Thinslayer

Looking for serious 1x1 RP partner!

@BellBottomBlues
Actually, I'd like us to introduce our characters the way it would happen in a novel - suddenly. Character sheets spoil all the good stuff. What I *do* need to know beforehand, though, is what theme we're gunning for. Are we going to do slice of life, campaign, arena, or some combination of themes? It'll determine how my character is introduced.

Looking for serious 1x1 RP partner!

@Thinslayer Sounds fantastic! You may or may not be addressing these with whatever lore you're about to share, but I'll ask anyway just in case. I'm curious about a few points;

Government. How is it structured? Is there a leading head or monarch? A council type agreement? Is there a pyramid of classes differentiating say a noble family to a commoner one? What political climate is to be expected at the time of the RP?

What are the rules on magic? Is it a trait born for a gifted few or can it be learned?

How does religion (if there is any) affect the ideals of Imperium citizens?

And where is Aetherion relative to the Imperium? (E.g. West or East)

I ask these because I'll always strive to maintain consistency with your lore. I'll say now at any point should I overstep boundaries or post something that just doesn't sit right with the world PM me at any time and I can quickly remedy it. The setting strikes me as one where like I said before remains general enough for a person have free reign on working their ideas in the set world, but I'll always mention my willingness to work with the lore you have in place.

@BellBottomBlues

Magic, at its core, is spiritual manipulation. Disembodied spirits can do pretty much do whatever they want, but human spirits are attached to their bodies, so they normally can't perform magic in their default state. However, with a little genetic luck and some focus, some people can withdraw the energy binding their souls to their bodies, called mana, and use it to relocate their spirit, thereby giving them the ability to manipulate their environment outside bodily limitations. The ability cannot be acquired except through birth, but it can be reliably passed down. It's a recessive trait in humans and dominant trait in elves.

Nobility is, in essence, owning land. During conquest, land is allocated among soldiers who do not own any, and if there is too little land to divide equitably, it is handed to the strongest soldiers. Another way to gain land ownership is to take it from someone else by murduring the landowner. However, there's a catch - the land legally passes down to the landowner's family when he dies, so if you want his land, you have to kill both him and all his descendants. Do it quickly, because if one of them escapes to notify Imperial officers, it's over for you.

Aetherion is located northeast of the Imperial border, a bit closer to Northaven than to Easthaven.

Looking for serious 1x1 RP partner!

Then there's the legal system. It starts at the top with the King, despot of the realm. His word is law. Then there's the small standing army of commandos who act as police and investigators. Below them are the nobility, the landowners. In war, they become commanding officers. Below them are the militia, ordinary men and women drafted to fight. Below them are the slaves, who are sometimes corralled as cannon fodder to absorb enemy attacks.

Theft and rape of Imperial citizens is forbidden. Murder is only forbidden if witnessed by an Imperial officer; otherwise, they don't really care. The main exception is the murder of an Imperial officer. Then they'll launch an investigation and have the culprit flayed alive.

Economically speaking, the Imperium depends heavily on its slaves and indenturee servants. Imperial citizens who sell themselves into slavery are afforded all the rights of citizens, so they are treated better than captive or criminal slaves. Those who aren't slaves spend their time practicing their military arts, whether through daily exercises, duels, or arena competitions. When they're not engaged in military affairs, they're wallowing in the pleasures of life granted them by their slaves.

Not all the Imperium works like this, though. Some citizens, like those in Diamont, are a bit more honest (or poor) and do the work themselves. In addition, any conquered regions that haven't had their infrastructure totally destroyed are maintained by the subjugated people and citizens living there.

Religion is fairly simple business. The King is god. All prior kings are gods. All gods' mandates should be followed, with the most recent god's taking precedence in the event of conflict. Currently, it is held that the gods require human sacrifices as thanks for having aided them in battle. Any additional souls offered up are counted as merits to counteract any crimes committed. So if you do something illegal, make sure to have a slave or two handy to sacrifice on your behalf.

Looking for serious 1x1 RP partner!

@BellBottomBlues Sweet! And yes, I do have a fairly good idea of where we're going with it. There are several plot options designed in, including Arena battles, military campaigning, political intrigue, and even slice of life. I'd originally designed the Imperium so nobody would feel as bad about supporting a character who wanted to massacre the entire population, so we can definitely go that route too.

