Grim Reaper Lore
The medieval lands of Saurroh are watched over not by guardian angels but by beings known as Grim Reapers. Their original purpose was to guide the souls of the deceased into their proper resting place within the dimension called N'wu; the sole afterlife comprising all aspects of both Heaven and Hell, and in some occasions neither or somewhere in between. Although a Grand Reaper was originally around to keep the 20 or so Grim Reapers in check, this being has mysteriously vanished, leaving all of the Grim Reapers to fend for themselves and fill the power void left behind. For some time they struggled amongst themselves, but it eventually became clear that none of them could truly defeat the other as things currently stood due to a magical pact placed on them stopping any of them from being able to directly harm one another. They needed some way to get around this, and with will came the way.
They developed a technique to mold the energy of souls into special weapons called Reaper Tools. These take a large quantity of energy to properly create, but once they are it offers two all important benefits. The first is that it causes anything with a soul killed as a result of the Reaper Tool, a term known as reaping, to be channeled directly to the Reaper who constructed that Reaper Tool. This makes sure that they have easy access to additional energy from which to create more powerful Reaper Tools, both in quantity and quality, and other uses for making the Grim Reaper more powerful and influential in general. The second major importance is that a Reaper Tool is able to effect not just normal souls but also Grim Reapers. With the inclusion of such Reaper Tools into the playing field, the Grim Reapers taking part in this endeavor gave them to people, who were then called Reapers, to do their dirty work for them. To become a Reaper the person must enter into a pact with the Grim Reaper, the exact terms of which completely up to the Grim Reaper's discretion, but once agreed upon it must be fulfilled by both of them to the best of their ability. If the Reaper breaks the pact then their soul belongs to the Grim Reaper completely. If the Grim Reaper breaks their pack then they die. As you can imagine the Grim Reapers makes the pact almost always in their favor and easy on their side of the bargain to fulfill to avoid this fate.
Besides other Grim Reapers, Grim Reapers are also unable to effect souls in N'wu or normal people back in Saurroh, only able to claim the lives of those allowing themselves to be taken by them or those already on the verge of death. The person might otherwise have been able to survive, but it's a close call if they would have survived or not without this interference. People can obviously still die without the need of a Grim Reaper to finish them off, but without proper guidance from one in the afterlife they might not make it to their intended destination in N'wu and cause haunting as a Wandering Soul, should they have passed on with negative emotions. If the Grim Reaper uses their soul's energy as a Reaper Tool then the soul itself goes out of existence, although theoretically can be brought back somehow.
The only people who can see Grim Reapers are those who have experienced death one way or another, others or even their own impending demise, or have a strong urge to kill. By experiencing death it's usually someone close to them like a friend or family member passing away nearby, although if the person is more sensitive than any random stranger will do. Any killer, in cold blood or otherwise, can easily get a visit from the Grim Reaper. Grim Reapers are unique in appearance but always shrouded in darkness taking on the form of a cloak.
They can teleport by shrouding themselves in the darkness of their cloak. Somehow they can teleport directly nearby those who can see them, meaning that these people have some deeper connection to the Grim Reaper's than first glance would reveal.
The Power of Souls
Not all souls are created equal. In general an elderly soul grows weak, as are sickly or weak individuals; this weakness allowing an opening for the Grim Reaper to claim it for it's energy. A baby's soul is not yet mature enough to provide sufficient power. Basically, those incapable of defending themselves do not have powerful souls and are thus wasted effort to try and reap them. Once people hit the teenage years is a good indication of their maximum power outside of special training. This is the target age group for recruitment into Reaperhood should they have experienced death by such an early age. Although powerful souls are very valuable if reaped, getting a powerful Reaper out of them instead is still the preferred option if it all possible.
The power of souls has been quantified by Grim Reapers and those with special training such as Reapers who can see/sense the brightness of the soul to gauge the overall power. These numbers are just made up by them to better understand how powerful it is rather than inherently existing within the soul. Souls weak enough to be claimed by the Grim Reaper are generally 20 or less in strength. The average teenage human's soul power is 200, beforehand rapidly increasing with age and then afterwards it steadily yet slowly drops without proper training. With training the average Reaper's soul power is 800. The upper limits are unknown, but some legendary Reapers have as high of a soul power as being in the 6,000s. The more powerful a person's soul is the more powerful their physical qualities, allowing them to move faster, hit harder, react quicker, etc. Grim Reaper's souls cannot be viewed in this manner, appearing to be pure darkness. This darkness can be sensed by some people even among those who can't actually see Grim Reapers.
