Zeroth

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@ERode@Xaltwind@Duthguy@Expllo@imia@Agunimon@SilverPaw@Remram@Th3King0fChaos@Databug@Kero

AND WE'RE LIVE, AHEAD OF SCHEDULE AND UNDER BUDGET!

_{The budget was zero, of course, but you know...}

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

^{Humanity came close to decimation by devils. But just one man...inspired others to break through their limits, and come together to fight! As Magic Knights, they saved humankind.
Thereafter they called him the Anti-Magic King. He became a legend--along with his friends, rivals, and allies.
It has been one hundred and fifty years since that day.}

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Kikka - Common Realm

A line of drums began to roll, and triumphant horns blared. Throngs of people lined the road beneath the enormous coliseum of Kikka to cheer their friends and loved ones. The wide, colorful banner over the coliseum's gate proclaimed the Magic Knight Selection Exam, an opportunity that came but once a year.

The Clover Kingdom was a mountainous country, and Kikka was quite large for a city in the Common Realm. Layers of housing and other buildings followed the sloping landscape, and at the heights of each cresting hill was an enormous wall of stone. But above all of them, in the far, blue-tinged distance, stood the Royal Capital as if judging the next generation of its protectors. A warm sun and a clear blue sky watched from above as the wind stilled in anticipation.

Vendors in colorful tents dotted the cobbled streets, eager to sell their wares to observers and participants alike. Some among the crowd could already feel the tingle of Mana in the air, as so many hopeful mages gathered. A big, rough looking boy with a shocking head of orange hair and a thickly freckled face barged through the crowd with little care for whom he might bump into.

"Miracle Potion! Come try my Miracle Potion!" called one of many peddlers to everyone who passed, a rotund man in colorful striped garb. "It'll increase your Mana for two whole hours! Your spells will be twice as strong!" Many of the would-be-knights, especially those of noble birth, passed the man with their noses upturned...but others slowed their walk, clearly tempted by his offer.

There were many other distractions along the coliseum road. The smells of fresh treats drifted through the air like curling, beckoning fingers. A young blonde man, with a numbered badge on his chest to mark him as an applicant, wobbled from cart to cart as he precariously balanced several varieties of snack foods.

Several small tents outside the coliseum's gate had long lines for this year's applicants. Official looking men and women with clipboards would take the name, age, hometown, and other relevant information of each applicant before assigning them a numbered badge. There were easily a few hundred people here. One poor girl, wringing her hands as she looked around with tired, deep-set eyes, kept getting cut in line. Every time she would simply try to go to the next shortest queue, and yet due to a lack of assertiveness the same thing happened again...

From across the Clover Kingdom they had all come; for this day, they had prepared their resolve. Some walked with heads held high. Others muttered to the stones at their feet, shoulders bent under the weight of unknown burdens. Many an eye glinted with the foolhardy confidence of youth, or the stony glare of steadfast determination. Many boots bore mud and scuffs from long days of travel throughout the divided realms of the kingdom. Those of noble blood, however, displayed their status with immaculate fashion and fresh, clean faces. But every young man and woman, tomes in hand, strode towards the gaping portcullis as if prepared to walk into the maw of a dragon.

Today, some would become Magic Knights, and others would fail. All would start from the same place--but how far each could go would be decided by their results.

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Kikka - Coliseum Road

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The red-headed young man stood with a canvas sack over his shoulder, looking up into the hills. The circular, megalithic defenses gave the city a terraced appearance, like some of the fields he had seen in the smaller villages of the Forsaken Realm. Yet the castle beyond must still dwarf them, he thought.

Just how enormous was it, the Clover Castle, if it could still be seen towering like this from so far away? The whole time he had traveled, the youth had never seen it go completely out of sight. Like the north star in the night sky, as long as one kept the capital in sight they could almost certainly find their way anywhere in the kingdom.

"Tristan Goffe! You're number 176!" called the official. Tristan adjusted his bag as he took the small wooden badge he was offered, and pinned it to the shoulder of his cloak. As Tristan left his place in line and proceeded towards the updrawn portcullis, he gulped and placed one hand on the leather book-holster at his side.

His grimoire let off an ever so light glow, like the yellow embers of a forge peeking through an iron grate. Reassured by its presence, he tried to control his breathing.

"Hmph. More Commoners this year than ever." sneered a voice to Tristan's left. He glanced over, and saw a trio of boys around his age wearing much better clothing and looking quite smug. Oddly enough, the one who'd made the comment had black hair coifed into a brilliantly gel-slicked and shiny pompadour. Tristan wondered if it was one of those fashion things where rich people intentionally imitated the lower classes out of "humility" or something. "It's a shame what's been happening these last few generations--even the Golden Dawn takes them in now! They'll let anyone call themselves a Magic Knight!"

The red head let the comment slide off his back and kept walking, but the three nobles kept pace with him. They were all going to the same place, after all. The one with the pompadour stepped closer to him.

"Where are you even from? One of those orphans the church wastes so much of our tithes on, hm?" Tristan didn't answer. "Hey! The fellow with the red hair, I'm speaking to you!"

"...I'm from Cheka. My family owns the forge there." Tristan gave the noble a side-glance as he deadpanned his answer.

"Hmph! Never heard of it, of course!" Pompadour chuckled as he looked over his shoulder at his two cronies. "But, you know what? I can respect a craftsman, to some degree!" He suddenly threw an arm around Tristan's shoulder, and the commoner boy immediately fixed him with a cold look. "How about this?" Digging into a pocket of his petticoat, the boy produced a jingling bag of coin. "I'll give you...let's say, 5,000 Yule, to go back home today, huh? You can buy yourself...I don't know, a nice hammer or something!" Tristan started to duck out from under the other youth's arm, but the noble stepped to the same side and tightened his grip. Again, he shook the bag of coin. "C'mon, it's easy money! Isn't that supposed to be what your kind's all about...?"

