The Account of Adren the Bard (Discussion)

[Pine]

I mean, the Mish Mash listmods tell me we're in strictly "fade to black" territory, though I could probably be convinced to bootleg some racier stuff.

Spicy pagetop

[Jingle]

I'm very disappointed that Dire Wombats wasn't one of the options for sexual preference.

*Fades to black*

[Felissan]

I did vote for the ace hero, it's just that I presume many of us voted before I could show up and say "Hey folks, let's do this!"

[xofelf]

I mean, the Mish Mash listmods tell me we're in strictly "fade to black" territory, though I could probably be convinced to bootleg some racier stuff.

Spicy pagetop

Excuse me, you're going to

what

?

[Pine]

I mean, the Mish Mash listmods tell me we're in strictly "fade to black" territory, though I could probably be convinced to bootleg some racier stuff.

Spicy pagetop

Excuse me, you're going to

what

?

I'm going to

[Equinox]

There was an ace option?!

[Pine]

There's a "no role at all" for the romance question, and "neither" for the preferences question.

Also, y'all are not required to put in as many choices as you're permitted - if you want to just put in a first option, that's okay.

[logan5123]

...oh.
I knew the former but not the latter.
so be it then.

[Pine]

Results time!



I'm afraid our first category was hotly contested, with a narrow margin going to the colony serving as a haven or penal colony for magic-users. I'm going to side with that plurality here. The other two would make excellent stories, but I think having magic as a relatively rare force everywhere except our colony provides a lot of juicy story elements.



This one was a bit easier, made more so when combined with the education question (not depicted). The basic reading/writing/arithmetic option and an apprenticeship in a trade were in a dead heat, so I'll take them. A write-in voter suggested silversmithing, and I like it. Our boy was apprenticed to a silversmith instead of working his uncle's ranch (ranch was a clear winner too). That brings us back to the above chart. Wealth acquisition works, but magical training and education (the highlighted bar) don't. So let's scroll down to the magic question.



Tight competition here too, but it looks like a moderate gift is dominant. So our boy was sent away from the ranch to apprentice with a silversmith in town, but when his power began to manifest itself at the age of thirteen, his apprenticeship was transferred to the academy of magical arts. Let's look at skills. This graph is a mess to screenshot, so I'll transcribe the results. The numbers on the left are first choice/second choice/third choice/fourth choice.

4/4/2/3 Interpersonal
2/0/1/3 Academic
2/1/2/3 Firearms
1/2/6/5 H2H
5/3/3/1 Duplicity
3/6/4/1 Wilderness
4/3/0/4 Engineering
0/2/2/1 Business

So, let's distill that down a bit. Let's give 4th choices one point, 3rd choice 2 points, etc.

35 Interpersonal
13 Academic
18 Firearms
27 H2H
36 Duplicity
41 Wilderness
29 Engineering
10 Business

Interesting! While Duplicity, Interpersonal, and Engineering were leading first choices, Wilderness was overall the most popular, with 2/3 of you putting it in your top three. Let's re-order those...

41 Wilderness
36 Duplicity
35 Interpersonal

29 Engineering
27 H2H

18 Firearms
13 Academic
10 Business

That gives us three broad groupings. Firearms, academic esoterica, and business sense are not strengths. He has a modest capability with gadgets and melee combat. His strengths, however, are in surviving on his own and manipulating others.

This gives me the impression of a rogueish, perhaps mocking ne'erdowell. In conjunction with his academic interest but low achievement, he's the restless type, who probably coasted through his magical education on his gift, excelling with his power but shirking the broader education they sought to impart. He got into a lot of fights, perhaps fell in with a bad crowd, and was kicked out of the academy at seventeen without graduating. Why was he kicked out? What happened next? What subsequent skills did he gain? That will be the focus of our next survey, which I'll put together in the morning, because I was on toddler duty all evening and am tired.

Before we go, one last subject to hash out. This one's an easy one:



The role of romance is straightforward. We're just going to see what happens, but it's likely to be a factor eventually. He enjoys the challenge of courtship, but likely isn't ready to settle down. His rogueish nature has led to a number of passing dalliances, but he is not quite a cad. His preferences are a bit less simple - straight and omnisexual tied for first choice, but a broader palette won out decisively in the lower ranks. I'm going to interpret this as a distinct preference for the ladies, but at the end of the day, his motto is "I'll try anything twice. Three times if rum is involved." Who knows what will happen?

