TheSequelReturns
Faithful Crusader
~ Soul Sacrifice ~
A Dark-Fantasy RP
=====
"Magic always comes with a price."
One single rule has defined the world since time immemorial. To gain, one must also lose. But is there a price too great to pay?
There exists in this world powerful natural magic. It is instilled in everything from the raw natural elements to the living creatures of the lands to the race known as mankind. This magic is neither good nor evil, it simply is. It flows as it wishes to, shaping the land with each use and leaving its twisted scars on the very fabric of reality. Magic makes impossible things commonplace. But all magic comes with a price to pay, and for every spell of healing there is one of destruction. For every good sorcerer, there is a sinister monster. Every clash warping the world farther and farther into madness.
Some places in this world have seen more magical horrors than any others, and have been warped beyond all sense of reason or normalcy. Some of these cursed places are old battlegrounds, others the site of a wish gone wrong or the birthplace of a powerful evil. Regardless of origin, each and every one is cursed and twisted in some way. And all are avoided and feared.
Magic always leaves a mark. This is the tale of what happens to this world when the magic has run amok for too long, and what price they are willing to pay in return.
~ The Romalus and the Druids ~
At the advent of magic, humans were divided into two races. The Druids could use magic to reshape the world around them to their liking. Their power quickly swelled as they created the art of sorcery to study and wield this power. The Romalus however could not use magic and could never become sorcerers.
The Druids came to think they were far superior to the magic-less Romalus. In return the Romalus began to fear the Druid’s unknowable power. War soon erupted between the two peoples. The war scarred the land with overflowing magic leaving impossible landscapes and countless deaths in its wake. But it also revealed a new danger.
When a human gives into desperation, when their dark desires consume their mind, when they tap too greedily into magic or lose control and let it overflow through them, they lose themselves to the power. The energies warp and twist their bodies into horrific monsters, twisted shades of the worst of human desires. The war spawned many such monsters, dubbed Archfiends, which wreaked havoc on both sides.
With the threat of the monsters looming, the Romalus became more determined than ever. They outnumbered the Druids and they took advantage of the fact that sorcerers were much more likely to become monsters. Eventually, the Romalus claimed victory and dominion over the Druids. However, they allowed the remaining Druids their freedom if they would deal with the monsters, and swear fealty to the Romalus. Such was the end of the war.
Since those days, Archfiends have become more and more of a problem. Even a Romalus, who can’t use magic normally, could become an Archfiend if they were mauled by one and survived, the curse infecting them and spawning a new Archfiend. What's worse, the animals who could survive the magic of the war began to be twisted and warped as well, turning into Foul Creatures themselves. To combat this threat, the strongest Druid sorcerers formed Avalon, an organization dedicated to the extermination of all monsters.
700 years later, our tale begins...
~ The Chalice & The Archfiends ~
All of the tales of new types of Archfiends appearing during and after the war all share one thing in common. Each seemed to involve a mysterious object known as The Chalice.
This object was said to have the power to grant any wish, for an appropriate price. Looking for it was said to be a futile effort as well, as The Chalice was said to appear and disappear of its own will and to only appear before the most truly desperate humans. Humans who would give anything, pay any price, to have their desire granted.
This seems to be the only recorded appearances of the Chalice. A specter haunting the fringes of every tale of misery in the land. The Chalice’s origins are unknown, its true appearance is unknown, and its purpose is unknown. All that is known, is that when a human’s selfish desire overtakes them completely, the Chalice is never far away. Always with an offer they can’t refuse. A wish to cure their sorrow.
However, each time The Chalice granted a wish, the recipient seemed to transform into a new species of Archfiend, a monster born of some singular dark desire. No matter the wish granted, it always ended the same way. Let that serve as a warning for those tempted by The Chalice's power.
At the core of this story is an inescapable truth. All Archfiends, no matter how twisted or vile, were once human. And when an Archfiend is defeated, the magic wavers and the monster’s human form is revealed. At that point, a terrible choice awaits the victorious sorcerer. Sacrifice the human to end the threat and grow their own power, or Save the human and cleanse them of the magic curse knowing that they could easily succumb and transform once again.
~ Sorcery and Magic ~
All magic comes with a price, from the largest to the smallest. And the greater the magic, the greater the price. For truly powerful magic, the price may be too high to bear.
All sorcery is performed by making an offering of some object. Offerings to perform magic are wide and varied and can be just about anything from stones to plants to animal parts to living beings. All things possess magic within them, the Sorcerer is simply tapping into it. But these resources are not unlimited, and every offering has a limited number of uses before it is used up and reduced to dust.
Because the type of magic used depends on the offering it is important for Sorcerers to always have many types of offerings on them. Likewise, a sorcerer can renew the magic in his offerings by draining it from something else, though once an offering has been used up and turns to dust it is gone forever. And even to refill an offering, the price is usually the life of a lesser creature or plant.
In addition, there is a much more potent magic that can be obtained for a drastic price. These "Black Rites" can only be performed by sacrificing a part of the sorcerers own body to enact the spell. These "offerings" are permanently lost, an eternal scar marring the sorcerer.
A sorcerer who has faced powerful Archfiends and lived to tell the tale often bears the scars of his conquests, and it is not uncommon to find sorcerers missing eyes, limbs, or even bones and organs. A Black Rite can also be performed by sacrificing a still living sorcerer, a common fate when a partner suffers a mortal wound in combat.
There exists a more peaceful way as well. Though many sorcerers of Avalon prefer to sacrifice lesser creatures and dying comrades to claim victory, magic can also be used to heal. While healing others does not release powerful magics like sacrificing does, it does release life energy that can revitalize the caster and cleanse the buildup of dark magic. It can even return Foul Creatures and Archfiends to normal.
~ The Factions & The Right Arm ~
Magic and the choices of how it is wielded leave lasting marks on sorcerers. A sorcerer’s right arm will change and warp as the user sacrifices or saves others.
Sacrificing stores the victim’s souls in the sorcerer’s right arm, granting them power but corrupting the arm into a dark reflection of its owner’s sins. Saving stores a portion of the healed being’s life essence in the right arm, increasing a sorcerer’s recovery and stamina as their arm glows with inner light.
Perhaps because these two paths are so opposed and yet so visible, they carry very strong ideals at their core and factions have arisen who hold tightly to their chosen path. They are:
Avalon: A powerful organization lawfully established by the Romulus King. This group is fiercely dedicated to eradicating every last Foul Creature and Archfiend by any means necessary. And their preferred method is to sacrifice any and all. To save a human who became an Archfiend is absolutely forbidden to them. Doing so increases their own power but curses them with a heavy burden. For the stronger a sorcerer becomes, and the more souls they collect in their arms, the greater the risk of them turning into an Archfiend themselves. This is an acceptable risk for them, their bodies, lives, and souls a small price to pay to rid the world of monsters.
Black Rites are not only common among their number, but training is done in pairs and only when a sorcerer sacrifices their partner can they "graduate" and become full-fledged members. Avalon is ruled by "The Magistrate" an unnamed, but ancient sorcerer said to be a survivor of the war 700 years ago.
Sanctuarium: An organization hidden in the shadows and devoted to saving as many lives as possible. Sorcerers of the Sanctuarium are duty bound to save as many creatures and Archfiends as they can. Naturally, this puts them at constant odds with Avalon, who have Sanctuarium’s leadership on their most wanted board.
Because of Avalon’s constant presence, many of Sanctuarium’s sorcerers are former Archfiends themselves doing what they can to return the favor of sparing their lives. Because these sorcerer’s gather life essence in their right arms instead of human souls, they are at no risk of turning into Archfiends themselves and have stamina and recovery far beyond the norm. Black Rites are strictly forbidden and punishable by exile. Their leader, Lenixion, is so well hidden than even most of their own faction have never seen him/her.
Grim: Less an organization and more a loose gathering of like-minded individuals, Grim believes that balance should rule all things. The sorcerers of Grim reject the dogmatic beliefs of the other two factions and instead seek to remain as harmonious as possible. This means sacrificing and saving in equal measure. Some of their number pick and choose when to do either. Others choose to randomize their magic at the crucial moment, letting “fate” decide if the target lives or dies. This balance leaves their right arms in a state of flux, every corruption cleansed in turn. This means their arms bear no obvious markings of their experience, making even the most experienced sorcerers of Grim almost indistinguishable from a rookie.
Grim has no headquarters, their members instead roaming the land seeking out new recruits and targets. Black Rites are uncommon among them, but every sorcerer of Grim chooses their own path. Their leader, a red hood wearing woman named Similia, has made a habit of appearing and vanishing like the wind.
~ Your Role & the Sign-Up Form ~
You are a Druid sorcerer. Perhaps you are a new recruit in Avalon, your first partner’s blood fresh on your hands and their soul burning in your right arm. Perhaps you are a grizzled veteran of Sanctuarium, dedicated to saving lives and fighting the corruption. You might even be a member of Grim or a free agent who has turned their back on all three factions.
Regardless of your origins, your quest is only just beginning. The Archfiends have been in decline lately, due to Avalon’s successes and hunting Archfiends for profit has made the factions wealthy and influential. But rumors are starting to circulate of new, powerful Archfiends rising up from the wastelands. Of hordes of Foul Creatures where once there were none. And perhaps, most foreboding of all, are the rumors of the Chalice.
Fearing that a new surge in monster activity is imminent, the factions dispatch their sorcerers to the forbidden lands, the barren wastes that bear the worst scars of the war, to confirm if the rumors are true. You are one of them. And your mission is about to go very, very wrong.
Name: First and Last along with any titles, nicknames, aliases, etc.
Gender:
Age:
Faction: Avalon, Sanctuarium, Grim, or None. This will affect the status of your Right Arm as well as your tendencies to sacrifice or save. You can go against your assigned faction’s beliefs (and you can also change factions in-game) but there will be consequences.
Appearance: You have some freedom here. Technology level is around the same as Medieval times, so keep that in mind. Magic also makes outlandish outfits, glowing tattoos, and other oddities acceptable. Also include how your use of magic has shaped your right arm. Sacrificing builds up souls and curses in the arm, making it look more and more twisted and monstrous. Saving builds up life essence and blessings in the arm and makes it look more ethereal and heavenly. Balancing both keeps your arm looking entirely or mostly normal/neutral, though sorcerers who were once Archfiends may bear permanent marks. Particularly developed transformations can mar the arm all the way up to the shoulder, neck, even parts of the face.
Personality: You know what to do here.
History: Not asking for much here. A paragraph or two, just enough to let me know where your character is coming from and/or their history with their faction. Remember that your character is a Druid. You were born with magic in a world where magic is feared.
Preferred Magic: What’s your magical style? Elemental attacks? Creating weapons from your offerings? Buffs and debuffs? Poisons and status effects? Healing and protection? You have a good bit of freedom here. Also list a few examples of the offerings you use for your spells. These are the natural resources that you must sacrifice to use magic and can be any sort of naturally occurring thing. Examples might be special stones for earth spells, toxic flowers for poison spells, or feathers for agility spells. Again, you have a lot of freedom to be creative here. You are not limited to these abilities, but your spells are limited to the offerings you carry or find. A good rule of thumb is the rarer or more "special" the offering, the stronger the magical effect produced. Living things also produce stronger magics than dead or non-living things.
Other: Anything that doesn’t fit somewhere else.
A Dark-Fantasy RP
=====
"Magic always comes with a price."
One single rule has defined the world since time immemorial. To gain, one must also lose. But is there a price too great to pay?
There exists in this world powerful natural magic. It is instilled in everything from the raw natural elements to the living creatures of the lands to the race known as mankind. This magic is neither good nor evil, it simply is. It flows as it wishes to, shaping the land with each use and leaving its twisted scars on the very fabric of reality. Magic makes impossible things commonplace. But all magic comes with a price to pay, and for every spell of healing there is one of destruction. For every good sorcerer, there is a sinister monster. Every clash warping the world farther and farther into madness.
Some places in this world have seen more magical horrors than any others, and have been warped beyond all sense of reason or normalcy. Some of these cursed places are old battlegrounds, others the site of a wish gone wrong or the birthplace of a powerful evil. Regardless of origin, each and every one is cursed and twisted in some way. And all are avoided and feared.
Magic always leaves a mark. This is the tale of what happens to this world when the magic has run amok for too long, and what price they are willing to pay in return.
~ The Romalus and the Druids ~
At the advent of magic, humans were divided into two races. The Druids could use magic to reshape the world around them to their liking. Their power quickly swelled as they created the art of sorcery to study and wield this power. The Romalus however could not use magic and could never become sorcerers.
The Druids came to think they were far superior to the magic-less Romalus. In return the Romalus began to fear the Druid’s unknowable power. War soon erupted between the two peoples. The war scarred the land with overflowing magic leaving impossible landscapes and countless deaths in its wake. But it also revealed a new danger.
When a human gives into desperation, when their dark desires consume their mind, when they tap too greedily into magic or lose control and let it overflow through them, they lose themselves to the power. The energies warp and twist their bodies into horrific monsters, twisted shades of the worst of human desires. The war spawned many such monsters, dubbed Archfiends, which wreaked havoc on both sides.
With the threat of the monsters looming, the Romalus became more determined than ever. They outnumbered the Druids and they took advantage of the fact that sorcerers were much more likely to become monsters. Eventually, the Romalus claimed victory and dominion over the Druids. However, they allowed the remaining Druids their freedom if they would deal with the monsters, and swear fealty to the Romalus. Such was the end of the war.
