Galva Lithos
Galva Lithos (a.k.a. Magnus Galva)
Galva is an Earth Genasi warrior with a trace of giant heritage. At one time she was an honorable and respected swordswoman, but after a disgraceful defeat she turned to vagrancy in hopes of finding her way in life once more. And that road led her here, right into the crew of a pirate ship.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
As a woman whose strength is nearly as impressive as her height, Galva's body is an almost statuesque level of muscular, sculpted from a lifetime of combat training. As such, she's more toned than curvy, but does have moderately sized breasts (... proportionate to her frame, at least). Whenever she's not sleeping or bathing, she binds them tightly to keep them out of her way.
Her left shoulder suffered a severe injury, enough that she nearly lost her arm. She still has an extensive scar from the incident. While she has regained almost all mobility of her arm, it's still a little too stiff for sword fighting, and stretching it the wrong way might make it twinge in pain.
Body Features
Having the elemental powers of an earth genasi has made her look much like an earth elemental herself.
One of her most distinctive features is her hair, which is constantly flowing like a very slow waterfall of kinetic sand. It hangs heavy and straight down towards the ground, dissolving magically at the ends. The color is mostly shades of black and brown, with the occasional flecks of gold. On some planets, it will start to change color to match the minerals in the ground.
Her skin isn't literally stone, but it is remarkably smooth and also contains some unusual mineral tones to it. When she bleeds, it has an unusual metallic look to it.
Facial Features
Her facial expression is very stiff, emoting more through the eyes than anything else. However, she does have at least two expressions, since her default flat expression shifts into something far more focused and serious when she's in combat.
Identifying Characteristics
Everything about her is pretty conspicuous! However, one particular point of note is the gnarly scar going through her left shoulder, which is glassy with a coppery color.
Physical quirks
Left-handed by birth, but after her injury, she's retrained herself to rely on her right hand instead.
Her posture is excellent, though somewhat stiff out of battle. It sometimes seems like she's trying not to take up more space than she already needs to.
Specialized Equipment
She refuses to use any other sword than her katana, even though it's broken down to a fraction of its original size. Ever since it was broken, she can't seem to remember what it was called or where she got it from. For now, she calls it Facet, and hopes that things will become clear as she fixes it.
It might take a while, though, because she's being incredibly picky about what materials she wants to use to repair it.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Home Life
Galva was the daughter of the earth genasi Obsidian and the water genasi Tsunami. However, her parents' relationship did not last, and Tsunami left when Galva was fairly young, leaving Obsidian to raise Galva as a single father. He was a skilled blacksmith who taught Galva how to craft weapons and armor from an early age. Her father later remarried to Cindra, a fire genasi, around the same time that Galva awakened to her earth element. Her relationship with both her stepmother and her young half-brother, Col, is good but somewhat distant. While growing up, Galva found a small tsuchinoko living in her family's garden, which she called Tsukki and fed as if it were a pet.Warrior Training
By constantly training with the weapons in her father's forge, Galva proved herself worthy of induction into her warrior secule at age 14. (Which sounds crazy young, but this is actually about the average age. If you haven't been inducted into a secule by the age of 16, people are going to see you as a NEET.) She studied the blade, and through skill alone (because it certainly wasn't by her personality) she proved herself as a swordswoman of great promise. She was part of the triad assigned to serve as bodyguards for the foreign delegate visiting their world. And considering she was the guard of their formation, her role in it was essential. During a meeting kept secret from the public, the assembly fell under attack, and Galva disobeyed an order to retreat. In confronting her enemy directly, her sword was broken and her arm was nearly severed at the shoulder. She still carries an extensive scar from this attack, which due to her elemental body has a glassy appearance and a coppery color. Her failure and the poor judgment leading to it were deemed highly dishonorable, and led to her getting cast out of the secule. Worse, she had a severe injury and a shattered weapon, which would make it impossible to prove herself as still being a warrior worthy of any other secule. The natural option would have been to return home, but the thought filled her with unbearable shame.Vagrancy
