Aleranicus

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@VitaVitaAR Updated. If you have any other issues, I'll be happy to adjust.

It's your playground, I'll just be happy to run around in it ^_^

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

May I ask for a brief synopsis on where the RP stands and what seems to be happening?

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@Feisty-Pants Totally was going for that look! XD

Hope it fits in with the group. I'll admit I'm a bit rusty in my writing, but this whole setting reminds me of one of my favorite tabletop RPGs of all time, I wanted to try and get in.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Right, @VitaVitaAR! I think the CS is ready for perusal.

Tanda, Child of the Hills

Name: Tanda

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Appearance:
Brown haired, brown eyed, with the body of a country peasant, one would be hard pressed to look at Tanda on the road and think she was descended from an Iron Rose Knight, much less one of their number.

Tanda in her great aunt's armor

Personality: Though Tanda grew up in the patriarchal society of the Hillfolk on the outskirts of Taln, her grandmother's doting saw to it she was inquisitive of mind, and her daily chores as a shepherdess saw she was mentally strong enough to survive in the wild with nothing but her wits and the tools on her belt.

:Brief Backstory:

Tanda grew up among the worshipers of the Green God in the north of Taln- a secretive and patriarchal culture within the kingdom known for shunning outsiders, often simply called Hillfolk by other people of Taln. For most of her life, Tanda could only look forward to a future of tending sheep, marrying, and raising a family with her future husband. Her grandmother Silana saw something in the fierce spirit of her granddaughter, and saw to it that Tanda always looked to heroes of folk stories and histories for inspiration, rather than the prophets of the Green God's faith. Heroes like the Iron Rose Knights.

Tanda was often punished for standing up to the boy children of other families when they threatened to steal her sheep or sabotage her mending, but never broken for her "disobedience" to the men of the village, something which the Patriarchs of the Green God resented her for. Many of the girl children were cowed, but all of them could look at Tanda as someone who hit back when the boy children swung at her. The Queen's Justicars saw to it that while the Hillfolk were permitted to live and worship according to the laws of Taln, they were not free to follow their Old Laws without consequence. Disciplining an unruly child was one thing. The Hillfolk's ancient practices of Witch burning and harvest sacrifices were another completely, and their good will from the Crown was rapidly disappearing. Coming to the aid of one Queen in a battle over a century ago was what brought them sanctuary within Taln. The Hillfolk had not taken up arms to defend the Crown since then- only to protect their own lands.

But only recently was Tanda able to look beyond the palisades of the Hillfolk. The prior year's harvest was particularly difficult for the people of the Hills, and many of their Holds were facing starvation on the eve of winter. The Patriarch of the Green God, after much deliberation with his fellows, decided to revive the old practice of selecting a Bride of the Green God in the hopes it would restore the harvest- a harvest sacrifice one of Taln's previous Queens had long ago forbidden when she granted the Hillfolk sanctuary within her borders. The more fanatical and desperate Patriarchs agreed to the proposal.

But just as the string of fate pulled Tanda into the Patriarch's sights, one of the less fanatical Patriarchs revealed what was being planned to the Queen, who now found her patience with these backwards tribes at an end. Between the Queen's Justicars, Paladins of Reon, a contingent of Iron Rose Knights, and armsmen of the province, the Hillfolk found that their festival grounds were occupied by a small army as they left their holds to celebrate a renewal of their faith. Every Patriarch that could be found was arrested. Those who could, including the Grand Patriarch, ran back to their palisades to be starved out under sieges. Others were to be interrogated by the followers of the Goddesses for complicity in these crimes and the systemic abuse of the girl children.

Tanda, along with most of the other children of the Hillfolk, was granted protection by the Queen's Justicars and taken to a nearby temple of Mayon for shelter. There the priests and priestesses set about repairing the damage done by the followers of the Green God to the children- teaching the girls their letters and numbers, and the notion that they were not naturally subservient to boys. Meanwhile the boys learned proper etiquette and the idea that they were not innately superior to the girls. It was during one of these lessons that a Paladin of Mayon approached Tanda with a weathered chart- an ancient family tree. Tanda had a great-aunt who, long ago, was one of the famed Iron Rose Knights, Lady Diane di Silva. Her armor should still be in the Capital, kept as a relic. If she desired, the Paladin would write a letter of introduction for Tanda to squire for the Knights and claim the armor as her own.

Tanda was quick to say yes. Then it was all a matter of arranging transportation. It certainly helped that she could peddle the herbal healing of the Hillfolk to peasants too poor to afford one of the magical Healers within Taln. Curing warts and country fevers put enough copper in her pocket to buy food for the road, and her skill with a sling allowed her to hire out as an extra caravan guard on the road to the Capital. The story of Tanda could easily have ended there- becoming another folk healer or caravan guard within Taln. But the Paladin's stories gave Tanda a trail to follow to a new future.

