Aiden sat alone in a room that felt much too big for just one man, running a hand through his hair as he gazed at the numerous stacks of papers before him. Treasury documents, Mage's Guild Doctrine documents, Legal Permittance documents, collateral damage responsibility documents, bills for the renovation and furnishing of the Guild Hall, and the Insurances documents provided by the Mage's Guild that made sure he didn't break the bank on said renovations. These and many, many more papers required his attention and, perhaps more importantly, his signature.
"Master could've mentioned running a Guild would be so much. . . tedium." Reclining into the seat, Aiden let out a dejected sigh as he lazily reached out for the nearest document. . . only to be greeted with nothing. A moment of confusion sprung to the man's mind before he realized his mistake with a curse, sitting up straight as he looked to his side. "Goddammit."
Where his right arm should be, only empty space, phantom feelings, and the occasional throb of pain from the old wound remained. A right annoyance in many regards, not the least of which being the cursed fact that he had things to sign but only his left hand to do it with. Another weary sigh worked its way through him as he thought of all the fun that would be to handle. Reaching out with his actual hand this time, Aiden picked up the nearest paper(a form discussing the arrangement with the town of White Harbor for hosting the fledgling guild) and gave it a quick read through before placing it flat on the desk and reaching for a quill.
"Going to think I'm a fuckin moron when they see this scrawl." He muttered as he began to carefully write his signature, face contorting to a growling scowl as he considered how humiliating it felt to not be able to properly pen his own damn name. needless to say, despite his best efforts, his signature was a jagged mess that barely counted as language. With a groan, he put it onto a small pile set aside from the rest of the mess for what he'd actually managed to get done. The next paper he picked up, however, gave him some pause.
This document, in particular, was the Mage's Guild Official Registration form. All the boxes had already been filled in with the needed information in a much neater hand(Serana's work, he was sure) but the thing that caught him was the listing near the very top of the form, where the name of the Guild was to be officiated.
"Winter's Blade. . . " Aiden's tone was sullen as he stared at the words, a mixture of bittersweet joy and grim acceptance though it was soon followed by a small chuckle. "You always did complain about how you despised that title. . . I'm sorry your pupil lacked for creativity, Master."
Closing his eyes to take a moment of silence, Aiden carefully signed the paper with as much control as he could muster. The result was . . . better, if still grimace-inducing and he was certain his Master would be rolling in laughter if he could see his current predicament. Another sigh, another paper placed on the finished pile.
"That's. . . 10 signatures down and. . ." Looking over at the veritable mountain range of papers that littered his desk and even the area around it, the guild master pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gods above know how many more to go."
With a breath and a straightening of his posture, he quickly got back to work, muttering about a founding ceremony and new recruits as he worked.
The Premise
Hello, and Welcome to Winter's Blade, a casual-ish rp based in the Fairy Tail universe, albeit with some slight tweaks to the formula. The plan at present is to form a small to medium-size group of people(somewhere between 5 and 10-ish, a bit flexible on the upper end) and run this as a semi-open sandbox type rp. There is a bit of a plot in mind, but it still needs formulating so the first 'arc' or two of the rp would be rather separate from that(albeit with few hints for future events), but they'll mainly serve to help everyone's characters get comfortable with each other.
Now, as for the ways in which I want to set this RP a bit apart from the herd:
Rulings and Changes
- Canon Characters don't exist, and canon guilds will likely be similarly absent, though that'll be done on a case-by-case basis and depend on how much I commit to the idea of creating new guilds to fill a certain niche.
- Guilds will be run a bit closer to an actual institution, rather than just a place that acts as an excuse to get a lot of WMD-level mages hangout and occasionally find work. While that doesn't mean terribly much to the grand scheme of the RP, it does mean that there will be consequences for misbehavior if you get caught. But it also means that your character will get some sweet benefits, like free room and board, access to certain materials and books, etc, that doesn't really get elaborated on in the show. Won't be terribly much due to the next point, but it'll be something.
- As you might've guessed from the above story blurb, this is a guild that's just getting started, i.e. formed within the last 6-8 months by the time of IC start. The guild does have a bit of a name to it at the moment due to the Guild master accomplishing something pretty noteworthy(which is how he got permission to start the guild by the Mage Council), but we're definitely the new kid on the block with all that implies. Such as. . .
- No S ranks. No one in the guild will be any higher than an A rank in terms of power, and this includes the Guild Master. reasons for this are that A)S ranks kinda make the plot escalate to catch up with their perceived power and B)they don't serve much RP narrative purpose in my opinion. ICly, no S ranks worth their salt would really join up with a newbie guild. And even A ranks will be rather limited. I won't put an arbitrary cap because it really depends on the sheets I see but know that I will be judging A ranks pretty closely.
- Speaking of arbitrary caps, I won't be doing that with Slayer magic either. Let's be honest, if the show doesn't care overly much about their supposed rarity, then neither am I. I will, however, be judging slayers a bit more harshly still. If I get an rp of only slayers, that'd suck but oh well, if the sheets were good enough to pass muster than so be it. That being said, Demonslayers are something I'm not terribly keen on since people are quick to make them stupid strong, so consider that your warning/challenge
- Speaking of Slayers, note that Dragons in this RP aren't completely absent like in the Anime nor are they infinitely powerful beasts. Non-slayers can beat them, but their long lives and innate abilities make them a tough battle even for them. Dragons are, however, exceedingly rare to find, generally isolated from each other and society, and view humans on a scale from Insects at worse and a particularly amusing pet or animal at best. there are exceptions, of course, but that's just the general rule.
Annnd that's all that I can think of for differences at the moment, might come up with more if this picks up interest(perhaps you guys can even give me a hand with making them), so the only thing I can think of now is introducing a few NPCs. Hopefully, they inspire or at the very least interest you a bit.
Important NPCs
Plot Hooks
Locations
