[OOC] Mist City Story: An Urban Fantasy Mage RP

[VitaVitaAR]

I'm tempted to put up a reply to everyone who's posted so far, but I should probably try and wait.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Bartimaeus@TheFake: Sorry if I caused you problems posting again, I thought I could have Arinne address what people have said and done so far and give you a bit more of a prompt to work off of. ^^;

[Bartimaeus]

@VitaVitaAR It’s quite alright! I’d rather write reactively anyways, no worries. I prefer not to make posts on my phone, so I can only make them at home. Which I will be in a couple hours ^^

[KoL]

@VitaVitaAR

Well, I guess that I finally may have an idea of what to do here. But first, let confirm a couple things?

What is the opinion of the mages or this setting regarding darker arts like Necromancy and Demonology? Since both of the concepts I'm working with fall in this area.

One probably summoning demons and binding them to objects, and the other dignified necromancer.

[VitaVitaAR]

@KoL: Necromancy is an accepted type of magic, even if it's a bit unnerving to some magi. Demonology is more spirituality, though you can summon demons it's just that they do have physical bodies and stuff.

[VitaVitaAR]

I'll let everybody get a post up this time before I reply again.

[Raineh Daze]

From the depths I surface with a character that it took me over a week to actually settle on.

• Name: Lillia Avemaria
• Age: 14
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: In some regards, Lillia is quite endowed, certainly to the point that it’s rather hard to ignore… whilst in regards to her height it is quite the opposite: any height difference between her and Arinne can be put down to their shoes.
  Hider

  
• Personality: As the family heir to one of the Tower’s old noble families, Lillia has been quite spoiled… and thoroughly conditioned to act properly. She’s unfailingly polite and friendly, though she can be quite upset by bullying or being picked on—not that most people would even consider that to be an option, in her life. She’s also quite bad at reading people’s intentions… unless she’s in danger.
  In dangerous or messy situations, quite unlike most girls of her age, Lillia tends to remain frighteningly calm. She’s hard to shock.
• Abilities: The generation’s other magical prodigy, Lillia has a vast pool of high-quality mana, and at her family’s insistence has studiously trained in the basics of various elemental or seemingly generic magic: if you have the magical ability, then one should be quite able to maintain a household in a comfortable state with it (of course, that’s why servants exist, but the point remains).
  Her true affinity is for Life, something regularly occurring in the Avemaria’s main line—and possibly explaining the rumours that for some generations, all of their servants have been homunculi made at one point or another. Lillia, a prodigy or not, is much too young to have considered entering into the process of trying to… acquire a soul. Instead, she tends to focus on more mundane concerns, like healing, or growing plants, or—in extremis—draining the life from anyone too close… which mostly serves to make people around her increasingly sleepy. With the proper set-up it could be quite more lethal.
  That her specialisation is Poisons would come as quite a surprise with her attitude, but she likes how it can be used for some medical effects that healing wouldn’t cover. Or self defence. A touch that makes limbs go numb can be quite useful.
• Skills: Lillia is pretty good at gardening, cutting things carefully, and sewing.
  Do not ask her about anything created after the industrial revolution, she’ll be quite confused.
• Assets: As the current heir, Lillia has access to vast wealth—provided that she can justify it to her parents, who are fairly permissive about what their daughter might choose to spend money on—obviously, becoming a business magnate is out, but almost any mundane expenses are beneath their notice. Similarly, the family’s large staff of maids and bodyguards who are also maids can be called upon—diverting the butler from their duty would, however, be considered quite improper.
  One maid, in particular, is assigned specifically for Lillia’s use and protection—Maria, a homunculus made with full intent to be extremely proficient with knives and not to talk back to her master. Accordingly, she’s completely mute.
• Brief Backstory: The Avemaria family has a long history, but it does tend to be accused of having quite unsavoury practices in the past—no matter that most of their contributions to mage society have been through their adeptness at healing, somehow quite competently dealing with injuries that can’t simply be healed away—missing limbs or severely damaged organs, if you’re willing to pay up, then anything can be healed right now…
  One of the things that lends credence to the negative rumours, however, is that the rumours of a vast mansion and its grounds maintained and staffed by homunculi? True, for at least five generations back: from cradle to grave, five generations have been served by the exact same household. To have that many, they must be getting souls… somehow.
  Lillia is their latest heir, born into the family and given quite a lot of attention by parents with time to spare, and almost anything she could ask for. But there were no other children her age amongst the family or staff, so what were they to do? Simple: have her associate with the child of one of the few other families of appropriate standing.
  Perhaps it’s not surprising that when Arinne called upon her contracts, the Avemaria sent Lillia instead of one of the adults. No doubt her parents have reasoned it easier to send someone who would be visiting regularly anyway than go themselves and have Lillia intrude awkwardly.

[VitaVitaAR]

@Raineh Daze: Accepted.

[KoL]

⇲ NAME: Dame Grain Blackmore
⇲ AGE: 19 years
⇲ GENDER: Female
⇲ APPEARANCE:

Hider

⇲ PERSONALITY & DESCRIPTION:

Grain is every bit the image of what an ideal knight should be in the eyes of others and of themselves. She's relatively tall for her age, standing close to 1.7 meters, with a well built body that has neither a lack or excess of weight and muscles.

Despite being a stoic type, who keeps a detached view of the world, and thus, not being one to speak freely unless requested to. Grain's half soprano voice carries a great deal of resolution.

This resolution is seen in her actions as well. Even though her quiet demeanor may make it seem like she's shy or unused to social interactions, the truth is quite the contrary, and it shows in every minutia of her being. From the way she walks and dresses, to what she reads and her silent, vigilante gaze, everything about her is proper and knightly.

While it's easy to think that someone like her would be a consummate tomboy, the truth couldn't be more further away. That said, she doesn't like it when others pay too much attention to her feminine side either.

"Though, just maybe, will she get flustered when called cute? Well, there's only one way to know..."

⇲ BRIEF BACKSTORY:

Grain was born and raised in a spartan environment, with the sole purpose of continuing her family's knighthood tradition and their relationship with the Tower's magi.

It would be easy to assume that this meant an abusive and grueling childhood, but the truth couldn't be more different. In fact, she was raised with attention and care, befitting her social standing. Even if her parents were always the hands-off type, Grain always counted with her servants to do everything she needed so that she could concentrate solely on the obligations required of her as a knight.

As a result of her intense focus she was able to acquire the title she sought at a jaw dropping young age. However, as a consequence of such intense focus on her life goal, Grain is pretty... disconnected from the outside world. Whenever she goes through the streets of a modern days city like London she can't help but feel amazed at the simplest of things; it's actually even said that she has difficulty using even something as simple as a smartphone.

Anyway, it's of no surprise that when the young heiress of the Ar-Rynesarte family declared that she would find the ones responsible for her family's fall from grace, one of their ally families like the Blackmore would answer their call for help.

It was the only honorable thing to do.

⇲ ABILITIES:

Grain isn't a member of the Tower, or eve mage in the proper sense of the word. She's knowledgeable in magecract and magical foundations, but practicing it -- while not beyond her abilities -- is beyond her interest. That said, she does have an enviably high reserve and quality of mana -- befitting her pure, noble blood -- which comes in handy for other applications rather than spellcasting.

All of this is possible because of her very rare Sorcery Trait: "Blood of Heroes" which only appears sporadically in families of those who are direct descendants a legendary hero of the past. In her case, the legendary Celtic king Fionn mac Cumhail, also known as Finn MacCool.

First of all, always having such an amount of mana on reserve, makes Grain highly resistant to magic effects in general since she can simply counter pretty anything using her own raw magic energy.

She also the "body of a hero who can challenge fate itself", an ability that goes way beyond what even a mage dedicated to just physical reinforcement would be capable of doing. Which can reach truly absurd levels of power when combined with her ability to release her magical energy to improve her physical abilities, making strikes harder, jumps longer, etc.

When combined with her family's heirloom arms, it's possible to unleash a blast of pure magical energy that mimics the legends of old, when a lone knight had the power to defeat whole armies of their own as well as other similar feats.

However, the most unique part of her trait is inheriting a part of the legendary wisdom Fionn is said to have gained in the tale of the Salmon of Knowledge. By sucking bringing her thumb to her mouth Grain is able to gain limited clairvoyance allowing her to divine the possible best course of action for almost any situation, as well as get a good idea of the answer to pretty much anything you ask of her. Needless to say, this skill is pretty handy for her studies.

⇲ SKILLS:

It's safe to say that grain could be a specialist of everything if she truly wanted to overuse her gift of wisdom to solve the problems of life. However, not only would this be inappropriate in her view, but also... she can't help but feel embarrassed while doing it in front of others.

Thus, it's no wonder that she avoids it. Even so, Grain's very knowledgeable in the classic matters, knightly traditions, and social etiquette. She's an outstanding athlete, amazon, and naturally acquainted to many different forms of combat. That said, she's mostly helpless in matters that don't pertain to her chosen life goal, sometimes to pretty amazing to see degrees.

⇲ ASSETS:

As far as monetary assets, it's simpler to say that Grain never did, nor ever will, lack anything that she might need or want. Unless some incredible misfortune befalls her family, the fortune they've been amassing for the previous hundreds of years, won't be getting smaller any time soon.

When it comes to other possessions, she has access to a decent selection of both arms and armor -- though most of them aren't magical per se -- as well as a number of magical tools accumulated over centuries of service, even though most of them have either lost their original powers, or are outright useless in a practical sense. To the point that it's almost appropriate to say that the Blackmore's excel at collecting junk.

As expected, she doesn't carry anything of that with herself unless she's on official business, in which case she'll almost always be seen with her family's heirloom sword and a set of very light armor (basically just gauntlets and greaves). She's also usually seen with a whip. Even though the origins of that weapon are unknown, she does seem to be rather fond of it.

Anyway, Grain has an enchanted key -- said to have been gift to her family by fairies -- which allows her summon any item in her family's armory effortlessly. It's also able to unlock any non-magical locks (as well as some magical ones), regardless of them having a keyhole or not.

[VitaVitaAR]

@KoL: Accepted.

Going to go ahead and close this here, any more would really overload things. ^^;

[Rabidporcupine]

@KoL
HAHA, I hate to break it to you, but Leonardo still has Grain beat when it comes to the whole 'doesn't understand modern technology' thing! Poor idiot barely even knows what the internet is!

[Bartimaeus]

@KoL Is Grain unaware that the other people in the room are royalty as well? xD

[KoL]

She probably was expecting other people to answer the summons. So, the ones right there at the moment don't look like proper mage nobility. Except probably Samuel, who's the only she probably is aware of in anyway.

[Rabidporcupine]

@KoL
I should probably also mention while we're on the subject that the Vadris family was a pretty powerful household as well before the parents were killed, and Leonardo and Elise were sent into hiding.

[KoL]

But, wouldn't having other people know about you kinda defeat the purpose of going into hiding?

[VitaVitaAR]

Right so as soon as those last people post I'll update again!

Who wants to visit a crime scene?!

[Aviaire]

Let's go solve some murders! (and hopefully not get murdered in the process)

[Rabidporcupine]

@KoL
Well, they were hiding on an isolated pacific island for the last eight years, and calling themselves the McGillis family instead of the Vadris family, so there've only really been a few particularly bright and dedicated assassins they've had to deal with in the past. As far as everyone else knew, the Vadris family had been wiped out entirely, and it's only because Arinne activated the contracts that he's been forced to reveal that they weren't, otherwise he probably would've lived out the rest of his life on the island, fishing and sleeping.

[Rabidporcupine]

Sorry for holding everyone back. I'll make one last post for Leo to annoy Arinne in the meeting area tomorrow as soon as I get the chance.

[VitaVitaAR]

So out of curiosity, what is everyone thinking so far? I hope this is proving to be a decent intro to the RP. ^^;