Into Solace we go!

Use this thread to intoduce your characters roles in the world of Solace. State which faction they start in and how they will begin to weave themselves into the Wars of Solace.

Rufus glared at the Alondian settlement that lay before him. From the hill where he stood he could see tents and carriges of verying sizes scattered the patch of dead and dieing grass at the edge of the Alondian desert. People, young and old attended to thier buisness in the camp. all unsuspecting of what was about to unfold...
Behind Rufus ws a group of soilders roughly twenty in all. Doting the group of soilders were metal cages. In the cages, in groups of two and three, were Ferals. This particular group was catlike in appearance, yet no hair clung to thier skin only grotesque, leather like hide. They snarled and growled, thier bodies twitching, knowing that a meal was not far off. Rufus adressed the soldier nearest to his right.
"You," he said in a low yet strongly authorical voice, "release them." Rufus handed the gaurd a ring from which several keys hung. The soldier gawked at his emperor, disbelief in his eyes.
"Sir is this really necessary? there are no enemy soldiers dow-" The ragalian soldier was silenced as Rufus deftly removed his head with a singe swipe of his sword. The soldiers body fell to the ground with a metalic thud, blood pouring onto the sandy earth. The remaining soldiers dare not say anything, they dared not to even move for fear of suffering the same fate.
"This soldier," Rufus bellowed, loud enough so that every soldier there heard in clarity, "hesitated. As warriors of Ragalia you never hesitae to do what is necessary to reach our dream. Hesitating is the cowards way! And the only reward for a coward is death!" He paused. "So..," Rufus' tone fell, he turned narrowing his focus to a second soldier, "are you a coward?" Rufus tossed the keys at the gaurds feet. Picking them up with shaking hands, the soldier turned towards the first cage, shortly follwed by the sound of a door unlocking. The ferals burst from thier prison dashing straight towrad the settlement in the distance. Rufus looked on at the carnage that was about to insue...and Smiled.

"We know your in there girl!" Guards gathered outside of a small house in the city of Sol, The land, freezing cold, was snowy and the wind howled about.
No reply came from the house, the lights off, no movement was heard.
"Mai Kurokawa! We have orders to take you to Raglia, come out now, or we come in and take you by force."
Inside, a girl sat right infront of the door, her back to it, as she, only currently possible under the cover of the wind, muttered to herself "your going to take my by force either way, why should i come out...?"
A minute more of silence passed, before the soilders, frozen cold, kicked open the door, the girl, Mai Kurokawa being thrown forward with it.
"Get up and move."
Mai stood and faced the guards, putting on a warm smile and a cold glare as she stared into the face of the guard who had kicked the door down and spoken "what does the Raglian guard want with me? im nothing but a simple merchant here."
Two more moved forward and grabbed her arms, dragging her out the door.
"What the-?! Hey! LET GO OF ME! I AM NO RAGLIAN DOLL!"
The guard checked off the name on a list he held in his hands, staring at the girl as her screams were drowned out by the wind
"'Minethrower' Mai...a pathetic looking excuse for a mercinary, why would that girl be-" the guard stopped midsentence as he turned his head to check inside the house once more, the table in the backs open drawers were filled with clips of bullets, and guns, more advanced than the singleshot rifles in the raglian empire, that had been knocked over from the door breaking down layed on the floor.
The head soilder silently turned around and started to march forward with the rest of the group as they walked the streets of Sol, staring as he walked at the face of the girl, a scowl of anger on her face as her eyes darted, before looking down and sighing deeply, trying her best to hide the small chuckle that had followed it, and make it look as if she was hoping that someone out there, would come to save her.

Rufus surveyed the damage as he walked into the settlement. The tents were torn apart, the cloth slashed and the timber broken. Everywere one looked death scattered the blood soaked patches of grass. Men women and even children were haphazardly thrown about in ragdoll positions some missing arms, others just twisted piles of flesh. Yet Rufus held no interest in these corpses, what interested him were the corpses of the feral. Straight precise slashes littered there bodies. Twenty Ferals in all...all were dead. Rufus began trembling, trembling with excitment.
Rufus brought his sword up just in time to stop a second from teraing into his neck. Both parties spun away from each other, revealing the attacker as a young man. He wore no shirt, his body covered in half healed scratchs. He held a long sword and a shortsword, his hair was of the darkest black rufus had ever seen. Yet most striking, were the large black wings that sprouted from his back. The combatints lunged at each other swinging at the others vulnerable points. The two twisted and writhed in a deadly dance as their blades swirled stricking oposing metal and the occasional flesh. Rufus swung at the heathens legs, missing, as the swordsman fliped away flapping his wings to gain altidude and divebombing Rufus. Rufus dove out of the way, the blades missing his body by inches. Rufus turned and the two met once again, yet as the battle continued Rufus began to notice the swordsmans swings becoming weaker. Each risiduale strike came slower. Rufus knew immediately, he was winning. Rufus took advantage of this hammering down on the young mans gaurd. He swung at his legs again this time successful as his sword buried itself in the mans calf. As the young man fell Rufus turned slamming his knee into his chest as he finnaly landed on the ground. His other knee held the swordsmans left arm in place, his blade pinning his right in the dirt. With his free hand he wrapped it around the sworsmans neck as a smirk came to his face.
"Are you Raven the Blackheart?" Raven only glared at him with hatred filled eyes. This man reminded him of Keon.
Rufus squeezed tighter.
"Speak!" Raven only continued to glare at him. "hmph fine have it your way." Rufus lifted his hand from Raven's throat, using it to give him a square punch to the temple knocking him unconscious. The last thing Raven could remeber was that hated smirk on Rufus' lips and a new vow to kill this man.....

