Adventures of Caelereth

This CD is being rewritten to make the char feel more elven. Most previous stuff has been replaced though the general char concept and background is still there, just elfier.

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Name: Ílarolén'yliás
Alias: Drustai
Gender: Female
Age: 414
Race: Elf
Tribe: Kaýrrhem (Gray)
Languages: Styrásh, Korweynian, Tharian, and Krath’mélárián and Ancient Krean (both written only)
Birthplace: Né'ál'már, Rhéneu'lón, Eastern Nybelmar
Occupation: Healer, herbalist, water mage, wood carver, researcher, antiquarian
Title: Ná'meladanhé


Overview
Ílarolén'yliás, called Ilarél or simply Ila in short and today also known under her alias "Drustai", is a Kaýrrhem of Nybelmar who has lived in the lands of the United Kingdom of Santharia for several hundred years after falling in love with a human lord. The lord's eventual passing was only one of many that she has lost to war and death, which has left her bitter and angry at the world. Little remains of the elven soul that once suffused her being, and so she wanders human lands under self-imposed exile. Her own death hovers as well on the horizon, as the incurable mage grabber disease has taken root within her.

APPEARANCE
Height: A little over 2 peds (2 peds, 1 palmspan, 4 nailsbreadths / 2.15 meters / 7 feet 1 inch)
Weight: Slender
Skin Colour: Fair
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Dark Gray

Physical Appearance
Ilarél bears the dark hair and eyes of the southern gray elves of the Kaýrrhem, though this was not always so for she was born with a radiant silver hair that was her namesake. Many weary years have however eaten away at her, and her once-bright features have darkened. She could perhaps still be mistaken for an elf by humankind, for her stature is high, her ears and cheeks rise tall, and her clothing beautiful, but to any styáey who looks upon her it is clear that she is not like them.

Ilarél's slender figure is delicately curved, and though she reaches above most humans she is lithe and graceful. Like most of her kin she glides delicately across the earth as she walks, and her footsteps only whisper her passing. Her skin is spotless and fair, colored lightly by the kiss of the injèrá after long years of travel. In spite of her elegance however no light shines upon her features. Instead the shadows run deep and the lines hard. She is elf in body but in her spirit lies emptiness. She is ná'meladanhé, she who has become gray.

Clothing
Ilarél is usually dressed in fine elvish clothes, smooth and light in the wind. Her most common attire is a dress of black silk with glittering silver embroidery beneath a satin-lined cloak of herne green or a robe of deep violet. On her dress a high collar cradles the neck, and fit sleeves hug the contours of her arms to end in dignified points above the back of her hands. At the waist extends a long skirt that trails on the ground and splits at the front to reveal black leggings and boots. At the trails of Ilarél's clothes the careful eye can spot dirt and tears for it has aged like its bearer. It is marred as well by the human-made leather belt and boots, coarse and practical and fitting disharmoniously with the elegance around them. Upon Ilarél's brow sits a coiled silver band of elvish crafting, and this band joins with a series of braids to hold back most of her hair. Silver chains decorate her ears, hanging down loosely a short distance before curling back upwards to hook again near the top.

PERSONALITY AND ABILITIES
Personality
Ilarél reflects the serious manner of the Kaýrrhem, holding within her a sense of sorrow for what has become of the Dream and a desire to fight against the evils that have made it that way. Among her own people she is as well an outcast however, for the high elves have withdrawn within their forests to meditate upon the Dream until they fade away into death or etherealness. Ilarél is a gray elf, those of the Kaýrrhem who look outwards instead of inwards and who through this become tied to humanity and the changing world. Ilarél has lived now among mankind for far longer than she was among her kin and so her soul has drawn closer to that of man than elf. In this has the fast-paced world of men overwhelmed her, and she struggles to find stability. Hers is a state of ecuá, her connections ever breaking, and thus the appearance of her xéuá'terquás, her mage grabber affliction, is perhaps truly only a reflection of the imbalance of her own leuá.

