Celestial Bonds
Introduction
It is the year 1327, 32nd year of the reign of Vanel Adondum Galias VII, 16th Emperor of Grenheim.
Grenheim, a grand empire stretching across over a third of the continent of Salfare, teeters on the edge of war. To the northeast lie the Barbaric Skauls, who assault Grenheim's shores with abandon, and terrorize any trading vessels in the Adelanian sea; to the East, the kingdom of Lyngald attempts to encite its allies into war against Grenheim, to reclaim land that has belonged to the Empire for over a hundred years; and to the southwest, the Halidar republic is slowly becoming more expansionist, taking over the smaller nations that lie between it and Grenheim's southern border. There is no edge of the Empire free from threat.
This constant tension has seemed to stoke the fires of innovation, leading Grenheim into a sudden industrial revolution. The people have yearned to move beyond the bounds of magic, which is cumbersome and takes dedicating most of your life to learning just the basics. The invention of the gun, mass production, and various gadgets and tools have made life very different from what it had been only a decade ago. In addition, many parts of Grenheim have seen several social reforms, broadened citizenship, and a growing middle class, upsetting the previous status quo of nobles and the peasants beneath them.
In this age of social and technological evolution, though; the most significant discovery may be one of a magical nature. Two years ago, mages working under the emperor, studying the Adondum, the holy text of the Empire's official religion, discovered a ritual that could convert the emotional bond between two individuals into power. Specifically, the ritual gave one member of the pair immediate magical potential and basic knowledge of their abilities. The other member gained the ability to summon a magical artifact, referred to as a Gear. The bonded pair would also gain a sort of enhanced awareness of each other, knowing the other's general location, being able to sense their emotions, as well as some telepathic communication.
Due to the problems at Grenheim's borders, those who underwent the Empowerment Ritual were immediately conscripted, though only a small percentage of the bonds seemed to have abilities that could be directly applied to a military context, despite attempts to find as many useful bonds as possible across the entire empire.
Within the last few months, further research into the Empowered Bonds, and the many passages of the Adondum that may reference them, led to a second discovery. The mages and priests who had slaved over the project had been able to pinpoint nine specific locations on a map, allegedly the locations of pairs that had been chosen by the Gods, destined for a greater purpose that could save or doom the Empire.
Immediately, these pairs were tracked down and brought to the estate of an old general by the name of Dalgen Carridan, who the Church and the Emperor's Mages could trust to train the newly bonded pairs in relative secrecy in a short period of time, as well as house them for the duration.
Once the pairs were all gathered, they were put through the Ritual. Unlike any pairs before them, the Ritual seemed to burn a mark of some sort into the flesh of the bonded individuals, with each pair's brand differing in shape and location. To the men conducting the Ritual, this was proof that they were correct, and that these fateful few were blessed by the gods themselves.
Important Information
Celestial and Empowered Bonds
Two individuals with a deep emotional connection who undergo the Empowerment Ritual gain an Empowered Bond, or a Celestial Bond. The only real difference the two, aside from the whole prophecy thing, is that a Celestial bond gives stronger powers with a greater potential for growth, and includes a brand somewhere on the bodies of the members of the bond. The following powers are gained through a bond:
- The ability to sense the emotions being felt by one's partner. This ability cannot sense the reasons for a feeling, just that a certain vague emotion is being felt.
- The ability to know the general location of one's bonded partner.
- Telepathy, or the ability to communicate through thought.
- One member of the bond becomes the Mage of the Bond, and gains the Celestial Potential, which immediately gives them an affinity with a specific brand of magic. Most individuals have the potential to harness magical energy regarding a specific topic that is representative of, or important to them as a person, also known as the Focus. Learning the Focus to one's magic often takes Mages half their lives, and learning to harness and manipulate it takes the other, meaning the only mildly skilled Magi are withering old men. With the Celestial Potential, a bonded Mage immediately knows their Focus, and a basic understanding of how to harness it.
- The other member of the bond becomes the Knight of the Bond, and gains a Celestial Gear, a magical artifact that can be summoned and dismissed at will. Similar to magic, a Gear grants an ability to its wielder that has some connection to their life, personality, or position in the bond, though only a singular power as opposed to the Mage's repertoire of spells.
Rules
- This is a pair RP, meaning that you are recommended to partner up with another player and create your characters together, with a shared backstory and Celestial Bond. Making an entire pair on your own will only be allowed if we are unable to reach a full cast of 18 unique players.
- As implied above, there will be a hard one character limit unless we don't have enough players.
- Only join this RP if you are sure you are willing to commit to this RP long-term, and have the time to do so. Quitting the RP harms your partner, not just you, so consider carefully before you commit.
- There will be an expected minimum of roughly one post per week. There will not be a timer or anything, but if multiple GM update posts have gone up without your character having interacted during the previous period, expect a warning, or a kick if you've done it enough times. If extenuating circumstances prevent you from posting, simply inform a GM.
- Make an attempt to read all posts. Whilst skimming is fine, this only harms your ability to interact with other characters.
- Those who express interest will be PMed a link to the RP's official discord. As this is a Pair RP, communication is important, and as such, joining the discord will be mandatory, as it's an easier mode of communication than the OOC.
- Metagaming and Godmodding will not be tolerated. Autohitting/Autokilling is off-limits unless cleared through a GM.
- Romance is fine, just keep the smut to PMs. Fade to black, and all that.
- Please color code your character's dialogue in order to easily differentiate them from everyone else.
- And of course, follow all RPG rules.
Character Sheet
Character List
