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Map of the Kingdom of Sythus
Credit to original artist for map. Link:Cartographers Guild

"Gather round, gather round!" An old man sits at a wooden table, a similar age to himself, as young children, teenagers and even adults well past the age of storytelling gather round him to hear his story. "Let me tell you a tale of wonder and creation, a most interesting tale to tell! Are you sitting comfortably?"

"Many, many millennia ago, aeons in fact, the mortal realm as we know it today was filled with an empty void that held no life. To the Gods outside this realm, it was seen as a toy, something they could play with and use to test their powers. And use it, they did. The Immortal Nine came to the borders of our realm and theirs, and they stared through the void, discussing with each other the different things they would grant to our world. The first Immortal, Ona, gifted us with Light, and it was with her gift that the darkness of the void was banished to the edges of the realm. The second Immortal, Polas, filled the realm with Form, heralded as the greatest gift from the Gods! For it was Form that allowed the realm to create the planets and the stars around us, and it was Form that allowed the life of our realm to truly begin.

The third Immortal, Trula, whistled to our world a most magnificent tune, and with her musical tones came the Elements. Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Each passed through her blessed lips and mixed ever so carefully in the already changing world of our realm, finding their places in the stars and rocks that would one day become the world as we know it. The fourth Immortal, Unis, gave to us the wonders of Force. Mixed with the gift of Form, Force allowed the floating pieces of rock that Polas had created to come together and merge into solid masses, capturing mixtures of the Elements as they did so. The gifts of Polas and Unis were to create the first planets.

The fifth Immortal, Lwandu, looked upon the universe as it stood and let out a deep sigh, his tones reaching to the furthest corner of the realm and breathing Life into everything it touched. With his gift, the light of stars grew brighter, the rocky ground of planets became greener and littered with sprouting buds, deep gaps between landforms became filled with torrents of water which shifted against the borders as if Lwandu himself were living there, letting out his sigh that first brought Life to the world. The sixth Immortal, Habnu, borrowed the remnants of Lwandu's sigh and channelled the remaining energy into Nature. And with this gift, the world began to shift. The planets began to shudder, their landmasses colliding to form mountain ranges, or pulling apart to create channels of water between them. The planets shuddered some more, great quakes ripping through the land and forging devastating constructions. Lava filled mountains stretched as high as the eye could see, and bottomless pits opened up both on land and under the seas. Some of the Immortals were upset with Habnu for doing this, as they had not wanted such harmful things in their world, but as they had been able to experiment freely, they allowed him his gift.

The seventh Immortal, Inugis, looked down at the universe her brethren had created, and she cried. Her tears falling into the world and, leaching from the gifts of Lwandu and Habnu, formed the first Creatures. Her tears were divided equally between land and water, and a diverse range of living things formed upon each. These beings evolved overtime, some remaining the same, some changing ever so slightly, to give the species we know and love today. The eighth Immortal, Yngvar, decided these Creatures should not be alone, and so he created Humanity. He plucked the twig of a tree formed by Nature and lay it on the ground, watching as it changed its form and wove itself into Man and Woman. Yngvar smiled down at his creation as they mingled peacefully with the world's inhabitants.

The ninth Immortal, Qualin, shook her head at Yngvar, chastising him for his lack of diversity. And so Qualin gave Race to this world. When the Men and Women of the universe began to breed, their children evolved into something different. Soon, Humans were joined by other complete races, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and all the other races you see today. And that is how our world as we see it today was created.

But! There was one more Immortal. One more that did not agree with what his brethren had done. His name, was Erthantis. Erthantis looked over the mortal realm and was infuriated to see what his brethren had created. He considered it a waste creating a world like this and littering it with life, knowing the humans and other races would surely destroy the beauty their efforts had formed. Fuming with hatred, he swore to punish his brethren, and he flung himself into the mortal realm. But in doing so, he was stripped of his immortality, for passing through the realms requires a sacrifice of one's immortal gift. And so Erthantis fell to our realm as a mortal, but he was far from powerless. It was by chance that he should land here, in Sythus, our humble region. Back then, it was teeming with life, a prosperous, promising nation. But he would not let it remain that way.

Still fuming at his brethren, he lay a curse on the land, a dark curse that spread to the borders of Sythus itself. Everything the Immortals had worked for, perished. The trees and plants died off, the constructs civilisation had made crumbled, and as for the inhabitants themselves...they suffered a fate worse than death. Erthantis showed no mercy towards the living creatures of Sythus, but he saw a use for them. And so he ripped out their souls and forced them into slavery, turning them into his very own army of darkness. But the Immortals were on our side, and they saw what Erthantis had planned for the rest of the living world. And so they acted quickly and used their powers to force his curse back from the edges of Sythus, but they weren't powerful enough to rid the land of him completely. They managed to push him past the Lonely Peaks, the mountain range just north of here, where they cursed him to stay for eternity, to live out the rest of his mortal life.

Defeated though it may seem, Erthantis was cunning, and outsmarted his brethren who were slowly rebuilding the land he destroyed. Trapped as he may be, he made one more sacrifice in a final bid to destroy what the Immortals had created. He brought forth five of his Soulless and infused each of them with some of his power, plunging the creatures further into the darkness. He called these creatures the Shadowlords...and they were pure evil. Erthantis, pleased with his creation, was now powerless. He had used all of his magical energy creating his protégées, who looked down at him now and laughed, before they all raised their swords, and killed their former master. Rumour has it, these Shadowlords are still out there, waiting for the defences of the Immortals to break, so that they may ride though the universe and fulfil their master's wishes and destroy the mortal realm. But of course, that's just a story."

THE PLOT

That is the Story of Creation. An age old story still told today, once a year, every year. That same old man is usually the one to tell it during the after-party of the Empresses' Birthday Parade. On her birthday, the Empress of Sythus joins an elaborate parade of carnival floats to greet her citizens with open arms, and rejoice in yet another year of life with them all. But this year, something evil is afoot.

While telling his usual story, the old man, along with his audience, were blissfully unaware of the events unfolding at the Palace of Kathar. A group of skilled assassins, working for forces unknown, slipped into the Empresses' chamber as she slept, and slit her throat. The Palace guards sensed something was wrong, but were too late to save her. They tried valiantly to kill off the assassins, and many lost their life in doing so, but they were unfortunate enough to fail. The assassins managed to leave the palace unharmed, taking with them the Jewel of Kathar, an ancient necklace worn by the Empress and her royal ancestors. It is said to hold great power, equalling that of the Immortal Nine, but nobody has ever found these rumours to be true.

The assassins returned to their mysterious employer, who turns out to be the Empresses' right hand man, High Priest Fingar. Fingar swiftly takes the Empresses' place on the throne as a stand in until an heir to the Royal Bloodline can be located, though none suspect his involvement in her death nor his ulterior motives. None, but a few.

Before her death, the Empress secretly sent out several letters detailing her fears of soon departing this world, along with a task given to the receiving adventurers. Her letter asks them to keep peace within the land, and begs them to keep back the Shadowlords from ever entering the mortal realm.

But her letter is not the only letter sent out. Fingar himself is recruiting members for his own cause, and sent word to many Followers of Erthantis to come before him in the Palace, where he explained to him his plan to unleash the Darkness that has remained locked up far too long.

This is where you come in. You can choose to play as either an Adventurer carrying out the Empresses' last wish, or as a Follower of Erthantis under the rule of the High Priest Fingar. Whichever side you choose, you can be sure to face trials and terrors fit to test your skills and strength. Do you have what it takes to succeed? or will you fail your cause and let the other side win? Sign Up below! The roleplay begins on the eve of the Empresses' death as your characters are gathering to meet the respective 'leaders' of the two groups.

THE RULES

This is a Roleplay aimed at people aged 15 or above. There will be scenes of violence and such, however if you feel you are mature enough to handle such things, feel free to sign up.

Your posts should be of decent length. Please ensure they are no shorter than TWO paragraphs. Pragraphs should contain at least 5 well structured sentences.

Good grammar and punctuation is expected, however everyone has the occasional slip. So long as you appear to be making an acceptable effort I will have no issues with you.

There is a maximum of THREE characters per player, and a two week waiting period between character creation. You must seek permission from me or a Co-GM before creating a new character.

Aim to be as active as you can. I understand you have lives to live, but if you plan on being away for a while, please let me know in the OOC or via a PM.

Characters have a 'lifetime' of sorts. You CANNOT kill off your character until 30 days AFTER their timestamp of creation. This is to stop people spamming characters they don't plan on playing all that much. Approval for killing characters must be sought from the GM/Co-GM(s)

No Godmodding/Powerplaying

Cursing and Romance is allowed, but please don't abuse this privilege. Mature Romance scenes must be carried out via PM.

A Warning system will be put in place in the event of any rules being broken. A player may break a rule three times before their character is removed from the Roleplay. The exception to this is godmodding. Godmod once and you get a warning, do it again and you will be told to leave the game.

Repect the Rules and have fun! I ask nothing more from my fellow Roleplayers!

Character Sheet [+]

ACCEPTED CHARACTERS

Ethir

River

Quadrophenia

BrobyDDark Gentleman Spidey