“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” –Maya Angelou
1: The general FC style of this RP is anime. I’m obviously not going to pick them for you, though I can suggest some if you can’t immediately think of anything appropriate. The ambiance of the setting is pretty dark and somewhat “realistic” as far as anime goes, so… no naturally-pink hair, if you please.
2: I know I said “anime,” but that doesn’t mean I want this to be a cliché-ridden monster. If your character is the local generic badass ice prince and followed around by hordes of obsessive fangirls, or the genki girl who, despite living in a terrible, horrible, shitty world where her life expectancy is crap, is nauseatingly cheerful at all times… I’m going to reject them. It’s that simple. Conversely, though, I really don’t need twelve angsty people who were all beaten/raped/traumatized in childhood. Please, keep the setting in mind, but use your common sense. If you are going to go for trauma, respect the actual difficulty that arises from situations like those and don’t be an ass. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Also, include a trigger warning at the top of your sheet. Just in case.
3: The setting, in case I didn’t make it clear in the intro, is a sort of post-apocalyptic earth. But… way post-apocalyptic (so some things have recovered), and prior to the apocalypse in question, much more technologically advanced than our own world. Much of this advancement has been lost, along with a massive chunk of the world’s population. A hundred years later, Earth’s humans are mostly held in isolated urban centers, each run more or less independently of the others. Life is grim and difficult, and the vast majority of people don't have a ton of extra money or resources to work with. The specific setting is London.
4: Your characters are not trained in anything combative. They’re people with perfectly ordinary jobs, who will eventually be recruited by the Order of Mismar and trained as Hunters. I’m talking line cooks, bartenders, nurses, car mechanics, students, bellhops, journalists, garbage collectors, whatever. Part of the point of this plot is that they are not badass soldiers or super geniuses or anything like that. They will train, and they will improve, but they will not start at any decent level of asskicking. It’s plot structure. Also, it would help if they had some reason for wanting to join a highly secretive and mysterious arm of the Church dedicated to the eradication of vampires and Dark Witches.
5: Guns exist, but are limited to pistols and rifles and shotguns, because ammo is hard to come by and expensive, and anything requiring a lot of bullets is pretty much a no-go. People with the skill to maintain such weapons are rare anyway. Almost never does anyone outside the NSY (New Scotland Yard) own or use one.
6: There are some things you need to know about daily life and its dangers.
7: If you want to play a witch, shoot me a PM with the details and we’ll talk. There’s some extra stuff you have to know about magic. Most people don’t know it, however, so I’m keeping it off the main info pages.
8: As part of the premise of this RP, your character has to have some reason to be interested or invested in joining the Order of Mismar, even if they don't know much about them. For most, this will amount to a reason that involves killing vampires or witches. It may also be a desire for redemption, vengeance, or a matter of faith. If you can think of something particularly nonstandard, feel free to run it by me. I'm here to help for this part of the process.
2: I know I said “anime,” but that doesn’t mean I want this to be a cliché-ridden monster. If your character is the local generic badass ice prince and followed around by hordes of obsessive fangirls, or the genki girl who, despite living in a terrible, horrible, shitty world where her life expectancy is crap, is nauseatingly cheerful at all times… I’m going to reject them. It’s that simple. Conversely, though, I really don’t need twelve angsty people who were all beaten/raped/traumatized in childhood. Please, keep the setting in mind, but use your common sense. If you are going to go for trauma, respect the actual difficulty that arises from situations like those and don’t be an ass. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Also, include a trigger warning at the top of your sheet. Just in case.
3: The setting, in case I didn’t make it clear in the intro, is a sort of post-apocalyptic earth. But… way post-apocalyptic (so some things have recovered), and prior to the apocalypse in question, much more technologically advanced than our own world. Much of this advancement has been lost, along with a massive chunk of the world’s population. A hundred years later, Earth’s humans are mostly held in isolated urban centers, each run more or less independently of the others. Life is grim and difficult, and the vast majority of people don't have a ton of extra money or resources to work with. The specific setting is London.
