[OOC] The Gleeful Eclipse

[Paradoxial]

if you’re reading this, it means you are guilty. Guilty of embracing the lies of heaven. Guilty of trying to separate yourself from your sin, trying to separate from what makes you human as we all have blindly done for they who do not care for us. But the time of light is over, whether by choice or by pain you will come to see that. Your penance will be exacted by blood and fire, or by word and mind, and you will become one of us. You will lose your soul and embrace the true power of the dark. To usher in a new age one must first burn the past, and soon enough you will be the first spark. Take solace in that you will be the first heralds of the true world, the gleeful eclipse.

Welcome to the Gleeful Eclipse, Heralds. This roleplay will take you rampaging through the devout, holy land of Skorhn. No matter where you come from, whether as a common farmer from the grain fields or a high priest in the spires of the capital, somehow you found your way into the hands of the Gleeful Eclipse. Some call it the devil, others as the end of all things, but no matter its name it is the antithesis of the so called holy gods. It seems nothing more than to corrupt, destroy, and blight a land untouched by dark influence. In some way or another, you and your group have emerged from the cultist base known as “sanity’s demise” having become heralds, the long awaited masters of the Eclipses unholy power. Hundreds even thousands of unworthy have died before you emerged and their sacrifices will not be in vain, for you at least. Directed by the Gleeful Eclipse itself, your duty is to destroy and corrupt the holy land of Skorhn by any means possible. The classes available are at follows

the penance of the body

a village burns and a man screams in the middle. Pierced by dozens of swords, arrows and axes, he falls to the ground. The guards around breathe a sigh of relief, before he gets back up. His skin bursts off of his body revealing a slimy paled form. Tentacles lash from hidden orifices as the fight suddenly takes a turn.

Description: you have been broken physicially before anything else. By mutation or otherwise your physical From is your greatest asset, crunching steel plate like nothing or ripping opponents limb from limb. You could look like an 8 foot tall human with no skin or a 4 tentacles monstrosity, as long as you use your brute force to kill anything in your way.

shattering of the mind

a woman stands before dozens of commonfolk, standing between her and their quaint farming village. With pitchforks and scythes they rush towards her without restraint. She feeds on the edge and anger, before ruthlessly lashing out with elemental fury. Fire blasts the front line and from the back ice shards pelt the weaker men. In short order she stands above a pile of corpses.

description: your mind has been broken and your powers rival even the holiest of priests. Mastering the forces of the elements, you dish out massive direct damage from your frail physical form, corrupted mind destroying any magic that is brought against you.

the corruption of the soul

a town suffers from a blight of locusts. A priest in a small village turns into a cult master of the Eclipse. A high noble is found having been slain by his own hand. And far away in a dungeon dripping with corpses and blood, a corrupted soul completes his masterpiece. The supply lines come down and an army is routed, without they having ever seen his face.

description: these are the truest embodiments of the eclipse. Although they do not deal direct damage of the elements as their brothers do, these black hearted specialize in the plagues and corruption of others. With a glance a commoner mentally unprepared can break out in disease or madness. A word turns a devout priest into a cultist. Though rarely seen, their plans slowly cultivate the world for its inevitable doom.

Character sheet:

Name: (before you were saved)
Nickname: (what the villagers cower at the sound of)

Appearance: (photo or description is fine)

Class:

Strengths: (any notable advantages your character has, physical strength or mental prowess.)

Weaknesses: (notable weaknesses, for instance to holy fire etc.)

The before: explaining your characters life before being taken by the cult, and the story of your capture or encounter.

The after; explaining the torture your character endured, and his subsequent activities in the cult and dealing with the Gleeful Eclipse.

In total these should be at least 2-3 paragraphs, detail encouraged!

[Paradoxial]

@Lord of Evil @mercenarius @Vega7 @CAWs for alarm @drippy

[Lord of Evil]

I'll try to get my character up today but I'll be busy so I might not be able to.

[CAWs For Alarm]

I'll also see about getting a CS up fairly soon.

[Drippy]

Character Sheet

Name:
Angharad
'The Orphan Priestess'
is the name she was given at the Temple.

Alias:
Angharad

"And behold, a pale horse, and to she who sat it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, that men would slay one another and despair, and to her was given a chalice, filled with all the woe in creation."

Appearance

Class:
The corruption of the Soul

Strengths:
Angharad's truest strength before and now has always been her charisma, this is a great asset when it comes to her other strengths; plotting and planning are her bread and butter, she weaves a twisted web across the land leaving those who are ensnared utterly helpless.

Weaknesses:
Whilst Angharad is naturally much more capable than your average Guardsman Bob in a scrap, having more than human physical capabilities and some training in how to wield a blade, she will find herself quickly outmatched by any more serious contender in a straight up fight to the death.

I am given and I am taken.
I was there at your first breath,
But you didn't ask for me.
But I will follow you till your death.

The before:
For the first 7 years of Angharad's life she lived with her parents and siblings in a small and remote farming town, her family owned a small farm and Angharad was known to love exploring the local forests, with strict supervision from her older siblings! Angharad isn't really sure what happened, from her childish recollections it seems a darkness crept into the minds of the villagers and her family and slowly everything soured as if from poison.
She ran away from home, perhaps this would have been a temporary state of affairs, many young children 'run away from home' only to come crawling back after losing their nerve at the edge of the village, however... Angharad, brave soul that she was and thinking to herself that she knew the local forests quite well, did not lose her nerve and as the dark of night swept across the land she found herself quite lost.
A few months later she found herself in a large city, not the kind of place that is kind to stray penniless children, you can imagine. She lived on the streets for around a year and unlike most her time on the street was characterized by her willingness to help those even less fortunate than her and her steadfast moral fortitude, even with the gaunt face of starvation she refused to steal.
Her good character was observed by a priest with a similar penchant for helping the less fortunate and a few short weeks later she was recruited into the Priesthood.
After completing her training she stayed in the city for another year before wanderlust called for her, she out into the wide world travelling from city to city, village to remotest of villages and if she kept a careful eye out for a familiar face in most quiet hope, then who can blame her?
By 20 years of age tales The Orphan Priestess's piety and deeds had spread far and wide and the name Angharad could be heard whispered in a thousand quiet prayers throughout the land.
The tale of her capture is comparatively rather boring, whilst travelling in the wilds she was set upon and though the clearing where they found her is now the final resting place for a very sizable number of foul creatures, at the last they did take her.

The after:
The foul peoples who captured her tried everything earthly they could to break her and they failed and so they turned to more estoric means. Her blood was drained and her veins filled with demonic ichor, she was fed nothing but the flesh of innocent children sanctified and sacrificed in the name of dark gods, her soul was shackled with the longing of the 9 Cardinal Sins and though her body was wrought anew, her soul mangled she did not break.
Growing desperate her captors enacted a great ritual, a thousand souls sent to the dark to corrupt a most holy artifact, a chalice containing an ocean of holy water, sullied in despair. From the pitch black waters of this new Unholy Artifact she was made to drink and so she broke.
It is telling that a year on from her fall every single member of the sect that broke her have met untimely ends, a coincidence perhaps.
Now like before she wanders the land and the people once more whisper her name in their prayers.

[Paradoxial]

@Drippy awesome! Accepted, move her over to the character tab.

[Lord of Evil]

I have no idea if this is ok or not, please give it a look.

Julius

Name: Julius Bertino
Nickname: Doctor Death

Appearance: Taller than average, sporting a slim build mostly untouched by the rigours of the world. His hands show small signs of cuts, however, white scars long since worn out by time. His hair is long and blond and his face is aesthetically pleasing, but his eyes seem hollow, and outside observers quickly feel something is wrong with the man. Nevertheless, he is well kept and spotless at all times, a principle he picked up during his childhood.

Class: Corruption of the soul

Strengths: Intelligent and capable of making logical decisions, resistant to pain due to purposefully dulled instincts. Heartless and willing to make sacrifices if necessary. Has a steady hand and great dexterity, along with great knowledge concerning diseases and the human body.

