VarionusNW

Celestial Bonds - A Fantasy Pair RP

unfortunately I sent out a handful of discord links last night, and I'm pretty sure we're full up for the time being. If people don't show up/drop, I'll invite people in the order they've posted here, of course.

Get Kid: Electrical Twogalatoo

I'm here for hot Kid on Kid action.

Celestial Bonds - A Fantasy Pair RP

It's up, I was just waiting for a few more pokes of interest before I start sending out the link. @Cu Chulainn

Celestial Bonds - A Fantasy Pair RP

Celestial Bonds

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Introduction

It is the year 1327, 32nd year of the reign of Vanel Adondum Galias VII, 16th Emperor of Grenheim.

Grenheim, a grand empire stretching across over a third of the continent of Salfare, teeters on the edge of war. To the northeast lie the Barbaric Skauls, who assault Grenheim's shores with abandon, and terrorize any trading vessels in the Adelanian sea; to the East, the kingdom of Lyngald attempts to encite its allies into war against Grenheim, to reclaim land that has belonged to the Empire for over a hundred years; and to the southwest, the Halidar republic is slowly becoming more expansionist, taking over the smaller nations that lie between it and Grenheim's southern border. There is no edge of the Empire free from threat.

This constant tension has seemed to stoke the fires of innovation, leading Grenheim into a sudden industrial revolution. The people have yearned to move beyond the bounds of magic, which is cumbersome and takes dedicating most of your life to learning just the basics. The invention of the gun, mass production, and various gadgets and tools have made life very different from what it had been only a decade ago. In addition, many parts of Grenheim have seen several social reforms, broadened citizenship, and a growing middle class, upsetting the previous status quo of nobles and the peasants beneath them.

In this age of social and technological evolution, though; the most significant discovery may be one of a magical nature. Two years ago, mages working under the emperor, studying the Adondum, the holy text of the Empire's official religion, discovered a ritual that could convert the emotional bond between two individuals into power. Specifically, the ritual gave one member of the pair immediate magical potential and basic knowledge of their abilities. The other member gained the ability to summon a magical artifact, referred to as a Gear. The bonded pair would also gain a sort of enhanced awareness of each other, knowing the other's general location, being able to sense their emotions, as well as some telepathic communication.

Due to the problems at Grenheim's borders, those who underwent the Empowerment Ritual were immediately conscripted, though only a small percentage of the bonds seemed to have abilities that could be directly applied to a military context, despite attempts to find as many useful bonds as possible across the entire empire.

Within the last few months, further research into the Empowered Bonds, and the many passages of the Adondum that may reference them, led to a second discovery. The mages and priests who had slaved over the project had been able to pinpoint nine specific locations on a map, allegedly the locations of pairs that had been chosen by the Gods, destined for a greater purpose that could save or doom the Empire.

Immediately, these pairs were tracked down and brought to the estate of an old general by the name of Dalgen Carridan, who the Church and the Emperor's Mages could trust to train the newly bonded pairs in relative secrecy in a short period of time, as well as house them for the duration.

Once the pairs were all gathered, they were put through the Ritual. Unlike any pairs before them, the Ritual seemed to burn a mark of some sort into the flesh of the bonded individuals, with each pair's brand differing in shape and location. To the men conducting the Ritual, this was proof that they were correct, and that these fateful few were blessed by the gods themselves.

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Important Information

Celestial and Empowered Bonds

Two individuals with a deep emotional connection who undergo the Empowerment Ritual gain an Empowered Bond, or a Celestial Bond. The only real difference the two, aside from the whole prophecy thing, is that a Celestial bond gives stronger powers with a greater potential for growth, and includes a brand somewhere on the bodies of the members of the bond. The following powers are gained through a bond:

• The ability to sense the emotions being felt by one's partner. This ability cannot sense the reasons for a feeling, just that a certain vague emotion is being felt.
• The ability to know the general location of one's bonded partner.
• Telepathy, or the ability to communicate through thought.
• One member of the bond becomes the Mage of the Bond, and gains the Celestial Potential, which immediately gives them an affinity with a specific brand of magic. Most individuals have the potential to harness magical energy regarding a specific topic that is representative of, or important to them as a person, also known as the Focus. Learning the Focus to one's magic often takes Mages half their lives, and learning to harness and manipulate it takes the other, meaning the only mildly skilled Magi are withering old men. With the Celestial Potential, a bonded Mage immediately knows their Focus, and a basic understanding of how to harness it.
• The other member of the bond becomes the Knight of the Bond, and gains a Celestial Gear, a magical artifact that can be summoned and dismissed at will. Similar to magic, a Gear grants an ability to its wielder that has some connection to their life, personality, or position in the bond, though only a singular power as opposed to the Mage's repertoire of spells.