"Ugh... I don't like this place."
"Aw what's wrong? Scared of the dark, your highness?"
"Shut up! I'm not afraid. I just have a bad feeling of this place..."
"Well if it was bad, Joshua would know right away. *sigh* I'm so glad i got to marry such a man..."
"Pfft, at least I'm glad I'm not married to you..."
"What did you say?!"
"Oh, nothing."
"Will you guys PLEASE be quiet. We have to be cautious, since we don't know what's down here."

A chilly breeze came through the temple as Theo, Joshua, and Maira walked through the wide hallway, reaching deep inside. A few scouts had just discovered and reported it. The council insisted that they would send some others to explore and investigate the place, but Theo and Joshua did not listen. Both of them along with Maira went on ahead to see what this strange thing was.

For some reason, it never got extremely dark. There always seemed to be some light seeping through, even as they explored deeper.

Joshua, who was at the front, stopped right before a large circular chamber. It had a circle in the middle, engraved with foreign runes, and pillars running around the outside. Intrigued, Joshua immediately brought out his journal and started writing notes. "Strange... none of these runes are familar to me..." Maira went to his side, watching him work. As for Theo, he started to walk around the outside a little bit. He looked at a pillar, studying its deep engravings. He reached out to touch it...

His hand was immediately slapped down.
"Don't. Touch. ANYTHING." Joshua hissed.
"Fine, fine... sheesh."

Joshua went back to scribbling in his journal as Theo continued to walk around the circle.
"Do you know what this place is?"
"*sigh* I don't know Theo. This place is totally different than any place we've ever been, but I think its fairly safe..."
"Then can at least walk into the middle?"
"Yeah... I suppose..."
Theo slowly approached the center of the circle. The engravings around it... seemed to be... rotating... Immediately, when he reached the center, a barrier of light like an aurora surrounded the circle, isolating Theo from Joshua and Maira.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING!"
"I DIDN'T!!!"

Joshua pounded on the barrier. He cast a short spell at it, only for it to rebound across the room. "It's no good... Maira, what about you?"
Maira was on the floor, slowly getting up. "I don't know. My spell just came flying back at me."

Joshua turned toward Theo and started pounding on the wall. "Theo!"
Theo tried to move his feet, but they were stuck to the floor. "Joshua! I can't move!"
The light got brighter and brighter, until finally there was a flash. Theo closed his eyes, hearing Joshua's and Maira's voices fade away into the distance.

Theo opened his eyes, only to find himself in a similar temple, but it was in ruins. The pathway was blocked from a collapse. Theo simply picked up the boulders with one hand and tossed them aside as if they were nothing, clearing up the way to the enterance.

Theo finally got outside, finding himself in a forest. He breathed in the fresh air. It felt... different.
He expanded his mana from his hand. "The mana here is different... but I can control it still. I just need to adapt. But this means I can't summon anything." Breathing again, he said to himself, "The mana is scarcer here. It'll take a little longer to regenerate my strength then..." He looked around. "This place is filled with a dark aura." He shivered. "I better get out of here soon."

"This place is huge... I might be getting lost. Maybe I should climb a tree..."
Theo had been walking for an hour or so. He was slightly tired, so he sat down for a rest. There was a quick rustling in the bushes. Theo whipped his head around. "Hello? Whose there."
No response. Theo didn't need one. Using his magic, a vine pulled up a scrawny man by his legs and brought him to Theo. Pulling him up, he brought him up his face up to his own, with the man's legs dangling. "Hello there sir. Mind telling me why you've been following me all this time?"
"F-following you?" the man stuttered. "I-I wasn't following you, I was just... minding my own business!"
"Really now?" Theo dropped the man. "Then maybe I should ask your friends in the bushes as well."
There was a small commotions in the background. The man pulled out a knife, and a large group of ruffians appeared from the surroundings. "Look here you, just give us whatcha got, or else we're gonna get rough with ya."
Theo laughed. "Oh really?" He bent down and smiled. "Would you like to try?"
Growling, the man stabbed Theo in the abdomen, only to find his knife curled and bent. He looked back at Theo. "You have chainmail under there!"
"Hunh? Oh! I forgot to put my chainmail on today..." Theo slapped his head. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to do without it." He looked back. "Will you please tell me which way the nearest town is? I wouldnt want to beat up all your buddies."
There was a small silence. Then the forest was filled with the roars of laughter.
"Oh please, you can't handle all 30 of us."
"Let's get him!"
The group of bandits all charged at him. Theo drew his sword. "This will only take a second..."


"There... the city of Ragalia..."
"Thank you my good man." Theo dropped the beat up bandit on the floor. "Don't worry, your companions will be fine in a few days."
He walked forward, out of the forest and into a wide, cold plain. Farther out, it was covered with a blanket of snow. The sun wasn't out yet. From the looks of it, it was still about 3 in the morning, even though the sky was covered with clouds. He looked out and saw a large city. Even from such a distance he could feel its dark magic ebbing from it, but he has no choice but to go.
"From this distance... I think i can make it by sunset."
He sighed and looked up at the sky.
I sure wish Joshua was here...
He breathed in some air and started running toward Ragalia, unknown to what events were about to happen in the world of Solace.

[this was in my profile]

She was young when her mother passed, about 7, if I recall. Her father fled when the house was burned down in the darkness. Her two younger sisters disappeared when Rose left for a more decent home, one that she wouldn't get rejected to, one she could be accepted. For her bright flaming colored hair, she wasn't very much liked, more like hated for the looks in her blue eyes. It was like she was telling them to leave, to flee at her young age, but she didn't even mean for her eyes to reflect the pain that's been crawling inside her.
After about 6 years, when she turned 13, she finally found a home, a home she could walk into and like, one where she could sit down and rest. Her new job had paid well, and she was becoming happy. The man she was left with was also a vampire, one who cast sunglasses over his eyes. She didn't know this until she was turned, 5 years from then.
She was dying at 18, her heart was just stopping on her, like it couldn't keep up with anything she was doing. The man had told her about him, how he had never aged, never took his sunglasses off in the sunlight, how he was a vampire. She didn't want to die, she couldn't, there was still much more she had to do, much more to live for. He ended up turning her, then he was broken apart and burned to ashes.
Due to the way she was turned, and how she fast she had been accustomed to the body, she learned quickly. It's been 27 years since then, and she hasn't found her sisters, her father, nobody. She lives on her own, trying to find out where to look next, but has yet to look and yet to find anywhere else to turn. She just waits for clues to pop up, something, anything... Hoping for excitement to come here in Solace...

((ooc: ffff as another note, I'll be using third person, present tense. Not past tense. If that's acceptable~))

If anyone were to try and use words to describe him, it would be 'Monster'. That is, after all, what he is. What he has become. But he doesn't blame anyone, because he knows it's not their fault. He knows whose fault it is, and those guys are dead.

No reason to stay angry. Accept what he's become, and he's got a whole new life ahead of him. A new life under the name of 'Neon'.

--

He leans against a tree, loading handful of rounds into his precious rifle. As he does so, he's aware of the people lurking nearby. The enemies. Truthfully, he'd rather not kill anyone other than those he's been paid to kill.

But this time's different. For whatever reason, he's been paid to off an entire group of people. Yes, he is a monster, and he's fully capable of completing such a feat. However, the group was cautious and kept their headquarters well hidden, so it had taken Neon a while to even find these guys.

They're taken aback by his choice of weapon - and he knows why. In a land where you have only pistols (single shot, no less), a six-shot rifle is something to be feared. And Neon takes this to his advantage.

There's a rustling to his left, faint and far off, and Neon can see an outline of the person making the sound. Then, as soon as the twig snaps--

Locked and loaded, fired. The man falls dead to the sound of a ringing gunfire.

Two more leap out from the bushes in front of the assassin, foolishly thinking a rifle would be useless up close. And normally it would be. But Neon can see them clearly, and it takes only a second to fire, load, and fire again, without even aiming.

A pair of bodies join the many already scattered on the ground.

And Neon smiles, kneeling down to the one he knows isn't dead yet. He lifts the man's chin with such delicacy that you'd think the guy was a paper or porcelain doll that would break if handled roughly.

"Where's your base?" He asks simply, keeping that smile plastered on his face. The only reply is a curse and a spot of blood smattering on his cheek. Neon wipes it off, undaunted, and repeats the question.

When he doesn't receive another answer - how loyal - he merely sighs and stands up. The man will die soon, anyway, from blood loss. He could be merciful and just fire into his head, but that would waste a bullet on someone who would be dead soon anyway.

Hmm~ The golden-eyed Elf looks around, shouldering his duffel bag and slinging his rifle over his back. I wonder where I am...

Following the target around blindly was never a good idea.

