[h1]Welcome to Idumea[/h1] [i]"Hear all citizens! King Gonagas, the Lord of this land and the Defender of the people, has sent out a decree to all cities, towns and villages; to all who are now living within the boundaries of the Kingdom. Hear the words of your King! "From King Mikill Gonagas to all ready and able who are willing to take up arms in defence of the Realm, "'The Kingdom is facing a threat from the surrounding countries and the lands round about it which requires immediate action. To protect the freedom of the people, I, the King, will send a dispatch of the Royal Guard joined with all the volunteers who are given a rank in the Guard, on a pre-emptive quest to strengthen the position of the Kingdom and our ability to defend it. Report at the gates of Helsset, the City of the King, before the harvest season begins. May the hand of The Guardian be over us all.'"[/i] This was the tidings the messenger came with. You are a person of remarkable skill and talent in your art be it swordsmanship, controlling the supernatural and the elements, stealth, alchemy or anything else. Regardless of the questions and doubts the strange and unexpected open call aroused, you answered and left for Helsset. Whether it was glory or adventure, title or rank, revenge or revolution. You had your reasons. You met a group of other volunteers in the previous village you traveled through, the village of Giron - the last at least somewhat politically meaningful village on this streak before arriving to Helsset. Since Giron, you have been traveling together as a party. That was three days ago. [hr] Since this game can only accommodate a small number of players, I must do this in an application way. Post your character here on the OOC first. The characters that pass can enter the character area of the thread. The rest that do not pass, you all can follow the unfolding story and you are more than welcome to future visits to Idumea! [h2]Character Sheet[/h2] [b]Name:[/b] I have used a sami dictionary [b]Age:[/b] traditional lifespans [b]Gender:[/b] male/female [b]Race:[/b] human, (forest/mountain/dark)elf, dwarf, mixbreed Briefly about ancestry... [b]Nature:[/b] how the character is as a person with a few words [b]Looks:[/b] how the character looks like and what equipment s/he has [b]Class:[/b] what ever is the character's art Detailed description... [b]Story:[/b] Brief history of the character [b]Motive:[/b] Reason why you answered the call if you have shared it with the party. If not you can send it to me via PM. [hr] [h2]Lore[/h2] [hider=Locations] [b]Idumea[/b] In short Idumea is a flat world that was created by god-twins Nieida (now the Queen of Darkness and called Droha(=Rebellion)) and Ganda (now the Guardian of Idumea). Idumea used to be one big continent surrounded by water. Now, several millenias later, the continent is broken and divided. One third of Idumea was moved towards West, out of the horizon and is now only a part of children's legends and included in some religious texts. The rest was carried towards East and shattered. The whole face of the lands changed because of this tumult. A mountain, Heaven's Peak, that once was in the center of Idumea is now a lonely island equally unreachable as the lost one third. [b]The Kingdom of Eana[/b] Is a kingdom on one of the Eastern Continents. It is an in-land kingdom that surrounds the Lake Guhkki and a couple of other lakes. The kingdom is mostly hills and planes but here is also a good deal of forests and some small mountains. Helsset is the city of the King. Other bigger cities are Roavenjarga, Giron and Davvi. Most of the people in the kingdom are farmers and merchants. In comparison to it's size, Eana has a rather large army. [b]Helsset, the City of the King[/b] Helsset has been built on a mountain side at the South-Eastern end of Lake Guhkki. In order to get there from North, one must sail the lake or travel along the West-bank towards South. A steep protecting mountain range rises on the East side of Helsset and has been well fortified. Towards North there is the lake. Towards west and South there is mostly fields and a descending tail of another minor mountain range that surrounds the Anaar Fields and the town of Avveel. Helsset is the biggest and most populated city in Eana, around 10 000 citizens. It keeps growing, mostly along the shore of the lake since much of the area towards South and West is used for agriculture. The city is protected by the Royal Guard, the elite military unit in the Kingdom that is directly responsible to the King. In Helsset you will find people who live in the streets and you will find the rich who enjoy of all the benefits the beautiful parts of the city has to offer. There are areas where the poor have no entrance and there are areas where the rich don't dare to go. [b]Anaar Fields[/b] Anaar Fields is a relatively large triangular field on the Western bank of the Lake Guhkki. It is completely surrounded by a small mountain range in the North and in the West. The only ways in and out for most people are the Rocky Gate, a wagon passable short cave, in the North-Eastern corner and a barely wagon passable path by the mountain in the South. On the Western edge of the field there is a waterfall diving into a dense forest. The waterfall starts a minor rapid that once it comes out of the forest, calms down and becomes a river. The river then streams straight down on the gentle slope into the lake. [b]Avveel[/b] Avveel is a picturesque village of a little less than two hundred people. It is situated on the South side of the river bank with a bridge reaching across the stream. The villagers are almost all farmers. There is a shrine for the Guardian, an inn, blacksmith, tailor, shoemaker, doctor and a trader in town. From time to time there is a good deal of traffic going through the town. No-one stays for long. Everyone are on their way to Helsset. This results the inn being the most profitable business and the trader as a good second.[/hider] [hider=Magic & The Supernatural] Strength of one's art depends on his or her faith - understanding and knowledge of matter, unwavering trust that matter will heed when it is commanded. Using supernatural skills strains stamina. Running out of stamina means fainting, black out, coma of a kind depending of how severely the individual in case has been exhausted. The most basic magic is [b]natural magic[/b], ability to control the elements - the natural world around you. For those who have made an extra effort towards light or dark in action and in deed, there is a possibility to add some extra flavor. The basic elements are water, air, soil and wood. Other elements are fire, lightning, ice and gravity. [b]Alchemy[/b] Traditional concept. Ideas & thoughts are well received. [b]Necromancy[/b] Traditional concept. Ideas & thoughts are well received. [b]Summoning[/b] Because the embodied spirits have a will of their own they can't be commanded, only called. To become a summoner one must find the spirit, challenge the spirit's test, win and make a covenant with it. Loyalty to the covenant is the key to the relationship's strength. Each element and force of nature has it's own spirit. The spirits are in essence highly intelligent animals, kings and queens, the alphas of their sphere. Other animals and creatures of Idumea worship and serve them as their protectors and providers. There is only one spirit for each element. They hide in their nests that are well protected by the environment and other creatures. A summoner must make a great effort to reach a spirit. When/if a candidate arrives they must kneel and bow to the spirit to get it's trust. Then for an outsider it looks like that the two just stair each other to the eyes. In reality the spirit has taken the candidate to an out-of-body maze with riddles. If the candidate clears the maze s/he must face the spirit in a duel alone at the end of the maze. Upon victory the candidate must then make a covenant with the spirit. Then the candidate - now summoner - is released back to his/her body. If the candidate fails at any point, s/he is released. The spirit disappears and changes the nest somewhere else. Other forms of magic and supernatural arts are possible except those involved with space and time.[/hider] [hider=Races] The nations and races of Idumea are human or very human like. The kingdom ruled from Helsset is mixed in races. You will find humans, elves, dwarves and mixed breed mainly. There are pale humans and dark skinned. Where they come from and who were their ancestors affect this. Elves are also different. An elf who has his/her roots deep in the forests naturally looks different from the one who comes from the dark underground caverns or from the one who came from the mountain tops. The leading thought behind the inhabitation of Idumea is that everyone can be traced back to the "Adam & Eve" of Idumea. Thousands of years of isolation and living under certain conditions has formed the races to what they are now. [i][b]About Humans[/b][/i] Consider humans as they in reality are. They are diverse and versatile. They are able to adapt and change according to the environment easier than most races. They also lack some senses or attributes that makes them inferior to other races in their native environment. They live mostly on plains, shores & coasts, valleys & hills by forests and on mountain sides. It is very rare to find pure humans in extreme environments. [i][b]About Elves[/b][/i] Elves became a separate race long, long ago. During one of the wars a nation was completely scattered. Those that didn't run perished. After a lifetime of hiding they settled where they could find shelter and safety. The deepest forests became the home for some, highest mountains for others and the dark underground for some. The centuries passed and the environment molded the people. The centuries turned into millenias but the traditions of protection remained strong and the elves remained isolated. Every now and then rebellious individuals left the safety, were disowned, exiled or just ran away for what ever reason and joined the world outside their sanctuaries. [i]Forest Elves[/i] live in harmony with everything green and living. They build their homes in trees and they feed of what the nature provides. They have developed a natural trait of reading the living nature. They are adept at tracking and hunting among other things. For them every living thing has a story to tell. Stories are their teaching from babe to grave. [i]Mountain Elves[/i] are the advocates of wisdom. They grow up and study with the stars. Nothing is more valuable to them than wisdom and knowledge. They are reverent and silent people. Their culture makes them more skilled in supernatural arts than any other race. [i]Dark Elves[/i] live in the darkness of the deep underground caves. Being robbed of light most of the time their ability to sense the environment in other ways has enhanced. They see better than all other races when it is dark. They don't see in absolute darkness either but they have other ways to see. Out in the world they always have their eyes covered during the day. [i][b]About Dwarves[/b][/i] There are many stories of how dwarves came to be and every dwarf tells the same story differently and every time they tell it, it is different. In short a master miner-smith-magician carved the first dwarf of a rock and with his magic made her a living being or their ancestors just loved mining and small holes. What ever the case, dwarves are the best smiths and when something happens with rock, they are the first to know. They are slower but stronger than other races. Dwarves live by mountainside caves. They don't live deep underground like the dark elves do but they prefer the safety of their rocky holes over open air. [i][b]About Duolvvas/Albmot (mixbreed)[/b][/i] Duolvvas is one of the few words that have remained of the original Idumese language. It means filthy. Albmot is a word they themselves mostly and humans some use. The pure races almost by rule look down to mixbreed individuals. The humans are the least concerned. That is why the mixbreed usually lives among humans. A mixbreed gets physical attributes from both parents. They also have some benefits of both races though not necessarily as strong and sharp. [/hider] [h2]Rules of Engagement[/h2] - Regular Guild rules apply, behave, play fair, no god mode, no playing other's characters and so on... - All off-topic discussion should be colored [color=gray]gray[/color] - The game goes in rounds where I begin by playing the setting of a round and the rest of you have one turn. I will give direction at the OOC of exceptions and play the environment/NPC turns as the game goes on. - Once the game begins, avoid using hiders. I will use them to give information to characters that is not openly known. I will use the following format: [@nrtashi][hider=CHARACTER NAME]Info ONLY for nrtashi![/hider] - Two (2) paragraphs is the bare minimum of a turn. A paragraph to me is three (3) good phat sentences. Three (3) paragraphs is good and more the merrier. - Watch your grammar! From reading you guys' input so far, I am not worried :sun - When the characters speak, use the individual assigned color. It makes things a whole lot clearer. Colors are in order of rotation: [color=gold]GM | gold[/color] [@Lord Santa] | [color=coral]coral[/color] [@BytheSpleen] | [color=teal]teal[/color] [@Baklava] | [color=bisque]bisque[/color] [@nrtashi] | [color=lavender]lavender[/color] [@Shikaru] | [color=khaki]khaki[/color]