The city of Shinkawa is located on the western coast of the main island of Himoto. To the east of Shinkawa lies the Inoue forest, which is home to a variety of flora and fauna. Mount Tomari to the south-east is the tallest mountain in Himoto, making it a popular destination for hikers from across the country. As for the town itself, its architecture is generally fairly modern, aside from a few streets of more traditional buildings around the Shinkawa Shrine, a large Shinto shrine on the northern end.

The town's main attractions include its beautiful beaches, a number of cafés and restaurants, including the Budou café, where the staff's uniforms tend to resemble typical maid or butler outfits and famous Ravissant patisserie, which is known for both the incredible quality of its products and the fact that its owner and head chef was once a powerful monster hunter, Izumi-san's Funland, an amusement park with a variety of rides and the Shinkawa shrine itself.

Though there are options for those seeking adventure. Monster dens, mysterious locations that dot the planet and contain...well, monsters. Their occupants seem to "respawn" when left alone, though neither science nor magic can explain why this happens. The creatures in these dens range from dangerous beasts that must be killed to cute things some people will pay for as pets to delicious ingredients which high-quality restaurants will give top dollar for. It's worth noting however that no matter how long they're left, the monsters rarely, if ever leave their dens and have never attacked a built-up city.

The area around Shinkawa contains several of these dens, with monsters sighted deep within the Inoue forest, in caves on and around Mount Tomari and in the waters around the small island of Akugashima, roughly half a kilometre off the coast.

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So, yeah, basically this is going to be a fantasy sandbox RP set in the city of Shinkawa in the Japan-analogue country of Himoto. There's not really going to be much of an overarching plot, although player created plots or events are encouraged. Tone-wise, I'm aiming for something light-hearted for the most part.

Oh, and VitaVitaAR will be helping me out with GMing.

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A couple of notes:

- The standard fantasy races are present and player-created races can be submitted. Just don't go too crazy. If your race is basically kryptonians or something similarly godlike, they probably won't get in. Also, I'd prefer if we could avoid having any sapient races that are always evil.
- Mages don't have a monopoly on logic-defying craziness. Ki attacks, destructive shockwaves or beams from swinging a sword and the like are all acceptable.
- Keep the tone in mind. While serious plots are fine with me, I don't want things going too grimdark.

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Character sheet:

Name:
Race:
Age:
Appearance:
Personality:
Skills/Abilities:
Equipment:
Brief Backstory:

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Race sheet:

Name:
Description:

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Name: Vampires
Description: Vampires are fearsome creatures of the night that turn those they drink the blood of into their slaves...Except when they don't. The actual traits of a vampire vary greatly from case to case. Some turn others simply by drinking their blood, others need to feed the target some of their own and others still are completely incapable of siring new vampires. Some burst into flames when exposed to sunlight while some just get exhausted or sunburnt quickly. Of all the traits commonly associated with them, the only one that seems to be consistent is a need to drink blood to survive.

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Co-GM checking in!

Name: Mihama Yukiko
Race: Human(Mage)
Age: 14
Appearance: The scatterbrained Witch. She has black hair, light skin, and green eyes. Her outfit is reddish-purple and white.
Personality: Yukiko is a happy and friendly girl, full of cheer and an earnest desire to help. She is talkative and and outgoing, always willing to hear what kind of trouble people are having and always willing to give them a hand. This is also, of course, her business, so she has some added incentive there. While she is friendly, she is sometimes easily-exasperated and frustrated, even if she is rather good at problem-solving. This mostly comes out when her catgirl assistant does something particularly unusual or irritating. Yukiko is surprisingly easy to distract and can easily lose trace of important things, like asking for payment after successfully helping someone out with a problem they've been having. It's times like this that it's her assistant's turn to be irritated with her.
Skills/Abilities: Yukiko is a mage, though in her family the women are referred to as witches. She is capable of minor offensive and defensive magic, projecting fireballs or producing a shield, but most of her abilities are utility-based. Causing a broom to fly, transporting and manipulating objects, scrying, she's got a lot of spells to help people out with problems they might be having. Magi in her family are also taught aspects of onmyodo. Yukiko, for example, knows how to use the onymouji practice of using shikigami and blend it with a magi's familiar.
Equipment: Her flying broom, chalk, a scrying stone, her all-important hat. The Magic Shop, her family's old business, is an old-fashioned shop sandwiched between newer buildings.
Brief Backstory: Yukiko is part of the Mihama family, a somewhat old-fashioned family living near the center of Shinkawa city. Her parents are very loving, but intensely busy. As a result, Yukiko runs the family's old shop, "The Magic Shop", specializing in some magical supplies. But mostly in hiring out the owner to solve various problems. Lost your keys? Need some ghosts dealt with? Have to find your long-lost twin sibling? Need a package delivered? Yukiko's your girl! Speaking of problems, she once ran across a heavily-injured cat, which turned out to be a nekomata. Using onmyodo and mage techiques, Yukiko healed and revived the nekomata and made her into a familiar. The nekomata, usually running around in human form now, has since become her assistant in problem solving.

