Character submission Bartholomew Clawfoot age 75 half orc, wizard21 fighter 24

[Brutus_Clawfoot]

Character Name:
Bartholomew Clawfoot

How old is your character at creation?:
75

Character Race:
Half Orc

Character Gender:
Male

Character's alignment?:
NG or CN? (Whichever fits?)

Characters God
Shadon

Character Birthplace?:
Outskirts of Vehl

A brief synopsis.

Long before the settling of the land, Bartholomews destiny was, in some ways, carved by the chaos and strange mingling of races as the result of so many wars and skirmishes. Born in a farming region, not far from Vehl, his childhood years were spent tilling the land and tending the animals. But as is the way with war, fighting broke out in his region, and he found himself plucked from the farm and thrown into orc society as an unwitting member of the warmongering Clawfoot clan. He spent his more formidable years in lower ranks among the clan. Because of his Brutish shape and size, he was quickly regimented to infantry work, and thrown into hand to hand combat, narrowly escaping death too many times. But along the way, he never lost connection with his years on the farm and the many skills and craft work, he learned, Including some meddling in the necessities of magics. In between raids and battles, he spent his time slowly honing his own craft, and conserving his resources, swearing to one day, leave the clan and set out alone for a life once again on the farm.

In his late 50s, the chance arrived. An ambush attack and resulting battle so brutal and devastating, it ripped through the heart of the Clawfoot clan, scattering many of its officers and hierarchy. Bartholomew found himself alone on a field riddled with bodies, and no one to report to. He easily resolved to travel as far away from that place, as he could get where the climate is, still warm and hospitable to farming. He found a plot and staked a claim, and slowly building from one small row at a time, seed by seed, on a stretch of land, he could call his own.

There he remained until his later years, working the land and refining his craft. Using magic, and nature, rather than brutality and weapons, at peace with himself, and expecting to someday die happy in that place.

Years eased passed and were dotted by hard work and mental introspection. In his spare time he developed more and more study of the fundamentals of magic and the necessary properties. This, aided him in his farm work, and extended, otherwise limited working hours. He felt that with practice, he might be able to harness the power further. Could he excel at wizardry?

Not long from them, one fateful day insured that he would be left with no other choice.

He woke that morning, ready to harvest some tobacco weed he had spent a whole season growing. He stepped out of his meager cabin, pitchfork in hand, and greeted the thunderous, crashing, calamity of war, sweeping right to his front door, causing tremendous destruction and ruin. Unexpectedly, he found himself mixed in to it, fighting for his life, with a pitchfork, and a rudimentary understanding of magic. Too many blades came perilously close to ending his folly on that day. And when it was over, his farm, and land had become spoiled by the wastes of tragic death. Everything he worked so hard to create had become lost to the ages once again.

Without a thought, he traded his pitchfork for a blade, packed as much provisions and gear, as he could fit into his bag, and set out on an undefined quest to put an end to it.

[Lily]

 Hey there Brutus_Clawfoot,


I haven’t forgotten about your character submission, but RL kept me too busy until now to have a deeper look into it…


There are some things we must work on if we are to approve Bartholomew:


1.Age:
Due to lore reasons, no half races can be born after the year 1421. The current year is 1491, so a character would need to be at least 70 years old upon submission. Bartholomew is supposed to be 75 years old, so the math itself is right. However, the average lifespan of half orcs is about the same as it is for humans, namely 70 years. 75 as a starting age really is pushing it, as it is already past the average lifespan of his race. Of course, there is not much leeway given the limitations on the date of birth for half races. As Bartholomew will be stone-bound as a player character, we’re going to allow the age (and thus playing a half race with a limited lifespan) with a restriction: Bartholomew will be one of the last of his kind in the entirety of Layonara, except for the other very few half orcish player characters. The “normal” half orcs will be no more in a few years (give or take). Bartholomew will be aware of this situation, seeing how he is aiming to be a wizard as well. What we are asking of you is for Bartholomew to reflect on this aspect in this character submission.


2. Alignment:
The alignment of half orcs is restricted, meaning he will have to start out as either True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil. The lone exception to this rule is if a Half Orc is submitted as a cleric of Az'atta, in which case they may submit with a Good alignment (https://wiki.layonara.com/wiki/Half_Orc).
Out of the two options you stated in the submission, NG will only be possible if he were to be submitted as a cleric of Az’Atta. CN is a restricted alignment so we’ll need some additional statements and will require a more in depth biography that supports the chaotic neutral alignment (https://wiki.layonara.com/wiki/Alignment_Rules) Details on the alignment itself can be found here: https://wiki.layonara.com/wiki/Chaotic_Neutral.


3. Classes:
I see a lot of support for him being a barbarian, but not a lot of support for wizard. I am aware characters start out at level 1 and only know how to cast some minor cantrips, but the way to even reach that level already takes years of rigorous studies. Wizards generally begin to study magic in their early teens as an apprentice to another Wizard. There are also academies specifically established for teaching magic and the ways of the Al'Noth. Such institutions, such as the Lucindite School of Magic in Spellgard, offer a much broader and in-depth education but at the expense of the one-to-one master/apprentice relationship. Certainly, there are other ways as well. Did he have some mentor along the way? How did he study the Al’Noth? Using the fundamentals of the Al’Noth on farming / the land and feeling to harness the power even further sounds more like a druidic behavior to me.


