Welcome to Gaia! ::

Everybody in here works for the Order. For pay? What are you, some kind of communist?! FOR PERSONAL FULFILMENT! Or some other complex personal reason nobody else will ever understand or care about.

The first six posts here are about Lorika's three main characters, Lorika, Cressa and Jessie. After that comes the NPC staff members - anybody is free to write these characters if they require them, but most people don't, so no pressure either way, whatever, BE FREE, BE MERRY!

Duties: The High Priestess' duties at the Order no longer include the economic side of things - that's now handled by a hired accountant, and the kitchen staff handle ordering food etc. She does, however, see to the day-to-day administration - she's usually the one mundane problems get brought to, which she deals with fairly. She leads morning prayers and the weekly Overservice and also organises any special events at the Temple. She tends the Overseer's throne room and the altars, and oversees the spiritual development of acolytes, as well as the training of spiritualists and priests. She also runs nightly therapy sessions, usually private (but group sessions can be arranged), for mental and emotional healing.

On the weekend, she sometimes goes into Gambino Town with Evelyn or Fel or Adeline (or all three!). Any free time she has she usually spends with the other women, in the garden, or in meditation. She enjoys reading, writing and singing, but usually avoids the music room to avoid intimidating the acolytes.


Her typical daily schedule looks like this:





Note: Since the power of the Overseer returned, Lorika needs much less sleep than she used to, allowing her to work through the night with no ill effects. Lorika will also usually abandon the un-pressing parts of her schedule to attend to any problems that arise, turning up whenever and wherever she's needed.

Duties: Duties...? OH, oh. Right. Cressa teaches classes during the day, for one to two hours at a time. Sometimes she and Deylin combine powers to give a lecture or discussion class to all the students at once. Sometimes Cressa doesn't show up for these particular sessions. When she does, they occassionally devolve into a magical duel, which to be fair is pretty interesting for the students to watch anyway.

Otherwise, Cressa's classes usually comprise two topic-based hour-long lessons, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and one two-hour student-focused session around midday. Topics for the hour-long sessions are chosen a week in advance and posted on the message boards; anyone who's interested may attend. The two-hour long sessions focus specifically on the students who chose her as their professor, their own work and advancement. She also does extra sessions in the evening for these students when necessary. Cressa has a wide range of knowledge, including but not limited to planar theory, arcane and ancient languages, elementalism, spellcraft and wishcraft, thaumaturgy (the art of miracles, or magic performed by acting as a catalyst for a greater power), illusions, telekinesis, divination, meta-magic... even black magic. She also has a lot of lore and stories to share. As such, her lessons always have something exciting... in fact, her students are usually praying for them to be less exciting, rather than more. burning_eyes

Her daily schedule is highly variable, but with the structure of lessons typically looks something like this:






Note: Cressa and Jessie do not technically need to sleep. Instead, they experience a couple of hours of deep meditation, known as "reverie." Well, it's kind of like a meditation, but kind of like a very short, very deep sleep. It keeps their batteries charged and their concentration honed, but it can be dangerous to wake an elf from reverie, so they must be undisturbed.

Duties: Jessie's duties during times of peace mainly revolve around keeping the combat division up to scratch. During times of war, he also advises on the formulation of battle plans, but generally remains a hands-on leader rather than a remote General in a war room. As he and the other seasoned warriors know well, a battle plan can fall apart in seconds, at which point he comes into his own, commanding the warriors on the spot towards victory.

During his free time, which is time not spent training himself or his students, he enjoys spending time alone, reading or going for walks. Jessie did not actually learn to read or write in the Common tongue until Cressa taught him many years after he learned to speak it. Before the destruction of his private home during the Second Sentinel War, he had a large collection of poetry and prose written in his native language, which he himself transcribed from memory over the years. He and Cressa have been working to build it back up again ever since. He also enjoys spending time in the music room, and can sing very well, but dislikes playing instruments himself.

His schedule usually looks something like this:

4 a.m: Jessie has already been up all night by this point. Cressa is usually in reverie at this time, so he deems it safe to wash and shower without risk of her unwanted interference or spying.

5.30 a.m: Combat students assemble outside the Temple for their morning drills.

7.30 a.m: Return to the Temple for morning prayers and breakfast.

9/9.30 a.m-12 p.m: Main combat lessons of the day.

12 p.m: With Cressa out of the way for two to three hours, this is the safest time of day for Jessie to go into reverie. He doesn't bother changing the place where he rests, because she'd find him if she wanted to anyway, so he just sleeps in their shared room.

2.30/3p.m: Late lunch.

