well. Christmas and a birthday were certainly fun interruptions to my mulling over character ideas! Of which I now have<em>several</em>. Which is always sort of the inverse problem to writer's block, isn't it?<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">The Ideas</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>The Taverner:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://38.media.tumblr.com/2b479314895939e1ba1e9e5c9530f134/tumblr_nh40peOPIW1tk4029o5_1280.png)</div></div>   Doesn't own the place, but is so ubiquitous that she might as well. Has a finger on the underworld, mostly as pertains to gambling and smuggling - who owns what, deals with who, etcetera. sort of a "saucy wench" in familiar company, but knows how to put on airs to mingle with others.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Goblin (Air variant)<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Beguiler, Spellthief, Cleric (Olidammra)<br/><br/><strong>The Romantic:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://38.media.tumblr.com/13dd35493190bb9369cfa74c23631a86/tumblr_nh40peOPIW1tk4029o4_500.jpg)</div></div>   The coldness of the "enlightenment" brought us the years of terror in France, and now a tyrant in that land. men have become cold and clinical, and the beauty of the world is being swallowed by slums and mills. Noble-born (though of bastard blood) she has embraced the German philosophies of <em>sturm und drang</em>, valuing passion and emotion more than cold rationalism.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Half-orc (desert variant)<br/>   <strong>Likely class(es):</strong> Bard, swashbuckler, Paladin (Freedom variant).<br/><br/><strong>The Tomocomo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomocomo):</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://38.media.tumblr.com/5afd06c15eadb73c91f7bcbb5a8097fa/tumblr_nh8dvrR32I1tk4029o1_1280.jpg)</div></div>    She's in England at the behest of her rulers, to serve as eyes and ears, as well as muscle to protect a formal diplomat from the far-off empire (Nepal? Manchu? Inka? Songhai?) that she calls home.  Is smarter than others take her for, and plays up that fact, portraying herself as the silent foreigner, but is quick to action and take the lead when the situation demands it. <br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Something big and out-of-place; Warforged, Minotaur (Krynn), half-Giant, dragonborn, that sort of thing.<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> As above; Barbarian, Dragon Shaman, Shaman, Sohei, that sort of thing<br/><br/><strong>The Dock Rat:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://31.media.tumblr.com/89f3a715d3d0b6aff21efeace2d4f145/tumblr_nh40fdFdnl1tk4029o6_1280.jpg)</div></div>    Things were fine for the family years back, before the colonies went sour. Dad, well, he was a little too loud in his support for their rebellion, and he lost his business, then his ships, and finally drank himself to death, leaving a half-blooded daughter to fend for herself. and fend she did. Information sells, and someone always needs something taken from someone else; a book, a job, a life. You can get all sorts of things at the Thames docks, and she's the person you want to talk to for it.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Human or half-elf<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Rogue, urban ranger or druid<br/><br/><strong>The Freedman:</strong> <br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://33.media.tumblr.com/2f359de6e7d45080adab5288953cacff/tumblr_nh408xZjqT1tk4029o9_1280.png)</div></div>   If it weren't for the English, he would still be in chains. Stolen from his home when he was a boy, chained in Haiti, and then imprisoned for the "crime" of fighting with his fellows for freedom. Returning to the land of his birth is an impossible dream, and there is no way back to Haiti. Now he wants to make an honest living in England, but all he has to offer are his arms and back.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Human<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Fighter, Monk, Favored soul or cleric<br/><br/><strong>The Elven Revivalist:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://31.media.tumblr.com/f511886d6e6b60221410348525c0373f/tumblr_nh40peOPIW1tk4029o7_1280.jpg)</div></div>   Despite being only half-blooded, she identifies most strongly with her elven heritage, seeing it as being in danger of being diluted into nothing (she's sort of proof of that, after all.) She uses her resources to promote "elvishness" where she can, learns and disseminates the history of her people, and otherwise seeks to preserve some measure of Elven "independence".<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Half-Human Elf (DMG); could also be some variety of ordinary elf, of course.<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es)Class:</strong> Cleric (Elhonna or some elf deity or another), bard, or ranger<br/><br/><strong>The Dilettante:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://38.media.tumblr.com/3af7a620d80265f0988fa739de504187/tumblr_nh40fdFdnl1tk4029o1_500.jpg)</div></div>   Don't be fooled by his dress or his accent; he was born and raised in London. His <em>parents</em> are the foreigners, representatives of the crown of Sweden and the would-be Polish government, respectively. He's attended formal schooling. he's talked to at least one professor each from Cambridge and Oxford. he even spent a summer on a fishing boat (his father's idea.) Sort of the embodiment of the idle class, but hardly bound by tradition.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Human, half-elf, or half-gnome (races of Ansalon. No, seriously it's a thing.)<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Bard, Factotum, Wizard<br/><br/><strong>The Foreign Syncretist:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://33.media.tumblr.com/5da306d2538bbe873d8261ec333f9702/tumblr_nh8jg2bpsD1tk4029o7_r1_1280.jpg)</div></div>   She's been curious bout far-off lands and strange peoples with their bizarre habits and primitive religions as long as she can remember. Her parents raised her to be thoughtful and inquisitive, to seek an enlightened state of learning whereby she can understand even the most backwards of places. Thanks to her people's (India? Africa? The Americas? The South Seas?) recent interaction with the English, she will have her chance to study, mingle, and maybe even win them over.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Almost any non-alien nonhuman; halfling, kalashtar, spirit folk, etc.<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Something psionic or an exotic spellcaster (spirit shaman, wu jen, etc)<br/><br/><strong>The Futurist:</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Pic</div><div class="spoiler_body">(https://38.media.tumblr.com/14fa6b4c4bb4410445da1a92b1ba5647/tumblr_nh408xZjqT1tk4029o6_1280.jpg)</div></div>   Progress is moving at an unprecedented rate. magic and technology are coming together on a level that would have been hard to anticipate just fifty years ago. While Goethe may be rejecting this advancement of the world, and Luddites retreating into their seedy hovels, she's at the forefront, exploring and examining ways to merge the two schools further, for the betterment of all. There is no division between the sciences and the disciplines of magic, save practice.<br/>   <strong>Race:</strong> Human, or one of the small races; gnome, halfling, goblin, kobold<br/>   <strong>Likely Class(es):</strong> Artificer, Wizard (transmutation)</div></div><br/><br/>So... you see my logistical problem here? I like them all, and kind of want to make them all (ahhh, masochism). But I know I can't actually do that  ;D