"Darkness and Dust, Revelry and Rust" is a Roleplay concept and design that focuses on intense, dramatic, character development, story drive, and writing. It will feature a host of distinct, unique characters, fighting and surviving through the depths of chaos and destruction this post-apocalyptic world hosts. The World has lain in destruction for a couple hundred years after a world-ending event only referred to as the "Devastation" and while there may be records of the event long lost in the ruins of this world, those present on this day do not entirely recollect the events of the end, it is believed it happened quickly, and in surprise. This adds to the nature of the now unknown demise of the world. Large zones scattered across the lands are uninhabitable, many due to old-world technologies malfunctioning and causing great harm to the land and the lingering effects of these scars. Others are uninhabitable due to the men and women who have went mad of this new world, their crazed minds and wild eyes seek nutrition through the meat of man. These inhuman remnants of people are cannibals who would eat their brother and sister without so much of a blink of an eye, if they weren't just as insane. The world is also host to ravenous beasts, to ask which beast is worse though, that is impossible to answer. The creatures of the new world are ferocious and unhindered in their survival. They do not back down, they do not give up, and they do not quit. The new world has bred new instincts into these old world beings.

The story itself is the drive of the characters, starting in the middle of nowhere east of New York City, just inside the City of Rochester, New York. The survivors of this world, are scattered far and wide, but our crew of survivors will be fighting to follow a rumor. There is "talk" of a large collection of people, able bodies and minds fighting to build a home and a place of safety in south-eastern New York City. The journey across the state will be long and treacherous, full of twist, turns, horror, and tragedy. However the journey is all the Rochester Group has left, with the simple defenses of Rochester faltering, cannibals rampaging in the local areas, and all manner of danger the new world can send upon the unwary is lurking just beneath the darkness and the revelry.

---

Now, I hope this garners enough attention to go through! I also hope you all come up with a many great characters! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them below or you are ALL welcome to PM your questions or statements to me.

---

OOC Notices and Info

Firstly, I would like to note and mention that there may be minute amounts of Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, however this is only a possibility depending heavily on the ideas I get for such things and the view of my fellow players as to whether they want it in the Rp or not.

Secondly, I would like to mention a matter of your Characters. Please try to give them emotion, I understand the desire to have the "Lone Soldier" or "Emotionless Survivor" in Rps such as this, but for the Rp to live to it's full potential the characters need some degree of emotion. I have no intentions of controlling you all and forcing you to make characters you dislike, I am just making a note of my opinion.

Thirdly, the Rp is supposed to be a progression, a development ride of intensity. This is why I would ask that everyone start small with their character's equipment and even some of their skills, as to give things to hunt for, build on, and improve as the story unravels and throws curve balls at our cast of Survivors. *Sub-Note: Ammo is not a plentiful commodity in this day an age, so the amount you have should be Realistically Minimalist.*

Interesting.
Is there an age limit on characters?

No, there is not.

I am still interested and will be creating a character--most likely sometime today.

---

---

Name: He calls himself Kaden. He never tells his last name to anyone, and it's unclear whether or not he even knows what it is.

Sex: Male

Age: Even he doesn't know. He looks young, maybe 10 or 11 at the oldest.

Gender: Male.

Appearance:


Personality: Kaden is morally depraved, but rarely intentionally malicious. Though he has no qualms scavenging human corpses, he would never kill someone who trusted him. He steals to get what he needs to survive and is often unaware of whom he's stealing from, but he would just as quickly give his contraband away to someone who needed it more than he did. In short, he'll lie and steal and kill to stay alive, but somehow seems to be trying to be nice about it.
He's loyal in nature, but has difficulties maintaining companionships because of his extreme impulsivity and lack of social tact. His emotions tend to be hyperbolic to the situation, often vastly overreacting to small things.
He rarely speaks, communicating mostly through gesture and facial expressions. This is more likely to be a symptom of some underlying mental condition than actual mutism. When he does speak, he often speaks too loudly and in strange intonations. He has a very noticeable South English accent, indicating that he's likely from Britain.
He gets bored very easily and has a very short attention span. If he feels like he's being ignored, he'll often just wander off to find a source of entertainment without alerting anyone of his departure.
By surviving for over a year out on his own in the streets, he's proven to be very clever for his age (well, whatever age he is) and skilled in finding resources and general craftiness.

Short Bio: In times like these, nobody really cares to launch large scale investigations into the origins of random street rats. All that's known is that he's been living on his own for quite a while now. Food is scarce, so he's joined the others in cannibalism, as well as picking off the rats, pigeons and squirrels that still roam the streets. He's quite fast and has so far managed to avoid the risks of dying of exposure or infection. If he were any weaker, slower or dumber, he would have been dead years ago. Not being afraid to delve into raiding and cannibalism definitely helped along the way.

Weapons: A collection of sharp things he's scavenged from the streets. Everything from corkscrews to sharpened bones to surgical scalpels. He also has a slingshot.

Equipment:
-Leather suitcase
-Lighter
-Bottle of chloroform
-30 feet of rope
-Paper and 3 pens
-a pair of green knitted gloves
-Usually some sort of food.
-Slingshot ammunition (rocks, marbles, small animal skulls, etc)

Other: He seems to understand American Sign Language very well.

@ManoftheNorth

How long has it been since the world fell into ruin?

As the Info above states, a couple hundred years. I am currently working on the background of the "Devastation" itself, and how it is people have managed to retain the amount of Old World knowledge that they have in the New World.

Alright thank you. I'm working on a character now.

Marvelous!

I'm working on a character, but I wanted to ask a few things:
Is there any possibility of a character who is some kind of rehabilitated cannibal (probably through the effects of several generations of care or something)?
How sci-fi is this going to be? Are robots of any kind possible?
Are we allowed multiple characters?

A Rehabilitated Cannibal is very, very, unlikely in the New World. Our resources in the modern day still find severe cannibalism hard to treat, due to the fact that Cannibals eventually get a severe set-in disease called Kuru. Kuru is the human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease. It creates a serious of very major and degenerating symptoms, which are:

- Arm and Leg pain
- Progressively severe loss of Coordination
- Severe Cerebellar Ataxia
- Headache
- Difficulty Swallowing and Swelling of the throat
- Tremors and Muscle Spasms

These symptons take only a few months to appear, then you have only a couple years before they set in and by that time they take your life. Modern Medicine has no cure or treatment for Kuru, only a handful of psychological examinations that can hint towards the effects of Kuru.

Secondly, the information above states that Science Fiction may be present in minute amounts, and that is still undecided. If robots ARE a thing, it will be limited and worked on heavily to ensure they don't break the atmosphere of the Rp.

Finally, multiple Characters are allowed, but I don't want anymore than two per person if they truly feel they need more than one.

---

Now, I would like to note for all Rpers who read and are interested, please thoroughly read the information for this Rp.

Lilia Colette Galton, is accepted.

Kaden is still pending as I have pm'd Oliver with questions and things I need to speak with them about.

I'm intrested

Alright, here's my character. He's something new for me, so bear with me.

A Rehabilitated Cannibal is very, very, unlikely in the New World. Our resources in the modern day still find severe cannibalism hard to treat, due to the fact that Cannibals eventually get a severe set-in disease called Kuru. Kuru is the human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease. It creates a serious of very major and degenerating symptoms, which are:

- Arm and Leg pain
- Progressively severe loss of Coordination
- Severe Cerebellar Ataxia
- Headache
- Difficulty Swallowing and Swelling of the throat
- Tremors and Muscle Spasms

These symptons take only a few months to appear, then you have only a couple years before they set in and by that time they take your life. Modern Medicine has no cure or treatment for Kuru, only a handful of psychological examinations that can hint towards the effects of Kuru.

Kuru has only been documented in certain cannibalistic groups. It's only passed by consuming the corpse of someone who already carries the virus. If everyone died, they wouldn't do it now would they?

That is true, to a degree. New Guinea is the most infamous for the Kuru Disease, but Kuru is a Prion disease, and the contraction of it can occur from a corpse being devoured. The biggest cause is devouring old brains, bone marrow, and other highly protein-heavy nutrient rich parts of the human body. Kuru is not the only issue though, Kuru is just the most well know.

Prion disease in general are a problem in cannibalism. This is evident in a few cases in which cannibals have been noted having unstable hands, shaky arms, a jerking leg. These are early signs of a Prion Disease setting in with their muscle spasms.

Also: @WildRose Krystan is accepted. @Kidd Nikos is accepted.

That is true, to a degree. New Guinea is the most infamous for the Kuru Disease, but Kuru is a Prion disease, and the contraction of it can occur from a corpse being devoured. The biggest cause is devouring old brains, bone marrow, and other highly protein-heavy nutrient rich parts of the human body. Kuru is not the only issue though, Kuru is just the most well know.

Prion disease in general are a problem in cannibalism. This is evident in a few cases in which cannibals have been noted having unstable hands, shaky arms, a jerking leg. These are early signs of a Prion Disease setting in with their muscle spasms.

Ah, I forgot that Kuru is a Prion disease.

But anyway, Kuru is usually transmitted through eating human brain matter.
There are a couple of reasons why Kaden might have contracted some form of Kuru, mainly that he's scavenging (therefore, what remains he's been feeding off of might not be particularly fresh), and that he's had no formal education and probably doesn't know about Kuru. But at the same time, most people who aren't trained hunters don't know that brains are edible. He's not likely to be eating organs that aren't typically consumed. Besides, since he can't save food easily, he tends to stick to smaller animals when he can find them.

Indeed. I would like to clarify. I haven't been stating the effects of Cannibalism based on your RPC alone. I was stating it largely because few people know the effects of cannibalism, and because our friend LaughableFrog was curious about a reformed Cannibal. I have no intentions of telling people they can't be something or do something without a logical explanation as to why.

He will have to hide the cannibalism if he wishes to travel with the others safely. But nevertheless: @Oliver Kayden is accepted.

Thanks!