Well, it's an interesting name, to say the least. I probably would have said "shape shifter" out of ignorant nostalgia. But anyway, self-transformation would fall under the Summoning Branch:
Fethala basreyavu
The [highlight]Summoning branch of magic will take the targeted element from a pre-existing state in the world and form or enhance it in some way[/highlight]. The Natural Element encompasses all physical matter and natural phenomena, from the brilliance of fire, to spikes of lightning, to malevolent or pacified water and the very body. The magic will focus on the invoker.
If you used Destruction on yourself, you would either be hurt or kill yourself It would be interesting to see if someone could think of a spell use for aferre basreyavu that helped the caster, though.
Well, I already read about the eternal rain section. I meant more of the ones that left and live with the humans. Do they disguise themselves as humans? Do they co-exist in society (work together)? Do the Asrai keep to their own kind? Does the rebelion except the Asrai? Do they except them equally? Are they looked down upon or even seen in high regard?
Well, a few things should be taken in to consideration. After that, your innate inductive reasoning should hopefully lead you to some conclusions.
1) The Asrai are not the favorites of Aboron, the only area you should be concerned about going in to this RP, and are killed off by the ruling party.
2) If they did not want to be killed, what do you think they would do? Would it be a good idea to all gather in one place outside of the magically-protected Realm of Eternal Rain? Would that gather more attention? If found out, would more Asrai be killed in one swift action than if they were separated?
3) Since most of the Asrai obviously do not leave the Realm, Asrai outside of the Realm are, by generation, less and less Asrilli and more and more human. What would this mean in relation to the question "Do they have to disguise themselves"? Would it mean that the need to disguise is not pressing? Does this become a non-issue since we're not dealing with pure Asrai?
4) What do you think of the old adage "if they're not against you, they're with you"? What do you think that would imply with the laboring base of Aboron being discontent with leadership? Would not the Asrai have the same enemy? Would they bother discriminating against each other in the face of such persecution and tyranny?
Obviously, none of the answers to any of these questions could ever be absolute. If they were, the story would be very boring with little wiggle-room for side quests and NPC's.
Sorry for all of the questions. I know you are trying to keep a lot secret for now. I'm tryin to create my back story and I want it to be accurate.
If you'd like, you could just PM me what you have so far and I can see if I can help you. I understand the Asrai can be difficult to work with.
Essentially, whenever I have a question about something I'm about to write I think "why is this the way it is, how did it come to be this way, and how could it play out in the future?" as well as "what would I, as a logical human being, do in such a circumstance?". As long as it isn't far-fetched, it will probably be fine. If it's outside the norm but works well you could very well be stimulating all of our imaginations and that could lead to interesting scenarios.
Alright, now I updated my character a little
Tell me what you think of it
I think it's good you're trying different things out and I enjoyed how you explored the situations presented to your character more fully. Doing so will only help strengthen what your character is or isn't.
My only question is what is the context? Is this battle at Nyord Sardi, which hasn't started yet (since the RP hasn't started yet) or is this a scene of resistance we're glimpsing from another time in Aboron, in another place? I am going to assume the latter since you mentioned encampments, but I just want to be sure (because battlefields also make use of encampments).
Also, people really don't kill other people without equal or surpassing motives. Why did he kill so many if he can't remember his motives? What is really driving him to murder fellow humans when he can't recall the wrongs against him (direct or indirect)?
Is there any kind of social conflict between the Asrai and the humans?
It's not so much social conflict as isolationism keeping them apart. You see, for the past couple hundred years, the Asrai have, at large, been wiped out by the various corrupt Counts and Countesses of Aboron. I can't tell you why, though, or it would ruin some villains goals. Sorry
I didn't really want to say this ahead of time, but, well, if you look at the map, to the west of Aboron is a large area isolated by mountains and a sea to the south from most nearly everything. This is the Realm of Eternal Rain, where the Asrai now isolate themselves. Since the only real way out of the Realm is that area there, they have to cross through Aboron to escape. Which means that they would most likely be killed.
