Graterras: Clash of Fates. {OOC/Sign-Ups Closed}

[Flux]

Updated the signature skill that you talked about. Is that more like the specification that you wanted?

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Yes, I will supplement it by making it that the growth of the forest etc... actually will listen to you and fully do that which you ask. They like you cause you know how to speak to them etc... It won't be as powerful as say... having a very spefic effect, but it can have many smaller effects if you talk to them right etc...

[Flux]

Just a curious question -- when Vayne "speaks" with the forest, is that going to be an actual conversation carried out between (presumably) you and me, or will I just describe what he's doing?

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Oh, you'll talk to me due to the exact nature of your Signature as it isn't specific. Since it doesn't have s specific use case, you're at my mercy and my whims XD.

[Kurotsune]

I have a simple solution. I will write a profile for ALL REMAINING CHARACTERS!

Cues evil laugh

AHAHHAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHHA AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH-

Yeah okay fine I'll stick to one.

[Nero Chaos]

Is there perhaps a thread detailing the story and setting of Graterras?

Would be helpful for a bio.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

The best I have would be the OOC of the original... question... did I put the description of the 9 Islands in the main post? If not I should.

[Nero Chaos]

I do not believe so, as I was searching for a physical description of the setting and was unable to find one.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I am looking for it, but havin' a bit of trouble. I can easily answer any questions on it though since pretty much all of it is in my head lol.

[Nero Chaos]

I am looking for it, but havin' a bit of trouble. I can easily answer any questions on it though since pretty much all of it is in my head lol.

Well it is quite hard to ask for questions about something so broad as the layout of the world, unless I'm allowed to ask the question of :

What are the nine islands like?

Which would necessitate quite a lengthy response which I don't want to burden you with.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

The thing is I am looking for the thing that answers it, I jsut can;t find it XD. THe one in the original OOC for the RP only lists Aurora, Shifting Sands, the Crystal Arcepalgio, ((or Crystal Isles.)), and for The Shattered Hills.

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUND IT!!!

I will put it here and in the o.p. for you folks.

Extra Backstory, The Nine Divines, and their Lands. ((Warning: This is buttload of info. Read at your own peril. It may help in character creation though.))

There are nine Landmasses or Island's based on one of the nine gods, or as they are collectively called, The Nine Divines.

Four of the Divines are known as the Elementalists, They are based off of Fire, Water, Wind/Air, and Earth. They also represent the creation of humans, with Earth and Wind being the Vessel Pair. Earth created the body, the vessel that would hold the soul. Air created the mind, the vessel which would hold the Knowledge.

Fire and Water are known as the Fueler Pair, as they created the parts that fuel the body and the mind. Water created Knowledge that which runs the mind. And Fire created the soul, the fuel on which the body runs.

Unto each of these gods was given a Nation. This nation was said to be the place that said god sprung forth from the land at the beginning of time. (this applies to the rest as well.)

The god of Earth and Body, known as Tectanitus (Tech-ta-nite-us), was said to be born from the Shattered Hills, a land of stone and mountains. It is a very inhospitable land, where only the hardy survive. As such is mostly home to Dwarves and Gnomes who eek out what living they can underneath the mountains. A few human towns exist on the North part of the island, mostly fishing and mining villages. No known Elves or Fae folk live in these lands as it is too harsh.

The goddess of Air and Mind, Aelia, was said to be born from the snowy peaks of Aurora, a northern tundra, that is known for it's harsh winters and winds. Sailing to the continent is very difficult as the winds are unrelenting to ships. Their culture is more similar to those of Vikings and is very tribal in nature. They believe in hardy warriors and the way of the blade, and don't look kindly upon magic users or thieves. Or as they call them, cowards of the night. Most make an honest living as fisherman, sailors, or warriors. Tribes are constantly warring over small pieces of land or over the True Word of Aelia. Many sects don't believe the same thing of their Lady of the Wind, and they vehemently fight over it to this day.

The god of Fire and Soul, Pyron, was said to be born from Shifting Sands, a sea of a desert, that Shifts almost as much as human emotion. This land is full of strange Tech, almost Steampunk in feeling, magic is starting to die here, but it still remains as it evolves into something... different. Cities dot the desert in places near water. Here Water is worth as much as gold, some make a living by being what is called a Water Baron. They make money off the use of a water source. Typically towns are built around these water sources and the water Baron becomes the head of the town. Also some places there are traces of old dead civilizations. Giant pyramids jut out of the landscape, along with other ruins and long forgotten tombs.. They are said to hold unimaginable treasures. Along with Deadly traps, and... the restless undead.

The god of Water and Knowledge is said to have been born from the Crystal Archipelgo. A chain of small islands that all claim to be one nation. It is here that Many powerful minds come together. Here they dare to do the research no other would do. They toy with the fabric of the world, and the magical energies that are abundant everywhere. This land has a culture Similar to Japan and other Eastern countries like China. They look up to the scholars, as they are most important people here. Wizard's are the most at home from this area since they are never criticized or harassed in these lands, in fact they rule here. Magic is so highly respected that those that do not weild it are shunned, even discriminated against. Sorcerers are home here as well, though, their magic is seen more as an artform, than the Wizard's scientific approach. No magic is looked down on here and all is seen as equal and powerful. No matter how unsavory the subject matter is.

And yet there remains five more gods.

there is another group of four. The gods that hold sway over the celestial forces of the world, and the cycle of Life and Death, or the Terrestrial fores of the world.

The Terrastrians of course held sway over the forces that were present in the Prime Material Plane.They were Bartimis and Mortimo. Bartimis was the God of Life, and Community. He was the God who created the gifts of life and the sense of each of those lives to seek out others of their kind and bond with them. He created this instinct so that life forms needed to never be alone in the world. Mortimo is the God of Death and Time. He is not well known on the Prime Material world other than for the inevitable end. He is seen as a force that cares not for the world, only to guide the souls to the afterlife. However, he is a dark god unknown to the others. He plays a grim game with the lives of others, trying to rig the Life/Death Cycle to cause as much indirect death as he can.

Then there are the Celestial Ones, the ones that rule over Light and Darkness. Positive energy and negative energy. Lumabella is the goddess of Light and Enlightenment of Self, or individuality. She created the sun to grow the seeds of life on Graterras, and give them Celestial Guidance. She knows all individual who will ever live as if she were them herself. Her soul so enlightened and so pure, that she can impose it upon any other and see the cracks and falters and compare them to her own. Draven on the other hand, the God of Darkness is not so friendly a character. He only corrupts and destroys. His heart was lost long ago to great darkness. Before then he created the Moon, the celestial force that guides the creatures below to hide away for the terrible night has come. He no longer controls the moon however... another entity does.

Each of them holds a land as well.

Bartimis holds Arbouretium, The Sea of Trees. The name coming from the vast forests that cover it's face. It is said the Great Tree of Life, or the World Tree lies within the Forests somewhere. It is still bleieved to be guarded by the Wood Elves and the Fae to protect it from any evils that wish to bring harm to the great tree. They are needed more now than ever. Int he South grows a new faction, that cares not for the sanctity of life. The Kingdom of Ironwall, once one of peace... mobilizes to combat the Green Orc menace, but also to remove the Last remaining Wood Elves from the Forest, claiming it belongs to them, those holy chosen of Bartimis.

Mortimo's Lands, the veritable Land of the Dead is just like it sounds. It is a horrid place, a wasteland. And yet some daring souls still live there. A small nation that formed from the prisoners of other lands all sent there to die. They take to calling the Nation, Secondwatch, and many also refer to the "civil" parts of the Land of the Dead as such too.

Lumabella's lands are called Solaruim after a great Elvish Kingdom that once stood there. The High Elves however were forced out by a crushing defeat by the Green Orc Hordes. They were vastly out-numbered and swiftly forced to abandon their home or die defending it. They choose to flee to the North. Human Forces arrived too late to stop the City from being taken, but they crushed the foe under heel. They took back the Great City of Solaria and even since they have enjoyed a great alliance with the High Elves that rule there. Each Elf Clan that was still standing each get a King as well as the Humans. The Four Kings of Solaria ensured the area's safety for a great deal of time, so much that Solaria become the shining beacon of civilization and the things it could achieve.

