Coyotedancer

It seemed pretty silly to me... petty even... and the supposed justification for the decision wasn't the most convincing. But I assume that this was someone's personal lore-related bug-bear, so likely long odds against it changing. 😝

I actually disagree that it should be account-based... I think if holding the name of a largely (or completely-) inactive character is important to a player, then it' s not too much of an ask for them to log onto the character periodically. It's a time investment to have to go through and ping all of your Inactives, sure... But it's also a way to make holding a substantial number of "Nabbed just in case I ever want to use them"-names (Which absolutely DOES happen) less attractive. That's a good thing, I think.

It definitely ACTS like a hit when it happens... Plays the animation and sound effects, breaks Hide, aggros the target and all that... It just doesn't deal any damage.

He sounds like what happens when an angsty, fifteen year-old goth boy pretending to be an edge-lord suddenly ends up with accidental superpowers.... Which could be all kinds of fun to play if done with a light enough touch. 🤣

I've been playing a red-side RadMelee/Ice stalker lately, and it's happened a few times with her... so. definitely still A Thing.

Winter DOES have Passport, and the LRT power shows up on the P2W vendor's list with a "buy" button and the bold text that would normally indicate being able to get the power... but clicking that button does nothing, and the power isn't given to the character.

And... same result here. Winterlight still doesn't have access to the LRT yet, either. 😐

Total pipe dream or lingering hope, there's not a thing any of us can do about it in either case... So what's the point of harping on it? Just play the game and enjoy it.

To be brutally blunt here, I'll be impressed by the accuracy of your poll numbers when you figure out how to get it in-game and can survey the majority of the players. Like the forums, Reddit and Discord are self-selecting communities made up of what tend to be the more experienced and more "serious" types.

Again, though... that poll is a sample of the opinions of forum regulars. That gives it a certain bias right off the bat, so it's not safe to assume that it really gives an accurate picture of what the game's population in general thinks.

Go in grace. Tetujin.

That's an interesting idea... No clue if it would be at all possible given how wonky things are with the way characters are handled in this game, but it's still interesting.

There are a *lot* of player-targeted ambushes in the Praetorian content... Almost all of them that you run into there, or in the Wards, will ignore Hide. It's the default setting for them in those missions, and it basically means that for any ambush-heavy arc, Stalkers end up having to pretend they're Scrappers. (It's something that absolutely *was* pointed out to the old devs when Praetoria was still in beta... I was one of the people who pointed it out, myself, since I went through it with the first version of Shade. But they completely dismissed it as being a problem.)

I suspect they just mean "You can turn off XP to keep from outleveling contacts"

All I'm going to say is that you may want to take anything coming from that particular source with a VERY large grain of salt.

These date from the Live days, but my UI arrangement here is basically still the same... Most characters look like this- (That's Grey Kestrel, my old main, and her Adept partner Cardinal. She was a DB/WP Stalker) My Masterminds have a few extra trays set up for minion controls, as a back-up for my keybinds- (Hanano the Ninja/FF monster-hunter and her gang)

I'm just wondering where Crysis got the idea that in the Hidden City days everyone had access to some kind of insta-50 button... 'First time I've heard that particular bit of supposition/gosssip/what-ever.

Jessamine Dare (One of my Ordus Chronos time travelers, who adventures under the name Joyful Noise) decided to get her "Jingle Mage" on for the winter holidays... They don't actually celebrate Christmas per se in the far-future city of Nova Primeva, but she wanted to "fit in" with the natives of the current era.

If it's an "either/or" situation, I would come down on the side of MOAR CONTENT before advocating for a Hard Mode. Most of the belly-aching I see about the game being too easy comes from forum regulars and power-gamers, not the random people I'm PUG-teaming with on Everlasting and Excelsior. That tells me that the lack-of-difficulty situation may not be as dire in general as said forum regulars usually insist. It's very, very easy to forget that we're not the average, and what feels as easy as cake for most of us may not necessarily be so easy for everyone.

I'm still sad that someone on Everlasting beat me to Covfefe. I wanted a water-colored-to-look-like-coffee blaster named Covfefe, darnit. 😝

