Altia Luna Denerian: D&D Character Splash! Character Update #2

Hello! Yukigami here!

I've been learning a little about Photoshop lately, so it was the perfect time for me to use it for something to complement my recent posts. I went ahead and made sort of a splash of concept arts for Altia, along with some of her character information (including her human race bonus, which I've built into her Charisma parameter since I chose to use it there).

Here's the result:

My friends and I each rolled for each of our own parameter numbers (with four D6's, discarding the lowest number), then took our six numbers and distributed each of them to a parameter of choice. I happened to roll pretty high (average score something like 14.18 out of 18, or threabouts!) even though I was the one opposed to this system as opposed to a fair "point-buy" system, so I simply flavoured these all-high parameters into my story (flavour and back-story are very important to me, and perhaps the most fun aspect of all this for me too).

For example, to justify her 13 STR, I say that she has some combination of: (possibly) receiving a blessing of strength from The Light, and an exercise regiment she follows in secret due to the frequency and danger of attacks and threats on her by pursuers and dark organizations. Furthermore, because her story entails her having built up hatred and evil inside (to the point of developing a hidden, dark alter ego),  a workout routine is pretty instrumental for her in alleviating such emotions and extra stress. Previous info for her regarding this and more can be found here and here (albeit with some outdated parts, especially in the older post).

As for her charisma (CHA), I actually plan to distribute more and more points into it for the sake of character flavour (she is a very enlightening social speaker kind of shining figure person, or at least pretends to be). Here and there I'll make some increases on her WIS too, since it's a very important stat for her character and especially for her skills.


Here are some of the choices I've made for her (thus, I have not included any other race/class abilities she may have, such as Healing Word and the like):

"At Will" Spells:

• Sacred Flame
• Lance of Faith
• Astral Seal

"Encounter Prayers" (Encounter Spells):

• Shield Bearer

"Daily Prayers" (Daily Spells)

• Astral Condemnation

Trained Skills:

• Religion (Class Skill)
• Heal
• Diplomacy
• Insight
• Bluff (via Background: Faker)

Feats:

• Skill Focus: Bluff
• Power of Life

OH! And I'm actally thinking Altea ("Awl-tay-uh") might be nicer! What do you think??

That's all for now!

~Yukigami

Altia: D&D Character Update 1!

So here's some concept art for Altia!

Below the concept art, I will first explain the art, and then summarize updates to her name (which is now tentatively Altia Luna Denerian), back-story, and basically everything.


Some concept art:

As is probably obvious by now, especially for those who know of this character, this is Takane Shijou from IdolM@ster. Therefore, you can assume I've scrapped the blond hair for, well, pretty much everything you see here. Although I haven't watched much of IdolM@ster, Takane is definitely my favourite. Anyway, she seems to be a good fit for Altia as far as ghetto concept art is concerned.

The following additional concept art is for when Altia's alterego surfaces. She basically goes evil and becomes more of a shadow priest: The art is that of Caren Ortensia from Fate/Hollow Ataraxia:

Now, first I will talk about her alterego. To do that, I will simply describe the (currently vague) backstory I've thought up for her. After that, I'll add any other new details. I'll mention her name, and why I've changed it.



Here we go:

• Age:~17 or 18
• Prophesized to be a "bringer of light"
• Talented at healing
• A well-known church priestess from a rich and powerful family
• A speaker for the people, a charismatic "princess"
• Loved by the people, exalted and relied upon. Thought to have great potential.
• Oft referred to as "The Pristine Princess" (though not actually a true princess), or "The Priestess of The Light"
• Actually, she has a deeply hidden dark side:
• She hates being forced by her parents and her people to be a "bringer of light", one bearing the burden of such high expectations
• She hates having to hide her true self, and she hates herself for doing so
• Her personality, hidden away in darkness, rots and decays over time, falling into a darkness
• Hates her parents for being even more fake than she is: greedy, corrupt, unfaithful, sinful, unloving--she curses her parents more than anyone, and they were also the ones who sought her prophecy.
• It also bothers Altia that the prophecy could be false. She does, however, consider herself a little on the powerful side in terms of holy power (and her strength parameter is a bit high. She attributes this to exercising regularly, but it could be that she is blessed with extra strength).
• Because of her high and holy status, church position, affluence, familial relation, and social influence, she is often sought after by people with any range of intentions: dark cults and organizations seek to kill her or worse, and she receives a lot of attention. Due ot this, she trains herself physically in secret as an emergency measure for fighting off pursuers at close range.
• Exercising serves the latent, or perhaps focal role for her of relieving some of her stress and hatred. She hates everyone including herself, but to a certain degree this hatred is actually natural. Due to this, she is not actually a bad person at heart. In practice, she is an unrealistically wonderful and righteous, shining person. Even taking into account her dark, hidden alterego, its existence is not entirely her fault and the public has yet to ever witness it (the same is true for her family). When she one day finds a balance and is able to live as her true self, her alignment will be more of a Chaotic Good--her compromise between extremely Lawful Good, and Chaotic Evil.
• She even hates the fact that everyone literally LOVES the fake her. She knows they wouldn't love the true her, and this is one of many things that just amplifies the darkness inside of her.
• The blessing bestowed upon her by The Light and her prophecy have only served to cultivate a fierce darkness inside of her. In the end, and not taking into account any of her potential victims along the way (after she eventually goes evil), everything will have ended up for the better for her. She will finally be able to live as her true self, but the pros will be that she will have the best of both worlds (especially in terms of powers), she will have gone on her adventures as a result of this life, and she will become an overall powerful person, able to use that power for all kinds of great things. All of this will have been paid with the price of a horrible early life. But the fact that she played a pivotal role in the city and the church, and that the people adored and exalted her will be something that she can't ignore, and something that helps her to one day smile upon her twisted past.
• The nice little dark twist to this big conclusion to everything will be that people DO fall victim to her along the way, perhaps in very gruesome, Fate-esque ways (reminds of Matou Sakura). Thus, it is a twisted sort of happy ending (including the fact that she had to "accept" her twisted side in order to live normally and receive acceptance from others.
• Despite everything, she is still a graceful, beautiful, and in reality kind hearted person. The corruption in her heart might never fully disappear, but after a period of darkness and emotional rampage during her alterego's biggest appearance, she will continually heal inside and become progressively more normal and acceptable, even pleasant and charming in a non-ominous/mysterious/mischeviously seductive way. She can still be shining, still show greater propensity for charismatic power and social divinity than pretty much anyone another, and still prove unmatchable in many respects. In fact, in the end she can be considered a normal girl and even be an unquestionable romantic interest for other characters (in other words, she doesn't end up as some kind of twisted, horrible dark being that, if at all, could only count as a niche/alternative/dangerous choice as a love interest. Rather, she is actually very beautiful and is not un-beautiful inside. She will just have a past in need of acceptance by others. Because of this, she will for a time, when all is done, grow a little unconfident socially compared to the unwavering confidence she used to display).

HER NAME:

ALTIA LUNA DENERIAN

Why?

Well, I explained earlier that "Altia" was taken from a world created by Johnny and I by the name of Tires Lunaltia ("Tee-ress Loo-nawl-tee-a"). I also chose it because it sounded decently graceful--almost queenly--and even reminds of the pokemon Altaria, which, as a graceful, almost angelic sort of Flying/Dragon Pokemon, reminds of the sky and heaven. By yet another coincidence, however, it also reminds of "Alter", which we can say (awesomely) relates to her alterego, or to the corrupted "alter" characters in the Heaven's Feel route of Fate/Stay Night. For example, Saber Alter, who changes to this dark, altered form after being absorbed by Dark Sakura, who is to be the vessel of "All the World's Evil":

Next...

