Fantasy Vanguard: What little Remains

[SAIGO-NO-HEATS]

Once you were just like everyone else, or so they tell you, Until you died. Horrifically, Violently, Randomly, just like so many others in the eternal war between long dead nations. Unlike them however, something saw fit to bring you back. To make you more. Now you are a Vanguard. Beyond mortal men your powers and feats can turn tides and inspire millions. Nations will rally behind you, believing that you could be the one to deliver them from the eternal darkness. And like all Vanguard who came before you, you will fail, and you will die.
Or will you be the one to break the cycle?...

So what is this actually?:​

Hello all! I'll keep this short and sweet instead of my normal massive walls of text. Basically I normally run fairly grounded war based RPs based on the world wars. However I wanted to do something edgier and flashier for once, but still keep some of the stuff I like, hence this:

In this RP you will take the role of a "Vanguard" obviously. Soldiers, civilians, normal people who have been killed in the "Eternal War" basically an amalgamation of WW1 and 2 that has lasted roughly a century and left the world in a near apocalyptic state. Since the first days of the war something has been dragging people back from the dead, and granting them incredible powers (In my mind I mostly use the Servants from "Fate/GO" as a reference for power level, though RWBY's huntsman also come to mind.) and driving them to face one another in battle. No one knows why, and the only connecting thread is that the reborn all died in particularly terrible ways, and have some sort of intense drive and reason to keep fighting when the come back.

I'd also like to include some lite-nation building elements to explore what the world has become. The world and tech as I imagine it is very steampunk/dieselpunk dystopian, and the familiar nations of the world have been destroyed and reformed many times over, and Vanguard themselves are often seen as symbols, if not the explicit leaders of, these new nations by virtue of strength alone. So I'd personally like to explore those countries a bit.

The RP on the whole is meant to be fairly action heavy, with duels and major battles being common. But downtime between battles will also be lengthy to let characters interact and get to know each other outside of the bloodshed. Ideally aiming for an even mix of combat and downtime

If this sounds interesting, I have a lot more ideas for setting details so feel free to ask anything or share your own thoughts!

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

If the post requirements aren't too much
I shall join

 

[SAIGO-NO-HEATS]

If the post requirements aren't too much
I shall join

Length wise I don’t usually have a requirement.

I tend to write towards the longer end, but I get that a lot of people find it easier to write more briefly. As long as the writing is legible and gives other writers enough to work with it’s all good by me.

activity-wise I’d prefer to try for at least 1 post a day, but obviously work and life get in the way so I won’t usually bring it up unless a poster has gone a week without a response.

Trying to keep the RP enjoyable and active is the main priority in both cases.

 

[Argead]

This seems like a fun rp idea and I would definitely be interested in joining.

 

[Top11]

Interested

 

[Goonfire]

That’s neat. I’d like to post a CS ASAP.

 

[Tattletale]

Seems cool, I'd like to know more but I'm interested in joining.

 

[SAIGO-NO-HEATS]

Seems cool, I'd like to know more but I'm interested in joining.

Sure, what would you like to know?

That’s neat. I’d like to post a CS ASAP.

Sounds good, I’ll have a cs up after work!

 

[Glassred]

interested~

 

[Jackson123]

This concepts sounds pretty interesting

 

[Tattletale]

Sure, what would you like to know?

A bit more about the main factions involved in the war, the role our characters could have in them (or outside of them if going rogue is an option), and seeing the CS.
Again, it seems a very interesting setting!

 

[Elenion Aura]

Super neat concept! I’m interested

 

[SAIGO-NO-HEATS]

A bit more about the main factions involved in the war, the role our characters could have in them (or outside of them if going rogue is an option), and seeing the CS.
Again, it seems a very interesting setting!

I was actually trying to leave leave the finer details of the setting purposefully vague so that people could fill those in as they create the characters, but I'll give some more of what I've thought up. Here's a scatter shot of some ideas I'm playing with, though they aren't necessarily set in stone:

• So the war began with something similar to our own version of WW1, with the big players being some version of the German Empire fighting some version of the French republic, and all the usual allies you'd expect on either side. Neither of those nations and none of those allies have survived up to this point, although something may have grown up to replace them in the place where they once stood.
• On the whole, the world is in a bad place, with the what states that exist mostly either being totalitarian police states or barely functioning anarchist territories only vaguely united in the effort to keep one or more of the aforementioned nightmare states from making things worse. While more moderate nations have existed, they tend to not be very big, and not to last very long. A Vanguard who is rogue would likely be aligned with, or at least live inside of, one of these anarchist "Free territories." There's no place on the planet, all the way up to the poles, that hasn't been scared by the fighting.
• An example nation, and the one I will likely make as part of my character's backstory, would be the Sorelian National Worker's State, which occupies most of the area of France, Belgium, and the German Rhineland, is intended to be one of the main antagonists for any factions in Europe and is effectively a surveillance state in the Vein of 1984's Oceania, but dressed up in the style of the 19th century Revolutionary France. They fight a "Crusade of Liberation" against anyone and everything in the name of a Vanguard named Sorel, who they claim is all-seeing, immortal, and invincible despite no one having seen him since a failed attempt to conquer Europe nearly 70 years ago. As you can probably guess, Public executions of "Enemies of the Revolution" via Guillotine are a daily occurrence, both as a warning, and a method of mass entertainment. Most Large nations are in a similar place.
• Vanguard on the whole are pretty much free to do as they please. Mortals can't hope to challenge them in anything even close to a fair fight, and a nation that doesn't have one on its side is a nation that isn't going to exist for very long, so the people will often bend over backwards in order to keep one on their side. This naturally leads to many becoming the de facto rulers of a state, or at least national icons, and even those who don't care for that kind of life will often find that people will travel for miles just to live nearby them for safety, which is usually what gives birth to a free territory in the first place.
• The most powerful nations are the ones with the most Vanguard protecting them, but this also leads to a problem, and one that only the Vanguard themselves are truly aware of. Vanguard have a supernatural, instinctual need to kill each other. They can hold it back and suppress it through their own will for a time, for the sake of alliances or personal bonds, but eventually one must destroy the other until only one Vanguard remains at the peak.

 

[Tattletale]

Looks very promising, I'd love to join in then.

 

[Tetro]

Interested!