Hello guys.
Essence is a long-running theme on this forum and so I apologise beforehand about the large amount of lore and terms that will be involved in playing this. We've had more than one season already and because it's all largely sandbox, I like to allow people maximum creativity and the ability to settle into the world and forge their own story there. Of course, we'll have an overarching plot but this RP relies on multiple story-lines and not on reaction-posts. We've already got roughly 7 people in this and we're looking for up to 3 new players. Without further ado, here's the basic raw premise of this new season, the idea of which is @Synthorian's. For the OOC and IC, look here.
Dictionary
(so you know what I’m on about in the summary)
Essence: Essence is the name we use for that which is in all things living: a soul, a life-force, blood, life and spirit. It’s everything but very few can manipulate it. Pre-2014 it was only the Gates and Gatekeepers. Afterwards a few more people developed the possibility to see it and very rarely- to use it too.
The races:
Angels: Human bodies + wings and special abilities. Refer to the types or angels and their classes on the site.
Humans: Just the same as usual with the rare exception that’s a mage. Humans can also be possessed/absorb the essence of angels or demons turning into surface demons (vampires, werewolves), grey agels and chimeras.
Demons: Divided generally in two – surface demons and Hellions. The former could be considered infants in comparison to the latter. Hellions are an incredible array of shapes, forms and abilities. They sustain themselves on others’ essence and can command magic at will.
Chimeras: Any combination of the above with the most uncommon being an angel/demon chimera.
The world(s): it consists of 2 sub-worlds - the Surface and Hell. Hell is where an array of demons live, almost all unique. The Surface is populated by angels, humans and surface demons. Since the fall of Hell’s Gate a lot of Hellions have settled on the Surface again.
Heaven: used to exist but is now in ruins after the so-called Great War. That’s when one demon called The Fleshshaper found a way to make chimeras and breached Heaven’s Gate. Eventually the demons won the war. Due to some more complicated reasons (you can inquire), the angels settled on the Surface and pushed the Hellions back in hell, thus establishing the Council and the old order (pre-2014).
The setting: The city of Loom, a vast concrete jungle, full of tower-blocks and dark alleys. It’s the capital of a fictional country somewhere in western Europe. An ocean spans on the east border of the city and vast plains and the town of Thrope lay on the south. Loom is no stranger of violence, having been nearly demolished during the awakening of the Essence and then once more during the fall of Hell’s Gate. While it hosts Master Melody’s academy, it also has a very deep and intricate system of illegal trading network.
The Gates and Gatekeepers: The Gates were originally two, controlled by two Gatekeepers. They were created by Aaurus himself and served to keep the three races and three worlds apart. They did that by fuelling the essence of Heaven. Surface and Hell, defining who the angels, demons and humans are and what sets them apart. Heaven’s gate took on the appearance of a Violin and its player was Chime. She was the first to fall, killed by the Fleshshaper and causing the merging of Heaven and Surface. The second Gate was a Harp, played by Melody. Both were destroyed in 2014 by a madman called Judas, causing a huge amount of magic and Hellions to flood the Surface. The remains of both the Gates and Gatekeepers now live on in Hazumi and the Wielders’ Instruments.
Tech: slightly above our current level with no jets or laser-guns.
The Essence of the World: The name, given to the chimera that was created with the remains of all the dead Gates and Gatekeepers, as well as countless humans, demons and angels. She’s currently the only creature that can freely manipulate the essence around her with no boundaries, even to the point of bending one’s will. She also goes by the name of Hazumi.
The Academy: an establishment that teaches humans how to control shards of the Essence of the Wrold in order to keep the balance between powers on the Surface. Most of the time those shards take on the visage and functions of musical instruments that can soothe the soul, but they’re also deadly weapons with a conscious of their own.
The Council: the seven archangels that survived the Great War and some seraphs that served them. A formal military and bureaucratic institution consisting entirely of angels. It was crushed in 2014.
The Peacekeepers: a democratically elected committee of 3 representatives of each race. They negotiate the laws when it comes to cross-racial interactions and deal with punishments for those who have overstepped their rights.
The Problem
The strongest currency has always been life itself. For the past four centuries, the Peacekeepers were monitoring the entire populace for unauthorised murder and have ensured the culprit got what they deserved - be it punishment or mercy. The arrangement was creating a strong moral opposition from all races. The demons were by far the most dissatisfied with the arrangement as their personal ascendance to power required the essence of others. Naturally, the only way to prevent mass-murder was to ask the few angels that survived Judas’ insane prosecution to willingly donate their own essence for the sake of their brethren, leading to yet more conflict. In the midst of them all, as always, were the humans, the creatures whose very bodies and souls were changing as a response to the very air they breathed.
It was exactly those humans that would become the key to solving this new world’s problems. While many battled unwilling mutations, some brave individuals took on a self-sacrificial mission of keeping the peace in a world that has long forgotten what that meant. Those soldiers, initially called Musicians and later on – Wielders, were for a very long time the only thing that held the everything together. Each of them were bestowed with a shard of power directly from the Essence of the World and had learned the art of war and peace in what became the most influential establishment after the Angelic Council – Master Melody’s Academy for Fine Arts. At their graduation, those young warriors would go on to act as a task-force, hunting down and surrendering to the Peacekeepers anyone who stole a life for their own goals. Often times they managed to avoid disaster even before it happened.
But now a vital element of the equation is missing. The Essence of the World herself has disappeared without a trace. And with her – the Wielders’ ability to see all deaths at once. Luckily, while this is troubling news, the Instruments that she left her children are still functioning, allowing for a limited insight into the history of the crime scenes.
The biggest concern is that victims refuse to stay dead. Loom’s streets were being flooded with apparitions, indicating that something with the very process of dying itself has gone haywire. And while those ghosts pose only a minor threat, their mere presence interferes with the casting of most magic. And worst of all – they possess voices, a crescendo of which beats at Loom’s walls after dark. For most who remember, that is a very painful reminder of the first ghost in this world, the one responsible for the fall of Hell’s gate and the arrival of Hellions on earth.
So everyone has a good reason to worry. The wounds left by the death of loved ones are hard to heal if their restless spirits are still around to haunt your sleep. The everyday functions of the city are disturbed by the growing essence of death, which crawls at the very fabric of many creatures’ existence. And to make matters worse, with the Wielders’ lowered ability to control crime, murder is becoming fair game again.
You should be worried. Very, very worried.
