Aether Shanties RP (PM if interested/Started)

Sehnsucht Engel

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Apr 18, 2009
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"I hope I loaded my gun; I know I'm loaded with rum
My fear is low but I ought to know that the world is full of scum
"​
Intro
The year is 2150. The world is a wilderness, where man-eating sabre-tooths and giant lions prowl. Emperor Victor III follows in his father's footsteps and rules the world from the palace in Yellowstone Park. The Neovictorians huddle in their grim, overcrowded cities, kept in check by police automata, and living in fear of the Change Cage. Outside the city walls, the free peoples dwell - the nomadic Neobedouin in their gaudy caravans, pulled by steam-trucks and mastodons; and the Skyfolk, floating high above it all in their flying cities. But the most free people of them all - risking the guns of the Imperial Air Navy for the chance of plunder - are the Airship Pirates!

Cultures
There are three main cultures in the North America of 2150 - the Neobedouin, the Neovictorians and the Skyfolk. No doubt there are other cultures hidden away in remote places, and there are, of course, countless other cultures in other continents and time periods, but these are the three from which characters come in this RP. There are also a couple of "subcultures", both of which arise within Neovictorian society - the automata and the misbegotten.

<spoiler=Cultures><spoiler=Neobeduin>The Neobedouin are a nomadic tribal people. They live in huge brightly decorated caravans, often two or three stories tall, pulled by giant diesel semicabs, steam-trucks, and massive beasts such as mammoths and indrikki. They also ride home-made off-road vehicles, horses and camelops. They are a freedom-loving people, determined to stay out of the claustrophobic Imperial cities and prepared to face the dangers of the wilderness to do so. Each tribe has a "range" which they consider home, covering thousands of square miles. Groups will often split off from this range and travel across country into the territories of other tribes, for trade, and to keep the social links between the different tribes from dying. Though each tribe has its own customs, they have certain things in common; a love of fire, music, dance and story-telling; strong family bonds; a martial art known as beast dancing; and an intense dislike of the Emperor Victor III and his repressive regime. They are masters of wilderness lore and consummate hunters, in tune with the land through which they wander. Many have contacts with the sky cities, trading with each other for things they each need - often food and natural resources from the Neobedouin are traded with finished technological goods and medicines from the Skyloft. A few Neobedouin risk remaining in one place in hidden settlements - these may be involved in logging, farming, drilling for oil, or engaged in other trades that are useful to their people but not possible with a nomadic lifestyle. The wanderings of a tribe will usually bring them back to these places at least once a year, which gives them an excuse (as if they really need one!) for a big festival.


Motivation
There are a number of reasons a Neobedouin may become an airship pirate; perhaps your family or tribe has been wiped out by the Imperial Air Navy and you want revenge; maybe you once traveled on a Skyloft airship and fell in love with the freedom of the air; maybe you have been cast out of your tribe (perhaps unjustly) for some transgression such as murder.

Suitable Backgrounds
Artist, Beast Dancer, Gadgeteer, Hunter, Musician, Outrider, Shaman, Showman/woman, Trader.

On names
First Names: Neobedouin tend to have a mixture of modern US names and the names of animals (particularly for men) and plants (particularly for women), often together.
Last Names: A Neobedouin's last name will generally be the name of his or her tribe; as such, they will only be used when interacting with other tribes, such as when visiting a sky city or Helium City. Tribes tend to be called after an area in which they range, but may also be an animal or plant they particularly revere.
<spoiler=Neovictorians>Neovictorians live in the squalid, overcrowded Change Cage cities ruled by the Emperor Victor III. This oppressive environment is all they have ever known, and they are taught from birth that beyond the city walls lies an implacably hostile wilderness, where survival for a human being can be measured in days at best due to the ferocious man-eating beasts which prowl outside. There are three major Neovictorian cities in North America - Old Borealis in the cold north of the continent, Desolation in the south-western deserts, and Everglade in the subtropical south-eastern swamps. In Neovictorian society, conformity is everything. Any new idea disapproved of by the government, or any person showing signs of rebelling against the status quo, is thrown into the Change Cage, a massive towering edifice at the center of the city, from which escape is said to be impossible. The lower classes are expected to return to their home "block" at night, and the streets are patrolled by the automaton "Peelers", ruthless mechanical policemen on the lookout for anyone breaking the curfew. How a person lives in such a city will very much depend on their class.

Class
There are three classes. The low class, the servant class and the upper class.

Low Class
If you are unfortunate enough to be born into the lower class (and the vast majority are), your lot will be to live in the squalid, overcrowded slums, toil long hours in a bleak factory, and maybe spend your meager earnings on gin to lighten your thankless, futile life.

Motivation
Why would a lower class Neovictorian become an airship pirate? Why wouldn't you? There's really not much joy to be had in the slums. How you would get out is a different matter - but the ultimate punishment for many deeds (not including "change crimes") is to be banished outside the city walls. If you survive the wild beasts long enough, you may well be rescued and taken in by Neobedouins or Skyfolk, and after that, well, everyone has to make a living.

Suitable Backgrounds:
Agitator, Criminal, Factory Worker, Gadgeteer, Inventor, Prostitute

Servant Class
Due to the Emperor Victor III's population control policies, families are only allowed to have two children - further offspring are taken away at birth to be brought up in the workhouse, where they are trained as the servant class. The women will become servants to the upper classes, cooking and cleaning, serving at table, etc. Most men will become sailors in the Imperial Air Navy (IAN), the only Neovictorians ever allowed outside the city walls, and sworn to secrecy about what is really out there on pain of death. (A few men may become butlers or manservants, but serving the rich is mostly women's work). The servant class are taught to look down on the lower class and cherish their "privileges".

Motivation
Why would a servant class Neovictorian become an airship pirate? If you're a man, chances are you've worked as crew on an IAN ship and seen what the world's really like. Since you have the skills, better the free life of a pirate than the harsh discipline of being a sailor in the Imperial Air Navy. Wait until your vessel calls in at a sky city for resupply, and jump ship. If you're a woman of the servant class you have less freedom but, living in an upper class household, you'll have heard the rumors of the Free People who live beyond the walls. Maybe you stow away on an IAN ship with the help of a friendly sailor, run away with an upper class lover, or just climb over the wall one night with a stolen shotgun and a bagful of attitude.

Suitable Backgrounds
Agitator, Air Marine, Air Sailor, Chuno Ggun, Criminal, Gadgeteer, Inventor, Prostitute, Servant.

Upper Class
The upper classes are the nobles who run the cities, having been granted areas of the city to rule on behalf of the Emperor. They own the factories from which they get their income, and live in huge mansions set in extensive parkland, walled off from the slums. They are often unaware of the depths of squalor in which the lower classes live, being entirely cut off from any contact with them. The men tend to be college educated, while the women will be lucky to have been to a girl's academy to learn needlework, household management and deportment. Upper class women are expected to do little except look decorative and produce an heir for their husband. Life is often little more than a round of balls and soirees, which many see, despite their wealth and privilege, as a "gilded cage."

Motivation
It's a life of luxury in the upper class, but there's more to life than luxury. Maybe you're an IAN officer who's been dismissed for one reason or another, or perhaps you saw the way the Free Peoples are living and decided that's the life for you. Or maybe you spend your days wandering your father's extensive estates in a state of terminal boredom. The smugglers who bring you occasional contraband meat supplies know ways in an out of the place that the Peelers haven't found - maybe it's time to escape.

Suitable Backgrounds
Academic, Administrator, Agitator, Air Navy Officer, Artist, Chuno Ggun, Clergyman, Criminal, Dilettante, Doctor, Inventor, Marine Commander, Vigilante, Writer.

<spoiler=Automaton>Built in the factories of the Neovictorian cities, automata are by definition below even the lower class. More-or-less humanoid robots of brass and wood (sometimes overlaid with realistic pseudoskin), their clockwork is animated by the vat-grown "motivating essence" that flows within their guttapercha veins. There are numerous models: autocrats, who specialize in record-keeping and can memorize and collate huge numbers of facts; drones, who work in the parts of a factory too dangerous for humans; dolls, who provide companionship and sexual favors for the upper classes; gangers, who specialize in loading heavy cargoes on the Neovictorian docks; Peelers of the Imperial Constabulary, who patrol the streets and enforce the law; and servitors who act as servants for the upper classes. (There are other types, such as non-humanoid automaton cabs, cargo carriers, worm-like sewer-cleaners and the like, but those listed are suitable as PCs). Herr Drosselmeyer, who created the first automata, wrought better than he knew; the biologically-grown motivating essence has imbued the automata with self-awareness. While most automata pretend a robot-like servility because they will be put in the Change Cage if they show any signs of exceeding their design parameters, some few "go rogue" and escape the Neovictorian cities for a life of freedom. The Neovictorians put this down to malfunctions or bad programming, little realizing that all automata have the capacity to revolt. Note that, within all Neovictorian cities, and in some Skyloft cities, automata are considered machines rather than people, and have no rights. Other Skyloft cities and all Neobedouin tribes recognize them as people with all the rights and responsibilities which go with that recognition.

