Good ol' High Fantasy

[Artorius]

Look, I'm going to be honest about what I want here, a fantasy RP. I'm willing to discuss plot, setting, all of that, I just want to get involved in RPing again. Especially in a fantasy setting.

[Knifey Keith]

I'm going to be honest about the fact that it's exactly what I want as well.

I myself have an idea in the works but… It might be hard to get the lobotomy club interested.

[Desert Sands]

I have multiple ideas in mind, and I love fantasy.

[Artorius]

Alright, so throw ideas at me, I have a couple myself, but let's hear it.

[Desert Sands]

Well, I am slowly trying to write a short story intro for my first idea, but here it is. We have kingdom which has lost has lost a vibrant and charismatic heir ten years ago. It is bordered by two squabbling empires, each of which are at war with the other and want access through the mountain passes that border it on the west and east. While it is still powerful the incident which slew the prince has caused extended external squabbling causing some of its leading lights to come back raiding the northwestern coast, or go mad and delve in necromancy. If this wasn't enough, a shadowy dark force from the northwest has emerged and poses the greatest threat to all surface dwellers.


The second is more of magic based fantasy, where magic is the dominate force of the land. The continent is mostly desert with scattered inhabitable plateaus and mountain ranges. A few nomadic tribes rule the desert and raid the more civilized highlanders. The sole exception is the kingdom in the desert that exists solely due to the magical might of the Water mages, which are the considered the most valuable and powerful of any magic sect. The have created an oasis paradise as a the capital of their rather indirect rule.

However, the recent and continuing development of airships are threatening the status quo, and some of the mountain kingdoms are agitating against the water mage dominance. In the background is movement in the primary religion of mother sun, father dark sect which also has a legendary enclave in the desert.

Third is more a steampunk sorcery fantasy dominated by mechs. (Everyone loves a good mech roleplay, and if they don't, don't tell me!) We have a recently fallen empire that spanned the richest third of the world. Squabbling kingdoms are emerging with tentative borders, but war is ongoing. A discovery in the wastelands on the other side of the continent has caused the emergence of a desert people intent on conquering the world, and only a powerful highland kingdom separates the two and are pressured on both sides.

I can be more definite if anyone is interested in these, but I don't want to wax on forever describing each idea.

[Artorius]

I think we could work with the first two either together or apart. Do you have a Skype, or YIM?
EDIT: Or even a gmail.

[Desert Sands]

Desert_Sands00 - Skype

[Knifey Keith]

Am I invited or…? Yoos only goin 2up?

[Desert Sands]

You are welcome to join. This is just for developing some ideas.

[Knifey Keith]

Fair nuff Jim, I have an idea myself; just let us know via PM if it's not needed and I'll try to catch up with your ideas.

[Artorius]

Any ideas are welcome, post it here. And if you have a skype or some kind of messenger service please post as well.

[Desert Sands]

When do you want to talk about it?

[Artorius]

I'm online right now

[Desert Sands]

Ok, I am usually online a lot, but why don't we just start developing some ideas on this thread?

[Kail DeWraith]

I'm very interested! I'm not sure if there is room still but I would love to get involved in some High Fantasy

[Desert Sands]

Well nothing is firmed out yet, unless Artorius has an idea in mind. Which one do you like best?

[Artorius]

Kali you're welcome to join us. I'm still sketching out a rough story but I was thinking it'd be something like this.

A loooooong time ago, in time immemorial, the world was prosperous and advanced. Society's success was based on elemental magicks- fire, water, earth, and wind. However, it wasn't long until others became jealous of these elementals and their status in society. These others resorted to using the dark arts in organized coups around the world. For a time, it seemed as if this anarchy was successful. The kingdoms of the world were plunged into a dark period of rule under these dark mages. A leader rose from among them to become the supreme ruler of the world. His name was (need to figure out a name).

Yet, a leader also rose from among the oppressed. He was a young man a fire elemental of great power. This young man faced the leader of the dark mages in elemental combat. However, in the course of their battle, their powers yielded only a stalemate. The fire elemental, unable to live under the tyranny of the dark mages, sacrificed his body in a great flame(kind of like a nuclear bomb in destructive power) and destroyed the old world.

Now, the world is mostly a vast desert, ruled by aristocratic water elementals. Fire elementals are the outcasts of society, spurned and bullied for the actions of the legendary "hero". The others are simply treated as ordinary citizens. Meanwhile, it is rumored that the dark mages are rising again, to subdue the haughty water mages and their kingdoms. Other legends also swirl about the vast desert, legends of an ancient invention which could be used to travel through time and prevent the fire elemental from destroying the world in the first place. How are the two related? Which is more important? Which is true?

Well that's about what I have right now, I'm going to ask for a yeah, or nay on this one. So, YES? or NO? Or what would you do to tweak it?

