The Runes of Aera

[Artorius]

Background
King Tyrel of house Bermont; the name brought mockery to everyone’s lips 70 years ago. “The Immortal King”, as some call him now, was responsible for the unification and rise of High Aera after the Great War. Previously comprising a confederation of four kingdoms, an empire known as Arvak, and many smaller nations, Tyrel sought to unite the whole continent under a single banner and thus put an end to all conflict. An impossible dream for any man, but Tyrel was not just any man. Somehow, the future king of High Aera had procured himself the secret of immortality and a plethora of arcana. The discovery of this new magic allowed him to build an army of loyal followers, most of who supported Tyrel’s idea of a world united in peace. The war lasted seven years, finding its end with the demise of Arvak’s then emperor,
Maximilian Drakenguard, at the hands of Ser Robert of Galadia: Tyrel’s most trusted friend and lieutenant. This was followed by a period of reconstruction and establishment, when Tyrel’s vision rose as a single entity of progress, and technology and arcana flourished without bounds. “High Aera” he called it, honoring his dead wife’s name.

Thus, being immortal, Tyrel would rule his new kingdom forevermore, always working to ensure the consummation of his so called “World at Peace”. Tyrel’s utopia would not come with ease, however, as he still had to quell the hatred among the several cultures and their people. To do this, he would have to force a single identity throughout the realm: a process which would take eons to complete. Also, he was sure that those who still supported the old ways would rise against him and fight to restore the world to what it once was. Truly, the road to the “real High Aera” would be a long, difficult one.

World

High Aera is the vast kingdom on the Great Continent. It consists of four regions, an icy north, a tropical south, a desert east, and a forested west. Each region houses a unique culture, with unique customs and peoples. Before the unification under the immortal king, the regions were warring feudal states with several feudal lords and dozens of small villages and towns dotting the countryside. This feudal landscape still dominates the continent.

Races

Your basic Tolkien line up, humans, elves, dwarves, to include werewolves, and vampires.

Character Sheet:

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Race: (see existing races, you may make your own, but please PM me the details so I may add it to the list)
Appearance:
Arsenal:
Bio:(2 paragraphs please. At the least. More is welcome.)

Rules

You guys know the rules, I'm trusting you.

Other

I made it barebones because we've discussed everything. I also trust you all since this is a private RP. LETS PLAY!

[striDer]

Name: Arya Valenfor

Age: 13 (at the start of the story)

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Appearance: Blonde, fair complexion, nimble build, and beautiful delicate features. Her eyes are a grayish tone of green, always compassionate and sweet. As for her attires, it would depend on the occasion, but she’s usually seen wearing a green ribbon on her hair, a tight-fitting dark green doublet, and dark breeches with high boots.

Arsenal: The only weapon at her disposal is a rune over her left shoulder-blade, which in the common tongue reads as “Earth”.

Bio: Arya comes from a rich family; House Valenfor of Evereth. It was her grandfather who supported King Tyrel’s rebellion, thus granting them the riches that they now enjoy. Evereth is located on the West, named after one of Robert of Galadia´s daughters.

Arya has had her fair share of mistakes throughout life. She’s been involved in almost every kind of juvenile screwup, but this has only made her smarter, wiser, as she is one to learn from her mistakes and not wallow in them. Plus, she now has a whole lot of adventures to tell.

[Torturous Flame]

Personality -0
Name: Lady Sara Clemence of the South Coast
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Race: Human with a bit of Elven blood
Appearance: Young woman standing at five feet tall, light caramel colored skin that is indicative of a southern costal birth. She has a small face with high cheekbones and almond shaped hazel eyes. She has long brown hair that hangs over her face on once side, hiding part of her left eye. She goes barefoot or wears a pair of sandals with strings that wrap up her calf. Generally she wears a deep blue wrap dress with green trim, the colors of her native culture. She has green wraps around her hands and up her forearms; these hide her runes, which are engraved on her forearms. On her left forearm is her first rune, the fire rune; on the other arm is the instinct rune.
Arsenal: Two runes, Instinct and Fire, a sword with a strength rune and a bow with the serenity rune. She specializes in her magic though, she can’t use the sword or bow well but she just ‘likes having them around’. She is rudimentary with both the bow and the sword but very skilled with her fire magic.
Bio: Sara was born into the wealthy noble family of the South Coastal Fief, which had been one of the most rebellious fiefs because of the area’s very rich native culture. The Clemence family was ancient ruling family of the natives in the area and had been allowed to say in power in an attempt to quell the dissatisfaction coming from the native population. Around the time Sara turned eight the rebellion had begun to start up again with her parents as the center. They were against the empire trying to assimilate their people into the culture he had decided on, and the people agreed. For a year it was uneventful then a month after Sara turned nine the empire came for her parents. A maid hid her in a kitchen cupboard and told the guards that she had drowned a couple of months earlier.

