J
Jehuti
Guest
Original poster
Humanity united in its purpose, and peace among all living things as the only foreseeable future.
This is our wish.
This was also our world, 300 years ago—before we made a terrible mistake.
Backstory
In generations past, humanity survived in the shadows of magnificent magical creatures. With our agriculture, our tools and our medicines, we forged an alliance with the most powerful race of all: dragons. They sheltered us from evil monsters and bore burdens too great for any man, and we tended to their wounds and ailments.
This bond was as sacred as that between parent and child; and like children, we admired the dragons' wisdom and power. For some, this admiration turned to worship, and they dedicated their entire lives to the dragons. For others, admiration turned to envy, and envy to fear. Thus did these humans do what humans did best: they questioned. Did it not follow that those that accumulated wisdom should also accumulate power? Yet, as the wisdom of humanity grew, the dragons' power seemed to grow twice as fast. We could not comprehend this power the dragons called "magic." If the dragons continued to grow in power, would humanity still be needed?
"It is the way of the world," came their reply. "The strong survive, while the weak are left behind and lost to us."
What should have been taken as a challenge to grow and improve was taken as a declaration of war.
We knew that only dragons could possibly defeat dragons, and so it began with subterfuge and sabotage—and the death of a child. We took in a dragon's child and allowed the treatment of her rare illness to fail, until she became weak. We overpowered her, using her old teeth as weapons. We butchered her, making armor of her scales and weapons of her bones. We knew even then that we had committed grave sin, but we grit our teeth. Having no understanding of magic, crafting weapons from magic-infused dragon fossils was our only recourse.What should have been taken as a challenge to grow and improve was taken as a declaration of war.
With our stolen power, we continued the cycle of betrayal and death. Our path was not an easy one. In a single night, mankind had been divided. Many refused to fight. Others sided with the dragons. To this day, we remain divided over our histories, and peace is impossible. This is just one of the burdens we bear for our betrayal.
As the war drew to a close, we received neither the wrath nor the disappointment of the dragon king, but only sincere congratulations. The strong will survive, and the weak will be lost to the world. He would carry that belief to his grave. His queen would not be so generous. With her dying breath, she cursed humanity. Once the last dragon fell, humans would receive the gift of magic they so desired—but each and every child would be cursed.
Several generations have passed since then, and now, all of humanity bears this burden.
Today, each child is born with a latent power or talent, but also an opposite curse curtailing that gift. Talented swordsmen who grow faint at the sight of blood, shape-shifters who gradually lose their humanity as they stay in animal form, healers who rapidly age as they tend to the wounded, geniuses who cannot communicate any of their ideas—cursed, all of us.
Now more than ever, the dragon king's words ring true. Noble bloodlines have all but dissolved; the strong rule, and the weak are beholden to their strength. Yet the circumstances of one's birth—their gift, their curse, and the balance between the two—still harshly dictate their potential. Human society is in constant chaos, and individual agendas can run rampant. Yet, now more than ever, people depend on each other to survive.
Plot Synopsis
You play one or more members of the Catalysts, a multicultural team of various nationalities and walks of life (inclusory disclaimer etc etc). The Catalysts are a blended group of mercenaries, diplomats, and other skilled workers, contracted by an ostensibly peace-loving island nation to carry out missions in the interest of preserving peace (and acting as the nation's temporary army, when necessary).
The Catalysts are under the direct command of the nation's Empress, a mysterious and whimsical ruler whose eye for politics has nonetheless captured the respect (and imagination) of her people, with some calling her a prophet. A self-proclaimed "peace profiteer," she founded the Catalysts with the goal of nipping conflict in the bud and stopping wars before they start. The Empress has connections with almost every royal family in the world, and some of their members have even joined the Catalysts—after all, their royal status could be revoked at any moment, if a stronger candidate seizes the throne—and the job pays well, too.
Newly joining the royal members of the Catalysts is the Empress's successor. No one is quite sure how exactly the Empress went about selecting her candidates, or what qualified this girl to be appointed as Crown Princess; she seems a bit useless, but the Empress insists on her accompanying the Catalysts on their missions, danger be damned. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the Princess, this job is about to get a little more interesting.
[/hr]
Enough plot, what is "Corrupt-A-Wish" and how would this RP work?
Corrupt-A-Wish is a forum game where you make a wish, and the next poster finds a way to make it suck, then makes their own wish—and the next poster does the same to them, and so on. Most of you reading have probably played this game before. This RP would include thematic characters of all kinds, created using the forum game as a brainstorming process, or as an inspiration for your own ideas.
Character creation would start with playing the forum game. Or, if you think you have a great idea, you can corrupt your own wish and just post your character sheet right away—but I'll make the final judgment on whether or not your curse is "harsh enough" to justify the power or talent you wished for. You'll be under no obligation to make your character at any point during the game—simply keep playing the game until you and your wish-corruptor land on an idea that inspires you! There will be some restrictions on what you can wish for—nothing that would break the game, obviously. Ideal curses would have life-altering consequences, and be something your character can't fully overcome on their own. Detailed rules can wait until there's enough interest to justify starting an official thread.
Simply put, teamwork and co-dependence are king. There will be no uber gods. Characters will help one another to survive and thrive, just as you will help each other to create them. A simple combat system will keep power levels in check—when and ONLY when it is needed—but you will not be forced to interact with it if you would rather play a supporting class. Numbers will be handled by myself and any co-GMs I may decide to gift/curse with responsibility.
You mentioned dragons and other magical creatures; is this a fantasy setting?
Not strictly. Dragon fossils aren't just used for magical medieval-style weapons and armor. They can even be used to power rough equivalents of modern appliances, like refrigerators. While most "technology" ends somewhere around clockworks and steampunk, some modern conveniences are justified with magic. All kinds of magical weapons exist, too, so if you want to have a light sword, be my guest—just don't expect it to cut through that unassuming medieval-style armor your more "conventional fantasy themed" opponent is wearing quite so easily! In this RP, the line between magic and technology gets blurry, and in terms of the power balance in combat, it'll be pretty evenly split.
Stuff that decidedly does not exist are space travel, ballistic missiles, and the internet (I'm not sorry). Guns are also of the extremely slow to reload variety, with bayonets. Depending on where a character is from, they may have fantastical tales of "horseless carriages," "underwater boats" and "ubermarkets," but they won't be buying anything with a credit card or bragging about their newfound debt on their phones.
You can play non-human races, but the Venn diagram of acceptable demihumans is exceptionally narrow, and the definition of "monster" is very broad. If you're an elf or an orc, don't expect to be a protagonist. This RP is about a group of humans doing decidedly human things... and dubiously human things. Speaking of:
What's the tone/posting expectation?
I want some colourful characters, with vibrant personality. Things are liable to get campy in here, and by campy, I of course mean fun and hilarious. That said, more adult themes are up for the exploration too. I don't want an angsty no-fun zone, but I also don't want to throw all character growth out the window entirely. This won't be a Saturday morning cartoon show. Expect things to get serious at times. I mean, you read the backstory, right? 'Course you did.
Posting expectation is whatever you can manage, as long as you aren't spamming the thread with one-liners or keeping me waiting multiple weeks for 3 sentences. If you want to have a fast-paced banter with someone, consider doing it in PMs first and then putting up the full conversation as a collaborative post. In general, though, substance over length is my mantra. It's fine if English isn't your first language, just make sure you use real, actual words. Try to post at least every other week if you don't want to miss out, because I'm not the type to wait.
Hoo boy. This got longer than I initially wanted, maybe too long for an interest check. Oh well.
My patented PAQ (preemptively answered questions) is far from thorough, so ask away.
Oh, and express interest. That too.
Last edited by a moderator:
