#Komboloi Sunwhisper

[kombink]

Everybody I have an announcement!

For the first time in years, I actually have an icon that I made that I like and I bothered to put on my Tumblr!  Hooray!

[graceintheshadows]

Book of Grace - 24 January

Whisper reached out to me requesting help for a friend, and all things considered, I didn’t see how I could say no without at least learning what might be at stake.  It seems that there was some shal’dorei involvement, which is concerning to say the least.

Perhaps I have been too focused on Val’sharah, on the issues there, and have missed the worst of the hell going on in Suramar.  I am a fool. There is too much work to be done and yet I spin myself in circles, constantly aiming in the wrong direction.

The Sunwhisper brothers were, in a word, amusing, but there was something strange about the two that I just can’t put my finger on—not that I exactly want to.  I have enough trouble; I don’t need to borrow more.  Still, it seems they would like me to work with the more casual of the two on the case.

Perhaps I can help this girl where I fear I am failing and have failed with some others, in part due to my reluctance to do something like blocking the memories.

But blocking memories only leads to trouble later.  I have learned that lesson all too well.  That brings only temporary relief—and the horror is worse later.

It is always so much worse.

[housetyrellian]

The Sable Vanguard 2: Non-guild Boogaloo

Some of you may have noticed that <The Sable Vanguard> was renamed to <Ashguard Company>. This change was largely made due to my no longer having the time to run a military organization.

Naturally, I can hardly expect everything to change back once I DO have time, so I’m relaunching the Vanguard as a non-guild organization. What this means is that members and member organizations (more on that in a bit) are welcome to join, regardless of guild affiliation or lack thereof.

The Sable Vanguard is a coalition of various people and groups united under one banner in order to serve the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas and her interests. While the reasons for serving can range from patriotism to personal loyalty to simple greed for mercenary wages, the Vanguard is willing and eager to bring the best people it can find to the table. The majority of the Vanguard’s personnel are Thalassian military, foreign “diplomats,” mercenaries, and martial nobility, but allies and auxiliaries come from most professions and all walks of life.

- Vanguard units are organized under three designations:

Regulars Professional soldiers of the Thalassian military. Regular personnel are held to higher standards and stricter discipline than Irregulars or Auxiliaries, but in turn also receive higher clearance and, generally speaking, more trust and authority.

Irregulars Volunteer militia, foreign personnel, noble levies, mercenaries on retainer, and other sworn-and-inducted members that are not part of the regular Thalassian military. They are expected to follow Vanguard law and policy, but are generally granted more leniency than Regulars, albeit at the cost of lesser trust and authority. Irregular units typically have Regular officers in command, if there is no particularly promising Irregular that is not eligible for induction into the Regulars or for whatever reason chooses not to. However, commissioned officers are held to the same standards as Regular officers.

Auxiliaries Vanguard personnel that are either not sworn in or whose unit exists outside of the Vanguard command structure, such as non-Vanguard allies or member organizations that opt to use their own command structure. This increased autonomy comes at a loss of authority within the Vanguard, however, and Auxiliaries usually have less security clearance. They are assigned wherever they are needed. New recruits are usually placed here to be vetted.

- While the Sable Vanguard is above all a military institution, many of its members and allies engage in politics and espionage, albeit under a strictly-enforced mandate that their intrigues serve Thalassian interests and abide by Vanguard law. It often supports various charities and public services, as well, such as orphanages and religious institutions. Even mercantile enterprises may find a patron in the Vanguard, provided they prove to be a long-term asset. After all, funding must come from SOMEWHERE.

Officially, the Vanguard is classified as a militia, the “Sable Vanguard Volunteer’s Battalion,” and presently receives State funding for a single company of Regulars. The Vanguard’s funding comes largely from member contributions and incomes from various investments such as dividends from sponsored merchants and privateers and permission to keep much of the income generated by the Southeastern Marches Resettlement Zone, an area in the Southern Marches under Vanguard occupation and provisional governance, pending restoration of civil administration and/or reclamation of occupied areas by the heirs of pre-Fall landowners, in exchange for protecting the area and enforcing Thalassian law (thus freeing up State resources and personnel for deployment elsewhere).

