Time of Origins Season 10: Immortal Beloved Chapter 2
Public Lore Document v1 9 June 2024
“They have not detected our presence,” the high priest whispered to his acolyte. ““We may continue our work without their knowing. We shall soon recover what we have lost.”
“But what if they find it before we do?” asked the young priest.
“If they interfere, they will be dealt with…”
50 years has passed since the local priests of Sol Invictus, the Helios cult, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the inhabitants of the lands.
After the crisis of 1823, the population of Murkystone and the nearby settlements was reduced drastically. Many citizens perished, and many more decided to depart and seek their fortune elsewhere.
With the reduced population, damaged infrastructure and suspect security, the outlying towns quickly fell to disuse and disarray. Murkystone, which had remained for the most part intact and stayed as the center of the local economy, naturally began to see an influx of population as the remaining citizens of Bastion, Mortis, Silverfang and Grimwyd found themselves gravitating to it.
Almost entirely abandoned, much of the infrastructure of the outlying towns was condemned and demolished, reused for materials to aid in Murkystone’s expansion as it absorbed the nearby population.
Over the next few decades, Murkystone became a local center of trade and safety, and its population continued to swell as new citizens slowly trickled in, and some previous ones returned.
These districts grew and thrived, creating a need for better governance and organization against any new threats that may come their way.
Time Frame: Circa 1873 ce
Setting: Victorian, Gothic, Industrial, Low fantasy
Map:
The season will take place on Grim Map by LtScarro. No purchase or DLC is needed to run this map.
Season 10 Guidelines:
If you are new to Time of Origins. Our seasons play out a bit like large D&D campaigns where you may choose to participate or not. While decisions are yours and outcomes not based on dice rolls or as guided as a DM, the overarching server is guided by staff and storyteller decisions.
Note: No one decision from a single storyteller gets to drive the server story in a direction unless there is a large player consensus behind it. It’s important to remember that while we go through pains to help everyone feel like the hero in their own story, we must accept that not everyone can be the hero in everyone else’s story. If you want to move the story in a direction, ensure you bring a lot of folks from all walks to your cause.
PVP Orientation:
This season will be a PVF/PVE (Player vs Faction) oriented season with strong PVP elements.
There will be a voluntary player base, admin led, antagonist faction. Storytellers will be able to sign up and be chosen based on their application responses and ability to put server story over personal story.
The storytellers chosen for this will have strong guidelines as to what they can and cannot do but have the freedom to follow their own storylines and goals as long as they meet the guideline standard. This is done so that the player base and antagonist base can have reasonable outcomes for their story.
There will be a limited number of slots for this role and turnover will go to the next qualified applicant.
The antagonist faction base is on map, but will not be attackable without specific goals being met and a reasonable amount of time has passed. No one wants to see the antagonist group win or lose 6 days into the season.
Conflict/Non-Conflict:
Season 10 will be conflict or non conflict depending on you, the storytellers, with the option and reasons for conflict to exist in the story arc.
Curses and afflictions may not be passed to other storytellers without their explicit permission to do so and will require a ticket to staff to complete. Please note that only characters that are human may gain an affliction.
Antagonist characters may not be revealed without significant RP around it.
Simply knocking down an antagonist and RP ripping their mask off isn’t going to cut it. Since we have limited numbers of players and actual physical and technological limitations to larger groups, antagonists will need to remain anonymous for the most part to act as “hordes” of antagonists. Therefore when antagonists go out, they wear disguises under their hoods that hide their features making them unrecognizable. You may not RP around this disguise without notification to staff in a ticket with your clues and RP leading up to the moment.
There will be opportunities for antagonist characters to be found out and for them to reveal themselves. You should allow them the opportunity to do so on their terms or if they have made enough mistakes / clues to their identity have been found.
Character Setting:
This season is a blend of classical victorian/gothic horror with some steampunk elements. Vampires, werewolves, and humans inhabit the world.
Characters must be appropriate for the 1870s and be low fantasy. Beings or creatures that fit into a low fantasy setting should be created. We will not be allowing hybrid type creatures.
If you have a character idea and are unsure if it fits, please feel free to open a ticket. We are less about wanting to say no, and simply more wanting everyone to feel immersed in the world, environment, and RP. We understand that folks have their favorite concept, but we want to ensure this is fun for everyone.
Character Knowledge:
Your character may have knowledge of real life events/places/etc prior to 1873 in a cultural western Europe/American era setting.
This season will be unique in that characters that are appropriate for the time lapse, will be allowed to be brought forward to this season. You may know other characters that you have met and they will know you if you have met in the previous season. All players will have knowledge of the great war but may not dictate specifics unless approved by staff so that we may centralize the knowledge.