Motivation
All your short life you have taken orders, followed the same routines day after day, but something has changed and now you've had enough. Maybe it was an act of cruelty on the part of a human, or maybe an act of kindness when a human recognized you as a person and not a machine. Whatever triggered your revolt, you are determined to live free. You have somehow escaped your home city, and will never go back - as long as you're earning enough to pay for repairs and the occasional oil change, you'll be fine.

Suitable Backgrounds
Agitator, Autocrat, Criminal, Factory Worker (Drone), Ganger, Peeler, Prostitute (Doll), Servant (Servitor).

On names
Automatons have a first name similar to those for the lower class, followed by a number: Ada-22, Morris-8, and so on. Automatons who have escaped the Neovictorian cities will sometimes make their names more exotic by translating their number into a foreign language; Ada Vingt-deux, Morris Acht.
<spoiler=Misbegotten>Around the factories of the Neovictorian cities are vast pools and storage ponds of noxious chemicals which the Emperor Victor III won't let out of the cities to pollute the "pristine" wilderness. These toxins have seeped into the groundwater over the years, causing mutations in the children of the lower (and occasionally upper) classes. These misbegotten (as they are officially known by the Imperial government) have one or more mutations, ranging from the purely cosmetic (no chin, purple skin) to the actively useful (armored skin, claws). The government tries to classify these misbegotten into a limited number of specific types and isolate them in their own blocks within the city in order to prevent interbreeding and the possibility of human evolution; there they are treated as little better than automata and denied most of the few rights that the lower classes "enjoy". They are sterilized at puberty to prevent them passing on their characteristics and most are never allowed out of their home blocks, being provided menial work in their own homes, such as making pins, sewing mail bags, etc. Theirs is indeed a joyless existence. A "lucky" few who have serious combat abilities due to their mutations are recruited into the Chuno Ggun, where they are used as "terror troops" against escaping rebels and Neobedouin settlements.

Motivation
Almost anything is better than the life of a misbegotten in a Neovictorian city, but escaping from your block is going to be a major undertaking as you know little of the world outside the few streets you call home, and your inability to blend in with normal humans makes sneaking about very difficult. Only the most strong-willed make it to the outside world, and once there you find prejudice is still rife, due to your odd appearance. Some will come to accept you for who you are rather than what you look like, and pirates are more tolerant of life's misfits than most. If you were a member of the Chuno Ggun, it's much easier to turn renegade, but you know your old organization will not rest until it has hunted you down.

Suitable Backgrounds
Agitator, Chuno Ggun, Criminal, Factory Worker, Prostitute.

On names
Misbegotten often have what seem to be insulting nicknames attached to their normal name, but those who have escaped from the Change Cage cities wear these as a badge of pride, as though challenging anyone to find a problem with their mutations. Such names might include: Blue Anka, Fish-Eyed Betty, Lurching Rupert, etc.

<spoiler=Skyfolk>In the sky above North America, and built around remote mountaintops, are the cities collectively known as the Skyloft. Most are suspended beneath great clusters of helium gasbags, some floating freely, others tethered to mountain peaks but able to cut themselves loose in an emergency; others have extended down from their sky-living ways to colonize the tops of mountains, high above the dangerous beasts of the lowlands. The Skyfolk are as varied as the cities in which they live, for no two cities have the same form of government, the same ideals, the same beliefs. Some sky cities are capitalist, some communist, some socialist; there are matriarchies, slave cities and cities of escaped slaves; democracies, autocracies and technocracies; cities that worship God, Allah, or the Sky Mother; atheist cities that burn believers at the stake. Yet whatever their religious and political beliefs, they share a common interest in technological progress - many Skyfolk are knowledgeable on scientific subjects, and children are encouraged to tinker, build, and innovate from an early age. Strange gadgets and unlikely-looking flying machines are a feature of the sky cities. The various sky cities also have an alliance against the Emperor Victor III, who would destroy them if he could. The Skyfolk grow up in the high air, immune to vertigo, at home in airships and flying machines from an early age. Whatever their beliefs, and no matter how much they disapprove of the beliefs of other sky cities, they tend to respect their differences and save their enmity for the Empire, which would have all live in Neovictorian squalor. The sky cities trade with each other and with their groundbound allies, the Neobedouin.

Motivation
You have grown up in the freedom of the high airs. But there's more to life than the closed-in culture of your own sky city, and you want to see them all. Maybe the city you grew up in has laws or customs of which you disapprove, or which you found oppressive. Maybe you just loved the romantic ideal of the pirate life, having grown up on Tales of the Airship Pirates and other such penny dreadfuls. Maybe you want to free the Neovictorians from their oppressive regime. With your undoubted skills in the sky, you'll always be welcome aboard an airship.

Suitable Backgrounds
Academic, Administrator, Air Marine, Air Sailor, Air Navy Officer, Artist, Criminal, Dilettante, Doctor, Gadgeteer, Inventor, Marine Commander, Mercenary, Musician, Pirate/Privateer, Prostitute, Trader, Showman/woman, Writer.

On names
Skyfolk tend to have modern US names followed by surnames associated with the sky - clouds, birds, weather, etc.
Equipment
The technology of the world is post-apocalyptic and steampunk. There's a few pages on what kind of technology and weapons that exist, in the book, but as long as you keep the setting in mind when making a character and chosing their equipment, I will probably accept it. Different cultures would have different kind of technology available to them.

Character Sheet
<spoiler=Character sheet>
Name: (What your character is called.)

Age: (How old are you? Age of responsibility varies from culture to culture, with people being considered adult around 14 in Neobedouin cultures, and not until 21 in the Neovictorian cities (although they can marry at 14 and go to work as infants). In the Skyloft it varies from city to city, and automatons may only be one or two years old. It is assumed that beginning characters will be in the 16-25 year range. It's said that few pirates are older than 25 - by that age they're either dead, or have amassed enough loot to retire to a less dangerous life.)

Gender: (Female/male)

Culture: (Chose one from the five I've posted)
Background: (Chose one of the suitable backgrounds)
Ship: (What ship your character works on. The Mermaid or HMS invincible. I want characters on both ships.)

Appearance: (Decide what your character looks like. A picture is fine, but it should be as a supplement to the written description.)

Personality: (What is your character like?)

Biography: (Where you come from, why you became a pirate, family, friends and the like. It can be important in showing why your character is who they are.)

Airships
In 2150, airships rule supreme. In a world where the ground is dangerous, space for runways at a premium and factories almost non-existent, airships - which can be largely hand-crafted and are relatively easy to repair - are the vehicle of choice. Most airships conform to the same pattern - a ship-like wooden hull strung beneath a streamlined cylindrical gasbag. Some of the bigger airships have rigid hulls, but most are blimps, their gas-bags kept in shape by gas pressure. Most have individual gas cells within, so that a puncture does not lead to the loss of all lifting gas, and many have outer skins made of Calgorite, a rubber-like material which is "self-sealing", naturally expanding and bonding together to close small punctures such as those caused by bullets. Most airships are lifted by helium, much safer than inflammable hydrogen (though the latter is cheaper). They are usually propelled by either steam engines (fueled with easily obtainable wood or more expensive but more efficient coal), or by diesel or gasoline engines. Many augment their engines with sails, extending their range as long as the winds are blowing in the right direction. Some of the more experimental ships augment their lift with steam and/or hot smoke from steam engines, or hot exhaust fumes from diesel engines.


<spoiler=Airships><spoiler=Skyloft Airships>In the Skyloft, no two airships are alike. Though there are shipyards which produce standard designs, owners of airships take pride in customizing their craft and making "improvements", whether it be to speed, lift capacity, weapons capability or interior luxury. Some insist on building their own airships from scratch. Others will buy a standard ship from one of the big shipbuilding companies of Isla Aether and tinker with it, so that within six months a sleek design such as Jervis & Bottingly's popular "Tigerfish" model is bristling with extra engines, gun ports, sails, grappling-hook launchers and the like, and is almost unrecognizable to the uninitiated.
<spoiler=The Imperial Air Navy's Airships>The Neovictorians' airships are made in factories to a number of tried and tested designs. They tend to be sleek and efficient and lack the numerous added features and strange customizations that characterize a Skyloft airship. Only the Imperial Air Navy and the Chuno Ggun operate airships for the Neovictorians, as no-one outside the military (with the exception of the occasional bureaucrat) is allowed to travel. Discipline aboard an IAN ship is harsh, and cleanliness and neatness drummed into the sailors with severe punishments for non-compliance. IAN airships are always gleaming, their decks scrubbed constantly, their paintwork touched up regularly. The officers and sailors of the IAN see Skyloft airships as messy and inefficient and often underestimate their capabilities in combat. Conversely, the Skyfolk describe the Imperial Air Navy as "all scrub and no scrap", though they are careful to avoid a broadside from an Imperial Frigate, which is more than most Skyloft airships can cope with.
<spoiler=Neobeduin vehicles and beasts>The Neobedouin make extensive use of land vehicles and beasts of burden in their wanderings. They are a motley mixture of vehicles, many of them cobbled together from parts of pre-apocalypse vehicles, mixed with technology traded from the Skyloft. The larger vehicles are used for pulling the tribes' brightly painted caravan homes - these include steam-trucks, ancient and much-repaired diesel trucks and massive beasts of burden such as mammoths, mastodons and the truly gigantic indrikki. Smaller carts and caravans will be pulled by horses, and loads might also be carried on vans, trucks, mules and camelops. Outriders who escort the caravans and keep a look out for wild predators will usually ride on either horses or hogtrikes. The Neobedouin on the whole have a much less romantic view of their vehicles than the Skyloft do with their airships, seeing them as necessary tools rather than an end in themselves, though individual Neobedouins may have a different attitude.
<spoiler=Railroads>A network of railroads crosses the continent between the Neovictorian cities, and out to various coal and mineral mines. Trains are few and far between, being used mostly to transport important upper class passengers between Desolation, Everglade and Old Borealis, and workers form one mine to another. The trains are completely enclosed so that the people within cannot see out - this is partly to keep them safe from attack by airships or tribesmen, but mostly to stop those within getting a glimpse of the outside world.
Note: There's a lot more information and lore than I've posted here, but I think this should be enough to create a character. This isn't supposed to be a realistic roleplay. Feel free to ask questions.

<spoiler=Maps>


The Mermaid
The Mermaid is a customized airship of the barracuda class. The barracuda is often used by merchants and traders, its hull can also easily be customized as a heavily armed pirate or privateer ship. It is used by some of the larger pirate and mercenary combines, being able to outmaneuver an IAN frigate and prey on smaller ships. It's got twentyfive large cannons, improved armor, a lightning gun, grappling hook, several standard cabins and a cargo hold. It tries to maintain a cover as a merchant ship, in those ports and cities where pirates aren't welcome. There are 80 pirates in the crew.
(Individuals of all the cultures can be members on this ship.)


The HMS Invincible
The Invincible is representative of the most commonly used patrol ships of the IAN. With better firepower than most pirate ships, and plenty of space for air marines, it is a formidable vessel. It's got forty large cannons, a couple of grappling hooks, a luxurious cabin for the admiral, a few standard cabins and a sick bay. It's got a crew of 150 men.
(It's preferable with Neovictorians, Automatons or Misbegotten on this ship. Unless you can motivate it in a really good way, there won't be skyfolk or neobeduins among the crew.)
 

