[OOC] Shattered Skies [OPEN // ACCEPTING]

[Celaira]

Gone are the years of prosperity for mankind…

Gone are the years of willful ignorance…

Since the dawn of time itself three realms have been in a congruous relationship. Gaia, Haeline, and Soviari’itia-calaeum all functioned with the help of one another, but they were also separated by a veil of sorts. This veil kept the realms from mingling too much. It kept them from altering one another. However, this veil was not meant to be a permanent measure, as inevitably all things become one. As such, over time, the veil would thin to allow the realms to mingle more closely.

This wasn’t supposed to happen so soon, however.

It was supposed to take millennia for this to occur. Instead, it has been steadily, yet quickly happening over the last thousand years, and all three realms have been affected. Gaia has the most to lose, however, as this once little blue planet has started to take on some characteristics of its celestial kin, and many of the creatures that live there have taken notice.

Where there were once sprawling cities, there now reside jungles with beasts so much worse than simple “wildlife.” This isn’t the only change, however, but it is the most… noticeable. The other changes to Gaia are small, subtle things, like an influx of spirits, or an increase in the Gheist population.

Since the alterations started slowly across Gaia’s surface, the Fae that call Soviari’itia-calaeum home, as well as other creatures that had been living on Gaia in secret came to light in an attempt to protect it. At least, that was what was first thought to be the case. In the case of the Fae, however, it was soon discovered that they were trying to bring Gaia under their sphere of influence because, as they put it, “They were the precursors to Humanity,” and deserved to take their would-be home back from the walking apes.

As was to be expected this put a strain on the budding relationship between the Fae the denizens of Gaia. One thing that the two groups can agree on, however, is that they do not know what’s causing this process to so quickly occur. The Fae seem to blame Humanity for it, while Humans and their supernatural counterparts which live on the surface of Gaia have taken to blaming the Fae presence.

_{**This premise is subject to change, as my co-gms and I are working on it}

Locations

So, instead of describing locations, I'm going to allow you as players to do that yourselves! Below you will find examples of places that could exist in the different realms you'll be playing in.

Gaia // Earth

The last city, Avericciaen:

Soviari'itia-calaeum // Fae Realm

Haeline // Underworld

Races

Vampires

Long ago, when times were much simpler, and history had just begun to be recorded, several small meteors fell to Earth’s surface in various locations. Many aboriginal peoples that discovered these meteors thought them signs from the gods of their coming. However, what it truly meant, was something far more sinister. Within the pieces of rock that the tribes would bring home to worship there were small, almost granular sized eggs. After a time those eggs hatched, releasing small spider-like creatures. These creatures were few in number, and many did not survive long after hatching, dying in the sun, or in extreme cold within a few hours to a day. Those that did survive, however, did so through attaching themselves to a Human body, almost like a tick. Once they were attached, they were nearly impossible to remove unless the part of the body they were on was severed.

Over time these “spiders” would slowly begin to move from their starting position on the Human’s body until they were able to get to the base of the neck. This process would take months, or even years due to how slow the creatures moved. Once they had reached the base of the neck they would root themselves to it, burying their bodies beneath the skin, and into the bone, until they finally reached the brainstem. Once they were within the brainstem they would release both eggs as well as a toxin that, while it didn’t affect the host, degraded their bodies and caused their DNA to fuse with the host’s. What this produces were Humans who shared similar traits to that of the parasites that infected them. They needed the blood of another being to survive, and they spread their infection through a bite.

Once the parasite was completely fused with their host’s DNA it also gave the host enhanced senses, speed, and strength. This process did not take as long as getting to the brainstem, usually lasting over a period of a month before it was complete. However, with their newfound strength came weaknesses as well. These… “enhanced” Humans were unable to stand in the sun for long periods of time, their skin being more sensitive to its heat. If they stood in it for too long their skin would begin to blister as if they had third degree burns. For a period of time after their transformation they could not ingest Human food without getting sick in some manner, usually throwing up.

