My Current D&D Characters

So, because of the big love I have for this game and TTRPGs in general, I thought I'd tell a little bit more about my current and past characters. 

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NORA

I started out playing as Lenore "Nora" Neferette, hunter and ranger. Nora grew up just outside the city in the woods with her mother and father and brother Aidyn, who is 7 years her junior. Her father taught her to use a bow-and-arrow, and her mother taught her how to use the land to her advantage, but to also appreciate what the land had to offer. Her younger brother was always pestering, but she loved and protected him. When she was a young child, she came across a baby owl, fallen from the nest and injured. Her father wanted to put the owlet out of it's misery, but Nora had other ideas. She nursed the owl back to health and trained it herself, the owl becoming her companion and best friend. She named the bird Salroka (Roka for short), the dwarvish word for friend or "one at my side".

When she was 9 years old, and Aidyn a toddler, a dragon was released upon the world and her parents, in an attempt to save their land, perished. Nora was orphaned in a heartbeat, and forced to become a parental figure to her younger brother. She was stern but understanding with her brother, not knowing exactly how to properly raise him but attempting to raise him like her parents did. They would bicker, sure, but Nora always had his best interests at heart and would do anything to protect him. 

10 years later, Nora now 19 and Aidyn 12, after a particularly bad fight, Nora stormed off to a nearby tavern where she lost a game of dice against the wrong person. Nora, having gotten a little too greedy on her gambling, fled, in an attempt to not have to pay. She hid out momentarily, but, after returning home, found it torn apart and Aidyn missing, presumably taken by the same criminals she owed money to. 

Over the next year she searched every lead she could, but could not find her brother. 

Eventually she found her brother, hidden away in a wizard's tower as his apprentice, a prodigy in tinkering and the arcane. This campaign, led by the wonderful childhood best friend and best man of my fiancé, saw Nora learning to let people in past the wall she built, learn to forgive others as well as herself, and grieve her family as well as build a new found family with her adventuring party. 

CALLIOPE-

I am currently playing Captain Calliope (Erodith) Nath, infamous pirate captain of the mythical Siren's Song and princess of the hidden triton city of Aeryial (Are-ee-ell). Running from her royal responsibilities at the age of 13, she found herself on the ship of a "merchant" captain and his crew. Stubborn, hardheaded as hell, snarky teenage Calliope was trained by the captain of this ship to be the best pirate she could, and eventually left the Siren's Song by the old man when he passed. She became the ship's new captain at the age of 17, a feat both impressive and infuriating to the crew who had spent decades working it. 

She lead the ship for 10 years, keeping her descent a secret from everyone expect Leryck, cleric of the god of knowledge, first-mate, and Calliope's eventual husband. The crew, suspecting secrets from their captain, create a mutiny against her and Leryck, throwing them overboard (which was kind of stupid on their part, I mean COME ON, she's a FISH. She BREATHES UNDER WATER). 

Calliope washes up on shore, not knowing where her husband is, or if he's even still alive. Her biggest goal was to find him and get her ship back from the traitorous crew that left them for dead. 

 A lot has gone on in this campaign since it's start around 3 years-ago, and since then she has found her husband, locked away in Aeryial by a friend of her father who was worshipping a demon. Unfortunately, this woman and the demon also had control over her father, the King of Aeryial, who accused Calliope of lying about being his daughter and out to destroy his kingdom. Eventually the woman and demon killed her father and her brother, Dhavos, was made the new king of Aeryial. 

Calliope and the rest of the adventuring party are currently in Elsium after the city they were in was transported by an evil wizard working for the disowned goddess of death on a mission to be released from her crystal prison and bring havoc to the planes. The "main god" (think Zeus in this scenario), has given the city an ultimatum -- either give up the innocent people that the gods were tricked into thinking had a hand in the death goddess's almost-return, or face his smite. A group of ill-lead vigilantes in the city, calling themselves "the Angels" (as compared to the actual angels of actual gods), have been attempting to do just that, willing to give up innocent people to a god who may be lying through his teeth. (does he have teeth? I don't know, the party hasn't met this god yet.)

Calliope's adventuring party is currently split in half, creating two adventuring parties made up of the original party members and towns folk. Calliope is currently in the city attempting to find answers, ward off The Angels from making any sacrifices of innocent townsfolk, and prepare the defense for the potential attack from the gods. The other party, including my character Winnifred Seaborn (I'll explain her in a minute), is off trying to rally the gods and goddesses behind them against the main god who has over stepped his place and become abusive. 

WINNIFRED "WINNIE" SEABORN-

Winnie Seaborn is my side character for my Calliope campaign. She is the daughter of the barkeep who owns the tavern where the main party fought The Angels after a failed attempt to trick their leader into revealing themselves. Winnie is a bard, learning everything she knows from the various patrons of the tavern. She loves to learn and to help anyone she can, which is why she volunteered to go with the second party going out to speak with the gods in an attempt to get their assistance. I haven't gotten to play her but a couple times, (we have 4 games going, so we get to play each campaign once a month, and with us going back and forth between the two parties in this campaign, it's even less than once a month I get to play Winnie), but I love Winnie so much. 

ZIP-

Oh boy, Zip. Sweet little Zip. 

 

One of the games we are currently playing is a superheroes campaign using the F.A.S.T. system (an all-d6 system using points to buy powers, feats, and weapons). It's essentially a "monsters of the week" style TTRPG. I play as Zip, who's spacehey account you can find in my friend's list. 

Zip is a mutated mushroom blob, the product of an experiment using alien technology by a mad scientist who eventually abandoned him. Zip escaped and wandered the city streets until an extremely old, extremely BLIND old man, mistook him for an ugly bulldog and took him in as his pet. 

Zip spends his time eating anything he can get his hands on, though his favorites are beef jerky, donuts, popcorn, and bacon sandwiches from the deli down the street from his pal AJ's house. (All of his snacks he carries in a little backpack that he wears) He comes and goes from his various friends' houses (the other party members) and essentially acts as their team mascot and pet. 

Zip is extremely goofy (he can't read but has opposable thumbs and is able to text emojis to his pals and will videocall them with his face entirely too close to the camera). He gets along with anyone and everyone (unless you hurt him or his friends). 

He enjoys spending time with his friends (the party consists of a "Luke Cage-esque" tough guy who works as a "doctor" and who's family is in both the Italian and Russian mobs; a "Batman-esque" asshole named Ratman (trademark pending) with a secret identity, a ton of money, and a thirst for WMDs; A teleporting gunslinger named Leon; an alien cat named Dr. Sludge (no that isn't a title, no she isn't a doctor) with a knack for goos, sludges, and slimes; and a "black canary-esque" woman with the ability to scream people to death and mind-control others despite the extreme illegal-status of mind-control.)

All-in-all, it's nice to play Zip. With my ADHD, it's refreshing to be able to turn my brain off and play a lovable idiot for a little bit. 

LORELEI -

In our current game of ROTFM, I play as Lorelei G. Dearborne, the daughter of town mortician Mortecai Dearborne and his late wife, the ex-ballerina Florence Dearborne. She is a cleric of Kelemvor, goddess (in this game) of Death, gifted with powers of necromancy and the ability to see spirits. It's because of her gifts (and her completely full-black eyes granting the ghost-sight) that she has been labeled a pariah by the people of her city. Despite this, she remains unbearably optimistic, dreaming of becoming a ballerina just like her mother was. But before she was able to achieve that dream, her father became extremely sick, and she was forced to take over the mortuary for him. 

It wasn't until the Frost Maiden covered everything in a never-ending winter that she was able to leave her father momentarily to follow the visions from Kelemvor she's received in dreams, telling her how she can save her father. 

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I put a little bit of myself in every character I create, so it's easy to see why I love this game so much and feel such a connecting with these make-believe characters. 

In Nora, I put my sense of responsibility to take care of my brother, whom I modeled Aidyn after, and my journey of learning to open up and let people in, and to forgive myself for my past mistakes; In Calliope, I put my fear of the unknown, my flight-response when responsibilities get too overwhelming, my desire to explore; In Winnie, I put my desire to help people and learn as much as I can; In Zip, I put my lovable nature, my goofiness, and he has helped me be able to calm down, turn off my worries for a bit, and just have fun; And in Lorelei, I put the child-like innocence, strength, and ability to see the good in everyone that I have discovered within myself since my autism diagnosis. 

That's why this game means so much to me, and not just because I get to spend every week with the best friends who have become my found family and wedding party, but because I get to explore parts of myself I am exploring and give a little bit of myself with every character.