The town of Castello Leone, or simply Leone to its residents, is a sunny place to live sandwiched between a coast, a forest to the west, a canyon to the south, and a valley to the east. Black mountains rise from beyond the valley. Long ago, Leone was home to just under four hundred citizens, and the trading town was visited by merchants from all over the nation of Sipher. Because of its diverse races of humans, witches, elves, and even a dragon or two, Leone was able to produce a stunning array of different weapons, foods, clothes, and other goods.
People (especially non-humans) from all over Sipher flocked to Leone when the conflict in the capital began. The citizens of the capital city of Carnationes revolted against the monarchy, creating massive bloodshed in a city of over twenty thousand. The royal family fled further North, to the Elvish kingdom, a long-time ally of the humans, though the king left his council in charge. An event known as the Hellsend occurred, in which all citizens in the capital who were not human were slaughtered, led by the belief that the rebellion was started by witches. Thousands died. The council took it a step further and unleashed a disease that was fatal to everyone but was carried by animal spirits.
News eventually reached the people of Leone, and the animal spirits of the town were forced to relocate to an island off the coast of Leone, which came to be known as Howling Island. A kitsune being a prime example, an animal spirit is a humanoid who, is, in actuality, an animal who has reached a certain age and granted mystical powers. Trade between Howling and Leone were comonplace, though eventually communication between the two ended.
After the banishment of animal spirits, there was tension between humans and the other races, though they had been getting along like family for over two centuries. Eventually, paranoia became too much and a human of the town cast with his blood the spell that would reanimate the stone lions that faced the forest- a sacred protection spell that began at the center of town, where a great tree stood, and formed an invisible boundary around Leone, effectively keeping out any unwanted visitors. These 'unwanted visitors' were all the non humans who called Leone their home.
The town, down to about eighty humans, lived in relative peace and comfort, leaving the town only to gather resources or to hunt in the surrounding areas. Sipher, hit hard financially after the council took over, began to lose its trade rights, even between cities. Merchants and travelers eventually stopped visiting and life in Leone slowed down, babies were born, they learned how to fight, got married, had kids of their own and then they died.
Now, about two hundred and some years after the stone lions were activated, the youth in Leone academy are excited for the upcoming annual overnight Stargazing trip to the Pompom Forest, which is guaranteed to be a night full of s'mores, monster-slaying, and tons and tons of drama. The spunky adolescents are rather impatient, however, and wonder what would happen if they should venture out to check out the forest without the teachers...
In total, there are only around 20 students aged 12-17 in the academy, where they learn skills such as weapon handling, magic, cooking, smithing, and craftsmenship, as well as science and the like. Leone is a self sufficient town so they have everything they need to survive, including a fishing industry, hunters, blacksmiths, and farmers. Obviously the students would be the children of these people. For now, all the characters would be human, but as the story progresses, more races will become available. This will be a mix of a fighting roleplay and quite a bit of interaction and mystery. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I'll be counting on players to offer suggestions every so often, (and I'll probably need a co-GM), but all the same if you're even vaguely interested, please post below. :3