Before we start, there are a few things we should hammer out. Firstly, the map. The Imperial continent is generally circular. The nation was previously landlocked, but that changed after the expansion. Four fortress complexes, called "Havens," were constructed at each compass extremity of the empire - Northaven, Southaven, Easthaven, and Westhaven. Cities formed around them. Each one was built on the coast, so the Imperium has some naval capabilities as well. The capital city is Midhaven. There are other cities though; one of the less-violent places to live is Diamont, a prosperous trading city with several suburbs. It lies a little to the southeast of Midhaven.

Off the west coast of the continent is the Coronal Islands, the only Imperial territory in the ocean. Its people have notably darker skin than the pale-faced Imperials, and are more civilized by a mile. Their soldiers wielded magic marrial arts (think Avatar Airbender), and their spearfighters were second to none.

Off the east coast lies the Barbary Isles, where the pirates make their home. Some of them hail from unknown nations on the other side of the planet.

The main continent itself is more varied. Since most of the rivers flow from the coast inward, the center of the continent is inhospitable desert, and gets greener as you move outward. Southaven sits in a jungle area, where violent creatures and deadly diseases roam. Westhaven and Easthaven sit in forested areas, and Northaven sits in unforgiving tundra. A mountain range provides a natural barrier between the icy north and the rest of the continent, so the Imperium prefers to leave them alone.

Secondly, military structure. The Imperium doesn't have much of a standing army to speak of. Its real power comes from the militia system, in which all citizens are expected to acquire competency in combat arms by the time they reach adulthood at age 20. They may be called upon at any moment to assist the Imperium and must be ready at all times. Competing in the Arena counts as training, and it is one way of moving up the ranks, so it's quite popular.

(More lore incoming, so stay tuned)

Looking for serious 1x1 RP partner!

Sounds like we'd get along well together. I primarily GM for RPs (and generally prefer it), so I have a good bit of experience with that.

I have a few plots in mind.

Condemned

The Imperium has conquered most of the known world. They're a war-focused civilization like Sparta, but with an addiction to blood. They drink each other's blood for bonding, captives' blood for strength, and sacrifice criminals and prisoners to their gods for blessings. One popular method of sacrifice is the Arena, in which prisoners are pitted against each other and forced to fight to the death. Failure to comply is punished with a more gruesome death of the Arena Captain's choice. A more common use for criminals and captives, however, is to sell them into slavery. Slaves are a hot commodity in the Imperium, and may be used for anything their masters desire, ranging from menial labor to human sacrifices.

Our characters begin on opposite ends of the spectrum. Your character is a human Captain in the Imperial Military. Mine is a female elf, a leader of some significance from the neighboring country of Aetherion. Aetherion has thus far managed to maintain its sovereignty, thanks to its smart commanders and highly trained forces, but only barely, and it's only a matter of time before they fall. Since they have held out the longest, the Imperium hates them the most, and any captives acquired from Aetherion are treated with particular disdain.

This tale will mainly be romance, with our two characters (hopefully) working together to end the bloodshed, free the slaves, and bring peace to their war-torn continent.

Shattered Universe

The Third Millennium was widely considered an era of peace. Humanity set out from Earth and expanded into the cosmos, settling hundreds of habitable worlds and terraforming hundreds more. One civilization, the Crescent Empire, made a discovery that revolutionized technology forever: the Theory of Soul, and specifically magic. The energy binding the soul to the body could be manipulated, and the concept was first implemented with Sensitive Electro-Empathic Dust, or SEED, dubbed "fairy dust" by the less-advanced civilizations. This miracle nanomachine could suspend itself in any gravitational space and manipulate its environment with millions of times more force than its own weight. Its primary energy source was soul-energy, or mana. With the introduction of SEED, almost all other forms of technology were rendered obsolete. Research and development could move at an increasingly rapid pace, and it wasn't long before this civilization outstripped all the others by centuries.

But there was also a darker secret to SEED, one that only its most expert wielders were privy to. The human spirit wasn't the only thing able to control SEED - any spirit could do so, including demonic spirits that people stopped believing in a long time ago. And as people started ingesting SEED to augment their bodily functions, some of them began to grow black marks on their bodies. The blackness would spread through the body, and if it reached the brain, the person would become possessed and terrorize everyone around them. One colony equipped with SEED began to report instances of rebellion from the nanomachines, in which clouds of it would become uncontrollable and start tearing apart or infecting everything it touched.

The ruling Council had to act. They sent one of their envoys planetside to tackle the problem, and accidentally stumbled upon an individual, your character, who could wrest control of SEED from anyone else and was immune to the corruption. Seeing your potential, the envoy decided to recruit you to help them stop the coming storm. The two of us will travel across the stars and through time to bring the conflict to an end, and when all is said and done, the universe will never be the same.

Interested in either of my plot ideas?

