A selection of characters, as models for PC's, friendly NPC's, or antagonists as your campaign commands. This page also includes the characters mentioned in the examples of play in the main rules text.
Bulo was born the son of Evala and Poosa in a small community of Free Islanders a little south of Li'i. When he was eight years old, his parents left him with another family in the community while they went out to trade on another island a few miles away. They never came back, and eventually some of their friends went looking for them. The family boat was found, damaged, and Evala's axe was bloodstained at the bottom of it, but neither he nor his wife were ever found. Their craft could have been attacked by a sea serpent, by raiders, or perhaps by a war party from Li'i – Bulo's never been sure.
The community that Bulo was in was not so developed as to handle an orphaned child in any systematic way, and so, though Bulo was minimally cared for by other adults, he never again had much of a family. Bulo grew accustomed to taking care of himself, and to thinking of himself as the only person he could rely on. At age 13, he took to an itinerant's life, sailing out across the archipelago, spurred by a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction.
Bulo is not the smartest man in the islands, but he's a big guy, and soon enough, his sense of dissatisfaction with the world drew him into worse and worse ventures. Finally, he ended up with a gang of pirates and raiders, and actually lived for some years attacking other settlements. Even Bulo knew that there was no kind of long-term life to be had as a raider, though, and one night he piled as much loot as he could onto his personal craft and sailed off to the south, way down towards the end of the archipelago, hoping never to see his erstwhile compatriots again. Thus far, he has not.
Bulo ended up at a community that's vaguely associated with Bukomo. He actually lives on a very small (a few thousand square feet) seperate island a mile or two from the main community, and has lived there for about two years. The community trusts him well enough, but he's not a very likeable sort, and there's always been a certain distance between him and the Buko-worshipping residents. Bulo is now more stable than he's ever been since his parents died, but he's a rather grim, unhappy man. He's quick to take offense at what others would consider routine jests, and his offense quickly translates to physical action.
Ilam was born and raised in the capitol city of Epokavaa, also called Epokavaa. As such, his young life was much less sea-oriented than most Islanders', and even though he has since moved to the life of a Free Islander, Ilam has remained subtly less at home in the ocean than many of his compatriots.
Initially, Ilam seemed destined to walk in the footsteps of his father (Esavo), a succesful carpenter. With a minor Wood affinity, Ilam was quite capable in his father's trade, but he found it bored him. As a young teenager, Ilam was seized with a wanderlust, and thought for a time that he wanted to explore the exotic mainland. He spent a lot of time around the visiting mainlanders, and picked up a basic understanding of their language.
In his mid teens, Ilam impressed a mainlander who wanted to trade outside of the major ports of Epokavaa and Li'i, and the few other Islander communities which welcomed mainlanders in quantity. The mainlander merchant hired Ilam on as a translator, and took a small boat (by mainland standards) out into the Archipelago. For several years, Ilam worked under this mainlander, and gained a basic understanding of the trade of a merchant.
Eventually, Ilam decided to strike out on his own as a merchant, trading for his own boat and plying the waters of the Archipelago along with two assistants. It was during these years as translator to a merchant and then merchant himself that Ilam learned many of the skills that Free Islanders take for granted.
More than that, Ilam proved to have a real gift for telling people what they wanted to hear – both straight lies, which he prefers to avoid, and working with someone to make them feel like they're getting a good deal out of a trade. As such, Ilam grew quite respected in the areas that he was known in.
In his late twenties, Ilam grew tired of the nomadic life as a merchant, but was unwilling to give up the freedom he found in it. The only compromise, he felt, was to begin his own community, where he could set the rules and not be left begging to join an established society. He talked up his idea, and eventually settled down on a relatively large island in the outskirts of Bukomo.
Since that time, Ilam has been something of the guiding light of his community. He puts the charisma he learned as a trader to good use, but he's also more than a couple of times called out a challenger and beaten the fight out of him. He's generally mild-mannered about what other people in the community do, so long as they aren't trying to chart a course for the community as a whole – if anyone tries that, they quickly learn who's boss.
But, if Ilam is a bit tyrannical at times, he's also a good, responsible leader. More and more, he finds that he has little time for fishing and the basics of life himself, and he's spending more time helping the community get together things like primitive docks, community buildings (he's brushing off the carpentry skills he learned back in Epokavaa), and in planning for the future. Particularly, he's now finding it more useful not simply to convince the residents to go along with his schemes, but actually really understand where they're coming from and take them into account.
Now in his early thirties, Ilam is a busy man, but also an increasingly lonely one. Among his many plans for the community is a more personal one – to find a woman to settle down with.