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yo listen up here's a story;
Jul. 6th, 2024 02:36 pm
Born and raised on the decks of a royal naval warship, Quentin knows only a life full of rough waters and salt spray. His father, a dutiful captain to the Regent, took pity on the family of a fallen sailor, taking in his young son as his own and raising him up in the way of the sea. It became evident, even as a young boy, that Quentin had a way of finding things. Their ship would sail into new harbors and, like he’d walked foreign lands and cities before, Q would guide the seamen to safe taverns, pubs, markets. He could find your lost watch, your cheating partner, even that sock that got lost last time the laundry went to hang…
He shadowed many of the men on the ship, learning the trade and soaking up knowledge, but where he spent the most time? The crow’s perch – elbow to elbow with the ship’s old navigator until the old man passed in his sleep to the sound of calm seas. Taking up the helm, he became the ship’s map-maker, navigator, living compass – able to read the waves better than any man on any fleet.
Quentin has an Old Gift - a simple term used by the Regent to describe the magics of the land that were exterminated by fearful and powerful leaders before. And power hungry, the Regent in his quest to overcome his border countries’ lands, has put out a warrant. Find those with the Gift, ascertain them – and bring them back to the palace. There are only six magic threads left in Solastra, and when one of the Gifted dies? The gift moves – unknowing and unsuspecting – to a new user. No one knows how many of them truly remain.
Quentin’s father covers for his abilities – but unfortunately, the Regent sends spies aboard all the ships… a naval captain means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Overnight, the fleet finds the ship’s captain dead, murdered violently on the decks, and their navigator gone. He’s dragged to the castle, imprisoned, questioned, tortured, all for the sake of determining his abilities, and when they do…
He’s utilized for war, treated like the Regent’s most favored little pet. Collared and leashed, made to look at maps and find quiet, safe ways across enemy lines, used to intimidate and coerce enemy factions to give up their fights. A well of information, Quentin can take one look at a soldier and make a verbal blueprint of their fleet, the ways in and out of their camp, the way to the soldier’s home, even, should the threat be necessary.
But tricky, and a man made of the sea, Quentin plays a long game. He makes fake maps, with discrepancies that can be overlooked as coincidence, crafts lies about locations and homesteads until he’s able to lead the Regent himself into a trap – guiding his troops to a supposed safe haven, which in fact is surrounded by enemy forces and lets them be torn asunder.
ABOUT
Age: 29
Height: 6'2"
PB: Dev Patel
Notable Physical Traits:
- his hair is almost always windswept/unkempt
- his palms have heavy calluses from years of pulling ropes and climbing
- he has a silver bar through his left nipple
- usually has some kind of love marks/bites on him.
Smell: wood smoke and salt, like the sea
Aural: dev patel interiew!
VISUALOSITIES
Quentin, for all his life on the sea, can be a pretty happy -go-lucky sort of fellow. Growing up around sea shanties and mead and pubs and parties, he wanders the world with confidence. He’s especially good at causing bar fights and sneaking out just in time to watch the chaos unfold. He always knows the best ways out of sticky situations, knows the best places to hide for a little sex and a little fun, knows best when it’s time to make himself scarce. He’s a trickster – a playful flirt at the worst of times, and a serious seaman at the best.
While he might not always say much, his eyes on the world give him the perspective of one large, golden blueprint. Ley lines and street signs and hidden paths – he can see them all. The only thing he can’t see are the intentions of others – where their hearts go – where their futures are heading. Only the physical. He uses his gifts to find interesting people, to find the places in towns and homes that are full to the brim with life. He’s eager to meet other people – to close his mind off to his abilities and savor the good times.
Living a little on the wild side comes to an end when the Regent kidnaps him, though. He’s taken in, tortured, coerced into changing his morals, his hand forced (and his body used). The Regent takes a particular liking to him, keeping him at his side and seeing the value in him, and his defiant, trickster tendencies lead him to plotting. His silliness turns instead to a careful deception – some of his light faked for the sake of survival.
THE WORLD
This greed extended, historically, to its people. Solastra once boomed with life and magic, its people charmed by the sea and given threads of ancient power. These magics were simple – mending, fire, water, strength. They looked differently across every individual, but only few were gifted enough to master many. One of the gifted resented the Regent and their dictatorial grasp on the city – leaving poverty and sickness to run rampant at the outskirts of the capitol city. He turned the magic users against the Regent.
They lost. Not made for fighting, not used to war, the Regents powerful army slaughtered them all and cast them out. Some magic users fled to other countries, but most died. The threads of magic in Solastra have faded, but recently, there have been whispers. The ocean has been fussy, the weather unpredictable and the waves even more so. The Regent’s priests tell of six threads that had not been eradicated. Some Regents use their power to search and kill them, but the most current? Alonso? He seeks the power in it – the ability to use magic to turn over the iron gates and capture those lands just outside them – take resources for his own and exude fierce rule over all.
Six threads of magic remain – their users unknown. It is told that when one magic user dies, the threads move through the city like sea salt on the air, and gifting a young mother’s child with the Old Gift. Their abilities may seem different – the thread that once allowed a man to create flames in his palm would let its next user create sparks or heat. It all comes down to the mind of the user itself.
NOTABLE CHARACTERS
THE REGENT: ALONSO RAJAPURAM
- Rajapurams long ruling history in Solastra. Came into power young when father died of poisoning (later turns out was one of the Old Gifted who killed him)
- 26th Solastran Regent
- Age: ~40ish.
- Hunted down every apothecary in Solastra and had them killed. Hired in new ones from other continents.
- Rakish and brash, power hungry. Travels out every night, and keeps oreign servants in his rooms for his later pleasures. From one of them he learns about ancient books that were lost or hidden by his magic-fearing predecessors. Finds them, which tell him of the Old Gifts and otherworldly magic.
- Becomes Obsessed with the idea of obtaining the magic himself and turns his attention toward a country called Vysoka which is said to harbor the old, fled magical people of Solastra.
- Starts a manhunt for gifted. Rumors spread about false traits the gifted have, everyone has their own list. Create a glorified witch hunt.
- He gathers two gifted – Quentin, and a young woman named Tatiana whose gift is essentially minor illusions (sound, visual, smell).
- Uses them as tools to start continental war, and then – moving intercontinental. Succeeds in capturing four of the five countries, utilizes their resources to turn attention to Vysoka, hungry for power.
- Keeps Quentin in his bed – fascinated by his beauty and easy demeanor. When traveling, Quentin is locked in a series of rooms not unlike a royal suite and cannot leave unless he’s blindfolded. (Quentin lies to them saying his gift relies on maps and visuals – it doesn’t. He just needs to hear about what he’s supposed to find).
the captain: lian rais
- Quentin's adoptive father.
- Born and raised on a ship – his father was equivalent to first petty officer, top class. He was close friends with previous captains. In a way, Lian had sailor nepotism helping him to his position.
- The captain of the larged vessel in Lian's fleet, a man named Declan, lost his life in a battle in the Vysokian Sea and never returned. His wife was mad with grief, and their son (Quentin) was left to fend for himself. Lian took him in, reared him on the ship like his own son out of duty.
- Lian had a wife, but she left him behind at a port, having trouble managing his busy/fraught life. He was meant to command the fleets from shore, not aboard a vessel. She opposed him taking on Quentin as his ward, as she felt he didn’t care for his two children (one son – Cian, one daughter – Rowan). Twins, both younger than Quentin, who hadn’t yet been on the ship. She took the children and left when he insisted to keep Quentin as his ward, and insisted he stay near the ship to protect him.
- Lian discovers Quentin’s gifts at age 10. Watches him chart their course to places they’ve never traveled, and starts coaching him to hide it.
- Lian’s cook is the one that turns him into the Regent. Despises being the galley bitch, never promoted to work on the deck proper. Never promoted as he started fights, sowed distrust, and dealt in off-port black market trade, which almost got a cadet killed. He turns in Quentin who, as a boy, had a loud mouth and wide-eyed excitement for his gift.
- Killed when the Regent hears tale of this, and dies trying to slay the Regent's soldiers. He is walked to the front of the ship and shot in front of Quentin, bound and held by the royal guards.
the illusionist: tatiana faray
- Captured on her way out of Solastra at the Daraskan borders, where she was taken and held captive until the Regent's Admiral retrieved her.
- Kept away from Quentin unless working simultaneously together on the Regent's war efforts.
- Often creates minor illusions to allow she and Quentin to sneak to rooftops or deckside during travel.
- Is kept in the Admiral's chambers, where she studies his maps, documents, war briefings while he sleeps under her powers.
- She is made to wear a blindfold when not working, as she does rely on sight to create her illusions.
- Makes an attempt to kill the Regent overnight when they travel to the far sea to being their sail to Vysoka. Hasn't been seen since.
