[h1] [center] [color=aba000]Welcome to your destiny! Oh great heroes![/color][/center][/h1] [h3][center][s][color=39b54a]or villains[/color][/s][/center][/h3] [center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/34/96/ab/3496ab458376d8071bffca796b6de444.jpg[/img][/center] In the fantastical world of Harvess, the vast kingdom of Ceosia governs over most humans within the realm. Through the authority of the church of light, the royal family ensures peace and prosperity through the lands, driving off evil that would prey upon humanity. The recent cataclysm has, however, brought chaos and disorder to the realm. Amidst the rapid forced reincarnation of many from another world, most were converted into children of Hecate, monsters naturally aligned with the demon king and his ilk. A fair amount were allowed to be reborn under the church and the College, but the favored few who made contracts with the Sacred Artifacts of the paladin order, naturally became paladins themselves. The public looks to these heroes to restore order and keep the peace. [hr] Ceosia has several orders that act as the cornerstones to their civilization. These are, The Order of Light, The Order of The Paladins, The Order of the Magi, The Order of Harvest, The Order of Commerce, The Order of Shadow, The Order of Law, and the Central Order. All governed by the royal family and their personal knights. - The Order of Light is the holy church and religion of Ceosia. They worship a divine being referred to simply as 'The Light', the true name of the deity has been lost to time. A creator deity, brother to the wicked Goddess Hecate and Rival to her spouse, Lucifer, The First Demon. The Church's hierarchy is governed at the top by the Pope, who also acts as an advisor to the royal family, thus wielding even more political power than the other heads of their respective orders. Following this hierarchy are the Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests. The duties of the Church is to uphold religious values and tradition, retain worship and govern prayer and sacrifices. Those considered 'blessed' by the light have the power and authority to wield miracles, situational powers invoked by The Light himself. Any of the orders that have this blessing are referred to as Clerics. Monks are those under the order who have trained in spiritual power, similar to the Paladins, though with a focus on blunt instruments or hand-to-hand. A monk can also be a cleric. Inquisitors are monks that take missions under the church to act as their own form of 'paladin', though they don't have any sacred artifacts of their own. - The Order of Paladins are a sacred order that governs over the Sacred Artifacts. Weapons forged by dwarves with the slain or sacrificed souls of powerful beings, chosen only to those they make a contract with that would reincarnate into this world. They are the hero-makers, an order that garners the most public favor. Aside from training the destined heroes, their ranks also consist of knights and squires; Warriors without a contract of a sacred artifacts, and servants to the heroes respectively. Beneath their grand Barracks in the capitol lies a labyrinth that imprisons and stores the great variety of artifacts that are presently ownerless. All members are trained to use Spiritual Power alongside martial arts, for the heroes this extends to training with their soul-bonded artifact. Knights and paladins are ranked as bronze, silver, gold, and platinum respectively, all heroes are at least ranked as silver. As squires are more of glorified servants, they are stuck at rank bronze. - The Order of the Magi is the Educational Order of the Kingdom. In addition to providing standard education, they are also in charge of the Mage College Sarafel, and all things 'magical' within the kingdom's provinces aside from the Paladins. As both the Church and Paladins are skeptical of magic, these orders do not get along well with the Order of the Magi, and are often at the center of political conflict. Students that only know a little magic are referred to as Magicians. Apprentices are the next step up, and following them is the rank of Sage, and Mage respectively. Those that are able to use Sorceries are called sorcerers, and vocation spells Wizards. (A wizard can also be a sorcerer.) - The Orders of Harvest, Commerce, and Law are all purely civil divisions of orders. The Order of Shadows is the underbelly of Ceosia. On the service they are something of a 'intelligence' group, having trained professional scouts and rangers to provide information. But discreetly they also handle less publicly known positions. Hired Criminals, Assassins, Black Market dealings and what have you. In relation to the Adventurer's Guild, they provide scouts to assist parties with travels and information relevant to any given quest. With the exception of any individual obtaining magical items, the order of the shadows do not have any means of supernatural training. Instead, they have more practical skills of stealth, trap-disarming, basic combat and martial arts, underhanded tactics and what have you. A classic rogue. - The Adventurer's Guild is the Central Order of Ceosia, one that unifies all other orders under their employment. The guild provides a sort of hub for these various groups, letting them take commissioned assignments. Anyone can make commission requests, for a fee ofcourse, and jobs can vary wildly. From bounties set on monsters and criminals, to escorting wandering travelers from one town or city to another, to finding rare materials or even hunt down the demon king himself. As a freelance nature of employment, it is up to individuals to take what jobs they wish, incentive by whatever rewards the contractor provides for their quest. It is common for adventurers to form teams or parties. [hr] Ideally I would like the guild based characters to have all formed a team for sake of simplicity. You can all vote democratically on what mission/quest to take from the bounty board, and that'll be the focus of each rp segment. You are also free to have your own villain PCs hunted or otherwise intervene in the quests if you wish. Revived from dying in another world, it's been roughly 1 year (Not everyone was reborn at the same time.) since the cataclysm first started. There's been some time for most to have been trained properly, but some can be brand new and just arrived if you wish. You have the option to know other reincarnated characters in their past life, including player characters, as long as both agree/talk it out of course. Even if your character didn't get a weapon contract, they typically have great potential to learn faster and easier then people of the native world. For Paladins: The contract you make with your sacred artifact has soul-bonded the two of you until death. At any time you can summon the weapon and you're able to magically transform into your paladin form when you use your weapon (Think magical girl transformation but for knights, though you can be creative with your suit of armor, it doesn't necessarily have to be armor visually.) All Paladins have spiritual power training which means that even without their transformation they have superhuman stats, but transforming into their knight form further amplifies their spiritual power. Additionally their magical weapon has a unique property and one special move it can use. Spiritual power varies with individuals, typically speaking each rank can be considered a 'tier' above the former in general strength, though stats like speed and durability don't have to be split evenly with strength. If your character specializes in any given trait over others, be sure to mention that, otherwise it assumes they follow an even spread. As a general rule of thumb, a Paladin that specializes in one stat will be roughly equal in that same stat to a Paladin of one rank higher, (whereas stats include strength, speed, durability.) but as a consequence will have their other stats on the same level as a Paladin ranked lower. [hider=The Five Elements and spellcasting] Mana is the energy behind mana. Conventionally this can just be thought of as magical stamina. Training to increase one’s mana is similar to building up physical stamina, training to exhaust your mana and in theory you’ll produce more of it: Though most people have so little potential to actually develop any meaningful progress. Spells can let you do all kinds of things, from shooting fireballs to flying or what have you. But every type of magic is categorized, and need specific requirements to fill. Just about anything is possible with Spellcraft, so if you’d rather just submit to me spell ideas I can simply inform you where those spells would be categorized and thus how to cast them. When making spells as well, presume the cast time to be within a turn, unless if you want to give it a charge-up time like 2 turns before casting. Have a maximum duration (if its not just a straightforward blast or something, also some can be permanent depending upon the nature of it), and whether or not its a passive duration or if it requires an active mental focus to maintain. [hr] [img]https://i.imgur.com/qim95Nx.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/qvlx0VX.png[/img] There are five elements: Spirit, Fire, Earth, Water, Air. Everyone is born with an affinity to one element. Through an awakening, you may also gain a second affinity to another element. Aside from your primary and secondary affinity, you can gain access to additional affinities through two other methods. Attuning to a catalyst, which refers to a tool like a wand or staff that has an element imbued into it, can grant one access to another elemental affinity. You can also use the elemental affinity of your familiar as your own when casting spells, so long as the familiar is present. [hr] Sorcery is ‘neutral’ magic that is used to cast spells based on any one of the five elements. To cast a sorcery you need access to a related affinity, which as mentioned, can come in the form of your born affinity, an awakened affinity, a wand, or a familiar. Compound Elements refer to a combination of two compatible elements, normally only being able to cast if you have access to the combination. Fire and Wind make lightning, Water and Wind make Ice, Earth and Water makes wood, Fire and Earth make Metal. There are exceptions where someone can be born with the ability to use a combination instead of a primary (For example, someone with a fire affinity may instinctively cast lightning or metal as their first sorcery instead of fire), but this is rare. [hr] Vocations are black and white magic, composed of three elements instead of sorceries one. Unlike sorceries which only reflect basic elemental manipulation, vocations provide unique spells based on their associated school, of which there are five combinations; and two variations of the same combination (White and Black magic, or Evocations and Invocations respectively.) You do not need to know sorcery spells to cast vocational spells, while both rely on elemental affinities, they are distinct methods of spellcraft. Similar to sorceries, normally you need access to the relevant affinities to cast it. So for example, for Restoration, a school that requires Fire, Water, and Spirit, a magi that has a fire affinity would need two additional sources, such as a water based familiar and a spirit based wand. Ofcourse, if they had a secondary element of water that would mean they’d only need one other source to cast a restoration spell. The combination doesn’t matter so long as they have access to that affinity. Most beings can’t cast both black and white magic, or if they can, there are often consequences. For humans, casting an invocation causes them to become a warlock; A human cursed by the black magic they tried to cast. They lose the ability to cast white magic, and are plagued with a curse related to the type of black magic they tried to cast. For example, transmutation warlock may cause them to slowly or partially petrify into stone, or execution can make some undead or perpetually ill. However, Warlocks also gain an affinity towards their curse. Meaning that someone cursed with execration can cast execration spells without needing access to its elemental affinities. If a familiar is bound with an invocation type spell, they’d take the burden on the invocation instead of you. [hr] Infusions are the combination of a sorcery spell and a vocational spell. Or, the ‘imbuing’ of a pure element into a vocational spell. So using restoration as an example, a fire-restoration infusion could have a spell that ‘heals’ and mends metal like a forge, or create sacred flames that burn undead and heal the living as an example. Compound Vocations are just the combinations of different vocational schools in one spell. This is most commonly seen in curses, like a malediction that uses transmutation to change someone under a specific condition. [hider=Spell Mediums] Spell Mediums refer to how the spell is cast. By default, somatic casting is just using yourself as the medium, at casting spells from your directed will to a target. Commonly this is aided by a physical gesture, such as pointed, and an incantation. Note that mastery over a specific spell can bypass both the gesture and the verbal component, but the spell will always be at its strongest if the incantation is spoken. Alternative means of casting spells, such as runic or potions, tend to be stronger than if they were casted somatically. Learning a spell is also limited to a medium when learned. (if you wanted two medium variations of the same spell, it would still count as learning two different spells.) [hr] Runic Casting, or written magic, is using magic in a written form, expressed in various glyphs and runes. Using that as a conduit, the detailed spell can be cast either at the will of the caster within proximity to the written magic, or imbued and set with a predetermined trigger, such as someone stepping on. The medium most effective for written magic is blood, but as that is taboo, salted chalks and similar materials are often used instead. It's a once-use magic, that after use the medium used to cast it will decay. When written, mana can be temporarily imbued into the rune for its casting. [hr] Enchantments are similar to Runic casting, the primary difference is that enchantments are meant to be permanent or at least lasting to whatever they are written on. Typically this requires the spell that sets an enchantment to also provide some power source of mana, in order to maintain its enchantments. Enchantments can be an actively passive effect, an activated spell, or both. [hr] Potions are spells imbued in a liquid form, crafted through three primary ingredients alongside a ritual that stores the spell into the mixture. Depending upon effectiveness, they may require either being poured/splashed onto something, or needs to be directly consumed for it to take effect. Potions tend to exaggerate spell length and no longer need to worry about mentally concentrating on a spell to maintain its duration. [hr] Charms refer to items that synergize specifically with spells. For example, Tarot Cards or Crystal Balls have specific divination spells used in tandem in order to properly use these items. [hr] Rituals: Catch all terms used for a process of casting a spell with a combination of different mediums, often requiring a deal of time and set up to complete. Since Rituals are a unique setup, they can ‘cheat’ affinities, for example, by having candles represent fire or a vase of water for water. Or using additional magi participating in the ritual to draw on their affinities. [/hider] [hider=On Vocational Magic Schools] [hider=Evocations] Restoration magic(Fire, Water, Spirit) can be considered a form of ‘holy’ or light magic. It is symbolized by the nature of life itself. Spells of this evocation can heal wounds, cure sickness, destroy undead, and evoke the power of light itself. Abjuration magic(Water, Air, Earth) Refers to protection magic. Abjuration provides wards against magic and the supernatural. Alleviates curses, provides good luck, creation of barriers, among other uses. Alteration magic (Spirit, Earth, Fire): alters peoples and objects. It can be used to telekinetically manipulate, levitate, or teleport a target(By altering what position they occupy), or be used to otherwise alter temporary properties of an object. Such as making something temporarily more durable, stronger, faster, perhaps heavier, etc. Abnegation magic(Air, Fire, Water) Is a form of denial magic. Most notable are forms of dispelling curses, counter-magic, Negating certain parts of magic, Banished spirits and demons, and dispel magic in general. Some might be confused on the differences between Abnegation and Abjuration. If we were to compare it to medicine, think of Restoration as medicine that treats the symptoms but not the cause, Abjuration as 'vaccines' which prevent you from getting sick, and Abnegation as Treating the cause directly. Divination Magic (Spirit, Air, Earth) refers to spells that seek information. Locating a person or object, revealing possible futures, reading one's mind, or communicating through minds, Seeing through certain things, etc. [/hider] [hider=Invocations] Execration(Fire, Water, Spirit) is the inverse of restoration. Whereas restoration can be interpreted as life magic, Execration is death. Spells in Execration can involve Diseases, Decay, and the undead as some examples. Maledictions(Water, Air, Earth), the inverse of abjurations, are hexes and curses. Magics that bind other magics to a target, or otherwise make them more vulnerable. Maledictions are commonly part of compound vocations due to this nature, same as abjurations. Transmutation(Spirit, Earth, Fire) The Inverse of Alteration. Unlike alteration which deals with temporary properties, Transmutation deals in permanent properties and aspects of a target. Turning someone into a frog, turning lead to gold, mutating someone into becoming a massive goliath, etc. Conjuration(Air, Fire, Water), The inverse of Abnegation. Conjurations summon things across realms or from souls, or create temporary things from mana. A creation of magic that abnegation typically denies. Prestidigitation(Spirit, Air, Earth) is the inverse of divination. If divination can be thought of as the gain of information, then prestidigitation is the loss, or manipulation of information. This often translates in spells that deal with illusions, charming or otherwise manipulating people directly, erasing memories, etc. [/hider] [/hider] [hider=On Familiars] Familiars can be any being that is soul-bonded to a magi. They can range from an ordinary house-cat, a mythical beast like a phoenix, a demon, or even a human (Though for obvious reasons this isn’t ethical.) A magi can only possess one Familiar at a time. Familiars can be obtained through either a subjugation ritual or a mutual contract ritual. If a familiar is ‘destroyed’, their spirit will remain within their owner’s soul, and be reconstituted in time so long as their owner lives. They can be conjured to their owner and dismissed at any time (Though this is a form of conjuration, as it is bound to the contract and not on the Magi they aren’t affected by the warlock’s curse.) A familiar can have spells bound to it, especially if they were formerly a powerful creature or being. Casting a familiar’s spell puts the burden of the spell on the familiar, so if it were an invocation, the familiar would take the burden of that invocation and potentially the curse rather than the magi. Familiars can also have ‘combat forms’, particularly if they are a powerful creature. Typically, powerful familiars possess a more docile form to hide their true form while bound, where in the combat form allows them to express more of their true power temporarily. As inferred before, the primary utility for a familiar is using their elemental affinity for spellcasting. [/hider] [/hider] For Magi: Consider your rank first, Magician, Apprentice, Sage, Mage, wizard Magician will only know up to 2 spells, and maybe some rituals. Apprentice will know at 4 spells and typically will have at least a familiar contract and a catalyst. A sage can learn up to 6 spells and one mastery spell (Infusion spells or Compound Vocations, or otherwise a very big/powerful spell), A mage knows 8 spells and two mastery spell, and wizards 10 with three masteries. Note: you do not need to reach the spell limit to reach a rank. In theory you can know only one spell and still ascend the magic ranks if your magic is powerful enough, or otherwise experienced. You can also list up to three ritual spells if your character is nerdy enough, regardless of rank. Also consider what element your character has an affinity too. If you're at least a sage, you may also have unlocked a secondary element. Unlike your primary affinity, which is determined at birth, a secondary affinity is unlocked through a special connection with meditation and ritual through another element. It is recommended, but not required, to have either a form of catalyst or a familiar if you are at least an apprentice, both if you are a sage or higher. Grimoires are tools spellcasters use to study and record spells, sometimes they can draw power from them, particularly for rituals, so they are an optional but common tool among magi. Elemental affinities are important as they determine what kind of sorceries and vocations you can cast. You do not need to be able to cast sorceries to cast vocational magic, nor vise versa. Signature spells refer to either Compound Vocations or Infused Vocations. If you don't cast vocational magic this can instead be just compound sorceries. If you have a familiar, they can have one spell you can cast from them. If the spell is an invocation, the warlock curse will not affect you, but may curse the familiar similarly if they aren't a demon or other dark being. (Likewise, such a being wouldn't be able to have an evocation as their spell.) Instead of a spell, they can have a 'combat form' if you want to be more of a summoner. For else: Standard equipment and any important details. if you wanna get by with just a magic item or something you can submit your ideas to me or ask for some ideas on my end if you aren't sure. If you plan on playing a cleric, keep in mind miracles aren't magic. You pray to the light and if it works, the light will offer you assistance based on the prayer. There is a limit to how often it'll work (think three times per adventure, mileage may very depending upon how big that miracle was) so keep that in mind. Its not a reliable power system but more like a 'minor wish' that can be ignored. Note Only magi can use magic, ignoring magic items of course. You can only be 'attuned' to three magical items. For paladins their contract also counts as a magical item. I believe I left some details for the Children of Hecate monsters that people can be reincarnated to in the interest check, if you are interested in that you can DM me for more details. [hider=Aforementioned children of Hecate summary] [hider=Witches] For whatever reason, perhaps because Hecate insists that witches are her 'daughters', all witches are female. Witches can either be born from another witch (union with a human typically), or a human that undertakes a special ritual. In the reincarnated case this technically applies to them, though they wouldn't be aware of the ritual itself due to just being killed in one world and re-awakening in the next. Witches have the divine Authority of Hecate to be able to cast both white and black magic without restriction. This alone is a powerful trait they share. They are immortal spellcasters with bodies that may appear like ordinary woman (Albeit it isn't entirely uncommon for them to have hints of supernatural traits, which may include any of the following: glowing eyes, horns, claws, unusual skin tone (Like Green or Blue), and other strange miscellaneous details (Like having a duck's foot for a left foot as an extreme weird example. Others can also appear identical to humans with no apparent traits.) But are in truth are more magical then biological. All witches bear the mark of Hecate on some feature of their body, such as their eye, tongue, on their wrist, neck, etc. It should go without saying that all witches are indeed powerful spellcasters, and even those reincarnated who have only recently become witches would find themselves with great power. Witches do not need to eat, drink or sleep, as they are no longer 'biologically' alive in that sense, though they can still partake in any of those activities without issue. The only stipulation is that they occasionally need to eat a human soul to retain their power and avoid becoming feral. Being immortal, so long as their head is intact they can remain conscience, and even if there head is destroyed their bodies will naturally regenerate. The only way to destroy a witch is to destroy their core. A Crystal-like structure usually within where their heart would be. Cores aren't easy to destroy, but powerful magic or silvered weapons are both effective against it. Destroying the core will destroy the witch, but unfortunately for the witch instead of instead death its a slow, agonizing one; It can be quiet the variety as a witch may slowly petrify and crumble away, disintegrate to dust, slowly crack and light up until they finally explode, melt away wicked witch style along with other slow and dramatic ways to die. As their own immortality works against them, they will remain sapient until completely destroyed in this way. [/hider] [hider=Vampire] True Vampires are normally only born, and humans that have turned into vampires are 'vampire spawn', lesser vampires. In the case of the reincarnated though, those that became vampires awakened as true vampires instead of spawns, perhaps due to the unique circumstances of becoming a vampire in this case. vampires are incredibly power, and sort of work like an inverse to Ki, as their undeath renders them incredibly superhuman. In addition to strength and speed, being able to see in the dark, superhuman reflexes, the works are all under their power. Vampires normally aren't able to cast magic, but due inherit unique powers, usually possessing three. These can include turning into a a bat, swarm of bats, monster bat form, a wolf form, mist form, being able to hypnotize people with their gaze, freezing people on contact, any other tropic vampire traits you can think of probably apply as well. Being undead, they do not need to eat, drink, or sleep to survive (Though they'll need to drink blood to retain sanity, more on that later), they do not need to breathe, aren't vulnerable to conventional illness, all that. So long as a vampire's heart beats, they can regenerate from any injury, with exception to if their head is destroyed, that's usually game over. Staking the heart to prevent it from healing itself will also immediately paralyze a vampire, which can make them easier to destroy afterwards. (Staking doesn't necessarily kill the vampire, removing the stake afterwards will revive them.) Aside from their vulnerability to holiness, like holy water, and things that ward undead. Fire is somewhat effective against them, not that they are any less vulnerable to fire as a normal person, but combined with the bright light can disorient them as they burn. They can't swim, Garlic renders them nauseous, Sunlight burns them away, wounds inflicted from silver are harder to recover from, etc. Feeding on blood will make a vampire seem more alive, as they are drained of blood, they'll retain more monstrous appearances like paler skin, gaunt physique, etc more associated with a vampire, and may even appear to age. If they starve themselves on blood completely, they'll turn into a strigoi, or feral vampire; Which are lanky, pale bat-like monstrosities of vampires that have given in to animalistic instincts and loss of intelligence. [/hider] [hider=Skinwalkers] The shapeshifters. When a skinwalker is born, they are typically associated with a type of animal that they can turn into. While mastery over this form is possible, usually they have no control over it, and become feral half-man half-beast monstrosities under the full moon. Skin walkers are resistant to most forms of damage, save from silver, which is a critical weakness to them. Like vampires they can only be destroyed by destroying the head. Skinwalkers that have mastered their powers can change forms at will, and can even adopt new forms from people or animals they've killed. This can be particularly troublesome if they happen to shapeshift and imitate a loved one, as they can even replicate memories of their shapeshifted target. [/hider] As alluded to, in the world of Harvess there are other things in this vast world beyond humans and this struggle. Mythical beasts roam the earth, Elves and Dwarves are the other two prominent races but as they are mostly isolated and aren't involved in the reincarnation destiny that humans seem to be in, aren't tied to the story necessarily. [/hider] Discord link is here: https://discord.gg/aceaMfCy