*mod note: edited the background color slightly so it doesn't burn anyone's eyes!

I decided I didn't like him very much, so I changed him

Will have an SU up soon.

I'm happy to see this has already drummed up a bit of attention!

I don't really have an age gap in mind. As long as you can give me a good reason as to why your character is joining a brand new guild, they can be anything from a little kid to a grizzled old man. Though by the looks of it, most people are going for late-teens, not that that's a problem.

As for magic, it's also just anything within reason. The pillars are more like modifiers that affect the magic you cast, with affinity being the type of magic you're best at. By within reason, I mostly mean don't go too overboard with its power, and to remember that this world has laws too, so the authorities might be wary of something like mind control magic.

If you're having trouble coming up with something, you can check out the Fairy Tail wiki here. Some of these might not quite work in the world of Atria, but this should be enough to give you some ideas.

I've gotten several questions about race from you and others, so I figured I should elaborate a little. I'll also add this stuff to the OP.


Wizard:
Called Atrian wizard by some, this is the most common type of magic user, which is why many use the term wizard to refer to magic users as a whole. They are the most versatile of the magic users, being able to learn magic beyond their affinity. For instance, a wizard with an affinity for fire magic might learn a bit of similarly heat-based lightning magic to give them an advantage against aquatic foes. However, the further one goes from their affinity the harder it becomes to cast a spell, so many wizards just stick to their affinity anyway. Their appearance is indistinguishable from a normal human's.

Valbestian:
The magic users of Valbestia all use the same magic, and seem completely incapable of using any other for reasons yet undiscovered. This magic allows them to bond with a magical beast, sharing their power with each other. In this way, the Valbestians themselves are able to use any and all magic that their beast can use. Once bonded, the Valbestian and their beast can distribute their ether freely between each other, and their minds become linked to the point that they can feel what each other feels and thinks even when they�re apart. To lose one�s beast is to lose a part of oneself. Physically, most look like normal humans, but depending on their beast�s magic that can change.

Some Valbestians focus on fueling their bonded beast with their own power, granting the beast far greater strength than it could achieve alone. Others fight alongside their beasts, dividing their power evenly between themselves. A few take the beast�s power for themselves, fighting on while keeping their beast out of harm�s way.

Most Valbestians seek out a beast to bond with from a young age, and those who never find one are treated as outcasts. When asked why they chose their particular beast, most Valbestians say that "it just felt right."

Despite the current peace between the nations, their bloody history means that tensions remain high between Valbestians and Atrians, something that any Valbestians who decide to move to Atria should be aware of.


Touched:
Mutants of Atria's Northern border transformed by the chaotic magics of the Mistlands from being too close for too long. They come in all shapes and sizes, their appearance reflecting their magical affinity. For instance, someone with an aquatic affinity might find themselves gaining gills, fins, or scales. Or if they're unlucky, parts of them might just become made of water. These mutations are magical in nature, and are thus quite good at conducting magics of their affinity.

No touched has learned magic outside their affinity thus far, and many even struggle to do complex magic within their affinity. On the bright side, the touched can hold far more ether than any other magic user. While they might not be able to use it for as much as a standard wizard, they have little to fear of running out. They can also use their magical mutations with little effort, such as breathing fire or flying.

While not as antagonized as the Valbestians, many still look at the touched as freaks and keep their distance.

I have so many ideas. Too many, in fact. Once I've decided, I'll put something here.

Already some incredible SUs!

Unfortunately, I forgot to mention in the SU template that guild members can choose a color for their guild mark, so I'd appreciate it if the completed SUs could add that in. I'll put it in the template.

I'd also like to remind people that they're free to PM me if they have any questions or suggestions. I might not be able to get to it right away, but I'm happy to help.

I�ll try making one soon~

After looking at how many completed SUs we already have, I've decided to move the deadline up. On Saturday, August 4th I'll accept 5 of the finished SUs. Good luck, everyone!

OOOOO EEEEEEEEE OH GOSH DANG DARN I for some reason decided to wait until I finished it to post the SU. Ah well. Never so much as seen an episode of Fairy Tail before (man jeez that show must suck they didn't even bother to spell the word tale correctly what the hecking heck???) but nonetheless, ya caught my eye! SU is below in the spoilery business.

Last call for SUs! The deadline is tomorrow! I'll still take any SUs that show up before I pass my judgement. Maybe something around 20 hours from now or so, to give a time frame independent of timezones.

sup.

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appearance

Despite his odd partners, Ephraim remains a fairly normal and healthy looking young man. He has short, black, side swept hair resting over his fair complexion and oval face. Ephraim has thick eyebrows, sharp brown eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and a complete lack of facial hair or facial scarring. In fact, all he’s gained since his teenage years have been stronger cheekbones and a stronger jawline, but even those are subdued enough to give him a youthful look.

Ephraim is five foot eleven, which he describes as fantastic because it gives him convenient access to the top shelf when “arranging” his frivolous collection of Valbestian liquor. Ephraim certainly doesn’t have the musculature of a bodybuilder, but he definitely has a good deal of muscle on him; while he’s lean in the interest of speed and flexibility, he doesn’t look bad in the form-fitting clothing he tends to wear. In fact, his wardrobe as a whole is exemplary; not only is it varied and ready for any occasion, but all of Ephraim’s clothes fit to exact specifications. Typically, though, Ephraim dresses in a fairly casual and consistent manner, wearing comfortable shoes, dark jeans, a comfortable crew-neck and a comfortable jacket, along with an old necklace and a scarf.

He has his guild crest on the right side of his neck in black, even if it’s often covered by one of his many infinity scarves.

beast

Ephraim’s beast is “formally” named Bartholomew, but this name is interchangeable with “the Bart collection” depending on whether he speaks on the horde of spiders that make up Bartholomew (the Bart collection), the hive mind itself (Bartholomew), or an individual spider (which is also a Bartholomew). While this all makes perfect sense to Ephraim, it is certainly cause for confusion with others, who expect a Valbestian to have a beast with a singular body. Unfortunately for them, Ephraim has a beast with tons of them.

All Bartholomews visibly look like tiny, black, jumping spiders, but are an abnormality in that their web-spinning capabilities are far more capable than most common spiders. They are all nearly identical and about one to two centimeters long each. While it’s hard for a bystander to tell Bartholomews apart from other spiders from looks alone, every Bart carries a small band of thick, red exoskeleton around their front right leg. Most Barts are essentially the same, but some have a few quirks, such as a missing leg, a limp, an unusual eye, et cetera. Barts can also come together to form Bigger Barts, which are exactly what they sound like-- bigger versions of the same spider. Insofar as both Ephraim and Bartholomew are aware, the change is almost entirely cosmetic: Bigger Barts pool the magic of individual Barts but can’t really use it as well. To Ephraim’s understanding, there is also a Complete Bartholomew-- which, as far as he and Bartholomew know, would just be all the Barts put together-- but it hasn’t been formed for decades, and neither the Barts nor Ephraim have any idea as to what it would look like given that Ephraim doesn’t have every Bartholomew with him and likely never will.

Barts shoot webs of different material depending on their diet, which changes the color of their webs constantly. That said, most Barts are consistent with their web thickness, and typically leave large cobwebs in which they sleep. As a result, Ephraim’s typically organized room is, to his inevitable chagrin, constantly infested by the mass of spiderwebs which lurk in corners and behind furniture.

magic

Ephraim shares his magic with a hive mind of more tiny spiders than he could ever be wont to count. From his last guess, the beast he bonded with was made up of thousands of spiders with trace amounts of magical abilities, but it was incredibly difficult for him to be sure just how many that was. Despite this overwhelming amount, the bond that Ephraim and his hive mind share allow him to share the beast’s-- or beasts’?-- abilities in exchange for directing it and keeping its components alive.