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Name: "I'll tell you. If I feel like it."
Race: Vampire
Age: ??? , appears around ten years old.
Appearance: Borrowed appearance, thank you to Rin for recoloring her eyes.
Personality: To many things, the vampire's reaction seems to be polite disinterest. She lacks any care for almost anything that exists, finding much of it worthy of very little attention. However, she will be polite unless pressed and annoyed, in which case her responses become sharper and less patient. That said, she often speaks in a very charming and polite manner, and is generally somewhat willing to talk provided that something she's actually enjoying isn't interrupted. While perhaps not very much, she does find people somewhat interesting most of the time.
The vampire will make for even more animated and pleasant conversation if she finds herself more interested than usual in a person. The more interesting she finds someone, the more pleasant and energetic she becomes. However, the charm, and in some cases teasing attitude, grows. In fact, the vampire often places some teasing in her interactions with others. One of the reasons the charm grows when she interacts with someone she finds more interesting is because she becomes interested in... tasting them. She does need to drink blood, after all, and while she wouldn't take enough to kill someone(that is simply unacceptable in her current situation), she enjoys... getting a taste of those she takes a liking to. So her intent is quite simply to charm them into allowing it.
The vampire is also a highly intelligent and articulate girl. She enjoys reading and has a vast knowledge of a great many works. She is somewhat playful about her identity, asking people to figure it out themselves, though she will reveal it if she feels it is appropriate. Finally, she finds fighting only somewhat interesting... most of the time. If a battle really gets her attention, she becomes quite a bit more energetic. It would be easy to describe her as incredibly hammy if she gets going. She also becomes much more threatening, her smiles becoming much less friendly grins.
Skills/Abilities: The vampire is highly mobile and very fast, as well as dangerously strong. Even a very strong grown man would be easily overpowered by her. The only ways to kill her are the destruction of her heart or the severing of her head. All other damage is regenerated completely. Sunlight, while an irritant, does not affect her "Any longer", in her terms. It does sting her eyes and she requests a parasol if she must travel in it. In addition, she is incapable of tanning and simply gets painful sunburn. However, natural running water(including magical sources) renders her powerless until she can dry off, and religious objects make her sneeze(longer exposure to them causes her to develop a cold).
The vampire can create illusions, disguising herself and others. These illusions are highly convincing, and it is difficult to pierce them. She can also disperse into a cloud of bats, reforming perfectly for rapid travel and dodging attacks. Injuring one or more of these bats will injure her, though she will regenerate upon reforming. She can manipulate the blood from her own body, or blood that's been spilled, to create spears and other weapons. However, if she uses blood from her own body it will drain her rapidly and make it highly necessary for her to drink very soon. Finally, the vampire can summon familiars out of her dress. They appear in a dark mist that pours from it, taking the form of shadowy wolves and bats. While they are capable of seriously injuring a target, it takes only one strike or any kind to dissipate them entirely.
Equipment: A whole lot of gothic lolita.
Brief Backstory: The vampire appeared in Shinkawa and had a mansion built. Details on her past are rather sparse, as she neglects to even explain her name, instead sticking to being all mysterious. She holds some parties and very occasionally goes and helps out with monster dens. If she really feels like it.