Presently, the NPC troops are assigned to garrison duties, while the special operations units (i.e., you) are deployed to the field.

- I’ll elaborate on what everything means later, but the basic structure will be:

Battalion Captain-General* (commander) Color sergeant All other units

Company Captain Sergeant major 2 squadron minimum, 3 is ideal

Squadron Lieutenant Staff sergeant 2 troop minimum, 3 is idea

Troop Cornet Sergeant Corporal 4 active enlisted minimum, 8 is ideal

Other positions:

Aide-de-camp: Chief administrative officer. Vacant. -Provost: Chief of military police. Vacant.

Chief Physician: Head of all medical personnel and operations. Incumbent: Komboloi Sunwhisper.

Master-Wizard: Chief magical advisor. Tentative.

Chaplain: In charge of the mental health and wellbeing of the Vanguard’s personnel, including making sure religious needs are met. Vacant. -Clerical representative: Represents a given religious denomination. There are none incumbent.

- I won’t have time to drive this very hard for a few more months, so I personally am not going to start recruiting in earnest until then. HOWEVER, I would be interested in peoples’ thoughts and/or interest, and I’ll still accept applications despite not actively recruiting.

Prospective Vanguard officers are more than welcome to recruit for their own unit, too, if they want to get started early. I can work on mini-events to do, or the unit can make their own content. Needless to say, this kind of thing will definitely be taken into account when we have enough people for there to be promotions available!

Organizations are invited to join wholesale, as well, either entirely under their own hierarchy as auxiliaries or as part of the established command structure as Regulars or Irregulars, or to send smaller delegations. We will try to put people in their preferred unit as much as possible which, especially this early on, should keep guildies together if they so choose. >

[wynilthyrii]

One Thing (Part 1)

She sat in silence in her room in Dalaran, staring out the window at the clouds that twisted and roiled over Aszuna.  The Legion had mounted another assault.  Perhaps some of the Vanguard had deployed there.  She didn’t know.

Light help them if they did, she thought, thumb rubbing against one of the scars on her wrist.  It was the one Komboloi Sunwhisper had left behind when he’d extracted a shard of metal from her arm, the same shard she held between the fingers of her other hand, the greenish gray-black of it silhouetted against the sky.

One simple screw made of felsteel.

She’d tried not to think about it these past months.  It was just easier not to, and she’d been busy enough that she’d been able to forget, at least for a little while.  She hadn’t been practicing with the Light, not much. That had made it easier, too.

It still hurt to use the Light, though she downplayed how much, almost to the point of outright lying.  Jadoth’s frequent absences helped with that, too.  There was no one she had to explain it to other than Tyr, whose absences were just as frequent as Jad’s had been.  Besides, the Vanguard seemed to value her spellcasting more than anything. Channeling the Light had been a minor concern.

Except when it wasn’t.  Except when she needed to do it, or was simply practicing, and it hurt.  The pain went to the very marrow of her bones—not an easy thing to shunt aside, but nothing she hadn’t suppressed in the past, either.

Wyn set the screw down on the table in front of her.  It seemed so tiny, barely longer than the space between her fingertip and the first knuckle of her littlest finger.

“What did they do to me?” she whispered to no one.

Her fingers brushed against the fresh but healing gashes across her cheek. They still burned and ached at the same time, though she was given to believe that shadow magic could do that. The satyr’s laughter echoed in her ears.

I should have done more.

She stared at the screw.  Memory nibbled at the edges of her mind, then slipped away, out of reach.  A shiver crept down her spine.

What the hell did the Forsaken do to me all those years ago?

What would it have changed?

