Fallen angels, demons, and ruthless humans have taken over Earth, like all of it. The majority of these wicked bastards worship Lucifer, though they don't dare call him that. His name in 2020 is Hashaton. He is unseen, unheard, and unfelt, except in the spiritual sense - the sense that matters.
Millions have died in the nuclear wars and massive solar flares; those who were innocent slept awaiting their reward, and those who were too selfish went down to await their final everlasting judgment.
The mastermind of this slaughter is Hashaton's second-in-command, the fallen angel everyone worships and reveres known as Balderus. All you know is that Balderus and his dark angels, demonic spirits, monsters, and false prophets seek to wreak havoc on the planet, and eliminate all who threaten their existence, and Hashaton's plan. You do not know what that plan is.
But there is a legend of a man named Ephraim. The legend goes that he does know what that plan is, and he knows how to stop it. Armageddon is coming, but first you must travel from the west coast of America to Texas to find him. And then maybe we can all sleep peacefully again, secure in the hope that Balderus can be defeated.
Nobody knows exactly what Ephraim looks like; only that he is both a loner, and a leader. His domain extends from southern Oklahoma into northern Texas, and the angels and demons and monsters don't go there. Nobody knows why.
Right before Balderus took his throne a couple years ago, the US government had finally started drilling for Alaskan oil. This broke the Arabs and gas prices in the states plummeted. So gas is not a problem when traveling. It's the ammunition and guns that we will be hard-pressed to find, as Balderus has made them all illegal.
All who wish to join this quest to find Ephraim's Domain must do the following:
1) Start on the west coast of the US. If a player doesnt know much about the west coast, ask. 2) This does not mean you cannot play a southerner or new englander. They just have to be on that side of the country when starting. 3) You need a muscle car, or another sensible car to have in an apocalypse in which you must drive long distances. Nobody uses ricers anymore now that gas prices are like 4 cents a gallon. Sports cars, maybe...but be reasonable - a Porsche 911 is not going to do much in the way of protection and defense. It's literally just for speed. And good luck finding parts. So keep that in mind when you consider foreign cars. 4) Demons are your enemy. If your character has an alcohol addiction, for example, they are going to follow you. Angels don't give two shits about you. They just wanna fight other angels. It's OUR job to fight the demons. 5) You cannot be a good angel. 9 times out of 10, people are not capable of RPing as a good angel. Sorry. 6) You cannot be a good demon. There is no such thing. 7) You cannot play anything other than human (I probably should have started with that). However, you may have spiritual abilities. More about that later.
Guidelines for villains:
1) You can be a fallen angel but there will be strict guidelines for you. Most fallen angels are lawful evil, which means they respect and adhere to order and the chain-of-command, which is a chain Balderus beats you with if you disobey (totally stole that line from Firefly). 2) You cannot play a demon. They are simply too chaotic in this universe for a human to understand. Sorry, unless you are a possessed RPer, you can't play as a demon. However, if you are a possessed RPer, please do not apply. Got enough trouble as it is (you know who you are). That said, you may play a demon-possessed human. 3) You may play a scavenger, demon-possessed human, cannibal, warlord of some forgotten ruined city, etc. Whatever. 4) You may play a monster/chimera/giant. These are basically foot-soldiers and servants for the angels. 5) Ephraim's Dominion is a location off limits to demons, monsters, and fallen angels. 6) You cannot play Balderus, but you can play his lieutenant, the fallen angel Samani. She controls (as best she can) the chaotic demons.
*Demon-possessed humans do not act like demons. IE: Asmodeus possesses Bob by sneaking in through his alcohol addiction or other weakness. Bob still has all of his functions on a day-to-day basis, completely in control of his body. It is only when Bob gets drunk or is around heroes, Asmodeus comes out, and rarely for more than a few minutes. Even so, it is not a "I am Asmodeus, bow before me!" type of thing. Bob still behaves like Bob, just in a more Asmodean way. This is why Bob will never realize that he has been possessed. He assumes all the bad things he does is of his own free will. However, there are RARE instances when someone will lose their mind and go on a shooting spree, only to wake up later and not remember it or understand why they did it. But this would only happen under certain circumstances, such as following orders given to them by their leaders, or if the demon is exceptionally strong and the human is both weak-willed and very evil already. In other words, this requires a writer/player who understands the intricacies of complex character development.
I am a huge fan of mystery and character development, so this CS will be a little different than most. It will only include the basics, and vices that demons may prey upon.
Name: CB handle/Alias: Species: Gender: Age: Vices (at least 2, this can be anger, alcoholism, pornography, gambling, addictive personality, etc.): Weapons: Car: Other (tools, scars, etc.): Appearance (no anime/cartoons):
This does not mean you should not know your character's personality or history. If you have to write it down elsewhere to remember or conceptualize it, do so. You may even put it down here on the CS if you want, but I don't require it. Assume that if you play a hero, Balderus has a file on you that looks just like your CS...
And now the fun part: POWERS!
Heroes: Most heroes (though not all) will have a guardian angel. This angel is usually invisible in his or her spirit form. However, your guardian may choose to take human form to guide you or protect you. Usually you will not even realize that the person helping you is an angel. That is the point. That said, there will still be very physical battles between good and evil angels. You may see these fights, on the ground, in the air, or even in the ocean...but you will not be involved. There is very little you would be able to do to harm an angel, if anything at all.
Additionally, your angels can imbue you with special gifts or abilities. These powers will be determined by me at an as-needed basis. They can be anything from understanding a single phrase in another language once, to performing an eviction (exorcism), to being able to use telekinesis to hurl a car. But please dont damage any muscle cars :(
Even more additionally, certain powers will be permanent for certain people. However, this will only be for heroes who have proven themselves, both with physical and spiritual courage. A reluctant antihero, while possibly invincible so he can continue helping his fellow heroes complete their mission, will not receive miraculous powers, until he not only puts his life on the line for his fellow man, but also his soul. This does mean that your "hero" cannot be anti-God/religion/angel/love or anything else that the good guys hold valuable. In other words, your hero can be agnostic, right up to the point where he's literally faced with spiritual beings and events, but being atheist when you're in the middle of a fight with a demon is probably a bad idea lol.
demonic powers
Villains: If you want to play a generic human warlord or scavenger or bounty hunter, the powers work the same way, except instead of angels or God giving you an ability to heal, help, and serve the greater good, demons or fallen angels give you more obvious and near-OP shit that you can use to dominate humans with.
If you're playing a possessed human, the read above, except your powers are even more obvious and near-OP. Like throwing cars or leaping onto three-story buildings.
If you play a fallen angel, it depends on your rank, position in the hierarchy, and angelic species. Yep, angels have species. You know, like Seraph, Cherub, etc. I will list them below. The powers specific to the species are in italics.
Seraphim Powers Pyromancy/Pyrokenesis Telekinesis Illusions (visual, aural, and scent) Hypnosis with beautiful singing Immunity to all ailments, fatigue, extreme temps, and poisons Invisibility (to humans, not angels) Indestructibility (except to other seraphs and above) Immortality (you dont age) Phasing (you know, cuz you're a spirit) Flight (with your six-wings) FTL (yep, faster-than-light travel) Light manipulation Empathy Super-strength Healing
Cherubim Powers Shapeshifting (usually into animals/chimera) 360-degree vision Indomitable will (very few Cherubim fell) Shockwave/vibrations Invisibility (to humans, not angels) Phasing (you know, cuz you're a spirit) Flight (with your six-wings) Indestructibility (except to other seraphs and above) Immunity to all ailments, fatigue, extreme temps, and poisons Immortality (you dont age) FTL (yep, faster-than-light travel) Light manipulation Empathy Super-strength Healing
Grigori Powers Geokenesis Electrokenesis Sedation Seduction Immunity to all ailments, fatigue, extreme temps, and poisons Invisibility (to humans, not angels) Indestructibility (except to other seraphs and above) Immortality (you dont age) Phasing (you know, cuz you're a spirit) Flight (with your six-wings) FTL (yep, faster-than-light travel) Light manipulation Empathy Super-strength Healing
Rather a low body-count for nuclear fires though. Even WW1 if I remember rightly, can lay claim to a multi-million body count. If nukes were actually brought out, you'd be looking more billions dead.
tactical nukes delivered only to military installations wouldnt be that bad. they werent exploded OVER the bases in the air, they were exploded on ground level. much about nuclear war is exaggerated. the major villain would be the wind currents, carrying radiation. once the war was over, the irradiated sections of the planet were cordoned off (like Chernobyl and Fukushima was...sorta). the entire world looking like the game Fallout is highly improbable, even if every nuclear power in the world fired their nukes. the world isnt as small as people make it out to be.
but that brings me to three other points: in this story, only a couple of countries fired nukes at each other, not the whole world. America was one of those countries but most people living in America dont know who the other country is, since much of the electrical infrastructure is down. Also in my game, the earth's crust is expanding and contracting, resizing and reshaping the planet, as well as causing millions of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions a day. and third, the body count is relatively low thanks to the good angels that most of the population dont even know exist. also, demons use radiation to make possessing people easier. so its all connected.
Once we get a couple pages IC, the state of the world and story will make more sense, at least i hope.
In the world, nine major countries possess 16,300 nuclear warheads. And there is a few thousand more scattered about the place. The world is not small, admittedly, but there are a hell of a lot of nukes to go around, which is where the worry stems from.
However, if it's sorta AU where there are less nukes and less people firing them, then the low kill-count is easy to understand. I've got an interesting character concept in mind, but how do you feel about limited Creation abilities. Something like a toned-down variant of Archer from Unlimited Blade Works [I.E Not making arrow-shaped warheads or a world of Infinite Swords]
im not sure there is a word "no" enough for that. lol
even if matter could be created from nothing, or something as inconsequential as the conjurer's soul/energy, even if it was just a speck of dust in this story, that would be a bit far-fetched and OP. also, i assign the powers.
the best way to approach it is by making a boring mundane human character that can later develop. assume this is just a generic Mad Max or Walking Dead apocalypse RP with no supernatural crap. that will make it more exciting when something supernatural does happen
If powers are dictated by you and can't be made by the poster, then you should probably clarify that in the powers section, as right now it sounds like you can make your own power. And, generic apoc with no supernatural crap is kind of thrown out of the window first second in with....a lot of supernatural crap as the setting.
