HalfOfLancelot — Roleplayer Guild

•  Albion; the land of chivalry, prophecy, and kingship.

All hail Arthur Pendragon, the Once and Future King of Camelot!

When the world was whole, Albion rested in the false version of England, and its numerous kingdoms spanned from the south all the way into the lowlands of Scotland. Its capital was Camelot, a jewel of the ancient world that attracted travellers from across the globe to her bustling marketplaces and royal courts. It was at the apex of its glory under King Arthur Pendragon –– just as the ban on magic was lifted, wars were hushed and the Knights of the Round Table became famed throughout the land –– that Albion simply... vanished.

A hole was left in this world: an impassable void of lifeless grey existed where borders used to be with other kingdoms. The people of Camelot and her surroundings were gone. Occasionally a nobleman or a knight might be found who was overseas at the time, and most of the Knights of the Round Table who were spread out on missions or quests survived what is known as The Cataclysm. 

Given that The Moors to the North of Albion survived the initial disappearance of the rest of the kingdom, many who survived happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The knights had neither people nor their beloved Arthur to protect, and some broke their vows. Others, however, preserve the divine right of kings and searched for answers as everything crumbled around them. Even now there are those on Earth who seek to continue their lawful duty until their dying breath, but then there are those brothers who, with good intentions, want to leave the broken kingdoms behind them and start anew.

Fairytales and folklore originating from the following locations on Earth reflect characters and events that may have happened in Albion:
• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Ireland
• France1

1. Northern France only – Bretons.

More specifically you have Arthurian Legend – the Knights of the round Table and so on and so forth – and other folklore.

•  The Never; the land of innocence, childhood, and whimsy.

The Never wasn't originally called so. Each of the lands that makes up the Never were originally their own entities, featured in storybooks on Earth due to their time-twisting and space-bending nature. All the lands which include Wonderland, Neverland, and Halloween Town – had ways of accessing Earth before The Cataclysm by the way of portals connecting a string of worlds on an alternate plane of existence. 

With The Cataclysm, these worlds collided into each other, mashing together to create the wasteland known as The Never. The name comes from the heart of it, which is Neverland; however, not as it once was. Forests burnt to a crisp during the impending collapse, taking treehouses and childhood dreams with it. The seas that protected it (and provided a safe haven for the pirates) drained into The Seven Seas. This part of The Never is a wasteland; grey and lifeless like the void, except for the scavengers who eek out a living.

A sudden line cuts across the dreadful wastes and blooms with twisted colours, all dark. This would be Wonderland. It was always barmy and incomprehensible, but The Cataclysm made it even more so. Bits of buildings become the landscape and vice versa. Labyrinths have formed, filled with dangerous creatures. More than all of that, however, is the Madness. The void is strong in this part of The Never... it whispers. Those left behind are not the same as you left them.

The portals that once lead to Narnia would have led to these other worlds, but now all of them have been destroyed, and it was only through the great wizard Merlin's help that anyone could be sent from there back to Earth. The Queens and Kings of Narnia originated from Earth in one of the original pathways from our world to this new one. Now, with the prophecy broken and the incorrect number of royals on the thrones in Cair Paravel, winter creeps back in...

Finally, there is Halloween Town. The other Holiday Doors are closed, and opening them reveals only the Void. They don't seem to be there anymore. Halloween Town is a place of refuge, surprisingly, despite its many horrors that carried over from the before times. Residents of Neverland and Wonderland ended up fleeing to the other side of its walls.

The denizens of what is now The Never can be seen reflected in Earth literature and well-known children's stories: Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Narnia. Halloween Town is also a representation of holiday figures, but all things grim and spooky exist there – boogeymen and the like, some of them with their own mythologies.

•  Glacier Peaks; the land of forbearance, loneliness, and trials.

The lands that survive in Glacier Peaks were always cold, freezing during the winters, but warm seasons and the hard-work of the people cultivated a way of living that could survive even the most perilous of temperatures. They were quick to adapt to the climatic changes of The Cataclysm. Without the sea routes previously used to trade, they suffered until it was too much for them, and they were forced to brave treacherous mountain passes and turn to other paths to survival.

The kingdom of Arendelle is central to Glacier Peaks, plagued with eternal ice and snow that even its young Queen could not have hoped to create. Perpetual storms rocket the land. Hunting in the ice-capped forests and fishing in their limited ocean range has taken precedence over farming, and the draughty castles are far less populated. The people hold out hope for their princesses (and other chosen few) to return with a cure-all for their problems; however, they know they were sent away to save their lives first and foremost.

Following the loss of Albion from its Southern border, DunBroch was one of the first kingdoms thrown into chaos. When Camelot disappeared, so too did trade routes and great swathes of land. When the Cataclysm officially started shattering the realm into pieces, this kingdom was blown out into the vast ocean of the void until it crashed into what would become Glacier Peaks, becoming the new land's warmer south. It too suffers from perpetually harsh weather. The islands to Dun Broch's north were scattered, and so joined a collection of islands, one of which is...

Berk: a cold land of Vikings and windswept islands and dragons. Glacier Peaks is resoundingly known as the last bastion of said mythical creatures: they seem to have disappeared from everywhere else, though they once existed in Bellgarde and Albion and everywhere else. Dragons could not come through the portal to Earth for those refugees who were chosen by Merlin to travel through.

Fairytales that exist in Glacier Peaks include those from the northern hemisphere on Earth––coming from countries like Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark...––and generally snowy or wintry places. Scottish folklore may also be found here. As for the main tales, they take inspiration from Frozen/The Snow Queen; How to Train Your Dragon and Brave.

•  The Undergrowth; the land of wildness, atavism, and the primeval.

The beauty of the jungle, untamable and vibrant against tall walls of bronze and gold. The Undergrowth earned its name in recent. The Cataclysm brought great destruction across the land once considered home to great culture and beauty, painted in the colors of the jungle teeming around it. Tradition held true against bulbous roofs encasing homes and grand temples, people humming hymns in the streets to rise with the cacophony in the tree canopies. India stood the capitol country in these lands, with its spires tall and proud against the golden sun. They once lived in harmony with their jungle, taking care to respect it and earn its respect, in turn.

With the Cataclysm the jungle rose in rage and anguish, tearing its roots from the blackened, tainted soil and seeking new ground. The trees engulfed great cities, tore down mountains as they rose above in great sweeps. In these twisted, gnarled branches animals sank in the void that roiled off the bark in great waves. Now unspeakable horrors stalk the remaining jungles, looking for more magic or living creature to suck dry - whichever came first. No many who enter the Undergrowth live to see the light of day, if the light could even reach beyond the thick canopies. It's easy to hear the cries across the safe zones, small villages that somehow survived in barren clearings. If this goes on for any longer, they might not live beyond the year; the soil denies life, sucks it dry and demands more in sustenance.

The Undergrowth is a dangerous place; don’t tread alone; to be safe, don’t tread, at all.

The stories of the Undergrowth span all of India, and stretch even to Westernmost Asia. Places like Pakistan, Turkey, and other obscure tales across the span of mountains and jungle. The most popular stories, however tell of the wild, of boys and girls who lost their parents and allowed the beasts of the jungle to care for them. Tales most popular: The Jungle Book and Tarzan.

•  Easternmost; the land of tradition, honor, and competition.

Hidden by a large mountain range, the Easternmost has long since been the subject of intrigue and speculation from the surrounding lands. Due to the relative isolation from its neighboring lands, the Easternmost has developed a culture that is often considered exotic and mysterious to outsiders. Residing on the remains of Eastern Asia, the history of the Easternmost goes back centuries and its traditions are still upheld today — as much as possible after The Cataclysm, that is.

Due to The Cataclysm, the isolated islands of Japan are no longer accessible; a huge rift separated Japan from the mainland, pushing it further and further East. At the current moment, it's unknown whether there were survivors from the sudden split, or if the island was engulfed by waves.

China is the only large civilization that remains standing after the disaster; even then, it wasn't completely unscathed. A significant chunk of the eastern mainland including the Koreas and the Eastern part of China have crumbled into the void. Even though China has a strong sense of community and order, the disappearance of the Emperor has thrown everyone into chaos. Without a strong leader, China is rapidly unraveling; panic is taking over the remaining residents, and they're too distracted to notice the danger lurking right around the corner.

The Easternmost is where all of the stories from Eastern Asia originate, the most famous perhaps being Mulan and her efforts to save China from the Huns. Folktales from Japan and the Koreas also take place here; though they may be lesser known, they are no less significant.

•  Westernmost; the land of spirituality, brotherhood, and history.

Welcome to the Frontier.

In days gone by, Westernmost was once a land of those trying their absolute best to get by – forcing a living out of inhospitable land and travelling great trails of exploration in wagons. Before that there were great tribes of seemingly impossible history, culture and magic who live on even after the Cataclysm.

The continent that Earth would call North America has been torn asunder, ripped horizontally across the middle. There is the South, there is the northern tip of Mexico, and then there is the void. That is Westernmost. The people of this land live in dustbowls and prairies, or in great forests as their ancestors had for centuries. The city of New Orleans is the only large piece of civilisation left post-devastation: a place of colour, vibrancy and, of course, magics good and evil.

There is one quirk that made the isolated Westernmost different from all of the other kingdoms ruined by the Cataclysm. After their panic as the void closed in on their borders, a great discovery was made: gunpowder.

Westernmost is the home of most North American folklore, be they the pioneers or the natives of the land. Mainly this has to do with Pocahontas and other similar themes as characterized on Earth, but the further reaches of Westernmost include characters of The Wild West and in the south there is The Princess and the Frog and other bayou tales. 

(If you don't know where a fairytale originates from or want to put a spin on it, why not have them be from Westernmost?)

•  Bellegarde; the land of beauty, learning, and magic.

Land of culture, of art and great feats of romance; Bellegarde sits in the remains of continental Europe: France, Germany, Spain and everything in between. Before Albion's fall the cities of Bellegarde were some of Camelot's closest trading partners and many of the Knights of the Round Table originated from these places. Before the Cataclysm, the many kingdoms of this land were in a Golden Age of creation. It was one of the busiest places of all our world.

Now... The bells of Notre Dame no longer sing, the cathedral having crumbled during a seismic event at the very beginning of the world-ending event. The capital itself is full with refugees from famine-struck villages or worse, villages that simply... disappeared into the void. Outside its borders, the shadow creeps in closer to the settlements and camps that lie under the city walls. 

Magic has been outlawed in most of Bellegarde––in the sleepy hamlets from Paris to Corona––and chevaliers are sent out to enforce it.

The inhabitants of Bellegarde are those of European fairytales, mainly originating from France but ultimately sourced from anywhere in continental Europe. As far as popular Earth culture goes, you would find most of the princesses there: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Cinderella; as well as other tales such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

•  The Shifting Sands; the land of fortune, trickery, and ancient secrets.

Due to the harsh climate of The Shifting Sands, not many people are willing to venture into the desert. However, if they should find the courage to brave the dry heat, they would be rewarded with the beauty of the sand dunes glistening in the moonlight, as far as the eye can see. The vast desert is the home to several civilizations and landmarks, though they have quite a bit of distance in between them.

Quite a few oases used to be found frequently throughout the desert, but after The Cataclysm, an already perilous environment became even more dangerous to live in. All of the oases in The Shifting Sands dried up due to a terrible drought, sandstorms are constantly whirling around, and ominous shadows fall over the sands.

During this time, the last remaining stronghold in the Shifting Sands is Agrabah. The walls around the kingdom have more or less kept dangerous animals and monsters from invading, but earthquakes have started to make the walls crack and it's only a matter of time until they crumble. The Sultan is trying to keep order, but there's only so much he can do when there's no water for his parched citizens. It's said that the Cave of Wonders hides a spring in its depths; however, the Cave of Wonders was long buried underneath layers and layers of sand and no one knows where it is. It's Agrabah's last hope... But it's far too dangerous to leave the safety of the kingdom to go searching for it.

Any story taking place in the desert originates in the Shifting Sands. Most famously, the Arabian Nights story is from here, but the mysterious desert is the home to many more strange, wondrous stories.

•  The Seven Seas; the 'land' of adventure, exploration, and lawlessness.

What words can truly capture the essence of the waves, the majesty of the tides? They are beguiling, bewitching, beautiful, dreadful, destructive, deadly, truly indescribable but someone must try. So while these seas hold riches unimaginable, chests of gold doubloons and access to lands undreamed of, they also present unlimited opportunities for the unwary, unskilled or plain unlucky to die. Storms will shatter your ship and bones while sirens fill your ears with songs but lungs with water as the Kraken stirs beneath the waves. Let go of a rope or let your mind wander for an instant and you may soon wish you'd never left the safety of the land, if you're still capable of wishing at all.

You might now be thinking, why sail the Seven Seas? Well, the terrible risks and splendrous rewards draw those of an ambitious or adventurous disposition, while the borderless and perhaps unending expanse of the waters lures many a disaffected rabble rouser to life under the sails. There's no rules on the sea, no law that can be extended over and ever shifting ocean, no sherif that can't be outrun. And those that yearn to expand the horizons and see sights never before glimpsed can find their desires here too, for no map has ever truly mapped the vastness of the seas. Explorers and restless souls alike can find satisfaction in any of the thousands of dangerous isles and incredible sights.

And all this was before the Cataclysm. Now, the void lurks beneath the waters and upon those islands most far removed. Its alien creatures from behind the stars now prowl the deeps while their fanatical followers sharpen heart-rending knives in jungle temples, eager to satisfy their eldritch masters with the blood of the curious and the greedy. And where once the great naval powers each attempted to enforce their own versions of order, the City of Atlantis atop the waves and the Sea Court of Neptune beneath them, now the strong take from the weak before being destroyed by the stronger. Rapscallions, seadogs and every type of vagabond sail the seas in search of fame, fortune and more.

Drink up me hearties, yo ho, yo ho...

Most things sea based can find their home in the Seven Seas, including but not limited to:
• Sinbad
• Davy Jones
• Captain Hook and the Pirates of Neverland
• The Little Mermaid
• The Princess Bride

How does our world work? Well, that's quite simple; to show you that, I'm going to need a world map.

Imagine your Earth. England, France, India, Argentina. Imagine it without borders––just the landmasses, the Horn of Africa, Vesuvius, the Barringer Crater, the Grand Canyon, the meadows of not-France, the deserts of not-Africa, the islands of not-Japan. Now, replace it with new borders and old, some of them where you might imagine them to be and others wider, more historical, more fantastical. Draw them in. Colour them in.

Now take a pair of scissors and cut them all up. 

No, no, that's too neat: rip up the edges, because the Cataclysm wasn't gentle. Blast them all apart, and scatter them all over the room. That's the state of our world right now. Each of our kingdoms which once traded with each other over sea and land routes can no longer do that, because at the edge of our borders, there is just a gaping chasm – a void. Dark magic fills this, and laps up at the edges and leaks through.

Kingdom by kingdom, what you would call 'the fairytale world' (but what we would call 'home') fell apart with us still surviving in the cracked pieces. Famine. War. Death. We continued until we could no longer assure our continued existence, and channelled the very powers that broke up our world in the first place to come to send our best somewhere new, somewhere safe.

That's how we ended up here. Earth. It has been five long years of eking out a living in the sleepy city of Seattle, adapting to a world with technologies that do what our magic could not. Sticking together, sticking close. Our lives are the stories parents tell their children to make them fall asleep. Perhaps, in the last five years, some of us fables have had children of our own.

But all of that is threatened. Seismic events. Long, human shadows that steal away the innocent that only we can fight. Magic is coming to Earth, as those with the ability to tap into it have noticed, and with it, it brings a second Cataclysm.

We cannot let it happen again.

Hello! And welcome to the OOC of Written: A Fairytale RP. Following on from the likes of Once Upon A Time and, more importantly, The Wolf Among Us, we want to focus on a dark, corrupted fairytale world that might once have been as innocent as the stories... but it certainly isn't now. It is important to note that it is not just the main fairytales that are being allowed: we accept legends and folktales with characters, classic literature aimed at children (Peter Pan, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and so forth).

While this RP starts on Earth, it will likely progress at some points – many points – into the shattered remains of the fairytale world(s). For this, we already have some teasers written up to showcase the various tribulations our characters will face in these lands that they might once have originated.

Right now, we're looking at a big group of players. There a few guidelines that I expect to be followed: 2 paragraphs per post minimum, with an expected, but not strictly enforced, 1 post required a week. Reservations for characters last 3 days, after the 3 day period is up, then it's whoever can churn it out first.

If you have any questions you have your GM Team on at various hours of the day. Either PM or Tag us here. We are as follows: @HalfofLancelot, @McHaggis, @Roosan, and @Undine!

Let's make this RP the shit. But, most of all, have fun doing it! :)

Note: Concerning characters, what we're looking for in this Roleplay aren't completely original characters. We want your adaptation of pre-existing characters with already established lore. So! Find an awesome character you like, whether they're super obscure or really popular, and adapt them to this RP. Make them your own, make them interesting, make them a whole character. Whether you subvert them, change their sex/gender, or parts of their lore, as long as the core concept, what makes the character who they are, stays the same. They have to be distinguishable: Robin Hood still has to be Robin Hood.

Examples of this can be seen in the previous 'iteration' of this roleplay: Mystvale

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