Original 'Verse character sketches
As per my resolution to actually do something with original stories this year, I'm fleshing out the characters from an original universe and trying to get a solid visual appearance down for all the primary and secondary characters. Since at this point I'm far more likely to work on something if it involves drawing rather than writing. The story is fantasy with a dash of sci-fi, and everything in here is obviously still a WIP.
World-building blather and sketches under the cut.
Nomads are one of the three major people groups in this world. They're magic users who live on the magical plain (which overlays the real world - it has gravity but things float in it, kind of like being underwater) rather than simply drawing their power from it or using it purely for travel purposes, as the Mages and humans do. They wander around it in large city-ships. These are some of their smaller ships, meant for transportation rather than living on.
Nomad military ships tend to have very skeleton crews, with members picked specifically because their magical abilities fill a function that fits well with the other crew members. Crews will work with each other for years, sometimes even entire careers. The loss of one member can potentially leave them completely dead in the water until someone can be found who can fill the same function in as close to the same way as possible. Nomad magic is specific to the individual; they spend most of their developmental years first discovering and then perfecting their own unique way of using magic.
Mages and Nomads are involved in a cold war. There is some major, long-term cultural hatred going on. Currently, the Mages have more political power with the humans, but the Nomads control movement in the magical realm. The non-magical humans outnumber both groups but are economically dependent on Mage magic while simultaneously being unwilling to tick off the Nomads for fear of their trading routes being cut off.
The main Nomad characters in the story all serve on board an as-yet unnamed outpost ship. Their primary purpose is to sit there and keep human supply trains and sneaky Mages out of Nomad territory.
The gold each character is wearing is a collection of medallions, beads, etc. that displays their family history, their accomplishments, and other personal information. It will always be visible when they're in public - not wearing them is like leaving the house without pants on. The gold bits and what colors they wear - not the actual cut of the clothes - is the most important part of their wardrobe; it's what will tell other Nomads what position they hold.
Right, so. This is Rue. An officer on board the ship, Records Keeper (aka glorified librarian), and Chase's uncle. (Chase being one of the primary characters.) Rue is close friends with Duet, who he might have a thing for. Both of them might also have a thing for Winter. They haven't told me yet. Rue is usually patient but can sometimes become overly defensive, which makes him snappish.
His brother, now deceased, was somewhat of a wild-card. Rue is under extreme social pressure to uphold the family honor and make up for his brother's mistakes. Chase being one such mistake; Rue did not find out until after his brother's death that he'd had a child with a human woman but never assisted in raising him in any fashion. Which would have been borderline acceptable except for that last part; that was a great big no-no. Unfortunately for Rue, Chase has a human family too, and they're not too thrilled at Rue's sudden interest. Rue's feeling a little in over his head where Chase is concerned, that he's required to prove something and has no good way to do so.
As Records Keeper, Rue is basically a living database. He can pull sensory "data," including that which is magical, from other people via physical contact and then record it onto a physical object. He can then call that information back up by touching the object it is recorded onto. He works closely with those in charge of personnel, security, anything that requires extensive use of monitoring or paperwork. He spends lots of time in his office, which is lined with row after row of segmented bins containing the small metal beads he uses to record onto, organized by date. He's got a strand of the beads that he'll sometimes carry wrapped around his belt or wrist, just in case.
His position is technically non-combat, but like all Nomad military he's been trained in hand-to-hand. Won't do him a lick of good against someone with a weapon or bringing magic against him, but there you go.
Winter is the commanding officer, the one in charge of this whole gig. She's telekenetic, has a strong mind for tactics, and is an accomplished hand-to-hand fighter. She can use her telekenesis to fight - and win - long-range and against people with weapons, but as commanding officer she is only supposed to directly engage in battle as a last resort.
She is very focused, driven, and has a tendency to use people. She's protective of what's hers, which includes the people under her command. She's good at making snap decisions. She also fully expects that if she gives an order it will be successfully followed through. She, Rue, and Duet are all about the same age - early to mid thirties - and have been stationed together ever since completing their respective trainings.
Duet is the communications officer, and one of the most accomplished magic users on board the ship. She creates projections of herself that she can see, hear, and speak through. They have a limited range of movement and cannot smell or touch anything. She usually has, at the very least, three or four running simultaneously. There's almost always a projection following head of security around, another in engineering, and she constantly keeps one on the ship in command of theirs in order to relay orders to Winter. Duet herself can almost always be found at Winter's side when she's on duty, and either with Rue or in her quarters when she's not.
