Let's vote up another Burning Wheel Character!

[Urpriest]

Slave to the Dark, the song of blood beckons...

[Amphetryon]

The Rites, please. She has the Rite stuff.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The Rites it is, ladies and gentlemen! So, then. Let's take a look at where our little orc lass is headed next... (well, perhaps that's not the right terminology...)

Now that our orc has undergone The Rites of orcish initiation, which (judging by some of the skills/traits she picks up) are not terribly pleasant...options open up a little. (Interesting side note: she also gets mental and physical stat boosts from this lifepath.)

Within the Great and Black Setting
She can still become a Servant of the Gate, which is not terribly glamorous, and doesn't benefit her all that much.

She can also become She Who Walks in the Named's Shadow, a member of a lower caste of orcish society, aspiring to join the higher ranks of the Named (those orcs who have earned a proper name). This lifepath will also open up the wolf-rider branch in the Legion.

Headed to the Black Legion
Having been Born Great actually restricts our orc in this case (lifepaths marked "Born Great Ones may not take this path"), although it only really restricts her from some of the "cannon fodder" roles in the Legion. Our orc, having taken The Rites, can jump straight into a few different lifepaths...

She can be a Hatred Bearer, one of the orcs who apparently acts as a sort of herald, inspiring the orcs and frenzying them in hatred.

She can be a Despair Shouter, putting her in charge of the Brazen Horn of Despair, which is blown before and during battle to demoralize the enemy. Quite a cushy job, actually.

Finally, she can be She Who Bears the Lash and Drives Us Ever On, cracking the whip at the underling orcs. This will eventually allow her to boss around big ol' trolls...

Becoming a Servant of the Dark Blood
As noted before, she can begin the very linear ascent, starting as a Slave to the Dark.

[Knaight]

She Who Walks in the Named's Shadow it is.

[The Glyphstone]

She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On. What sort of Warboss doesn't have trolls to boss around?

[Xefas]

She Who Walks in the Named's Shadow for me as well.

[Totally Guy]

She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On.

For this reason.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Originally Posted by Totally Guy

She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On.

For this reason.

Hahaha! I knew exactly what that video was going to be.

Oh, I should've mentioned. She Who Bears the Lash will automatically grant our orc the "Where There's A Whip, There's A Way" trait. Yup. It's in the book. XD

[ExtravagantEvil]

She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On. from me

[Amphetryon]

She Who Walks In The Named's Shadow, for the wolves.

[Sodalite]

Why did it have to be a tie? Both seem pretty cool, and I'm bad a picking between to potential great options, both of which are ultimately inconsequential, so I'll leave this up to the winds of fate.

Evens means Bears, odds means Walks.

[roll]1d100[/roll]

Edit: Hm...I completely forgot there isn't dice funtionality outside of the game forums. Ah well, to random.org it is.

And it's a 6, so She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On it is.

[Zelphas]

But... but I wanted to vote for She Who Walks in the Named's Shadow, which brings it back to a tie...

[Sanguine]

She Who Walks In The Named's Shadow Because wolves.

[Xefas]

Originally Posted by Sodalite

...both of which are ultimately inconsequential, so I'll leave this up to the winds of fate.

They're fairly consequential. They determine a lot about what stats and traits we'll have, as well as what Lifepaths we'll have access to afterward.

Bears the Lash will give us access to Head-Taker and Whisperer (the former is a combat-y sort of dude, and that latter is a socializing sort of dude), while She Who Walks In the Named's Shadow gives us access to The Black Destroyer (a scary mounted guy).

If we decide to go beyond 4 lifepaths (as Guitarrem noted, kinda risky for an Orc), Black Destroyer will eventually lead to Named, and then Great One.

The Dwarf burned in the other thread had, in total from all lifepaths, 30 resources. Great One, as the warboss lifepath, gives you +50 resources per time you take it. Just sayin', in case anyone wants to see how the system handles a ruler sort of character.

[Sodalite]

No, by not consequential, I mean it's not a life or death thing, for me at least. Obviously for this orc lady, this is a pretty big point of divergence in her life. I'm bad at saying things, so I guess this confusion is all I could have expected.

Edit: Hm...thinking again, the warbossiness potential with Great One does seem substantially interesting. Then again, it looks to be that Walks is in the lead anyway, so I won't bother changing votes until it goes back to being a tie.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Hehehehe. So, we come to our first nailbiter!! I'll leave this up until sometime tomorrow, and then I'll swoop by to see who's winning.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

It's funny to note how different this thread is handled compared to the previous one. In the previous thread, we were all just stumbling in the dark, in this one, we are getting way more information and some people are actually trying to plan ahead!

Now before is is a though choice and I actually like all three options, however
She Who Bears The Lash and Drives Us Ever On wins by a slight margin.

[Totally Guy]

Originally Posted by Fenix_of_Doom

In the previous thread, we were all just stumbling in the dark, in this one, we are getting way more information and some people are actually trying to plan ahead!

I'm guessing you prefer this one. But in spite of stumbling around we still got a guy with a bit of depth to him.

[Sith_Happens]

I was going to keep pushing Slave to the Dark, but that "where there's a whip, there's a way bit" turned me around. She Who Bear the Lash and Ever Drives Us On it is. I can only hope that the new lifepaths opened up by this one will have names nearly as hammy.

Originally Posted by Xefas

Spoiler

They're fairly consequential. They determine a lot about what stats and traits we'll have, as well as what Lifepaths we'll have access to afterward.

Bears the Lash will give us access to Head-Taker and Whisperer (the former is a combat-y sort of dude, and that latter is a socializing sort of dude), while She Who Walks In the Named's Shadow gives us access to The Black Destroyer (a scary mounted guy).

If we decide to go beyond 4 lifepaths (as Guitarrem noted, kinda risky for an Orc), Black Destroyer will eventually lead to Named, and then Great One.

The Dwarf burned in the other thread had, in total from all lifepaths, 30 resources. Great One, as the warboss lifepath, gives you +50 resources per time you take it. Just sayin', in case anyone wants to see how the system handles a ruler sort of character.

Spoilers much? I thought the point of this thread was for us to go blind and see what happens.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

Originally Posted by Totally Guy

I'm guessing you prefer this one. But in spite of stumbling around we still got a guy with a bit of depth to him.

Actually, I don't, I like thinking about things and figuring them out but I don't have to know all my future options, in fact not knowing what's going to happen was a big part of what made the previous thread exiting.

Besides planning seems silly if you don't actually get to decide what happens next, last time I pretty much had to readjust my views of the character after every vote, and that was without planning ahead.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

It's true, there's more info provided. Pretty much the only reason I did that was because Orcs. Like TG pointed out, they are ridiculously limited in some ways. (That's a very interesting element, I hadn't realized it via my cursory read-through before. But I think it strongly reflects a specific culture.)

So I didn't want you all quite going in blind, for that reason. If I did another "let's vote up" thread, I would give you more blindness.

[Totally Guy]

Originally Posted by CarpeGuitarrem

Like TG pointed out, they are ridiculously limited in some ways. (That's a very interesting element, I hadn't realized it via my cursory read-through before. But I think it strongly reflects a specific culture.)

It's a good job we haven't had human born in a city. There must be 30 lifepath options at least!

[Fenix_of_Doom]

I suddenly feel another thread coming after this.....

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Originally Posted by Fenix_of_Doom

I suddenly feel another thread coming after this.....

It's like...the Burningpocalypse!

Actually, after this, I'm considering setting up a short scenario and doing a "Let's Play" of that. If I run another chargen thread, I also think it'd be fun to LP the characters into one another...

[Totally Guy]

Probably best to use this thread after this gal's done. We'll probably have all had enough after this one . Oskar the Dwarf took just less than two weeks. This one might be longer depending on how many lifepaths get chosen.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Aside: I am really, really looking forward to seeing how the voting goes when we finish our first four LPs.

[Sodalite]

All this development since I last checked! I likewise have a feeling that justice could be done with another thread, considering all the possibilities left unexplored. I also definitely like the idea of a story actually taking these characters, or other characters for that matter, somewhere.

Also also, I'll be pulling my vote out of Bears and into She Who Walks In The Named's Shadow, which should place it in the lead again.

Edit: The conversation was even going while I was making this post! I suppose I should have bothered to look at the time stamps.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Totally forgot to put this up! Anyhow, She Who Walks in the Named's Shadow it is! So, then. We come up to our final free lifepath. After that, I'll explain where to go from there. In sum-up, "calling it quits" will become an option like the rest. In that event, lifepath selection will stop immediately, and we'll move on.

Why would we want to do that? Because every lifepath after the fourth carries a risk of mutilation (a small price paid to avoid death) such as missing fingers, a missing eye, or missing limbs. I'll explain how that works after this lifepath. Anyhow!

Born Great and Black Setting
Our orc can become She Whose Skin is Like Winter Night, Whose Mere Presence Causes Those Beneath Her to Shiver in Terror and Cower Beneath Her Wicked Blade (legit. That's the name.), which means that she learns to be a mounted combat expert, which generally means wolf-rider. It's also the quickest path to becoming a Great One amongst the orcs.

The Legion
As before, our orc can become a Hatred Bearer, a Despair Shouter, and She Who Bears the Lash and Drives Us Ever On...but some new options have opened up as well. At this point, there's enough flow and flexibility that I won't reveal what leads to what.

Does She Who is Fell and Stalks the Night sound appealing to anyone? Basically, think Orc ranger/assassin skills.

We can also go into She Who Sits Astride the Howling Black Beast, which is another wolfrider path, albeit a little less impressive in my opinion. (I think it's basically the wolfrider path for the scum who weren't fortunate enough to be Born Great.)

Or, there's always She Who Rules the Black Wolf Pack, the packmaster of the war wolves. Her time spent in the shadow of the Named is enough to get her into this.

Down to the Chattel
If you really want, you can send her to the dregs of Orc society, as a...

Cattle Slave
Scavenger
Forge Slave
Hauler
Cutter Slave
Tunneler
Ravager
Whipmaster

Scavenger, Ravager, and Whipmaster would let you escape the Chattel setting and get into the Legion setting. Really, though, I don't see the point...

(There's enough lifepaths here that I'm gonna set up for an "instant runoff" vote, just in case. List your top three choices, in order.)

[The Glyphstone]

SWSiLWNWMPCTBHtSiTaCBHWB.

Black Wolf Pack.

Stalks The Night.

[Amphetryon]

1. She Who Rules the Black Wolf Pack

2. She Whose Skin is Like Winter Night, Whose Mere Presence Causes Those Beneath Her to Shiver in Terror and Cower Beneath Her Wicked Blade

3. Whipmaster