The Muses Guild

[Harper]

The Muses Guild

“Learn your place,” they said. They’d slap down those rulers and I’d spend my time in class daydreaming, sketching, and losing my mind.

One day my gaze sidled over to the window, I watched the glass melt away and the thorn bushes step inside.

Then my pencil started moving across the page.

It got glued to a math text book and my hand flew across the page. The teacher noticed and squealed, the portly old woman a traditionalist. “Learn your place!”

I was fifteen and terrified. I couldn’t tell what I wrote, the symbols came down in a language I didn’t understand. I finished and tapped my pencil to the paper.

The window boiled. Vines exploded into the classroom and students screamed. Everyone fled, a security alarm went off and I wet my pants. I looked at the marks I left on the book and realized what I did.

I ran. The classroom filled with weeds. I got so scared I hid in the woman’s bathroom and then in desperation erased the marks off the math notebook. Then I blinked. I sat at my desk, the world unchanged. My head throbbed.

A week later, a phone call came. A man by the name of Dreydus told me, “Welcome to the Muses Guild, lad. Time to learn your place.”

That was fifteen years ago, I’ve learned since then.

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The Muses Guild isn’t, admittedly, an original idea. It uses the theme of a character able to bring his writing to life. These people are chosen not by blood ties, but randomly across the world at different times and different ages. Some live for hundreds of years, others die in minutes. On average, for every hundred millionth person there is one Muse. These Muses, like any writer, specialize in one form of writing or another.

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The Three Available Classes

Prose Writer: Prose writers (novelists, playwrights, essayist, etc.) take the longest to conjure an invocation, but its effects last the longest, are hardest to erase, and usually the most powerful. Their invocations reshape the world or the mindset of the people, but rarely have an absolute singular affect on an individual. They lace their work with the invocation as they write it, the effort only costing them as they write. But their invocation does not take effect until they finish the piece and activate it by tapping the bottom of the prose piece’s last page.

Bards: Poets of the moment, these Muses merely speak the right words and it immediately takes effect. But, as the vice versa to prose, their effects are fickle and often never last longer than a few seconds. Their invocations usually directly affect the people around them or themselves. They have the most control of their invocations, but cannot prepare invocations beforehand.

Poets: The middle ground and most complex writer. Their effects don’t last as long as prose, but they can be formed quicker and on occasion (depending on the skill of the poet) be stronger than prose. However, unlike the other two approaches, poetry is unpredictable as any form of it can have a hundred meanings or none. Poets activate there’s by tapping the page, but they do not need to finish the poem to invoke it’s power.

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Three Factors that Affect a Muse’s Power: Age, Talent, and (yes) Sex

Age: Obviously, anyone gets better with practice and time, so as a Muse grows older the more experienced he/she becomes. Age is also important, as a Muse can only specialize in one class, but the older he/she becomes the more he/she can dabble in the other two classes.

Talent: Muses are born with talent. The most talented will discover their powers at a young age with little actual experience as a writer. However, “talented” Muses usually die accidentally within months of discovering their powers, and will drain their lifespan if they survive that first chaotic year (they live no more than fifty years).

Sex: Genders play a skewed role and one that is not definitive. Rather, consider these generalizations that will apply to the average muse of one gender or another.
• Males: Men tend to be less sporadic in their writing and less romantic. They are pragmatic and consider their writing as such. They are best suited to prose and rarely become bards. If a man is a poet, his poetry will often face real world concepts and commentaries rather than abstraction, he will write in meter, but not always in rhyme. Most male bards will discover their powers early, and will often still recite in some restrictive meter—they have high talent and a short lifespan (this is inspired by the fact most famous bards of the old days were castrated so they never lost the voice of their youth). Older prose writers can write full scale allegories that can affect the mindset of generations.
• Females: Women tend to be the opposite of men. Better suited to being inspired by the moment, they make for bards rather than prose writers. Though they have no problem writing prose, they will often embellish it with romanticism male prose writers would shun for simplicity (meaning it takes women longer to achieve their desired effect and it could be stronger or weaker because of it). Their poetry rhymes more than male poets, and they are more comfortable with free verse. Older female bards are the most powerful female Muses—they may change the course of an event with a few words, or completely rewrite lives by reciting an epic over the course of three days.

