Prodigal Son

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Felix strolled over to a rock protrusion that looked like a bench carved from the rock wall, perhaps it was a bed or just a chair, and sat down. Felix unsealed the Manaegis helmet from the locks on the neck plate and placed the helmet to the side. He then turned his head and gaze towards the shackled Nemo.

More memories flashed of the powerful Nemo, and his agile fluidity and ferocity in battle. The only thing that kept Felix from certain doom was the combination of his large mana well, and his proficiency with Manalysis in combat. Even now feeling the mana waves, Felix could feel the ferocity of the deep hunger that Nemo's spell style- No, his entire being exuded. Nemo was the most difficult fight Felix had ever experienced.

"That's quite a compliment, coming from someone of your... capabilities." Felix responded.

Felix looked down for a moment and began chuckling.

Felix, thinking Nemo might have been a bit confused by the outburst decided to explain himself a bit.

"Out of all the people in the world that could have ended up on written down on the parchment of my fever dreams, it had to be the one woman who I screwed over more than anyone, and the man who slayed scores of my comrades in front of me." Felix finished with another genuine chuckle.

Felix willed his breastplate to hinge open and he reached into his robes underneath and procured the parchment he was speaking about. He then willed his breastplate back together again and stood up, walking toward the shackled criminal. He knelt down and handed the parchment to Nemo.

"Two weeks ago, I was at a summit. One major article that was brought up was a rejected motion brought up again. The motion was to search for the Paragons. Great relics of power, that when combined would bring forth power beyond anyone's wildest imagination. Maybe you have heard of it?" Felix cleared his throat and continued. "Well the new papal-magi who is part of the First Company, an order of Jesuit Magi, accepted the previously rejected notion and put it as top priority. That very same night, I had a dream, or maybe more accurately a vision. In the vision I was shown many horrible outcomes to befall the entirety of the world. I was told by a ethereal voice that in order to prevent these catastrophes, i was to assemble a group of guardians to track down the artifacts before anyone else does. When I awoke I was sitting at my desk, and that-" Felix pointed to the parchment Nemo was holding, "was in front of me, written in my handwriting. A list of names of guardians that I need to assemble. Second on that list, was your name."

"I don't know the reason behind your name being on the list. Perhaps whoever or whatever sent me the dream is aware of your power and thought it would be a good idea to utilize it. Or perhaps they are giving you this task as a form of penance for your crimes. Either way, if there is one thing that I am certain of, it is that in the underworld we operate in, there is no such thing as coincidence." Felix finished, standing back up.

"So will you rise to the occasion? If you say yes, and swear by it, I will break you free and we will be on our way." Felix stated

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Mamertine prison, maximum security for the biggest dangers to the Catholic church. The scripture spells they have engraved throughout the entire prison prevents spells from being cast. My spacial rift can take me in, but I won't be able to get out. However, it only prevents spells from being cast within the cells and the rooms and hallways right outside the cells. My manaegis becomes a physical object after cast, so the scripture spells shouldn't cancel it out. Felix pondered.

"Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." Felix recited Ephesians 6:13 which was a small bit of the incantation he had used to create the spell Manaegis all those years ago.

Felix concentrated, plumbing the deepest fathoms of his mana well for his latent mana, and forced it to the surface. Felix felt his mana bubble from his pores, and he quickly willed the mana into the shape of a suit of armor. With mana still bubbling out, Felix reached his right hand out and willed it into the shape of a longsword.

Felix then swiped the longsword in the shape of the cross glyph creating a spacial rift, and walked through it.

The rift dropped him off inside what looked like a dark cave. The only light in the area was the soft glow from his manaegis. Felix willed his facemask to open up so he could get a better look at his surroundings. Immediately he was overwhelmed by the amount of mana waves radiating from inside the cell. In the corner of the square cavelike area was a confused looking pale man in tattered rags. The next person on the list. The one who killed many catholic magi, including his mentor, Garvian. Nemo Smiley, the glutton.

Memories surfaced of when he was twenty, only a few weeks after having mastered his new magic art Manaegis. Having just been given the title of Arch-magi for his accomplishment, he was one of the few Arch-magi, along with scores of grand magi, called when the emergency mission was put together to capture or kill Nemo Smiley. All the people's whose lives were ended at the hand of this monster... But now was not the time to think about that. There was a reason his name was one of the names written down on the parchment, he was supposed to be one of the guardians.

"Nemo Smiley. How long has it been? Eleven years? You're looking well all things considered." Felix said chidingly.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Felix stared long and hard at the parchment he wrote on a few nights ago, as he stood in an alleyway 11th St in New York City. Felix's arch-magi robe's hood was up over his head to prevent the rain from getting on the parchment as he huddled over it. The parchment that had his handwriting upon, though he did not remember writing any of it. Probably because at the time he wrote what was on the parchment he was having a vivid dream, closer to a vision than a dream. The dream where the roaring voice told him of the calamity that was to come if the forces of evil were to collect the Paragons, (artifacts of untold power).

Felix was still staring at the parchment after fifteen minutes of daydreaming. He then returned to reality as he pondered his predicament. "I know this is more important than just me. And I know that my vision is true, I must do this." Felix whispered to himself, "but why in God's green earth did her name have to be on this list." Felix's gaze fixated on the words, "Raiya Mamushi," written in his handwriting, with an address next to the name.

"Well, here's hoping she doesn't try to kill me on the spot." Felix said to himself as he folded up the parchment and placed it in his coat pocket. Felix then drew a cross glyph with his finger in the air, creating a spacial rift. Felix straightened his magi robes before striding in through the rift.

The spacial spell he cast took him from the 11th St alleyway right outside the 66 East penthouse sky scraper, to the top floor of the penthouse where Raiya currently resided. The first thing Felix realized was the large party that was currently happening. The roof was full of people drinking and swimming in the pool as loud music bumped in the ambiance. Some people were throwing a brightly colored beach ball around, while others where huddled together near a wall having a conversation. Luckily, with all the people and the distractions, no one noticed Felix appear at the south end of the roof. Felix briskly walked over to the corner where the shed that contained pool equipment jutted out. Felix closed his eyes then concentrated to feel for the mana waves of Raiya.

If he remembered correctly she had a bright vibrant mana that radiated warmth. But as he searched the only mana waves he felt were cold, dark, conniving, and powerful. As he felt the waves he began to mentally map out the layout of the building. The mana waves were permeating from a far room a floor below him. Felix opened his eyes and drew another cross glyph, and walked through another spacial rift. The rift dropped him off inside a room that looked to be a fully stocked bar, only there were no patrons at this bar. The only person in the bar was the owner, and seeing her made his heart sink.

Across the room sitting at the bar, back facing Felix, was Raiya Mamushi; the person who he once called little sister. Felix had always been in the habit of suppressing his mana waves, and now was no different. Raiya was sipping on a small glass of brown liquid with, no doubt alcohol of some kind, with ice in it. Felix softly and swiftly approached the bar and sat down next to Raiya.

Felix didn't know what to say, so he just said, "Can you pour me one of those, sis?"

Raiya, startled, turned her head and scowled at Felix. She brushed a piece of her spikey black bangs to the side and let out a elongated sigh bemoaningly.

"The only person who I acknowledged as my brother died four years ago. And I don't give free alcohol to strangers. In fact, when a stranger enters my home uninvited," Raiya pulled a Beretta 70 from her inner jacket and placed it on the bar, "The only thing I give them is a free bullet."

"Hold on to that first part for a second. It seemed to me that you were giving plenty of alcohol to strangers up on the party roof." Felix pointed out.

"Those people are all under my employ, they are a part of my... organization. They aren't strangers." Raiya paused to quickly swill down the rest of the drink that was in her cup. She then leaned over the counter and reached her hand out and under the counter and pulled her hand back with a bottle of something called Crown Royal in it. She unscrewed the cap and filled her cup up once more, this time with the golden liquid from the Crown Royal.

"You, on the other hand, Felix Glasius, died to me four years ago. What I see before me now must either be an alcohol induced illusion or a haunting specter. And since i have not yet had enough liquor to induce said illusion, I must assume it is the latter." Her voice wavered a bit as she spoke, her hand was visibly shaking as she raised the glass to gulp down more of the intoxicating beverage.

"So what can I do for you, Felix's phantom? I don't presume you graced me with your presence in an attempt to mend bridges?"

Felix reached into his robe and pulled out the parchment he had written on in his vision state and slid it towards Raiya. She quickly put her glass down on top of it and sneered at Felix an expression Felix had never seen her make before.

"Raiya, this is important. I had a vision. The Catholic church, and many other groups, they are all going to make a big mis-" Before Felix could finish, Raiya stood up abruptly, tipping over the stool she was sitting on, and slapped Felix as hard as she could, putting a bit of electricity magic into it for good measure.

Felix was thrown off balance by the slap and fell backwards to the floor, landing with a painful dull thud. He hurriedly scrambled to his feet to try and regain composure.

"You haven't sent me so much as a letter in four years and you show up out of the blue because you need something? FUCK YOU!" Her eyes began to glow a radiant grey as her indignant fury swelled up inside of her.

"But Raiy-" Felix began

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! GET OUT!" Raiya yelled. She grabbed her drink glass and hurled it at Felix. Felix put up a quick ward glyph, the glass breaking on the barrier.

Felix grabbed the parchment and placed it back inside his robes. Then he made another cross glyph and turned back around in time to see Raiya reach for her handgun which she began pointing at Felix.

Felix shook his head and walked through the spacial rift which landed him back in the alleyway on 11th street.

"Well that went well..." Felix sighed and then took another look at the parchment. The next name read, "Nemo Smiley."

Why does that name sound familiar, Felix thought. Then he saw the location next to the name, Mamertine Prison.

"It can't be..." Felix whispered. "Only one way to find out, I guess."

Felix drew another cross glyph and disappeared into the night.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Raiya Mamushi

Female
Age 24
Appearance
5'6"
Lean flexible athletic build
Light skin (Japanese)
Appears to have shoulder length jet black slightly spikey hair from the front. However her hair splits into parts, taking the longer half and tying it together at the neck into a downwards facing ponytail that reaches her middle back.
Medium sized ahoge, more of angular/rigid spike shape, changes based on their mood/emotions. And electrical charge in battle.
Dark drab blueish-gray/steel left eye.
Yellow right eye with a slit shaped pupil.
Eyebrow over her left eye has a slit break in it towards the outer middle.
Irezumi tattoos:
Right arm- Nagasode style sleeve tattoo extending down to her wrist. Nara black wind bars for a background, with a green snake with a red belly coiling down her arm with it's head ending at her outer wrist.
Left arm- Shichibu style sleeve tattoo extending down to her middle forearm. Nara black wind bars for a background, with a blue snake with a yellow belly coiling up her arm with it's head resting on the front of her upper shoulder. Kanji for Mamushi 蝮 (pit viper) tattooed in black on the inner blank space of her forearm.
Back- Her entire back is covered in large nara black ink clouds for a background. And a large tattoo of the giant 8 headed and tailed snake Yamata no Orochi, various flowers, and lightning bolts in the foreground.
Slightly elongated fang canine teeth on the top and bottom as compared to normal people. Teeth are overall sharper.
Ear piercings- Left: Two slim steel rings on their lobe. Helix cuff.
Right: Circular silver stud on their lobe. Smaller steel cuff at the middle of the outer ear/lower helix.
Black painted nails.

