Okay! So, as most of you will recall, we had a contest to design around the pale world. Well, there were two walkers (besides Aloise) which always stuck with me from those contests, so I commissioned an expedition to the ruins of the old places to retrieve these two walkers. I now leave these here so that they can be considered for future generations:
Elanda Rines by Aaarrrgh
Race: Human Color: Blue, with some black tendencies Spells: Mind control, countermagic, protecting herself.
History
Elanda always had a natural talent for magic. She was sent to a high-class academy at a very young age. Although she had a strong thirst for knowledge, she caused a lot of problems. She was always talking back at her teachers, thinking she knew best (and she often did). She also had very little patience with the other students when they could not grasp the teaching at the same pace she could, and was a generally annoying know-it-all. Her teachers did everything they could to reign her in, but what do you do with a child who is better at your trade than you are? The last straw was when it was discovered that she was using mind control magic on her own classmates. When questioned about it, she calmly explained that the homework she had been given was beneath her, and that any weak-minded fool could complete the tasks even without full use of their mind, and she had proved it by having Farin do it for her. In her opinion they should have been proud of her. The principal politely disagreed, and told her to pack her things, as she would be leaving in the morning. Furious at this betrayal of her genius, Elanda did what any super-intelligent thirteen-year-old mage would do. She would show them exactly how much power they were losing in turning her away. She had been looking into some more advanced spells. The kind of spells you found in the part of the library she wasn't allowed to use. Of course, she would never sneak into that section and take a book. She made Farin do it for her. After a lot of page-turning, she found what she was looking for, a spell that was sure to impress that stuffy old principal. The time stop.
The next day, she requested to speak to the principal in private before she was sent off. She stepped into his office, trying to look as sad and contrite as possible, all the while going over the spell in her mind over and over again. She had studied it all night, and she was quite certain she knew it well enough, but she was frustrated and tired, and failing this now would be very embarrassing. As the principal looked at her questioningly, she raised her hands and started reciting the words of the spell. But something was wrong. She could feel it, but she couldn't figure out what. By this part of the ritual, the rest of the world should have slowed down to the point where only those inside the immediate effect of the spell, the principal and her, could move, but it wasn't happening. She saw another student run by outside the window, and her concentration broke completely. She could feel the threads of the spell breaking apart, and as she tried to re-weave them, she could tell that they were not connecting correctly. With a scream of fear, she released the spell. She found herself enveloped in a bright light, and when she got her eyesight back, nothing around her looked familiar. She was in a world completely unlike the one she knew.
That was ten years ago, and Elanda grew to enjoy the ability to leave a world behind when it suited her. Except "grew" is not the right word. In fact, Elanda has not grown at all since that day. Instead of stopping time from flowing around her, the botched spell had stopped time from affecting the cells of her body. The irony of her attempt at forcing adult to take her seriously had resulted in always being taken for a child was not lost on her. As a matter of fact, she spends every day looking for a way to reverse it. But even though she is still as proud, the years have given her some wisdom. She will not attempt to manipulate time again until she is ready. But she knows that safely doing that will require much more power than she currently possesses. This has brought her to the Pale World. She has heard rumors of immense mana crystals which could easily fuel her spell, but only if she gets to it before anyone else does. And if that means encouraging the locals to focus more on fighting each other than saving themselves, so be it. After all, who would accuse a little girl of orchestrating a war?
Appearance and behavior
Elanda is a human female, who looks like she is in her early teens. Her appearance is deceiving, though. She is in fact ten years older than she looks, and she doesn't like it. Because of the failed time control spell which caused her condition, she has become obsessed with time. She always carries at least two timekeeping devices (one artificial, one magical), and she plans her every move to the minute. Second, if possible. She does not like surprises, and she is willing to do pretty much anything to achieve her plans.
Elanda Rine Planeswalker - Elanda {+X} Draw 3-X cards, where X is a number between 1 and 3. {-2} Target opponent can't play spells this turn. {-10} You get an emblem with "Sacrifice a permanent: counter target spell unless its controller pays [3]
and
Nala Vedris by Szat
Description:
A human woman, about twenty-three years of age. She is petit. She is slender, but decently muscled. Her unkempt bob-cut hair is dark brown. Her eyes are jade. Her copper skin is worn by hard living conditions. She has a strong jaw, high forehead, and proud features in general.