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Other Restrictions

Dreydus: The enigmatic “leader” of the Muses. He’s a master of all three classes, and his age is as unconfirmed as his sex. Anytime Dreydus appears before the Muses he is concealed in a shroud and his voice shifts pitches and tones sporadically (unless he’s reciting, then it takes the tone of an old woman). I will be using Dreydus as a moderator, a God whose only actions will be to limit and punish (or outright kill, if necessary) players who push boundaries too much without decent reason (For example, poets are often unpredictable, but if a player always has his character have exactly what he wants to happen to him/her then Dreydus will kill him/her for the player’s general douchebaggery).

Psychosis: A Muse’s powers drain them spiritually and emotionally, if they do too much too soon they will suffer first throbbing headaches, then short bouts of depression, manic depression, epileptic fits, and finally full dementia (which will be treated as a death of the character). Bard and Prose Writers rarely overreach (as a seizure would certainly stop them), but constant pushing will inevitably weaken them (all three can only do so much in a given amount of time) and will leave the character with permanent psychosis (which can lead to suicide, paranoia, delusions, panic attacks, etc.) Poets never feel any effects until they activate their invocation (whether it’s a finished poem or not), so they may get blown over with all the effects (often the combination of the first four will lead to suicide before they reach the fifth stage). The talent/age of a Muse will determine how much any one invocation may affect them.

Erasing: Destroying the ink or erasing the scratchings of a pencil will completely undo whatever invocation a Muse makes. This is a panic button, however, as erasing will be even more taxing than letting the invocation go through. If they do erase they will loop through time before the moment the event occurred. Bards cannot erase, but they have the most control over their powers and since they usually affect people directly they can hide their effects better. Prose Writers will find it incredibly taxing (and it might kill them even) as they will have to go back farther than any other Muse. Erasing is an all or nothing thing as well, you cannot take back half an invocation.

Other Muses: If two Muses come to blows it becomes a battle of wills. Prose writers in this sense work through preparation, writing novels, stories, and articles they may save to invoke. Thus a young prose writer is often doomed against anyone but someone of the same age and class. Bards do well at any age—older female bards are the most powerful, though—but they will never be able to prepare any invocation beforehand. Poets are a middle ground again, but still explosively unpredictable. In a battle, opposing invocations will be a matter of wills, and whoever can survive the taxation of the spirit longest will win (creativity of the invocation never hurts, though). If two players can’t determine what character gets the upper hand, then Dreydus will intervene (he doesn’t like losing Muses considering their rarity).

Society’s Expectations: Finally, Dreydus also won’t allow for the sprouting of mountains in Downtown Manhattan, or the turning of water into wine in front of a live television audience. Muses must keep their powers an absolute secret or must seek out Dreydus’ and ask his permission to reveal their secret to a loved one (upon which Dreydus will make them swear themselves to secrecy). If not, Dreydus will erase their effects and punish them—he will outright kill multiple offenders, whether they made the invocation on accident or not.

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The Rules

• Don’t embellish your character to be a world-changing power (whatever the case may be, Dreydus can obliterate you in an instant for so much as walking across a public pond).

• Play fairly, your character doesn’t need to win every conflict, and the RP as a whole should be more important than any one player.

• If your character does die or reach a point of no-more-playability, relax and just PM me if you want back into the game. We’ll create a new character and return you to the fold.

• You do not need to write or describe every piece of writing your character uses to make an invocation. In fact you don’t have to describe any of them, but if you wish to share a piece of the prose, a stanza of a poem, or the lines of a recitation you can. I would encourage it to help embellish your post a little more, but it is never a requirement.

• Read other players posts! Make sure to keep up with the story so you don’t blow off any player or forget something that’s happened. If you do make a mistake someone will let you know in the OOC and you will have a few days to fix it (barring any emergencies that might keep you away, if so just PM me and we’ll work something out).

