Patroxclus — Roleplayer Guild

At the center of the world stood a great city, a beacon of light, a representation of mankind’s resolve. Against all odds, they rose from above and with the gift of god fought their enemy. Now at the start of the fifth crusade, King Baldwin calls out to those from around the world to join in the descension of the abyss. Proclaiming holy words he offers sanctuary and training to those who volunteer intending to descend. 

Chapter 1 : The Descent 

In the center of the world stands Zion and the abyss. Lining the abyss is the city of Zion spanning a few hundred miles holding millions within its walls. As to the March of Fate where many gathered on a path towards Egypt, Zion was the offspring of a successful battle. And within these walls is a culmination of human cultures and prosperity. From within the magically-enhanced walls that protect Zion are humans bearing gifts and constantly giving life and protection to its walls. Known as the city of life, every citizen within Zion is constantly innovating and creating new ways to go about life due to the product of God’s Gift. But also death, thousands still die from waves of demons but in human death comes more ways to defeat the demonic surges. 

	You and a band of recruits are heading towards Zion. After finding your way into Egypt a long stone road stretches across its sandy dunes. Hundreds of others following this path, merchants, travelers, and the recruits follow it. Day’s pass before you finally sees Zion in all its glory. In a blinding light, the sun creeps over the horizon, shining its rays down onto the land revealing Zion’s walls that rose to the sky. A great shade covers the end of the path. And as you near closer to Zion's wall you feel its purified energy pass through you like a heatwave but once it passes you feel a surge of cool air. 

	The path ends in between two tall towers connecting the sandstone wall and for a few moments, the crowd of restless recruits, adventurers, and merchants are silent but then from the end of the pathway which touches the wall, a rumbling noise emerges from within. The crowd startled they see the wall shake, sand falling from its structure as it suddenly splits into two, two guards in a synchronized dance are seen inside hands moving in an articulated fashion as the split wall turns into a large arch. They yell to the crowd, 

”Enter!"

	The crowd moves and shifts, forming a single file line as two guards take note of each of the travelers passing through, and then suddenly they stop you…

To Fiona :   The two male guards size you up, you can feel their eyes looking up and down at your form before one speaks up, “Valencourt? You must be a recruit! Step cautiously woman, the abyss isn’t as it seems. “ The secondary guard moves you along and then you enter the city. 

To Braska :  The taller male guard takes a look at you, “You seem young? Are you here to see family? “ The man squints before coughing, taking a closer look as he sees a sign of God’s Gift, “Oh… “ Almost disappointed the guard moves you along. 

To Ioexia :  The guards are taken aback as you step forward, “Jeez! “ The smaller guard shook, “You look like a demon! “ The two men laugh, “Recruit I suppose? “ The taller guardsman says, “Go forward then. “ 

To Alistair :  The two guardsmen nod their heads at you as they move you along, taking note of your priestly attires. They say nothing to you.

To Amelie:  The taller guardsman looks at you with thirsting eyes as he steps forward but not too close, “You here for fun, lady? “ The guard shakes his head before laughing signaling you to move along. 

To Petra:  Both the guardsman eye you down, the smaller guard asking, "Where are your parents little one? " They both laugh before signaling you to move forward. 

To Genor:  The guardsman say nothing to you and as you pass by the smaller guard takes a step back, almost in fear. 

To Saul:  Both the guardsman give you a sharp look, while not entirely disrespectful you can hear them whispering behind you as you leave.

	You enter the city of Zion and a rush of fresh air and sounds from the thousands within the frontal area of the gate invade your mind. Unlike the nations that were destroyed by the insurgence of demons, taking almost years to financially recover Zion was different. Beautiful in architecture and ripe with greenery, it was alive! In front of the opened gates where three-wide pathways filled with hundreds of civilians tending to their market stalls which many went to buy an assortment of foods, weapons, and equipment. The energy of God’s Gift was potent in the streets, you could tell simply by feeling that almost all citizens of the city were gifted in some way. 