Ilarél's great flaws are avarice and jealousy for in her chest beats a heart that loves deeply. She is unfulfilled by the temporal cycles of the world and refuses to give up that which she covets, and in this may arise a vindicative spirit. Such is Ilarél's possessiveness that in her love of life she forsakes living. She desires beauty in perfection and in perfection is stagnancy, unchanging and ungrowing. She is from wind but of the water, sá már, wind trying to be earth, to fill a mold and from that mold emerge solid and shining and beautiful until the end of time. And so no merriment dances on her features, no laughter and joy, only the quiet smile of the craftsman pleased at her work and the great upset when that work is stolen or destroyed.

Of Ilarél's many desires is the insatiable longing for knowledge and to witness great works of skill and magic, but most of all life for in life is the essence of creation from which all knowledge, invention, and passion is born. Avá's Dream exists because of Avá Herself, and should Avá end then so too would end the Dream for it is in Her life not Her death that the beauty of the Dream is realized. And as in Avá, so too is in every mortal soul for Avá gifted Her Spirit to Her creations and gave them the power to Dream their own Dreams. The potential to create beauty is within every individual life as it is within Avá and so the loss of every soul is the loss of a Dream. It is for this loss that Ilarél is brought to great sorrow and anger, for she has encountered much of it in her long years, and it is for this loss that she has sought to harden her heart. She by now guards herself from her own feelings and allows her love to few for it is in their nature to perish or leave her. She has made herself cold so that she might become numb.

Ilarél's anger has left her spurning the gods and she blames them for an evil world, though it is truly her disconnection from them that brings her the greatest pain. Queprur and Coór she bears no love for, for their path is to destroy, but Ilarél still loves Avá, and Eyasha and Urtengor and all the gods of creation. From them all she hides however, for her soul has grown dark and this has made her afraid. Have they forsaken their creations, or has she forsaken them? Or perhaps they were never there at all, perhaps Avá is the dream and the world the dreamer.

Strengths
Magic: Ilarél's greatest strength is her magic. She is a potent Ximaxian water mage and able to manipulate all 3 spheres of her element.
Healer: Though she has terrible bedside manners, Ilarél is a very effective healer. With magic and herbs she can concoct potions, remedies, and cures for many ailments. She can as well mend and seal grave wounds.
Elf in Body: Ilarél is an elf, which grants her a broad range of skills and speed and senses beyond that of humans. It once granted constitution and strength as well, but the collapse of her elven spirit and the onset of mage-grabber disease leaves her instead frequently drained and fatigued.
Loremaster: Ilarél is literate and well-read, on both arcane and worldly matters. She has extensive study into the history and languages of the races and tribes of both Nybelmar and Santharia, and she is very traveled. She also has rudimentary knowledge of a variety of magical systems beyond Ximaxian, and while she cannot cast spells of these other schools she knows how they work and can identify their practitioners and creations.
Craftmanship: Ilarél is a great carver of wood and wielder of magic and she combines these to create enchanting works of art. Greatest among these are her wands and staves, which all once resisted age and fire or even bestowed rejuvenation or tranquility upon their owners. The darkening of Ilarél's spirit has however stilted her work, and so today she can only make items of exquisite design but empty spirit, mortal as any made by man.
Silver-Lining: Ilarél's cár'áll is difficult for her enemies to manipulate as a result of the weakened xeuá links caused by her mage grabber affliction, and so spells that try to directly affect her own aura are almost sure to fail. This however makes it equally difficult for friendly manipulation of her cár'áll, even by Ilarél herself, limiting her ability to be healed or empowered by mystical or even natural means.

Weaknesses
Grabbed Mage: Ilarél has developed mage grabber disease, a cancer of the xeuá links in the cár'áll that sometimes develops in magic users. There is no cure and so Ilarél's days are nearly at an end. The disease makes it difficult for her to cast magic and so she now holds back and relies on using non-magical solutions whenever possible. The most powerful of her spells are as well barred to her, and as the years go on she will progressively waste away.
Feeble: As her disease progresses, Ilarél is losing her strength and health. Her body is wasting away and soon even walking will become a tiring effort. Her blood is as well thin and she takes a long time to recover from injuries.
Hollow: Ilarél is plagued by a deep-seated despair. This affects her in all things, from cold interactions with others to weakened spells and soulless art. Even her appearance has altered to reflect her leuá, as her once-silver hair has blackened and the light of elf-kind vanished from her features.
Human in Spirit: While a human may not think of it as a weakness, Ilarél needs great amounts of rest for she no longer takes in energy from nature. Her elven spirit has dimmed and so she sleeps as long as any human. This sleep is neither calm nor blissful and leaves her poorly rejuvenated.

