Magic: the Sundering

[bury the year]

The planes of the Multiverse are infinite in number, and yet they rarely if ever intersect. Each one spins in its own time, harboring its own plans and schemes. The only exceptions to this rule are the Planeswalkers, beings who can cross the boundaries between worlds. Once, they were considered akin to gods, able to live forever, be omnipotent and even create their own planes.

However, this all changed when a temporal ncatastrophe caused spacetime rifts to appear across the Multiverse. The rifts being sealed by a Planeswalker’s sacrifice began the Great Mending, a process that reduced the influence a spark – a source of power – had on an individual. No longer are these beings gods. They are merely men with a unique talent amongst others.

Thus, each being uses these sparks in their own ways. Some use their plane-hopping ability as a vehicle in a quest for knowledge, while others seek to conquer and establish their hold over those beneath them. Camaraderie is not a thing known by planeswalkers, for they want to control, not ally.

Until now.

Planeswalkers have begun to detect odd “ripples” of mana, consisting of structures and sensations they’ve never experienced before. These ripples seem to come with something else, too: memories. Memories the planeswalkers in question are sure they’ve never experienced or even knew, but still are in their brains.

Meanwhile, various schemes have been set in motion. On the now-fused planes of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, a young faerie has taken her clique and kin to conduct a “trading ring” of sorts, exchanging potent moonglove poison for secretive goods from a mysterious wandering figure. Ravnica’s Izzet League has discovered a rift of sorts in the catacombs in Golgari territory, one that no being can penetrate but from beyond which can be heard phantasmal sounds and music.

Some being is attempting to use the various planes of the Multiverse to fulfill their own ends, and their machinations have drawn in many others like them. What does this mean for you? Well, you’ll just have to craft your own legend to find out…

[spoiler="Rules"][font="georgia"][i][b]i.[/b][/i][/font] Advanced Clause rules apply. No godmodding, powerplaying. metagaming, etc; at least 100 words in your response; and no copying or expying characters from other RPs or franchises.
[font="georgia"][i][b]ii.[/b][/i][/font] If you don’t know what M:tG’s story is, I’ve compiled some reading material below. You’re not required to have previous experience with either the physical game or the universe within.
[font="georgia"][i][b]iii.[/b][/i][/font] The word of the GM (aka Rinne) is final. Do not argue his decisions or try to exploit loopholes. Doing this is grounds for immediate denial.
[font="georgia"][i][b]iv.[/b][/i][/font] When reserving a slot or otherwise expressing interest, please state what kind of character you plan on making (i.e. what colors of mana, what species and what class). Try to strike a balance between characters and have a somewhat-equal distribution in total.
[font="georgia"][i][b]v.[/b][/i][/font] There will be a "three strikes" system for application acceptance. If after two revision rounds your application isn't up to snuff, you'll be rejected.
[font="georgia"][i][b]vi.[/b][/i][/font] A turn order system will be established for posting. You’ll have 72 hours to post on your turn – miss one or two turns and you’re skipped, but miss three turns and your character will be killed off.
[font="georgia"][i][b]vii.[/b][/i][/font] When posting, please try to keep your posts to a maximum of 500 words per character. (If you control two characters in one post, your maximum is 1000, and so on.) On that note, there is a maximum of two characters per player.
[font="georgia"][i][b]viii.[/b][/i][/font] PVP (player-vs-player) combat is allowed but not encouraged. The characters here are working towards a common goal, at least in the beginning, so fighting too much won’t make any sense.
[font="georgia"][i][b]ix.[/b][/i][/font] Applications will be accepted until the GM(s) feel there are enough, at which point further submissions will be closed until they are required again.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Application"][code][b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Species:[/b] {Reference that link.}
[b]Home Plane:[/b] {Reference the list.}
[b]Class:[/b] {Reference that link.}
[b]Color(s):[/b] {Or colors. One to three in number.}
[b]Appearance:[/b] {No images or blatant copying thereof. Make an original appearance. 1-2 solid paragraphs.}
[b]Personality:[/b] {At least 2 paragraphs. This should be fleshed out and interesting, including their various reactions to life across the multiverse and how it contrasts with their ideals.}
[b]History:[/b] {This is essential. Describe their life before the spark, how the spark awakened in them, and what they did and where they went with it afterwards. At least 2 paragraphs.}
[b]Magic:[/b] {A description of how they use their mana and the effects it produces. You can link to specific M:tG cards to use if you want or give a generic “catch-all” description.}
[b]Weapons:[/b] {The same as the “Magic” section. You can either make generic weapons or link to specifics.}[/code][/spoiler]
[spoiler="Character List"][b]Rinne:[/b] Reserved (Ravnica, red/blue.)
[b]TheFinalFan:[/b] [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/294553-magic-the-sundering/#entry6098287"]Chienah[/url]
[b]Aesirson:[/b] [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/294553-magic-the-sundering/#entry6098189"]Garod[/url]
[b]salseethrough:[/b] [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/294553-magic-the-sundering/page__st__40#entry6101109"]Raore Disvell[/url]
[b]Lujan Solo:[/b] Reserved (Zendikar, blue/green, elf.)
[b].Rai:[/b] Reserved (Innistrad, blue, human.)[/spoiler]

[font="georgia"][i][b][u][size=5]Encyclopædia Multiversa[/size][/u][/b][/i][/font]
[i]The following is considered reading material for those who are completely or relatively new to M:tG. You do not have to read everything about each of the planes (just one or two of those that interest you), but you should know the colors of mana and what makes a planeswalker. If you already know your stuff, just skip this.[/i]
[spoiler="Planes, Planeswalkers, and Other Things"][b][u]Planes[/u][/b]
Planes are self-contained worlds of any size located within the multiverse. While they can obey any fundamental laws possible (and plenty that aren’t possible), the vast majority has conditions that are similar to Earth’s, and thus can sustain carbon-based life. A plane usually just sprouts into existence, often with one central planet that gives the plane its name.

However, in addition to these natural planes, there are also artificial planes. These are created by the planeswalkers of old from sheer will, and are shaped by their whims alone. Unlike natural planes, though, they cannot be sustained indefinitely; and without a supply of their creator’s mana they will eventually collapse.

[b][u]Planeswalkers[/u][/b]
The spark of a planeswalker – the source of their power – can lie dormant in any sentient species on any plane. However, only a few beings will ever develop the spark: the vast majority will remain forever unaware of any planes beyond their own. For those rare few that possess a spark, the only way to awaken it is to confront a life-or-death scenario, at which point the spark awakens and they “ascend.” Those who don’t ever awaken their spark will continue about their lives with no outward signs whatsoever.

A planeswalker has the ability to walk between the Blind Æternities, the veil separating the various planes in the multiverse, to different times and locations. Although they originally possessed much greater powers, an event known as the Great Mending of Dominaria had the side effect of drastically weakening the spark. No longer are the planeswalkers omnipotent or immortal: they will still die of old age; will still be wounded; and will still require sustenance. However, the ability to amass magic across multiple universes still makes them an incredibly dangerous threat to their enemies.

[b][u]Species and Classes[/u][/b]
A species list is [url="http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Species"]here[/url] (you should ideally pick something from the humanoid races sections), while a class list is [url="http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Class"]here[/url]. For the latter, feel free to combine terms or make one up if you can’t find one that’s satisfactory.

[b][u]Summons vs. Spells[/u][/b]
Spells are self-explanatory, being mana filtered through a specific ritual to produce an effect. Each spell is aligned along one or more of the five colors of mana, and range in power from low-key and effortless to intensive and devastating. Generally speaking, the more mana a spell requires will produce a greater effect.

Summoning, however, makes a replication of a creature the caster has encountered out of pure mana. The replication isn’t an actual being – they have no will of their own and can only take orders from their creator, and will return to whence they came when no longer needed.[/spoiler][spoiler="Colors of Mana"][b]White:[/b] White is the color of order, protection and light. It embodies “good,” focusing on justice and healing to serve the greatest number possible. However, white is also authoritarian and stagnant, as it can become obsessed with its own order. To a white mage, protection takes priority over wanton destruction. White is allied with blue and green, and opposed against black and red. Its source is plains.
[b]Blue:[/b] Blue is the color of knowledge, manipulation and illusion. Not directly offensive, it instead relies on trickery and misdirection to get what it wants. Searching control as an end, practitioners aim to have knowledge of all things to thus possess power. Blue magic does not act, however: it reacts. Blue is allied with white and black, and opposed against red and green. Its source is islands.
[b]Black:[/b] Black is the color of darkness, ambition and death. It is a self-serving color, always taking instead of contributing. Traditionally associated with more evil powers, black magic often has a high price for its wielders, but those that can channel it often get high returns. Black is allied with blue and red, and opposed against white and green. Its source is swamps.
[b]Red:[/b] Red is the color of freedom, emotion and impulse. It thrives on the natural destruction that is present everywhere; red abhors rules and believes unfettered power is the best way for the world to run. There is no subtlety with red magic – it’s often fire at will. Red is allied with black and green, and opposed against white and blue. Its source is mountains.
[b]Green:[/b] Green is the color of growth, instinct and nature. It embodies the natural order, aiming to live harmoniously with the earth and other creatures. However, green is not a pushover, as it also values natural selection and predation. To green mages, bigger is better, and so act their spells. Green is allied with white and red, and opposed against blue and black. Its source is forests.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Planes of the Multiverse"]Descriptions and source material taken from the [url="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Multiverse/Planes.aspx"]official site[/url] and the [url="http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Main_Page"]MTG Salvation wiki[/url]. Please note that you are not limited to the planes here: you may use any of the ones that have not been listed, or even those that only appeared briefly in [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_(Magic:_The_Gathering)#Planechase"]Planechase[/url], for example. If you have the time, you could even make one up of your own.
[spoiler="Alara"]Alara was whole once. But that was millennia ago. Where once there was a plane, now there are five: the Shards.
The plane of Alara was a world rich with mana, a world in balance... until the Sundering. In a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions, Alara was rent asunder into five separate worlds, each a refraction of the others.
The cause of this cataclysm has been lost to time. Some ancient lore of the Shards suggest a being of godlike power forcibly split Alara to seize its mana for himself. Some believe it was caused by the titanic battle for the fate of Alara, waged by the archangel Asha and the demon Malfegor. But for most, only the dimmest cultural memories remain of a richer world that existed before their own.
Whatever the cause of the splitting, one thing is clear: the Shards have become very different places in the time since the Sundering. Each plane was all but severed from two of the five colors of mana. The Shard of Bant, for example, lost almost all its black and red mana, maintaining only white, blue, and green.
This mana imbalance caused the Shards to evolve in wildly distinct directions over the course of thousands of years. Now only hints of a common ancestor plane remain on the five worlds, and their environments and denizens could hardly differ more.
[b]Bant (green-white-blue):[/b] Without the destructive or selfish impulses of red and black mana, Bant has become a golden utopia. Angels rule the realm with benevolence and grace. Humans and the birdfolk called aven resolve their conflicts with ritualized combat. Duty and honor are the bedrock of this kingdom of light.
[b]Esper (white-blue-black):[/b] In this world of wind and wave, control is the guiding force. Cut off from the chaos of red and green mana, Esper has become a magocracy. Enigmatic sphinxes counsel powerful wizards and seers. Everything here is observed and controlled. The forces of high magic rule supreme.
[b]Grixis (blue-black-red):[/b] What becomes of a world without new life? The dark wasteland of Grixis answers the question. Its denizens desperately cling to its remaining lifeforce. Without the communal forces of white and green to bring life and compassion, it's every ghoul, demon, and necromancer for themselves.
[b]Jund (black-red-green):[/b] In the absence of white or blue mana, Jund has devolved into a roiling, primordial cesspit. Dragons top the food chain, at home in Jund's countless volcanoes. While dragons stalk the skies, humans, goblins, and the lizardfolk called viashino lie low in Jund's tar-spotted, vine-choked canyons.
[b]Naya (red-green-white):[/b] Life, passion, community, and the wild—these are what flourish without the influence of black or blue mana. In this lush land, life is celebrated. Instinct triumphs over machination. Here titanic predators are shown respect, while humans, elves, and catfolk called leonin seek to revere and respect nature.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Dominaria"]Planeswalkers of old had a name for the Multiverse itself: Dominia. The plane at the center of the Multiverse, the so-called "Song of Dominia," is the sprawling plane of Dominaria. Dominaria is so vast and its history so rich that even its own veteran storytellers hardly know where to begin.
Dominaria houses scores of famous locations, from the volcanic continent of Shiv, to the time-shattered isle of Tolaria, to the dark, wretched island of Urborg. The continent of Aerona contains a rich variety of terrains, from the cold mountains of Keld to the wide plains of the enduring kingdom of Benalia. To the south, the huge continent of Jamuraa features jungles, deserts, and everything in between. Dominaria is also dotted with many hundreds of smaller islands, including the Spice Isles, the Burning Isles, and countless others.
This plane is the birthplace of the brothers Urza and Mishra, master artificers who discovered ancient stones of power in the Caves of Koilos. Each desired the other's stone, and in their lust for power the brothers waged a savage war against each other that devastated Dominaria and plunged the plane into an ice age.
The end of the Brothers' War led to Urza's discovery of the dark plane of Phyrexia, a hell of flesh, metal, and grease where the lines between the living and the artificial were blurred to nothingness. Phyrexia had corrupted Urza's brother Mishra as part of its plan to conquer Dominaria, and Urza began a millennia-long plan to thwart Phyrexia and its lord and master, Yawgmoth.
Dominaria is also the origin of the skyship Weatherlight and its crew. The famous flying vessel contained ancient magical technology from the long-dead Thran Empire – technology that enabled the ship and its crew to planeswalk. The Weatherlight, its crew of heroes, and a collection of artifacts called the Legacy were all instrumental in thwarting the invasion of Dominaria by the hellish plane of Phyrexia.
One continent of Dominaria, Otaria, was relatively intact after the ravages of the Phyrexian Invasion. It was here that the barbarian-mage Kamahl sought glory in the pit fights of the notorious Cabal. Instead he found a much greater conflict – one fueled by an orb that could amplify magic and the desires of its wielder: the Mirari.
Because of its place at the core of the Multiverse, Dominaria was also the epicenter of the temporal-planar fractures that threatened the Multiverse itself. A host of cataclysms, many caused by planeswalkers themselves, had left Dominaria desolated and had destabilized the fabric of the Multiverse itself. The damage to time and space spread outward from Dominaria to affect other planes, and only the intervention of a handful of powerful planeswalkers mended the rifts in Dominaria and restabilized the Multiverse itself.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Innistrad"] Horrifying creatures have always existed on Innistrad. The humans of this world have always relied on their faith to shield them from vampires and werewolves, spirits and ghouls. But of late, the holy wards and runes have begun to fail. The protection of travelers' shrines and rustic prayers grows weak. The spells of vampire slayers and wolf hunters are no longer proof against the creatures that prowl the shadows. The Lunarch, head of the revered Church of Avacyn, knows what the village priests whisper: that the archangel Avacyn has abandoned Innistrad.
Few know why prayers to Avacyn have gone unanswered, but the consequence is clear to all – the old ways no longer carry the power they once had. In her unexplained absence, the power of Avacyn's influence fades, and the power of Innistrad's fiendish ilk grows. The aristocratic vampire families hunt peasant blood for sport and sustenance. Packs of snarling werewolves ravage caravans and villages. Geists float from their tombs and haunt cobblestone alleyways and ancient manors. The unhallowed dead feed their relentless hunger, roused by forbidden magic or stitched together by the inventions of brainsick alchemists. No longer held back by Avacynian magic, the supernatural horrors of the world are now free to prey on humanity.
Because of the renewed danger, traditions have begun to change across the four provinces of the known world. Stensian shopkeepers close their doors at nightfall. Travelers avoid the grave-riddled lowlands of Nephalia and the mist-laden woods of Kessig. Parish priests, wolf hunters, and the holy warriors known as cathars carry silver with them at all times. Even in the province of Gavony, seat of the Church, the shadows crawl with cults and conspirators.
Still, there are those who strike back against the forces of night. Armed with knowledge of their foes' vulnerabilities and the residual strength of their faith, fiend hunters venture into the haunted places of the world. Priests and specialized slayers train to face unholy fiends and protect parishes across the countryside. Humanity has lost its guardian angel, but there may yet be hope for those facing the horrors of Innistrad.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Lorwyn/Shadowmoor"][b][u]Lorwyn[/u][/b]
Lorwyn is an idyllic, storybook world where races of fable thrive in perpetual midsummer. The plane is covered with dense forests, meandering rivers, and gently rolling meadows. The sun never quite dips below the horizon, and winter is entirely unknown.
That's not to say Lorwyn is without conflict. Its races have their struggles and skirmishes, some isolated, some long-standing. Lorwyn is one of the few planes without humans, but many other races fill in the gap. In the outlying town of Burrenton, for example, the short-statured kithkin face the encroachment of a nearby flamekin settlement. The flamekin are the race perhaps least at home in sunny Lorwyn. Their natural fires are a threat to others who are suspicious of their impulsive natures and hot tempers.
Far away in the Porringer Valley, gangs of boggarts sneak in amid groves of treefolk to make trouble and steal "souvenirs" of their trespasses. The boggarts are greedy for sensation, always seeking out new tastes, smells, and experiences. Each boggart warren visits others for their "footbottom feasts," a chance to share the experiences accumulated by other warrens.
As these squabbles continue, the merrows, the merfolk of Lorwyn's rivers, act as diplomats, couriers, and merchants for the other races. They use underground channels and wells as conduits for communication, and because the merrows are intelligent and kind, they usually end up getting the better end of the deal.
If the merrows are Lorwyn's merchants, the giants are its arbiters and advisors. The iconoclastic, territorial giants wander Lorwyn according to their own whims, only occasionally stopping to address the concerns or complaints of the little folk. The rest of the time they sleep or bicker among themselves.
Of all Lorwyn's denizens, though, the elves are both most favored and most feared. In a world of unspoiled nature and lush forest, the elves believe themselves to be the paragons of natural beauty. Signs of elvish supremacy are widespread in this world, from their gilded forest palaces to their mercilessness toward the other, "lesser" races. Despite the elves' domination, Lorwyn's people thrive through community and tradition, and perhaps with some help from an unseen power.
Faeries are ubiquitous in Lorwyn, like bees gathering pollen. Although the capricious and mischievous creatures seem to behave unpredictably, all are guided by the will of Oona, the queen of the fae. Oona's magic is said to keep Lorwyn in its midsummer state, but few have ever seen her. Her throne, Glen Elendra, is a half-mythical place that few but the fae have ever seen.
Lorwyn is ancient and verdant, and its natural processes are locked in familiar cycles. For instance, every year for countless decades, the kithkin town of Kinsbaile has hosted the Festival of Tales, a gathering to tell stories and make merry before the Aurora, an annually occurring display of lights in the sunset sky. But some auroras are greater than others. On a long cycle that only the faerie queen Oona comprehends, an aurora can bring about a total transformation of the plane of Lorwyn. Afterward, what remains is the plane of Shadowmoor, a realm of eternal dusk.

