#qvr_lore

[quilveor]

[quilveor]

Stress-strumming

He stood in front of a makeshift scene, surrounded by three of his friends. To be honest, he was panicking, but tried his best to act normal. Nodded, smiled weakly at reassurances, "everything will be fine"s, "don't worry"s. He heard that so many times, but having to actually step up… It was hard. Nobody knew him, but he also knew nobody, what if they would judge? When doors to the bar opened, at first the kobold felt happy at few seconds of everyone being distracted. Then he felt dread at who was actually in the door. Tall, black coat, hood over the face. Two curved horns bringing an image of a black dragon, and a face that… It was a face of someone who would definitely judge him, harshly, just because he can. That dragonborn was terrifying. He moved slowly, but with clear purpose, towards the bartender. He did take off his hood though, revealing his pale scales and a sickly complexion. Was he a vampire, too? He definitely did not look healthy. And his voice was deep, demanding respect. Trouble, there's going to be trouble, and he knew it, grabbing his instrument tighter in stress. And it really seemed like a nice inn, with kobolds working there on equal with others. The bartender was a kobold, even! He ordered something, and another kobold ran from him upstairs for some reason… Did something move under his coat? Is he‒‒

‒ Gwynddu! A higher pitched voice resounded from the stairs soon after, interrupting the thoughts of the panicked kobold. A green bird ‒ aarakocra ‒ was standing there, spreading his arms in a smile. Who did he spoke to? And what about‒‒ the bird came up to the dragonborn, hugging him. They seemed like friends, but… The kobold saw his own friend jump up and run towards them. What was happening? Did Ninix knew that bird? Two more kobolds joined the bird and draconid, one holding an instrument, the other was definitely smaller than pretty much anyone here. The one with instrument had a tail tied in a knot, which immediately stood out. He still clutched his own lute tight, noticing that his friend pointed towards them, and the weird group looked at him. That's it. He was dead. Surely. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the dragonborn waving for him to come over. He listened, didn't even know why, but he came up and just looked up. ‒ Strum, was it? ‒ The white‒scaled reptile spoke purposefully, asking in draconic. The kobold just nodded. ‒ And your compatriots? ‒ I am titled Arioth. ‒ …Zojik. ‒ Nice to meet Ninix's friends! ‒ the bird picked up, smiling, sitting on the ground to be more on height. He also spoke fluent draconic. ‒ I'm Quick! That's Gwynddu, Korek and Duke. ‒ He nodded at each reptile. ‒ We were thinking, maybe you would like to play with us, Strum? …with them?

‒ Pfff, man first needs to relax himself. You're holding that guitar too tight. Breathe. ‒ The smaller kobold chimed in. Only now he noticed that he had a collar on, although he also had this weird confidence about him. ‒ It's clearly a lute. ‒ Lute, guitar, ukulele, who cares. ‒ Ignoring dragonborn's comment, the smallest kobold smirked. ‒ You a bard, Strum? ‒ Y‒yeah? ‒ Afraid about the crowd? ‒ Uhh… ‒ Yeah, thought so. I'd say you could imagine them all to be naked but… ‒ That'd probably work only for you, Duke. ‒ Quick laughed, getting a "yeah" from his friend. ‒ A‒anyway, I hope we're not asking for a lot but we would decidedly be happy to have you play alongside us! We promised the owner a show, and Ninix mentioned you're really good! We could even start off, so you could just join in. Something in the coat moved again. Gwynddu undid it a bit, revealing a small pseudodragon who trilled and landed on his head. ‒ Well, Strum, it is up to you. We'll be preparing. With your permission, sir? The dragonborn turned to the bartender, before getting up and going towards a corner. His friends all looked at eachother. He did feel a bit stupid for judging the dragonborn so harshly, but… He saw the tied‒tail kobold with his violin step up onto the scene, followed by the bird wielding a flute. Soon enough they started playing, and quickly enough were joined by the dragonborn ‒ cloak down, revealing very high quality, outright noble outfit ‒ playing on a piano. Even Ninix seemed having fun, his panflute sounding well enough. Strum jumped up in surprise, feeling a tap from behind, but it was only Duke smirking. ‒ I don't play anything, but you better start playing. And so he did, stepping up, looking at the smiling bird and focused kobold, and started playing as well, joining them in one complete melody. His worries disappeared pretty quickly as he was leading the song, tapping out a rhythm. They played with him, even the weird kobold who seemed to take the second leading position. He heard Zojik shout in excitement.

And afterwards, there were only compliments and praise. Maybe even a bit too much but… but he was happy.

[quilveor]

a) I'm deeply surprised and extremely happy that, for some reason, Kaox had gained attention and was liked by people I don't even know.

He is just a silly doodle to get an idea out, but I genuinely got compliments and I'm like aaaaaaaa =]

2) In honour of pride month, I need to add one (1) additional thing:

During his usual outing to a local pub, Kaox noticed the celebrations were a little bit more lively, and colorful, than usual. "Oh, what is the occasion?" he pondered, and quickly got a reply. "The pride month is coming." "A month devoted to a sin? Oh that's most interesting. Tell me more."

He learned all he could about the celebrations, the significance of rainbow, but in his scheming mind he was hatching a plan from the very beginning. The ways of upper spheres were simple and extraordinarily easy to manipulate. This certainly seemed like a good opportunity to sow a little chaos.

Very next day, he had a pin on his lapel, with a rainbow. He had multiple reasons to it, also a part of his machinations. It got people talking, of course. And those that asked got an answer, one of many. "I got into reading a particular mythology recently. In there, the deity signed a pact of peace using a rainbow.", "Light passing through water forms a rainbow, figured it would be an apt addition to my visage.", "I've heard that in another country, rainbows are the newest fashion. I wouldn't want to be considered unfashionable, after all.", and his personal favourite, "Oh, you haven't heard? That's so... civillian of you."

Next time he was in the pub, he nearly spilled his drink doubled over in laughter. He barely withhold it when he was home, but here he was absolutely free to mock every single person that he got into wearing rainbow adornments as the "fashion". Even those that are hardcore traditionalists! Most notably, as a result of the elites doing that, even if wholly misguided, the common people had a little more peace to celebrate themselves. After all, who would want to complain about non-heteronormative symbolism, if "the important people" had it too?

Happy pride, everyone.

Kaox, The Tide's Conductor

Just a random character idea because the sound of violins was incessantly torturing my mind the entire day. I probably won't do much more with him, but I still like the vibes.

Linebreak for lore and me rambling.

Young Chaoxi knew he was just a tool. Sold like one, treated like one, being a servant surrounded by nobles constantly jabbering and gossiping. He resented every single reminder that his scales are "dirty", and that he's not "proper" enough. His master was the only one that showed him any respect, teaching him ways of the court. But magic, Chaoxi taught himself and he was incredibly good at it. Surprising everyone with his abilities, which have been called divine, Chaoxi managed to break through the social barriers, gaining more and more respect.

The kobold adapted phenomenally to it. Playing with people was just as natural to Kaox as magic, and soon enough he himself had servants to tend to his needs. Those, of course, Kaox treated fairly and with understanding. Nonetheless, some nights Kaox was nowhere to be found, escaping the self-important society to hide in some bar, drinking cheap ale and throwing coins to performers, enjoyment that he never got but always desired. After all, if you force a river to dam up, you should be prepared for it to burst with more strength than you could ever fathom.

Having incredible affinity for water, Kaox is resourceful and clever, able to manipulate circumstances and people into his own favor. A servant ennobled, driven by his ire towards the nobility, rebelling with every breath and act while still staying within their made-up rules. Despite his name being Chaoxi, he goes by Kaox with anybody he deems worthy of his real respect, and is a patron of numerous artists, often employing street musicians as background for his own performances of magic.

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So, Kaox. First of all, the most base inspiration was Saba: A Sonnet of Scales [Youtube link] which I found out like two days ago. Pretty much fell in love, and to my dismay I found out that none of my characters fit a violin background track.

I always liked violins though so I spent a whole day thinking about it, because I didn't want to just do the same story beats as anything that ever fit a violin [vague 1900s rebellion vibes, gentleman thief and/or european nobility [honestly it's mostly that, i love that vibe a LOT but i didn't want to just do a knock-off of Saba]]

Hit by a different inspiration [I could blame Xiran Jay Zhao [Also youtube] for this, I found her unrelatedly but really enjoyed her view on Mulan movies] I decided to go with an eastern vibe and somehow it all kinda fell together?

To note, Chaoxi is not chinese, he just takes inspiration from chinese culture. His "nationality" is completely undefined, if vaguely modernish. On that note, his name means tide [if google and wikipedia didn't lie to me], and the three lines to the left of K in Kaox are a radical used to symbolize water [but only in combination with other things].

He has eight fasteners on his coat for good fortune, and black pants to fit the color associated to water with wuxing. The gem on his horn, however, is there as a slight reference to a magic system I made up.

However both his hair color and scales color... are a complete accident! Like, okay, I intended for hair to be blue, yes, but I kind of did them too harsh at first and had to attempt erasing them. I think everyone knows how hard it is to actually erase a color pencil. But the result looked pretty neat so I went with it.

And now for bonus character traits: - Kaox is utterly awful at all instruments. All of them. He tried. It did not work out. - That's why he employs musicians though - he still really likes music. He might as well get it his own way. - His hair is dyed, it's actually just white. He's acting up the whole "water mage" thing. His eyes are natural though. - He had an eastern dragon father, but never really knew him as originally he was in a regular kobold burrow. That's also why he's so good with water. - He also didn't knew his mother - the burrow was communal. He doesn't blame the elders for selling him though, but it took many years for him. - 90% of things he does are motivated by spite. - He's bi. Also out of spite. - He genuinely enjoys low quality food and drinks. A cheap beer for him is much better than ancient wine. He sometimes gets hot dogs from gas stations, and gas stations alone. - Violin + Accordion is the best combo and he will fight you on this. It reminds him of himself, a mix of high culture and street culture working together - He owns a double bass. It's mistuned and he's too short for it, but it's still his pride and joy.

If you reached here, thank you, have a nice day =]