@Kazemitsu Divination magic can reveal them, along with them being sensitive to silver or holy stuff, otherwise they'll uusally resemble ordinary people.
@Kazemitsu Considered evil, like the other monsters they still have human feelings and free will and all that. Though most, especially newborn skinwalkers (Which there are many given the cataclysm), can't control themselves under a full moon; much like a werewolf. And do have a preference of eating human flesh.
In the fantastical world of Harvess, the vast kingdom of Ceosia governs over most humans within the realm. Through the authority of the church of light, the royal family ensures peace and prosperity through the lands, driving off evil that would prey upon humanity. The recent cataclysm has, however, brought chaos and disorder to the realm. Amidst the rapid forced reincarnation of many from another world, most were converted into children of Hecate, monsters naturally aligned with the demon king and his ilk. A fair amount were allowed to be reborn under the church and the College, but the favored few who made contracts with the Sacred Artifacts of the paladin order, naturally became paladins themselves. The public looks to these heroes to restore order and keep the peace.
Ceosia has several orders that act as the cornerstones to their civilization. These are, The Order of Light, The Order of The Paladins, The Order of the Magi, The Order of Harvest, The Order of Commerce, The Order of Shadow, The Order of Law, and the Central Order. All governed by the royal family and their personal knights.
- The Order of Light is the holy church and religion of Ceosia. They worship a divine being referred to simply as 'The Light', the true name of the deity has been lost to time. A creator deity, brother to the wicked Goddess Hecate and Rival to her spouse, Lucifer, The First Demon. The Church's hierarchy is governed at the top by the Pope, who also acts as an advisor to the royal family, thus wielding even more political power than the other heads of their respective orders. Following this hierarchy are the Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests. The duties of the Church is to uphold religious values and tradition, retain worship and govern prayer and sacrifices. Those considered 'blessed' by the light have the power and authority to wield miracles, situational powers invoked by The Light himself. Any of the orders that have this blessing are referred to as Clerics. Monks are those under the order who have trained in spiritual power, similar to the Paladins, though with a focus on blunt instruments or hand-to-hand. A monk can also be a cleric. Inquisitors are monks that take missions under the church to act as their own form of 'paladin', though they don't have any sacred artifacts of their own.
- The Order of Paladins are a sacred order that governs over the Sacred Artifacts. Weapons forged by dwarves with the slain or sacrificed souls of powerful beings, chosen only to those they make a contract with that would reincarnate into this world. They are the hero-makers, an order that garners the most public favor. Aside from training the destined heroes, their ranks also consist of knights and squires; Warriors without a contract of a sacred artifacts, and servants to the heroes respectively. Beneath their grand Barracks in the capitol lies a labyrinth that imprisons and stores the great variety of artifacts that are presently ownerless. All members are trained to use Spiritual Power alongside martial arts, for the heroes this extends to training with their soul-bonded artifact. Knights and paladins are ranked as bronze, silver, gold, and platinum respectively, all heroes are at least ranked as silver. As squires are more of glorified servants, they are stuck at rank bronze.
- The Order of the Magi is the Educational Order of the Kingdom. In addition to providing standard education, they are also in charge of the Mage College Sarafel, and all things 'magical' within the kingdom's provinces aside from the Paladins. As both the Church and Paladins are skeptical of magic, these orders do not get along well with the Order of the Magi, and are often at the center of political conflict. Students that only know a little magic are referred to as Magicians. Apprentices are the next step up, and following them is the rank of Sage, and Mage respectively. Those that are able to use Sorceries are called sorcerers, and vocation spells Wizards. (A wizard can also be a sorcerer.)
- The Orders of Harvest, Commerce, and Law are all purely civil divisions of orders. The Order of Shadows is the underbelly of Ceosia. On the service they are something of a 'intelligence' group, having trained professional scouts and rangers to provide information. But discreetly they also handle less publicly known positions. Hired Criminals, Assassins, Black Market dealings and what have you. In relation to the Adventurer's Guild, they provide scouts to assist parties with travels and information relevant to any given quest. With the exception of any individual obtaining magical items, the order of the shadows do not have any means of supernatural training. Instead, they have more practical skills of stealth, trap-disarming, basic combat and martial arts, underhanded tactics and what have you. A classic rogue.
- The Adventurer's Guild is the Central Order of Ceosia, one that unifies all other orders under their employment. The guild provides a sort of hub for these various groups, letting them take commissioned assignments. Anyone can make commission requests, for a fee ofcourse, and jobs can vary wildly. From bounties set on monsters and criminals, to escorting wandering travelers from one town or city to another, to finding rare materials or even hunt down the demon king himself. As a freelance nature of employment, it is up to individuals to take what jobs they wish, incentive by whatever rewards the contractor provides for their quest. It is common for adventurers to form teams or parties.
Ideally I would like the guild based characters to have all formed a team for sake of simplicity. You can all vote democratically on what mission/quest to take from the bounty board, and that'll be the focus of each rp segment. You are also free to have your own villain PCs hunted or otherwise intervene in the quests if you wish.
Revived from dying in another world, it's been roughly 1 year (Not everyone was reborn at the same time.) since the cataclysm first started. There's been some time for most to have been trained properly, but some can be brand new and just arrived if you wish. You have the option to know other reincarnated characters in their past life, including player characters, as long as both agree/talk it out of course. Even if your character didn't get a weapon contract, they typically have great potential to learn faster and easier then people of the native world.
For Paladins: The contract you make with your sacred artifact has soul-bonded the two of you until death. At any time you can summon the weapon and you're able to magically transform into your paladin form when you use your weapon (Think magical girl transformation but for knights, though you can be creative with your suit of armor, it doesn't necessarily have to be armor visually.) All Paladins have spiritual power training which means that even without their transformation they have superhuman stats, but transforming into their knight form further amplifies their spiritual power. Additionally their magical weapon has a unique property and one special move it can use.
Spiritual power varies with individuals, typically speaking each rank can be considered a 'tier' above the former in general strength, though stats like speed and durability don't have to be split evenly with strength. If your character specializes in any given trait over others, be sure to mention that, otherwise it assumes they follow an even spread. As a general rule of thumb, a Paladin that specializes in one stat will be roughly equal in that same stat to a Paladin of one rank higher, (whereas stats include strength, speed, durability.) but as a consequence will have their other stats on the same level as a Paladin ranked lower.
