City of IF

[Bookwizard]

Don’t care for my ramblings? Feel free to skip over them to the good stuff.

Well, now that I have finished NaNoWriMo, finished all the work I did not do during NaNoWriMo, and then took a well deserved break, then finished all the work I put off during that break, then started to work on this, and then took another break, caught up on all the work not finished then, got caught up in a whole lot of other things, took a break after that, starting another NaNoWriMo, and then did who knows what else... I'm back! The first thing I would like to do of course, is attempt a good ‘ol RP... now bear with me, I have not really done any real writing in a while... so I’m going to have to ease myself in.

Now the following might not be completely original in every sense of the world, but I'm feeling for some good classic magic vs. science scenarios, so this is going to be the basic premise. In the past, or at least around the time I jumped onto the small RP bandwagon here at IF it was common for the RP starter to just invent the world and classes and then let everything run wild. I personally love this system because it somehow works most of the time, and I think that's awesome. This time around though, I'm going to fashion this closer to an SG, where I will control some of the events, and act as all the larger villains and other third party characters. I have no current coherent story in mind, but I'm hoping a very good one will emerge from the characters interaction, and I will play off that. I'm not sure how this is exactly going to go, and I will keep it dynamic, if it looks like I'm doing a terrible job, or become to lazy... *ahem* I mean find the system is not working, I will revert to the old system.

As there is A LOT of stuff that I’m going to post before I start this RP, I’m going to give it to you in pieces so it’s easier to digest. I’m going to start with this into, and a mysterious little “Legend” to give a vague idea of the world. Then I will post the backstory and the setting for the RP in some form or another. Finally I will post the classes and character creation and open everything up! So without further adieu, I submit to you my insanity...

PS. There will be Three “parts”, each representing a new stage in the RP, I lied about not having some sort of story planned. Also a quick note to whomever it may concern... I almost wanted to put this is Innovation Isle... but decided against it for reasons I now forget, so if you think it should go there as a pseudo-story game, then tell me!




The Old Legends...

At the start of the world light shone upon the shoulders of man, and guided him. Man fashioned artifacts from the light, and let it teach him the secrets of reality and the world. Man became powerful, and used the newfound abilities only as guided by the light. Man was the valiant pupil of the light. At the start... there was balance.

Man learned more and more, surprising the light with it’s seeming endless ability to learn and absorb the power and knowledge. Light did not worry, however, man had a far-reaching heart, and loved the light. There was no need to fear a creature that was as loving as man. What the light failed to see was that man was as unpredictable as he was loving. This was the great mistake.

For it is sad to know the true heritage of man, the trait that now defines him, and shaped this world was not love, but doubt, one trait that acts as the slaveholder of all other bad things. Fear, Deceit, Lies, Anger, Sadness, Pain, all the children of Doubt both fulfilling their fathers purpose, and taking advantage of it for their own dark design.

It was in the end Doubt that took full control of man, who soon doubted the true and undying wisdom of the light. It was Doubt that caused man to think his destiny was his own to create, and that light enslaved him, instead of freed him. It was Doubt that caused man to turn to his own devices, foolishly challenging the light. The light recoiled from man, seeing suddenly that their great pupils were versatile, much unlike itself, and so the light indulged in a folly of it’s own. The light did not wish to deal with such a creature as man if it acted as it did, and so mankind lost the powers of wisdom forever. It forged ahead, letting the powers of doubt put up a facade of arrogance.

It was only to soon that man knew of the pain of war, and the grimness of poverty, the greatest lows of the world and existence, yet they continued in their facade. Of course those few children of the light remained, haplessly attempting to guide mankind. They did not let their soul be tainted with the black doubt, and lived on in small numbers.

They failed in their attempts to guide mankind, and soon themselves fragmented, with only a small group still owing their purpose to guidance. The only thing uniting these individuals was the ancient wisdom once shared with them by the light. It was not as powerful as it once had been, but the spark remained.

Even though now hunted and hated by the rest of tainted mankind, the light lives on through these... the vanguards of mankind's original purpose.



At the start, the first thing mankind knew was the bounds of enslavement. The false gods of light shone upon man in brilliance and wonder, he was enticed, and fell into the trap. Through the powers of temptation and lethargy man submitted himself to the rule of light, letting himself be brainwashed. At the start... there was oppression.

Man continued to be enslaved, having no free will to control his own destiny and purpose, things so obviously rightfully his. Man was convinced that he did not know the truth, that wisdom was central in all things, and it was held by the light. Man was chained in this thinking, he was restrained from his full potential.

This could not last forever, for soon the power of man turned to his own advantage, and the beauty of revelation graced the halls of his mind for the first time. The wonder of a new sort of creation entered into his mind, a creation caused by questioning. Man took hold of his own destiny, and repelled the enslaving forces of light, creating his own, the thrill of invention.

When man took reigns of his own destiny, progress became common, and he launched himself into the future. Mankind for the first time could indulge in freedom, no longer held by the thinking of the false prophets. Only few still languished under the old influence, bound in a vile sort of creation.

With control over his own path, man ran into many troubles: pain and suffering graced his way more then once. But these were necessary, teaching him of the world, and showing him a deeper and more powerful wisdom. For only from self-inflicted pain can anyone truly learn.

With this new wisdom gained, mankind continued to flourish and learn on his own, the new power of invention reigning powerful and supreme.

There have been many who have deviated from the truth and thrill given to humanity through this rebellion to find it’s true identity. There are some who fall invariably to corruption, and the hands of greed. This is to be expected, however, and the great gains of mankind outweigh all of these shortcomings.

Even though sometimes corrupted, and sometimes fallible, the revelation lives on through these... the champions of mankind's true destiny.

[Vikas Muralidharan]

Well, If you haven't really written for sometime. it didn't show, BW. This was very well written. There's that nice little intro given there.

It'll be interesting to see how this progresses. Do we assume the roles of "the few who owe their purpose to guidance" or do we go with the majority?

Or do we have two sets of players who choose sides in this *battle*?

Anyway, Im pretty sure I'll be participating in this. There's just one thing you need to edit though :


Bookwizard wrote:
It was only to soon that man knew of the pain of war, and the grimness of poverty, the greatest lows of the world and existence, yet they continued in their facade

That should be "too" shouldn't it? ;)

Spotless otherwise... :)

[Bookwizard]

I'll be honest, I wrote this intro quite a while ago, so I have had time to go over and edit it. A lot of other things should be clear as I add things on here. I'm still trying to decide exactly what the format for this endeavor is going to be as there is a ton of information I would like to include...

So as I post info, exactly who, and where your characters will be should become clear. There will definitely be groups from both sides, although it won't be cut and dry. There will be plenty of mixing and blurred lines between them as far as character creation goes.

[Thunderbird]

Some neat thinking involved in this Bookwizard... You and I appear to share the same focus and purpose in writing so I'll be most certain to jump onboard with this once you have gotten to that stage. The writing was clear and concise and shows us how much we've been missing from you so far ;)