Basic Appearance

Customized slightly oversized black leather asymmetrical moto jacket. Worn unzipped with belt hanging loose.
Steel curb chain necklace that extends down to her chest. Medium sized silver upside down cross pendant.
Zip-up black hoodie. Worn under her jacket with the hood laid over the jackets collar. Worn unzipped often with the sleeves pulled up to her elbows.
Vintage oversized heavy metal band T-shirts, some with the sleeves cut off. Worn over fishnet shirt. (Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Megadeth)
Long sleeve black fishnet shirt. Sleeve extends into a fishnet fingerless gloves on the left but is cut off at the wrist on the right.
Silver signet ring on right middle finger with an upside down cross engraved in it.
Mokume-gane Ouroboros shaped ring with pink jeweled eyes on left index finger.
Steel cuban link chain bracelet on right wrist.
Steel studded black leather belt.
Steel chain hanging down at her right side. One end attached to a belt loop, the other to a pocket watch manadial.
Worn/faded slim dark indigo Japanese selvage denim jeans. (Black or stonewash alt. colors)
Black with white accents Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 running shoes.
Black calf length open toe and heel socks.

Picture references

Secondary hairstyle reference (Somewhere in between the two)

Close type of ponytail style reference

Abilities

Raiya specializes in destructive magic. She is a master of electrical spells, and ruinous spells. She has a great foundation in most all Catholic magics as well as some Japanese Zen Buddhist/Shinto magic. As with her fascination of Japan, she also has a great fascination with snakes and has developed snake themed fighting style and magic. Every so often she sheds her skin, this makes her immune to aging. With her magic powers, she also has the ability to control certain light metals.

Backstory

Raiya's parents, Japanese immigrants, owned a successful Japanese cuisine restaurant chain in New York City. Both parents died in a burglary gone wrong leaving Raiya orphaned in infancy. With a large mana constitution, Raiya was immediately adopted by the Catholic cathedral and put into mage training. Growing up in the New York Cathedral, she always shadowed Felix and thought of him as her older brother. Raiya was always proficient in magic, and her studies reflected that. Raiya achieved the rank Grand-Mage at the age of seventeen. At the age of twenty she was sent with two other grand-magi to investigate the sudden disappearance of a remote village in Italy. The village was razed, not so much as a 2x4 left standing upright. Investigating the trace of mana waves left by the spell she made her way to a nearby mountain where she found on a cliff-side the definite point of origin of the spell. Looking around the point of origin she found footprints. The foot prints looked exactly like the sole tread of a typical Catholic Magi officer. The level of destruction and the fact that the mana waves left by the spell accounted for only one spell, coupled with the footprint meant the evidence pointed toward an Arch-mage or higher to be the cause of the destruction. Once she returned to the Vatican, she provided the evidence in a council meeting. The council thanked her for the evidence provided but stated that they would be conducting the investigation from then on. Even though the council told her to no longer investigate this issue, Raiya continued the investigation on her own. Looking into the records of those who were gone the night of the destruction of the remote village, she narrowed it down to two, Arch-mage Thadeus and Arch-mage Felix. After obtaining this information, Raiya investigated both Thadues and Felix's living quarters. She discovered that Felix had never even worn his uniform boots, as he wore his own more comfortable combat boots. Thadeus, on the other hand, did not have any other pairs of footwear besides the ones on his feet, which were the uniform boots. Learning of this information but knowing the Vatican council would never listen to her, she approached Felix whom she knew was innocent. She told Felix all of the information she had obtained, but Felix brushed her aside saying that the Vatican was conducting their own investigation and to go against their demands to keep the investigation within their selected team would mean excommunication, even if the information was correct. Felix told her that he would not tell anyone about her own investigation, but pleaded with her to keep quiet about the issue until the Vatican completed their investigation. Raiya couldn't believe what she was hearing, that her cold hard evidence was being brushed aside because of protocol. But what's more, that the investigation team was comprised with Thadeus's brother as a member meant surely that Thadeus would never be convicted of this crime. All of this put into perspective Raiya's membership with the magi, and soon after she left the magi and Catholicism altogether. When she left two others left with her, the other two grand-magi that were on her initial investigation team with her. Soon after they left, they returned to NYC. Because the Vatican saw them as Apostates, they froze all their accounts and social security information, forcing them to make money through means less savory. Instead of falling into despair, Raiya and her two peers adopted the shady lifestyle altogether. Through their magic abilities, it wasn't long before they were running the biggest criminal organization in NYC. Raiya still resides to this day in NYC with the other two magi as her right hand women.

Personality

Raiya is seemingly devoid of any positive emotion. Her normal demeanor could be described as aloof. She is seen as a hard nosed, unwavering leader. This makes her well respected by her subordinates in the gang she runs. Though, to those who know her well enough she can be lighthearted. She has a short temper and a low tolerance for annoyances. In her annoyed state she has no problem threatening her friends with one of her sushi knives she keeps in her inner coat pocket, or electrocuting them with her magic. She loves Japan, even though she wasn't raised there herself. Her fanaticism for Japan runs so deep that she has Japanese tattoos, and has even taught herself the language perfectly. She is an excellent chef and specializes in Japanese cuisine. Even though she isn't very sociable, the few friends she does have are kept close to her and she protects them.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Felix Glasius

Male
Age 31
Appearance
6’2”
Blue eyes
Long neat blonde hair that reaches down to the shoulders.
Bangs can easily cover his face if Felix doesn't keep them pinned to the side.
Felix has a rugged face with scruffy patchy facial hair (constant five o’ clock shadow)
Felix wears glasses only for reading, and heavy arch-mage robes.