Changing Pendra to Luna was a simple choice. By one of the many coincidences associated with the name construction of Altia, I ended up with Altia Pendra Denerian (explained here in the first post for Altia). Altia Pendra sounds too close to Altria Pendragon (aka Arturia, Altria being the weird-yet-official romanization). People would definitely think I took the name from Saber's name, since I am indeed a big Fate fan (especially Fate Zero! But really, the whole thing...).

Thus, I removed Pendra and replaced it with Luna, which yes is very simple, but is also decently graceful and is taken from "Lunaltia", as in the world name "Tires Lunaltia", which I wanted to incorporate as much as possible for some cohesion within my universe of creations :)

I originally wanted to call her Tiresia, but this name didn't get very favourable reviews with my friends and I didn't really mind changing it (see the aforementioned first post about Altia).

"Luna" also refers to the moon (lunar), which in itself can be related to both light and darkness (night time). Thus, Luna is actually a very fitting middle name for Altia, who is the epitome of light and dark's romance.

Finally, I will say just as I've said in the previous post, that although a cool coincidence, Denerian as the last name has nothing to do with Daenerys from A Game of Thrones. I unscrambled the Japanese word and anime archetype called "yandere" ("yawn-deh-reh") which basically refers to a front of kindness and affection (albeit sometimes overtly twisted in itself) with a twisted, even murderous alterego that can range (as far as illegitimate usage of the term "yandere" for lack of better word is concerned) from mildly dark to psychotically murderous.

By unscrambling "yandere" into a name, I managed to get "Denerya", but with lots of names ending with an 'a', I changed it to Denerian (because Deneryan looks weird to me and may make itself prone to mispronounciation anyway).

So, this is how far Altia has come, and her new name is ALTIA LUNA DENERIAN!

~Yukigami

D&D Character Creation: Altia Pendra Denerian

(To be custom painted!)

So, during my designated "off time" or "break time", I do things like blogging and hanging out with friends, clearly. One thing today is a trip back in the direction of D&D and the like--namely, a WoW-based campaign that will be DM'd by Johnny (as usual). At a later point, I plan to try my hand at DM'ing and by Johnny's suggestion, the world will be Hyrule! (or Termina, something LoZ-related anyhow). We are doing this with Allen, and hopefully we will find more people to join in with us!

Based on what sort of miniatures I have access to through Johnny's collection or a cheap mail order, I have decided to go with a very righteous and holy kind of princess-y character. I imagine someone like Lacus--kind, loving, inspirational, motivating, poetic, and just--or someone like Arwen from Lord of the Rings. My character, the first female character of this gaming realm to be created by me so far, will fit into a polar archetype of holiness, healing, compassion, righteousness, shining benevolence, and princess-y-ness.

But there's a catch! Unfortunately, I won't be revealing that just yet. But there's more to her than what I've sad so far. So far for D&D/PF I've made a cursed, evil fish-man who was once a legitimate prince and is now out to seek vengeance and sow the seeds of despair, I've made a noble desert guy named Gohdann Wei'duk or something like that, and I've made a character named Xino, whose story I like a lot. I plan to write up a lot more about these characters when I can...

Here is our location:

Am I going to make up an overly deep, long and convoluted back-story for her like I have all my other characters? Hopefully not. But certainly, there will be more to her than meets the eye!

Here are some details about her:

• First of all, I brainstormed a few words to draw from for her name. At this point I already know what she will look like, and that she will be a Cleric Healer. In the end, naming her did not take long, but her naming was nonetheless sophisticated as usual;
• I brainstormed the words gold, light, marble (maybe this gives away my secret I have in store for her, along with some more words in this list...), penumbra (wink...), umbra (double-wink!), God, church, glimmer, shine, love, wand, and yandere.
• I also thought of some inspirational sources such as Lacus Clyne, Fate's Saber (Arturia Pendragon, aka. King Arthur), the name of a whole world we created before for Pathfinder, that was itself based on four gods that we had already come up with--the world being called Tires ("tee-ress") Lunaltia ("Loon-alt-i-a"), and of course the "yandere" aspect, which really I just mean as an aspect of her aforementioned personality/archetype coupled with an espect of inner evil from trauma and horrible misfortune that could one day surface. This is also inspired by Sakura from Fate/StayNight and Fate Zero, who eventually becomes a dark variant of herself and becomes an incredibly major character in the Heaven's Feel (3rd) Fate route (which, as I've mentioned before in other posts, is being produced by Fate Zero's Ufotable and is coming out this October!!). Sakura happens to be the character for my customized "The Mimeoplasm" in Magic the Gathering EDH (Check out some of my cards here! Including my Sakura commander).
• I came up with the first name Altia because it comes from "Lunaltia", part of our custom world's name (Tires Lunaltia), and because it sounds queenly and graceful in a way. By coincidence, it sounds like Arturia's (Saber; female King Arthur) name, which, in some English translations, is romanized as Altria. Furthermore, the name that comes next, Pendra, reminds of her (King Arthur's) last name of Pendragon. The difference is that Altia sounding like Saber's first name was a pure coincidence since it was taken from something entirely un-fate-related, whereas Pendra was deliberately taken from Pendragon. Pendra came to mind when I was thinking of how to make use of the word Penumbra in name construction, and the "dra" could just symbolize that she has a dragon (an evilness, though I guess she could very well have a dragon) inside of her. Lastly, Denerian was Denerya but I didn't want all three of her names ending in "a". In fact, my first name idea was either Luna-Tiresia Pendra Denerya, or Tiresia-Luna Pendra Denerya--either of which if used would have people call her just "Luna" in more casual situations, or something short like that, like just Tiresia. But Johnny and Allen both thought this name sounded bad, whereas they changed their minds when I tried her out as just Altia Pendra Denerya. I then changed Denerya to Denerian.
• I DID NOT base the name off of Daenerys from A Game of Thrones; this naming similarity was just yet another coincidence, though now that I think about it, I don't mind at all that it sounds like her name, since the characters might share at least one or two major similarities and Daenerys is popular for a reason. But I have really good proof of not basing that name off of this character: I came up with Denerya by scrambling the word yandere (which, as described in the link where it is first mentioned, means a personality that is very positive and affectionate but has an extremely twisted side or tint to it, sometimes at the crossroads of sadistic and murderous. This also explains my double usage of the letter 'e'.
• As for HER APPEARANCE:
• Blond or white-ish hair--this may be changed completely if I go for pink!
• Pretty pink eyes
• Pale complexion
• White, pinkish-white, blueish white, or greenish-white dress (any or all)
• Many of the details you see in the picture at the top of this post (model)
• Pink/Red lips/lipstick
• So there you have it! Altia Pendra Denerian is born! I am not being too finicky or thoughtful this time about her skills and things, so I've started off choosing for her from the 4th ed. book skills such as Priest's Shield, Lance of Faith, Healing Strike, and Cascade of Light.

Here are her tentative parameters:

We rolled D6's (6-sided die) for our stats, giving us 6 different numbers to assign to whichever parameters we feel best represents our intended character. For each final number to be assigned to a parameter, we rolled four D6's and discarded the lowest number. Allen and I got really strong rolls for some reason, and as a result of this, my princess-y girl is even going to have high strength... Oh well! I actually rolled against Allen to decide whether we do point-buy (assign a set number as we like amongst our parameters) or random rolls, and Allen won so we did random rolls. Although I was opposed to the unfair risks of rolling for parameters, it turned out fine. All's well that ends well I guess...

STR-- 13

CON-- 13

DEX-- 13

INT-- 14

WIS-- 14

CHA-- 16

I prefer to do things flavourfully than to min/max, which isn't fun or interesting for me. Otherwise, I would put the 16 onto Wisdom and probably think harder about my skill selections. I plan to assign most of my points to Wisdom, Charisma, and basically anywhere but STR as she levels up! I guess for now I can just say... Holy power gives me strength, haha.

That's it...for NOW!

~Yukigami