#Faren’s story

[sadkidwithocs]

“Brah!! Just accept the truth that you’re gay not just gimmick!!”

Little detail: Faren is a lefty(left-handed). [Because I’ve just remember that when I created Seiji(his son)in 2013, he’s a lefty, so his father should be like that too.]

[sadkidwithocs]

This is so interesting I want to answer these even thought no one ask😂I just want to introduce my idea about the one and only wrestling oc, “Faren”

🏁Jobber: Faren was born in wrestling family, his dad/ mom and older sister are wrestlers. At first he was just unemployed biker whose spend free time to ride a big bike with biker friends in Texas. But he must go back to Hawaii after knowing that his sister got injured from wrestling causing she must retired since she was teenage, All of hopes are fall into Faren to keep his wrestling family's reputation continue.

He start training wrestling since graduated from West Texas state University(Like Tito/ Ted Dibiase/ Barry etc.)

In Hawaii, he was trained by Ailani(his dad) and Fara (his sister)

🏁Billed from: Actually he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but his billed from is Texas, USA. Someone backstage wants him to known as American biker instead of Hawaiian famous wrestler’s son

🏁heat: he’s babyface with all his wrestling life, actually he wants to turn heel as well.. because he knows himself that he’s smart-mouthed, he thinks being heel will has more privacy and opportunity but Pat Patterson not allows.

🏁ringmat: Technician

🏁finisher: Teardrop suplex is his main finisher, he also like Octopus submission but rarely use it bc it’s not fit for wrestling style in that era but Seiji can use this move more than him

🏁 botch: (I’m not sure the meaning of this topic, I’ll skip it)

🏁kayfabe: In-ring, Faren must act like flirty biker whose obsessed with his handsomeness and big bike life.. something like that, he is not allowed to reveal that he is married and has 3 children because he has many fan girls.

at backstage, he is family man and not confident in himself at all, not inly his face and body, but also wrestling career.

Faren’s story is all about backstage story/ road trip, so it’s non-kayfabe story

🏁 When he was newbie, he has ever wrestled in Canada and Montreal for short time and move to Japan at NJPW/ AJPW

He wrestled in WWF about 1986-1995, in mid-card role. He decide to goes back to NJPW and finally he’s famous here. Nowadays in Japan he’s known as Seiji’s cool dad.

🏁Faction: (I’m not sure the meaning of this topic)

🏁suplex: He has shoulder injury but not effect to his career that much.

🏁gold: I don’t have much information about this but main champ is he has ever hold Intercontinental champion once in WWF. But he though it’s but he thought that winning the championship that time was not memorable that much.. Because his role in WWF at that time was only mid-carder only.

In Japan, he has popularity award/ best foreigner award etc.

🏁feud: he has major feud with money inc. especially Irwin R Schyster. Because Irwin said he must pay a huge of import duty tax from Faren’s big bike and another taxes too. (But backstage they are very closed😂and Ted as well, he Faren’s senior, graduated from same university)

🏁tag team: The unconfident person like Faren VERY VERY wants tag team partner since he was debut at WWF so bad. But unfortunately, it never happened to him. He just has ever had temporary tag team partner

His body size/ type is in medium level like Tito Santana or Shawn Michaels, they’re not huge and tall like Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage.. He still wondered why many wrestlers with his size would have a tag team partner but he didn't have one, even though at that time WWF still had enthusiastic wrestlers with bodies size comparable to him, and deserves to have a push like “James Penzel”, the person that Vince wouldn't let him team up with Faren as babyface tag team but told him to has Corporal Kirchner role instead.

Faren has good relationship with Penzel, Penzel always stay humble bc he thinks even though he was U.S. Army paratrooper but still has less wrestling experience than many wrestlers. Plus, Penzel is the real bar fighter, he often protect his wrestling friends especially Mike and Barry(babyface) from bully drunkard. If he doesn't leave WWF and stay here for longer, he might be another member of “The slam fam”,the group of wrestlers who has a big feud with Canadian Mafia, just like Faren and Mike. And yes, nobody can touch Mike even an ants because Penzel is here.

Faren has ever wanted Mike(U.S.Express) to be his temporary tag team partner as well, because Mike is easy to work with/ professional and safe. And yes…finally they can work together, but not on the same faction.. bc Mike is now Irwin and must act cocky as hell in the ring, Faren has a headache about this bitch’s cheap chot a lot.

🏁era: 80s era

🏁Hall of fame: His dad(Ailani) was inducted in WWF Hall of fame already. But for Faren? He’s not Hall of famer yet, he knows himself that it won’t happened for sure, he was just mid carder when he was here, he can’t be very famous wrestler like his dad, he doesn’t expect anything.

🏁Entrance: hmmmm… have many kind of music🤔On fire- Van Halen was cool🔥. But many music style of Rikki Thrash can reminds me of Faren as well.

🏁rival: in-ring rival: Irwin R Schyster

Out-ring rival: mr.Hunter and henchmen

🏁Generation: Faren is 2nd generation, his son is famous wrestler also in Japan(NJPW)

🏁Mentor: Mike, not only about wrestling technique/ cut promo etc. but also family life.. he and Mike are dad of 3 kids

🏁cheap chot: Irwin’s briefcase, not use for smack nerdo’s head but for his fingers😂

WRESTLING OC ASK MEME

jobber ; why did your OC get into wrestling? when did they start training? where did they train? with who?

billed from ; where was your OC born? is it different from where they're billed from?

heat ; are they a heel, tweener, or babyface? have they ever changed from one to another?

ringmat ; what is your OC's wrestling style? are they a mat wrestler, a grappler, high flier, etc.?

finisher ; what are some of your OCs signature moves? did they inherent any from a mentor/partner? what's their finisher(s)? are their moves named?

botch ; have they ever had a major botch? what was it? how did things play out afterwards?

kayfabe ; how are they in the ring versus out of the ring? do you write them in a non kayfabe, semi-kayfabe, or full kayfabe world?

promotion ; what promotions/companies have they wrestled at? where do they wrestle now? are they famous for working at any specific company?

faction ; has your OC been in any factions? are they in one? what's their role if they have one? what's the dynamic like between them and their faction mates?

suplex ; have they sustained any major injuries? how did that effect their career? are they quick at recovering or no?

pay-per-view ; have they ever been on a PPV/PLE? where was their appearance on the card?

gold ; have they won any championships? what was their first one? how long did they have the belt(s)?

feud ; have they had any major feuds? with who, and why were they feuding?

tag team ; do they prefer singles or tag team wrestling? does your OC have a dedicated tag team partner?

era ; what decade/era is your OC based in? are they from the 80s? 90s? modern?

hall of fame ; is your OC a HoFer? are they likely a future one?

entrance ; what is your OCs entrance like? what (kind of) music do they use? have they had multiple entrances throughout the years?

rival ; do they have any notable rivals? what were those feuds like?

generation ; does your OC come from a wrestling family or is this something they pursued on their own?

mentor ; who trained your OC? have they had any mentor figures who helped them build their skills, including promo cutting and heel/face work?

manager ; has your OC ever been managed by someone else? have they ever managed someone?

cheap shot; is your OC the type to cheat in a match? if so what are some ways that they have?

[farenheit-451]

YALLLLLLL I canNOT recommend this book enough:

It was so fucking good. Im not good at giving reviews, but basically, if you like reading about gays trapped in space together, you'll love it. The characters are interesting and all that, and the ending had me GRIPPED. seriously, the premise of this story is so interesting. I recommend reading it the whole way thru, even if youre not feeling it at first, because the payoff is just incredible. It was so good. (it is over 400 pages.. but I was still eating it up pretty quickly, and Im a slow reader)

I can't advertise it (not sponsored lol) like I want to because it involves spoilers but PLEASE trust me when I say the premise is so brain scratchy.

I hope you like it if you do end up reading it!!!

-Faren ♪♪

[tinotika-arts]

[Beings of Creation/ Timetravelling Trahearne]

An extra doodle before I disappear to go play soto this weekend hngggh I saw the first line because I opened the chapter on Alex and was like ?!?!?!? -grabby hands-

[wilsons-journey]

Every Monday I play Guild Wars 2 with two friends,... and it's a hilarious, chaotic mess.

And each of us has a Faren-Mini. We also renamed our Group chat to "Farens PantieSimps". It's so stupid - I love it.

But I have to ask,... why does this game has THREE different Faren Minis in Pants?!

[scales-like-ash]

With the 10th ESO Anniversary I thought why not show my OC's?

Scales-Like-Ash

The newest of my OCs and my Sona basically. Devout Mora Worshipper and Chitin enjoyer. If you want to know more about him you can do so here

Reezal-Zel

My resurrected Necromancer (ironic, isn't it?). He's the Character with the most progress in the 'story'. I always loved the way ESO handled Necromancer gameplaywise due to the Laws of Tamriel. Also I love the zombie horse.

Faren-darjo

Faren-darjo, my sweet Faren-darjo... He's my Day-One character, being here since the begining when the game launched in 2014 but with the addition of the Necromancer Class in the Elsweyr Chapter I never picked him up again but he still got a very special place in my heart

Thank you Zenimax/Bethesda for this awesome game and here's to another 10 years of adventures in Tamriel!

[bluebudgie]

head of the snake 2024 review:

bold move to attack DR directly. kinda want to see this discussed in-game a bit more because it seems like a big deal.

big fan of the ministry guard. love me some little traitors

scouting lake doric for the story is fine until you're forced to do events to progress the story (they already started doing that in ls3?? never a fan of this). the events progress your story bar by like 0.2% (overdramatized)

caudecus manor as hilarious as remembered. whats with all these rooms and all these people in these rooms doing questionable things

"foot key" will be funny every single time

i somehow missed the faren phantasm this time. shouldn't have run into the room killing everyone in sight like a rabid dog

why does caudecus have a portrait of logan. canach makes a comment about it and i may be extremely stupid but i don't understand the implication. does he have a crush??

WHY does he have a mirror on the ceiling above his bed. don't answer this i understand the implication.

and lastly why did they have to do that motion sickness carrousel room. didn't we learn from the bitter harvest spiral (tbf that one was worse)

conclusion: sorta a caudecus fan but also he's more lukewarm than i hoped. needed more screentime. or a longer story arc. that's not his fault that's the entire season that needed a longer story arc for everything that happens in it. anyway rating caudecus 6.5/10

[rumeysawrites]

A fun little writing game idea! Share one of your characters' name and a quote from them with zero context and let your followers (or other people who stumble upon your post) make assumptions about said character. You can post about more than one character but only one quote for each one for things to stay out of context.

How does it sound?

I'll start!

Faren Nitsa Leratis:

"I thought fairies were friendly and playful tricksters who adventure and getting into trouble, not naggy know-it-alls who speak in riddles! Seriously though Adorai! Why can't we join the Sun Festival?"

Tom Taras Nels:

"I'm sorry to break it to you, Rose, but legends aren't real. They're like myths, formerly real stories exaggerated to the point of becoming complete fantasy."

Arwyn Iluthmil:

"Dear fellow Merasians; I have indeed learned quite a bit about humans of Tiria and Yugenri thanks to the missions assigned by Lady Nihynia. And yes, they indeed cannot eat many plants, and any minerals directly....except salt somehow. They are poisonous to them. Therefore, I ask you all, kindly, to not poison them. Please..."

Tagging with no pressure: @dearunreliablenarrator @heycerulean @mudkissedgirl @avalordream @daishitheprofessionalfool @author-a-holmes @illarian-rambling @leahnardo-da-veggie and anyone who else that wanys to join is welcome as well! Go ahead please! <3

[farenmaddox]

pick my WIP

yo whats up everyone

I opened up my huge folder of unfinished WIPs (all Tsubasa-related) and lo and behold, I feel energized and interested in working on (at least) one of them. Which one to work on, this is the problem.

if anybody is still following me who CARES about my writing fanfiction, you should help me pick the WIP I should make some progress on. I actually have more than what I put on the poll, but I've only listed the ones I feel like I would want to work on, not every WIP I've ever had.

*Kurogane has two hands, etc.

**Ghost story: It's literally the first scene, so this is not really a spoiler: Kurogane dies in a fight before Tomoyo can send him on the journey. She and Yuuko connect with Holitsuba-verse because that's the only one where there's a healthy and sane version of Kurogane available, and they need HIM to go on the journey in place of ninja!Kurogane. He's like "I am a gym teacher and you want me to help you save the multiverse with what??? My dodgeball skills????"

***Raise Me Up (please god let me think of a better title, this one no longer feels right) is like, probably 30% already written??? I had six complete chapters and a huge pile of other scenes done when I abandoned it?)

ETA:

btw, forgot to say this, but the already-written parts of Drinks and Aníron are both available at my AO3 account if you want to poke at them and see if it influences your decision.

Drinks and Subtle Things

Aníron

[cindermetalheadgw2]

My Inevitable

by Snargle Goldclaw

Chapter 1.

AN: Speacial fangz (get it, coz Im charr) 2 my gf (ew not in that way) bonnie, 4 helpin me wif da story and spelling. U rok! Faren ur da luv of my deprzzing life u rok 2! MTL LGN ROX!

Hi my name is Palawa Ignacious Inevitable Scourge Of Vabbi Joko and I have long immortal lich life (that's how I got my name) with magic staff and shriveled dead eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like The Pact Commander (AN: if u don't know who they are get da hell out of here!) I'm not related to Mad King Thorn but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie. I'm a lich but my bones are straight and white. I have wrinkly dead skin. I'm also a scourge, and I go to a magic palace in the Desolation called the Bone Palace where I'm the emperor (I'm 574). I'm undead (in case you couldn't tell) and I mostly wear gold. I love Black Lion and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a white crown with matching jewels around it and a white fabric elonian leggings, skull shoulder pads and sandals. I was wearing tar lipstick, tar eyeshadow, tar foundation, and a gold lip piercing. I was walking outside the Bone Palace. It was dry with sandstorms and hot sun, which i was very happy about. A lot of sunspears stared at me. I put my middle finger up at them.

[sadkidwithocs]

I just called to say I love you

I just called to say how much I care

I just called to say I love you

And I mean it from the bottom of my heart 💕🌸💐🌷🌻

Big Fanart of Faren, my 2019oc and his wrestling friend, Adrian Adonis🌸💐I drew maybe 1 month ago but take long time for writing their stories in English😂😂

Ok I post about Faren’s information already. And this post I’ll mention about one of his wrestling friends, Start with no.1 Adrian Adonis, a good friend/ big brother whose known him since they both was brown hair YoungLion..before go to WWF

*these pics below are low quality, high quality pics are following in Faren’s story end credit*

[Faren’s part]

My lovely brothers, Keith Adonis Franke a.k.a Adrian Adonis. He’s one of Raymond and my close friends since before we go to WWF, but reason why I still close with him because we are all obsessed with “Biker lifestyle”/ very long-winded, never stop talking😎 (different from Raymond whose more polite and taciturn / we love dressing as biker but Adonis’ style is better than me lol he spend so much money for this!

Adonis is older than me 7 years, chubby but good-looking/ nice hairstyle/ sassy man and big-mouth…and seems he doesn’t care about his weight that much. In the past we often go everywhere by our big bike/ ride in the same car, but when we both are in WWF we have different role, Adonis is heel but I’m babyface, have different locker room/ everybody has his own friends whose have the same role& same personalities and similar in age.. now we shouldn’t acting like close friend when go outside.

Adonis is funny person/ tough and good worker for someone…and sometimes he’s sassy man and like to act cocky for someone too, and one of these people are Lanny Poffo, one of my the first friends in WWF and Danny Spivey, one of dumbass Mike’s close friend.

I don’t know it can calls “luckily” or not that I’m one of persons whose don’t have any problem with him.. maybe just because we don’t have match to fight together eventhough we have similar style (or gimmick) that about biker. We never have any problem about comparing who is better or who should be owner of biker gimmick, we have many difference in their own way.

The fact that we have different role, we must act in different personality traits sometimes, and because we’re famous wrestlers to some extent , when we go outside we often see some fangirls excited to us and stop to say hi😅

Babyface like me must wave and say hi back to her even though that time I’m in a bad mood/ tired/ hungry or bored😐

But for Adonis when he notices some fangirl say hi,

He just act cold and said “get back in da house! ” . that’s why sometimes I jealous to some heel wrestlers that can be honest with their feelings🫤but at the same time Vince and Pat Patterson doesn’t allow me to have heel role too!

Look at this👇🏻. It’s funny that we both dye our hair to blonde following some “backstage person” ‘s advice (Vince? Pat Patterson? or some bookers? I’m not sure who the hell is owner of these idea)

(Umm🫤idk I can call it’s just “advice” or not !?… I think I should use this word instead, “wanting” 🤔 I mean.. if some wrestlers don’t abide by the plans of boss’ idea , We can‘t know about our fate (wrestling role) in the future. They make you shine but they can ruined you also. Me/ Adonis and Dino Bravo are one of the people who agreed to dye our hair to blonde following their advise inevitably

Adonis must dye his hair bc he has gay gimmick of flower shop. Man.. he gain so much weight! Nobody can stop him! Ok I know that this guy is reckless, my I just can’t believe he can be reckless in this way too! 💀

I must dye my hair bc some backstage guy told me to “being more American”. Everyone knew I was the son of famous Hawaiian wrestlers “Ailani Kamealoha”, I have brown hair like my dad , but someone tried to change my identity, make wrestling fans forget everything whose son I am and where did I come from. Now I have become an American biker from Texas USA not Honolulu..I only talk about the biker lifestyle, dressing fashionably, Do not mention anything related to Hawaii or mention to my father who was a Hawaiian warrior.

Moreover, sometimes I have to act flirty, even though in fact I’m like my dad…clumsy and not good at flirting at all , I am not allowed to say that I have 3 children too🤥(yeah I’m jealous a little bit when my senior, Tito bring his 3sons and wife to WWF show)

Ok, back to Adonis. I want to share one of He has ever buy Pepsi for me during we are fixing a big bike(he often go out and back with some snacks).. but that time I keep that Pepsi can in my bag before bring it to hometown in Texas together and forget it in my house, and I wasn’t go back to my house for a few year after that. And not many months later, Adonis left WWF and goes to AWA and I’ve never saw him again.

Believe or not.. until this day in 2024 I still keep that can in my shelf that full of 80-90s stuffs. Seiji, my son doesn’t know anything often ask me to throw it in garbage because it’s expire food but I stop him😑

ok I accept the truth that I have some “old man habits” whose like to collect little nonsense things not only about biker stuffs. But I can’t help it! 🤷🏻this is the last stuff that my close friend gave it to me.

Stories between me and Adonis are just a short part of my whole career story, he passed away from car accident in 1988. Eventough we’re not close that much after we’re in WWF because we have their own friends/ own roles but I can’t refuse that Adonis is good brother for me and my fond memories include Adrian as one of them. He’s gone too fast, that’s the reason why I feel like…I still have unresolved issues and still not used to accept that he’s gone to somewhere. I still imagine if we both are 60 years old men, have white hair, sit together, drink some beer and share crazy journey of our wrestling career. I love you my brother, tell wrestling friends up there I said hi

[herald-of-aurene]

Ashhe Kenna Baszar - AU Commander & Future Goddess of War, Fire, and Valor. She was born to two remaining Sunspears in 1305 in a nearby sunspear outpost. She was trained and raised with the hidden group of Sunspears, until she was 15. In 1320, Joko killed and awakened her parents and some other sunspears. With this, he sent a raid to find and kill the outpost. Ashhe and her 13 year old sister, Deborah were able to flee. They survived for months on their own, Ashhe taking the lead and doing everything to protect her.

Eventually, they made it to Ebonhawk where Logan, Seraph, and the charr were fighting. Despite Logan and the others telling them to go and hide, Ashhe and Deborah stood their ground and helped them fight.

Afterwards, Logan took them into his care, and they became his wards.

In the five years between then and the start of the personal story, Logan became their father figure and trained them. Deborah joined the Seraph but Ashhe refused. She wasnt happy with the way Logan and the Seraph acted sometimes, but she still loved Logan and wanted to show her thanks for taking them in.

Logan would eventually learn of this through her two friends, Lady Kasmeer and Lord Faren, and her desire to join the vigil.

This would send her on the route to the level 30 personally story, where she would meet her girlfriend, and becoming commander

[brax-was-here]

Of AU Scarlet Briar...

I havent posted much of anything lately, especially concerning anything AU Scarlet Briar. But here is a little blerb I had thought about on the way to work today.

I had originally envisioned the story as a 6 chapter short story. It grew to a many chapter novella of sorts (Redemption). That spawned a sequel story (Seeds of Life). That spawned a third story (Cascading Sands), which spawned a 4th story (Redemptions End, which later was renamed to Crystal Madness) which spawed a 5th story (Redemptions End). All this leads into the Tiny Bundles storyline.

Now, Stories 3, 4, and 5 have yet to be fully written.

But there was a 6th unnamed story. It was going to finally have a team up of Scarlet and her crew and members of Dragon's Watch against a new enemy. I never fleshed out anything of the story other than little tidbits here and there, and some quotes.

Rytlock Brimstone: "You mean to tell me that Scarlet Briar has been alive for the past 11 years and we're just now finding out about it? What other secrets are you holding from us, Caithe?"

Canach: "It does seem my sister has turned over a new leaf, no pun intended"

Kasmeer: "Jory, you said we were going to go to someplace boring after Cantha. This is not boring."

Amaranda: "You still cannot possibly be fawning over Faren after all this time."

Taimi: "It really is her!" Joujou: "Yes. It is" "Gorrik: "I always thought she would be more menacing."

Braham: "We're actually going to team up with her? Spirits. Are you crazy?"

Ceara: " Hang on tight, Small Wonder." *seats Taimi on the back of a roller beetle"

Marjory, wide eyed: "Oh, things just got very interesting."

[exeuntstormtroopers]

hi there! Eliza and her monsters might be one of my favorite books ever <3 I’m in love with your writing style and I think it’s super cool to see a character who has selective muteness be such a major part of the story!! In particular, I wanted to ask how the quotable phrases came about. Like, “There are monsters in the sea.” And “I found you in a constellation” (which is so cute!!)

I'm so glad to hear this!

"There are monsters in the sea" is an actual line from Monstrous Sea (my version that I wrote before Eliza, maybe not the first book but somewhere in the series), and while it sounds kind of simplistic, yes okay it's Monstrous Sea and there are monsters in the sea, it's said as a warning: the monsters are our own—our vices, our decisions, our fears, etc—that live inside us. The sea of the subconscious. This dovetailed really well with the themes of Eliza, so I highlighted it out of Monstrous Sea for that.

"I found you in a constellation"/"You found me in a constellation" - Also a real line from Monstrous Sea that dovetailed well with Eliza, so it got used in both places! In Monstrous Sea, Faren literally does find Amity's name in a constellation, because she was named after one, and it becomes a major part of her discovery of who she is, where she came from, her family, and what happened to get her to Nocturne Island. Faren cares about her more than anyone else in the world, to the point where he was the one Nocturnian who searched for and found her true self, both metaphorically and literally. (And there is meaning behind the fact that Amity has a star-name when it is usually only Nocturnians who have star-names, giving her a connection to this culture she grew up in but was never accepted by until she became the Watcher's host.)

It worked so well in Eliza because Wallace and Eliza both experience this feeling that the other understands them better than anyone else. They find each other in the things they love most.

[deck16]

I ran the first chapter of a homebrew Guild Wars 2-themed campaign in Pathfinder Second Edition. This post talks about how it went.

Overview

The time: 1325 AE, around the time that Guild Wars 2's Personal Story begins.

The place: The Stronghold of Ebonhawke and surrounding areas.

The starting premise: The heroes are adolescents living in a long-term refugee camp inside Ebonhawke, consisting mainly of those displaced by the Ogre Revolt. The heroes will start with small quests to help out the camp, and in doing so, discover and face greater threats to Ebonhawke.

I tried to keep close to the Guild Wars lore, but I'm certain I will have made some mistakes.

The first chapter dealt with these major themes:

The difficult road to peace. Animosity between charr and humans, featuring Separatist and Renegade forces. The heroes confronted hatreds both violent and more subtle.

Complex moral choices. When is it right to do harm for a greater good?

Found family.

The first chapter ran over approximately 30 sessions over the course of about 6 real-world months. Characters went from level 1 to 4 in that time.

We played using Foundry. The screenshots in this post depict actual Foundry scenes, albeit with post-hoc recreations of character positioning.

The Player Characters

I won't name names because I don't want to over-share characters that aren't mine. I will instead refer to them in this post by class. The party was:

Male charr fighter

Male charr kineticist (fire)

Nonbinary sylvari druid (art source)

Female human cleric

Female human psychic

(See more about the Guild Wars races here).

I made custom rules for these ancestries:

Humans were PF2e humans, with a few extra Guild Wars options added.

Sylvari were lightly-modified PF2e ghoran, with a few extra Guild Wars options added.

Charr I created as an ancestry from scratch.

No asura or norn. No-one chose those races, so I didn't need to make custom ancestries for them.

No custom rules were made for classes. Some were natural fits: kineticist as elementalist, psychic as mesmer, fighter as warrior. Cleric and druid did not fit the game's classes so well (unless you include the Guild Wars 1 monk), but in my opinion they fit the game's genre just fine.

All PCs were refugees living in the camp. Non-sylvari characters were aged around 13-16 years. The humans were twins, who emerged from the Ebonhawke asura gate with no memory of their past.

They started out as a group of friends, and that developed as they adventured together.

Player Character Arcs

Fighter

Fighter was the group's self-appointed leader. He called them "The Great Warband". He was brashly over-confident, optimistic, cheerful, and naive. This personality would be worn down by harsh realities of the world.

Of most impact, he wanted to be able to join Psychic and Cleric in a human-only public speaking competition, going so far as to appeal to the human government. This would lead to double tragedy: his request was officially denied by a harsh panel of Ministers, despite an emotional appeal. Worse, Separatist thugs would ambush the party and beat Fighter badly for daring to make the appeal, causing him to lose an eye (on the player's suggestion!) and some amount of his childish innocence and optimism.

Supported by the twins, fighter makes his case to Lord Faren and a number of human ministers.

Kineticist

Kineticist was stoic and sensible. Devoted to Mara, the camp, and his friends, he worried over intra-group tensions. He kept his fire-magic a secret from non-party onlookers, lest he be mistaken for Flame Legion.

Moral but pragmatic, he was tested when he had to perform dark deeds for the greater good, the prime example being when he was forced to kill a Flame Legion charr cub who was moments away from activating a dangerous flame effigy.

Kineticist moves to kill a charr cub before she can light a flame effigy.

Psychic

Psychic was head-strong and confident; and a skilled talker. She was independent, always wanting to tackle problems directly rather than seek aid. She resented the deference other members of the party had to adults, thinking her comrades were as capable as any adult.

While far from being evil, she was the party member with the least compunction when it came to doing harm. To her, the ends justified the means. She fiercely protected her sister Cleric. Sometimes this would put her in trouble the rest of the party would have to help her out of. Other times this led her to cruel acts, such as killing a non-combatant Separatist child who sneered with delight at the party being in danger.

Cleric

Cleric was kind and hopeful, but also a realist. She accepted that dark deeds sometimes were needed, but did everything possible to avoid them. A devotee of Dwayna, she sought to help those in need.

Non-confrontational and empathetic, she clashed least with other party members. Pragmatic and phlegmatic, she was affected least by the dark moments of this first chapter, as she was always motivated to do measurable good no matter how small that seemed in the grander scheme.

Sometimes I would use maps that were more "mood-setters" than actual battle-maps. Here's Gwen's courtyard. Druid's animal companion Thunder was a Krytan Drakehound that originally belonged to Gwen. Gwen was happy enough to give the animal away to a better owner.

Druid was non-violent and carefree, even to the point of taking a mostly-support role in combat. Though technically younger than the others, Druid believed themselves wiser, and sought to guide the party. Mainly, they wanted the party to be less hot-headed and less risk-taking. The advice wasn't always welcomed: to some characters at some times it felt more scolding than sage advice. Late in the chapter, Druid decided to shed some of their more idealistic ideas for a harder stance, the ramifications of this as-yet mostly unseen.

Story Arcs

Several story arcs were interwoven together chronologically. I am going to present these by theme, to be less confusing.

Some elements of the story are not fully explained; I am only including things the players are aware of! No spoilers here for the next chapter!

In an early adventure, the heroes were sent to gather scrap metal from a charr war machine. They needed to fend off Gwen's gang who were hoping to do much the same.

Chores

A charr called Mara Trenchleap was the group's defacto parent figure. Leader of the refugee camp in Ebonhawke, she assigned duties to the PCs.

Early adventures dealt with doing chores to help the camp. Collecting devourer eggs. Chasing away pesky skritt. Helping members of the camp. Fairly innocent stuff.

Many of the chores would lead into the story arcs below.

Later they would help Mara prepare for an attack on an Inquest lab (explained below). They would help her find old comrades, and help secure weapons and equipment.

A skritt called Rikkitiktikka shows the party to her then-abandoned scratch. Don't worry: the heroes would go on to rescue the lost skritt from an Inquest lab, find them meaningful employment with the charr legions, and collapse a cavern that links the scratch to an area populated by dangerous Destroyers.

Gwen Thackery-Stubbs

Gwen Thackery-Stubbs was an NPC and daughter of a noble. She was about the same age as the party. Skilled with her father's pistol, she led a small gang of children. She and her gang would often rival the PCs during early sessions.

The party kept things from escalating, so this rivalry did not escalate beyond non-lethal fights. In fact, Gwen would later seek the party's help as her father was investigated by Ebon Guard for smuggling weapons. The party helped destroy some evidence, but it was not enough to keep her father free.

Ultimately, her father was arrested, and Gwen chose to live with the PCs in the refugee camp. Now devoid of money, her old gang had little interest in her, which cemented her allegiance with the PCs and especially Psychic who she looked up to. She even joined them as an NPC party member (at the player's insistence) in the final dungeon, where she did well as a gunslinger.

Later in the chapter, the heroes assaulted the main Separatist HQ in Ebonhawke. The Separatists were away, leaving younger delinquents from Gwen's old gang to guard the place. Despite being badly outnumbered, the party prevailed thanks to the advancements they had made since first tussling with these gang-members. It was mostly a fiery slaughter at the hands of Kineticist.

Separatists

The party interfered with some Separatist plans, especially those to smuggle weapons. Mostly this involved infiltrating various Separatist hideouts within and without Ebonhawke. The PCs also stopped crazed Separatist gunman, and managed to sabotage a Separatist public rally for support.

The party parleyed with Flame Legion. No good; it ended in a fiery fight. Despite outnumbering these Flame Legion five-to-two (there are two non-combatant cubs pictured), these were adult charr and so more mighty than the adolescent PCs.

Flame Legion

Curiously, a Flame Legion shaman was acting this far afield from Flame Legion territory. This shaman had displaced a group of skritt by causing volcanic activity and fire creatures to appear in their cave system.

The party destroyed a large Searing crystal held by the shaman. They killed the arrogant and dangerous Shaman and his Bladestorm comrade in a close battle. In a less-dangerous but darker battle, they killed one of the shaman's cubs as she tried to activate a flame effigy; leaving the shaman's mate to flee with the remaining cubs.

By collapsing the cave system in a bottleneck, the party sealed off the dangerous fiery areas of cavern, allowing the skritt to safely move back in.

The party confronted an icebrood Son of Svanir out on a frozen lake. Knowing this was far too dangerous to fight, they disrupted the ice beneath it, causing it to sink into the chill waters.

The Sentinels and the Inquest

The party would discover that the Sentinels were working with the Inquest to study the Brand. Inquest researcher Materialist Zirri was operating from Sentinel's Perch and used a private asura gate to travel to various Inquest labs.

The party took a job to investigate why one of those labs was not contactable. This lab was in the Far Shiverpeaks, and was unpowered. The party dealt with escaped troll specimens, restored power to the base, reprogrammed golems, and even dealt with some icebrood outside the facility. They rescued surviving Inquest researchers and freed a number of skritt.

During this, the PCs learnt more about Zirri and her research. It quickly dawned upon them she was Inquest -- a fact she had not mentioned. Moreover they discovered evidence and journals that the lab was experimenting on live branded specimens, including from Mara's old 'band: Trench Warband. They told Mara about this.

Mara's history was presented as a little combat, where players took the roles of Hastati, Mara, charr troops, and even branded monsters and the brand itself!

Trench Warband

Part-way through the chapter, Mara told the PCs about her history.

During the Ogre Revolt, she was a part of Trench Warband. Some of her warband were on patrol on the far side of the newly-created Brand. Her Legionnaire -- Hastati Stormtrench -- set out to rescue them, and ordered Mara to collect weapons and the rest of her 'band mates as reinforcements. When she did so, she detoured to help humans stop branded from entering Ebonhawke, knowing that the Branded could spread like a disease from creature to creature. This delay left the Legionnaire without reinforcements, leading to loss of life in the rescue mission.

During all this, Mara's leg was injured and was amputated to prevent her from becoming Branded. While she could still walk with a prosthetic, her reduced mobility saw her removed from the warband.

The PCs met Stormtrench in passing. They became wary of him due to his Inquest allies. They became highly suspicious of him when they met him outside the caverns of the Flame Legion shaman (see above), seemly waiting for some liaison with the shaman. Hastati became irritated when he believed the PCs had fragments of the Searing crystal (which they did), and demanded them. He and his soldiers chased them through the cave, but the PCs managed to lose him.

In Nolan's recreation of Regent Valley, the heroes worked with Mist-exploring asura to force a dangerous aatxe back through its portal deeper into the Mists.

Nolan Mullenix

Nolan Mullenix was a nobleman from Divinty's Reach, and a philanthropist who donated to Mara's camp. To express her thanks, Mara had the PCs do chores for him.

Nolan took a particular interest in the twins, due to their strange origin and their magic talents.

Early on, this included a journey to the ruins of Rin, where the party saw the ghosts of Ascalon. They also ventured into an old Ascalonian tomb.

Later on, they entered Nolan's "sanctuary" in the Mists, which he had modelled to look like pre-searing Ascalon. He tasked them with clearing out some Mist-entities from a corner of his sanctuary. In doing so, the PCs met a group of asura Mist-explorers and after a brief confused combat about who were the real Mist creatures, they teamed up to banish a nasty aatxe and some its shadow-minions.

Later, the party participated in a two-person-team magic duel, as well as a public speaking competition. Fighter lost his eye in challenging the human-only nature of this competition (see "Player Character Arcs" above). The twins won the Ebonhawke regionals, going to the finals in Divinity's Reach. Much of their preparation they did in the peaceful environs of Nolan's Mist Sanctuary, with his permission.

Nolan was friendly to everyone, including the PCs. But they were wary of him, largely because of his power. Not only could he carve out areas of the Mists for his own use, but on a number of occasions the PCs witnessed him using powerful mesmer abilities.

Vistawhiff

Castella Vistawhiff was an Ash Legion spy who was initially encountered when she was investigating Gwen's father on suspicion of arming Separatists.

Vistawhiff would take a liking to Fighter, as Fighter would volunteer any information when asked. Their relationship spoiled when Vistawhiff requested help from Fighter, but Fighter would not abandon the twins during their public speaking performance during the Ebonhawke regionals.

The Necromancer

Early on, the PCs found evidence of a necromancer named Kofi Duskwynn working as a mercenary in the Ebonhawke area. They eventually discovered she was working both sides -- Separatists and Renegades -- taking money and corpses from each to assail the other with necromantic minions.

The PCs explored a dungeon where she had operated from, and witnessed her deal with Separatist forces on a few occasions.

She worked with the Separatists on a new plan. Using a number of special amulets, they planned to create Risen within the charr camp inside Ebonhawke. This would leave the Ebon Guard little choice but to shut the camp down.

The PCs caught wind of this plan, but it would not come to fruition as Kofi abducted Separatist children. Equally furious and scared, the Separatists abducted charr cubs to offer in exchange. They marched on Kofi's lair, hoping to trade, but prepared to fight. The PCs were close behind on all of this, following the Separatists to across into Shiverpeak Foothills to Kofi's lair.

Kofi had not just abducted Separatist children. She had taken Renegade children too. Both Separatist and Renegade forces met outside her dungeon and fought. This was Kofi's plan: the dead would become her army, which she would grow with conquest, all to please Zhaitan who she was sure would conquer all of Tyria sooner or later.

The PCs dove into the fracas to save the charr cubs. From there, they entered Kofi's lair, encountering more squabbling Separatist and Renegades, rescuing more children, and ultimately killing the Necromancer.

In the final battle against the necromancer, Dorothea sneaked ahead with invisibility, allowing her to get the drop on the necromancer when combat broke out.

Chapter End

The story ended with the party split, though this was as-per their choice.

The twins, along with Fighter and NPC Gwen, went to the public speaking competition finals in Divinity's Reach, and won. The prize was a large stipend which could be used for their education.

During their competition, they witnessed Hastati Stormtrench lead a century of charr soldiers through the streets, escorted by Seraph. Announcers calmed the crowd, saying they were heading to the Ebonhawke gate to apprehend "the renegade Trench warband". Though concerned, none of the PCs left the competition.

Meanwhile, Mara was preparing to attack the Inquest lab with some of comrades. She hoped to free her Branded comrades by killing them. Kineticist and Druid were helping make sure the camp would operate as normal without its usual leader.

Vistawhiff had told Legion authorities about Mara's plans, as relayed to her by Fighter. Stormtrench mobilised to strike first, and Mara's plans were halted by his unexpected presence. Mara confronted Stormtrench. Druid tried to help Kineticist escape the scene, but Kineticist would not abandon Mara. Druid's interference led to Druid being skewered by some strange phantasm-like charr conjured by Stormtrench. (Druid would later be stabilised by a charr soldier.)

Kineticist offered himself and the Searing crystals to Stormtrench in order for Mara to not be executed. Little did Stormtrench know that one crystal was left behind, in a hiding place behind the hiding place.

Time Skip

Some time will pass before Chapter Two begins. Probably many months or even some years. What have the players said their characters might do during this time?

Fighter turns vigilante, carving "S" or "R" onto any Separatist or Renegade he can find. He specialises in finding those that try to flee from Ascalon.

Kineticist was spared from execution. Hastati sent him and Mara as prisoners to different work camps. Kineticist was unable to seek Mara, but will have some contact with any who might come to his work camp.

Psychic and Cleric both use their competition prize to study. Psychic studies under Nolan. Cleric seeks a more political angle, and manages to find a position working as Count Anise's assistant.

Druid wandered Tyria, trying to comprehend all that happened.

The Setting

I've always liked Guild Wars as games. I know the setting fairly well. Both of these things made it a good choice for use as an established setting.

It's also a setting that is expansive, yet with plenty of regional detail. It has a living history but with a fairly slow burn, and not a break-neck cavalcade of different world-ending threats. This gives me, as GM, a lot of work with.

A dungeon opened into a secluded valley where moa foraged at a river bank. This valley was purely scenic.

Exploration

One thing I love about Guild Wars 2 as a game is the sense of exploration it fosters. (Check my retrospective if you want to hear me harp on about that.) It was something I wanted to capture in this campaign.

I put vistas into some of the adventures. Literally, I slapped the icon on certain maps. It was fun as a cheeky reference, but it also spoke to the exploration aspect of Guild Wars 2, which I really wanted to capture.

Capturing a sense of place and space is hard in a TTRPG. This was something I tried to do. I went to the effort of getting still shots for many minor scenes. Some screenshots, some not. I curated some of the more iconic music themes from the game. I think it paid off.

A simple cross-the-bridge-in-the-storm scene proved very dramatic. Excellent mileage for something I quickly whipped up with PF2e actions like Crawl, Balance, Grab an Edge; along with Hazard rules giving some random nasty effects to the swaying bridge. The party enjoy a Vista after completing the crossing.

Expository Shortcuts

My players had a mix of Guild Wars 2 experience, from near-zero to quite extensive. This actually worked well both ways.

Working in a well-known setting allowed me, as a GM, to take expository shortcuts. In a typical homebrew world, every person, place, or thing is an unknown to the players, at least initially, and GMs have to work to establish those backgrounds. In a known setting, there's so much to work with that comes "pre-installed" with meaning.

The players learning they were in an Inquest lab meant nothing to the players unfamiliar with the lore. But to those who were, it opened up a whole new bevy of thoughts and concerns. All without me having to lift a finger.

The other fun aspect is that the players that know can explain the lore to the players who don't know in-game and in-character.

This simple mood-setting scene was used a few times. It's a screenshot from Guild Wars 1, in pre-searing Ascalon, and despite dated graphics it still conjures a certain peace. As a scene, it was used for travel, to allow a bit of light role-play between scenes. Later, I'd use this scene after Fighter's brutal beating at the hand of Separatists. He narrated taking the party out of Ebonhawke to the sight of his mother's grave, where he gave a heartfelt speech.

Arcane Influence

There were two major influences for this campaign. The first obviously being Guild Wars 2. The second being Arcane. Arcane's influence was mainly in the story structure: an initial chapter where the characters are adolescents, a time skip, then a continuation of story with them as adults. The first chapter has been the adolescent arc.

Duration

I didn't intend for this first chapter to take as long as it did. As mentioned, it ran over approximately 30 sessions over the course of about 6 real-world months. I think my initial idea was to do half that.

Was it a problem? Not really. While I would prefer my estimations to match reality it was never really the case that the campaign was dragging its feet or meandering without direction.

Part of the of the problem may have been down to my desire to run sessions even when there's known to be low player presence. I made more than one "side quest" adventure for just two or three players. While that makes for a less tight campaign, I think routine and reliability-of-play are imperative for a healthy TTRPG group.

The biggest problem was that PCs went from level 1 to 4 over this chapter. I didn't want to go much higher with them as still adolescents. That's a long time to languish in lower levels, especially for the casters, and that's a mistake I apologise for.

Levels

I am developing a philosophy with PF2e that somewhat mirrors one I settled on way back in 3.5 edition Dungeons and Dragons. Adult humanoid NPCs are, on average, about level 4.

(Yes, this even works with non-combat NPCs. In D&D 3.5e that could be handled with NPC classes. In PF2e, non-combat levels are the way to go.)

I think I kept this sense of scale well. At first the heroes could only contend with other juvenile foes, like Gwen's gang of delinquents (in fact, her gun was quite the frightening novelty in such battles). Later, the heroes could tussle with adults, but they would have to outnumber any that had decent combat training. The PCs might be able to take on some of the weaker "weekend warrior" Separatists, but they could not contend with properly-trained Separatist or charr adults without outnumbering them.

I think it's important to do this sort of thing so the players can intuit what's dangerous and what's not. It seemed to work: they knew serious threats like Sons of Svanir, ettins, and ogres just by seeing them, and either fled or approached with extreme caution.

It's also great for a sense of progression. When, nearer the chapter end, the heroes were able to trounce Gwen's old gang it was clear how far they'd come even with only two levels.

Monsters are a bit of a mixed bag. I wanted a bit of variety, so I did allow some monsters that I thought would be ordinarily too powerful, but just made them weaker versions: that devourer is a juvenile, that spectre is faded, that elemental is lukewarm. I think that's forgivable.

In an especially dark moment, Separatist forces return a charr cub hostage to Renegade forces, along with an armed and timed explosive hidden on her body! This drove home to the heroes how duplicitous the Separatists could be... whether driven by desperation, racial hatreds, or both.

Darkness

Guild Wars 2 is, mostly, a hopeful setting (it's in the theme tune!). As explained above, this campaign was fairly dark.

Partly this was the Arcane influence. The time-skip needed to happen with some uncertainty and looming troubles. Player characters needed to be challenged and maybe even broken. Mentor NPCs needed to meet bad ends.

Overall I do not feel I was wrong to use a darker tone, but I do feel a bit bad about it. It was just a bit overpowering. I don't think there needed to be less darkness. I think there needed to be more lightness: more clear wins, more happy NPCs, more nice moments. A softer mix that could provide a harsher contrast.

Conclusion

Overall, I am glad I ran this campaign. It was a fun TTRPG romp. And there were some memorable moments and powerful RP scenes along the way.

I am always glad when a campaign of mine reaches a chapter-point. To me, it's that same relief as when you see that little "Saving..." notification after a brutally difficult stretch of video game. The progress is "locked in".

I don't like to see campaigns fizzle out, with stories and character arcs left forever hanging. A chapter-point brings enough finale to a story to mitigate this fizzle-factor.

But that doesn't mean I'm content to leave the story there. I hope one day to return for Chapter Two!

[hpowellsmith]

Since I spotted the BG2 mod ask, I hope I'm allowed to send this in. I always refrain because the blog focuses more on your recent (COG-related) writing. BUT BG2 Nate was the first time I experienced a same-sex relationship in a game. The first time I could. And it was such an experience seeing someone *like me* present. I always have a soft spot for the mod for that reason. Faren, of course, is an staple if I replay. Enjoying your Creme-series these days feels like coming full circle. Thank you

You are absolutely allowed to send this in and I am SO happy to talk about my non CoG writing as long as it doesn't step on any NDAs! (and if a question ever did, I'd just say "sorry, NDA" or not answer - no harm done!)

ANYway now that's out of the way, this was just extraordinarily lovely to hear. I am literally getting misty-eyed in a coffee shop and... yes. It honestly means a huge amount.

BG2 mods were among the first ways my wife and I encountered gay and bisexual characters in games too; there were a couple of people in Fallout 2 and The Temple of Elemental Evil but they did not have much story to them, and The Sims 2 and Jade Empire weren't even out when we started making Nathaniel. It's absolutely wild seeing how much we have these days, though it's my dear hope that we'll look back on 2023 in twenty years time and go "wow, that was barely anything, look at how much more there is now".

Thank you so much.