Darkest Days Interest Check

[Arbeiterklassen]

This is a RP set in the late medieval period of an original world.

No fantasy races and magic is rare. Magical items can cost a fiefdom.

Story
"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die." -Jean-Paul Sartre

My friend, twenty years ago this world was plunged into a war like none we'd ever seen. There were no allies, only every nation out for itself, leaving such a stain on public memory we simply know it as the War. What caused it? None can say. None who could are left alive, and their records were burned. What we do know is the toll that war took. From the known world's population of roughly five hundred thousand, less than one hundred and fifty thousand survived. For you see, this was no ordinary war. This one lasted thirty years, kept going in the end simply because it was cheaper to raise armies to fight than to return to peace and hope to try and deal with the costs of repairing their lands.

Why then did it end you ask? Well, nations began to suffer from more and more severe famines, even the nobility was forced to tighten their belts. Plagues began to spring up like flowers after the rain, presumably helped by the masses of bodies accumulating faster than they could be buried by the overtaxed undertakers and clerics. Many armies of the world were beginning to turn treasonous, feeling they were lead like lambs to the slaughter. To withdraw from the war was a prudent measure aimed at preventing a complete collapse of the country. Even so, one was still plunged into a bitter civil war lasting to this day.

With only the most minor territorial concessions gained, we must wonder, was it really worth it?

No, that's rhetorical. It wasn't worth it, not a day of it. For even now we still pay the price. What great measure of blood may wash these sins of our fathers from our hands?

We live in interesting times.

Major Nations
The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife. -Theodore Roosevelt

Senzietaia
The largest of the nations, Senzietaia (lit. "Land of the Senze") is also currently the most populous. Relatively unaffected by the War, it made the largest territorial gains from it. The largest military and economic power around, some call it a nation only one power-mad ruler away from trying to take over the fractured known world. It shares a northern border with the Great Sandy Desert, with wandering nomads sometimes raiding it and disappearing back into the inhospitable hell of a desert before any major resistance can be organised. Politically, it is a stable absolute monarchy that gives out human rights based on how noble one's bloodline is. Its principal exports are lumber, iron and slaves. Unknown to most, the current ruler secretly engineered the War.

Tunilus
An extremely precarious nation bordering the east of Legiostan, Tunilus is blessed with literate peasants hating the nobles and the king, scheming nobles hating the king and the peasants, and the king hating the nobles and peasants. The king is a reformist-minded king, who after frequent power-clashes is willing to remove the nobility and appoint leaders based on competency and loyalty. However, the nobility own their armies and have their castles, making getting rid of them extremely difficult. The peasants demand reforms that allow them to have more rights, and are willing to off the king to achieve them. The entrenched nobility refuse to give up any power and frequently threaten the royal family with civil war should the king anger them too much. However, they are more than capable of uniting against a common foe, and will not allow the nation to be invaded while the argue. Their chief exports are marble, agriculture and meat-derived products.

Legiostan

Even withdrawing from the War didn't save them. Situated straight in the middle of the known world, the vast majority of battles were fought upon their soil. The agricultural industry was destroyed, the cities reduced to rubble. Formerly the most populous nation, it is now the least populous of the known countries. Engaged in a civil war, new governments tend to last only a couple of years. Foreign nations fund rebels and lend military aid (disguised as "military advisors") to those rebels or even the government in an attempt to ensure a government more loyal to them arises. All this has ever done has prolonged the conflict indefinitely. Each new government forcibly takes food from the people to feed the military to defend from new rebel uprisings, causing terrible famines and giving the revolutionary spirit only greater fuel. The people are proud and have a strong egalitarian trend. The current economic system has resulted in them having few if any exports.

Argioland

Hailing from the bitter frozen south and the jagged mountains - sharing the border with Legiostan, Argioland is a nation mostly isolated from foreign affairs, though still sending a 4,000 contingent to the War. The people have a strong egalitarian trend and this has resulted in curious wealth-sharing programs and the amount the Consuls spend to improve the lives of the poor and downtrodden - at the expense of the wealthy elite. They have a small but highly elite military and mostly avoided wars from having a near-impossible nation to launch strategic operations into. Argioland covers the entire southern frozen wastes. The principal exports are fish, salt and precious gems and metals.

