[OOC] Shadows of the City

[veiledrose]

Welcome to New York City, the city that never sleeps! Here you can experience the thrill of a Broadway play, or shop like you never have before in the fashion forward districts, or simply soak in all the wonders the city has to offer. You can even tour the Institute, under supervision. Wha…What was that? You don’t know what the Institute is? Well then, you must be a Mundane! In that case, you won’t remember a word of what I just said, and you will go on about your business as usual.

Still there, eh? Then you must be one of us, but which? A Nephilim or Downworlder? Ah, no matter, it’s rude of me to ask, and as it is I can already sense it on you so it doesn’t really matter. Just testing out your character, is all. I will leave you to it, then! But I must warn you, there are dark forces brewing as of late. The demons have been more active, portals popping up from unknown sources. I’d watch your back, if I were you, and try not to get into too much trouble. And please, refrain from messing with the Mundanes, unless you want to answer to The Clave. Enjoy your stay, and I hope to see you again soon!
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Alrighty, all! This is an RP based on The Mortal Instruments novels. Well, the only thing it will follow are the locations and the classes of Downworlders. I, however, intend this RP to be geared towards an older crowd than what is depicted in the novels/movies. The plot will be different as well, much more basic. There is an almighty demonic entity that is commanding all the lesser demons. The objective is to locate/destroy this Greater Demon. This RP isn’t meant to be a great epic fantasy journey, there will be more open play than plot-driven play. I want characters to be able to RP their lives in the city and what-not, but I will direct certain actions by making main announcements as a narrator. They may be geared towards certain players, or to everyone as a whole (just to keep things interesting).

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Classes
Make your characters accordingly. Of course there can be ridiculously good-looking players, most Downworlders are meant to be depicted as gorgeous creatures. However, keep in mind the class of Downworlder you are creating. Descriptions of common characteristics for each class are below

Nephilim/Shadowhunters: A secretive race of beings who are humans born with angelic blood. They are appointed specifically to control and preside over the Shadow World, as well as over the demons and Downworlders who inhabit it. Their mandate is to keep the peace in the Shadow World and keep it hidden from the mundane world while protecting the inhabitants of both worlds. They generally don’t get along with Downworlders, but relationships have been known to develop and occur. They are much faster and agile than the average person, mainly due to their need to fight demons all the time.

Each Shadowhunter is equipped with a stele. With this stele Shadowhunters inscribe special runes on their skin, which will remain permanent like a tattoo. Each rune is different and serves the purpose to enhance something of the Shadowhunter. For example, one rune is used to heal, another rune is used to enhance one’s balance, etc. Here is a list of runes

Vampires: Vampires possess superhuman strength, grace, speed, and the unnaturally accelerated healing abilities inherent in most other Downworlders and are able to heal quickly from most mundane injuries. Their most prominent ability is their raw physical strength which allows them to subdue any mundane prey with little effort. Allegedly, their abilities increase and grow stronger as they grow older. They have the ability to sheath and unsheathe their fangs on command, a feat harder to master with younger vampires.

Their most mysterious power is the encanto, or "fascination", the power to mesmerize and essentially control their prey–mundanes. Vampires can, with simple prolonged eye contact, convince mundanes and even Shadowhunters of almost anything, and can persuade them into almost any act. This is a skill that must be developed and practiced by vampires, and so it is typically the older and more powerful vampires that can make use of it.

Vampires are comfortable in darkness; their eyes adjust to seeing in darkness and seeing in light almost instantly, much faster than the eyes of humans. Vampires also have sharper hearing and eyesight than humans, and any fledgling who wore glasses in life will no longer need them as a vampire.
Other information- Vampires fear fire, and can be kept at bay with fire. They can be killed with a stake through the heart, and silver is toxic to them. They also cannot tolerate daylight, and must remain hidden from the sun during the day.

If you decide to play a Vampire, then you will be part of the NYC clan. Each city has its own clan of Vampires that reside over the other vampires within the area. If you would like to be a clan leader, please PM your CS first.

Lycans: Lycanthropy transforms a human into a werewolf, a demihuman whose demonic infection causes them to transform into a large and dangerous wolf under the light of the full moon, while still bearing a little resemblance to their human selves. Werewolves in their lupine form are not merely wolves; they possess unnatural strength and speed comparable to that of demons, and their claws and fangs are able to slash through a chain-link fence or bite through a padlock.

In addition to their supernatural strength, grace, and reflexes, werewolves have the same unnaturally accelerated healing abilities as most other Downworlders. They cannot regenerate a severed limb, but they can recover quickly from most mundane wounds.

In human form, they look fairly normal, albeit a little dirty, as most of their kind do not bother cleaning up much. Werewolves also retain their superhuman speed and strength while in human form. Also, werewolves are mortal; they age and die normally like ordinary humans, though they grow up somehow faster.

If you choose to be a Lycan, then you will be part of a pack. Each city has its own pack, so as it is everyone who is a Lycan will be part of the NYC pack. If you would like to be a pack leader, please PM your CS first to me.

Warlocks :The immortal race of Downworlder offspring of demons and mundanes. They are the only Downworlders who can cast magic because of their demon blood; unlike vampires and werewolves, who were merely infected by demonic diseases.

Warlocks do not have the many unifying features of werewolves, vampires, or faeries. The only universal traits shared among them is that they all possess a so-called "warlock mark" on their body that identifies them as not merely human.

Faeries: Also known as the Fair Folk or fey, Faeries are an extremely cunning immortal race of Downworlders. They have both angelic and demonic blood, attributing to their beauty and malevolence.

According to legend, faeries are fallen angels, cast down out of Heaven for their pride. Although the hybrid descendants of demons and angels, faeries possess human souls just as other Downworlders do, and they are counted as members of the human race by the denizens of Heaven. The Fair Folk are known for their unearthly beauty and fair skin, appearing in various pastel hues of blues, greens, and violets, even pearl, to name a few. Faeries commonly incorporate flora and multiple forms of vegetation as part of their ensemble. Many faeries are extremely attractive with delicate and regal faces and exquisitely colored features, such as their eyes, with colors "as clear as glass".

Faeries, like vampires and werewolves, possess the unnatural abilities of swiftness and grace. Some are even given wings, which may be due to their angel blood.

All fey are part of the Seelie Court, which is run by the fey Queen. They have their own government that resides underneath the city in the ground. You may opt to want to play the Queen, however, you will need to PM me your CS first. If nobody shows interest in playing the role of the Queen, she will most likely end up being an NPC run by myself.

-Note: Humans are referred to as “Mundanes” by all the classes. Since Mundanes aren’t able to see any of these classes or know they exist, nobody may play as a Mundane. Also, no “cross-breeding”…no, you may not be a Nephilim/Vampire, Lycan/Warlock, etc.
- Double Note because I don’t know where this would fit elsewhere: The Shadowhunters basically act like a judicial system amongst themselves and all Downworlders. They enforce the laws, which the basic one is not to meddle with the Mundanes. The second important one is that there is no killing of other Downworlders. The Clave is a council consisting of representatives from the Nephilims, Vampires, Lycans, Faeries and Warlocks. It governs all Nephilim and Downworlders, and holds trials for those who commit any crimes.

Character Sheet

Name:

Age: (no younger than 18 years; no older than 1,000 years for vampires/fey/warlocks—unless you are clan leader, pack leader, or the Queen, which you would need to PM your CS first for approval. The leadership roles will run off of a “first come first serve” basis…if you show interest in these roles in the OOC, but someone else submits a CS to me that meets my expectations, then sorry Charlie. I’m going to give the roles to the person that first submits an acceptable CS. If I tell you to change things or work on things and in the meantime someone else slips in a CS that doesn’t need corrections, then the CS that doesn’t need corrections will be given the part. Basically, I’m impatient [it’s a problem], and don’t want to wait around days for people to make the necessary corrections.)

