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Geography

Innera is a bowl. A rather flat bowl, but a bowl nonetheless. The mainland is in the rough center of Innera, and it is often referred to as the 'center of life' or just 'the Center'. Innera is made up mostly of land and has no oceans, although at times of the year it will have very deep lakes. On the other hand, it has vast chasms, many of which hold water for most of the year and most of which harbor unseemly creatures that like the taste of people. For this reason, the outer continents are generally treated as if they were seperated from the mainland completely.

Then there is the Rim. The Rim is a literal circle of steep, punishing mountains surrounding the rest of Innera. No one has ever climbed these mountains for two very good reasons: one, it is very hard, and two, the mountains seem to end abruptly at their peaks and sheer off the edge of the world. The edge of the world is not much investigated and it is generally assumed that if you fall off the edge, you will float in space forever and possibly die of starvation. No one particularly likes this thought and therefore most humans stay away from the Rim. There are, however, some very exotic and strange animals that are rumored to live within the mountains.

Innera seems to be a rather deep world. This is believed partly due to the deep chasms, which have been proven to hold some water most of the year although it never gets high enough to be visible, and partly because of the Labyrinths. The Labyrinths are a very large network of underground caves that span the Center and possibly the entire world. The only humans brave enough to live in any part of the Labyrinths are the Lycanthropes, who live in the very shallowest subnetwork of the Labyrinths and have filled in the connecting passageways from the Lycantrep caves from the rest of the Labyrinths.

Magic

Magic fills Innera. No one knows the source of magic. We do know that magic affects everyone and everything. Inanimate objects often have magical properties. Many animals of the Center are, by nature, magical in some way. Humans can manipulate magic and use it for their own benefit.

Magic is actually an element that always seems to be present in the air and the ground. It is very similar in temperment and predictability to fire, which means that it is wild and unpredictable. This explains why the most magical parts of Innera are also the wildest, and generally avoided by humans. The act of changing or controlling magic to do what one wants is called "magic manipulation" and is, so far as anyone can tell, reserved for humans.

Magic manipulation requires a conduit. Humans are unable to manipulate magic on their own, and therefore require some kind of item to summon and channel the magic. The reason for this is that whatever is permeated by magic becomes completely wild, and in some rare cases very dangerous. Simply put, the more magical an animal is, the less it thinks things through or acts rationally. The theory is that if someone were to absorb magic, they would run around like a wild animal and utter nonsense and generally make a ruckus. Then someone would blast a large ball of fire at them for making such noise at four o' clock in the morning, and it would be an all-around mess. No one has tried to absorb or channel magic after this theory was proven several times.

At any rate, any inanimate object can be a conduit. As long as it is completely unintelligent, it is fair game. Most conduits take the shape of either a weapon or some kind of personal jewelry, such as a bracelet. Magic is always present in the air regardless of how much of it is used; therefore, a conduit will always be able to perform magic, unless it is somehow blocked off by the surrounding magic. This is incredibly difficult to do, however, and has only been talked about in theory.

While conduits are required, they are not the only part of magic. They are different from spells, which anyone can simply invoke. Conduits require humans to control them, and not everyone is able. As with other skills, some people are talented, while others are not. The difference between someone who is able to manipulate and someone who is not does not seem to be influenced by intilligence or genetics, but rather enviroment. Thus, if someone grew up in the outer lands, they would probably not be very talented at using magic, and would quickly give up and take some other job.

Just as conduits are only as good at the person who controls them, an adept manipulator may be severely limited by a bad conduit. Cheap conduits usually do not absorb or store enough magic for larger spells, nor are they as resilent to the energy that more powerful spells exact on their conduits. Thus, a good manipulator may actually break a bad conduit by using one very powerful spell. Note that conduits never break if properly used, since they repair themselves immediately after a spell is finished.

No matter how much magic is used, it is always there. No one quite knows why, since the essence of magic seems to be used up when someone casts a magical spell. This is why magic is generally referred to as eternal, since it can never be depleted from the air. Thus, weapons that are magically enhanced will never break, and magic spells performed properly can theoretically last forever.

Professions

The use of magic, magical objects, and weapons varies widely, so much so that it is virtually impossible to list every profession of magic availiable, or even just the above that is battle worthy. Note that all classes are able to manipulate magic to some degree.

Magic Manipulators
These are professions that rely largely on magic for attack. Most manipulators are heavily armored, use defensive weapons, and stock many potions, since they do not like to waste their skills on protection, enhancement, and healing magic.

Psychic
Despite their name, these manipulators are not actually psychic. Rather, they subtlely change the environment, usually to affect people's moods, and in some adept cases, thoughts. This manipulation also has its practical uses, such as keeping oneself and other people cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Because of the subtle nature of this profession, psychics tend to be subtle and clever, sometimes even thieves and liars.

Energist
These magic manipulators excel at working with electricity, usually in the form of lightning. Although any energist can theoretically conjure up a huge amount of electricity, unskilled energists can actually kill themselves if they are not careful. Electricity, especially lightning, is unpredictable and difficult to control. It is considered an impressive skill to make a ball of lightning that holds together for more than 30 seconds, and only the most skilled energists can accomplish something like this. Unlike the forces they work with, energists tend to be very calm and calculating. Note that the energists are not restricted to lightning, and may work with electricity of any kind.

Sense Warper
Sense Warpers are a lot like Psychics, except much less subtle. These manipulators can affect a person's senses directly without actually affecting the environment around them. This is very difficult and does not always work, depending on a person's force of will, and the effect is always temporary. Warpers can do things like blind, deafen, numb, confuse, and even hypnotize their opponents. Skilled Warpers can even make their victims lose their balance and be unable to stand, or bend their opponents' sense of time, reducing their reaction time greatly. Sense Warpers tend to be intelligent, but are often blunt.

Lycanthrope
Lycanthropes are sometimes known as Form Changers. These manipulators learn only a single, specialized type of magic that transforms them into a certain kind of animal. These manipulators are rare and come from a hidden, secluded village located in caves. There they learn to control their animal form. A very, very powerful lycanthrope may change into a highly magical animal, such as a dragon, and still be able to control themselves enough to not attack their allies, and to change back at some point in time. Tamer animals have magical versions of themselves that a lycanthrope can learn -- for example, a powerful salamander lycanthrope may be able to control the form of a large fire salamander.

Lycanthropes do not use weapons or items for conduits -- rather, they have tattoos, scars, and sometimes items embedded in their skin for manipulation. Mostly tattoos though.

Telekinetic
Unlike the Psychics, these magic users are more accurately named. They use magic to pick up, throw, and stab people with objects, usually weapons. They favor aerodynamic weapons that are sharp and come in multiples. Usually the weapons are not the conduit, since it is hard to use a conduit that is ten feet away stuck in a tree. Telekinetics like to fight from a distance, preferably hidden or protected.

Environmentalist
Environmentalists are actually in the same class as Psychics, but they use their magic differently. Rather than affect someone by changing the environment, environmentalists manipulate elements to physically harm their opponent. For example, if they are in a dank, cold, moist cave, an environmentalist able to control water can use the moisture in the cave to throw icicles at their opponent. Environmentalists can be limited depending on the enviroment they are in -- for example, environmentalists specializing in water control would have a hard time in a dry place, like a desert. Thus environmentalists usually like to train in at least one kind of weapon.

Environmentalists can either enchance their environments or contradict them -- one environmentalist cannot do both. Contradicting Environmentalists can only neutralize environments, and thus are rare.