So, essentially, there are two reasons why they do not bother leaving. The primary reason (if you read their page) is that if they "breath the same air mortals do", which basically means live among mortals, they lose their mortality. They view mortality as a disease that you will catch if you are near mortals. The second reason is that they obviously don't stand much a chance leaving.
So, furthermore, since they have been largely absent from the rest of the world for a long time, their presence is basically unknown to the rest of Amyorne except in legends and myths. As for Aboron, well, the peasants get a good lump sum of gold if they turn in an Asrai to authorities, so, well, I bet you can fill in the lines there.
(Although there are obviously Asrai roaming about here and there, but they are not immortal like pure Asrai and are often part or largely human. This last fact often makes them indistinguishable from humans so no difference is usually noted.)
I hope that answers your question
This looks really cool seth. I really like how the layout is and everything. To bad i dont really do that much stuff. If i had time i would be able to do it. But im kinda busy. =] so yeah. Good luck. and if you need anything feel free to ask.
Thanks and will do. Although Jetrall may be compensating for my artistic skill and updating it some time in the future. I'd encourage a heavy thanks to him if that ever happens
Whoops, I take it back. My character is done
Might not be the longest story but I think it's nice
Well, it's unfortunate that some form of amnesia won't let us know the full story, but that is certainly good enough. If you ever feel the ambition until the start of the RP, you can add more in, if you'd like Good job.
It looks like I've gotten confirmation from Zhar, Turmobil, Donsro, scyberdragon, and, I think, Jetrall. I guess that's the basic majority so I'll put up the character creation thread momentarily.
If you are recieving this message, it is because you have professed interest in an RP I am starting, Days of Amyorne. This was the official thread.
Progress Update
For a few weeks now I have been scarce on updates regarding it besides the occasional detailed post in the thread. I want to assure everyone that I was diligently working on the RDBMS for the site and the content to mix in. Currently, I have three working volumes, which each contain various sub-groupings of storyline material, to get through, although the precise ending is not finished yet.
The site is viewable here. It will contain the brunt of material to keep threads in the RP section here light and efficient. If anyone really cares, I'm working on adding a commenting system to the site, but no promises yet.
If I manage to get a confirmation back from all seven of you, I will create the character creation and OOC threads immediately and we can began laying out the personal foundations of the RP.
Here's to hoping for a great and engaging adventure- I am looking forward to what everyone manages to contribute.
-Seth
As soon as I get responses from the majority, I'll post the Character Creation thread. You can start now, but be aware that you may have to make changes to it.
My external CSS looks like crap and it isn't well-commented, but if you want to, I would appreciate it heavily I'd just have to update the footer with credit to you for the layout whenever it's ready. I guess the easiest thing would be to PM you the FTP details?
Edit~
There are now officially seven players (excluding myself) professing interest. At this moment, new applicants are not being made. I will be sending PM's to those who have professed interest and if anyone is not interested anymore it will be opened back up.
Update: The RP now has a name- Days of Amyorne. This will make more sense, hopefully, as the story progresses. The site is also now up here. See the news post on the home page for what I have done so far and what I have planned so far. (I realize the layout is ugly- I am not a designer, lol.) (Yes, the entire website is completely database-centric.)
Anyway, the basics of what the first volume will cover are laid out here. I'm working on race pages and other such things, but I can't put too much up yet or the surprise element of some of it will be ruined.
The Old Religion is a specific way of studying and understanding magic. There are other ways of viewing it, but they all must maintain similar basics. The magic you are describing would fit under the Force element (there are three elements- Natural, Spectral, and Force). If you want explanations of that:
Natural- this includes all nature-born forces, like fire, lightning, water, wind, regeneration of physical things (like bodies and broken objects- I have some theory written down on this if you'd like to read it), and so forth. The Asrai believed that all natural forces, forces of nature, are interrelated and thus inseparable.
Spectral- this includes other-worldly forces, such as any power or force that sustains the dead after their rightful ending, inflicts damage on the soul, or controls will. Anything not physically representable- where the infinitely complex mind and soul are concerned.
Force - this will apply to any force that does not fit under the other two elements- meaning that it has no physical representation, goes against the natural laws, and that it does not affect the will or essence of mortality/immortality. This would include your basic telekinetic, telephonic, and so forth aspects. This realm of magic was created after the Coming of Consciousness, meaning it is an invention of the man-like races and is specific to them (this cannot be used by any non-humanoid being).
There are two other levels, one lower and one higher, which determine the use and incantation of magic, but it might get a bit complicated, and so I'm working on something that will automate the process.
Edit- Here it is: http://thespellmaker.vndv.com/IncA.php. I think I might put some more stuff on there, too. (Forgive me, it looks ugly. I just used a quick Dreamweaver layout to save time.) Play around with it, you can get some interesting spells. (If anyone really wants to know, those are based on some of the root combining forms of Asrilli, as well as one prefix, de', which means anti-. It will make sense if you think in context.)
It should be easy to figure out, and I didn't put a guide up, but essentially... Well, take the following example:
You want a spell that will summon a barrow wight against a foe. So, you would select "Summoning", "Spectral", and "Enemy", resulting in "Fethala cleyide'cera."
Fethala is the first-person directive form of "Fetha", which would literally mean "to conjure". Fethala strictly translates to "[You,] conjure yourself!" - that's an understood "you". So, what we have here is a directive calling at the element, Spectral- "[You,] conjure yourself[,] ghost[,] [against my] anti-friend." I realize that's a lot of understood punctuation, a possessive word and relational word, and an understood you (which we have in English), but otherwise spells would just be a mouthful to say, and by then you would most likely be dead, if you were trying to defend yourself.
Now that I think of all of that, though, I realized that I didn't conjugate all of the words correctly except for that one, so I'm going to need to fix that tomorrow some time. It also looks like the menu background image doesn't show up in IE correctly, although everything else seems fine... I guess I'll just go with something simpler tomorrow. It just needs to work, is all.
Of course, you don't need to know any of that to use it. Just copy the resultant phrase from the IncA in to speech and go on to describe whatever marvelous effects it engenders. There is another way right now to invoke an incantation without actually saying it, but I'm saving that as a plot point, at the moment.
I think it's because Jetrall is looping back in to his congenial personality
(JK, dunno.)
Magic won't be unavailable to any character. How it functions is what is going to be limited. I want to write a whole post devoted singularly to how it should work and what needs to be typed. I'm really fondling a few different ideas and I think I may just do all of them to a degree to make each post a little different depending on the magic used. I'm going to write some ideas down while I'm on one of my long breaks at college tomorrow, I think, and try to get back on this tomorrow evening.
So far, I've only gotten to writing down here that it will be focused in the Old Religion, a focus of the Asrai and Darka'Numim in particular, but practicable by all. The Old Religion is not so much a form of worship as a means to an end, studied more for its practical purposes than its spiritual presumptions. So, magic will obviously be a huge part of any character (player or non-player) that is heavily in to it. But, like I said, it's only a means to an end, so it is still practicable outside of the Old Religion, but the same, or similar, means need to be used to use magic.
One of the main focuses I want to do with it all is that magic needs to be potent, unique, and rare. It was done well in the Lord of the Rings, I believe, because we didn't see it flying everywhere all the time, but when you did see it, it was awe-engendering and powerful in nature.
If anyone is concerned about the length, nothing is official yet, but I am aiming for a day or two for each (what I consider) "chapter" of dynamic story change. From the first three "books" I have finished (which are what each chapter and its notes sort in to), it looks like about a month of material is already prepared, and no, it's not done yet. So this could be somewhat long. If at any point you want to quite, just tell me and I will kill your character off or something.
I'm updating the OP with information on the Asrai, but it will be somewhat difficult because I don't want to give too much away.
(All of these news updates are posted on the [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/index.php"]home page[/URL] of the website and can be viewed from the [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_cat.php?catid=1"]news section[/URL].)
The Story Thread for Volume I: Revolution is now up- see [URL="http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22120"]here[/URL]!
Quote from September 27, 2009 »
The story has begun. Take careful note of where we are all starting, the steppes before the fortress, where many of the nobility's homes are placed. There is a great distance between us and the walls of Nyord Sardi.
We have not yet come together. How it happens is to be organic and is up to all of you. Make it believable, passionate, and true to your characters, they are depending on you to tell their tales.
Quote from name="September 24, 2009" »
I'm happy to announce that today I have launched RPM v1.5. New features that you might find amusing are the site statistics in the left sidebar, the heavily-renovated Members List, also located as a link in the right sidebar, and a new self-registration page, again, the link is located in the right sidebar. New planned features are an age calculator for the denizens of Amyorne and improved member profile options.
Quote from name="September 23, 2009 »
I have gone and updated the Unemasulti with some theory that some of you may find interesting to think about and which may subsequently appear along the story line. You can take a reading of it [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=12"]here[/URL'].
Quote from September 20, 2009 »
Over the last two weeks I have been working on RPM v1.2. The site has undergone some aesthetic changes and new functionality has been made. Regular users are now able to be registered and comment on articles (if you would like an account, contact myself or another DoA staff member on the DiabloFans forums), and all users may now edit their passwords and user names via the Edit Profile link under Member Options in the right menu bar when logged in.
Also, this has been in the RPM for some time, but, the following tags, when put in a comment or new article body area, will format your text (replace curly brackets with squared brackets): {b}bolding{/b}, {i}italicize{/i}, {url=full URL here}link title{/url}, {st}section title{/st}, {img}full image URL{/img}, and {quote=name}quoted text{/text}. Additionally, when logged in, you may automatically have the system set up a quote of a comment by clicking the Quote link on the bottom-left corner of any comment. If you own the comment, you may edit (or delete) it by clicking the Edit button in the bottom-right corner of your comments.
I hope everything so far is working well for everyone. The design may look kind of wacky in Internet Explorer. Jetrall might have a new design ready in the future.
If you find any bugs, please contact me.
Quote from September 17, 2009 »
I have updated the Old Religion section with a bit on the Unemasulti, a prime book in the theory of Spellcraft. Please take a good read over it if you are confused about how magic works in Amyorne. If you have any questions, please contact me on the forums and I will both address your question and update the Unemasulti for future reference.
It is not done yet, but the bare bones provided should be a good common ground to start thinking about magic in Amyorne. Enjoy.
Quote from September 12, 2009 Update »
Update: The RP now has a name- Days of Amyorne. This will make more sense, hopefully, as the story progresses. The site is also now up [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/"]here[/URL]. See the news post on the home page for what I have done so far and what I have planned so far. (I realize the layout is ugly- I am not a designer, lol.) (Yes, the entire website is completely database-centric.)
Anyway, the basics of what the first volume will cover are laid out [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=2"]here[/URL]. I'm working on race pages and other such things, but I can't put too much up yet or the surprise element of some of it will be ruined.
The age is one of conflict and upheaval. In the County of Aboron, the line of royalty is nearing its height of terror. Count Reithwayr Aboron III, ruler of the local land, has committed countless atrocities against his own people and anyone unfortunate enough to cross his border. He has annihilated whole cities and villages of unique peoples, culturally and racially, without mercy or pity. The time of revolution is at hand. The capital, Nyord Sardi, is to be sieged and cast back in to the mountain that bears its master's ruling tower.
The adventure is planned to span the surrounding lands, some very secretive and magical, others vivacious and thriving, some no more than no-man's lands. There are only two races to develop a character from, humanity and the ancient Asrai, a vanishing people of mythic and elusive background.
It will be played identically to the current rules for the Knights of the Burning Blade (in posting nature). I am wanting a max of seven other people to participate in this, which would make a total of eight players (including myself). There will be cultural limitations on initial character creation (for instance, lack of Asian influences, because that is not currently planned to be worked in), an array of, I hope, unique and fearsome monsters and adversaries, a clear and concise storyline, and memorable and diverse areas.
The premise is that the denizens of Aboron are finally prepared to overthrow the Count and his family, so all players must be somehow for this motive. Characters that have descriptions or stories that I deem unfitting will be outcast from play. I am hoping that if this does happen, players will seek to develop their characters, not just use them to hack things to pieces. Grammar, diction, and such will be heavily important to maintain understanding.
For more on Volume I: Revolution's adventure, click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=2"]here[/URL].
