Category: Characters

Sackcloth Pelican

Posted on November 22, 2021 by eczarnik

The Sackcloth Pelican says war is near!The Sackcloth Pelican in B&W.

The Sackcloth Pelican has a dire prediction!

This brooding bird, dressed in tattered sackcloth and ashes, paces the Mattanah marketplace, stuffing emergency provisions in its baglike bill. It warns the public with its placard (which says “The war is near” in Imperial Aramaic) and prophesies that a tremendous storm of attacks are on the horizon.

What will be the Bavel Macrostructure’s reaction to all this commotion? Only the pelican knows!

The Sackcloth Pelican is powered by the שקק shoresh root, which governs sackcloth, sacks, storms, attacks, commotion and more.

Bear Rover

Posted on November 20, 2021 by eczarnik

The Bear is cruising on a rover.Roving Bear B&W

Bear Rover, Bear Rover, send Bavel on over!

This bear rides an exploration vehicle through the market streets of Mattanah to boost the people’s passion to buy and consume. The bear’s megaphone loudspeakers roar out the latest sales on items like Dumpling Bundles.

The speakers also blast Bavel propaganda over the din of the bustling shoppers, with the ursine enforcer there to intimidate anyone who dares not swear loyalty to the regime.

The Bear Rover is powered by the שקק shoresh root, which deals with rovers, bear grunts, roaring, noise, bustling, street markets, longings, oaths and more.

Tola’at Teacher

Posted on November 14, 2021 by eczarnik

Tola'at Teacher B&WTola'at Teacher (Color)

The Tola’at Teacher is a bright bug who produces a brighter scarlet dye in Bavel’s commercial city of Mattanah. It’s also known as a “learned little worm” who pupils its pupae, teaching them how to read and learn speech acts.

A few tola’at also tutor Mattanah’s citizens by biting people’s heads with their tiny teeth. Due to this illegally increasing literacy, it’s no surprise that the Bavel Macrostructure wants to crush these grubs into red paste.

The Tola’at Teacher is based on the לעת shoresh family, which governs instruction, tola’at, worms, scarlet, bicuspids and more.

Type: Bug
Shoresh: תלע
Gematria: 500
Size: Tiny
Habitat: Mattanah, Katef Shoulder, Urban, Hills, Desert
Threat: Lv. 1
Rarity: Golden (Common)
Liability: 5 (or 2DN high – low) Merit: 1 Law: 1
Base stats: DOM 1R, VIG 1R, GRA 2R, CRE 2R, WIS 3R, PEA 2R, BLE 2R
Plot Armor: 0
Equipment: Generic blackboard (Tiny), Generic chalk (Tiny) Generic book (Tiny)
Loot: Scarlet Dye
Skills: Languages +2R
Behavior: Rational, gentle. Often flees when attacked unless cornered.
Combat Actions: Bicuspid Bite (Success Margin +1DN damage)
Speech Acts:

  • Scarlet Letters
    • Shoresh: לעת
    • Cost: 1 Merit or 1DN Liability
    • Rolls: User’s CRE vs. target’s PEA. No roll needed if target waives resistance.
    • Effect: Choose target: Target gains +2R when performing next offensive speech act.
    • Duration: Effect ends after the target performs the target speech act, or within one day, whichever happens first.

Inktober Day 31: Risk Manager

Posted on November 9, 2021 by eczarnik

Risk Managers are agents with dangerous missions.

INKTOBER DAY 31 (RISK): Risk Managers are mercenaries who do bodyguard duties for Bavel’s princes, religious leaders and other top officials when they go to dangerous conferences or meetings. These agents for rent sweep buildings ahead of time to find traps, preemptively slaughter assassins and perform other critical tasks.

Their standard gear includes a Slaughter Knife that tears and warps the fabric of space to create escape portals — and entering one brings a new set of perils! The agents also wear Personal Property Pants that store tons of survival goods. And a Hazard Mask protects against fire, gases and instant death.

Risk Managers earn top dollar for taking on the most dangerous duties. Because the job requires luck on their side, they tend to be very superstitious, worshipping molten metal idols and performing weird libation rituals. Furthermore, the job pressures tempt many of them to excessively drink the libations too.

Risk Managers are powered by the סכן shoresh root and family, which deal with entry, gatherings, conferences, houses of worship, sweeping the house, revenue, agents, princes, rentals, wealth, goods, risk, danger, knives, warping textiles, slaughter and more.

(NOTE: This character was published Oct. 31 on social media like Instagram, but I didn’t get time to post it here!)

Sotem “Stopper”

Posted on November 8, 2021 by eczarnik

 

The Sotem, aka the “Stopper,” is a chief unit in the Bavel Macrostructure’s secret police force. Linguistically, they represent the consonantal stop.

As a golem, the Sotem’s body is like the Bavel Guf soldier’s — Bavel recovers and mutilates a soulless body before equipping it with construct technology. For unknown reasons, while Guf soldiers have cork-shaped heads, Sotem have tampon-shaped ones. Sotem appear interchangeable, except for the “anonymous” disguises they wear.

Sotem are mentally neutral and think no independent thoughts; they’re solely driven by id and the regime’s orders. They cover up the truth and shut up even the vaguest citizen conversations. They also hunt down creators of sacred writings. Their headquarters, the Storehouse, is a vault of banned documents.

The Sotem have the power to stop enemies in their tracks, then shoot, mute or obliterate them with their caulking guns. And they can shut and seal any portal, lock or door.

The Sotem’s power comes from the סתם shoresh family, which governs stopping, valves, tampons, caulking, neutrality, closing, storehouses, muting, anonymity, concealing, the id, and more.