[u][b]Shadowmoor[/b][/u]
Shadowmoor is a plane of perpetual dusk where the sun never rises, and where strange light seems to come from unseen sources. This plane is Lorwyn's opposite. Lorwyn is an idyllic midsummer, but Shadowmoor is trapped in a state of crepuscular gloom. Lorwyn's races skirmish over territory and property, but Shadowmoor's races are locked in a perpetual, life-and-death struggle for survival.
Like Lorwyn, Shadowmoor is devoid of humans. Lorwyn's many other races, however, persist in Shadowmoor… but like the plane itself, they too are transformed into darker versions of themselves.
The kithkin, once communal and cooperative, are isolated and xenophobic in Shadowmoor. They live within walled towns, shunning outsiders and attacking those who get too close. The once silver-tongued merrows are assassins and saboteurs in Shadowmoor. They use the waterways to move quickly from victim to victim, always ready to drown and loot land-dwellers. Likewise the boggarts, once mischievous and hedonistic, are in Shadowmoor vicious and warlike. Their interests have turned from curiosity to pillage, and from stealing pies to stealing babies.
The larger denizens of the world, the giants and treefolk, find themselves changed as well. The treefolk of Shadowmoor are blackened, blighted, murderous creatures. And when awakened from the long hibernations, the giants are terrible, wrathful beings that carry huge pieces of the land itself on their bodies.
The transformation of the flamekin is perhaps the most dramatic—and tragic. Once their fires burned bright, but now they are extinguished, reduced to skeletal, smoking husks called the cinders. In Lorwyn they sought emotional transcendence, but in Shadowmoor they seek only to satisfy their malevolence and need for revenge.
The imperious and vain elves of Lorwyn find themselves humbled but heroic in Shadowmoor. Whereas Lorwyn's elves sought to judge and subjugate others, Shadowmoor's elves are the world's last hope – seekers and protectors of beauty and light in a dark, ugly place.
Only one race and one place remain unchanged when the Great Aurora turns Lorwyn into Shadowmoor: the faeries and their home of Glen Elendra. The fae are the fulcrum of this transforming plane, for it was their queen, Oona, who created the Aurora.
There was a time when Lorwyn had annual seasons and was "in balance." It was Oona who sought more influence and control over the world. From her secret glen, she wove countless powerful spells into a web of magic that would grant her more power over Lorwyn. But as Oona's enchantments on the plane grew more complex, the world was thrown out of balance. The very nature of the plane's denizens, objects, and places began to split; they developed "Jekyll and Hyde" existences.
Rather than risk losing her control of Lorwyn, Oona created ever more powerful glamers to stabilize the plane. Eventually she accomplished her goal. Lorwyn's fluctuating states fell into a regular interval of long, bright, warm summers, and long, dim, creepy autumns. The costs to the plane were substantial, however. First, each interval lasted for almost three centuries. Second, on each change from the Lorwyn to Shadowmoor state and back, the plane's denizens lost all awareness of their previous existence.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Mirrodin/New Phyrexia"][u][b]Mirrodin[/b][/u]
Mirrodin: a plane made entirely of metal. Here, thorny copper trees create artificial forests, great structures of iron and rust form mountains, and the blades of grass on the plains are literally blades. Five shining suns cast their light on the shining world below them, one for each color of mana. Humans, elves, and goblins dwell here, along with vedalken, leonin, and the zombies known as the nim.
Long ago, the metal plane was created by Karn, the silver golem built by Urza, as a test of his newfound power as a planeswalker. He populated his plane with golems created in his own image and also built a "Warden" to watch over his plane as he explored the Multiverse.
But something went wrong. Karn unwittingly introduced a dark contagion to his own world: Phyrexian oil. Over the course of centuries, the oil took hold on Mirrodin, changing it and its inhabitants. The Warden grew unstable, gaining sentience and calling itself Memnarch. Over time Memnarch grew paranoid and angry, feeling abandoned by his creator.
And as Memnarch's madness grew, so did his power. Using arcane devices called soultraps, Memnarch kidnapped countless living things from other planes and brought them to Mirrodin. His goal was to find a being with the planeswalker spark and take it for himself, enabling him to leave Mirrodin and find his creator.
The elf Glissa Sunseeker was the first being born with the planeswalker spark on Mirrodin. Glissa uncovered the secret of her world: that it was hollow, and that its mythical tyrant was real and dwelled inside. Through her own guile and power as well as the help of her allies, Glissa defeated Memnarch. The soultraps were destroyed, and instantaneously the first generations of Mirrans vanished, returned to the planes from which they were taken.
The remaining Mirrans were left to deal with the disappearance of their eldest forebears. Few had any idea what had transpired inside their world—only that their grandparents, elders, and chieftains were gone. When Glissa and her goblin ally Slobad returned to the surface, they were set upon by hordes of panicked goblins. Slobad fell, and Glissa retreated back into the interior, where the tiny constructs that still scurried there kept her safe, sound, and sleeping…
Meanwhile life continued on the surface as the Mirrans worked to resume their lives. But inside the plane, the Phyrexian contagion that Karn long ago brought to his own world continued its quiet work. The oil spread, and everything changed when the mycosynth reached the mana core that still shone inside Mirrodin.

[u][b]New Phyrexia[/b][/u]
Unlike in its previous incarnation where Phyrexia fueled itself with colorless artifact mana and the black mana of decay and death, this time the Phyrexians infiltrated all five colors of mana and thus brought war on all fronts. However, this had the unintended consequence of factionalizing the Phyrexians based on their color-alignment. And so each alignment gained a Praetor to oversee that color.
[b]The Machine Orthodoxy (white):[/b] Led by Elesh Norn, the Praetor of Unity. A fundamentalist religious order, their ultimate goal is to unite the multiverse into a world where everyone is equal. However, they plan on doing this quite literally throughout their three sects, by methods such as sewing creatures together or implanting metal plates in them. They currently are holding Karn hostage.
[b]The Progress Machine (blue):[/b] Led by Jin-Gitaxias, the Praetor of Experimentation. They hold themselves to higher degree of perfection than the other factions, and pursue what they refer to as "The Great Synthesis". They conduct experiments in various laboratories scattered across the Quicksilver Sea, described as "slaughterhouse like", creating new life forms and technology.
[b]The Seven Steel Thanes (black):[/b] Led by Sheoldred, the Praetor of Enslavement. A nihilistic group, they aim only for total corruption, slaughter and enslavement. Sheoldred is their leader and one of the titular thanes, but the other six are all fighting to usurp her and become the “Father of Machines.” The organization as a whole is immoral and often contradicts its own ends.
[b]The Quiet Furnace (red):[/b] Led by Urabrask, the Praetor of Industry. Hidden under the surface of New Phyrexia with guards along the Oxidda Range, the red-aligned Phyrexians don’t want to engage in the inter-faction warfare. There’s a good reason for this, though: their red mana gives them emotion and freedom, which made them empathize with the Mirran resistance that they harbor.
[b]The Vicious Swarm (green):[/b] Led by Vorinclex, the Praetor of Predation. The ultimate law in the Swarm is that the strong should triumph over the weak, and thus there is no organization save for the massive variety of creatures that kill one another to select the strongest. Even sentience to them is a shackle on the true force of instinctual behavior.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Kamigawa"] On Kamigawa, denizens of the plane waged a brutal war against their own gods.
This plane, reminiscent of sengoku-era Japan, contains two symbiotic worlds. One is the [i]utsushiyo[/i], the material realm of mortals, and the other is the [i]kakuriyo[/i], the realm of the kami. For many hundreds of years, Kamigawa's denizens peacefully worshipped the spirits inherent in everything—spirits of sacred places, objects, and ideas.
Each of these kami was a divinity, and the way to happiness was to honor the kami and live by their ways. The inhabitants of Kamigawa were content with this life of devotion. Then the unimaginable happened: their gods turned on them.
Slowly at first, kami began to take form in the material world. Some scholars believed the kami were delivering a message or a warning. But their appearance was so alien, so surreal, that no meaning could be discerned.
At that time, the plane's most powerful warlord, the daimyo Takeshi Konda, ruled over the Towabara Plains from his stronghold at Eiganjo. But even as his armies and samurai secured more territory in Konda's name, the kami manifested in ever-greater numbers.
Then came a night that changed Kamigawa forever. A few miles from Eiganjo Castle, the kami set upon the town of Reito. Scores of spirit-world monstrosities swept through the town, killing nearly every living thing. Hundreds were slain; few survived. The Kami War had begun.
Over the next twenty years, spirits of every shape and size would descend on the plains, ravage everything in their path, then inexplicably stop just short of Eiganjo. Throughout this spirit-world siege, Konda remained within his stronghold, mysteriously safe from harm.
Kamigawa's people were left to wonder why the kami betrayed them even as they fought for survival. What had they done wrong? How could they discover why the kami were so angry? And what happens when a world must kill its own gods to survive?
In truth, it was the proud daimyo Konda who began the war. With aid from moonfolk allies, Konda kidnapped a kami to secure his own power and immortality. This outraged the great O-Kagachi, the kami of all things. Its ire began a struggle that would take countless lives.
It was the self-serving machinations of the ochimusha named Toshiro Umezawa, ironically, that set the stage for the end of the Kami War. Only the intervention of Konda's daughter Michiko as well as the stolen kami itself, an entity that came to call herself Kyodai, could placate the kami and restore a fragile peace to the land of Kamigawa.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Ravnica"] Ravnica is a vast, worldwide cityscape—a patchwork of grand halls, decrepit slums, ancient ruins, and layer upon layer of stonework structures. Of the world's countless civic centers, one looms large above all others: the City of Ravnica, a metropolis so vast that its name has long since become synonymous with the entire plane. It is here, amid mazes of streets and towering gothic spires, that the guilds vie for power and control.
Ravnica's guilds had been openly at war for centuries, each claiming dominion over the others. Then something began to happen that gave the guilds pause: The spirits of the dead were lingering in the world. The guild masters of old agreed to divert their energy toward investigating the phenomenon, leading to the signing of the Guildpact, the ancient accord that established relative peace on the plane.
Each of the ten guilds mastered two of the five colors of mana, and each had its own cultural identity and essential function.
[b]Azorius (white-blue):[/b] The Azorius Senate was the primary origin of all laws on Ravnica. The Azorius believed that their rigid system of governance kept nearly everything on Ravnica running smoothly. Justice is blind, and that included the guild's venerable Grand Arbiter, Augustin IV, who some say was blind to Ravnica's most significant problems.
[b]Orzhov (white-black):[/b] To find the Orzhov, the saying went, follow the gold. The so-called Guild of Deals was a rigid hierarchy with the wealthy ghost-patriarchs ruling from the top and countless indentured servants forming the base. Holding this fragile social order in place was a veneer of religious pomp and ritual, though few believed the Orzhov worship any god other than coin.
[b]Boros (white-red):[/b] The Boros Legion believed in a higher law – one in which righteousness is fire, and justice the light that shines from it. Led by the angel Razia, the Boros were Ravnica's most formidable military force, and the enforcers of its laws.
[b]Selesnya (white-green):[/b] "Once you are with us, you are an equal among us. Until then, you are lost," said the wolfrider evangel Tolsimir, an agent of the Selesnya Conclave. The Conclave thought itself a selfless, nurturing, spiritual congregation, but others regarded it as a brainwashing nature cult.
[b]Dimir (blue-black):[/b] House Dimir was so secretive that only some knew that it even existed. Over the millennia, ghost stories about the Dimir grew more and more complex, telling of ancient, undead necromancer-advisors, phantasmal assassins, and slick, black horrors slithering through the endless maze of sewers under the city.
[b]Izzet (blue-red):[/b] The undisputed masters of spellcraft and invention on Ravnica, the Izzet were rabid inventors, fusing elemental magics with technology to power their creations. Led by the capricious and unfathomably brilliant dragon Niv-Mizzet, the Izzet magewrights endlessly created and destroyed, driven only by rabid passion for discovery.
[b]Simic (blue-green):[/b] Amidst the chaos of Ravnican politics and strife, the researchers of the Simic Combine worked industriously to improve their world. The Simic were charged with maintaining nature on Ravnica. In ever stranger ways, the Simic "modified" nature so it could survive on a world increasingly blanketed under civilization.
[b]Rakdos (black-red):[/b] The Cult of Rakdos was a thrill-killing, pleasure-seeking cabal led by the ancient demon Rakdos. Even as a force of chaos, the Rakdos were a resource for the law-abiding guilds; when the denizens of Ravnica needed an obstacle removed or an unsavory client entertained, the minions of Rakdos were happy to oblige.
[b]Golgari (black-green):[/b] The Golgari believed you can't truly live until you die. With its vast horde of undead that served as both standing army and labor force, the Golgari operated in Ravnica's undercity, slowly taking over abandoned and derelict areas like a fetid slime mold.
[b]Gruul (red-green):[/b] The Gruul Clans celebrated base urges and lived by instinct, considering all of civilization to be an elaborate cage that suppresses desire. Once a powerful guild, the Gruul were pressed out of their territory and became an an assemblage of beggars, gangs, and raiding parties; with the largest of their gangs led by the cyclops Borborygmos.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Zendikar"]All of Zendikar is dangerous. The world seems almost as though it's trying to kill its own denizens, whether with monsters, natural hazards, or traps laid for the unsuspecting. Everything on the plane is precarious, unpredictable, or just plain lethal. The world seems dead-set on protecting its unique treasures – both the literal ones and the most prized, most ephemeral one: its mana.
Like other planes, Zendikar's lands flow with mana that mages can use to power their spells. However, Zendikar houses a "primal" mana. This spell-like mana seems almost alive to those who wield it. It has caused Zendikar to be a dynamic world crackling with intense magical effects. Sometimes the sea blasts forth geysers of elemental water that form floating islands; the peaks of mountains lurch up and down to crush those who would scale their heights; forests alter their own flow of gravity or patterns of growth.
Large, mysterious, stone hedrons litter the plane. They are remnants of a strange and ancient civilization that wielded unimaginable arcane power – enough to suspend gravity, to upheave the land itself, and to change the plane's life to suit its purposes. But long ago that civilization collapsed for reasons few know. Now these crumbling remains are scattered across Zendikar – some buried in the land, some slowly wearing away on the surface, and some still hanging in the sky. These ruins and artifacts still emanate power, although most denizens of the plane know better than to disturb them.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Sounds awesome!
I reserve a Red/White Mirrodin half-compleated Planeswalker?

[bury the year]

Reserve accepted. (That was actually similar to a concept I was booting around.) Please try to complete your application as swiftly as possible.

[Love of Ghibli]

Is Kamigawa allowed?

[Aesirson]

I'll just go head and reserve myself a green/white rhox monk.

Expect my app in a not so far away future.

[bury the year]

Kamigawa is allowed, and reserve accepted.

[b]EDIT:[/b] We're gonna need some black-aligned characters at some point, so you'll get brownie points if you make one. ;3

[b]EDIT 2:[/b] Holding post for my first application. I need an opinion - should I do Izzet or Golgari?

[Cray-Crow]

I'll reserve a black (with a definate possibility of white and/or red) Innistrad character if you'll have me.

[bury the year]

Reserve accepted. Also, I need an opinion check for my character - blue/red Izzet or black/green Golgari? I do have a second character in the works (a blue/black faerie from Lorwyn) but I think I'll introduce her later.

[Cray-Crow]

I honestly think blue/red Izzet would be more intriguing and the character would be much more entertaining to rp with. But as you said before, you do need a number of black aligned.

My vote's for the Izzets.

[The Amazing Avian]

I want to reserve a Blue/Green Elf planeswalker from Zendikar.

[bury the year]

Reserve accepted.

[Aesirson]

[spoiler=Garod][b]Name:[/b] Garod
[b]Age:[/b] 67 (translated to human years this puts him in the middle of his natural life)
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Species:[/b] Rhino (Rhox)
[b]Home Plane:[/b] Alara
[b]Class:[/b] Monk
[b]Color(s):[/b] White and green
[b]Appearance:[/b] To most sentient beings, Garod look like any rhox, and it is not weird for them to think this, as there is not much that set the rhox appart from eachother. He is a towering creature, standing at at least 2 and a half meter over the ground and weighing well over one and a half hundreds of kilos. Garod has dark, grey skin and his body is almost completely hairless. He does not wear classical rhox attire (which is mostly soldier's armor and priest's robes) but instead wear a thick leather and fur robe with a few steel laces and a pair of mana-powered boots from Mirrodin, which enhances his charging abilities. He also wear a pair of gloves, similar to his boots, which he can use as a powerful weapon should he be forced into close combat. His horn has started to go a little dull, but is still sharp enough to be a danger for anyone facing Garod in close quarters. He carries many scars on his body, mainly on his face.
[b]Personality: [/b]Despite his appearance, Garod is a peaceful, gentle and wise giant. He's wise, but not very intelligent. He have seen things that many have not, but he is not as quick at thought as many others. Despite this, he is looked up on by many of the people he encounter (and not only because of his size) He is a novice in the field of planeswalking, but a master at healing, white magic, and he is not affraid to use it to help anyone who have come in harm's way. He is the kind of person you would want as a friend, at least when he's calm...

Garod's life has been hard on him. He has lost so much and gained so little, and while he is not so easily angered all hell breaks loose when he is. He is a master at white magic and quite adapt at the art of green magic, but when he is angered the bestial side of the green mana takes over and turns him into a savage killing machine. In this state, he is aware of what he does, but he has no way of controlling himself due to the large amount of mana coursing within him.
[b]History:[/b] Garod lived a not so unusual life on the plane of Alara, on the shard known as Bant, which was primarily a white-aligned land. Since his younger days, Garod was trained to become a monk. For many years he trained under a master monk in the way of healing, and he became known across all three nations of Bant as a master healer at a young age. Unlike many of his kinsmen, Garod was a calm creature, and he would always keep an ear open to those who wished to complain, give praise or simply talk to him.

Garod grew older, and the world didn't see much change. Wounded soldiers came and went away healed, sinners came, talked and walked away with a, slightly, clean mind. All Garod ever wanted was peace, both for the world and for his own mind, but it would soon be revealed that the draconic planeswalker going by the name of Nicol Bolas had other plans for the plane of Alara...

10 years ago, during an event known as the Conflux, Nicol Bolas brought together the five shards of Alara into one world. The unition of the five worlds brought cataclysmic events upon Bant, and the world started to fall apart. In a matter of hours the monastery got filled with wounded people of all races and Garod and the other monks did their best to heal every one who needed attendance. The monastery started to fall apart, and when a piece of the roof fell towards Garod and a group of wounded aven he used his white magic to create a barrier. However, due to the exhaustion from the extensive healing his spell failed and he, along with the aven, appeared to be crushed beneath the rock. At this moment, Garod felt a power he had never felt before, and he was thrown into the vast multiverse where he finally landed among the mountains of Kaldheim.

Clad only in his monk robes, Garod searched for shelter and found a cave. However, the cave was already occupied by an old man. The elder was alarmed by Garod's appearance (as rhinomen are not native to the plane of Kaldheim) and conjured a flame to drive back the beast, but Garod was quick to explain his situation.

The man, who had heard stories about the planeswalkers, realized what Garod was, calmed down and told Garod about his theory. Garod, with no knowledge about how to "jump" between planes, asked for the old man's help and was sent to a village not far from the cave to find a woman who was a supposed planeswalker. Garod was given a bunch of animal skins to wrap himself into, to survive the cold journey to the village, and begun his quest to find a teacher.

Lady Luck was with him, as the woman had not yet travelled further, and turned out to be a legit planeswalker, who was happy to help a "kinsman". She sensed that the rhox had more potential within him than what his white magic offered, and brought him to the wast woods of the plane of Zendikar to teach him the way of the green mana that she had seen within him. Like he had previously done with white magic, Garod started to learn the art of using the green magic quite fast, but not nearly as fast as the white one.

He stayed and trained with the woman until one day when a friend, another planeswalker, came and alerted the woman about the events going on in Alara. The three of them quickly made their way to the plane and Garod found the majority of the city he had grown up in, that his life had belonged to, in ruins. Every other monk at the monastery, many of his friends and his entire family, had been killed in both the cataclysmic event and the resulting conflict. He was told that this was the work of Nicol Bolas, and, for the first time in his life, he was thrown into an uncontrollable rage.

He made his way towards the Maelstrom, where he was told that the dragon resided. When he finally arrived he learned that Bolas plans had already been stopped by yet another planeswalker, Ajani Goldmane, but that the elder dragon had survived the clash. His feelings for revenge not yet sated, he threw himself into the multiverse yet again with one goal in mind: to find Nicol Bolas and slay him!
[b]Magic:[/b] Garod is a master at white magic and an adept when it comes to green magic. His main use of both kinds of magic is to heal and buff both himself and his allies while also keeping his enemies away using different kinds of [url="http://magiccards.info/query?q=%21Oblivion+Ring"]enchants[/url] and [url="http://magiccards.info/dpa/en/55.html"]auras[/url]. He is also very capable at using offensive spells and summon [url="http://magiccards.info/query?q=%22Terastodon%22&v=card&s=cname"]giant, green-aligned creatures[/url].
[b]Weapons:[/b] He carries with him a robust staff made from Zedikarian wood, which greatly enhances both his white and green magic, but he is also very capable at close quarter combat using his massive body as his weapon[/spoiler]

Finally done.

[FreelancerRaiko]

Well I guess I'll just trust it all to work out somehow. I leave it in your hands. No hard feelings.

With that said, reserving a spot for my Red/White/Green Character.

[Aix]

Wait... is it allowed to have a black member of a blue race? Or, could I possibly have an undead of that race, tho I would prefer not to be undead :/

[FreelancerRaiko]

[quote name='AixDivadis' timestamp='1355946808' post='6098243']
Wait... is it allowed to have a black member of a blue race? Or, could I possibly have an undead of that race, tho I would prefer not to be undead :/
[/quote]

Well its not like there really is strictly a "Blue" race of any sense. Yes some tend to lean one way (such as vampires tending to be black) but really any variability has been shown to occur within the multiverse. In fact some vampires have been tri-colored if memory serves.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

[b]Name: [/b]Chienah
[b]Age:[/b] 22
[b]Gender:[/b] Female
[b]Species:[/b] Human? (Partially-Compleated)
[b]Home Plane:[/b] Mirrodin
[b]Class:[/b] Rogue
[b]Color(s):[/b] [color=#ff0000]Red[/color]/[color=#d3d3d3]White[/color]
[b]Appearance:[/b] Chienah once used to a rather stunning example of Mirran humans. Her mother an Auriok healer, her father a Volshok who was exiled from his tribe, she had long white hair with metal tips, and gold and silver plates emerging from her tan skin, serving as partial armor. With sharp blue eyes, Chienah used to be quite the looker, even after she traded her right arm for a monstrous Phyrexian-looking talon and added various fiddly bits to disguise herself as partially-compleated. This allowed her to get along for a while, until the Porcelain Legion made it their business to show her how compleation is properly done.
Chienah had most of her body drastically altered and reformed into a feminine shell made from a strange porcelain-like substance. Most of her form is now interlocking plates of porcelain, save for her "hair", her neck, her upper arms, her lower torso, and parts of her shins. Those are made of a rusty, blood-caked metal and organic sinews and muscles fused together into a strange, sickening blend of organic and inorganic. Her face is now a serene mask, save for her eye sockets, which have her original eyes within. However, the lower half of her "mask" is actually a series of plates that are separated by an intricate set of seams, revealing monstrous metal teeth behind the porcelain facade. Behind her "face" are several rust-red braids resembling hair, each braid ending in a sharp serrated blade. These braids are prehensile and can extend up to a few feet, giving her adjustable hair. Her slender arms end in sharp talons, while her spine has various assorted spikes and an odd mechanism in between her shoulder blades. Her legs are now digitigrade and end in raptor-like claws, with a sickle-shaped talon on each foot, and behind her whips a spiked tail with a bladed tip, giving her a somewhat reptilian appearance.
Now that she has escaped, she mainly keeps her form concealed with a large red cloak, and bandages around the portions of her body that are not covered by porcelain. Her tail can easily tuck underneath these robes, and her face can simply appear to be a strange mask. She talks with a metallic tone to her voice and moves with an alien grace to her.
[b]Personality:[/b] Chienah was once a fierce, independent, and noble spirit that believed in doing good, and helping out others, but not letting any authority oppress her. She had a kind and powerful heart, and was quite cunning, able to figure out a plan, then act upon it with her friends. She was a leader, a warrior, a negotiator, and even a bit of a spellcaster. She became a rogue so she could better serve the Mirran Resistance, and considered her sacrifice worthy of saving others from what she had to do.
The porcelain doll of a monster that considers herself Chienah is nothing more than a (quite literal) broken shell of her former self. She despises what she has become, and sees herself as a horrific creature. Furthermore, she feels isolated, inexperienced amongst the other Planeswakers, and incredibly out of her league. All she has to rely on is her brief experience in Mercadia, which was not very pleasant, and she uses metal she finds as a sort of comfort device, as it is familiar to her out in the blind Eternites. She has a rudimentary plan of what she should do to fix herself, but no way to enact on it, and therefore she continues loathing herself. What she needs now is someone to aid her and help her figure out who she is and what kinds of powers she now possesses.
[b]History[/b]: Chienah had an interesting childhood, learning the arts of war and a warrior from her father, while her mother taught her mediation and diplomacy, as well as a bit of magic. Unfortunately, she lost both of her parents in the opening actions of the Phyrexian Invasion, and as more and more of the Mirrans lost their territory to the invaders, Chienah saw a very unique opportunity. By partly modifying herself, she installed herself within the Machine Orthodoxy and started a cell of informants and spies. This was actually quite successful, and for a time, her intel saved many rebel lives, until the Porcelain Legion came around to where her cell operated and randomly selected one of the members. Once that rogue was compleated, the information extracted from his mind allowed the Porcelain legion to round up the rest of the cell, including Chienah.
Chienah, the leader of the operation, was saved for last, but allowed to personally observe her comrades become loyal soldiers to the cause of the Porcelain Legion, each one tailor-crafted to the skills they served in life, so they would excel in their new unlife. Finally, her new purpose, as she found out once they started breaking apart her body and placing it within a brand-new porcelain shell, would be to lead this detachment of soldiers to help hunt down any more infiltrators and "heretics" as shining examples of what happened to those that went against the Porcelain Legion and the Machine Orthodoxy. Given various tools within her body to accomplish her new purpose, she had her mind partially wiped, though she used her mother's magic to resist the effects, and was about to have the glistening oil, the corrupting agent that makes a Phyrexian a Phyrexian, introduced, when something...occurred.
Within her, the Planewalker's Spark that lay dormant inside of her activated, hearing the pleas of its owner to get away from this place. To leave all of the pain and suffering behind. To be anywhere but here. And it complied, catapulting her out of New Phyrexia and off to Mercadia. There, she regained her bearings in an alien plane, she managed to acquire the bandages and cloak that partially disguised her horrendous new appearance, but now she is lost and alone, with nowhere to go and no one to help her. She has managed to find a small hole in the labyrinthine depths of Mercadia's back-alleys and tunnels, and she has figured out a possible way to fix herself: Karn, the creator of Mirrodin, and, for a time, the Phyrexian's sleeping leader. He was freed, and left with some other planeswalkers for parts unknown. If anyone can reverse what has been done to her, it might be him. He is her only shot, however, long it is, to return to normal and be human again, or at least no longer be a mostly-Phyresized being. But she does need some help learning how to control whatever brought her to Mercadia in the first place...
[b]Magic:[/b] Chienah learned a little magic from her mother, enough to heal wounds, create a magic shield for a few seconds, fire a bolt of mana at an opponent, or create ammunition for her crossbow out of mana. Now that she is a Planeswalker, she has much more untapped potential within her, but she requires a teacher to figure out how to unlock this new source of magic.
[b]Weapons:[/b] Chienah has always been adept at both melee and ranged combat, preferring short blades and a crossbow, respectively. Ironically, the Phyrexians included her skills in her partially-compleated form. The device on her back allows her to withdraw a pair of kukri made from the same porcelain-like substance she is coated in, and further activation of this device, tied to her own body, can fuse the kukri and some other parts together to create a techno-organic crossbow, through which she can channel enchanted ammunition. Furthermore, additional smaller blades are hidden throughout her body, and she can use the claws that used to be her hands and feet, along with the sickle-shaped talons in the middle of each foot, as well as her spine-covered tail, as weapons. She is much stronger than she appears, and has devices implanted into her that are currently undiscovered by her.

Will this work?

[Aesirson]

I have a few questions.

Since I don't know what the average lifespan of a rhox is, I left the age part blank for now. Also, are planeswalkers unable to die of old age?

My second questions is: how long was it since the Conflux on Alara? I was planning on the event playing a part in Garod's history, so it would be useful to know.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Planeswalkers used to be immortal, but now, with their powers significantly reduced, they can die, of both natural causes and fatal wounds.
And for a lifespan, I guess as old as you want them to be, since there are no sources that define their lifespan.

[Cray-Crow]

are spoiler's okay within the application? mine's getting pretty lengthy imo.

[Aix]

This is my app, its incomplete still, but could you look over some stuff to make sure it works/is allowed?
[spoiler='Not done making changes yet.']
[b]Name:[/b] Kurosei
[b]Age:[/b] 1000 (It seems Moonfolk live considerably longer than humans, but I have no clue how long as it does not say on MTG Salvation. I believe, as they are pretty much like kami, they are immortal? Anyway, I changed it from 100 to 1000 to fit with the timeline.)
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Species:[/b] Moonfolk, otherwise known as Soratami
[b]Home Plane:[/b] Kamigawa
[b]Class:[/b] Soratami Wizard and Assassin with Sangromantic abilities
[b]Color(s):[/b] Black and blue (no he is not bruised up)
[b]Appearance:[/b] Unlike the rest of his race who are greyish or bluish white-skinned and have white hair, Kurosei's skin and hair are coal black. In contrast to his skin, on his forehead is a very light grey birthmark in the shape of a perfect four-pointed thin-spoked star that can be sometimes mistaken for a white cross. Kurosei wears his black hair combed back and allows it to fall down, it is long enough to reach his waist. His ears are also put back so to be aligned with his hair. Kurosei has a thin face with thin features and high cheekbones. Overall, his looks make him seem very solemn and grave, not one to take jokes or insults lightly and send off anyone who tries to approach him. He has a long neck partially hidden by a big strip of the hide of a grey manticore, Kurosei uses it as a scarf and bears as a trophy, the fearsome face hangs down on his right. Kurosei wears large billowing black silk robes with giant sleeves and elaborate grey trims over a ordinary-looking dark grey kosode and hakama. Despite that he is not truly a swordsman, he wears a thin black obi which he uses to carry a black and red katana. The flashy clothing very effectively conceals the various daggers, kunai and shuriken he carries.
[b]Personality:[/b] Kurosei appears to be sinister and evil, though inside he carries a kind heart with the capacity for love and compassion... except when it comes to his enemies or those he considers evil. He is utterly ruthless in accomplishing his goals and the assassination of evil, and despite all the death he inflicts upon others, he is considered by himself and some as ultimately good. His only ideal is that those who are evil must be purged and all taint must be removed, however this is extremely hypocritical of him. He wanders with the mission of gathering power to regain what he has lost and so he can remove all evil from the multiverse.

Before the Mending, Kurosei was a power-hungry tyrant. Others, to him, were merely pawns to be used or ants to be crushed in his path. Whenever he was angry, he would destroy things and people. Though, at the time, he had hundreds of years to learn to control his anger, his rage was still deadly to those around him.

Events following the mending utterly changed him. He had suddenly lost much of his power and his invulnerability. His own minions turned against him and for once in hundreds of years, he was no longer more powerful than them. Once more, he was weak, helpless and was a great risk to his life. It had been long since Kurosei had ever been in mortal danger. This trauma was too great and then, he broke down. But, a person came into his life, healed and changed him, almost completely. He was taught the meaning of life and saw beauty in the world where once he only saw an obstruction and he became the person he is today.
[b]History:[/b] Kurosei's life cannot be divided in before and after the spark, rather, it is separated in three segments. Kurosei was [i]c[/i][i]reated[/i] as one of many artificial Soratami imbued with the power from a planeswalker and other powerful beings as an experiment as well as to create a powerful tool at the Soratami's disposal. Kurosei was one of the ones imbued with stolen power from the All-Consuming Oni of Chaos and thus he somehow turned out to be black. Amongst the created Soratami, only he had the planeswalker's spark and it was awakened within him through a series of horrific experiments. He also had to go through the pain of seeing his companions, the other test subjects, be disposed of due to the fact that they were no longer useful.

The Black Soratami, as he was known, was put through trials to increase his mana and power while he was trained to become an Assassin so that he could go to other planes and steal magic and kill those which the Moonfolk deemed a threat. He was also taught the magics of any other Moonfolk as well as the art of Necromancy so that he could animate corpses of innocents to do his work.

Kurosei was housed at Minamo Academy so to be hidden from Soratami which disapproved of such experimentation, but upon the destruction of Minamo Academy by the oni shaman Hidetsugu, he managed to escape and he hid away to secret places in Kamigawa. He seldom appeared during the Kami War, when he appeared he only did so to practice his magic on soldiers and kami. He took advantage of the chaos of the war to remain undetected. During this time, he was able to train and become exponentially stronger while also removing all limiters upon his power placed on him by the Soratami. He joined a group of ninjas in their missions out of curiosity. When the war ended, he returned went to Otawara to destroy those who had caused him pain. He managed to kill some of those people, however, Kurosei was defeated and he barely escaped with his freedom. A spell was cast so to banish him from Otawara forever so that he could not finish his revenge.

Kurosei, seething, escaped to other planes to gather power and an army to undo the spell and destroy the Moonfolk forever, he planned to then take on the other planeswalkers, steal their power and eventually take over the multiverse. Over the hundreds of years, he had created an organisation called the Black Moon which followed his every whim. He wielded this organization to gather more and more power to eventually prepare for his attack. Much happened during this time, but it is currently irrelevant to the story.

When the Mending happened, Kurosei lost much of his power. He was no longer immortal and his own lieutenants sought to overcome him. They marshalled his own troops against him and he was forced to flee, but his planeswalking was disrupted and he was sent flying to a strange plane where time flowed much slower. Here there lived
[b]Magic: [/b]Kurosei's primary magic is sangromancy, he is drain life force from a being to heal himself and also directly transmute life force into mana. He has the ability to place all sorts of debilitating curses upon people and once a victim is sufficiently weakened, Kurosei can proceed to take control of that person.
The range of Kurosei's life leech ability is 15 feet, he can hide in a tree and starting draining the life of a person nearby, within line of sight and not blocked by a ward or physical barrier, like glass, and, unless they can sense magic, they won't notice until too late, when they start feeling a coldness within them and they faint. However, this process is slower at farther ranges. At the maximum range of 15 feet, it takes about five minutes to drain a person, which is fine if they are sleeping, thus great for assassination. At closer range of 5 feet, it takes only 1 minute. From 1 feet or closer, it takes about 20 seconds. However, when directly touching, it only takes 5 seconds.
Kurosei casts curses in the form of black smog or clouds which clogs the air and blocks sight, he also can see through it and it is not a physical barrier, thus he can still life leech. Anyone engulfed in it or breathes it in will suffer its effects, however, he can control its flow and he himself is not affected. The effects of the fog include physical weakening, slow reflexes, little focus and some affect on one's magic. After a minute in the fog, one will be more or less completely paralysed.
[b]Weapons:[/b] Kurosei has an arsenal of kunai, daggers and shuriken which he uses very effectively, his accuracy is superb. His swords skills aren't the best, but he is quick enough to strike fast and has basic knowledge of one's weak points. All his weapons are poisoned.
[/spoiler]

[Cray-Crow]

This is the app so far.

[spoiler='Application']
[b]Name:[/b] Raore Disvell
[b]Age:[/b] Appears to be in his late 20's. At least 38 years old.
[b]Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Species:[/b] Vampire
[b]Home Plane:[/b] Innistrad
[b]Class:[/b] Rogue-Knight
[b]Color(s):[/b] In order of magnitude: Black, Red, and White

[b]Appearance:[/b] Like most vampires, Raore's complexion is as pale as the porcelain moon that encompasses Innistrad, and his short hair, once jet-black, has soft, snowy patches of greying. His inquisitive, frozen blue eyes are seemingly always shrouded by his furrowed brow, as if aggravated or contemplative. A triangular jaw line surrounds his straight nose and flat mouth, leading to a thin chin. Under his jaw is a thick neck followed by broad shoulders. Well defined musculature is seen throughout his body, primed for any physical altercation. He holds an impressive stance at 6'3", weighing 183 pounds. His upper and lower canines, as well as his nails, elongate at will.

His dress attire maintains a somewhat royal appearance, featuring: Double buckled leather boots reaching to just below the kneecaps; beige cotton trousers fitted close to the skin; a black leather belt adorned with a large copper buckle; a fine, white silk blouse worn with the collar open and splayed out; a black vest with dull silver floral-esque design, held together by marble buttons and a thick white lace; a long, black, tailored leather overcoat lined with black wolf fur at the collar, with slits in the tail to produce three ends, the middle being the thicker and longer. Armor includes light carbon-steel chest plating and arm braces, embossed with the holy symbol of Avacyn, that have dulled in shine with age.

[b]Personality:[/b] Raore believes the end justifies the means. There is a common good, a goal worth achieving, a peace that will come, but necessities come forth from darkness and turmoil, and hardships and sacrifices must be endured and made to gain what is desired. He isn't afraid of making them. For what is the suffering of few compared to the benevolent existence of many?

He is selfish, like all of the black-aligned, and it fuels his ambition. Every sacrifice made and pain persevered leads to the realization of his ideals. He is just as cunning, and an excellent liar. His sense of law and longing for prosperity does not falter beneath his self-interest, however. Roare, on numerous occasions, will do the right thing, be just when none will, and cooperate with others whose beliefs are similar to his own. Anger isn't something he finds appealing, but when something impedes his morals, it wells within him. He has slim patience for those he deems ignorant and irrational, and prefers not to associate with such.

Relationships with him can be strenuous as he unintentionally pushes the limits of empathic and social behavior. He won't hold a large amount of concern for another unless there is some interest, but those who are close to Raore will find a loyal companion, willing to do anything in his grasp for them.

[b]History:[/b] All was well in Innistrad, given the angle you're speculating. In their manor, the Disvell family was prosperous. Extravagance and pleasure was in abundance, and Raore was among it. He delighted in the festivities. Being born in such a life, this was his normalcy. The villagers from the surrounding villages payed their homage, and the demons outlined the outskirts, if only for similar interests. Humans, be it for entertainment or sustenance. The vampire family would elate in their sacrifice, and the demons would indulge themselves on humanity's suffering. Prosperous, yes. And that is how Innistrad remained for many, many years. It was so for twenty-seven years of Raore's near-immortal life. Until Sorin interrupted the elegant cycle. And with his appearance, the truth followed suit.

Sorin spoke of an Innistrad Raore did not believe in. He preached a harmony that did not exist in this plane, of a ruin and turmoil that was ever present now, hidden beneath the eyes of the majority of the plane's population. The suffering of humans was far too severe, and the deal with demons was far graver than was depicted. Raore thought Soren a liar, a Planeswalker who stokes the masses to follow him. Not nights after, the truth came to prove itself to Raore. On an day before a full moon, Raore was forcefully abducted by unknown hands from his room in the Disvell manor and taken to an unknown area.

After being knocked unconscious at his captors' convenience, he came to on their approach to a godless shrine. His initial thought was that humans had somehow overtaken his home, and was now issuing their justice, but when he looked upon his captors, he saw vampires. Vampires. Why? On his attempt to speak, Raore was put out again. The next time he awoke, he was chained to a wall. A wall of a blood crypt. Corpses littered the ground, and the smell of rot permeated the air, making it thick. Roare screamed in terror and refusal. He wasn't the only one there. Others were among the dead, hung on the walls, from the ceiling. Moments afterwards, the composers of this putrid agony emerged: Demons. Each went to a different victim, entertaining themselves in the captive's torture. Raore met eyes with his torturer. The demon approached him, its broken face appearing to have a grotesque smile, and it released Raore. The demon said in an indescribable voice, "flee", as its face turned into a smirk. Raore knew this demon wanted to see his struggle for freedom, his attempts, but he also knew there was no way for him to make it so. Still, he couldn't help himself as he crawled into a corner of the chamber. The demon slowly made his way towards Raore, never blinking, never averting his gaze from Raore's eyes. This was his death, Raore thought. To be sold by his own kind, for the appeasement of demons, for the image of prosperity among his race. The demon grasped Raore's scalp, and something amazing happened. [acronym='Depiction of Blasphemous Act']A red aura emitted from Raore and filled the room, touching everyone before dissipating. The demons slaughtered their captives, and then continued, killing themselves. [/acronym]

Raore had no idea what happened and didn't know what would happen next. In time, he realized he planeswalked. To the plane of Zendikar specifically. He had appeared amongst a primitive looking village, of which the residents were vampires. The locals knew what Raore was before he even realized it. He was a Planeswalker, and his Spark just ignited. After a time, he learned he wasn't the first vampire to planeswalk to Zendikar; Sorin had visited here numerous times, lending his hand to the civilizations of this plane against god-like beings known as the Eldrazi. Spending almost two decades in this plane before properly learning to traverse the planes, he'd seen the Eldrazi first hand, fought against them, and prevailed. In time, Raore masters his ability to walk through the Blind Eternities and returns to Innistrad. Angels have returned now, but the plight of demons is stronger than ever. Now that Raore knows the truth that skews the image of his home plane, he'll do anything capable to bring true prosperity to Innistrad.

[b]Magic:[/b] Raore's arsenal of magic is as multifaceted as his complex personality. His black magic is dominantly aimed at instantly ridding enemies, be it by destruction or sacrifice. His black creatures, though not as volatile or powerful as demons, are more cunning: Vampires that can take flight, bleed the life of adversaries, or kill with the slightest touch. The red magic he utilizes devastates multiple foes with sheer ferocity and aggression. Red vampires, while not as hasty or brutal as other red creatures, are more tactical, empowering themselves in riotous cooperation. Raore's white magic fortifies his will as if by divine prowess. With it, he can beguile the will of humans, destroy mechanisms and relics, abolish enchantments and curses, and even banish living creatures from existence.

[b]Weapons:[/b] A silver decorated rapier and matching dagger, and a light steel-reinforced, wooden crossbow. Fangs and nails.[/spoiler]

[bury the year]

All other reserves noted. Please note that I will only accept up to five other applications at max. That means that unless I really see promise, if you fail to revise your sheet promptly I may have to drop you entirely. That said, application notes.

[b]TheFinalFan:[/b] I was hesitant initially about a Phyrexian planeswalker when you mentioned it over PM, but I enjoy how you pulled the concept off. The personality seems like it could use a bit more fleshing out, though, especially because she swings from being noble and proud to broken pretty quickly. A bit of further exploration would be nice. Also, if you could remove the color tags from the app that'd be appreciated. [b]PENDING.[/b]

[b]AixDivadis:[/b] If I'm right in what I think you're trying to get the name to mean, it'd be "Kokusei." (黒星 = black star) Also, I don't think there's a precedent for moonfolk to have black skin (it's whitish or really light blue-grey), so inverting the colors would probably be better. Moonfolk ninja hasn't been seen before, though, so I'm curious how you'll do.

[b]salseethrough:[/b] When you're done, just post saying so. I really like what you have so far, though.

[Aix]

What do you mean by inverting the colors?

[bury the year]

As in, white skin with a black star marking.

[b]EDIT:[/b] Girlfriend chose for me. Guess I'm making Izzet!

[FreelancerRaiko]

[quote name='Rinne' timestamp='1355958089' post='6098430']
As in, white skin with a black star marking.

[b]EDIT:[/b] Girlfriend chose for me. Guess I'm making Izzet!
[/quote]

Lol when in doubt, trust your gal. Am I right?


(Couldn't find a way to make it rhyme, sorry =\ )