I fall upon the earth, I call upon the air

Full Playlist -- Spotify

Imagine Dragons -- Thunder

Not a yes-sir, not a follower
Fit the box, fit the mold
Have a seat in the foyer, take a number
I was lightning before the thunder

Sara Bareilles -- Bottle It Up

I know that it's your soul, but could you bottle it up
And get down to the heart of it--
No, it's my heart, you're shit out of your luck
Don't make me tell you again

(We can understand the sentiment you're saying to us
Oh, but sensible sells, so could you kindly shut up
And get started at keeping your part of the bargain...)

Oh, you're only gonna get get what you give away

Carbon Leaf -- Miss Hollywood

Check all the hip across the street
Taking turns unlocking doors to fame by proximity
Golden dreams flow like water
And the water always wins for good or bad once you let it in

A.C. Newman -- Drink To Me, Babe, Then

Come to me, please, all these years fall through
Through the cracks and now this perfect view
On the upside, both sides win

On the downside, we buy, we pull through
Through the pouring choices rich kids choose
On a landslide, you ride in

VHS Or Beta -- Night On Fire

Back and forth through the city we'll go
New sounds coming out of the streets
Don't look back to the parody show
Of selling your souls to the beat

They Might Be Giants -- Birdhouse In Your Soul

There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck-free

Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts

MGMT -- Electric Feel

All along the eastern shore
Put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for
Making electricity

Sublime -- What I Got

It all comes back to you, you'll finally get what you deserve
Try and test that, you're bound to get served
Love's what I got, don't start a riot
You'll feel it when the dance gets hot

Regina Spektor -- Small Bill$

Better get a head start, start running
While you were skimming from the top was sunny
But all the weather 'bout to turn real crummy
Cause everybody gonna want their money

One Republic -- Counting Stars

I feel the love and I feel it burn
Down this river, every turn
Hope is our four-letter word
Make that money, watch it burn

Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly

Fountains of Wayne -- Bright Future In Sales

I'm gonna get my shit together
'Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far, and I don't want to fail
I got a new computer and a bright future in sales

AWOLNATION -- Like People, Like Plastic

A riot, suggesting
Alone I’m protesting
There’s no one here standing
No loopholes, no branding

I stand alone and curse at the sky
I stand alone beside you
I’ve never felt so alone in my life
Baby I stand alone beside you

Alpha Rev -- When You Gonna Run

Will you hold me up
'Cause I salt the earth
And the water's wasted
The wind has blown me down

Joshua Burnside -- 26th Street

Came home today
Kids begged on the motorway
And that's all for sports today
This fucking country
If death is the engine, don't say it on TV
I'll shoot you five times on 26th Street

Keane -- The Lovers are Losing

I dreamed I was drowning in the river Thames
I dreamed I had nothing at all, nothing but my own skin
I dreamed I was drifting on a howling wind
I dreamed I had nothing at all, nothing but my own skin...

You take the pieces of the dreams that you have
'Cause you don't like the way they seem to be going
You cut them up and spread them out on the floor
You're full of hope as you begin rearranging

Put it all back together
But any way you look at things
Looks like the lovers are losing

Harass the dwarfgoblin here!

Name: Anna
Age: 30
Contact: layonmacduff on Plurk, jehansmuse@gmail.com
Other Characters: Simon Ashlock, Vandelin Elris
Interests: I want to give a rifter another try, from a world I would love to see represented in FR. And since his powers and his faith are so heavily based on the elements of his native world, I want to see him try to adapt to a new one.


Name: Janzik Joltcable
Canon/OC: World of Warcraft PC
Canon Point: Towards the end of the current expansion, Legion.
Journal: lightninginabottle
Age: 31

Canon World

Azeroth is a world wherein nuclear warheads and interdimensional starships coexist casually alongside medieval swords and wooden siege weapons, where sentient cows and pandas fight Victorian werewolves and giant purple elves, where one can expect to encounter demons, zombies, trolls, dragons, banshees, centaurs and aquatic snake people (but not vampires.) Interplanetary travel is a mundane occurrence for anyone who joins the military. Mages have an entire city to themselves, and it flies.

The level of technology found in Thedas would be considered perfectly contemporary in certain Azerothian kingdoms, but in others, they're driving sports cars and selling cans of cola on neon-lit billboards. It's probably no wonder that half of the world's occupants have been trying incessantly to kill one another for fifty years and aren't about to stop anytime soon. Insurmountable cultural differences abound.

History

--Born on the island of Kezan, home of the Bilgewater Cartel, the tribe of goblins to which his family belonged. His parents were healers, of the "bandages and jumper-cable defibrillation" variety--hence the surname.

--Janzik was fascinated by alchemy from a young age, which made him very attractive to the makers of Kaja'Cola, a wildly popular and addictive soft drink that magically enhanced intelligence.

--He worked his way up through the corporation's lab division, and was eventually assigned the lead on a project to make the formula more habit-forming. Janzik threw himself into it with relish and succeeded beyond expectation.

--Despite the ensuing professional accolades, he grew increasingly uneasy as he saw the streets of Kezan become thicker with paupers more desperate for cola than food, and began to wonder if he was doing a disservice to the family healing trade.

--After several years with the Kaja'Cola Corporation, Janzik walked away, living off his savings and crashing on his sister's couch for moral support. He was spared the need to come up with a new life direction by a sudden, unexpected dragon attack that somehow activated a local volcano, burying Kezan in lava.

