I feel what you’re saying. I haven’t done too much writing or character design, but I’ve played dnd and have felt that particular sensation, like, my character wasn’t separate, but as soon as I sat down at the table to play I could feel him come over me.
Really an unusual experience, definitely a rush though 
OH NO. ideas. I need to start a dnd thread now.
Oh yes. YES! Ideas. Magiq. dnd. It’s happening 
I think the most prominent way Balimora has manifest with me is my love of animals. I’ve always been more fond of them than people, always found myself drawn to them. You know when you’re a kid and you have an imaginary friend? Well, mine was a black horse that I’d watch run around the playground and would stand and confront me while I watched everyone else play. Animals seem to always understand me, and most of the time I understand them; how to calm them, the best way to make them trust you, what they like and don’t. I wanted to be a vet when I was younger. I think the only reason I didn’t was the thought of having to put an animal down. I just knew it was something I wouldn’t be able to do. I’m also a bit of a twitcher thanks to my dad and grandmother (weirdly, my mother’s mother, not my dad’s).
To give you a brief idea of what I’m like with animals, there’s a huge park nea me, and it’s a haven for wildlife. Squirels, birds, local stray cats… There’s this one spot I like to sit, and this one time I stopped there to eat lunch before catching a bus back home, and I brought some brazil nuts with me to snack on as I’d be travelling over lunch. Turns out there’s this one really friendly squirel that if you’re patient and quiet enough will come and take food from your hand. Similar thing happened when I went to Stonehenge. I sat with my friend to eat lunch by the stones, and there were ravens everywhere. They’d come quite close, so I thought I’d share my food with them. They must have liked me, cause in the end they came right up and would take food from my hand.
I’m so a moon guild too, it’s like… I’m not one for hot weather, or sun bathing. Only reason I like summer is that it used to mean going on holdiay, which meant swimming. I legit die when the weather starts going into the 20’s (celcius). I’m a night owl. I wake up late, and don’t really get most of my energy until the evening. And I love stars and the moon. Hate living in the city cause I can never see them clearly.
As for plants; well, I used to be really good at growing fruit and veg. We’d always have runner beans growing in a tub just outside the back door, and a few years I grew strawberries. More recently I can’t keep anything alive though. It seems ever plant I touch just dies. I never know if I’m giving them too much attention or too little. And now our backgarden is basically a jungle. It’s really annoying cause I’d like to have a herb garden one day to use for cooking as well as my more recent want to study hebal healing.
Like Nymid, I’m also drawn to druidry and strangely enough for a reason that he mentioned in relation (I think) to something else. My pull comes from my love of history, and more recently geneology. I am born and bred Welsh, a Celt, and I often find myself thinking (hoping) that my family has deep roots here, maybe even deep enough that the draw I feel comes from a past filled with fellowers of old ways and keepers of anicent secrets. Or maybe it just comes from a craving to belong somewhere, to be where you’re supposed to be.
On side notes, I saw some talk about having affinities outside of your guild. Now, I’ve been on the fence about being polyguild for some time now, and I’m still not sure. The idea that you can have aspects of other guilds, and yet still definately belong to another has been something I’ve comtemplated. I know I’m a Bali through anf through, but a love for history, for languages, for knowing where a word comes from and therefore feelgin like you understand it better, would suggest some kind of Thornmouth connection. Time shifting too seems to touch me; I normally have a very good sense of time, hate being late to a point where I’m always early, and would be able to guess the time of day accurate to within about 5 mins.
I’m also close to Ebenguard. Combat magic is the easiest to see a link to. I’ve been drawn to archery for years, but I’ve only been shooting properly for nearly 2 years now and having a bow in my hands feels… right. Proud owner of 2 bows (recurve and a long bow). Also have an urge to learn to fight with blades, particularly daggers though I certainly don’t have the physique for that to be effective anymore. My best divination results also come from my runes, so stone scrying? Both sets I’ve made myself have been from stone (one from pebbles I got from a beach, though i gave that set to a friend, and my set from clear quartz), though my first set was ceramic. Runes were also my first attempt to divination. They were the only thing I could slip passed my skeptical mother as she thought they were a game.
(Damn, I did not intend on writing this much! I have the sneaky feeling this is more writing than I’ll get done for the essay I should have been writing, lol)
Love it! I’m curious about you not being able to keep plants alive right now. I’ve personally never had a green thumb though I have dabbled in the herbal arts quite a bit.