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Rules

• This is a pair RP, meaning that you are recommended to partner up with another player and create your characters together, with a shared backstory and Celestial Bond. Making an entire pair on your own will only be allowed if we are unable to reach a full cast of 18 unique players.
• As implied above, there will be a hard one character limit unless we don't have enough players.
• Only join this RP if you are sure you are willing to commit to this RP long-term, and have the time to do so. Quitting the RP harms your partner, not just you, so consider carefully before you commit.
• There will be an expected minimum of roughly one post per week. There will not be a timer or anything, but if multiple GM update posts have gone up without your character having interacted during the previous period, expect a warning, or a kick if you've done it enough times. If extenuating circumstances prevent you from posting, simply inform a GM.
• Make an attempt to read all posts. Whilst skimming is fine, this only harms your ability to interact with other characters.
• Those who express interest will be PMed a link to the RP's official discord. As this is a Pair RP, communication is important, and as such, joining the discord will be mandatory, as it's an easier mode of communication than the OOC.
• Metagaming and Godmodding will not be tolerated. Autohitting/Autokilling is off-limits unless cleared through a GM.
• Romance is fine, just keep the smut to PMs. Fade to black, and all that.
• Please color code your character's dialogue in order to easily differentiate them from everyone else.
• And of course, follow all RPG rules.

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Character Sheet

Character Sheet

Personal Information
Full Name:
Gender:
Age: I suggest staying between the mid-teens and the late twenties.
Appearance: An image or description is fine, though a combination of the two is recommended.
Height:
Weight:

Background Information
History: Tell me a bit about your character's past. You don't have to tell me everything.
Brief Personality: I don't want to know everything about your character, save it for IC, but at least give me something.
Emotional Bond: Describe the bond between your character and their partner.
Partner: Who is your character bonded with?

Celestial Gear Information
(Knight only)
make sure to submit both your gear, and your partner's magic to the GMs over PM, or at least the rough ideas you have for them, before you make your CS. If you were to build your character around it and then have that one element rejected, that would probably not be great.
Name: Your weapon's name, it's that simple.
Type: Is it a sword, a dagger, a musket? I'd like to keep types different from player to player, to avoid having a bunch of people with swords
Appearance: What does the weapon look like? a picture or description is fine.
Function: The weapon's primary ability. This shouldn't be too powerful, as it will be upgraded in the future. Do attempt to have it synergize with your corresponding mage.

Celestial Potential Information
(Mages only)
make sure to submit both your magic, and your partner's gear to the GMs over PM, or at least the rough ideas you have for them, before you make your CS. If you were to build your character around it and then have that one element rejected, that would probably not be great.
Focus concept: The idea that encompasses your character's magic.
Spells: You will start with three spells, of a reasonably low to middling power, and will gain more powerful ones over time. Each spell should correspond to your focus in some way. Keep your corresponding knight in mind for synergy.
Name: What you call this spell (honestly, this is optional, but spell names are cool)
Function: The effect of the spell. Please include all costs incurred from the spell's use.
Name:
Function:
Name:
Function:

Miscellaneous Information
(optional)
Likes:
Dislikes:
Hobbies:
Character Theme:
Other:

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Character List

Character List

The following is a list of all of the slots currently reserved, and all currently planned pairs. Players who remain unpaired for a long period after reserving will be contacted by the GMs and warned of potentially being dropped.
Mages

• Sntabe
• Lasrever
• Chasers115
• Greengoat
• Deathmyster
• Cu Chulainn
• DC the Dragon

Knights

• Deso
• SaintSanguine
• Snagglepuss89
• Papitan
• Riffus Maximus
• Banjoanjo
• Dragonmancer
• ShwiggityShwah

Pairs

• Sntabe & Saintsanguine
• Lasrever & Snagglepuss89
• Chasers115 & Papitan
• Riffus Maximus & Greengoat
• Deathmyster & Banjoanjo
• Cu Chulainn & ShwiggityShwah

---

World's End Online

You'd know about the timer if you were in the discord.

World's End Online

Melody Hart

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Melody pushed open the door to the Hart household. There was no greeting, as always, from within the silent, empty expanse of the two-story building. For the last five years, it had only ever had two inhabitants, and one never left his room. Melody shut the door behind her before stepping from the front hall to the living room. Melody wasn't certain how long it had been since it had last seen use; dust hadn't yet begun to cover the unnecessary couches and chairs, but they gave off a clear air of disuse.

