ISE MONOGATARI ooc

GuanYue

sorrow made you.
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Speed of Light
  2. Multiple posts per day
  3. 1-3 posts per day
  4. One post per day
  5. 1-3 posts per week
  6. One post per week
  7. Slow As Molasses
Writing Levels
  1. Give-No-Fucks
  2. Intermediate
  3. Adept
  4. Advanced
  5. Prestige
  6. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Nonbinary
  4. Transgender
  5. Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Modern Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sci-fi Futuristic, Cyberpunk, Victorian, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, time period fantasies, semi-realism, slice of life, organization/agencies, gangs, dystopian, dark, comedy, medieval fantasy
ISE MONOGATARI

#48A1FB Inspirations: Samurai Champloo, Japanese Folklore, the mobile app game Onmyoji
LINKS: INFO || IC || OOC
Premise: Edo period Japan, a priestess is sent from her shrine to travel along the Tokaido Road to the grand Ise Shrine to investigate a bad omen. Along the way, the priestess gains friends and allies to accompany her in her adventures. It is up to this group to save Japan from falling into another impending darkness.
 
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CHARACTER SHEET

Like mentioned in the rules in the info dump thread, spots may be competitive depending on how many applicants I get. I only have 6 spots available for people and one of them must be the Shrine Priestess. All others are open to creative freedom, just please remember that this is Edo Japan and I'm not accepting foreigners. All must be from Japan, whether they're human or not.

Below is the general information I will need from you in your character sheet. You are welcome to add more details if you want, or if you think it'll help your case. I will have character sheet deadlines in the next post.

Appearance
Name
Age (or appearance age)
Race (whether you're human, kami, some kind of mythological creature, etc)
Occupatio (if you have one)
Personality
Bio
Skills & Abilities (anything you're good at and/or if you've got some kind of magic or powers)
Extra information​
 
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Final day to submit character sheets will be April 28. It is subject to change (but Dao’s birthday is in the 20th and Dao will be busy that weekend)

Dao is currently accepting ONE MORE CHARACTER! Please apply!
 
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ooc up for use though. 8D
aka, you may post here now.
 
I've already have an idea for a character. I'm going to be a
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I totally forgot to change it to open signups

Edit;;

Wait, you gonna be a kappa???
 
There is now a character sheet due date. All sheets can be posted in here
 
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Hmmm... before I start with my application, are characters based on specific legends allowed? Say, Kiyohime, Hashihime, Tamamo-no-Mae or even Ibaraki-doji?

Of course, nothing too big like the Yamata-no-Orochi or a kaiju-tier fugg.
 
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@Crow they don’t particularly have to be but I’m not opposed to the idea either. I think you’ve got the idea— no major deities/kami. With how the story is and the direction it may take, there’s a high chance of meeting major Japanese mythology beings.
 
If that's the case, I've got the idea in my head.
 
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I need to sit down and do my own character. xD
Though, I'm a little torn between a failed kabuki actor or a descendant of the Sanada clan.
 
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"I don't have a purpose anymore, but I guess this hero business... I should try it."

Name:
Ibaraki-doji

Age:
13

Race:
Yokai (Oni)

Occupation:
Great War General (formerly)
Wanderer (current)

Personality:
Ibaraki-doji of today is different from Ibaraki-doji of the past. Today, Ibaraki-doji is tired of living after living for so long with no purpose in life. All she wants in life is a reason to keep going, as she has already used all her reasons - from killing the one who killed her father to exceeding her predecessors. She finds no purpose in her current actions beyond them being what she has done for many years.

Bio:
Ibaraki-doji was the daughter of the late Shuten-doji, and his second-in-command in many battles. Ultimately, a warrior named Yorimitsu slayed Shuten-doji and his armada, resulting in Ibaraki-doji running away from the scene.
Ibaraki-doji's next purpose in life was vengeance. She had a few opportunities to kill Yorimitsu, but each time she did, something within her caused her to hestitate and run. Ultimately, she outlived the warrior without killing him, directly or indirectly. This was when she realised that she had become more moralbound, like a human, so she had to find something to distract herself.
Her next purpose in life was to become stronger than her father. After achieving this feat, she became so used to her daily routines, she simply worked towards becoming stronger, following the routine of training in the woods, replacing her weighted clothing every time she got used to them, and so on. It was a boring life, and the only thing that could petter it out was a fine bottle of sake.
She cursed her longevity, the longevity that yokai hold.
That was, until one day, she found a purpose - adventure.

Skills & Abilities:
Ibaraki-doji is ridiculously strong. For many a century of her life, she had worn weighted underclothes and getas, replacing it with heavier ones the moment she adapts. Even her naginata is ridiculously heavy by human standards, having a weight more akin to axes or hammers, all bundled up in a small mass, but she is able to swing it most gracefully due to years of adapting.
With her weighted clothes and getas, she is still somewhat fast, having the running speed slightly faster than those of humans. After removing her weighted clothes and getas, her running speed increases manyfold, exceeding even lightning.
Her natural oni strength has been combined with her weighted training, making her strength huge. The pressure of her weighted clothing do aid in holding back.
She has throwing strength and throwing precision, for far-range attacks.
Ibaraki-doji is fully capable of levitation. This is also how she doesn't break any chair she sits on, but sometimes she forgets that she can fly, which results in broken chairs in the process.
Ibaraki-doji can manipulate plant life to an extent, causing them to grow spiky thorns to entangle others. This works better in a place with more greenery like a forest.

Extra information:
N/A​
 
Hnnng the excitement is real
 
I, as usual, am needlessly overcoding everything. One of these days it'll be done. Also my knowledge of Japanese mythology and medieval tradition's shaky at best, so currently doing some research. Will take a while.

Also, I'm pretty sure half of the incoming applications will arrive a day or two right before the deadline. That's how it always is.
 
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Thanks for the communication, @Jays
I decided to be pretty lazy and not code anything for this atm, but I do understand the time consuming struggle x__x

Hopefully I’ll hear from others too. Even if they are gonna submit right before deadline XD
I like to at least know there’s interest >_>;;
 
x: I’m sorry, I’m not a great OOC chatter, which is why I rated to declare my intent. I’m also a shameless coder. Soooo...

Ōkamuzumi おほかむずみ

Appearance: Usually unseen and without the power to transform or take form. For centuries Ōkamuzumi inhabited a peach tree for her body, cultivating the most beautiful peach blossoms and breeding the tastiest fruits. for her services she was given a body by the grace of Amaterasu. Ōkamuzumi was given the appearance of a lady with features as pale as the blossoms of her tree were. Her figure is elegant and tall, like the trunk stood tall and rank while her hair flows as long as her branches reached and as many as the fruits she bore. Her skin is as soft as the peel of her fruits with her lips tinted the youthful colours of that she cultivated. Ōkamuzumi’s appearance is as beautiful and fragile as that of the blossoms she shed when she was a worshipped tree. Just like the blossoms Ōkamuzumi’s body fades once the sun goes down and Amaterasu’s jurisdiction ends.

Name: Ōkamuzumi
Nickname(s): Ōka, Momo

Age: Looks twenty-ish, but she is a good few centuries old
Race: Tree deity「kami」
Occupation: Wandering spirit / guardian
Personality: Ōkamuzumi’s character is largely defined by the time in which she had no form and no identity of her own. As a wandering spirit the deity had spent centuries looking for a purpose of her own. Born from a wish it is in her nature to look out and serve, but as she couldn’t find any satisfaction in servitude she never established herself. It was at last when she merged with a tree that she found a purpose and a name. Now abandoned again she is once more looking for a purpose, but this time with more direction.

Ōkamuzumi is first and foremost indecisive in character. Constantly looking for a purpose and goal to live for the deity has little direction and individuality without the praise and wishes of humanity. While many may praise her deeds and she was once a celebrated entity the female has actually no clue in how to decide anything for herself, or how to express her own will. It is by no surprise that Ōkamuzumi sees no value in herself other than to serve and to fulfil wishes, as she seems to have this ingrained belief that her purpose and goals are formed and defined by those who wish for her instead of cultivating it herself. Having served as a tree deity has only enabled to feed into this indecision.

By human standards Ōkamuzumi is like an empty shell of a character. Without many layers and depth. Other than the description of pretty and looking for a purpose as well as willing to help there isn’t much more to say about the deity. Despite the many years she lived and the many wise words she has heard along with the experiences she saw Ōkamuzumi hasn’t learnt to understand any of them, it seems. Despite the time that passed the deity seems to have only one constant in her life and that is fulfilling her duty as a spirit born from a wish and avoid losing her form once more. She hasn’t observed the many emotions that humanity has, other than wishes. She hasn’t experienced the life as intended for the mortals, assuming that it was not for her who is immortal. It was only when she abandoned her spot that she realised how wasteful her years had been. However, being an immortal what exactly is time wasted and a century in her life?

Biography: The story starts with a wandering spirit without a name, gender, or appearance to go by. An entity that was suddenly born from a wish unknown to them and a guardian that had no clue what their purpose was. At times their powers grew, when more humans prayed for them. Other times their powers diminished as the humans turned their back at them. Whatever the case, the spirit didn't quite know what their purpose was yet in this world so filled with deities that all wanted to do good.

It wasn't until the spirit came across a dying peach tree. The spirit was still young, but already tired of wandering and the peach tree was diminishing. However the humans taking care of the tree and the tree itself didn't want to leave yet. Both wanted the tree to stay and thus the spirit decided to give whatever life it had to the tree, deciding to become one. The tree sprang to life again and the most delicious peaches were cultivated. With the life of the spirit the mysterious powers of the gods entered the tree and its fruits, soon enough cultivating the holy peaches that came to be known as Ōkamuzumi which soon became the name of the nameless spirit.

Centuries passed where the tree Ōkamuzumi was celebrated and in the meanwhile a decorative bind found its way around the trunk of the tree. To protect the tree and its fruits from evil doing. A small shrine was built near as well, with people living in it to take care of the tree. Ōkamuzumi felt honoured and blessed by the people who praised them and the tree spirit began to wish. Wishing that they could be amongst the people and as if the people knew they would wish to see the spirit as well. It was a wish soon heard by the sun Amaterasu and Ōkamuzumi was soon granted the body of a female.

Another few centuries passed where Ōkamuzumi would show and pass. However, with the wars raging amongst humans and their selfishness she was soon forgotten. Ōkamuzumi was after all a mere peach tree deity worthless to help cultivate peace and the people turned away, their minds too occupied with all that surrounded them. The peach tree deity lost her shrine once more and went back to her wandering ways. This time more solid and with a purpose.

Skills & Abilities: True to a tree spirit Ōkamuzumi’s skillsets lies within cultivation and the preservation of flora. She speaks and understands the language of the trees, particularly that of the peach trees and can interpret nature surrounding her pretty well. This also helps her understand the growth and cultivation of flora, capable of causing fastgrowth or to manipulate certain characteristics or by adding in special properties and blessings to the fruits the flora carries. Peach trees and peaches are her specialties and signature, but Ōkamuzumi isn’t opposed to possess and lay her hands on all other plants.

As a tree spirit without a form Ōkamuzumi is capable of taking a solid form by entering trees, or by forming a human body. The latter is harder to keep up and taxing to her energy levels, however. At day there is enough light for Ōkamuzumi to maintain her form, but once night falls she becomes the formless being she was born as.

Extra Information: As a tree spirit Ōkamuzumi's power grows stronger with the sun. Like a tree can't produce and feed itself without the sun she can't manifest without the light either. Her powers are simply not far reaching enough for her to hold up her form without the sun.
 
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I assume the feel of this roleplay's along the line of a mystical, spiritual journey akin to Journey to the West?
 
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Jihi - 慈悲

  • appearance: A mountain stream that once borne the snow of the highest peaks to the rich soil of lowland deltas, Jihi sometimes appeared in the form of a dark-haired man in dishevel farmer's clothing, tall and slender, his skin tanned and scarred like the mountainside. His eyes are a piercing grey, the colour of freshly melted snow soaking through the soil of the river bank, his hair a flowing inky black of the wood's whispering shadows. Jihi's appearance resembled the rough and weathered mountain that it flows through.

    name: Jihi - 慈悲
    nickname: Jin

    race: River deity [kami]
    age: Several centuries old but human form appears to be early thirties
    Occupation: Guardian spirit

  • Mercy

    There once was a little boy. He lived in a small village near the mountain. His mother and father and the village elders all warned him not to go too far from the village, and never, ever stray from the path.

    One day, the boy climbed the mountain out of curiosity. He walked for an entire morning and an entire afternoon until the path ran out, and he forged forward still, fascinated by the wood. But before long, he realized he was lost.