• Follow the restrictions and respect other players and their characters (if not, Dreydus will kill you and you won’t get a chance to jump back in).

• We won’t go in any particular order, but if you are in the middle of interacting with a character, and you or them don’t respond within fifteen days I will send a PM as a reminder. If you do not post within the month (barring a valid excuse) Dreydus will intervene and throw the lagging character aside so the other character may continue. If the procrastinating player returns he may jump back in with his current character or create another.

• Be clever, your character won’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you’re going or what you’re doing. Engage other characters and make sure to do your part to keep the story going.

• Don’t forget to have fun!

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Story Outline

The setting is modern day and can take place anywhere in the world. The Muses will have a headquarters/temple in the catacombs under Paris. What I’m thinking as a basic plotline is a conflict among two groups of muses. One that wishes to reveal its powers and one that wishes to remain a secret. The more ambitious of the two groups knows it cannot defeat Dreydus (yet) and is focused on finding out the source of his power while making the other muses “disappear”. But, since Dreydus can still eradicate them all at once, they must be incredibly subtle. Anything too direct will turn Dreydus’ attention to the character(s) and could end disastrously. As an absolute, though, we’ll hammer out a story as we go along and in the OOC.

[YenWen]

I'm all for it :3

[Chainlinc3]

I'm not gonna lie, this greatly intrigues me. A few questions though:

1: Are we actually going to need to write the invocations for our characters? Because I'm leaning towards a poet, but I SUCK at poetry.

2: How literal is a Muse's power? For example, if a poet copied down "The Raven," is it going to cause a quasi-flashback moment, or something more... subtle?

3: This is more curiosity, but why is only writing represented by the Muses? Do no other forms of art have an effect?

[Harper]

I'm not gonna lie, this greatly intrigues me. A few questions though:

1: Are we actually going to need to write the invocations for our characters? Because I'm leaning towards a poet, but I SUCK at poetry.

2: How literal is a Muse's power? For example, if a poet copied down "The Raven," is it going to cause a quasi-flashback moment, or something more... subtle?

3: This is more curiosity, but why is only writing represented by the Muses? Do no other forms of art have an effect?

Thanks for your interest and the feedback! I mentioned in the rules that if you want to write a piece of the invocation up for the RP then you may to embellish it, but this is not necessary. The only thing you need to do is describe the effects of the invocation and give a title of the written piece (if you're not a bard). This is done so other readers can get an initial idea of what may happen as you make your invocation. But no, you do not need to provide a piece of the writing for your invocation.

As for using past works, I have no problem with this, but as with poetry its a freeform of interpretation. The more well known a poem is and the more complex its meaning (such as "The Raven" or Robert Frost's "Birches") the more dangerous and unpredictable the invocation will be. The shorter the poetry the more direct its effects, the longer the more unpredictable. In the OOC we'll hammer out a more concrete way of deciding this. The only rule right now on past writing works is that your Muse must rewrite them with their own pen or pencil, so this is obviously more effective for poets.

And why I only chose these three broad classes was to insure a more effective checks and balance system. Adding more would complicate the classes more and more and would make an equal balance amongst all the classes harder to achieve.

And if anyone has anymore questions don't be afraid to ask!

[skull_mech]

Some things to clarify.

I'm still a bit unsure by the powers of these muses. They can be physical manifestations, created out of thin air. But how exactly does a muse battle? Do they fight like wizards and necromancers? Can their powers affect each other other? For example what if a Prose or a Poet tap their works that recite about the life and/or hardships of a mute to a Bard. Will the bard be mute and thus automatically lose? Likewise a Bard may recite of paralysis to either two, not allowing them to 'tap' their works.

Speaking of the muses' works, by just stating the title(fictional or not) and their effects and he/she can use his powers? Also other than amount of uses, should the amount of works be limited to their different age groups as well? A 20 year old prose may have 2-4 written books max as compared to a 30 year old with 5-7 books max. Not just to limit the amount of times they could use their powers but the amount of powers they could invoke as well.

Seeing as how things must be kept secret, is there like a special arena for these battles? Cause I can't imagine the muses being spared from Dreydus after obliterating a whole street from their 'special' musings.


