mother of sorrows
๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ป, ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ช๐ฃ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ๐ต
INTRODUCTION.
It has been 6523 years since the last, and first, apocalypse.
When asked, the state approved textbooks read the event back to you like this;
'In the beginning, there was the Archaic Mother. She created our known universe and the Firstborns, creatures of reality-bending, unfathomable power. One of them is Azariphael, the first angel - they were born of chaos, plunging the newly-born universe into a state of brimstome and fire and humans hiding in black caves as to not be devoured. However, when the Archaic Mother gave the humans magic, Azariphael was enraged. They caused the apocalypse, an event that threatened to tear the universe itself apart. As a result, the Archaic Mother perished and Azariphael was stripped of their eight wings and thrown into the deepest level of hell where they were to be chained. A prophecy foretold that the first angel will rise again one day, and bring with them a new age of destruction.
Of course, this will never happen and is widely considered to be a conspiracy theory created by bunker selling companies. Azariphael's chains are inspected by the Goverment Branch for Falsehoods every sixth century and there is no proof at all that they are deteriorating.
(A fun fact from our sponsor: did you know the Lucia City Hillfree Park thermal water is sourched from the bones of Kathiriel, the Firstborn of Thousand Teeth? Talk about a crazy vacation!)'
In the eyes of the goverment and the general public, the apocalypse is a threat that is only brought up at comedy nights and the rare interview of local zealots shown on reality TV. It is giggled at, dismissed, thrown away, ignored - and if asked, the Lords will promptly answer that 'it is no concern.' Not a single waking, living being, be it human or otherwise, saw the first one and how can they be scared of something that happened at the dawn of humanity, at a time when they still beat each other the heads with rocks?
You know better.
With the dubious honor of being an agent of the Goverment Branch of Apocalyptic Prevention (not-so-officially called the Branch for Prevention of Getting Some Bitches), you are tasked to preserve the delicate strings that stop the sky and the earth from crashing into each other. Such a noble task is not easy; you are to deal with megalomaniac beings, hours in the mind-bending pits of hell and to support the desperate petitions to raise awareness about the prophecy. For thanks, your branch makes camp in the lowest basement level of the Ministry and gains the budget of around eight dollars per week.
You are not respected. Agents from more prestigious branches barely care to hide their laughter when you pass them by. Just last Friday, your guys' goverment car broke down and now you have to use a former ice cream truck to get around. No one believes in the importance of what you do and maybe, in your darkest moments, you don't believe in it either.
And then.
One clear, lazy Tuesday night, long after any reasonable soul should be awake, it starts to rain blood.
The plot follows a hapless goverment branch tasked with preventing a world-shredding event that nobody actually believes will happen. Most of their jobs include trickle-down tasks not even a self-hating student intern would be willing to do and with pay that only barely covers the cost of living in a shoebox. However, as convinced as everybody is that they're not in danger, strange omens for things to pass have been popping up more and more - and now that they think about it, it has been a while since they checked up on Azariphael.
Hint: it was not the chains that kept Azariphael down.
LORE.
The World;; There are countless dimensions that fill the space of the universe, but the main ones are; Earth, Heaven, Hell and the Frontier.
As the name implies, the Earth is similar to the one in real life! Countries, ethnicities and histories are mirrored in this roleplay, with the exception of real life religions and historical events that would be uncomfortable to mention (an example would be WW2 and other such things.) Humans have created a few pocket dimensions as well that live without the need for their original homeland.
Heaven and Hell are easily reachable and have been interwoven with Earth since their creation; the rules of reality are inconceivably different to those for Earth, with magical rituals and the possession of a body needed to travel between them, or at least a contract involving how a soul is presented in the other dimension (angels and demons can't show their true, unchanged form when on Earth, as it would break down time and place - while a human would not be able to withstand Heaven or Hell as it is, turning to mushy piles of pulting flesh or salt pillars.)
The Frontier are dimensions unknown and unreachable to most - only saints and Firstborns are able to travel through them to see sights that could turn a lesser man mad. It is no one way street, however. Sometimes, whatever lives in those shadowy lands crosses over. And when that is to happen...
Lucia City;; Out of all the pocket cities, Lucia City is the most advanced, visited and disgustingly cruel out of all of them. Slums are undercut by funding for new artificial beaches and the upper echelon makes shameless deals to work their forces down to the bone - quite often literally. The soul is only another bartering chip here, where bullet-proof, armed-like-an-executor guards patrol warehouses and chain-mail might actually bring your untimely death. The goverment is headed by the Lords, a ruling of twelve ministers that claim absolute control over the city and right under them is their loyal little lap dog, the House of Sun. Born nobles and those wealthy enough to buy a title pass or deny laws here, but mostly to debate on minor scandals that the rest of the world has already forgotten about.
Angels, demons, humans and everything in between live here. Demons and angels are obligated to sign a contract to be restricted in their form, as the laws of truth are only slightly looser than those on Earth.
Species;; HUMANS เผโง Frail, bloody little things. They age and die like worms, but they're stubborn in their existence. They are the only being known that can change their magic; like clay, their prowess comes from training and training alone. Humans are not defined into cages like angels or demons, instead molding themselves into identity. They're able to strike deals with demons and angels, as great or bad as those might turn out.
ANGELS เผโง Screaming voices of Heaven, their wings like needles and voices like a drill through your eardrum. Immortal and endless and with the howling of the pure - they range from lamb-headed youths to floating swords of fire and to what could almost be thought as humanoid. Like demons, they are born with their abilities and are unable to grow weaker or stronger. Not unless they consume a soul, that is.
DEMONS เผโง The whisper in the night when you thought you are alone, too sharp teeth and bleeding eyes, a nightmare that sits upon your torso. Never dying and never aging, sucking blood/pus/bone marrow from bloated corpses. They come to you in the form of a beautiful, grinning woman perhaps, or with limbs of a goat and the head of a cat. Like angels, they need to devour a soul to grow in power.
HALF-BLOODS เผโง Half a human and half a demon or angel. They were thought beasts, once, or as punishment from the Firstborns - changelings left for dead or horned babes fed to the wolves. Nowadays, they are as common as dandelions in cracked cement and host traits from both parents. Seemingly fully human or with wings spreading from their back, growing a second mouth or with teeth cutting.
ANTEDILUVIANS เผโง The only remains of the sleeping Firstborns. A mix of humanity and something awfully wrong, they are the result of Firstborn blood that trickled into humans countless generations ago - and they cradle the blight of such an union. They are born dead more often than not and with a second head when alive; sickly, odd and with powers that border on horrifying, they are often the first heirs to sainthood.
SAINTS เผโง This is not a playable species. Humans that have ascended their fleshy, soft bodies and gained a deep knowledge of the universe. Their number may be counted on one hand alone and the journey to become a saint is the way to become trapped as a screaming ball of fire or burn to ash. Only a certain few may gain this mandle of divine madness and each one of their steps shifts the world around them in subtle changes that you will never know about. Their very presence is enough to change their environment, such as babies born near them gain strange abilities, animals are born with speech and the skies burn alive.
FIRSTBORNS เผ This is not a playable species. The very first angels and demons created by the Mother, now all asleep in some core of the universe. Not much is understood of them in modern times and truly, maybe it is for the best.
Magic;; Magic is ever-changing, unruled and enough to create an universe of your own if you are so mighty. (You are not, but some saints might be?)
Due to the nature of such magic, there are no rules for your characters regarding it! As long as it's interesting and has its drawbacks, go crazy. : ] However, keep in mind that while some beings are capable of changing time, truth and whatever else, our cast will be no such grand heroes. Please be reasonable and don't try to make a character that could easily kill a Firstborn if they think a bit about it.
Demons and angels on average have around 2-3 powers that are unique to them. They cannot change these powers, nor do they grow stronger with use.
Humans can learn and train magic. While they usually have around 2 specialisations, they can learn a general knowledge of various spells.
Antediluvians are born with magical abilities that are, compared to other species, much stronger than the rest. For example, brief glimpses into the future, telepathy, etc. However, this comes at a great cost to their physical health.
RULES.
It has been 6523 years since the last, and first, apocalypse.
When asked, the state approved textbooks read the event back to you like this;
'In the beginning, there was the Archaic Mother. She created our known universe and the Firstborns, creatures of reality-bending, unfathomable power. One of them is Azariphael, the first angel - they were born of chaos, plunging the newly-born universe into a state of brimstome and fire and humans hiding in black caves as to not be devoured. However, when the Archaic Mother gave the humans magic, Azariphael was enraged. They caused the apocalypse, an event that threatened to tear the universe itself apart. As a result, the Archaic Mother perished and Azariphael was stripped of their eight wings and thrown into the deepest level of hell where they were to be chained. A prophecy foretold that the first angel will rise again one day, and bring with them a new age of destruction.
Of course, this will never happen and is widely considered to be a conspiracy theory created by bunker selling companies. Azariphael's chains are inspected by the Goverment Branch for Falsehoods every sixth century and there is no proof at all that they are deteriorating.
(A fun fact from our sponsor: did you know the Lucia City Hillfree Park thermal water is sourched from the bones of Kathiriel, the Firstborn of Thousand Teeth? Talk about a crazy vacation!)'
In the eyes of the goverment and the general public, the apocalypse is a threat that is only brought up at comedy nights and the rare interview of local zealots shown on reality TV. It is giggled at, dismissed, thrown away, ignored - and if asked, the Lords will promptly answer that 'it is no concern.' Not a single waking, living being, be it human or otherwise, saw the first one and how can they be scared of something that happened at the dawn of humanity, at a time when they still beat each other the heads with rocks?
You know better.
With the dubious honor of being an agent of the Goverment Branch of Apocalyptic Prevention (not-so-officially called the Branch for Prevention of Getting Some Bitches), you are tasked to preserve the delicate strings that stop the sky and the earth from crashing into each other. Such a noble task is not easy; you are to deal with megalomaniac beings, hours in the mind-bending pits of hell and to support the desperate petitions to raise awareness about the prophecy. For thanks, your branch makes camp in the lowest basement level of the Ministry and gains the budget of around eight dollars per week.
You are not respected. Agents from more prestigious branches barely care to hide their laughter when you pass them by. Just last Friday, your guys' goverment car broke down and now you have to use a former ice cream truck to get around. No one believes in the importance of what you do and maybe, in your darkest moments, you don't believe in it either.
And then.
One clear, lazy Tuesday night, long after any reasonable soul should be awake, it starts to rain blood.
โฐโโค
Hi, hello! Welcome to Lucia City, a cyberpunk city settled in a pocket dimension independent from Earth! Filled with crime, private militaries and magic-fueled technology, this is a city where skinned saints preach on the streets and empyrean CEOs crush unions with blood curses. Richer than the Archaic Mother and with more filth than a landfill, overpopulated by humans and angels and demons - Lucia City promises death and a life after it.
The plot follows a hapless goverment branch tasked with preventing a world-shredding event that nobody actually believes will happen. Most of their jobs include trickle-down tasks not even a self-hating student intern would be willing to do and with pay that only barely covers the cost of living in a shoebox. However, as convinced as everybody is that they're not in danger, strange omens for things to pass have been popping up more and more - and now that they think about it, it has been a while since they checked up on Azariphael.
Hint: it was not the chains that kept Azariphael down.
LORE.
The World;; There are countless dimensions that fill the space of the universe, but the main ones are; Earth, Heaven, Hell and the Frontier.
As the name implies, the Earth is similar to the one in real life! Countries, ethnicities and histories are mirrored in this roleplay, with the exception of real life religions and historical events that would be uncomfortable to mention (an example would be WW2 and other such things.) Humans have created a few pocket dimensions as well that live without the need for their original homeland.
Heaven and Hell are easily reachable and have been interwoven with Earth since their creation; the rules of reality are inconceivably different to those for Earth, with magical rituals and the possession of a body needed to travel between them, or at least a contract involving how a soul is presented in the other dimension (angels and demons can't show their true, unchanged form when on Earth, as it would break down time and place - while a human would not be able to withstand Heaven or Hell as it is, turning to mushy piles of pulting flesh or salt pillars.)
The Frontier are dimensions unknown and unreachable to most - only saints and Firstborns are able to travel through them to see sights that could turn a lesser man mad. It is no one way street, however. Sometimes, whatever lives in those shadowy lands crosses over. And when that is to happen...
Lucia City;; Out of all the pocket cities, Lucia City is the most advanced, visited and disgustingly cruel out of all of them. Slums are undercut by funding for new artificial beaches and the upper echelon makes shameless deals to work their forces down to the bone - quite often literally. The soul is only another bartering chip here, where bullet-proof, armed-like-an-executor guards patrol warehouses and chain-mail might actually bring your untimely death. The goverment is headed by the Lords, a ruling of twelve ministers that claim absolute control over the city and right under them is their loyal little lap dog, the House of Sun. Born nobles and those wealthy enough to buy a title pass or deny laws here, but mostly to debate on minor scandals that the rest of the world has already forgotten about.
Angels, demons, humans and everything in between live here. Demons and angels are obligated to sign a contract to be restricted in their form, as the laws of truth are only slightly looser than those on Earth.
Species;; HUMANS เผโง Frail, bloody little things. They age and die like worms, but they're stubborn in their existence. They are the only being known that can change their magic; like clay, their prowess comes from training and training alone. Humans are not defined into cages like angels or demons, instead molding themselves into identity. They're able to strike deals with demons and angels, as great or bad as those might turn out.
ANGELS เผโง Screaming voices of Heaven, their wings like needles and voices like a drill through your eardrum. Immortal and endless and with the howling of the pure - they range from lamb-headed youths to floating swords of fire and to what could almost be thought as humanoid. Like demons, they are born with their abilities and are unable to grow weaker or stronger. Not unless they consume a soul, that is.
DEMONS เผโง The whisper in the night when you thought you are alone, too sharp teeth and bleeding eyes, a nightmare that sits upon your torso. Never dying and never aging, sucking blood/pus/bone marrow from bloated corpses. They come to you in the form of a beautiful, grinning woman perhaps, or with limbs of a goat and the head of a cat. Like angels, they need to devour a soul to grow in power.
HALF-BLOODS เผโง Half a human and half a demon or angel. They were thought beasts, once, or as punishment from the Firstborns - changelings left for dead or horned babes fed to the wolves. Nowadays, they are as common as dandelions in cracked cement and host traits from both parents. Seemingly fully human or with wings spreading from their back, growing a second mouth or with teeth cutting.
ANTEDILUVIANS เผโง The only remains of the sleeping Firstborns. A mix of humanity and something awfully wrong, they are the result of Firstborn blood that trickled into humans countless generations ago - and they cradle the blight of such an union. They are born dead more often than not and with a second head when alive; sickly, odd and with powers that border on horrifying, they are often the first heirs to sainthood.
SAINTS เผโง This is not a playable species. Humans that have ascended their fleshy, soft bodies and gained a deep knowledge of the universe. Their number may be counted on one hand alone and the journey to become a saint is the way to become trapped as a screaming ball of fire or burn to ash. Only a certain few may gain this mandle of divine madness and each one of their steps shifts the world around them in subtle changes that you will never know about. Their very presence is enough to change their environment, such as babies born near them gain strange abilities, animals are born with speech and the skies burn alive.
FIRSTBORNS เผ This is not a playable species. The very first angels and demons created by the Mother, now all asleep in some core of the universe. Not much is understood of them in modern times and truly, maybe it is for the best.
Magic;; Magic is ever-changing, unruled and enough to create an universe of your own if you are so mighty. (You are not, but some saints might be?)
Due to the nature of such magic, there are no rules for your characters regarding it! As long as it's interesting and has its drawbacks, go crazy. : ] However, keep in mind that while some beings are capable of changing time, truth and whatever else, our cast will be no such grand heroes. Please be reasonable and don't try to make a character that could easily kill a Firstborn if they think a bit about it.
Demons and angels on average have around 2-3 powers that are unique to them. They cannot change these powers, nor do they grow stronger with use.
Humans can learn and train magic. While they usually have around 2 specialisations, they can learn a general knowledge of various spells.
Antediluvians are born with magical abilities that are, compared to other species, much stronger than the rest. For example, brief glimpses into the future, telepathy, etc. However, this comes at a great cost to their physical health.
RULES.
- Please be 18+ and have a Discord! Most of the OOC conversations will happen there. All RPN rules will, of course, also apply there,
- This is not a ghost-friendly roleplay. If you know you are not going to post or might not have time, that is totally fine - but please don't join if you know you'll disappear! However, life can come in the way and if you end up leaving due to that, then there's absolutely no hard feelings.
- While the roleplay itself won't be all gloom and doom, there will be violence and gore and a bit of horror. Please be aware of this,
- Be able to write at least two paragraphs per post. Quality over quantity is very much appreciated - on this note, please be respectful to your fellow writers and let other characters have their time in the limelight! Due to the plot, characters who refuse to work in a team (I don't mean have difficulty with it) won't be considered,
- Characters won't be first come, first serve. Please use realistic FCs or descriptions!
if you're still looking for people i'd love to apply c:
