[OOC] The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

[Guilty Spark]

BingTheWing said
Izzit meta if I have a Darratu messenger come to Bor with the news that the palefaces are digging holes in their territory and want Bor to do something?

Darratu?

[BingTheWing]

Bor's tribe, who live in the Amaryth foothills.

[Ellri]

The entrances to those tunnels would only be opened up shortly before the invasion. They're using captive Evokers to make them. With the number of relics floating about, there'll be more than a few there capable of getting through stone, be it through shattering it, modifying it, blowing it up, melting it, using temperature changes to break it, etc. As the Empire has a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands, chances are there's sufficient numbers of potential evokers there to make finding enough possible, as he empire has specialized in capturing and using such evokers. Sep will go into more detail on how they do that.

The Imperial army striking at this kingdom relies on stealth, which is why they've got countless scouts surrounding the main army and removing any observers.

One more thing about the Empire: They're not actually evil. They don't kill people for the sake of killing or anything like that. Sure, they might mistreat most Evokers they get hold of, but they still treat them better than the Holy Order of Idris does. And the Empire doesn't discriminate against women, a trait that is unusual in medieval societies.

[AlidaMaria]

Ellri said
One more thing about the Empire: They're not actually evil. They don't kill people for the sake of killing or anything like that. Sure, they might mistreat most Evokers they get hold of, but they still treat them better than the Holy Order of Idris does. And the Empire doesn't discriminate against women, a trait that is unusual in medieval societies.

It's great to see that we create different societies here! (Here I come again with my Da-Hyun blabla, 'scuse me)
In Da-Hyun women are extremely discriminated when it comes to political or juridical rights and they're usually treated as lesser beings, however they are allowed and even encouraged to fight for their country or during raids. The Da-Hyuni just have a strong but very different sense of 'equality'. Much like most medieval and early-modern societies had.

[Sep]

Just wait till you meet the Vocators. Working on them now.

They're the Empires Elite.

[BingTheWing]

Bor's tribe be stelthy.

Yeh dis might be godmod.. I think

[BingTheWing]

NO! No! Great idea coming up.

Imperial scouts caught Bor's tribe spying on them and razed the village to the ground and capturing as many people as they can to check for relics. However, a messenger left before that happened and is making his way to Amaryth

[Ellri]

Well, the imperials wouldn't raze any village if they could avoid it. They would, however, do their best to capture anyone who might reveal their existence to others. Rather than slaughter or raze anything, they might just temporarily imprison the village. But here's the thought:
Maybe Bor expected someone from his village to meet him, but that doesn't happen because they're prevented from leaving? That in turn might make him curious and/or cautious, right?

We'd rather not a random (nameless) NPC revealing the imperial invasion. A PC, on the other hand? not as easy to prevent. We'd guess, once he figures out what is happening, that Bor might reach the city around the same time as the imperial army. Remember, they'll have begun marching out of the tunnels the moment the darkness rose, for at that point, they won't be visible. We'd guess the tunnel exits to be not far outside the darkness. Short enough to have a quick march to get there before the darkness stops again, but far enough away not to arouse suspicion. Maybe 4-6 km or so away from the walls?

It would make sense for the Imperials to send outriders in all directions away from the tunnels, to ensure that there's no one warning anyone about their existence. If everyone assumes the Imperials came over the mountains, which is the more logical route after all, they'll how the Empire supplies and reinforces its forces.

[WilsonTurner]

hurry up with the army of doooooooom
i wanna go lightning-crazy on someone :c

[WilsonTurner]

Oh look my avatar changed.
Huh.

[Sep]

WilsonTurner said
hurry up with the army of doooooooomi wanna go lightning-crazy on someone :c

Me and Ellri are waiting for Spark to post, and if you let me finish the Vocators you'll find yourself surrounded by highly trained women of doom.

[Sep]

Vocators

Theme

Background
The Vocators are an order as old as the Empire itself. When the Empress found her all powerful relic she also found a mask which she gave to her most trusted Lieutenant. The order eventually grew to 65, never more. 1 Leader with the Relic, 4 Lieutenants and 60 underlings (15 per Lieutenant). Their task is to hunt down relics and their users to bring them back to the Empire for "Re-education." If they cannot be brought back they are to be killed and the relic returned to the Sanctuary. They can also be assigned to duties in order to protect the Empress (They do not guard other dignitaries) when her life is in direct danger, they can also be used to remove key personnel from opposing nations however due to their stature and level of intimidation they are never used as Enforcers and if any Vocator attempts to act as one it is scorned and they are removed.

---

Relic use/Uniform:
Vocators are all female, the Relic that is used as the source of their power is Genderlocked. Only the Empress truly knows why and as the Leader needs to use it all the members are female. If a male were to ever somehow enter the order they would never be able to obtain leadership as they could not wear the mask without dying and as such would be deemed unworthy. More about where the mask was found is only known to the first Empress, and her current descendant if records were kept.

The Uniform is always the same:

The exception to this image is that everyone wears a cloak and the hair is kept short. The cloak is black and simple, and long enough to make it hard to see peoples faces unless at the right angle or up close while the mouth is covered.

The lowest levels all wear a plain silver ring, lieutenants have a plain chain necklace and the leader has the Mask. All these items are tied together and it is the first task the new leader has. To link these items to the relic, which does weaken it however the relic wearer still has 2.5x the regular strength/speed and agility. The lieutenants have 1.5x the regular strength speed and agility and the lower ranks only have an increase of 1.1x their regular strength speed and agility. This connection only works if the wearer is within 1km of the relic and the relic user can cut this off at anytime they chose.

Of course, unlike true relics, the power of the rings is temporary. i.e. if a ringbearer is slain, as can happen, the ring is of no use to anyone else. Its lieutenant and the leader will know immediately of course, and the acquisition of a replacement vocator will be started. A new ring will be empowered instead and given to one of the many Vocators-in-training.

We'd imagine that if there's anyone in the Empire that has proven to elude the vocators this long, he or she could easily be in possession of many such dis-empowered rings taken from those (s)he has slain. It is only the relic of the Vocator's leader that retains its power between owners. The reason it works to transfer between owners the way it does, is that all vocators change slightly upon being given a ring or necklace and slowly change further over time. Generally, by the time any of them try take on a superior, let alone the leader, they have changed sufficiently for the relic to consider them eligible.

---

Their primary weapon is a Sovyna which is a six foot long pole arm with a blade at one end Url

Their secondary weapon is a sword attached to their belt, and a dagger in one of their boots. However most Vocators in the interest of competition have multiple knifes that only they know the location too. They have been trained to wield bows but it is very rarely that they are seen using them with the intent of getting close to the relic users.

---

Can I just point out to anyone that wants to pick a bone with them to remember that they have been trained since childhood to be trained killers and to take down people with relics, they might not know what you have but with all the relics in the world there are bound to be duplicate relics so they may have heard of it before so are trained to adapt easily. Not saying you can't take them down, of course you can but first time or so it won't be easy.

---

Affinity:Kalesian Empire - The Empress

Location: They have a private sanctuary in the mountains to the North East of the centre of the Empires borders.

Ivona Danica

Age:[b]25

[b]Gender: Female

Relic Description: The Relic is a mask. Though you can't see it as technically it is nothing. It hides her face as just a black hole underneath her cloak where her face should be. Which makes her faceless, the relic allows her to manipulate energy within her body and through direct physical contact (Only flesh/flesh none of this glove touch business). With this she can amplify her body to 2.5x its usual strength, agility, speed which is already high. Using this energy through her senses if she is still and concentrates she can detect the unique energy given off by other relics.

She can also bind objects with the energy. Such as she is bound to the 4 lieutenants and them to each of their 15 underlings.

Skills: As leader of the Vocators she won the title through combat very recently. Due to the fact that the leader can remove the powers from a Lieutenant she had to fight with her regular speed, strength and agility to someone with just over twice their normal. Due to the fact that The order is hundreds of years old the leader becomes more and more deadly every year which makes her extremely deadly with a blade and a brilliant tracker and good at range. Her skills however do not extend past hunting people and killing them due to her history, and she has very little social skills and is distrustful of everyone.

Background: Like most Vocators she had no life prior. She was taken in from a young age from one of the many orphanages throughout the Empire. She doesn't have much memory of before as she was so young. Until she was fifteen she was fed propaganda, she was driven towards being in peak physical condition. Taught to trust no-one other than the Empress and her word. Her life was a one of struggle, her body was finely tuned into a machine. She had no childhood, she was taught to fight from the first day she was taken into the sanctuary. When she was 15 she became a Vocator when a space was available.

Like many Vocators she was given a ring, this ring was tied to that of the Lieutenant in charge of her branch. She was told this would make her stronger however she never noticed it. She spent time in this role hunting down those who used Relics or and bringing them to the sanctuary for re-education, several times she worked against other states and guarding the Empress however as a Vocator she was primarily a hunter. When one of the Lieutenants died she fought for the position, her ring was taken and replaced with a necklace. This time she felt the change in power and like many before her it made her want more, she wanted to be the most powerful. She wanted to be the closest to the Empress. It was all she had ever went for, all she ever tried to achieve. There were several challenges in a very short space of time, the current leader had reached the age of thirty and as such many people were challenging her. Though with the power of the Relic and with the capability of stripping others of their power they all lost. So far she had kept her title as the most deadly, which was why Ivona chose her timing. She struck the second that her predecessor had finished dispatching another contender. As she began she felt her power wain, however it was too late. Her opponent was tired and Ivona won. Donning the mask she became the new leader of the Vocators and was privately congratulated by the Empress. She is now overseeing the invasion to ensure that anyone with relics does not interfere on the wrong side.

Appearance:

Black cloak hood, and her face cannot be seen.

Motivation:Like all other Vocators she lives and fights for the Empress.

Theme Song: Music

[WilsonTurner]

The Vocators would be equal to Myth. Myth may not have Relic-speed, but he'd still be a match for a Vocator or two, due to his lightning. At a distance, he would be able to attack more, provided that they are far enough away, OR there is a storm. Drawing on the lightning in the storm to cause it to strike down wherever is better than using the gauntlet's reserves.

And if ask me why I say Myth is equal to a Vocator, it is that he, too, was trained to be a killer as soon as he could lift a weapon. Maybe not a cold-blooded killer, more of a killer of those who kills and of those who threaten, but still a killer. And one can't quite dodge lightning. Fireballs, sure, icebolts, sure, but lightning is faster.

Lightniiiiiing
iamzues:3

Just don't send like half a dozen when he's in a forest
:c
Myth wouldn't stand a chance. Well. He'd stand for a little bit, but he wouldn't last very long.

Do Vocators have a sense of honor? Like do they only attack greater opponents in groups, but attack lesser or equal opponents individually?

Ah, Myth will taunt them and continue to do so until he's unconscious or gagged. And if he's gagged, he'll still talk.

Yea, send a group of them at Myth. I wanna be the prisoner who never shuts up!

[Sep]

Vocators do what they're told, when they're told. Sense of honour to the Empress and that is about it. Also you might match the regulars as I expect everyone too but I'm not going to set Ivona on anyone for a while. With Ivona this is a order where the leader is the most deadly and must be killed for the new leader to come into play. She's already had 2 attempts on her life by her lieutenants and the order is hundreds of years old. Think how deadly that makes the leadership of this group. They'll stick in pairs for most opponents, add up into larger groups if necessary or a Lieutenant or the Ivona would be sent. Also if you get captured you get to go to the Palace and enter "Re-education" as it says. Failing that they'll just chop off your hands to get your relic.

[AlidaMaria]

Sep said

Eehm... sorry to be a party pooper... but isn't the image you used for both the Vocators and Ivona, the same as Guilty Spark's character Sitara, who is recognisable as a citizen of Oragos :'D

[Ellri]

Of course, unlike true relics, the power of the rings is temporary. i.e. if a ringbearer is slain, as can happen, the ring is of no use to anyone else. Its lieutenant and the leader will know immediately of course, and the acquisition of a replacement vocator will be started. A new ring will be empowered instead and given to one of the many Vocators-in-training.

We'd imagine that if there's anyone in the Empire that has proven to elude the vocators this long, he or she could easily be in possession of many such dis-empowered rings taken from those (s)he has slain. It is only the relic of the Vocator's leader that retains its power between owners. The reason it works to transfer between owners the way it does, is that all vocators change slightly upon being given a ring or necklace and slowly change further over time. Generally, by the time any of them try take on a superior, let alone the leader, they have changed sufficiently for the relic to consider them eligible.

[Sep]

Damnit Ellri gave me that image. If it is, I will kill Ellri all that makes up the being known as Ellri.

[Ellri]

Typical about images, eh? There's only so many good images out there.

we'll have to go digging with Sep then.

[AlidaMaria]

Sep said
Damnit Ellri gave me that image. If it is, I will kill Ellri all that makes up the being known as Ellri.

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/54728/posts/ooc?page=6#post-1683618 There you go. Would you mind if I check my collection of images to see if I can find something similar that could be used as a uniform? Maybe I'll even be able to find a pic that could suit Ivona. If you're okay with it, I'll pm you Sep :)

[Guilty Spark]

Give me a minute to read and perhaps I can supply an alternative.