[Prydden] Earnest Colson

[Prydden] Earnest Colson
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Name:Earnest Colson
Occupation: Merchant/ Emissary of Selton to Emery
Age 34
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 184 lbs
Eye Color: blue
Hair Color/Style: light brown/blonde
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Personality:
Colson would be considered a man like unto Leonardo Davinci, except red blooded and from a rich family.

Of the merchant class, he meets passersby and peasants with an air of separatism. He can’t be bothered with the problems of civil or military life.

He’s every bit a genius as Leonardo, inventor, painter as well as practitioner of illusion based water magic. Having gotten most of his experience in life from books he has some disconnects in common knowledge and some social graces. In his travels he has become ingratiated with the Emperor of Selton who calls on him now and again and calls him his 'pet druid.' He does this to seek insight on Earnest's knowledge of 'the pagan faith.' The Emperor takes on Earnest's 'squintish' quirks as his quirks as a druid, not as an extremely intelligent person.

He tends to think himself quite superior and states so often, not intending to insult anyone or to flatter himself but to state pejorative fact for the sake of accuracy. Earnest is completely flabbergasted by women and social gatherings, only just beginning to understand some of the lesser niceties. But if one starts talking of alchemy or engines or magic he can get into hot debates at times and he is known to go into rants that no one would understand excepting other squids.

He has a very sarcastic demeanor in general and tends to demonstrate his genius in the form of wisecracks. Generally his genius greatly depresses him because of the folly of the human condition and his front row seat to the fruition of its failure, and he makes social commentary on his lot like an outspoken audience member.

He is also rather clumsy and somewhat lucky, escaping difficult and dangerous situations that he often gets into with his charm and charisma, avoiding fights and conflict with his wit and often defeating enemies with a well placed spell ill conceived for the task, or solving problems with one of his strange inventions.

He’s strangely a well adapted leader; manipulating the ignorant into seeing his way and following his direction. Often he solves difficult and dangerous situations by wielding a more physically powerful but prefunked or deluded individual, said individual often fighting for what they think is their own best interest.
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Powers/Magic/Skills:

Chi:
Earnest is an adept healer, he can reset a joint out of socket, reset a broken bone (he sets the Chi to work and this process takes about two hours) repair most any tissue damage from rash, cuts to burns, and can even limitedly heal internal bleeding and organ damage. He also has gotten a good understanding of anatomy, and knows how to suture a burst artery that would normally kill a man in minutes

Ki:

Illusion :
e.g. making a thing look like something else, or at its peak of power making an entire scene look different. These generally are created in a rather small spherical area that will move in conjunction with those it is meant to fool, creating an illusionary scene in front of the victim. Earnest uses water magic to create sillouhettes that amplify the effects and can make a very convincing scene that will confound all but the most veteran mages.

Mind Bending:
Earnest can plant ideas and suggestions in people's head. In Prydden this is somewhat limited, and most adept magicians and well enchanted or magically resistant warriors will be able to both recognize the mind bending and to shrug the suggestions off. Mostly if Earnest can have a conversation with a simple minded individual that person will leave finding they want to do what Earnest said.

Water Magic:

Wall of Water
Providing there is enough moisture in the air he can create a wall of concentrated moving water suspended for a moment in the air. This can be used to diffuse a fireball that passes through it. He can use the moisture in the air, but this is somewhat more effective if there is a water source nearby.

Water saw
e.g. also called the workers saw, a water mancer can manipulate water to run fast through an area creating hyper erosion working to cut even through metal.

Instant freeze: Assuming there's enough water, or he has manipulated water from an actual water source, he can freeze the water. Instantly freezing water like this can momentarily add a little more destructive power to the water saw, for example, but ends the usefulness of the saw after it is frozen.

Fire Magic

Combustion
Earnest can make areas of earth and unimbued objects and projectiles combust while in flight

Air Magic

Levitation:
Earnest often dodges with a concentrated gust of wind that propels him more quickly than his body can move.