Shamanist
A shamanist is sometimes known as a Summoner, but they do not prefer the title. This is because shamanists do not actually summon anything, but rather form magic into a beast which the Shamanist can control for a limited amount of time. Shamanists' profession are second in danger only to Lycanthropes. Since magic is always wild, it is difficult to maintain control of a magic-formed beast for more than a few minutes. Therefore, shamanists usually prefer to summon one beast for each time they attack. Like lycanthropes, shamanists tend to specialize in one kind of beast, and as they grow in power they can form and control larger and more powerful forms.

Ferin
Ferin are actually a rare species, humanoids that aren't quite humans. Ferin seem to be born with their own personal conduits. Whatever animalistic or other non-humanoid traits they possess, such as wings, tails, feathers or what-have-you, help them manipulate magic. The types of magic they can do vary according to their conduits -- for example, a Ferin with feathers on their arms and back or very large wings may be able to fly, with some effort.

Ferin are humanoid, but are not constricted to humanoid colors, especially in terms of hair and eyes. They always have at least one unique body part that serves as their personal conduit. Depending on the Ferin, this conduit can be very powerful or... not very powerful. Their conduit helps determine the magic they are best at manipulating. Depending on how magically strong a Ferin is, Ferin can have magic resembling other professions, or can only have a degree of magic that weapon users use, with one or two tricks on the side. Since Ferin have built in conduits, their magic can tire them out quickly. Please see the NPC section below for more information on this class.

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Weapon Users
While they can still manipulate magic, these professions rely more on their weapons for combat. Weapons users can manipulate magic, and can do one of several 'fighting' magics, listed later.

Cavalry
Cavalry are mounted fighters. Depending on their steeds, they can specialize in a number of weapons, most of which are bladed and large. Cavalry have a great advantage on open terrain, but may be forced to dismount their steeds in cramped spaces. Fortunately, cavalry usually are trained to ride more than one kind of steed and are not limited to large hooved animals. However, they are not very versatile and do not like to bring more than one mount with them wherever they go.

Ninja
Ninja, like lycanthropes, are taught in one place in the Center, and never reveal where or what that is. However, besides where they came from, ninja are not necessarily secretive. Ninja specialize in unique weapons that only they can use well. These weapons include throwing stars, brass knuckles, blackjacks, and basically any other weapon that is small and deadly. Ninja are sometimes mistaken for civilian manipulators, being very good at supportive magic manipulation while being able to fight well.

Warrior
Warriors are basically just anyone who fights with traditional weapons without a mount. Axes, clubs, hammers, swords, and throwing weapons are all fair game for the warrior, who usually specializes in more than one weapon type. Warriors tend to abuse their weapons, so usually like to magically enhance them. A skilled and/or specialized warrior will have their favorite weapon double as their conduit, which they can use for supportive manipulation.

Monk
Monks have nothing to do with religion, but rather are fighters who tend use their own body as a weapon. These fighters are graceful and skilled, not to mention versatile. Their specific art varies between schools, but it is always impressive for others to watch. Some monks will use weapons as a kind of extention of their bodies, such as iron fans, daggers, and even swords.

Archer
Archers specialize in projectile weapons, which include bows, crossbows, and ballistas. An archer can be mounted or unmounted, however they are limited in their steeds to smooth riding animals because of their need to aim. As with conduits and manipulators, an archer can be rendered ineffective by poorly made or nonmagical arrows.

General
Generals can be compared to heavily armored tanks. They tend to be very strong and have high endurance. They favor large, heavy weapons, such as large spears, swords, and pole weapons. They tend to attack enemies directly, simply charging right up to them and beating them up, then mending their armor later. They are not as manuverable as other classes, but can move their weapons with relative ease and skill.

Raider
Raiders are quick, hit and run style fighters. They prefer to be mounted on smooth, fast moving animals but can fight well without a steed. They usually specialize in fast weapons, such as katars and tonfa. They are good at dealing damage without taking any, but do not fight well engaging more than one opponent. Their preferred method of attack is to hide or hang back, then run or jump out of their hiding place very quickly and hit an unsuspecting enemy, dealing a lot of damage to them. They don't like to travel alone.

