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~*Giynna*~ Age: 134 Race: Moutain Dwarf Gender: Female (Duh) Height: 4'2 Weight: 80lbs Hair: Flame red Eyes: Dark Brown Skin Tone: Fairly pale Clothing: Giynna, or Gin is causally seen wearing one of the two armors. Most of the time she wears ferrum guards on her shoulders, a ferrum chestplate, brown bear skin pants and a bear skin shawl around the top of her armor, and leather boots that cover most of her pants. The other armor she is seen in is a red robe with golden decals, with leather leggings meeting her boots, atop the robe is a white breastplate with golden decals, as well as gauntlets to match. Resting on her thighs would be another piece of armor, and around her waist is a tight belt. ********************* Personality: Gin, is very hot headed like most Dweds not putting up with any ****. Due to her unfortunate upbringing she has trust issues, but she is very trustworthy and makes it her duty to keep her word. Not to mention her commitment issues, she would more than likely marry several times before setteling down. That would interfear with her wish to have children one day, she is constantly under stress due to recent hardships in her life. Normally she is seemingly quiet around most, but if you knew her you would know she is very talkitive but is a tad bit more reserved around strangers. Goals: She would love to have children, start her own tavern, and win as many fights as possible Strengths: Is a talented chef from bread to ale brewer, she is fairly good at hand-to-hand combat but is much better with her waraxe. Weakness: Is normally very sluggish as she has insomnia and can hardly sleep at night, and is very easily distracted. She is also allergic to taking it easy she will almost always be working on something big or small. ************************************************************************************ Inventory: Normally a war hammer A bear skin satchel that contains, Bandages and ointments, A book labeled 'Diary' A basic amount of food and water, A small Mina bag, a pair of keys, and a emerald necklace. ((WIP!))

The Graven Spirits of Duty Unfulfilled Introduction It is a cold, wintry night. The road has not yet frozen over, but the winter snows are due any time now. You are walking along the path, shivering and hurrying towards your destination. A mistake, to have walked this way at night; there might be bandits and such about--but you had to. Suddenly the air turns chill. It had been cold but now it is ice. Your teeth begin to chatter--and over that sound another may be heard: the sound of digging, an iron shovel cutting into the frost-hardened dirt. "Who's there?" you might cry out. Silence. You walk a little faster, attempting to convince yourself that it was nothing. "Just the wind." you tell yourself, on this windless night. The sound of digging does not abate. You break into a run, stopping some distance ahead, sure you have outrun the strangely-terrifying sound. A heavy thud and scrape. A shovel, breaking into the loam and casting it aside in a heap. "Who's there?!" you'd scream again, "What do you want?" If unlucky, one might espy between the trees an awful figure. One of us. A man in a leather cowl, a hunch in his back and a shovel in his green-tinged hands. The eyes beneath the cowl are barely visible, but they burn green, casting no illumination on the darkness of his face. "Need t' bury me quota." it says ominously, raising the shovel and resting it upon its disfigured shoulders. "Q-quota?" "Souls. Tha ward'n collects 'em, brings 'em t' me." it says, hefting the shovel once more, and moving away from digging what is now clearly visible as a grave. "T-the warden?" "O' Lost Souls, yeh. 'Couse, he don't always collect 'em alone." the figure smiles, cracked lips barely visible beneath his cowl. "Sometimes I lend 'im a hand." The gravedigger laughs, moving back to his task. After all, he must bury his quota before he can rest. You run, never looking back. What are the Graven? The Graven are a kind of spirit, a type of ghost if you will. However, they are subtly different. Whereas ghosts generally retain most of the sentience they had in life, and can 'adapt' to their surroundings, Graven are more similar to apparitions--which are bound to one area, the site of the mass death that spawned them, and cannot leave it unless that place is destroyed--in that they are bound to one task or duty for eternity until their quest is complete or they are destroyed for good. Like apparitions, Graven can prove difficult to exorcise fully, but are much more easily damaged with common steel, not requiring gold or silver to slay. Graven tend to manifest semi-corporeal, seeming ghostly but possessing form and figure. Without this corporeality, limited though it is, they would not be able to complete their tasks, and would be tormented for all eternity in a state of agonising limbo. Graven are created by the violent or unlawful death of an individual who is singularly devoted to their work or an ideal. An alchemist who devoted their entire life to finding the cure