<div class="floatright">(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/0e3b31fe-9a09-4252-8e57-a7d2893acf14/d520tbz-a0553e38-03a8-4716-9efd-9c48aea6e858.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Jolia ("Jolly") Skywalker (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1779057)</span><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Jolly grew up on the plains of Palarir, in Ysgard, where her herd followed the oracles' runecasting from place to place, always seeking greener, fresher grass...And war. Ysgard is a plane of battle and challenge, not a place for satisfaction or rest, so she grew up fighting alongside her herd, working together with her brothers and sisters to slay giants and monsters that the herd encountered in its eternal migration. Her heard exalted the spirit Tirag Thunderhooves, a Bariaur demigod of fair competition. <br/><br/>In the same sense that certain horse-nomads are 'born in the saddle,' the Bariaur from an early age are taught defensive tactical sense, awareness of dangers and allies, and then gradually introduced to more offensive weapons and methods. But the time she was fourteen, Jolly had struck her first killing blow for the herd (a chimera which was already mostly dead due to the combined efforts of the patrol she was juniormost in). By the time she was sixteen, she had a patrol of her own.<br/><br/>And then the things she started to take for granted began falling apart. The young ram who she'd had her eyes on for most of her teens went planes-wandering, and she suddenly found herself without the one she'd thought to be her true love (the bariaur are hardly monogamous, but it's not uncommon for them to have favorites who are longterm true companions).<br/><br/>She didn't take it well, and for a short time she did the rounds with other ewes, and over time fell in love again. This time, when her love, Tintabel, decided to go on a wanderjahr, she came along, and for a time the two ewes roamed the plains. They found Sigil fairly quickly, but Tintabel felt it was too closed, crowded, and filthy, so they moved on.<br/><br/>Eventually, they found death, and unlike what happened in Ysgard, when Tintabel was killed by a Soul Eater, her spirit was not set free to return to Ysgard, but was simply destroyed.<br/><br/>Jolly, like most Bariaurs, had died several times, and seen the death of friends before, but this was not part of the Valhallan roundabout which she was born in. There was no glorious death followed by resurrection at night and revelry until dawn. There was only the shell of Tintabel, and the creature which had killed her best friend, and very nearly killed Jolly herself, and slaying the thing didn't bring her friend back.<br/><br/>It shook her. It shook her terribly. All at once, she understood why the beings of so many planes she'd encountered feared death.<br/><br/>It also caused her to re-evaluate and finally forgive her never-returned first love, Belltempest. She doesn't know if he still lives or if he died between the planes in some way that prevented his rebirth on Ysguard.<br/><br/>Jolly's a little afraid to return to Ysguard herself. She's now scared to hear word that he or any of her other wandering friends were permanently destroyed. Some days she asks around after bariaur of his description in her wanderings, other days she spends burying herself in the feeling of her own flesh, straining and struggling, competing in any challenge she figures she can, trying to savor being herself, trying to do, to act, rather than think, for fear that like her friends, she herself might one day simply...Vanish.<br/><br/>She didn't want to return to Ysguard or her own herd, but neither did she want to be alone, so she applied to the Sensates, submitting to them a set of memories: the liminal pain of one's soul being tugged at (few survivors of Soul Eaters exist, after all), the grief when an immortal realizes they are mortal, and their friends as well, the triumph of a particularly glorious and heroic battle against a giant, the rush of being reborn in Valhalla after death, taking that first incredible breath and realizing that one is once again alive, and the taste of the fresh-stolen honey of Ysgard, freshly gathered from the hives of the giant bees that swarm there.<br/><br/>She was rejected, and applied to the Transcendent Order, which proved far more willing to take her. It was another recent member of the Transcendent Order, an Aasimar who initiated her into the Order of the Flame, and taught her a new code, which she is currently taking as her first step along the path towards enlightened action. Mind, it is still a first step, and like many initiates she is still too caught up in the impulses of her body.<br/><br/>After all, when one tells a bariaur to act unhesitatingly with the impulses which the multiverse gives them, one may expect them to be somewhat...Unrestrained. In their own lands, they're well known for being capricious and unpredictable. So those members who know her are trying to be patient with her (and many other) initiates who find it easiest to give into their more carnal and active impulses, without yet feeling the impulse to flow with that which happens around them.<br/><br/>It takes time and serenity to develop an awareness of those more subtle currents, and Jolly simply hasn't had very much of either, yet.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Aspirations</div><div class="spoiler_body">Jolly is still young as bariaur go, and while she's seen a bit of the multiverse and been in a fair number of battles, she's hardly the picture of a mature veteran...Her culture simply doesn't have that archetype. She remains combative and playful. She will always seek new challenges to attempt, and ways to better herself. She is also trying to find something to fill the hole in her surroundings which once was the place of her herd...Joining the Transcendents hasn't really made her feel that 'part of a community' that she hoped, and it's an open question whether she'll really make the leap of discipline and understanding required to be successful on any but the least levels of the Cyphers. Discipline isn't an easy thing for bariaur. On the other hand, the party, if it bonds well, might just provide that sense of belonging for her. In terms of longer range goals, she also occasionally flirts (diligent bariaur are kind of like dry water) with the idea of trying to find some way to bring Tintabel back, and to find (hopefully) Beltempest.</div></div><br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=297939.msg14582818#msg14582818">Quote from: TheKhan on 22-12-2018, 19:06:24</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">1) Did anyone end up settling on Factions to belong to? No is an okay answer here, they don't have to be aligned, I just want to double check since I didn't notice anything conclusive, which I expect means I missed it. <br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Jolia is a Cipher, but it's probably not a good fit for her. She attempted to join the Sensates and failed...The Transcendent Order is only on her plate due to a common misunderstanding that 'acting with the flow of the multiverse' entails giving in to one's impulses.<br/><br/>She's good at that, but it's really not what the TO is about. I expect she will wash out at some point during the game...But maybe she'll come up with some better experiences for the Sensates.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=297939.msg14582818#msg14582818">Quote from: TheKhan on 22-12-2018, 19:06:24</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">2) It would be beneficial for the characters to know each other in advance and already be wiling to work together. Does anyone have thoughts as to how that may have happened?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>The bariaur are notoriously capricious. Jolia's presence can be explained by simply thinking something sounded like a fun idea or (even better!) an interesting challenge.<br/><br/>Jolly loves to be challenged, yes she does. She loves beating challenges, but providing she survives, she's a good sport when she loses, too.<br/><br/>Either of these can be the foundation on which a relationship is afterward laid.<br/><br/>So, who among us might in their past have an entertaining adventure or an interesting challenge for a young sheep-taur lady who's a devotee of the bariaur god of fair contests?