Blood and Iron ≈ Modern Paranormal Fae Theme ≈ Open Recruitment

[Amarlo]

I'm going to probably end up making two characters. This is the first of the two that I will be developing, if that's alright. ^^ Also to give people a little something if they want to plot with me.

• Was worshiped as Inana/Istar
• Sidhe
• Was neutral until the split, where she ultimately sided with the Unseelie much to her annoyance.
• Much like the stories foretold of Inana, she was very well known for making both love and war in her distant youth. She still retains much of that fiery enthusiasm but has since calmed down quite a bit in her old age.

As for the second character, I'm still not quite sure what I want to do with her yet. I'm open to suggestions at this point. I just know I don't want her to be as significant as Inana.

[RampantDesires]

I'm looking at something Japanese, if that fits into the world concept. Otherwise I can easily revamp ;)

There's no restriction on cultures or inspirations to draw from.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with :-)

I'm going to probably end up making two characters. This is the first of the two that I will be developing, if that's alright. ^^ Also to give people a little something if they want to plot with me.

• Was worshiped as Inana/Istar
• Sidhe
• Was neutral until the split, where she ultimately sided with the Unseelie much to her annoyance.
• Much like the stories foretold of Inana, she was very well known for making both love and war in her distant youth. She still retains much of that fiery enthusiasm but has since calmed down quite a bit in her old age.

As for the second character, I'm still not quite sure what I want to do with her yet. I'm open to suggestions at this point. I just know I don't want her to be as significant as Inana.

I've put her on the list (and will indeed have a more official looking 'reserved' section up later today).

As far as a second character (yay!) my general recommendation will always be going the Fae Touched route.  Rounding up their wayward descendants is going to be a pretty major undertaking through most of the game.  It would let you go through the whole training and trial process (Though Ishtar can most certainly be involved in that as well from the other teaching side of things :P)  There will also be places down the road where the Sidhe will be extremely disadvantaged (the Human faction has been studying their weaknesses for years and is quite good at using them against them) making their generally less powered but unrestricted descendants perfectly suited to certain tasks.

Hopefully all that makes sense. 

I need to hunt down some food and do a few of those annoying RL things, but then it's back to trying to knock out sections of the to-do list.

Have I mentioned again how ridiculously happy I am to have y'all involved in this project?

[Amarlo]

Thanks for the information! I was definitely thinking of going the fea touched route in the long run anyways. ^^ Just need to wait for my brain to stop being laggy. It's been laggy all week! >.<

[RampantDesires]

So I promise I AM working on getting the group stuff together and am still very much excited about this game (there are some life things that I go into more detail in my Absences thread, but when isn't life hectic?)

As some of you no doubt have already noticed I am incapable of sending a small and to the point PM.  I end up rambling ... forever.  Covering bases and topics that are only vaguely related to what we were talking about.  Instead of taking a few minutes I end up spending like an hour plus sending out a single PM. [sarcasm] Go me.  [/end sarcasm]

I'm at least gaining traction through those and hopefully some of the stuff we're talking about is making sense/taking shape.

I've also gotten around to doing edits to the character sheet and added a Character Powers and Skills Section to the world building thread.  I'll totally post the more pertinent parts of it here.

The level and number of character abilities was left too vague in my first draft of the character sheet.  It now reads:

Powers/Skills: Here comes the 'we're all adults' reminder again.   This isn't a system game and characters are supposed to be extraordinary, some have been around for thousands of years were once worshiped as gods and figures of great power throughout history, but it is all about balance.  Avoid using phrasing like 'the best' and try to have a unifying theme for their powerset. Please try to keep your power list to 5 or fewer sections (2-3 major and 2-3 minor, having fewer is totally fine, but no more than five). More on Character Powers.  This helps cut down on the overlap between player powers and gives everyone their 'moments to shine'; it also makes it easier to fit characters together in scenes (because you have a focused power set you need the assistance of others to work at optimal levels instead of just being able to knock out most tasks on your own).

If you have any questions, comments, concerns about this please feel free to bring them up.  I like feedback even the harsh kind ;)

On to the power clarifications....




Travel to and from Faerie

This has already come up several times.  Being able to travel between worlds with always be a major power.  It's also one that I'm going to limit the numbers of players who can possess it (once we get like three at this point I'll cut it off and reopen it later down the road if/when we get more characters).  Why?  The isolation of Faerie is a big part of the story.  The fact that the Sidhe have been cut off from the outside world for the last hundred years is going to play a large role in their interaction with their descendants.  They now need these traditionally 'weaker' beings to help them survive. 

If everyone can travel between worlds it takes that element out entirely and that gives me a sad.

How do you get out/in to Faerie in the first place?
Gates - While once there were six (there are rumors of there being more, but it could just be the older ones being all grumpy 'back in my day' and exaggerating; that there were at least six is universally agreed upon though) there is now only one active.  Four were destroyed, one is ... missing.  These gates are a permanent fixture on Earth and in Faerie allowing travel both ways.  These Gates sit on natural wells of power, or ley lines on Earth and are EXTREMELY hard to move (it took the combined strength of a few dozen Sidhe to relocate the Gate to Isle Royale).  They are relics left to the Fae by their parents and how they are made, indeed what they are even made of is a mystery.

Personal Phasing - You can take only yourself across the barrier.  The whys and hows are up for debate, but I'm going to be a little more accepting of this one.

Opening Temporary Portals - You create a rift which allows you and small parties of people to travel back and forth from one world to the other. I DO want a few players to have this ability.  It'll be a key function of your character.  Organizing those who will go out to recruit and bring back the Fae Touched, bringing hunting parties out to deal with Dorcha threats.  This power makes you integral to the story.

Very Specific Portals - The example that occurs to me off the top of my head is having like a water Fae who is able to enter a specific area of water in Faerie and emerge into an again very specific watery area on Earth ... I might even go further and limit it to 'when the moonlight touches the water on Earth' just because drama flairs like that appeal to me :P They're essentially creating a tie between Earth and Faerie which is accessible by your character only under limited circumstances.  These types of powers I'm much more likely to sign off on.

Faerie is a wily bitch - There will be times that random natural portals open up.  Those stories of people wandering off in the forest and stumbling back fifty years later without having aged?  They totally found one of these portals and spent time in Faerie.  This is mainly to allow human characters in Faerie randomly.  They'll likely either be escorted out, killed, or adopted into the Moaine.  This has happened MUCH LESS in the last 100 years since not only the the Sidhe move the permanent portal they also tried to reinforce the barrier between the worlds making these random occurrences even more rare.




Fading

Sidhe in the game have found their powers waning over the years.  For some this was caused by the loss of human followers.  Human belief and sacrifice can indeed be a strong source of power, however they are no longer allowed to go this route, humans know the Fae to be extraordinary but killable creatures, they are not gods.  However even those who never received worship have found their own powers fading over the last 750ish years (the last 400 even more so than others).  During the Fae War everyone saw parts of their power slipping away (also mirrored in Faerie itself as large parts of it became inaccessible).  Please feel free to note this on your character sheet "Once he could restore life to a fallen human with but a touch.  He hasn't had access to this power since the 1600's"  While the Sidhe will likely never reclaim ALL of their glory there will be places in the story that everyone receives some small bumps in ability (assuming that you guys work together toward certain goals and things do/don't happen).  The Fae Touched and Half Blood characters will find themselves in possession of abilities that they never had so this is kind of an across the board thing (except for those playing straight humans, which quite frankly I don't see many people doing). 

[VioletPanda]

What did you mean about Fae touched having powers they hadn't had before? Like... Sudden superpower? :)


Also, having read more on Fae touched, it can be a blessing or a curse, some of these manifesting as what are deemed mental illnesses. How exactly did you want that to work? More like I've described, or Ella Enchanted?

I feel old mentioning that...

[RampantDesires]

What did you mean about Fae touched having powers they hadn't had before? Like... Sudden superpower? :)

Fae Touched will go through a training and acceptance to Faerie process.  During which/after they will likely experience a bump in ability.  They're better at using whatever they had coming in, or in some cases might develop something new (these new powers should still be listed on your character sheet but just marked as Undiscovered). 

Also, having read more on Fae touched, it can be a blessing or a curse, some of these manifesting as what are deemed mental illnesses. How exactly did you want that to work? More like I've described, or Ella Enchanted?

I feel old mentioning that...

Don't feel old, I loved that movie :P  It isn't a very good example though (I'm assuming you're talking about her bursts of superhuman ability when being commanded?)

These things can definitely be a blessing/curse.  For example I LOVE the thought of a small group of Fae showing up at a mental hospital to break out a telepathic character.  He's not crazy, those are other people's voices it is normal and they can teach him to control it :P

Greg is a good example.  As of game start his only real ability is he's a great swimmer (faster, stronger, increased lung capacity).  He's been hamstring himself, he knows that something is 'wrong' with him, but he's been careful to hold himself back to more normal levels so not to draw unwanted attention.  As he's draw into Faerie he'll let go of that, those abilities will heighten ... AND he'll discover at some point that he has some partial snake shifting thanks to his Fae blood.

Does that help at all?

[The Dark Raven]

Once i get off this work week, I really need to hammer out my concept and send it your way.

[VioletPanda]

I'm still thinking about my character. I was thinking about someone diagnosed with some kind of illness who thinks they might be crazy -referencing the term fae-touched became, which was insane or touched in the head.

[RampantDesires]

As far as I know I'm entirely caught up on existing PMs O.o  If you're waiting on a reply from me I've somehow managed to miss/mess it up please resend it so we can get back on track.

Technically the first of the game threads went up today.

Game Info and Character Sheets

There's nothing really new there yet, the three characters from the world building thread were moved over.  I'm for sure playing Seraphina (she'll be my main like personal story exploration character).  Micha is more a GM controlled NPC than real character but he'll be pretty active especially in the beginning of the game.  And Greg was initially just created to be an example of how a Fae Touched sheet might differ from a Sidhe, but I'm kind of fond of him and we'll see how it goes.  He'll at the very least be an NPC to play around with.

I've seen two other character sheets already.  They are awesome and we're in the process of refining those, and several others are in mid stages of character creation which is exciting. 

My bigger project today will be revamping the first posts in this thread with a more in depth claim section (I have a deep seated need to make things pretty O.o)

Would you guys be interested in me opening up a OOC page to just kind of casually chat about things or are you good holding off until a few more finished characters filter through?

Once i get off this work week, I really need to hammer out my concept and send it your way.

Yasss! I look forward to it :-) Good luck with work lady!

[Elysian Radiance]

If I wasn't sold on the idea at the start, I'm sold by the use of a Princess Bride quote. At that point, I was like "I don't need to read anymore. I'm in."

On that note, I'm leaning towards an old character of mine that I didn't get a chance to play out too much. Saige is essentially a celestial-type Fae. IF I decide to take on two characters, I'll be playing her twin, Saphron, who is the opposite, a demonic-type Fae. Going to try and read and process all the info you've posted up now.

[Hob]

The more and more I keep reading through, the more I keep finding myself interested. I actually dug out my copy of Katherine's Briggs' "An Encyclopedia of Fairies" to see what sort of being I might be interested in playing. And oddly enough, I got to thinking (Yes, a dangerous thing for me.) No goblins? No ogres? No trolls?  Somehow thinking there might be need for an "honest" monster to point out the less obvious ones.

But I think I'm more interested in playing a human...

[The Dark Raven]

The more and more I keep reading through, the more I keep finding myself interested. I actually dug out my copy of Katherine's Briggs' "An Encyclopedia of Fairies" to see what sort of being I might be interested in playing. And oddly enough, I got to thinking (Yes, a dangerous thing for me.) No goblins? No ogres? No trolls?  Somehow thinking there might be need for an "honest" monster to point out the less obvious ones.

But I think I'm more interested in playing a human...

That's because it is more the Irish idea of the Fae, which are "good" (Seelie) and "bad" (Unseelie).

[The Dark Raven]

Looking for a brunette (Female) with long hair, who has the old soul feel about them.  (I am also looking.  Please feel free to PM ideas to me, because I'm taking all ideas at this point while I work on the sheet.)

Thanks!

[RampantDesires]

Oh gawd, I'm so behind *hangs head*  Stupid Sunday and AFKness.

If I wasn't sold on the idea at the start, I'm sold by the use of a Princess Bride quote. At that point, I was like "I don't need to read anymore. I'm in."

On that note, I'm leaning towards an old character of mine that I didn't get a chance to play out too much. Saige is essentially a celestial-type Fae. IF I decide to take on two characters, I'll be playing her twin, Saphron, who is the opposite, a demonic-type Fae. Going to try and read and process all the info you've posted up now.

There's always room for Princess Bride quotes ;)  It was either that one or, "I must know!" .."Get used to disappointment."   Much less user friendly though.  While I'm open to the concept of both characters there could be some conflict with the use of 'celestial and demonic'.  The Fae don't really classify themselves in those terms, but they could be used as general character description for archetypal purposes and for human belief.  The other problem would be that while there is a two character limit right now one needs to be based in Faerie and the other on Earth for kind of game balance purposes so playing twins from the start could be problematic, I might have to ask you to hold off on bringing in the second character until after the character limit is raised (though you're welcome to mention her sister and even have her cameo as an NPC, I'm just not ready for dual Faerie characters at the moment).   

The more and more I keep reading through, the more I keep finding myself interested. I actually dug out my copy of Katherine's Briggs' "An Encyclopedia of Fairies" to see what sort of being I might be interested in playing. And oddly enough, I got to thinking (Yes, a dangerous thing for me.) No goblins? No ogres? No trolls?  Somehow thinking there might be need for an "honest" monster to point out the less obvious ones.

But I think I'm more interested in playing a human...

Thinking? Oh the HORROR! *cries and rocks self back and forth*

Anyway.  Goblins and trolls aren't a NO for the game.  It is simply that Fae subspecies don't exist for the game.  There is no armies of goblins or traditionally lesser/under fae running around. There are Sidhe and halfbloods who's abilities and appearances inspired the human myth of them. (There are also ... semi-intelligent creatures that live in Faerie reminicent of gremlins and goblins, making a kind of bestiary is on my to do list ... but that list has become like twenty items long and I'm not sure when I'll get there, but those will not be open to be player characters ... NPCs perhaps).

I somewhat got into this in PMs, it is very chicken/egg but the best way I could come up with to explain it is that my character Seraphina doesn't identify herself as a Phoenix (nor does anyone else in Faerie), she is Sidhe, it was humans and their stories ABOUT her that created the phoenix myth.  The whole archetype/inspiration section on the character sheet is just there for book keeping purposes, to keep players from overlapping too much.

So yeah, while the Sidhe TEND to be pretty there is totally room for more 'monstrous' Fae in the game. I'm more fond of the thought of them being halfblooded, some kind of Sidhe human mating that just went ... a little wrong.  While they are still accepted in Faerie it is almost with a sense of pity or horror by some (and they would for sure have to side with the Unseelie in the Fae War just because they're not pretty enough to sit at the cool kid's table :P) Quick example?  Troll. When out among humans character is glamoured to use The Great Kahli as a face claim, is still over seven feet of muscle with craggy features.  His more natural state is even more imposing. With rock like skin and truly terrible strength he has earned a place of honor among the Fae as he is often brought out with the Dorcha hunting parties; sometimes you need a monster to fight a monster. 

*nods* totally doable.  The only limitations are has to have a predominately humanoid form and human level of intelligence.  While I won't say 'go nuts'  I will say that I'm totally open to hearing more of your ideas... OR having you come in as human :-) whatever works for you really!

Looking for a brunette (Female) with long hair, who has the old soul feel about them.  (I am also looking.  Please feel free to PM ideas to me, because I'm taking all ideas at this point while I work on the sheet.)

Thanks!

I can't look at tumblr right now or I'll never get anything done, but I'll totally send things your way if I think of anything!

[Elysian Radiance]

Oh gawd, I'm so behind *hangs head*  Stupid Sunday and AFKness.

There's always room for Princess Bride quotes ;)  It was either that one or, "I must know!" .."Get used to disappointment."   Much less user friendly though.  While I'm open to the concept of both characters there could be some conflict with the use of 'celestial and demonic'.  The Fae don't really classify themselves in those terms, but they could be used as general character description for archetypal purposes and for human belief.  The other problem would be that while there is a two character limit right now one needs to be based in Faerie and the other on Earth for kind of game balance purposes so playing twins from the start could be problematic, I might have to ask you to hold off on bringing in the second character until after the character limit is raised (though you're welcome to mention her sister and even have her cameo as an NPC, I'm just not ready for dual Faerie characters at the moment).   

I really want to go watch Princess Bride now... My person, who is not a fan, will thank you. xD

Oh, I'm totally not prepared for a second character at this moment or anytime in the near future. I'm helping develop and getting ready to launch a game that I'll be co-GMing so one character is plenty for me. :D It was just a thought for way later down the line. I'm going to shoot you a PM to further discuss the character concept before I get super involved in it! ^.^

[Kye]

Are you still accepting more players? Definitely interested if you are.

[RampantDesires]

Absolutely still open for players.  We'll always kind of be in a state of open recruitment and the first batch of characters are still being worked out so the field is still pretty wide open.  General claim list is almost done, but generally speaking steer away from valkyries and Dorcha Síoraí experts and you're probably good to go.  (I promise that the list will be done today, 'm just trying to clean out PMs before rewarding myself with table code :D)

Rampant's face upon seeing all you lovely people and your creations so far

Thanks guys for sticking with me while I get things sorted out!

