# Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 01 - Wushu :: Aelthorond, High Magus of Nardon tags: #thoughts/CharacterCreationChallenge/2024 #game/rpg/wushu > [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2024]] > > ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]] Here we are, day one, and I'm going to start off easy. I won't, necessarily, be walking you through every step of creating this character but we are going to talk about it and why I'm doing it – because it's my garden and I can cultivate it how I want to. A few days ago [[Reddit - Heroic Fantasy Without Levels|there was some discussion on the RPG subReddit about games without level mechanics which can do high fantasy]]. Now, you and I both know that any RPG can do high fantasy if it can do science fiction or superheroes. No need for us to go into that. One of my suggestions did get me thinking about what it would look like to have a character built for high fantasy – in **[[Wushu]]**. So that's where we're going. Bust out your copy that you bought years ago or [flip over to the website to reference it for free](https://danielbayn.com/wushu/) and let's rock out. --- ![[Aelthorond, High Magus of Nardon.jpg|400]] ## Aelthorond, High Magus of Nardon - **5: "This cruelty shall not stand!"** Nothing offends the High Magus like cruelty, particularly to those of a lower station. To suggest it enrages him really understates the case. Never piss off a man who can literally shake the pillars of Heaven and rip up the bowels of Hell. - **4: The Staff of Malchezor** 4 inches thick at the head, shod in cold iron, and subject to a thousand years of polishing in the hands of mages, this wizards staff has a knot at the end, as is appropriate. Sometimes you bust heads, sometimes you bust open casks. - **3: Nardon's Blessing** Not a magical blessing but rather the good graces of the city of Nardon, from the local Patriarch to the humble street urchins. Sometimes what you need is a little social grace to get you through. - **1: Hunted By Horrors (Weakness)** There's no way around it, the High Mage has truly irritated the forces of darkness. Creatures of nightmare know his face intimately. Psychic horrors are drawn to him. They don't just want him to die – they want him to suffer. --- There we go, one fully statted out high fantasy mage, ready to rumble with the worst that the underworld has to offer, preloaded with implicit storybooks, motivations, and dangers. "But you haven't said a thing about what kind of magic he can throw!" You are absolutely correct, imaginary respondent. I have not. **[[Wushu]]** doesn't require that you do so; individual spells are simply descriptive details with which you can earn dice. What kind of spells? Whatever you feel like. Whatever your GM will let you get away with. Whatever the rest of the table will let you get away with. This is one of the wonderful things about this system; it doesn't feel the need to handcuff you but rather gives you the power as a player to narrate being cool and continue doing so the entire game. Sure, you could replace the fifth rank Trait with something less evocative like "World's Greatest Necromancer," as long as you also got the matching coffee mug. That also says interesting things about the character but perhaps not as much as a specific character motivation. He can still be a necromancer if that's the way you want to play him but it'll be a necromancer who despises cruelty. That's a little more interesting, no? Day one, in the bag. We'll have to see what comes up in day two.