SWRPF Archive Tython: The Force Wars

"We are pleased to announce the formation of the Ashla Conclave. Its focus is to study the mystical energy field ..."

"... scientists and philosophers alike agree the Ashla is created no less by life itself. Critics dismiss this conclusion as mere philosophical rubbish, and the more vocal dissenters call for pulling the plug on funding, if that is the best they can come up with after years of study ..."

"... may have discovered a way to test for sensitivity to the mysterious Ashla. Does this herald a new age for the people of Tython, where sensitives are shunned - or vice versa? The Conclave calls this the scientific breakthrough of our time, and Professor Alvarez has already called for volunteers for clinical trials ..."

Welcome to Tython.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v605/xany/rpf/cityscape.jpg]

The year is 25,100 BBY. The Rakatan Infinite Empire has collapsed, and for the first time in millennia, the fledging races are free to make their own way in the galaxy. Some, like the Corellians and Duros, devote their time to back-engineering Rakatan technology, intent on discovering the secret of faster-than-light travel. Others, like the humans of Tython, pursue the study of the Force - or, as they call it, the Ashla.

That's where you come in.

The Conclave on Tython is a group of philosophers, priests, and scientists dedicated to studying the Ashla, many of them adepts themselves. The rest of Tython's population has by and large tolerated the Conclave's existence as a faintly whimsical academic organization, but now that they've come up with a definitive test of ability, the sentiment is shifting. Those who are different, who might perhaps be sensitive to the Ashla, are viewed with suspicion: for the people do not understand the Ashla, and they fear what they do not understand.

The Tython Government has provided funding and support for the Conclave since its formation ten years ago, and by all appearances will continue to do so despite growing pressure to shut down the Conclave and "do something about the freaks." The Premier has recently made a public statement endorsing voluntary Ashla testing. Yet unbeknownst to the Conclave, they have also quietly begun researching new types of weapons and technology to counter incursions by Ashla adepts - or to suppress their talents, effectively incarcerating them.

As for the Ashla adepts themselves ... some, like those in the Conclave, see it as an exciting breakthrough, definitive proof that the Ashla exists. Others are not so sure, but one thing is certain: this changes everything.

---

[b]Gameplay Notes[/b]

[i]The State of the Galaxy[/i] - The Republic doesn't exist yet and neither does the Jedi Order. For the most part, planets are now isolated as faster-than-light technology is limited to [link=http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperspace_cannon]hyperspace cannons[/link], which are strictly one-way trips. This game won't pay much attention to the rest of the galaxy; our focus is on the events unfolding on Tython.

[i]The Force[/i] - The Ashla is their name for the light side of the Force. They haven't discovered the dark side yet, although some are inadvertently coming close. That said, the general population does not understand these technicalities, or indeed anything about the Force: they have begun to shun anyone that display any hint of extraordinary powers.

[i]The World[/i] - Tython has one major continent that covers the better part of the southern hemisphere, divided by the usual collection of rivers, mountain ranges, plains and forests, all largely covered by cityscape. It is also a human world; I am allowing non-human characters, but bear in mind that this is essentially the dawn of galactic civilization as we know it, so have a good reason for your non-human to be there. Perhaps they were planted by the Rakata?

[i]Technology[/i] - In general, Tython's technology is above modern-day Earth's level, but still far below that we see in the rest of SW. Specifically:
[ul][li]Energy weapons and s

 

GM Approved.



Name: Pyr Reconn
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Profession: Artist
Faction(s): Bogan
Talent: Force Speed
Appearance: 5 feet 10 inches tall, 130 pounds, short dark hair, goatee, tan long-sleeved shirt, dark green vest, brown pants, boots, missing the little finger on his left hand (due to a "sculpting accident")
Brief Bio: All through his schooling, Pyr learned to better his artistic talent. He could both paint and sculpt. When he finished school, he managed to sell some of his work. That, of course, inspired him to create more. He currently owns a small one-room apartment that he uses as his studio. It's more of a studio than living quarters.

One day, while he was playing sports with some of his friends, he realized he was moving faster than everyone else. He was surprised, considering he was never really the athletic type. He then created some artwork that portrayed a person in motion...moving quickly. He thought over the different possibilities. He felt that he was special...better than everyone else, which drew him to the Bogan.

