Equestria Divided - The War for Harmony

CORE ED INFO

Map of Equestria


The Great Houses of Equestria







"Forces of the Great Houses"







It’s been many years since the princesses disappeared, and the Elements fell apart. Many years since the beginning of the great war which has reduced Equestria to a burning shell of its former self. The so-called Great Houses: Earthborn, Stormwing, Everfree, Moon and Star, WhiteGold, and the Cult of Laughter. Each one representing a force of harmony that once protected the world, now twisted by anger, fear, hate and betrayal. The Houses are at war to this day, each believing it’s the only one who can fix the world. They are all dead wrong.

You are connected to one of these Houses, you live under its rule and follow its ways… But you are having doubts. Maybe they are new...maybe you just never realized or accepted that they were there. All you know is that these feelings of uncertainty are now stronger than ever. Recently, you've also started having strange dreams. Dreams that fuel those doubts. They show you a well-fortified town, one you recognize as Redheart’s Refuge; the largest, most well-protected refugee haven in Equestria, bowing to no House and untouched by the Cult. As the dream fades, a powerful voice bids you to “Come, gather, and return harmony to this land.”

Every night the dream comes, and every day your doubts grow. You've finally decided to leave your former life in whichever house you are from. You’ve decided to face the risks and travel to Redheart’s Refuge. You want to find the origin of the dream… You want to know the importance of the Refuge. Most of all, you hope for answers; you want to know if restoring Harmony is truly possible.

-The Idea-

You are one of a handful of individuals, all from different factions, all from different backgrounds, but with one thing in common: you have lost some (if not all) of your faith in your leader and your cause. You have come to Redheart’s Refuge to find the source of your mysterious dreams, and find yourself a part of a new cause. You have been magically summoned to this place in order to form an elite group. A powerful group. A group with one goal: To free the Elements of Harmony (and thus Equestria itself) from the leaders of the Houses, who are irreversibly corrupt, and deserve them no longer. You will either convince them to abdicate willingly, or (if it comes to this) you will take back your country and the Elements from their cold, dead bodies. You will break the power of the Houses, repair the effects of their corruption, and if you have anything to say about it, peace may one day find its way back to the ponies of Equestria.

I'm looking for a diverse group of characters to become this elite team. Their mission is to disrupt each House in turn and remove the 6 leaders, ensuring that the Elements are free from corruption once again. If the leaders must be killed to accomplish this… So be it.

-The Rules-

1. I and any CO-GM that may appear will have final say on story, events, as well as out of game issues. Even so, I am very open and flexible to ideas and suggestions. Something you want to do? Let us know!
2. Now killing a player character without a consensus between the two parties involved.
3. No killing significant NPCs without asking me first.
4. Please be polite and friendly with one another. harmony may be dead in game, but we are all pony fans here. Love and tolerance yo.
5. Please do your best to keep us up to date with your situations. If you have to disappear for a few days, let us know. It is easier to wait with the lights on than it is in the dark.
6. Let's keep spam and stuff to a minimum in the OOC, if we really want a playground to go nuts in I'll open another thread for that to take place in so we don't water this one down.
7. More rules may come as issues arise.

-The Character Sheet-

Name:
Appearance: ( Description or pic is fine )
Race: ( We are open to all cannon races, especially those involved with certain factions like griffins, zebras, or even Diamond Dogs )
Faction: ( who were you once loyal to )
Skills: (What there rank/class/job was, abilities, skills, weapons, ect )
History: ( Don't write your whole life story if you don't want to. Give use at least enough to establish character, background, and motivations. )
Other: ( whatever you like )

-The Cast Page-

PS: thanks to Imperfections for original idea and over all help.

You're welcome!

Just a note for anyone who wants to join, remember that you don't have to be a combat-focused character, or someone who was in one of the House's militaries. :) Variety is key! It'll take all types to topple the Elements.

Also, Kilt, would you mind terribly if I brought back Red Dawn, but as one of the Champions this time? I would go for Clipper (and if I join I'll definitely have her play a role at some point), but she's very much a "GM-character", a leader of the group rather than a member. Red Dawn was going to be a recurring villain in the original game, but in this one I could skip ahead to where I was planning he'd end up (namely, on the side of the heroes).

What do you think?

EDIT: Oh, and under Factions, I don't think it should be limited to just the Houses. Some of the characters can be affiliated with non-House groups, or even more than one House, like Clipper, you know?

Yeah, go for it :D

Question for anyone who knows the setting better: would it be possible to play a 'Everfree-Wraith-In-Progress'? I assume the turning into wraith takes a longer while, with growing all the extra parts, and I was wondering would it be possible to have character chicken out halfway (due to some unexpected part of the process, for example) and run away.

Full-on wraiths don't seem like playable characters, but I was considering a pony halfway there, struggling with Forest's influence, who seen too much and decided it's time to put an end to the madness.

Mm, that is an interesting idea. A failed Wraith. The mutation would have some pretty nasty side effects, I'm sure... How Wraith-like would you want her/him to be?

I was thinking wooden horns, a bit of small branches with leaves or scales, maybe pupils contracting to slits in strong sunlight. Then there would be psychological effects - failing or lack of restraint in combat, generally short temper, and being somewhat under Forests/Fluttershy's influence (AKA control button under GM's finger). No regeneration or supernatural screech or anything like that, unless given later.

It could be something that progresses - so the character start out in better condition, and it gets worse - both outside and inside - as the story moves onwards. Sort of undisclosed time limit.
As for more side effects - I'm open to suggestions ;)

Do I just leave a CS below?

You can post it here, or if you feel unsure about anything you can PM it to me and we can work out any details.

-EDIT-

A failed/semi formed Wraith is a wonderful idea for a character. Go for it.

Update: Impy is offically CO-GM

Wow.

Normally, I never join MLP roleplays.

But this...

It's so in depth and awesome!
After reading all of the stuff in the first post, I'm thinking of making a Reveler for the Cult of Laughter or a Jester of Baltimore.

Or a nightmare for the ghost powers.

That's most people's reaction when they first discover ED, Derp. It's a fabulous setting.

Remember, though, that all three of those characters would be rather difficult to play. Revelers and Jesters have given themselves over to the Laughing Mare, and there has to be a justification for how your character was able to escape the madness (talk to Kilt about that; the best character in my ED game was his, a Jester)...

A Nightmare would certainly be powerful and useful, and would even need slightly less justification, but again she would need a very good reason to not see Moon&Star as truly serving Luna. As it says, she would be a High Priestess, a leader in the Luna-aligned portions of the House... In fact, if you do happen to lean in this direction, shoot me a PM, and we can talk about the relationship between your Nightmare and Red Dawn, my Luna-worshiping Inquisitor.

Imperfectionist said
That's most people's reaction when they first discover ED, Derp. It's a fabulous setting.Remember, though, that all three of those characters would be rather difficult to play. Revelers and Jesters have given themselves over to the Laughing Mare, and there has to be a justification for how your character was able to escape the madness (talk to Kilt about that; the best character in my ED game was his, a Jester)...A Nightmare would certainly be powerful and useful, and would even need slightly less justification, but again she would need some reason to not see Moon&Star as truly serving Luna. As it says, she would be a High Priestess, a leader in the Luna-aligned portions of the House... In fact, if you do happen to lean in this direction, shoot me a PM, and we can talk about the relationship between your Nightmare and Red Dawn, my Luna-worshiping Inquisitor.

A nightmare would be quite easy to justify, in my opinion. All the slaves, the wars, all the stuff like that. Luna wouldn't like that at all. Unless the house twisted the image of Luna completely.

In which case: Not cool, moon and stars. Not cool.

Jester and Reveler might still be stark raving mad or something, just gave up on the laughing mare. Though I'm not so sure how I'd pull that off in the CS...

Yeah, you can't just "give up" on an ancient mind-eating eldritch abomination. It's going to take some exceptional circumstances, and at least some withdrawal symptoms. Willpower through the roof, basically.

As for the Nightmare, remember that basically every other group in Equestria denies and scorns the Sisters, including Luna. They say she was no goddess, her claim to the throne was nonexistent, she was not to be trusted even after she was cured of the whole Nightmare Moon thing, all that. The vast majority of zealotous priestesses (which Nightmares are, by definition) would stay with Moon&Star.

The slaves are justified. Obviously, the Sisters being Alicorns (Unicorns with wings, according to M&S), magic and unicorns are seen in the highest regard. All of the other races are surely inferior. The wars? They are literally fighting for the right of the Princesses to rule Equestria. Moon&Star believes they will come back, and take over once again. So, as I said, there has to be some particularly disheartening event, one that leaves her connection to Luna herself intact, but her loyalty to the House broken.

EDIT: And, in fact, Moon&Star has the most legitimacy of all of the Houses. They have an Alicorn Princess, and are the most direct extension of the Pre-Collapse government of the Sisters.

Imperfectionist said
Yeah, you can't just "give up" on an ancient mind-eating eldritch abomination. It's going to take some exceptional circumstances, and at least withdrawal symptoms. Willpower through the roof, basically.As for the Nightmare, remember that basically every other group in Equestria denies and scorns the Sisters, including Luna. They say she was no goddess, her claim to the throne was nonexistent, she was not to be trusted even after she was cured of the whole Nightmare Moon thing, all that. The vast majority of zealotous priestesses (which Nightmares are, by definition) would stay with Moon&Star.The slaves are justified. Obviously, the Sisters being Alicorns (Unicorns with wings, according to M&S), magic and unicorns are seen in the highest regard. All of the other races are surely inferior. The wars? They are literally fighting for the right of the Princesses to rule Equestria. Moon&Star believes they will come back, and take over once again. So, as I said, there has to be some particularly disheartening event, one that leaves her connection to Luna herself intact, but her loyalty to the House broken.

Bleh, I'm gonna need to think on my CS. A lot.

Derpestein said
Bleh, I'm gonna need to think on my CS. A lot.

:P I'm glad. That's the kind of game this is.

Do the cultists preform forced conversions?

Voltus_Ventus said
Do the cultists preform forced conversions?

I suppose it depends on your definition of "forced". Most cultists join willingly, called by the Laughing Mare, but there could be some forceful (submit to the Mare or die) conversions... What did you have in mind?

Voltus_Ventus said
Do the cultists preform forced conversions?

I read that as forced conversations. Oops. :P

Anyways, in the cult forces tab, it seems most are devoted to the laughing mare completely. I take that as they're all willing volunteers in the name of the Laughing Mare.

Or they were tortured to insanity. Idk.

I am so pleased so much thought is going into the game before it even begins :D I almost can't wait to see what kind of characters ya'll come up with.

Imperfectionist said
(talk to Kilt about that; the best character in my ED game was his, a Jester)

Oh, stop it impy, you'll make me blush