UPRISING: The Tyrant King [Jess Incognito x Krimp]

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Krimp

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On the island kingdom of Duriel, a mad king rules with an iron fist.

King Feldrin IV, known as the Tyrant King, maintains his nation's prosperity just as his predecessors have for the last three centuries: through the enslavement of the vast majority of the population. Low Durians, the unfortunate 90%, are seen as no more than animals by the aristocracy that rules them. They are fed and clothed to prevent them from dying out, but slaughtered without thought or repercussion. While this aristocracy, the High Durians, live lives of luxury and decadence, their slaves exist in a constant state of hopelessness and fear. Fear of beatings, death, or even worse: the appearance of a Faceless One.

While the first Feldrin relied on the otherwordly powers of his Faceless Ones to secure his dominion and enforce his rule, the masked, enigmatic figures are rarely seen any more. Duriel has been an oppressed nation for over three centuries and the Low Durians that live in enslavement and squalor not only have never experienced any other way of life, they can hardly even imagine the concept of freedom. Over the centuries, the spirit has been beaten out of them.

Now, only those Low Durians with inextinguishable will dare to fight against the king, but even these brave men and woman fall against the sharp spears and arrows of the Imperial Army without any real effect.

Until now.

A small resistance group in the capital of New Ryllon have recently come into possession of a strange item that draws them towards a woman. A woman who, while ordinary now, will soon become exceptional. This woman represents something that the Low Durians haven't had for three hundred years.

Hope.​


THE STORY SO FAR​
Introduction Chapter One Chapter Two
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THE STRANGE LAND OF DURIEL

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Emmancy Infiltration Technology Social
  • Emmancy is the art of using one's previous emotional experiences or current state of mind in order to achieve feats that would otherwise be physically impossible. Very few people possess the gift of Emmancy, and outside of its practitioners, fewer still know of its existence. It is difficult to describe Emmancy in one way to fit all of its users because emotions are such a subjective thing. However, several overarching laws seem to govern the art.

    Generally speaking, if one wishes to use their power, they must recall previous emotional experiences and endure re-experiencing these emotions without losing a strong inner focus of what they want to achieve. If this focus snaps, the spell could go awry in disastrous ways. For example, if one wished to light a fire by evoking a small amount of flame (though few would use the art for so menial a task), the act of losing their focus could result in the entire house burning down, or even self-immolation. There are five overarching categories of emotional response that affect Emmancy.

    Anger: Offensive
    Joy: Defensive
    Sorrow: Manipulative
    Fear: Evasive
    Serenity: Miscellaneous

    Serenity differs from the others types of Emmancy, is practised by all who possess the art, and describes a state of concentration when all emotions are balanced.
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  • The only people that possess the means to progress in Duriel - the High Durians - are too busy drinking to excess and stabbing each other in the back to take an interest in advancement. As such, technology in Duriel has been stagnant for the last three centuries.

    The secrets of plumbing and gunpowder, of engine and electricity, remain unknown to all. Weaponry extends from smaller weapons such as swords and spears, to larger siege engines such as catapults and ballistae. The fastest mode of transportation available to all but the Faceless Ones is that of four hooves.
  • There are two types of people in Duriel, and a division wider than any chasm separates them.

    High Durians, informally referred to simply as 'Highs', are the only people who are allowed access to currency; any Low Durian found with gold, silver or copper on their person - or any other item of value for that matter - will be summarily executed. As such, the Highs have complete control over all land, goods and resources. Other than the fealty of all to King Feldric, there is no official system of hierarchy within the society of Highs - though this isn't to say that each are equal. Power is determined by wealth, holdings, and whether or not one has the king's favour, and families endlessly plot to undermine others to further their own power. High Durian families are responsible for the feeding and shelter of their slaves, and while the level of care families take with their slaves varies across the land, most seem to realise that if they do not provide these necessities, they will soon have no one to do their work for them.

    Low Durians, commonly called 'Lows', are not entitled to any rights or possessions save what their master provides for them - which is typically nothing more than rags and a cold stone floor to sleep on. There is no such thing as a crime towards a Low, and as such most live their lives in fear that they will die from accidentally offending the wrong person, or even walking past the wrong sort of High on a bad day. Few even have the initiative to try to escape their slavery, and most of those that do are quickly caught and dealt with. However, some few manage to escape and somehow manage to survive, primarily in larger cities, where there are plenty of Lows walking the streets at their masters' bidding at all times of the day to blend in with.
 
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CHARACTERS

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Bradlee Steel Amara Rohannon Allies Villains
  • Name: Bradlee Steel

    Age: 32

    Height: 6'2"

    Class: Low Durian

    Appearance: Tall, long limbed and possessing a natural predatory grace, it is not surprising that some call the Resistance leader of New Ryllon 'The Blade of the Lows'. His body has been hardened by a life of labour and fighting, his skin is marked by many an old wound. One particular scar, running up the left side of his neck before curving along the underside of his jaw, is prominent from certain angles. He keeps his thick brown hair fairly short, burshing it to both sides of his high brow. Firm lips and a straight nose lie beneath dark brown, intense eyes.

    Biography: Born on a plantation in the searing heat of Western Duriel, Bradlee has known hardship since the day he was old enough to pull wheat from the ground. Some High Durian plantation owners are kind to their slaves, but Bradlee's owner was not one of these men. His sister was raped and killed by a High Durian teen at the age of thirteen; Bradlee was fifteen at the time. Two weeks later, his father was killed an attempt to exact vengeance on the culprit, leaving his mother little more than an empty shell. That day, he managed to escape the plantation, and through sheer fortune eventually made to to New Ryllon, with a fire burning in his heart that could not be extinguished.

  • Name: Amara Rohannon

    Age: 20
    Height: 5'7"

    Class: High Durian

    Appearance: Long blonde hair usually tied in two braids. She has a thin and supple figure that makes less than imposing presence. Amara appears quite young, even for her young age, and this extends from innocent features. Her eyes are a striking green and grey.

    Biography: Amara has never wanted for anything. Though she managed her learning in being a lady well and seems to do all that is asked of her correctly, the fact could never be hidden that the youngest Rohannon was a strange girl. She was no handful as a child and sat quietly until addressed, but often floated away in her mind from reality. She did not much enjoy the company of other children of her own status, but could spend hours with their house's slaves. They amused her, were funny and seemed to roam wherever they pleased. Despite this time spent, Amara never quite understood the plight of the lower castes. To her, it seemed the children could run all day and the adults were well fed and housed. Through all her dazing, she neglected to see the injustices of their situation and especially did not gather what it had to do with her. The older she got, the more blind and caught up in the trivial concerns of the High she became.
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And we're off!

This first post was mainly just setting the scene, but I thought I'd give you some space to react to the sudden appearance of a Faceless One before the Resistance comes in to make a nuisance save the day.
 
Beautiful! And yes, she is quite ready to be annoyed saved.
Also, from the pm, I don't mind moving conversation at all. Thread or message or post cards, doesn't matter to me.
 
Post cards it is then! It'll be pretty pricey getting them across half the world, but hey, I'm sure I can cut some unnecessary expenses out of my life to cover it. You know, food, clothing, all those extravagances.

I've just had a sudden idea come to me when I sat down to write (this happens quite a lot). Originally I was thinking that Amara's powers would manifest during this first little bit - not at this exact moment but soon enough - and that this would give her and the Resistance members sent to retrieve her the edge they needed to escape. I still think this would work really well and be fun to write! HOWEVER,

Second option which has just struck me now: the possibility that her powers do not emerge for a longer period of time. This would be interesting, and opens up avenues such as everybody getting angry because 'why did we save some random High who can't do anything' and also give Amara a chance to undergo some sort of much more mundane training. Then, a little further down the line, they do manifest, and everybody thinks
'hey we were wrong all along, this girl rules!'

It's your character, so of course I'll leave the decision up to you. I think either of them will work really well! Of course if you've got a completely different idea from either of the above then I'm all for that too.
 
I think it was almost $2 last time I sent one to Europe...so maybe not worth it after all.

I quite like the new idea, actually. I had a thought that her encounter with the Faceless Man would be replayed in nightmares, that eventually build up so much that the emotion causes a spark for initial release of power - not much, but uncontrolled. That's the most traumatic experience in her life thus far. I figure being a High, she hasn't had too many genuine experiences, so it makes sense that it would take some serious shaking to be able to generate enough emotion to produce magic and from there she could figure out how to use the less intense emotions.

I imagine she'll be the most irritating thing in their lives until she figures out how the world works.

I think my next reply will be rather short, then, as I don't know what your saving involves.
 
Awesome, I'm glad you think so. And it'll definitely be a great moment when her powers finally are unleashed.

I have given her a chance to be useful here, though. If you decide she does know her way around, feel free to have her lead us through.

There might be a few more day-or-so gaps between posting in the near future. Those RL problems that I was talking about have taken an even bigger nosedive so things are gonna be rough for a bit but it shouldn't affect my activity overly much.
 
And she did decide to be not completely useless.

I hope everything clears up without too much trouble, but don't worry about it. I definitely understand and can be patient.

Speaking of gaps, though, next weekend I'm moving in for fall semester so I'll probably miss a few days, too. At least on posting in character. It's a special program, so they have some ridiculous agenda planned, not sure how much time I'll have.
 
Oh yeah I saw on your profile that you do architecture - awesome! Do you enjoy it? My two flatmates are both in their second year so I hear about it all the time (mostly complaints that they have entire projects to do in one night haha).

Sorry for doing this two nights in a row, but I'm not really feeling up to a post tonight. I suppose I should give you more details in explanation: me and my girlfriend of three years have just broken up, and while that was a mutual, amicable thing, things got messy straight after so things are pretty sucky right now. Hopefully I'll have the energy tomorrow night but right now I'm just feeling drained.

Sorry that this has happened at the very beginning, it's gotta be pretty annoying from your side, but while my activity might be sporadic for a little while I can promise I'm not going anywhere.
 
It's absolutely not annoying, I understand and I wouldn't get in a huff about a few days between anyway, with or without reason. I definitely look forward to continuing, but even this kind of chat is enough to keep me not worried about waiting. Your troubles are more familiar to me this summer than you'd think. I hope it smooths out and you feel better.

I absolutely do love architecture, I discovered that it was an option sort of late into the university choosing process when I was in high school, but I can't imagine it any other way for me now that I'm in it. I'd say it sounds like your flatmates are procrastinators, but it seems that no matter what you do throughout the project, you end up having to build an entire model or draw some amazing thing on the last night.
 
Sounds like you're doing the right degree then! Oh they definitely are procrastinators of the highest order haha, but even with that the workload seems pretty immense. Some of the conceptual stuff just sounds ridiculous to me, but then again my creativity is pretty narrowly focussed on music - last time I did art was when I was 13 and I somehow managed to fail that...

More and more things keep coming to light which I never knew about and none of these things are particularly pleasant, hence my silence again last night but I'm going to get up a post straight after this!
 
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Ha, half the time the professors ask for something that sounds heavy with expectation and then afterwards you think, why did I kill myself over that? He doesn't even care. Because only the final product matters in the end and did it look like you were doing work the rest of the time.

You know what I've found? Art doesn't matter. Math matters less - that's what I figured architecture was, art and math. Nope, there are some pretty uninspired individuals out there studying and even practicing. They aren't very good architects, but they made it through school.
Art isn't everyone's thing. It's almost always a participation and effort grade, but if you're not into it, you're just not. Music is a huge realm that I simply don't understand, I mean listening I've got down, but playing...no way. Haven't taken a music class since fifth grade...so...a decade ago, haha.

I'm sorry to hear that. It's never easy, even if you know it's better the way you've chosen to go. I broke up with a 2 year boyfriend a few months ago and even though it was my doing it took some time to get over. You realize a lot of things change all of a sudden that you weren't prepared for. Stupid things like...who am I going to tell about my road rage story.

But I'm off to read your post and then sleep! But if it's awful I'll come knocking on your hypothetical door. :P
 
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As it turns out, I moved into my semester housing today and internet did not come together. So for some indefinite amount of time I won't be posting . Hopefully not too long. But just so you know.
 
Hey no worries, I know what that's like.

And thanks for the kind words. It definitely was the right thing to do, but like you said, it's a very sudden change from a constant presence in your life to empty space.. And that's not particularly fun.

But life must go on! Take your time, there's no rush. I'm excited to see how you respond to this. By the way, if it isn't clear already, I've got no problem with you creating dialogue/actions for NPCs such as these that turn up, I don't like stifling creativity. All I'll say is that Amara could try to reason with these guys, but it's not gonna work. Heh.
 
Hey, just checking in. I didn't realize it'd been 10 days since movement, which isn't that long in the scheme of things, but like I said, just checking in.

Hope all is well and better than before. (:
 
Wow, ten days? Man time has been flying recently.

I'm still here don't worry about that! And I'm much better than I was, thanks for asking. I've just been feeling pretty creatively drained recently, but that could very well just be because I've been away for the last week. Probably won't be getting anything up tonight, but tomorrow should hopefully be good!
 
I don't mean to pressure you into writing, just saying hey. I'm glad to hear you're feeling better.
I didn't think it had been over a week, and ten days really isn't that long, but then it's almost two weeks and half a month sounds long...and on and on.
 
Alright, so, this seems more like hiatus, which is fine, I think most of the time I'd let it slide quietly into the depths, but I enjoy your writing too much for that.
So if and when you get back to writing, give me a shout, I'm still interested in this or anything new and I will be when you're up for it.
 
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