Sword of Queen's Faith, a Magical Girl Roleplay

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In the year of 1940, in the midst of the second world war, Nazi Germany discovered an incredible new weapon: Magi. Through this girl Nazi Germany struck new fear into the Allies, and thus began the Magi Peak of 1940 as girls & women on both sides acquired a Mana Bracelet. By the war's end, however, the governments of the world realized how dangerous these "Magical Girls" could be. Thus they vowed to never again use these people of mass destruction, declaring to each other whoever breaks this promise would be seen as aspiring dominion over all.

Today the year is 2015, and as of this day the latest Magi Peak has arrived. With twelve Magi active across the world, monsters known as Kachemetc will soon begin to manifest. However, the governments are also keenly aware of Magi activity and Kachemetc abominations, ready to swoop in & abduct those openly using their powers.

Sword of Queen's Faith is basically a somewhat darker Magical Girl roleplay, since it takes place on an Earth that technically lacks a masquerade and possesses governmental forces keenly aware & capable of subduing Magi. Thus the Governments and their Artificial Magi experiments will be the more prominent threat, yet Kachemetc nonetheless are extremely dangerous monsters that seek out the magical energy of active Mana Bracelets. The Magi aren't responsible for creating Kachemetc however, the magical energy they outpour simply accelerating the "natural" creation of these monsters (thus serving to eliminate these dangerous monsters instead of allowing them to form in a defenseless city).

Nonetheless, Magical Girls are seen as a danger by their local government, and outside of fighting Kachemetc their mentor Burattino doesn't much care what they do with their powers. Thus the roleplay will mainly be player-driven, and that anytime I actually post something major is likely going on. In addition, while it isn't required to be grouped together, three of the NPC Magi will be in Indianapolis while the fourth is cross-touring America. Now then, some information.

World Information

Artificial Magi: Artificial Humans created by cloning Magical Girls and the children of Magical Women, they are developed independently by the world's governments in an attempt to produce super soldiers to suppress Magi & perhaps one day surpass them. The advantage an Artificial Magi already possesses is they don't need to transform to use their powers, and therefore can operate covertly. However, their power is usually half that of a real Magi, 30% out of the overarching power scale at best. Thus the majority of AM avoid introducing Pawn Genetics, due to the already weak class being rendered near-useless for them. In addition, while male AM are possible, they're commonly more difficult to control.

Burattino: Created in the 15th century by one of the first Magical Girls of her age, he is a fox-like creature with long wing ears and black fur. Capable of flight, phasing, telepathic speech and projections, Burattino exists to inform new Magi about their powers and the responsibilities surrounding them. However he is not a fighter, only having a transformation into a large kitsune-like creature as a last resort for holding off Kachemetc. Instead, when not busy hanging out with a Magi, he's instead searching for unfinished Kachemetc to warn resident Magi about.

Kachemetc: Monsters that are negativity made real, they slowly form over the years as negativity leaks into the air. Invisible until they are finished, there is no mortal means of detecting a Kachemetc. They are also extremely dangerous creatures, inspiring plenty of lore and being nigh-impossible for a mortal to kill. However, it had been accomplished, with the resultant remains being used to fight the Kachemetc on more even ground. Though, while these remains are indeed from a dangerous magical monster, they're actually safe to use due to there being no mind behind it. Live Kachemetc are generally twice as powerful as a Magical Girl nonetheless, and due to being made of magic the rest of their bodies fade into the aether when destroyed.

Kachemetc Hybrid: Noting that Artificial Magi are weaker in raw strength than a true Magical Girl, some governments decided to remedy that by making Kachemetc/Human Hybrids instead. This is even more difficult to manage than AM, due to the Kachemetc's inhuman and magical nature clashing horribly with scientific attempts to humanize it. Plus the fact a Kachemetc must be kept alive so its flesh can be analyzed, few Hybrids have been produced. The ones that do exist however are equal to a Magical Girl in raw power, though even if physically human they often have psychological issues making them hard to control. Male Hybrids are outright considered a bad idea, being berserk abominations as a result.

Magi Weaponry: Biological constructs molded from Magi and Kachemetc biology, these weaponize their power in a way anyone can use. However, these replicated abilities are often malformed from what they should of been, and thus makes replicating their Mobility power dangerous to use. To resolve this issue, attempts at making Artificial Mana Bracelets exist, though the few male test users ended up mutated or permanently transformed into women if they were lucky. Female test users were much more successful, but again the attempt to replicate Magi & Kachemetc abilities were flawed. Nonetheless these AMBs are good enough to enable one to fight an Artificial Magi, though the only AMBs are thus test models.

