Setting

Characters

Nate's Character

Varro Greyward

Mechanical Assets

Stats

Physical

Strength 5

Agility 5

Constitution 5

Mental

Intelligence 5

Charisma 5

Lifepaths

Foundling / Monastery-raised 5

Old Campaigner 5

Master of Hounds 5

Skills

Literacy

Spear and staff fighting

Beastmaster (Dogs) 5

Distinctions

Loyalty to Ser Lysandra

Good friends with Harubus

Loves his dogs

Gear

Zounds Hounds

Diogenes, the Alpha Mastiff 5

Notes

Harubus

Harubus of Prumalira, Son of Brunwilia, “Haru” to his friends

Mechanical Assets

Stats

Physical

Strength 0

Agility 0

Constitution 0

Mental

Intelligence 3

Charisma 2

Lifepaths

Monastery Born 1

Student 1

Flesh Archivist 3

Wanderer 2

Archivist of Ancestral Routes 2

Skills

Flesh Storing 3

Magical Aid 1

Ancestral Routes 2

Geography 1

Distinctions

Fond of his Mother 2

Charming 2

Friends Everywhere 1

Gear

Jar of The First Smoke 3

Flesh Archiving Paraphernalia 1

Notes

Magical Practices

Flesh Archivist

A flesh archivist is someone trained at the Prumalira Monastery in the art of recording information on their skin in a sort of mystic ink. No real ink is used, the mage with the skill in Flesh Storing knows how to come into contact with appropriate texts, glyphs or other sorts of graphical information, and can absorb it into character's on their skin that float about and fade in and out at times. Not just any such information can be recorded this way, note, the symbols being recording must have been inscribed by someone who was an expert in the field and literally put some of their soul into the work (must have been passionate about it, likely). In this way, not just the graphical information is recorded, but some of the intellect behind the information.

As a result of the magical absorption of some suitable piece of information, the archivist may gain any of several different abilities, depending on the nature of the information absorbed. A common ability is just being able to recall the information inscribed without even reading it off their body (though they can also move information to a location like their hand so that they can easily just read it if needed). They can even extrapolate information that's not inscribed from the inscribed information in a way that the original author only could have. Or they can even perform skills that the author may have had. Magical glyphs that are absorbed that would normally have power when placed on an object can essentially become inscribed on the archivist and have the same effects (the tattoo magicians of several schools who can do the same thing find the Archivist's method of doing this to be offensive). Recording of the notes on how to cast a spell or perform a ritual give the character the ability to do these things, even where they would lack training that would otherwise be required (the intellect in question behind the recording has the information). Several other various effects can be achieved as well on top of those mentioned.

There is a downside to this magical method, which is that the intellects that are bound up in the recordings on the skin are interlopers to an extent, and some powerful ones may try to take control of the archivist from time to time, especially when the recording with which they are associated is employed to do something.

Note that Flesh Archivists are occasionally referred to as skin-scribes by common folk that live near the Prumalira Monastery.

Archivist of Ancestral Routes

A magical practice passed down from mentor to student, usually among the various nomadic tribes of the Formolondus peoples, the practice deals with tracing places along ancestral routes of migration either regular throughout a calendar, or longer-term migrations over ages from one land to another. The practitioner follows a path that bloodline of people moved along through history, finds “milestones” along the path that are imbued with echoes of the passing of the people (often because the milestone is itself magically potent in some way, or some important event happened to the people at the milestone), and performs rituals that embed that location in the Archivist's psyche.

Once a milestone has been so recorded, the archivist can perform rituals to bring up the ancestry of the people in question, and move etherically between milestones, emerging at any milestone on the path. They also can gain the ability to “summon milestones” which means that entities associated with those milestones can be revisited… often ancestors of the people whose milestones are recorded, spiritual creatures associated with a milestone (totemic, in a fashion), or visions from the historical events of that era.

Note that to use a rite involved with one of the routes known, either the character must themselves be of the bloodline in question, or they must have access to a small amount of blood from somebody who is in the bloodline.

Combinbation of Magical Practices

Note that the archivists of the ancestral routes are not at all associated with Flesh Archivists, the naming conventions are coincidental. The recording of milestones is a ritual normally done with some sort of physical method by archivists of ancestral routes. It happens that Harubus has figured out in his travels that he could do the recordings using his Flesh Storing skill, making keeping the notes needed for the ritual pretty conveniently available at all times.