Alkeni Synair

Yea, but here's the catch...

"Join the club." Julian agreed wryly. "I hope there's a special place in the Twelve Hells for whichever inventive mage came up with the idea of magical traps. Makes our jobs unnecessarily harder. But yea, I'm pretty confident on the no magical traps front." At least until we get to the tunnels themselves. Then who knows what the Empire's wizards may have left behind down there. Not that he was going to tell her that. "As for proof, well, all the Tyrants were buried with some pretty distinctive jewelry, so you can have proof that you went into the tomb. The tunnels would have to have something you could take back too. That should be able to give you enough to work with when it comes to bragging rights."

He pursed his lips a moment, in thought. "If we're going to check the temple first for schematics, we'll need to time our entry there right. Do they hold mass at the usual times? Midnight, Sunrise, Sunset?" Most temples did, but there were always the oddballs out there that held them at odd times.

Yea, but here's the catch...

That's fine. Given my own delay, I'm in no position to judge anyone else's response rate.

[High Casual] Medieval Fantasy Ideas [MxF or FxF] [Semi-Dark Plots]

Bump.

[High Casual] Medieval Fantasy Ideas [MxF or FxF] [Semi-Dark Plots]

Okay, so, I don't have many rules, but I do have a few things to keep in mind before you take a look at my plot ideas below.
-I'm very big on worldbuilding. I like to give lots of detail on the setting as we rp, and I'm all for you helping to build the setting with me.
-Literacy and grammar is critical. Yes, mistakes happen, typos happen. But do your best, and I will to. If I can't understand what you're typing for the errors, I can't make a reply.
-I prefer posts of 1-2 paragraphs as a general rule, but there are obviously times when longer ones are warranted, and sometimes even one-liners are okay (such as in conversations)
-I also prefer to keep things fairly serious in-rp. I'm not looking for a wacky-hijinks kind of game. Humor is fine, but building a collaborative story is what I like.

These ideas, as you'll be able to quickly tell, are all set in the same setting, but different parts of the world. Its your fairly standard Medieval-fantasy setting, with humans, magic, elves, dwarves, dragons, etc, etc. It borrows various names and concepts from D&D at times, but you don't need to be familiar with D&D at all.

The ideas are all fairly long, yes. Sorry about that.

The Politics of Necromancy, MxF or FxF, Semi-Dark, Intrigue-laden Story

The Kingdom of the Necromancers, as the name fairly unimaginatively suggests, as a Kingdom ruled by Necromancers – masters of the magic of life and death, raising the undead to do their bidding. Vast armies of skeletons and zombies, supplemented by wights, ghouls, wraiths, specters, mohrgs, and even worse undead horrors, all lurk, secluded in deep vaults, waiting to be unleashed on the world of the living.

And, if the current Archnecromancer has his way, they never will be. For over a century now, Lyrus Serriados has abandoned the ambition for conquest that his predecessors all burned with. The days of the Necrotic Empire are gone, and Lyrus sees no percentage in wars of would be conquest that will go nowhere. With the Knights of the Golden Throne still keeping up their sacred watch since the fall of the Empire, and the surrounding lands now controlled by independent Kingdoms – with Kings and Queens that quite like keeping their thrones, thank you very much – Lyrus instead turned a new and novel strategy: Peace and Cooperation.

While the neighboring kingdoms – even Morvak, the one nominally allied with the Kingdom of the Necromancers – bear no love or trust for the Necromancers of Darkmoon Forest and the Deathwood, all are content to live in peace with the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is content to live at peace with them. Instead, Lyrus satisfies himself with subtle games of influence and maneuver worldwide, and in keeping the famously fractious necromancer-nobility of the Kingdom in line. Never before has the title of Archnecromancer ever truly passed to a blood heir, but Lyrus has plans to change that. The only person in the world that Lyrus truly values over himself is his daughter, born to himself and his wife before they both made the transformation to undead themselves, his daughter is all that he has now, after his wife was killed by a powerful Archmage (who himself died soon after at Lyrus' hand.)