3.30 p.m: Another, shorter session of training for those dedicated enough to return for it. Some days a week this session is used to play sports and games, much to Jessie's continuing distaste. Gloria usually oversees these frivolous sessions. He might prefer to go read a book or otherwise distract himself, but a sense of duty keeps him there, supervising.

5 p.m: Sometimes goes to the library or the music room before heading to the meeting at 5.30, but otherwise takes a leisurely walk up the beach, usually accompanied by Cressa.

6.30 p.m: Dinner with Lorika and the other staff, unless already promised to eat with Cressa later, in which case the next item commences early:

7 p.m: Gloria and a couple of other students, including ex-student Ardelle, take a voluntary extra hour of training most nights of the week.

8.30 p.m: Might head into town with Cressa to eat at a pub or restaurant. Sometimes heads to clubs with her afterwards, but rarely enjoys clubbing because he, unlike Cressa, does not enjoy the amorous attention lavished upon them. If he refuses to go out with her he either uses this time to sneak a reverie if he did not during the day, reads in the library or in his room or takes a second shower or a bath.

11 p.m: If he's not interested in reading any longer, he's in the habit of restlessly stalking around the halls of the Temple like a guard dog. He patrols around periodically throughout the night.

12 a.m: Might spend some time with Cressa when she comes back from town, but he often doesn't see her at this time, oddly enough.

1 a.m: Spends the next few hours practising and exercising privately, or sometimes with Cressa if she's available. Then the cycle begins again...

Age: 25

Height: 5 foot 9 inches

Race: Gaia-native Human

Lacine grew up in Barton as part of a normal, healthy family with two parents and no siblings. Yes, like Lorika, she is an only child - and was, quite often, a lonely child. As she was growing up, she was teased mercilessly for being a tomboy, and for a time attempted to be overly girly to make up for it. This failed, so for the rest of her teenage years she stuck to a grungy, baggy look that found her even more isolated.

By the time she entered the "real" world, she found herself increasingly attracted to the flamboyant, and dreamed of the day when she could have the courage to wear styles as outrageous as her favourite fashion icons. As a shy, reserved teen, she did well in her studies and was drawn to art and sculpture. Her parents enrolled her at a special art college, but rather than blooming Lacine grew even more stifled amongst the huge campus. She gained a joint foundation degree in fine art and fashion design and dropped out at 19.

She quickly found a job working as a newspaper photographer in Durem, but eventually grew to loathe it. The job was stressful and dull, and her work wasn't respected by the other journalists. She was underappreciated by the other journalists, and often found herself running meaningless errands when not out battling crowds and paparazzi for shots. After a year and a half, she managed to quit, and found her way from Durem to a photographer's studio in Aekea. Doing family portraits and wedding photos was still far from the high fashion world she desired, but it was definitely a step up, and a step in the right direction furthermore.

Before becoming a member of the Order she was strongly interested in wicca, Buddhism and Jainism, but was always too afraid of ridicule to make a stand for her beliefs and become even 'weirder' than she already was. She stood by the Order, seeing it as the path to a new existence where she could be the kind of person she really wanted to be, and her confidence has bloomed ever since becoming a priestess.

Personality:

Lacine is artistic, heartfelt, genuine and a dreamer aching to express herself. She tends to be quiet, but can handle the spotlight well as inside she is a confident, flashy person just aching to burst out. Like many of the other Ordonians, she is also good and idealistic. She is a vegetarian and a pacifist.

Duties:

In times of crisis Lacine is Lorika's right hand woman. She's a dependable person and Lorika's close friend and confidante. For a time she was the supervising priestess of the dorms, but the kids walked all over her, so she switched duties with Ardelle to become the supervising healer for the combat division. Though she and Lorika don't see as much of each other nowadays as they used to, she's a friend to both Jessie and Gloria, so she never has to feel lonely while at work.



Lacine specialises in non-offensive spiritualism, like Lorika used to, except she hasn't moved with the times due to her strong pacifistic beliefs. Instead, she has branched out during her time at the Order to become a specialist in healing magic over a variety of disciplines. She takes lessons from Adeline, Thomas and Cressa, whenever they have time to put aside to teach her, and she's always looking for new methods to learn.

Age: Appears ~25; Actual 59

Height: 5 foot 8 inches

Race: Gaia-native Elf

Adeline is an elf of the Stayflowers, which is a small tribe settled in the West of the Deep Woods. Enchanted garments are known throughout Gaia as a specialty of the Stayflower elves, and as soon as she was old enough to know her own mind, which happens fairly young for elves, she chose to join the noble tradition of magician-tailors which was steeped in her family.

Well, I say her family, I actually mean her mother's side of the family. Her father was a foreign druid from the wild Winterdusk tribe, who settled with the Stayflowers in order to expand his own knowledge of the various plant-life of the region. And when I say settled, I mean stuck around for a couple of years before going off travelling again for research. He returned from time to time, usually for several months at a time. This wasn't as much of a problem as it might have been for a human family, as elves are long-lived and therefore their perception of time is different, and they also tend to be more patient and understanding.

Adeline's life changed in her early twenties, when word reached them of her father's untimely death. Having always been fascinated by his own wild brand of magic, but never having had the chance to learn, she decided to go and seek to carry on his work, and hopefully also find out some more about him and his life along the way. She made her way northwards to the mountainous Winterdusk tribe - her father's birthplace. The Winterdusk elves are known for being as cold and isolated as their landscape, and even being a daughter of theirs it took some time for them to begin to trust her. Once they did, she was welcomed into their fold, and learned the ancient arts of the elvish druids.

Her need to discover more about her father led her to follow the same course he had taken in his life. She went travelling for a time, and eventually came to rest in a research outpost in the Badlands. She spent years here doing reclamation work with the rag-tag group of scholars and vagabonds who lived there, and this is the point where we see what a tough and courageous spirit Adeline really has in her. There, she faced solo treks across the treacherous desert, exploring to uncover ancient artefacts and ruins and living the life of a typical hardened adventurer. She endured the harsh weather, near starvation, vicious attacks from desert monsters and endless, endless travel across the expanse. She was forced to deny her pacifist urges and became a highly proficient warrior in order to survive, picking up melee combat and swordplay in addition to her previous archery skills. During the War, she was not a healer or an enchanter but a front-line member of the combat division. Since then, however, she has returned to her roots, and spends her days in the Temple gardening, performing enchanting work and weaving.

Personality:

With her long, golden blonde hair, slender build and blue eyes, she doesn't break any stereotypes. Quiet, graceful, genteel and easygoing, Adeline can potentially blend into the background amongst the more dynamic humans and upon first impressions seems too sweet-natured to be of much use. However, as well as being tough as old boots beneath her fragile surface, she is surprisingly playful, witty and flirtatious when you get to talking to her. She's dreamily romantic and falls easily for men, but her ultimate aim is to settle down with her One True Love. She is still a virgin, and men, such as Jonathan, are attracted to her sweet and feminine nature. His tragic death hit her hard, but her maturity and sense of peace with the natural laws of the world brought her comfort and closure. In a way, as he was a mortal human and she an immortal elf, she had already accepted the eventuality of his death, and this has helped her to move on.

Duties:

Adeline supervises and sustains all of the enchantments in the Temple, which sounds difficult, but is actually just a matter of ensuring the power crystals in the enchanting center are sufficiently charged and untampered with. These enchantments strengthen the walls of the Temple to prevent any future damage and keep all furniture, utensils and appliances in the Temple perfectly clean, as well as other important enhancements. In the mornings and evenings she activates and supervises the teleportation equipment, which allows members of the Order to commute back and forth between the Temple and home. She also enchants bottles for the Alchemy center and medical equipment for the Medical center, to ensure that glass and metal is unbreakable and sterile.

All of this, while important, takes up a tiny, tiny fraction of her day. During her boundless amounts of free time she designs and tailors magical garments and coaxes the garden to bear flower and fruit all year round. She enjoys meditating with the spiritualists and always finds time to stop and chat with Lorika in the afternoons. She's also happy to teach anyone who wants to learn from her, and though she has no timetabled lessons she holds a lot of impromptu one-on-one sessions. Her students include Lacine, who learns the druidic arts through Adeline.




Enchanting generally refers to the art of magicking things to improve them, or make them behave in unnatural ways. For example, armour can be enchanted to make it unbreakable or at least extra-durable, or scratch-resistant, or all three. Generally the more layers of enchantments that get added, the more complex it is and the more power it takes to sustain. A self-sustaining garment or item can take weeks of careful magic to get right. Therefore, enchanted garments can often end up quite expensive. Druidism is the magic of nature. Druids generally "ask" the natural energies of the world around them to perform feats - a "powerful" druid is one connected enough to nature to produce continuous (and potentially miraculous) results. Druids can also learn to transform into a spirit or animal form, if they wish. Elves are known for being particularly good with ranged combat, due to their dexterity, speed and excellent eyesight, and Adeline had to learn swordplay to survive her many years in the desert.

Age: 21

Height: 5 foot 7 inches

Race: Gaia-native Human

An orphan from birth, Gloria grew up in care as the one who got left behind. Having no supports in her life, she acted out a lot as a child, and was mistakenly diagnosed with ADHD due to her poor behaviour. At 7, she was transferred to a new home, which had a young, idealistic male carer. He felt sorry for the unruly, lonely little girl, and paid her special attention and care. He was the one who taught her aikido when the other children began to pick fights with her, and also had an otherwise immense influence on shaping the good person that exists at Gloria's core.

