Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106 
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 19, 2021 15:13:36 GMT -5
"Slightly less on fire than it appears"-Avalux Kesterven The Kesterven Research Ship MK1 A prototype Avalux had been tinkering on in his lab before the rains came. Originally intended to be a self-propelled horseless carriage and mobile lab, the body was in working shape but he was having issues with the suspension for the wheels. However, when the rains started and it became apparent they weren't going to stop he got to work converting the craft into a ship. Surprisingly, it proved far easier to make the large vessel buoyant enough to float on the water than his attempts to ensure it would travel smoothly over land. Or perhaps not so surprisingly since runes to reduce weight were rather easy to come by whereas ones meant for the even distribution of weight while in transit were not so common. It was fully outfitted to do small-scale projects out in the field. Allowing him to produce custom-built pieces of equipment for an upcoming infrastructure project he'd been working on. This was not his foray into machines meant to transport cargo without the need for horses, it was an upgrade of the rail system he'd been working on. While that had its own merits it lacked independent mobility. Unfortunately, he projected that independently mobile land ships would exorbitantly coast prohibitive for his plans, even if he could figure it out. So The Kesterven had been, at least in part, a vanity project. Update: The Kesterven has been moved into the Usquean village proper where it has completed its life cycle, going from carriage, to barge, and now finally a house. |
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 19, 2021 15:25:14 GMT -5
The above was all explained to Jun on their way to the ship. They'd spent the night in the village of the Usque people, where he'd gotten a meal of wild game stew and foraged root vegetables. This had been consumed with exceptional relish and he'd even asked for seconds, which was quite rare for him. He did not typically find much enjoyment with food but after weeks of nothing but salt pork and hardtack he'd found the stew to be the finest dish he'd ever had and he'd eaten at the king's table on more than one occasion.
The interior of the ship revealed just what his priorities were. His sleeping area was a small cot in the very back corner of the spacious interior of the hull. The rest was dominated by workbenches ladened with various arcane instruments, crystals, and tools. There was even a working forge and crucible plastered with heat containment runes. There were only two smaller rooms within, one was the head and the other a storage room. There was also a sturdy iron ladder in the centre of the room which lead to the deck where the ship's wheel was located. There was also a hatch down into the inner workings of the ship which you had to crawl and crouch your way through.
"As you can see I have everything we need to conduct a wide variety of arcane tests and build quite a few devices as we need them. I suppose the first question is where to start."
Walking over to a wall that had a large piece of slate built into it he grabs some chalk and writes:
Primary Problem: Magic doesn't work as it should.
Potential methods of over coming this issue: Conduct tests to find the root cause, find work arounds (Example: Mister Frog), find ways to stockpile large quantities of magic long term, find way to further enhance mana refinement runes.
Tapping his chin thoughtfully he looked over at Jun. "Any suggestions? For problems to add to the board or potential methods of resolving them?"
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305 
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 20, 2021 19:53:43 GMT -5
Having spent the last few weeks sleeping in tents and eating roots and wild game, Jun had almost forgotten what civilization actually felt like. A vessel of this size and construction would have been an everyday sight in Isra. But here there was something nostalgic and comforting about it. She felt strangely naked, like she had been ill-prepared to meet a friend she hadn't met in years. But she was still happy to come aboard. The ship was as much a guest to the isles as she was to its cabin.
The interior, however, was downright painful. Although the tools and general aesthetic was very different, she recognized the calling cards of the research workaholic. If the scattered metal tools and instruments were replaced with runes, potions, and piles of parchment, it would have looked like the inside of her tiny cottage in the former Medan, or her old room inside the Celadine stone towers. The Enclave also had its fair share of scatterbrained researchers. These were all places she loved, places which were now underwater...
She tried not to get too emotional. She didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Avalux. The unpleasant smell of smoke and body odor actually helped in that regard. It made her smirk. It was the humor of it.
She glanced around, head occasionally tilting in child-like wonder, eyes occasionally piercing with academic analyses. Avalux had managed to create all of this, without having his own powers. He was a master of magic, despite it not resonating with him. Could this have been the reason why magic rejected him? Could magic somehow sense that Avalux's full potential would be unleashed through such an ironic twist of-
"Hmm? Oh."
Jun shook the daydreams away as he posed the questions to her.
She examined the board and read the words to herself. "Magic doesn't work as it should. Conduct tests, store magic, mana refinement..."
