The Dark Star


Long ago, in eons past, there existed but a single being. This being had no name, and had just one purpose: to maintain the stability of the plane in which he resided by simply keeping track of time. After some immeasurable length of time, this being grew weary and began to lose concentration. Fearing there would be no-one to remember him when he was gone, the being gathered the last of its power and divided it into several pieces. Each piece was a new, independent being which we know as our Guardian Deities. He named them Ignis, Luna, Gaia, Aether, and Celestia. Before disappearing, he professed his final wishes upon them.

"My children... you have been created by my essence, and so I ask of you two tasks to perform. First, you shall together continue to keep time in my stead. The task shall be done in turns, so that the others may have opportunities to expand and create what they will. The First Keeper shall be the one whom I have given the name Celestia, the bearer of most of my essence. She may create one thing before I vanish. Second, all of you shall forever remember that I, your creator, have bestowed the gifts of your existence to you from my own self, and are therefore parts of a single One. Do this and you may do what you please in this plane."

"Your will shall be done" the Guardians responded, and with that the being ceased to exist. As this happened, Celestia filled the entire universe with all manner of stars, planets, galaxies and everything in between. Beginning her task as the First Keeper she proclaimed to the others, "Here is my legacy, which shall consume the entire universe so that my presence is all-encompassing of what you four shall create." Disappearing into the empty space between, Celestia began to keep time, and time continued to flow as it should. Impressed by this, the other Guardians worked together to create something that would rival the brilliance of Celestia's creation.

Ignis gazed among the stars Celestia had created, and using all of his strength, created a star for himself which he named "The Sun". Inhabiting the Sun, Ignis fueled the star with his very being, radiating a warm and comforting light unlike any other in the universe. Nearby planets, once cold and isolated, were drawn to the warmth and began to revolve around the Sun as if in celebration. Luna took notice of a particular planet near the Sun; lonely, dry and barren, she felt sorry for it. She then decided to use her power to fill it with rich blue water in the valleys and canyons, and gentle clouds in the air. "This planet, which I shall name Earth, will sparkle brilliantly in the warmth of the Sun" she said as she transformed into a smaller, pale and round rock near it, now called the "Moon". "I shall protect the Earth from all outside chaos that would do it harm as I guide the waters with my presence"

Seeing the awe-inspiring landscape now decorated by oceans and clouds, Gaia used her power to create all life on Earth. She took special care in creating the Humans, who would resemble her in appearence. Having created this life that would acknowledge the power the Guardians displayed, she retreated into a great tree in order to continuously breathe life into the Earth. Now teeming with life and adding a vibrant green hue to the planet, Earth seemed to be complete. Aether, however, decided to add one more element to the mixture. "It is not enough that the Humans live on this planet we made. I shall bestow upon them but a fraction of my own power, so that they too can create and innovate on their own." And so Aether diffused himself amongst the Humans, granting them intelligence, wisdom, and most importantly, the power of the ethereal essence of Mana.

Celestia, seeing all of this, became quite jealous of their accomplishment. Forced to keep time, she could do nothing to add to the planet Earth. Soon, Celestia had been forgotten and only the distant stars in the sky remained to tell her story.

Several thousand years later, in the present, the Earth is experiencing a prosperous Golden Age stronger than any before it. The seasons were gentle on crops, once warring nations now shook hands in the name of peace, and research into Mana has allowed impressive technology to evolve. People work hard to provide for their families and to better their communities as well. Across the globe, thousands gather to pray in shrines dedicated to the four Guardians that created the Earth. All is well as the human race prepares for the largest event in history since their creation: The Dawn of The Second Keeper.

To decide which Guardian would take up the daunting task of keeping time for the next several millennium, an oracle chosen by the Guardians themselves will perform a ritual designed to choose a Guardian arbitrarily and without bias. The ritual is set to occur at the next Solar Eclipse over the capital of the world's largest country, Alexandria. Here is where the characters will start off the story, as spectators to this glorious event. However, with change comes the chance for either grand prosperity or cataclysmic catastrophe. Despite everyone's optimism, no-one knows how anything will happen for sure until it has already happened...

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This will be a party-oriented, stat-based RP featuring both melee and magical combat. The goal of the game will be to save the world from some sort of evil to be revealed later on. Players will be able to customize their starting parameters to create the playstyle they want as well. Stats in this game are going to be an invention of my own as well as my co-GM/brother, basically it will work as a simplified combination of Pathfinder and Dark Souls so that it is easy to understand and work with for all players. I'd like to see if this has a bit of interest before making an OOC, and when my brother returns from work today we'll provide an example CS to show how we intend to handle character stats. If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to ask here or in a PM!

Hello! I'm interested, this concept/story is well-written and creative. :3

I am interested and free to participate in this.

I am interested as well. Will this have other races of just humans? Either way I've been looking for a good fantasy.

This sounds pretty cool, I'm interested for sure.

For now I plan to only have Humans as playable characters, although a summoner may be able to summon animals with high intellect that are capable of speech. If there are enough requests to add other races such as Elves or Dwarves, etc. then I'd consider working it in.

Co-GM reporting in, working on game mechanics right now with Merc. This is going to be a simplistic game on the surface, so you guys can have fun and make character builds that are cool and shit. But it is an algorithmic stat-based game so there's a lot of "behind the curtain" work to be done before it's playable.

Note the picture below:


This is what we have so far for stats. Each "Character Stat" (with more to come obviously) will be influenced by a combination of the Parameters seen on the left, as well as any armor, weapons, items, spells, or other modifiers that are needed. We'll go in depth about what each Parameter does in the OOC. Otherwise, base CS's will be a thing before this is done, so you guys can get to thinking about what kinds of characters you wanna play.

Think of me as the "Mechanical GM," while Mercury is the "Campaign GM." He'll be the one telling the story and guiding you through the world, but when it comes to combat and other game-functions, I'll be stepping in.

You have my interesssst.

Awesome! Hopefully by the weekend we'll have this finished between work schedules. Mercury might put up an OOC to collect applications beforehand so you're not all waiting around, but I don't want to put words in his mouth either so don't bet on anything.

This looks pretty cool. Like you actually put some thought into it, I'm interested.

Hopefully the CS will be ready to fully present by the end of today. When it is I'll throw up the OOC as well and I'll take character submissions.

Interested in how these stats will be explained in the OOC.

Hmm. You have my interest.

Shit, 8 people? Nice.

Well we're working on it right now, I keep pressing Merc to make the OOC and open up base CS's, you know, just name, sex, age, history, personality, favorite movie for a dinner date, highschool GPA.

So that you guys have SOMETHING to play with while we finish this up. He's against the idea, saying that it would be better if you guys know what's up on the stats before you decide what kinda character to make.

I guess the best thing to do is to ask you all what you think? I'll have a post explaining all this stuff in the OOC that I will update as we work on this more. I think you'll be able to make a base CS with what we have so far.

Well, I believe that it is important to know what the stats do but releasing the CS would be smart. We can decide where to put our stats after making the kind of character we want to have. All we really need to know is what kind of classes we could be since that will influence our decision on stats.

This is a class-free game. You won't be selecting a class to play as such as Wizard, Knight, Thief, etc. You CAN however, "emulate" one such class by the way you build your stats, the armor/weapons you use, the skill/spells you learn, etc. This way, you can be free to create any kind of character that you want, but the stereotypical archetypes are still possible.

Interested in the stats working because some of those look rather redundant for my tastes. Looking at CON and VIT or how PRC being its own thing instead of some sort of DEX substat

Don't worry about that, all will be explained in the OOC, and we're doing our best to balance everything.

So OOC by Friday?