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Justiciar Catriona "The world is not perfect. Slavers wait patiently to our South. Prevented from raiding our villages only by the Imperial army. Nomad bandits lurk in their deserts to the South East. The Priesthood of Fire keeps them at bay, but burning a desert is like trying to warm a man with snow. Brother kills brother to the West and all manner of bandits have been loosed by the savage civil war in Leonis. To the East, you can buy a kind man's life for a weeks worth of bread or hire a Rainbringer to wash away the home of an honest man for only a little more. To the North, the strong rule over the weak but both huddle together around a fire in wooden huts while they pray to their gods that the Dwarves will not kill them tonight. They do not dare to dream of asking to live through tomorrow as well. Their survival is always uncertain. You know what I say is true citizens; for the Rune on my forehead means I cannot tell a lie." "The Holy Empire of Djikstera has not only the strongest armies in Novus, but also the strongest commitment to truth and the welfare of all its citizens. That commitment is what has brought me to your village today. The two men tied to stakes atop the piles of wood behind me gave shelter to bandits from Leonis. The bandits have preyed on you and on passing caravans for weeks while those two grew rich from selling the goods the bandits stole. The world is not perfect, but we can make it a little more perfect each day. Today, you can make the world a little more perfect by using the torches I have given you to burn these two men alive." I stepped aside as the gathered villagers rushed the stakes to which their elders were bound. Elders who'd led them well. Elders who'd wisely re-invested the proceeds of their criminal enterprises back into their village. Now that Bronzeheart and I had killed the bandits, the village would be poorer. Some of the men and women rushing to set their elders alight would be jobless within a fortnight. Some, surely, were afraid of what I would do if they did not hurry to obey. Most, probably, had no thought for the consequences of their actions. As the men on the stakes began to scream, I reminded myself that the world is not perfect. We have to make it a little more perfect each day. Journeyman Justicar +2 A recently tattooed Justicar, Catriona wields the rune of truth and her authority like cudgels to bludgeon the nation towards a more perfect future. Deep Anima Reservoir +2 Catriona was born with an unusually deep anima reserve, allowing her to draw more, and more powerful runes than would be expected of someone with her experience. Shield Mountain Veteran +2 Bandits. War Refugees. Ex-soldiers. There isn't much difference when your soldiers are peasant levies and their farms are destroyed in the fighting. Even honest men have to eat and when the only skill they can practice is murder for profit... Well, lets just say a lot of unfortunate souls started looking at everyone they met as a bag of gold just waiting to be claimed. The civil war in Leonis spawned hundreds of bandits, and then thousands more when the army was disbanded and the ex-soldiers realized they didn't have anywhere to go home to. Many of them spilled across the border into the Holy Empire of Djikstera. Catriona's mentor, Bronzeheart, had her serve two years along the border hunting for bandits and worse with him. Travelling from small village to small village taught her wilderness survival skills. Hunting down bandits and rooting them out from their hiding places among the villages and farmers honed her tracking and fighting skills. What she saw and did there will be forever etched into her mind. Such evils are exactly what the Empire exists to prevent. Swift +2 Catriona is swift in thought and deed. No Rest For the Wicked -2 The wicked do not rest from their evils; so Catriona pushes herself not to rest either. She restlessly hunts for the truth late into the night, long after good folk have gone to bed. Then she rises before the sun to resume her hunt. Her insomnia often leaves her sleep-deprived and prone to mistakes. Progressive -2 Catriona firmly believes in the Empire. A better version of the Empire. With the current version of the empire having been laid down by the One God, that's not a popular belief. Not a safe belief. It is however a belief that Catriona is willing to die for. It's the only way she can justify to herself all the other people she's made die for it. Starting Point A small village near the Golden Mountains. What do you want out of the game? In the short term I want to get to play a bad-rear end, wandering Judge Dredd. I want to arbitrate disagreements, investigate crimes, and punish the wicked. In the longer term I want to explore the tension between the safety/prosperity a large unified state like the Empire provides and the oppressive/Orwellian methods necessary to maintain that stability.
