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 Jan 3, 2022 10:21:56 GMT -5
While he did not laugh at her writing but a wry smile of amusement drew across his features as she looked for the word patient. Honestly, he was finding that he enjoyed Jun's antics. Obviously brilliant but a bit eccentric, it was certainly nice to have some measure of levity considering how dour the last... Well, it hadn't just been the months on his ship that he'd been dealing with a lack of fun in his life.
Of course, she swiftly proved that such antics could lead to a slight backfire. Her question made it clear that she'd picked up on the heat he'd felt across his cheeks earlier. Rather than responding right away, he took a moment to calm his nerves so he didn't appear to be a stuttering fool. Honestly, he was being absurd he should be feeling self-conscious about something so small.
"They will though it's generally seen as improper. I've never had any particular issue with it. It's a simple matter of practicality, pants are good for robust activities like horseback riding or working in a foundry. Dresses are generally seen as more proper and I think they could likely be more comfortable. Though before I left Oxcern women's fashion tends were rather ruining the comfortable practicality of a dress in favour of multiple ridiculous layers."
That made him pause and frown slightly, mostly because he'd gotten into far more detail about the subject than he really needed to all things considered. Was he rambling? With a shake of his head he knew the best option forward was to get back on task.
"So, we have a few theories and avenues of research which means that now we need to settle on where we wish to start and which experiments to run. I am also working on a few new designs for mana collection runes to see if I can increase their efficiency at all. Right now I can help immediately since runes to ward off pests require such a small amount of mana so infrequently that I can set some of those up around the camp."
Keeping rats, mice, and other vermin from taking up residence in camp would preserve food stores and help keep down the spread of any new disease.
"But anything more than that and the runes requires far more power than my current arrays can produce. At least for sustained spells..."
A thought occurred and he started to tap his chin in contemplation.
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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 4, 2022 2:52:14 GMT -5
"Ah, there were dress shops and things in the city of Isra. I... kinda wish I had visited them more often now that it's all gone. 90% of my fashion choices have been based on how effective they are in combat."
With a lamenting sigh, Jun scrawled in tiny letters at the bottom corner of her chalk board, "Cosmetics". Preempting the look she knew she was going to get from Avalux, she said, "It's an extremely low priority but, some people will appreciate it. You could make an argument that anything that boosts morale will also boost mental fitness." Suddenly she smiled and scrawled a few more things down at the bottom:
Toys. Pets. Art. Music.
Turning to Avalux's chalkboard, Jun tapped her chin in a way mimicking Avalux (it seemed to helped him think, so it must be a useful gesture.)
"I'll bet I can help with your mana problem. I used to store lots of excess mana in scrolls for later use in combat. And during my training with the Earthwarden, I got really good at storing and channeling mana through plants. Maybe we can improve your designs using the local plant life. In my experience, seeds can absorb a lot of mana, and as they sprout the plant can be used as a conduit for spells. If nothing else I can be your very own personal mana battery for your experiments!"
Because somehow she knew what a battery was.
Without even waiting for a reply, Jun's hand flew back to the chalkboard and she began writing out rune formulas using esoteric symbols. Actually, the word writing hardly did it justice, more like her hands blazed across the chalkboard. The symbols were curved and simple, a sort of organic cuneiform. And yet Jun seemed to be able to make subtle, purposeful changes to them instinctively. Unlike her script, the runes seemed totally uninhibited by Jun's lack of practice writing on a vertical surface. She wrote out these symbols as quickly as a musician could play the notes of an upbeat song.
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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 4, 2022 22:34:15 GMT -5
It appeared as though Jun had quite the read of his character. When she wrote down cosmetics he opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off with her argument in favor of it despite it indeed being low priority. Which did actually get him to rethink his stance. Not because of the merit of it, they were in a survival situation so such things really did need to be so low priority that it may be months, potentially years to get to them.
However, Jun was right about such things being good for morale. More importantly, the hope of having them some day was good for morale as well. So while she was examining his chalkboard and tapping her chin he wrote at the bottom. To address when possible: A proper bathtub. With that added to the list of low priority things to work towards he considered what she was saying thoughtfully.
"That is a generous offer and will certainly be of help. Though it won't quite fix the problem but it will certainly help get us started... Or perhaps it would be better... hrmmm."
