HeySeuss

The Last Pack (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)

Due to slow response, gonna put this one on the shelf, but thanks for checking. Will reach out if I revive.

The Heavens Aflame [Deities/Civil War/Titanomachy]

Due to slow response, gonna put this one on the shelf, but thanks for checking. Will reach out if I revive.

Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi - the Orcish Company

"It ain't easy being green."

Role Requests

- A bastard daughter of Stephen of Orenth, heir to the Cerilian throne. Just recently fell into the hands of Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi. It's entirely possible that -her- heritage isn't pure as the driven snow either.
- Jagath Eye-Drinker - Radush's son, the leader of the Chosen and a very powerful warrior in his own right. But there's a lot riding on him and a dynasty to come. This character should be a full-blooded orc or half-human at most.
- OOC and char sheet section are here.

TL;DR Summary:

- Fantasy/Medieval
- Characters are members of an Orcish mercenary company called "Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi" (Orcish - "Do Not Die In Bed") formed by a variety of orcish outcasts that served as the dregs of the mercenary community and decided that enough was enough.
- Company has a nefarious and unique reputation -- it's the only Orcish free company out there, and will fight for whomever hires them, except that until just now, they've been hired for campaigns that amounted to nothing -- sent to forage, but never depended on to fight a battle. The company is eager to prove themselves as reliable, if brutal, mercenaries that can hold their own in a real battle.
- The RP is about an outsider's point of view of humanity and dealing with the way their employers constantly try to get them killed, assuming them stupid or totally brutish or otherwise regarding them as total louts.
- How much of that reputation the characters live up to is the decision of the players.
- The idea is to have some fun with this RP and be creative with the tactics; inevitably, the company is expected to fail and is often working for real scumbags. The fun is proving them wrong and chasing them down for payment.
- Players will have a hand in developing and creating the culture of the company.
- Company colors are blood red -- because Red Goes Faster.
- All characters must have orcish blood to get into the company; they don't trust others. There is only one exception, she is listed below.
- See the list of character requests.

In Character Info:

The lot of an orcish outcast in the human world is often rough -- orcish life in general, even as an accepted member of a tribe is nasty, brutish and short. The politics are cutthroat -- literally. It happens that intra-tribal politics have their winners and losers, and the change of a regime often means an outcasting for family and supporters of the deposed (inevitably killed) warlords. These orcs have a stark choice -- make it on their own somehow, isolated from everything or find their way in the outside world filled with enemies including humans, elves, dwarves, and just about every other race there is.

Regarded as brutes and scum, often with some reason, the orcs find that their employment options are highly limited. The trade most find, and welcome, is that of violence -- tavern bouncers, criminal muscle, pirate crewmen, and, of course, sellswords. But even in these jobs, orckind are not appreciated for anything more than their violent tendencies and brute strength. They are often swindled, mistreated and used for fodder by other races that deride them.

About six years ago, a group of orcish veterans decided to change that -- they decided to put aside the enmities of tribes that exiled them and started to recruit other outcasts into a frighteningly organized mercenary company patterned along human lines -- a blend of their brute strength and high endurance for hardship with military discipline that was unknown in the wild warrior society of the tribal orcs. They figured that if they were going to make it in this world where all hands were turned against them, they might as well at least watch each other's backs.

Of course, displaying a degree of gallows humor and self awareness that other races would be shocked to find among orcs, they named the company "Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi" -- Do not die in bed.

They're a small army. Now they need a battle.

Out of Character Info:

As above, the RP is about orcs operating in the human world -- the founders of the company, having learned their trade in human mercenary companies (to the shocked surprise of their 'teachers') decided to form an orcish company of mercenaries, but taking the elements of human warfare that they deem effective. They know, for example, that orcish tribal warfare is ferocious, but not particularly well suited to fighting an organized force in the field. As veterans of warfare against humans, the high officers and veterans of the Company know that discipline counts, and bank on the idea of harnessing orcish ferocity and love of warfare while teaching their recruits the lessons of discipline that seemingly come easier to Humans and other races.

The employers, however, think they're hiring a violent rabble, and the other human mercenaries do not like the Company. Hell, even orcish warlords, if they were to hear of the Company, would consider it heretical and set their hands against it. Alone in this world, all this fraternity of outcasts has is each other. Everyone else is against them and it's their lot to survive. On the other hand, it's a virtual certainty that they won't die in bed.

