ʜᴀᴡᴛʜᴏʀɴᴇ ᴀᴄᴀᴅᴇᴍʏ [A Murder Mystery, Supernatural Dark Academia RP]

[SunsetWanderer]

hawthorne academy

 hawthorne academy

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premise

This is a murder mystery roleplay, set in a supernatural academy within a world of dark fantasy. Werewolves, Vampires, Witches and Wizards and more. All coexist in this world, hidden from mortals by ancient decree - with those risking discovery punished harshly. Most of the communities live apart, but are obligated to have their children attend one of the few supernatural academies spread across the globe upon their 18th birthday, where they will learn better to control their powers and cooperate with other supernaturals. They generally remain in the academy until around the age of 24, meaning a six-year term. This does however mean that students often come to the academy with preconcieved stereotypes of other supernaturals, and there are very strong cliques. Primarily, these are of Werewolves, Vampires, Witches/Wizards. These academies also function as governing bodies in the supernatural world, each responsible for maintaining order in their respective territories. Our story takes place in Hawthorne Academy.

This will be a school slice of life roleplay as our young adults try to navigate this complicated social situation - understanding their powers, making friends, enemies, and lovers along the way. Additionally, our characters will become involved in the mystery behind an increasing number of supernatural dissapearances, murders and thefts of ancient artefacts - all of which will center around Hawthorne Academy, hidden in the highlands of present-day Scotland. How much individual characters involve themselves in this plot is ultimately up to the players, but have no doubts that the developments of these mysteries will have consequences for us all.

Among other things, players will be free to have their characters attend classes, interact with professors, form friend groups, be assigned roommates, and generally immerse their characters in this supernatural, dark academia setting. Narrative events will be created by me, and these will be explained in a little more depth below. Though, before going into too much detail, I wanted to put this interest check together to test the waters and see how much interest there is!

I intentionally want to keep this accessible without too much required reading, but lore will be expanded upon in an OOC post should this gather enough interest. Please do let me know if you're interested, or have any questions.

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themes

supernatural / dark fantasy / dark academia / murder mystery / school life / romance / betrayal

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narrative events

This roleplay will include narrative events that players can opt to have their characters involved in. These will range from a calendar of school activities (the annual ball, competitions, etc) to investigations into dissapearances, murders, and more. Some choices in these narrative events will have consequences, but these will all be discussed with players beforehand. At all times, the driving idea is to create collaborative, engaging story.

Players are free to choose which narrative events they involve their characters in as they appear. As such, it is possible to focus more on the school slice of life - but there will be a plot, always moving gradually forward, which will have impacts on all characters.

Thanks for reading!

[Dead Cruiser]

This looks cool. I'd like to hear some more of the ins and outs of supernatural beings and their communities.

[udonoodles]

interested! is there any specific type of magic the witches and wizards would specialise in, or would we have some wiggle room for unique spells within reason?

[Theyra]

Interested, might do Jinn if that would be allowed.

[PatientBean]

This sounds cool. Putting my interest forward

[Ryik]

Interested. I'm thinking of a Warlock character with an eldritch patron.

Would multiple characters be allowed?

[SilverPaw]

Maybe~

[HowlsOfWinter]

Tentative interest.

[Sanity43217]

How did you envision vampires working? People aren’t really born Vampires, so the whole waiting for a vampire to turn 18 for them to attend a college doesn’t really work considering most vampires would be older than 18 when turned.

[Mistress Dizzy]

@Sanity43217 There was this book series I used to read when I was a teenager that had 2 types of vampires. 1 was the usual kind, turned and frozen in time. The other was born.

I just found a wiki for this old series. Wow.

nightworld.fandom.com/wiki/Lamia

[SunsetWanderer]

So nice to see interest! I'll try to answer some questions.

This looks cool. I'd like to hear some more of the ins and outs of supernatural beings and their communities.

@Dead Cruiser

So, I'll summarise a bit more of this in the OOC - but in short, most communities live seperately. Werewolf communities are the most isolated from the mortals, but some might find peace in smaller villages or towns. Vampires are comfortable mingling with mortals, but will generally have their own communities within a given region or country (certain powerful families, etc). Wizards/Witches are, on the whole, the most open minded toward mortals. Their communities are a bit less coherent, and are generally just magical families living among mortals, but naturally with knowledge of other supernaturals living near them. Members of all three communities might even have mortal jobs, or they may keep themselves as entirely seperate from humans as possible. Up to individual players.

The Academies (few and far between) are the 'institutions' that maintain order, and take supernaturals for teaching on their 18th birthday by ancient agreement. Hawthorne Academy is located in Scotland and, for example, will likely be responsible for all of Western Europe. The Headmasters and Headmistresses of these Academies may cooperate internationally, but that will be more 'behind the scenes' for the purposes of our roleplay.

I'll similarly explain tensions between the groups and histories a bit more in the OOC - but so far, the general idea is this: Wizards/Witches are very much the group 'in power'. They represent most senior staff and professors at Academies, and thus set a lot of supernatural rules/laws. This is the result of an ancient conflict between the three groups, that resulted in the creation of the Academies to ensure supernatural cooperation and coexistance.

