- Posting Speed
- Speed of Light
- Multiple posts per day
- 1-3 posts per day
- One post per day
- Multiple posts per week
- 1-3 posts per week
- One post per week
- Online Availability
- Anytime after 5pm, my time, most days.
- Writing Levels
- Adept
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- Preferred Character Gender
- Male
- Futanari
- Primarily Prefer Male
- Genres
- Medieval, Fantasy, Mechs, Magical Girls, Romance, Action, Fandoms, basically anything fantastic.
So, you've died. Harsh. What's even harsher is that you've ended up in the underworld... Who knows what you did (or didn't do) to end up down here? It doesn't matter now, because the reaper in charge of your soul has offered you a second chance. And what would that be? An application for the Soul Redemption Organization, of course! Your soul has been deemed not-bad enough that you've been offered a chance to work off your sin, and have a chance at your soul being reincarnated for a second chance at life! Pretty sweet right? But it's not all roses, you have to work to get the most out of this second chance. Will you work off the weight of your sins, or give up and accept your years of toil in the underworld?
Here in this first post, there shall be a (hopefully) expanding library of lore or world information that you can sink your teeth into before starting (or refer to when needed) right up here. I've not added anything "new" to the world information yet, so if you've seen the tabs below, it might be appropriate to skip ahead.
With some general information about the worlds we'll be playing in out of the way, below lies some more specific information about aspects of the Underworld.
With some info about the world out of the way, time for some info about the meat and potatoes of this thing, the SRO that all you lost souls will be participating in.
With that flavor-text out of the way, let's get down to the nitty-gritty for those of you looking to make a character/get started with diving into this interesting world! Naturally, before I give you the instructions and what have you with which to make your character, I would first like to lay out some ground rules, if you don't mind. Rules are boring, and I'm sure everybody will be just fine, but you never know. SO! Here goes.
Name:
Lifetime: (for example, 1990-2034, making said individual 44 at their time of death. Acceptable ranges of lifespan are from the beginning of AD to a near-future of perhaps 2050. You've got ~2000 years to work with, so go ham.)
Gender: (Yes, just gender. The gender of your soul. What your body "was" at birth before you died (the sex) does not matter.)
Appearance: (A few requirements: No pictures of real humans. A painting, anime, drawing, whatever you like is fine, but no real people please. Secondly, no obviously underaged-looking characters even if your lifetime is appropriate. If it feels even a little like I might raise a fuss, don't use it, please. That said... the image you choose is important and reflects how the soul sees itself in the underworld. This can change, but my point is, even if you died at 82 from heart failure, if your soul is "young" deep inside, you can easily get away with choosing a younger-looking image. (still adult) Souls are timeless, and the circumstances of your body at your time of death do not matter to who you are on the inside, your soul.)
Weight: (Not weight in the physical sense, the "weight" of your sins, and thus your sentence in years. The max number of years you can put on your sheet is 9999. The closer you are to 0, the closer you are to reincarnation... completing contracts will inevitably bring this weight to 0, and you will then lose the ability to play this character anymore. Keep this in mind.)
History:
Personality:
Sins: (It doesn't have to be a complete or even perfect list, but a list of important sins that have been impactful to the size of your "weight" would be important to add here. However, if you want to go ham and add all sorts of minor sins, who am I to stop you? Perhaps the magnitude of your sentence was a death by 1,000 cuts! Also to note, "sins" don't have to be sins in the "biblical" sense. A "sin" is nigh on anything that causes guilt or hurt feelings or what have you. Feeling guilty about not visiting your father one last time and dying with that guilt is indeed a sin, no matter how silly that sounds. "good" souls live a fulfilling life without regret and hurting others)
Magic/Abilities: (Please leave this blank for the time being, or ask me before filling anything in. At the onset, I only wish for there to be very weak or no such abilities available.)
Notes/Etc: (Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere. Want to share a piece of music you think reflects your character? Perhaps store the color code here, or talk about quirks or the like? Please, feel free.
