Skybound [OOC|Semi-Closed]

[G-Tech Corporation]

Skybound

A Map of the Island

To the IC

Once upon a time, man lived in prosperity. He built high towers, forged mighty empires, and lived life to its fullest, draining the cup of civilization. No longer a beast of stone and fire, cowering in the wilderness as animals ravened about his abode, he tamed the wild and made its creatures his subjects. He bent rivers to his will, watering fields of golden wheat for his gluttony, and to the skies his temples reached.

But this is not that time. Man built too high, and discovered the power of the gods. Phos and Skotos were the two eldest deities, and revealed themselves to man, expecting worship and adoration for the gifts they had given him as he ascended from the mud. But man was proud, and had not seen their miracles, thinking himself the master of his domain. The gods grew angry, and sent afflictions upon mankind to teach him humility. Volcanoes ravaged the landscape of cities and farms, and the earth quaked beneath the feet of man, woman and child. But man's heart was hard; he shook his fist at the sky, and called curses against the powers of the circles of the world. As the world burned around him the wisest and most fell of man's scions dabbled in dark magics, and even as the lands of man sank beneath the waves they crafted a dread spell beyond even the ken of the gods.

And so the world ended, in fire. The gods fell as insidious incantations rent their forms from their strength, and man laughed to see his deities slain even as the last vestiges of civilization died under the apocalypse of magic. To the winds was scattered the earth, rock and stone, water and air, for the will of the divine had formed it, and as they were unmade so too were their creations.

That is not the end of the story though; man survived, lost as a sojourner amidst the planes of the cosmos, and into his breast a portion of the power of the divine was taken. His mind expanded, and the spark of creation was given to him, even the ability to reforge the world as it once was. Alone man walked, but not forever, and mayhaps in time he shall rise again to replace the gods he has cast down.

---

This is the story of Skybound, and you are the actors. No gods are there, only man and his newfound power, the Thaum; the ability to create, to mold the world to his will. But the world is gone, sundered into a land of lost islands and fragmented history. No knowledge of your past do you have, only the present, for the magical maelstrom that ended existence as you knew it wiped away all vestiges of your past. But in your breast the Thaum burns, and now you can make your own way amidst the stars.

Welcome! Skybound is a fantasy/mechanics tale of man and his decisions, which you shall recount with your fellow RPers. Each RPer will be a character, one of the survivors of the Earth who somehow survived the end of all things, cast adrift on a floating shard of what once was. You have the power to rebuild all things, but there are others beside you, others who would remake the world according to their desires and not yours. Will you seek advancement through magic, rising to the heights of arcane lore that once ended the world? Will you craft civilization from the embers of the old, raising high towers and citadels with your knowledge of the sciences? Will you seek community, or slay your fellow man, determined to be the sole progenitor of the new age? The path is open, and lacks only the walker.

Application:
Name:
Physical Description:
Indicative Color: (this will be used to mark both you and your holdings on the map)
Starting Location:
Initial Attribute: (choose from the list in the next post, only from 'Initial Attributes')

Code: Select all

[u][b]Application:[/b][/u]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Physical Description:[/b]
[b]Indicative Color:[/b] (this will be used to mark both you and your holdings on the map)
[b]Starting Location:[/b]
[b]Initial Attribute:[/b] (choose from the list in the next post, only from 'Initial Attributes')


Accepted Characters

Juanito - Liecthenbourg - Dark Purple - Destiny
Varn - Lunas Legion - Neon Green - Survivalist
Markus - Lavan Tiri - Orange - Mystical Affinity
Moss - Aona - Purple - Driven
Dallen - The Starlight - Light Blue - Fleet of Foot
Rotwang - Harkback Union - Pine Green - Acrobat
Jay Cromin - RPGers - Dark Blue - Skyborne
Glu'ciel - Ralnis - Red - Hermit
Ada - Zarkenis Ultima - Yellow - Dirty
Ophelia - Constaniana - Silver - Bones of the Earth

[G-Tech Corporation]

Mechanics

Given the obvious potential for silliness and immersion-breaking ridiculousness as men have the powers of little gods, there are a series of mechanics you should pay attention to. They will limit what your characters can do, to an extent, but everyone has the same limitations. And given time and effort, amazing things can be accomplished with them. Not even a fifth of the mechanics are included here, as as your character explores the world and pushes the boundaries of both science and magic, more interesting possibilities will be opened up.

Characters
First, let's talk about your characters. There are a few things you need to be aware of about them; they need food, they need sleep, and they need water. Also, they need not to have their head bashed in with a rock, as blood is important to their continued existence, especially the part where it stays inside their bodies. They also have different facets; skills, abilities, whathave you, called Attributes. These can help them in various ways, such as making it easier to survive, easier to advance, or even easier to kill someone else with. Thankfully for you, the semi-divine nature of your characters means that if they get killed, they'll be back eventually, likely within a day or two. That doesn't mean all their stuff won't have been looted by then though. Your characters also have the divine power within them, called Thaum, which slowly accumulates over time and can be used to accomplish actions that might normally be considered impossible, such as creating items out of nothing, transmuting dirt into water, and even calling down fire on their foes. Each character can carry up to ten items at a time, but no more.

Food
Everyone needs eats, to power brains and make smart-thinking. If your characters don't eat, they start starving, which funnily enough will kill them. If they're starving they also won't be able to heal from injuries, as their bodies need nutrients to fix their broken bits. More on injuries later. Each character can generally go about ten hours without food, due to their heightened metabolisms (a product of the Thaum), before they start essentially eating themselves. You want to avoid this. Early on the easiest way to do this will be by turning bricks into bread with the Rite of Sustenance, but with advancement and knowledge better methods of feeding yourself will become apparent. Eating is a "free" action, as you can conduct it in conjunction with other actions, and it does not use any Energy.

Sleep
Sleep recharges your mind, and means you don't shamble around like a zombie. Your characters don't need much of it, and they can theoretically function without it, but don't expect to be able to run away or move faster than the speed of slow if your character hasn't slept for a week. Sleeping recharges your Energy score, an inherent characteristic of any being; Energy starts at 30 and is depleted by movement and actions, but recharges at a rate of 10 for every hour you spend sleeping.

Water
Water is probably the most important attribute to be aware of. If it hits zero, you die. Do not pass go, do not collect any dollars. It depletes at a rate of one for every hour, and starts at a value (the cap) of 10. You can easily replenish this by baking muddy bricks in the sun and capturing the water from them with the Shrine of Heavenly Springs, though other methods will present themselves. Drinking water is a free action like eating.

Thaum
This is your divine power. Use it wisely. Each character starts with zero, but naturally generates one every hour, with no upper limit. It can be used for any activity that requires it, and will be your primary tool for shaping the world to your wishes, aside from more mundane tools like fire and pointy sticks. Any character can meditate, a state where they cannot move or conduct actions and use up five energy per hour, but generate an additional 1 Thaum every hour. Thaum is not transferable.

Movement
Movement is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. For every tile you cross you must spend one energy, and most characters can only cross five tiles in an hour due to their ponderous and contemplative pace, unless they have the Attribute Fleet of Foot. Any action can be conducted in conjunction with movement.

Health
Health is a measurement of how not-dead you are. If it hits zero, not-dead becomes actually-pretty-dead. All characters start out with a Health of 10, which regenerates at a rate of one every five hours as long as they aren't starving to a maximum of 10.

Attributes
These are special things about your character, and each of the Initial Attributes may only be selected once. More will appear as man's comprehension of himself increases, and Attributes may be adopted in addition to your starting one later.

Initial Attributes:
Brawler: +1 Possible Damage with Fists
Bones of the Earth: +5 Max Health
Survivalist: Only needs to eat every 15 hours
Driven: Energy regenerates at a rate of 1 every 2 Hours.
Fleet of Foot: Can move up to 8 squares per hours instead of five.
Acrobat: Can jump a one-square gap of sky.
Dirty: +2 to chance of additional Mud Glob income
Mystical Affinity: Every 10 hours, generate one additional Thaum. -2 Max Health.
Skyborne: Rite of the Flowing Breeze only costs 3 Thaum.
Hermit: Your Shrine of the Barred Door only drains Thaum on a 7+.
Destined: For the purposes of being Godblessed, you count as having an additional 5 Thaum.

Combat
Man has killed man since the dawn of time. Why should here be any different? Punching someone with your fists has an accuracy of 5+, and can do between 0 and 2 damage to their health. That's basically all you need to know, as the hitting with sharp sticks and rocks will come later. Note that turns are executed in the order posted, so post first if you want to give that guy on the island next to you a nice black eye.

The World
Your world is a small place to start with, a blasted remnant of the old earth floating in a primordial void laced with the residual energy of two dead gods and fell magics. It is made of humble dirt and mud, but you can turn that in to so much more with ease. Composed of many different types of tile, it will soon be filled with many different structures, including magical Shrines, and all sorts of technological constructions and items, as you and your fellow survivors devise them to make your lives easier and more fulfilling. Note that due to prevailing magical headwinds, building to the north and west of the island can only be done for a small distance.

Tiles
These are what the world is made out of, the ground beneath your feet. Some will provide you with resources if you exploit them properly, whereas some are just good for standing on and not falling to an untimely unmaking in the endlessly chaotic flux of a murdered existence.

So far, you know of these tiles:

Sky: Very Light Blue: Nothing here. Put your foot out, and you'll just fall.
Dirt: Light Brown: Humble sod and soil, not good for anything as far as man can tell. Can be turned to Mud if next to a Shrine of Heavenly Springs.
Mud: Dark Brown: Dirt, but with more moisture. The thick sludgy consistency means you can gather Mud Globs from it, the basis of a dirt-centric society. Mud Globs are gathered generally at a rate of two per hour, but have a 8+ chance of greater output. Can degrade to Dirt as they're harvested.
Mudpack: Very Dark Brown: A large pool of muddy sludge, prone to not drying out. Gathering Mud Globs from it yields three Mud Globs, with a 10+ chance of an additional one. Does not degrade. Created by adding ten Mud Globs to a Mud tile. Perhaps adding heat to this equation will be like the sun at work.
Pool: Light Blue: A shallow bit of water, deep enough to wade in. Its bottom is murky, as is the water. You could drink this, maybe, and it's bottom is obviously a lot of some form of wet dirt.

Items
Made by the hand of man for his use, these things will allow progression and unlock new untrammeled vistas of human thought. They also might have a functional use, but hey, you never know.

Mud Glob: Can be used as a ranged weapon (Mud Glob: Range 5, Ac 5+, No Damage, limits target speed to 2 next hour), or formed with one's hands into Mud Bricks, which will dry in the sun of a single hour. Up to four can be dried in each non-wet tile per hour.
Mud Brick: No known uses. Solid, but crumbly. Perhaps some sort of harder throwing material?
Bowl: Made of dried mud, a hard bowl that can hold water or liquids. Made of two Mud Globs, it grants a +2 Bonus to gathering Mud Globs, and can hold a drink of water.
Loaf: Some weird spongey rock, the smell of which makes your stomach rumble. No known use, but hey, eating it might be an idea.
Grass Seed: Little tiny pebbles that your instincts tell you have life waiting inside them. They sing to you, speaking of dirt and homes. No known use.
Clay: This thick sticky mud seems more useful than mere mud. Washing a Mud Glob with water produced by the Shrine of Heavenly springs allows you to sluice off some of the impurities of the wet dirt, making it have different properties.

Structures
Edifices erected by characters for their uses, they might be, well, useful.

Mud Wall: A low waist-height wall of muddy soil heaped with a bit of effort, it hinders movement. Characters crossing it must spend 3 Energy to move through the tile. Costs 5 Mud Globs.
Mud Brick Leanto: A little squat where a man might sleep out the heat of day and the cold of night. 8 Mud Bricks. Restores an additional 2 Energy when Slept in.
Crude Brick Floor: Muddy bricks laid down into the soil to prevent one's feet from getting dirty. Costs 8 Mud Bricks. Decreases cost of movement to 1 Energy/2 Tiles.
Smallest Ziggurat: The first building of worship, of a sort. Built merely of heaped dried mud, its lack of permanence is a testament to the hubris of man. Also to his ability to stack bricks. As like calls to like, the power of this structure makes its constituents more cooperative about its base. Fills one tile entirely. Costs 20 Mud Bricks and 5 Thaum. Adds +1 Mud Glob to Mud Glob collection within a 2 tile radius.

The Arcane
Ah, the arcane, that which will remake the world. Through rites and shrines, conjurations and transmutations, the magic at the heart of man is his greatest asset. Almost all actions relating to enchantment and incantations will drain your character's Thaum, and if you don't have enough Thaum they will drain your Health, so ration your spells wisely.

Rites
These are actions taken that don't require a physical location, but will likely consume Thaum and possibly some objects. Using the power of the Thaum, your character will manipulate the currents of energy within themselves or around them in order to force the pattern of the world to change.

Rites:
Rite of Sustenance: 2 Thaum: Slow color suffuses a mud brick, turning brown to a lighter nutty near orange, the hue of bread as your power makes a Mud Brick into a Loaf.
Rite of the Sudden Flame: 5 Thaum: Fire falls from the clear sky, a consuming pillar of flame that burns both air and land. Damages any Character in the tile for 3-5 Health. The ground beneath the firestorm is blasted and hard. Perhaps this is another form of transmutation?
Rite of Earthen Manifestation: 8 Thaum: The currents about the island shift, making what was once incorporeal now as solid as the ground under your feet. Summons a small dirt and mud island in the direction of your choice, anywhere between 5 and 20 tiles away.
Rite of the Flowing Breeze: 7 Thaum: A sudden wind cushions your feet, allowing you to move across Sky for the next hour. Best walk quickly
Rite of Nascent Life: 10 Thaum: Life always finds a way, if you help it along. Softly speaking to a handful of thick mud, you encourage the spark within it to wake up, converting a Mud Glob into a Grass Seed.
Rite of Tranquil Water: 8 Thaum: You call to the sky and the earth, bringing water from above to fill the land below. Waters pool and fill the land before you, deepening existing bodies of water, and maybe forming a new type of land if the air was previously only thick mud.
Rite of the Yawning Void: 6 Thaum: You reshape the flows of Thaum in the void about you, inducing the vast nothingness to swallow solid land whole. It is a fickle creature, a terrifying sight to behold, matter disappearing into a gulf of empty eternity. Thankfully only uninhabited dirt, the lowliest of fundaments, is a repast for the void. Destroys a dirt tile within two tiles of your character.

Shrines
These are physical constructions that allow you to order the currents of the Thaum, and shape it to your desires. Most require Thaum to both create and use, but are more powerful than mere Rites in general terms.

Shrines:
Shrine of Heavenly Springs: 3 Thaum, 2 Mud Bricks: Can extract the essence of liquid from the very fundament of the ground, turning foul mud into pure drinkable crystal water. Converts one Mud Glob into a drink of water for 1 Thaum.
Shrine of the Obedient Earth: 8 Thaum, 8 Mud Bricks: Thick and stolid, this pillar of fused earth turns the ground to your will for a short way. The ground obeys your whims, shaping itself at your desire. Can create dirt tile within 2 tile radius at the cost of 5 Mud Globs and 1 Thaum.
Shrine of the Barred Door: 10 Thaum, 5 Mud Globs, 2 Loaves: A mystical presence infuses the air about you, keeping from you those who you do not desire in your presence. Prevents movement of other characters specified by you within a three tile radius of the Shrine, but consumes 1 Thaum every time another character tries to enter this radius and is barred. Can drain your Health once you run out of Thaum.
Shrine of the Soil: 10 Thaum, 5 Mud Bricks: Even humble earth has a bit of the matter of creation bound up in it, and the arranged sigils of this shrine allow the consummate man to access it. Can convert 2 Mud Bricks into 1 Thaum, or 2 Thaum into one Mud Brick.

The Godblessed
And now, for something entirely different; the character with the most Thaum at the end of every week is carried by the currents of power away from the humble dirt island, to an ancient shard of the temple from which the magii of man slew gods. In this temple lie dangers and rewards, vestiges of what once was, offering a great opportunity for looting and advancement if you survive. Using Arcane magics in this area is very hard though, and costs twice as much as usual. At the end of a day they are unceremoniously returned to their island, with whatever riches they gained still in their hands.

Unless otherwise noted, all rolls are on a d10.

[Constaniana]

Fascinating. Ťæģęñ.

[Harkback Union]

I'm gonna keep an Eye on this...

[G-Tech Corporation]

Fascinating. Ťæģęñ.

I'm gonna keep an Eye on this...

Spiffing. Shall I put you gentlemen down for Reservations, or are these merely expressions of interest?

[Constaniana]

Fascinating. Ťæģęñ.

I'm gonna keep an Eye on this...

Spiffing. Shall I put you gentlemen down for Reservations, or are these merely expressions of interest?

A reservation. Though what I'm supposed to reserve I'm not sure. I suppose that southeastern edge of the main island looks nice.

[G-Tech Corporation]

A reservation. Though what I'm supposed to reserve I'm not sure. I suppose that southeastern edge of the main island looks nice.

Heh, a spot. I'm only taking ten RPers, as more would be rather crowded. SE edge it is.

[Novia Soviet Socialist Republic]

This is brilliant. Taggity tag.

[Harkback Union]

Fascinating. Ťæģęñ.

I'm gonna keep an Eye on this...

Spiffing. Shall I put you gentlemen down for Reservations, or are these merely expressions of interest?

No need to reserve.
I am yet to read your epic OP.

[G-Tech Corporation]

No need to reserve.
I am yet to read your epic OP.

Ah, fair enough. She's not exactly tiny, but she's much more compact than some I've done, by far.

[Harkback Union]

No need to reserve.
I am yet to read your epic OP.

Ah, fair enough. She's not exactly tiny, but she's much more compact than some I've done, by far.

True... I'll give you that.

[Harkback Union]

I see you are still cutting corners on the map.
Would we eventually be able to build ourselves airships and palaces with magic (or science)?

[G-Tech Corporation]

I see you are still cutting corners on the map.
Would we eventually be able to build ourselves airships and palaces with magic (or science)?

Cutting corners?

Absolutely. If you want to make it, just say so. Most of the things most people will be looking for will probably be a bit less than possible currently, but I'll certainly add them to my master list.

[Lunas Legion]

Application:
Name: Varn
Physical Description: Varn is a tank of a man; scarred, but short and not particularly well-muscled, he is blind in his left eye while his other one is a pale brown. He is also bald.
Indicative Color: Neon Green
Starting Location: Central mud tile on the south island
Initial Attribute: Survivalist

[Zarkenis Ultima]

This looks pretty interesting, G.

I'd like that bit at the north of the main island.

[Lavan Tiri]

Application:
Name: Markus.
Physical Description: Markus is tall and wiry, with tanned skin and black hair. His left eye is green, and the right one, by some weird evolutionary trick, is brown.
Indicative Color: (this will be used to mark both you and your holdings on the map) Orange.
Starting Location: The eastern island, northern part.
Initial Attribute: (choose from the list in the next post, only from 'Initial Attributes')

Mystical Affinity.

[Aona]

Tagging like x10000
You never fail to impress, G-tech

[Lavan Tiri]

Tagging like x10000
You never fail to impress, G-tech

GINGER!

[G-Tech Corporation]

Application:
Name: Varn
Physical Description: Varn is a tank of a man; scarred, but short and not particularly well-muscled, he is blind in his left eye while his other one is a pale brown. He is also bald.
Indicative Color: Neon Green
Starting Location: Central mud tile on the south island
Initial Attribute: Survivalist

That seems to be in order, welcome to the crew Luna.

Application:
Name: Markus.
Physical Description: Markus is tall and wiry, with tanned skin and black hair. His left eye is green, and the right one, by some weird evolutionary trick, is brown.
Indicative Color: (this will be used to mark both you and your holdings on the map) Orange.
Starting Location: The eastern island, northern part.
Initial Attribute: (choose from the list in the next post, only from 'Initial Attributes')

Mystical Affinity.

Hmm, I'm not seeing anything out of order, though in future be aware that one generally removes parentheses from an application. Accepted, welcome.

Tagging like x10000
You never fail to impress, G-tech

Heh, the product of an idle devil's workshop.

[Aona]

Tagging like x10000
You never fail to impress, G-tech

GINGER!

shh lavan I'm hiding......

[Lavan Tiri]

GINGER!

shh lavan I'm hiding......

Not anymore.

[G-Tech Corporation]

There we go, new map up with our accepted RPers, and new dreadful dirt-block graphics because Harkback doesn't like squares. Enjoy.

[Lavan Tiri]

There we go, new map up with our accepted RPers, and new dreadful dirt-block graphics because Harkback doesn't like squares. Enjoy.

SQUARES SUCK!


CIRCLE MASTERRACE 2014!

[The Starlight]

Hello, G-tech! Seems very interesting, I'll make an app shortly.

[Aona]

Application:
Name: Moss
Physical Description: Aw
Indicative Color: Purple-Blue
Starting Location: Southern Part of the East Isle
Initial Attribute: Driven

This will become the indie hit of the decade