Lyrus has long groomed his daughter to be his eventual successor – though Lyrus fully intends to rule for centuries more, at least. But he is an Elf, and so too is his daughter, and eventually his daughter's mastery of the Dark Arts will be enough for her to also join the ranks of the living dead, still in full control of her mind and body. In the Kingdom, Lichdom is the highest status of all – eternity as a powerful undead spellcaster, powerful magics leaving their bodies essentially perfectly preserved, as if they were still among the living (especially Lyrus, who is infamous even in other realms for being quite vain), but virtually unkillable as long as their phylacteries remain intact.

But until his daughter is at that point, Lyrus will take no chances with her safety, and there has always been a member of the Deathknights, a warrior order bound in service to the gods of death and necromancy worshiped by all in the Kingdom, at her side. Inside or outside of the Kingdom, it matters not.

And in the Kingdom of the Necromancers, with its fractious politics, and culture that glorifies scheming and backstabbing, a bodyguard is always a good thing to have.

---

So, in this one, your character plays the daughter of the Archnecromancer Lyrus, and my character is the Deathknight currently assigned to you just recently (given that elves don't even reach adolescence until they're some 80 years old, you've had several assigned Deathknights in the 125 years or so you've been alive. My character would either be male or female, as your preference. The plot would involve the politics of the Kingdom and the lands neighboring it, and the challenges of practicing the Dark Arts, etc. Your character would be 'evil' by standard definitions, and definitely would need to have a certain amorality for this idea to work, but it doesn't have to be uber-dark

Midnight in Medios, MxF or FxF, High Fantasy/Adventure/Quest-type Story. Variably Dark

Long Ago, this land was ruled by the Tamilkirk Imperium. That has been true for centuries, ever since the coming of the Witch Queen.

No one knows who she was, or what her motive for bringing low the last of the old Empires. The Tamilkirk had survived their great rivals, the Empire of Iredos, whose reigning Wizard-Dukes destroyed themselves in a great magical conflagration. It even survived the Necrotic Empire, whose foul necromancer-nobility fell to internal strife and holy crusade from without. But the Tamilkirk could not survive her. It is said she was once an Elf, but she used foul magics to turn herself into a demon. Her army of orcs, undead and demons took took control of a large portion of the Empire, but even that was not enough. Even as her magics twisted and warped the land she captured into a nightmarish realm known only as The Blasted Lands, the Witch Queen reigned fire and destruction on Minjiara, the capital of the Tamilkirk Imperium. Within a decade, these two blows resulted in the final collapse of the Empire, as rebellion, secession and chaos took even the heartland of the Empire – the Dragonfall River Basin.

All that history is of course academic, to the people of the small, sleepy village of Penderghast. A small farming community on the northern shores of the small Lake Pender, Penderghast doesn't even have 600 souls within it. Life is fairly dull, in Penderghast. Once a year, the tax collectors from the city-state of Medios come through, and occasionally patrols from the Mediosian Army passes through. When help is needed, Medios can always be appealed to, but the people of Penderghast haven't needed to do that in in many years.

But across Lake Pender, the dark secret of Penderghast looms. Over a century ago, it was not Medios that ruled Penderghast, but the family of petty nobility known as House Gleaves. House Gleaves, like all the petty nobles of the region, was overthrown by Medios in the aftermath of the short 'Two Penny War' (supposedly, the Lord Mayor of Medios said those petty nobles weren't worth two pennies, thus the name of the war). But House Gleaves were more than just minor nobles – they let the blood of demons and devils run through their veins, turning to foul magics and fell rituals to grow in power. While House Gleaves may be dead, from time to time, their legacy arrives in Penderghast – the Gleaves family had no qualms about...taking advantage of their subjects, and sometimes, a child with the blood of fiends – a Tiefling – is born. Always there is one or more physical traits that set them apart from normal humans. But Penderghast has always tried to treat each child on their own merits, not letting their unfortunate ancestry color how they are treated. Some succumb to the darkness of their heritage, while others, like Sister Agata, the local priestess of Tyria (the goddess of the Harvest) have gone on to become pillars of the community.

One such Tiefling, now a young woman, has been raised by the village smith and constable, the Dwarf Gardad Norcikid, since a young age, ever since her parents died. But when the village is attacked by demons and cultists, the true legacy of House Gleaves is discovered – a legacy of sin and evil more terrible than ever could have been imagined, and it will take this woman from sleepy Penderghast to Medios, to the ruins of Minjiara – and to the Court of the Witch Queen herself.