Only the aristocracy had the authority to allow genasi to leave their homeworld, and Galva was in no position to seek that approval. Instead, she decided to stow away on a spaceship and wander different worlds as a vagrant. Her goal was to focus on survival until her shoulder healed, then gather materials for forging a sword without peer. Unfortunately, even a warrior of singular purpose still needs to consider needs like food, shelter, and maintaining her equipment. At first, she tried sticking to mercenary work, but quickly found that negotiating was as important to being a mercenary as physical capability. The better she did, the more competition she faced, and taking on more difficult jobs still left her living hand to mouth. Her quest was going nowhere fast. Despite once being a very lawful person, desperation made her comfortable with crime. She wasn't particularly adept at it, since she was far too conspicuous to learn skills like picking pockets, but found it hard to summon up the nerve for brigandry. Instead, she started with a simpler approach, of simply grabbing what she needed and making a run for it. Even if she was caught, she could fight off her pursuers without trouble. With practice, she moved onto raiding small bandit camps and breaking into trading company storehouses. All of this meant that she wasn't able to stay in one place for very long, and spent more time sleeping outside than in a bed, but at least she was regaining control of her life. She wandered the stars, traveling from planet to planet through further illegal means, like hijacking small crafts or continuing to stow away in the holds of merchant ships. On one world, she learned of a treasury which held bullion of a very rare alloy called ioaxine, thought to be comparable in strength to mythril or adamantine. This, she thought, would be a prime material for reforging her sword's blade. Since the treasury was well guarded, things went wrong very quickly. But rather than turn and run, she fought her way in and took out the guards as she encountered them. In the end, it turned out to be a waste: The ioaxine was incredibly soft, closer to gold than adamantine. Disheartened, she tried to escape, but found her path blocked by a swarm of reinforcements who arrested her on the spot.Gender Identity
Cis woman. More feminine than her spartan lifestyle shows.
Sexuality
Demisexual. Talking to people is terrifying enough, yikes.
Education
Growing up, her schooling was enough to cover the basics. While working in her father's forge, though, she had the chance to learn about metalwork, mechanics, and even a little chemistry and physics.
Her warrior training focused primarily on sword fighting and other combat skills. However, there was also time dedicated to studying philosophy and religion, which was meant to cultivate a deep understanding of their warrior code.
Employment
Previously served as a guardian-type warrior, one of many taking orders from the genasi aristocracy. Now part of a pirate crew under Captain Zellias Vance-Arland, and trying to get set up as the ship's engineer.
Failures & Embarrassments
Poor judgment led to failure in the line of duty, along with a broken weapon and nearly losing her entire arm. Dismissed from service as a result.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Right now, her driving goal is to not just fix her sword, but forge it into something stronger than it was before. In a broader sense, she wants to regain her honor as a warrior... but how does she do that, and what does it even mean? Fixing her sword is a clear, achievable goal, so she's starting with that.
With no one else to pledge loyalty to, she's now committed herself to aiding these people who helped her escape from jail. Especially the captain, because hey, he's the captain.
Likes & Dislikes
she like swords
Virtues & Personality perks
Unflinchingly loyal.
Vices & Personality flaws
She has trouble voicing her thoughts and feelings, and usually sticks to quietly murmuring something short and vague.
Might have a ravenous appetite?
Hygiene
Believe it or not, she's not getting sand everywhere, because the sand in her hair is magic and dissipates as it falls away. In fact, her elemental nature makes her stay unusually clean, as if grime has a hard time sticking to her! However, she's diligent about cleaning herself anyway, especially her clothes and armor, because she's self-conscious about people seeing her earth element as "dirty".
A mountain of a swordswoman, whose slabs of muscle and stony demeanor leaves enemies quaking in their boots. Her lawful life was upturned and she nearly hit rock bottom, but that merely paved the way to a new life of piracy.
View Character Profile
Alignment
True Neutral
Current Status
Bounty: 450,000 Credits
Currently Boarded Vehicle
Species
Age
26
Birthplace
Seireikawa city greater area, Tsjugen region, planet Ragbadna
Family
Children
Pronouns
she/her
Gender
Female
Eyes
Dark, steely blue
Hair
Magical sand that's long, heavy, straight, and speckled
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tarnished iron
Height
9'00"
Weight
like a quarter of a ton srsly
The Followers
Chapter 2, Session 12
Has it really been over a year since I last touched this? Even though I've had my excuses, it's impossible to look back at the dates and not feel ashamed. I should try to remember that writing down these meditations isn't for the sake of practicing strokes on paper.
