FASA Games, Inc.

hi!

im looking for help, to get a picture about being a skyraider, im trying to create a non-troll character. Now, i have an easy time imagining a troll SR, but im in trouble with non-trolls.

Lets suppose, we are talking about a human, born in throal.

1) How significantly is it more troublesome for him, to become a sky raider, than - say - a warrior? I imagine there are "schools" for warriros and air sailors and wizards and such in a big enough city, but cant do the same for skyraiders.
2) Are there any skyraiders living in a city? or only after "retirement"? Is it an essential part of the discipline of being a little outside the law? are there any skyraiders in the throalic/theran navy? (i mean significant number, not a couple exceptions)
3) about how big part of skyraiers are nontrolls?

I would appreciate ideas for a "typical" (not-extreme) nontroll skyraider beginning of a career.

1) Sky Raiders would most often be found within the Troll moots, so really the primary difficulty would be in finding the trainer, tying in to your second question.

2) This really has three parts, so I'll address them separately:

A. I can't imagine a Sky Raider actually taking up residence within Throal or any major city unless they were, as you said, retried and living off of the gains from their adventuring career. Being a practicing Sky Raider, as etherial noted, requires spending time on an airship, so they won't spend a lot of time in the city. Finding one within a major city would be a little bit easier than that though, as there would be some traveling through, possibly for an extended duration depending on their business (and most everyone has business in Throal at some point). Overall, not impossible, though it would take more looking than most other Disciplines.

B. Living in or outside of the law I believe entirely depends on the individual Sky Raider. Trolls after all are driven by their sense of honor, and would deal heavily in a Discipline that would violate that. It really just depends on how your character views the law in relation to their personal sense of honor. If they feel it is dishonorable to disobey the law and act like a common brigand, for example, then they would conduct themselves in a civil manner where the law holds sway. If they come from the school of thought where might makes right, the strong uphold the most honor and therefore set the rules, then they wouldn't be bound by society's laws unless a show of strength forced them to.

C. I would say not; even if they are very capable, I believe the higher ranking officers would hold the view that Sky Raiders have too much of a lack of military discipline to make effective soldiers. Individual case-by-case situations maybe, but not as a statistically significant number.

3) Given the overall rarity of adepts in society, and the random nature of who gets to use magic and what areas of magic they'll be gifted in, I'd guess that at most 10% of all Sky Raiders across Barsaive are non-Trolls. This is just pure estimation in my head, and of course your mileage may vary in your Barsaive.

In my home campaign I have a division of the Throal forces that is largely made up of Sky Raiders. They were the shock troops and advance forces that would be deployed in a war (kind of the marines to the Throal navy).

In the 3rd Edition Player's Companion, the Sky Raider character is a human. She makes a point of establishing that the Sky Raider discipline is very closely tied to the overall culture of the trollmoots, with Sky Raiders sort of representing an ideal that all trolls should aspire to. So to become a Sky Raider one must to a certain extent adopt highland troll culture, which shows in how when explaining her discipline, the human Sky Raider keeps using trollish words.

Generally the way in which non-trolls become Sky Raiders is that they feel a certain calling for the discipline, so they go and seek out a Sky Raider to teach them. This is usually difficulty in and of itself, as trollmoots don't tend to welcome outsiders, but even once a potential teacher is found, they most prove themselves worthy. That would in itself be an ordeal, as non-troll Sky Raiders are held to higher standard than trollish ones, again because the discipline is so closely tied to highland troll culture. She convinced her eventual teacher to teach her by challenging him to combat when he laughed at the very notion, hurling herself at him barehanded when he refused her challenge, being remarkably stoic during her two week convalescence, accepting her teacher's challenge without even asking what it was once she was healed, and succeeding at the challenge to assault another troll clan by herself and come back with a weapon taken from the hand of one of their warriors. This is far beyond what is generally expected of trolls who wish to become Sky Raiders, but that's how it goes.

I should note that if you don't care for all the baggage that comes with the Sky Raider discipline, it is very likely that the Therans have a discipline that is very similar or identical in terms of mechanics, but distinct in terms of philosophy. Probably called something like Air or Sky Marines, or possibly Celestials to distinguish them from Marines. The members of that discipline would be of all races, and their mindset is likely to be disciplined and military but also cocky, sort of like a mix between a Warrior and Air Sailor.

huys, thank u all for the exhausting, an very helpful answers. The prime source of my question was, that we are starting a new group, i planned to play a sky raider, because i like its mechanic, but then we ecided to play a racially homogenous group this time, to try it out, and the human race was chosen.

I would suggest to watch the movie "The 13th Warrior". In this movie, Antonio Banderas plays a Muslim that joins a Vikings Tribe. With a little tweaking, it can easily be the basis of a human, banished from his family in Barsaive joining a Skyraider group.

I like that. Also, note that there are a few examples of cross-racial couples in the cannon material, with the rule being you either have enough genetic information to be one or the other of your direct ancestors (no half-breeds as such). So, I could even see a rare, "My great-great grandfather was a Troll Sky Raider" Background from an Ork or Human Adept.