	Lining the edges of the streets were tall poles and at its end were empty iron lanterns, tropical trees in the middle separating the two crowds. From the left, the crowd moved downwards and from the right, the crowd moved forwards. Packed as it was, you mindlessly wandered for a few hours or so around the city attempting to find where you were supposed to go, or maybe you were off spending your money on foods and extra equipment. 

	But soon you would suddenly hear a loud echoing voice that seemed to originate from the sky…

 “The initiation of the abyss is about to begin! Recruits head to the castle to be enlisted into Baldwin's great army! Come see the ten great generals! 

	The voice disappeared just as soon as it came, the crowd stopped for a moment to listen to the message but as soon as it ended the crowd returned to life. You see the guards from the gate and other guards that stationed themselves at the corner of the streets yell, 

 “Onward recruits! Down the center lane! “

You see a few clad in armor or robes head down to the central street walking on its right side as they hurriedly weave through the crowd. You are beckoned to head to the castle.

To The Depths


When the sins of man flooded earth it gave birth to a new dawn. A thousand years of prosperity came about to the land of man as it prospered under the new world. but from their prosperity came selfishness and greed, and when an angel came to take up human views he was sent to earth and in his fiery blaze created a hole within the center of Earth. Spanning miles it was named the abyss for its black fog that covered its insides and those who neared its darkness would suddenly disappear. 

From the descent of a fallen angel God became silent and from his silence heavenly horns played within the sky, the day after, angels came from the abyss but bore charred wings. Foolishly humanity took this as a sign of good faith and that these angels would help them in their prosperity but the moment they turned their backs the angels struck and a mass genocide occurred. The earthly realm began to topple as the angels attacked, killing every last human in their sight as if to eradicate God’s creation from Earth. 

Luckily human tenacity shined within the very soul of mankind’s body and on the edge of their existence, God spoke and gave them a gift. A weapon of sorts that would aid mankind in their war against the charred-Angels. God’s gift would manifest into the human body and soon after would be formally called the Spirit. But in turn for accepting God’s gift they would relinquish the right to ascend to heaven, and in their final moment before returning to slumber God nicknamed the charred-Angels, Demons. 

In a cry of hope, humanity led the first crusade against Demons, with their Spirit they conjured miracles, shining down rays of light, healing their comrades, and striking their foe with great power. A war finally sparked and every day for the next upcoming decades would be filled with constant bloodshed. The fight for survival became heavy and in humanity's fifth crusade they reached the abyss and created a lone castle on its edge, fighting head-on against demonic forces as humans would be sent down into the abyss to find the origin of the evil that sparked the war.



Gift of God


	After its arrival, the spirit was intensely studied. Before then it was well known that when God had created humans from divine dust they were given dual pieces, the body, and the soul. The body and the soul worked in tandem to give life and personality to the human form. But when the gift is accepted into man’s body the Spirit is introduced. A spirit is an innate energy from the heavenly realm that gives humans a mystical power to fight against Demons, this energy flows in the center of the body and then with the human will is moved from either the soul or to the physical-body. This creates two major categories that separate different users of the gift. Spiritual and Physical. 

Spiritual

 	Spiritual users are those who focus their energy on their soul. By focusing on the soul they enable the ability to gain control over the divine energies or more specifically, magic. Magic is an umbrella term in regards to its ambiguous and mysterious form having the ability to summon storms, control lightning, and heal allies it is the most powerful gift compared to its brother, Physical. But in its strength it also faces weakness, due to its focus on the soul it loses energy from the body, and thus those dawning the spiritual gift become weaker in the physical aspect.  

Casting & Vessels
 Spiritual casting is centered around God’s language, while it’s true name is unknown it simply goes by heavenly tongue. Verbally speaking with heavenly tongue is the most common form of casting, simply put a user speaks in heavenly tongue and then manifest their spiritual energy to conjure whatever they willed into the physical realm. This type of casting can also be aided with vessels to increase the potency of the spell they cast or in special cases use non-verbal casting. 