She is dressed in close-fitting leather breeches and a sleevless leather vest, with sturdy, calf high boots. Her left arm is wrapped tightly in linen bandages. Her left hand is covered by a leather glove.
She is very physically active while speaking, and gestures quite a lot. She holds her bandaged left arm against her body when she's nervous. She has a tendancy to stamp her foot when she's agitated.
History:
Nala was born to a minor human tribe of the Red Lands. Her life, though perhaps not among the most trying in the multiverse at large, was certainly not one of comfort -- scratching a living from the desert would be challenging without the constant threat of viashino striking out from their ruin-cities, or any of the other thousand dangers the land held over and above the ordinary desolation.
Yet, Nala would consider her lot to have been happy -- from her earliest days of youth, she made friends very easily, and the richness of the company of her fellows was such that she did not want for the comfort of the steppe folk, nor did she find herself displeased to awaken into her real life.
But in the harshness of the red lands, any happiness or security in life always stood upon a razor's edge. In Nala's thirteenth year, fate finally turned against her, and her world toppled down. It was not one thing that did it -- a small string failed hunts made the camp hungry, and distracted by their grumbling stomaches the men and women began to make mistakes. It was the Viashino raid, however, that pushed things over the edge. If they had been well fed, if they had not taken injuries grappling with molochs, if a dozen things had gone right rather than wrong, the tribe might have fended them off, or even not seemed sickly enough to prey upon. But all those thing had gone wrong, and the Viashino came with terrible force.
In the midst of the rout, Nala found herslef hiding, hoping to escape the notice of the agressors. As she reached out from her hole in the rock to help another in, the Viashino shaman neither had seen struck. The roar was terrible, and the pain was worse -- the burning blood of the mountains poured over Nala's friend, and her outstretched arm. She screamed, and would have blacked out from pain before being finished off, but the blackness that took her in that moment of utter anguish and agony was not merley unconciousness.
When Nala regained her senses, she was in another world, able to look out upon a vista of fiery orange skies and lands painted azure with tall, waving blue grasses. The healers that she was taken to after beign found had been able to save her arm's function, but it was weak and stiff and would no doubt be covered in the horrific, dark scarring for the rest of Nala's life.
In the years after that, Nala walked the planes without any real purpose. She learned to harness the magic that was now open to her, but the infinite wonders of the wider multiverse never filled the hole in her heart, all the places she could visit never made up for the home that she had lost.
It was in the depths of depression that Nala met the Unearthly Child -- Elanda Rine, a fellow Planeswalker searching for power. Nala told Elanda of her homeworld, of the flow of mana she now knew was strange, its life and its mysteries as she knew them, whether the might of the dragons, the hiddenness of angels, or the whispers of the Old Power hidden far away, and Elanda convinced her that they should go back. Surely, she said, Nala could make a new home among her people... And as for Elanda herself? Well, perhaps she could help too, she said. Nala so desperatley wanted a new friend, and hope for a home, that she perhaps ignored signs that Elanda had her own agenda.
Nala and Elanda returned to the Pale World, and dound that the whispers of color had grown many fold in the years since Nala left. To Nala, it was glorious news -- so much of what was wrong with the world could be set right if they could undo the damage of the cataclysm. Naievley perhaps, but honestly Nala hoped that the people could learn to live together if they didn't have to worry about the downward slide the Cataclysm had started.
This was not Elanda's plan, and their parting ways was anything but civil. Now, Nala is torn -- she knows she has to help the Pale World restore its mana, and she knows that to do so will put her into direct conflict with Elanda... but Nala does not herself feel prepared to hurt someone she once considered a friend.
Personality
Nala Vedris is an odd one: On one side, she deeply dislikes rules and confinments, but on the other she strongly wishes everyone would play nice. She carries a lot of sadness with her, but she is an optimist at heart, believing very strongly that everyone has good in them if given a chance.
