#areatam

In my underdark dnd campaign it was Zach Baggins, a parody of Zach Bagans who was a halfling. He was honestly kinda fun, a grating peprsonality but easily led and nothing malicious about him. My players hated him almost unreasonably though, but that was fun for me. He went on to invent cinema

In my ursha game that I eventually rejiggered into the filmverse, the Wretched Man was Kevin Ngyuen. He was a stereotypical jock with buried yandere tendencies. he became a kind of weird voluntary slave for the cult-leader PC. Her player wrote an ending for Kevin in which he got isekaied and hit with the trans beam. Kevin survives as Kevin Hei in the filmverse where he now simps for Mindy in an echo of his original arc

In my space based DnD game my Wretched Man was Skurret Rattano, a particularly vile mixture of Travis Bickle, Scout from TF2, and every anime pervert character. he's the worst person so far and the mention of his name in my servers is like throwing a live grenade

Ontologically, darkness does not exist. It is merely the absence of light. There are energy systems in the universe that can be said to manipulate or invoke the powers of darkness, but often you will find that they are really doing something else. For example, the "dark arts" of earth are in fact curses, which are simply fallen oaths. (Oaths, in contrast, ontologically do exist; they bind everything in existance together. In the beginning was the Word. Gravity is a promise. The electron loves the nucleus.) Ultimately darkness has no form, mass, or weight.

On Areatam, a wide swath of the common people believe that darkness does have form, mass, and weight, that there is a dark donbe, or donbe of shadows, which one can cultivate and shape like any other element or combination of elements. This is not so.

Light does exist. It has a weight and a waveform, and can be cycled like donbe. There are two primary sources of light which one can shape on this planet, the sun and the moon. Solar donbe is hard, hot, easy to forge into beams or imbue into objects, and has utility in growing and healing. It is compatible with wood and flame donbe. Lunar donbe is cool, soft, almost useless as a weapon, compatible with water and pure donde. Its lightness and texture make it perfect for shaping images. The most accomplished lightshapers use both, and using both have the power to remove light, to bend it around a target. This can make one invisible, yes, but it can also plunge an area into absolute darkness.

Powerful lightshaping schools from the north, analogous to earth ninjas, encourage the superstition of shadowshaping, as it gives them an added layer of psychological protection.

Now, what of Corruption? A shaper with corruption in their core can shape tainted elements; toxic sludge water, black flames, and so on. Can a corrupted lightshaper manipulate darkness?

No. But they can create black light. Even the best dreamshapers (illusion specialists) can be given away by the fact that their illusions all emit light, even those which appear to be black. It's like the stygian blue glow of a computer screen in a dark room. But a corrupted illusion can be made to emit no light at all. Of course, exposure to black light is poisonous.

Now, in common philosophy, the sun is considered masculine and the moon feminine. Honestly, there is no real gender distinction on the level of donbe, but there certainly are a lot more female dreamshapers than male. The distinct characters of their light come from the deities that rule them. The Sunfather, a jovial old warrior, often depicted as jolly and fat, using a sword as a walking stick, and the Moonmother, his matronly counterpart, said to possess the most heavenly voice of the celestial hierarchy. They are not part of the divine family, the Five who rule the old Pantheon, but interlopers from a different sphere, albeit ones who arrived quite early in the history of the world. Lesser, but accepted and beloved. The celestial bodies are their respective Purelands.

There are many ways to create a ghoul. The most classic method, of course, is to become one, by breaking too many oaths. There is no formula that determines how many oaths to break, though it is known that breaking oaths incurs a far greater cost for powerful cultivators than it does for the weak, and that little children and those of quartz rank and below cannot become ghouls from breaking oaths.

Next is to be bitten by a ghoul. Not every ghoul can transform a person into a ghoul, of course; the victim must be of a weaker cultivation level than the ghoul, which is rare, and the ghoul must have some sort of venomous mutation, perhaps from having eaten many vermin. Further, the infection is cured when the injury is healed or otherwise purified. The people of Raum, where ghouls are most plentiful, have made such a cultural practice of purifying infections that the transformation rate is almost zero, and the less superstitious among the population believe it is a myth. Even so, the victim must endure the ghoul-venom for thirteen days, or be so weak that they succumb to the infection. 