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Feb 6, 2017 19:14
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Valhawk posted:Question: What does Catriona think of the Church of the One God? Does she believe in the Faith's teachings? I have met many members of the Priesthood of Fire during my training. They were all upright citizens and honest. Aside from my brethren, they're the most honest group of people I've ever met. They're not even bound by the Truth Tattoo as we are, but still, they rarely stray outside the bounds of complete correctness. Having one at my side would be a great blessing as I administer the Emperor's justice in these remote regions even though their zeal sometimes drives them to excess. I mete out justice, not mercy; but sometimes it seems to me that the Priesthood is happy to settle for revenge. The Church is the unifying thread of the Empire. If we did not have the word of the One God, we would prey on each other as the men and women in Leonis do. Truly, we are the chosen people. One day we will liberate all the humans outside our borders from their false masters and shield them from the monstrous humanoids who kill and enslave them. I do not understand why the One God created the world this way. Leaving Humans vulnerable to the depredations of the other races. Bedeviled by monsters. Weak, and prone to folly. Ultimately it does not matter. The world is not perfect. I will make it so. One day at a time. LLSix fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Feb 7, 2017 |
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Feb 7, 2017 03:16
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Valhawk posted:Question: There are some non-humans that live in Djikstera, generally for them to be granted permanent residence they must prove to be true believers in the Faith of the One God to the Priesthood's satisfaction, this often involves questioning in the presence of a Justicar to ensure that there can be no deception. Tell me about a time when Catriona was involved in one such questioning, and what she did when she discovered that the non-human in question was a true zealot in his belief in the One God and the Church. Some days, it is easier to make the world a better place than others. One of my better days was when I was privileged to help Dalmatius join the Empire. Dalmatius, used to be known as Cricket. Before he found the One God, he was a Formosian slave. Before he escaped he picked cotton for his masters and sometimes entertained his fellow slaves with music on his flute. His flute playing upset his master and Cricket had two fingers on both his hands cut off. As soon as his stumps stopped bleeding Cricket escaped across the border. He'd been listening to the local Priest's sermons for two months before we arrived to interview him. He has a fervent desire to know more of the One God and his message of justice and the pursuit of honor. He had this strange notion that we were all slaves to the One God, but there was no flaw in his faith. I have no doubt he will serve the Empire loyally all his days; he swore as much to me. Citizens on the frontiers of the Empire often suffer at the hands of non-humans. Dalmatius would have not been given a fair chance if settled near any of the borders. Those further inside our borders rarely see people from other villagers, much less non-humans, and again he would not be given a fair chance. I arranged an escort for him to Origin with two soldiers who promised to die before harming him or letting others harm him. I received a letter from Dalmatius just the other day. He wrote that he can not play the flute anymore, but that the priests find his singing exotic and often ask him to perform for them.
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Feb 9, 2017 03:41
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Thank you for the pogs!Valhawk posted:Now, I'm going to work on getting the thread up in the next few days, but in the meantime I'm going to ask one last round of questions, and ask that you post with additional detail about where exactly your character is starting.  Justicar training begins at a young age. I was brought to the Hall of Justice at the age of 4. Together, with my fellow hopefuls I spent the first 3 years of my life in the common dormitory. Until the time I was 7, I labored as a servant; working in the kitchens, stables, and wherever else a young pair of hands could be of help. We all do. The Archon thinks it helps us to understand the truth we elicit if we have some knowledge of the lives that motivate those beliefs. Later we learned that it also helps keep costs down. In this fashion I was taught the first limit of the rune of truth. A partial truth is still the truth, but it can easily mislead. Never settle for a single answer, always inquire from multiple angles and use slight variations of the same question to reduce the ways a suspect can avoid incriminating themselves. Those hopefuls who failed to find friends with others in their dorm during this time were weeded out. A Justicar's empathy must be as keen as any spear point, for only by knowing others, can we find the truth. I had many friends and so was allowed to stay. When I turned 7, I was paired with sister-trainee, Honoria. We were long since friends from our years in the dorm. We were given our own room, just the two of us, and later were given private study rooms. Mastering a rune is a long and grueling process requiring intense study, so the privacy was not a luxury, but a necessity. We did almost everything together. We were even assigned to serve as pages to the same Justicar-Instructor together. Those years of working, studying, and even rarely playing together were some of the happiest years of my life. I was lucky to be paired with Honoria, she was the best candidate from our year. I likely would have never passed our class in Dwarvish if not for her help. She was faster and stronger than me too. Her example inspired me, inspired all of us to be more than we thought we could be. In the sixteenth year of my life, we were separated. We would each serve as squires and assistants to the Justicars who would become our life-long mentors. For two years, we traveled with our mentors. Helping them and learning from them. Afterwards, we returned to Origin, to the Hall of Justice where we would receive our tattoos and our roles would be reversed. We would be given assignments, and our mentors would follow us for a year. Helping and teaching us. Just before my final initiation, I was asked to interview my sister-trainee to determine if she was fit to be a Justicar. I thought it was just a formality, Honoria had always been the best of us. I was nervous about passing my own final interview, but I had no doubts about her. To my horror, my interview with her was not a formality. Not only she, but also her mentor, had been lax in their duties. They had accepted stories that even I, once removed, could see obvious holes in. They had been quick to pass judgement, hasty in their conclusions. Much mischief had been allowed to continue unchecked by their actions and it was likely that many they had punished had been innocent. I could not believe it. I left the Hall, my mind in turmoil, and walked for I do not know how long, wrestling with this decision. Should I do my duty and report their laxity, or should I protect the best friend I'd ever had? I have nightmares from my year defending the Shield Mountain, but this was the hardest decision I ever had to make. In the end, there was only one thing I could do. I betrayed my BFF to the Justicars. Justicar Bronzeheart, my mentor, told me he already knew and had captured them while I was away, but he was proud of me for passing his test. I helped interrogate them. Both of them, even though Honoria had been led into error by her mentor, she too had to pay the price. Afterwards, Honoria was allowed a funeral pyre, that her soul might find its way back to the One God. Her mentor's beheaded body I left in the woods for a wandering monster to devour. Beheaded because though we are servants of Truth, we do not wish any to know that even we sometimes fall short of our duties. Since then, I have felt a hollowness within my own chest. I believe it is the empty spot where my mercy found a home before it was burned out of me by betraying Honoria, my best and oldest friend. *** I am currently rooting out evil and injustice in the NorthEastern part of the Empire. I was told to be especially thorough because an army might soon be passing through here to capture the Golden Mountain Tower at long last.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:04
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