Looking for feedback on a character+backstory

[awesomenessofme1]

So, some of this might be familiar if you've seen any of my threads over the past few days asking rules questions. This is a character I've put quite a bit of work into. It's intended for a solo game I'm thinking about playing in a homebrew setting.

First some setting information: I don't have a name, but the setting is a combination of fantasy and post-apocalypse. About 100 years ago, some kind of horrible magical disaster occurred which, over a period of time, wiped out 99.1% of the world's population (or the continent's, there are no ocean-faring ships). The magic pulses had major effects on the survivors. A significant chunk were left infertile, close to half. Around one-third were affected in more unusual ways, and either alterations to biology or remnants of magic caused them to continue to future generations. There are three major groups.

Sorcerers (around 20% of the population) have some level of Magery. There were sorcerers before, but in vastly smaller numbers.

Magi (around 10% of the population) have magical abilities that are not conventional spellcasting.

Aberrants (around 10% of the population) are physically altered in some ways. Despite the name, these alterations aren't always bad, or even ugly. Some of them provide tremendous physical advantages.

The same person can exhibit more than one of these. My character is a triad, the incredibly rare individual who has all three.

In keeping with post-apocalypse, there is little to nothing in the way of centralized authority, with most people living in small towns and isolated communities. Monsters and roving gangs of murderers and thieves are a constant threat. Because of the existence of dark magic and literal monsters compared to just mutants or zombies, and the lower tech level, in many ways this is a more dangerous world to live in than typical post-apocalypse.

Volkur Dakhonal

Attributes: ST 11 [10], DX 13 [60], IQ 12 [40], HT 11 [10]

Secondary Characteristics: Dam 1d-1/1d+1, BL 24 lb, HP 11 [0], Will 12 [0], Per 13 [5], FP 11 [0], Basic Speed 6.00 [0], Basic Move 6 [0]

Advantages: Aberrant Arm¹ [12], Aberrant Eyes² [9], Ally (Rusty, built on 25%, appears on 15 or less) [3], Attractive [4], Breath Holding 2 [4], Combat Reflexes [15], Fit [5], Magery 2 [25], Payload 2 (Cosmic, +50%, Magical, -10%) [2], Signature Gear 9 [9], Telekinesis 5 (Increased Range x2, +10%, Attraction, -60%, Visible, -20%, Magical, -10%) [5], Temperature Control 2 (Emanation, -20%, Heat, -50%, Magical, -10%) [2], Weapon Master (Longsword and longbow) [25]

Perks: Cutting-Edge Training (Armoury [Body Armor]) [1], Dabbler (Scrounging+2, Survival (Desert and Woodlands)+1, Urban Survival+2, Weather Sense+2) [1], Strongbow [1], Weapon Bond (Sword) [1]

Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Knight-Errant)³ [-10], Cynophobia (12) [-5], Enemy (Rebirth Cult, appears on 6 or less, Hunter) [-10], Impulsiveness [-10], Increased Consumption [-10], Stubbornness [-5]

Quirks: Broad-Minded [-1], Congenial [-1], Hates Lying [-1], Minor Addiction (Jitterweed) [-1], Responds badly to insults [-1]

Skills: Animal Handling (Equines)-11 [1], Animal Handling (Reptiles)-12 [2], Anthropology⁴-10 [1], Area Knowledge (Continent)-13 [2], Armoury/TL3 (Melee Weapons)-11 [1], Armoury/TL3 (Missile Weapons)-11 [1], Armoury/TL3 (Body Armor)-12 [2], Bow-14 [4], Brawling-13 [1], Broadsword-15 [8], Detect Lies-11 [1], Diplomacy-11 [2], Fast-Draw (Arrow)-14 [1], Fast-Draw (Sword)-14 [1], First Aid/TL3-12 [1], Naturalist-11 [2], Navigation/TL3 (Land)-12 [2], Parry Missile Weapons-12 [2], Riding (Horse)-13 [2], Scrounging-11⁵ [0], Search-12 [1], Shield-14 [2], Smith/TL3 (Iron)-11 [1], Survival (Desert) -11⁶ [0], Survival (Plains)-13 [2], Survival (Woodlands)-11⁶ [0], Swimming-11 [1], Thaumatology-11⁷ [1], Tracking-12 [1], Urban Survival-10⁵ [0], Weather Sense/TL3-9⁵ [0], Wrestling-12 [1]