Mana Bracelets: The physical remains of a destroyed Kachemetc's magical energy, when deactivated they come off as plain grey bracelets. However, when worn by a woman of any age, it transforms the wearer into a Magical Girl. Burattino states that Mana Bracelets react solely to women, though has no actual means of determining why other than the Kachemetc must somehow count as female. Nonetheless, there are two factors in determining the powers of a Mana Bracelet: Its class (Pawn/Rook/Knight/Bishop/Queen) and title (Fool/Magician/High Priestess/Empress/Chariot/Justice/Fortune/Strength/The Hanged/Death/Temperance/Moon). Each Class has specific abilities tied to it, while the Title will examine specific parts of the user's mind to generate appropriate abilities, thus no two Mana Bracelets would produce the same powers for a Magi.

Mana Bracelet Breakdown

• Pawn-Class: The weakest in terms of raw power, Pawns make up with the special ability to mimic the powers of other Magical Girls and the ability to charge their powers to double effectiveness. Each Pawn Bracelet has a specific means for mimicking, such as the Pawn Magician manipulating her powers to emulate another's or the Pawn Empress producing a hybridized form of her & the other Magical Girl's powers.

• Fool Pawn: (NPC) Representing madness, divinity and infinite possibilities the Fool Pawn produces extremely potent yet difficult to master abilities. Its Pawn Ascension allows the Fool Pawn to outright copy another Magical Girl's powers, though she still has to manually figure out how they work. The Fool Pawn is notable for creating Burattino, and its previous owner was an artist on the side of the Allies.

• Pawn Magician: (NPC) Representing the four classical elements, manipulation and potential the Pawn Magician produces powers with great use that derive from the four elements. Its Pawn Ascension ability is uniquely expressed by emulating the powers of other Magical Girls, but does not actually change the inherent nature of the Pawn Magician's powers. Its current user is Faith Redux Long, the twelfth and latest Magical Girl. Faith possesses pyrokinesis as her Attack power, teleportation as her Mobility power, stretchy body as her Defense power, and the Explosive Lancer is her Magical Weapon which causes explosions where it is dragged & thrown at.

• Pawn Priestess: (Player) Representing hidden knowledge and magic, the Pawn Priestess produces fanciful powers derived from the wielder's subconscious aspects. Its Pawn Ascension causes the Pawn Priestess to duplicate another Magical Girl's powers and put their own twist on it, changing them to reflect her own mind. Its previous owner was a Japanese woman who became a mangaka after World War II.

• Pawn Empress: Representing creativity, abundance and comfort the Pawn Empress derives its powers from the wielder's mothery aspects to abilities that are best used creatively. Its Pawn Ascension creates an hybridization of the wielder's and another Magical Girl's powers, creating "child" powers of the two. Its previous owner was a yamato nadeshiko, with the Pawn Empress becoming a family heirloom once the war ended and the then-wielder was no longer needed.

• The Hanged Pawn: (NPC) Representing self-sacrifice, bindings that liberate and paradoxes The Hanged Pawn produces abilities derived from the wielder's entrapments & conflictions. Its Pawn Ascension involves The Hanged Pawn submitting its powers before the copy, turning the Hanged Pawn's powers into versions enslaved by the mimicked Magical Girl. Its previous owner was the daughter of a Nazi official, who ultimately defected to the Allies once she could no longer ignore and rationalize Nazi Germany's actions.

• Pawn Moon: (Player) Representing dreams, illusions and trickery Pawn Moon generates its abilities by examining the wielder's dreams & delusions. Its Pawn Ascension allows the Pawn Moon to first mimic another Magical Girl's power, before using her own power following the fake-out. Its previous owner escaped from an Italian asylum during a Magi battle that resulted in large scale destruction, and was taken in by the war when she came across the Mana Bracelet. Even after the war ended, she was kept around for assassination missions.

• Rook-Class: On the same general level of power as Knights and Bishops, Rooks excel when it comes to their Defense power, in addition to possessing superhuman strength & durability. Of special note, their Magical Weapons have a four-way attack range, being able to attack behind itself and to the left & right without being aimed so.

• Rook Chariot: (Player) Representing victory, conquest and command the Rook Chariot derives its abilities from the wielder's senses of superiority. Its Absolute Defense allows its user to split into two bodies with one shared mind, with the bodies using half a component for their other powers. Its previous owner was the daughter of an English infantryman, who wanted to show her father her ability to act male. She ultimately abandoned it fifteen years ago in America after realizing she had grown drunk with its power.

