Fantasy Nothing But Cinders...

[MadManInACan]

You guys can post here to talk or complain or whatever.

 

[Yesman]

aaaaaaannnnnnnddddd I'm here

 

[Irianne]

Hypehypehypehypehypehype! I'm here too, and I am for real excited.


Edit: @MadManInACan Also I have a whole bunch of questions!


1) Ignoring Darkness, I'm a little unclear on the nature (and interaction) of the three deities we have. You say they are all forces of destruction, so that much I get.


- The Flame is the counterpart to all of physical existence, so that makes sense as destruction, but you call it a "regenerative" force and under Fury you say it counters the "creation birthed by the Flame". So is the Flame a... recycling force? It breaks things down to build them anew?


- The Fury in its own description has the purpose of "sustain[ing] reality and existence, in a balance between creation and destruction" but under Frost you say "when The Fury has finished destroying all of reality, and The Flame has been stifled ..." If I'm understanding The Flame right, isn't it a balance between creation and destruction on its own? Is the purpose of the Fury to sustain reality or to destroy reality? Also, who is stifling The Flame? Are the Flame and the Fury at war with each other as well as just balancing each other?


- The Frost I think I get. It is a recycling sort of thing as well, but on a much larger scale than the Flame, right? The Flame recycles bits of the world (like death or natural disasters) to constantly keep the world fresh, but once it's concluded the Frost recycles the ENTIRETY of it to make a completely new world. Like Big Bang/Big Crunch level massive. Yes?


(Sorry, I know you are intentionally being a bit vague with this stuff so if any of it is supposed to be sort of unclear that's totally fine. I don't mind learning through plot!)


2) So, ignoring all aforementioned confusion and just settling on the fact that all three deities are destructions, what makes things? You talk about a balance between creation and destruction but it seems to me everything's just being torn apart. Is the Flame actually creating or is it just clearing the way for creation to occur?


3) When you talk about alchemy do you mean the sort of FMA take on alchemy (in terms of potential effects rather than method of casting)? We can turn X into Y and need to be creative with it from there?


4) Is fire accessible to Kindled? You said we have nature and the Ruin-users have the stuff that destroys nature, such as fire. Is fire on both lists? It does seem pretty natural (and pretty spark-themed), as does lightning.


5) Is following the religion enforced among the commonfolk? I know you said it was a theocracy, I was just wondering if there's any degree of religious tolerance or if there'll be some inquisition-like body dealing with non-magic using heretics. Or do they mostly not care as long as you aren't a Detractor/Smoke?


6) How do people come to the church to consume the spark and become Kindled? Can anyone do it? Are we selected by the church? If everyone can do it is there some reason why everyone doesn't? Are people raised in the church as sort of... non-magical acolytes or something until they're old enough to ingest the spark?


7) Is consuming the spark a literal spark that is literally eaten? What's the ritual like which (I assume) happens juuuust before the opening paragraph you have in the IC tab.


Sorry. Lots of questions. >_>

 

[FloatingAroundSpace]

I never got the alert that this was up...

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

@MadManInACan Maybe you should tag all of those who posted in the interest thread here, just in case they missed the post about the rp being up.

 

[Irianne]

Hypehypehypehypehypehype! I'm here too, and I am for real excited.
Edit: @MadManInACan Also I have a whole bunch of questions!


1) Ignoring Darkness, I'm a little unclear on the nature (and interaction) of the three deities we have. You say they are all forces of destruction, so that much I get.


- The Flame is the counterpart to all of physical existence, so that makes sense as destruction, but you call it a "regenerative" force and under Fury you say it counters the "creation birthed by the Flame". So is the Flame a... recycling force? It breaks things down to build them anew?


- The Fury in its own description has the purpose of "sustain[ing] reality and existence, in a balance between creation and destruction" but under Frost you say "when The Fury has finished destroying all of reality, and The Flame has been stifled ..." If I'm understanding The Flame right, isn't it a balance between creation and destruction on its own? Is the purpose of the Fury to sustain reality or to destroy reality? Also, who is stifling The Flame? Are the Flame and the Fury at war with each other as well as just balancing each other?


- The Frost I think I get. It is a recycling sort of thing as well, but on a much larger scale than the Flame, right? The Flame recycles bits of the world (like death or natural disasters) to constantly keep the world fresh, but once it's concluded the Frost recycles the ENTIRETY of it to make a completely new world. Like Big Bang/Big Crunch level massive. Yes?


(Sorry, I know you are intentionally being a bit vague with this stuff so if any of it is supposed to be sort of unclear that's totally fine. I don't mind learning through plot!)


2) So, ignoring all aforementioned confusion and just settling on the fact that all three deities are destructions, what makes things? You talk about a balance between creation and destruction but it seems to me everything's just being torn apart. Is the Flame actually creating or is it just clearing the way for creation to occur?


3) When you talk about alchemy do you mean the sort of FMA take on alchemy (in terms of potential effects rather than method of casting)? We can turn X into Y and need to be creative with it from there?


4) Is fire accessible to Kindled? You said we have nature and the Ruin-users have the stuff that destroys nature, such as fire. Is fire on both lists? It does seem pretty natural (and pretty spark-themed), as does lightning.


5) Is following the religion enforced among the commonfolk? I know you said it was a theocracy, I was just wondering if there's any degree of religious tolerance or if there'll be some inquisition-like body dealing with non-magic using heretics. Or do they mostly not care as long as you aren't a Detractor/Smoke?


6) How do people come to the church to consume the spark and become Kindled? Can anyone do it? Are we selected by the church? If everyone can do it is there some reason why everyone doesn't? Are people raised in the church as sort of... non-magical acolytes or something until they're old enough to ingest the spark?


7) Is consuming the spark a literal spark that is literally eaten? What's the ritual like which (I assume) happens juuuust before the opening paragraph you have in the IC tab.


Sorry. Lots of questions. >_>

And this! ^^ Sorry, you might not have gotten pinged for that. I thought tagging you would make it work even though it was an edit, but it makes sense that it didn't. I'll refrain from doing that in the future.

 

[MadManInACan]

Oh, wow. Lots of stuff. This'll be fun.


On the deities, I understand the confusion. Each God is an aspect of a bigger force, but each manifestation (Flame, Fury, Frost) acts on a bigger scale from the last. The Flame is harmonic, if a term is needed. It's destruction is required to maintain the natural order, which in itself is simply the balance between creation (physical reality) and the Flame. That's what the Natural Order is in this story. When I said the Fury maintains existence, I meant it acts as the opposing force to the natural order, sustaining all of existence. So, Flame is harmonic destruction, Fury is dissonant destruction, and the Frost is entropic destruction. So, in the end times (when the Fury overwhelms the natural order) and existence is pure destruction, the Frost destroys that (and itself) and everything starts anew.


On Creation, I'd say it's a naturally occurring process, creating a real dichotomy. The Flame is the metaphysical manifestation of the natural order, Creation is the physical force of life and you know, nature.


The rest will be revealed VERY EARLY in the story, so hurry up and apply so you can figure it out!

 

[Irianne]

Oh, wow. Lots of stuff. This'll be fun.
On the deities, I understand the confusion. Each God is an aspect of a bigger force, but each manifestation (Flame, Fury, Frost) acts on a bigger scale from the last. The Flame is harmonic, if a term is needed. It's destruction is required to maintain the natural order, which in itself is simply the balance between creation (physical reality) and the Flame. That's what the Natural Order is in this story. When I said the Fury maintains existence, I meant it acts as the opposing force to the natural order, sustaining all of existence. So, Flame is harmonic destruction, Fury is dissonant destruction, and the Frost is entropic destruction. So, in the end times (when the Fury overwhelms the natural order) and existence is pure destruction, the Frost destroys that (and itself) and everything starts anew.


On Creation, I'd say it's a naturally occurring process, creating a real dichotomy. The Flame is the metaphysical manifestation of the natural order, Creation is the physical force of life and you know, nature.


The rest will be revealed VERY EARLY in the story, so hurry up and apply so you can figure it out!

Okay, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification. As to the questions you said will be revealed soon, a couple of them were asked so that I can actually make a character. Namely:

5) Is following the religion enforced among the commonfolk? I know you said it was a theocracy, I was just wondering if there's any degree of religious tolerance or if there'll be some inquisition-like body dealing with non-magic using heretics. Or do they mostly not care as long as you aren't a Detractor/Smoke?
6) How do people come to the church to consume the spark and become Kindled? Can anyone do it? Are we selected by the church? If everyone can do it is there some reason why everyone doesn't? Are people raised in the church as sort of... non-magical acolytes or something until they're old enough to ingest the spark?

Seven paragraphs is an awful lot for a backstory where I don't really know anything about the life my character could have lived up until this point... I'm happy to just make stuff up, but it sounds like you already have the answers to these, which means it's very possible my made-up stuff will directly conflict with something in the world. And I hate having to rewrite my histories over and over because they were based on details that turned out to be untrue. I am already doing this in one RP at the moment, and it isn't fun.

 

[MadManInACan]

Oh, well I'm sure I can 'leak' it, lol. So no, the religion isn't enforced. In fact, a solid portion of the community happens to be nonreligious. Of course, most of them are Alchemists or members of the Church, or perhaps relatives of some. Regardless, the religious aren't too aggressive (can't be drawing too many parallels ) but there is (naturally) discrimination from this religion. That'd focused on Heretic's, Cultists, and any magi besides Kindled, Blaze, and whatever's in-between.