Magic
Ilarél is studied on many forms of magic, from her native elven mysticism to extinct arts like the magicks of the Ancient Krean. She has however specialized in the human magic of Santharia and she is one of the few elven graduates of the Academy of Ximax. And though elves are known for their connection to the element of wind and the universal connectivity of xeuá, Ilarél is a water mage. She is considered level 8, though as a result of her mage grabber disease and few opportunities she only very rarely utilizes the third sphere.

Ilarél's focus overall tends towards support magic, especially healing and precognition. Healing is where Ilarél is most skilled. This is an area in which she shows some of her elven roots as she combines physical effort and magic in one harmonious whole. She will use sphere I to enhance feelings of tranquility in the victim, numbing pain, and then cut and tie off flesh with her hands before delicately enhancing the property of coalescence at the breach and sealing the site without need for stitches. Ilarél shows great skill and care with her recuperative methods, and she is perhaps a better healer than fighter. Precognition on the other hand is one of her most advanced abilities, as it requires sphere III to create connections between cár'allía and then using the properties of inspiration, flexibility, and reflection to explore within the mind the many possibilities of future events. As a result of her mage grabber illness, Ilarél rarely makes use of this ability and would almost certainly fail to perform it.

Ilarél can as well be skilled in battle however though she relies on clever use of effects over plain magical might. Ilarél is for example rarely seen attacking her opponents with strikes of water as would be expected of a water mage and has instead tended towards intimidation, debilitation, or misdirection. Her favored spells include reducing tranquility of mind or creating storms to frighten opponents, locking weapons in their scabbards with ice (or her enemies' feet to the floor), or making herself appear where she is not or as something different. Most of these are accomplished through the first sphere, through enhancing or diminishing properties such as fluidity, coldness, refraction, darkness, or inspiration, and so they are relatively simple to cast. The second sphere is only needed for locking weapons, as water ounía expressing the coldness property must be gathered to a single point to have the greatest effect.

Ilarél's favored direct offensive spell is a form of manipulating wind through water, which she uses for attack, intimidation, shutting or opening doors or windows, or otherwise disturbing the area around her. With this spell she uses sphere II to gather water ounía expressing the property of fluidity to her Focus. The fluidity property causes the air to become volatile and churning, and upon release it lashes out towards her Target as if following the course of a raging river. Ilarél is very familiar with this spell and so it is not yet greatly weakened by her mage grabber disease, unlike many of her other sphere II spells. Ilarél can as well use other striking spells especially when she is near a major source of water, though she is more likely to simply target her opponent's blood. In such case she uses sphere I or sphere II and the fluidity or coldness properties to disrupt or even freeze blood flow in her opponents, causing cardiac arrest. This however takes great concentration and some time to develop its full effect, during which both Ilarél and her target are vulnerable. This spell is easier to use on humans and those who have water as the anar'oún in their cár'áll; it has a reduced effect on others, especially orcs, and so she requires direct physical contact and much more time and effort to affect these races.

As an elf, Ilarél was as well once able to infuse a part of her being in every task she did, but the dimming of her elven qualities and the onset of mage grabber disease has eroded this ability.

Ilarél also carries with her a Thalambathian Scroll Book. An expensive item, each page is a single scroll, which can be triggered to perform a magical spell. This book is Ilarél's last resort when she has exhausted her magic. When she casts a spell from the Scroll Book, the individual scroll dissolves into ash, and the spell effect is produced. Using the Scroll Book is ponderous and casting spells from it requires several moments of uninterrupted channeling. These spells are also generally relatively minor, and most are not designed for combat purposes.