Mana is the energy behind mana. Conventionally this can just be thought of as magical stamina. Training to increase one’s mana is similar to building up physical stamina, training to exhaust your mana and in theory you’ll produce more of it: Though most people have so little potential to actually develop any meaningful progress.
Spells can let you do all kinds of things, from shooting fireballs to flying or what have you. But every type of magic is categorized, and need specific requirements to fill. Just about anything is possible with Spellcraft, so if you’d rather just submit to me spell ideas I can simply inform you where those spells would be categorized and thus how to cast them.
When making spells as well, presume the cast time to be within a turn, unless if you want to give it a charge-up time like 2 turns before casting. Have a maximum duration (if its not just a straightforward blast or something, also some can be permanent depending upon the nature of it), and whether or not its a passive duration or if it requires an active mental focus to maintain.
There are five elements: Spirit, Fire, Earth, Water, Air. Everyone is born with an affinity to one element. Through an awakening, you may also gain a second affinity to another element. Aside from your primary and secondary affinity, you can gain access to additional affinities through two other methods. Attuning to a catalyst, which refers to a tool like a wand or staff that has an element imbued into it, can grant one access to another elemental affinity. You can also use the elemental affinity of your familiar as your own when casting spells, so long as the familiar is present.
Sorcery is ‘neutral’ magic that is used to cast spells based on any one of the five elements. To cast a sorcery you need access to a related affinity, which as mentioned, can come in the form of your born affinity, an awakened affinity, a wand, or a familiar. Compound Elements refer to a combination of two compatible elements, normally only being able to cast if you have access to the combination. Fire and Wind make lightning, Water and Wind make Ice, Earth and Water makes wood, Fire and Earth make Metal. There are exceptions where someone can be born with the ability to use a combination instead of a primary (For example, someone with a fire affinity may instinctively cast lightning or metal as their first sorcery instead of fire), but this is rare.
Vocations are black and white magic, composed of three elements instead of sorceries one. Unlike sorceries which only reflect basic elemental manipulation, vocations provide unique spells based on their associated school, of which there are five combinations; and two variations of the same combination (White and Black magic, or Evocations and Invocations respectively.) You do not need to know sorcery spells to cast vocational spells, while both rely on elemental affinities, they are distinct methods of spellcraft. Similar to sorceries, normally you need access to the relevant affinities to cast it. So for example, for Restoration, a school that requires Fire, Water, and Spirit, a magi that has a fire affinity would need two additional sources, such as a water based familiar and a spirit based wand. Ofcourse, if they had a secondary element of water that would mean they’d only need one other source to cast a restoration spell. The combination doesn’t matter so long as they have access to that affinity.
Most beings can’t cast both black and white magic, or if they can, there are often consequences. For humans, casting an invocation causes them to become a warlock; A human cursed by the black magic they tried to cast. They lose the ability to cast white magic, and are plagued with a curse related to the type of black magic they tried to cast. For example, transmutation warlock may cause them to slowly or partially petrify into stone, or execution can make some undead or perpetually ill. However, Warlocks also gain an affinity towards their curse. Meaning that someone cursed with execration can cast execration spells without needing access to its elemental affinities. If a familiar is bound with an invocation type spell, they’d take the burden on the invocation instead of you.
Infusions are the combination of a sorcery spell and a vocational spell. Or, the ‘imbuing’ of a pure element into a vocational spell. So using restoration as an example, a fire-restoration infusion could have a spell that ‘heals’ and mends metal like a forge, or create sacred flames that burn undead and heal the living as an example.
Compound Vocations are just the combinations of different vocational schools in one spell. This is most commonly seen in curses, like a malediction that uses transmutation to change someone under a specific condition.
Spell Mediums refer to how the spell is cast. By default, somatic casting is just using yourself as the medium, at casting spells from your directed will to a target. Commonly this is aided by a physical gesture, such as pointed, and an incantation. Note that mastery over a specific spell can bypass both the gesture and the verbal component, but the spell will always be at its strongest if the incantation is spoken. Alternative means of casting spells, such as runic or potions, tend to be stronger than if they were casted somatically. Learning a spell is also limited to a medium when learned. (if you wanted two medium variations of the same spell, it would still count as learning two different spells.) Runic Casting, or written magic, is using magic in a written form, expressed in various glyphs and runes. Using that as a conduit, the detailed spell can be cast either at the will of the caster within proximity to the written magic, or imbued and set with a predetermined trigger, such as someone stepping on. The medium most effective for written magic is blood, but as that is taboo, salted chalks and similar materials are often used instead. It's a once-use magic, that after use the medium used to cast it will decay. When written, mana can be temporarily imbued into the rune for its casting. Enchantments are similar to Runic casting, the primary difference is that enchantments are meant to be permanent or at least lasting to whatever they are written on. Typically this requires the spell that sets an enchantment to also provide some power source of mana, in order to maintain its enchantments. Enchantments can be an actively passive effect, an activated spell, or both. Potions are spells imbued in a liquid form, crafted through three primary ingredients alongside a ritual that stores the spell into the mixture. Depending upon effectiveness, they may require either being poured/splashed onto something, or needs to be directly consumed for it to take effect. Potions tend to exaggerate spell length and no longer need to worry about mentally concentrating on a spell to maintain its duration. Charms refer to items that synergize specifically with spells. For example, Tarot Cards or Crystal Balls have specific divination spells used in tandem in order to properly use these items. Rituals: Catch all terms used for a process of casting a spell with a combination of different mediums, often requiring a deal of time and set up to complete. Since Rituals are a unique setup, they can ‘cheat’ affinities, for example, by having candles represent fire or a vase of water for water. Or using additional magi participating in the ritual to draw on their affinities.
Restoration magic(Fire, Water, Spirit) can be considered a form of ‘holy’ or light magic. It is symbolized by the nature of life itself. Spells of this evocation can heal wounds, cure sickness, destroy undead, and evoke the power of light itself.
Abjuration magic(Water, Air, Earth) Refers to protection magic. Abjuration provides wards against magic and the supernatural. Alleviates curses, provides good luck, creation of barriers, among other uses.