So! What is the "objective" of the RP? You might be surprised to hear that at the time of writing this, the main "meat" will be your characters interacting with the world and each other, and completing the tasks that they are given to "work off their debt" so to speak. There will be plot arcs to participate in, recurring characters, and stories that will begin, end, overlap, and all the other crazy things stories do. However, for better or worse, it is my plan to be sure no one character is vital for the continuance of a story to be completed, so that everybody may enjoy such stories and participate in them at their leisure. Players may come and go, but this world will always be open to play in, so to speak. That means that no matter when you are reading this OOC, I should hope that there is a place for you to play in this world. Of course, there may be times that we may not be open to new participants because I can only handle so many threads at once, but one would think given the nature of group roleplay and humans in general that openings should be somewhat frequent.
Here in this first post, there shall be a (hopefully) expanding library of lore or world information that you can sink your teeth into before starting (or refer to when needed) right up here. I've not added anything "new" to the world information yet, so if you've seen the tabs below, it might be appropriate to skip ahead.
The Library
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The Underworld. Exactly what it sounds like. The place you go when you die when you haven't been... "good" enough to achieve entrance into Heaven/Nirvana (whatever you like to call it) It's a massive place, perhaps even larger than the human world itself, and quite "vertical". Honestly, the layers of the underworld could be deserving of their own tabs, but I'll keep it short and sweet. The lower you go, the hotter it gets... and the more heinous the punishments usually are. On the "surface" of the underworld, it's basically like the human world in a lot of ways. Cities, streets, buildings, and a "society" that lives something akin to a normal life... as normal as it gets in the underworld. However, while a significant portion of the population of The Underworld are indeed lost souls in various stages of their path to reincarnation, the majority of the population of The Underworld are what humans (and admittedly the residents themselves) would call monsters and demons. Exactly what you would expect, except, in a way, not. Ghouls, vampires, werewolves, etc... hustling and bustling and living in a somewhat "normal" society in the underworld. Most "Demons" are in positions governing the reincarnation process, either punishing souls, keeping watch over them, or working in the SRO to insure reincarnation. That isn't to say that there aren't unsavory monsters and demons out there willing to take advantage of a lost soul, but for the most part, that behavior is strictly governed.
So, WHERE is The Underworld? Is it literally underneath the surface of the Earth? No. Not necessarily. It is a place that lies outside the time and space of the human world... an alternate dimension, so to speak. Souls don't necessarily come and go into The Underworld in a proper chronological way. A soul that died hundreds of years after another might arrive before the other in this comparison, or they might be the same soul. There are access points to the human world that are generally on the highest levels of The Underworld, but their access to the human world are just as strange as the arrival of souls, connecting to vastly different times and places in the human world. Generally, they connect to caves or other ground-connected entrances to the human world, further cementing the concept of this world being the "Under" world, even if it isn't physically beneath the human world - So, the human world. Not too much to say about it, it's very much the same as the world you're sitting in, reading this thread. The only thing to note is that "magic" does exist, hidden in this world. Humans making contracts with demons, and monsters occasionally causing trouble, but depending on your time period, this is heavily covered up. The reason monsters are not so often seen in the human world (in modern times) is that often the most easy access points to the human world lie in the past, a place and time which has been... not so well recorded. It's why the existence of all these "supernatural" occurrences is often referred to as myth.
- There is even less to speak of this place than there is the human world, unfortunately. it's an un-knowable place to us in the underworld, and a place which cannot be contacted. The only thing that IS known is that it's real... otherwise every soul from a dead person would end up in The Underworld, and while most do, there are times that a reaper is not meant to take a soul down to The Underworld. To those who've successfully gone to the "good place", we salute you, but you won't be participating in this story... probably.
With some general information about the worlds we'll be playing in out of the way, below lies some more specific information about aspects of the Underworld.
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When it comes to "mortality" in the underworld, and surface ops for contracts, you should all know that "Souls" have a very real body when in the underworld that is much like the images you provide for your souls to represent their true selves. When in the human world, bodies (and forms) can be allowed by certain contracts or through approval by the SRO or administrative demons through permits.
These bodies can feel pain, be injured, and dismembered, naturally. Actual years of torture ARE a punishment available for very heinous individuals.
So, what happens when you take "lethal" damage or a mortal wound in the underworld? You do not die. You'll feel the pain, but your body can regenerate within an underworld day, no matter how grievous the harm. Even if your body was completely atomized, It'll just coalesce back into your chosen form again in a day's time. If your "physical" body is destroyed, you can always exist as a "spirit" which can't be interacted with, until your body reforms.
