You wake up in a strange world that feels so familiar, yet you've never been here before. You don't recall how you got here, or even what you had been doing mere moments ago.
Why are you here?
What will you do?
Explore, grow, find friends and enemies. Spread your influence, sail the seas, conquer the skies - the bright and dazzling world welcomes you with arms wide open. Run free through the grimy alleys of the slums, attend lavish balls hosted by the extravagant nobles above, stand at the bow of a majestic airship as it breaks through the clouds - carve out your own place to call home; a thousand paths await you.
No adventure is without danger, though, and perhaps you will find that you are here for a reason after all.
1. The narrator controls the world around you: the people, the animals, the situations, etc. You control your character: what you do, what you say, who you believe and follow, etc.
2. Do not powerplay. E.g. do not 'I punch the man and send him flying over the cliff'. Instead, do 'I try to punch the man with all my strength', or alternatively, 'I punch the man with all my strength'.
3. Quote narrator posts when replying, be it using Sylestia's built in quote function or copy & pasting.
4. Ping narrator when replying, otherwise your post might be missed.
5. Narrator can be forgetful at times, so if you feel like they are missing something important, speak up. You can also ask for more details in a description, or similar things.
6. Your character must be human.
7. Try new things, even if you're not sure they will work! Sometimes the weirdest actions are the best solutions. The only constraint is to make sure all your actions are within the realm of possibility.
8. If your character is rejected, the narrator is not obligated to provide you with a reason.
This RPG is very chill time-wise. The narrator will reply to posts on weekends and on Thursdays, unless announced otherwise.
Please try to be semi-literate to literate in your response, meaning do not give simple one line replies. If you aren't sure what to write, share your character's inner thoughts!
If you are missing for a week, you will be given a reminder ping, unless you have told the narrator beforehand of an absence.
Aphelion does not own any of the images they use in this thread unless they explicitly say otherwise.
You can reply in either first or third person, it will not affect your gameplay.
All characters exist in one world, meaning that actions of one player may affect the environment of other players. This also means multiplayer is possible, should two players come upon each other. When a multiplayer interaction occurs, a posting pattern will be decided on, and anyone involved will post in that order.
Story
Characters and things can and will die. Your player character can, but will not necessarily, die, depending on your actions.
There will be minor descriptions of blood, battle, and horror elements. The narrator will try to keep such descriptions as short and curt as possible, but there is no guarantee that it will be comfortable for you. There will be absolutely no gore or anything serious - that much is guaranteed.
The world is massive with all sorts of things for you to discover and try. There is a main storyline, but feel free to explore and do whatever you want without thinking about it; if needed (very, very rarely), the narrator will subtly redirect you. You just focus on enjoying and playing the game.
Form
Submit this to Aphelion through a private message please
Here is a shortcut
Basic
Name
Can be a full name, can be a single name
Age
Must be 16+
Appearance
Optional
Personal
Personality
What is your character like? Include strengths, flaws, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses. The more detailed the better, describe them to the best of your ability. Let your creativity go crazy!
Aspiration & Motivation
What is your characters number one dream/hope in life? What are they willing to sacrifice everything for? What will get their attention and convince them to drop everything? Why is your character after that aspiration?
Worst Fear
What will stop your character from continuing, no matter what?
Background
Optional. Leave this blank if you want the narrator to give you one
Technical
Alignment
Which magic type is your character attuned to?
See more information in Magic
Statistics
For starting stats, you have 10 points to allocate among at least 3 skills
See more information in Skills
Appearance
Or
Narai is a medium-tall girl with a stocky build. She has shoulder length black hair that she usually wears loose, unless she is getting into a fight, which she then will tie up into a high bun. Her eyes are a pearly storm grey, accented by dashes of red markings along her cheeks.
Personal
Personality
You don't have to write as much as this example
Growing up in the frigid landscape of her hometown where there was snow and there was snow and the whole world was snow, with a few twigs and bare trees poking through the white every now and then, Narai has come to be resilient against hardship and adaptive to changes in environment.
She knows when to be tough and can be incredibly tough in those cases - trying to convince her in that state is like trying to move the earth by jumping. It's not going to happen. This also means that when she makes up her mind, she will be very hard to convince otherwise, stubborn to the point of stupidity. Even when an alternative is clearly the better option, pride and hardheadedness will get the better of her.
However, when she is not closed against all suggestions, she can be quite receptive. She will actively seek out others when she needs help and work together if needed - a trait important for surviving in harsh climates. The downside of this is that when she thinks someone is an authority on something, their word becomes the objective truth to her and she will believe almost anything they say on the topic. In short, she can be gullible.