Running so many projections requires intense amounts of concentration. As a result she tends to be fairly absent from her actual, physical body, and comes across as a bit of a space case. She's verbally responsive, but has a tendency to walk into doorjambs and trip over furniture. The easiest way to draw her attention back to what's going on around her is to wave something with a strong smell under her nose.
Over longer distances, she needs something to aim for; usually either a person or place she's already familiar with. She'll start to tap her fingers against her thigh when she's having to concentrate really hard or is getting agitated.
Duet has a strong sense of humor, but her general tendency towards quietness means it can sneak up on you out of nowhere.
The rest of the Nomad officers, though I don't have names or faces for them yet.
- Security: Male. Is psychic. Can pick up on general feelings of deception, unrest, alarm, etc. and vaguely pinpoint where they're coming from. The stronger the emotion, the more accurate he is. Utilizes intelligence more than magic to do his job. Security personnel are also those who defend the ship if they're ever boarded, so he's also the head of ship defense.
- Helm control: Female. Mental connection with and control of the ship itself. Doesn't need to be touching the controls to steer, but can usually be found on the bridge anyway for the sole purpose of being able to see where she's going. Works closely with Navigation.
- Navigation: Male. Acute awareness of long-range surroundings. Doesn't connect with the ships sensors, is the ships sensors. Not very good with short range fiddly stuff - is a cruiser, not a tug boat. He's also their early warning system of approaching vehicles. Navigation and Helm Control have been stationed together the longest out of anyone aboard the ship. They're both starting to get on in years.
- Engineering: Female. Fixes things by the ability to build things as they should be. What her magic won't do is tell here where the problem is or generate materials for her. She had a large hand in the initial building of the ship itself and has been stationed on on it since its inception. Is not fond of Helm Control (it's a “This is my girl.” “No, it's my girl,” thing) and, by proxy, not very fond of Navigation either.
- CMO: Male. Haven't gotten any farther than that with him.
- Head of armed forces: Female. A very physically fit woman who can generate a short range concussive blast. She leads the air troops, which make up the vast majority of the ship's fighting force, in battle. She's very skillful at being in charge of people.
- Personnel: Male. Perfect memory recall (Maybe. Not totally sure yet). Makes sure everything stays running smoothly as far as day-to-day life goes. Works closely with Rue, as his job requires a lot of paperwork.
World-building blather and sketches under the cut.
Nomads are one of the three major people groups in this world. They're magic users who live on the magical plain (which overlays the real world - it has gravity but things float in it, kind of like being underwater) rather than simply drawing their power from it or using it purely for travel purposes, as the Mages and humans do. They wander around it in large city-ships. These are some of their smaller ships, meant for transportation rather than living on.
Nomad military ships tend to have very skeleton crews, with members picked specifically because their magical abilities fill a function that fits well with the other crew members. Crews will work with each other for years, sometimes even entire careers. The loss of one member can potentially leave them completely dead in the water until someone can be found who can fill the same function in as close to the same way as possible. Nomad magic is specific to the individual; they spend most of their developmental years first discovering and then perfecting their own unique way of using magic.
Mages and Nomads are involved in a cold war. There is some major, long-term cultural hatred going on. Currently, the Mages have more political power with the humans, but the Nomads control movement in the magical realm. The non-magical humans outnumber both groups but are economically dependent on Mage magic while simultaneously being unwilling to tick off the Nomads for fear of their trading routes being cut off.
The main Nomad characters in the story all serve on board an as-yet unnamed outpost ship. Their primary purpose is to sit there and keep human supply trains and sneaky Mages out of Nomad territory.
The gold each character is wearing is a collection of medallions, beads, etc. that displays their family history, their accomplishments, and other personal information. It will always be visible when they're in public - not wearing them is like leaving the house without pants on. The gold bits and what colors they wear - not the actual cut of the clothes - is the most important part of their wardrobe; it's what will tell other Nomads what position they hold.
Right, so. This is Rue. An officer on board the ship, Records Keeper (aka glorified librarian), and Chase's uncle. (Chase being one of the primary characters.) Rue is close friends with Duet, who he might have a thing for. Both of them might also have a thing for Winter. They haven't told me yet. Rue is usually patient but can sometimes become overly defensive, which makes him snappish.
