Both Needed Interested in a Large, Open World (purely original) Story with Multiple POVs and Locations? [3 PLAYERS CURRENTLY ACTIVE, NEED 3 MORE!]

[Vincious Macabre]

Of course!!

 

[RK.]

I'm loving this initiative!!

Yes, the starting world is dark and dreary and full of evil Baba Yaga-esque witches and demigods and even gods who just want to consume, kill, destroy. So their children, all kinds of aberrations, litter the world. A lot of the Necromantic nobility and the royal family flex their strength by having as many horrific monsters under their thumb as possible. The more fucked up and hard to control, the more respect you get.

There are also all kinds of insidious people, plots and plans. The royal family is not to be fucked with out of respect and admiration, and by the weaker ones, fear, but they are not a dictatorship or something else so meager. They are more akin to an absolute monarchy, but their role is to keep other kingdoms in check and protect their people, not so much lord their power over them.

So as I understand it there is one royal family that has hegemony over the entirety of the world? Do they come from one nation in particular and merely usurped the power of all other monarchies, or are impartial to a single kingdom and simply command the whole world instead?

With the description of absolute monarchy I assume that most of the common population lives in the condition of serfdom and Republics are not a reality? Technological level pre-industrial Early Modern but Monarchical Feudalistic Government? Okay. I'm formulating some ideas

With the description of how the world is crawling and festering with monsters, there'll probably be institutions and organizations formed in order to combat the threat and maintain relative civil peace right? Maybe religious in nature imbued with the power of a deity


Also, how large will this world be compared to Earth? I also thought of a Pangaea sort of super-continent being the most ideal (maybe with the inclusion of icy sheets at the pole) since that would allow for the most ease of travel within the rp

 

[Vincious Macabre]

So as I understand it there is one royal family that has hegemony over the entirety of the world? Do they come from one nation in particular and merely usurped the power of all other monarchies, or are impartial to a single kingdom and simply command the whole world instead?

The world would be composed of 4-5 kingdoms, this royal family being one of them

With the description of absolute monarchy I assume that most of the common population lives in the condition of serfdom and Republics are not a reality? Technological level pre-industrial Early Modern but Monarchical Feudalistic Government? Okay. I'm formulating some ideas

Correct yes

With the description of how the world is crawling and festering with monsters, there'll probably be institutions and organizations formed in order to combat the threat and maintain relative civil peace right? Maybe religious in nature imbued with the power of a deity

Yes!! This would be really good grounds for creating conflict between the kingdoms. Fanatics or other types of sects who are trying to 'cleanse' the world of the monsters that spill over into the other kingdoms. I'll provide a rough map drawing of what this would look like!!

Also, how large will this world be compared to Earth? I also thought of a Pangaea sort of super-continent being the most ideal (maybe with the inclusion of icy sheets at the pole) since that would allow for the most ease of travel within the rp

You'll see this in the map!

 

[Atomic Soul]

Hi there! I'd be interested in joining your group if possible...? I'm getting some Bloodborne vibes, what with the gothic/light steampunk/magical nature of the world, and I'm all about it.

 

[RK.]

The world would be composed of 4-5 kingdoms, this royal family being one of them


Correct yes


Yes!! This would be really good grounds for creating conflict between the kingdoms. Fanatics or other types of sects who are trying to 'cleanse' the world of the monsters that spill over into the other kingdoms. I'll provide a rough map drawing of what this would look like!!


You'll see this in the map!

Okay sounds good. A map will be helpful in visualizing things and placing things

 

[RK.]

Hi there! I'd be interested in joining your group if possible...? I'm getting some Bloodborne vibes, what with the gothic/light steampunk/magical nature of the world, and I'm all about it.

I love bloodborne Lady Maria my love

 

[Vincious Macabre]

Yes please!

I think we should be ready for now.

You can let me know through this poll if you are in or not. Then I know who's in and if we should start planning. Then we can make a different thread for the world-building and so on.

Poll

@KyRei , @RK. , @flubnugget , @Ribbon , @Cernunnos , @sugarlttm , @Atomic Soul

Please let me know!

To make your life easy, here's my latest description of the world:

"Yes, the starting world is dark and dreary and full of evil Baba Yaga-esque witches and demigods and even gods who just want to consume, kill, destroy. So their children, all kinds of aberrations, litter the world. A lot of the Necromantic nobility and the royal family flex their strength by having as many horrific monsters under their thumb as possible. The more fucked up and hard to control, the more respect you get.

There are also all kinds of insidious people, plots and plans. The royal family is not to be fucked with out of respect and admiration, and by the weaker ones, fear, but they are not a dictatorship or something else so meager. They are more akin to an absolute monarchy, but their role is to keep other kingdoms in check and protect their people, not so much lord their power over them.

I think you can compare it to... um... uhhh... I can't think of any one thing in particular but you mentioned The Witcher, that's somewhat of a good indication, but there are not many similarities other than monsters abound, and magical creatures are normal. Maybe it is a little bit like LOTR in that sense? But it's like an Edgar Allan Poe, gothic horror, supernatural dark fantasy type thing.

The magic system... ah, the magic system. I am not home so I am typing this on my phone, but here is the core idea:
You borrow from and manipulate nature. If a magic is more powerful and dark, you will probably have to pay some kind of price. The more powerful, the heftier the price. It's mostly as a force that exists within nature's forces, which the beings it made can channel into their will. It's as much a force as gravity (ok bad example that's convoluted... I'll say as gravity in the high school physics sense) and electromagnetism. In fact, that's a really good parallel. Instead of electronic components channelling electricity or your cells exchanging electrons and ions, you get to control this '5th force of nature' called magic. If we include humans, they would have to either learn through years and years and difficult trials to harness magic, be gifted by a deity or cursed by a malicious being, or basically never be able to control it. They somehow evolved without the biomagical systems to be able to channel it.

The force itself comes in a pure form, like raw energy, and the wielder can form it into what they wish, which is why it looks like many different types.

Technology in this world is more like pre-industrial Victorian times. People are starting to dabble with steampunk type technologies, and maybe even things like hextech if you've seen Arcane (not sure about adding this yet, or if we do want it, it'd be super new and belong to one of the other regions. I think I forgot to mention this but we would be in a world made of 4-5 kingdoms with distinct specialities and philosophies. While the dark area is full of monsters, others can be full of other mythical beings, dangerous and majestic and peaceful. Ofc you have non-harmful beings in the dark area too, but those are far and few inbetween.

There are 2 moons and a rocky ring around the planet."

New information:

The world is composed of 4-5 kingdoms (probably 4), with the above, horror-centred one being one of them.

I see a lot of interest in steampunk, so we can have a steampunk kingdom.

We could have a high fantasy type kingdom that's more like the colourful, happy side, but it's not necessary. We can go for something cooler!

I am leaving the other 3 kingdom slots open for discussion!

 

[Cernunnos]

I want to say yes I'm in, but I still don't know what the story is. We have a setting and some basic lore, but I will lose interest quickly if the RP is aimless and has no story. As it is your idea you will pretty much be the DM, and kind of be herding everyone from story beat to story beat and if that's absent or there is no structure... Then as much as I want to say yes, I cannot. I don't think it's very fair to take a poll of who is interested when we still have no story, because I can't say one way or the other.

 

[RK.]

Okay, yes, I would ideally like some more plot context even if it's extremely nebulous and simple at this stage before going all in, I have some ideas:

War- At least two if not all four of the kingdoms are currently at war with each other. It could start as a petty conflict at the beginning like with the culmination of WWI in real life with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand only involving fragile diplomatic ties, but eventually grow to become a continent-wide conflict. Each one of our characters could be acting in the interest of whatever sovereign they pledge allegiance to. A sort of deadly, masquerade of politics mixed with boots on the ground and classic spying. Our characters could be situational enemies for all we know.

Prophecy- Slightly cliche, I'm sure everyone here has read a book in which the main characters were prophecized to save the world but it's a common trope for a reason. Quite fun to read and to write, as well creating strange odds for the protagonists. Something like Armageddon could be coming with the wrath of the gods, or, there might have to be some holy grail to reach that each one of our characters must find and collect for ourselves first before anyone else for reasons. Just some ideas.

Possible option C- A mix of the above. A prophecy which was told to happen during a state of absolute war

 

[RK.]

Also, I want to play as some sort of fairy shit. Basically just a humanoid guy with membranous insect-like wings :>

Spoiler: General look

 

[Atomic Soul]

Okay, yes, I would ideally like some more plot context even if it's extremely nebulous and simple at this stage before going all in, I have some ideas:

War- At least two if not all four of the kingdoms are currently at war with each other. It could start as a petty conflict at the beginning like with the culmination of WWI in real life with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand only involving fragile diplomatic ties, but eventually grow to become a continent-wide conflict. Each one of our characters could be acting in the interest of whatever sovereign they pledge allegiance to. A sort of deadly, masquerade of politics mixed with boots on the ground and classic spying. Our characters could be situational enemies for all we know.

Prophecy- Slightly cliche, I'm sure everyone here has read a book in which the main characters were prophecized to save the world but it's a common trope for a reason. Quite fun to read and to write, as well creating strange odds for the protagonists. Something like Armageddon could be coming with the wrath of the gods, or, there might have to be some holy grail to reach that each one of our characters must find and collect for ourselves first before anyone else for reasons. Just some ideas.

Possible option C- A mix of the above. A prophecy which was told to happen during a state of absolute war

I second this. We definitely need something overarching that ties our characters together in a meaningful way. It's great to have the world fleshed out, but without any motivating force, it's difficult for me to imagine writing in this particular world. I personally like both options melded together; I think it makes for a rich environment for our characters to interact.

 

[Cernunnos]

Or maybe like a cold war, espionage type thing going on between the nations. Instead of full out war. Like, one of the characters is a spy or something, and our characters get caught up in an unraveling conspiracy, which leads to enemies working together out of necessity... And throughout the story, and as more and more things are revealed (looking at you DM) slowly over the course of the RP, the stakes get bigger and bigger and maybe there's something more sinister, more powerful than any of the nations or the royal family, pulling the strings and leading the world toward all out war for their own nefarious reasons. Maybe with the nations at war, they're too distracted to notice the bigger picture? Something ancient... Something ungodly powerful... A summoning, or idk just something that threatens the entire world working from the shadows and using the powers that be as like chess pieces like the illuminati and no one in power believes nay of our characters so they have to figure it all out on their own while the nations focus on one another. Just some ideas, some inspiration for our DM

 

[RK.]

Or maybe like a cold war, espionage type thing going on between the nations. Instead of full out war. Like, one of the characters is a spy or something, and our characters get caught up in an unraveling conspiracy, which leads to enemies working together out of necessity... And throughout the story, and as more and more things are revealed (looking at you DM) slowly over the course of the RP, the stakes get bigger and bigger and maybe there's something more sinister, more powerful than any of the nations or the royal family, pulling the strings and leading the world toward all out war for their own nefarious reasons. Maybe with the nations at war, they're too distracted to notice the bigger picture? Something ancient... Something ungodly powerful... A summoning, or idk just something that threatens the entire world working from the shadows and using the powers that be as like chess pieces like the illuminati and no one in power believes nay of our characters so they have to figure it all out on their own while the nations focus on one another. Just some ideas, some inspiration for our DM

Oh this seems like a neat idea. We should explore this angle more


Also, overall, should each kingdom be different races/species do you guys think? Or are supernatural entities more like other forces and the kingdoms are human?

 

[Atomic Soul]

I had a potential idea for a kingdom, depending on what kind of character you'd like to see played. I have two options that I was looking at, if anyone is interested in checking them out. I was going to see which sort of characters you guys were looking at writing to decide if we needed more female or male roles, or just to see, in general, if you all had a preference for who you'd like to write with. Here are the two characters I was thinking about writing with. Let me know what y'all think!

Alaric DeVere

~Alaric Cassian DeVere~ Full Name: Alaric Cassian DeVere Gender: Male Race: Vampire Age: 102; turned at 28 Moral Alignment: True Neutral Moodboard Vampire Knight Hair Color: Silvery ash blond, falling in waves to his collarbones Eye Color: Blood red, quick and brilliant like rubies Height/...

docs.google.com

Ylva

Ylva Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl - Howl, Florence & the Machine Moodboard skinwalker Gender - Femal...

docs.google.com

 

[RK.]

Both characters look cool. They would each serve different purposes in the rp I'd imagine

I was going to see which sort of characters you guys were looking at writing to decide if we needed more female or male roles

Oh I only play male characters btw. I'm fairly certain that Vinicius is going to introduce a female character as well if that helps

 

[Vincious Macabre]

I can't form a plot without us first agreeing on the setting in some form. And I don't want to force a plot. I created this thread so we can have a 'communal' world creation, where we all agree on a plot before we start. I wanted to get an idea of the interest in the whole thing before we put energy into it so we don't invest then have to wait and wait for more players.

I don't have character preferences. I like character freedom because that's more interesting to me. I could not care less about genders, non-binary characters are more than welcome as well, so that isn't really something I think about. If it's an interesting, well-thought-out character, I think it works.

I write male, female and 'androgynous blob' and 'a-gendered' characters, really depends on what inspiration I get. You are all free to stick with what you'd like to do!

To this point:

Alaric DeVere

~Alaric Cassian DeVere~ Full Name: Alaric Cassian DeVere Gender: Male Race: Vampire Age: 102; turned at 28 Moral Alignment: True Neutral Moodboard Vampire Knight Hair Color: Silvery ash blond, falling in waves to his collarbones Eye Color: Blood red, quick and brilliant like rubies Height/...

docs.google.com

Ylva

Ylva Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl - Howl, Florence & the Machine Moodboard skinwalker Gender - Femal...

docs.google.com

I honestly like both of them. Your choice in the end. Playing multiple characters would also be fine and is probably necessary in some aspects. For example, I'll be introducing a lot of NPC's as needed/on the spot/in the lore. You can do the same in your background stories, your current status, etc.

I will most likely be playing the character that was the reason this world came to life:

Spoiler: Allara

Name: Allara Venerise Koraki

Age: 26

Height: 6 ft/182 cm.

Build: Slim and fit with some natural curves.

Race/Species: Human.

Gender: Female.

Occupation: Princess.

Appearance: Deep red/auburn hair with black undertones, pale cream skin, sharp features.

Personality: Presents herself as calm, collected and reserved, with brilliant, chaotic, dazzling crazy eyes that can enchant anyone who looks at them. Has a gentle, melodic voice, a wild smile, and she tends to display a certain hunger and thirst for life in a form of excitement that seems... otherworldly. Has a very sultry aura around her, and appearing as a very sexual being seems very easy for her. In secret, she can really lose her temper, has a disdain for morons and can be very impatient with them. Extremely self-reliant, independent, clever and cunning. Talented actress. Almost intimidatingly good at the things she can do, because she was raised to be.

Biography: Born to a family of powerful, hateful necromancers, she grew bored of their constant jealousy and pettiness. She outgrew her siblings-an older sister obsessed with the rival house's eldest son, a younger brother who seems obsessed with controlling, or domesticating? (no one knows) ravens and crows and birds of prey. She loves the dreary, cold, misty lands she calls home, and she prefers the company of her undead minions over that of living, warm beings. Due to her uprbringing, she grew to be emotionally distant, cold and manipulative, keeping up barriers between her and her family. The only really good thing she shares with her family is practising necromancy.

Weapons: A little shadow-poisoned dagger tipped with some basilisk venom for some extra oomph.

Dagger:

Powers/Abilities: Necromancy, dark arts, potions/poisons.

Extras: Has a pet undead bat called Keats that holds the spirit of her ex-love who killed himself after a massacre, because his gentle poet's spirit could not take what his madness drove him to do.

Keats the Bat:

I will also flesh out the royal family for the Denhart Domain, the dark, shadowy one.

---

I have some plot ideas:

Plot 1:
After centuries of warring, the four kingdoms managed to find peace for 30 years. On the 31st anniversary ball, which is held by a different kingdom each year (this time in the fae zone), the Koraki (Denhart zone royal family) family have a plan to infiltrate and take over the fae zone's powerful and majestic fae dragons, whom they would like to 'steal' before waging a new war. There is a lot of bad blood between the Koraki's and the rest of the world, and they are still harbouring some rage. My character would be the princess, who would be involved in the plot. The characters involved can come from any of the 4 kingdoms, which are:

1. Denhart: dark, gothic, Edgar-Allan-Poe meets the Witcher world.
2. Nannallia: the fae kingdom, full of wonderful beings, playful tricksters, psychedelic, crazy forests that you can get lost in for centuries, hags of a different kind from those of the Denhart region, so on. This place is full of free-dwellers, but near multiple castles and bigger gatherings which could be cities, some nobility and some richer 'laypeople' coexist.
3. Karvia, the steampunk kingdom. Relying on steampunk technology, full of awesome airships with magical-energy cannons, full of strange and wonderful beings similar to lizardines, marine-type beings, mermaids, humans(?), maybe even elvish type beings.
4. This one I will leave up for discussion. I have some ideas like a 'sky island' type of 'floating city' which is gold and white and full of pegasi and celestial-type beings, astronomers, sky-gazers, beings with wings, knowledge and poetry seekers... but other ideas are 100% welcome.

The plot from Denhart could easily involve other characters in the form of:
1. They are from Denhart and have some kind of mission
2. Targets in any other kingdom
3. On their own evil mission lol


Plot 2:
The gods have accidentally awakened an ancient evil, which is slowly stirring from somewhere unknown. However, its effects are palpable. Earthquakes, tsunamis, dormant volcanoes randomly erupting, the natural disasters begin piling up. Those involved in understanding our world and its energies catch onto something unnatural and aberrant, and the warning bells ring.
Our characters would be hand-selected for their unique abilities to go deeper into the world we inhabit, into regions completely unknown (maybe the map has a central 'forbidden zone' or one 'off the edge of the world' off some coast), where our players would have to go to try and find hints, clues, anything that could help us stop this disaster. They would have a contact directly in touch with the Ley-Legilles, a special type of people (maybe from the 4th kingdom, live high up in towers which pierce the clouds) naturally capable of tapping into the ley-lines and reading magical signals and signs of the universe.
The gods who awakened it were like 'oops', perhaps 2 of the younger gods who decided to pretend nothing happened, and this meant that the others did not even know about it.
As time ticks, the world inches ever closer to a one-way apocalypse. I am keeping certain details vague so we can have a back-and-forth.


Plot 3:
Okay this is funny, I just read back after writing the 2 plots and I saw this:

Or maybe like a cold war, espionage type thing going on between the nations. Instead of full out war. Like, one of the characters is a spy or something, and our characters get caught up in an unraveling conspiracy, which leads to enemies working together out of necessity... And throughout the story, and as more and more things are revealed (looking at you DM) slowly over the course of the RP, the stakes get bigger and bigger and maybe there's something more sinister, more powerful than any of the nations or the royal family, pulling the strings and leading the world toward all out war for their own nefarious reasons. Maybe with the nations at war, they're too distracted to notice the bigger picture? Something ancient... Something ungodly powerful... A summoning, or idk just something that threatens the entire world working from the shadows and using the powers that be as like chess pieces like the illuminati and no one in power believes nay of our characters so they have to figure it all out on their own while the nations focus on one another. Just some ideas, some inspiration for our DM

It's an interesting combo of the two above plots, in a way, lol. I like it. Perhaps this plot could be that a war is just breaking out, after x years of peace between the nations, which did not have peace before because instead of 4 kingdoms, the world was full of scattered civilisations, like tribes and dutchies. Someone does something wrong at a meeting of the nations, and war breaks out. We could have 2 kingdoms vs 2 kingdoms (alliances and whatnot). But instead of being on the front-lines, we have a strange collection of people. Our players:
People who excel at niche things, such as espionage, magic-based sabotage, detectives, problem-solvers... and they end up finding the same truth: someone, something, is doing something that seems to be a danger to everyone simultaneously, which makes no sense. Ofc everyone blames the other countries, but who's truly to blame?


Plot 4:
The Omni-Magic Academy has just been built, and it is accepting its first surge of students. Welcoming students from all kingdoms, it is a place built to teach and train young minds to become capable and adept at many areas of magical schooling and traditional education. This was built as a sign of alliance and peace, an attempt at keeping war at bay. With everyone invested in the prosperity of their youth, such a shared environment could foster teamwork, inclusion, cultural exchanges... even though the other 3 kingdoms still look at Denhartians in strange ways. But wait, something is not right. Some students go missing... and when one turns up dead, the leaders of the four kingdoms find themselves in a sticky situation.


Plot 5:
A new part of the world has just been discovered!! A strange environment full of peculiar magics, beings and... people? Untouched by civilisation, they seem to live a strange, isolated life... but is that all there is to it? Explorers from all 4 kingdoms venture out to claim riches and fame for themselves, and scholars seek to feed their curiosity. What will they find? Will they live to report back their findings...?


Plot 6:
This one is a bit out there, but, here it comes. Something falls out of the sky and lands on the planet's surface, somewhere that we can decide on later. It appears to be... a creature like never before seen. And this keeps happening. Strange beings keep falling out of the sky in strange vehicles, speaking strange languages, adorned in strange clothing and technology... characters can range from scholars to explorers to even diplomats and whatever you can think of that would be relevant for dealing with odd beings form the sky. And why are there more and more of them over time...?


Alright. Disclaimer: we do not have to strictly adhere to any of these. I'm just throwing these out there.

 

[Cernunnos]

I'm just going to sit here and wait until there's a story before I agree to join or decide to bounce. I'll let you guys figure it out. Let me know when there's a set idea and direction for a plot.

 

[Atomic Soul]

Glad y'all like my characters. I'll choose depending on which plot we decide to go with; I wouldn't want to sandwich a character in that doesn't fit with the plot. As far as plots go, I'm very intrigued about plot three. I honestly like plot one as well, though I'd be interested in how Allara would interact with the other characters if she's part of the outright aggressor's faction. I also like plot five. It gives a lot of chance for exploration without the larger narrative of war hanging over everyone's heads. Overall, I think they're interesting and well thought out choices! I'll be interested in hearing what other people think.

 

[RK.]

I can't form a plot without us first agreeing on the setting in some form. And I don't want to force a plot. I created this thread so we can have a 'communal' world creation, where we all agree on a plot before we start. I wanted to get an idea of the interest in the whole thing before we put energy into it so we don't invest then have to wait and wait for more players.

I don't have character preferences. I like character freedom because that's more interesting to me. I could not care less about genders, non-binary characters are more than welcome as well, so that isn't really something I think about. If it's an interesting, well-thought-out character, I think it works.

I write male, female and 'androgynous blob' and 'a-gendered' characters, really depends on what inspiration I get. You are all free to stick with what you'd like to do!

To this point:

I honestly like both of them. Your choice in the end. Playing multiple characters would also be fine and is probably necessary in some aspects. For example, I'll be introducing a lot of NPC's as needed/on the spot/in the lore. You can do the same in your background stories, your current status, etc.

I will most likely be playing the character that was the reason this world came to life:

Spoiler: Allara

Name: Allara Venerise Koraki

Age: 26

Height: 6 ft/182 cm.

Build: Slim and fit with some natural curves.

Race/Species: Human.

Gender: Female.

Occupation: Princess.

Appearance: Deep red/auburn hair with black undertones, pale cream skin, sharp features.

Personality: Presents herself as calm, collected and reserved, with brilliant, chaotic, dazzling crazy eyes that can enchant anyone who looks at them. Has a gentle, melodic voice, a wild smile, and she tends to display a certain hunger and thirst for life in a form of excitement that seems... otherworldly. Has a very sultry aura around her, and appearing as a very sexual being seems very easy for her. In secret, she can really lose her temper, has a disdain for morons and can be very impatient with them. Extremely self-reliant, independent, clever and cunning. Talented actress. Almost intimidatingly good at the things she can do, because she was raised to be.

Biography: Born to a family of powerful, hateful necromancers, she grew bored of their constant jealousy and pettiness. She outgrew her siblings-an older sister obsessed with the rival house's eldest son, a younger brother who seems obsessed with controlling, or domesticating? (no one knows) ravens and crows and birds of prey. She loves the dreary, cold, misty lands she calls home, and she prefers the company of her undead minions over that of living, warm beings. Due to her uprbringing, she grew to be emotionally distant, cold and manipulative, keeping up barriers between her and her family. The only really good thing she shares with her family is practising necromancy.

Weapons: A little shadow-poisoned dagger tipped with some basilisk venom for some extra oomph.

Dagger:

Powers/Abilities: Necromancy, dark arts, potions/poisons.

Extras: Has a pet undead bat called Keats that holds the spirit of her ex-love who killed himself after a massacre, because his gentle poet's spirit could not take what his madness drove him to do.

Keats the Bat:

I will also flesh out the royal family for the Denhart Domain, the dark, shadowy one.

---

I have some plot ideas:

Plot 1:
After centuries of warring, the four kingdoms managed to find peace for 30 years. On the 31st anniversary ball, which is held by a different kingdom each year (this time in the fae zone), the Koraki (Denhart zone royal family) family have a plan to infiltrate and take over the fae zone's powerful and majestic fae dragons, whom they would like to 'steal' before waging a new war. There is a lot of bad blood between the Koraki's and the rest of the world, and they are still harbouring some rage. My character would be the princess, who would be involved in the plot. The characters involved can come from any of the 4 kingdoms, which are:

1. Denhart: dark, gothic, Edgar-Allan-Poe meets the Witcher world.
2. Nannallia: the fae kingdom, full of wonderful beings, playful tricksters, psychedelic, crazy forests that you can get lost in for centuries, hags of a different kind from those of the Denhart region, so on. This place is full of free-dwellers, but near multiple castles and bigger gatherings which could be cities, some nobility and some richer 'laypeople' coexist.
3. Karvia, the steampunk kingdom. Relying on steampunk technology, full of awesome airships with magical-energy cannons, full of strange and wonderful beings similar to lizardines, marine-type beings, mermaids, humans(?), maybe even elvish type beings.
4. This one I will leave up for discussion. I have some ideas like a 'sky island' type of 'floating city' which is gold and white and full of pegasi and celestial-type beings, astronomers, sky-gazers, beings with wings, knowledge and poetry seekers... but other ideas are 100% welcome.

The plot from Denhart could easily involve other characters in the form of:
1. They are from Denhart and have some kind of mission
2. Targets in any other kingdom
3. On their own evil mission lol


Plot 2:
The gods have accidentally awakened an ancient evil, which is slowly stirring from somewhere unknown. However, its effects are palpable. Earthquakes, tsunamis, dormant volcanoes randomly erupting, the natural disasters begin piling up. Those involved in understanding our world and its energies catch onto something unnatural and aberrant, and the warning bells ring.
Our characters would be hand-selected for their unique abilities to go deeper into the world we inhabit, into regions completely unknown (maybe the map has a central 'forbidden zone' or one 'off the edge of the world' off some coast), where our players would have to go to try and find hints, clues, anything that could help us stop this disaster. They would have a contact directly in touch with the Ley-Legilles, a special type of people (maybe from the 4th kingdom, live high up in towers which pierce the clouds) naturally capable of tapping into the ley-lines and reading magical signals and signs of the universe.
The gods who awakened it were like 'oops', perhaps 2 of the younger gods who decided to pretend nothing happened, and this meant that the others did not even know about it.
As time ticks, the world inches ever closer to a one-way apocalypse. I am keeping certain details vague so we can have a back-and-forth.


Plot 3:
Okay this is funny, I just read back after writing the 2 plots and I saw this:


It's an interesting combo of the two above plots, in a way, lol. I like it. Perhaps this plot could be that a war is just breaking out, after x years of peace between the nations, which did not have peace before because instead of 4 kingdoms, the world was full of scattered civilisations, like tribes and dutchies. Someone does something wrong at a meeting of the nations, and war breaks out. We could have 2 kingdoms vs 2 kingdoms (alliances and whatnot). But instead of being on the front-lines, we have a strange collection of people. Our players:
People who excel at niche things, such as espionage, magic-based sabotage, detectives, problem-solvers... and they end up finding the same truth: someone, something, is doing something that seems to be a danger to everyone simultaneously, which makes no sense. Ofc everyone blames the other countries, but who's truly to blame?


Plot 4:
The Omni-Magic Academy has just been built, and it is accepting its first surge of students. Welcoming students from all kingdoms, it is a place built to teach and train young minds to become capable and adept at many areas of magical schooling and traditional education. This was built as a sign of alliance and peace, an attempt at keeping war at bay. With everyone invested in the prosperity of their youth, such a shared environment could foster teamwork, inclusion, cultural exchanges... even though the other 3 kingdoms still look at Denhartians in strange ways. But wait, something is not right. Some students go missing... and when one turns up dead, the leaders of the four kingdoms find themselves in a sticky situation.


Plot 5:
A new part of the world has just been discovered!! A strange environment full of peculiar magics, beings and... people? Untouched by civilisation, they seem to live a strange, isolated life... but is that all there is to it? Explorers from all 4 kingdoms venture out to claim riches and fame for themselves, and scholars seek to feed their curiosity. What will they find? Will they live to report back their findings...?


Plot 6:
This one is a bit out there, but, here it comes. Something falls out of the sky and lands on the planet's surface, somewhere that we can decide on later. It appears to be... a creature like never before seen. And this keeps happening. Strange beings keep falling out of the sky in strange vehicles, speaking strange languages, adorned in strange clothing and technology... characters can range from scholars to explorers to even diplomats and whatever you can think of that would be relevant for dealing with odd beings form the sky. And why are there more and more of them over time...?


Alright. Disclaimer: we do not have to strictly adhere to any of these. I'm just throwing these out there.

This looks really awesome. Give me like 3 minute to let my thoughts brew

 

[RK.]

Okay, yes, plot 3 interests me the most, however I like the elaboration on the kingdoms in plot 1.

With the addition that I think that one nation should have a long, sort of imperialistic legacy cemented with cultural domination and expansion in likeness to maybe the Roman Empire for example. Denhart could fill this role. The three other kingdoms would have independent histories of their own fundamentally shaped by their own native cultures and subjugation from this imperial power in their past history, and could have been formed more recently from the merging of various tribes or duchies like Vinicius mentioned.

Likely this Empire has long since fallen apart, but was important enough to establish the succeeding nation as an important political power as well as culturally influential, the language of the kingdom being commonly learned and used as a lingua franca for international communication and diplomacy (which would give a reason as to why our characters can understand each other given they come from different cultures).

I was thinking about it beforehand, but what if we had one territory (formerly 5th kingdom) be an annexed part of Denhart, operating as a sort of extension of Denhart like Wales was to England in the middle ages.

I was thinking this to be the land of the Faeries, a kingdom which fell behind in terms of technological prowess and was militarily conquered by Denhart a few hundred years prior to the events of this rp