MentalFloss/Mana
Name: Mana Kalagesh (full name: Maaz'genna Kalagesh Ninurisa'karlatur Sakargenammada)
Player: MentalFloss aka TBS
Caste: Eclipse
Concept: Troubleshooter
Motivation: Upset the entrenched political order of Creation as a whole by ruining all the decadent, spoiled nobles who retain their position through situational inertia alone
Anima: black silhouette surrounded by a gold corona and wrapped in silver chains with ornate locks, holding in one hand a blood-smeared writing brush, and in the other a clean sword
Contents
Attributes 4/8/6
Strength_______[OO...] Charisma_______[OOOO.] Perception_____[OO...] Dexterity______[OOOO.] Manipulation___[OOOO.] Intelligence___[OOO..] Stamina________[OO...] Appearance_____[OOOO.] Wits___________[OOOO.]
Abilities 28
Dawn Zenith Twilight
.Archery________[OOOO.] Integrity______[.....] Craft(Magitech)[O....]
.Martial Arts___[OOO..] Performance____[.....] .Investigation__[OOO..]
Melee__________[.....] .Presence_______[OOOOO] Lore___________[O....]
Thrown_________[.....] Resistance_____[.....] Medicine_______[.....]
War____________[.....] Survival_______[.....] Occult_________[.....]
Night Eclipse
Athletics______[O....] .Bureaucracy____[OO...]
Awareness______[OO...] .Linguistics____[OOO..]
.Dodge__________[OOOO.] .Ride___________[.....]
Larceny________[.....] .Sail___________[.....]
Stealth________[.....] .Socialize______[OOOO.]
Specialties: Archery (Flame Weapons) 3, Craft (Maintenance) 3
Languages Known: Flametongue (The Lap), Riverspeak (Nexus), High Realm, Old Realm, Guild Cant
Advantages
Backgrounds Virtues
Artifact_______[OOO..] Compassion_____[OO...] Temperance_____[OO...]
Resources______[OOO..] Conviction_____[OOOO.] Valor__________[OO...]
Backing(Guild)_[OO...] Virtue Flaw: Heart of Flint
Contacts_______[O....]
Willpower Essence
[OOOOOO....] [OO........]
Personal 12/12
Health Peripheral 24/30
-0 -1 -1 -2 -2 -4 Inc Committed 6
Intimacies:
- her guns
- ...which stand for order and righteousness -- if the dedicated can't take justice into their own hands, the corrupt will continue to do as they have been doing for as long as anyone can remember. Idealism is all fine and well, but without a weapon to strike out against impurity, it's nothing more than pretty words.
- self-reliance
- ...because if you can't depend on yourself, who can you depend on? And who can depend on you? The world isn't shaped by those who merely wish it so -- it's shaped by those who are willing to get up, stand on their own two feet, and take the reins of Creation for themselves. Without self-reliance, you're only as strong as those around you allow you to be.
Charms
Archery: First Archery Excellency, Trance of Unhesitating Speed (187), Flashing Vengeance Draw (188)
Presence: First Presence Excellency
Dodge: Third Dodge Excellency, Shadow Over Water (227), Seven Shadow Evasion: Conviction (227)
Linguistics: Sagacious Reading of Intent (233)
Socialize: First Socialize Excellency, Mastery of Small Manners (239)
Etc.
Weapons:
Dragon Sigh Wands ("Kiza" and "Shura", paired flame pieces, Artifact 3)
Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage 11L, Range 30 yards, Rate 2 (1 each)
(used for striking: Speed 5, Accuracy -1, Damage +6B, Defense -1, Rate 2)
Updated house-rules version. Each shot costs 1 mote, each gun holds 4 motes, recharging is a 1:1 rate, and requires daily/unspecified-length-of-time (presumably "whenever it's dramatically appropriate") maintenance rolls of Intelligence + Craft (Magitech) at Difficulty 3.
