Sign Up Devil Saga: Episode 1(Rated: R for very nasty things)

[Malkav]

Devil Saga:
Act 1: Daimoinon

By Malkav

Past fields of poppies burning bright, into towers of blackened bone. Follow me, Bastard of Caine, come with me, I have no home~Book of Nod

Devil Saga is the first and last RPG by Malkav, and I have every intention of bringing it to Epic proportions with the 3 Acts: Daimoinon, Chaos Factor, and The Midnight Carnival. But I hope to take another approach with this rpg. As we all know, the angel and demon storylines have been all but played out here on otaku boards, so I'm going to be implementing a few new things for character creations (as seen below in sign-up).

The Story

There was a time before it all, when heaven's hosts were still one and humanity was but a lump of unformed clay. It was then the Lord -- or Allah, or El, or Yahweh, or whatever else you wish to call "It" -- proclaimed "Let there be light," and there was. The darkness had spawned its own children, however, and they suffered terribly beneath the brand of the inquisitor God. In those ancient days, the sky was ablaze with his wrath. His luminance scoured the world like Greek fire and struck the foundations of existence like a battering ram. The Children, the offspring of the Night, ell from their heavenly moorings and plummeted to the ground like falling stars wreathed in flame. Most of the Children were blackened husks by the time they struck the earth, but some few survived long enough to seek refuge. As the Children's fall had split the earth, great chasms opened to lightless depths. The survivors of the Fall crawled into the fractured ground. There slumber overtook them, and they allowed time to seal them in their dirt wombs. Humanity, formed to satisfy the narcissist God, never knew of the hallowed ground they trod upon. Ignorantly, they built cities over the graves of the Children, all unknowing of the power that had attracted them to these places. Like flies drawn to the sweet aroma of decay, they raised their temples and altars to the heavens, even as they were moved by the dark dreams of what lay buried beneath their monuments.
A band of mortals we call the first tribe were the first living creatures to come across one of the night's offspring. While digging a well just outside the fledgling city of Ahsur, the first tribe uncovered one of the Children. It writhed and screamed beneath God's eye, the sun, and cursed His name. Each of the beast's words carried power and the ground shook when the dying sleeper called out its true name. The beast could not save itself with words, however. Its flesh bubbled like wax and melted away, revealing bone, muscle and burning flesh. It called out to its brethren, crying for rescue and for succor, but its cries went unattended. The Child perished within a few minutes, its flesh climbing to the skies as poisoned smoke. This brief revelation, however, was enough to change the first tribe forever. The Child's words carried with them seeds of darkness that infected those responsible for uncovering the dread beast.
The first tribe had heard the names of the other Children when the first one had cried out, and touched by the power in those names, could now hear their murmurs through the wind. The dark sleepers whispered to them through the moans of the dying as the first tribe learned to murder, and sang of untold power in the screams of those they raped and killed. In turn, the first tribe saw the power the dead Children possessed and coveted these gifts for themselves. They sought out the chthonic sleepers, whispered to them while they slumbered and prostituted their souls to them.
In exchange for sponsorship from the Children, the first tribe became their acolytes. The mortals accepted the burden of remembering their master's existence when They vanquished them from mortal memory. The first tribe accepted the bargain in bad faith, however, believing that by knowing the true names of these malignant creatures they would have true power over them. Such is the ignorance of primitive people. Knowing something's true name gives it sway over you as well. Power is never free for the taking, or for the giving.

