The Reforged Saga - Prologue: Great Expectations [M]
This RP is rated M for possible violence, racism, sexual themes, strong language, substance use, and difficult moral decisions, among other things. It should be noted that many of the characters may be under the age of eighteen. This RP may include themes such as coming-of-age, questions of religion, and the true meaning of freedom. As such, if players feel that they cannot handle such material, it is best for them to steer clear of this RP.
Terrestria was once home of the Shapers, the most secretive, most powerful, and most feared of the magical sects. There were many other sects. Some could forge artifacts of great power while others could rain fire from the heavens. But it was the Shapers who ruled the land, for the Shapers alone had the power to create life. With the raw essence of life beneath their fingertips, powerful magic, and arcane lore the like of which made other magical arts seem childlike, the Shapers could bring forth from nothing mighty legions of creations to do their bidding. There was no army they could not best, no land to which they could not bring life. This power made them the ultimate rulers of every land in which they walked, their creations bound to their will and the humans of the land bound to their law, Shaper Law. And for their enemies, there was only one punishment for defying the will of the Shapers: Death.
And so the Rebellion began.
An alliance of humans fighting Shaper oppression and creations yearning to be free, the Rebels harnessed dark power the like of which even the Shaper Council forbade the use of. The war unleashed horrors across the land, bringing battle from the outermost colonies of the Shapers to the heart of their mighty citadels, casting all down into the dust. Powerful armies of creations battled across Terrestria, laying waste to the land and putting countless lives to the sword. The war dragged on for years, the proud Shapers unwilling to admit defeat and the Rebels refusing to back down. It only ended when the Shattering broke the lands of Shaper and Rebel alike.
Nobody knows who did it. Some claim it was the Rebels, realizing the folly of their actions and repenting by wiping themselves out. Others claim that, near defeat, the Shapers had declared that if they should not rule there should be nothing to rule. Whatever the truth, the Shattering drew together all the Known Lands and then broke them. Mountains rose and fell. Waves swamped and then consumed entire provinces. Many of those cities that escaped the war were wiped out as fire rained from the heavens.
But that’s all ancient history.
Introduction
Spoiler: Plot
In spite of the destruction caused by the Shattering, some pockets of civilization survived, scarred, but wiser. The catastrophic event broke many of the cities of old, both Shaper and Rebel, but some people survived. One such was Shaper Thorin. Stumbling from the shattered remains of her research laboratories, she found a world made utterly still by the violence wrought upon it. Traveling far and wide, Thorin gathered survivors of the destruction and rebuild. Deep in the swampland now named Machit, she led the foundation of the settlement of Issei. It is where many were born and where many died. So too did you expect to live and die in this place, sheltered from whatever existed beyond its marshy extremities until the hand of fate intervened.
The Grand Academy is center of knowledge in this new Known World; your tiny known world. It is here that every child is taught the rudiments of everything they will need to know. It is here that people long graduated still return seeking aid and counsel. It is here that the seat of Thorin’s Council exists and from here that this tiny world is controlled. Here was where you have been taken and trained, all your life expecting to become one of those who would return to your village in the swamps and return to the community tenfold what you took. But the Council had other plans for you. They offered to make you a Shaper.
A Shaper. A god. What was the difference, really? In exchange for doing the Council’s bidding and upholding Shaper Law, you would be free to do anything you wish with the power that they teach you. You would be without equal except, of course, for your fellow Shapers. This great world, torn asunder, would be yours to reshape as you saw fit. The Council, though, requires something of you.
All power demands sacrifice and the Thorin’s Council demands of you a great deal in return for bestowing upon you this boon. To become a Shaper, you must gather all your strength and knowledge and skill and set out beyond the Great Magical Barrier that marks the borders of their realm. Your task is to obtain and return to them the knowledge and relics of past ages.
It will be a dangerous task, for the Great Barrier exists with good reason. Rogue creations, those creatures given life in past ages that broke away from the iron grip of the Shapers – if they were ever under it to begin with – roam the untamed lands beyond the borders, threatening swift death upon any who venture into their lands. Having consolidated their power for the past two centuries, few from Issei have ever gone so far. No rogue has ever crossed the Great Barrier, but there is no doubt that they are out there, waiting for an easy meal.
And you are not alone. The offer has been extended to every student in your class at the Grand Academy – over three hundred students. Many of the most promising recent graduates have also been included, much to the dismay of those graduates who were not. The Council has made clear that every student must be part of a group to participate. It has also made clear that the scale of each individual’s accomplishments will determine their eligibility to receive this fabled prize – if they make it back alive.
Now the students of the Grand Academy gather their supplies, make their groups, and mark the days until their departure. Even as those envious of this one chance whisper behind their backs, it is acknowledged that many of those venturing so far from home may never return.
Spoiler: Production Notes
Welcome to the Reforged Saga! The Reforged Saga is a fantasy RP set in the Geneforge universe. Geneforge is a fantasy RPG produced by the indie developer Spiderweb Software. The Reforged Saga takes place after the events of Geneforge 5, the last installment of the 5-part game series. It should be noted that Geneforge was a game of choices, meaning that there were several very descriptive and well-illustrated endings for players to choose from.
The Reforged Saga takes place nearly two centuries after the events of Geneforge 5, which was for the purposes of this RP and not necessarily canon in any endings of Geneforge 5, concluded with the Shattering. In a similar fashion there will be some expansions on what was possible in that universe, pending what is necessary to the RP.
The Reforged Saga will be a long-term RP with multiple Acts and Episodes that will chronicle the journey of the characters as they explore new lands and face new challenges, uncovering arcane lore and perhaps making a bit of their own. This thread is for Prologue: Great Expectations.
Great Expectations takes place in the swampland of Machit, primarily in the city of Issei and the Grand Academy. Here characters will be students of the Grand Academy who are preparing to set out on their journey beyond the borders of their homeland. Characters will form their groups*, plan their travels, prepare for the coming trials, and navigate the political waters of the ambitions of other students – and their teachers. This will be mostly a school RP, though the players will be focusing on developing their characters and preparing for the next Act. Mechanically, Great Expectations will introduce players to the Geneforge universe and help to explain its subtleties as well as lay the groundwork for future interactions.
* There will likely only be one group, in which all players will be. Additional groups may be permitted if there are enough players. This does, however, not mean that players have to start out their characters as planning to group with other players. They may initially plan to group with NPCs and even have loyalties to other groups, but they will end up with other players’ characters.
The World of Reforged
Locations
The Grand Academy
The Grand Academy is the center of learning in Issei and its satellite villages and the seat of power of Thorin’s Council, the ruling body of all the Known World within the Great Magic Barrier. A towering structure of stone, the Academy begins on Issei’s southernmost border and is wider than the chief city of Thorin’s Realm. Its long walls stretch deep into the swamp and its battlements are double-edged blades, looking both out and in. Without a doubt the grandest structure in the Known World, its tallest tower is a mere four stories, but its bowels dip deep into the earth and form an endless maze of rooms and corridors. Great Shaper Doors separate every laboratory and specimen containment zone while groups of creations patrol the hallways, minding anyone who enters so that they do not disturb the delicate experiments in progress. It is here that the people are educated and here that the secrets of the Shapers are furthered. Within its walls more than anywhere else, the authority of Thorin’s Council is absolute.
Spoiler: Becoming a Shaper and the Meaning of Shaperhood
In the time of the Shaper Council, the road to becoming a Shaper was long and often excruciating. Prospective candidates could apply from anywhere, but only the best were taken. They were shipped out to the distant outposts of the Shapers for their years of difficult training under harsh circumstances. If they survived without being dismissed they would then be sent to a proper academy for further training. Following this, the survivors would be placed under the tutelage of a seasoned Shaper who they would follow and serve until the Shaper determined that they were prepared to take the Shaper Oath and ascend into the godhood only offered by Shapers.
Times have changed. Thorin’s Council does not rule over even a tenth of the territory that its predecessor did and has even less Shapers than that. The Shattering, and the Rebellion before it, have reinforced the principles that guided the Shaper Council which had before just been mere theory. While Shaper quality may not have been a significant factor in the fall of the old order, Thorin’s Council knows that it was neglect and some turncoats that brought the world to chaos. Thus they created a new way of raising Shapers.
In a very real way, Thorin’s Council is much more interested in not making Shapers than making them. There is no set path to becoming a Shaper as before, nor much more than guiding principles. Many who have sought to become Shapers over the years have not been turned away from the path so much as never be given the proper training or the offer to be made one. Much of the formula has become pleasing the will of the Council until they decide to make one a Shaper. The result is essentially a prolonged stage of being a graduate student and hoping that the Council will save one from an internship void.
This is not to say that Thorin’s Council does this out of cruelty or a desire to hoard their power. In reality the Council very much wants to swell its ranks. The only problem is that they have to ensure that those who are raised comprise of the qualities of a Shaper: a cool and calm demeanor necessary to manage creations coupled with the power to keep the order and the wisdom to know when to use that power. Shapers are expected to be able to operate on their own, far from support and in the midst of their enemies. They must know how to present a united, perfected front to outsiders at all times, no matter how vehemently they disagree with their fellow Shapers. Those who bear the mantle of a Shaper must be able to charm their friends and allies and terrify their opponents such that violence is a true last resort; they must be resourceful. And above all, Shapers must adhere to Shaper Law and enforce it wherever they go.
This is why the challenge offered to the students is simultaneously an opportunity and a practical test to see who will qualify. The Council will weed out the weak, the corruptible, and the malicious while gathering those valuable enough to save and information about places outside their domain. For students, it is an opportunity to prove their worth to the Council without spending years inside the Academy as a graduate student.
Spoiler: General Teachings and Operation
Although the Grand Academy is the center of Shaping and where anyone wishing to become a Shaper must go, it is not its sole purpose. Thorin’s Council requires that all individuals within its realm attend the Grand Academy at some point in their lifetime. As most people are simply too poor and Thorin’s Council holds the bulk of wealth and the control of wealth in the realm anyways, all students attend the Grand Academy for free for as long as they stay. As such, students come from all over the realm to obtain their education.
As a rule, the Grand Academy will teach anyone anything except for Shaping. Everything from basic literacy lessons to advanced math and mechanics, from swordsmanship classes to magic instruction are available for those with the capacity to learn. Lessons are generally open and taught to anyone who walks into the classroom for the day. The teachers are usually graduate students, but can be outsiders if the Academy requires it. Advanced curriculum is usually taught by Shapers, as nobody else can match a Shaper in anything. Throughout it all, the importance of Shaper Law is drummed into the students at every opportunity.
Most students attend the Grand Academy starting between twelve to fourteen years old, though many families send them before then. Students will be assigned to a ‘class’ which usually consists of a four year age range. Students within a class are all expected to graduate together when the oldest wave of students reaches eighteen. If all members are not ready by then, the entire class is held back from graduating.
Once students have graduated they are free to make their way into the world as they please. Most will return to their homes, taking with them the knowledge they have obtained in order to settle down and enrich their communities. Some will remain at the Academy, either pursuing a life as a Shaper or else just expanding their knowledge. A select few may actually obtain Shaperhood.
Spoiler: Layout
The Grand Academy is split between its surface and underground sections.
Surface: The Academy occupies a position south of Issei. Its massive walls of solid stone rise two stories and are manned around the clock by patrols of creations and the occasional Shaper. A great moat encases the outer walls with a river that flows from the south-east splitting around it, separating the outer walls from the inner walls as well as it does from the main land. A series of drawbridges allow the river to be crossed. Within the inner walls exists the dormitories, the primary medical station, defense creation stables, the primary mess halls, and the Council Chambers among other things. Thorin’s Tower, the highest structure in the Academy, stands at the very center, a great courtyard before it.
