Mag Lev

The Below: Beyond

Casual bump.

2k4

Sounds interesting.

The Below: Beyond

The Ancients tell of a time when a bright fire glowed in the sky, its light touching all in sight and bringing life to the world. Life flourished and grew in the Above, the Ancestors having made grand cities and palaces across its plains an its open skies. Yet they were driven to the Below, forced to find refuge in the Caves and thus finding their way into the Depths. There life began anew, cities forming on the pillars of the Depths and surviving off the the Til’Aer, the waters that stretch far and wide. The Ancestors slowly grew and expanded out of the Depths as they grew use to the Below.

It was not long before our people were divided, some preferring to live in the the Depths out of fear and others venturing ever further through the Caves. It was not long before new cities took held in the Heights and the Yiral Swamps. Life would go on for the Ancestors as their expansion continued, the Above slowly slipping into legend as nothing more than a myth. Some sought to return to the Above yet were turned away by the Elders, their desires quelled by tellings of a now ruined world filled with beasts and warring gods.

All would remain the same until the Ather Fruit was discovered and its mysterious power took hold.

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Over a century has passed since the Ather Fruit was discovered in parts of the Yiral Swamps, seemingly growing from stone trees as if they were true fruit. However, it was soon discovered that it held a viscous liquid lacking in taste and seeds yet its consumption allowed some to tap into the Ather and use Magic. A new era took hold in the Below as Ather Fruit was harvested and inventions sprung up to make life in the Below easier. However, Ather Fruit has begun to grow more spare as its consumption has grown, forcing its price up and the dangers of collecting it higher.

It was not long before a contract was made, a deal between the lustrous Girn Company and Council of Yiral. Its details have yet to be released to the public yet there stirs talk of the planning of a great adventure; one looking to discover more Ather fruit and possibly find if there is any truth in the legends of the Above and it's magic. However, the truth of these rumors is dubious and all sorts of people have scoffed at such an idea, especially as the shortage of Ather has driven the Three Territories to each other’s throats. One thing is for certain though, the Girn Company is up to something and have opened their doors to new employees.

Perhaps this is the beginning of your story; whether it be one of adventure, wealth, or glory is up to you.

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Introduction

Welcome to the Below, a land of Caverns and Caves, of cold Depths and warm Heights. The Below is a mystical place, at least compared to what we would call ‘normal’ for being underground. In the Below, you can find light and warmth in the Heights though none possess knowledge of how such magic could possibly be in the below. Conversely, the Depths are a cold and dark place lit only by fluorescent moss and creatures which live down there. Between these two lies the Yiral Swamps, a land of trees and flourishing life. This area of the Below is best compared to the Amazons of our world as it is humid, warm, and full of life.

But that is just the basics of the Below, I’m sure there are more pressing matters at hand to cover about this roleplay. It is in the Below that our story will take place, your characters soon to be employees for the Girn Company. The Girn Company is one of the oldest mercenary company in all of the Below, supposedly formed a decade after the Descent, but it has also withered in the past era due to the peaceful times of the land. Many of their mercenaries had grown complacent in peace and now they seek more to bolster their ranks and keep hold on their contract with the Council. However, the contents of the contract are unknown by the public and the rumors have been mixed.

Whatever they are, however, your characters seek the Girn Company for hire and get in on what is in that contract. Whether your character is a spy for a rival company, an adventurer seeking glory, or a hungry fighter seeking money you’ve come to the Girn Company. I intend for the discovery of the contents of the contract to be the first part of this story, a three part endeavor. As such, I’m looking for players who will be dedicated to this for a long time as it may take a long time to finish this.

Anyway, thank you for reading this far and if you have any questions then ask.

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About The Below

Places

The Depths

For Visual reference, check the first image.

The Depths is the deepest and coldest part of the Below, though the first Cavern that the Ancestors settled in and one of the best established of the territories. Many of the cities of the Depths hang from the ceiling of its Cavern, anchored to the roof and its pillars. Some parts of the Depths are even carved into it very stone; an entire cities fit in the pillars and the walls of the Cavern. However, there are those who are more adventurous and daring and have taken to living at the base of the pillars, forming fishing cities near the waters of the Til’Aer. Their lives are the most dangerous of those in the Cavern, threatened by the large fish capable of consuming an entire canoe and raids by ravenous lizard men.