EQUIPMENT
Weapons
- Channeling rod, which doubles as a mace
- Dagger
- Short bow, usually kept with her horse
- Staff
- Wands

Belongings
- Research books and tomes, and writing materials
- Wood carving tools
- Spelunking (adventuring) equipment
- Thalambathian Scroll Book
- Herbs, poltices, and other medicinal ingredients

Familiars
Ilarél uses a pristine white Jerrahn Crested horse as her mount. Fairly tall at over one and a half peds, her horse has slightly longer legs in proportion to other Jerrahns. Like most of its kin, the horse is noble in appearance and it carries itself upright and proudly. The horse's name is Enayái.

BACKGROUND
Timeline
1255-1358 a.S. Ílarolén'yliás is born in Né'ál'már, in the Emerald Woods. Her name means silvery hair, for her bright silver hair. Her casual name, Ilarél, is a feminine form of the word silver. She is very spirited and takes many occupations, though settles ultimately on gardening, herbalism and healing, and wood carving. She employs a flare of magic in everything she does.

1358 a.S. Chyrakisth orcs raid Né’ál’már and burn the village, slaying many and taking others as slaves. Many of those lost are those that Ilarél is close to.

1358 a.S. Ilarél, seeking vengeance, attempts to join a force of Kaýrrhem that are to ride out to put an end to the Chyrakisth raiders. She is told to stay behind, but follows in secret. The elves are ambushed by the orcs and few survive. Ilarél is discovered and nearly killed as well.

Ilarél is rescued by Moroes, a Santharian noble of half-elven blood, who takes her in and mends her to full health.

1358-1367 a.S. Ilarél in gratitude decides to join Moroes’ band for a time to aid him in his quest to find and apprehend a deadly fugitive from his homeland of Xaramon.

1367 a.S. Ilarél and Moroes have long ago become friends, and so Ilarél decides to stay with him when he moves back to the Kingdom of Santharia, to his land in the Xaramon Province.

1369-1370 a.S. Ilarél attends the marriage of Moroes and his betrothed, Juilra. Sometime after this Moroes shows Ilarél the City of Ximax.

1380-1404 a.S. Ilarél enters Ximax Academy as a water mage, wanting to explore human magic. She is one of only a handful of elves at the school.

Sometime after this, Moroes's father passes away. Moroes succeeds his father as the lord of his realm.

1404 a.S. Ilarél graduates Ximax Academy. She remains at the school to continue her studies, research, and teaching. She works principally as a healer at the Infirmary under Dorea Everforn, one of the few other elves at Ximax. Ilarél is known as well for the beautiful staves and wands she makes, which combine wood carving with elven magic to create implements that, among other traits, are resistant to age, fire, and breaking.

1411 a.S. Juilra passes away. Ilarél is reminded of her experiences in Nybelmar, and this among the other deaths of age that Ilarél sees during her time in human lands eats away at her.

1418 a.S. Ilarél and Moroes fall in love. They never marry, but from now on are united in all that they do.

1421-1426 a.S. Ilarél and Moroes, along with a group of other Ximaxian researchers, travel to the Venlaken Enclave to study it. Moroes leaves a steward behind in his stead while traveling. They return to Ximax having gone no further past the swamp surrounding the Enclave.

1441 a.S. War between Royalists and Helcrah begins. Moroes and his lands are summoned to war, as Xaramon fights on the side of Helcrah (with the exception of Ximax, which remains neutral) . Ilarél joins his army.

1479 a.S. Royalists march on Xaramon. Moroes is killed in the fighting, leaving Ilarél devastated. She continues fighting, but only out of vengeance.

1480 a.S. Explosion at Ximax Academy. The Academy is left safe, but the city around it is destroyed. Royalists march on the city and Ximax surrenders.

1480 a.S. Ilarél does not stay at Ximax to help with the reconstruction, as she is an enemy of the occupying Royalists. She instead decides to finally return to her people in the Rhéneu'lón, but she finds no comfort there. Her time away from her kin has left her an outsider, and she realizes that she is no longer Kaýrrhem in anything but body. She leaves after a year.

1482-1568 a.S. Ilarél travels to the Krean and Marmarran lands to study their forms of magic, as research and knowledge is one place where she still finds some comfort.