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Name: Fubuki Eiki
Race: Oni
Age: 59
Appearance: "HAI!" She has very lightly tanned skin, dirty blond hair, and green eyes, tending to wear red kimono. The bow on her tan horn(both are tan) is darker red.
Personality: Lacking any sense of shame and seemingly lazy, Eiki can often be seen lounging around, especially in hotsprings. She really likes hotsprings. However, this is quite deceptive, as Eiki actually has a high amount of energy when she's excited and moving. The oni girl has a fairly happy and friendly disposition, as well as being extremely confident with herself and really quite full of herself. She also possesses a very strong sense of honor against non-monster foes. To the embarrassment of all around her, Eiki has a total lack of any sense of shame and is incredibly difficult to embarrass. She takes a great deal of pride in her body, in fact. She has a whole lot of pride in general, really. Eiki will fight monsters, but she's not to thrilled by them unless they're smart enough to have some kind of planning, and would much rather fight people. She treats fighting in general like a fun game, really. She refuses to use weapons, fighting only with her hands and feet. And elbows. And knees. And anything other part of her body that she can hit someone with. Eiki is also deeply fond of sake.
Skills/Abilities: Eiki is an oni, possessing massive amounts of strength and physical durability, as well as an inhuman ability to heal her injuries. She far outclasses humans in terms of raw physical might, but a good fighter can close that gap and she's liable to hold back to make things more interesting if they can't. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat but has no training in using any sort of weaponry.
Equipment: Lots of kimono. Nothing else. The only clothing Eiki ever wears is kimono.
Brief Backstory: Eiki's fifty-nine years have been spent on lounging about, fighting, and drinking. She's pretty much spent her whole life on doing such things, and also finding fun people to team up with. Or fight. Or both.

Race Name: Shades
Description:They are the Primal ancestors of Vampires. They stalked the night in times of old, when man was living in caves, formless and malicious. They hunted mankind, as ultimate predators, instilling in them a genetic fear of the dark, for it means death. Those were the shades of the past, little more than animals driven by desires of the flesh at that point. They have now grown and changed into a race of magical shape-shifters, users of shadow and blood magic.
They have one 'true' form, but it takes certain conditions to be discovered(the difficulty of reaching said conditions varies from shade to shade), but that form is not bound by any convention, only to show what the person is in their soul. Because of this, Shades often take to look like attractive men and women of their target race, as to more easily attract prey. While they do not need to drink blood to live, they do need it to supply their magical power. It also acts as a sort of drug to them, drawing them into their more animalistic roots as well as boosting their power. This boost only come, however, when they feast on a living being. Most Shades live off of cold blood they replicate with magic, only feeding on living when their is great need.
The reason for this is because A) it's seen as savage to feed on the living, B)It can cause a Shade to revert to their animalistic state if they do it to much, and C)The bite of a Shade has a very adverse affect on other species, as the poison they secrete when they do acts like a highly addictive drug or aphrodrisiac, making the victim crave to seek out the Shade. This wears off soon afterwards if it's only one bite, but if the person gets bitten multiple times, the addiction becomes stronger and stronger, until they go mad.
Shade society is oligarchical, with the different factions split into families, each family represented by a color(Coppernicus is Copper, Argentum is silver, Etc.). The color of your family represents your lot in life, as families with Metallic colors are the upper class, chromatic colors are middle to lower class, any mixture of the metallic and chromatic is below chromatic, and any Shade crossed withy another species is seen as filth. Half breed are always represented by their red eyes, thus no family ever takes the color red, less the be associated with them.
The lifespan of a shade is around 200-900 years depending on the family they come from, and they don't physically age like people, since they have no definte form.

