Lugubrious

Dungeon Keepers

Alright, my nation is called Monolith.

This is an old civilization, one of the oldest if not the oldest. It is situated in an oasis in an arid biome, wherever we decide to put our badlands basically. Monolith takes the form of a grand city built encompassing a mountain, with various tiers that rise along with its slopes. Surrounding the mountain is a great valley, about half of which is submerged beneath water. It is there that most of Monolith's 'normal' attributes end. Everything else revolves around an orb of light housed in an open-air temple at the mountain's peak. Called Providence, this orb emanates a unique magical energy -Blessing- that pulses through carved lines in the city's buildings and roads once a week, provided certain standards are met.

Most interesting about Monolith are its inhabitants. Monolith is home to tens of thousands of golems called Workers. These beings range between four and five feet in height, can be made of metal, wood, rock, clay, obsidian, or straw, and, while resembling ultra-primitive robots, each house the spirit of a person. In essence, the people of Monolith are machines with the minds of people, though only their voices and personalities remain from their past lives. The Workers come to be in two ways: either the spirits of humans heading for the next life are caught by a mirror-shaped artifact called Salvation and sealed inside an inanimate body, or visitors to the city are transformed, piece by piece, by weekly Blessings. The Workers need the Blessings to survive, and if they are deprived of it, the magic holding their spirits in their bodies runs out and they effectively die. To ensure that Providence, which is equivalent to the Workers' deity, continues to send its Blessings, at least four fifths of the population must each day toil in the city. As such, almost no-one may leave, and the culture as a whole is rather reclusive.

The society of the Workers is very much like other human society, perhaps even more so. It is vibrant and benevolent, with a few quirks. Labor and life and both celebrated, and since Workers live until either they fail to receive a Blessing within the span of a week or their bodies become so decrepit that their spirits leak out, most live indefinitely. In addition to ordinary labor, Workers often improve upon their city, pursue various forms of art, and work to expand the edges of the wall-devoid city in a slow crawl to the edges of the valley. Since Blessings are the only things Workers need to survive, they can exist comfortable underwater, and many do. Because normal humans can become Workers by spending time in Monolith, the promise of immortality is very real but very costly, since none can ever leave again and must spend most of their days working. However, there is a distant end to the monotony: after enough time spent serving Providence, a Worker can, after an indeterminate but often long length of time, go to the temple of Providence and be transformed into a Traveler. Travelers range from six to seven feet in height, more resemble humans, and are far more diverse in their capabilities, an important one of which is their ability to leave Monolith for however long they wish. Unlike Workers, Travelers can and often do use powerful magic, and they journey through the outside world to bring back knowledge and specimens to add to the archives. After becoming a Traveler, a Worker regains the memories of his or her previous life, and this is often an impetus for leaving the city to settle affairs. Humans who have immigrated to Monolith must first become Workers before becoming Travelers, a process which takes a different amount of time for everyone but generally takes more than fifty years.

Monolith is ruled by the Journeymen. This council is composed of six Travelers who have each ventured into the outside world, one representing each material the Workers are made of. The Journeymen each serve 5-year terms and appoint their own successors. The power they have over their city is limited, usually only involved in unusual concerns.

Random notes
-The only way to distinguish male and female Workers are their voices. Travelers' more distinct, unique bodies allow more expression.
-Each Worker and Traveler has colored eyes and a similarly colored core. The cores, located at the center of their chests, slowly grow brighter and then darker in a neverending cycle. The rate at which this happens is determined by how long the Worker has gone without a Blessing. Faster beats mean more peril. The color is random.
-The faces of the Workers and Travelers are immobile, fixed in a single expression. This expression best reflects the individual's personality.
-Workers are generally slow, methodical, deliberate, and considerate. Travelers tend to be more quick and bold. Both are capable of combat but Travelers are way more adept. Workers carry tools with them at all times; when turned into a Traveler, these tools become powerful weapons.
-Aside from the whole immortality gig, a major strength of Monolith is trade. It has excellent manufacturing and uses primitive engines for transport that outperform animals.

Thoughts? If any of you can guess what a major inspiration for this is, congrats but it wasn't that hard.

Dungeon Keepers

Cool. I've got a fairly good idea just now.

Dungeon Keepers

Shall I begin to brainstorm a nation as well?

RWBY - Haze

After Amalger's first attack ended up as nothing more than an annoyance, Abel's morale dropped significantly, even though the creature was temporarily immobilized thanks to the ice coating one of its legs. How could they beat this monster if they couldn't even hit it? His hopes flared up again, however, when Amalger's fumble opened up a new opportunity. Having switched the Ampere to staff mode after Amalger demonstrated a physical attack would be near useless, he found himself in prime position when the basilisk opened its beaklike maw wide to feast on him. Aiming at its thick, glistening crimson tongue, Abel activated his semblance and let loose a lightening bolt into the Grimm's gullet. The brilliant azure arc narrowly avoiding grounding through Amalger instead; Abel thanked his lucky stars for that. More importantly, though, he hoped that the heavy voltage would at least inflict enough pain on the beast to make it vulnerable to further exploitation.

He had not, however, been aware that Aurelia had envisioned the same idea. As such, instead of a single burst of agonizing electricity, the basilisk's mouth was faced with two. Abel watched the other lightning blast sail over his head and join his own bolt in the basilisk's maw, then cast a brief glance back to determine its source. Lucky that. Guess she's pretty quick on the draw after all. Of course, the girl being sent ingloriously sprawling from the recoil of her own attack diminished this impression somewhat. Still, it served to partially convince Abel that maybe they had a chance after all. Not waiting to determine how effective the combined assault was on the Grimm, Abel leaned forward and low, extending the Ampere until the blade was just above Amalger's head, and its metal crossguard very visible. "Grab hold!" When the downed boy grabbed the weapon obligingly, Abel yanked mightily, pulling the Ampere back and dragging Amalger with it--out of immediate crushing and disembowling distance. Score two for Fulgurate!

Dungeon Keepers

While I might know what I'm doing, I'm far more content to be a player rather than a leader. Bbeast and Cyclone have done an excellent job so far, so I say leave it with them. I would still be glad to get involved where necessary, though.

Good plan, Cyclone. Even reading a paraphrase of it was rousing.

RWBY - Haze

You got it. I'll have one up tomorrow morning.

.::Legend of Zelda :: Whispers in the Night::.

Yep

A School for Deities.

In a very decisive turn, Phobetor barged out from his room into the hallway, barely turning the handle to allow it to be pushed back beneath his force. Of course, such wanton aggression was seldom without consequence, and it seemed that the gods of fortune had decided that now was a perfect time for one. As such, when the God of Nightmares slammed open his door, it unfortunately smacked right into the head of a fellow student and bowled him over.

It was a second before Phobetor, temporarily blinded by his temper, noticed what he had done. Upon the floor was sprawled the young man he had hit, his books scattered around him. To say that this shirtless, overweight Indian was heavily tattooed was an understatement; his swarthy skin was blanketed in decorative depictions of lotuses, wheels, gears, and other circular designs arrayed in geometric patterns. Though he couldn't have been more than eighteen years old, this guy already wore thick black sideburns and a bristling mustache, and -unusually- tiny sabre-like fangs. More worryingly, his face also hosted a look of wrath, which managed to be intimidating despite the ridiculousness of his appearance.

Phobetor pushed his fears aside—trepidation was for others to feel and him to inspire. He also didn't even pause to consider that he had been the one in the wrong. “Watch where you're going, tons of fun. Coulda put a dent in my door with that giant head.” Though the guy still looked furious, he said nothing as he pushed himself to his feet. Taking this for cowardice, Phobetor crossed his arms and pressed his assault. “Guess the standards at Natural Order must be lower than I thought, to get someone like y...!”

A simple backhand to Phobetor's face flipped him onto his back. He landed with a thump and a weedy “Augh!” By the time he stopped seeing stars, the other boy had already gathered his dropped books and was on his way. A pressure built up in the corner of Phobetor's eyes as hatred overwhelmed him. How []dare[/i] this fat sack of scum treat him so impudently! The indignant God of Nightmares decided that he couldn't take this lying down.

He hurried down the hallway after the other guy, shouting, “Hey hey hey, I'm not done with you!” When his enemy ignored him, Phobetor raised a hand from the shadows nearby and grabbed his ankle, causing the guy to trip and fall to the floor once more. That proved to be the last straw, for as Phobetor approached his fallen foe, he turned over and released a thunderous yawn. For a second, Phobetor was struck dumb, wondering what and why. The second second he collapsed onto the floor, sound asleep, unresponsive to the other's relieved sigh. “I am sorry, bitter friend,” he said, “But Bobakharna can only take so much. Sleep well, and rise with less resentment in your heart.” With that, Bobakharna gave a short bow and strode away, leaving Phobetor senselessly snoring on the ground.

RWBY - Haze

As Randy shot, propelled by her grappling hook, toward the monstrous Grimm, Abel jolted. His first instinct was to join her attack and help her, even though they were on different teams, but his logic kicked in quickly enough. Without any sort of mobility except for his own legs, there was no hope of catching up to her. He marveled briefly at the strength of a grappling line that could hoist a girl in all that armor so quickly. Besides, he reasoned, she seemed confident that she could take the basilisk, even though she was a girl. Abel watched, Ampere at the ready, as she drove her weight upon it. As he had guessed, it didn't do much to the beast, and now she was in grave danger.

Luckily, it seemed that her teammate had it all figured out. With her retreat covered by a deluge of searing sparks, Randy got away wound-free. While that was good, Abel mentally bemoaned the fact that they'd need dozens such miracles to escape this kerfuffle unscathed.

The jackhammer-toting guy, after receiving orders from Randy, turned to Abel. He blinked confusedly; was it already time for everyone to start yelling and running at the basilisk? Over the growls of the Grimm, Abel listened to the other boy as best he could. “Yeah, sure. You lead, maybe punch a hole with your thingie there. I can drive my blade deep into whatever you open up.” He tensed himself to run.

The Heroes of Beacon

I think Sho, Esayo, Itano, and Media teaming up is a grand idea. Kudos for thinking of it first.