Armor:
Exceptional Chain Shirt
Soak 4L/2B, Mobility -0, Fatigue 0
Combat Summary:
Join Battle: [Wits+Awareness]
(Attack) Punch: Speed 5, Attack 8, Damage 2B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
(Attack) Kick: Speed 5, Attack 7, Damage 5B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
(Attack) Dragon Sigh Wands: Speed 4, Attack 13, Damage 11L, Rate 2
(Attack) Dragon Sigh Wands (used for striking): Speed 5, Attack 6, Damage 8B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
Soak: 5L/4B (base soak 1L/2B)
Dodge DV: 5
Social Combat Summary:
Join Debate: 6
(Attack) Investigation: Speed 5, Attack 6, Parry MDV 3, Rate 2
(Attack) Performance: Speed 6, Attack 4, Parry MDV 2, Rate 1
(Attack) Presence: Speed 4, Attack 9, Parry MDV 5, Rate 2
Dodge MDV: 4
Appearance
Quite clearly a Southlander, Mana's lithe elegance is accented by the warm umber tones of her skin, made savagely beautiful by her time in the desert, and darkly urbane by her weaving between high society and the depths of the criminal underworld. Her eyes are a crystalline pale blue, shining with an eager optimism still undiminished by all the things they have seen, and deep as her thirst for answers to the questions she doesn't yet know how to ask. She dresses simply, though not "plainly", with a fondness for silk overshirts and slacks, protected from the desert winds by a hooded cloak in black, gold, silver, and red.
Personality
Mana is a conflicted hero; in her heart shine the twin lights of desire and ethics. As a child she had wished for answers to all the questions nobody could answer, and her Exaltation only deepened that desire -- in a single moment seared forever into her mind, she learned that the world was not merely larger than the Lap, but larger than anything she could ever hope to understand. Though her curiosity is undaunted, it is held in check by her unusual ethics, the concept of a "rightness" within a greater picture, "good" and "evil" cast aside as the epithets of those unenlightened to the wholeness of the cosmic scheme. She has yet to learn the folly of her painfully limited worldview.
Despite her unusually strong convictions and the near-obsessive drive of her boundless curiosity, it is Mana's easy charm which is most often apparent -- whether or not she likes you, she still has a smile for you, and even if she doesn't mean it, only the most perceptive would be able to tell. She appears to genuinely enjoy companionship and conversation, even when she has to suppress her expression of it for the sake of her responsibilities.
Background
Born in the Lap, Mana found her way into the service of Cathak Letal through a combination of thievery, verbal agility, sheer blind luck, and a startling talent with a "borrowed" weapon. She hampered and harried Letal's political opponents through both social and combative opposition, both subtle enough to allow her to just barely dance the razor's edge of danger, living only through grace and good fortune, and quite well-rewarded for it. She thought she had it made, but as is the way of things, her fortune found a way of reversing itself. A minor mistake at a critical moment, a minor misunderstanding in a delicate conversation, and Letal's paranoia convinced him that Mana had been plotting against him all along. Wavering between rage and regret, the unstable noble pronounced her death sentence, but her years of dedicated service ruled out a public spectacle for the sake of maintaining her spirit's honor. And so it came to pass that Mana was sent out into the desert, pursued on horseback and beaten by Letal's personal bodyguards until she collapsed a full day's walk from the Lap, left for dead.
Instead of death by the desert heat, under the unblinking eye of the Unconquered Sun, Mana found rebirth. Staggering from where she fell, blinking away the blinding light that had brought her back from the brink of demise, she beheld a caravan in the distance. Resplendent in the searing light of her anima, she convinced the terrified merchants that she was a local god, and commanded them to travel north so she might seek redress with her enemies. At least, that's how she began, but the voice of common sense soon made itself heard over the throbbing of raw power in her head, and she turned them instead towards Nexus. Vengeance could wait, if a delay would ensure that she could survive to see the true potential behind her newfound power. Upon arriving in Nexus, Mana used the confused caravaners as a bargaining chip and quickly stole, swindled, and murdered her way into Guild membership. For the next several years, she found herself variously in and out of favor with the Guild, but remained close enough to their good side that she was never without work, and never without sufficient pay to live however she wished. Recent months have found her again in poor standing, with the threat of an old debt looming over her head, but Mana is determined to persevere. What else could she do?
Mana has been an orphan, an urchin, a thief, an assassin, an outlaw, a caravan merchant, and most recently a subtle and manipulative protector of the Guild's interests, guided by the might of the Unconquered Sun and steeled by the harsh irony of her fate. Despite all the hats she wears, she has never lost sight of the reasons behind it all: she knows she is something true, something righteous, and she is determined to learn the extent of her power and the answers it could reveal about her current state and Creation itself. Even if she's not yet willing to admit it, something deep inside wants to turn the world on its unenlightened head, to remake it in the image of all that is right and worthy. Those who assist her would become friends, and those who deny her would become notches on her holsters or tallies in her journal.
BP Spending Summary
15 +6 undisclosed Flaws (relating to the debt/s owed to the Guild, and Cathak Letal's enmity) = 21 -8 Attributes = 13 -5 Abilities = 8 -3 Specialties = 5 -2 Background = 3 -3 Virtue = 0
XP History
None yet.
