Beata Nobilis - a forum game AU

Subject: Beata Nobilis - a forum game AU Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:30 pm

Beata Nobilis

Background
For hundreds of generations, the world has been a secret battleground between ancient noble families possessing powerful supernatural abilities known as 'gifts.'

While hidden from the ordinary human world, the ceaseless warring, feuds, schemes, plots, and betrayals between the gifted families has had far-reaching effects, resulting in hundreds of years of suffering and bloodshed, both among the gifted and the oblivious humans unknowingly swept up into the conflict.

This is a world dominated by bloodline. Powerful gifted families rule over vast swaths of territory, and often come into conflict with their neighbors. Wars are waged over prestige, land, wealth, vendettas, and personal slights, both real and imagined. This petty tribal bickering and behavior is a trend across the globe, but North America is a powder keg ready to erupt into war at the slightest provocation.

After hundreds of years of spilled gifted blood, the families agreed to convene on sacred ground, forming the Beata Nobilis.

The Beata Nobilis is a congress dominated by the powerful and mysterious Rivers family, vowed to neutrality. While they do not claim suzerainty over the over-mighty gifted clans, they do enforce a codified set of laws over much of the continent, with the aim of mediating conflict between them.

A pale spring sun dawns over a new year. It's 2010, and a new age is about to begin.
The Code
Nearly every major family from Baffin Island to the southern US border is beholden to the Code, a set of laws ratified by the Beata Nobilis. While the Beata Nobilis itself has no real power or authority over any of the gifted clans, its laws are respected and often upheld, and violating the Code may bring the wrath of neighboring rivals upon your family.

1. All of our Kind is sworn to secrecy.
2. None may meddle in human affairs, politics, or reveal their true nature to those without the Gift.
3. A family's rule in their own domain is absolute, and none may challenge their word in their own land, so long as they do not violate the Code.
4. No gifted blood may be shed on the Sacred Grounds.
5. A family is responsible for violations of the Code in their own domains, and are sworn to enforce the Code upon any lawbreakers.
6. When the Gift manifests itself in someone oblivious to our nature, it is the local family's duty to bring them into the fold and guide them in our ways.
7. Honor one another's borders; infringing on another's territory will deprive you of the protection of the Code.
8. When passing through or visiting another family's domain, you must present yourself to the ruling family there.
9. War may only be waged for reasons legitimate in the eyes of the Beata Nobilis.
10. All oaths, treaties, and vows made before the Beata Nobilis are absolute.

Beata Nobilis
The Beata Nobilis is a congressional entity, dominated by the Rivers family, that rules over the 'Sacred Grounds' in North Dakota. The land itself is unremarkable, mostly mountains, empty prairie, and rural farmland, but is centered around an alleged well of gifted power called the Portal, where the grandiose Rivers mansion is built. This is considered hallowed neutral territory, and any person of gifted blood who enters the Sacred Grounds comes under the direct protection of the Beata Nobilis.

There are no official enforcers of the Code, and the Beata Nobilis itself doesn't possess the strength to punish those who flaunt its laws, so it could be argued that the Beata Nobilis has no true control over any of the gifted families. However, the laws of the Beata Nobilis give a semblance of order to the continent, laying down the basic foundations for gifted society, and benefiting those who adhere to its Code. Before the creation of the Beata Nobilis, many of these laws were already considered "unwritten rules." Thus, the word of the Beata Nobilis is enforced through rigid self-policing, and openly violating the Code or defying the Beata Nobilis may show a disregard for the basic mores of gifted society, incurring the scorn of nearby families.

The Beata Nobilis is perhaps best known as an instrument for peaceful resolution. The Sacred Grounds serve as neutral territory where two feuding factions can convene, with the Beata Nobilis acting as a third-party mediator in their conflict.

The congress itself is headed by a Consul, who holds the most sway over the Beata Nobilis and serves as a sort of figurehead, issuing judgment, edicts, and policies. Their word is the Code, and if provoked, they can order a Hunt on a codebreaker. When a Hunt is called, the Hunted in question forfeits all protections, and is either to be killed or captured alive and brought to the Beata Nobilis for judgment. All gifted under the authority of the Beata Nobilis are expected to join the Hunt. Anyone who knowingly helps the Hunted will have their protections revoked as well. There are typically "three strikes," or breaches in the Code, before a Hunt is called, but this all depends on the context of the situation or the severity of the crime. The current Consul is Edwin Rivers, one of the major founders of the Beata Nobilis.
Families
Families are just as you would expect—families carrying gifted blood and possessing supernatural powers. The most powerful and influential of these are independent and rule over a vast territory. Others, younger and lesser families with weaker powers, often act as vassals, swearing loyalty to the most powerful family in the region.

Every family is different, doing their own business, enforcing their own laws, and conducting their own affairs, but most are wealthy and live in isolation from major "ordinary" human population centers. As extensive interaction with normal humans is discouraged by the Code, gifted children are often given to private boarding academies in their own territories, specifically created for gifted children. While powers are at their most unstable state in these formative years, and this accomplishes the goal of keeping them away from normal children who may figure out their secret, it also builds up a sense of camaraderie between local affiliated families belonging to the same faction. Alternatively, children are homeschooled and given private tutors.

