Do you have what it takes to become a Gallowblade?
Sitting on the far eastern edge of the great northwestern continent of Hathaia, the small island country of Avadon is divided from the rest of Hathaian borders by a vast sea known as the Merchant’s Expanse. As a result, Avadon has, over the years, become a strange mixture of self-sufficient and dependent. Living so far from their continental neighbours, the people of Avadon have had to learn to rely on their home to provide a means of surviving, as they cannot rely on the bare necessities to be delivered via a simple daylong horseback ride. Instead, the people who call the island nation home have learned to make do with what nature provides. For example, their mainly seafood-based diet. In the same breath, the country’s economy relies heavily on the sailing routes of countries far to the east, who, when traveling over the emerald ocean, must stop in Avadon to rest and restock before making the venture across the Merchant’s Expanse, and into the other parts of Hathaia.
Avadon’s people have grown to rely heavily on the seas that surround their home. Many Avadonian folk take up lives as fishermen, sailors, or even pirates, for those who live less than noble lifestyles. As a result, Avadonian culture has evolved around seamanship, with great ballads being told of the plights of fishermen who brave the raging oceans, and almost every Avadonian dish contains some hint of seafood in the recipe.
The people of Avadon are a kindhearted folk with a strong sense of pride in their home, and the lifestyles they’ve built around it. One would be hard-pressed to find an Avadonian who does not have a week’s worth of tales to tell, all originating from their homeland. It has also become common knowledge among Hathaians, as well as travelers from across the world, that the hospitality of Avadon is unmatched. Despite their hardy, and sometimes obnoxious demeanours, the people of Avadon are highly regarded as some of the friendliest people to call Hathaia home. As a result, travelers will often make rounds to the country for nothing more than a home-away-from-home feeling.
However, Avadon has not always been such a welcoming land. Before humans began settling on the island, it was home to great reptilian beasts who roamed both the skies and the land. The winged creatures stood at nearly 20-feet tall when on all fours, with wingspans nearly doubling that. Their scaled bodies protected them from possible harm, and their great talons and fearsome jaws could cut through even the thickest of tree trunks.
The beasts, known colloquially as arachs, were territorial creatures. Their aggressive nature easily wiped out the first few human settling parties, and for several generations, none were willing to brave the then unnamed Avadon. Though few in number, the arachs easily dealt with any human invaders, and protected their homes atop the great mountains that littered the island.
Though ever intuitive, the humans knew just how important Avadon would be in the future, as its geographical location pitted it between two major landmasses. This was not something the humans would lose sight of easily, and the arachs were nothing short of a small hill for the humans to climb on their way to success.
After countless attempts at making a home on the northern island, humans were eventually able to study the flight paths, sleeping schedules, and diets of the great winged arachs, as the humans lay low under the brush of Avadon’s lush forests. When winter struck, the arachs were known to stay secluded in mountainous lairs, avoiding the chill of the winter snow. In the summer, they soared freely through the open air, hunting and gathering in preparation for colder seasons, where they would be at their weakest.
After even more failed attempts, and even more casualties in the seemingly endless war on the arachs, the humans gathered the knowledge they needed - a true weakness in the otherwise impenetrable defenses of arach scales. During their time spent in the depths of Avadon’s forests, the humans managed to ally with the buchens - tall, muscular humanoids with varying skin tones, protruding, hooked teeth, and sparse, usually unkempt hair across their bodies. Though rather vile in appearance, and otherwise fairly unintelligent, the buchens did possess a much deeper understanding of the arachs, as well as Avadon in general, that the humans would otherwise lack. In exchange for their continued freedom in the future, the buchens shared their knowledge of the land and the arachs alike, exposing the arach’s enmity for the divine magic found in the horns of unicorns, as well as a soft spot at the peak of arach skulls - the only part of their body not covered by thick, metallic scales.
Together, alongside the buchens, the ambitious humans hunted unicorns, whose population in Avadon far outnumbered those in other parts of human civilization. This population steadily decreased, however, as the greed for power prevalent in the minds of both humans and buchens found a finite sustenance among the unicorns.
Before long, the humans and their native allies had created weapons -shortswords and arrows, mostly - using the sharp horns of the deceased unicorns. Enough weapons, in fact, to boost the confidence of the humans tenfold. That winter, known to Avadonian historians and bards as the winter of bloody scales, the humans carried out their final invasion on the homes of the arachs. During the cold season, the reptilian beasts were most fragile, sleeping for weeks at a time, ultimately exposing their soft-topped skulls to humans brave enough to trespass in their lairs.
That winter, the humans finally saw success. One by one, they managed to slay the arachs, which numbered only in the dozens. Their caves were littered with reptilian corpses, and if one had managed to survive, it also somehow managed to escape the gaze of both humans and buchens, who spent the remainder of the winter season in celebration of their victory.
Now, 150 years have passed. Arachs are a thing of history lessons, and both humans and buchens alike live peacefully in cities, towns, and villages scattered across the face of Avadon. The unicorns live on as the nation’s symbol of success, and the art of slaying arachoid creatures is passed down, generation through generation, in a group of warriors known as Gallowblades.
Though sight of an arach has not been reported in nearly 80 years, the importance of the Gallowblades lives on as strong as ever. Mainly taking care of smaller reptilian beasts that threaten the peace of Avadon, protection of the humans and their home on Avadon is at the forefront of any Gallowblade’s mind, and their training regimen involves deep study of the art of slaying - an important bit of knowledge for anyone looking to take on 20-foot reptiles. With a presence in every major Avadonian city, the Gallowblades have not only become beacons of safety, but also a symbol of the undying pride Avadonians have for their home, and the measures they are willing to take to maintain it.
In recent years, however, numbers within the ranks of the Gallowblades has decreased. The lack of arach sightings in nearly an entire human lifetime has given Avadonians the idea that the beasts are extinct and, as a result, fewer people are looking to take up arms against beasts they do not know to exist any longer. To remedy this, the Gallowblades have been given the rite of conscription. Though it has not been put to too much use, the rite gives Gallowblade officers the right to recruit anyone they deem fit - willingly or unwillingly - into the ranks of the Gallowblades. In turn, these recruits will be trained to live and die in the name of Avadon and her people.
Despite their name, the Gallowblades are not all hardened fighters. The ranks of the Gallowblades vary, and the Blades are known to accept anyone from any walk of life, as long as they show a willingness to protect and serve Avadon. Knights and brigands, priests and necromancers, thieves and hunters, all are welcome, and sometimes forced, into the Gallowblades.
With rumours swelling among Avadonians of a possible undiscovered lair of arachs, the rite of conscription given to the Gallowblades has become a possible lifesaver. The people of Avadon fear an entire pack of arachs may have gone unnoticed over the years in a northern mountain - enough to wipe out entire cities at a time. The power of the unicorn weapons passed down over the last 150 has long faded since the last proper battle against arachs. Tensions are high, and all eyes are on the Gallowblades to stay true to their name, and protect Avadon and the people who call it home.
That is where you, a newly conscripted Gallowblade recruit, will etch their name into the history of Avadon. Were you conscripted into the Gallowblades, or did you join on your own ambition? Will you survive long enough to see an arach yourself, or will the vigourous lifestyle of a Gallowblade introduce you to an untimely death? Do you even care for Avadon, or are you here because of the fame? The money? Or was this your only choice, besides the end of an executioner’s axe? Your story is yours to tell, but all will eventually intertwine with the future of Avadon.
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I'm mostly posting this just to see how much interest it drums up. It's an idea that I've had rolling around in my head for some weeks now, and thought it could make for a fun roleplay.
The story will be further explained in a future post, but that's the jist of it. Your character will be a new recruit of the Gallowblades, and eventually the story will take us into the far reaches of Avadon in search of any remaining arachs, which may or may not even be true. That's up to you to find out.
Photos to help give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
Playable Races (can include more, just ask nicely. Hahaha.):
Magic
The use of magic is going to be fairly limited here. It exists, certainly, but any old average Joe isn't going to able to wield it. You want to lob fireballs? You best get to studying, because mastering fire-based magic is going to take years. You want to summon demons? Go for it, but don't come crying to me when one of them turns on you and rips your arm off. And when people start to shun you for working with devils? Hey, you asked for it.
As well as this, magic is going to require almost direct contact with the caster's body. So, you're not going to be able to wear steel-plated armour and shoot lightning from one hand while slashing a sword with the other. Mages are going to have to be wearing clothes that allow the mana the seep through it with relative ease. Things like wizard robes, or even regular clothing, would accomplish this.
The Roleplay itself
I'm not sure how many people I want. It all depends on how many people are interested, I suppose. We could start at four, or ten, or however many we can get, really. All depends on how much interest this post drums up.
I'm hoping everyone can keep their characters realistic, given the setting. Sure, you're training to slay dragons, but that doesn't mean you get to be all-powerful, undefeated gods on earth. I wanna see some jailed thieves serving as Gallowblades, or some nervous recruit looking to redeem his reputation. I likely won't accept your character if they seem too powerful/overdone. That being said, I'll always talk with you to see how we can change them up to fit the story better.
I won't really have an active character myself. Instead, I'll guide the party along with various NPCs, encounters, and situations. This might be common practice on this website, but I'm pretty new here, so cut me some slack. Hahaha.
I'm thinking weekly IC posts from myself to move the story along? Maybe bi-weekly, depending on how many people join. That should give people plenty of time to post their bit.
As the tag/title suggests, this takes place in a medieval fantasy universe. It's a new creation of mine, so it's ever-expanding, so if you want to add a creature, place, etc., just hit me up (here or via PM) and we can talk about it. However, I won't be accepting anything futuristic or technologically advanced. No guns, no robots, you know the drill.
Classes?
I'm thinking of setting up a list of classes for people to pick from. Like fighter, ranger, wizard, bandit, etc. Is this something people would like to see? Or do people prefer free range with their characters? Let me know, and if it's something people are interested in, I'll add a list of classes to pick from, and expand upon.
Other
Like I said, this is only a simple post to see who's interested in this idea. There's a lot more that I have in mind, but I figured my best bet was to see whether or not people actually liked the idea. If I see at least a decent group of interested people, I'll make this into a full-fledged game, and we can all have fun slaying dragons together!
If you're interested, let me know. We can discuss changes to th plot/world/etc. here, and you can run your character ideas by me and all that fun stuff.
Hope to see some people jumping on board with this! Cheers folks.