Characters on Torchbearer My "Assorted Magical Beings" Like my Elysion "bird-things" on Excelsior, these characters have spent most of their time on a server where roleplay wasn't common, and so typically haven't seen a lot of in-character interaction. ===================== Red Traveler (50) KM/Fire Stalker - Hero (My first "unicorn". Visually a tribute to the silent point-of-view character from my *other* favorite video game; That Game Company's Journey. The Traveler speaks only in wordless, enigmatic chimes and seems fascinated by flying things.) Snickerdoodles (50) Claws/WP Stalker - Hero (My "token cat-girl"... though much more Cat than Girl. Snickers is a little black witch's familiar using purloined magic to manage some mischief of her own.) Shonokin (50) Dark/WP Sentinel - Hero (An Appalachian gentleman-monster whose character design was based on a species of human-like but inhuman creatures created by pulp-fantasy author Manly Wade Wellman in the 1940's.) [I collect Asian ball-jointed dolls, and have 1/3-scale resin versions of both Shonokin himself and his shadow-familiar Madison.... A Volks SD17 Kiriko and Cuarto Black Hecate. Shonokin is one of those points where two hobbies collide. 🤣] Kuzunoha (50) Fire/Energy Aura Sentinel - Hero (Kuzunoha is a kitsune zenko, a guardian fox-spirit who occasionally pretends to be human.) Konoa (50) Martial Arts/Energy Aura Scrapper - Hero (Kuzu's mate. Another of Inari Okami's zenko pretending to be human. Kono once spent a few years guarding a temple, successfully impersonating a monk. One wild party and a little too much plum wine ended that particular charade, but he's still prone to quoting sutras. )

Characters on Everlasting: My Oranbegans and their Assorted Companion Entities. Existing on the "unofficial RP server" this bunch typically are all roleplayed characters, at least in a casual way. Some have seen a lot more in-character activity than others, but favorites are always going to be favorites. That's particularly true of the Sanctum characters, who are the oldest set. They were the ones I started out with in the early days of Homecoming. ===================== The Sanctum of Shadows Tavaris (50) Dark/Bio Sentinel - Rogue (Death Mage. Kai's teacher. Owner of the Sanctum of Shadows. "The Professor" to most of Kai's young friends, he's pretty much everyone's Substitute Dad. Tav is also in the mail-order wailer business. He says he's going to need a larger crate to ship that oversized one. And extra postage.) Sarhadi (50) Dark/Dark Blaster - Rogue (The "real" Sarhadi, Tavaris' wife and the captain of the Karnaim, died eons ago... a casualty of the Oranbegan war with the Mu. The strange being that currently borrows her name and likeness is a Void-born reflection of the original, created when Tavaris ventured into that dark dimension looking for his apprentice. She knows that she's only an illusion, created from memories and old sorrows, but she's just real enough to want to stay with the Sanctum magi in spite of that.) Kaikara (50) KM/Bio Stalker - Rogue (Legacy Midnighter, Paragon University student, Scirocco's intern and Tavaris' mortal apprentice... She's a frequent CapeBook poster, who keeps a diary and takes way too many camera-orb selfies. She's also a total Hero 1 fan-girl. Her succubus pal is Persephone, the Sanctum's senechal.) [ So, what kind of mage *is* Kai, exactly? KM/Bio Stalking probably seems like an odd choice for a spell-caster... Like her teacher, Kai is formally considered a Death Mage by her peers. As any initiate of that particular school of magic, most of her mystical power is drawn from the darkness of the Void. Unlike Tavaris and the majority of their other, exclusively Dark-wielding counterparts, though, she does something a little odd in her casting. She actively incorporates other types of magic into her effects... An unusual art that the Temple magi call "weaving". Essentially, Kai adds Force magic (as well as Light cantrips when she's wandering around Paragon City as the mystic heroine White Thorn-) into her Dark spells, resulting in a very physical, and much more obviously martial-, spin on what "traditional" Death Mages do. She's still ripping chunks out of people's souls and wrapping them in inky darkness or covering them in Very Disturbing Masses of Tentacles (KM/Bio/Dark, remember-), but there's also a hefty chunk of smacking around with sheer physical manifestations of arcane power in what she does. Her technique has raised some eyebrows among the traditionalist Oranbegans... But then, so did Tavaris taking a mortal child as his apprentice in the first place. Most of the magi had been too busy looking for body donors or ritual sacrifices to even consider a move like that. Her defensive abilities... the Minimal FX grey smoke and "Thorn Blade red"-colored /Bio part of the build... reflect what she calls her "Abyssal Armor". It's a purpose-bound, symbiotic demonic entity summoned to provide that protection. All of my /Bio Oranbegans have Abyss Armors of their own. The summoning ritual is considered something of a signature accomplishment among the magi associated with the Temple in Primeva. ] White Thorn (50) KM/Bio Stalker - Hero (Thorn is Kai's blue-side 'alter ego'. She says that she adopted the alias to keep her friends BioRogue and Blacksheep's names out of the tabloids. Can't have Shiny Heroes associating with a known Etoilean rogue, after all... Unfortunately, playing at being a hero did mean sometimes having very... punchy... discussions with Paragon's other resident magi. Most of them weren't in on the secret that the girl in the ancient ivory mask and white armor was, at least in a manner of speaking, one of their own.) Artemian (50) PsyBlast/Bio Sentinel - Hero (Madness Mage. Kai's bestie, a survivor of Dark Astoria, a pizza fan and general all-around woobie. Arte is, at heart, a gentle soul. Sometimes that gets him into trouble.) Windwhispered (50) PsiMelee/Energy Stalker - Hero (Ajda is a Force mage and the daughter of a Thorn Wielder named Dikan and his mortal partner, PPD detective Evandra "Eva" Dare. She's staying with the Sanctum magi while studying at Paragon University's Salamanca campus... the notorious "Spooky U"... where she's an Applied Metaphysics major. Growing up with one foot firmly in the mortal world and the other in the ancient society of the Oranbegan ghosts, she seems to have a unique perspective on both. ) Andris (50) Kin/Electric Defender - Hero (Narada's chatty Energy Mage brother, who has a bit of an odd obsession with figuring out how Mu magic works. It was his idea to go out and body-snatch a pair of twins for he and his sister's new physical forms, and it took quite a lot of work to find an appropriate set. He's much less cavalier about losing his newly hijacked body than most magi as a result. That makes his reaction to potential deadly threats very... human.) Narada (50) Nature/Water Defender - Hero (Andris' sister, the Life Mage of few words. She tends to observe rather than to speak, content to let everyone else do the talking. Unless the conversation turns to botany. Or the Devouring Earth. Or places where botany and the Devouring Earth meet. She has definite opinions on THAT.) Erithacus (50) Staff/Wilpower Stalker - Hero {Erith says, "Have you ever had one of those days when you looked around at the complete hash that your life had become and you said to yourself, 'Self, we really ought to have forseen this disaster and just stayed at home with a cup of tea and a good tome or two'? Indeed. Now, imagine that day lasting millennia." You can't really blame this guy for being such a downer. It's hard to spend your entire life explaining to people that, no, there's really no such a thing as a were-chicken. And that even if there WERE were-chickens somewhere in the world, you aren't one. It's just that sometimes experimental transformation magic can be very... tricky... to get exactly right. Just *one* little slip and the next thing you know? You're covered in feathers. Often at the most inopportune times.