Since those days, Archfiends have become more and more of a problem. Even a Romalus, who can’t use magic normally, could become an Archfiend if they were mauled by one and survived, the curse infecting them and spawning a new Archfiend. What's worse, the animals who could survive the magic of the war began to be twisted and warped as well, turning into Foul Creatures themselves. To combat this threat, the strongest Druid sorcerers formed Avalon, an organization dedicated to the extermination of all monsters.
700 years later, our tale begins...
~ The Chalice & The Archfiends ~
All of the tales of new types of Archfiends appearing during and after the war all share one thing in common. Each seemed to involve a mysterious object known as The Chalice.
This object was said to have the power to grant any wish, for an appropriate price. Looking for it was said to be a futile effort as well, as The Chalice was said to appear and disappear of its own will and to only appear before the most truly desperate humans. Humans who would give anything, pay any price, to have their desire granted.
This seems to be the only recorded appearances of the Chalice. A specter haunting the fringes of every tale of misery in the land. The Chalice’s origins are unknown, its true appearance is unknown, and its purpose is unknown. All that is known, is that when a human’s selfish desire overtakes them completely, the Chalice is never far away. Always with an offer they can’t refuse. A wish to cure their sorrow.
However, each time The Chalice granted a wish, the recipient seemed to transform into a new species of Archfiend, a monster born of some singular dark desire. No matter the wish granted, it always ended the same way. Let that serve as a warning for those tempted by The Chalice's power.
At the core of this story is an inescapable truth. All Archfiends, no matter how twisted or vile, were once human. And when an Archfiend is defeated, the magic wavers and the monster’s human form is revealed. At that point, a terrible choice awaits the victorious sorcerer. Sacrifice the human to end the threat and grow their own power, or Save the human and cleanse them of the magic curse knowing that they could easily succumb and transform once again.
~ Sorcery and Magic ~
All magic comes with a price, from the largest to the smallest. And the greater the magic, the greater the price. For truly powerful magic, the price may be too high to bear.
All sorcery is performed by making an offering of some object. Offerings to perform magic are wide and varied and can be just about anything from stones to plants to animal parts to living beings. All things possess magic within them, the Sorcerer is simply tapping into it. But these resources are not unlimited, and every offering has a limited number of uses before it is used up and reduced to dust.
Because the type of magic used depends on the offering it is important for Sorcerers to always have many types of offerings on them. Likewise, a sorcerer can renew the magic in his offerings by draining it from something else, though once an offering has been used up and turns to dust it is gone forever. And even to refill an offering, the price is usually the life of a lesser creature or plant.
In addition, there is a much more potent magic that can be obtained for a drastic price. These "Black Rites" can only be performed by sacrificing a part of the sorcerers own body to enact the spell. These "offerings" are permanently lost, an eternal scar marring the sorcerer.
A sorcerer who has faced powerful Archfiends and lived to tell the tale often bears the scars of his conquests, and it is not uncommon to find sorcerers missing eyes, limbs, or even bones and organs. A Black Rite can also be performed by sacrificing a still living sorcerer, a common fate when a partner suffers a mortal wound in combat.
There exists a more peaceful way as well. Though many sorcerers of Avalon prefer to sacrifice lesser creatures and dying comrades to claim victory, magic can also be used to heal. While healing others does not release powerful magics like sacrificing does, it does release life energy that can revitalize the caster and cleanse the buildup of dark magic. It can even return Foul Creatures and Archfiends to normal.
~ The Factions & The Right Arm ~
Magic and the choices of how it is wielded leave lasting marks on sorcerers. A sorcerer’s right arm will change and warp as the user sacrifices or saves others.
Sacrificing stores the victim’s souls in the sorcerer’s right arm, granting them power but corrupting the arm into a dark reflection of its owner’s sins. Saving stores a portion of the healed being’s life essence in the right arm, increasing a sorcerer’s recovery and stamina as their arm glows with inner light.
Perhaps because these two paths are so opposed and yet so visible, they carry very strong ideals at their core and factions have arisen who hold tightly to their chosen path. They are:
Avalon: A powerful organization lawfully established by the Romulus King. This group is fiercely dedicated to eradicating every last Foul Creature and Archfiend by any means necessary. And their preferred method is to sacrifice any and all. To save a human who became an Archfiend is absolutely forbidden to them. Doing so increases their own power but curses them with a heavy burden. For the stronger a sorcerer becomes, and the more souls they collect in their arms, the greater the risk of them turning into an Archfiend themselves. This is an acceptable risk for them, their bodies, lives, and souls a small price to pay to rid the world of monsters.