You may have noticed that I am vague with the terms I use, that I neither name the first tribe nor its patrons. Such omission is deliberate. Certain names have the power to echo across worlds when intoned, and there are always things listening for those names to be spoken. Even knowing these names is akin to catching a disease, a kind of leprous affliction that atrophies the soul. Speaking those names spreads the contagion.
The first tribe grew strong in flesh, but withered in spirit as they passed this ailment on to their children and grandchildren. Worse yet, by playing with these cursed names, the first tribe made the Children more aware of the world outside of their dreams. The only thing that tethered the Children to reality was their names, and each time a name was called, that tether pulled a Child closer to wakefulness. Eventually, the first tribe realized that their servitude was worthless. Because of their actions, soon the ancient masters would awaken and stride the world like colossi. Plagues would spread in the wake of each titanic step, and the tribe's service would not protect them from death and darkness. Belatedly, the acolytes of the Children did the only thing they could: They hid the accursed names within their thoughts, never daring to speak them, to breathe power into them, to tempt the Children closer to consciousness. This act served its purpose barely; deprived of a steady stream of sustenance, the Children remained teetering on border between dream and waking. Fortunately, the sleepers did not know they still slept; they lived in their dreams, ruling a shadow world that existed only in their fevered imaginations. But to keep the Children trapped in these fever dreams took power, as much power as had been wasted over the centuries in calling the Children closer to wakefulness. To keep the Children asleep, the first tribe tortured their brethren, raped their own children, mutilated themselves, devoured the weak in cannibalistic orgies and wallowed in filth and degradation. Sacrificing what shreds of morality remained in them, they filled the dreams of these monsters with the sounds of anguish and misery, keeping them asleep with a murderer's lullaby. As long as there was sufficient rapine in the monsters' dream-worlds, they would not stir to seek it elsewhere.

The true names of these creatures still carries power, however, and the first tribe was not stupid enough to turn their backs on this magic completely. Human acolytes formed cults around various entities and learned to dilute the names of the Children. Taking the root of the name and changing it, or masking it behind foreign mortal languages enabled a sufficiently cunning priest to draw upon a fraction of the sleeping entity's might without rousing it. The power thus gained was also proportionally less than it might have been, but the risk was also proportionally lessened, and for these priests that was good enough.

It is ironic that the creatures you know now as demons were once revered as Mesopotamian deities -- who were in turn distilled from muddled representations of the sleeping, demoniac Children. You may sleep well knowing that the names assigned the Children these days hold little power -- Centuries and generations of conquering languages have diluted their strength to almost nothing. Occasionally, however, some fool stumbles across a correct string of letters and intones it well enough to capture...unwanted attention. The Children slumber fitfully yet, and their dreams are less pleasing to them than once they were.



Wells of Sacrifice

The first tribe, under the guise of various mystery cults, served the faceless entities for many generations. They played a careful game of taking power without compromising their survival. As other tribes waxed powerful, members of the first tribe came to them as priests and holy women, bringing with them learning, rites and rituals. They also brought with them the worship and abuse of the power of the Children, but masked it well, so that the entire cities turned their strength to serving the Children without knowing that they were doing so.

The strongest cult dwelt in the city of Ashur, tending to the now-hidden well and protecting the remains of the first Child uncovered generations earlier. The well was a marvel and a terror to the people of Ashur, but they never wavered in their reverence. Over centuries, the cult of Ashur made constant sacrifice into the great well. When Ashur made war on other cities, they scarified prisoners and slaves; when Ashur was at peace, they stole livestock and children with which to make offering. Victims were eviscerated and their blood collected in stone jars; organs were carefully removed, read for augury and tossed in the well to rest on top of previous victims' corpses. When no augury was needed, cultists tore sacrifices limb from limb with their hands and teeth, then threw the broken bodies into the well. Come nightfall, the collected blood would be poured over the still-warm corpses, brewing a draught of corruption and rotting flesh in which great swarms of flies buzzed and bred.

This ritual of murder and dismemberment, however, could not go unnoticed forever. Other powers of death walked the world even in those days, and knew what reverence was done unto them.

