TL;DR Summary
- Dark, Apocalyptic.
- Robert Howard-inspired, with Low Fantasy roots. A dusty world of desperation and brutality. Life is nasty, brutish and short. People call to gods, but they do not hear or answer.
- Into this, magic springs out of nowhere, in the hands of tyrants and conquerors, what was only myth. It exists, but the characters do not know how to use it. The enemy does, that is why they're so dominant.
- Magic will be learned by the characters, but the price is paid in blood and tears.
- Many kingdoms have fallen, a few remain.
- Characters are part of a much larger party that lost many members trying to make it to a dungeon that holds secrets to their salvation, or damnation.
- 4 or so players, small circle. These people are allowed to play as many characters as they need.
- Not first come, first serve. There is an application to join the RP, and character sheets need to go up fast.
- GMing duties will be collaborative.
In Character Info
The world is strewn with ancient ruins, reminding everyone of a shrouded history that only left fragments behind for those that came after to study. The gods died, so the tales went, and magic with it. That was a fanciful tale people told to make sense of life. People made their religions, kept traditions, but their prayers were not answered substantially. People did not call lightning from their hands.
The Vukash were considered a savage people of the hinterlands, but when they overran their first kingdom, and then their second, and kept going, the world realized with a growing horror that they could call fire and death, that the Emperor Bozash called on legions of fell beasts from legends, including the ferocious trokals.
The kingdoms of the world fell one by one. Those on the front line were besieged and brought down, and the armies that were sent out by kingdoms further back came back whittled down and telling tales of horror and defeat; often, these proud warriors came back both maimed and mad from what they witnessed.
The source of the magic, which only the Vukash knew, was unknown, but the scholars of all remaining kingdoms worked feverishly and identified a place where they could find answers. If one myth, magic, could be true, and the trokals were undisputed, why couldn't other stories? While the kingdoms fell, scribes, scholars, wise men and witches all studied fervently, tried many different methods to tap magic, but couldn't. There were terrible things done in calls to dead deities; sacrifices and experimentation in terrible desperation. One rumor among many was the Dark Library of Dihira, a long dead goddess. No one could locate it. It was one of many desperate legends that the scholars and scribblers spoke of, hesitantly, while civilizations were swept away by a fell hand of magical tyranny.
Until a man came back. It was thought that he was just another raving survivor of a massacre, but he brought something, an orb (or please, help me come up with a better MacGuffin!) that glowed with lightning within. The man ranted of the Dark Library, and the horrors within. He was interrogated, stripped of all his knowledge in desperation until he was no longer. But the scribes, they wrote everything, however disjointed.
The orb was studied. Someone tried to split it with an axe. It wasn't even scratched. No one was sure what the secret was, though it was dipped in blood, prayed over and so many other things done to it. But when it faced some directions, the light within died out. When it faced a given direction, it glowed again. And as it moved away, it grew dimmer. As it was taken in the right direction, it grew in warmth. The madman raved of the World Tree. The orb pointed the way.
A party of the most intrepid souls that could be found was assembled, it followed the orb's lead into territory held by the enemy. They tried to slip in by stealth, they tried to fight on the move. So many died on their way before the party arrived at the World Tree, a long-fossilized wonder of the world that was once a site of holy significance, but in the lands overrun by the Vukash. Only a few survived to see it. Guided by the ravings of the tortured madman, they found the entrance. Doubts plagued the party, very little held them together besides a common cause, and yet they took the fateful step in...
The Vukash were considered a savage people of the hinterlands, but when they overran their first kingdom, and then their second, and kept going, the world realized with a growing horror that they could call fire and death, that the Emperor Bozash called on legions of fell beasts from legends, including the ferocious trokals.
The kingdoms of the world fell one by one. Those on the front line were besieged and brought down, and the armies that were sent out by kingdoms further back came back whittled down and telling tales of horror and defeat; often, these proud warriors came back both maimed and mad from what they witnessed.
The source of the magic, which only the Vukash knew, was unknown, but the scholars of all remaining kingdoms worked feverishly and identified a place where they could find answers. If one myth, magic, could be true, and the trokals were undisputed, why couldn't other stories? While the kingdoms fell, scribes, scholars, wise men and witches all studied fervently, tried many different methods to tap magic, but couldn't. There were terrible things done in calls to dead deities; sacrifices and experimentation in terrible desperation. One rumor among many was the Dark Library of Dihira, a long dead goddess. No one could locate it. It was one of many desperate legends that the scholars and scribblers spoke of, hesitantly, while civilizations were swept away by a fell hand of magical tyranny.
Until a man came back. It was thought that he was just another raving survivor of a massacre, but he brought something, an orb (or please, help me come up with a better MacGuffin!) that glowed with lightning within. The man ranted of the Dark Library, and the horrors within. He was interrogated, stripped of all his knowledge in desperation until he was no longer. But the scribes, they wrote everything, however disjointed.
The orb was studied. Someone tried to split it with an axe. It wasn't even scratched. No one was sure what the secret was, though it was dipped in blood, prayed over and so many other things done to it. But when it faced some directions, the light within died out. When it faced a given direction, it glowed again. And as it moved away, it grew dimmer. As it was taken in the right direction, it grew in warmth. The madman raved of the World Tree. The orb pointed the way.
A party of the most intrepid souls that could be found was assembled, it followed the orb's lead into territory held by the enemy. They tried to slip in by stealth, they tried to fight on the move. So many died on their way before the party arrived at the World Tree, a long-fossilized wonder of the world that was once a site of holy significance, but in the lands overrun by the Vukash. Only a few survived to see it. Guided by the ravings of the tortured madman, they found the entrance. Doubts plagued the party, very little held them together besides a common cause, and yet they took the fateful step in...
Out of Character Info:
So the story starts with the mid-point of an arduous journey. A band of heroes(?) stands before the World Tree. The gate to the Dark Library, cunningly hidden, was only the first secret to unravel. The next steps are into the unknown, of their world's history, of the enigma of magic and the darkness of their own souls.
The setting is a dusty low-fantasy sort of setting in the mold of Robert Howard, a place of terrible secrets that lay entombed, waiting to be unleashed. A lot hasn't been fleshed out because it's very important to give the players the room to grow their own backstories and write in what they feel inspired with.
The idea here is that there isn't really a GM calling all the shots, but rather a consensus on how to write a good plot. I am not looking for a lot of people, but I am looking for a couple highly engaged collaborators that feel this RP and want to take the idea and run with it. To that end, I intend to set up an application that involves character sheets, but also a solicitation of people's ideas on where to take the plot, how to create a story collaboratively. Instead of a GM just imagining challenges, we talk about how to write the scenes and spring things on each other. To that end, the people accepted into this RP are colleagues, and are encouraged to write as many characters and NPC's as they need. They are free to invent the enemies and keep everyone else on their toes. The idea is to work together to make the story better.
While it starts with a dungeon full of secrets, it by no means has to end there. There is a world burning, after all, and it's entirely possible that the characters will emerge with secrets from the Dark Library and very different ideas on how to use them. Perhaps they won't even wait that long to start turning on each other...
If that's of interest to you, start brainstorming -- this won't be first come, first served, this will be "the most creative and enthusiastic will get the nod."
The setting is a dusty low-fantasy sort of setting in the mold of Robert Howard, a place of terrible secrets that lay entombed, waiting to be unleashed. A lot hasn't been fleshed out because it's very important to give the players the room to grow their own backstories and write in what they feel inspired with.
The idea here is that there isn't really a GM calling all the shots, but rather a consensus on how to write a good plot. I am not looking for a lot of people, but I am looking for a couple highly engaged collaborators that feel this RP and want to take the idea and run with it. To that end, I intend to set up an application that involves character sheets, but also a solicitation of people's ideas on where to take the plot, how to create a story collaboratively. Instead of a GM just imagining challenges, we talk about how to write the scenes and spring things on each other. To that end, the people accepted into this RP are colleagues, and are encouraged to write as many characters and NPC's as they need. They are free to invent the enemies and keep everyone else on their toes. The idea is to work together to make the story better.
While it starts with a dungeon full of secrets, it by no means has to end there. There is a world burning, after all, and it's entirely possible that the characters will emerge with secrets from the Dark Library and very different ideas on how to use them. Perhaps they won't even wait that long to start turning on each other...
If that's of interest to you, start brainstorming -- this won't be first come, first served, this will be "the most creative and enthusiastic will get the nod."