[Hob]

That's because it is more the Irish idea of the Fae, which are "good" (Seelie) and "bad" (Unseelie).

The Irish Sidhe ("of the mound" or "people of the mound") really weren't "good" or "bad" in their own right, more simply alien and mysterious to the mortals. Their reasons for doing things were largely unfathomable, however beneficial or cruel the results may have been to mortals. The Welsh Tylwyth Teg were much the same. The Nordic Alfar shared similar origins to the Sidhe as they may have been born out of some form of ancestral worship, but there's no proven link there, and in the Eddas they are usually shown to have more human motivations. It was the Scots and Scots-English folklore that divided such creatures into Seelie and UnSeelie (which possibly may have come out of 'seemly' and 'un-seemly', but again, the etymological links are missed there.)  Yeats, of course, is the main culprit in creating the idea of Faerie Courts as it applies to the whole spectrum along with the division between Trooping and Solitary Fae. Briggs, I know maintains that there should be a third category of Domestic, but I'm not convinced; at best, such beings would be an offset of Solitary. More modern theory (Purcell, I think??) seemed to divide them up into four categories. My library is mostly packed away at the moment, so I don't have that at hand.

(Looking over what I just wrote and laughing at myself.)  BOY, talk about being pedantic! 

~~~

@ RampantDesires

Thanks for the clarification and feedback! I'm going to mull it over a bit more before I make any decisions, but I am leaning more and more towards a human who gets caught up in their affairs through no fault of his own.

[The Dark Raven]

Edited because I'm snarky this morning.

[Elysian Radiance]

Edited because I'm snarky this morning.

-snerk- I caught the initial comment. =P

So I was pondering last night. You said you wanted to do something Arthurian... why not do something based off the Lady of the Lake?

[The Dark Raven]

-snerk- I caught the initial comment. =P

So I was pondering last night. You said you wanted to do something Arthurian... why not do something based off the Lady of the Lake?

Oh the idea was already cemented (not Lady of the Lake), I just had to get the ok from Rampant to do what I'm doing. :)

[RampantDesires]

*flails out from under a pile of stuff to give thumb?*

This type of conversation is why I decided to hack and slash my way through making my own lore/history section instead of using someone else's :D Too many sources and options otherwise.

For those of you waiting on PMs I promise they're coming.  I'm just ... far too thorough for my own good (and likely yours as well).  Seriously, my last one was like 2k words.  Who does that?

OOo, also play by wise (because I can't help myself)  Have you thought about  someone like Bianca Balti?  She has that .. haunting look about her and a wide variety of images available :-) 

[Elysian Radiance]

Oh the idea was already cemented (not Lady of the Lake), I just had to get the ok from Rampant to do what I'm doing. :)

Fun! I can't wait to see what you do with it.

[Hob]

Edited because I'm snarky this morning.

Well, that's no fun! Besides, I'm the type who figures that if there is snark coming my way (or better still constructive criticism) I either deserve it or need it. Sort of like the one quote from Harvey: "In this world, you can be oh-so-smart or oh-so-pleasant... I recommend pleasant."  (Wait! POOKA reference! It's all tying in together!)

[RampantDesires]

Playing a human mixed up in all of this could indeed be fun.  There will be lots of plotty goodness to be involved in and depending where your character's sympathies lie things could get... interesting :P

What We're Working With So Far

Pumpkin Seeds - General Interest
Sain - Dorcha flavored oracle
persephone325 - General Interest
Semi Existent Dragon - General Interest
Kuroneko - Japanese origin
Cerigo - Celtic Flavored Water Deity
Elysian Radiance - Sidhe with angelic inspiration
Justric - Human  >:)
Kyrsa - General Interest



I think this is current.  If I'm missing your stuff totally poke me.

Official Claims :D

Player		Role		Face
Wispyr		Valkyrie		Mini Anden
Amarlo		Psychometry/Premonition Fae Touched		None yet
Amarlo		Ianna/Ishtar		Cassie (model/singer)
Cerevan		Sekhmet		Felisha Terrell
Cerevan		Fae Touched Oracle?		Lauren Calaway
vatovie		Nabu, god of knowledge		None
VioletPanda		Telempathy Fae Touched		None
The Dark Raven		Morgan le Fey		None
Cuchulainn		Aengus Og reincarnated		None
Rampant		Phoenix		Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Rampant		Naga, Fae Touched		Jake Abel
Rampant		Mictlantecuhtli		Martin Sensmeier