((OOC)) Avatars of the Manastream

This is a new game idea about an alternate version of our world where a percentage of the world's population can harness a planetary energy called Mana, which is derived from the Manastream of Earth. A person's ability to use Mana is determined by the strength of their Essence and the power of their mind and will. Obviously, people with weaker Essences will have to work harder to attain what will come more naturally to those with stronger Essences. Think of an Essence as one's connection to the energies of the world. Usually, children of people with stronger Essences will also have stronger Essences, though this is not always the case, and vice versa. Essences are not trainable so-to-speak, as they are natural and based solely on one's blood. Rather, you can't get a stronger Essence by training -- once you reach adulthood, your Essence will never grow stronger or weaker. It's all based on luck and lineage.

So, those with stronger Essences will find it easier to harness Mana, while those with weaker Essences will have to train harder and longer. However, without proper training, even someone with an incredibly massive Essence will never realize their true abilities. Most children are subjected to an "Essence Reading" at several points throughout their childhood -- Usually at birth, and ages one, three, five, seven, ten, thirteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty-one. Once each child reaches the age of seven, if their Essence has developed enough, they can begin training. However, it is not uncommon for children to start their training later. If a child's Essence has not developed to the Fifth Degree by age thirteen, he or she will no longer be eligible to become an Avatar.

Essence Degrees

First Degree: It is very rare for one's Essence to grow to the First Degree, but for those that do, their powers are easy to use and they will master them very quickly, becoming the very strongest of the Ancient Order of the Avatars.

Second Degree: These Avatars are more common, but they are still incredibly powerful.

Third Degree: A majority of the higher-ranking Avatars fall into this Degree.

Fourth Degree: Usually these Avatars don't make it into the higher ranks because they are unable to attain the same Mana abilities as the higher Degrees.

Fifth Degree: The lowest acceptable Degree. If one has not attained this by age thirteen, they can never become an Avatar.

Sixth Degree: Most children are born with this Degree, but grow beyond it after several years.


After a child is accepted into the Order, they will attend an eight week summer program where they are taught the basics of using Mana in large groups. Each child is paired with an instructor at the end of the program. The instructors continue the young Avatars' training into the late teens, and once they turn eighteen, they can apply to an advanced school of magic. That's where this game will take place -- our characters will be Avatars at the Cloud Academy of Advanced Magic, the most prestigious school on the planet, located on an island floating high in the sky.

This reality split from the one we all know in the 1940s. The Ancient Order of Avatars, existing in secret for countless centuries, stepped out of the shadows during World War II and aided the Allied Powers by teaching those qualified how to use Mana. However, the Axis Powers corrupted some of the new Avatars, who in turn trained Nazis how to use Mana. Luckily, the Allied Powers won the war. From that point on, Avatars were common knowledge. To this day, in 2008, some people still hold resentment toward the Avatars, mostly out of jealousy and a feeling of inferiority.

Magic in this game is a little different, and does not use wands or spells. When you harness Mana, you use that energy to produce various effects. This is based mostly on concentration and proper imaging in your mind. For instance, if you want to make fire, you focus on heating the energy between your palms, and then picture a spark in your mind and it ignites, forming a small flame. Then, you have full control of that flame -- you can focus and turn it into a fireball of various sizes, split it into multiple balls, or shoot it out from a small stream of flames to a massive blast. Master Avatars can create various shapes out of flames. It all comes down to how clearly you can focus and picture in your mind the desired effects, as long as you have the Mana make your desire a reality.

There are three types of Avatars -- Healers, Illusionists, and Enchanters. All Avatars are trained in the Primary Disciplines, which Secondary Disciplines are determined by Specialty. Usually, Secondary Disciplines are not decided until you go to an academy or school, the equivalent of college for magic-users.

Primary Disciplines: Using Mana to move things, creating and controlling energy, fire, and electricity, levitating, flying, and using Mana to enhance physical traits -- strength, stamina, agility, speed, sight, hearing, and durability.

Secondary Disciplines:
- Healers: Regenerating cells, increasing or decreasing blood flow, detoxifying and cleansing someone, mending skin, creating barriers for protection, mending broken bones, as well as re-growing new bones and limbs.
- Illusionists: Using Mana to create illusions -- people, places, and objects, as well as sights, sounds, smells, and for extremely powerful Illusionists, false reality. Or rather, creating a virtual reality around the victim that is so convincing the brain can't differentiate between reality and the illusion.
- Enchanters: Enchanting objects, substances, or people. Through that, they can make potions, create magic stones, animate otherwise inanimate objects, such as enchanting suits of armor to fight without direct control (as a robot instead of a puppet), impose their will to influence others, or outright control them. Obviously, the more strong-minded individuals will be harder to enchant.

So, our characters have just arrived at Cloud Academy, and must decide which Secondary Discipline they will pursue. I will give more info about the school and this world in the next post, then a third post will follow with my characters.

The global headquarters for the Ancient Order of the Avatars is located in Skylark City, which sits upon another floating island in the sky. From here, Avatars act sort of like world police, preventing crimes and keeping peace among the countries of the planet.

Avatar Ranks

Grand Magister - leader of the Order
Vice Magister - second in command
Rear Magisters - members of the Parliament
Chief Submagisters
Senior Submagisters
Submagisters, First Class
Submagisters, Second Class
Submagisters, Third Class
Undermagisters - Unless one is incredibly gifted, Junior Grades usually don’t get promoted to full Undermagisters until they complete two years at their school
Undermagisters, Junior Grade - Junior Apprentices that have passed their instructor’s training and have been accepted into a school or academy
Junior Apprentices - Children that are training under an instructor

In Skylark City, there lies a tall structure known as Starlight Tower. This is where the Parliament and the Grand Magister and Vice Magister sit, within the walls of the Parliament Chamber. Cloud Academy, which is its own island several nautical miles north, has a large campus and several buildings. In the center, there is Central Square, which has a few shops, stores, restaurants, coffee houses, arcades, and various other places. It’s a large cross with one street going north to south and the other going east to west. Where the two roads meet is Central Square. North on Education Boulevard leads to North Hall, which has a west wing and an east wing -- the west wing is the male dorms, whereas the east wing is the female dorms. South on Education Boulevard leads to South Stadium, which not only houses the gym and weight room, but is where the school tournaments are held. West on Academy Avenue leads to the Administration Building and the parking lot (some people enchant their cars, trucks, or bikes to fly instead of using up the energy to fly themselves. Of course, since these students don‘t know how to enchant yet, their parents would have had to enchant their cars for them). East on Academy Avenue leads to three buildings with classrooms -- Building A is the School of Enchantment, Building B is the School of Illusion, and Building C is the School of Healing. Between these buildings and North Hall is Paradise Park, a wooded area with winding paths, benches, picnic tables, and a playground for when families with young kids come to visit.

Cloud Academy is operated by a Headmaster, Deputy Headmaster, Administrative Assistant, and Operations Assistant. The Headmaster is appointed by the Parliament, unless the former Headmaster appoints his own replacement.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll post my chars tomorrow. If you have any questions, post and ask, and I’ll answer tomorrow.

My characters will be along shortly.

A few other things before I post my chars:

I forgot to add something about Cloud Academy -- next to North Hall, there is a large body of water called Mystic Lake. From the south bank of the Lake, the Ragna River travels into Paradise Park, winds through the trees, heads out through Education Boulevard, circles around North Hall, and reconnects with the north bank of Mystic Lake. There are bridges where the paths cross the River, and the biggest bridge is on Education Boulevard. The River also winds through Starsong Garden, which has a wide array of colorful plants and flowers, and lies right next to the Park, where the River comes out from behind the trees. The Garden is viewable from Education Boulevard, especially when crossing the bridge.

Also, instructors teach their apprentices the Avatars' chosen martial art -- Mana Zor Zu Vaga, which is usually shortened to simply Manazu.

To increase school spirit, there are fighting tournaments between schools -- any academy that has signed up with the Junior Division of the IMC (International Manazu Championship) can produce teams of five fighters to compete. Students can register with the Administration office of their school to create their own team. Each school has their own tournaments between the teams there. The team that wins the final tournament in April gets to go to the Student Finals in Skylark City, where they represent their school in a massive tournament against all the other school champions. This is a big deal because promoters and agents from the Standard Division of the IMC are usually in the stands, keeping their eyes open for fresh talent and potential careers in the IMC. The winning team members of the Student Finals not only get a huge golden trophy, but they each get $10,000 and their school gets a $150,000 grant.

After the Avatars helped win the war in 1945, they helped to create a global currency system, which evolved into the ICSD -- InterContinental Standard Dollar, but they are still usually referred to as dollars or bucks.