Humans are not the only beings with souls. Some monsters have them as well, and unlike humans, their souls can grant them many different powers such as fire breath. Like humans they have a wide range of values on their souls depending on species. There are many different types of monsters, but imagine things like giant lizards, floating eyeballs of doom, etc. Some humans exhibit minor psychic abilities from their souls, but that's about as far as they can take it. Soul power is far more important to physical strength then the muscles themselves. That being said, little girls with a powerful soul can easily overcome huge muscle-ly guys. Due to men and women having equally powerful souls, depending only on the individual, both men and women in this society are equally valued as combatants.
Reaper Tools
Reaper Tools have a variety of appearances, although most look like/can be used as weapons even without using their special power. They almost all have one such power that goes along with it, of which there are far too many different kinds to name, and each Reaper Tool is generally one of a kind in it's power. Some allow you to freeze anything that touches it, some allow you to turn your body to stone, some allow you to shrink in size, some allow you to summon the undead, etc. That being said it's not always shooting magic out of the weapon, but can grant other changes. Because humans cannot use magic without a Reaper Tool this offers Reapers a huge advantage, not to mention they have special training to increase their soul's power, thus making them physically better as well against any normal human untrained in such a technique.
Reaper Tools can only be used by making a pact with the Grim Reaper who made it. Otherwise it acts just as an ordinary tool even if it's active for one person and then handed over to someone who hasn't made the pact. It's dormant in said person's hands, then when they give it back to the Reaper it regains it's powers.
If a soul is improperly reaped, thus not funneled to the Grim Reaper, then it becomes a Wandering Soul. This can be because of poor concentration or not knowing the proper technique in the first place. It's basically just a mental thing to concentrate on their soul's capture.
Although this is an advanced technique, it's possible for the Reaper Tool to enter Reaper Mode, vastly increasing the wielder's soul power and adding on another related yet more powerful ability to the Reaper Tool. Their eyes glow and energy is visibly flowing around both them and their Reaper Tool. After a certain amount of time, often within a minute, their soul becomes exhausted both physically and mentally, nearly incapacitating them, making this technique a last resort. However, it should be noted that some handle Reaper Mode differently then others. Some might get the biggest bonus in speed while having minimal other upgrades, some might have more modest upgrades but able to last much longer, etc.
On a final note to reiterate the point in the proper area, Reaper Tools are the only thing that can effect souls/Grim Reapers.
Plot
Merthantius, even among the Grim Reapers, has a particularly overzealous lust for power. He has his sights set on destroying almost all of mankind on the planet with the purpose of creating an ultimate Reaper Tool, and if claims are to be believed he doesn't even need the deaths to happen by way of a Reaper Tool in order to gather the energy in the end. With that tool's creation nobody, not even Grim Reapers, would be able to start a war or do anything against his wishes without swift and ultimate retribution, thus the world would enter a perfect unified utopia, as he claims. The elimination of most of the current population of the planet, who would likely all kill themselves off through war and other means anyways, is a small price to pay for all of the future generations to finally be at peace. Some Reapers and even some other Grim Reapers buy into this theory and gladly serve him in the plot to bring about this new world, a conspiracy that goes as high as Emperor Veldis of the Saurott Empire, who has declared war on the rest of the world in order to bring this goal to it's grand fruition.
With the vast majority of the most powerful Reaper Tools at their side it's hard for others to resist. With war often brings about those with the strongest souls to the front lines, making them all the more easy targets. Even if the heroes win, could they do so before the damage is already done? The more this war drags on the more powerful Reaper Tools are being created in the hands of evil. Things are looking more dim by the day, and pretty soon the odds will be outright impossible to overcome. At least that's what the conventional wisdom decrees.
