Yup, new GM post, more lore points. Over time this will dwindle until we reach new areas.
The Mage's Guild: The largest and often considered sole sanctuary of the art of magic for its own sake. The Guild is composed of powerful mages who keep the world's secrets of magic and attempt to exact clandestine operations to spare mages from the blades of Templar or Witch Hunters. They're generally a neutral party, and like the King's Rangers, they do everything they can to remain hidden from the view of the common person. It's possible to form a relationship with them, but it will always be one of favours: You do something for them, they'll do something for you, and vice versa.
Languages: The races and nations of Legend of Renalta are diverse and have their own customs, cultures, and tongues. They take languages from the real world for a myriad of reasons, so instead of listing the reasons, I'll list the languages here instead. Your character may know as many of these as you like, though try to keep it reasonable. It's unlikely they know more than three.
- The Noble Tongue: Latin. Used most often in writing to befuddle attempts by plebeian messengers to decipher it and sell the information. It is rarely spoken, and when it is, it's typically reserved purely for the sake of establishing a noble's place as an educated blue blood before switching back to the common tongue.
- The Common Tongue: English. The Lingua Franca spoken by nearly all who live within the world, used for trade and diplomacy between foreign cultures. Most countries (save Rheinfeld) claim to have originally founded it. The Free Holds and Kingdom of Liveria use it as their primary language.
- Rheinfelder: German. Though most Rheinfelders know the Common Tongue (and the nobility know Latin by extension), they often choose to speak solely in Rheinfelder, even with foreigners. They're quite prideful of their heritage.
- Tongue of the Elves/Druids: French. It's one of the few things that elves rarely forget, even if they haven't used it in decades. Druids also often use this language to communicate with each other without tipping off others as to their nature, or to the location of their hideouts.
- Tongue of the Dark Elves: Russian. It's often considered coarse by outsiders.
- Tongue of the Dwarves: Dutch. There's some in-world remarks by scholars if Rheinfelder and Dwarvish have common roots.
- Tongue of the Outsider: Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese. It's not entirely uncommon for outsiders from lands of Asian ancestry to make their way to the fabled lands of times gone by. Their language is carried with them, and the local nobility often look upon it as a strange and quirky language. Nonetheless, the few outsiders who make it and survive in these lands are often powerful in their own right in some way, and respect other outsiders who speak their tongue.
And a brief Q&A, to quickly go over a few points here about the "how do" of certain interactions. Also to give y'all ideas if you need them.
Q: Can I follow Kouri & Marcus, and talk to Kouri while she travels to her quarters?
A: Yes, though you may find the princess is not too talkative. She is emotionally fatigued.
Q: Can I join Kouri in her quarters?
A: No. She will order the King's Rangers at the door to not admit anyone, as she needs time alone to contemplate everything that's happened. The most you might hear is the occasional sound of muffled crying. She's put on a guise this whole time and repressed the loss of everything and everyone she knew and loved: She needs some space to vent now, like most people would need.
Q: How deadly is duelling?
A: Duelling between player characters and training sessions is non-lethal, and any injuries sustained in the fight will be healed immediately after by King's Rangers. It's usually best to do these duels with collaborative posts. If a duel is done between a PC & NPC/PNPC/GMPC, I'll use a mix of dice rolls and comparison between characters to determine who takes what blows. (Ex: "Dean swings for Marcus, and strikes him, though Marcus knocks Dean to the floor with a knee to his guts.") The dice rolls are only a guideline, they do
not decide fights. PC vs PC is decided between players, and optionally, if you'd like the GM to decide results, you can include me as a neutral observer. Try to play fair: If your characters resort to autohitting and other shady as shit tactics to "win," I'll have NPC's react as though you did something dirty and underhanded, and in a training session, that's bad for your reputation. Very bad.
Q: Give me a guideline on how strong (in general) characters I can duel with are, and how likely I am to win.
A: Marcus is a veteran who has trained for several years, and is a strong brawler. He is both graceful and physically potent, though a tad slow as age has slowed him somewhat. Nonetheless, on the defensive, he will fuck up pretty much anyone in the party in a one on one fight when magic is not involved. On the offensive, he will struggle to hit fast moving targets, but he has a hardy constitution, and can keep going long after most people would fall down. He's replaced lost speed with sheer unwillingness to fall. This does have consequences to his health, though.
Mikan is a solid 50/50 shot either way. She's playful and unpredictable, but any official training for her starts and ends at "street scrapping." She's not very strong, but she's blindingly fast and will try to use your own movements against you. If you can pin her down, it's over—and she'll probably enjoy that. If she can pin you down, she will tease and taunt you relentlessly for it, and intentionally leave you hanging likely for someone else. If you're clever and charismatic enough though, you might win her nightly affection either way.
James may duel you if you ask for it. He won't fight fair. "Dirty and underhanded" is how he rolls. This is all I'm going to say about him.
Hanus will refuse duels at this present time as he's rationing supplies, and won't be dragged away from this task, though later on in the story, he will gladly accept duels.
Gregory is old. He will fuck your shit up before you can even figure out what's going on. Don't even try. He will then probably complain that you threw out his back and hit you over the head with a stick. Seriously though, challenging a 50-something year old to a duel is a little... Tasteless.
Kouri will probably slam the door in your face if you ask for it right now. Later on, she'll be willing, and depending on how you handle the duel, it may be a good way to develop and cultivate a relationship with her. Keep in mind, though, that she's not exactly proficient with a blade, and without her magic, would lose to most members of the party. Learning how to fight in melee, though, might not be a bad skill to teach her...
Q: When can I duel in the future?
A: Whenever the party has set up camp or is resting somewhere. If the party is travelling, or engaging in dialogue sequences, or if the scene would be simply inappropriate for it (ex: the middle of a noble's ballroom), NPC's will likely decline the invitation to duel.
Q: You said non-lethal above. Are there lethal duels?
A: Yes. If you're fighting an NPC and nobody else is able to help you, I'll offer the option of turning it into a duel. The advantage is the NPC cannot call in any help, and if he or she retreats, you get one solid shot in to try and kill them, that you might not otherwise get. On the downside, you can't call for help either, and that means you either have to last a certain amount of time (decided on a duel-by-duel basis) for a break in the fighting to erupt, and if you flee, they get a free shot on you and will either wound you, or kill you outright. NPC's can also initiate unavoidable duels if you have no way of preventing it. (Ex: They would simply kill you if you tried to run.)
Q: PC/NPC/PNPC/GMPC?
A: PC = Player Character. (You!) NPC = Non-Player Character. (Gregory as an example.) PNPC = Party Non-Player Character. (Marcus, Mikan. They're part of the party and will develop as characters, but serve secondary roles. They're there to help you with unique talents, and enable you—not take the spotlight themselves usually. Use them accordingly as side characters, save if they have personal connections to what's directly going on. There will never be more than four at a time.) GMPC = Game Master Player Character. (Kouri is the one and only GMPC I have. She's central to the plot for now, and her story is what ultimately ignited the conflict at hand. Over time, as her importance wanes, she may end up demoted to the role of a PNPC.)
Q: I have no idea how to write in other languages.
A: Use
Google Translate. Then, add in brackets what the character said in another language, in English. Ex: "Les elfes sont la course de la tragédie. (Elves are the tragedy race.)" Yes, it will fuck up grammar, pretty hard. That's another reason to add brackets as to what you said: There's no guarantee that Google Translate actually spat out what you put in, in a way that is at all legible to anyone reading it. Like that French Grammar there is atrocious.
Q: I have another question you didn't answer here.
A: Ask away in an OOC post below! Or over instant messenger. Either or, really.
