Cinders of Revolution

[illirica]

Dubhcarrick, Iveria, 1763​

Forty years ago it wasn't even a town so much as a collection of shanties. The only thing Dubhcarrick has to speak of is the coal from which it gets its name. Mountainous, rocky, with little growing but pine that chokes out most other vegetation and renders the soil too poor for farming, the coal mines are about the only way to earn a living - most of which goes right back into the company store, purchasing food and other staples at treacherous prices. With no other options, people grimace and eke out their meager living.

Things have been changing. Steam power has become more and more prominent, driving the need for coal. The shoddy train track, suitable only for handcart travel, has been updated with a second track to bring in trains to take away more coal. Around the station, rough-board warehouses have sprung up to hold the waiting loads, and more people have started streaming into the town, looking for work or looking for trouble.

Buildings have gone up, some even in brick, jealously guarded by their investors. Strife is rampant, between the railyard workers and the miners, between the newcomers and the old guard, between those who see industrialization as a way forward and those who see it as an upset of the natural order of things.

And always, always, the conflict between the human and the inhuman. Dangerous work attracts dangerous types, and the mines have claimed enough lives that a little bit of extra strength or speed or regeneration can mean the edge between life and death. In a society where shifters aren't wanted, it's one of the few places they could find an opportunity - as long as they did what they were told and didn't piss off the wrong people. The town had tolerated their presence as a necessary evil before, especially since having them around could sometimes mean life for others where it once would have meant death.

But the new townspeople coming in aren't interested in those old stories, and it wouldn't bother them at all if the shifters disappeared entirely - but someone has to keep the coal coming, and so it's a tolerated presence on the fringes of society, so long as none of them try to make inroads on the new hints of prosperity.

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OC - CoR-universe, detached. Mostly just something to play around with while waiting on other things, separate from the other threads so it doesn't get tied up. Avoid anything that contradicts CoR canon. Post early, post often.

Characters here. I'll get a thread up as soon as there's a few, it'll be open-join so new characters can be added whenever. After a certain point, I'll declare backwards-compatibility closed and all characters entering after that will have to be new to town so that people aren't having to rewrite their canons.

Characters can be human, shifter, or magic user. Magic users need to be low-tier (i.e. "not the sort of character who can split open a rift in space time and drop an annoying badger through it") and shifters I'd like to keep restricted to mammalian carnivores, preferably those that would live in a temperate mountainous Iverian area - this predates easy travel, so most characters should be from relatively the same geographical area.

All characters should be at least 18 years of age. Please post each character as its own individual post.

Questions, complaints, and insults to my heritage on discord, by dm, or here.

 

[illirica]

Kiaran Summit​

Occupation / Position: Miner - Crew foreman

Age: 73

Pronouns: He/Him

Race: Shifter - Werewolf (born)

Physical Description: Auburn hair, usually kept cut fairly short due to a tendency to curl out of control when it gets longer. A beard to match, also short. His eyes are somewhere between blue and gray and green, depending on the light. Kiaran stands a bit under 6' tall, somewhere between 5'10" and 5'11", though his stockiness and general bulk make it seem as if he's larger than he is. His wolf form is bipedal, standing just over 7 feet tall, equally well muscled and very strong. His regeneration is not particularly fast or strong - he'll heal most things eventually, but it'll take quite a while. A broken bone can still put him down for a week or two, depending on how bad the break is.

Personality: Kiaran mostly gets by on being a reasonable voice. He's good at understanding people and finding ways to compromise. He may not be the strongest or the fastest, but people trust him, and sometimes that's more important. He would rather think things through than act quickly and rashly, but when he does choose to act, he tends to be decisive.

History: Kiaran's family has been mining these hills for generations, one after another. The family doesn't tend to throw a lot of pups, rarely more than one or two in a family, and the women often die young, usually in pregnancy or childbirth. There's not really anything else to be done about it, though, and so they keep mining, as they have always done, and try to see it through until the next generation. Kiaran has no living children yet - he was married once, to a wife who gave him a stillborn son. They separated after the loss, with her seeking a new life elsewhere, in one of the cities. Kiaran stayed where he was, and kept doing as his family always had, and visits one more small grave every year.

Kiaran's Crew​

As foreman, Kiaran would have a number of miners who work on his crew. These would be great character opportunities. Restrictions on Kiaran's crew:

1. No person (including me) can have more than 2 characters on the crew at a time. You can have additional characters doing other things, I just don't want the crew to get too big. If you want to switch one out, you are responsible for writing out or killing off the one you're replacing.

2. Characters already on the crew need to be shifters. I am happy to entertain the idea of non-shifters joining the crew, but that's a plot point I want to RP out.

