Tollivant Brennson

[Tollivant Brennson]

Tollivant Brennson Appearance Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 21 Birthday: 3rd Spring, 496 Birthplace: Zeltiva Appearance: A scrawny, awkward looking young man with a mop of dark brown hair. He has a thin face and large ears. His hazel eyes seem happy, if distracted. Despite his voracious appetite he never gains weight, and his clothes are always slightly ill-fitting. When he walks he seems to bounce up and down slightly because he tends to use only the ball of his foot. He has a large burn scar on his right arm and he generally has several minor scrapes and bruises at any one time. He wears copper-framed glasses that improve his sight slightly, but he still can't see perfectly and as a result has a slight squint. The overall impression is of someone harmless and trustworthy. Character Concept Tollivant is an eccentric young scholar with a penchant for oddities and quirks of all description, and a single, quixotic and probably unattainable ambition: to create the first ever Mizahar-wide travel guide - an atlas mixed with a phrasebook with a healthy dose of local lore and flavour for good measure. He's a map-making anthropologist with a natural talent for picking up languages. He has very little in the way of practical skills; his numerous scrapes and bruises result not from any violent inclinations but simply because he tends to walk into things a lot. He is short-sighted, absent-minded and boundlessly optimistic. For those who are willing to put up with a certain amount of bumbling chaos, he is a loyal and trustworthy friend, and can generally be relied on to provide amusement, if unintentionally. Character History Tollivant is the third and youngest son of a rich Zeltivan merchant. He has two brothers and four sisters. His brothers both followed his father into the trading business, but from an early age it was clear he had neither the wish nor the common sense to oversee a large commercial enterprise. While his brothers and sisters loved to visit their father's ships to play at being pirates or captains and practice tying knots, Tollivant would always head straight for the wheelhouse and pore over the charts and navigational instruments until he was dragged home for dinner. He would gaze for hours at maps of distant places, dreaming of the day he would be old enough to travel there himself. The captain of one of the ships saw potential where most people saw only an overly abstracted boy, and started teaching him the rudiments of navigation and map-reading when he was 10. The captain managed to persuade Tollivant's practical father that the boy had the makings of a real scholar, and that his interests should be taken seriously. His father agreed to pay for him to continue his schooling instead of putting him to work in the business, and at the tender age of 17 the captain's judgement was proved right when Tollivant was accepted into the prestigious Zeltiva University to study Cartography. He made the most of his time there to devour all the books he could get his hands on, and took a part-time student job as an assistant librarian so that he could continue reading while working. He learned as much as he could about Mizahar and its people, and in his spare time started studying Fratava with a Svefra sailor who had ended up as a shipbuilder in Zeltiva. He enjoyed learning Fratava so much that he started frequenting the city's taverns in the hopes of finding another wanderer who could teach him their home tongue. The only person he managed to convince was a Drykas who was passing through town, and over a couple of weeks he managed to pick the absolute basics in Pavi. His studies went well, but after a while he began to feel dissatisfied with the quality of the information available. Even the best maps in the library were often inconsistent with each other, and there were huge areas between cities where scrawling hands had written 'Not Yet Explored'. When it came to history, lore and language, too, the existing books were a mixed bag. Some races and cities had plentiful, detailed information, but others just had a few tentative remarks. One day, he read about a fragment of a pre-Valterrian book that suggested there might have been a map of the entire world in pre-Valterrian times, and a crazy idea flew off the page and lodged itself firmly in his head. It grew by the day, and by the time he reached his 20th birthday he was sure: he would recreate the world map, even if it took him a lifetime. What's more, his atlas wouldn't just be geographical: it would also be a compendium of all the oddities Mizahar had to offer, and a practical guide for travellers. He began saving his librarian's wages, and by the time his 21st birthday rolled around, he had saved up enough to buy the basic kit he would need for his mammoth task, and started preparing to leave the safety of his beloved library. Language Fluent Language: Common Basic Language: Fratava Poor Language: Pavi Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Anthropology 15 SP 15 Novice Cartography 26 SP 26 Competent Land Navigation 9 SP 9 Novice Writing 15 RB 15 Novice Lores Lore of Zeltivan Culture Lore of History of Zeltiva Possessions 1 Set of Clothing -Simple Shirt -Simple Trousers -Simple Undergarments -Simple Cloak -Simple Boots 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Wood) -Brush (Wood) -Soap -Razor -Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel Heirloom: Copper-framed spectacles given to him by his friend the old captain. Housing Location: At the University in Zeltiva House: Staying in a student dorm room at the University. Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting +100 GM 100 GM Cash in housing +500 GM 600 GM Cartography course -30 GM 570 GM Compass - 200 GM 370 GM Mapmaker's kit - 22 GM 348 GM 100 ft hemp rope - 2 GM 346 GM Blank book - 3 GM 343 GM Ink sticks x 10 3 GM 340 GM Watertight scrollcase 5 GM 335 GM Trail rations x 60 days 30 GM 305 GM Explorer's staff 15 GM 290 GM Quill x 5 25 CM 289 GM 75 CM Backpack 2 GM 287 GM 75 CM Spring 517 living expenses 45 GMI have deducted 60 days from his living expenses for the time he spent migrating as these are covered by trail rations and obviously he didn't spend any money in the Wildlands. 242 GM 75 CM Thread List   Spring 517 A Lucky Break Goodbye Sweet Port Missing Memories and Crying Statues ongoing Bandits of the Wilds ongoing Alar's New Farm job thread An Unwelcome Guest job thread   Summer 517 Syliras: The Jewel of Sylira, Symbol of Hope