[OOC] Mahou Taisen: Magic Warfare || Stern, tsukune

[tsukune]

Mahou Taisen: Magic Warfare

魔法大戦

{Stern Algorithm & tsukune}

"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged."

Samuel Johnson

The wrath that drowned their heart with vengeance
The souls that fell into the inferno of darkness
Trapped in the eternal cycle of a never-ending punishment
To repent for their sins…

---

OVERVIEW

For millennia, we watched how humanity bathed our home planet with not just sweat and tears, but also blood that sprung from the seven deadly sins we drowned ourselves in:

Of pride, the tyrannic rulers across the many civilizations;
Of envy, those who yearned for the power they could never attain;
Of greed, the cunning merchants who traveled across the desert and sea;
Of lust, the emotionally deprived souls of the red light district;
Of gluttony, the rich who showered themselves with irresistible luxury;
Of sloth, those who were left behind to rot in despair;
And finally, of wrath, when justice failed to smile for them.

What could have gone wrong? We were once born pure, full of hope and looked up to the sky; but as the poison of time seeped into our veins, to our heart, we began to look down to the ground, tempted by desires we shouldn't have touched, sinking into the pits of our own crime... Before long, people stopped sharing happiness with others; they started to feed spite into their partners, to drag them down to hell together.

The harder they love, the stronger the hatred when betrayal befalls.

A group of extraterrestrial bandits took advantage of humanity's weakness, toying with our pain and watching how we gave in to our stupidity, killing each other to quench their boredom with our race. And now, they were laughing at us from the shadows, biding their time for the day when this facade crumbled away, plunging the world into a holocaust once more.

The seed of darkness had already been sowed. This time, it would all begin with four unsuspecting teenagers, who would eventually come to realize the devastating consequence of their whimsical choices...

Progression of Sins

From Pride,
of self-importance;

To Envy,
of unwanted needs for things one does not possess;

Then Greed,
of materialistic craving;

And Lust,
of emotional obsession;

To Gluttony,
of gaining more than what one needs of anything;

Then Sloth,
of depressive state when none of the above is enough to satisfy one's needs;

Finally, Wrath,
of hatred born from the depths of dissatisfaction and despair.

Premise

►Genres

Magical Girl/Boy, Pre-Apocalypse, Psychological Horror/Thriller, Science Fantasy

►Inspirations

• Final Fantasy series (elemental magic system)
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (magic-tech fusion, transformation sequence)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (mind rape, some pseudo-biblical references)
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica (darker and edgier development, evil mascot)

---

LORE

►Rias

An alien race from an unknown faraway planet, the Rias have the ability to manipulate and absorb emotions of other beings to survive; some of them may choose to use this power to trade for personal entertainment: in return for lending a portion of their power to their prey, they watch the unsuspecting, greedy soul being driven to insanity before they are completely devoured by their own darkness.

►Riamancy

More to come.

►Finis

Work in progress.

---

NOTES

(Stuffs that don't fit under any of the categories above go here.)

[tsukune]

So, uh, apparently I kinda realized that I'm coming down with a high fever, so I'll probably continue to work on this tomorrow instead.

For now I'm still brainstorming on decent terminologies to call the magic system our characters would be using. Feel free to pitch in your own ideas too. Overall feel of the magic system I'm inclined to go with something similar to Lyrical Nanoha, or we can go with something like the mage class in virtual RPG?
If you have noticed, the aliens are called Rias - which is just rearranging the Latin word for wrath, 'Ira', with an additional letter. :P

...And yeah, decided to drop the 'science' from the title. The simplicity of this one feels better, I think?

[Stern Algorithm]

Yeah, dropping the "science" in the title is fine.

I'm not too familiar with Nanoha, and by virtua lRPG, do you mean like black mages from the final fantasy series, using elemental attacks? I was thinking elements would probably work, where an element is tied to each sin. Which sins would your two characters have? Maybe the magic can be named after the Rias, like Riamancy or something.

[tsukune]

Yep, we can go with FF black mage-type of magic system.

It's a good idea to tie the element to each 'sin'; thought I should elaborate that for simplicity sake I'm also debating if for this we'll focus only on the sin of wrath, which for this case is the 'consequence of the cause'.

