(*cough I sent you a pm with the history I wrote up for Southreach. Halfway through writing it, I realized it wasn't part of the application. Normally I would just scrap it, but I was on a roll and I realized that you wanted players to help write the lore at some point. So I finished it and sent you a pm with it in it. *unconvincing cough.)
Glad to see it! Lore, lore, lore, and more lore!
ok I have a few questions fist you mentioned that the powers and abilities each of your characters posses will be decided after the roleplay begins how will this be decided?. I only ask because I have a few ideas for characters and I tend to match my characters powers to their personality and I have a good idea for a Dark Magician and a Elementalists that I would like to make, witch brings me to my next two questions what is the character limit? and if you multiple characters can you have two living in the same town?. I am thinking of making three if I am allowed and I am considering making two of them siblings. My next question is in relation to the White Magicians are they limited to only one God or could they form a concretion with more?. I ask this knowing that if they did it would prevent them from forming a really powerful connection to ever of the god they have chosen but in exchange they would gain more verity in the spells then can perform. and last one can the use weapons like swords or hand to hand to help in a fight?. I ask this because the Elementalists I am thinking about making would be the typical hot head character that is quick to anger and will likely jump into a fight without thinking things though, and if he was an Elementalists would he be able to do things like cover his fist in stone or set his sword on fire to help him fight?.
I responded to these questions over private message, however I think it would be beneficial to summarize what I said here to clear things up for everybody.
We will decide who has which powers by simple discussion once the roleplay has begun. I wanted everyone to remain flexible in case we have four White Magicians and no Elementalists. The best option would be to create a character that could plausibly choose two or three different paths of specialization. Remember that at the beginning our characters will still be quite young, and are about to undergo a scarring and horrifying raid on the only home they have every known. There can be room for development in any direction.
We will start out with four roleplayers, each with one character. As the story moves on, we may decide to add other characters to the story and/or raise the number of characters each person is allowed.
White Magicians historically specialized into societies that each studied and worshiped a different patron god. However, White Magicians are not limited to one, though by dividing their time will form a weaker connection to each.
Each character will more than likely develop some proficiency with a weapon. I encourage creativity in how they pair that weapon with magic. That being said, we are Magicians first and foremost. Historically most Magicians would have been scholars, though because of the circumstances of the story, all of our characters will need to be able to fight and to fight well.
These were very good questions! Please if anyone has questions, feel free to ask.
reserving! also, if your charrie doesn't get accepted into the first four, does that mean we're out of the roleplay or we'll come in later?
Good question. Definitely not! As the story progresses it will become necessary to add new main characters to the mix. I can't guarantee however that it will be the same sort of character that we are starting off with.
Oh... Well it might be a bit difficult for me to post the necessary seven or eight paragraphs. But I'll try...
Yes, please don't worry too much about a specific length requirement. (I think technically the forum only requires 2 paragraphs, though I know many in that section write very lengthy posts). I mainly placed it in 'Advanced' so as to encourage people to write to the best of their abilities. As long as you do that, I'm sure you will be fine!
The Great Power is the underlying magical force in the world. As fundamental as gravity, the Great Power permeates this world. Magicians can access this power, drawing from it as one draws from a source of water. However, just as a muscle in the body, the Great Power’s presence in an area grows or recedes by how much it is called upon. Long ago, the Great Power was strong in the land. Magicians and magical beasts were everywhere, and most men were able to feel its presence. Since the end of the Great War, and the inquisitions that followed, the Great Power has receded from the lands of men. Now few feel its presences, and even fewer acknowledge that they feel it.
Magicians are the people who are able to call upon the Great Power. Though they are only channeling this power, not creating a power of their own, it requires great physical strain and stamina to call upon. While every Magician is calling upon the same Great Power, each individual has a different ability in how much and what way they use it. With training, Magicians can learn to use more of the Great Power in different ways, but everyone has their limits. If a Magician tries to draw too much of the power at one time they can become overwhelmed by it, and perish in the process. In the days when magic was plentiful, there were five specializations of Magicians: Elementalists, White Magicians, Dark Magicians, Alchemists, and Blue Magicians.
Elementalists were the most common, and specialized in the manipulation of the elements: earth, wind, fire, water, thunder (electricity). Elemental magic is the least physically demanding because elementalists are simply manipulating the physical world around them. (This works very similarly to ‘bending’ in Avatar: The Last Airbender). Historically there were multiple elementalists even in each village. Generally an area would specialize in a certain kind of elemental magic. Elemental magic was generally a trusted and celebrated use of the Great Power. The common person knew enough about elemental magic to trust its use around them.
