Sword and Sorcery and Romance (OOC)

[Lyonesse]

This is a fairly straightforward fantasy RP I developed at another site, only for it to pretty much die before it began because one of the other players weren’t advanced enough to carry a small RP, so I figured what better place to try again than on a site dedicated to advanced roleplaying. I’d be looking for a pretty small group, really only about three-four other people to keep things simple and keep the ball rolling. I would also be hoping for players open to a romance angle to the RP, although that would be secondary to the adventure.

For centuries, the prosperous island nation of Iselde has maintained its independence from wars and great empires that surround it by strength of an ancient and powerful magic. That magic is held within a great stone called the Eye of the Moon, which holds the power turn the tides and winds surrounding Iselde against any would be invaders. The stone itself is three tons and half buried in the innermost courtyard of the royal palace, guarded at all times and effectively safe from theft and threats. However, the stone’s powers can only be activated and controlled by someone of royal blood, and when the Princess Olwyn, the ailing king’s only daughter and heir to the throne is found missing from her chambers the stability and independence of Iselde are threatened.

The countryside is quickly torn apart searching for the girl, but not a trace is found until an Iseldan merchant returning from the coasts of the great Celaestan Empire claims to have seen the princess leaving a ship in the empire’s capital city, surrounded by Imperial Soldiers. The merchant captain’s words are soon supported by a vision from the royal soothsayer, who claims the princess is being held to the east and the north under the banner of a red star—the emblem of the Celaestan Empire. Desperate for the return of their princess and the future safety of their kingdom, but also sensitive to their perilous political situation, the king and the Royal Council bring together a small group to travel to the Celaestan Empire and search for Olwyn. Their mission is not to be known beyond the Council and the group itself, and they must act quietly, precisely, and above all, quickly to find and return the princess before any foreign nation can take advantage of Iselde’s weakness. Alone in a foreign land, chasing rumors and surrounded by enemies, this small group has only each other to trust as they race to protect their country.

Character Sheet

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Appearance: (descriptions and/or pictures accepted)
Personality:
History (make sure to include why your character is part of the group searching for the princess):
Skills (include magical and mundane):
Other (anything you'd like to include that didn't fit nicely elsewhere):

[Rea]

Name: Richard Corbeaux

Gender: Male

Age: 29

Appearance: Richard's a tall, broad-shouldered lad with gray-dusted brown hair. He is of a solid build and often wears a dower expression that is quite intimidating when coupled with the nasty scar etched just below his left eye. Were it not for his scar, his face would be a plain one that would hardly garner much recognition amongst a crowd.

Personality: Cynical, pragmatic, and intolerant.

History: Richard was brought up as the son of notable lord, and as such, was raised with a number of comforts not afforded to many others. At the age of ten he was sent away to his uncle's (also a lord) to serve under him as a squire. A few more years and he would kneel down, say his vows, and become a knight under his father's banner.

As the third child out of four, Richard never had many aspirations other than becoming a knight. His eldest brother Henry was destined to rule their house after their father's passing, and his other brother Jonas was slated to hold a castle in their family's name--once he reached a proper age, of course. Since their father wasn't especially wealthy, that was about all that could be said for inherentence. Richard and his younger brother Joseph were closer to one another than they were to their older siblings, but Joseph contracted a fever during a particularly harsh winter when he was only six years old; he fought it for two weeks, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

Richard grew bitter after the tragedy and stayed that way for a long time. Anyone that attempted to interact with him was met with an unshakeable wall of apathy, and as for his family, though he had some love for his mother, his resentment of his brothers, for the simple reason of they being older than him, would fester like a sore wound for years.

Being a knight, Richard would go on to participate in many battles, winning the reputation of an earnest soldier. In one battle or another he lost his helm in the middle of a fight and ended up being clipped in the face by the edge of a blade. After a few more years, boarder skirmishes would end up leaving a stale taste in his mouth, and after that he deserted without anyone really noticing.

Despite his apparent A.W.O.L. status, the former knight still provides his services here and there, but never takes a job he doesn't think is worth the risk. One day he was approached in a tavern by a messenger that offered a sack of gold if he would be willing to raise his sword in service of the king. Though the mission sounded like one with little gurrauntee of success, it had been a big bag of gold, so he took it.

Skills: He's a skilled fighter with a variety of weapons (including his fists) and a competetnt survivalist as well. Common sense is something he takes pride in having and applies regularly.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

If need be I can swap out for a female character. I wrote a sheet for both, then I was so torn I flipped a coin. Lol.