Alteration magic (Spirit, Earth, Fire): alters peoples and objects. It can be used to telekinetically manipulate, levitate, or teleport a target(By altering what position they occupy), or be used to otherwise alter temporary properties of an object. Such as making something temporarily more durable, stronger, faster, perhaps heavier, etc.
Abnegation magic(Air, Fire, Water) Is a form of denial magic. Most notable are forms of dispelling curses, counter-magic, Negating certain parts of magic, Banished spirits and demons, and dispel magic in general. Some might be confused on the differences between Abnegation and Abjuration. If we were to compare it to medicine, think of Restoration as medicine that treats the symptoms but not the cause, Abjuration as 'vaccines' which prevent you from getting sick, and Abnegation as Treating the cause directly.
Divination Magic (Spirit, Air, Earth) refers to spells that seek information. Locating a person or object, revealing possible futures, reading one's mind, or communicating through minds, Seeing through certain things, etc.
Execration(Fire, Water, Spirit) is the inverse of restoration. Whereas restoration can be interpreted as life magic, Execration is death. Spells in Execration can involve Diseases, Decay, and the undead as some examples.
Maledictions(Water, Air, Earth), the inverse of abjurations, are hexes and curses. Magics that bind other magics to a target, or otherwise make them more vulnerable. Maledictions are commonly part of compound vocations due to this nature, same as abjurations.
Transmutation(Spirit, Earth, Fire) The Inverse of Alteration. Unlike alteration which deals with temporary properties, Transmutation deals in permanent properties and aspects of a target. Turning someone into a frog, turning lead to gold, mutating someone into becoming a massive goliath, etc.
Conjuration(Air, Fire, Water), The inverse of Abnegation. Conjurations summon things across realms or from souls, or create temporary things from mana. A creation of magic that abnegation typically denies.
Prestidigitation(Spirit, Air, Earth) is the inverse of divination. If divination can be thought of as the gain of information, then prestidigitation is the loss, or manipulation of information. This often translates in spells that deal with illusions, charming or otherwise manipulating people directly, erasing memories, etc.
Familiars can be any being that is soul-bonded to a magi. They can range from an ordinary house-cat, a mythical beast like a phoenix, a demon, or even a human (Though for obvious reasons this isn’t ethical.) A magi can only possess one Familiar at a time. Familiars can be obtained through either a subjugation ritual or a mutual contract ritual. If a familiar is ‘destroyed’, their spirit will remain within their owner’s soul, and be reconstituted in time so long as their owner lives. They can be conjured to their owner and dismissed at any time (Though this is a form of conjuration, as it is bound to the contract and not on the Magi they aren’t affected by the warlock’s curse.)
A familiar can have spells bound to it, especially if they were formerly a powerful creature or being. Casting a familiar’s spell puts the burden of the spell on the familiar, so if it were an invocation, the familiar would take the burden of that invocation and potentially the curse rather than the magi. Familiars can also have ‘combat forms’, particularly if they are a powerful creature. Typically, powerful familiars possess a more docile form to hide their true form while bound, where in the combat form allows them to express more of their true power temporarily.
As inferred before, the primary utility for a familiar is using their elemental affinity for spellcasting.
For Magi:
Consider your rank first, Magician, Apprentice, Sage, Mage, wizard
Magician will only know up to 2 spells, and maybe some rituals. Apprentice will know at 4 spells and typically will have at least a familiar contract and a catalyst. A sage can learn up to 6 spells and one mastery spell (Infusion spells or Compound Vocations, or otherwise a very big/powerful spell), A mage knows 8 spells and two mastery spell, and wizards 10 with three masteries.
Note: you do not need to reach the spell limit to reach a rank. In theory you can know only one spell and still ascend the magic ranks if your magic is powerful enough, or otherwise experienced.
You can also list up to three ritual spells if your character is nerdy enough, regardless of rank.
Also consider what element your character has an affinity too. If you're at least a sage, you may also have unlocked a secondary element. Unlike your primary affinity, which is determined at birth, a secondary affinity is unlocked through a special connection with meditation and ritual through another element.
It is recommended, but not required, to have either a form of catalyst or a familiar if you are at least an apprentice, both if you are a sage or higher.
Grimoires are tools spellcasters use to study and record spells, sometimes they can draw power from them, particularly for rituals, so they are an optional but common tool among magi.
Elemental affinities are important as they determine what kind of sorceries and vocations you can cast.
You do not need to be able to cast sorceries to cast vocational magic, nor vise versa.
Signature spells refer to either Compound Vocations or Infused Vocations. If you don't cast vocational magic this can instead be just compound sorceries.
If you have a familiar, they can have one spell you can cast from them. If the spell is an invocation, the warlock curse will not affect you, but may curse the familiar similarly if they aren't a demon or other dark being. (Likewise, such a being wouldn't be able to have an evocation as their spell.) Instead of a spell, they can have a 'combat form' if you want to be more of a summoner.
For else: Standard equipment and any important details. if you wanna get by with just a magic item or something you can submit your ideas to me or ask for some ideas on my end if you aren't sure. If you plan on playing a cleric, keep in mind miracles aren't magic. You pray to the light and if it works, the light will offer you assistance based on the prayer. There is a limit to how often it'll work (think three times per adventure, mileage may very depending upon how big that miracle was) so keep that in mind. Its not a reliable power system but more like a 'minor wish' that can be ignored. Note Only magi can use magic, ignoring magic items of course. You can only be 'attuned' to three magical items. For paladins their contract also counts as a magical item.
I believe I left some details for the Children of Hecate monsters that people can be reincarnated to in the interest check, if you are interested in that you can DM me for more details.
For whatever reason, perhaps because Hecate insists that witches are her 'daughters', all witches are female. Witches can either be born from another witch (union with a human typically), or a human that undertakes a special ritual. In the reincarnated case this technically applies to them, though they wouldn't be aware of the ritual itself due to just being killed in one world and re-awakening in the next.