The new leaders of the fief took her in and provided for her, raising her as a true noble. She found that she enjoyed the pretty dresses and the makeup, but there was something else she needed. She secretly studied magic under the general of their regiment and soon her surrogate father was convinced to make her the political ambassador to accompany the regiment. She decided to try for another rune. It went well, though she kept having these weird blank spots in her memory, oh well.
She never realized that the second rune gave her Dissociative Identity Disorder. She can remember bits and pieces from when her other personalities are in control, people and places. But she is very vague on what she did and said.

Personality-1

Name: Gabrielle
Age: 2
Gender: Female
Appearance: Prefers her hair in a loose ponytail with her hair parted to the side.
Arsenal: A bow with the serenity rune and rudimentary magic, but she is a master with the bow.
Bio: Woke up after Sara got her instinct rune. Is the quiet and ethical personality type who can harness the eyesight and coordination aspects of the instinct rune. Finds Aden obnoxious and immature.

Personality-2

Name: Aden
Age: 2
Appearance: Aden prefers high ponytails.
Arsenal: A sword with the strength rune and rudimentary fire magic.
Bio: Woke up after Sara got the instinct rune. Aden is the aggressive personality who can harness the coordination and strength from the instinct rune. Can’t stand Gabrielle.

[AnlmA]

Name: Jonathan Graves (Archer, The Shadow)
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Appearance: Brown/dark green cloaks. Short brown hair usually covered by a hood. Closely cropped but scraggly beard. Pale blue eyes. Relatively stocky, 5’10 170 pounds. Pale skin, indicative of long winters and little sunlight. Graves is always cloaked and hides his appearance as best as possible. After all, well known men are dead men.
Arsenal: While wielding no magic, Graves maintains a longbow, short sword, and knives. He wears leather armor and is capable of fighting with either hand. He can both throw and fight in close quarters with his knives and is capable of handling a sword although he’d much prefer to use his longbow to pick off enemies. He is also in possession of a full lockpicking kit, and general thieves tools.

Bio: Jonathan Graves was born to a blacksmith in a northern feudal hold. His parents were strict conformists that fully embraced the uniformity of the so called “Immortal King.” He displayed distaste for the rules and regulations that were thrust upon him and his friends at an early age acting out by stealing from market stalls and causing trouble in the hold. The final straw came when one of his friends was brutally “disciplined” by the guards of the hold after he had been caught stealing. Jonathan waited for the summer and “borrowed” supplies from the local craftsmen and merchants as well as his father’s shop. One night he simply vanished from his house, leaving no trace as too his whereabouts. He was ten at the time.

Graves moved from village to village in the north, heading wherever there were merchants to steal from. He soon crossed over the southern border of the icy north into the woodlands of western Aera. He settled in the largest hold, emaciated, from long periods spent without food on his journey south, a journey that took two years. He began to thieve his way through the hold, garnering the nickname The Shadow. His talent for pickpocketing and stealing soon caught the attention of the local thieves guild. He learned many different skills with the guild, from lockpicking to knife fighting. He learned how to throw and fight hand to hand with daggers of all shapes and sizes. His fame as an independent thief made him the envy of some of the older members of the guild and they plotted to kill him. Before they could act on this plot though, Graves discovered their intentions and vanished in the dead of night.

