CircleRelay/BaWhuh

The new Theme is: Why do these people stay together anyway?

Drinks in Innumerable Sorrows -TheHoverpope

Abyssal

Day

Defining traits: Sorrows is a man who is only happy in control. He has a deep love for his mistress, The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, but except for her, he will never accept the command of another. He is obsessed with remaining in control of any situation, which is reflected in his charms; his favourite choices in combat are Owl Seizes the Mouse and Charm Smothering Technique, and in his interactions with others he makes frequent use of Heart-Sculpting Oration. He is an incredibly imposing figure in his heavy plate of ivory, alabaster, and white jade; his face is rarely seen outside of its helmet.
Weaknesses: What many would consider his greatest strength, Sorrows sees a deep weakness in his compassion. He is known to be just and fair, but only because he is constantly suppressing his incredible compassion of 5. In combat, he prefers to shut down opposing charms and clinch to incapacitation rather than killing, despite his Exaltation. Sorrows is ashamed of this and is currently hiding of his own volition from other Abyssals. His current circle fills his weaknesses in knowledge and is indulgent enough of his compassion while seeing to it that it doesn't get out of hand. Often.

Death Becomes Thine Enemies -Miles

Abyssal

Daybreak

Death, the Abyssal, seeks those items that will advance him in his art and power. He will manipulate the circle to follow him on his goals making them think that they are in fact his masters orders (though his master would never give him orders of such a sort). He is very battle happy and will rush into battle before any other party members, sometimes bringing them into a frey they wished to pass buy. Being the first to get into the battle usually means he is the first to have to flee or run, so he has taken time to beef up his Strength and Stamina rather than work on his Necromancer Spells as a Daybreak Caste usually would leaving the party with an empty hole. When he does use his spells, he uses them with little regard for party member and will usually misjudge distances to the enemy.

Consistently Wayward Prospector -- GregLink

Alchemical

Starmetal

The Consistently Wayward Prospector is a small Alchemical, due to his low Essence score. Requisitioned during a more affluent period in the Autocthonian past, the Consistently Wayward Prospector was a nearly intentional resource-sink. Finding a set of mostly complete old plans, a less-than-competent member of the Triumvirate managed to convince his superiors that a design for a particularly lucky Alchemical, known for finding new sources of the five magical materials, complete with his former soul, would be a solid investment in their future. To the Triumvirate's dismay, only a months after completion, Consistently Wayward Prospector informed them that he was going off to find the largest source of magical materials anyone in Autocthonia could imagine. After a few months, the search was called off, and Consistently Wayward Prospector was deemed an unsuccessful design. This, of course, is inaccurate. After stumbling out of Autocthon's elsewhere-shell by accidentally temporarily circumventing the locks on one of the great seals, he found that his supposed luck, was, in fact, quite real.

Known for utter stupidity, with a large dose of blind luck, Consistently Wayward Prospector makes use of an innate understanding of artifacts, as well as a significant number of stealth and sensing charms installed before he wandered off. Recognizing that without a set of vats, his maintenance schedule has been slipping heavily, he has associated himself with a member of a very large organization, hoping to gain access to their vats. What he doesn't realize, of course, is that his 'friend', Drinks in Innumerable Sorrows doesn't really have access to vats, and in theory, should turn Consistently Wayward Prospector over to the Lover Clad in Raiment of Tears for study. Fortunately for the Prospector, Drinks in Sorrows is a bit too compassionate to allow such things, and as long as he can hold out, Consistently Wayward Prospector will be able to continue his haphazard search for further resources, and a way home.

Ignorant of most cultural imperatives, Consistently Wayward Prospector stays with his Circle as a means of protection only, often ignoring the leadership that others try to impose. This puts him in a number of difficult positions, with little support in the event of danger, and unable to fully exploit his powers for fear of being tracked by the creature known as the "wile-dunt".