Magic

Magic is derived from focus. There is a realm of magic, and the mage is a rare individual who can sunder the barrier between the two, if for as long as they can focus on it, and channel magic into this world. Magic is, however, a highly destructive force that will change the wielder according to the type of magic they use (frequent pyromancers have often noticed it starting with a faint smell of smoke around them at all times and then eventually going mad and desiring to burn the world).

Magical items are far safer - they have a specially attuned item inside them constantly channelling magic to perform the desired function. However, damaging tends to end... violently. They can only be created by mages through tremendous effort and great risk of losing control and having the now-magically attuned object bursting magical energies out everywhere, and with the already rarity of mages they are themselves incredibly difficult to acquire.

Geography

Important subject.

This is set on a large continent, with the known world forming a shape closest to an inverted triangle. The East is mostly flatlands and marshes, with some mountains springing up. It does have nifty marble reserves and good grazing land.

In the far south, it's close to a mere hundred kilometres off the southern ice shelf and also largely mountainous. Because of that, it's frozen most days of the year - and sometimes one of those mountains turns out to be a volcano. Seismic events are frequent, though tsunamis are unheard-of. Permanent shelters are difficult and what arable land there is is exploited as efficiently as possible. The mountains hold natural slumbering resources deep within.

The further north one goes the hotter and hotter it gets. At the edge of the known world lies great deserts as far as explorers have been brave or foolhardy enough to go. There, civilisation is almost impossible and nomadic tribes make up the closest one ever gets. However, north near the deserts is a great forest spotted with reserves of iron. Be warned: there be monsters. So they say. Werewolves and dragons are rumoured to be here.

The west is largely hilly terrain and fairly decent farmland. The center, however, is flat plains converted into masses of agriculture - agriculture that since the War has grown very well. They would be very well-off if the incessant civil disorders didn't keep causing famines. Because of that, most agriculture is grown entirely to support the one family owning it.

Religions tend to venerate the ruler, however some suppressed religions have begun to appear preaching about a higher power than kings and consuls. Limited knowledge of them exists due to harsh suppression of other beliefs.

What I'm Looking For

This RP is based around characters with long-term goals. There is a public goal, which will be submitted to along the character sheet, and a private goal (should you so desire) to be PM'd to me. However, expect a major shakeup of things here and be prepared to be able to adapt any goals you have to suit it as you deal with the new times. For example, the public goal of an officer in Legiostan might be to end the civil disorder, and the private goal might be to become the next one on the throne. Along the way you may make powerful friends... or enemies. I am allowing limited flexibility in adding new nations, however you must let me know of them well before and be ready for me to change them. No nation here is "nice".

Questions, queries, doubtful points?

[Ashgan]

Uh yeah, I do have questions. Now before anything, a bit of a downer: I doubt I'll be signing up for this RP, very sorry for that, but I do want to ask some things to clear up the interest check for potential others because I did like your interest check enough to want to speak up.

First, as a general observation, the information provided is very short, and partially downright insufficient. That which is there is good; concise, but appealing to me at least, but many things I would like to and would need to know are missing. Here's what I would have liked to know: You briefly mention rare magic and extremely valuable, enchanted items. Everyone should be familiar with the rare magic trope, but it's not enough to simply put it there as such. If there's magic, I would have liked to know how magic works exactly (how to learn it, how to cast it, what the cost is, what the short and long term effects are, how powerful it is (on average and at best) and just generally how it is explained) as well as more information on those magical items. Are they relics from a time immemorial, or can mages create them, and if so, through how much effort? You see what I'm basically getting at; if you include magic, no matter how rare it is, you kind of have to explain it too.

Next, I would have personally liked a map or at least some kind of geographic description of some kind. From the information provided on the four nations present, I gathered that there's a desert to the north, ice lands to the south, with Argioland being part of or the entirety of those. We got Senzietaia northwards, near the desert and being presumably the only nation bordering this one, and we got Tunilus and Legiostan in between Argioland and Senzietaia, with Legiostan being most central of all. I'm guessing there's ocean to the west and east eventually. My point here is, this is all mostly guesswork and how I piece it together from what you provided, I am guessing what your world looks like, and I shouldn't be. Aside from a geographical lay of the land, some more info on climate and environment wouldn't hurt, just to paint the picture. Additionally, the nation descriptions themselves are kind of sparse; sufficient for an interest check, sure, but when you get to an OOC I'd at least expect an expansion. I also find it curious that exports of all things were deemed vital to the point of inclusion.

Some other, general info wouldn't hurt either. So it's a low fantasy setting; it has no fantasy species, only humans, but are there monsters, or is it strictly bound to terran animals? Also, some info on religion in your world would be quite handy, given that faith usually plays a big part in medieval settings. In general, I'm finding that your picture of the setting makes a sparse impression. I read it and find myself thinking that there has to be much more to it than is presented. Aside from the things mentioned, I don't know what else I'd be asking in specific now, it just feels like there's more to your world than you let on, and it bugs me personally that I don't get my hands on that info, see? This is kinda broad and rambly, so is essentially a non-point though, sorry.

Last and certainly not least, and this is something you absolutely have to provide before anyone, I think, can really express guaranteed interest: What is the RP about? You basically explain your setting briefly and... that's about it. I don't even know if this is a nation RP at this point, in which case I'd expect you are looking for 3-4 players to pick one of your premade nations, or if this is a character-driven RP, in which case it begs at the very least the explanation of what kind of plot you have in mind, if any. Moreover, you could specifiy what sort of characters you are looking for (mostly soldiers or common people, or does anything go, or whatever). As a potential roleplayer, I really do want to know what is expected of me if I were to join.

There, those are my questions, thoughts and critique to your interest check; should I have come across as unpleasant at any point (you never know), then I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to. I hope this helps you and your future roleplayers.

[Arbeiterklassen]

Cleared up OP.

Rare magic = you don't get to use it, to be blunt. Too many bad experiences with it in the past.

For the exports, it's not so much what they are as much as what they imply. "Meat-derived products" in particular.

I wanted to make a map but my cartography skills are lacking severely.

[kassarock]

I'll express some cautious interest in this, I like the general idea and setting quite a lot and feel this could be good should the group be made up of the right people.

The main thing I'm concerned about is the lack of a 'unifying' plot. This seems a fairly free reign Rp, and I'm wary of that. It can often be the case you have characters starting from the 4 different nations of the map, realising their alone and then loosing interest for lack of character interaction. Do you have plans as to how you would start this Rp and/or any ideas for a overarching plot?

Also, I should let you know that I am a fairly inactive poster. I do not post more than once a week in most Rps unless I am particularly gripped, or plot essential at the time.

[Arbeiterklassen]

I'll express some cautious interest in this, I like the general idea and setting quite a lot and feel this could be good should the group be made up of the right people.

The main thing I'm concerned about is the lack of a 'unifying' plot. This seems a fairly free reign Rp, and I'm wary of that. It can often be the case you have characters starting from the 4 different nations of the map, realising their alone and then loosing interest for lack of character interaction. Do you have plans as to how you would start this Rp and/or any ideas for a overarching plot?

Also, I should let you know that I am a fairly inactive poster. I do not post more than once a week in most Rps unless I am particularly gripped, or plot essential at the time.

I have an idea on both counts. And it's not precisely free-reign as while you do have choices you will be embroiled in the upcoming conflicts (unless of course you abandon all civilisation to live as a hermit - but where's the fun in that?). What will then matter is how you react to it - almost invariably your actions will shape the conflicts for better or worse. Making sure players have at least one overarching goal is how I plan on addressing the issue of people leaving when they get bored - after all, I'm giving them a viable and possible in-character goal to sweat and bleed towards. But while they work towards the story ticks on and has a decent opportunity of throwing a few wrenches in there.

Posting once a week is fine for me.

[Lady Rawr]

I’m definitely interested in this and like the look of what is here so far. I’m generally more active – posting between once every day or two – though I have no issue with something running a little more slowly than that providing it keeps going.

At this stage beyond what has already been asked I cannot think of anything else – but I’d definitely be interested in going from here. I like the look of what you have so far

[Arbeiterklassen]

I’m definitely interested in this and like the look of what is here so far. I’m generally more active – posting between once every day or two – though I have no issue with something running a little more slowly than that providing it keeps going.

At this stage beyond what has already been asked I cannot think of anything else – but I’d definitely be interested in going from here. I like the look of what you have so far

Thank you. I'm glad to hear of your interest.

I'll wait for a couple more before creating the OOC.

[GrievousKhan]

Hmm, i'll keep an eye on this, seems promising.

I might even introduce my Family tree in as well.

[Arbeiterklassen]

Hmm, i'll keep an eye on this, seems promising.

I might even introduce my Family tree in as well.

Glad to hear. Just one more and I'll put the OOC up.

[Tytus]

You can count me interested