The King and Us

NPCs
NPCs are Non Playable Characters. They are either played by me, or not at all.

King Jasmine
The current king of the Center, Jasmine is benevolent, clever, and direct. She is respected by most people in the Center, but foreign relations have become more strained than usual due to neglect under her reign.

Royal Advisor Joana
Joana is Jasmine's right hand woman. She is in charge of information gathering, which is not always done lawfully.

Royal Seers, Seekers and Sensors
Magic Manipulators hired by the government for information gathering purposes. See Minor Classes below.

Yerrue
Yerrue are considered by many to be naught but rumors to keep children away from the Labyrinths. Unfortunately for you, they are real.

Ferin
The origin of Ferin are completely unknown to the people of Innera. It is known that they are a very old species, since Seers can't look back in time far enough to determine the Ferin's origin. Despite this, Ferin are few and far between, and it is quite rare to see a Ferin. Fortunately for Ferin, they are also rumored to be a nice albeit magically powerful species, so wandering Ferin do not get much trouble from people. Ferin are actually an ancient race that dates back to before the two worlds were seperated. Ooooh, mystery! domokun

Interspecies breeding is frowned upon by Ferin. Interbreeding has actually led to much of the Ferin's decline, and because they don't know their origin, it is proving very difficult to find fresh genetic sources.

It is rumored that Lycanthropes are a type of Ferin, but this of course is silly, since Ferins are born with animalistic traits, while Lycanthropes only manipulate magic to become animals. However, because of the ignorance about Ferin, this rumor is quite strong in the Center, although you should avoid calling a Lycanthrope a Ferin if you want to keep all your limbs attached.

Note that both Yerrue and Ferin may be played as minor and main characters, but because of race restrictions, you must PM the GM(me) for permission, along with a full character sheet. Thank you. smile

Minor Characters
Minor characters are characters that may not fight, but appear for short intervals to help the main characters. Minor characters fall under one of the classes below. In order to play a minor character, please fill out the following form:

For location, simply specify where the minor character lives. If they do not live in one particular place, say so.

Minor Classes
These are professions that are not battle worthy, but are still important to manipulators and fighters.

Animal Tamer
These are civillians who use magic manipulation and mundune tactics to tame wild animals. This is very useful to manipulators and fighters alike. They usually tame the animal by hypnotizing it in some way, then suggesting it to be calm around people.

Weapon Smith
These civillians make a living making weapons. They often pair up with Conduit Smiths to make weapons that double as conduits, which they can sell for a lot more. Many weapon smiths use magic manipulation or written spells to enchant, protect, and otherwise enhance their weapons.

Conduit Smith
Conduit smiths magically make pre-made objects able to serve as a conduit for manipulation. Many smiths specialize in one kind of object. For example, a conduit smith could specialize in making well-formed weapons into conduits, while another could specialize in doing the same to personal jewelry.

Clerics
Clerics are trained in both healing and mending magic, and are very good at both -- at the cost of being unable to fight. They usually use staffs as conduits and are accompanied by fighters of some sort for protection. A select few clerics render their services for free, but most charge money.

Seers, Seekers and Sensors
These civillians manipulate magic to gather information. Seers manipulate their own sense of time in specific ways in order to see events. Seekers manipulate their sense of location to find objects and people. Sensors manipulate their sense of touch in order to sense magic and other strong forces. All three manipulators usually work for the government, and are paid well. These manipulators also have the unique effect of being stronger when in large groups; they somehow work together to find out more than each one would seperately. They all require very strong conduits, even if they are not skilled.

Magic Weaver
These civillians make magical items, which happen to be a hot commodity as they are useful to everyone, even powerful manipulators. These items include scroll spells, which manipulate magic once when invoked and then disappear, spell items, which are like scrolls but may have multiple uses and are sturdier, and magical potions, which are limited in types of manipulation but are very concentrated. It is wise to befriend weavers, since they tend to be generous with their friends.