Something made her a little uncomfortable. It took her a second to figure out what it was. "Well, don't forget about the fact that we're all stranded on a hostile island, surrounded by dangerous creatures, and we're desperate to survive. If possible, we should develop ways of using what little magic we have to help others, maybe teach others what we learn, so they can use what little magic they have more efficiently. Technically, survival of humanity is our primary problem."
She became slightly red-faced. She hoped her tone hadn't come off as reprimanding, though it probably had. "Er, not that I'm saying you don't care about humanity, just... you know. Yah."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 20, 2021 21:46:48 GMT -5
There is a slight pause at Jun's response as he looked at her with an arched eyebrow. It was clear her response had taken him a bit off guard and she could practically see the clockwork of his mind whirring as he formulated a response. Clearly trying to toe a line.
"I do not, strictly speaking, disagree with that sentiment." He began, he was speaking slowly and carefully measuring his response twice before he said it. "That would be a bit of a macro view. As in, that is a unified goal of you, me, and the village. I would say, then, that our specific role within that mutual struggle for survival is addressing the lack of magic available to aid in that."
Avalux held her gaze for a moment to see if she was following him so far. Then he turned and wrote: Find and train more people to use magic on the board. "That is an excellent suggestion both to increase available magical energies and help with survival. I am going to keep the primary goal the same, I understand what you are saying but think of it this way."
Above primary problem he wrote, Primary Directive: Through investigation into magical research help ensure the survival of the people of the Usque for coming generations. Once he was finished he looks over to her. "Ensuring humanities survival can take many forms. Going out and hunting for wild game is just as vital to survival as what we are doing here. However, we are best suited to focus in on this problem." He said tapping where that was written on the board.
There is a pause as he stumbles just a bit, he'd realized something at the end. It took him a moment to recover as he pushed up his glasses took a breath and said. "That is my opinion on the matter, if you would like to give a rebuttal I am amenable to compromise." He'd realized that he was telling her how it would be rather than discussing it. He was not used to working with a research partner, just assistants. So he had to remember to compromise. He could do that, he wasn't one of those damn mage guild goons.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 21, 2021 16:46:51 GMT -5
Jun feared she had offended Avalux, but fortunately he took her concern and integrated it in a way that made sense to him. She felt relief, and a bit of guilt.
"No no, what you're saying is absolutely right. I'm sorry it's just, I have a history with butting heads with people. One of my closest friends was the empress of a powerful empire, and we still got into arguments. But you're right. Our focus should be specific. I just, I just don't want us to lose our moral compass is all."
She was also glad he liked her suggestion about teaching others.
"Hmm, I wanna go back to your previous question. Potential methods for resolving our magic problem. One thing I've noticed is that magic seems to work better using rituals, preparations, sacrifices, or increased charge times. There's this sort of running theme going on. Cost. In order to use magic effectively, a cost must be paid of some sort, whether it's a material, time, or perhaps vitality. The stronger the magic, the greater the cost. Uh, here, let me take a seat."
She grabbed a nearby chair and flipped it towards the center of the room so she could sit comfortably and gather her thoughts. "Ok, so, during one of my first excursions with a hunting party, we came across a very dangerous creature and someone was badly injured. Normally I would have been able to heal her easily, but with my magic suppressed I could barely stabilize her. Now, earlier during that trip, I was able to make a bond with some fox-like creatures. They were very cute. It was a bunch of pups and they had these little wings and, well, I suppose the specifics are not important. Anyways, as I tried desperately to heal our friend, the creatures seemed motivated to try to help me. And when they did, I felt my magic flow out of myself and into them, and the healing effect increased exponentially. I still wasn't able to heal the woman like I would have before, but at least I was able to prevent her death."
Jun was able to smile thinking about the foxes. It seemed the trauma from that event had healed somewhat.
"And then later that day, I practiced spear-fighting with another friend of mine named Asadrack. He had a broken rib from that same incident. Once again, my magic was so weak I could barely relieve his pain. But then a parade of sea creatures became attracted to the magic and I was actually able to heal his injury completely with their help."
Jun held up a finger. "I should point out this method might not work for everyone, although we haven't really tested it so far. See, in my old world I had done a lot of training with elemental-based magic, and in my school of learning that magic is tied closely with emotions, personalities, states of mind, and other living creatures. In fact, I spent a lot of time learning to channel my magic through animals and plants. That could be why this method of using other living things works for me."