If the Knights had no reason to accept Tanda's service, she would at least be able to lose herself within the Capital and be able to make a new life away from the secretive Hillfolk, or return to the temple of Mayon to help the healing of the other children while the campaign against the Hillfolk continued...

Equipment:
* Sling and stones
* Armor and spear of Lady Diane di Silva
* Medicinal herbs

Skills:
* Deadeye shot - Tanda is an excellent shot with her sling, having used it to fend off wolves and hunt rabbits for supper.
* Skilled rider - Tanda can keep up with the best of 'em when hard pressed to ride.
* Country Remedy - The Hillfolk shun magic and magical Healers of all kinds, preferring to use the herbs of the land to remedy their ills. While it's not as effective as calling on a Magi, Tanda has been known to cure the odd fever with her home remedies and set broken bones to heal.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Tanda, Child of the Hills

Name: Tanda

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Appearance:
Brown haired, brown eyed, with the body of a country peasant, one would be hard pressed to look at Tanda on the road and think she was descended from an Iron Rose Knight, much less one of their number.

Tanda in her great grandmother's armor

Personality: Though Tanda grew up in the patriarchal society of the Hillfolk on the outskirts of Taln, her grandmother's doting saw to it she was inquisitive of mind, and her daily chores as a shepherdess saw she was mentally strong enough to survive in the wild with nothing but her wits and the tools on her belt.

:Brief Backstory:

Tanda grew up among the worshipers of the Green God in the north of Taln- a secretive and patriarchal culture within the kingdom known for shunning outsiders, often simply called Hillfolk by other people of the Kingdom. For most of her life, Tanda could only look forward to a future of tending sheep, marrying, and raising a family with her future husband's other wives. Her grandmother Silana saw something in the fierce spirit of her granddaughter, and saw to it that Tanda always looked to heroes of folk stories and histories for inspiration, rather than the prophets of the Green God's faith. She was often punished for standing up to the boy children of other families, but never broken for her "disobedience" to the men.

Only recently was she forced to look beyond the palisades of the Hillfolk. The previous year's harvest was particularly difficult for the people of the Hills, and many of their Holds were facing starvation on the eve of winter. The Patriarch of the Green God decided to revive the old practice of selecting a Bride of the Green God in the hopes it would restore the harvest- a ritual one of Taln's previous Queens had long ago forbidden when she granted the Hillfolk sanctuary within her borders.

Whether by chance or by design, Tanda was selected for this bloody honor. The problem daughter of the Hillfolk was to be made an example of in an attempt to appease the Green God.

Tanda did not speak of how she escaped the dubious honor of the ceremony, or how she found her way to the heart of Taln. It certainly helped that she could peddle the herbal healing of the Hillfolk to peasants too poor to afford one of the magical Healers within Taln. Curing warts and country fevers put enough copper in her pocket to buy food for the road, and her skill with a sling allowed her to hire out as an extra caravan guard on the road to the Capital. The story of Tanda could easily have ended there- becoming another folk healer or caravan guard within Taln. But her grandmother's stories of her own mother, Lady Diane di Silva, a Knight of the Iron Rose, gave Tanda a trail to follow to a new future. Lady Diane left behind her armor and spear within the hall of the Knights before retiring to wed one of the Hillfolk, her true love.

If the Knights had no reason to accept Tanda's service, she would at least be able to lose herself within the Capital and be able to make a new life away from the secretive Hillfolk. With her great-grandmother's armor on she might even make a decent living as a caravan guard.

Equipment:
* Sling and stones
* Armor and spear of Lady Diane di Silva
* Medicinal herbs

Skills:
* Deadeye shot - Tanda is an excellent shot with her sling, having used it to fend off wolves and hunt rabbits for supper.
* Skilled rider - Tanda can keep up with the best of 'em when hard pressed to ride.
* Country Remedy - The Hillfolk shun magic and magical Healers of all kinds, preferring to use the herbs of the land to remedy their ills. While it's not as effective as calling on a Magi, Tanda has been known to cure the odd fever with her home remedies and set broken bones to heal.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@VitaVitaAR Fair enough! I mostly meant for these different ideas to throw in flavor rather than to rewrite anything major. It's your universe, and you have veto power over any and every detail I put up there.

If you'd like me to strip it down to the bare minimum:
1.) A battle-dancer from the stix comes to join the Knights and regain favor.
2.) A healer/Paladin returns from a troubled land and is assigned to help the Rose Knights.
3.) A trainee from an isolated area of the Kingdom creates a new life and discovers her ancestor's roots.

