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Abraxas Application
Aug. 3rd, 2021 11:47 amOOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Hats
Are you over 18?: Twice that
Contact:
Other Characters in Game: Jon Sims
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Some ovMennet
Canon: Original Character
Canon Point:
Background:
Children, gather close, link hands, and listen to the stories the stones tell us.
Before the families were the gods. Water, Earth, Light, Air, and Void were one, and they were happy together. But they wanted children, and had none. They tried to make children, each putting their essences into this vessel or that and creating life in that manner, but the new creatures were animals, thoughtless and wordless, and not children. They tried and tried. They created the crawlers and creepers and fliers, the swimmers and the tunnelers. But none of them were children. One by one, the gods ceased to be willing to try, until only Earth and Light still strove together.
Together, they created the great shifters, the enormous worms that roll beneath her surface, and make it tremble and move. And she cried out at the pain of their birth, because they too were mindless, and flung Light away so he ran to seek comfort from Air. And Earth retreated into herself, deep into the chasms and folds of her body, into the great black of her heart.
Everywhere she went inside herself, she found grief. It riddled her with cracks, filled her with holes, tied the cords of her heart into knots. And she followed those cracks and those knots with her fingers, and read them, and read aloud the word there, a word she had never known before, the name of the first Grue. And so Crux was born into her arms, from the place where six cracks meet in the heart of Earth, and she finally had the child she needed so very much.
When she came back to the surface of herself, holding her daughter, the other gods all crowded around, each wanting to hold her, to dote on her as parents. But Earth remembered all those failures, remembered the way they had, one by one, stopped sharing her nest and left her to the pain of childlessness alone, and she shielded her daughter from them, sending them away with excuses and errands again and again, keeping Crux in her own arms and hers alone.
Only Light noticed how angrily she watched them all, how jealously she guarded the infant. And so he went to her, late in the night, to remind her of how he had tried to help her until she had driven him away. Still, she spurned him, and he left in a rage that towered high, and as she had, he fled deep into his own body. It was anger, not grief, that made him search for names in his own bones until he found them. Fire, he read from the convergence of six winds, and his temper flared to life as its own soul, greedy and forever furious, and Spite, he read when six chasms yawned, and Meat were born from the places where his body invaded hers, seeking and grasping and many.
And that is how Grues and Meat came into the world, my children, before the families. But do not be afraid. Because Earth gave us teeth like obsidian, and gemstones for eyes, and hunger of our own. And Void gave us the Somes, so that the great shifters shouldn't kill us, because they are part of Light as well. Be wary the Meat, for they ally with Fire and live in Light's protection, but they are soft and blind, and they cannot speak or reason. And they are ours to eat, for when they are all gone, Earth will forgive Light for their creation, and all the gods will be happy again.
If Grues wrote history books, that would be the first chapter of every one.
Actually, they are the product of alien tinkering with human genetics, a semi-failed culling project that was abandoned on Earth centuries ago by a race that calls themselves The Shepherds. But to a grue, a stone knife is the height of technology, and stories told around the cavern are the only history they know.
Grues are a man-eating species living in the caves and deep, dark places of Earth, in a parasitic relationships with the humans on the surface. They were created to be dependent on human flesh, though can live on other intelligent or near-intelligent species if absolutely necessary, at a health deficit. So long as the species isn't herbivorous.
They have a scent which is appealing to humans, to the point of luring unwary humans away into the dark. They do not need to eat often, and they do not sleep at all. They are short-lived, with 20 being the average and 25 being an extreme outlier.
Though his Earth is current with IRL history, the humans do not know about the grues except as the roots of a series of myths and fairy tales. (To the humans of his world, for instance, Little Red Riding Hood is not eaten by a wolf, but by a Darkling, a Scandinavian boogie monster based on Grues. “Oh grandmother, how good you smell,” is a line from their version of the tale. Some doesn't know this.)
Grues are photophobic, supernaturally sensitive to light. They have eight eyes, all of them very sensitive to one spectrum or another, allowing them to see in the lightless depths of the caves. The eyes have a defensive enzyme reaction, a catalyst that is released into the vitreous humor to make it opaque under the assault of bright or sudden light, protecting the optic nerve behind. This slowly fades, over a period that can last hours or days, restoring the sight. Their fur is extremely flammable, and their skin burns to a dangerous degree almost instantly in direct sunlight or bright firelight. Light that does not come from specifically flame does not affect them as much.
