by nuklearbobcat » Mon Apr 12, 2004 7:11 pm
OOC
(All right people... this is my first rp, so i hope you're not going to yell at me too much. I'll leave it pretty open ended, and i'll try to incorporate anyone who sticks their character in. Of course, help from some veterans on the setting i have already lain would be greatly appreciated.)
BACKGROUND
In the beginning, the world was beautiful and perfect. Mankind lived in harmony with nature, and the world was a beautiful place to live. The legends say that the world was once whole and complete, without any scar or rupture. Some even say that it was a complete globe.
However, as in all states of perfection, this one would not hold for very long. Mankind began to develop technology, and some wanted to move their race onward into greater and greater things. This group was known as the Radicals.
Of course, there were those who were deeply rooted in the traditions of man. They wished to keep things as they always were, and violently opposed the Radicals. This group was called the Traditionals.
The war between the two groups became so great, and so ingrained in the respective members of the movements through generations that two great Wills began to unite against each other.
Now, as all young children are taught today, the Will of men is a Magickal thing. It can create and destroy, heal and injure, change, and protect.
The two great Wills formed into two great magicks called the Yin, formed by the Traditionals and the Yang, formed by the radicals. Over millenia, these Magicks formed into gods, powerful sentient beings with their own freewil. The legend does not say why this happened.
The godess born of Yin was called Kun. She worked her power to keep mankind focused on the past, and impeded their movement. She ruled the element of earth.
The god born of Yang was called Quian. His power was over heaven. He embodied the spirit of the Radicals, moving them to take their goals further and further, at any cost.
The two groups rallied to their gods and served under them. However, the two gods ended up uniting their powers to subdue mankind.
The gods soon gave birth to children. The first two were Zhen and Xun.
Zhen, the god of Thunder, was wild and chaotic. He kept mankind in a warlike spirit. Many of those from the Radicals and Traditionals soon rallied to him, forming an army that brought bloodshed upon all. He established an empire, with the goal of subduing all of the world under his might.
Xun, the goddess of Wind, worked much like her mother did. She worked to keep mankind steeped into tradition, and formed a settlement with a few followers that built large gothic-style towers that reached high into the sky.
Because of the chaos brought about by Zhen, a great war ensued that tore the entire world asunder, and many would have died, had it not been for the gods, who carried away some of the selected mortals and animals, and sealed their souls for a time.
Quian and Kun reformed the world with a piece leftover from the war. It was in the shape of a bowl, coming about halfway to the equator. They tended the ground inside the bowl, and created it all anew, and left the barren, war scarred outside alone.
As there was no more sun, they realized that something must be done for that, or else men would not survive. Therefore, they took a chunk of the core and formed it into a two-sided structure. On one side they fashioned a glowing city that would give off light to all of those who dwelt in the bowl. They called it Heaven. Then on the underside was a dark mountain which allowed little light from the other side. This was called hell. This is where the gods took up their dwelling in order to keep their eye on mankind. When Heaven faced the Bowl, it was called Day, and when Hell faced the Bowl, it was called night.
Zhen and Xun reformed their settlements promptly. Xun rebuilt her towers, yet this time she built them in the center of the Bowl, with the towers almost reaching Heaven and Hell.
They then took the mortals that they sealed and put them upon the earth again, reviving them from their slumber. The world had begun anew, and the old rivalry between the Traditionals and the Radicals started anew, though mankind was not as violent as they had been before, save for the followers of Zhen, the thunder god.
Soon after, Quian and Kun gave birth to two more children, Li and Kan.
Li was the goddess of Fire. Her ideal was intellectualism. She kept a portion of mankind trapped in a society of dry intellectuals and scientists, with little goals other than learning. She hoped to some day devise a plan to destroy the other gods. She formed a city of learning on the side of an active volcano, on the side which the lava did not flow. The city had Romanesque architecture, with marble-white buildings and streets.
Kan was the god of the Sea. He had a very extravagant personality, and was very emotional. He gathered a portion of mankind to himself and formed a sort of cult, with great goals, and little action. He, like Zhen, formed something of an army, though not much could be said of their discipline. Their base was nothing more than a few large rudimentary tents along the seashore.
Finally, the god of Heaven and the Goddess of Earth gave birth to two last children: Dui and Gen.
Gen was the god of Mountain. He was different from the other gods. He was very hard hearted, and did not wish to do anything like the other gods did. However, his Magick did gather disciples to him, and he formed a monastery in a large mountain, where the residents lived in solitude and silence.
Dui was the goddess of Lake. She, for some reason was born blind, though her other godlike senses more than made up for that. She, alone was born as a child, and remained so for thousands of years. She had one final work to do to complete the subduing of the world which her parents began. Now of all things in the world, only one thing could change the preexisting order, and that was the Child. Her goal was to eliminate childhood, and all of it's power. She took her residence in a monastery near a lake in a dark forest. Children from all of the other gods' establishments were sent there in order to be turned into adults promptly.
It is in such a setting in which our story begins.
IC
The Artist stretches out and yawns as the sunlight hits her eye. She looks about her and sees all of the finery in her room. Just about everything she sees is gold, and diamonds, and fluffy pillows and such. She greatly dispises them. She would rather have things that "speak" to her. These things were dead.
She was a peculiar person in this world: an Artist. The only one, actually. She excelled in all of the Arts that existed. She painted, sculpted, danced, wrote, sang and even fought, among other thigns. Martial Arts appeared to be the only art that others practiced, though few with such finesse as she, for she wielded all weapons masterfully, though she did not receive any training. She resided in the city of Li, the fire goddess, where the intellectuals there all felt very important as they looked upon her art. She did not like these people. She sensed a very bad Music coming from their spirits.
All of her life she heard a beautiful Music coming from high in the sky. She yearned earnlestly to get closer to it, in order to hear it better, though she felt afraid, and unsure as to how she would go there.
One day, she gathered up the courage to leave the city. All of the literary and artistic scholars cried upon her departure. She really did not care, for their Music disgusted her.
She travelled down the volcano, and walked down a dusty path through a short stretch of plains toward a nearby forest, which seemed somewhat interesting to her...
Edited by: [url=http://b3.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=nuklearbobcat>nuklearbobcat</A] at: 4/12/04 8:43 pm