So, anyone interested, post. A max of seven. I will base entry on how you act on the board and/or how you carry yourself in other RP's in this forum. If you do not make first cut (if a lot of people want in), people may become inactive or drop out as time goes along, or there may be a time in the future when more are allowed to come in.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=6"]here [/URL]for more on the Asrai.
On the Old Religion: The Old Religion is based heavily on the Binding, a philosophy that states that immortality and mortality are reciprocal of each other and are only made complete in their union (they are "bound in fate" to interplay until the last day). It states that magic, as a study and means, is a branch of immortality that is touched when mortality unlocks a bit of its ephemeral power. This is done by way of ancient rites, symbols, and words, which are most ably studied by the Asrai, since it is part of their heritage and culture.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=12"]here [/URL]for more information on the Old Religion via the Unemasulti, spellbook of Unem, descendant of Apuethe.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=10"]here [/URL]for information on the Darka'Numi.
The Blackweaves (Darka'Numi)are not fully developed yet. They will be fairly predictable in most cases, I have them appearing in the storyline a few times so far, but I have not written much about them as extensively as the Asrai.
If you used Destruction on yourself, you would either be hurt or kill yourself It would be interesting to see if someone could think of a spell use for aferre basreyavu that helped the caster, though.
Well, a few things should be taken in to consideration. After that, your innate inductive reasoning should hopefully lead you to some conclusions.
1) The Asrai are not the favorites of Aboron, the only area you should be concerned about going in to this RP, and are killed off by the ruling party.
2) If they did not want to be killed, what do you think they would do? Would it be a good idea to all gather in one place outside of the magically-protected Realm of Eternal Rain? Would that gather more attention? If found out, would more Asrai be killed in one swift action than if they were separated?
3) Since most of the Asrai obviously do not leave the Realm, Asrai outside of the Realm are, by generation, less and less Asrilli and more and more human. What would this mean in relation to the question "Do they have to disguise themselves"? Would it mean that the need to disguise is not pressing? Does this become a non-issue since we're not dealing with pure Asrai?
4) What do you think of the old adage "if they're not against you, they're with you"? What do you think that would imply with the laboring base of Aboron being discontent with leadership? Would not the Asrai have the same enemy? Would they bother discriminating against each other in the face of such persecution and tyranny?
Obviously, none of the answers to any of these questions could ever be absolute. If they were, the story would be very boring with little wiggle-room for side quests and NPC's.
If you'd like, you could just PM me what you have so far and I can see if I can help you. I understand the Asrai can be difficult to work with.
Essentially, whenever I have a question about something I'm about to write I think "why is this the way it is, how did it come to be this way, and how could it play out in the future?" as well as "what would I, as a logical human being, do in such a circumstance?". As long as it isn't far-fetched, it will probably be fine. If it's outside the norm but works well you could very well be stimulating all of our imaginations and that could lead to interesting scenarios.
I think it's good you're trying different things out and I enjoyed how you explored the situations presented to your character more fully. Doing so will only help strengthen what your character is or isn't.
My only question is what is the context? Is this battle at Nyord Sardi, which hasn't started yet (since the RP hasn't started yet) or is this a scene of resistance we're glimpsing from another time in Aboron, in another place? I am going to assume the latter since you mentioned encampments, but I just want to be sure (because battlefields also make use of encampments).
Also, people really don't kill other people without equal or surpassing motives. Why did he kill so many if he can't remember his motives? What is really driving him to murder fellow humans when he can't recall the wrongs against him (direct or indirect)?
Just some things to consider
It's not so much social conflict as isolationism keeping them apart. You see, for the past couple hundred years, the Asrai have, at large, been wiped out by the various corrupt Counts and Countesses of Aboron. I can't tell you why, though, or it would ruin some villains goals. Sorry
I didn't really want to say this ahead of time, but, well, if you look at the map, to the west of Aboron is a large area isolated by mountains and a sea to the south from most nearly everything. This is the Realm of Eternal Rain, where the Asrai now isolate themselves. Since the only real way out of the Realm is that area there, they have to cross through Aboron to escape. Which means that they would most likely be killed.
So, essentially, there are two reasons why they do not bother leaving. The primary reason (if you read their page) is that if they "breath the same air mortals do", which basically means live among mortals, they lose their mortality. They view mortality as a disease that you will catch if you are near mortals. The second reason is that they obviously don't stand much a chance leaving.
So, furthermore, since they have been largely absent from the rest of the world for a long time, their presence is basically unknown to the rest of Amyorne except in legends and myths. As for Aboron, well, the peasants get a good lump sum of gold if they turn in an Asrai to authorities, so, well, I bet you can fill in the lines there.
(Although there are obviously Asrai roaming about here and there, but they are not immortal like pure Asrai and are often part or largely human. This last fact often makes them indistinguishable from humans so no difference is usually noted.)
I hope that answers your question
Thanks and will do. Although Jetrall may be compensating for my artistic skill and updating it some time in the future. I'd encourage a heavy thanks to him if that ever happens
Well, it's unfortunate that some form of amnesia won't let us know the full story, but that is certainly good enough. If you ever feel the ambition until the start of the RP, you can add more in, if you'd like Good job.
~Edit~
It's up: http://diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?p=487550#post487550. If you have questions or comments, please post them here, not in the CCT- it is strictly reserved for character creation posts.
As soon as I get responses from the majority, I'll post the Character Creation thread. You can start now, but be aware that you may have to make changes to it.
Edit~
There are now officially seven players (excluding myself) professing interest. At this moment, new applicants are not being made. I will be sending PM's to those who have professed interest and if anyone is not interested anymore it will be opened back up.
(Although you are free to still discuss in here.)
Edit~
First post updated.
Anyway, the basics of what the first volume will cover are laid out here. I'm working on race pages and other such things, but I can't put too much up yet or the surprise element of some of it will be ruined.
Natural- this includes all nature-born forces, like fire, lightning, water, wind, regeneration of physical things (like bodies and broken objects- I have some theory written down on this if you'd like to read it), and so forth. The Asrai believed that all natural forces, forces of nature, are interrelated and thus inseparable.
Spectral- this includes other-worldly forces, such as any power or force that sustains the dead after their rightful ending, inflicts damage on the soul, or controls will. Anything not physically representable- where the infinitely complex mind and soul are concerned.
Force - this will apply to any force that does not fit under the other two elements- meaning that it has no physical representation, goes against the natural laws, and that it does not affect the will or essence of mortality/immortality. This would include your basic telekinetic, telephonic, and so forth aspects. This realm of magic was created after the Coming of Consciousness, meaning it is an invention of the man-like races and is specific to them (this cannot be used by any non-humanoid being).
There are two other levels, one lower and one higher, which determine the use and incantation of magic, but it might get a bit complicated, and so I'm working on something that will automate the process.
Edit- Here it is: http://thespellmaker.vndv.com/IncA.php. I think I might put some more stuff on there, too. (Forgive me, it looks ugly. I just used a quick Dreamweaver layout to save time.) Play around with it, you can get some interesting spells. (If anyone really wants to know, those are based on some of the root combining forms of Asrilli, as well as one prefix, de', which means anti-. It will make sense if you think in context.)
It should be easy to figure out, and I didn't put a guide up, but essentially... Well, take the following example:
You want a spell that will summon a barrow wight against a foe. So, you would select "Summoning", "Spectral", and "Enemy", resulting in "Fethala cleyide'cera."
Fethala is the first-person directive form of "Fetha", which would literally mean "to conjure". Fethala strictly translates to "[You,] conjure yourself!" - that's an understood "you". So, what we have here is a directive calling at the element, Spectral- "[You,] conjure yourself[,] ghost[,] [against my] anti-friend." I realize that's a lot of understood punctuation, a possessive word and relational word, and an understood you (which we have in English), but otherwise spells would just be a mouthful to say, and by then you would most likely be dead, if you were trying to defend yourself.
Now that I think of all of that, though, I realized that I didn't conjugate all of the words correctly except for that one, so I'm going to need to fix that tomorrow some time. It also looks like the menu background image doesn't show up in IE correctly, although everything else seems fine... I guess I'll just go with something simpler tomorrow. It just needs to work, is all.
Of course, you don't need to know any of that to use it. Just copy the resultant phrase from the IncA in to speech and go on to describe whatever marvelous effects it engenders. There is another way right now to invoke an incantation without actually saying it, but I'm saving that as a plot point, at the moment.
I want this RP to go beyond its predecessors.
(JK, dunno.)
Magic won't be unavailable to any character. How it functions is what is going to be limited. I want to write a whole post devoted singularly to how it should work and what needs to be typed. I'm really fondling a few different ideas and I think I may just do all of them to a degree to make each post a little different depending on the magic used. I'm going to write some ideas down while I'm on one of my long breaks at college tomorrow, I think, and try to get back on this tomorrow evening.
So far, I've only gotten to writing down here that it will be focused in the Old Religion, a focus of the Asrai and Darka'Numim in particular, but practicable by all. The Old Religion is not so much a form of worship as a means to an end, studied more for its practical purposes than its spiritual presumptions. So, magic will obviously be a huge part of any character (player or non-player) that is heavily in to it. But, like I said, it's only a means to an end, so it is still practicable outside of the Old Religion, but the same, or similar, means need to be used to use magic.
One of the main focuses I want to do with it all is that magic needs to be potent, unique, and rare. It was done well in the Lord of the Rings, I believe, because we didn't see it flying everywhere all the time, but when you did see it, it was awe-engendering and powerful in nature.
I'm updating the OP with information on the Asrai, but it will be somewhat difficult because I don't want to give too much away.
The Story Thread for Volume I: Revolution is now up- see [URL="http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22120"]here[/URL]!
The age is one of conflict and upheaval. In the County of Aboron, the line of royalty is nearing its height of terror. Count Reithwayr Aboron III, ruler of the local land, has committed countless atrocities against his own people and anyone unfortunate enough to cross his border. He has annihilated whole cities and villages of unique peoples, culturally and racially, without mercy or pity. The time of revolution is at hand. The capital, Nyord Sardi, is to be sieged and cast back in to the mountain that bears its master's ruling tower.
The adventure is planned to span the surrounding lands, some very secretive and magical, others vivacious and thriving, some no more than no-man's lands. There are only two races to develop a character from, humanity and the ancient Asrai, a vanishing people of mythic and elusive background.
It will be played identically to the current rules for the Knights of the Burning Blade (in posting nature). I am wanting a max of seven other people to participate in this, which would make a total of eight players (including myself). There will be cultural limitations on initial character creation (for instance, lack of Asian influences, because that is not currently planned to be worked in), an array of, I hope, unique and fearsome monsters and adversaries, a clear and concise storyline, and memorable and diverse areas.
The premise is that the denizens of Aboron are finally prepared to overthrow the Count and his family, so all players must be somehow for this motive. Characters that have descriptions or stories that I deem unfitting will be outcast from play. I am hoping that if this does happen, players will seek to develop their characters, not just use them to hack things to pieces. Grammar, diction, and such will be heavily important to maintain understanding.
For more on Volume I: Revolution's adventure, click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=2"]here[/URL].
So, anyone interested, post. A max of seven. I will base entry on how you act on the board and/or how you carry yourself in other RP's in this forum. If you do not make first cut (if a lot of people want in), people may become inactive or drop out as time goes along, or there may be a time in the future when more are allowed to come in.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=6"]here [/URL]for more on the Asrai.
On the Old Religion: The Old Religion is based heavily on the Binding, a philosophy that states that immortality and mortality are reciprocal of each other and are only made complete in their union (they are "bound in fate" to interplay until the last day). It states that magic, as a study and means, is a branch of immortality that is touched when mortality unlocks a bit of its ephemeral power. This is done by way of ancient rites, symbols, and words, which are most ably studied by the Asrai, since it is part of their heritage and culture.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=12"]here [/URL]for more information on the Old Religion via the Unemasulti, spellbook of Unem, descendant of Apuethe.
Click [URL="http://daysofamyorne.host56.com/show_art.php?artid=10"]here [/URL]for information on the Darka'Numi.
The Blackweaves (Darka'Numi)are not fully developed yet. They will be fairly predictable in most cases, I have them appearing in the storyline a few times so far, but I have not written much about them as extensively as the Asrai.