Emergence (Witchcraft/Magic)

[Moon]

So I've been wanting to do a modern witch RP (think American Horror Story: Coven) for awhile now, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'm up to creating one myself. I'm gonna use this interest check as a decision maker. I really, really, really, want input from those interested on just about everything here. If you don't like something, want more of something, want to change something please, please, say so. Your ideas really mean a lot to me and many brains create a better final product than one, for the most part. So please speak up!

Brief (and quickly made) Intro:

Countless eyes gazed up at the pale full moon and the dark expanse of sky that surrounded it. The white circle sat alone, hanging bright against a curtain of black. But that would not be the case for long. Tonight was the night. The night the world had been anticipating for the past 20 years had finally come. The stars were returning.
Children heard stories of the week long event from just about everyone who was old enough to remember it the last time it happened. Those who have yet to marvel at their fleeting beauty don't have the capacity to appreciate such an event, but they will soon. Soon, they would be back.

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So basically the stars return to the sky for a week every 20 years. Historically, the first day of the Emergence (October 15) is a holiday and many have off from work and school. It is a day of celebration for some, and reverence for others. Parties are very common in the evening hours leading up to the moment the stars flicker into existence at midnight. Special masses are held, in most religions, during the day as well. But the Emergence has another, more mysterious meaning for some. Many stories exist of people gaining special powers, gifted to them by the stars. The requirements for attaining these powers varies from story to story. Some say it is based on ancient bloodlines, others that it is based on merit, and some even say it is purely random. Whatever the case, the act required to gain access to the ancient magic is the same in all. You must kill.

How magic will work:

Each magic using character (I guess we'll use witch and warlock, unless someone has something else. I don't like the sound of warlock much, but that might just be me.) will have one innate ability that is stronger than their other magic. Think of this like a super power. It requires no materials, chants, or preparation. It is based purely on willpower and skill. This can be just about anything from teleportation to pyrokinesis to invisibility.

Other than these abilities, they will also have access to various spells and rituals. These require much more work and prep than the innate abilities do. This is like old school witchcraft with chanting and symbols and all that stuff.

Now, if you've seen AHS: Coven, its obvious that was my inspiration for this system.

Hunters?

This was something I couldn't decide on, so I'll let you guys choose. I want there to be hunters in the RP as they'd give the magic users an obvious enemy, and can really add to the conflict of the story. They'd be NPC and PC. The part I couldn't decide on was the type of hunter. Anything from religious zealots to money grubbing bounty hunters. Its up to you guys.

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Now I know its pretty vague, and I'll flesh things out if it makes it to the OOC stage, but I really wanted to get this out there to see what others thought about it. Ask me any questions, point out any flaws, whatever you like.

[ViewtifulBastard]

Great idea man! I loved the AHS: Coven. The ending was kind of meh, but great series overall. I do have a little input that can make it interesting and could make for some interesting RP:

1. Competing witch families. Something like royal blood lines of witches that exist within this town. We could use the traditional family names from Salem (i.e Good, Putnam). Each family has a matriarch and/or a patriarch that "rule" the family in all things magic, typically a grandparent or parent of the characters. These families have varying social standing from rich to lower middle class, but that will not influence their magic capabilities. During the Emergence all witches powers all increase exponentially, but it is a dangerous time for the powerful rulers of the different families. Its a time for checks and balances amongst the bloodlines of each family and a time when many eager young witch (Which can be an androgynous term for both sexes) would use to topple their patriarch or settle ancient vendettas against another house. The Emergence could also be a time when the patriarch/matriarch are weaker making for an ethical decision for each character on whether to protect their leader or scheme to take their place. Either way awesome! Plot twist: There can be family alliances, blood pacts, arranged marriages amongst the families in the past and could even be relevant in a modern marriage that hasn't taken place yet between two characters.

2. The main characters can all be from teens to early twenties. Something that would require us all going to same college and or school before the event takes place. There could even be families that never told their children of their "royal blood" and during the Emergence they are forced in the game of power and ancient family vendettas. That came to me thinking of a Romeo and Juliet but with a dark turn on each other.