[komboink-art]

Drawing up an idea for Komboloi and Maethus's grandfather, the first Komboloi character I made. He was some kind of crazy engineer adventurer.

[kombink]

oh i should probably post the icon separately so people can see it haha

[graceintheshadows]

A small missive

This letter is written on good parchment and is sealed with dark green wax, though there is no sigil pressed into the sealing wax.

 Master Sunwhisper,

A young lady of our mutual acquaintance indicated in her message that I might be of some assistance regarding a young lady not of our mutual acquaintance.  She was, in fact, deliberately vague which had the potential to either annoy or intrigue depending upon the mood her message found me in.  Mercifully, it has found me in the mood to be distracted from other matters.

Name the place and the time and send your reply via courier to the home of Viscountess Greymantle.  I will collect the missive from there and meet you as soon as I may.

Respectfully,

Shadowgrace

[kombink]

Next, I have some of my blood elf characters from World of Warcraft.  The top two icons are of Komboloi Sunwhisper, the first being my most recent and the one I’m using, and the second being a pixel art style one I did.

And the third is a picture of Maethus Sunwhisper, his twin brother.  It is also an example of “oh look I figured out how to make patterns in fire alpaca time to apply them to E V E R Y T H I N G”  I was proud of this because I actually did a full body picture for once woohoo I still need to work a little on the color of the lining of my pictures, but recently, I’ve picked up some good tips and I hope they’ll help

[komboink-art]

Line art of when I was trying to mimic a Paper Mario like style. In order, left to right, Komboloi Sunwhisper and Maethus Sunwhisper, my WoW priest, and Morcant Drust, my angry Pathfinder cleric

[kombink]

I was trying to practice with colors, and I made a little Komboloi!  He's wearing a winter sweater robe.  I got a ways to go, but I learned some things!

[kombink]

KOMBO, ZEKTBACH, AND FIERY MCSHOOTSTUFF OF PATHFINDER

How I feel about this character:Komboloi is my longest existing, most developed, and probably going to enjoy the seat of most RP interaction for some time.  He’s fun for me to RP, and easy as his nerves are probably based on my nerves.  Plus, who does not enjoy watching and hearing a flustered, stuffy Komboloi be confronted with things he desperately tries to pretend don’t exist, such as publicly displayed undergarments and discussion of sexual escapades in the comm?

All the people I shop romantically with this character:It’s kind of hard to come up with parings for Komboloi, because sometimes, it’s hard to read what he would really want in a relationship when he’s kind of terrified of Psyrenn.  My mind keeps going back and forth over a gambit of things he would actually want in a relationship,  He’s probably secretly kinkier than Maethus, but years of repression, being haunted by a toxic relationship, and a desire for organization and a good public face have kind of super repressed that for him.  

My non-romantic OTP for this character:Komboloi and Jaira on the Cleanliness, Propriety and Tea Committee.Komboloi and Maethus in the “gods sometimes I hate my brother” relationship.Komboloi and Jerry:  ”I have at least one friend, even if they are weird and have no sense of personal space.”Komboloi and just about the rest of the Vanguard: “Just smile and nod, and it’ll go away in a bit.”

My unpopular opinion about this character:I still think a nonsexual romantic Komboloi x Zektbach would be adorable and full of cuddles.  Implausible, but adorable.  

One thing I wish would happen with this character’s cannon:He’d snap after being stranded with a team of goblins for a week in Draenor.Him to develop a questionable admiration for another member of leadership that borderlined a crush.  Have him finally build up to a moment of complete rejection and walking away from Psyrenn.  Even if he doesn’t get to kill her, having him have that moment of finally severing himself from that relationship and walk into the next chapter of his life would be very satisfying.  

- Zektbach Skysong - 

How I feel about this character:He’s a relaxing character to play in that my other characters are jerks sometimes, and inconsiderate sometimes, and are prejudiced and all that.  He’s relaxing in that he’s a nice character who I can just go and be like, “I’m gonna go have a picnic or fly a kite or buy ice cream for kids or say confusing, weird things to people, but generally be nice and not be a jerk”  

All the people I shop romantically with this character:I don’t know, don’t have too many active ships for Zektbach.   