3. If your character is on the crew, put "Miner - Kiaran's Crew" in the "Occupation" section of your CS.

 

[illirica]

Cailet Suibhne​

Occupation / Position: Goat farmer / Hedge witch

Age: 19

Pronouns: She / Her

Race: Human - Magic User

Physical Description: Small, only 5'2" and slightly built, as if a strong wind might blow her off the mountain, but she seems to have as good a footing as any of the goats. Cailet has black hair, almost always worn braided to keep it out of the way, with the end of the braid well below her waist and her hair usually woven with wildflowers.

Personality: Curious, but uncertain - she's often timid and cautious, though occasionally her curiosity will win out over her natural caution and she'll get into something she finds interesting, more often than not something that she shouldn't have. She loves the wild feel of the mountains and doesn't like all of the new people moving in to the tiny town.

History: Cailet's family raises goats, one of the few things that can actually be raised in this scrubby mountainous area. She has been helping with the goats since childhood, whether venturing out into the hills with them for fodder, or helping with the care and the milking. She's always had what the locals call "a touch of the Cailleach" about her, a hint of something beyond the normal, a whisper of magic. Perhaps she find something to nurture it in the hills, or perhaps it's just something that she's always had a little bit of. She doesn't use it too often, but sometimes she makes amulets of ivy and thorned blackberry cane and bone, protective charms and talismans. Usually she ties them to the goats, for safety, though she has been known to make one or two for a person, here and there, if she trusts them - which is not often.

 

[Faithy]

Artist: Calvendo

Name: Emma Boutroux

Age: 22

Race: Werefox [born]

Artist: SoulfulFamiliars

Nationality: Iveria

Weight: 122 lbs

Height: 5’7”

Pronouns: Her/she

Job: Working girl in a Tavern

Personality Description: Unlike most of her kin, Emma strives to be able to do whatever she wishes. Once she has chosen a person as a friend, she is loyal and very protective. Any foe of her friend is a foe of her and more than once she has killed to preserve the life of her companion. She can also be incredibly sly when needed. Emma is also spazzy and very good with guys and getting money from them. She is very wealthy thanks to the horny men.


History:

Emma was born in a small settlement a day's ride south of Dubhcarrick to a set of parents who had been trying for a little girl for over ten years. The entire family rejoiced, and the seven boys before her instantly became her protectors. Anytime someone messed with her at the settlement, they would take care of it, and if anyone tried to be more than friends, they would have to investigate them. Naturally, she constantly complained about it, but she truly wouldn’t have it any other way. This continued as she grew up until the last brother went away to make a living for himself and the family he had, the year she turned fourteen. Figuring that the summer would be filled with nothing but sorrow and possibly abuse from others because of what she was, Emma prepared herself mentally. It so happened that she was the only child who was also a werefox, the rest of the siblings merely human. She met a male named Aris soon after thinking all was lost and she enjoyed spending the entire summer with him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long until the settlement she was from found out that she was a shifter and they attacked her. She managed to live because her brother died protecting her, but wound up with head trauma among other injuries, and had no idea who she was. Because her parents pretended not to know who she was once she was found to save their skins, Emma was sent to an orphanage. She was adopted a week later and moved to Dubhcarrick. They put her to work once she was old enough in the local tavern and it wasn’t long before she was making a great deal of money.

 

[Sune]

Name: Saoirse Gillgan
Age: 102
Height: 6’
Weight: 175lbs
Occupation: Barkeep.
Affliction: Were-Badger [Born]
Personality: Laid back and jovial, she is willing to give the shirt off her back. Willing to defend her friends and patrons. Loyal to a fault.

History: She was trained as a warrior by her father, along with her brother . However, Saoirse’s family had come to this village some time ago, and she simply stayed. Traveling was never her style, and she was old enough to separate from the clan.

Now she stops all the brawls in the tavern and makes sure the patron’s mugs are full.

 

[Hollow glade]

Name: Estévan "Iván" Mitxelena
Age: 65
Height: 190cm
Weight: Average for a muscular and slender man.
Occupation: Hunter, butcher, little bit of everything if money is tight.
Affliction: Born were-lynx


Physical description: Tall man, quite hairy, with long black hair down past his waist, green-yellow eyes and brown skin. There is an overabundance of little freckles dusting his cheeks, shoulders, outer sides of the arms and legs as well as on his back and the sides of his body. He has two simple tattoos. Three dots under his left eye and three tears under his left collarbone. His nails are lightly sharpened though not very long.

Ivan likes to wear long skirts that can be hiked up for easier mobility (with a skirt hike) and tops that open in the middle and close with either very few buttons or at the waist with a sash or belt. He is also fond of loose pants. He prefers to go barefoot but will wear leather boots if the terrain requires it. He often wears bracelets or anklets made of rope, thread or leather.

As a lynx, he has grey black mottled fur, white on the underside of his body. His eyes remain the same color and he has some black spots. He's very fluffy!.

Personlity: TBD IC

History: Ivan grew up in a small close knitted clan of werelynx people in northern Arthegia. Because of inner conflict and outer influences the clan ended up scattered and disbanded. Ivan began traveling when he was 23. He started a new life and he has been in and out of Iveria and Arthegia since.

For a few years he worked as a merchant, bringing Iverian goods to Arthegia and viceversa. He has also spent long periods of time, even years, gone half feral as a lynx before.

At 48 he moved into one of the biggest towns in Iveria. He found a community he felt comfortable in and a stable job. He started as a local butcher's apprentice. They met because she was the one Ivan always sold the animals he hunted to, and found that they had a lot to learn from each other. Her name was Lynn. He stayed for years until he was 64. It was a living, often harsh and not the most comfortable, but he was happy.

A nasty incident involving three disappeared humans and Ivan's butcher shop changed everything. He will swear up and down he had nothing to do with it, that it was all set up to blame him. But he had to go. He left his entire life, friends and connections behind. As well as his attempt at a family. Lynn and some connections he had helped him get out. He travelled for months and turned 65 on the road, until he arrived to Dubhcarrick. The perfect place to stay, for now, where nobody has ever heard of him and his previous life.

He arrived roughly a couple of months ago, he's working on setting up a permanent butcher shop, despite The Company's presence. With competitive prices and at times rarer cuts. As well as tanned hides. He'll take requests from clients if they are looking for a specific part or cut of meat they can't find somewhere else. For the right price. For now he has a sort of stand in a good location where he sets up bright and early to sell.

Other:
Can't get rid of his Arthegian accent no matter how hard he tries.

He may or may not have left a pregnant partner behind when he fled the town.

He's good at sewing, out of necessity and Lynn taught him how to tan animal hides.

He keeps kohl and rouge because he likes to wear them sometimes. When the mood strikes. Often imitating his lynx face markings. He also hardly ever lets his hair down.

He's never out of knives. Watch out.

 

[Azra]

Name: Abey Ashkii-Handler
Age: 69
Weight: 150 muscular build
Height: 5'11
Hair Color: brown
Eye Color: brown
Affliction: Turned Lycan, hybrid form. She usually has a control but can't ignore the full moon.
Regeneration: Tier 3 when concentration allowed. She figures best to avoid those wounds though. Unlike her ex husband she isn't a masochistic idiot.
Occupation: Kiaran’s crew, Miner
Distinguishing Marks: a tribal tattoo that covers left shoulder and runs down her back. A bite mark on her neck. A trio of bullet wound scars along her lower abdomen.
Notable belongings: while shes moved into town quite some time ago, she often likes sticking to attire befitting her old tribe. Main deviation in attire is do to working in the mines. She's got a tomahawk on her person at all times basically, and usually will bring her pick axe from the mines with her. On her ring finger a simple silver ring with a small moonstone. Her wedding ring that has the initials M.W.H engraved into it.
Skills: Before being turned she was a skilled hunter and archer. She served some time in the military learning a bit more in combat survival and firearms. That said firearms played a huge part in why her tribe is gone. So she tends to be uncommonly angry when asked to pick up a firarm.
Personality: Abey is a kind woman of few words. Rarely one to turn to anger. During her time in war serving alongside her husband she got a liking for murder. A reflection by the end of why her original tribe is gone, she tries not to be that same person.


History: Abey was apart of a tribe minding their own time when war came. The tribe became a victim to the war she fought alongside her brother until the pair was gunned down. When she drifted to unconcious that was when Handler came upon the scene. He wasn't able to save the village but could save her. She was turned and soon she was serving in a war alongside Handler. She was twenty then by thirty Handler and her were done fighting and he presented her with a ring. They were pretty content for twenty years moving in to Dubhcarrick Handler's home town. From her fifties to now she's lived in this little town falling into the crew of Kiaran in time and being a loyal member sense. Ten years ago Handler and her broke things off but he was content to leave his rickety cabin in his wife's name. She still wears the ring though rather liking the deterrent. And maybe slightly missing the fight obsessed mutt she called a lover.

Her main companion, been so for nine years is Mari a wolf of gray and white fur. She's when sitting four feet tall, quite the giant she's been known to casually tackle deers when hunting. Mari doesn't usually have to defend the cabin, when she has those she wins because she's the best girl.