Long Ago, this land was ruled by the Tamilkirk Imperium. That has been true for centuries, ever since the coming of the Witch Queen.
No one knows who she was, or what her motive for bringing low the last of the old Empires. The Tamilkirk had survived their great rivals, the Empire of Iredos, whose reigning Wizard-Dukes destroyed themselves in a great magical conflagration. It even survived the Necrotic Empire, whose foul necromancer-nobility fell to internal strife and holy crusade from without. But the Tamilkirk could not survive her. It is said she was once an Elf, but she used foul magics to turn herself into a demon. Her army of orcs, undead and demons took control of a large portion of the Empire, but even that was not enough. Even as her magics twisted and warped the land she captured into a nightmarish realm known only as The Blasted Lands, the Witch Queen reigned fire and destruction on Minjiara, the capital of the Tamilkirk Imperium. Within a decade, these two blows resulted in the final collapse of the Empire, as rebellion, secession and chaos took even the heartland of the Empire – the Dragonfall River Basin.

All that history is of course academic, to the people of the small, sleepy village of Penderghast. A small farming community on the northern shores of the small Lake Pender, Penderghast doesn't even have 600 souls within it. Life is fairly dull, in Penderghast. Once a year, the tax collectors from the city-state of Medios come through, and occasionally patrols from the Mediosian Army passes through. When help is needed, Medios can always be appealed to, but the people of Penderghast haven't needed to do that in in many years.

But across Lake Pender, the dark secret of Penderghast looms. Over a century ago, it was not Medios that ruled Penderghast, but the family of petty nobility known as House Gleaves. House Gleaves, like all the petty nobles of the region, was overthrown by Medios in the aftermath of the short 'Two Penny War' (supposedly, the Lord Mayor of Medios said those petty nobles weren't worth two pennies, thus the name of the war). But House Gleaves were more than just minor nobles – they let the blood of demons and devils run through their veins, turning to foul magics and fell rituals to grow in power. While House Gleaves may be dead, from time to time, their legacy arrives in Penderghast – the Gleaves family had no qualms about...taking advantage of their subjects, and sometimes, a child with the blood of fiends – a Tiefling – is born. Always there is one or more physical traits that set them apart from normal humans. But Penderghast has always tried to treat each child on their own merits, not letting their unfortunate ancestry color how they are treated. Some succumb to the darkness of their heritage, while others, like Sister Agata, the local priestess of Tyria (the goddess of the Harvest) have gone on to become pillars of the community.

One such Tiefling, now a young woman, has been raised by the village smith and constable, the Dwarf Gardad Norcikid, since a young age, ever since her parents died. But when the village is attacked by demons and cultists, the true legacy of House Gleaves is discovered – a legacy of sin and evil more terrible than ever could have been imagined, and it will take this woman from sleepy Penderghast to Medios, to the ruins of Minjiara – and to the Court of the Witch Queen herself.

So, in this one, your character is the Tiefling young woman raised by Constable Gardad. You can decide exactly what the nature of her visible manifestation of her ancestry is – Sister Agata (the one mentioned above), for example, has light purple skin, small red horns and eyes that glow with an infernal light. Other Tieflings may look more extreme, with scales in some places, or cloven feet, tails, larger horns, or what have you, and some are more understated, like Agata. Regardless, theur appearance is always a little unsettling, a little otherworldly. I'll have several characters, that your character might meet along the way, and your character can 'pick' any of them, and eventually, that one will be my 'main' (and thus the romance partner for your character). This choice can be as easy or as hard as you and your character wants it to be, of course.

Disclaimer: This premise is based off of the card game 'DragonStorm', but no knowledge of that game is required.

For thousands of years, Dragons and Humankind lived in peace. Elves and Dragons co-existed, some communities merely tolerating the powerful lizards, but others embracing them. Even the Dwarves, who had long ago lost wars against the Dragons, were party to the peace and prosperity across the land. Dragons ruled some realms, but other realms were powerful states ruled by mortals, with magic enough to protect themselves should any sort of conflict arise. But there never was any.

Dragons, creatures of great magic, were fond of taking mortal forms, dwelling among the lesser (in their eyes) races, and as might have been inevitable, some of them interbred with mortals. The product of these unions was a new kind of creature: The Shapeshifter.

Shifters were seemingly normal mortals, but they had the blood of dragons in their veins, which granted them the ability to take strange new forms - some could turn into Dragons for a time. But others gained the ability to turn into creatures unseen and unheard of - Unicorns, Gargoyles, Werewolves, Pegasi and more. Shifters came to be revered by many, symbols of the prosperity and peace of the times...

But all that ended three hundred years ago. Great storms of Warp - foul, corrupting magic unused by all but the insane - began to form over the world, ravaging cities, destroying kingdoms and spreading the horrid and mutating disease known as the Tox. Within a decade, most cities had been abandoned as the storms ravaged the land. There was no sign of the dragons - and in time, they came to be blamed for this assault. Into this stepped the Necromancers. Dark wizard and witches of great power, the Necromancers taught that the Dragons had summoned the Warp Storms (which they named 'Dragon Storms') and sought to rule the world, turning all into their slaves. The Necromancers promised protection and peace - and they would use the Dragons own magic, - the Warp - against them. All they asked was that all those with the blood of Dragons - shifters - be turned over to them. For a necromancer could drain such a being of their power, and use that energy to fuel their own spells. Soon, shifters, once revered, were hunted across the world and in time, Necromancers would establish control over large swaths of territory, and influence in others.

But the truth...the truth was far worse. The Dragons hadn't caused the Storms...indeed, most were dead. On a feast honoring their ancestors, the Dragons were attacked by an alliance of Necromancers and those others among Human, Elf and Dwarfkind that desired the power and wealth of the dragons. Caught by surprise, especially at the dark magics of the Necromancers, most were wiped out and drained of their power over the course of a few weeks, to little notice by the rest of the world. It was this draining that spawned the first 'Dragon Storms' and the continued draining of Shifters only spawns more.

Some time after the rise of the 'Storm Era', a Shifter by the name of Valeria discovered the truth and began to gather a resistance among her own kind, and others, including Shamans troubled by the damage the Necromancers were causing to the spirit world, the Unicorn-revering Wood Elves and the Dragon-worshipping orcish clans, along with others who were sympathetic to their cause. As the Necromancers tightened their rule and influence, more and more people grew to hate and fear them, even if most hated the Shifters just as much.

But without more dragons, and with the Dragon blood to grow weaker with ever generation, the 'Valerian Order' took a dire step - they performed a great ritual, seeding the Dragon Storms with the power to awaken latent, long-dormant dragon blood, creating new shifters out of any with such blood that were caught in a storm. It was the only way to give rise to more of their own kind, to ensure the fight against the Necromancers, a guerilla war with no end in sight, could continue.

But for every new Valerian that is created by this, another new shifter becomes easy prey for a necromancer and their minions....

In this rp, your character is a normal (more or less, you could be a thief, a farmer, an apprentice wizard or shaman in training, a newly recruited soldier, even a noble-born person or something like that, etc) person (human or elf) who is caught outside during a Dragon Storm, which awakens your latent Dragon Blood, creating a spontaneous first transformation - you can decide what form - and now has to survive in a world where you're hunted and hated. My character is a Dragon Shifter who is nearby when you have your transformation, and takes up the role of your mentor, to ensure you stay safe and alive long enough to learn your new powers.

Empire of Iredos was founded, almost two thousand years ago, by the twelve apprentices of one of the Greatest Archmages to come out of the Dawning Wars, Dravius Iredos. His power and knowledge was too much for any one normal mage, and so, his apprentices amicably split it, uniting to bring civilization and peace to a land still recovering from a series of wars that had reshaped the world, fought with magics unimaginable to the modern era.

One of the many lands the Empire fought with, as it grew larger and more powerful, expanding for power, wealth and security, even for idealism, was the United Kingdom of Ahlenna, the last of the Elven Nations in this part of the world – for in the aftermath of the Dawning Wars, most of elvenkind fled to their greatest strongholds in the oldest and deepest of forests, such as Ahlenna.

Unlike most of its foes, Ahlenna was never conquered by Iredos. It was forever a thorn in Iredos' side as it expanded southward, bolstering resistance from the local humans Iredos tried to take over. Eventually, Iredos won out, but Ahlenna remained too strong to conquer. But there was one thing that Iredos could do. One of the reigning Wizard-Dukes, Hycantos, undertook a great ritual to destroy Ahlenna. While he did manage to wreak great havoc on Ahlenna, turning part of it into a ruined swamp, and breaking the unified kingdom into the modern realms of Syleria and Iltea, it cost him his life in the process, and still, the elves in the south remained free. They were still too powerful, even divided, to take on, and soon enough, Iredos' attention was forced to a greater threat, the rising Tamilkirk Imperium.

It has been many centuries since Ahlenna was split, and still Syleria and Iltea are intact, bastions of elvenkind, though many elves do live beyond the borders of those lands. But Iredos is fallen, many centuries gone, destroyed after the reigning Wizard-Dukes fell upon eachother in a magical conflagration, the details of which remain unknown.

But Iredan artifacts remain sought after, for in all fields of magic but necromancy, Iredos was unmatched in its day. And the elves of Syleria and Iltea, with the memory of the Iredan threat still looming large in their history, are among those that seek lost Iredan magics.

Deep in the heart of the old Empire's core territory, there sits five Obelisks covered in mystic runes and fairly humming with magical power, their purpose and creation unknown. But in recent months, elven oracles have been seeing them in visions and dreams – and the Legacy of the Wizard-Dukes may be more than mere lost artifacts and political boundaries.

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In this rp, your character is one of those elven oracles, someone with a connection in her dreams to the gods of Elvenkind, visions of future events and the present across the world. Like all oracles, you have no control over when you get the dreams or what they say. As the youngest and newest of the oracles, your visions are the most limited of them all, though of course, they will grow in time. But in trade of, you are still sane and healthy in mind and body (the visions, over time, will drive those that have them insane and make them very physically frail) Dispatched by your superiors to lead an expedition to these Obelisks, and understand what is coming, you meet a strange young human male (my character) who claims descent from one of the Wizard-Dukes of old, also trying to understand these Obelisks.

But darker forces are also interested in the Obelisks and what they represent...for the Legacy of the Wizard-Dukes is a mighty one indeed.

The premise is that thousands of years ago, in the heart of the Glass Desert, the city of Arelis formed around a lake at the bottom of what is now known as the Canyon of Ghosts. Fueled by wealth from controlling a ready source of water and rich access to mines in the canyon, Arelis was able to spread to dominate the Glass Desert under a series of Kings - the Kings rarely followed father to son, but instead being whichever person could assemble enough support from the Army, the Priesthood and the Merchant Classes to take and hold the title. Their armies were formidable, their wealth immense... and it is said that they used magic to achieve victory, though of course, no one today believes in magic. That last bit is obviously a myth. Obviously.

1,500 years ago series of climactic shifts that increased global temperatures, gave rise to drought and famine in the Empire of Arels's outlying regions. This was exacerbated by collapsing trade routes as sea transport improved, making it possible for Arelis' trade partners to trade with each other by sea rather than crossing the Glass Desert to get from one end of Bayetz to another. Civil War soon erupted, and for the next two hundred years, the Empire was ruled by a series of short-term, weak Kings that slowly lost their grip on the Empire's territory. Arelis shrank back to the city itself, but with a population large enough it couldn't support without food imports... which were no longer an option. The lake simply couldn't support enough food growth. The city would be abandoned within a few generations, left to the winds that howl through the Canyon, giving it its modern name.

Many of the realms of the modern age have been influenced by Arelian culture, however. It's construction styles, its language, its laws, its customs. Its remnants serve as the dominant cultural template for many cultures on the continent of Bayetz.

Including the Kingdom of Kantrias. Known as the Kingdom of the Gavel and Sword, the Quilor Dynasty claims descent from Arelian Nobility that fled the city during the height of the civil wars. From the Delphinium Palace, the House of Quilor rules the most technologically advanced realm on the continent, Kantrias has recently ended a long series of wars on the high seas and by proxy with its rivals. The wars were... inconclusive at best, leaving King Cerian Quilor III and his Senate eager for way to raise Kantrias' prestige and prove that the wars have not left the Kingdom too broke to assert itself well. With his wife, Queen Lucia, an enthusiastic amateur archeologist, Cerian III seizes an opportunity. The Royal Arelis Society has long petitions the Crown to fund an expedition to the heart of the Glass Desert to excavate Arelis - there's only so much that can be learned from thorughly plundered ruins of outposts and small settlements. It has always been not worth the expense before... but with the wars ended and expenses slowing... to be the first realm to excavate at Arelis, to actually reclaim the city and assert territory control. That would be a sign of Kantrias' power.

