Character Creation.

Concept:

Who are you? What do you like? What don't you like? Who are your family?

Motivation:

Why are you interested in becoming part of a company with your friends - is it the cash, the fame, the wanderlust?

Race:

Human, Elven, Dwarven or Hin?

Nature:

What are you like on the inside?

Demeanor:

What do you present to everyone else?

Attributes

Primary: 6 dots Seconday: 4 dots Tertiary: 3 dots.

Abilities.

Primary: 11 dots Seconday: 7 dots Tertiary: 4 dots

Backgrounds.

Backgrounds represent, eeriely enough, your characters backgrounds. You have 5 points to distribute amongst the 14 backgrounds as you will. However, it is a good idea to check with your ST about some backgrounds, as well as any background raised over 3.

Willpower

Your character has a base willpower of 1.

Luck.

Bonus maaate. You have a base luck of 1.

Freebie points

Every character has 15 freebie points to use wherever they wish to use them on the character sheet. However, they are not used on a one to one basis - different abilities have a different cost.

Section Cost

Race

Elven 10

Dwarven 7

Hin 5

Spellcasting 7

Faith 7

Attributes 5

Abilities 2

Willpower 2

Luck 2

Backgrounds 1

You can also spend freebie points (and recieve extra points) when you buy merits and/or flaws from the list.

Concept

The first thing you need to do is come up with an overall concept of who your character was before you formed a company. Typical character concepts that might be appropriate include merchant, farmer or herdsman's child, bored and wanderlust-infected hin, or nearly anything that is appropriate to the setting. Your character's concept will be affected by their age, race, family etc, and these are all part of your character.

Motivation

Part of your character's concept is their motivation for getting up and leaving Armstead, rather than becoming part of the local community, and why they have chosen to form a mercenary company instead of choosing a slow and safe route to success. Various reasons include - boredom, powerlust, a desire to get rich the exciting way and curiousity. Other reasons may not be so pleasant - you've managed to offend some major players in Armstead, your family have thrown you out or you are doomed to some horrid death and don't want to get loved ones involved.

Race

Although most people who live in Armstead are human, there are some representatives of the demi-human races. Dwarven miners are a common sight in the nearby mining communities, and the Darokin Diplomatic Core representative in Armstead is elven. Hin wanderkin have been known to suddenly wander in from the mountains, telling stories of the goblins that they evaded to get here. And even amongst the humans, there is a large racial mix. A large majority of the town are Traladaran, from Karameikos. Other racial groups include Alasiyani, Thyatians, Alphatians and some Glantrians.

Nature and Demeanor

It is a good idea at some point to choose personality archetypes to fit your conception of both the internal nature and outward disposition of your character. Your nature is the most dominant aspect of your character's personality, but not necessarily the only archetype that may apply. The archetype you choose for your character's Nature describes the character's most deep-rooted feelings and beliefs about herself and thw world; it also provides the primary way through which she replenishes her Willpower Pool. Choosing a Nature helps you describe who your character really is in societal terms. You should also choose a Demeanor to describe the personality your character pretends to posess. This is the role she plays to the world, the facade she presents to it. It should probably be different from the archetype you have already chosen as the character's Nature, but not necessarily. Whatever you choose is only the character's typical pose; people can change Demeanor as quickly as they change mood. You may change your character's Demeanor at any time, allowing her to adapt to different people and situations. Demeanor has no mechanical effect on the character.

Choosing Attributes.

Now you start assigning numbers. The first step in this process is to determine your character's basic Attributes. The Attributes are everything a character naturally, intrinsicly is. How strong is she? How quick are his reflexes? How persuasive can she be? Questions such as these are answered in the character's attributes. You need to decide what group of attributes are most important to your character? Is your mental side the most dominant? Or are you a thug or a party animal? First you must decide which groups of attributes are most important to your character, from primary to tertiary. The most important category is designated primary, second-most important secondary and the least important is the tertiary.

Physical Attributes are everything that has anything to do with physical effort - they describe how strong, nimble and sturdy your character is.
Social Attributes are your character's ability to relate to others. They are vital in determining first impressions, motivating others and working long term with the people around you.
Mental Attributes represent you chracter's mental capacity and include such things as memory, perception and the ability to learn and think.

All character start with one dot in each attribute. The category you decide is primary lets you divide 6 more dots amongst the primary Attributes, 4 amongst the secondary ones and 3 dots amongst the tertiary Attributes.

Choosing Abilities.

Abilities delineate what your character knows rather than what he is; they describe the things he has learned rather than the things he can naturally do. All Talents, Skills and Knowledges are Abilities.

Talents describe the intuitive Abilities. Talents do not need to be practiced per se and cannot be studied or learned from a book; they are most often gained through direct experience. Does you character posess a lot of common sense?
Skills are the Abilities learned through rigorous training of any sort. This category includes any Ability that must be learned step by step through actual practice, but that can be taught and studied (unlike Talents). Is your character good at learning things through practice?
Knowledges include all the Abilities requiring the rigorous application of the mind. These Abilities are generally learned through school, classes, books and teachers, but can be also be pocked up through experience. Is your character educated; does he have a good memory?

Abilities are decided in a similar manner to attributes. Decide which of the three groups are primary, seconday or tertiary to your character (they don't have to correspond to the attributes at all - a character with mental primary does not necessarily have knowledges primary). In the primary group, distribute 11 dots, in the secondary 7 and in the tertiary group, 4 dots. No ability may be raised over three without spending freebie points (see below).

Choosing Backgrounds.

Every character gets five points to allocate among 14 background traits. Some characters may be restricted to various backgrounds, and any background raised above 3 must be cleared with the GM.

Finishing Touches.

Willpower
This trait indicates how much self-control your character has. Temporary Willpower may be spent to gain auto-sucesses, and is consumed by failed magic. Your character begins with a base level of 1.

Luck
This is your ass-saver. You may spend luck points to cancel any 1's rolled on a dice. Luck regenerates very, very slowly, and should be hoarded carefully.

Freebie Points
Freebie points may be spent anywhere around your character to increase the rating in any area. However, not every Trait of your character has the same freebie cost.

Section		Cost

Race
	Elven	10
	Dwarven	7
	Hin	5
Spellcasting		7
Faith		7
Attributes		5
Abilities		2
Willpower		2
Luck		2
Backgrounds		1

Race: Being a race other than human costs you freebie points. See below for the benefits of each race. People who wish to be other races may bargain with the GM.
Spellcasting: The ability to cast magic requires you to spend freebie points on it. The high cost reflects the fact that you are spending much of your time trying to bend reality to your will.
Faith: Having a rating of Faith in a particular god allows you to channel their power into the Prime Material plane. See 'Magic' for more details on how this works.

You may also spend freebies on buying Merits or recieve extra freebies for taking Flaws.

Spark of Life.

Appearance
Darokinians come from such a wide mix of races that you may appear in nearly any form that you want. Take into consideration your Traits when describing your character. Someone with 1 Strength would not normally be large and meaty. Some of the races that are common in Armstead are:

Traladarans tend to be fairly small (men average 5' 9'', woman 5' 3'') and light of build. They tend to have pale complexions which burn easily, brown eyes and dark hair (deep brown to black).

Thyatians tend to be physically larger than Traladarans, men averaging around 5' 11'' and women 5'5''. The Thyatians have had centuries to interbreed with other nations and so there is no one Thyatian look; hair ranges from dark blonde to dark brown, with occasional redheads; eye color ranges from blues to browns and blacks. Thyatians tan more easily in the sun, and often have a slight olive cast to their skin.

Alphatians have two main racial groups within themselves. The first and most common are the common Alphatians. These people average out at 5'8'' in height and tend to have bronze or brownish skin. Their hair colours range from brown through to auburn through to strawberry blond, and their eyes are usually brown, although some few common Alphatians have green eyes. The pure Alphatians on the other hand are tall, averaging 6' for men and 5'10'' for females. They have a very pale skin, alabaster, with blue tints. Hair colour is black of various shades, and their eyes may be black or brown.

Ylari descendants tend to have tan to brown skin, although some few have an almost yellow tint and others may be almost black. The men are as tall as Thyatians normally, but Alasiyan women are smaller than their Thyatian counterparts. Their eyes are brown or darker colours.

Of course, over the last thousand years, all of these racial groups have interbred amongst themselves and with the native Darokinian humans, so it is not unusual to find almost any combination of features amongst people living within Darokin's borders. When you add the confusion of Glantrian immigrants to the mixture, as occurs in northern Darokin, anything is possible.

Demihumans in Armstead:

Elves.: The elves that appear in Darokin are almost 100% from the elven nation of Alfheim. They all tend to be pale, with light coloured hair and eyes, averaging about 5'3'' for males and 5' for females.
Dwarves.: The dwarves of Darokin are all descended from the clans of Rockhome, and tend to be pale with dark hair and eyes, although there is a multitude of exceptions to this rule.
Hin: The Hin display the same variation in features as humans - some may have dark hair, others light, and so on. It is really up to any pc what they appear like.

Specialities
Traits that have ratings of four or more may have specialisations - particular aspects of that Trait that the character is especially good at. These are mostly used to clarify your idea of your character, but they also may make rolls of that speciality easier.

Equipment
You may define as much equipment as your Resources background allows you to have. Magical equipment is bought with the Magic Item background. Some items may be screened by the GM.

Quirks
By giving your character quirks (interesting personal details and anecdotes) you can add a great deal of depth and interest to him. Write a few sentances on the back of your character sheet about the strange and possibly interesting things that define your character. A quirk could be a twisted sense of humour, a gentleness towards animals, or a habit of grunting when answering yes to a question.

Motivations
Why do you do what you do?