Draven's Lands, The Shadowed Isles, were known fro their seedy underbelly. crime was everywhere and it was a mess. Until the forming of Nevermore. Lords Quickly rose to power as the economy boomed. For the most part they kicked out most of the lawlessness and made the place decent enough to live.However, rumors exist that it is the Lord's who now deal in darkness. And that Nevermore, isn't a good city, just a front to a den of villainy.

The Last God goes by the Name Bartallimo. He is the god of Balance. He holds in check the world and the forces that be. He is known as the Benevolent Father, or He who holds the Reins of the World.

His Land is that of Pandora, the box of life. It is said all life came from here and Spread out all over the world of Graterras. It is mostly now home to the Victonari, a strange Dragonoid race created by Bartallimo. Not much is known of these lands other than that the Victonari live here. It is said the Victonari hold great secrets, but they are not known to venture out from Pandora all that often.

[Nero Chaos]

Thank you very much.~~

Alrighty, went ahead and finished up my character.

Name: Aodh Ninian

Archetype: Warrior

Race: Human

Age: 28

Appearance: Aodh has a lithe figure engendering a sleekness geared towards agility. His frame isn’t thin, nor is it overly bulky. He stands tall at 185 centimeters and weighs 73 kilograms. He has a streamlined body of sorts, with long, powerful limbs supporting a moderate thoracic foundation which inherently grants him an affinity towards agility rather than pure tests of strength. Aodh possesses coal black hair that flows in unruly cascades down to the nape of his neck. His face is angular and possesses an elegant form, one more indicative of nobility rather than an unruly warrior. His eyes are of the same dark shade as his hair is, and appear as if to be two bottomless pits holding no inflection. Weary streaks are inlaid around Aodh’s eyes, and he appears to be perpetually tired with drooping mouth and eyes. His entire body is lacerated with scars and wounds from remnants of his stands in battle. In general, it appears as if Aodh is quite literally a dead man walking. There is nary an inch of his body remaining free of the embrace of wounds, and his haggard complexion emphasizes this generality.

Personality:

Aodh is a deeply reflective individual that possesses a mindset that screams against the natural urges of human nature. He is an intrinsically contrary individual, and if a word was to be used to generalize his scheme of thought, it would be “confusion.” Aodh is open minded to a fault, such that it becomes less of a positive trait as it has been muted into an abberance. Aodh does not merely recognize conflicting elements, he completely accepts both. Love or hate, freedom or slavery, joy or misery, all are simply mirrors of each other that possess their own beauties that should never be shunned. Perhaps one could deem Aodh to be one firmly rooted in neutrality, but that would entail a being completely inhuman. No man can be unswayed in the torrent of life, and so it is with Aodh.

Aodh possesses a gentleness and compunction that is not easily perceivable, entailing both a down to earth humility and rationality of understanding that not any situation can be embraced with acceptance. Aodh regulates his actions under the lens of honor, a value that was inculcated within him through his upbringing from a young age. He values the way of a warrior purely out of admiration of its wild, untamed beauty. At the same time, he accepts the reigns of civilization and understands that shackles may be inlaid with gold and fortune. The core that holds Aodh together as a human being is his distinctly noble compass of morality. He feels an affinity for the weak and downtrodden, the battered that cry with none to hear their wails. The sense of honor that Aodh upholds is thus completely untainted by any sort of obligation to a tribe or established code of honor. It is simply a natural value that Aodh himself raised, nourishing it with his own experiences and judgements of the world around himself, a representation of his maturing, waxing and waning.

Signature Moves/Spells/Skills:

Absolution in Pain(Passive)

Aodh lived his whole combat career with the philosophy that to function in combat, one must understand pain. This philosophy in life was what allowed Aodh to weather countless scars and wounds no matter how deadly and strive on in battle. It isn’t a rejection of pain or a shelving away of it like some sort of mental suppression, but rather its the complete opposite. Instead of despising and avoiding pain like a natural human being, Aodh welcomes it upon himself, instead believing that it is a necessity to entrance oneself into a mindset fit for the hell that is called battle where nothing but pain lies. He feels every second of pain and savors it not as a deterrent, but as an enticer.

Like the charge of a warrior that has become something else, this philosophy too has become greater. It passively removes the negative effects of pain on Aodh, and instead grants him cumulative bonuses. In fact, it can be said that Aodh is never at his full potential until he has tasted pain. The more pain that Aodh receives, the clearer his mind, reflexes, movements and senses become. It doesn’t actually increase his direct physical power, but it essentially charges his mind into an “overdrive” state, allowing him to react to the most minute or quick of attacks or perhaps perceive the smallest of details leading up to the preparation of an attack to defend against. This skill does not reduce damage, which would remove the point of feeling pain, nor does it somehow increase his defense, though it can be argued that this skill does grant Aodh an incredible endurance to stay in battle despite the injuries he wracks up. In addition, this skill is directly connected to Aodh’s two other signature skills, and they cannot be activated without this skill first being triggered.

Guardian of the Battered(Passive)

A passive skill that represents the grand defenses that Aodh put up against overwhelming odds for the battered. The skill grants Aodh small cumulative enhancements to his physical strength when he is defending. Essentially the longer Aodh defends, the faster and stronger he becomes. These bonuses aren’t really significant, and at first are completely unnoticeable. Basically every time Aodh defends against an attack from an opponent, his next defensive action will be improved even more due to the enhance in physical strength, and so on in a cycle. It takes five blocked attacks for this ability to actually start becoming noticeable, so for most people this wouldn’t be a particularly useful skill. However, it goes hand in hand with Absolution in Pain, allowing Aodh to endure in combat long enough to continually gain bonuses from this skill. This skill’s bonuses also apply to defensive counter attacks that are non - lethal in nature, so parries or feints will be enhanced in speed and power. However, anything directly meant to harm the opponent at all will remove all the bonuses accumulated from this skill completely, resetting it to “zero” in essence, requiring for it to be built up again. In short, the longer one takes to incapacitate Aodh, the harder it becomes to do so.

Last Stand(Activation):

A skill that can only be activated once Absolution in Pain has been triggered and Guardian of the Battered has accumulated enough bonuses. When activated, Aodh retaliates with a ferocious counterattack that utilizes all of his strength. It exponentially scales off of how much pain Aodh has sustained and how much defensive bonuses he has gained. This is possibly Aodh’s only offensive attack, and a completely all in blow that is meant to decide the battle. It is a melee attack enacted through Aodh’s physical body whether it with spear or bare hands. When used, it completely consumes all of the bonuses gained from Guardian of the Battered, and wholly disables the skill for the remainder of the battle, effectively causing Aodh’s defeat should this retaliation not have sufficient power to square the battle heavily into his favor.

Archetype Signature moves are put in this format below.

Dragoon Style(Passive): A style that favors the usage of longarms and polearms.It is a balanced style that offers more reach than the sword and board style. Aodh’s spearmanship focuses heavily on defensive agility and counters, abusing to maximum extent the enhanced length inherent to polearms and versatility in their angle of attack.

Background:

Aodh was raised within a small tribe in the frigid lands of Aurora. From the very beginning, Aodh was not someone deemed fit for any type of combat. He held a gentleness to himself that was unsightly when channeled through might of arms. It was not that Aodh was simply unskilled, in fact he leaned towards the upper end of the scale of technical prowess, but it was simply his ideology as a warrior that completely incompatible with battle. He loved the life of the tundra and the unpredictable, wild and free flowing life of a tribal warrior, but he loved them in the same way that a connoisseur marvels at a beautiful painting. He loved, not lived.

Perhaps Aodh would have been more opportune born in a place like the Crystal Archipelago, where his open minded acceptance of conflicting opinions and ideals as well as a natural knack for perceptive understanding would have granted him a vast wealth of opportunities. Instead, Aodh appreciated the life he lived regardless. Despite his willingness to embrace the lifestyle that had effectively rejected him on a conceptual level, the members of his community took a disliking to the slight boy with rather effeminate features more fit to be a noble of some grand court rather than a hardy warrior of the tundra. Like any conflicted young boy, Aodh hated his ostracization from his own community, and felt anguish over his natural gifts that were but detriments in his environment.

But all humans adapt, and so too did Aodh in his own unique way. When Aodh was seventeen, he was required to take up arms against a neighboring tribe over a conflict in religious ideology. It was Aodh’s first taste of battle, and he reviled it in every scale. The only thing that pervaded the battlefield was anguish, pain, and the regrets of the deceased. Victory was a cheap recompense snatched away from the dying arms of the loser. This utterly one sided nature of war was ugly yes, but at the same time it was accepted. A man of the tundra was respected as a warrior, and thus he strived for glory in battle. Aodh recognized that to cope with the inherently human malice of war, the men around him simply ignored the extraneous details of pain in favor of a cherished and hollow value such as glory that would never restore the lives of the lost. However, Aodh, surviving his first battle with his first wounds, simply accepted the ugliness of battle and found that a pure, unadulterated understanding and embracing of the malign in war granted him the mental capacity to indulge in battle in a sense.

Pain was all that Aodh saw in battle, and so he strove to understand it entirely. He savored his wounds, feeling pain and concentrating on it. He shed tears for his fallen friends, enduring agony to understand misery.

Humans fear what they do not know. Aodh came to know the concepts of pain inherent to war.

Thus, in his own unique way, Aodh found a way to cope with battle and to excel in it. Still, his ideologies were completely contrary to the brutal winner takes all nature of the rest of his kin. Thus Aodh broke off from them, attempting to start his own minor community with those that were outcast or battered as he was.

Aodh situated his tiny subsistence community in a secluded safe zone between various tribes at the a high and narrow pass of the tundra’s mountain where life was almost inhospitable. Even then, the desire for land was fierce in Aurora, and so when news of his hamlet community reached the ears of neighboring tribes, small parties of attack that could endure the harsh conditions of the mountains. It did not help that the mountain pass had a modicum of strategic value as a passing point for long distance sojourners.

Battle after battle, Aodh and his rag tag group of a few comrades stood against superior forces in desperate defense. It was the ultimate test of endurance, as the narrow nature of the pass halted any large numbers of invaders to attack at once. Hour after consecutive hour, Aodh and his friends held this pass numerous times, defending their little community with all their feasible might. Never once did they have the energy to attack, but in the art of defense they became highly skilled. Aodh was praised by his community as a hero that would defend them to time immemorial, but of course such a thing was impossible. Aodh instinctively understood that his community would never survive long. He had simply never wanted to stray from his own ideals and conform to the ideas of his own tribe which he had deemed too cruel.

Never once did Aodh think that his community would thrive for long. Everyone in the community understood this in the back of their heads. They simply endured because Aodh did. They saw in Aodh someone who had the capacity to strike out of the norm and gallantly stand for it. It was for this reason that they had joined him in the first place, and it would be this reason that would spell their inevitable doom. It was simply the beauty of witnessing and living with utter confidence in rejected ideologies that compelled them to stay and reject the screaming voices of pragmatism that heralded death.

When the last of the numerous raids made by other tribes finally succeeded in defeating the tiny group of men that had defended the pass, they found nothing of value to pillage. The entire settlement had died out on its own by then, and the men defending were on their last days of life from accumulated wounds and harsh external conditions. Aodh and his men had not died defending a sense of home or people, they had fallen defending an ideal. In his last moments, Aodh ruminated on how fulfilling it would be to live his ideal out once more in a society different from the one that had estranged him all his life, but appreciated his existence as he always had nonetheless.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Nero Chaos

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Update.

The following characters have been accepted and added to the 2nd Post. Their Profiles should be linked.

Vayne,

Marcus Arthai,

Neville Frostburn,

Rafael Koronis.

There is still an incomplete character in yours K-H as he doesn't have a backstory yet and I am not looking a tthe sheet until it has one.

@Nero Chaos. I will get to your Character when I get a chance. I am pretty sleepy at type of typing so I don't got time to go through it now. XD.

This will also be last call for character creation. Those of you who want in best get crackin' and get a character up. This train will be leaving the station soon.

On a sidenote, all created NPCs will not have a Character Sheet right away, at least not ones filling out their signature moves. ((Unless someone here wants to write up an NPC for my use to fill slots.)), Mostly because there will be quite a few of them and rather than delay the RP a lot I would rather just get it out there. It will be a lot like the hidden Signatures of the Divine Knights and they will be revealed as they are used.

EDIT: and Oops... Noir I think I missed your profile there lol. DO you remember what page it is on?

[Noir]

On a sidenote, all created NPCs will not have a Character Sheet right away, at least not ones filling out their signature moves. ((Unless someone here wants to write up an NPC for my use to fill slots.)), Mostly because there will be quite a few of them and rather than delay the RP a lot I would rather just get it out there. It will be a lot like the hidden Signatures of the Divine Knights and they will be revealed as they are used.

EDIT: and Oops... Noir I think I missed your profile there lol. DO you remember what page it is on?

It's on page 3. The reason it's hard to notice was because I spoilered it. Perhaps you'd prefer me to remove it for your convenience?

In response to another post to me, are you referring that I need to specify the death of Donovac Fartox? I suppose I'll go think of something, although I'll have to reread the whole plotline and everything to make everything link. I could PM you to discuss an idea/increase understanding.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Unspoilering it isn't a huge deal. It be easier for me to scroll over it and find it though lol. I need to know where the psot is for later so that I can link the main post directly to it.

EDIT: Update, Ignacio and Snow Ashford now have their backstories. You might notice that Snow's is really f'ing long. There is a reason for this. Her's is the most recent. People remember more of her story because it most recently happened.

[Flux]

Did somebody's character meet Snow in the original Graterras RP? I feel like it was her, but I'm not positive. It was during one of the dream sequences iirc.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

It was Sigurd that did. She really, REALLY disliked him.

She has also been in Dream on Another Shore. Which I should really finish CHapter 8 of but I just haven't had the time lol.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Wait Snow Ashford is female!?!?! I thought it was a he all along OTL

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Snow is a Woman. I was pretty sure that was clear in the Description XD.

I then I reached it. A new figure stood before me. A knight? Clad in Silver armour that shined brighter than a star. By the armour's shape, a woman. She cut a strong silhouette. One of confidence and yet one of grace.

Mostly cause that... and well... I did use she quite a few times in there lol.

[Kurotsune]

((Unless someone here wants to write up an NPC for my use to fill slots.)),

I do, but I'm lazy, ugh.

[Felicity]

I do, but I'm lazy, ugh.

Same, I have a fresh idea for a character but I don't want to go through the mass effort to fit them into the world xp

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Same, I have a fresh idea for a character but I don't want to go through the mass effort to fit them into the world xp

I can easily fit them in by breaking the story about them a bit. So long as people are okay with that. ((which I really hope they are if they write up NPCs for me. I tend to like to change characters as they are used and I get a feel for them so it is highly likely I will play around with their personality etc... a bit or something.))

[Felicity]

Well she'll be a character I'll personally be playing in Strats new shindig, I meant it as in just generally setting her up to be in Graterras with backstory and abilities and whatnot. Still, It's the weekend and I'm feeling up to writing so I'll probably get her touched up and ready to go tomorrow. Character creation and thinking of the concepts for who they are is one of my favourite parts of RPing and writing in general after all ^^

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

kuna make cameos from old Graterras RP C:

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I mean, I'll try some. But I don't want to get too... cameo heavy you know lol?