As a Valbestian, Ephraim’s affinity is defined by the bond he has with the Bart collection, which is to say he is effectively only capable of using whatever magic Bartholomew can use. As far as spirit goes, Ephraim is emotionally stable [despite the liquor] and can keep his wits about him; his desire to adventure and make a beautiful tapestry someday propels him on to constantly achieve new heights and keep himself in check. That said, this passion can backfire as it causes him to lash out against those who put down his ambitions or his beast, and while he’ll stand for what he believes in, his inability to contain his disdain for others makes it something that he still needs to learn to control. Ephraim keeps up his training to keep getting faster and stronger, and on a physical fitness level, Ephraim is only continually getting better; that said, he has a fairly run of the mill amount of ether reserves in his body, and he already uses a good deal of it to adopt some extra strength and speed from his partner. This means that instead of using incredible, life-changing spells on his own, he looks for ways to cleverly use smaller doses of magic than continually make bigger spells when working without the Bart collection’s help. Despite this, Ephraim’s mind is surprisingly sharp, as he continues to use his magic in better ways and finds clever applications of the gifts his beast gives him. Furthermore, Ephraim’s constant studying of textiles and fabrics means that he has been able to achieve results not only with his beast, but with his livelihood.


Bartholomew is a bit more special in terms of magic. Firstly, each Bart has an affinity for Textile Magic, which is based upon using the webs they spin to create textiles and and gives them the ability to freely manipulate already existing ones; in essence, a user of Textile Magic could be called a textile-bender. That said, Barts are much better at manipulating textiles made by their own webs than clothing made from other fabrics. While they can pull in people with their clothes or tighten other fabrics and the like, their webs are high quality, mimic real textiles, and are much more familiar to the Barts [which have limited mental capabilities as it is], making it a better option to use their textiles instead. By collaborating, Barts have an incredible range of options, and can do anything from create clothes from the webs they use to manipulating scarves and blankets to defend themselves. Barts also have the slightly magical property of having their webs change physical properties depending on what they eat, but they only have limited amounts of this sort of web depending on their diet. Ephraim only found out how to manipulate this a while back, so the abilities of Barts to use this to their favor are limited in this regard. Barts typically give Ephraim the reins on what they do with their textile magic, whether its using the sleeves on his jacket to swing from a tree branch or creating a long scarf to pull someone back from their position, but it is unusual for Ephraim to be actually using the magic himself.

Furthermore, as the venomous creatures they are, each Bart is naturally capable of using somewhat corrosive Poison-based magic. The issue is that, for individual Barts, this magic is highly ineffective, given that most Barts can only use trace amounts of it; as a result, the Bart collection often gives Ephraim control over much of its poison magic, as it is pointless for a Bart to keep it and not easily usable by the whole anyway. Ephraim tends to use this magic to infuse the fibers within the textiles made by the Barts with poison (causing legitimate damage) but can also simply use a large concentration of it to surround his fists or a weapon with the poison as well. Despite the corrosive nature of the “poison” used, it does not maintain its corrosive properties with textiles made of Bartholomew’s webs given their mutual origin.

The hive mind-like properties of Bartholomew’s existence may be considered magical as well; but given that they likely exist as a result of the Mistland’s intervention, it’s unlikely that Bartholomew could ever establish any sort of additional magic around its hive mind without becoming complete first. Additionally, Barts outside of a mile radius of the horde do not cue into the hive mind and are, on this front, little more than regular spiders with some magic that they cannot comprehend how to use [although they will group up with other Barts if possible]. While there is, presumably, a central Bart that this radius revolves around, that Bart does not only remain unidentified but is also likely constantly changing between the horde Ephraim found. All that Ephraim knows is that if there is a central Bart, he likely managed to attain it when he found the main group of Barts during his move to Atria.

