I'm back! Roe had no real eventful changes so she just hopped back in. Here's Solomon's return.
The Story:
When Solomon left the setting, it was because for the first time since he came to the setting he heard from his family, they were alive in the city state of Du'huati. The city took in different groups and tribes, refugees from a scourge of dragon attacks all throughout the region.
And the city couldn't handle it. Tensions between an unsustainable amount of refugees and an out of touch ruling class steadily grew worse. The refugees were confined to a small, overpopulated, run down district and worked in various hard labor industries as their only available sources of income. After a long period of contribution in these industries labor conditions and a lack of a path to citizenship despite their contributions led to various protests and demonstrations, which the city guard began to suppress by any means available.
Solomon worked tirelessly to unite the different refugee groups into a council that could negotiate peacefully with the governing body, and part of this was the continuous use of nonviolent protests. But as the protests grew him and other members of the council were labeled as radicals, and the increasingly disruptive protests were met with the sudden declaration of martial law. One such protest became a riot, resulting in the death of one of Solomon's brothers and his internment in a hard labor prison camp.
His tradeskill as a miner resulted in his placement as a mason apprentice in the camp. Every day he would spend sunrise to sunset cutting stone and shoring up walls and defensive positions throughout the city. At least once every few weeks the overburdened quarries and adjacent mines would suffer a landslide or cave in, and all stone workers would be required to work as tunnelers to recover the work area. Their incentive was to get it done fast enough to rescue their friends.
Meanwhile, the riots grew in size and levels of violence, eventually becoming all but a full blown uprising from multiple clashing factions of both refugees and natives, as well as increasingly divided sections of government unaccountable to each other each with the power to recruit fighters. Eventually a riot resulted in the armed liberation of the labor camps, and Solomon was plunged into the start of a full blown multi-faction war.
The civilian casualties on all sides mounted tremendously. At the onset the refugee district was targeted by artillery from the walls for six weeks straight, day in and out, killing Solomon's father and several members of his original peace council. A daring plan to train a small group of climbers to scale the wall and eliminate the artillerymen finally brought an end to it. Solomon was among the first volunteers.. As was his other brother, who died on top of the walls back to back with Solomon in brutal revenge motivated fighting.
Solomon became motivated by pure rage, and after the severe losses of his family and his sharp change in emotion his mother locked herself away in the ruins of their home, refusing to see anyone who carried a weapon ever again.
The fighting descended into pure slaughter, tribal warfare over ruins as ancient monuments and walls that seemed to reach to the sky came down onto crowds of innocents one after another, increasing acts of savagery on all sides resulted in the collapse of any semblance of government and the barbaric public execution of every member of the royal family, but the factions just kept fighting over control of different sectors and petty disagreements on how the government ought to be replaced.
This is when the heat left Solomon's blood, and the man was left exhausted and broken wondering why he'd even bothered to pick up his axe in anger in the first place. He left the city in the cover of darkness, and spent the next months wandering aimlessly through various ports before he eventually found his way home to Nightveil.
Skill Changes:
( A tough one, realistically he's been gone years but because of the time pause.. Yeah.. )
Masonry: Apprentice
He's spent a brutal time in a labor camp doing this almost exclusively. He can cut stone and shape simple structures such as walls and do fairly good repair work. He isn't likely to be building anything more complicated in the near future, though.
Mining: Apprentice ( Up from Novice )
While he didn't learn any new skills relevant to prospecting or identifying useful ores, he has learnt more about tunneling and dealing with things like landslides and cave-ins.
Fighting: Competent ( Up from Novice )
His fighting is no longer good natured boxing matches, it now includes use of an axe and shield. He had an advantage learning the axe from his long years lumberjacking, and the intensity of the scenario made for a learn or die environment.
Climbing: Competent
A simple skill, didn't take long to learn all the basics. He can scale or descend large structures or terrain features using various aides and tools.
Appearance Changes:
He's gotten a little leaner and more functional-muscle than his previous brick shithouse muscle, but he's still a fairly large dude. The biggest indicators of change are the scars covering both his arms and the less kept more scraggly beard littered with stress greys. The creases on his face have gotten deeper and his skin more leathery. The time he spent out there aged and weathered him, and it shows.
Personality:
He learned about rage and hate and revenge, and it changed him into a quieter more cynical man, but by the end of his time fighting he calmed down and came to realize that for all the passion and heat and all the good and evil he had done nothing had really helped. No good came from his anger. Now he finds himself in a depression coming to terms with what this all means, trying to find his hope and zest for life over again.
The Story:
When Solomon left the setting, it was because for the first time since he came to the setting he heard from his family, they were alive in the city state of Du'huati. The city took in different groups and tribes, refugees from a scourge of dragon attacks all throughout the region.
And the city couldn't handle it. Tensions between an unsustainable amount of refugees and an out of touch ruling class steadily grew worse. The refugees were confined to a small, overpopulated, run down district and worked in various hard labor industries as their only available sources of income. After a long period of contribution in these industries labor conditions and a lack of a path to citizenship despite their contributions led to various protests and demonstrations, which the city guard began to suppress by any means available.
Solomon worked tirelessly to unite the different refugee groups into a council that could negotiate peacefully with the governing body, and part of this was the continuous use of nonviolent protests. But as the protests grew him and other members of the council were labeled as radicals, and the increasingly disruptive protests were met with the sudden declaration of martial law. One such protest became a riot, resulting in the death of one of Solomon's brothers and his internment in a hard labor prison camp.
His tradeskill as a miner resulted in his placement as a mason apprentice in the camp. Every day he would spend sunrise to sunset cutting stone and shoring up walls and defensive positions throughout the city. At least once every few weeks the overburdened quarries and adjacent mines would suffer a landslide or cave in, and all stone workers would be required to work as tunnelers to recover the work area. Their incentive was to get it done fast enough to rescue their friends.
Meanwhile, the riots grew in size and levels of violence, eventually becoming all but a full blown uprising from multiple clashing factions of both refugees and natives, as well as increasingly divided sections of government unaccountable to each other each with the power to recruit fighters. Eventually a riot resulted in the armed liberation of the labor camps, and Solomon was plunged into the start of a full blown multi-faction war.
The civilian casualties on all sides mounted tremendously. At the onset the refugee district was targeted by artillery from the walls for six weeks straight, day in and out, killing Solomon's father and several members of his original peace council. A daring plan to train a small group of climbers to scale the wall and eliminate the artillerymen finally brought an end to it. Solomon was among the first volunteers.. As was his other brother, who died on top of the walls back to back with Solomon in brutal revenge motivated fighting.
Solomon became motivated by pure rage, and after the severe losses of his family and his sharp change in emotion his mother locked herself away in the ruins of their home, refusing to see anyone who carried a weapon ever again.
The fighting descended into pure slaughter, tribal warfare over ruins as ancient monuments and walls that seemed to reach to the sky came down onto crowds of innocents one after another, increasing acts of savagery on all sides resulted in the collapse of any semblance of government and the barbaric public execution of every member of the royal family, but the factions just kept fighting over control of different sectors and petty disagreements on how the government ought to be replaced.
This is when the heat left Solomon's blood, and the man was left exhausted and broken wondering why he'd even bothered to pick up his axe in anger in the first place. He left the city in the cover of darkness, and spent the next months wandering aimlessly through various ports before he eventually found his way home to Nightveil.
Skill Changes:
( A tough one, realistically he's been gone years but because of the time pause.. Yeah.. )
Masonry: Apprentice
He's spent a brutal time in a labor camp doing this almost exclusively. He can cut stone and shape simple structures such as walls and do fairly good repair work. He isn't likely to be building anything more complicated in the near future, though.
Mining: Apprentice ( Up from Novice )
While he didn't learn any new skills relevant to prospecting or identifying useful ores, he has learnt more about tunneling and dealing with things like landslides and cave-ins.
Fighting: Competent ( Up from Novice )
His fighting is no longer good natured boxing matches, it now includes use of an axe and shield. He had an advantage learning the axe from his long years lumberjacking, and the intensity of the scenario made for a learn or die environment.
Climbing: Competent
A simple skill, didn't take long to learn all the basics. He can scale or descend large structures or terrain features using various aides and tools.
Appearance Changes:
He's gotten a little leaner and more functional-muscle than his previous brick shithouse muscle, but he's still a fairly large dude. The biggest indicators of change are the scars covering both his arms and the less kept more scraggly beard littered with stress greys. The creases on his face have gotten deeper and his skin more leathery. The time he spent out there aged and weathered him, and it shows.
Personality:
He learned about rage and hate and revenge, and it changed him into a quieter more cynical man, but by the end of his time fighting he calmed down and came to realize that for all the passion and heat and all the good and evil he had done nothing had really helped. No good came from his anger. Now he finds himself in a depression coming to terms with what this all means, trying to find his hope and zest for life over again.