Is it any surprise, then, that a Cainite of great power and majesty found the well one night? The priests of the first tribe raised their voices against him, using even the forbidden incantations, but they were as wheat before the storm. The power of his voice struck the priests dumb and silenced their cries; his gaze struck down the weak-minded and feeble. Those who were strong in body but not in mind he ripped limb from limb, then tossed aside as long shreds of flesh. Those who were strong of mind but not of body, he commanded to rend their own bodies with long knives, and they did so. Those who were comely he forced to couple, then he melted the flesh of their bodies and their bones together. He drew forth their ribs so that each thrust was an impalement, and watched as they died. For the Cainite had witnessed their rites, and found them wanting. He had seen their rituals, and wished to show them that their depravities and atrocities were as nothing, that they were children playing at evil. And lest none remained to learn his lesson, he tossed the bodies of his playthings into their own pit, and let flow his own vitae into the well. Three mortals survived to lap up the blood that he gave unto them; only three, from the hundreds who had worshipped at the well.
The following evening, these three victims clawed their way out of the organ pit. They were filthy with gore, caked in blood and howling with unquenched fury and madness. Their creator had abandoned them; their patrons had deserted them. They were mad and hateful and thirsty for death. The Baali had been born.

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How to Sign Up

In this game, I want to approach sign-ups very uniquely, but let me first explain how the characters are to work out. For Starters, I want the most devious or righteous people you can think up. ALL of the participants are demon worshippers and infernalists, meaning they're all evil but remember, evil is always flexible. And they all belong to clan Baali
Real Name: Does not need to have an actual name but if you want anything as an alias, do give it to your character.
Name they go by now: A name they use in these modern times, although the first episode will really only use their real names.
Appearance: Tell how your character looks or use a picture
Abilities: You can choose to be either a demon sorceror(someone who uses magic to bind or summon demons to help them) or someone who has Demonic investments (bound a demon to yourself so in battle you can get some of its abilities). Be creative with this, like explaining what demons your guy can summon or what demonic investments you've chosen.
Bio: Give a brief description of your character's past. Please don't be overly long and drawn out about it, but do be creative.
Personality: Tell what your character is like
Sample of Character: Tell a small story that explains your character so that I can get an idea of your storytelling abilities.

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The Chapter Sytem(Created by James, please read before the rping begins)

>font face=verdana>Most RPGs unfold in what is essentially a "free" format. By this I mean that any participant can post at any time and the story unfolds dynamically.
But there are a couple of problems with this existing system, in my opinion. Firstly (and depending on the number of participants involved), it can become confusing. As the number of pages increases, an RPG may sometimes branch out into multiple settings and situations, where a variety of different characters are involved. If there are lots of participants, it can be difficult to "ground yourself" and identify exactly what's going on at all times. Another problem is that this style of dynamic storytelling often ensures that RPGs do not feature a definable "beginning", "middle" and "end".
So, generally speaking, an RPG will simply continue to unravel until people are tired of it, or it gets too confusing for people to continue posting.
Another problem with the existing format is that quite often, people post quite frantically during the first week or so -- it's not uncommon to see each participant writing a post every day or two for the first week. But after this "honeymoon period", an RPG may become stagnant and difficult to push forward. In some cases, characters might also be "stuck" at one location/setting for a long time, which further contributes to boredom on the part of the participants.
When considering these issues, I wanted to develop a kind of RPG structure that would be resistant to confusion, over-population (no matter how many participants are involved) and stagnation. I call this approach "The Chapter System".
The Chapter System works very similarly to the progression that you might see in a movie. That is, while you may have thirty characters in one movie for example, not every character will be on screen at once. Some scenes will revolve around only a small group of characters (or even just an individual one).
So, with this in mind, Devil Saga is broken down into chapters. Each chapter revolves around a certain number of specific characters. One benefit to this system is that all participants are not required to post all the time, which helps to prevent them from wearing out in the early stages. Another benefit is that chapters are finite; they have a beginning and an end. This means that the participants' interest is constantly maintained, because settings and situations are always changing.
There are several other benefits to the Chapter System.
Each chapter begins with a quick summary or synopsis. The intent is to create a very basic situation -- to give those involved in the chapter a very basic starting point. The summary/synopsis may also indicate the point at which the chapter should end.
So, to give you a quick example, Chapter 1 might say "Character A must kill Character B" and it may provide a location/setting.
Both participants know what must happen -- they know how the chapter needs to end. However, this does not limit their own creativity. They can decide exactly how to reach that goal.
The twofold goal is simple; provide some level of context and grounding, so as to avoid confusion, and allow for the contents of the chapter to unfold in a dynamic way (as with a regular RPG), within those basic guidelines. This ensures that the chapter remains "in context" and correct, but that participants also have the opportunity to be very flexible in what they write. An added benefit is that participants are essentially given a writing challenge -- they're given some basic guidelines that they have to work within, while still writing something inventive and fun to read.
I believe that the Chapter System is the single most important part of Devil Saga.