Sub-surface: The bulk of the Academy exists underground. This is not merely an architectural decision: it is a matter of security. In the days of the Shaper Council, much of the experimental work done and the training of Shaper aspirants took place on islands far from the main population centers. Even on those islands, which usually had populations of their own, Shaping centers were held in isolated areas. The reason is simple: if something went wrong, the results could be catastrophic. If rogue creations could not be defeated, or if the Shapers simply couldn’t be bothered, the areas could be abandoned.
Thorin’s Council has no such real estate luxuries. The swamp only permits a limited number of places to live, let alone do research, yet research could not be stopped or else the Shapers would lose their purpose. The only solution was to create a structure large enough to house all types of experiments at once and contain them for disposal if something went wrong. The result is that the Academy was built with dozens to hundreds of rooms underground, possibly making it the largest structure ever conceived of by the Shapers. Each room and hallway segment can be sealed and the river above permitted some to be flooded. It also allows people to get lost at their leisure.
Other Locations
Spoiler: Issei
The most sprawling city – and the only city – in Marchit, Issei is home to more than half the population, human and creation, that lives under the rule of Thorin’s Council. The city is a vast collection of stone, brick, and wood buildings that form trade lanes, marketplaces, and residential areas. Everything outside of Shaping is practiced here from music, literature, and the arts to sport and games.
Like most cities before the Shattering, Issei possesses different tiers of living. To every direction but the south, the outermost limits are made up of farms and ranches. These agricultural lands provide nearly every food product required by the population. The plants and animals – particularly ornks – are Shaped by the Shapers who are assigned to oversee them while the labor is generally done by the vast population of serviles under the watchful eyes of human overseers.
The second tier of Issei is separated from the first by distance and walls. The walls themselves are made of brick and mortar and occasionally stone. Creations patrol the area from vast stables that lie in the shadow of the inner part of the wall. Guardhouses manned by Shapers and Shaper-trained humans keep an eye on the creations while the creations keep order on the roads and walls. A deep, stagnant moat separates the outer lands from the walls. Though the walls have never been breached – indeed they have never been attacked since their construction – routine patrols are kept and aspiring and veteran guards are occasionally made to play the part of attackers to reveal possible weaknesses.
After the walls and creation stables comes the third tier, which is the visitors’ and pleasure quarters. This part of Issei consists of lively taverns, massive inns, and seedy pleasure houses. Though there are more of these places further into the city, the third tier is where you will find the majority of these places – and their customers. Known as the roughest part of the city no matter the time of day or night, the third tier is as far as most people go for their adventures. It is also the place where travelers get their first taste of the city.
The fourth and fifth tiers consist of the trade lanes and the residential areas. It is here that the majority of the city population lives and works. Smiths, merchants, bankers, and artisans all call this part of Issei home and some do not venture outside of its vast confines. Virtually anything that is not Shaping can be found here for a price.
The Citadel of Issei stands against the back south walls of the city. A massive complex of stone surrounded by a moat and outer and inner walls, the Citadel is rivaled in sophistication only by the Grand Academy itself. It is the nominal seat of Thorin’s Council, though they rarely go there. Vast spires top guard towers interspaced between strongly built walls that are worked with the mysterious magic runes of the Shapers and covered in specialized turrets. Creation stables watched over by specialized Shapers maintain some of the most dangerous creations that the Shapers are willing to make. Behind all its defenses, the foreboding and intimidating figure of the Citadel rises up to the sky.
Spoiler: Machit
Machit is a sprawling collection of swamps and marshlands which are typically covered in fog and mist when not drenched in torrents of rain. Stretching for as far as the eye can see even on the rare clear day, Machit is the realm within which Thorin’s Council rules over Issei and its satellite villages, making them the owners of a watery maze of channels and isolated landmasses. Only Shaper magic permits people to live in such numbers in the face of such a difficult environment, for only Shapers can make the plants necessary to support large populations. It is for this reason that few people live outside of Issei.
Another reason for living in Issei is the danger. The swamp is also home to small populations of dangerous rogues which the Shapers cannot be bothered to clear out completely. Though the Great Magic Barrier which forms the border of the realm of Thorin’s Council has never been breached, rogues already existed within the limits when it was established. Waves of Shaper kill teams have cleared out the most deadly, but for non-Shapers, any kind of rogue can be lethal. Some believe that the Shapers purposefully left some creatures to thrive in order to make the population reliant on Shaper protection.
The Great Magic Barrier marks the end of Shaper rule in Machit, though it only contains what many believe to be a fraction of the swamp’s total area. A series of fortified stone guardposts enclose and protect the powerful rune-covered pylons that make up the Magic Barrier. It creates an invisible resonance field that repels creations at a distance or else emits powerful volleys of energized essence bolts to destroy anything that ventures too close. While it is not forbidden for people to come and go through the Magic Barrier, few who have ever walked beyond its protection have returned to tell the tale.
Notable Settlements in Machit
Spoiler: Assence
A moderately-sized mining village near the north-western border of the Great Magic Barrier, Assence is the furthest village from Issei and the closest to that protective network. Renowned for its vast iron mine and the skill of its ironworks, Assence is considered of great importance to Thorin’s Council. However, it is this same renown that earns it a fierce rivalry with Tarin, the only other major iron producer within the Magic Barrier.
Spoiler: Tarin
A mining village to the south-east of Issei, Tarin has a number of valuable mines including, to its residents’ resentment, the second-best iron mine in Machit. This fact drives a fierce rivalry with Assence which, though it only has an iron mine, outdoes Tarin in its ironworks.
Spoiler: Yuushin
A mining town, Yuushin is the only known location of a crystal mine in Machit. The mine makes Yuushin, otherwise an unremarkable village west of Issei, a frequent destination for merchants and Shapers alike. There is no more traveled route or more protected town in all of Machit. The well-laid travel path splits before reaching Issei, one going to the city and the other going directly to the Grand Academy. The village is often viewed with a mixture of reverence and suspicion for the presence of so valuable a material. However, the presence of crystals has grown the town such as to make it the second-largest settlelment in under the watch of Thorin’s Council.
Spoiler: Laubem
A farming village east of Issei, Laubem is notable merely for existing as a farming settlement far from the city. As it, like all other agricultural settlements, relies on Shaper techniques to manage the land and grow the crops, many wonder why they should bother going so far away. A taste of the local distilled drink that is unique to the village dispels any reservations about permitting its continued existence though.
Shaper Society
Spoiler: The Councils
Pictured: The Shaper Council and One of the Five in the later years of the Rebellion.
The Shaper Council was a body made up of the three strongest representatives of the three Shaper classes for a total of nine members. Each member was voted in by their respective class and maintained their interests there. Their duty to the Shapers was to proscribe the laws and maintain the traditions that bound Shapers, outsiders, and creations. Though some Shapers took an active role in controlling the day-to-day lives of the people in the cities and settlements they oversaw, the Shaper Council rarely concerned itself with such mundane matter. Their main focus was on making sure that the Shapers obeyed the law. Though they were slow to make decisions, the Shaper Council’s rulings were iron and their mercies none too tender, a fact that earned the ire of many Shapers and the fear of all others. By the later years of the Rebellion four of the nine had been killed, though one was replaced. It is unknown how many of the six that remained at the time of the Shattering survived.
Thorin’s Council is the ruling body of Issei and all her satellite villages. Though their realm is a fraction of what the Shapers previously owned, the Council maintains many of the traditions and laws of the Shaper Council before it. Like its predecessor, the Council concerns itself with both mundane and Shaper matters, though it places a great deal more emphasis on the former than the Shaper Council had. The Council is made up of six members, but the authority of each is much less balanced than the Shaper Council before it. The majority of authority lies in the hand of the Shaper class due to Thorin herself.
Spoiler: Magic
Though the Shapers used magic in creation not all magic was their concern. Shaper Law dictated that, while individuals should be careful in studying arcane lore, there were no restrictions on the study of magic itself, so long as no Shaping was involved. As a result portions of the population were free to learn magic without the interference of the Shapers – so long as they used that power wisely.
In Issei magic is a deeply studied matter, even for Shapers. The major arts were divided into three sub-categories, those being Battle Magic, Mental Magic, and Blessing Magic.
Spoiler: Battle Magic
Battle Magic is the use of magic in a direct offensive capacity, ranging from fireballs to charged bolts of essence, all with the goal of eliminating enemies.
Spells:
Firebolt: Casts a ball of fire at a target, causing explosive fire damage.
Burning Spray: Casts a stream of acid at a target, eating away armor and melting flesh.
Searer: Casts a bolt of poison that infects the target and causes damage over time.
Ice Spray: Casts an icy lance that impales and freezes targets.
Lightning Aura: Surrounds a target with an electric storm, causing damage over time.
Shocking Rain: Impacts an area with an electric storm, causing damage to all in the vicinity.
Acid Shower: Spews acid over a large area.
Kill: Fires a devastating bolt of pure magic at a target.
Essence Lances: Fires electric bolts at a target.
Purifying Rain: Rains fire on an entire area to incinerating foes.
Spoiler: Mental Magic
Mental Magic focuses on clouding the minds of enemies and sowing discord among their ranks.
Spells:
Daze: Confounds enemies, paralyzing them and preventing them from acting. Attacking those affected diminishes the effect.
Mindshield Aura: Increases the ability of targets to resist mental magic.
Wrack: Helps allies focus on a target, increasing their effectiveness against it.
Unlock: Unlocks nearby containers, doors, and levers.
Terror: Overwhelms a target with fear, paralyzing it or causing it to flee.
Dominate: Allows the user to exert a temporary control over a target.
Essence Shackles: Slows targets with a chance to paralyze them.
Spoiler: Blessing Magic
Blessing Magic improves the performance of allies and giving them protection from enemy blows. Powerful auras offer a variety of effects, though only one can be active at any one time.
Spells:
War Blessing: Increases allies’ ability to land precise blows, severing tendons and smashing organs. Also increases allies’ reaction times.
Essence Shield: Creates a powerful barrier which improves the armor of allies and provides a barrier that protects where physical armor ends.
Thorny Aura: Gives reposit to all group members, damaging enemies who come too close.
Battle Aura: Enhances and poisons the blades of all group members.
Battle Roar: Protects, blesses, cures, and shields every friendly creature nearby. Also cures all hostile mental effects (like charming and fear).
Other Magic
Aside from the aforementioned magical categories, there were other, more obscure forms of magic practiced both by the Shapers and other magical sects. Note that this list is does not contain all magical knowledge, but these are some that could be found taught at the Grand Academy.
Spoiler: Alchemy
Alchemy was the practice of using both magical and mundane plants and animal parts (some creations) to obtain specific effects, from curing and healing to poisoning and unpleasant bowel movements. Shapers tended to turn their noses up at alchemy in general, preferring to use magic to handle ailments. They were not alone in this. Most people during the age of the Shaper Council preferred magic over alchemy as a solution. However, with the much-reduced numbers of Shapers after the Shattering, alchemy became a wider practice, particularly in villages far from Issei.
Although Shapers did not care much for alchemy, it was an essential part of the basis of their craft. Essence, the substance of life used by the Shapers in making creations, is an alchemical mixture. This was virtually the only thing that Shapers keep an eye on when it comes to Shaping, though their interest usually is confined to making sure the results they get are good – essence is useless to outsiders who cannot Shape.
Spoiler: Magical Forging/Enchanting
Magical Forging and Enchanting are usually used interchangeably as they both involved adding magical powers to otherwise ordinary objects that does not include typically include Shaping. Magical forging specifically refers to using magic during the forging process while enchanting refers to adding magic after the item has already been completed. As a rule of thumb, magical forging results in more powerful magic being attached to the item than enchanting does.
Both magical forging and enchanting usually involved the use of crystals as a magical conduit and energy storage. Examples of magical forging include both wands and crystal weapons. Enchanting, being a much broader practice, included everything from protective gear to weapons. Magical forging and enchanting also included the use of specific magical plants or creation parts. What material used and the quality of the material used affected the resulting powers of the item once it was completed. Of course, creation parts made the matter a concern of the Shapers.
Though few Shapers bothered themselves to make anything magical, there were a few exceptions. As Shapers often work with dangerous substances, having a good supply of protective gear against poison and acid (called vat) or electricity (called grounded) was essential during work. Other Shapers made use of magical gear that protected against such things as fire and ice when working with creations, particularly fyora and their cousins the cryora. Besides this, Shapers also occasionally made Shaped materials, a sort of enchanting and one of the few enchantments that outdid magical forging.
Spoiler: Runecraft
Runecraft is the act of utilizing runes as a method of magical storage and release. They can be used to create traps for enemies or protect vital areas. Shapers usually use runes as a form of magical alarm system, alerting them when someone trespasses into an area, or on weapons and armor as advanced magical protection. However, they also use runes to ward an area against enemies, as with the Great Magic Barrier that borders the region controlled by Thorin’s Council. The art of runecraft, unlike other non-Shaping magic, is now virtually unknown outside of the Shapers as most knowledge was lost after the Shattering. Even so, the practice of runecraft was rarely used by outsiders before the Shattering, as few were powerful enough to create runes.
Spoiler: Marriage
Shapers almost never married. Most Shapers considered the practice of marriage to be quaint but not very useful, especially in the pursuit of their research. Similarly, serviles, the Shapers’ most sociable creations of intellect, did not practice marriage. However, both the Shapers and the serviles were known to take partners, sometimes for life.
Among outsiders marriage remained an emotional and economic component, though the Shapers rarely paid any heed to the social arrangements of the lower classes, so long as they did not interfere in Shaper work or violate Shaper Law. As such, very little is known about how marriage worked, though it was included under Shaper Law.
Spoiler: Religion and the Legend of the Five
As the fabled Saphira of legend pointed out about her own kind, those with great power rarely held beliefs in greater powers, as they were regarded as gods themselves by lesser creatures. So too was it true of the Shapers before the Rebellion and through much of that tumultuous struggle until the Shattering. For most Shapers there was no greater religion than their fanatical, and sometimes frantic, adherence to and enforcement of Shaper Law.
In the time after the Shattering a pseudo-philosophy emerged called the Legend of the Five. The Fire were known to have been Shapers, not true gods, but that does not stop many in Issei and Machit from regarding their legend with almost the same fanatical devotion of some Shapers regard Shaper Law. Three truths exist about the belief in the Legend of the Five. First, little is actually known about the Shapers. Their names, gender, and alignment during the Rebellion in which they made their legend have all been lost. Second, though they all had hands in the Rebellion, their collective legend is actually five separate legends; though their fates are unknown, no record of them ever meeting exists. Third, they commanded unnatural power, even for Shapers.
As a philosophy, many adherents debate the merits of the little known about the Five, holding that they were examples of the best Shapers, who are in turn far above all others. This interpretation usually holds that they accomplished feats of great magnanimity during their lifetimes. Some, notably outsiders, argue that the Legend of the Five describes individuals who never existed and the Legend is merely a reinforcement of Shaper superiority. Others, including the mighty Thorin, are not so sure.
Outside of the Shapers the concept of gods is not a lost thing. Even in the golden era of Shaper dominance there were local beliefs in deities beyond the power of the Shapers. Some attempted to challenge Shaper authority and were crushed while other limped on through the centuries of Shaper control. The Shattering saw the isolation of many villages, leading a rise in these beliefs, though the villages under Thorin’s Council quickly fell back under a shadow similar to the one projected by the Shaper Council before it.
Spoiler: Shaper Classes
In their time, the Shapers were the most secretive, most powerful, and most feared of all the magical sects. Their power to create life made their cities industrious and their prowess on the battlefield unmatched. That is, until the Rebellion.
The Shapers were made up of three classes, though all were referred to as Shapers by outsiders. Those classes were the Guardian, the Agent, and the Shaper. While training in Issei is limited for those who wish to pursue the Shaping craft, the classes remain as one can only learn so much in their life. So too should one be wary of what path they take. The classes were resurrected in Issei, though there are only a few examples of each in the population. Special training was provided for students who declared their paths.
Spoiler: The Guardian
Spoiler: The Guardian
The Guardian was the strong arm of the Shapers. Well-trained, heavily armed and armored, the Guardian was a terrible sight on the battlefield for any foolish enough to challenge the Shapers. In youth they served as seconds to more senior Guardians. Later they would take to the field themselves, leading younger Guardians and armies of powerful creations. In their elder years, when a Guardian becomes tired of the field of battle or infirm beyond healing, they retire as formidable generals and military advisors, unmatched in their understanding of strategy, tactics, and logistics even during the years of the Rebellion.
Combat Skills: Strong
Magic Skills: Weak
Shaping Skills: Average
Spoiler: The Agent
Spoiler: The Agent
The Agent was the poisoned underhand blade of the Shapers. Often lightly armored, Agents relied on stealth, speed, and magic. The most powerful spellcasters of all Shapers, Agents served under the moonlight, striking when and where the enemy least expected it. Operating individually or in small groups, Agents infiltrated behind enemy lines and, occasionally, within enemy ranks to conduct sabotage campaigns that saw leaders assassinated, defenses weakened, and morale undermined. A long tradition, senior Agents would often teach the younger ranks their craft, ever bringing fear to the enemies of the Shapers on moonless nights.
Combat Skills: Average
Magic Skills: Strong
Shaping Skills: Weak
Spoiler: The Shaper
Spoiler: The Shaper
The Shaper was the backbone of the Shapers and what give them their name and power. Though usually the most physically frail when compared to the other Shaper classes, underestimating a Shaper was the most lethal, and often last, mistake an enemy could make. With nothing but the knowledge in their minds, essence under their fingers, and the magic imbued in their bodies, Shapers could make armies rise and cities fall. Vast numbers of creations of every shape and size and purpose bowed when Shapers passed and trembled when they went to march. They wielded nothing more or less than the power of gods.
Combat Skills: Weak
Magic Skills: Average
Shaping Skills: Strong
Spoiler: Shaper Law
Before the Shattering, most outsiders, the name given to any non-Shaper, non-creation, regarded the Shapers with a mixture of fear and respect. Shapers were the backbone of civilization and the ultimate rulers of all the Known World. This meant that all people, Shapers included, must abide by their laws. These laws were created by the Shaper Council and typically addressed mundane matters. However, for full Shapers, who were above many laws in many ways, Shaper Law referred to the guiding principles that underlay their power and prevented them from destroying themselves.
Thorin’s Council holds strongly to the ways of the Shaper Council before it and has resurrected many of the old laws. Of course, only the Council and a few select individuals in Issei can Shape in any form, meaning that many of the laws are redundant for common people. However, with the coming of the offer to make new Shapers, every student was expected to learn and memorize the Shaper Laws. Some are fragmentary, though the reason for this is unclear. What is clear is that the penalty for breaking Shaper Law when it comes to Shaping has not changed in the slightest: death, swift and unmerciful.
Spoiler: The Shaper Laws
1. All Shapers must, without undue delay and with no moral or mental reservations, engage in the observance, teaching, preservation, and execution of all Shaper Law at all times, and must, if necessary, lay the framework for the continued observance, teaching, preservation, and execution of all Shaper Law after one’s death.
2. No Shaper may reveal the secrets of the Shapers to any non-Shaper who is not a declared acolyte of the Shapers. Shaper secrets are hereby defined as the craft of Shaping and all of its associate processes.
3. All rogue creations, hereby defined as creations that do not obey the Shapers and observe Shaper Law, must be destroyed without undue delay.
4. The creation of drayks or any of its offspring, be it other drayks or creations of the making of its kind, are henceforth banned.
5. No Shaper may make any creation capable of creating other creations.
6. No Shaper may use any means to Shape themselves or anything or anybody of intellect.
7. No Shaper may deal with those demons that exist beyond the mortal realms except to see the return of these creatures to their nether realm.
8. No Shaper may perform necromancy or disturb the dead except to return the dead to their slumber.
Spoiler: Shaping and Creations
Shapers create life. The creatures they create are collectively called creations. These artificial life forms are made when a Shaper takes the essence of a creature and bombards it with magical energy. The results are typically unstable messes that would die off naturally due to their own instability. By carefully documenting each change observed in subsequent specimens, the Shapers compile ways to make life.
There is no theoretically nothing that Shapers cannot make life to do. From pets to cuddle with beside home fireplaces to creatures of labor to beasts of war, Shapers can make life suitable for just about any purpose and just about any environment.
Creations are typically bound to obey their creators by powerful magic and, occasionally, more mundane means of taming. However, especially during the Shaping process, this is not always true. Unstable creations may turn against their masters, earning themselves the names of rogues. Under Shaper Law, there are few worse offenses than creating a rogue that cannot be controlled. Shaper Law dictates that any creations made that cannot be controlled must be destroyed immediately.
The following are known or common creations:
Spoiler: General
Spoiler: Giant Rats
Giant rats are exactly what they sound like. They are also a fabulous example of why the Shapers hold onto their secrets so tightly. Once there was no such thing as giant rats. Then some clumsy Shaper let one or two loose from containment and now there are. While Shaper techniques continually improved crop production without depleting the land, the giant rat eroded chances for a new golden age.
Spoiler: Golem
Spoiler: Golem
Massive creations, golems are creations made of some of the trickiest Shaping ever conceived, mechanical understanding beyond most Shapers, and great slabs of solid stone. Extremely rare, golems are usually used as heavy guards in compact quarters where their lack of a ranged offensive ability is offset by their excellent skill in punching things into gritty paste. Though partially creations, many Shapers argue that they are not creations at all and maintain that the Kyshakk is the most armored of the Shapers’ servants. Whether or not that is true, it is true that most Shapers had little interest in making golems during the era of the Shaper Council.
Spoiler: Ornk
Massive livestock with the body of a cow, the features of a pig, and pink skin all around, ornks provide much of the milk, meat, and hides that drive the lowest rungs of Shaper society. Made to be suitable to virtually any environment, ornks are often overseen by servile caretakers as they live their lives grazing before slaughter. Like serviles, ornks are typically bred naturally after the initial generation is made, on account of their value-to-cost measurement.
Spoiler: Servant Minds
Appearing to be much like a human skull attached to a small pig’s body, servant minds are one of the most useful of Shaper creations. Once grown, servant minds are placed in the trays which they spend the rest of their lives in. Intelligent creatures, servant minds are usually tasked to perform such roles as directing servile labor or screening individuals who wish to pass a sealed door. They also provide information and advice for Shapers who require it. As creatures of great intelligence that are occasionally provided the ability to enable powerful defenses, servant minds are bred with a strong sense of loyalty and obedience to Shapers. Even during the Rebellion many chose to die rather than betray their creators. That is, of course, assuming that they had a choice in the first place.