Monsters of the underworld CAN be killed, though for some typically by some strange circumstances (vampires need staking, things like that). They do not have souls though, so their existence is erased upon death. Demons can be "killed" as well, but they act much the same as souls for the most part.
When on human world operations where use of a body is allowed, if that body is killed, you are exorcised, sent immediately back to the underworld, unless there are extenuating circumstances which trap your soul. Typically if you are killed and Exorcised, you fail whatever contract you are participating in, as the allowance of a body for a contract is only good once. (unless the contract says otherwise) Think of it like buying a train ticket. Once it's punched in for the ride, you have to get another to ride again. The SRO's contracts give you those free "tickets" for your job, occasionally, but only for that one job.
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Here's some sort of... approximate info on what the layers below the surface of the underworld are like, for those curious. They do go down physically, though some Layers and their punishments fall within their own dimensions conjured by magic. These depths are measured by the weight of those sent there, and the heavier your weight, the deeper you go.
from about the 10,000 mark to 25,000 the punishments might be lighter than you expect, though still punishment enough for some. Your typical prison stuff, Being sealed up for long times alone with no interaction (even years) doing physical labor in the service of the underworld, stuff like that. Naturally the workload/solitude is harsher the heavier your weight.
25,000 - 50,000 the actual torturous stuff begins, in increasing intensity. Creatively cruel stuff that trainee demons come up with. Sometimes unique. Being banished to a desert for years with no water or food in sight, ever. (yes, you starve, dehydrate, and bake, and when you die, you do it again anew) climbing mountains of needles, being encased in ice for long periods, swimming through and endless sea of blood (with others who will drag you down to snag themselves a break), dancing on hot coals, etc. Usually there are tricky methods of "success" to them though, that offer brief periods of reprieve.
50,000 and up, the punishment is unending. No breaks, no control over your torture (like taking a break on the mountain of needles, or sitting down and playing with sand in the desert) you are at the mercy of whatever awful creations the ones in charge of breaking you down come up with, in increasing intensity. Being pinned to a rock and eaten by birds each day slowly is just the beginning of what these demons can concoct, and there are far more unspeakable horrors in store. I'd be willing to say that I won't take a player character who has gone to this level, they truly would have had to be unspeakably bad in life.
If you're wondering how souls can handle the deeper layers without going mad, well... Souls can only remember so much. Long-term Important things like who you were, what you've done, etc, that sticks around forever as your core, but the memories of the more brutal punishments are sure to slip away within the 15,000 year gap between actual torture and the arrival at the SRO. Even if it doesn't fully, there are demons that monitor and can manipulate memories to make you more ready to reincarnate. You might remember unending deserts in your dreams for instance, but it'd be a nightmare, nothing more.
With some info about the world out of the way, time for some info about the meat and potatoes of this thing, the SRO that all you lost souls will be participating in.
- The Soul Redemption Organization, also known as the "SRO" for short is an organization dedicated to, you guessed it, "redeeming" souls. Souls that meet the requirements to participate in the "redemption" program are given a chance to apply themselves working for the SRO for a chance to speed up the loss of their "weight" and achieve reincarnation faster. There are many, many branches of the SRO across the vast Underworld, and they are all dedicated to speeding up the last steps of a soul's path to reincarnation. This is done by completing "contracts" which erase a portion of your "weight", and by attending classes and meetings that "speed up" your time served (while they are being participated in) but the main source of "weight" loss is through the contracts. The classes and meetings were made up by some devious demon to force lost souls to show their "willingness" for redemption, a metric which IS measured for continued participation in the SRO. Souls who don't take these classes or contracts for some time are ejected from the program for being "unwilling" to put in the work.
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"So, what is this "weight" I keep hearing about?", I hear you ask. Well, "weight" is just the shortened way of saying "The weight of your sins", which is a measurable thing here in The Underworld. It is measured in years, and for the purposes of the SRO, you must stay within 9,999 years to maintain your ability to work for the SRO. These years can either be worked off through contracts, or... simply waited out in toil or torture in the underworld. Typically if your years are above the SRO's limit, those years are served in torture. Naturally, as you may have already guessed, once your "weight" hits 0, you can begin the process of reincarnation.
"Ok, so I get what "weight" is, but, how do you gain it? Why do I have so much?", the SRO doesn't really make those decisions, they are determined by whatever reaper judged your soul before sending it down... All sins are not created equal (whether a religion told you they were or not) and even living an unfulfilling life counts towards your weight here in the underworld. Dying with regret could be considered one of the worst sins of all, surprisingly... whether your death was an accident or not. However, we can say that while there are ways to lose weight in the underworld, there are too, ways to "gain" it... Either through failing contracts, or through "paying" weight for services or powers in The Underworld. "weight" is quite common as a currency for lost souls, perhaps more valuable than the official currency of The Underworld, the Obol. -
So, short and sweet. "contracts" are the bread and butter of what the SRO offers you. Contracts that range in difficulty that you can participate in to cut down your "weight" by a substantial margin depending on their difficulty and rewards. Below is an example of a contract:
Title: Apprehend the lost soul terrorizing the surface! [162e-49u]
Rank: C
Weight: 14 Years
Additional Rewards: 400 Obol
Stipulations: Under no circumstances is the individual taking this contract to meet or interact with a living human. To do so (regardless of apprehension of the subject) will result in immediate failure.
So, what does this mean? Well, the rank denotes the difficulty (with the maximum rank being S+) and the weight is how many years you will scratch from or add to your weight depending on your success or failure. (yes, failing a contract adds the listed weight to your sentence, though in the case of the lowest rank contracts, you will not be penalized, to avoid immediate expulsion from the SRO for souls starting near the limit.) Occasionally, additional rewards will be offered by a contractor to sweeten the pot, ranging from sums of Obols (a very common reward) used to live comfortably here in The Underworld, or other strange rewards, depending on the contractor.
The stipulations are rules that you have to follow to achieve success for the contract... the "meeting living humans" stipulation is quite a common stipulation for contracts. Naturally, breaking these stipulations typically results in failure of a contract, whether you've succeeded in the main task or not. After all, what's the point of capturing this lost soul if you've caused the damage of interfering with the human world yourself?
The Rules
With that flavor-text out of the way, let's get down to the nitty-gritty for those of you looking to make a character/get started with diving into this interesting world! Naturally, before I give you the instructions and what have you with which to make your character, I would first like to lay out some ground rules, if you don't mind. Rules are boring, and I'm sure everybody will be just fine, but you never know. SO! Here goes.
- Follow all the rules of Iwaku, of course. The golden rule, numero-uno, a no brainer, really.
- Be kind to one another. I know it kind of overlaps with the first rule, but I am sure there might be times we all have disagreements, or our characters might not get along with one another, but that doesn't mean we dislike each other as people, does it? I don't like to be firm, but I will not tolerate bullying your fellow players or being discriminatory, even in ways that might be too close to call for moderation here. There might be a Discord for this rp, and that will carry over there too. Please don't make me boot you for being mean, we are all friends here. I know it seems like I shouldn't have to say this, but you'd be surprised.
- Cursing, violence, etc are totally allowed, but mentions of sex and especially sexual violence are not. Don't even think of casually mentioning it in your list of sins and think I'll overlook it. You will be declined. Of course, people who commit such acts are in the underworld, but not our characters, and we will not be mentioning such things. I want to avoid discomfort relating to that topic wherever possible. You can't possibly know what your fellow player has gone through, and while at times the themes of this rp might seem dark, I still want everybody to be comfortable.
- On another note, if there is anything that you as a player of this rp are particularly uncomfortable with, do not be afraid to let me and other players know. It is my goal to create an environment where all my players have fun.
- There will be no underaged characters in this rp. I know that this OOC (and it's IC) will not be in Redstar, but I still feel it's best to nip this in the bud before any sort of problems arise. For the purposes of this RP, "immature" souls go somewhere other than the underworld, no matter the acts they have committed. There are no immature souls anywhere in the underworld. For the purposes of the OOC? I don't want any chance for undesirable characterization or mention of interactions with underage characters, period, even if they've been in the underworld for 1000 years or whatever.