1558-1660 a.S. Ilarél returns to the Santharian Kingdom. During the 102 years that pass, Ilarél wanders across the whole of the Sarvonian continent, traveling everywhere from the dark black monuments of Thalambath to the cold streets of Remusiat. She is in the north during the time of the Fifth Orcish War against Remusia, but does not assist in the fighting.

1661-1669 a.S. Ilarél returns to Ximax and chooses to re-enter it. She finds Ximax is a life that is also behind her, but she stays for a time to immerse herself in study. She begins learning the principles of the human understanding of Xeuá magic, though she chooses not to give up her skills in the water school to engage in it fully. She eventually leaves and begins to travel back south to Strata with the intent of taking a ship to explore the lands of Aeruillin.

1669-Present a.S. Ilarél discovers she has mage grabber disease from her centuries of overuse of magic. She ends up meeting Denrykmar Shialt-eck-Gorrin during her journey south, and helps defend him against unknown assailants. She joins with his quest to save his niece, Nayriss, though her reasons are her own. The two go to Strata and employ under the crime lord Shyrec, who has information that they seek. Ilarél takes the alias Drustai during this time to mask her identity. She later meets and agrees to help Denrykmar's brother, Altario Shialt-eck-Gorrin, who arrives sometime after Denrykmar vanishes.

The two, along with Altario's companions, travel to Thalambath to fulfill a quest from Shyrec in order to learn where Denrykmar went. During their time in the city, they get caught up in the city's dangerous politics and are separated. Unable to find Altario and unable to stay in the city, Ilarél stows aboard a ship heading north to Varcopas, knowing that he is traveling north.

[reserved]

All right, this is good for me. I'd give you a first approval, but I'm going to ask Mina to take a look at you before doing that, to see if there's nothing wrong with the magic part of the CD :)

Simonne

You'll have my approval as well once Mina approves the magic. ;)

~drags Mina to the CD forum by her hair~ >.>

All right, I've received Mina's reply:

Well anyway, I've just looked at the magic section.  It's slightly controversial theoretically, from my point of view, as expected. But the only thing I would say is likely not okay would the ability to turn herself into a liquid form.  Marvin and I both think that such a radical change to a living being is likely to kill it. 

But that depends on what exactly is meant by taking on a liquid form too.  On the site, we have Phase Shift (might be slightly outdated), and Riding the Wind, both of which cause different aspects of Wind to exert a very strong influence over the mage's car'all.  But this is perhaps as far as it is possible to safely go; allowing all of Wind to exert its influence so greatly, ie. turning the mage into a 'wind-like' form, would likely be fatal. 

So it depends on what Fox really meant; becoming water or something extremely water-like is probably not okay, but there should be lesser degrees of this which should be fine.

I'll simply remove that ability, then. I never planned on using it but figured it'd actually be a more common ability for regular Water Magi than the other stuff. So I'll just take it out.

And now done.

All right, that was the only problem that Mina had, and both Vesk and I said we'd give an approval, so I already put up the sign of the second approval. I'm sure Vesk doesn't mind ;)

Not at all. ;)

Fastest mage I have *ever* seen approved. Congrats on another well done ^.^

Brought up at your request darlin! :heart:

Placed the pencil up for you as well. Please return the exclamation mark back up when you finish with the edits darling.

Okay. Let's see how this goes. Ready for comments. Nearly everything got an update (especially history), so this will probably need a full dual-approval instead of the single approval most updates need.


The SWs are the most delicate obviously, and I'm open to suggestions on more weaknesses if needed.

Hey there Drustai! Looks like an excellent CD! Of course, I have nothing to say about your magic as you far surpass me in magic knowledge so I'll assume that is ok... ;)

I did wonder about something else, however...how is it that if Drustai never really received any formal melee combat training, that she is skilled in the use of a flanged mace and a kris? If all she ever really knew was hunting skills and perhaps basic combat, and now does not use them, where the mace and kris training come from? And, aren't combined magic and melee skills restricted?

They are 'discouraged' but workable, and I'll be damned if I don't have it as a strength when the character's race is built and socially bred for it, and with so many years of combat experience even before magical training ever took place.


About the weapons... first, the kris isn't used generally as a weapon, it's mostly for ceremonial and practical purposes. She wouldn't be really any better with it than any other person.

