#pact of the chain

[soaring-trash]

Delilah and her puppet

[justavulcan]

Backgrounds With Class: Selesnya Initiate

I'll be honest: Ravnica has always fascinated me. I was a high schooler when the first set came out, and I was immediately consumed creating characters for the setting. Now that we've actually received my long-awaited crossover, I thought it would be nice to write a love letter to the setting in the form of another Backgrounds with Class series. After all: some guilds have natural class choices tied in, from a conceptual standpoint. Boros and Fighter, Izzet and Wizard, Selesnya and Druid. But guilds aren’t class-restricted, and so I wonder what it would look like if you paired every class with every guild background, even the ones that seem at odds, like Izzet and Barbarian, or Gruul and Artificer.  So I thought about it, and this is what I came up with.  Some character concepts for each class, and each Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica background for each class.

The Selesnya Initiate Artificer has kept an ear to the Selesnya’s Worldsong since she was young.  As a mason and sometime healer for the Conclave, she’s not as attuned to the song as some, but her ear is still beyond reproach in some ways; one day, as she was putting the final touches on a life-sized wolf carving, it begun to sing the song of all living things, and came to life under her hand.  Now convinced this can’t be the only time this has happened, she roams eagerly, listening for more stone that sings with life.

The Selesnya Initiate Barbarian has always been...excitable.  Not well-suited for guard duty, meditation, or tending gardens, this centaur has instead put his overflowing font of energy into training to become a ledev guardian.  His dream is to run the roads on his own, spreading the joy and passion of the Conclave's Worldsong to all who will listen and take that righteous ecstasy as a weapon to those who wish harm to his fellow travelers.

The Selesnya Initiate Bard has always been fascinated by dryads and their ways- after all, sharing a soul with a tree is such a foreign thing to one only of the flesh.  Ever since he was young, he has sought after them and their ways, and eventually met forbearance in a charitable soul who took the time to explain to him not just the way she and her tree were connected, but how all life was in the Worldsong of the Conclave.  Ever since, he's taken it on himself to sing it aloud- such that those who do not know it by heart may hear the call and, perhaps, become one with the Conclave he loves.

The Selesnya Initiate Cleric is a pacifist by nature, and the blessings he finds pursuing the worship of Ravnica’s own natural life have not changed that.  Far from opposed to combat in defense of the helpless or the Conclave, he instead prefers to incapacitate his foes by nonlethal means, or by placing them in positions that they must hurt themselves to harm others.  Every time he sheds blood aggrieves him, but the lesson is slowly coming to him that sometimes nature is as red in tooth as it is green as leaves.

The Selesnya Initiate Druid wasn’t born, they were awakened.  Pulled from a place of rest for defense against a Gruul raid on Selesnyan holdings, they did not lie back down and return to being inanimate dirt.  Instead, they’ve remained awake and surprisingly self-directed, volunteering in the vernadi gardens and fields to commune with the plants.  As a living patch of grassland, they’ve proved to have an intuitive grasp of the land’s needs and will, and have become a personage of importance for the other initiates.

The Selesnya Initiate Fighter was a cadet in the Boros Legion whose sergeant was a bully.  Sickened by his exposure to the abuse of authority in so crude a figure, he left for the Conclave.  There, his training was more evenly supplemented by a sense of community and fairness that left little room for the kind of deliberate fear-mongering he saw.  Now he trains in maneuvers as part of a unit, enabling his allies and striking with precision and teamwork unlike that the Legion showed him.

The Selesnya Initiate Monk was trained by a ghost.  Her mentor, one of the ancient Quietmen of the Conclave, was once an extension of the Worldsong’s will, a weapon in body alone and a witness for the Conclave’s parun.  They were supposed to be destroyed, after their treachery during the Decamillenial almost led to Mat’Selesnya’s destruction.  Forced to keep her master’s secret while balancing the needs of the Conclave, she finds a growing tension within her, a tension that only violence has helped resolve- hardly the attitude of one nominally seeking peace of mind.

The Selesnya Initiate Paladin was brought up in the Conclave, but over the last few weeks, starting with a friend leaving the guild in favor of the Boros Legion, he’s started to doubt.  Is this really the life for him?  What other paths might he pursue?  Surrounded by the comraderie of other squires and soldiers, the only time he really feels the Worldsong is in battle, fighting along like-minded souls.  With the day for his oath drawing near and his meditations bringing him no feeling of welcoming, doubt and curiosity might form the wedge that splits him off from the Conclave too.

The Selesnya Initiate Ranger is, like many of the Conclave’s dryads, not actually bound to the tree that she calls her heartwood and home.  Free-roaming and imbued with a greater-than-average share of her people’s magic, she wanders the roads as a ledev trainee, a gifted traveler and guardian of those who travel Ravnica’s highways.  Trostani herself oversees the promotion of ledev guardians from among the Selesnyan cadets, and she yearns for the recognition of this most elder of her kind.

The Selesnya Initiate Rogue serves as one of the Conclave’s covert investigators.  An odd pursuit for a vedalken, but one they take to with relish.  Part of their community as much as or more than any other, they don’t take their training as an investigator as a way to stay separate, but a way to stick together to their friends.  Picking up on the subtle clues of when someone is not at their best or may be hiding a danger to the conclave and licensed to pursue the investigation where they wish, they serve covertly as an in-house problem solver at worst and a counselor and therapist at best.

The Selesnya Initiate Sorcerer’s family has always been rumored to have some connection with the boros legion’s angels.  Certainly her statuesque beauty supports this notion, but the true testament is her sorcerous powers.  A gift of the celestial blood running through her veins, they’ve proved valuable on more occasions than not, as she lays hands on soldiers protecting Selesnya interests and blesses them before battle.  She is proud of her power, and those elder around her murmur that she has real potential as an evangel or hierarch someday…if she can reign in her ego.

The Selesnya Initiate Warlock is fortunate enough to have a direct connection with Trostani herselves.  Having sworn herself to their personal service, she benefots from a taste of their fey magic- a taste she hopes one day to grow into a glut.  Her aspiration is nothing less than to become Trostani’s rightmost hand.  She has a long way to go, but the tiny wooden drake that clings to her is proof she has the talent to bring life to the lifeless, demonstrating her aptitude with Trostani’s gifts.

The Selesnya Initiate Wizard was, like so many others, not born a part of the Conclave.  She was born and raised until quite recently among the stacks and papers of the Azorius archives, trained in defensive magics as an on-call riot squad member.  Unfortunately, first contact with the enemy- a golgari tenement filled with more desperation than criminality- tainted her impression of the cold, sterile law in favor of something warmer and more communal.  The Selesnya welcomed her compassion with open arms, and as yet have only ever asked to help or protect others- even those outside the Combine.

[coffee-b]

yeah my locks got a little buddy!!!! what about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

its name is mikha'il and it's keeping an eye on gavri'el to make sure he does his job (he isn't)

[Image ID: Mikha'il, a serpentine dragon. It's depicted in whites and golds and appears to be partially incorporeal: its wings and tail filter off into wisps. It's surrounded by small dots, implies to be light particles. End ID.]

[gobs-o-cs]

"Please allow me to introduce myself, wonderful people of... Wherever I find myself on this most lovely of mornings. My name is Dr. Silas “Will-O’-The-Wisp” Sullivan, Esq. - Travelling Healer, Herbalist, Master Tonixer, Spiritualist & Medium, Exorcist-at-Large, Licensed Masseuse & Notary Public. And I am at your most humble service, my good people. For you see, I bring to you this fine day, an opportunity to partake in something most miraculous..."

"Aha! Oh, brilliant! I have been stuck half-bound for ages! Ever since that idiot wizard bastard tried to trap me in there and absolutely messed up his ritual! But you, oh, you! Finally someone who actually recognized what that ring was and was skilled enough to fix it all, right? ...Right?!"

Silas "Will-O'-The-Wisp" Sullivan

(He/Him)

Tiefling Warlock, Genie (Djinni) Patron, Pact of the Chain

Chaotic Neutral

Charlatan Background

Dice Set #23 - Peaches and Cream

[postnuclearwar]

Warlock patron idea where your patron is the animal you get in pact of the chain.

[tuna-moon-draws]

Arcor

[bythenineshards]

BG3 was right in not giving me a Sprite as a familiar choice. I'd never get anything done. We'd just be chillin', talking about hot Astarion is.

[silly-goofy-mood]

Hi welcome to bad dnd jokes part ???

A Pact of the Chain warlock is just a warlock who's a big Fleetwood Mac fan

[tekilaonrice]

It appears with every other side going belly-up, tumblr now has me back. So let's kick this off with some DnD Art. :D

Priska! A Kenku, Genie Warlock (Pact of the Chain) and her Familiar, Anax. Personal, soon to be played, character for DND

[honeycoveredbrushes]

Took a brief break from the fanart I’m working on to do a constellation design of my new plasmoid warlock PC! This is the first draft. Their name is Ichor (they/he/it) and they also have a tiny ooze familiar, currently unnamed. Any name suggestions for his little ooze familiar are welcome! ✨

[crazydreamerspwn]

Dahlia Steinfield, my magical girl from a hombrew DnD campaign.

[fernrisulfr]

Cuttle Fishback

This was another very recent character concept that I nearly got to use. I had to make it on short notice, but was struck by inspiration. Unfortunately I very quickly felt I didn’t quite gel with the group, so I politely excused myself and withdrew my participation. This concept was partly based on my Kraken Warlock Inheritor concept, and he was briefly a Lizardman until I realized that Fathomless gave you a Swim Speed and Water Breathing, so it would be more interesting to slap on someone who couldn’t do that normally. Cuttle was originally the name of his Octopus familiar. The game was Call of the Netherdeep. 

Cuttle Fishback - Chromatic Dragonborn (Red) - Fathomless Warlock - Pirate - Chaotic/Neutral

Notes: 

Concept taken partly from the "Sea Elf Warlock Inheritor" concept.

Patron Inspired by a post on reddit

Pact of the Chain: Familiar is an Octopus tentatively named Abaddon. 

Backstory Concept: Cuttle Fishback was the Chef on a Pirate Ship (I'll name it later). The ship sank during an unnatural storm, and as he sunk to the depths of the ocean he was contacted by a sunken sentient/haunted ship (also to be named later). It hungers for treasure, and saved his life in return for his service on it's "crew". Gave him a compass that always points in the direction of a treasure the ship desires, but Cuttle doesn't actually know what that treasure is, just that he needs to find it, so he goes wherever the compass points.

This backstory Concept was written in like 30 minutes, so it certainly has a lot of room for additional details. 

Appearance: 6′5, 256 lbs. Red scales, One Smoldering red eye (Wears an eyepatch.). Squared jaw for a dragonborn. Two large curving red-black horns that sweep backwards. Scales instead of smooth are jagged and somewhat prickly, some semblance to a jagged coral reef. Broadly built. Alligator like tail. Wears a black chef’s uniform with a large scarf, the interior of the scarf has the symbol of his former crew on it.  

[justavulcan]

Backgrounds With Class: Dimir Operative

I'll be honest: Ravnica has always fascinated me. I was a high schooler when the first set came out, and I was immediately consumed creating characters for the setting. Now that we've actually received my long-awaited crossover, I thought it would be nice to write a love letter to the setting in the form of another Backgrounds with Class series. After all: some guilds have natural class choices tied in, from a conceptual standpoint. Boros and Fighter, Izzet and Wizard, Selesnya and Druid. But guilds aren’t class-restricted, and so I wonder what it would look like if you paired every class with every guild background, even the ones that seem at odds, like Izzet and Barbarian, or Gruul and Artificer.  So I thought about it, and this is what I came up with.  Some character concepts for each class, and each Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica background for each class.

Dimir Operative

The Dimir Operative Artificer tried to play it straight as a member of the Izzet League, he really did.  He joined the league to leave his days as a guildless criminal behind him, but the costs of an apprenticeship to one of the League’s metallurgists are not insignificant, so he took his own armor- lightning throwers and sound dampeners and all- and sought work.  That he fell in with a House Dimir crew stealing from rival magisters’ labs wasn’t what he thought would happen, but he’s rolled with it so far.

The Dimir Operative Barbarian wishes he was somewhere else than slumming it with the Gruul.  Passing himself off as a trog interested in joining their clan had been easy as falling asleep, and the ruse itself takes a bare minimum of effort, but he’s quickly growing tired of the ‘freedom’ of the Clans.  Sleeping on the hard earth, scrounging for food, and getting involved in a fistfight every other day wasn’t what he had wanted to do for the House, and despite his best efforts it’s starting to show.  His rage isn’t furious and burning like many of his ‘tribe,’ but chill and detached, a thing of winter and cold.

The Dimir Operative Bard came to the House’s notice after exploiting her librarian’s covert liasons for her own career’s advancement.  Contacted telepathically and charged with retrieving a major barrister’s court notes, she proved her skill at deception quickly and the House taught her the rest.  She’s remained in that place, lying low as a member of the Azorius beaurocracy and feeding confidential records to her masters moonlighting as a pulp horror writer- under a pseudonym, of course.  That the stories double as hidden messages is nobody’s business but the House’s.

The Dimir Operative Cleric has been a ‘member’ of the Cult of Rakdos for decades.  Gifted with a Silhana’s long lifespan and the matching practice as a party animal, it’s only recently that he’s been called upon to do much more than pass on information about various figures comings and goings.  In truth, the change of pace is exciting- if only because it promises access to both deeper secrets and the opportunity to put more of his true guild’s mind-magic to use.

The Dimir Operative Druid has never met another member of House Dimir.  Embedded in a Selesnyan vernadi as a healer and prospective evangel, they’ve always received their orders and assignments by dead drop or telepathic message.  They’ve done all manner of things in service to the House, and some of them have weighed heavily on their conscience.  The lack of contact from their mysterious handler or handlers has exacerbated the guilt, and they’ve started to wonder if they’re just mad.

