Final Fantasy Interest/Planning

[Ogo]

EDIT: Thread is now live!

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^{art by: TYPK}

"We were wrong all those years ago. All we sacrificed, all we suffered - all of it in vain. We were so very wrong. Watch now, heroes, as your precious crystal falls to the Darkness. And with it, so shall this world be cast from the Light. Perhaps then may our most grave mistake be corrected."

Mage-King Otreux the XXII of Sunuveur, following the assassination of King Roderick I of Thorne

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Flavor, Fluff, and Backstory!

Because I don't completely hate mobile users

Fifty years ago, the world found itself brought to the brink of ruin by an Eldian Mage-King who had been seduced by the Darkness. Wielding the incredibly destructive magicks granted to him, the Mage-King put together a powerful army of monsters and men then began enslaving or slaughtering all who would dare stand in his way. Certainly he would have succeeded, were it not for the Great Crystal having summoned its champions, the Warriors of Light, to oppose him.

The Warriors and their allies fought back against the Mage-King's army, claiming victory time and time again. They defeated his Great Generals and prevented the summoning of some unspeakable monstrosity from the Void. When they finally confronted the Mage-King himself, they mortally wounded him - though not before he had a chance to cast his potentially most devastating spell.

In a final act of bravery, one of the Warriors sacrificed himself in order to prevent the loss of countless lives. He imprisoned both the Mage-King and the spell within what should have been an impenetrable shell, though he would be trapped as well. And as heroic as it may have been, ultimately it wouldn't be enough.

The Warrior's sacrifice only managed to delay the spell, not avert it completely. The remaining Warriors learned this and had to scramble. They gathered as many as they could and fled to the mountains and high ground. And when they gathered all they could, the Warriors used the Crystal's powerful magick to lift the very land they stood on to the skies. The brutal waves summoned forth by the Mage-King hit shortly after. Within hours, the surface world was flooded beneath dark waves. Had it not been for the Warrior delaying the spell, all would have drowned.

The survivors of the flood adapted to their new lives among the clouds quite well. Since the end of all life was averted, the people were feeling pretty chummy. Peace reigned throughout the land and a technological boom occurred. The Great Crystal emitted an extreme amount of energy, and the people were able to harness and exploit it. By far, the greatest invention to come out of this time would be the mighty airship. It enabled the people to easily traverse the numerous floating islands. This meant that people could spread out once more and, by extension, grow again. Trade flourished. Culture flourished. Everything was great.

For a while.

But eventually, with the threat now far behind (or rather, below) them, old tensions began to flare up once again. War never broke out between any of the new island nations, though it did come close. Very close. A few skirmishes did manage to happen, but diplomacy ultimately succeeded, thanks in no small part to the remaining Warriors of Light. A few decided to help "guide" civilization down a peaceful path. It caused a massive fallout between members, some of whom believed that that would be overstepping their jurisdiction. They were to defend the light, not influence those in charge. Those that thought this new path wrong blended back into obscurity from whence they came, severing all ties with the other Warriors.

Gradually, the flood waters began to dissipate. With each year, more and more of the land below was revealed. Some nations even sent expeditionary forces down to scout the land. While it would take a long time for things to recover from the damage, it eventually would. Colonies were planned and eventually settled as time passed. It was much rougher on the surface, but people managed.

And so we come to the present day: to the city of Thorne, the first of the new nations to be founded and that which protects the crystal, which hosts the festival celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of both the defeat of the Mage-King and the founding of Thorne. It's truly a spectacle to see. People from all of the islands, and even a few of the surface colonies travel to Old Thorne is partake in a week-long celebration. It's a time of merriment, feasting, debauchery, and to those in power, a chance to flex their strength or accomplishments. Competitions and tournaments of all sorts are held during this time.

All is well, that is until a familiar face crashes the party. An old friend thought long dead returns, but in place of a warm reunion, he slays the Good-King Roderick I of Thorne in cold blood and delivers a chilling warning. And as he takes his leave, his prophecy rings true: the Great Crystal darkens and the land shudders. Before it goes dark, however, the Crystal manages to send out one last cry for help. All across the land, heroes awaken.

Could this be the end? Or will this new generation of Champions take up arms to save the realm from unspeakable evil?

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For Real Tho

If the above was just a biiiit too much:

TL;DR
Basically some evil elf dude wanted to kill everybody. That ain't cool. So some giant diamond thing (GDT) said stop it. He said no. So the GDT sent some doods after him. They rocked him like a hurricane, but since he's a baby-back bitch, he flooded the planet. So everybody lives on floating rocks now because magic. Thanks crystal doods. Also its now like fifty years later, and the crystal dood who killed the evil elf dude came back during a kick ass week-long kegger, killed another crystal dood, and now GDT stopped being all blue and shiny and started glowing all purple and fadey. Peeps freaked out, so some new crystal doods show up to kick some ass. You peeps be the new crystal doods and/or their homies.

