Darth Wiki / High Fantasy World

High Fantasy World is a story about a mercenary, a thief, a magician, a girl raised by dwarves and her Protectorate, a paladin, a blood mage and an angel/demon hybrid... and many more, on a quest to stop an evil Duke Malevni from taking over the mystical land of Troperdom... or Troperia... or... something. To do this, they must cross many lands and defeat many enemies, and uncover the truth of what the duke is really after.

It's also the tale of a thief, a knight, a mage and a paladin on their quest to stop the evil Duke of Azmodan from gaining the rune of destruction.

And it's also the tale of how a necromancer and her guardians set out to prevent war from engulfing the lands and plunging their world into a three-way war, killing tens of thousands and paving the way for an even darker threat to all of the diverse races of the land...

Confused yet?

High Fantasy World is a long-running free-form forum game with a diverse cast and a huge (and probably contradictory) background which uses and then subverts just about every trope in the high fantasy genre.

The first adventure takes place wholly within Troperia; the second focuses more on neighbouring lands, particularly Trell, Troperia's smaller, more militant neighbour.

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Characters

Characters

Mostrue

The Diplomatiker

An undead diplomat from Necrosia with the ability to summon a retinue of undead soldiers to her side, the Diplomatiker was sent by the King In The Dust with the party for one reason; stop the war between Necrosia and Trell from going any further. Despite this, she has no trouble slaughtering a path through those who would waylay her peaceful intentions, and has an advantage the rest of the party lacks; she can summon a small army if need be. Calm, collected and carrying an air of authority, the Diplomatiker nonetheless occasionally has problems being sensitive to the cultural niceties of the countries she visits. (Summoning a rather eldritch looking arch to repair the doorway of the devoted Trellians church... which one of her guardians destroyed. And thats among other things.) Either that or she's not fussed what others think... an unusual trait in a diplomat.

She's also something of the partys historical memory, having an enormous knowledge of past events ranging from the Varankian Empire to nearby states.

• Ambadassador: Can fight just as well as the rest of the party, and has kills ranging from human bandits to eldritch monstrosities.

• Immortality: Seems to be this way, as she's lived for centuries and either has historical knowledge or direct memory of the Varankian empire which disappeared over a millennium ago.
• Improbable Weapon User: Utilises what amounts to an enchanted aquila as a weapon.

• Mook Maker: Well, Red Shirt summoner anyway. And the undead she summons are hardly mindless, retaining their original personalities and taking pride in their roles.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The infamous stairwell incident; the Diplomatiker tries to summon stairs after being dropped through the rotting stairwell of a house, getting them all arrested for illegal magic, and disarmed to boot, which creates problems when a sorceror attacks...
• The Stoic: She's a calm character in a cast of already rather level-headed adventurers, but she has her limits.
• The Undead: She does try not to make it overly obvious, though.
• Unstoppable Rage: Oh yes. She goes berserk at the sight of one of Mostrues spells going wrong and summoning some truly twisted creations. She does calm down a bit after the fight... after Mostrue hurls her across the field with a spell that is.

Richard

Once (and technically still) a Knight of the Realm 5th class in Troperia, Richard became captain of the ill-fated 2nd Kings Guard of Trell after an unfortunate incident involving a dragon and a very large explosion. A bit Older and Wiser, though not by much, Richard has a remarkable ability to think big and outside of the box. This is, however, balanced up by a tendency to ignore crucial details such as "The enemy outnumber us two to one" or "What happens if that person disagrees?" Ill-tempered, chivalrous to a fault and impetuous, with a so far well-hidden cruel streak, Richard is the epitome of your typical knight.

• Anti-Hero: Type III. Richard is willing to do anything required to see the vast majority of the people he feels responsible for safe... and isn't above sacrificing a few to save the majority. Once again putting him at odds with Roxanne.

• Bow and Sword in Accord: With the bow as his primary, but Richard has been relying on his sword arm far more often of late.
• The Berserker: Richards temper has shown up once before in battle where he tried to wrestle the Black Bludgeon to rescue the ogre it was fighting, and again briefly before when he was almost overwhelmed by orcs and, funnily enough, the same ogre.
• Commander Contrarian: He's found himself at odds with the rest of his party of late.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Richard, like most young knights, has utter confidence in his abilities as both a commander and a warrior.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He gets angry much quicker than the rest of the party and wasn't above physically lashing out at Fulgrim. His temper leads him into regular shouting matches, though at least he has managed to avoid a shouting match with the party. He often strenuously disagrees with Roxanne, who usually suggests a more cautious approach. This has lead to Richard considering Roxanne over-cautious and Roxanne considering Richard a hot-headed liability.
• Hired Guns: Richard spent some time as a mercenary before the adventure started, including much time with Sly.
• Knight In Shining Armour: Subverted. Richard fits the knight part but he's hardly cleaner than clean.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He's not as rash as many knights but still tends to take on more than he can handle at one time, utterly convinced in his cause (and his sword-arm) as he is. This puts him at odds with the more experienced and frankly more sensible Roxanne.

• Overshadowed by Awesome: Richard is the weakest magic user in the party, and it shows.
• Reluctant Warrior: He's anti-war and wants to see an end to the conflict. That said he's not afraid to behave in an extremely warlike, and often quite ruthless fashion in order to see that objective through.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Towards threats he can see and comprehend at any rate. Apparently being outnumbered two-to-one, potentially surrounded, and having just revealed the army he is part of has been being spied on by a demon-possessed Fulgrim for the best part of possibly several months, doesn't dampen his determination to press on regardless. Though ironically he is one of the more cautious characters when it comes to considerably less tangible threats.

Roxanne

Something of an exception in the medieval world around her, Roxanne is the youngest militia colonel ever to be appointed to the job in Rhegium, on Trells eastern border. Calm, collected and cautious, she is considerably less likely than Richard to lose her temper and has experience in dealing with the chaos which goes with trying to co-ordinate and lead a large body of regular militia. Nonetheless, she is still just supposed to be a militia captain, and in the face of mounting odds and the revelations surrounding Fulgrim, she is starting to become more and more out of her depth.

She distrusts Richard and considers him unreliable and impetuous... if not downright duplicitous. She is on far better terms with the rest of the party however, and silently admires the Diplomatiker.

• Improbable Age: One of the less extreme examples; 30 is pretty much the peak of fitness. It is, however, a rather implausibly young age for a colonel; they're generally in their late 30's.

• A Mother to Her Men: Roxanne cares deeply about her men and values every one of them; she would have grown up with many of them after all, being part of a militia. This gives her men great confidence in her but makes difficult decisions regarding who to risk in battle hard on her.

• No Man Left Behind: Roxanne simply will not abandon a comrade, which brings her to blows with Richard, who is considerably more ruthless.

Fulgrim

Famed In-Story as a diplomat and knight of high renown, Fulgrim appears to be Roxannes long-standing friend, with elements of The Mentor involved. A man stalked by a terrifying demon, he was almost completely taken over, and the thing stalks him still...

• Kill Us Both Now: An unusual case, Fulgrim is trying to cut off a demon from the nether hells and save his own soul to boot. What hasn't occurred to him is this may not work, something Lamret has no problems pointing out.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Fulgrim is ruthless and pragmatic right down to his own life. Perhaps he will prove too pragmatic in this regard?
• The Mentor: To Roxanne it seems.
  • Cynical Mentor: He shows signs of having been this to Roxanne. Even in his apparent darkest hour he takes the opportunity to provide her with what he sees as a final test to see if she is willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard her men... even if it means the death of some of them.
• Smug Snake: He seems to be extremely confident in his capacities. In some ways there are parallels between him and the slightly more hot-headed Richard.
• Villainous Valour: First sign that there's more to him than there seems.

The Black Bludgeon: A gigantic armored warrior sent by the Order of the Holy Hammer to reinforce the party; very little is known about it except that it excels at destroying opponents and never speaks.

• Violence Really Is the Answer: Why talk your way out of a Mexican Standoff when you can grab both participants and bang their heads together?

The King-In-The-Dust: The undead ruler of Necrosia.

• Eldritch Abomination//Humanoid Abomination: He has control over dust, and can mold it into what ever he desires. He also maintains a mental connection to all non-living Necrosians, and can move them about at will.

Sly

One of the main characters up until around the siege of Troperia. A master thief and Richards employer up until the time of the adventure.

Lamret
Mysterious Watcher appeared to be tailing the group through a city, but when confronted asked to join. Apparently, he is a lone survivor from a series of experiments to produce human-demon hybrids, who somehow learned that the group is entangled in a conflict concerning Rune Of Destruction, which he needs to research to be able to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.

• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: his ring is literally excess power shaped into material form for convenience. It's look changes when the energy is gained or expended. At the moment it's a white ring with medium-sized pearl and a swan-like wing covering it.
• Consummate Liar: due to being not entirely human and being covered by spells preventing magical investigation of him, it's impossible to detect whether or not he is telling truth without resorting to a very specific Magic A Is Magic A. And he is constantly using this advantage.
• Glamour Failure: sometimes let's his demonic aura show for intimidation purposes.
• Mugging the Monster: after the encounter with Stairs he was captured by the hero-killers. He managed to escape from them with a power-up, slight personality change and a potential Manchurian Agent.
• Humanoid Abomination: his quasi-demonic nature is well hidden behind very well-crafted magical disguise.
• Our Demons Are Different: Claims to be a human made into a demon-like entity to gain his teleportation powers. At the same time exhibits traces of distinctly non-demonic energy.

• Required Secondary Powers: to operate his summoning power in full potential he has telekinesis and minor elemental powers. To a much bigger degree has the ability to manipulate the eldritch energy that manifests as a white mist and powers his magic.

• Single Specimen Species: both as an only known result of the halfhuman hybridisation and as the only demon with his eldritch-mist affinity.
• Teleporters and Transporters: main power. Used for warping around the battlefield, telefragging, summoning chemicals and many, many other purposes.
• The Corruption: can spread through special seeds. So far has infected a mage from the Hero-Killers Cult and a random psychotic killer.
• Token Neutral Evil Teammate

Organizations

Troperia

Trell

• Religion:In a land where the church is the ultimate authority, even common priests hold the power to excommunicate those of their flock they are commanded to guide. Even the highest commander, or even noble, can be brought to their knees in a heartbeat if they step outside the rigid religious rules of the kingdom which have turned Trell into the parochial, militaristic kingdom it is today. Monarch and Church authority overlap, and while they generally reinforce each other to create a dual authority, and repression, they have clashed. Patriarchs and kings have both fallen to one another in conflicts over church and state authority, generally when one is percieved to have gone too far, but ruthless prosecution of church or monarchial influence have threatened to break the balance towards either secular monarchism or true theocracy at several pivotal moments in Trellian history. With the weak king Lascaris in charge, Trells religious body, under the formidable command of Patriarch Aelfrith III, has become more and more noisy, to the point of being able to challenge army commanders on even the flimsiest of pretexts. Trells commanders live in fear of a purge, with loyalists to the king being wary of their next step. And it is excommunication they fear.

Under excommunication, citizens of Trell become lower than outlaws. They are not merely outside the protection of the law. All citizens and soldiers are obligated to bring an excommunicant to the nearest church authority. They undergo purging, a terrifying punishment where layers are cut off the victim excruciatingly slowly, from skin to innards, until the victim repents, at which point a sword blow is "mercifully" administered, or expires from the wounds, at which point the corpse is cut into fine pieces, ground down, and physically scattered. Visitors to Trell, seeing this gory display, have been known to be violently sick, and described the normally immaculate Trellian churches as having run with blood from wall to wall after such travesties.

It was not always this way. The church was once seen as a source of freedom and organisation away from the kings authority, but these days, in these threatening times, it is merely another form of tyranny for the people of Trell to shoulder.

Necrosia

The Undead: An entire country of them.

• History and Military (to be updated)
  • For over a millennia, the Varankain Empire held sway over the known world, two continents fully under the grip of iron, and a third feeling the fingers of it for centuries. The citizenship of the Empire was much sought after, for, despite some of the more draconian laws, many freedoms of religious and legal nature were set down which most of the established kingdoms and tribes of the world could not claim to possess. However, with certainty it can be said that the laws and customs of Byvakoi did not ensure the Empire's conquest, but rather the millions of Legionnaires in her service.

The army of the Varankains was organised into a partial maniple system, Hastiroi, the younger soldiers in the front, fifty to a row, wielding the halberds with which to break the first enemy wave's shields before hacking away. Typically, each Hastiri was equipped with an arm mounted tower shield, as well as a short sword for if the halberds snapped.

The Iron Empire

• The Empire

Order of the Holy Hammer

• Paladin
  • Information regarding paladins in combat: Paladins of the Holy Hammer

Primary Armament: WarhammerSecondary Armament: Hands, MagicArmour: Plate armor over chainmail, pavois

Attack: Medium (high damage, but slow to attack again if misses. Aim to incapacitate rather than kill. Shield Bash used to stun or knock down).Defense: IMPREGNABLECharge: NoneMorale: HighSpeed: SlowMagic: Hard Light (damage and knockback, heals), minor elemental spells (blow away miasmas, clean water, etc.)

Strengths and Weaknesses

Wall of Shields: Little to no effect from Rain Of Arrows, as with cavalry charges.Enhanced Armor: Magically reinforced armor, providing resistance to all forms of missiles.Thou Shalt Not Kill / Technical Pacifist: will not move to attack enemies even in range, knowing their armor and magic will keep them and their allies alive.