In addition he can move his own body in a controlled motion fifty feet in the air and control his descent, or higher but he will be lacking in control and aim the higher he goes, and unless he has something to stop him he would likely crash back to the ground.

He does not usually use sustained levitation for flight, but he could hold himself approximately twenty feet in the air for about a minute

Mostly Earnest uses air magic to increase the effectiveness of his other magics. He also uses it to create gusts of wind that can throw off the course of most types of magical projectiles

Dust devil
This has just enough power to throw a normal man off balance. If Earnest keeps the tornado on the man it would be somewhat difficult to melee attack.

Fire tornado
In a similar fashion, Earnest can ignite the air in an area and control the wind into creating a torrential twisting fire storm. This is one of his most powerful and exhausting attacks

Void Magic:

Lightning bolts
They don't come from the clouds, per say, mages generally work with the air about 100 feet above their target, creating high amounts of friction to send a funnel of electrons hurtling at the ground

Ball of Plasma Works a lot like a fireball but it looks more like a ball of intense light, the ball is created from making friction in the air, it has more destructive power but is slower than a fireball. It can also be made to limitedly follow or heat sink the target. (once it has been successfully dodged and flies past the targer it can't be turned around, however)

Earth Magic:

Projectiles
Earnest can throw rocks fast enough to kill a man with no protection and that without touching the rock.

Earth transmutation
He can add moisture to large boulders and change them to mud

He can change the makeup of a keystone on an archway, causing the archway to fall, so long is it isn't enchanted against just such a thing

Earthen Barrier
He can use the earth to create about five foot barriers of rock to protect against projectiles, these jut up from the ground, and he can use this to throw an opponent running at him.

Earthen bridge
Earnest can make causeways of hardened earth about fifty feet horizontally or vertically, provided there is enough earth around for him to move.

Fissures
He can swallow people into the ground, or maybe more importantly can prevent people from doing the same to him.

Limits:
Earnest is creative in his use of simple elemental magic, but most of his skill is in deflection and illusion, creating specters that throw off the enemy and confound the wary.

Earnest has put quite a bit of research and expertise into mastering most areas of magic, but his expertise is somewhat limited in each individual study. Earnest would likely not defeat another mage with a great display of the greatest and most powerful spell, but would use deflection to fool and disarm his enemy.

His great amount of style and technique centers around protecting himself and rebounding with the least amount of energy expenditure possible, and he often uses this to outlast his opponents.
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Weapon(s):

Earnest favors a rapier or a walking stick. Usually he is using whatever shiny blade he can get from the latest day at market.

Carried Possessions:

Earnest is trying out a new invention every day. Be it a concealed blade in an umbrella or a dart gun with deadly effective salves in the darts. Often his inventions seem useless until they are applied as a tool for that perfect situation. __________________________________________________ _____

Virtues/ Vices:

Earnest’s demeanor is mostly selfish although he won’t go out of his way to break the law unless it is presents itself as the easiest or most profitable path. He can at times fight for the cause of truth and justice but again, only as long as such a path remains beneficial for him.

Battle Weaknesses:

Earnest isn’t bulletproof, and under his ploys and defenses he’s only human. If there is any way at all to avoid or end a fight without harm to himself he will even accept self humiliation as an alternative to a scrap, although normally a seemingly humble acquiescence from him turns out to be a clever ploy to win out in the end once he is out of harm’s way.

General Appearance:

Earnest generally wears a faded red bolero jacket that isn’t quite as flamboyant or frilly as a traditional one. When he wears a hat it’s generally a bowler cap. He generally wears a merchant’s uniform, and wears a pair of thick woolen spaulders over his shoulders, a half cape and shiny black boots.

Transportation

For transportation he has a horse and a single horse drawn carriage of curious design. Filled of course, with everything Colson needs for every situation. He always leaves home prepared.
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History:

Earnest was born in Emery and given a name sourced from their oldest tribes predating the floating cities. His name literally meant ‘victorious combat’ or ‘the dark and serious.’

He was born in a druidic temple, from which his mother fled when her husband tried to sacrifice her and her son. They fled to Selton when Earnest was only two before he had even been named.

His mother gave the boy up for servitude when he turned ten in return for refuge. By the time Earnest had turned 10 his mother had died from disease and he was conscripted to a priest who soon after left the cloth and went to find his fortunes as a traveling merchant.

Earnest was the man’s traveling servant, and as a very young boy saw a lot of the country which was a somewhat rare thing for the common denizens of Prydden.

The man, named Bartimus became disillusioned with his church and with the world at large and would rob people of their money at every opportunity in bad business transactions. The man was highly adept at all types of magic and despite the dangers of the world he was adept at protecting what was his.

When Earnest turned 18 the man tried to leave Earnest on the road while he flew in his carriage up to one of the floating cities in Emery.

That very morning, Earnest had stolen Bartimuse’s book on magical and elemental theory

Earnest spent six months thereafter in Summercoast in a rented room at their inn. His landlord thought that he had a fever, and Earnest rarely left the room. In fact Earnest had completed the very large book, and then had read it four or five more times from cover to cover.

He became like a man possessed and began reading the book so quickly that his very essence had absorbed every word. He got so that he could flip through the pages instantaneously and read the large book within three minutes.

In Morhann, in time he became known as the greatest magician the city had ever seen. He could weave a spell faster and more powerful than their greatest minds and that in any element, a rare sight for Morhannites.

Many months later Earnest found his master and Bartimus immediately used his magic to try to fry Earnest. It was a fact that Bartimus had only read parts of the book, parts that would most serve his profession as a traveling merchant. Earnest’s magic by that time was far superior, and after a great conflagration, Earnest was the only man left standing.

Earnest today is known for many feats of wizardry as he has traveled much like his master selling goods. He always makes an honest sale to an honest person, but he leaves only misfortune for any man that should cross him or offend him.

He has traveled from city to city mostly doing things that carry his fancy, he once was tossed into the gladiator arena for a crime that he in fact did commit, and he defeated every challenge and beast they had thrown at him and the jailors finally let him walk out the front door after several weeks. He once saved a sinking ship, mostly for selfish reasons (a girl and a large treasure chest,) and for this they erected a statue of him in Vasto. This is the way Colson has chosen to make his way, famous in one city, wanted in the next, and always possessed with the latest gadget on the black market and ready to make a deal.

Recently: Earnest came to Selton and became ingratiated with the Emperor and, as a citizen of Emery, was set up at that time as Emissary to Selton from Emery. Earnest spends much time traveling between Selton and Emery as Selton's diplomat to Emery.
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A man was in the mud pulling his cart out to get up onto a bridge as Colson approached.

When the brute noticed the slight figure of Earnest ridden on a curious one horse carriage he stopped what he was doing.

“This ere’s a toll bridge.” Earnest rolled his eyes, every bridge with a crowd he had been on in his whole life was ‘suddenly’ a toll bridge.

“Dirty peopol cum runnin through ‘ere all da time ya know! Somebody’s gotta protect the lil guy I a’ways say!”

“Yes I’m sure you do” Colson acquiesced through the sloberific speech. “Listen, I’ve got quite another problem.”

“Oh happy teh help, long as there’s gold involved! Nothing in this world’s free ya know!”

“Of course not, wouldn’t dream of it, said Colson slowly for the sake of the dumb. “If you could help me get my horse and cart through this mud and over the bridge I’d pay you double the toll.” Earnest looked over at the troll’s own predicament and winked.

And so the brute helped him, practically picked up his cart and his horse nickered and helped itself across the bridge with the large man.

“Okay, I helps you where’s the loot woman!”

“Oh of course” said Colson, looking back. “Oh my, what has happened to your cart?” Even as the giant turned his cart was suddenly no longer encumbered by mud and was tottering back down the hill. Colson rode slowly away as the man ran for the cart and chuckled to himself as the vehicle crashed into some very craggy rocks.

Okay, I'm not trying to be mean here, but that is not a character history, it's a random piece of dialogue. If you really are serious about this I'm going to be needing a proper history first, before we go into anything else.

Cookie, the history should be very clear now. I was thinking that keeping some mystery about the character would be more appropriate, the evil genius by very design should be a person cloaked in mystery, and nearly no one in Prydden will know of Earnest's past, and specifically it seemed wrong to give so much information for the 'good guys' to freely read. You're the boss, however, and I did as you requested. In addition I enumerated how 'clerical' magic fits into the world of Prydden in general.

As a GM of Prydden, I feel I'm allowed to post here. (Please be gentle if I'm not allowed..)

Any serious RP'er don't metagame. There is a reason why we have a weakness section in the character profile. And when it comes to Bio, it makes planning so much simpler if there is not any skeletons in the closet which we should be aware of.

Secondly, and why I posted here in the first place, the magic. This world's magic is energy magic. It means that the wizards direct the flow of energy to create or alter things. It's not Rule Magic but Force Magic, so there is no need for words of power or an ancient magic language, which doesn't exist.
But those pagan, or cleric spells, those are allowed, as it would be this Xerxes granting of a request, and in turn working the magic requested. So if you change the arcane magic language to a druid language, it's OK. As long as you remove the "He could weave a spell faster and more powerful than their greatest minds and that in any element, a rare sight for Darrowans."
They may be more powerful, as the magic is worked from a half-deity or something, but not as fast as a normal mage, who only needs his will.

Pantheons and fictional magical theory hurtses my brains. I wish the guide was a little more clear in some areas.

Perfect words are words that Xerxes has created whose meaning connect the flow of magic to nature. They are arcane because the god is old, and they are druidic because the theology is called druidism.

Uttering spells in this universe either works as an alternative form to normal will based casting or it doesn’t. And a book of spells in this instance could be more of a ‘theory on how to use your will to create magic.’ I was unaware, just by reading the guide, that people would cast without using words or ‘spell weaving.’ If people ‘think a thing’ and it happens then those spells would be faster than being encumbered by words and I will append that part. But this is where I got my understanding of how magic DOES work:

As such, the magic of the world is split up into very iffy ‘types' of magic based upon the states of matter, so that new magicians can focus their skills into certain areas. Magic itself is such an immense concept that most magicians never bother to contemplate the full scope of what it could do, when they can use it regardless of how well they know the theory. Many magicians do not even know that magic is the infinite energy source that spawned the universe, or that it is the only known source of energy that is completely infinite.

Xerxes' power as a demigod then, is not sourced in the creation of magic, but in the ultimate understanding of the flow of magic, even to the point of creating a language with words that control its flow by bringing a source to its elemental power in nature.

While my type for magic doesn’t hold to your strict definition of will based magic, I was molding clerical magic around my understanding of how magic works in Prydden.

In a world where people don’t study and little understand magic but just do it naturally I was creating magical theory whereby people had a proven source, if rare, for studying and increasing their knowledge about magic and thereby increasing their magical power

Hopefully then, this is agreeable because I had no intention from outset to metagame.

That would be true. You may proceed with this.

But to keep the lore of the world intact, perhaps you could write a little about this Xerxes, and how he came to be, or what he is the god of? Not in this thread, but in a little PM. Also, if you could specify a little more what this cleric magic is, to distance it from the regular magic. (If it's not different, why bother?)
Perhaps it could allow for easy enchantment, perhaps? Seeing as Earnest is the 'genius'..

Will do, most definitely. I also had some stuff I wanted to PM about Colson and Lucien's possible relationship to each other that I wanted to bring out in the 'meet and greet' campaign thread.

Made a couple of changes Cookie, hopefully Earnest is good to go.

Well we still have work t0 do, actually. First of all I want you to expand his personality more, go in-depth and please try avoiding comparing him to Leonardo, I want to know what Earnest is like.

Now then, his magic section. "Clerical" magic doesn't really mean anything under the new magic description, I want you to break down his abilities using the seven established magic disciplines, and explain them. I don't see how him turning his skin into scales is even possible. Also water magic or even magic in general can't directly affect living organisms, and healing abilities are the jurisdiction of chi. I've also said that spellwords are not required to use magic, so I don't see why they're still included. The magic system is universal and works the same for everyone. Lastly you need to explain whether he uses ki, chi, or aura: as far as I understand he uses both ki and chi but hasn't unlocked his aura?

And the bio needs work again. I want to avoid having gods explicitly included in the story and leave them more as the subject of belief and speculation. As a result I'm pretty much asking for a bio where a god isn't directly involved with the character, with no mention of Xerxes or any abilities he might grant him. Furthermore his name suggests that he is a full-fledged citizen of Emery and has little to do with druidic tribes, which makes me wonder how he ended up at a druidic monastery.

Please look over all this.

Okay, edits made.

...I actually had a reply ready, but you posted before I had the chance to. But anyway.

First of all, I want apologise about Flue and I giving you conflicting instructions about what you should have done, which was mostly because of miscommunication on our part and me not knowing about the PM you sent to Flue. It wasn't something done purposefully and you haven't really caused any delays in the approval process. ( I'm the one to blame for any delays, really. )

I had seen your edits aside from the bio since you first made them, most of which are good though we need to go over a few things. The real problem here had to do with Xerxes, but with your latest edit that is not really an issue anymore. However I think I still owe you clarification on why I made that request and explain the reasoning behind it. It's not that I have something against the concept but I've tried to limit the presence of gods in Prydden so that they're a matter of belief rather than having a real tangible presence, and all the other characters reflect that ideal. Earnest having an entire deity behind him with the ability to reinforce his magical abilities would create a large inbalance compared to all the other characters which are under strict limits, especially after I made an effort to tone down the more powerful characters. In short I want to shift emphasis from magical abilities and powerful characters to political intrigue and character development. Even so I'm fine with Earnest being a prodigy of sorts and being more able than your average magic user, but having the aid of a god on his side is a completely different matter.

I was considering suggesting that you could have him be devout and believe Xerxes is actually helping him, but Earnest being the one actually doing the magic with his own abilities. That way you could have kept the bio largely as it was with only a few changes. However the current bio works alright so we can go with this version if you're in agreement as well.

Again, I'm sorry about any misunderstandings and if my previous post was too abrupt, and I want to make clear that this wasn't singling you or your character out. The complication here was that your character was directly involved with a god. I'll wait for you to get back to me on the bio issue, and then we can move on to the rest of the profile. ^^

They were really unneeded, but thanks for the apologies. I apologize too, I did feel singled out for a moment, but when I found out a majority of the people were getting major rewrites I shut up about it. I gotta say I admire you for taking so much time with bios and wanting to create the checks and balances like a real GM.

I think using some draconic language is good enough for me. My biggest reason for wanting to keep the spell word ability is that Earnest is supposed to have 'the big gun,' and while I understand you've got to put a lot of restrictions on the exact power of that story element, I felt it was at least my prerogative to come up with it.

In short, keep Xerxes or not, you can just hax the whole god out of the bio because I agree with your assertion, having the ability to summon an avatar or something of the like would be more powerful than I was shooting for. I wouldn't have used the ability in that way, but that's neither here nor there.

Edit... I had a more in depth personality section, apparently it didn't make it into the final... Let me go find it...

Edit Edit.... Okay, the personality section is fixed and more in depth...

Yeah, I did want to point out that several of the other characters had to endure my nitpicking and have been edited by their creators, but the reason I'm being so strict here is exactly because there are certain rules which must be followed and boundaries to stay within. But the truth is that I am actually putting quite a bit of effort into this. Anyway, I'm glad we're past those misunderstadings.

But moving on. The first thing I want to clarify is whether he uses both chi and ki, or just aura, as it wasn't very clearly defined in the profile. It doesn't affect much in itself, but it plays an important part in other areas I want to examine. For example, with the changes to the magic system, water magic can't directly affect the body and has no healing abilities, but healing is now the area of chi. Likewise his abilities to create illusions is the area of ki. Of course, if he has an unlocked aura he can use both the abilities of chi and ki through his aura. So please clarify that so we can move on.

On a sidenote, is your goal to make Earnest a powerful magic user which would be why the Big Bad wants him around? If that's the case I could help think up ways for him to do that without bending the rules. Like using spellwords for example to create spells that are more powerful than normal, which I'm currently trying to see how I can reconcile with the current system. What I'm asking is if you'd like me to propose alternatives which can be just as potent but not requiring reconciling.

We'll take this slowly, so please don't feel rushed or that you're delaying the RP for some reason. I'm here to help you make this profile ( and Earnest ) work to the best of its ability. ^^

EDIT: Personality section looks great now, by the way. But I think you might have merged battle strengths with it.

For those, like Earnest, rare and enough to learn the language of dragons, their magic is quite a bit different; often uttering a single word to cast a spell, a word describing in devinest and purest fashion their most exact intent in casting the spell.

Casting the spell word ability creates a magical aura that appears to be of a slightly yellowish tint. This aura emanates from their eyes and their mouth, and in its full form may resemble a pair of wings, this aura isn’t a traditional aura as it is in fact the effect of saying the perfect words themselves and those words being carried into action as they enter the stream of magic.

Chi and Ki:
Healing (through the understanding of the Chi Ki disciplines)
e.g. The discipline also includes the general worship of and teaches of the godliness of all living things; it teaches from the first about the connection of the practitioners to their environment. This includes the ways in which Chi and Ki help in healing and in other spells, in that a healthy Chi and Ki make a more powerful magician. Earnest’s discipline will never have the stamina and bodily constitution or precision of a monk practitioner of Chi, and will never use Ki as a mind melter or psionist, but he does use both in his spell casting.

This is all the information on chi, ki and aura that is in the bio at the moment. Earnest, I'm thinking, uses Chi and Ki naturally as part of his spell casting, especially for healing, and you're right, illusion would be somewhere in the Ki/water spectrum, but I wasn't thinking Earnest used psionics. If that's mandatory for illusion though, then I guess he does.

Also, yes, Earnest has an unlocked aura, mostly in conjunction with his spell word ability which you might be editing, so I imagine this 'yellow/goldish' aura will strictly be his spell casting aura, so yes, he has it unlocked.

Um, yeah, feel free to come up with something in lieu of the spell word ability that wouldn't bend the rules, I'm just fine with it. Hopefully it can be something sort of similar, but whatev.

Edit: I think I misunderstood you, by what you just said maybe he doesn't need an aura unlocked at all. I'm thinking maybe it'd be better if his main principle was to have his magic, and his Chi and KI in a balance of power. Without the spell word ability, I really see no reason for the aura.

Contrarywise, maybe he doesn't need Chi and Ki and uses these things as part of his watermancer aura, which means he has taken water magic to another level and has eliminated the need to study Chi and Ki. I just don't see the need for both Chi and Ki and the Aura in Earnest's discipline.

I liked the second option better so I went with it:

Earnest's water mancer ability has been taken to the next level. In his search for knowledge he has unlocked an aura associated with his discipline in spell casting that somewhat defies the limits of water in nature.

He has come to use water as a means to replace the need for knowledge of Chi and Ki, and uses water's intrinsic value to living things as a way to heal, and water's essential distortionary properties to create illusions. His aura gives him ability to use water in ways that are mostly unheard of in Prydden.

This is a bluish aura and mostly looks like water reflecting off a pool onto a cave ceiling, in spell casting this aura can make the area around Earnest look like he is standing over a pool of water, even when there is no water to reflect off of.

If that works I'll replace the information about auras and Chi with this.

^bump

I feel a little stuck, I went ahead and added the changes in the last post but making the replacement for the spell word ability is gonna take some help. Not to rush you Cookie.

Lol, don't know many single character profile threads that make it to page two...