3. The hunters can be a decent mixture of Brotherhoods or cult outcasts. The brotherhood recruit, train, and supply their warriors with weaponry. They are taught to track, fight, and properly kill inexperienced witches. The Inquisitor is a rank given to the brotherhood member who has killed a certain amount of powerful witches. The cult outcasts of hunters are just like the brotherhood only they learned some of the dark arts of witchcraft in order to combat witches. Through dark rituals of taking specific organs of a witch killed he is gifted with special powers that make him a particularly dangerous individual. Cult outcasts are few in number and an enemy of both the brotherhood who view them as "fallen from the path" and obvious the witches. The hunters, if formally trained, are like an order of knights carrying advanced weaponry ,but even the most junior hunters carry some form of martial weapon during the hunt i.e. blessed longswords, daggers, crossbow, katana. The brotherhood typically have daily jobs as local law enforcement and it is rumored that the Sheriff of the city is an "Inquisitor" a particularly powerful hunter that has killed (big ass number) of witches.

4. Is there a "Supreme" like person. There could be two ways their could be a supreme per family , but if there is only one then they are the most powerful family making them a target during the Emergence.

5. Is there a Voodoo Vs. Witchcraft aspect?

6. Please no anime. Its really hard to visualize the realism when I see a mixture of anime and actual people pictures as characters. I understand the descriptions section, but its just my preference.

What do you think?

[Moon]

Glad you're interested! I agree, I loved it, despite the less than fulfilling ending. I marathoned it in like 3 days haha. Glad you have input as well!

1. I like this concept. Family struggles and everything would add a bit of politics and mixed feelings between maybe friends from different families. It opens up a lot when it comes to drama, conflict, and all that good stuff.

2. I had thought this as well. I started a short story with this premise and it took place in a college. Definitely would help it make more sense that there are several aspiring witches in one area.

3. I like these ideas as well! The two different types allows for some infighting, or at least animosity, between the hunters themselves.

4. I like the idea of a patriarch/matriarch, an older member of the family who is very experienced and capable but every other witch has the potential to be just as powerful, given time. Less so a supreme and more so just a leader. This could allow the families to have varying levels of power, based on how experienced their leader is. Some families could have fallen on hard times and lost many members while others are thriving. I think this could add a kind of class struggle between characters who come from different families, paired with their economic standing, that could be very interesting. Though I do like the sound of the single supreme being a target. Maybe we could move this into an artifact that a family possesses that gives them increased power that can only be located by magic during the Emergence? But then, with our characters being newly anointed witches, they wouldn't be much help in a siege against what would be a heavily guarded location. So I'm not really sure about that idea.

5. I hadn't thought of this, but with the different families there would definitely be different types of magic. I'd say less black and white than voodoo vs. witchcraft, but there can definitely be variation in the spells they use. So it'd be like voodoo vs. witchcraft vs. whatever else someone can think up, but not called that specifically in the context of the story. And there could be a default type for those who don't wish to come up with differences or something like that.

6. Definitely, I agree with you on this one. It will take place in modern times, so finding a suitable picture should be easy enough. Though I will accept a description in an image's place, as it can be hard sometimes to find one you like or that fits the idea you might already have.

Overall, love the ideas! This is what I was hoping for.

[ViewtifulBastard]

Idea: I just had a crazy idea!!!!! Every 20 years the ruling witch family of the time hosts a gathering of the covens (Grand Ball or party of sorts), where the different witch houses gather to celebrate the Emergence. It is a formal event where false civility is the name of the game and it is there that old enemies/friends gather to partake in each others company and size up the competition. Alliances are typically made here and then all bets are off for civility after that night when plots and power plays begin. If you liked the idea that could even be the night that our characters are "debut" into the witch society as the "newcomers" and representatives of their house. The entire event is masked as witch unity, a display of power to the Hunters, and celebration of the rites of Emergence. Its up to us the characters to decide what to do with it.

Idea: An event (maybe a patriarch is murdered or several particularly powerful witches go missing) happens that requires an peace treaty alliance between our houses to fight against a growing threat of Hunters or a "Super hunter". Each houses rogers up there progeny to in a special envoy to deal with the growing threat of the "The Witchslayer". Muahahaha sorry. I really like this type of rp

[Doctor Belasco]

I like all the ideas put forward so far, especially the assassination of the main leader to give this a boot up the arse right from the start. :)

[JJ Doe]

Hi guys/ladies, I'm actually going to be busy for a few days, but I just wanted to drop by to express my interest.

Why can't both happen at the same time? Maybe there was an increase of missing witches cases and/or murder of witches for the past few weeks/months/years prior to the Emergence. Despite that, as is their custom, the witch families can have their masked-witch-unity party and initiation for the newcomers. Since most, if not all, the witch families are already there, the leaders (head of each family) can have a conference about the threat of the Hunters.

