“An enemy will trap your head in an iron mask, with no holes for seeing or breathing” warned the first oracle.
“A bloody child, born not from woman’s womb, will claim your throne for her own,” advised the second oracle.
“The trees will grow legs and march on the High City,” prophesied the third and final oracle. “Beware the metal faces, and the unborn children, and the shaking branches of the forest. For they hate you, my King, and they will see you fall.”
King Masbeth thought on their words for some time, then ordered the three oracles executed. This would normally be the duty of the royal executioner, but three hundred years ago King Masbeth banished his entire procession from the fortress. It has been a very lonely three hundred years since then.
In the fortress courtyard there is a garden where criminals are meant to be executed, peacefully and with dignity, but it was so very far from the throne room, and King Masbeth was a tired and weary man, and so he decided it would be easiest to kill the oracles then and there. Three swings of his sword; three dead oracles. Afterwards, when he made to tidy up, the King found their bodies were too heavy to move, and their blood would not wash from the white marble floor.
This is what the rumors say, at least—the Dark King of Quishan murdered three innocent oracles who dared to prophesize his downfall. Bullshit, others say. It was his daughters, and he didn’t murder them. How could a man murder his daughters? The shock of the prophecies killed them, right on the spot, and the King just couldn’t bear to move their bodies from where they fell.
That’s when your cousin, the one who always starts fights during New Year’s dinner, interrupts: Your head is so far up your ass I can see it in your mouth. Here’s what really happened...
And so on. There are many rumors surrounding this particular tale (the murderous king story is particularly popular), but to tell you the truth, no one knows why there are three dead woman seated around the throne of the King.
That is a mystery only he could answer.
The heck is all this?:
So! This is an interest check for the End of Sleep, a high fantasy RPG that follows the adventures of a small band of strangers in a cursed land, thrown together by random circumstance and forced to go on—you guessed it—Some Sorta Quest. It is year 572 of the Age of the Widow, and, while only a pessimist would say hope is lost, it isn’t exactly in high supply.
The Age of the Widow:
It started at night. The efertide, they call it, an old magic that emerges every few Ages or so to plague the land of Invernier. When the sun goes down, a dark mist comes out from the sea and the forests, and the unwary are swallowed alive. None of the six previous efernights lasted longer than a decade—this one has endured for over five centuries. Travel at night has become nearly impossible, and interstate cooperation and trade has stagnated. People are reclusive these days, outsiders are never trusted—and that’s without considering the ghosts, the huntsmen, the wights, the werewolves—all the many ills that have descended with the Age of the Widow.
The Setting:
Invernier is a more or less traditional high fantasy setting, though it’s no stranger to technology. Gas lamps, firearms, and even lightbulbs and electricity were all used sporadically in the most developed urban areas, though since the Age of the Widow the spread and use of such things has regressed.
The last 500 years have seen a major collapse in the old political powers. Almost every major royal bloodline has died out, save that of the reclusive King Masbeth in Inger Biotte, who busies himself with mysterious work that puzzles subjects and enemies alike. Though the immediate provinces of Quishan are more secure than most, his power does little to reign in the unstable factionalism bubbling and bursting all across the continent.
How We Start:
Players will begin in a small inn in Alonso, one of the many dilapidated hamlets dotting the lands of the Tempesta. The Tempesta is a gloomy, drizzly, superstitious moorland. Once the great gateway between the south and the far west, it is a land of travelers—people looking for a place to hide, and people on their way to somewhere better. A recent civil war saw the fall of the Army of Heroes, a corrupt military regime that had controlled the region for sixty years. The remaining soldiers, leaders, assassins, and healers who survived the initial purge have since scattered across the land, pursued by the newly ascended People’s Legion.
I imagine many characters will be former trained recruits of the Army of Heroes, or maybe even agents of the Legion, hot on some Hero’s tail Of course, as a realm of travelers, and one of the few places in Invernier where magic is largely tolerated, you can find all sorts of strange folk on the Tempesta moors.
The Story:
Nothing, not even curses, can last forever. One day, the sun will rise. It’s just a matter of who, where, and when.
M A P O F I N V E R N I E R
P E O P L E S O F I N V E R N I E R
This section has been fully updated to show the main OOC post version instead of the Interest Check version. Expect the OOC post to go up very soon.
Humans are by far the dominant race on Invernier. Try not to think of this as a Dungeons and Dragons type situation with mass intermingling of many fabulous races—for many Invernish, the fae are just as much the weird and untrustworthy stuff of fairy tales they are for us. While it’s not totally uncommon to see elves or carnelians travelling the old human roads and bunking at human inns for the night, the fae generally keep to themselves, and tend to be rather aloof towards humankind. Likewise, fae are largely treated with distrust by most humans. Goblins are an exception, and interact and integrate with humans quite regularly.
The fae are not immortal. Though perhaps more resilient to physical injuries than other living things, they have roughly the same lifespan as a human. However, a fae does not age while sleeping, and it is can be common for them to sleep for long stretches of time, dreaming their time away in this ghostly, ageless state. Elves are particularly prone to this, while goblins, a hard and practical people, greatly frown upon sleeping more than necessary.
❖ Playable Races ❖ These are the available races to be used for characters.
H U M A N S
Humankind is superstitious and hardy, found on every corner of the continent and braving many kinds of terrain. They are an incredibly divided, varied, and rather bizarre people, and sometimes catch the interest of the fae themselves. Much of Invernier’s trade and politics, among all races, has traditionally revolved around the ancient human capitals founded by the Nine Sisters, though in the modern era only four of the nine remain standing.
The varied and eccentric human cultures of the world tend to revolve around agriculture, farming, and livestock, especially in rural areas, while the urban regions place emphasis on bartering and government. Humans have a long and rich history of expression through art and writing, something largely unique to their species, and place an unusual emphasis on complex and varied social structures and relationships, a trait that has rubbed off on the fae after the last few thousand years of sharing a continent.
In terms of appearance, humans generally fall between five to six-and-a-half feet in height, with an enormous variety of builds, skin colors, hair colors, and eye colors. Generally, humans of the Isle of Fire have darker skin tones, while those of Redemption and the various mountains surrounding the Horns of the World are lighter. In the rest of Invernier, due to the consolidation of the continent under the Nine Sisters, different skin tones and racial features tend to be intermixed.
E L V E S
The elves are an eerie people native to the dark and wild parts of the world. No fans of direct sunlight, they generally build their settlements underground, where the sun can’t intrude, or occasionally within thick and shadowy forests. Their subterranean kingdoms are centers for mining, smithing, and jewelry, and elfkind has a reputation for being rather greedy and material.
Elven settlements fall under the absolute rule of an alfking, though the alfking generally avoids interfering with day-to-day matters, leaving most of the actual management of the settlement to the thanes. Elf cultures tend to revolve around mining, blacksmithing, and the hunting of wild animals around their settlement. Most elves, even within the elf-kingdoms, prefer to keep to themselves.
There are four major elf-kingdoms—Gestalt in the southwest, Magdalene, in the southeast, Morfin in the northeast, and Sin Sinder in the northwest. Gestalt and Magdalene are most similar to human societies (despite Magdalene’s reputation as an archetypal alien faerie kingdom in the woods) while Sin Sinder and Morfin are the most isolationist. Gestalt interacts with humans in the most up front way, and despite its bloody history with and lingering distrust of goblinkind, they have much better relations with goblins compared to other elven kingdoms.
Elves are gaunt, greyish-skinned, spindly beings, with long limbs, long fingers, pointed ears, and entirely black eyes with maybe only the tiniest corners of white visible. They can see keenly in the dark, and their hair lacks pigmentation, appearing almost exclusively in black, gray, or white. They generally fall between four-and-a-half to a little under six feet in height.
G O B L I N S
Goblins have long been the subjects of slavery, cruelty, and oppression. During the first thousand or so years of recorded history on Invernier, goblins fell under mass enslavement by elves and nephilim, who used them as labor in their mines and cities. During the unrest caused by the Nine Sisters’ ascendance, however, the goblins enslaved in the Fosterling Mountains staged a mass revolt, slaughtering and driving off their elf subjugators and establishing the free country of Patriness.
In a cunning and highly political ploy, the first king of Patriness established strong diplomatic and financial ties with humans shortly after the country was founded, which allowed the goblins to remain independent and avoid vengeance from the western elves. Though it never occurred in the lifetime of the Sisters who had cooperated with goblin empowerment movements, in the last two thousand years the enslavement of goblinkind has largely died out, though prejudices remain—in some places stronger than in others—all across Invernier.
Their culture tends to emphasize solidarity within the immediate community, goblin or otherwise. Many goblins, especially those from Patriness and its surrounding areas, seek employment as merchants, diplomats, negotiators, and other professions requiring the use of charisma and fast thinking. Goblins in general have a reputation for cunning and silver tongues, though are also known for being highly distrusting towars magic.
Goblins tend to have gold, tawny, or brass-colored skin, with pointed ears and thick, dark-colored hair. Goblin eyes are usually some shade of yellow, gold, orange, or amber, and occasionally dark and muddy brown. Their teeth tend to be rather sharp, with large, pronounced canines, with a variety of builds and body types. Their height ranges from four-and-a-half to a little over five-and-a-half feet tall.
Most goblins live in the southwest, in Patriness, Andrea’s Fault, the Tempesta, and Quishan. There are also many goblins in Primaveira and Milos, though humans of the southeast tend to have a less benevolent disposition towards goblinkind.
C A R N E L I A N S
Where the isolated elves are solitary and alien, the isolated carnelians are quiet and peaceful, and prefer privacy over all else. The spiderfolk of Invernier have never engaged in nation-building the way other races have; instead, their people are scattered all across the continent in small, hidden villages. They feel an immense affinity for water, and are found most commonly by lakes, rivers, and the coast. Many are sailors, fishers, and shipwrights.
Carnelians were especially affected by the early years of the efernight, losing hundreds of colonies across the continent. King Masbeth gave considerable aid to them during this period. However, Masbeth has a tendency to reach out to the Quishani colonies quite often for shipwrights and sailors, and as a result many carnelians who prefer their privacy have moved further west, while the ones who remain in public colonies have a reputation for being distinctly un-carnelian due to their cooperation with humans. Redemption, on the other hand, offered assistance without the kind of interference that Masbeth became known for, and as a result there are many carnelian colonies in the distant north.
Carnelians are tall, lithe, and generally have very similar heights, usually in the range of six feet to a little under six and a half. They are distinctly spider-like in appearance and movement, earning the nickname of ‘spiderfolk,’ and are covered almost entirely by smooth black armor of segmented chitin that grows from their flesh. Only their lower jaw is totally exposed, revealing dark, colorless lips whose corners split into two, like forks in a road, giving their mouth a sort of stretched-out X shape.
The exposed skin of their lower face and around their joints is not dissimilar from humans, and can come in several tones. Carnelian arms and legs have three joints rather than the two of humans, goblins, and elves, and their fingers are long and end in sharp talons.
Carnelian’s have long, pronounced fangs that slide out more visibly the wider their mouth is opened. Though untrue, most rural humans hold that carnelians are people-eaters. Carnelians are, however, exclusively meat eaters.
❖ Non-Playable Races ❖ Parts of Invernier history and society, but very rare and not available for playable races. Often considered fairy tales, moreso than even the fae.
N E P H I L I M
One of the most reclusive fae races, the nephilim are tall and mighty masters or architecture and engineering. Their cultures have produced strange and ingenious technology coveted by all other races, though they themselves are extremely dismissive, if not hostile, to all magic beyond their own unique style. Generally, architecture and engineering are held in high regard by nephilim, who appreciate the hard and practical arts. They do, however, often have soft spots for the recreational art other races sometimes take part in, especially the human painters and elven jewelers. Their magic and technology involves a kind of living cement, some halfway point between plant and stone, which they freely sculpt into fabulous shapes and structures. The nine great human cities were actually made from a kind of magic uniquely invented by the Sisters based on the nephilim Genosia, and the Sisters are largely disliked by nephilims for corrupting their sacred art (though, of course, during the time of the Sisters, the nephilim people payed great tributes and honors to the nine queens).
The supposed birthplace of the nephilim is on the Isle of Three, where their most ancient city, the fortress of Asir, is also located. Most nephilim have retreated to their homeland since the fall of Oolasheene one hundred years ago, and their people have become increasingly rare on Invernier. No outsiders are allowed within the walls of the nephilim cities, so it's unknown how they have handled the recent disasters of the Age of the Widow.
T H E U N D E A D
The woken bodies of the departed. Most see them as monsters, or made-up children’s stories, though they are just as sentient and emotional as any human or fae.
Undead are born in countless ways, but they all share certain traits. Brought back, their skin becomes ashy and cold, but loses any traces of serious rotting, while their faces gain a rather starved, skeletal look. Their eyes burn up into white mist, and the empty black sockets gain pale dots of light, presumably for seeing, though the science and magic of undeath is poorly researched.
Each individual undead is said to have the potential for greatness inside them. This is often dismissed as rumor, however, and in many places the undead are treated as criminals, or animals. Julieta, youngest of the Nine Sisters, grew sympathetic to the plight of the undead, and championed their rights as individuals worthy of kindness and respect. This led her into conflict with one of her own siblings, Desdemona, and sparked a military and political conflict that eventually ended in Julieta’s death at her sister’s hands.
There are some who hold fast to Julieta’s belief, later shared by her sisters Miranda, Cordelise, and Viola, that the undead must be treated as equals. Others think she as delusional, and even more feel that, while her heart was in the right place, her involvement with the undead led to many calamities among the Sisters, and that these schisms, and Julieta’s death, were entirely the fault of the undead.
It is unknown if there are any undead colonies or significant undead populations anywhere in the world, and they are generally known to be wandering pilgrims.
D R A G O N S
An ancient, powerful race, born from the very bones of Invernier itself. Dragons are covered in scaled, metallic armor, with wings that stir up tempests and breath that scalds like fire. They grow incredibly large, though the fables are not very exact—the size of a dragon is expressed less through numbers and more through metaphors. They are not a fae race, and have enormous lifespans, though are, presumably, mortal.
Deep magic surrounds any sort of interaction with a dragon, from combat challenges to simple bartering. The clash between a brave knight and a cunning dragon, a cunning dragon facilitating the ascension of a mighty lord—these are images and tropes woven into the public consciousness of Invernier.
Dragons, however, are a rare sight these days. Most would say they’ve died out, though the few remaining members of the Wise would tell you the dragons have gone far north to the mountains beyond Aránmore and the furthest reaches of Sinderband. It is unknown if they will ever return.
M A G I C O N I N V E R N E I R
(I've updated this from the Interest Check version to the full OOC post version, though it's missing a handful of magical styles)
During the golden age of magic, Invernier was a place of magnificent sorcery, ruled by unstoppable Mage-Kingdoms. But those days are long gone. Now, only echoes remain.
Modern knowledge of magic on Invernier is riddled with holes and clouded by superstition. Some scholars (those that remain, at least) suggest this is for the best: magic was always meant to be something undefined and illicit, a thing of shadows, a thing for the shunned. Today, it primarily exists in the form of minor spells, learned and traded like black-market goods. Many places have outlawed the old powers, while others will go so far as to arrest magicians on the spot.
While it is possible to learn one or two minor spells without suffering from this, true magicians will invariable experience extreme warping of the eyes. Common warpings include:
❖ The fraying and distortion of the iris over the pupil, like a torn spiderweb. ❖ The splitting of the iris into multiples (usually two per eye, but as many as four have been recorded in the past). ❖ The blackening or whiting of the entire eye. ❖ Multiple pupils. ❖ Bizarrely colored and shaped animal-eyes, such as those of snakes, cows, or crocodiles.
Making a character a true magician means giving yourself a noticeable marker that will probably incur discrimination in many parts of Invernier, so don’t make that decision lightly.
Feel free to make up your own spells. Below are a list of magical styles, and each style has a handful of example spells you can either use for yourself, or use for ideas for your own magic. Spells fall in three categories—simple (1 point) advanced (2) and mighty (4). True magicians are allowed 7 points to spend on magic, while characters who only know a handful of tangential spells are allowed 3.
Keep in mind magic is rare, and widely untrusted. It’s not the most common thing to know spells, even if only a handful of simple ones. If a character does know magic, try to give them a certain amount of consistency among what kinds of magic they’ve learned and why.
Another note: some spells may not be ‘magic’ to certain groups of people. For example, some healing spells and many of the arts of Old Soot are considered more in line with blessings and prayers, or old tricks, while others are considered holy gifts for priests, such as a handful Seathe spells. Oh, that’s not magic, that’s just an old prayer that’s been in my family for generations, or No, see, that’s the good magic, the kind that’s normal and helpful. This only really applies though if eye warping hasn’t occurred yet, at which point most (depending on region, again) would assume the magician to be one of the ‘bad ones.’
T H E L A G R I M A
The Lagrima is an ancient and powerful tradition of magic that conjures and subjugates wild animals. It requires an animalistic forcefulness of character, and was traditionally used by hermits and sages in the Far Wilds.
Sample Spells:
❖ Gloom Wings ❖
Simple A spell that conjures a moth from the palm of one’s hand. As long as the moth exists, the magician will share the moth’s senses, and the creature can be controlled like an extra limb. If the moth is hurt, the magician feels its pain.
❖ Bitter Kiss ❖
Simple A spell that births a small black snake from one’s mouth. It’s bite paralyzing, and can stun even a large beast. As long as the moth exists, the magician will share the snake’s senses, and the creature can be controlled like an extra limb. If the snake is hurt, the magician feels its pain.
❖ Wicked Feathers ❖
Advanced A spell to conjure a medium-sized bird of prey from out of the soil. As long as the bird exists, the magician will share its senses, and the creature can be controlled like an extra limb.
❖ Will of the Wild ❖
Advanced A minor spell to enforce one’s will on a wild animal. While larger animals will simply be stunned or momentarily weakened, medium and smaller sized animals—like snakes or wolves—can be commanded and their senses momentarily shared, like an extra limb. Unlike spells that conjure animals, spells to subjugate them do not force a magician to share the animal’s pain.
❖ Carnal Medicine ❖
Advanced A killing spell for slaying small animals like sparrows or squirrels and turning their bodies into ash. The ash is a potent sort of enhancer, and though it has no curative properties on its own, can flood someone with a sort of animalistic energy and restore stamina and strength, making for a useful addition to other medicines.
❖ Plea of Scales ❖
Mighty A spell to pull an enormous snake from out of wood. The snake is thicker as a man’s arm, and over twenty feet long. It is viciously quick, and its bite causes severe pain. As long as the snake exists, the magician will share its senses, and the creature can be controlled like an extra limb. If the snake is hurt, the magician feels its pain. This spell requires some form of wood to be present.
❖ Primal Geas ❖
Mighty A powerful enchantment to be placed on a wild animal. The animal that has been obligated under a geas is placed under the absolute control of the magician. The animal’s size does not matter, though this will not work on sentient species. Over time, the geas can be modified to enhance the animal’s strength, size, or stamina, or imbue it with certain minor but significant abilities. A magician may only hold once subject in a geas at any given time—one geas for one master.
C O N C O R D A N C E
Concordance is one of the few magical styles with a distinct and well-recorded history, invented early in the Age of the Queens by Julieta Sinqueleur, youngest of the legendary Nine Sisters. Julieta based the art of Concordance entirely on song and melody, and certain members of her procession learned to imitate the Queen’s enchanted voice. They say that over the course of her short life, Julieta wrote hundreds of tunes, each with a unique power.
The magic of Concordance is highly varied, but includes no cruel or unkind magic, as fitting for a person of Julieta’s nature. She saw laughter, happiness, and sad, subtle love as the greatest powers humankind would ever know, and her songs all reflect this.
Sample Spells:
❖ Ballad in the Mist ❖
Simple A low and long ballad whose lyrics can be indistinguishable from the wind. This song raises a spectral mist to cover the magician and their allies, while mysteriously leaving their vision intact. A more powerful variant (Advanced) exists that is more magically imbued, and can even shield the magician and their allies from magical detection as well, and dampen enemy spells.
❖ Masmala ❖
Simple A whispery and happy tune to be hummed under one’s breath. The song Masmala, based by Julieta on Majulin children’s lullabies, can carry hypnotizing effects capable of lulling enemies and wild animals into a sleepy stupor. This song was written while Julieta and Desdemona were still dear friends, when neither could imagine the bloodshed that would eventually erupt between them. There is a melancholy note to Masmala's upbeat melody, perhaps a development that arose after Julieta's death, something that lingers like an aging grandmother on happier, better times.
❖ Mending Melody ❖
Advanced A quiet and hopeful tune that can heal minor flesh injuries and restore stamina.
❖ Hymn for the Lost ❖
Advanced A gentle song of remembrance. As it is sung, the magician will glimpse flashes of the history of their current location, and the longer they sing, the further back they see and hear. Vision becomes blurry if you try to look back farther than a week.
❖ Shoshanna ❖
Mighty A whispered song audible only to the singer. It casts the singer into shadow, hiding their body and muffling their footsteps. Of course, the invisibility only lasts to the end of the song, so once about three minutes have passed, one will pass back into visibility, even if only for a moment, unless the magician is particularly fast about restarting the song.
❖ Symbelmine ❖
Mighty A high and powerful song of desire and sadness. Its power destroys rock and mortar and metal, and promises to the listener an end to all tyranny and injustice. Though few know how to pull magic from this powerful song, the lyrics of Symbelmine are well known in the east, as they chronicle Julieta leading the Undead from their prison in the Catechism to safety in the mysterious southeast.
O L D S O O T
The practices of Old Soot came about during the fourth Efernight, when the Mage-Kingdoms had long since dwindled and magical study had all but ceased. Unlike ancient and powerful disciplines such as the Lagrima, Old Soot was developed by village elders and common farmers, a series of practical and simple rituals steeped in folk culture. Its magic focuses on warding off darkness and preserving homes.
Sample Spells:
❖ Warm Bones ❖
Simple A traveler’s spell that fills one with warmth during the cold nights. This magic is also capable of lighting kindling with tiny fires.
❖ Sheepcatcher ❖
Simple A useful spell invented by farmers for tracking down lost livestock. When invoked, this magic can reveal to the magician the location of nearby living creatures, and give a rough estimation of what kind of creatures they are.
❖ Homespinning ❖
Advanced A spell for those seeking to protect their home. If inside a room, the doors and windows will be reinforced, and if broken, will burn the skin and smudge the eyes of intruders.
❖ Woodsman’s Torch ❖
Advanced A hardy spell for finding your way in the dark. You will immediately become aware of the four cardinal directions, and a faint light visible only to you will point in the direction of any location you visualize with your mind.
❖ Blessing of the Hearth ❖
Mighty A spell that invokes the homely comfort of a roaring fire to heal injuries and restore stamina. Blessing of the Hearth requires a blazing fire to already be present, and its healing abilities are proportional to the flames, but once placed on the fire the effect is long enduring, and can heal many people at once. It will even sustain the fire for longer than would be normal.
❖ Bane of the Nightprowlers ❖
Mighty With three short words of power, a magician conjures a ball of bright hot fire in the palm of their hand. Bigger than a human head and full of energy, this powerful spell can injure enemies and provide light in the dark.
S O L V I T A
Solvita was a magic popularized by Miranda Newcastle, who used it extensively throughout the Tempesta. It’s power still lingers in the land in the form of light drizzles and eternal twilight, and a heavy rainstorm surrounding Castle Miranda itself. This is a cool and mighty for of spellcasting that requires a certain peace of mind. Generally, Solvita comes in two forms—magic to summon weather, and magic to enchant existing weather.
Sample Spells:
❖ Shivering Fog ❖
Simple A spell to raise spectral mist to cover the magician and their allies. This mist is heavy and all-encompassing, thick enough to dampen even weak-level spells, though it affects all parties equally.
❖ Gaze of the Rain-Sprites ❖
Simple A blessing that allows the magician and up to two allies sea clearly through inclement weather and darkness. The heavier the inclement weather, the more powerful the vision-enhancement
❖ Scattering Showers ❖
Advanced A spell to call down a scattering rainstorm. If focused, a magician can concentrate the downpour into a single point, though this requires no small concentration.
❖ Gifts in the Rain ❖
Advanced A variant of the magic still lingering around Castle Miranda. This spell allows someone to wash away their injuries, minor sicknesses, and weariness, though it requires running water to be constantly flowing over the target. They say that whenever a life is saved via the Gift of Solvita, the ghost of Miranda sleeps a little better in her grave.
❖ Eyes in the Droplets ❖
Mighty A spell that scatters a magician’s senses across an entire rainstorm. Wherever the rain goes, the magician’s five senses linger in every raindrop, allowing them to cast their eyes over vast swathes of land.
❖ Heaven in Mourning ❖
Mighty A spell to call down a single lightning bolt from the heavens. They say that on the day Miranda found out about Julieta’s death, her grief called down a terrible thunderstorm that ravaged the Tempesta for a week, before hurtling across the continent and pounding down on East Majulin for over a year. There is an unhappy history to this magic, and using it usually implies a certain amount of disrespect (if used flippantly) or desperation (if necessary).
W I T C H I N G
This is the kind of magic that gives all other magic a bad name—though, in and of itself, Witching is not inherently bad. Witching involves magically enchanting contracts, and is tangentially related to the powerful magic that suffuses the dragons and the ways they interact with other species. It involves the sacrificing of body parts for knowledge or power, lasting bonds between two or more individuals, and/or ensuring sharp vengeance should a deal be broken. Though most people do not know its proper name, Witching magic is what one would associate with the forests of Brujeria, and the stereotypical ‘bad’ magician.
Sample Spells:
❖ Oblige ❖
Simple A spell that twists up the targets tongue as they speak, and compels them to tell the truth. If they are aware they are being enchanted, of course, a person can simply stop talking, so this spell has to be placed subtly and at just the right moment.
❖ Bartered Strength ❖
Simple A small animal is killed—as its life exits the world, something else is allowed to enter. This spell imbues a target with supernatural strength, speed, and full and healty stamina for a short period of time. Advanced variants of this spell can be used for healing—though they require larger animals for stronger effects.
❖ The Vow ❖
Advanced A spell that, when placed over a promise as its being made, gives the promiser a certain compellation to fulfill it, and strikes them with death should they refuse to fulfill it. Weaker versions of this spell can be made which bestow only weakness and sickness instead, which lift immediately if the promiser puts active effort into fulfilling their promise (though this requires their promise to be physically possible).
❖ Blood Combat ❖
Advanced If a stranger attacks you, Contracted Combat forces the fight to be played out to the end, with one person killing the other, and prevents anyone else from interfering.
❖ Tipping the Scales ❖
Advanced If a magician has successfully a brokered a deal for magical strength, this spell allows them to tip the bargain in their favor, and greatly augment the benefit they reaped. This works best when only one bargain of a single type is active at a time..
❖ Grisly Trophy ❖
Mighty A spell that involves someone, not necessarily the magician, sacrificing a body part as part of a magical deal. This spell allows the sacrificed body part to be preserved, and its powers borrowed. For example, an arm could be taken, and the magician could mark it so it suffers all damage that would be dealt to their own arms, or enchanted so the arm will bolster the magician’s own arms in strength and endurance, permanently. The magic fades if the original arm is directly burned. This morbid magic can be difficult to maintain for practical reasons, as it requires the body parts remain intact, and as such needs a good hiding place to place them.
❖ My Last Words ❖
Mighty A spell of kindness and mercy. The magician promises to protect someone, to love them and the things they had loved, and to fight for the things they had fought for. When this bargain is made, the opposite party is hidden away in pure light and shielded from all harm within the heart and soul of the magician, until they are ready to come out. This spell is almost never used, as it requires the magician to enter a state of absolute vulnerability and surrender to the person they have allowed into their heart.
RPG Standards: Unless there’s no appropriate way for your character to make a response, players should shoot for about one post per week. I’ve never been very strict on post length though, so don’t sweat it if you hit as low as even a paragraph and a half. If that’s all it takes to accurately and fairly interact with the others and react to the story, then great, nice job.
I’ll be holding you potatoes to quality writing standards on this, so you best be bringing that proper grammar and character development, or whatever kids these days are calling it.
Art: The art in the banner is by Erikas Perl, super talented painter, definitely worth checking out if you have the time.
King Masbeth, haha. Clever. Will be keeping a eye on this.
Haha, yeah, the backgrounds of the regions surrounding the cities of the Nine are each based on a Shakespeare play. Quishan is Macbeth, Milos is Twelfth Night, the High Tombs and the Brown Lands are Romeo and Juliet, eastern Majulin is Othello, the Fib is Antony and Cleopatra, Redemption is King Lear, the Late-Night Desert is A Midsummer's Night Dream, Oolasheene is Hamlet, and the Tempesta is (yep, you guessed it) the Tempest.
Most of the regions, plus their original queen and city, follow or have followed the stories of their respective play, though there're some exceptions/subversions, like King Masbeth in Quishan, who's reigned for 300 years unopposed, and the country of Redemption, where thing's have gotten a lot better in recent years, and a new queen has been installed in Castle Cordelia.
@Sir Dragon Of course! I'll tag you and everyone else interested when the main thread goes up.
I am no potato, you peanut. Such insolence will earn you the same fate as the three oracles ...in a stew! Also, literature class, which I was in not two hours ago - was talking about Macbeth. Coincidence? I think not.
Haha, yeah, the backgrounds of the regions surrounding the cities of the Nine are each based on a Shakespeare play. Quishan is Macbeth, Milos is Twelfth Night, the High Tombs and the Brown Lands are Romeo and Juliet, eastern Majulin is Othello, the Fib is Antony and Cleopatra, Redemption is King Lear, the Late-Night Desert is A Midsummer's Night Dream, Oolasheene is Hamlet, and the Tempesta is (yep, you guessed it) the Tempest.
Most of the regions, plus their original queen and city, follow or have followed the stories of their respective play, though there're some exceptions/subversions, like King Masbeth in Quishan, who's reigned for 300 years unopposed, and the country of Redemption, where thing's have gotten a lot better in recent years, and a new queen has been installed in Castle Cordelia.
The sheer level of effort into those artworks (that was made for this roleplay?)and that intro, is this really an impromptu roleplay? Because it seems that this would take some time to plan ...that, or this is just one of those rare things like finding a gem in a garden!!!!!!!
Are there still any openings available? This seems really well thought-out and interesting. I love how the magic schools are all connected by a concrete theme beyond 'this is the illusion magic', 'this is the healing magic', and so on.
Just from reading that first post, my initial idea for a character (just brainstorming) would be a courier of some sort. Maybe a human, maybe a goblin, definitely with some tangential knowledge of Old Soot (a valuable tool for anyone walking the long roads). He/she wouldn't have been a courier for long, if only because most couriers don't do the work for more than a few years before quitting in terror and hiding from the darkness in the bottom of the deepest bottle they can find, retiring into a life of lazy, well-earned comfort, or vanishing somewhere in the wooded darkness between point A and point B.
As I said, that's just the first idea that came to mind. If it wouldn't fit in the setting, I'll think of something else.
You can consider me interested, so let me know when it goes up, but I can't guarantee I'll be signing up... I'm starting an rp of my own, sort of a revival of a recent one I was in that died, but with a new story to it. But I'll be keeping a close eye on this.
The sheer level of effort into those artworks (that was made for this roleplay?)and that intro, is this really an impromptu roleplay? Because it seems that this would take some time to plan ...that, or this is just one of those rare things like finding a gem in a garden!!!!!!!
The banner was a piece of art from an artist I follow, I think just a normal landscape painting, I just slapped the End + Sleep title on top of it. The map was my drawing though, yea. This is actually a revival of an RPG I did about four years ago, but I've done a huge revamp of tone and setting, and the map is a redraw of this old thin drew back then in pencil 'n paper. But glad you dig it, thanks!
Are there still any openings available? This seems really well thought-out and interesting. I love how the magic schools are all connected by a concrete theme beyond 'this is the illusion magic', 'this is the healing magic', and so on.
Just from reading that first post, my initial idea for a character (just brainstorming) would be a courier of some sort. Maybe a human, maybe a goblin, definitely with some tangential knowledge of Old Soot (a valuable tool for anyone walking the long roads). He/she wouldn't have been a courier for long, if only because most couriers don't do the work for more than a few years before quitting in terror and hiding from the darkness in the bottom of the deepest bottle they can find, retiring into a life of lazy, well-earned comfort, or vanishing somewhere in the wooded darkness between point A and point B.
As I said, that's just the first idea that came to mind. If it wouldn't fit in the setting, I'll think of something else.
Yeah, plenty of spots still open. I might actually just let players make up their own spells for the magic styles actually, and post maybe four sample spells there, two low levels, one mid level, then a high level one.
That's a good idea actually, like someone who still uses the great southern road, and helps ferry messages from town to town to city to city. I like it.
You can consider me interested, so let me know when it goes up, but I can't guarantee I'll be signing up... I'm starting an rp of my own, sort of a revival of a recent one I was in that died, but with a new story to it. But I'll be keeping a close eye on this.
Sure thing. Good luck with your revival, hope it goes well.
I'm interested. I like the idea of regressed technology very much.
Also: Spider people? Yes and yes.
The sheer level of effort into those artworks (that was made for this roleplay?)and that intro, is this really an impromptu roleplay? Because it seems that this would take some time to plan ...that, or this is just one of those rare things like finding a gem in a garden!!!!!!!
I agree. I've been perusing RPs and IntChecks for months and this is the first time I've seen anything worth looking into.
Bit of a French flourish in that name, Invernier. Is it Inverny-er, or Invern-yay?
I'm interested. I like the idea of regressed technology very much.
Also: Spider people? Yes and yes.
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I agree. I've been perusing RPs and IntChecks for months and this is the first time I've seen anything worth looking into.
Bit of a French flourish in that name, Invernier. Is it Inverny-er, or Invern-yay?
Thanks! Yeah, medieval settings with technological holdovers dotting around here and there is so fun to write and read. Though, to be honest, the name is more of a total bullshit flourish than anything. It was holdover from when the entire continent was gonna be based on Macbeth; Macbeth's castle was Inverness, and I thought, hmm, Inverness, that's a pretty cool name. And then because I'd been listening to the Nier: Automata soundtrack nonstop while working on this, I thought, hey, why not, let's call this thing Inver + nier. Just mash up those names. Glue it together with a hot glue gun. Nuance is for chumps.
