- Invitation Status
- Look for groups
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- Multiple posts per week
- Online Availability
- Sorry, it's difficult for me to predict! It's why I prefer play-by-post!
- Writing Levels
- Give-No-Fucks
- Preferred Character Gender
- No Preferences
- Genres
- Weird fiction, xenofiction, horror, romance, melodrama.
it has been twenty years since the untombed god was exhumed
twenty years and three days since his rebirth
and twenty years and four days since the dawn of the death of the world.
continents are broken under the weight
of undying flesh
while monsters born of infinite love
seek nothing, and pay nothing in kind.
the ruined husk of an empire, shattered
fades already into the cut marble and polished brass
of the ever-brief era of humanity.
in these dying days
what stories of heroism and death shall you write
to whom shall you dedicate your final poems
and in what way shall you raise your weapons to the sky
and say:
no more?
twenty years and three days since his rebirth
and twenty years and four days since the dawn of the death of the world.
continents are broken under the weight
of undying flesh
while monsters born of infinite love
seek nothing, and pay nothing in kind.
the ruined husk of an empire, shattered
fades already into the cut marble and polished brass
of the ever-brief era of humanity.
in these dying days
what stories of heroism and death shall you write
to whom shall you dedicate your final poems
and in what way shall you raise your weapons to the sky
and say:
no more?
i. technical
thine world, entombed, is something a little different. I'm a perennial GM/DM/storyteller, and despite having found a few groups I want to and do play a character in, I wanted to try my hand at doing the above here, too. I got the idea as I was putting together my pieces for the contests this season, and realised just how much I missed classic sword-and-sorcery pulp, but with the aura of death and xenofiction that it was always meant to have.
Before we begin - this is a violent and melancholic series; some of the content within may be considered violent, or cruel.
It is not meant to be so in an exploitative way, and if you're interested in just writing scenes for shock value, this really isn't the place.
It is, however, the place if you want to describe the death throes of a world and it's people - their last adventures and heroic stands against unknowable and unbeatable opponents -
Who, sometimes - through hard luck and herculean skill and the strength of their courage, their faith, and the faith of those who believe in them - are beaten.
Unlike other settings, this is not purely a group RP; I would like it to be handled kind of like a story setting. You can choose to write in pairs or small groups, publish solo fiction, or cross into the stories of others (with their consent, I am going to be exercising loose GM authority to make sure tales are treated with the diligence and respect they are due).
Rather then being a solo or group RP project, I would like it to be thought of as a mythos, where the tales and adventures and actions your characters take influence the greater whole.
Occasionally - if there is enough interest to make this worth the effort - I will collate the various places and gods and peoples and actions into story notes, with the changing of eras signifying the great events of those months as the clock moves closer to the dying years of humanity. This is inspired by rissa's Fallout Requiem handling, I just think it's neat.
What tales will you choose to tell?
Will you fight for the last folk you wish to protect?
Will you roam from empty settlement to empty settlement, looking for things no others would see?
Will you challenge the twisted servants of the Untombed King, simply because you can?
Will you retreat to caverns and cliff fortifications, choosing to observe in silence as the world ends - praying that deep-tunnelling things will find you last?
Will you document the end, even if none shall read your stories or hear your songs..?
ii. setting
The world of entombed is our own, through a very strange lens.
Great chunks of western europe are gone, sunken forever beneath the blood-red sea.
The capitol of the world-spanning empire is overwhelmed underneath the boiling cancerous growths of the Untombed King, God of Love.
Lone chunks of the empire, periphery settlements, barbaric lands, and those that dwell beyond remain; but each in time has dwindled.
A worldwide population once numerous has fallen, collapsed; you may travel the ruins of great cities, and see no one, not human nor beast.
Twenty years prior, the world still had a fighting chance, theoretically. But it does not any longer.
Above, the sun has been devoured; light emanates from the Untombed God, captured in the glassy keratinous prisons across his flesh.
Veins of his blood have spilled into the soil, and most plant life is red and twisted, unhealthy and sickly, or entirely too verdant.