 

Xany Approved.

Name: Raffi Drall
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Profession: Speeder Racer
Faction(s): The Circle (Unknown)
Talent: Mechanical Manipulation
Appearance: Clear skin, stubble beard, long dreadlock style blond hair tied into a ponytail with elastic, bright green eyes, wears a headband, stud earrings. Wears a black and yellow armored jumpsuit with a dark gray robe over top.
Brief Bio: Raffi is the son of a mechanic and a waitress, Demetrius and Esme Drall. His entire life he has been around machines. In fact, he was born in his father?s workshop, with a medical droid of his father?s own creation. Raffi first discovered his talent when he was seven. An old toy of his had broken and in his grief he had somehow managed to possess with mock life. Raffi kept his skill a secret, not entirely aware of it?s rarity.

Raffi began testing his skills with other machines, including droids, but as yet, his abilities in that sense are limited. Raffi began to comprehend mechanical systems better, a skill he attributed to his talent and he grew heavy into speeders, particularly the racing of them.

After a long winning spree, Raffi was approached by a fellow who said he could ?see? people with certain abilities. He said that Raffi need only follow him and he would be able to learn to control his talent. But, out of all, it was the way he had pronounced the term, ?see? that had caught the young racer?s attention.

 

GM Approved (but I did change the name a little... if that's an issue, I can just change it back...)

Name: Conrad Fae
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Profession: Student
Faction(s): Ashla
Talent: Force Sense
Appearance: Tall and slender. Dark hair, slightly dark skin.
Brief Bio: Born into a middle-class family, Conrad has always been intelligent but somewhat quiet. He has always been 'sensitive', in more ways than one; he possesses a keen understanding of others' feelings, but also has highly variable emotions. His moods range from melancholy to exuberance to rage, but his feelings are almost always intense. As much as he tries to control and conceal his moods, he still occasionally experiences a depressive spell or manic outburst.

Conrad recently finished his third year studying Psychology at Tython University. Recently, he (based on his intuition) has come to suspect that he may be sensitive to the so-called 'Ashla', so he has journeyed to the Conclave to get himself tested...

 

Xany Approves!


Name: Lyceus Eltotsira
Species: Human
Gender: male
Age: 49
Profession: Holoartist. Philospher.
Faction(s):The Ashla Conclave. (known)
Talent: Telekinesis (active), telempathy (passive/circumstancial).
Appearance: 6' 0", 165 lb. grey eyes, tan skin. Long Raven hair and beard in banded braids. Long ( grey coloured ) traditional robes worn by philosophers.
Brief Bio: Lyceus is a deep thinker and an incredible holoartist. He's worked on both private and public holo-realistic pieces of varying proportions and themes. He has joined the Ashla Conclave at this time, for they share a great portion of his views concerning the "Force". The Ashla is the hot topic of the moment and he has much to say about it. However, revealing his own sensitivity is a decision he has yet to make. Is he willing to live with the consequences? Time will tell.

 

Ooh, now we're talking! Game Master Approved!

Name: Maxil Sylveste
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Profession: Police Officer
Faction(s): The Circle
Talent: Precognition
Appearance: Shaggy brown hair, 5'10, 187 lbs. Black and green uniform with black caps. Multiple tattoos all over his body, covering his arms and legs, hands and feet.
Brief Bio: Sylveste is a young police officer, who has only recently (last couple of months) been experiencing precognition skills. He hasn't embraced it and maintains his life as a police officer. Has both his parents and 3 sisters, none of whom have shown any special talents that he can see. Quick to anger and doesn't scare easily. Stubborn.
Likes: Weapons, women, politics, science, and space travel.
Dislikes: Ashla Conclave, activists, and conservatives.

 

Hm. Quite the turnout so far, guys! So far the (provisional) faction count stands at:

Ashla Conclave: 4 (CLOSED)
Circle: 4 (CLOSED)
Bogan: 2

If I've approved your sheet, go ahead and post it. In the interests of faction balance, the Circle is now closed to new players (if you haven't sent me a sheet yet but I've approved the concept, you're included in the count), and if you're thinking of joining this game, I'd really like to have more players for the Bogan. They get the fun stuff anyway..

Also: I notice I've been getting sheets with two talents instead of just one, as is the norm. As always I'm willing to be flexible, but if you want that, be prepared to make a very very good case for why I should allow it.

edit - Ashla Conclave is now closed as well. Again, if you've already PMed me your interest in playing, you're in the count.

 

GM APPROVED


Name: Alec Grazer
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Profession: Philosopher, Spy
Faction(s): Ashla (Knowingly), The Circle (Unknowingly)
Talent: Mind Tricks
Appearance: 5?9? height with short, untidy red hair at the top and a pair of hazel eyes to match. Weighs at 178 lbs., and has a toned physique with somewhat pale skin that?s usually hidden under the brown robes worn by philosophers.
Brief Bio: Alec was born with the name Alec Grazer, but as a child, no older than six, he was brought into the care of Jace Savon. Having been born at the cost of his mother?s life during childbirth, Alec only had a father to care for him who worked at one of the factories belonging to Sathel Arms. Unfortunately, tragedy struck with his only parent as well. Compared to the future technology that would see the development of blasters, slugthrowers were quite primitive with their reliance on explosive chemicals to launch projectiles that would prove fatal when they strike a target. And those explosive chemicals could be quite hazardous, especially during the development of ammunition which could, if not careful, cause an accident that took the life of Alec?s father.

Jace Savon, secretly a member of the recently created Circle, took the young Alec into his care where the child was granted an education and studied the subject of philosophy. While he also gained education, Alec also gained something else. Over time he noticed that he could sense and read the thoughts of others and, with some direction from his adopted father, developed the ability to interfere with those thoughts, to implant images and thoughts of his own designs into another?s mind.

It was with these abilities that his adopted father chose him to become a spy within the Ashla Conclave for the Circle. Having been previously educated in philosophy, it wasn?t hard for Alec to infiltrate into the Ashla Conclave as one of the many philosophers that make up the Conclave.

 

Character Sheet
Name: Ivo Agrippa
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 30
Profession: Planetary defense officer (Lt.)
Faction(s): The Bogan
Talent: Telekinesis
Appearance: Standing at an even two meters in height, Ivo has the tanned skin of a season soldier. Broad shouldered and muscles built for use rather than vanity. His hair is cut close to the and he is usually wearing his uniform.
Brief Bio: Having served in the planetary defense force for over 10 years, Ivo is a seasoned soldier and veteran. In the a fit of emotion he discovered and ability to move things without touching them. Being the secretive person he is, he hid the talent from those around him. In secret, he began to practice and develop his new ability or at least what he thought was a secret. But soon he was approached by a memeber of an orgnanization of people with similar talents and his life would not be the same.

 

Quick note: Although I'd still like to fill up the Bogan side, I may actually rethink the faction cap thing. So if you've got your heart absolutely set on playing a character in the Ashla Conclave or Circle, don't throw out the sheet just yet - send it to me anyway (or better yet, consider multi-factionning.)

 

GM Approved

Name: Gaeriel Barento
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Profession: Merchant
Faction[s]: The Ashla Conclave
Talent: Mind Trick
Appearance: See here [outfit: a reddish-brown shawl, a brown short-sleeved undershirt, black pants, black boots].
Brief Bio: There was always something strange about Gaeriel Barento. She always had a way with words. From escaping from her captors as slave under one of Tython's mob bosses to taking over her ?father?s? merchant business with a simple smile and handshake, people always seemed to bend to her way, to ?see her way? as she liked to say. Her strange ability to ?persuade people? has led her to the ?Ashla Conclave?.

 

Alright, this is what's happening regarding the factions... while I would really like to increase the player cap to allow for more players, I don't want to overextend myself as a GM because things would get really messy. I am willing to make the exception for one, maybe two more characters, but only if they're absolutely spectacular.

What I'll do is start a waitlist, and any more characters will go on that for priority consideration when I open the game to more players. Don't take being on the waitlist as a slur against your capabilities - this is just the beginning of The Force Wars, after all.