It’s strongly suggested that these references make sense in the timeframe and when speaking to other storytellers.
Remember, it’s about immersion in the setting and time period and references to: I was an elven lord of the forest with the finest mail of mithril would be pretty jarring to a character from the time period and probably put them in the position to RP that you are insane.
You may not have meme or parody characters. Your best RP and RP character should be brought forward.
Roles:
Aside from antagonists, there will be several playerbase roles that can be signed up for and will be listed later in this document. These roles will be first come first serve and require a minimum of 2 hours of server time every three days to maintain. There will be multiple people for roles and some roles will be district specific. If for some reason beyond your control you need to be absent, please contact staff in a ticket. We will reserve your role. Otherwise, we will need to pass it to the next qualified applicant so that others have access to the functions the role performs.
Some of these roles will enable storytellers to have and maintain shops in either Murkystone proper or in the district they choose to live.
Housing:
This is where things get interesting. We’ve decided to try something new and experimental.
Storytellers will be able to purchase homes and HAVE EQUITY! This means not only can you sell your home, you can buy and sell multiple homes. Either staff or storytellers will be working in the role of a real estate agent.
A title to the property will be granted along with its inherent equity value and applicable weekly taxes to maintain. Storytellers may then choose to sell their property or choose to list it with the real estate agent. Each district will have a tax and real estate office. You may not own or sell the free housing.
Sales must be coordinated through a ticket to finalize and storytellers may only live in one home district but may own homes in multiple districts. Multiple people may live in a home, but only one person may be put on a deed.
As a result of this effort and need to have a limited supply of housing, storytellers may not form their own clan or build their own home. They may however, rebuild or build on their home plot that they purchased as long as the footprint does not change and that it does not exceed 3 floors (6 wall pieces) in height. More on this in a moment.
Housing is divided into 5 tiers.
Tier 1: 2×2 Foundations. 2 Storage chests allowed. No cost to storyteller, no tax. You may only own one T1 home at a time and if you purchase any other tier, must relinquish your T1 home. There are 30 T1 homes in each district. You may not alter this home.
Tier 2: 4×4 Foundations. 4 Storage chests allowed. Low taxes. You may own multiples of this home tier. Requires weekly taxes to maintain. There are 18 T2 homes in each district. You may alter the home no more than 6 walls tall plus a roof and must stay within the 4×4 foundation footprint.
Tier 3: 5×5 Foundations. 6 Storage chests allowed. Moderate Taxes. You may own multiples of this home tier. Requires weekly taxes to maintain. There are 6 T3 homes in each district. You may alter the home no more than 6 walls tall plus a roof and must stay within the 5×5 foundation footprint.
Tier 4: 7×9 Foundations. 8 Storage chests allowed. High Taxes. You may own multiples of this home tier. Requires weekly taxes to maintain. There are 4 T4 homes in each district. You may alter the home no more than 6 walls tall plus a roof and must stay within the 7×9 foundation footprint.
Tier 5: 10×10 Foundations. 10 Storage chests allowed. Highest Taxes. You may own multiples of this home tier. Requires weekly taxes to maintain. There are 2 T5 homes in each district. You may alter the home no more than 6 walls tall plus a roof and must stay within the 10×10 foundation footprint.
Note: You may not have workstations in your home with the exception of a stove to cook personal food. If it is a non-deco stove, it will be added to your count of any items having an inventory.
Placeables:
Placeables are unfortunately not a finite resource. We must limit buildings to the following placeable limitation for server health.
- Tier 1: 20
- Tier 2: 200
- Tier 3: 300
- Tier 4: 500
- Tier 5: 750
Please Note: These limitations are per building.
You may not change the house numbers but you may place an additional sign with your name on it.
Taxes:
Property taxes will be paid to the tax office on a weekly basis. Taxes paid will go to Murkystone township municipal fund and used to pay out staff and other costs as directed by the Murkystone council. Council members will not direct the salary of created municipal jobs but may add jobs as needed.
Some salaried jobs may incur licensing and/or credentialing costs to be in line with expenses of some businesses.
Property taxes will be due by midnight EST on Sunday. House purchases include the first Sunday of taxes in the purchase price.
Foreclosure:
Failure to maintain taxes reverts the property back to the district where it can then be resold. There will be a dated notice of foreclosure posted to the offending home and the owner will be given 7 calendar days in which to bring their taxes current.