Grues have five biological sexes in approximately equal proportions. Societies vary across the world, but in Some's locale, society is a tribal meritocracy, with the most productive members of any tribe in control regardless of of sex. Inters like Some, being the smallest on average and not having fangs, are very rarely the leaders, typically falling into the fifth-position in any family unit. They are, however, the traditional magic users, the Somes. Not all inters become Somes, but all Somes are inters. (Mennet is my character's birth-name, but he does not now consider it his name at all except to distinguish himself from other Somes. Some ovMennet = Some who-was-Mennet)
A Some is the emergency exit for a cave-dwelling tribe, the 'shortest path.' In the event of an emergency (and most emergencies below ground involve falling rocks or flash flooding), they can rapidly remove their tribe-mates to a safe location via a limited form of teleportation. For this reason, they are bound to remain close to the family core, in reach. An apprenticeship system ensures that they know the way to safe locales without having to go far in search of them.
Forty-odd years ago (three generations, by grue standards), the volcano known by humans as Mount Saint Helens and by grues as Missing-Light erupted, caving in many of the local caverns and killing many whole tribes. Before that eruption, there was inter-tribe raiding and occasional killing. Paranoia hasn't yet faded, though the cease-fire has lasted. The only regular interaction between tribes is occasional group-hunts, seasonal swapping of storytellers, and arranged marriages. Intermarriage is the norm, but always results in the new five-set settling in the tribe with the lowest numbers, for good.
Magic aside, their technology level is relatively stone-age. Once in a while, human technology (spun and woven rope and cloth, for instance, and wood- and stone-working) filters in, but on their own, grue technology progresses quite slowly. Their 'written' language is currently in the process of moving from being an intricate tally-work of knots in twine to rudimentary carved hieroglyphs. They have not, yet, found a reason to invent or borrow the wheel. They see no value in paper or things written on it.
They have a strong sense of art, almost entirely tactile. Music is uncommon and entirely ritual, dedicated to one of their five gods (Earth, Water, Air, Light, Void), combining singing with simple bone pipes and drums. No use for visual arts in the lightless caves. Storytelling is a daily ritual, and storywalks, a complicated sort of art installation, are revered. Scarification is common, but never casual. Magic is most often tied into the marks, occasionally into storywalks.
Some ovMennet himself was born 31 years after the eruption, the fourth of nine children, in the River-Eaten tribe of the Shaking Walls caverns. He was chosen to be a Some when he was two by his parent Some ovKepim, and has been raised so ever since. He was marked with his Name at four, a detailed scarification on his back that allows him to teleport. At seven, he became an adult and was made responsible for the home-bound, the very young and very old of his tribe. His parent Some ovKepim remains responsible for the out-bound, the able-bodied adults and older children. There is one more Some in his tribe, ovBorit, but he's only three. Some tries not to play favorites among his siblings, cousins, and niblings, but it's definitely Some ovBorit.
Some knew the exact shape the rest of his life would take. He was promised into a relationship with four other young grues from three other tribes, but he was the lowest-status of the set, and knew he was kind of a pity-choice, included because his tribe was severely underpopulated and needed the new hunters. When the highest-ranked member of the betrothal was killed hunting, it fell apart. He only ever even got to meet one of the others, a female named Shan from the next-nearest tribe.
It took two years to arrange that betrothal, and with its collapse, Some, already 9 and approaching midlife, realized how little he knew about the world. He'd never been farther away from his cavern than someone could walk on a single full belly. He met fewer people in his life than he had fingers. He'd never been on a hunt, or seen the surface, even though it is no so high above River-Eaten that he couldn't reach it.
Some prayed to Void, the trickster and the god of Somes for guidance before asking his parents if he could, just once, go with a hunt and see the surface. He never expected them to say yes, but they did, and he went with the hunters on their very next expedition.
But when he met the creatures they hunted, and one screamed, he understood its cries for help. And he saved it, and took it back to the surface, and never returned.