Not only did the host’s capabilities increase, so too did its lifespan. Most of these creatures were able to live nearly quadruple (or more) the span that a normal Human could. The aging process for completely transitioned hosts is nearly two thousand times slower than that of a Human’s. However, after the length of an average Human lifespan had passed their body’s processes would slow down, until they finally came to a complete stop. The only thing that would function in them at this point would be the brain, for as long as they were capable of feeding. At a certain point, this would be impossible, however, causing an almost natural death.

Before their processes shut down they would be able to have children. These children would have no need of a living parasite as their DNA would already be altered. The one thing they would need the parasite for, would be to lay the eggs within them, once that job is done, the parasite would die off. Children born this way would quickly grow to the age of eighteen before their aging process would slow as their parents’ did.

SOCIETY & HIERARCHY

Vampire society operates on an aristocratic spectrum. They have a King and a Queen who are supposedly a part of the very first family that was turned. However, since they resurfaced to humanity, their society has changed somewhat. Where there were once several houses that were dictated to be next in line for the throne in the event the current royal house was wiped out, there now resides a council instead.

Now, instead of all decisions going through the royal family alone, everything is voted on by this council before it is implemented on to the general populace. This is, in part, to appease the humans, who saw their society as archaic. It is also an attempt by the king and queen to unite their kin so that if anything were to happen, vampires would survive.

The council is made up of twenty-four members, two of which include the king and queen. Each member is a representative of the strongest families. They are hand-picked by either the head of their house, or someone already on the council who is willing to vouch for them.

Since the enactment of the council, several new laws have been imposed on vampires as a whole.

1. Killing Humans should be reserved for self-defense alone. If you do kill a Human, you are required to report it to the council at once.
2. When venturing into the beastlands, it is necessary that you have at least one other of your kin with you. Tread with the utmost caution.
3. Use the utmost caution around Therianthropes. Though they are under the guise of protecting Humanity, they still hold our kind in contempt.

GENERAL ABILITIES

Enhanced Physiology: A Vampire’s physiology is different. Stronger. They are faster, stronger, and have heightened senses.

Compulsion: The ability to convince a being to do something that they otherwise might not. This ability is triggered by locking eyes with a vampire, though it is easily controlled. It doesn’t work on everyone, or even every being.

Therianthropes

During a period of particularly strong vampiric presence a few aboriginal tribes turned to magic to combat the threat of extinction. Many of them believed in shamanic practices, and turned to their resident shamans to help them. The Shamans conversed with their ancestors and came to create both an elixir and a spell. These two things combined with techniques that were lost over the centuries allowed for the creation of men and women who could transform into beasts.

This spell, and elixir gifted the believer with not only the ability to transform, but also gave them enhanced speed, strength, and senses in their Human form. Originally, the partakers in this ritual were able to transform between their Human form, a humanoid beast form, and a complete beast form. However, over the centuries the knowledge of how they achieved this was lost, leaving descendants with only the ability to transform between Human and Humanoid forms. Not only was that knowledge lost, so too was the knowledge of how to change the type of animal one could turn into. Now, the most common form of a therianthrope, is a werewolf.

Descendants of the tribes which participated in these rituals no longer have to do a ritual to access this power. The magic that was used has infused itself into their life force, making them something more than Human from birth.

Unbeknownst to most of the current descendants, they can change their animal/beast from a wolf to something else, but once this process has been achieved they will never be able to change into a wolf-type therianthrope again. They can also still change between all three of their forms as well, but both of these abilities are very rare, and only make up about .01% of the therianthrope population.

SOCIETY

Therianthrope society could be described as nothing less than tribal, or nomadic. There are clusters of them spread throughout many different countries. Rather than having one ruling body, each group has their own leader, an alpha, if you will.

GENERAL ABILITIES

Enhanced Physiology: Therianthrope physiology is different. Stronger. They are faster, stronger, and have heightened senses.

Shapeshifting: The ability to change their shape at will. Unlike lore would suggest, they do not lose control on the full moon, it most cases they lose control because of emotions.