Despite all this, the Depths have flourished over the years as its population grew hardier and adjusted to the cold lands. The discovery of Aether only bolstered its people and cemented their place in the Below, especially due to the inventions made by its scholars. However, the shortage has threatened to shake the Depths to its core as word spreads of a possible declaration of War to obtain access to the Aether in Yiral.

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The Yiral Swamps

The Yiral Swamps are a middle ground for the people of the Below, a Territory which seems to be not unlike the Above. Or at least how the legends tell of the Above. Much of the Yiral is covered in dense forest filled with various creatures, a dangerous place for the uninitiated or those without guides. However, the Ancestors had found the Swamps to be a fine home and a good source of wood and light. They grew slowly as most continued on to the Heights or went down the Depths, avoiding settling in the Territory due to its ravenous growth. However, those willing to take the challenge of the Yiral found themselves a comfortable niche in the unforgiving lands and, over time, forged a place in its forests.

The discovery of Aether in the depths of the Yiral led to its Golden Age, its population booming as the trade of Aether grew and people flocking to the ever growing cities. It was here that many trading and mercenary companies made their base, offering their services to many and causing the Swamps to become a bustling hub of trade. Despite this, however, much of the Yiral is dangerous and constant vigilance by the Council has been all that has kept its cities from being consumed by the forests. Yet, the Aether shortage has begun to take its toll on the Council and many cities begin to suffer from the ravenous hunger of the Swamps.

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The Heights

Where the people of the Depths live in pillars and the roof of its Cavern, the people of the Heights have forged their place on top of its might pillars and found home on its walls. Their cities cling to its walls and span the tops of its pillars, contacted either by bridges or Aether machines. Its warmth has allowed life to flourish and grow, many flying creatures finding home in this place and some taking nest on the plateaus in the Cavern. Quite like the legend of the Above, the Heights experience a Day/Night cycle yet always seems to have a dim glow even in the darkest of nights. The people who forged their place in this Territory had to fight for it tooth and nail, clawing their place into the niche and fighting off its creatures.

Yet, they have the best access to metals and are home to some of the greatest forges of the Territories. The discovery of Aether only enhanced their position as craftsmen and fighters as forges used the Aether to craft between weapons and armor for its people. They flourished as its mercenaries sent home money from the Yiral and the flow of tools continued on down to the Depths. However, the Aether shortage has put all of its people on edge as smaller sums of money have been sent up to the Territory as its mercenaries find fewer jobs posted in the Yiral. Some say the Heights Council intends to take over the Yiral in an attempt to secure access to Aether and prevent the Depths from taking it.

On Aether and Magic

Aether was once a mysterious liquid to the people of the Below, its orange warmth foreign and and yet comforting. It was not until the Scholars of the Depths discovered that Aether and Magic were entwined by some force, their consensus arriving that Aether is the Lifeblood of the World. It was through this discovery that it was possible for the people of the Below to consume Aether and perform magic. Yet, access to Magic was seemingly not an indefinite guarantee if one consumed Aether as many found that the effects ebbed off over time, though the period of time varied from person to person. Generally people found that consuming a 4oz vial of Aether would allow them to cast magic for at least two hours however the more powerful the magic, the quicker its effect would disappear.

However, there exists some in the Below who have shown a natural ability to use Magic and are believed to have received such skill from the innate after effects of Aether consumption. These select few are capable of casting without Aether though it drains them physically to do so. Unlike Aether users, Magic casters were limited in power by how strong their bodies are and experienced they are. Though Casters have found in recent years that Aether consumption acts as a remedy to their exhaustion in casting, allowing them to cast more often and stronger spells as long as they consume Aether regularly. Although, some say that its consumption is like an addiction to casters, weakening them greatly if they do not consume it regularly.

Almost anything can be done through Magic, except bring the dead back of course.

Mud and Blood.

Seems fun.

World's End Online

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“Another nose bleed at work? What did you do this time, get hit in the nose by a door?” It was warm, the voice that called to her as she waited on the bench for him to reach her. Her brother, Marcus, had always been that way since she met him almost a year ago. He always acted as if they knew each other all their life, though she presented a cold front to him for the first month. The truth was that she had no idea how to react, they shared last names and even her parents didn’t deny it when she asked. But now, now they were inseparable.

”No, I think it is just the weather or-”

“We both know that isn’t true Maria,” He said as they started to walk together, “You keep spending too much time on that game, I don’t understand what you see in it. On top of that, you keep pushing yourself by working and attending classes in the morning.” Marcus sighed and simply looked down at Maria, though she avoided eye contact with him. He had spoken the truth and there wasn’t much she could say in response, there certainly weren’t any words that came to mind at least. “You know I worry some-”

”I know but there is no need to worry. I’ve got a break from college coming up and I’ll be able to spend some time resting,” She said with a small smile, ”I can handle myself Marcus but thank you.” A long silence stretched between the two as they continued towards their apartment, something which had become routine long in the past. It wasn’t until they reached the apartment that either of them spoke. ”I’ll eat after I’m done playing so you won’t need to make an extra plate for me. If you do, please wrap it up this time.”

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Maria didn’t quite like the sensation of the the VR headset or, at least, hadn’t gotten use to it even though she’d been playing WEO for almost half a year. It certainly didn’t help that her hair was still wet from her shower, another routine she had started since spending hours playing the game. However, it didn’t take long for the sensation to fade and she was patched into the game, finding herself standing in the field she’d left Zeira at. As was the custom, she took a few swings of her staff before sighing and looking at her teleport book.

There wasn’t much for Zeira to do in game, at least not much that she would consider to be overly fun in the long run. However, all thought left her mind as she noticed a seemingly empty spot in her book. It was as if there was no name for the teleport yet… it still existed like it was a ghost. Her natural curiosity took over as she instantly pressed into the teleport and appeared in a white expanse with a red gate and a weird bunny maid. Several others were there too, though none she recognized right off the bat.

Her line of thought was interrupted quickly as the maid started to speak. The bunny was named Frika and, though she gave the usual spiel about content that most main quest NPCs did, she felt as if there was more energy in her words, more hype than Neira had come to expect out of the NPCs of WEO. It was no surprise that the EULA appeared before them, as it had many times in the past, and Neira simply flicked yes and looked at the gate.

”Man, this is some crazy shit. I didn’t expect to come online and see something like this,” She said as she walked towards the gate. It was odd that such a structure was in WEO, especially since it was so different than what the rest of the game had been like. ”Can we like, come back to the original game if we go through this gate? Like, I’m not going to be locked into this campaign till I finish it, right?” Zeira turned towards Frika, though she was behind her at this point, and watched the others interact.

In Search of Gaea: a Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

Interesting.

World's End Online

Maria Tanner/Zeira

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Age:
21

Gender:
Female

Personality:
Perfection is often self-destructive, if not inherently so, though Maria seems to be one of the few people capable of surviving in such an ideal as the ‘perfect daughter’ her parents want. She had always been popular growing up, always the smartest one in class, always the kindest one on the playground. Such values were nurtured by her parents, though at the cost of her interaction with the world outside her home. However, Marias still managed to grow up to be the perfect daughter they wanted. Smart, capable, and without fault. At least, that is what they believed.

Background:
Much of Maria’s young life was spent sheltered in her parents home, rarely ever going out to the park or pre-school as other children her age often did. Rather, she stayed at home with her mother and read books with her, though they were more on sciences rather than princesses and dragons. This was normal for her and was the only thing she knew for the longest time. It was the perfect setting for her parent’s perfect child. However, they couldn’t control the setting forever and, as she grew older, she was eventually let to go to an all girls academy for schooling. There she grew as a teen, both socially and mentally, and would eventually graduate. It wasn’t until she went off to college that Maria became who she is now. Just around the same time she met her brother for the first time.

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Ingame Personality:
Zeira is, perhaps, the antithesis of Maria herself, though some things still ring true from her user. Though Maria is always cool and composed, Zeira is hot headed and prone to arguing with anybody over just about anything. Don’t like ice cream on a cold day? Argument. However, it is no surprise that she still retains the overall friendliness which Maria possess, almost always being the first to greet a new person and offer them help. She’s always the first to rush in to battle when someone is in need and, by default, always the first to fight without a plan. Surprisingly enough, Zeira even goes far enough to act as if she doesn’t have a care in the world, as if the outside world doesn’t matter at all to her.

Class:
Acolyte

Notable Skills:

Whirlwind- Using her surprising agility, Zeira does a 360 spin attack with her staff which knocks back foes near her. Costs a lot of stamina to use.
Onwards!- Zeira boosts her and any ally near her’s speed for a short period of time, though it is limited to 5 people effect. Costs stamina to active, though it isn’t a lot.
Light Heal- One of the few moves Zeira has that allows her to support her allies, Light Heal restores a portion of the target’s health but takes a few seconds to cast. Can easily be interrupted by a high damage move.

Equipment:
-Bo Staff
-Leather wraps
-Cloth Armor
-Adventurer's Travel Pack

Others:

World's End Online

Maria Tanner/Zeira

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---

Age:
21

Gender:
Female

Personality:
Perfection is often self-destructive, if not inherently so, though Maria seems to be one of the few people capable of surviving in such an ideal as the ‘perfect daughter’ her parents want. She had always been popular growing up, always the smartest one in class, always the kindest one on the playground. Such values were nurtured by her parents, though at the cost of her interaction with the world outside her home. However, Marias still managed to grow up to be the perfect daughter they wanted. Smart, capable, and without fault. At least, that is what they believed.

Background:
Much of Maria’s young life was spent sheltered in her parents home, rarely ever going out to the park or pre-school as other children her age often did. Rather, she stayed at home with her mother and read books with her, though they were more on sciences rather than princesses and dragons. This was normal for her and was the only thing she knew for the longest time. It was the perfect setting for her parent’s perfect child. However, they couldn’t control the setting forever and, as she grew older, she was eventually let to go to an all girls academy for schooling. There she grew as a teen, both socially and mentally, and would eventually graduate. It wasn’t until she went off to college that Maria became who she is now. Just around the same time she met her brother for the first time.

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Ingame Personality:
Zeira is, perhaps, the antithesis of Maria herself, though some things still ring true from her user. Though Maria is always cool and composed, Zeira is hot headed and prone to arguing with anybody over just about anything. Don’t like ice cream on a cold day? Argument. However, it is no surprise that she still retains the overall friendliness which Maria possess, almost always being the first to greet a new person and offer them help. She’s always the first to rush in to battle when someone is in need and, by default, always the first to fight without a plan. Surprisingly enough, Zeira even goes far enough to act as if she doesn’t have a care in the world, as if the outside world doesn’t matter at all to her.

Class:
Acolyte

Notable Skills:

Whirlwind- Using her surprising agility, Zeira does a 360 spin attack with her staff which knocks back foes near her. Costs a lot of stamina to use.
Onwards!- Zeira boosts her and any ally near her’s speed for a short period of time, though it is limited to 5 people effect. Costs stamina to active, though it isn’t a lot.
Light Heal- One of the few moves Zeira has that allows her to support her allies, Light Heal restores a portion of the target’s health but takes a few seconds to cast. Can easily be interrupted by a high damage move.

Equipment:
-Bo Staff
-Leather wraps
-Cloth Armor
-Adventurer's Travel Pack

Others:

World's End Online

I'll express interest.

[Reboot] Ｔｅｒｒａ ＿ ｒ：Ｅｖｏｌｕｔｉｏｎ

Spades

The smell of smoke and blood which hung in the air was disgusting, though it might have also been the mix of urine and shit which was most prominent among the smells. The crowd gathered around kept on partying as a man slowly bled out around them, Spades watching as one of the grunts dragged him away. Most of them were took high or smart enough to know not to say anything, after all they could end up just like the poor fucker. The blue and pink lights kept flashing even as the splatter of blood coated them, the drinks kept coming, and Spades, well he did his job. The idiot who became a corpse was filching money, decided to keep a bit on the side rather than paying to his wonderful overlords.

