Group RP Fading Suns: By the Soul's Light

[angelicmadrigal]

I have since changed my mind about trying to run a game here. However, I will be putting up transcripts from my table top game, since one of the players is a FANTASTIC scribe. I decided to make pre-generated characters for the group simply to make my life easier and to be able to have some control over what was being played. Also, my entire group is new to Fading Suns, so it will simplify things on their end.

Another thing I am going to do is have the players act as another group of PCs at certain points during the campaign. So while one contingent might have a month's down time, the players will have the opportunity to play another group of characters either working towards the same goals or at total cross purposes or possibly parallel purposes depending on how things line up.

Spoiler: Initial Post

So, sometime around Valentine's Day I am going to be starting a long term group RP (5 players, session based, monthly). I will be running the game here concurrently with the game I am running for my Table Top group. I am wanting to see how the path's diverge and the story develops with two separate groups, and very different types of role playing avenues. Call it curiosity, or call it madness, I call it genius.

Anyway I will be posting the characters here. While they all have traditional character sheets, I will not be uploading those as they are all in .docX format, which the upload function does not support. I will post each character as I finish them. Now, let's get this started.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Ambrose von Buellen
Title: Baronet
Affiliation: House Hawkwood
Party Role: duelist, diplomat

Raised in the capitol of Byzantium Secondus, Ambrose is the second son of one of the Hawkwood envoys to the Imperial Court (Baron Silas von Buellen). His parent's marriage has always been the subject of much intrigue in the courts since his mother Yulia, is the niece of the infamous Duchess Salandra Decados. How a Hawkwood Baron ended up married to any relation of hers is anyone's guess, but the current theory is that Yulia managed to cross her aunt, who devised a special kind of torture for her niece.

While Ambrose's elder brother Antoine followed in their father's footsteps, Ambrose is his mother's son. As her favorite, Yulia tended to spoil her son, much to his father's chagrin. In fact, Yulia encouraged Ambrose to follow his passions first; namely beautiful women and dueling.

By all accounts Ambrose is charming, witty, and an excellent duelist. While no one would categorize him as a womanizer, he has a long string of lovers for his young age. Court woman love to gossip, giving Ambrose an extensive gossip network spanning most of the Known Worlds. Ambrose makes friends easily, and while he does share a penchant for hedonism with his Decados cousins, he tries to conceal it under a carefully crafted façade of gentility.

This has been especially important in recent months as he has been betrothed to Evangelina Juandaastas. Ambrose finds Evangelina's behaviors odd, as they resemble those of the Obun Court rather than human nobility. He also finds the duel-spouse arrangements of House Juandaastas marriages somewhat unpalatable. However, due to the high stakes of the betrothal, Ambrose has tried to make the best of things with Evangelina, but a man has his needs and the Baronet is still very much a great lover of women. Luckily for him, he's always been a discreet man.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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"Cherry" aka Cassandra de Witt
Title: Associate
Affiliation: The Scravers
Party Role: spy, criminal

Born in the slums of Byzantium Secondus as Cassandra de Witt, Cherry lived an extremely impoverished life. Her father, a petty thief, was murdered when she was barely 3 years old. Cherry's mother was a prostitute and drug addict who barely acknowledged her daughter. She learned the importance of being invisible early in life and would often sneak out of the house to avoid dealing with her mother's abuse.

By the time she was 5, Cherry was sneaking through the streets and stealing food to survive due to her mother's increasing neglect and abuse. From there she escalated to picking pockets; but one day she picked the wrong one. The man she'd tried to steal from beat the girl and left her for dead in an alley. Luckily for Cherry, a Scraver took pity on her and when the coast was clear he ferreted the girl off.

It took Cherry nearly 4 months to recover from her injuries. She never went back to her home with her mother, instead choosing to stay with "Boss". For once in her life; she had enough food to eat, a cot of her own, and didn't have to hide all day. In order to change her appearance, "Boss" let her pick a color to dye her hair. She chose bright red, which is how she got her nickname "Cherry". She's kept her hair the same color red, and the name, ever since.

As Cherry grew older, "Boss" taught her everything she needed to know to survive in the criminal underworld. When she was 15, he felt she was finally ready to become a full-fledged member of the Scravers guild. She was a natural and soaked up everything "Boss" was wiling to teach her. One of the most important lessons she learned from "Boss" was the value of information. "Boss" was easily one of the best and most influential information brokers Byzantium Secondus. No one knows his real name, not even Cherry.

While the world of espionage was exciting, Cherry missed the thrill that came with theft or running a good hustle. She never fell into drugs the way her mother did, but Cherry definitely has her vices. She loves gambling and smokes heavily. However, her most dangerous interest is cybernetics. At the age of 20, Cherry got her first implant, against "Boss"'s advice. Cherry teeters on the edge of Cyber Addiction and has suffered bouts of Cyber Psychosis in the past. There are those that would argue that at this point Cherry is barely human.

At 28, her life was turned upside down several months ago when "Boss" suddenly disappeared. Rumors started circulating that he'd been arrested and sent to a prison camp. Others say he was murdered. Still others say he finally decided to retire and live out his days in peace far from the slums of the capitol. While she firmly believes "Boss" is still alive, she knows that he would never disappear without telling her. Cherry is determined to find out what happened to the only father figure she ever had in her life, and nothing is going to stand in her way.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Dormu
Title: Novitiate
Affiliation: Eskatonics
Party Role: theurgist, occult expert

Dormu was born to a wealthy couple on the planet Dephi. The child of a successful merchant, Dormu wanted for nothing. His parents lavished attention on both him and his elder sister Orpha. His family was deeply religious and even from a young age Dormu was fascinated by the miracles attributed to the various Saints. In fact, to this day he still engages in collecting cards featuring the Saints and prominent personalities within the Universal Church; a pastime he started in his youth.

While his parents were delighted to have such a pious child, Dormu's father became concerned when his son showed little interest in anything besides religious studies. It was difficult to get him to focus on the learning and skills he would need to one day take over the family business. It had little to do with intellect, since Dormu devoured any texts written in the vernacular he could get his hands on. When those were not enough, he began teaching himself Latin at the age of 8. When he was 10, Dormu confided in his mother that his heart's desire was to join the priesthood. Were it not for his sister's natural instincts in the realm of business, and had she not been the eldest, his father would have likely refused. However, with the future continuation of the family business secured, Dormu's father reluctantly agreed to allow his son to enter the priesthood.

After approaching their local priest, it was suggested that Dormu join the Eskatonic order due to his thirst for knowledge. While his parents were hesitant at first due to the order's unusual relationship with the Orthodox order they eventually came to the decision that it was best for Dormu. His father's only insistence was that his son study at the Cathedral on Pentatuch, the seat of the order.

Just shy of his 11th birthday, Dormu arrived on Pentateuch to begin his training at the Basilica of St. Paulus and St. Horace. His days were filled with arduous study and prayer. It was also discovered that Dormu had been gifted by the Pancreator with the gift of Theurgy. At the age of 18, Dormu is considered quite gifted.

In fact, word of his abilities and his immense compassion reached the ears of influential members of the Patriarch's own council. While their motivations remain unknown, an invitation was sent to Dormu to come to Byzantium Secondus and study with another very gifted theurge; Michelle D'Avanaunt, the Patriarch's niece (whom Dormu just happens to have a card of.)

However, since his arrival on Byzantium Secondus, he has been studying alone. That has been just fine with him though, since the Library contains enough books to keep him busy for a lifetime. That being said, his curiosity is starting to get the better of him.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Evangelina Juandaastas
Title: Lady
Affiliation: House Juandaastas
Party Role: Xeno expert, diplomat (for Xenos)

Even among House Juandaastas, Evangelina's upbringing is rather unusual. Being raised on Velisimil, the Obun homeworld was unique enough; but she was also permitted to be trained in Obun diplomacy. Like many nobles of the house, Evangelina comes from a large family blended family. Her human mother and father have 3 children of their own (Earhardt, Elliot, and Evangelina). Her father's Obun co-wife and her Obun consort have two children (Selema and Soleel). Evangelina's father's wife is currently expecting a child, whose conception is nothing short of heretical. Secretly, Evangelina's family has long been involved with genetic experimentation to produce children from an Obun-Human coupling; something that has not happened since the Second Republic. With her father and his co-wife being high ranking diplomats and her mother and the Obun consort being from well-regarded families it goes without saying that discussion of the subject is taboo, no matter how scientifically fascinating it is.

While she is human, Evangelina has come to identify with culture she was raised in. From an early age, she eschewed playing with her biological siblings and instead spent time with Selema and Soleel. Sometimes as a young child, she would smear pigment on her face to try and look more like them. Evangelina never quite understood why they got so mad at her; but it was likely her constant imitation of them and pestering them with questions.

As she grew older, it was clear that Evangelina had a penchant for picking up alien languages. She enjoyed studying alien cultures, native flora and fauna of other planets, and exploring the Velisimil with her Obun friends. Evangelina, is quite passionate about her knowledge. While she is well versed in a variety of alien cultures, she has difficulty understanding or interacting with humans. This has caused a fair bit of concern from her mother and father since she is betrothed to Ambrose von Buellen of House Hawkwood. A match that both houses are hoping to benefit from.

Evangelina has her own ideas on the subject, and while she does not find anything wrong with the Baronet, she has difficulty interacting with him. Any time they have met, she has been rather cool to him and in her letters (which her parents expect her to write) is rather distant. Another concern of her parents is Evangelina's budding romance with an Obun soldier named Koval HanAmir. While choosing an Obun husband for love, is well within her rights as a Juandaastas noble, they fear it may jeopardize a marriage that will already be beginning on shaky ground.

More than just her lover (well as much of a lover as her chastity permits), Koval has assisted Evangelina in the development of her budding psychic powers. He often jokes that he could feel the energy of her spirit the very first time he kissed her. Evangelina tried keeping her abilities a secret, but her "Obun Mother" and her consort were not easily fooled. This gave the family another reason to be concerned about Koval and Evangalina's relationship.

Trying to keep the two apart, Evangelina has been sent to Byzantium Secondus. Her family hopes the trip will not only keep her away from Koval, but also help her become better at interacting with other humans. What they don't know is that Koval has followed her to Byzantium Secondus. While he does not intend to ruin her betrothal to Ambrose, he is skeptical of the Baronet's worthiness of her and intends to defend her honor at all costs.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Levi
Title: Oblate
Affiliation: The Brother Battle
Party Role: the brute squad

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Born on the planet Pandemonium, most people would agree Levi beat the odds. Life in The Hub was dirty, dangerous, and ugly; and many of the children born there don't make it past infancy. Levi was born to desperately poor parents. They were so poor in fact they sold him to the Muster at the age of 5 in hopes that the slavers would find someone who would at least be able to feed and clothe their young son. Put to work in the Mines deep in the Badlands, Levi always dreamed of escaping. He commonly hid or stole food from the other children to survive, but the Muster didn't care. As he grew stronger, he'd become much more productive and an even greater asset. By the age of 8 he was one of the largest, strongest miners in the camp. Levi was often tasked with beating other children when they disobeyed the mine's overseers. Levi did everything he could to earn the trust of the Muster slavers for better treatment and more freedom. That all paid off and one night, and Levi managed to escape.

He ran off into the Badlands determined to make his way back to The Hub. Unfortunately for him, the encampment was a lot farther away than he'd thought. He stumbled around in the desert for over a week finding water where he could and using the small knife he'd stolen to kill small animals for food. This wasn't enough to sustain him in the harsh conditions of the Badlands. Half-dead from exhaustion he was found by a Brother Battle Monk, one Brother Neeland. After taking him back to The Hub, and unable to reunite Levi with his parents, Brother Neeland offered to take Levi to Manitou for training.

The rigorous physical training of the Brother Battle was an area in which Levi excelled. According to his mentor, Levi took to the sacred martial art of Mantok like a champion. In fact, of the younger recruits Levi was considered the most lethal. He is also an excellent archer. While physical skills came easily to him, the spiritual aspectsof his training were all but lost on him. He was never able to learn Latin, and the theological foundations of the Universal Church were of little interest to him. Despite his lack of interest in the Church's teaching, Levi was smart enough to pay lip service to the Church. His true loyalty is to Brother Neeland.

Recently, Brother Neeland was sent to Stigmata to fight the Symbiot threat. Levi expected to follow him and was disappointed that his superiors had an entirely different assignment awaiting him. Instead of battling the alien threat, Levi was sent to act as a guard at the Patriarch's home on Byzantium Secondus. While Levi has performed his duties well enough, he is somewhat bitter that he was not able to follow his mentor to the Symbiot Front.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Dr. Graves a.k.a Baron Roberto Theodore Justus de Aragon

Title: Fellow
Affiliation: The Supreme Order of the Engineers
Party Role: scientist, gunslinger

Roberto was born in Aragon's capital city of Furias. Having close familial ties to Prince Juan's wife Marita-Celestra, afforded Roberto's family a place of comfort and prestige on the planet. Growing up in the capital, as a frequent guest at Castle Furias, exposed Roberto to courtly intrigue at an early age. What he witnessed, he did not like. The constant posturing for prestige and the power games did not suit him. Much of his young life was spent losing himself in the Tassera Gardens. Its collection of plants from all over the Known Worlds was his first taste that there was a larger universe beyond Aragon. He began to dream of visiting these other worlds.

The eldest of five siblings, Roberto would have inherited his father's fief on Aragon. The only time he really spent with his father was on various hunting expeditions on the far side of the continent. Roberto quickly realized that if he remained on Aragon he would likely never leave the planet, and his life would be tied to courtly service and the nobility he had come to despise. He knew there had to be more to life than political backstabbing, lavish parties, and the Hazat's favorite pastime….war. It was actually the results of the Emperor Wars that set Roberto on his path in life. When he was ten, he met a friend of his father's that lost his arm in the war. The man's hand had been replaced with a cybernetic one. After one look at it, Roberto was hooked. He wanted to understand everything about it…. much to the dismay of his devotedly Orthodox mother. When he began questioning his tutors and obtaining books on the subject, his mother forbade Roberto from pursuing his interest even going so bar as to burn all the books his tutors gave him.

It was at thirteen, Roberto decided to leave House Hazat. His last communication with his family was a note, expressing that he no longer considered himself part of House Hazat; and renounced his noble title. Giving no mention of his whereabouts or intended destination, Roberto set out on his own. Taking on the name Vincent Graves, he made his way to Leagueheim, a trip that took him nearly two years working aboard a merchant vessel as an assistant to the ship's Engineer Matthias Spear (a relative of the Leaguemeister Tyrus Spear). Matthias was so impressed with Vincent's work that he used his connections to get Vincent into the Academy Interatta, the Known World's most prestigious university.

Vincent was happy to live a quiet life as a researcher, professor, and family man on the planet of Madoc. Vincent has been married to his wife Carolina for fifteen years and the two have one child, Lavina (14), who currently attends the Academy Interatta. The only real hold over from Vincent's previous life is his fondness for fire arms. Since hunting with a gun is impossible on Madoc, early in his move there Vincent began to practice target shooting. He enjoys learning new trick shots. He jokes it helps keep him on his toes in his 'old age'.

Recently, Vincent has arrived on Byzantium Secondus to present…. or rather…. defend his most recent research on Cyberpsychossis to the Church. Due to some problematic questions his research poses, avoiding a charge of heresy may prove quite difficult. However, Dr. Graves stands by his conclusion and research.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Raphael van Gelder

Title: Commander
Affiliation: The Charioteers
Party Role: pilot

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Rapheal was born on Grail but spent most of his formative years at a Decados estate on Malignatus fostered by Count Vladamir Farenheit Decados. As the first son born to Flavian van Gelder and his wife Alexandra Farenheit (Count Vladamir's youngest sister), the family had high hopes that Rapheal would naturally fall into the family business…. assassination.

A close companion to his cousin Adrian through much of his youth, the two fed each other's most profound desire; both wanted to break away from the destinies their births had forced on them. As a first-born son, Rapheal found it harder to distance himself from his family's expectations. He would often look up at the stars, wishing to be as far away from Malignatus….and his family as he could.

Even among the nobility, life on Maligantus was difficult. The cold was perhaps the worst of all. Rapheal feigned illness to convince his parents to return to Grail for a short holiday; citing that a warmer climate would be just what he needed. His parents agreed, but only if his cousin Adrian would accompany him. Not one to be easily fooled Adrian agreed, but was well aware of his cousin's intentions to 'disappear'. Which is just what happened during their voyage.

While Adrian went onto Grail, Raphael made his way to Severus. There he entered a guildhall and he never looked back. If time on board a real starship had taught him anything, it was that among the stars was where he belonged. Even though he has no guild rank, and is estranged from his immediate family, Raphael still takes pride in his noble title. He maintains his friendship with his cousin Adrian. In fact, Adrian recently sent him a rather ornate gift; a heavy revolver covered in strange markings with even stranger slugs. Adrian claimed he acquired the lot from a Vuldrok raider during an expedition to Frost.

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After buying his first ship, a real beater, Raphael is currently looking for work. Byzantium Secondus holds plenty of opportunities to make a quick buck. Here is hoping those quick bucks don't come with…. complications.

 

[angelicmadrigal]

Baron Adrian Fahrenheit

Affiliation: House Decados,
Party Role: Imperial Questing Knight, duelist

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Sister Michelle D'Avenaunt

Affiliation: Sanctuary Aeon
Party Role: confessor, theurgic prodigy. plot device

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Capt. Alister McDonnel

Affiliation: The Muster
Party Role: Imperial Cohort, the brute squad

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Lady Kimi Iawata

Affiliation: House Thana/The Charioteers
Party Role: Imperial Cohort, pilot

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Sanja san Koval

Affiliation: Ur-Ukar
Party Role: Imperial Cohort, martial artist

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Squire Rainier Jimson

Affiliation: House Decados
Party Role: Imperial Cohort, hunter

(Background to come soon)

 

[angelicmadrigal]

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Dr. Ruhana Shirazi

Affiliation: Supreme Order of the Engineers
Party Role: Imperial Cohort, cybernetically enhanced anthropologist, and archaeologist

(Background to come soon)