Additional Notes:
Despite the heavy input on age, alignment and the wizard class, the submission itself has good foundations and the motivation about why he heads out into the world becomes clear. Overall, I get a good picture of him. We ask a lot of this submission, because you’re asking for a race with is technically already dead (as is restricted to begin with), as well as submitting for a restricted alignment



I am not sure if Half Orcs automatically receive the ear for the orcish language, but you could request so if you want it. As he lived with the Clawfoot Clan for quite some time, I see no reason not to allow it (if Bartholomew has at least an INT 12 of at least 12 at submission, which is likely as he strives to become a wizard). You just have to request it 
 
Cheers,
Lily

[Brutus_Clawfoot]

1: Bartholomew’s age: 75
If you will give me the space, I would happily change his age to 67 or yes, 70 (67 happens to be the year that I was born actually) But, when I conceived of him, I knew that I would be RP’ing a character, at the final tip of his waning years.

I am of the opinion that having an aged person in a group of young people, adds flavor, and years of knowledge that is sometimes useful, and, sometimes annoying. I feel that it can enhance the RP.

2: alignment
Yes I do agree that CN, seems a streamlined pinnacle. Based on the characters bio, he started off as a simple farmer, then got on willingly recruited into an orc army, and found himself fighting for some cause he does not believe in, and then being released from all that because of the futility of the circumstances, to me, it does not seem unreasonable that he could have a chaotically neutral alignment. If you are nice to him, he might be nice to you. If you treat him poorly, he may treat you poorly. He may do either, depending on no circumstance at all. His life has been, just as unreliably chaotic.

3 classes.
At the risk of not writing the next War and Peace in Bartholomews bio, I did simply gloss over his youthful years on the farm, but arguably his discovery of magic could have been nurtured by his father or an elder, as farm work is never as simple as tilling the land and planting seeds. There are so many other layers of technical work it doesn’t seem unusual to me that magic might come in handy.

I don’t disagree that it is conceivable. He may have picked up his understanding of magic during his years in the Clawfoot clan, perhaps, mentored by another, unwilling recruit / slave, but I was slightly reluctant to have him have too many personal connections with the Clawfoot clan, so that he could break his ties more evenly. But I’m open to anything.  What other additions to his bio might I add to resolve this?

Thank you,

Brutus, Clawfoot

[Lily]

1: Bartholomew’s age: 75
If you will give me the space, I would happily change his age to 67 or yes, 70 (67 happens to be the year that I was born actually) But, when I conceived of him, I knew that I would be RP’ing a character, at the final tip of his waning years.

67 will not work for the reasons already mentioned in my initial response. Bartholomew will have to be at least 70 years old at the time of this character submission. Alas, as you already created Bartholomew IG and actually played with him quite a bit before even posting the submission itself, you must have already set him to a certain age in the process of setting up the PC. I guess the age you used during the creation was 75? I cannot verify this by myself, so I will have to take an educated guess here. Else you would not have used 75 during the character creation. Correct me if I am wrong here. If you actually submitted your character before creating him IG, we'd have more leeway (age 70-74) here...

I am of the opinion that having an aged person in a group of young people, adds flavor, and years of knowledge that is sometimes useful, and, sometimes annoying. I feel that it can enhance the RP.

I don't disagree with you here, but for the approval of a character with a average lifespan of 70 years (and a half race at that -> last of his kind) is harder than the submission of a character who just starts their journey. The team is very keen on the stated reflection of his situation.

Yes I do agree that CN, seems a streamlined pinnacle. Based on the characters bio, he started off as a simple farmer, then got on willingly recruited into an orc army, and found himself fighting for some cause he does not believe in, and then being released from all that because of the futility of the circumstances, to me, it does not seem unreasonable that he could have a chaotically neutral alignment. If you are nice to him, he might be nice to you. If you treat him poorly, he may treat you poorly. He may do either, depending on no circumstance at all. His life has been, just as unreliably chaotic.

I did not write that I don't see Bartholomew as a CN. I merely stated the options you have with this submission, as you did not submit him as CN, but as "NG or CN? (Whichever fits?)". It is not up to the character approvers to make this decision for you. We check if it is within the requirements / is restricted etc. It may be a fitting alignment, but the team will need further input on CN submissions. I already posted a link regarding the special requirements in my initial response, but in case you missed it, here it is again: https://wiki.layonara.com/wiki/Alignment_Rules

Mainly, I am missing a statement from you, the player. To quote from the wiki entry on rules for alignments: "Submissions for Chaotic Neutral must include a statement in player's own words, stating that he or she understands and accepts the rules of the Layonara community, and that the player understands that character actions have appropriate consequences."

3 classes.

At the risk of not writing the next War and Peace in Bartholomews bio, I did simply gloss over his youthful years on the farm, but arguably his discovery of magic could have been nurtured by his father or an elder, as farm work is never as simple as tilling the land and planting seeds. There are so many other layers of technical work it doesn’t seem unusual to me that magic might come in handy.

I don’t disagree that it is conceivable. He may have picked up his understanding of magic during his years in the Clawfoot clan, perhaps, mentored by another, unwilling recruit / slave, but I was slightly reluctant to have him have too many personal connections with the Clawfoot clan, so that he could break his ties more evenly. But I’m open to anything.  What other additions to his bio might I add to resolve this?

Of course, the use of the Al'Noth can be used in farming as well, but the discovery / understanding of the Al'Noth will have to have some scholastic background / research. Wizards are those who have been taught to use the Al'Noth, sorcerors have the knack. He'll probably have heard or seen about the effects of the use of the Al'Noth, so he might have gotten curious about it as well. But he initially will need a tutor or, generally speaking, a source of knowledge on how to access the Al'Noth. You want him to be a wizard and not a sorcerer with innate ability.

Also, I just want you to be aware that Bartholomew starts with cantrips (level 0 spells). Effects are minor, so their effect on farming will be minor as well, i.e. he'll not be able to control the humidity (air or ground).

Furthermore, I need the intended level split at level 20. While you mentioned the intended split for 45, multiclass submissions only require the intended split at lvl 20.