Inhabitants of the world. Any need for illustrations?

[Steel General]

More 12ROund goodness!

[12rounds]

Name: Luther Dien
Race: Half-Elf (human/elf)
Location: Port Magalie, Witchlight Strand


Luther is a Missionary of Justice. Missionaries of Justice are usually appointed by a Cardinal, region-bound, stationed in Aldamar's temple and serve a local secular ruler. Such is the case with Luther as well. He is the legal advisor of Lord Weers - the current ruler of Port Magalie.

It is Luther who positions himself between the interests of ruling class and the common people. He speaks words of wisdom to both Lord Weers, other important city officials and to the masses of locals. He spends most of his time giving advice as how to resolve legal disputes between parties. Aldamar's Missionaries of Justice rarely have the authority to act as magistrates in the cities, but on occasion their judgement is sought after in simple matters. Missionaries' task is to spread the word of Aldamar - to establish systems of high justice and gain followers to Aldamar's cause.

Luther's presence is deceiving - he has the face of a child, but his calm and decided manners and firmly spoken words of wisdom mostly surprise those who do not know him. Luther runs a temple in Port Magalie and has two apprenticing priests under his tutorage. He holds weekly informal gatherings in the temple. Anyone is welcome to these gatherings, but their primary focus is discussions on legalities, methods of justice, current affairs in the city and how justice is served in the area. Mostly the persons in these gatherings are people caught in legal difficulties seeking advice as how to proceed to further their cause and still remain loyal to principles of justice.

Luther rarely travels far from Port Magalie, but once a year he spends a month or so away studying magical arts under more experienced Aldamarian priests. He is already 75 years of age (which is hard to believe by looking at his face!) and has thus gained numerous magical disciplines throughout the years.

Luther is frequently at odds with Lord Weers. Mostly their issues revolve around city affairs and mainly how Lord Weers decides to deal justice. Luther considers Lord Weers as "corrupt" since the good lord is easy to persuade into taking all sorts of gifts and even money that apparently affect his decisions about ongoing matters. Lord Weers does not share Luther's ideas about corruption - to him they sound absurd because he is a man who considers men of noble origins automatically above the common masses.

Nevertheless, they co-operate and Lord Weers understands the importance of legal advise that Luther gives. Also it doesn't hurt to be connected to Aldamar's people in any case ... who knows when a need arises to ask for Aldamar's paladins to fight in order to preserve law and justice, right?

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[industrygothica]

Name: Luther Dien
Race: Half-Elf (human/elf)
Location: Port Magalie, Witchlight Strand

It's great of you to come up with this character when you did. I'll be introducing him in our Witchlight Strand game in just a few moments; he's absolutely perfect for what I need him for.


-IG

[12rounds]

Name: Miriam Sandell
Race: Human
Location: Rhadim, Thargellian Highlands


Miriam popped up in Rhadim a year ago. She has been quiet as to what her past exactly is, but it's not uncommon for people of her trade to keep quiet about their history. Miriam is a thief. And a good one too. She caught the attention of Artos Penhaligon who runs one of two thieves' groups in the area and soon after Miriam was an initiate in the guild. Formerly a woman without strong religious beliefs, she has also initiated herself on the ways of Syth under the tutorage of Artos. And if that is not enough, she is now romantically involved with Artos as well.

Unknown to the members of her new religion and guild and to her boyfriend, she is merely an infiltrator. A traitor paid (a hefty sum it is worth adding) to penetrate the group and report her findings on her employer. Miriam is an adept actor and a travelling rogue by "profession". 15 months earlier she met - by pure chance - Augustus von Haedor in Udunassys (a port city in southern Groam). They had met before on several occasions and Augustus knew enough of Miriam to ask her to become a paid spy for him. Miriam accepted - took a hefty compensation for a two year job - and onwards they sailed to Thargellian Highlands. During the trip they had plenty of time to plan the infiltration and mostly their plans have worked right out of the box.

Miriam reports to Augustus by two independent means. Once a month Augustus moves about in Rhadim in cognito and they meet face-to-face on some obscure and remote place. Once a week she collects incriminating evidence and writes down as much detail as she can and hides the evidence in the base of a ruined and abandoned outpost tower just outside Rhadim. Some other Augustus' "employee" then picks the stuff up and delivers to Augustus - the identity of this third person is not known to Miriam.

Miriam is devilishly enjoying her job. She even finds the dark undertones of Syth rituals and beliefs satisfyingly ironic. No one has suspected anything and she has nicely managed to wrap her lover, Artos, around her spell of acting.

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[Juggernaut1981]

Name: Miriam Sandell
Race: Human
Location: Rhadim, Thargellian Highlands

12Rounds... my only thought on Miriam is this one: It looks like she borrowed her bodice. Think Size 14 Bodice on Size 10 girl...

[12rounds]

Name: Jaime Castillo
Race: Human
Location: Udynaesses, Groam

15 years as a professional pirate in the high seas taught only one thing to Jaime - that life is cheap, but still worth living. Jaime has spent most of his adult life onboard ships of a multitude of shapes and sizes. He started out as a deck hand on a small trade vessel, but wanted a more exciting career and switched over to the side of the piracy before he celebrated his 18th birthday.

When the plague-ridden immigrants swarmed to southern Groam, many cities and towns were literally swamped under the pressure and have never recuperated. The same happened to Udynaesses - a once bustling, opportunous, international and joyful port city almost big enough to be a city state. The last ten years have treated the fallen city relatively kindly and some of the city is now almost functional - albeit corrupt, filthy and diseased, but functional. The trade routes are only a fraction of the past glory and even most of the pirates of yester years have switched to easier careers. Like Jaime.

Jaime runs a protection agency now. He has a modern villa in the city centre that houses his employees, a small safe house, training grounds and a protected vegetable garden. Many modern buildings in Udynaesses are now designed to be resistant to mob attacks and have facilities with which the occupants can be self-sustained for short periods of time. Eventhough the plague has not ravaged the city, the swarms of immigrants have introduced severe epidemics that have killed thousands and weakened many more. Jaime's villa is named Castillo's Claw and that's the name of his protection business as well.

Business is now blooming. Crime lords of the city took a severe blow a year ago when a wandering paladin of Aldamar named Augustus von Haedor returned an official court and justice system back into the city. Von Haedor succeeded - with the support of the citizens - to re-establish and rekindle systems that had fleed the city long ago. Crime lords who earlier had divided the city between themselves hold now only a quarter of the city and it's environs and central-government appointed officials have started to run the city towards it's former self. Many citizens regard von Haedor as the saviour of the city and equally many are trying to work against the newly established rule of law. And they all need protection against each other. A delightful situation for Jaime.

Jaime has 12 regular employees and few more on irregular odd jobs. They work for merchants who refuse to pay "protection money" and they work for crime lords who are squeezing "protection money" from merchants. Essentially Jaime's business doesn't take into account what's morally right and simply lets the highest bidder dictate their morale of the day. But they don't do murders, assassinations, kidnappings and any sorts of active violence that potentially leads them to the "hanging hill". Instead they offer services of protection and only resort to violence if attacked first. Or so they claim.

Jaime Castillo has the charismatic presence of a rebel leader. Even if he has no political ambitions at the moment, he has the potential to become a major player in the city. He is a clever and resourceful pragmatist and quite good at creating social networks around him. He respects hard work and loathes all who he thinks gets things too easily. This applies equally well to lazy city officials pushing papers and to fat crime lords farting at their subordinates to steal them more money.

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[Redrobes]

Fab - I can see that token getting a lot of use !