[Desert Sands]

I am not sure I like the time traveling bit myself. Time travel usually ends up as a gigantic mess, but a revival of the old world is close to the same thing in my mind and is less messy. Other than that, I can work with it. A few questions on what makes a dark mage a dark mage. Maybe blood magic and sacrifice or worshiping the dark or something? Or more of a old school gritty tyrrany?

[Ruu]

~This looks really interesting to me as well! Would I be able to join?

[Artorius]

I am not sure I like the time traveling bit myself. Time travel usually ends up as a gigantic mess, but a revival of the old world is close to the same thing in my mind and is less messy. Other than that, I can work with it. A few questions on what makes a dark mage a dark mage. Maybe blood magic and sacrifice or worshiping the dark or something? Or more of a old school gritty tyrrany?

As I said, just a rough sketch. And okay, maybe we'll go a little cliche. There's an object which can grant anyone one wish! What do you think?

~This looks really interesting to me as well! Would I be able to join?

Go ahead Ruu, I'd be delighted to have you join.

[Desert Sands]

Hmm, we can have a device rumored to do anything. It would be kinda of funny to have it not do anything, but have it become like Dumbo's magic feather.

Edit: As long as I get my airship, I am happy.

[Ruu]

~Awesome! I'm glad to be part of this!

[Desert Sands]

The Hyperion-

(If I could draw the sketch would be here)

The Hyperion is the first of its kind, a full-sized airship, a true feat of novel engineering and magical might. 600 yards long and 250 yards wide, it contains two full-sized decks as well as a large cargo hold and is capable of powered flight. It maintains elevation through a lightly armored gas envelope, and the surrounding superstructure enables it to use sails to increase speed and maneuvering, while four engine nacelles mounted directly under and aft of the gas envelope provide enough propulsion to make headway even directly facing into the wind. The normal crew compliment is 58, with an additional 12 marines. It somehow looks insect-like, almost as if a beetle were upside-down and then inverted.

I will be making between two and three characters, a wind-mage navigator, and earth-mage engineer and fire-mage cook. (P.S. Don’t piss of the cook!)

What do you think?

[Artorius]

Sounds good! Do either Ruu, Kali DeWraith, or Knifey Keith have any objections?

[Ruu]

Nope, no objections. Sounds good to me.

[Desert Sands]

Ill post my character sheets later today if i get a chance, and everyone else can get a feeling on my thinking, and see if we want to change it.

[Kail DeWraith]

This sounds awesome! I'm definitely excited about this RP.

One question, will there be room for a fighter/warrior type character in this?

[Desert Sands]

I am fine with that, the airship is going to have some marines for safety. There are both airborne threats (like gryphon/wyvern riders and assorted flying reptiles) and ground based threats from everyone who wants one of the new airships.

[Desert Sands]

Here is the one for fire mage


Marko Sands
Age:19
Gender: Male
Race: Human (Mixed-blood)

Appearance: Sands has a shaven head and craggy features. While his green eyes on another man might be attractive, the gleaming chips of emerald just seem menacing on Sands. He has an angular but broken nose, and scar on his right cheekbone. His skin is a pale golden brown and has black hair shot with gray (when it grows in), and scraggly beard (when he doesn’t shave). He has three gold thick hoops tight around his right upper ear, and two in his left upper ear. A ruby in a gold setting dangles from the bottom of his right ear, and a diamond from his left. He prefers to wear a classic French chef’s hat, which is an off-white and slightly worn, and often has an old gnarled oak pipe between his lips.

Sands is 6’ 1” and still growing. He has yet to fully fill out his large frame and looks slightly wiry, despite the lean muscle fighting and brawling has given him. His fingers and knuckles are heavily scarred and callused from fighting as well as cooking. He has been recently forced to wear the bronze arm torc of the fire mage, with an engraved salamander, an indication of being largely self-taught. He also has a distinctive tattoo of stylized flames on the right side of his chest, back and upper quarter of his right arm. If on stares at it enough, either a cage of flames or a multitude of faces can be perceived in the slowly shifting and changing tattoo.

Personality: Sands is quite cheerfully insane. He is generally quite happy go lucky, but has a temper and is capable of holding grudges. He is rough natured and prefers rough and coarse humor, especially practical jokes. He takes seriously few things, which include but are not limited to cleanliness of his kitchen, specifically vermin, and the food he serves. He is also hopelessly in love with the navigator, Lady Illiah Vespasian. Sands loves cats, and keeps one tom in the galley. Other personal oddities is his instance on shaving his head and beard, a growing consumption and tolerance of alcohol, primarily his instance on having a good brawl, and his instance on sleeping in the galley hold for food, on a constant prowl for filchers.

History [Abridged]: Sands rarely talks about his early history and could quite possibly be from any medium sized town on the continent, or indeed, even another one. His father was a semi-nomadic wandering mage, with great skills in crafting and enchanting items. He too liked a good brawl and few kegs of ale. The wandering suited both the civic authorities of town, given the collateral damage after said alcohol consumption, and his wife, who also didn’t approve of him burning down her bakery, again. Sands’ mother was a kindly tyrant and demanded the best of her boy. Mischievous in his youth, Sands got more than the occasional cuff for causing trouble, but was a bright boy with a rather practical education in running an bakery and small restaurant. Unusually for someone among the middle class, he got a thorough education in mathematics and writing from his mother, and some basics of magic from his father.

The town was largely destroyed in a magical conflict when Sands was thirteen. The populace was scattered from the conflict, and Sands found neither his mother or his father in the immediate aftermath. A ‘merchant,’ Gerald Carrera, traveling along with a ‘caravan’ found the boy on the way to sell his sundry ‘goods’ and appreciated the Sands inherent toughness and stubbornness and adopted him to become his new cabin boy.

A notable point of his life aboard the rather notorious and somewhat inconsistent pirate ship, Lucia, was an attempted mutiny. During a rather chaotic moment, Sands ended it below decks in a rather entertaining showdown between the old fat cook and himself by beating the man silly and then hauling/pushing the fat bastard overboard. The promise of better food was a great help after the ruthless suppression of the unruly pirates. Afterward, Sands earned both the respect and trepidation of the crew for the variable quality of the food depending on his mood and who had crossed him. In a year, the crew feared crossing the cook more than the captain, as the latter would only kill them, while the former would regret ever being alive after a few ‘punishment’ meals.

An important note to consider was the targets of the Lucia. Carrera was known as the Serpent Slayer, purposefully ransacking any and all water mage ships he came across, and any noble owned shipping regardless of their magical power. Due to this proclivity, the crew was both notorious and rich for only going after the fattest, and most protected prizes. Sadly, and ill -conceived plundering attempt of a joint project ship, Star Sapphire, between the noble house of Vespasian, an ancient, rich, and influential house of Air mages, and a council of the Earth-maged ruled city of Rakan’dar, carrying both valuable gems among other things essential to the development of a workable airship.

The conflict caused a rather impressive conflict between Carrera’s ship mage, and the combined three mages aboard the Star Sapphire, which he ultimately lost, but managed to get the cripple Lucia close enough to board. Sands was in the second wave over, safeguarding his precious spices and cutlery. A wayward magical blast destroyed his spices and sent the cutlery overboard. However, the final straw was the shredding of his precious chef’s hat. Sands went ballistic, and almost lost a magical battle with a much more experienced and tutored Illiah Vespasian, who was knocked out by a passing pirate. She was gagged and bound but otherwise unharmed by the victorious pirate crew, due to the threats of the cook they knew better to cross, especially after the loss of his precious cooking gear. Sands fell in love with her almost immediately.

Carrera, without enough men to run the ship, brokered a deal with the remaining crew for release in return for work. Furthermore, seeing an opportunity to gain more power, he brokered a negotiated a deal with the rich an influential Vespasian House and the mage’s council at Rakan’dar to turn legit, protecting their ships instead of looting them in exchange for half the cargo and support for a title in the free city of Coral. While no love is lost between the three separate entities, they accepted the deal. Sands prevailed upon his captain and adopted father to follow his love as an escort. Carrera agreed, by parlaying his adopted son as a hostage for good behavior.

Sands became useful at Rakan’dar in the construction of the airship during a chance meeting with one of the design engineers, Arlan Coos, at bar. Intrigued at stories the young teen was telling, Arlan decided to listen and drink with Sands. The next morning, Arlan blearily woke up to Sands and stone cell. The reason being that Sands demonstrated some magic was unregistered, showing none of the required signs of being a fire mage. Arlan did some fast talking, required Sands to become registered and understand the attendant prevailing customs of the continent in return for no charges and the ‘secret’ of something the vast majority of mages thought was impossible from tradition, the inversion of an element. Sands agreed as long as he was attached as the cook to the ship in hopes of following his beloved Illiah. The cold stones were the result of a neat trick, bypassing some inviolable laws of magic. The engraving enchantment became integral to the design of the airship and its engineering.

He is currently still ardently pursuing Illiah as the head cook of the Hyperion.

[Ruu]

~Looks great! I was thinking of creating a youthful water mage who was kidnapped by pirates, and in the process temporarily loses his memory. He is sold as a slave and soon ends up not freed, but serving as an apprentice on the ship for one of the crew members, pressed into service for five years. So I was wondering if anyone would like for him to be their character's apprentice. His lot is better as an apprentice than a slave, though not much better. Part of his story would involve him being a member of the Vespasian house (though a very distant cousin of Illiah so she wouldn't recognize him) and him regaining his memories as the RP moved on.

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