Basic Appearance

This is what Felix basically looks like.

I'm

Abilities

Magician Savant: Felix is well versed in virtually every magic style the Catholic church is aware of. He is a master of both combat and defensive magic, as well has healing magic. Felix has always been exceptional at magic, to the point of even creating his own spell and combat style.
Manaegis: At the age of twenty he created Manaegis, his flagship ability. Manaegis forces latent mana within the user out into a physical manifestation of a bright blue full suit of armor and a weapon. Both the armor and weapon are essentially weightless, but are slightly stronger than steel.
Manalysis: Due to Felix's mastery and large mana reservoir, he has an ability known as manalysis. Manalysis allows Felix to comprehend mana in a way most people cannot. First off, Felix can physically see the auras of other Talents. These auras each have colors unique to the individual's aura. This color has to do with the type of magic the Talent has a mastery in, as well as their personal morality alignment. The size of the aura is directly correspondent to the size of the Talent's mana well. Manalysis also allows him to feel small shifts within mana waves in the air. Nature exudes its own mana waves, which are disrupted by other mana users who have their own magic wave radiation. Felix is able to feel this discrepancy and interpret use it to sense others. He can use this in combat to predict his enemies moves, as well as out of combat to detect mana users. Manalysis while not rare, is very difficult to master to the degree that Felix has.

Felix also has a mastery of spacial magic allowing him to levitate and teleport on a whim.

Backstory

Felix was born in New York City, New York. When Felix was an infant, the Catholic magi scouts detected a large amount of mana residing within the Felix’s household. Knowing about the newborn and the massive reserves of mana held within him, the scouts approached Felix’s parents telling them of the situation. Felix’s parents, having seen small displays of magic from Felix decided they were not equipped to raise the child and relinquished the custodial rights to the Catholic Church. Throughout his childhood, he studied and lived at the NYC Catholic cathedral. At around the age of sixteen, he showed such prowess and proficiency with magic, that the NYC cathedral had nothing left to teach him, so he was sent off to the Vatican to learn from the best of the best. After studying at the Vatican, it wasn’t long before Felix achieved the status of Arch-mage and earned a seat in the inner council. At the age of twenty Felix developed his own magic style, manaegis. After developing this magic style, he was asked to become an instructor at the Vatican and teach others to master the magic style. This is where he resides to this day.

Manaegis Armor and weapon Aesthetic Reference

Armor looks essentially like this
But is completely smooth without bolt marks and bumps, and is also a bit transparent as well with a blue ethereal glow.
The weapon looks like this
but completely blue with the same transparency and ethereal glow as the armor

Personality

Felix is headstrong, intelligent, and very wise (although only 31 years old). Felix does his best to be passive, but has no problem fighting if he deems it necessary. Felix hardly ever gets angry, and when he does it is always justified. Stuck in his ways, he can be a little too headstrong. This resulted in him not leaving the Catholic church until recently, even though he knew some of the problems the organization had. Felix loves music, and is very musical himself. He carries with him at all times a Hoener Marineband Special 20 B♭ harmonica. He knows how to play the harmonica, piano, and guitar. As a professor, he is very instructive, and is a great mentor. Felix is very friendly and tends to think of everyone he meets as a friend. Even when Felix has a problem with someone, he will not hold any ill-will toward them.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

“Magic.”

When it is said, this word evokes the idea of illusions and parlor tricks. Perhaps it also evokes thoughts of unexplained phenomena in the days of yore. It might even evoke the idea of spirituality; surely invoking the miracles and powers of the unknown has a spiritual connotation. However, in our universe, magic is simply nothing more than our imaginations grasping at the answer for what we cannot comprehend. But consider for a moment a universe much akin to our own. A world interlaced with real magic; a universe where everything spiritual, everything religious could be explained by magic. This such universe is the universe where our Roleplay takes place.

Enter the universe of Paragon’s End.

Sorcery can be traced back as far as history has been written. Although the crucifixion of Jesus Christ sparked a major Magi movement, it was not until the early 4th century when Constantine the Great adopted Christianity into Rome that the most powerful Arcanocracy arose (government ruled through occult means). Although the Vatican is the largest Arcanocracy, every religion has their own forms of magic and theology. The occult and arcane are dismissed in popular opinion as myths and legends. Though unbeknownst to the general populace, the occult is very much a reality. The secrecy of arcana is intentional. Although everyone can eventually learn an aspect of arcana, not everyone is born with a sensitivity to the ebbs and flows of mana. Most people would have to dedicate their entire lives to even achieve a tenth of what a natural born Talent can achieve. There have been many hundreds of times in history where those who were Untalents rose up against Magi, even hunting them to extinction. The secrecy of arcana was necessary to preserve the lives of those with knowledge. This secrecy has created an underworld of societies; an entire web of sub-societies with their own politics, their own bartering, their own wars. This underworld is only known to those who are a part of it. And you, you are a part of it.

