#serran

1. Does your character have good aim?

Several characters have very, very good aim. Among them are Naviyd, Mitra, Khalil (but not with an actual ranged weapon; he can throw rocks) and Serran, who is granted but a wee tyke. Middling aim is the threshold of people like Alena and (two of) her cousins, who have training but not a natural inclination or perfect eye.

Oceanus’s is just bad.

5. Can your character cook?

Most of the non-noble characters can. They’re not professional-level unless that’s their specific job, but those who grow up outside of a staffed household need to get by however they can.

7. Do any of your characters have depression?

Several, but the example who comes to mind immediately is Riyaz.

10. Would your character give up the chance to come back to life as a god so that someone else could be saved?

Riyaz, Tirane, Arno, and Serran would.

The rest of the cast is a bit vaguer and more “well, who’s coming back” about it.

12. Would your character marry someone their family didn’t approve of?

Alena most definitely would. Lumina definitely did. So did Naviyd, though that marriage went sour. Ismene would have, but circumstances went pear-shaped before the question was ever popped.

Khalil would probably ask who the hell he was marrying who managed to piss off his dad without annoying him first.

13. Do/Did any of your characters have large ears they had to grow into as a kid?

Arno did, and so does Serran.

14. Are any of your characters nonverbal?

Not that I can think of right now.

15. Did your character ever want to be a cowboy?

Khalil would if he knew what that was, but then would get bored and move on.

16. How does the way your character present themselves in public differ from how they are in private?

Khalil acts way more trollish than he actually is, though he has a fairly sharp sense of humor when he feels like expressing it. He’s also cunning, which someone who only sees the big-spending, brightly-grinning Mishik kid wouldn’t know immediately.

18. Is your character pro or anti union?

They don’t know what a union is, but they do understand guilds! Most of them look favorably on guilds that aren’t out to kill them.

19. Does your character like carrots?

Serran does!

21. Do any of your characters have heterochromia?

In previous editions, Mitra did. Now, she and Khalil are just on opposite ends of the extreme shades of Mishik yellow-green…but he’s managed to wander all the way into turquoise, somehow. They were both born with yellow-green eyes.

Zinnia also had heterochromia, but now her eyes are just wine-red.

25. Does your character experience sexism for the job/title they hold? (ie: she’s a girl, she can’t be x,y,z because only boys can be)

Yes, though the most obvious example was with regard to the Brandt twin sisters. Luxana facced severe opposition before taking her position as Empress, and there were multiple attempts to unseat her in favor of more established candidates due to her age, her “illegitimate” infant daughter, her commoner background, and her gender. She dealt with all comers by setting an awful lot of fires, so anyone who disparaged her directly had a very short life expectancy.

Her sister Lumina, on the other hand, faced similar opposition earlier when she was dragged into the Royal Kaltekan Army as a teenager and ended up busting more than a few heads as a direct result of other people’s pigheadedness.

27. Does your character know how to tie different kinds of knots?

Zahara, Naviyd, Mitra, and Khalil all do, whether because they worked on ships or are accomplished travelers. Oceanus also does, because he grew up in a fishing community.

31. How much does your character care about their appearance?

It depends. The higher the person’s social status is, the more likely they’re forced to care about and expend a lot of time and effort maintaining their appearance. People like Oceanus, who grew up poor in harsh conditions, had to keep themselves alive through whatever means necessary, so any personal grooming had to adapt to circumstances.

Lumina is probably the highest-ranked character who would actively prefer to tromp around in a suit of armor and chase down monsters all afternoon.

35. Naptime, yes or no?

Most of the characters enjoy naps when they can get them. Usually in bright sunbeams or while under about five blankets.

37. Did any of your characters have a fever they almost died from as a child?

Riyaz did.

41. Do other people around your character dictate their life or do they get to choose for themselves?

It depends on the character. The most independent characters are Zahara, Khalil, and Fithrain, who follow their path and damn the consequences. Few people can claim to have a real hold on them unless they allow it.

Tirane is somewhere in the middle, choosing to seize control of her life at a vital moment.

The characters most likely to succumb to pressure from others are Alena, her cousins, and Riyaz.

And Naviyd is a character who went from one extreme to the other, and then to the middle.

45. Would your character kill someone to get what they want?

A lot of them would.

47. Has your character ever stolen anything?

Khalil ought to have been arrested many, many times for pickpocketing, carnie chicanery, and other little schemes.

Naviyd stole enemy intelligence, which officially makes him a spy and not a thief.

52. Would your character prefer to have history know the truth or have many different versions of their life?

Khalil wants as many wildly differing accounts as possible. He finds the idea hilarious.

Contrast, say, Luxana, who wants her rule correctly documented.

