Across the Sun

human, paladin, (AY den)

Unlike his siblings who were discovered and fostered by Gorram and Saba, Aeden was the sibling who discovered his foster parents first. He’s been a dependable and helpful older brother to his siblings, and as they’ve grown up together these past few years, it hasn’t gone unnoticed by himself or his family that he does not appear to be aging as they are.

He respects his parents greatly but is often at odds with Gorram about his usage of a particular healing ability he has. Gorram warns that only arcane magic is safe for people to use, and that harnessing the power of gods in the strange way Aeden uses his ability is asking for trouble when the next divine intervention could finally kill off civilization for good. Should he risk helping people with his gift, or stop playing with fire and avoid the wrath of the gods?

gnome, summoner, (NEE wah)

The gnomes revel in their ancestry and history. Niwa understands this despite growing up with Gorram and Saba and her siblings in a community with no gnomes. Although a capable student of magic, she discovers the arcane ability of summoning her ancestors entirely on her own. In secret, Niwa would sneak away from the others and summon unforgotten relatives whose stories persist beyond their time in the mortal world.

Serendipity and clutch circumstances showed her she can also summon others, and before long she saves her siblings on multiple occasions by calling on the skill and wisdom of renown heroes and the love and support of missing family members. Because of this, Niwa also learns to stay brave and resolute in the face of danger and uncertainty.

elf, mage, (ruh CAR ree you)

Like all of Gorram and Saba’s children, Ruccharieu finds it difficult to remember much about his life before them. He’s forgotten about an accident that happened to him at a young age, when he fell through thin ice and nearly drowned. Since that day, by nearly pure serendipity, he’s shared his body with an otherworldly creature. Their fateful meeting allowed both of them to survive.

Rook lives a rather content life of study and training, both involving a lot of arcana. He is a compassionate soul who cares deeply for his family, yet struggles to understand many details about his own feelings and the life he and his family live so isolated from most of the world. Together, he and his siblings suddenly grow up very quickly when left to fend for themselves in a strange new place. Will Rook’s magic and intuition be enough to help reunite his family?

tikus, rogue, (CLYDE)

Like all of her siblings, Kliyd cannot recall much of her past before coming to live with Gorram and Saba in the remote dwarven outpost. Though she is the youngest and smallest, she is highly athletic and formidable. Kliyd is also trans, and she feels right at home with her diverse and loving family.

The tikus are known for showing affection through acts and gestures rather than words or physical closeness. Kliyd is often the quiet but observant one, selflessly guarding her clan even as she begins to reunite with another clan that recognizes her differences and welcomes her all the same. She portrays so much complexity with so few words.

dwarf, diviner, (SAH buh)

Saba grew up in the aftermath of the Dwarven Fortune, the name given to a mysterious period in history where more than half of all dwarves were permanently displaced, never to be seen again. Being of an underpopulated nomadic people already, the Dwarven Fortune devastated the dwarves to the point of an almost inevitable path to extinction. All who remained were highly pressured to repopulate as much as possible.

Her destiny, however, would deviate from this tenuous plan. Saba became aware of her sixth sense, an ability unrelated to arcana that has always helped her identify those who would strengthen her clan. One by one, she’d see visions of distressed souls capable of greatness in the world, and she’d venture to rescue them. Though not dwarves, these souls became the children she adopted with her partner, Gorram. Trusting in fate and rebuking the Dwarven Fortune, Saba knows family can be those you chose to love and commit your life to supporting. She often comments that her children are magnificent.

dwarf, mage, (GORE umm)

Gorram was bounced around from place to place when he was younger, constantly having to re-establish himself under the crushing pressure placed on him to find more of his nomadic people lost to the Dwarven Fortune. After meeting Saba, the pair fell in love and decided to run off together and build their own destiny.

Approaching arcana from a scientific mindset, Gorram has invested so much of his life’s work to refining and systematizing and recording his findings. For him, arcana is the only salvation from the divine gods who many believe killed off so much of the world’s population as collateral damage from their own epic fighting. Nothing means more to Gorram than his family and teaching them how to thrive.

halfling, ranger, (uh ZOK kuh)

Halflings are capricious wanderers, and Azacca is hardly an exception. He did, however, also find a cause worth supporting in his search of a zest for life.

This ranger brings his wild earth magic and farming techniques to the tikus community while still allowing himself opportunities to travel with his faithful bobcat companion to all sorts of parts unknown looking for enslaved tikus to help rescue.

None of the places he visits ever seem to suspect this barefoot, easygoing hippie is one brave freedom fighter far and wide. Azacca is content to keep that secret close to the dungaree vest.

bobcat, protector, (SHULL fee)

Xulphy is Azacca’s faithful animal companion, raised as others before her with a duty to protect and take care of the tikus people. She is known as a primeval, or guardian, bobcat and she towers over standard bobcats at about three times the height and weight, making her a favored ally and a formidable opponent in combat.

tikus, civilian, (MEE truh)

There were several times in Mitra’s life where she closed her eyes and imagined everything to be over. Her freedom, her name, her children, and her future had all been taken from her. The will to continue came from somewhere deep inside her, and only marginally strengthened from having a few opportunities to see new places and learning things can be different.

Mitra had never asked for a savior, but had only ever hoped for the chance to ever do anything on her own without interference. Aeden may have felt as though he gave Mitra freedom, but if anything he’d given her protection and the ability to make choices for the first time in her life. She could have chosen to leave the company of the siblings at any time, but after finally experiencing genuine care and compassion without needing to provide something in return, Mitra chose to stay with them, and to be treated with love like a member of the family.

dwarf, abjurer, (OH bree)

Obry is about a generation younger than Gorram and Saba, however she too felt all the pressures of collective survival placed upon her by her dwarven community. At a young age, she knew it was paramount to venture out on her own and find a purpose that resonated with her independent spirit.

Obry moved far from home and took residence in an old, remote settlement house that many seasons of nomadic dwarves had previously occupied. Now partnered in a tacit but loving relationship with the woman who runs a hidden tikus resistance camp, Obry and the tikus and a few other close allies protect another endangered group of people with their arcana and fierce resolve.

djinni, outsider, (OX bow)

The djinn are timeless creatures from the elemental planes who travel and tend to their patron elements wherever they’re found in the universe. While home on their elemental plane they are effectively immortal, but in a composite world where their element is scarce, they do risk a fate like death should something happen to them.

Oxbow is a djinni from the elemental plane of water. His partner, Venturi, suffered an accident while traveling and was stranded for many years until a chance encounter with a drowning elf child. Making a clutch decision, Venturi transferred her essence into that boy, a young Ruccharieu, so that both might survive.

Several years have passed since that transference, and only recently has Ruccharieu learned how to focus his arcana and speak with Oxbow through meditation. The two have grown to love each other for different reasons, and now Oxbow wishes for Ruccharieu to meet him in person at the distant ocean – the nexus between the material plane and the plan of water. Will Venturi finally be freed to return home with Oxbow? Will Ruccharieu survive without the symbiote of water living inside him?

half-orc, shapechanger, (COP per wolf)

From a young age, Copperwolf has been determined to do things for herself and by herself. She understands that everyone can see the orc features – the height, the size, the teeth, the strength – of her half-human body. Not only do most see her as an orc first, but also not as a full orc, and they assume that a half-orc can only exist from a brutish orc man raping an overpowered human woman.

Copperwolf reads people fluently, like a second language; she knows most people fear her, judge her, pity her for the assumed manner in which she was born, or just otherwise hate her. Blessed with a superior resolve, a quick wit, and a preternatural talent for physically changing her shape, she has really come to enjoy her service at the tikus camp where she travels freely and makes a game out of tricking people into releasing their enslaved tikus servants. Wolfie enjoys the irony of being so bad to do something so good.

half-elf, ranger, (MAN druh gore uh ROSE)

A famed traveler from far away, Mandragora Rose has defeated some of the most fearsome interlopers across several scattered villages and roadhouses. She wields a deadly spiked chain and confuses enemies as the vision of her advancing seems to blur and camouflage effortlessly with the land.

Niwa once heard a tale about Mandragora Rose and her heroic deeds, and called out for her help in a panicked rescue. Though the two had never met before, they teamed up with Kliyd and triumphed over a terribly dangerous situation. Then, as quickly as she appeared, Mandragora Rose vanished, leaving only mystery and awe.

hobgoblin, fighter, (GUSK)

Obry had found a young Gusk living alone in the old dwarven outpost when she’d set out to start a life of her own and live there herself. Although they didn’t (and still don’t) get along all that well, they both learned quickly it was easier to live together with a shared skillset for survival than it was to live alone. Later, when Obry got involved with the tikus resistance camp, Gusk relocated there, thanks to the perhaps insincere explanation he was given that his handiness and protection would be of greater benefit to their new community.

Gusk has a past with Saba and Gorram, but can only remember bits and pieces of a life together with them. He does remember separation and anger and resentment. And when he finally meets the siblings, the missing pieces fall back into place creating a deep and painful conflict years in the making. He wouldn’t have to be the antihero so much if all the people in his life weren’t determined to do wrong by him, but that’s his burden to carry, it would seem.

gnome, paladin, (real name unknown)

At a small, secluded courtyard built high up on the ridge of a mountain stood a minor temple to the god of vengeance. Though it was largely vacated long ago and left to crumble from neglect, the temple’s paladin attended to the premises until the very end. But the vicious deeds of a few ended her life prematurely, and so too went the temple before its time.

However, nothing endures time like a grudge, and worshiping the god of vengeance might have been the most rewarding revenge of all. Though the physical world still weathers the temple grounds, this paladin remains in spirit to watch over the space from any who might come along to unhallow it. Interlopers beware, especially if they work in service of another god.