The Illumina Wars

[Jacobo_Curious]

If anyone has ever played Exalted, they know of the idea of an anime-style group of people in a medieval fantasy world which are gifted with understanding by the Unconquered Sun and move to rescue the world from the encroaching Fae Folk, the Wyld monsters, and the undead-ruling Deathlords.

I wanted to do something like that.

Like any person who feels they are too wise or smart to belong in a community, the "Illuminated", as they will be called in this world, have a greater understanding of themselves and the power that resides in all beings, Aura, and thus tend to travel. This is how the heroes will meet, at first. As humans have become more and more repressed, these Illuminated have been popping up in the strangest of places...

The Mythril Throne rules over most of humanity's scattered settlements. The Mythril Throne is comprised of a few humans, but mostly they are the "Dragon-Blooded", those who are partially comprised of one of the five elements and thus gain powers specific to either Fire, Air, Water, Earth, or Spirit, like the Red, White, Blue, Green, and Orichalcum/Mithyril/Jade/Adamantine dragonic creatures. (Players can also choose to be Dragon-Blooded, though they are disliked among Illuminated and Humankind, generally.)

The Illuminated's greatest powers are their "Charms", their sorceries that enable them to do amazing things, from fire three bolts from a single arrow, to throw obsidian cutting disks from nowhere, to heal at amazing speed. These Illuminated choose a natural concept based on the five elements to be their most important: Nature, Science/Magic, Faith, Trade, or Art. Their attributes are based off of these as well.

Numbers won't be assigned, of course, but here are good words to use in your description when talking about attributes: Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Agility, Intuition, Logic, Empathy, Influence/Manipulation, Creativity, Essence/Aura (and what it looks like), Willpower, Virtue (Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, Valor). And, of course, Appearance/Comliness.

The Fae People are based on the five human concepts of the elements: Work, Trouble, Love, Money, and Spirit. Since proximity to Fae People tends to inspire halluncinations among the weak, they can't be played for now.

If there's any interest, I'll put up a list of low-level charms for people to pick from. As it is, this post is long enough already. I have some good ideas and I've always wanted to GM something, so if there's any response...

Happy travels, everybody.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

As an added note to those who haven't played Exalted, most of the ideas about the kinds of stats and the elements are mine, but the idea of Illuminated and the Dragon-Blooded themselves are from Exalted. For those who have played, the world will be different anyway.

EXAMPLE SKILLS AND PERSONALITY TYPES

Fire (Nature) Illuminated -- Combat (melee, archery, brawl, m.a.)
The most animalistic of all the Illuminated, the Fire Illuminated are the masters of weapons. As every person has need of a weapon, generally every Illuminated has at least one skill from this group--proving that no matter how Illuminated you are, you are still a human, and are bound by Nature.

"I am not a wise man,
but I am a strong one,
and I know right from wrong.

Surrender, and I will see you
are judged fairly.

Resist, and I will end your
tyranny with your life."

Air (Science/Magic) Illuminated -- Machines, Occult, Medicine, Lore
Quick-witted, these Illuminated are masters and mistresses of Sorcery. Their powers of Summoning can call the elements and the great Creatures as well, including even Dragons! The gaining of knowledge and the distribution of it are most important to these people, because with knowledge comes strength. The Dragon-Blooded of the Mythril Throne know this, and thus keep their libraries locked up. Against this, the Air Illuminated will fight to the bitter end, and strive to uncover the wisdom of the Ancients...

"You would enslave these people
with ignorance and keep their minds small
and their lives miserable in order to fatten
your own belly.

I cannot abide such wickedness
and come bearing the light of learning
for all who wish to see."

Faith (Water) Illuminated -- Endurance, Survival, Performance
Those who believe in others or believe in themselves to survive fall into this category of Illuminated. The strength of the bonds of friendship that these people create never vanish. Not as manipulative as the Spirit Illuminated, they rather have a high Empathy and a great understanding of people's emotions.

"The stars and the prophets have long foretold a day
when the forces of righteousness would come vanquish
that which is wicked.

I have come in from the wilderness to tell you --

-- that time is now at hand."

Trade (Earth) Illuminated -- Awareness, Dodge, Larceny, Stealth
These Illuminated do not necessarily trade in money, but rather are the most down-to-earth of all the Illuminated, the most practical, and the most observant of the physical world. Their trades are made eye for an eye...