In the Greek view on the seven sins, they believed that pride is the root of all sins. My interpretation is that:
Pride, a sin that stems from self-importance, would expand to
Envy, unwanted obsession over things one does not possesses, to
Greed, of materialistic obsession, which escalates to
Lust, of emotional obsession, to
Gluttony, obsession to gain more than what one needs of anything, to
Sloth, depressive state when none of the above is enough to satisfy one's needs,
And lastly, wrath, hatred born from the depths of dissatisfaction and despair.

Not sure if I'm making much sense though - still not quite recovered from my fever.

'Riamancy' is a good name! Will include that in the lore.

[Stern Algorithm]

I think the 'progression of sin' makes sense.

if we limit it to just wrath, what are your thoughts on how we differentiate the characters? I suppose rather than the elemental differences being tied to the sins, they would be tied to the individual Rias themselves? The Rias themselves would have a wide array of differences with respect to the powers they impart on their hosts. If we go with that, would we want to theme the Rias in a certain way as an added layer in addition to them being fueled by wrath?

[tsukune]

Sorry for not being very responsive - as you can see from my signature, the haze is back before I could fully recover from my flu.
I'm quite behind with all my posting due to the delay, so please be patient with me as I try to catch up as fast as I can.

Anyway.

I think the 'progression of sin' makes sense.

@Stern Algorithm

This. This has to go into the lore notes. >:)

If we limit it to just wrath, what are your thoughts on how we differentiate the characters? I suppose rather than the elemental differences being tied to the sins, they would be tied to the individual Rias themselves? The Rias themselves would have a wide array of differences with respect to the powers they impart on their hosts. If we go with that, would we want to theme the Rias in a certain way as an added layer in addition to them being fueled by wrath?

@Stern Algorithm

I've been experimenting around the thought of: what are some of the most basic/fundamental causes that trigger the hatred of one to desire revenge obsessively? Note that all these 4 can be interchangeable in certain situations.

• Betrayal
  This should be obvious enough and I won't elaborate too much - I mean, anyone would consider a painful payback to the person who tramped over your trust for him/her. Can be stemmed from lust.

• Lost
  Can be either loss of someone or being stripped of things one deserves. May be tied in with pride in some ways.

• Longing
  This is a bit different from the sin of envy: while envy is the obsessive desire for something one does not have, this cause is more of a generic desire for something - from envy to greed to gluttony.

• Insanity
  This should be self-explanatory.

We can have the Rias tied to these 4 'causes', which also fits with our four-character team we're going with.

[Stern Algorithm]

No worries, I've been kind of busy myself, and have been lagging with RP replies.

I think those are good emotions to associate with wrath. What sorts of elements were you thinking of ascribing to each?

[tsukune]

Hmm, if I have to associate each of those 4 'causes' to a certain element...

Betrayal -> Fire
Lost -> Air
Longing -> Earth
Insanity -> Water

What do you think?

[Stern Algorithm]

Hey sorry for the long wait, I brainfarted and forgot to reply.

I think those elements fit rather well. I'm surprised you didn't make insanity fire, but I rather like your choices.

Which two were you thinking of taking for your characters? or if you want, I can choose first.

[tsukune]

Hey sorry for the long wait, I brainfarted and forgot to reply.

@Stern Algorithm

I must be so drunk that I'm laughing really hard at this.

No worries about the delay in replying because it's going to be the same for me. Just to let you know due to the ongoing haze problems that will be dragged till November, my online time may be cut down further as I'll have to stay at home/indoors more often (I don't have internet at home, only can use when I'm in public areas like library or Starbucks). Which is why you can see that I seem like I'm not doing much work here - not just this RP, but I'm very behind in all the RPs I'm active in. DX

I think those elements fit rather well. I'm surprised you didn't make insanity fire, but I rather like your choices.

@Stern Algorithm

When I think of betrayal I thought the hatred that arise from this cause akin to burning fire, where the flames would grow bigger and higher the deeper the hatred is.

As for insanity, I thought that it's something flexible, unpredictable like water.

Just asking: why do you see insanity as fire?

