Inspired by Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, a game that was cancelled. This game will not be following the exact story line. I am only using the life-after death concept. I had to also add Dark Souls here simply because after staring at the completed product, I was like, "Hm...this does seem a little Dark Souls-y but it's not." So yay Dark Souls!
You died as all living beings are meant to. Whatever story you had to your name is gone. Whatever treasures, belongings, titles, or family you had are gone. You are nothing now, and all of your beliefs—everything you thought you knew—everything you thought to be truth will be disproven. Your soul has arrived in a realm that is neither heaven nor hell. The Afterlife you realize is a dog-eat-dog world. Where only the kings; queens; gods; emperors; whatever you want to call them, they are the most powerful beings in the Afterlife. Each ruler owns a territory where he, she, or it subjugates souls. The souls feed them. The souls worship them. The souls are their slaves—as are you. Did you think that by being good and doing the right thing your entire life that you wouldn’t end up here? Hah!
In the Afterlife, the sun never shines. Instead, it is a big, black ball in the forever white and black sky. In this world there are monsters sentient and primitive, beasts who either coexist or live to destroy one another. These creatures did not exist where you’re from. They might have actually been stories or you might have seen something similar in a movie once. Maybe H.P. Lovecraft was telling the truth all this time but everyone had thought he was too insane?
The Afterlife feels like a whole new planet. There are vast and odd lands with odd creatures and peoples. Predominantly, the Afterlife is full of slaves and those slaves who have been appointed to higher positions in service of their lord or god. You…you won’t know what that’s like. You are a worm. You will only know pain and endless labor. You won’t even see the face of the one who put you where you are. You are a cog in the machine. A brick in a wall belonging to an indomitable fortress. There is no hope for you…or is there?
You made it this far? Good. I was just testing to see if you were actually reading what I wrote. Now, onto the good stuff.
Souls bear no distinct curves or shapes that once would define a being as either male or female. As a Soul in the Afterlife, you are pure white with a gentle glow. You stand on two legs and possess two arms, a neck, and a round circular head, but you have no other defining features. You have two dots for eyes, but possess no mouth but can speak. Everyone who joins this game starts out in this form and most of the beings in the Afterlife are in this form. This form is called the “Spirit” form.
Now there is a fancy feature in the Afterlife. I suppose you’re wondering how the gods became gods? Well, it could be because they have been here forever. Simple answer, right? Actually, they were all Spirits once. As mentioned before, Afterlife is a dog-eat-dog world. A Spirit can become something greater than themselves. A Spirit can become a god just like them, but it is a lengthy process. How, you ask? By consuming Souls. It is the only way. Good or evil does not exist. Murder is not wrong, but it can be. It can be wrong if the gods deem it to be wrong. Spirits, throughout the Afterlife, are prohibited from consuming other Spirits and will be captured and destroyed if found out. In the Afterlife, once you die, there is no other place you can go. You simply no longer exist. That fear alone is what keeps the order in the world, and it’s also why the gods have never had an usurper.
An usurper cannot make the journey to the top alone. Many Spirits like you dream of making it to the top and using the great power you have acquired to escape the Afterlife. Greed, however, is why no gods have ever chosen to do such a thing. In the Afterlife, they control everyone and everything. They don’t have to worry about dying again. They fear what would happen if they ascended into Reality. Are you afraid?
Everyone will be a Spirit who has been enslaved and forced to perform manual labor under a harsh whip. The labor won’t always suit a purpose. A Spirit may find themselves moving thorn stones for the sake of moving thorn stones. The true purpose of the subjugation is to keep the Spirits broken mentally and physically. You endure this ridiculous hardship as an Overseer, a creature resembling what you would have called a demon or monster, wounds you with a whip. Your Spirit is at its wit's end. Is this what it was must endure for the rest of its unlife? The Overseer, while sadistically savoring the punishment, has an accident. When attempting to devour one of the unruly Spirits, the Spirit becomes lodged in its throat. The Overseer chokes and struggles, and the other Spirits see an opportunity for vengeance. The Spirits overwhelm the Overseer, and as the beast perishes, he releases from his body…Souls. The Spirits eat them, and by doing so, they ascend becoming something greater [I will go into more detail in the Character Sheet section].
Now the ascended Spirits will form a resistance. They will travel together throughout the Afterlife, conquering the gods’ officers and freeing the Spirits from subjugation. The further the Spirits go in their journey, the stronger they become until they too will become gods and on that day, they will be strong enough to conquer the realm and decide whether to traverse into Reality or remain where they are as the new gods.
I plan for their journey to be long and fantastical with horrors and other oddities. This will be a HUGE power-gaming game. So if you don’t like cataclysmic battles that defy all logic, reasoning, and science, then this may not be the game for you because there will be some epic shit once the characters reach that level.
I am going to surprise all of you. Do not fill out this CS. This CS will only be filled out during the game as your character acquires Souls. I am posting the CS, but I will give an explanation beneath it.
Your character will not acquire a name, defining features, gender, etc. until the Spirit consumes their first soul. The first soul will happen automatically as explained in the Plot section, and when that time comes you will be allowed to design your character however you want. They can be male, female, or it. They can be human, humanoid, beast, demonic, angelic, monster-like, fae-like, dragon-like, whatever. With your first acquired Soul, you must choose between them acquiring a Weapon OR a Power/Ability. Only one or the other. Not both. The more Souls your character gains, then the more opportunities he/she/it will have. You will also be able to enhance your character’s features with each Soul, making them appear stronger.
In order to control replication, I will be monitoring powers, weapons, and abilities. I may even regulate that once a character claims a power that another character cannot claim that power in order to preserve character originality and usefulness when it comes to group combat. When you eventually create a character, it does help to use somewhat of a theme, but I really won't be strict on themes.
The Rank section will be like character Level as in a typical game. As I said, I'll go into it more as it becomes relevant in the IC. Basically, Soul Count is XP and the Rank is Level. I want players to later down the line be able to look at their character's CS and take pleasure in seeing how many souls they've collected throughout the game, thus far.
I will only accept digital art. I want to see you guys choose some creative artwork to represent your characters’ face claims.
I will only be accepting up to 8 players as well as 8 characters total. Thus, you can only make 1 character. I will be accepting up to 4 alternates in the case any of those 8 players go AWOL as what usually happens with writers on this site. I will deem a player AWOL if they disappear for 30 days without any notice. So, if you are interested and actually dedicated. Please say you are "interested and dedicated" in this interest check. This interest check OP will basically be the OOC. I will tweak the OOC throughout the game as certain features become relevant.
@Scarescrow
@Tenma Tendo
@Zamokra41
@Duoya
@Athoriel
@Tominas
Q&A
I am always open to Questions. I will put "good" questions here with their answers.
1. No drama. Those who have been in my RPs know that I don't play the "whining" game. I treat all players like adults, and therefore, if you come here not acting like a grown human being, I won't put up with your crap. I will just ask you to leave. This is a no drama zone.
2. No is No. If I ask you to change, tweak, or get rid of something, then it is usually for the sake of the game. While every character here can reach a power-gaming level, this does not mean I will allow you to have certain powers that just destroy all life, balance, reality, etc. That would be ridiculous, and therefore, this is also a no bullshit zone.
3. Mary Sues/Gary Stus. Yes, even in a game that raises future god-types, I will not be allowing Mary Sues or Gary Stus. In this game, what I will deem as a Mary Sue or Gary Stu would be those horrible people who like to make: "I wanna be a dragon-unicorn-neko-angel-demon-attack helicopter-sand dragon-dune lord." While I don't care if people mix and match their characters features. Such as a character may be draconic but has angel wings. Or a beast man may look like a bear but have a lion's mane. While I do not mind these customizations, I just will not have what I stated in the quotes. If I see it, I will warn you about it, and if you make a habit of it, I'll just ask you to leave.
4. Writing Quality. I am very big on quality over quantity, but quality often goes hand-in-hand with quantity. Quality posts are often full of quantity. If you write like you belong in the Free RP zone, then do not join this game. I guarantee you most of the people in this game write on a casual to advanced level. So yes, if you write like this is a Free RP, I will not accept you. The reason why is because if you are role playing with someone who gives you like 5 paragraphs to 3 pages of writing and you respond to that person with 3 sentences or even 1 para. It's an insult. You just wasted that person's time and gave them nothing to feed off of and work with. It is a muse kill. Not allowed here. Sorry, but there's a reason why this RP is here and not in the Free zone.
5. Images. If you guys ever use images, please shrink them down or put a hider around it if it is ridiculously huge. Posting up some 800x600 image above your post is not cool. Don't do it.
6. Color Discipline. If you are one of those people who like to color your posts or your character's speech, then avoid "NEON" colors and "DARK" colors. No one wants to see neon colors blinding them. No one wants to see colors that bleed into the gray background of the site. Try to use an in-between and if you run out of colors, there's this site you can Google called "HTML Color Codes" and you can nab some six digit color code there. Again, no neon and dark colors.
7. Be Creative. You are literally building an entire character in this game--through the game. Bring some creativity. Be willing to interact with others, and when we get into the open world, use your imagination to its fullest. You are going to see creatures unlike what we see currently on earth in the Afterlife. You can make them up and even give them a name, and we'll make a Bestiary. I want you guys to just go crazy with your creative energy here. So please have fun, and if you aren't having fun, don't drag everyone down with you.
