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App: Caldera
Jan. 23rd, 2025 10:03 pmApplication for Caldera
Player
Name: Mica
Contact: HERE
Over 18?: Yes
Current Characters: Solas (Dragon Age)
Link to permissions/opt out: HERE
Character
Name: Skandranon Rashkae
Canon: The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercades Lackey
Canon point: The White Gryphon, Chapter 10
CRAU?: No
Age: Adult (no canon age given)
History:
When the Northern courts fell to oligarchical influences and fascism, the governmental influences collapsed and the people banded together under the regional powers represented by several powerful mages. The two most powerful of these were Kiyamvir Ma'ar, the Mage of Dark Flames, and Urtho, the Mage of Silence. Quickly thereafter, these two powerful Adept-class mages went to war with one another.
Like all Gryphons, whether born or crafted, Skandranon is a creation of the High Adept Urtho, the Mage of Silence, and served him faithfully to the bitter end. He was born and fledged at Urtho's mage tower, and joined his military force as an aerial combatant as early as he was permitted. Skandranon showed an early talent for long range solo missions, typically performed under stealth and by dead of night, and had a reputation for taking on impossible targets whilst always returning safely. To accomplish these, he had a habit of taking on a fully-body black dye job that earned him his famous moniker: The Black Gryphon.
It was during this time that he met and struck up an unlikely friendship with a refugee who had taken up service to Urtho's camp and followers, the Kestra'chern called Amberdrake. Before long they were as thick as blood and more brother to each other than either had thought possible.
As Skan grew in skill and notoriety, he was offered more and more difficult and desperate missions, until finally he was put to the task of retrieving a novel weapon that would have offered many of the abilities of a skilled mage, but capable of operating in the hands of a barely-trained infantryman. Although his mission was a success, he was critically injured, and forced to spend a long time recuperating at camp, which meant he had time for various important life events, such as:
So, it was a busy convalescence, for him. In the meanwhile, a jilted ex-general of Urthos had been strategically fucking up to the point that he went from being functionally a traitor to them all and a secret spy of Ma'ars, to being actually just both of those things. Added to this a second traitor, and not many weeks after Skan returned to a state of battle-fitness the back of the war was broken when the frontline dissolved on the same day that said spy (a former boyfriend of the aforementioned Winterhart) snuck into the tower and terminally poisoned Urtho. There were several unpleasant magical shenanigans involving magic teleportation gates and secret weapons, but the end result of it is that they managed to trick Ma'ar at the last possible minute. Since these powerful mage-towers are full of magics that tend to collapse violently when the mage powering them abruptly and violently dies, the setting was treated to the magical equivalent of, essentially, a double-nuke of a strength sufficient to dig out skyscraper-deep craters.
So, it's a good thing everybody had some warning on the poisoning thing, since it gave them time to use their own magic teleportation gates to evacuate.
Smash-cut to ten years later and everyone has settled in a cliffside city known as White Gryphon. Just as they're really starting to feel like they're established, they receive a threatening envoy from a southern land known as the Heighlei Empire, which is a series of kingdoms ruled by the "Black Kings" who are themselves ruled by the Heighlei Emperor. It's the largest, richest, oldest, and most powerful nation in the setting, possibly ever. So they decide that it might be smart to send a delegation to sort out the issue of whether or not they're squatting on another nation's territory. A number of shenanigans ensue:
In canon, this is all resolved beautifully and satisfyingly, but for this version of events, that's where Skandranon leaves: one moment trussed up like a turkey in a dark room with a fairly detailed idea of how gruesome his murder is about to be, and the next... He's in Caldera!
Personality:
Externally, Skandranon is like most gryphons in that he seems to think he is the best thing to exist since the stars were hung in the sky and the moon be given to shine. He is a dynamic figure often seen snatching thieves right off of walls and crushing grown men's skulls in a single talon. He has been known to remodel social conventions on his lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. He translates between several languages, manages time efficiently,and occasionally, he makes week-long flights in mere days.
And if it's true that he's large, powerful, graceful, intelligent, and very handsome... he certainly doesn't let anyone forget it.
But what he doesn't lack for in bravado, he makes up for in knowing his limits— and quite frequently in ignoring them. Nobody is as aware of his faults and the risks he takes than Skan is, which is in part because his precious pride and dignity demand that he take great pains to hide them. And this has worked well! His legend is manifest, and all know him by his famous title. They were eager to put him in a position of near-kingship, which he despised, and hold him up as a figurehead. It's just that even Skan can't quite live up to the legend of The Black Gryphon.
Which leads him to take unnecessary risks, make bold, often foolish moves, and to put himself in unnecessary amounts of danger. Most of those big solo missions did not have to be one-gryphon affairs. He did not have to fly off to try and assassinate Ma'ar by himself. He didn't need to dye his feathers black again and go after the serial killer by himself. He just... does these things because he's trying to prove to his own self-denigrating inner monologue that he is the Black Gryphon. That he's a hero. That he's good enough.
And what makes it worse is, he is. So even though it's out of the frying pan and into the fire, he always seems to somehow pull it out in the end, despite himself and everything else. Which means he'll never learn.
It's a good thing then, that at least his closest friends can see him as he is; impressive, yes, but also ridiculous. Brave, but full of bluster and empty bravado. Clever, true, but in just as many ways a complete idiot. That's who Skandranon really is.
Powers and abilities:
Chosen faction: Sylph
Suitability: Coming from a similar setting of high-fantasy/low-tech, swords and sorcery, magic and magical beasts, Skandranon should have no terribly significant difficulty in coping with the setting of Caldera. Of course, there are many differences! But nothing he can't handle.
Sample
Skandranon on the Caldera TDM
Questions, comments, and concerns:
Player
Name: Mica
Contact: HERE
Over 18?: Yes
Current Characters: Solas (Dragon Age)
Link to permissions/opt out: HERE
Character
Name: Skandranon Rashkae
Canon: The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercades Lackey
Canon point: The White Gryphon, Chapter 10
CRAU?: No
Age: Adult (no canon age given)
History:
When the Northern courts fell to oligarchical influences and fascism, the governmental influences collapsed and the people banded together under the regional powers represented by several powerful mages. The two most powerful of these were Kiyamvir Ma'ar, the Mage of Dark Flames, and Urtho, the Mage of Silence. Quickly thereafter, these two powerful Adept-class mages went to war with one another.
Like all Gryphons, whether born or crafted, Skandranon is a creation of the High Adept Urtho, the Mage of Silence, and served him faithfully to the bitter end. He was born and fledged at Urtho's mage tower, and joined his military force as an aerial combatant as early as he was permitted. Skandranon showed an early talent for long range solo missions, typically performed under stealth and by dead of night, and had a reputation for taking on impossible targets whilst always returning safely. To accomplish these, he had a habit of taking on a fully-body black dye job that earned him his famous moniker: The Black Gryphon.
It was during this time that he met and struck up an unlikely friendship with a refugee who had taken up service to Urtho's camp and followers, the Kestra'chern called Amberdrake. Before long they were as thick as blood and more brother to each other than either had thought possible.
As Skan grew in skill and notoriety, he was offered more and more difficult and desperate missions, until finally he was put to the task of retrieving a novel weapon that would have offered many of the abilities of a skilled mage, but capable of operating in the hands of a barely-trained infantryman. Although his mission was a success, he was critically injured, and forced to spend a long time recuperating at camp, which meant he had time for various important life events, such as:
- Meeting the female gryphon he would one day marry
- Getting embroiled in inter-branch military politics
- Meeting a new lifelong friend or three in the personages of Aubri, Kechara, and Winterhart
- Securing freedom of reproductive rights on behalf of all Gryphons
- Getting his ass beat on the obstacle course by the love of his life
- Going to therapy
- Getting married
So, it was a busy convalescence, for him. In the meanwhile, a jilted ex-general of Urthos had been strategically fucking up to the point that he went from being functionally a traitor to them all and a secret spy of Ma'ars, to being actually just both of those things. Added to this a second traitor, and not many weeks after Skan returned to a state of battle-fitness the back of the war was broken when the frontline dissolved on the same day that said spy (a former boyfriend of the aforementioned Winterhart) snuck into the tower and terminally poisoned Urtho. There were several unpleasant magical shenanigans involving magic teleportation gates and secret weapons, but the end result of it is that they managed to trick Ma'ar at the last possible minute. Since these powerful mage-towers are full of magics that tend to collapse violently when the mage powering them abruptly and violently dies, the setting was treated to the magical equivalent of, essentially, a double-nuke of a strength sufficient to dig out skyscraper-deep craters.
So, it's a good thing everybody had some warning on the poisoning thing, since it gave them time to use their own magic teleportation gates to evacuate.
Smash-cut to ten years later and everyone has settled in a cliffside city known as White Gryphon. Just as they're really starting to feel like they're established, they receive a threatening envoy from a southern land known as the Heighlei Empire, which is a series of kingdoms ruled by the "Black Kings" who are themselves ruled by the Heighlei Emperor. It's the largest, richest, oldest, and most powerful nation in the setting, possibly ever. So they decide that it might be smart to send a delegation to sort out the issue of whether or not they're squatting on another nation's territory. A number of shenanigans ensue:
- Everyone treats Skandranon and his family like animals
- Amberdrake's old teacher is the official therapist to the emperor???
- There's a serial murderer on the loose and everybody thinks Skandranon and/or Amberdrake did it!
- The emperor wants to marry Amberdrake's wife, Winterhart??
- There is a plan by the serial murderer and his co-conspirators to assassinate the emperor
- Skandranon decides that if nobody else is going to find this dude then it's up to him
- He promptly gets caught and tied up in a closet by the serial murderer. Nice work, buddy.
In canon, this is all resolved beautifully and satisfyingly, but for this version of events, that's where Skandranon leaves: one moment trussed up like a turkey in a dark room with a fairly detailed idea of how gruesome his murder is about to be, and the next... He's in Caldera!
Personality:
Externally, Skandranon is like most gryphons in that he seems to think he is the best thing to exist since the stars were hung in the sky and the moon be given to shine. He is a dynamic figure often seen snatching thieves right off of walls and crushing grown men's skulls in a single talon. He has been known to remodel social conventions on his lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. He translates between several languages, manages time efficiently,and occasionally, he makes week-long flights in mere days.
And if it's true that he's large, powerful, graceful, intelligent, and very handsome... he certainly doesn't let anyone forget it.
But what he doesn't lack for in bravado, he makes up for in knowing his limits— and quite frequently in ignoring them. Nobody is as aware of his faults and the risks he takes than Skan is, which is in part because his precious pride and dignity demand that he take great pains to hide them. And this has worked well! His legend is manifest, and all know him by his famous title. They were eager to put him in a position of near-kingship, which he despised, and hold him up as a figurehead. It's just that even Skan can't quite live up to the legend of The Black Gryphon.
Which leads him to take unnecessary risks, make bold, often foolish moves, and to put himself in unnecessary amounts of danger. Most of those big solo missions did not have to be one-gryphon affairs. He did not have to fly off to try and assassinate Ma'ar by himself. He didn't need to dye his feathers black again and go after the serial killer by himself. He just... does these things because he's trying to prove to his own self-denigrating inner monologue that he is the Black Gryphon. That he's a hero. That he's good enough.
And what makes it worse is, he is. So even though it's out of the frying pan and into the fire, he always seems to somehow pull it out in the end, despite himself and everything else. Which means he'll never learn.
It's a good thing then, that at least his closest friends can see him as he is; impressive, yes, but also ridiculous. Brave, but full of bluster and empty bravado. Clever, true, but in just as many ways a complete idiot. That's who Skandranon really is.
Powers and abilities:
- Mage-gift: Skandranon is, like all Gryphons, a mage. He is slightly more powerful than the average, being classed as a Master on the apprentice-journeyman-master-adept scale. His particular talents lie in magics surrounding combat and stealth, even though they are not his primary tools in combat.
- Mind-Speech: Most gryphons are also, to a greater or lesser degree, telepathic. This gift is very minor in Skan, and is considered unremarkable to the point of being literally unremarked-upon for most of the story. He doesn't get a lot of use out of it, it's just one of the tools in his kit.
- Flight: Gryphons are very large and heavy, and as such are not naturally capable of true flight. However, due to the magical nature of their creation, all Gryphons naturally metabolize magic in their bodies, which is the true source of their ability to take to the air. A Gryphon cannot fly without healthy wings and good muscle-tone, but they certainly cannot get far on that much alone. They are simply too big and heavy for their wingspans.
Chosen faction: Sylph
Suitability: Coming from a similar setting of high-fantasy/low-tech, swords and sorcery, magic and magical beasts, Skandranon should have no terribly significant difficulty in coping with the setting of Caldera. Of course, there are many differences! But nothing he can't handle.
Sample
Skandranon on the Caldera TDM
Questions, comments, and concerns:
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