In her free time she likes to hunt, fight, and take care of her weapons. Moving around is great exercise and an easy way to get blood flowing and warmth spreading. An adrenaline rush helps even more! Her weapons are her precious babies, tools that are incredibly important when she does hunt or fight. She can often be found lounging outside boxing rings.
Idleness annoys her, almost scares her. As she has too often seen, immobility can lead to terrible things, even death. She does everything she can to not be stationary, and sometimes she projects that dislike to other people, where she will get upset seeing others being lazy and unmoving. Too much quiet grates on her nerves, too much of a difference from the loud, crowded scenes of boxing rings that she's used to.
Her strength is quite literally her physical strength. She can pack a punch and take a punch without much problem where others might struggle. In close combat with fists, nails, teeth, and nothing else, she can be quite the beast. On the flip side, since she spends so much time close up to her opponents, she hasn't spent much time training with weapons. Give her a knife, sword, or axe, and she will flounder like a newborn baby. She can use a bow, but her skill lies in hunting only, and not fighting with one. If her opponent uses a weapon, she will not know how to respond.
Aspiration & Motivation
Her goal is finding a cure for her mothers illness.
She was very close to her parents, and her mother was the one who taught her most of her combat skills. So when her mother fell ill with some unknown sickness, she left home to travel the lands in search of a remedy.
Worst Fear
Losing her family. She can't imagine a life without her parents or her brother.
Background
Narai is the second child of her village's de-facto leader, her father. She grew up in a happy and loving environment, despite the harsh climate and sometimes not having enough to eat. From a very young age, she followed her parents out on hunting and scouting expeditions, making sure everyone in the village would have at least a morsel to eat, and that no invaders would come to disrupt the peace.
While her father taught her how to hunt with a bow and build traps, her mother taught her how to fight for herself and her people, up close and personal. Her brother was weak and therefore couldn't take up any heavy work, and while nobody blamed him for it, Narai took it upon herself to be his knight and guardian. While he studied herbs and medicines, she fought and took hits. At the end of the day, they would meet up, grinning and talking, her recounting her fights while he took care of her wounds.
One day, seemingly out of nowhere, her mother got sick, her muscles growing feeble and frail, her breath growing raspy and short. Her brother tried everything he knew, but could not find a cure. Her father reached out to nearby villages, but the winter was long and nobody could spare resources to develop or find the right medicine. The villagers banded together to take care of her mother, keeping her warm and feeding her when she could not eat herself, but it was not helping her heal. Narai decided that there must be a cure somewhere, even if she had to venture out into the blinding white snowstorms. People tried to stop her, but she had already made up her mind, and they knew they could not convince her anymore.
Skill scores are used when you try to perform an action that requires a certain skill (or certain skills). The higher the score, the more likely you are to succeed.
Sometimes, you may come upon a situation that will require you to compare your score to another persons score. The more your score exceeds the other person's score, the more likely you are to succeed. If the other person's score is higher than yours, the task will be much more difficult, but not impossible. Never give up!
Skills can be leveled up through constant use or through training and learning from a skilled person.
Each skill goes up to level 10. The average common person has 1 or 2 levels in maximum 2 skills while the rest are level 0.
At level 3, you are good at the skill. You have the equivalent experience of someone who has been trained in it.
At level 6, you are an elite in the skill, and can win against most people in it. You have the equivalent experience of someone who can properly teach the basics to someone else.
At level 9, you are accomplished in the skill, very few people can outdo you in it, and you can fully mentor someone in it. You have the equivalent of someone who has had field experience with the skill for a number of years.
At level 10, you have mastered the skill. People would consider you an expert, and essentially no one can challenge you on it. You can do almost anything within reason with it.
You may come upon enemies who have stats over level 10, but again, it doesn't mean you cant defeat them.
Strength
How strong you are physically. This affects things like force-based combat (e.g. how hard you hit in hand to hand), manipulating a strength weapon (e.g. lifting a broadsword, pulling back a longbow), managing objects (e.g. carrying capacity, holding up a falling beam, snapping a branch), etc.
Vitality
How strong your body is. This affects things like how well you stand extreme environments (e.g. heat, cold, humidity), resistance of substances (e.g. poisons, tranquilisers), tenacity against health conditions (e.g. illness, fatigue), etc.
Defense
How well you can defend yourself directly. This affects things like knowing how to use a shield or how to parry with weapons, how well you can take an attack without being stunned or knocked out, etc.
Dexterity
How agile you are. This affects things like evasion (e.g. avoiding an attack, dodging a surprise projectile/strike), fine motor control (e.g. lock picking, engineering), mobility (e.g. acrobatics, movement speed, stealth), complexity of your attacks/defenses, etc.
Intelligence
How knowledgeable you are. This affects things like knowing things about the world (e.g. what herbs to use for what ailments, the latest technological advances), how fast you learn something, how aware you are of yourself (e.g. detecting mind control), etc. Closely tied to wisdom.
Charisma
How social you are. This affects things like communication (e.g. expressing yourself clearly, persuading others), first impressions, how fast you gain reputation, how well you can get away with doing something wrong, etc.
Wisdom
How wise you are, also common sense. This affects things like practical application of knowledge (e.g. how to dress a wound, how to fix a watch), reading others (e.g. discerning motives, detecting lies, noticing microexpressions), knowing how to conduct yourself in different parts of society, etc. Closely tied to intelligence.
Willpower
How strong your resolve is. This affects things like resisting mind control or influence, not giving up against harsh conditions, self control, etc.
Perception
How aware you are of what's going on around you. This affects things like detecting hidden traps, noticing small details, finding vulnerabilities and weaknesses, identifying patterns, etc.
Outside of skills, you may get perks which give you bonuses or other effects for specific things. E.g. 'Sharpshooter' - you get a bonus to using a bow/gun at long range.
Magic has its own levels independent of your other skills that determine how strong the spells you cast are. To gain your first level you must be taught and trained by someone who knows how to mentor you in magic properly. After that, you can level up with practice and training just like other skills.
At magic levels 3, 6, and 9, you will hit level caps that can be broken through by seeking out strong magic users to tutor you. Their magic level must be higher than the skill cap you're trying to surpass.
At level 10 you master your magic alignment and can perform basic spells in another.
An incredibly flexible element that can easily shift between offense and defense. Use great waves of water to keep your enemies at bay and swirling vortexes to sweep them off their feet. Freeze water into jagged spikes and hurl them against shields and armour, or form temporary shields that can deflect attacks even if they are broken easily. Seep into cracks, freeze and expand, and break down defenses. Use too much and risk dehydrating yourself.
Basic: Hold back enemies with waves of water. Create and throw pellets of ice.
Medium: Freeze and unfreeze natural sources of water. Shape your ice into sharp weapons and medium sized shields. Blanket the battlefield in waves.
Advanced: Create domes of ice, massive explosions of shards. Summon a tidal waves worth of water to slam into your enemies. Force your opponents underwater and keep them there.
Mastery: Break through defenses by leaking in as water then freezing into ice. Create 'moving' things by rapidly freezing and unfreezing water. Control organisms by manipulating the water in their cells. Breathe underwater for extended periods of time.
Air
Free as the wind, explosive as the inferno
An element that leans toward offensive and field manipulation. Form blades of wind that can rip through soft materials like cloth and leather. Conjure up billows of fog to obscure the battlefield while you navigate through effortlessly, sensing your surroundings with wind. Summon thunderstorms, create whirlwinds. With a spark, explode into flames, cast fireballs, whip up an inferno. Use too much and risk asphyxiating yourself.
Basic: Push enemies back with blasts of wind. Create clouds. Form air blades. Summon small flames.
Medium: Cast explosive fireballs. Turn the battlefield into a searing environment. Call down thunder from a dark sky.
Advanced: Summon storms out of clear weather and call down lightning. Create massive swirling infernos that raze the land. Make it rain fire.
Mastery: Fly by controlling the winds around you. Trap an enemy in place by creating a whirlwind barrier. Walk through flames and coals relatively unharmed. Set fire to the air in an opponents lungs.
Earth
Solid as the mountain, lively as the jungle
A reliable element that can go from offense to defense to support. Mould the earth to your will, sending ripples and quakes to make your enemies lose their footing. Bring up great rock shields that can stand multiple attacks. Summon metal from the depths and shape them into deadly weapons or sturdy weapons. Speak to the earth, communicating to all types of plants and animals. Use too much and risk petrifying your living flesh, turning into stone.
Basic: Summon a small shield. Communicate with smaller forms of life like flowers or mushrooms.
Medium: Float metals to the surface to collect them. Create multiple small shields or a medium shield. Talk to plants and small animals. Move the earth to throw off your enemies. Shape metals into weapons and armour.
Advanced: Create large shields. Communicate with any sort of natural life. Fling metals that change shape midair to pierce through your enemies. Float gemstones and precious metals to the surface to collect them. Control the plants and animals around you to aid you.
Mastery: Move faster with the earth pushing you forward. Track anyone as long as they are on the ground. Create and shape impenetrable domes of stone. Bury your enemies alive.
Light
Pure as bone, vital as blood
An element that is too often known for healing, while its destructive uses remain hidden. Purify poisons, freshen produce, close wounds with a simple touch. Heal flesh and bone by simply willing them into place. Bestow strength upon your allies and weakness upon your enemies. Rend muscle and tear skin with a single swipe. Stutter blood flow and twist a joint by tapping on someone. Use too much and risk internal wounds, broken bones, and extreme fatigue.
Basic: Control minor poisons. Close small wounds like scrapes and cuts. Create pains and aches upon contact.
Medium: Buff allies by strengthening their muscles and energy output. Weaken enemies by inflicting fatigue and frail muscles. Poison things with a touch. Purify poisons with a touch. Cure deep cuts and burns.
Advanced: Keep food fresh for a long time. Take control of someone else's blood and flesh and control them like a puppet. Snap bones by laying your hand on skin. Extract poison from bodies and collect it for future use.
Mastery: Break your opponents from the inside out. Make people fall before they even have the chance to reach you with an attack. Bring people back from the borderline dead. Create undead.
Dark
Fleeting as shadow, obscure as fog
An element that is not directly offensive, but who needs to fight when you can get your enemies to do it for you? Bend and manipulate light and shadow to create illusions. Draw on the fears of your opponents to manifest them into real life in forms that only they can see. Change the appearance of your enemies into other enemies by cloaking them and watch them fight each other. Conceal yourself and allies by directing light away from you. Use too much and risk hallucinating, losing your mind.
Basic: Create small illusions, redirect light into your enemies eyes to blind them.
Medium: Immerse the battlefield in an illusion and create more illusory allies than you actually have. Your illusions grow to medium size, while your small illusions can inflict real damage on those who see them. Turn small things invisible.
Advanced: Scry and communicate to those far away from you as long as they are receiving. Trap enemies together with their worst nightmares. Cloak things and effortlessly pass inspection. Your illusions hurt those who see them.
Mastery: Drive people insane. Peoples worst fears linger long after you have gone. See clearly in low light or complete darkness.
Mind
Powerful as heart, vivid as soul
An element that is not offensive or defensive at first sight, and yet still powerful when used to its full extent. Sway the thoughts of crowds, moving them around or creating stampedes. Read emotions of the people around you, sense fear and agitation. Emanate your own emotions, calm people down and pacify violent attackers. Send people to sleep. Draw on your feelings to create energy blasts. Traverse dreams, flick through memories, twist histories. Use too much and risk absorbing everything around you, becoming overwhelmed with emotions, thoughts, and memories that you lose who you are.
Basic: Sense emotions upon contact. Project your own emotions upon contact. Generate warmth from your feelings.
Medium: Minorly influence a large crowd. Manifest energy blasts from your feelings. Receive and project emotions to a group of people, inspiring panic or calm as you wish. Stop a single person from attacking or moving by making them not want to attack or move.
Advanced: Manipulate emotions easily. Influence the mob mind in crowds of people. Create massive explosions from your energy blasts. Convince enemies into friends. Read memories with a receptive participant. Enter dreams with a touch.
Mastery: Rip open someone's mind and devour all their memories, leaving a husk. Talk to people in their dreams. Manipulate dreams. Change the minds of large groups of people.
Pocket watches, clacking cogs, and pumping pistons. Locomotives thunder across the land, belching steam under the shadows of massive airships floating up above. Some rich people or especially ambitious youngsters have obtained personal planes and fly around for fun. Lightbulbs, clunky cameras, and old film have just been developed. In larger cities, the skies are often grey and cloudy due to the amount of coal and smoke being thrown into the air. At night, gas lamps cast streets and alleys in an oily orange glow.
The most numerous and widespread species to inhabit the world, found in pretty much every nook and cranny. While they are not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most magical, they are very tenacious and adaptive to changing conditions. Being the most flexible species, humans can do just about anything that is required of them.
Opurens
Humans but with animal features, most often ears and tails, though sometimes whiskers, hands, and feet. The most common types of opurens are feline or canine. They are agile and strong, though are shorter and will always look younger than humans. They originate from Wistenon. They love to travel so many of them are merchants, explorers, or adventurers.
Orcs
A sturdily built species with thick skin that protects them against the harsh elements. Big and strong, they tend to work in places that require physical labour, or wield heavy weapons on a large battlefield. Orcs have an incredibly strong work ethic and are great when working in groups, especially with their own kind.
Goblins
Deft little creatures that are quick witted and smart with their hands. They are very creative and can work well with machinery, especially the smaller and more detailed components. Given their size and abilities, they are often employed as mechanics or engineers. They love to tinker with things, resulting in suspicious looking yet surprisingly competent gadgets.
