I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet... - Prof. Ozpin



Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Team RWBY; an exceptional group of huntresses in training. However, there are always great people being born. Some are wasted and in the end fade into obscurity. Others however stand out like lights in the darkness. Beacons, you could say.

One year before there was RWBY, a few such lights gathered.

- - -

In not so poetic terms, this will be a small RP that takes place one year before the events of RWBY season 1. Players will be in control of first year students at Beacon. I say small because there will only be three openings for players. I will be in control of my own team of OCs, and I will have a co-GM as one member of a second team. The three openings will of course fill in the three slots left over on that team.

What is the rest of the plot? Well that's for you to find out. All I will reveal now is that it will heavily center around Beacon Academy and the Grim. It will be a short story, unfolding over the course of a year, and I hope to see it all the way to the end. I'd love your help in doing so.

My co-gm is my "friend" RyuHll. We've both been RPing for quite some time (many, many sad, pathetic, lonely years) so we've got a good idea of what we're doing (probably...).

This is just an interest check thread, but I will still put down a character sheet in case your mind lights on fire and you want to get your character out there before you forget.

CAUTION: When making a character, please try to avoid names that begin with vowels if you can. Remember, we have to come up with team names, and thus we need four letters that work well together. Mashing together vowels does not work very well. Eiei is just one 'o' away from being a song we sing to children... if you know what I mean. So, maybe even skip giving your character a name, and then we can collab and come up with an awesome team name. The short version is: be careful when you name your character.

NOTE: Since I have given you the option to get started on your characters now, I'll let you know: Beacon is said to be an academy for the best of the best, so feel free to make characters with that in mind. Just try not to go overboard and into the realm of retardedly OP Mary Sue. If Ruby can slice trees in half with one hand at the age of 15, so can you. Since I've given you this leeway, I'm prepared to reign you in if you accidentally go too far. I've given some examples down below (they're the characters I'll be using.). They're meant to be stronger than you, so aim for a little bit below their level. Other than that, feel free to make characters with loads of potential.



Here's my characters for examples:








If you want to know more, just ask. I'm trying to keep this somewhat light, as I'll just be redoing it all when I make the full thread later. Making a CS now is not necessary. I'll be making my final decisions on the three people I want in the RP when I put up the main OOC/IC thread. In short, chime in if you're interested, and then get to work on your character if you wish. Otherwise, when I've gotten three or four responses, I'll get to work on the main thread. Once that's up I'll give everyone who chimed in a few days to post a character and then I'll pick from those. In other words, this is not first come first serve.

Hello there. I was asked to introduce myself. I am Ryu, the co-GM to this game. While I have a great distaste of working with such mediocrity, I will swallow my pride for this occasion. (At least half of that was a joke, don't worry. We don't hate each other that much. xD) Anyway, I'll be on the team of three that gets assembled. So, if you like, take a look at my character when it's up and we can try to work out some kind of dynamic. Or we can just go into it blind. I'm good with that too. More work for the actual GM either way. xD

And, in utter defiance of our tyrannical rule, here is my character sheet without having been approved by him.

Name: Nevin Theros

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Weight: 140lb

Height: 5'8”

Appearance: Wears white gloves at all times, has medium height and build. Doesn't look to be the strongest, but he's fit. Wears glasses.

Personality: Calm and collected, he doesn't usually let his emotions get the better of him. He tries to make an informed decision at all times and weighs the pros and cons of every situation. Despite that, he has a kind heart, not particularly caring for violence if there is another way out of a situation.

Likes: Peace, community, teamwork

Dislikes: Chaos, conflict

Strengths: Intellect, strategy, can fight adequately without weapons, born leader

Weaknesses: Too trusting at first, takes too much onto himself at times

Weapons: His first line of offense are his fists, both imbued with a special glyph each over the gloves he wears. The one on his right is imbued with red dust, aptly named Inferno, while the left is imbued with yellow, named Flash. It creates an effect of fire and lightning. His primary weapon, though, is his two swords at his sides, Unes and Duo. Each has a slot to place a crystallized version of dust into, giving each a special effect.