The practice of exchanging wards is common among families. A ward is a child left in the care of another family, but the nature of this varies. Sometimes, this is a friendly gesture of trust, families entrusting their children to their allies to foster good relations and giving them a broader education than they might've gotten at home. Other times, a "ward" is more of a hostage, "insurance" for a family's good behavior. Usually, such wards are still treated as honored guests, but of course, practices vary from clan to clan...

Another peculiar and important thing to note is that, because those with 'the Gift' are forbidden from revealing their true nature to ordinary humans, they are also restricted from dating and marrying ordinary humans. This means that you can only marry into other gifted families, and marriages are often arranged between children for political purposes, forming alliances for mutual defense and coalitions for war. Thus, "marrying for love" is extremely uncommon.

Growing up in these environments, ordinary humans are sometimes (but not always) looked down upon on the same level as animals.

And of course, families have a long and bloody history of conflict with one another. War is waged for honor, prestige, vengeance, territory, blood claims, hegemony, influence, glory, wealth, outright destruction, or personal slights. Those from prominent families usually walk in fear of assassination, and betrayals, schemes, and grand wars that ravage the entire country aren't uncommon, even with the creation of the Beata Nobilis. Some habits die hard.
Seams
Often referred to as 'wells,' seams are gaps in the fabric of our dimension similar to the Portal and are sources of gifted power. Populations of gifted are higher where these seams form, and those who grow up near these seams are said to have their powers flourish and grow stronger than those who don't. For this reason, they are often the flash point of territorial conflicts between great families.

These wells of power also have another impact on the mortal world—monsters and supernatural phenomena. There are strange creatures beyond the seam, and some of them filter through, often wreaking havoc and creating legends where they appear. In the constant struggles between families, a few have taken to bonding to such beasts, although this doesn't always end well...
Overseas
The United States and Canada are dominated by the Beata Nobilis, but its influence is almost non-existent elsewhere in the globe, although gifted families, clans, kingdoms, and factions exist wherever there are people.

Europe, for example, is a centralized imperial union with a system called sofia. There's a ruling family in every city, town, and village, who answers to the ruling family in the county, who answers to the ruling family in the province, who answers to the ruling family in the nation, who in turn is governed and led (at least in name) by a royal family. However, despite this apparent unity, this Sofian Union is plagued and beggared by near-constant civil war between families on almost every single level, and royal dynasties are often deposed and installed at the drop of a dime—when their efforts aren't concentrated on other parts of the globe, that is. Greenland is often contested between Canadian and American families under the Beata Nobilis and ancient Sofian nobles.

There are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of other systems, customs, and traditions across the globe, which would all be too exhaustive to list here.

Subject: Re: Beata Nobilis - a forum game AU Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:24 pm

Basics
This is a simple forum game with a dash of casual roleplay, where you take control of a gifted family and steer them to greatness! How you play is up to you. There's no real way to 'win'—your main goal is survival.

Gifts & Stats
Almost every character in this game will have a gift, and every gift has its unique stats. This makes every gift, and by extension every family, different and dynamic in their play style. These stats are set during the creation stage and applied to every character who possesses the gift.

They are:
- Health. This determines your overall endurance.
- Attack. This determines your attacking strength in battle.
- Defense. This determines how well you stand against damage.
- Intrigue. This determines your success rate at both executing and defending against plots, espionage, sabotage, assassinations, and fabrications.
- Skill. This determines your critical hit and evasion rate.
- Speed. This determines your turn order in battle.

Every stat is capped at 120 points. At the creation stage, you have a pool of 500 points to distribute. Choose wisely.

Unique Abilities & Attributes
Along with their unique stats, every gift has a special ability, use, or attribute. These might boost stats, have a special use in battle, or do anything you could possibly think of. Of course, to prevent certain gifts from being overpowered, these have to be approved by the GM (yours truly) during the creation stage, and every ability has its own limitations.

Examples:
Family: Tempo
Gift: Time Theft
Ability: Attacks absorb half the damage in HP inflicted. Can also heal others by giving away their own HP.

Family: Grey
Gift: Resurrection
Ability: Can revive from death three times.

Family: Gallagher
Gift: Possession
Ability: Can take control of any character and force them to commit one action. Limited to three uses during battle. Outside of battle, it can only be used once every three turns.

You get it. If you're having trouble trying to think up a unique ability for your power, just ask and I can help.

Battles

Monsters

Intrigue

Your Family

Vassal Families

Marriage

Adoption

Beata Nobilis

Map

Turns

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
THIS FIRST POST IS MOSTLY DEDICATED TO BASIC LORE AND BACKGROUND
GAME MECHANICS, RULES, AND SIGN-UPS TO COME
GARY WAS HERE, ASH IS A LOSER

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