53. What if the furthest your character has ever walked in a given stretch of time?

Khalil has walked the width of the continent before!

54. Would your character prefer to visit a new city or stay at home?

Khalil wants to run around and visit the big city.

Naviyd would rather stay in Gabilan and retire there.

56. Do any of your characters have step-family?

Alena definitely does, though mainly in the form of her half-sister and her stepmother (and her children. She’s not met the latter.  

58. Does your character prefer the ocean or the mountains?

Everyone from Gabilan: Mountains.

Everyone not from Gabilan: Oceans.

With the exception of Riyaz, who would rather burrow into the mountains and not come out.

61. Have any of your characters struggled with addiction?

Not that I can recall offhand.

65. Is your characters energetic?

Of the main characters, Khalil and Tirane win this hands-down.

67. Would your character be willing to do something they consider morally wrong in order to achieve their goals?

Mitra would. She’s employed as a government assassin/enforcer/spy, so she kind of has to be willing to get her hands dirty.

And Luxana is a champ at this kind of behavior.

70.  Does your character have any guarded/secret guild knowledge or family recipe?

Naviyd knows a lot of Mishik-specific sciences as a result of growing up with one foot in his father’s scholarly world and the other in his mother’s nomadic one. He also knows all the Order signs from his days serving the Sky Mother’s Tears, which helps him keep track of potential assassination plots when and where they spring up.

After all, he was one.

Oceanus knows his mother’s cooking recipes, even if he has a hard time finding the correct ingredients in places without permafrost.

72. Would your character care for someone who needed it if it meant being ostracized from their society?

Lumina has, did, and got left to die for that exact choice.

73. Has your character been to/ ever explored any ruins?

Naviyd has. He was not impressed by the dust of ages.

So has Zahara, after which point she sneezed and stole every scrap of the burial goods that looked sellable.

Khalil almost fell off a giant statue once. It was awesome.

74.  Are any of your characters associated with flowers?

Zinnia! (Because I have been told that is a flower. In my defense, her name was originally Zina.)

76: Would your character like to live on a farm and raise sheep?

Riyaz would, right up until he realized that sheep swarm.

78. Have any of your characters been exiled from their society?

Lumina was, and didn’t regret her decision to follow her own path. She promptly clambered her way back in later.

Zahara was never formally exiled, but even government-sanctioned piracy is frowned upon, generally speaking.

81. Does your character look like what others think they should from their reputation?

Nobody has any idea that Naviyd likes wearing riding outfits if they know him first as Lumina’s spymaster. There’s an in-universe concept of a spymaster as a noble in a creepy hoods.

85. Has your character ever been led down the wrong path because of their anger?

Luxana and Lumina have, but before them Sinrajin was the sterling, shining example right before he got fully possessed and started turning everything into an epic winter wonderland nightmare.

87. What are your character’s nails like?

Oceanus’s are rough and a little warped, due to malnutrition and lack of care.

91. Does your character engage in gossip?

Naviyd has to. He’s so into listening in on other people’s business that his summon contract in another world is for messenger pigeons.

95. If given total rule over a country, would your character step aside to turn it into a democracy?

Luxana: No.

Lumina: Needs to be introduced to the concept.

Naviyd: Fucking abdicates to not be in the spotlight and runs.

97. Do any of your characters have a tendency to dislocate joints?

Not really.

100. Are any of your characters queer?

Baaaaasically everyone except Sinrajin, Stratus, and Luxana.

102. Are any of your characters d/Deaf or HoH?

Not that I know of. Tells me several someones ought to be.

102. What is your character’s greatest source of guilt?

Khalil left Oceanus alone during his manic phase in the hopes of keeping him out of the blast radius, and then things went horribly for him.

Luxana failed to protect her family from the outcomes of her imperial ambitions.

Oceanus ran when his mother told him to, leaving her alone during the raid on his village.

Lumina couldn’t stop the Scourge of the South from possessing one of her fellow soldiers and wiping out most life too close to the nightmare zone.

Naviyd couldn’t keep his marriage from falling apart or his children together.

103. How well does your character deal with their anger?

Khalil starts messing with other people in small ways. Once, some of Lumina’s noble guests started making racist remarks toward his father, and he dumped the entire contents of her cosmetics drawers on them.

He was banned from using powders and the like afterwards.

Oceanus tends to sit and fume until he has more control.

Lumina beats up training dummies and occasionally sets them on fire.

104. Do any of your characters have pottery as a hobby?

Not that I can remember.

106. Do any of your characters have noticeable acne?

Not that I’ve mentioned.

108. Are any of your characters dogs?

Ash and his siblings! Sort of. They’re called bladewolves. Also, Hyung is a jindo dog and great at hunting foxes. He also hunts alongside a human partner who can understand him.

109. Would your character blackmail a god?

Most of them would if they had a chance! It’s kind of hard to pull that off, though.

120. Do any of your characters have PTSD?

Several! Among them, there’s Oceanus, Ismene, and Riyaz.

122. What is your character’s greatest secret?

123. Did any of you characters have nannies or governesses growing up?

Alena did.

124. Does your character workout?

Most of the characters with warrior training do so in their spare time. The noble children also practice, under the careful eyes of tutors.

126. Are any of your characters on good terms/still friends with an ex?

None of them besides Khalil.

128. Has your character’s home ever been destroyed?

Characters with flattened hometowns: Oceanus, Ismene, Sinrajin, Lumina, Luxana, and Tirane.

129. Has your character ever had to compromise on what they thought was right in order to maintain peace?

The noble-born characters often have.

Lumina’s most terrible one was letting Sirsha live past the end of the war.

130. Do you have any characters who are retired?

Some! Lumina is technically retired from soldiery, but she can still take up her weaponry again. Similarly, Naviyd is a retired assassin.

As for people who are just enjoying life after work, not so much.

132. Who is the precious cinnamon roll?

Alena! Also Serran, her cousin.

Khalil is a sinnamon roll.

133. Have any of your characters ever been caught in a fire or explosion?

Lumina! The fact that it didn’t burn her was a surprise for everyone.

Also, Khalil was banned from experimenting with flour at the age of twelve.

134. Has your character ever been alone in a hostile environment and been forced to travel a long way to reach a safety that wasn’t for sure?

Well, there was this one time that Khalil found Oceanus after a no-good very bad week and had a sudden feeling that Oltose Was Not Safe. So they trekked across the entire country to find Gabilan in the hopes that neither of them would die on the way.

Khalil’s main concern regarding Gabilan, though, was that his dad would assume he was dead.

136. Has your character ever been forced to deal with the ‘I want to speak to your manager” kind of person?

Lumina. A lot.

Being the Empress’s sister can suck sometimes.

138. How good is your character with money and accounting?

Lumina does her own finances and is teaching her kids and nieces how to do them too.

139. Has your character ever survived a fatal wound?

Naviyd has, through the power of Arno’s tremendous healing magic.

140. Can your character play an instruments?

Most of the nobles can.

142. Do any of your characters use wheelchairs, transportation devices, or mobility aids?

Nimbus actually has a prosthetic leg.

143. Has your character ever had some part of their culture made illegal?

It turns out that hunting without a royal decree in pre-Empire Kaltekas is illegal. Puts a real cramp in Naviyd’s trained hunter-gatherer style.

144. Are any of your characters adventurers by trade?

Khalil would raise his hand if asked. At least when left to his own devices and wandering the continent.

146. Were any of your characters disowned or abandoned by their parents?

Riyaz, Tirane, and Mitra were.

Oceanus was more like…lost.  

148. Do any of your characters have an eating disorder or food contamination phobia?

Not that I can recall.

149: How good is your character at lying?

Khalil and most of his family are highly talented liars, which can come down to unreadability or confidence on a case by case basis.

160: Do any of your characters have asthma?

Nimbus and Zinnia.

162: Has your character ever thrown a tantrum over things not going their way?

Oceanus, Alistair, Oriana, Nuri, Brigid, Sirsha, and a number of other characters have. Some are deadly.

163: Are any of your characters autistic? (If so, do they have special interests and what are they?)

Probably Alena and Serran.

Serran’s special interest is archery, followed by magic once he’s old enough that his reading lessons sink in and the theory starts to make more sense. Or he can just forge his own path—his empathic powers are different from the showy magic his family uses, so he may have to.  

Alena, meanwhile, is kind of like a tiny blonde Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She has a ravenous need to learn about any skill she sees others use to help people, from sewing to healing and agriculture. She exists in a particular hell where her social status is up in the air, which makes it very hard to tell what rules she ought to follow.

164: Are any of your characters tinkerers or inventors?

Copernicus and Gabilan’s blacksmiths and jewelers are.

166: Are any of your characters blind or visually impaired?

Riyaz and Oceanus both need sight-correcting lenses, though they’ve not been diagnosed for a decent chunk of time. I also can’t remember which one is far-sighted and which one is nearsighted.

Nimbus also wears spectacles,

168: Is your characters easily embarrassed?

Alena, Oceanus, and Mitra are.

Riyaz is oblivious or uncaring about most things that embarrass normal people, Tirane has precious little shame, and Khalil has none at all.

169: Are any of your characters married to the sea?

Nope.

175: Are any of your characters badass (lesbian) pirate queens?