---

So, in this one, your character is the Tiefling young woman raised by Constable Gardad. You can decide exactly what the nature of her visible manifestation of her ancestry is – Sister Agata (the one mentioned above), for example, has light purple skin, small red horns and eyes that glow with an infernal light. Other Tieflings may look more extreme, with scales in some places, or cloven feet, tails, larger horns, or what have you. Always something a little unsettling, and a little otherworldly. I'll have several characters, male and female, that your character might meet along the way, and your character can 'pick' any of them, and eventually, that one will be my 'main'. This choice can be as easy or as hard as you and your character wants it to be, of course.

Legacy of the Wizard-Dukes, MxF, Semi-Dark, Themes of Insanity and Prophecy

Empire of Iredos was founded, almost two thousand years ago, by the twelve apprentices of one of the Greatest Archmages to come out of the Dawning Wars, Dravius Iredos. His power and knowledge was too much for any one normal mage, and so, his apprentices amicably split it, uniting to bring civilization and peace to a land still recovering from a series of wars that had reshaped the world, fought with magics unimaginable to the modern era.

One of the many lands the Empire fought with, as it grew larger and more powerful, expanding for power, wealth and security, even for idealism, was the United Kingdom of Ahlenna, the last of the Elven Nations in this part of the world – for in the aftermath of the Dawning Wars, most of elvenkind fled to their greatest strongholds in the oldest and deepest of forests, such as Ahlenna.

Unlike most of its foes, Ahlenna was never conquered by Iredos. It was forever a thorn in Iredos' side as it expanded southward, bolstering resistance from the local humans Iredos tried to take over. Eventually, Iredos won out, but Ahlenna remained too strong to conquer. But there was one thing that Iredos could do. One of the reigning Wizard-Dukes, Hycantos, undertook a great ritual to destroy Ahlenna. While he did manage to wreak great havoc on Ahlenna, turning part of it into a ruined swamp, and breaking the unified kingdom into the modern realms of Syleria and Iltea, it cost him his life in the process, and still, the elves in the south remained free. They were still too powerful, even divided, to take on, and soon enough, Iredos' attention was forced to a greater threat, the rising Tamilkirk Imperium.

It has been many centuries since Ahlenna was split, and still Syleria and Iltea are intact, bastions of elvenkind, though many elves do live beyond the borders of those lands. But Iredos is fallen, many centuries gone, destroyed after the reigning Wizard-Dukes fell upon eachother in a magical conflagration, the details of which remain unknown.

But Iredan artifacts remain sought after, for in all fields of magic but necromancy, Iredos was unmatched in its day. And the elves of Syleria and Iltea, with the memory of the Iredan threat still looming large in their history, are among those that seek lost Iredan magics.

Deep in the heart of the old Empire's core territory, there sits five Obelisks covered in mystic runes and fairly humming with magical power, their purpose and creation unknown. But in recent months, elven oracles have been seeing them in visions and dreams – and the Legacy of the Wizard-Dukes may be more than mere lost artifacts and political boundaries.

---

In this rp, your character is one of those elven oracles, someone with a connection in her dreams to the gods of Elvenkind, visions of future events and the present across the world. Like all oracles, you have no control over when you get the dreams or what they say. As the youngest and newest of the oracles, your visions are the most limited of them all, though of course, they will grow in time. But in trade of, you are still sane and healthy in mind and body (the visions, over time, will drive those that have them insane and make them very physically frail) Dispatched by your superiors to lead an expedition to these Obelisks, and understand what is coming, you meet a strange young human male (my character) who claims descent from one of the Wizard-Dukes of old, also trying to understand these Obelisks.

But darker forces are also interested in the Obelisks and what they represent...for the Legacy of the Wizard-Dukes is a mighty one indeed.

A Cursed Lineage - The Last of House Calvian. MxF or FxF. Variably Dark. Multiple Dark Themes. Focused on Urban Setting.

The city of Veldros has been many things in the over 1,200 years since it was founded. First it was a small outpost of the Necrotic Empire, part of the defensive line against the orcs of the Rough Steppes. Then it grew into a major border city, a critical point for trade moving from the Necrotic Empire to the commercial centers in Balfour Desert and beyond.