She snapped her fingers. "Oh oh! One more thing. And this is very important. Teleportation magic seems to be off limits. Either it's random or the object just disappears or disintegrates. I do not recommend conducting experiments with it unless you don't mind sacrificing the object you're trying to, you know, poof."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 24, 2021 11:02:13 GMT -5
"That is..." Avalux started to say something and then paused. He was about to dismiss that concern, however, he took a moment and reflected on a few things. One of the reasons he'd retreated to The Glade Citadel was because he'd realized that he needed to be cut off from the bulk of his resources. At some point, he'd stopped thinking about whether or not he should do something and only if he could accomplish it. "Probably not a bad idea." He finally ended his statement after a slight pause.
"Well, that's always been the case. Rituals, sacrifice, and time has always allowed for a more efficient generation of magical energy. For some, it's simply taking the extra time to feed magic into the working before it is released. In the case of sacrifices, it's converting one state of energy into magical energy." Avalux nodded at her explanation as she grabbed a chair and he walked over to see where she was going with this.
"This is fascinating." Avalux said once she was finished explaining what she'd learned. Returning to the board he wrote: Animals seem to have a compounding effect when used as a medium for a spell. Query: Is this a trait of the animals in the region or specific to Jun's type of magic? Potential way to address: Locate another caster that isn't as well versed in magics based in nature and see if they can channel through the local fauna with increased results. Could lead to familiars becoming the norm as magical foci.
With those written out he moved down and added on a new section. Teleportation has been made lethal to those who attempt it. Investigation into this may reveal more about the rules of this new world but should be done so with great caution. After a few moments thought he added. Low priority as this does not immediately help with survival, investigate when resources for more esoteric lines of study are available?
"I think." Avalux said tapping his chin considering the teleportation segment. "That this..." He taps the low priority part. "Highlights that we need to get more specific with our avenue of research. Yes, increasing the over all magic available is good but when we are conducting experiments to see what works for increasing spell power I think we should be focusing on specific spells." Tapping his chin he thinks for a moment and then.
Prioritize ways to magically increase food production, provide insulation against the elements, and defend against predators during research? With that written down he looked over to Jun. "Anything else we should make a priority?" When they did spell work and tests these were the sorts of things he wanted to focus on in order to stay true to their prime directive in this.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 26, 2021 21:24:07 GMT -5
Jun got up from her chair and peered over at Avalux's chalkboard. She genuinely admired Avalux's logic and knife-like focus, so long as it didn't pierce beyond the veil of morality.
As he wrote (and he wrote very quickly and in small letters), her eyebrows perked up at the phrase "locate another caster". Locate another caster, hmm? She tapped her chin.
Specific spells.
What else should we make a priority?
She brightened as she saw an answer to all three questions at once. "Oh, you didn't get a chance to meet her last night, did you? Tana the Tongue Tied. She is the current queen of the Usquean people, and is an extremely adept healer. However, her magic doesn't work quite like mine. Usquean magic is of a different school. We could ask her if she'd be willing to participate in our studies. Speaking of which," she pointed at the list of magicks to prioritize.
"First aid. There are a ridiculous number of ways for people to get hurt here, and Tana and her apprentices are overtaxed. I do what I can too, but not everyone wants to be converged upon by clams, crabs, and sea gulls whenever they cut themselves whittling." Jun chuckled and scratched the back of her head. A seagull had defecated right on Asadrack's head when she last healed him.
"As a bonus objective, I'd recommend antivenom magic." She had heard rumors of venomous stinging monsters that nearly did the queen in before she first arrived. Sadly she hadn't had a chance to fight them yet, though maybe it was for the best as she hadn't quite figured out her powers yet.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 27, 2021 13:53:54 GMT -5
By the time she finished, he was nodding his head.
"That is an excellent suggestion."
With that said, he wrote underneath specific spells. -Healing magic should be our first priority.
"While helping with food protection, potable water, and shelter are all excellent things most communities manage to do all that without reliance on magic. But healing? That is the sort of thing that magic excels at. It saves people that might otherwise die with conventional treatment and gets people on their feet faster."
Which would, indirectly, help with everything else that he'd been speaking of.
"And knowing that we can get more magic users is good. Though I imagine that her magic will also be quite nature focused so we should still look for radically different casters. That being said I think that gives us a good start for our research. We have a primary objective, the larger problem we are trying to solve in service to it, and finally we now have a specific avenue of research to focus on for the moment. The question now is what experiments should we conduct to see what can be done to help boost power."
