Two worlds collide, but sometimes they work together. This will be a character-driven RP (though mechanics may be employed when necessary) in which you create a pair of characters who work together very closely as a team, one from each world.
The overall setting:The world is, for the most part, as you know it: our Earth of 7 continents and an age of increasingly global connectedness. But there is another world, too. A world originally of unending, unified, formless chaos. No one knows how or when the two became linked, but they have slowly been bleeding into each other through invisible fissures in the skies of the Material Plane. From these fissures, pieces of the formless chaos occasionally pinch off, and fall to Earth where they begin to sense and feel, forming a distinct identity from their experiences. This is how spirits are formed.
Sometimes they are killed or return to their native plane (bringing Structure, Distinctness, and Memory with them when they do), but over time the number of spirits in the world has grown. However, they are still rare compared to humans, numbering in the 100,000s or perhaps low millions as opposed to the several billion humans (not to mention animals). Because of this, and their tendency to avoid humans, their existence has gone largely unnoticed. For those who do know, any claims to the existence of spirits have been largely ignored.
Between most spirits and the humans in the know, there is generally distrust. Humans and spirits seem quite alien to one another, inciting fear of the unknown, and early interactions between the two have left bad memories for both. Though spirits have no overall culture, being generally so spread out, when one returns to the spirit world, it adds (among other things) deep and unconscious memories to the substance of that world from which later spirits break off. Though dilute, these memories can still have effects. Often, spirits will describe humans as simply "the smartest of animals," however, there is a justified fear beneath all their bad feelings. Aside from other spirits, humans are the only beings capable of killing spirits.
Pair-bonds and Key Differences Between Humans and Spirits:In a certain sense, Human and Spirit natures are opposite. Humans, as physical beings, are physically stable, though mentally very malleable. Spirits can change their appearance to varying degrees (though generally it reflects their identity), but they are mentally rigid, centering their identities on their Domains. A Domain is the small set of Ideas, Concepts, Emotions, Themes etc. that a spirit has come to embody from their experiences in their formative period. Domains can be pretty much anything, from These can change somewhat over time, but any change is usually extremely slow and resisted. Each can do things the other can't. Humans are adept at manipulating the physical world (in all the ways we're familiar with), and can usually navigate social relationships better, while spirits have magical powers. These are as various as the spirits themselves, based on their domains, but they mostly center on influencing the substantial, with living substance being more suggestible than the inert.
Though generally uneasy with each other, sometimes a human and a spirit break this pattern of mutual distrust. For whatever reason, be it naivety of the usual sentiment, circumstances of meeting, mutual self interest, or whatever, they come to befriend and trust one another. Being each able to do things the other can't, such a partnership is quite beneficial, and furthermore, if the human hosts the spirit within their body, they both gain incredible combined power. However, this hosting can only be done for brief periods at a time, as if they remain conjoined for too long at once, they both burn each other out and die. Over years, cumulative effects of repeated hostings begin to manifest in both of them. Such partnerships are extremely rare, only perhaps a few hundred existing in the whole world, as it requires both to have complete trust in one another. A spirit of ill intent could very easily fatally disrupt a human body, and a human of ill intent could very easily tear apart a spirit's mind.
Signups here. Note that there may be a selection process.
Again: you will be making two characters, who work as a pair.
Spirit
Name: Self-explanatory
Description: How the spirit often appears (it should be insubstantial in some way, like translucent or seeming to be made of light/energy, for instance), what their personality is.
Abilities: The magical spirity things the spirit can do, on their own. Spirits may have some abilities in common, but they have unique specialization and style. Some examples: energy projection, illusions, various ways of messing with matter, control over certain things, doing things with temperature. Get creative. Just bear in mind spirits have a hard time doing anything directly physical.
Human
Name:
Description: Physical and personality description. Their usual clothes, if you feel like it.
Abilities: Human skills. Athletic or strong? Smarts? People skills? Education or understanding of the world? Are they a fighter? Technical know-how? Professional?
Backstory:
The backstories of the human and the spirit, including how they met and how they came to form their bond. It's important to explain why they trust each other, despite the usual sentiments between humans and spirits. This can be for any number of reasons, including ignorance of said sentiments.
Combined Abilities:
What can they do while hosting? This is a spectacular power boost, more than just the sum of their individual capabilities. In general, the human body gets an all-round boost to physical capabilities and resilience, while the spirit's powers are amplified and become able to affect the material world in a much more direct way. It's relatively short-lived and spectacular, so feel free to think of some special effects for its duration.
Author
Topic: Of Substance and Spirit - OOC thread - Signups open! (Read 8069 times)