Let's see, I started out in Alondia with the client... That's where he got a better bayonet for his rifle. The old ones kept breaking. This time, he managed to save enough money to buy some spare blades and store them in his bag. Must have passed through Amina at some point, if those Golems are to say anything... Though I might still be in Amina.

With a frustrated groan, Neon stands up again and pulls at his dark green hair. "I have no idea where I am!"

Then, with a huff, he starts walking in a random direction, not caring where he ends up along as he can get directions. Or perhaps find more of those guys so he can dig their headquarters out of them.

--

At least I remembered to put away my rifle at the last moment. It wouldn't do for the townspeople to be too wary. Or the guards. Those guys were the worst.

"S'cuse me," Neon starts cheerfully as he nears the gates, waving at the nearest guardsman. "Can you tell me what country I'm in? I've been on the road for so long and I haven't been keeping track..."

Before the guard can answer, Neon catches sight of the townspeople, many of whom appear to be users of magic. Well, if it's like that, he doesn't need answers. Amina, for sure.

"Never mind!" Flashing a smile, he skips through the gates, hoping they won't ask to search his bag. But, as luck would (or wouldn't) have it, they do ask.

"We'll have to check your bag first... 'sir'."

Neon considers listening and wasting just a few more precious moments of his time. If they did search, however, they might suspect him of planning something dangerous what with that rifle hidden away. Soooo...

"Sorry, boys. No can do." He pushes through, never dropping the smile, even when he hears the expected 'get back here!' behind him. "I'm in a hurry, so, excuse me!"

The alleys are a blessing, even if he isn't familiar with them. They provide minimal protection against being hunted down, and he watches as two guards rush right by where he is. Sighing, Neon smooths down the sides of his hair, making sure they cover up his pointed ears. Otherwise, he might catch the attention of certain people he'd rather avoid.

When the coast is clear, he slips out of the alleyway and enters the nearest clothing store for a basic cloak to cover his hair and hide his face, mainly his uniquely colored eyes.

Then, he sets out looking for the rest of his targets.

Michiyo stumbled along in the snow. She had sat down and fallen asleep and woken up in a totally different place. Why did her walks always end up like this? And now it was SNOWING. She hated snow. What the heck was this? Narnia or something? And why did it have to snow? Her hoodie was warm, but not THAT warm.
"HEY! YOU! What are you doing here?" Michi turned around, shocked. She noticed that they were wearing uniforms, there was three of them, and they didn't look too friendly.
"Well, I don't know actually. Could you tell me?"
"Stop playing innocent. We know what you're doing."
"Really, Well, I'm glad you do, because I don't. Wait... if you knew what I was doing, why did you ask?" She was right about them not looking friendly, but they were apparently very stupid, too.
"You're coming with us."
"Well, I don't where you're going, but I don't know where I'm going, either... So sure." The uniformed men, soldiers she thought now, seemed surprised by her lack of opposition, but she really didn't know where she was going, or who they were, or where she was. "Well, one quick question... Where are we?"She asked as they were leading her away, one on each side, the back, and in front.
The one in front answered. "Ragalia."
"Well, that was helpful." Michiyo muttered, not loud enough for them to hear, as she went with them to their destination.

Suhayl chuckled as he drank his beer at a tavern located deep in Amina. He was rather amused by the drunk antics of the bar's customers and was enjoying himself just watching the crowd. For once he was glad that he stood out enough to keep people from interacting with him. Among all the customers he looked most obvious from a different country wearing his sand-colored clothing of much thinner fabric than was appropriate for Amina and it's cooler weather. Even though the tavern was obviously full of freelancers and travelers, he apart from the rest.

Not that he minded standing out. It was better for him not to interact with the people tonight anyways, as he hoped to go about tomorrow to learn more of this country. It wouldn't help him if he reeked of booze and was suffering from the effects of a hang-over during his quest for knowledge.

Suhayl grinned as a pair of singing men tried to serenade him. He joined in on the song, but never ordered moe than his one beer. Tomorrow was a day full of knowledge and discovery.

yay! first time-skip intro!

(NOTE: this actually happens during the time-skip.)

Miyako walked along some of Sol's old, beaten merchant paths that she knew so well. She had traveled with a friendly merchant who let her travel with him for free, and even gave her a loaf of bread, all because, as he said "he enjoyed the company." But for now she was walking. She had been walking for a while until she heard some old guys talking in a tavern about two girls who were "hiding out" away from the Ragalian soldiers out in the Sol country-side. She asked the men about them- all she managed to get was that one of them was a water mage and had blue hair...

Suddenly, she saw a house on the horizon. Yet, it was still a long ways off- in this part of Sol there weren't many buildings, people, or- thankfully- soldiers. Maybe this is where they were talking about... She allowed her thoughts to trail off as she set off for the house at a new, motivated speed.