Then Veldros was the first of the Empire's holdings to truly cast off Imperial rule, when Food Riots drove out the administrators, instituting a radical reformist democracy – that in turn consumed itself in revolutionary fervor and created oligarchy and tyranny. Old established familes with ties to the destroyed old Necrotic Order created aristocratic rule, and then the plutocrats arose to prominense. Veldros has been peaceful, it has been aggressive, it has been isolationist, it has been expansionist.

In the last century or so, Veldros has largely settled down. Its government is a convoluted mess of plutocracy, democracy and aristocracy, and its defining feature is just enough corruption to keep things moving, but not enough to actually be worth putting an end to. In foreign policy, it focuses on controlling as much of the trade into the Balfour Desert as it can, skirmishing with its rival cities Blerren and Orunkol. The rest of its energy is always focused on keeping an eye on the orcs of the Rough Steppes, who raid when disunited, and form massive hordes to lay waste to vast swaths when united. The large and powerful Kingdom of Halrun to the north wouldn't say no to the chance to annex Veldros if the opportunity presented itself, but seems content to let things play out for the time being, its attention focused in other directions.

Inside Veldros, a myriad of cults and philosophies rule – dark mysteries, cults of salvation, ascetics, chaste monks, sacred prostitutes and temples to gods foreign and domestic, good and evil, chaotic and lawful. Most cities have a handful of large, dominant temples and gods, the rest of the deities receiving much smaller focus. In Veldros, no god is dominant, and all religions and cults and orders and philosophical schools all compete for wealth, followers and status. Even the stranger cults have their followings.

Into this theological and philosophical soup steps a young woman cursed by her own heritage – she is the last known member of House Calvian, dissolved for treason and crimes unmentionable when she was but an infant. Too young to be considered culpable even by the Veldran justice system (which is famous far beyond its borders for promoting 'Guilt by Association'), she was raised until the age of 19 by very distant relations out of a sense of familial obligation. But now, considered old enough to fend for herself, she has been cast out onto the streets, lest she taint her former guardians with the reputation of House Calvian.

No matter the wishes of this woman – to live a peaceful life, to overcome the legacy of her family and become a paragon of the community, to indulge in the greatest of evils and carry on her family tradition, it is clear that many others of the factions in Veldros have plans for her as well, few of them pleasant. This woman must find power and allies if she hopes to survive in, or even simply escape from, Veldros, and especially to do even more than that. From the deepest slums to the highest spires, from the strangest cults to the most established temples, the last heir of House Calvian must fight, or she must die.

---

So, in this rp, you play the 19-year old last heir of House Calvian, cast out of the home and away from the distant relations that have raised her her whole life, and into the worst slum of Veldros. Soon enough, she discovers that her heritage attracts attention and avarice, ambition and aggression, and must use all she can to survive in this suddenly hostile world.

'My' Character will be several characters along the way, of both genders, and eventually, there would be a point where one is picked and that one becomes my main. But the choice is up to her, based on her personality, interactions, and so on, as some characters become more closely linked, and others drift or flee away from her.

PM me or ask questions in the thread if you have any, the same if you're interested. We can mix-and-match from the ideas to a point, or adapt them if you want. If you don't like any of these ideas specifically, but at least think (upon reading them) that you'd like to try an rp with me, then PM me or post here and we can discuss that too. I'm in the mood for Semi-Dark Medieval Fantasy storylines, not just these three, so I'm also open to your ideas on that front as well.

Yea, but here's the catch...

"Nothing particularly helpful." Julian admitted. "The mausoleum may have been mapped during the days before the Empire, but if it was, no maps of it survive down to this day. Apart from knowing that we need to go down - at least a few hundred feet or so - to hit the tunnel network, I don't know anything more. As for how big it is, I suspect its grown in the telling, as with the traps, but that's one of the reasons for two people - another pair of eyes, another set of hands for getting past the traps." He frowned, his brow furrowing. "However, I think we can be pretty confident that none of the traps in the tomb will actually be magical ones. Before the empire came along to this part of the world, only the priests were allowed to use magic, and they didn't go in for traps. Just wards to keep the dead in their tombs. Not that an arrow or falling blade trap can't kill you, but its a much more workable threat."

