[img]http://i.imgur.com/jvVeJEk.jpg[/img]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/88877-broken-prism-a-dystopic-magical-girl-rp/ooc]The OOC thread[/url]
[hider=Backstory]Centuries ago, when the world was ravaged by both invading fiends and human malice, a young girl heard the voice of a god. The Oracle, as she came to be known, heard Shinju, the World Tree, calling her to save the world, and as a sign gave to her a blooming flower that turned into the very first Holy Seed. She, together with four others, became the first magical girls and prevented the fiends' march upon the world, and were the founding members of the Order of the Holy Flower, an organization exclusive to magical girls. Other legions of darkness appeared decades later along with new generations of magical girls to fight them, and a never-ending war was born. In time, the girls became worshiped as gods by a minority of the populace, thus giving a name to the war: the Age of Heroes. 

Shinju, as the scriptures tell, was displeased with the cycle of violence that the world became trapped in after a century of fighting, continued by the sinful and unfaithful humans that populated it and continued drawing darkness to the material plane. Enraged by this, he gave the magical girls a new commandment: to spread the faith of the Shinju to every corner of the world, and establish a new world order, ruled by Shinju's chosen, who were the purest in their hearts.

The magical girls took the god's words to heart, and began taking over. The nations that resisted and fought back had their cities destroyed and their populace slaughtered, while those who surrendered to their will had their governments replaced with the Order of the Holy Flower. The order then began converting the populations to the faith of Shinju. At first, there was a time of peace. However, the Order could not sustain itself, and broke into countless tiny pieces as the magical girls' conflicts escalated into a civil war that still rages today.
Many cities were thus reduced to grounds for magical girls to fight over territory. 

Now the world is a patchwork quilt of nations and magical girl states, a state of affairs that solidified long ago. Most of them exist in a state of carefully maintained detente, unable to expand, yet too costly for them to be crushed. The border is patrolled, and there are occasional skirmishes, but otherwise there is an uneasy peace.

Inside these new city-states, things have stabilized with time. Magical girls have placed themselves atop the already existing governmental structures and burned down that which opposed them, maintaining local forces for the operation of society that are, at the same time, not powerful enough to challenge them. They exist as isolated communities, with their own currency, their own laws, their own armies. And though they may cooperate with their fellow rulers, they are not necessarily friends, and often more naive magical girl queens find their cities taken over by more aggressive rulers.

Aurora City is but only one of such magical girl states, where zealotry, dictatorship, and fear of young girls has become the routine. At the top of the city's hierarchy, there are the Shinju's chosen. Generally the strongest magical girl in the region is in charge, earning the right by defeating the previous leader in a battle to the death and becoming a Queen in the process. It is typical for a Queen to have several lieutenants or vassals, depending on the amount of territory they have. Territory is controlled by the ruler, but divided up among subordinates, known as Nobles, who have to pay taxes in Holy Seeds for permission. These Nobles govern over a portion of the city, managing it and keeping a stable supply of Holy Seeds to pay for the Queen and other members of the Order. Nobles typically use Knights to enforce order and faith in the populace. These magical girls also cover border conflicts, either guarding the border or making an advantageous move on an opponent's turf.

While on the surface it seems that Aurora City's citizens are safely protected by the Order, there are many factions within the city who vie for control, even some inside the Order; only the most ruthless and cunning can survive in this game of power.[/hider]
Hi, and welcome to Broken Prism, a roleplay where you play as magical girls who can do anything. Do you want to support the Order and burn heretic scum in the name of the holy god Shinju while ruling over the people with an iron fist? Do you want to usurp the current ruler and become Queen instead? Want to fight the power, and bring the order down as a member of the resistance? Do you want to be a neutral magical girl who happened to run into a turf war of epic proportions? All is possible.

[hider=Magical Girls]Young girls chosen for their purity of heart to be inheritor's of Shinju's will and power. They derive their powers from Holy Seeds, artifacts said to have descended from the World Tree itself, and use them to transform into forms where they can use spells and weapons, represented by tiny spirits known as fairies. These fairies can take any kind of form, from the basic winged humanoid to bestial and even inorganic shapes. They protect their mistress from harm, to the point that they even prevent a magical girl from committing suicide. Magical girls that are not Withered restore their magical powers through Holy Seeds, which are collected by either purifying (read:slaying) fiends or by growing them in gardens blessed by Saints.[/hider]
[hider=Factions]
[hider=The Order of the Holy Flower] Originally formed by the Oracle, who was the first magical girl, this organization used to run the world, advocating faith of the Shinju and blasting any nonbelievers into smithereens. While nowadays the Order has broken into countless smaller states, the Order that runs Aurora City still adheres to the ancient teachings of the Shinju. One of these is the forbidden use of any weapon considered too advanced to be wielded by a Shinju's chosen, such as black powder weaponry. Thus, members of the Order are sworn to only use classical weapons such as swords, spears, bows and axes to fight their enemies.

Another teaching is the use of a power known as Full Bloom, a sacred technique that harnesses the power of the Shinju himself, granting the user [url=http://i.imgur.com/Jk7snP3.jpg]godly power.[/url] However, this power carries many consequences; every time a magical girl reverts from Full Bloom they have one of their bodily functions, such as a limb or a sense, permanently lost and given as an offering to the Shinju, while giving the user eternal life and a new fairy for every Bloom. The most veteran members of the Order eventually become bedridden by their disabilities, and become highly revered as Saints, their hospital beds enshrined in a grand fashion as they lie there eternally.

The splinter Order that is the official government of the city-state of Aurora is headed up by a magical girl, but it is also heavily comprised of normal humans who have chosen to collaborate with the current authorities. There tends to be a lot of turnover when leadership changes, and it can be corrupt and ineffective at times. [/hider]

[hider=The Withered]Magical girls who were once faithful but cast their faith away, or have become impure in their hearts. They have lost the favor of Shinju, and their Holy Seeds have turned into Dusk Seeds. This means that once they run out of magic power, they succumb to Shinju's curse and become Demons, especially powerful fiends. While they can no longer perform the Full Bloom or achieve eternal life, their magical powers are enhanced by their will, giving them no limits when it comes to their weaponry and granting them access to guns and explosives among other things as part of their magical arsenal. However, since they are unable to derive power from Holy Seeds, they must collect it by killing other magical girls and absorbing their magical life essence, becoming stronger in the process. A particularly devious Withered can quickly become dangerous if it manages to collect enough essence, and are thus almost always mistrusted and sometimes even outright hunted as an enemy of the Order. 

While the Withered are usually loners, wandering the earth in search of more magical girls to kill, others have taken to contract work, some even working for human resistance groups that seek to overthrow the Order, like Shadow Compact. However, this is incredibly rare; they are often mistrusted by regular humans due to them being similar to their oppressors.[/hider]

[hider=Shadow Compact]Derogatorily known as the 'Shinju Slayers', the Shadow Compact are the resistance, the underground, a movement of humans dedicated to overthrowing magical girl rule once and for all, through assassination, terrorism, and black market dealings. They are believed to have ties to some magical girls they have recruited for their cause, though there is no concrete proof of that. Not that it's really needed, but officially they are an unaffiliated rogue organization.[/hider]

[hider=Elysium]A newly-formed organization formed from one of the extremist splinter Orders, the Elysium seeks to eradicate all humans and create a world of only magical girls. While their numbers are lower compared to an Order-run city-state, they have recently gained considerable influence by sending agents to cities and conduct cleansing of the human population, or by infiltrating the local governments and sabotaging them. There are rumors that some members of Elysium have even made temporary truces with Shadow Compact in order to combat the local Order, though they usually end in betrayal. They can perform a considerably more powerful form of Full Bloom called Holy Bloom, but instead of disability the power costs them their life. They are also even more strict about the usage of weapons, even going so far as to only rely on their spells with staffs and wands instead, but as a result they tend to have a more diverse spell-pool.[/hider]

[hider=Neutral]Still believing in the Shinju's teachings of unity and peace while not following the more extreme ideology of the Order, these include magical girls who think that magical girls and humans can exist as equals. However, due to lingering between the two extremes of magical destiny, they have neither access to Full Bloom like the Order, nor the vampiric life draining of the Withered. However, they can use any weapon, and can restore their powers without resorting to killing other magical girls. Their strongest weapon lies in their freedom of choice: whether they want to bring order or chaos to the world, they can make their actions count.[/hider]
[/hider]
[hider=Character Sheet]Character Sheet. Send your sheet for examination, and once approved it can be posted in the Character tab.
[List]
[*][b]Name[/b]: What do people call you?
[*][b]Appearance[/b]: What do you look like? Pictures are recommended.
[*][b]Age[/b]: Between the ages available (10-15), what is your given age? Note that a Saint's age can be considerably older, but their visual appearance will still be confined to the given age range and has to be mentioned separately.
[*][b]Personality[/b]: What is your character like? What makes them tick?
[*][b]Background[/b]: What's your character's past? How have they come to this point in time?
[*][b]Faction[/b]: Is your character a member of the Order? If not, are they part of another organization, or unaffiliated?
[*][b]Magical Weapon[/b]: What weapon does your character use upon transforming? What is the visual representation of the fairy that embodies this power? Note that members of the Order have a limited selection compared to others.
[*][b]Magical Incantation[/b]: What spells does your character specialize in? An accepted number is within 1-3 depending on their power and utility.
[*][b]Full Bloom[/b]: Exclusive to members of the Order and Elysium. What divine power Shinju grants to you momentarily when you tap into him? Examples include giant arms wielding replicas of the character's weapon (as showcased in the example picture), the ability to bend the laws of reality, and general flashy magic that is beyond a regular magical girl's abilities. Members of Elysium must also add a separate description of Holy Bloom.
[*][b]Other things[/b]: If there is anything else you believe that needs mentioning, you can add it here.
[/List][/hider]

Feel free to post comments, discuss things, or whatever your heart's content here.

Rules:
1. If you need to be absent for a while due to real-life issues or anything else, poke me with a PM or in the thread so I can react accordingly, and you can come back with little hassle.
2. Collaboration is recommended for dialogue and/or combat between characters. [url=https://titanpad.com/]Titanpad[/url] is a good place to make them, for example.
3. Have fun, and ask me if there's anything on your mind.