Also we got flying boats. Because magic.

Good? Moving on.

So, let's address the elephant in the room, eh? This story's gonna draw heavily from the Final Fantasy franchise. What can I say? Been playing XIV again and after a night of drinking, I think I've come up with a half decent plot. I don't plan on retelling any of the main stories from the games here. So none of the canonical characters from any of the games will make appearances here. Going original boyos and girlies. For the most part. Of course, some of the reoccurring elements may show up: summons, spells, chocobos, crystals, so on, so forth. Now, more specifically, this is going to skew more towards the series roots, akin to the likes of FFI-VI + IX.

HOWEVER!
This isn't to say that any prior knowledge of Final Fantasy will be required for participation. For all intents and purposes, this could be just another generic fantasy setting. That just sort of, y'know, winks and nods at Final Fantasy. And writes it heartfelt love letters.

Any and all supplemental material will be posted neatly in an OOC. If anybody gets lost in the jargon, feel free to ask any and all questions.

The Peeps

-The protagonists of this story (i.e. dem PCs) would be those chosen by the Crystal to serve as its new Champions. These individuals would become more powerful, even drawing from the experience of the warriors that served before them. Now, the crystal doesn't exactly filter who it picks for the job. Its Champions can come from all walks of life. They can be children (12+, not down with diaper magic), elders, amateurs, professionals, pirates, knights, or anything in between. If they didn't know how to fight before, a little bit of that crystal mojo will fix 'em right up.

Now, I know some people aren't big on the whole "chosen one" trope. And that's fine. If you'd rather play as one of the Warriors' allies, a hero not chosen by fate, we can make that happen. It's all groovy. We can work something out here, I'm pretty open to ideas.

-The three major races that I've got in mind right now are Humans, Elves, and Dwarves (Humes, Eldians, and Deepkin respectively this go around.) If any of ya'll want more race options, feel free to suggest below.

EDIT: Due to popular request, Final Fantasy Tactics races will be included: Moogles, Nu Mou, Bangaa, and Viera.

-As for a Job System, I'm open to suggestions here. We could either use a job system in which certain archetypes should be followed (FFI FFIII, FFIV, FFV, FFVI~, FFIX, FFX, FFXV~), or go a more freeform system in which everybody can do everything (FFII, FFVII, FFVIII, FFXII, FFXIII). I'm leaning more towards the former, but I could probably swing either way.

EDIT: Right, so the general consensus thus far seems to be FOR the inclusion of a job system. For this, I'll put together a list with descriptions of what the job does and this iteration's lore behind it. The job will be static in this case, so job changing will likely be a no-go. _{unless there's a super good reason/charrie development?}

-Magic will fall into White Magic (curative), Black Magic (destructive), Blue Magic (monster ability mimicry), Summon Magic (Temporary Bad Ass Homies). Gonna avoid Time Magic for the sake of our collective sanity.

-Technology in this universe may be a bit wonky. I'd say a good representation would probably be FF VI if you're familiar with it. If not, it's more or less steampunk or uh...magicpunk? More on the low end of one of those. Most nations still use swords, armor, bows, what not. The deepkin, responsible for innovations such as the airship, have invented a crude sort of firearm. More or less flintlock. It's not in wide use quite yet. The homes and whatnot have energy, but cars aren't a thing. Good ol' chocobo (chicken-ostrich-horse) power.

-More as needed

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OKAY! With that, I'm dead tired. Waaay too late for me. Gonna get some sleep. So let's just open the floor with this: Is anybody interested in this? And if so, do we have any comments, questions, concerns, feedback, etc?

[Lugia]

I have a suggestion... how about some of the races from final fantasy tactics advance / advance 2?

[GarlandChaos]

On the topic of the job systems, FFX's wasn't really archetypal; at least, not later on in the game, since you can eventually teach anyone basically anything because of the way the sphere grid works. Then again, it's pretty damn late in the game when you're first given that level of freedom, so I could very easily be wrong.

I am interested, though. I unfortunately might not join in immediately, but I would like to see the Final Fantasy V job system used, albeit with less constant class switching. Maybe something like picking one main job, and then taking sidejobs to get some of its skills and weapon privileges, maybe? There's probably another Final Fantasy game like that, but I can't remember any names, honestly.

[Rin]

Well since it seems to be based on my favourite Final Fantasies (ie. basically everything before XI ^^; I mean I'm sure they're decent games but they just never appealed much to me) I might be interested. But we'll see how things turn out I guess.

