Centuries, the underside of the world became a battlefield once more. Two previous wars have already made the concept of 'battle' a tradition amongst those who lived in the shadows of the human world. It was from this that, spurred on by a perceived slight upon their honor, the Jotnar instigated what would be known as the Third Fimbulvetr War. A powerful clan of magicians hailing from the north, they thought of their defenses, both magical and physical, as impenetrable. Others may be forced to retreat, but the stronghold of the Jotnar would stand, resilient against all forces.
Bearing the Yggdrasil Seeds, a unique weapon that had been monopolized by their family for decades, they marched into battle. Their clashes against lesser clans were thought to be acts of God, natural disasters, terrible plagues. With the might of True Magic in their hands, and legions of hired warriors to do their less subtle attacks upon their enemies, the Jotnar met little opposition from their enemies as they marched through Europe, engaging in the family past time of 'war'.
Yet, such confidence became their downfall, as, through their nonsensical rampage, they turned the rest of the magical community against them. The advent of Rune Magic, once thought to be a passing fad with little substantial use by magical authorities, marked the start of a revolution. No longer would one have to perform the long and cumbersome incantations of more powerful spells in the heat of battle, and one simply had to follow instructions in a 'spell book' in order to manipulate forces that would shake the very earth with their might. Talent, while still important, became less and less of a deciding factor as the war continued, while the revolution of Rune Magic allowed for even an average magician, granted he had enough preparation, to face off a more powerful one.
Faced with the swarms of rune-magicians they had alienated through past crusades, the Jotnar clan was forced to retreat, their Yggdrasil Seeds lost with every battle, their mages cut down by magics that could once only be used by those who studied for dozens of years. Soon, on the brink of annihilation, with only three members of the main family left in the stronghold of Jotnar, and their enemies all around, they made one final decision.
To materialize the World Snake, Jormungandr.
In a forbidden ritual drawn in the blood of the thirty-eight members of the branch family who were unable to participate in the war due to age and disability, they called forth the unholy beast from the sea that bordered their castle. Bound with the soul shackles of thirty-eight magicians, the World Snake ascended from the sea, splitting apart the heavens as it stretched. The sea turned red from its arrival, stained by the poisons that slathered from its gaping maw, which curved upwards in the shape of a terrible smile. With a single tremble of its serpentine body, it shattered the magical bindings that first restricted it, before placing the full weight of its body onto the castle of those that foolishly called it into the mortal world.
And then, just like that, the World Snake, herald of Ragnarok, changed the Third Fimbulvetr War into a fight for the survival of humanity.
Wrapping itself around the planet, it began a slow constriction of the surface of the earth. The crust of the earth buckled under its strength, and devastating earthquakes wracked the world. Volcanoes spewed out lava and ash, the blood of the planet being squeezed from its pores. Mountains were made and remade. Incapable of destroying the beast, whose main body was sunk tens of kilometers into the ocean, the mages realized that the only option was to either return it from whence it came, or to seal it in a separate space.
It was during the halcyon days of winter that archmages from all over the world gathered, stepping through a portal into an unknown continent, in which rested the head of Jormungandr. The Right Hand of God, the Maiden of Versailles, the Will of the Emperor, the Archduke of Skandia, the Rune Sage, the Knight of the Lake, the Clockwork Genesis, the Phantom Army; all those legendary figures and more mustered their great powers, and even then, had no fantasy of being capable of destroying the beast. Instead, it took three days and nights of desperate struggling to even restrain the beast long enough for them to construct a separate dimension in order to seal the World Snake in.
Through the combined sacrifice of the Right Hand of God and the Phantom Army, whilst utilizing the greatest, final masterpiece of the Rune Sage, Jormungandr was locked away in another dimension, an empty, lightless, matterless one.
And yet, it never succumbed to the void.
Decades passed, and it was the runic seal that first wore out, not the World Snake. The world itself was slowly running out of magic as well, the ways of True Magic having been lost a long time ago. As the governing body of magicians grew desperate, one individual proposed a solution. The renewal of the seal's strength through the artificial generation of Ǫnd.
Essentially, human sacrifice disguised as a method of solving the blood feuds that developed between different magician families.
A substitute for a much larger war, which would not be able to escape the attention of the modern, atheist world.
A chance to obtain a miracle that exceeds both magic and science.
A humane, riskless method of restraining the World Snake that would end life the moment it broke free of its prison.
Ragnarok
Instead, another way is used: through the application of Ǫnd -- which is roughly estimated 200 times more potent than Mana -- it was possible to renew the seal. Ǫnd however, could only be gained through the death of an exhausted mage, meaning people just had to die for the greater good. With this in mind, Ragnarok was modeled to attract the most capable magicians just for the sake of killing with their own free will. For one, the magician clans used Ragnarok as a substitute for their own war, designing representatives who stood for the entire clan. On the other hand, part of the collected Ǫnd was used to fulfill a desire of the sole victor. Lastly, winning meant unrivaled fame and respect amongst the magic community.
