Post by Auric on Dec 7, 2015 21:22:28 GMT -6
Species: Earth Elemental
Name: Auric Tanner
Age: 500
Gender: Neutral
Sexuality: If you want to have sex with it, you are a bit strange, but it is willing to give it a shot.
Elemental Animal Forms: arthropleura armata and Tsuchigumo
Hometown: Its family estate
Currently Lives: Its family estate, but often travels
Class: Noble (warmonger)
Family: It was raised by a collection of sub officers who were preparing for hostilities again and generally considers them its parents. They had children, but were careful to indoctrinate them towards loyalty and secrecy. Its children work on the estate and are either indoctrinated or unaware of the nature of the workforce. If either of these sound good to you, feel free to drop me a line.
Looks: In its elemental form it is a churning mass of various ores and powdered metals. Rather than exist as a jumbled mass that would give its entire body a sort of shiny monotone, they tend to collect and flow. Colors will come to the surface only to sink and be replaced by new materials giving it an appearance sort of like a lava lamp. Its body is squat and vaguely humanoid. Its arms and legs are more like tentacles with large pads for the feet and and group of tapered points for fingers on the hands.
As an arthropleura armata it looks like a nine foot long centipede. Each segment reflects a different discrete band of the electromagnetic spectrum moving from infrared to ultraviolet from head to tail. The first two segments from either side look black to most people as their reflected wavelengths are outside of visual range. Its legs are iridescent within the visual range and reflective in ultraviolet or infrared on alternating legs as one moves up the body giving it an appearance like shifting rainbow hues over a black background.
As a tsuchigumo it has eight thin legs, more akin to weaving spiders than walking or burrowing spiders, attached to a tiger body with white and black fur. The exoskeleton on the spider legs is a simple matte black allowing it to fade into the shadows. Its face is mostly human, but has some striking features. Two small cribellum appear on its head allowing it to form a wool silk which it weaves into a net. Along its lower jaw are several equally spaced pointy bone projections. Its eyes are silvery grey and its skin pitch black. Its mouth is full of sharp pointed teeth. Instead of a nose it has two large nasal slits.
Its human form is rarely seen, but when it deigns to take it, it is a small man with narrow shoulders and narrow hips. Its eyes are a lovely silvery grey and its teeth are pearly white. Its lips are a bit pale and thin, but it does not mind too much. When in this form it tends to wear a cloak of black material with moonstone fasteners. Often it uses mink when somewhere cold for its liking or cotton when it is warm enough. Its thin hands easily disappear within the folds and the leather shoes tend to be hidden by the cloak. Under the cloak it either wears simple black cotton gown or loin cloth depending on how warm it is and how much cover is expected of it. Its hair is white and kept long. Depending on why it has taken human form it either allows it to flow free or styles it in into odango and tails.
Personality: It deeply believes that the world belongs to earth elementals in general and it specifically. Everyone else came later and stole chunks of it away from them. They have no right to it and it plans to get it all back for its people along with a sizable chunk for itself in the process. The earth elementals are to restore their proper place and it deserves to expand its holdings for helping them get there. Its preferred form of domination is economic, but occasionally military domination is needed as well.
It has grown up being a slaver and fur farmer leaving its heart rather cold. It has seen generations of slaves live and die under its care and personally ordered the deaths of hundreds of people and thousands of animals. While most can understand seeing the animals as something lesser, it is a harder leap for many with humans. It views them more like the minks than elementals. They are not real people and do not have the same sorts of rights as people. They are potentially dangerous and admittedly smart beasts.
This is not to say that it does not understand that it is in the minority in this view nor does it hate them. They exist and can even be friends. People keep bears and tigers as pets. You just have to know how to deal with them and you know that they are not really like you. It does not insult them to their face the same way one does not taunt lions in the wild. In fact, being of noble upbringing, it is rather polite most of the time no matter how it views you.
It bears the confidence that comes from living the majority of your life with servants. It knows that it is better than those around it most of the time, but its time at court and it upbringing taught it that it was not at the top of everything. It knows when to hold its tongue and not to start things it cannot finish. Allies are valuable. Noone can fight the entire world alone.