Second, the mace, is a simple weapon, and you don't need to receive 'formal' training to know how to use one--it's fairly simple, just swing it like a bat and make sure that you try and hit with the 'flange' to maximize force. Combined with practice allows pretty good use. Remember, a large part of formal training is *not* in the swing or weapon use (except in Fencing and other 'finesse' dueling weaponry). It's in general combat skills like awareness, reflexes, tactics, and strength and endurance training. Especially with a mace, which is essentially a metal club, clubs being the most basic weapon available. Ogres don't have formal training, and ogres use clubs. ;)

I've cut the majority of melee out of the strengths, per discussions on IRC. I have left in her physical strength as she is a dark elf, and I've left in a 'if she's caught in melee' paragraph in the fighting styles to describe how she would act in such a situation, but in terms of general ability she is no better than a stronger and more hardlined peasant (IE, she's better than the average peasant, but ranks about equal to a stronger peasant who and has been in enough fights to not lose his cool and be able to think rationally. So that'd be under the town militia in ability, but above a cowardly farmer boy who's never been in a fight in his life).

I hope that is acceptable now. I honestly cannot go any lower than that based on her race, age, and background, and I don't know what else I can do if it is still considered too much. Like I have said before, if that's still believed to be unbalanced, then I can and will add more weaknesses. But I can't lower it any further.

I think you balance out better now. You still list the mace and kris as weapons, but those are merely for swinging blindly at people with no special training in their use I suppose.

Other than that, I would say the CD looks balanced. I commend you for not using any kind of physical weakness as I agree that not every mage needs to be physically handicapped in some way. A strong, agile mage is nice to see.

A small thing about your zealotry - I would list this as a strength as well as a weakness. I think being zealous about something is good to have and perhaps gives you an "edge" in a fight as you know and believe you are fighting for a worthy cause, at least to you. For example, my own dark elf has a powerful faith in Coor and is quite zealous in the belief of darkness and murder. Of course, assassinating people is also listed as a weakness as she has no honor in the law of the common man and only follows what she believes Coor to tell her. So the entire faith/zealous/murder philosophy became a strength and weakness.

Just a quick reminder, many things can be listed solely as a strength or a weakness. Many strengths have limitations such as: "An archer might be a fabulous shot while on foot. But is absolutely horrible from horseback with the exact same weapon. Is this a weakness? No it is more a limitation of a strength. It is still a strength but less so overall as there are times it is inhibited." Hope that makes some sense and Keeps you rolling Drustai.

'Swinging blindly' would be a wrong way to put it... she is familiar with the weapons and of combat in general. As said, she isn't as weak as the common peasant that has never been in a fight in his life and flops around in the dark, she just has no special training and her previous skills have waned. In other words, she's very rusty, so makes stupid mistakes and is not familiar with it as she was a century before, but she is not new to combat.


I edited it in the weakness to note that it *can* help, but the reason it's a weakness is because this zealotry isn't just against those who really deserve it. If someone killed her friend, she'd kill their friend, even if their friend has done nothing wrong, just to prove the point.

Thank you for explaining that, Drustai.  :thumbup: Makes sense. I like this CD and can't wait to see her in a story. Looks good to me! I believe an approval is not far now.  :D

Looks fine to me now. Just be careful how you play her weaknesses :) I trust you'll play it balanced though :)

~Second Approval~ Rearchived for you darlin.

Brought up for some more luv. Have fun darlin'!

Thanks. :)

Helped and done

Bringing this up for updates.

Changed tribe as I didn't feel the dark elf backstory was working. The character as she is supposed to be really needs to fall, to have something to lose, rather than coming already from a dark background. Therefore, all of the earlier history has been completely redone and expanded.

Appearance and Personality sections have also been modified, though not as much. Strengths and Weaknesses have undergone changes, as has the Magic and equipment sections. Magic changes mostly because the original Magic section as it was approved I later found out to be incorrect despite Mina's approval by Word of God (Arti), so I had to come up with new ideas for the same abilities.


... hell, pretty much everything has been updated. So I guess I'll be needing two approvals instead of one.


Notable things to mention: I've tried to come up with a reason to keep a sort of dark-elvish appearance. I'm not sure if it works. I'm going under the assumption that elves who essentially fall from the positive side evolve into dark elves, which is backed up by how all the dark elf tribes appeared (all splintered off from normal wood elf tribes and changed appearances even though they might not live in any more 'dark' of an area than their fore bearers), I'm just not sure if such changes can happen over the course of a single lifetime (seems likely to me though, for an elf, considering how spiritual and linked to nature they are, how their features 'reflect nature', so if one is darker, it seems to me they would their reflection would be darker).

Spell scrolls: Scrolls do exist, as written on site, and I've used them in my CD. I'm not sure if they count as an enchanted item or not, though.

I bumped her back up to level 7, halfway in-between her original level and the level I made her last time I updated. I've expanded on weaknesses, but they're all mental weaknesses so I'm not sure how much they count.

I kind of doubt the idea of an elf entirely changing the hue of his/her skin, but this is Santharia, and you have an interesting perspective. So, as a result, I don't really see any problem with that feature.

Just my two Sans.

Also, from another peremptory glance, I can see some pretty thick blocks of text in her appearance, personality, and background. But also, i think it's fantastic the way you organized her history; Very cohesive, useful for quick reference to certain parts of her character, and time-lines are always nice.

In your S&W's, it would help a lot if you explained the practical benefits or problems with each. You explain them intimately, but don't give a clear picture of what they do to her, or give them a specific magnitude. Edit: But that mainly applies to her mental weaknesses, so I hope I didn't confuse you, because most of her strengths are okay, at least.

I get the idea mainly from the way LotR elves seem to be. At least in the movies (no idea if it's the same in the books), Arwen physically changes after resolving to stay behind. Her skin does go cold, and she loses her immortality (I believe she physically becomes human in both the movies and the books). Tolkien elves also physically age as a result of stress, rather than as part of a life cycle.

In Santharia, our elves always have light on their faces as a result of reflecting nature, and their deaths are a spiritiual event where they rapidly begin to age only after they consign themselves to death. There is also a very clear image of how the Ifer'hem tribe physically changed after they began devoting themselves to the element of fire. So there is evidence of physical changing, it just isn't clear if this change can happen within a single individual over the course of one lifetime. Elves reflect their soul, and the harmony of nature, in their outer appearances, due to their half spiritual nature, which is why I chose to go with that idea.


Thanks for the comments.

I'm sorry if I worded it wrong. I meant that I doubted such a thing could happen in a single generation. Great CD you've got there.

I miss the dark elf concept...

Oh well. Revisions are fine by me. As always, who am I to find issues with your magic section, dear Dru?

First re-approval! :nod:

And if Azhira has no problem with your magic section, I'm happy enough with that as well. I read through the rest of it, and didn't see anything that can stop me giving you a second re-approval!

Wow, that was faster and with less complications than I thought.

:P


Thanks!

Minor Quibble that has nothing to do with your CD, just my own personal pet peeves with CDs I'll be reading from time to time.  Your signature.  Did you know.... that if you go to to your first post (the actual CD) and click on the title, you can then C&P the HTTP address into your Signature.  This way the link will lead to that post rather than to the end of the thread where you still need to go rooting through the different pages to find it.

Feel free to completely ignore me... has nothing to do with your wonderful CD.  Tis only me being lazy in the knowledge that I shall need to reference this CD often in the next few months. :P

Done.

Moving to the Archives.

Moving out of the Archives.

We shall now call this a Yoyo CD.  Down then up, then down then up.... :P

I blame you! You're the one that made me decide to add a new weakness. ;)

Thanks for bringing it up. :)

Done with updates.

Most significant changes were an addition of more history and a revamping of dates (pushing the Ximax training back and then detailing out the 200 years between then and now), and an alteration of her strengths/weaknesses.

As a result of some talks with Altario, I have added a very major weakness, Mage Grabber Disease. This essentially limits her most powerful strength quite severely, so I also bumped her level back up to 8. Despite being level 8, however, she can pretty much not cast Sphere 3 spells, I chose to make her level 8 due to show A) the amount of time she has had to train and it shows she was once very powerful, and B) so that she can have excellent theoretical knowledge even if she can't actually use those spells anymore. Even her Sphere 1 and 2 spells are more difficult to cast. This also has the effect of making her very wary on casting any magic at all.