Nonverbal casting is the act of using a purified-feather to write divine symbols into an object or persons. A purified feather is the feather of a demon that has been thoroughly purified in holy water, after its purification the feather’s tip becomes extremely hot to the touch and burns almost anything in its path. In proper use the energy from the feather is used to enchant weapons and armor or draw divine symbols into such, the act of writing a divine symbol includes concentration and heavy focus into pouring spiritual energy into the symbol and once the symbol has been sufficiently powered it becomes a permanent marking on the persons or object it's drawn on, it is then simply up to the user to focus on the symbol to cast it. 

Vessels come in a variety of shapes most often do mages use staffs, books, and wands. But in some other cases use swords, lanterns, and even mirrors. Vessels can be anything its user wills it to be as long as it has a focus, a body, and spiritual energy. For a lantern, the body could be its metallic shell and its focus, the fire. For a book’s body, it could be its leather back cover and its focus, the words. For a staffs the body could be its wooden structure and its focus, a crystal. As long as the user pours their energy into an object anything can become a vessel. 

Physical

Physical users focus their spirit into the body, allowing them to exceed their physical limitations by becoming stronger, faster, and durable. Users with this gift focus on a single aspect of their body, choosing between strength, constitution, and dexterity. And depending on what they choose their body also adapts to their decision but in choosing one you weaken in another aspect (of your choosing). 

Unlike spiritual gifts, physical users do not cast spells but instead perform feats in which the user focuses their spirit energy to act on their aspects. From destroying boulders, running at incredible speeds, or enduring a barrage of arrows feats are essentially the extreme enhancement of one's aspects in turn for energy. 

Lastly, physical users present an extra ability that allows them to transfer their spirit energy into objects such as walls, armor, and weapons to enhance its durability, but unlike vessels, the transfer of spirit energy does not activate spells or feats. 



 Light History of Gaia


	We start at the flood of the earth where man is erased of its sin and they start anew. At this point, all logs of history before the flood are erased and only those holy enough remember humanity's past sin. Through here, Noah's sons and daughters witnessed the recreation of humanity, and with the help of God reclaimed humanity's status on earth and achieved lifelong prosperity. 

	God then began to whisper throughout history giving his word to many humans and exacting his law under them. But because of this lasting prosperity, a handful of humans became blinded by Hubris and began worshipping those other than himself. To rid of this sin God sent down a being of his same divinity but in human form to spread his gospel amongst sinners, this man would rightfully be named Jesus.

	In enemy territory, Jesus began to proclaim God’s word and because of this, sinners of humanity struck down God’s avatar and nailed him to a cross to be displayed. In his anger God turned his back on humanity, leaving them without absolution. After humanity's greatest act of Hubris, came God’s great silence over humanity. Because of this great sin humanity began to wear the cross in shame and wore it to repent for their sin. Centuries pass and humanity now faces the sin of an angel of whom decided to go against God’s word.

	To battle against this Angel’s sin God from his silence bestows humanity with gifts to fight the great abyss of where the Angel had fallen and with this gift, the crusades of humanity began. The first and second crusade were long years of territorial reclamation that ultimately gave humanity stability and then after came the Third Crusade, popularly known as The March of Fate of where millions of humans with god’s gift gathered in Egypt and a man known as King Baldwin lead humanity to the center of the Earth to pullback demonic forces. And at the end of the third crusade began the construction of a city known as Zion of which began the fourth crusade and at its end began the current crusade, The Descension.



MECHANICS

Stats and it’s Modifiers
Your base stats are Power, Skill, and Resistance. Each of these three encompasses a larger set of actions that you will do during roleplay and each of three can represent different meanings when applied to armor, weapons, and spells/feats which are defined specifically below. Your stats are your main way of calculating your character's strength and aspects and regulates the flow of progression. As you continue down the story you will encounter major events and end with a number of points that you use on your stats. These major events are called milestones. 

Spirit on the other hand is special and dictates how many actions you can perform, like points you get a spirit from milestones and every spirit that you receive your action capacity increases by three and ends at 3.

11-13 // + 1
14-16 // +2
17-19 // +3
20-22 // +4
23-25 // +5

 (Basically every three points you put into one of the ability scores that are above 10 you add +1 to your stats. )

Combat

	Actions In Combat
Combat is the act of a fight between armed forces. When in combat you are jumped in a turn-based system and within turns you have Action Points. Action points are determined by your spirit which triples by three every one you have, at the beginning you start with a set of 3/3 actions. 
	
	In an action, you can either perform feats, cast spells or do basic attacks that end your turn. Buffing/debuffing or anything that doesn’t explicitly attack your target (except for healing) does not end your turn. 
	
After using a spell, feat, basic attack, or buff/debuff it’ll take up a specified amount of action points. After that AP is used and the turn has ended, the turn right after you’ll have fewer AP’s compared to the beginning turn because you’ve used a spell/feat/buff/debuff. AP’S regain after every secondary turn, after using up an AP of 1, you will wait out a turn to get that AP back. 

Rolling in Combat
	
	Rolls are the epicenter of this roleplay’s combat. Each stat has the following dice, power (3d6), skill (d20), resistance (d10), and health (d4) With these four dice, they apply to a numerous number of situations that fall under the three stats.
Power rolling is your attack, out of the two other rolls it is the most straightforward as it is the roll that determines damage. Power rolling includes rolling three times and adding your results together. Damage can be increased by weapons and spells/feats that typically have power modifiers.
Skill rolls are your dodge/blocks, aim, and define the weight of your items and armor. Dodging is the act of rolling a higher number than your assailant. This is affected by your items and armors that have skill modifiers that increase or decrease your dodge’s effectiveness.
Resistance rolling defines the durability of your armor and sometimes your items (shields). These types of rolls are affected by damage, when being damaged your resistance along with your resistance modifiers are subtracted from the damage you take.
Health rolls define your health and how much you gain. In abilities that heal you for one turn you will roll health die along with its following modifiers; stat, passive, and weapons. 


Now you use these four rolls when you are in combat! You use different dice depending on these two situations.
As an attacker you would roll once for your power, and then once for your skill. After rolling you would then apply your modifiers. (stats, passives, weapons, and spells/feats) This all equals out to the damage you do!
But as the defender you instead roll skill and then roll for your resistance which you use to subtract from the damage your assailant does as well as adding your correct modifiers. (armor, stats, passives, and items that affect resistance)

Unconsciousness and Death.


During combat, player characters may be reduced to 0 HP. When this happens, they are knocked Unconscious. Unconscious characters cannot move, act, or do anything until they are revived, or until combat is resolved. If a character recovers from Unconsciousness, or if an Unconscious character is attacked successfully, apply a stack of Death's Door. All stacks of Death's Door are removed after 8 hours of rest.
Death's Door I. Fatigue. They also suffer a 25% penalty to their Base Stats (rounded down).
Death's Door II. Exhaustion.
Death's Door III. Extended Unconsciousness. Revival spells no longer work.
Death's Door IV. Death.

@Hawthorne


Occasionally as an attacker, you will find yourself getting a critical roll, which is 20 in skill. When gaining a critical roll you will receive a free basic attack against the enemy. In rare occurrences, you will get the same roll as your target. The attacker will always overpower the defender. 


Magic, Feats, and their types!

Magic and feats are the consumption of actions. You will use your magic or feats during combat. There are different types of magic and feats that run under; attacking, healing, and buffing/debuffing.. These different types of spells/feats call for different dice in combat.
Spell/Feat Types
Attack, spell/feats are very straightforward. You roll for your power and then add the spells power modifier. After doing so you deal a set number of damage and your turn ends.
Buffing/Debuffing spells/feats are special types that do not take up a turn. Buffing/debuffing opponents directly affects you or the target's modifiers that can either increase or decrease. These types go first when in combat and then you attack.
Healing is a dice roll of health and is determined by your power modifier which includes; stats, passives, and your vessel. After rolling and adding your modifiers you simply add the total to your lost health and if it goes over max it simply stays at the cap.
Damage over Time and Heal over Time [WIP]

	Status effects are positive or negative numbers determined by PSR or (Power, Skill, and Resistance. ) These effects work in conjunction with the description of the spell/feat and can determine what PSR is being used. After the PSR is determined there is then a determined turn-length which the effect lasts for. Status effects can be removed by rolling for straight-resistance with only stat modifiers. The user and the target would roll and if the target rolls higher than the user the status effect goes away if not the status effect stays until it goes away.
	
	The only status effect that can hinder you is fatigue and exhaustion. When fatigued you cannot recover AP and add positive modifiers to your attacks until you take a breather. Taking a breather is the simple action of moving out of combat and waiting one turn and after re-entering combat you will be moved to the end of the list. If labeled as exhausted any action that requires effort fails and you must rest out of combat for in RP time of eight hours.

Feats

Charge :: The user dashes towards its opponent at great speeds. Focusing spirit energy into their shoulder as they knock their opponent. 
[AP: 2] 
E: Causes knockdown, opponent cannot attack the turn after.If user misses, the opponent may make a free attack against them. User faces +5P if successful.  Turn Ends. 

When creating a skill, status effects aren’t specified so you can think of anything under the sun as long as it can be described through the system!

Stone Body :: Spiritual Energy layers over the user's skin and hardens into a rock like texture.
[AP: 1]
E:  +4R, Lasts 2 Turns, Does Not End Turn (You could say they're ROCK hard aha… ;( )

Pressure Shot :: User strikes the opponent in the chest with their palm, disrupting the opponents spiritual energy. 
[AP: 1]
E: +3P, Opponent faces -4R for turn after, Ends Turn. 

Focus Healing :: User focuses their spirit energy into increasing the regeneration time of their body.
[AP : 1]
E:  +2P for three turns, Does Not End Turn
Don’t forget that healing spells are different and go by different dice. Healing scales by power and its stat, passive, and vessel modifiers. In this case the user would roll D4 every turn with the spell and any other applicable modifiers. 

“The Ora Ora “ :: At extreme speeds the user sends a flurry of punches at their opponent while yelling. 
[AP : 2] 
E: +5P, Ends Turn


Magic

Fireball! :: User manifests a ball of fire and shoots it towards their opponent! 
[AP: 1]
E: +3P, Opponent faces -2R for two turns. Ends Turn.

Magic Missile :: The usually yellow, spirit energy takes on a different color of a blue hue. Gathering within the user's vessel/palm it shoots out dashing towards its target. 
[AP : 1]
E: +4P, Ends Turn

Lightning Boon :: As the user raises their palm a shot of lightning shots down from the sky onto their targets weapon. 
[AP : 2] 
E: +3P over three turns. Does not end turn.

A Soul’s Curse :: Dark energy flows from the user and onto their target, latching onto their spirit slowly taking away their health.
[AP :2 ]
E :: -3H Every three turns. Does not end turn. 

Latching Iceburst :: An icicle shoots out from the user, bursting right before hitting its target releasing a cold mist. 
[AP: 1 ]
E:: -1H, 2S, every two rounds. Does not end turn.

Divine Winds :: Healing winds come from behind the user and onto their allies.
[AP : 1]
E:: +4P, applies to three members of selection. Ends Turn.

Shields, Weapons/Vessels, Armor, and how they affect you!


In combat, your character will usually be equipped with an assortment of armor, shields, and weapons. These affect your performance in battle and can determine how you take damage and how you deal damage.

	Armor and Shields are centered around skill and resistance, skill representing its weight, and resistance representing durability. Your armor and shields weight and durability will modify how you will block and take damage. 

	Weapons and Vessels are centered around power and skill, power representing its damage, and skill representing its weight. Your weapon will modify your attack and dodge. Vessels on the other hand are special, vessels do not have any power if used as a basic attack. But if used alongside a spell the weapons power modifier is applied to the spells positive PSR modifiers.

Buckler Shield
Stats:: R: 4 || S: +2 

Iron Sword
Stats:: P: +3|| S: +2
( An Iron sword is moderate and fairly light. )

Iron Greatsword
Stats:: P: +5 || S: -2
(A greatsword has incredible power but is heavy. )

Wooden Bow
Stats:: P+ 3 || S: +2
(Uses arrows and is very lightweight. )
. 
Wooden Staff
Stats:: P: 2 || S: +1
(A wooden staff is a magical vessel but in physical terms a stick. While lightweight it does not do anything to provide for aim. )

Magical Book 
Stats:: P: 2 || S: +1
(Another magical vessel does no major damage as it is a book. Lightweight. 

Small Rock 
Stats:: P: 0 || S: +1 
( A rock. Small. )


An armor set is compiled of 5 pieces; Head, Chest, Arms/Shoulder, Gloves, and Legs. 

Cloth Robes
S: +3 || R: -5

Leather Wear
S: +2 || R: -2

(Occasionally you will find or receive the part or set of armor, you can either do them separately or mix them together as one. )

Iron Chestplate :
S: -1 || R: +1

Iron Boots :
S: -1 || R: + 1

Iron Chestplate and Boots
S: -2 || R: +2

Iron Armor 
S: -5 || R: +5




Character Sheet!

Appearance : 
Name : 
Age : 
Personality 
Brief Biography : (A majority of you will come from survivors of destroyed cities and towns and/or children of Gift Bearers fighting the war. ) 

Gift : ( Spiritual, Physical ) 
Stats || Remaining: 10 (You cannot put any points in, Spirit. )
P(power) : 5
 Denotes the power of a creature's ability 

S(skill) : 5
Denotes the precision of a creature's ability. 

R(resistance) : 5
Denotes a creature's level of protection against hostile or otherwise unwanted attacks. 

S(spirit): 1 (These are milestone achievements that are gained right after major battles. ) 
Denotes a creature’s capacity to cast feats or spells.


Passive: (You can spend 1-5+ points on your stats, your passive is completely optional and is in regards to your characters back story! ) 

Spells and Feats : 

[Name][Description of Spell] 
[AP(action point): # ]
E(effects) : (Includes modifiers for power, skill, resistance, if the spell/feat ends a turn or not, and if it causes fatigue. )

 When making your spells you have a limit of 1-5 for the spells/feats modifier! 
You start with 3 basic feats or spells and an additional 1 of the opposite of your gift (The one opposite can be just about anything as long as it is plausible under the system. )

Inventory : 
(Basic armor, tools, maybe rope, and weapons go here! ) 

[Name of Armor]
(There are no effects unless the armor is enchanted. )

 S(skill): || R(resistance: [] E: 

[Name of Weapon/Item]
(There are no effects unless the item is enchanted. )
Stats:: P(power) || S(skill) || R(resistance) [] E: 

( Your starting armor will be determined by Skill and Resistance! (Some armors can also attribute to power but essentially that would be enchanted armor, which is very rare. ) 

(Essentially in this situation skill is practically your speed and your resistance is how well your armor will take damage for you! The max amount of modification your starting armor has is up to 5, make your armor accordingly! If you have robes you would have significantly less resistance but higher skill and vice versa for heavy armor. )

 FINALLY. HOPEFULLY. This is the last major change.
Healing has been updated, Mechanics have now been finished!
Mechanic Descriptions have been reworded! Except! For Healing.  
CHARACTER SHEET HAS BEEN UPDATED
Background has been renamed to passives and more can be achieved via milestones. 
Updated the description on vessels and how they affect spells!
Clarified the usage of actions and their flow! 
Update has been made to ability score modifiers! 

Patroxclus Member

Status

Bio

Most Recent Posts