The Empire of Caradia. An expansive piece of land that would take a year to cross if it were flat and had no trees. But it's got rolling foothills, forests, villages, ancient relics and buildings, and lakes and rivers all over. It's back and sides are enclosed by the mountains which opens up to the sea. The have ports that allow them to travel to countries such as Lumoise, Waylox, or the singular island country of Haton for trade. The other countries are a little further out and they've yet to establish a good repertoire with them. It's currently in a time of peace, but with a slowly building anxiety. The current Empress, Esmeralda, bares an uncanny resemblance to the statues of the twin Goddesses that the people worship. The problem? One Goddess represent everything that is good, which leaves the other to be all that is bad. But they look exactly the same, it's the posture of the statue that separates them. Good reaches for the sky and the other reaches towards the the earth. The Emperor insists that this is sign that their reign is divine and that no one has the right to question it. The people debate constantly which twin they believe that Esmeralda is supposed to be. She strives to be the good Goddess to them, wanting nothing more than to see the country flourish. The Goddesses seem to almost be insulted by her trying to be them because in the past few years, reports of a plague in some of the villages on the far side of the empire have reached the royals. Then to make matters worse, creatures started crawling out of the woodworks, originating from one of the villages. The creatures have bodies that are completely black like ink, but are practically bulging with muscles. Their heads are elongated skulls of animals, teeth stained with blood as well as the claws on their hands and feet. The only way to tell if one is alive or dead is by the dull red glow in the eye sockets. They're mercilessly and seem to thrive on the reaction their presence creates. Needless to say, blame is being flung at Esmeralda's lovely face, blaming her for the problems being struck up under her rule. What is an Emperor to do for his distressed queen but to take up arms and go to the problem at the source. He plans to make the journey to the village where the creatures were said to first appear and he hopes that the answers to making them disappear lies there. Esmeralda pleads for him not to leave since the plague was in that region as well, but he can't sit idly by while his people continue to suffer. He sends out a decree to have those willing to brave the trip join him. He insists that his armies need to stay where he has them posted to protect the people from the monsters. You will be one of the recruits joining the Emperor as he makes his journey to the mysterious village. Please check with me on species other than human, please and thanks. These rules ought to sound a little repetitive for an advanced rp, but I'll state them anyways. No god moding or power playing. Your characters are not perfect and will miss or get hit eventually. You cannot control other people's characters to make them do what you want them to do, unless you have expressed permission from that character's user. Try to post at least once a day. I realize that's hard and sometimes you get busy, and if that's the case, try to forewarn us. I don't want people getting left behind and then getting ill when we thought they were a no show. On that same note, try to not post a hundred gazillion times and leave people behind. If it's you and one other character talking, try and find one of those collab things and post it that way. Just try not to have ten novels in a post. I suppose I shouldn't make the assumption we're all adults here, but I kind of am. I don't mind swearing, just try to have some other kinds of vocabulary mixed in there too, and innuendos and such are fine. Anything too much more than that, we need to draw a line. If you really need to have your kinky scene with someone, take it to the PMs. Lastly, this is a made up world. Anything that isn't directly stated by me or by a character that's devised the place we're in is up for manipulation. You can do whatever you want to get your plot conveniences. Run your idea by me in the ooc or the pms and if I give the ok, then go for it. If you have a question about how the people of Waylox would react, again, just shoot me a question. Have fun with! I'm looking forward to it! Okay to sum up how magic is looked at in Caradia: It's not a foreign concept to them. They do trade with a country called Lumoise (Which is on the other side of the crag than Waylox for those who look at my other rps) which is run by mages, their religion revolves around it. Caradia's not super thrilled with mages, but if they're not hurting anyone then they see no need to really involve themselves in their business. People are a little more likely to give a weird look if they know you're a mage, but, unless you have a bad reputation, they aren't gonna run in terror from you. If you've established a good reputation then they'll ignore that weird magic mumbo jumbo and be quite chummy with you.

CS being whipped up.

Definitely interested, and might have a CS in progress. Been craving something like this.

Name: Balan Dirgeblade Age: 43 Gender: Male Personality: The Emperor, much to his queens horror for her poor heart, has never been one to sit on the sidelines. Not just because it was expected of him as a leader, but because he felt it was his duty. If he's asking someone else to do something that puts their life at risk, he best be willing to do it himself. He is still a noble though and some of those ingrain personality traits are still there- he does give a condescending look to peoples whose profession is less than.... honorable, but he will get it of it as quickly as he can and will say nothing about it. He is slow to trust, hence why he still has a high ranking knight with the party, but he will eventually warm up to someone when they've proven they're not out to assassinate him. In his relaxed company, he is a jovial man that appreciates a good joke and good company. Role/Title: He is the Emperor of Caradia. History: When Balan was a boy, he knew right away what was expected of him. He strove to meet those expectations and then go beyond them. He had dreams of being the best Emperor in Caradia's history, though he knew he couldn't match the legends of the man who made it an empire to begin with rather than a bunch of small broken countries. He studied and trained with all his might, though he never seemed to reach that level to impress his own father. He didn't let it slow him down- in fact, it made him work harder. He trained with the knights, insisted they work him just like anyone else in their ranks. As he got older, stronger, and wiser, his father created the fixed marriage between him and Esmeralda- the daughter of a noble of a large city on the far eastern edge of their empire, trying to keep the peace between them. Her beauty was already rather well known, her likeness to Caradia's Goddesses legend. She was quite her own person, however. She was opinionated, stubborn, and perfectly aware of just how pretty she was. She was not about to just be that pretty face, though, to be stationed at his side. She wanted him to hear what she had to say and he quickly figured out his best bet was to hear her out. And it proved to be useful. She had tactical knowledge for both the battlefield and the throne room. This is what lead him to being absolutely smitten to his future bride. There were more than enough skirmishes that lead him to the battlefield, putting all his expertise to use, and leaving her at home. Though she kept the courts in check, she was always the first person the knights would see upon returning as she would sneak out to meet them on their return. The two became insperable with time and she almost thought she was going to the battlefield with him once because he couldn't bear to leave her side- and she'd have been willing to go, though her own knowledge of the sword of the time was lacking- something Balan was sure to fix upon learning, in case anything should ever happen. Finally, they had a decade of peace, no skirmishes, not accusations of one town trying to take over another, the crops were flourishing. Balan had just come in to the crown, his father having lived quite a long and prosperous life. He and Esmeralda had been wed for some time and had several wonderful children, his favorite being his youngest daughter, Adralyn, who seemed to have the maps of the land memorized faster than all her other siblings- eager for an adventure of her own. When the news of the plague hit, it all but broke his heart. A plague was out of his hands, a curse from the Goddesses, but why? What had they done wrong? Had he not praised them enough for their peace? Then the monsters came and he had something to direct his anger towards, his disappointment. He has his main forces staying to take care of his people and spreading out to the villages most vulnerable to falling under the monsters attacks. He figured it started in a small village. He wouldn't need an army to handle that. Anything extra: Will add songs for them later Name: Osanne Bladefury Age: 25 Gender: Female Personality: If the stick could be completely buried in the mud, then that would Osanne. She has zero since of humor. Her duty to the crown comes first and anything else doesn't matter, including her own safety and life. She isn't social and she trusts absolutely no one outside of the knights and her leaders. They haven't proven themselves worth that trust, so why should she trust them? She especially has a hard time getting to trust any unknown males, which lead most of her superiors to believe that something unsavory happened to her. Role/Title: Knight Captain of the Imperial forces. History: Osanne was found in the lower parts of the Imperial city when she was 7. She was dirty, hair matted, bruised, and clothes tattered. She would scream whenever a man got close to her and ran in to women's arms for safety. When she 10, she was passed in to an orphanage when a knight realized one of the villagers was harboring the girl that belonged to a murdered family. That same knight came to check on her every single day from that point forward, unless he was away in the field. She began to anticipate his return and some of the sentries outside the main gate began to tease her that she was the only one ever waiting for "that dumb bastard" to come back. And when he would come back, it was the only time she would smile, relieved to see him in one piece, even if that piece was in bad shape. When she 15, he left to deal with some small time problem. At that time in her life, she was already working on getting herself in to the ranks, doing odd jobs for people to make herself seem useful. She would wait for him to come back and continued to wait until one day, one of the three knights that left returned and it wasn't her friend. They had been ambushed by bandits on the road back, bandits that were angry about the resolution of a problem they had started. All the knight had to give her from her friend was a ring he had purchased for her in the town, planning to give it to her for her birthday saying "All young ladies ought to have a least one piece of jewelry, right? Would hate for her to feel left out." She put that ring on a chain and she still wears that necklace to this day. When she was training to become a knight, some of the guys tried to harass her about the ring, calling it the gift from her perverted lover, to which she would get in trouble for beating them bloody. Once given the title of knight she went about proving herself to be the most capable they'd had in some time. She forced herself to bury all emotions, not wanting them to get in the way of her progress. Being a knight gave her life some purpose, a reason. Plus it kept her close to the memory of the last person who cared two cents about her. She only very recently gained the title Knight Captain, having to prove herself able and willing to be in charge even if only on a small scale. Anything extra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncd_cMZnC3I

There will be a character below me... eventually.

Gonna put this down here too so people see it. I always forget to mention this stuff >_< Okay to sum up how magic is looked at in Caradia: It's not a foreign concept to them. They do trade with a country called Lumoise (Which is on the other side of the crag than Waylox for those who look at my other rps) which is run by mages, their religion revolves around it. Caradia's not super thrilled with mages, but if they're not hurting anyone then they see no need to really involve themselves in their business. People are a little more likely to give a weird look if they know you're a mage, but, unless you have a bad reputation, they aren't gonna run in terror from you. If you've established a good reputation then they'll ignore that weird magic mumbo jumbo and be quite chummy with you. Caradia's own religion dictates good is to be praised and bad to destroyed, but they believe each person dictates whether they are bad or good, not the circumstances they are born with.

Finished with CS!

Very interested in taking part. How many people are you accepting for the group?

Finished with my CS, decided to create something a bit younger than usual (for my typical fantasy adventure affairs), figure Hector and Pythia could have an interesting dynamic if I went this route.

Haven't really decided a cut off point yet, I would say twelve additional people just so it doesn't get out of hand. So far everyone's characters look rather interesting

Alright, I will get started on my character sheet then.

What type or class of character are you thinking about, FF? Just curious, since it's early and such.

Possibly a Thief or Rogue character, just have to work out how they would get themselves involved in joining the group. (Either for a reward or to get out of being hung would be one of the options).

Gowi totally isn't commissioning me to join this RP at all. Regardless, hello people with whom I am not yet acquainted! I'm just here to say that I've got a few ideas rolling around in the think tank. Possibly a hunter/ranger type who reported the growing threat from whatever village? Hmm. I'll have a think on a few more to see if I can come up with a niche.

Let's just try to avoid having too many thieves and such. Had to put a stop to those on the last one too. Not saying you can't make them now, I'm just saying once there are already two or three, let's just hold off or change it up a little. And it would be interesting to have someone who saw the threat firsthand braving to go back towards it

How would a Druid fit into this world? I am asking as I would like to make said character instead of the thief/rogue if there is already an influx of that particular type

There's not on this one, that was just sort of a forewarning to others that come looking. Right now there's none here, I just don't want to have like ten people trying to be rogue/thieves/spies/assassins, ya know?

Name: Hector Ward

Depending on what magic he displays, Logen may or may not react badly. :p

Name: Pythia “The Yellow Rose” Heartspire

She is sufficiently holy enough that Logen won't try to impale her on his sword. :D