly worthy of a legend.
In recent years, his whereabouts have been unknown, no doubt his great mind deep in study as he traced the great Net of Fate to see where he must next act.
But rejoice! For Archmage of the Seven Winds has returned! With his wise counsel the Lance of Stars is sure to succeed in his noble quest for Justice!
The Visions of Opportunity
Chain Dog
- Muse of Cornea
- Partner of Synderella
- Rival of Trojan Force
Player Jonathan Rampling
Vision Joy Effect
Division Euphorista
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge
"AAooooOOW! The CHAIN DAWG is here to LAY DOWN the PAAAIIN! Ladies, Gentlemen, All critters and crawlers of the Outworld, put on your blood goggles, pull off your gloves, because this dog is packing more diesel than a Combine gunship tonight! And for those of you visiting the Gearhouse for the first time, I promise you two things: One, you are in for the show of your life, and two: The Gearhouse is not liable for any loss of life, limbs or blood suffered by audience members. Please wear the protection provided. Buy my cereal."
Once a simple steel worker, working for the vast factories that provide the Visions with their vehicles and war machines. He entered the underground world of illegal pit fighting (heavily televised, scandalous viewing!), skilled as he was with wild, bloody chainsaw arcs. His talent and presence elevated him to national bloodsport celebrity status. He has also 'performed' in several aired broadcasts of Counter-Liberations and Reclamation Projects.
Clarity Absolute
Player Aquarion
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"Of course", he says, "There is nothing more valuable than fun, my dear. Nothing as profitable, nothing as worth while. Fun drives everything, everyone, everyfun, even."
The pun is undeniably present, but drops out into a silent void that seems to eat at the boundaries of the room. A literal chill seems to fill the office of glass and darkness, and the seconds grow long as sparkles of frost gather at the edges of the room. Then he smiles, and warmth returns.
"Of course, not everybody appreciates it. They learn, though. Eventually."
"Felicity" Grim
Player Judith Moore
Vision Margin Drivers
Divison Management
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Some have called me a talented businesswoman, some call me a heartless monster, my close friends call me "Felicity". Or they would if I had any close friends. But you don't become Chief Execute-ive Officer of a multimillion company like 'Grim Post Processing' by making friends, except with your loyal customers of course. So this is my story, the story of a young girl who clawed her way up through the tangling thorns of business, growing her own company as she went. Now Grim Post Processing is here to handle anyone's death-based needs. As I sometimes say 'you can't take it with you, so why don't I take it from you?' Along the way I'll be sharing some of my top tips on how
you can make it in the cut-throat world of business such as:
perfecting your satirical eyebrow raise
how to sell a cardboard box as a casket just by smiling.*
I'm "Felicity" Grim and this is my story…
*Any allusions to throat-cutting in order to make it in the world of business are of course metaphorical.
Excerpt from "Felicity" Grim's biography
Miss Marina Montague
- Patron of Astrape
- Seeker of Trojan Force
- Student of Razor Fine
Player Evonne
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Bastion
Motives Gratification, Influence
Soulforges Blossoming
It all started with one little Holotape…
"Whether it's marriage, contracts, or in the bedroom, men will always find some way to try to tie you down." : (Opening lines of Marina's Bestselling book 'On the Ropes – A Tale of Bondage, Sex, and Violence')
"Marina Montague… where to start with her…
Liaisons between hosts and fighters are strictly forbidden by THEBLOODNETWORK, so once their status was exposed by that damn tape, management immediately attempted to stamp out the relationship with her and Regal Rage.
(We're off the record here right… Okay. We'd better be.)
So look, Rage is notorious for his stubbornness and flare for the gorily dramatic. That crazy bastard threatened to eat the thorax of the first producer to try to separate them.
Rage is currently WAY too high on the Bloodboards to be put out to pasture, but he's also trapped in to an eight year, air tight contract with the company. There was only one thing to do from a managerial standpoint. THE BLOODNETWORK put pressure on Marina.
She was a nothing, a nobody. She was under a low paying, temporary six month contract. I mean, Rage could have women DELIVERED to his door. Why was he obsessed with this one?
Actually, stupid question, retract that, It's Marina for God's sake. Of course he was obsessed with her. The breakup was supposed to be staged live by Executive Director Billy Singh, and televised in front of billions. She would breakup with him, confess to some affair she hadn't had, break his heart, and he would go on a murderous rampage. Basic entertainment!
As you all know, it didn't go down that way…
uuuuuhhh, I still remember the sound of that thorax. Poor Billy.
"Go fuck yourself, honey. I'm out." That was the last thing he heard before he, and the mic hit the floor. She was smiling sweetly as apple pie, as the force took her away in cuffs. Marina and Rage didn't stay long in jail, and well... She's been an entertainment legend ever since."
(Promise me you won't print this, right)
[Protected Identity client, Interview by Stan@Infodump]
Peregrine Suede
- Patron of Thoughtful Spider
Player Nick Beard
Vision Joy Effect
Divison Exposeur
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
"Good evening!"
*turns to face camera 2*
"I'm Peregrine Suede."
*turns to face camera 3*
"But, of course, you already knew that. I am here today, to bring you a truly historic announcement… MORE AFTER THESE MESSAGES!"
"Ahem… Welcome back! in light of… unrelated events… I have decided I must leave my beloved viewers and embark on a new venture: reporting on the growing number of Deviant Shapers in Outworld and their Dissonant threat to our very way of life. Without my daily reports it will be hard for some of you… many will be lost without my guidance. However, I have a parting gift for you, my dear viewer. One final reveal, to clear up any lingering doubts. Viewer Polls have often asked "Peregrine, how do you do it? It's quite simple really… I've always been persuasive…"
*slowly turns to face camera 1*
"and I've always been a God."
Razor Fine
- Seeker of Falconet
- Tutor of Marina
Player James Webster
Vision Joy Effect
Divison Euphorist
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification, Knowledge
GRATS: Here we are BLOOD-FANS, ready to salivate over the day's action. Have you all been starving yourselves of news? GOOOOOD! Let's finally scratch that itch, shall we?
CROWD: *worryingly orgasmic screaming*
GRATS: Well, it sounds like you're finally ready for the money shot. *smash cut to a very short replay of some very violent blood sport* Speaking of which, please all welcome tonight's guest: RAZOR FINE!
Razor fine waves to the crowd and blows kisses as he struts into the studio
Grats: RAZOR! May I say … 'grats on the victory today.
Razor: Thanks for the 'grats, Grats.
Grats: A pleasure to have you back on the show!
Razor: I wish I could say the same, Grats.
Grats: Why, if you weren't so FINE, I'd be offended!
Razor: Sadly, Grats, there's only *one thing* that brings me pleasure…
Grats: And what might that be.
dramatic pause
Razor *looking straight at the camera*: Spilling blood and looking DAMN FINE doing it. Hit the replay, Grats!
Grats: You heard him folks, it's time to put the RAAAA in ultRAviolence!
- Champion of Lanuaria
- Partner of Chain Dog
Player Zara Knight
Vision Joy Effect
Division Euphorista
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
"I am a sculptor of magnificent beauty: great towers of colour; constructs of life and motion. Too long have I stood at the side of men and women that used their power to spread their petty opinions. I will devour this world in truth and light, my creations will take their form in towering thrones alongside the Imperatrix, and by their side I will bring ruin to those who cannot, or will not accept our purity.
"Lands will rupture and life will emerge to consume all that falter in my divine presence and those that fall will thank me in their last moments, for granting them an audience.
"I am the architect of the foundations of this land and all of its possibilities.
"And through politics or practice, I will see this world shaped to forms fit for greater purpose."