Spoiler: Servile
Serviles are probably the greatest creation of the Shapers... and their greatest bane. Typical serviles stand at about chest height to a human, though part of this may be due to having hunched backs both naturally and from a lifetime of hard labor. They often wear hooded clothes, obscuring view of their faces, never meeting the eyes of their owners. However, a notable feature they possess is an elongated nose, much like that of an elephant.
Serviles were made by the Shapers to handle menial tasks such as farm work and basic mercantile. Unlike most other creations made by the Shapers, serviles possess a rudimentary level of intelligence. They are capable (if taught) of speech and understanding basic instructions, though it may take a firm and active hand to guide their labor. They were bred to be loyal to the Shapers and totally obedient.
However, as any student at the Grand Academy who paid any attention to the extensive lessons on the Rebellion knows, it was the docile servile that started that terrible war. Where and when the first serviles rebelled against their masters is unknown, but it is known that they were part of the ringleaders of the Rebellion up until the Shattering.
Both during the war and still today in Issei some serviles remained loyal to the Shapers. Though the Rebellion is far behind them Thorin’s Council still teaches vigilance with the serviles lest their child-like intelligence spur another great war. For most people looking at the serviles, many of whom could not dress properly without direction, the thought that they might rebel seems ridiculous.
Spoiler: Spore Mines
Fungi like their turret cousins, the surface-dwelling spore mines are designed to explode when things without permission to cross over them attempt to do so. Distinguishable for the sensor that protrudes from the center of their round, dinner-plate sized bodies, the leaning of a spore mine can be told by whether the sensor points towards an approaching individual or not. Those that it does would do best keeping clear.
Spoiler: Turrets
Like defense pylons, turrets are used to guard secrets and keep things from passing areas, no matter the direction they are heading. Essentially massive fungi towers topped with a bulbous head that launches thorns, turrets can be programmed to ignore certain targets, meaning that areas can be tailored to allow some to pass. However, those without permission to pass are quickly met by deadly volleys of high-velocity thorns that can puncture armor and poison wounds.
Spoiler: Battle Shaping
Spoiler: Thad
Not dissimilar from apes with the statures of men, thad are made for light guard work and hard labor. Usually standing head and shoulders above normal humans most Thad specimens are hairy and none to clean. In combat, thad lack any sort of ranged ability and so settle for punching anything within reach. Possessing a relatively small brain, Thad are none too bright and are easily intimidated when faced with a full Shaper. Regular humans are not so lucky.
Spoiler: Clawbug
Spoiler: Clawbug
Essentially massive scorpions, clawbugs never cease growing and can feasibly grow until their claws could snap a human in half with one swipe. Although clawbugs were made to be suitable for any environment they are most often found in deserts and near rock formations where they use their formidable claws to dig burrows. Woe to the unfortunate traveler who takes refuge in these places, for the armor of the clawbug is notoriously thick and can repel many normal weapons while their stingers can punch through armor and poison their prey.
Spoiler: Battle Alpha/Battle Beta/Battle Gamma
Spoiler: Battle Alpha (Back)
The Battle series, starting with Alpha, are humanoid creatures that fulfil the same role as thads, though they are mostly hairless and twice as strong. Capable of pummeling most enemies into gritty paste, Battle series creations are only ever called upon in times of great need for though they are little brighter than their thad cousins, they are difficult to control if there is not a full Shaper present.
Spoiler: Rotghroth
Spoiler: Rotghroth
The hideous result of experimentation done by the drayks and their servile allies during the early years of the Rebellion, rotgharoths are less creations so much as towering corpses. Their appearances are generally those of abnormally tall humanoids, sometimes twice the height of humans, whose skin was peeled away so that the flesh beneath began to rot. A toxic cloud of poison follows where they pass and their hands spread acid on whatever they touch. Unlike other humanoid creations, it is impossible to say if rotghroths are intelligent, for they attack whatever they see and their prey has to either fight or die; conversation is not an option.
Spoiler: War Thrall
War thralls appear to be more or less like the ogres of legend. Pudgy in appearance, their bulk is all grey-hide bound muscle and they put it to good use, carrying around boulders in slings which they hurl at their enemies. A product of Shaper research put into service during the latter years of the Rebellion, war thralls are the only Battle Shaping creations who use a ranged attack as their primary mode of engagement. However, many a foolish Rebel quickly found that they are still more than capable in close quarters.
Spoiler: Fire Shaping
Spoiler: Fyora/Cryora
Spoiler: Fyora
The fyora is a (generally) bipedal fire-breathing lizard, typically of some hue of red. They vary in height, sometimes not meeting a person’s knee and other times matching the average human height. Fyora are usually kept as basic security creatures, watching doors and so forth, though they have also been known to be used as pets for their docile and easily controlled behavior.
In combat, fyora are noted for their speed and ferocity though their bright hide makes it difficult for them to blend in to surrounding environments. They typically will attack at a distance with fireballs that erupt from their mouths, though they are quite capable with grappling with foes, especially humans, at close range with tooth and claw.
Cryora are the blue-scaled, iceball-breathing cousins of the Fyora. They were made for colder climates and typically are more physically powerful than their fire-breathing cousins, though their icy blasts and make popsicles of anyone at a distance.
Spoiler: Roamer
Spoiler: Roamer
Appearing to be much like a monkey that travels on four legs with the head of a dog, roamers serve as the next tier of civil order keepers. Typically brown-furred, roamers possess a lethal combination of acidic spittle for use at long range and sharp teeth at close range. Neither as dull as thads nor as cunning as some other creations, roamers are frequently found patrolling under the direction of vlish, which use their mental magic to keep the creatures under control.
Spoiler: Drayk/Cryodrayk
Spoiler: Drayk
Drayks are winged lizards with bodies like blocks of muscle and bone. A fire-breathing species, drayks could range in size from chest-height to a human to head-and-shoulders above them with bodies the size of tanks. Unlike fyoras, drayks are usually slow-moving, implacable foes on the battlefield. However, it is not their ferocious nature or ability to spit fireballs or fly that make drayks so dangerous. It is their intelligence.
Drayks were banned by the Shaper Council long before the Rebellion. They feared that the cunning creatures would eventually lead to the overthrow of the Shapers’ order. Edicts went out that all Shapers were barred from making them and any existing drayks were to be destroyed. Many were, but some successfully fled.
Ultimately, the Shaper Council’s dark predictions proved true. Though it was the serviles who first rebelled, it was the drayks who helped give them power. Serviles could be mighty in close combat, but they could not Shape; drayks could. United by their common goal, the drayks led the creation of the mighty drakons from their own stock, which ultimately led to the spread of the Rebellion.
Cryodrayks are larger versions of their cousins, though they breathe ice instead of fire and have blue hides instead of green.
Spoiler: Kyshakk
Spoiler: Kyshakk
Similar in appearance to a hornless rhino with a mountain ride on its back, the tan-colored kyshakk is no more or less a mobile platform of destruction. Made by the Shapers during the closing years of their struggle against the Rebels, the kyshakk was a rushed response to the terrible creatures unleashed by the Rebellion. Slow and implacable on the battlefield, what the kyshakk lacked in close quarters ferocity was more than made up by the ability to cast devastating bolts of lightning from their mouths, leveling buildings and incinerating foes with ease. The most armored of all creations, kyshakk could take an enormous amount of punishment before succumbing to the rigors of war.
Spoiler: Drakon
Spoiler: Drakon
The greatest of the mistakes ever made by the drayks, the drakon were creatures of near-unrivaled power. Made from drayk stock, the drakons were towering monstrosities with the heads of dragons and the winged bodies of lizard-men. Typically bipedal where their drayk ancestors were quadrupedal, the drakons were notorious for their arrogance and their power. Capable of molding life with their bare claws, the drakons created many horrors during the Rebellion, seeking not to just throw off the shakes of Shaper rule, but to utterly remake the world in their own image.
Spoiler: Unbound
Spoiler: Unbound
The Unbound are the ultimate example of why the Shapers hold so closely their secret craft. Made by the drakons during the Rebellion, the Unbound typically appeared to be drakons with translucent skin that revealed fluid interiors that glowed white with light. The truth was that the Unbound were simply mobile containers of unstable power, ready to be unleashed upon anything that crossed their path. Not content to fight the Shapers on their own terms, the drakons created the Unbound and simply set them loose upon the world to destroy everything. And they did.
Spoiler: Magic Shaping
Spoiler: Artila
Spoiler: Artila
Worm-like creations, artila share much of their appearance with massive versions of venomous pythons. This is an apt comparison, for the physically frail artila primarily attacks its prey with acid from afar and is too frail to engage an enemy in close range.
Spoiler: Vlish
Spoiler: Vlish
Resembling squid, vlish are used by the Shapers as mobile command and control platforms. Though a vlish cannot fight well in melee, it is capable to casting clouds of poison to slow and debilitate its foes. Some are even capable to inspiring fear in their enemies or forcing other creations to switch sides. When given a pack of lesser creatures like roamers, vlish can conduct patrols by providing direction and ranged support.
Spoiler: Glaahk
Spoiler: Glaahk
Glaahk are some of the more strange creations of the Shapers – and the more terrifying. Like Battle series creations, glaahk are only called upon for truly devastating attacks against the foes of the Shapers, lending a literal sting to the attacks that can melt away armor and eviscerate flesh even as it slows the target.
Spoiler: Wingbolt
Spoiler: Wingbold
Made by the Shapers during the closing years of the Rebellion, the wingbolt may be physically weak, but it moves quickly and can easily overwhelm most targets with its tail-fired bolts of pure magical energy.
Spoiler: Gazer
Spoiler: Gazer
Gazers are some of the most terrible creations of the Rebellion. Like their lesser cousins, the vlish, gazers were made to help control large numbers of lesser creations. However, like the drayks that birthed them, the Gazers were strong and willful. These creatures largely rebelled against their own creators, though they did not submit to the Shapers. Most gazers spent the war playing their own side, drawing in lesser creatures to do their bidding for them.
Spoiler: Healing Craft
Healing Craft is exactly what it sounds like: the use of magic to heal afflictions on individuals. However, Healing Craft is not solely the realm of magic. Repairing the damage done to a living creature, be it Shaper, human, or creation, requires the use of essence. As such, the Healing Craft falls under Shaping and is so one of the primary concerns of Shapers. It is arguably also one of the most regulated, as Healing Craft is notorious for being dangerously close to Shaping individuals. Like all other Shaping, Healing Craft requires both spell energy and essence to work and is cast as a spell. Just as with all other spells, the effectiveness of a cast spell depends on the skill and knowledge of the caster, as well as their innate power.
Healing: Heals physical afflictions including cuts, scrapes, and bruising, both inside and out.
Cure Affliction: Eliminates harmful effects including mental effects, slowing, and curses.
Essence Infusion: Increases the physical resistance of a target, causing deep gashes to become cuts and reducing blows that would cause internal bleeding to mere bruising. As the name suggests, this requires a great deal of essence to work.
Spoiler: Technology and Magical Materials
General gear, ranging from simple clothes to wargear, was usually made from common materials such as cotton or metals like bronze or iron. Most outsiders were forced to make due with basic technology with little help from the Shapers. However, there are some notable exceptions; things that might find their way into the hands of the people or things they might encounter.
Spoiler: General
Crystals (Material): Mined in the depths of the world, crystals are a vital part of any magical endeavor. Ranging from the ubiquitous rough crystal to the coveted flawless crystal and covering a range of colors (though usually green), crystals provide for magic users both a source and a storage for magical energy for use in both combat and magic. Indeed, they are so valuable that the Shapers strictly controlled the flow of crystal and commandeered control of any mines, taking the largest and most flawless examples for themselves in the pursuit of Shaping.
Essence: The semi-living blue goop from which the Shapers create life, essence is part nutrient material and part magic. Though closely tied with their secretive art, Shapers have little problem with outsiders owning it; it isn’t something that they can make use of anyways. It is even known for Shapers to contract outsiders to made the collect and assemble the basis for essence in the same ways thorn batons and living tools are sometimes grown by outsiders in order to free Shapers from such mundane tasks. The results are often lesser than if a Shaper oversaw the creation, but it rarely interferes with research.
Magic Items: Made from material charged with magical energy, these items provide enhancements for their users ranging from surer combat abilities to mental focusing. A very few can aid in the art of Shaping and those few are generally regulated by the Shapers, but most magic items are of no concern to the Shapers.
Shaped Items: Half-living lifeforms bred into materials by a combination of potent magic and essence Shaping, these enhancements afford the users weapons that can aid in combat and armor that is stronger possesses an ability to self-repair. Of course, only Shapers are permitted to make such materials, though any may wear them.
Spoiler: Weapons and Tools
Box Mines: Mechanical versions of spore mines, box mines are stand-alone instruments that do not rely on spores for commands. Unlike spore mines, they can contain a variety of nasty surprises for trespassers that range from elemental damage to unleashing creations from inside. However, where spore mines detonate immediately on contact, box mines take longer to detonate. While this rarely allows a target the time to escape, it does give a window for them to disable the surface-dwelling mine. If, that is, their mechanics skill is high enough and they move fast enough.
Crystal Triggers: Another use of crystal, crystal triggers are magically tuned to effect nearby traps. They may detonate a field of spore mines or sound an alarm to draw guard creations to combat intruders. Some crystal triggers can be disabled like box mines, but not all. They typically appear as translucent spikes of crystal placed on the ground.
Crystals (Weapon): Some mined crystals are turned towards military applications. These crystals are carefully carved and charged with magical energy. The result is a single-use magical items that can be hurled at enemies with devastating effects that range from simple explosions of fire to eviscerating bolts of lightning. These are often used by those who go into conflict without a working knowledge of spellcraft, but an excellent throwing arm.
Living Tools: Essentially a mass of purple tentacles at the end of a long living body, living tools are the best friends of anyone with limited mechanical skill. They can be used to affect repairs, pick locks, and even break enchanted seals on chests and other containers. Though originally Shaped, most living tools are several generations down, being bred by those taught by the Shapers. Of course, some living tools do not survive that long, as using one for any purpose tends to kill the creature.
Thorn Batons: Perhaps the most ingenious weapon ever created by the Shapers outside of Shaped Materials. Ancient texts from the earliest Shapers recall some barbarian humans using “twigs cast from bent twigs” to engage foes at range. Whatever that strange craft was, it was quickly replaced by the use of thorn batons. Half-inanimate object, half-living creature, thorn batons use a series of pressurized air sacs within the creature to launch a variety of thorns at incredible speeds with a simple squeeze. When matched with their appropriate baton, these thorns can carry death in the form of acid, poison, and even pure magical power. In spite of being a Shaped creature that requires careful breeding, Shapers neither regulate their breeding nor their use, so long as they are not used against Shaper Law. However, Shaping new batons is another matter altogether. Most thorn batons must be reloaded after every six shots.
Wands: Similar to crystal weapons, wands are magically charged weapons. Typically limited to six uses before depletion, wands are made from mined crystals, a stick, and special herbs. The type of herb dictates the effect of the wand while the quality of the materials affects the damage it can deal and its longevity. Like crystals, wands are typically used by those with little understanding of spells, but a great understanding of missile-based weaponry and a need for something stronger than a standard thorn baton.
Spoiler: Misc.
Control Panels: Shaping generally requires the complex use of vast amounts of purified essence, magic, and energy drawn from crystal formations as well as complicated machinery. In order to manage all of this, the Shapers created control panels. Living organisms sealed within stone shells, control panels could be attuned to any number of functions and enabled Shapers to control vast complexes. However, in addition to Shaping, they required an understanding of Mechanics, a skill that eluded many Shapers immersed in their art. They typically look like a mass of knobs and levers.
Defense Pylons: Shaper research was dangerous and Shapers often jealously guarded their secrets, as much from each other as outsiders. Defense Pylons are the highest example of that drive. While some Shapers preferred to use patrolling creations in their complexes, others made use of these half-living immobile pillars of destruction. Made from crystals charged with essence and magical energy, defense pylons were controlled by minor creations whose only function was to recognize who needed blasting with their powerful waves of pure magic and who didn’t. Few who were on the former end lived to tell the tale.
Spoiler: Shaper Doors
Most doors are simple constructions of wood and metal hinges, even if they are imbued with magical runes and enchantments. Of course, such frail materials will not do for Shapers, meaning that they require something more capable of keeping things out – and keeping things in. Additionally, many Shapers feel that they should not be bothered by the act of opening doors themselves; such things are beneath them. Shaper doors are the result.
Generally made of slabs of solid stone or walls of tightly-bound bricks, Shaper doors are special for being alive. Or rather, the creature that controls them is alive. A plant made of Shaping, these docile creatures can sense and distinguish individuals, determining whether or not to move their heavy burdens and open up the way.
These doors are typically adjusted to what is behind them: Typical rooms are usually made so that the door will slide down. This is so that, in the event that the plant dies, the door will open rather than seal any unfortunates inside. On the flip side, rooms that are generally permission-only access (such as laboratories) may have doors that come down from the ceiling. This is so that any death of the plant seals in rather than lets out whatever may be within. Any Shaper trapped in their own laboratory is expected to be talented enough to get themselves out. For obvious reasons, this is a practice that was rare before the Shattering. Thorin’s Council, however, has made it mandatory for all laboratories.
Mechanics of Reforged
Spoiler: Rules
- All RPA rules and regulations apply.
- I, Imperial1917, am Groot. Fear me.
- Momma always said dying is a part of life, so your characters will run the risk of dying in this RP, either if you play your cards wrong in the IC or make an ass of yourself in the OOC.
- No godmodding or anything of the sort. If you don’t, your character may live. If you do, I will find your character and I will kill them.
- Mind the OOC and keep it clean.
- This is the world of Geneforge, but not entirely just as Geneforge was. If you don’t know what Geneforge is, then be patient while I hash it out for you. Reading the entire OP will help that. If you do know, don’t think to challenge me on it. Suggestions can be PMed to me for consideration.
- Both your CS and your posts are expected to be of quality. Poor posts result in “the talk.” Remember to post once a week at least.
- Realism is highly encouraged in this RP. There will be gory details.
- I reserve the right to make changes to the rules as I see fit.
Spoiler: Shaper Stats
This is a list of suggested skills proper for the Reforged Saga. Some are taken from Geneforge while others are made for the purpose of this RP. Note that you are not constrained to this list and some skills will require greater definition when you make your CS. This is also a guide to what is categorized under what in the Reforged Saga universe.
Magic Skills
Battle Magic
Mental Magic
Blessing Magic
Spellcraft: Increases effectiveness of all spells.
Shaping Skills
Fire Shaping
Battle Shaping
Magic Shaping
Healing Craft
General Skills
Alchemy
Enchanting
Leadership
Magic Forging
Mechanics
Runecraft
Spoiler: Character Creation
Name: Character name.
Year: 1-4, representing ages 14-18. Graduate students (19+) have to get permission from the GM.
Origin: Either you are from Issei or you are from a satellite village. There are existing villages named, but you may make your own. Keep in mind that Issei is much more populated and advanced than any of its satellites. If you make your own, include below your CS a spoiler with a description of your character’s village, including its location relative to Issei. No village may be outside the Great Magic Barrier. Different villages may produce variations in mindsets.
Age: Your character’s age. Characters will be no older than 19. Your year should match your age. If your character is below 14, you have to justify why they would be part of the class offered the chance to go abroad. If you want to make a graduate student, you may apply, but ask first and know that you need a quality CS and your writing sample must reflect an understanding of the lore. Rejection rates for graduate students will probably be high.
Gender: Your character’s gender.
Declared Class: Agent, Guardian, Shaper, or undeclared. Choose one. It will affect your character’s skill set as each declared path will have received special training from the Grand Academy to set your character down that path.
Appearance: The look of your character. You may include an image if it is accurate, but a detailed description is mandatory. Not all features must be listed, but it should be as in-depth as possible. Different villages may produce differing customs and traditions that lead to particular markings or tattoos.
Wargear: Weapons, armor, and other supplies. Keep in mind the notes about Shaper weaponry and materials. I don’t want to see any twigs being used to cast twigs at other people. Magical materials will be rare and Shaped materials are unavailable for students. Metal will be abundant enough to be obtained, but it will not be easy or cheap to get. Even then, most will have no higher than bronze as a material. Not all supplies need to be listed, as the group will share supplies.
Creations: What creations does your character have? Bear in mind that no character can actually Shape at this point, meaning that any creations were gifted from an actual Shaper. Explain in the character bio where this creation came from. If you have a creation, bear in mind that you will probably have a corresponding Shaping skill. This means that you have a greater level of ability to control these creations, not that you have skill making them.
Allegiance: What rules does your person live by (and possibly will die by)? Explain
Personality: What kind of person is your person? Hmm?
Skills and Talents: What has your character trained in at the Grand Academy? Keep in mind your class. Does your character know something that isn’t taught at the Grand Academy or something that they learned outside of it? Does your character know have skills that don’t fit above? Explain. Limit yourself to 5 and be as precise as possible. Categories like “swords” are discouraged – use something like “katanas”. Remember that these are what your character specialized in and know well, but you may have cursor knowledge of other skills.
Banes: What are your weaknesses outside of your Skills? What are they afraid of? Do they have personality flaws?
Biography: Where is your character from? What is their history before and at the Grand Academy? You do not have to post it all here in the OOC, but the full version and any secrets must be sent to the GM by PM.
RP Sample: 3 paragraph minimum to show that you are competent in using your character. It will also allow me to gauge any misconceptions you may have about the Reforged Saga universe. The quality you put into this will be what I hold you to and the deciding factor of whether you are accepted.
Spoiler: Notable Individuals
Spoiler: Thorin’s Council
If you don’t know what Thorin’s Council is by the time you read this, then you should probably go back and re-read everything else.
Shaper Thorin is a glowing image of health, considering her age. Through unknown means, she has maintained a youthful, if somewhat matured appearance. For those who have the opportunity to see her face, it is an ovular thing topped with knotted braids of brown hair and ending in a sharp chin, her blue-grey eyes weathered by many years of life. Dark tan, almost brown skin covers her body where it is not discolored by unfortunate accidents in her laboratory. Though old, she is still surprisingly athletic in build, her age not apparent on her body. Nevertheless, years of hunkering down over pestles and Shaping equipment has given her a slightly hunched back.
Spoiler: Personality
Though she appears youthful, Shaper Thorin has long since passed into the matriarchal stage of her personality development. She treats many students with a firm, but kind, hand and is as apt to laugh at mistakes made as reprimand them. This makes her a favorite of many students, though they can never shake the feeling that she expects great things from them in return.
Spoiler: Biography
As far as Shaper Thorin is concerned, her life is split into two chapters: her life as a Shaper and her life as the leader of Issei. The first chapter neglects to say where she came from, instead starting with her entrance into the ranks of the Shaper aspirants at a small recruiting event held in a long-destroyed village called Vitage. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she and the other aspirants would remain there for over a year before being shipped out to a proper academy for their training. During this time she accomplished many deeds and left behind many treasures in that place. She also left behind many of the aspirants.
Like many aspirants, Thorin was shipped out to a distant outpost of Shaper territory for her proper training. In this case she took up residence on an island known as Tess at the very frontier. There she would learn the ways of the Shapers and become deeply immersed into the art of creation. Eventually she would find her way back to Terrestria, where she would fall under the tutelage of Shaper Harken. Under his guiding hand, she would travel much of the land, eventually making her way almost everywhere, except back to Vitage. It would be in his manor that she would take the Shaper Oath and so seal herself to the Shaper cause.
During the Rebellion the Shaper Council tasked Thorin with developing new variations of existing creations for their fight against the Rebels. As a result, she spent much of the war cloistered in her laboratory, working on experiments. Remaining in this fortified outpost proved to be her salvation when the Shattering occurred.
After the Shattering Thorin set out from the ruins of her laboratory to gather up what remnants of society she could. Traveling far and wide of her home, she found that much of the world remained in turmoil, the sort that only an event like the Shattering could produce after a war as devastating as the Rebellion. While creations ran amok and people lived and died violently, Thorin found that the overall tone of the world was a mute, stunned silence; a world reeling in shock from the violence of the war’s end.
Eventually Thorin founded the settlement of Issei with the help of several surviving Shapers that she had recovered. She gathered outsiders and those creations that could be saved. She helped to construct the mighty Great Magic Barrier and create the Grand Academy under the watch of her own Council, an echo of the Shaper Council. Since then she has spent her time ruling and teaching. She has since stepped down from the Council that bears her name, but all know that she truly remains the ruler of Issei.
Spoiler: Main Councilmembers
Spoiler: Shaper Praco
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Class: Shaper
Position: Unassigned Councilmember
Spoiler: Appearance
Like other members of his class, Shaper Praco usually wears a hooded cloak or robe, meaning that little of him is visible. However, others tend to do this as a choice of fashion; Praco does it to hide his youth, which is nonetheless apparent. His skin is something of a reverse tan, with the years of swamp-gas filtered light coloring slowly lifting from his body after over a decade and a half spent mostly indoors. His face still shows the rounded cheeks of youth and his eyes are a dark blue, as one would find in the deep sea.
Spoiler: Personality
Shaper Praco is a brutally direct man who is impatient with anybody that is not worth listening to, which generally encompasses anybody who is not a Shaper. In this way he reflects the Shaper attitudes of old, sharpened by his youthful pride. In spite of this, he is still a duty-bound man who adheres strictly to Shaper Law, some say even more so than Shaper Uthain.
Spoiler: Biography
Shaper Praco was born in the swamplands of Machit in the village of Assence to the west of Issei. Like many of the children from there, he was sent to the Grand Academy with the expectation that he would be educated and then return to the village to help in the mines. This was an expectation that he grew up resenting in spite of the fact that he came from the village’s wealthy merchant class. He resolved early on to study hard and escape this future, leaving it to his siblings instead. This determination estranged him from his family so that by the time graduation occurred, his siblings went back home bringing news that he would not be coming.
Since that day Praco could be found almost exclusively within the confines of the Grand Academy premise, for he rarely left. His poor skills were offset by his persistence and he earned the respect of many others, including Shaper Uthain. The senior Shaper had taken Praco under his wing during his pre-graduate years and in the early years of his graduate years, he gave Praco room to grow that others envied. The birth of Tancin put an end to all of that though Uthain still attempts to keep the junior Coucilman within reach.
Spoiler: Shaper Uthain
Age: 73
Gender: Male
Class: Guardian
Position: Head Councilmember
Spoiler: Appearance
Shaper Uthain is built much like one would expect a Guardian to be: tall and bald with broad shoulders and muscles that can snap tree trunks with ease. His ancestors had been of light skin, though that may have simply been due to many hours inside of a laboratory, but he has skin colored not unlike the muck of the swamps of Machit. His advanced age does not trouble him in the slightest, though he claims not to be as fast as he formally was.
Spoiler: Personality
Shaper Uthain appears to most people as one with either the personality to a gentle giant or that of a drill instructor. Much to the chagrin of many a student at the Grand Academy, he has the latter. He takes his role as director of the Academy and head of Thorin’s Council seriously and is firm, but fair with the distribution of justice, both within and without its walls. He is as quick to offer genuine (though rare) compliments for jobs well done as punish those who defy Shaper Law.
Spoiler: Biography
Shaper Uthain is the one of the two children of the Shapers Tessria and Massis, both now deceased. This makes him the continuation of a long line of Shapers down from those who originally helped Thorin found Issei. As such, he was nearly destined for the role of a Shaper since his birth. It was a role that he embraced early on, rising through the ranks to become Thorin’s right-hand man. When she left the Council, he opted to remain. In spite of this, the two of them did have one child together: Tancin Jass.
Spoiler: Other Councilmembers
Spoiler: Shaper Quartis
A fifty-nine year old Guardian, Quartis stands at the middle of the pack in terms of age. A hulking figure that towers over even Uthain, Quartis is what most students wish Uthain was: a gentle giant. Known for his genial nature and sportsmanship, Quartis hails from Assence, the same village as Praco. Unlike the younger councilmember, Quartis may enjoy his work, but he also is determined to return home, as he was when he graduated. Since then, he has risen to Councilmember in command of the creation stables of the Academy. He also frequently goes out to visit troubled villages that are having trouble controlling their creations.
Spoiler: Shaper Wetan
A seventy-four year old Shaper, Wetan is Head Councilmember of Shaping at the Academy. He is also one of the few people Uthain regards as a true friend. Having graduated in the same class together, Wetan is a close advisor to Uthain on all matters. He is known, sometimes with disapproval, for his humorous disposition, even in the face of Shaping accidents.
Spoiler: Shaper Ulrika
A sixty-nine year old Agent, Ulrika is the only one of her class on Thorin’s Council, a fact that she finds distressing, especially given the importance of Agents for the Council. In spite of this, she finds no shortage of friends on the Council including the ear of Uthain. A woman of a fiery temper, she serves as the Head Councilmember of Magic at the Academy.
Spoiler: Shaper Yantan
A slightly flighty thirty-six year old Shaper from Issei, Yantan is the youngest currently serving Councilmember. Her official position on the Council is Head Councilmember of General Education with a focus on leadership and mechanical training. Though she graduated at the same time as Praco, the two had very little interaction due to Praco’s isolationist lifestyle. In spite of this, she still teases the socially awkward Shaper whenever the opportunity arises. She also is known for being quite popular with the students in ways that make some Shapers hide little smiles.
Spoiler: Other Shapers
Though few in number, not all Shapers are on Thorin’s Council. These are some of the more notable figures in the Shaper ranks, though there are others.
Spoiler: Shaper Yuthan
A fifty-seven year old female Guardian from Yuushin, Yuthan is an oddity for choosing a path usually taken only by males. Nevertheless, the mild-tempered Yuthan is well-respected for her bladework, earning her the distinction of teaching combat skills at the Academy.
Spoiler: Shaper Erane
A forty-four year old Agent from Issei, Erane is renowned for her stealth and tracking abilities. Fiercely proud of her craft, Erane is the main drive behind pushes to increase the number of Agents on the Council, by adding a new seat if necessary. In spite of this, the Agent only receives lukewarm support from her fellow Agents, a fact that infuriates her. Her fury at this makes her irritable at the best of times and downright terrifying for her pupils at others.
Spoiler: Shaper Irane
A sixty-four year old Agent from Laubem, Irane is as well known for her dexterity and skill with ranged weapons as Yuthan is with melee weapons. As a result, the two share a friendly rivalry as they run their students into the ground, allegedly trying to improve them.
Spoiler: Non-Shapers of Note
Spoiler: Domonic Saigo
Domonic Saigo is a graduate student at the Academy where specializes in mechanics and forging and is the Master of the Forge. He is married to Essel Irane.
Spoiler: Essel Irane
Sister to Shaper Irane, Essel is married to Domonic Saigo. She is a graduate student at the Academy and is the foremost expert on magical forging and enchantment.
Spoiler: Izzy Taupin
A graduate student at the Academy, Taupin is Head of Alchemy at the Academy.
Appearance: With a sharp, angular face, sky blue eyes, and brown hair, Jass appears every inch an imposing noble on the way to becoming a Guardian. Broad shoulders top a slightly thin, but strongly-built body with stout muscle that is clean of excess fat. Born in Issei to a pair of Shapers, Jass’ only oddity is his light skin borne of less time in the swamps as a part of life so much as training for the tasks ahead.
Creations: None
Allegiance: “I am not afraid to spend lives, but I never waste them.”
Personality: Dour-faced, Jass’ Shaper upbringing and Shaper future has drummed into him a heavy sense of responsibility, duty, and honor. He believes in the sanctity of keeping Shaping knowledge from the masses and keeping good the Shaper Laws. However, his also pragmatic in the extreme and will not allow his emotions or beliefs override common sense. Nonetheless he is also a firm devotee of the Legend of the Five.
Skills and Talents:
- Fire Shaping: As a Guardian, Jass has focused his attention on the Fire Shaping part of Shaping. As a graduate of the Grand Academy and a child of two Shapers, Jass was given to limited experience on actual Shaping in this field, even if that is more than others. Nevertheless, he has obtained a proficiency at calming and controlling Fire creations that teetered on becoming rogue.
- Katana Proficiency
- Leadership: Jass was born with a silver tongue and can charm people into getting things done.
- Pathfinder: Although Jass has never ventured out of the Great Magic Barrier he nonetheless is knowledgeable or skilled in all manner of survival techniques. From recognizing good places to camp to finding easier paths to a goal, Jass has at least a theoretical understanding of these things. Of course, all of his practical experience outside of the Grand Academy took place in the swamp.
- Learned: Long years of training and study have revealed much knowledge to Jass that is not readily known by others, if it is readily available for them at all.
Banes:
- Headstrong: Although Jass does not flaunt either his knowledge or his heritage, he is nonetheless sometimes disagreeable due to a lack of hesitation in correcting people when they do tasks wrong. His intention is to help them, but the result is not always good.
- Lawful: Having been brought up so close to Thorin’s Council, Jass has a strong belief in the Shaper Laws, almost to a fanatical level.
Spoiler: Biography
Tancin Jass was born the only child of Shapers Thorin and Uthain. He was the only child of that pairing. By outsider standards, those that practiced marriage, he was a bastard. However, as such unions are common Shaper practice – where they choose to engage in such things at all – Jass found little difficulty in his life. It probably also helped that his parentage was not a widely known matter.
Jass’ childhood was odd, even by the standards of the Shapers. Thorin was a kind, but ultimately distant mother who had an air of having done her duty for family and nation, setting down into a quiet retirement. Part of this was probably that Uthain was not the first partner, Shaper or otherwise, that she had taken down the decades. Uthain, on the other hand, was getting elderly, but was nonetheless drawn to improving his son. He had something between the affection of a father and the toughness of a drill sergeant who was readying his soldiers for battle, or in Jass’ case, Shaperhood. There was no prouder a day for Uthain than when Jass declared his intention to become a Guardian.