White Magicians use the Great Power to form a connection with the gods. Because they rely on the gods to perform magical feats, their powers are limited to how strong of a connection they have forged and what things the gods are willing to do. White Magician generally lived in fraternities of Priests or Priestesses, and spent much of their time praying, performing ritual rites, and studying theology. Their abilities generally depended upon which gods they had formed a strong background with. The most common god was The Mother Goddess. The Mother is known for compassion, healing, and rejuvenation. White Magicians following The Mother could heal wounds, bring strength and courage, lift curses, ect. Another noteworthy god is The Warrior. The abilities he bestowed included forming barriers, enchanting armor and swords, granting courage, lessening fatigue, augmenting strength, ect. White Magicians were historically well respected. Their name comes from the white color of the light that emanates from their spells. While the common person knew little about the nature of their connection with the gods, they trusted White Magicians the most to do good rather than evil with their power. In addition to performing magic, White Magicians headed the Church of the Gods. Under the Church their duties included leading religious services, making sacrifices, tithing the surrounding community, and advising political leaders and other Magicians on the will of the gods.
Dark Magicians use the Great Power to summon the spirits of the dead to do their bidding. Becoming a Dark Magician is a harrowing process, and only the strongest of people can undertake the task. The powers of Dark Magicians are far reaching and encompass many powers associated with other Magicians. When summoning the Great Power, Dark Magicians use it to call back the spirits of the dead and force them to do their bidding. The spirits can be made to do any number of things once they are summoned. Because it is only the act of summoning a spirit, Dark Magicians actually don’t use much of the Great Power themselves. Rather, once the spirits are summoned, it is a battle of wills to force the spirit to do what the Magician wants. If the spirit is particularly strong and is able to overpower the Magician, they will possess his body and walk the earth as a Shade. Dark Magicians were historically the least trusted of Magicians. The common person knew little about the way they actually performed magic, but heavily associated Dark Magicians with Shades (to the point some didn’t know the difference). Even within the magical community, Dark Magic was thought to be akin to playing with fire. However, Dark Magicians were some of the most powerful magicians.
Alchemists were different than the other Magicians in that they never summoned the Great Power directly. Though they never draw on the Great Power, Alchemists are said to have a special connection to it. They are the only Magicians that are able to understand and learn the Ancient Language integrally linked to the Great Power. Unlike other languages, the Ancient Language is unable to be taught, but must be discerned through long hours of intense meditation. Once enough of it is learned, an Alchemist can begin using it to perform enchanting rituals and imbue the Great Power in objects, potions, and runes. A well prepared Alchemist is especially powerful on the battlefield because their magic use doesn’t strain them like it does other Magicians. Many Battle Alchemists were historically trained to use a weapon to compliment their abilities. Alchemists were so few and little-seen that the common person couldn’t differentiate them from other kinds of Magicians. Among the magical community, however, Alchemists were considered the scholars, and were generally on the front lines of magical research.
Blue Magicians are the only of the five kinds of magicians that use pure Great Power to perform their magic. They don’t manipulate elements, call on others, or prepare enchantments beforehand, but rather channel the pure Great Power. Because they call upon the Great Power directly, Blue Magicians are made up of only the strongest of Magicians. Blue Magicians can perform any number of things: divination, powerful bolts of raw magic, magical barriers, summoning of magical demons, communication with animals, control of the weather, and anything else the mind can imagine. Though Blue Magicians posses all this power, they are the most susceptible to being overwhelmed by the Great Power. When that happens, they are first engulfed in blue magical energy (where they get their name from), followed by an enormous and destructive explosion of force. Referred to as ‘Wizards’ by the non-magical community, they are historically considered the strongest kind of Magicians, and always held positions of leadership in the magical and non-magical community. Every Magical College was headed by a Wizard Headmaster, and every king had a Court Wizard. Blue Magicians were both respected and feared. What they said was considered law, and oftentimes even kings would change course at their behest.
The extent of the power of Shades is unknown. What is known, is that they are immensely powerful and inherently evil. Created when a spirit successfully overtakes and possess the body of a Dark Magician, they seek to destroy the world of the living. Shades almost exclusively are known to use necromancy (reanimation of the dead) to do their bidding. Historically, Shades were hunted and destroyed by other Dark Magicians looking to preserve their reputation as a force for good in the world similar to other kinds of magic.
(Picture by JonasDeRo on Deviant Art)
For the better part of the last millennia, magic has been slowly fading from our world. This land was once full of those who could feel the touch of the Great Power. Magicians and Elementalists worked great feats, flattening mountains, parting oceans, forging weapons, bringing to us unimaginable wealth and power. The Great Power abounded, and touched our lives in almost every way. However, eventually a great war broke out among the kingdoms of men. A powerful and dark magician led an uprising of bandits and mercenaries to overtake one of these kingdoms, and with the help of an army of magically animated stone golems, he was able to do just that. He ruled the kingdom with an iron fist of corruption and violence. Before long his power was consolidated, and he turned his sights outward. War ravaged the lands of men for fifty long years before his forces were finally defeated.