The Void
- Tutor of Thoughtful Spider
Player Rad Marinov
Vision Protean Dynamics
Division Contingency
Affinity Tempest
Motives Influence, Knowledge
What lies at the edge of existence? Why, only the end of your understanding, and the beginning of the Void. That's my cue. Rather prosaic to meet you, I must admit! Yet these are interesting times, and none better in which to relinquish your archaic, and frankly obstructive, notions of privacy. Outworld beckons, and the loquacious activity of shapers is its life blood, driving the pistons of politics with automated precision. It's been a while since there was such a fascinating zeitgeist to accurately report on without bias or any attempt at manipulation for the benefit of my sponsors. But shapers will be shapers and grand delusions of nigh omnipotence just come with the territory right?... Wrong!
You see here at "The Eventful Horizon" we're firm believers that behind every great shaper, there are great numbers and thus we are proud to announce the official unveiling of the "Dynamic Ratings Auspex", your ONLY source for the most accurate ratings. On the hour, By the hour, For the hour! As decided by a strictly impartial, faction-agnostic, stochastic algorithm of unparalleled power. Also by you the viewers!
So DON'T forget! As we say at "The Eventful Horizon":
Observe! Assimilate! Rate!
Player Dominic Carroll
Vision Joy Effect
Division Exposeur
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence, Knowledge
A seasoned Camera Operator with creative eye for detail and dedication to hard work. In-depth understanding of holograph cinematography and expertise in editing for professional bloodsports footage. Vox is a collaborative team player who excels in challenging, fast-paced environments. In his spare time, Vox enjoys fine wines, good music, and the company of good friends.
Hire Vox and his team NOW on #1123.11.9823.VOX
The Walkers
- Rival of "Debts" Mett
- Student of Ash
- Partner of Pebblechrome
Player Francesca Dare
Path Red (and Green, but that might be mould)
Vocation Warden
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"A fantastic discovery! Days ago, tar pits were uncovered in this swamp containing perfectly preserved skeletons of kaiju believed to have fought in the walker rebellion, hundreds of years ago. Local… umm, 'people' claim this area was cursed by some sort of 'monster guardian' who 'freed' them from 'the fucking Opp-tunes'... and then refused to talk to us. Weirdos."
"Authorities are advising citizens to stay away, but our intrepid archaeologists have been working around the clock to find out- What was that?"
"What's all the noise abou-"
"Oh my gosh, did you see that? Something pulled her under the surface!"
"There it is! It's moving! Barry, get out out of the-"
"No, It's not human, it can't be! How did it move so fast? ... Did you see its face?"
"That wasn't a face."
"Glass eyes… it was a m- LOOK OUT! BEHIND-"
Apologies, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by.
- - Last transmission of reporter Duel Diamanté for "Nature's Zaniest Secrets"
- Seeker of Chain Dog
Player Jess Griffiths
Path Red
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
Cornea always embraced the Red Path, living for the raw emotion of doing so. With the good comes the bad though and when you can Shape the world what could be more beautiful than turning the pain that has been done to you against the betrayers?
Crystal Nex
Player Anooshka Nereid
Path TBC
Vocation TBC
Affinity Bastion
Motives Influence, Knowledge
Crystal Nex dwelt amidst the creatures of the Inner Sea, until she was lured by a chance encounter to the shores of Opportunity. She made a name for herself as a capable agent, working her way through the twisting waterways and webworks of deceit until she was inducted into the inner circle of Protean Dynamics.
She was given access to advanced biomantic technology, and set about recreating the creatures she once marvelled at from beneath the sea. Her bionic shapeshifting 'transfo-llamas' were an unexpected success, and were quickly adopted by the Personnel division.
She is mysterious, deadly, and just a little bit peculiar.
- Partner of Vespa
- Rival of Orb-Weaver
Player Matthew Blow
Path Green
Vocation Warden
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"I have travelled far and wide and many marvels I have seen, but today I will tell you of the Glass Jungle, a place of nature, wonder, biotech and magics.
"The trees are full of life but also alive themselves, there are parts where the trees are supporting a floor above them which itself holds another tree. There are trees that will take what is around them to protect themselves: metal, plastics and glass.
