Post by Prime on Jan 27, 2011 3:42:37 GMT -5
This is a bleached based RP, the premise being the japanese and european society in conflict over the limited resources in the world beyond reality. The Europeans have a more wide ranging array of weapons and abilities, having no set system in which to develope, unlike the japanese. Feel free to take either side, become a friend of Darius or don't. Be an insane power or a humble one. Its up to all of you.
The clouds were thundering, a dark gray mass stretching across the heavens. Rain would soon fall, and lightning struck the wet earth. The smell of damp and nature filled the nostrils, bringing with each breath a sense of vigor and oneness with the would around. Grass was blown flat by heavy winds, the cool edge causing men and women alike to shiver. Despite it being the height of spring, weather was bad, and conditions miserable.
The long valley stretched out into the distance, apparently empty. The deep emerald green grass verged by large oak trees, and a long raised plateu. Sharp cliff walled in the valley, with a long lake stretching across the wall. Water fell in shallow funnels from the top of the plateu, and the waters of the river lapped against mixed sandy and clay shores.
The howling wind picked up again, and Darius inhaled the sharp and pungent odour of nature through his nostrils. He felt it tickle his blood, bringing with it a sense of exhileration, though normally he would've enjoyed it much more. His friends, his family, were all in danger. A grave danger indeed, monsters formed from the flesh and ill thoughts of men left to long in reality.
Their distant cousins called these things Hollow, from what he understood, though his own people called them Ravaged. It was for that reason that he'd taken up the blade, as so few others had, and fought them. They had no truely organized force, like those calling themselves 'Shinigami' did. Instead they all fought and learned of themselves on their own, and it was a hard path.
Darius gripped his blade, a bastard sword that called itself Neospar. They'd become close friends and allies over the long years, and Darius knew it well. There were those more powerful than Darius certainly, but he felt that few had such intimacy and knowledge of their weapons. His system for its use was simple, even spartan by the standards of some, but it was the emotional link between man and blade that truely spoke volumes.
Darius breathed deep again, looking around at his friends, and they at him. This they knew, was a graver danger than any they'd faced. As in the real world, the afterworld had the same problems and dangers, despite its peaceful trappings. They had resources, and food. The shinigami had little, and subsisted via a brutal cast system. Material resources were less important here, but wood was still very valuable, and land would always fetch a premium.
Where ever you went, in whatever world you travelled, all the problems stemmed from the same thing ultimately. The greed of men. Darius' greed defended it, their greed challanged it, no matter the noble intent behind their actions. War was long and bloody, and there would be no dignity in the battle to come. Both sides hidden, their strong power attracting the Ravaged as they did battle.
Monsterous creatures sought the pick off the weak as the strong killed eachother, and it just added another complication to the already messy activity that was war. Darius shook his head, peeking out into the valley behind a large oak. He was minimizing his energy level, trying not to be detected, though he wouldn't be hard to see for those who looked.
He was a fairly large man, though stocky. Heavyset through he walked lightly. He had wide shoulders and a barrel chest, and gave a strong impression of being solid. His arms were large, chisled, and almost the same size as his legs. He was wearing armor, chain under light plate, with wax liberally coated and worked into the chain to keep it quiet. His shoulders, chest, forearms, shins and hips were all well protected. Elsewhere it was chain that guarded him, allowing him to take slashes but not stabs.
Though that didn't exactly hold true for the weapons their enemies used, the wickedly curved swords had no issues delivering powerful hacking cuts that went right though most chainmail. Darius and his friends had learned this the hard way, and were now reinforcing the chainmail with their energy to make it more resilient. It was a brutish and taxing exercise, but nessisary. They were few, and the Shinigami were many and well trained. A fine example of people who chose their lifestyle, and those who are called and duty bound.
Darius and his men possessed a wild sort of strength, and the Shinigami had sharpened precision. Darius looked at the new people in his group, meeting their eyes, staring with a cloudy gray iris that matched the sky. His wasn't charming, and he was not handsome. The best that could be said were his features were rough. But he believed in what he said, and people saw that through his poor mask of charisma, and believed in it.
"Alright, here's how we stand." He said, taking them all in carefully. "There are roughly 50 of us here, and there are roughly 200 of them. They don't send many because they don't need to, they work together with sharpened precision and focus on the area's where they are most useful. They slot themselves into spaces where their power fits." He said.
"The best that can be said, is they seem to be fond of one on one fights. Use it to your advantage. Challenge the leader if you think you can kill him, don't be squimish about saving your friends lives by stabbing them in the back. Our enemy is our enemy, and we are outnumbered. Fight smart, and ruthlessly, and fight like an animal. We call ourselves predators for a reason, but we're much worse than that." Darius said,
"We are concious, living, or unliving. We, unlike an animal, are aware of the repercussions of our actions. We still chose to kill, we still chose to fight instead of share. We go to war, whether it be for protection or for simple greed, and we destroy. We decimate, and over the centuries we've become very good at it. We've made it an art, we've taken our sin against creation, and made it our greatest triumph. And only in those times do we truely reach above and beyond and progress." Darius looked at his people, and shared with them a slight but wicked grin.
"In truth, we are nothing more than sentient monsters. We are destroyers, we call ourselves damned since birth in so many religions, because its so close to the truth. So today, embrace what you are. Become a destroyer, whether it be to protect, to embrace your instinct, or just because you have something to prove. Fight, conciounce suspended. The only incorrect action is inaction. There is no sadness, there is no doubt. There is only the heat and the blood, and the men who die around you, trying to take what you have. Or your brothers dying around you trying to defend it." He paused, and his voice quietened somewhat.
"Where your heart lies is where you should be, whether it be at home with your wives or here on the field, and make no mistake about it." He looked at them, doubtless. "This is war, and we will fight, or we will die. I chose to fight, and I believe that each of you will as well."
Those that were his close friend were nodding, content to let him speak for once. Several of them were an order of magnitude more powerful than he, some even more experienced, so he was surprised to see them content to let him talk. No one seemed to have anything to add, for the moment. But soon there would be questions.
Darius just hoped his 200 years of unlife would see him gifted the answers there people needed. It would soon begin, he could already feel the souls of those aligned against them, beginning to burn with their battle fever.