Tristan's lip curled under the collar of his cloak. For one thing, a proper smith's hammer could cost several times that amount, and it was an insult to his craft. For another, if it weren't for this kid being a noble, he would've been much more forceful about removing his arm...

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

Announcements

Current Player Status: Apply CS for Approval
Current Arc: Magic Knight Selection Exam

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06.26.2024

• IC Opened! RP Begins!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@Xaltwind Rather than trucks and cars, why don't we measure it like this XD

• Default, no roll - Pipe Bomb
• Rolls a bit - Grenade
• Maximum Roll - Redneck Shenanigans

Otherwise, yeah, that sounds fine to me! Accepted!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@ERode Ah, I see, so her fear isn't so much giving up everything in pursuit of her goal, but becoming a different person over the course of accomplishing it. That'll do it for me then! Accepted! --oh you actually already had it in Char Tab that's fine XD

@Xaltwind Okay, so after ALLLLLLLL this work...Uh...The Bomb Bowling spell! I know, I know, I'm even the one who suggested it! But, how much of a potential size/power increase are we talking here as it "snowballs?" Like, if it's starting at the size of the classic cartoon bomb (an aesthetic which I love), I'm thinking it's like, softball sized to begin with and is basically a grenade? What did you imagine as being its "maximum" size/strength? Other than that, everything else is fine!

@Duthguy@Expllo@imia@Agunimon@SilverPaw@Remram@Th3King0fChaos@Databug@Kero No rush to those still working on characters, but I think I can put the finishing touches on the opener very soon! Would everyone prefer to start sometime this evening/tomorrow, or hold til the weekend?

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@DatabugAs far as I know there isn't any particular big Academy for magic like, out of Harry Potter or anything. The Magic Knights are picked via Selection Exam, which seems to be free for anyone who's received a Grimoire to attempt provided they can make the journey (which seems pretty hard for those in the Forsaken Realm).

There are churches scattered all over the kingdom, and many of them also serve as orphanages or schoolhouses for the local children, especially in the Forsaken Realm's small villages. The church and state seem to be separate entities from what little we see, as far as I know there's no Pope-like figure or anything. Life inside one of these church orphanages seems to be about what you'd expect from medieval fantasy fare--a bunch of grubby little kids with big dreams that nobody wants, but who seem to get by well enough unless you need one of the priests or a village mayor to be cruel for the sake of a tragic backstory. You know, the usual.

From what we've seen, the villages of the Forsaken Realm mostly get by on agriculture and raw material production. Asta's hometown, Hage, is known for some kind of fantasy potato-analogue crop that most other people look down on as peasant food but that the orphans at the church eat with almost every meal. The Common Realm seems to have more big towns with craftsmen and merchants, along with a few touristy spots.

Discrimination between high > low classes, and strong > weak wizards, is basically just treating them as second class citizens. As far as I remember there aren't any instances of say, slavery, seen in the Clover Kingdom, but there's a lot of "you aren't even fit to shine my boots!" kind of stuff on behalf of the nobility.

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@ERode Very nice! I do have two things to point out, though. Based on what we can see from this map, for some weird reason Tabata has an offset compass rose on the continent. This means that the Spade Kingdom is less north (despite it being wintery, right?) and more west. It wouldn't necessarily change her backstory that much, I don't think, I just wanted to point it out in case you wanted to specify any locations later on.

Secondly, I'm not so much against her Fear being what it is, but I think it's her reaction or view of it. Fears can be simple things like just "don't wanna die," although I think it's a little better when they're more about insecurities or trauma, but they should be things that actually provoke emotional response in the character. If she were shown a vision of what she fears, all the things she gave up in pursuit of her goal, and could still say "worth" then I feel like it doesn't really mean much?

Let me know your thoughts on it, as other than this I'd basically be fine Accepting.

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@Databug As Xaltwind said, Wind and Lightning would be two separate Magic Attributes. Wind is one of the four base elements and lightning is derived from it, but users of wind magic are never seen casting lightning spells and vice versa.

I wouldn't worry about the parameters of the spells being quite so specific. As far as their functions they all seem fine, just with the caveat that if you go with wind, you wouldn't be able to keep the lightning spell and vice versa.

I wouldn't be able to judge the skills accurately until I see the character's history, but just remember our characters shouldn't really be "masters" of most given crafts yet due to their age and inexperience. I'm also a little wary of characters having skills for "manipulation" or "reading intent" or other things like that, because they tend to lean into metagaming if not handled correctly, so of all her current skills the Grifter's Toolkit might need the most tweaking.

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@RemramGo ahead and send it to me, feel free to be as in depth as you like with it since I'll likely ask a lot of questions! The side effects sound fine, so all we gotta do now is get the NPC stuff sorted!

Black Clover: Fool's Arcana

@KeroTypically I take things on a case by case basis, so it's not so much that certain attributes would be banned, but rather that I'll do my best to properly critique every submission until I feel satisfied that it's fair. In the case of dual attributes, however, the circumstances that allow those to happen in the first place are either impossibly rare or utterly inhumane, so to those I will give a hard "no."

For Key Magic, I've seen the movie and I'm looking through it on the Wiki right now. Since it does specify that the "grimoire lock" only works on those weaker than the user, and there are some other caveats to its usage, I'd be willing to take a look at a character draft for it. Just be aware that I'd probably be a little stricter on the spell list and whatnot for it.