Placing a ghoul’s core into a dead body will turn the corpse into a ghoul. However, contrary to popular belief, this does not restore the original ghoul to life. It merely turns the body into a copy of that ghoul. In rare cases, a powerful ghoul has survived having its core split in half, the second half used to create an identical ghoul. This has only ever been achieved by Darkling sorcerers as it is terribly inefficient as a reproduction method.

Some archghouls can turn the bodies of people and animals into ghouls, loyal to themselves. Darklings can imitate this spell, albeit through a ritual that is longer and more complicated. In it, they must combine the bodies of multiple creatures with the flesh of a dead ghoul. Darklings have been observed sacrificing one ghoul to make many more in such cases.

A ghoul may take an animal companion in the method of the Beast Tamers; an animal companion intentionally fed with corruption is called a familiar. A powerful enough familiar will become a ghoul in itself, and will ascend to archghoul instantly if it kills its master.

Mud from a battlefield may be used to create ghouls in a perverse ritual mocking the sennin, the gods’ divine clay soldiers. 

Blood spilled by a rakshasa, if not purified after thirteen days, will spawn ghouls.

Some ghouls may have the ability to reproduce sexually. This is surprising to many, but considering that ghouls take on the characteristics of those they consume, it was obvious that it would happen eventually. This is why ghouls from the same geographic location tend to look the same; it’s not *just* a matter of shared diet, but shared genes.

They tend to have colorful hides and hair; there is no set palate, though shapers often have children the color of their own donbe. Most have claws and fangs, and all have tails, either sheathed in silky fur or barbed with bony stingers. All have horns, usually like a goat's, though antlers are not uncommon. Their eye colors tend toward metallic, and their tongues are dark and forked. They skew towards willowy, though in body type they can be as diverse as humans. Their silhouette, as you have likely guessed, resembles the depiction of demons on certain worlds. This is a coincidence; more likely they are related to zmey. The few creatures they brought with them from the Old World have draconic traits as well.

Like imps, djabali don't come from Areatam. They originate from a colder world. Imagine vast steppes and alpine forests, severe mountains and crystalline lakes. A severe world, but a beautiful one.

The djabali initially had no cores, but channeled magic through a form of ritual scarification involving the embedding of liquid metal in the skin. Done properly it would heal and the metal became as flexible as the skin it was married to. Most commonly they traced their veins with metal, drew circles on their chakra points, arrows directing force. The most powerful magi's horns would crystallize, allowing them to store even more energy within. Even now, some rare descendants of those folk still have those traits.

Their native magic was subtle, yet potent, able to disrupt energies through imposed stillness. In time they developed this into a form of worldwalking; by imposing stillness on the veil between worlds, they could make two points in two different worlds the same. Through this practice they brought back much plunder to their empire and became knowledgeable in the ways of he multiverse; sages to some, demons to others.

But overuse of this magic made the world grow colder. The still points, the places where their world touched on others, drained massive amounts of energy into the multiverse. Eventually, the world became uninhabitable, and their was a mass exodus of their people.

Of course, it was an entire world, and there were many directions to flee; we know nothing of the nations and cultures that were destroyed, or that fled to other worlds than Areatam. Those that came here were lower class; peasants, artisans, wanderers. Few were magi, and of those who were, most had very few inlays. The ones that did found they could channel the native energies.

Djabali are physically hearty and can consume many substances poisonous to others with minimal effect. This allowed them to adapt to the food on Areatam with relative ease; the food there is not poisonous in itself, but contains so much energy that folk from lower spheres can die from indulging in it. Within a few generations, djabali were born with cores. To this day, albeit very rarely, a djabal may be born with metal inclusions in their core, which no other race has.

The magic of the old world followed them, called colorless donbe and The Killing Light by the natives, changed the world in subtle ways forever. But that is another story.

An imp resembles a goblin in size and shape, though their aspect resembles a pumpkin or gourd complete with a thick rind. They come in all the colors of gourds and squash, most commonly shades of orange and yellow, though some are green, or even pale blue, and may be speckled, striped, or mottled. Squash leaves and flowers at times grow from their hair. Their hands have three fingers, each tipped with a stout claw, good for digging. their eyes and tongues glow with a ghostly light.