to a disease, but was murdered by a competitor, might rise again as a Graven, seeking not revenge as a poltergeist might, but instead the completion of their life's task. In this case, it would be the finalisation of a cure, after which the Graven would slowly fade away unless given another task by a figure it recognised in life. Given that most Graven take several hundred years to rise from death initially, this is highly unlikely, although if the alchemist was an elf, a long-lived family member might be able to command him to remain. This remnant would be a bare shell of the alchemist, hardly recognisable as what he was in life. This is the curse of the Graven. Some example of Graven might be a prison warden, forever questing for more criminals to incarcerate that he might practice his foul tortures upon them, but killed by rioting prisoners; a gravedigger, devoted to his work but laid to rest without heirs, or a single-minded general, assassinated the night before a major battle in a war. These Graven would rise with only one task in mind; the duty that consumed them in life. It generally takes a violent or unlawful death to raise a Graven, and most of the people who knew that person would be long dead by the time it happens. Such as it is, Graven are cursed to perform a single task for eternity, be it a warden's duty, a gravedigger's burden, or a general's burning desire for victory over the foulest foes. What can Graven do? The Graven are spirits, meaning their interaction with the world of Anthos is limited to the one duty they treasured in life. A gravedigger is bound to spend eternity digging graves and safeguarding cemetaries. A prison warden must hunt down murderers and worse until the end of days. A general might return as a ghostly leader in the bloodiest battles, or in rare cases lead a small army of Graven to lay siege to strongholds the enemy held in life. The degree to which a Graven returns to fulfil his eternal task depends on his or her zeal in life. Graven are semi-corporeal. They have bodies--commonly wreathed in illusory darkness or spectral flame--that can be harmed like any mortal, and unlike ghosts this harm may be perpetrated by a wielder of steel instead of silver or gold. However, in the case of more violent Graven, this corporeality also means they are able to harm others. In my favourite example, the prison warden hunts down and attacks murderers, intending to drag them back to Fumblemore's excellent Shackle's Silence idea (once it's accepted, wink wink nudge nudge) a giant prison for criminals of the worst kind--in pieces, if necessary. Other Graven may be less violent but can still interact with the world around them; a Gravedigger digs graves to bury the recently departed and fulfil his quota. If someone tried to desecrate a graveyard, the Gravedigger would most likely attack them, but any other person would be able to hold a decent conversation with him, if brave enough. It differs, from Graven to Graven; some are more or less violent or vigorous than others. Graven also sometimes appear to flicker, or fade from sight. This occurs because the spirit energy that ties them to this world cannot bind their soul here for long. Graven very literally work for their living; the task that constitutes their eternal burden refreshes and rejuvenates them. Upon laying a body to rest, the gravedigger would feel energised, but after a period of time spent without digging, they fade away until they can muster enough energy to manifest once more. This process is automatic--Graven cannot choose when they are reborn. It also means that Graven can 'die' or be slain. Disrupting their spectral form--with a sword blade, for example--consumes the fuelling energy that keeps them alive; stabbing a Graven through what remains of its heart will kill it as surely as any mortal man. What do Graven look like? Graven generally appear as undead or spectral beings. They might have blue-green flames instead of flesh, and a blackened skeletal visage; rotted skin and flesh tinged poison-green; or even be translucent, like your common, run of the mill ghost. However, Graven usually appear to have corporeal equipment or apparel, unlike ghosts. This equipment very rarely appears illusory, unlike their spectral forms. Looking a Graven in the eyes too closely reveal the screaming, trapped spirit within. This can commonly drive mortals temporarily insane. What benefit will the server receive, from allowing this lore? In my eyes, the Graven will benefit the server as creators of otherworldly roleplay, as well as a caution to any who think villainy has no consequence. It will bring some defining and landmark encounters with ghostly figures that should make any character stop and think, and create an extra dimension to villain that inspires caution and careful consideration--after all, who knows when a Graven--a fanatical keeper of the peace in life--might step from around the corner and witness a murder, drawing his broadsword and charging with a battle roar. Likewise, a lonely old gravedigger doing his job late at night might be visited by a spectral helper armed with a shovel who helps him complete his task--any grave robbers who approach, looking for easy pickings, are beaten senseless by this ghostly guardian. In short, it will create roleplay. Good roleplay, hopefully--and on that note, I present these screenshots as evidence. I realise it was against the rules to roleplay as this character without an accepted lore post, but I truly wanted to see if the roleplay would appeal to players of the server. It turns out, of the four times I used the character 'Warden', my Graven altchar, I received comments that the roleplay was more than positive no less than four times. I'd say that's roleplay that appeals, wouldn't you? Without further ado. The Harbinger's Trial Fun in Kralta A Merchant's Folly A Haunting In Salvus What benefit will players receive, if this lore is accepted? I'll begin with material rewards, to keep everyone happy. Firstly, if this lore is accepted, all Graven characters will be required to drop a material reward of some kind on the event of their 'death'--represented as an inability to continue manifesting due to excessive consumption of spirit energy in game--for example, Warden drops his lantern with a 'soul' in it. This will be represented as a potion bottle; if Warden is slain whilst using a murderer's soul, for example, it might be a potion of strength. A torturer's soul might be a splash potion of poison or blindness; an innocent soul might be splash healing, or haste. A gravedigger might drop his ornate iron shovel, a general may leave behind an armoured chestplate. It all depends on the Graven in question, but you can depend on some kind of worthwhile reward for slaying a Graven. However, the second benefit is the roleplay Graven create. It is, by all the first-hand accounts I've collected above, 'spooky', 'amazing' and 'badass'. This would seem to make it worthwhile, and the character Damen from the "Fun in Kralta" account has ideas of formulating a ghost-busting service in Kralta, due to my Graven spooking him, and the increasing appearance of monsters and other horrors in our fair realm, such as the drake and river monsters that recently attacked the quaint town. It has the potential to change the way characters look at the world, or to give them a permanent fear of what might lurk in the dark. Criminals should begin to find new consequences for their crimes, as Graven take vengeance for those who cannot take it themselves. This seems powergamey? I've strived all through my roleplaying life not to godgame, as I first knew it on a roleplay forum. I pride myself on not powergaming; of course, that is my own opinion. However, to bring comfort to other users that Graven will not be powergame, they are subject to a number of restrictions: They can die, and you don't need gold or silver. They can't manifest forever, and need to sustain themselves by furthering their burden of duty. They possess the physical traits of the original corpse. A human Graven has the strength, agility and attributes of a human, whereas an orcish Graven has orcish strength and bloodlust. They aren't fully incorporeal. No phasing through walls, no flying or floating, no walking through people. They tend to flicker or appear as an outline when weak or first manifesting, but these effects are purely aesthetic. They may only act in the interest of furthering their burden of duty. Anything else causes a Graven great pain, and eventually to fade and have to remanifest. They are subject to the same respawn-after-death time as other players (30 minutes.) They are as easy or as hard to slay as any other character. A Graven with no neck (i.e. if it has spectral green fire for flesh) can still be decapitated. Graven have no specific special abilities in combat, unless the Graven in question has a MA or some other form of extraordinary attack. Hopefully this is enough to convince people that Graven are not powergame. If not, you can always talk to me about it, and see if I can calm your fears. If you're still not convinced after that, well, I suppose it depends on whether this gets accepted by the lore team or not. Here's hoping! How is this different from the undead of Aegis/we aren't having multitudes of undead again I understand that this idea might cause consternation among the staff and event team. I think I read somewhere that they weren't doing Aegis-style undead again. Well, as far as I can tell Graven aren't similar, nor will they ever be prevalent. Similar to ents, golems and other magical creatures, Graven will have a limited player base. As I said, I shall craft an application form or some such, if that isn't too presumptuous of me. Thank you for taking the time to read this lore post. It is my first, if that's relevant. If there's any way I can further improve it or its chances of being accepted, post here or PM me and I'll see what I can do. Thanks, all! Graven Application Form Spirits of Duty Unfulfilled Post applications in this forum. Please note that I probably won't be accepted more than 4 or 5 Graven (if I even get that many) so be quick. - _Grim1_