My non-romantic OTP for this character:Zektbach x Jaira - one true “next rulers of the world beyond The Red Door of Destiny”Zektbach x Syll - one true “terrible adoptive father”Zektbach x Jerry - one true “cuddle buddies”Zektbach x Aythala - one true “super hero team to save the kittens”Zektbach x Arthamir - one true “protect the lord at all costs”

My unpopular opinion about this character:That Komboloi x Zektbach cuddles would be adorable.

One thing I wish would happen with this character’s cannon:That I could work in some good moments of tragedy, and suggestions that he might be more aware of what people think of him than he lets on.That Zektbach would somehow one day get confused for/swap bodies with Arthamir, become extremely popular and give inadvertently excellent ideas, and then the truth would come out.

- Cole Xero, aka, Firey McShootstuff of Pathfinder -

How I feel about this character:I’ve enjoyed playing him.  He blurts out things that are on his mind, tries to set things on fire, doesn’t get all these good aligned characters and their problems about looting corpses when they’re in the middle of a demon-scarred landscape.

All the people I shop romantically with this character:Cole x BoobiesBut seriously, I haven’t seen much romantic development for this character yet.  He kind of has issues developing beyond the lust aspect of things.  His romantic relationships are probably going to take a really long time to develop, and have to survive the initial “just appraising attractiveness” stages. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character:Cole x Raikis - one true “can’t decide if I admire this guy or am extremely jealous of his coolness”Cole x Nicolas - one true “guy who I’m going to mix up the names with” (side note: I always think of Larry Butz whenever these two interact)Cole x Melonius - one true “why does this guy have to have a stick up his fine ass?”Cole x Carriage - one true “setting on fire that was never to be”

My unpopular opinion about this character:If there’s any more paladins on this trip, he’s going to start utilizing  their shiny armor for trick shots.  .  

One thing I wish would happen with this character’s cannon:I’d like to see if any of the paladins/good aligned characters could get him to shape up.  Not because I want him to change, but I’d enjoy the challenge resisting.  He gets his sorry ass saved by Sara, and she carries him out of a building, bleeding, as they run from a fire that he started when he though he wasn’t going to make it.  I want to see Cole get drunk, because I think that would be hilarious.I kind of wish I could explore Cole’s fire-ish heritage, but I don’t see how that’s going to fit in with the campaign.  

[kombink]

Kombolombomeal: Envy

Komboloi, from his perspective, wishes sometimes he could be more confident (like Jaira or Arthamir), more laid back and better with humor (like Dailen or Farran) or more aggressive maniacal assertive (like Corelyn or Syllanna).

Oddly enough, some of these wishes become very fleeting for certain people when he hears them over comm.

He is also a bit jealous, -although not that much-, that Maethus is -somehow- capable of getting in a relationship that seems it be working out for him. He frequently covers fixes that mentally by repeatedly telling himself how dirty and nasty their behavior is and how utterly shallow and carnal Maethus is and how Maethus doesn’t deserve a sweet, innocent girl like Loryn and how he hopes suspects their relationship will fall apart very quickly, and how he most certainly would never, ever, ever, -EVER- want to do anything as kinky, sexy, or erotic as what Maethus does probably does with Loryn. Komboloi hopes he doesn’t actually do any of the things he imagines fears they do -with great distaste- and he, by the way, is still bothered by the nerve of Maethus ever suggesting that threesome. It was -completely inappropriate- and poorly timed.

[kombink]

Komboloi and Maethus chibis!

Komboloi and Maethus Sunwhisper

BONUS PICS

Komboloi and Maethus in magical girl costumes

No clue why Komboloi's hair turned out orangish.  Red is the more accurate color.