Fantasy “The Queen’s ball is tonight, but with this weather will anyone come?”

[snowstormspawn]

Several weeks ago, you received an invitation to Queen Adrienne’s Annual Ball – the most important occasion of the year.
Whether you come from near or far, you are en route when an early winter storm begins, obscuring the roads and nearly trapping your carriage in its wake. This has never happened before during this time of year.

This is where our stories begin. Does your character make it to the ball on time, wondering where the rest of the guests remain? Do they become overwhelmed by the storm, and shuffle into a local tavern in their royal clothing? Do they arrive at the castle late, only to then be trapped there as the storm accelerates? Do they attempt to get to the bottom of the source of the storm, questioning is there magic at play?

The possibilities are endless. So if you are interested, please drop a post and some possible plot ideas down below, and join me. I aim to begin the official thread tomorrow or even tonight.

 

[snowstormspawn]

Side note - I know that this description is extremely simple and I kept it short (just so you get the gist) but I studied creative writing and am into writing pretty detailed replies, so please don’t think this is reflective of how this will be written

Plus I prefer building a plot up with any participants rather than nailing in all the details myself – so I’m looking forward to working on it with any of you who are interested in this.

 

[startergomer]

Name: Walter Blackwood
Occupation: Minor Lord (ruler of small principality)
Temperment: Quiet, contemplative, bookish
Family: Father and Mother, Much younger sister
Age: 20
Looks: the framework and labor of his land have left him a fairly well built but spritely young man
Skills: General Farm Knowledge, General Landed Stewardship, tracking in nature, moving through woods quietly
Pros: moderate piety, smart, content, enjoys the outdoors, compassion, enjoys music, riding horses, solitude
Cons: Few friends, limited social skills (much more comfortable talking to farmer about the wheat harvest than a noble about silk prices), wary of trends/wealthy habits, can be a penny pincher, not the most knowlagable, quiet and reserved, not prone to loud leadership, dislikes crowds

Backstory:

Born to a small landed family in the far reaches of the kingdom, Walter never had much need to see the majestic courts and cities of the kingdom. Born to a family much poorer than most nobles, Walter watched as his family strove to improve their lands making them just wealthy enough to be considered an average noble. Despite the family's success, Walter has always understood the value of hard work and the appreciation for the simple things in life. He enjoys, reading, working his family's land, and helping his supplicants with their issues. Despite having a limited education, Walter always enjoyed learning and is excited to hear about the new ideas sweeping across Europe and finds himself in agreement with many of its views. However, Walter has always been a simple lad going to Mass on Sundays, enjoying the beautiful music and architecture, and generally keeping out of the more radical views, of which he is generally sequestered from due to his families far out holdings. This has also meant that he is wary of those seeking to radically change things. He also is suspicious of the wealthy and those who live in more prosperous regions as he has seen some of them take advantage of his father in the past. He also dislikes obtuse and grandiose displays of wealth seeking to save or to reinvest into ones holdings.

Ball:

As the oldest son of his family and the most apparent heir, it was important for Walter to begin making inroads to court politics in the capital. Despite his majority age coming and going, no major event required his presence until now when all the major and minor lords were called to the Queen's Ball. Walter had just last year taken over ruling the polity now that his father had passed the age where it was possible to rule and so Walter was sent off, much to his begrugement to the ball. In general, Walter doesn't expect to have much fun, in fact he is dreading the event. The last time a noble interacted with him personally was 5 years ago when his father was paying off the last of some minor debts to finance some new roads. The noble had looked at walter and sneered at the young boy. Now, he is quite confidant that other nobles will have similar amounts of disdain so he hopes to get the whole thing done with in minimal time with minimal fuss.

To remain unnoticed and hopefully not cause any major incidents, he tried to leave early enough so as to be just a tad early (his father insisted he be there early keeping to his general upbringing of hitting the dirt running at the crack of dawn). This left Walter in the castle when the appointed time to begin came as he wondered where the rest of the nobles were leaving him feeling awkward as there was really no large crowd to blend into.

AN: Hope this works! I hope it was ok that I picked up on a bit of the Renaissance thing. I also am not sure how you want to put magic into this so I kept away from it for now. Appreciate the oppurtunity to play and let me know if anything doesn't work.

 

[snowstormspawn]

Name: Walter Blackwood
Occupation: Minor Lord (ruler of small principality)
Temperment: Quiet, contemplative, bookish
Family: Father and Mother, Much younger sister
Age: 20
Skills: General Farm Knowledge, General Landed Stewardship,
Pros: moderate piety, smart, content, enjoys the outdoors, compassion, enjoys music, riding horses, solitude
Cons: Few friends, limited social skills, wary of trends/wealthy habits, can be a penny pincher, not the most knowlagable, quiet and reserved, not prone to loud leadership, dislikes crowds

Backstory:

Born to a small landed family in the far reaches of the kingdom, Walter never had much need to see the majestic courts and cities of the kingdom. Born to a family much poorer than most nobles, Walter watched as his family strove to improve their lands making them just wealthy enough to be considered an average noble. Despite the family's success, Walter has always understood the value of hard work and the appreciation for the simple things in life. He enjoys, reading, working his family's land, and helping his supplicants with their issues. Despite having a limited education, Walter always enjoyed learning and is excited to hear about the new ideas sweeping across Europe and finds himself in agreement with many of its views. However, Walter has always been a simple lad going to Mass on Sundays, enjoying the beautiful music and architecture, and generally keeping out of the more radical views, of which he is generally sequestered from due to his families far out holdings. This has also meant that he is wary of those seeking to radically change things. He also is suspicious of the wealthy and those who live in more prosperous regions as he has seen some of them take advantage of his father in the past. He also dislikes obtuse and grandiose displays of wealth seeking to save or to reinvest into ones holdings.

AN: Hope this works! I hope it was ok that I picked up on a bit of the Renaissance thing. I also am not sure how you want to put magic into this so I kept away from it for now. Appreciate the oppurtunity to play and let me know if anything doesn't work.

This is perfect! Exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for. I hope to have a wide variety of characters be a part of this from royalty all the way down to maids. I definitely don’t expect anyone to stick strictly to any historical period – this is more of an alternate universe medieval thing set between about 16-1700. The magic will be very subtle, and maybe even just a conspiracy? The end goal would be though for the characters to uncover who is causing the storm and bring it to an end. Perhaps an assasination attempt will be involved. Lots of mystery elements here!

 

[snowstormspawn]

So when I get home tonight I will most likely make the official thread. I will make a character profile for a couple of people I would be interested in playing, but if course most major roles are still available. Official start time of the RP will be the late afternoon, when the sun begins to set and things get dangerous. Super excited to start.

 

[startergomer]

Sounds great! I think it'll be a fun game!

 

[Saavedra]

I assume that our characters cannot use magic of any kind?

 

[snowstormspawn]

I assume that our characters cannot use magic of any kind?

Depends. If they’re a court wizard, or something like a clairvoyant or a fortune teller, that’s fine by me! But it’s not a fairy, mermaid, elemental magic, elves kind of world if that makes sense!

 

[Vestige]

Ooh this sounds like fun, I’m definitely interested. Tempted to make a guard/knight character who can either serve another PC, or is even a guard in the castle depending on what works best or is needed.

 

[snowstormspawn]

Ooh this sounds like fun, I’m definitely interested. Tempted to make a guard/knight character who can either serve another PC, or is even a guard in the castle depending on what works best or is needed.

Thank you. And I love this! We definitely need guards to defend all kinds of people. Should fit right in!

 

[quadraxis201]

I'm tempted to bring in a lycanthrope character as hired muscle for protection.

 

[snowstormspawn]

I'm tempted to bring in a lycanthrope character as hired muscle for protection.

That sounds extremely cool. Go for it!

 

[snowstormspawn]

The character thread is live! Feel free to add your characters there - they will be ordered by rank, to make things easy for you all I will look into the titles and how they rank etc. I posted a profile for the Queen as a general example of what we're looking for. She will be more of a minor character for me, but I do think it's important to know her since she is the host of the Ball.

I will also be creating a young royal from a foreign, exotic kingdom who I think will be pretty entertaining and fun. I'm open to adding some members of his entourage.

If anyone would like to claim a character in the royal family, feel free to do that by the way - the king and the prince and princess are completely available, but do keep in mind that these characters would be children. Otherwise if they will fit the personality profile let me know if you're interested!

And I will be creating any additional characters based on need - don't want anyone to be stuck writing alone!

Main thread here

 

[Miracle Corgi]

Ooooh I enjoy the idea of of a fortune teller/clairvoyant especially if it is some sort of magic cause to the storm. But would it be more entertaining to have them be a clairvoyant in secret that has actually predicted this storm and is trying to investigate it on their own, or more of a con-artist wound up in the commotion?

 

[Hellewise]

This looks super fun! In another medieval/historical roleplay I was part of a long time ago, I used to play a female knight/soldier who was somewhat a bit of a sore thumb because of her gender - it made for some interesting interactions and relationships with other characters. I wonder if I could do something similar here?

 

[snowstormspawn]

This looks super fun! In another medieval/historical roleplay I was part of a long time ago, I used to play a female knight/soldier who was somewhat a bit of a sore thumb because of her gender - it made for some interesting interactions and relationships with other characters. I wonder if I could do something similar here?

I’m a big fan of Brienne of Tarth from GOT, and she sounds a lot like that. I’d love to have you join with someone of that nature!