Semblance: Synergy – It works as a battle aura, allowing others to work together much better than they would previously. It basically synchronizes each individual to work as a collective whole rather than separate people of a group. This can apply to weaponry as well, figuring out rather quickly what is the best way to use certain items in battle effectively when thrown together.

History: At a young age, Nevin was trained by his father. His father had high hopes for him, being the only son of the family, to become a powerful Hunter and help the rest of the world. So, he was trained in both swordplay and in hand-to-hand combat. He learned rather quickly, but his father wasn't the main drive he held. His sister also played a big part. She was a huntress. She was the reason he knew the real terrors of the world before even being enrolled in an academy. She had a talent for magic, but her specialty was in small glyphs she could use for traps or to boost equipment with special abilities.

That was his first introduction to magic. Unfortunately, he had no talent for it. He did, however, gain the knowledge of it, having a fair idea of how it works, in concept. He just failed to actually produce results. In the end, all he got out of his training was a good hand-to-hand combat potential and excellent sword skills. That wasn't his talent, though. It was discovered that, while he was good at fighting, he was better at strategy. He could plan a fight better than he could actually fight it.

This training went on for most of his life, until he came of age to enter one of the academies to be trained as a Hunter. Along with that, having a sister as a mage had its benefits. Before he left, he was gifted with two gloves, each with a glyph etched into it to help his fighting, as well as a small number of gems, made from dust, to be used alongside his swords. The swords were both given to him by his father, passed down in his family.

As he came of age and received these gifts, he enrolled into the academy, Flare.

Once there, he quickly rose up the ranks to the top of his class. This, however, wasn't to last as he was overtaken by a fellow student, Amalger. The boy rose just as quickly and had overtaken Nivan. Unfortunately, Nivan didn't really care. He figured second best was just as good and never put in any extra effort. He didn't seem to ever really try during the course of his time there. In the end, he never really got to have a bout with this other boy that had overtaken his position. He didn't entirely care, either. The only time his interest had been piqued was when Amalger had almost been expelled for creating his own weapon. While it didn't exactly bring out anything new from the boy, it had gotten his attention.

As the years passed, a day before his birthday, he had been slated to head off to the next step on becoming a hunter. Beacon Academy. As things turned out, he heard Amalger was heading there too. If nothing else, he was sure this next year was going to be interesting.

I'm definitely interested, I love RWBY and this sounds neat-o.

Interested for sure.

Hmmm methinks I am totally interested in this.

Count me in! I actually have a character concept ready, a bit of back story and personality developed, and the abilities at ready.

Woo! A great way to wake up!

Unfortunately I have a full day of work ahead of me, plus some other personal business.

Two things I'll say:

I will work on getting the full thread up later today.

And, even after that is posted, unless I've said "this is now closed to new people" anyone else may still attempt to join in. However, to be a bit more fair to those who join in early (especially anyone who gets in before I get the main thread up) I'm not gonna wait extra long for people who drag themselves in late. So those of you who've spoken up now, I recommend you take advantage of the extra time you have to do a good job on your CSs. :P

Once the main thread is up, I'll wait a reasonable amount of time (probably two days at max) until everyone who spoke up here before hand to post their CSs. Once those are all in, I immediately will stop waiting. After all, I want to get this started! :D EXCITEMENT!

While I'm aware that you'd rather keep the group limited, I'm wondering whether you'd let me join as a Hunter from outside the academy.

Alright time to get to work on a character won't be able to have it up until tonight though since I'm busy today.

FVGT - No go, sorry. This is a five man RP (me, my co, and 3 others). I thought about it, but I think you'd have trouble finding a place in the RP. I wanna keep it small, and hopefully avoid this RP imploding from having too many people to manage. If you wanna try for one of the three slots though, you are welcome to.

Drewccap - No worries, you got plenty of time.