"Hide your wickedness behind closed doors,
skulk beneath the earth, even conspire
in the land of the dead if you wish--

--it will avail you not.

You may conceal your evil
from the light of the Sun,
but you cannot evade his eyes."

Art (Spirit) Illuminated -- Ride, Sail, Bereaucracy, Socialize
Influential and clever, these Illuminated are the best suited to deal with the spirit courts, the elementals and the princes of the beasts. These people feel a deep connection with the planet, and thus love to travel and explore. They often pursue Faith and Science skills as well in their travels.

"I negotiate in good faith,
and you respond with treachery.

Sadly for you,
I have learned to anticipate such duplicity.
Even if you survive the wrath of my friends,
you must answer to Heaven as well."


LIMIT BREAKS

The Illuminated have a tendency to go berserk in the name of Heaven and Earth when things become overwhelming. Pick a Virtue, generally the highest, and when this Virtue becomes overwhelmed (Compassion when seeing a village used as a battleground, Conviction when seeing the focus of your beliefs such as a temple be destroyed, etc.), a large amount of Willpower and Essence are returned, with a dangerous effect on the personality.

Example:
Compassion Limit Break "Heart of Flint"
-The Illuminated's Compassion is stifled as an incredible rage sweeps through him, returning his Willpower for the duration of the next few fights before he collapses to the ground in tears and self-disgust.


All these many things make the Illuminated very different from the normal humans...

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

(and now, for all the stuff I'm just pullin out of my butt.)


REALMS

Seiba is the only known Continent, with only half or less explored. There are many islands and archepelagos, and sea travel is common with these, but no land mass as large or larger than Seiba is close enough to have been discovered yet.

In the center of Seiba are the great forests, where the humanfolk generally live. To the west are the grand cities of the Mythril Throne and the Dragon-Blooded, up against the ocean for trade. In the great scattered prairies that fleck the huge forest live tribes of Wyld-mutated souls and those hardy humans that can survive, and in the east, where the border of Wyld domination still lies far away, are the desert folk, with palaces of gold and silver and where knowledge abounds. Those few Illuminated that come from there try desperately to spread the knowledge that lies in these cities. To the far south lie the ragged mountains and the dangerous people that live in proximity with the Wyld Elf-people and thus are strange compared to humans... the dwarves, the werewolves, and the vampires.

Near eighty million humans live on this continent. Around two thousand of those are Illuminated.

The search for allies is a desperate one.

(The adventure will begin in the deeper outskirts of the central forest, in a town called Skylark, a rest stop along the long trip to the larger city of Gast. Most new Illuminated are traveling to Gast, searching for allies, or even thinking about settling in Skylark.)

MONSTERS

Fiends are drawn from dead human souls and captured by the Wyld and made into demon-creatures -- not actually Demons, but that matters little to the uninformed farmer. These creatures are not like the Great Beings of the Wyld, creatures such as Unicorns or Pegasi or even Dragons, but are the goblins and bakemono of the land. Generally priests must bless corpses with the Lights of the Sun and Moon, but when this doesn't or can't happen...

Killing a monster is nothing but a moral act. The souls must be set free.

Or, at least, so it is said.

BECOMING ILLUMINATED

Everyone had a life before they had their Revelation. Be sure to include a description of this. Skills that are not always important to adventurers will be based off of this background -- for example, if your character was once a farmer, it will be expected that there will be some knowledge of farming, and no "Farming Skill" will be necessary.

ALIGNMENT: THE GOOD GUYS?

Everything I've posted up till now has basically portrayed the Illuminated as the good guys. This is not necessarily the case, though furthering the cause of overthrowing the Dragon-Blooded and reinstating the Children of the Sun and Moon to their original throne does generally entail overthrowing petty and evil Dragon-Blooded rulers. Even so, except for the Corrupted (who stay away from other Illuminated), most Illuminated somehow embody most of the four Virtues of the Sun and Moon; Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, and Valor. It may simply be that the people in power are the ones that become corrupt -- but only time and the Virtue of the conquering Illuminated will give the answer to that.

Corrupted Fire Illuminated are the Forsaken; Corrupted Air Illuminated are the Unclean; Corrupted Water Illuminated are the Blasphemous; Corrupted Earth Illuminated are the Wretched; and Corrupted Spirit Illuminated are the Deceivers. Generally these names are only widely accepted propaganda against the "Anathema", the Illuminated, but these people do still exist, who twist the Essence given to them by their Virtues for self-serving purposes.

TECHNOLOGY

Common weapons are the knife, the slashing broadsword, axes, and spears/poleaxes. In the deserts, daos, or large scimitars are common, and on the seas, cutlasses, or smaller scimitars are common. Humans are more likely to wear armor, and generally in the style of the Ashigari Armor of feudal japan, with the wooden or iron scale plating and the bowl hat. Illuminated tend not to wear too much armor, but since healing spells are not particularly common (though natural regenaritive abilities ARE common), the monk's armor of a "buff jacket", or thick button-up robe, is well used. "Reinforced" buff jackets are often used by city guards or soldiers that can't afford ashigari armor, but since these people don't need the mobility required to leap from rooftop to rooftop, it works well with them.

Pistols are becoming more popular with Dragon-Blooded officiers and Air Illuminated, as research on black powder has been concluded deep within caverns on the Mythril Island, where the Throne lies. Rifles are for elite soldiers or lucky mercenaries, and the highest princes show off their wealth by hunting or even fighting with the fabled new "shotgun". Unfortunately, hunting with these things may never become popular, since the low-technology bullets always leave a sulfurous, acrid taste that burns the flesh. Helpful for war, but not for hunting.

More common, strangely enough, are Robots, which the Ancients dabbled in far more than they did in weaponry. Dragon-Blooded forays into the Wyld, though these stopped five years ago with the disappearance of the Mythril Empress, are often reinforced by crossbow-wielding or even pistol-firing robotic creatures. Sometimes a large platoon of soldiers will be accompanied by one or even two Golems, which are large robotic constructions.

MARTIAL ARTS

Sword, axe, knife, and spear fighting styles vary from dojo to dojo, and thus are too numerous to count, though they are all based around similar premises. However, some unarmed combat styles are worth mentioning, and these are of two categories -- Animal Styles and Legendary Styles.

Animal Styles

Wandering Dragon -- Responsive and reflexive.
Raging Boar -- Legendary bodyslams and takedowns.
Crane and Pheonix -- Smooth and confusingly graceful.
Rattlesnake and Scorpion -- Jabbing, intimidating, watchful styles.
Toad and Tortoise -- Deceptively slow, blunt, snapping styles.
Eel and Boa -- Famous for their grappling techniques.
Lion and Tiger -- Fierce, brave, death-defying styles.
The Seven Bears Style -- New, seems to combine Eel and Boar.
Crazy Monkey -- Amazing leaps/wall-kicks and strange grapples.

Legendary Styles

Unyielding Fury -- A commonly used hard style.
Watchful Willow -- A dance-like flowing soft style.
One Against Many -- A favorite among lone monks, good throws.
Destined Child -- First martial art to use pressure points.
Knowledge is Power -- Based on Destined Child, more well-rounded.

THE TIMES

Don't worry, I'm done after this.

The Dragon-Blooded Empire, wrested from the corrupted Illuminated a thousand years ago, is collapsing. The Mythril Empress is missing and the Houses are squabbling even more than ever. Contact with the Mythril Island is slowly fading. Meanwhile, the Wyld encroaches on human territory, also forcing the werewolves and vampires and such to take over human villages in order to escape. All sorts of strange things are going wrong, not only because the Empress is missing and the troops are not coming, but perhaps because of something else...

...finally, the Illuminated, not even knowing who or what they really are, are responding to the call. Ignorant except for the fact that they are very different, and need to find those like them, they travel, remembering the few words spoken to them by the Sun and Moon themselves during their Revelation.

Something will happen. It may not be good, it may not be bad. But SOMETHING will happen.


(Gosh, I write too much.)

 

[cats]

Yes you really do write to much. Still this seems to be shapeing into one hell of a story. I'll join, but it may take a while to decide on a chara. Possibly tomorow I'll put one up.

Oh and didn't you promise some sample skills or charms I believe is what your calling them.

 

[hybirdx]

I'm a tad bit confused about what you said, (Most likely because Cat knocked a few screaws lose from our last fight, or because of this head ache) But I'm in, I'll make up a chara later

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

(blush) Hee hee. Yeah, I am noisy. Oh well.

Wow. OK, writing down all the charms in this book would take me FOREVER... if people create some characters and tell me what kind of things they want to have mystic powers for (Archery, martial arts, brawling, swordfighting, medicine/recovery [a standard], occult [for sorcery], etc. etc.), I'll present some Charms.

As it is, I'm thinking the game is getting complicated enough. I've got the temptation to actually introduce numbers and stats etc., which I think would be time-consuming and not a great idea considering the amount of potential players, so I'm probably just gonna stick with a storytelling idea. It should be pretty fun all the same, especially considering the wide variety of things to do.

And since I've been wanting to write a story like this for a while, if anything does happen, I could incorporate it into later stories elsewhere... so I'm still pumped

Anyway, I hope other people join! The more the merrier!

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Well, I think all the same, I'll post all the CATEGORIES for Charms that are described in the Exalted handbook. Of course, since this is a spinoff of Exalted and has different kinds of Illuminated and different attributes, it will probably be missing a lot -- so request anything if there's something not on the list.

CHARMS

---Fire---
Archery
Brawl
Martial Arts (I made up all those styles, so pick a style before requesting charms)
Melee
Thrown
---Water---
Endurance (stamina)
Performance
Presence
Resistance (pain threshold etc.)
Survival
---Air---
Craft
Investigation
Lore
Medicine
Occult (any old-skool, d&d-style "spellcasters" want these)
---Earth---
Athletics
Awareness
Larceny
Stealth
Dodge
---Spirit---
Bureaucracy
Linguistics
Ride
Sail
Socialize

 

[cats]

Thanks, But chances are we'll probably be makeing up our own moves as time gose on.

Your putting a lot of efort into thois prehaps you should tone it down after all this is just the first day and where already close to a second page.

...edit...

forgive me if that sounded rude but, your starting to make me nerves. I guess my point is your trying to hard just relax and let things happen. Or so I feel. hope this didn't ofend you.

 

[hybirdx]

Cats is right, ease up a bit, If you put too much effort into it, it will get too confusing

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Hey hey, don't worry about offending me. I'm sorry. This is my first time doing anything like this, I guess, and I get too much stuff in my head and I have to write it down... only I end up writing it down right in front of people and expecting them to follow along.

Sorry if I'm overwhelming you guys. I just posted those categories so you know what styles Charms can derive from. If there are any more skills that are created, then Charms can be created for those too.

Basically, Charms just make skills easier and better. Kind of in the style of martial arts movie and stuff.

 

[hybirdx]

Any shadow skills in there? My guy is still a good guy but... I must have shadow skills!

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

"Shadow skills"? Occult Charms aren't really specified but can be made up of any type of elemental magic or conjuring, or if you're talking about stuff like Stealth charms...

If you want evil magic spells or something, feel free to make them. Sorcery takes a lot out of a character, however, as it involves actual manipulation of the planet rather than simple self-manipulation.

EDIT:
Or if you think there should be a new skill, feel free to tell me.

 

[hybirdx]

Shadow skill is basicly a type of sword fighting only ruthless, and other weapons could be used if needed

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

The Melee skill includes swords, so if you want to make any sort of Charm that helps you to fight like that, be my guest.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Anyone else interested in a character?

 

[cats]

Looks like I'm the first one to make a chara.

Name: Sabin
Age: 18
Type: Faith / water
Style: Wandering dragon and One against many (Are we aloud to use the legendary styles?)
Weapon: Staff / poll
Charms: Regeneration, endurance
Eyes: Green
Hair: Shoulder legnth, brown in pony tail.
Clothing: standard robe, was white now it's slightly grey from being worn so much. Black tie on hair and light weight black shoes.
Build: Very well toned lower body and fairly well toned upper body although neither one has an abundance of muscle.
Description: Speed and stamima or his forte. He may lack speed but he make up for it with technique.

Bio: (Depending on the martail arts styles listed above this might change slightly.) Sabin was trained in the style of Wondering Dragon for 11 years starting at the age of five under his fathers sensi, Dalandow. After that time Dalandow died and he began training under a defrent Master. An old freind of Dalandow, this master promised to finish training Sabin.