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Tropes

Tropes common to both the first and second adventures.

• Aristocrats Are Evil: Well, dukes, at any rate. This was lampshaded at least once by a player. Something along the lines of dukes being evil in this setting.
• Deconstruction: Quite a few fantasy tropes are turned on their heads. Liches and necromancers are one of the most obvious examples, wanting to live in peace but are forced into warfare.
• Expy: Though the individual players would need to point out which ones...

• Macguffin: The orbs of power from the first adventure, and the rune of destruction from the second.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Lets put it this way. Both parties contain a half-demon (neither of their second halves being human), the first adventure contains a girl raised by dwarves, the second contains a necromancer and a very nice necromancer at that... neither are regular parties, ok?

Tropes pertaining to the first adventure only.

• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: An interesting take in that one of the main characters is a girl raised by dwarves... but who still behaves distinctly dwarf-like.

• God-Mode Sue: A two-way Sueish arms race between the Final Boss and the party with a side of corn to go with it... not to MENTION LOTS OF HAAAAAM!!!
• Our Dragons Are Different: One joins the party, another forms the Pre-Final Boss.
• The Power of Friendship: Invoked and ran with by Chaucer of all people during the final fight.
• The Reveal: Who'd have thought the duke the party was searching for was the bad guy?
• Sequential Boss: Just how many transformations has the final boss got left in him?!
• Standard Fantasy Setting: The first game is far more true to this.

Tropes pertaining to the second adventure only.

• The Atoner: The King and his Army-In-The-Iron swore never to use traditional necromancy ever again after the war where "they had their vengeance". They try to remain The Switzerland, but the other nations don't always let them.
• Back from the Dead: Richard. Its still not entirely sure how this happened.

• The Chains of Commanding: Richard gets hit with this one early when he has to deliver the news to grieving families about the deaths of men under his command, while Roxanne is quickly left out of her depth during the march through the mountains to Trell itself.
• Church Militant: Trells church, which has exiled all mages except the ones it approves and joins its soldiers in the front lines. The protection of the 3rd unit in each battalion is a sacred duty for Trellian soldiers.
• Demonic Invaders: The Black Crusades, periodic campaigns from the nether hells to try to take over large chunks of mortal lands. Each has only been resisted with great cost.
• Didn't Need Those Anyway!: The Black Bludgeon, to his massive armor.
• Eldritch Location: The demonic realms.
• Elite Mooks: The knights of Azmodan, Ogres.
• Expy: The Black Bludgeon, of the Darknuts of The Legend of Zelda.
• Fantastic Racism: Abounds in Trell, especially towards elves and mages.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Exaggerated, though the full ramifications of this have not been played out.
• Freak Magic Accident: The Mongrel is a demonstration of what happens when one tries magics that are beyond them.
• Flaying Alive: Lamret did it by teleporting skin of some unfortunate orcs away.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Necrosians. Most of them (the only ones whom ever leave the boundaries of their country) are The Undead, with all flesh seen only being magically reformed and bound dust motes.
• For Want Of A Nail: The infamous stairwell incident, which is capable, apparently, of deciding the entire course of a gaming session. Either that or a certain player didn't plan things out properly...
• Full-Contact Magic: The Diplomatikers MO when threatened in melee. For instance, the flaying of skin and flesh, most often the face.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Woman!: Mostrue delivers one in the shape of a powerful spell to get the Diplomatiker to snap out of her funk during her mental break during the battle with the abominations unleashed by Mostrues failed healing spell.
• Glamour Failure: The Necrosians can pull these off deliberately for intimidation purposes, revealing skulls, and the Diplomatiker can turn from being calm and clinical to being utterly terrifying to friend and foe alike.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The Diplomatiker, Roxanne and Mostrue all suffer from this after Mostrues disastrous attempt to heal Oghert.
• Hellgate: Azmodan is an entire duchy dedicated to sealing one of these off. For the moment, they'll settle for containment.
• Hidden Elf Village: Literal: The elves will kill any who try to get over the border, let alone near the capital.
• Humanoid Abomination: The King-In-The-Dust.
• In Medias Res: The game opens with Sly and Richard exploring what appears to be a long-lost tomb.
• Killer GM: Well, he tries. But he's not very good at it.
• Lady of War: Roxanne, though she's not as above it all as she initially seems; the strain of command does show.
• Laughing Mad: Happens with the Diplomatiker when she suffers the eldritch mindscrew. Interspersed with Evil Laughter.
• Lightning Bruiser: The de-armoured Black Bludgeon.
• Magibabble: Or Mumbo Jumbo to the Mongrel, who appears to have something worthy of a professorship in extradimensional physics. The precise terminology is of little comfort to his companions.
• Memetic Badass: The staircase! Its been repeatedly compared with the gazebo... with the gazebo coming in a distant second in terms of influence. Lampshaded in the discussion as the gazebo only took down one low-level adventurer- the staircase changed the destiny of an entire party of adventurers!
• Mentor Mostrue to Richard
• Mighty Glacier: Richard. Its lampshaded to hell and back.
• Mind Control: Harrow suffered from this on top of her other woes from Fulgrims influence. Its not clear if Fulgrim is entirely in control of his own actions either.
• Mook Maker: The Diplomatiker can summon a small army should she need to. Subverted in the soldiers she summons have personalities and feelings of their own. They angrily assert their acceptance of and even pride in the role when an angel wishes them final peace.
• More Traitors Than Loyalists: Trell is shaping up this way. Just how many times have the gang been attacked on their way to the capital now?]]
• Necromancer Totally subverted in the rather nice, if stern, Diplomatiker.
• Nerves of Steel: The diplomatiker, though she has her limits. To a lesser extent Roxanne, who doesn't have the Diplomatikers decades, or possibly even centuries, of experience behind her.
• Not So Stoic: The Diplomatiker and Roxanne both show breakdowns in their usually steely demeanors. The Diplomatiker tends to become hysterical and extremely angry, while Roxanne tends to melt down.