I can feel plants saying something but I feel I never slow down enough to listen. I’ve been working on it over the years though…one day.
Divination with a plain rock can be interesting if you’ve never tried it. Look for a rock that calls your attention to you…something fist sized and preferably on the rougher side. Sit down with it and enter a meditative state, open your eyes and softly gaze at the stone with a question in mind. (It can help to have another person so they can write down what you see…kind of like cloud gazing) then see if you can piece together a story from what you’ve seen.
Love hearing about your experiences. Thanks for sharing!
Out of all magimystic affinities for Ebenguard, Truth and Calling rings true to me recently. I spent a lot of time trying to find a career for myself over my last years of college, a calling that’s recently manifested with a position as lead graphic designer at a sign firm. I landed the position close to home almost on a whim, applying in person for the first time in months, right as the previous employee left the company for other things. Originally, I had assumed this to be sheer luck/coincidence, but maybe it was more than that.
Truth and Calling…
I just got a feeling of that Magiq in your circumstance. It felt almost like echo location. I just got an idea.
Thanks! 
Also, congratulations on finding the job! 
Just getting into this now, but same @OracleSage! My whole life has been punctuated by a series of random strangers oversharing with me, and I think latent Trusted Confidant magimystic affinity might be at the core of it. As @WizardAstraz mentioned, with time, age and practice, cultivating these talents and affinities has been helpful. I work directly with the public, and getting people to trust me is a critical part of my work. Cultivating this Gossmere magimystic affinity has been key to my success.
My other biggest affinity would have to be Communion Magiqs and I really like how @Guddrik_Vollan described it here. Using this affinity to inspire a group of people to work together towards the common good and achieve a goal is very rewarding, but the journey isn’t always about the destination. Sharing in a greater community itself and feeling that connectedness is at the heart of the affinity for me.
In terms of our other affinities, Therapeutics is the healing Gossmerim’s bread-and-butter and takes on many different forms, from healing the body with herbal tinctures and remedies to healing the spirit and soul with soothing words. I know Oracle’s had a different experience, but I’ve never been able to perform Shapeshifting Arts outside of Neithernor, and even there it was… of mixed success. Call to Hearth is also something I’ve only ever experienced in Neithernor, and I don’t have much experience at all with Choreomancy.
Now that you mention it I’ve never been able to shift outside of Neithernor either, er, I have never tried to. I think I would feel a bit nervous doing it in an urban setting like New Orleans.
It may be something to experiment with though, after all this is over.
110% going to write a micro fiction of witchy bear-Oracle chillin’ in the French Quarter. 
@Augustus_Octavian & @OracleSage Haven’t quite caught up to Neithernor yet. After TMP what’s the next portion of the recap?
Also, @Augustus_Octavian, so eloquent. Your use of language is like pouring mirror glaze on a cake.
I tried to shapeshift once in Neithernor, and turned into a sentient banjo for a few hours. I have not attempted it since then. It does not appear to be one of my gifts.
That still sounds like a pretty interesting time. Reminds me of the first question of the Guide. What’s it like being a banjo if you don’t mind?
Honestly, knowing this city, the locals wouldn’t bat an eye!
Not very convenient. I was rock climbing and suddenly didn’t have hands.
Ope, yeah that does sound pretty inconvenient. I haven’t seen too many rock-climbing banjos
You’re too kind! Thank you for the compliment.
Well as a thornmouth manipulating time is something I have began to do more often. I would sit down to work or study and the time would seem to never move forward but just slow to a crawl. I would find that it works best when it’s something I actually care about like reading a really good book rather than thinks I don’t care for much like writing essays.
That could be a manifestation of either Time Shifting or Night of Endless Learning.
I feel like since my husband and I took the test I’ve been more aware of the time shift. We are both thornmouth, but he hasn’t read the any of the books and isnt really into it. So basically whenever I’m with him and we talk, it feels like only a maybe thirty minutes, but I look at the clock and its been hours. Either our abilities are like amplifying each other, or I’m just really bad at keeping track of time.
I haven’t really noticed any other ability’s, but I am kinda getting interested in astral travel again. I was successful once when I was a teen, and it felt like I was being spun around by my ankles and pulled out of my body at the same time. Not really sure, but I think the experience scared me and I haven’t been able to since.