Post/Author/DateTime	Post
TheDragonmaster 02-25-06, 12:20 PM	Anybody, take yor time to read this trough (please), and give me input on this character... And, my DM, stay out! (You still know the history, but hey) History About 25 years ago, a young kalashtar man, fleing from a black dragon, was provided shelter and protection by an illuminan chain cabal. The cabal's name was Thundershackles, and though their membership was primary lawful neutral, and not lawful evil, there was certainly no good illuminans in it. The wounded kalashtar was seduced by an attractive illuminan woman, infact one of the members of the cabal's black table. The illuminan plot was to produce an kalashtar-illuminan offspring, for the cabal wanted posession of the lore and abilities provided by such an offspring. The cabal did, indeed, even own posession and control over the black dragon that initially wounded the kalashtar male. After half a week, the kalashtar man left the cabal, and a month or so later, the illuminan plot was proven successful. Not long more than half a year later, when the child was to be born, a strange happening occured. The soul of the preincarnate child, circled by a fragment of a quori spirit, and infused with the illuminan language, attracted the instinctive attention of a spark of incarnum. The incarnum spark infused the soul, and the born child showed, not only illuminan and kalashtar traits, but also traits which indicated azurin membership. This hybrid person, or creature, woke great interest in the hearts of the illuminans. A long journey away, the kalashtar male had reached home, a small kalashtar community with contacts reaching many enclaves within other humanoid cities in the land. The history of the kalashtar young adultīs journey, once told by him, woke interest also in the kalashtar community. They sent a group of diplomats to the chain cabal to ask them to let the kalashtar raise the child. The chain cabal refused. In a bloody incident with losses on the kalashtar side, the origin of the black dragon was discovered. Now, the kalashtar was equipping themselves for war, and sent for atavist groups to join them in their war. To justify the call of war, rumours blaming the illuminan black table to be ruled by inspired of the dreaming dark was being spread inside kalashtar communities. On the day of the childs third birthday (allthough the illuminans didn't notice that) the kalashtar attacked. In a feast of blood, the black dragon was slain, along with lots of illuminan guards, and allthough the illuminans mounted a good defence, the kalashtar broke deeper into the cabal's underground tunnels. When the child was discovered, it was quickly carried away and put in the kalashtar's protection. The black table woman, when faced with the inevitable annihilation of the cabal, tried to turn sides claimin her motherhood of the hybrid child. She was fiercly slain. Soon the kalashtar had destoyed the whole cabal, and killed every illuminan member. They found evidence of plots running in a large-scale area around the cabal, and took it as proof of the inspired involvement. The father of the child, amongst many other kalashtar, was slain in the attack. Six years old, the hybrid child, examined and observed daily, fled from the kalashtar "inprisonment". Into the woods, he fled, ran, ran and ran more. The kalashtar didn't notice until the day was at end, and the boy escaped. For three days he fled, without meeting as much as a small furry animal ( :) ), and the third day, the small boy collapsed. A whim of fate made two hunting wood elves, a day away from their outpost town, find the unconscious boy, and bring him home. The boy survived the days carrying, and well at the outpost, a wood elven druid restored the boy to health. The elves raised the boy, and learnt the little he remembered of his history. Divination was consulted, and the boy, at the age of twelve, learned his real fates of life. The boy was raised by the elves, and lived with them, allthough the wood elves were facinated by his both psionic, magic and incarnum-infused heritage. At the boy's twentieth year of life, a kalashtar man, tainted by the dreaming dark, learned of the boy, and began to track him down. This was a great task, though, beacuse the wood elf community went from place to place, to keep from exhausting the fruits of nature. Three years later, the man found the wood elves, and encountered the boy when he was collecting dead branches for firewood. He tried to temp the boy to join him and the inspired. He tried to tempt him with riches, power, and much other, but the boy was taught well in moral and ethical behaviour by the elves, and sensed that something was wrong about this statement, snd allthough he did not know about the dreaming dark, he refused. The kalashtar, facing this respectless young freak, then chose simply to kill the "creature". What the corrupted kalashtar did not know was that the wood elves of the tribe was a martial race, and the boy had enveloped his emotions in the way of the sword. The elven thinblade sword to be exact. The boy, physically gifted, defended himself well against the kalashtar attacker, but the tides of battle was turning against him. Suddenly, the young man's sword was disarmed, and the kalashtar was pleased. The kalashtar presented a last chance to surrender and join him (now I am sure of it, this is from Star Wars...). The boy refused. As the kalashtar was going to deliver the final thrust, the boy, both enraged and afraid, manifested a mind blade and drove it through the kalashtar man's chest. The kalashtar died instantly. The sheer shock of manifesting a mind blade and killing a quori-posessed creature when self being half-kalashtar, drove the boy insane. The elves sonn found the boy, writhing in spasmic motions. They took him back to the outpost and magically cured him of the insanity. But the seed of madness had been planted... The boy could not stand longer living with the elves, and left the community in a great ceremony where he was presented a heirloom sword, and basic survival gear. So the boy set out into the world, a world of adventure! The character will start as gestalt Soulknife 1/Fighter 1 and dip into an incarnum class, while maintaining taking soulknife levels. I will, at some point, go into the Shadow Sentinel class (I have a way of getting to the plane of shadow, I qualify, I like it, and I like illuminans a lot more than kalashtar, so it is not that a bad idea). Tactics and fighting style is pre-made. To you who read through both the whole text blocks, or just jumped down here, can you help me answer some questions? They are: §1 How long do kalashtar live and what's their age category "borders"? §2 How (more than in discussions of course...) are I going to let into play my character's madness? §3 Can you use a +1 Flaming (for example) sword for the Shadow Sentinel's Shadowblade ability? Will it retain the special abilities? §4 Why is the elven thinblade sword so ugly in the Races of the Wild art? and... §5 Other input is greatly helpful and appreciated!
Grizzled Gryphon 02-25-06, 10:22 PM	I have been looking at the Shadow Sentinal with great interest, as of late. As it is written, you could get a sword with the flaming (or any other enhancement) and use it for the weapon. As for this background, it is rather nice. Mostly. It does smack of "munchkinism" to some degree, though. It does have some very nice flavor, and as a DM, I LOVE the tie-ins to so many organizations!! Wow, the gaming ideas I could come up with with this background!! The possibilities for plot twists are mind-boggling. This is the type of background I like to come up with for my own characters. All in all, kudos on this, my friend. As for the life span of a Kalashtar, I have no idea, sorry. How to let your insanity affect the game? taht depends, actually. One, how does his insanity manifest itself? Does he have phobias, multiple personalities, or what? I have no idea why the sword in races of the wild looks bad. Actually, I didn't know there WAS a picture of it in the races of the wild. The only pic of it I have seen is in Complete Warrior, I think. In that book, it looks rather nice, to me.