There was one clearly well-kept item, though: an old guitar that hung solemnly over the long-unused fireplace. Melody stepped timidly to it over the carpeted floor, tossing her heavy bag of textbooks on one of the couches. She stopped a few feet from the instrument, examining it's wooden construction. The acoustic guitar in front of her had belonged to her father before his death. It hadn't been played since, and neither had any of his other guitars. He almost kept a collection of sorts. The attic probably help several instruments of more interesting construction than this one, but none of them deserved to sit here, to seemingly greet Melody every day. No, this one had been her father's guitar, and his father's before him. It was important, if not particularly flashy. She stared at it for a few extra seconds before turning around and heading towards the stairs.

"Not today," she muttered as she walked up to the second floor.

Music was blaring from the first door on the left. Luckily, it was low enough that Melody couldn't hear exactly what was being blasted throug her brother's speakers today. She knocked twice, and within moments the music was silenced behind headphones, revealing the distinct, furious clacking of a mechanical keyboard. A half-bitter smile perched itself on Melody's face as she stared at the door. Everything was so close, yet maintaining an impossible distance.

She crossed the hall into the next room down, an old office that had once belonged to their mother. It was stripped of most of her documents and file cabinets shortly after the murder, leaving it relatively bare. Now, a mattress lay on the ground next to the computer desk. Melody had always preferred laying down when in VR. She took a bottle of water from a case in the corner before turning to close the door. She tossed her shoes haphazardly into the corner, her shirt soon following; It wasn't entirely necessary, but the room wasn't the most well ventilated in the house, and it could get quite warm if the VR rig was left running long enough, plus this was more comfortable. Sam wouldn't be bursting in anytime soon anyway.

Melody stretched, sighing deeply before taking a swig from the water bottle. She didn't have classes tomorrow, so she could spend long into the night in World's End Online, and she definitely planned to, having lost a few of her prime hours to hanging out with some friends after class. She would get through at least one raid tonight, even if it killed her. She put the water down by the far end of the mattress, so that there were no chances she would knock it over and end her gaming session early, and quickly kicked off her pants. Socks would be more than enough clothing for tonight's session. She decided to lock the door now, before moving over to turn on the VR machine.

She was stopped by a single post-it note on the headset.

"Maintenance. Weird Shrine."

Three words, and in barely-legible handwriting that marked it as Sam's creation. Melody's brother certainly had a way with words. She tossed the note in the garbage, deciding to decipher whatever Sam probably meant AFTER she got into the game and saw it for herself. He always tended to leave those sorts of esoteric notes of where he would leave their character, and they all made so little sense that Melody had begun to disregard them entirely. She just forgot to not read this one. Oh well.

The machine booted up fast enough once she actually pressed the button. All that was left to do was put on the headset and connect it, and she'd be back in World's End. Melody smiled, letting out a soft "woo!" as she threw herself onto the mattress and slipped the headset on.

---

Physical sensations disappeared; the real world, and all of Melody's worries fading from view. Slowly, they were replaced by something much better as the VR system tested itself in its boot-up sequence, confirming that she would feel the game's intended effects without any errors. It didn't take more than a few seconds, the test sensations shifting further. She felt the clothing form on her back, the cloak that had gently begun swaying around her, the shoes on her feet, and she heard the murmurings of players, the clearest sign that she was fully loaded into the game.

Nomine opened her eyes in an unfamiliar, endless expanse of white, which was stopped only by the grass beneath the feet of her and the players around her, who she slowly began to comb her eyes through, before remembering to check what item-set she had equipped. Sam hadn't switched back to Melody's gear before logging out like he usually did, probably due to that maintenance he mentioned. She decided not to bother him about it this time.

Within moments, Nomine looked like herself again, with a soft white cloak, wonderfully large hat, and moon staff. It was the most stylish combination she had on hand, mostly due to Sam deleting everything else, so it would have to do. She turned back to the crowd, finding her eyes fixated on a massive gate, inside it only darkness. It was certainly striking. Nomine was half tempted to approach it until an NPC appeared and addressed the crowd, inviting them into a new campaign. The EULA appeared in Nomine's hand while the rabbit maid spoke, which she gave a quick once-over before accepting.

A new campaign, in some new setting sure seemed exciting. It wasn't exactly a raid, but it certainly had it's advantages, especially if the devs had improved things this time around. Of course, Nomine still needed to party up. An acolyte was useless on her own. It was too bad that Nomine couldn't see any MOONPHASE members directly...

Scratch that.

She turned to find a tall, heavily armored figure that had been standing directly behind her. He was almost twice her height, making her look like a child in comparison. She had to sort of strain to view his face, but she was able to make out a thick, dark beard, and slicked back, mid-length hair. His relatively chiseled features made it clear that his character was at least somewhat customized, but the broad nose and wide eyes had a semblance of realness to them. Or maybe he had just told her that those were the real parts of his character's design in a conversation she half remembered. She did recall talking to him before, and he was definitely a member of MOONPHASE, with the Weird Hat on his head. It blinked at her as she tried to recall his name.

Cygnus, right. His username was CygnusDaGreat420, an unfortunate result of late night bad decisions, from what Nomine could tell. He was a relatively early member of the guild, often considered one of its best members. Of course, considering that MOONPHASE was a role-playing guild based around worshiping a single user, that often only involved putting on a persona, and not actually playing the game well. From what Nomine knew though, Cygnus was an accomplished PVP player, at least on his alts.

"Afternoon Cyggy, how's the weather up there?" She half yelled at the giant. It was always strange to Melody how Nomine's voice always seemed slightly brighter, and even more feminine than her own, which was amusing due to Sam being the one who chose the specific voice modulation settings for the character. Cygnus stepped back a few feet, kneeled, placed his fist in the dirt, and pointed his head down whilst closing his eyes.

"Praise be Nomine, the great goddess of the moon, light of the hereafter, and keeper of us mere mortals! Oh thank thee for the blessing that is your voice and presence!" He completed the obligatory saying, and brought his head back up, steel kneeling so that they were on a slightly more even height level. Nomine had long since learned that telling the MOONPHASE members to tone down their role-playing was pointless. They didn't often care about the stares their strange actions got. Even other RP guilds would laugh at them on occasion.

"Anyone else around? I want to get a party together for this new campaign," Nomine was almost bouncing with energy. She didn't want to be standing around all day. Though, it certainly made her look even more like some sort of hyperactive child.

"Your Holiness, I regret to inform you that most of your knights have not logged in on this day," he lowered his voice to a near-whisper before adding "and those that are decided to use their alts instead." Oh well. Nomine couldn't really get MOONPHASE members using their alternate accounts involved, it was best to keep those as far removed as possible. It was kind of funny that as devoted as people could act, and as obvious as some users' reasons for joining were, namely following Nomine around everywhere, they were impossibly afraid of actually being connected to MOONPHASE.

"Random party it is then!" Nomine declared, before turning from Cygnus to the crowd of random users around the pitch-black gate. "Oh yea, Cyggy," Nomine added, turning her head back to the gargantuan warrior, "I forgot to ask if you'll be partying with me, sorry. Will you?"

"I'll just follow you tonight, your Holiness." He explained that he had finished three hours of PVP before the maintenance had started, and that had only ended a few minutes prior. Cygnus would act as some sort of half-bodyguard, half-tourist, Nomine guessed. It wasn't like she was in any real danger, but either way, MOONPHASE took their role-playing quite seriously.

Nomine glanced around the area. She saw a few parties beginning to form. There were two major ones that she could see: One near the portal, consisting of two players who had run straight into and bounced off of it, and two others; and a party consisting of a guy floating in a water orb, a goat man, and two more normal looking players. She considered her options for a moment, even thinking about searching around to see if any other groups were forming, before eventually settling on the group with the water orb.

Nomine darted over, though as she approached, the goat man and the floating merman had split off towards the portal. It didn't seem like the party had split up, not exactly, but that made things slightly more annoying. Oh well. Nomine continued towards the two members of the party that hadn't run off, though she was surprised when Cygnus overtook her, stopping in front of the two players and folding one arm behind his back, the other splayed out in a show of ridiculous theatrics common only to MOONPHASE, as Nomine came to a stop.

"BEHOLD!" The giant of a man bellowed his lines, unphased by the fact that he was clearly interrupting a conversation "before you now stands Her Holiness, the moon goddess Nomine! Praise be for she is the guide to the hereafter, the keeper of mortal lives, and she who leads us into victory! By her divine wisdom, you mortals have been-" He was cut off with a sudden look of surprise. He glanced down to see Nomine holding her staff like some sort of bat, having just whacked her loyal follower in the palm of the hand to shut him up. He would survive.

"Don't mind Cyggy, he gets a bit too invested, sometimes. Mind if I party up with you and your friends?" She glanced towards the two who were now standing over by the portal, an idiotic grin plastered on her face.