Orthess, as a Grim Reaper, currently stands boldly alone among his kind in facing Methantius. The contract with his Reapers is simple; Stop Methantius and his forces from destroying life as they know it. With his comparably much smaller and weaker force of Reapers by his side he must somehow convince others to join his cause in directly opposing the one many view as the sure winner, and if he does win then the opposition will certainly all be destroyed. Not an easy thing to convince the egotistical, uncooperative, and self preservation minded Grim Reapers to do, but he must do it none-the-less.
General Earsten Kerrathy is insanely rich, influential, and is helping fund Reapers working for Methantius, allowing their strong presence along the southern boarder of the Empire to assist in the invasion of the southern tribelands. Orthess has devised a plan to have his Reapers reap the soul of this man and eliminate his vast source of wealth and influence, striking a major blow to their operations in the area and perhaps even allowing a counterattack by the tribes during all of the confusion. If this operation is successful it will give a much needed morale boost to his forces and perhaps convince a Grim Reaper or two to switch to his side. It's such a seemingly invulnerable target that nobody is suspecting that they would start their grand counterattack scheme with this target. With the general's guard lowered after a night of partying and sending most of the Reaper's off to attack the tribes, night comes and so does the moment of the attack. If spy reports are to be believed there are only 4 Reapers left at the castle and a couple hundred guards. Difficult, yes, but not as invulnerable as they believe themselves to be.
Good luck, Reapers, and reap well.
Rules
1. Standard forum and casual rules apply. Examples include not killing other people's characters without permission.
2. There will obviously be a lot of violence, so don't join if you are too squeamish. Just don't have it so violent or other things graphic in nature that it breaks forum rules.
3. Try to post at least once every week. Any longer than that, if you are keeping people waiting and have not given us proper warning, can have your character killed off or otherwise controlled by me or someone I delegate in order to get things moving again.
4. You may have any number of characters that you feel comfortable with controlling. This could come in handy if characters end up getting killed off so you still have some available. Just don't flood us with characters who don't do anything useful.
5. If you're on the side of Orthess (the good side from most of our points of view, I would imagine) you must be especially careful not to have a super powerful character. Those are best left to being NPCs who don't get much "screen time" as to not have one of us overshadow the others of the group. However, for good boss fights, a couple on the enemy side can have stronger characters. I'd say a good starting soul power for the good guys is the average at 800. Stick somewhere in the ballpark of that amount or lower. If they are new to this whole Reaper thing then that value would be very impressive while still allowing you not to overshadow everyone. For the enemies...who knows. Just make them reasonably possible to defeat through teamwork, or at least fend off.
6. I can make more rules, if fair, as needed.
Character Sheet
Follow this character sheet at least roughly but don't include the stuff in parenthesis, which is just there to help guide you. You may add additional categories of information if you desire, just don't have less.
Name- (If a Grim Reaper, try having a weirder name rather than something like Steve. Humans can sound fantasy like or more mundane)
Affiliation- (What side they outwardly support. If they have hidden motives than keep them hidden)
Race- (Grim Reaper, Reaper (technically still human but good to identify), Human, Wandering Soul (behave like a ghost. Don't do this unless you have a super good idea for one), Monster (if a monster, explain what they are like here. Some have human-like intelligence and may even look slightly human)
Age- (Grim Reapers can survive forever with the absorption of energy from souls, so just put indefinite (or something to that effect) for that scenario. Humans are normal and can be at a wide range from preteen on (but only rarely so we don't have dozens of so called child prodigies running around). Monsters are various)
Gender- (Male or female is equally accepted among Reapers, soldiers, etc. in this culture. Grim Reapers themselves don't have genders so just put what they identify with, if any)
Appearance- (Picture or description is fine)
Reaper Tool- (If yes, explain what it looks like and what it does. You can have more than one, but most of the time a Grim Reaper would rather have another Reaper around rather than giving such a scarce resource twice or more to one of them unless it makes sense)
Soul Power- (Keep it reasonable. No, "It's over 9,000!!!" going on here or it will instantly be asked to be lowered. Grim Reapers have no known soul power value)
Talents- (Other than the Reaper Tool, what they can do that's useful)
Weaknesses- (Nobody is perfect, after all)
Biography- (Stuff about their life. You can make up towns, countries, etc that they are from. I haven't come up with the other places outside of the Saurott Empire, so feel free to have liberty in what these other places are like while making your biography. Just make sure it doesn't contradict anything posted that has already been accepted into this roleplay as fact)
The medieval lands of Saurroh are watched over not by guardian angels but by beings known as Grim Reapers. Their original purpose was to guide the souls of the deceased into their proper resting place within the dimension called N'wu; the sole afterlife comprising all aspects of both Heaven and Hell, and in some occasions neither or somewhere in between. Although a Grand Reaper was originally around to keep the 20 or so Grim Reapers in check, this being has mysteriously vanished, leaving all of the Grim Reapers to fend for themselves and fill the power void left behind. For some time they struggled amongst themselves, but it eventually became clear that none of them could truly defeat the other as things currently stood due to a magical pact placed on them stopping any of them from being able to directly harm one another. They needed some way to get around this, and with will came the way.
They developed a technique to mold the energy of souls into special weapons called Reaper Tools. These take a large quantity of energy to properly create, but once they are it offers two all important benefits. The first is that it causes anything with a soul killed as a result of the Reaper Tool, a term known as reaping, to be channeled directly to the Reaper who constructed that Reaper Tool. This makes sure that they have easy access to additional energy from which to create more powerful Reaper Tools, both in quantity and quality, and other uses for making the Grim Reaper more powerful and influential in general. The second major importance is that a Reaper Tool is able to effect not just normal souls but also Grim Reapers. With the inclusion of such Reaper Tools into the playing field, the Grim Reapers taking part in this endeavor gave them to people, who were then called Reapers, to do their dirty work for them. To become a Reaper the person must enter into a pact with the Grim Reaper, the exact terms of which completely up to the Grim Reaper's discretion, but once agreed upon it must be fulfilled by both of them to the best of their ability. If the Reaper breaks the pact then their soul belongs to the Grim Reaper completely. If the Grim Reaper breaks their pack then they die. As you can imagine the Grim Reapers makes the pact almost always in their favor and easy on their side of the bargain to fulfill to avoid this fate.
Besides other Grim Reapers, Grim Reapers are also unable to effect souls in N'wu or normal people back in Saurroh, only able to claim the lives of those allowing themselves to be taken by them or those already on the verge of death. The person might otherwise have been able to survive, but it's a close call if they would have survived or not without this interference. People can obviously still die without the need of a Grim Reaper to finish them off, but without proper guidance from one in the afterlife they might not make it to their intended destination in N'wu and cause haunting as a Wandering Soul, should they have passed on with negative emotions. If the Grim Reaper uses their soul's energy as a Reaper Tool then the soul itself goes out of existence, although theoretically can be brought back somehow.
The only people who can see Grim Reapers are those who have experienced death one way or another, others or even their own impending demise, or have a strong urge to kill. By experiencing death it's usually someone close to them like a friend or family member passing away nearby, although if the person is more sensitive than any random stranger will do. Any killer, in cold blood or otherwise, can easily get a visit from the Grim Reaper. Grim Reapers are unique in appearance but always shrouded in darkness taking on the form of a cloak.
They can teleport by shrouding themselves in the darkness of their cloak. Somehow they can teleport directly nearby those who can see them, meaning that these people have some deeper connection to the Grim Reaper's than first glance would reveal.
The Power of Souls
Not all souls are created equal. In general an elderly soul grows weak, as are sickly or weak individuals; this weakness allowing an opening for the Grim Reaper to claim it for it's energy. A baby's soul is not yet mature enough to provide sufficient power. Basically, those incapable of defending themselves do not have powerful souls and are thus wasted effort to try and reap them. Once people hit the teenage years is a good indication of their maximum power outside of special training. This is the target age group for recruitment into Reaperhood should they have experienced death by such an early age. Although powerful souls are very valuable if reaped, getting a powerful Reaper out of them instead is still the preferred option if it all possible.
The power of souls has been quantified by Grim Reapers and those with special training such as Reapers who can see/sense the brightness of the soul to gauge the overall power. These numbers are just made up by them to better understand how powerful it is rather than inherently existing within the soul. Souls weak enough to be claimed by the Grim Reaper are generally 20 or less in strength. The average teenage human's soul power is 200, beforehand rapidly increasing with age and then afterwards it steadily yet slowly drops without proper training. With training the average Reaper's soul power is 800. The upper limits are unknown, but some legendary Reapers have as high of a soul power as being in the 6,000s. The more powerful a person's soul is the more powerful their physical qualities, allowing them to move faster, hit harder, react quicker, etc. Grim Reaper's souls cannot be viewed in this manner, appearing to be pure darkness. This darkness can be sensed by some people even among those who can't actually see Grim Reapers.