So, not set in stone:


Name: Rothlen "Seto" d'Miir

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Appearance: Copper-skinned and blue-eyed, Rothlen has oily hair of deep walnut-brown. He stands a hand shorter than average, and lithely built, he doesn't look particularly strong. His face is defined by lines about his mouth at the corners of his eyes, and by a receding hairline to either side of a window's peak. He wears his hair down to his shoulder blades, kept back by a simple leather strap.

Personality: Slow to decision, stubborn once he's made one, cautious when facing the unknown, yet impulsive when he's sure he's right. Tends to want to play peacemaker.

History: Rothlen is the bastard son of a minor noble, Sedric d'Miir; one night, after much drink, he chanced upon an outlander, penniless but proud. The details of the night were never related, but months later Sedric tracked her down and discovered she was with child. He had her incarcerated for a petty crime, and took the child back with him to raise as his own.

This was not the first, nor last, time Sedric fostered illegitimate heirs; his own wife was barren. The child of the outlander he named Rothlen. The boy became a black mark to his record, however, as his interracial ethnicity was apparent. Sedric continued to mount up such scandals, until the fatal repercussions of one laid waste to himself and his house, leaving nothing to his children.

Shortly before the fall of House d'Miir (which became a loudly proclaimed event throughout Iselde) Rothlen's mother, the outlander, came to him. She persuaded him to escape from his father and come with her, to learn the ways of her people. She raised him to live off the land, to hunt, and to fend for himself in the wild, as well as many of her own people's traditions. She also gave him a name of her people, Seto, refusing to call him by his first given name.

The majority of the d'Miir Bastards (as they are called) have a very ill reputation, having been raised in wealth and cast violently into poverty. Rothlen disassociates himself from the lot of them, referring to himself as Rothlen Seto, or simply Seto. He also frequently avoids towns, preferring the wild as his mother taught him before she died.

Rothlen has heard nothing of the royal princess or the quest of yet, but fate has yet to run its course.

Skills: Archery, wilderness survival, tracking, flageolet playing.

Other: a flageolet is a small flutelike instrument resembling a recorder but with four finger holes on top and two thumb holes below.

[Lyonesse]

Here's my character. She's sort of a sea-based druid rather than your typical earth/forest-based ones.

Name: Catrin Morgan
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Appearance:

Spoiler:

Catrin is tall for a woman and fitter than most as well due to her active lifestyle. Her skin is tanned and freckled from the sun. She has a few scars, especially across her hands and fingers from working on a ship. She has a much larger scar bisecting her lower abdomen.

Personality: Once, Catrin was a wild and passionate creature, recklessly seeking adventure and new experiences. Then tragedy struck and she lost quite a lot of the joy for life that had once defined her. These days, she presents herself as open but strictly professional, with a charm only extending as far as any merchant’s. She can be brusque and prefers to bypass pleasantries and idle chat in favor of getting down to important matters. She’s still a restless soul, never liking to stay in one place for too long, but now it’s more of a way to run from her memories than to find her next adventure. She rarely loses her temper, but that’s one part of her passionate nature that remains intact, and when she rages it’s fiercer than any tempest.

Background: Catrin and her family are from the Dragon Bone islands off of Iselde proper. They have been making their living off the seas for as long as anyone can remember, originally as fishermen, but more recently they’ve prospered into a dynasty of merchants, travelling the length and breadth of the continent importing and exporting goods from anywhere and everywhere. Catrin spent her first few years living on the islands with her mother and older brother while her father travelled, but when Catrin was four her mother caught a fever and died soon after. From then on she and her brother travelled with their father on his flagship, journeying farther than most Iseldans could ever dream of. Growing up amongst sailors and very few women, Catrin became quite the tomboy, learning to gamble, drink, swear and even fight with a knife and sword.
At seventeen she fell in love with the first mate of one of her father’s ships and quickly married him. As a wedding gift her father promoted her husband to captain and gave the couple their own ship and they set off on a trade route north around Herada to trade in northern Solraire. On their way back to Iselde, the ship was attacked by pirates and nearly destroyed. Catrin lost her husband and nearly lost her own life on an enemy’s sword. It was only when she was being treated by a doctor did she find out that she had been pregnant and her wounds had killed the unborn child. Traumatized by it all, Catrin became more emotionally withdrawn. She continued to work for her father, even after he quarreled with the Royal Council over tariffs and taxes on imported goods. She even helped the family commit some minor smuggling in Iselde and other countries. She seemed content with the life, unconcerned about life outside of the family business, even when the Crown Princess vanished. However, it was her older brother who claims to have seen the princess captive in Celaestus, which inadvertently pulls Catrin into the search for the missing princess.

Skills: Sailing and swimming, business and trade. Catrin also has a few small bits of magic mostly based around water and wind, things that have run in her family for centuries and helped them excel on the seas. She’s usually limited to moving small amounts of water around or creating small breezes, neither of which are terribly useful. She can hold her breath in water for longer than most, up to about twenty minutes at the most. She also has a strong connection to the animals of the seas and shores, especially mammals and birds.

Other:

[Crain_S]

Name: Enya (means "Little Fire")
Gender: Female
Age: 34
Appearance: Tall and fair of hair and eye, Enya is a high-bred woman of sophistication. She is the very picture of propriety and social grace. Due to her prestigious position in the palace, she has little need or desire to explore the world outside of her books and the palace grounds, and her perfectly manicured nails and styled hair are always with the height of fashion. Though Enya will clothe herself in the colors of the season and the times, she gravitates towards the warmer palettes and is most often in shades of red and yellow.



Personality: Enya takes herself, her position and her craft very seriously, feeling there is little-to-no room for frivolity when dealing with the powers of Nature herself. In her free time, she can be pleasant company, but is quick to revert to her role as an instructor. Some would say that it is impossible to let their hair down around her.

As an acquaintance, Enya is always polite and proper, but as a friend, to those few who can make the claim to be her friend, she is fierce and loyal. She has spent many years as the confidant to the queen and the princess and one could not ask for a better keeper for their secrets.

History: Enya was hired as Princess Olwyn’s tutor and mentor once the royal daughter had begun the transformation from young girl to young woman. Enya was first a nanny, and then a lady in waiting, becoming a permanent fixture in the young woman’s life. Their relationship had moved from teacher/student to friends rather quickly as Olwyn’s spark of life and need for adventure was perfectly balanced with Enya’s insistence on propriety and following the rules. They were a good influence on each other, and spent most days together.

It was no secret that Enya was a skilled Fire Mage with a secondary power of Air, trained in the third Tower of Iselde. These skills only made her more perfect as a companion to the princess, as it made her able to protect the princess during their travel and short trips through the kingdom. Though it was unlikely that anyone with evil intent could get close enough to the princess to harm her, it was never wise to tempt the fates and Enya acted as a deterrent and insurance policy against those who might bear ill will towards the royal family.

Her position as friend and protector only made the kidnapping a sharper slap to Enya’s face when it was discovered that the princess had been stolen from her bedchambers directly across the hall from the mage. Upon learning of her failure to protect the daughter of the King, Enya flew into a fiery rage, flame bursting forth from her cursing mouth as she swore terrible (and anatomically improbable) vengeance upon any who took part in the princess’ abduction.

Once she had calmed to a seething anger, the mage had worked with the king’s closest advisor to discretely recruit skilled persons to seek and retrieve the princess from wherever she had been taken. Enya had insisted that she also accompany the group, against the king’s advice and better judgment, as her magics would prove invaluable in locating the princess and ensuring that any opposition that stood against them would not remain standing for long. While she does not intend to lead the group as she has little experience in commanding a party, Enya has every intention of making sure that the group does nothing to jeopardize their chances of finding and rescuing the princess.

Skills: Enya is a Fire mage of the fourth order, Master of Calling (Creating fire by will alone), Shaping (manipulating fire that is already in existence), Thermomancy (manipulation of heat/temperature), and Radiance (conjuring heatless light). She is also an Air mage of the first order, Master of Breath (moving air). She has skill in ritual craft and spells relating to her elemental powers, and knowledge of the basic spells available to those with endowed blood.

Enya is proficient with a rapier and more accurate than not with throwing knives.

As a scholar of etiquette, Enya is knowledgeable of local custom and culture and the various dialects of the region.

Other: Mage rank is determined by the skills they master. A Fire mage who is master of Calling and Shaping is the same rank as a Master of Thermomancy and Radiance. Each element has a series of skills to master, though the nature of each skill varies greatly by the element.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

Heh... character modeled after Sarah Brightman. I've seen the music video where she wore that dress.

[Crain_S]

I have not seen this video but I thought she was gorgeous. Perfect for a kick-ass mage.

[Lyonesse]

Awesome characters, everyone. I'll get an in character thread up for us tomorrow.

[Crain_S]

Awwww, falsities and untruths! I was excited about starting today.

[Lyonesse]

Blame DigitalMuse! She conned me into writing a post for another RP. It's all her fault, I swear. I knew I shouldn't listen to her, but she's so darn crafty like that. I WILL do it tomorrow, I promise.

[Crain_S]

So at last the identity of the word witch is revealed!! I shall plot accordingly...

