Haven

General

• Who are you now, only weeks after The Scarring?
  • Haven, he/him, kasatha envoy, 26y/o
• Why are you the class you are? What made you choose this path over another?
  • He has a very demanding personality, and he specializes in making others do what he wants.
• What do you specialize in: combat, survival, influence, craft, mysticism, technology, or something else?
  • Influence + combat
• Where is your Scar?
  • Back of the neck up the back of the head. Peaks up just behind his mask.
• What are your personal edicts and anathemas? Describe a situation during or after The Scarring that did/could test or shatter them.
  • Edicts
    • Outshine your rivals.
    • Use every resource you have to win.
    • When the plan is falling apart, know when to cut your losses.
  • Anathemas
    • Breaking a sworn vow or contract.
    • Resisting change or refusing to adapt to new circumstances.
    • Allow personal feelings to cloud judgment.
  • Before the shattering, he was consistently tested on his anger management skills, but he never did anything drastic that cost his team the mission. Yet. Then again, he’s actually got people he cares about now that have an even higher chance at getting killed.
• What is your immediate goal now that the initial killings are over? What do you most want to protect, change, or destroy in the city?
  • Survival is the biggest thing; making sure that Ithax doesn’t get in over his head with his investigations. He wants to shut down a lot of the criminal orgs here, making sure that others weren’t dragged in like he was.
• How did you survive The Scarring: was it through your own hand, someone else taking the fall for you, a deal you struck, or something stranger?
  • He struck a deal with an old acquaintance, Meskiv. She needed help getting an ex-client out of the picture, and he needed to live. He didn't even ask for their name, just knew they were some barathu. But they surely weren’t important enough if their bodyguard left as soon as things got tough. They just cried out when they got cornered. At least it was quick.
• How did you gain your class abilities: formal training, gang work, religious order, guild apprenticeship, military service, experimentation, accident, or natural talent?
  • Initially gang work, but acting as a shot caller has been nice for upkeep on skills.

Background & History

• Who were you before The Scarring began?
  • A pro esports player, technically, but tried to hide previous involvement with criminal orgs. It’s not hard to tell what he used to do, though. When he did an occasional stream, it became a popular joke amongst his chat on what he used to do: hired thug, drug trafficking, assassination work, all were thrown out as suggestions.
  • He grew up in Denpakant with the name Vihe (v-eye-hey) Nanse Jaltra of Clan Runsa with his dad (Nel Samsal Teadri of Clan Runsa), but once he was old enough to start earning some credits for simple work, his dad needed more and more money for his growing gambling addiction. After shit hit the fan one too many times, Haven left their apartment at around 15 for a grimey, tiny one rented to him dirt cheap as long as he acted as errand boy for his landlord, Luthien. Turns out, he’d unknowingly joined a gang.
• Were you connected to any gangs, guilds, noble houses, religious orders, militias, or other organizations before all this?
  • A local off-shoot of a gang that called themselves the Storm. He always thought it was a stupid and cliche name, but they seemed proud of themselves, and he didn’t really want to get his ass beat.
• What did you do for them?
  • It started off small; make deliveries, debt collect, don’t die. Then as leadership slowly left or got axed, his roles got more important (mostly killing people who pissed off the upper guys), until he had a small squad of guys who listened to what he had to say. And as their influence grew, that meant more people died under his watch, even some of the new guys that he said he’d take care of. Being stuck in there for just about a decade, he had his fill and decided he’d had enough. So, he cut his losses (not without some yelling and a few new bullet scars in his right arms), moved across town, changed his name, and didn’t really touch the scene until Ithax started poking his head into things. He’s lucky he’s got someone like Haven there to keep an eye on him.
• What is your strongest memory from before The Scarring? Has it changed in meaning since then?
  • The first time something made him falter in his actions. He was barely 17, still a nobody, but trust was put in him to get Luthien’s money from a “tenant” that was refusing to pay. It was a vesk woman and her teenage son, just a few years younger than him at the time. He shook her, and the boy ran at him, yelling. Panic made him shoot, and the next thing he knew was the boy writhing in pain, clutching his leg. They didn’t have the money to get help, and they all knew it. He threw up in the alley outside their apartment.
• If the curse had never happened, what would you be doing right now?
  • Streaming, or if he got bored, leaving the planet to find something new to do. There’s only so much you can do in one city for your entire life, especially when you’re trying to avoid the consequences of your actions.
• Where in the city were you born or raised or are you from offworld?
  • He was born and raised in the southwestern district [INSERT DISTRICT NAME HERE]; it’s where his family lived for most of their lives, and he hadn’t moved far from home initially. But after he left, he researched and booked it to Denpakant
  • (raised in district where it then nuclear meltdown. Hard 2 get to)
• Who were you closest to before The Scarring?
  • Ithax, Meskiv
• Who do you still have left?
  • From his understanding, his dad is still around, though it’s a bit surprising. He’d texted him, something he did often asking for money or trying to check in with him, but all it said was “Don’t come home.”
• What were some life changing memories before The Scarring?
  • The first few days after leaving home. He still hadn’t found a place to stay yet, and he hadn’t thought things through that much at his age. He ran out of food super quick, so he turned to asking people politely, and when that failed, he stole. It didn’t take Luthien long to find a kid willing to do anything for a place to stay.
• Describe a moment from The Scarring’s first weeks that permanently changed you.
  • Ever since he’d moved away from Storm, he’d found peace in the anonymity of a new home and faces. But that peace shattered when someone followed him home and tried to stab him in the stairwell. He’d seen the fear on their face when he pulled a pistol out and shot with precision. His life or theirs, and he won. Guess he still had the reflexes, despite trying to avoid that kind of life.

Connections

• Name three NPCs you know personally who also survived The Scarring. Are they allies, rivals, or something in between?
  • Meskiv Ocano - ysoki, she/her, behavioral scientist with a focus on criminology. She was, ironically, a major client of Storm’s. Two of her brothers were in the group, and when Haven came and made sure they didn’t die for being stupid, she was a bit soft on him. She kept in contact after he left, and though he’s pretty sure she has alternative reasons for doing so, he does appreciate a little bit of care being sent his way.
  • Luthien - human, he/they, 35y/o, asshole landlord that pressured Haven into joining up with Storm. Trained him in the loosest way one could interpret the word, but always bragged about the fact that Haven very rarely got his ass beat by those outside the group. Kind of his father figure (since he somewhat raised him) if his dad sucked even more and threatened him constantly.
  • Imrek Sariin - kasatha, he/him. Was also part of Storm, but joined after Haven. He looked up to Haven a lot, though didn’t really listen to him when he was told that he could have a better life elsewhere. Where one stayed, the other left, but Imrek has reached out to him and warned him about things that could involve him in the past.
• Of those three, who would you kill to save yourself? Who would you die before harming?
  • Kill to save himself - Luthien, Imrek?
  • Die before harming - Meskiv
• Do you have any history with the other PCs: family, rival, ally, co-worker, neighbor, debtor/creditor, or something else?
  • Ithax - Roommates and teammate. Haven tagged along on his investigations to provide back-up in case anything happened, and also to make sure that things went Ithax’s way.
  • Konbini-chan - Guest player on the team, know her personal identity?

Player Questions

• What themes or arcs are you hoping to explore with this character in the aftermath of The Scarring?
  • (i’m so bad at deciding these sorts of things)
  • People can surprise you even if you think you know who they are
  • To what lengths can someone change who they are? How long does it take after fucking people over can you say that you’ve become a good person?
• What kind of gameplay experience do you want mechanically? (e.g. social manipulator, heavy hitter, problem solver, specialist)
  • Problem solver, social manipulator. Lot of commanding my allies and spooking my enemies
• What kind of end do you imagine for your character: survival, sacrifice, power, transformation, or something else?
  • I kind of actually picture sacrifice for him?

Campaign Preferences

• How would you prefer the city’s political and faction details be delivered: in-game through NPCs, as handouts, or through GM recaps?
  • Via NPCs or handouts, tho I prefer NPCs
• What are you hoping to see in this campaign? (Tone, themes, types of encounters or problems)
  • Pushing the PCs to their limits of what they have to do in order to survive.
• What content or themes do you want avoided?
  • Explicit pet death
• This campaign will explore coercion, control, scarcity, death, and power struggles. Are there specific emotional beats (e.g. betrayal, body horror, loss of autonomy, desperation) you want excluded?
  • Just avoid explicitly talking abt damage to eyes pretty please!
• Some elements will include urban horror (claustrophobia, paranoia, constant surveillance). Is there a particular way you’d like these approached?
  • Nope, I’m good!
    .

Rumors

• Storm has been moving up in the world getting to be headquartered in the Vitiae district; they've fallen under the command of one Mafilus, a vesk commander. Running the district as a military junta. Allegedly unkillable, he became known as the one permitted immortal of the imperium before disappearing for 10 (earth) years until The Scarring.
• The internet has become localized SCRBLEs have been cut off and disallowed to enter the system. If you send out a message out of the system, it will take 6 years to get to the nearest star. Use of Remembrance Streams is also incredibly cut off, only essential personnel from each sector empire are allowed through and not allowed to make contact.
• The twilight vigilante hero of Senaria, Captain Dusk, and his teen sidekick, Dawn, have disappeared. Leaving behind a power vacuum in the Grenthol district.
• Rumors have spread that the Vitiae district was once a military compound was an experiment to mix military infrastructure into civilian sectors. There is some truth to this due to the new tech the broken standard has suddenly acquired on the streets. As the skies are closely monitored it stands to reason they were already planet side.