Idran's Background

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Idran1701
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Idran's Background

Unread postby Idran1701 » Wed Apr 02, 2003 4:04 am

A few days ago, Dia recommended I submit this here, to get the opinions of a larger number of posters, and check with others for erroneous references to be corrected. I've been debating it, since it isn't technically a fic, but I decided to post it anyway. If it isn't all right, feel free to close this thread.

Oh, as a note on Dragan's appearance in this background. I do have Phil's approval of this. In fact, in a roundabout way he was actually the one to introduce Dragan into Idran's background.


Idran Casmosis was born in Kohlingen, a port town in the kingdom of Doma. His mother, Paula was a time mage, and his father, Orion, was an astronomer. It was a tradition in Orion's family to name their sons after celestial bodies, as is obvious from his name. However, hoping to avoid the problems he had growing up, Orion decided to name him after a lesser-known star in the sky, not even visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, these stars usually were not given names. After weeks of searching, and just three days before his birth, Orion found an old entry of a star that, while only apparent by those with telescopes, was given a name as a favor for a friend of the astronomer. It was so close, Orion commonly joked that Idran was almost named DGC147.

Around the age of 10, Idran first learned of his odd magical situation. A mage was passing through town, by the name of Dragan Rahl. Idran was heading home from the store, while Dragan was busy reading the aura of a ship's mage for a Doman naval vessel, giving him tips on his spellcasting. When Idran passed between the two of them, Dragan could see that there was something...odd about his aura. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what was with it, so he asked the mage to excuse him, and started up a conversation with this youth. Although Idran was quite uncomfortable with the situation, he agreed to bring this man to his parents. After Idran left the room to complete his errands, Dragan began talking to them, and proposed a beginning of magical lessons. They decided to speak with Idran, and let him decide. Upon hearing their question, Idran quickly agreed. He had been interested in the arts of magic ever since learning what those weird things his mother did actually were.

He began his lessons the following week, with the basics of aura reading. Unfortunately, Dragan found that Idran just couldn't see the astral plane, no matter how hard he tried. Although surprisingly not understanding the exact mechanism involved, to Dragan it appeared that something was holding Idran's aura still, keeping it from entering the astral plane deep enough to allow him to see the Astral. This made further lessons much more difficult than they would have been otherwise, but he continued on.

Of course, this wasn't the limit of Idran's magical quirks. Dragan decided to continue on to his next lesson, elemental manipulation. He started with basic elemental conjuration, summoning small quantities of base substances. However, Idran had trouble with this basic form of spell. At first, Dragan assumed it was just the normal difficulty many students have when first starting out. However, as the days passed with no success, he noticed another odd fact about Idran's aura. It seemed incapable of holding the energies related to elemental magicks. During manipulation of any but the most basic of elemental spells, the magicks would literally seep through his aura. After a few tries with other types of spells, he found that it was true of other types of magicks as well to varying degrees, with the exception of energies used in spells of Space and Time.

The last weird facet of Idran's aura was discovered soon after he learned his first successful spell. He performed his first teleport, about a foot in length, and was quite excited about this occurrence. Dragan joined him and his parents for a celebratory lunch at a coastal restaurant; fairly expensive, but Dragan was willing to pay for them; he, too, was celebrating discovering such a unique student, even if this uniqueness was in ways frustrating for the both of them. Idran was just about to head out, when all of a sudden, he collapsed in what appeared to be great pain. He came out of it just a few minutes later, with descriptions of odd shapes and forms that to Dragan seemed to be auras. However, when he did a quick reading, he noticed nothing in the general area that looked even similar to anything described. After making sure that Idran was fine, his parents were much less worried. During his further training, Dragan kept watch for any further occurrences of this.

Just two weeks later, it happened again, and Dragan took it upon himself to use a telepathic contact to see what exactly was happening. He found what at first glance appeared to be the astral plane. Upon further examination, however, he realized that it was not the astral plane of this realm. There was nothing anywhere that matched objects in the physical world. This explained Idran's headaches during these episodes, as it was extremely disorienting even for as experienced a spellcaster as Dragan. However, he could find no explanation for this. The closest he ever came was when he happened to do an aura reading during an episode. It almost appeared that parts of his aura began fading in and out of the astral. He checked the other sub-physical realms as quickly as he could, but found no sign of Idran's aura on any of them. As best as he could determine, Idran's aura was actually manifesting in other realms. How or why, though, he could never find out. (Although it is doubtful that Idran will ever discover this, it should be noted that these episodes have a greater chance of occurring when a gate or portal to another realm is opened. The larger the portal, or the "farther away" the realm, the greater the chance of an episode, and the stronger it will be. There is no assurance, however, that the astral plane viewed will be that of the realm to which the gate is linked.)

Although Dragan left after only a few months of training, he left a lasting impression on Idran, both in terms of knowledge and personality. Dragan's emphasis on magical research would lead Idran into what some would call an obsession for learning the inner workings of magic. However, he realized that at his age, he was long for being able to begin this interest. Thus, he waited patiently. Six years later, he interrupted this waiting with a job that he hoped would give him more experience in practical matters.
Because of where he had grown up, he was always fairly comfortable around the water. He learned to swim by age 4, and often went on trips with his parents, who rented out their services as navigators to those who didn't sail often enough to warrant a full time position. He learned quickly how to make himself useful aboard ship, or be left behind. He stopped these trips when he began his training in magic, and although he rarely used them, he tried to continue practicing, so they wouldn't completely atrophy. When he was 16, he began using these skills again, when he got a position on the freighter "Talon," making the cargo run between his home town of Kohlingen and the port town of Hydrante in Inustan. He spent three years working aboard the ship, eventually gaining his way up to the position of third mate and unofficial Ship's Mage. Although there was very little excitement on this ship, he enjoyed it. Plus, it did help him to accomplish his goal, as he did get quite a bit of use out of the spells he knew. It was on one of his last trips on the Talon that he got his first taste of the collection of magic spells.