World's End Online

The Hart Twins

Samuel Hart

Age

21

Gender

Male

Appearance

Samuel could easily be described as horribly awkward, with a face that most would argue screams of malnourishment and sleep deprivation, and a body that seems to disagree with how it should be structured, resulting in Sam being both quite tall and almost disconcertingly thin. He stands at about 6'5", has brown eyes, and weighs around 160 pounds. Due to rarely going outside, Sam doesn't pay much attention to his wardrobe, which mostly consists of jeans and dark colored T-shirts. For the few times he does go outside though, he often sports an old brown leather jacket that once belonged to his father.

Personality

Sam doesn't talk much. He's been a man of few words since the death of his parents, and has also become increasingly self-isolating. He has only left the house on a handful of occasions in the past few years. Sam's personality is overall quite subdued, his entire existence squared away to a single room and made as unobtrusive as possible. Online, where Sam spends most of his time, he is seemingly just as quiet, more often a lurker than an active participant in conversations, but he is at least known to be something of a workaholic.

---

Melody Hart

Age

21

Gender

Female

Appearance

Melody stands at a respectable 5'7", weighing 120 pounds. She's relatively fit, though she doesn't actively work out. Both Melody and her brother share their father's brown eyes and dark hair, which Melody keeps relatively long. Her wardrobe isn't the most colorful thing, mostly dark colors and whites, staying away from anything particularly bright or garish, but it does contain a wide variety of styles, mostly due to friends who drag her out shopping because it's the only thing they know she's moderately fond of. Melody isn't particularly picky with her clothing, often spontaneously putting on the first appropriate thing in her closet.

Personality

Melody seems to gravitate towards socialization, unlike her reclusive brother. She picks up friends like some sort of magnet, though admittedly most are glorified acquaintances. She's never the decision maker, but is quick to agree with others. Most of her close friends don't really know what goes on inside her head. She doesn't talk about how she's feeling, and often refrains from speaking about herself at all, though she makes a great listener, and tries to help others with their problems.

---

Background

Five years ago, Martin and Elizabeth Hart, Melody and Samuel's parents, were murdered. Ever since, the two have lived alone in the ever-quiet house they had grown up in. After the twins finished high school, Melody worked several part-time jobs over the course of a few years, whilst Sam stayed in his room, often months passing between conversations between the two. Eventually, Sam claimed to be making a steady income, allowing Melody to go to college using their parent's savings. The twins share one VR set up and one World's End Online account, originally due to monetary constraints, though it never became a problem due to their opposite sleeping schedules.

---

Nomine

Ingame Appearance

Nomine looks much more like Melody than Sam, mostly because she was the one who designed the character. Nomine appears to be around 5'5", with neck-length bleach-white hair and brown eyes. Nomine's features are mostly androgynous, leaning towards feminine. The character wears simple white robes, much to Melody's dismay. Keeping the character's clothing choices simple was mostly Sam's decision, as he sells all of the more extravagant costume sets that Melody finds. Melody was only able to keep two cosmetic items, one of which was a Coat of the Forebears, which the twins eventually used to differentiate between themselves, Melody using a white-dyed version, and Sam a black-dyed one. The other was a Weird Hat that was given to Nomine after MOONPHASE popped up. Sam just unequips the hat during his playtime.

Ingame Personality

How Nomine acts depends on the time of day. In the late and early morning hours he tends to be relatively quiet, having short conversations with other players at most. During these times, Nomine functions as a solo player, using an odd solo-Acolyte build. When Nomine logs in during the afternoon, she's a completely different person. Hyperactive, playful, and something of a self-made idol. She often spends more time talking to other players in towns than she does doing quests and raids. This Nomine is definitely a highly effective support character, with no signs of the late night solo version.

Class

Acolyte

Notable Skills

New Moon's Curse - Passive Skill
Skills that grant buffs to a friendly target are treated as debuffs of equal and opposite effect when targeting enemies.
Full Moon's Blessing - Active Skill
Grants a 10% buff to HP, strength, and speed of target for 2 minute. Increases by 2% for each additional target, with a max of 5 targets (20% boost) within a 20 foot range.
Invigorate - Active Skill
Ranged minor heal to a single target, increasing in efficiency if used as a touch ability, and grants a small (5-10%?) amount of bonus hit points to the target for 1 minute. Notably, this weaker Heal alternative is treated as a buff effect.