• Justice Rook: (NPC) Representing objectivity and rationality, the Justice Rook gives powers its wielder thinks best for the pursuit of justice. Its Absolute Defense enables its user to produce a random secondary effect for their Defense power, producing a different effect each time. Its current owner is Alison Anderson, the tenth modern Magical Girl and one of the most already active. Her Attack power allows her to manipulate metal, her Mobility power grants her superhuman speed, her Defense powers allows her to phase through matter, and her Magical Weapon is the Ghost Round an angelic-looking shotgun/scythe hybrid that fires spectral bullets that cause immense pain to organic life.

• Knight-Class: On the same general level of power as Rooks and Bishops, Knights excel when it comes to their Mobility and Magic Weapon, in addition to a overall better general mobility. The Defense powers of Knights also tend to lead into their Mobility powers, such as generating a quick shield to allow them enough time to evade attacks or using their Mobility power in someway to trigger their Defense power.

• Fortune Knight: Representing the inevitability of fate and the cycle of life, the Fortune Knight works with the things its wielder thinks are inevitable to create her powers. Its Supreme Knighthood allows the Fortune Knight to "speed up fate", transforming her powers into the form opposite it in the cycle of inevitability and can be used again to turn them back. Its previous owner was a Chinese Buddhist, who simply took part in the war to help lead it to its natural conclusion.

• Strength Knight: (NPC) Representing self-control, gentleness and inner courage the Strength Knight gives its wielder powers that will help her be the best version of herself. Its Supreme Knighthood allows the Strength Knight to manifest her ideal competent self to more effectively fight in her stead, taking control of her body until she dismisses it. The current owner of it is Iris "Ivy" Geneva, the third modern Magical Girl who has become an idol singer when she acquired it a month ago. Her Attack power allows her to manipulate sound, her Mobility power allows her to generate wings of light to fly with, her Defense power allows her to shield herself with her wings, and her Magical Weapon is the Angel Staff which is a silver microphone tipped staff with side wings that allow her to affect people through song.

• Bishop-Class: On the same general level of power as Rooks and Knights, Bishops excel when it comes to their Attack power, which is second only to the Queen-Class. Thus they lack notable side abilities beyond their Slide Spell power, being equal to Pawns in physical abilities.

• Death Bishop: (Player) Representing metamorphosis, deep change and cycles the Death Bishop grants its wielder powers allowing her to change the natural state of things. The Death Bishop's Slide Spell takes this to the Magical Girl's own powers, allowing her to temporarily change them into a different yet correlated ability. Its previous owner was a Frenchwoman who tried to sacrifice herself for the Allies, but upon surviving and being rejected turned to the Axis instead.

• Temperance Bishop: (Player) Representing synthesis, harmony and the merging of opposites the Temperance Bishop gains powers allowing her to rebalance the world around her. The Temperance Bishop's Slide Spell allows her to merge two or more of her abilities together temporarily, combining them into a new hybridized power. Its previous owner came from the Soviet Union, a communist who wanted to use her powers to rebalance the world, but was prevented from doing so post-World War II by her own nation which ultimately turned on her when she refused to comply.

Burattino's Introductory Information

When Burattino approaches the new owner of a Mana Bracelet, he will always inform them of the Kachemetc, the number of active Magi, and what the name he gave their Mana Bracelet actually means. However he tends to come off as rather lazy, and tends to forget halfway through an introduction to not talk outright or only remember before leaving he forgot a basic. Other information he has to be deliberately asked about or somehow get him talking about it (such as one question or statement triggering him to mention something related as well), but none of this information is too particularly important... Except for him near-always leaving out his knowledge of the governments, as he doesn't want to scare away would-be Magical Girls who he needs to kill the Kachemetc for him. If he feels it won't turn away a Magical Girl, he will mention the governments knowledge & experiments so they can prepare.

Application Format

• Name: (Can include a Magical Girl name as well)

• Appearance: (Include age here)

• Primary Emotion: (For note if a Kachemetc tries to feed off your emotions which one it'll attack first)

• Bracelet: (Only ones that don't specify a current owner)
  • Transformation: (Her transformation sequence and Magical Girl outfit)

• Powers: (In terms of raw power, imagine Pawns as fifty-percent weaker than Rooks/Knights/Bishops, each of which you should imagine as twenty-five percent stronger in their noted field than the others)

• Inventory: (Explain in her bio anything unusual for the average person)

• Backstory: (For note, none of the modern Magical Girls would have been active for longer than a month and a half, with the latest Magi being an NPC)

Finally, if anyone has any questions, I'll gladly answer them. By the way, Burattino will hang around a Magical Girl's general area until another has been activated. Once all twelve magical girls have been activated, he'll freely move between them. In addition, Mana Bracelets come and go over the year, with the most existing at once being twenty-two (ten of which were acquired during World War II, with some of those and the preexisting ones being lost [Such as the Devil Bishop, belonging to Nazi Germany's first Magical Girl]).

edited 30th Apr '15 7:21:29 PM by Kkutwar

• Name: Ace Callahan
• Appearance: Long, red hair tied back in a loose ponytail. Ace stands at about 5' 4", and is surprisingly fit—perhaps due to the influence of her Mage Weapon. Her usual attire is a set of blue jeans, a sky-blue blouse, and a bomber jacket. She carries a messenger bag in place of a purse.
• Primary Emotion: Fear
• Bracelet: YF-24 "Zeus" Artificial Mage Weapon. It appears as a synthetic leather fingerless glove on Ace's right hand with Tron Lines along the back.
• Transformation: "Lance on High, Zeus!◊" Ace gains a black undersuit and white jacket and shorts, and her M1911 manifests as a pistol.
• Powers: Ace has electrical powers, including generating and directing lightning bolts, influencing extant electricity, and the ability to teleport short ranges via lightning. However, due to the fact that her glove is a prototype, overuse of her powers will cause her glove to overheat and burn her hand.
• Inventory: The only unusual thing about Callahan is how little she carries. No smartphone, no ID, no keyring or any of the usual accoutrements that one would expect . The one thing she does regularly carry is rather remarkable, however: a M1911 handgun that she keeps concealed under her jacket when in civilian attire.
• Backstory: Ace Callahan is...not your usual magical girl. For one, magical girls usually start out female. Ace wasn't so lucky. Once an employee of a major government contractor, Ace was co-opted as the subject of a government experiment to create artificial Bracelets, and during the binding process his body was irrevocably changed into a female. Shortly after being granted Zeus' power, she escaped the laboratory and is now on the run. Of course, she is now in possession of a piece of very powerful government property, and they want it back...

edited 11th Apr '15 10:04:53 AM by Wysp

Hmm... I'll approve of an AMB user, but only one. Besides that, I can work out a sheet & system if people show interest in playing Artificial Magi and/or Kachemetc Hybrids. Still, I would prefer to focus on the normal Magical Girls so I would want to avoid too many fakes.

Besides that, for sake of unity and roleplay ease, Burattino will go around requesting of the active Magical Girls to all meet in one area. Depending on whichever continent has the most, that'll be where he'll ask them to go. I mainly bring this up because in a past roleplay of mine, even though the players intentionally started apart they still wanted to gather altogether. So I just wanted to make sure if people wanted to start apart or interact together.

Anyways, back to your character, I would like some more specifics regarding hir's powers' limitations and actual mechanics. Faith the Pawn Magician for example lacks gravity defiance for her teleporting but can teleport onto the other side of solids if within her teleporting range of five feet.

Re: teleporting, she effectively becomes an electric current and travels to her desired target via the path of least resistance. Of course this means that a creative enemy could redirect her by using a lightning rod...

For curiosity's sake, what Class would her powers most likely fall under? Mostly I just want to know so Burattino knows what to say. Besides that, I totally forgot I meant to mention four Bracelets as NPC but forgot one. So I'll save working her concept out until there's enough applications here to warrant a Discussion thread. Though some Magical Girl ideas I did have in mind if anyone's interested in using them:

• Mafia Goon
• Fake Second Coming of Jesus Christ
• Clockwork Grim Reaper Theme
• Possessing a Religion different from standard American and Asian beliefs

Oh, and if enough people are interested I'll post sheets for the three NPC Magical Girls.

Her powers would be Bishop-class.

Can you explain Hanged Pawn? Does the mimicked magical girl use the powers or does the pawn?

Can I choose a weapon?

@Daydre: Here's an example. Let's say the Hanged Pawn has Teleporting as her Mobility and she uses her Pawn Ascension on someone with Super Speed. Thus the Hanged Pawn would perform a burst of speed before actually teleporting. The same things would apply to her Attack & Defense, though I'm not entirely sure if Pawns should be able to mimic Weapons.

@RPGLegend: If you mean as a normal Magical Girl, you would get to design your Magical Weapon. It has to fit in with the rest of your Bracelet's system however.

I am not entire clear on the bracelets. DO we have to pick one of those you posted or do we have to make one of our own with a theme?

One of the ones I posted, figured I needed to provide information for the Title aspect and decided just fully forming what Class they fell under was the better plan. By the way, of the ten Kachemetc that'll pop up over the roleplay there'll be two for each Class. The Queen Bracelets would also count as Judgment and The World, so... Extremely dangerous Kachemetc they'll be.

The provided nine Mana Bracelets should allow plenty of diverse choices however, and it always is possible for a Magi to use multiple Mana Bracelets.

• Name: Rhea Mavis
• Appearance: FINALLY A 5'6 1/2" 18 year old girl with shoulder length blonde hair. She usually keeps said hair in a high ponytail. Her eyes are green. She's pretty athletic, and her choice of clothing reflects that as she usually wears clothing that's easy to move in.
• Primary Emotion: Anxiety
• Bracelet: Temperance Bishop
• Transformation: I'll add a picture later! I feel like I've said that a lot recently! For now, in magical girl form she wears a light green dress under moderate sized armor. Her hair also becomes longer and her bracelet becomes a silver bangle with a green gem embedded in it.
• Powers: Attack- She can summon many swords of varying shape and size and control them remotely. She has a limit though, and having more swords out tires her quicker.
  • Defense: She can summon plant shields, and control plants passively in general.
  • Mobility: Quick Step- She can move very quickly in one direction, but using this in the air leaves her open to attacks.
  • Magic weapon: A large silvery sword almost as tall as her. It boasts very high attack ability, but it's also very unweildy.
• Inventory: Business cards for her mom's flower shop.
• Backstory: Even since she was very young, people looked to Rhea for help. People relied on her, and after years of this, became very good at directing and leading people. However, this began to take a toll on her; when she failed, others would react extremely negatively and offer no help on how she could do it better. She eventually came to resent/avoid those who relied on her, wanting to experience the anxiety of having someone to please as little as possible. She found the bracelet at a yard sale. The guy running the sale was the grandson of the previous owner and had no idea what it actually was.
• Also her mom owns a flower shop that she works at. This shop is located in a small town in southern California.
• Personality: Bam. There's a personality section now. Rhea is the type of person you'd think is unfazable, stoic, etc. To some extent, she is; but much less than the casual observer would tend to expect. It's really certain things she isn't fazed by- for example, upon learning she was magic now, her reaction was 'Oh, okay.' Dealing with disappointment is where she falls short. She also has a dry sense of humor and will take potshots at people when they least expect it. She's a confident orator too, though she barely ever uses this skill- prefering to be blunt and to the point.

edited 19th Apr '15 7:11:20 PM by Daydre

Well, I need to know how she acquired the Temperance Bishop and her current location. Some more general information regarding her backstory would also be nice.

Okay, added. What do you mean general information, though?

Well, general information really. It doesn't have to be impressive stuff, like describing a nice picnic. Stuff to help me understand her as a person.

Added a personality section for mine 'cause I'm better at writing in categories for now.

So, how does the Fortune Knight work?

I will admit, I have no idea how I forgot to include a personality section from the get-go. Besides that, I take it the Swords/Plants and Speed/Strength thing is how her Bracelet manifested synthesis? I would like some specifics in her personality regarding why the Bracelet decided to manifest those as her powers.

Regarding the Fortune Knight, here's an example. Her Attack Power could be Hydromancy (due to it inevitably changing into ice or steam), her Mobility being Super Speed (due to the inevitability things will move), her Defense could be a Heat Push (due to the inevitability that heat would travel to colder things), while her Weapon's special could have an decaying effect. Once she activates the Supreme Knighthood however that all basically reverses, and she simply has to consider things inevitable instead of actually being scientifically right.

"She simply has to consider things inevitable instead of actually being scientifically right"

You mean, she believes it will happen, therefore it does? Clap Your Hands If You Believe style?

edited 5th Apr '15 11:16:28 AM by Dragon573

Something like that. For example, if the would-be Fortune Knight thinks that death would inevitably create new life she'll get a pseudo-Necromancy/Creation power. On the other hand, it has to be something she seriously believes in, so simply having tossed around the idea wouldn't result in the Bracelet making it a power. The powers of a Mana Bracelet will remain static however, so if her belief changes she'll still have the ideologically flawed powers.

So whatever effect her supreme knighthood has the first time, it'll be that effect every time?

Yep. The powers will always be different if someone else uses the Fortune Knight however, and if they're used by enough different people a Mana Bracelet will roll up a new set of abilities should a previous owner get it back. However, there are some possibilities that'll mess with a Mana Bracelet. For example, if someone's identical twin takes her Mana Bracelet it'll mistake her for her sister and roll up the sister's Magical Girl loadout instead. She'll have to acquire her own set through an unspecified process if she doesn't want to use her sister's instead.

How many players do we need to start? Four-ish?

Yeah, four-ish should be good enough to start with.

Do you have a plan for getting the characters together, or might I make a suggestion?