#seren swift

[artbychromo]

Yesterday marked the final meet of Kallende D&D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;;A;; ;w;

I also made this video thing & got to show it to everyone last night... needless to say, there were lots of tears throughout the dayyy

[graysongraysoff]

to the four of you what know who this means seren swift’s best friend that she tragically lost in her backstory has returned as a talking sword

[kallende-dnd]

Orel: Do you have to call me “nerd” all the time?

Seren: I said a lot of other nice things, okay? Toughen up, nerd.

[artbychromo]

wanted to practice painting cloth, so... I played dress up with SMORRS!

bonus:

[graysongraysoff]

in the continuing trend of cramming every single trope i like into the singular character of seren swift, she just got a ghost step tattoo (it’s on her left arm, the design is The Bones Of The Arm and it glows when she uses it), meaning she is now:

a pirate AND a mermaid who has a raven motif, a shark motif, A Lot of Knives, a deep love for Shinies and Trinkets, and a tragic backstory that she hides behind a Mean Pretty Girl facade

and now

ghost powers

[graysongraysoff]

@chromochaotic​ and @appolojustice​ did this meme for their kids, and since it’s the first #KallendeDnD night in a while I thought I would do it, too!

Name: Seren Swift

Race/Class: Merfolk Rogue

Her “look”: Pirate, but make it fashion

Age: 24

Personality: Extremely guarded and prickly. Her emotions are behind seven proxies. Seven mean, snippy proxies.

Clothing: Seren has a compulsion toward all things shiny and beautiful, so she accessorizes liberally, but never at the expense of practicality. She prioritizes comfort and freedom of movement, but as long as she has those two things covered, everything else goes. Her hair never looks the same way twice, but it is always pulled away from her face so she can see what she’s doing; her makeup is bold and dazzling and ever-changing. She wears a lot of jewelry, but generally nothing that will make too much noise as she moves; for example, her bracelets are mostly of cloth and leather and similar materials to minimize jangling, and she rarely wears long, heavy earrings because of the clatter and the potential for snagging. She primarily satisfies her need to shine with rings, of which she wears several.

Friendships: In the first few years B.C. (Before Campaign), her best friends were her crewmates aboard the pirate ship The Shark—especially Ravi, the human first mate. While she still considers them her friends, however, she doesn’t yet feel that she can return to them after she was unable to save Ravi from being killed in a raid gone wrong. She only joined up with her current squad out of necessity, but now, provided they are in a near-death situation, she will admit that she considers them her friends, too.

Goals: Before she met the SMORRS gang, Seren wanted nothing, not even piles of glittering riches, more than she wanted her freedom (though it was a pretty close call). She wanted to chart her own course, beholden to no one, on a ship that was as fast as it was pretty.

Now, she wants to help her new friends save Kallende, and after that… well, she’s not so sure.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Why adventure?: Again, she only joined up with the SMORRS out of necessity; she wanted to find The Shark, and to do that she needed their help to 1.) get out of prison, and 2.) crew a ship. The more they uncover about the weird goings-on in Kallende, however, the more invested she is in seeing this quest through to the end.

Worst fear: The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known.

Hobbies: Not to sound like a broken record, but genuinely her main hobby is stealing.

Party role: Sparta-kicking enemies into the ocean and triggering traps so the others don’t have to.

Talents: Aside from the obvious (sneaking, stealing, and stabbing), Seren has a beautiful singing voice (all the better to lure you to a watery death, my dear), and the dextrous fingers that make her good at picking locks and tying knots also make her good at things like braiding hair, doing makeup, and painting nails.

Hometown: The Ocean off the coast of Fendren Province.

Parents: Seren has two mothers: Meira and Rhian, both of whom love her dearly and whom she loves right back.

Siblings: None.

Childhood: Seren’s mothers gave her a lot of freedom as a child, and Seren mostly used that freedom to go ruin-diving. She collected trinkets and treasures from the carcasses of sunken ships—mirrors, silverware, jewelry. Anything with a bit of a shine to it.

Love life: 

In seriousness, though, Seren is so gotdamned bottled up and confused that she’s still not 100% sure whether she had a crush on Ravi or not. And don’t even get her started on Orel. (Not that you could if you wanted to—seven proxies, remember?)

She’s at this place in her life where she has sexual and romantic attraction conflated with one another in her head; she thinks that, because she’s never experienced the first, she can’t experience the second. It’s a huge mess.

Any other family?: None that she is close to. Merfolk tend to be pretty insular, both from other races and from one another. They are content, for the most part, to keep their circles of influence small, so visits from Seren’s extended family are rare.

Thoughts about gold: It’s shiny, but not only that—it can be exchanged for more shinies. Seren wants as much gold as she can get her grubby little hands on.

Her faith: Seren, like any good pirate, is more superstitious than she is spiritual. Like, she’ll drop a quick prayer down to the merfolk god Eadro before she does something dangerous, but less because she actually worships them and more because “just in case.”

Enemies: Seren doesn’t have a lot of enemies, but that’s mainly because the second someone fucks with her she kills them.

Role models: She really looked up to The Shark’s captain, Harra, during her time with that crew. Nothing says “untouchable” like helming a pirate vessel.

Fondest memory: She has two: the first time she joined Ravi in singing sea shanties up in the rigging and he beamed at her from the other side of the mast, and when Orel slipped her her Candlenights gift and it was a beautiful, hand-drawn map of Kallende’s oceans.

Biggest flaw: Would rather Steal and Stab than Use Her Words.

Her beliefs: Seren believes in herself, and in doing whatever she has to do to live the life she wants. No one is going to give anything to her, so she has to be cunning enough to take it.

Known languages: Common, Aquan and Thieves’ Cant

Greatest regret: She regrets that she couldn’t save Ravi; she regrets that her new friends will never get to meet him.

Any secrets?: Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy?

[graysongraysoff]

2. things you said through your teeth

@backseat--serenade​ and @coroarchenland, your kids are in here!

“Are you okay?” Seren asked.

Rhogar blinked up at her from where he now lay sprawled on the ground, lifting himself up onto his elbows and shaking dizziness from his head. 

“I mean, I guess, aside from the fact that you just fuckin’ side-tackled me,” he said. “What the fuck was that f--?”

His voice died in his throat as he registered the grimace screwed into Seren’s features, the bloody hands she had pressed to her abdomen. The black-cloaked body bleeding out at her feet.

“H-he was going to --” Seren ground out through clenched teeth, swaying on her feet. “I -- I didn’t want him to --”

One of her knees gave way beneath her, and Rhogar lurched forward just in time to catch her before she hit the ground.

“Oh holy shit,” he breathed in a rush. “Oh holy fuckin’ -- Mara!”

“You didn’t see him,” Seren continued. “H-he was going to --”

“Hey, you got him, it’s okay,” Rhogar said, unsure how best to comfort her. “MARA!”

“I’m here!”

Mara knelt beside the two of them, their brows knit with focus.

“I’m going to move your hands,” they told Seren gently before nudging the mermaid’s ring-wrapped fingers away from her wound so that they could begin their spell.

“This doesn’t mean -- I like you,” Seren reminded Rhogar, her eyes squeezed shut tight against the pain.

Rhogar huffed an incredulous laugh.

“You are straight up on drugs,” he accused her fondly. “But whatever. Thanks for saving my life for no reason, then, you dingus.”

[artbychromo]

It’s 2019, and our party recently came into enough gold for a shopping spree—time for some updated @kallende-dnd designs!

I liked giving all our good sweet kids new looks, especially now that they all know each other better. :’)