Suitability: Some is burning (lol) to learn as much as he can. About anything. He'll do great in any setting he can throw himself into learning things, and he'll align himself with whoever seems willing to teach him and isn't openly cruel.
Powers:
Teleportation - Some can teleport under three conditions: 1) The scars on his back are undamaged and uncovered. 2) He has been from point A to point B before, via the real world. His magic has to know the route, so to speak. 3) He's carrying less than ~5x his own weight. Being attached to something however tenuously counts as carrying it. Tie a string between his wrist and a doorknob; he may as well be carrying the whole house, and he's not going anywhere. This power is subject to fatigue.
Dark Vision - Each pair of his eight eyes sees a different part of the spectrum, resulting in vision that extends far, far outside the range of visible light. As long as darkness is the lack of light and not the presence of obstruction, Some can see. He is, however, mostly colorblind except in cases of vivid red.
The Draw - Grues have a faint nonspecifically-appealing scent, the purpose of which is specifically to soothe and lure humans on his world. If it works on humans of other worlds, I will leave up to individual players.
Sleeplessness - There is no such thing as an unconscious state for grues. They can't sleep, pass out, or be knocked unconscious, though things that would do so to a human are probably still incapacitating to a grue in some manner.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Some wasn't even there for the most impactful moment of his life. He heard about it later, weeks later when his parent, Kins the Storyteller, asked him to follow her to the chamber where she kept her bones – it was a private space, one of the only ones in the tribe, and his hackles rose slightly as he stepped inside.
She sat him down, sat with him flank to flank, and put two arms around him as she told him that Sella, the hunter from the Sky-Bone tribe, had been killed on the surface.
He sat still, letting his parent stroke the fur between his shoulders, but he didn't think he needed comforting. Those were his first thoughts – why do I feel so little? Sella was supposed to have become his partner, before this year's icing, along with three others from two more tribes. “What- does Kerk now?” he asked, thinking of the only one of the arrangement that he'd actually met. Kerk was from Rattle-Slope, the next-nearest tribe to River-Eaten. Close enough that they'd visited each other a few times.
“Yes...” There was a hesitance in her voice, and something Some wasn't sure he'd ever heard from his gentle parent before, outside of her stories. Anger, soft but present. “Some, the others have decided not... to go ahead with the match without Sella.”
For a few moments, Some sat perfectly still, not feeling his parent's hand or her gentle squeeze. Protests bubbled up and he made them, and she kept her anger under wraps for him as she comforted him, but there was nothing to argue against. The match was dissolved. Some would not have his own family, not this one.
Grues don't have a word for depression, but his family understood the bleak exhaustion that overtook him after the news. He took care of the children, made sure his elders had everything they needed, performed his duties to his family, but he did so with a sense of distance he couldn't cross. He felt like he was tallying everything he knew in life. And finding that it was a very, very short list.
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Some's life has been that of a caretaker of young children, and the lessons he teaches them are sacred to him. Share, and be firm about your boundaries. Don't say mean things and don't lie. Know why you are doing something before you do it. Do the things you promise you will do. And above all else, be kind.
This last is so important to him that the instant he discovered that the creatures his kind called only Meat were just like him, that their noises were language and their lives as important to them as his was to him, it broke something in him.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Kindness is the quality Some idolizes, and wishes to recognize in himself again. He grew up believe that he and his tribe were kind, that the generous way they treated each other and their neighbors meant they were intrinsically good and worthy of good things happening to them.
Learning that all along, they were hunting, imprisoning, killing other beings worthy of kindness has harmed him. In recovering, he's going to go far in the other direction, towards utter pacifism and self-sacrifice. He'll eventually find a middle ground.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
He dislikes the biases he's already consciously working to overcome, that humans are simply the creatures known as Meat, wicked little minions of Light. He hates that he still wants to and possibly has to eat them.
What is their sign, and why?
Some embodies every aspect of The Empress to a T. He was crafted by his entire life circumstances to fill that role.