See you in the morning with the next round! My aim is going to be to have that one up for 36 hours, wrapping up Sunday night (EDT).

[Iprobablysuck]

i put in cheesy chosen one things but shoutout to DEFEAT THE KRAKEN

[the worst]

Defeat the Kraken is incredible
I can see exactly how this group has created this character.. I'm excited

[logan5123]

I have had all my write in answers mentioned so far
I feel good about myself

[the worst]

Pine has been v accomodating with the writeins imo
They've also been pretty high quality (or just funny)

[Xtoxm]

i was expecting the the storytell:audience involvement ratio to be a lot more one sided and im really enjoying this so far.

[Pine]

Okay, I definitely lied to myself, and stayed up into the wee hours writing the next one

and watching

Grey's Anatomy

in the dark

[logan5123]

alright time to make another answer that eventually gets mentioned by users the second that the results are posted
edit:

[Pine]

Headed to dinner with my folks, will finalize results and put up the next round when I get back. Last chance to add input!

[logan5123]

Maybe he's born with it (the magical power)
MAYBE IT'S MAYBELLINE

[Firebringer]

lets have this boy casts some spells of wizardry and get into a fancy wizarding school

[Pine]

Results! Let's start with names, so I can start using them.

Spoiler: Suggestions

Alesstine
Sacremento
Magifesto
Narnia
Abra Cadra
New Haven
Wombatico
Loren Ipsum
Xanderfall
Wikanda
Lunar Isle
Antasia
Magic Island, Pigwarts, Kaazam, Magus, Land of Witches, Bald Mountain, Land of Chernabog, Fantasia
Tabmow Erid
Praesidio
Nomlas
Haschelton, Novaya Koldungrad
BigPPEnergy (This was the one thing I did not want to do btw)
the name would be based on the landmark, this isn't an actual suggestion, but moreso, the name should be based off of said landmark
Barden, New Barden, Old Barden, Bard's End, Allicia, Calamity, Calamity's End, Storgbarrow
Crysis
New New York
Illyria, Elterluna, Thayris, The Colony, Greenvale
O'Malfrea, Tal'Umer, Dasonica, Dor Fresen (assuming most of these come from an OG founder)
Mystica. Magic Land. Sorcerers Archipelago. Magic Archipelago. The Wizardry Islands.

There's a lot of really useful stuff in there! After I issued the question, I decided that I'd draw from this pool of ideas to label a number of things in our world. I'm going to start working on a map, but we can put a name to many major locales.

>>The name of the distant empire, origin of the colonists, is hereby Elterluna. Its capital is Tal'Umer.
>>The name of the nearby nation is Thayris, whose inland capital is Tabmow Erid. Its nearest major port is Dor Fresen.
>>Our colony's name is Antasia, and its capital and principle city is known as Haven. The significance of that name will be explained below. The archipelago is also known as Antasia, but it is more commonly called the Sorcerer Isles. This was originally a derisive nickname imparted by imperial sailors, but it was proudly adopted by the locals.
>>The protagonist was raised a few miles inland on the third-largest island, outside the town of Calamity. It was originally a settlement called Fort Alesstine, but a child was born who was gifted far beyond her ability to control it. She accidentally caused an off-coast earthquake, and the resulting tsunami which out much of the town. Most of the settlers survived, and they rebuilt in a more protected harbor, naming it for the calamitous circumstances of its rebirth. The quality of the harbor in combination with a bountiful hardwood forest has caused Calamity to become a major center of shipbuilding and industry in the Isles. The ruins of Fort Alesstine are considered haunted, and stand a few miles down the coast.

There, now that we know what to call things, let's move on.



You folks were ALL over the map with this one. As there was no clear consensus by any stretch of the imagination, here's what I've got for you:

A century and a half ago, the combined edict of the Emperor and Empress of Elterluna decreed sorcery to be a crime against the natural order, and they commanded that all sorcerers be driven from the country. Those Elterlunians who had the gift were either deported, went into hiding, or were executed by imperial mage-hunters. A great exodus led by the Archmagus Allicia, greatest sorceress of the age, fled the country in a hastily-assembled flotilla to seek friendlier shores. Every port they called at turned them away, whether out of fear of the mages' power or in fear of retaliation from the pursuing Elterlunian navy. The vagabond fleet finally eluded their hunters and landed on the shores of Thayris. The High Prelate of Thayris received Allicia's petition, seemingly on his deathbed. He was preparing to turn her away when she offered to heal his wasting illness. Her success led the High Prelate to grant the refugees an uninhabited chain of islands off of the Thayrissi coast.

In the decades since Allicia's time, the Antasian colonists have thrived. The concentration of so much sorcerous potential has been passed down through strong bloodlines such that the gift occurs in not one in thousands, as elsewhere, but in one out of every fifty Antasians. A generation after the sorcerers' expulsion, a new ruling pair sent expeditions to find their wayward mages and make peace with them. While the use of magic is still regarded with suspicion in Elterluna, it is no longer banned. The Antasians were incorporated back into the fold, and live mostly in peace with the empire, left to mostly govern themselves under the lax (but lucrative) eyes of imperial viceroys.

Magic was outlawed in the homeland a century ago. All magic-users were deported, fled, executed, or went into hiding. The nearby "host" nation was sympathetic, and allowed the founding of a colony off of its shore. When the homeland found out, they decided to let it be and sent colonial viceroys. Magic use remains outlawed in the homeland, but colonists can use it freely. As the ancestors of the colonists were virtually all gifted, the rate of magic use is very high. The "host" country does not ban magic use, but all sorcerers must be licensed by the state[/area]



Ugh, you guys are determined not to make this easy on me. Fortunately, I quite liked a write-in, and have incorporated it to spice things up:

In his final year, the protagonist was eager to pursue his own independent work, and chafed at the restrictions placed on him by the masters of the academy. He needed restricted spell components, and was disinclined to wait for the glacially-slow approval process. He tamed and released a pack of dire wombats to cover his burglary of the headmistress's private stash. He might not have been expelled for this, given the innovative use he put the components to, but he was also caught selling some of the more exotic gemstones, spices, and monster body parts to make a small fortune. It didn't help that he'd also slept with the headmistress's wife, but he was never clear on whether she knew that or not.

Our boy's turning into a real scalawag, I hope you're happy. The remainder of the questions were about skills. These are once again visually-messy, and easier to discuss express numerically.



See? Messy. Once again, I assigned 1 point to a 4th choice, 2 points to a 3rd, etc.

Wilderness Survival

20 Hunting/Tracking
22 Ropework/Camping
35 Beast Lore
32 Herblore/Healing
35 Geography/Navigation
20 Trap-making
24 Animal control magic
14 Weather control magic

Duplicity

37 Deception/Lying
28 Impersonation/Disguise
26 Pickpocketing/Sleight of hand
16 Lock-picking
28 Forgery
29 Stealth
13 Compulsive magic
29 Illusion magic

Interpersonal

23 Negotiation/Barter
28 Insight
23 Performance
12 Leadership
25 Street smarts/Intimidation
37 Persuasion/Suggestive magic
30 Sound and language manipulation magic
25 Telepathic communication

In this case, I feel the numbers speak for themselves. Broadly, our boy is blessed with a silver tongue, enhanced to preternatural levels with judicious use of manipulative sorcery. He also has a penchant for more mundane feats of legerdemain and trickery, though he prefers to convince or beguile rather than the more brutish applications of the craft. He has spent considerable time in the wilds, and is self-reliant. He has traveled the Isles extensively, and is likely an adept sailor.

That's all for tonight, I'll try to work on the next survey first thing in the morning.

[the worst]

i think those skill answers are a solid reminder of what this forum was made for

[Pine]

The new survey is up!

I anticipate this to be the penultimate survey, concluding tomorrow night. The last survey will go up Wednesday, and I will aim to fill in some world details over the weekend with the first story page on Monday.

[Pine]

Remember, when there are checkboxes you can select more than one. If you like two of the choices, pick them. If you loathe one specifically, select everything but that to effectively downvote it.

[Pine]

No Pengu he cannot have a dire wombat pet >_<

[PenguinPower]