Reckless Endangerment ~ StarHawk

Lunar

Changing Moon

Her mother once told her, in her death-throes, that Reckless would find an early death, and be forever cursed to reap what she sowed. I guess Luna didn't like Reckless' Mother much either, because that was the night she was chosen as one of the Lunars. The only thing was... Luna was kinda vague in what she wanted... This left Reckless with a feeling of "what do I do now?" Since she didn't know what she was doing or where she was going she traveled. It came second nature to her, she discovered, and grew to like it. But a year or two went by and still she didn't really feel a calling. Yeah, she met up with some of those other lunars. They unfortunately suffered from the same affliction many other people had... a giant stick up their respective butts. So she took off after they bothered tattooing her. She didn't take to the whole Lunar way of life and couldn't stay away from civilization, let alone hate it. On a fluke she met her party members. There was bright eerieness not far from the inn she was staying at and left to check it out. Pretty far out of town she found the source. Two pastie boys and a metal mechanical man were in a scuffle with some hoity-toity Dynastic twits. One branch-aspect, the other dirt-aspect. She scoffed at the Dynasts' foolishness and rushed in to cause her share of damage, popping claws and ripping soldiers limb from limb. After the battle the two pastie boys looked at her, and sort of shrugged. The one that looked at her with challenge in his eyes... that one she would remember. She asked for introduction and the biggest one told them their names (which were long and overcomplicated). But the one who looked at her wanting to fight... his name was "Death"... She had found the Death her mother wanted her to find. 'This one.' She told herself. 'he's the one.' So when the three turned and left she followed. The others must not have cared because the only one who had objections stilled his tongue and said nothing. But still looks at her with that challenge behind his eyes. Which only fuels her to follow him.

Gentle Mornings -- OhJames

Solar

Dawn

Mornings is a nice guy. So why's he hanging around with two murderous Abyssals, an unhinged Lunar, and a blindly stupid robot-guy from another dimension? That, my friends, is a complicated story.

Born to into a well-off Cherak family, Mornings was a precocious child with a remarkable talent for athletics. The sight of his small, graceful form somersaulting among the rooftops of the secondary school he attended was a shocking one for administrators and a terribly dreamy one for his peers. He smiled often and easily, but somehow managed never to attract a mate, though not for want of prospective lovers. Upon graduation, he rode off into the Northern sunlight, telling his parents that he would be back in a month or two, after he had found himself. He was assured a ranking position in the Legions upon his return, so his mother and father consented to his odd request.

The reason for this journey of self-discovery was simple: during a late-night archery practice, Mornings pushed himself to his utter limits and found himself touched with the Sun's divinity. Fearful of what might become of him, should it become public, he left. There was, however, an unexpected complication. Mornings came upon his current Circle. They were just hanging around some smelly tavern and the brash young Dawn sat down, since there were no other available seats. Then came the screaming horde of barbarians. After the carnage, Mornings was surprised to discover that he was in the company of terrible, terrible people. And yet, he decided to travel with them. You see, he's an idealistic young boy, and honestly thinks he can change them. He doesn't know what the Abyssals really are, of course, or what the Alchemical is, and has only the vaguest notion of what Luna's Beloved are up to, but he sticks around nonetheless. For his part, Sorrows encouraged the boy, glad for the strong arm he brings and cynically amused by his good intentions.

Gentle Mornings is on the short side, but beautiful, with shaggy, curled hair the color of tawny wine, eyes bluer than sapphires, and a dazzling smile. He is often seen trailing the others in their wake of misery, murmuring something along the lines of "But... but..." or "Come on guys...."

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Comments

In response to the commentary about the last theme, I've come up with this. We've all seen the problem: a group of PCs who stick together pretty much only because they're the PCs. I want to see a group that looks like that, filled with contradictions and people who hate each other, but with compelling and interesting (if contrived) reasons for staying together. - IanPrice

Well, this was an easy one. Have some role-players in my group that do this kind of stuff. I'll see about posting another later. -Miles

In my groups, the toughest part is always explaining why they're even in the same game. To that end, I've presented the Consistently Wayward Prospector. Totally out of place in an Abyssal game (or any game not featuring the Locust Crusade, really), Consistently Wayward Prospector is an overly torn character, with great drama, unable to advance in skill without access to vats, and yet - a blithering idiot. My biggest concern is that I've missed the point of the Relay again, going with a character that has no place in the game, not in the circle. If so, someone say so and I can replace. -- GregLink, still learning his way around the relay system

I think yours fits the theme best, actually, because it gives a very interesting reason why this strange character is actually with the group. Usually, the characters that make the least sense in the world are the hardest to fit into a group anyway. The leader of the circle is fairly good too, thanks Hoverpope. I like the Compassion as a weakness, and it leaves a good in for other circlemates. - IanPrice

This is awesome! I wish I found this sooner! But the hard thing is following up the Prospector. I had ideas. But it's hard to think of something to mix into this group.~ StarHawk

Rethinking that. That is the purpose of this circle isn't it? Thus I present Reckless Endangerment. Weee... ~StarHawk

That's awesome too! Most contrived reason to join a group ever... and it's funny enough, I might let it into a game I'd run. - IanPrice

Is it just me or did we have too much fun with this one? -Miles