The Dimir Operative Fighter owes the Dimir much for getting him out from under the threat of the debtor’s pillory.  Originally indentured to a powerful oligarch for his family’s debts, the Dimir saw an opportunity and recruited him, using their mental magic to erase the woman’s mind and leave her easy prey for a binding contract of debt-absolution.  He’s switched masters a few times, always leaving their service just before their finances or some other secret of their keeping passes cleanly from their heads into the House’s hands.  Among the Syndicate he’s starting to be considered bad luck, and his masters are contemplating shuffling him into the Legion- with a new identity, of course.

The Dimir Operative Monk appears on the surface to be just another one of the many knife-wielding toughs aspiring for rank in the Golgari Swarm.  Plain and forgettable save for a distinctive scar on the left hand, he’s a talented knife fighter and sneak, and does work for both guilds as a scout, messenger, and spy when asked.  His contact has only ever come to him in the garb of a Golgari shaman, but he trusts the woman implicitly even if he doesn’t know what she really looks like.

The Dimir Operative Paladin has a fine grip on the way that people think, and has a manner about them that makes them inclined to talk.  Useful as these talents are as a counselor and spiritual consultant for the Selesnya, they’re even more useful for an agent of the Dimir, who serves as a finger on the pulse of their entire vernadi.  The oath of redemption they pursue is in service to this goal as well, as they seek to weaponize advanced persuasive speaking alongside their actual training in arms and armor.

The Dimir Operative Ranger roams the Undercity tracking the movements of both prey and hunter alike, disguised as the former.  Home in the twisted depths of the undercity’s collapsed buildings, buried streets, and raw cavern complexes, this minotaur has joined hunting party after hunting party.  There, he builds his skills and keeps his eyes open for anything the House might find of interest, be it places, things, or secrets his fellow hunters try to hide from their comrades.

The Dimir Operative Rogue learned her crafts from a variety of sources: quiet movement as a small child among the Gruul, backstabbing from a Tin Street tough, and mind-reading and espionage from a Dimir recruiter who ‘heard’ a natural talent.  She’s come a long way from her urban-hating roots, now skulking with the best and proudly proclaiming the mind a greater weapon than the blade.  This point of view makes her a natural fit among the Orzhov, where she’s been installed as a messenger and euthanist-in-training, set to pass off any useful intelligence to her contact telepathically.

The Dimir Operative Sorcerer was mutated as an infant in the womb from an illegal experiment’s dumped contaminants, she lost her power of speech but gained so much more.  Recognized by a Dimir mind-mage as a natural talent with potential, she was inducted into the House’s service and sent to observe the Simic Combine, who find her telepathic talents to be of considerable interest.  Part lab assistant and part experimental subject, she’s had ample opportunity to flex her metaphysical muscles in controlled conditions, but she longs for the test only the real world can give her.

The Dimir Operative Warlock has been a spy for the House for most of her life, and through a deal she struck with a mysterious entity on a starless night she’s acquired the tools for psychic trickery.  Indeed, she’s acquired them repeatedly- her natural aptitude, shapeshifting familiar, and magical pact mean she’s in high demand on highly confidential missions, and much of her work for the House has been scrubbed from her memory.  The gaps didn’t bother her much when she was young, but now that she’s getting older, having nothing to look back on with pride has started to chafe.

The Dimir Operative Wizard knows that power over the mind is a tool to be used for the betterment of those who wield it- whether in her cover as a lawmage of the Azorius Senate or as a mind-mage of House Dimir.  Contacted nearly thirty years ago as a youth by a Dimir operator, she’s put her education in enchantment magic to the kind of single-minded focus that few but a vedalken can.  While her assignments have been innocuous so far- guiding this arrest, putting a suspect to sleep at an opportune time, and the like- she knows that won’t be the case forever, and awaits greater tests eagerly.

[captain-lonagan]

jonah from bible as a dnd warlock but his patron is the whale

[gammija]

poor lil tiefling warlock who thinks he's a wizard

[odinsblog]

The Baltic Way, or Baltic Chain (also "Chain of Freedom") was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989.

Approximately two million people joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 690 kilometres (430 mi) across the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied and annexed by the USSR. The central government in Moscow considered the three Baltic countries constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

The 1989 event was organised by the Baltic pro-independence movements: Rahvarinne of Estonia, the Tautas fronte of Latvia, and Sąjūdis of Lithuania, to draw global attention by demonstrating a popular desire for independence and showcasing solidarity among the three nations. It has been described as an effective publicity campaign, and an emotionally captivating and visually stunning scene.

The event presented an opportunity for the Baltic activists to publicise the Soviet rule and position the question of Baltic independence not only as a political matter, but also as a moral issue. The Soviet authorities responded to the event with intense rhetoric, but failed to take any constructive actions that could bridge the widening gap between the Baltic republics and the rest of the Soviet Union. Seven months after the protest Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.

After the Revolutions of 1989, 23 August has become an official remembrance day both in the Baltic countries, in the European Union and in other countries, known as the Black Ribbon Day or as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

👉🏿 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way