"And all this is looked over by the Warden Hawk, his domain where he knows the secret paths and protects the trees from those that seek to plunder the biotech resource that they guard."
- - Ivy, Skald of the Walkers
- Patron of Synderella
Player Iza
Path Green
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Keystone
Motives Influence
I believe in teaching. That's what I do.
I believe everyone and everything can progress. Sometimes the lesson may be challenging, sometimes it may be painful, but it's always a step forward and change, like life, has no limits.
I believe the past shall be left behind and our focus should be on the now that is and the future that has yet to pass.
I believe the future of the Walkers lies in harnessing the unique strengths of us all; finding a common path that all choose to follow of their own free will. Unity cannot be enforced from the outside but grows from a decision within. My mantra? Respect individuality and choose to be the part of the world.
Who am I? I am a Walker. I believe where I come from does not matter. I speak little of it.
Why am I here? This new world is ours and I want to help those who shape it. I believe its creation has lessons for us all.
Player Laura Snowling
Path Red
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Gratification
Child runaway from a Valtarian Monarch in Shadow, Mirador is the illegitimate daughter of Despoiler Hildebrand, the Bringer of Dark Despair. At twelve she escaped Gravin's Fury, a dirty child disappearing into the darkness. Tough and adaptable, she made her way to the vast ever-moving grasslands at the edge of the Verdant Waste and was taken in by a group of nomadic Walkers. There, as a teenager she found a sabre-toothed cat cub, orphaned by its mother's carcass. He has become her companion, they live, fight and move as one. Outsiders call Rem her familiar, but there is no magic in it. Fiercely independent and passionate, she is determined to never to be caged as she was in Valtaria.
Player Steph Leddington
Path Blue
Vocation Skald
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
The cart belonging to the three soldiers of the People's Combine rattled forwards, its mechanical legs only just making it through the uneven floor covered in thick roots. Its gears squeaked, out of place in amongst the sounds of the forest. The cage on the back of the wagon was rusty from the humid jungle.
"It's not right, you know, when Stills think that we don't remember our history." Came a voice from inside the cage. The green-and-grey clad woman was stretched out on the floor, or at least, as much as the cramped space would allow.
The three soldiers glanced at each other, but didn't say anything.
"Of course, we don't write them down, the way 'civilised' folk do. You write the stories down as words, you make them Still too: Still, dead and boring. No way to remember a Walk."
A folk of birds took to the air from the undergrowth around them. The woman sat up, leaning against the bars. "The tales I could tell you, of Walks gone by. What would you like to hear? I could tell you of how Nail hunted the great diesel bear? Or the time Rabbit tricked a dozen Lords and Ladies?" She smiled hungrily, her hands gripping the rusty bars. "Or maybe I should tell you about the time Mist escaped from three walking dead people."
Player Sarah Loughlin
Path Blue
Vocation Sage
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"Who are you" comes the demand, the silhouette seeming to dance and flicker in the firelight.
She smiles briefly, fingers continuing to work the last of the wires, the burning rubber sending up plumes of acrid smoke. "Who are you" the voice comes again, more insistent.
As she replaces the wires into their casing, she speaks "have you ever noticed, the smell carried on the winds after the rains have fallen? When the rains have washed away all that is no longer needed"
She moves to stand, not waiting for an answer. "That smell. That smell comes when the earth is refreshed and renewed; when it is time to start again"
Instinctively her fingers press down on the switch. With relief she can feel it start to cycle up, the thrum and crackle of the power building.
"That. That is who I am"
- Comrade of Ragweed
- Rival of Flare
- Rival of Ragweed
- Seeker of Pandora
Player Florence Walker
Path Red
Vocation Skald
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
[Music cuts off. Static. Muted thuds and clamour. Laughter. Grunts of pain. Static again. A microphone is retrieved from the floor.]
"Hello? Is this working…?"
[Adjustments are made. Underlying static fades out.]
"Heads up, Combine! Couple of changes to the broadcast schedule. 'Unending Fucking Dirge on the Subject of How Great Liberty Is and Maybe If We Keep Saying So We'll Convince Ourselves We Actually Have Any' has been cancelled – probably due to the long-winded title. Who came up with that nonsense?"
[Muffled shouting. A gunshot.]
"…They dead? Nice one! We do apologise for the interruption, dear listeners – blame your own Liberators. Magpie here gets a free pass on account of being awfully good in bed. Now, back to the matter at hand. Here's something a little more enlightening…"
[A series of orations follow – a lot of poetry, a little cultural analysis. The tone veers wildly from calm to frenetic to hushed to impassioned. Some are clearly rehearsed, others improvised. One of the young Volunteers huddled around the radio reaches up and switches it off.]"
- Comrade of Z60
Player Adam Beautement
Path Blue
Vocation Warden
Affinity Tempest
Motives Supremacy
Once I had no tale, no song, no bright colours of the mind. Once I was a grinding gear in a rattling machine. Better the smallest word in a child's rhyme. They tried to paint the world – a single brushstroke of drab destruction. Instead, the machine broke around the gear and it fell free, no longer flying, to become lost, and to be found. Now I walk. Now, I Walk.
Here in the Verdant Waste there is such life! Such rich joy, seized from the flesh that embraces each reckless spirit. There is no brooding on old burdens, or fearing for the future; this is life as it should be! Yet the past clings to me, refuses to be laid down. It is memory and it is purpose – my hidden shame among the tribes. I have learned to hide it well. It leaves a sadness, bone deep, in the foundation of my soul, for while I remember I can never truly travel the trifold path. So my feet turn North and West and my mind turns to the breaking of the great engine that churns at the sky, so that I may preserve that which I am not.
Player James Moody
Path Blue
Vocation Sage
Affinity Tempest
Motives Challenge, Gratification
"They're mad. They command the land and the life, but they walk back out into the harshest places they can do, and sit under the burning sun. Why? Walkers generally love, live, and move on. They move, but they might as well be a monk for all the loving and living that they do. It's just desert after glacier after jungle. Why have the power to change, if all you want to do is make it worse?"
- - Someone about Tsingy
"Can you know something until it is over? The ending shapes the event – fixes it, makes it real. Until it is over, you can only experience it. Knowing must always be done when you look upon its corpse"
- - Tsingy
"Nothing is known until you know yourself. You know yourself only when you realise that nothing else is known. Touch. Taste. Feel. Love. Kill. Experience and learn, then look into the mirror and see yourself staring back."
- - Tsingy
"There can be no change outside until you can change the inside. You can change the inside only when you understand yourself – that you are lies, feelings, illusions and delusions shaped around a core of amoral certainty. Embrace yourself, discard the lies, and master the core monster that is you. When you control that, then you will understand that there is no need to change anything else."
- - Tsingy
- Partner of Hawk
- Student of Celestial Grid
Player Elle Savell
Path Green
Vocation Skald
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion
"Cross a giant hornet with a librarian," they said. "What can go wrong?" They said. They said other things, once. No one remembers but her. Deep in the hive, Vespa waited and listened, 30,000 winged servants bringing her tales of victory, construction, and avarice, and she thought on the stories she would send forth. She has decided. Why else would she leave the manacomb maze?
- Comrade of Ash
- Seeker of An Endless Falling
Player Jasper Rose
Path Red
Vocation Nomad
Affinity Bastion
Motives Gratification, Loyalty
"Long ago we lived not as we do now, but in towering mausolea of crushed stone and fired glass; monuments to our hubris, and symbols of our death-like retreat from this world. We believed ourselves to have limitless freedom and choice, and yet we were brittle and stiff. Then, the Wing from the South came among us.
"A figure came striding out of the wastes, wind whipping at their back, and left no footprints behind them. Their smile was wide, but their tongue was still. After the Wing, came the storm. Some will tell you that they brought the storm with strange powers, or that they were the living avatar of the storm; these are foolish children's stories. But it is true that they lived alongside the storm - sundering our homes, and also our shackles.
"As quickly as they had arrived they passed through, on a journey without end. All was quiet. We were destroyed. Yet it was this destruction which was the greatest gift, for from the ruins grew new life. Stone cannot be reborn, and will always fall to the root."
- - as told by the Skald Sprout, of the Green Path
- Comrade of Stratos
- Muse of Flux Wildly
- Rival of Trojan Force
Player Mike Roth
Path Red
Vocation Sage
Affinity Edge
Motives Challenge, Loyalty
"Ascension offline at C60 2AT8."
That is all I know of my past, all I remember of my awakening. The final readout of an all-but-shattered monitor, glowing blue in the darkness, the message reflected and repeated in the scattered pools of dark liquid that congealed about my outstretched forearm. My amnesia is total, the hints I picked up as I dragged myself to the surface no more than scattered embers that serve to cast more shadows than light. In time my exploration of the facility revealed the aftermath of an asymmetric affront; the facility's workforce dismembered with lethal precision, their remains painting the sterile white walls in washes of vibrant crimson, their histories and identities as much of a mystery as my own. I know nothing of whether I was victim or perpetrator of this atrocity; a subject of its grand experiment or the orchestrating mind behind it. The uncertainty drives me and to this day, as I navigate the Firebreak, one question burns at the heart of every moment: "What was Ascension?" To discover and to become, to embody and to enact, as if for the first time, I set the wheels of creation in motion, walking ever forward and never looking back.
Deceased Characters
Characters that have played previous events, but who have since been slain, may continue to have Qualities of theirs appear on the Geomancy Tables.
The Penitent Order
End Of Hope Is Truth
Player Thomas Parker
Background The Valtarian Kingdoms
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Edge
Motives Influence, Knowledge
"Those who have the misfortune to survive cataclysm are doomed to see the seeds of downfall within the dawn of the new age. The ever toppling tower of destiny shaped by the hubris of visionaries and the foibles of the protagonists of fate.
Such must be chronicled for future ages, and yet nothing can be observed without change."
If Only You Would
Player Leah Owen
Background The Visions Of Opportunity
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Failed
Alignment Parchment
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
IC Pronouns Zie, Zir
Soulforges Penumbral
Zoom, whirr. The surveillance package used by the undercover Opportunity constable is substandard, but then the cultic activities of the subject - 'If-Only-You-Would', née Aghavni Smith, former kaf-grade serf-intern - don't merit the good stuff. Yet.
'- who among us, then, is righteous? Who just?'
Zie's pacing the line of shivering congregants, half drill-sergeant, half confessor.
'I've seen the new world that's building, and I tell you - it sure ain't just. Sure ain't righteous. It's evil fruit from an evil tree. It's like taffy, like gum on the sole of the boot on your necks, and if we're not careful, it'll be trodden into the next world.'
'But I tell you this: we can keep the new world we birth - and our children-in-spirit who'll thrive there - pure. We can keep them immaculate. By holy iconoclasm, by spiritual and material sabotage, by extirpation and self-emptying of who we were - we can keep the contamination out. Maybe this world's doomed - but by our sacrifices, we each can save the next. Even you; even you;'
Zie stares down each congregant in turn. And then, slowly, deliberately, zie turns, looks straight into the camera.
'Even you.'
Soil, When Seeds Are Sown
Player Wren Robson
Background Walkers
Faculty Hellions
Culpability Abettor
Alignment Unaligned
Affinity Tempest
Motives Devotion, Knowledge
IC Pronouns They/Them
Soulforges Pestilent, Venomous
"Summary of sitch: aggressive negotiations break out between two Accounts teams during routine debt-collection assignment. Records show: large payments made to leaders on both sides in days previous, along with receipt of encrypted communications - all from same source. Conclusion: someone is fucking with us."
- - Bubba "Bubba" Grunt, Margin Drivers, Accounts Division.
"It seemed to know what we needed before we needed it. That was the first thing. On the day it arrived, it came with the oil supplies we were short of, a thin smile on its face, and an introduction. We should have listened to that last one."
- - "Bulkhead", Traitor-Industrioclast, during a high-intensity re-education session.
"I thought it was my friend. It raised me up, taught me how empty the game the Monarchs play is, how to fight it. And then one day I awoke to find that it had led His Awful Shadow Beckons and his forces to my village. All my friends died in front of me… and I saw it watching from the hill: until it turned away, and walked into the mist."
- - Teofri, Monarch-Pawn of Valtaria
"I knew them, before. Laughed with them. Drank with them. Fucked them. But that was before."
- - Tor, Sage
The People's Combine
Medical Engineer Axle, of the Symphony Of Purpose
- Comrade of Cam
- Comrade of Switchgear
- Enemy of Rose Ratchet
- Rival of Rosie Ratchet
Player Reesha Dyer-Evans
Corps Volunteer Corps
Profession Vulcaniser
Affinity Tempest
Motives Loyalty, Supremacy
"Volunteers of the Combine. This is a mandatory teachable moment. Attend and be inspired.
When we first met Axle, she was misguided, and misled, a tool of a dying capitalistic machine, biting the hand of our glorious society as it reached out to her, freely offering salvation upon glorious wings of fellowship. But did we give up on this flawed soul? No sir! We worked tirelessly to retrain young Axle, to show her the errors of her terrorist ways, and give her a new chance at earning her place through glorious self-sacrifice. Now she is the hero you see charging headlong into the ranks of those whose purposes she once served, cannon blazing, her heart filled with purpose.
Volunteers, take note, this is what you could become."
- - Hegemonic Engineer Valve, public address #177.
Volunteer Diesel, of the End Of The Line
Player Peter Green
Corps Liberation Corps
Profession Zipline Lancer
Affinity Tempest
Motives Devotion
Soulforges Penumbral
Ever since he was a child, Diesel had a true passion for equality and liberation. Not that life was always easy for this young Lancer! In his early life he suffered from ill health, and everyone can remember the tragic death of his partner in arms. But like a true hero, he pushed through to become bigger and better, and his strength of spirit is a testament to the Combine way of thinking! He went from zero to a soldier with one of the highest contact counts in recent Combine memory. Known for his charming wink and devotion, we look forward to seeing how he forwards the cause even further! Forward as One!
Captain Welder Sparks, The Badgeless
Player Chris Killey
Corps Industrioclast
Profession Sky-Captain
Affinity Bastion
Motives Challenge, Supremacy
The Radio stutters and the generic entertainment portion of One World Radio fizzles out in a haze of static. Suddenly a voice comes through, slightly hazy but getting clearer.
"Hello? Blast this damned equipment!" The sound of a loud bang, not to dissimilar to a wrench being applied with force to a dense metal object, "They can't even make bloody radios right now can they.
"If you can hear me, this is Captain Sparks of the Free ship coalition! Yes, the very same hero who destroyed the manufactories in the eastern bloc yesterday. Fear not, despite broadcasts to the contrary, my friends and I ensured that no one was hurt. I don't have long so listen up. It's a
lie! It's all a lie! They promise freedom and liberty but all they offer is the promise of servitude. Join us in the skies, together we will liberate ourselves from their liberty and propaganda! We are at bearing..." The sound cuts out in a haze of static. "Damn it Piston, yobzzzzzzz said we had five minutes!" There is more static as Captain Sparks fades out, "Listen to the skies! Don't let them get to you! Fight back damn it! Fight bazzzzzzzzzz..."
The Valtarian Kingdoms
Bethany, the Steadfast
Player Clare Barker
Status Monarch-Errant
Past Peasant
Affinity Bastion
Motives Loyalty
Bethany grew up on a farm in a small village. Always hearing tales of the heroic deeds of the Monarchs. Always wistful that she was not one of them. Dreaming of one day getting her chance to fight evil too.
Then one day, not too long ago, all her dreams came true.
The Visions Of Opportunity
"Ten Count" Markowitz
Player Ronny Jackson
Vision Margin Drivers
Division Legal, formerly Sales, formerly Accounts
Affinity Tempest
Motives Gratification, Influence
Soulforges Primal
"Payment confirmed. Eight hundred for snapshot of one person. That is?"
"I see. 'Ten Count', born Harry Markowitz, son and grandson of Margin Drivers. Hired as Junior Accounts Executor at eleven, apprenticed under his father then had contract sold on..."
"Yes, common practice for Margin Drivers. Less indentured servitude, more long-term high-yield investment opportunities. Contract sold off twice before fourteen. First buyer was a 'Bull' Dozovic, then taken up by 'Thrift' van Oren after Dozovic was liquidated."
"No, if he was responsible it was never proven. Would not be a surprise, mentoring lowers the average life expectancy. First successful solo assignment at thirteen, promoted to full Accounts the year after, earned a nickname at...sixteen?"
"Not confused, surprised. Sixteen is late for a nickname."
"I provide information in whatever method I see fit. If you are unhappy with my opinions, you may..."
"To continue: named to the Internal Audit committee at nineteen. Occasionally contracts come down targeting a Driver; Internal Auditors perform the cost-benefit analysis of accepting it and head up the termination procedure judged valuable. It is an honour."
"Historically, if he is a hand-to-hand combatant it has never shown. With...two, three, four exceptions, confirmed assignments have all been executed at range. High-power rifles, remotely detonated explosives, entirely unconfirmed rumours of an orbital cannon."
"The list of known safehouses should already be with you. If I may offer some further advice, free of charge? For your own continued safety, whatever you're thinking of doing with this information…
Ziggy Love
Player Edward Wolf
Vision Joy Effect
Division Heartisan
Affinity Keystone
Motives Gratification, Influence
Soulforges Penumbral
Ziggy Love's you; and you, are listening to ZIGGY LOVE.
Time to channel the elysium, and this, is The Elysium Channel. Are you ready to get some Ziggy Love in you... NOW
THAT'S RIGHT, beautiful creatures throughout the ether, the expanse, like the solar winds of a SUPER NOVA washing over your intangibles, your tangibles, with dreams, desires, intimates and unadulterated access to the worlds you adore, want, crave, you LOVE! Ziggy Love.
The most tuned in tuned to multidimensioncast in the known expanse, and if it's unknown to Ziggy, then YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW IT! In the lap of the GODS; want to know what's on who's in who when who is out? There's only one show in your life, current or otherwise, you need and it's right here, RIGHT NOW. Ziggy Love brings you up to the millenia infogasms on everything that's going on in the place you all dream for, OUTWORLD. There are two things Ziggy Love cares about. Ziggy, and You. Channel your Obsession, choose your Inspiration, and get private access to the most important network of yours or anyone's existence. Vote-ins, news, action, and more Pay Per View with your love.
Your Ziggy Love.
Retired Characters
The Valtarian Kingdoms
Supreme Arch-Lich-Saint Laszvelar of the Redemption Undying
Player Henry Prestige
Status Monarch-Victor
Past Companion
Affinity Keystone
Motives Devotion, Supremacy
Soulforges Penumbral
"No more souls shall be lost to conquest! That which is dead shall rise to serve the glory of Valtaria, one final boon to those aspiring to the ideals we all hold dearest!"
When Laszvelar was crown prince, he learned he had a golden tongue, he could convince anyone to do his bidding, even the dead. He rose up against his father and commanded great armies of the undead to lay waste to the land. He kept pushing and pushing the limits of his powers, but he was destined to fall to his own hubris. Now, unspeakable horrors roam the remains of his kingdom and the gates between the land of the living and the land of the dead lie permanently asunder. Realising the folly in his arrogance, Laszvelar determined to use his powers of Necromancy for good. He was forever changed and scarred by his deeds in his youth and at first glance could be mistaken for a fairytale villain though a sworn dedicant to Justice and Heroism. He is well known for using his powers to give fallen Heroes a second Chance at Glory. He has sworn what he will make amends for his past and never to forget the dangers of misplaced pride.