Equipment

Coat of the Forebears
An ornate cloak obtained from a particularly terrible quest that most players avoid. While the item is just cosmetic, It does look particularly nice when dyed. Nomine has two of this item, one dyed black, and one dyed white.
Staff of the Lunarch
A simple wooden staff, curved at the top somewhat like a Shepard's staff. A glowing orb floats in this curved section, it's appearance is that of the moon. The moon orb seems to wax and wane with the patterns of the real moon. The staff offers a minor increase to casting speed.
Purified Moonwatcher's Ring
A simple ring with runic inscriptions along the inside, and a set with agemstone designed to look like the moon in various phases from different angles. Originally a cursed item that would cause all of a player's buff effects to become debuffs instead. The item could not be unequipped until it was purified or destroyed in specific ways. Once the ring is purified, it gives the wearer the New Moon's Curse passive ability while equipped.
A Flanged Mace
A Weird Hat
A strange, tall hat that covers the ears. On the front of it is a circular symbol with a line down the middle. At random intervals, this opens to reveal a sideways eye. This is only a cosmetic item, and unfortunately, the item worn by most members of MOONPHASE.

Others

A guild called MOONPHASE was created due to (M)Nomine's rising popularity. It's more or less a weird, kinda creepy Nomine fan club. They dislike non-members "getting too friendly with the moon goddess without knowing their place." Bothering (S)Nomine isn't as frowned upon, mostly due to (S)Nomine making it clear that he didn't want MOONPHASE following him around. MOONPHASE will generally follow the orders of either Nomine personality, as Nomine is the unofficial leader of the guild.

When not playing WEO, Sam uses Diminished_Fourth as his online handle.

Martin Hart was a relatively well known guitarist, and member of a semi-popular band called The Moon Pt. 2, which broke up two years prior to his death.

World's End Online

The Hart Twins

Samuel Hart

Age

21

Gender

Male

Appearance

Samuel could easily be described as horribly awkward, with a face that most would argue screams of malnourishment and sleep deprivation, and a body that seems to disagree with how it should be structured, resulting in Sam being both quite tall and almost disconcertingly thin. He stands at about 6'5", has brown eyes, and weighs around 160 pounds. Due to rarely going outside, Sam doesn't pay much attention to his wardrobe, which mostly consists of jeans and dark colored T-shirts. For the few times he does go outside though, he often sports an old brown leather jacket that once belonged to his father.

Personality

Sam doesn't talk much. He's been a man of few words since the death of his parents, and has also become increasingly self-isolating. He has only left the house on a handful of occasions in the past few years. Sam's personality is overall quite subdued, his entire existence squared away to a single room and made as unobtrusive as possible. Online, where Sam spends most of his time, he is seemingly just as quiet, more often a lurker than an active participant in conversations, but he is at least known to be something of a workaholic.

---

Melody Hart

Age

21

Gender

Female

Appearance

Melody stands at a respectable 5'7", weighing 120 pounds. She's relatively fit, though she doesn't actively work out. Both Melody and her brother share their father's brown eyes and dark hair, which Melody keeps relatively long. Her wardrobe isn't the most colorful thing, mostly dark colors and whites, staying away from anything particularly bright or garish, but it does contain a wide variety of styles, mostly due to friends who drag her out shopping because it's the only thing they know she's moderately fond of. Melody isn't particularly picky with her clothing, often spontaneously putting on the first appropriate thing in her closet.

Personality

Melody seems to gravitate towards socialization, unlike her reclusive brother. She picks up friends like some sort of magnet, though admittedly most are glorified acquaintances. She's never the decision maker, but is quick to agree with others. Most of her close friends don't really know what goes on inside her head. She doesn't talk about how she's feeling, and often refrains from speaking about herself at all, though she makes a great listener, and tries to help others with their problems.

---

Background

Five years ago, Martin and Elizabeth Hart, Melody and Samuel's parents, were murdered. Ever since, the two have lived alone in the ever-quiet house they had grown up in. After the twins finished high school, Melody worked several part-time jobs over the course of a few years, whilst Sam stayed in his room, often months passing between conversations between the two. Eventually, Sam claimed to be making a steady income, allowing Melody to go to college using their parent's savings. The twins share one VR set up and one World's End Online account, originally due to monetary constraints, though it never became a problem due to their opposite sleeping schedules.

---

Nomine

Ingame Appearance

Nomine looks much more like Melody than Sam, mostly because she was the one who designed the character. Nomine appears to be around 5'5", with neck-length bleach-white hair and brown eyes. Nomine's features are mostly androgynous, leaning towards feminine. The character wears simple white robes, much to Melody's dismay. Keeping the character's clothing choices simple was mostly Sam's decision, as he sells all of the more extravagant costume sets that Melody finds. Melody was only able to keep two cosmetic items, one of which was a Coat of the Forebears, which the twins eventually used to differentiate between themselves, Melody using a white-dyed version, and Sam a black-dyed one. The other was a Weird Hat that was given to Nomine after MOONPHASE popped up. Sam just unequips the hat during his playtime.

Ingame Personality

How Nomine acts depends on the time of day. In the late and early morning hours he tends to be relatively quiet, having short conversations with other players at most. During these times, Nomine functions as a solo player, using an odd solo-Acolyte build. When Nomine logs in during the afternoon, she's a completely different person. Hyperactive, playful, and something of a self-made idol. She often spends more time talking to other players in towns than she does doing quests and raids. This Nomine is definitely a highly effective support character, with no signs of the late night solo version.

Class

Acolyte

Notable Skills

New Moon's Curse - Passive Skill
Skills that grant buffs to a friendly target are treated as debuffs of equal and opposite effect when targeting enemies.
Full Moon's Blessing - Active Skill
Grants a 10% buff to HP, strength, and speed of target for 2 minute. Increases by 2% for each additional target, with a max of 5 targets (20% boost) within a 20 foot range.
Invigorate - Active Skill
Ranged minor heal to a single target, increasing in efficiency if used as a touch ability, and grants a small (5-10%?) amount of bonus hit points to the target for 1 minute. Notably, this weaker Heal alternative is treated as a buff effect.

Equipment

Coat of the Forebears
An ornate cloak obtained from a particularly terrible quest that most players avoid. While the item is just cosmetic, It does look particularly nice when dyed. Nomine has two of this item, one dyed black, and one dyed white.
Staff of the Lunarch
A simple wooden staff, curved at the top somewhat like a Shepard's staff. A glowing orb floats in this curved section, it's appearance is that of the moon. The moon orb seems to wax and wane with the patterns of the real moon. The staff offers a minor increase to casting speed.
Purified Moonwatcher's Ring
A simple ring with runic inscriptions along the inside, and a set with agemstone designed to look like the moon in various phases from different angles. Originally a cursed item that would cause all of a player's buff effects to become debuffs instead. The item could not be unequipped until it was purified or destroyed in specific ways. Once the ring is purified, it gives the wearer the New Moon's Curse passive ability while equipped.
A Flanged Mace
A Weird Hat
A strange, tall hat that covers the ears. On the front of it is a circular symbol with a line down the middle. At random intervals, this opens to reveal a sideways eye. This is only a cosmetic item, and unfortunately, the item worn by most members of MOONPHASE.

Others

A guild called MOONPHASE was created due to (M)Nomine's rising popularity. It's more or less a weird, kinda creepy Nomine fan club. They dislike non-members "getting too friendly with the moon goddess without knowing their place." Bothering (S)Nomine isn't as frowned upon, mostly due to (S)Nomine making it clear that he didn't want MOONPHASE following him around. MOONPHASE will generally follow the orders of either Nomine personality, as Nomine is the unofficial leader of the guild.

When not playing WEO, Sam uses Diminished_Fourth as his online handle.

Martin Hart was a relatively well known guitarist, and member of a semi-popular band called The Moon Pt. 2, which broke up two years prior to his death.

Blep.

Celestial Bonds

I assure you this isn't dead @Pink Khione@ImAMushie are you two still here? Haven't been able to get a hold of you in the discord.

Celestial Bonds

- A Beginning of Sorts -

Part 2

The extent lies beyond eternity,
Morrowyr's tears do not run that far,
Starmgein's winds cannot reach,
Harbingald's flames would not burn enough,
Starved like Gelsa's beasts.
Lamure could not paint it,
Vyra could not coax its heart,
Haermund could not understand it,
Gardwyn would hunt in vain,
and even Aurdin would not know it's fate,
But I have now seen beyond eternity,
and the gods were wise to fail.
_{-Adondum V}

𝓝𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓶𝓫𝓮𝓻 𝟕𝓽𝓱, 𝟏𝟑𝟐𝟕 / / 𝓐𝓾𝓼𝓯𝓮𝓵𝓭 / / 𝓒𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓪𝓷'𝓼 𝓔𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓽𝓮 / / 𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰

Introductions fell swiftly from mouths of Carridan's eighteen honored guests; none of them saying more than necessary, and some even saying less. Dalgen liked things that way, or at least it proved that he didn't have more than one Lysandra Aulmoore in his home. With a short nod from the General, dinner truly began for those who hadn't already started eating. A few wisps of conversation popped up around the table, particularly from Lysandra who was already talking the ears off of the two mages who had the displeasure of sitting next to her. Dalgen was thankful the woman hadn't asked for a seat near him.

After ten or so minutes of relative quiet, or as close as one could get with Aulmoore in the room, one of the black-cloaked churchmen approached the table, bending down to whisper something in the ear of Dinn Lemare. The truthseeker shot up immediately, fast enough that it set Dalgen to worry.

"I deeply apologize," Lemare attempted to compose himself, "but something has come up. Continue without me." He moved stiffly to mutter something to Carridan before rushing out of the room at a near sprint. The Hound struggled to keep up.

After the Truthseeker's exit, dinner continued to be what Dalgen would call somewhat successful. Lysandra had gotten quieter with time, lessening Carridan's headache, and Tolle had excused himself to examine something for the Truthseeker. The old General had his servants clear the empty spaces at the table, and put clean plates and utensils in their places. He was sure the practice would look strange to his guests, but it was better than letting go of his customs. He muttered a prayer under his breath as dinner had begun to wind down.

"I hope that y'all enjoyed yourselves, as tomorrow mornin' will not be as easy. You'll be up by dawn; my servants will be there to wake you if necessary, and you'll be directed to where your trainin' begins. You may be chosen heroes and such, but that does not mean I'll go easy on you. Most of you have never served, and likely never would, but we don't know how little time we have. While I would love to run you all through enough basic training to get you as disciplined as physically possible. Missus Aulmoore over there," He glared with his one good eye at the woman, "she thinks it's best to just get you to know some weapons, some horses, and how to strangle a man." His gray-stained hair seemed to get grayer every time he so much as mentioned her. "Oh, and those were her exact words."

Aulmoore nodded proudly.

"You're all free to continue eatin' for as long as you need, but I suggest gettin' your rest in soon." With that, Dalgen stood and left the room. Normally, he wouldn't have left his guests at the table, but a churchman had slipped him a note from Lemare during his speech. The matter was urgent. Calmes and Hann left the room next, seemingly sick of the psychotic woman's ramblings. Lysandra Aulmoore, however, had no plans to leave dinner yet. She stayed until the last of the bonded had left, uncharacteristically refraining from forcing any of them into unwanted conversation.

As expected, servants came and woke up those who had not already risen by dawn. They let the pairs ready themselves then lead them a short distance from the mansion along a stone pathway that the servant eventually strayed from, stepping onto an expansive field. Curiously, the servant also mentioned that the gardens were off-limits for the time being.

The grounds were empty save for the small mass of churchmen gathered near what seemed to be a rather meager place to train: a few circles of turned up earth, a semi-enclosed weapons rack, a similar enclosure guarded by two Hounds that held a number of guns and ammunition, and a shooting range marked out with wooden poles. The churchmen had clearly been forced to stay somewhat of a distance from the bulk of the grounds, though they were set up near the stables, where a few stablehands were bringing out horses. Lysandra Aulmoore and Moranth were both present, and staring over the shoulder of Tolle at whatever it was that he was writing.

Dinn Lemare took his leave as the pairs approached, leaving a grim-looking Carridan alone in front of the weapons rack. The general stood in full uniform. His stiff, darkly colored coat bearing the Carridan crest rather than any sort of imperial insignia, and completely lacking the imperial colors, though he would likely say the flag flying on the grounds was more than enough patriotic symbolism.

"Alright," Dalgen said once his eighteen guests were present, "I'll just be cuttin' to the chase, don't feel like doin' much else." He swallowed hard. Carridan looked shaken, though he was slightly more composed than Dinn had left him. He stared down at a paper held much too tightly in his grip, and listed off who would be doing what.

The Ravencroft siblings, Tepes, her slave, Ayolous, and Liv were to be at the dirt circles with Carridan for sparring, and other things related to hand-to-hand combat and the use of some of the weapons that were behind him.

Harwell, Gabriel, Proulx, d'Agneaux, and the ninth pair would be shooting with Dinn Lemare and two of his hounds.

Ilyin-Melikov, Zykova, Laurier, Wren, and the Clairemont twins would be riding horses with Carridan's stablemaster, as well as Aulmoore who had decided to tag along since Carridan had enough horses.

OOC Notes

The following round will include room for interaction during and after dinner, as well as in the morning, up to and including the start of training. I will be controlling NPCs for the sparring group, @January will be handling the shooting NPCs, and @banjoanjo will have the horsemanship NPCs. Ignore the ninth pair for the time being.

Extensions will be administered if the interactions + the start of training turns out to be too much. I apologize for the delays, and this will not happen again. I've already got the next post planned out, and that will be posted at most two days after the deadline for this round.