Governance:
There are 4 residential districts of Murkystone:
- District 1 – Rose Mist Falls
- District 2 – Devils Canyon
- District 3 – Tinkers Hollow
- District 4 – Angelwood Cove
Each district will choose 2 representatives that will form the greater Murky municipal council governing over all 4 districts and greater Murkystone (Capital) and 1 representative from Murky as a rotating staff position. (Voted in by Murky itself)
There will be a total of 9 council members that will have all say over what happens in each district. Allocate taxes above or at a baseline (Not below x amount).
Elections:
Elections will be held every 2 weeks. Voting will be held starting on a Friday 8 pm EST and lasting until Sunday 8 pm EST. At this time votes will be tallied and the two new council members will be named based on the majority of votes. Ties will be a runoff vote between the two members based on the number of voters present at the counting.
You must be a member of that district (In the clan) in order to either vote for, or run in, an election for a minimum of one week.
Legal Disputes:
Murkystone proper will have a county courthouse, judge, and lawyers. Storytellers may choose to be a lawyer and defend/prosecute and/or call up jurors.
Torts: A tort is basically a civil wrong for which a court will decide and impose liability to a defendant. For our purposes we will only address 2 types of torts: Intentional and Strict Liability. So that we do not need “real” lawyers we will not be using negligent torts.
Intentional tort, as it infers, is an intentional act against another ( battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, etc)
Strict liability tort, pet attacks, collateral wounding from gun fights/Brawls, irresponsible use of explosives are some examples..
Crimes: Crimes are wrongs against the city, district, or society. Crimes will either be listed with a basic set of laws in the courthouse with the Murky council having the power to enact or revoke various laws.
A lawsuit against another would be to remedy a tort.
Judgements: In order to preserve impartiality judges will be limited to TOO Staff members and judgements will be final unless granted an appeal with the proper arguments.
Jobs:
There will be various jobs available to storytellers to either perform a role or run a business in Murkystone.
Professions: (Including but not limited to)
- Law Enforcement
- Postal Worker/Telegraph
- Physician/Nurse/Hospitalist
- Lawyer
- Tax Collector (Doesn’t actually take the money)
Businesses:
Businesses can be purchased and there are 4 Business districts in Murkystone. Each business area is tied to the district allowing storyteller business owners to modify the decor of their shop without any admin intervention. They may alter the facade and decor of the shop but may not change the size or footprint of the shop. Major alterations will require a ticket and admin approval.
Shops:
There will be 4 tiers of shops. Booth/Stall, Small, Medium, and Large shops. Each will have it’s own rent/leasing costs weekly.
Rents will be due on the shop weekly. Failure to pay the rents will result in the business resorting back to Murkystone. This is intended to resolve abandoned businesses.
You may not run a business out of your home.
Storyteller Roles:
Roles are RP roles for use with RR sheets. These roles are informational only and may be used by the storyteller to roll for various pieces of information or clues based on their skills.
Certain feats and abilities will be limited to roles. Ie: Blacksmiths will be the only ones able to craft the best weapons/armor. A majority of the roles will be mission specific with various dungeons and quest lines.
Roles:
- Metallurgy (Examples)
- Weaponsmith
- Blacksmith
- Gunsmith, etc
- Medical (Examples)
- Doctor
- Nurse
- Surgeon
- Chemistry (Examples)
- Pharmacist
- Explosives
- Herbalist
- Engineering (Examples)
- Builder
- Tinker
- Designer
- Academic (Examples)
- Researcher
- Politician
- Legal
- Librarian
- Clergy
- Entertainer
- Dancer
- Singer
- Musician
- Service Industry (Examples)
- Cook
- Restaurateur
- Bar Tender
- Law Enforcement (Examples)
- Police
- Military
- Militia
- Firefighters
Clans:
Clans are purely mechanical in purpose only. Each district is considered to be part of Murkystone and therefore not it’s own town or city. Due to restrictions and limitations of the game however, residents of a district will need to be in that district clan. That said, everyone from every district should be considered part of the same city.
STORYTELLER CULTISTS:
Applying:
There is an online application and agreement located HERE where you can sign up to be a cultist. You must agree to abide by all limitations and stipulations in the sign up agreement. Doing this is important to ensure that we do not have some folks looking to simply ruin the RP for others or run wild with no guidelines.
Cultists may only be human and will have their own race. They can be turned however if approved by staff but they will lose all access to the base and belongings there.
Housing:
Those that applied and qualified can choose to either live incognito amongst the population or be a dedicated cultist living in the cultist tower in their base. The cultist base has personal lockers that are designated to cultists so that they may change into their uniform prior to leaving the base. There are currently 19 houses at the cultist base to live in.