Likes and Dislikes: Likes: created things of beauty and industry
Dislikes: being cold and wasting resources
History: Shortly after peace was declared several of the officers who disagreed with the peace treaty and their loss of position in a peace focused world struck upon a plan. They took the prisoners they had captured during the war and moved deep into the lands that were designated as belonging to the earth elementals. From there they would build up their forces and stockpiles waiting for the next war. When it came they would be able to give the earth elementals and their allies an advantage. They knew that every time peace had been declared before, it was quickly followed by another war. They would not have to wait long to be restored to favor. While they were setting up their lands they found an elemental that had formed on their land and decided to take it in. Indoctrinating the young was a good way to expand their forces.
They created an ant hill like home on their lands. On the surface they dumped the stuff mined below and grew crops to feed everyone. Below they mined out the ground and raised minks for fur and meat. The humans were bred much like the minks and the estate expanded both directions on the vertical axis and their fortunes expanded with it.
They quickly found that forming an army drew too much attention for their liking and focused more on the economics of their house. The more materials they had the better off they would be and a small force was all that was needed to start with. The regular military could use their materials once the real fighting started. If they had a good core with plenty of supplies in the opening days they would still be well ahead in the next war.
This meant that Auric spent his days being trained on the finer points of public speaking and strategy or supervising droves of slaves doing their work down below. Its abilities made it well suited to staying down there and it enjoyed being in the bosom of its real parent. It felt at home down there and the light of the sun seemed garish when it was forced to leave. I maintained order among the slaves with a combination of carrot and stick. The well behaved were allowed easier jobs and more freedoms. The less well behaved ones were worked to death in the deepest mines. Escape meant the death of you and several members of your family and friends. Auric made sure that their deaths were not pleasant and were very public so that everyone thought twice about being the next one to try it.
It spent about 450 years being raised by its parents watching each die in turn. Every so often the slaves would revolt or they would be taken down in a military exercises. They had not given up their commissions when they did this and still had internal strife and other military actions to deal with. Many of the children died in similar circumstances. Auric counted them as acceptable losses for the most part, but still punished those responsible when possible. It was the cost of doing business, but there was no reason not to make sure that those costs were keep to a minimum.
Once all the parents died the estate fell to Auric. It was the oldest child and best suited to running the estate. Having to maintain its position in court without military service is spent the next 50 years traveling back and forth between its estate, court, and the various places they did business trying to sure up economic connections and prove its value compared to its family. It might not make the country more secure, but it helped to make it prosper. It might not be in its countries favored export, but its furs brought in a considerable amount and were in demand elsewhere. The mineral exports did not hurt either.
Name: Auric Tanner
Age: 500
Gender: Neutral
Sexuality: If you want to have sex with it, you are a bit strange, but it is willing to give it a shot.
Elemental Animal Forms: arthropleura armata and Tsuchigumo
Hometown: Its family estate
Currently Lives: Its family estate, but often travels
Class: Noble (warmonger)
Family: It was raised by a collection of sub officers who were preparing for hostilities again and generally considers them its parents. They had children, but were careful to indoctrinate them towards loyalty and secrecy. Its children work on the estate and are either indoctrinated or unaware of the nature of the workforce. If either of these sound good to you, feel free to drop me a line.
Looks: In its elemental form it is a churning mass of various ores and powdered metals. Rather than exist as a jumbled mass that would give its entire body a sort of shiny monotone, they tend to collect and flow. Colors will come to the surface only to sink and be replaced by new materials giving it an appearance sort of like a lava lamp. Its body is squat and vaguely humanoid. Its arms and legs are more like tentacles with large pads for the feet and and group of tapered points for fingers on the hands.
As an arthropleura armata it looks like a nine foot long centipede. Each segment reflects a different discrete band of the electromagnetic spectrum moving from infrared to ultraviolet from head to tail. The first two segments from either side look black to most people as their reflected wavelengths are outside of visual range. Its legs are iridescent within the visual range and reflective in ultraviolet or infrared on alternating legs as one moves up the body giving it an appearance like shifting rainbow hues over a black background.
As a tsuchigumo it has eight thin legs, more akin to weaving spiders than walking or burrowing spiders, attached to a tiger body with white and black fur. The exoskeleton on the spider legs is a simple matte black allowing it to fade into the shadows. Its face is mostly human, but has some striking features. Two small cribellum appear on its head allowing it to form a wool silk which it weaves into a net. Along its lower jaw are several equally spaced pointy bone projections. Its eyes are silvery grey and its skin pitch black. Its mouth is full of sharp pointed teeth. Instead of a nose it has two large nasal slits.
Its human form is rarely seen, but when it deigns to take it, it is a small man with narrow shoulders and narrow hips. Its eyes are a lovely silvery grey and its teeth are pearly white. Its lips are a bit pale and thin, but it does not mind too much. When in this form it tends to wear a cloak of black material with moonstone fasteners. Often it uses mink when somewhere cold for its liking or cotton when it is warm enough. Its thin hands easily disappear within the folds and the leather shoes tend to be hidden by the cloak. Under the cloak it either wears simple black cotton gown or loin cloth depending on how warm it is and how much cover is expected of it. Its hair is white and kept long. Depending on why it has taken human form it either allows it to flow free or styles it in into odango and tails.
Personality: It deeply believes that the world belongs to earth elementals in general and it specifically. Everyone else came later and stole chunks of it away from them. They have no right to it and it plans to get it all back for its people along with a sizable chunk for itself in the process. The earth elementals are to restore their proper place and it deserves to expand its holdings for helping them get there. Its preferred form of domination is economic, but occasionally military domination is needed as well.
It has grown up being a slaver and fur farmer leaving its heart rather cold. It has seen generations of slaves live and die under its care and personally ordered the deaths of hundreds of people and thousands of animals. While most can understand seeing the animals as something lesser, it is a harder leap for many with humans. It views them more like the minks than elementals. They are not real people and do not have the same sorts of rights as people. They are potentially dangerous and admittedly smart beasts.
This is not to say that it does not understand that it is in the minority in this view nor does it hate them. They exist and can even be friends. People keep bears and tigers as pets. You just have to know how to deal with them and you know that they are not really like you. It does not insult them to their face the same way one does not taunt lions in the wild. In fact, being of noble upbringing, it is rather polite most of the time no matter how it views you.
It bears the confidence that comes from living the majority of your life with servants. It knows that it is better than those around it most of the time, but its time at court and it upbringing taught it that it was not at the top of everything. It knows when to hold its tongue and not to start things it cannot finish. Allies are valuable. Noone can fight the entire world alone.
Likes and Dislikes: Likes: created things of beauty and industry
Dislikes: being cold and wasting resources
History: Shortly after peace was declared several of the officers who disagreed with the peace treaty and their loss of position in a peace focused world struck upon a plan. They took the prisoners they had captured during the war and moved deep into the lands that were designated as belonging to the earth elementals. From there they would build up their forces and stockpiles waiting for the next war. When it came they would be able to give the earth elementals and their allies an advantage. They knew that every time peace had been declared before, it was quickly followed by another war. They would not have to wait long to be restored to favor. While they were setting up their lands they found an elemental that had formed on their land and decided to take it in. Indoctrinating the young was a good way to expand their forces.
They created an ant hill like home on their lands. On the surface they dumped the stuff mined below and grew crops to feed everyone. Below they mined out the ground and raised minks for fur and meat. The humans were bred much like the minks and the estate expanded both directions on the vertical axis and their fortunes expanded with it.
They quickly found that forming an army drew too much attention for their liking and focused more on the economics of their house. The more materials they had the better off they would be and a small force was all that was needed to start with. The regular military could use their materials once the real fighting started. If they had a good core with plenty of supplies in the opening days they would still be well ahead in the next war.
This meant that Auric spent his days being trained on the finer points of public speaking and strategy or supervising droves of slaves doing their work down below. Its abilities made it well suited to staying down there and it enjoyed being in the bosom of its real parent. It felt at home down there and the light of the sun seemed garish when it was forced to leave. I maintained order among the slaves with a combination of carrot and stick. The well behaved were allowed easier jobs and more freedoms. The less well behaved ones were worked to death in the deepest mines. Escape meant the death of you and several members of your family and friends. Auric made sure that their deaths were not pleasant and were very public so that everyone thought twice about being the next one to try it.
It spent about 450 years being raised by its parents watching each die in turn. Every so often the slaves would revolt or they would be taken down in a military exercises. They had not given up their commissions when they did this and still had internal strife and other military actions to deal with. Many of the children died in similar circumstances. Auric counted them as acceptable losses for the most part, but still punished those responsible when possible. It was the cost of doing business, but there was no reason not to make sure that those costs were keep to a minimum.
Once all the parents died the estate fell to Auric. It was the oldest child and best suited to running the estate. Having to maintain its position in court without military service is spent the next 50 years traveling back and forth between its estate, court, and the various places they did business trying to sure up economic connections and prove its value compared to its family. It might not make the country more secure, but it helped to make it prosper. It might not be in its countries favored export, but its furs brought in a considerable amount and were in demand elsewhere. The mineral exports did not hurt either.
