The rain flooded the mountains like the very gates of Heaven had opened. It covered the rocks, soaking them beyond imagination. It drenched poor Jade and Mirage, making them miserable. But it had no effect on Ronin’s determination to climb the peak. “Ronin!” Mirage called over the roaring wind. “Why in the name of Achronos are we up here?” Jade whined her agreement with Mirage, her claws doing her no good on the slippery stones. In response, Ronin waved his hand at the pair and signaled for them to hurry up. He paused a moment at a ledge above them, then clambered up, reaching back down to pull his partners back up. “Come on, over here!” He had to shout over the wind, but once Mirage and Jade were upon the ledge, they spied what had encouraged Ronin to keep his spirits up: a cave. “In there, out of the rain, you two!” The three of them huddled together in the cave, all of them soaking wet. Ronin took out some logs he had hauled in a pack up the mountain and began working to start a fire. “You never answered my question, Ronin - why are we up here when we could be back in the city, comfortable and very dry?” Mirage demanded. “To put it simply, this as my home many years ago. I lived in a small village that spanned this mountaintop. This is where I received my training as a samurai.” Ronin breathed a sigh of relief as the fire finally caught, and sat on his haunches, warming himself before taking a seat and getting comfortable. “You might want to sit closer to the fire - wouldn’t do to catch cold, now would it?” Mirage and Jade sidled up on either side of Ronin, each freezing cold in front of the blazing fire. “Wait, this is where you grew up? Nobody told me…” Mirage murmured. “No, I imagine not. You two are the first to know. But that’s a story for another time-” “No, tell us!” Mirage and Jade both looked to Ronin and gave him their best puppy dog eyes, silently pleading for the story. After all, the man ran the OAFL - stories were his wheelhouse. If anyone could tell a story right, it was him. “That’s… a long story. We could be here all night and then some. Are you sure?” Ronin drew back his hood and smiled knowingly at the pair as they nodded excitedly. “Alright, then settle down and get comfortable. My story starts on a night not unlike this one…” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the prologue for my backstory. This will explain how I acquired my abilities as a swordsman, the origin of the village, why my character can navigate natural terrain so well, and other details that I’d like to give a backstory to. Figured I’d go ahead and write it out since cmirg’s not going to be around (I was planning to do this after his Risen event finished, but I suppose those plans fell through). However, this is a village. There are others, specifically other children who trained along with me, as well as other people who lived there and a village elder. To those of you wondering, yes. This is simultaneously a sign-up post. [b]Keep in mind that your character may not live through the tale, as my story is a tragic one.[/b] If you want to join in, build a character below. All I will need is your character’s name, their personality (an alignment would be useful here as well), male or female, their race (from human, elf, or half-elf), and their role in the village (options are below). There’s no real limit on how many people can be in a certain role, I just ask that it’s somewhat balanced so I don’t have to create too many characters. Your character’s backstory [i]is[/i] this story - nothing much ever happens in the village. Another thing: magical abilities thrive in this village. Everyone has their own unique affiliation, from things like wind magic to fire magic. When you are creating your character, choose a magical affiliation. You can choose any element, or, if that doesn’t quite strike your fancy, you can pick a specific ability like telekinesis or something that is your affiliation. However, keep in mind that you only have one affiliation, [b]and please don’t be that guy who just says “My magical affiliation is everything” or some other form of that.[/b] [b][u]Roles:[/u][/b] [u]Trainee[/u] - You will be one of the children in the monastery training in the way of the samurai. There’s a lot of room available for this role, as there’s a lot of children in the village. If you choose this role, you will be unable to be a parent (because of obvious reasons). [u]Farmer[/u] - You will be one of the farmers of the village that help to grow the village’s food. Surely one of the most important jobs in the village. [u]Crafter[/u] - You will be one of the crafters of the village. This means that your job is creating the different necessities of life: clothes, houses, etc. If you want, you can choose a certain specialization when choosing this role (no machine stuff though - it’s a simple wooden village atop a mountain). [u]Hunter[/u] - Your job will be to hunt the wild game that inhabits the Misty Mountains for various reasons, whether they be for food, pelts, or other things. [u]Mentor[/u] - You will be one of the learned masters who train the next generation in the way of the samurai, as well as teaching them the Code of Honor and how to act properly. [u]Parent (Optional extra role)[/u] - In additional to whatever role you chose above (besides Trainee), you will be a parent of one of the Trainees. I will assign you a child based on race choices between Parents and Trainees, however. [b]Again, your character is not guaranteed to survive this story. It is a story of loss, grief, and perseverance despite the largest setbacks. It’s a story of death, love, and loneliness. It’s intended to explain why becoming a fighter in the original OAFL was such an important decision in Ronin’s life, and why it changed him forever.[/b] Trainees: - Adam (Ult Loot Crate’s character) - Arte (Ruby Forest’s character) - Nil (NIL’s character) - Myxilor (Hammer’s character) - Anchius Chordeliniae (NightHawk377’s character) - Sky (Sky the porchy’s character) - Ichiro (StoneFlare21’s character) Farmers: - Bucky (OneEyeBucky’s character) - Orcinus [i](Parent)[/i] (Orcinus Orca’s character) Crafters: - Jester/Worm (JestingWorm’s character) - Brithael [i](Parent)[/i] (Bopsheezi’s character) - Lothric [i](Parent)[/i] (deatheater200’s character) - Sheldon Hawkings (Warlock Holmes’s character) Hunters: - Ringivek [i](Parent)[/i] (RingLeader’s character) - Jäger (Rex Izunia’s character) - Artemis (Artemis’s character) - Clyde [i](Parent)[/i] (Clyde-4’s character) - Aeowin [i](Parent)[/i] (Ems468’s character) - Liam (Liam_Gue’s character) - Michael (Michael’s character) - Talos (man_of_war_r2’s character) - Phoenix (SettlingGiant0’s character) Mentors: - Varvatos Vex (Varvatos Vex’s character) - Ravvyn (Sylver19’s character) - Shura [i](Parent)[/i] (Toaster’s character) - Joker (BatPug74’s character) - Pancecé (Pancake Monk’s character) - Qiulong (John Watson’s character) - Dionysius [i](Parent)[/i] (Nabriales’s character) - Feu Pur (Countess Pyre’s character) Villains (not a general role! Only a few people will be assigned this role as the story goes on!): - Cmirg (cmirg’s character) - Aku (Shadow Aku’s character) Edit: As of this edit, we have 4 kids and 6 parents. This means that some kids will have single parents OR some will be siblings. I’ll make the judgement call on this as the sign ups progress. Speaking of, we have a good amount of people signed up, so I think I’m going to leave this up for one, [i]maybe[/i] two more days before I start writing the next part. [b][i][u]THIS DOES NOT MEAN SIGN UPS HAVE CLOSED!!![/u][/i][/b] I will edit the post with a clear edit saying that sign ups are closed when I do close them! For now, everybody is still welcome! Edit 2: [b]Sign ups will close on the Tuesday after Father’s Day. That is when I will start writing the next part to the story. To all you who are on the fence about creating a character, I’m putting this out to inform you of your deadline. To all you who believe your character won’t fit, you can create a new one if you want to. Thank you to all of you who signed up, I did NOT want to spend a ton of time creating side characters for my story. Thanks for taking that weight off my shoulders.[/b] Edit 3: [b]SIGN UPS HAVE CLOSED. Thank you to all who signed up, you can look forward to Chapter 1 in the next few days![/b]