4: Your characters are not trained in anything combative. They’re people with perfectly ordinary jobs, who will eventually be recruited by the Order of Mismar and trained as Hunters. I’m talking line cooks, bartenders, nurses, car mechanics, students, bellhops, journalists, garbage collectors, whatever. Part of the point of this plot is that they are not badass soldiers or super geniuses or anything like that. They will train, and they will improve, but they will not start at any decent level of asskicking. It’s plot structure. Also, it would help if they had some reason for wanting to join a highly secretive and mysterious arm of the Church dedicated to the eradication of vampires and Dark Witches.
5: Guns exist, but are limited to pistols and rifles and shotguns, because ammo is hard to come by and expensive, and anything requiring a lot of bullets is pretty much a no-go. People with the skill to maintain such weapons are rare anyway. Almost never does anyone outside the NSY (New Scotland Yard) own or use one.
6: There are some things you need to know about daily life and its dangers.
- Nobody goes out at night unless they’re up to something nefarious, honestly—even the police stay indoors after dark. This is because vampire attacks, while not daily, are not exactly rare. On average, one expects to hear of an actual vampire maybe a few times a year, but unexplained disappearances are much more common than that.
- While the majority of London’s occupants make enough money to live decently, if not extravagantly, there is a small subset of the population that is exceptionally rich. They live near the center of the city, in a walled-off section called the Opal Quarter.
- Currency has two forms: ordinary cash and cards, that sort of thing, and opals. While not especially valuable in the world before Ragnarok, opals were discovered to have had a very special property: they provide a defense against vampires. It’s not perfect, but an opal stone, properly enchanted by a grey witch, takes on a warding property, discouraging vampires from approach. They are very rare and hard to come by, but in the event that one is in possession of even an unenchanted opal, they can be used as massive leverage in bargaining. Wealthy children are often given opal necklaces to protect them, if their parents can afford the enchantment and the stones themselves.
- In the aftermath of the apocalyptic event 100 years ago, the Church saw a great resurgence. Actually a fairly diverse mixing of previous religions with some new elements, the primary teaching of the Church is that the Many-One has turned Her back on humanity, and people must do their best to live virtuous lives in order to have an opportunity to stand at Her side after one’s time in the Purgatory that earth has become. The Church has massive influence basically everywhere, and controls many of the urban population centers—Rome, Delhi, Shanghai, and New York, among others.
- The Church teaches that while vampires are terrible, they are largely akin to especially cunning and clever animals. Of greater threat are the witches, humans who are believed to have entered into contracts with demonic creatures. As such, it is witches who are seen as the greatest threat to what civilization remains. The Order of Mismar is the covert paramilitary arm of the Church, and consists primarily of the mysterious Hunters. Little is known about them beyond that they are trained to kill both vampires and witches. Most people will never meet one, or at least, not know that the one they meet is a Hunter. They tend to blend.
- Vampires have two forms: a human one and a monstrous one. The human form looks like anyone else—they are not exceptionally pretty or otherwise unique. In fact, most of them look thoroughly average. The true form is that of a large, furred creature with leathery wings and luminous red or yellow eyes. They are superhumanly strong and fast, and can create others of their kind by draining all the blood from a human body, and then injecting their venom directly into the heart. Most prefer simply to feed, which invariably kills the victim.
7: If you want to play a witch, shoot me a PM with the details and we’ll talk. There’s some extra stuff you have to know about magic. Most people don’t know it, however, so I’m keeping it off the main info pages.
8: As part of the premise of this RP, your character has to have some reason to be interested or invested in joining the Order of Mismar, even if they don't know much about them. For most, this will amount to a reason that involves killing vampires or witches. It may also be a desire for redemption, vengeance, or a matter of faith. If you can think of something particularly nonstandard, feel free to run it by me. I'm here to help for this part of the process.