The power he gained from his awakening manifests as the ability to manipulate corporeal diseases that effect the body. His own body acting as a host to these diseases and he can freely suppress or strengthen their intensity. Different diseases have different delivery methods and effects, which allow him to take a variety of approaches. His abilities also allow him to compound diseases into much more lethal versions, making them very difficult to cure. He himself is immune to corporeal diseases and has the cure for each disease, but some require very rare ingredients. And due to the dark origin of his powers they may sometimes have unexpected results.

Weaknesses: Julius is apathetic towards the goals of the cult, mostly concerned with furthering his own interests. Thus he can't be relied on to enact a proactive plan unless it aligns with his own goals, and won't do more than the bare minimum if pushed to do something he doesn't care about. Furthermore, while Julius doesn't feel much pain, he's physically on the side of normal humans and is thus vulnerable to attacks made to his person. Lastly he's emotionally distant and finds it difficult to understand people. He can follow their train of logic but anything past that is mostly beyond his understanding.

The before: Julius was much the same before it all happened. He never knew the circumstances surrounding his birth, he had first been found and adopted by his father one day, and they lived in a remote village. His new father was a skilled surgeon and did his work with no complaints, but he was reclusive and hid his secrets, which only brought the ire of the townsfolk. Even at an early age it was apparent Julius was different from other children, being solidly unemotional and socially unresponsive. But he had a steady hand and didn't flinch at the sight of blood, traits which his father found precious for their work. It worried him that the boy didn't show any emotion but he did as he was told, and that was about as much as the doctor could ask for. And Julius did sometimes ask his father some things, mostly related to work. The doctor took this as a good sign, the boy was taking an interest in the work he did. But as Julius grew older, the questions became more and more disturbing, until eventually Julius's father forbade him from asking such questions again.

Years went by and Julius became more and more skilled, but he never found answers to his questions. He didn't understand why he couldn't speak of them to anyone but he continued his work without complaint. Perhaps he didn't know how to complain, or perhaps he didn't care. Either way, this all changed when the cult attacked the village. It was a day like any other, they checked up on the villagers and their farm animals, and then all of a sudden the village was swallowed by flames. Julius and his father were both wounded, though julius had a more major wound. His father put him somewhere safe and went to help more villagers, and Julius never saw him again. Soon enough he got up, ignoring his wounds, and started treating other villagers, even while the cultists surrounded the survivors. Eventually the cult took everyone left alive back to their base, and that was when the torture began.

The after: At the time, Julius didn't know what to make of the situation. It was mostly him not understanding their intentions; he'd been told they wanted to bring about the end of the world, but they never told the prisoners why, or how they would do it. All he had were more questions. The cultists began splitting people up and putting them into groups, taking the group Julius was in through a metal hallway, through which echoed the screams of the tortured. His fellow prisoners shivered and cowered, but Julius felt nothing. Perhaps it was because he had gotten used to similar sounds from his times helping his father. Soon enough the group made it to their destination, and Julius was put into an iron coffin lined with spikes. It was a mind numbing torture where the subject must be at attention at all times, a feat Julius was certainly capable of. But it was certain that his stamina wouldn't hold out as long as his mind.

So Julius sat in the darkness and waited. He knew he couldn't open the coffin himself with his meager physical strength so he had no choice but to wait for his captors to let him out, if they ever did. So Julius waited, and thought about the situation. Starting from the cultists his thoughts meandered back towards the village and the work he did. Soon, however, the whispering started. It came from outside the coffin, and it seemed to be the cultists talking to him. They spoke of a sin he had not commited and promised him riches and power, anything he desired, in return for complete servitude. Julius shut them out, but he couldn't help wondering what he desired. His mind wandered back to his childhood helping his father with his work. It could be said that he'd had everything he ever wanted, and yet his mind had always been fixated on the answers he never received. What was it that he wanted, in the end? Soon enough, he found his answer.

The cultists outside saw blood pooling from the coffin and ceased their whispers, believing Julius would die soon. It was apparent, however, that something was wrong. The cultists surrounding the coffin collapsed, writhing in pain as their skin broke out with boils and rashes. When reinforcements arrived the afflicted were dead, and when they opened the coffin they found Julius none the worse for the experience, save for his old wounds opening up. Surprisingly he agreed to help the cult achieve its aims, and thus he became a herald. He spent his days studying humans the the effects of diseases on their bodies, and when the time came for him to help the cult's activities he spread diseases to remote villages by infecting a host with a disease and releasing them into the targeted area. Later on he would appear and "save" them from their plight, and the cultists would spread their word further in the village. He kept his role a secret to the outside, but some leaks were inevitable. He became known as a doctor of death, as whenever he appeared, death was close by. Those that call the moniker have no idea how close it is to the truth.

[Drippy]

Ooh interesting, your character is something of the antithesis of mine. I imagine they won't get along haha

[CAWs For Alarm]

Hex

Name:
Atrius Averna

Nickname:
Hex

“A hex, a curse, call it what you will. A slow death will always be the end.”

Appearance:

Appearance

Class:
Shattering of the Mind

Strengths:
Hex’s proficiency in elemental magic and his experience with a blade and combat in general gives him quite the boon in fighting. Also due to his former occupation he is overly cautious, which can be good or bad depending on the opponent and how unpredictable they are.

Weaknesses:
Hex is essentially a glass cannon. Even with his capability to deal some major damage his body is quite weak. Any heavy hitting enemy that hits him will most likely take him out of a fight. He is also somewhat more lethargic than he was before, making him slightly less effective in melee combat.

The before:
Atrius was trained as a mercenary, trying to follow in the footsteps of his parents who travelled and worked for coin. From a young age he had a blade in his hand and he showed some natural skill. Not all that surprising with the skill of his parents. Atrius was able to see much of the continent and saw many wonderful sights. And in their line of work death was no stranger to the boy, though it never hit close to him. Both of his parents were able to see him grow into a skilled young man.

At 20 years of age Atrius set out on his own and wasn’t long until he got his first job, a bodyguarding mission. A young lady of a smaller noble house required protection in an area ripe with bandits. It wasn’t that hard of a trek in the end, a few minor scraps from the occasional attack but in the end no harm befell his charge. In the off time between fights Atrius and the girl began to talk and soon enough they hit it off. After the mission was complete she gave him an offer that he gladly accepted, become her full time bodyguard. It was almost like a fairy tale how things turned out after that.

Unfortunately, some fairy tales are tragedies.

The after:
It was 3 years later that the cultists attacked. They burned down the town that Atrius and his soon to be wife lived in and captured many people. Atrius, due to his skill in combat, drew special attention from them. At first they had attempted to break his body. They tried all manner of torture and pain but he stayed strong enough, years as a mercenary hardened him enough. The damned cultists realized that they had to switch tactics. They shackled him to the wall and he did nothing but scowl. That is, until they brought someone else. Dragging her by the hair they brought the woman Atrius loved into the room. After a ceremony which the poor man was forced to watch they sacrificed her to their damnable god. Atrius’ mind was shattered and he knew nothing but pain in that moment, he had been begging them to stop, tried to offer his life instead. But to no avail.

Atrius cried like he never had before, he was broken and now he was tired. So very tired… And then he awoke. With magical powers the shackles binding him were destroyed almost instantly. Slowly he rose to his feet, his body lethargic. Using ice and wind he slaughtered both the innocent and the guilty, extinguishing the torchlight and leaving the place covered in a shroud of darkness. Atrius never wanted to accept becoming a Herald, but he served the Gleeful Eclipse nonetheless. He wanted others to feel this pain. And he held, somewhere in his heart, this false hope he could retrieve her soul.

Finally got this done, hopefully it looks okay.

[Paradoxial]

@CAWs For Alarm accepted, great character!

