Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

[Blizz]

<Snipped quote by Blizz>

At this point, it seems like you've had ideas for like eight wildly different characters XD.

@CaptainManbeard

I do that pretty often

[CaptainManbeard]

So, I'm still getting together stuff about the school, so the intro post won't have the Keeper arrive just yet to get them, but rather set the scene with the students arriving at Port Zone S-9. That will give everyone a chance to finish getting their characters ready and have some back and forth between them in the waiting area while they are waiting. I'm hoping that intro and my characters will be up tomorrow, but I'm not sure. Our visiting family is here till Tuesday, so how much time I can spend at my computer until then will still be limited. For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving, how was it? Any cool stories to share?

When I was working on food stuff in the kitchen, Mr. Butters (one of the cats) jumped up on the counter when I wasn't looking and tried to run off with the raw turkey neck, and then after I threw it and other unneeded parts away, Cleocatra (another cat) climbed into the trash to drag out the raw turkey tail, LOL. I was like "thanks guys, you made me have to scrub everything down two extra times!" XD. I still gave them some of the turkey once it was done cooking, though. I always make it super juicy, saturate it in melted butter and broth, cover it in foil, baste it with the juices every 45 minutes or so, and then leave it uncovered for the final half hour to let the skin brown.

[CaptainManbeard]

I'm considering using Old Sharlayan from FFXIV as Feywood Valley, and saying there is a giant lake with a town on its shore that services the Academy, kind of similar to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Not sure yet, but we'll see. Here's a look at it in-game and also from the CGI trailer:




EDIT: And here is a Wiki and a greater tour of Old Sharlayan. I'm thinking the Studium can be Qrowdell Academy proper and the Noumenon can be the Library of Allandia. As for the exact layout of the Academy beyond what is shown in the video, we'll just use our imagination to say there are plenty of halls and classrooms, as well as a Dining Hall and dorms. More info on that when the main thread goes up.

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Old_Sharlayan

[Light]

When can we expect the ooc thread to go up? I think we can work more on lore and setting ther while also getting things moved forward towards starting like with cs's. I'm all for world building but it's something we can do/decide on as we play too, as we encounter a need to establish lore or meta rules.

Based on the things we've deemed important so far, it seems that our sheets will require the basic suite and a few tailored items:

Name
Race/origin
Age
Appearance

Attunement
Arcane Focus
Skills/Abilities

Personality
History

Is there anything I missed?

[CaptainManbeard]

When can we expect the ooc thread to go up? I think we can work more on lore and setting ther while also getting things moved forward towards starting like with cs's. I'm all for world building but it's something we can do/decide on as we play too, as we encounter a need to establish lore or meta rules.

Based on the things we've deemed important so far, it seems that our sheets will require the basic suite and a few tailored items:

Name
Race/origin
Age
Appearance

Attunement
Arcane Focus
Skills/Abilities

Personality
History

Is there anything I missed?

@Light

Yeah, greater lore will come later, right now I'm just focusing on the initial lore I'll have to have ready in my first few posts so that once we get rolling we can go full steam ahead without me having to slow the flow down to come up with too much stuff on the spot. I'm also getting my image folders in order so that I can have them ready to go for my character sheets, the info post, and the intro IC post. My character sheets are not finished yet, I'm still defining the layout I want to use, but I'll post those as soon as I can. I am waiting to post the main thread until I have mostly everything ready to go, but like I said, since it's a holiday week and I have family here, it's been hard to get time away to write and image hunt.

[CaptainManbeard]

Okay, it's not finished yet, but figured I'd share what I have for one of my characters - Tommy Miyazoko.

Tomayasu “Tommy” Miyazoko

Age: 18
Birthday: January 7th
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan, Earth
Height: 6’0
Body Type: Athletic
Race: Human
Eyes: Brown (Green when powered-up)
Hair: Dark Brown (Green when powered-up)
Pronouns: He/His
Orientation: Heterosexual

Voice

Peter Sudarso

Musical Themes

Personality

Coming soon…

Arcane Conduits

MagiTech Card Reader (Arcane Runic Cards teleport inside)

Arcane Runic Cards

(Cards teleport inside kind of like this:)

MagiTech Katana (trigger separates blade from hilt so Arcane Runic Tokens can slide inside like loading a shotgun)

Arcane Runic Tokens

Talents & Magical Abilities

Tommy’s primary focus is electric-based magic, which he uses to create lightning attacks and achieve superhuman speeds, but he also dips into other types of magic to bolster his physical capabilities, including strength, endurance, and dexterity. He utilizes his Arcane Conduits for more powerful and complex abilities, for which he has a variety of spells pre-written on Cards and Tokens in the Arcane Tongue. Additionally, they are imbued with tiny memory fragments so that he knows what Cards and Tokens he is touching without having to look at them.

When not in active combat or practice, Tommy has a black backpack in which he keeps all his belongings. The interior space has been expanded to about the size of a large vehicle trunk/boot with a Bag of Holding enchantment, and straps against all four sides inside keep everything from jostling around.

When he is in active combat or practice, he wears a black utility belt with a thick strap reaching up along his chest and over his left shoulder. Square leather cases along the belt hold his Cards, Tokens, herbs, potions, and anything else he might need in combat, all with easy snap-open covers. His katana is held along the strap on his back, which he can reach up over his left shoulder with his right hand to unsheath when necessary.

Biography

Coming soon…

[Light]

When it comes to being from a plane/world other than Earth, we can just make up our own shit more or less, right?

[CaptainManbeard]

When it comes to being from a plane/world other than Earth, we can just make up our own shit more or less, right?

@Light

Yeah, think of it like a multiverse. Each Mortal Plane is like it's own universe existing in the same space as other universes but at different vibrational frequencies. So races, culture, level of technology, if there are multiple planets accessible on that plane, what those environments are like, etc. are all in your hands. We don't need to set a predefined amount of planes - we'll just say there are "a lot," lol. At least several dozen.

For instance, one of my characters will be based on Ian Lightfoot from Onward, and he comes from a plane that has lots of magical creature running around, but magic itself is fairly rare there, so him going to Qrowdell is a huge deal, especially to his older brother, who thinks it's the coolest thing ever that they now have a Magi in the family.

[Blizz]

As someone who knows a thing or two about elder futhark runes he gets a point from me lol

[CaptainManbeard]

Okay, the visiting relatives left today, I should have the place to myself tomorrow (my sister and brother-in-law do live with me, but they'll both be at work all day), so hoping to get some uninterrupted work in and have the main thread up within the next day or so. I'm also using a blank map of Old Sharlayan act as the layout of the Academy and surrounding area. And I changed it from Feywood Valley to Feywood Island, surrounded by the Endless Sea. Now, instead of the forest looping back on itself, it's the sea. I'm also having the community on the main island - Feywood Village - be the headquarters of the Commonwealth and the location of the biggest Battlemancer Arena. I figure, since we're saying Qrowdell is basically one of the most prestigious schools in the Mortal Planes where everyone is super OP, it only makes sense that is also where the Commonwealth and Battlemancer League would be headquartered at XD.

[CaptainManbeard]

Just finished the map, figured I'd share it before heading to bed:

Feywood Island

[CaptainManbeard]

And here is the logo for Volume I as it stands now. May change it later.

EDIT: There was a little drippage of color in the image that was annoying the hell out of me so I removed it and reuploaded, LOL.

---

OLD IMAGE WITH DRIPPAGE

[CaptainManbeard]

And if you're curious, I made the title in GIMP. Here's a screenshot of my desktop, but since the image is so huge, I'm just gonna link it: https://i.imgur.com/IRPIova.png

[CaptainManbeard]

Sorry it's taking so long, I keep writing, erasing, and then re-writing shit like: "No, damn it, that's still too much information for everyone to remember. I need to get more across with as little information as possible." I'm trying to define the school, the classes, the fundamentals of the three Side Stories and the Main Story, the magic system, the locations of importance, etc. But I keep finding myself with a wall of text comparable to a short story and realize most people are going to skim over it and it will need to be re-explained multiple times when something is posted that contradicts it.

I almost want to just make the Academy much smaller for only a small group of apprentices who are studying under a few mentors. Just have it be something similar to the Xavier Institute, place it in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and have the students take classes in the attic and go on field trips to various realms across the Mortal Planes. They can still fight in the Battlemancer League, which we can just say is like Pokemon battles but between teams of Magi, and some of the apprentices can still be part of secret dark arts lessons. If we go this route, then I can scrap the walls of text and get this shit moving faster. Otherwise, I am beginning to feel like the cycle of writing, erasing, and re-writing will never end, lol.

[Light]

@CaptainManbeard

Would you be open to co-writing / co-gm? As I've said before, world building and lore are some of my favorite (and most experienced) facets of roleplaying. I'd be more than happy to help organize and consolidate ideas with you.

[CaptainManbeard]

@CaptainManbeard

Would you be open to co-writing / co-gm? As I've said before, world building and lore are some of my favorite (and most experienced) facets of roleplaying. I'd be more than happy to help organize and consolidate ideas with you.

@Light

Thank you for the offer, but my issue lies more in communicating pages of information within only a few paragraphs rather than the worldbuilding itself. When it's just me writing one of my novels, I can create to my heart's content. Worldbuilding, characters, narrative flow - these are all some of my greatest literary strengths. But when it comes to communicating that to co-writers who are also actively developing the story and need to constantly remember everything I created while they are continually adding to the plot, that's where I run into issues. When it's in my own mind and my own personal notes, I can let everything get as bloated as I want and remember everything just fine, because in the part the reader actually sees, they are learning information at the same time the protagonists are. But when it's multiple people at the wheel, all that information needs to be known upfront and all at once to avoid creating plotholes and paradoxes.

I've never been a fan of co-GMing, but for the sake of getting this moving before everyone begins to lose interest, I think it's probably a good idea to hand the reigns over to you, Light. I'm gonna step away from this RP, but before I go, I'll share what I had for my characters and the info in this current re-write I was working on, and then you can salvage what you want from that for your thread.

Setting

RP Opening Theme

Setting

Unbeknownst to much of the human population of modern Earth, there exist many parallel universes that occupy the same space at different vibrational frequencies. They are colloquially known as the Mortal Planes, and travel between them is possible through a variety of magical transportation methods. Many of these realms participate in two primary unions called the Planar Republic and the Commonwealth of Arcane Universities - the former for political discussions and alliances and the latter to oversee schools of magical education.

One such institution is Qrowdell Academy, where the main characters are about to start their freshman year. It is located on Feywood Island, which itself sits amidst the Endless Sea, an artificial subplanar realm that loops back on itself if one ventures too far from land. The environment is enchanted to simulate weather, climate, and a night and day cycle based around Greenwich Mean Time at the Royal Observatory in London on Earth.

The plot will follow three Side Stories that thread into the Main Story of Volume I, which will center around the characters at the Academy and their involvement within three distinct groups.

Side Story A - Stormhawks

The Intercollegiate Battlemancer League is a combat sport association composed of dozens of participating schools who compete in Battlemancer Matches wherein two teams of sixteen players each try to score goals with small handheld rubber orbs called Mancerballs. They take place on Feywood Island, in the underground Battlemancer Arena.

When the referee blows the whistle to start a match, they throw a Mancerball into the air in the center of the Arena, and a team has to try and grab it before the other. Once they’ve secured it, they hand it to their Tank, the player who guards the Mancerball and runs to the nearest Charging Station. These are runic circles on the floor lined along the outer perimeter of the Arena, and there are three Red, three Blue, and three Green. Once a Tank steps into one, the Mancerball begins to charge up that color, and they must charge in all three colors and then run past the Goal Line at their end of the Arena to score a Point.

The Mancerball is synced with the Display Board overlooking the Arena, showing which team has the ball and the progress on charging. The Tank must stand in a Red Charging Station, a Blue Charging Station, and a Green Charging Station for sixty seconds each to have the Mancerball fully charged and ready to head past the Goal Line. The order in which they do this does not matter, but if the other team manages to get the Mancerball away from the Tank and makes it to a Charging Station, the first team’s progress on that charge is lost and overwritten with the other team’s progress.

So, that means that if all three colors are charged and the Tank is intercepted before they can make it to the Goal Line and an Interceptor from the other team manages to get the Mancerball to their Tank and then to a Charging Station, the first team loses all three color charges. Additionally, each team has six Defenders who guard the Tank, as well as six Attackers who engage in magical duels against the other team’s Defenders in an attempt to create an opening for their Interceptors to steal the Mancerball from the Tank.

Each team consists of a single Tank, six Defenders, six Attackers, and three Interceptors, for a total of sixteen active players for each team in the Arena. However, there are usually reserve/back-up players who can be called upon should an active player need to step away.

This Side Story focuses on the characters who join their school’s team, the Qrowdell Stormhawks. They play matches against other teams within Branch One over the course of the school year, with the goal of earning a Silver Cup, of which there are eight (one for each Branch). These eight winning teams then compete in Elimination Matches to earn one of four Gold Cups, which grants them passage to the Crimson Cup Championship on Battle Island. On this separate landmass within the Endless Sea, the four Gold Cup teams start at four separate Starting Zones around the island’s shore and must spend up to three days trying to locate the seven Super Mancerballs spread about the island.

The island is filled with underground dungeons, winding tunnels, and wizard towers with dozens of chests spread about. Sometimes they are mimics, sometimes they hold potions or helpful items, or sometimes they hold an actual Super Mancerball. Once a Tank has all seven held in their Mancerpurse (small pouch with a Bag of Holding enchantment), they need to head to the center of Battle Island, where there are three Super Charging Stations - one Red, one Blue, and one Green. The Tank must stand in each for sixty seconds with all seven Super Mancerballs, and then once they are fully charged (the Super variants have displays on the actual balls), they polymorph together and take the shape of a huge red goblet - the Crimson Cup.

At this point, if at least one member of the team can make it back to their Starting Zone with the Crimson Cup in tow, their team wins the Championship. However, the other three teams can intercept the Cup regardless of which team actually unlocked it, and whoever gets it to their Starting Zone first wins.

But things do not go as planned at the Championship, which leads this Side Story into the Main Story.

Side Story B - Monster Club

Qrowdell’s eccentric Creature Keeper, Samronious “Big Sam” Digglebone (son of Headmaster Addamarius Digglebone and Grand Maester Isabelle Digglebone), has recently become the Aedrazoology Professor as well, an elective class that focuses on the biology of magical beasts, caring for them, what natural environments they thrive in, etc. The students who join this class affectionately refer to it as Monster Club, and eventually each get a magical egg that hatches into an Ectomon, a slime-like shapeshifting being.

The Ectomon bonds with the first Magi it sees upon hatching, forming a psychic link and becoming that person’s familiar. It uses their personality and memories to shapeshift into something from their mind, and this becomes their new base form. So, for instance, if a young Magi is partial to Pokemon, their familiar may end up becoming a Pikachu. The Ectomon may be naive and infant-like at first, but over their first few months of life they learn and grow, eventually developing the same level of sentience as their partner and the ability to speak telepathically and/or out loud. Their abilities are largely based around the imagination of their partner at the moment of their hatching.

During the course of this Side Story, the students learn about various magical creatures and go on field trips to dozens of locations around the Mortal Planes. Same as the others, this ties into the Main Story towards the end of the school year.

Side Story C - Dark Acolytes

Unbeknownst to the rest of the school at first, a new freshman named Zack Silvador is the apprentice of a sadistic sorceress who goes by the alias Speaker Storm, a member of the Chromatic Council of the Cult of Tiamat. This dark organization was thought to have been wiped out centuries ago, but has persisted from the shadows. They have infiltrated a number of militaries, governments, and corporations, and intend to set in motion a series of events with the goal of returning the dark dragon goddess Tiamat to the Mortal Planes.

Zack Silvador is a vital component of that nefarious scheme, and has been instructed to stealthily recruit fellow freshmen to learn Dark Arts at the Secret Arena, a pocket dimension hidden inside a music box that works similar to a Room of Requirement. The Dark Acolytes are pulled in amidst a swirling tornado of magical lights, where they meet astral projections of Speaker Storm and several other instructors.

Characters

Tomayasu “Tommy” Miyazoko

Age: 18
Birthday: January 7th
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan, Earth
Height: 6’0
Body Type: Athletic
Race: Human
Eyes: Brown (Green when powered-up)
Hair: Dark Brown (Green when powered-up)
Pronouns: He/Him
Orientation: Heterosexual

Voice

Peter Sudarso

Musical Themes

Personality

Coming soon…

Arcane Conduits

MagiTech Card Reader (Arcane Runic Cards teleport inside)

Arcane Runic Cards

(Cards teleport inside kind of like this:)

MagiTech Katana (trigger separates blade from hilt so Arcane Runic Tokens can slide inside like loading a shotgun)

Arcane Runic Tokens

Talents & Magical Abilities

Tommy’s primary focus is electric-based magic, which he uses to create lightning attacks and achieve superhuman speeds, but he also dips into other types of magic to bolster his physical capabilities, including strength, endurance, and dexterity. He utilizes his Arcane Conduits for more powerful and complex abilities, for which he has a variety of spells pre-written on Cards and Tokens in the Arcane Tongue. Additionally, they are imbued with tiny memory fragments so that he knows what Cards and Tokens he is touching without having to look at them.

When not in active combat or practice, Tommy has a black backpack in which he keeps all his belongings. The interior space has been expanded to about the size of a large vehicle trunk/boot with a Bag of Holding enchantment, and straps against all four sides inside keep everything from jostling around.

When he is in active combat or practice, he wears a black utility belt with a thick strap reaching up along his chest and over his left shoulder. Square leather cases along the belt hold his Cards, Tokens, herbs, potions, and anything else he might need in combat, all with easy snap-open covers. His katana is held along the strap on his back, which he can reach up over his left shoulder with his right hand to unsheath when necessary.

Biography

Darwin Varrick

Age: 18
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Height:
Body Type:
Race: Azurelf
Eyes:
Hair:
Pronouns:
Orientation:

Arcane Conduits

Voice

Musical Themes

Personality

Talents & Magical Abilities

Biography

Zachary “Zack” Silvador

Age:
Birthday:
Height:
Body Type:
Eyes:
Hair:
Pronouns:
Orientation:

Arcane Conduits

Voice

Musical Themes

Personality

Talents & Magical Abilities

Biography

[Light]

I've never been a fan of co-GMing, but for the sake of getting this moving before everyone begins to lose interest, I think it's probably a good idea to hand the reigns over to you, Light. I'm gonna step away from this RP, but before I go, I'll share what I had for my characters and the info in this current re-write I was working on, and then you can salvage what you want from that for your thread.

@CaptainManbeard

Ah, I see. I think in that case it would be better to just drop the game entirely. Looking around, it seems like almost everyone else hasn't been keeping up with it so far. Quite a shame though, this seemed really cool from the onset.