His brother, now deceased, was somewhat of a wild-card. Rue is under extreme social pressure to uphold the family honor and make up for his brother's mistakes. Chase being one such mistake; Rue did not find out until after his brother's death that he'd had a child with a human woman but never assisted in raising him in any fashion. Which would have been borderline acceptable except for that last part; that was a great big no-no. Unfortunately for Rue, Chase has a human family too, and they're not too thrilled at Rue's sudden interest. Rue's feeling a little in over his head where Chase is concerned, that he's required to prove something and has no good way to do so.
As Records Keeper, Rue is basically a living database. He can pull sensory "data," including that which is magical, from other people via physical contact and then record it onto a physical object. He can then call that information back up by touching the object it is recorded onto. He works closely with those in charge of personnel, security, anything that requires extensive use of monitoring or paperwork. He spends lots of time in his office, which is lined with row after row of segmented bins containing the small metal beads he uses to record onto, organized by date. He's got a strand of the beads that he'll sometimes carry wrapped around his belt or wrist, just in case.
His position is technically non-combat, but like all Nomad military he's been trained in hand-to-hand. Won't do him a lick of good against someone with a weapon or bringing magic against him, but there you go.
Winter is the commanding officer, the one in charge of this whole gig. She's telekenetic, has a strong mind for tactics, and is an accomplished hand-to-hand fighter. She can use her telekenesis to fight - and win - long-range and against people with weapons, but as commanding officer she is only supposed to directly engage in battle as a last resort.
She is very focused, driven, and has a tendency to use people. She's protective of what's hers, which includes the people under her command. She's good at making snap decisions. She also fully expects that if she gives an order it will be successfully followed through. She, Rue, and Duet are all about the same age - early to mid thirties - and have been stationed together ever since completing their respective trainings.
Duet is the communications officer, and one of the most accomplished magic users on board the ship. She creates projections of herself that she can see, hear, and speak through. They have a limited range of movement and cannot smell or touch anything. She usually has, at the very least, three or four running simultaneously. There's almost always a projection following head of security around, another in engineering, and she constantly keeps one on the ship in command of theirs in order to relay orders to Winter. Duet herself can almost always be found at Winter's side when she's on duty, and either with Rue or in her quarters when she's not.
Running so many projections requires intense amounts of concentration. As a result she tends to be fairly absent from her actual, physical body, and comes across as a bit of a space case. She's verbally responsive, but has a tendency to walk into doorjambs and trip over furniture. The easiest way to draw her attention back to what's going on around her is to wave something with a strong smell under her nose.
Over longer distances, she needs something to aim for; usually either a person or place she's already familiar with. She'll start to tap her fingers against her thigh when she's having to concentrate really hard or is getting agitated.
Duet has a strong sense of humor, but her general tendency towards quietness means it can sneak up on you out of nowhere.
The rest of the Nomad officers, though I don't have names or faces for them yet.
- Security: Male. Is psychic. Can pick up on general feelings of deception, unrest, alarm, etc. and vaguely pinpoint where they're coming from. The stronger the emotion, the more accurate he is. Utilizes intelligence more than magic to do his job. Security personnel are also those who defend the ship if they're ever boarded, so he's also the head of ship defense.
- Helm control: Female. Mental connection with and control of the ship itself. Doesn't need to be touching the controls to steer, but can usually be found on the bridge anyway for the sole purpose of being able to see where she's going. Works closely with Navigation.
- Navigation: Male. Acute awareness of long-range surroundings. Doesn't connect with the ships sensors, is the ships sensors. Not very good with short range fiddly stuff - is a cruiser, not a tug boat. He's also their early warning system of approaching vehicles. Navigation and Helm Control have been stationed together the longest out of anyone aboard the ship. They're both starting to get on in years.
- Engineering: Female. Fixes things by the ability to build things as they should be. What her magic won't do is tell here where the problem is or generate materials for her. She had a large hand in the initial building of the ship itself and has been stationed on on it since its inception. Is not fond of Helm Control (it's a “This is my girl.” “No, it's my girl,” thing) and, by proxy, not very fond of Navigation either.
- CMO: Male. Haven't gotten any farther than that with him.
- Head of armed forces: Female. A very physically fit woman who can generate a short range concussive blast. She leads the air troops, which make up the vast majority of the ship's fighting force, in battle. She's very skillful at being in charge of people.
- Personnel: Male. Perfect memory recall (Maybe. Not totally sure yet). Makes sure everything stays running smoothly as far as day-to-day life goes. Works closely with Rue, as his job requires a lot of paperwork.