Hello, and welcome to the official interest check for Tales from Frontier Village, a semi-sandbox roleplay set within the world of Rune Factory! I’m your host and GM, DocRock, and let’s get into things!
As far as I’m aware, this is the first proper attempt at a Rune Factory fandom tale, and honestly? That doesn’t surprise me due to its nicheness. However, dear reader, don’t fret, you don’t need to know anything about the series to join this tale. As we won’t be delving into some grand adventure of heroism and light vs. darkness, no, this tale will be much more down to earth, and grounded in realism. While there will be chances for heroics, the story won’t end with some great evil being vanquished, because frankly? That’s just not how the series works. Sure, you can save the world, but afterwards? It's back to daily life.
So without further ado, let’s introduce our setting, shall we?
The Continent of Adonis is a rather sizeable one, with climates ranging from the cold arctic and polar pine forests of the Sechs Territory, to the more mild climates found within the majority of the Kingdom of Norad. Along the border of the Sechs Empire and the Kingdom of Norad, a war spanning decades, if not centuries, was waged, between the two powers, intensifying over the past few decades after an attempt to invade Norad via the border town Kardia was thwarted by the efforts of the town hero and the God of Life Terrable’s intervention. With the defeat of the Mad Emperor Ethelbert at the Battle of the Floating Empire near Selphia Village five years ago, peace has settled over both nations, with the Sechs Empire reforming itself into a republic, and the Kingdom of Norad reaching new heights. And yet, even with peace after so many bloodsoaked battles and skirmishes, the world is still dangerous.
A magical civilization that relies on their knowledge of Rune and its applications to advance society, but also boasts a rather impressive tech base for a fantasy world. The four villages of Kardia, Alvanca, Sharance, and Selphia have been hotbeds over the past few decades of Divine Dragon related activity. Despite these remote towns being rather active, the capital, Norad Castletown, has known relative peace. Trade between the various settlements occurs regularly, with Dragon Knights helping to safeguard areas of import, and Earthmates traveling from area to area to assist as needed. It’s not uncommon for monster hot spots to spring up that require proper dealing with.
The former bloodthirsty Sechs Empire, the Republic has been busy in the intervening five years since the death of their former Emperor and the end of his reign of terror and genocide against the Earthmates, rebuilding their wartorn nation. Once controlling most of the world, after the wars ended, they retreated inwards, allowing colonies and other areas to fend for themselves, and repairs began. It was them who proposed the Golden Road be restored as a means of trade, as much of the Sechs lands are inhospitable to most, sans those committed to survival, or poor for farming. A society that was more pseudo-science that actually worked than their magical neighbors, the Sechs Republic at their height were able to create massive floating island fortresses, and were the first to discover how to create Artifical Runemons, as well as discover how to fuse man and Runemon together(to great failure during the Selphia Conflict). While rumors persist that various dirty science is still being performed in remote areas, the landscape knows relative peace. Key word being relative.
Frontier Village: A stop on the Norad-Sechs Golden Road, that often acts as the last point before the Norad side of the border. Contains the basic qualities needed for a village, but doesn't stand out that much otherwise. Has a few dungeons nearby, and a few folks who ran out of money and couldn't keep traveling, so they settled in here. Or have their reasons for staying here. Even with the world at peace, this town’s status can make things...tense.
That’s pretty straight-forward, isn’t it? Either you’re a long or short term resident, or you’re just passing through on your way to the border, or deeper in. Plenty of room for mystery, fun, and adventure. Now I’ll admit, this isn’t the first RF themed narrative to deal with border towns(just look at Rune Factory 1 and 4), but I’ll be honest, that’s because it's something familiar to work with. Everyone has their secrets, their backstories, and that’s to be the point of the narrative. Sure, there will be larger GM planned and player participated backdrop stories, but this is a tale of village life. Further details, such as the first overarching storyline, will be on the actual roleplay post OOC.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering “what can I do as a character?” And well, just about anything is possible within the verse, and a link below leads to the World of Rune Factory Wiki, which does a decent job of explaining stuff regarding overall world details, if you absolutely want to dig into deeper stuff.