On the Spark, it's actually kind of a 'conquest'. The Alchemists of the middle-class covet the Spark as a means of saving their family's, gaining power, or simply learning magic. The recipe is entirely secret, and those who produce them are sworn to secrecy and made members of the Church. The whole 'seek the spark to light thou hearth' thing includes consuming the spark, as that is the only way any of those aforementioned motivations can come about. Magic is originally kindled by the spark, so you can't learn it without making one. Power is associated with magic, and selling one just makes you an enemy of the THE largest organization on Kindel. The only way to save your family (or yourself) from poverty is to join the Church, where pay checks are BIG.


Is that enough? Just PM me if more background information is required.

 

[MadManInACan]

Also:


@rusticyawn


@Irianne


@anonymous


@Amerikia1126


@Riversparks


@Sullivanity


@9forgotten


@NightFlame


@callmenox


@FloatingAroundSpace


@Uxie


@TheDragonMoon


This is that thread you saw. You know, the interest check that was sort of like Dark Souls but not really? If you wanna join or whatever, here it is.

 

[MadManInACan]

Oh, and did I mention there is a faction of lower-class extremists who go about killing people who don't believe or who are targeted by their religion? They're called Executioners.


Hehe, important details seem to have been forgotten.

 

[Amerikia1126]

Also:
@rusticyawn


@Irianne


@anonymous


@Amerikia1126


@Riversparks


@Sullivanity


@9forgotten


@NightFlame


@callmenox


@FloatingAroundSpace


@Uxie


@TheDragonMoon


This is that thread you saw. You know, the interest check that was sort of like Dark Souls but not really? If you wanna join or whatever, here it is.

Isn't dark souls that infamously hard game people always seem to complain about?

 

[FloatingAroundSpace]

@MadManInACan


I'm away from a laptop until the 10th so I won't be submitting until later.

 

[MadManInACan]

Yes, I heard someone draw a comparison between the two, lore-wise. Also, @Darkangel666


@Yaoke Saint


That is all.

 

[9forgotten]

coolio, I'll see


I'm semi busy with school and what not

 

[MadManInACan]

So, is this going somewhere, or is this all for naught?


Bump.

 

[Irianne]

Sorry -- had a quickly approaching deadline for a character sheet to another game, so I was focusing on that. I've just finished it, though. So now I can turn all my attention here.

 

[FloatingAroundSpace]

I'm going through a ton of group RPs and this is one of them that has been on the backburner. I'll get on it as soon as possible.

 

[MadManInACan]

Alright, just checking.

 

[Irianne]

@MadManInACan Are you going to be making a character as well or just running the world?

 

[MadManInACan]

I haven't decided yet, though I do intend to operate hosts of NPC's. Back on the Minecraft Forums (my old hunting ground), I was well-known for making what was (apparently) too many characters. Granted, none of them had any real depth (I was a noob, deal with it), but the statement stands.

 

[Charcoal]

Expect another CS soonish - Dark Souls really is. . . Just kinda consuming everything. This looks amazing by the way, bravo on the mysteriousness of it all. I assume you've got some serious cosmology to back this up.

 

[MadManInACan]

Like you wouldn't believe, big boy.

 

[Charcoal]

This gon' be fun; I have an obsession for making worlds like this with complex magical ideas and systems backing up the workings of it all, so it's refreshing to see someone else who has the same high standards.


Talking magic-wise, I know you said the scope of abilities is fairly wide. . . but where is it that we should think about stopping? Omnipotence is probably a good one to avoid (considering the track record THAT one has with good RP); but there are many levels of power below that which are probably best not to touch. I have an idea revolving around 'Locks' (in both the physical and metaphorical sense), but as I've thought about it I've realized just how wide the scope of power can get with it. I suppose my question is, how specialized should we try to be? Wizards have had a wide variety of different 'spectrums', some being able to do one or two things very well, whilst others have a much, much wider spectrum of powers and spells. Should we try to be 'a shapeshifter' or 'a druid'? 'A healer', or 'a cleric'? (Hopefully those examples make sense. . . ?)

 

[MadManInACan]

Basically, list all the ideas you have (and want) for your character's magical ability. I'll mull over it, and PM you the final thingy for how your magic will develop. You can give me your feedback, and we'll create a final outline. PM me at any time if you have any additional thoughts. I will PM this message to every person who gets an accepted application, so don't worry about confusion.


So, yeah! If you need more information on how to develop your character's backstory, just hit me up. I'm happy to help.


EDIT: And yeah, same. Creating an intricate magical world with special systems and complicated overlapping processes is one of my favorite past-times. If you wanna get in on the action, just PM me. I'm open to collaboration.