Sabins purpose at the monetary was to learn disciplin and peace. To traits his father considered important. He was then supose to become a diplomat like his father. Sabin has shun this job much of his life, and would prefer liveing in a monestary forever.

Sadly he can't. Haveing received a vision from the soul of the moon. His curent master has instructed him to go and find himself in the outside world. In the Masters words "It is in looking inside we discover what is out side. And in looking outside that you discover whats inside. Go from this temple and search the outside world and you will understand your purpose." So Sabin set off on his quest.

Location: I'm still trying to figure that one out.

 

[cats]

I hope the bio didn't confuse any one. I sort of worked it out on the spot.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

That's awesome! I'll post a list of Medicine and Endurance charms later, and then come up with some techniques for Wandering Dragon and One Against Many. You can pick any of the styles you want, though in the beginning, you might only want to specialize in one style so you can achieve higher-level skills. All the same, I'll post whatever I can so you can pick what you like.

 

[poohlive]

Perhaps it would be a bit easier if you made a "sample" characters, so you can show us some sort of guideline that we can go by to create our own characters.
I don't know if its necessarily confusing, a lot of information, that took me two or three times to go over, but its all there. Reminds me a lot of the Final Fantasy adventures, especially the later ones.

I think its pretty good. Some of the threads here, not to diss any of them, but are so vague its hard to get a good role play started, and they sort of flop. I think with some guidelines, and tight quarters on what we can and can't do will be very helpful.


Garret.
19 years old. Living in (can we make up city names? If not, I'll ask for a small town like a few days ride south of Skylark) Hellund, for the moment. His father owns a large farm, and he has worked most of the time there.
He has two weapons, a cutlass. A gift from his fathers swashbuckling days, and a scimitar. He doesn't use both at once when he fights, but he does pick between the two. A larger sword and a smaller sword for different situations.
He is an earth elemental. Knows more about growing plants than his father does probably. Very in tune with nature and the physical world around him.
His "charm" is stealth. The ability to move silently in any situation. As a kid, he was known to walk up even to the wildest of animals and pet them before they could hear him. He even has a nasty scar cause one particular racoon wasn't very happy about the situation.
He was trained in the Seven Bears style, combination of grappling, bodyslams, and takedowns. Very powerful if effective.
He didn't learn this in a dojo, but rather from his father. His father had a few other students in the village as well, so it was a small implied dojo, nothing official though.

I assume the "REVELATION" is the point where the illuminated realizes he needs to go off on some sort of quest, but could you explain that a little more? I'm not sure exactly what happens, do they get some weird dream, or do they just wake up one day and say, "I think I'll go defeat the forces of evil today."
I'm not quite sure what to put here at the moment.

He has mostly tunics of a few different colors for clothing, and some hardened leather as armor, but thats about it for the moment.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Sounds awesome. I'm excited.

The Revelation is when the person finally realizes that their special skills are the result of mystic powers, and this is because the Sun God and Moon Goddess decide to finally tell the person. This conversation also gives the person a decided boost in their powers, giving them a higher awareness of the world around them.

It is simply the fact that the Illuminated no longer fit in society that they travel. The search for their kin draws them to the center of the continent...

Hellund sounds fine. Feel free to make up any towns you please, though if you want to come from an urban environment, please ask me about cities.

EDIT: I'll post a sample character tomorrow, with the charms on Medicine, Endurance, Stealth, and Melee -- and some info on Seven Bears, One Against Many, and Wandering Dragon.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

sorry...

...I can't get it all in today. It's finals week and so it won't start for a while.

But is another else interested? I'm excited... the story is building in my head very well.

 

[cats]

Finals always a head ache. Thanks for going to all this trouble and take you time. Bout the chara, is it stictly for sample purposes? You are playing too right.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Yeah, the character I create will be an NPC member of the party. I have a good idea for him, but I might not have him done for a little while, is all.

 

[hybirdx]

I'm begining to think you're not new at this...

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Hahahaha, I'm flattered... I seriously have never GMed anything before though, only thought about it. I like to buy all these books, read them, and create characters, and then never do anything with them. ^_^