There are only a few rules set in stone regarding Ragnarok, most are decided and organized by the Fateweaver, the surviving Einherjar of the previous Ragnarok. Mercurius van Alvensleben dethroned the 3 times successive winner of the previous Ragnarok and was also the first one in history that allowed for multiple people to survive; thanks to the early execution and huge amount of Ǫnd the previous Fateweaver had. As for the unchangeable rules, they are following:
As for the current Ragnarok, apart from date and place, not much is known about it. While Mercurius hasn't said anything about any rules of his own whatsoever, he was diligent enough to scout for potential Einherjar outside the clans the past 10 years.
Chisato is a ~1000km² big fictional island miles away from Japan. Even secluded, Chisato is a popular tourist attraction, though Ragnarok begins outside of tourist season. The island has only one town named after the island itself. While the tourism helped flourish the advance of Chisato, searching for a skyscraper would be in vain. Still, calling Chisato a backwater town would also do it unjust as the core of the city makes one nearly forget being in an unimportant place of the world. While Chisato is indeed the only town on the island, smaller settlements of 4 to 5 buildings can be found throughout the area. Chisato also offers a small mountain-range and a deep forest with a well-attended lake.
[Map for Chisato will follow]
Compared to the old times, today's magic degraded by an amount that people differ between True Magic and Magic or, as most call them, Runes. With people becoming less superstitious, technology advancing, mana becoming less and less abundant and the desperate invention of streamlined magic in form of runes, today's magic degraded immensely.
Magic works in a way similar how a computer program works: simple operations that make up a Spell in their entirety. Unlike in computer programs however, magic is able to defy logic to certain degrees. With this in mind, all the user needs to do, apart from having a sufficient amount of mana, is make his will clear towards the Mana. Easier said than done, a faithful priest may be able to heal the wounds of a wounded by laying his hands down, but anything more complex proves as incredible hard without extensive study or utilizing the help of chants, complex gestures or similar. Because of this, today's most standardized design is in the form of so-called 'Runes'. A Rune is simply made of 2 components, a form of inscription like a magic circle and a surface it is inscribed into. It is entirely up to the user what is used a surface, one could draw it on-site, use stone tables, a book, a Rubik's Cube or the own skin. However, that doesn't mean one can simply get their hands on a rune and start using it, some time-investment is still needed to get familiar with its structure and such. Also as helpful as it may sound, the investment of Runes pushed True Magic even more into extinction.
Mana, Ether, Ǫnd and Vim, those are the known values that have to do with magic. Though only Mana and Ǫnd are used to actually cast magic in the end. While Mana is all around us, only the Mana of one's own soul can be used to actually use magic, the depleted Mana turns temporary into unusable Ether which is, depending on the amount of current Ether, slowly converted back into Mana.(Describing the process as slowly might be wrong, because the more Ether there is the faster the conversion.). Ǫnd is a entirely different Story however and rare. Usable by everyone who has the means to do so, it can be used the same way as Mana but is roughly 200 times more efficient. Ǫnd slowly degrades to Vim over time and while it can be stored for later use there is no vessel that stops this decay completely. Ǫnd is obtained through a life forms death, the Ether is ignited and instantly converted to Ǫnd while the left-over Mana is turned into Vim. Vim can easily be described as magical waste and everyone who tries to read more into it becomes a laughing-stock of the magic community. Also, the most important factor for a magician is his Mana capacity. The Mana capacity of a person is already decided by birth. Because of all this, Mana is a finite resource.
On top of the magic community are The Four Kings, while their power is pretty much unrivaled they rarely take any action and just make sure nothing gets out of hand, like another great war between magicians happening. Under them are a great deal of clans who have their hands in politics, occult and economics alike. The structure of a clan can differ greatly, ranging from a great family to an entire organization. What they all have in common more or less however, is to preserve as much of their traditions as possible, fearing they would lose even more of their magic, any major advances in the field of magic have come to a halt. They also share a major disgust for technology, some going so far to live in a medieval like state.
Hostility between clans is great as many of them have developed their own runes and secrets, and just as much as they protect them (up to the point that runes would self-destruct themselves upon caster death and similar) they obviously seek for the same treasure of their enemies. Alliances happen solely for the purpose of taking down greater enemies, though some clans offer their services for the right price. Also, it is common that love is only made between clansmen, this includes the incest in family like clan structures.
A special role plays the vatican, magicians themselves, they tried to seize more power multiple times but ultimately failed. As for now though, they solely concentrate on the extermination of the occult.