Name:Valadin Dar Coppernicus
Race:Shade
Age:17
Appearance:Depends on his mood, but he usually looks like a tall teen with shoulder length copper hair, intense copper eyes, and two sharp, fang-like canines. He wears a black dress shirt all the time, as well as slacks, though the shirt is never tucked in and the upper half is always unbuttoned.(Sorry if the descriptions sparse, but he can change his form at will, so didn't see much off a point to it.) He has yet to discover his true form.
Personality:He is a standard Coppernicus, which mean he is selfish, possessive, extremely arrogant, deviously clever, and always up to something. He loves to work at the Budou café, as it makes for a lovely hunting ground. While he makes sure to never bite the same girl twice, he love the intense feeling he gets from drinking blood from the living, well and truly addicted at this point. He always acts charming, compassionate, and ever so slightly mysterious in order to get his victims to lower their guard around him, then he strikes. He makes sure that they never remember using a memory spell they teach all Coppernicus children.
Skills/Abilities:He is much stronger and faster than the average human, as well as a very versatile fighter. He focused on speed and power, hitting hard and fast, but he can take a couple hit's if need be. His shadow magic is rather intermediate, only allowing him to convert shadows into basic shapes. His blood magic, however, is much different. He uses blood as a multiplier to regular magic he's learned increasing their effectiveness.(Ex. simple fireball becomes a giant one with level three enhancement). He can also use the blood itself, making it acidic, or creating blood constructs with it. His shapeshifting allows him many ways to escape a bad situation, but he can't fight very well in a variety of forms, so he usually sticks with a mostly humanoid one.
Equipment:He uses a katana blade,Infernum, which can create Scarlet flames when it's fed blood.
Brief Backstory:He moved to Shinkawa to so he could hunt away from the watching eyes of other shades. With no other's around, in a place where they have scarcely been heard of, he plans to flourish here, maybe make a new family while he's at it. Another vice of the Coppernicus family is that they are the incarnation of ambition and will use on anyone or anything in order to achieve it.

Um... I'm sorry, but no.

Having a character with memory-erasing spells and no reservations against using them is not a good idea. Neither is trying to make a race that's just "vampires, but better". Especially if, um... they're not better. ^^; Also shades are ghosts or spirits.

As for your character, um... I mean, I guess, technically, a villain NPC is fine because they won't necessarily drag everyone in and can do evil things and then be defeated. A villain player can't and will just drag in more and more players.

We'd like to stay clear of villainous player characters.

Ok no prob, I'll just choose *insert fantasy race here*, and make a more neutral character. I'll post that tomorrow, as it's to late for me to think of a character right now. Also, wasn't trying to make them better than vampires, just different. But I have been thinking for awhile to change that part of them, make them entirely separate. As for the name, I called them that because I originally had them have look-like shadows, but the idea has evolved since then, but i can't think of what else to call them. If you don't mind, have any ideas?

A thing to note in this is that vampires can take a great deal of different forms in this, my character is just one example.

For a name, I'd suggest maybe something to do with the metal theme you have going there?

Thanks for the advice, also i love your avatar and signature. They're freakin' awesome and your character seem very interesting and fun.

Oh, thank you. They were both made by a friend of mine.

I'm glad you've been reasonable about this, as well.

Of course, My momma raised me right, and I'm not gonna let a thing like being anonymous change that. I hate it when people blow up over little, and constructive, criticisms. Plus, it's your guy's RP. so what ever you say goes, if it's good, it's good, if it's not, it's not. No point trying to cry about it.

I like your style. ^_^

If you have any questions about the setting, I'll answer to my best ability, though Tachi originally created it so he's probably the best one to ask.

Okay, no prob. Like I said, Character will be put up tomorrow,'cause right now my brain's too tired to think one up.

Name:Aurous
Race:Half-Dragon
Age:50, but he looks and acts like he's 16.
Appearance:He's around 5'11, with golden hair and silver eyes. He has fangs instead of canines, and his skin has intricate scale-like designs along his arms, back, and around his face. He wears a regular shirt, and jeans, along with biker glovers and a leather jacket
Personality:He's an easy going guy, almost to the point of laziness. If you try to get him to do something, he'll probably ignore you unless you have something he wants. He also doesn't like to fight, but will if he's forced into a corner.
Skills/Abilities:He has great strength, and greater speed. He can fly and grows scales, claws, wings, and a tail when he awakens his dragon blood. He can also uses his dragonic magic, which allows him to control lightning and use mid to master range thunder spells, though Master class ones take a while to cast, and can backfire if he mess up.
Equipment:He uses his claws, fists and his tail.
Brief Backstory:He doesn't know who his dragonic father is, but he doesn't care either. He lives with his mom, to lazy to go out and work. He makes a decent living, however, from selling his shed scales, since dragon scales are rather good magical ingredients. He spends his time wandering the city, doing nothing in particular except for collecting random bits of junk that interest him.

Looks good to me. Accepted!

Whoooohooooo!!!!!!!!

Name: Shiroyama Hideo


Race: Half-Shinigami

Age: 17

Appearance: Hideo is a large, impressively built young man, standing 195 centimeters tall, and weighing over 80 kilograms. His mixed blood is apparent in his features, which while strong and masculine, have a strange, ethereal quality. His skin is pale enough to seem nearly translucent, and his blue eyes are so light in color that they are nearly lost in the whites of his eyes. Hideo typically dresses himself in a "customized" (read: completely vandalized) school uniform, with a floor-length jacket, various metal accessories, a tight-fitting undershirt and a uniform cap with the back of it torn off.

Personality: Rough and rowdy as can be expected of any respectable delinquent, Hideo lives to have a good time. Riding, roughhousing and pissing off the old folks are his favorite past times, and he doesn't plan on quitting any time soon. Despite his lack of interest in schooling, Hideo is a surprisingly clever boy; his adaptability and quick thinking are valued by his gang as much as his enormous strength. Even so, he tends to not get on well with those that lie outside of his usual crowd, given his penchant for speaking his mind, no matter how crude or insulting his thoughts may be. Despite his shortcomings, Hideo's strongest characteristic is his completely unshakable determination. This boy's will is that of steel, and when he sets his mind to something, be it winning a race or protecting his friends, he puts his all into it, and nothing can deter him, come hell or high water.

Skills/Abilities: A skilled street-fighter and motorcycle rider, Hideo honed his skills on the streets, and the practical results of his experience clearly show. Hideo is well-known among Shinkawa street punks for his incredible size and strength, which seems to some to border on the otherworldly. Hideo is also quite good at repairing motorcycles, mending clothes and playing the guitar. He is also quite notably lucky, and tends to do quite well at simple games and gambling, much to his own amusement and gain.

Along with his mortal skills, Hideo has also inherited a number of supernatural abilities from his inhuman heritage. Hideo can instinctually sense the presence of death, be it on a person or in a place. He can see and commune with the dead and ghosts with ease, and some ghosts can be persuaded to follow his commands. At a glance, he can determine the circumstances surrounding a dead or dying person, and can quickly tell apart a living creature from an un-living one. Hideo can also conjure and manipulate ectoplasm, the substance of death, which can be shaped into tools, weapons, or small minions as he desires. However, ectoplasm must be drawn from death in some form, be it from a truly dead person, a ghost or simply an area saturated with death, such as a graveyard.

Equipment: Hideo wields a bokken shaped from a strange sort of heavy, black metal. In addition to all of the benefits that a metal cudgel grants, this bokken seems to be particularly effective against undead creatures, and can even strike ghosts. He has no idea where it came from, as he simply found it at the foot of his bed upon waking up the morning of his fifteenth birthday. Hideo also rides an alabaster motorcycle, which he calls "Pale Rider."

Brief Backstory: Eighteen years ago, Hideo's mother was a nurse in the intensive care unit of the Shinkawa Municipal Hospital, typically found working the night shift. While strange occurrences were not uncommon in such a city, she was subject to something particularly unusual. On slow, cold nights, some time around midnight, she would sometimes have a strange feeling of dread creep up her spine, and then catch glimpses of a strange, pale man in a white suit. Whenever she looked at this mysterious figure for too long, she would black out, and upon waking up find herself in a strange part of the hospital. These "nightly visitations" continued for months, and after a while she found herself looking forward to these meetings rather than dreading them, for reasons she herself could not quite explain. Just as soon as they began, however, the visitations abruptly stopped, with no sign as to why. However, after a while Hideo's mother began to feel sick and heavy, and as her stomach began to swell, she realized that she was pregnant. Her following, inexplicable pregnancy was a difficult one, wrought with complications, but eventually came to bear Hideo after nine painstaking months. Hideo was born weak and sickly, and his mother was told that he most likely would not survive his first month. Despite this, death never came to Hideo, and he eventually grew into a large, strong boy.

Raised by a single mother with a busy schedule, Hideo was raised more by his peers than his mother. It wasn't long before he became involved with a rough inner-city crowd, who turned Hideo away from his studies and toward less legal forms of amusement and recreation. By the time he was in middle school, Hideo was a member of a motorcycle gang, who accepted him due to his surprising strength and unusual abilities. They got their kicks by starting fights, destroying public property, and generally causing trouble wherever they rode. Once Hideo entered high school, he assumed control of the gang, himself, and has elevated them to becoming the most notorious biker gang in Shinkawa. It's only natural that such a destructive and disruptive group should have the moniker, "Hellraisers."

Name: Akari
Race: Beastkin (fox)
Age: 14
Appearance: Totally Dramatic Unmasking
Personality: A strange girl who lives at the shrine, almost no one has seen her face. Mostly because she seems to insist on wearing a fox mask when someone visits the shrine, or she heads into town. You'd think this was perhaps related to shyness, but Akari as no problems conversing with others while wearing it, even coming across as... wildly imaginative and playful. The rare few that have managed to catch a glimpse of Akari without her mask have bore witness to frantic attempts to hide until she can cover her face, and then she continues as if nothing happened.
When her mask is worn, Akari seems to believe she is the messenger fox of Inari for some reason. A somewhat theatrical messenger. Otherwise, Akari is a reserved, shy girl that simply wishes she could hold a proper conversation for once.
Skills/Abilities: As a shrine maiden, not only is Akari a top-class straw-broom engineer, she is also capable of banishing malevolent spirits from unwilling hosts, blessing objects to a small extent, and able to throw paper charms like darts. She can also conceal herself and equip her mask in 1.3 seconds now!
Equipment: Broom of Sweeping, Charms of Sealing, and the Mask of Inari'ing.
Brief Backstory: The daughter of the previous shrine maiden, who mysteriously disappeared into thin air apparently, Akari had only her father until roughly six years ago. Now, she lives all alone at the shrine, with no one to talk to. Well, that's what everyone tends to assume. In actuality, Akari's mother is still alive and well... she's just too lazy to even leave the shrine, She's an even rarer sight than Akari's face. Well, aside from those minor details and Akari's own... quirks, she is a perfectly normal shrine maiden with a perfectly normal environment.

@Dead Cruiser: Okay, there are some things about this profile that I'm a little concerned about. Firstly, while I'm not going to say there's no way for a delinquent character to work, someone whose main sources of enjoyment include beating people up and breaking people's stuff who doesn't get along with anyone outside of his gang doesn't seem like it would fit in this RP.

Secondly, I don't like the idea of shinigami being invisible rape ghosts. In part because that basically shuts them out if anyone wanted to play one, but mostly because I just find the idea really disturbing.

@Roxas: Accepted!

I can answer for these. Hideo enjoys himself by hanging out with his gang; starting fights and wreaking havoc are just what the gang does collectively. Hideo himself has other hobbies, as seen in his skills. It's not that he doesn't like anyone that's not in his gang, it's that people outside of his gang are typically put off by his abrasive demeanor. Really depends on the individual.

As far as the "rape ghost" thing goes, I myself am not terribly satisfied with it, but I couldn't come up with a significantly better solution. Though an easy solution to your issue is that shinigami as individuals are as different as any other people would be, and only Hideo's father in particular is a distrubing rape ghost.

Tachi said
Secondly, I don't like the idea of shinigami being invisible rape ghosts. In part because that basically shuts them out if anyone wanted to play one, but mostly because I just find the idea really disturbing.@Roxas: Accepted!

That term, rape ghost, just writing it gives me the creeps.
But the character seems interesting.