Also I’m on my way home soon where I will be officially adding everyone’s character and my own to the main thread.

 

[Hellewise]

Yeah, like Brienne! Although I don't know her too well - man I wish I invested myself in GOT, but after the reception the last season got I don't think I'll bother now!

Anyway, I'll get on making my form!

 

[snowstormspawn]

Ooooh I enjoy the idea of of a fortune teller/clairvoyant especially if it is some sort of magic cause to the storm. But would it be more entertaining to have them be a clairvoyant in secret that has actually predicted this storm and is trying to investigate it on their own, or more of a con-artist wound up in the commotion?

I love either of these, go for it!

 

[snowstormspawn]

Yeah, like Brienne! Although I don't know her too well - man I wish I invested myself in GOT, but after the reception the last season got I don't think I'll bother now!

Anyway, I'll get on making my form!

I watched during quarantine and after Season 5 it really isn’t worth it haha. I’m slowly chipping away at the books!

 

[Vestige]

This looks super fun! In another medieval/historical roleplay I was part of a long time ago, I used to play a female knight/soldier who was somewhat a bit of a sore thumb because of her gender - it made for some interesting interactions and relationships with other characters. I wonder if I could do something similar here?

Ooh yes! I made a female knight too, can’t wait for them to interact.

 

[quadraxis201]

One thing I suppose I could share is what I meant by "there's a difference between lycans and werewolves".

Sometimes, writers use the two terms interchangeably since both creatures are nearly the same thing-- people that turn into wolves. However, I've read mythos that depict the two of them as being quite different.

Werewolves are what you would expect-- they transform forcibly and unwillingly as a result of the full moon, and they become hyper-aggressive, bipedal monsters resembling a fusion of man and wolf.

Lycanthropes, however, are a bit more refined. Their transformations aren't bound by the lunar cycle, and they in fact have actual control over them. When they transform, their animal forms are wolves that walk on four legs instead of a monstrous hybrid. Some might even be slightly larger than normal. As a result, they're better able to blend into human society.

That's not to say all lycans are well-behaved, though. Vincent is, however.

 

[Hellewise]

One thing I suppose I could share is what I meant by "there's a difference between lycans and werewolves".

Sometimes, writers use the two terms interchangeably since both creatures are nearly the same thing-- people that turn into wolves. However, I've read mythos that depict the two of them as being quite different.

Werewolves are what you would expect-- they transform forcibly and unwillingly as a result of the full moon, and they become hyper-aggressive, bipedal monsters resembling a fusion of man and wolf.

Lycanthropes, however, are a bit more refined. Their transformations aren't bound by the lunar cycle, and they in fact have actual control over them. When they transform, their animal forms are wolves that walk on four legs instead of a monstrous hybrid. Some might even be slightly larger than normal. As a result, they're better able to blend into human society.

That's not to say all lycans are well-behaved, though. Vincent is, however.

I'm glad you expanded on this - I found myself googling and reading up on the differences, haha

 

[snowstormspawn]

One thing I suppose I could share is what I meant by "there's a difference between lycans and werewolves".

Sometimes, writers use the two terms interchangeably since both creatures are nearly the same thing-- people that turn into wolves. However, I've read mythos that depict the two of them as being quite different.

Werewolves are what you would expect-- they transform forcibly and unwillingly as a result of the full moon, and they become hyper-aggressive, bipedal monsters resembling a fusion of man and wolf.

Lycanthropes, however, are a bit more refined. Their transformations aren't bound by the lunar cycle, and they in fact have actual control over them. When they transform, their animal forms are wolves that walk on four legs instead of a monstrous hybrid. Some might even be slightly larger than normal. As a result, they're better able to blend into human society.

That's not to say all lycans are well-behaved, though. Vincent is, however.

See this is what I assumed - that it was sort of like Luther from Umbrella Academy, if anyone else is familiar with that show, haha.

Well, all of your characters (those of you who have completed them) have been added to the official character thread, and I will be posting shortly! I will be cleaning up the profiles and deleting extra text so they're a bit cleaner eventually but I'm so excited to get down to it.

Also fun fact the castle I used for reference is the famous "fairy-tale" castle, Neuschwanstein. I've gotten to visit it myself, and it has the most beautiful interior, throne room, King's chambers and these super cool creepy tunnels underneath. Anyway, a semi in-depth map of the castle will be coming sometime this week if things transpire as planned, and I also hope to generate a fantasy map of the nation so we can point to where characters are from more easily. I'm one of those all-the-works starters haha.

Hellewise I LOVE that art of your character. It's beautiful! I need to make more fantasy art too *-*

 

[Jolly Roger]

Is this still open? I'd love to make a character for this!

 

[GrieveWriter]

Are we using a character limit for this?