Bart’s four pillars beyond affinity are mixed. Bartholomew doesn’t exactly have one body, but tons of itty bitty bodies. With this in mind, however, it means that while each Bartholomew has a miniscule amount of magical ability by most standards, all Barts put together have a massive amount of magical reserves to tap into; it’s just a matter of Ephraim having all the Barts with him first. Bartholomew is, however, of an ironically poor mind; while it’s not stupid, it uses enough of its mind to collaborate and keep all the Barts on a similar wavelength, meaning that the rest of it is kind of dull and typically uses the same few defensive maneuvers and attacks when on its own. This doesn’t exclude the Bart collection from being intelligent or perceptive of other situations, but it is not used to fighting magically; the current Bart collective will likely never be quite at the level of most Atrian wizards in this pillar. Thusly, while the Bart collection remains a formidable opponent without Ephraim, it largely is due to its stamina and ether reserves, and not its nonexistent ability to mix up spells or deal with its opponent in any proper manner. That said, its spirit is certainly there and consistent; while Bartholomew doesn’t have many “proper” goals as it is largely a carefree beast when left alone, it is loyal to Ephraim and wishes to find as many of its bodies as possible. Plus, while Bartholomew goes through moments of dissonance and inner turmoil that naturally comes with being a hive mind, Bartholomew is typically fairly confident in its emotions. That said, Bart’s lack of goals or true ambitions means that while its spirit won’t cause it any problems, it currently certainly won’t be helped by it, either.

summary

When Ephraim first found his beast, he was loathe to believe it. Of course he knew it was true, because the feeling he got from looking at it was the same he’d always heard described to him-- a feeling that this was it. But he didn’t want that to be it. A tiny woodland spider wasn’t cool, and from the look it gave him, it didn’t find Ephraim cool either. Actually, as Ephraim toyed around with it with a stick, it didn’t seem to find anything interesting or particularly pertinent. It just seemed kind of lost, and Ephraim was quite reluctant to take it home.

Ephraim’s mother and father at the time wove tapestries, as their tribe always had. Their tribe was small, weak, not considered worth conquering and, despite sending a competitor every now and then, never considered a viable competitor for the throne. Instead, they were a more mercantile tribe; they often had traders take their high-quality textiles, clothing, and tapestries down to Gildas to be sold, and lived off of meager amounts of material wealth despite arguably remaining the “most fashionable” tribe in Valbestia. Furthermore, they were once known to stick to odd traditions no other Valbestian tribes had; that said, out of all the odd traditions they once had, the only one that still persists within each tribe member is a lifelong dedication to creating a tapestry detailing their individual lives. Despite this, Valbestian culture still permeated the area-- and strength was a great indicator of status, to the natural dismay of Ephraim’s mother (whose beast was essentially a house cat prone to growing small plants and little else), and eventually, his father as well. After the last Atrian annexation attempt, Ephraim was confused when his father returned to the four-year old without the large bear Ephraim used to fall asleep on, and while Ephraim was no stranger to learning his family’s friends had lost their beasts, it was something far different when he realized that his father had lost his. His father was forever changed and depressed, and hoped that Ephraim would find a large beast to bring pride to the family.

Instead he brought back a tiny spider. It was promising at first: the spider was capable of using trace amounts of poison, which was… promising, and, despite seeming incredibly stupid while doing so, managed to create a cobweb to stay in in the corner of Ephraim’s room. Otherwise, however, it was a complete dud. His father continually expressed doubts that evening that Ephraim had really found his beast, and had not instead thought he’d found one which had turned out to be a dud. “Seven year olds can’t be certain yet,” he expressed to his wife later that evening. Ephraim watched the spider all night anyway. Within hours he had named it Bartholomew, although he wasn’t quite excited about it yet. It wasn’t an interesting beast, or even a competent house spider. Not only that, but the connection he felt to it was kind of small? It didn’t seem to think much, or do much. It was just there. Spidering.

It was soon thereafter, however, that Ephraim began to find more, and more, and more. The horde of spiders slowly entering their house was a good deal of concern for the Thornes (who were preparing to move) but Ephraim found that each of these spiders not only seemed to follow him home, but only nest themselves in his room. Despite this, however, they still weren’t anything extraordinary; if anything, they were more of an infestation, and the once messy Ephraim found himself constantly moving things to not disturb the new cobwebs he kept finding in his home.

