Destiny inspired future fantasy. (WIP, needs a name)

[Gisk]

It's only inspired by the aesthetic I got from playing the Destiny Beta, this is not meant to take place in the same world, nor is it meant to be a copy.

There are six elements, divided into three Realms.

The Earth contains the elements of Earth and Water. Together, they make life.

The Sky contains the elements of Air and Fire. Together, they are the storm.

Space contains the elements of Void and Sun. From them comes all matter.

Those who draw their power from the Realm of Earth are Knights. Masters of their own bodies. Earth is their strength, Water is their skill.

Those who draw their power from the Realm of the Sky are Monks. Masters of their own spirits. Air is their peace, but Fire is their passion.

Those who draw their power from the Realm of Space are The Ascendant. Masters of reality. They carry the Sun, but will fade into the Void.


Okay, real talk time. I haven't decided too much on the world as a whole, but it is shaped by the three "classes" that exist in it.

The thing to remember about them is that they aren't necessarily cookie-cutter archetypes. Knights aren't all big armored lugs, and Monks aren't all pacifists who speak in riddles. They are merely those who follow the elements of their chosen Realm. A skilled martial artist is just as much a Knight as an armored swordsman.

In this world, heroes are chosen at random, at a young age. Taken from their mothers before they can speak, and raised in the Heroes Consortium, an organization run by the respective heads of the Knights, Monks and Ascendants, and dedicated to the continued preservation of humanity.

By the time the young Heroes reach puberty, the Realms start to argue over them. Each wants as many new members as they can justify taking, and they will use whatever means they can to ensure that their force is the strongest. The Knights want glory, the Monks truly believe their path is the right one, and the Ascendant simply always need to replenish their ranks.


In addition to the literal interpretations of the various elements, they also have attributes of their own.


Earth: Strength, solidity, permanence.
Water: Precision, skill, luck.
Together, they make life, whose applications are obvious.
Knights focus their powers into their own bodies, to make themselves unbeatable in battle.

Air: Freedom, speed, change.
Fire: Passion, power, the spirit.
Together they make the Storm. A force that can't be controlled easily, and which brings unpredictable change.


Sun: The power of a star, fusion. Radation. Scorching heat and blinding light.
Void: Nothing. Absence. Bitter cold and deafening silence. While their Sun powers are radioactive, their Void powers can absorb it safely.
When brought together, they can form new matter. An adept could recreate a diamond, but young Ascendants find that they can only create shadowy imitations of solid matter which will sublimate after time.
The ultimate expression of the Ascendant's power is for them to Ascend. To fade away and join the cosmos. This is why they are so few in number. The Ascendant closest to this goal is considered the Master of their order. The Knights and Monks criticize this practice, as the Master is constantly being replaced, sometimes multiple times a year. The Ascendant's argue that those closest to Ascension would give the same orders anyway.
Young Ascendants are encouraged to weave Earth into their first Raiment. To anchor them so that they don't fade away while still learning to control their powers.


The elements are present in the world as crystals, which can be woven into various materials to make the Raiments that are responsible for the powers of Heroes. A Knight would weave Earth into armored plates, and water into a cape or a sigil. The Raiment is the set of clothes that a Hero wears. As they bear them, they gain affinity over time, and become more attached to the elements they chose. The greater the affinity, the greater their power.


I hope this isn't too much of a confusing mess, they are all thoughts from work. If you have any questions, I can answer them.

[Empath]

Sounds interesting, I look forward to hear more about the world, the mechanics and the plot.

[Gisk]

Mechanics I will shed some light on right now.

I was thinking(if there's overwhelming negative reactions to this, then I will abandon it) of having a sort of point system in play. You will of course choose your Realm, and you can divide some arbitrary number of points between the two elements that fall into it(Ascendants will have an arbitrary number of points fewer than the other two classes, because of aforementioned necessity of an anchor element). This will represent how much of the "element crystals" you have.

I also thought about building literal skill trees and assigning points as the RP goes on. If people are open to that idea, I would love to implement it. I'm actually very fond of skill trees.

Whether I do that or not, these are the kinds of powers the various classes would use(in addition to the literal interpretations of their elements):

Knight: buffs, and blunt force attacks, basically. Healing would actually fall in their domain as well.

Monk: Gliding and possibly upgrading to full fledged flight. Possibly transfiguration. They can meditate and connect to the minds of other meditating Monks. Monks are actually not ruled by any single person like the other two groups, they instead operate off of a collective thoughtfield.

Ascendant: Teleporting, bringing objects into existence(simple objects, no biological or machines) and making objects disappear(same caveat).

Common cultural behaviors. There are outliers, and remember that there are still ways to use these traits in a way that makes the character your own.

Knights: the obvious prideful sort of things. A lot like American soldiers, just like the Marines think they're the elite branch, the Knights consider themselves the backbone of the Heroes Consortium.

Monks: Monk doctrine encourages the use of both of their elements equally and in balance, but they have a surprising amount of outliers in either direction. Though some fall in with the doctrine, a lot of youngsters find it stifling and rebel in small ways. There are probably more single element users in the ranks of the Monks than in either of the other two.

Ascendant: Detached from reality, and easily distracted. Especially as their affinity increases. On the flip side, a lot of them try to find ways to counteract this side-effect of their Realm.

[Empath]

The point system sounds interesting, though it has to be done right. I like how the different "schools" have different social norms, definitely something that is nice to know about when creating a character ^^

What time period/technical advancement will this story exist within?

[Gisk]

It's going to be very futuristic. I'll expound upon more later, but I'm heading off to work right now.

In the mean time: what do you think works well for RP point systems? What doesn't work?

[Gisk]

I'll try to get some lore out tonight, but don't have time this second. In the mean time, bump.

[DR_TRAPEZOID]

I am very interested in this. So far everything sounds wonderful, especially the skill tree idea.

[Empath]

Gisk said
In the mean time: what do you think works well for RP point systems? What doesn't work?

As long as it is simple(ish) and allows players some personalization to differentiate between characters it will be all good. As soon as you have to do "hardcore math" in order to create a point system, I think it gets more in the way. For me a perfect point system gives freedom to create different characters, but at the same time balances then.
Perhaps that was a bit of a "duh" ramble ^^

Oh and I look very much forward to the lore!

[DR_TRAPEZOID]

I do agree with Empath, in keeping it simple. Perhaps, in addition to making Raiments, Elemental crystals could be used to craft weapons and the like, in a system where more advanced weapons would cost more crystals to forge. (ex., A plasma caster would cost four crystals, but a handgun would cost just one.)
I dunno. In hindsight, this might be more complicated than need be, and probably not the feel you were going for.
Supposing this idea is as off as it sounds to me now, I would suggest keep it simple, much like your first post on the matter, Gisk. Perhaps 30 crystals for Knights and Monks, and 15-20 for Ascendants? (Those numbers just came from the top of my head, actual numbers would warrant a bit more discussion. The crystals would, in turn, let you make your Raiments in some varying degree of badassery. Then perhaps leftover crystals could be converted into hypothetical 'skill points, to be put into skill trees. (Which I would be more than happy to help make.)

[Pathfinder]

I could get into this.

[smoke-n-scotch]

This surely looks interesting.

[TheHumbleMagnificent]

Funny I was just telling myself that I was getting Beta withdraws. Not too keen on a complex system, but will keep my eye on this one as more info comes out.

[Gisk]

Okay, yesterday was my wife's day off, which meant that my spare time was spent with her(I'm a great husband, dammit) but tonight I can put some serious work into this. Right now I work the middle of the day, so I should be able to get on around five, Eastern time, just so you folks know.

So my thought was this(and I'd love opinions and possible edit suggestions):

Thirty points to assign(Ascendants get 25) and they can divide them however you want between the two elements of your Realm. I will come up with a skill tree, which you will get to put points into whenever I choose to assign them(probably I will assign them for everyone at the same time). The skill tree will have abilities that aren't literal interpretations of the element in question. You will have control of your literal element from the get go, and your power and skill with controlling it will go up automatically as you "level up" in proportion to how many points you put into it in the beginning.
The skill tree, I think, will be divided into the two separate elements, and a third route for both combined.

The numbers aren't for any math, they're just for direct comparison(you have fifteen points in Earth? Well I put twenty, so my earth control is stronger).

I'm trying to think of how the Raiment points will affect your skill tree. The only thing I can say for sure is that if you have your character geared completely to one element, you will not have any access to skills from the other, or mixed skills.

[malmshodes]

This looks really cool, and I'm really interested in joining. I love skill trees too. I'd be totally up for helping you make those, if you'd like. I even have some ideas.
Of course these are just suggestions, or ideas I have, so if you don't like any of them that's cool. I'm just putting them out there.
The soldiers have earth, and water, and their skills are going to deal with buffs, right? Well, what if one of their skills, or even a few of their skills, possibly in the middle tree, had to do with the manipulation of their body weight? Imagine a soldier charging through enemies, hardening his body, and increasing his body weight so that his momentum carried them forward like a truck!
Now as for wind and fire, since together they create storms, maybe the middle tree could have to do with electricity like they gain abilities that involve lightning, and can even tweak their own nervous system.

[Gisk]

If you happen to be on, maybe give me some skills that you'd like to see, plus's the class and element(s) that you think they should belong to.

[Sage]

I'm really interested in this. The whole pseudo stat side to this RP would make it much more systematic, but I think it would fit for something like this. I say go all out. Big skill tree with maybe even the possibility to gain more points by doing some dope shit in the roleplay. Like borderline text game level shit, nah mean? I would suggest making a legit, separate CS topic in the other forum for reference. This shit would help make combat much more than just "Ok you wanna win this fight or should I?"

But yeah, I'm digging the little lore you got going already. I really want to see what else you can add to the world, but so far, I can see myself making an Ascendant. Let me know if you need any help figuring stuff out, I would hate for this to be lost in the interest check phase.

[Sage]

Gisk said
If you happen to be on, maybe give me some skills that you'd like to see, plus's the class and element(s) that you think they should belong to.

I could help with that. We could hop onto a titanpad and collaborate.

[Gisk]

Okay, so this is my current thought for the skill tree. Instead of assigning points, you'll just have a level, and we'll level up frequently(if you go missing you may miss level ups, so you'd be weaker than the rest when you returned). And the different skills will have different level requirements depending on your element percentages.

Example(using the 30 points total):

Monk skills, Glide.
Level requirements:
1(25-30 Air)
2(20-24 A)
3(15-19 A)
4(10-14 A)
5(5-9 A)
6(<5 A)

That way you won't have to sacrifice skills, and instead you'll learn them in the logical progression for your class and element ratio.

I truly don't think that that is too complicated, does anyone disagree?

[Sage]

Would that mean you automatically have every skill if you put 30 in one element? I liked the points system, and why not just have it to where instead of leveling up, the "level up" scenario would just get all participants a certain number of points.

[Gisk]

Okay, so let's finally get us some Lore.

Human Protectorate: A blanket term for any and all human settlements that have entered into a contract with the Hero's Consortium. These settlements are protected by the Consortium(from outside forces as well as from each other) and in exchange they give their children up in the Drawing, whereby new Heroes are chosen. With the exception of Spire City(which is managed by the Consortium directly) the various settlements and city-states in the Protectorate are self governing, but defer to Consortium decrees.

Heroes' Spires: Three towers that lie in a triangle, each taller than the last. The shortest of them still towers over Spire City, but the next is nearly twice as tall still. The last reaches up further than the eye can see. They say it's so the Ascendants can step off of the roof and into space. Each houses one of the three Realms of the Hero's Consortium. The shortest being the Knights, the tallest being the Ascendants. The exact use they make of these towers varies.
The Spire of Earth is the Knights Headquarters, and most consider it to be the real heart of the Consortium. It holds the barracks and facilities for the Knights, and the rooftop courtyard is where the heads of the Realms meet to discuss important matters.
The Spire of Sky is actually open to the public, and has launching platforms for all manner of aircraft. It is the hub of travel for Spire City. In addition to this service, the Monks are always happy to give advice in spiritual and interpersonal matters(note that this generally applies to the "balanced monks" and not those who rebel).
The Spire of Space is largely empty, owing to it's massive size, coupled with the Ascendants' meager numbers.

Spire City: The capitol of the Human Protectorate. It gathers around the Heroes' Spires. It forms a rough triangle, with three districts, named after the three Realms.
Earth District is full of agriculture, and feeds most of the Protectorate, even those who live outside of Spire City. Laborers and builders also often call this district their home. Earth District locals like to consider themselves the physical backbone of all of humanity.
The Sky District is the industrial heart of the city. Mechanics, elemental artificers, that sort of thing. It is always loud, and sometimes vibrates with magic.
The corner that is called the Space District is, like the Spire it surrounds, surprisingly empty. A lot of people feel uneasy around, or openly distrust the Ascendants. Many of the inhabitants of Space District are similarly unwanted elsewhere, though the district is also home to other eccentrics like artists and musicians. The district is full of empty buildings that were built when the Consortium was young, and the Ascendants had only just formed. Over time a lot of people migrated to the other two districts, leaving a lot of derelict buildings for the homeless and social pariahs to appropriate. The Lord of the Knights is constantly pressuring the Master of the Ascendants to repair the district, but he goes unheeded. The Ascendants' lack of attention makes the Space District a favorite hideout of thugs. The whole place is an odd mix, there is both extreme poverty and affluence.

The weaving of elements has existed for as long as history has, but for most of humanity's memory there were only four elements. Sun and Void were discovered after a meteor crashed down near what is today Spire City. A curious artificer investigated, and found what he recognized as element crystals, though he had never seen any like them. He experimented, and was the first ever to use Void. The first Ascendants were the artificer and his apprentices, who all started learning to wield Void, and slowly gained affinity. The artificer simply disappeared over time, and today this is recognized as the first Ascension. Early Ascendants traveled to space, and discovered more Void crystals, as well as Sun crystals which seemed incapable of entering the atmosphere on their own.
In their natural states, the two elements opposed each other, and reacted violently. But the clever artificers found ways to weave these reactions to their advantage.
The Ascendants joined the Monks and Knights who already lived in the land, and formed the Hero's Consortium. Overtime, humanity saw the prosperity that they had, brought on by the advanced technology that Void and Sun were key components to.

Today, most of the human race is under the Human Protectorate, which ushered in a golden age for all of the earth.

But, starting a century and a half ago, strange creatures, who called themselves the Orsim, appeared. They wielded the Void without needing Raiments or crystals, and they were hostile to humans. Their numbers seem to be growing all the time, forcing them to expand and take more and more land.
The Orsim stand head and shoulders over humans, have gray skin and black hair. Their eyes are pure black pits, and their Void powers seem to come from them. When they first appeared, they fought with primitive weapons, but as they've taken human technology, they've made it their own and now fight with more advanced means. They come from the south pole of the planet, where the sun disappears for months at a time. Indeed, they seem to be averse to the sun, only acting at night, and going largely dormant when the sun shines over their domain. They are not brutal or cruel, but they are merciless and unrelenting.
They are part of the reason that people distrust the Ascendants. There are those who believe that the two are connected somehow, despite the fact that the Ascendants were around for centuries before the Orsim appeared.