While Jass had the benefit of a Shaper upbringing he also shared in the education provided by the Grand Academy. However, he was forever marked by two differences, no matter how popular he became. First was his uncanny knowledge of everything taught and his familiarity with the Shaper instructors as well as graduate students. Second was his ultimate path: while others would return to their villages after graduation to take up their parents’ trade, Jass would live among Shapers. Even that being his parents’ trade did nothing to dispel the feelings of distance for other students, especially as graduation neared and talk of returning home filled the halls
Jass stayed on as a graduate student in the Academy after graduation, studying deeper into the mysteries of the Shapers. Though he had always intended to be a Shaper it was only now that his mother’s Council hesitantly let him dabble in Shaping. Some graduates grumbled that he got special privileges, being able to begin true Shaper training while more senior students still had to study by written theory. The truth was that his mother was indifferent and his father was determined to see his son rise on his own. Therefore the Council’s decision was actually more based on the fact that Jass’ high potential raised the possibility that he might sit among them someday, even possibly replacing his father.
Nevertheless, Jass’ permission to study such advanced techniques caused a stir in the Grand Academy and a great deal of resentment. The Council began to discuss what to do about the problem, some even proposing to take away the privileges. Jass was opposed to this, but knew that there was little else to do about it. Before they came to a consensus though, Uthain proposed the challenge for the students. And then he appointed Jass leader of the last group to form.
Spoiler: RP Sample
Early morning in the Grand Academy was always quiet. The long hallways of the dorms and laboratories were deserted of most students, many of whom would be lying awake now, torn between catching a few more minutes of sleep and resuming their studies. It was during this time that Jass liked to pace the empty corridors, ordering his thoughts.
It was cool inside the Academy this morning, as it was every morning. The air inside the well-vented hallways was not quite the crisp one would understand though. Swamp air tended to be muggy, as many a villager with pneumonia soon learned. Within the educational institution, however, the air was constantly filled with the static feel of magic in the air. The result was a unique combination of cool temperatures and swamp air singed by magic as it singed the ozone. For Jass, it was the smell of home.
Pressing on, he stood aside to let a servile pass. The figure was clothed in the thick robes favored by its kind. A hunched figure, Jass could only make out the almost skeletal fingers that protruded from its baggy sleeves and the elongated nose that seemed to spring from the darkness beneath its hood. One of the fingers on its left hand was missing, probably during a work accident. It paused for a moment, looking at him standing at the side of the hallway. He did not recognize it, but, like most people, he did not pay enough attention to serviles to tell them apart. He did think that he caught the flash of blue eyes in the hood though. They were the same dull ones as he had seen time and again, but he thought he saw a flash of something... else. Probably just his imagination.
The servile eventually passed and Jass continued his walk. Not that much further down the hallway, he met a junction and a strange sight. To his left was a Shaper Door. The heavy stone slab that of the port was held tight by a vine-like plant, its tendrils covering its face. Jass was too far away from it to activate its air feelers which would trigger it to bring the slab down into the floor, opening up the way. However, the door opened anyways. On the other side was a fyora.
This fyora was not unique in any way that Jass recognized. At its full height, the small fire-breathing lizard would rise to his mid-thigh. Sharpened claws and razor teeth filled out its figure, giving it a powerful combination of attack. However, at the moment the patrolling creation seemed less than inclined to attack anything. It looked scared and confused, its normally fierce eyes, filled with the predatory instincts built into it by its Shaper gone.
It spotted him and trotted up to his foot, looking up at him with lost eyes. This puzzled Jass. Normally less intelligent creatures like fyora would be led by a more controlled creature like a Vlish in order to provide it guidance. The ferocious lizards, along with roamers and thads, would follow the floating creation around, following its orders as it followed the path and instructions given to it by a Shaper. That was how patrols worked. This fyora had clearly gotten lost.
This was dangerous without a doubt. Creations were typically very strong physically and could unleash a great deal of destruction, but they were less mentally capable. The only exceptions to this were serviles and many, many banned creations. A lost creation would slowly go rogue and attack anything that came near except for other rogues. Skilled Shapers could make their creations with more specific instructions and stronger mental strength to prevent this, but such could be dangerous and it would only stave off rogueness for so long. It also took a great deal of skill and resources to do. And, of course, if it went rogue anyways, it had to be destroyed if control could not be restored.
Fortunately, this little fyora was not there yet. If Jass was not mistaken, it had a great way to go before it got to that point and here in the halls of the Grand Academy, someone would resolve the problem before it got to that point. In this case, that meant him. Kneeling next to the creation, he extended a hand. Almost immediately, the creature moved into his embrace and against his chest. It purred contently. Just for a moment, Jass could tell why some people kept fyora as pets, even if he regarded the practice as frivolous and dangerous. He couldn’t tell who had made the fyora, but he vowed that he would have words with the Shaper.
Eventually the shaking creation settled and he let it go. He was glad that his experience was enough. All Shapers made their creations to be obedient, but it was never a guarantee. The fact that Fyora were Fire creations, the type he specialized his skills in, helped. Rising, he looked down at the creation and said, “Come on. Let’s go find your master.” He started walking and cast a look back to make sure that the creation was following. It was tottering behind him.
He also noticed that the servile had been watching the whole time, though it moved off when it saw that he had seen it.
Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
Spoiler: Quotes/Awesome picture~
Originally Posted by Light Fantastic
The point is that descriptive writing is very rarely entirely accurate and during the reign of Olaf Quimby II as Patrician of Ankh some legislation was passed in a determined attempt to put a stop to this sort of thing and introduce some honesty into reporting. Thus, if a legend said of a notable hero that “all men spoke of his prowess” any bard who valued his life would add hastily “except for a couple of people in his home village who thought he was a liar, and quite a lot of other people who had never really heard of him.” Poetic simile was strictly limited to statements like “his mighty steed was as fleet as the wind on a fairly calm day, say about Force Three,” ...
Originally Posted by 13uster
See, they're making a secret furry coven.
But noooo, I3uster is just paranoid. Look at that I3uster, just being all funny and ironic. Ha ha ha, furries aren't dangerous, silly I3uster.
a prophet is worth nothing in his own lands
Originally Posted by Mcjon01
You've clearly never been a little girl before but let me clue you in; it doesn't matter how mature you are, when you're a loli your body just sort of wiggles and does cutesy stuff all on its own. It has nothing to do with mentality or age or anything like that.
Originally Posted by Eddyak
There are literally no levels beneath 4chan. That's like saying something's shittier than a sewer.
Originally Posted by ItsaRandomUsername
He was 12-13 for the original airing. You're a young teen around for the remake of the show. His metaphorical neckbeard is longer than yours.
Originally Posted by royal744
It's always interesting to see how others view us. In making sweeping generalizatins about us we get an inkling of what their points of view are, however wrong they may be. You have me at a disadvantage because I don't know ehere you're from, but clearly you "think" you are from civilized place whose age imparts a special patina of superiority on you. Rather laughable, but that's your apparent point of view.
America is a vey big place and varies tremendously from region to region. It's a little bit like a group of blind men feeling an elephant using their hands: one grabs the tail, another a leg, another the trunk and still another feels the stomach, and each one thinks he "knows" what an elephant is. Let me assure you, you don't.
Originally Posted by Prince/Dave Chapelle
Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?
Originally Posted by Commodus
Afrocentrism gives a bad name to Afrocentrism.
History should be objective. We should not have bloody sects of rival historians trying to glorify one continent over another.
Why, for instance, should a historian from Nigeria downplay the accomplishments of Medieval France? And, by that same token, why should an Oxford historian arrogantly claim that "Africans have no culture", as I saw someone on this very board claim.
You don't solve the problem by flipping it around and simply changing the target. Do we have our preferred section of history? Yes, I believe so. But I would never dream of using that to downplay what other cultures or peoples do, so why is it justified for them to do so to me?
Originally Posted by Some Lawyer
“Plaintiff must realize he cannot treat well-settled law and undisputed facts like the women in his videos; they will not change simply because Plaintiff is persistent and impervious to their hostility.”
Originally Posted by BigBoom550
(For context, the user is talking about RWBY) Gene Krantz, after the Apollo One failure. They failed, but they would be better. They would not give up. The fact it did not work was on them and them alone, not some quirk of the universe, or some factor of reality. It was on them to ensure that it work.
In the face of survival, the fact that they gave up because Dust didn't do it disgusted me. It disgusted me because that meant that nobody in that room stood up and said "It didn't work. Dust doesn't work. So we need to stop using Dust in our designs.". It meant that in the face of annihilation, in the pursuit of survival, not a single person was willing to stand and go 'maybe we were wrong'. In the face of a small failure, they chose to roll over and give up.
It's pathetic. It's just utterly pathetic.
Humanity's existence can be summrized as doing what doesn't work and making it work. We're bipeds. We're horrible at speed. So guess what? We decided to exhaust our prey to death. We're small, and weak, and we built massive eidolons of stone that last milennia. We are unable to fly, and we decided to drive past the skies and step among the stars. We are cold, and so we chase the very flame of the stars themselves.
To be human is not to try one thing and give up. It is to decide upon a course of action and, as a whole, make it happen, hell or high water. It is to ignore all pretentious convention and do what we must to ensure our advancement.
To be human is to succeed where we should not.
They tried one thing. One. And they know why it didn't work, and yet they gave up. They gave up and rolled over. They didn't even try. They didn't try!
Originally Posted by logiccosmic
WAR CRIMES can cause serious side effects. Rarely reported side effects include:
a 'JUSTICE' that will not go away (FREEDOM STAFFISM). If you have a 'JUSTICE' that lasts more than 4 hours, get medical help right away.
If it is not treated right away, a FREEDOM STAFF can permanently damage your FREEDOM UNIT
sudden vision loss in one or both eyes. Sudden vision loss in one or both eyes can be a sign of a serious eye problem called
inability to justify crimes against humanity. (ITJFAH). Stop taking VIAGRA WAR CRIMES and call your healthcare provider right away if you
have any sudden vision loss
sudden hearing decrease or hearing loss. Some people may also have ringing in their ears (tinnitus) or dizziness. If you have
these symptoms, stop shelling CIVILIANS and contact a doctor right away
The RP of the week, as I am sure you are aware, is a resource for players to see what kind of RPs are spotlighted for the week! These RPs are featured on the homepage of RPA! Just send in a request to your friendly staff member, including a banner which you can get help with over at the banner shop.
RPG Directory is another great way to draw in more players! Head on over if you're looking to interest more players!
You can also have your game featured in the Tribune! This is RPA's awesome newsletter!
Last but not least, you can ask any of the staff to feature your game in their signature!
I'm not overly familiar with the world, so I'm going to take some stabs here. Is it alright to make a one trick pony sort of mage? As in, one specializes in say, the Kill spell? Of course, they are trained in other uses but I plan for this character to be a glass cannon of sorts, with only one real spell of consideration in the tank.
Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
Spoiler: Quotes/Awesome picture~
Originally Posted by Light Fantastic
The point is that descriptive writing is very rarely entirely accurate and during the reign of Olaf Quimby II as Patrician of Ankh some legislation was passed in a determined attempt to put a stop to this sort of thing and introduce some honesty into reporting. Thus, if a legend said of a notable hero that “all men spoke of his prowess” any bard who valued his life would add hastily “except for a couple of people in his home village who thought he was a liar, and quite a lot of other people who had never really heard of him.” Poetic simile was strictly limited to statements like “his mighty steed was as fleet as the wind on a fairly calm day, say about Force Three,” ...
