Scars of the Forgotten OOC (Open) (Horror, Weird Fiction)

by **Naval Monte** » Sat May 15, 2021 8:54 pm

Scars of the Forgotten - A Gnosis RP

Welcome to a land of wonder. Try not to lose your mind on the way out.

IC Thread | Discord | Theme Song

Co-ops: Britanania, Nagakawa, Menschenfleisch

”We are each either among the demoralized showing the way to a future of eternal nightmare, or we are losers celebrating our moment in hell.”
- Thomas Ligotti

The Setting

Lludw Cigfrain is a town on the coast of Wales, and it contradicts itself at every turn. Two extremes exist side by side. On one end, the town expresses an intense vitality. The young crowd within a cathedral of higher learning, a beating heart of knowledge, and from it flows the lifeblood of the shops, hotels, and other businesses which surround it. This institution, this spirit of enlightenment and innovation, has created a system which has allowed the town to progress beyond the time capsule that its timeless edifice suggests. But behind the trendy nightclubs, glamorous stores, and restaurants emitting delectable aromas, another side of the town reveals itself, like cold shadows cast by brilliant light.

For simultaneously manifestations of an ineluctable decay exist wherever one might find themselves. For every street bustling with cafes and jewelleries there are avenues and storefronts that have been abandoned for as long as anyone can remember. For every site of industry still active and bringing jobs to the blue collar masses, the derelict ruins of past ventures remain standing as grave markers for the careers and lives lost due to their closure. For every building renovated to prepare them for new occupants many more are left to degenerate further as nature reclaims the land stolen from her. Behind the pleasant facades deviancy and corruption run unchecked, the poor and powerless are sucked dry by those in the upper echelons of society to maintain the status quo.

But beyond those two contrasting extremes the town has yet another secret, one which lies behind the mask that it shows to tourists and drifters. A side only heard in hushed whispers, written about in obscure manuscripts and hidden forums on the net. This other side rears its head whenever a person suddenly disappears from within the town or the surrounding area, never to be heard from again; when someone dies under mysterious circumstances that baffle all rational explanation; it manifests as tales about robed figures spotted in the woods and in the ruins of the town performing dark rites and bloody sacrifices. Whenever one hears strange noises in the wood, feels as though they are being watched in their homes, tastes worms and bile in their food and water, smells the sweetly and putrid scent of decay coming from a dank alley, or feel something crawling upon or within your skin but never seeing proof of anything on your person. These experiences that defy explanation, they are the town revealing its true nature.

This will be a story about darkness and peril. It will be about not knowing what you’re facing, it will be about giving everything that you’ve got and achieving nothing, it will be about failure… and it will be about finding value amidst all that anyway. You are a person, a sheep in a world made for wolves. The best that you will be able to hope for in most situations will be to survive, and rarely unscathed. And yet, you will do your best to survive nonetheless. This story will be about despair, but it will not be hopeless. It will be your role to do your best under the worst of circumstances; rarely will victory be in the cards… and that’s alright.

The Rules

Membership is approved by me and my co-ops. Applications are reviewed based on the quality of the writing therein, the suitability of the character concept to the RP and our own estimation of your RPing capabilities. If you’re worried your character might not be accepted, it doesn’t hurt to ask about it in the OOC! We don’t bite… mostly.
Respect should be maintained between all players. We’re here to have fun and write a story, not to compete! If you disagree with someone else please be civil.
Explicit and violent subject matter will be a part of this RP but please keep it relatively safe for work. We don’t want to give the admins and mods a reason to want us off the site!
Ideas for new threats, groups, buildings and all sorts of lore can be submitted at any time and are actively encouraged. However, my co-ops and I have the final say on whether it becomes canon or not.
Quality is expected from all players. We aren’t asking you to write us a novel of course but please keep one-liners and uninteresting posts to a minimum.
Timeliness is expected! If you hold up the RP for too long we might skip you or even ignore your character until you express an interest in returning.
God modding will not be tolerated. No one is a super hero here. Supernatural powers often come with steep costs to those who have them, never forget that.
Dark Secrets are your past traumas that play a dark mark(s) on your character's past, being the source of their flaws and creating interesting side stories for your character, you can have one-five dark secrets

Application

Code: Select all: [b]Name:[/b] [b]Gender:[/b] [b]Profession:[/b] [b]Nationality:[/b] [b]Age:[/b] [b]DoB:[/b] [b]Skills and Abilities:[/b] [b]Physical Description:[/b] (include ethnicity, height and weight. clothing and jewelry. Any identifiable marks & physical ailments or deformities) [b]Psychological Assessment:[/b] (personality, mental disorders, quirks, motivations.) [b]Personal Relationships:[/b] [b]Sexuality:[/b] (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual?) [b]Items and Equipment:[/b] [b]Dark Secrets:[/b] [b]Powers:[/b] (psychic powers, ritual magic, other. Feel free to say none!) [b]Bio:[/b] [b]Roleplay Experience:[/b] [b]Theme song:[/b] (optional) [b]Random facts:[/b] (optional)

Example App:

The Cast

Jacquelyn Vanth - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
Father Sebastian Leonard “Sebby” McBride - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
Ezekiel "Zeke" Lee Seong-ju - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
Lady Caitlin Grey - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
John Marsh - A videographer chased by the demons within and without
Elizabeth Ashwood - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
[url=APPLICATION POST]CHARACTER NAME[/url] - CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

by **Naval Monte** » Sat May 15, 2021 8:57 pm

Lludw Cigfrain - Heartland of the Unknown

A little more about your new home.

History of Lludw Cigfrain

In 1285, following the English Conquest of Wales, Lludw Cigfrain was founded on the site of an earlier, and burnt, Welsh settlement, named for ash coated remains of a town that was only home to ravens and crows. The town was founded to facilitate the castle built on the spot by Baron Afallach Lludwpren, whose nickname is of dubious origin although possibly named after the castle. He is recognised as the first documented member of the House of Ashwood. The town grew rapidly under the protection of Lord Afallach, and the same year he paid for the construction of a cathedral and university, neither of which would be completed in his lifetime, as Lord Afallach died fighting against Madog ap Llywelyn in his revolt against King Edward I.

Over the following two centuries Lludw continued to grow, although never becoming a major centre of commerce, its university became recognised as one of the finest in the British isles, outshined only by Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrew's. During Owen Glendower's revolt against the Lancaster's, Lludw sided with the Welsh forces and was subsequently pillaged by the English forces in 1415, owing to the small amount of records and artefacts from previous centuries, although Castle Ashwood and the University were spared the destruction.

Lludw saw a revival of sorts under the Tudor Kings, being natives of Wales themselves, and Lord Henry Ashwood became a noted patron of the University during his long reign. Lord Henry even successfully married his eldest son and heir, Edward, to an illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII, or so the legend goes. Lord Henry is also noted as a powerful member of the Council of Wales and the Marches during the Tudor period and helped to ease Wales' transition during its effective annexation by Henry VIII.

After Henry VIII's break with Rome, the University became a major centre of Anglican thought, and boasted one of the earliest Welsh Bibles, and benefited greatly from Queen Elizabeth I's patronage. Lludw, like most of Wales, sided with the Royalists during the English Civil War, and although no battles of importance took place in Wales proper during the first, Lord Morgan Ashwood fought with the Royalists at the Battle of St Fagans but avoided capture as he returned home to Lludw. Lord Morgan is also remembered for beginning the construction of Ashwood Manor, moving his family out of the castle in favour of a more comfortable living space, although they maintained the castle as a barracks during the Royalist Revolt.

During the Glorious Revolution the town would officially be granted the rights of a market town as a market hall would be constructed on what would later be called Grimhaven. In this point in time the town would become a main trading community as it used both the Cerridwyn river and it’s coastal access to trade and fish.

Owain Ashwood would take chance to use the money generated by this boon to invite not only guilds and merchants into the town but construct an elaborate guild hall for these new business partners.

In 1712 a great fire tore through the town. While many brave souls tried their best to put out the flames their efforts were pointless as the flames would spread to neighboring communities. When the fire was put down many residents of the town, including children, were killed. Among the casualties was the parents of the new Ashwood Baron, Lord Charles Ashwood The grief stricken town folks would be mourn for weeks as they made the difficult task of burying so many of the dead. However while this was happening neighbors from the town, both consumed by grief and anger, would attack Lludw Cigfrain for vengeance for the fire as many believed that the fire was caused by witches that lived in the town.

However Lord Charles Ashwood would lead a militia to repel these attackers off the town. It would be through his efforts and his family’s fortune that the town would be rebuilt.

Over the course of the next century, Lludw recovered from the fire, returning to its pre-fire population by the start of the 19th century. The start of the industrial Revolution truly changed life for the town, however, especially when rich coal fields were discovered near the city, on land owned by the Ashwoods. The Ashwoods invested heavily into Lludw, opening up a textile mill and an ironworks in the early part of the 19th century. A flood in 1869 destroyed the more heavily industrialised sectors of the town, but Lord Edward Ashwood again used his own fortune to rebuild, opening up a steel mill as well. The economic and commercial boom of the latter 19th century saw Lludw population again rise, hitting over 30,000 souls by 1900, more than triple its population only a century earlier.

However, economic life in Lludw began to suffer around the time of the First World War. Alongside the many sons of the town who died in the trenches, changes in economic life saw the collapse of the coal industry after the war. The steel mills, once the life-blood of the city and the wider Welsh economy, also saw an almost irreversible decline during the interwar years that only accelerated after the Second World War. Lludw escaped the worst of the economic collapse, however, in part thanks to the strong commercial and cultural boon of having a world renowned university. Under Chancellor Gruffudd Ashwood, the university saw a transformation into not only a prestigious institution for the liberal arts, but especially philology as well as the more specialised information technologies that would dominate the markets by the late 1980s.

Lord Grufford’s daughter, Alexandria, followed in his footsteps by becoming the Head of the School of Archeology and Anthropology, launching a few expeditions to South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia for archeological sites discovered in those locations.

In the present day, Lludw is a town of two halves. Many of the old industries are in decline or hanging on by a thread, but newer, more tech-heavy industries and commercial interests offer an exciting future for many as well.

