A Story of Betrayal in Two Parts.
"I knew the consequences. But... I cannot apologize. I will not. If I should apologize or feel regret, then everything would have been for naught."
So for a while now, I've wanted to do an RP based on Berserk and a few other things, and I have finally started to get some of the ideas hammered out. Of course, as soon as I do that, the partner I'm working with seems to go silent, so I'm opening this up to further advance it, and work on it. I won't be using the same characters from the original thread (at least, most likely I won't), as I have several ideas for this and for characters. However, I am still going to provide links to the lore thread I started for this.
Lore: Fantasy - Dirge of Valice [Lore]
The short version is below:
- This will be a story in two parts - beginning with a group that works together. One will betray the rest. Most of them will die - there must be at least one survivor. One of us will play the traitor. The other will play the guaranteed survivor.
- Act 2 is the Traitor going on towards their goals, and the Survivor, most likely, seeking revenge, and gaining a new group to deal with the new world.
- New World? One of the themes I want to play with is dimensional planes - and how the Traitor's action begins the process of uniting all the plains into one. This is, obviously, going to cause problems.
- I would like the major characters to fall into "roles" - this could be a Zodiac we create for the world, Tarot (as you can see being used in the Lore thread above), Chess pieces, whatever - I want something we can use, to tie into prophecy, and provide us with some guidance and a "place" for the characters in the world.
- Medieval/Rennaisance period and technology, for the most part. Obviously loose, as there will be magic.
- Magic, non-humans, and such, should be rare so far as being out in the open - open to discussion on it, but I think Act 2 should have it be more prominent.
- On the note of the characters playing a role/archetype, I'm also interested in seeing how this would be reflected in the major religions or belief systems. I started to work on that in the Lore thread, as well.
If this appeals, seriously hit me up. I’m a bit rusty on world building, but I can go far with spit-balling. I've listed some ideas, but they're not limited to what's here, at all!
So please, take a look at what I have to offer! Please take a look at my rules, there is a code there!
1. Don't God-Mod. In other words, don't make my character speak, don't make my character, don't make my character take damage, and don't control my character. If you want something to go a certain way for plot purposes, just PM me and ask. Usually, I accept "god-modding" during travel and the like. It is usually acceptable to assume movement if a character is already committed to the journey.
2. Please be able to play both genders, and play multiple roles. Your main character(s) may be just male or just female, but I expect all the side characters and NPCs to have life and flavor, too.
3. On the note of characters: I will always play one female character. So, be aware of that. With that said, I usually also always play one male character, and I do MxM, MxF, and FxF pairings, though I prefer MxF.
4. I only RP on threads, (or GDocs in rare cases), so no PM, kik, discord, e-mail, or other rps with me. So that I know you’ve read the rules this far, please tell me about your favorite food!
5. Please be able to write more than a couple of sentences as responses to me. I have tried to do “simple” RPs, but I end up not feeling motivated to respond or continue the RP. I will need you to be able to write a paragraph or two, each post, at least.
6. PM if you are interested. The only reason for you not to PM me is if you cannot do so due to the fact you haven't reached 24 hours/10 posts.
Guidelines:
1. I do not like to be hassled for posts. Especially if I have already posted that day or the day before. Do not bother me for posts until at least two days have passed. Otherwise, I will start to resent our RP and lose interest in it.
2. I enjoy OOC talk, however I will not respond to "hi" or "-poke-" or equivalents. Have substance to the chatter, even if it just asking "How are you?".
3. Do not bump our thread if I have not posted. I will not post out of spite. I have a problem with this, I acknowledge it, I'm not fixing it.
4. On that matter, please keep OOC to PMs and not on our IC thread. IC is for posting. If you have a question, concern, or comment, just shoot me a PM.
5. In general, I do not enjoy immediate romances or "slice-of-life" RPs, so do not come to me expecting I'll do either. I may make rare exceptions.
Given my inspiration comes heavily from Berserk, Dark Souls, the Dark Tower, and Star Wars, this is what I have envisioned for Act One.
A group of mercenaries, or perhaps even an elite force of Valice's military, are sent on a quest to deal with a strange occurrence happening in a town on the far-end of one part of the kingdom of Valice. This would be near Valice's enemy, and so, naturally, Valice is blaming them for this. I'm imagining a sort of "bleed" from one dimension into the material one, that is poisoning the material realm around it. This could be all of act one, and we'd build the characters on the journey, and through the quest - and have the end of the quest be the point of the betrayal, or have it be serious foreshadowing. If we go the route of serious foreshadowing, then we would likely move into "Act 1.5" instead of Act 2.
A path where the original quest is not the moment of betrayal, but foreshadows it in some way - we'd figure all these things out together, these are guidance points, since we're building to act 2. Outlines are good.
The group returns victorious, likely with some reason or event to blame their foes - and so open war begins. Through this, the major group begins to gain more renown, more fame, and more love, from the populace and monarchy, at the expense of love from other nobles. There would be battles here, on the field, and in the background of political manueverings, as the Traitor likely tries to meet their ends by working with the system (whatever their ends are). Of course, this doesn't work out - likely, some traumatic event happens through all of this (assassination attempt, humiliation in public, etc etc)., and pushes the Traitor towards the act that will bring about the drastic changes in the world as they know it, which will kill most of their companions, leading into Act Two.
The Traitor goes to achieve their ultimate goal, enlisting the help of others so touched by fate, or others from different realms.
The Survivor, alone, likely goes to seek revenge and try to navigate the new and changing world. They will find new allies just as well, and be singled out for destruction as they now play the new role: the only one who could possibly stop the Traitor's goals from coming into fruition.
The Traitor's goals shouldn't seem evil. The Traitor themselves shouldn't seem evil, and perhaps - they aren't. Perhaps they are the good guy, and the Survivor is the villain for wanting to stop them. It is a question of "Do the means justify the ends?" . It is a question of moral ambiguity, and what good and evil are, and I hope we'll explore both sides of the story, the Traitor and the Survivor, equally, to the end, and build up their new followers and their reasons for being.
I don't terribly mind starting at Act Two, if my partner really wants to, but we'll have to determine a lot about the past of each character beforehand.