Spells: Continual Light-12 [1], Detect Magic-12 [1], Haste-12 [1], Ignite Fire-12 [1], Light-12 [1], Purify Water-12 [1], Seek Water-12 [1], Simple Illusion-12 [1]

1: Arm ST 4 [12], Damage Resistance 1 (Partial, One Arm, -40%, Tough Skin, -40%), Unnatural Features 1 (Enlarged, misshapen left arm) [-1]
2: Nictitating Membrane 1 [1], Night Vision 9 [9], Unnatural Features 1 (Glowing neon green eyes) [-1]
3: Defend the weak. Accept any honorable quest you think you have a hope of completing. Don’t allow yourself to become tied down to any one place. Treat with respect and honor all who deserve it.
4: Functions the same way as in After the End. It’s basically History (Pre-Apocalypse).
5: Includes +2 from Dabbler.
6: Defaulted from Survival (Plains). Includes +1 from Dabbler.
7: Includes +2 from Magery 2.

Volcur Dakhonal was born in the small village of Naccar. His aberrations were obvious from birth, which greatly concerned his parents at first. It soon became clear that they were almost completely positive, which reassured them. He grew up with a relatively quiet life, considering the situation, though he did learn fighting like everyone needed to. Eventually, it was discovered he was a triad, a cause for celebration, but also concern. Triads always seem to attract unwanted attention. There's no way to know if it was just a coincidence, but some years later, when Volcur was 17, Naccar was utterly destroyed by a pack of manawolves. Only a handful of people survived, and Volcur was only willing to flee because his parents had already been killed.

Volcur has spent the last six years wandering the world, attempting to help people and become strong enough that what happened to him can never happen again. A few months after he left, during a brief foray into the desert, Volcur befriended a dire lizard (imagine a cross between a Jurassic Park velociraptor and a gecko from Fallout) who became his companion. He named her Rusty because of her scales (silver flecked with red-brown). In the past year, he's had several runins with the Church of Mystic Rebirth, a cult that more or less worships the apocalypse, believing that through killing and ritual, they can finish what the magic pulses started and begin the world anew as a paradise. They have particular use for triads, so he always needs to keep an eye out.

Here's a full breakdown (best I can) of his abilities:
Aberrant Arm: His dominant left arm is very strong (ST15) and has DR, but is also visually distinctive.
Aberrant Eyes: He can see perfectly in anything but total darkness and has some eye protection, but again, it's visually distinctive.
Ally: He has an animal companion, a large lizard. She's somewhat effective in combat, but also has great stealth, athletics, and tracking abilities.
Breath Holding: He has superhuman lung capacity, an invisible aberration.
Payload: He can store up to 5 lb in a magical hammerspace. He does this by holding it and sort of Pokeball-ing into his hand.
Signature Gear: Longsword, longbow, customized metal shield, breastplate, horse.
Telekinesis: He can pull any object within 20 yd of him toward himself with Basic Lift 5 lb, Basic Move 5.
Temperature Control 2: He can slowly warm up a 2-yd radius around himself up to 40°.
Attractive, Combat Reflexes, Fit, Magery, Weapon Master: Self-explanatory
A few random notes:
Increased Consumption comes from the increased energy needs of his various unique abilities. It's very inconvenient in a post-apocalypse, but he does what he can.
Jitterweed is a widespread plant with effects similar to coffee.

So, here's what I'm looking for: Is there anything that's just badly made about the character? Does he have a diverse and powerful enough set of abilities to survive in a dangerous world as a solo character? Any feedback on the setting or backstory? Anything like that would be helpful.

[AlexanderHowl]

Assuming that humans within the world possess a population equivalent to humanity before 1500, that would leave less than 4 million humans alive, 50% of whom were sterile. With population density dropping to <0.08 per square mile, human civilization collapses because there is no reason to maintain farming technology (hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies are more efficient <1 per square mile). Predator populations will recover quickly without humans hunting them, so human populations will not recover, as predators will eat young children because they are weak and delicious (more than half of children will likely die before age twelve because of predation), and this is not including supernatural predation.

With the low population densities, there will not be sufficient numbers for knowledge of spells to spread, meaning that spells will die with their creators. A band with a territory of 300 square miles will have a population of 50 people, meaning that only ten of them will be sorcerers, which probably means that they can only sustain the knowledge of the most basic spells over the generations. There will be no towns or villages, just small bands of people living in the ruins of towns and foraging through the area that used to support the town.

If you want a cataclysm that will not ruin civilization for thousands of years, an 80% kill rate would be preferable. The remaining population is large enough to sustain agriculture and to allow for the development and transmission of magical knowledge. Larger populations also allow for more effective defense from predators, natural and supernatural, allowing the population to start to recover.

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Assuming that humans within the world possess a population equivalent to humanity before 1500, that would leave less than 4 million humans alive, 50% of whom were sterile.

Your assumptions are a little off. I've actually done the math on this. On the continent being focused on, there were about 1.5 million left in an area smaller than Europe minus Russia, somewhere in the realm of 2 million sqmi. So, much higher population density than you assumed. With the growth rate of 2.3% annually used by GURPS Space for colonies (no idea how accurate that is, but it's something at least), population would have increased roughly 10x in the past century, which would be around 7.5-8 mil only counting the fertile ones.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

With population density dropping to <0.08 per square mile, human civilization collapses because there is no reason to maintain farming technology (hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies are more efficient <1 per square mile). Predator populations will recover quickly without humans hunting them, so human populations will not recover, as predators will eat young children because they are weak and delicious (more than half of children will likely die before age twelve because of predation), and this is not including supernatural predation.

Not sure how the different population density assumptions would affect this, but the collapse of civilization is sort of the point of post-apocalypse. And you can easily handwave away the predator thing if it's still relevant.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

With the low population densities, there will not be sufficient numbers for knowledge of spells to spread, meaning that spells will die with their creators. A band with a territory of 300 square miles will have a population of 50 people, meaning that only ten of them will be sorcerers, which probably means that they can only sustain the knowledge of the most basic spells over the generations. There will be no towns or villages, just small bands of people living in the ruins of towns and foraging through the area that used to support the town.

I'm pretty sure that the higher population density would solve this issue, but I'm not 100%. In any case, there's no reason to assume that learning spells requires training. It might be more effective with training, but whether training is necessary is a genre switch, not a hard-and-fast rule.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

If you want a cataclysm that will not ruin civilization for thousands of years, an 80% kill rate would be preferable. The remaining population is large enough to sustain agriculture and to allow for the development and transmission of magical knowledge. Larger populations also allow for more effective defense from predators, natural and supernatural, allowing the population to start to recover.

Again, the destruction of civilization (though not the thousands of years part) is the point. But I'm pretty sure that the actual population numbers means this isn't an issue.

[awesomenessofme1]

I think I might have just picked a bad time to post this yesterday, so I'm going to bump this with another stat block.

Rusty

Attributes: ST 7 [-30], DX 16 [120], IQ 3 [-140], HT 12 [20]

Secondary Characteristics: Dam 1d-3/1d-2, BL 10 lb, HP 7 [0], Will 11 [40], Per [50], FP 12 [0], Basic Speed 7.00 [0], Basic Move 10 [15]

Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15], Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3], Discriminatory Smell [15], Scales [1], Sharp Claws [5], Sharp Teeth [1]

Disadvantages: Bad Grip 2 [-10], Dead Broke [-25], Ham-Fisted [-5], Domestic Animal [-30], Semi-Upright [-5]

Skills: Brawling-18 [4]. Climbing-15 [1], Jumping-16 [1], Running-13 [4], Stealth-16 [2], Survival (Desert)-14 [4], Tracking-14 [4], Wrestling-16 [2]

Rusty is a dire lizard. I don't see them coming up outside of her, so I didn't bother distinguishing between her personal and racial stats, but she's definitely exceptional compared to others of her species. She's a 62 pt character (a 25% ally for Volcur's 250). I based a lot of it on the velociraptor from Lands Out of Time (thus the IQ 3 instead of 2 and a few other things) but scaled down. She's about a yard from nose to tail and somewhere around 2 feet standing up (SM-2).