The Ten Districts of Lludw Cigfrain

Oldgrove

Located at the northern side of the town at the left side, next to Grimhaven. Old Grove is primarily a residential district until one goes down to the parts that sink close to the river. There one will find not only harbors and warehouses but factories and office buildings. Many of these industries are light in nature and some have been converted to adjust to the current service economy, however there are still plenty of abandoned buildings that still bear the scars of a terrible flood that brought ruin to this district and other river close districts. Of the still working mills the textile mill has become an odd tourist attraction in this part of town as well as the abandoned paper mill and the old Ice House that has been converted into a nightclub. The old opera house can be found here as well as another papermill that is still active.

Upper levels and on the edge are farm lands but the infamous Overlook Hotel can be found on the same highway known to locals as the "Road to the End of the World''. Also found in this district is a slaughterhouse infamous for being haunted and being the scene for a gruesome murder back in the 18th century. The Northern parts within town, above Wheatley Street, contain many old homes of pure Georgian designs. These homes trace their history to the time when the town was founded and the town's first aristocracy arose. Some are owned by either the old families or a new generation of families who have gained influence and power in the town, others are owned by the Lludw Cigfrain Historical Society to both preserve the ancient structures and use them to attract tourists. Others are sadly left abandoned and are decaying. Some of these are still owned by old families who have lost much power and wealth and refuse to leave the symbol of their lost glory due to pride even as they letter to the brink of ruin. The old trolley line that use tomcinnevt it to Grimhaven has been shut down for years and years of neglect and left it a corroded, rust coated shell of its former self. Talks have been ongoing on repairing the old line. In the meantime a local has converted an abandoned trolley on the line into a gift shop.

The streets are brick, 40 feet wide, and while maintained well can use repairs in some parts. In these parts a few potholes and cracks can be found on the street. Tree roots have so buckled and raised on the brick sidewalk that most find walking on the street more comfortable. South of Whateley Street, the ground slopes sharply to the river. The homes are modest and tightly spaced, and the streets are narrow and windy. A number of small businesses exist alongside Armitage and River Streets. Freight Trains pass through the day and night and many on the lower parts can see the ships sail by the river. The Lludw Cigfrain Water Sanitation Plant and Sewage Treatment Plant can be found at the edge of Oldgrove as well as the lumberyard and nearby paper mill.

Grimhaven

Located at the north and at the center, sandwiched between Oldgrove and Fairwood. The grounds are much hillier than Fairwood, although the ground rises steadily north from the river, there are dips and ridges as it climbs. The town square is the most level part of Grimhaven.

The townhall and its corresponding clock tower can be found and close to the center is Sovereign Square. Further on the back is the Infamous Blackthorn Asylum. A trolley line goes through the main street through the middle bridge over the river connecting to the trolley line on the south. Sovereign Square contains eight walkways leading to the center where a large fountain is located with a ebony obelisk standing on top with four raven statues standing on the fountain with their wings stretched up ready to fly. The obelisk has writings on it with the eye of providence on the top. The fields are used for picnics and sport fields and the square is used for major events and festivals in the town. A short distance (roughly a 20 minute walk) away from the town square is the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Grace, the Lludw Cigfrain parish church, run by Father Sebastian McBride.

North and east of the square are classic Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian homes along with Modern and Medieval looking ones made for those of middle class income, the abundance of overhanging gambrel and gable roofs being a common sign on being in the middle income zone, while the west and south side has homes and manors of the same historical architecture but with the inclusion of homes built with both Classical and Regency styles. These are the town hall and clocktower, courthouse, police station and jail, fire station, post office, and the town central train station and tram station, many of them on main street. Both the The Palace Theater and the Titania Art Gallery can be found in Grimhaven

The middle and low income houses are found North of Curwen street. A small area around Garrison Street features good restaurants, pubs, and a variety of family entertainment. This area may be busy on weekend evenings, unusual in Lludw Cigfrain. Peabody Avenue, Branwyn Street, and Governor Street are lined with small shops and businesses, many calling this part the offspring of the Merchant District and Ashville. A few local markets and diners also appear here, as well as several smaller mills and warehouses near the water's edge, some seeing new life restored to them while others are still abandoned and are decaying away. Several miles away from the town hall is a big box hypermarket that was made by a company out of town.

Advent

Located at the south and the right, next to Merchant District and below it Morriston. This section of the town slopes steeply to Cerridwyn River before flattening at River Street. While it has been outshone by the Merchant District for most of its existence, Advent is still a modest trading center, attracting many native and migrant tradesmen and merchants, here homes and shops are combined just like in the Merchant District. The houses are modest, old, built tightly along the streets. Most are sited with their end to the street, facing their doors to the courts and lanes of the street. The old market hall still stands today and is a noted landmark of the town as well as the adjacent guild hall.

Many of the buildings range in sizes from two through four storey but a few have reached five. The trolley line that comes down from Grimhaven connects to both Merchant District and Advent. On the southern parts of the harbor and warehouses by the river is separated by the railway made on Asheville. A train station was made on Advent for passengers to depart to this part of town while leaving freight trains to go through their own line. One can also enter Advent by either a highway or by boat travel.

This is the fishing district of the town and where one goes if they wish to go rowboating and canoe riding through the river. A famous site in this district is the Presbyterian Methodist Church, one of the few still active churches in the town. One of the public schools in the town can be found here as well as a brickyard and many harbors. Between River Street and the Campus are a series of abandoned mills, a site home to the poorest residents in town as well as hobos and occasionally petty criminals. Rumors persist of there being an overweight homeless man who lives in the mills who can eat anything, including livestock, pets, and small children. He is said to be spotted at the riverbank searching for trash and fishes that wash up on shore.

At the edge of Advent lies old analog television transmission station that is still active as well as a radio station . Also found at the edge is the water sanitation plant and sewage treatment plant for South Lludw Cigfrain.

Merchant District

On the southern central part of the town, above the Campus and next to Advent and technically Ashville if not separated by the canal. The commercial center of the town, as a vast majority of the town's stores and shops can be found here as well as one of the two of the town's malls, the other located at the edge of Advent. Just like Advent many of the store buildings also double as private residence or tenant apartments. A trolley line goes through this district at Church Street and Main Street from the bridge leading to Grimhaven, this line also leads to both Ashville and Advent with another trolley line going down to the Campus.

Two churches, one converted into a library and another a nightclub, are found here, and several rows of early eighteenth century warehouses in line of the river. Most are now seeing new use but some are still being left abandoned. The heart of the District is a long block bordered by Main, Garrison, Church, Victoria streets, where stands two to four storey of predominantly early nineteenth century brickrow buildings, however wooden and stone buildings of both earlier eras and modern can be found as well as a few buildings being five storey tall.

Church Street from Main to Victoria Street, is cobblestoned, one of the few remaining cobblestone roads, it's also the few streets and roads wide enough for the trolley to go through as most roads in the District are too narrow, with the road on Garrison barely wide enough to fit the trolley. Occasional Alleys, barely wide enough for skilled truck drivers to get in and out of, give access to the service courts on the rear of the shops. These dingy courts are more often than not cluttered with crates, packing materials, and machines that don't work but are too good to haul away.

River Street was once heavily trafficked by trucks moving goods between the docks and warehouses, taking great care not to be run over by the freight train. While the stretch between Garrison and Victorian Street still sees activity, most of the warehouses are abandoned and decades of litter cover the streets, requiring great driving skill to navigate through it. However two blocks of warehouses east of Garrison, mostly made of wood and stone, were long ago converted into tenements and settlement houses. Here the streets are cleaner due to volunteer efforts and community services.

The two shopping blocks east of Garrison and South of Main are composed of shops housed in buildings older, and less impressive, compared to those of Church Street. Many are tightly crowded converted residence and shop hybrids. The tall steepe of the Angelican Church compete against the tallest shop buildings for dominance of the skyline. The Western edge of the neighborhood is where the older residents live and one can find the first Lludw Cigfrain retirement home here as well as a grade school at Church Street.

Talog park is located in this area. A large park with many gardens, sports and picnic fields, and even a playground. Hollow Lake is at the center of the park and off to the sides are trees creating a nature trail for some guests. In Talog park are a small ferris wheel, a carousel, and a flying captive machine that once belonged to Nevermore Park. At the river there is a small, marshy, island whose center rises up to a small hill with stone monuments on top the hill and at the low ground shore the rusting remains of a fishing trawler can be seen. The Lludw Shop Center as well as the town dance and music halls can be found here along with art galleries. The infamous Shunned House can also be found, a site of intense hauntings. Club Midnight, the former church now nightclub, is also found in the Merchant District as well as other nightclubs as well as the town casino and most gambling houses, also found are brothels and hotels and massage parlors for more “intimate services” . Leading to the district getting a seedy reputation as this is where most prostitution rings come from.

Fairwood

Also known as either the "Medieval District" or "Tudor District" due to the large medieval style buildings in the residential parts of Fairwoods. The ground in this part of town slopes more or less steadily from the river until cresting along Derby Street. Derby and Curwen streets, practically near the intersections of Brown and Jenkins streets, boast a large number of already mentioned Medieval style buildings of Georgian, Classical, Victorian, and Edwardian mansions and homes. Most have their own gardens with stone walls or iron fences and gates enclosing them. Estates alongside the north of Derby may have extensive grounds.

Central Fairwoods has many residential buildings from family homes to apartment buildings and tenement buildings. Many businesses here tend to be hotels and restaurants. Down where the land slopes downward to the river and south of Curwen Street, is where one finds many commercial and financial businesses in Fairwoods. In these parts, one can find the seven storey Professional Office Tower, the fifth tallest building in the town and home to many businesses in each of its floors. One will also find the station to the Cerridwyn Railroads. Two of Lludw Cigfrain news agencies, the Raven Gazette and Advertiser. The Antique Store/Lost and Found "Paradise Found" can also be found here as well as a tavern and inn called the "Drinking Crow''. The Apostolic Church can be found here as well. Before it there was once a burnt ruin of a previous church.

On the upper levels you will find a mix of residential and commercial buildings but traveling further up and depending on which direction you go you will either go to Potter Field or Briallen Garden. Found on the upper left the gated community of the Briallen Garden is where the more affluent and influential families of Lludw Cigfrain live. This community is close to the coast where some manor homes are blessed to have a good view of the sea, while others are close to the forest. Of all the manor homes the most famous is that of Ashwood Manor, the home to the most powerful family in the town.