That said, here’s a quick list of the races you can be, with a blurb about them. Restricted/forbidden races will be noted, as well as the why. I know, why say anything is possible, but then restrict stuff? There’s a fair reason, I promise. I’ll probably come up with some custom races to fill out the usable races.
Humans: The default race option. Just your normal, average human. Originate from the Norad section of Adonis, seemingly. Can handle a variety of climates, but don’t really specialize in anything.
Elves: Hailing from a forested island nation, the elves are a mysterious race of musicians and otherwise magical people. Not a lot is known on them, however. If you wanna make a town bard or something, this is a fair option. They’re human sized, so if you really want, I mean, characters from Hyrule work as FCs. Also have a special connection to monsters.
Dwarves: People of the earth, who are deft and skilled with the forge. Also good with just about any heavy labor action. Human sized, just have a few minor details that differ from humans. Generally live in clans, but singular members exist.
Dark Elves: A rarer breed of elf, who are of course, darker skinned. While their status in Elven society is unknown, some are hired by human families as staff.
Merpeople: Not unheard of, just really rare. So far only females have been shown. Have a tail when in water or during rainy weather, but can walk fine if so.
Doppelgangers: A race of shapeshifters, who take on the form of other races. Rumored to be a byproduct of Sechs Empire experimentation, but this is unclear. A relatively recent discovered race.
Kitsune: A race from the eastern nation, who have fox traits. Little is known about them.
Restricted Races: These are races which while possibly playable, will have extra scrutiny and thought with regards to a player choosing to roleplay as them.
Earthmates: The player characters of most games. They’re kinda weak at this point, but some are decently strong. Due to the annihilation campaign during the Sechs-Norad war by the Sechs Empire, they’re pretty rare. If you do one, I’m going to be very careful, and you may not get approved, so make it count, and give me a good reason to okay them. Don’t want folks stealing the show, if that makes sense.
Magically Inclined People: Witches, wizards, magicians, spirit mediums, those kinds of folks who might be human or characters with a high aptitude of magic. You can be one, but a very solid reason is needed, and those who practice light magic or magic for good are more likely to get okayed. If you do a villain or destruction based magic user, you may be asked to play an arc role.
Half-Monsters: Those who can turn into a Runemon under certain conditions. Restricted due to the lack of information on them, but if you write a really good one, I may allow it. If you do, I might have you keep their monster form a secret, for plot reasons. Like Raven who is basically a phoenix.
Ghosts: Special conditions, if you’re going to play one, please DM me or Jerkchicken.
Forbidden/Extremely Restricted Races:These guys are completely off limits as something to be played as, if they appear, they will be NPC only.
Divine Dragons: The Gods of the world. Should be self-evident. There will be none present in the narrative, unless plot requires one to come visit. That isn’t to say one couldn’t be an infant Divine Dragon...but that’s also a special case.
Arch-Dragons: Found only in the Fenith Sea so unless a character references them in their backstory, won’t appear.
Rune Kaiju: No being a giant Rune monster that can wipe out life.
Guardians: A special case, since there’s no Divine Dragon here.
Character Sheet
Name:
Age:
Sex:
Race: Human or not?
Appearance: Pic or description is fine.
Occupation: What is your character's role in the village?
Skills: What is your character particularly good at?, should you character possess magic, list it here
Description: Describe your character's personality and mix it with little bit of background story, but be sure to keep it sweet and to the point. Is your character a native to the area or are they a recent arrival? Please remember not to put the secret here, but in the PM
Point of Interest: Add some sort of feature to the village and its environment or perhaps some other location outside of the village. Examples: A cave, some interesting natural feature, some distant town, etc
Secret: Basically your (melo)dramatic plothook which you will PM me. Also please feel free to ask me more in regards to this if you're unsure of what to do.