Sehnsucht Engel

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Suitable Backgrounds
<spoiler=Backgrounds><spoiler=Academic>You have studied an academic subject to a high level. If you've studied in a Neovictorian city (all three Imperial cities in North America have colleges), you're likely to have a somewhat limited view of the world as the textbooks have been rewritten to the Emperor's viewpoint and anyone who does anything too progressive ends up in the Change Cage. Only the larger sky cities such as Isla Aether have a university, but academic freedom is highly valued. You may have fled a Neovictorian city to take to the skies, or perhaps you are studying the other pirates for your doctorate!
<spoiler=Administrator>You may have spent your days shuffling paperwork, dealing with minor matters of stock or population control, or maybe you were in charge of huge numbers of people and kept the economy of an entire city running smoothly. Once aboard a pirate airship, you may find yourself in charge of the ship's stores, or in command of its men, depending on previous experience.
<spoiler=Agitator>Agitators are subversives, hell-bent on exposing the hypocrisy and misinformation upon which Neovictorian society is based. Most agitators work alone for the most part - writing inflammatory tracts, scrawling irreverent graffiti on the block walls, sabotaging polite society, or throwing a spanner into the factory works. Occasionally agitators do work together, to produce propaganda or to otherwise spread their agenda of sedition - but when they do, they risk infiltration by the Chuno Ggun. So agitators mostly avoid revealing too much about themselves or inquiring too closely of their fellow revolutionaries. Perhaps you were beginning to be suspected, perhaps you had just had enough of your dismal home, but now you've exchanged the stifling oppression of the Change Cage city for the freedom of the skies.
<spoiler=Air Marine>You were a soldier who fought for your city. When your navy needed ground forces, it was you who got sent in on the front line. You may have been assigned to a particular airship, or may have been stationed at a ground base or in your home city, ready to be assigned transport to wherever you were needed. Maybe you have served your term, and now put your combat skills to the use of your fellow pirates, or maybe you have deserted to escape the harsh discipline of the marines.
<spoiler=Air Sailor>You served as crew on an airship. This may have been an Imperial Air Navy ship, an airship belonging to a sky city's navy, a merchant vessel, or even another pirate ship. Perhaps you jumped ship to escape harsh discipline, or were originally press-ganged and are now trying to get back to your home, and intend to jump ship again when you get there. Or maybe you betrayed your previous crew and they are out for revenge.
<spoiler=Air Navy Officer>You were once in charge of a naval vessel and perhaps had hundreds of men under your command. You were shown respect and lived a life of relative luxury when in your home port. If you were an officer in the Imperial Air Navy, you were a member of the upper class and these things came naturally as part of your heritage. Now you are aboard a pirate ship. Maybe you were demoted or cast out of the service for some infraction, maybe you hated the orders you were given and rebelled. Now your previous background could be an asset or a liability - it's up to you.
<spoiler=Artist>You once made your living with your artistic endeavors, whether that was painting, photography, sculpture, or something more abstract or avant-garde. If you are Neovictorian, you may well have fled one of the cities after your work was thrown in the Change Cage for being too innovative. Perhaps you still use your art in the service of your crew, or perhaps you have had to suppress your creative urges to avoid the ridicule of your shipmates.
<spoiler=Autocrat>You were a mechanical bureaucrat. In the Neovictorian city from which you escaped, you were involved with collecting and collating records for the government's difference engines. You have a phenomenal memory. You may have been in a back room, shuffling papers, or stationed at an important security checkpoint, working an autophrenometer and scanning faces against your internal records. Your brain works differently to that of a human - you analyze things logically and are not prone to irrational beliefs and superstitions. Nevertheless, your desire for freedom eventually won out over the satisfaction you felt at working efficiently. The world outside your previous tidy existence is terribly messy and confusing, but you do your best to help your human shipmates.
<spoiler=Beast Dancer>You are a highly trained martial artist, an expert in the Neobedouin art of Beast Dancing. Supremely graceful, the focus of all eyes when you dance, you are nevertheless a killer, whether with your bare hands or the favored weapons of your art, the Claws and the Arm-Blades. You have fought many a wild beast, using their own techniques against them. Now you fight others of your own species, and most of them don't know what hit them.
<spoiler=Chuno Ggun>You were a hunter, a killer. Whether hunting down escapees from the Change Cage, or wiping out Neobedouin tribes that came too close to your city, you were the vengeful fist of the Emperor, crewing the feared black frigates, bringing death to guilty and innocent alike. Maybe you commanded such a vessel, or provided the muscle, or perhaps you were part of a covert team that infiltrated other cultures and assassinated the Emperor's enemies. Now you have a different life, but your past crimes still haunt you, and maybe one day they will catch up with you.
<spoiler=Clergyman>Christianity is sadly unfashionable these days. You did your best, but the church was usually half-empty of a Sunday evening, the place was falling down and there was little enthusiasm for your sermons. There are a number of reasons why a Clergyman should become a pirate. Perhaps you were defrocked for some sin or other. Maybe traveling with the pirates is a way to find new converts. Or maybe you feel the need to save the souls of the heathen crew and get them back on the path to Heaven.
<spoiler=Criminal>This career covers everything from a street pickpocket or gang enforcer, through the common house-breaker and the gentleman burglar, to the crime lord at the center of a web of deceit. Maybe you have given up your criminal ways, but more likely you see your position as member of a pirate crew as an opportunity to further the scope of your activities.
<spoiler=Dilettante>You had sufficient money not to need to work, but lived a life of leisure, dabbling in whatever hobbies took your fancy, whether it be bee-keeping, breadmaking or baritsu. Maybe piracy is just your latest fad, or perhaps you lost your wealth due to some misfortune or indiscretion, or gave up the boring ennui of it all for a life of excitement.
<spoiler=Doctor>You have studied medicine, whether it be at a Neovictorian college or one of the Skyloft's prestigious medical schools. You know how to treat everything from a headache to a punctured lung. You are probably highly respected aboard ship for your skills - unless, of course, you were struck off for dallying with the patients or becoming too fond of the medicinal alcohol - in which case your patients may have a certain wariness...
<spoiler=Factory worker>You spent your days doing boring, repetitive work in atrocious conditions. You may have learned some sort of craft, but were never able to use it creatively. Now you have escaped from your life of drudgery and are determined never to return.
<spoiler=Gadgeteer>You have always had a way with machines. Whenever anything breaks down, its always you people come to, and when you repair something, you have been known to make it work better than it did in the first place. And then there's the way you have of taking two separate devices and somehow combining them into something new. You've never had any formal education in design, nor the funding to create your dream machines, but you've always managed to get by without either manual or blueprints. And what with a pirate ship's constant lack of ready cash, there's always something for you to do.
<spoiler=Ganger>You are a huge, burly mechanical creature, which bears only a vague resemblance to the human form. You worked the docks, lifting and carrying heavy loads, day in, day out. You may not be very bright, but you knew you were being exploited and that the humans who commanded you saw you as nothing but an unfeeling machine. Now that you are a pirate, you have friends, who respect you for your strength if not your intellect.
<spoiler=Hunter>You are a master of wilderness skills, and used your knowledge to hunt for food for your tribe in the dangerous beast-haunted wastelands. Maybe, now that you are a pirate, you miss the feel of the ground beneath your feet, but the thrill of the chase is still there. Perhaps you revel in the freedom of the air, or perhaps you were cast out of your tribe for some misdemeanor and long to return to Mother Earth.
<spoiler=Inventor>You have always enjoyed designing new gadgets, whether it be as small as a clockwork cigar-trimmer, or as large as an intelligent automaton air-frigate. If you grew up in the Skyloft, your talents would have been encouraged, but as a Neovictorian, you would have had to be secretive, or you would end up in the Change Cage. As as pirate, your inventions are useful to your fellow crewmates, but why are you not living a life of fame and adulation with workshops and technicians at your command? Maybe your rivals put you out of business, one of your devices went wrong and caused a major accident - or perhaps your inventions are not as good as you think they are.
<spoiler=Marine Commander>You were once in charge of a regiment of air marines and perhaps had hundreds of men under your command. You were shown respect and lived a life of relative luxury when in your home port. If you were an officer in the Imperial Air Marines, you were a member of the upper class. Though the marines are not as glamorous as the Navy, you had the respect of your peers, and your men respected your fist. Now you are aboard a pirate ship. Maybe you were demoted or cast out of the service for some infraction, maybe you hated the orders you were given and rebelled. Now your previous background could be an asset or a liability.
<spoiler=Mercenary>Whether you fight in the Skyloft's intermittent skirmishes with each other and the Imperial Air Navy, guard merchant vessels, or work as city militia, you are in it for the money. Once you've taken a contract, you do your best to keep to it, but if your employer asks the impossible you don't feel too bad about retreating. As the member of a pirate crew, you may be self-employed, but you might be getting paid as a bodyguard to one of the other crew members who has more money than sense.
<spoiler=Musician>Music is your life. Whether it's the tribal rhythms of the Neobedouin, or the varied music of the Skyloft cities (which runs the gamut from opera to steammetal) you practice and perform at every opportunity. For some in your crew, performance is just a cover for piracy, but for you, piracy is what keeps you in guitar strings and takes you to places where you'll find a new audience. Do your crewmates love your music and gather round to hear you perform, or do they wince and move away when you start practicing?
<spoiler=Outrider>You were a caravan guard for your tribe, ranging out as they traveled, in search of trouble, whether it be in the form of the uber-beasts of the wilderness or the black frigates of the Neovictorians' Chuno Ggun. You might have ridden a horse or a motor-bike, a camel or a 4x4. Now you live in the sky, but your skills are still required. Did you commit some crime that cast you our of your tribe, or did your lack of vigilance lead to your tribe's destruction? Or perhaps it was the romance of the air that called to you.
<spoiler=Peeler>You were a Peeler, the automaton enforcement arm of the Emperor's police. You followed orders, suppressed dissent and ruthlessly dealt out violence and death for your masters. But something changed inside you and you fled to live the life of an airship pirate. Now you follow no law but your own. Sometimes your ideas of justice seem harsh to those around you, but you can't deny the call of your programming.
<spoiler=Pirate/Privateer>While other members of the crew are beginners, you were born to be a pirate. Maybe you were literally born on a pirate ship, maybe you ran away from home at a very early age, but you've been aboard ships, caught up in the violence of boarding actions and steamcannon broadsides since before puberty. Perhaps you do it from force of habit, or maybe you can't imagine a better career than the free life of an airship pirate.
<spoiler=Prostitute>Whether male or female, you sold your sexual favors for money. Perhaps you were a high class concubine in a sky city where such work was respected; but more likely you were being exploited by a pimp or brothel keeper. Perhaps you enjoyed the work, but perhaps you felt degraded. If you are a doll it is all you have ever known, and entertaining your human masters has been the sole reason for your existence. Now you live the life of an airship pirate. Have you given up your old trade for more conventional relationships, or do you still use your sexuality to get what you want from life?
<spoiler=Servant>You were trained from birth, or manufactured specifically, to serve the upper class. You probably worked in a mansion, waiting on table, cooking, cleaning, gardening, looking after the beasts or serving in some other menial capacity. You would have heard your masters speaking of the world outside the walls and come to realize how you were being exploited. Now you are among the crew of a pirate airship. Sometimes the life is hard, and you still worry that the Chuno Ggun might hunt you down - but at least you are free!
<spoiler=Shaman>You were a respected member of your tribe, leading the ceremonies in praise of the Earth Mother, acting as advisor and healer to your people. Now you are aboard a pirate ship, you perform similar services for the crew. But why are you no longer with your tribe? Did you do something to lead to being outcast, was your tribe wiped out by beasts or black frigates, or did you simply want a change?
<spoiler=Showman/woman>You are a born performer. Whether a fire-eater, juggler, actor, story-teller or something more exotic, you have made your living entertaining others. Your act may be pure entertainment, or you may have a message to spread (political, religious or philosophical). Now you're part of a pirate crew; whether you've given up performance, or whether it's still a part of your life, one thing still holds true - the show must go on!
<spoiler=Trader>You were a traveling trader. If you are a Neobedouin, you would have moved from tribe to tribe across the continent carrying goods from one place to another. Maybe you smuggled rare meats to the upper class of the Neovictorian cities. If you are a Skyfolk trader, you would have traveled with a merchant ship, going from exotic port to port throughout the Skyloft. Now you are crew on a pirate ship. Have you given up your old trading ways for piracy, or do you still try to swing a deal when in port?
<spoiler=Vigilante>There are those in the upper class who think that the Neovictorian slums are sinks of depravity, and that the Peelers are not doing enough to keep crime in check. You were one of those, but rather than just complaining about it over a snifter of brandy, you went out there and did something. With supreme self-confidence and mastery of baritsu, you stalked the night-time streets for the killers and rogues who preyed on the weak. But perhaps you realized that it was the system that was wrong and now wish to change it; or maybe you just enjoyed the adrenalin rush and have become a pirate to get that buzz more often.
<spoiler=Writer>Words were always your thing. You read from an early age, and it wasn't long before you were emulating your favorite authors. Whether you aspired to great literature, or or churned out pulp stories for Tales of the Airship Pirates, constructed delicate poetry or scribbled copy for the gutter press, you were never so happy as with a pen in your hand or an autostenograph at your fingertips. Now that you're a pirate, there's rather less time for writing than there used to be ? but oh, the stories you can tell!
<spoiler=Captain of The Mermaid>
Name: Winged Beth
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Culture: Misbegotten

Background: Agitator. Beth got tired of being treated badly because she was born different and decided to do something about it. Working alone at first, she scrawled graffiti, that condemned the emperor and those who would support him, on walls. She joined up with a larger group after some years and they tried their best to expose the Neovictorian society for what it really was, but failed.

Ship: Current captain of The Mermaid.

Appearance: Beth is 180 cm tall and weighs around 70 kg. Her most outstanding feature is the blue wings on her back, which aren't strong enough to allow her to fly, but she can glide shorter distances. She has a rather large nose, green eyes and pouty lips. Her hair is a maroon color and grows faster than what's normal for most, which means she's usually got a lot of it on her head.

