Gulbuddin Ridgewalk
Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 4:24 pm
I’m introducing a portrait of my intended Roam character to help guide my (and hopefully your) thoughts and contributions on both Gulbuddin himself and the Roam posts over in World Development. It’s not quite a full character sheet for approval, but here’s what I have so far, and as I’m on the look-out for threads to bring him into, it might be useful for you guys to know who’s on his way. More to follow.
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Player Name: Roam
Name: Gulbuddin Ridgewalk, “Gul”, “Hearth-Singer”, “Gatherer” “That charming bastard who sold me a song and stole my daughter’s heart”
Age: 76 (Late middle age - True Roam live 2-3 times longer than humans)
Race: (True) Roam
Height[/b]: 6’3’’
Overview: Gulbuddin has spent his life travelling with a large Roam troupe, a collection of True Roam families and Newcomers who have traded and entertained their way across half the world. His troupe produces a mysterious, circus-like carnival show outside the towns it visits, called Dr Hex’s Carnival of Waking Dreams.
Gulbuddin has roamed for more than seven decades with a community rarely bigger than sixty members at a time. Life is hard on the road. Days are long and monotonous, food and water are scarce, and the weather can be treacherous: burning hot, freezing cold, wet, arid, unforgiving, angry, deadly. Animal attacks and tough terrain must be overcome, bandits defeated, wounds tended, disease suffered. Food for the most part must be hunted or gathered, animals husbanded, children raised and all the wild open spaces of the world must be navigated. And when the troupe does finally find the next city or town, there is no time to rest, because that is when the work begins. The Carnival, the trading, the mending and resupplying are usually all a blur and a buzz, before the troupe packs up and sets off again into the wilderness.
Balladeer, knife-thrower, herald
Everyone in a troupe has many roles to play in the Carnival. Gul, no longer a young buck, has been playing his for decades and is a superb performer. He has two performing roles. For customers outside the Carnival, in cities and marketplaces and such, he sings and plays a lute wonderfully. He is as accomplished with lively, bawdy tunes that shake a tavern as he is with sonorous, melodic ballads that make listeners yearn for better days and lost joys. During the Carnival shows themselves, Gulbuddin performs a popular knife-throwing act, defying logic and sense as he performs apparently impossible throws through wooden doors, around brass plates and through the earrings of his assistant while blindfolded.
Outside the Carnival and singing, Gulbuddin has a much more important role. Roam troupes know that they do not always receive an ideal reception. Bandits wait to rob them, cities want to tax them, superstitious locals occasionally try to burn them. Before arriving anywhere en masse, lone members of the troupe travel ahead, enter cities on their own, and get to know the local area. These lone Roam make friends and try to understand how and when the troupe should arrive, what to expect, who to bribe, which dignitaries to invite and what goods to trade. They also start seeding stories, preparing the ground, offering deals, building excitement for the Carnival’s arrival. The intelligence they gather is vital to the troupe’s success, and sometimes survival. Gulbuddin is one of these heralds, or Gatherers as the Roam call them.
Physical Description: With newly greying hair and a physique just passing its peak, Guldbuddin is a man whose his future as a grizzled, leathery old soldier is just beginning to peak through the glow of active middle age. He is lean and muscular in a stringy way, like a mountain goat (think Iggy Pop -Ed) Shoulder-length hair, once inky black and now streaked with white, hangs loose, partly covering sharp cheekbones and salt-and-pepper stubble. Like most True Roam, Gul’s skin, though tanned nut-brown, has a faint blue/green pallor and subtle oily sheen that can be disconcerting in the wrong light. His eyes are a startling green, like jewels in the sunlight, and their playful sparkle is matched by a devilish smile that seems much more youthful than the face around it. In all, the combination leaves him looking weathered, but approachable. He looks charming, competent, wise and a little bit dangerous. (No wonder women keep falling for him -Ed)
His clothes (when travelling, not when performing as a knife-thrower) are a muted patchwork of oft-stitched garments, practical and simple. A long, leather dustcoat (Think “Once Upon a Time in the West” -Ed), covered in patches, hangs open. He wears Light leather boots , carries a straight back, and levels a straight stare.
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Player Name: Roam
Name: Gulbuddin Ridgewalk, “Gul”, “Hearth-Singer”, “Gatherer” “That charming bastard who sold me a song and stole my daughter’s heart”
Age: 76 (Late middle age - True Roam live 2-3 times longer than humans)
Race: (True) Roam
Height[/b]: 6’3’’
Overview: Gulbuddin has spent his life travelling with a large Roam troupe, a collection of True Roam families and Newcomers who have traded and entertained their way across half the world. His troupe produces a mysterious, circus-like carnival show outside the towns it visits, called Dr Hex’s Carnival of Waking Dreams.
Gulbuddin has roamed for more than seven decades with a community rarely bigger than sixty members at a time. Life is hard on the road. Days are long and monotonous, food and water are scarce, and the weather can be treacherous: burning hot, freezing cold, wet, arid, unforgiving, angry, deadly. Animal attacks and tough terrain must be overcome, bandits defeated, wounds tended, disease suffered. Food for the most part must be hunted or gathered, animals husbanded, children raised and all the wild open spaces of the world must be navigated. And when the troupe does finally find the next city or town, there is no time to rest, because that is when the work begins. The Carnival, the trading, the mending and resupplying are usually all a blur and a buzz, before the troupe packs up and sets off again into the wilderness.
Balladeer, knife-thrower, herald
Everyone in a troupe has many roles to play in the Carnival. Gul, no longer a young buck, has been playing his for decades and is a superb performer. He has two performing roles. For customers outside the Carnival, in cities and marketplaces and such, he sings and plays a lute wonderfully. He is as accomplished with lively, bawdy tunes that shake a tavern as he is with sonorous, melodic ballads that make listeners yearn for better days and lost joys. During the Carnival shows themselves, Gulbuddin performs a popular knife-throwing act, defying logic and sense as he performs apparently impossible throws through wooden doors, around brass plates and through the earrings of his assistant while blindfolded.
Outside the Carnival and singing, Gulbuddin has a much more important role. Roam troupes know that they do not always receive an ideal reception. Bandits wait to rob them, cities want to tax them, superstitious locals occasionally try to burn them. Before arriving anywhere en masse, lone members of the troupe travel ahead, enter cities on their own, and get to know the local area. These lone Roam make friends and try to understand how and when the troupe should arrive, what to expect, who to bribe, which dignitaries to invite and what goods to trade. They also start seeding stories, preparing the ground, offering deals, building excitement for the Carnival’s arrival. The intelligence they gather is vital to the troupe’s success, and sometimes survival. Gulbuddin is one of these heralds, or Gatherers as the Roam call them.
Physical Description: With newly greying hair and a physique just passing its peak, Guldbuddin is a man whose his future as a grizzled, leathery old soldier is just beginning to peak through the glow of active middle age. He is lean and muscular in a stringy way, like a mountain goat (think Iggy Pop -Ed) Shoulder-length hair, once inky black and now streaked with white, hangs loose, partly covering sharp cheekbones and salt-and-pepper stubble. Like most True Roam, Gul’s skin, though tanned nut-brown, has a faint blue/green pallor and subtle oily sheen that can be disconcerting in the wrong light. His eyes are a startling green, like jewels in the sunlight, and their playful sparkle is matched by a devilish smile that seems much more youthful than the face around it. In all, the combination leaves him looking weathered, but approachable. He looks charming, competent, wise and a little bit dangerous. (No wonder women keep falling for him -Ed)
His clothes (when travelling, not when performing as a knife-thrower) are a muted patchwork of oft-stitched garments, practical and simple. A long, leather dustcoat (Think “Once Upon a Time in the West” -Ed), covered in patches, hangs open. He wears Light leather boots , carries a straight back, and levels a straight stare.
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