@Lord of Evil a great idea, but I’d love a little bit more clarification on his powers. Does he just infect the people around him, can he project it at will? Are the diseases he uses conventional or magical, corrupting the soul or the body? Otherwise awesome character, love the backstory just need to flesh out the powers a bit more :)

[Lord of Evil]

@Paradoxial I added the power stuff. I'll summarise it for you:

summary

Julius is a carrier of corporeal diseases, though he's immune to all of them. He can pick and choose diseases based on effect and delivery method and then must put it into practice, i.e using his blood to pass a blood borne disease to people. Lastly he can compound different diseases into new deadlier ones. He uses these powers to infect a host which he then strategically inserts into the targeted area to spread the disease.

[Paradoxial]

@Lord of Evil excellent, move him over. We just need one more person at least to start :)

[Rune_Alchemist]

Ooh

An RP where we're the bad guys

Well if you got room

I'ma throw a CS at ya.

[CAWs For Alarm]

@Rune_Alchemist
Woo another person! I like your profile pic btw

[Rune_Alchemist]

@CAWs For Alarm
Oh, a Dantes fan I see. I approve.

@Paradoxial Heyo, hopefully I didn't go too overboard with anything.

Indulgence

"And they indulged in worldly desires for thirteen days and twelve nights until they choked on their own vomit, drowned in their own fluids, and killed their brothers. All that remained in the end, was a feast of flesh for the demon."

Name:

Clémentine Lévesque

Nickname:

The Ravenous Cardinal

Appearance:

Long, blond dirty hair that cascades from her scalp to her lower back. Demonic, but oddly hypnotizing eyes that seem to promise carnal desires of the flesh. A demonic smile plastered on her dark, sanguine smelling skin. Dressed in the finest high society clothing, be they dresses, suits more befitting of men, or even just lightly dressed in lingerie. A figure that would entice most humans, male or female to desire indulging themselves in it.

Clémentine carries herself with an air of arrogance and poise, oddly contrasting her usual more violent and indulgent temperament. Her soft, feminine body hides strength that would fell a hundred men in one swing, and allow her to move faster than most mortal men could hope.

Class:

The Penance of the Body

Strengths:

Clémentine's curse is one of the Body - though upon first inspection aside from her inhuman eyes and demonic smile, she appears incredibly human despite her inhuman feats of physical prowess. While at a resting state, she could easily be described as peak human fitness, the moment she begins her indulgences in battle is the moment her abilities began manifesting.

Spilling blood. Consumption. Feasting. The desire to devour all is a basic instinct for Clémentine now. Her body is a hollow vessel with nothing inside but a void that must be filled. No blood seeps from her wounds. No pain is felt upon this cold, hollow flesh. A ravenous, empty shell that will feast upon all it gets its teeth upon.

If Clémentine is injured, she is able to extend this void to devour her foes. Inky, putrid smelling black flesh full of nothing but a mass of teeth and eyes will form from even the smallest wound and devour the largest of beasts. Feasting causes wounds to heal, increased strength, stamina, and vitality.

Once the feast of blood and flesh begin, once the void begins to be filled a transformation will take place. Her body will slowly begin returning to that of the demon that was shoved inside of her. The vessel grows in size, starting to bloat obscenely in some places as she tries to consume and devour everything around her. Her arms and legs will lose human form, turning into blackened claws that are disproportionate to her human size, and granting her greater strength.

The more she indulges, the more drastic changes become, and the more her power increases.

Once the feast is over, the beast slumbers and begins its hunt once more.

Clémentine has no formal training with weaponry, but she favors her own claws and hands, swords, as well as the reach and destructive power of halberds.

Weaknesses:

Being a demonic entity now, Clémentine has a great deal of weaknesses that now come with her new power. The first of which, is that any holy place makes her uncomfortable. She's powerful enough to ignore ambient effects, but it will still agitate her. This of course, also means she's extremely vulnerable to anything holy such as spells, artifacts, weapons, etc.

A second limitation of her powers, is that its not exactly suited towards small scale engagements. To truly, truly, manifest her powers to their most effectiveness, she must be deployed in a fight that will both drag on and with a large number of people for her to indulge in. As a long lasting berserker and generally causing chaos - none would be better.

