'''Name:''' Charlton Lawrence Almond
'''Alias:''' Charlie Ewing
'''Age:''' 22
'''Race:''' galdori
'''Place of Origin:''' Vienda

!!!Backstory

Charlie spent most of his childhood with his sister Laureline in the care of a human nanny. Their parents, while not unkind, were too busy with their very important grown-up lives to have much time for children. In their youth, Charlie and Laur were very close. The nanny eventually gave them books to read on their own, rather than face their constant ridicule. This is when Charlie became exposed to mechanics-- steamboats, aeroships, factory machines. They were very "boyish" topics, appropriate for his age.

Charlie left for Brunnhold two years before his sister Laur. He managed to squeak by with a very low initiation exam score, just high enough to not be considered passive but low enough to be, well, pathetic. His lack of magical aptitude made him something of an object of derision among his peers, though his easy-going and likeable personality ensured he was never particularly hated. After his sister entered Brunnhold, they regained their former closeness... for about a year. After a year, however, Charlie began to drift away, not wanting to be seen associating with his "baby sister". They never did become close again as they were when they were small.

For his own part, Charlie realised that while he had absolutely no aptitude for magic or most academic pursuits, he both enjoyed and had some natural talent in engineering and the mechanical. He exhausted the Brunnhold library's books on the subject, and towards the end of his schooling began to tinker around with his own inventions (none of which were particularly successful). He did well in static magic as it could be rendered useful to his projects, but not much else. This put him in something of a unique position at school. While he was likeable enough that a good many people felt (perhaps falsely) close to him, he wasn't considered to be very important in the grand social scheme by virtue of his near-dropout status. As a result he was the perfect sounding board for all rants, gossip and sordid rumors floating around the school. The more he heard, the less he wanted to; the vile, vicious things he heard from otherwise lovely people kept him up at night. The said things about their friends, their teachers, neighbours, family-- let alone the things they said about other races...! Upon his graduation when he declared his intentions to his father about becoming a mechanic, and his father declared his intentions to cut him off from the family fortune until he came to his senses, Charlie took this as an opportunity to sever himself from galdori culture more fully. He decided to call Old Rose his home, hoping to observe other races and see if they had anything to offer his own.

!!!Personality

Charlie is an easy-going, gregarious and silly sort of fellow. His motto in relationships, and indeed much of his life, is "refuse no one and hold on to no one". He's developed a sort of clownish personality as a defence against being ostracised by his peers in school. He can get easily swept up in his tinkering, and is hard to interrupt when he gets on a roll with it. While he is fascinated by other races, he does view them as something of a societal study (and in the case of wicks, a societal study with fancy hair). He believes that the galdori's natural superiority will better shine through if they can learn to stop undermining each other with their fanatical elitism, and hopes to find the flaws and strengths of other cultures as part of a grand scheme to strengthen his own.

!!!Physical Description

Charlie is short, even by galdori standards, and rather slim though with wiry muscle all over his body. His hands are large and bony, but are suprisingly delicate. He has a long face that comes to something of a point at the chin. His brown hair is quite dark, very nearly black, but with something of a red cast, short in the front and getting a bit longer in the back. When he's working he pulls his hair up into a little ponytail. His eyes are a sort of intense blue. His nose is long but somewhat delicate and set above a mouth usually in a wide grin.

His taste in clothing is ecclectic and erratic. He is just as likely to be in a sort of ostentatious wick-inspired style as he is in suspenders and a white shirt, sleeves rolled to the elbows and sturdy boots on his feet. He generally wears a flatcap over his somewhat unruly mop.

!!!Inventory

*Tools, various and sundry
*Many, many changes of clothes
*Flatcap
*Books on engineering and mechanics
*Inventions of all sorts-- failed, half-finished and even a few successful
*Tippy (a whice)

!!!Career

Mechanical Engineer/Amateur Inventor
*Can fix nearly anything mechanical
*Good with maths
*Can heft heavy things surprisingly easily
*Nimble fingers
*Static magic


!!!Goals

Charlie wants to become a world-class inventor to prove to his parents that he's not the screw-up they think he is. He would like to rekindle his relationship with Laur, as well, and become the best engineer in Anaxas (and beyond). He has a more vague, over-arching life goal to improve what he thinks are the flaws in galdor society that keep them from attaining true superiority. He would also like to learn the violin.

Hi We're reviewing this sheet now, so just sit tight and we'll get back to you soon!

Hi again!

This sheet is looking pretty good; it's good to see a galdor who isn't omfgbbq awesome at magic. The only issue is with my perception that this is another galdor who, for no particular reason, is going to be openly accepting of all races. I take this from the rebel label, but also from the statement that he does not even discriminate in his personal relationships (a taboo in galdori society).

The issue here is conscious rebellion vs subconscious prejudice. While Charlie might consciously reject a lot of the values he was raised with, it's often difficult for people to see (objectively) those values in themselves enough to rebel against them. For example, many people opposed slavery in America during the 1800s, but very few considered african americans to be equals. The assumption that they were inferior beings was so deeply ingrained that it was nearly impossible to break free from without a deep, personal realization. This is very similar to the galdori situation. Charlie might oppose oppression, and even be aware that galdori rule is seen that way by other races, but no galdor who had been raised in Brunnhold would come across the concept of racial equality of his own accord, not with some sort of life-changing experience. To consider having a relationship with a wick is overcoming a very deep-seated racial belief that wicks are impure and immoral.

The problem is that there's nothing in his backstory that fully explains how he came to rebel so wildly against galdori customs. Being teased in school might instill a resentment of his own people, but not an automatic acceptance of other peoples. All galdori children are pretty much left alone by their parents; being disowned is less common, but still merely the expected outcome of his radical pronouncement to give up the galdori lifestyle. Despite being a tinker, even a social outcast, he would still carry with him the sort of ingrown prejudices that all galdori children are bred with.

I think it would be far better for the character if you let him grow out of those prejudices naturally, during gameplay, by meeting and interacting with other characters. If you must make him accepting of other races there needs to be an event in his backstory, a powerful one. Or perhaps he thought so lowly of his own people that he decided to spend more time among the other races to see if they were any worse, like he'd always been told. That would be, in my opinion, a very interesting place to start a character. Especially in Old Rose!

Anyway, please give this a look over and try to address this issue, and I'll read over it again

Okay, so I think I gave him a better motivation for rubbin' elbows with the lower classes. Overall this version of him works better in my mind? Hopefully you people of the modcave agree.

Thank you for your patience throughout the approval process! You are approved!