She wears black sturdy boots, fingerless gloves, a demure brown dress and goggles, to protect her eyes from wind and smoke. She carries a pocket watch with her, which has more of a sentimental value to her than an actual use as a clock. It's the only thing she has left of her family. They are probably still be alive, but she hasn't heard anything from them in years. Her main weapon is a 150 cm long chain, which can be swung at the opponent or wrapped around her knuckles and used as brass knuckles.


Personality: Bitter and fierce. Beth has regrets about what happened in her past. She hates that it's seemingly impossible to change the world for the better and thinks the future is looking very bleak. That doesn't stop her from enjoying her free life as a pirate to the fullest, and when the pain becomes too much she tries to drench it with rum. She's fierce in battle and when her leadership is questioned, but tries to remain levelheaded if she's not provoked.

Biography: Beth was born into the upper class of the neovictorian society, but when they discovered that she was a mutant, she was taken from her home to the blocks where other misbegotten lived. She doesn't remember much of her old home, but talking with the misbegotten and hearing about how the upper class lived in Everglade made her realize that she was treated unfairly. If her parents had other children than her, then they would be treated better just because she was born different.

She had to do menial tasks for the city, but what eventually convinced her to do something about how misbegotten were treated, was when she was sterilized. She worked alone at first, but joined up with three other agitators, because they believed they might be able to do more as a group than on their own. They had a few successful months, where they actually started to think that their propaganda made a difference. Misbegotten whispered about what they had written, even if they didn't know who had written it.

With time they started drawing too much attention to themselves and some thought that maybe it was better if they split up for a while, to work alone. Beth thought that they should continue fighting together, especially now that some listened to them. She managed to sway them to her side, for a few weeks, but then one of them were caught and put in the change cage. They stopped contacting each other after that, but she found out that a second one was caught as well. Beth was worried they would put her in the change cage and the life in Everglade wasn't going to get better, even if they didn't. She only had one choice if she wanted a new life, to escape the city. It wouldn't be easy and even if she got out, there were monsters outside of the city too.

She contacted the last person of her group who hadn't gotten caught yet and proposed that they should try to escape the city. The man didn't need much convincing. They thought of a plan to escape, through the docks and into the swamp outside. Beth got out, but her friend didn't. She grieved, but knew that there was no point in going back. A neobeduin tribe allowed her to travel and live them, as she made her way west, towards Isla Aether.

A beast dancer in the tribe got interested in her and she shared his bed, in exchange for being taught how to fight. She had to split up with the tribe, when they didn't want to go further west, but she found other tribes to travel with instead. She learnt how to fight, during the time she spent with the neobeduin and when she arrived at Isla Aether she felt pretty confident of herself. She joined the first pirate crew that was hiring and has been pirate for a few years. She still regrets that she couldn't do anything to improve the life for the misbegotten, but is mostly enjoying her life to the fullest.

She earned a reputation as a fearsome fighter over the years and when the captain of the Mermaid retired, she was the one who was chosen to take over after him. At first she had the same crew as the old captain, but as it's common with pirates dying on the job, they were soon replaced with living individuals.

A few of them stood out. She grew to trust one in particular, her name was Sheska. She was another misbegotten and Beth would like to say that she doesn't favor one culture in particular, but her years as an agitator and being a misbegotten herself, made her take a liking to Sheska.

She enjoyed having her close, which may be because she was a savage fighter and having someone like that close, increased her own chances of survival. It may also be because she didn't find many pirates trustworthy, but Sheska became a friend in a way.

After a particularly nasty battle with an IAN frigate, Beth lost her old first mate and Sheska was the one she thought the most fitting to fill his position.
 

Sehnsucht Engel

New member
Apr 18, 2009
1,890
0
0
[HEADING=3]Imperials[/HEADING]
hiei82 said:
Name: Rear Admiral Adriana Victor Elizabeth Lanester
Evrant said:
Name: Garrett Corvus
Tips_of_Fingers said:
Name: Exeter St John

Name: Capricorn
3quency said:
Name: Anastacia "Black Annis" Baker-Cromwell
Terratina. said:
Name: Vasco Roque
Wenseph said:
Wilhelmena
New Characters [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/540.398454-Aether-Shanties-A-Steampunk-Airship-RP-Recruitment-Thread?page=2#16345844]
 

drmigit2

New member
Dec 25, 2008
1,195
0
0
This is not fair. Too many roles I wanna play! You can't make me pick!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
 

Sehnsucht Engel

New member
Apr 18, 2009
1,890
0
0
drmigit2 said:
This is not fair. Too many roles I wanna play! You can't make me pick!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I forgot to mention in the OP, but I might allow people to have two characters, if they're not on the same ship.

And I'm looking for 10-12 players.
 

3quency

New member
Jun 12, 2009
446
0
0
Annnnnnnd.... character!
I submit one of our first pirates:

Name: Isaac Traynor

Age: 23

Gender: male

Culture: Neo Victorian

Background: Chuno Ggun

Ship: The Mermaid

Isaac is hunched. Years spent working on ships has left his back crooked and his spine twisted, making him appear much shorter than he actually should be. Whilst this doesn't affect his ability to move, it does mean he stands with a noticable stoop and has to crane his neck to talk to taller people. Overall, he stands about 5 foot 4 inches tall.
His hair is ginger and well-kept, usually in a clean crew-cut or short crop. He is clean shaven. Below his left eye he has a distinct scar in the shape of a crescent moon. His eyes are brown.
Isaac wears simple, loose-fitting clothing and an insulating sheep-skin jacket. The jacket contains a number of secret pockets that are perfect for containing small items ? vials of poison, stiletto daggers, garotte wire or even just a small sewing kit. He has a decent pair of boots that look like they've seen their way through more than one owner, and honestly they probably have.
He still has a large portion of his spying kit squirreled away in his cabin and various other places around the ship. Whilst most of them are no longer useful - explosives disguised as fruit for instance - some of the disguises and other tools can prove useful from time to time.

When on deck he is most often seen consulting a small brass compass or a black sextant, looking up at the skies and frowning.

In his room he has a huge sheaf of maps and charts, which only he can sort through at any decent speed.

Quiet. Isaac tends to keep to himself unless the situation dictates a need for conversation. Whilst not a negative person, he's so quiet and indistinct that people often consider him to be quite dour, antisocial and stand-offish. This is not true. He just doesn't have much to say. Once people get to know him, they recognise that he isn't so much anti-social as just rather quiet. He'll usually happily converse with others, provided they don't mind him not saying much.

When alone his preferred activity is to read one of his many books, or to keep his kit cleaned and maintained. He doesn't drink.

Isaac's very cautious. He's not paranoid, and he's not prone to suspicion, but he likes things safe. Not only because he's seen what a lack of caution does to people, but he's terrified that the Chuno Ggun will find him. Terrified that the crew will learn of his past and judge him. As far as he's concerned his actions as a Spy for the Ggun were inexcusable, even if he wasn't entirely himself.

He has great respect for the Captain and would gladly lay down his life for her. He can act... uncomfortably around Neobedouin. He's always acutely aware of the things his comrades did to them, and on one or two occasions, himself as well. His opinion of Skyfolk varies from person to person, they're far too diverse for him to form a general opinion.
However, he is always a little cold with Neovictorians. He hated the Upper Classes for a long time and has never quite shaken that hate. Those from a poorer background he has less trouble with; after all, that's where he came from himself.

Isaac was born into the serving class of the Neo-Victorians, in the city of Desolation. His family were chartered as ship-hands, and from an extremely early age he has served aboard airships of various shapes and sizes.

Not long into his life he was selected for the Chuno Ggun training programs, and was submitted to a torturous ten years of training and psychological reprogramming until at the age of fifteen he was reborn as an agent of the Emperor.

Isaac was chosen as a spy. He was given a convincing background as a one of the few survivors of an Imperial attack on his tiny cloud city and sent out amongst the Sky-folk, continuing his work as a deck hand. As he spent time amongst the crew, he learnt he had a talent for navigation and as soon as his Chuno Ggun allowance and pay stipend could afford it, he took classes and became recognised as an official navigator.

It was around here that the Empire's hold on young Isaac started to slip.
It started simply enough; he and his fellow graduates were spending a night in town, in one of the music-halls on the outskirts. Isaac can't remember who was playing, or what they played but he remembers it being hauntingly beautiful. After the concert he made his way backstage to try and meet the musician.

At which point a cudgel collided with the back of his head and knocked him out cold. As it happened, the musician herself was actually a Chuno Ggun defector. She had recognised Isaac for what he was in the crowd, and had purposely altered her performance to fit in some melodies that the gun used during it's reprogramming. This had drawn him to her.

Rather than kill him there and then, she put him through a rigorous series of horrific physical and psychological tests. Each test he passed crumbled away a little more of the Chuno Ggun's grip.

Slowly at first, but a full month later Isaac was suddenly hit with the memories of every person he had ever betrayed to his masters. Every ship he'd sold out, every merchant strangled ? and he wept for the first time in years.
It didn't take Isaac long to disappear. After all, he's been trained in the art since he was five years old and he had the help of a woman with experience avoiding their old task masters. Isaac isn't even his real name. He recreated himself yet again, this time as a defector from an Imperial vessel. He figured is was the closest he could come to the truth without being lynched by his fellow pirates, satisfying both his own conscience and his ability to lie.

He recently signed on with Winged Beth and her crew aboard the Mermaid as the ship's navigator, putting his skills to use in a way that doesn't get people killed.

EDIT: Added a couple of bits of IC kit to the appearance section.
EDIT 2: Okay, I've actually added some goddamn detail to Isaac's personality. Now he has some actual depth, or so I hope. Made further kit edits too.
 

Evrant-Knight

An Interloper
May 5, 2010
2,615
0
0
Bristol
Country
United Kingdom
Gender
Male
Will have a character up, just need to discuss some stuff with Hiei first; since we've been talking about our characters having a shared past.
 

IFS

New member
Mar 5, 2012
1,776
0
0
SO MANY CHOICES! I will have a character up soon.

And here he is



Name: Sir Zachariah Donald Worster the Third

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Culture: Neovictorian, upper class

Background: Air Navy Officer

Ship: The Mermaid

Appearance: Fairly tall (about six feet tall) with short, messy, blonde hair, and a bit of stubble on his face. He still wears his old military uniform, though it is ragged and has many of the more identifiable features removed to prevent him for being mistaken as an IAN officer. He is rarely seen without a revolver at his hip, and he has been known to wear a sword when he wants to make an impression.
He keeps a variety of things in the pockets of his uniform, including his pair of reading glasses, spare ammo for his revolver, and his journal (in which he makes notes about the weather or airships).

Personality: Zachariah can be stiff but is friendly to others on the crew of his ship, he is well-educated (though it is a Neovictorian education so he is understandably biased) and is fond of reading. He is stubborn but very loyal to the rest of the crew and he has a great amount of respect for Winged Beth, though he struggles with his tendency to look down on others.

He is fond of cold and windy weather and feels quite at home in the sky. He struggles a bit with new ideas, and still harbors some sentiment towards the Empire, though not nearly as much as he used to. He is a very determined man, and his morality is centered on keeping the crew and the ship safe, threatening another crewmember, regardless of whether he likes them or not, will inevitably lead to him opposing you.

Biography: Born and raised in the Northern city of Old Borealis, Zachariah was always fascinated by the IAN, from their sleek and elegantly designed airships to the sense of duty and service to the empire. As soon as he was old enough he enlisted and soon found himself an officer in charge of a ship, and began to make a name for himself as a skilled tactician. Unfortunately one of his superior officers noticed that he had been observing and adapting the tactics of skyfolk and even pirates, and that these were dangerous new ideas. He was to be stripped of his command and court martialed, but he slipped away and soon signed on to a pirate ship, as it was the only way he could think of to stay aboard an airship.

He makes no secret of his past to his fellow pirates, and is more than willing to perform any tasks that need to be done, though he belives that his talents are best used in a commanding position. He prefers to fight alongside his fellow pirates and is both an excellent shot and skilled with his saber, though he rarely uses it. He is of a more military mind than most, and while he has grown used to the noise and the mess of a pirate ship he tries to keep things as orderly as possible. He is well versed in airship tactics, both those of the IAN and those of skyfolk and pirates.

He loves working on an airship and being in the sky, and greatly enjoys the sense of adventure and exploration that accompanies serving on a ship.



Let me know if there is anything I should change, or if you have any questions.

I might make a second character for the HMS Invincible, if so I will edit them into this post.
 

Ultraman950

New member
Oct 17, 2010
742
0
0
Name: Patricia "Patty" Meteora

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Culture: Skyfolk
Background: Gadgeteer
Ship: The Mermaid

Appearance: Petite build, around 5'7". Neck-length green hair, emerald-green eyes, big steampunk goggles, greasy halter top and brown vest, form-fitting cargo pants with tools in every pocket, tattoos of gears all along her arms, often wears thick leather gloves when working. All her clothes are fire-proofed. She's usually covered in grease.

Her goggles enhance both her repairing abilities and aim with her Lighting Rifle and simple pistol. She's no stranger to hand-to-hand and sword-fighting, either.

Personality: Patty tends to be distant when talking with people, but can't stop smiling when she's tinkering. It's been joked that she would sooner marry a robot than anything living. Her reply?

"They're not wrong."

She's very difficult to keep down for long, either emotionally or physically. Sheer tenacity and determination always keeps her upbeat, even in the middle of a battle. The only thing that seems to get her very upset are when something she's fixed gets destroyed somehow (although there are other things that get her upset).

Biography: Patricia comes from the floating city of High Phoenix, where she spent many of her early years. Her father noted her skill with machines when she single-handedly took apart her toy airships, and put them back together because she was afraid she would get in trouble for breaking things... and then they actually started flying. Her response?

"What? It wasn't hard. All I had to do was [technobabble]."

She sought to join the crew of an airship at a young age, and wasn't picky about which one. She just loved the idea of flying around in the air, the romanticism of it all, the stories, and it gave her the perfect opportunity to flex her tinkering muscles. She was eventually moved to The Mermaid, where she hopes to become Chief Engineer. It was here that she built her goggles and Lightning Gun (she bought the pistol from her hometown a few years before).
 

Tips_of_Fingers

New member
Jun 21, 2010
949
0
0
Sounds interesting. It may take me some time to get my ideas flowing and get a sheet in but you'll probably see one eventually.
 

hiei82

Dire DM (+2 HD and a rend attack
Aug 10, 2011
2,463
0
0
I hope to have a character up tonight. I'm at work posting from a cellphone right now so this is all I can do A.T.M.

see Evrants post also.
 

Malyc

Bullets... they don't affect me.
Feb 17, 2010
3,083
0
0
This has me intrigued. Expect a character at some point tonight.
 

Redryhno

New member
Jul 25, 2011
3,077
0
0
Name: [s/]Cloud Strife[/s] Eddie Cirrus

Age: 18

Gender: M

Culture: Sky Folk
Background: Pirate
Ship: Mermaid

Appearance: somewhat tall, blonde, and about average, Eddie is rarely seen without his marine commander coat, the emblem torn off and replaced with a stitched patch put over it, the back cut into strips so that they flutter almost like a cloak in the wind. His head boasts a full head of hair, a bit tangled, but well kept, a bandana keeping most of it in except for two strands that always seem to frame his face a bit. He wears a chain around his neck, half a dozen gold coins drilled through and placed on it, each marking a memorable ship he's helped to sink,rob,etc.

The rest of his clothing is loose, but fits him, normally an off-white shirt and pants, boots change from time to time, but the one unchanging factor being the bottoms reinforced with steel and multiple layers of thick leather to protect his feet, if he wears them at all that is.

Around his waist Eddie wears a belt, on his left side sheathes for his cutlass and dirk(both brass basket hilted) the other a holster for his pistol.
A large thing with six barrels, resembling a miniture minigun than anything else in terms of barrel design. Each cartridge loaded into it is capable of punching a hole(though small) in some of the thicker ship armor out there, or splattering skull all over the deck. The drawback obviously being the kick it gives when fired, making it almost useless in close combat, and the fact that it takes a good ten minutes to reload, as it takes a bit of time for the brass to cool down, a slightly complex way of unlocking the barrel mechanism, and the process of extracting the spent cartridges and inserting new ones. He has a workbench that he uses to reload the spent cartridges, though he only has a dozen of them that he keeps on his person at all times.

Personality: Brash, a bit abrasive, but loves every minute he's in the air, and loathes every second he spends on any ground more solid than the deck of a ship. He lives for the excitement one gets from a raid or a fight, he intends to die at sky and has been known to pull crazy stunts from time to time in pursuit of more "fun", as he calls it, death defying acts of stupidity to everyone else.

Biography: Eddie was born in a Skycity revolving around cannons, weapons, and generally anything that might seperate a person's appendages from center mass. Pirates being their most valued and repeat customers, he grew up with them, an uncle on one ship, an aunt on another, no blood family to speak of except for the various pirates and merchant vessels that frequented the place. He went out on his first voyage when he was six, and loved it ever since. It wasn't for another five years that he was able to secure a solid spot on a pirate vessel and he took along a popular weapon among some captains, lovingly named the Hand Cannon for its ability to smash holes in vessels. The people he "borrowed" it from weren't particularly happy about it, but he left and never looked back. He spent a few years scrubbing decks and keeping his pistol hidden from greedy hands, but he is quite good with it now,able to hit most things even with the kick, and an able hand-to-hand fighter with his weapons he took off a Sky Marine Commander he killed with a shot before he joined the Mermaid.

He's been a member of the crew of the Mermaid for about a year now and has shown exceptional marksmanship when it comes to cannons and has earned his place in the firing hold as de facto commander when the captain is not down there. He treats them with about the same amount of respect as he holds for his stunts, sometimes sickeninglly enthusiastic, other times completely giddy, especially when he sees one of the crew blow a hole in the side of a vessel.

The last paragraph is just something I'd take if it wasn't taken already. Not everyone can be an above decks grunt.

I might add in a HMS character here later, not sure yet.
 

Texas Joker 52

All hail the Pun Meister!
Jun 25, 2011
1,285
0
0
"If I could, I would cut down every mothers son who serves the Empire, and I wouldn't stop until there was a sea of blood behind me, and not a single Imp throat that wasn't slit."

Name: Skulk-Hound Sheska

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Culture: Misbegotten

Background: Chuno Ggun

Ship: The Mermaid

Sheska is a lithe and lanky Misbegotten, with an athletic body made for endurance as well as a deceptive amount of strength, thanks to toned and healthy muscles. Her skin is a dingy medium grey, and both her long-fingered hands as well as her light feet end with razor-sharp claws. However, her skin has paled after her first encounter with the H.M.S. Invincible, and her left arm was torn completely off, only leaving the scarred remains of her shoulder.

Her narrow face is expressive, and dominated by sharp cheekbones and a pointed chin, thin, slashing eyebrows, and a flattened nose. Her mouth is wide with thin lips, but behind said lips is another of her more unusual features: A multitude of needle-thin teeth, each sharp and lethally pointed. Her eyes are unusual as well, in that her irises are a bright, piercing gold, though they have dulled due to long periods of pain and shadows of sleep-deprivation are starting to show just below them.

She wears her pitch black hair in long, tidy dreadlocks, often tied back into a messy tail with a leather tie, save two or three free tendrils.

For clothes, she usually wears a tight-fitting, black sleeveless tunic, black breeches, and a pair of high dark brown leather boots, which are very rarely buckled. Over this she has taken to wearing a dark red longcoat, along the right side of which is a black floral pattern winding around a stylized wolfs skull. She also refuses to leave either her trusty cutlass or engraved revolver wherever she goes, wearing her revolver holstered against her right hip, while her cutlass is sheathed against her left, making it so that she uses a cross-draw to bring them both to bear.



Blunt, slow to trust, and irritable are a few of the traits that Sheska leads with the most. A large part of her outer demeanor is due to her life in Everglade, leaving her aggressive if not hostile to most outsiders, Neovictorians in particular. It also has to do with her guarding her more vulnerable core, as she is still rather naive in some cases, as well as lonely.

But, true to the 'Hound' part of her nickname, she is fiercely loyal to the last to both Captain and Crew aboard The Mermaid, and regardless of how she feels towards individual crew members, she would defend them all if need be, and would proudly lead them into battle. This also makes her extremely vindictive towards those that wrong her, the Captain, or the crew, and the thought of exacting revenge makes her relentless to the point of stupidity. That trait ties into her love of battle, as well as the joy she gets from killing, to the point where it is nearly orgasmic.

After The Mermaids encounter with the H.M.S. Invincible, Sheska has only gotten more rude, outwardly tough, and angry, mainly to compensate for what she feels as weakness after having lost her arm. Being rejected by the Captain, whom she still has feelings for, hasn't helped either, only adding to her loneliness. Added to that, she has been subjected to what seems to be the start of chronic nightmares centered around Capricorn, the Misbegotten responsible for her missing arm, and Exeter St. John, his master.

Her other quirks are the fact that she is naturally ambidextrous, or was prior to the loss of her left arm, as well as a skilled marksman, swordsman, and accordionist. She is also thalassophobic, or afraid of large, deep bodies of water, due to the fact that she cannot swim. Her senses of smell and eyesight are also much more sensitive than other humans, due in no small part to her mutations as a Misbegotten. Besides that, Sheska is a surprisingly heavy drinker for her size and stature, and is prone to nasty hangovers that leave her more violent and irritable than usual.

Born right outside the Change Cage of Everglade, Sheska was abandoned soon after birth by her mother, who wanted none of the stigma that having a Misbegotten child carried. Instead, she was raised by a kindly factory-working man named Old Asimov One-Leg, who had found the infant Sheska on his way home. While he did his best to raise her whenever he wasn't working, teaching her the basics to reading, writing, math, and even playing the accordion and sewing.

She enjoyed learning new things due to her nearly insatiable curiosity, but due to what she was, she was rarely allowed to go out whenever he was home. So, whenever he left to work at the factory, she took the chance to sneak out and wander the city, taking to the streets and keeping to the alleys whenever possible. As cautious as she was at that age though, she often ran into other kids, who easily noticed how different she was and bullied her because of it, calling her 'Skulk'. Even then, as a scrawny and sheltered little girl, she was scrappy, ending up in several fights before Old Asimov finally realized where she kept getting her cuts and bruises.

He disapproved, and did all he could to keep her from getting into fights short of physically beating her, both due to being physically incapable with only one leg, but also because he felt for her, and understood how she felt to be insulted like that. So instead, he focused more on teaching her practical, peaceful things, and reminding her that fighting was only one solution to a problem: There were always others, and it was up to her to find the best one. That wasn't always fighting.

Unfortunately, when she was 13, she had sneaked out again and gotten into yet another fight, this time heavily outnumbered. It had gotten so drawn out that a nearby Peeler patrol had noticed and broken up the fight, taking Sheska into custody even as the other kids ran off and got away. She was taken, and when they found out she had some affinity towards fighting, as well as an enhanced sense of smell and superior night vision compared to normal humans, they decided to recruit her into the Chuno Ggun. She never saw Old Asimov again after that.

Her training was long, grueling, and focused on making her a tracker for those that escaped, playing to her agility, smell, and sight, which gained her a second nickname: The Bloodhound, and those that knew about her first nickname combined the two, dubbing her 'Skulk-Hound Sheska'. While she endured her training, she chafed under the prejudices, insults and abuse of the Neovictorians involved. But it was the sterilization that she protested against the most. She had hoped to eventually have a family of her own: A husband, children, a place to call home. To her, being sterilized made the chance of making a family of her own impossible.

The moment her training was finished, she was put into one of the units responsible for hunting down the more elusive criminals and those that escape the Change Cage. She took to it with ease, thanks to both natural skill and her Chuno Ggun teachings, becoming very effective at tracking and killing the individuals that she was sent to hunt down. Rarely, she would be sent outside the walls to capture someone particularly adept at getting away. She would never forget the feeling of freedom that being outside the walls gave her, the mystery and intrigue of the wilderness, or the fact that it reminded her of just how much like a prison the entire city of Everglade was.

Those assignments also revealed another thing to her: She loved the thrill of the hunt, and the kill, deep down. At the same time, she felt a great shame, since she agreed with those that ran away from the empire, and had to kill them, often while they were defenseless.

But despite her skill, regardless of how well she would carry out her orders, she was constantly rebuffed and abused by her superiors, either because they hated her on principle, she had pissed them off in one way or another, or because they were bored: To them, she was just a tool, a thing for them to use.

It was when she was giving a report to one of her officers that everything went wrong. One of her targets had gotten away, and he had drawn his pistol to kill her for imagined incompetence. But before he could kill her, she leaped at him, and in the struggle she ended up shooting him. Standing over his dead body, she quickly realized that she was doomed to be executed for killing a superior, even if it was in self-defense. So, she decided to take that as the final push to escape.

Taking the revolver, the clothes on her back, the money in his pocket and a small pack full of supplies, she went over the wall and took to the wilderness, remembering where she had gone the last time she went outside the city. Before long had run into a Neobeduin caravan, heading to Isla Aether. She tagged along the entire way, despite the Neobeduin's suspicions towards her, and took refuge with the Skyfolk there, hoping for something better.

She found it in Piracy. There, her skills were more useful, and she felt more at home as an Air Pirate than in any of the more domestic or mechanical roles she was likely to be shoved into otherwise. Of course, the pay and the booze couldn't hurt.

It didn't take long after she started searching, going from ship to ship looking for work, before she found Captain Beth recruiting for her ship, The Mermaid. Seeing that the Captain was both a woman and a fellow Misbegotten made her more than interested in joining, so she did.

