• If your recruitment thread involves completely going off site with your partner(s) then it belongs in the Off-Site Ad Area.
  • This area of the site is governed by the official Recruitment rules. Whether you are looking for players or looking for a roleplay, we recommend you read them and familiarize your self with them. Read the Recruitment Rules Here.

Fantasy Like the Stars Chase the Sun (CLOSED)

noil

cursed with ideas
Roleplay Availability
Roleplay Type(s)
Like the Stars Chase the Sun
(title from )​

In our history, Cantawar was a land of peace and prosperity. The mundane and the magical lived together in harmony and cooperation, and our land flourished for it. But nothing that good is ever meant to last.

The beginning of the century found our kingdom ruled over by a benevolent king, Maeleg Tirron, his queen Corethia, and their recent addition of a princess who they named Brígh. It was our unanimous opinion that our new princess was a startling beauty of a child, only surpassed by the beauty of the queen, aglow and joyous in her motherhood.

Dark clouds seemed to cover the kingdom when the word went out. The queen was dead. Murdered, they said. The means of it were obscured by word of mouth as the news passed through the people, each messenger telling a different story. One told of an assassin in the night, with an enchanted arrow. Another, an abomination controlled by a beastmaster in the shadows. Yet another told of a family-held curse that a witch had placed upon the kin of the queen in ages long passed. Only one element held constant in all the tales: Magic had been involved.

And so we were left to mourn our fair ruler in mystery. Life quickly settled back in for us common folk, for what impact did the far-off happenings of the lives of royals ultimately count for to the common man anyway?

By that year’s harvest, the king’s grief had twisted into a burning hatred. He blamed magic in all its forms for the death of his beloved, neglecting his infant daughter to initiate a bloody crusade to free his land from the unholy corruption of magic.

Our neighbors the fae were forcibly driven from their homes within the year. Those that remained within the king’s land were hunted like mere beasts. Those purveyors of magic among humanity met their end at the edge of a sword. It's amazing how quickly people can turn on each other in the face of hurt and violence.

A branch of the king’s guard was formed. Initially composed of mercenaries and sell-swords bought to hunt down mages, they came to be known as the Kestrels, and came to work with an ultimate authority over the peoples of the land, second only to the word of the King.

Ten years’ time has passed since the beginning of what the nobles came to call the Cleansing, and as violence eased the kingdom returned to some sense of normalcy. Instead of immediate slaughter, those mages who stubbornly remain in the kingdom instead face a front of perceived justice, thrown in dank dungeons to await sure execution. Torches now burn in the place of enchanted lanterns, and crops are a bit harder to grow, it is true, but we will heal stronger for our struggles.

Word from within the castle is that the king never roams the halls of his home these days, content to confine his ravings to within the walls of his heavily tapestried chambers. The princess Brígh is all but forgotten, only kept in our memories, and in hushed stories of faint hope that when she come of age she might rule with more love than her father had shown the land.

In our history, Cantawar was a land of peace and prosperity. The mundane and the magical lived together in harmony and cooperation, and our land flourished for it. But nothing that good is ever meant to last.

The beginning of the century found our kingdom ruled over by a benevolent king, Maeleg Tirron, his queen Corethia, and their recent addition of a princess who they named Brígh. It was our unanimous opinion that our new princess was a startling beauty of a child, only surpassed by the beauty of the queen, aglow and joyous in her motherhood.

Dark clouds seemed to cover the kingdom when the word went out. The queen was dead. Murdered, they said. The means of it were obscured by word of mouth as the news passed through the people, each messenger telling a different story. One told of an assassin in the night, with an enchanted arrow. Another, an abomination controlled by a beastmaster in the shadows. Yet another told of a family-held curse that a witch had placed upon the kin of the queen in ages long passed. Only one element held constant in all the tales: Magic had been involved.

And so we were left to mourn our fair ruler in mystery. Life quickly settled back in for us common folk, for what impact did the far-off happenings of the lives of royals ultimately count for to the common man anyway?