Stroking his chin he considered for several long moments and then he scribbled: Will ritualistic prayer from non-caster help increase efficacy? Quite a bit of healing magic came from divine sources, he knew many of those drew on the power of worship and prayer to redistribute to their followers. Perhaps they could find a way to translate that into spell power to fuel nature magic as well.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 30, 2021 16:40:26 GMT -5
Jun sat back down and folded her arms. "Hmm..."
She realized that in order to do experiments with healing, they'd need things that could be healed, ideally people. She felt kind of funny about possibly injuring people to conduct experiments, or treating people who'd been legitimately injured as test subjects. Avalux probably wouldn't consider it a big deal. It wouldn't take much to conduct said experiments; even paper cuts would suffice. But then again to measure the efficacy of magic accurately, you'd probably need something more substantial than paper cuts.
Jun made a visible lump in her throat as she swallowed. She did have a solution, but it was... a somewhat delicate and complex matter to her. Still, if it was in the pursuit of knowledge for the greater good, it was probably time to get over it
"We could probably conduct some experiments right now," Jun said as she began to unbutton her gambeson. No doubt expecting a certain reaction, she quickly smiled and added "Relax it's not what you think." No, she was not planning to injure herself in the name of their experiments, not yet anyways. Besides, her past adventures had more or less taken care of that for her.
Jun had a simple short-sleeved shirt underneath her cloth armor. With her bare arms exposed, Avalux would see what she was talking about. All along her arms and going up into her sleeves were scars. There were perhaps a dozen small but distinct ones on her right arm. But her left arm had a particularly large and gnarly looking burn patch all around the forearm. A bit of scarring on her neckline implied that there were more scars on her body.
"I could have gotten rid of them easily when I was in my prime, but I just... I dunno. I could never bring myself to do it. I've had a complex relationship with them. On the one hand I think they're ugly, but on the other hand they're kinda, I dunno, a part of me. Most of them represent a fight. Some of them were self-inflicted from when I was a practitioner of blood magic.
"Oh, oh." She pulled back her hair bangs and grinned devilishly. There was a little one right next to her temple. "When I was a little girl I tried to use druidic magic to control a bear. But in order to locate said bear I decided to use my cousin as bait. Poured honey all over her. I still don't know how I got her to agree to it. My experiment didn't exactly go well, but we survived the ordeal. She was shaken for weeks afterwards though."
She held a finger up. "Uh, it wasn't the bear that gave me the scar. Later that season she threw a snowball with a rock in it at my head. Instead of magically healing it I decided to let it heal naturally because, well, frankly I deserved it." She chuckled.
I hope she survived the flood waters too.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 30, 2021 17:32:00 GMT -5
The wide-eyed surprise on Avalux's face as Jun spoke was answer enough to tell what he thought of her offer. In that, he had no idea what to think of it since it had opened like she was going to hurt herself, then it turned into a discussion of how she'd hurt herself in the past, before devolving into a story. He was not surprised by tangent, getting sidetracked was in both of their nature, but he needed to address a few things.
"First, I want to clarify that your offer is that we experiment by trying to clear up some of your scar tissue?"
That seemed to be the case but while she'd informed him it was not what he thought she had not actually clarified what it was she was offering. The most extreme was self-harm, of course, healing the scar tissue was the next logical thing he could think of. But honestly, she could be leading up to pretty much anything.
"Also, regardless, volunteering for experiments is very admirable but we need to actually figure out a few to conduct first. Enthusiasm is good but you are putting the cart before the horse and there is a good chance that magic that heals scar tissue will not hold much more than cosmetic merit."
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 30, 2021 21:03:16 GMT -5
Jun pointed affirmingly at Avalux. "Exactly."
Noting his concern, she replied, "Well, yah, of course. But I'd argue that repairing a scar is at least comparable to repairing a cut. In fact, it might even be harder. With a scar, you have to convince the flesh to replace some old patchwork with newer, better patchwork. With an injury, you're mostly replacing blood and empty space."
Jun's understanding of the human body wasn't exactly nuanced. After all, her world relied so much on magic that there wasn't much need to develop sophisticated medical science. Her original master of light magic also equated healing to a sort of magical repair process. It was a restoration of a previous state, the same as could be used to repair objects.
"In any case, scar tissue gives us something innocuous to work with that doesn't involve, like, poking people with toothpicks or something."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Dec 31, 2021 21:55:46 GMT -5
"While that might certainly be true." Avalux did not have any reason to disagree with her on the potential efficacy of the training of mending flesh with old scars and how it translated to potentially getting an improved grasp on how to heal it. Honestly he was not particularly well versed on biology either but he did know some practicalities when it came to work sites.