Lastly, the independent, ones born outside and clan organization. Most of those have enough mana to actually become magicians yet the lack of education and knowledge lets them simply live an ordinary, everyday life. They may get recruited out of desperation or find out about their talent by coincidence, there are many possibilities. Independents are commonly not well-liked out of various reasons, though most are forgotten and it could be called simple racism. Since murdering an independent won't let someone run into the risk of provoking an entire clan, magicians have also no trouble killing them... after making sure to turn most of their Mana into Ether.
Magic is not known to the broad-masses and some clans dedicate themselves entirely to the task of keeping it like that. Still, the curiosity for the occult is a more popular theme than in our world and it plays a major role in economics and politics. The internet however, is a powerful medium hard to manipulate, and theories like "Black Mage Obama" for example can be found all over the net.
Yggdrasil Seeds, while their exact origin is unknown it is theorized they are just another masterwork of the Jotnar. Even today those are counted as the most powerful weapons. Since only magicians with a high enough amount of Mana are possible to activate them, those magicians are simply called Einherjar. It is unknown how many Yggdrasil Seeds exist as their ordinary design makes it hard to find them. While it is unknown how they exactly work they can be categorized into 3 Archetypes: Knight Arms, Fae and Seith. A Yggdrasil Seed can take on any of those but once used it is bound in that form to its master until death. Furthermore, the Yggdrasil Seed is speculated to be not unique, meaning there is no difference between 2 Yggdrasil Seeds and its effect are entirely up to their user. They are however, all based on some sort of Mythology, Legend, Fairy Tale or similar. Little Red Riding Hood, Scylla, Youkai, Arthurian Saga, Brother Grimm, Gods, all of those seem to be viable.
You may be allowed to design your CS however you may like, because of this I won't give you any form of guideline. Though following must be in it:
Name: Your characters name
Age: Between 1 and 300
Appearence: Anime-picture, rest is optional
Personality:
History:
Runes(or Magic if you don't utilize Runes)
Yggdrasil Seed
Furthermore we are going to work with stats that are a rough guess how strong a character is, even if they are called magicians they actually do quite a lot of "physical fighting":
Strength:STR defines a character’s musculature and energy. This permits you to lift heavy weights, cause major damage when hitting, and break objects.
Agility: AGI represents a character’s physical skill and coordination as well speed of movement and balance.
Constitution: CON defines the stamina and vitality, resistance to disease, and ability to absorb damage.
Willpower: WP measures the mental strength of an individual, his
coolness and tenacity. It also measures resistance against psychic assaults.
Power: POW represents the power of your magic. A very broad term, it includes lethality of offensive spells, variety of spells, utility of spells, their range, potency and so on.
Mana: MP measures the maximum capacity of Mana your Soul can hold.
1. Obey the GM.
2. No god-moding, meta-gaming, character hijacking, auto-hitting, ever-dodging or other scumbaggery.
3. No graphically or overly detailed sexual content in the IC.
4. No flaming or destructive behavior in the OOC.
5. If you're going to leave the RP, leave a note or message. This is also true if you're going to go on vacation/be unavailable for some time.
6. Have fun
Q: Is there still space left?
A: Yes.
Q: Why is there no Intelligence stat?
A: Because people suck at playing smart characters, you are an exception of course :).
Q: How many characters can I have?
A: 1, except if you are an Einherjar with Fae, which allows you to have 2.
Q: So we end up butchering each other and kill us to death?
A: Depends, I like branching Stories, I doubt there will be zero casualties but not everyone has to die.
Q: Is there a Co-GM?
A: Not yet.
Q: Are there occult races?
A: Yes.
Q: Why no explanation about those then?
A: Because no one asked and because you will all play humans.
Be creative! I kept some stuff 'rough' with the very purpose of you being allowed to go wild(like clans). For example, this would serve as a legit Knight-Arms. You could also ride some sort of beast as Fae and battle yourself or something! I am open to discuss anything though don't expect me to be willing to find a solution to everything that you agree with too.
Also I have the feel I have to say this, if you play a Fae expect that you might change your "master" later on because of story reasons.
Some things regarding Yggdrasil Seeds may change because lolbalancing.
Feel free to grammar-nazi me...through PM >~>.
If anyone wants to make a glossary, feel free too =3=.
Also this individual is reserved.
Since this RP is more PvP'ish I keep an eye out for Metagaming, you can also PM me about any concerns you might have. If you lay traps or similiar, I leave it up to you to either PM me about it or just write it into your post. Heck, if you want, you could even give me your CS via PM instead of posting it.
Comes later, but basically some guidelines to when I kick people from the RP to take control of their character to butcher them joyfully.
Comes later
Xaltwind - Helping through various stages of the RP and kicking me towards completion and QR
ERode - Opening(soon™) as well Rodeyfying some fluff
Asuras - Graphics
Arlai BF - QR