I've never seen the point of limiting the number of people joining (the limited people leave just as easily as the nonlimited, and then they need to be replaced because the RP was designed for that many) but definitely color me interested. I've wanted to join a RWBY roleplay for some time, and I think it'd be a lot of fun. Plus, I already have two characters prepared, so it shouldn't take long to get a CS up. The only question: which one?

Double post, so sorry. Don't know what's with this computer all of a sudden.

The point of limiting it is twofold. For one, we need an certain amount of people. We need at least four for a full squad. So, whether we limit it to three or seven (myself comprising a member of one of the teams), it still needs to be limited. It'd be harder for us to manage a situation in which its, say, four people joining, three joining the team I'm part of and the last being left with a full OC team. Also, before this is brought up, the reason we limit it to students is because the plot revolves around the students rather than separate hunters. yes, we could find things for the older hunters, but it'd be a situation of filler vs necessary content. Stuff like that.

Anyway, beside the point. The other reason is because this is our first RP being co-GMs. I've never GMed a large scale RP before and it's been a while since Killa has. So, we're starting out with this smaller one. Also the reason I'm here. It's to keep him from being overwhelmed with the full responsibility.

Hope that answered your concerns. If you're interested, feel free to put up a character sheet. We'll be figuring out who's in the RP after we get a few of them out. I think we're basing it around team dynamics and how good the characters themselves are. That's more his realm of control, though, so I'm not entirely sure yet.

Uhhm, okay, I have this character I'd like to give a shot, I'll put it here for review. Please note the name I have there is simply a placeholder, I'm more then willing to change it to one that'll fit the team, it just felt weird not putting down any name. Also more then willing to change whatever, I just had the idea and decided to roll with it.

Name:
Aurelia Persinette
Age:
17
Gender:
Female
Race:
Human

Appearance:
Aurelia is a girl who is most notable for her very long, neatly braided golden hair--it sweeps around her knees. She is of average height around five feet and six inches, weighing in at about one hundred twenty five pounds. Her skin is somewhat pale, her facial features mostly small and round, including large, violet-hued eyes. She has a modest bust and waist, though boasts long legs. As a modest girl, she wears a long, purple dress, sleeveless with ruffles lining the top. The corset is decorated with several purple flowers that match the ones in her hair, and she wears matching wristbands. Her dress stops around her ankles and is made of a light material that flows, and she wears a pair of short, silver boots with heels.

Personality:
A somewhat timid, reserved young lady, Aurelia comes off as someone who is very quiet most of the time, especially around people she doesn't know. She'l be happily chatting to a friend one minute, then completely mute the next once someone new shows up. She's more the type of person to follow then lead and makes sure to follow directions properly. She seems slightly spacey at times, and tends to take sarcasm completely seriously (and often misses jokes, as well). When she does open up and is in her comfort zone, she is very cheerful, always having a smile on her face. She is gentle in nearly every aspect, whether it be her soft voice and her light and airy mannerisms. Despite her quiet nature, she will speak up when seeing others act maliciously, especially bullies, and won't tolerate any racism of any kind, either. In battle she is not nearly as shy, taking every fight very seriously and striving to always improve herself. She is fascinated by weaponry as well, always eager to find their inner workings and uses.

Likes:
Music, quiet days in the library, paper folding, battles for fun, weapons
Dislikes:
Strangers, cheaters, bullies, people who play/fight unfairly, overly loud noises, people who talk too much, unneeded violence

Strengths:
Long range fighting, vast knowledge of spells, quick to act, excellent healer
Weaknesses:
Relies on others for decision making, quick to lose focus and get distracted, opponents who act quicker then her casting, can't take too many hits

Weapon:
Her primary weapon is one she calls "Rampion". She uses it mainly to channel her spells, its head filled with Dust, as well as being heavy enough to whack people around with. When in need of more power, its head with warp and transform into something resembling a cannon of sorts, Dust firing off in bursts.

Semblance:
"Efficiency" -- Aurelia is able to manipulate the way her body expends energy. As a result, she can endure longer in battle then most people. She doesn't require as much nourishment or sleep, either, though when she does finally crash it takes a lot longer for her to recover. This also extends to her usage of Dust: she uses less Dust for her spells, and is able to fire off much more then the average person.

History:
Aurelia was born into a family of much wealth, and she was loved very dearly by her family. She was spoiled beyond reason, showered with gifts nearly every day, her mother and father loving, and she was happy. She did remember, however, that one day, suddenly everything changed. The happy childhood became one of much fighting and arguments. Her family became distant, her mother and father moreso, and it killed her to see everyone act that way. She knew it was somehow her fault--she could never forget the way her family members would glare at her, throwing her nasty looks, how her father's loving look turned to one made of pure sadness, though no one ever bothered to tell her why. And so she got her own little shell and stayed in it for as long as she could. It was not until her mother died that the fighting stopped, but now she felt a deep, painful sadness instead. She did not understand why anything had happened, and as frustrating as it was, there was nothing she could do. And so she just accepted it.
The so called ray of sunshine was that now her father was like the way he used to be--kind, loving, and slightly smothering, though she loved it. He was back to normal...but she could never go back to the way she was. He understood, gently pulling her out of her shell, having the patience of a saint when she hid. While this was equally as confusing, it was easier to adapt to. Her father raised her the best he could, though sometimes when he thought she wasn't looking, he would have an expression of regret, but she never got the courage to ask him what was wrong.
Years down the road, Aurelia discovered Dust, often looking towards the stores the same way most kids would look at candy stores. Her father got the hint and started practicing with her, showing her how to use it properly and warning her of the dangers. She then asked him what Dust was really used for, and he explained that Dust was what Hunters would use to fight off the Grim. She remembered perking up at the story, After much pleading, tears, and a very reluctant father's blessing, Aurelia enrolled into Sanctum Academy. Fighting was an alleviating experience. It was actually a little scary how free she felt in battle, but it was with pride that she found her calling as well as developed her own style. After much studying, many bruises, the discovery of weaponry and the delights of battle, she was accepted into Beacon, more then ready and willing to become a Huntress.

Yo, Kil! Been a while. Seeing as you've already gots more than enough pepes, I'll just wish you luck on this one.

Name: Abel “Azure” Fulgurate
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race: Faunus

Appearance:

Seventeen years old and decently muscular, Abel has average, common features crowned by curly auburn hair and lined with stubble. A striped, collared brown shirt lies beneath a hooded blue-and-black plaid jacket, while black rubber gloves protect his hands from backlash from his semblance. He wears rather billowy, brown, sporty longshorts and black boots. A thick, musty-brown leather belt holds up a dark blue wraparound. His Eel Faunus heritage is hidden beneath his clothing; the skin on his chest and back is a nasty-looking green in places, and he has small fins on his spine and forearms. He does have gills on his neck, but they are difficult to see.

Personality: Abel is proud and gruff, very serious and totally without humor. For someone who appreciates the creativity and technique of both weapons and battle so thoroughly, he ironically is without creativity. Instead, he tend to go about his business by the book, a principled young man of habit and routine with little to no capability to think outside the box. While he is dependable, he is not flexible, and can respond to bullying, injustice, or even plain teasing with sudden anger. While not antisocial, he sticks with only a few friends at any given time, concentrating on strong bonds rather than many bonds. He loathes popular culture and those who overtly subscribe to it. Generally, he likes to settle into routine and doesn't often react well to big changes. The Grimm mask he carries makes him upset and angry, more at himself than anything else, but as it reminds him of his brother he cannot let it go. Though he is reluctant to use it, he believes that wearing the mask improves his combat abilities. This is pretty much just placebo effect.

Likes: Respect, competence, fighting, weapons, technology, history, going really fast, sportsmanship
Dislikes: Popular culture, the Grimm, bullies, criminals, people who try to be funny, big egos, thunderstorms

Strengths: Skilled battler / Good at multitasking / Can take a lot of punishment / Reliable / Can breath underwater
Weaknesses: A follower, not a leader / prefers to do rather than think / quick temper / Semblance is useless when not using his weapon

Weapon(s): The Ampere, a unique polearm with a wide, flat blade rather than a spearhead along with a black iron pole. It has both range and lethality, keeping most melee fighters at a range safe for Abel but devastating to them with a tempered steel point, as well as channeling Abel's natural aura far better than he can do by himself. The Ampere has a single alternate mode that splits the wide blade into four parts and reverses their direction, creating a vaguely mace shape. In this mode, the Ampere can release bolts of lightening that travel impressive distances instantly. An important thing to note is that this weapon doesn't use Dust; it utilizes Abel's semblance.