There will be Warg (wolf-ish beasts that the orcs ride) cavalry and that all recruits of the company will start out in the pike formations of the company, learning the hard lesson of discipline under stern drillmasters that exhort them to all work together.

Characters will be part of an elite group of orcish soldiers chosen for prowess (over rank) that are deployed into the most desperate situations. Specialists, skilled warriors and so forth. Of course, these characters are chosen for their skill as well as their ability to follow orders (they all served in the pikes) but they are an elite within the Company. That way, we have the characters all together.

Unit Organization

Unit Organization

Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi
Warlord: Radush "Eye-Drinker" born an outcast, had the idea of starting the Company after finding himself leading units of Orcs being paid less by other mercenary captains, decided 'screw the middleman.' Radush carries himself like a warlord and the Tuskers of the Company see him that way.
Drillmaster: Koloch "the Butcher", a ferocious human-trained half-orc that oversees the training and discipline of the Company. He is a Tusker that every other Tusker comes into contact with, and he's got a reputation nearly on par with that of Radush Eye-Drinker.

Favorite Color: Red, it goes faster. (Everyone has at least a sleeve of their armor painted red. You can tell who is higher up in the organization by how much red they've got.)

Structure:

Companies:
Each company has a chief (equivalent of a captain), and and is composed of a number of smaller warbands.

- The Chosen (First Company - Elite warriors, scouts and specialist fighters as well as a reserve for when things get rough in a fight)
- Pikes (~200-300 orcs broken down into smaller units as necessary for manuever)
- Spikes (~160 orcs - Longbows)
- Wargs (~100 orcs and their warg mounts, cavalry)
- Blades (~100-200 orcs wielding bladed weaponry for close-combat and assaults)
- Campers (~450 or so orcs - Camp, Supply Train and other logistic specialties, including families.)

Warbands:
- Within each company, there are a number of warbands of 15-30 tuskers per unit under the command of a warleader, the fellow that calls the shots for that small unit, which is the company's equivalent of a sergeant.

The favored weapon of the orcs is a large, curved sword akin to a falcata or kilij with a forward curvature and a cleaver-like cutting surface, akin to a falcata. Large and heavy, the Company's swords are a little too much for a human to handle one-handed, but the orcs manage just fine. It can block a blow because it's built thick and it can cleave more than a typical human sword, but wasn't designed for deft parrying. Surprisingly, halberds are also favored weapons with the company, as they provide a degree of flexibility to orcish warriors in a fight for engaging a variety of targets. Veterans brought this weapon into the ranks of the company -- tribal orcs would sneer at something more complicated than an axe, but smart warriors understand the versatility of the weapon, and the importance of mastering it.

The armor is generally so thick that they don't worry about shields so much -- it isn't pretty stuff like elven and human armor, and it isn't expertly forged like the dwarven stuff, but orcs are big, and they can carry more weight. It means their armor is more dense, and the Company's smiths use that extra weight tolerance to slope and angle the plates to deflect arrows and bolts, where a human or elf would crumple under the sheer weight. Anyway, even disciplined orcs aren't big on hiding behind shields. The typical suit of 'company steel' tends to be a suit of chain and plate, though the legs are chainmail alone and the forearms are often exposed, at least in the Pikes n' Spikes. The Blades tend to wear full suits, because they've scrounged or purchased the additional armoring on forearms and legs and because their fighting is closer in and less maneuverability based. No one bothers with engraving and enameling the armor, because the Orcish 'aesthetic' is to paint it red and stick a skull on a spike and fringe with fur. The company doesn't bother with much in the way of heraldry like a human army. Red, fur, skulls. Got it?

The pikes are counterbalanced with a weight on the end to make them more easily handled, barbed with a crosspiece behind the head and long-bladed. Orcs aren't naturally inclined to form pike squares, but Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi's drillmasters use methods designed to appeal to the Orcish mentality -- it's beaten into headstrong (all of them) recruits. The Pikes are the training ground of the Company, it's where recruits learn the fundamental lessons of fighting in the world outside the tribes of the orcs. It doesn't matter how high one was in a tribe, how experienced a warrior outside the Company, all recruits go through the Pikes as a rite of passage.