--In the chaos and desperation to escape, the entire cartel found itself at the mercy of its leader, Jastor Gallywix. Promising them rescue and safety, he double-crossed them, chaining them all in the hold of a slave ship and setting sail.

--En route to its destination, the ship was torpedoed by a rogue captain of a human naval vessel, concerned about eliminating witnesses to a war crime. The survivors found their way to a remote island chain, where they encountered the shipwrecked veterans of the other side of that naval battle. The cartel joined forces with them to escape, and they became fast allies.

--Still in desperate need of a new career path, Janzik found himself repeatedly derailed by the lingering trauma of his ordeal, of being at the mercy of people and elements both--but elements especially.

--There were many among the cartel's newfound allies who revered and communicated with the elements, and were happy to share their faith with the goblins. Janzik discovered comfort in the ability to negotiate with elemental spirits quid-pro-quo, and honed his skills carefully over the next six years as an initiate of the Earthen Ring, a worldwide conclave of shaman.

--His terror of the ocean was massively compounded by a mission gone awry in an underwater nation called Vash'jir, where he and his Earthen Ring compatriots were stranded for weeks at the mercy of hostile snake people.

--Still, he kept to the shamanistic path, rising through the ranks of his organization, earning the particular favor of the spirits of wind and lightning and the title "Stormcaller."

--When Azeroth was invaded by a massive army of demons, Janzik flung himself immediately onto the front lines of battle. Having awoken in Thedas, he supposes he'll just keep doing more of the same.

Personality

Janzik is in many ways a product of his cutthroat "profit above all" culture, though plenty of his cartel-mates would disagree, citing his whiny bleeding-heart guilt at the thought of exploiting people dumb enough to get themselves addicted to shit they know damn well is addictive. Charity for charity's sake at one's own expense is as absurd a notion to him as it is to any other goblin on Azeroth, except where family is concerned--sacrifice for those who share your blood is understandable, because family's all you've got and you need them to have your back too, but why would you ever do that for some rando?

But he knows what works. People help you when you help them; people protect you when they owe you; people are kind when you offer simple kindness. It serves no one to chew up a population and spit it out.

His devotion to family reflects the above-mentioned goblin values well, though not so much his sentimental desire to do the family name proud. Family is about blood and loyalty; the name is incidental, and his siblings have abandoned it to create their own names in honor of their own achievements, as goblins often do. But he's fond of it, as a memento of their late parents, and he's proud of having found a justification for keeping it while simultaneously using it to brag about his sick-ass lightning powers. It's what Ma would have wanted.

His pursuit of shamanism is a response to trauma and an expression of optimism, in equal measure. What faith he had in people, particularly humans and his fellow goblins, is shaken and lacking after those betrayals by Gallywix and the Alliance navy in such rapid succession. He knows why they did what they did, and knows too that no outreach or negotiation could have stopped them--but the elements that boiled his island and tried to drown him are frightening and dangerous specifically because of their unpredictability, and if he can just understand them well enough to make them predictable, surely there's the potential to make real and trustworthy allies of them. Elements are never driven by avarice. Maybe they will turn out to be as corrupt as mortals are, in the end--but he'll give them a chance to prove themselves first.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

--Janzik has some years of hard-honed practice with what would appear, on Thedas, to be primal magic:

----Ability to imbue his weapons with auras for additional fire damage.
----Ability to surround himself with a shield of electrical orbs to deter and damage enemies who get too close.
----Ability to set someone on fire from a distance and summon brief gouts of lava from the ground.
----Ability to slow an opponent in their tracks with blasts of icy wind.
----Ability to cause minor, targeted earthquakes.
----Most frequently used, the ability to fry people with arcing bolts of lightning.

--He also has a talent for herb-lore and alchemy, and particular experience with learning the plants and picking up native potion-making techniques when plunked down in different worlds.

Weaknesses

--Friendly arrogance, but arrogance nonetheless, and a tendency to breeze past any commands or orders he's given. Look, buddy, it's not your fault you don't understand the situation like he does. Don't feel bad about it or anything. But he's gonna do his own thing, capisce?

--Janzik doesn't have the same level of reckless disregard for sentient life that mainstream goblin society does, but he still comes from a culture where the phrase "safety regulations" will get your mouth washed out with soap. He doesn't like to cause deliberate harm, but he's not usually going to make any special effort not to put people in danger with friendly fire or volatile alchemical concoctions.

--Initial cultural ignorance; inability to read Trade upon arrival.

Suggested Nerfs

I would like Janzik to be able to keep all of the above-mentioned elemental powers, knowing that they will be less effective in Thedas than on Azeroth. Canonically, he has an array of healing powers as well and can summon and occasionally transform into elemental spirits, but I have left these out.

Arrival Inventory

--A one-handed mace and a small shield. Neither are terribly ostentatious, but the mace does occasionally crackle with electricity.

--Pajama pants that no longer fit.

--A small bag containing various tools and crystal vials for potion-making.

--A sack containing his shamanic totems--four dirty, battered little machines with drill bits on the bottoms.

'Human'ization

In his native form, Janzik is a little green monster with massive batlike ears, pointed sharkteeth, and a nose and chin that almost meet. In Thedas, he will look like a shorter-than-usual dwarf.

Fit

A lot of Janzik's abilities are closely analogous to mage abilities, so I'd like to play with the possibilities of having people (a) assume him to be a mage and treat him accordingly, or (b) wonder how and why he's able to do magic, since he appears to be a dwarf. I think he and his native environment are similar enough to Thedas that he would fit well, and simultaneously different enough to allow for some fun culture clash.



Sample One

Sample Two