Which two were you thinking of taking for your characters? or if you want, I can choose first.

@Stern Algorithm

Hmm I'm thinking of going with betrayal and lost (partly due to me craving to reimagine my favorite OCs from the original Mahou Shounen story who have aspects of those two). ^^;

[Stern Algorithm]

This haze you're talking about, are you in Malaysia or Singapore?

I can see insanity as fire because a lot of people associate fire with chaos, and associate insanity with chaos as well. I don't personally like that interpretation of insanity as the maniacal laughter, Batman joker-style madness, so I think water works better.

I'll go with Longing (Earth) and Insanity (Water) then. I'll need to work on characters. What do you want in the CS? Will there be other themes that our characters need to follow in addition to element, for example, do they use a magical weapon of some sort?

[tsukune]

Yep, I am currently living in Southeast Asia. The air is better today, but I'm not having high hopes that the haze is over and done with yet.
Sorry that I was away for 2 days to meet deadline.

I can see the connection there: insanity can be associated with chaos, which is often linked to destruction (hence, fire). However, I feel that this interpretation is more on the effect of insanity rather than the cause, so I thought that the ever-changing water would represent insanity better in terms of its chaotic nature, not the destruction that happens after that. (Besides, a tsunami can bring about as much destruction as raging fire.)

As for characters, take your time - I feel that RL should always take priority over a shared hobby and RPing is not a business job, plus this is a 1x1 so I prefer a laid-back approach to plan carefully rather than rushing into starting things and then drop later when problems/disagreements arise. I too have a shitty real life to deal with, so long as my partners don't disappear for months and not responding to my calls (worse, even bumping their interest threads totally ignoring my existence) I can be as patient as my partners whom I really appreciate them not turning RPing into another "work with tight deadline".

For CS:
= Basics like name and profile info - shan't elaborate on this;
= I have no probs using pictures for appearance (obviously anime given the premise) but usually I like to also include a brief word description, not just dump an image and that's all to the character's looks;
= History and personality can be developed in IC, but if you want to write them into your CS before the RP starts, by all means;
= Abilities can be left blank for now until it's developed in IC on how our characters acquire the powers from the Rias, but stat numbers are not required since the focus is on plot and character development rather than battle scenes;
= Any other trivial stuffs can all be put in a hider for organization sake.

For magical weapons - well isn't that one of the most obvious element to define the magical girl/boy genre? :P I'm thinking that the magical weapons would be something more practical similar to FF series (without the creative flair like Lightning's gunblade lol) rather than those fancy staffs like Sailor Moon.
I'm going with card deck for Lost/Air, but still undecided over sword or daggers for Betrayal/Fire.

[Stern Algorithm]

I usually try to maintain a certain degree of regularity with posting for three reasons: people can be impatient, some people have the attention span of a goldfish and lose interest quickly if there aren't constant updates, and finally, because I myself tend to forget to reply sometimes and if I do, the RP may slip towards the bottom of my subscriptions list, making me less likely to check it and reply to it.

But it is something of a relief, and a reduction of pressure to just take things slowly and casually.

I'm not sure if I want to make Longing/Earth's weapon a hammer (maybe too unoriginal), or a coffin. As for Insanity/Water, I might go with chains.

You should probably go with daggers for Betrayal/Fire, since you stab people in the back with daggers.

[tsukune]

For the first two points you don't need to worry too much from me - I'm a patient person (I feel it's a give-and-take especially with my schedule); as for the last, you can always use the @mention and I'll get the reminder in my notification tab (but don't abuse the system yeah? :P). If you want I can do the same to you.

I hate to be pressurized in RP, so I'm glad we're on the same page with regards to this.

Just realized I made a mistake in my previous post. I've corrected it to 'Lost/Air'.
I'm rather amused that you thought of coffin for Earth, but how do you intend for that weapon to be utilized?
Chain is flexible like water, so I say go for that! :)

Hmm, good point. Originally I want to go with a combo dual blade but I think twin daggers is more practical.

[Stern Algorithm]

I was thinking using the coffin like a shield, and then maybe opening it up and letting like stone pillars, dirt, or waves of sand to shoot out of it magically. I thought it would be apt as it represents longing, possibly the mourning of a lost loved one or something, but if you think it's too unwieldy or too literal, I can go with something else.

[tsukune]

(Totally not sorry at all that I was thinking of this when you said coffin.)

[+]

(Or maybe something like this?)

[+]

Anyway, I was thinking that since it's hollowed-out inside, it can act as a storage of some sort - that is, anything pulled out from inside can be the weapon, not the coffin itself. So if you want it to shoot dirt, stone pillars or even vines, then maybe those have to be kept inside the coffin first before they can be utilized? Of course, the shielding part makes sense tho'.

Originally I thought you might go with spear or boots since in certain fantasy works they can be attributed to the earth element (otherwise spear can go with water using Poseidon's trigon as reference, and boots to air if you think of Lenalee in DGM), but coffin is sure an interesting idea.

[Stern Algorithm]

Hitsugi no Chaika definitely came to mind when I was thinking of lugging a coffin around. Maybe I'll have an animated skeleton inside the coffin be the actual weapon, since I think of bones like organic rock.

[tsukune]

Oh yes - an animated skeleton in a coffin sounds pretty interesting (and it's plausible).

Should be getting my CS up before end of this week. RL taking up too much of my time the past few days. I'll also finish the lore stuffs by then before I go to the starter IC.

[Stern Algorithm]

WIP

Insanity

Appearance

(Shimizu has piercing red, lifeless eyes, short, cyan hair and a somewhat dark tan.)

NAME

Saotome Shimizu
(早乙女 清水, Saotome Shimizu)

PERSONALITY

Introverted, Shimizu suffers from social anxiety, paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Shimizu is very quiet, intelligent, and deeply thoughtful. She is afraid to voice her opinions on most matters and usually passively leaves herself to fall victim to the whims of others. She is crippled by a sense of powerlessness, pain and fear have driven her to madness.

HISTORY

Shimizu's parents had a shaky marriage and argued a lot when she was young, culminating in a divorce when she was just starting middle school. At school, bullies picked up on her vulnerability, and subjected her to a great deal of physical and psychological trauma. It got so bad that she ended up hospitalized and never went back to school. For months she's stayed in her room, trying to overcome her trauma.

RIAMANCY

Aspect

Insanity

Element

Water

Weapon

Chains

Powers & Abilities

Longing

Appearance

(Akira has short, messy white hair, light-brown eyes, and a pleasant smile.)

NAME

Tsukamoto Akira
(塚本 亮, Tsukamoto Akira)

PERSONALITY

Akira is pleasant and easygoing, putting the needs and happiness of others over his own. This has developed a certain degree of victimization and envy that he tries desperately to hide. Even though he's usually smiling, he has a melancholy in his eyes.

HISTORY

Akira is a normal high school freshman with decent grades. He is relatively well-liked, often helping others and never gets into provocations. He has an older brother that he was very close with despite a pretty significant age gap. Years ago, when his brother first got a girlfriend, Akira became friends with her pretty easily. Akira's brother's relationship with his girlfriend was very stable, and when the two of them graduated high school, they went on to make a new life together in a different city, leaving Akira just entering high school. Akira knew he had developed feelings for his brother's girlfriend and hated himself for it. However, deep down, he hates himself more for prioritizing their happiness over his own.

RIAMANCY

Aspect

Longing

Element

Earth

Weapon

Skeleton inside a Coffin

Powers & Abilities

[tsukune]

(I'm amused that you choose Suga from Haikyuu!! as the face claim for Longing...)

Putting up my drafts here too for your viewing.

Betrayal-WIP

Appearance

(Brief description here.)

NAME

Tsubasa Kamiya
(神宮 ツバサ, Kamiya Tsubasa)

PERSONALITY

HISTORY

RIAMANCY

Aspect

Betrayal

Element

Fire

Weapon

Twin daggers

Powers & Abilities

Lost-WIP

Appearance

(Brief description here.)

NAME

Miyu Kisaragi
(如月 自由, Kisaragi Miyu)

PERSONALITY

HISTORY

RIAMANCY

Aspect

Lost

Element

Air

Weapon

Card Deck

Powers & Abilities