The hills rolled off into lapping arrays of the most decadent greens, glistening with the crisp morning dew. The cherry blossoms and apple orchards were in full bloom, and seemed to whisper between one another as the valley breeze nestled its way through the sparing woodland. This scene was a welcomed sight to the people of the village, whose children were taking great delight in running free through the soft grass with their feet bare, laughing and frolicking between one another as though nothing in the world mattered but that morning. The parents, smiling one and all, took the distraction of the children as a moment to ready themselves for the festivities that lay ahead that day; it was the final night of spring, and summer was soon to be upon them. Old Mr Radsharll gave a warm smile and a hearty handshake as he shared the freshest of apples from his orchards, and none could protest his insistence on them being the best in town; a gentle crunch, followed by the most pleasing trickle of exquisite juices. Perfection. His wife, of course, just rolled her eyes and laughed, readying her mare for rides that children would undoubtedly be demanding once the feast was done, and the young and charmingly handsome Jeremy Gloom was even going to be lighting his spectacular fireworks when night fell, of which all were excited to gaze upon. It would be a day and night to remember, that was certain.
The figures appeared two by two, atop horses that trod harsh metal hooves into the grassland. Stoic to the last man, and lugging and creaking cart behind that groined under the weight of the several boys and girls riding upon it, they seemed to steal the sun as they descended from the hilltop, casting stretched and lasting shadows upon the village. Smiles soon faded, as parents gathered their children one by one and began to scuttle towards their homes, all the laughter sucked from the air like a vacuum. All knew what the man, shrouded in their robes of black, had come for, but none wanted to give it willingly; the Sentinels had arrived, three days earlier than expected. They were not men and women of menace, but rather, a hollow reminder to the people of that gleeful little village of the cost all had to pay, but only a few suffered. They did not smile or laugh or exchange small-talk, simply because they knew the pain they would be inflicting upon this small town, a pain they too had been inflicted with themselves once upon a time.
They left with two boys, a girl barely of age, and Jeremy Gloom, whose handsome face was lost to the pale visage of dread that replaced it.
They would become Sentinels, desire had nothing to do with it. All families had to pay this shared price to protect this, and none took pleasure in the act. One conscription per family, with volunteers always welcome, as unlikely a prospect as that was. With their carts a little heavier, the Sentinels would return to the Wall that rested so far away, but never would a soul return. This is the price of the Sentinels, the unwilling protectors of our land, from the horrors that lay beyond the Wall.
This is a pain we all suffer. This is a price we all share.
This is Sentinels Watch.
You are a Sentinel. Conscripted, or volunteered, it is your sworn duty to guard the Wall, and hold back the evil that permeates the land beyond it. You will die a Sentinel. There is nothing else for you now. We all came from families from the endless stretch of lush valleys, littered with villages and towns a plenty, but those families are mere memories that drive us on-wards. You were beaten like a dog. You were trained like a soldier. You are a Sentinel of the Wall. You will stare fear and death in the face and you will not blink, because we're all that stands between the savagery of beyond those grand, stone bricks.
This role-play takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of our world, set hundreds of years in the future. Like a plague, an evil engulfed our world that turned men feral, causing them to feast upon their families as though they were naught but a meal. With a morbid brutality, they butchered all they came across, forcing the last refuge of mankind to construct the Wall; stretching from one horizon to the next, the Wall is the only protection we have from the apocalypse that awaits outside, in a world of ruin and decay. Cities crumbled, skyscrapers stand as unrecognized monuments to a time gone by, and any hope of advancement seems idiotic. All we can do is hold the Wall, and live what lives we can. This is our duty, as Sentinels of the Wall.
Every year, the Sentinels travel outwards to the villages and towns of our safe haven to conscript a small portion of its population; that is the cost of our safety. One from every family. Taken from their homes, they are moved to the Wall, where they are trained mercilessly to be the best they can possibly be. Once trained, a Sentinels duty is to hold the wall night and day, as well as scavenging outwards into the world in search of anything to help our haven. Those whom travel outwards rarely survive, and those that do often wish they hadn't. The beasts beyond the wall, many centuries old with necrotic flesh and maddened minds seek nothing but to mutilate, murder and feast. They are intelligent, and they are many. Malicious, nauseously sinister, the Sentinels battle them night and day to save what little humanity we have left.
You are a Sentinel. However long you have been a Sentinel, your history and your story to come, these are all your decisions. Only one thing is certain; you live as a Sentinel, and you will die as a Sentinel. This is the price we pay. This is the burden we carry.