Semblance: Called 'Surge', Abel's semblance allows him to project electricity that can manipulate the Ampere at short range without touching it and summon it back to his hand when disarmed, as well as channel electricity to shock anything the weapon touches. By using Surge to rotate his staff quickly at very close range, he can create a sort of shield. Surge is practically useless when not used in conjunction with the Ampere.

History: For generations Abel's family had been living on the edge of civilization. Tracing ancestors back to the original war, this lineage served as guardsmen, men and women alike, manning the perimeter of Vale and with vigilance and fortitude to keep the kingdom safe from the monstrous creatures of Grimm that would have gladly torn it asunder. By shielding the kingdom of man from the dark storm, however, both the defenders and the defended were preserved. It was into this family Abel was born. Though not impoverished, Abel's upbringing was basic and bleak. Readily he accepted the mantle of the warrior, but he had a great deal to live up to; the Fulgurate family line had steadfastly played its part in protection of Vale for a long time without losing a single member. A perfect record that now fell to Abel to be upheld.

After so many years of peace, however, the darkness rose again. When Abel was only ten, the section of the wall under his family's jurisdiction came under attack by a massive influx of monsters. On one tempestuous night in particular the Grimm made their devastating assault. Both he and his older brother, though too young to really fight, stood by their parents and three uncles as Nevermores rained feathers from the sky, Death Stalkers fractures the falls with their stingers, and King Tajitsus slithered up and over it. That night the famous Fulgurate perfect record was broken. Though the elder guardians held their own against the invaders with strength and determination, Abel's older brother insisted on fighting. When a Beowolf reached the top of the wall and leaped onto the catwalk, the brother was ready for it. Using a polearm to keep himself at distance, he fought the Beowolf and succeeded in impaling it. As the monster bled it last, however, the storm intensified, and a black shape crawled over the wall that hid in the shadows. Abel tried to warn his sibling but it mattered not, and Kane Fulgurate was cut down.

Then, the unknown monster turned for Abel, hiding a dozen yards away behind a stone pillar. Terrified, angry, and distraught, Abel decided to go down fighting. Armed only with a long fireplace poker he found nearby, he ran at the Grimm creature screaming and crying. As the obsidian claws raked across his chest, Abel's Aura was suddenly unlocked, and an electric charge pushed the monster away. Abel charged again, waving his metal pole, and a bolt of lightening fell from the sky onto him. Rather than burn and die, however, Abel miraculously channeled the energy to electrocute his assailant and kill it. In the aftermath of the fight there was much mourning, and Abel expressed the desire to train as an elite Hunter and learn how to better fight the Grimm. As such, he attended Signal Academy, and when he applied to Beacon he was accepted after passing the entrance exam.

I've got everything except history written, but I've got notes for that. Will finish CS by tomorrow.

Name: Maggie Faust
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Race: Human



Personality: Maggie is a free willed girl who does whatever her whims are at the time. She's never enjoyed being controlled by anyone as her parents raised her to believe that no one has the right to order anyone around. She generally a happy young woman with positive intentions. She's always looking for a way to help out somehow. She loves to be relaxed as any form of tension feels like death to her. She loves to be in high places. She's a fair person that's not interested in causing other people harm. She can't stand doing nothing. She always enjoyed being a daredevil as she often took anything she perceived as a challenge and attempted to overcome it or rise up to it.

Likes: Fidgeting, Helping Out, Lightening the Mood, Taking risks
Dislikes: Tension, Bad Attitudes, Being Controlled, People Contented by an empty life

Strengths: Cat-like Reflexes, Fast, Danger Sense
Weaknesses: She can't really take a hit and doesn't really dish out a whole lot of hurt. She speaks really fast sometimes making it hard for her to be understood.

Weapon(s): She uses a claw blade that she jokingly calls "The Claw" as she sees no point in calling it anything other than what it is. It's a simple weapon with a design to allow use for Dust to allow fire to run down the blades. It could be used for other elements, but she can't imagine using anything other than fire. The design of the weapon isn't necessarily to cause the most damage, but to in fact cause the most pain so the truly damaging weapons can get in position to do what they do best.

Semblance: Overdrive - She can temporarily push herself beyond her limits, unfortunately the backlash for doing this leaves her entirely exhausted and she passes out minutes after triggering this. It also takes some time and concentration to trigger this ability, so she only really does this when the person that's supposed to be causing damage can't for one reason or another, and only if she feels she can get away with it safely.

History:

"Well, I was a pretty active girl. Heh, who am I kidding? I'm still active. I was born to my mum, she raised me well. At least that's what I think. Pops is an active hunter off doing work for whoever needs it. He's actually the reason I'm comin' here. So I can be a hunter too. Seems like I won't be bored with a job like this, besides I couldn't cut it with any other job I don't think.

"So... right we're talking about my life. Well I was raised in the city, so there was always something to do. I was pretty bad as a student in primary school since I can't stand sitting around doing nothing. Eventually it came down to mum homeschooling me. She always gave me projects and stuff to do, so I think it helped a lot. She's a really smart lady. In my free time I'd go off adventuring throughout the city. Sometimes I got into trouble with the authorities, but nothing I did was major enough for anything other than a severe talking to, 'sides I think they actually enjoyed some of my shenanigans.

"I think my favorite thing I did was take out some jerks bullying some kid. Well... More like I caught their attention and ran off with them right behind me so the kid could get away. Then I out paced them and left behind a couple surprise traps and stuff. It was great seein' them hangin' from a wire. Ohmygodyoushouldhaveseen their faces! The police eventually had to take them down, cuz I wasn't doin' nothin' they were tellin' me to do. I had a stern speaking to then, but when I told them what they were doing then the real trouble happened to the bullies. By then I had a real good track record of honesty with the cops, so they trusted me unless the officer was new.

"Pops taught me how to defend myself whenever I needed to by using my surroundings and whatever I had on me at the time. Thanks to that and what mum taught me I passed my entrance exams to Beacon and here I am! Mum let me get this tattoo as a present, it hurt for like a week and a half. They said it was possible it might get infected, but I took good care of it. Anyways, that's my story up to now."

Since this is a limited RP, I think I'm going to work on a CS application a little later! I usually get swamped when there's loads of people, so a 5 man Rp is so much better for me. I'll work on a CS a little later and hope I do a good enough job!

I'll get to work on the main thread momentarily, but I want to comment on the CSs that have been created.

Hero - Odette looks good, nothing for me to say there. (Not saying you're accepted, but you did a good job for sure.)

Lugubrious - Hmm... the picture was a bit offputting, but after reading the rest of the CS it fits perfectly, so I assume you made it yourself. I suppose that just means it's more accurate. :P As for the CS itself, it's pretty good. An eel faunus is definitely a unique idea, and I like that his semblance kinda makes him an electric eel. I also feel like I don't see many characters with his personality type... but that might just be me.

drewccapp - I like your character, and I like how your history is written like an interview. The only problem is her combat potential. For an RP like this, she needs to be able to hit harder in some way. To be frank "having tons of knives" isn't really something I can accept as her weapon. In RWBY, weapons are kind of like a character's signature, they're often (but not necessarily) made by the character (It's all about the weapon porn). Whether it was made by her or not, she needs a unique primary weapon. It can still be a knife (or pair/set of knives, twin weapons are fine too), but there should ideally be some sort of trick to it. It can be part gun, it can channel or use dust in some way, it could have any number of mechanical or dust/magic based abilities, but you need more than a random collection of knives.