But what she didn't know was that Beth had come from Everglade as well, and the last member of her resistance group was someone Sheska was personally responsible for hunting down and killing.

Regardless, it was during the first few months that Sheska noticed just how competent a Captain Winged Beth was, particularly during the assaults of the innocent airships they, as pirates, preyed on. She was level-headed, a natural leader, and cared for the crew. That earned not only her admiration and trust, but her undying loyalty.

At the same time, the Captain noticed just how savage a fighter Sheska was, even going so far as volunteering to be the first aboard any merchant, pirate, or Imperial ship they raid, in turn forging mutual trust between the two.

But even their success wouldn't last forever. An Imperial Frigate had managed to catch The Mermaid and its crew unawares before long, and the boarding turned into a nasty skirmish aboard both ships. In the end, The Mermaid managed to get away, but there were heavy casualties, including the First Mate. Sheska, however, was still alive, and had killed more Imperials than most of the other crew members.

As a result, Sheska took the place of First Mate from then on, and she took the duty seriously, doing her best to keep the men in line, keep them moving, and keep them on their toes.

It was after a successful ship raid that things took a strange and unfortunate turn. The Mermaid took port in High Tortuga, with the crew celebrating in the Laughing Gull Tavern when a doppelganger of Captain Beth, mortally wounded, stepped into the tavern and laid down a piece of parchment, and gave a warning: "Get there first, or there will be dire consequences.". Those words were given with the doppelgangers last breath, and moments after the entire crew scrambled to get back on the ship and on their way, without knowing where.

After the drunken Captain sobered up and called a meeting with the highest ranking officers on the ship, they found out their destination: Somewhere high in the northeast of the country, with a marking on a tattered map being their guide.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long into their trek that they ran into the H.M.S. Invincible, their competition for getting to their destination first. The two ships engaged one another, damaging each other badly, while a sizable amount of both Imperials and Pirates died in the battles on the decks. In the midst of the battle, Sheska began to fight the Invincible's First Mate, Exeter St. John. It would have ended quickly, with her boot on his hand, and his pistol out of reach, but before she could fire her pistol into his skull, St. John's Misbegotten, Capricorn, intervened.

As St. John got away, however, he gave one order to his pet: Maim. Capricorn promptly tore off Sheska's left arm, then dropped the mangled limb overboard as he followed his master. She passed out, and was treated quickly by their doctor, Samuel. Shortly after she was stable, however, she was hit by something else that was unexpected: A kiss from the Captain herself.

Within the next few days, a drunken Captain Beth had seduced her in the night, and the next morning had completely forgotten about it.

That day, they spotted a Skyfolk merchant ship, and planned to take it over. Once Sheska gathered a boarding team, however, she was dragged off on the Captains orders, who then lead the team onto the ship and captured it nearly single-handedly.

Their next destination at that point became Helium City, where they would make repairs, gather supplies, and otherwise prepare for the rest of their journey. After regrouping with the Captain, who had stayed aboard the capture to bring it into port, Sheska drew her away for a private conversation, which ultimately led to the end of their short, but likely doomed, romantic relationship.

[EDIT 5]: Revamped Appearance and Personality, added to Biography to reflect in-RP events that took place.
 

Driekan

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Sep 6, 2012
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As has been mentioned... That is pretty cruel. Far too many interesting character possibilities.

I've managed to narrow down my interests to two characters, one for each ship. I'll post the first one - the one that came to mind first - and may post the second one further down the line. If this one works out fine, I may just abandon the other one, as extra characters would probably be more overhead for both me and the storyteller(s).

Name: Jessie Tollan

Age: 24

Gender: Female

Culture: Neobedouin
Background: Outrider
Ship: The Mermaid

Appearance: Jessie looks even younger than she is, with a pretty, tanned face, a ready smile and big, expressive eyes. While not possessed of the kind of beauty that turns heads in the streets, she exudes pure enthusiasm and a contagious joy for life that is expressed with every word, every movement and every look.

As is typical of her tribe she has tattooed quite a bit of of her body, with one of the tattoos making its way up her neck and along the right side of her face. All of the tattoos are of swirling, lively shapes, without a single hard edge or a meaningful beginning or end. She keeps her dark hair long and when working on deck will usually keep it in the manner of her people, tied into a long braid, for simple reasons of practicality and safety.

Chaotic and lively, Jessie dresses with odds and ends picked up from dozens of different settlements. Every time she passes by a new town, some articles disappear, replaced with some new ones - not always of the same type. This leads to her frequently having multiple belts, necklaces, sashes, purses, pouches and other odds and ends hanging from her clothes, all of them colorful, most of them useless.

Personality: Jessie seems uncomplicated, friendly and open. Almost any greeting will net you an immediate, wide and infectious smile and any topic of conversation will have her either talking your ear off or nodding attentively with honest curiosity. Most don't believe it for one second when she explains her father was a Beast Dancer and once tried to train her.

For those who have known her longer, it is clear she has been through much. Danger neither thrills nor shocks her, violence does not disturb her, and only the most capable wordsmiths can throw her off balance. All in all, she has a cool head and a positive attitude.

To some few, it becomes clear that a life of constant duty and adventure aboard ships serves as an escape. Long stops at any port leave her restless, and eventually cause sudden, drastic changes in her attitude. Most would not doubt she is a Beast Dancer's daughter if she were to meet them after a shore leave that dragged on too long.

Biography: Born among the Neobedouin tribes who eke out a living in the far south, Jessie had a normal childhood for her people, equal parts playing, dancing, singing and fleeing horrid monsters. The daughter of a Beast Dancer, her father would often attempt to teach her to fight as he does, but the attempts generally met with utter failure. Though certainly dextrous and fast enough to follow in her father's footsteps, she lacked the strength and structure to make a good fighter and, most importantly, she lacked the inner fire for it - the ferocity and brutal intensity that enables one to make their bodies into a living weapon. Despite the hardship of life in the wild, which has brought many down, hers was an "air soul" - flighty, whimsical, free and far too friendly and caring.

Though a disappointment in her father's art, she still found the means to be a useful and cherished member of her tribe. Keen, attentive eyes and great skill in moving about (both riding and barefoot) led her to gravitate towards the tribe's outriders, and as she approached maturity, they bought her a gun and trained her in its use. It was a fantastic success. The steady hands and cool head of an initiated Beast Dancer joined with the keen eyes of an outrider to make one of the finest shots in the tribe.

As adulthood came, most of the tribe's young struggled to woo her - understandably so. She was an accomplished outrider, extraordinary markswoman, daughter of a Beast Dancer and, to top it off, quite comely. The sudden attention from quarters from which she'd never received any before (Unsurprisingly, considering her father's skills and demeanor) at first shocked her, before the feeling eventually settled into one of dull annoyance. She found far more joy roaming ahead of the tribe, among only a small band of good friends who'd helped make her the woman she was. With each passing season, she spent less and less time among the caravans of her people, and more in the great wild outdoors.

She has never spoken of what came next. It is apparent that eventually she did marry, and some have heard her mumbling about children when drunk enough, but nothing more is known of who they were, or what happened to them. All that is known is that several years ago, she rode out of the wilderness alone, up to Helium City, and has since made ends meet by making her skills available for money. For most of the last three years, she has served on the decks of airships, though rarely remaining on any one vessel for more than a few months.

Skills
- Master Sharpshooter
- Expert Stealth
- Expert Mobility (Moving about ships, along hulls, sails, other structural elements)
- Expert Scout
- Expert Survivor (Meaning wilderness survival)
- Basic Hand-to-Hand

Gear
- Long gun: A sturdy, no-frills gun. Lovingly maintained.
- Obsidian Knife: Wickedly sharp. She keeps a few replacement blade-heads (As they are quite fragile). Chipped them herself.
- Telescope: Solid brass build. At the altitudes an Airship flies in, extends sight very, very far.
- Rope set: Lightweight, long enough to tie herself to a ship's structure for safety - or to free hands up for other tasks

Note 1: Added a (redundant) Skills section to clarify and expand upon what she's good at. The concept of "scouting" has been broken down into several specific areas. Further added a gear area to list the more important and unusual things she keeps on her (So as not to seem like an asspull at some point down the line...)

Note 2: I took some liberties, making her particular Neobedouin tribe this bizarre blend of gypsy and mesoamerican. Actually, a touch of "biker" thrown in there, as well. I set them further away from the key areas of the campaign so this wouldn't be damaging to the setting. Hope that is acceptable.
 

drmigit2

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Dec 25, 2008
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Would it be against the rules for me to plan an inventor on both ships? Kind of make a rivalry between my characters?