[center] [i] "What is Fire?
Courageous and Strong, the fury of the sun."

"What is Air?
Adventurous and Agile, the chaos of the storm."

"What is Earth? 
Wise and Enduring, the Immutability of the mountain."

"What is Water?
Intelligent and beautiful, the cold of the moon." 

"What is Light?
Kind and selfless, the brilliance consumes all."

"What is Darkness?
Driven and protective, the hunger knows no limit." 
 ~First verse of the hymn of the elements. [/i] [/center]

[url= http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/51967/posts/ooc]The Codex![/url]

Welcome to RUNE! This roleplay focuses on the planet of RUNE, a magical land where both arcane magic and advanced technology reigns, Where adventure is the order of the day.

PC's will play characters hired to escort a merchant caravan to the desert city of Rosa, with some interesting stuff happening along the way.

A particularly important theme is elemental affinity, explained here:
[hider= Elemental Affinity and you]
Elemental affinity describes the unique magical make-up of ones soul, what type of energy makes up their essence. To determine your character's affinity, take a look at your personality, and compare it to these short descriptions and choose what feels most appropriate. If you have any trouble at all, don't hesitate to ask me for help.

Fire: Strong-willed, emotional, and proud, fire types tend to act first and without a lot of thought. They are usually ruled by their emotions, for good or ill. While prone to raging outbursts, you'd be hard pressed to find a braver soul. Their tenacity, courage, and passion often lends them well to leadership positions on a small scale, such as commanding a squad of troops or supervising a group of construction workers. They tend to be artistic as well.

Water: Calm, collected, intelligent, and a little cold. Water people tend to be quiet, intellectual types. They are patient to a point, but if pushed too far their rage can easily surpass a fire person's in ferocity. Their patience and intelligence lends them well to scholarly positions, and are also good at more research oriented positions as well. Unfortunately, water people often have difficulty showing emotion, so may come off as aloof, cold, or unfeeling.

Earth: Sturdy, wise, and a bit stubborn, earth types tend to be dependable, resolute individuals. Loyal to a fault and reasonable, earth types can be great friends, as they often possess gentle, caring natures. Earth types lend themselves well to being laborers or doing domestic jobs. However, if one thing can be said, they have a hard time with change, and are often very stubborn. If they have convinced themselves that they are right, there is little you can do to change their mind.

Air: Free-spirited, adventurous, and a tad unfocused, air types are often wild-cards. Laid back and agreeable, they tend to breeze through life, care-free and curious. They have a way with advanced technology, their curiosity pushing them to understand its workings. Unfortunately, this disordered lifestyle can lead to them being unfocused and unprepared, as the 'wing it' approach doesn't always work. In addition, they often experience severe mood-swings, and are more prone to mental illness. In essence, they go where the wind takes them, if you'll excuse the slight pun.

Light: Devoted, just, and slightly vengeful, Light types are often paragons of the community. They are often kind and selfless, capable of great acts of self sacrifice for the good of the community. Unfortunately, they tend to expect the same of other individuals, and some may have difficulty meeting their high standards. They also tend to bring the hammer down on things they perceive as 'wrong,' and will often excuse terrible deeds in the name of the greater good. despite their faults, they tend to be good more often than not.

Darkness: Driven, Protective, and a bit greedy, Dark types epitomize progress. While not as charitable as light types, Dark types will often go out of their way to protect their allies, and are often confident and driven in their purpose, if a bit arrogant at times. However, ambition, greed, and selfishness plague dark types, who despite their defensive nature will often do all that they can for personal gain. The difference between light and darkness can be a matter of scale. While a light person will protect anyone and willingly give their lives, dark types will even more fiercely protect friends and allies, but not strangers and not at the cost of their own lives (Usually. Extremely strong bonds may override this).
[/hider]

Now, onto the rules:

Rules:
1. I am the law. Seriously, what I say goes.
2. Any Co-GMs I appoint are also the Law.
3. Be like the Fonz, be cool, be kind.
4. You MAY make shit up. Like races, powers, and whatnot. Just keep these things in mind; You may not add any elements, you must get my approval first, and you must not contradict anything. I'll help you tweak it in the event you run afoul of that last point, but will deny it outright if those first two points are broken.
5. Be creative! I wanna see some cool stuff, things a little more interesting than double-katana trenchcoat guy.
6. Lighten up! while this isn't Monty Python, there's a fair amount of silliness in this setting. That said, 
7. Know when to be serious! If everyone's busy lamenting the death of a character's child, now is not the time to bust through the wall with shotgun paladin on a T-rex.
8. These rules are suspect to change anytime I feel like, if necessary.

And finally, the CS:

[hider=CS]
Username: (makes locating a sheet easier, and eases identification)
Name: (Wot's ya name? Keep in mind, the names of nobles often incorporate gemstones or precious metals, followed by the name of the continent of origin e.g. Ruby-Ignis)
Race: (What are you? Consult the list, but feel free to suggest something not documented, just run it by me first)
Age:
Gender: (What parts ya got? If playing something that lacks a gender, put the gender your character most resembles)
Homeland: (Where are you from?)
Appearance: (Whaddaya look like? You may use a picture, but descriptions are required, but you don't need much.)
Size: (How tall are you? how bulky are you? Use imperial measurements for height please, weight is optional)
Elemental Affinity: (What element are you? these are explained in their own section)
Bio: (Tell us about ya'self. At least one paragraph is mandatory)
Personality: (Well, how does your character act? what do they feel? 1 Mandatory paragraph)
Skills: (What are you good at?)
Equipment: (What do you own? You probably don't own any land)
Other: (Did we miss anything?)
[/hider]

Now for rules on character creation.

1. If you have any tech, you can't have anything more than 1950's era stuff. Occasionally there are exceptions, just ask me first.
2. You may not be rich. Let me rephrase that; you may not have access to large amounts of money. Like if you are a noble and your father has revoked your access to the treasury or something. You guys are coming together to do this job for money, you wouldn't have much of a motivation if you were already loaded, right?
3. Keep in mind you guys are scrubs. you guys are basically Level one right now, but don't worry, you'll get better.

Aside from that, go nuts. Background info on the setting may be found in the Codex (link above) other than that, I'm looking forward to roleplaying with you guys!