More towards the story already, seeing as how the muses may originate from all over the world, may I suggest an event that begets the muses to gather to perhaps some kind of altar or old ruins for a meeting or research on their powers as well as info of who Dreydus may be as well as his/her weaknesses should he/she have any. Because if there has to be a reason for the muses from all over the world to interact.

Lastly, is there a school for young muses?

[Harper]

Okay, I'll hit these one at a time.

1. Prose writers go into a battle with their invocations prepared. If they want something direct they use a short paragraph. They need only to focus on their target, activate the invocation, and the effects take place. They can't directly change or harm a person unless the person is mentioned in the writing, but they can morph a landscape or affect people through generalizations. If a Prose writer were to make an attack on a known enemy, then they could have invocations prepared, and can use the same invocation multiple times (until it grows too taxing). If the other Muse counters then it comes to a matter of who gives in first (usually once the headaches start they will allow the other invocation to counter theirs). As for bards, they affect people better than the landscape with their invocations, and are more direct. If they sing or utter something with the intent of an invocation, it activates. They can make someone burst into flames or destroy their mind. However, with prose writers and poets, they will often have at least one temporary ward invoked to protect them should a battle breakout. Bards will usually mutter a cant of protection if they feel themselves to be in danger. Poets can affect people as easily as the landscape, but have no control in their intent. Once the poem is invoked it does whatever the invoker believes it will do or anyone else who has read it (this is why most poetry that has multiple themes and meanings can be unpredictable and dangerous). But more complex pieces from poets and pw's and singing from bards can offer the most radical changes in a person or environment. Say a poet writes a narrative poem or a pw a novel of a warrior companion who traveled with them, this warrior would be conjured to help them but would leave a constant tax on the poet/pw. Because there are so few, a Muses death is usually done in a complicated fashion to throw off Dreydus, usually if Muese fight they don't kill each other for fear of Dreydus coming after them (proof of the murder of one Muse is punishable by death).

2. I don't expect everyone to be willing to write out what exactly their invoking, but I want them to give a title and a description of the piece to give the reader a fair idea of what they're invoking beforehand. Poets and pw's must tap the bottom of their last page with the pen or pencil they wrote the piece in to activate their invocation, and bards must have a conscious intent with theirs. Talent and age determine how often someone may make an invocation. The more talented a Muse the shorter his lifespan. In the Guild length of time a part of the guild determines prestige amongst the Muses, so age helps there, but it does not make you the strongest. As for how many different invocations they have it depends on the class. Pw’s depend on the age, poets the talent and age, and bards talent and then (for the older ones) age.

3. As for where disputes are settled, the “official” way is to take it to Dreydus. Because a Muse doesn’t wish for Dreydus to notice, they will often back stab their peers and try and kill them before they have a chance to fight back. Remember, subtlety is key. Dreydus is supposed to be all powerful, but he isn’t omnipotent. If they do come to blows, the Muses will restrain themselves until they come to someplace suitably abandoned (an old warehouse, a forest, etc.). There are other hideouts and ruins, but I want that to be created in the OOC and RP as we go along, so that the players may flesh out the world. And I have mentioned a home for the Muses hidden under the catacombs in Paris, but I’m also adding one in Tibet, and in Argentina to have them more spread out. Once a new Muse is discovered (since there is no more than fifty to seventy in the in the world at one time) they all meet in their Parisian headquarters to induct the new member. He/she is then assigned a mentor of the same class to mentor him/her for ten years. Since there are so few, there is no need for an actual school for young muses.

Anything else, just let me know.

[Copper.eyes]

I find this really fascinating and would love to join as a female poet. I'm a little confused as to how we are going to start it like are we all grown adults or are we children who don't know our powers?

[Harper]

Wow, and here I honestly gave up on this. If the title entry above confuses you, it was used as a hook. But the assumption is the muses range from 16 to (say...) 300, if you want you can be a young muse who's just been inducted. I'll send out a pm to those who also showed interest, if I can get one more player I'll have an ooc and the rp up within a few days after our last player signs on.

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