desekat / Zevakyn

Hi there, thanks for having me in the game. Hmm, I'm still in the character creation section, and wanted to check on a character concept before submitting.

I have an idea where an orphan character found and was 'raised' by an ancient sentient sword, so she only knows how to interact as a sword would (i.e., writing by using the sword's edge to carve letters into stone, accepting a bag of coins by using the hilt of a sword and not grabbing it, etc). No one else can hear the sword, so it's unclear whether its actually possessed or if she's just mad. The sword itself appears to be just an old, if well kept sword.

It's abit of a wild idea, so I wanted to check first in case. I've got other character ideas too if it doesn't work out! Not super sure if this is the correct forum to ask this, lemme know if i should post somewhere else.

Sounds interesting! You need to remember that they have to operate in society well enough to get things done, or they just won't be able to interact. So, while the character might have a strange viewpoint, they will need to be able to pick things up with their hands and such. (No reason to be literate. She doesn't need to know how to read or write.)

As for a talking sword, we have one active character that has a chess piece inhabited by a dead ancestor that talks to them, and another one that has a dead ancestor's spirit that talks to him. We not too long ago had a different character with a different chess piece that also talked with them. Having worked with these, I do have some suggestions on the sword:
1) Think about the desires and goals of the sword. In all three cases above, the voices are friendly, helpful, and don't really have any ulterior motives other than to help their charges. Is this true of the sword, or does it have goals other than just helping the character?
2) What is the personality of the voice? Are they haughty? Proud? Kind? Quiet? Talkative? Knowing what their personality is helps with how they will operate. One of the characters with a chess piece was played as incredibly naive. So, the chess piece basically served as his "common sense". Meanwhile, the character without a chess piece's dead ancestor was just there to get the character out of a rut and into adventuring and decided to just stick around. You can do anything, but you do need to pick something.
3) Do you want to run the voice, or do you want the GM (or someone who is not you) to run the voice? If the voice is just in you character's head, then you should run the voice. However, if the voice is an independent entity, then letting someone else run the voice gives more opportunities for interesting things to happen. You'll want to pick the direction you are looking for.

So, the concept actually sounds pretty cool. Just don't handicap your character too much, and have an idea of how the sword is to operate.

And welcome to the game! I look forward to seeing this character in action!

Thanks for the welcome! Hmm seems the possessed object/ancestor story is fairly common. The Orphan is able to do basic functions and such from living on the streets and watching other people, so she'll be able to do that. She's fairly naive as she's still a teen, probably around 15?

For the 3 points:
1) The sword wants to be laid to rest next to its previous wielder. The Orphan treats the sword as her 'mother' and is currently travelling to find this previous wielder's grave to lay it to rest, but she herself isn't sure if she really wants to lay the sword down. She's going with it for now, but maybe she'll grow out of it later?

2) The sword is more of an object granted sentience rather than a human personality, so it's abit robotic and very literal in speech. Most of its knowledge of people, sword sharpening, and battle comes from being wielded by the previous wielder, who was a charlatan of a knight (with some actual sword skill). Because of this, the Orphan is also very literal in words.
They've never heard of common sense, they just go around stabbing things and accidentally conning people by solving problems, just not in the way people expect.

3) Hmm, the current idea is that its only heard by the Orphan, so no one else in the party can hear it. I do plan to have the Orphan talking aloud to her 'mother' alot, so it might be a little taxing if someone else is playing it, which I'm abit worried about. Maybe in this case it might be better if I run it?
It does sound alot more chaotic if someone else was running it though, and more chaos is always better so...