Dark Souls - Watchers of the Abyss.
The story.
The Abyss was a byproduct of Manus' humanity going wild, humanity is the the thin invisible line that keeps the undead's sanity and ties back to their once mortal selves intact, with each death and re-awakening one loses more and more of themselves, becoming "hollow", an apt name branded upon those who have lost all of their humanity and are nothing but shells of their former selves, this process has claimed great and weak souls alike, from mere farmers to the greatest heroes.
It is a constant and daunting weight pressed upon any whom are branded with the darksign, but despite that there are those whom have dedicated themselves in their un-death to tasks both honourfilled and honourless.
The Abyss Watchers are exactly that, undead who have dedicated their cursed bodies to the prevention of the spreading cancer that is the abyss.
The abyss is a taint that spreads virulently, unchecked chaotic humanity that consumes and warps all it touches, they abyss can only be stopped with the death of it's father - Manus, at least, that is what is believed.
The watchdogs of Farron rose to honour the blade of Artorias, one of the blades of Gwyn whom sacrificed themselves to the taint in order to save his companion; his purpose was to end the father of the cursed and wrethced blackness that speads through the once bright land of Oolacile, in the hopes of stopping it from going any further.
But he failed, and where his sword fell the many men and women who saw the need to bring an end to the spreading of the abyss raised theirs in his stead.
Everyone and then, a piece of the abyss wanders into a unfortunate place of civilisation, and once that seed is planted that Abyss watchers rise, their Great swords that have been fashioned in the likeness of their corrupted hero are drawn and they march to the taint, ready to burn it out and ensure that there is no trace of it.
Thousands have died and cities have fallen to the Legions unwavering loyalty, but with each march their numbers dwindle - they must replenish.
Thankfully a fresh batch of people are ready to pledge their swords to the Legion, just as a new settlement of 200 undead has reportedly seen the taint.
The destination is set, the fates of those unfortunate souls all but sealed...
Right guys and gals, this is the story in a much fuller form, hopefully it outlines most of what you need to know about what and where this roleplay will be going.
Unfortunately there will be no praising of the sun in this roleplay (you can do it in secret if you wish, I know how important it is :D), The role-play will occur prior to the events of Dark souls 1, so the sun is bright and high in the sky and all of the bosses from dark souls 1 continue to exist, and assuming its safe to do so I'll throw in some NPCs from Dark souls 2 and 3, some only come into existent from the actions in Dark souls 1, especially for the third game so it will be fairly limited.
Anyway, our group have come from far and wide to pledge their blades to the Watchdogs of Farron, a duty and oath that is not taken lightly - your purpose is to bring an end to the abyss and quash all contingents of it that manage to spread from the source located in Oolacile - the groups eventual destination later on in the plot.
But this is a heavy burden, the actions of killing so many innocents to stop any piece of the abyss from spreading is hard on what little humanity you have left, the coldest of killers may find their home here, but they too may begin to slowly degrade into a hollow, everyone's days are numbered and the stress of what you must do on a daily basis will do little to extend that flickering of humanity that keeps you together, I aim for this roleplay to really hit you on a moral level, or at least your characters morality - you fight for a good cause, but where is the line of prevention drawn?
I really want to bring out the Dark in dark souls with this roleplay, and I hope with your aid I achieve this goal.
The Mechanics.
Unlike most Roleplays, this is one that will have your character die, and die a lot.
It will not stop your character and your roleplay however, with every death apiece of what makes your character human will be lost - your name becomes harder to recall, the face of your mother and father becomes hazier, warm and comforting memories become lost and warped, whilst the bad ones stick out like beacons on a dark shore.
Unlike the first game humanity cannot be acquired in the form of little items - instead it is gained through acts that are regarded as heroic and selfless - but keep in mind that stopping one of your comrades from striking down a child may gain you humanity - it in turn goes against Legions wishes and code of honour.
Whilst there may be many on the roads to your destinations whom are free from the taint and aiding them or saving them could gain you humanity without the risk of punishment, there is always the risk that doing it in the line of duty could have severe consequences.
Your commander could break your leg and kill the child anyway taking a heavier toll on your humanity than letting the child die in the first place be - or the child whom runs away could carry the taint and spread it elsewhere - causing further damage and loss of life.
Humanity will not be regarded as a number in this but a variable state of mind in everyones CS, the worse your state of mind the lower your humanity I have faith that you will all do this without me and whomever I elect co-gm having to do it for you.
You alone decide when your Character goes hollow - which still doesn't end your Characters life in this rp, there is many interesting applications someone whom is hollowed can have.
Bonfires in this roleplay will act as places you can rest and rejuvenate, they will restore you to full health and mentally refresh you, that is to say it will stave of hollowing for a while - you can also fill your Estus flask at them.
Otherwise they're checkpoints in the journey to sit down and rest for a while.
Death, There are two forms of death in this roleplay - one is where someone whom is cursed with the darksign perishes, which is not the total end of their existence after a a few minutes, up to a few hours they will rise once again from the floor - as if they had awoken from a nightmare only to find that they are lesser of who they were; memories grow hazy and the process of hollowing progresses.
However once someone has fully hollowed, or alternatively been met with an incredibly gruesome death which precludes the like of incineration, decapitation, consumption and many other horrible and messy fates, absolute death is met with them.
The curse only works so far to bring back the host back - in terms of decapitation, only the head being completely severed is regarded as enough for the curse to not being able to revive them.
The rules.
- It goes without saying but the Guild rules apply here, be respectful to your fellow roleplayer and keep conversations in the OOC civil - if you have a problem with someone, please get in touch with me or settle your differences outside of the roleplay.