[Utrax]

*Soft gasp.*
ME!
I'M INTERESTED!
ME!!!!

Additionally: I don't mind either style of class systems! For the sake of choosing - I like the rigid Job systems like those in FFV.

[Evanist]

Interested also, although race wise, like Lugia said, if we can get final fantasy tactic species, it would be nice

[Cuccoruler]

I am also greatly intrested in this! I wanna be a chocobo tamer XD

[Rin]

...Oh right, whilst I'd be fine with either job system, the more rigid style would make it easier for me to come up with character concepts so... Probably that one I guess.

As for races, I'd probably play a human anyways so I have no strong feelings either way I guess.

[Lugia]

So... I haven't heard from the OP... is he usually here, or only here for a few minutes at a time?

[Wadesauce]

Def interested.

[Ogo]

Well heeey. This has been a nice surprise! Thank you all for the interest! Well, let's see what sort of replies I can whip up.

I have a suggestion... how about some of the races from final fantasy tactics advance / advance 2?

@Lugia

Interested also, although race wise, like Lugia said, if we can get final fantasy tactic species, it would be nice

@Evanist

Right, so that's an egg on me face. I completely forgot about the Tactics series. That would actually work perfectly. Moogles, Nu Mou, Bangaa, and Viera yes? I've got absolutely no qualms about their inclusion, so we can make that happen.

I would like to see the Final Fantasy V job system used, albeit with less constant class switching. Maybe something like picking one main job, and then taking sidejobs to get some of its skills and weapon privileges, maybe? There's probably another Final Fantasy game like that, but I can't remember any names, honestly.

@GarlandDaHero

Additionally: I don't mind either style of class systems! For the sake of choosing - I like the rigid Job systems like those in FFV.

@Utrax

...Oh right, whilst I'd be fine with either job system, the more rigid style would make it easier for me to come up with character concepts so... Probably that one I guess.

@Rin

Okie dokie. I was leaning more towards the rigid style anyway, so I can work with this. I don't think Job changing all willy nilly will be a thing, so pretty much whatever you pick is what you'll have.

So... I haven't heard from the OP... is he usually here, or only here for a few minutes at a time?

@Lugia

Yeah, sorry about that! I think I may have left my PC on this page when I went to bed. So if it had my name down in the corner, that's what's up. But yeah, I was asleep. Usually, I'm up between 3pm EST and 10am EST. Kinda overslept today. Oh well. Night shift life.

[Lugia]

Right, so that's an egg on me face. I completely forgot about the Tactics series. That would actually work perfectly. Moogles, Nu Mou, Bangaa, and Viera yes? I've got absolutely no qualms about their inclusion, so we can make that happen.

@Ogobrogo

Yup, that'd be them. Been thinking about using a Nu mou, myself.

[Savo]

Did somebody say Red Mages?



I heard Red Mages.

[Rin]

Hmmm, going to need to decide between knight (with a stupidly big sword, naturally) and black mage I guess.

[Ogo]

@Lugia Nu Mou are too cute.

@Savo xD You kill me. <3

Hmmm, going to need to decide between knight (with a stupidly big sword, naturally) and black mage I guess.

@Rin

psst psst...magic knight?

Right! So it seems like we've got enough interest here to warrant an OOC and with the questions and whatnot asked here, I've got a decent idea on how to go forward. I'll be working on it tonight. Likely it'll end up going up sometime tomorrow morning/afternoon.

[Rin]

@OgobrogoI do like magic knights in just about everything, I suppose... Knight was probably going to be a little paladin-ish anyways, though, but hmmm.

Also to be honest, I actually drew up a whole bunch of designs back in March based on the FFV jobs just in case an FF RP ever popped up because I am a total dork, so... My potential Knight, Black Mage and Mystic Knight characters I guess. XD

[Zero Hex]

Interested, I call Monk or Pugilist or w/e, the "guy that punches you" type. Usually not big on asian shaolin monk types in what are typically heavily western settings so probably won't do that unless I just fancy following FF tradition this go around, probably won't take a crystal hero slot either.

[PetiteAmbivert]

Hey FFXIV player! Woot woot!

If possible I'd be interested in creating a bard character who shoots things with a bow and plays magical doot doots

[Laios]

I am super interested in this. I'll probably go for a Samurai Class, if no one has any objections. Throwing everyone's hard earned Gil at enemies for extra damage and making vain attempts to 'Zantetsuken' a group of baddies sounds like a good time to me.

[Demous]

So I'm fairly interested. I would also love to make a character out of a (mostly) forgotten class: Sword Saint

... Though obviously not as ridiculously powerful as the one in game is ^^;