SAMPLES & ARRIVAL
Samples:
Some discusses many new concepts with Ibram Gaunt, and discusses racial differences with Louis
Arrival Scenario: Honored Guest
Player Name: Hats
Are you over 18?: Twice that
Contact:
Other Characters in Game: Jon Sims
IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Some ovMennet
Canon: Original Character
Canon Point:
Background:
Children, gather close, link hands, and listen to the stories the stones tell us.
Before the families were the gods. Water, Earth, Light, Air, and Void were one, and they were happy together. But they wanted children, and had none. They tried to make children, each putting their essences into this vessel or that and creating life in that manner, but the new creatures were animals, thoughtless and wordless, and not children. They tried and tried. They created the crawlers and creepers and fliers, the swimmers and the tunnelers. But none of them were children. One by one, the gods ceased to be willing to try, until only Earth and Light still strove together.
Together, they created the great shifters, the enormous worms that roll beneath her surface, and make it tremble and move. And she cried out at the pain of their birth, because they too were mindless, and flung Light away so he ran to seek comfort from Air. And Earth retreated into herself, deep into the chasms and folds of her body, into the great black of her heart.
Everywhere she went inside herself, she found grief. It riddled her with cracks, filled her with holes, tied the cords of her heart into knots. And she followed those cracks and those knots with her fingers, and read them, and read aloud the word there, a word she had never known before, the name of the first Grue. And so Crux was born into her arms, from the place where six cracks meet in the heart of Earth, and she finally had the child she needed so very much.
When she came back to the surface of herself, holding her daughter, the other gods all crowded around, each wanting to hold her, to dote on her as parents. But Earth remembered all those failures, remembered the way they had, one by one, stopped sharing her nest and left her to the pain of childlessness alone, and she shielded her daughter from them, sending them away with excuses and errands again and again, keeping Crux in her own arms and hers alone.
Only Light noticed how angrily she watched them all, how jealously she guarded the infant. And so he went to her, late in the night, to remind her of how he had tried to help her until she had driven him away. Still, she spurned him, and he left in a rage that towered high, and as she had, he fled deep into his own body. It was anger, not grief, that made him search for names in his own bones until he found them. Fire, he read from the convergence of six winds, and his temper flared to life as its own soul, greedy and forever furious, and Spite, he read when six chasms yawned, and Meat were born from the places where his body invaded hers, seeking and grasping and many.
And that is how Grues and Meat came into the world, my children, before the families. But do not be afraid. Because Earth gave us teeth like obsidian, and gemstones for eyes, and hunger of our own. And Void gave us the Somes, so that the great shifters shouldn't kill us, because they are part of Light as well. Be wary the Meat, for they ally with Fire and live in Light's protection, but they are soft and blind, and they cannot speak or reason. And they are ours to eat, for when they are all gone, Earth will forgive Light for their creation, and all the gods will be happy again.
If Grues wrote history books, that would be the first chapter of every one.
Actually, they are the product of alien tinkering with human genetics, a semi-failed culling project that was abandoned on Earth centuries ago by a race that calls themselves The Shepherds. But to a grue, a stone knife is the height of technology, and stories told around the cavern are the only history they know.
Grues are a man-eating species living in the caves and deep, dark places of Earth, in a parasitic relationships with the humans on the surface. They were created to be dependent on human flesh, though can live on other intelligent or near-intelligent species if absolutely necessary, at a health deficit. So long as the species isn't herbivorous.
They have a scent which is appealing to humans, to the point of luring unwary humans away into the dark. They do not need to eat often, and they do not sleep at all. They are short-lived, with 20 being the average and 25 being an extreme outlier.
Though his Earth is current with IRL history, the humans do not know about the grues except as the roots of a series of myths and fairy tales. (To the humans of his world, for instance, Little Red Riding Hood is not eaten by a wolf, but by a Darkling, a Scandinavian boogie monster based on Grues. “Oh grandmother, how good you smell,” is a line from their version of the tale. Some doesn't know this.)
Grues are photophobic, supernaturally sensitive to light. They have eight eyes, all of them very sensitive to one spectrum or another, allowing them to see in the lightless depths of the caves. The eyes have a defensive enzyme reaction, a catalyst that is released into the vitreous humor to make it opaque under the assault of bright or sudden light, protecting the optic nerve behind. This slowly fades, over a period that can last hours or days, restoring the sight. Their fur is extremely flammable, and their skin burns to a dangerous degree almost instantly in direct sunlight or bright firelight. Light that does not come from specifically flame does not affect them as much.
Grues have five biological sexes in approximately equal proportions. Societies vary across the world, but in Some's locale, society is a tribal meritocracy, with the most productive members of any tribe in control regardless of of sex. Inters like Some, being the smallest on average and not having fangs, are very rarely the leaders, typically falling into the fifth-position in any family unit. They are, however, the traditional magic users, the Somes. Not all inters become Somes, but all Somes are inters. (Mennet is my character's birth-name, but he does not now consider it his name at all except to distinguish himself from other Somes. Some ovMennet = Some who-was-Mennet)
A Some is the emergency exit for a cave-dwelling tribe, the 'shortest path.' In the event of an emergency (and most emergencies below ground involve falling rocks or flash flooding), they can rapidly remove their tribe-mates to a safe location via a limited form of teleportation. For this reason, they are bound to remain close to the family core, in reach. An apprenticeship system ensures that they know the way to safe locales without having to go far in search of them.
Forty-odd years ago (three generations, by grue standards), the volcano known by humans as Mount Saint Helens and by grues as Missing-Light erupted, caving in many of the local caverns and killing many whole tribes. Before that eruption, there was inter-tribe raiding and occasional killing. Paranoia hasn't yet faded, though the cease-fire has lasted. The only regular interaction between tribes is occasional group-hunts, seasonal swapping of storytellers, and arranged marriages. Intermarriage is the norm, but always results in the new five-set settling in the tribe with the lowest numbers, for good.
Magic aside, their technology level is relatively stone-age. Once in a while, human technology (spun and woven rope and cloth, for instance, and wood- and stone-working) filters in, but on their own, grue technology progresses quite slowly. Their 'written' language is currently in the process of moving from being an intricate tally-work of knots in twine to rudimentary carved hieroglyphs. They have not, yet, found a reason to invent or borrow the wheel. They see no value in paper or things written on it.
They have a strong sense of art, almost entirely tactile. Music is uncommon and entirely ritual, dedicated to one of their five gods (Earth, Water, Air, Light, Void), combining singing with simple bone pipes and drums. No use for visual arts in the lightless caves. Storytelling is a daily ritual, and storywalks, a complicated sort of art installation, are revered. Scarification is common, but never casual. Magic is most often tied into the marks, occasionally into storywalks.
Some ovMennet himself was born 31 years after the eruption, the fourth of nine children, in the River-Eaten tribe of the Shaking Walls caverns. He was chosen to be a Some when he was two by his parent Some ovKepim, and has been raised so ever since. He was marked with his Name at four, a detailed scarification on his back that allows him to teleport. At seven, he became an adult and was made responsible for the home-bound, the very young and very old of his tribe. His parent Some ovKepim remains responsible for the out-bound, the able-bodied adults and older children. There is one more Some in his tribe, ovBorit, but he's only three. Some tries not to play favorites among his siblings, cousins, and niblings, but it's definitely Some ovBorit.
Some knew the exact shape the rest of his life would take. He was promised into a relationship with four other young grues from three other tribes, but he was the lowest-status of the set, and knew he was kind of a pity-choice, included because his tribe was severely underpopulated and needed the new hunters. When the highest-ranked member of the betrothal was killed hunting, it fell apart. He only ever even got to meet one of the others, a female named Shan from the next-nearest tribe.
It took two years to arrange that betrothal, and with its collapse, Some, already 9 and approaching midlife, realized how little he knew about the world. He'd never been farther away from his cavern than someone could walk on a single full belly. He met fewer people in his life than he had fingers. He'd never been on a hunt, or seen the surface, even though it is no so high above River-Eaten that he couldn't reach it.
Some prayed to Void, the trickster and the god of Somes for guidance before asking his parents if he could, just once, go with a hunt and see the surface. He never expected them to say yes, but they did, and he went with the hunters on their very next expedition.
But when he met the creatures they hunted, and one screamed, he understood its cries for help. And he saved it, and took it back to the surface, and never returned.