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Factions:

There are five main factions to choose from when creating a character (although there are five as of now, you are not limited to these five and I am open to the idea of others if they are fleshed out enough) Also know that the setting of this RP is a setting requiring your character to devote themselves to something other than their origin faction (this is explained in THE STORY BEGINS).

Catholic Arcanocracy

Hider

Catholicism is the single biggest faction in Paragon’s End. As stated earlier Talents only make up about 0.01% of the population, Catholicism has the largest amount of Talents at about 40% of the total number of talents (around 296000.) With the knowledge to sense Talents and locate them, Catholic scouts enlist Talent’s at young ages. Once enlisted, the Talents are taught the basics of arcana within the local Cathedral until they reach the proficiency level of Magi. Once they reach the proficiency level of Magi, they are able to embark upon missions for the Vatican. Catholic Magi think of magic as simply God’s miracles working through them. It is common amongst the Arch-Magi to think of any other magic usage outside of the church as heresy, that those who use magic who are not catholic use the power of Satan.
Proficiency Level titles from least to greatest
Novice
Apprentice
Anointed
Magi
Grand-Magi
Arch-Magi
Papal-Magi (of which there can only be one elected from the arch-magi after the death of the previous Papal-Magi)

(Anyone can make only up to a Grand-Magi character. Arch-Magi are story relevant and to achieve Arch-Magi status is the highest regarded status aside from Papal-Magi which is not attained through power but through election)

Societas Academia

Hider

Societas Academia is a religiously unaffiliated school of magic. The academia accepts both Talents and Untalents, and even has Untalents as some of its chief officers. Societas Academia has more Talents than Untalents. This has created a hierarchy amongst the student body wherein the Talents are popular and the Untalents are seen as social outcasts. Once a student has become a graduate, they can choose to either become a professor or an enlister. The professors teach the students, and the enlisters scout out potential candidates and enlist them at the school. Out of the 0.01% of Talents they have around 20% (148,000) of the Talents. They have different smaller institutions all across the world, but the largest main institution where they study aspect training is in Northern California hidden in the Redwood National Park.
Proficiency level titles from least to greatest
Primary schooler
Secondary schooler
Aspect trainee (once finished with secondary school, the student is allowed to choose one of four aspects to specialize in Scholar [this is a research role, mostly dominated by Untalents. They go on expeditions to find ancient knowledge all around the world. They right reports and create new spells and sub-aspects] Cleric [this is a medical role, they specialize in learning to heal all types of infirmities] Ruin Mage [this is a combat role, they specialize in learning destructive spells that cause devastation to their enemies] and Knight Mage [this is a combat role that specializes in using close quarters spells to gain the upper hand in melee combat]
Even though a student can only specialize in one aspect, students are already expected to know enough general spells that would fall into each aspect before specializing. )

Graduate [Professor/Enlister]

Dean (the dean is elected from professors and enlisters. The professor or enlister has to be older than thirty years old to qualify for election. Once the previous dean retires, or dies, an election takes place to vote in a new dean from the pool of middle aged applicants)

Disciples of Salem

Hider

While the Underworld does its best to hide itself from the world, not everyone that is not a Talent is clueless to the occult. The Disciples of Salem is an organization of Untalent witch hunters. They see Talents as abnormalities and have dedicated generations of effort into creating an art that can counter magic so they can hunt all Talents down and kill them. Instead of utilizing a large well of mana within themselves, they rely on manipulating the mana that nature provides. With the small amount of mana a normal person has, they can use that small amount of mana as a control point to manipulate the mana in nature itself. Most if not all of their spells (Disciples of Salem call them Arts) have to do with mana nullification and spell nullification. They are all trained in hand to hand combat, and are very dangerous to Talents. They’ve got about a hundred thousand members, and their membership is quickly growing. They have bases of operations spread out all across the united states and some in Europe, but the main base of operation is in Danvers Massachusetts (originally Salem.)
Proficiency level titles from least to greatest.
Initiate
Fighter
Scout
Tracker
Hunter
Witch Hunter
The leader of the Disciples is always chosen from the descendants and living relatives of Abigail Williams, who was the first to start developing the abilities needed to hunt Talents. The current leader is Will Snyder the great great great great great grandson of Abigail Williams.

Cult of the Enlightened

Hider

The Cult of the Enlightened is a cult who believes in ferocious beasts of limitless power called The Old Ones. The cult’s entire purpose is to do the bidding of the Old Ones all in order to bring back The Old Ones from the realm they are contained in. Once the Old Ones are released they will bring genocide and enslavement upon the world. The cult does not have a hierarchy of proficiency; they see everyone who is a follower of the cult as equals. They have around 10% of the world population of Talents (around 74000)

Protestant Magi and Pagan Magi

Hider

The protestant and Pagan Magi make up the rest of the 30% of the population of Talents. Because they are so dispersed within their organization and beliefs, they are lumped together but not treated as a single entity. By themselves there are over 200 different subgroups with different beliefs.

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Creating a Character

In this universe there are two types of people, the Talents (those born with the natural ability and sensitivity to mana) and the normal Untalents (those without the natural ability and sensitivity to mana.) Everyone is born with a small amount of mana within them, but it takes a large natural amount of mana to be constituted as a Talent. Though there are those who devote themselves to the occult that are Untalents but it takes years of devotion to increase the amount of mana a person naturally holds. Only about 0.01% (around 740,000 people total) of people born are Talents. You can choose to have your character be from one of any of the factions. Just know that the setting of this RP is a setting requiring your character to devote themselves to something other than their origin faction.

The Story Begins With...