With that in mind, please no trolling, insults and anything of that nature will not be tolerated in this roleplay, as I said, keep it civil.
- Keep your OOC and IC stuff separate from one another, and that goes for shit that's happening in real life from the OOC - You voted for Trump? Good for you, just don't berate or hassle anyone whom has a different opinion from you.
And if you have an argument with someone in the OOC don't take it out on their character - we are all mature here, lets stay that way.
- Mary/Gary sueing is forbidden, as is God-modding and metagaming, for obvious reasons.
- If you're gunna go for a while, please make the effort to let me know so I don't feed your character to Sif.
- Please don't post any characters into the CS tab that have yet to be accepted, that's just bad manners.
And that's the rules for general Roleplaying.
Restrictions
Ah, here comes the fun bit.
Everyone at the beginning will be handed a set of Undead Legion armour - it is mandatory at the beginning you wear this, that being said you can still decided with a considerable amount of freedom as to what you wear prior to your joining, this will be available to you later on the roleplay (shortly after the first mission) so don't worry.
-Shit that isn't allowed.
-Any form of Boss armour this means any armour that requires a soul or specific boss to have been killed to acquire)
-Havels set.
-Dark/Silver Knight sets including weaponry
-Logans set
-Iron and Sun set (praise the goddamned wolf - not the sun)
-Set of thorns
-All Dark souls 2 dlc armour
-Jesters set
-Symbol of Avarice
-All covenant related Armour and weaponry (unless you have abandoned a covenant to join this one - the I will allow it)
-Gravelord sword and related miracles
-Dragons tooth and Havels shield.
-None of the Dark souls 3 armour
-Dark hand/sword/set
-Havels set.
-Dark/Silver Knight sets including weaponry
-Logans set
-Iron and Sun set (praise the goddamned wolf - not the sun)
-Set of thorns
-All Dark souls 2 dlc armour
-Jesters set
-Symbol of Avarice
-All covenant related Armour and weaponry (unless you have abandoned a covenant to join this one - the I will allow it)
-Gravelord sword and related miracles
-Dragons tooth and Havels shield.
-None of the Dark souls 3 armour
-Dark hand/sword/set
Sorry for the excessive restrictions but this is only for the start - the fun stuff comes later in the roleplay.
-Also keep in mind that in terms of stat restrictions, I'm only using stats in this roleplay for sake of ease, but other than allowing you to use certain items it doesn't change much.
If your going for a dexterity based character who is light on their feet, then a heavy set of armour and a large weapon isn't going to work, only someone who is extremely strong can wield the biggest and heaviest weaponry and in part armour too.
-Please keep to the lower tier spells/miracles/pyromancies/hexes for the beginning and no more than three for the beginning, as the rp progresses the stronger stuff will be available for use.
-Lifegems and any alternative of health resotring items, barring the Divine blessing will not be used in this roleplay - everyone will be handed an Estus flask, if they don't already have one, it will start with 5 charges and will be upgraded as the rp progresses, in terms of usable items you can only have a maximum of 5 different items on your person at one time, and only 10 of said item, depending on what it is, just try and keep it realistic and everything should be fine.
The Character sheet guide
Just a short guide on what to put in the Cs that is in the Hider below.
Name - Self explanatory.
Age and age at death - Your age is the how old you are at the current time, and age at death is the age in which your character died before coming undead - please note that no ridiculous ages are allowed, a few decades at most as the older you will be after your original death means the more likely you are to be hollowed.
Sex - male or female
class - this will define what routes your character will be going down in terms of skill point allocation, just put in here a name i.
e Spellsword, and then the sort of skills you'll heavily invest in - please stick to this when actually allocating skills.
Skills- everyone starts with 10 in every category and 20 unclaimed points that you can put in when you do your CS, these will mainly act as things that allow you past requirements for certain weaponry - please note that for armour requires no skills but I will not allow a rouge type character to wear an Elite knight set of amrour, just use common sense and we will get on fine.
Skill points will be allocated to everybody as the rp progresses.
Appearence - Picture is optional, no anime style but everything else is fine, a written description is mandatory, doesn't have to be extensive, just sufficient enough to get a decent grasp of you look like.
Armour and weapons - Just use common sense and stick to the restrictions, whilst I'm aware that I haven't been through everything I wil llet you know if it's not allowed and I apologise in advance if that's the case.
Personality - This is a big one for this roleplay, this essentially is what your humanity is, this is what you slowly lose as well as your memories, so I really want a very in depth personality description - doesn't have to be massive just well detailed, and remember, this is what makes you, you - this is what you need your character to grip on lest you go hollow.
Biography- Much of the lore is unknown outside of the Dark souls world in terms of the realm of the living, so you don't need to focus on that, general information that makes you human though is useful to have here, like parents, good times, happy memories etc. YOu can be vague as to the specifics but at least make sure some of them are there so you can begin to lose them.
Otherwise, just explain how you got to where you are now.
Spells etc. - Same rule applies here as weapons and armour, no high level crystal death star beam at the beginning, you can only use these so much before having to rest at a bonfire, I don't need to hand out specific numbers, I have faith in you to be sensible about it.
Inventory - These are items like Green blossom and firebombs, in this roleplay they aren't gunna be in abundance so use them carefully or use them as utility in tight spots, like locked doors - if they're wooden then a firebomb will deal with it etc.
Small note - I don't know how to keep it in code form - in order to access the code click view raw on the top right of the page and then copy and paste.