Fae

The Fae, or Faerie as they’re sometimes known are an extraterrestrial race. Their original planet was a beautiful place, practically covered in lush forests. They had lived there since the dawn of their race, however, as time went on more and more it appeared as if their planet was rejecting them. The lush forests had begun to die, and many of the Fae were becoming ill for inexplicable reasons. What had they done to deserve this?

After a few years passed for the beings, they finally decided that it was time to leave their home. If they didn’t, their entire race would be wiped out. And so, they set out in search of a planet that could sustain them.

When they finally found one, it was practically empty. The planet had just begun to be able to sustain life. One of the Fae elders took it upon themselves to talk with the newly formed planet’s soul, and learned that its name was Gaia. Earth. They begged the planet to let them live on its surface, and it agreed on one condition.

The Fae would have to live on the version of the planet that was higher up dimensionally so that they did not affect the creatures that were beginning to bud on its current surface. The Fae readily agreed to this, and thus Soviari’itia-calaeum was born. As time went on, the Fae watched over the lower-level Gaia, finding the races that she managed to bear interesting little play things. Occasionally they would lower themselves dimensionally to mess with the creatures, or sometimes, even help them grow.

They were like the ever vigilant big brother who wanted to be the only one to pick on their little sibling.

After a few thousand years an inner turmoil between the Fae began to surface. Originally of one court, their King and Queen began to fight between each other. Apparently, the King had grown jealous of the fact that only the Queen was able to create children. Because of this, the king began to study things in secret. The things he studied allowed him to create living creatures, yes, but they were far from what the natural Fae were. They were abominations, but they were his.

When he had finished creating a few “new” Fae, he came upon a Fae woman who fancied him, and discovered that she could breed unlike many of the other females of their race. With her permission, the King studied this woman, and before long he had actually reared children from her womb.

Shortly after the birth of these children, the King and his new mistress were found out by the Queen and were sent to the far reaches of Soviari’itia. It was in this location that the king formed a new court, thus dividing the Fae in half. Those who followed the King and his new Queen, and those that stayed with the “true” Queen.

SOCIETY & HIERARCHY
In general Fae are separated into two Groups. Seelie and Unseelie, both having separate royalty.

Seelie: Thought to be synonymous with light and life, the Seelie Fae are most often portrayed as having bright shimmering bodies, and the ability to create life. More often than not, these Fae are seen as bringers of Hope and prosperity. The Seelie Fae court is broken up into a singular Matriarchal ruling body, followed by a parliament of sorts. The parliament is broken up into four princesses, and four princes.

Unseelie: Thought to be synonymous with darkness and death, the Unseelie Fae are most often portrayed as having darker, more shadow oriented bodies, and the ability to affect emotions, and choices. More often than not these Fae are seen as Harbingers of Chaos and destruction. The Unseelie court is a monarchy in its entirety. Everything is decided by the King, and/or the queen.

GENERAL ABILITIES

As stated above each faction of Fae is broken up into a perspective role. However, this is not usually how it works. A Fae’s body usually represents the season in which they were born. So, a Seelie Fae could very well be winter-based, while an Unseelie Fae could be Summer-based.

Glamour: A Glamour is the ability to mask your true form. All Fae have this ability because they believe that their true forms are too pure to be seen by any other save for their own race. However, there are some that can see through this ability.

Crux: In most cases a Fae from either group is based entirely on a core concept. Something that is ingrained in their personality, their abilities, and even their glamours. This concept is their driving force behind everything that they do, and anything that they wish to become, and it is something that, while it can’t be changed, can evolve as required to suit the individual’s needs. This concept could be anything from “entanglement” to “The perpetuation of bias,”

Humans

It should be noted that Humans are separated in three categories: Mundane, Psychic, and Gheist. Mundane Humans will have no description listed here as they are pretty much completely normal; they are also the most abundant type of Human.

Psychic: These are Humans who have psionic abilities (telepathy, or telekinesis). In general, they are no different than your average human. The main differences between these genetic offshoots of Humans is that they can live up to fifty years longer, and manipulate things with their minds.

It should be noted that, being of one of the minorities of their race, Psychics are less accepted than a mundane. There is an aspect of racism towards Psychics, as well as Gheists, one that most people will try to hide, or ignore.