Gender:

Class: (Nephilim, Vampire, Lycan, Warlock, or Faerie)

Appearance: (description or picture, or both)

Personality:

Biography:

Other: (most Nephilim will be equipped at all times with their choice of weapon, so that can go here. Downworlders have no reason to carry anything, as their special abilities make them easily ready for any sort of fight. Any other information about your character that wouldn’t be covered in the previous sections can go here as well)

-Note: For now I am limiting the amount of characters one person may play to 2 (TWO), at least just to start. Taking on more than 2 characters can be a lot of work, and increases the possibility of getting discouraged to keep up with other characters you created and leaving someone else in the RP hanging. This is subject to change, depending on how many people show interest and later on how many people we lose. I will let everyone know when it will be ok to make additional characters if they so wish.

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Locations

The Institute

This is where the Shadowhunters/Nephilim sleep/train. Only Shadowhunters are allowed free and total access. Downworlders are physically unable to enter the building.

The Hotel (Vampire Clan)

This is where the NYC Clan resides. It is law that Downworlders are not allowed to kill other Downworlders. However, if you are stupid or brave enough to enter this hotel then all bets are off.

The Den (Lycan Pack)

In this old factory is where the NYC Pack resides. It’s unkempt and pretty dirty, but wolves don’t really mind.

The Seelie Court (Faerie Realm)

This is where the fey people live. It runs like a monarchy, and there are multiple well-known locations within NYC parks that are the entrance to the kingdom. Be warned, if you are not fey, that if you enter you may not eat/drink anything offered, lest you want to belong to the fey people forever.

Pandemonium (Club)

This club, on the first floor, is meant for Mundanes. However, only Downworlders are allowed access to the basement, a whole other part of the club that specifically caters to the Downworlder community.

Veselka (Diner)

Downworlder’s have gotta eat too, ya know. This is a diner in town that caters to the Downworlder community, serving special menu items, such as Moose Blood Pie for the local Vampires, or Dandelion Shakes for the fey folk. If you choose to dine here, please remember to tip the waitresses nicely. They are other Downworlder folk just trying to make a living, after all.
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Rules

I’m going to be trusting that everyone can use common sense and not be a pain in the ass player. So don’t go around God-modding and playing as an invincible character. Each race/class has its kryptonite. If you annoy me enough by not using common sense, then I will kill your character off. But no worries, I will give you warning after warning before it comes to that.

This is High Casual, so post accordingly. There can be violence (just don’t get too graphic) and you can insinuate a sexual encounter, however don’t actively play it out IC. Take it to PM for all I care, just don’t do it in the public eye. I’m not going to put a minimum length of paragraphs because I feel that may limit everyone to some degree (and there are only so many ways you can be descriptive with a specific scenario). Just please, post more than a couple lines, and post so that it keeps the story moving along. If there ever is a standstill among characters, I will step in and shake things up :>

I reserve the right to be the omnipresent narrator, which means, as mentioned above, if I feel like things are not moving along with a certain set of characters, I will God-mod the shit out of you and create a situation within the story that spices things up a bit. I will only kill characters off if they have been inactive for more than a week (unless you specifically let me know you will be absent, then I will create a situation where your presence is not warranted at the time). I will post a single post by itself in all italics when I post as the all-powerful narrator of this RP, so make sure you pay extra attention to those posts.

One last thing. My biggest pet peeve EVER is when people don’t read other people’s posts…even if they aren’t in direct dialogue or physical proximity to them. READ EVERYONE’S POSTS. That way nothing goes unnoticed (such as if a certain character passes you and does something strange as you walk by, but your character posts as if this never even happened and just continues bee-lining it to the character they are trying to get into interaction with, I will get angry). We don’t post to amuse just ourselves, we post in the hopes that it creates a good story and encourages other players to RP with our character at some point. So be respectful and do everyone the courtesy that joins of reading their posts as they post them, and at least acknowledging something they may have done in your following post. You may not wish to RP with them, but a little acknowledgment of efforts made never hurt anyone.

Overall, I’m a nice GM. I like people to actually get to RP when they join an RP…so if your character just can’t seem to get into dialogue with another character or fit in somewhere, I will make sure you do. Just have fun! If you are not having fun for whatever reason, PM me and we can figure it out!

[MissAddler]

Name:
Annabelle "Anna" Marie Delaney

Age:
172 (was transformed and so appears around 19)

Gender:
Female

Class:
Vampire

Appearance: (description or picture, or both)

She is very small, around 5ft 4ins and slender. This has resulted in her deceptively sweet, innocent-looking appearance which has fooled many of her victims during her earlier 'dark' stages of life. She has British accent, due to her past.