Suitability: Some is burning (lol) to learn as much as he can. About anything. He'll do great in any setting he can throw himself into learning things, and he'll align himself with whoever seems willing to teach him and isn't openly cruel.
Powers:
Teleportation - Some can teleport under three conditions: 1) The scars on his back are undamaged and uncovered. 2) He has been from point A to point B before, via the real world. His magic has to know the route, so to speak. 3) He's carrying less than ~5x his own weight. Being attached to something however tenuously counts as carrying it. Tie a string between his wrist and a doorknob; he may as well be carrying the whole house, and he's not going anywhere. This power is subject to fatigue.
Dark Vision - Each pair of his eight eyes sees a different part of the spectrum, resulting in vision that extends far, far outside the range of visible light. As long as darkness is the lack of light and not the presence of obstruction, Some can see. He is, however, mostly colorblind except in cases of vivid red.
The Draw - Grues have a faint nonspecifically-appealing scent, the purpose of which is specifically to soothe and lure humans on his world. If it works on humans of other worlds, I will leave up to individual players.
Sleeplessness - There is no such thing as an unconscious state for grues. They can't sleep, pass out, or be knocked unconscious, though things that would do so to a human are probably still incapacitating to a grue in some manner.
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Some wasn't even there for the most impactful moment of his life. He heard about it later, weeks later when his parent, Kins the Storyteller, asked him to follow her to the chamber where she kept her bones – it was a private space, one of the only ones in the tribe, and his hackles rose slightly as he stepped inside.
She sat him down, sat with him flank to flank, and put two arms around him as she told him that Sella, the hunter from the Sky-Bone tribe, had been killed on the surface.
He sat still, letting his parent stroke the fur between his shoulders, but he didn't think he needed comforting. Those were his first thoughts – why do I feel so little? Sella was supposed to have become his partner, before this year's icing, along with three others from two more tribes. “What- does Kerk now?” he asked, thinking of the only one of the arrangement that he'd actually met. Kerk was from Rattle-Slope, the next-nearest tribe to River-Eaten. Close enough that they'd visited each other a few times.
“Yes...” There was a hesitance in her voice, and something Some wasn't sure he'd ever heard from his gentle parent before, outside of her stories. Anger, soft but present. “Some, the others have decided not... to go ahead with the match without Sella.”
For a few moments, Some sat perfectly still, not feeling his parent's hand or her gentle squeeze. Protests bubbled up and he made them, and she kept her anger under wraps for him as she comforted him, but there was nothing to argue against. The match was dissolved. Some would not have his own family, not this one.
Grues don't have a word for depression, but his family understood the bleak exhaustion that overtook him after the news. He took care of the children, made sure his elders had everything they needed, performed his duties to his family, but he did so with a sense of distance he couldn't cross. He felt like he was tallying everything he knew in life. And finding that it was a very, very short list.
Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Some's life has been that of a caretaker of young children, and the lessons he teaches them are sacred to him. Share, and be firm about your boundaries. Don't say mean things and don't lie. Know why you are doing something before you do it. Do the things you promise you will do. And above all else, be kind.
This last is so important to him that the instant he discovered that the creatures his kind called only Meat were just like him, that their noises were language and their lives as important to them as his was to him, it broke something in him.
What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Kindness is the quality Some idolizes, and wishes to recognize in himself again. He grew up believe that he and his tribe were kind, that the generous way they treated each other and their neighbors meant they were intrinsically good and worthy of good things happening to them.
Learning that all along, they were hunting, imprisoning, killing other beings worthy of kindness has harmed him. In recovering, he's going to go far in the other direction, towards utter pacifism and self-sacrifice. He'll eventually find a middle ground.
Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
He dislikes the biases he's already consciously working to overcome, that humans are simply the creatures known as Meat, wicked little minions of Light. He hates that he still wants to and possibly has to eat them.
What is their sign, and why?
Some embodies every aspect of The Empress to a T. He was crafted by his entire life circumstances to fill that role.
SAMPLES & ARRIVAL
Samples:
Some discusses many new concepts with Ibram Gaunt, and discusses racial differences with Louis
Arrival Scenario: Honored Guest