Gheist: The child between a Psychic and a Reaper, these hybrid Humans have abilities beyond the scope of imagination, though a majority of the population don’t have access to them. Gheists are biologically immortal, meaning that they could potentially live forever, but they can die via normal means that any other Human can.

Gheist abilities range from seeing and interacting with spirits to precognitience. In some very rare cases they even have the ability to manipulate the soul of other beings.

Unplayable & Incomplete Races

Reapers

Born long before many other races were even beginning to exist, these creatures lived silently within their own realm, Haeline. As their name suggests they hold dominion over life and death. For each living thing there is a Reaper, and almost vice versa. Whenever a species’ numbers exceed that of Reapers, more are created, but from what, no one really knows. In this universe, even the planets are alive.

SOCIETY**

Reapers don’t have much of a society, or a hierarchy to speak of. In most cases they are left to their own devices when it comes to choices that they can make. One thing that all Reapers can agree on, however, is that they must write within the Tome of Caevine. This tome is in essence what governs the Reapers as a whole. As each Reaper is “born” they are shown their own future. Whatever they see in that vision is required to go inside the Tome. In most cases it is the names, times, and events of their charge’s death.

_{**This information will be updated as time goes on, it'll take a bit though, and I wanted to get the RP up}

Rules

1. All Guild Rules Apply!
2. No Godmodding, Powerplaying, or Metagaming allowed. It's rude. Don't do it.
3. Reapers are not a playable race at the moment because they are too OP by design. I plan to write up some legitimate reason for them to be playable later on in the RP's lifespan.
4. If you want to play a Gheist you are not to start off with anything pertaining to the soul in terms of abilities. If you try your character will be denied. End of story.
5. CO-GMs hold the same weight as the main GM.
6. To have your character approved you need to have posted it in the OOC tab and then gotten at least two GMs approval before moving it to the character tab.
7. You are allowed to change the character sheet's format in any way you see fit as long as all the pertinent information is there. You could even add extra fields if you wanted to.
8. Human characters are to start off in the Last City, Avericciaen. It will make it easier for players to interact that way.
9. This is a mid to high casual RP. That means you should be posting a minimum three to four decently written and detailed paragraphs, but, I won't hold it against you if you post less if there's still something to work with. And, I definitely won't hold it against you if you post more.
10. I would like the posting speed to be one to two posts a week, making sure that there are at least three new posts between your next one.
11. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. There is some lore that is missing from this OP that will be added at a later date, but for right now you have everything you need to make a character.

Character Sheet

[center][h2]FIRST MIDDLE LAST[/h2]
[IMG]IMGURLHERE[/IMG]
True Age | Appeared Age | Race | Nickname/Alias
[/center]
[b]Birth Realm:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Sexuality:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]

[b]Appearance:[/b]

[b]History:[/b]

[b]Abilities:[/b]

GMs: @Celaira, @yoshua171, @Ciphra

[yoshua171]

Nice job!

[Celaira]

Thank you~<3

[Celaira]

@TurboTuber@True Night@Crimson Raven@Ganryu@shaitarn@HaleyTheRandom@Sublimation@Kartoffel@ViolentViolet@Vash@Arista

Y'all still interested?

[ViolentViolet]

@Celaira
Yeah I am but I'm not sure if I'm going to have time for a while :/

[True Night]

@Celaira

Sure am, will put something together in the next few days most likely.

[Celaira]

@ViolentViolet Okay ^^ That's totally fine.

EDIT:
@True Night Awesome! Can't wait to see it! Why is your signature so weird? How did you do that?

[TurboTuber]

Oh hells yes, still all full of interest up in this. I should have a CS up by tomorrow morning at latest.

[shaitarn]

Definitely; just debating whether to go for a male vampire or a female therianthope.

[Sublimation]

So to specify, Therianthropes don't transform into their animal forms completely right? So a werewolf wouldn't turn into a wolf, but a sort of hybrid. Also regarding them, can the base species not be a wolf at all?