Personality:
Anna is not necessarily a bad person but her past has turned her slightly bitter. She is not, by any terms, an optimist and will gladly point out the flaws of anyone else's dream or hopes. She gets bored easily - well, eternal life will do that to you. She is bluntly honest and hasn't exactly earned a reputation for world's sweetest vampire.
Despite this, she is incredibly trustworthy if you can convince her that your secret is worth keeping. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she is sentimental and when she loves, she loves deeply. But she has learnt, though, that as a vampire, love is pointless. People will only die in the end and she'll still be there, living forever. Due to this, she likes to keep her social interaction, outside other vampires, to a minimum and maintain a tough reputation.

Biography:
Annabelle was born in England to wealthy parents and grew up decidedly spoilt. She was engaged to the handsome son of an English earl - Hugo Crawford - when she was eighteen years old and one of those girls who thought the world was an amazing place. However the English Earl was not accidentally rich and one of his various wealth-making schemes backfired when he scorned a downworlder who just so happened to be a notorious vampire. Whilst Annabelle and Hugo were celebrating their engagement over a family dinner party, the vampire stormed in, in a vicious rage and proceeded to kill every member of the Delaney and Crawford family. Well, all apart from Annabelle.
A servant boy entered a little while later and upon hearing Anna's moans, dragged her from the pile of bodies and bandaged her up. He brought her food but she would not eat. He brought her water but she would not drink. Finally, he leant down - certain she must be suffering from a terminal, internal wound - and wished her farewell, but she lurched forward and bit into his arm. She drank until he was nothing more than a shrivelled corpse; the first death in a string of many.
She roamed the street of London, not entirely sure what she was, killing victim after victim after the sun's vicious rays had faded into the calm of darkness. Eventually the shadowhunters of the London institute caught up with her, but before they could punish her for her crimes, the head of the London vampire clan intervened. He saved her life but perhaps, in turn, condemned her to a worst one. She was at the bottom of the Victoria vampire hierarchy and eventually could stand it no longer. At the start of the 20th century, she boarded a ship to New York, escaping to a new land across the sea. She was smarter this time; she made sure the vampire NYC clan knew she was not to be messed with. She accepted their rules and joined, but they largely left her alone. And she has wasted away her time ever since, trying to forget at Pandemonium or chasing mundanes down alleyways at night just for the thrill of it (because, of course, she is not allowed to bite them). She was the first person to admit that her existence was pretty pointless.
Until she heard the rumours of the Greater demon. She heard stories that he was so powerful he could bend time and bring back the dead. So she could relive her perfect life or bring back her family and Hugo...Part of her knows that this isn't possible - that, of course, the stories are just stories - but her life has become so aimless, so pointlessly eternal, that she needs a goal.
And you never know. Maybe the Greater demon can do just that.

Other:
She still wears the engagement ring that Hugo gave her, though if anyone asks, she claims it's the wedding ring of her first victim; a bride on the way to her wedding. Naturally, it is gold.

[veiledrose]

MissAddler- yay for first CS! And everything looks great, accepted :)

[MissAddler]

Whoooohooo!
Not participated in a mortal instruments RP before but I love the series and your descriptions!
Quick question - will any characters from the series feature or is it only going to be the setting that we use?

[veiledrose]

Yayy! I love the series, and just couldn't be happy on this site unless I was involved with a MI RP haha. I don't intend to have any of the characters from the book in the RP, just taking the basics of it and creating our own characters from that!

[Expllo]

Thinking about joining, just need a while to think about stuff.

[Aeris]

I have no clue about the series, or the concept itself because I never watched/read anything, however, by what I read on this thread only, it's quite interesting and by the looks of it, you aren't following the series, so.. Could I still take a try at making a character, even without knowledge about the series itself?

[veiledrose]

Nero said
I have no clue about the series, or the concept itself because I never watched/read anything, however, by what I read on this thread only, it's quite interesting and by the looks of it, you aren't following the series, so.. Could I still take a try at making a character, even without knowledge about the series itself?

Of course! That's why I'm not following the series at all, because I want anyone to be able to walk in and enjoy the RP without having read the books. Plus, it's more of an open-world role play, not very plot driven (however, as I mentioned above, I as the omnipresent narrator will make things happen...mwuahaha). Everything that is pertinent to know I put in the initial post, so as long as you understand the different classes and what-not, you should be fine. Anything that may need further explanation from the IC I will go over here in the OOC as it pops up.

So yea! Put up a CS if you like and we'll go from there! If you have any questions pertaining to the setting, classes, etc, just let me know :)

[veiledrose]

Expllo said
Thinking about joining, just need a while to think about stuff.

Take all the time you need. The RP will stay open for applicants throughout the duration of its life (which hopefully is relatively long one).

[Expllo]

Kevin

Name:
Kevin 'Kyle' Brown

Age:
20

Gender:
Male.

Class:
Lycan.

Appearance:

(6’1/Lean)

Personality:
Kevin is a laid-back guy who just does his own thing. He normally stays away from The Pack, and tries to avoid the whole Vampire feud thing, even tries to avoid being a werewolf as he just wants to be a normal mundane. This leads him to always want to reason in any fights involving the Supernatural. Despite this, if angered, he won’t hesitate to break someone if he can. He’ll also back anyone up in a fight depending on the circumstances, no matter who they are (Ok, it matters a little who they are), he hates unfair fights and will try to help if he can.
Outside of things relating to The Pack, personality wise talking to people, he’s nice even to the ones who are supposed to be labeled his enemy as long as they are too. Though if someone says something completely idiotic he will get sarcastic or just plain blunt, it’s something he can’t control.

Biography:
Kevin grew up with no memories of his family, for most of his life they hardly crossed his mind. He was raised in a Children’s Home; there he was a quiet and calm one, stayed away from everyone and watched cartoons and anime most of the time. Certain nights he would black out and wake up on his bed with no memory of the night all while smelling a small hint of blood, probably just nose bleeds he always thought. He thought that until he turned thirteen, where he blacked out and woke up in front of the dead bodies of his foster siblings.

His foster parents came into the room a bit after he woke up, knowing how it would look on him, he panicked and hopped out the window. He sprained his ankle but he kept on going, staying out of sight due to the blood all over him. He ran into a forest him and his siblings used to play and checked himself out in a creek, blood on face and in his hair. Looking at his hands, blood even under his fingernails, he didn’t know what happened. He began washing the blood off quickly until a few men showed up, they had smelled him and tracked him. It took a while, but Kevin was finally convinced to go with them to some old factory. There, he was told what he was, and why he was blacking out certain nights. Nights of full moons, the killing had to have come from his pent up frustrations, something he always held in.

He decided to stay with The Pack, not like he had much choice either. There they taught him to use his powers, his first time turning he had become violent, but he quickly stopped. He remembered everything of that moment, his future times turning he had gotten the hang of it with help from the others in The Pack, not completely but enough to stop himself from blacking out. He still couldn’t stop his shifting from full moons, but he could control his Lycanthropy. Over the years of staying with The Pack, it was like at the home; he stayed distant and did his own thing. He could control his werewolf form, but due to his past he wasn’t very fond of violence, so he stayed away from fights as much as he could unless he was needed.

Other:
Worked as a mechanic when he felt comfortable enough to go back outside.

(Don't know if I like this but here it is)

[ShadowedRaven]

Name:
Alison "Ally" Bennet

Age:
21

Gender:
Female

Class:
Lycan

Appearance:

She is around 5'7" tall and of a fairly athletic build.

Personality:
Determination is a strong trait of hers, once she's set her mind to something it will be near gone impossible to get her to change it. She is logical and quick minded, preferring to think up many a solution before picking the best one. She has a way with words and always tries to be the voice of reason but on another note Ally often uses her charm and words to get the things she wants, persuasion and flirting often being her best used tools over physical strength. She would far prefer to talk herself out of a situation then fight her way out.
She is curious by nature and strives to learn more and understand new things, preferring to learn a specific thing in depth rather than loads of things all at once. She values the art of silence knowing that a clear frame of mind is all that is needed when trying to resolve a situation. However she can often be very stubborn and a little judgemental and on occasion can even be seen as having a short temper, but its not traits she tends to show very often.
In new surroundings or around strange people she can react in one of two ways, either appearing quite withdrawn in herself as she prefers to observe things before acting upon them, or overly confident as she tries to appear knowledgeable on a subject so as not to be underestimated.

Biography:
Ally is only a recently turned lycan, and by recently turned I mean she was bitten merely 2 days ago. Before this her life was pretty average she went to high school, had a couple of good friends, kept her head in the books for school and studied hard. Her parents worked both middle class jobs and travelled a lot leaving her to cater for herself a fair bit of the time. As an only child she often found company in fiction stories but also held a passion for the tales of mythical creatures and the unknown.

One weekend when her parents were both out travelling for work she followed a link to this forum and emerged herself in rumours of the fact that all the creatures she had researched and read about were in fact real. By delving deeper she found someone had even posted an address of where they thought some of them may be hanging out or live. Out of boredom and on a whim she packed a small bag and grabbed a thick jacket and headed out for the evening in search of the truth behind these rumours.

But what she found was more than what she bargained for, for the night she had ventured out on was in fact a full moon and by heading down the alley towards 'The Den' (a dingy old factory to her) she had stumbled upon the whole lycan pack at their most vulnerable point and consequently got bitten. The whole event was kind of hazy, she woke up on the cold floor of the factory but fled out of fear returning home and trying to figure out what happened.

The whole night was a blank and the more time that passes the less she feels like herself, she knows something's different but she doesn't know what. She has yet to venture back to the alley for fear of what she will discover in the daylight, but she knows if she's going to get any answers then it will be there she finds them.

Other:
^.^

[Expllo]

1. I like your CS (It's.....Different O.o)

2. 'Dat eyebrow game is strong!

That is all.

[MissAddler]

I have to agree with Expllo on points 1.......and 2.......:P

[FireHeartWolf]

I was gonna get the first book on kindle (I have read a snippit online) I am guessing it is good, then?

[Expllo]

Story is good, I'd say so atleast.

[ShadowedRaven]

Cheers! :D Its hard to find tweezers in a pack of lycan's so I went for the all natural look (and unfortunately lycan's tend to be a little on the hairy side) haha :P

[veiledrose]

Expllo- accepted; just be mindful of your syntax and grammar--there were a few run on sentences and grammar mishaps, and I can see (much like myself) you enjoy commas. I am the self-proclaimed comma whore, which has been a work in progress, but make sure you are proofreading your work.

ShadowedRaven- a few issues with the CS, which could be blamed on me as I didn't fully explain it in the blurb above. Lycans in this RP aren't born, they are created through bites. It's an infection, so unfortunately there is no blood-line of lycans....unless the parent lycan decides it wants to bite its child I suppose. Either way, the detail that she was born into Lycanthropy is not possible. All Lycans are technically part Mundane, so the half/half thing doesn't need to be stated since they still retain part of their human self (unlike vamps and whatnot that actually die and bleed out and reject the Mundane part of themselves). The not shifting thing won't work out either, since once you are infected you have to turn on the first full-moon, it's inevitable. Also, there are no epic battles between Lycans and Vampires, it's against the code of The Clave. They have a natural disdain for each other, but it's law that the peace remain between the Downworlders. There can be individual conflict and fights, but nothing involving the whole pack and clan...yet, at least. Anyways, these are pretty major things to be fixed, so patch up all that in your CS and let me know when you are done revising and I will reread it and go from there!

[veiledrose]

FireHeartWolf said
I was gonna get the first book on kindle (I have read a snippit online) I am guessing it is good, then?

The books are UHMAZING. you should read them if you get the chance.

[ShadowedRaven]

Ok no worries it was long shot on my part for the history, I'll edit now :)

[Expllo]

Yeah, I'm aware of some of my writing mistakes. I'm usually better when it comes to the IC, I think I get lazy when things include the OOC and CS despite that being the part where I'm judged on writing and crap, can't help it T^T

And I'm pretty sure it was stated in the books that if two Lycans had a child then that child would be one too, unless that was proven false? I think Kyle stated it? Unless you just want it to be spread through bite, then never mind o.o