He began wandering the countryside, moving from fief to fief, before stumbling upon a resistance group that was hiding in the woodland hills. He took up with them providing them with his basic skills as a blacksmith in exchange for shelter and survival training. This is where Graves picked up his true calling, the bow. At an early point in his training Graves displayed a remarkable talent for archery. His bowmanship quickly surpassed that of his teachers in the Western Wolves, the resistance group he had joined, and he began to teach himself. He practiced for hours at a time, shooting until his muscles could no longer pull back the drawstring, and his fingers were caked with blood from drawing the bow back hundreds of times. He took time off from shooting to join every hunting party that delved into the woodlands in search of food and became an expert tracker. Of course he also repaired the group’s equipment to the best of his ability when needed, but the rangers were mostly self-sufficient, and took care of their own gear whenever possible. The Wolves hunted the trade convoys and small cohorts of soldiers tirelessly when they passed throughout the countryside, picking off stragglers and hounding the Immortal King’s attempts at subjugating the western woodlands of Aera.

By the time Graves was 25 he had begun using the nickname Archer in favor of his own. He had gained precious experience fighting against the Immortal King’s troops, and learned even more in the course of his day to day activities with the Wolves. But the Wolves luck was about to run out. The Immortal King had begun to pay closer attention to the Wolves as their notoriety grew and he began to ruthlessly hunt them with his legions. The Wolves were fast, they moved from camp to camp, always a step ahead of the soldiers of the kingdom, but luck didn’t hold out forever. They were moving to a new camp when the legion struck, coming at the Wolves with magic, powerful magic. The Wolves were slaughtered, Archer fought desperately for his life, taking down countless soldiers before slipping off into the darkness of the forest. Alive, and defeated, Archer vowed to never attempt to use magic, no matter the cost. He had seen his friends, his adopted family, torn to pieces and burned alive. His hatred for the Immortal King had reached a boiling point.

Ever since that day Archer has spent his time wandering from fief to fief. Throughout the icy north of his birthplace and the forested woodlands of his adopted home, honing his skills, and preparing for a chance to present itself.

[Artorius]

Name: Ser Monte Allsace-Valenfor

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance:


Arsenal: A large claymore, marked with the rune for wind. Monte also has a long knife hidden in his boot.

Bio: Ser Monte was born to the noble house Allsace in former Arvak. His family long served as vassals to house Drakenguard. The house had a long tradition of breeding knights of the realm; a very strange characteristic indeed considering the difficulty of attempting to harness the power of runes. Local legend has it that the Allsace bloodline held the key to successfully harnessing this power. According to Allsace tradition, all males of age were to choose a weapon, carve a rune into it, and prove themselves to attain knighthood. Young Monte was no different.

The nobleman, had he been born before the Great War, would have been a great warrior, however, he had to prove himself in the joust, spar, and other war games. He is a swordsman of great skill with his claymore, but has seen limited real battle. Now nineteen and with little life experience, Monte has been summoned to represent his house at the High Aera Summit.

[striDer]

UPDATE 06/05/12 - Got first post up, then changed the 5 year skip to 12 as requested by Torturous Flame. For those of you who are lost as to what to post, well: those characters whose families were mentioned should attend the summit with their families. Those without a family could be around the area, could even attempt to assassinate Tyrel, but the thing is the sh#$ will hit the fan soon and I need everyone in the city where the summit is being held.

IMPORTANT FACT: Our characters don't necessarily need to meet up with one another, just be at the city. If you want to meet up, that's valid as well.

[striDer]

UPDATE 06/22/12 : Changed Arya's age from 17 to 13.

[Artorius]

New post is up! Feel free to interact and have actions before the twelve year skip! Just make sure you mark them at such so none of us get confused. Have at it!

[striDer]

UPDATE 07/07/2012: New post is up. Do not ask me what your characters should do, as this is an RP and not a fanfic I'm writing. I've already set up multiple scenarios with multiple possibilities, so you just need a little initiative and I'm sure we'll pull through.

I apologize if I'm coming off too strong, but as far as I'm concerned, no one is telling me what to do and I'm just creating the world as I go, and I'm not even the RP master, hahaha. So as long as no one breaks any rules or does something utterly ridiculous, you can have at it as far as your creativity can take it.

Also, feel free to use ANY character with the exception of Arya and the other main ones we posted in this thread. Just be sure you keep 'em in character, as it wouldn't make sense if suddenly Tyrel rode pink ponies and Jon of Galadia became a homosexual pedophile or something like that. That is all.

Any doubts, suggestions, complaints, etc...speak up and don't keep it to yourselves. Cheers.


UPDATE 7/15/2012: There was a mixup, but it's been fixed: South Coastal Fief is loyal to the Immortal King, so I edited the post with the desert fortress attack in it.

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