[Celaira]

So to specify, Therianthropes don't transform into their animal forms completely right? So a werewolf wouldn't turn into a wolf, but a sort of hybrid. Also regarding them, can the base species not be a wolf at all?

@Sublimation

To your first question: Yes, they'll be a humanoid wolf creature. To your second question: They can, but it's a process. It starts off as a wolf because they don't know the full ritual anymore. I was gonna write this up and add it to the documentation when I got time. but I'll say it here and then write it later. You can become another animal by going through a spiritual journey while taking the elixir (combine it with the herbs used to put you in the trance state).

In short, if your character has that knowledge, then yes, they could be something other than a werewolf from the start of their transformation. This would also allow them to be able to transform completely into an animal, as well, but that would take more practice.

[Celaira]

Character Sheet Update!

I added an abilities field to the CS as I had forgotten it in my haste last night! Sorry for the inconvenience!

[True Night]

@Celaira

I'm torn between making a Vampire or a Fae. Maybe a Gheist, but I'm sorta vague on what they can do. An example would be nice.

And I am using a sig rotator, each time my signature is accessed it randomly choose a gif from about 40 I would say.

[Sublimation]

Ah I see, could I also get an explanation on Fae abilities? Specifically the one regarding their conceptual alignment.

[Ganryu]

I'm in still.

[Celaira]

@Sublimation I'll get Yosh to help with that, as he helped me come up with the ability. @True Night Gheists abilities relate more toward death. They can see spirits and communicate with them, as an example. Another example might be being able to summon spirits to their side.

[yoshua171]

Ah I see, could I also get an explanation on Fae abilities? Specifically the one regarding their conceptual alignment.

@Sublimation

I've been dragged here and I need help. Please help me, I'm so far from home and I don't know what's going on anymore!

So you're curious what Crux is and how exactly it works. Well let me help you out.

Let's say your Fae's conceptual alignment isss...man coming up with this on the spot is a bit difficult, can't believe I'm doing this. I hope they don't notice how unsure I am...they're reading this aren't they. I'll use a simple example because they're much easier to explain (if not as fun haha).

The Fae's Crux is Reflection. As a result perhaps their glamour and/or true appearances ends up taking on the properties of their surroundings and the things and/or people in said surroundings. Perhaps they're in a forest and their skin appears more like bark or leaves, their hair like grass or vines or the sky when they pass under it. Perhaps they're in a crowd of people and their facial features alter as they pass by different individuals.

I figure they'd be able to take it a step further. They could reflect most things that come towards them, be it energy, or bullets, or arrows, or sound, light etc etc. Maybe their true body appears as if it is made from highly reflective mirror-like glass, which is sculpted into a vaguely humanoid form. You could take this concept in other directions as well, of course, but this was the first one that came to mind.

Any further questions? :)

[Sublimation]

<Snipped quote by Sublimation>

I've been dragged here and I need help. Please help me, I'm so far from home and I don't know what's going on anymore!

So you're curious what Crux is and how exactly it works. Well let me help you out.

Let's say your Fae's conceptual alignment isss...man coming up with this on the spot is a bit difficult, can't believe I'm doing this. I hope they don't notice how unsure I am...they're reading this aren't they. I'll use a simple example because they're much easier to explain (if not as fun haha).

The Fae's Crux is Reflection. As a result perhaps their glamour and/or true appearances ends up taking on the properties of their surroundings and the things and/or people in said surroundings. Perhaps they're in a forest and their skin appears more like bark or leaves, their hair like grass or vines or the sky when they pass under it. Perhaps they're in a crowd of people and their facial features alter as they pass by different individuals.

I figure they'd be able to take it a step further. They could reflect most things that come towards them, be it energy, or bullets, or arrows, or sound, light etc etc. Maybe their true body appears as if it is made from highly reflective mirror-like glass, which is sculpted into a vaguely humanoid form. You could take this concept in other directions as well, of course, but this was the first one that came to mind.

Any further questions? :)

@yoshua171

Alright, that was what I had in mind. Quite informative, thank you.

[yoshua171]

No problem ^_^

[Celaira]

@yoshua171 Thanks for the help, Yosh~<3