Ivy Wood

[ReaderAt2046]

Ivy Wood

Experiment, Swordsman, ???

Player Information

Name: ReaderAt2046 (for now)

Contact Information: Posting ought to work. I keep a good eye on 17thShard. I’ll give you may contact info later if you need it.

Character Information

Name: Ivy Wood

Race: D’karon Malthrope Revision Experiment IV

Age: Unknown

Gender: Male

Place of Origin: D’karon Shaping Laboratory 16, World 51

Class: Warrior

Relationship Status: None so far.

Channeling Capacity:

-Type: Ivy’s ley powers are triggered by his emotions. These discharges visibly manifest as auras of colored light surrounding Ivy. In addition, each aura provides specific powers. Another odd quirk is that each aura produces a zinc-like effect, enhancing the corresponding emotion in anyone nearby.

-Focus Used: Ivy’s powers are focused through his emotions. So far, five possible auras have been discovered.

Fear: Fear produces the blue aura, which grants Ivy extreme speed and protection from most forms of attack for its duration. However, while in the grip of this aura, Ivy has no awareness of his surroundings or control over his body. Use of this aura can leave Ivy unconscious for hours or days.

Anger: Anger produces a red aura, which grants massive strength and destructive power, (in one of the earlier uses of this aura, Ivy single-handedly killed off over 50 dragons.) But like fear, anger renders Ivy mindless for its duration and unconscious for hours afterwards.

Joy: Happiness and joy produce the yellow aura, which heals and restores. Its effects can cause wounds to knit shut within seconds, restore an exhausted ally to full strength, or cure a poison or disease.

Determination: The white aura of determination effectively focuses Ivy’s entire will and power on accomplishing one task. While in the grip of this gift, virtually nothing can stand in his way. In addition, this aura renders him immune to any form of mental or emotional manipulation.

Hatred: Only the deepest and darkest hatreds can invoke this black aura. It manifests as a swirling black mist which rots and corrodes everything it touches. Stone withers and crumbles, flesh and bone are made dust, wood rots and decays.

Appearance: (Include height, build, hair, eyes, and their general demeanor in your description)

The malthrope race, which formed the prototype for Ivy’s genome, resemble humans covered in reddish fur with two major exceptions: vulpine heads and a long bushy tail. For unknown reasons, Ivy’s fur is almost pure white, except for a black glyph on his forehead. His eyes are also black. He is dressed in a grayish cloak and carries no gear other than two fine swords and a songtree flute. (Songtrees are species of magical tree which act as natural wind instruments. Their wood makes the finest musical instruments in the cosmere).

Special Skills: Swordfighting, flute-playing, art

.

Strengths: Ivy’s greatest natural strengths are derived from the malthrope genome used to create him. He has inherited phenomenal endurance, the ability to survive indefinitely on raw meat, improved senses (especially smell), and considerable physical capacity.

The D’karon also gave him an intuitive knowledge of all forms of weaponry, but especially of the twin blades he carries. Shaped by the spellsmith Desmeres, these blades have extraordinary powers. They have, of course, been treated in such a manner as to make them sharp, light, and virtually unbreakable. But the true power of the blades is anchored in the thir crystals embedded in the hilt and blade. These crystals, which possess the power to absorb all forms of magical energy, give Ivy four advantages. First, they render the blades virtually unstealable. If anybody except Ivy or a D’karon touches the blade, the crystals will begin to sap his life force. The effect can kill within a few hours. Secondly, the thir crystals will absorb any leyht they encounter, allowing Ivy to use the swords to block channeling attacks. Thirdly, the energy within the crystals can be used to fuel any of five spells (setting the blades on fire, healing, invisibilty, time dilation, and strength). Fourth, any energy in the crystals after a fear or anger change will be dumped into Ivy. This can shave hours off of the time needed for recovery, and sometimes eliminate it entirely.

Weaknesses:

Ivy’s greatest weakness is that his memory has been erased. He knows what his powers and weapons do, but has no notion where he came from or who he was. As far as he knows, his life begins in an alley in Tolvera, mere minutes after the Ohn woman dies at the gates.

Perhaps as a side-effect of this, Ivy is fairly naïve. He can be vicious when stirred to fight, even when not in the grip of a change, but he is almost wholly without guile.

Finally, as noted above, Ivy’s massive ley powers bring with them intense costs. The blue and red auras render him mindless and leave him unconscious for days, while the white aura can leave him exhausted when the effects wear off.

Personality:

Ivy is exuberant, optimistic, and friendly. He has an intuitive sympathy with outcasts and monsters, perhaps as a result of his D’karon origins. He has a love of music, and a great appreciation for good art.

History:

Ivy is probably unique among the heroes of StEC in that he is not native to Xanthuru. He was created on a far-away world by a mysterious race called the D’karon. Masters of dimensional travel and genetic manipulations, the D’karon rule an empire consisting of dozens of planets. Out of a number of motives, including sheer curiosity, the D’karon put Ivy into a coma, stripped him of his memory, and sent him through a portal to Tolvera.

(Begin Narration)

The gray-clad figure stirred, white-furred limbs stretching. He blinked and looked around him. It was a fairly ordinary style of alleyway, narrow and dirty. How had he gotten here? Who am I? Where am I? In an instant, the answer to the first question bloomed in his mind. I am Ivy Wood. The second question, however, remained unanswered. A moment later, he was distracted by movement. A bulky but hornless Ohn came towards him, carrying a club.

“Give me those!” it demanded, pointing towards the twin swords on Ivy’s back.

“Umm, I’d rather not,” replied Ivy, a little ashamedly. “I don’t think they’re safe for you.”

“GIVE! NOW!”

When Ivy showed no signs of complying, the Ohn reared back for a crushing club-blow. Instincts Ivy didn’t know he had awoke. His nose told him the Ohn was hungry and enraged, his eyes and nerves told him the thing was unbalanced. In a blur, he lunged forward, a white-furred paw planting itself firmly in the Ohn’s midsection. It went tumbling over backwards and landed with a colossal thump. Ivy did a sort of backflip and landed lightly. A grin split his vulpine face as the Ohn staggered to its feet with a garbage can over its head. A faint golden shimmer filled the air around him, rapidly growing brighter as a torrent of laughter escaped his throat. As the Ohn yanked the can off its head, its eyes widened. It turned and ran as though the Seven Devils were chasing at its heels.

Ivy strolled out of the alley. Directly in front of him was a dead Ohn, surrounded by several humans. He was just in time to catch their last words “…speak words that sound of prophecy.”

[Kuri Shardweaver]

Hoo boy..where do I begin..

First off, thank you for your interest in StEC. I'm really glad to see someone else wanting to join up, I had pretty much figured the first wave of interest was going to be the only one, not that I'm complaining about my player count, mind . So it was really nice to poke by and see a fresh application.

That said, I am incredibly saddened to inform you there is no way I can accept this character as it stands. I am however fully willing to work with you to get Ivy into acceptable shape, and will of course outline the issues at hand.

First and foremost, I did not design StEC and its world around the concept of being an unofficial Cosmere world. As far as I'm concerned, it's disconnected and off in its own little universe, away from Sanderson's superior work XD. So while we as players might get and appreciate the zinc reference, it means a whole lot of nothing in the scope of Xanthuru, because zinc does nothing special. Along the same lines, Xanthuru is itself a standalone world right now. I'm not crazy enough to try and build a universe around it as it stands, so while I DID make it to be a 'sandbox' for you guys to play in, it is presently a self-contained sandbox. I suppose I only have myself to blame for saying 'pitch me an idea', that was far too vague.

The concept of an interstellar traveler, while interesting, just doesn't mesh well with the aforementioned self-contained sandbox concept. Furthermore on that point, if Ivy were an amnesiac when left in Tolvera, there would be no feasible way for him to know what an Ohnyrek was, he would have no grasp of the native language of the continent, and would be completely clueless as to the nature of leyht and how to wield it, since it is exclusive to Xanthuru, being the only planet that presently exists in this universe, heh. Ivy can by all means remain an amnesiac vulpine-humanoid, but we will have to work out a place ON the planet for him to have come from.

Secondly, the character is grossly overpowered for the beginning of a game/story. The concept of internalizing leyht usage to create aura-based effects tied to emotions is interesting, that I am fine with, save for the 'black aura', which is a different point entirely. However, the effects as proposed are, as stated, far too strong to be allowed presently. In example, the red aura. Ignoring the fact that Xanthuru HAS no dragons (and due to the earlier issue, Ivy does have to come from somewhere on the planet.), a power boosting aura is acceptable. A power boosting aura that allows the sort of destructive capacity to slay 50 of any given powerful token fantasy race single-handedly is NOT, especially at the very beginning of the story. That would be like pitting Super Saiyan Lvl 4 Gojeta/Superman/Chuck Norris against Mr. Bill/Gumby/a common marshmallow.

As stated above, the black aura is a separate issue. It is the only one that is completely unacceptable. Potency of the effect aside, the energy source known as leyht is a positively-aligned, creation-focused force. While it CAN be bent to destructive ends, i.e creating fire to burn someone/thing with, leyht cannot and will not generate purely destructive effects. Making fire is a neutral act. Fire could be used to cook food, cauterize a wound, shed light, warm you from the cold, etc just as easily as it can be hurled at someone to set them ablaze, but it is the purposeful will and intent of the PERSON to harm someone with the flame, not the intent of the energy in creating it. Long story short, leyht itself cannot be used to directly destroy or harm, ergo an aura that causes decay and rot simply would not be possible.

On a similar note, Ivy's twin swords are what would be considered Artifact-quality items from the lost Xanethi Empire, and while a character CAN have such an item from the beginning provided an acceptable backstory behind them, artifacts of the level of power described are not only unheard of, but would have every last adventuring-type and political figurehead trying to kill Ivy for them. They not only vastly increase his combat prowess by being storage units for spare leyht (incredibly valuable), but appear to completely remove the majority of his downsides as well, AND allow him to block incoming channeling-based attacks. Further, the ability to mess with time is a rather strong one, and not one I'm willing to approve, as I do not feel it is something that can be rationalized with leyht as it stands. To remain at even half their current state, the swords would have to be classified as 'cursed' artifacts and be applying a significant weakness/downside to Ivy.

Ok, I think that's just about everything I wanted to touch on, so the proverbial ball is back in your court. Feel free to look this over and get back to me either here or via PM/contact info with any questions, concerns, and proposals, and we can begin working on getting Ivy into an acceptable, working state . Thanks again for applying, sorry I had to pick things apart so much, but as the 'master' of this RP I have to ensure a relatively level playing field between everyone involved so nobody feels left out, useless, or overshadowed so we can all have a good time!

[ReaderAt2046]

First, I would like to say that I accept your ruling on Ivy being unsuitable. Is it OK if I try to work out another character concept?

Also, just a few minor notes. First, you are perfectly right that zinc has no significance on Xanthuru. However, that was intended purely as an explanation to the players. Second, I knew Ivy would not know what an Ohn was. That was something of a POV slip, since it was intended to mean "Ivy sees something that you would recognize as an Ohn". Thirdly, the D'karon are native to one of my cosmeres, not to yours.

Again, i accept your ruling and hope to find another way to enter this.

Edit: Is there any rule against enterign multiple characters? Because I've already got three I'd love to use.

Edited February 19, 2012 by ReaderAt2046

[Kuri Shardweaver]

First, I would like to say that I accept your ruling on Ivy being unsuitable. Is it OK if I try to work out another character concept?

Also, just a few minor notes. First, you are perfectly right that zinc has no significance on Xanthuru. However, that was intended purely as an explanation to the players. Second, I knew Ivy would not know what an Ohn was. That was something of a POV slip, since it was intended to mean "Ivy sees something that you would recognize as an Ohn". Thirdly, the D'karon are native to one of my cosmeres, not to yours.

Again, i accept your ruling and hope to find another way to enter this.

Edit: Is there any rule against enterign multiple characters? Because I've already got three I'd love to use.

Working in reverse order, no, there is no 'hard cap' on characters. You can submit as many as you feel you can handle. I myself will be manning 3+ NPCs just in terms of 'optional party members'.

As I said, we can work on Ivy as much as you want until we've reached a state we're both happy with!

Ahh, I see. I had never heard the term 'cosmere' used before Brandon's works, so I automatically associated the two, especially when there was a zinc/allomancy reference near to it. As for the POV slip, they happen! And so basically, you are implying that these D'karon have not only mastered time, but can extend their influences beyond their own natural universe. Yikes o.o

First step in getting Ivy fixed up for EC Acceptance would be to create an interpretation of the D'karon that would be a naturally occurring race in the RP's universe and lone planet. If I allow ONE interdimensional interloper, suddenly I'll have blue police call boxes and red telephone booths and Sliders popping up all over the place, and that would pretty well wreck the internal balance I've got going on here.