Located in the opposite direction Potter's Field is a mostly hilly grassland with many creeks and ponds. However in the field you will find isolated homesteads, farming fields, a few small buildings huddled close, and the old pumping station with an adjacent water tower that is the second tallest structure in the town, behind the clocktower.

On the left side of Fairwood besides two of the highways leading to and out of town is Meadows Field, a collection of landscape gardens, flower fields, and historical villas and manors. Along the High Lane north of Fairwood and stretching out of town is a small industrial strip of home to a few, small factories, but in part abandoned. Also left abandoned here are both tracks and stations to a trolley leading to close by communities.

By the coast one would find yet another beachfront with resorts, shops, and hotels as well as tenement buildings and residential houses. Sitting on top of a hill close to the coast is the imposing Norman castle known to locales as Ashwood Castle. Once the former residence of the Ashwood family, today it serves as popular tourists attraction that is still own by the Ashwood family. Every pound spent to visit the castle and to by items from the gift shop and other stores that surrounds the castle goes to the family while others return backs to the workers of the site and the town.

Morriston

Below Advent and facing north of Branwen Ward, the towers and spires of the now abandoned, and many believe to be haunted, Bayfrair's Church surmounts this part of town. Home to many immigrants that live in the town, ranging from people throughout the British Isles, Continental Europe and the US, to recent additions like those from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Each part is often shaped by a strong concentration of these different groups such as "Irish Hill", "China Town", and "Americana Street".

Rows of wooden and brick homes and apartments, overhanging gambrel and gable roofs, and sometimes decaying Georgian and Victorian and Edwardian houses of impressive proportions can be found. This region is said to have more hills than Grimhaven, though the validity of that claim is disputed . It does boost on having larger hills. Bridges are made over natural streams and brooks of which buildings and roads were built around and the ponds are used in parks.

Some houses here perch precariously, titling crazily over narrow and winding streets. Many lanes and alleyways are nothing more but twisted stairways that lead to dark footsteps, deadends to dank alleyways, and small parks often either devoid of human life or having few people on them.

It is said that those living on the eastern parts across Anne Street are often more prosperous than other folks in Morriston, often their more extensive and modern homes with the inclusion of backyards are proof. Those living in the north and west have a decent living while those of the south are the poorest one, their poor status said to rival those living in the worst parts of Ashville.

Due to the streams and ponds parts of the ground are marshy, causing some buildings to appear crooked due to them sinking in the ground. Some of the wooden buildings in the marshy spots show signs of decay due to the water accelerating it. A large stream separates Morriston from Branwen. An old cemetery can be found at the edge of this neighborhood as well as a hill where a tree has the old quirk of not only being close to a set of stones with runic engravings but also legally owns itself. It is often confused for the hanging tree at Gallows Hill.

Ashville

Located just at the left of Merchant District and separated by the Cerridwyn canal. Ashville was the industrial heart of Lludw Cigfrain from the 19th century and enjoyed a golden age for most of the twentieth century until shifting economic climates began to put the factories out of business, beginning the district's slow decay.

Sterling Street is seen as the main street of Ashville due to the trolley line going through the six feet wide concrete road. At the sides of the streets are rows of wooden and stone buildings ranging from one to five storeys, all in Victorian design. Just like the Merchant District and Advent these are residential-commercial buildings. Above Sterling Street at Wallace Street, hiding behind the store buildings, are rolls of brickrow terraced houses of Georgian designs used for residential. Blocks in Angel, Pickman, Cylen, and Davis Streets surround Wallace at the sides with Angel and Pickman behind Wallace Streets, all have similar buildings with Cylen and Angel having buildings that use a Victorian style to defy the conformity in the block.

Right above River Street is a familiar sight to Advent, many abandoned warehouses from the early nineteenth century. However like Advent some of these have been converted into apartments and settlement houses, some still active as they perform their original job as the dock is still used even if activity has seen a severe decline compared to its past glory. Small factories and mid-rise office buildings can be found, most abandoned but a few converted to serve new roles. The most well known is a former office building converted into the Siren Hotel. On the shore close by the beached and rusty remains of a cargo ship can be spotted.

Beyond Sterling, Cylen, and Davis is the long stretch of Boundary Street. Rows of three to six storey buildings can be found as well as the Unitarian Church, an abandoned poor house, orphanage, and school. With private homes, apartments, and hotels standing with stores, restaurants, and a few office buildings still active. The alleys are narrow as the roads, with courtyards littered with junk and small gardens overgrown with tall grass and weeds, many say the weeds are like tentacles reaching out to grab people and tree branches are like claws. Beyond this part of town are rows of abandoned industrial houses, small factories, and farming homesteads. Going forward will take you to the town junkyard. Go off the dirt road and you will reach the Old Gallows Cemetery, next to Gallow Hill which on top rests the infamous Hanging Tree.

Taking a southern turn from Sterling will take you down to Ashborne. Many of the buildings will be similar to those on Sterling and Boundary Street, most of the buildings are residential but a few are still commercial. Reach down and you will find the industrial sector. From Udonis street one will find rows of buildings that serve as shops and apartments with the old steel mill just across them, now abandoned once the Devil's Pit mines closed. Derelict warehouses surrounding it at the south with stores either abandoned or in desperate need for renovation or to be torn down, a request met as most of these buildings are being renovated or demolished to make way for new apartments and tenantments for many I'd the retired and elderly folk entering the town. Skipping down several houses, apartments, stores, and office buildings one can find the old coal plant that once supplied power to the southern half of Lludw Cigfrain, it too closed after the mining operations ceased.

On the Furnace street one will find the old Coal Plant which used to provide Lludw Cigfrain power before it was closed on the same day the mines were shut down. Surrounding it are warehouses and office buildings, stretching out from them are terrace houses and apartments. Going down one will go through rows of terrace houses and mid rise apartments until they find old Steel Refinery and it's adjunct warehouses and office buildings as well as the poor house. Both it and the coal plant are protected historical landmarks.

Between Sibyl Street and the Cerridwyn canal one will find the old Ashwood Textile Mill, a factory once owned by one of the most powerful families in the town before it was sold, the building is used mostly as an art gallery, residential apartment, and textile museum. Also on this section of town is an active paper mill, paint factory, a descending stairway to a small boardwalk for boats. The most modern factory in this part is the plastic factory that was made in the fifties. At the other side of the street are houses, commercial buildings, and apartments as well as a middle school and retirement house.

On Arkwright street one will find a mix of residential and commercial buildings as well as industrial buildings for things ranging from shoe and hat making, watchmaking, leather manufacturing, toymaking, and custom jewelry manufactory. Some of these factories are still active while others have either been abandoned after ceasing operation or are operating in a reduced state, clinging to a few buildings and to whatever sponsors still support them for dear life. The office buildings and warehouses to the now abandoned brickyard can also be found here as well as additional offices for the lumberyard that are also abandoned as newer ones were made to be closer on site.

Ashwood Street is where many of the newer industries can be found. Most are high tech electronics and bio-tech, most coming from science park in Cerridwyn who choose to house facilities in the old district to breath new life in the district. Financial and professional services are also found in this section such as insurances, bank investments, data processing, and IT development. Food manufacturing is also visible as a new slaughterhouse is visible with the old cannery building that has undergone renovation. The most prominent is the fish processing facility that was built close to the shipyard and fishing fleets. Many office buildings and warehouses owned by different companies can be found in this part of town as well as tenement houses and apartments for workers and factory owners.

Beyond Ashwood Street are more residential homes and commercial buildings; however a good deal of the latter are abandoned due to the retail businesses from neighboring districts. Work from the city council has been done to restore the shops or at least make use of the buildings for something different. In this part of town parks, a mini golf course, theaters, and a museum dedicated to the town's industrial history can be found. Many hotels, restaurants, and pubs can be found here.

Beyond the port and harbor of Ashville is a small island where the lighthouse stand. Still active it has become a notable landmark of the town.

Campus Grounds

The campus area is the showplace for Lludw Cigfrain. Landscaped, kept immaculately clean, and having the strongest wifi signal in town, the University grounds are a cool and shady place to be in during the summer. All of the university buildings are found on the grounds, including the hospital and field house. Like the Merchant District, the campus is on low ground, which noticeably climbs only south of College Street.

North of Crane Street and west of Mary Street is a block of substantial residential homes, designed in Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian styles. Many of the buildings are no longer residence, but are maintained as offices by the university and other organizations. The block is well groomed, such as many parts in the campus. College Street contains, besides campus buildings, many old family houses that have been converted into apartments and boarding houses, where many juniors and seniors belonging to fraternities live.

West of Celyn Street are blocks of older, more modest residences. More modern buildings can be found in the campus, made to create additional apartments or businesses made specifically to cater to students, though each building is made to match with the aesthetic of the older structures. Leading up to Merchant District the main road has a trolley line that leads to one of the gates to the university. Surrounding the line are many commercial buildings as well as high end apartments and fraternity houses. There is even a small clinic used by medical students to practice their trade before they move to Saint David's Hospital (or Dewi Sant in Welsh) in their Doctorate years.

Beyond the houses west of Celyn Street lie Cerridwyn Canal, separating the campus from Ashville. Just like Advent the canal has seen rowboats and canoe riding emerging but fish trawlers and cargo ships still make their way to unload cargo to Ashville. The transformation station in charge of supplying electricity to all of South Lludw Cigfrain can be found here. Also found here is Lludw Cigfrain Training Clinic, Whitechapel Mortuary, Lludw Cigfrain Public Aquatorium, Lludw Cigfrain Memorial Auditorium, Culhwch Convention Center, The Lludw Cigfrain Historical Society and as well as Cerridwyn Science Park and Hotel Cerridywn. The infamous Witch House and Blackthorn Asylum also lie in these grounds

Within the grounds lies the crown jewel of the University, the gothic structure known as Curwen Library. A repository of knowledge of all matters, including having a section dedicated to the occult and folklore. Also on the campus grounds is the Cerridwyn Exhibit Museum, a structure made in the same year as the library and university. The Exhibition Museum primarly a natural history and archaeology museum, many wings exist dedicated to other exhibitions; ranging from a insectarium, aquarium, planetarium, and a small art wing. The Museum also has archives and vaults for their more sensitive and unique items.

Other well known sites of the University includes the Belltower which stands one of the tallest structure in the town, the old college building that is now used to store documents and materials for the university known as the Tabularium, The university’s laboratories and observatory, botanical gardens close to the museum, a statue of one of the founders, and the aviary that is home to the ravens that are the university mascots.

Branwen Ward

Most of this neighborhood is well off, but Elizabeth and High Street deserve special attention. Perched terrace-like atop a south hill, overlooking campus and the river, these two brick streets are a full sixty feet wide and lined with shade trees. Mansions of Victorian and Edwardian designs, once mill owner homes, line both sides of both streets from Boundary to Garrison. The houses are placed side by side, uniformly twelve feet back from brick sidewalk and the street.

There is little space between the houses, although a few sports small gardens on the side. Descendants of the original families still own a few of the houses; University folks own many of the houses now. A few more have been purchased by other organizations, some are boarding houses and apartments. No commercial buildings stand in the area and police patrol the area frequently; loitering, particularly after dark, is not permitted.

Houses along narrower Pickman street are of both earlier and modern, and modest designs. Here numerous two to three storey gambrel and gable roof houses can be found, mostly made of wood, and many divided into apartments. Some are hidden behind others houses, only reachable by narrow alleys. Several historical mansions stand out. Residents here include poorer faculty and older university students. These buildings are generally well maintained.

A few more historical mansions occur on Cerridwyn and Caledfwlch Street but much of the area was built up in the early nineteenth century and once more later on in the twentieth century, and consists of larger middle class houses and apartments. A few old families still thrive in this part. Another infamous haunt can be found called the Our Lady of Sorrow Church can be found here as well as a road leading to the Nevermore Amusement Park.

Hill Street is poorly lit and a little lived in. Houses here are ancient, crooked and tottering affairs, sagging under moss grown waterlogged overhanged gambrel and gable roofs. Some stand vacant, while most still have electricity, gas, and water, they can be faulty at times with these buildings losing access to such basic necessities. Most have to rely on their own ventilation systems and buy their own Wi-Fi and broadband access. Needless to say this part of the town has the weakest Wi-Fi signal in the town, however recent changes have made it much stronger. Old, disused farm buildings can be seen, half fallen and overgrown; hidden among luxurious trees and high-standing grasses are long abandoned gardens and remains of old family plots. This area has yet to be properly incorporated. Residents here get water from wells across the street. The Brookhaven can Cemetery can be found in this part of town as well as the brook next to it. Like in Fairwood an abandoned trolley line and station can be found but this one has one trolley left to the elements on the Outskirts, becoming both a landmark and an object for urban legends.

However Hill Street has seen a revival in recent years as the newly made Nevermore Park has breathed new life to the decaying part of town. The pleasure park introduced not only picnic areas, concert halls, a zoo, and new rows of hotels, restaurants, and stores. This project is further booster by it being located close to a beach which has not only gave it an extra aveune for tourists to come but also the creation of a boardwork line with more shops, businesses, resorts and hotels to cater to tourists The main attraction is the fairground where the Nevermore Carnival resides on the Branwen Pier. Once a traveling carnival and circus troupe that did plenty of business in the town a deal was struck to keep them in the town permanently as an amusement park. The carnival still maintains its carnival themes and charm despite them now becoming town residents. More nature based forms of entertainment are done. With the carnival and pleasure park success new homes have been made while older ones have been renovated, even the dirt road has been paved with concrete. However there are still plenty of decaying and abandoned homes in Hill Street, many being frequent targets for urban explorers, ghost hunters, and vandals.

Outskirts

From rolling acres of hills, dark looming forests still untouched by axes and saws, to crisscrosses of springs and ponds, the Outskirts are where nature still remains in the town that wishes to be a city. From the south of Asheville and Branwen Ward is the small man made lake that ends the canal. A nature park being made despite it's artificial nature. Close by are a series of tall hills often called "mountains" by the town folks, it's there one can find the infamous Devil's Pit Mines. From the left side of Ashville one can find the town junkyard and can be found with Gallows Hill and the nearby cemetery just miles away from it.

Away from Advent one can find the old analog television broadcasting station and the radio station. Yet even further away one can find a solitary gas station with an adjacent automobile repair shop and inn. From Oldgrove side of the Outskirts one can find the Overlook Hotel and near the river the modern hydroelectric power station, the town radio station and cellphone tower can be found there as well. Grimhaven has a chemical plant on it's part of the Outskirt as well as the solar farming field that it shares with Fairwood. Fairwood and Branwen both have trolley lines that connected to nearby towns before they were abandoned. Out in Morriston one can find the large pond used as the water reservoir for the town.

Within the woods one will find cabins and campsites made for tourists. Within the woods one would find a few mansions owned by wealthy families and a few farm houses owned by generations of farmer families. In the woods one can find the abandoned church that was the first structure made for the town before Lludw Cigfrain. Other remains of the town before Lludwn include a few almost demolished buildings, their stone base standing even long after the wooden frames have rotted away. Also remaining from the town's ancient past are stone monuments and structures many believe were made by Celtic druids, a particular set of stone structures being dubbed as "Welsh Stonehenge".

Remains of the town's more recent history included an abandoned railway with an adjacent train station, a lumber yard, an abandoned road and school bus, a tunnel built for unknown reasons, and a military complex and bunkers rumored to have been built in secret during world war two. Caves are said to be found in the woods that are rumored to either be home for strange creatures, meeting places for witches, or entrances to other worlds.

The woods in general are notorious for having many legends, ranging from hauntings to cryptid sightings, sightings of occult activities and UFOs. Many of the town's disappearances and strange deaths occur within or around the woods.

The Criminal Underbelly

Summary: Lludw Cigfrain is home to crime of all kinds. It’s a haven for petty thieves, murderers, inside-traders and corrupt bureaucrats. Violence and sedition occur in both the lowest and highest rungs of society, with no true safety ever being guaranteed. Ritual killings take place in the streets, buildings burn down often, graffiti marrs railway cars and boats by the dock. Lax port authorities and an abundance of unskilled, undocumented work make it a place where immigrants naturally coalesce as well, inhabiting run down districts like Morriston. The police are largely concentrated within the richer parts of town, Grimhaven and the Campus Grounds. Yet, corruption runs rampant.

There is also a great deal of organised crime, largely being committed and arranged by large competing syndicates, among them The Fates and The Yellow Claws, the former defined by its eccentric code of conduct and infernal aesthetic - with its members being decorated with brass and inhabiting baroque, slightly archaic buildings - and the latter by the sheer brutality with which it carries out its operations, always maintaining forward momentum in order to keep up an aura of fear. These syndicates promote their own interests through all the usual means: blackmail, protecting racketeering, money laundering. However, the greatest sources of profit have to be human trafficking and smuggling.

The town, being close to shore, has a harbour where shipments often come in. There’s also a freight line leading out of it, connecting it to many of England’s largest industrial hubs like London and Manchester. Therefore, the syndicates make a brisk trade in international illegal shipping, spreading illicit goods and weaponry throughout the town as a byproduct of this trade. Drug use in Lludw Cigfrain is incredibly prevalent. Anomalous goods are smuggled as well, with the syndicates sometimes being contracted by members of shadow organisations and anomalous interest groups in order to move packages clandestinely without leaving a paper trail.

Human trafficking is what it says on the tin. The syndicates watch over their many investments, maintaining casinos and red light districts. They make a killing on selling people not just into slavery but also to the regional cults, who are always looking for new initiates or sacrifices. In fact, The Yellow claws are infamous for harvesting the organs of refugees and other untracked individuals. The syndicates rarely engage in open conflict but when they do, it is rapid and violent and incredibly destructive. For the most part, they squabble amongst themselves over small pieces of land and territory until eventually, the tension rises so high that they break out into war. Then, once the dust settles, one of them has been annihilated and another has been weakened: the remaining syndicates move in to pick up the pieces. It’s a cycle, rarely leaving any particular criminal organisation standing for longer than a few decades.

Though, some of them, like The Fates, have constructed dynasties over the years, with their particular group having existed for no fewer than three generations now, owing to the harshness with which they punish disloyalty and their almost supernatural ability to foretell major events. Every syndicate is terrifying in its own right, as in order to survive in such a contested town - full of anomalies, cults and hostile groups of all sorts - one must have at least one outstanding trait which renders them different from all the generic cartels and mafias which came before them.

The syndicates are mostly left alone by the police, with a silent understanding that each of them will do the bare minimum to keep crime under control wherever they hold sway. The syndicates, after all, are not interested in arson and burglary; these things are as damaging to their reputations and wallets as it is to society at large. They maintain a modicum of order, if only out of self interest. They make their riches by taxing other smaller criminals who operate within their zones of influence: drug dealers can only sell on their streets if they agree to give up a certain percentage of their earnings, weapons traffickers must pay a weekly fee in order to keep themselves in business and career thieves - who steal from banks and financial institutions and government convoys - largely rely on the syndicates’ commissions to keep themselves fed.

Syndicates dabble in the anomalous world but don’t try very hard to understand it. They execute their enemies by making an example out of them, feeding them to captured anomalies or forcing them to enter buildings infested with dangerous mysteries. They harness artifacts to their own ends, even when the effects are often unpredictable and seemingly even cause the users more harm than good. Still, it’s a terrifying proposition to oppose a syndicate: they know much more than anyone could possibly expect, and they are completely dedicated to seeing themselves flourish at the expense of all others.

As a result, the town is exceedingly dangerous. Stay out of the dark, don’t walk down suspicious looking alleyways, never go anywhere alone, don’t anger a colleague or a boss because they might just be working for a syndicate; there are so many rules that one’s bound to break at least one in their lifetime. And unfortunately, more often than not, there are dire consequences for such disrespect.

Cults and Fraternities

Summary: Cults, both legitimate and fraudulent, have always existed in order to consolidate power. They act as small, tight-knit communities whose purpose is to ensure the continued survival of their leaders by surrounding them in rings of armour. Financial security in the form of donations, physical protection from dedicated followers, moral reassurance from the response to their preaching. Though many cult leaders control these groups with the explicit intention of exploiting their proselytes, many more are descended from prominent cultists who, whether they believed in their cause or not, instilled a strong sense of faith and dedication in their children. They worship entities which can just barely be described as gods, often possessing aspects and properties which truly escape what one might confine deities to possessing.