Who Shall Win Her Heart?

@imacamoprincess@Dynamo Frokane@DeadlyPhoenix
I've been worried about the quality of my post, and the radio silence is killing me. I don't even need any feedback or likes - just someone replying to it instead of objecting would tell me that it's at least acceptable.

Was it a weird post?

Who Shall Win Her Heart?

@imacamoprincess@Dynamo Frokane
Check out my post!

Who Shall Win Her Heart?

"Rise and shine, kiddo!"

Light poured in through the window. Arandur refused to open his eyes. "Just a few more minutes, ma..." he murmured.
"But I made bacon."
There was some shuffling under the covers. "Say wha-?"
"You heard me. I made bacon. Say you love me."
Arandur sat up, eyes still tightly shut. "Hold up, I smell a rat. You want me up early for something important and probably embarrassing, so you bribe me with bacon to get it."
"That's about the long and short of it, yes. You want bacon or not?"
"Say bacon one more time."
"Bacon!"
"Okay, I guess I love you, ma."
"I love you too, hun. Get dressed and go greet your father."
"He's home?"
"No, son, his ghost arrived in town last night and is staying for the rest of the month. Of course he's here!"

The young elf opened one eye to give his mother a suspicious glare. His mother, a beautiful silver-haired elf, leaned against the door frame and stared back at him with an amused twinkle in her eye. "You missed him," she teased.
"I bet you miss him more," he retorted. "Unless you two were just randomly banging on the walls last time he was here."
She lifted an eyebrow, then turned to leave. "Tsk! What a dirty mind you have. Come join us for breakfast when you're ready."

About fifteen minutes later, he trotted down the spiral staircase into the dining hall. Servants bustled in the kitchen, and he could hear his mother chatting easily with them. More of interest to the young elf was the individual seated at the head of the thirty-two-seat banquet table. His gray tunic still bore all its old tears and patches, and his brunet ponytail hung over one shoulder just like he remembered.

Noting the distinct lack of friends and relations present for breakfast, Arandur locked eyes with the older elf.

"Welcome home, pa."

The older elf put down his newspaper and cracked a half smile. "It's about dam time you showed up. Get over here." Arandur marched over and embraced him. It was a rare quarter when his father, Lord Astran Valderis, got to return home for a full month, and it usually meant either something exciting or something troubling. Or both, given their luck lately. The servants deposited breakfast at three places on the table and left, and true to Erudessa's word, Arandur's breakfast contained a hearty helping of bacon with a poached egg on the side.

They all sat down and began to dig in. Arandur spoke first. "So what's this important business that brings you all the way back here?"
Astran cleared his throat. "Marriage."
Arandur nearly choked on his food. "What? Isn't one wife enough for you?"
A vicious kick from his mom under the table told him exactly what she thought of that joke. His father was a good bit more affable about it. "Ha ha ha! Of course she's enough, more than enough! In fact-"
Astran grunted in pain and bent over to massage his hurting leg. "Anyways, I was referring to your marriage...that hasn't happened yet."
Arandur glanced around at the empty table. "So that's why we're up so early - to talk about girls before all the horny teenagers start begging you to bless their latest crushes."
His parents shared a knowing look. Astran replied, "In their defense, your cousins and siblings are just as lonely as you are."

Arandur put down his utensils and crossed his arms. "Okay, let's get this over with. Who'd you pick out this time? Please don't tell me it's another prudish high elf from central Faeland."
Astran placed a folder on the table. "It's not. This one is human."
The younger elf let his jaw hang open. "You put together a whole dossier on her!?"
Astran shrugged and stole a glance at Erudessa. "Yeah. Honestly, I thought you'd be more upset it wasn't an elf girl. And why not put a dossier together? It's a good idea. You can read it over whenever you want."
Mother shrank in her seat and poked at her egg. "It sounded like a good idea at the time..."
"But...SPYING!" came the youth's objection.
"So?" Erudessa piped up. "It's not illegal. Everyone does it."
"You've got to be kidding me. Okay, I don't even want to know how you got this information. Just tell me what you found."
__________

Next thing he knew, he was standing outside the castle gate, wearing his best toga and strong-armed by patriarchal authority to say the dumbest thing he'd ever said in his life.

"Princess!" he shouted.

"I've come a-courtin'!"

Who Shall Win Her Heart?

@imacamoprincess Traditionally, the GM starts the game. I mean, if you want, I can have Arandur come up to the palace gate saying, "I've come a-courtin'!"

Actually, that's not a bad idea...

A Couple of Ideas (18+)

He met with unfortunate accident. He fell out of window onto exploding bump.