And I quite agree re: the border, mostly it's meant as a "something funny is going on up there" adventure hook ^///^

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Roger that!

I have several thoughts with backstories/problems/arcs they could bring to the table:

1.) A human family with land near the borders of Velt and Thaln, this plot of land is small and was granted as a favor for the family's service in the War of the Red Flag as an afterthought, but now it is generating more and more grief for the King and Queen- settlers are encroaching on Velt's forests, cutting down trees and hunting their game. The noble's armsmen are too few in number to put a stop to this, and the family's eldest child has been sent as a hostage to Velt to prevent an invasion while The Fated Child is sent to Thaln's capital to enlist in the Rose Knights, and ingratiate the family to the Queen once again. If only the youngest could learn a more conventional fighting style than the Battle Dancers of Reon...

2.) The Envoy of the Queen has returned from a mission of healing to the southern city of Ahta, a place that is within the borders of Thaln and bound to it by ancient treaty but also fiercely, dangerously independent. The Envoy is trained to serve the Goddess Mayon as an Acolyte to her Second Prophet, Marcos who preached that those who healed with magic should do so at the cost of themselves during the time of the Plague of Red Death. An outdated notion, but one that still survives to this day in more "backward" parts of Thaln.

3.) The Fool grew up among the disciples of the Green God in the north. Insular and haughty, these folk pay their tithes to the Queen and expect to be left alone. Fleeing a crime that has Outcast her from the community, the initiate arrives at the heart of Thaln with a request- that their mother's mother's mother's service to the Crown be remembered, and they be allowed to squire for the Iron Rose Knights

Like I said, I don't plan to hijack the thread with their backstories, but I'd like to fit in fairly well with the story.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

It would depend largely upon where you think the plot is headed. Like I said, I have a couple of ideas but I'd like to keep it open to the group's needs and not hijack the story.

Can I get two questions answered?

1.) Is there such a thing as psychic magic in this setting? Literally just telepathy/empathy is all I'm looking for here.
2.) What is the relationship of Thaln with its neighbors/citizens right now? Any major conflicts brewing since the plot started up? (I haven't read the entire IC thread yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so).

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

I'm looking at this RP with giant stars in my eyes- it's a lot of what I always wanted to play on this site (plus it'll be helpful for the RPG campaign I'm planning)!!!!!

Are you still looking for peeps??? I have a couple ideas for characters.

/PuppyDogEyes/

Princess: The Hopeful ~ A Magical Girl* RP

(*Princes are welcome to apply as well)

Sometimes, the world just sucks. You know?

I mean, just turn on the TV to any news channel and- nononononono! Turn it off! Turn it off!

Let's try Twitter inste- NOPE!

Facebook? That's a four alarm flame-war fire right now.

How about we look at something different? How about we try playing an RP that focuses on a dumpster fire of a world, and empowers those who try to make it better?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Princess, The Hopeful

Think of it as Sailor Moon, as designed by Bethesda. A "Western" take on the Magical Girl genre.

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The Background (In a Nutshell)

Once upon a time, there was a perfect land run by 8 Queens.

After a while of things being perfect, they started fighting each other over whose lands were more just and righteous.

Then the all-consuming Darkness came, went Om-nom-nom, destroyed the Queendoms, and put five of the Queens and their servants in a Matrix-style coma/dream. Three of the Queens were changed forever into Twilight Queens. One queen became omnicidal rage monster, one became an all-powerful narcissist, and one hid an entire city of the old realm inside the Darkness itself, powered by the grief and loss of humans.

Then humans landed on the moon and broke the spell of apathy with the beacon of our collective hope, the Queens kicked the Darkness' butt out of the Dreamlands, but are unable to leave themselves.

So they start empowering the most hopeful men and women they can find with their power, calling these individuals Princesses and Princes, or more frequently, "Blossomed".

Their job? Push back against the Darkness in any way they can- by awakening Hope within others, by defeating its agents, or working to defeat those who have fallen to the three Twilight Queens.

They are helped by the Embassies they organize, unions of like-minded Hopeful. If Sailor Moon grew up to be an Accountant who used her powers to break up a crooked bank being run by an Avatar of the greedy Twilight Queen.

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This is a very rough summary, and I'd encourage anyone who's even barely interested in checking out the link above for more info. I have an idea for a plot in mind, but I'd like to gauge interest before putting any more work into it.

I'm going to leave this up for a day or two, answer some questions about the setting. One thing to make clear, despite "Magical Girl" being in the title, characters would definitely be over the age of 18. I really like the idea of moving the setting into Adult Life.