#npc spotlight

[tatteredworld]

Shay is a Merman who runs Starboard Engineer, where he makes toys. His perfectionism can make him seem picky, but not as picky as his ten Kith. Shay sometimes struggles to express himself in a way that doesn’t come across as rude; so much so that he often gives up before trying for the sake of expedience. However, his masterful skill with engineering has made him not only a successful toymaker, but also the Merman to turn to for repairs.

[songoftrillium]

NPC Spotlight: Julie "Bites-the-Bully" Lykos

Human-Born Philodox Black Fury Elder, 41, Zedakh, Elk Prairie Sentinels

CW: Blood. Julie appears in 1975 as a well-built woman in her early 40s, 5'10", 193lbs, with a split brow, wiry, curly hair, and expressive, sage-colored eyes. Her face is deeply pockmarked with old scars that extend to cover most of her upper torso around her shoulders and cheeks in particular, making her facial features particularly pronounced in their expressiveness and her utter inability to hide what she's feeling. Her eyes tend to disappear behind a big lopsided smile when you can trick her into grinning. She often is seen wearing levis, bowling shirt or tank top, and one of her dad's WWII flight jackets.

She is most often seen in public working at Aloha Lanes at nights on the weekends, where she can make space for marginalized groups of weird kids like herself to socialize in safety on weekend nights while keeping up an appearance of being a part of the rural community of Trillium. Among garou she makes space for her own packmates and advocates strongly on behalf to ensure their voices are heard, whether from the traditional garou at the sept of the swift waters, to the traditional garou at sept of the trillium glade. She lives in a mobile home, in Steelhead springs with Dr. Esme "Leaping-Ghost" Marshall, Human-Born Theurge Child of Gaia Athro.

From a very young age, Julie was on the road traveling with her military family, but when the second world war broke out, she moved to Seattle to live with her aunt. Julie was always what her dad liked to call a "bent nail", a comment that had him fretting for her well-being. This reality followed Julie through her younger years. Generally speaking, the bent-nail got pounded. Most places Julie went, she never had much of a chance to get an impression long enough to get attached to anywhere, and nowhere did she ever truly belong. By the time she was in public school in seattle where all the kids already knew each other, Julie seldom went a week without coming home to her aunt's arms in tears. Unable to find other recourses, she spent a good portion of her teen years working malt shops, diners, whatever service industry job you could imagine, that's what Julie did. She was determined to go to college, get her degree, and move far away. She always dreamed of seeing alaska's wilderness like she read in her paperback novels, and felt like Seattle was always just beyond the reach of the world's wildest places.

When Julie hit puberty, the war ended, but not before it claimed both of her parents. In school, differences between her and the other girls only worsened. Her jawline hardened, and she started putting on muscle at the drop of a hat. She grew taller than most the girls at her school, and the worst of the bullying she faced was from other women. In short, Julie's self esteem was gone, and she was deeply depressed. When the bullying reached a head, Julie wound up having a breakdown at her school. Her aunt, ever-attentive, pulled her out of school and let her finish her education through homeschooling. In reality, she just let her ward have space and autonomy. Julie found an escape in reading. She especially loved Ursula K. Le Guin, and Leigh Brackett . By all measures, Julie should be the one with the strength to defend against everyone at the school, and none of the desire to do so.

But also, Julie had a plan. All those years she worked sweating in the service industry gave her what one would've needed back then to completely pay for her college, and rent a little studio apartment to herself. And Julie believed that at last she could put her childhood behind herself. Things went well for the first year, new class settling into their year at the school, she felt like she was finally able to let go of some of that bottled up anger, and then, on a hot, dry summer evening, she had her first change in the middle of the food hall at Evergreen college. And what it was wasn't some kind of new bully against her, no, it was seeing someone dump their drink on the head of another student, and before she knew it she was in the woods, panicked and her front covered in blood. Her aunt and a few members of the faculty were there, all kinfolk.

She is best known among the garou for fighting for The Fanum during the War of Chicago. In the aftermath of that conflict, Julie befriended Colleen "Shamisa" Fetner. Working with the Sept, the war started bloody, but ended with an uneasy peace between The Fanum and Sept of the Wind Catchers. Each working in tandem through Julie's efforts to unify them had The Fanum assaulted the Camarilla and sabbat simultaneously.At the end of the war, many garou died, including Julie's own pack mates, but every last known vampire in the city of Chicago were completely obliterated.

When Shamisa answered a calling to mentor a late changed garou in Seattle, she and Julie traveled there together. Julie lives in a trailer at Steelhead Springs just outside of Trillium with Esme. Opossum, a patron spirit of adaptability, has formed a strong bond with this Black Fury, and has followed her from her first pack to the Sentinels, which she now leads. Her stubbornness for her pack to be heard by the Red Talon Sept is what eventually led to Sept of the Trillium Glade opening itself to the rest of the garou nation, and among her pack and other Black Furies, Julie is respected for both her discipline and emotional intelligence, despite being very plain-worded.

Time spent living with Esme has drawn the two of them closer, though Julie hasn't been able to find the right words to open her heart.

Reason Level 5, Gnosis 7

Description: Reason appears to be a partially broken labrys that's had one of it's blades shattered off. It's undergone a refurbishment with a new, short throwing axe handle, affixed on the other side with what looks like workshop hand tooling to clamp the ornate head to a utilitarian wood handle. On the handle is a sloppily woodburned word that can be barely read for the grime of use as 'Reason'. The spirit of a Freebooter named Iona "Kinslayer" is bound into this axe.

System: The signature Labrys of Bites-the-Bully, constructed during the War of Chicago in collaboration between the Sept of Jupiter and Sept of the Wind Catchers out of Julie's Mentor's Labrys when she and her Labrys were destroyed while defending the anchorhead. Attacks with Reason are difficulty 7 and to Strength + 3 aggravated damage. Activating this Fetish causes it to dramatically lighten in weight, enabling it to be thrown by anyone with a Strength of 4. Reason may be caught on it's return arc with a successful Dexterity + Athletics difficulty 7.

"I'm sure they'll listen to Reason"

[swtorpadawan]

NPC Profile: Lerrek Serrus

Standard intro, 101.

Uli is logical like that.

Spoiler: He is not proud his family are slaves.

I mean... even the Imperials call it an occupation.

This guy is having a bad day. (Don’t worry, dude. Zenith is about to shoot you.)

We all have to accept when we’ve made poor life choices.

Serrus only gets 45 seconds of screen time, but he leaves an impression. Even as a Sith Apprentice, he realizes that his actions are not going to work out. His semi-independence - he’s out on assignment guarding Imperial officers while he should probably kept on a shorter leash - is a rare mis-step for Darth Lachris, one of my favorite Sith from the game.

Its also telling on how the Sith Empire actually operates.

Unfortunately, we don’t get any follow-up concerning Lerek Serrus, and that’s a pity.

The Jedi Consular story is full of NPCs who get interesting introductions, and then are tossed aside without follow-up.

Honestly, things like this are one of my biggest issues with the J.C. story.

[talk-of-tyria]

The Secret Lore of Tyrians

Inspired in part by some tags from @radioactivetequila, I have for awhile mulled over a possible project focusing on the numerous unnamed NPCs across Tyria, giving them names and cobbling together miniature biographies from what they say. Here’s an example of what that might look like.

[wilderdale]

...Or not! As we’ve said - there’s plenty more to come. Here are a few more faces - some old, some new, but all with their own parts to play. And who are those others, gone suspiciously unmentioned...?

You’ll have to watch out for them in Wilderdale!

[tatteredworld]

Though she may be the Mystic of Story at the moment, The Scribe is a beloved thespian with a constant craving for caffeine. Since joining her fellow actors and freeing the Shadow Stage from the Narrator, she has been creating her own stories, a ghostwriter no longer.

[tatteredworld]

D.G.’s shop, the Digital Interactive exhibit, welcomes visitors into the Gallery with the newest, most playful side of art, and likewise, D.G. is the youngest Masterpiece. He sometimes worries about needing to make his work pixel-perfect so that it earns its right to be in a museum with more established works, but as he explores new dimensions outside the Gallery, he finds that fun is what inspires him the most!

[tatteredworld]

Swinging in for a scintillating spotlight, The Marvelous Mischief Mastermind – Marvelous if you must – runs his miscellanefarious shop, Twisted Takings, with many a maniacal monologue. This cheerily wicked contortionist and acrobat is always happy to recruit new foes - he has as many nemeses as he has wings!