} Semnai (50) Broadsword/Bio Brute - Vig (Semnai is the Thorn Wielder currently in charge of security for the Sanctum of Shadows and its magi. She's a Boss Fight and not someone it would be wise to cross, taking her job and her reputation as a guardian very seriously. Keeping a collection of disaster-prone arcane egg-heads out of trouble isn't Sem's only challenge, unfortunately. She also has a notoriously complicated personal life, thanks in no small part to the interference of her possessive demon Thorn Blade, Xhelethe.) Xhelethe (50) Katana/WP Scrap - Hero (While she looks like your stereotypical demon-girl on the loose in the mortal world, Xhel is actually something much stranger... A living weapon's arcane projection... The psychic manifestation of Semnai's abyssal Thorn Blade. Creating an independent "human" form is a clever trick that she learned from her wielder's partner, Silvered Protector, and she's found that she enjoys exploring the world with it. Being a person rather than a sword, she says, puts everything in a different perspective.) The Karnaim (50) Titan/Bio Scrap - Hero (A Living Artifact. Last of the Skybound. The Karnaim was already a swift and powerful magic item in the days of the Oranbegan war; Sarhadi of the Furies' fierce aerial warship. Animating that ship's wooden figurehead now and using it to seek out new adventures on her own is a simple matter for the motive spirit of so ancient a creation.... and while she remains as devoted to her magi as ever, she no longer calls herself any captain's possession and so requires no one's permission to do so.) The Aegis of Serenity (50) Illusion/Time Controller - Hero (A Living Spell. The Sanctum's keystone ward. This mind-bogglingly complex incantation has had fifteen thousand years to ponder her state of being as the trusted guardian of a Death Mage's otherworldly sanctuary. None of the resident magi seem at all surprised that their aegis attained sentience somewhere along the line, or even that she has independent ambitions beyond her intended duties, but the ability to project a humanlike form to interact with those under her protection? (A trick that she's only recently perfected-) That's something that even Tavaris himself admits is just a little bit unnerving... He suspects that coaching from Xhel and Silver may have had something to do with the warding spell's development of that particular newfound talent.) ===================== Ordus Chronos, the Time Travelers In the distant future, on the far side of the Battalion Wars, the remaining Oranbegan magi of Thorn Island and the Temple of Primeva joined with their mortal allies from Agincourt and the surviving citizens of the city of Nerva to celebrate their victory over the invaders; something that had only been made possible by joining forces against their terrifying mutual foe. Out of that at-first-reluctant alliance of necessity grew something extraordinary... a new city and a new future for them all; a uniquely powerful blend of magic and technology, ancient tradition and modern sensibilities... The city of Nova Primeva. And then one day, Nova Primeva's ever-curious magi turned their eyes to the past... Graceful Ivory Mask (50) Time/Dark Defender - Hero (Lasya Stanton is a Void-touched chronomancer and experienced temporal observer from the far-future city of Nova Primeva. Traveling into the past, to what the magi of Ordus Chronos call "The Age of Troubles", isn't her first assignment, but it's a much more complex and dangerous one than spending a few years in New Kingdom-era Egypt. If she was prone to being suspicious, she would wonder if the Temple Council was trying to get rid of her...) [Lasya is one of Kai's descendants. She wears White Thorn's artifact mask.] Gentleman Spectre (50) PsiMelee/WP Scrap - Hero (Unlike his twin, who hops back and forth in time for professional reasons, Dorian Stanton does it purely for fun. A psychic magus of Ordus Mentem, he views the past as something of a playground... An entertaining blend of savage danger, curious customs and exotic experiences that he just wouldn't have the opportunity to enjoy if he'd stayed safely back home in Nova Primeva. And then there's also the matter of keeping an eye on his sister. He knows Lasya's tendencies entirely too well.) [Dorian is one of Kai's descendants. He's also Future!Artemian's apprentice.] Code Merlin (50) Fire/WP Sentinel - Hero (Olympia is an inventor and technomancer on indefinite loan to Ordus Chronos from Ordus Technica. Sent into the past to survey both Primal and Praetorian technological development during the so-called "Age of Troubles", she's fascinated by the era and horrified by it in equal measure. She just hopes that the assignment doesn't end up getting either herself, or her field partner Mordred, killed. The present isn't the orderly world that she's used to.) Code Mordred (50) DB/Bio Stalker - Hero (Morgan never wanted to be a time traveler and isn't shy about saying so. After shattering his Thorn Blade against the hide of a rampaging alien war-breast sent to devour Agincourt, yet somehow still surviving both that conflict and the other horrors of the Battalion War, he was perfectly content to step back from battle and take up a quiet position as a watch officer with the Temple Guard. Peace and quiet, he claims, was all he really wanted. Ordus Chronos and the archmagi of the Temple Council had other ideas. And now here he is, stuck in the distant past, with the single most vexing mage he's ever met. And breaking pretty much every rule in the book.) Joyful Noise (50) Sonic/Sonic Blaster - Hero (Jessamine Dare is only one of Ordus Chronos' many Apprentice Interns hoping to someday be given a "real" field assignment in the distant past of her very own. Currently, she's only allowed to visit very specific points in time under the close supervision of her academic advisors. "Where's the fun in THAT?" she asks.) [Jessamine is a descendant of Ajda's family] Tesamun (50) Street/Shield Scrap - Hero (As a Force mage, a Fury and a Temple Guard watch captain, Tesamun would prefer to concentrate on the security of the Temple, the Sacred Precincts of Thorn Island and the city of Nova Primeva instead of getting involved in any sort of "temporal adventurism". Unfortunately, there always seem to be issues in the past that threaten the future, and as clever as Ordus Chronos' magi may be, the "Age of Troubles" is a particularly bothersome and threatening time. It all too often requires very martial intervention.... The kind of intervention that the battle-magic oriented members of the Order of Furies are well-suited to provide.) [Tes is one of Semnai's descendants, and the only Ordus Chronos field operative who absolutely refuses to adopt a code name when visiting the distant past. She finds the practice very silly.] Void Thorn (50) Dark/Dark Defender - Hero (Another version of Kaikara... Her ageless and ever-so-slightly-alien 'Avatar of the Void' future-self. Her "Final Form", so to speak, being the one still active in the time-frame of Nova Primeva's Ordus Chronos. Unlike the original, mortal