Nala is outgoing and friendly, and whole she does not take matters lightly (after all, daily existence was life and death for her), she tends to be cheerful and energetic. Her low moments are mostly based on worry, though if she feels unwanted or alone it's quite the blow.
Nala is not a warrior at heart, and though she knows it is sometimes necessary (such as when hunting for food), she prefers not to kill any living thing. Killing another sapient is something she has never done, and feels she could never do -- which is part of why she dreads having to confront Elanda: if her former false friend won't compromise, won't listen to reason... well, what choice might Nala have but to stand for her world, and all its people, and fight?
Powers and Abilities
Magic: Nala practices mostly mental magic. She can draw out and intensify emotions, usually bringing out the best in people when she does so. revealing and magnifing their own courage, devotion, and ferocity -- sometimes, rarely, she might magnify rage as well. Her other magic is generally quite weak, but she has learned to call upon ghostly flames that echo the color-leeched magic of her home to fight against enemies that cannot understand reason, or if heavens forbid she must ever fight for her life (or something more important than her own life, as the case may be)
Physical Abilities: Nala is a lightweight -- that is, she's 5'2" and lean to boot. However, for her size she's quite strong, and she is very tough. Her left arm is weaker and slower, causing her to favor her right side quite strongly, which can be a liability in a fight.
Card
Nalia Vedris
Planeswalker - Nalia [+2]: Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn [-1]: Untap target creatue. You may activate another planeswalker ability of Nalia Vedris this turn. [-6]: Untap all creatures you control. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase, followed by an additional main phase. [3]
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At twilight's end, the shadow's crossed / a new world birthed, the elder lost. Yet on the morn we wake to find / that mem'ry left so far behind. To deafened ears we ask, unseen / "Which is life and which the dream?"
I just want to point out that I never put an "s" at the end of Elanda's last name. But everyone else always does, so maybe I should just accept that and change it...
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Honestly? I'd been thinking about salvaging Nala on my own, but she's so closely tied into the Pale World project that I didn't think I could until it came around. (Also, while Elanda seems to constantly gain letters, Nala lost them in my design phases: she started as "Naliah Verdris" before slowly dropping the h and i in her proper name and extra r in her surname. That's why her 'walker card is a bit off.).
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"Enjoy your screams, Sarpadia - they will soon be muffled beneath snow and ice."
I'm a (self) published author now! You can find my books on Amazon in Paperback or ebook! The Accursed, a standalone young adult fantasy adventure. Witch Hunters, book one of a young adult Scifi-fantasy trilogy.
It kind of goes without saying, since I went out of my way to inconvenience someone to go and dredge these two up, but naturally I really liked both of them enough that I'd like to see them in circulation.
Even though Nala is tied to the Pale World, that doesn't mean she couldn't be used in other projects. I mean, given, her origin is a pet project of mine, but she's a compelling character in her own right.
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At twilight's end, the shadow's crossed / a new world birthed, the elder lost. Yet on the morn we wake to find / that mem'ry left so far behind. To deafened ears we ask, unseen / "Which is life and which the dream?"
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Elanda is interesting, but she kind of overlaps a bit at the moment with both Alessa and Lourima. In fact, she's almost like a DBZ fusion of the two characters. The least interesting part of her is actually her involvement with The Pale World I'd say. There's something very interesting here but I think she needs something to distinguish her from these two other very similar characters.
Nala is fun because she's kind of Red!Aloise, and it'd be fun to have Red!Aloise. Like with Elanda, though, I think maybe there could be a bit more of a hook here to distinguish Nala, and maybe that would come from pairing her with someone other than Elanda, who, again, I feel isn't all that interesting linked to the Pale World actually.
Basically, I like what's here, I just think these characters could use a little spice. I've been spoiled maybe by all the weird crap people have been posting lately
I think something that can be done with Elanda is the fact that she really wants to be a mastermind, and take control of every situation she's in, which would make it really interesting if she happened to set a goal that interfered with one of our actual, ancient masterminds. Because even though she's good, she's nut nearly as good as the Duchess or Ellia. But she's conceited enough to try to outwit them. That could make for an interesting interaction. Of course, it would also probably be the last thing she ever did, so I don't think it's the first thing I'd do with her...
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
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