The ship had been temporarily impressed by the Doman Navy, due to a lack of available ships. They needed the crew to investigate a small cave discovered along the Kohlingen-Hydrante route, for possible pirate activity. Idran led the group, and they began exploration. They discovered not a pirate hideaway, but a nearly-stereotypical cave system, complete with beasts and treasure of past would-be adventurers. Although such a place would be no challenge to a well-prepared group used to such pursuits, Idran and his group were lucky to get out with no dead. They never did explore it to its conclusion, but one thing Idran did find was a single scroll. Its contents were unknown to him, but he decided to begin his research. Of course, a freighter ship is a poor place to do spell research long term, so with this new goal, Idran decided to leave off at Kohlingen during their next stop.

After a brief farewell party, Idran used the money he had saved to buy himself a small house at the western edge of town. He set up a basic lab, and began his twin hobbies of spell collecting and research. Supporting himself through odd jobs around Kohlingen, and the selling of his specially designed spells for others that couldn't see the astral, he began adventuring around some of the lesser-known areas. Places not famous for huge treasure hauls, but still with the occasional scroll.

One day, 9 years later, Idran found a scroll with an interesting new spell on it: one which could accelerate the fossilization of certain substances. He wanted to test it on some bone fragments he bought from the local butcher. However, he discovered after intensive research that it required a very rare component; specifically, the toenails of a basilisk. He asked around town for weeks, with no luck. Finally, he heard of a component shop in Doma that specialized in such odd items. He set out the next day, and the day after, in the afternoon, he reached Doma. He decided to refresh himself at an inn he had heard about from other travelers in Kohlingen, before heading for the component shop. He found the inn fairly quickly...The Jade Dragon Inn...
<p>

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin</p>Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=idran1701>Idran1701</A] at: 4/7/03 11:05:49 am

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pd Rydia
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Re: Idran's Background

Unread postby pd Rydia » Wed Apr 02, 2003 5:11 am

For character sheet purposes, I would slim it down if you can make it more concise, but otherwise, 'tis an interesting little bit of writing. ^_^

Incidentally, this is the "fanfiction and other writings" forum, so someone could put a school essay up here if they wanted. If I'm not mistaken, people have posted character backgrounds here before, like BrainWalker... <p>
<span style="font-size:xx-small;">-=- "Careful wit' that blade, th's innkeep's a cranky sort when folks start fightin' Ye dun wanna know how many rowdy drunks she's ate" -- Uncle Pervy
-=- "I'm sorry, but there are rules to uphold here. No nakedness is one of them. Along with no suicide and no fighting." -- Will Baseton
-=- "Maybe... or maybe you're just not drunk enough." -- Nakibe (Nakibe)</span></p>

Idran1701
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Re: Idran's Background

Unread postby Idran1701 » Fri Apr 04, 2003 3:26 am

Does anyone else have any suggestions, or comments on this? I'd like to improve my writing, and I'd appreciate any tips anyone else could give me for this. <p>

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin</p>

Archmage144
 

Well. o.o

Unread postby Archmage144 » Fri Apr 04, 2003 10:34 am

Apparently, then, that means "RPGWW-related" only modifies "fiction" and not "other writings."


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pd Rydia
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Re: Well. o.o

Unread postby pd Rydia » Fri Apr 04, 2003 3:19 pm

It's never been solely RPGWW-related. o.o Not even fics; Ross wrote a rather nice, non-RPGWW-related fiction once, Fern has written non-RPGWW-related poetry, and Freya writers FF fanfiction. <p>
<span style="font-size:xx-small;">-=- "Careful wit' that blade, th's innkeep's a cranky sort when folks start fightin' Ye dun wanna know how many rowdy drunks she's ate" -- Uncle Pervy
-=- "I'm sorry, but there are rules to uphold here. No nakedness is one of them. Along with no suicide and no fighting." -- Will Baseton
-=- "Maybe... or maybe you're just not drunk enough." -- Nakibe (Nakibe)</span></p>

Archmage144
 

*nods*

Unread postby Archmage144 » Fri Apr 04, 2003 3:49 pm

A valid point.


Uncle Pervy
 

Re: *nods*

Unread postby Uncle Pervy » Sun Apr 06, 2003 3:25 pm

The only thing that irks me about this is the parenthesis. You really should find a way to remove them and work their contents into the main body of the story.

I see no real trouble with the story itself, though it should be mentioned that work on a merchant ship is very typically hell. Pay is bad, the Captain is more concerned with keeping costs down than keeping the crew comfortable, and the Captain is generally a tyrant so that the trading coster doesn't lose much in shipping.

Intriguingsome tale, this. <p><div style="text-align:center">Image Image Image Image Image ImageImage</div></p>

Idran1701
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Re: *nods*

Unread postby Idran1701 » Mon Apr 07, 2003 10:56 am

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. I didn't realize that about merchant ships, and it could be something useful to keep in mind if it ever comes up while RPing. I'll figure out a way to fix the parenthesis, and edit it when I do.

EDIT: Oh, as a side note: I've never went much into Idran's sailing background IC, so this could easily be changed, but I always pictured a Merchant Marine-like organization that the 'Talon' was part of. Does such a group exist in Doma, and if not, could anything prevent it from existing?


Image <p>

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin</p>Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=pdrydia>pd]&nbsp; Image at: 6/11/05 17:50


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