Kai of Paragon City's current era, this one is definitely no longer entirely human. She's *just* familiar enough to unnerve the hell out of anyone who knows the woman that Kai used to be, though. That's something that seems to amuse her.) Goldwing Raven (50) Dual Blade/Energy Stalker - Rogue Sabine Driscoll's ancestors weren't from Paragon City, the Rogue Isles or Oranbega. They came from Praetoria... A strange, alternate reality where the city of Nova Primeva would never exist. That didn't stop them from adopting Primal Earth as their home or accepting certain Circle magi as friends, and it certainly didn't discourage them from stepping up to defend it all from the invading horrors of the Battalion. As an agent of the Temple Guard's notoriously pragmatic Intelligence Division, this particular clever sorceress-spy is still protecting her city and its mystics, both in her native time and in the distant Age of Troubles. [Sabine is a tribute character... The post-Battalion era descendant of a friend's Praetorian ninja Mastermind. We'd talked about adding Sabine to Ordus Chronos, but Ad never got the chance to actually build or play her. I can only hope that my version of the character makes the grade. The group just wasn't complete without someone to reflect Aly's part in Nova Primeva's story.] ===================== Nova Primeva, the Temple Magi Coming back to Primal Earth's current era... "Did you think that Primeva and this Temple was still a lifeless ruin when you came bumbling in, looking for that book? Did you truly believe that there would be no guardians? 'No rightful owners to notice that it had been stolen without so much as a 'Do you mind if we borrow this to save the world'? I suppose you did. Well, now you know better. The question, however, remains... Are you willing to discuss this like a civilized being, or am I going to have to cover you with a ridiculous number of tentacles and then feed you to the Devoured outside our door?" Trespassing in Primeva can sometimes get a hero (Or a villain-) in a lot of trouble... Amtes (50) Demons/Time Mastermind - Hero (Amtes the Historian is a summoner, demonologist and part-time chronomancer. She's also in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Temple of Primeva, overseeing its magi, elemental casters, attendants and cadre of assorted Abyssal hangers-on... Plus dealing with near-constant hero and villain incursions, Arachnos' presence on the island, Longbow building their Agincourt base practically on the Temple's doorstep and an ever-growing horde of Devouring Earth monstrosities roaming the forests. In truth, she'd rather be out surveying the modern world and catching up on all the interesting things that she missed while being disembodied in the dark.... But there's a certain irony to being both an ageless, immortal ghost and simply lacking the time for personal hobbies.) Khalil al-Jinn (50) Willpower/Street Tank - Hero (Elemental jinn of Earth, long-time custos companion of Amtes the Historian, and all-around fixture of Temple life... Khalil is both a ferocious guardian and a creature with a well-developed sense of humor. Playing to the genie's appreciation of the absurd has saved the hide of more than one would-be hero caught red-handed invading Primeva over the years.} Liber Arcanus (50) Dark/Time Blaster - Hero Arcanus ("Archie" to a few of his more irreverent Modern friends-) is the Temple of Primeva's dreaded Head Librarian. Possessive of his collection, stern with his underlings and absolutely, 112% *done* with the constant pilfering and destructive incursions of both heroes and villains alike, he's decided to start taking matters into his own hands. Or at least his own summoned masses of inky black tentacles. Nehemes (50) Water/Dark Corruptor - Hero (Elemental water-caster and archivist. Nehemes has spent the last few years trying to account for and catalogue all of the tomes, scrolls, artifacts and assorted arcane ephemera in the Temple's vast and ancient collection... Which is both a thankless and ultimately futile task, given how often the structures seem to be raided and how many things have been pilfered and looted over the years. Bringing the scale of THAT problem to the Head Librarian's attention, however, was, in retrospect, probably not the best idea. Now he's determined to send half of the Temple cabal out into the world to get everything back... including Nehemes herself, who never volunteered for that particular duty.) Maruvadi (50) Fire/Time Corruptor - Rogue (Vadi is a fire-caster given the title of Rune Warden, and with it the responsibility of keeping the Temple's many wards and protective spells in good working order. She would call her current side-quest to design and construct the perfect Unbreakable Aegis more of a hobby than a real vocation, but the archmagi do tend to reward arcane ambition when the ends suit their needs... And if there's ONE THING the Temple needs, it's a reliable way to keep curious visitors and would-be looters out. It's just a serious bother having to spend so much time wandering around, scouring the Isles and the Mainland for the material components and arcane what-nots she needs to construct the ritual.) Edratarees (50) Thermal/Fire Defender - Hero ( Eddie is a fire caster and notoriously unlucky assistant archivist, who firmly believes that he's been cursed... Probably by one of the many ancient and grouchy arcane relics stashed in the Temple vaults. Not that he spends much time dusting relics in the Vaults anymore. Charged with the well-nigh-impossible task of recovering all of the books and arcane items looted from the Temple over the years, he rarely has time to linger. He'd rather kiss a behemoth than face the Head Librarian's wrath for "goofing off".) Hamsa (50) Empathy/Dark Defender - Hero (A Soul Mage with mildly pacifist tendencies, Hamsa is an advocate of seeking co-existence rather than conflict with the modern world... A position that often puts her at odds with many of her Circle cohorts, even among the relatively forward-thinking Temple magi. Typically seen by outsiders as the "most reasonable" member of her cabal, she's often approached by Arachnos officials, curious academics and non-Oranbegan mystics who want information. That can be bothersome, but Hamsa considers answering a few questions here and there to be a better option than letting a bunch of destructive oafs rampage their way across the island like wild pigs in a potter's shop.) Thaelian (50) Sonic/RadBlast Defender- Hero (Thae tends to wield his particular style of magic very cautiously. He's learned the hard way that, unlike Oranbegan architecture, modern structures just weren't constructed to survive the kind of harmonic resonance that Auromancers