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Under tremendous gravitational forces, stellar material may collect until such time the enormous heat and pressure is sufficient to ignite the gas through the process of nuclear fusion. This is the origin of starlight. Oh, wait, you wanted to learn about the origin of Starlight, the man. Ah, that's different. O.K. JAMES ROBERT TIBERIUS STARLIGHTAh, James Robert Tiberius Starlight. Perhaps my favorite PC. James Starlight was born to Marcus Starlight, a general in the Imperial guard, and lawful evil worshiper of Athena. And also to Jillian Starlight, a lawful good cleric of Athena. Apparently the attraction between James' parents was mostly on an animalistic level, for given their differing alignments any other attraction, other than perhaps a common religion, seems unlikely. Marcus was, however, a true worshiper of Athena. Athena's worshipers need to be either lawful good (Or people who strive for that ideal, i.e. NNLG, NNNG, NNCG, NNLN, or NNNN, but always striving for LG) or fighters who appreciate the skill of combat to the wanton blood lust of combat as the followers of Ares do. And so, within the confines of the peaceful environment of the capital city of Alodar, apparently Marcus and Jillian made their union work. It was, by the way, through Marcus' bloodline that James is remotely related to Zeus. In fact, if you're interested, it is thus:
James was born in Alodar in the year 687 A.E. during the reign of Ruby Truestone. At the age of 7, in the year of 694 A.E., James qualified as a potential candidate. He did this as it was determined he was already rather lawfully bent, highly intelligent, unusually wise for his age, and somewhat charming and charismatic (relatively speaking, for he was only 7 you know), which were all the qualities the company was looking for in its potential candidates. These qualities were in such sufficient quantities that he was accepted right away. It is estimated that, from all citizens, about 1 to 4 such potential candidates are found each year. Now James, as is typical for a child in his position, spent the next 13 years learning a wide variety of subjects. He learned everything from speed-reading to military tactics and logistics. And on a more personal level, shortly after of age of consent, he learned about women. Well, one woman anyway. Her name was Kimberly Ashton, and she was a potential candidate who had been accepted one year before he was. She ended up seducing him in the dual sex bathhouse in the candidate's wing of the capital building. And, just so you know, in Alodarian society it is far from uncommon to see public nudity and even sexual expressions in such a place. In fact, The Alodarian Empire would have to be considered very liberated, sexually speaking, by the standards of a typical American society. To this day Kimberly and James are still very good friends. Eventually, at the age of twenty and in the year 707 A.E., during the reign of Sanford Inman, James Starlight was accepted as a full-fledged candidate and subsequently geased into the candidate's office. James did his work rather quietly, preferring to get the job done quickly so that he could spend more time on his hobbies of wood working and cabinet building as well as playing the flute. Marcus, of course, disapproved. He wanted his son to be a fighter like himself. Eventually, Marcus forced James to give up his hobbies and take up the long sword. He personally trained James to ensure the job got done. Now, between his duties as a candidate, his training as a fighter, and sleeping and eating, James only had an hour or two everyday to himself. Seeking escape from the boring mindlessness of mastering the less imaginative art of his father, James befriended the sage and wizard Tiberius. Tiberius was the prime council of Emperor Sanford Inman. He was both old and wise as well as very kind and understanding. Together they played chess and discussed magic. Eventually, James started giving up sleep to spend more time with Tiberius discussing magic. He never let his duties as a candidate suffer, but his father could tell from his increasingly poor performance with the sword that something was amiss. It is certainly hard to hide things from a general of the Alodarian Empire. Marcus found out where James was spending his time and tried to put a stop to it. Now, as it turns out, Tiberius and Marcus were old enemies. They had always been at political odds with one another, and James' apparent preference of Tiberius over his own father was infuriating to Marcus. Marcus forbid anymore-frivolous meetings with Tiberius, and Jillian, to keep the family peace and please Marcus, concurred. It was because of his mother that James did this, for a little while anyway. James rearranged his schedule after learning a deep meditation trick from a visiting monk. James was now able to get by on a mere 2 hours of sleep for every 10 hours of work. Thus, he was able to continue his long sword studies with his father, perform his duties as a candidate, and sneak off to study with Tiberius. This practice went on for nearly a decade. Toward the end of that time he was nearly ready to become a full fledged 1st level magic user. He was already a 1st level fighter and had been for sometime, and he also had laid the ground work for the monk training he would receive later in life. Since he continued to resists his father, Marcus gave up trying after he accomplished those minimum goals; but it never set well with him. During all this time, James caught the eye of the emperor. Of course, it helped that his friend and mentor, Tiberius, was the prime council and friend of the emperor. It was, however, James' apparently almost magical ability of seemingly not paying attention, but when asked for his analysis on a situation, he could immediately give surprisingly detailed, innovative ideas of how the problems might be solved which really caught the attention of the emperor. It was because of this that Sanford Inman, in the latter years of his reign, kept choosing James Starlight as his secret successor. In the year of 719 A.E., Sanford Inman, 19th emperor of the Alodarian Empire, died at the age of 82 after 14 years as emperor. James Robert Starlight, at the age of 32, became the 20th emperor of the Alodarian Empire. And, for the next 4 years, he did a very good job. Unfortunately, he was never very happy with the life style. The only things that gave him pleasure, besides the occasional excursions with Kimberly, was his relationship with his prime council, Tiberius. It was unusual, of course, but James had chosen Tiberius, the old prime council, and a man in his seventies, as his own prime council. Still, it seemed to work well for the government. It was, however, not the life that James had wanted. More than ever he wanted to study magic, but more than ever, he simply didn't have the time. Now the fact that, like his mother Jillian, James turned out to be a Lawful Good worshiper of Athena, and the fact that Tiberius, the prime council, was also lawful good, made it increasingly difficult for Marcus, or his ideas, to be taken seriously in council. More and more, Tiberius' natural disdain for the man was being reflected in James, and more and more general Marcus Starlight was being dismissed out of hand. Eventually, he could tolerate it no more. He had never really wanted children (Jim was an "accident") He had openly made a political enemy of Tiberius, partially because he knew, since Inman was already old and of poor health, Tiberius was on the way out as prime council. His active hatred of his own son began to grow and finally got to the point where it drove his wife away from him. He was completely and utterly worthless. No admiring son, an estranged wife, no personal life to speak of, and, since he wasn't really allowed to contribute, no job worth doing. It was then that Marcus Starlight decided to kill the prime council, the man he blamed as the ultimate source of all his troubles. Yes, kill Tiberius! After all, since the prime council wasn't technically a citizen, Marcus would at best violate only one geas, and even then, only temporarily. This would kill him, but his cleric friend could raise him from the dead, on the sly. And since he wouldn't be actively violating a geas after being raised, and since it wasn't a citizen he would have killed, he'd be fine. He'd simply have to prevent the return of Tiberius and he could do that by destroying Tiberius' soul. Over the years Marcus had come across a Soul Corrupter, akin to a sword of wounding and with similar abilities, this weapon was a horrible sword which would actually destroy a creature's spirit or soul if it delivered the death blow and killed its target directly or indirectly by eventually bleeding the victim to death. Killing Tiberius with such a sword would make it impossible for him to be raised from the dead or even spoken to in the after life. His existence would be totally snuffed out. Now all he had to worry about was the magical methods employed by the empire to track down the truth. Communes, detect lies, and the Alodarian Empire frequently employs other types of magic in its justice system. With access to just a few, and relatively new, anti-information spells, Marcus was sure he could get away with it. As this narrative along Jim's personal history is getting overly long, I'll be brief with the rest of it. Marcus attacked Tiberius. James was unexpectedly there. It became necessary and, truth be told, desirable to kill both Tiberius and James. And though Tiberius was mortally wounded, together they defeated and killed Marcus Starlight. Unfortunately, not being a cleric, nor even a veteran fighter with sufficient first aid experience to bind Tiberius's "unusual" wounds, the wise old sage and magic user permanently slipped into oblivion as the magic of the soul corrupter and sword of wounding did its nasty business. Before he died, however, he gave James the parting gift of his name. THE TRADITION OF CONFIRMATION NAMESAbout the name. It is tradition on Orlantia that a master may give his or her name to their exceptional students. As such, the student is expected to do that name proud. So it is never giving to any student unless the master feels certain the student is destined for great things. It is by no means an insult not to receive your master's name. It is, however, a great honor. If the name is given, it becomes one's confirmation name, so called because it is a confirmation of your master's belief in you. It may also only be given by a master who has, themselves, received a confirmation name from their former master or has achieved at least 16th level. As such, stating one's full name can be somewhat awe inspiring if the name of your master is well known. And so it came to pass that James Robert Tiberius Starlight was confirmed shortly after killing his own father, (Actually, Tiberius did 95% of the damage). THE ON GOING DEVELOPMENT OF MAGICAs another aside, I'd like to mention that the development of magic is an on going process. During the times of the active campaigns in my world I have always assumed magic is developed to the point which it is given in the player's hand book. It is assumed, however, that hundreds of years ago, magic was in a somewhat less refined state. For example, magic missile was a 3rd level spell until about 250 years ago. At that time a refinement and extremely clever trick made that particular spell 1st level. This is why, on my world, you can't develop double strength magic missile spells and expect them to be 1+ 1 +1 = 3rd level. This is from the general rule of thumb that combining two spells would probably result in a spell at a level of their total levels plus 1 more level. The clever trick simply isn't able to accommodate that much power. (You may make a double strength magic missile spell at 3 + 3 + 1 or 7th level). Of course the real reason is simply a double strength magic missile spell from a high level magic user under 1st edition rules is a game unbalancing spell. It's simply too powerful. But, in the wise and consistent sort of way of good fiction, a plausible explanation should be found and given, and I think I have done this here. Other magic was also less powerful centuries ago. I won't go into all the little decisions I have made concerning which spells, what levels, and how long ago, but I will say that, in such a world, spell research is equivalent to the so-called cutting edged of technology. Finally, I will mention, in passing, a few quirks of the development of magic. For example, it is possible to research spells at higher levels than necessary. This might be done so as to make a spell operate at a higher, though less efficient, level of energy. Why? The globe of invulnerability is one example of why. An old version of the fireball spell at 5th level may be learned. This would count as a separate fifth level spell in all the normal ways, taking up one of the spells you could know at that level, and taking the research, time, and money for such things, etc., etc. The practical advantage of which is such a spell would breech the defenses of the globe of invulnerability since it is not a 4th or lower level spell. At other times, your choices for a 2nd level spell may not be as good as more 1st level ones. Researching some 1st level spell as a 2nd level spell may make it possible for you to learn, for example, 8 magic missile spells instead of 4. That is, four 1st level and four 2nd level magic missile spells. Of course, the 2nd level ones are similar to the 1st level ones in all other respects, but they still take 20 minutes to memorize instead of 10 which the 1st level magic missile spells takes. Sometimes it is necessary to take into account old magic. If a vampire/magic user or a magic user/Lich had hidden himself away for the last two hundred years, for example, his spells may be operating at a less than cutting edge kind of performance. Or perhaps an ancient trap, constructed by a 12th level magic user, would have less powerful versions of the currently available spells on them. In any event, in the course of Orlantian history and the on going development of magic, Marcus Starlight was taking advantage of the newest spells available. If You Linked In Just To Read About The On Going Development Of Magic, You May Wish To Return To Home This brings us back to Marcus Starlight and his access to the new, non-standard, anti-information spells. Essentially, these spells are simply akin to the undetectable lie spells. They work, however, against scrying methods, communes, and other information gathering spells directed at you or about you. They last until such a spell is directed at you, thus giving very believable but false information before they expire. It was with these spells, also to be cast by his cleric friend, that Marcus Starlight planned to get away with murder. Total cost: one raise dead, one point of constitution, several new spells, and of course the approximate 1-% chance he would fail his resurrection survival roll. All well worth it, really. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AN EMPERORWith his friend and prime council dead, and unable to face his mother with the news of having killed her husband, and let's face it, not particularly happy with his life, James Robert Tiberius Starlight decided to disappear from Orlantia. (Escaping from any of Marcus' allies also played a part in this decision to flee). He took with him only the basic equipment and money a beginning fighter might have, as this was all he personally owned, and used Tiberius' only handy magic item (a longevity potion he had been saving for himself). After drinking it, the now apparently 23 year old Starlight left Orlantia. When he went missing, the empire, for the first time, lost an emperor to something other than death. It was a year before the empire decided Starlight was permanently lost to them. During that year, the candidate Thadius Achenbach was the acting emperor. This was because it was generally believed he would have been Starlight's choice, but Starlight's choice was locked up in the traditional way within the Truestone Artifact, and therefore couldn't be accessed until the Truestone Artifact was given proof of Starlight's death or official notification by a special council of generals that Starlight was, as far as they knew, permanently unavailable. And so, in the year 723 A.E., a special council of generals gave official notification to the Truestone Artifact, and Starlight's secret successor was revealed. And it was in this way that Philepe Montrose, at the age of 27, who had apparently been Starlight's secret choice, was geased into office. Meanwhile, Starlight disappeared into The Net. He traveled to Simhar under the name of Robert, or Bob the fighter, as he was laughingly called:-) An adventurer's life suited him. On Simhar he met and joined the Jessica-Jilerbian Strike Force, as he came to know them. Nothing more than a small band of adventures, really, but his skills as a fighter could be used and developed there; and under the tutelage of Jilerb, an Elven magic user (and my first PC), he would eventually become a fighter / magic user by the end of that campaign. From there he went on to become a veteran of 5 other campaigns during my college years. Eventually, as a rather powerful character, Starlight returned to Orlantia 22 years after he had left and faced the consequences of his actions of abandonment of office, something that had always bothered him. There, I keep the character of James Robert Tiberius Starlight in a quasi-unchanged state. That is, I don't give him experience or magic or money or change him in any significant way. That way I can always play him again as a true character, as opposed to a character which is created complete with experience, money, magic, etc., and with no real experience or life memories. THE RETURN OF STARLIGHTLet's see. Oh yes, Starlight's punishment for abandonment of office ended up being a 500,000 GP fine. ($50,000,000!) The empire can always use that kind of cash, and when it was discovered Starlight had that kind of cash, they took it. Now perhaps that sets bad precedent, but who can really say? I'm sure they would have made the fine affordable even if he had been broke. As it turned out, although substantial, this was not even a quarter of what Starlight had accumulated in 22 years of adventuring during the six campaigns in which I played that character. Philepe Montrose promoted Starlight to the position of general, for Starlight's skills, knowledge, allegiance, temperament, and courage demanded no less. He was, however, placed on permanent inactive duty. What does that mean? Simply put, James Starlight is a powerful NPC adventurer who frequently works, by his own choice, for the good of Athena and/or the good of the Alodarian Empire. It is up to him to decided where to go and what to do as well as how best to serve (unless directly forbidden to do something by the emperor OR by the goddess Athena or her personal representative). In such a capacity, it is possible for Starlight to do things in the unofficial way an official general couldn't. On this journey, he is frequently in the company of an adventuring group of NPCs which are "false" characters I created to surround Starlight. Comparable in level and outlook, this group is commonly thought to be the 3rd most powerful group of adventurers on Orlantia. The first two? I haven't written them yet. I'll just finish this tryst about Starlight and company by saying Starlight is currently a Fighter/ Magic User/ Monk/ and Honorary Cleric of Athena. His full title is: Currently, the Enchanted group's members include:
© May of 1999 |