[hider=Interest Check][quote=Interest Check][center][img]http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/261/f/5/oak__s_crossing_by_jonasdero-d41rd6c.jpg[/img][/center]
(Picture by JonasDeRo on [url=http://jonasdero.deviantart.com/art/Oak-s-Crossing-244821108]Deviant Art[/url])

For the better part of the last millennia, magic has been slowly fading from our world. This land was once full of those who could feel the touch of the Great Power.  Magicians and Elementalists worked great feats, flattening mountains, parting oceans, forging weapons, bringing to us unimaginable wealth and power. The Great Power abounded, and touched our lives in almost every way. However, eventually a great war broke out among the kingdoms of men. A powerful and dark magician led an uprising of bandits and mercenaries to overtake one of these kingdoms, and with the help of an army of magically animated stone golems, he was able to do just that. He ruled the kingdom with an iron fist of corruption and violence. Before long his power was consolidated, and he turned his sights outward. War ravaged the lands of men for fifty long years before his forces were finally defeated. 

After the great war people began to reject the Great Power, and all those who used it. Kings led inquisitions against the once influential and respected Magicians and Elementalists. Rather than further divide the land, they soon fled to the south and across the sea. With the absence of its users, the Great Power began to recede. As its presence faded, the creatures that drew from it disappeared from the land. Soon men could no longer feel its touch, and it became regarded as legend. Now all that remains of the Great Power in the land of men are a few and scattered trinkets and runes. Even these are seen as scams or props in a children’s story. 

But now something has changed. Reports from the south bring word of hulking beasts of stone raiding and pillaging secluded forest villages. All those who have seen the beasts say they are coordinated somehow, though there never seems to be a leader among them. They wear no weapons or armor, and use only their fists and stoney skin. They seem to be searching for something. What that something is remains a mystery. 

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Hello! I am new to this forum, though I have a little experience with roleplaying. The background I have come up with so far is just a template for what I hope to be an expansive and deep fantasy world. Though I plan for this roleplay to take the tradition story route, I hope to develop a complex and interesting world to go along with it. That being said, I am going to try and do my best to establish the parameters of this world before we begin so that we all can have our own hand in creating lore and world-building. Before I do that, however, I want to talk more about what route the story is going to take: 

[hider]Each of you are going to be a child (12-16) in one of the villages that are being raided in the south. The first few posts will be to establish background for your character and your individual villages. Then all of your villages will be attacked and destroyed, and some (if not all) of your friends and family will die. We will have a few posts dealing with the immediate repercussions of this, and each of your villages will be visited by my character and all the other players who have already been visited. He will tell you that you are the reason that your village has been invaded. He will tell you that the beasts were stone golems, and he will tell you that you have the gift of being able to touch the Great Power. Then he will tell you that to keep the rest of the survivors in your village safe, you must leave and come with him to fight the person that is doing this. After everyone has been visited and has joined the party, there is going to be a jump of a few years while all of you are trained to use this power by my character. The rest of the story is going to be a surprise and you will have to join and wait to find out what happens next :).  The nitty gritty as to what powers and abilities each of your characters posses will be decided after the roleplay already begins. I want to have a varied and sort of balanced party for the rest of the story. [/hider]

Now, onto world-building. I really want to encourage everyone to contribute to the lore of the world. Think how a sci-fi/fantasy author introduces the world to new readers. As the story progress he will tangent off here or there to explain some aspect of the world that the reader has yet to learn about. I encourage dropping in ancient or contemporary stories, myths, histories, songs, poems, artwork, knowledge, ect. It will be progressive, so once someone has included a piece of lore in their story, barring any discrepancies with previously established lore, it will be cannon. This isn’t revolutionary, I know, however I wanted to include this section to emphasize how much I want to develop the lore in the story. [/quote][/hider]

Welcome to [i]Return of the Great Power[/i]. I hope this roleplay will become much more than simply a single story, but rather an expansive and deep world. I hope to continue on in this world with a group of dedicated roleplayers even after the conclusion of this tale. Many of you will probably be coming over from the Interest Check, but for those of you just joining us, I have quoted the text from there above. To begin, let us establish a cast of characters. I am currently looking for four players to start out with. Prospective applicants will need to fill out the following character sheet. The four most promising character sheets will be selected by myself to begin the roleplay. 

[hider=Character Sheets]Name: (First and Last please).
Gender: (Male or Female).
Age: (Between 12 and 16).
Appearance: (Pictures or description welcome. You can describe their young-adult self if you wish to).
Village: (Name and Surrounding Environment).
Background: (A few paragraphs about how you character was raised, the development of their personality, ect).
Personal Aspirations: (Both your character's aspirations in the story, as well as your own personal aspirations for your character's development).[/hider]

As far as lore is concerned, I have developed some background to keep things running smoothly at the start of the game. This mainly includes anything and everything in the background history at the beginning of the interest check and a general explanation of the magic system. I've developed these two specifically because: (1) they are required to get the story off the ground, (2) in my experience magic systems left to vague can go awry. I'll be reserving a few posts at the start of the OOC to archive all the established lore so far. Throughout the roleplay I'll be updating this list with new entries that we establish alongside the progression of the story. If anyone has problems with the preliminary lore I will try to be flexible in accommodating concerns.