By that year’s harvest, the king’s grief had twisted into a burning hatred. He blamed magic in all its forms for the death of his beloved, neglecting his infant daughter to initiate a bloody crusade to free his land from the unholy corruption of magic.

Our neighbors the fae were forcibly driven from their homes within the year. Those that remained within the king’s land were hunted like mere beasts. Those purveyors of magic among humanity met their end at the edge of a sword. It's amazing how quickly people can turn on each other in the face of hurt and violence.

A branch of the king’s guard was formed. Initially composed of mercenaries and sell-swords bought to hunt down mages, they came to be known as the Kestrels, and came to work with an ultimate authority over the peoples of the land, second only to the word of the King.

Ten years’ time has passed since the beginning of what the nobles came to call the Cleansing, and as violence eased the kingdom returned to some sense of normalcy. Instead of immediate slaughter, those mages who stubbornly remain in the kingdom instead face a front of perceived justice, thrown in dank dungeons to await sure execution. Torches now burn in the place of enchanted lanterns, and crops are a bit harder to grow, it is true, but we will heal stronger for our struggles.

Word from within the castle is that the king never roams the halls of his home these days, content to confine his ravings to within the walls of his heavily tapestried chambers. The princess Brígh is all but forgotten, only kept in our memories, and in hushed stories of faint hope that when she come of age she might rule with more love than her father had shown the land.

03Y0xGc.jpg

The king is dead. Sometime before the sun had risen, the dawn was shattered into chaos as a massive beast appeared within the castle. Taking the form of a monstrous white bear, it rapidly tore its way through the interior of the structure, leaving destruction and death in its wake. The king's men had only barely begun to gather in the courtyard when it burst out. They could not stand against its fury, their attacks seemingly having no effect on its oversized form, and their numbers were quickly overwhelmed by the sudden unexpected threat. It tore through the heavy courtyard gates as though they were matchsticks and made off into the countryside.

UBijbD5.png
Unable to face the beast, what remained of the Kestrels instead turned their attentions to the inside of their ruler's ravaged home. The first thing they discovered was that the king was no longer among the living. His cold body lay in a pool of blood within the halls of the royal chambers. The second thing they discovered sent dread through them all. The princess was gone.

The assassin's beast had eliminated the king, but faced with royal blood in the form of the child, its nerve must have wavered. The princess had instead been taken. For what end, it was yet to be seen. They could only hope she remained unharmed as they regathered their forces and their wits to pursue the beast and its yet-unseen summoner.

It didn't take much calculation to know they were up against more than they could handle. It had been some time since the Kestrels had faced any fully powered magical threat, and even in the early days when magic still ran rampant in the land they hadn't faced something with this much raw power raging out of it. They rapidly came to the conclusion that they were out of their depth. They'd have to seek help from a despised source.

And so it was that the bedraggled regiment found themselves rallying in town, chained and disoriented mages in tow. Most townsfolk had cleared out of the immediate area when the alarm bells had sounded and it became apparent that the threat was coming from the castle rather than its walls being a source of safety. There were still a brave few who remained in the capital, however, and the Kestrels welcomed their aid.


To summarize: We are set in a land where magic has been outlawed under penalty of death for over a decade. The king that put this decree in place has been killed and his daughter kidnapped by a giant beast sent from an unknown magical force. What is left of the king's forces is being forced to team up with mages they had captured as well as any common folk who volunteer to stage a rescue.

You can join as one of the king's men, a captured mage, a commoner, or a fae or mage in hiding.


Rules:
  • if you are going to play a mage character, do not go OP. You don't need to have every possible move planned out, but run the gist of the powerset by me and be okay with reworking if I say it's not going to fit
  • please please please, if it is at all possible, interact with the other characters in your posts. I have seen too many rps die with a bunch of cool people standing around in a room refusing to talk to each other or engage with the plot. There are of course times when characters get separated or it's too out of character to talk to someone, but best effort is expected
  • let me know if you’re dropping out, you don’t need to give a reason, no hard feelings (although if there is something about the rp that’s driving you out that could be fixed, do let me know and I’ll see if I can rework. I’d hate to lose someone to something fixable)
  • I'm limiting players to max two characters each to start. This is subject to change if we need more characters running around. I’m also going to limit us to five players to start
  • I'd call this rp semi-lit. At least a couple paragraphs per post please
  • I'm going to have us have a pseudo-post-order, where you can post once, then need to wait for me to post again before your next post. I'm hoping this will give everyone a fair chance to get a word in, and will keep the story from getting away from me. This could change if people split off, etc


Notes for Building Characters
If you are wanting to play a mage or fae - life would be very hard and dangerous within the kingdom, especially for those fae who would need to disguise their appearance. You'll need to be thinking about why it is that they haven't moved to friendlier lands. Maybe they have family here? They’re here on some kind of mission? Or maybe there is something on the outside that they are avoiding?

If you want to play one of the Kestrels, they hate mages and anything at all inhuman. If they've been in this for very long, they have likely lost comrades to the fight, and since your character has stuck around through it, they believe in the cause. You also should be thinking about motivation for being in the organization

The laymen are also very anti-magic, but they also aren't so pleased with the current power dynamic. They certainly are no fans of the king, and see the Kestrels as kind of necessary antagonists, but at the same time blame mages and fae for all the ill that has befallen their lands of late. Still, if they are of an older generation, they definitely remember the before times and perhaps think things should go back to the way they used to be. Laypeople from the vassal states of Vaill and Sentia that may have been visiting the capital when this happened are varied on how they feel about the whole Cleansing situation and Cantawar in general, feel free to throw different worldviews around from there

Finally, we don't at all need to have even numbers of these groups. Everyone wants to play the magic people, I get it, it's perfectly fine! I actually originally wrote this to have everyone join as mages but thought that was a bit restrictive so opened it up. Write what makes you happy


More Info About the World
Cantawar is the main human kingdom in this world. In the past, the human lands were divided between three kingdoms: Cantawar, Vaill, and Sentia. Due to Cantawar's central positioning and location controlling the main resources of the human lands, it rapidly gained power and absorbed Vaill and Sentia as vassal states under itself. They maintain some autonomy and retain their own ruling class, but ultimately answer to the king in Cantawar's capital city of Danach. Other surrounding kingdoms are the forested Lúth-glad to the west, Dór o Aglar the elvish desert kingdom to the north-east, and south of that lie the plains of Anhaga. Humans find themselves in the minority in these neighboring kingdoms, most notably in Dór o Aglar which has become increasingly hostile toward their kind since the so-called "Cleansing." All that to say, your character doesn't necessarily have to be from any of those places, they can be from as far away as you like.
5pknF44.jpg

Magic in this world is divided between dark and light, though the distinction is not always obvious. For example, many elemental magics do not have an inherent dark/light lean to them, rather it is their application to help or cause harm that causes magic users to draw the line between what is "good" and what is "bad" magic. Dark magic, that which causes harm to others or to the world itself, is seen as a vile, corruptive force. Light magic users often refuse to associate with or may even attack those who practice dark magic, and while they are right to some degree - much dark magic relies heavily on emotional unrest and thus perhaps more readily affects its users - it is more true to say that all power has the ability to corrupt, even the non-magical kind.


Other:
  • I’m using the word “fae” here to mean any humanoid fantasy race, not just the Fair Folk or fairy type. Typical high fantasy races are all game. Not sure? Just ask
  • We’ll have an OOC on Discord unless a bunch of you can’t use that. It makes it easier for me to answer questions and interact with you guys on the fly
  • This is my first time putting one of my plots on RPN, please be nice to me /nervous
  • I write having my IC posts and admin posts combined into one narration, rather than having a dedicated GM type post. So if that's annoying to you... sorry.
  • I also apologise for this being so long >__>;
 
Aaaaa okay I'll get to setting us up a discord and CS page then
 
Bumping this up and also popping in to say: I'll not count down player slots until character sheets start actually appearing
 
This interesting. I'll have to see if I can decide on a character concept that I can adapt.
 
bump!
I'd like to get at least one more character before we go ahead and start. (◡ ω ◡)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top