"However, is that the best use of our time? Cuts are dangerous but the death often comes from infection after the fact rather than a failure to close the wound. Cuts also heal fairly quickly compared to broken bones and proper rehabilitation from them can keep a person out of commission far longer. Disease is also a concern, someone could pick something up and spread through the community like a plague and if enough people fall ill we all die."
As he spoke he wrote on the board: Infection, disease, broken bones. Then he looked over to Jun.
"These are the sort of things that magic could help prevent or repair, that a normal healer can't deal with as readily. Disease and infection I think should take priority. I know a few runes for warding off both and finding ways to get them properly powered could save a lot of lives. Also, broken bones would be easy to practice on if we just ask for some scrap ones from the hunters."
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Dec 31, 2021 22:23:27 GMT -5
Jun folded her arms and glanced sideways. She nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly.
"I suppose you're right." Her fingers unconsciously rubbed her scars. She felt surprisingly comfortable exposing them to the open air on Avalux's ship.
Her eyes suggested a "but" was coming.
"Depending on the caster, working with animal bones might not be exactly the same as working with living people. Although... I guess it's close enough. My magic seems to be facilitated by detached leaves as easily as with a living plant, which I guess is the equivalent of detached bones... huh that's kinda morbid. Wait, but no, if that were the case healing a living organism should come easy for me. Why is it that..."
She frowned and squinted. Then she grew wide-eyed. And then she frowned and squinted again.
"Sorry, I just came up with another hypothesis. That's the right word right? Healing is often seen as a caster imposing their will on the flesh of another. What if we could involve the will of the person being healed too? That might increase the efficacy of certain types of healing magic, kind of like how you suppose prayer would help. Although, hmm, that would be much harder to experiment with than powering runes."
Jun felt a bit guilty that she and Avalux kept going in different directions with their ideas. But she supposed it was only natural.
"You don't have a spare one of those, do you?" She pointed at Avalux's chalk board.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Jan 2, 2022 13:47:17 GMT -5
"Of course,"
Avalux, there were actually three chalk boards on the walls. He'd just gone to the only one that was currently blank. He shifted his gaze to the other two which were filled with his notes, however, one was mostly about survival matters under the assumption he didn't find other people. Since that issue was resolved he wiped it clean and gave Jun her own piece of chalk to write with as he considered her idea.
"That might actually be a brilliant idea if we can figure out how to get it to work. After all, the body will heal itself over time so it must understand how its supposed to function. As I said magic likes understanding so if we could find a way to augment a bodies natural healing processes. Though I have no idea how we would do that."
But it was most definitely a start for at least one avenue of research so that was certainly something. She rubbed at her scars drawing his attention to him and he coughed lightly into his hands. "And uh, that being considered you are free to put your shirt back on." He tried to say it casually because he didn't want to offend her in some way with that, it was just he was finding it a bit... distracting.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Jan 2, 2022 15:23:37 GMT -5
Jun smiled when she took the chalk, and she examined it carefully. Chalkboards weren't a common sight in her world It felt like a tiny honor, being handed the peculiar writing rock, like she had become an honorary member of Avalux's people.
She initially misinterpreted Avalux's suggestion. "Oh, no it's fine I'm not as ashamed of them as much as I used to..." Her words trailed off as she noticed a slight red tinge build up on Avalux's pale skin. She instantly comprehended, but not wanting to embarrass him she quickly added, "WELL I suppose it's a little drafty in here what with the ocean air and all that," and put her gambeson back on.
(There was a bit of empathy as Jun, despite being raised in a sex-positive culture, was herself a bit on the modest side, though perhaps not to the same extent as poor Avalux.)
She buttoned up while stepping towards the large slab of slate. She had never actually written on a chalkboard before. This was going to be an interesting experience.
"Hypothesis: Non-caster input... of will can enhance... the power of healing... magic. Prayer, input from... Victim? No, Healee? Patient! I'm an idiot. Paaaatient."
Her handwriting, while legible, was strangely jagged. She seemed proud of the letters until she looked over and compared them to Avalux's comparatively immaculate script. Next to his letters, hers looked like those of a toddler's. She was jealous, but she also found herself strangely attracted to his writing. Avalux's hands must have been extremely well-practiced. Her eyes occasionally flicked to his hands.
"So, just curious, the women in your world at least wear pants, right?" She smirked.
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