[OOC] Bonds of Guilded Steel

[TheWendil]

Interest Check

Since the dawn of creation, it has widely been accepted as fact that all things were brought about by the will of the Dytenziextity. Although many kingdoms and regions practice their own religions and cultures, all of them reference the Dytenziextity was being the progenitor of those very same concepts and ideals.

It is said that the Dytenziextity is the mightiest of all gods, fabricating all of reality and much more. As such, all magic in the world is stated to be after thoughts, echoes, and even pieces of the Dytenziextity's supreme influence.

No kingdom recognizes this more so than the land of Crescentia. As one of the leading political powers in the world, Crescentia is a place where nobles bred for justice and equality thrive in their green lands and thriving towns. Out of the four neighboring nations that encompass the world as a whole, Crescentia is to be considered the largest and most vibrant, seeking to end injustice in the eyes of their rulers.

For years the kingdom of Crescentia has lived in relative peace with little strife, having seen little bloodshed since the Great Wars: a series of religious crusades to determine which nation was the true voice of the Dytenziextity. Indeed, the most unsettling news brought about to the people’s awareness is minor skirmishes and the like from neighboring countries.

However, there are stirrings that threaten to overthrow the regime of peace and stability.

There are reports of a deadly assassin known only as the “Red-Eyed Ghost” traveling the nation, slaying those of great power and status. Their next target: the Princess of Crescentia herself. Unfortunately, the infamous “Red-Eyed Ghost” is promptly captured and tossed in jail, having being revealed of two things.

Ordinarily, the punishment of such deeds would be carried out by public execution; however, the noble Princess tries a much different, more controversial method.

One day, in visiting the killer of many, the Princess offers to be both their friend and their mentor. At first hesitant and bitter, the knight soon finds comfort in the royal's actions, explaining that a conquering warlord not only vanquished their own kingdom, but also sent them to kill the Princess of Crescentia as well.

As time passes, the “Red-Eyed Ghost” finds themselves opening up more and more to the Princess, even to the point of fondly having affections for the royal. Although they know it would be against all laws of the mortal world to do so, they soon yearn for the Prince/Princess and soon swear loyalty only to them.

Meanwhile, dark forces gather at the edge of Crescentia and news of the approaching warlord spread rampant like wild fire.

CS

Appearance: Name: Age: Personality: History: Weapons: Abilities: Other:

[TheWendil]

Sable

Name: Sable, the Red-Eyed Ghost

Age: 19

Personality:
Sable generally has two expressions written on her face: neutral and frowning. Given her current situation, what with being forced to rot in a prison for god knows how long, it kinda makes sense on her part. Perhaps at one time she was more kind-hearted and generally less stoic. Maybe. Now though, she'd much rather just not talk to anyone at any time or anywhere.

As an assassin greatly feared throughout the different nations, Sable is a killer with a stone face. Often, the last thing her victims see before their passages into death are her cold visage and blank red eyes. Sable appears cold and apathetic, and to some extent she really is, only allowing her mind to focus on tasks at hand. She especially has a great hatred for nobility and Crescentia in general due to the nation’s role in the Great Wars.

Now say, perhaps she was kinder back in her past? If that were the case, one would think that maybe that more tolerable, maybe even sweeter, side of herself is just lying dormant somewhere deep inside. That makes sense, right? Maybe she's just shy. And maybe she really does feel something whenever she kills.

History:
Sable hailed from a small kingdom in the nation of Rexicorg. Thinking of times like those wrought in the past, the assassin can vaguely say that life was indeed peaceful for a while. Starting out as a knight in service to the Hollot Kingdom, she served her own princess in the line of honor and duty. And for that portion of her early life, she was happy.

However, her story was fated to be riddled with tragedy upon tragedy.

At a young age, Sable’s best friend Adrian was promptly taken by the land of Crescentia as a war prisoner. Back then, the Great Wars-a series of religious crusades to determine which nation was the true voice of the Dytenziextity-were still in action, only being quenched in the last couple of years. As such, Adrian was reportedly tortured to death in those dark times, forever souring Sable’s view on the Crescentia kingdom.