Ephraim and his parents soon left the tribe for the Atrian Empire’s capital after finding that their lives there were no more favorable than a life in Atria; both his parents felt that their ability to conceal their lives as a Valbestian fairly well, and all their son had were spiders that were difficult to hide anyway. At this point, however, the nine-year old Ephraim had collected many spiders, all of which they had wanted to leave behind, but all of which they felt compelled to bring with them as Ephraim slowly became more and more confident in his bond with them. They had mixed feelings, however, when Ephraim amassed a large amount of spiders from the woodlands during their travel from Valbestia to Atria-- feelings which only died down when they began to display magical capabilities.

Despite leaving the tribe, Ephraim’s parents still made tapestries, using designs passed down through generations and woven by hand “with love.” So while Ephraim’s horde of spiders was an exponentially growing issue, Ephraim found that his parents were a lot more accepting of his “beast” when it began to display the capability to assist with the family trade.

From there, Ephraim’s life became a lot less eventful. Moving to Atria remained a difficult experience because of the obvious tensions between the newly-arrived Valbestians and the settled-in families which had called Atria home for years, but concealing their origin when convenient became easy when neither of his parents had very noticeable beasts. Ephraim himself learned to pack in the Bart collection when he could, although hiding his hive-mind became a lot more difficult when people began to visit his room during the day. When his parents left for a more peaceful life away from the capital, Ephraim stayed for an apprenticeship in the city at another vendor for fabrics; on slow days, he often took naps while surrounded by spiders under his clothes and in his bag to the sound of the radio. Although he had a long and successful apprenticeship, he knew that he didn’t want to work at it forever, and became obsessed with joining a guild-- an obsession which soon turned into a legitimate dream. Despite gaining an actual job at the shop and being recognized as an important part of the vendor’s employees, Ephraim still found a yearning for adventure, and began to find new ways to use the textiles Bartholomew weaved; furthermore, he began to find ways to manipulate just how Bartholomew’s webs formed to begin with.

When the vendor’s store came under new management, Ephraim found that he had to hide his Valbestian origins. Within a year, however, Ephraim was kicked out; it didn’t take long for management to discover he was using his spiders to weave his tapestries and demanded he leave. However, Ephraim made little fuss; he’d seen a girl putting up flyers for a new guild a few weeks back, and despite knowing little at the time about it besides rumors mentioning that it was being headed by a legendary wizard he’d never bothered to hear the name of, wasn’t about to let this chance pass him by.

extra

• Someday, despite not being sure if he’d like to be king, Ephraim would like to be part of the battle for the Valbestian crown.
• Ephraim doesn’t remember when he named Bart, although he supposes that the hive mind likely influenced his decision.
• Ephraim’s alcoholism likely stems from his father’s, who first gave him a drink at the age of fourteen. However, it wasn’t until Ephraim reached the age of 18 that he began to hide liquor in odd places and drink it when he had nothing better to do.

The time has come, and I've decided to accept Rose Quartz, Kitty, Sephear, Turnip, DLMuerte, and gimmepie. I've decided to accept a sixth to keep activity up in case of sudden hiatuses or people not wanting to participate in the main story. So to the six of you, welcome aboard!

To Groc and Calzone, I can honestly say that your SUs were both good and I appreciate the effort that went into them, but for the kind of RP I want I unfortunately can't take everyone. If people leave and slots reopen, I'll see then if you two are still interested.

I'll see if I can get the IC OP done tonight and up whenever the mods get to it.

I'll use this post to house additional info that's been given to to the players throughout.

Characters:

Lore

We've discussed your situation privately already, so you are Accepted!

Every once in a while I'll write a little side thing that can't really go in the IC without looking messy with everything else, so from now on I'll put those things here. Everyone else is free to do the same if they come up with random, perhaps even non-canon stories and interactions involving their characters or the world.

Writing up a second character in accordance with Geras