produce with every mystic gesture and arcane incantation. A few too many accidentally blown out windows and unintentionally cracked ceilings can make one unwelcomed in polite company.) Ananka (50) Necro/Thermal Mastermind - Hero (This well-traveled Oranbegan pyromancer has found herself mistaken for the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian princess. The long-dead (and now completely addled-) priest who had fallen hopelessly in love with the girl in ages past is absolutely certain that he's not only found his beloved again, but that THIS TIME everything will work out for them... Instead of ending up a complete disaster for everybody involved... Again... Just like it did last time. Utterly unable to convince Kharis that she *isn't* actually "his" Ananka, all she can do is to try to keep the shambling monstrosity and his daft followers from getting in everyone's way. She just wishes that he would stop bringing her dead flowers and mummified animals as gifts.) Ferrian (50) Claws/Fire Stalker - Rogue (The first rule in the Thorn Wielder's informal professional playbook is "Never get personally involved with any of the magi you're guarding." It's just a bad idea. It never ends well. And, as Ferrian keeps pointing out to anyone who'll listen, it only makes the job even more of a headache than usual. A few of his colleagues are starting to wonder who he's really trying to convince...) Samia (50) Ice/Dark Blaster - Rogue (The dark pathways of the Void, the Death Mages say, are as cold as the grave... Samia would say that they're *much* colder. As an Ice caster who spent the better part of an eternity trapped halfway between that vast oblivion and the disembodied death her covenmates endured, she ought to know. Samia's time in the Void changed her in odd and subtle ways... She finds humor in unusual places and has become prone to reflections that might make very little sense to her companions.) Karcharias (50) Water/Bio Sentinel - Rogue (Some magi of the Circle study demons. Others are fascinated by wards and runes. Karas has always had an interest in Horrors... Those terrible, toothy beasts called Leviathans most of all. Would he ever wish to see one reawakened and rampaging across the modern world? Possibly. If he could ever unravel the mystery of controlling such a creature...) [The time-traveling magi of Ordus Chronos recognize Karcharias as one of the true heroes of the Battalion Wars' "Second Battle of Agincourt". Without his tireless efforts and, ultimately, his own self-sacrifice to summon and command the great leviathan Rhenani, the invaders' armored war beasts could not have been stopped before they destroyed all of Nerva.] (( Yeah. In the Ordus Chronos timeline, Nerva gets to have a kaiju fight thanks to this guy and his weird "hobby". 😎 )) Okuri (50) SoA Night Widow - Rogue (So, what happens when the Temple magi of Primeva have finally had enough of Recluse's minions invading their space, looting their artifacts and digging up their island? In this particular captured Night Widow's case, they seem to have turned to arcane influence and active recruitment of "enemy forces". Okuri has no clue what to call herself now. A Night Thorn? A Thorn Widow? An annoyed mage's attempt to prove a point? She has no idea. At least she wasn't a good candidate for body-snatching...) Teisheba (50) Electric/Electric Corruptor - Rogue (Sure, the *other* divisions of Arachnos may have expanded their ranks to include members of all genders, but not the Mu Mystics. They're determined to remain staunchly opposed to diversification. For at least one overlooked female heir to an exceptionally potent bloodline, that seems not only ridiculous, but also excellent grounds for throwing over the entire establishment. Her friend Okuri agrees, and suggested seeking out a most unusual set of allies in that endeavor... [Sheba is well aware that some of Okuri's new friends probably see her as an excellent potential body-donor, but so far the Temple magi haven't brought that up. No. They seem to have something else entirely in mind when it comes to their two former Arachnos adoptees... Something that Recluse and his Mystics probably aren't going to like AT ALL. Which is just fine with Sheba.] ) Cantus (50) Sonic/Stone Defender - Hero (A musician and philosopher prone to restlessness and wanderlust, Cantus the geomancer is known among the Temple magi for both his hauntingly beautiful songs and his habit of answering questions without ever actually answering them at all. "The beat of your heart is the heart of the song, There are no rules... And those are the rules." } [Cantus is my entry in Troo's 2022 Slot Machine Random Character Challenge.] and Ossuni (50) Claws/Fire Brute - Rogue, on @Laughingcrow {Ask any Fire Thorn. They'll tell you that "Everything burns. Eventually." In Suni's hands it just tends to happen a bit faster than average. It's safe to say that she both enjoys her element and wields it well. Although... she *might* get just a little carried away sometimes. It's just that the flames are so pretty... and so very, very BRIGHT.) [Suni is my "zen mode" fire farmer. She may be a total pyromaniac. 😄 ] ===================== Ordus Viatoris, the Voyagers You didn't think that the ancient Oranbgans limited their curiosity to only one small part of the multiverse, did you? There are worlds beyond Primal Earth or the black expanse of the Midnight Sea. A Voyager's soul hears them calling. Oreviel (50) Rad/Dark Defender - Hero (Death Mage, Voyager, Prima Maga of the Order of Furies. Former captain of the Skybound airship 'Amasis'... Rev is the definition of an Old Soul. She remembers what the Oranbegans once were, before war turned the Circle into monsters and time robbed them all of their humanity. She's determined to remind her fellow magi of what they've lost, and of what they could have again if they were willing to remember. She still mourns the loss of her ship and the freedom of movement it represented... It's very hard for a Voyager to call any one world "home", even their native dimension... But if she's destined to remain stuck on Primal Earth, at least she can put her time here to good use. The Circle and its current archmagi, she says, are in dire need of a swift kick in the aft.) Bahir (50) Human-only Peacebringer - Hero (Bahir may be the most light-hearted mage in the entire Circle of Thorns. To say that the Heliomancer has a "sunny disposition" is an understatement. He's cheerful, quick with small jokes and terrible puns, and makes absolutely no excuses for being a perpetual optimist. Someday his relentless hopefulness, even in the face of impending doom, is going to convince the Temple magi and their allies to take an enormous leap of