Humans are not the only beings with souls. Some monsters have them as well, and unlike humans, their souls can grant them many different powers such as fire breath. Like humans they have a wide range of values on their souls depending on species. There are many different types of monsters, but imagine things like giant lizards, floating eyeballs of doom, etc. Some humans exhibit minor psychic abilities from their souls, but that's about as far as they can take it. Soul power is far more important to physical strength then the muscles themselves. That being said, little girls with a powerful soul can easily overcome huge muscle-ly guys. Due to men and women having equally powerful souls, depending only on the individual, both men and women in this society are equally valued as combatants.
Reaper Tools
Reaper Tools have a variety of appearances, although most look like/can be used as weapons even without using their special power. They almost all have one such power that goes along with it, of which there are far too many different kinds to name, and each Reaper Tool is generally one of a kind in it's power. Some allow you to freeze anything that touches it, some allow you to turn your body to stone, some allow you to shrink in size, some allow you to summon the undead, etc. That being said it's not always shooting magic out of the weapon, but can grant other changes. Because humans cannot use magic without a Reaper Tool this offers Reapers a huge advantage, not to mention they have special training to increase their soul's power, thus making them physically better as well against any normal human untrained in such a technique.
Reaper Tools can only be used by making a pact with the Grim Reaper who made it. Otherwise it acts just as an ordinary tool even if it's active for one person and then handed over to someone who hasn't made the pact. It's dormant in said person's hands, then when they give it back to the Reaper it regains it's powers.
If a soul is improperly reaped, thus not funneled to the Grim Reaper, then it becomes a Wandering Soul. This can be because of poor concentration or not knowing the proper technique in the first place. It's basically just a mental thing to concentrate on their soul's capture.
Although this is an advanced technique, it's possible for the Reaper Tool to enter Reaper Mode, vastly increasing the wielder's soul power and adding on another related yet more powerful ability to the Reaper Tool. Their eyes glow and energy is visibly flowing around both them and their Reaper Tool. After a certain amount of time, often within a minute, their soul becomes exhausted both physically and mentally, nearly incapacitating them, making this technique a last resort. However, it should be noted that some handle Reaper Mode differently then others. Some might get the biggest bonus in speed while having minimal other upgrades, some might have more modest upgrades but able to last much longer, etc.
On a final note to reiterate the point in the proper area, Reaper Tools are the only thing that can effect souls/Grim Reapers.
Plot
Merthantius, even among the Grim Reapers, has a particularly overzealous lust for power. He has his sights set on destroying almost all of mankind on the planet with the purpose of creating an ultimate Reaper Tool, and if claims are to be believed he doesn't even need the deaths to happen by way of a Reaper Tool in order to gather the energy in the end. With that tool's creation nobody, not even Grim Reapers, would be able to start a war or do anything against his wishes without swift and ultimate retribution, thus the world would enter a perfect unified utopia, as he claims. The elimination of most of the current population of the planet, who would likely all kill themselves off through war and other means anyways, is a small price to pay for all of the future generations to finally be at peace. Some Reapers and even some other Grim Reapers buy into this theory and gladly serve him in the plot to bring about this new world, a conspiracy that goes as high as Emperor Veldis of the Saurott Empire, who has declared war on the rest of the world in order to bring this goal to it's grand fruition.
With the vast majority of the most powerful Reaper Tools at their side it's hard for others to resist. With war often brings about those with the strongest souls to the front lines, making them all the more easy targets. Even if the heroes win, could they do so before the damage is already done? The more this war drags on the more powerful Reaper Tools are being created in the hands of evil. Things are looking more dim by the day, and pretty soon the odds will be outright impossible to overcome. At least that's what the conventional wisdom decrees.
Orthess, as a Grim Reaper, currently stands boldly alone among his kind in facing Methantius. The contract with his Reapers is simple; Stop Methantius and his forces from destroying life as they know it. With his comparably much smaller and weaker force of Reapers by his side he must somehow convince others to join his cause in directly opposing the one many view as the sure winner, and if he does win then the opposition will certainly all be destroyed. Not an easy thing to convince the egotistical, uncooperative, and self preservation minded Grim Reapers to do, but he must do it none-the-less.
