pinned Lore & Roleplaying

image no longer hosted — https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/496034843671527465/603613046119596042/RBB1.png[/img]




Lore is an intricate and disputed aspect of not only the general TES world, but also within roleplaying. Of course, we want people to be creative and come up with amazing characters and back stories, but we also have to put some guidelines in place. Otherwise, some may claim to be the long lost son of a minor or major Daedric Prince. So, while we do strongly encourage creativity, please keep the following things in mind. If you need any lore questions answered, or would like to read on anything specific, visit The Imperial Library.

• No characters that are specific Aedra or Daedra. We don't want to see Auriel, Mara, Meridia, or Hircine casually walking around town.
• No direct children of an Aedra or Daedra. This also includes "Chosen Ones," which will be explained below.
• No gods or ultimate, overpowered characters. This includes extremely overpowered afflictions like lichdom and being a vampire lord.
• No "chosen one" or "main champion of [insert Aedra/Daedra here]" type characters. If we did allow this, we'll end up with 32 champions of Boethia and 79 chosen ones. It is not to say that your character cannot be a part of a famous cult or organization, or that your character cannot be blessed and guided by, say, Azura. It is just that your character cannot be considered the main chosen one or grand master leader.
• No characters that are of already existing NPCs or personally know existing NPCs. This includes making up characters that your own character knows, that are related to existing NPCs. They can have similar names, but they cannot be the same person. You cannot go around as Queen Ayrenn or High Kinlady Estre. It is too overpowered to go around as the Profit's vestige or Ayrenn's cousin. Additionally, you can not make up an NPC that is related to an existing NPC to know. For example, you cannot know or be friends with or married to Ayrenn's non-existing lost daughter.

• No one is the "chosen one" to take down Molag Bal by themselves. Similar to the "chosen one" mentality previously discussed, if we allowed this, we could have multiple characters claiming the same thing, so it's best to just avoid this altogether.
• Our setting takes place following the events of the Planemeld. In this case, Molag Bal is no longer terrorizing Nirn and Daedra aren't being dropped into the Imperial City by swarms, but there's still a war going on, making the Imperial City a dangerous place to try and visit for years to come.
• Avoid personally knowing people like Lyris, the Profit, Sai, and the like. As noted above, claiming to personally know such powerful and important figures can lead to overpowered characters.

The majority of Tamriel—in this instance, the Dominion—has a Kill-On-Sight law, when it comes to the discovery of any afflicted. An affliction isn't meant to be hailed as a superpower, or a norm in society. It's a disease that most people want your character dead for, and we aim to increase realism to keep it as it should be: a very uncommon curse/disease, that can enhance RP through the precautionary measures taken to not get caught in the first place. This is to act as an additional RP hook to those that want it. If you would still like to risk your character as afflicted, we also ask that you read up on lore first.

• Do not romanticize an affliction, or “Twilight RP.” Please do not over-romanticize the idea of the afflicted. Your character has a disease, not a mysterious and taboo superpower that they only show their romantic partner in the dead of night under a full moon, carrying them on their back.
  
  
• Follow TES rules when it comes to vampires and werewolves. For a quick, informal briefing, read vampires here and werewolves here. The Imperial Library is also very good if you would like to know more.
  
  
• Vampires cannot live on non-human blood alone. There are many references we use to cite this, so please DM an officer if you would like said sources. They are pinned on our #seasonal_discussion channel in our discord.
  
  
• Be prepared to have your character attacked, if they are a known Afflicted. Shattered Grove is teeming with the Guard, mercenaries, and many other gung-ho citizens that will very quickly attempt to attack or kill your character. (We will always ask your permission before killing off a character, but this does not reduce the amount of danger they are in.)
  
  
• Consequences for attack or assault will usually result in your character being killed, or banished from town if they escape. We will NEVER kill off a character unless it is wanted by the player. See the town laws for different offenses and their punishments. This is also posted in our Discord channel, under #Town_Laws.
  
  
• At some point, your character may be silver tested/holy water tested to check for afflictions. Supernatural lore is strange and often vague, and silver is no exception. While holy water is proven and cited to have a negative effect on MOST strains of vampirism, silver is a different monster altogether. While it is observed in Elder Scrolls lore that silver will act negatively on both vampires and werewolves, the symptoms are very often debated among others as to just what degree they affect the Afflicted. Ultimately, this comes down to a debate of how each person will treat this lore in their own, individual manner, because the vague lore leaves much of this up to interpretation. Ruby-Bound recognizes silver as a potent, pure agent that can and will cause heavy burning when applied to the skin of one who is afflicted with Lycanthropy. This is not cited in lore, and is primarily used due to the fact that Bethesda does not explain further the effects it has on the afflicted other than, “it hurts and stuns them.” This is only our interpretation on the effects of silver on the afflicted.
  
  
  TL;DR - Silver burning the afflicted is not verified by lore because Bethesda was lazy. All they say is that it hurts. Therefore, we treat silver like holy water on vampires. It burns. Bad. Bad, bad, bad.
  
  
  These rules are put in place not to stifle creativity, but to make sure everyone gets a fair chance with their character and to ensure no one character is accumulating unimaginable power. If you can reason it within lore, you can do it. Just play fairly.
  
  Contact any officers, senior officers, or myself if you have any suggestions, concerns, or questions!