Sleipnir
The Eight-Legged Norse Horse
Where do I even start?
It's a bit roleplay, and there's a lot of different places and things to read and look at. So here's the guide to help you figure out what it is you'll want to know, and what you can skip.
Characters
There aren't many limits on character creation. This is a supernatural world, and you can play anything from a centaur to an elemental to a plain human. You can even play a mythological god if you play them in the Ethereal plane, or they don't use their godly abilities to attack or benefit the Department. (I.e., Loki can show up to re alphabetize all the documents according to the second letter of the fifth word of each page, but he can't show up to aid field agents on a mission or try to kill one of the department agents.) the You can be a demigod of any sort if you like, as plenty of mythologies have already been mentioned such as Norse, Greek and Egyptian.
There are also a variety of different types of magic a character can host, many of which are mentioned in the "Magic" topic in the Database. These aren't the only kinds of magic, but some of the most well-known. One can manipulate any number of interesting things and magic, being studied like any other science, can be manipulated and specialized in many ways, meaning a magic user can be skilled in anything from simply controlling air currents to creating creatures made from amethyst.
Of course there will be limitations, but weaknesses must be looked at based on the strengths. It has to balance out.
Planes
You don't have to play characters on both planes. You could do both if you want, or do one or the other.
Ethereal Plane
This is the home of gods, extremely powerful entities, and embodiments of powerful worldly concepts like Life, Death, and Fate. This is the only place you can have jacked-up, OP battles comparable to epic rival-battles from the shonen genre, where there's lots of world-shattering attacks, floaty air time, rock-destroying punches, yelling everything, and flashy, bright power-ups.
Or if you want, you can go have tea at Death's castle or play cosmic tennis, which is kind of like the fighting, only it's tennis.
In this plane, you can be anything that would be dramatically too overpowered for the "main game." It's the place to go out if you want plots where you stop universe-destroying conflicts or try to do the universe-destroying.
"Mundane" plane
I think it's safe to say that "mundane" is a poor word choice for our own plane. There's magic, dragons, vampires, moody ghosts, half-Angels, drunken gods, and all sorts of other fun things to discover. That being said, this is a place where powers are scaled way back from what you see in the Ethereal plane. This is where you RP more... "Day-to-day" stuff, like solving murders, tracking gangs, maybe lead a species-suprematist cult, or just troll other characters if that's what you wanna do. This is the place where you do plots related to earth and it's inhabitants.
That isn't to say you cannot under any circumstances have an ethereal level character here. You can. But they can't be used to resolve a conflict by just giving an agent the answer, massacring a cult, or threatening someone into submission, like I said before. However they can show up to ask for help, socialize, or, you know... Just be a jerk.
The Database
You don't have to ready everything in the database. I repeat: You don't have to read everything in the database! If you want to, go for it. If you want to see if we have written about a specific creature or magic to see how we characterize it in-game in case you want to use it, please do. But it isn't a requirement to read everything. Just read what's relevant to you.
Okay, I made my character. Now what?
There are a lot of options if where to put a character.
A lot of options.
There's a whole section dedicated to the Department's headquarters. If you're making an agent or someone who's hanging around, start there. Inside the Headquarters section is the threads for lots of different locations, like the lobby, work room, lounge, or gym.
The work room is where you should go to find a case to work on. Tag me and I'll have Piper or someone else if she's busy give you some options. These will come in the form of a couple of clues and no obvious answer immediately. (If it seems obvious, expect a twist.) Find one that seems interesting. If none do, ask for more. From there, I'll want to know if you want to do this solo or with a partner. If you want a partner, I'll assign someone, possibly at random, to work the case with you. It won't be the same people together every time, that way everyone can interact with everyone, but I'll play along if you request to work with someone specific. Then I'll make the case thread, tag you, and we can get started — I'll be stringing you along, offering clues, suspects, evidence and lots of other situations and surprises depending on the case. You'll figure the mystery out.
Then there's places like the lobby and break room — they're more socializing spots than anything. Some characters of mine frequent these locations, so you'll always be able to find someone there to talk to.
The Prison Cells work the same way, but are kind of high security. Sometimes there are escapes.
Outside the department, you can find loose threads like the OOC and the streets of DC. The streets are a good place to kill someone, start a plot, or just plain introduce a character, especially if they aren't an agent.
There's also the Golden Fang Brotherhood. That's where groups of vampire supremacists can be found. They're considered one of the department's greatest enemies, working like a huge Mafia.
Also feel free to post questions here if you're still a bit confused or overwhelmed. I'll respond as soon as possible.
It's a bit roleplay, and there's a lot of different places and things to read and look at. So here's the guide to help you figure out what it is you'll want to know, and what you can skip.
Characters
There aren't many limits on character creation. This is a supernatural world, and you can play anything from a centaur to an elemental to a plain human. You can even play a mythological god if you play them in the Ethereal plane, or they don't use their godly abilities to attack or benefit the Department. (I.e., Loki can show up to re alphabetize all the documents according to the second letter of the fifth word of each page, but he can't show up to aid field agents on a mission or try to kill one of the department agents.) the You can be a demigod of any sort if you like, as plenty of mythologies have already been mentioned such as Norse, Greek and Egyptian.
There are also a variety of different types of magic a character can host, many of which are mentioned in the "Magic" topic in the Database. These aren't the only kinds of magic, but some of the most well-known. One can manipulate any number of interesting things and magic, being studied like any other science, can be manipulated and specialized in many ways, meaning a magic user can be skilled in anything from simply controlling air currents to creating creatures made from amethyst.
Of course there will be limitations, but weaknesses must be looked at based on the strengths. It has to balance out.
Planes
You don't have to play characters on both planes. You could do both if you want, or do one or the other.
Ethereal Plane
This is the home of gods, extremely powerful entities, and embodiments of powerful worldly concepts like Life, Death, and Fate. This is the only place you can have jacked-up, OP battles comparable to epic rival-battles from the shonen genre, where there's lots of world-shattering attacks, floaty air time, rock-destroying punches, yelling everything, and flashy, bright power-ups.
Or if you want, you can go have tea at Death's castle or play cosmic tennis, which is kind of like the fighting, only it's tennis.
In this plane, you can be anything that would be dramatically too overpowered for the "main game." It's the place to go out if you want plots where you stop universe-destroying conflicts or try to do the universe-destroying.
"Mundane" plane
I think it's safe to say that "mundane" is a poor word choice for our own plane. There's magic, dragons, vampires, moody ghosts, half-Angels, drunken gods, and all sorts of other fun things to discover. That being said, this is a place where powers are scaled way back from what you see in the Ethereal plane. This is where you RP more... "Day-to-day" stuff, like solving murders, tracking gangs, maybe lead a species-suprematist cult, or just troll other characters if that's what you wanna do. This is the place where you do plots related to earth and it's inhabitants.
That isn't to say you cannot under any circumstances have an ethereal level character here. You can. But they can't be used to resolve a conflict by just giving an agent the answer, massacring a cult, or threatening someone into submission, like I said before. However they can show up to ask for help, socialize, or, you know... Just be a jerk.
The Database
You don't have to ready everything in the database. I repeat: You don't have to read everything in the database! If you want to, go for it. If you want to see if we have written about a specific creature or magic to see how we characterize it in-game in case you want to use it, please do. But it isn't a requirement to read everything. Just read what's relevant to you.
Okay, I made my character. Now what?
There are a lot of options if where to put a character.
A lot of options.
There's a whole section dedicated to the Department's headquarters. If you're making an agent or someone who's hanging around, start there. Inside the Headquarters section is the threads for lots of different locations, like the lobby, work room, lounge, or gym.
The work room is where you should go to find a case to work on. Tag me and I'll have Piper or someone else if she's busy give you some options. These will come in the form of a couple of clues and no obvious answer immediately. (If it seems obvious, expect a twist.) Find one that seems interesting. If none do, ask for more. From there, I'll want to know if you want to do this solo or with a partner. If you want a partner, I'll assign someone, possibly at random, to work the case with you. It won't be the same people together every time, that way everyone can interact with everyone, but I'll play along if you request to work with someone specific. Then I'll make the case thread, tag you, and we can get started — I'll be stringing you along, offering clues, suspects, evidence and lots of other situations and surprises depending on the case. You'll figure the mystery out.
Then there's places like the lobby and break room — they're more socializing spots than anything. Some characters of mine frequent these locations, so you'll always be able to find someone there to talk to.
The Prison Cells work the same way, but are kind of high security. Sometimes there are escapes.
Outside the department, you can find loose threads like the OOC and the streets of DC. The streets are a good place to kill someone, start a plot, or just plain introduce a character, especially if they aren't an agent.
There's also the Golden Fang Brotherhood. That's where groups of vampire supremacists can be found. They're considered one of the department's greatest enemies, working like a huge Mafia.
Also feel free to post questions here if you're still a bit confused or overwhelmed. I'll respond as soon as possible.