Black Rites are not only common among their number, but training is done in pairs and only when a sorcerer sacrifices their partner can they "graduate" and become full-fledged members. Avalon is ruled by "The Magistrate" an unnamed, but ancient sorcerer said to be a survivor of the war 700 years ago.
Sanctuarium: An organization hidden in the shadows and devoted to saving as many lives as possible. Sorcerers of the Sanctuarium are duty bound to save as many creatures and Archfiends as they can. Naturally, this puts them at constant odds with Avalon, who have Sanctuarium’s leadership on their most wanted board.
Because of Avalon’s constant presence, many of Sanctuarium’s sorcerers are former Archfiends themselves doing what they can to return the favor of sparing their lives. Because these sorcerer’s gather life essence in their right arms instead of human souls, they are at no risk of turning into Archfiends themselves and have stamina and recovery far beyond the norm. Black Rites are strictly forbidden and punishable by exile. Their leader, Lenixion, is so well hidden than even most of their own faction have never seen him/her.
Grim: Less an organization and more a loose gathering of like-minded individuals, Grim believes that balance should rule all things. The sorcerers of Grim reject the dogmatic beliefs of the other two factions and instead seek to remain as harmonious as possible. This means sacrificing and saving in equal measure. Some of their number pick and choose when to do either. Others choose to randomize their magic at the crucial moment, letting “fate” decide if the target lives or dies. This balance leaves their right arms in a state of flux, every corruption cleansed in turn. This means their arms bear no obvious markings of their experience, making even the most experienced sorcerers of Grim almost indistinguishable from a rookie.
Grim has no headquarters, their members instead roaming the land seeking out new recruits and targets. Black Rites are uncommon among them, but every sorcerer of Grim chooses their own path. Their leader, a red hood wearing woman named Similia, has made a habit of appearing and vanishing like the wind.
~ Your Role & the Sign-Up Form ~
You are a Druid sorcerer. Perhaps you are a new recruit in Avalon, your first partner’s blood fresh on your hands and their soul burning in your right arm. Perhaps you are a grizzled veteran of Sanctuarium, dedicated to saving lives and fighting the corruption. You might even be a member of Grim or a free agent who has turned their back on all three factions.
Regardless of your origins, your quest is only just beginning. The Archfiends have been in decline lately, due to Avalon’s successes and hunting Archfiends for profit has made the factions wealthy and influential. But rumors are starting to circulate of new, powerful Archfiends rising up from the wastelands. Of hordes of Foul Creatures where once there were none. And perhaps, most foreboding of all, are the rumors of the Chalice.
Fearing that a new surge in monster activity is imminent, the factions dispatch their sorcerers to the forbidden lands, the barren wastes that bear the worst scars of the war, to confirm if the rumors are true. You are one of them. And your mission is about to go very, very wrong.
Name: First and Last along with any titles, nicknames, aliases, etc.
Gender:
Age:
Faction: Avalon, Sanctuarium, Grim, or None. This will affect the status of your Right Arm as well as your tendencies to sacrifice or save. You can go against your assigned faction’s beliefs (and you can also change factions in-game) but there will be consequences.
Appearance: You have some freedom here. Technology level is around the same as Medieval times, so keep that in mind. Magic also makes outlandish outfits, glowing tattoos, and other oddities acceptable. Also include how your use of magic has shaped your right arm. Sacrificing builds up souls and curses in the arm, making it look more and more twisted and monstrous. Saving builds up life essence and blessings in the arm and makes it look more ethereal and heavenly. Balancing both keeps your arm looking entirely or mostly normal/neutral, though sorcerers who were once Archfiends may bear permanent marks. Particularly developed transformations can mar the arm all the way up to the shoulder, neck, even parts of the face.
Personality: You know what to do here.
History: Not asking for much here. A paragraph or two, just enough to let me know where your character is coming from and/or their history with their faction. Remember that your character is a Druid. You were born with magic in a world where magic is feared.
Preferred Magic: What’s your magical style? Elemental attacks? Creating weapons from your offerings? Buffs and debuffs? Poisons and status effects? Healing and protection? You have a good bit of freedom here. Also list a few examples of the offerings you use for your spells. These are the natural resources that you must sacrifice to use magic and can be any sort of naturally occurring thing. Examples might be special stones for earth spells, toxic flowers for poison spells, or feathers for agility spells. Again, you have a lot of freedom to be creative here. You are not limited to these abilities, but your spells are limited to the offerings you carry or find. A good rule of thumb is the rarer or more "special" the offering, the stronger the magical effect produced. Living things also produce stronger magics than dead or non-living things.
Other: Anything that doesn’t fit somewhere else.
Last edited:
