It’s me, the writeblr formerly known as houndsofcorduff!
I didn’t want to confuse anyone with the name/icon change so I thought I’d address it quickly. You may have noticed my resurgence in the last week, I’ve decided for the new year I wanted to get back into writing here. I’ve set some goals for myself, I’m reading more, I’m writing more, I’m even doing some writing assignments and bought some books about writing. I have everything but a community, which I have sorely missed, and have really enjoyed being back even though it hasn’t been very long yet!
I decided to take the opportunity to also “rebrand” since I’m not really working on Hounds of Corduff right now and I wanted my space to feel a little more broad to my various WIPs and ambitions. I went with “Starwright” because I think I’m very clever, and a long time ago I decided if I ever made it big and had a company like Dragonsteel I would want it to have a cool name and Starwright is what I came up with. Star because that’s what I’ve been widely known online as for the last 15+ years and “wright” as in a builder, like a story builder, but also because it sounds like “write” which is what I do.
I know the change is confusing and I appreciate everyone sticking with me! Everything on the blog will be the same though, I’ll still be posting writing snippets, playing tag games (when I have time), and my personal favorite, reblogging writing from others that I like! I’ll do an official re-introduction post for the new year at some point but that requires a lot of links and more time than I have right now.
In conclusion, it’s good to be back, I’m looking forward to writing alongside you all again!
Happy Blorbo Blursday, Zac! I have a two part question if you’ll indulge me!
Part A: rate your main OC(s) on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being low and 10 being high) in the following attributes: Capabaility (the power and ability to take action); Relateability (doesn't have to mean likable! Rather do they have reactions, perspectives, or experiences that the reader could relate with); Proactivtity (do they take action to solve problems?) You can explain their scores in each one or not!
Part B: Does your OC(s) move up or down on one of the scales during the course of the story? If so, how? Is this important? If not, why not?
Based on this article
Oh, wow, this is such a technical and specific question, I really appreciate how structured it is! I read through the article and I learned a lot about what makes things work and even that my characters fit into some of these examples or categories already. It literally took me like two hours to put this all together and articulate my thoughts, but it was so worth it. This was super helpful to analyze the main conflicts of book 1, I loved this question!
As for my answers, I'll stick with the four main characters of book 1 who get major storylines and go through at least part of their character arcs! This will probably get long, so it's under the cut!
Nate
Start of the Story:
Capability: 8
Relatability: 7
Proactivity: 4
At the beginning of the book, Nate is more than capable. He's very knowledgeable about paragon and their powers and health, he is extremely careful in how he controls his element, and he is comfortable talking about, sharing, and training others with the information that he has. The only thing I docked him for is not being proficient with his weapon, which Reese helps him with a lot.
Based on the article, I would say that Nate is also very high in the realm of relatability. He is always looking out for everyone and trying to help his friends and sister, he is very self-aware of his anger and how it effects his element and is constantly working on not letting it get out of hand, and we get to see him through the eyes of a friend he's known for a while in Shaun, and some new friends he meets during the story through Sky and Kay. Their perspectives show us his powers, skills, and teaching ability from the outside. Shared experience is harder to pinpoint for him, so I took off some points for that one.
Now, his proactivity is where his character arc comes in. When we first meet him, he is in a pretty contented state in his life. He lives with his friends and has an easy, chill job that he likes, and he's not super motivated to really do anything more. This changes in the early chapters when news starts to spread that the government is considering passing a law that would prohibit paragon from using their powers in public and would essentially give the police a greenlight to harass anyone they thought was paragon or might use their powers.
His character arc is then about him trying to be more politically active and find ways to help spread awareness, information, and a clear message: You don't need to be afraid of us.
End of the Story: Proactivity raises from 4 to 6, continuing to go up throughout the series.
Shaun
Start of the Story:
Capability: 5
Relatability: 4
Proactivity: 8
Okay, so I have come a realization with Shaun. His capability and his relatability are intertwined.
At the beginning of the book, Shaun really struggles with his capability. He is capable of many things, but he does rely on his friends for a lot, too. He also has a decent handle on his element, but only really uses it for small, practical things, and he does not have a weapon to train with on his own, instead borrowing his best friend's.
His relatability is heavily connected to his capability in that he realizes his biggest flaw - reliance - through his lack of capability - not having his own weapon and lacking certain skills with his element. His proactivity is so high because, as soon as he realizes these things, he immediately seeks help from Nate and Reese and tries to find a solution, designing a weapon for himself and dedicating himself to practice and training.
By the end of book 1, he does still struggle with his confidence and belief in his own capability, which is the subject of his arc in book 2 :)
End of the Story: Capability goes from 5 to 8, Relatability goes from 4 to 5, continuing to go up later in the series.
Sky
Start of the Story:
Capability: 6
Relatability: 4
Proactivity: 8
Sky is very capable, but she has a lot to learn. She is independent and smart and socially aware, but she grew up shut out from learning basic information about her own health as a paragon. This leaves her with a lot of gaps in knowledge about using her element, her weapon, and how it can affect her. Some of her arc is focused on her learning these things and filling those gaps.
Her relatability is kind of a funny thing. I think that Sky has the most shared experiences in her story, since after all, she is just a broke college student trying to have some fun when the book starts. We also get an outside perspective of her situation through Nate after she goes through a major loss that I think will put some of her actions into perspective. However, she runs into her biggest flaw multiple times and doesn't really become aware of it or try to address it until much later, which I think brings her down significantly in this category.
Meanwhile, I think that her proactivity is very high. She is always ready for action, ready to start training and using her weapon immediately, ready to leave and runaway when she feels like she can't stay at home, and ready to jump into action when a protest breaks out in the city over the new laws that are being proposed. When she wants something done, she does it.
Her character arc is rather interesting because she sort of starts sliding backwards in terms of addressing her flaw. She starts to feed her anger and stubbornness and impulsivity, with some help from the worst guy you've ever met, and she doesn't really realize what she is doing until the end of the book.
End of the Story: Capability goes from 6 to 8, Relatability actually goes down a little I think, from 5 to 4, and then back up to 5, continuing to go up throughout the series.
Kay
Start of the Story:
Capability: 2
Relatability: 6
Proactivity: 3
Kay serves as our introduction character for a lot the worldbuilding due to her lack of knowledge about how the world and paragon work. She doesn't really know how to use her element, how it works, how it effects her, or how to control it. Since she got her element, she has been trying to hold it in and ignore it pretty much, also bringing us to her low proactivity score.
She is very passive when it comes to things she does not know how to handle. She lets everything pass and does not really take action to correct or fix things that need to be addressed. A lot of it stems from misplaced trust in her family, believing that they truly know best and that they wouldn't tell her anything that was wrong or hurtful.
Her relatability I think is at least a little higher. We get another outside perspective from Nate that helps inform her experiences with struggling with her element and why it matters. She also has a few things that I hope are sort of shared experiences, like while she is interacting with her sister (Sky) and her friends.
Kay's arc is focused the most on her capability and building her confidence and knowledge about using her element. Learning that it is safe and she can use it and there's nothing wrong with using her powers in safe ways. Her proactivity is something that she struggles with throughout the series, and her relatability I think gets a boost as she realizes that she has been too passive and accepting her whole life.
End of Story: Capability goes from 2 to 6, proactivity goes from 3 to 4, both slowly building over the series.
One of the things that Starfinder was happy to take forward into the future setting was the seven starmetals, a group of poorly-understood materials used by magical smiths to make all sorts of wondrous weapons, armor, and equipment.
Now, while these ancient smiths were able to create great works with these materials, there was still a lot to understand and discover about them. It only makes sense then that in the far future of Starfinder, such technology and understanding has only improved, bringing a greater understanding of why these materials have the properties they do.
This has resulted in some serious innovations, and it is a general assumption that individual components in various technologies both material and hybrid incorporate starmetals in various ways. Inubrix components that can pass through steel components for otherwise impossible movements, cold siccatite heat sinks, horicalcum components that help regulate or accelerate the speed of nearby parts, and so on.
The Starforge on Absalom Station is at the forefront of starmetal research and fabrication, and its students are master metallurgists that are well-versed in the properties of these materials, and even if they leave their forges and workshops to go adventuring, they bring that skill with them wherever they go!
And that’s where we get the Starwright archetype, representing the skill of working with these exotic materials and applying their benefits to the gear of their allies!
Starwrights carry with them a toolkit containing small samples of all starmetals except adamantine, as well at the tools to manipulate them. Each day, they can craft a delicate addition to swap into the parts of a suit of armor, weapon, vehicle, or other piece of technological or hybrid equipment, applying the advantages to the affected target for an entire day before the component wears out and has to be removed, melted down, and made ready to reuse the next day.
For armor, an abysium core can reduce the energy cost of any upgrades with battery charges, djezet recepticals can bolster the magic of the wearer and synergize with existing djezet, horacalcum plating wards against time magic, inubrix resonators can briefly give the user’s whole body the ability to pass through metal, noqual coating wards against hostile magic, and siccatite can ward against extreme heat or cold depending on which is used.
Hybrid and tech items can use abysium cores to partially power themselves, djezet bolsters hybrid items and infuses pure tech items with magic, horacalcum can slowly tick back the clock on damage, repairing the item, noqual makes them resistant to magic, and siccatite gives the item immunity to fire or cold.
Enhanced vehicles include abysium-powered environmental reactors to protect the vehicle and passengers, djezet-guided magical autopilot and guidance, horacalcum-based speed boosters, inubrix internal parts making them easier to control, noqual plating for anti-magic, and siccatite heat sinks or warmers to protect both vehicle and passenger from extreme heat and cold.
Finally, weapons get surprisingly the fewest options. Abysium, horacalcum, noqual, and siccatite all either make the weapon count as being made with that material or bolster the effects that said materials normally grant.
Being able to add a buff to your and allied equipment is fun, though it is a pity that it can only be done once per day. While you don’t have to, the theme of the archetype practically begs to be paired with a crafting build so you can maximize your engineering skill and pump out various more permanent starmetal-enhanced items for the party. Mechanics and technomancers are an obvious choice here, as are other mages, but I can also see biohackers eager to test the effects of starmetals on living subjects, envoys that picked up a few tricks, military engineers in the form of soldiers, operatives, vanguards and the like rigging up temporary boosts, and more.
Fantasy metals have been a staple of the genre for a very long time, whether they are truly magical in nature or just titanium for a people that never called it that. The starwright, and by extension the starfinder setting in general, provides a unique opportunity to explore the properties of those exotic metals on a tech level approaching modern knowledge of metallurgy and beyond. With that in mind, if your own setting has its own exotic materials, you might consider a homebrew expansion for this archetype that works with them, bring out even more effects.
Brought on for his expertise in recognizing starmetal deposits by the way that life reacts and evolves around them, the neskinti scientist and xenodruid Bulfaas joined the expedition to Anox-IV. However, now that the corporation has decided to ignore his advice and plans to strip mine the entire deposit, wiping out an entire ecosystem in the process, he is forced to turn to the party, a group hired originally for security and supplementary science team, with the hopes their conscience will win out.
The science station Red Excelsior has many different samples from across the systems, including a treasure trove of starmetal ingots reserved for testing. This tempting target had drawn in a group of daring pirates eager to make off with the whole thing, and they have a plan to release hobgars, a form of electrically-empowered simian, free from the biodeck to create a distraction while they make for the vault.
While the bullets themselves were mundane, examining the footage of the assassination reveals that the senator was gunned down by a weapon with horacalcum components, causing chronal distortions on impact. Finding the perpetrator will be difficult, for they are a skilled starmetal forger, and have already smelted down the components in the murder weapon to throw off suspicion.