Of course, there are Avatars that drop out of the Order after graduation -- some simply want to pursue another career, such as the IMC, but others may become Dementors. Kind of like Jedi and Sith, sort of. In addition to knowing the ways of an Avatar, Dementors also employ additional techniques that are forbidden in the Order -- causing disease, rotting flesh, and ripping away life from living creatures and plants. They can also use dark energy, corrupt weak minds, and often use their abilities to terrorize, torture, and slaughter all who oppose them. They can combine several abilities to produce shadow clones which have pretended to be demons in the past, and they are able to keep themselves alive well beyond their natural lifespan by absorbing Essences.

The first Avatar to leave and develop the darker disciplines was Lucifer, who took a young boy named Mephisto as his apprentice. The two later created the Legion of Dementors, pulling more into their ranks. In recent centuries, the Legion switched from a single leader to a group of leaders called the Circle of Devalords. In addition to Avatars falling to the Dark Side during World War II, the Legion joined the Axis Powers. After the war, the Legion's numbers were greatly diminished, but they made a comeback when they allied themselves with North Vietnam in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the Legion captured all of Vietnam and the war was temporarily over. After a few years, the Order attacked them again, and freed the land from the Legion.

The Legion tried to rise again in the early 1990s in the Gulf War, but were ultimately squashed. The few remaining Dementors were granted solace by Saddam Hussein, and then moved to Afghanistan with Osama Bin Laden to reform their ranks. After the Dementor-influenced attacks on 9/11, the Order and United Nations began the War on Terrorism, determined to slaughter not just Dementors, but anyone who would harm others. Beliefs clashed, and many people who were against the war joined the Legion, thus causing their numbers to skyrocket.

As it stands now, in 2008, the War on Terrorism spans much of the Middle East and Africa, and the Legion of Dementors is so big now that it has thirteen Devalords. In recent years, the actual fighting has stopped, and there is a temporary treaty, but the war will not be over until the two parties decide upon an agreement. Both sides have agreed to a temporary cease fire order while heated debates commence.

Here are my characters. Unlike in the past, I'm doing very brief bios, letting the characters develop as the story goes on. Also, most Avatars use Katana, japanese swords.

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Name: Largo Richard McCloud
Age: 18
Birthday: August 1st
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Avatar Specialty: Enchanter
Family: Richard McCloud, Enchanter (father), Julia Derringer, Healer (mother), Martha Derringer, retired nurse (grandmother)

Bio: Largo was born into a family of powerful Avatars. From an early age, he was best friends with Tom Rorrick, who moved to his neighborhood. The two have signed up to be roommates at Cloud Academy.

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Name: Thomas James Rorrick
Age: 18
Birthday: July 24th
Hometown: Littleville, CO
Avatar Specialty: Illusionist
Family: Deceased

Bio: Tom's father vanished as soon as he discovered his girlfriend was pregnant. Tom's mother took him from Littleville to San Francisco, where she eventually died of cancer. Tom was placed in an orphanage in the same neighborhood as Largo, and the two became best friends.

Characters can also be staff at the school.

Morning Bumpers .

This rp could also go beyond the school eventually, into the next generation.

I'm in Jeff, but I was wondering something. Can the Avatars have elemental specialties as well as the other specialties?

Well, all mature Avatars can use elemental energies such as fire and lightning. As far as water, rocks, wind, etc., that would not fall under elemental abilities, but rather, telekinesis, because you are not summoning an element, you are merely using your energy to move that element.

Okay. What about ice? What would that be considered if it was used?

Well, you could use your energy to work up some wind, and then remove the heat, creating a blizzard. You could also lift a bubble of water into the air, remove the heat, thus freezing it, and throw the ice ball. You could also use this method to create ice spears and freeze objects and what not. I should have included that, sorry.

Not at all dear. I'm just clarifying things for my own benefit.
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Name: Ayilana Jacobson
Age: 19
Birthday: March 20
Hometown: Nashville TN
Avatar Specialty: Healing
Family: Unknown
Bio: Ayilana has lived mostly in foster homes after being orphaned at a very young age. She nearly froze someone without any training. Upon seeing her gifts the family she was living with at the time sent her to school. She got good grades and was noticed by the Cloud Academy recruiter who happened to be at the school. Now she's on her way to the prestigious university and a nervous wreck about being on her own.

Anyone else?

Bumpadee bump bump.