General Earsten Kerrathy is insanely rich, influential, and is helping fund Reapers working for Methantius, allowing their strong presence along the southern boarder of the Empire to assist in the invasion of the southern tribelands. Orthess has devised a plan to have his Reapers reap the soul of this man and eliminate his vast source of wealth and influence, striking a major blow to their operations in the area and perhaps even allowing a counterattack by the tribes during all of the confusion. If this operation is successful it will give a much needed morale boost to his forces and perhaps convince a Grim Reaper or two to switch to his side. It's such a seemingly invulnerable target that nobody is suspecting that they would start their grand counterattack scheme with this target. With the general's guard lowered after a night of partying and sending most of the Reaper's off to attack the tribes, night comes and so does the moment of the attack. If spy reports are to be believed there are only 4 Reapers left at the castle and a couple hundred guards. Difficult, yes, but not as invulnerable as they believe themselves to be.
Good luck, Reapers, and reap well.
Rules
1. Standard forum and casual rules apply. Examples include not killing other people's characters without permission.
2. There will obviously be a lot of violence, so don't join if you are too squeamish. Just don't have it so violent or other things graphic in nature that it breaks forum rules.
3. Try to post at least once every week. Any longer than that, if you are keeping people waiting and have not given us proper warning, can have your character killed off or otherwise controlled by me or someone I delegate in order to get things moving again.
4. You may have any number of characters that you feel comfortable with controlling. This could come in handy if characters end up getting killed off so you still have some available. Just don't flood us with characters who don't do anything useful.
5. If you're on the side of Orthess (the good side from most of our points of view, I would imagine) you must be especially careful not to have a super powerful character. Those are best left to being NPCs who don't get much "screen time" as to not have one of us overshadow the others of the group. However, for good boss fights, a couple on the enemy side can have stronger characters. I'd say a good starting soul power for the good guys is the average at 800. Stick somewhere in the ballpark of that amount or lower. If they are new to this whole Reaper thing then that value would be very impressive while still allowing you not to overshadow everyone. For the enemies...who knows. Just make them reasonably possible to defeat through teamwork, or at least fend off.
6. I can make more rules, if fair, as needed.
Character Sheet
Follow this character sheet at least roughly but don't include the stuff in parenthesis, which is just there to help guide you. You may add additional categories of information if you desire, just don't have less.
Name- (If a Grim Reaper, try having a weirder name rather than something like Steve. Humans can sound fantasy like or more mundane)
Affiliation- (What side they outwardly support. If they have hidden motives than keep them hidden)
Race- (Grim Reaper, Reaper (technically still human but good to identify), Human, Wandering Soul (behave like a ghost. Don't do this unless you have a super good idea for one), Monster (if a monster, explain what they are like here. Some have human-like intelligence and may even look slightly human)
Age- (Grim Reapers can survive forever with the absorption of energy from souls, so just put indefinite (or something to that effect) for that scenario. Humans are normal and can be at a wide range from preteen on (but only rarely so we don't have dozens of so called child prodigies running around). Monsters are various)
Gender- (Male or female is equally accepted among Reapers, soldiers, etc. in this culture. Grim Reapers themselves don't have genders so just put what they identify with, if any)
Appearance- (Picture or description is fine)
Reaper Tool- (If yes, explain what it looks like and what it does. You can have more than one, but most of the time a Grim Reaper would rather have another Reaper around rather than giving such a scarce resource twice or more to one of them unless it makes sense)
Soul Power- (Keep it reasonable. No, "It's over 9,000!!!" going on here or it will instantly be asked to be lowered. Grim Reapers have no known soul power value)
Talents- (Other than the Reaper Tool, what they can do that's useful)
Weaknesses- (Nobody is perfect, after all)
Biography- (Stuff about their life. You can make up towns, countries, etc that they are from. I haven't come up with the other places outside of the Saurott Empire, so feel free to have liberty in what these other places are like while making your biography. Just make sure it doesn't contradict anything posted that has already been accepted into this roleplay as fact)