Witches have the divine Authority of Hecate to be able to cast both white and black magic without restriction. This alone is a powerful trait they share. They are immortal spellcasters with bodies that may appear like ordinary woman (Albeit it isn't entirely uncommon for them to have hints of supernatural traits, which may include any of the following: glowing eyes, horns, claws, unusual skin tone (Like Green or Blue), and other strange miscellaneous details (Like having a duck's foot for a left foot as an extreme weird example. Others can also appear identical to humans with no apparent traits.) But are in truth are more magical then biological. All witches bear the mark of Hecate on some feature of their body, such as their eye, tongue, on their wrist, neck, etc. It should go without saying that all witches are indeed powerful spellcasters, and even those reincarnated who have only recently become witches would find themselves with great power.
Witches do not need to eat, drink or sleep, as they are no longer 'biologically' alive in that sense, though they can still partake in any of those activities without issue. The only stipulation is that they occasionally need to eat a human soul to retain their power and avoid becoming feral.
Being immortal, so long as their head is intact they can remain conscience, and even if there head is destroyed their bodies will naturally regenerate. The only way to destroy a witch is to destroy their core. A Crystal-like structure usually within where their heart would be. Cores aren't easy to destroy, but powerful magic or silvered weapons are both effective against it. Destroying the core will destroy the witch, but unfortunately for the witch instead of instead death its a slow, agonizing one; It can be quiet the variety as a witch may slowly petrify and crumble away, disintegrate to dust, slowly crack and light up until they finally explode, melt away wicked witch style along with other slow and dramatic ways to die. As their own immortality works against them, they will remain sapient until completely destroyed in this way.
True Vampires are normally only born, and humans that have turned into vampires are 'vampire spawn', lesser vampires. In the case of the reincarnated though, those that became vampires awakened as true vampires instead of spawns, perhaps due to the unique circumstances of becoming a vampire in this case.
vampires are incredibly power, and sort of work like an inverse to Ki, as their undeath renders them incredibly superhuman. In addition to strength and speed, being able to see in the dark, superhuman reflexes, the works are all under their power. Vampires normally aren't able to cast magic, but due inherit unique powers, usually possessing three. These can include turning into a a bat, swarm of bats, monster bat form, a wolf form, mist form, being able to hypnotize people with their gaze, freezing people on contact, any other tropic vampire traits you can think of probably apply as well.
Being undead, they do not need to eat, drink, or sleep to survive (Though they'll need to drink blood to retain sanity, more on that later), they do not need to breathe, aren't vulnerable to conventional illness, all that. So long as a vampire's heart beats, they can regenerate from any injury, with exception to if their head is destroyed, that's usually game over. Staking the heart to prevent it from healing itself will also immediately paralyze a vampire, which can make them easier to destroy afterwards. (Staking doesn't necessarily kill the vampire, removing the stake afterwards will revive them.)
Aside from their vulnerability to holiness, like holy water, and things that ward undead. Fire is somewhat effective against them, not that they are any less vulnerable to fire as a normal person, but combined with the bright light can disorient them as they burn. They can't swim, Garlic renders them nauseous, Sunlight burns them away, wounds inflicted from silver are harder to recover from, etc.
Feeding on blood will make a vampire seem more alive, as they are drained of blood, they'll retain more monstrous appearances like paler skin, gaunt physique, etc more associated with a vampire, and may even appear to age. If they starve themselves on blood completely, they'll turn into a strigoi, or feral vampire; Which are lanky, pale bat-like monstrosities of vampires that have given in to animalistic instincts and loss of intelligence.
The shapeshifters. When a skinwalker is born, they are typically associated with a type of animal that they can turn into. While mastery over this form is possible, usually they have no control over it, and become feral half-man half-beast monstrosities under the full moon. Skin walkers are resistant to most forms of damage, save from silver, which is a critical weakness to them. Like vampires they can only be destroyed by destroying the head. Skinwalkers that have mastered their powers can change forms at will, and can even adopt new forms from people or animals they've killed. This can be particularly troublesome if they happen to shapeshift and imitate a loved one, as they can even replicate memories of their shapeshifted target.
As alluded to, in the world of Harvess there are other things in this vast world beyond humans and this struggle. Mythical beasts roam the earth, Elves and Dwarves are the other two prominent races but as they are mostly isolated and aren't involved in the reincarnation destiny that humans seem to be in, aren't tied to the story necessarily.
Ah that should be interesting? I haven't listed out the full magic system but just so you're aware Alchemy or potion making is a form of spell-medium, in that spells can be imbued in potion form.
In the fantastical world of Harvess, it is said that those reincarnated from another world bring with them a great destiny. In truth, however, it is not order that these people bring, but chaos. Historically this chaos has been dressed up as 'order', to control the darkness that looms and waits beneath the depths of this great world. Normally, reincarnation occurs naturally, dead solves from one world crossing into the next, being born again as a newborn. There are circumstances where instead of being reborn, reincarnated are instead revived with their memories intact of their previous world. And it these individuals that harbor great power or potential; often they arrive in this new world having made a contract with a paladin artifact, turning them into great heroes.
But what would happen if those brought from the other world were forced into roles that weren't heroic? How will their choices then reflect Harvess and its peoples. What Chaos would that bring? That was what the former adviser to the demon lord wondered. This mysterious shadow to the king of demons enacted a great ritual that brought disaster to the other world, dragging in a great number of souls from various walks of life, and harvesting many of them into the roles of monsters. The consequences of this ritual also seemed to bring fourth a great deal of disaster and chaos to Harvess too, beyond those reincarnated, a resurgence of monsters, powerful natural disasters, and great sicknesses all plagued the land during what would be now called the year of Hell on Earth.
Farance, the great kingdom of heroes and legends, were not all without hope though. The Arsenal of the Paladin Corps had intervened, making contracts with souls entering harvess to save them from their fate as monsters and turning them to heroes. The Mage College of Sarafel, and the Holy Church, were also successful in salvaging many souls, keeping them human in their new lives. Though the influx of refugees would only hurt the kingdom while suffering through this hellish year. Those that had made contracts with the sacred artifacts, and other refugees who would be recruited by the various factions of the kingdom, would be trained to prepare to save this blighted world (And earn their keep.)
Your character is a Reincarnated. Apparently a great destiny awaits you! Or from what people say. However, as mentioned, this disaster did not just bring in an influx of new heroes, but new monsters as well. Even those saved from such a fate we're not all made heroes, some due to their lack of potential or laziness had to acclimate in lower statuses. So you get to pick from the options of: HERO! (Chosen Paladin, you made a contract with one of the aforementioned Paladin weapons before being revived.) Mage! (You were recruited by the College to study magic, for the most part mages are not as powerful as Chosen Paladins, but reincarnated people often have enough potential that they can learn to be skilled mages quicky.) MONSTER: You along with many others were dumped in this world with some sort of terrible curse (or blessing, depending on how you look at it.) but regardless, people hate you and are hunting you down, including the heroes of this story. You get to pick from three races (Children of Hecate), Witch, Vampire, Skinwalker/Werewolf. Each have their own conditions, but all are hunted by Paladins. (This is more for people that want to have a villain PC or what have you, so be advised.) OTHER: not everyone that was reincarnated is as destined for greatness as people say. Perhaps you are a knight's errant to a paladin, a measely squire in training. A humble priest at the Church, a powerless rogue learning the tricks of the trade from the thieves' guild, or hell, pick up farming. If you wanna help out the monster PCS/NPCS without being a monster yourself? Certainly. Everyone has free will after all.
The Adventurer's Guild is a sort of unified collection of the various factions of Farance to help get heroes fight monsters and do other things to help out. They have a bounty board for hunting monsters and criminals, as well as jobs posted to say, escort travelers or deliver goods. Graduated Members of each faction use the guild as their primary source of income and place to hangout.
I don't want to get too indepth with the power system since there is a lot of info, especially regarding magic, so i'll try to keep the main topics brief.
Think magical girl but a knight. You have a special connection to a weapon that has a powerful soul inside (Can be a witch's soul, demon, some magical beast like a dragon or phoenix, an angel, etc.) Its common for these weapons to have lost the ability to retain sapience, and even still those that do rarely are able to communicate. The contract is more of an instinctual process then a verbal or written form. To many that even recall it its more like a personalized dream as the weapon seeks out a 'worthy master'. Paladins are trained to use 'ki' or spiritual power to enhance themselves, granting them basic superhuman ability (Strength, speed, etc.) They can't do magic on their own, whatever powers they have are linked directly to their special weapon that is soul-bonded to them. They have a transformation sequence for their knight form, the weapon typically has one special trait, and an 'ultimate' technique (Which can be like, another transformation, or a really big attack, etc.)
Magic is rooted in the five elements: Spirit, Fire, Earth, Water, Air. Every soul has an affinity towards one element (Even if you can't do magic.) Sorcery refers to elemental magic based on one of the aformentioned elements, or 'compound sorcery' which is dervied from a combination of two elements. A magi that can perform sorcery is usually only able to use the element they have an affinity with. So someone with a fire affinity can naturally only cast fire. With a wand however (One of the most important tools for magic users), the affinity bound to the wand can act as a medium to cast a secondary element sorcery. Its also possible for some to unlock a 'lesser affinity' for both use of sorcery and vocational magic to further expand their power over magic.
Vocational magic are the more 'magic' kind of spells, derived from the combination of three elements. There are five combinations, and a 'white' and 'black' magic version of that combination; Evocations and Invocations respectively. Restoration, for example, or healing magic, is derived from Spirit Water and Fire. Whereas its inverse, Execration, or death magic, takes the same elements but is used for well, necromancy.
You do not need to be able to use sorceries to cast vocational magic, nor do you need vocational magic to do sorceries.
Humans and most creatures are only able to perform White magic. (Sorcery is a neutral magic and doesn't really apply here, this is just in the context of white versus black magic.) If one were to cast black magic, they will become a warlock. A mage that has been cursed by the first black magic spell they cast. In addition to never being cursed to no longer being able to cast white magic, the curse of the warlock has additional side-effects based on what type of black magic they first tried to cast. Necromancy, or execration, for example, can render someone permanently magically ill, or develop undead-like symptoms. A mage using the invocation of transmutation to turn things into gold, may end up slowly being petrified into gold themselves. While some magic can exist to alleviate the symptoms of these curses, the only cures are to either give up magic altogether forever, or to embrace the dark powers and become a monster.
However, one can bypass becoming a warlock with a familiar. A familiar is a being that is soul-bonded to a magi, typically by either contract or subjugation. By having their familiar take the burden of casting a black magic spell, they can avoid being cursed themselves. Familiars have other benefits too, as they can assist casting vocational magic with their own affiliated element, or be used as a powerful summon; depending upon the type of familiar. Conventional familiars can just be an ordinary pet, like a cat or dog. Powerful monsters may end up in similarly passive forms as contracted demons and magical beasts may have their powers sealed.
Before The formation of paladins, warriors are the original and fundamental 'strength' of humanity. Like Paladins they train in the use of Ki to enhance their powers and martial arts. They are essentially Knights without paladin weapons, and difference schools teach different styles of martial arts from hand-to-hand to specific weaponry like swords or archery.
The thieves' guilds do not have any fancy powers like the other factions. They are first and foremost merchants, thieves, brigands, mercenaries, and most importantly, scouts. They have stocks of various magical items that the more privileged members may exploit, but are otherwise not suited for combat. Instead they focus on stealth, travel, dungeon-crawling, deception, espionage, intelligence, etc. Due to these skills they are often useful in guild parties for this reason. If nothing else to provide information to the concerned party.
Priests/Priestesses serve the Light, the disembodied divine god of Farance. They do not do magic, and in fact, can't as part of their holy vows. Instead they can perform miracles through their divine worship. Miracles range from the ability to heal, to cast light, warding away undead, creating holy water, etc. There is a limit to how many miracles a priest can perform in a given day, depending upon the strength of the miracle, and how much favor they have earned to The Light.
generally refers to Paladin members that aren't chosen Paladins nor a common knight. They instead serve a knight, or preferably, a chosen Paladin as their sidekick essentially. They don't do anything special on their own.
For whatever reason, perhaps because Hecate insists that witches are her 'daughters', all witches are female. Witches can either be born from another witch (union with a human typically), or a human that undertakes a special ritual. In the reincarnated case this technically applies to them, though they wouldnt be aware of the ritual itself due to just being killed in one world and re-awakening in the next.
Witches have the divine Authority of Hecate to be able to cast both white and black magic without restriction. This alone is a powerful trait they share. They are immortal spellcasters with bodies that may appear like ordinary woman (Albeit it isn't entirely uncmmon for them to have hints of supernatural traits, which may include any of the following: glowing eyes, horns, claws, unusual skin tone (Like Green or Blue), and other strange miscellaneous details (Like having a duck's foot for a left foot as an extreme weird example. Others can also appear identical to humans with no apparent traits.) But are in truth are more magical then biological. All witches bear the mark of Hecate on some feature of their body, such as their eye, tongue, on their wrist, neck, etc. It should go without saying that all witches are indeed powerful spellcasters, and even those reincarnated who have only recently become witches would find themselves with great power.
Witches do not need to eat, drink or sleep, as they are no longer 'biologically' alive in that sense, though they can still partake in any of those activities without issue. The only stipulation is that they occasionally need to eat a human soul to retain their power and avoid becoming feral.
Being immortal, so long as their head is intact they can remain conscience, and even if there head is destroyed their bodies will naturally regenerate. The only way to destroy a witch is to destroy their core. A Crystal-like structure usually within where their heart would be. Cores aren't easy to destroy, but powerful magic or silvered weapons are both effective against it. Destroying the core will destroy the witch, but unfortunately for the witch instead of instead death its a slow, agonizing one; It can be quiet the variety as a witch may slowly petrify and crumble away, disintegrate to dust, slowly crack and light up until they finally explode, melt away wicked witch style along with other slow and dramatic ways to die. As their own immortality works against them, they will remain sapient until completely destroyed in this way.
True Vampires are normally only born, and humans that have turned into vampires are 'vampire spawn', lesser vampires. In the case of the reincarnated though, those that became vampires awakened as true vampires instead of spawns, perhaps due to the unique circumstances of becoming a vampire in this case.
vampires are incredibly power, and sort of work like an inverse to Ki, as their undeath renders them incredibly superhuman. In addition to strength and speed, being able to see in the dark, superhuman reflexes, the works are all under their power. Vampires normally aren't able to cast magic, but due inherit unique powers, usually posessing three. These can include turning into a a bat, swarm of bats, monster bat form, a wolf form, mist form, being able to hypnotize people with their gaze, freezing people on contact, any other tropic vampire traits you can think of probably apply as well.
Being undead, they do not need to eat, drink, or sleep to survive (Though they'll need to drink blood to retain sanity, more on that later), they do not need to breathe, aren't vulnerable to conventional illness, all that. So long as a vampire's heart beats, they can regenerate from any injury, with exception to if their head is destroyed, thats usually game over. Staking the heart to prevent it from healing itself will also immediately paralyze a vampire, which can make them easier to destroy afterwards. (Staking doesn't necessarily kill the vampire, removing the stake aftewards will revive them.)
Aside from their vulnerability to holyness, like holy water, and things that ward undead. Fire is somewhat effective against them, not they are any less vulnerable to fire as a normal person, but combined with the bright light can disorient them as they burn. They can't swim, Garlic renders them nauseous, Sunlight burns them away, wounds inflicted from silver are harder to recover from, etc.
Feeding on blood will make a vampire seem more alive, as they are drained of blood, they'll retain more monstrous appearances like paler skin, gaunt physique, etc more assocaited with a vampire, and may even appear to age. If they starve themselves on blood completely, they'll turn into a strigoi, or feral vampire; Which are lanky, pale bat-like monstrosities of vampires that have given in to animalistic instincts and loss of intelliegnece.
The shapeshifters. When a skinwalker is born, they are typically associated with a type of animal that they can turn into. While mastery over this form is possible, usually they have no control over it, and become feral half-man half-beast monstrosities under the full moon. Skin walkers are resistant to most forms of damage, save from silver, which is a critical weakness to them. Like vampires they can only be destroyed by destroying the head. Skinwalkers that have mastered their powers can change forms at will, and can even adopt new forms from people or animals they've killed. This can be particularly troublesome if they happen to shapeshift and imitate a loved one, as they can even replicate memories of their shapeshifted target.
As alluded to, in the world of Harvess there are other things in this vast world beyond humans and this struggle. Mythical beasts roam the earth, Elves and Dwarves are the other two prominent races but as they are mostly isolated and aren't involved in the reincarnation destiny that humans seem to be in, aren't tied to the story necessarily.
Hecate is considered the Goddess who would discover and bind magic into a universal form, which other lesser gods not of the one faith also seem to inspire across various cultures. Though they are conveyed in different forms, the more widely accepted practice is through the pentacle.
There are five elements to magic and the world itself. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit. Everyone is born with a natural affinity towards one of these elements, though it should go with out saying that despite people having a natural affinity to one of these elements, few are capable of actually using magic by their own means. We'll get more into the types of humans that can magic later, as it revolved around the types of spells.
While not universally true, most born affinities arise from what season they are born in. Spring is associated with the earth, Summer Fire, Autumn Wind, and Winter Water. Spirit meanwhile isn't tied to any season, but seem most common to occur under being born on the same day as some celestial event. Such as a full moon or even an eclipse.
Sorcery refers to spells derived from any one element. Most fire spells can be assumed to just be fire sorcery for example. For humans, its actually more rare to practice basic sorceries as opposed to evocations or even invocations, since Sorcery requires a specific talent and trait all on its own. Human or not, those that practice sorcery are only able to use the element they are born with. Someone with a fire affinity can only perform sorceries through fire.
A sort-of important note is that there are also 'compound elements'. These only exist within the context of sorcery, as they are not necessarily involved in other types of magic. Compound Sorceries refer to an element born from the merging of two compatible elements. So far these include Lightning (Fire and Air), Metal (Fire and Earth), Wood/Plant(Water and Earth), and Ice (Water and Air).
Regarding Compound Sorceries, they can be a sorcerer's natural affinity instead of a normal one. For example a sorcerer with a fire affinity could have metal or lightning sorcery instead of fire. This trait is determined at their birth ofc with what element, compound or not, they are able to use.
Spirit sorcery is naturally the most rare and powerful sorcery. It involves general manipulation of raw magic, which depending upon use, can be used to create walls or swords of magic, shoot raw magical blasts, or wrapping mana around objects for telekinetic or levitational purposes.
The 'Wheel' or Wheel-casting, refers to spells derived from three of the five elements, arranged in a triangle among a pentacle. There are two types of wheel-casting, invocations and evocations. Black and White magic respectively. Both compromise of Five schools of magic, with black magic being an inversion of white magic, for a total of 10 schools.
There are two notes with wheel-casting. The first is that you must have an affinity with one of the involved wheels, or schools, of magic to learn and cast spells deriving from it. The second is that, with exception to witches, using dark magic prevents you from casting white magic. Humans are naturally unable to even use black magic without dark and ritualistic methods to gain such power, losing the rite to white magic in exchange.
Spells can be both learned or invented. For wheelcasting, sometimes the affinity of the caster may influence how the spell appears. For example a simple cure wounds spell may appear as either a healing form of fire or water with a fire or water affinity in particular. Additionally, while spells have set functions, their actual power varies with how much mana is put into it. A weak caster for example, may only heal a small cut with cure wounds, or a tiny soccer-ball sized fireball for...fireball sorcery. Whereas a strong magic user like a witch could cure almost any physical injury and engulf an entire town-square in a fireball.
For examples, I'll provide three dnd-spell equivalents for each school to give an idea of what kind of spells you can make in these categories.
Water, Spirit, Fire
Healing magic. Restoration generally includes the well, restoration of things. However this isn't exclusive to just treating injuries and undoing wounds, they can also mend broken objects, or treat mental anguish too.
Cure wounds: Healing literal flesh and blood wounds.
Mending: Fixing broken man-made objects.
Therapy: Limited temporary treatment to mental trauma.
Growth: Magically aids and grows plant-life.
Spirit, Air, Earth
Refers to spells that divine knowledge and information. This varies widely, and more-often-then-not employ physical objects as part of the spell to properly function.
Telepathy: Direct Mental communication or probing between minds.
Clairvoyance: Revealing an image or view in a crystal ball or some other reflective surface like water or a mirror (depending on spell variations) to reveal a location. Variations of this spell can include seeing through the eye of an assigned creature like a familiar, or simply conjuring an 'invisible eye' to the desired location, person, or object to spy upon.
Wheel or Woe: Using some form of medium, like a deck of tarot cards, to divine information about the past, present, or potential future in broad measures. Not always accurate when regarding to the future, as they only refer to potential outcomes or broad interpretations.
Water, Earth, Fire
To put it simply, this category refers to anti-magic, or spells that directly counter and destroy other spells. The power needed for an Abnegation spell is compared between Mana, but generally it takes more Mana to resist Abnegation then for Abnegation to destroy a spell, thus for the most part Abnegations can reliably undo spells of equal power and lower albeit with some situational exceptions.
Counter spell: Stop a spell from being cast.
Dispel Magic: Destroy an active spell effect
Remove Curse: Undoes a Curse.
Spirit, Earth, Fire
Alteration are spells that change properties, usually to a targeted individual or object. Alteration spells can only change one property, and cannot physically transform things. Alteration spells are limited to either enhance or reduce attributes through magic and magic alone. The effects are therefor, not permanent by design and end when the spell does. The exact strength of alteration spells, like all spells, vary on the mana put into it.
Iron Skin: Increases a target's durability, making their flesh more Durable.
Slow: Decreases the speed of a target, slowing their perception of time as well.
Swift-footed: Drastically increases the speed of a target, both by movement and even by reactionary if logistically necessary.
Berserker: A powerful spell that increases the physical prowess of the target, but also limiting other forms of magic as a result. While they also become resistant to foreign forms of magic, they lose the ability to cast spells while under this spell if they had such capacity before.
Water, Air, Earth
Abjuration can be a bit confusing with Abnegation and Restoration. So here's a good way to look at it; If we were to compare magic to diseases and treatments; Restoration Cures the effects or symptoms, Abnegation destroys the source of the disease, Abjuration meanwhile, prevents the disease from happening. Like a vaccine.
Spells under the abjuration School act as charms and protections, often from the supernatural. Due to its powers, it often relies on being bound to physical items for best results.
Magic Circle: A magical circle drawn in the shape of the magic pentacle. Various supernatural beings, such as witches, spirits, demons, and the undead as examples cannot enter the circle from the outside, or leave the circle if they are trapped within it.
Arcane Absorption: Specifically designed to ward away curses and similar uses of magic from the sanctioned individual. The spell breaks after having absorbed such magic.
Alarm: A barrier that alerts the wielder or the affected area when something crosses its physical threshold. The alarm spell can be drawn with various means for a 'barrier', and can often be customized to alert for specific types of trespassers.
Fire, Spirit, Water
Death magic, The inversion of Restoration. These spells deal with magical afflictions and poisons, the undead, and decay and rot.
Circle of Death: Creates a circular space that rots organic matter within it.
Reanimate Dead: Creates undead, such as simple zombies and skeletons, to either serve its caster or run rampant.
Poison Spray: Ejects a magical cloud of poison from the caster, that disorients those that breathe its toxic air.
Earth, Spirit, Air.
The inversion of knowledge is deception. Spells of this school invoke powers of illusion and trickery. These spells target the brain to imitate false realities. More powerful illusions can even affect multiple people.
False Image: Creates an illusionary object.
Inflict Pain: Forces the target to experience an illusionary pain.
Phantasm: Conjures an illusionary object or creature of fear to a target, manifesting as a temporary nightmare.
Enthrall: Temporarily enchants a target to be more susceptible to influence.
Earth, Air, Water
Fire, Earth, Spirit
Earth, Air, Water
Actual spellcasting-
Then there are the witches. Blessed, or Cursed some would say, by the Goddess Hecate herself. The Goddess of the Moon and mother to all Witches. Unlike humans, Witches are immortal, and are free to cast Both Black and White magic. They're natural affinity to magic has made them a source of terror throughout history.
Welcome to Cryptic Valley. A vast region west of the Mississippi where tall tales roam as old as the trees and mountains. Roughly including modern-day Texas, the story takes place in the late 1860s. A newly unionized America fresh out of the civil war, still in shock over the decade's events. The Bloody war, the struggle of the freedom of slaves, the continued mistreatment of slaves, the terror of the dead rising to feast on the living, and the witches that spite mortal men.
Wait, what?
That's right, this isn't your ordinary western tale. This is a supernatural take on the western Genera. Mythical beasts lurk in the untamed wilds. The occult has a heavy hand, and with the growing power of the inquisition across the Atlantic, The wild frontiers of America's West are one of the last refuges away from the church's influence. For the most part, in broad strokes history is more or less the similar to our own, for simplicities sake, with some notable exceptions:
Magic is real! Yeah, crazy right? And...other gods too but we'll ignore that for now. Just know that while magic takes different forms in different cultures across the globe, all follow the rules of the pentacle system, which we will get into later. Shamans, Druids, Witch-Doctors, for the most part, practice what is deemed as 'white magic', while malevolent spellcasters practice 'black magic'. The catholic church and other related powers used to view all forms of magic (besides priestly miracles) as evil. (Sorcery, as we'll get into later, is considered 'neutral' magic, since it only manipulates one of the five basic elements.) Modern Reform, However, have been gradually more lenient towards white magic and sorcery. Broadly speaking, for what humans that are able to and practice magic, can only practice white magic. It often takes wicked sacrifices or exploitations of other dark powers for a human to be able to practice black magic; and those that too are forever unable to cast white magic in turn.
There are creatures as well, monsters from myths and legends, cryptids too. By this era of civilization most have been extinct or reduced to small populations, but in less-habited lands such as the west, they still dwell. And boy can some of them be scary. Its dangerous work, but it also allows for outlaws to escape the law more easily, so long as they don't become prey to the supernatural as well. Monster Hunters are a popular, albeit, dangerous occupation, more so then your typical bounty hunter.
In the oldest tales, there are said to be three children of the moon. All draw their power to it, and all share some connection to the Goddess of the Moon herself, Hecate. All are to be feared. The two younger siblings is the Beast Child and the Night Child. Werewolves, skin walkers, they go by many names, but these are the accursed shapeshifters that take the form of many beasts and prey upon mankind with ruthless savagery. The Night Child. The vampires. Forever Denied the morning sun, they stalk the shadows, and consume their prey with the grace of an assassin; unlike their more violent sibling.
The oldest, and most feared, however. Is the Heir to Hecate. The First Child and Daughter. The witches. While they too, feed upon mankind, they wield the full power of magic at their whim. It is said to earn the spite of a witch is a fate worse then death itself.
This RP will act as a sort of series of one shots with a healthy mix of optionally slice-of-life. The town of Copper Springs and its general surroundings act as a 'HUB' of sorts for players to socialize or do whatever with when there isn't a main story taking place. The main stories, meanwhile, will act as 'ideally' short and optionally events that should be open enough for everyone to join at their leisure for the main events.
Most of the stories will also take place either in the town itself, or relatively close enough to town to allow the cast of players to join at their leisure. Of course 'free-roam' collabs don't need to be all wholesome fluff socializing for any that are interested in more inter-player dramas and actions, or mini action-oriented events like fighting a bandit, just whatever y'all wanna do while I'm not hosting anything major. I'm also open for player-themed events for players that have their own ideas for group rp events.
Regarding locations too, y'all can come up with your own stuff like a specific store in a town, a nearby home for a monster-pc, etc. Won't be too strict on historical accuracies are anything either since its a casual experience. Just like characters though, try to run it be me with whatever you wanna make in terms of locations or maybe even major plotlines so I'm on the same page.
Ideally the RP will be as active as the cast so there isn't any pressure for deadlines with exceptions to the main story events and personal preferences amongst your own collabs. Speaking of the town meanwhile..
𝒞𝑜𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈, 𝒷𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓇.
The town of Copper Springs sits neatly between Texas's Eastern woodlands and the drier plains and deserts to the west. Making it an ideal location for settlers to brave its dangers while being close to a source of water and food. This however, also means that the town sits between two territories of the various monsters that prefer the woods or the dry, open plains. Its fair population, religious worship, and fair amount of guards are believed to keep monsters at bay. But in truth, the rabid spooks and cryptids rarely mess with the prey of any moon-child, and all three have some secret stake to this town. The roughly 40 year-old village may seem like a safe bastion from the terrors outside, but it is merely a peaceful meadow to satisfy the lambs before slaughter.
That summarizes the gist of the plot. Next I'll get into more about magic and potentially playable stuff. I'd expect most people to just go with human to fit in more with the ideas of horror, but of course players are more then welcome to make monster-pcs too. There isn't really a character limit either so make however many characters you want and use them at your leisure.
Finally. It was somewhat embarrassing that his skeletons failed to find any on their own, but so what! He had already tried so hard to be the best reaper present. And clearly he was, surely! Surely his talents would be appraised of once this infernal job was all said and done.
"Roger that, I'm right on it." He and his pair of minions were right on the trail, Edward flying fast with his skeletons marching as quickly as they could after their master. Honestly, this was too much trouble. They already saved the Gala, maybe they were just being overly concerned. That was until he saw the growing manifestation behind him. Good lord, she really is a cursed magnet. He had caught up with Vera by the time they drew near to the parking lot.
Sure enough, he eventually found Celeste who seemed to be part way dragged into the vehicle. It looked like it was against their will, but he hadn't heard much of the conversation beyond Celeste's excitement.
Wait, she could see him? Edward's froze up in shock at that. His skeletons, almost-cartoonishly, skid to a stop with one bumping into another.
No it must have been a mistake, he must have forgot to turn his invisibility off. Or, was it? Shit, he wasn't sure. But she sounded, happy to see him? Why? That had to be a mistake as well. He was a flying ghost wizard. Then again, if she could see them well, he was pretty cool at the Gala. Maybe she's a fan now? Or maybe she meant Vera? Was she visible?
Shit. Well, that's not important. There was some growing disaster behind them and there wasn't any time to ask questions or be flustered about it.
Edward made sure he made himself corporeal so he could at least be 100% certain he was heard, despite his previous reluctance. His introverted, cloistered nature was drowned out by all this frustration and confusion.
"Get the hell out of the city!" There was no dramatic pretense to his speech. Just, drive away from any and all populated areas please. Even if it follows her, it would be easier to deal with whatever the hell is next without worrying about casualties. He remained visible to the public, hovering as he readied his staff with one hand and ghostly blade in the other, the two skeletons moving away from the street, but standing ahead closer to the growing threat and waited for orders.