Info and Permissions

[strawmaiden]

PLAYER

CONTACT: PM
ACTIVE TIMES/PACE: CST, relatively fast tagger
BRACKETS/PROSE: Either? I like prose, but can match
OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS:

IN CHARACTER

PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Sure!
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: Also sure! Janest has abilities that allow her to be much more formidable than a simple farm girl from a tiny village might be expected
RELATIONSHIPS: Sure!
PSYCHIC & PSIONIC INFORMATION: There is some resistance to psychic intrusions due to her nature. Let's talk OOCly and figure out the most fun way to resolve it.
MAGICAL INFORMATION: The chosen of a low-ranking harvest god named Ten Sheaves, Janest is a powerful woman. Those from D&D or adjacent fandoms might register her as a Celestial Warlock. Those with a sense for auras may note that Janest’s anima is a riot of verdure, blazing in the gold of grain but also in the rich blacks and browns of soil, the greens of rain-fed fields, and the white of the noonday sun. She has several Cool Magic Abilities called Charms, details of which are in a comment below.
MEDICAL INFORMATION: Very healthy! Like, peak human condition.
OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS:

OUT OF CHARACTER

BACKTAGGING: I am not particularly good at backtagging. If you know you're going to be away, or if you want to jump back into something after a couple weeks, please reach out.
THREADHOPPING: Ask first
FOURTHWALLING: No thank you.
NOT INTERESTED IN: Smut without previous CR

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

VISUAL: A blonde woman in homespun clothing, pieces of wheat in her hair even when that would be unseasonable. She may be dwarfed by the green jade scythe she carries, and when she uses her Exalted abilities, her anima flares in spectral plantlife.
AURAL: A 'country bumpkin' sort of accent; regardless of setting, one gets the impression that she's a bit of a hayseed.
OLFACTORY: There's always a bit of an aroma of fertile soil and hay around her.
DEMEANOUR: A naturally warm, friendly personality, she's the friend to all 'little people', and eager to help out in any village or community she visits. She sticks out in larger cities as someone who just doesn't belong here.

☆ code by kimmiserate ☆

Comments

Powers and Abilities

[strawmaiden]

Anima Effects
Autumnal Grimscythe: Janest’s grimscythe is a part of her and her Exaltation. With a thought she can reflexively call it to her hand, regardless of distance.

Harvest Walker: By spending a significant amount of energy, Janest may vanish into the fields. This isn’t immediate — roots and vines grow from her anima to form a cocoon around her. If she moves or suffers forced movement or knockdown before her next turn, the cocoon falls apart and this power is negated. Otherwise, once her next turn begins, she disappears. Moments later, she reappears within a field, rural settlement, or place of significant interest to her community within ten miles, but not necessarily one of her choosing. She often finds herself in the vicinity of those in need of aid, especially if she intended to offer such help using this power.

Return to the Cycle: Without spending much effort, Janest causes a touched corpse to rapidly decompose, returning its nutrients to the soil. The deceased’s soul won’t linger as a hungry ghost and passes on to the afterlife unless his community’s needs still press on him. If she uses this power on a sacrifice offered to a field guardian or a similar spirit of plants, soil, or agriculture, she gains an advantage to dealings with or against that spirit.

Charms
- Janest is much stronger than a simple reaper of wheat, her god magnifying her strength to heroic levels
- Those who witness her performing feats of strength may be inspired by them -- or terrified, if enemies
- She's also gifted with the stamina of an ox, and enhanced resistance to mundane disease and poisons
- As long as Janest is in practical work clothes (nothing too fancy for working in the fields), they act as armor against attacks for her
- If Janest is aware of a weapon attack with a mundane weapon coming at her, she can spend energy to rust the blade or rot the wood. This doesn't work against magical weapons or artifacts
- Janest can see and interact with immaterial characters like ghosts/spirits/etc. This includes being able to attack them with her Grimscythe
- She has an innate sense of plant life in her vicinity, and can diagnose blights, forage for edible plants, and read things like toolmarks on a tree's trunk to know the circumstances that caused it
- With a touch, Janest can bless soil, plants or animals with enhanced fecundity and health for one year's time. This does not work on people
- Janest may touch a living plant to displace her perspective to another of the same kind within shouting distance
- Upon tasting soil or minerals, Janest can determine their origin. Likewise, consuming food or drink lets her discern where its ingredients came from, while tasting someone’s blood lets her determine where he was born and grew up
- By working land, tending to the health of plants or animals, or making an offering to nature spirits, Janest can influence elemental spirits and land wights to be predisposed toward friendliness in her direction
- The Strawmaiden’s song darkens clouds with life-giving rain or turns away storms to brighten the sky
- Janest and anyone traveling with her finds that the environment seems mild, unless there's supernatural effects making travel more difficult

Backstory (short version)

[strawmaiden]

Janest grew up among the field-maidens of the town of Kolisz, deeply entrenched in her community, but when threats like raiders and attacking Raksha forced her village to use their scythes as weapons, the harvest god Ten Sheaves who was the village's patron called for her to be brought to his temple. He had determined she would be the key to the survival of Kolisz.

She walked with Ten Sheaves through fields of golden wheat, listening as he spoke of the gods, and Heaven, and a field-maiden’s duty. Though some of her sisters had stronger arms, or were better tacticians, Janest’s dedication to her people made her a worthy champion in his eyes. So she was gifted a spark of divinity that Ten Sheaves had petitioned the Unconquered Sun for, becoming Exalted. Awareness flooded into her, that of the fields and farms throughout the valley, the soil and the streams that nourished them. The god gave her one last gift before he faded away: a massive grimscythe. The god-weapon’s black blade glinted in the first light of dawn.

She used it to protect her village, rallying the field-maidens with divine strength, cutting down the Raksha nobles who would have destroyed Kolisz. But in the aftermath, her brothers and sisters turned to her like she was now their leader, instead of their lifelong friend and fellow worker. Realizing that it would be far too easy for her to set herself above everyone else, to be worshiped just as much as her god, Janest made a choice: to leave Kolisz and travel the world, offering aid to any small community that needs the gifts of the Strawmaiden.