That said, the faction count stands at:

Ashla Conclave: 4 (CLOSED)
Circle: 4 (CLOSED)
Bogan: 4 (CLOSED)

... so we're live! Those of you who sent me a character concept but not a completed sheet, or those I've sent back for edits, please get them to me by this weekend or I may start filling in the gaps with the waitlist. With any luck, we'll be able to begin on Monday.

 

GM Approved!

Name: Wid Winton
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Profession: Merchant
Faction: Circle (unknown), Bogan (unknown)
Talent: Mind Trick
Appearance: Brown travelling cloak, Western-style hat, average size, black boots, brown mark on left arm, small scar on hand from "close encounter"
Brief Bio: Growing up on Tython, Wid never thought that he had any sort of special powers. However, when he started changing things around him, he was overwhelmed. He then decided to wait and keep his power a secret until someone could help him understand it.

Now that the Circle has taken him in, Wid has worked to better understand his strengths. Working as a merchant, he uses his powers to squeeze a little extra cash out of customers. However, he has begun to think of the Bogan as an enticing option; one where he could further control his own destiny. Now his loyalties lie between the two groups.

 

XANY APPROVED!

Name: Varus Beleikov
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 67
Profession: Retired politician
Faction(s): Bogan (unknown)
Talent: Persuasion
Appearance: [image=http://www.aais.org.uk/html/components/hadrian.gif]
Brief Bio:

A former Premier of Tython, Varus Beleikov still holds considerable power in the planet's political arena. He is known for championing the cause of the Ashla Conclave, having previously lobbied for increased funding despite the lack of public support.

Unbeknownst to anyone except his wife, he has a vested interest in the Conclave and its future. Beleikov is secretly an adept himself, and has used Ashla from an early age to persuade people to do his bidding, speeding his ascent up the political ladder.

He knows the usefulness of the Ashla for manipulation and coercion, and quietly agrees with the philosophy of the Bogan- though outwardly he maintains the same attitude of tolerance and equality that he always has.

 

Xany approved for 13 essential vitamins and minerals.


Name: Takla Foo
Species: human

Gender: female

Age: 32

Profession: Artisan

Faction(s): Ashla (known)

Talent: Levitation

Appearance: Tall and willowy, Takla isn't conventionally beautiful; crippling shyness mars her ability to communicate effectively with others and she struggles with this affliction. There is a short scar along her left cheek from a battle when she served in the armed forces, but it has worn away with time and she covers it up with makeup. Her chin is angular and strong and she is never afraid to get involved in a physical fight, though words often escape her and she often tries to avoid verbal arguments.

Brief Bio: Born to wealthy parents, Takla rebelled, refusing to follow in their footsteps as a businesswoman. Instead, she developed her artistic side, seeking solace in the metaphysical through sculpting and writing. When the Ashla Conclave opened, she was hoping to finally fit in with others similar to her in temperament, though she was suspicious of anyone with special powers.

About five years ago, Takla discovered her own ability to move objects with her mind. She is unsure how to deal with this - there are good and bad points to her abilities, but mostly she tries to keep it to herself.

 

OOC: I have a few things to do on Monday, so I'll try to be on when I can that day.

 

***XANY Approved***

Character Sheet
Name: Alana Cha-Rikki
Species: Codru Ji (Looks human for most part)
Gender: F
Age: 18
Profession: Healer
Faction(s): Unknown (leaning towards Ashla)
Talent: Alana has dreams, that very often come true.
Sometimes she goes into a trance, and sketches things that she sees in her mind. Sometimes the past, sometimes the future. Usually she has to figure it out. Is very talented at making potions of various types. She can move quickly, and often makes jumps into the lower branches of the trees and mountain ledges.

Appearance: Very tanned skin, with ears that are slightly pointed, when they are seen beneath the mountain of dark black hair. Her brown eyes peek out from under the mountain of hair. She is about 5'5", and very muscular as she lives in a wild region of the planet. She wears forest colors, of greens, and browns, and usually is always under a cloak, tunic or poncho of some type, that has red trim around its borders. She keeps her arms hidden most of the time.