They can make a "peace treaty", but whether anyone upholds it can be a different matter. If the feud has been going on long enough, I'm sure someone's going to backstab someone sooner or later. I mean, isn't this the perfect time to get rid of someone and blame it on the Hunters? Even if it wasn't intentional, a little misunderstanding could turn into something nasty very quickly.

…Or the main leader can get promptly assassinated during the whole party :)

[Adjectives]

Super duper interested. These ideas are fantastic, I just hope we can organise our characters properly into their various houses beforehand.

[dreamingflowers]

I'm actually booked up on roleplays but I can't pass up on this, it's right up my street. ^.^

[drewccapp]

I totes like this idea. I'm interested!

[Moon]

Alright I'm loving the ideas and the excitement!

I think the putting both of those ideas together would be a nice opening to the story. You guys are making this really easy for me.

I'll try to get an OOC up tomorrow, since we've got some interest here. I'll be sure to get all these ideas nice and organized.

[ViewtifulBastard]

I am thinking of a male character just a heads up. Very excited to see this kick off :) Also how many players were you looking to have? Also, I am open to love interest in my character whether it be a secret one or not and gender doesn't matter. Off to work now. Bye everyone

[Moon]

I think keeping it small would be better. 4-5 sounds good to me, excluding myself. Any more would probably be confusing.

[JJ Doe]

I am currently juggling ideas for my character, but I have a generic idea for my witch family. Posting it here just so others have some clue to what I'm thinking of doing:

I am planning to have a family (we'll just call it family X for now) that is proficient in the school of alchemy and symbol magic. Family X is actually a branch family that originally was part of a larger family (family Y), which was gifted with astrological divination and other star related/effected magic. However, since the disappearance of the stars, their star related magic became practically useless and the family divided into independent houses with their own leaders and their own specialty (if anyone would like to be another branch family, you are welcome to; your witch family would simply have a common ancestor with family X and nothing more). Whether it's related to family Y having star related magic or not, no one knows, but ever since the disappearance of the stars, the decedents of family X are becoming less prone to magic; with each coming Emergence, fewer children become witches. Not all of family X's witches can even execute the simplest forms of magic. The only reason(s) family X retains its dignity within the witch community is the fact that their magical items are considered to be of the best quality and are highly valued… Not to mention their symbol magic is not to be trifled with.

[ToskaO]

Definately keeping an eye on this. I'm playing around with the idea of shamanism, the idea of working with spirits that can be bargained with or controlled by force if weak enough (or the shaman is strong enough). Also bleeding into the ideas of astral projection and possession.

[Doctor Belasco]

For the record, I'm looking at a character that goes for the traditional Eye of Newt approach, fire burn and cauldron bubble and all that. In terms of actual magic, he might be more or less incompetent, but, when brewing potions, he is peerless, and so is something a 'fixer'. You want something doing, you go to my guy (and pay him). He is a craftsman, one that will make magical artefacts, or use his potions as a sort of 'fuel' for big, wide-ranging magic with spells that affect the weather, or luck, or wider concepts. Note that this makes him a valuable ally for anybody that is not themselves a witch because he can perform magic on their behalf.

Hopefully, another player's magical family will have my character as a sort of 'mage-in-residence' where he would have official ties to the family and all the benefits and duties that that implies, but with slightly more independence and no blood connection.

[dreamingflowers]

I was thinking about a character with a Romani background. The family settled somewhere in Eastern Europe after they stopped traveling. She practices gypsy witchcraft and her ancestors are famed for their love spells. A talent she inherited.

[Moon]

I'm loving the variation, nice ideas everyone. I think I'm gonna go in a sacrifical/blood magic direction. Some dark stuff. :)

My goal is to have the OOC up by tonight.

[ViewtifulBastard]

My family will be of mixed African/ West Indian descent and the heirs of Tituba's bloodline. We will deal mostly in curses, enchantments, and violent natural powers. Though each character themselves may not be particularly violent, the men and women of this families' gifts typically manifest in violent ways. The origins of these powers stem back to Tituba, the first persecuted witch of the Salem Witch Trials who was tortured and hexed by the citizens and fellow "witches" who she implicated during the trials. It is believed amongst the families that curses, violence, and pain has transformed this families' gifts and that they are a force to be reckoned with in vendetta and old feuds.

Family Natural Gifts:

Bone Bending- The ability to focus on a persons anatomy so intently that you can then begin to warp their bones in a desired fashion. The warping is excruciatingly painful to the victim and can leave them in a "ball" of blood and broken bone depending on the anger level of the user. This "gift" is a two fold curse and causes the user to feel the pain of their victim without the physical marks. It is not uncommon for a user to pass out or go into seizures from the pain inflicted.

The Lashers- A gift of sending out an invisible force that act as a bladed whip or scourge. The movement of the users hands can mimic the flip and swish of whip causing the sound to echo through the air and inflict tearing and laceration damage on their victim. First discovered by their ancestor Amun, a field slave, who after being tortured for several hours by whip turned his rage against his master. Amun's magic blood fueled by rage created a force within his palm that ripped his masters face in two. Amun freed the slaves of his plantation after teaching this gift to surviving members of his family. The slaves referred to him as "The Lasher" and it has become a family gift ever since.

I am the Reflection- This gift deals with anything that casts a reflection. This will mostly be a defensive tactic. A member of this line can take refuge inside of elements that cast a reflection such as medium to large sized/mirrors, open pools of water, the reflective properties on a window pain. If a person looks at a vessel inhabited by them they will see the reflection of themselves staring back at them. **Spoiler** None will know this but a Chosen elder group maybe amongst the families (I will pick which ones), but if you turn your back to the reflective surface and use another mirror you can see the inhabiter staring back at you. While inside the reflection the inhabiter can move and depending on the skill level my bring one or more people on the other side with them. This is a dangerous state because if it is a mirror and it is broken the inhabiter risks being stuck on the other side until a "Summons" can be done by the house elder. This skill was learned by their ancestor, Mary Barbados as she was called. She was the beautiful house slave of Winston and Lily Proctor and their four children. She was the victim of Winston's unwanted advances for years bearing him a son she named Samuel. Lily Proctor knew the child was her husband's so she had the child taken from her Mary's arms at birth and then out into the cornfields where she never saw him again. Mary's woes manifested her powers within her (I will get into how she discovered her gifts later) but needless to say in revenge she hid the children of her master in the mirrors of the house and broke them. Finally she hid herself inside her mistress' favored floor length mirror as she prepared for bed and strangled her in the night. No arrests were made and Winston Proctor's children were never found.

I AM SO EXCITED. These ideas are like free flow. Sorry if there are misspellings. I woke up at 4 am with these ideas. I will get into more detail later.

@Doctor Belasco Hey I would be interested in hiring your Artificer/Mage for hire. We can work out a backstory, if your interested. My family are survivalists and would not mind working with an outsider. What do you think?

@Toskao Same to you! I really like the shamanism direction you are going with. That is an aspect I wanted to incorporate into my family but I did not want to take "everything" lol Lets make an alliance happen at some point. I just got to see how your characters pan out and see what we would have in common as far as goals. I got my eye on you.

@ Everyone Else I am loving the diversity. This is gonna be epic!

[JJ Doe]

@Doctor Belasco

Doctor Belasco said For the record, I'm looking at a character that goes for the traditional Eye of Newt approach, fire burn and cauldron bubble and all that. In terms of actual magic, he might be more or less incompetent, but, when brewing potions, he is peerless, and so is something a 'fixer'. You want something doing, you go to my guy (and pay him). He is a craftsman, one that will make magical artefacts, or use his potions as a sort of 'fuel' for big, wide-ranging magic with spells that affect the weather, or luck, or wider concepts. Note that this makes him a valuable ally for anybody that is not themselves a witch because he can perform magic on their behalf.Hopefully, another player's magical family will have my character as a sort of 'mage-in-residence' where he would have official ties to the family and all the benefits and duties that that implies, but with slightly more independence and no blood connection.

ViewtifulBastard said @Doctor Belasco Hey I would be interested in hiring your Artificer/Mage for hire. We can work out a backstory, if your interested. My family are survivalists and would not mind working with an outsider. What do you think?

Since there seems to be similarities with my family's specialties and your character's skills, as another option, your character could be a "mage-in-residence" for and/or (ex?) student learning from my family. Their proficiency in alchemy (which includes potion creation and making magic items) can probably benefit your character. They also are facing a decline of witches within their own bloodline, so in exchange for providing an official title to your character, they would want him to marry one of their children and/or contribute to solving the witch-decline problem within their bloodline.

Regardless, your character can expect business competition from my family.

[Moon]

@Viewtiful: Just to be clear, magic like what you've listed here would only fit as innate abilities. They seem to not require preparation and as such would qualify as innate. Innate abilities have no bearing on family magic and can be completely independent. They can't be taught to others, as they are something granted to you when you emerge. You'd need to add rituals to these spells for them to be family arts. I'll make these guidelines more clear in the OOC.

@All: I also hope to have one or two player controlled hunters. If everyone wants a witch character, doubles will be acceptable too.