She, of course, developed extremely profound feelings for him, which eventually got her kicked out of that home at 14. For the next two years she was shuffled around homes - a real "problem child" whom no one wanted to deal with for long, except by this time a problematic teen, which, as we all know, proves far more of a problem than a problem child. She finally ran away at 16 and got a job serving as an au pair to a wealthy family.

She was eventually sacked from her first real job when the father of the family started spending a little too much time with the young au pair. Not that she let him do anything - oh no, Gloria has standards. At least, she'd learned to have standards, after losing her innocence young to a handful of rebellious boys in the home.

Athletic Gloria had always kept up her self defense and started working out religiously at around 15. Sports was the one thing where she achieved recognition at school, and she was a devoted player of field hockey, tennis, women's rugby and basketball at school. None of the boys there had any interest in her, as she was basically "one of them." When she wasn't at her latest home, she was out in their gangs. She also tried her hand at gymnastics when in primary school, but didn't stick to it. Finally, after she'd left school and gotten her job as the au pair, she started taking kickboxing classes with her new money, and fell in love with the aggressive contact sport.

After being fired, she stayed at a women's refuge until she turned 18 later that year, after which point it didn't take her long to find a new job more related to her interests - as a bouncer at a small, slightly seedy club in Durem. She never touched drugs or cigarettes, caring too much about the state of her body, but didn't mind a little alcohol from time to time. She stopped drinking, however, when she happened to read about exactly what damage it can do to you in large quantities. Incredibly forceful with her beliefs, she doesn't care if it makes her the outcast or odd one out. She doesn't give a damn about what other people think - especially not YOU!

She joined the Order at the very beginning of the war, and was heavily involved as a soldier from that point on. When Jessie left for several weeks to pursue the Overseer, she took over after his first replacement proved a little too, erm, unconventional for teaching. Since then she has fought again in the Second Sentinel War, and now acts as Jessie's assistant.

Personality:

Gloria has a forceful, fiery, intense and idealistic personality. Gloria is hard as nails. She's tough - scary biker rebel chick tough - and the queen bee of the combat division. She has a quick temper and can be rude and insulting at little provocation, having grown up looking out for herself when no one else would, but at heart, she isn't a bad person. Would she be a member of the Order if she were? In addition, her time at the Order has mellowed her from what she was. She's also a natural teacher, and her calm, patient demeanour when in her position of responsibility makes her downright unrecognisable. Nowadays, her sense of humour has blossomed and she enjoys herself unguardedly, without needing to resort to spitefulness. She's much more secure and stable than she was, and she claims to owe a lot of her personal development to Jessie, whom she reveres as a personal role model.

Gloria is interested in body modification, even though she'd never do any of it to herself. She doesn't have any permanent tattoos (she doesn't consider them good for her body), but she delights in impermanent transfers. Her favourite adornments are arrays of black stars, which she tends to place around her eyes and on the alternate side of her stomach.

Duties:

Gloria can be found devotedly shadowing the combat master during the times of day the division meet. They usually split up in order to cover all the students more effectively. When he goes off to sleep during the day she usually takes over by herself until it's time for lunch, and during the "sports" sessions she also takes charge. All in all this leaves her with a pretty packed daily schedule with few breaks, but she enjoys it, and somehow finds time for yoga and meditation as well. She often still goes out at night, sometimes accompany Cressa on her interesting excursions, as the two women found after initial suspicion that they have an awful lot in common. She also enjoys going shopping on the weekends with Ardelle, an activity she used to enjoy with Zuri the demi-succubus, before the events of the Second Sentinel War left her trapped beyond the mortal realms in a demonic dimension; the realm of her ancestors. A little-known fact: She likes to wear dresses. On special occassions!



Gloria is basically a normal human with no special powers or abilities aside from her own skill and tenacity. She's always been a talented athlete, but she takes her skills to ambitious, tireless new heights. In general, her broad skill around a variety of disciplines, including swordplay and archery, is not quite as advanced as her abilities in hand-to-hand combat, which for her includes fighting with stabby short swords and daggers. She also has an unusual aptitude for garrotting and the use of whips.

She prides herself on following the elven (specifically dark elven, considering her teacher) means of combat, relying on speed and dexterity to deal swift, merciless killing blows. She likes to listen to stories about Jessie's own personal training during his early years - stories which he doesn't divulge to just anyone, brutal as they are - and takes on board the advice his own masters gave to him.

EDIT: A picture of Zain as he really looks as king. Very noble and... a bit sad, wouldn't you say? His mother Yesenia is his regent.