    The little boy tried to turn back, but the earth had swallowed his tracks. He tried to find the sun to find his way, but the trees blocked out the sky, their trunks too high and their branches to sharp to climb. He tried to call out for help, but the wood devoured his voice and sent nothing back.

    The little boy trudged on, determine to find his way home, but he walked for a day and a night and no trace of home could be seen. He prayed to Amaterasu and Fūjin and all the gods in heaven to show him a sign, but four days and four nights passed and no sign appeared.

    Finally, exhausted, hungry and unable to carry on, the little boy came to the bank of a river. Its water restored some of his strength, but not his hope. Falling into the gentle current, the boy made a deal with the river: if the river brought him home, he and all his children after him would worship and honour it for a thousand years to come. And as his consciousness faded, where all his prayers had been met with silence, the lapping water whispered to him, mercy.

    The villagemen found the little boy on the shore of a nearby lake and brought him home, feverish and weak but alive. And his mother and father and all the village elders praised the gods in heaven for their miracle, but the little boy knew better.

    Decades passed in a blink, mere seconds for the unchanging mountain, but an eternity for mortal men. A famed general returned home to the village of his birth, gloried and victorious. Leaving his men behind, he climbed the mountain alone and lost himself in its abstract infinity, until he came to the bank of a river deep inside the wood, where he fell to his knees and bowed his head, three times.

    From that day onward, a new shrine stood on the shore of the lake where the little boy was found so many years before, a shrine dedicated to a river none had seen. Jihi, it was called. Benevolence. Mercy. If a traveller was lost in the mountains, they would pray to Jihi, and the river would guide them home. Every generation, one girl from the general's descendants would be chosen to become Jihi's Shrine Maiden, to dedicate her life to praising its name and remind others of the story of the little boy, and the river.

    But as the centuries passed, war, famine and diseases ravaged the land, and the forgetful minds of mortal men were so very, very fragile. Soon, villagemen could no longer remember how the shrine came to be, and as death claimed the last of the general's descendants, its story was forever lost to time.

    And even the constants of the mountain was not insusceptible to the whims of the land. Droughts and the relentless sun slowly, inexorably stripped away the lifeblood of the river until it dried to a small stream, then bare rocks under the scorching sky. Until a river was no longer a river, only an idea of one.

    The broken, unattended remain of a shrine stood by the shore of a dried lake, forgotten.


  • Personality: Jihi rarely appeared in its human form other than to its Shrine Maiden or lost travellers of the mountain. Like the current of its water, Jihi was both gentle and severe, caring yet detached, harsh but fair, and ultimately paradoxical in its nature. Driven by kindness and fascination of mortals, Jihi almost always answered prayers of those in need.

    But time had stripped many layers off its bones, leaving behind bare river bed of heated rock and a lingering idea of water, like the dampness in the air after the rain. The kindness remained, albeit jagged and sharp, hot as a summer day.

    Jihi had always been alien, inhuman, more of a concept than a being. But concepts are fair and unbiased.


    Domain: Jihi is a kami of the river and the mountain, water and rock. It can commune with bodies of water, be it lake, stream, river or pond as long as the kami of those places are awake. It can also commune with kami of the earth and wood to a limited extent.

    Jihi holds dominion over water, and so is most potent in the early hours of rising sun, when the morning dew saturated the land, and after or before storms and rains when the air is abundant of water. Jihi cannot make rain, but revel and come alive in it.

    Jihi is not repelled or weakened by dry land, now that it itself had dried up, but its mood and personality sour quickly in such environment, heading rapidly towards resentment of everything around it.

 
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@Jays I would say so. I would like to have that charming feeling about it. Maybe a mix of Journey to the West and a Studio Ghibli film.


Edit; I’m in the dilemma of whether I wanna take the time and draw my character or find a picture. I don’t think I can quite find a picture that matches the image in my head. So I’m probably going to have to take some time and draw it. Dx
 
Edit; I’m in the dilemma of whether I wanna take the time and draw my character or find a picture. I don’t think I can quite find a picture that matches the image in my head. So I’m probably going to have to take some time and draw it. Dx
Jellyyy, I wish I had such talent.

I’m currently debating whether I should continue with this character or join in with a different character concept. Hnnnng.
 
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