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I'm only picking 13 sign-ups to participate in this rpg this time around. (I'll add more with each additional episode hoepfully). I won't be impressed by the length of your sign ups, but simply by the ideas your characters give to me and if they fit into my idea for the Devil Saga. I honestly hope you guys have fun with it and it all works out for the best. Well, that's really about it, so I'll see how you guys choose to sign up. Later
-Malkav

[sky]

Real name: Lita angles

Nickname: ray of light

Appearance: She has wings that are blue, she has blue eyes, she is 6'2and weigh, and she is wearing a small blue dress.

Abilities: She can fly and she is magic. she uses a sword that drains the life out of anything.

Bio:Can't remmber her past.

Personality:She is very nice but the thing she likes to kick butt. She loves people expecialy boys.

Story of characture:Lita is a girl from the future that came bck in time to defete the enemie. But she was not aware that she would be stuck in the past.

[Ellven'and]

[FONT=Century Gothic][SIZE=3]'Ello! I would love to join up and enter into your RPG. I think it would be fun.
Ok, so first off... My character's name will be Nhievh.
His nickname is the Death Singer, and he carries a dagger he affectionately refers to as "Blood Stinger".
He is a dark man, with skin as pale as the moon's white glow and as cold as deep space. He wears only leather straps which encompass his body, and they are wrapped so tightly that the blood can never flow freely again. Not that it needs to. His right eye is stitched shut from his own self-mutilation, and his long, dark, matted hair hangs over the right side of his face.
His abilities include summoning elementally aligned demons to help him, specifically those of fire and air. His wand gives him the ability to use Necromancy, and he can raise the dead and force them to serve him. He can also tap into his anger for random magical effects which he learns to master immediately after using them the first time. His dagger drains blood from his fallen victims, and uses it to rejuvinate him.
His past is long and dark... It starts with him in a small village in the misty moors of Scotland. He was five at the time.
A coven of witches destroyed his village, and, when they saw that he was still alive, took him in to teach him their dark craft.
At age ten, he was forced to remove his own eye and to stitch shut the hole which it left behind. With this trial came his new tolerance to pain and his ability to recover from injury as quickly as a demon.
When he was fifteen, he was sent to retrieve a scroll from an old wizard. The wizard made a comment against Necromancers, not knowing that Nhievh was one, and he was killed. More specifically, Nhievh plunged his hand into the wizard's chest, rupturing his heart and tearing out a lung.
He brought both the scroll and the lung to the witches, and slept with the fool's head under his "pillow".
When he turned twenty, Nhievh went insane and killed the witches, and took to wandering, slaughtering innocents he called Sinners and disposing of their bodies, but not without replacing one of his own body parts with one of theirs. He is now just a walking conglomeration of several different body parts taken from different people, and he kills without warning and without remorse.
He is an immortal, and as such, cares not what happens to him.
His personality is that of my own; he is uncaring what happens to him, an Anarchist of sorts, and he is so twisted that not even Hell scares him.
Present story: Nhievh wanders in the present day moors of Scotland, killing all that ask him anything, even if they do not even ask but just look at him the wrong way. Apparently, he is taken from this and warped into the land in which this RPG takes place... If you choose to use him.
I hope that you will choose to include me in this plan. And I hope, also, that you throw a challenge at us. Nhievh loves a challenge.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Malkav]