Third would be her inability to differentiate from friend or foe, or her utter indifference to them. Once the feast beings, all will partake whether they want too or not.

Lastly, there is an upper limit to her abilities, that is incredibly difficult to maintain and achieve in the first place. Massive strain is placed on the vessel, and even with the demons regenerative abilities the vessel can only take so much before it crumbles. The feast is fleeting, short, but so very passionate, and as the feast dries up, so too will her strength, and a new one must begin before it will return.

She does not really care for the eclipse, but as long as they keep her full and happy, she could care less.

The before:

Born into a respectable family of priests and theologians in the city of Argenluire, Clémentine was seemingly blessed from birth. A gentle disposition, a kind smile, and a naive view that believed people were inherently good. The Lévesque family was known in the Holy Land of Skorhn for their generosity, piety, and reverence to the faith. Clémentine was no different - indeed, her name was given in hopes that she would be as merciful and compassionate as the saints themselves. For most of her life she took to studies of the gods, history, as well as some politics.

Clémentine was quickly taken an interest in by nobles and others around her for both her beauty and piety. The people quickly heralded her as a saint for her acts of kindness, even going so far as to plead with the guard for a stay on a murderers execution because she felt as though he could change, or at least repent for his sins. She quickly made her way into the church, climbing the clergy until she was one of the most influential, even at her young age.

But the higher one soars, the brighter one shines...the harder they fall. One dark, quiet night, Clémentine was taken during a trip to speak with a local orphanage about finding new homes for the children there.

The after:

The torture she endured, was something no one would ever want to go through. It started off simple at first. Piercing the flesh. Taking her purity. Physical punishment. Yet her defiant eyes would never leave. She was both confident and certain that god would never let such a thing persist, and strongly held onto that belief. One of their mages then had a rather nasty idea. A relic from an older age. Something demonic. Something foul smelling. Something hungry.

They took everything out of her. Cut her open, using foul magic to keep her alive - and conscious. First came the lungs. Second came the heart. Third the eyes. Day by day, the removed her organs. Painfully, slowly. By the second day she could no longer feel anything. By the third, she couldn't move. On the fourth, she lost her voice. The next, she felt so hollow...so empty...

They put the thing inside of her, sewed her back up and left her for a day. They placed the body of a human in her room, and unshackled her to see the results of this experiment. She devoured them. Every single one. So tasty. So red. So tasty. So full.

Her fist act, upon reaching this penance? Her family. Mom and dad made such tasty meals. Little brother was so very fun to play with. Ah, this new liberation felt so fun, so fun! Why had she bothered with silly things like morals and ethics before? No no, she would paint this world such a beautiful, fun shade of red filled with the sounds of debauchery and violence...and she would make all the funny little humans enjoy it as much as she.

[Paradoxial]

@Rune_Alchemist accepted! We will wait a bit too see if anyone else submits anything, so projected start is around Wednesday or Thursday :)

[Rune_Alchemist]

nice nice

Eager to see what mischief we'll get up too~

[Paradoxial]

@Rune_Alchemist@CAWs For Alarm@Lord of Evil@Drippy

A quick update:

I know I said we’d start today, but with gloriously bad timing I’ve come down with the flu. I’ve been resting all day, but either tonight or tomorrow I’ll crank out an introduction post. Thank you for understanding

[Paradoxial]

Post out tomorrow, again so sorry for the long wait recover is taking a lot longer than I thought.

[Paradoxial]

@Lord of Evil @mercenarius @Vega7 @CAWs for alarm @drippy

Post is up! Set up a little bit of a show for you guys, each one of you gets to kill one of the fake chosen! Think of this as an introduction, getting a feel for your powers and such. I’m interested to see what you all come up with :)

Little bit of a side note, make sure to start your post with a “timeline”

The format for this is (location),(Region),(year)
The year will reflect how the story is going, for instance the starting year is the rising sun because the powers of the holy ones are growing.