You will control a single character - though you may write for any number in stand-alone fiction, so long as your interactions are one-on-one when interacting with other players directly - and chart their destiny through what is left of the world.
Some suggestions to be fleshed out;
- One of the last members of the great legion; you start with the worn kit of your former station, the ability to speak in legion hand-sign, and duties that you will never fulfil.
Do you seek to fight for a glory that has long since died, protect those few who remain, or stake your claim in the legends of this shadowed realm?
- A simple settler of the periphery; your traditions entirely your own, untouched by time and the worries of great powers. With many skills available to you, and a small homestead, your survival is a miracle; but a cruel one. Will you seek to repay it with silent hope, or resist the turning of the age with the strength others did not see..?
- So-called 'barbarians,' the peoples of no-mans land; some dwelling in great states, and others not acknowledging the lines of rivers, much less borders on maps.
You knew the end would come, but not like this. Do you choose to carve your own legend in blood, in gold, in glory, or in hope..?
- From across the seas in any direction, countless states and nations and empires flourished. With a destiny written entirely apart, you are nevertheless bound to the doom of the world. In what ways shall you greet this unknown horizon that stains the entire world red; with fear, with weapons drawn, with resignation, or with open arms..?
iii. mechanics
Finally, how this goes; this is a low-fantasy setting for the cast.
Although some peoples may be weird, all characters should still be base-line humanoids.
Perhaps you come from a Greenland that is a tropical jungle; or a tropical jungle in the middle of Siberia.
Perhaps there is a huge ice sheet in Sicily, or perhaps there was once allegedly a kingdom in the sky that nobody can pinpoint; geography should be vague and sometimes contradictory, though never in a scene directly.
But no matter how weird the setting is, ultimately this is a tale about relatively powerless people who fight regardless.
You are cursed to live; meaning that, yes, you can risk punching a servitor of the Untombed God right in the face; it might even work.
It won't work all the time, however, and you must rely the most on your wits, your equipment, your friends, and your willpower to survive.
Various origins might offer a set 'package' of skills, modifiable by PM-ing me.
These are not meant to be 'iron' rules for how a character should be, but a guide to the kind of character you want to create.
I would much rather see you creating characters you can write interesting short fiction and poetry about, then characters who feel constrained!
But some limitation is often good for creativity. It forces you to ask what is important to your character, and that is why there will be a character creation system.
No magic directly exists, at least as known by the cast.
There will be no unearthing of power that allows the players to fight back; at most, you can choose to retreat from the world and live as a hermit in a secret place;
Under the earth (at risk for delving terrors), in the deep woods (pray they do not look too deep), between the seas (until the storms embrace you) or in any other location.
However, that does not mean this is a story of loss, alone.
In the fading world, you may well be a rallying point - someone who gives those still living the courage to live another day;
Or a marauder who beholds the empty streets with nothing to pillage, none to terrorise, no reason for cruelty - and in a bizarre twist of fate, thinks...
Enough.
Time for someone to do something about it.
Since I think the bulk of this will be independent fiction, with small outbreaks of RP, it's meant to be a 'slow-paced' setting, for those who might post once or twice a week, and don't do well in quick-paced plotting discords. If people DO want to create a fan discord, they've got my blessing! I will try to stop by!
But there isn't going to be anything official, that's for sure.
Anything else...
Influences are Kingdom Death, The Crisis of the Third Century (and Attila Total War because I am a dumm dumm), pretty much any millenarian thing ever, Fafhrd & Grey Mouser & Conan & Sonja &..., Shin Megami Tensei, and just a bit of Bloodborn.
Tl;dr -
Challenge the end of the world.
Conquer a last kingdom, and unite those who live within to fight a facet of the face of God.
Meet entities from beyond the darkest starlight who only wish to bring you love; smooch them.
Live quietly, observing all that was, and record it for others here to see.
@Hecatoncheires
Turnabout is fair play, since I'm expecting you to keep me in your tots and pears/plans.
Think you might like this one.
