Deer Country Application

Character Base

• Character Name: Vyng Vang Zoombah
• Age: 100+ human years, but developmentally somewhere in the 27-35 age range.
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Spout Lore (April 21, 2020)/"Hither and Yon" (Ep 2 Season 6) | CRAU
• Items Coming Along:

1. Thunderbird - Description (AC Reward)


2. Druid bag - Description (AC Reward)


3. Spear - Picture


4. Blade Sailer - An old skiff-like vessel made from a combination of decay-resistant woods grown in snowy areas. Its sails are a homemade patchwork of different animal skins. Outfitted with a pair of a long blades made from black glass, with extremely sharp edges that allow for extra speed and maneuverability. A gift from Shiro.


5. Druid Bones - Picture - When the bones are chimed they emit chill and healing vibes. When used they can help heal wounds both physical and mental. It's an entire process and takes an hour or two depending on how severe. A gift from Glitch.


6. Francis the woolly pig


7. Harp


8. Dank Halfling Pipeleaf - 5 uses


9. Outfit, which includes:




• Various animal hides and pelts


• Multiple leather pouches


• 2 friendship bracelets


• 1 charm bracelet


• 1 ring made from black glass that emits a soft glow


• Copper sewing needle (proof of his affiliation with the Menders)

• Content Warnings for Character: Body horror, wasps, sophomoric humor, drugs and alcohol, sexual content

Original Deerington Application

• Link to Accepted Deerington Application: Here.
• Additional Adjustments to include:

Influential Relationships - CRAU

• Tuck: His best friend and life partner. Not long after their arrival, Vyng caught a glimpse of the emotional toll his own reckless behavior has on Tuck's sense of security and wellbeing. Vyng promised him he would try to be more careful when using his elemental powers, which were already volatile to begin with. It's a promise he largely kept...but part of him still felt guilty over the gamble he was taking every time he put himself in harms way by commanding the elements.
  
  After a series of life-shattering events stacked on top of one another, their mutual sexual tension led to some smooching. It was awkward and weird. But surprisingly comforting in its own way too. While Tuck has zero inclination to revisit that day for his own reasons, Vyng doesn't push him. They've got a good thing going as-is, and Vyng is content with appreciating the experience for what it was at the time.


• Billie: His other best friend, son, and also teacher. Even if Billie's been living his best life back home, his influence still remains a major part of his and Tuck's lives. Not a day goes by that Vyng doesn't think of him. Thanks to an amethyst billhook he forged at the Summoning Stones (aka the Billiehook), he and Tuck can magically relive memories of their baby boy.
  
  But the Billiehook is more than just a novel keepsake. When Vyng lost himself underneath a mountain of spirits in May 2021, a mysterious vision of Billie's shadow guided Vyng back to his humanity. This experience reinforced the importance of Vyng's bonds with other people — not just nature — and the importance of nurturing those relationships.


• Glitch: The first person to ever chew Vyng out for his reckless use of Elemental Mastery. Thanks to some dreamscape strangeness in January, he saw how devastated Glitch would be if Vyng ever died. He was often the second person to come to mind whenever Vyng made risky choices with his more volatile powers.


• Mako: One of the few people who understands the extent of Vyng's complicated feelings toward shapeshifting. An important conversation with him renewed Vyng's desire to reinvent himself. It was thanks to Mako's generosity that Vyng was able to learn basic air bending techniques from the Air Nation. Even now, Mako's sick fire and lightning bending forms serve as an inspiration to try harder.


• Shiro: After learning of their shared past of reckless driving, Shiro gifted Vyng with the blade sailer from his childhood. Because of what the blade sailer represents, Vyng never would have wished it for himself. But because of Shiro, his old childhood toy is now able to take on a new meaning: A symbol of friendship found in the present. He's done Vyng a greater kindness than he realizes.
  
  For that reason, Shiro's later gentle admonishment to cherish his mother's memory — instead of giving up things from the past as a show of "letting go" — helped shape his later sacrifice at the Summoning Stones.


• Michael: Possibly the only person who understands the full range of Vyng's internal conflict toward shapeshifting vs. elemental mastery, thanks to an unfortunate introduction to the spirit of Eagle. A conversation with Michael afterward served as a reminder not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, regardless of how Vyng chooses to reinvent himself.
  
  When Vyng's identity got subsumed by countless spirits in May, Michael sat with his last remaining fragment for three days. This made Vyng's existence during that time much more bearable, and it paved the way for his eventual rescue.


• Julia Sodder: Vyng genuinely wanted to do right by Julia. Due to his tendency to focus on problems right in front of him, however, he failed to truly understand the larger conflicts driving this world — or her. As a result, he accidentally consigned a half-human girl who just wanted to be a regular human kid to a miserable death that forever binds her to an otherworldly existence. Fucking ouch, man.
  
  As a result, he will be moving into Chapter 2 with a stronger sense of purpose than he had in Deerington. More than anything, he will be expanding his spirituality in a way that lets him deeply connect with this broken world. Many of his actions will serve as a natural part of accepting Deer Country as his home. But his devotion to the cause will likely stem from a need to earn forgiveness, even if Julia will never be able to grant it.

Influential Experiences - CRAU

• Spiritwalker Fiasco: Vyng became the unwitting beacon for a sudden influx of spirits searching for a body to serve as an anchor. He was dog-piled by thousands of spirits, and his sense of self was quickly overwhelmed. The result was a 4-day rampage as a monster whose form was continuously in flux. Thanks to a coordinated effort among his friends, Vyng was rescued. But he still remembers how helpless he felt at being overwhelmed by a force much greater than himself. Worse than that, he failed to help the desperate spirits who just needed someone to hold onto. It really sucked.
  
  Vyng never wanted to make another spirit feel as helpless and terrified as he did back then. He thought about what being the Spiritwalker should mean. And after much soul-searching, he decided to go to the Summoning Stones to break himself...and, hopefully, come back better than before.


• Sacrifice at the Summoning Stones: In exchange for a more harmonious relationship with the elements, Vyng gave up his ability to turn into creatures forever.
  
  On top of the Summoning Ritual briefly described on the Summoning Stones page, Vyng also experienced a hallucination/vision during the ritual where he was forced to confront every single animal form he was seemingly "abandoning" with this act. Blood was extracted from him by a shadowy figure during each conversation. Nobody present for this ritual saw the exchange, since it all happened in Vyng's mind/spirit. However, it was still a traumatic experience that's been largely suppressed. No doubt his feelings of unease will resurface in a world where blood-letting is a common occurrence.


• Leaving Home Behind: By the time Vyng returned to Hither & Yon, he quickly realized that staying wasn't possible. He had changed too much, diverged too far from the original timeline, and was no longer the person Tuck and Billie needed to for their upcoming travels. Although he tried to hold on, it wasn't meant to be. That's why he spent the summer traveling between other worlds and helping fellow Sleepers leave Deerington's crumbling remains.
  
  Vyng eventually guided Tuck out of the Dream and into the Waking World. They passed through the gate together, grieving the life they were forced to let go. At least Vyng can find some comfort in the fact Billie is safe in their original timeline...and that their kid is blissfully unaware of any family trapped in another world. But there's still a deep, Billie-shaped hole in his heart.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers:

Vyng's current power trajectory mirrors much of the custom-made Spiritwalker playbook he takes levels from in canon. The Spiritwalker's moves are a combination of Druid, Martial Hero and Elementalist abilities.

(Note: Playbooks are a little like D&D classes, but more modular so players can pick and choose abilities for their character to learn. In Deer Country, Vyng will technically be capable of learning anything inside his playbook. What he actually learns will be heavily influenced by the setting, and will maintain a reasonable balance between beginner and advanced moves.)

DRUID MOVES

In Trench, he will be keeping most of his passive and active Druid powers outlined in his Deerington application. There are a few exceptions:

1. His Studied Essence move will largely be returned to him. This is when Vyng sits in spiritual contemplation of an object or creature until he gains the ability to "communicate" with it, or (in the case of an element) gain "bending" powers. In Trench, he will probably need to rely on some level of Blood Magic to achieve this state.

2. He will use his ability to see through animals' eyes more often, now that he's got his thunderbird animal companion with him (and therefore doesn't have to worry about inadvertently severing their connection by forming connections with other creatures).

3. Nerfing of his shapeshifting in exchange for a more harmonious connection with the elements.

Due to his actions at the Summoning Stones, what remains of his shapeshifting has lost about 90% of its utility. This means he:

- Can turn into naturally-occurring things (plants, rocks, other elements, etc)
- Can do very minimal movement as that thing, like adjusting branches to shield someone from the sun
- Cannot provide much utility beyond that (any usefulness will be up to other characters)
- Cannot turn into creatures made of that thing (so no ents, sorry Adam)

Here's an example scenario: If Vyng and another character were trapped in a giant lead box where the only exit was the ceiling, he could turn into water and fill the room enough for his companion to escape. However, he couldn't generate a strong enough current to carry someone who can't swim to the surface. He wouldn't be able to empty himself out through the ceiling on his own, either. This means he would need to find his own method of escape.

For this reason, most of his remaining shapeshifting will likely be used for meditative purposes (and not getting out of a pinch).

>>CRAU Note: There is some canon divergence regarding his shapeshifting here, but it is a result of his time at Deerington and still significantly nerfs his shapeshifting compared to when he first arrived.

MARTIAL HERO MOVES

As a martial artist, Vyng has been gradually developing superhuman speed and agility. This is partly because his melee combat is often enhanced by his elemental powers. For example, he can manipulate the air around him to run up walls or dash across clothes lines. At his best, he can seemingly teleport from one position to another because his movements are imperceptible to the human eye (handy for taking body blows for allies, at half the original damage). He can also use elements to deal extra damage during hand-to-hand combat.

That doesn't mean he's impossible to defeat, however. Vyng still has a lot to learn and is capable of making some pretty big mistakes in the heat of battle.

ELEMENTALIST MOVES

As Vyng "levels up" in-game, his elemental powers will evolve in a way that's influenced by Deer Country's setting and narrative.

In addition to his existing elemental bending abilities, he can learn to exert his will to calm the elements around him (the earth below his feet stops breaking apart, fires he touches go out, storms break around him and his allies, etc). A weaker version of this is exerting his will on elements he touches, but only while he's touching them. How strong or weak it is will depend on a combination of luck, circumstance and whatever is appropriate from a player standpoint.

Depending on what Vyng chooses to specialize in, he can potentially learn 2-3 of the following:

- Move and breathe under the sea with the same ease as living on land (subject to setting limitations)
- Become invulnerable to heat and fire
- Move effortlessly across ice and become immune to cold
- Fly

It is also possible for him to eventually learn an improved version of the Druid's Elemental Mastery, where he can exert finer control over larger amounts of an element.

>> CRAU Note: Thanks to his training with the Air Nation while visiting Mako's homeworld, he now knows many of the basic air bending moves seen in the Avatar franchise. He will likely continue learning firebending techniques under Mako's tutelage in Trench.

• Blood Type: Warmblood
• Omen: A chimera with a crane's front and wings, gazelle horns, and the back of a four-legged beast. Its horns change based on the seasons.
• Blessed Day: September 22 - Vyng's first autumn equinox in Trench.
• Patron Pthumerian: Never Mind
• Blood Power Manifestation: As a Warmblood, Vyng's blood powers are limited to standard Sleeper abilities. (But other Sleepers, especially Palebloods and Coldbloods, might find ways to interface with his powers.)

The Player

• Player Name: Jansen
• Player Age: 33
• Player Contact: jackets
• Permissions: Here.

Link to your reserve for this character: Here