The first thing you need to do is choose a name for your character. See the style guide for some tips on choosing a name that fits with the setting.

Next, choose a Standing. This represents your position within the Royalty of Esharia and, as well as informing characterisation, gives you some ideas of what sort of resources you could draw upon. (e.g. A General would have access to a lot of military support, whereas a Courtier would be able to have more access to the right people to get the job done) The list of standings below gives you a brief explanation of what each one is, and what it would provide you. Know that this is not an exhaustive list, and if you can justify another standing that doesn't fall within one listed below the GMs will let you take it. For this, bear in mind that you must play a character who would be at the Gatherings in the Palace - see the Background/Bio step.

• Mayoral - You are the ruler of a city-state, the city is your quasi-independent domain and you can rely on it as a base of power. To a certain extent, this is the assumed default background: you will have access to an average amount of financial/military/political/etc resources, and so you can be flexible.
• Military - You are in charge of a army/naval force, which may be mercenary; they are loyal to you, and you can lead them where you need. This provides a great amount of military might, and some other resources depending on what type of military force you command (e.g. Mercenaries may have greater amounts of coin).
• Priesthood - You are a foremost member of Esharia's Priesthood, and represent your god in the Council of Spirits. This will give you great ability to command and effect change in a small area that you represent, as well as broader political power among your priestly peers.
• Courtly - You are a courtier, be it either a Courtier in the palace, or merely a noble who strongly represents their House. By spending a lot of time either around the Palace, or around those who you have political influence over, what you lack in solid resources, you more than make up for in access to power and the ability to find the right person at the right time.
• Economic - You are a merchant, or possibly a very skilled artisan, who knows the ins and outs of the economic system of Esharia. With this, you often find yourself with enough spare coin to fund whatever other projects take your fancy, as well as the knowledge of people who are skilled at producing precious things. Those people might well include yourself.
• Academic - The universities are among Esharia's most venerable institutions, and you are one of the most prominent academics within them; you are surrounded by (mostly) like-minded people, and have the support of a body that will surely outlast you. You will almost always be able to be kept abreast of the latest debates of all kinds, and for the most part the universities protect their own.

As part of this, you must choose whether you are based in the Plains, the Heights, the Wetlands, Hashat, the Palace, or Client States. You cannot be a delegate from Orrium. Note that if you choose the Client States, you should take the the equivalent negative quirk.

This will provide you with extra briefs and news which come from you spending most of your time in that area. Furthermore, you must provide a description of what your Standing is when writing your bio. You are encouraged to invent your own noble houses, cities, gods, or anything else you would like.¹⁾

Once you have a background, you must choose your skill set. These describe what your character knows how to do, through natural inclination or rigorous training. Your character will be:

• Outstanding at one skill.
• Accomplished at two skills.
• Ineffectual at one skill.
• Competent at all the rest.

Twice you may lower a Competent skill to Ineffectual in order to raise another skill by one rank. (Competent → Accomplished → Outstanding). At this point, any skills which are at Outstanding rank must also have a specialisation, which describes an area of this skill where you are exceptionally talented.

Finally you have retainers to assist you in your endeavours. Pick two skills: so long as your retainers are around, these skills count as having the Accomplished rank. Also please name and briefly describe your retainers.

You should now give your characters quirks and flaws. These are unusual traits that define the advantages your character has, or the disadvantages which plague them.

• You start with one free positive quirk.
• You may take up to three extra positive quirks.
• For each extra positive quirk you must take a negative flaw to balance it out.
• Thus you may have up to four quirks, so long as you have up to three flaws.
• You may take extra flaws (at no extra benefit) up to a hard maximum of six.

Finally you should write a background and a bio for your character.

Your background is only shared with the GM team. It should contain an overview of who your character is and how they got to where they are now. Including information about how your quirks and flaws fit into your life, your character's aspirations, and similar is greatly encouraged.

One thing that you must include in your background is a description of your Standing. For example, if you are a ruler of a city state, you should provide a name and a quick description. If you are a priest, you should give us a description of the area which defines your god, and a few details of your priesthood. Note that while we are sure this will mostly be fine, a background is always subject to GM approval.

A bio is shared publicly with the rest of the player base, and should be convey what is publicly known, or at least rumoured, about your character. This doesn't need to take any particular form, but should not be excessively long.

Once you have your character, email the details to gm@firmament.chaosdeathfish.com. The deadline for character submissions is 23:59 on Thursday 19th April. Be sure to include the following:

Name:
Standing:
Region:

Skills
Outstanding:
Accomplished:
Competent:
Ineffectual:

Retainers
Retainer 1 (Skill):
Retainer 2 (Skill):

Quirks
Positive:
Negative:
0-point:

Background:
Public Bio:

If you have any queries, please email us!