[Hello Danger]

Name: Alec Underwood
Gender: Male
Age: 27

Appearance:
(pic to come)
Height - 5’11
Weight - 170 lbs,
Hair - stringy, unkempt, dark brown and to his shoulders
Eyes - golden brown
Build - thin, lean, and fit.

Personality: Charming, devil-may-care, ego-centric, determined, rebellious, and suspicious.

History:
Born to the streets Alec grew up hard and quick. He was forced to turn to a life of fighting and crime to survive. At the age of sixteen Alec looked to join a local gang of petty thieves and scoundrels, but first he had to prove himself. They tasked him with sneaking into the castle and bringing back a chipped piece off the kingdoms most sacred possession, the Eye of the Moon. Young Alec didn’t even get close enough to sniff the precious stone before he was overwhelmed by the palace’s guard. He was imprisoned and never heard from again…


Alec groaned as he slowly pushed himself up from the cell’s cobblestone floor. His vision was blurry, and his head was throbbing from where he had been knocked unconscious.

“You’re alive, I see,” a voice came from behind him.

Alec moaned, rubbing the back of his neck, as he set up to glance behind him. There was an older man curiously watching him from a wooden chair. He looked and smelt of nobility. Likely military, Alec thought noting the collection of medals that adorned the man’s coat.

“These?” He gestured at the assortment. “Honorably earned serving our great kingdom. Observant, aren’t you.”

Young Alec stood and examined his surroundings. There was no way out, just three walls of stone and a fourth made of iron bars. The boy turned back to the stranger.

“Not hard to tell you don’t belong here,” he finally spoke. “How long you going to keep me here?”

“That’s completely up to you, Alec.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you want from your life?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said still confused about the situation.

“Sure you do. What do you want in life? Think about it.”

Alec thought about the question for a moment. “I want to survive.”

The older man nodded with a slight grin. “Of course, but man isn’t just a simple animal, Alec. We need a purpose, a surface, and a reason for being.”

The boy remained silent only listening.

“What will you do once you’re free, Alec? How much time will pass before you’re right back behind these bars? How long before you wind up dead, just another nameless corpse in some back alley that never amounted to a damn thing? I can offer you a way out, a way to make your life meaningful.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Serve your kingdom.”


Alec was recruited into the King’s secret group of spies, the Hand of the Moon, a group of agents trained in rogue-tactics. For four years he apprenticed and at the age of twenty he became a field operative. After seven years of work no knight in the King’s court would have ever dirtied their hands with, Alec received his most important mission yet, rescue the recently kidnapped princess.


Skills: Sneaking, thieving, fighting, lock-picking, small blades, archery, poisons, disguise, lute playing, and singing.

Other: Typically disguises himself as traveling bard.

[Lyonesse]

The IC is up.

Told you I would get it done today, now post away peoples.

[Hello Danger]

Should we come up with a name for the IC thread?

[Lyonesse]

If you'd like. I suck at titles, so if anyone else has suggestions feel free to air them.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

You're not the only one who sucks at titles... if I think of anything I'll post it but, for now, nothing has come to mind.

FYI all, I may not be posting pretty much until our ship is just leaving for the mainland, so don't wait up.

[Lyonesse]

You could make an intro post Kyrt, maybe detailing why your character decides to stowaway and what he's been doing before hand. Things like that.

[Rea]

She's right. My character probably won't meet up with the others for a while, but that's no reason not to post. It helps move things along.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

Point taken.

[Kyrt Malthorn]

That said, I'm having trouble at the moment. I tried two different approaches, one of them three different ways. Never got more than three paragraphs before I hated it.

[Lyonesse]

Happens to us all, Kyrt.

[Rea]

Persistence!

[Crain_S]

Generic words of encouragement!

[Hello Danger]

I'm some what having the same issue with my intro post. Not sure which way to go with it, but I should have it up this weekend

As far as the title we could always name it

The Eye of the Moon: Lost Princess

or something lol

[Kyrt Malthorn]

I like the theme, could also go with "Daughter of the Moon". Whether "Lost-" or "Seekers of-" or something along those lines.

Well, if you guys haven't seen a post after today don't expect anything 'til Monday. I'll be away from home for the weekend.

[Hello Danger]

Posted.

I somewhat rushed it, but I was at work and was having an issue trying to figure out how to introduce the character. Best I could come up with :/

[Lyonesse]

Yay! I'm glad we got everyone's first posts up. That said, I'm not likely to get another post up until after Christmas. Stuff is just too busy right now. If you guys feel you have another post in you though, feel free. Happy Holidays!

[Crain_S]

knock-knock...who's there...NOBODY.

Where did the players go?

[Kyrt Malthorn]

Wondering the same thing...

[Hello Danger]

me three

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