It was his turn to tap his chin. He was now debating the ethics of what he was trying to do. Specifically, if he should be trying to find a way to start mass producing enchantments once again. Sure, he could produce some enchantments with Jun's help but they would be the sort that would need regular charging by her. Fixing the mana collection runes would let him create self sustaining enchantments without the need for a mage once again but was that a good thing? They still didn't know what had caused the floods after all.
"At any rate, that will actually solve a few immediate problems. Or rather, it will give us some good outs. I can make the rune workings for some powerful spells and if you can provide the energy for them we could come up with some one shot items. I'll have to study my reference library a bit before we get into healing experiments though, I have books with runes that affect biology but I haven't studied them extensively."
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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 5, 2022 0:42:31 GMT -5
Jun nodded at everything Avalux said without missing a beat in writing her rune formulas.
"Time to start solving problems, then." She said just as the last rune was set in chalk. She placed the chalk down, took a deep breath, and focused. Some of Avalux's instruments might go off just a bit. "Oh, wow, that was fast."
There was nothing immediate to indicate what Jun was talking about, but then a few seconds later-
Knock knock knock.
Jun hustled over to the main cabin entrance to meet her invited guest. Just outside the door was a pelican. Jun pulled out a bit of dried meat from a pocket in her gambeson (because such things came in handy) and fed it to the ocean bird. Avalux might notice a very faint violet glow coming from the pelican's eyes.
"I need seeds. Lots of them," she said in very plain common.
It was clear the bird understood, as it actually nodded and took off from the deck of the ship. Jun hustled back to the chalk board, erased half her formula with enough speed and gusto to create clouds of chalk dust in the air, and started writing a new formula.
Realizing that all this sudden movement, as well as the speed at which she was capable of writing runes, might unnerve Avalux, she suddenly paused and turned her head to him, a little embarrassed.
"I'm uh, used to working under time pressure. Battlefield conditions... And such. I get excited easily." In fact, her hand was trembling ever so slightly, though the rest of her appeared calm and steady. She wasn't lying.
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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 5, 2022 18:55:38 GMT -5
Avalux had been caught up in his musing and hadn't actually looked at what she was writing yet. When he did his eyes blinked slowly before he walked forward to start examining the script. He didn't actually look up when she stepped away instead he remained where he was as he read her Rune array.
When she returned to his side he finally looked her way as she apologized and he absently waved his hand. "Think nothing of it. This one here." He tapped one of the runes. "Is that for bird or for pelican?" There were a few runes he did not recognize which fascinated him though he understood most of the spell, summon the bird and another one for helping to transfer mana from one source to a vessel.
"Also, its quite brilliant using seeds as mana storage. Organic things have an innate capacity to store energy. Not quite as high as a properly glyphed storage crystal but still quite a bit more than say, a stone." In fact, to use a stone he'd have to carve storage runes into it and it still wouldn't be able to contain much. The seed on the other hand would be able to store enough for a spell and would hold that charge until it rotted.
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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 5, 2022 20:49:54 GMT -5
Jun once again felt relief at the understanding and lack of judgment. Why couldn't she have met another eccentric overachiever sooner? Although Doobie and his children sort of fit that bill as far as kobolds went.
"A little of both. I'm been thinking of naming her Miss Sandbags."
Jun was surprised that Avalux understood her rune language. But what really surprised her, in a good way, was how she herself immediately inferred some of the differences in their knowledge and styles just based on his confusion over that particular rune.
Avalux was an academic, a generalist, an inventor. He must have had an enormous breadth of knowledge in a wide variety of rune effects. His overall knowledge of magic exceeded hers by quite a bit. However, Jun's particular specialty, as well as the way in which she was instructed, allowed her to add nuance to certain spells to increase their potency, nuances which Avalux probably wouldn't recognize. These nuances were based on the elements.
She wrote out one of the components of the rune, a couple of lines and wiggles. "How would I describe this? I guess this is a sort of... semantic augmentation. It's a symbol associated with psionic energy, but it also has its own connotation. Conciliation, peace, friendship. By adding it to the 'sea bird' rune, I'm in a sense telling the magic that I want to use psionic energy to call my friend." She pointed to a little tail part of the rune. "That's just a symbol I made up to specify that the creature has a big mouth." She grinned. "I have more than one sea bird friend."
Jun wrote out a few more symbols. "I can make other semantic augmentations based on the different elements. There are fire ones with connotations of wrath and punishment, darkness ones with connotations for hiding and fear, light ones for caring and protection, etc. etc. Different connotations work with different elements, which work with different spell effects. I guess... in a way this system lets me put... forgive me for not using a proper academic term, my heart into the spells. I guess that's why this school of magic works so much better when you think of the elements as living beings with personalities.
"The downside is that I'm actually not very good with things that exist outside the purview of nature and the elements. Arcane bolts, pulling rabbits out of hats, any sort of time manipulation, laser beams, those spells never really made sense to me. I also wasn't very good with the void or eldritch horrors."
As powerful and formidable as Jun was back in the old world, even she wasn't good at everything.
Jun's face became sad and nostalgic as she stared at her runes. Speaking of the void and eldritch horrors, I wonder if Grandma and Keph survived the floodwaters.
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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 5, 2022 21:25:23 GMT -5
"You made up a symbol to represent things with a big mouth?" Avalux repeated back some of what she had just said as he turned to look at her. While they had not spent a great deal of time together technically speaking she had watched him stare down death from an attacking creature with stoic calm. So it was a testament at how off guard that statement had taken him that the look he turned on her was one of utter shock.
When she was finally finished he had to take a breath, collect his jaw from the floor, and even then he wasn't quite ready to speak. He paused, took off his glasses went to clean them with his shirt, stopped when he noticed how dirty the shirt was and then he looked about for a clean rag. He found one and used that to wipe his lenses before he finally took a deep breath, settled them back onto the bridge of his nose, and he finally turned to face Jun.
"Jun, you just informed me that your intuited an entirely new rune. I feel like you do not understand the scope of how challenging that should be and you are telling me what your magic can't do?" He shook his head in mute bewilderment. Not even sure how to encapsulate what was going through his head right now. It was jut a bit much wasn't it? That she be brilliant, powerful, and pleasant company...
"I think." He finally said very slowly. "That perhaps the fact that you are so magically powerful and in tune with the natural world that you evidently can grasp the shape of the written formulae for it is more than worth not being able to shoot a laser." He couldn't even start a fire with magic and she felt the need to point out that her incredible magical power did not extend to pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
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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 6, 2022 0:11:37 GMT -5
Jun watched Avalux's fluster, her mouth slightly agape with sympathy. Avalux was brilliant, but apparently her own knowledge somehow floored him. And, well, he couldn't actually use the magic he spent a lifetime comprehending, now could he? However, Avalux was missing the context in which her power was honed. Did Avalux have rivals who could freeze square miles of ocean with a single spell? Or unknown wizards who could topple ancient and powerful kingdoms on a whim? Or evil kings who could unleash zombie hoards which threatened entire continents?
When Avalux was finished putting his metaphorical jaw back into place, Jun gave a single, halted chuckle. She walked over to the chair and sat down, taking a moment to figure out how to make him understand. She decided to go with a sillier analogy.
"Avalux... a porcupine's spikes aren't there to show off, or make other animals feel bad. They're there so that bears don't try to eat them. I'm... not better than you. My world, was just much, much, worse."
Jun turned to Avalux's chalkboard, and back to Avalux. "I'll admit it. I'm special, so magic entrusts me with its power. But you? Magic entrusts you with its secrets. You have a special relationship with magic. Magic likes you, in a different way. And I respect you. I respect that bond."
She held up her fist to him to ask for a fist bump.
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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 6, 2022 18:39:24 GMT -5
There was a measure of acidic bile that rose to the top of Avalux's gorge as she spoke. Retorts that were born not of true anger at Jun but more of the reminder. Of failure after failure to produce even the smallest spark of magic, of being denied entry to Black Briar Wizard College because just knowing the runes didn't qualify him to study enchanting, of being ridiculed by wizardly scholars for his attempts to understand something he couldn't even feel. But Jun wasn't trying to be cruel, she was actually trying to cheer him up. An attempt that might have gone over a bit better if her last statement hadn't been just a tad tone deaf.
The vitriol was close to the surface and it was a bit of a struggle to not throw her kindness into her face. To point out that a porcupine did not, to the best of his knowledge, go on to lament that in additions to its spines that it could not also have the armor plating of an armadillo. To inform her that magic had given him nothing. That the reason he understood it so well was because he'd spent his life working, fighting, researching, and begging for every scrap of information he had. All while people like Jun were able to just intuit a rune for pelican, something that would have taken him months or even years of independent research and experimentation to achieve.
But she had also said she respected him. She may not understand the breadth of the difference in the pursuit of magical there was between them. But she at least saw what he was doing, what he was trying to achieve and recognized that it had merit. Something he had not gotten from any mage ever. Hell, he'd not even gotten it from other people until it had started to produce money. Because most people just didn't see the point in spending time and effort trying to understand magic because what was to understand, it was magic! But that wasn't enough, it was part of the universe and if it existed it could be understood and considering what it could do why would you not want to understand it? Jun got that, he could tell and she didn't deserve to bear the brunt of his issues when she was trying to be kind.
"Jun, thank you. I appreciate what you said but I need you to understand that magic does not entrust me with its secrets. I do have any kind of special relationship with magic. It is entirely indifferent to me, I can't produce even the smallest spark. So what knowledge I do have was earned through a great deal of pain and effort... My apologies."
Avalux tried to keep himself level but as he spoke just a bit of heat came into his voice until. So he apologized, took a breath and finally reached out to bump her fist lightly.
"I am trying not to snap at you but you touched on a bit of a sore spot for me. Just... if you knew just how much effort I would have had to expend to have a functioning rune for Pelican while you just..." A pause so he can force calm into his voice. "Made one up. I think you would understand a bit better." Indeed, he hoped that just explaining that would let her infer the rest as he turned and walked back to his chalk board, taking long even deep breathes to exert a measure of calm and control over the old scar tissue that Jun and inadvertently caused to ache.
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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 8, 2022 1:29:19 GMT -5
It wasn't quite as enthusiastic a fist-bump as Jun had hoped.
Although it wasn't a pain she had experienced directly, Avalux's explanation did cause her heart to ache. It was the injustice of it. Magic was an inherently undemocratic force, and those privileged enough to wield it too often did so for nefarious purposes. This, in turned, forced heroes like Jun to rise up and fight them, while people like Avalux watched from the sidelines.
But Avalux didn't watch from the sidelines, did he? He instead found an indirect way of wielding magic which made him a master of it in his world. There was absolutely no way he wasn't special. Jun just couldn't comprehend that. There must have been an important reason why magic didn't respond to his will. As someone who spent her whole life thinking of magic as a living force, she couldn't see how magic could just abandon Avalux like that.
Unless, this is what magic wanted. Maybe magic wanted to be democratized. As cruel as it seemed, was it possible magic rejected Avalux for the greater good?
After a few moments of being a pensive lump in her chair, Jun finally spoke.
"I've... never been good at cheering people up. I'm used to solving problems by blowing up the source of the problem. Bit of a tomboy in that regard I suppose." She chuckled halfheartedly. "But I want you to know that my respect for you goes deeper than just respecting how hard you've worked, or how you've overcome adversity. This might sound crazy, and maybe you won't believe me, but I believe that, in this brave new world, you, Avalux, represent the future of magic."
With that, she stood up, feeling a bit taller and more purposeful than she had felt since arriving on the island. "And as someone who represents the past, I want you to know I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that future comes to fruition. I'll do whatever it takes to protect you."
Wow, it feels good making an epic speech again.
Jun found herself walking towards the door, wanting to incorporate the sunlight along with some gesticulations to make her point. "Because you see- OUCH!"
As soon as she crossed the door frame, the returning pelican dropped a coconut right on her head.
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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 Jan 8, 2022 15:58:34 GMT -5
Jun called his attention back to her with a speech which was... As flattering as it was... interesting. He did not doubt the sincerity of the words but there was really only one thought that was going through his head when she spoke. But he didn't share it since she seemed to have a good head of steam as she made a vow to protect him while telling him he was the hope for magic in this world.
Then her pelican dropped a coconut on her head.
"My word, Jun are you alright." Rather than finding that amusing, his eyes widened in alarm as the solid piece of fruit cracked against her noggin. He made his way across the room to her side as he glared at the bird. Without a thought for what he was doing, he reached out to touch her hair parting where it struck checking for blood.
"Well, looks like it didn't break the skin." He murmured with a shake of his head before he pulled away and shook his head. "You, truly do not know how to do anything small do you Jun?" There was really no other way to describe her she like a firework, just waiting for a spark to do something spectacular and loud. "I appreciate your words but I think you are maybe thinking of this in the wrong way. Right now we aren't two heroes trying to save the world. We are two researchers trying to make it better. Not everything needs to be a grand gesture. As much as I appreciate the flattery." He added with a slight grin.
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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 9, 2022 19:46:28 GMT -5
Jun held still like a child while Avalux inspected her scalp for injuries. "It's how I compensate for my height," she muttered under her breath.
Satisfied she was not bleeding or had a concussion, she bent down and picked up the coconut while Avalux lectured her about the mundane nature of their work. Instead of answering directly, she held the coconut under an arm, made an overly affected twirling gesture with her other hand, and bowed deeply to him. It was obvious Jun still felt inspired and motivated despite the head knock and reality check.
"I'm pretty sure she didn't do that on purpose," Jun said as she brought the coconut into the chamber towards her chalk board. "Do you have any particular spell or experiment which requires an unusually large battery?"
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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 10, 2022 18:31:23 GMT -5
"I can assure you that from what I've seen you have no need to compensate for your height."
Avalux said with a chuckle as he added after a moment.
"To clarify that statement and to return some of your kind words. You are extraordinarily driven, amazingly intelligent, with a fantastic capability for intuitive reasoning. And despite having an amount of power that would drive many to corruption you are not just a principled individual but a kind one, which I think might be the trait I admire most."
The term that was typically fired his way was cold. Partly because he tended to be a bit more reserved with his reactions and emotions than most. Well, honestly, a lot more. Though Jun's rather large antics were drawing a bit more of an emotional response than he would typically provide.
The bow surprised him and when she asked her question holding up the coconut he stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Presently, the only thing that would require a larger than normal battery would be the ship. Of course, considering how much my condenser runes are barely able to get enough magic to fuel the transfer runes I could probably just hook it up to a few small scale experiments. Of course, we've already talked about priorities so personal project will have to wait. Presently, I think I need to start looking through the rune encyclopedia I have for magic meant to effect the physical body. Try and come up with some single use emergency healing spells to give to the medics for emergencies."
As he said this he walked over to a set of shelves with latching covers, pulling one and lifting it revealing about a dozen books on magic. There were four rows of doors per shelf so he was sitting on over a hundred books of magical knowledge from another world.
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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 13, 2022 18:12:02 GMT -5
Jun's smile of gratitude could have lit up a room. She never wanted to grow weary of being admired for things besides being a weapon of magical destruction. She would have shed a tear as well, but they did have work to attend to after all.
As she set to work channeling her mana into the coconut, she couldn't help steal captivated glances at the bookshelf. As more and more survivors washed ashore, it quickly became apparent that certain trappings of civilization would become exceedingly rare. And one of those trappings was definitely books.
And Avalux's books weren't just any books, they were books about magic. In a world where magic was harder to tap into, Avalux was casually flipping through a gold mine.
"You know..." Jun said hesitantly, "I trust the Usqeans. They're good people. But, we should probably be careful about who we invite on board this ship. It's extremely valuable. You don't have any security measures here, do you?"
She wondered if she could recruit some animals to act as guards for the Kesterven, and perhaps empower them with these magical condensers Avalux spoke about.
She frowned slightly at herself. They were supposed to be working on medicine and yet how quickly her mind turned combat and defense, again. She supposed regardless of where she went and who she spent time with, a part of her would always be a fighter. That was the deepest scar of all, and it would likely never heal.
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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 14, 2022 14:46:20 GMT -5
Avalux found the book he was looking for and settled down at his desk. Flipping through it and writing down a few notes on a separate sheet of paper. Mostly page numbers for the runes he would want to reference while he got to work on a new enchantment.
When Jun spoke up to ask about security measures he looked up and at her with an arched brow. "You really do struggle with not thinking about such things." He shook his head though there was a small smile of amusement on his lips as he did.
"No, there are no security measures on this ship beyond the lock on the door. It wasn't a priority during production and I didn't have time to add any while I converted it from wagon to barge. Even if I did, no magic to fuel such defences here." He shrugged his shoulders as if to say what could you do. "And I am beached, I don't think its actually possible for us to get this back into the water at this point." He had used the last of the magic in the engines to beach the craft since he hadn't seen any other way to make landfall at the time.
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