"There's always a chance the temple might have something, if you fancy a heist on holy ground before we head for the tomb. Churches keep records like pack rats almost as much as governments do. They might have the old architectural plans for the Mausoleum of Tyrants, from when it was built. Or at least," he shrugged, "Something we can work with."

Yea, but here's the catch...

I am. I'm sorry. I'm not even entirely sure what happened - I mean, yes, I was busy, but I wasn't too busy to have some free time. The Guild essentially just almost entirely dropped off of my radar.

Yea, but here's the catch...

Rolling his eyes at her skepticism - not that he could really be surprised, given everything else - he reached into his belt pouch and took out a number of pages and papers, laying a few out on the table. "You'd be amazed at what trawling around the Royal Archives in the capital can get you, if you spend enough time there. They've got the largest collection of old imperial documents in the kingdom, and a lot of originals too." He pointed to one aged parchment, "Such as this one." The writing was in the old Vilarian script. Taking something like that out of the Royal Archives would have been highly illegal. Not than anyone in the room would have cared one whit about that, but it at least gave some indication of his ability, considering the difficulty also involved. It was a lot of lines and markings, sketching out a plan of something.

"This is the tunnel network, when it was built, and all the entrances built into it, back in the days before they called Kaskar Kaskar." Then he laid a different paper next to it. "And this is Kaskar today. Well, two years ago, anyway." He laid the two maps over each other.

Yea, but here's the catch...

(Totally forgive."

"I'm sure you know all about Baron Kaskar and his...unique statue. You know, the one that no one can steal? Well, not only do I aim to steal it, but I know how to do it. The downside is that...well, if breaking into his house is dangerous and risky...the way in is only a little bit less." He gestured to the surroundings. "The whole city wasn't always Kaskar. Didn't even always belong to the Kingdom. You've heard of the Empire, but...they built. Everywhere. Including down. Tunnels underneath the entire city. You can get into almost any building old enough and with a basement from these tunnels." His entire discussion thus far had been murmured, barely above an imperceptible whisper.

"Unfortunately, the only way into these tunnels that is practicable to us is through a crypt...that is almost certainly filled with the walking dead. Which is the catch. Hence the need for two people."

Yea, but here's the catch...

"Given that just about every other option has said no, no, I won't be needing you to 'prove yourself'. Besides, unless the local Guildmaster is a complete fool, he wouldn't stand incapable thieves." He gestured to the chair across from him. "Sit, if you're interested."

(I had five much longer posts over the last day and a half written...each time they got eaten by my internet failing. I've decided to not tempt fate this time.)

Yea, but here's the catch...

(I don't have any good excuse for my delay beyond the usual RL and no e-mail notifications [which wears thin :P ], so I'm just going to apologize and move on.)

Julian saw her talking to one of the men he'd approached, and returned to the notes he'd made on the underground tunnels that would get him - and probably, it was looking like, Felicia as well - into the Baron's manor. Well, not exactly into. They'd need to knock down a bit of wall to actually get into the man's basement. Whoever had built the manor had had the brains to wall off the old tunnel network, even if now a days no one seemed to remember its existence. The next hat trick would be getting inside. There were three possible entrances that he'd been able to find. One, the sewers, would be the most direct, but it would require going down through three levels of sewer to get there, and he very much didn't want to spend hours on end smelling like shit. Call him vain, but he just didn't find the concept particularly appealing.

The second option was through one of the old aqueducts, dating back to the old Empire. Unfortunately, the old aqueducts were pretty public, and getting up into one and then climbing down within one into the undertunnels was not something that could be done at night, and if done at day, would draw far too much attention. That undermined everything he was trying to achieve, so that was out.

What that left was a lovely little detour through the Mausoleum of Tyrants. In the oldest days, even before the Empire had ruled here, the local city had been ruled by a series of military tyrants, all of them buied in that ancient mausoleum. Near as he could tell, that was the best access point into the under tunnels. Unfortuantely, the place was rumored to be haunted, and by all accounts, actually was. The walking or haunting dead within couldn't come out of there, due to the nature of the Mausoleum's construction and ancient wards built into the site, but that wouldn't make things any more fun traveling through it.

Julian looked up at Felicia, frowning in annoyance as she spoke. He forced himself to drop the frown, his expression professional and businesslike. "Its a two person job. Its always been a two person job. So yes, I'm looking for someone else."