Cultists do not need to purchase their cultist base home or locker. Cultists playing incognito characters may be in a district and own a home in a district but may not own a home in the cultist base.
Find the application Here: https://forms.gle/7Ktg5ALBQHewjdvaA
Races:
Note: No storyteller may RP an age of 800 years or older unless they are an official elder vampire or werewolf. Human elders are based on ability and skill and not age.
There will be 3 main races; Human, Werewolf, or Vampire.
We will have some allowances for returning characters that were playing as immortals, however, the class mechanic for it is deprecated. We will not be allowing new characters to be created as immortals. These will be for flavor only and have no actual abilities or stats.
Human characters from the previous season will have aged considerably, so please be mindful of that if deciding to return.
For RP flavor and variety, in RR we will have subspecies of races for you to choose from:
Vampire:
- Sanguine (Blood Drinker) The vampires we all know and love while basic in there understanding they utilize blood from animals and humans to satiate their thirst for blood
- Emotion Vampire– These Vampires are one of the more interesting ones as they do not feed as normal ones do they feed off of emotion of others either feeding on there fear or other emotions that rise to the surface in day to day life.
- Energy Vampires(Energy from thoughts) They may bore you or make you angry, and drain your energy and sap your strength, thus feeding from you.
- Disfigured Vampire (Nosferatu Vampire) These vampires are often seen as abominations with their features when in the dark of the night seeming like bats commonly seen with scrunched up faces and larger features.
Werewolf:
- Afflicted: Werewolves who were given the curse of werewolves by bite and that will transform due to excessive emotion like anger or frustration or moon cycle.
- True: True born werewolves. These are werewolves that are able to change their form at will and have much more control over themselves while in werewolf form.
- Vile Thing: These are humans that have had scientific experiments done on them to have werewolf like traits. They would not be true or normal werewolves and would have some aspects of their being disfigured and out of the ordinary. They may utilize potions or other external items to change.
Human:
- Champion: Champions are humans with extraordinary natural strength increased through hard work and determination. They excel at self discipline and determination.
- Analyst: An analyst is an erudite human with high intelligence and problem solving skills. They have very good powers of observation, deduction, and reasoning.
- Charmer: A charmer is someone with very high charisma and communication skills. They are smooth talkers and able to convince and/or manipulate others through persuasion.
Special Elder Races:
There are a limited number of special elder races for each main race. These are sign up only and have very specific conditions associated with them that must be agreed to before it can be given.
There are only a total of 3 per main race. These roles will be secret and will not be disclosed to the public. Storytellers chosen to be among the elders will have to agree to perma their character if certain conditions are met. This is a non-negotiable and a condition of being given the role. Any meta of these roles will be strongly monitored and enforced.
A link to the sign up will be coming soon in order to give everyone a chance to know that this is a thing.
Classes:
- Bruiser: Hearty and able bodied, the ones who choose this will be the stalwart defenders of whatever they believe to be true whether it is or not is up to them and society. These people take pride in their ability to hold and strike true to an enemy at the doorstep. Once in full force and ability they become a terror on the battlefield. “Twas but a scratch”, they say as they lay on the hospital bed.
- Striker: When you think of a side flanker to perform pincer movements this is the one you think of. Strong and able to hit hard every strike intentional and calculated. While they may hit hard they still need to watch themselves as there is always a bigger threat to undertake and fatigue can lose a battle or win one depending on the side in which you are on. Anyone using this way of training will be able to hit hard and leave a lasting impression.
- Hit Man/Woman: The night can be a strong ally if used in the correct fashion. Striking from shadow or even in the light of day in a crowd on the street. If you are a hitman/woman your title precedes you. Quick and deadly, able to blend in and strike from an unseen location. The hitman/woman is for people who value surprise rather than outright challenge. While fast and deadly they aren’t afraid to slug it out for a time. Before returning to their home of the shadows that surround us all.
- Survivalist: Cold calculating hunter and survivor that has a firm grasp on the wilds of the world not how books and newspapers portray them but how they are meant to be seen. A home from animals and people alike as long as they respect the wilderness and the bristling life held within. Take care though sometimes the Horrors of the great unknown are unforgiving and unrelenting. As a ranger bask in that thought for it is what you are trained for.
- Riflemen: Marksmen famously, hunters and protectors of house and home, family and friends. These men and women take great pleasure and pride in the accurate dispatching of foe or game. They do however only get one shot most of the time for if they miss then that’s it. The loud thunderous crack that exits from the muzzle of their gun as it passes through the air twisting expediently towards its target ready to end a quarry or even perhaps set a friend free. Be Steady, Take your Aim, FIRE!!!!!!