Cult gods, known as Autochthonic Deities, can be cruel and malicious and manipulative but they are always capable of creating genuine change in the real world. They’ve been known to twist minds, infest their worshippers with nightmares and grant visions to the devout. They are often capricious and their desires may be unknowable, but overall what seems to be the case is that they either pay absolutely no attention whatsoever to their supplicants, or see the dedication of mere mortals as being entertaining; perhaps even useful, in some rare instances. Some gods are capable of speaking and holding intelligent conversation while others are gnashing amalgams of teeth and claws. A vast majority are simply unknowable, with them operating under rules and with tenets that humanity is simply not capable of understanding. Many cults who follow such entities often are pulling straws at any vague sense of rationality or self delusion they can find to construct a sense of understanding with these entities.

Cults come together for various reasons. Sometimes worshippers are recruited through intimidation and blackmail. Usually, cult recruiters go out in search of vulnerable people who need something to dedicate themselves toward in order to distract themselves from their terrible lives. Once someone is initiated, they tend to be a member for life. Those who try to leave are considered at risk of spreading the cult’s secrets, and are therefore the victims of stalking, harassment and murder. Cultists practice esoteric rites. Low level initiates may only be required to pray and give gifts of money, food or sentiment. As they progress through the ranks though, the things asked of them - as well as the aggressiveness of their leaders’ gospel - increases rapidly. They might eventually be tasked with sacrificing animals and their fellow man, performing intricate rituals or stealing important artifacts.

Cults have held tremendous power over Lludw Cigfrain for centuries. Long ago they constituted a majority of the town’s religious population, with influential and charismatic figures leading flocks of thousands in sermons. The many cults in the town would fight amongst themselves, burning districts and inflaming tensions to unprecedented levels. Eventually, the conflict spilled beyond the bounds of Lludw Cigfrain and ignited a bloody massacre which not only destroyed the town but devastated neighbouring settlements. This was considered to be the last straw. A Christian missionary group was sent to Lludw Cigfrain to contain the situation, rounding up respected cultists and imprisoning or executing them. Other cultists were told to convert to Christianity, on pain of death.

However, the esoteric religions survived, resisting all attempts to exterminate them. After decades of failed efforts by the English Church to maintain order, the cults rose up and butchered the priests, bishops and other faith militant within the town. Their message was clear: leave and never come back. The crown quietly withdrew their support from the Christian missionaries and the church, knowing that it was a lost cause, did not attempt to occupy the town again. In the modern day, the aftermath of this conflict still stands in the form of burnt out cathedrals and churches standing all around Lludw Cigfrain.

Cults possess powers which many would consider to be miraculous. They can heal the sick, manifest riches and enact rituals to terrible effect, inciting blights or disasters. However, these events always carry a great cost, usually in the form of sacrifice. They need the flesh of many, the blood of a chosen few, and a great many days of work to convince their patron gods to act on their behalf. This is a symbiotic relationship, with the cultists empowering their deity through worship and the deity acting in the cultists’ best interests. In the most extreme cases, cults have attempted to make their gods fully manifest on the earth, events which would have resulted in catastrophe - perhaps even extinction - if they hadn’t been stopped each time by the army, the church, concerned civilians or rival cults.

Not all cults brand themselves as such, of course. Some are known as secret societies and have no patron deities, while others are sororities and fraternities whose interests are very much mundane but whose methods are no less cruel and superstitious as their cultist brethren. Either way, they act very much the same.

The cults are a formidable force, with their leaders being decided by primogeniture in most cases, giving rise to venerable lineages whose wealth and influence has come by reaping the benefits of having a following for centuries on end. They take up prominent positions in the ruling class, being politicians or members of the town council or factory owners and barons. They have armies of dedicated proselytes at their command, deific and untold material wealth. Make an enemy of a cult at your own peril.

by **Naval Monte** » Sat May 15, 2021 8:58 pm

Anomalies and Threats - Shapes in the Dark

Run, hide or fight back: to them it’ll be tag, hide-and-seek and play-fighting.

The Sights and Sounds

Foreword: By no means is this an exhaustive list of all the strange and colourful anomalies you might see in Lludw Cigfrain. Rather, it’s a smattering of phenomena and entities from the town’s history, here to serve as a way of understanding the things which lurk in the dark.

Channels

Channels are humans through which other entities act. They are conduits through which power and influence flow. These entities can take many forms and names. Some call themselves gods, demons, guardian angels, anything in order to seduce those who they want to bend to their will. Channels are often miserable and lead terrible lives, shunned by their peers and beaten by those that should love them. When they are at their most vulnerable and scared, the offers start to flow.

A Channel is always approached by a Source, the aforementioned entity. They say whatever the prospective Channel wants to hear. Once the Channel accepts the Source, they are changed. Their bodies twist; their teeth may grow sharper, new limbs may manifest, their skin might blacken like burning parchment. Whatever the effect, one thing is for certain; the Channel is no longer human. As time goes on these changes only worsen, eventually making it impossible for them to hide their otherly nature. Most Channels take to wearing long sleeves and pants wherever they go, hiding their faces with hoods or masks and rarely venturing outside. However, as most Channels are socially isolated long before they meet their Source, this doesn’t tend to bother them much.

The rewards for becoming a Channel are commensurate and then some. They are granted incredible strength, agility, the ability to contort their bodies in unnatural ways without harm. Their flesh regrows faster than in a normal person, their senses are reinforced. Other effects may make themselves known too: an immunity to fire or poison, a sixth sense, an independence from oxygen and more. But these are far from the only benefits. Channels often come into possession of what can only be described as superpowers. There are your simple faculties like pyromancy and a limited control over the flow of time.

More often than not, however, these ‘powers’ are more eclectic and specific in nature. Channels have been known to be able to turn all the blood in someone’s body to sand at a touch, walk through solid walls, enter mirrors or induce permanent psychosis within someone just by looking at them. Channels are unreasonable by nature, bucking all physical rules and social norms.

Moreover, they are compelled by their patrons to perform horrific acts. Sources do not lend their gifts to the downtrodden for their mere amusement, of course. They ask favours, like being allowed to read a specific book through the Channel’s eyes or for a person to be coerced into taking certain actions. These requests eventually become demands; murder, terrorism and arson are but the tamer tasks which Sources may set.

Ultimately, a Channel may decide that their relationship with a Source cannot continue. They may become disgusted with their own actions or come to believe that they would be better off without a voice in their head. Sources do not tend to respond to such ungratefulness with grace. They may crush the Channel’s mind like an eggshell, or they might leave but take something with them, effectively lobotomising the former Channel. Most often, though, Sources simply subsume the consciousness of their Channel, wresting control of their body away from them and demonstrating that the conscious aspect of the Channel was never required to begin with, only their body.

A Channel and Source cannot be linked forever. Even in cases where the Channel continues to believe that their relationship is symbiotic, rather than realising that the Source is a parasite, they must separate. Sources, by their very definition, are unable to exist in our reality. Therefore, they are a destabilising presence. Channels’ bodies eventually begin to fall apart and their powers start being dangerously difficult to control.

After days, weeks, months, sometimes years, the stress on a Channel’s existence becomes too much; they take too much after their Source and become incompatible with the corporeal universe. This is known as an Emergence event, and it is a sight to behold. An Emergent Channel can only exist for hours at a time, and they are tortured by their own instability. Their powers constantly fire off in random directions, they are driven mad with pain and dozens of new senses flood their bodies. Their skin blisters and their minds fray.

While in such a state, Channels resemble natural disasters more than people. Emergence Events have been known to poison spacetime, precipitate in massacres and cause whole cities to have recurrent nightmares for days on end. Every Emergence is unique, but they always end in the same way. The Channel dies and is burnt from existence. Emergences rarely leave much of a physical mark; they hardly level buildings or shatter windows. Rather, they make other things happen. Strangers may start to hallucinate the former Channel before their very eyes, the dimensions of a building may contort and monsters from another realm may crawl out of the cracks left behind by the Channel’s annihilation.

Channels are transient figures. They exist briefly and die painfully but in between those two phases they are enigmatic, eldritch forces with an almost unimaginable repertoire of power at their disposal. They stand far above humanity, one foot in the realm of the living and the other immersed in an ethereal plane inhabited by things which mundane imaginations could not dare to conjure. They are, in a word, transcendental.

Abscess Syndrome

In the early 1960s several Soviet towns simply fell off the face of the Earth; all outbound radio signals were cut off and nobody was seen leaving them. However, when government agents were sent to check up on those settlements, they found them intact and in working order. But something was wrong; the places were eerie. Investigators reported a sense of hollowness and fatigue. They became forgetful, started losing focus and rambling on about tangential subjects for hours on end while attempting to communicate with their superiors. The townsfolk, too, were quieter than usual and rarely had anything to say.

Eventually, the towns were simply left alone. They were scrubbed from the maps and cordoned off; nobody left them and they emitted no transmissions so it wasn’t as if anything was lost. The investigators went home and life continued. But within a year, every single person who’d ever set foot in one of those ghost towns had either been diagnosed with dementia, early onset Alzheimer’s or amnesia so severe that they couldn’t function. They were disorganised, incapable of performing even basic tasks and seemingly could not dream; within a decade all of the ones who weren’t dead had fallen into comas. A few years after that, the towns were no more. Whenever someone tried to find them, all they’d see was grassland and dense forest. They, and everyone who had ever lived in them, had effectively been wiped from history.

Abscess Syndrome did not affect just large settlements. In fact, it often targeted individuals, quietly erasing them from the face of the earth. These people would lose all colour and personality; those who interacted with them would soon become forgetful and neurotic. Eventually, they would disappear altogether, fading away like a mirage. These went unreported, however, as nobody who encountered one of these people - known as abscesses - could remember them with much detail, nor could they think hard enough to realise something was wrong with themselves. It was a self-concealing phenomenon, initially chalked up to the activities of the KGB and later simply forgotten about.

The syndrome still manifests itself across the world, extracting individuals or small settlements from history.

The Caretaker

An amorphous entity that traverses through the astral plane of reality to enter our reality from it’s home realm. It’s elestice and malleable form can allow it to change its body in numerous ways; from changing its color, texture, to even it’s body shape. The Caretaker has spiky protrusions on it’s main body as a form of defense and arrays of unblinking eyes. The tentacles of the entity can stretch beyond its biological limits, often having these tentacles stretch throughout whatever building it is residing in. These tentacles range from a set used for transportation, another for defense, others acting as sensory organs and others still for manipulation, but it’s most vital tentacles are the ones it uses for feeding.

The Caretaker likes to hide in dark and cool areas in a building and stretch it’s tentacles throughout the building. The tentacles used to manipulate people will attach themselves within the back of the neck and smaller nerve-like appendages would exit the tentacle and begin to merge themselves with the victim's brain and nervous system, taking complete control over them. The feeder tentacles will follow a similar pattern but instead of taking control of the victim they would convert the psychic energy form from memories into a form of matter that can be scooped up by the tentacle and digested by the Caretaker. The Caretaker always starts with negative memories as it leaves pleasant ones for last. In the meantime as it feeds on it’s victim it would cause the victim to relive pleasant memories they have and can even create false memories. The humans it controls will aid in providing adequate care for the victim it is feeding on and ensure that the victim will not break free from the creature’s control. The sensory tentacles act as organic cameras and listening devices to make sure no one sneaks into the residence of the Caretaker and disrupts it’s plans.

Those being fed upon by The Caretaker will experience symptoms similar to mania and dementia as they lose their memories. Eventually when they lose all their memories they will enter a catatonic state with death following shortly after. The puppets controlled by the Caretaker will either be released or will become a new food source for the Caretaker. Once the creature has it’s full of stolen memories, or it’s scheme has been discovered and it’s life threatened, it will leave our reality and return to it’s home realm to digest what it has devoured until it comes back to our world to feed once more.

The Eighth Day

Sometimes, you might awake in an empty world. The sky will be overcast, the sun will be dim and grey and pierce no clouds. The city which you live in will have no people, just buildings standing on their own. The air will smell of ozone and wet concrete, and you will see no animals or insects; plants alone will waver in the soft wind, though their insides will be dry and dusty like chalk. The earth, seemingly, will be dead. Yet, you will not be entirely alone.

Things will initially begin to appear in your periphery. Strange shapes, contorted by your imagination no doubt. Yet the sights will persist, eventually giving way to sounds. Snarling, panting, breathing, quiet laughter. The world, previously empty, will seem stuffed with things which scorn and quiver and yearn. You will start seeing things drawn in blood on the walls. Mirrors and windows will mist themselves; the sun will set and a dense fog will fall over everything. If you’re lucky, they won’t catch you out in the open. You’ll be indoors, sheltering inside a convenience store or your own home. However, these places will not hide you for long. They’ll search for you, pounding on closed doors and crawling through windows. They will sniff you out and strike at you with bloodstained claws, emitting noises that could almost be mistaken for human; sniffles, sobs, grunts, malformed words.

What are they? Perversions of man. Twisted, hulking figures with skin as black and shiny as plastic, densely covered in eyes and weeping a nauseating mucous. Their heads are simple lumps of flesh bound to their shoulders and their arms, twisted as they may be, conceal dreadful strength. You can try to fight them off; a futile endeavour. There are billions of them, swarming every street and shaking every fence which they believe you might be hiding behind. And they’re not alone. In fact, they’re just about the least frightening things that hunt you. There are others, too: impossible shapes, carnivorous patches of air, swarms of nightmarish, keening barbs... The best that you’ll be able to do is find a safe spot to hide and wait for dawn, a full twelve hours away.

If you make it that far, you’ll wake up in your own bed like nothing happened, with your alarm ringing and telling you that what you just saw was all but a dream. But you’ll see them sometimes, those black figures, standing in doorways or around street corners, watching and waiting for you. You’ll see them standing in empty bathrooms, dark hallways, rooms from which nobody would hear you screaming. They are patient, you see, and they are horribly hungry.

Avyscotopy

Avyscotopy is a property of a person's mind which renders them more sensitive to sensory phenomena induced by anomalous artifacts, regions and entities. It generally corresponds with a high degree of visual acuity, neural elasticity and an atypically low susceptibility to cognitive dissonance, with affected subjects often holding multiple mutually-exclusive beliefs simultaneously. In a majority of cases, they are intellectually aware of the incompatibility of their various beliefs with one another but are still able to espouse confidence in each of their assertions. Note that this does not necessarily correlate with gullibility; Avyscotopic individuals are often more critical of unfamiliar ideas and philosophies than would be expected of a member of the general population. What they are capable of, however, is partially believing in multiple different factual conclusions at once while also acting on all of them simultaneously, essentially not knowing which one is true and therefore treating all of them as plausible. While most people are capable of doing this to some extent, Avyscotopic individuals almost exclusively treat all incoming information in this manner, creating intricate webs of beliefs which govern their actions in often inexplicable ways. Sufferers of Avyscotopy, then, are characterised by their acquaintances as being superstitious, conspiratorial or eccentric.

The condition itself is a neurological one, previously and incorrectly thought to have been the result of a deformity in the eyes, in spite of it affecting all sensory organs. Whereas a typical person would disregard a strange occurrence or sensation, rationalising it as a hallucination, coincidence or mistake, Avyscotopic individuals are more confident in their own sensory abilities and can rationally assess the apparently impossible occurrences which would, under normal circumstances, be forgotten or rationalised away. Avyscotes have keener peripheral vision, are incapable of selective auditory attention - being highly distractible and easily overwhelmed by stimulus - and are, all in all, more likely to observe and retain information about anomalous phenomena than their peers.

There is a distinction between partial Avyscotopy and total Avyscotopy. Partial Avyscotopy only somewhat eliminates the human brain's tendency to reimagine sensations and distort memories in order to avoid compromising previously held beliefs. This results in paranoia and episodes of blurry vision, as the affected individual is able to parse and remember otherwise imperceptible anomalous phenomena but incapable of observing them in detail or deriving great insight from their thoughts about anomalous subject matter. The most common mundane diagnoses made of partially Avyscotopic persons is that they are afflicted by delusional disorders or schizotypic personalities.

Total Avyscotopy is a somewhat misleading term. It is split into two categories, the latter being far less common: Simple Total Avyscotopy (STA) and Complex Total Avyscotopy (CTA). Sufferers of Simple Total Avyscotopy perceive anomalous phenomena as being equal in substance, importance and significance to regular stimuli. As the condition manifests from birth, Simple Total Avyscotopic individuals typically regard anomalous occurrences as being well within the norm, treating them with no special significance. It can be extremely hard to tell if someone suffers from Simple Total Avyscotopy, as questions such as "have you seen anything strange recently" or "is there anything which scares you" are equally likely to elicit mundane and abnormal answers.

Complex Total Avyscotopy can be thought of as the mind overcompensating for the sensory deficits inherent in the regular human population. The senses and thoughts of persons afflicted with Complex Total Avyscotopy are completely dominated by anomalous phenomena. CTA sufferers who show a tendency toward a neurotic personality often develop obsessive compulsive disorders, paranoid delusions and behavioural quirks related to their perceptions. Most are institutionalised later in life as their condition becomes more pronounced and impedes their lifestyle more and more as time goes on. CTA sufferers who score low for neuroticism are more keenly aware of anomalous phenomena and often come to regard them as being more substantive or "real" than the mundane. While most choose to avoid anomalies in favour of leading more normal lives, a minority become fascinated with them; this usually results in the sufferer's death or hospitalisation as a result of attempting to interact with an anomaly, though cases of highly self-regulated CTA sufferers indulging in their interests in a measured and safe manner - or at least, as safe as interacting with an anomaly can ever be - are not unheard of.

Avyscotopy is typically treated with antipsychotics and shock therapy; the former is aimed at eliminating underlying mental issues which often accompany Avyscotopy while the latter is used to damage the Avyscote's hippocampus, inhibiting the formation of new memories and therefore resulting in the 'hardening' of previously held ideas. This is followed by the stimulation of the amygdala, greatly amplifying the Avyscote's fear response, and the controlled destruction of the cerebellum, which is used to eliminate the most active pathways in the brain, typically those associated with memories of anomalous phenomena. Frontal lobotomy has also been established as a cure for Avyscotopy.

Treatment for Avyscotopy is highly effective and often renders the patient either disinterested in anomalous phenomena, less aware of them or intensely averse to anomalous stimulus. Side effects include the development of debilitating common phobias, dramatically lowered capabilities for lateral thinking, long term memory loss, anterograde amnesia, early onset dementia, an increased susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease, a decreased sensitivity to neurotransmitters (resulting in depression, malnutrition, social isolation, loss of personality), insomnia, an inability to dream, cranial hemorrhaging and coma.

Untreated Avyscotopy can result in an inability to function in society. Sufferers are often socially isolated and unmotivated to take care of themselves or others. Partial Avyscotes tend to be poorer, sicker, less intelligent and less happy than non-sufferers. Avyscotes, as an aggregate, are thirty times more likely to be substance abusers than the average member of the public. The median lifespan of a Complex Total Avyscote is thirty years, while Partial Avyscotes have a median lifespan of fifty years. Simple Complex Avyscotes buck this trend, with an average lifespan of eighty nine years and a mean annual income of $54,000 USD, indicating gross financial success and longer lives. This is attributed to their apparent immunity to the obsessive disorders and other dysfunctions associated with Avyscotopy, as they treat anomalous and mundane phenomena as being of roughly similar importance.

Avyscotopy is not recognised in the DSM-5. Most Avyscotes are left untreated for their entire lives.

The Dwellers of Agartha

Massive worm-like creatures that burrow underground and reside in the extradimensional realm of Agartha. The Dwellers can travel to our world by either making tunnels or using pre-existing tunnels made by past Dwellers. The Dwellers can appear from any material formed from the Earth, meaning they can appear from sand, bricks, and even concrete. From the floor and ceiling to the walls, the Dwellers can appear in any location due to their extradimensional nature. However for harder surfaces there needs to be a flaw for the Dwellers to use to enter our world like cracks and holes to create a portal to our realm while for much softer ground they can emerge from underground. The Dwellers will not appear in wet ground as they are vulnerable to large bodies of water, mainly the pressure or temperature; large patches of wet concrete, soil, and sand will make them think they might appear in large bodies of water.

Dwellers spend most of their time extending between ten and fifty centimetres of their bodies from the ground like plants, resembling Xylaria Polymorpha, or a fungus known as “Dead Man’s Fingers”. They emit a strong soporific pheromone which registers as being sweet and enticing for mammals. Humans, dogs, pigs and other large warm-blooded animals which inhale the pheromones can become intoxicated by them and be compelled to stand by the Dwellers indefinitely. Once several organisms have been made to approach the Dwellers in such a way, they begin to emit a gaseous enzyme which breaks down the soft tissues in mammals’ bodies, causing their innards to liquefy and leak out through their orifices. This can lead to reports of groups of people standing still in fields, ‘crying’ large amounts of a noxious black liquid: their digested flesh. This eventually kills them; their bodies as well as the fluids derived from them are absorbed by the Dwellers, causing them to grow. Dwellers can grow indefinitely, in rare cases achieving heights exceeding two metres. They also tend to manifest near each other, concentrating the strength of the pheromone cloud. They reproduce asexually and can form colonies whose enzymatic mist is so dense that they can kill adult humans without them ever having been allured by the Dwellers’ pheromones.

Azoth

Azoth is the source of the phenomenon which others, mostly laymen, have dubbed “magic”.

One theory posits that it is the byproduct of the dreams of an entity beyond human perception, the… filtered down thoughts of something far larger than ourselves. The source of Azoth is so unimaginably powerful that its myriad fantasies are more real than reality itself; they can produce physical effects when they are interacted with, like bubbles popping and releasing their contents. In this case, the contents are conceptions: if Azoth dreams of flames, then works of magic which induce or manipulate fire will become more powerful. If Azoth thinks of metal and barbs, all the world’s magic will shift to reflect that new theme.

Another suggests that Azoth is the natural capacity for sentient minds to affect the physical world, with their perceptions overriding reality to such a degree that it resembles reality bending. This is, of course, reliant on the general zeitgeist of humanity to function, and is therefore highly inconsistent in its results.

Yet others suggest that Azoth is a toxic pollution, the after effects of the energetic collision and resonance convergences of the entities of great powers and incomprehensible eldritch forces, and where their overwhelming forces meet their impenetrable fields, pieces of space-time come unstuck and the fabric of reality is tattered. Where this dimensional fallout lands, reality weakens and magic becomes possible.

Others believe that Azoth itself is a form of advanced but barely understood science whose laws and effects only seem to be magical to lesser intelligences. That understanding it’s laws and mastering it can allow one to finally establish a Grand Unifying Theory to how all forces of the universe behave for Azoth is the final piece to solve the problem. Those who subscribe to it note that shapes, numbers, lines, positions, and even mathematical formulas seem to have an effect, though a belief not many share. Others take this approach and apply it to resonance or even string theory. Azoth being the accumulated vibrations of many quantum strings throughout the multiverse and harnessing allows one to change those vibrations, thereby changing reality.

Others still point to the idea that Azoth is some sort of logical decay; in the same way that iron rusts to dust, the laws of physics are constantly degrading and chipping, leaving gaps in reality where the impossible becomes eminently achievable. Therefore, these ‘loopholes in physics’, may be discovered and exploited by those foolhardy enough to embark on the search for ways to break the laws of reality.

These contradictory theories all have one thing in common: they seek a rational explanation, or at least a pattern, to ascribe to the behaviour of Azoth. But, to some who are greatly familiar with the subject, this seems an absurd endeavour. Azoth fundamentally refuses to abide by the logic of mankind: to attempt to find the ‘truth’ about it would be a futile effort. Nonetheless, careers and lifetimes continue to be poured into the field of study.

Regardless, the topography of the Azoth field - comparable to the Higgs field in its ubiquitousness and effect on the universe - which permeates the cosmos is constantly shifting, causing magic and all of its effects to evolve over time. Most magic rituals work only a few times before becoming defunct: however, the ones contained in grimoires and tomes from centuries in the past often still work because they are powerful and fundamental enough to have retained at least a fraction of their effect to the present day. The study of magic, then, is a search for rituals and artefacts which will retain their power long into the future.

Azoth itself is not manipulable like a force, nor is it possible to produce it by human means. Rather, it is simply found in its raw form out in the world and manipulated. Yet, it has a mind of its own. It is rambunctious, unwilling to be restrained; practitioners of magic do not control Azoth, they simply give it a way to accomplish what it wants. All Azoth has a certain goal or a desired state of existence: by allowing it to enter such a state or achieve whatever it wants, magicians can cause it to have an incidental effect on the world which more or less aligns with what the magician wanted to happen in the first place. Therefore, the harnessing of Azoth is like a negotiation with a wild animal. The actions which Azoth takes can be predicted, maybe even changed a little, but it can never be controlled. Azoth does what it wants, and the trick is knowing in advance what it will do when you set it free.

Magic is not always so heady, though. It has applications in the real world, and a pragmatist might find some reason to study the phenomenon. Though, it is not magic in a conventional sense. It cannot make gold bars appear from thin air or create fireballs with which to smite the undead. Rather, it is a very subtle actor, whose effects are hard to discern and which acts over an extremely long period of time.

Magic can be used to curse individuals, burning decades off of their lifespan or causing their skin to rot off their bodies. It can make someone rich through apparent coincidence, with lottery tickets being won in their name and wads of cash being donated to them by suddenly very conscientious acquaintances. It may cause someone great misery by afflicting them with bad luck, or cause them to have nightmares, or inflict all manner of other tragedy. Though, there are rituals with more immediate and obviously supernatural effects, such as those which summon a dense mist or conjure a spirit or banish a devil back to the infernal plane. Others whose powers can control the weather or bring forth natural disasters, who can influence the thoughts of cities or states, and even create new life, alter existing organism in manner that can exceed normal biology, bind souls and intelligence to inanimate objects to grant them life, and resurrecting the dead, there are even rituals that can allow one to open gateways to other realms or to appear in far off locations in an instant. Though, these are few and far between and their applications are niche at best.

Spells and rituals often require certain reagents in order to be performed. A ritual might require chalk, a specific pattern to be written on the ground, for the ritual to be enacted at a certain time of the year and at a certain location, and many ingredients such as the blood of a virgin, various ground herbs and an incantation. For the most part, the performance of magic is a complicated, expensive and time-consuming process. However, once a magical act has been performed, there is almost no way to detect its effects or counteract them.

For magic to affect any target one must be present during the ritual but baring the absence of the target then the conjurer will either imbue an object with the magic and make sure the target either possesses or was touched by the object to transfer the spell on to them. Some magicians use this method to create amulets and talismans for themselves. However a popular method is getting something that belonged to the target. Whether it be a piece of skin, hair, nails, an item used, food they consumed, or anything. If the item was attached to the target then one can use the link it has to affect a target even if they are across the planet. These links can also affect objects, locations, flora, and fauna, and rumors say that some entities rarely share their true names or appear in their true forms to prevent such links from being used against them.

Rituals and spells are eclectic: Whether it is a hallucinating shaman drawing a mandala in sand, or a scientist placing lasers at points in a circle to call down something from the sky, the act is essentially the same. The only difference is culture, and it is often difficult to tell where culture ends and power begins. All oddities in human culture that have real power can be traced back to Azothric manipulation techniques. Psychic ability, witchcraft, divination, and spirit mediumship all represent a misfocused projection of this ancient, unnatural power. In rituals the chants, thoughts, objects, symbols, motions, and preparations are there to aid with connecting the human mind to powers from outside. Once that connection is made, the practitioner(s) must give something up in exchange for the outcome which they desire. These sacrifices often come in the form of whatever they used to perform the ritual in the first place but sometimes, greater prices are extracted. Practitioners may lose body parts, faculties, emotions, memories, friendships, or become diseased and plagued by nightmares. Magic risks a tremendous amount, so of course, the rewards must be commensurate: nobody practices magic for trivial reasons.

Magic often also corrupts the location from which it was performed, with a sort of ‘recoil’ affecting the region. Strange occurrences become more common in the vicinity, with feelings of wrongness or dread overcoming anyone who steps into those places and lingering for decades. Stone might rot as if it were flesh, water might turn brown upon being introduced to the area, a man’s blood might coagulate in his veins. Magic has also been known to cause mental degeneration to practitioners and witnesses for the human mind was never made to utilize magic. This mental decline can sometimes be accompanied by physical degeneration and spiritual corruption as magic slowly changes the practitioner to become something other, something both wondrous and horrific.

Artefacts are another method to perform magic. These objects of powers were either enchanted by magicians or were contaminated by Azoth, regardless they have a link to the unnatural field and as such can manifest magical effects. Artefacts can still cause sanity damage due to utilizing anomalous forces but in general many see it as a safer alternative to use magic when compared to rituals. However most artefacts are limited on what effects they can produce and some artefacts can only become active if specific triggers are performed, these can range from the recitation of words, a specific hand motions, blood offering, to even sacrificing a living being or a memory. The triggers often vary as much as the artefacts in question. Some objects are known as Awakened Objects. These objects not only have more powers of a greater variety but also possess a rudimentary intelligence and motivation, many even have personalities. These objects are far more riskier to use as these objects can attempt to take over the mind of the user should they sense the opportunity to do so. Those who can resist will find great power at their disposal, but must always be wary of their source of power can attempt to betray them at any moment...

by **Britanania** » Sat May 15, 2021 9:00 pm

by **Nagakawa** » Sat May 15, 2021 9:05 pm

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

by **Menschenfleisch** » Sat May 15, 2021 9:39 pm

Name: Jacquelyn Vanth
Gender: Female
Profession: Psychologist
Nationality: United Kingdom
Age: 26
DoB: 23rd of September, 1994
Skills and Abilities: Skilled unarmed combatant, plays the violin, experience with urban exploration, bachelor’s degree in psychology with honours, doctorate of philosophy (clinical psychology).
Physical description: 170cm tall, caucasian, black hair - ponytail and long bangs -, saturated green eyes. (Appearance) Generally composed, almost melodic voice. Athletic, lithe build.
Psychological assessment: Generally ascetic. Eschews alcohol, narcotics, creature comforts. Acquires entertainment from novel experiences and social interactions. Activities which the subject finds stimulating may be thought of as typically inspiring fear. High degree of emotional and philosophical detachment. Prioritises self interest over the consistency of their beliefs and actions. Conceives others to be sources of entertainment or risk. No aversion to violence, below average aversion to unpleasant peripheral stimuli. When under stress, defaults to inaction, excitement or anger. Highly neurotic. Extroverted. Complete absence of nyctophobic tendencies, to a greater extent than is present in the general public. High regard for peers. Low regard for self.
Personal relationships: Transient attachments only, no long term relationships. Has a recurrent but superficial familiarity with their patients and recurrent figures in their life.
Sexuality: Asexual
Items and equipment: Phone, wallet, keys, cash in small denominations, debit card, diazepam pills.
Dark Secrets: Pushed a friend, Kyle Hearse, into a river as a child. Saw the body was up half a mile downstream. His parents never discovered what happened to him; the case was assumed to be a disappearance.
Power: None
Bio: Born in Lludw Cigfrain. Early years were characterised by recurrent nightmares, insomnia and post traumatic stress disorder related to an incident which the subject has divulged no details about. Subject’s father died of alcohol poisoning at an early age. Performance in school was adequate, and rose toward the end of their secondary education. Was considered a delinquent in the meantime, often going hiking or exploring abandoned buildings instead of fulfilling obligations. Graduated from Cerridwyn University with a bachelor’s of psychology in 2017 and graduated again with a PhD in clinical psychology in 2021. Took several student loans in order to accomplish this goal, which were paid off via windfalls resulting from the death of the subject’s mother, a wealthy clinician who sold property in Scotland shortly before their passing. Since then they have come to witness certain anomalous phenomena. Infectious dreams, recurring nightmares with no apparent source, communication between waking persons and inhuman entities, et cetera. The subject has been attacked in the past by hostile thoughtforms which they were able to repel, both in their sleep and otherwise. However, these incidents have resulted in insomnia and on occasion, ocular hemorrhaging. She currently works in the Blackthorn Asylum.
Roleplay experience: No relevant experience
Theme song: Library of Ruina - Third Abnormality Warning
Random facts: I deeply regret my existence

by **Menschenfleisch** » Sun May 16, 2021 4:17 am

oi bruv

by **Naval Monte** » Sun May 16, 2021 1:51 pm

Menschenfleisch wrote:---

Accepted

by **Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States** » Sun May 16, 2021 2:13 pm

I will have to give this a closer look tomorrow, but oooooohhhh....

by **Menschenfleisch** » Sun May 16, 2021 3:31 pm

Naval Monte wrote:
Menschenfleisch wrote:---

Accepted

what about the others kek
Oh I suppose as a co-op I have the authority to accept my own...

by **Naval Monte** » Sun May 16, 2021 4:25 pm

Menschenfleisch wrote:
Naval Monte wrote:
Accepted

what about the others kek
Oh I suppose as a co-op I have the authority to accept my own...

I mean you could but that would be sketchy.

by **Britanania** » Mon May 17, 2021 4:17 pm

Name: Lady Caitlin Grey, known to some as Caitie.

Gender: Female

Profession: Secretary to the Director-General of the Security Service

Nationality: British

Age: 30

DoB: 22 March 1991

Skills and Abilities:

Genius Level Intellect: Caitie has an IQ of 145
Combat Expertise: Since her time as a child, Caitie has been a practitioner of Muay Thai, and has skills with knives and firearms

Physical Description: Caitie is a young woman of British and French descent. She has a pale complexion with medium-length light blonde hair, and sports light blue eyes that have a somewhat sullen, vacant, and even "dead" quality to them. Caitie has a prominent aquiline nose, as evidenced by her mother's French descent. She has a slender, yet somewhat muscular physique, and stands at 154 cms, with a weight of 54 kgs, with measurements of 86/60/87. She is a fashionable woman, preferring Gianfranco Ferre and Christian Dior labels. Although beautiful, she doesn't stand noticeably out. Caitie also sports a tattoo on her back.

Psychological assessment: Caitie is a reclusive individual and does not have very many friends if any at all. She often appears to have a somnolent temperament and does not seem to care or focus on anything aside from her immediate tasks, which she carried out with precision and efficiency. Caitie has a sarcastic and dark sense of humour, alongside her sadistic tendencies.

Personal relationship: None at present

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Items and equipment: Several small knives, Glock 43 with a few extra magazines.

Dark Secrets: I'll TG you

Power:

Bio: Caitie was born into the aristocratic Grey Family, the titular Lords of Dallington in East Sussex. Her father, Lord Charles Grey, 12th Earl Dallington, is a member of the House of Lords and one of England's largest landowners. Her mother, Matilda, was a French witch of considerable power and knowledge. Even as a young child she was incredibly intelligent; by the age of twelve, she was able to recite entire books from memory

Since she was a young girl, Caitie's father began training her in combat arts. The Earl trained Caitie for one specific purpose: to serve as an assassin and enforcer for her family and their darker side of politics. Caitie served her role perfectly, becoming a near the perfect warrior candidate.

Following family tradition, Caitie joined the Royal Marines at the age of 18, and served for four years, seeing combat in Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq. After serving, Caitie attended Oxford University where she studied the Classics and spent the last four years working in the British government, currently working as the secretary to the head of MI5, where she also engages in intelligence and counter-terrorist activity in Britain.

Roleplay experience: Kek
Theme song:
Random facts:

by **Naval Monte** » Tue May 18, 2021 2:03 am

Nagakawa wrote:---

accepted

by **Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States** » Tue May 18, 2021 4:03 am

The character I’m thinking of right now is a theorist and a phycists, who made his life’s work of studying Azoth. However, either due to the work of a Caretaker or due to his own experiments, he has forgotten so much about himself that he basically had a hard restart; waking up in his abandoned house with a library’s worth of notebooks with undecipherable scribbles in them. He knows his name from the science degree hanging from his wall, and has vague memories of having a partner and a child somewhere, but he cannot even remember their names or their faces. He is wearing a wedding ring which he cannot take off because it fits around his finger too thightly. Scribbled in one of his notebooks was a bank account number and log-in data, which lead to a bank account to which 2000 pounds is transferred every month from an unknown bank account.

Would that work here?

by **Nagakawa** » Tue May 18, 2021 4:38 am

Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The character I’m thinking of right now is a theorist and a phycists, who made his life’s work of studying Azoth. However, either due to the work of a Caretaker or due to his own experiments, he has forgotten so much about himself that he basically had a hard restart; waking up in his abandoned house with a library’s worth of notebooks with undecipherable scribbles in them. He knows his name from the science degree hanging from his wall, and has vague memories of having a partner and a child somewhere, but he cannot even remember their names or their faces. He is wearing a wedding ring which he cannot take off because it fits around his finger too thightly. Scribbled in one of his notebooks was a bank account number and log-in data, which lead to a bank account to which 2000 pounds is transferred every month from an unknown bank account.

Would that work here?

Definitely- although Naval Monte has the final say round here, I think this idea ought to set us up for some interesting storylines, e.g. him trying to uncover information about the life he's forgotten by sifting through the town like the Da Vinci Code, or people he doesn't remember coming after his ass for revenge for some reason, etc.

by **The Imperial Warglorian Empire** » Tue May 18, 2021 6:22 am

Absolutely fascinating stuff...

I'd apply if not for my bloody workload. So consider this a bookmark for now!

by **Nagakawa** » Tue May 18, 2021 6:33 am

The Imperial Warglorian Empire wrote:Absolutely fascinating stuff...

I'd apply if not for my bloody workload. So consider this a bookmark for now!

Sweet. Hope to see you around.

You're also free to join the Discord to brainstorm, if you wish.

by **Naval Monte** » Tue May 18, 2021 11:53 am

Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The character I’m thinking of right now is a theorist and a phycists, who made his life’s work of studying Azoth. However, either due to the work of a Caretaker or due to his own experiments, he has forgotten so much about himself that he basically had a hard restart; waking up in his abandoned house with a library’s worth of notebooks with undecipherable scribbles in them. He knows his name from the science degree hanging from his wall, and has vague memories of having a partner and a child somewhere, but he cannot even remember their names or their faces. He is wearing a wedding ring which he cannot take off because it fits around his finger too thightly. Scribbled in one of his notebooks was a bank account number and log-in data, which lead to a bank account to which 2000 pounds is transferred every month from an unknown bank account.

Would that work here?

That sort of storyline is acceptable to me. As for how he forgot I wouldn't be surprised if he stumbled upon a horrible truth that made him forget as a desperate act of keeping whatever sanity he had left.

by **Naval Monte** » Tue May 18, 2021 9:10 pm

Britanania wrote:Name:-----

Accepted

by **Britanania** » Tue May 18, 2021 9:12 pm

Naval Monte wrote:
Britanania wrote:Name:-----

Accepted

Gucchi

by **Menschenfleisch** » Wed May 19, 2021 12:45 am

Naval Monte wrote:
Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States wrote:The character I’m thinking of right now is a theorist and a phycists, who made his life’s work of studying Azoth. However, either due to the work of a Caretaker or due to his own experiments, he has forgotten so much about himself that he basically had a hard restart; waking up in his abandoned house with a library’s worth of notebooks with undecipherable scribbles in them. He knows his name from the science degree hanging from his wall, and has vague memories of having a partner and a child somewhere, but he cannot even remember their names or their faces. He is wearing a wedding ring which he cannot take off because it fits around his finger too thightly. Scribbled in one of his notebooks was a bank account number and log-in data, which lead to a bank account to which 2000 pounds is transferred every month from an unknown bank account.

Would that work here?

That sort of storyline is acceptable to me. As for how he forgot I wouldn't be surprised if he stumbled upon a horrible truth that made him forget as a desperate act of keeping whatever sanity he had left.

T'be frank I kinda love it

Better than my character, at the very least

by **Ceystile** » Wed May 19, 2021 3:05 am

Since I've been freed up a bit, I'm gonna drop a little taggy tag.

by **Ceystile** » Wed May 19, 2021 3:07 am

Aaand I can't get the discord to work, but I do have a pretty cool character idea. Just wanna run it by OP to see if it's okay.

by **Nagakawa** » Wed May 19, 2021 3:43 am

Ceystile wrote:Aaand I can't get the discord to work, but I do have a pretty cool character idea. Just wanna run it by OP to see if it's okay.

Hey, welcome. Feel free to share any ideas you have.

Also, here's a permanent Discord link: https://discord.gg/mnTPAjeUkN

by **Ceystile** » Wed May 19, 2021 5:23 am

So my first character idea is a writer, mainly a poet and playwright. I was thinking he’d have the magic ability to write things into existence (within reason, of course) and his artefact would be an enchanted pen. I know magic has sacrifices and exchanges so I’m trying to figure out what the sacrifice would be...maybe he’d have to mix his blood with the ink to use the spells?

Scars of the Forgotten OOC (Open) (Horror, Weird Fiction)

Scars of the Forgotten OOC (Open) (Horror, Weird Fiction)

Who is online