Longbows in the company are much larger than a human or Elven equivalent. What the orcs lack in the subtle sophistication of the elves, they make up for in being able to draw far more weight. Orcish archery isn't typically pinpoint, but some tribes have a long history of hunting with bows for survival, which makes them surprisingly good in addition to these other advantages. Bow companies tend to wear heavy enough armor that makes them pretty decent in a close in fight, and they carry blade weapons...and heavy hammers used to pound spikes into the ground, which gives them a defense against cavalry that comes too close or infantry that tries to charge them. They're also good for pounding a head in.

Warg riders are the only Company forces that really use the shield much, but they avoid lances -- warg cavalry work differently than horse-based cavalry -- because they do not frontally charge, but turn faster, and fight on the flanks and the rear, as a wolf pack might. The Company's warg cavalry are designed to kill other cavalry, as a wolf might take a horse, by nipping at the flanks, hamstringing and otherwise crippling the enemy's maneuverability in order to finish it at leisure. They go in for slashing attacks, nets, bolos and javelins as a typical tactic. Warg cavalry sits lower than horse cavalry, because wargs are lower-slung to the ground, and a favorite tactic of the wargs is to get in close and strike at the underbellies. It is a surprisingly close-combat oriented group. The wargs themselves are armored to protect from strikes hitting from above while engaged in this sort of fierce combat of gutting and crippling.

The Camp, Supply Train and Specialists is a concept unknown to orcish tribal warfare, but a necessity -- Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi is often on its own to feed itself, and humans and others won't always do business with them. It is a collection of orcish and half-orcish (a chunk of the company are halfies) ex-merchants, cart drivers, blacksmiths, fletchers, herbalists and other sorts, skilled but exiled from orckind and humanity alike, that help build the camps, raise the siege engines and keep the company in food and equipment. A lot of them are orcish women. Tribal orcs often have a disdain for those that do not fight, particularly women, but Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi has strong orders and punishments to prevent this -- the Campers are protected from hazing out of recognition that these people are vital to the functioning of the Company. A new recruit disdains them, but the veterans of the company recognize that some campaigns, they survive only because the Campers found food and keep the recruits well in line. It is also a place where maimed veterans go when they can no longer serve, and serves to tell recruits that they will always have a place in the company, rather than being discarded to die when too old to fight.

Company discipline is harsh; the new recruits are sent to the pikes because the typical orc is a headstrong know-it-all and the only real way to teach them is to establish dominance first -- inevitably, a Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi drillmaster is a tough son of a warg that spends a lot of time punching down recruits that act up and talk back, not out of mindless brutality, but because the warrior spirit needs to be harnessed. Orcs are fierce, and establishing the disciplines of the ranks can be hard to do with such headstrong specimens. It may seem unbelievably brutal to humans and particularly to elves, but it's an approach tailored to how an orc thinks -- occasionally a leader has to smack his subordinates into line. The natural orcish instinct is not to stand in a line of pikes, shoulder to shoulder, and work together to defeat a charging foe through superior defense, and that's precisely why every tusker in the company has to serve there to learn that peculiar form of discipline. Even after the pikes, the discipline continues, if it is necessary, but it's not as brutal or arbitrary as tribal orc society, and the warriors of Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi are compensated -- the rest of the world, as they know, is much worse for a Tusker on their own.

As a result, the Tuskers of the Company tend to start embracing ranks and titles because they often are outcasts without any right to tribe; a typical name might go "Drillmaster Koloch the Butcher" which is a position of high regard within the company. Titles come with deeds, and are bestowed by comrades or, better, a Chief or a Warleader, if not the old Eyedrinker himself. Some recruits come with titles already, if they were (in)famous with even non-orc society for a deed before joining the company. Rank is often important as well, with Warleaders often squabbling over little things like whose band gets which piece of ground, something that a good chief has to contend with in leading headstrong and competitive orcs; the typical solution is decidedly novel for orcs and disputes between members of similar rank are decided by seniority unless there is a clear right and wrong involved.

Glossary and Sayings

Glossary/Sayings

- Everyone Starts in the Pikes -- anyone joining the company does time in the pike line, learning discipline, and likely having some bad attitude and stubbornness beaten out of them by the orcish drillmasters. The company believes that all the advantages an orc has are for naught without actual discipline. It's also one of the Company's biggest surprises for their enemies. Also, it imparts a new sense of rank structure to the orcs in the Company -- they learn the new hierarchy and to put aside old tribal rivalries, because the Company is their new tribe.
- Red Unz Go Faster - It's a classic orc rule, the Company likes the color red. Those serving in the Pikes get their arm painted red...but veterans paint more to symbolize the blood they've seen.
- Fresh off the Warg - An orc that just left the tribes and isn't very aware of the outside world.
- Smack the green off you - Common threat employed by drillmasters dealing with recruits fresh off the warg.
- Tusker - Slang for Orc. Used ironically by the Company among themselves and as self-reference, ie 'The Tuskers" because some people can't even pronounce the Company's orcish name.
- Halfie - Like their half-elven counterparts, half-orcs tend to take a lot of social abuse and have a chip on their shoulder from it. The difference is that knife-ears do a lot of passive aggressive little word games and giggling behind their hands, the orcish version tends to be more direct. Because there are so many halfies in the Company, this sort of thing just doesn't last long.
- Knife-ear - Elf
- Stumpy - Dwarf
- Bunny - Human
- Ugly - Approving "Ugly work, Tusker," is the equivalent of 'good job, buddy." Also means, 'fun.' So when a Section Leader says, "Looks like we got some ugly work ahead" and sounds gleeful, it means something enjoyable, like torching a glade of thousand year-old trees that a bunch of knife-ears sculpted as art.

The Setting

The Setting, the Kingdom of Ceril

A land in strife, Ceril is ruled from a throne, but never easily with so much that needs to be balanced -- the noble houses against the Church of Issad against the ambitions of the merchants that rule the guilds. Noble against peasant, baron against earl, family against family and the king seemingly set against all. Though civil war has been a mercifully distant memory in the last century or so, Ceril seems poised on it again, after the king, Stephen of Orenth, fell in battle during a border dispute with the neighboring nation of Samon.

House of Orenth

The Royal house, it recently lost its brash young king to battle with a foreign enemy over border lands. Stephen had no legitimate heirs, merely a daughter, and she is rumored to have inherited her mother's dark prowess at witchcraft. Her whereabouts are unknown.

Lord Arad

The Lord Arad has a strong claim to the throne by marriage, but no direct bloodline claim. Nonetheless, he is powerful and looks like the eventual winner of Ceril's succession crisis. He has, for the moment, retained the services of the Orcish mercenary company, Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi.

Druskel family

The Druskels are not one family, but two families each headed by a brother; Ren Druskel and Bant Druskel have a long running dispute among each other, especially as the old Lord Hon Druskel still draws breath and the brothers constantly skirmish with one another to position themselves for the favor of their dying, often demented, old father.

Brenton family

To be determined. I'm looking for suggestions.

Madjun family

The Madjun are a family that believe in a greater restraint of the crown's powers; while they can count many supporters among their number, their alliance is the most fragile. Lord Waus Madjun has managed to establish an alliance of smaller noble houses, guilds and, potentially, the Dwarves of Darazum into a powerful faction...that is so large that it can't agree on anything.

The Church of Issad

The Church of Issad, for a long time, was the sole church of Ceril, until the reign of Jeren the Apostate. A man of a philosophic bent and himself an initiate in a religion besides the official state religion, he issued edicts restraining the power of the church and fought a series of bloody wars to make it so. In the end, Jeren prevailed and his heirs maintained the religious edicts, though the Church always remained powerful and influential in the Kingdom, a force to be reckoned with. Now with Jeren's line extinguished, the Church sees an opportunity to support the dynasty that will give it what it wants...

The Elves of Torceleblas

There was a time when the elves were a powerful empire, but time and catastrophe has reduced them to much smaller numbers of fractured enclaves throughout the world; near Ceril, the elves hail from the Torceleblas (the Silver Forest). The history of elvish-human relations is fraught with strife and conflict, though a wary cold war prevails for the moment, though the Elves seem to be taking sides in the recent rebellion for reasons of their own; their Queen, Iraphel, is a younger one, and is rumored to believe that the words of human are not enough to ensure the safety of the elven kingdoms.

Also, they like to sculpt trees as art. This sort of pretension makes orcish tusks hurt just thinking about it.

The Dwarves of Darazum

The Dwarves of Darazum are their own separate nation, some of which actually extends to beneath the lands of the Kingdom of Ceril; this created tension between the court at Cerilnay and the Kingdom of Darazum, though these differences were worked out during the reign of Jeren, also known as the Apostate with a unique recognition of borders and rights that included drawing the lines for elevation as well as location.

Dwarven culture has an extensive system of guilds and craftsmen and tends to support their human counterparts in Ceril.

[/hider]

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

Hello,

I'm just letting you know that I am not able to do this RP. It's mostly because I think I have a very different idea of where to go with it as well as a very different sort of pacing. It's been hard for me to do that first post. That post is ready, but it doesn't fit the rest of the narrative.

I totally wish you guys luck with this RP, however!

The Heavens Aflame [Deities/Civil War/Titanomachy]

_{Good, non-lame artwork that is relevant is hard to find, there's so much video game stuff out there...}

TL;DR Summary

- Fantasy World; see below. Some track has been laid down. There's more to create. We're looking for people to help flesh the lore out.
- Each Player controls a deity in a pantheon; they may be part of the current pantheon, the child of a god recently raised to divinity, a human given divinity or part of the pantheon that came before and was overthrown.
- The father of the Pantheon is dead; a conspiracy brought him low. His position is vacant and being fought over.
- There is more than one dynasty of gods; there is a prior generation of exiled/outcast/overthrown deities and they are playable and they are powerful, particularly with the King of Gods overthrown.
- Some deities are the patrons of a city or nation, but this is not really a nation RP.
- Greco-Egyptian-Mesopotamian style pantheon; in the style of the Greeks, the Gods will be flawed, jealous, striving among each other and deceitful bastards for the most part; they may be divine, but they sure as hell aren't omnibenevolent. They are the tantruming child-kings of all they see, indulgent and spoiled.
- Active collaboration; suggestions welcome from players regarding setting and so forth. Creativity and initiative encouraged.
- Important: Keep the OOC civil, bring up concerns about other characters and players to the GM in PM and do not harass people to post, bring concerns to the GM in PM so he can handle it.
- This isn’t a nation RP. If you’re interested in proving strategic genius rather than creating a cool RP with a story, this isn’t your RP at all. Repeat: This isn’t a nation RP.
- There will be a system put in place to referee contested situations that aren't being resolved through collaboration. But we'd really prefer you just collaborate.
- Fantasy Name Generator - A programmable name generator. If you work with the syllables, you can come up with some good names.

In Character

Aroesus, the King of the Gods is slain, the victim of a conspiracy among those he ruled and kept in line. The heavens rage and seethe with plots and anger, with ambition and lust as the many strive to overtake the throne he once held.

A prophecy of his demise prompted Aroesus to increasingly erratic and paranoid behavior, such as restricting other deities to his court in the palace of Krona on Lake Miphas in Hevas, the realm of the Gods. Always a ruler prone to authoritarianism and rule through strength, he started to become nervous of his own subjects, and began to spend his days brooding over the most trivial of imagined slights and became more prone to punishing others for crimes they didn't commit by sending them to the islands of Lake Sharzunates, the underworld equivalent of Miphas that is linked to it by the Great Nasan Falls, where beings of power were imprisoned for transgressions against the pantheon.

While there had always been jealousies against Aroesus and those desirous of seeing him deposed, there was now an impetus for a conspiracy. These deities came up with a plan; Aroesus, as his sanity dwindled, become more a creature of lust than he was before. Before, he was known to rape other beings and egregiously cheat on his marriage. But of late, Aroesus became obsessed with the young Lyrikes, the beautiful son of a nymph and a god, whom he sought to seduce. Lyrikes, no fool, used this adoration to his advantage to gain power quickly in the court, though he never quite became the lover of Aroesus. He always teased Aroseus, drove him mad with desire until he was willing to shower more gifts upon Lyrikes in his lust. This, of course, worried the other gods, who resented this newcomer, who was vicious to most of the others and was arrogant to the point of offending many; he did not lack for enemies, and he treated them harshly, largely by convincing Aroesus to condemn them to Sharzunates for various reasons.

When the gods resolved to kill Aroesus, they decided to do it through his greatest vulnerability; the young Lyrikes, whom so many of them loathed but upon whom Aroesus lusted for to the point of insensibility and blindness. These gods destroyed the soul of Lyrikes while keeping his body alive; they poisoned his body and sent him to Aroesus' chambers. When Aroesus took the suddenly receptive Lyrikes in a fit of lust, he felt the poison course through him, weakening him. That is when the other gods struck with blades crafted from the flames of mount Mithsurash, a great volcano whose fires were said to be all-consuming. Both Aroesus and Lyrikes were not merely killed, but their souls utterly destroyed, so that even in death, they could possibly be summoned forth to give account of what happened to them.

With the death of Aroesus, those beings imprisoned on the islands of Lake Sharzunates are freed, as are the gods who were functionally imprisoned within Aroesus' palace on Lake Miphas. There is no one strong enough to take the throne and govern, and therefore the gods are thrown into anarchy, with the many fragmenting and pursing their own agendas.

The gods themselves thunder away at each other. It has gone beyond words and into the realm of war; and as in heaven, so it is below in Lymaeus, with the mortals warring among each other as prophets and their followers murder one another in the streets, while armies march and burn the lands of their enemies with a religious fervor.

The world itself trembles, as old enemies see their opportunity to reclaim their right and take revenge upon their oppressors and tormentors, new enemies see the opportunity to attack the structure where it is weak and cause it to crumble, and meanwhile the Gods themselves wrangle among each other, divided and distracted.

Glossary of Original Terms

Glossary of Original terms

- Aroesus - King of the Gods, slain by assassins
- Mysia - The dowager queen of the Gods, she has gone into a state of extreme shock and secluded mourning; some say she's been driven mad. When sane, she was the epitome of the grace and pride of rulership, a deity of power and patroness of the aristocracy.
- Lyrikes - The slain male demigod lover of Aroesus, instrumental in his assassination as a vessel of the venom that disabled Aroesus and made him vulnerable to the knives of his killers.
- Lymaeus - The continent, full of strife-ridden city-states/nations. It is also a spiritual entity that spawned children in the past. These Children of Lymaeus fought a war with the Children of Ventu, led by Aroesus. Aroesus won.
- Lake Miphas - the Lake at the center of the realm of the Gods, Hevas. It is dominated by the Krona, the palace that holds the court of Aroesus, but contains many smaller islands that have homes to other deities in good standing with the Pantheon. It is parallel to its dark sibling, Lake Sharzunates.
- Nasan Waterfall - The waterfall that links lake Miphas with lake Sharzunates in the underworld. It is also the location of the Gates of (Insert the name of relevant deities here) spirits that are born and that die pass through these gates respectively as part of an eternal cycle; they reside in Hevas and Malebazus as a temporary reward/punishment before being reincarnated, the length of time determined by their deeds in life.
- Sharzunates - The lake in the underworld that corresponds to Miphas. Despite being part of the underworld, Sharzunates is not technically ruled by the god of it. It is a place of exile for deposed gods, a prison for evil spirits. When Aroesus died, Sharzunates' rather formidable guards disappeared, leaving this area anarchic to say the least.
- Hevas - The plane upon which Lake Miphas resides, akin to Arcadia in Greek Myth.
- Malebazus - the plane of the Underworld, akin to Hades. Some deities, especially those that are outcasted, make their homes here, if they are not specifically imprisoned on Lake Sharzunates.
- Krona - The Palace of Aroesus, quickly starting to show signs of wear as Aroesus is gone and his wife Mysa has gone into seclusion. Nonetheless, it is still a meeting place of the deities.
- Caesilinus - The (former) holy city of Aroesus on the mortal plane, the most honored and wealthy city-state in Lymaeus...and also the one most thrown into chaos by events. It holds the Megali Naos, the Great Temple of Aroesus, which is a repository of great artifacts collected from across the continent.

OOC Info

Out of Character Info

So this was set up largely on a request for a Gods-themed RP, so I am posting the interest check first and I'll work on the mechanics, and even specific names (I've got code for a programmable name generator that spits out Greek and Persian-style names, using the consonant and vowel patterns of the names in those languages) if there is sufficient interest to do so (and I will share the code with you, of course.) I prefer to use the Greek body of mythology as the root of this, or at least for the flavor of it all, because the Greek gods were petulant, flawed beings, often hubristic as all get out and there's the whole cycle of son killing father and father killing son, not to mention the scorned women and the general insanity. The Greeks, in my mind, have the richest mythology, and that's what makes them the most fun.

Each player will come up with a deity that has a portfolio, though there can be some portfolio overlap between gods (a source of great conflict) not to mention the concept of deposed gods, up and coming usurpers (former half-mortal sons, powerful spirits and so forth) that will create a lot of strife within the realm of the Gods. The intent here, of course, is to create a war among gods, and more than likely create immense suffering among the hapless mortals as well. It's not so much good versus evil as everyone having a point of view and feeling justified in it...if everyone was a self-sacrificing paragon of virtue, this would be no fun. The fatal flaws will be the most important aspect of the characters.

The idea is that there will be alliances and conflicts from within and without, as each being strives to get on the throne or get someone they support on the throne so that they enjoy the position of power from which to keep the others in line. With interest, there will be a fleshing out of the realm(s) of the Gods, as well as a rough idea of what the mortal world is like, though the mortal world is obviously very secondary to the realm of the Gods...though the possibility of a Trojan war scenario, where the gods wrangle over mortals, is highly possible.

Character Ideas and Requests

Character Ideas and Requests

- A deity devoted to bacchanalia/drunkeness and revelry.
- A deity that runs the underworld, its warden.
- Deities that see the dead to the underworld and other parts; probably in conflict with the underworld deity. Ideally, these beings run Nasan Falls.
- Dihira the Dark Librarian (this is held for @Noxious)
- Heir-Apparent of Aroesus
- Mysia
- Children of Lymaeus, who are very different from the Children of Ventu. Most of them would be imprisoned in Sharzunates until the death of Aroesus.
- Members of the conspiracy to kill Aroesus. These characters can be open or in secret.

History of Deities and Pantheons:

History

(The snippets here are added to as people's histories are merged together to form setting canon.)

Ventu was a primal deity of fire, creation and destruction, but also the absolute ruler of the world. He was content to rule the cosmic forces without doing too much with them, being a simple being of simple tastes. He sired, upon the stars, other beings, including Aroesus and Svanus, who were of a more creative, cultivating bent. They created and Ventu destroyed before the creations could get out of hand and his children become empowered. His final child was Sileon, who was like Ventu in so many respects that Ventu favored this youngest over all. And yet, Sileon stood in awe of the things he didn't entirely understand, and learned from watching his elder siblings as they moved through the world and created things, including fickle humanity, and spawned their own progeny. It is said that Sileon planted a bit of his fire, fierce independence, into the first human, and that made them different from animal or the servant races of the various deities. Humanity was, like Sileon, unpredictable.

The time came again when Ventu was inclined to destroy the works of his children and the other things that came to being in the world, and that was when Aroesus and Svanus (and others) rebelled against them. And it was Sileon, left free, trusted, who Ventu thought understood the best, who freed them from their imprisonment in Sharzunates, who decided that he could not bear to see the works of his siblings, whom he loved, destroyed.

Aroesus and his host organized, a thing unknown to Ventu, who ruled in singular absolutism, and revolted against the king of the gods. After the death of Ventu, there were other mighty beings that tried to take Ventu's place in turn and Aroesus' Pantheon fought them under his leadership. The other siblings found roles in the court of Krona that befit their talents; but Sileon inherited the raw strength and primal of his sire, and became a force of destruction akin to his father, though he voluntarily put himself into slumber in a mountain so that the creation might thrive, electing to hold himself aloof until needed. From time to time, Aroesus would call upon Sileon to assist in maintaining the order of Krona, to bring other deities and beings into the order and, for this, he would be awakened and unleashed upon enemies. Even if they were powerful, they were brought low by the combined cooperative might of the sons of Ventu.

--

First there was Ventu and his creations. But Lymaeus (Like Gaia in Greek myths) lived in those days too, before she had become heartbroken with grief and pain. When she saw the children of Ventu she longed for children of her own. Ventu sired Svanus on her, but he was strange and Ventu would have no more of Lymaeus as a mate. She, however, desired more children. (The rest TBD.)

Family Tree of the Deities

Family Tree of the Deities

*(Ventu)
**(Aroesus)
**(Svanus) - w/Lymaeus
*** Dihira
**Sileon

*Lymaeus

* - Sire
** - Child
*** - Grandchild and so forth.

( ) - Being is dead.
[ ] - Being is imprisoned.

The Last Pack (Werewolf: The Apocalypse)

TL;DR Summary:

- Werewolf: The Apocalypse
- New England-set Chronicle
- Set in the end times, the Apocalypse drawing nigh.
- A pack of cubs new to being werewolves are thrust into the last days of the Garou. The timeline will take the characters into the Apocalypse as they develop their skills fighting in the lead-up to the End Times.
- Got a Caern, got some plots.
- No more than three characters of each breed, and it'd be nice to get a character from every auspice, so I need at least four players. I will also allow one Corax character; no other types of Fera allowed, I'm afraid.
- Garou politics comes into play.
- World against the werewolves, so the pack has to cooperate and pool skills to get the job done.
- Definitely no kindred, fae or whathaveyou. Vampires are a total sideshow compared to the Wyrm and the Weaver and the metaphysical war that the creatures of Gaia fight. Most of them can't even touch the Umbra. They're pawns at best, whatever their pretensions.

In Character Info:

You stand there, still bleeding from the wounds of your Rite of Passage, thinking you've accomplished something, but the reality is that you have only taken the first step on a long and terribly dark road. I'm sorry, my cub, but the End Times are here. We elders have failed you for generations, and the price is yours to pay. In a century, we've seen much of the Prophecy of the Phoenix come to pass, and we know that these are the last days upon us, and that Ragnarok will be here soon. You, who have inherited the mantle of the Guardians of Gaia have also inherited the failures and sins of her guardians. Nothing is fair, but it is your generation that must hold the line. There is almost no hope in these darkest of days for anything but a good death, but you do not know that yet -- you are full of the hope of youth, the certainty that you can change the inertia of a world quickly being consumed by forces of unfathomable power. Perhaps once, our ancestors could have stopped it, but the time has long passed when stopping it would be easy, or even possible. We have tread this path, and failed. It is now your path to tread, and it is to your sorrow that you will learn its perils and how easy it is to fail. But you do not know this yet, because you stand merely at the start of this ever-darkening path.

Perhaps that is why this will be your fight. Perhaps we elders, teetering on the edge of Harano and pessimistic of our chances, are not the ones that can fight this battle, because we do not believe in the possibility of victory anymore. Perhaps it is time for you to undo our mistakes and try to grasp that last, faint, tenuous chance to right some wrongs before we all pass into memory.

Perhaps.

Out of Character Info:

The characters are a pack of newly-minted Garou, fresh out of their Rites of Passage, and they are being thrown into the fight. The chronicle is set in New England at a small caern that is discovering, in these last days, that it did not fight the enemies as thoroughly as it thought, that the forces arrayed against them are more numerous and more cunning than they realized. Your garou were sent from other septs to take their rite of passage and form a pack that could, possibly, help hold the line in these dark days.

As these are the End Times, there are events in motion that go beyond merely the scope of a single pack of new Werewolves, and yet it makes for a fantastic setting -- the odds are such that the only kind of tactics are desperate ones as the realization dawns that soon it won't matter. Things are unraveling quickly as the world hurtles to Ragnarok, the final battle and the characters are caught up in this; the stakes go up as they have to learn quickly and on the job.

Characters will need to be varied, so I'd prefer different tribes, no more than three of a given breed (Homid/Lupus/Metis) and I'd like the different auspices filled also. That gives a nice diversity as well as overlap in skills. I will allow one Corax character, but no other fera. This RP will focus on the internal politics of the Werewolves, and deal with other changing breeds as well, in the last days, but the focus is on the wolves.

This RP will involve a lot of the supernatural and themes involving moral ambiguity and nuance. The characters will be confronted with dilemmas that test their resolve. It's not necessarily a hack and slash RP; the entire world is seemingly against the werewolves at this point, and there are few allies and little respite to be had. They are a hot ember in a fire quickly going out.

Retrogarde [Fantasy Noir]

Promised a post earlier, got it mostly written (had to take in 'inspirational material' aka the Simpsons) and then had a migraine today, so I'm a bit behind the eight ball. Sorry.

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Raped by work.

A proposition for brainstorming, collaboration and fun writing.

Well, I need to do at least a paragraph or so, so that's how casual I am.

A proposition for brainstorming, collaboration and fun writing.

I have no way to interpret that.