Long ago, the worlds were once together as one in what is now known as the Age of Fairy Tales. In this period, Wielders of the Keyblade used their titular weapons to safeguard the Light that protected the world. Five wielders known as the Foretellers, each one a student of the first Keyblade Master known only as the Master of Masters, started their own organizations called Unions in accordance with the Master's wishes. In time the Unions grew, and as they did so did tension between the five Foretellers. Before he mysteriously vanished, the Master of Masters mysteriously warned of a looming disaster, and a traitor among the Foretellers. This created dissent and distrust until eventually, the five unions clashed in what was later called the Keyblade War. The conflict was so destructive, so disastrous that the World was shattered and its remains scattered across the Lanes Between until they each formed new worlds. The old Keyblade Order was gone, but a new one began to blossom in its place. Situated in the Land of Departure, it is here that young Keyblade Wielders are taught the precepts and trained to strike down any who would upset the delicate balance of Light and Darkness. It is also here, at the world's center, that a powerful relic of the Age of Fairy Tales is buried. A Keyblade, known only as the X-Blade. It is said that this weapon was what the Unions originally fought over. The blade itself is broken, much like the original world, shattered into twenty pieces: 7 of Light and 13 of Darkness. It is in the Land of Departure that two Keyblade Masters each train their pupils in the way of the Keyblade. But when the pieces of the X-Blade mysteriously vanish, the two Masters are unable to agree on how best to diffuse the situation. One of the Masters departs alongside his pupils and they decide to brave the dangers of the Darkness to recover the X-Blade. Meanwhile, the remaining Master tasks his pupils with tracking down the missing Master and pupils and to do everything in their power to prevent another Keyblade War from erupting.
"I ask a lot of you, my pupils. I know that. The precepts strictly forbids it. But the missing pieces are too important to leave alone. Whatever consequences are begotten by my actions, I am prepared to face them. But if any of you are not, then you are free to remain here and continue your training under Master Cormack's wise tutelage. And I will not hold that choice against you. But if you are willing, then come with me, and we will brave the coming storm together. May our Hearts be our guiding key." ~Master Viper
"I know that this news is a shock to you but my words are indeed true. Master Viper has left us, and her pupils with her. They no doubt wish recover the missing pieces of the relic. But what cost are they willing to pay? Would they allow the Darkness to take them? It is not a price I am willing to pay, not even for the X-Blade. I'm afraid I must task you with seeking out those who left and to bring them back before it is too late. It is a dangerous task, you will have to brave many dangers when traveling the worlds, but I am confident that you will succeed. Remember the precepts, and may your Hearts be your guiding key." ~Master Cormack
Lore
The Order is actually split it into two eras. The Old Keyblade Order existed during the Age of Fairy Tales. It was this Order that was created and mentored by the Master of Masters and later divided into the Five Unions. It's purpose was to defeat dark creatures and to collect Lux. However, the Old Keyblade Order was dissolved by the Keyblade War. After the war, a New Keyblade Order emerged, comprised of those who survived the Keyblade War, a secret organization called The Dandelions. The New Order is based out of The Land of Departure. For the most part, the New Order follows the same precepts taught within the Old Order, the very teachings of the Master of Masters himself. However, collecting Lux has largely been unnecessary and thus Keyblade Wielders are not tasked with collecting it as they were in the past. In fact, it's believed by many that the hording of Lux is what led to the Keyblade War, and so there are some within the New Order who feel that the collection of Lux should be outright forbidden.
It is often a common misconception that the Keyblade Order exists solely to fight the Darkness. That, however, couldn't be farther from the truth. Using the Keyblade to strike down the machinations of Darkness is only one of the many duties expected of a Keyblade Master. They must also master the dangerous skill of using the Lanes Between to travel the worlds. In so doing, they are also expected to be able to maintain the delicate balance of Light and Darkness in any world they find themselves. And lastly, since Order must be kept, the existence of other worlds and even the Keyblade must be kept strictly secret from local inhabitants of other worlds. As such, a Keyblade Master is expected to be able to carry out their duties with discretion and secrecy if needed.
Key-shaped swords forged in the image of the original X-Blade. Keyblades are believed to come in three varieties; Light, Darkness, and Hearts. The most common Keyblades are those of Light, while Keyblades of Darkness and Hearts are almost unheard of. It is said that they can only be found deep in the Realm of Darkness, where none have ventured and returned to tell the tale.
While they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, Keyblades all share some specific traits. They are all shaped like a Key in some form, hence their name. They all possess handguards that form a complete square or circle around the hilt. This can sometimes make it tricky for a newcomer to hold them properly, especially one who is more accustomed to normal swords that possess no such handguard. Finally, every Keyblade possesses a symbolic trinket that hangs from a small chain attached to the bottom of the weapon's hilt. Becoming a Keyblade Wielder can be done in two possible ways: having a strong enough Heart that one chooses you, or a Keyblade Master performing the bequeathing and inheriting their Keyblades later in life. A Keyblade's shape and the aspects of their power is also said to vary depending on the Heart of their wielder.
An old tradition of the Keyblade Order is for Masters to select the next generation of Keyblade Wielders by seeking out those who possess great potential and performing what is known as The Bequeathing. It involves having the selected individual take hold of the Master's Keyblade, and the Master himself reciting an old passage that goes as follows: "In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love."
But as stated earlier, Bequeathing is not the only way one can become one of the Keyblade's Chosen. Sometimes, simply having a strong enough Heart can be enough to call a blade to one's hand. The exact nature of this and what triggers it is still largely unknown, it even being believed to vary depending on the person's own Heart. Strangely enough, even those who inherit a Keyblade via Bequeathing often summon a Keyblade that looks and behaves differently than the Master who chose them. This is because it is commonly believed that a Keyblade's shape and indeed its very aspect and power is an almost direct reflection of its Wielder's Heart. Some might even say that Keyblades at their core are the power of the Heart made manifest.
A mysterious realm that exists between the worlds. The Lanes Between is made of almost pure Darkness. Travelling through it unprotected is tantamount to suicide. Thankfully, the Lanes Between are said to be completely inaccessible without using a Keyblade to open the way. Gummi Ships are a technology that has yet to be discovered or invented. Ergo, Keyblade Wielders are theoretically the only people capable of travelling between worlds.
Keyblade Wielders are generally forbidden from revealing the existence of other worlds to local inhabitants of worlds they visit. In fact, even mentioning the Keyblade's very name is restricted as well. In the canon universe, the games barely even tried to follow this rule they themselves established early on. This universe, on the other hand, will be much stricter in following that rule. Any disobedience of the Prime Directive can and will bring about consequences. You've been warned.
Moogles are a curious creature, resembling a cross between cat and teddy bear with stubby arms and odd little pom-poms attached to their heads. Generally benign and friendly to everyone, Moogles are generally not warriors in any capacity. Instead, most of them seem to favor being businessmen. Many run shops selling potions, weapons, or other accessories that wandering warriors - and even Keyblade Wielders - may find useful in their travels. However, the most famous trait of Moogles is not their mercantile skills, but rather their craftsmanship. Some Moogles are practitioners of the mysterious art of Synthesis. It involves using ingredient items of varying aspects and qualities to forge powerful items not sold in any shop. It is unknown how the Moogles perform Synthesis, as it is a trade secret that none have shared with anyone outside their race. Finally, Moogles appear to defy the laws of the Lanes Between by having their own method of traveling between worlds. Traveling Moogle merchants or Synthesis Practitioners can be found running their businesses in many worlds. How the Moogles are able to travel between worlds without Keyblades or even without using the Lane Between remain a mystery to this day.
Those without hearts, these creatures a formed from the Darkness that is latent within every Heart. They prey upon those whose Hearts have yet to be consumed and through this they multiply. What differs them from canon Heartless is that only the Pureblood Heartless exist. Emblem Heartless were created by Ansem/Xehanort, and thus do not exist in this continuity. While the Heartless are known to the Keyblade Order, there is still much about them that remain a mystery. After all, there are no Ansem Reports detailing their characteristics and functionalities.
When a particularly strong Heart is lost to the Darkness and becomes a Heartless, it's empty shell can sometimes gain a will of its own. These entities, called Nobodies, are beings that possess no Heart and thus no capacity for emotions or empathy. Stronger Nobodies can often retain the memories and personality traits of their former selves, but this doesn't make them any less of a Nobody than even the most common of Dusks. What differs the Nobodies in this continuity is the fact that they really do possess no Heart. Unlike the canon Nobodies, the ones here do not regrow their Hearts. They are also largely unheard of for the time being, their very existence has yet to be fully discovered by the Order.
Creatures that have been described as being born of negativity, fledgling emotions that have taken monster form. The Unversed look and act very much like Heartless. In fact, the Keyblade Order still assumes that Heartless and Unversed are one and the same. The Unversed in this universe are not products of Vanitas, as there is no Ventus for Vanitas to have even been created form. Their origin is in fact unknown, with both Masters Cormack and Viper still mistakenly believing them to be just another breed of Heartless.
In the Age of Fairy Tales, these cat-like spirits were the companions and helpers of fledgling Keyblade Wielders. Even the five Foretellers had their own Chirithy partners. Normally benign and harmless, a Chirithy can become more dangerous when its partner opens their Heart to Darkness. When the world was plunged into the Keyblade War, the Chirithy were said to have vanished forever. It is unknown what ultimately happened to them. The Keyblade Order has yet to discover Sleeping Worlds, and thus have not discovered the Dream Eaters or Nightmares.
Rules
1. No god-moding, power-gaming, meta-gaming, flaming, harassment, etc 2. GM's word is law, as is the word of any appointed Co-GM. 3. Canon characters will be entirely GM-controlled, so they are not allowed for players. 4. Canon story events will be either re-imagined or ignored. However, certain mechanics from those games will still be implemented. 5. We'll be using a progression system that will be described below for ability growth, please refrain from straying away from it. 6. Like with certain mechanics, certain worlds will still make appearances. 7. We will not be following the movie-plots of any world, they will instead mostly serve as the backdrop for the overarching narrative. 8. We'll be keeping a PG-13 rating. Try not to go above that. 9. This a game, so have some fun with it.
Character Progression System
We'll be using a freeform-version of the Command Deck from Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance. With that in mind, use the various Commands from both of those games as a reference for how Spells and Attacks will work. Just like in those games, Attacks or Spells are first typed as either Physical or Magical, then typed as either one of the elements (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, etc) or as Non-Elemental. From there, they are classed either as Basic, Advanced, or Ultimate level. The only part of the Command Deck system we'll be ignoring is the Deck size cap, as it will mostly serve as a reference list for any and all Spells and Attacks your character knows how to use. Below are some example Commands:
Quick Blitz - Physical/Non-Elemental - Basic
Thunder - Magical/Thunder - Basic
Fire Strike - Physical/Fire - Basic
Sonic Blade - Physical/Non-Elemental - Advanced
Blizzaga - Magical/Blizzard - Advanced
Spark Raid - Physical/Thunder - Advanced
Ars Arcanum - Physical/Non-Elemental - Ultimate
Mega Flare - Magical/Fire - Ultimate
Time Splicer - Physical/Stop - Ultimate
Every character is allowed to start with Guard, Dodge Roll, plus 3 Basic Commands. Whether those commands are Physical or Magical or a mix of both is up to you. As we reach certain points of progression I will let players know that they've earned a new Command to add to their deck. Minor points of progress will earn Basic commands while major points of progress (the defeat of a Boss for example) will earn the party Advanced Commands. Ultimate Commands, being the most powerful spells or attacks of their kind, will generally be earned less often to balance them out.
That just leaves me with Shotlocks and Command Styles. Shotlocks are a very powerful type of Command that targets many enemies at once, while Command Styles are a powerful shift in fighting style to incorporate elemental attacks or other such gimmicks into one's regular fighting style. These are very powerful, stronger than even Ultimate Commands and as such will be the most difficult to obtain. Acquiring these very powerful abilities often requires the completion of a story arc or taking a major step in a character's personal journey. These are to be learned in game. You are not allowed to have them from the start.
Thinking of making a seeker. Anyway was wondering if my dude could also use some other weapon, also what's your opinion on a non-skelton key design for a keyblade?
Here's a WIP I will work on him more later! Once I'm done with irl stuff!
"As long as a single glimmer of light exists, hope will never die!"
Name: Raine
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Appearance: Raine is a fair skinned young man with dark blue hair and equally dark blue eyes. He wears a dark blue one sleeved shirt the sleeved side has a pauldron used for protection and combat and dark blue pant which are tucked into long boots that go up to his thighs. He has a large scar on his upper bicep on his left arm which is covered by the sleeve and pauldron, but besides that no scars and very few bruises even after training. When out causally he tends to wear shorts instead of pants.
Keyblade:
Personality:
Raine is a strong willed and driven young man who is determined to prevent any harm to all innocents especially of children and friends. Due to his childhood he dislikes any form of death, even “Noble” or “Necessary” ones. His main motivation his is lost loved ones and his lost childhood. He sees the world in multitudes of grays, never believing that a person is born evil, he believes that most action made by a person is by choice so when he meets a willingly evil people, he feels especially just to fight them and show them that justice always win. Raine is selfless and loving to a fault, he’s very supportive of his friends and Allies. But outside of his driven and compassionate personality he is very friendly and sociable, and strangely enough although he has a strong personality and body he is surprisingly easy to hurt, getting depressed when others are sad or when they say something hurtful towards him as he takes everything to heart. He is very emotionally intelligent, able to understand emotions and reasons behind actions better than most due to both high empathy and his heightened sense helping him pick up people’s emotional cues. He also has a more savage side to him when in battle, he fights using anything at his disposal and even fight dirty to win. He has been known to win most of his battles since many people don't expect him to fight the way he does, this is because he knows bad people don’t have the same restraint that good people do so he reacts in kind and takes out bad people quickly and violently, but after a battle he is often shook and needs time to calm down.
Backstory:
Raine was born to average parents. From a young age they taught him to value lives; all life. But that would be muddled as he gets older. Raine's parent's were loving but weak willed; strong of hearts but weak of spirit. Raine was taught by them to be stronger than them. Raine admits he should've seen the warning signs, they knew more about the impending darkness than what was normal for people. Raine was gifted by his parents the power of spirit and heart, a gift they lacked to survive the impending darkness. Raine would one day watch his parents die by darkness, or as he would learn are called the heartless, he couldn't do anything until it was too late. Raine summoned his keyblade after their hearts were already blackened and were turned themselves into heartless and gotten a scar upon his body in return for his hesitance. Raine's heart was too strong to fall to the darkness like his parent's, he fought back and hoped for a better tomorrow as he was swallowed in the darkness as his's world's heart was consume.
Raine awoke in a strange land, one he would later learn is the land of departure. He wandered the world for a time, before being discovered by the duo of keyblade masters. Viper and Cormack, and when they learned he could use a keyblade they trained him, Viper was his master. Raine admits he was hesitant to fight; he hated violence and conflict; even as hurt and angry as he was. But he still trained his swordsmanship for seven long years with his follow pupils but he was never as skilled as his follow pupils in the field; Instead Raine focused his abilities on defensive and healing magics. Since those came more naturally to him.
When the choice was given to look for the X~Blade by Master Viper, Raine was hesitant about going so close to the darkness since he still has bad memories of nearly being consume by it, thus he choose to stay at Master Cormack's side instead of leaving with his actual master. Hoping the other Pupils would come home safely. But that wasn't an option as Master Cormack reaction to Raine telling him what has transpired was by making them go on a mission. To be the Chasers of the Seekers and bring them home. Raine filled with regret for his choice and not doing more to stop them was entirely ready to bring them back, the seekers of the X~blade.
No one is allowed to start with Shotlocks or Command Styles. I realize I didn't specify that in the OP and I apologize for that. I will rectify it now.
Appearance: Abel is a young male of Caucasian ethnicity with dark green eyes, and muddy blonde hair. He wears a long black jacket with a white shirt underneath it on the usual with a pair of grey shorts. He no discernible scars but more than a few bruises over his body he gained from his relentless training. When not in a formal setting he tends to wear a black cap on his head.
Keyblade: Personality: Rash, blunt, rude, and ambitious Abel is a young man who's tendency to act overcomes his thoughts more often than not. He prefers to let his actions speak for themselves, and despises having to hold his emotions back. He believes life is worth living to its fullest, and to do anything less than your best is a disservice to yourself. He doesn't view friends as allies, more along the lines of temporary companions. While he doesn't hate people on instinct he doesn't truly have it in him to accept people at face value until they prove it to him otherwise, and is often distrustful of strangers. He respects power, and strength and the ability to use it wisely. He doesn't crave power though he merely respects those who have a lot of it. He's objectively a man with the passion, and drive to push himself to his limits unwilling to relent to an opponent so long as he has breath in his body making him a formidable enemy. He doesn't work well in teams because of this but he will listen to orders he doesn't view to be objectively stupid, or a hindrance. While all of the above is certainly true he doesn't look down on weak people for being weak he will help a person out if they're in dire need but he won't go too far for them if he thinks it will result in them being stronger for it. He believes that if you're truly to become stronger you need to overcome that darkness in your heart, or the challenge in front of you by yourself in the end. While having a stalwart ally would help in many cases one may come to over rely on someone and then find themselves unable to cope otherwise. However if it would come down to someone dying, or not he would throw himself into the middle of it if he thinks it is for the best. However it is worth noting that his anger can be explosive, and dangerous enabling him to fight even harder than he was before he was angry.
Backstory: Raised, and born by rough, and tough parents in the middle of some no name village young Abel never was meant for a life of heroics, and champions. He grew up in a tough environment initially being around his parents for as long as he was, it is surprising he lived as long as he has so far. After his parents practically abandoned him by the wayside one day he was raised by a traveling mercenary who took him in out of the kindness of his war-worn heart. Traveling, here, and there he wasn't one for doing much of anything but training, and learning how to read in order to get the basics for a proper life. That was until his guardian had allowed him to be taken in by the new keyblade order after finding out he was able to summon a keyblade during one fateful day of training. There is very little to discuss regarding Abel's life due to his frankly uncaring attitude about his younger years, and his would-be father figure practically pawning him off to some order of heroes. But he was determined to make a life he was proud of. He trained as hard as any student could fighting, sparring, learning, and practicing as much as he could in order to learn what he could. He was no genius, or prodigy but he had an insatiable appetite to better himself.
His teachers noted that he was not one to underestimate, and while he was unruly, and dangerous at times his talents, and his good nature underneath all of his tough act meant that he was worthy of his keyblade. He kept training, and honing his skills hoping that perhaps one day he would be more than he was. He wanted something that for once in his life he could grasp onto and hold dear to him. He hated the concept of being a literal nobody, and or just fading away into the background. While he was not willing to play dirty to get there he was willing to sacrifice a lot in order to do so. His training, and unfaltering will has made him into a savage, and strong willed warrior willing to put his life on the line for the good of the worlds he will need to help one day. While not charismatic, and not one to share his weak points he intends to live up to the blade that had chosen him.
~Command Deck~
Physical: Guard, Roll, sliding dash, Zero Gravity Magical: Cure
@Katakon You may need to tweak the backstory a bit. Viper and her pupils would have left in secret. Raine would also have needed to be one of Viper's students to have been given the option to go. Cormack and his students wouldn't have learned of this until a day later. I'd like you to be more specific about the parent's death. Frankly, dying of "darkness" makes no sense whatsoever. If they were consumed then they would have turned into Heartless. Darkness isn't some disease you can contract. You either open your Heart to it and possibly turn into a Heartless... or you don't and are able to resist it. I also need to know where this Darkness came from. Darkness has no sway in the Land of Departure due to the Keyblade Order. If he's from another world that became lost and he awoke in the Land of Departure, then fair enough. I just need the clarification.
@vancexentan I'm not seeing any glaring issues, so he looks good to go. I just need you to clarify for me which Master he trained under. Viper or Cormack? I'm assuming Viper based on everything else, but confirm it for me anyway just to be safe.
@Katakon You may need to tweak the backstory a bit. Viper and her pupils would have left in secret. Raine would also have needed to be one of Viper's students to have been given the option to go. Cormack and his students wouldn't have learned of this until a day later. I'd like you to be more specific about the parent's death. Frankly, dying of "darkness" makes no sense whatsoever. If they were consumed then they would have turned into Heartless. Darkness isn't some disease you can contract. You either open your Heart to it and possibly turn into a Heartless... or you don't and are able to resist it. I also need to know where this Darkness came from. Darkness has no sway in the Land of Departure due to the Keyblade Order. If he's from another world that became lost and he awoke in the Land of Departure, then fair enough. I just need the clarification.
@vancexentan I'm not seeing any glaring issues, so he looks good to go. I just need you to clarify for me which Master he trained under. Viper or Cormack? I'm assuming Viper based on everything else, but confirm it for me anyway just to be safe.
Okay, I tweaked Raine's backstory! Hopefully it's good now!
@vancexentan You won't find any of them on a wiki. They are entirely original. Viper's pupils (Seekers) are the ones who left first and are looking for the X-Blade pieces. Cormack's pupils (Chasers) are the ones who left later in order to find the former and bring them back. I needed to know which of the two teams you were planning to play on.
@DoubleAlright I figure Viper would probably be the smarter choice for Abel after reading through it again. He may see Cormack's way of thinking but only if immediate action would've been 'stupid'.
@vancexentan His training would have been under one or the other. It's not really a matter who he agrees with more, not completely anyway. If he had trained with Viper then she would told him the plan and gave him the choice to go or stay. If he was trained by Cormack then he wouldn't even learn of Viper's plan until after they already left and be following Cormack's instructions to track them down.
@Jerkchicken You ninja'd me up there and I only just now realized that fact. Apologies. Counter moves are... fine I guess. Assuming you're talking about Counter Hammer, Payback Raid, and Payback Surge. The other blocking moves (Stun, Renewal, etc) would be considered to too advanced to start out with.
