Grousemetal Character Creation

I would like to come up with the name, Birthright, and social status. I like the idea of there being a Felbreed in my family tree somewhere and I am trying to reconcile my distaste for that type of thing with my desire to get quest goodies and magical knowledge.

When it comes to Felbreeds, would that baby be the result of violence? Magic coupling? Normal romance? Will the Felbreed individual reproduce with humans, its inhuman parents' race, no one due to sterility, something else? Right now I am not leaning towards any particular Felbreed type, but I can toss out some specific types if the answers to my questions vary a lot by type. Additionally, I can go look at another thread if this information is already out there somewhere.

That is excellent, and you are welcome to switch it up for some ancestors, letting me do the NBS and you do the quest. Just leaving that open as an option.

"Breed" not "Bred", just so there's no confusion. While it is understandably common to think of half-elves etc. as children of violence, in this and other settings, that's not necessarily the case. As far as statistics go, it really depends on what kind. More often than not, the Fair Demures, Foul Demures, Changelings, and Nephilim likely come from seduction (or alternatively, a more innocent pairing where the human is drawn to mystery, magic, and strange attraction). If you're looking for a violent genesis, I'd say that Putrid Demure, Wretched Demure, or Cambion. The Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Demons are far more likely to wrong someone on average.

Wild Demures, being the offspring of Pixi, come from the result of magic as the Pixi are incompatible with humans in any physical sense. The same is much more the case for Djinnar, whether they're Court-Born or Ghoul-Born. Yon of the Court of Light only manifest in the Material World as a body made from the elements (or more likely a raw, powerful storm). They are no more capable of breeding than the corpses used by Ghouls as a host body. Instead of summoning a Yon to grant you power or service, one might entreat them for a child. That is where the Djinnar come from; basically a wish granted.

As to the concept of fertility and sterility, all Felbreeds are functionally human. One's non-human heritage fades into normal Baseborn existence over the generations, but it pops up here and there. The thing is, magic is involved in some form or another, so these are not "Non-Human Creatures" as it were, but humans with strange traits. Now, here's the interesting thing: they are just as capable of mating with a non-human as any other Human. If a Fair Demure, already being elven in nature, mates with a real Elf, the resulting child will have stronger Elven traits than they did. It is not possible to produce a true Elf this way, but one might end up with a child that is physically Elven in every possible way. This is not really genetic, as it also applies to those that are born from magic by necessity.

Hope this was helpful and not too confusing.

Must have misread it as "Felbred" somewhere.

Let's say my great-great-great-great uncle Kabeja (kuh-bay-shuh) was a nephilim, springing from a tryst out of wedlock with a blackwing. He was raised up with the rest of the Purebleed children of the family and treated fairly enough, giving him access to the decent wealth and good social standing of the family, but once he hit adulthood, he amicably parted from the family to travel and, beyond sporadic letters, was never heard from again.

That's what I dug up about him in our family lore. It isn't exactly a deep secret, but it isn't talked about much.

I can make some good use of this! What if we do a sort of quest chain, where Uncle Kabeja has left clues of his travels throughout the world? By finding them and following the trail, you gradually learn more about him. We could have it where you haven't really communed with him yet, and are trying to find what you need to do so. Once you get in touch with the old codger, you can find out what he wants and get it done.

In the meanwhile, you might come across other spirits who were once old friends of Kabeja, or connected to him in other ways. How does that sound?

Sounds awesome!

Want to design any other spirits you know of, or have contacted?

Other ancestor spirits or spirits involved with Uncle Kabeja? Either way, I can plan out more.

Other ancestors, uninvolved with him in a direct sense. More of a second quest line. Which side of the process do you want to come up with for these ones? Same as before, or do you want to pick quests for a few?

I'll try out a quest next, just to try my hand at that. How many total ancestor/quest pairs are we making to start off with?

Well, that's up to you. How many ancestral spirits does your character know about, and how many of those have you contacted?

In your setting, how difficult is it to contact ancestral spirits? Are all ancestors in a lineage available to contact or is it only some of them (based on their willingness or perhaps some other parameter)?