On the whole, Vampires have some resentment to this and consider themselves the most powerful beings, rightful rulers, etc. Werewolves are home to the more rebellious characters, underrepresented and generally uninterested in goings on outside of their own communities - they send children to the Academies because they have to. Vampire and Werewolf hatred will definitely be a thing, with Wizards/Witches between them keeping the peace and feeling tension from both sides, as it were.

Characters can of course break the mould of their groups 'stereotype', but hopefully that gives you a bit more of an idea for how these supernatural characters exist with one another.

interested! is there any specific type of magic the witches and wizards would specialise in, or would we have some wiggle room for unique spells within reason?

@udonoodles

I haven't quite decided on this, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll probably go down a 'Harry Potter' route for magic users - which means yes, they can specialise in magical areas of potions, herbology, conjuration, offensive/defensive spells, etc. I'm happy for 'unique' powers or spells to be proposed - and this goes for Vampires/Werewolves too - so long as it fits within the setting, and isn't obviously overpowered. None of our characters will be 'exceptionally powerful' by supernatural standards, yet. Expect to lose a fight with a professor, for example.

How did you envision vampires working? People aren’t really born Vampires, so the whole waiting for a vampire to turn 18 for them to attend a college doesn’t really work considering most vampires would be older than 18 when turned.

@Sanity43217

Interesting question. Vampires naturally are the only major supernatural group with immortality, and so it's feasable that some Vampire students have been at the academy for decades, even. I think Vampire students will have a unique program and curriculum tailored to them, meaning the Vampire cliques are even more profound than the rest. In our universe, I think we'll say it is possible for Vampires to be born, but they stop aging somewhere around 25-30, dependent on the individual. Vampires that are turned via mortals will be rare, as in this universe, Vampires will be forbidden from feeding on mortals by Academy Decree (though some may secretly ignore this), and instead drink a blood-like cocktail made by Wizard/Witch alchemists. Another point of contention in our story between the two groups.

Interested. I'm thinking of a Warlock character with an eldritch patron.

Would multiple characters be allowed?

@Ryik

Multiple characters, absolutely. I'll have a bit more of a think on a character with an eldritch patron, I don't know how much I want our setting to explore deities and extraplanar beings.

[DELETEDUSER007]

>This gives me The Magicians vibes. My main question here though is since this takes place in an alternate Earth for all intents and purposes, can we also perform magic that has been attempted in real life? Things like the rituals in Thelema perhaps? Or Enochian? Maybe not exactly the same but similar.

[Dead Cruiser]

Multiple characters sounds interesting. Lets me flex a little bit with my ideas. I wonder if a character that's a psychic rather than a wizard would be permitted?

[Hey Im Jordan]

i'm in bro this looks tight

[Fabricant451]

i am now contractually obligated

[SunsetWanderer]

>This gives me The Magicians vibes. My main question here though is since this takes place in an alternate Earth for all intents and purposes, can we also perform magic that has been attempted in real life? Things like the rituals in Thelema perhaps? Or Enochian? Maybe not exactly the same but similar.

@Zyx

Happy for rituals and real-life equivalents to be used as inspiration.

Multiple characters sounds interesting. Lets me flex a little bit with my ideas. I wonder if a character that's a psychic rather than a wizard would be permitted?

@Dead Cruiser

This could be possible, yep. In our world, Wizards/Witches use wands to channel and control their magic - but a very, very select few may not require wands to do this. This does not mean they are more powerful necessarily, and madness will be a very real consequence of those born with powers of telekinesis or clairvoyance, for example. I think ‘psychic’ characters would be exceptionally rare, and likely treated as outcasts by all groups - seen as untrustworthy folk who’re as likely to go mad as they are to finish their studies. But yeah, very very rare, so whether or not we’d even have one in the roleplay is up in the air.

Interested, might do Jinn if that would be allowed.

@Theyra

I think this could work, but I’ll have to think on it a little. You’re certainly welcome to run character ideas by me when the discord is up later this week.

Great to see all of the interest! I expect an OOC and Discord will be made this week, and I’ll tag all the folks here when that’s done.

[Mistress Dizzy]

I will try not to apply merfolk. No promises.

[KZOMBI3]

uhhhhh, duh

[Mistress Dizzy]

Just to be absolutely clear: Vamps, Witches and Werewolves are just the most common students, right? Not the only choices?

Also before I get my hopes up: what's the expected posting rate?

[SunsetWanderer]

Just to be absolutely clear: Vamps, Witches and Werewolves are just the most common students, right? Not the only choices?

Also before I get my hopes up: what's the expected posting rate?

@Mistress Dizzy

Correct, not the only choices - but they represent the vast majority. Other species can exist on a case by case basis, as long as they fit with the 'grounded' approach we're trying to craft. Merfolk for example, are fine - but an interpretation where they appear human on land. Something like that.

Posting rate will be very relaxed. I'd ideally like this to be a long term, relaxed commitment. We'll have a discord, and so long as we keep active there, I'm not worried much about posting rate. I'll be the one with most of the deadlines, setting up narrative events for our characters to opt into.