After the great war people began to reject the Great Power, and all those who used it. Kings led inquisitions against the once influential and respected Magicians and Elementalists. Rather than further divide the land, they soon fled to the south and across the sea. With the absence of its users, the Great Power began to recede. As its presence faded, the creatures that drew from it disappeared from the land. Soon men could no longer feel its touch, and it became regarded as legend. Now all that remains of the Great Power in the land of men are a few and scattered trinkets and runes. Even these are seen as scams or props in a children’s story.
But now something has changed. Reports from the south bring word of hulking beasts of stone raiding and pillaging secluded forest villages. All those who have seen the beasts say they are coordinated somehow, though there never seems to be a leader among them. They wear no weapons or armor, and use only their fists and stoney skin. They seem to be searching for something. What that something is remains a mystery.
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Hello! I am new to this forum, though I have a little experience with roleplaying. The background I have come up with so far is just a template for what I hope to be an expansive and deep fantasy world. Though I plan for this roleplay to take the tradition story route, I hope to develop a complex and interesting world to go along with it. That being said, I am going to try and do my best to establish the parameters of this world before we begin so that we all can have our own hand in creating lore and world-building. Before I do that, however, I want to talk more about what route the story is going to take:
Each of you are going to be a child (12-16) in one of the villages that are being raided in the south. The first few posts will be to establish background for your character and your individual villages. Then all of your villages will be attacked and destroyed, and some (if not all) of your friends and family will die. We will have a few posts dealing with the immediate repercussions of this, and each of your villages will be visited by my character and all the other players who have already been visited. He will tell you that you are the reason that your village has been invaded. He will tell you that the beasts were stone golems, and he will tell you that you have the gift of being able to touch the Great Power. Then he will tell you that to keep the rest of the survivors in your village safe, you must leave and come with him to fight the person that is doing this. After everyone has been visited and has joined the party, there is going to be a jump of a few years while all of you are trained to use this power by my character. The rest of the story is going to be a surprise and you will have to join and wait to find out what happens next :). The nitty gritty as to what powers and abilities each of your characters posses will be decided after the roleplay already begins. I want to have a varied and sort of balanced party for the rest of the story.
Now, onto world-building. I really want to encourage everyone to contribute to the lore of the world. Think how a sci-fi/fantasy author introduces the world to new readers. As the story progress he will tangent off here or there to explain some aspect of the world that the reader has yet to learn about. I encourage dropping in ancient or contemporary stories, myths, histories, songs, poems, artwork, knowledge, ect. It will be progressive, so once someone has included a piece of lore in their story, barring any discrepancies with previously established lore, it will be cannon. This isn’t revolutionary, I know, however I wanted to include this section to emphasize how much I want to develop the lore in the story.
Welcome to Return of the Great Power. I hope this roleplay will become much more than simply a single story, but rather an expansive and deep world. I hope to continue on in this world with a group of dedicated roleplayers even after the conclusion of this tale. Many of you will probably be coming over from the Interest Check, but for those of you just joining us, I have quoted the text from there above. To begin, let us establish a cast of characters. I am currently looking for four players to start out with. Prospective applicants will need to fill out the following character sheet. The four most promising character sheets will be selected by myself to begin the roleplay.
Name: (First and Last please).
Gender: (Male or Female).
Age: (Between 12 and 16).
Appearance: (Pictures or description welcome. You can describe their young-adult self if you wish to).
Village: (Name and Surrounding Environment).
Background: (A few paragraphs about how you character was raised, the development of their personality, ect).
Personal Aspirations: (Both your character's aspirations in the story, as well as your own personal aspirations for your character's development).
As far as lore is concerned, I have developed some background to keep things running smoothly at the start of the game. This mainly includes anything and everything in the background history at the beginning of the interest check and a general explanation of the magic system. I've developed these two specifically because: (1) they are required to get the story off the ground, (2) in my experience magic systems left to vague can go awry. I'll be reserving a few posts at the start of the OOC to archive all the established lore so far. Throughout the roleplay I'll be updating this list with new entries that we establish alongside the progression of the story. If anyone has problems with the preliminary lore I will try to be flexible in accommodating concerns.
And what about races? Can we make a non-human characters?
I considered allowing other races. however it only makes sense with the story for there to be human races for right now. Perhaps as the roleplay continues and the Great Power returns to the land, we can take on multiple characters, some from other races. I am however open to their being lore about other races from the time when the Great Power was common.
I am interested, but question, can we choose our own powers?
I have developed some background about the world, and this includes the general powers different Magicians are able to have. The different kinds of
Magicians should be general enough however that you will be able to find something that you like, and they all leave room for you to expand upon.