I would like to think that Quiyan is a good student and very into this, but I don't want her to be ridiculously, unrealistically gifted, as in if the ability to contact ancestral spirits is based on the student's own abilities and the average student is able to communicate with three by the time they are considered "graduated" from the academy, I want her to be able to communicate with perhaps five rather than a very enhanced 17.

First and the second, in a certain way. All ancestors are equally accessible, unless they don't want to be. The only exception is if you don't know the ancestor exists. The only way to find out about such ancestors is to find evidence of their life, or to be directed toward that spirit by other ancestral spirits.

I think three is a very conservative number, but not in a bad way. I'd say to give yourself two quests unrelated to your "Uncle," and I'll come up with the spirits involved.

Sounds good! More can always be added, I suppose.

About quests specifically: How detailed do they need to be? For example, do I need to provide specific place names, the names of specific items, etc? Are there limits to how difficult or easy, petty or important the quests can be? One I am rolling around in mind is some person insulted one of Quiyan's ancestors in what she feels is a pretty minor way, but the ancestor wants her to locate that person/their descendants and mete out some sort of retribution for it, maybe ruin their reputation around their settlement or even just get a formal apology. I am not looking for these to skew "silly," but I wold understand if the quests need to be more... epic than that.

Basically, if you go too vague, I'll just fill in the details. If you go too specific or complex, I'll tone it down a little. If you just fill in made-up place names or item names and provide me a key at the end (couple sentences of what they're like), then I can match them to my setting. Ideally, if the quest is terribly easy or petty, then it will end in a small reward with a hook for a bigger quest. If the quest is more difficult or important, it will probably take you longer to finish it.

With regards to your ancestors, the odds of them having interactions with anyone you'll be meeting are slim to none. Your ancestors would all be relegated to the ancient and isolated kingdom of Hebrimar, with you being among the slim few to have ever left. The odds of your adventurous ancestors settling down outside of the kingdom and having a family are likewise slim, and even more unlikely that a member of that family survived very long. So I guess a guideline for you to follow is: stick to something that could happen anywhere, involving people your ancestors didn't meet and likely didn't even know about. A quest should prove to the ancestral spirit that you are worthy of their favor, and provide you with either a magic power, an item, or some clue to a larger mystery.

Noted. I'll think on it and provide a couple in the next 24 hours or so.

Okay, I have thought on it and maybe at least two of these fit the parameters:

--- Defeat the strongest person in the city/region/country/whatever geographical area ("defeat" and "strongest" each having a few different meanings, depending on who you ask)

--- Settle a long-standing feud

--- Successfully learn to make a really, really, really good recipe from outside Hebrimar

--- Find an amulet with magical properties featuring the ancestor's favourite type of gemstone

Ooooh...

--- Defeating the strongest person where the campaign is set will be a very dangerous endeavor, especially if you aim to do so quickly. I'm not saying no, or that it's a bad idea. Just that it won't be easy.

--- Settling a feud makes sense, but your Ancestor can't really expect you to settle a feud between people they don't know about. So this would have to be something like...you've known this spirit for months, and haven't been able to get them to cough up a quest. They just refuse to help you. Most you can get is that they are a spirit of community, the hearth, the home, something like that. They're big on peace and unity. But that's no quest, more like a general interest. That is until you come across this feud, and the spirit FINALLY speaks up. "Solve this, and we'll talk."

--- I think a singular recipe, or just a 'good' recipe, would be too small for a quest. However, if you were to make this more of a journey, picking up recipes and seeking to perfect your grasp of foreign cuisine, now THAT would be something. And yeah, at certain milestones we could give you smaller tips and rewards building up to the big one.

--- That amulet is definite quest material though. Got my work cut out for me on that one.

Whatever works! Something vague enough that would fit anywhere with anyone yet also be something my ancestor would care about was tough for me to conceptualize, so I am pleased even one of those was decent.

Better than decent! Do you want all four quests, or a more limited selection?

Would there be any disadvantage to have them all? As in, would there be any disadvantage(s) to having contacted that many ancestors at this point?