- Not really a rule, per-se, but this is going to be a very drop friendly rp. This world is very flexible, and no one soul will be the "star" of the show, so to speak. If you have life problems or lack the motivation, do not be afraid to let me know. I would appreciate some help in working your character out of whatever situation they are in to make things smoother, but I don't even need that. Souls who have dropped out will still be kept in a reserve list for their players, and that will be that. No sweat if you just aren't feeling it or can't keep with it, I won't judge you. At the same time, while at times a sudden pull-out by a player you are interacting with can be frustrating, I expect you to be just as accommodating as I will be, understand?
- When considering questions about the world or your characters, I am more than happy to answer anything you ask. I would prefer that you ask me about something (or make a suggestion) than to decide for yourself a fact of the world. If something is unclear, it's my responsibility to help clear that up, and create a fun world for you to play in.
- Lastly, I would prefer to accept only writers who are above a certain skillset. I know this idea might seem fun, and I am hoping to be very flexible, but I would like it if all my players are able to write at a high-intermediate, or more appropriately, adept level, and provide substance to their posts. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to post multiple paragraphs depending on the circumstances, but I would like to see some "meat" to our posts, and have them be engaging to read. That helps keep the attention of all players piqued, in my mind. I do not mean to be elitist, for I am not perfect myself. I just want a fun rp for everyone, even if this one rule might seem rather restrictive. You needn't provide me any writing samples, your character sheet itself will serve as an adequate example.
Character Creation
Name:
Lifetime: (for example, 1990-2034, making said individual 44 at their time of death. Acceptable ranges of lifespan are from the beginning of AD to a near-future of perhaps 2050. You've got ~2000 years to work with, so go ham.)
Gender: (Yes, just gender. The gender of your soul. What your body "was" at birth before you died (the sex) does not matter.)
Appearance: (A few requirements: No pictures of real humans. A painting, anime, drawing, whatever you like is fine, but no real people please. Secondly, no obviously underaged-looking characters even if your lifetime is appropriate. If it feels even a little like I might raise a fuss, don't use it, please. That said... the image you choose is important and reflects how the soul sees itself in the underworld. This can change, but my point is, even if you died at 82 from heart failure, if your soul is "young" deep inside, you can easily get away with choosing a younger-looking image. (still adult) Souls are timeless, and the circumstances of your body at your time of death do not matter to who you are on the inside, your soul.)
Weight: (Not weight in the physical sense, the "weight" of your sins, and thus your sentence in years. The max number of years you can put on your sheet is 9999. The closer you are to 0, the closer you are to reincarnation... completing contracts will inevitably bring this weight to 0, and you will then lose the ability to play this character anymore. Keep this in mind.)
History:
Personality:
Sins: (It doesn't have to be a complete or even perfect list, but a list of important sins that have been impactful to the size of your "weight" would be important to add here. However, if you want to go ham and add all sorts of minor sins, who am I to stop you? Perhaps the magnitude of your sentence was a death by 1,000 cuts! Also to note, "sins" don't have to be sins in the "biblical" sense. A "sin" is nigh on anything that causes guilt or hurt feelings or what have you. Feeling guilty about not visiting your father one last time and dying with that guilt is indeed a sin, no matter how silly that sounds. "good" souls live a fulfilling life without regret and hurting others)
Magic/Abilities: (Please leave this blank for the time being, or ask me before filling anything in. At the onset, I only wish for there to be very weak or no such abilities available.)
Notes/Etc: (Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere. Want to share a piece of music you think reflects your character? Perhaps store the color code here, or talk about quirks or the like? Please, feel free.
End Note
So! What is the "objective" of the RP? You might be surprised to hear that at the time of writing this, the main "meat" will be your characters interacting with the world and each other, and completing the tasks that they are given to "work off their debt" so to speak. There will be plot arcs to participate in, recurring characters, and stories that will begin, end, overlap, and all the other crazy things stories do. However, for better or worse, it is my plan to be sure no one character is vital for the continuance of a story to be completed, so that everybody may enjoy such stories and participate in them at their leisure. Players may come and go, but this world will always be open to play in, so to speak. That means that no matter when you are reading this OOC, I should hope that there is a place for you to play in this world. Of course, there may be times that we may not be open to new participants because I can only handle so many threads at once, but one would think given the nature of group roleplay and humans in general that openings should be somewhat frequent.
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