-To get the basics straight: This is a Character Roleplay
-It's a fantasy setting based on the 'Dark Ages'. Modeled after the Barbarian Kingdoms of the early Middle Ages. The humans are expies of Germanic Barbarians and Romans.
-It takes place on a single continent called Visandza.
-Your character is part of one such Barbarian Kingdoms or Roman Rumpstates (mostly Barbarian Kingdoms) of Visandza, and your character will work to further that Kingdom's goals. But how loyal your character is to the King is entirely up to you. You have the freedom to go traitor.
-Your characters are all retainers of the Royal Family. High Positions. This can mean Household guards, Captains, Squires, Stable boys, Shield maidens, Priestesses, the royal standard carrier, a nephew/ distant relative of the King, Princelings… any role placing your character in proximity to the faction royalty. Think of the characters as Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
-Magic in the D&D sense isn't really a thing, but the supernatural certainly is. Witch magic exists (turning humans into animals, brewing potions, summoning spirits of the dead) There are non-human races outside Visandza, and blessings and curses are very real and functioning things.
-While this is the Advanced Interest check, I am thinking of posting the actual RP in Casual. (Probs with Casual-Advanced in the title)
The reason: Making long and detailed posts is fine if you want to, but doing so frequently for months on end just drains too much energy and I’ve seen RPs die that way. Therefore preferably make your posts concise and direct. Avoid dragging out and take it easy. It's fine.
MAP OF VISANDZA
The four great factions of Visandza to pick from:
West: The Glory-Seeking Chlotars
West: The Glory-Seeking Chlotars
The most famous (or infamous) of the Barbarian kingdoms. The Chlotar people are industrious and belligerent. The Kingdom they built and conquered is united in common purpose; to topple God’s splinter dynasties and sacrifice them to God in order to quell his sadness, and thereby hopefully save the world. Ending God’s chronic depression is the only chance of averting the impending ice age that is driving the tribes to migrate further and further south. As the Chlotar homeland is in the northernmost tip of Visandza, the Chlotars have much to lose if they fail to avert this climate change. Only God can save their ancestral lands now.
In the past century the warlording Chlotars have invaded, annexed and absorbed several of their rival tribes during the conquests of King Clodovech. At the moment their Kingdom is fractured; its territory divided between two royal brothers: King Dagobert and King Cauroman. However already they set their sights on the next target for conquest; the ungodly Tautans to the east who the Chlotars have hemmed in during their recent conquests. Though they are but a diversion, for their end-goal is to wipe the God-hating Kingdom of Lampertia off the map for good and all. Depose their vicious King, sacrifice him and his kin to God and install a monarch who is properly Godfearing!
South: The God-Hating Lamperts
It’s all in the name. But obviously not every Lampert hates God -- some Lamperts love God! However they cannot come to the public light with their secretly-held convictions, for the stigma is immense. In the Kingdom of Lampertia the hatred of God is of utmost conformity; those who stray from the norm or show open dissent from God-hating orthodoxy are outcast, shunned, mocked… sometimes lynched. Do not underestimate how serious the Kingdom of Lampertia is on their stance of enmity towards God.
Even before the Lampert Tribe conquered the southern peninsula of Amalia, they were rivals of the growing Chlotar confederacy of tribes, who in a time long forgotten exiled their ancestors from the north. It was encroachment of the Divine Locust paired with the allure of seizing the fertile, depopulated lands it left in their wake, that drove the Lamperts to migrate southward. The Lampert people’s beef extends beyond the rival Chlotars and is more directed against God himself. They are not driven by paganism or atheism -- the Lamperts are genuine misotheists. It’s not a matter of religious difference as it is a matter of actual God-hatred. Twenty years ago with the ascension of King Dalgiserius the relations with Chlotaringen has soured further (if that was even possible) and the two powerful Kingdoms are at the brink of a great war the likes Visandza has never seen -- one that could forever alter the continent’s history.
East: The Depraved Tautans
Orgies. There, I said it. Let’s not shy around it. I am only saying what everyone else is already thinking at the mention of the City State of Tautom. Debauchery, decadence, depravity. That is all there is to them. God damn them, and damn God for not smiting these ungodly people. Sure, they have good merchants, skilled artisans, the world’s finest cuisine and cunning alchemists to help further humanity and the like, and surely the capital of worldly pleasures. But their virtues do not make up for their vice, no way. The Tautans will lure you into darkness.
Every night at the plaza, they hold festive orgies. And they have a squadron of men skulking the street to defile and debase any newcomer or gullible foreign visitor to their city. To corrupt them into adopting their uncouth perversities and ambiguous practices…
Keep your daughters and wives away from the Tautans. And probably your barnyard animals too.
North: The Conniving Eodaens
God is outdated. To the Eodaens anyway. When God is too depressed to be a force in the world, you simply create your own god! As such King Badastan presented his court and people with Xeaxaenot, the Golden Squirrel-demon. All of Eodaland turned to Squirrel-demon worship, and this seems to have revived the slumbering spirit of its people. Those that refused to embrace this new idol, remaining loyal to god, were exiled. Fools don’t understand that squirrels are the future.
The Eodaens are actually keeping mostly to themselves as a dormant third power, waiting to exploit and benefit from the impending war between Chlotaringen and Lampertia. Cunning foxes as they are, the Eodaens will most certainly side with the winning-side to reap the benefits.
Only a few years ago Eodaland nearly came to war with Chlotaringen, and they are anxious to provoke the numerically superior and battle-tested Chlotar armies on their own. Depending on how well the Chlotars will fare against the Tautans and Lamperts, the conniving Eodaens may side either with them or against them.
This isn't everything yet, but let me know if you're interested in joining based on only this! I plan to actually finish this RP, and I tell you.... we will march on to the bitter end, and otherwise rush to the ending if people start wavering. The story will only be finished when the war in Visandza is resolved.