Tapping one of the most respected rising Archeologists (your character) in the Kingdom to lead this expedition, a trio of zeppelins are loaded with personnel and supplies and sent to Arelis, with instructions to begin excavations immediately. Unfortunately for all involved...

The tales of Arelis using magic are true. And not all knowledge of magic was lost with Arelis' fall. And thus, there are those that seek the ruin for their own purposes.

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So in this one, your character is an eminent, respected, rising Archeologist (with as much of an Indiana Jones-esque flavor as you'd like). My character is a young member of the Arelian nobility that ended up in magical stasis during the last days of Arelis. (A number of prominent Arelians did this, expecting that once things returned to normal, their loyal servants or their descendants would release them and they could resume their places of power. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. My character wasn't supposed to get the stasis - it was meant for his elder brother, but he accidentally entered the stasis chamber when he wasn't supposed to. The story centers around these awakening Arelians, and the various secret societies that have grown up around scattered remnants of Arelis' magical knowledge that survive, all of them eager to take more directly from the Source.

Being the child of demon hunters is not exactly the easiest childhood ever. And most people who dedicate their lives to fighting the forces of darkness don't live long enough to have children anyway. Those that do often end up making the work a family business.

So it was with a group of demon hunters living and working in New York City. Once there were as many as ten, when they began to work together in their early twenties, but by the time they were all around or past thirty, only five lived. When most of the word thinks demons and magic are just fairy tales, myths, the only people yo can grow close to, usally, are the ones fighting by your side. So too happened here - by the time they were thirty, two of them, Richard and Valyria (blame Hippy parents for that name, she says) had already had a son, Alexander and were married, and another two, Jessica and David, were engaged. They too would have a child within a few years. Jessica was a talented witch, and her daughter inherited that talent. Zachary, the fith member, didn't last long - unable to cope with the horrors he'd experienced fighting demons, he ended up drinking himself to death within a few years of the group scaling back their efforts to focus on their families.

Alexander and Jessica/David's child were raised by parents who remained close (so they knew eachother growing up) both raised with the knowledge that demons exist, and Jessica trained her daughter in the ways of magic. At the age of 20, when <daughter> was 17, Alexander, who had already started to pick up where his parents had left off, vanished. No body, no message no anything. Richard and Valyria were inconsolable. Jessica and David became determined that their daughter would not take part in the fight againts demons. They wouldn't lose her the way they'd lost their nephew in all but blood. (How the daughter handles this is up to you).

Fast forward 2 years. <Daughter> is 19, and in her sophomore year of college. It's the start of a normal weekend day when an all too familiar young man pulls her into an alcove at the campus library. It's Alexander. Alexander with his hair dyed, a full beard (he hated facial hair) and a long scar on his neck, but Alexander nonetheless. An Alexander that needs a spell cast, and you're the only person available he trusts to do it.

Obviously, in this one you play the witch daughter of Jessica and David, and I play Alexander. The story centers on fighting a demon worshipping cult that is hunting Alexander and is the reason he vanished in the first place.

Politics. You can't escape it, even when you're dead.

When you have forever to live, you have a lot of time to kill. When you have time to kill, you develop new hobbies. And eventually you need new ones. Sooner or later, most lose all appeal. But for vampires, there is one hobby that always appeals to the predator within them. The jockeying for power, be it through influence in the mortal world, or gaining power and position in vampiric society. Politics, in other words. The many bloodsucking insects are at work in the vampiric world as well.

Power is acquired through position and title. Though control of prime feeding grounds. Through favors owed. Though number of childer sired. By Vampiric Law and Custom, all newly turned vampires must serve their sires for fifty years before they can strike out on their own. Fledglings that try to evade this rule are usually hunted down by the entire local vampire society.

Vampires are predators, amongst humans and amongst themselves. But even amongst the undead, there is occasionally love. Among vampires, love is real, but often bound up with possession and power, showing dynamics any human would call unhealthy, but are just of the norm for vampires.

In a city on the verge of civil war between competing vampiric factions, an elder vampire from the current reigning faction, has found herself/himself... interested in one of the childer of a rival vampire in an opposition faction. Until war breaks out, polite niceties are maintained, and this young vampire, barely five years into their undeath, has sparked an interest in a vampire long used to not experiencing sparks of interest. She/he has decided they must have this childer, one way or another, peace be damned. Is it obsession? Lust? Love? And how does the childer feel about this?

In this one, one of us plays the elder vampire, one of us plays the childer/fledgling vampire. Which you want to play is up to you. It could go various ways depending on how the elder vampire tries to get the childer - force, persuasion, seduction, purchase (that is, bartering with their sire for the 'ownership' of the Childer,) etc..

This rp is more or set in the more or less modern world, but beneath the surface, behind the scenes, the world is not what you think. Demons, vampires, magic - everything that you were told was a myth... to one degree or another, it's real. The world is far more complicated and far scarier than anyone ever told you when you were growing up. Most people continue to remain blind, their minds rejecting the very idea.

For one reason or another, your character chose to become a Hunter, one who kills those supernatural beings and forces that kill or prey on innocent humans. It might have been vengeance, some sense of duty or even because it is, in its own way, fun. You've been at this for several years now, building up a reputation among the mortals in the known (and among the supernatural community) as a Hunter of skill and lethality.

One person you've run into many times in those years is Sarah Townsend, a witch who hasn't quite crossed the line into being evil, but treads it very finely - she is no stranger to dark magic, but she is no slave to it. She hasn't killed with magic, but she's not above theft and the like by means of her magic. She's less immoral than she is amoral - she serves no cause but her own. Unfortunately, there have been times when the only way to defeat a certain powerful enemy is with dark magic, so most Hunters leave her alone, considering her a necessary evil (also, as a human - albeit one with magic - who doesn't even kill other humans, it's a bit ethically messy to just kill her. There's no prison that can hold a witch, after all)

What your character doesn't realize is that Sarah has fallen in love with her - a dark, possessive not entirely healthy love. Sarah is a woman with a lot of issues drawn from her past, her life is the result of a series of choices, some bad, some worse, but here she is. Hunters may themselves walk grey ethical lines at times, but rarely as far as Sarah does. Sarah is quite determined that your character will be hers, however - if trying it the normal way, the way most people go after those they're interested in, doesn't work, she'll try something else. One way or another, Sarah will make your character love her back.

Sarah really isn't evil in this rp, and she's not a villain, per se, but she's adjacent at times. She's had a pretty damn fucked up life that's screwed with her sense of priorities, which doesn't excuse what she does that's wrong, but does help explain them. My hope for this rp is that while It may go dark at times, it fundamentally goes more towards a happy ending, though maybe the characters won't let it go that way (if you know what I mean).

There exists a space station on the edge of what is known as 'Wild Space'. Wild Space is the term for the dangerous, barely explored space on the 'eastern' edge of explored space, filled with plasma storms, gravitational eddies, black hole fragments and other navigational hazards. This makes it a haven for space pirates and other fugitives, and Wild Space is also a source for a number of rare elements and metals that serve all kinds of high-tech functions.

The station, known as Kolaris, is an independent state in an unorganized sector of space, the Jurvidal Sector - its got a lot of planets settled by humans, but they're all independent states - separatists, religious pilgrims/fanatics, small-scale mining interests, people that just want to live beyond the reach of the Earth Federation or the other governments of humans (the EF is the largest, but not the only human star-nation). Kolaris is populated by 'Spaceborn' (humans that live their lives entirely in space, spaceships, space stations, orbital platforms, and so on), and has maybe 150,000 people. It is near a atmosphere-less world (classified JRX-V612-8) that has recently been discovered to be a veritable motherlode of Jorvic Crystals and Extrium Ore (crucial materials for making the latest generation of ion and plasma cannons). Which makes Kolaris a target for the Epsilon Conglomerate, a hyper-corporation that is its own independent state for all intents and purposes, with mining being one of its major branches.

The Earth Federation is in a state of unofficial war with Epsilon for over a century, and when news of the mineral discovery reached Sector Command on the frontiers of the EF, it was an opportunity to expand EF influence in the Jurvidal Sector, get a march on Epsilon and open markets for EF mining concerns. They dispatch a Heavy Carrier warship (designed for deep space, far from home base operations) commanded by a recently promoted Captain to Kolaris to protect it from Epislon attack and to secure the minerals there for the EF.

Of course, the people populating Kolaris are descended from people who wanted to escape the Earth Federation. This makes them not entirely receptive to the sudden appearance of a top of the line EFN Warship and its crew, all of whom are firm believers in the culture and traditions of the Earth Federation. A culture infamous among even aliens for its paternalistic attitudes towards other human cultures, an almost messianic belief in their own mission to spread that cultural template to all humanity and a zealous drive to, eventually, unite all humans under the rule of Earth. Now, to be fair, the Earth Federation is a pretty good culture, all things said and done, but still.

This will require more than guns. This will require diplomacy.

So in this rp, one of us would play the Carrier's captain, and the other of us would play the commander of Kolarias 'Military' and Security (Kolaris has some small warships and a bevy of fighters and defense canons, but they're all fairly obsolete compared to the kind of stuff the EF or Epsilon).

Being a White Witch may sound good on paper.

In practice, it doesn’t really work out like that. You often deal with ignorant masses that have no idea about the differences between the kinds of magic you cast and that used by Dark Witches, or even Earth Witches. Most commoners shun you, regard you as suspect…

Until they want something from you. When they need an illness cured, or a broken limb healed so that the family can continue to feed itself. When they have a sick or injured child. When women go into labor at unexpected times, dealing with risky complications.

The first person any healer, herbalist or midwife will turn to in these situations is a White Witch. But White Magic cannot save those who cannot be saved. It cannot heal all things without cost. And it cannot save those who are too close to death. White Magic must ensure balance in the world, to a degree. Using it to upset that balance (such as to heal) exacts a toll on the caster.

And if a White Witch cannot save someone, or their spell fails… they are often blamed by those ignorant, entitled masses, run out of wherever they live. But their service to the cause of justice, of healing, of fighting evil in the world means they must continue. Must try to help others or risk their power completely slipping away. A White Witches Power comes from service, from saving lives, from maintaining or restoring balance, from fighting evil.

But when a White Witch falters, they don’t have to lose their power. Some rededicate their powers, becoming Earth Witches. But others fall much, much farther, undergoing black rituals to twist their power to the dark, fueling their changed magics on greed, ambition, desire and cruelty.

Such happened with someone you used to know. Someone you used to love.

You and Talia Vaelros were together once. In love. Happy. But after one too many failure, one too many times that the rules of white magic left her spent, weak, and recieving nothing but hate and suspicion in return, Talia began to wonder what the point was. Why? You couldn't accept those questions – you believed in your cause, then. One arguement too many, and she left. You still loved her, but you couldn't be with her. Not on the road she was going down. Not then. And yet... you still miss her. Still love her. Think back with longing on what you had.

And now two years later, having lost a young child because his parents refused to take him to you until it was too late, leaving him to far gone to save... you are beginning to question your purpose. All the failures, the ignorance, the being driven from a place... Like Talia, you begin to question why?

And as you're pondering those questions, sitting in a tavern one night, just one more anonymous traveler, a familiar woman sits next to you. Talia. Like you, still in love. Still longing for what she'd had with you. And...she's found a way out the conundrum, the same one that's consuming you. One she offers to you.

Dark magic.

And Goddess help you, but does that option sound appealing.

In this rp then, you play a White Witch that has, over the years, grown increasingly bitter, cynical and pessimistic about your work, about the cause you've dedicated yourself too. It's cost you the woman you loved, cost you more than one place you called home... friends have died in the fight against evil. Is it really worth it anymore? What the fuck is the point? And now, the woman you love comes back to you, offering you a chance. The chance to do what you want for a change. To say fuck it to the rest of the world, to say fuck it to the people that demand your help out of one side of their mouths while leveling curses at you with the other side.

The chance to perhaps be truly happy, truly free.

Your character takes Talia (my character) up on her offer. Because you're tired of being one of the good guys. You want to take a walk on the darker side.