[M] Runes - recruitment and OOC

[Azazeal849]

Rated M for violence and mature themes
Potential strong language and sexual scenes

LINK TO IC

Spoiler: Prologue 

The moons were rising, the Lesser Moon chasing the Greater across the clear summer sky. It was a warm, dusty night, but the moonlight felt cold; the two brothers casting disinterested eyes down onto the village below. The Watchman knew that it was the last moonrise he would ever see. The knowledge seemed to both dull and sharpen his senses at the same time. He could pick out the homely, animal smells of the village behind him in every breath, and yet the moonlit paddy seemed to shimmer before his eyes, like a dreamscape. The wooden boards of the causeway creaked under his feet, disturbing a water snake that thrashed away through the waterlogged paddy field. The Watchman’s hand went to the leather pouch around his neck, and the small rune-etched stones within clicked together as he thumbed them.

The keeper of the runes flees from me. That’s no good omen.

But he was the Watchman - for forty years he had stood guard over this village, and if he did not stand now to give his kinsmen a chance to escape he would have been unworthy of the name. They trusted him, even if they never called him by his real name anymore. For a mage, letting a potential enemy know your true name was suicide.

The Watchman exhaled grimly. A true name was about the only thing that would avail him here, he suspected. The cities of the Valley had always warred, but when the Immortal and the Leveler had risen to power it had made the rest of the rune wars look like cheap firework shows. And after the two of them had seemingly had it out on the slopes of the western mountains, there was no-one left powerful enough to challenge the Leveler in a rune duel.

The Immortal. The Watchman almost let out a wry chuckle. A poorly-chosen name, it would seem. Few in the Enlightened city would miss that megalomaniacal bastard, but he had been the last real check on the Leveler’s expansion south. He looked up, and saw that a soft mist had sprung up among the rice stalks, blurring out the causeway ahead of him. No ordinary mist, the Watchman knew. A spell of concealment.

She was here.

A column of dark shadows hazed out of the mist, their footsteps softened into silence by the spell. A lone woman walked several paces in front of the others. She was swathed in a woollen cloak, blurring her outline against the shadows, but the moons reflected from her face, ghostlike. A streak of pastel-blue chalk ran horizontally across her pale eyes, soft against her pallid skin. It looked more like war paint than makeup.

“You don’t have to die here.” Her voice was warlike too; a hard-edged contralto.

The Watchman tried to moisten his lips, and found that his tongue was dry. His heart was thumping against his ribs, a caged rat twisting and gnawing to escape. He used the sound to focus his will, and as he felt the familiar burn of magic through his hands and forearms, he felt his courage returning. Sparks flickered around his fingertips, and the burnt-metal smell of ozone began to rise in the air around him.

“If you want to pass through this village, Leveler, then you’ll have to match runes with me.”

The Leveler gave the tiniest shake of her head. “I don’t need runes to fight you, Cavan son of Ava.”

The Watchman’s breath left him at the same time as the magic, the sparks around his hands snuffing out as their power was leeched out of him in a glare of white light. It glittered across the water and flashed against the mist surounding the Leveler’s men, and then it faded. The Watchman felt as if his physical strength had gone along with it, and his knees thumped hard against the wooden causeway as he fell, only a splayed hand stopping him from collapsing prone.

She knew my name. “How…?” he rasped.

He managed to raise his head, and saw the Leveler casually gesture with a pale arm. One of the shadows behind her glided forward, pulling an elderly woman with them by her hair.

The Watchman felt his heart drag downwards through his chest. “Neve.” he whispered.

“I’m sorry, Cavan…” the elderly woman sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry…”

“My men caught your people trying to escape across the River.” the Leveler rumbled softly. “There’s no more reason for you to fight, Watchman. Stand instead, and live.”

The Watchman summoned enough defiance to spit on the gnarled planks below him. “As your thrall? I know how you work, slaver.”

One of the cloaked figures behind the Leveler took a furious step forward. “You dare…!”

The Leveler cut him off with a delicately raised hand. “You’re making a mistake. We humans are fragile things. Our bodies aren’t made to channel the raw power of magic. But what if we could change our bodies?”

The Watchmen gave a harsh, breathy laugh. “Like the fucking Mer?” He spat again to show his contempt for the infidel race of shapeshifters. “Even they know that the Greater Moonstone is a myth.”

A smile twitched at the corners of the Leveler’s mouth. “Is it?”

At first the Watchman thought it was his own swimming vision, but then he realised that the other mage was growing taller, her woollen cloak fanning upwards and outwards like a pair of shadowy wings. The shadow rose up, looming, closing out the Watchman’s vision until all that was left was black.

Welcome to Runes! This is a fantasy story that will be co-GM’d by Kris and Azazeal849. Runes is a world of magic, corruption, power-hungry wizards...and freakin’ mermaids. The powerful wizard known only as the Leveler has overturned the ancient City of Ash, and now she comes for the City of the Enlightened. Only a hastily-recruited army of wizard mercenaries stands in her way. But before we get deeper into that - here’s a few quick rules:

RULES

Naturally, all standard RPA rules apply, but here’s a few of our own. Mostly, they’re to help the readability of the thread.

• Please write all IC posts in third person past tense. That is, “Finn drew his sword”; never “Finn draws his sword” or “I drew my sword.”
• Please don’t use quote boxes in the IC. If you’re reproducing someone else’s text to try and help put your post in context, then please just indicate the copied text in a different colour.
• If you’re copying someone else’s text into your post, please do not copy any more than is necessary to give context (i.e. don’t reproduce their entire post!)
• Please do not use coloured text just to indicate that your character is speaking aloud. Speech marks are fine.
• You can take a break or bow out of the RP at any time, for any reason. We understand that real life can get in the way, and sometimes people just aren’t feeling a story any more. But, if you plan to leave, please have the courtesy to leave a message in the OOC, so that the rest of us aren’t left waiting around for you.

Right, now that’s done with, on to the fun stuff.

THE WORLD

Our story takes place in the Valley, a fertile riverland bordered by mountains on three sides and the sea on a fourth. The myths differ on whether the ancestors came to the Valley over the mountains or from across the sea, but either way they have established a flourishing, if deeply divided and often war-torn civilisation. The Valley is characterised by mild winters and hot, dusty summers, during which the river that flows through the Valley to the sea provides the lifeblood of its inhabitants. Three primary cities have grown up along the river’s two hundred mile length, with many smaller towns scattered between. The shapeshifting Mer used to build their towns alongside the settling humans, but they were driven into the sea several generations ago during the War of Faith, and are now rarely seen in the three cities.

The strangest and most important artefacts in the Valley are the runestones, the enablers of magic. They take the form of tiny, smooth pebbles, each veined with the image of a strange symbol. Each symbol seems to correspond to the power of a specific spell, which is instantly granted to anyone who touches the stone with their bare skin. The spells contained within the runestones are many and varied - some can be used to heal wounds and cure sickness, while others can speed the growing of crops, and the most dangerous can rain fire and destruction on a caster’s enemies. Some spells seem to be relatively common, while others are rare - and for some of the most powerful only a single runestone has so far been found.

The first runestones were found in riverbeds by the earliest settlers of the Valley, and later, more were found embedded in the surrounding mountains. Their power led to the religion of the Shattered Gods, with most people believing that the runes are pieces of the titans who created the world and then destroyed each other in their subsequent feuds. After all, who else but a god could possess such power? The Valley people also revere water snakes, which are said to have led the ancestors to the first runes, and the sea crab, which never ages unless killed - some say that the oldest sea crabs witnessed the time before the war in the sky, when the gods were still whole.

Whatever their origin, runestones are the key to power in the Valley. With such power at their fingertips, wizards usually rise to dominate their peers, and most hoard collections of runes to themselves, letting only trusted friends or underlings touch them to gain their power. The only way to strip a wizard of their power is to speak their birth name aloud, which will drive all magical power out of the victim’s body with an instantly recognisable flash of light. The reason for this phenomenon is not fully understood, but it is an ordinary human’s only defence against the all-powerful wizards. Even so, its use will only grant you advantage over the wizard for a few short minutes before they regain their energy, and most powerful wizards will go to great lengths to ensure that no-one knows their true name.

For all its power, magic is a risky ally. Once learned a spell only requires willpower to cast, but the human body is not naturally evolved to cope with magical energies. People who channel the power of the runes frequently suffer pain, nosebleeds and even strokes if they try to cast a powerful spell that is beyond their ability. Using magic for many years can leave a wizard with nerve damage, sometimes eventually rendering them blind or destroying one or more of their other senses.

Your characters are a group of mercenary wizards, recently recruited by the Enlightened to help defend their city against the Leveler. Alternatively, some of them may be soldiers / bodyguards, mage-priests, or other people somehow caught up in the siege. Where your characters originally come from is totally up to you (go invent!) but the three main settlements of the Valley are as follows:

Spoiler: The Three Cities 

The City of the Enlightened - Magic and religion are closely entwined in the City of the Enlightened. Many temples to the Shattered Gods dot its skyline, and its ruling cabal - the Enlightened for which the city is named - draw their authority from the runestones which are said to contain the gods’ wisdom. It was the Enlightened city which began the War of Faith against the Mer, for their blasphemous belief that the runestones are not pieces of the Shattered Gods. They also find themselves in frequent conflict with the City of the Risen God and their strange new religion. No-one is granted the power of a runestone in this city without the patronage of one of the Enlightened. This has worked against them, however, because the relatively small number of holy wizards within the city will not be enough to repel the Leveler’s army on their own. Now, the Enlightened seek allies to help defend them. People from this city are generally called “Lightmen”.

The City of the Risen God - While the power of the runestones grants wizards ruling authority in most cities, in the City of the Risen God it is the opposite. Access to runes is even more tightly controlled than in the City of the Enlightened, and all new wizards must undergo a ritual in which they surrender their true names to the rulers of the city, thus placing themselves at their mercy. The city takes its name from the religion of its founders; unlike the Shattered Gods of the other cities, they believe in a new, intact god who exists unseen where all others have perished. Most others within the Valley consider their religion to be strange at best, and heretical at worst. People from this city are generally referred to as “Risemen.”

The City of Ash - Situated beneath a dormant volcano to the north of the Valley, the City of Ash was once the most prosperous of the cities, growing rich on fields and mines worked by the city’s large slave population. However, the recent upheaval of the Leveler’s rebellion has changed the old order. Most people in the City of the Enlightened do not know the true course of events there, as reports are fragmented and confused, but it seems that the Leveler has freed the former slaves of the Ash City and gained their undying loyalty in the process. This frightens the Enlightened, who fear a similar uprooting of the old order that has gone so long unchallenged in their own city. People from the City of Ash are generally called “Ashmen”.

For now, we are accepting one character per player, and we are requesting that all submitted characters be human. A suggested character template is shown below, but of course this is a guideline rather than something to be rigidly adhered to. We are letting players choose their own spells and will review and approve them on a case-by-case basis. Spells which cannot be produced by the players’ runestones include the power to raise the dead, and the power to change the caster’s form. Healing magic exists, but is limited to speeding up what the human body could naturally accomplish on its own. There is also no spell that can directly influence another creature’s mind - although a few rare runes can affect how people feel, they may still be aware on some level of what’s going on.

A note on naming: most NPCs in this world will have Irish / Celtic names (written phonetically so that they’re easier for readers to pronounce), and we’d like it if you followed this convention. Some examples are given below.

Male examples: Aiden, Shaun, Connor, Dara, Niall, Kian, Osheen, Engis, Albay, Cavan, Killian, Colm, Davin, Finn, Emmet, Riley

Females examples: Shivaan, Ava, Ifa, Anna, Kiara, Neve, Sirshe, Keeva, Tigan, Cara, Rhianne, Mira, Keri, Iona, Gail, Eevlin

Spoiler: Suggested character sheet template 

True Name: Your character’s birth name
Mage Name: The moniker your character uses to avoid being Named in the middle of a fight
Age: Self-explanatory
Appearance: Pictures and / or written description. We suggest that you also describe your character in an early IC post, to help fix them in the minds of the other players.
Personality: A few bullet points is fine. This is mostly something simple for you to refer back to, or for us to use as a guide if we have to NPC your character for any reason.
Runestones: Spells that your character currently knows.
Stuff: Weapons, clothes, armour and anything else they might be carrying around.
Languages: Languages your character can speak (people in the City of the Enlightened speak Light; people in the City of the Risen God speak Rise, people in the City of Ash speak Ash)
Background: Don’t sweat too much over this. However, we expect anything you write here to get at least a passing mention in the IC!

If you have ideas for character subplots that you’d like to see included in the story then just send us a PM - we’d love to hear them! As a general rule, we won’t be killing off active characters without first consulting the player (and if you’re about to do something suicidal, we’ll warn you). That said, we may well knock them about a fair bit.

Any questions, just ask!

Spoiler: ACCEPTED CHARACTERS 

• Solar by Kiro Akira
• The Archer by Derpnaster
• The Raven by Splat
• The Wanderer by Scottie (please quote their text in orange)
• The Wraith by Price (please quote their text in yellow)
• The Illusion by Underblank
• The Hole by Minkasha (please quote their text in silver)
• Red by Katrina
• The Ambassador by Kris

Spoiler: MAJOR NPCS 

Spoiler: The Leveler 

The Leveler hails from the City of Ash, and first rose to prominence by inciting the slaves there to rise up against their masters. She has taken in many with her silver-tongued promises of freedom, peace and transcendence beyond mortality for all who follow her, but the Enlightened doubt her intentions to share power. Her fanatical followers are cutting a swathe through the armies of the Valley, and now she has set her sights on the City of the Enlightened. Only the city’s mercenary defenders stand in her way.

Spoiler: The Immortal 

Some say that the Immortal was born in the City of the Risen God, where wizards are not the rulers but the persecuted, and that he learned the powers of the runes in secret so he would not have to give up his True Name. Others say he was once one of the mysterious Seekers, who hide runes that are too powerful for men to be trusted with. Whether he was given his first runes or somehow took them by force is not known, but what is known is that he seeks to overcome death - the last obstacle that magic cannot defeat. To do this he sought out many powerful runes, putting him at odds with the Seekers on many occasions. He is perhaps the only wizard powerful enough to challenge the Leveler, but his current whereabouts are unknown.

Spoiler: The Enlightened 

The five mages of the Enlightened city, mixing rune power with religion to rule with an iron fist.

THE BLUE LADY


THE ROSE


THE CRONE


THE HUNCHBACK


THE SCORPION

Spoiler: Agents of the Leveler 

A cabal of mages who form the Leveler’s inner circle.

THE APPRENTICE


THE BLADEMAIDEN


THE BURNING


THE DARK MAN


REDMOOR


THE WEAVER


THE HOLE


DAVIN

[Scottie]

Looks like you've got an awesome roleplay started, Azazeal849! If you would like to advertise for more members, here are some ways to do so!

First off, there's the Roleplay of the Week. This is displayed on the website's home page as well as on the side bar of the forum. If you think it might help then we implore you to do so! We are always looking for new RP's to advertise. (No, really. We are. Always.) If you would like a little bit more information, or even an example, you can view that here.

One of the requirements for a RP of the Week submission is that you have a banner. If you're not artistically inclined, however, do not fear! We have several amazing artists on the site who will make one for you. Simply post here.

Next, you can post in this thread and the staff will display your role-play in their signatures.

Also feel free to post in the Roleplay Directory. This is a thread that anyone can view at any time to see roleplays that are currently seeking and accepting members.

[ｒａｂｂｉｔ]

hnnnqqgg... interested... but i shouldn't... but i want to...

[Splat]

Placeholder for soon to come CS

[Queen]

So are non-human races out then? Like Elves or Tieflings?

[Splat]

Question: does magic allow someone to influence animals? Not people, just beasts and such.

[Azazeal849]

hnnnqqgg... interested... but i shouldn't... but i want to...

That was basically my thought process when deciding to GM this story as well, so at least you’re not alone. :P

So are non-human races out then? Like Elves or Tieflings?

They don’t exist in this world. At least not yet.

Question: does magic allow someone to influence animals? Not people, just beasts and such.

The same rules as influencing humans apply - so you couldn’t directly command an animal but you could make it feel agitation / fear / anger or whatever. And it’d be more likely than a human to react instinctively, rather than to wonder what was going on.

A word of caution: you might get into trouble in the Enlightened city if you tried to cast a spell on a sacred animal (i.e. a snake).

[Splat]

One more question hehe, would it be possible to just find a runestone in the environment? Or have they all been snatched up by now?

[Azazeal849]

Most of the easy-to-reach ones have been found, though new ones still occasionally turn up around the River, or during excavation works (which is why there’s always a mage supervising the mining operations up in the mountains). You also might unearth a stash that some wizard had tried to hide somewhere.

[pyjamaviking]

I know I previously registered interest, but I think this one's not for me. Good luck though, it does look awesome