Merchant
The merchant is one of the most varied professions in Innera. Selling anything from magic trinkets to weapons to information, merchants range from the noble to the downright questionable. Merchants excel at buying and selling, but cannot make anyone on their own. They have limited fighting abilities.

Shared Characters
These are characters that do not require a sheet to play and may be played by anyone. They are strictly for plot advancement and may be any class. Any minor character can fall under these character types.

Contestants
This particular RP starts out with a tournament. There are many contestants, so feel free to RP some for yourself or others. Please use good judgement in determining their personality and strength; no wimp would travel several hundred miles to enter a national fighting tournament that could lead to the deaths of the winners.

Animals
Anything that does not have a mind of its own is a shared character. This includes animals, inanimate objects, etc. Please use discretion when playing a wild animal: they are wild and may not suddenly become tame for no reason. In order to tame a wild animal, you will need a tamer.

OOC Only

These, my friends, are secrets! That means your character, unless approved by a GM(that would be me) CANNOT know these under any circumstances! I mean it! Many of these sections will be revealed later and could be considered 'spoilers', so please use discretion. If you don't want the surprises of the RP ruined, don't read this.

Arenni

There is world located on the bottom of Innera! That is right, there are actually human-esque inhabitants on the round side of the bowl. Unfortunately I do not have much information on this world yet, but here is what I have so far: the inhabitants are much like those of Innera in appearance and behavior, they did in fact come from the same ancestors. Innera's water-filled chasms are Arenni's deep lakes, and vice versa. There are actually magic barriers for the 'bottoms' of both worlds' lakes.

Arenni has a very strange environment. Because of its convex shape, water does not stay on Arenni very long; it runs off and cascades into waterfalls all along the Edge(Arenni's watery equivalent of the Rim). Unfortunately there are magical nets along the Edge to keep people from falling off, which is unfortunate because if anyone did fall off they would end up in Innera and rediscover their long lost brethern. At any rate, the water that falls off of Arenni quickly forms into clouds and dumps rain on Innera. The rain that falls into the chasms in Innera causes Arenni's lakes to mysteriously flood the plains, and this cycle repeats many times until the inhabitants of Arenni get sick of it and build their houses on magically movable stilts.

Anyway, since Innera and Arenni are really the same world, Arenni is facing the same problems Innera has, only with a lot more water. Thus it is possible that they are organizing the same kind of plan that King Jasmine is doing. Which actually brings me to...

The Plan

As I mentioned in the introduction, the current King brought all the Seers, Seekers and Sensors, who were employed by the government, together in one large room. Then she gave them this task: Find out what is causing the Magic problem and fix it.

Well, they actually failed miserably. There is too much magic near the Source of Magic for them to safely look at it, or so they say. But they did find this out: it is big, there is something wrong with it, and it is in the very center of the World.

So the King determined this: She would hold a tournament to find the best adventurers in the world, and then send them on a Quest. She would provide enough incentive for them to go: fame, women, free booze, partying, money, whatever it took to get them to go down through the Labyrinths to find the Source of Magic, and fix it. If they succeeded, they would get all they'd ever want, she would become the best and most loved King in the history of Innera, and Innera itself would be saved. Good plan, no?

The problem is that the Labyrinths are dangerous -- it isn't just superstition that keeps the entire human population of Innera away from them. They are filled with the most magical and the most wild creatures of the world, as well as the Yerrue.

Yerrue
Yerrue are aliens. More specifically, daemons from another place. No one really knows quite where they are from, but it probably wasn't a very nice place. Suffice to say, there are no nice daemons in this world.

What actually happened was that Innera/Arenni got the short end of the stick, dimension wise. More specifically, they got another planet's garbage -- the nastiest criminals that the benevolent daemons of that planet couldn't bring themselves to kill. Who knows where the neutral, rational daemons are. At any rate, the result is the two worlds got a few of the worst criminals that no one wanted to think about, and they started multiplying.

The Yerrue come in various flavors, and none of them nice. Some like to do rather nasty 'experiments' on people, others like the more direct 'suck the marrow out of them' approach. Either way, the general rule of 'hit it until it's dead' is liberally applied to the Yerrue by humans, and rightfully so.

For those curious, the daemons were teleported using super advanced technology that Arenni/Innera never quite got a hold of. Oh well.

Dampeners
What, you think a society chock full of wild, untamed magic wouldn't have anything to control that magic?

When conduits won't cut it, Dampeners will. Unfortunately for the current inhabitants of Innera and Arenni, they can't be made anymore. This is because they actually require magic from the other world. The deal is, magic from one world negates and/or counteracts magic from the other world.

In other words, dampeners made with magic from Arenni work properly in Innera and vice versa. They aren't made anymore because all contact between Arenni and Innera was lost long ago. Dampeners, unsurprisingly, have the opposite effect on their homeworld.. in other words, dampeners made in Innera will seriously freak out if not kept in a vaccuum of space while in Innera.

Dampeners effectively allow humans to manipulate very unpredictable magic with greater control. This is probably why there is folklore of tame dragons in days gone by, although most people dismiss those stories as fairy tales or evidence of lycanthropes, because obviously no real dragon could ever be tamed. wink

Side/Offshoot RPs
I strongly encourage offshoot RPs in the Lights of Innera subforum. This is one of the reasons we HAVE a subforum. Even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with the main plot it is good! If you have a good RP idea you would like me to start, simply PM me and we will work something out. Note that you can run your own RP as well, although I do ask you don't play main NPCs(Yerrue and government officials, for example) in your RP. smile

User Run RP Ideas
Itching to start a secondary RP but not sure where to start? Here are some ideas for starting your own Innera RP.

Small Scale RPs
Smaller is better! Roleplaying the social drama of one town is a great way to make an interesting RP without having to worry about the rest of the World of Innera or the official NPCs.

For example, if you have a character who is now a wandering adventurer, what happened to make them become so? Do they have an interesting backstory, such as their home village rejecting them for something they did? To avoid just RPing with yourself, throw in a twist. Maybe there was one person/creature that always supported your character while they were being ostracized. Or perhaps there was a malicious force behind the whole incident that your character never knew about. This is a great two or three person RP, which makes it easy to negotiate what will happen with the other two players.

Or perhaps your character is not an adventurer... yet. For characters that aren't going to participate in the main RP immediately, you could very well have an actual event unfold. So instead of an interactive backstory, you could have an event going on at the same time as the main plot. Depending on what happens, your character could join the main RP, or start their own adventures, but you won't know until you roleplay it out! This RP is great for three or more players. It is also good if you don't like RPs that you already know the ending of. smile

Alternate World RPs
If you look at the OOC section above, you'll notice that there is another playground entirely! As a side note, most of the OOC information is fine to use in side RPs. Small scale or large scale RPs could be held, if you so please. Note that if you wish to start an RP in this setting, you will need to PM me about it. 3nodding

Minor Character/Alternate Adventure RPs
Not every adventurer in the land will be attending the tournaments! Or what about that interesting mage who got 24th place? These characters can all have their own adventures, all of which can be RPed out. The possibilites for these are endless; heck, maybe even some of these other adventures will bump into the main party! These are great large scale RPs, although if you want to play major NPCs you will need to PM me.

That's it! Please note that if an RP is started and I find that it makes too many assumptions about the main storyline, I may ask you to change it, or shut it down. sweatdrop But if you PM me beforehand, we can probably work things out so I won't have to do any of that. Good luck and good RPing! smile

With the new OOC topic, this thread is being locked. I want to add more posts/info too, so character sheets will start to be deleted. smile