And it was Spades job to take care of him, of course Jun may have meant in a more peaceful way since this meant they’d take a hit in having to get a new seller for the area. However, the cocky little shit wanted to believe he was hot shit so it was in Spades best interest to make him feel like hot shit. Feel was a loose word in this case since the idiot didn’t feel much after the hot lead tore through his head and left a mess on the ceiling. “Let’s get the fuck outta here boys, I’d rather get this shit’s blood off me and the smell of piss is only making it worse.” Spades turned as his two underlings, some low level grunts named Thomas and Ero, wandered towards the exit.

13 was always a hell hole of a place to be in, low class and poor fuckers everywhere, but also the perfect place for SinDicate to took root in. People needed a bit of organization in the chaos of the slums and, well, SinDicate was ever so willing to be their benevolent overlords. Of course, the small times fuckers in the area didn’t really like SinDicate being all feely-feely with their money but they fed them drugs and kept them safe, a fair trade since a twitcher could easily put a bullet in your head. Or, maybe they prefer to have EPA take ‘em on a date. But Spades was only in the hell of a district because it was business. It was all business, even if it meant killing someone.

He could barely hide the disgust as he walked through the streets, a few people here and there practically shitting themselves as they twitched out on drugs. The whole district wasn’t exactly a shit hole but places like the club, places where SinDicate was essentially the law, it was. They didn’t care about the trash on the streets or if that trash was their most recent sale, simply that the cash kept coming and the EPA kept their noses out. Luckily, both of those stayed true as long as nobody was fucking it up.

And where was Spades place in those two things? Well, Spades kept the dealers in line and occasionally brought some income in on the side, of course sometimes that meant stealing some shit from the Corps but that came with the job. It was better than being a fucking vegetable in some Corp hospital though so he had no qualms with it. However, it seemed Jun did have qualms with the way Spades had handled the last job, at least it seemed that way by the sympathetic looks of the SinDicate grunts as he walked into their club. It wasn’t until he heard the voice of Jun, obviously deep in a bottle of whiskey, from the back of the club. “Ah, Spades my good friend. We’ve got business to talk about,” He called with venom dripping from his voice.

Even drunk Jun was a sight to behold, barely even an adult and somehow the leader of SinDicate. Though, that seemed to be due to his credit as one hell of a decker, at least according to rumours. Truth likely was that Jun simply was a cold hearted bastard born and raised in District 13 who wanted to be something other than a dealer or a twitcher. “I heard you took care of Jeong for me. Very good however,” He said as he leaned forward and passed the bottle of whiskey to Spades, “It seems that I’m now out of a dealer for Jeong’s club. Unfortunately, I’m gonna have to dock a few credits from that mission but not a whole lot. You inspired fear in his men and that is good, now they know to never cross SinDicate.”

“So I hope,” Spades chimed in as he took a swing from the bottle. “To be fair, Jeong deserved it. This shit sits on his ass telling me about how the expenses have been for his ‘club’ cause of supposed damage caused by a twitcher last week but the only fucking thing in the club that looked like it was any different was his fucking hand at the shiny new ring he had.” Spades shook his head and passed the bottle to a few other people and looked over at Jun. “Either way, no hard feelings. Understandable loss about the money Jun. Now for the serious question. It has been a while since I’ve been able to really get outta here. Most of my work has been in the low districts and I want to get the hell out and see what it is like out there. So how about Jun, how about I have a bit of fun outside?”

Jun stared at the strobe light above him for a few minutes, seemingly lost in the pulsing blue and green color. “You’ll be free to leave soon but we got a big job for you, if you are willing,” Jun said with a smile as he took a swing from the bottle when offered. It was a chance for Spades to finally have time outside of District 10. But whatever they meant about a big job, he didn’t exactly have a good feeling about it.