Covenant Academy, situated on a small island off the coast of Japan, is unique in that its students are all Contractors, people who have made pacts with beings from another world. The academy has facilities to teach students from elementary school through to university and takes applicants from all corners of the world. Thanks to one of the staff's contract abilities, all students are able to communicate clearly with one another regardless of whether they know each other's languages.
The academy is more like a city than a school. It features a large shopping district, restaurants, cinemas and almost anything else the students are likely to want or need. Most of the people working in these establishments are current or former students of the academy.
As with most Japanese schools, Covenant Academy has a large number of clubs, ranging from normal things like sporting teams and anime appreciation societies to clubs that couldn't possibly work in more normal schools. Among the academy's many clubs and associations is the Covenant Academy Security Team. The Security Team is made up of students of all ages who use their abilities to enforce the school's rules, effectively functioning as the island's police force.
Members of the security team or academy staff can authorise "duels" between students, either as training or to help settle arguments. The system was established to help with the inevitable fights that would break out in the school. Given that many of the students had dangerous powers, a system where these fights could be carried out with supervision that ensured proper medical care when needed and gave incentive to avoid potentially lethal attacks seemed like a good idea. Combined with the rumours about the severity of the punishments for unauthorised powered fights, the system has been mostly successful.
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A few points about how magic works in the setting:
•People have no special powers of their own, but can gain them by forming contracts with magical beings.
•There is no limit to the number of these contracts a person can make. However they carry a risk of injury, death or possession, so most people don't make them and those who do tend to stick to one or two.
•These powers increase in strength with time, use or compatibility between the contractor and the contracted being.
•Magical beings live in a world separate to the human world; however, they can be summoned to the human world by a contractor. In the past, there were other ways for them to travel between worlds, but these are no longer useable.
•A contracted being's powers are generally stronger in person than when being used by their contractor, however they are also fairly draining. So while most beings are able to stay summoned into the human world almost permanently, many can only take part in combat for a short amount of time before needing to return to the other world.
•A magical being can temporarily combine with its contractor, granting a strength boost and sometimes, entirely new abilities.
•When combined, the contractor's appearance generally changes somewhat. This can be something as simple as a coloured aura or an outfit/suit of armour that bears some resemblance to the contracted being or can involve temporarily gaining traits of the being (cat ears and a tail from a contract with a bakeneko, wings from a contract with a phoenix, etc).
•In some cases, the contracted being's personality can take over in this state.
•Magical beings range from simple monsters from folklore/myth up to gods/titans. All non-creation myths are more or less true.
•Folklore and myth, as they're being used in this RP do not refer to things like Area 51, the Illuminati or invisible/teleporting battleships. Think more along the lines of things like gods, frost giants, faeries and dragons.
•All contractors are tougher/stronger than normal humans, some more than others due to the nature of their contracted beings. All but the weakest contractors can more or less shrug off small arms fire.
•Try to keep your characters' abilities fairly close to what the contracted beings are capable of in their real world myths/stories. Feel free to nerf/buff them as necessary, maybe take some minor liberties here and there, but don't just come up with entirely new abilities. For example, getting the power to set your fists on fire from a nekomata, dragon or other fire-breathing monster is fine, getting eye lasers from a contract with Poseidon...not so much.
•Undead creatures (ghosts, banshees, vampires, mummies, etc) exist and you can make contracts with them, however, if it's something you can contract with; it's not something that was once a normal human.
•While summoned beings can be damaged, "killing" them simply forces them to return to the other world for a while, during which they can't be summoned or used for fusion.
•If there's something I haven't covered here, feel free to ask.
---
Rules:
•No godmodding, ghosting, autohitting, metagaming, etc.
•If you're going to drop out/have to leave for an extended period, please say something in the discussion thread.
•The intended tone of the RP is light-hearted, though serious scenes are fine. Ideally, there will be a balance between slice of life and action elements, with players being able to avoid the latter if they want to.
•Player created plots are encouraged.
