|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:32 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:48 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:51 am
 |
|
|
 |
 Today we're going to talk about Fangroot, boys and girls.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
Fangroot.
So many of you are from Fangroot... what does that mean you might ask.
Well I'll tell you.
Fangroot is a place in Stonecrest's Eastern Forest where the inhabitanats live in trees! This is mainly because it is a very dense part of the forest, and very little light makes it all the way to the bottom of the forest floor. This may also be because the only plants that thrive on the floor are dangerous ones, that seek out parasitic and harmful ways of mastering Darwin's law of evolution. Chances are great that creatures not native to Fangroot, can not navigate the forest floor without getting some form of splinter, poison ivy or nettle irritation, however forest dwellers born and raised in Fangroot usually know how to get from here to there without too much trouble. If you are not carefull in Fangroot you might end up a snack for a larger predator. Creatures from Fangroot have previously been called 'bad asses', and this has nothing to do with the ascetics of their hind quarters. If you survive to adulthood in Fangroot, you are tough.... or just plain lucky.
The village is rather close to the road. They are aware of cars passing quickly on the road, though they do not know them as anything other than a dangerous part of their lives. The creatures do their very best to stay away from the road, though sometimes they can find human trash and litter closer to the road than they like to go. This would be one of Fangroot's chief exports, if the creatures had any interest in business at all.
Rooters, as those from Fangroot habitually call themselves, live in the a system of treelines. This means that, up nearer to the light in the city, there is a huge massing of rope bridges and houses made from platforms and leaves, hammocks hanging out in the middle of the air, ziplines, ladders, trapdoors and such. Rooters build their houses mostly in one of two ways.
The first way to build a house in Fangroot is to collect as many sticks and leaves as you can, and weave them into a single room, or a series of small interconnected rooms for a larger house. This kind of house takes a little while to build, but if you're a good forager, and you can weave tightly without your fingers falling off, then you can have a house built in as little as two weeks. These woven houses often look like balls wedged into the trunks between branches... yes... balls of sticks and leaves and whatever else you manage to weave into your abode.
The second way to build a house is to manage to find one of the thicker Rut Trees and convince it to help you. Rut Trees are fast growing *fast growing for a tree that is* trees with more foliage and small branches than the other trees. The abundance of these trees in the area, is actually why there is so little light in the area... these trees block it all out. But if you're a smart Rooter, and you're brave and bad assed enough to guard a Rut Tree, then you can spend about four months tying the shorter branches together and flattening them out, shaping them this way and that, and essentially convincing the tree to grow in the shape of a house... just for you. These houses typically made the Rut Trees look like they have cancer in the shape of little houses, with windows and doors and everything. Each Rut Tree can typically hold at least 30 houses, but these abodes take much longer to form than the stick ones... and if something happens to your house, then you have a long time fixing it.
All different kinds of creatures live in Fangroot... but admittedly most Rooters are bats and birds, mice, wildcats and such... don't get me wrong, there is the occasional mole family, or Shrew widow, or rabbit who just needs a little time to himself... but usually the Fangroot tree system and dangerous forest floor is more suited to the more nimble and agile creatures.
Anyone can visit in Fangroot, but only the brave can live there. (or the damn lucky)
Talk to your travel agent today!
questions about Fangroot?
suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment? |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:03 am
|
|
|
|
Today we're going to talk about The StoneCrest Economy, boys and girls.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
StoneCrest Economy
So you live in StoneCrest... What can you buy?
I'll tell you.
Nothing.
The reason that you can't buy anything in StoneCrest is because the Forest's Economy is run by Barter System. This basically means that you offer to trade someone something you've made or purchased in exchange for something that they have. It's like a great big swap mart, only with things made from the forest.
Usually the things available to you for trading are items that you've made yourself (such as food, jewelry, homemade bowls and cups), Things from the human world that you've found (like trash, or everyday objects that can be re purposed for new uses - no condom hats please) Things you've purchased from the shop (like gloves and vests, weapons and potions and such) Or services that you can offer (like house building, babysitting, Worm walking, and so forth. No prostitutes right off the bat please ^_^ )
The basic rules are, be creative and try to stay true to your character. If your character isn't any good a cooking, don't have them trade bread that they made for some beads... if they enjoy walking and don't mind dragging worms behind them, have them offer up their services as a worm walker. Just let it make sense. ^-^. The end result will be a character that is well fleshed out and fun to play, and a society that is plausable, working well with the other rpers playing.
Trading between tribes would be the same as trading in your own tribe, the only difference is that you might be able to get more for what your'e trading, simply because it would probably be something that's not native to the tribe you wanted to trade to. Though the perils of getting there might be hazardous to your health.
Just a note... if you want to trade or own a peice of human trash that you've found, please run it by Keppit first, just to see if it's okay.
Questions about The StoneCrest Economy?
Suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment can be made right here in the the main thread. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:13 pm
|
|
|
|
Today we're going to talk about Hallowmarl, boys and girls.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
Hallowmarl
So you live in Hallowmarl? It's not really such a bad place to live, if you like heat, and hate trees.
As you may have guessed from the backdrops of the certs, Hallowmarl is a desert, therefore everyone lives underground in a series of elaborate tunnels and caves. Every tunnel and cave is connected to all the other tunnels and caves, like a small underground city. There are 23 entrances to Hallowmarl, and each of them is basically a piece of rock with sand mudded to the top. Unless you live in Hallowmarl you will never know where the entrances are located in the vast sand dunes around the place... they're that invisible.
Beasts who live in Hallowmarl usually refer to it as 'The Hallow'.
Now that you know you live underground, you should also know that there are two types of houses that you can live in. Both are basically the same, with minor differences. Both are caves/hollowed out along a tunnel system (the equivalent of a street). Usually the houses are round on the inside, with chairs and benches cut right into the walls. One way of cutting your house out is to just dig away in the sand, and prop up the walls with mud, making them cakey and goopy looking (but completely dry when they're dry). This is the easiest method of home creation, and can take as little as a week for one room dwellings. The second way to hollow out your home is to find a sandstone deposit and make your home in that. This kind of home usually lasts longer and has better furniture, though it takes at least two months to hollow out a sandstone home.
Lighting in the Hallow is dim and base level unless you have access to a light spell (have purchased a light spell from Dave IC). Closer to the top level of the city, there are small crystals that are placed on the ground level above. These well cut gems can take a beam of light and spread it out simply by letting it pass through their prism structure, making the upper rooms and tunnels in the Hallow remarkably well lit. The further you go underground, however, the crystals (even working in succession) become less and less powerful. This is where the fungus comes in.
Deeper in the Hallow, there are luminescent fungus patches growing on the walls, which produce a sickly green and/or blue light. Most Hallowers (creatures from Hallowmarl) have become accustomed to the light and don't even notice how dim it can be.
The tunnels in the Hallow go side to side and up and down as well. Some of the tunnels are cut into stairs and ladders, and some are just left as a sloping tunnel, but you can pretty much get anywhere in the tunnels if you know where you are.
There are three main buildings/caves in the Hallow, and every beast is welcome in each one. The first is the bathspring. The bathspring is a large underground lake (very well lit by the crystals) where the beasts of Hallowmarl go to bathe. The water is naturally warm and tastes quite metallic, so they do not drink it, merely swim and bathe in it.
The Second is the wellspring. The wellspring is a cold water spring located deep in the ground under the forges, where the creatures of Hallowmarl go to gather water that's drinkable. They NEVER bathe in it, and some beasts can be found making constant trips back and forth for the elderly and infirm members of the tribe. The wellspring is much like a lake, only the Hallowers have built up a stone wall around the outside of the lake, allowing beasts to dip buckets and bowls and such into the water without bending over at all.
The third (and probably most useful) caves in the Hallow, are the forges. This brings us to Hallowmarl's chief export. It is well known in the forest and surrounding area, that if you want good glass then you want glass smelted in the Hallow. The beasts here are experts with sand and the process it takes to melt sand and grit into bowls and glassware of all kinds. In fact, the bottles that come out of Hallowmarl can be quite elaborate and beautiful. A lot of the beasts here have learned to make and shape glassware over their lifetimes. In the Smelt caves (the forges) there are funneled bamboo sticks imported from the forests that act as smoke stacks for the smoke to escape from, but some smoke drifts out through the tunnels in any case.
The smelting forges are located deep deep down in the tunnels where the sand is cold enough that they can take the heat, and where the heat that comes off of the firepits (lined with sand bricks) helps to warm the houses down that deep. If you live in the deep depths of Hallowmarl, then you're probably not very rich at all.
All in all, Hallowmarl, isn't a bad place to be. Creatures here have a life that's not too plagued by predators, but lived mostly in the dark, slightly smoky atmosphere of the tunnels.
Questions about Hallowmarl?
Suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment can be made right here in the the main thread. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:55 pm
|
|
|
|
Today we're going to talk about Family Values.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
Family Values
Family values is defined as being 'a term popularized by conservatives in the United States as referring to a set of social norms that define a family structure and operation'... Blah. Boring.
Okay, so here in StoneCrest (for the purposes of this Teacher Time Post) Family Values is going to be a blanket covering for how creatures live as a family, how they define their relationships, how they go about raising children (a bird and a bee, hook up, do it all day long... and get nothing), what normally happens to children and families in the forests, and general definitions for human terms that the animals might not use too much (like marriage, homosexual, and such things... you'll see).
So... first things first, you're a creature in StoneCrest, who's biological clock is tick tick ticking away. All you long for is true love, some good sex and maybe a kid or two... not so different from humans really. And in order for you to have good rp here in StoneCrest, all you really have to remember is that the characters here behave much the same way we do in our own lives. They fall in love, they hook up, they have kids the natural way.... it's really simple.
Creatures in the forest, date and fall in love through the same processes as humans. Sometimes it's love at first sight, sometimes it's a long drawn out process, sometimes a person sleeps around without a real care for an actual relationship, and sometimes they've been childhood sweethearts forever... anything goes really.
Once two creatures declare that they are in love and want to be together for the rest of their furry little lives, they can do one of three things.... live together forever and call each other mate (maybe even have a small party where the other clan creatures can celebrate with them) and then go about their business living together like that... or.... continue to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever and ever, still living apart like they always have been, only being faithful to each other.... or.... they can trek the several day journey to Sunhedge where they have a formal marriage ceremony, called a "Joining", where they can pay the creatures there to formally commit them to each other. This last means of being "joined" is a much less common practice, seeing as to how the trek to the mountain is treacherous, and the joining (marriage) in StoneCrest is taken MUCH less seriously than we humans do. In fact, only in Fleuve do they make it a practice of recognizing joined couples in business and such... If your character was 'joined' to another, and they ended up sleeping with someone else or otherwise cheating on their spouse, you'd be hard pressed to find too much surprise or gossip about it really. It isn't something that most Cresters care about. Your spouse will probably hate you, but no one is going to spit on you in the street as you walk by. Get over yourself, you're not that important.
Now... for the matter of children.
We’re not going to tell you that you can’t have them, after all, they are damn cute and fun to dress up and play. And really they make a good rp most of the time. It’s also the only way to get a character that’s a really really good warrior, because you can’t really get the stat points you’d need without raising a character yourself on Rp.
Okay, children in StoneCrest.
Mice have lots of kids, rabbits breed like… well… rabbits… Birds lay eggs, you know… simple and straightforward. Natural selection, birds and bees ( I STILL don't understand that), regular 'time for the talk dad' stuff.
The biggest difference in families, is that it's not unlikely for children to be given away at birth. A woman warrior mouse has three children, and she doesn’t really want to be a mom, she wants to be a warrior (yay for no condoms) so she gives each of the children to a different creature in her village to raise. This is completely normal. Also, it’s not unheard of for the parents of a child to die in childbirth or an accident, leaving the child to fend for itself in the village. When this kind of thing happens, the orphans are either taken in by one single family, or watched over collectively by the whole of the village. Take Baneberry or Toki for example. They live by themselves like little homeless vagabonds when they want to… but there are houses in Fangroot who will gladly open their doors and let the orphan children come in for dinner or to spend the night out of the rain… that kind of thing. But when a child is not orphaned (when the parents are alive and playable characters) they live as a family in a house like we humans do. They call each other mom and dad and brother and sister, just like us.
Now, for the technical part…
As you may have noticed… there is no protection in StoneCrest (at least, it doesn’t do them much good, even as accessories)… so if you rp your character sleeping around a lot and We notice here in the shop, you stand a chance of getting knocked up. Haha… real life sucks. You then have to deal with the children the same way a breeding pair would have to.
Technical difficulties::
Male/male, female/female, shrew/bat, Etc/yougetthepoint, couples can NOT have natural children. At all, ever, never, not even a little bit. This is not because we hate homos here in the shop (quite the opposite usually, considering we’re almost entirely staffed by lesbians here ) but rather because we’re trying to adhere to something a little closer to the real world. It’s just not genetically possible…. We do cater to you though. If you have an alternate pairing situation and your couple would like to have children, then you apply for a slot like everyone else, and the shop will arrange for you to find children who have just been orphaned. They may not be the same species as your characters, but at that point, we like to think you know that love transcends all mediums blah blah blahhity blah. You get the point. This bores me, so I’ll get to the fun part.
Mortality::
Here in StoneCrest, we like rp, so as long as there is rp between breeding couples, you don’t have to suffer Keppit’s dreaded mortality dice…. However if you just want to have babies, and you randomly hook up two characters, we’ll let you. But for each child that is born, Keppit will roll the dreaded mortality dice. Ten sides, and each baby that rolls a number 1 dies at birth. You could get really lucky and get to keep all the kids, or fate could deal you a blow and take one or two or all of them even. That’s how we roll here in the dangerous woods of StoneCrest. Ps, Keppit will tell you how each one died, if they die, so that you can aptly record your grief …or relief? … in rp. Also, no matter how many kids your pairing yields, you may only keep ONE EACH for each parent character in the breeding. Say Dave and I hook up some Rabbits... Dave can have one rabbit baby and I can have one rabbit baby, but any extra rabbit babies have to be given away ... you hear that? GIVEN away. For free... to your friends or anyone you want. ^_^ I would give mine to Indu, cause she's the mocha sweetness I've been looking for all my life in rp.... I don't care why or who you give your babies to. That's up to you as long as you GIVE them away. You may never sell a StoneCrest character without shop permission... and we probably won't give it.
The bottom line is that, within a dangerous society like this one (think medieval times in human terms) there is usually something more pressing in the need to survive than the need to have a great 2.4 family unit with a little white fence and a potty trained worm in the front yard. Kids are cute, familes are great, owls gotta eat to live and baby shrews taste like chicken.
More Questions about Family Values?
Suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment can be made right here in the the main thread. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:05 pm
|
|
|
|
Today we're going to talk about Sunhedge, boys and girls.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
Sunhedge and Religion in General
So you're sitting at your dinning room table, your heads are bowed, and you take a moment to give thanks to the great tree for this food that you are so blessed with.
Why did you do that? Well that would be because StoneCresters are raised with a certain system of beliefs, and those beliefs center around the great tree in the Mossflower Triangle. Wow... that was really easy and straightforward to understand. Great Tree = StoneCrest God. Great Tree = the center of the forest's religion.
There are two main differences here in StoneCrest that you don't find in the human world. The first is that like family values, most times the need to survive greatly outweighs the need to understand 'why'. You know why... why are we here, why was I born, why do I love so much, why did Bobbi Jenkins throw spitballs at me in middle school?... Most StoneCrest beasts don't think about these things if they can help it, because it's more important to keep an eye on Canker Blossom, not step on too many bugs (they make bigger squishes when you're mouse sized), and try to stay out of the grasp of the Harrowgate squirrels. The second difference would be that the tree has been proven to be magical, and actually has a magical effect on the creatures in it's care...
