[OOC][Signup] World's Edge

Name: Iona Kine
Gender: Female
Age: 29

Race: Human and Mermaid hybrid

Appearance:



A pretty, fair-skinned redhead, Iona has natural good looks that are only enhanced as a side effect of her odd hybrid state. Dressing conservatively, she favors simple dresses, skirts, and a barefoot approach to travelling, having found that trousers and boots are a liability when your legs can form into a tail unexpectedly. Her aquatic state remains relatively close to that of her human form, at least from the waist up - considering many depictions she’s seen of ancient merfolk are far more scaly and fish-like, she considers herself lucky to have been give a form that straddles the line between a human being and a creature of the depths.

Talents:
1. Shifting: Iona is a bit of an odd duck… or fish, rather. Thanks to a mystical entanglement in an ancient ocean temple several years ago, Iona can’t stop herself from shapeshifting into a tailed, water-breathing form when submerged in water. Quite a useful ability when she needs to plumb the ocean depths, but a huge pain in the neck when she needs to take a bath.
2. Navigation: A natural attunement to ocean currents, granted by her aquatic half, provides her with an excellent penchant for finding her way along the seas; more conventional education in navigation and finding her location via a sextant is also extremely helpful.
3. Swordsmanship: Adventuring required Iona to learn to defend herself, and while she’s far from a professional duelist or career soldier, she knows how to parry and can stand her own when battling alongside allies. By now she’s learned to swing around a sword decently underwater as well, though she still prefers ‘swim away’ over ‘awkwardly whack through the water’ any day.
4. Archaeology: At heart, Iona is an explorer, specifically one fascinated with investigating all manner of ancient structure, every physical shred of bygone cultures and civilizations. Despite the massive trouble it’s gotten her into, from her fair share of encounters with bandits to the biologically confused state she’s now in, her passion for history and discovery of past secrets is as strong as ever.

Weapon(s): A well-worn arming sword, regularly cleaned in order to ensure that all the exposure to water doesn’t cause it to rust out, and a small buckler shield used in the off-hand. 

Trinkets: A satchel with several books on ancient cultures, notebooks, and writing utensils - waterproof and watertight, of course, a necessity given her current situation.

Biography: Iona set out journeying across the world with one simple desire: learning as much as she could about the people who came before her, the countries and groups that passed away so many centuries ago. An archaeologist by trade, she transformed a youthful passion about history into a career built around cataloging ancient ruins, retrieving valued artifacts for well-paying collectors, and meticulously recording every detail she could discern about the lives that people milled through long, long ago. It was a lonely life of drifting from one dig site to another, but one she fully embraced, enjoying every moment of… right up until that damnable temple.

An excavation into an oceanside cavern five years ago led Iona and her colleagues into a partially flooded temple, carved into the rock millennia ago and covered in writing and architecture none of them had seen before. Excited comparison of the texts on the walls to ancient seaside elvish dialects led to a partial translation which indicated that this place might well have been constructed by a race of long-vanished merfolk, no longer present in this region yet having once flourished. They were eagerly transcribing sections that referred to some sort of ark when the group was set upon by raiders, marauding bandits eager to plunder anything valuable from the ancient ruins. In the ensuing fight, Iona found herself fleeing deeper into the temple, madly swimming through flooded tunnels until she reached a chamber whose walls seemed to glow with an ethereal green light.

The subsequent events are a blur in her mind. She remembers water breaching the walls, a tremendous surge of energy around her, stone ceilings caving in, rushing waves separating her from friend and enemy alike… and most vividly of all, she recalls waking up some indeterminate time later on a nearby beach, looking down at herself to find that the tide was lapping against a brilliantly colored tail instead of the legs that carried her around the world. That this admittedly beautiful new appendage so easily split into two fleshly limbs once more when she flailed onto land did not keep her from spending the next day in a state of total panic and utter confusion.

In the next week, she calmed down and made a more rational exploration of what had happened. A local expert in mysticism helped her surmise that the temple, an ‘ark’, had been intended to create merfolk out of landlubbers, though for what purpose she couldn’t imagine. Whatever enchanted process had touched her failed to complete properly before seismic effects of the magical occurrence caused the whole place to fall apart, leaving her as an odd sort of hybrid, assuming this new aquatic form when submerged in water but reverting to her human form on land. The expert had no idea how to reverse it, and a total collapse made access to the cavern and temple for research completely impossible.

Her initial fascination and excitement at this new form turned into existential dread, as she realized that she had no idea what the remaining effects of this change could be - for all she knew, Iona might yet turn into a fish completely, or get permanently stuck as a mermaid, or suddenly turn human underwater and run out of air, or have trouble changing back after a simple bath… it was terrifying to imagine the unknown possibilities, and soon she found her passionate career being turned towards a search for a way to reverse this enchantment. Five years later, she has nothing to show for it, her efforts so in vain that she’s thrown her lot into a journey all the way to the edge of the world; it probably won’t lead her to the results she wants, but she’s ready to at least die or get stuck transformed while on an epic voyage, rather than on some fool’s quest for a disenchantment that might not even be possible.

Not that she’s told their captain, of course. Experience shows that it’s better he think Iona is just a talented navigator with a penchant for history, lest he start thinking about how much a merfolk slave might might be worth to some shadier individuals.

Name: Asuka 
Gender: Goddess, a rare subspecies of female. Though, if you asked her what the difference was between a man and a woman, she'd have a hard time explaining it to you. 
Race: Dragon, though most of the time she is disguised as a female human. While being a dragon has its advantages (being huge, breathing fire, eating people you don't like, and great collections of pearls), it also comes with a cost. Transforming between her dragon and human form takes a lot of time and energy, meaning that Asuka cannot do it instantaneously whenever she is placed in danger. As such, Asuka tries to transform only when she has good reason to. Furthermore, being a dragon is not always a helpful thing in the mortal realm. For starters, she is a very large and frightening target that, despite being quite resilient, has a hard time dodging a volley of arrows. Dragons are also incompatible with the magic of mortals. As such, she is vulnerable to spells and cannot use any on her own. 

Appearance:
 

 
Despite being from the East, Asuka has white hair and yellow eyes. She keeps her hair short because she hates how it blocks her vision in the heat of battle. Typically, Asuka is seen wearing the outfit depicted above: a white robe and black cape that, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) does little to protect her body. Concepts like modesty are completely lost on her, and looking down on the other races for so long as a mighty dragon has caused her not to fear their puny weapons. 
 
Affinity: Lightning. Asuka claims to have once farted out a thunderstorm while in her dragon form, but nobody can verify her claim. 
Deity: Herself. Hurray for narcissism!
Faction: The Army of the Legendary White Serpent. Yes, it is a totally real army and does not just consist of her (it isn't).
Talents: 
 
Katana-rama: Asuka is a self-taught samurai who, despite originally trying to use her sword to butter bread, managed to create her own style that is both unorthodox and effective. As such, Asuka is unpredictable in combat, and that's before she transforms into a dragon. 

Lightning Breath: Asuka hates magic. However, she can breath lightning from her mouth and her butt. So take that wizards!

Overwhelming confidence: Asuka views herself as a goddess. As such, there is not a single being in the universe who she fears. As such, Asuka is almost impervious to many forms of mental manipulation, and it is hard to tell if she is lying because she completely believes her own bullcrap. Finally, Asuka naturally draws eyes, meaning that her foes will be more focused on her than her more vulnerable allies. As such, she is a natural decoy. 

Dragon me down: Asuka's dragon form is incredibly resilient. As such, Asuka rarely gets tired, and she can take a large amount of punishment before falling. Still, that comes with the drawback of being a very large target. 

Weapon(s): Asuka wields a katana with deadly efficiency. She'd heard all the criticisms before. "But katana's are bad weapons, wah wah wah." Asuka does not wield any ordinary katana: she has in her possession a legendary sword that was blessed by a goddess (a.k.a. herself). The laws of physics mean nothing to her!
 
Trinkets: Asuka is writing her own holy book about her life and her many teachings. Currently, the book mostly just contains a list of the people she hates. You don't want to be added to the list. She also keeps a few of her favorite pearls with her (DON'T TOUCH).
 
Biography: You might look at the buxom samurai before (possibly for a longer stretch of time than you care to admit) and think that while she is quite a looker, there is nothing all that special about her. That is where you would be dead wrong mortal, for beneath the puny and adorable exterior beats the heart of a mighty dragon from the East! She has glorious white scales that resemble feathers, and is capable of flying so quickly that if she were to spin around quickly she would create a tornado! She even once farted out a thunderstorm (true story). And what of her pearl collection? The legendary dragon Asuka had the greatest, grandest, most must-see collection of pearls in all the world. Clearly, this was a being worthy of being feared for its power and worshiped for its majesty. There was just one little problem...
 
Nobody gave a crap. No, really. As impressive as Asuka was, she was always an introvert, much like most dragons, and preferred to spend most of her days arranging, rearranging, and taking stock of her pearl collection (which you ought to see). However, after centuries of confirming that every singly last pearl was indeed still there, Asuka experienced an emotion she had never felt before. Boredom. Gone were the days when legendary heroes were combing the countryside fighting dragons. Most mortals were perfectly content to leave Asuka alone seeing as she never bothered anyone and the only reward for slaying her would be some relatively worthless pearls. She always guessed that all of the true heroes were busy hunting dragons who hoarded gold. Lousy trends. She'd rather have a unique pile of pearls than another generic pile of gold any day.
 
But alas, Asuka found that being a dragon was a dull life indeed. Dragons rarely even talked to one another. And so, Asuka decided to do something she had never attempted before: she would take on the guise of a human and enter their world. For years, she trained herself on the seemingly simple but surprising difficult art of acting and walking like a human. After falling on her face thousands of times, Asuka was finally ready to stand on her own two feet and enter the nearest town. Sure, the first time she walked into town she was chased away because she had forgotten clothes, but every screws up on their first try. The next time, after donning a samurai robe she had stolen after it was left out to dry, Asuka was able to enter the town without drawing much attention to herself. She even managed to attend one of the town's daily worship meetings for their deity. And it was there, as Asuka watched the people bow and give praise to whatever god they needed to thank today that she came to a conclusion: being a dragon was old hat, being a goddess was where it was at!
 
Yet, that raised another question. How exactly does one become a goddess? She tried what seemed to be the most obvious thing and just went around telling people that she was a goddess and that they should praise her, but outside of one creepy guy who just stared at her, nobody ever attended her personal prayer meetings. Then she noticed that many of the mortals read about the gods and their teachings through books. A holy book, if you will. And so, Asuka the goddess came to her next conclusion: she would have to write a book with information about her and her teachings. Then people would worship her! 
 
Her first attempt at said book was a putrid failure. Not only did she realize that she had nothing to talk about besides her pearl collection (which was simply marvelous and you must-see it), but she also was forced to admit that she had no idea how to write at all. And so, Asuka used her greatest talent, one she had acquired after centuries of organizing her pearls: patience. For years, Asuka stalked the people of the town, doing her best to learn as much about them as possible. The people of the townsfolk often talked in hushed tones about the girl with white hair who just stared at them from outside their windows. Yet, despite being the town's local creeper, Asuka's plan was a success. She had mastered several important human skills like small talk (hey, do you like pearls), bathing (she originally licked herself clean like a cat before discovering how humans made baths), shopping (put the pearls in the bag of I'll stab you), and writing. 
 
Years of living on the fringe of human society had made Asuka a naturally good observer of people. She quickly learned what subtle mannerisms would get people to either stare at her (breathing in deeply and puffing out her chest always did wonders for reasons that were beyond her) or make them look away (such as looking at something off to the side that seemed really interesting). She incorporated her ability to misdirect people into her sword technique, either drawing people's eyes to her or away from her depending on the situation. At last, Asuka felt that she was ready to take on her next trial in becoming a goddess: she would travel the world, spreading her teachings and recording her travels until eventually the entire world worshiped her. And sure, maybe she did not have much to teach people outside of some of the many obscure facts she knew about pearls, but she was confident nonetheless. With sword held high, Asuka declared "Look out world. Here comes Asuka!" and off she went. 
 
And so, Asuka began to travel the globe in her quest to become a goddess. Unfortunately, her current number of followers was zero, but she was expecting that number to shoot right up. Regardless, Asuka draws attention wherever she goes as many aspects of the mortal realm are still lost on her. For instance, she had absolutely no filter and will say whatever she is thinking at the moment ("I gotta poop. Hope I don't start another thunderstorm."), no sense of modesty (have you seen her outfit?), and an odd desire to teach people about things she knows nothing about ("I'll tell you where babies come from little girl. They hatch from pearls!"). The worst part is that because she is a goddess she believes everything she says and is completely oblivious to how the world actually works. 
 

EDIT: Actually I'll just sign up with a new character rather than transfer the old one 

Edit: Oh, by the way Arby, I love your character. So full of whimsy!



(Original Source): marcks.deviantart.com/art/Black-Mage-216086597

Name: Gungho
Gender: Her face remains hidden by the shadow cast by her hat, but she refers to herself in feminine terms, and has a voice to match.
Age: ??

Race: Human-shaped, at the very least.

Appearance: No one can make out her features past the shade of her hat except for the bright glint of a pair of energetic, inquisitive eyes, but one need not worry of losing sight of Gungho as her inky-black Jack-o'-lantern of a head is more distinctive than any traditional, Euclidian face. In addition, she always wears the same raggedy blue cloak, blue robes and yellow felt hat. Though stained and worn, they seem clean and don't have any particular smell beyond the potpourri of herbs, minerals and alchemical reagents wafting out of her leather satchel. When caught in conversation, (which is quite easy, I assure you) Gungho has a distinctive, keening sort of voice that develops a wet crackle when speaking in low tones, and a long, drawn out cackle of a laugh.  She cackles a lot, by the way.

Talents:

1. Magic and witchcraft: Well, she is a witch, isn't she? Maybe she'll bless you with good fortune, or maybe she'll hex you to always fart in front of people you want to impress because you made fun of her pointy hat. Or just strike you with lightning. Seriously, don't mock the hat.
2. Potion brewing - Long years of experience and many a singed hat (and eyebrows) have produced an encyclopedic knowledge of all things that can be distilled, concocted, concentrated and bottled.
3. Fortune telling - Hocus pocus, abracadabra, and 6 to thine and 6 to thine and 7 to thine - with a wave of her hand, she can conjure up cloudy images of that which she calls upon to be seen... for a price, of course.
4. Barter - Well, she has to make a living off all this stuff somehow. And who doesn't want to hear about their future spouse?
5. Poison craft - Gungho may be good at making potions in her cauldron, but making stew? Her boots are more palatable than what she manages to whip up...
(No, she doesn't really make poison).


Weapon(s): A simple wooden staff she carries with a curved hook at the top used for hanging lanterns (and not much use in battle), all carved out from one piece, along with a variety of spells, curses, and volatile concoctions bottled up inside her bag of mysteries...

Trinkets: Besides her clothing, she carries with his a worn, brown, leather satchel filled with all sorts of strange things used in the production of potions. Across her back hangs a simple burlap sack filled with other things for the road - a smelly, stained cast iron kettle, some leather polish for her boots and belt, some magic wands, a bundle of half-melted candles, and an immaculate crystal ball wrapped in a swatch fine, purple silk.

Biography: Just some old crone (you think, from her voice) whom meandered into the The Spyglass, Gungho comes across as your typical batty old raisin... and while that may be true, this crazy old lady knows the secrets of magic, of the old, mysterious sort that defies all explanation, or even comprehension.

Name: Dwain "The Smelly" Horne
Gender: Male
Age: 368 Months

Race: Human-Alcohol hybrid
Appearance: (in attachments)

Talents:
1. Drinking - Dwain is one of the greatest alcoholics and drinkers around, able to contend with the best in contests and games.
2. Uncleanliness - Dwain has the God given [forsaken] gift of out-smelling a herd of cows that was sprayed by a family of skunks.
3. Eyesight - Despite his questionable choices of drink, Dwain's eyesight is still excellent, sitting at 20/15 vision.
4. Sailing - Dwain has served on his share of boats and knows his way round them almost as good as he knows his way round a bottle.

Weapon(s): Dwain's weapon of choice is his trusty cutlass, with only a few spots of rust and a decently sharp edge. Other than that it is fists and broken bottles/chairs/tables.

Trinkets: Dwain keeps the first coin he ever earned from being a 'tax collector' of the sea hanging from his neck, a hole punched through the center and a rope ran through, a bottle of dhargonac Annata that was gifted from Dwain's last Captain hangs half-filled in a holder at his waist, and a comb made of bronze with fake gemstones.

Biography: Dwain claims that he was born at sea, his mother drinking a bottle of Brandy and his father hauling ropes; this story being as good as any as it changes every night (just last night his mother was a princess and his father a daring rogue who wooed her and left her after she gave birth at sea, suckling him with a bottle of Brandy). Any way he tells it he was born at sea, with someone drinking Brandy; bringing another lowlife into the world. Dwain never tried to be lawful or good finding it easier to take what he wanted and do as he pleased, which got him kicked out of a lot of towns opening the prospect of sailing the seas to escape some of those debts and threats. Dwain was a natural at sailing, finding the seas calming and full of splendor and riches.

Over time Dwain started to fancy becoming a captain in his own right, and after a large haul from 'tax collecting' at sea immediately looked for a crew and found a few crates of hard liquor instead. The call to hops and barley was stronger than that of riches and the sea. As it is his supply ran out and it is about time for Dwain to once again become a sailor to at least get enough for the next round.

Sorry for delay in replying to each of ye. We shall start on Monday!



I like, very creative, good stuff.


At least we won't starve to death.



Let the licking commence!


D'awwww... It's so tiny. Welcome aboard!

Bird mage? Creative, got a nice vibe of crazy. Welcome to the edge of the world


Ooo, mysterious mage. I like.


This has vibes of your Pathfinder character. I'm ok with this.

A wild old drunkard.

After the ancient man and a shapeshifting dragon, why not. Welcome aboard!

Another relic, and finally posted before you got ninja's again!




Half the crew are babies and the other half are relics.

This should get entertaining

Just in time! getting the starting post ready to go! Welcome aboard!