31 year old Felix Glasius has been with the Catholic church his whole life. Rising through the ranks of Magi at an early age, he became an Arch-magi after creating his own spell and fighting style, Manaegis! Even though he dedicated his life to this organization, he began to have his doubts about their authenticity when, during a summit, a fellow Arch-mage Thadeus suggested they focus their efforts on finding ancient artifacts of power called Paragons to ensure Catholic supremacy. The motion was voted down by the Papal-magi, and Felix thought that had been the end of it. Four months later, the Papal-magi died, and Thadeus's brother Cornelius was voted in as Papal-magi. Thadeus brought the motion to secure the Paragons up once more at the summit after his brother was voted in. This time the vote was in favor of the conquest. Although, Felix had very bad feelings about the new mission, he continued his job as normal. One night, Felix had a dream, a dream of a great suffering that came from the Paragons. The dream showed Felix that the Vatican was not the only entity searching for the Paragons. In the dream a powerful voice told him that many forces of evil were attempting to gather the Paragons, and Felix needs to gather together a group of guardians to stop those who wished to bring the nine Paragons together. When he awoke, he was sitting at his desk in his room, with a pen in hand and parchment in front of him. The parchment had names, and the locations of the guardians he needed to gather together all written in his handwriting.

This is where the story begins. Your character is one of the guardians that Felix wrote down during his vision. Are you ready to fight for the world?

Rules

RULES

• Grammar and typography are a must. If your post looks inadequate you will be warned. If your post continues to look inadequate you will be kicked.
• Characters have to have a fleshed out character design, no gary/mary stu/sues (character depth), not overpowered, and can not be direct ripoffs of a already well established character in popular media. (Original)
• No God Modding! If you are writing a post that has a direct effect on another person's character, make sure they are okay with the effect and outcome. If you do not want to do this, leave you interactions with other player characters open ended. Collaboration is a major part of making an RP thrive, so talking and collaborating with other players outside of the RP to dictate the actions of your characters is highly encouraged.
• Post length needs to be at least three sentences. It is deeply encouraged to write more well thought out posts with many words and paragraphs, but it is not mandated. Three sentences is the minimum amount a post should contain. I will make exceptions for certain posts if you absolutely cannot come up with something, but I am of the belief that three sentences is not difficult to write at all.
• This RP has some religious influence in the lore, but I do not want to see any debates over religion here. This RP is purely fictional, so leave all prejudices behind. Don't do anything fourth wall breaking or passive aggressive about it either.
• Be civil towards your fellow Role-players. You don't have to like each other, but you have to at least act like you respect each other. I do not want to see infighting of any kind. If I see infighting, it will result in a warning. Two warnings and you are out on the third. Don't be a jerk, just don't do it.

Character Sheet Skeleton

Name

Sex
Age
Appearance
information related to appearance under the bolded Appearance header.

Basic Appearance

Pictures related to appearance or more info related to appearance.

Abilities

Brief summary of abilities

Backstory

Backstory information

Personality

Personality information

(feel free to add whatever else you want to add.)

Augmented Reality

The guards paired off and ran in different directions except for two who stayed in the same place and fired two shots at Carina with their blasters. Carina used her plasma sword to deflect them with ease.

"The others ran to fight someone else, they were smart. You both, however, shall share the same fate as your friend lying in a burnt pile over there.", Carina condescended.

Carina raised her hand pointing the palm of it in the direction of the air above the guard on the left. Carina's hair turned from a glowing orange to a frosted white color. The space above the guard suddenly lost a lot of energy; it instantly became 20 degrees below freezing temperature. Water molecules from the humidity in the air collected and froze into a long slender icicle the length of two guard bodies and the width of a guard's arm tapering off to a sharp icicle point. (Augment ability-Icicle Spear: natural hit roll = 14 INT mod = +4 Total hit roll = 18 hit successful Natural damage roll = 4 Damage INT mod = +4 Total damage = 8 guard defeated.)

The water in the air quickly assembled into a large sharp icicle ten feet above the guard on the left's head. As soon as the icicle was formed, it fell upon the guard and speared him through the crown of his head and out the middle of the torso and drove into the ground leaving a upright guard kebab. The blood that tried to escape the puncture wounds quickly froze to the icicle leaving streaks of dark red visible on the icicle.

The guard on the right caught a glimpse of the guard kebab but snapped his focus back on the frosted white haired girl who was running at him at full speed.

Augmented Reality

Carina's rage was so focused on the two who sullied her shot at revenge that she did not notice until the last moment that a guard had charged her with a stun baton. She dodged in a roll to the right, fast enough to dodge the impact. However, the baton whirred close enough past her body that a tendril of electricity arced off the baton and zapped her on the square of her back.

"FUCK!", Carina cursed at the stinging pain of the electrical contact.

She had rolled back to her feet and reactivated her plasma sword, as it had been deactivated after she let go of the thumb trigger safety. Many modders in the beam weapon community have bypassed the safety measure put in place by most manufacturers. But for Carina, personal safety was the most important part in assuring her vengeance came to fruition. So while modders worked hard to remove the safety measures from plasma swords, Carina added safety measures to the deuterium plasma sword she created from scratch. Even though her augment keeps her safe from most temperatures, even she could not handle dirct contact with the 100 million °C temperature that was contained just beneath a thin invisible energy force field containing the raw power of the plasma.

She pointed the tip of her pink energy blade at the guard that had attacked her
"In a rush to die, are you? I suppose I can kill all of you first.", Carina growled.

Using lithe, calculated movements she was behind the guard that attacked her within three seconds.

Carina slashed horizontally at the midsection of the guard with her plasma blade. (Hit check INT bonus on energy melee weapons = 4 Natural roll = 10 Bonus to Energy hit rolls = 2 Total = 16 check succeeded. 1d8 Damage roll = 8 Enemy defeated)

Carina's pink plasma blade slid through the midsection of the enemy like he was made of butter. The guard screamed only momentarily before he passed out from shock. The guard's torso fell from his legs; he lay dead in two pieces. Smoke rose from the lacerations where the plasma had made contact with the guard. The smell of burnt flesh was in the air.

Carina breathed the scent in deeply and smiled a wicked smile. She chuckled at the dead body she now stood over. Then she turned her death stare at the direction of the other guards. "You're next.", She pointed her blade at the direction of the other guards.

Augmented Reality

The vent Carina was crawling in was very dusty from disuse. Once the technology for smaller and easier ventilation came about, every major facility switched to it. Most facilities stripped out the old ventilation after they installed the more compact technology. Lucky for Carina, this was not the case for this facility. Since the ventilation system was archaic, she didn't think about there being security in the vents. That was, until she heard loud sirens.

"What the-" she began to say. But she stopped herself as she came up at a vent grate that she could look through. The room that she was looking into happened to be the security room. There was a wall of old tube monitors displaying different camera angles of the facility. On a few of the screens the pictures were focused on different angles of the same two people, a red-haired girl and what looked like a reptilian/human hybrid. A botched genetics experiment perhaps? Carina thought as she examined the two on the screen.

Damnit! DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT! Carina had to refrain from shouting anything, as there was a guard just beneath her, in a seat, examining the monitors and every so often speaking softly into a wrist communicator. I don't know who those fools are. But they have put security on high alert here. This is going to make my job more difficult, if not impossible. Jett has probably already left the facility as soon as the sirens went off. She clenched her fist as her anger broiled within her. She realized that she was exuding a massive amount of heat throughout her body, which was in turn turning the air ducts around her a bright orange. She quickly calmed herself and absorbed back all of the energy she had dispersed and then some, causing some frost to cling to the once hot metal. She looked back at the monitors and noticed in the same feed of the intruders, that there was a ship port behind them. And in one of the live feeds of the intruders, she could see a vaguely familiar shape entering a corporate type-two Seraph craft with a Phoenix logo on it behind them. THAT'S HIM!

She turned around in the vent, and this time let her anger broil out as she released her energy into her feet causing jets of flames to burst from them, which sent her like a rocket back the way she came and out of the vent. She shot out of the 7-shaped vent which was curved downwards a bit, and forced her hard on the roof. She ducked and rolled expertly out of the impact and retrieved her hoverboard from her shard. And began to fly towards the chaos. Unfortunately, by the time she was above the intruders, the craft had already flew in the opposite direction at full planetary speed, and was merely a speck in the distance. Furious, Carina dropped like a comet from her hover board yelling, "YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" She landed five feet in front of the two intruders in a small fiery explosion. Her flames subsided, for the most part. All of her form was visible to everyone who was watching, but her hair was still ablaze. She cocked her head behind herself and gave a gaze of death with her dual colored eyes to the two who ruined her shot at revenge.

"I don't know which one if you it was that got caught. So, I think I'll just kill both of you to save me from the trouble of figuring it out" Carina said with an insane smirk on her face as she activated her pink deuterium plasma blade.

Augmented Reality

The green code readout on the tube monitor in front of the seat Carina was sitting displayed a signal detection code line:

[Detecting signal: 0/1634234 networks detected]

Carina let out an irritated sigh, and looked out the cabin window into the vastness of space, which was specked with billions of little lights that provided a stark contrast between the darkness they were placed upon. How long had it been since she had the opportunity to look out at the stars? Hundreds of days? Thousands of days? It had to had been at least a few years, at most a decade. But time felt different on Heres-19. Sandwiched between two distant stars, the sky never changed from day to night, but always in a state of twilight. Not dark enough to be comfortable to sleep under, not light enough to shake the lethargy of night time. The warmth the planet exuded didn't help the lethargic feeling that the planet's constant burnt orange sky gave off. Heres-19 was a constant 82 degrees, not hot enough to be of extreme discomfort, but just warm and humid enough to make everything feel sluggish. The planet was one of hudreds of garbage planet's across the galaxy. Heres-19, the 19th numbered landfill planet, was made exclusively for the Porthos system. Heres, the refuse company that owns the planets, always chooses their landfill planets wisely. One key factor into choosing a planet for refuse collection is the planet's magnetosphere. The radiation deflected from the magnetosphere of the planet needs to be enough to interfere with navigation computing and other sensitive ship instruments. This ensures that no one comes to the planet to scavenge. If that isn't enough to ward off would be junk rats, Heres-19 is surrounded by a massive field of orbiting debris. Looting the planet would be suicide, so most steer clear. But there are some people that make the mistake of getting to close to Heres, these such cases are what Carina owes her exodus to. If it wasn't for the rich partyboy trying to impress a female, she wouldn't have had the cabin in which to use as a foundation to build the ship she was flying. If it wasn't for a freight pilot falling asleep at the controls, she wouldn't have had the EM barrier to safely escape from the magnetosphere. Of course, Carina had to build a rudimentary computer from scratch. The radiation of the magnetosphere fries every computer that passes through it unless the ship it is on has an EM barrier. The freighter that crashed was mostly obliterated, but with a bit of luck, the EM barrier unit was fully intact. The computer Carina had built was capable of running the ship's systems, navigations, and she had programmed it to have basic networking capabilities.

Carina hadn't spent her years in solitude wallowing in self-anguish, she spent her years in solitude fueled by anger and resentment, fueled by the desire for revenge. Although she already had a strong foundation in most sciences, she didn't have any expertise in any specific science. But Carina had eventually come across a crashed ship filled with thousands of codex. The ship must have been transporting a shipment to a new library or university of some sort because the ship had a library worth of material on most all subjects one could wish to learn. The time Carina didn't spend on scavenging for food she spent reading codex. Having a natural affinity for the sciences, she became an expert in most every science, reading and learning throughout up until she left Heres-19.

Carina looked back at the green code on the tube monitor which still read the same line of code. Being well outside of the magnetosphere, she expected the network to connect immediately, but it was still displaying the same message.

"Infernal device!", She lashed out in impatience and struck the monitor.

Immediately after the strike the message changed, the code readout was now:
[Detecting signal: 23034/1634234 networks detected]

Carina let out a sound of joy, and began to select the network she wished to connect with. Immediately she began scouring the cybernet getting information on Phoenix and more importantly, the Soramotonese assassin that killed her father. Of course, only going off of code and without images, she would have to change her search a bit. After hacking into the message logs sent between Phoenix office employees it was clear that in a three days, Jett Masterson (CEO of Phoenix) was going to be at a distribution center to meet with the Helevin executive and oversee the distributing process in person. That's what the messages said, but Carina knew that it didn't make much sense for Jett go to a ground operation unless there was something else going on. It didn't matter to Carina, the reason he was to be there, just that he was to be there.

Carina opened up a blank log in her terminal and copied the information down word for word as she remembered it perfectly. After that, she went to the navigation screen, punched in the coordinance to Porthos and went off to her personal quarters.

Although, the ship she made was an amalgam of miss-matched ship parts, the ship interior was fairly decent. The easy part was putting the basic construction together, the hard part was finding the basic resources needed to survive extended trips. The FTL drives would get her to Porthos in two day's time, leaving her a day to vet the distribution center and find a way in. However, two days without water would be extremely uncomfortable. Again, through serendipity, Carina was able to find large 100 gallon barrels of water in another crashed ship. After constructing a full pluming and water heating system in the ship, Carina installed a water barrel to the pump she built and kept nine other barrels in the storage area of the ship. The ship was slightly larger than the size of your typical cruiser, about forty meters long by twenty meters wide. From the outside the ship looked like rusted scrap thrown together in haste. In appearance, most would look at the ship an automatically say that it couldn't fly. But inside, the ship had twin seraph drives, only a few steps below the top of the line FTL drives currently on the market. It had full plumbing, basic amenities, and also a rift-shard storage device. While on Heres-19, Carina found something very rare, and very well worth her time. It was a rift -shard and a busted rift-shard two-way storage device. After putting work into it, she was able to get it up and running again. Rift-shards allow the instant transportation and storage of inorganic matter. Along with the rift-shard and the storage device, she found a large labcoat made of the same thermo resistant nano-fibers as her body suit, and a broken plasma sword (which she fixed). The rift-shard was embeded in a silver control frame which surrounded the blue gem-like shard and was the interface into which Carina could control the shard. Tapping on the gem would make the shard exude a hologram interface that allowed her to choose whether she was sending or receiving, and which items she was receiving. The storage device was a 3 foot white metal cube. On the top was a shutter that opened to allow items to be dropped in directly. It didn't matter if the object fit in the shutter, because any inorganic object near the opening would be deconstructed into energy that is stored inside the cube.

Carina stripped out of her body suit, threw it on the top of the cube, which opened the shutter end absorbed the body suit. She pulled off the riftshard she was wearing as a necklace and placed it on the sink of her personal quarters' bathroom. She then stepped into the shower she created out of a transpara-steel tube that she cut down the middle and placed on a rotating track that rotated to an open and closed position when she stepped on a the bath mat in front of the shower. She took the first shower she had had in days, washing the grime and grit away. After about ten minuets, she stepped out and dried herself using her augment to instantly evaporate all water on the outside of her body. She reached for her rift-shard necklace but paused when she caught a reflection of herself. Her right eye was blue, and red eye was orange due to her augmentation giving her heterocromia. Her black hair had grown long and unruly. She had grown taller since she had been placed on that forsaken world of refuse. Her bust had even grown since then, probably close to a C-cup boob taco. She shook her head and placed the rift-shard necklace over her head and let it fall to her neck, grabbing her hair that had been taken hostage by the necklace and pulling it free of the jewelry's bondage. Her hair fell free and loose all the down to her supple butt. She then tapped the gem-like shard, activating the interface, and selected her body suit, she selected the option of it appearing on her body instead of in her hands. The bodysuit instantly materialized in a flash of blue energy on her body. After that, she decided to go to bed.

Porthos was much the same as she remembered it all that time ago when she first visited it. The bustling streets, ships zipping here and there in a pattern as if following an aerial highway, the never stopping activity. It could be easily said that Porthos was a living organism. It didn't take long for Carina to find and perform reconnaissance on the Distribution center. She decided that the best way to enter the distribution center would be from the roof. Carina had parked her ship at the free docking port, and had been on foot ever since. After tricking a shop owner, she managed to use her rift-shard to steal a hover board, and some credits. Using her overboard in low-power mode, she was able to prevent detection by any energy detection systems the warehouse might have had. She floated up to the roof, and stored her board in the shard. Normally she would have used her plasma sword to cut through things, but in this specific case, their energy detectors would no doubt go off at the event of a plasma sword igniting. So she used her augment to melt the grate off with her hands, and entered the air-duct.