More recently, an organization known only as the Imperium descended onto her homeland in the hopes of conquering it. At this time, Sable was already a trained knight under the kingdom of Hoton. During one of the night raids, Imperium soldiers dragged away her younger sister in the battle, beckoning her to seek them out. Once she did, she was offered a choice.

Betray her homeland or watch her sister be killed on the spot. The answer was obvious.

Sable disposed of her kingdom’s ruler with a quick blade and a heavy heart. That was all that was needed, as chaos soon engulfed the nation without its leader, making it ideal for the Imperium’s complete invasion. So began her downward spiral into a history of unneeded bloodshed.

Her new purpose was clear. She was to be a spy, infiltrating kingdoms and assassinating their leaders from within, making way for her new leader to ride unopposed. To go from a knight of nobility and to be reduced into a filthy killer….shameful. And so she locked away all traces of her humanity, choosing to end her victims under the visage of a emotionless killer.

The Red-Eyed Ghost was born and since then, she’s spread fear and paranoia across the lands.

Her latest mission involved an attempt to assassinate the lone princess of Crescentia. Only time will tell how that particular encounter will play out…

Weapons:
Sable carries with her a sheathed sword, much akin to a sword of Eastern descent. It serves as a reminder of her own fall from grace and the pathetic shell she now is today. As a former knight turned assassin, she is trained expertly in the art of swordplay.

The weapon, nicknamed “Loveless”, is actually a specialty made from her homeland of Rexicorg. It was the first of many prototypes in developing weapons which could counter the forces of magic. As such, “Loveless” is essentially a sword that feeds on magic; using magic against Sable in a fight will not bring her enemies an advantage.

Abilities:
In terms of other powers and abilities, Sable can only rely on her physical prowess and skill with the blade. Having both an official knight’s training as well as adapting more unorthodox methods from being an assassin at her calling aid, she is a deadly foe to fear indeed.

Sable is most adept in striking down opponents from the shadows, using camouflage and secrecy to kill her targets quickly and efficiently. Finally, Sable is a master of the sword, having honed her skills to the point where she can cut down oncoming projectiles such as arrows.

Other:
Obviously, Sable is not her real name. Rather, it was one chosen by her shortly after the slaughter of her kingdom and her early days serving the Imperium.

[Mousia]

Princess Titania of Crescentia

Appearance:
Name: Princess Titania of Crescentia
Age: 20
Personality: The princess is known to have two faces. One is shown to her people. She is kind, compassionate, and warm. Titania shakes hands, smiles, and laughs all on cue. In private and among her nurses and advisors, however, her true colors are revealed. She is cold, condescending, and downright rude. Her impatience drives her to snappiness, and the princess has been known to be stubborn and inflexible, making her a workaholic. Despite this, she is one to sit back and let things unfold before her. Whispers throughout the castle suggest that she is manipulative and a sadist, though in reality she is insecure about missing out on what’s going on. Nevertheless, those close to her see her as a villain, and they are not entirely far off, though not entirely on target either.
History: Titania grew up a product of her parents’ close supervision, and so she learned to lie and keep up two faces early on. She bent to her parents’ will while in their presence, but snapped right back to herself right after. The two personas diverged more and more as time went on, and reached a peak when her mother died of sickness during her periodical trek of the kingdom and her father retreated to the country house to age gracefully, leaving Titania in charge. She filled the role immediately and with gusto, ordering her employees around without hesitation. Some time after she assumed sole control of her kingdom, she married a rich noble to appease her people and reignite support for her regime (though both of them acknowledge that they don’t love or even like each other).
Weapons: Her lies, her wit, and her cold words cut deeper mentally than any wounds she could hope to inflict with a sword (aside from by pure chance).
Abilities: Titania is especially skilled in the fine art of maintaining multiple personas, as well as forcing people to bend to her will and do it quickly. She knows exactly what to do to control and manage her people, and which actions will merit which reactions. However, she’s not good at relating to people empathetically one-on-one and is not very confident in herself anymore, as she finds great anguish in not being about to tell which is her true self and feels quite guilty in her deceit, albeit secretly.
Other: Her husband’s name is Cedric.