Brief Bio:
Her people heard of this group of people studying some new type of magic, and she has heard that their might even be some sort of test, to find out who has the gift. As a representative, she was sent to find out about this new group, and see how they are accepted.

Her colony of people is old. They have been on the planet since the time of the Rakata. The government of the planet knows of her people, and have marked the areas they are in as protected, however the exact location of their homes are not known.

 

Name: Heath Torkin
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Profession: Student, desires to become actor
Faction(s): Bogan (unknown)
Talent: Telekinesis
Appearance: Approximately 1.8 meters tall, broad shoulders, shoulder length brown hair and well built.
Brief Bio: Heath was born on Tython into a lower class family. He was a normal child, with no special talents that he was aware of. The only area he excelled at was academics, which allowed him to gain entrance into one of the most prestigious schools on the planet.

For most of his life, he and his family lived with little money, living paycheck to paycheck, scraping by on the bare minimum. He wanted something better for himself and his family. Which is why he decided he was going to become an actor, rather than work behind a desk. Little does he know, Heath Torkin has a different path ahead of him.



Oh, this is Xany approved!

 

Update: DRL has its clutches on me at the moment, so the start on this might slightly delayed. Apologies, all.

The plan currently is to send out fact sheets to you all by later tonight (containing some information your character would know about Tython and such; not required reading, but recommended). Barring any complications with that, the game proper will start in approximately one day from now. Which for some of you might still be Monday, so hey, we're still sort of on schedule.


Character Roster:
Lyceus Eltotsira (greyjedi125) - Ashla Conclave
Conrad Fae (Hammurabi) - Ashla Conclave
Gaeriel Barento (Galaxies) - Ashla Conclave
Takla Foo (BrentusofGath) - Ashla Conclave
Alana Cha-Rikki (Ktala) - Ashla Conclave
Alec Grazer (Sarge221) - Circle / Ashla Conclave
Maxil Sylveste (blubeast1237) - Circle
Raffi Drall (NickLitYouAFlame) - Circle
Wid Winton (JEDIGUNSHIP) - Circle / Bogan
Pyr Reconn (Dubya_Scott) - Bogan
Ivo Agrippa (Lord_Lahmien) - Bogan
Heath Torkin (darth_nemisis) - Bogan
Varus Beleikov (Winged_Jedi) - Bogan

I'm still accepting characters for the waitlist if you are so inclined; it's currently 6 characters long.

 

Alright... fact sheets are out, positions are finalized, we're good to go!


Act I: Beginnings

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v605/xany/rpf/act1_dawn.jpg]


Maxil Sylveste, Raffi Drall, Wid Winton

Conference Room, Sathel Arms

The conference room had been designed to comfortably fit a dozen around a long table, but this morning its occupancy was exactly three. It would be four, but the fourth attendee of this meeting - and also the one who called it - had yet to arrive, leaving the other three to their own devices. Raffi Drall, Wid Winton and Maxil Sylveste had been asked to come to a meeting by none other than Deke Sathel himself.

The Sathel Arms building was a tall tower the heart of the city. The top floors held offices and administrative nicities like the conference room they were currently in, and from there one had a commanding view over Tython's main city. The lower floors housed research laboratories, fabrication rooms, testing facilities and the like, all designed to do the multitude of things that were in Sathel Arms' commercial interest to do.

Below the surface, though, were the more interesting rooms: the Circle's headquarters, where they could experiment and develop their abilities without outside interference. Raffi had been down there only once so far, but as he had only been a member of the Circle for a few days, this was not surprising.

For Maxil, the night had not been a peaceful one. His dreams had been disturbing, full of fire and violence; maddeningly, he could not remember any details beyond a flash of a young man on a speeder bike, zooming away from an explosion...

Deke Sathel had not mentioned in the brief message why, exactly, he had called the them here, but between the three of them they might be able to make a pretty good guess.

TAG: NickLitYouAFlame, blubeast1237, JEDIGUNSHIP

---

[b]Alec Grazer, Conrad Fae, Alana Cha-Rikki[/b]

[i]Gardens, Conclave Campus[/i]

It was a long-standing theory that the Ashla was created by life itself. It naturally followed that the ideal environment to study it would be surrounded by life - as such, the members of the Conclave had taken care to have as much nature and greenery as possible in their campus. For many, it was a welcome change from the cities that covered most of Tython's surface.

The Gardens were a prime example of this ideal. It was situated in the heart of the Conclave's grounds and covered a full third of it - no small area to begin with - and was carefully tended to and maintained. It was thus an ideal place to bring visitors.

[b]Conrad Fae[/b] and [b]Alana Cha-Rikki[/b] were being shown around by [b]Jed Vindezya[/b], a quiet young woman who had introduced herself as the scientist overseeing clinical trials for the Ashla sensitivity test. They had both arrived earlier that morning, [b]Conrad[/b] having arrived to take the test himself and [b]Alana[/b] to learn more about it.

"It's a completely harmless procedure," [b]Jed[/b] was saying as they walked. "We take some tissue samples - a little blood, hair, some mouth swabs - and run it through our testing equipment, and it produces your results. Nothing to worry about, I've done it myself."

The three of them came across [b]Alec Grazer[/b], who had been quietly strolling through the Gardens himself. "[b]Alec[/b] is going to be tested in a few days, too - hello, [b]Alec[/b]," Jed greeted. "This is [b]Conrad[/b] and [b]Alana[/b] - they just arrived this morning. [b]Alana[/b] is interested in our research, and [b]Conrad[/b] is scheduled to be tested tomorrow."

[b]TAG: Sarge221, Hammurabi, Ktala[/b]

[hr]
[b]Gaeriel Barento, Lyceus Eltotsira, Takla Foo[/b]

[i]Gallery, Conclave Campus[/i]

The Conclave attracted all sorts of people, from scientists to philosophers and artists, united around the study of the Ashla. The campus had been built to symbolize this: around the Gardens in the centre were seminar rooms, auditoriums and galleries housing art c

 

IC - Takla Foo


Engrossed in touring the art gallery, Takla barely noticed anyone. To be perfectly honest, she rarely noticed others, not out of vanity or pretension, but out of a crippling shyness that had been with her for most of her life. It wasn't quite anxiety, but it was bad enough that her relationships had suffered terribly and there seemed no end in sight.

However, in the presence of such wonderful works, she could walk around other people and not feel any worry. Her own artistic ability had been an exercise in self-control mixed with self-loathing. It had taken the deaths of her late parents - who had always encouraged her - before she submitted her first work, (a sculpture of the philosopher Platic) to the Ashla Conclave. She admired Platic, because during his life, before the fall of the Infinite Empire, he had spoken out against the violence of men and the universal morality of ultimate peace.

As she looked over the work of Lyceus, a familiar voice burned her ears.

"Beautiful work!" an enthusiastic voice sounded. It was Professor Shir Alvarez. "Very nicely done, Lyceus and Takla - and a good morning to you, Gariel. I trust you are all well?"

Professor Alvarez was the last person Takla had been hoping to see. She turned quickly and backed behind the other people present, disappearing behind a veil of indifference. Alvarez was always urging her to show up for the Ashla test. In answer to his question, Takla merely nodded slightly, awaiting the others to speak.


Tag: any

 

IC: Wid Winton

Wid sat in the meeting room, his attnetion focused on the small puzzle that he held in his hand. It was a simple puzzle, really; all he needed to do was line up the matching symbols on the cube-like device, and he would "win". He had owned it for a couple years now, playing with it occasionally when he needed soemthing to do, but he had never fully gotten the hang of it. Maybe once or twice he had solved it, but he had long since forgotten how he had beaten it.

Sliding the symbol of a bird over the symbol of a boar, he started to see a patten in the symbols; it was supposed to be a brain teaser, and it was definitely teasing his brain. Pushing another boar symbol over into an empty space, he saw that it was hopeless to get it done in a few minutes; maybe Deke would show up soon, and they could start the meeting. Attempting to think about something else, he set the puzzle down on the table and stood up. Walking over to the window, he watched as speeders passed on the streets below. Sunshine poured into the conference room, brightening it up with the morning light. "It's a nice view from here," he commented, eyes still fixed on the surrounding buildings.

TAG: Nick, Blu

 

Of Raffi Drall
Conference Room, Sathel Arms

Raffi drummed his fingers on the table before him. He glanced nervously between the other two. One of them, a police officer, Maxil Sylveste, was pretty intimidating for his height. Raffi was two inches taller, but he didn?t want to mess with the man, given his profession. Racing speeder bikes was highly illegal and Raffi wasn?t sure their alliance was strong enough to prevent the man from doing his job.

The other guy, was a merchant, who didn?t seem to be that interesting. In fact, his company was rather dry. Perhaps it was that Raffi wasn?t sure what to think of the older gentleman. He didn?t know their talents, first of all. His only idea, was of the merchant, named Wit Witton, or something weird like that. He thought heard someone say something about a mind trick, but Raffi didn?t know what that entailed.

So, he sat quietly. In his other hand, Raffi thumbed a rough piece of metal. It was from his first speeder and he had taken to carrying it with him. He was shaping it slowly. It took a lot of effort, to keep from wrenching it in half. He wasn?t really in control, yet. Still, the shard was beginning to take the shape of a circle. He had often spent sleepless nights trying to make the shape, more than once ripping a chunk out and having to make it smaller.

It was still a work in progress and very personal. His own kind of test, to master his skills.

Tag: Gunship and beasty

 

IC: Alec Grazer
Conclave Campus, Gardens

Ashla was created by life, Alec allowed himself to think as he wandered through the gardens on one of his usual walks that he liked to take, especially when his mind was troubled. And with his line of work, trouble was potentially everywhere.

But everything that is created by life is always given the potential to cause death.

As a philosopher, Alec had learned to look at something of the present and think of the possibilities and consequences of what kind of future that that something can bring into existence. This included the Ashla, the name for this mystical power that had been granted to some. And Alec was one of those that was granted with the power. While he had learned that the Ashla gave him the power to sense and read the thoughts of others, he knew others that possessed abilities different from him.

And each one, no matter how different, can be used for good or evil. The philosopher paused as he leaned down to sniff at one of the flowers that had been planted within the garden, taking in the beautiful fragrance. I can make sure that the liars shall be truthful...and I can also twist their thoughts and make the truthful become the liars. A light and a dark, the never ending and unwavering balance.

A balance that is given even to the unknown. And the people of the Ashla Conclave wish to understand the unknowable. When Alec straightened and took a long look around at the garden, he knew that the several scientists wish to tame it as well. But the Ashla was different, something that Alec somehow knew. Something that could not be so easily tamed like a flower or an animal. And to try to tame something that was possibly untamable could only lead to nothing but disaster.

Which was why he was here.

Voices - both the heard and unheard - suddenly reached Alec and the philosopher looked away from the colorful surroundings that the garden possessed and looked where they were coming from to find three others coming towards him. At the forefront, Alec immediately recognized the woman as Jed Vindezya, the young scientist that figured out how to test for those that were sensitive to Ashla. Everyone in the Conclave, perhaps all of Tython even, knew of her.

Upon being greeted by her, Alec looked at her two companions. The one introduced as Conrad, a tall and slender man with dark skin and hair, Alec didn't recognize at all but immediately figured that it was another who wished to see if he possessed the power that people have been looking upon with envy and suspicion. The woman, however, Alana, gave Alec an immediate feeling that she wasn't from around here.

"Nice to meet you," Alec greeted, a polite smile on his face as he gave them a respectful bow and held out his hand to shake.

TAG: Ktala, DarthXan318, Hammurabi

 

IC: Pyr Reconn
The Vale Bar

Pyr Reconn was doodling in a notepad. Just drawing some quick-sketches of the people seated there with him. He glanced up at the screen when the `normals` were talking about them. The `normal` people wanted to lock them up? That really pissed him off.

"What're they afraid of?" He looked back toward the others. "We're just like them, except...more evolved, maybe? We're better than them. Ya know," he paused, "if there were more of us, we could really scare them." A slight grin appeared on his face.

TAG: Ivo Agrippa, Heath Torkin, Varus Beleikov, Antur and Juris