Um, I was thinking about reopening these signups for this, but I have a few things to say. Elvenn'and... please use a little more structure when signing up, and Sky, you suck. How the ***** are you gonna be a warrior from the future in this rpg, that's ******** stupid, you're ******** stupid. You've obviosly skipped to the signups and made some bullh*t up, get away, don't sign up for my stuff anymore, find an rpg with magical dragons knights and dwarves and frodo, you belong there, not here. I'm not being stuck up, but you're an idiot, and idiots don't belong here, thankyou for reading

-Deus Ex Maccus

[Vilearchangemon]

[B]Real Name[/B]: Allan'Dan'Mitheren

[B]Name they go by now[/B]: Hyuga Mortison

[B]Appearance[/B]: [url]http://www.animelab.com/anime.manga/fanart/Get[/url] Backers/0/20/344/

[B]Abilities[/B] : Allan has be boun to a greater hellspawn. His investments have increased his natural senses(including speed and strength. He also has the capibility to drain the very essence from a living body, and consuming the energies of those engulfed. This ability causes Allan to experiance all of the pain the person he consumes.

Hyuga knows very little of his demonic investments. He doen't understand his increased abilities, and he knows nothing o his ability to consume souls.

[B]Bio[/B]: Allan is a very tortured person. At a young age he witness his mother and two sisters rape, and in a blind fury slaughtered all in the vicinity, including his mother and sisters.His father had been killed years before, leaving him with nowhere to go. This began Allan's desent into the dark.

5 years later he pledged himself to darkness. He gained new power, and soon the name Allan'Dan'Mitheren became a forsaken name whispered only in the dark. He slaughter all who crossed his path. he consumed the souls of entire villages. His mind slowly decayed away. In this time, his personality spilt. The hellspawn Allan'Dan'Mitheren slowly faded away, into who would become Hyuga Mortison.

Hyuga slowly began to forgot the atrocities he commited, and socoiety began to rebuilt itself. Allan is still in Hyuga's head, and when hyuga loses himself, the madness seeps in.

[B]Personality[/B]: Cold and caculating, Allan would do anything to get what he needs done. He cares not for the life of others or himself, for death to him just another torture waiting for him.Allan has lost all of his mental stability, and is very much a made man.

Hyuga is a calm man who takes his time. He likes to be tactical, and is a very good swordsman. he knows of the voice in the back of his head, and it worries him to the brink of insanity.

[B]Sample of Character[/B]:
Hyuga's body went limp as fury boiled inside of him. He felt himself losing sight, and finally black out.

"Well, the bastered wasn't as hard as I thought he was" A bulky man with a blackjack muttered. Hyuga quaked. Allan had awakened.

Allan opened his eyes. A dark aura surrounded him, and he ripped the soul of his first attacker from it's body. The thoughts of rape and murder, and being molestied by a father past through Allan has the man's soul energised him. He drew the blade at his side, and went to work on the rest of the infindels surrounding him....

Hyuga awoke ours later, to the choking smell of burning wood and charred flesh. As he looked up, vomit filled him mouth.Blood stained the floor in large puddles, and bodies hung from boards broken from buildings. He let the vomit go. What had he done.....


I hope his is good. I also hope it's not too dark.

[Arcadia]

[size=1][color="#993399"]Malkav, your last post was unneccessarily rude and insulting. That kind of crap will absolutely [i]not[/i] be tolerated on the boards, whatsoever. People come here to have fun and develop their writing skills, not to be cut down and belittled. This is your warning - if I ever see that you've insulted or talked down to another member in the same way again then you will be banned. Period.

Please review OB's rules so that this does not happen again.

- Arcadia[/color][/size]

[Malkav]

Um, I'm closing sign-ups for this rpg and will come back with another more "fan friendly" rpg, look for me in the future!!

-Deus Ex Maccus