Originally Posted by 13uster
See, they're making a secret furry coven.
But noooo, I3uster is just paranoid. Look at that I3uster, just being all funny and ironic. Ha ha ha, furries aren't dangerous, silly I3uster.
a prophet is worth nothing in his own lands
Originally Posted by Mcjon01
You've clearly never been a little girl before but let me clue you in; it doesn't matter how mature you are, when you're a loli your body just sort of wiggles and does cutesy stuff all on its own. It has nothing to do with mentality or age or anything like that.
Originally Posted by Eddyak
There are literally no levels beneath 4chan. That's like saying something's shittier than a sewer.
Originally Posted by ItsaRandomUsername
He was 12-13 for the original airing. You're a young teen around for the remake of the show. His metaphorical neckbeard is longer than yours.
Originally Posted by royal744
It's always interesting to see how others view us. In making sweeping generalizatins about us we get an inkling of what their points of view are, however wrong they may be. You have me at a disadvantage because I don't know ehere you're from, but clearly you "think" you are from civilized place whose age imparts a special patina of superiority on you. Rather laughable, but that's your apparent point of view.
America is a vey big place and varies tremendously from region to region. It's a little bit like a group of blind men feeling an elephant using their hands: one grabs the tail, another a leg, another the trunk and still another feels the stomach, and each one thinks he "knows" what an elephant is. Let me assure you, you don't.
Originally Posted by Prince/Dave Chapelle
Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?
Originally Posted by Commodus
Afrocentrism gives a bad name to Afrocentrism.
History should be objective. We should not have bloody sects of rival historians trying to glorify one continent over another.
Why, for instance, should a historian from Nigeria downplay the accomplishments of Medieval France? And, by that same token, why should an Oxford historian arrogantly claim that "Africans have no culture", as I saw someone on this very board claim.
You don't solve the problem by flipping it around and simply changing the target. Do we have our preferred section of history? Yes, I believe so. But I would never dream of using that to downplay what other cultures or peoples do, so why is it justified for them to do so to me?
Originally Posted by Some Lawyer
“Plaintiff must realize he cannot treat well-settled law and undisputed facts like the women in his videos; they will not change simply because Plaintiff is persistent and impervious to their hostility.”
Originally Posted by BigBoom550
(For context, the user is talking about RWBY) Gene Krantz, after the Apollo One failure. They failed, but they would be better. They would not give up. The fact it did not work was on them and them alone, not some quirk of the universe, or some factor of reality. It was on them to ensure that it work.
In the face of survival, the fact that they gave up because Dust didn't do it disgusted me. It disgusted me because that meant that nobody in that room stood up and said "It didn't work. Dust doesn't work. So we need to stop using Dust in our designs.". It meant that in the face of annihilation, in the pursuit of survival, not a single person was willing to stand and go 'maybe we were wrong'. In the face of a small failure, they chose to roll over and give up.
It's pathetic. It's just utterly pathetic.
Humanity's existence can be summrized as doing what doesn't work and making it work. We're bipeds. We're horrible at speed. So guess what? We decided to exhaust our prey to death. We're small, and weak, and we built massive eidolons of stone that last milennia. We are unable to fly, and we decided to drive past the skies and step among the stars. We are cold, and so we chase the very flame of the stars themselves.
To be human is not to try one thing and give up. It is to decide upon a course of action and, as a whole, make it happen, hell or high water. It is to ignore all pretentious convention and do what we must to ensure our advancement.
To be human is to succeed where we should not.
They tried one thing. One. And they know why it didn't work, and yet they gave up. They gave up and rolled over. They didn't even try. They didn't try!
Originally Posted by logiccosmic
WAR CRIMES can cause serious side effects. Rarely reported side effects include:
a 'JUSTICE' that will not go away (FREEDOM STAFFISM). If you have a 'JUSTICE' that lasts more than 4 hours, get medical help right away.
If it is not treated right away, a FREEDOM STAFF can permanently damage your FREEDOM UNIT
sudden vision loss in one or both eyes. Sudden vision loss in one or both eyes can be a sign of a serious eye problem called
inability to justify crimes against humanity. (ITJFAH). Stop taking VIAGRA WAR CRIMES and call your healthcare provider right away if you
have any sudden vision loss
sudden hearing decrease or hearing loss. Some people may also have ringing in their ears (tinnitus) or dizziness. If you have
these symptoms, stop shelling CIVILIANS and contact a doctor right away
Geneforge is a relatively obscure RPG, so I can forgive people for not knowing it.
The spell lists are ordered from top down with the simplest spells on top and getting more complicated going down.
As such, Kill is a very high-order spell. In the game it would be something that you encounter towards the end.
That being said, I'm going to have to say no. It would be akin to giving somebody a bazooka at the beginning of the game while everyone else is rocking .22s. I don't necessarily require characters to be balanced in any way, but Kill is one of those spells that would drain all the spell energy out of most undergraduates of the Grand Academy on its first shot. This isn't true for everyone, as spell energy reserves vary, but the majority would start with simpler spells and work their way up. That also means that not having a working knowledge of other spells is very unlikely.
If you want to have a character who specializes in Battle Magic with an emphasis on Kill that is fine, but what I mentioned about undergraduates and spell energy still applies. The more of your skills you focus into the Battle Magic category, the greater spell energy you will have, but being able to use it as readily as, say firebolt, is highly unlikely.
Did that answer your question?
Spoiler: Around the Forum
Originally Posted by Lady Celeste
@Imperial1917: Death's all yours!
Originally Posted by Crazywolf
I once tried reading another game thread with 14 characters in it, but it was a bit like trying to follow a herd of cats.
Originally Posted by Anastasia;bt49091
Did anyone expect America to win?
Though, at least you haven't downgraded in performance.
Originally Posted by Juicesir;bt52645
Japanese is the only one I disagree with. It's like Chinese Lite.
Actually, that works even better than ever. If it drains that much, it's far better suited as a last resort/finisher attack. Working knowledge on the other spells is a requirement, I see. I just plan on my character having a higher than normal proficiency with the spell.
Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching around with torches and pictures of a Leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.
—Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
Spoiler: Quotes/Awesome picture~
Originally Posted by Light Fantastic
The point is that descriptive writing is very rarely entirely accurate and during the reign of Olaf Quimby II as Patrician of Ankh some legislation was passed in a determined attempt to put a stop to this sort of thing and introduce some honesty into reporting. Thus, if a legend said of a notable hero that “all men spoke of his prowess” any bard who valued his life would add hastily “except for a couple of people in his home village who thought he was a liar, and quite a lot of other people who had never really heard of him.” Poetic simile was strictly limited to statements like “his mighty steed was as fleet as the wind on a fairly calm day, say about Force Three,” ...
Originally Posted by 13uster
See, they're making a secret furry coven.
But noooo, I3uster is just paranoid. Look at that I3uster, just being all funny and ironic. Ha ha ha, furries aren't dangerous, silly I3uster.
a prophet is worth nothing in his own lands
Originally Posted by Mcjon01
You've clearly never been a little girl before but let me clue you in; it doesn't matter how mature you are, when you're a loli your body just sort of wiggles and does cutesy stuff all on its own. It has nothing to do with mentality or age or anything like that.
Originally Posted by Eddyak
There are literally no levels beneath 4chan. That's like saying something's shittier than a sewer.
Originally Posted by ItsaRandomUsername
He was 12-13 for the original airing. You're a young teen around for the remake of the show. His metaphorical neckbeard is longer than yours.
Originally Posted by royal744
It's always interesting to see how others view us. In making sweeping generalizatins about us we get an inkling of what their points of view are, however wrong they may be. You have me at a disadvantage because I don't know ehere you're from, but clearly you "think" you are from civilized place whose age imparts a special patina of superiority on you. Rather laughable, but that's your apparent point of view.
America is a vey big place and varies tremendously from region to region. It's a little bit like a group of blind men feeling an elephant using their hands: one grabs the tail, another a leg, another the trunk and still another feels the stomach, and each one thinks he "knows" what an elephant is. Let me assure you, you don't.
Originally Posted by Prince/Dave Chapelle
Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?
Originally Posted by Commodus
Afrocentrism gives a bad name to Afrocentrism.
History should be objective. We should not have bloody sects of rival historians trying to glorify one continent over another.
Why, for instance, should a historian from Nigeria downplay the accomplishments of Medieval France? And, by that same token, why should an Oxford historian arrogantly claim that "Africans have no culture", as I saw someone on this very board claim.
You don't solve the problem by flipping it around and simply changing the target. Do we have our preferred section of history? Yes, I believe so. But I would never dream of using that to downplay what other cultures or peoples do, so why is it justified for them to do so to me?
Originally Posted by Some Lawyer
“Plaintiff must realize he cannot treat well-settled law and undisputed facts like the women in his videos; they will not change simply because Plaintiff is persistent and impervious to their hostility.”
Originally Posted by BigBoom550
(For context, the user is talking about RWBY) Gene Krantz, after the Apollo One failure. They failed, but they would be better. They would not give up. The fact it did not work was on them and them alone, not some quirk of the universe, or some factor of reality. It was on them to ensure that it work.
In the face of survival, the fact that they gave up because Dust didn't do it disgusted me. It disgusted me because that meant that nobody in that room stood up and said "It didn't work. Dust doesn't work. So we need to stop using Dust in our designs.". It meant that in the face of annihilation, in the pursuit of survival, not a single person was willing to stand and go 'maybe we were wrong'. In the face of a small failure, they chose to roll over and give up.
It's pathetic. It's just utterly pathetic.
Humanity's existence can be summrized as doing what doesn't work and making it work. We're bipeds. We're horrible at speed. So guess what? We decided to exhaust our prey to death. We're small, and weak, and we built massive eidolons of stone that last milennia. We are unable to fly, and we decided to drive past the skies and step among the stars. We are cold, and so we chase the very flame of the stars themselves.
To be human is not to try one thing and give up. It is to decide upon a course of action and, as a whole, make it happen, hell or high water. It is to ignore all pretentious convention and do what we must to ensure our advancement.
To be human is to succeed where we should not.
They tried one thing. One. And they know why it didn't work, and yet they gave up. They gave up and rolled over. They didn't even try. They didn't try!
Originally Posted by logiccosmic
WAR CRIMES can cause serious side effects. Rarely reported side effects include:
a 'JUSTICE' that will not go away (FREEDOM STAFFISM). If you have a 'JUSTICE' that lasts more than 4 hours, get medical help right away.
If it is not treated right away, a FREEDOM STAFF can permanently damage your FREEDOM UNIT
sudden vision loss in one or both eyes. Sudden vision loss in one or both eyes can be a sign of a serious eye problem called
inability to justify crimes against humanity. (ITJFAH). Stop taking VIAGRA WAR CRIMES and call your healthcare provider right away if you
have any sudden vision loss
sudden hearing decrease or hearing loss. Some people may also have ringing in their ears (tinnitus) or dizziness. If you have
these symptoms, stop shelling CIVILIANS and contact a doctor right away
The Reforged Saga - Prologue: Great Expectations [M]
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:origin()/pre14/abcb/th/pre/i/2008/343/a/c/luigi_the_roamer_by_saurien.png)
:origin()/pre06/a3db/th/pre/i/2008/343/2/2/giuseppe_the_artila_by_saurien.png)
:origin()/pre13/48ee/th/pre/i/2011/006/e/d/fabio_the_glaahk_by_saurien-d36jstu.png)
Originally Posted by Lady Celeste
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