User blog:Emperor Maximus/Souls of Tamriel - Setup

A few months ago I proposed an idea for a new roleplay canon, called Souls of Tamriel (the original idea can be found here). Essentially, it revolved around the premise that Tamriel descended into ruin and became some kind of shell of its former glory. It would involve lots of death, tough decision-making, real threat, and exceptionally long dark fantasy-themed posts by Lazarus Grimm.

Now that I have finished my exams and have returned to the sandbox, I am willing to try out this new canon. This blog is to share with you the details, and how it will differ form normal RPs.

The Setting
SoT will be set all over Tamriel (and maybe even on other continents), and it will involve lots of locations that you have visited before in the games. The difference being that they will be a shadow of their former selves, ruined and desolate.

Timeline-wise, it will be up to the players to decide. After the events of Skryim, but not really far into the future.

It won't be so ruined that nobody else is alive. There will be small groups of people living in whatever is left of the cities and towns, and some will be living in the wilderness.

The Lore/Story
The story will vaguely focus on the return of Alduin to fulfill his prophecy as the World-Eater. I say vaguely because it will be quite a loosely-focussed story, and players can mostly just do whatever they want. This is quite an experimental style of roleplay, so I don't know how well it will work in practice.

The game's lore will be very murky, and not easy to flesh out. Bits and pieces here and there, but mostly the players can interpret it however they want.

All you need to know is that at some point in the past something happened, a great war of some kind, and after that the world descended into ruin. This being the end of the world, Alduin's soul was reborn, and he returned to fulfill his destiny.

The Factions
Although I said the world was basically dead, there are still a few groups of people that have banded together for whatever reason, and players can choose to be part of one of them (which will give them special abilities). If none of these strike you as being something you want ot be a part of, then be independent.

The Dragonguard
Warriors of the Dragonguard seek to defend Tamriel against the threat of Alduin. They serve a similar prupose to the original Blades, and it is thought that the Dragonborn set up this orginisation back in the Fourth Era.

Ability: Dragonrend - The Dragonguard member can, once per day, bring a dragon down to the ground, and while it is in this vulnerable state any attacks will harm it more.

The Aldmeri Dominion
Not quite as glorious as they once were, the Aldmeri Dominion still lingers on. They believe that the end of the world is actually the cleansing of Tamriel, allowing the Aldmeri descendents to inherit the world.

Ability: Magical Barrier - After spending a few seconds casting this (during which the caster cannot do anything else) they can erect a magical barrier around a 10-foot radius, protecting all inside from any kind of attack for about 10 seconds. This ability may be used as often as the caster likes, but remember that it is a tiring thing to do, so do try and be sensible about it.

The Ravens
Little separates the Ravens from the common bandits and thieves found along roadways. The Ravens care little for others, and see the world's ending as an opportunity to live as free men and women, and so do as they please. Anarchy is the ideology that rules the Ravens.

Ability: Scavenger - When in the wilderness, Ravens are adept at finding supplies (food, water, wood, etc.), and can easily survive in the wild.

The Priests of Ruin
The Priests of Ruin are quite unique among the inhabitants of Tamriel. They assume that if they worship Alduin and spread his destruction they will be saved from his wrath. A curious notion, but one that attracts many scared individuals.

Ability: Deathbringer - Once per day a Priest of Ruin can, effectively, explode (but without the explosion affecting themselves), and this explosion will cause serious damage to anyone nearby.

How it Differs
SoT will differ from other RPs for a few reasons, and I don't know whether this will make it more or less successful.

First off, there will be player deaths. A lot of them. There is real danger here, and if the players don't manage their resources properly or act carefully enough, it is entirely probable that some will die. I won't just kill people for no reason, but expect dangerous situations that not everyone can come out of alive. For example, if a horde of evil creatures is coming after you, then one person may step up and hold them off long enough for everyone else to escape. This kind of heroic behaviour will be encouraged.

Secondly, the actual RP threads will mostly be about exploring these dark and ruined locations, perhaps in search of powerful artefacts left behind, perhaps in the pursuit of knowledge. Whatever the reason, the RPs will not be part of one long story (at least not in the normal way).

Thirdly, in order to flesh out some of the lore of this canon, every player is allowed a Lore skill. This means they are effectively an expert in one particular area, and if they come across something of that nature, then I will explan everything about it to them. For example: Dave is an expert on the Dwemer. He comes across a Dwarven automaton, and uses his skills to examine it [Lore Dwemer]. He realises that this was a mechanical Dwarven Spider, and that it was programmed to fight the Ravens. Examples of Lore skills are: Ayleid, Dwemer, Daedric, Nordic, Dragon, Magic etc.

And lastly, this will be a canon that is more about the writing/prose side of things, so big long posts describing the slow decay of the world are encouraged. That's not to say that there won't be any kind of action at all!

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Anyway, that is the premise of the RP. I will be starting it up very soon, and we will see how it goes.