faith. An act that has the potential to change both the entire future of the Oranbegans and Nerva as a whole.) [Though I built him as a Peacebringer, Bahir is not a Kheldian. Think of him as sort-of a "photonic Sentinel". The Ordus Chronos time travelers recognize Bahir as one of the "founding powers" behind their city of Nova Primeva's revolutionary First Council. In the present era, he's only beginning to form the plans and the philosophy that will eventually lead to that future.] Deigan (50) Archery/Time Corruptor - Hero (The Amasis' second-in-command, Deigan remembers the war... Settlements leveled by fire and ruin. Ships burning. Rampaging beasts and the howling madness of demons... But very little of her life before joining the ship's crew and the Order of Furies. Rev tells her that she was an eager and determined apprentice and a skilled artificer, who came willingly into the ranks of the battle-mages and their thorn wielders. Her life even before that choice, Bahir says, had been one of adventure and unshakable determination... But she remembers none of that, and the loss of those memories vexes her, though she's not entirely sure why. Remaining with the Voyagers has provided no answers, but at this point she has no idea where else she might go to find them.) Circios (50) Cold/Ice Defender - Hero (Most elemental casters are only middling magi when it comes to using arcane power outside of their specialty. Ciro would say that he's no exception to that... "On some level," he says, "I really am only an Ice Thorn." It's just that he's exceptionally GOOD at 'only' being an Ice Thorn. Good enough to attract Oreviel and Bahir's attention, and so to earn himself a place among the dimension-crossing explorers of Ordus Viatoris.) Arrokoth (50) Water/Fire Sentinel - Hero (Some fires refuse to be extinguished. Some lives refuse to be constrained. Arrokoth likes to believe that he's a good example of both... An Elementalist with an unusual casting style, he had difficulty as an apprentice and found himself constantly at odds with his mentors. He was just never any good at following orders, much less living under the thumb of some higher-ranking magus. By the time he was put under Bahir's command, he had a reputation as a trouble-maker. The good-natured Heliomancer saw something different in him, though... Something worth encouraging... A fearless free spirit that deserved a chance to follow its own path. Arrokoth has never forgotten that kindness, or the trust that Bahir put in him.) Shuyet (50) Dark/Dark Dominator - Hero (Shuyet, whose chosen name means "shadow", is a natural Void-walker, experienced multi-dimensional explorer and founding member of the Ordus Viatoris. She takes some pride in her adaptability and observational skills, though certain things about the modern world still puzzle her... The complexity of the English language, for instance, or the people of Paragon City's apparent fascination with colorful spandex... She's sure she'll figure it all out eventually. That is, after all, what Voyagers do.) [Unlike the other Oranbegans, Shuyet isn't an ancient ghost hijacking a mortal body... She's an ancient ghost who used her understanding of the Void to create a new form of her own. Like Void Thorn and the Sanctum cabal's reflection-of-Sarhadi, her physical "body" is a result of manipulating that dark dimension's miasma into something that passes for 'real'.] Neryth (50) Rad/Ice Stalker - Rogue (Another Ice Caster. Neryth would describe herself as, above all else, a practical person. While her practice of the Arts is no more conventional than her colleague Arrokoth's, she at least made *some* effort to follow Expectations and Tradition and Propriety... Not that such things ever seem to make much of an impression on the Voyagers, mind, who are, to a one, Thoroughly Unapologetic Eccentrics. She's wise enough to recognize that expecting this cabal to act like Respectable Magi is probably a pipe dream, but hope springs eternal.) Dennu (50) Gravity/Dark Controller - Rogue A rather unusual Agony Mage who *might* have spent just a little too much time staring into the proverbial abyss... At least that's what she blames when anyone asks her how she ended up with Medjed, the eccentric Void Spirit, as a companion. Anku the kleptomaniac Light Anomaly seems to have followed her home from some other alternate plane of Reality, and as for Sennen the Mu Guardian? Dennu just laughs about that, saying something about "curiosity" and deceased cats. Ironhorse (50) DB/RadArmor Brute - Hero (A Living Armor. Something of a modern golem or an arcane automaton, this clanking creation made mostly of metal was intended to guard a magician's mansion. Finding the man to be of questionable sanity and dubious morality, he decided instead to strike out on his own. Surely it wouldn't be TOO difficult to find another gig, with a new... and hopefully more worthy... master, would it?) ===================== The Nameless And then, sometimes things get *weird*.... Restless Ghost (50) Street/Bio Stalker - Hero (Haunted and profoundly lonely, Ghost is a Thorn Wielder who was separated from her unique, and rather peculiar, soul-bound blade in the course of an arcane disaster triggered by the magi that she was guarding. Determined to find and reclaim the lost weapon, she refuses to return to her duties as a guardian or to rejoin the remains of her Oranbegan cabal until she does. She also adamantly rejects the idea of carrying any sword but her own, mundane or otherwise.) [As a side-effect of the ritual that originally bound blade and wielder to one another, when her sword was lost, Ghost's name was lost with him. She remembers Tahlim's name, but not her own.] Abyssal Blade (50) NinjaBlade/Bio Stalker - Hero (This soft-spoken creature of the Abyss seems lost somehow, and not quite as solid or as real as the beautiful blade that he carries. Asked his name, he just sadly shakes his head and says "I no longer remember". He remembers that he was not always a sword, though. He remembers that in the distant past this form was his real one, and not the weapon. But he also remembers being remade, and he remembers being bound and he remembers his wielder. He remembers that her name is Niari... But not why she abandoned him.) [The Abyssal Blade is a unique demonic weapon. Unlike most of the other Thorn Blades, he didn't start out that way. He was an Abyssal courtier who was soul-forged into a new form as a punishment for some slight against the Princes. And like Ghost, his wielder, he lost his own name when they were separated, though he can still remember hers. As is the case with Xhelethe, Tahlim's "human" form is a projection... an illusion. It's only the self-animate sword that's real.]

Characters on Excelsior: My Elysion 'Bird-things' (They're a non-canon species of Rularuu. Faathim's creatures.) Being on a server where even casual mission team RP is uncommon, these guys and gals aren't typically roleplayed characters. I have a basic sense of "who they are" and "what they're like" and how they're likely to respond to things... But there are no extensive backstories or angsty melodramas for this gang. Like some Primal Earth bird species, Elysion come in two coloration types... Dark phase and bright phase. While mixed pairs are common, and culturally considered lucky, their nestlings will always be of one type or the other. There are no naturally-occurring mixed-phase Elysion... It took a Crey cloning lab and the efforts of the Shard-based Revenant Guardian project to create a single pair of those; Grey Kestrel and her "brother", Skyrunner. (Who, as roleplayed characters, are on Everlasting rather than Excelsior, currently-) ===================== Iah (50) Fire/Bio Sentinel - Hero (Serious Bird is serious. The Paragon flight's leader. He firmly believes that everything is his responsibility.) Aken (50) DP/Energy Sentinel - Rogue (The scout who flies in dangerous skies. Anut's brother. He's not very good at playing a villain.) Anut (50) Claws/Bio Stalker - Hero (Iah's "better half". The Class Clown. The Punmeister-general.) Khafre (50) KM/Energy Stalker - Hero (Iah's brother. The Voice of Reason.) Sokari (50) Dark/Ice Stalker - Hero (The Rookie. He's in Paragon because that's where Tamun is.) Tamun (50) Dark/Dark Corruptor - Hero (Iah and Anut's daughter. The Anime Heroine. Call her "princess" at your peril.) Sefkhet (50) DB/WP Scrap - Hero (The Fearless One. The Incarnate of Snark. Aken's mate and not a fan of his current scouting mission.) Amset (50) Storm/Electric Defender - Hero (Aken and Sefkhet's daughter. The would-be Force of Nature) Khata (50) WP/DB Tank - Hero (The "Mother Hen". Now go to your room. And finish your homework.) Miane (50) Time/Fire Defender- Vig (Asari's partner, Aken's cousin and the member of the flight voted 'Support Character Most Likely to Leeroy Jenkins an AV'.) Asari (50) Broadsword/WP Scrap- Vig (Miane's partner and master of the mystical Perpetual Facepalm Technique.) and Haroeris (50) Claws/Fire Brute - Hero, on @Laughingcrow ("Harry" to his friends. The Work-a-Holic. Khata's partner. My beloved 'speed-farmer'.)

This idea I love

I'm for it. Kai's still "keeping score" of how many times she's had to pull his proverbial fat out of the fire. 🤣