It has been noted that Essence, is the greatest of all naturally occurring substances. It supplies men of normal origins, with extraordinary abilities. Even those not of the human race find themselves obsessed with the substance. It has been argued that even the wild beasts seek it out. Essence has been credited with speeding the evolution of simple fish into the Viala. So why then, do I despise such a thing? Such an answer is readily available to me.

Essence will be the downfall of us all.
An excerpt from the Essence Chronicle~Al Chem Sharash

The World
Tyrosia is a world where technology mingles with magic. Dragons fly alongside winged ships, and sea monsters swim with fleets of submarines. Giant steel and glass structures are as common as stone castles.

The Essence War has begun. It is the third year of the great winter. The landscape is frozen, naval warfare is not an option. Blizzards are common, so air transport is rare. This leaves only ground war. Many soldiers have been drafted by their respective nations and sent to war. All of the armies have one thing in common: Essence use. Each nation is getting greedy and wants more of it. Their reserves are running out. This has sparked the war.
Essence
With elemental projectiles and explosives, guns are obsolete. Electricity and other forms of energy are foreign to Tyrosia, Essence is what powers everything. Essence is also used privately by warriors and civilians alike. It has given super strength, speed, and intelligence. It has given control of flame, water, and other elements. It has transformed and mutated receivers. The results of Natural Essence are never constant, they are never predictable.

However, certain civilizations have devised ways to extract certain properties of Essence. This is referred to as purification. Purified Essence comes in many forms, but can only supply a single power or ability. It can be taken periodically to strengthen its already permanent effects.

Another form of Essence is Manufactured or Artificial Essence. This form of Essence is a strange one. Its effects vary by manufacturer and creation methods. Unlike its other counterparts, it is temporary and takes sacrifice. After a couple doses, it becomes addictive. It is one of, if not the hardest addiction to get rid of.
Races
Pre-created races are as follows. You may create your own. Please include a race description.
1.Viala: Fish people
2.Vampires: Regular vampires except they sap Essence.
3.Werewolves: Regular werewolves
4.Drakonians: Half Dragon half human
5.Melesians: Mole people
6.Humans: Normal humans
7.Wingly: Strongly Resembling humans, they have a strong affinity for light magic. Wings appear when using magic or channeling Essence.
8.Seraphic Machina: Manufactured Winglies. Ankeru has bio-engineered many for the war.
Character Sheet
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Race:
Appearance:
Arsenal:
Bio:(2 paragraphs please. At the least. More is welcome.)
RULES
1. ALL OOC chat is to take place in this thread.
2. Romance must be kept PG-16.
3. Do not deviate completely from the main plot.(sub-plots are fine)
4. No one liners. EVER. PM someone to make a collaborative post if you can't lengthen dialogue or other actions.
5. Signatures must be turned off for any RP posts.
6. A post is expected at the VERY least once a week.
7. No auto-hits(of another player), God-mods, or like.
8. English speakers only.(I deeply apologize to those who do not fully comprehend the language.)
9. I am the GM, what I say goes.
10. Ask permission to control any major characters or RPC's that I am in control of.

Thats it. Should any one of these rules be broken you will receive a warning. Three warnings and you are kicked from the RP.

Gameplay
The first post has been posted. Your first posts will be made to introduce your character. Other than that, give us a vague idea of where you are going. IC posts go HERE!
Cap is set at ten players. If you need more info please ask.

Name: Shana Nailow
Age: 21
Gender: female
Race: Wingly - a human like race with silver hair and wings of light that appear when flying or casting a spell
Appearance:
that with silver hair pure black eyes
Arsenal: twin shortswords and Shadow essence
Bio: As a baby Shana came in contact with her and fused into her body. Because of this she can use shadow magic at will. It also turned her eyes black as night.
Shana lived a life on the street as a thief that later turned into a life as a black ops for the army. She is now part the black ops in the war.

Thank you for participating. I forgot to mention there are three nations. Eru, Ankeru, and Shunda. Which do you want to side with?

well ankeru has coolest name but what is the back story of each kingdom?

Eru is the original Kingdom. During an older war it was broken into those three. It has much more history than the other two and more land. Being that they have more land, they have the most Natural Essence.

Ankeru are the arch rivals of Eru and have strong warriors. Other than that, they are the top manufacturers of Artificial Essence.

Shunda is a collection of islands with one giant island. They prefer to stay out of combat, but are running out of Essence. They need to invade the mainland to get more.

If you need any moer info PM me. I will give you full bios on each when I am ready.

Ankeru it is then

Name: Plati
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Race: Seraphic-Machina*
Appearance:
Arsenal: Fists, Short Sword, Light essence
Kingdom: Eru
Bio: Plati is tormented by horrible nightmares of what she believes are her memories. She was actually from Ankeru, waking up in labotory, and finding herself attached to strange machinery. Her body felt heavier, but she could still feel her own beating heart. She heard the personel speaking about her crudely, as if she wasn't a person, and heard them call her "The Seraphic-Machina". All her memories were gone, but her spirit remained unchanged, and so went beserk with all her sadness of what she thought she lost, although clueless as to what it was. She fled as best as she could, and swore to find her lost memories.
Although her memories are gone, her spirit still harboured all of her natural personality. She has a very determined attitude when working hard, but she is quite doubtful about her abilities. She is always finding ways to help others as best she could, believing that it would help her in turn. She does not fully understand what she is, or what she is capable of yet, so she easily becomes discouraged. Plati has one memory though, a song that she remembers perfectly, but can't remember who taught it to her. She uses her songs in combination with her natural Light essence to perform effective and powerful defensive and offensive abilities. The machanical wings can easily retract in and out of her back.

*Seraphic-Machina - An essence powered android built in the image of an angel.

I hope its okay. It is magicaly powered with an essence, but if it doesnt meet the standards, I can change whatever needs to be.

The race has been accepted. Good job all aroudn on your character. Once I get one or two more players I'll start this up.

Name: Rosalynne Morrigan
Age: 23 (Turned 30 years ago)
Gender: Female
Race: Vampire
Appearance: Her vivid green eyes are framed by long, elegant lashes. Her hair falls to her waist in earth-brown waves. Her skin is fair, with no blemishes. She generally has a hair ornament, necklace, bracelets, earrings, and rings as well as delicate metal sashes in order to have metal readily available.
Arsenal: Natural Essence; it manifests primarily in the shape of roses and their vines, working best when transformed from metal. As such, she has a fair amount of metal on her in the shape of jewelry because, while she can extract it from the earth, it is tiresome to do so.
Kingdom: Eru
Bio: Born in Shunda, Rosalynne was the daughter of nobility; a marriage was arranged for her once she was born. As soon as she reached the age of ten, she was sent off to a convent for safe keeping until she was to be wed. However, fate had other plans for her, and she was Turned in order to become the lady-in-waiting and a discrete guard for a Vampire. When the Vampire she was to protect insisted that she would find someone on her own, she was released into the world with payment at the persistance of the Vampire who had turned her away.

Since then she has lived fairly well, spending her money wisely and making it grow exponentially due to her endeavors. Then her life took another unexpected turn; she was drafted.

----

Hey, quick question, do Vampires have prolonged life? ALSO if anything needs changing, just let me know~

Vampires can have extended life spans. And in this RP, vampires steal Essence by taking blood. Therefore, they can sap abilities for temporary use. I will definitely have a full reference guide up when we start. Seeing as that will be three different threads I think we will then be entitled to a subforum. I'll look into it. Here is my character.

Name: Zorek Graspen
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Race: Drakonian
Appearance: 6'4"

Arsenal: Double Edged flame sword, body, and flame essence. Dragon servant.
Kingdom: Shunda
Bio: Zorek had lived on the island of Dirk until age 16 when he joined the national army. He quickly rose in the ranks and was a captain at the young age of 19. He became a trusted tactician of the Shundan army and was voted onto the war council at 21. He directed many sucessful battles against invadeing Erunian forces. After defeating them at a decisive battle on the main island of Noctur, he gained general status. Then, there were only two men ranked higher than him. There was the elder of the war council and King Tarin. In an act of political murder, Zorek had both the king and the elder killed. With the king having no family heir, Zorek rose to the position of king.

At the age of 25 he ordered that each conscript in the army must be exposed to Natural Essence. This caused the army to become a powerhouse, although being an island they quickly ran out of Essence. To combat this, Zorek (now 27) has now decided to invade the mainland. He has also formed "The Titans". The Titans are an elite group of Essence mutated soldiers. They vary from a stone bemoth to an elite spell caster. There are only eight. They serve as Zorek's bodyguards. This is especially helpful seeing as he goes to war with his men. He has already taken a key port city and is moving inland.

Ok guys. RP will start tomorrow. I am looking for a fifth player to join this wonderful RP idea. I am confident it will turn out to be a great long lasting RP. Once you, the fifth player join, this RP will be entitled to an entire sub-forum. Thank you for your support.

Name: Jared Egoel Proditor
Age: 18 (He's been that for around ten years)
Gender: Male
Race: Vampire
Appearance: 6"1 Is usually thought as an albino.
Arsenal: A claymore strapped on the back, usually sheath-less. However, Jared prefers to fight without weaponry, as is his nature. His Essence is that of Darkness/Shadow. When he is using the claymore, a dark and mutated sort of glow surrounds it, giving his hands that hold it the contrasting color of what is it. The darkness that surrounds it is known as Black Fire to those he had fought and (usually) killed. The Black Fire is said to be able to cut through even the toughest of materials.
Bio: Though he is a vampire and steals Essence from others, Jared doesn't see Essence as just a tool for fighting. Fascinated by his first encounter with it ever since he was but a fledgling, Jared took a morbid, twisted type of interest to Essence. Of course, blood is a top priority for him but in his spare time Jared pours over what books that concerns Essence. At the age that makes him look, human-wise, fifteen, Jared enrolled in the army of Eru.
However, when an attack too many occurred that was around him, he was booted out of the army and had what Essence armor and weapons stripped away from him. Angered, Jared went out in search of Ankeru, which he found several months later and was accepted. Unfortunately for him, he was given artificial Essence to work with and that has corrupted his body and mental ability, as he usually sacrificed a finger or two - then used the very magic he sacrificed it for to grow it back.
The claymore that he usually uses is of the Shadow type of Essence, a very suitable thing for him.
He stole the claymore from a general in Eru after practically draining him of blood (he disposed the body in a gully.)

Thank you very much for joining. You are accepted. A link to the gameplay thread has been edited into the first post.
Ok guys. I want to know if you guys want to have our characters meet up or wing it for now. Its up to you guys. Basically, how much GM control and guidance do you want?

Hm . . . I think that having our characters meet up now would be for the best. I offer up Rosalynne's current residence for this purpose. It is generally thought to be abandoned, as she has not visited in so long, and her staff is rarely seen outside of it. It could be that it is targetted for looting, for use as lodgings . . .

In other news, I will not be posting in the RP until Gluttony does. I want interaction D: