The Magi Saga - The Mandate of Magic [SU/DS]

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

I'm going to assume the capital of this empire is Kunaku for sake of pinning the VERY important locations down hard, as it seems to be roughly in a geographical area both hard to siege and simultaneously fair with both army and navy combat, with an easily-conquerable city on the way to another capital as a forward outpost of sorts. I am also about to drop an entire religion for the first guy, which will be in the other section. Finally, I am going to assume that consistent, long-term flight is HARD, which, when the Skybound City is above water, makes it hard to reach. I developed a lot for these two that might be a bit overspecified, but if anyone wants that changed somewhat I'd like to know it now rather than later.

I was in a funny mood. Also, given the nature of the Skybound City, I would almost expect the guilds to be practically advertised to exist there, so...

Name: Servitor Kalmo Helvec
Species: Homo Sapians
Gender: MASCULINE.
Age: 20.

Description: Kalmo is a Servitor, which for a quick comparison to real-world religions, is basically both kinds of monk squashed together; they meditate and research upon the nature of their god (in this case, Ichineu, goddess of travel, trickery and fortune) as well as collect artifacts of their gods, and preach both spiritual enlightenment as well as physical. So yes, they know kung-fu. Kalmo, as such, wears robes of green and gold, the traditional colors of Ichineu, when he is at his monestary; on these robes are woven sacred patterns dedicated to Ichineu, including her symbol, a stylized crossroads.

Outside of these robes is a man of average weight and height but incredible muscle, athletic, agile, and strong, and in posession of very dark skin. His neck is rather squat, his hair short and black, and his chin large and clefted. However, even outside of the robes, very few people actually see his real face; he usually wears an enchanted mask made of iron, basically a curved slab without any marks, bar the symbol of Ichineu and two holes to breathe-if he must eat, he will lift a small part of the mask. Servitors are the faces of their gods, and Ichineu is traditionally depicted as faceless. His clothes vary, but usually are tight-fitting and very quiet, and often are either green or yellow to more subtly show his devotion, an attempt to be as subtle and undetectable as possible in his travels. He usually wears hoods as well. They are objectively more utilitarian than hats, after all. Should he feel the need to further disguise himself, he usually leaves that up to magic rather than taking the mask off.

If one were to take off the mask, they would see a face scarred heavily by lightning that is only beginning to heal, with one eye replaced by an iron orb. It isn't magical at all, only there to stand in for that particular eye, though if there was one material possession he may wish for it was for one of those very rare magical prosthetic eyes. His nose is large but rather flat, and his mouth is, while somewhat disfigured, usually very neutral. Needless to say, very few outside of his fellow Servitors know what he looks like for simply that reason.

Kalmo does not usually traverse with obvious arms, aside from the occasional bracer for his fists to punch harder, but because of the war brewing, he believes that it would best to prepare for the worst and assume the Platinum Crusade could breach the Skybound City at any moment through assassins or such. Obvious is the keyword, by the way: Kalmo has learned how to stow away a considerable amount of small little tools on his person, including lockpicks, a sling, and small knives. Kalmo, beyond his fists, actually prefers bladed weapons, for a cut is USUALLY easier to heal than broken bones with a ton of internal bleeding and such.

Personality: Ichineu is a goddess oft-associated with whimsical actions and delighting in her playful deceptions, but Kalmo is anything but whimsical. While occasionally sarcastic, he is usually nothing short of extreme devotion to his goddess, to zealous levels. His goddess teaches against murder-the one reason he doesn't kill, but he works around this through breaking bones. He praises Ichineu as the reason for the salvation of his life and the reason he didn't die when struck by lightning, ergo his devotion; he will make sure your beating is particularly horrific if you dare to curse her name to his face. He is considerably less calm than his brothers, though he makes sure to reserve actually beating people up for the scumbags who deserve it and otherwise acting as the fount of spiritual enlightenment that Servitors are supposed to be above all else.

Beyond that, however, is a man who believes firmly in the goodness of the gods and the power of redemption, even if it takes a near-death experience to do so. He sees his vigilante-style beatdowns as a pre-emptive punishment so the criminals might seek an alternative path, and also sees himself, to a degree, as a defender of the people. His whole monastery is coming to the belief that distinct, definitive action will be a requirement in the upcoming War of Mages, and that playing pacifist is going to help no-one, though officially the only one to directly join any of the Guilds in their war is Kalmo himself amongst his Servitors. Kalmo believes that to be idle is to be foolish, and that just waiting for the time to come is losing the spark of opportunity.

Of course, above all else, Kalmo despises killing. Kalmo will offer a thousand pardons if he kills anything and his diet is strictly vegetarian. His primary beef with Vrell and the Platinum Crusade, even beyond their banning on magic and his way of life, is his zero-tolerance policies and murderous tendencies. He may not kill, but he will be very unsympathetic towards you if you kill. Vina help you ALL if you've killed parents, by the way, given his backstory.

History: Kalmo was born as the sole son of two of the most affluent nobles in the Skybound City. They were some of the most prominent faces of the city, beloved and responsible for many a cultural renovation as well as positively-received changes in law. They were also brilliant parents, and Kalmo grew up happy and content, and while they were busy people, they made up for it by taking Kalmo everywhere, and when they could not directly tend for him, had one of their maids, Ina, take care of Kalmo and keep him close.

It is therefore said that life was unjustly cruel to Kalmo.

At the age of seven, while walking home from a late council meeting with his parents on a stormy night, two ill-minded thugs with a rudimentary grasp of Shadow magic cornered them in the streets and pushed the family into an alleyway. Intending to rob the nobles blind, they were unaware and unsatisfied with the fact that they, like normal people, keep their money well-hidden. Angered by this, the duo killed them and had intended to kill Kalmo to keep the whole thing hush-hush.

Kalmo was lucky to survive. The storm overhead struck, and Kalmo and the thugs were hit dead-on with a thunderbolt. Kalmo was heavily scarred amongst the face and body, but he lived-the thugs did not, however. He was subsequently rescued by a Servitor who was walking back to his Monestary from responding to a religious crisis from a nearby family. Kalmo awoke in the monastary to Ichineu, with one of the Servitors attempting to heal him to the best of their ability.

Kalmo was scarred for life, both mentally and physically. Ina was there for some of the emotional support, but ultimately very little would make the poor kid smile again. But, he felt he had a purpose and he lived for a reason-and that reason was to serve Ichineu, for it was only through extremely good fortune that he survived.

He spent the rest of his years since living and working amongst the Servitors, having donated almost all of his family's fortune to their monestary as a token of gratitude. He took to the discipline, both mental and physical very well, filling Ichineu's teachings in the gap where his parents used to be. Ina, while no longer his maid, was still a common face, now a tavern worker and freely donating whatever leftovers she had. His fellows were still aware of his internal anger for what had happened, but for the most part, his devotion to Ichineu had filled that void.

Until, in a rather strange coincidence, he was walking down that same road and happened to notice the signs of struggling from an alleyway, and two different thugs harassing another family. His heart knew no end of empathy to them, and he intervened swiftly, beating the two thugs into the ground and saving the family, before calmly dragging the unconscious criminals right in front of the guard's quarters and walking off without explanation. While still feeling he owed it to his patron to remain a Servitor, he awoke to a second calling, a calling to defend the innocent from the proverbial demons that lurked in the dead of night. It was only the following day that it was learned that they were actually members of the Platinum Crusade, ever-zealous in trying to enforce their anti-magical policies that had no hold in the Skybound City, but for Kalmo, he could care less; to him, they were murderers and he had stopped murder, plain and simple.

He could hide nothing from his brothers, even while growing concern from the Platinum Crusade below and the formation of the Circle of Guilds was nearly open news. They tried, halfheartedly, to convince Kalmo that it wasn't worth it, but Kalmo was steadfastly convinced to take a stand for others, and his brethren Servitors realized that, in the end, it did more good than harm (though they vowed to make sure he was closely watched over). Thus, with his honed skills in illusion, he took to the streets every night, unexpected but dangerous, on the prowl for any more criminals that tried to use the night for their own purposes. The Circle of Guilds took interest in this faceless man of mystery and managed to pinpoint who he was after some engineered criminal activity, and offered their services and furthered training (as well as funding for the monestary) in exchange for his aid against the coming war. Needless to say, Kalmo accepted, and is now trying to get his fellow Servitors to also formally join.

Guild: Light. As a Servitor of Ichineu, Goddess of Travel, Trickery and Fortune, his skillset reflects his devotion (though it should be noted that this is more preference and isn't actually affected by his goddess in most circumstances). First and foremost among his abilities is a trick referred to by the Servitors of the Skybound City as Lightpoints. By setting up a magical marker in two areas, he may use one to transform himself and/or others into light to direct them to the other point immediately. He can only have two pairs of Lightpoints up at a time and can only send one person through either way at a time. The points can be purely magical, which taxes his stamina while they exist (especially if they're stupidly far away), or an inscribed totem, which does not require his stamina, but either way he can still only have two pairs, and using them is still exhausting. These totems can be activated by anyone who knows the Lightpoint spell but are only maintained by the original casters, and the caster does not need to transport himself. As you can imagine, this system of travel is extremely important to the Skybound City, and the fact that they've cut off all Lightpoints in Dyrin after the apparent execution of the previous Wind Guild leader has made Vrell less than pleased, but the rarity of tamed flying mounts (especially in the Platinum Crusade), the difficulty of flying spells that can transport more than one or two people to the Flying city before the user is too exhausted to continue halfway through (let alone whole armies), the rarity of artifacts to allow for unlimited flight, and the high concentration of mages, has made the Skybound City near-impenetrable and the unspoken heart of the Circle of Guilds...Until the possible reverse-engineering of the spell by the Platinum Crusade, anyways, a possibility that the whole city dreads.

That possibly plot-important spell aside that may get removed, Kalmo has several other spells of choice. While a man devoted to faith and not to fighting (disregarding his vigilante actions), the Magic Wars upcoming and the potentially dire effects they may have on their way of life gave the Servitors the reasoning to begin training in combative spells (specifically rapid-fire laser beams), but basically being clerics, the Servitors swerve to subversive, support-style spells and use their hands for direct combat instead. Inclusions: Bending light to create convincing illusions; short ranged and considerably less intensive versions of the Lightpoint spell (in other words, teleportation); and of course, the near-standardized holy healing spells, though the majority of them are difficult to cast mid-fight even for the best. Being that he lives on a flying island, most Servitors (and especially Kalmo) have also learned how to grant themselves and others temporary angelic wings at a moment's notice, to prevent accidents near the edges from being fatal.

Kalmo himself has a few specializations: For combat purposes, he tends to create a basketball-sized orb of 'hard' light, which he may direct around himself in a small radius. It doesn't really produce much light itself but it's hard and it burns to the touch. He isn't very good with the more standardized laser spell and he isn't good at directing it out of line of sight, but it is definitely his most favored ranged option. He also likes using this same 'hard' light trick to coat his hands, making his punches considerably more dangerous. As for spells that technically fall out of his guild's purview, he generally likes the Fire Guild spell to toughen up one's body as he's usually using it.

Servitors generally wear ritual masks in accordance with their belief that they are the face of their gods, and are very rarely seen without them. As such, Kalmo has magically enhanced his to act as a conduit for his spells, on top of making it completely see-through from one side.

Likes:
-His Goddess. Curse the name of Ichineu at YOUR risk. It applies to a lesser extent to the other Nine Divines but he will only fail to hesitate to beat you senseless if it's Ichineu you're insulting.
-Noodles. You cannot deny the tasty deliciousness of noodles.
-Using the Angelic Wings spell. It's hard to tell under that mask but he loves flying. Had it not been for his religious conversion he would probably have joined the Wind Guild instead.
-Alcoholic beverages. Don't worry, he drinks responsibly and can definitely hold his liquor.

Dislikes:
-The Six Fallen Gods. To be fair, most people don't like them either, but being a Servitor he has made them his most devout enemies firmly believes these Lifestealers to be the work of one of the six despite literally no evidence whatsoever and barely knowing what they are, and also firmly believes (without evidence) that King Vrell worships them, and that their help is why he's captured all of Dyrin so swiftly.
-Killing. Vrell's other major point against him, to Kalmo, is that Vrell is clearly a big fan of executions as grandoise as possible, which Kalmo despises. He ISN'T above breaking almost every bone in your body, true, but he will stop there. Taking life is against the dogma of Ichineu and against his personal creed as well. No matter how horrible you are, he will NOT kill you. He will beat you an inch away from it if you happen to kill parents and/or children, by the way.
-Pointless waiting. His goddess'es dogma demands consistent travel, and ergo doing nothing is itself a grave sin. Constant improvement, constant movement. While he does not welcome war, with it all but certain he would wish to wait on the inevitable (and let Vrell consolidate more power) any longer.
-Depriving him of alcoholic beverages, in accordance with the above.

Other: In case you haven't realized it, yes, Kalmo is Priest Batman. Deal with it.

The most common religious system in Ariel, almost universally preached in Dyrin, and the one that Kalmo preaches for, is known as Vinathism, after its chief deity. More details are in the spoiler to keep this short-ish.

Spoiler:

Vinathism's take on the creation story of Ariel is as followes: There was once one being in all of existence, a god that had no name, for this god was the only thing in existence. None know if this was even a god and not a goddess instead, but what is known is that they were absolutely omnipotent, but for all of their power, they took up infinite space across infinite time, meaning they could not do anything with it. This made the nameless god/goddess depressed and lonely, and one day, the nameless god decided that death was a better measure than to live so completely alone (some alternatives believe that the god decided to split their power into fragments so they could never be alone), and thus created all of the world as it is known by tearing themselves into fragments and destroying the rest. The world of Ariel and its moons as well as its planets are merely fragments of the nameless one's form that they did not completely annihilate, while the sun is the radiant halo they possessed, the stars are still-more distant fragments of his being, and the remnants of his holy thoughts became an alternative plane that the Sapients of Ariel do not know, a plane known as Briegriel.

Meanwhile, the fragments of his soul took on physical form, with most of the larger shards landing almost exclusively upon Briegriel, while the dust-like smaller shards were so weak that they laid inert on the many worlds below. The 15 largest shards of the nameless god's soul became 15 weaker, but still incredibly powerful ods, all of them with equal but different abilities, with the rest of the shards becoming either their Disciples (basically lesser gods/demigods), or their Angels (which for all due intents and purposes are completely loyal automatons without will of their own), and for a time they were satisfied with their powers and their lives and could cooperate without much issue amongst each other and their disciples. However, they too became bored and depressed, as the disciples were limited in number and the more numerous angels were without self. From there, in an attempt to stave off their loneliness, they explored the physical world below and found the largest physical fragments of the nameless god, most importantly the then-barren wasteland that was Ariel, among others. Choosing Ariel as the testing ground for an experiment, they decided that rather than destroy their own homes to create more Disciples or such, they would instead use their powers to foster the world of Ariel into a bastion of life. Within a few years, the wild world as it was known was birthed after much care, and the gods were pleased by their creation, interacting with the beautiful creatures there directly on occasion, and from there they opted to control and govern different aspects of the world individually so that they may share equal burden (so one controlled fire, one controlled plantlife, ect). Eventually, however, they realized that not all of their creations were benevolent, and indeed many were horrific in the destruction they wrought for their own pleasure; as such, these creatures the gods punished, creating a third plane on their own power, a terrifying prison plane known as Culviscas. In Culviscas, the souls of such monstrous beings would be locked up and doomed to the most horrifying torture the gods could think of; the total and absolute degradation of their very being. Lacking almost all sense and set in an eternally gray expanse without form nor location, eventually their denizens would lose all of what they were, becoming nothing more than gray blobs of spirit with no thought to them whatsoever. Locked away and impossible to free oneself from, the existence of Culviscas gave the more violent creatures of the world a reason to stay from wrongdoing, and thus, for a time, things were well.

However, after a while, a great deal of their creations suddenly became more. Much more. Many creations-most modeled after wingless variations of their angels-started to form achievements that, while minimalistic, were also the birth signs of civilization much like the gods themeslves, and their simultanious large-scale cooperation and exploitation of land (comparatively) was very curious to their creators. Most curious of all, however, was their newfangled devotion-not all creatures of this world knew their creators, but the sapients of this world not only understood, but strove to build structures to their glory. While charming, it was at the expense of the rest of the world they had made. Thus, these 'Sapients' as they were called, were the heart of the issue that started a divide amongst the gods in two camps-one side who insisted that if allowed to grow that these particularly cognizant creatures would destroy their works and ruin the other, equally-important beings, and that if they were truly loving of them they would understand; while the others insisted that the genocide of a particularly large and propsperous portion of their creations for trying to be like them was even more unacceptable and that to deny them growth would be to deny them happiness and their true potential, and claimed that they would understand the love for the other creatures of this world. Tensions boiled for years after, while the communities grew into towns and cities, and the only indication there was any particular rift in the realm of Briegriel to those below was the occasional report from the Disciples; at some point, the gods stopped coming down altogether, too concerned that their presence on Ariel may disrupt the whole of Briegriel unduly. Despite tensions, Ariel remain untouched by both camps.

Finally, in the year commonly held to be 1 BW (Before War), the internal conflict evolved into full-scale civil war, and the skies above raged with their fury, the first time in history Briegriel was ever visible-the year of the red sky. Disciples, angels and the gods themselves clashed with fury as their philosophical differences came to a head. At the end, however, the Nine Divine gods, led by Vina, god of magic (and the god that gives this religion its name) who believed that destroying humanity was abhorrent won out, and victorious, they stripped the Six gods who believed that humanity was a poison to Ariel of all the power they could, before banishing them to Culviscas. Of course, the Six Fallen Gods were still too angry at their defeat to bother to reform, were also powerful enough to shift the very insides of Culviscas, creating six points within it wherein they freely presided with their fallen disciples and angels, and feeding on the 'dead' souls wandering within to preserve their strength and their identity. And thus, Ariel as it is known came to be.

This isn't exactly a universally held thing, however. For one, no real records of any direct contact with the gods exist amongst any species. The Disciples and Angels exist (and they're both stupidly powerful as you could expect), both rarely coming down to a particularly noteworthy prayer, but the Disciples have never once spoken the names of their supposed masters and only briefly on the matters above in Briegriel, and the Angels speak only in an incomprehensible hymn in a language unrecorded in their few appearances, which none can divine the meaning of. Culviscas almost certainly exists and the Disciples have spoken of what it was supposedly meant to be, but no-one has actually gone there to experience it alive (natch). However, some who practice the Dark Spells occasionally notice and tap into a plane of silence to stop all magic in an area among other things (a spell the Platinum Crusade favors in their dealings), opposite of the plane of Briegriel and presumably Culviscas itself. There are no confirmations of any of the gods real names or anything and most of what they have supposedly done in this age of Ariel has been done through their Disciples, and no Disciple has ever confirmed nor denied this. In other words, while elements of truth concretely exist, like an actual religion nothing can completely prove nor completely deny it.

I have spent far too long making this nonexistent religion. Also, by the way, I've only named three gods for sake of leaving things as open-ended as possible in case others are interested: Vina, Ichineu and Oswyld, respectively the god of magic and head of the pantheon; the goddess of travel, trickery and fortune; and the god of war and good governance, the latter of whom will get slightly more representation below.

----+----

----+----

Name: (former) Crown Prince Yargo Kartonis
Species: Homo Sapians.
Gender: MASCULINE.
Age: 17.

Description: Yargo is a 6'1'' man of an absolutely muscular build, definitely in possession of the profile of a king, and his platinum-blonde, curvy hair is incredibly well-kept despite his recent exile. His golden eyes have always been a bit of an anomaly but it really only adds to the gold flourishes he often keeps upon himself, noticeably a golden circlet with three large pearls prominent.

He was unable to carry out much of his previous royal armor, so his current set of armor he dons for dicey engagements is noticeably the more plain, rudimentary set a standard blacksmith would create, bar his right arm, which instead has the one piece he managed to snag as a gauntlet. The rest of the set isn't very shiny, but his own right gauntlet is of very good make-while only lightly flourished with a symbol of the royal crest on the backhand, its not only more light-catching but also lighter. Don't expect him to wear the full armor too much, by the way-that's only for direct engagements he's prepared for, which are not terribly often.

More typically, while he despises it, he carries himself in the clothes of a more common man. He wears plain leather boots and a plain leather vest, with simple cloth pants that show subtle signs of being re-sewn in multiple places. That he still wears his gauntlet and circlet and has a purple shirt (purple being a very rare dye reserved for nobility) is the only real givaway that he's the former crown prince, if his rather distinctive looks didn't give him away.

In both cases, he carries a sheath and a scabbard upon a finely-trimmed belt. The leather sheath holds a cheap iron shortsword, plain and serviceable for a variety of situatinos. More worrying, however, is his 3-foot-long scabbard, holding a greatsword known as Wintertide, another royal treasure he managed to narrowly smuggle. Ornate and bejeweled at the hilt with nine great, blue Sapphires, magical runes line the blade itself, acting as a conduit for magical power. The Scabbard is enchanted to hide this as he goes about, as the runes themselves are not only pretty obvious to the common man, but also to a mage-its magical draw is too great to be ignored for any mage in a great area, which, given the Platinum Crusade exists, is clearly cover-breaking. He reserves Wintertide for...Explosive situations.

The gauntlet is on 24-7 for a reason: Even though he's quite obviously royal, his right arm bears the absolute proof upon it, in the form of the Royal Brand of the god of War and Good Government Oswyld: A black band formed by overlapping swords, with an upright sword signifying the center. It's a magical birthmark that's been around in the royal family for generations, and any with royal blood worthy of taking the Kulaku throne has it. It's a requirement for sitting upon the Platinum Throne, and while hardly a requirement to rule Kulaku's people (indeed, a few of its best rulers lacked the Brand), those of a more religious tone are quick to champion the brand-wielders. IN other words, the Brand is a significant political leverage. It's also a very obvious mark for his assassins as only two other people alive right now are confirmed to have the brand-Vrell and his only other son, Huil.

Personality: Yargo sees the so-called War of Mages as the product of a man who had to be both impossibly lucky and insanely stupid. Unfortunately, Yargo, while somewhat aware of his potential character failings, is above all else still his father's son, and while they may hate each other, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. He fancies himself a world power and dreams of controlling the Platinum Throne-and while he's been disgraced, exiled, and nearly assassinated, most can't help but realize that he probably deserved that only somewhat less than Emperor Vrell. He seeks the finest things in life, and despises all things regarding his exile, bar the fact that his attempted assassination was anything but subtle, let alone successful. He hates almost everything to do with living amongst the 'ragged crooks' that wander the streets. He considers the Circle of Guilds to be only better in comparison, and longs for the days where he may rest his head upon the softest bed in the world after feasting on the finest fruits Ariel has to offer.

(Un)fortunately for everyone, he is also not an idiot. He is politically savvy and Miachavelli would be proud. His first verdict upon taking the throne is already rehearsed: "And on this glorious day, the day of my tyrranical disgrace of a father's death and the restoration of Oswyld's TRUE glory to the throne, I here do decree that Vrell's tyrranical decree of magical limiting is to be unconditionally released!" He knows to not make an enemy of his own people, to give them the Bread and Circuses to not feed their ire while making sure anyone who dares break his laws is punished so furiously that only a fool would follow in their footsteps. He also knows that the Circle of Guilds is united only under the roof of removing his father's absurd degree from the picture, and should he take his place, the one unifying factor vanishes and while there might still be anger amongst the guilds, they're not going to completely fight against him. He sees the Guilds as his unwitting pawns and personal army, and even if they knew of this (and some do), what are they going to do about it? He's everything they need.

Needless to say, the Water Guild is also painfully aware, more than Yargo realizes they are, and are planning to make sure they won't replace Vrell with a Tyrant worse than himself.

History: Born the second son of King Vrell and then-Queen Olhymn, Yargo knew he was NOT the Crown Prince, with only one competitor standing in the way: Gramis, his big brother. Gramis was larger, bigger, and dumber than Yargo would ever be, and yet Vrell adored Gramis, to the point where all Yargo really knows of his mother was that she was executed for punishing Gramis for something and Vrell disagreeing with the motion. And thus, under what would soon become one of the most powerful nations in the world of Ariel, Yargo felt very discontent, even as he was taught magic that Vrell would later near-universally outlaw, even as he enjoyed the finest foods the kingdom had to offer, even as he laid upon the comfiest bed, donned the most expensive fabrics, and wore the most treasured jewels of the kingdom, even as he was taught the ways of the greatsword, and even as he freely browsed the royal library to sate his vocarious appetite for knowledge. Gramis mocked his relatively-lacking physical strength even as Yargo grew tall, strong and muscular, and nothing that Yargo could ever do would appease him, or make Vrell see him any greater than Gramis. Even the appearance of a still-younger and even smaller son, Huil, did not dilute the absolute contempt Gramis had for Yargo, and vice-versa. Huil, meanwhile, only annoyed them both with being basically a stunted royal brat.

Yargo was, to be short, sick of his brethren. And the fact that Gramis was destined for the throne in Vrell's absence was a sticking point too great to ignore. Vrell's insane decree of banning magic to the masses of Dyrin and the Platinum Crusade, along with Gramis fully agreeing with it while Yargo's argument as to its impractical nature was ignored, was the final straw. He retreated to the Library that fateful day and spent the rest of the evening looking for some knowledge to finally, finally one-up his so-called superiors.

It was then that he came across a rather interesting book on slow-acting poisons. And then, an idea sprouted in his mind: He learned of political power before, and he would be immediately famous if he called off his father's ridiculous ideology, the people would rejoice and hand him the crown personally. If he could kill the other competitors to the throne, then because they were just absolutely despicable, no matter how bad Yargo was they would praise him for getting rid of worse. But a direct attempt at killing them, with guards everywhere, would end in his own death doubtlessly, and he hardly had the power to stage a full-blown coup while his father was still alive.

From then-on, his plan was put into action. Working as quietly as possible throughout the nights as he could, assembling the ingredients, he looked upon his creation every night as it evolved from a mixture of leaves and minerals to a lethal, silent killer of man, an assassin that no-one could detect until the work was done. So fixated upon his creation was he that, one night, he didn't manage to hear the butler coming in to check on him and hide his contraption completely. He had assumed, however, that this butler didn't understand the implications or care enough, and indeed forgot all about it within a few days as no mention or check of his room came.

Once he was satisfied that the tasters (that, you know, check for poisons in the dish) could not detect his masterpiece, he waited until his father declared that there be a royal banquet with his closest followers as a way of generating more political sway amongst those lesser nobles that were benefitting the most from the Platinum Empire's wealth. Calmly as he could, he walked into the kitchen and managed to sneak in the poison into that night's main dish without being detected at all, and for a moment, Yargo felt his dreams align.

His plan quickly fell apart, however. Yargo could not have anticipated his father growing full before the main course could be made, as did Huil, leaving Gramis and his bottomless appetite the only real victim he cared for (well, that and a bunch of nobles, but they weren't really important to Yargo). He could not also have anticipated that, that night, the butler that once managed to spy on his works would also work as the night's taster, a face he had forgotten so thoroughly that it was only after that he consumed the poisonous turkey that Yargo realized his folly. While his intentions worked-the Butler did not notice the poison upon tasting it and Gramis (and the nobles) consumed it, the fact that Vrell had not devoured the poisoned bird left a gaping hole in his plan-the Butler would have plenty of time to inform Vrell that the bird had been poisoned and Yargo had been making some interesting liquid in a small vial the other night, and Vrell was definitely not going to be dying that night so guess who was going to take action? The Poison would kill and no healing spell in the world would save Gramis or any of the other nobles who consumed the bird, but it would not be before the loyal butler would put two and two together and alert Vrell that Yargo had poisoned the turkey.

Yargo set about to immediately abandon the castle, taking his gauntlet to disguise Oswyld's holy brand as well as his favorite greatsword and a circlet, as well as whatever treasure and magical books he could carry in a travelling backpack. He was cut short from fully stocking up, however, by Vrell's incomprehensible scream of rage at what was presumably the death of his favorite son and the reveal of Yargo's treachery. He leaped out of a window at once and fled Kulaku, having slain multiple heads of multiple noble families as well as the eldest prince, and Vrell declaring Yargo a tratior, disgracing him, disowning him, and enforcing an exile so harsh that the Platinum Guard were ordered to kill him on sight should he step on lands they controlled, and then take his corpse back to Vrell so he could parade it across Kulaku.

Yargo fled to Solmir, losing the majority of his pursuers in the ragged mountains, while his father's assassins hunted him down like ragged dogs. Sadly, they were the very first victims of suddenly finding their innards making a miraculous transformation into outards while he was in a small town, which quickly became very infamous as Yargo's response to their demise was...Err, enthusiastic. All the way there, he was absolutely disgusted at his now-radically lowered standards of living, only barely convincing himself that staying at these old, wretched inns was really the best he had. He became extremely irritable and rude and wanted nothing to do with anyone, and barely restrained himself from going for the throats of the Platinum Crusade whenever they appeared. When he finally arrived at Solmir, he was almost totally broken and ready to accept his life was now going to be this horrible, degraded thing, and considered suicide.

It was to his fortune, however, that on that night the fellows in the room next to him happened to be members of the Water Guild, and he just so managed to hear them through the wood of the room. Unable to tolerate even a day further of this 'being poor' nonsense and realizing that the Circle of Guilds they talked about was a force enough to usurp Vrell and take the throne, he greeted them and begged them to let him join the guild. His personality was enough to turn him down on the spot, as, quite frankly, none of them could tolerate the idea of having to work with him. Losing ground, he revealed his deepest secret at this point: he was no random noble but in fact a former prince of the empire Vrell was creating, and he had the authority to take the throne of Kulaku, and on top of that, was 100% willing to remove his father's absolutely stupid magical limitation decrees if it meant he could take the throne.

It took a week for the Water Guild higher-ups and the rest of the Cricle of Guilds to quietly decide upon whether or not the man who poisoned a great many nobles as well as made an assassin explode in the middle of a small town (and was 'giddy' about it) potentially gaining access to MORE magical knowledge and artifacts was really worth the exchange of having serious political leverage in the form of one of the only people able to take the throne of Kulaku legitimately. Ultimately, the only thing that got them to agree was, beyond his paltry-but-dangerous blood magic and his rare spell tomes, that he truly did have the Brand of Oswyld, and while they couldn't figure out how right then and there, they figured they might be able to 'groom' him into becoming the king they could tolerate and not a only-slightly-better Vrell.

Naturally, he was elated all the same when they finally came back, and while tight-lipped on his ace-in-the-hole, he was forthcoming on basically everything else, gifting the guild a great bevy of his personal fortune, including various tomes of magic near-forgotten. Days later, they used a great deal of the fortune to buy a ship bound for the Wisp Islands, and subsequently Bryshara, a free city and effective base of operations of the Water Guild.

And that is the story of how a power-hungry prince was accepted into the guilds. May Vina help you all.

Guild: Water. His spells favor that element, at least, but the Guild itself accepted him reluctantly, as mentioned above. In any case, his general arsenal, aside from the standard low-tier practical but simple spells almost anyone of that Guild could cast, his specific spell arsenal goes two ways. First, he prefers the Ice aspect of the Guild, quickly creating fortifications as well as weapons to manipulate in a pinch, creating freezing cloaks to supplement his armor and dissuade melee attackers, and just mentally degrading his foes through basic torture by hypothermia. He particuarily likes creating a sudden group of icicles to appear and impale lightly-armored foes.

Of course, there's also his Blood Magic. Short: water is a liquid and so is blood, and this on top of the mental powers of the Water guild leads to the interesting ability to control someone else's brain. A sufficiently malevolent-feeling mage can, in theory, forcibly manipulate people however they please by way of the blood flowing through their veins and the thoughts in their heads and beyond that, possibly killing them via forcibly stopping major organs and/or making the blood rush out hard enough. The sad (or happy) fact is, however, that very few mages who actually know how to do this have the competence and experience to put that to work for large periods of time, over great distances, and/or on multiple targets and Yargo is not one of those mages. His limitations force him to keep line of sight and exhausts him the farther he is, while outright killing someone with it is an exhausting affair that can, if the target is large enough, basically knock Yargo out as a consequence, so (for now) he cannot play puppeteer with anything for too long and definitely cannot make multiple people explode whenever he pleases.

Of course, Yargo would like to remind you that you have not lived until you've caused a man to explode with his own guts, and given that very few mages (and almost none within the official Circle of Guilds) know Blood Magic, there isn't going to be much saving you if you don't have the ability to pull out a counterspell. As for how he learned this near-forbidden and almost totally extinct art, Yargo refuses to say, beyond that he's only really managed to try it out recently (as in, on the assassin). Of course, the implications are that he somehow learned this in the royal library, which is cause for concern amongst the Guilds, especially concerning the magical abilities that Vrell himself may possess. After all, if Vrell's royal library has enough information to give Yargo a rudimentary understanding of Blood Magic enough to make a man explode, what ELSE does it hold?

Wintertide, Yargo's Greatsword, is his conduit; the Guild has reluctantly affixed magical runes to so he can use it as a conduit for his spells. Better than going unassisted or waving a flimsy stick around, in his opinion. Its magical potency is great, however, the sheer size of it coupled with its potency makes disguising it (as opposed to a more modest conduit) a task that only his scabbard can reliably handle; while out, anyone equipped to sense magic will definitely notice.

Likes:
-His Swordsmanship. Nothing pleases Yargo like feeding his own ego, and knocking a foolish 'mysterious wanderer' on his backside within a few swipes is a pastime that is positively stress-relieving, and he made most of the money for his own gear in volunteering for gladiator games and subsequently failing to die.
-Magic. Kings and Princes study HARD to basically be good at everything-and for a King of a land with magic, Yargo was no exception. Perhaps it's this reason that he approached the Circle of Guilds and asked to join? At the very least, he is unambiguously cooperative with the guild, however much the conditions might suck for him at the time.
-Seeing people explode. Because, you know. You have not lived until you've caused a man to explode with his own guts.
-Cooking. As proved below, if mocked on any skill he'll learn it, which lead to his newfangled interest in the culinary arts.

Dislikes:
-Almost the entire royal family, his mother excluded as she was killed before he really got an impression of her. In any case, Gramis was basically a thug in prince's clothing that his father overvalued, Huil was an overly-obedient brat and a nosy thief on top of that, and of course, Vrell was both a madman in charge, a dictator over his own self, and basically an all-around world-class fool. He thinks himself straight-up superior to all of them, one way or another, and has special 'plans' for Huil and Vrell when he gets back.
-Disrespect. You say something bad about him, and if he can prove you wrong he not only will do exactly that, but if/when he does, he will humiliate you, if not outright torture you, to hammer in his self-asserted superiority into your skull. If you doubt his swordsmanship, then it's a duel. doubt his capacity for magic and he will double-time his studies to learn a new form of torture. Better at chess? Well, he'll have something to say about that. Mock him for a lack of a skill? He'll learn it next week. You can brag about yourselves all you want, but if you insult HIS abilities, then you'll probably be getting a special 'plan' added to your name.
-Strong cheeses. He just doesn't like cheese, but he'll tolerate the ones less likely to stick around in his mouth.

Other: Yargo is almost assured that King Vrell does not in fact worship the Six Fallen Gods in any capacity. How the Brand and the Platinum Throne itself came into existence is a legend lost to the ages, though many insist that the first Kulaku king was a former Servitor rewarded rulership of the city and its territories for his devotion. No hard records exist. Also, for the curious, the result of sitting upon the Platinum Throne without having the Brand is first becoming magically paralyzed, followed by one's hands and feet being impaled, and then having the victim slowly burn to ash with a mystical blue fire from within the body. The Brand is symbolic of holy blood, which is the REAL requirement here, so don't think a tattoo of it can suffice.

[Noblejanobii]

I think my favorite part of this is Priest Batman. I just can't get over that. XD

[AWA1997]

Name: Izuru Natsume
Species: Kitsune
Gender: Female
Age: 200

Description: When in her human form, Izuru is a small, young-looking woman with long, brown hair, bright blue eyes, and three red fox tails, though she usually only uses this form when she needs to communicate with others. In her base form, she is a three-tailed red fox.
Personality: Izuru is really kind and sweet, but like most, if not all, kitsune, she is an intelligent and cunning prankster and illusion maker. Unfortunately, she does not speak English very well as she has only been around people for 50 years and was restricted to her fox form for her first 100 years.
History: Izuru lost both of her parents shortly after she was born and grew up alone for 100 years. On her 100th birthday, her tail split for the first time, giving her two tails and allowing her a humanoid form. She spent another 50 years learning her magic powers on her own until the fire guild found her and took her in, a kitsune who was already in the guild working her through it. This has been the arrangement for the last 50 years, and while she has picked up some English along the way, her teacher mostly spoke as a fox because it was easier to understand.

Guild: Fire Guild
Likes: People in general, nature, fire.
Dislikes: Having to speak English, being yelled at, water.
Other: She can control most of her powers, but has never had a reason to worry about others, such as cursing people who touch her tails, so she can't control them.

[Neo Emolga]

I was contemplating it too but idk. What do you think, Neo? want me to make another character or nah?

Hey, go for it! You always make great characters, but if you think it might be too much to manage, it's understandable.

Okay, Tazz told me about this and it piqued my interest. I have a few questions:
1) Can I perhaps port over a character from another game/RP? I speak, of course, about DTG, the forum game which got me to join this forum in the first place through meeting Tazz and hearing about here, and then Tazz conscripting me to join in on the ERR vs. STD threads.

No problem with that!

2) If said port is accepted, can I have a few... unconventional ideas integrated into said character? A fairly big part of my original concept for the DTG character I have tentative plans to port over was fourth wall breaking, and porting said character here would naturally greatly tone down that aspect but I couldn't be faithful to the character without it. Plus, he'd get mad at me if I made a version of him without fourth wall breaking or at least occasional medium awareness jokes. (Crystal [said character] is weird, as is his general existence.) I mean, I could probably do it, but it'd feel wrong to me. (I mean, I can always create another character with the same name and same general characteristics but dissociate him in my mind from the one in DTG. Don't be afraid to reject the whole thing if it breaks with your concept of this world/RP.) Actually, scratch that. I can just fork the character idea in my mind, make a new character concept without the fourth wall breaking. The fourth wall awareness probably wouldn't work, and although I'll be mildly put out at losing an opportunity for Crys' signature wall-shattering humor, this does look interesting. I'd have to actually write a backstory instead of handwaving that he appeared one day, but I suppose that can't be helped. Alternatively, I can just make a new character, shouldn't be too hard.

Fourth wall breaking doesn't bother me all that much, so if you think it might be good comedy relief, it's never a problem.

3) How far does the water guild's magics go? I can't really make an instance of Crystal without throwing in some sort of crystal-related magic, and although ice does work (magically unmelting room-temperature ice, anyone?) crystals in general would also be cool. I'm fairly set on water at this point (assuming I find the time to join) and know fire also has earth under its umbrella, but still have faint hopes that crystals other than magically-whammied ice could be used.

You could do either Water Guild magic for ice crystals, or go with the Fire Guild, which has access to all the rock/earth spells and hence, crystals. Either way works.

I'm going to assume the capital of this empire is Kunaku for sake of pinning the VERY important locations down hard, as it seems to be roughly in a geographical area both hard to siege and simultaneously fair with both army and navy combat, with an easily-conquerable city on the way to another capital as a forward outpost of sorts. I am also about to drop an entire religion for the first guy, which will be in the other section. Finally, I am going to assume that consistent, long-term flight is HARD, which, when the Skybound City is above water, makes it hard to reach. I developed a lot for these two that might be a bit overspecified, but if anyone wants that changed somewhat I'd like to know it now rather than later.

I was in a funny mood. Also, given the nature of the Skybound City, I would almost expect the guilds to be practically advertised to exist there, so...

Kanaku as the capital is fine, no problems here!

Also... WHOA. First off, Priest Batman is one HECK OF A SIGNUP. Dude, I'm impressed, that is an awesomely made character right there, and there's a mountain of delicious lore right there.

Prince Yargo's signup is also really epic. Dude, just wow, you did an amazing job with these! And the Blood Magic stuff is fine, no problems there. It's gruesome, but it fits with his character.

Name: Izuru Natsume

No problems here, Izuru is good to go! Kitsunes are cool. :)

The Cast

Arryn Shinesong - Played by EmeraldSky
Jason Richardson - Played by Gaster
Jysan Ryderan - Played by Neo Emolga
Arus - Played by Trainer17
Valryssa Scarlet - Played by FedoraChar
Rima Omarah - Played by Alphys
Lightthroat Hadran Lurel - Played by Velocity
Servitor Kalmo Helvec - Played by The Nonexistent Tazz
Crown Prince Yargo Kartonis - Played by The Nonexistent Tazz
Izuru Natsume - Played by Gaster

[AWA1997]

No problems here, Izuru is good to go! Kitsunes are cool. :)

Yes, yes they are XD They're some of my favorite mythological creatures.

[Noblejanobii]

All right I will be creating another character then. This one will be in the water guild!

[Neo Emolga]

All right I will be creating another character then. This one will be in the water guild!

Cool! I'm feeling the itch to make another character also, I'm just undecided on the race/species.

[Noblejanobii]

Cool! I'm feeling the itch to make another character also, I'm just undecided on the race/species.

I was too and went searching on the mythical creatures webpage for Wikipedia and found the most AMAZING species ever.

[AWA1997]

I was too and went searching on the mythical creatures webpage for Wikipedia and found the most AMAZING species ever.

Hm... That creature better be as amazing as you say, or you'll have one disappointed friend... XD jkjk.

EDIT: Alphys, is it an Undine?

[Noblejanobii]

Hm... That creature better be as amazing as you say, or you'll have one disappointed friend... XD jkjk.

EDIT: Alphys, is it an Undine?

Lol, no, and I'm ashamed that wasn't my first thought. It's some really obscure mythical creature that I totally was just like "this is a thing?" to.