Sirens
They appear human at first, but can be identified by their eyes with slitted pupils and iris colours that are too vivid and deep. When they smile, they show needle teeth. Their best known trait is their voice, which can lull listeners into a sense of calm and security, as well as acquiescence. Few sirens stick to their old traditions of luring sailors into rocky shores and eating them; many have moved onto the mainland and taken on professions such as nurses, therapists, and caretakers.
Irides
(Singular: Irid)
Beautiful human-like creatures that are better in every capacity. Tall and graceful, they draw the eye of everyone nearby, especially with their pearly wings and soft, drifting hair. Their faces are slightly longer, with their eyes slanted more than a humans, adorned with high cheekbones and plush lips. Dapples of scales and feathers may dust the edges of their face and tips of their shoulders. They originate from Seraphys and stay there, as no irid has ever been seen on the main continent before. They possess some kind of technology more advanced than everyone else, and research and investigation into their products yields nothing as to how they work. They also possess some unexplainable skills that allow them to do just about anything they wish.
In Wilderness
Dragons
Massive beasts that can range from the size of a horse to the size of a mountain. All hoarders of some type, though not necessarily of gold and treasure. Dragons are sedentary for the most part, lounging on their hoards, though they do move to hunt or defend themselves, and when they do, they are a force to be reckoned with. There's a wrong conception that dragons are dangerous and will attack people unprovoked.
Skinstealers
Terrifying creatures that kill people and assume their appearance by wearing their skin. The bodies rot and deteriorate over time, so skinstealers often have to switch from form to form. With a form, they are strong and can move in inhuman ways. Without a form, they look like a vaguely humanoid collection of bony, stick-like limbs and dull, bulging eyes. In this state, they are vulnerable and weak.
& Other animals you would expect to see in the world
A beautiful bastion above the waves, built on a chain of islands off the west coast of the continent. A city of wonders, inhabited by the angelic irides. A hub of inexplicable magic and technology led by the Grand Scholar. Here, no ailment goes uncured, no problem goes unsolved, and no desires go unsatisfied.
A land of snow and ice with virtually no life to be found. Freezing winds, dangerous falls, and treacherous paths keep even the most intrepid adventurers at bay. Only a handful of people survive here, huddled in tiny huts nestled in the dips between hills or crooks between mountains. It's a miracle people even live here at all.
Baje | ? ? ? | ? ? ?
A short goblin girl with red braided hair, green tinted skin, and unusually large, triangular ears. Dons a bomber jacket full of pockets with various objects over a shirt and trousers. Her flight goggles seem a bit big for her but at least her aviation hat sits snug on her head.
Currently with Oris
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Chantille Orsay | ? ? ? | ? ? ?
Rich chestnut hair, glittering green eyes, cheekbones highlighted with gold dust, an ethereal woman with drifting dark hair that only enhances the effect. She possesses a pair of dove wings that shift and glimmer like nacre under light. Her gossamer dress twists around her like a swirl of wind.
Currently with Falcon
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Ensanje | Matriarch, Head Adjudicator | Avit Hora Clan
A tall, graceful woman with ochre skin and amber eyes that are sharp enough to cut steel. Her dark hair is braided behind her with ribbons of gold strung with multicolour beads, woven through with various feathers and elaborate tassels. She is Matriarch of the Avit Hora Clan, Head Adjudicator of the council.
Errant | Adjudicator | Avit Hora Clan
Nobody would know of her status by just looking at her - she's just a short little girl with innocent blue eyes and a head of golden curls with a feather or two woven between the locks. Her reputation, however, is well known. Adjudicator Errant, record keeper and most powerful fire magic user in service of Matriarch Ensanje.
Koshner | Adjudicator | Avit Hora Clan
Koshner is a lean man with a serious face, nose arched like an eagle between watchful eyes also reminiscent of an eagle's hunting stare. He is the oldest of the council, with visible grey streaks in his short brown hair, also threaded with feathers and tassels.
Anlarke | ? ? ? | Avit Hora Clan
? ? ?
Inoje | ? ? ? | Avit Hora Clan
He has cropped black hair tied with tassels and feathers at the end, artfully woven to give the illusion that he has a rattail hairstyle. A golden hoop dangles from one of his ears, glimmering brightly like his large amber eyes.
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? ? ? | Inochki | ? ? ?
A big dragon. A very, very big dragon. He has dark grey scales speckled with a lighter shade in a way similar to granite and eyes a deep purplish red like wine. Likes to scissor his teeth a lot and will protect his precious hoard with his life.
Currently with Melange
N/A
Discover quests by exploring the world, talking to people, and poking at things. Most settlements also have a quest board some place or another, so that's a good place to find quests!