• Our Demons Are Different: Demonic realms are heavily participating in the second arc. Both arc also had a demon-hybrid in the party.
• Our Orcs Are Different: And inconsistent too. Though the ones in Troperia seem to be little more than savage nuisances, the ones in Trell are quite civilised, if warlike, and almost seem to be a refreshing change to the suspicious and prejudiced Trellians.
• Precursors: Referenced in the backstory is the Varankain empire. It appears the transition to independent statehoods was a rocky one, more so in Trell than in Troperia. There is also reference made to a failed state of Sfosan nearby. It is not clear if the precursors were abusive or not. The empire's break up, at the very least, appears to have been relatively peaceful in Necrosia, though more troubled in Trell and disastrous in Sfosan. The empire is despised in Troperia however.
• Proud Warrior Race: The orcs of Trell, though they aren't completely clueless when it comes to pragmatic approaches.
• Rule of Cool: The party seems to find increasingly imaginative ways to get through the obstacles they face. Highlights have been pole-vaulting into a sorceror perched on a golem (Richard) summoning a small army when under pressure (Diplomatiker) various abuses of Teleporters and Transporters (Lamret) and solving a highly tense negotiation by knocking out not one, but both parties (Bludgeon.)
• Running Gag: Behold the epic, destiny-shaping power that is the tavern staircase!
• Schedule Slip: Something of a recent problem.
• Screw You, Elves!: Initially this seems like unprovoked racism by the Trellians, but its eventually established that the elves were less than nice themselves.
• Silent Protagonist: The Black Bludgeon isn't known for its verbosity.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Roxanne and Richard. Roxanne is the idealist, Richard the cynic.
• Smug Snake: Fulgrim.
  • Subverted in that Fulgrim is actually quite brave even when his plans do unravel.
• Space Cold War: Between Trell and the Elvish Kingdoms.
  • Also between Trell and Troperia. The two kingdoms do NOT like each other. It came very close to being a hot war when a traitor attacks Troperia castle, with all-out war being prevented only by the intervention of the King-In-The-Dust.
• Squishy Wizard: Averted. Both Mostrue and the Diplomatiker are quite capable of looking after themselves in melee, in fact, the Diplomatiker seems almost at home there.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: most of the party is sure that they can take anything the world can throw at them.
• Unstoppable Rage: The Diplomatiker, after suffering from the mind-bending effects of a botched attempt to revive Oghert, a fatally wounded ogre. She proceeds to unleash flesh-tearing dust storms, as well as yanking down Fulgrim for her to humiliate.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: The modus operandi of the Black Bludgeon.
• War Is Hell: Richard finds out the hard way, and the pressures on Estrohirrims 2nd Militia are telling as the casualties (and internal strains) mount up.
• The Woobie: You can't help feeling sorry for Harrow.
• You Are in Command Now: Jenit Harrow gets hit with this one when her family falls ill and she, as the oldest child, gets drafted into the Trellian militia as the country prepares for war.

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