I should also rethread the binding on this, since the string is starting to fray. Maybe when I do, I'll take out all the old writings and make them into a separate, finished notebook. After all, this would be an appropriate time to start fresh.
My life scarcely resembles what it was back then, or even months ago. Though I may still be a vagrant, I am no longer skulking along back roads or living hand to mouth. And, much to my own surprise, I am no longer alone. Instead, I have joined a small crew of my fellow fugitives aboard a previously abandoned starship. None are the sort of people I would have expected to work with so closely. In fact, if I had met the captain just a few years earlier, he would have been my enemy.
I can't help but feel indebted to him, and to all of them. The only reason my life has changed so much is because, by an incredible stroke of luck, we ended up in the same prison when they needed to recruit some muscle for their breakout. And what if they hadn't? By that point, I had nothing left save for an ounce of spite.
Those darker thoughts aren't ones I want to revisit. However, lately I've been seeing shadows of myself on the faces of other people.
As we looked to supply ourselves for whatever untold journeys lay ahead, we found ourselves caught up in the affairs of Aposa, a city on the planet Doth. It's a city populated with devout followers of Torm, the Hand of Righteousness, and it's not hard to imagine that he watched over it diligently in times past. Unfortunately, for reasons we have yet to understand, his guidance has faded along with that of far too many other gods. And so, when we found it, the city was full of the lost and misguided, each trying to figure out how to make sense of their lives again.
Maybe I shouldn't assume that I know how they feel. But it seems like a warrior's code and a paladin's oath aren't all that different.
Before I studied the code myself, I thought it was all meant as a measure of character. If you followed the tenets diligently, you could prove the strength of your body and spirit, and demonstrate to your lord that you were worthy of their favor. And if you failed in this, the punishment would be the crushing weight of your shame, which only redoubling your efforts could overcome.
But that's actually looking at things backwards. The code isn't a set of instructions that you have to carry out in exchange for a reward. Instead, it's a guide to help you find your own way in life, and to shape it into something you'll find worthwhile. Isn't that the whole reason we devote ourselves to lords and masters in the first place? So that, even as we wander in the dark, we will have a lodestar to help us find our way?
Because of that, the worst part of breaking away is not an injured pride. It's the doubt that seeps in through the cracks. You know that there's something wrong, but you don't know what it is or how to fix it. And it takes away the guidance you need, even though that's when you need it the most.
Which brings us back to Aposa. With Torm gone, and all his devouts searching for answers, the trickster god Cyric decided to provide his own. Once we uncovered what was happening, we were able to set things right: Our fae friend, with bright-eyed conviction, refused to let the leader of the city stay blinded by Cyric's lies. And our cleric, delivering the judgment of Kelemvor himself, exorcized Cyric's dark presence from the city. I'm not sure we could have asked for a greater victory, or a grander celebration to follow.
Despite that, when the paladins reflected on how things ever ended up the way they did, both the most steadfast and the most misguided came up with the same answer: They failed Torm. Something in their own soul had been lacking. Did he not have enough faith? Was all her faith simply not enough?
"Do you truly think that that was all your fault?"
It's the question the captain posed to her, the paladin who had been Cyric's pawn in all this. All things considered, it is a pretty good question.
If we look to someone for guidance, and yet we find that we've traveled down the wrong road, why are we so quick to blame ourselves?
Maybe that's the problem of looking to higher powers for guidance. Lords, kings, gods – we feel so small and so far beneath them, and feel that we'll need to prove ourselves worthy before they can help us. But if they're so great, then why should anyone be beyond their help?
Or maybe it's a problem with faith itself. We're asked to believe so much in those we follow, so much that we believe in them more than ourselves. The idea that they could fail us for any reason becomes so unthinkable that we aren't even allowed to raise the question. It's not the role of a follower to guide the leader.
As I said, I've felt indebted to the rest of this crew since they first recruited me. However, that's not what makes me want to follow them. And honestly, I've been struggling to put my finger on the real reason why.
From the start, I've chalked it up to desperation. When you've lost all sense of direction, and you run into someone who seems to be headed somewhere, does it really matter what the destination is? Following them can't be any worse than wandering about on your own.
But maybe I'm not giving my instincts enough credit. Truthfully, even after joining up with them, and after everything that's changed because of it, I still have no idea where I'm going. And, for what may be the first time ever, I don't really mind that.
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