Actually... let's talk about the tree.
 I did not draw this tree, I stole it to place hold an actual tree drawing. This tree is by Andreas Mayer
The Tree
Mossflower common is set up in a Triangle formation. In the center of the triangle is the cultural center of the forest. This is where you will typically find creatures like Bale, and Tristan... Milligan and the other shop keepers who set up their stands from day to day. (for all you Keppit fangirls out there, this is where I stopped to make myself a sandwhich). The three corners of the triangle are the housing area (where you live if you live in mossflower), the Ruins of the StoneCourt (where the castle used to be before the forest dwellers were dumb enough to destroy it), and the tree...
The tree is the biggest in the forest. It is often known as the ancient tree or the great tree (Older generations refer to it as the latter, earlier generations refer to it as the former)... but many just refer to it as "The Tree" for there is no other nearly as impressive. This tree is so vast that its roots have split apart and a river flows through it; starting from the east, curving just past the tree, and ending in a large lake. In the tree itself is a large hollow, a place where none dare to go, except for the bravest of souls (and trust me none of you are brave enough yet, so don't even ask). In the hollow there is a large stone, with a strange symbol, that sits in a pool of collected water that is thick and tinted with a strange glow. This is the source of all magic and can be harnessed to make various potions... when characters are near to the tree they can feel a sense of calmness, and a feeling of safety... creatures living near the tree are less likely to be hostile in general, and so on and so forth.
Long ago, there used to be a religious order living in among the roots of the great tree... but after a long time of making mistakes and being made generally docile by the tree's magic splooge (oh... Kep... really?) They came to realize that they were of no use to the tree when they were right underneath it. In fact, in the great Wildcat Battle during the "Winter of the Blind Slug", the religious faction now known as Sunhedge was slaughtered most mercilessly by foes as inconsequential as the Halliberd Pygmy Shew Clan, and that roving band of Mildly Special Mercenary Mice that somehow managed to evade capture all that winter.
It was, in the end, a good decision to move the TreeBeast Tribe to a new location... thus, Sunhedge was born.
Sunhedge
(I'm sure this was how this Teacher Time moment was supposed to start...
Oh well.)
Sunhedgers, or "TreeBeasts" as they're more commonly known among themselves and others, currently live up on a mountain plain overlooking The Great Tree. This was done for many reasons... 1. They're no longer muddy minded from living in the magic wash of the tree itself... 2. They can actually see the tree now, whereas before they just kind of stood among the roots and stared up at it thinking 'I know it's a tree, but I can't really see anything more than this bark here" ... and C. Being up really really high like that caters to the almost manditory houghty lookin-down-your-nose-at-everyone, holier AND mightier than you attitude that so many (oh god tree it's almost sterotypical) of the Tree Beasts seem to embody.
Yes, I said "C" on purpose.
Anyway, if your character lives in SunHedge, then they live in one of two places... Nowhere... and in a house. Seems simple enough.
Really, if you're creature lives in SunHedge then they live in a house. If you don't, then you're typically looked down upon as not being a good enough prophet or TreeBeast in general... mostly because the majority of TreeBeasts take payment for religious services (no, they're not prostitutes, geezum crow! You guys have filthy minds) in the form of goods and household maintenance. Someone comes to get married and you're the one who marries them? Maybe they carve you a new door, or add a new shrub to your garden... the end result is that each house in Sunhedge is large and overly carved, made from wood and stone in varying elements...
 Hells yeah, I drew this... refferenced, but drew it all the same.
Of course, this one room cabin pictured is only about 1/20th as elaborate as some of the houses belonging to more popular prophets, but some smaller ones do exist as well.
There is also, as mentioned before, a variety of Tree Beast who prefers to go it 'monk style' and live in poverty and abandonment, being generally boring and a lot less vocally crazy than your typical "Tree Thumper" (oh, god tree, that's funny shtuff right there.) But there's really no reason for that breed to stay in Sunhedge, and so they typically prefer to wander loose and free, living as they will, where they will, how they will. They're not appreciated by the house dwelling Tree Beasts in any case.
As far as other buildings go, there are only three others of note... the wellspring house, which is a large stone building cut into the side of the mountain where the water collects inside (cold clear mountain water)... and the prayer house....which is just what it sounds like. A large open space filled with seats and tables and such where beasts can sit and think and 'pray'. And the Mass house.
The mass house is basically like the nunnery. There are a group of TreeBeasts who keep the large stone building running so that the orphans and unwanted forest beasts can have a place to stay and learn if they feel it is where they belong.
Now... let's talk about levels of fanaticism.
Fanaticism
Fanaticism is defined as being "A fanatic outlook or behavior especially as exhibited by excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning zeal, or wild and extravagant notions on some subject"
Here in StoneCrest the levels of religious 'zeal' are about as varied as they are in our human world... you have beasts like Zephra who were raised in the Mass House and who believe in the Tree and all it can do, but don't go around talking about it at all or pushing their religious agenda on others at any time. These creatures probably get offended if you insult their religion or put it down, but they don't feel that it is the "Tree's Will" to bring all creatures around to the ways of the Sap.... On the other hand, you have beasts like Cilla, the Tree Fearing Mole, who rides astride her massive Ant Mount to the farthest reaches of the forest, just so she can knock at the doors of the unbelievers at dinnertime and instruct them on the "gifts they already have in their hearts if they'll just accept them... Great Tree, Gideon Acorn Amendments, chapter 14, verse 1.6" Both of these types of characters can be fun to play... and both are readily available.
I think I'll be talking about the great tree and the magics of the forest again in another Teacher Time Post... but for now, you have been educated. enjoy, but remember... with knowledge comes power, and with power comes great responsibility.
Questions about Sunhedge?
Suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment can be made right here in the the main thread. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:43 pm
|
|
|
|
Today we're going to talk about all about Magic boys and girls.
Feel free to ask questions and add possible information.
Magic
So here at StoneCrest, one of the most important things to know about is magic… and it’s not all that hard guys, I promise. It’s not astrophysics. In fact a drugged monkey could understand this.
So let me list out the things I’m going to address here in this post so that you won’t feel overwhelmed looking at how long it is…
~~ The Setting
~~ The Tree
~~ Ambience
~~ Potions
~~ Animal Sizes vs Character sizes
~~ Life Expectancy in Creatures and Bugs
~~ Fighting
~~ Spells in general
~~ Magic as a whole
Lets start with “The Setting”
~~ Many of you have asked, “When is this storyline set? When does it take place?” The answer is Now. Right now. As you sit here and read this genuine note from a zombie, your little mouse in a dress is lacing up her boots and thinking about what she’s going to cook for dinner. The story is now. That means that it’s set in modern day, with all the modern things humans have… if this were a story it would start with something other than “once upon a time” because that would be a bad opener for a story taking place here in our lives.
The animals we play live in our designated map area (Woodhaven, Fleuve, Harrowgate, etc…)… The map area is adjacent to an interstate, and on the other side of that VERY busy road is a human town with humans like us… hell, maybe even one of you. Our characters *aside from the lab animals* have lived in the forest and (with rare exceptions) have never seen the human world or even heard of a human. This is because of the tree.
In order to talk about the tree I need to tell a story
Once upon a contemporary time in a land not to far from where you live now… In the early days of the Great Tree, before Man left the forest barren in his wake, the natural magic the Earth produced sought a ‘release’ into the world. This natural magic found refuge in gems… five Stones of Power to be exact. Humans were the first creatures to find these gems, and they cut and polished them and revered them for their brilliance, only faintly and subconsciously aware of their true potential. Some People worshiped them in their religious rituals, others kept them in vaults as their most valued possessions. Men fought and died over these stones, but like Man’s reverence for nature, as the human race grew and became more industrial, as the trees were cut down to build bigger houses and more resources, the gems were eventually forgotten and abandoned within the withered forest. Almost a century later when the Great Tree found life once more, it reclaimed these stones through its roots, and they grew up through its bark and into its branches. Many years later, during one of the tree’s seasons of bloom, many flower grew forth from the depths of the Tree, and when they spread their dewy petals, the stones were once again revealed.
The stones ‘called’ to the weary and needful, drawing the good and more moral creatures to the center of the forest where the tree was in full bloom.. it wasn’t long before the gems were discovered (nesting serenely in the pink blossoms of the tree) by a young child of the forest (her name and race are now lost to time) and were brought back to her fellow foresters. Like Man before them, they were enamored with the Stones, and the greedier creatures sought to keep them for themselves. There was much animosity between species as the animals formed factions and leaders rose up to seek ownership of the gems. The creatures rowed for long ages, and it seemed like no peace could be found in the forest.
That is, until one day, a young mouse stepped forward. Albert Wald rose beyond his diminutive nature and called counsel with the other Lords of the Forest, asking Raptor and Shrew, Wildcat, Ferret and Dove to stand together. Albert proposed a compromise: a Stone for each faction to be guarded by its leader and shared with its people. With some compromise the others agreed, and thus balance was (temporarily) restored to the forest once again.
This lasted a score of seasons until the shrew leader (of all creatures) came to believe that the other leaders were plotting behind his back, planning to lead a rebellion against his tribe and kill all his followers. Needless to say this act of paranoia was only the first stepping stone on a long path of war and treachery and deceit. Many creatures died, many tribes were rendered bare and creatureless…
It is rumored that the stones were lost to time, gone from this world if they ever existed at all… some say that the tree took them back and is waiting until the creatures of the forest can prove that they’re ready to be peaceful and calm again… most think this story is just a fabrication, created by mouse mothers and Ferret Fathers to help keep their kids in line and behaving… though none can deny the pull of the great tree.
The Great Tree
No matter how hard you try, you can’t deny that when you’re closer to the great tree, you feel less hostile. Everyone knows that the tree is magic and that it watches over the forest. What they don’t know is that the tree is actually controlling them, allowing for the use of magic and the general feeling of community that happens when they stop trying to kill each other. Nowhere else in the world is there known to be a tree like this one… which is probably why there aren’t any other known communities of forest animals that act like humans…
You learned about the physical attributes of the tree in the last Teacher Time Moment… see the post on sunhedge and religion to read more on that. But lets talk now about what the tree actually does for the forest… you’d never guess how much.
Ambience
I’ve already said that when creatures are closer to the tree they feel more communal, and less hostile… but this goes a lot further than this. The tree is effectively watching over the forest dwellers, keeping them from wanting to leave the area the tree can reach, keeping them from all out warefare, allowing them to remain smart enough and cognitive enough to actually want to build houses and act like humans… who knows? Maybe the tree is trying to make the animals into what the humans should have been all along? In any case, the tree also keeps the humans out of the forest, allowing the animals to live in peace without fear of having their trees cut down or their lakes drained… the tree also effects other things that use magic in general… like the things listed below…
Potions
All of the forest’s potions are derived from the tree itself in some way… some are made from sap, some from water that is diluted through the tree’s roots, and some are even made from the ground up pieces of the tree itself (leaves and back and such). That being said, there’s really not all that much you can do with the parts of the tree unless you have a vast background in potions making then you’re not going to know what to do with the ingredients and you’ll just have to rely on characters like Makandriel like everyone else. The vast amounts of ingredients one can get off the tree means that, with the right preparation techniques, just about any kind of magic potion can theoretically be made.
Animal Sizes vs Character sizes
The tree directly affects the sizes of the creatures in the forest. The longer a creature lives under the general influence of the tree’s magic, the more they start to shrink towards a more uniform size. We’ll be explaining this sesame street style with ‘small, medium, and large.’ … I’m going to say that there are three general sizes for creatures born in Stonecrest, and they are (you guessed it) small medium and large. It should be pretty easy to see which creatures fall into which category, but let me be clear… Small creatures are Mice, Shrews, Bats, moles and Sand Owls. Medium creatures are Hedgehogs, Squirrels, Lizards, and Ferrets. Large Creatures are Badgers, Rabbits, Hares, Raccoons and Wildcats… of course this is not set in stone and you can end up with a large smaller cat or a larger ferret… and some creatures like the Raptors go into both the large and Medium categories, while the songbirds range from small to medium… it’s common sense.
Really all you need to know is that the lab animals will be closer to actual animal sizes while the creatures of StoneCrest have been shrunk over the seasons by the tree’s magic so that they can be more harmonious in general. It also means that the longer the lab creatures live in the forest, the more they’ll start to match the other animals in size.
Life Expectancy in Creatures and Bugs
Okay… so many of you have been asking about life expectancy… and I didn’t really want to get into it until I started in on magic and the tree, because (you guessed it) the tree effects it.
We’re classifying seasons as ‘years’ basically. So there are four seasons in a year, so in a typical human year a StoneCrest Creature would be 4 seasons old (and technically the same age as a four year old mentally). That’s easy enough right? Also the tree not only elongates the lifespans of the foresters, but it also evens them out so that they all match pretty much… this means that even though a parrot can live 100 years and a mouse can usually only usually last five years on a really good run, these two animals in the forest would have about the same lifespan (comparatively) as a human… so we live about 80 years… that means that a mouse could technically live 80 seasons in the forest under the influence of the tree… (for those of you who are math challenged, that means 20 years human standards) Of course, if your mouse gets stabbed in the chest then they probably won’t make it the 80 seasons…
Fighting
Okay… magic in fighting is treated EXACTLY like fighting with you fists… the only difference is that you use your magic points as a roll the same way you would use your max attack and such… And you CAN fight with magic even without a spell to use. When you attack with magic you get to decide how the attack takes shape… it can be piercing like an arrow, or blunt as if you’d hit your opponent with your fist, or even pinching as if it were a grappling grab… the only thing you have to remember here, is that in order to use elements (like fire, air, water, earth) and other special attacks, you’ll have to buy those spells.
So Amelia attacks Rhys and she uses her magic to do so … I would roll my base magic stats the same way I would my attack stats, and then I would say “Amelia strikes out at Rhys using her magic… the force of the blow sails across the air between them and strikes him as a lashing force, as if Amelia had hit him with her tail”… and that would be all I had to do… if she had any spells I could use them according to their stats, but that’s bonus, like having swords and such can help your physical attacks. Of course, if I was attacking with Bale the force would be more of a pressure, and with Arty the blow would be blunt and swift, and with Zephra the pain would be more of a piercing effect… it’s all what you choose to have fit your character, and the actual damage is controlled by the roll just the same way the physical attacks are.
As long as you have magical stats of any kind, you can attack with magic… you do not need spells… just like you don’t need a sword to hit someone.
Spells in general
Now if you wanted a more specialized spell, then you’d have to have purchased that to use it… and usually what you’ve gotten (Icly) is a book telling your character how to do it… or maybe their mother taught them… or they learned from Leil (the forest magician)… or they learned from another stonecrestian who already knows how to do the spell… it’s all up to you.
Magic as a whole
Generally, since the forest is full of magic, the possibilities are endless, and I’m always willing to discuss any ideas you guys might have for spells or situations and such… after all, the Bug mount spells came about because of an rp of Fenshae’s that I read. Also, I’m going to warn you now… you’re starting to see some Cursed Magic in the forest now, things that embody a sort of ‘Dark Magic’ and cause more harm than good… if your character uses these items too much (and sometimes they can’t help it) then they will start to become tainted and you will have to deal with a character who is ‘cursed’… really it’s not all that hard to tell the cursed items apart from the normal ones… so tread carefully.
Questions about Magic? Feel free to ask them in the main thread.
Previous Teacher Time Moments can be found Here in the guild archive.
Suggestions on topics for you next Sexy Zombie Librarian Teacher Moment can be made right here in the the main thread. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