[TheWendil]

Please ignore the fact that I spelled "gilded" wrong for this RP's title...anyway, I'll see if I can get a first post up soon. This should be interesting with our character's personas.

[TheWendil]

Are you gonna play out the capture or will I? If I do, would it be ok to murder a few people (Sir Ulric)? It would actually make it more convenient if Titania eventually convinces Sable to serve her.

Also if I do write out the capture, do you kind if I control Cedric a little bit?

[Mousia]

You can do it if you want to. I sort of posted a wall of text, so adding more would be... Well I'd feel like I was controlling everything. XD

If you want to control them, just try to keep in mind the Cedric is pretty much an opportunistic asshole, and Ulric is just weird and creepy but a pretty solid guy (if that comes up). But yeah, feel free. You can move Titania around too for convenience if necessary. I'm pretty chill about controlling any NPCs I bring up. :)

[TheWendil]

Ah ok! My plan was to have Ulric freak out that it's the Red-Eyed Ghost, underestimate her, then get killed. After some fighting, Cedric knocks her out accidently and then regrets it since she could have killed Titania. :p

[Mousia]

Ahaha. That last part is hilarious. Anyway, I'm all for it.

[TheWendil]

That should do it. Feel free to have Titania do as she pleases with Sable's captivity. It's gonna take quite a lot to get her to even speak.

[Mousia]

Alright-y.

This is my first time in a while writing a character I would consider to be evil. I'm into it. XD But yeah I figured I should develop her reasons behind being such an awful excuse for a person, so I came up with a little breaking point for her early in childhood and that might come up later in the story. You know. Cause evil doesn't just come from nowhere and I think writing psychopaths is annoying.

[TheWendil]

No problem. This RP's version of the Masked Man will have similar reasons for his doings as well. Besides, it's always fun to write tragic villains anyway. I tend to see "pure evil" characters only done well if they're a force of nature or represent a concept or something :p

[Mousia]

Exactly. I'm thinking at some point she's gonna probably smell something that reminds her of her brother (smells have especially strong psychological ties to memories) and just break. I saw a thing on tumblr that I think is really true like that. It said something like "characters are like geodes; you only see what they're made of when you break them."

[TheWendil]

Indeed, indeed. I can tell already that there will be many instances in which Sable will break down from the weight of it all. One of those moments might come in the next post depending on Titania's reaction.

[Mousia]

Oh. I may have mucked that next post thing up. She's not the type to get super angry or lash out, but I was thinking that she'll start out with some flesh wounds that aren't very serious at all (because she doesn't want her to die), and then she'll have a medic tend to them to make sure that they heal alright. And then I'm thinking slapping, punching, etc. because that brings people back to childhood vulnerability (most people in the past were beaten by their parents when they misbehaved). And then Titania would probably continue with depersonation and waterboarding but by that point she would have realized that Sable would be an advantageous ally and would have stopped doing the torture-y stuff. It's pretty heavy stuff, though, so I wanted to run it by you first more clinically and analytically because this topic is really sensitive for some people.

[TheWendil]

That's fine. When it comes to torture, I'm usually fine knowing that it's all fiction and whatnot. I was basically gonna have the new Masked Man appear before them and remind Sable what's really at stake. However, I'm gonna now change it to where the Masked Man has his own interrogation of a Crescentian guard to locate Sable. Once at the dungeon, he'll just stick to the shadows where only Sable can sense him. His presence will tell Sable that she's risking the safety of her sister and she'll promptly freak out over something that's not even there. Physical torture from Titania and mind torture from the Masked Man.

[Mousia]

Alright cool. Yeah, that would be interesting. It would probably have to be over a relatively short period of time so Sable wouldn't be permanently damaged beyond repair or reconciliation.

[TheWendil]

Probably just three days or something. The masked man would just pop in to say hi.

The Messenger