Imps are shapeshifters. Those from the highlands can take the form of other sapient races, while those from the river valleys can take the form of beasts. The royal family and their various cadet families can assume either form.

The imps have a hidden kingdom in the northern mountains, between the fallen kingdom of Mizuho and the sea. Only their own kind may enter, and only they know the hidden paths into that land. Despite this, they do love people, and like to go out among the other races. They are rare everywhere but you could find one anywhere, and for that one, there are two more in disguise. In some parts they are looked at as fairy tale creatures, tricksters and stealers of children, but in major cities people are used to them.

They've left behind the aversion to cold iron that the true fey possess, but still prefer to work bronze or truemetal. Impish bronzework is legendary across the Arc, particularly their spearheads and gun barrels. They did not invent guns, as some believe, though a famous imp gunsmith invented the hero-killer guns that are in vogue now in Ribuwe. These fire thick, stout bolts with specialty arrowheads, often with a crescent shaped blade popular in Meikugan.

Their religion revolves around a Mother Goddess, who is a tree. They have syncretized her with the Soulforge, as they call Her in Meikugan, although there she is a volcano. The imps see no contradiction, s the eruptions bring fertilizing ash.

Their royal family has pink locks. You may recall that the imperial family of Meikugan likewise has pink hair, and claim direct descent from the Soulforge Herself. The unique powers of the impish royal line hints at some truth at this divine ancestry. The royal imps, however, possess a trait that the Meikuganese lack; the wings of butterflies, a callback to their ancient ancestry.

Their kingdom is very wet, being formed of river deltas and facing the sea. There are great extremes in temperature from the highest peaks down to the coast, albeit contained in a small region. The softer, earthen mountains to the west are carved in terraces for farming. That said, they only practice subsistence farming, rather than large scle agriculture. Imps need less food than the taller races, and much of that must be meat. The mountains are rich in game, and they act as stewards of the beasts, using their magicks and cultivation to keep the herds healthy and numerous.

Imps frequently eat raw meat, though the upper classes have it more often. They can afford to have it fresh every day and tend to believe myths like "the lower classes cook rotten meat to get rid of the smell". They do enjoy things like hotpot, where you cook the meat in front of you, so you know it's fresh.

The lower classes eat more cooked meat, though many of them manage to hunt at least once a week. There's a saying; "he eats carpaccio three days a week" for someone who thinks highly of themselves.

A monster is an altogether different kind of thing than a ghoul. Ghouls have replaced nearly all their donbe with corruption, and the vital functions of their body and spirit are carried out by corruption rather than donbe. Their cores are semi-organic and serve the dual function of pumping ichor through the ghoul's body as well as anchoring their channels.

A monster is a beast that has advanced to the point it starts thinking. A lot of ghouls never get that far, so by and large monsters are more dangerous.

Monsters are sometimes born, as there is a natural law that a child will inherit some of the advancement traits of their parents. However, this is rare, as monsters tend to prioritize their self preservation over procreation. Most monsters then, are born from advancement. This is comparatively rare, as most beasts don't live long enough to passively cultivate enough donbe to advance beyond garnet. However, once a beast gains sapience, it may independently discover active cultivation techniques, and that's when the trouble begins.

The average monster awakens around topaz rank and caps out at the peak of emerald, but beasts have a higher donbe capacity than people, and thus tend to be stronger than a given group of equal rank. This equalizes around sapphire rank, however. It's estimated that there are more living sapphire monsters than sapphire cultivators (there are only three known among the latter).

A monster's core is usually an uncut gemstone, rather than a sphere. The unusual form imposes distinct requirements for monster advancement that are not well understood.

Naturally when beast tamers advance their animal companions to sapience, this is the same thing as creating a monster. Polite society doesn't really call them that.

My darling girl Jileyna, originally known as Julianna and affectionately nicknamed Jila by the people (you).

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Julianna originally was just a name I picked with very little logic behind it. I needed a ttrpg character to play and extropolated "Julianna" from Julian of Norwich, a spiritual writer (she was originally a D&D cleric!). Jileyna came about from mangling her name a bit (with @fvriva's help) so it could keep some of the same sounds but not sound western, when I changed her setting from the Forgotten Realms to my original setting.

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

24-25. Her exact age isn't known because she was a foundling.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Yes and no. fvriva is pushing for her to hook up with her OC, Baran, for thematic reasons. I'm not opposed to it. Whenever i get back to the Areatam novel though, she will probably have a different love interest.

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

For a proper meal it's the red gourd curry she makes. The red gourd is a staple food in areatam, hearty and grows anywhere, so this is a fairly common food, enjoyed largely by peasants and religious ascetics. That said she develops a taste for sweets. In D&D her favorite food was tiramisu.

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Julianna is a religious ascetic; in D&D she was a cleric with an acolyte background. In Areatam she is alternately referred to as a nun or monk by players, depending on what's funniest, though the actual word used in the setting is bhante which is gender neutral. She lived and worked in a large temple, where all the bhantes take turns doing all the essential tasks for maintaining the temple. However, in D&D she was an illuminator.

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

She likes cooking best of all the work she does at the temple, and draws on her own time. She continues to do these things outside of it.

🎯 -What do they do best?

What she does best is dole out massive amounts of damage with the destructive magical power welling up inside of her. Followed by cooking.

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Jileyna loves her hobbies, and sitting in prayerful contemplation, and successfully commanding the lightning. She hates unsuccessfully commanding the lightning, because she hates feeling like she is bad at things, which is common due to her being rather clumsy.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

As Julianna, it was an incident in which she finessed a social interaction in a dungeon. The party entered a neutral goblin camp and watched an improvised performance of a play they were putting on. Julianna transcribed and illustrated the play and sold it back to the goblin leader for information, earning the approval of the party. In Areatam, Jileyna's best memories are yet to form, though she likes to remember the free time she spent discussing philosophy and the shaping arts with her mentor Sebron.

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

In D&D, it would be the day they fought Tiamat, a horrific battle in which one party member died. Though the party emerged victorious, and Tiamat was slain (by Jila's own hand even!) it was a dark day that she would not soon relive.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Nope! As Jila originated in D&D her appearance was originally more western, featuring blonde hair. Her equipment was more western in style and she was also more muscular. Now she is thinner, dark haired, and has glasses. My artist and party members insist she is flat-chested too though I have made it clear she is not lmao

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

A former friend and I were crafting a setting whose premise was that the earth and a fantasy world merged together in some kind of cosmic event. I started making up random characters, of which I vaguely got the idea for a half-elf cleric who was a devout christian and the daughter of Zeus. This was a joke character, and I pared the premise down to actually be like, good

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

High fantasy always

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Pansexual cis female

🙌 - How many sibling does your OC have?

None, but also hundreds of brother and sister bhantes.

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

She does not have parents, though in the D&D setting she was originally going to be my bard character's half sister. This did not however wind up going anywhere. In Areatam I plan to leave the idea of her birth parents entirely untouched. They don't matter. In terms of having an adult figure that raised and influenced though, she could be said to have two father figures, Sebron, a soldier who retired into the cloth, and Abbot Behoom. They both mentored her in different ways, though of the two Sebron is more fatherly while Behoom is more paternalistic. If that makes sense at all lmao. She likes them both though.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

I like how she grew out of being a joke character into an actual good character that I like and enjoy writing thinking about. That can't be said for all my joke characters

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Pretty often. I have used her in 3 rpg campaigns (one fell through, the other was fun but I didn't feel fulfilled in terms of character growth, the third is ongoing) and I have also written a few chapters of a novel set in her new original setting.

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

No she is going to live forever

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

No, though she is full of religious terror over the concept of corruption. In Areatam certain actions and behaviors accrue corruption, which is like a physical manifestation of sin. It alters your magic to become uncontrollable and causes you to become evil. Many people over the course of their lives will accrue a small amount of corruption but it's definitely looked down upon to have any significant amount, even before it starts becoming actually dangerous.

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

None relly but let's say Tiamat for fun

🎓 🍥 - How long have you had the OC?