As a result, I have added the addition of her being good at archery. I had taken this out before due to her high level, but now that her magic strength has essentially been cut in half or more, I figured it would be balanced to add it, considering her long age and other weaknesses.


Oh, and I also added even more pictures. <.< Mostly 3D art renders this time.

Longest. Entry. Ever.  :shocked:

I was reading the history and was totally engrossed in the various ups and downs of Drustai. I often simply skim CD history (shocking!) but I like Dru. She has to be the most widely traveled character I've ever seen.


This network of magi just screams Everbright Cult.  :evil: The cult has their fair share of necromancers...strictly secret, of course, but not all of them. I would say some Ximaxian administrators are cult members, too. They all participate in covering it up. Someday I'll get that entry written.


I'm disappointed Dru never thought to visit Osthemangar. The ancient orcen and dark elven ruins scattered about there would surely hold many arcane secrets waiting to be rediscovered. Mostly temples to Coor for the elves. The orcs slew their gods, according to myth, so their ruins would likely hold ancient nature type magic (not druid).

Anyway, it's about time you weaken ol' Drustai. Mage Grabber...ouch. You couldn't have chosen a worse weakness, I must say. Unless you take Mist taint into account. That will mess you up and drive you to talk to inanimate objects like your staff. And make you think(?) you are possessed by a demon. Loony!  :P

I now bestow my second first re-approval!

Haha, yeah, I was giddy when I saw I had crossed over into two-page CD land.

And thanks. Older elven characters really have tons of history you have to account for. Even with all of this, I still mostly just summarized a good 100-150 years worth of it.



It could have been. Though she would have avoided the orcs. She hates them. :P


Who says she didn't? ;)

As I said, I summarized that section. There's a chance she visited Osthemangar, and I might write something about it eventually. Possibly before this goes down to the archives again. :)


Heh. Yeah. I basically told Alt that I was a bit worried about Dru's strength in Destiny. He suggested finding a way to semi-permanently limit her powers. So I figured adding Mage Grabber, which also finally gives her a real reason why she's helping Denrykmar/Altario (I couldn't really think of one prior to that) would fix that. Plus, it's a major character development piece.

Thanks for the re-approval. :)

Added mention of the Everbright Cult.

I started doing an Osthemangar section but decided against it. I'll leave that as a future destination she might attempt immediately after Destiny.

The Everbright Cult is mostly humans and Volkek-Oshra. Very few elves are members, or even associated with them. The reverence of Anilya contradicts the elven reverence of Foiros. Clearly, the cult has many enemies among the religious body. Clerics of the fire deities especially hate Anilya's memory. However, the cult does have half-elves and even half-orcs, too. As for Anilya, it is not known what race she was. Most agree she was human/orc, but that is only a compromise agreement made long ago so neither humans nor orcs could claim her one of their own exclusively. The cult has practicing necromancers and demonologists as members (My Malexia, Dek's Phlegah and my dev side researcher Vekarn being a few of them). Although most members are fire magi, a few are members of other elemental schools like water. The general dogma is the practice of magic in destructive, powerful or manipulating ways.

Okay. I expanded and fleshed out the mention a bit. You can now count Dru in that list of members. :)

Sorry to butt in here but I just wanted to say that though I haven't seen many CD's, I can honestly say this is easily the best and most interesting CD I have ever seen and will probably be for a long time. Just incredible!

Btw, where'd you get those amazing renders from?

Thank you for the compliments, Thaelel.


As for the renders, like the drawings, I did them myself. I use a program called DAZ 3D Studio, which is free, though you have to pay for many of the various models/textures/props/etc that you can download for it.

Right then, I've read and re-read it, I don't have any problems with it Drustai. You can remove your editing colours and text and after Alt/Kali have changed your title, we'll get it rearchived for you! Oh, and here's a 2nd re-approval for you!

Dek

Color removed!

:)

Thanks!

Re archived. :)

Re-unarchived :)

Thanks Alt. :)

Yoyo CD goes up again.