@Zero Hex It'll be set in NotJapan which is different than NotChina and whatnot, but we'll say the people have been substantially less xeonophobic and there's been a good amount of cultural diffusion to account for Chinese inspired people living in Japanese inspired places.
There's actually a part of Japan that historically had a lot of chinese influence, it was the Ryukyu Kingdom. A stretch of islands that reach all the way to Taiwan and of which Okinawa is the most important of the lot, though it was a vassal state to Japan it kept its own monarchy and culture and its position afforded it plenty of contact with China, which it used to be a vassal state of actually. Since it looks like making a mongolian might be a bit of a hassle I was thinking of doing a little writeup on NotRyukyu anyway.
@KOgaming The character looks good. The only thing I'm concerned about is that you probably shouldn't make her too childish. She does need to be able to work with a group of what appears to be mostly adults after all.
Everyone else, I think my next step is to make a basic map of the regions and their major cultural influences so that we can stop calling this place NotJapan. It'll be a completely different geography than irl, and I'll account for all the currently accepted CSes.
So, I'm about ready to set up an OOC and get this started. I just want to do a quick roll call to see who's still here.
Besides the map, does anyone have any questions before we get started? I should have the OOC up sometime tomorrow, and I'll have an intro post up not long after that.
@Hayazo Before you go setting up the map, I was trying to get my character with a quick writeup of NotRyukyu done but I don't think I'll have it up tonight and I'll probably be busy most of tomorrow. So here, have the relevant bit to worldbuilding, which will itself be relevant to my own character. This is all based on the actual history of Okinawa and how it relates to its martial arts:
The Ruuchin Kingdom is a peculiar part of Anjou’s domain, a chain of islands to the southwest of the mainland ruled by kings that use the nine tailed fox’s power to legitimize their authority. They were, however, once a vassal state to (insert name for NotChina) and their location makes them an important trade hub, which means the islands see plenty of foreigner influence. These aspects combined with a martial culture, born from the hard-nosed inhabitants having to fend off all manner of undesireables for ages, marked the islands as a potentially rebellious and so led to a peculiar ruling by Anjou: The Ruuchin Kingdom may not stockpile weapons.
This, however, did not stop the development of combat skills in Ruuchin. While Anjou might’ve wished to eliminate thoughts of rebellion and make the Kingdom reliant on his armies, the upper classes had the spare time and means to devote themselves to pursuing the martial arts. Under the new restrictions, the warriors of the court travelled to (insert name for NotChina) to train and pioneered new schools in Ruuchin, developing a number of methods based around the use of improvised weapons and promoting a strong focus on body strengthening, well beyond what is typically practiced in other countries with access to arms.
She leaves small strings and traces of shadow, indicating the path she has flown as a shadow sparrow.
Personality: Calm and reserved, Tsubame is a very caring person. She goes to any lenght to save those she hold close to her. She has trouble expressing her true feelings and is not easely scared ( except for thunder) A deep running scar from the past is witholding her from making any new friends or going out of the graveyard the calls home. Try to make an enemy out of her, her wrath is like a scoarching fire. Tsubame can be very noisy and loves to eat berries, you can always brighten her day by bringing them to her.
History: When she was but a youngling Tsubame left her flock. She was a curious little thing back then and wanted to see humans, the creatures her parents had warned her about so many times. The outside world was dangerous with Anjou's minions roaming the lands. Yet fearless as she was, Tsubame left the flock and soon found herself on a mountain. On this mountain she stayed for a while, forging a friendship with the smaller youkai of the forest. One day a young woodcutter came up the mountain and saw but a glimp of Tsubame. Amazed by her black shadow like wings The woodcutter named Takahiro came to stop by every day. After two months of callling out to the black sparrow he had seen, Tsubame finally revealed herself to the man. A friendship was made and because of that Tsubame took on the form of a beautifull human girl.
Three years passed and Takahiro got married and even got two sons. Happy as he was he invited Tsubame to the village to see them. Hesitant at first, but not wanting to dull her friends Joy Tsubame flew down the mountain. It had been storming during the day and when time came to go back tot he forest lightning was striking the ground like a drummer struck his instrument. Not wanting to impose, Tsubame still headed home. A hellish white flash of light struck to eart, and scoarched her wings. Wounded and fallen from the sky Tsubame found herself helpless. She could only hope for some heavenly mercy. Lucky for her some villagers saw her fall from the sky and came to search for her body. Tsubame found herself surrounded by faces she did not know, but fate was at her side. Some villagers saw her as the guardian of the mountain, and even the priest started to pray for her. The humans she should have feared carried her to the shinto temple and the priests took care of her wounded wings.
After a few months of intense care Tsubame's wings were recovered enough for her to fly again. Takahiro and his family had visited her almost every day and she wanted to show them her wings had healed. more years passed and the childeren of Takahiro had grown to the age of 18 and 16. Happiness ruled the village, but none of the humans nor the little sparrow knew that it was about to end. The eldest son of Takahiro came down with a strange disease. No doctor knew what to do and Always left without telling them what they needed to do. Fearing for the boy's life Tsubame went out and searched for a Daitengu. three days and three nights she flew before she found one. Hasted she told him what the boy had and he concluded that he was possesed by and evil kitsune. Happy to have found out what was wrong with the boy and having gotten the charms to drive the foul youkai out of the boys body Tsubame flew back to the village.
But when she returned there was no village. Only a soflty burning pile of ashes. The villager's had become corpses, laying on a pile on the village square. She let out a cry, shrill and heart tearing. Sadness consumed her heart as she saw the pain twisted faces of Takahiro and his family. One by one Tsubame flew the corpses of her beloved villagers to the mountain and buried them, marking their graves with a stone, their names carved onto the surface. After she had burried them all, Tsubame set out to search for the one responisble. She soon heard that one of Anjou's minions that ruled this part of the country had wiped the village off the map in order to stop the mysterious disease the boy had from spreading. A youkai with a grudge is a terrifying thing and so she became one. In order to appease her anger the surrounding villages and towns build a temple at the graveyard that got dubbed Suzume no bochi, Sparrow's graveyard. This was far from enough and a high priest serving Anjou came and bound Tsubame to the graveyard. Now she willingly guards the graveyeyard and yet she is bound, unable to leave her past, anger, sorrow and the place her villager's have been buried. She is Always surrounded by the Hitodama( souls) of the villagers, but she cannot identify who is who.
Skills: She is a good aeral acrobatic. She flies rather fast and can carry one person on her back during flight. She fights like a ninja, dodging moves waiting for a moment to strike. She prefers one hit kills. She can sprout wings in her human form. She can communicate with normal sparrows, and a bit with other birds.
Powers: Her powers originate from her Youkai powers, Youki. Since her true form is a shadow sparrow, Tsubame can move through the shadows and through unprotected object. However should objects been blessed by a priest she cannot go through them. Temples, shrines and importand building that are blessed cannot be penetrated by her via shadow and she has to sneak in, shinobi style. One of her feather can blind for a day, but she has to sacrifice one of her feathers to do so, and she will not be able to fly for the rest of the day as well. Her wounds heal faster than humans, but not on super speed or such. Right now her fighting skills might be a bit rusty for she has been bound to the graveyard for 40 years.
Equipment:
She hides those knifes everywhere on her body, and when I say everywhere I mean everywhere. from boots to sleeves her hair and such.
Just dropping in to say I'm building a character as well. Actually, it's also to ask a question.
In the character sheet's equipment section, you said "No technology beyond steel age materials. That means no guns." The Steel Age is actually a period right around the start of the 20th century, which is about when modern cartridge ammunition was coming into widespread use. So my question is, are we in a Steel Age that just never invented guns as viable weapons or what, @Hayazo?
@Ojo chan 42 Looks mostly good. My main concern is that you have Tsubame bound to the graveyard, but she's going to have to leave it to even be involved in the beginning of the RP. Also, the image for your kusarigama is broken. Not a big deal, because I know what they are, but you might just wanna fix the image.
@Sodium Yeah, probably should have said late Iron Age or something. History isn't my strongest subject. They've got steel smithing for their weapons and whatnot, but no guns or canons or the like.
The OOC is up. If I've already approved your character go ahead and throw it in the characters tab. Otherwise, you can post it in the OOC when you're done. My own character and an intro post will be up soon.
@Hayazo I will have an NPC priest set her free. Was the planning from the beginning to do so. She had to be bound so that she would have had a reason not to search for anjou immediately
@Ojo chan 42 Okay. That should be fine. I would recommend having that come at the end of the history though since all the characters will begin with their arrival at Kado Shrine.
Ah with reason to not search immediately I ment a reason why she stayed at the graveyard for 50 years. Once the priest sets her free he will guide her to kado shrine (is that alright?)
