Monte has been running an Invisible Sun playtest since December 2016 with myself, Bruce Cordell, Shanna Germain, and Susan Morris as the players. In this time, our characters have made progress on both character and story arcs, learned some of the wonders of the Actuality, grown in power as vislae, and started to make a name for ourselves among the people of Satyrine. We wanted to share some information about our characters with you to show how they fit into the world, how the campaign adapts to their needs and desires, and how each of them is so very different from the others.
Callahan (played by Sean K. Reynolds)
Callahan is an Established Ardent Vance who Bears an Orb. In Shadow, he was a mediocre college student who put most of his efforts into being in a metal band (the latest in a string of failed bands) called REVOGATOR with his friend Riven—well, he was called “Rudy” there. Cal is trying to find another person from his days in Shadow, his brother, but now he can’t remember his brother’s name. Nobody else believes that Callahan’s brother was a real person, but he knows it to be true, for the mystical orb he always carries with him had once belonged to his brother.
Callahan’s parents were wealthy Vances known for inventing several popular and useful spells; they died during the War, and now Callahan has their big, empty house to himself. Most of the rooms are closed off with the furniture under sheets… except when his vislae friends need to throw a big, fancy party, and he very reluctantly must play host to high-society people. Then there’s the added complications of a mysterious invisible door in his basement leading to the Deeps of Sleep, and a murderous demon imprisoned in one of his spare bedrooms.
Fortunately, Callahan knows he can rely on his Shadow friend Riven, his cousin Schaelee (even though she’s a bit odd), and his new… friend-ish acquaintance, Fiona, whose interests are so alien to him that she may as well be speaking a foreign language. Callahan’s immediate goals are to find his missing brother, purge the dangers from his house, and—because they’ve been so kind as to help him—assist his friends and colleagues with their ventures and plans.
Schaelee Mizzencourt (played by Susan Morris)
Schaelee Mizzencourt knows that people consider her a little odd. That they think she’s making up the whispering dreams and all the secrets they sing. But that’s okay. Because Schaelee believes in the whispers, and she believes in herself. She even believes in her odd cousin Callahan, who insists on packing everything into little boxes that he sometimes folds into littler boxes, despite their existing in as vast and multilayered a place as the Actuality—everything except his brother, who will not fit, and who is therefore one of her favorite parts of Callahan.
Schaelee also believes in cupcakes, and it is her dream (though not a whispering one) to someday open a cupcake shop: one just like she had when she was a lotus-eater in Shadow, except this time, the flavors will be true. Cupcakes that taste like the second after you leap, where your heart’s between your teeth and you’re caught between flying and falling. Cupcakes that taste like the moment when everything falls apart, when your insides have been scraped out like a gourd and the hollowness filled with salt. And, of course, cupcakes that taste like strawberry. (The non-vislae always like strawberry.)
Until then, Schaelee studies in her ever-changing, dream-shaped house of mist, furthering the great work of her deceased (but rarely silent) mentor to create a spell that can pierce the veils of the Suns; has brunch with her friends, scooting her seat ever-closer to Fiona’s (the whispers really like her); weaves the lighting to help strike down Riven’s demons (and then sometimes rides the lightning home); and waits patiently for the opportunity to explore the dream-spilling door in her cousin’s basement.
Oh, and she supposes she’s an Eremitic Empath Weaver who Listens to the Whispers, but really, labels are for Vances, aren’t they? Schaelee knows that she—and you—are so much more.
Fiona Speares (played by Shanna Germain)
What to Wear in Satyrine, by Fiona Speares
It is Always Autumn in Satyrine: Goetics visiting the Embassy of the Dead wouldn’t be caught, well… dead… in anything less regal than this velvet leaf and moth-wing wrap. Even the guardian of the Pale Sun will be hard-pressed to deny your requests in this glorious get-up.
- Backless; secret inner pocket for Wicked Keys
- Accessorize with a protective circle and a Death Eater Talisman
- Cost: 15 crystal orbs
Fiona’s notes: They called us “breathers.” No one at the Embassy seemed to notice or care about my dress. In fact, they don’t seem to notice much of anything. But we have our visas! Onward to the Pale.
This Beautiful Destruction Party: A silhouette guaranteed to turn heads—non, vislae, or otherwise—this sleek black and red spined dress is the perfect choice for those who revel in beauty. If you’re going to fall from grace, there is no better choice of ensemble.
- Goes from destruction party to pity party thanks to easy-off spines.
- Pair with a broken heart and a bottle of Zero’s finest
- Cost: 30 crystal orbs
Fiona’s notes: I’ve… ruined everything. Nearly got Schaelee squeezed to death by her own magic. The Eldest will not see me again, no matter what I wear. Promises to angels and demons, both. Never again.
The Legality of Killing Demons: This elegant black and green shimmered sheath combines all of the perfections of surreality with classic comfort. Perfect for hunting ages-old demons or speaking in the language of spiders.
- Reversible; be two people nearly at once
- Pairs beautifully with Wings of Plenilune and Stag’s Crown
- Cost: 20 crystal orbs
Fiona’s notes: Enemy of Reason. Chapel of the Inverse. Visitor’s Knife. Abnormous. Chasing Riven’s demon. Callahan’s house is so haunted. Out of time! More later.
She Breathes in Violet: No empath’s closet is complete without a purple pantsuit—and this violaceous delight is designed with adventure in mind. Its flexible, lightweight fabric allows you to make it to the Indigo Rail on time to rescue friends in need, stop those who hope to steal your time, and fly through the sky in the arms of a bull-headed angel.
- Also available in He Exhales in Shadow and Their Breath is Rainbows
- Complete your outfit with Mystic Umbrella and a pair of blood boots.
- Cost: 15 crystal orbs (*Mystic Umbrella and blood boots sold separately)
Fiona’s notes: The only good thing about King Nine abducting our friend is that The Eldest came to help. I was too ashamed to look him in the eyes. Not that he has eyes. Anyway. When you ask them to aid you, angels always say, “I agree to this noble endeavor.” What do demons say?
Riven (played by Bruce Cordell)
Riven thought his name was Rudolph Werner. They called him “Rudy” back when he was closing in on the detection of gravitational waves at LIGO, one of the most ambitious feats in scientific history… if history means anything under the Grey Sun. Everything seems all-consuming and life-or-death in Shadow. But, as Riven learned after he was pulled from Shadow into the real world of the Actuality, that’s sort of Shadow’s purpose: to blind, to hide, to delude, and to provide false meaning.
Fresh from Shadow, Riven still yearned for rules and structure. So he returned to the Goetic Order, where vislae attempt to win secrets from demons and angels. Gravity waves, he remembered, had nothing on the deals forged with inhuman entities in this and other universes.
But pacts with demons are as slippery as trying to recall one’s time in Shadow, and Riven’s first summoning ended in utter disaster. A fellow Goetic was killed and a powerful demon was released, unbound, into Satyrine.
For the second time in short order, Riven left something he had put all his faith in. First it was the science of Shadow, now it was the colloquy of the Goetics. The other Orders, he decided, were equally likely to teach false with the true. So to hell with them all.
Riven declared himself Apostate.
Apostate, but despite what his life seems to be trying to tell him, not unwilling to try to learn deeper secrets. That’s why he Explores the Noosphere, that place where mind, at least, is supreme. And though he might forget it when he descends into his dark moods, he retains a friend out of Shadow: Callahan. And a friend from his time with the Goetics: Fiona. And a brand new friend who makes cupcakes that taste like hope for a better tomorrow: Schaelee.
Curious about Invisible Sun? Check out what has been revealed so far!
(Preorders for Invisible Sun are open now!)