---
Banned Powers:
I apologise if this causes problems with anyone's ideas, but I don't feel comfortable allowing any of the following powers into this RP:
•One hit kills, for the obvious reason of removing the threat of any combat encounter for the character. This refers to things like a contract with the Fates or the Grim Reaper, not something as simple as having a weapon.
•By the same token, freezing, petrifying or otherwise turning people into inanimate objects, while not strictly a one hit kill have the same general impact on combat.
•Mind control or possessing other people's characters, in part due to basically being another one-hit win ability and in part because it can get in the way of the affected player's enjoyment.
•Depowering other characters, in the form of anti-magic abilities or some way of breaking people's contracts (or anything else I haven't thought of) is unacceptable due to the importance of those abilities in any combat that may occur.
•Reality warping, due to the fact that it kind of ruins any dramatic impact of any plotline people might try if someone can simply wave their hand and fix everything.
•Powers used to no sell attacks; this doesn't mean that you can't have a character with enhanced toughness, the power to go incorporeal, regenerate injuries or even resurrect themselves if they die, however they should not be completely untouchable and regeneration or resurrection will be expected to take time and/or have some other drawback.
---
And finally, the character skeletons:
Humans:
•Name: Self-explanatory.
•Age: Self-explanatory. While teachers are acceptable, I'd prefer if most of the characters were students.
•Appearance: Pictures and written descriptions are both acceptable.
•Personality: How does your character act? I don't expect a full essay, but at least a couple of sentences would be appreciated.
•Clubs: What clubs (if any) is the character a member of?
•Brief Backstory: Optional. You can elaborate on your character's past in the thread if necessary. Don't take this as permission to leave the field blank and introduce a grimderp past in the RP itself though.
•Contract(s): What being(s) does your character have contracts with?
Contracted Beings:
•Name: Optional, as some beings aren't likely to have names and others may be hesitant to give them out.
•Type: What is the contracted being? A god? Yuki-onna? Demon?
•Personality: Self-explanatory. Optional in the event of something that's effectively an animal.
•Powers: What abilities do they grant the contractor without combining/being summoned?
•Fusion: How do they look when they've combined with the contractor? What powers do they have in this state?
•Summon: How do they look when they've been summoned in the flesh/whatever they're made of? What powers do they have in this state?
---
Accepted Characters:
The academy is more like a city than a school. It features a large shopping district, restaurants, cinemas and almost anything else the students are likely to want or need. Most of the people working in these establishments are current or former students of the academy.
As with most Japanese schools, Covenant Academy has a large number of clubs, ranging from normal things like sporting teams and anime appreciation societies to clubs that couldn't possibly work in more normal schools. Among the academy's many clubs and associations is the Covenant Academy Security Team. The Security Team is made up of students of all ages who use their abilities to enforce the school's rules, effectively functioning as the island's police force.
Members of the security team or academy staff can authorise "duels" between students, either as training or to help settle arguments. The system was established to help with the inevitable fights that would break out in the school. Given that many of the students had dangerous powers, a system where these fights could be carried out with supervision that ensured proper medical care when needed and gave incentive to avoid potentially lethal attacks seemed like a good idea. Combined with the rumours about the severity of the punishments for unauthorised powered fights, the system has been mostly successful.
---
A few points about how magic works in the setting:
•People have no special powers of their own, but can gain them by forming contracts with magical beings.
•There is no limit to the number of these contracts a person can make. However they carry a risk of injury, death or possession, so most people don't make them and those who do tend to stick to one or two.
•These powers increase in strength with time, use or compatibility between the contractor and the contracted being.
•Magical beings live in a world separate to the human world; however, they can be summoned to the human world by a contractor. In the past, there were other ways for them to travel between worlds, but these are no longer useable.
•A contracted being's powers are generally stronger in person than when being used by their contractor, however they are also fairly draining. So while most beings are able to stay summoned into the human world almost permanently, many can only take part in combat for a short amount of time before needing to return to the other world.
•A magical being can temporarily combine with its contractor, granting a strength boost and sometimes, entirely new abilities.
•When combined, the contractor's appearance generally changes somewhat. This can be something as simple as a coloured aura or an outfit/suit of armour that bears some resemblance to the contracted being or can involve temporarily gaining traits of the being (cat ears and a tail from a contract with a bakeneko, wings from a contract with a phoenix, etc).
•In some cases, the contracted being's personality can take over in this state.
•Magical beings range from simple monsters from folklore/myth up to gods/titans. All non-creation myths are more or less true.
•Folklore and myth, as they're being used in this RP do not refer to things like Area 51, the Illuminati or invisible/teleporting battleships. Think more along the lines of things like gods, frost giants, faeries and dragons.
•All contractors are tougher/stronger than normal humans, some more than others due to the nature of their contracted beings. All but the weakest contractors can more or less shrug off small arms fire.
•Try to keep your characters' abilities fairly close to what the contracted beings are capable of in their real world myths/stories. Feel free to nerf/buff them as necessary, maybe take some minor liberties here and there, but don't just come up with entirely new abilities. For example, getting the power to set your fists on fire from a nekomata, dragon or other fire-breathing monster is fine, getting eye lasers from a contract with Poseidon...not so much.
•Undead creatures (ghosts, banshees, vampires, mummies, etc) exist and you can make contracts with them, however, if it's something you can contract with; it's not something that was once a normal human.
•While summoned beings can be damaged, "killing" them simply forces them to return to the other world for a while, during which they can't be summoned or used for fusion.
•If there's something I haven't covered here, feel free to ask.
---
Rules:
•No godmodding, ghosting, autohitting, metagaming, etc.
•If you're going to drop out/have to leave for an extended period, please say something in the discussion thread.
•The intended tone of the RP is light-hearted, though serious scenes are fine. Ideally, there will be a balance between slice of life and action elements, with players being able to avoid the latter if they want to.
•Player created plots are encouraged.
---
Banned Powers:
I apologise if this causes problems with anyone's ideas, but I don't feel comfortable allowing any of the following powers into this RP:
•One hit kills, for the obvious reason of removing the threat of any combat encounter for the character. This refers to things like a contract with the Fates or the Grim Reaper, not something as simple as having a weapon.
•By the same token, freezing, petrifying or otherwise turning people into inanimate objects, while not strictly a one hit kill have the same general impact on combat.
•Mind control or possessing other people's characters, in part due to basically being another one-hit win ability and in part because it can get in the way of the affected player's enjoyment.
•Depowering other characters, in the form of anti-magic abilities or some way of breaking people's contracts (or anything else I haven't thought of) is unacceptable due to the importance of those abilities in any combat that may occur.
•Reality warping, due to the fact that it kind of ruins any dramatic impact of any plotline people might try if someone can simply wave their hand and fix everything.
•Powers used to no sell attacks; this doesn't mean that you can't have a character with enhanced toughness, the power to go incorporeal, regenerate injuries or even resurrect themselves if they die, however they should not be completely untouchable and regeneration or resurrection will be expected to take time and/or have some other drawback.
---
And finally, the character skeletons:
Humans:
•Name: Self-explanatory.
•Age: Self-explanatory. While teachers are acceptable, I'd prefer if most of the characters were students.
•Appearance: Pictures and written descriptions are both acceptable.
•Personality: How does your character act? I don't expect a full essay, but at least a couple of sentences would be appreciated.
•Clubs: What clubs (if any) is the character a member of?
•Brief Backstory: Optional. You can elaborate on your character's past in the thread if necessary. Don't take this as permission to leave the field blank and introduce a grimderp past in the RP itself though.
•Contract(s): What being(s) does your character have contracts with?
Contracted Beings:
•Name: Optional, as some beings aren't likely to have names and others may be hesitant to give them out.
•Type: What is the contracted being? A god? Yuki-onna? Demon?
•Personality: Self-explanatory. Optional in the event of something that's effectively an animal.
•Powers: What abilities do they grant the contractor without combining/being summoned?
•Fusion: How do they look when they've combined with the contractor? What powers do they have in this state?
•Summon: How do they look when they've been summoned in the flesh/whatever they're made of? What powers do they have in this state?
---
Accepted Characters:
