Post by Kenji on Nov 19, 2011 4:04:27 GMT
Some background info:
This is an entire universe I created using a few unspoken amine shows as my spring-board. The first thing to address is the setting. The place is a large continent that I've yet to shape or name. The topography varies from empty deserts towards the center, to rolling hills covered in knee-length grasses, to forests one could get lost in for years. The time period is also unclear . It is before the advent of guns or any kind of explosive powder. These will most likely never exist. Oil will also be something only discovered in extremely small scales, and used for things like kerosene for lamps. People are reserved to fighting with swords, bows, and maybe even a shield. Humans, though very common, are not the only bipedal sentient creatures. There are demons with many different characteristics. Some are no more powerful or smarter or faster then average humans. But some are terrifyingly strong. These are determined by a ranking system, not an official thing and most don't even care. The ranking system consists of letters A to E, with A being the strongest and E the weakest. D is a slightly above average human. E rank is almost exclusively given to small creatures like pixies and fairies and things of childhood mythology. Most if not all A ranked demons have been destroyed and erased from the world. If any still exist they hide in seclusion and have not been seen for hundreds of years. Yes, demons can live for many thousands of years. This is a rare occurrence because most demons kill one another before they get that old. It is even rumored that demons live forever unless something kills them. Time moves backward for no one, but for demons, it can almost stop. They carry the ability to stop physically aging. Some demons can stay 10 for 1000+ years or 20 or 50, but they cannot age backwards. Demons are further classified by their inhuman attributes. For example, a “Wolf” demons is class 12, a “Fox” demons is class 7. Demons with no attributes other then human are class 1. Alot of demons can morph into 2 forms; one that looks human except for the ears and sometimes a tail, and a 'feral' form. Some demons have what is referred to in this world as Elementalism. Quite a few demons, normally of a higher rank then D, have abilities to control natural elements around them like the classical fire, earth .etc, but it doesn't stop there. Very strange things such as spirits and universal disturbances plague this world. It is a very dangerous place. People are carried off from their villages at night, or just go missing. Sometimes bands of demons raid villages, leaving them destroyed, burned husks. But most towns are protected by some form of shaman or monks, who bear intriguing spiritual powers that can even bring the most powerful demons to their knees, if only for a few minutes. Now that the basics are covered we can move into the character himself. His name is Kenji, directly translated from Japanese it literally means “child with a sword”. He is a wolf demon. He is 17 years old, about 170cm tall, short cropped black hair, yellow eyes, and a pair of wolf ears complete with wolf tail. His history is not something he shares often, so leave it at that. He has been a loner since his birth. He does not like to associate with other beings. Though, within the past couple years he had become aware of an empty feeling. He believes it to have been there all his life but only now was he attuned to “see” it. He doesn't know what it is he's searching for but he's confident he will find it. He had just begun an extensive journey through the massive country. It has been 8 months since he officially set out on this journey. He has been through the rolling fields, scorching desert, and along the golden sea shores. His policy is simple: Keep walking until you find what your looking for. He also has a peculiar personality. And outlook on the world. He is an elemenmtalist, with his element being electromagnetism. All things electric and magnetic are bent within his grasp. Still technically being a child, his powers do get away from him and run rampant. And this story picks itself up where he now stands, before a massive forest, a forest he has not yet seen in his travels. And its calling to him...
...Kenji lifted his head, so his optics could better focus on the objects in front of him. He saw a tree, another one, and another, until he stood before a massive deciduous forest. These were not ordinary oak and birch trees. They were in excess of 70 meters high, almost like the towering redwoods he has heard about, yet there was something that removed these trees from that category. Maybe it was because their bark was not quite red. It didn't really matter right now. These trees were all.. aligned somehow, as if to form a barrier around the smaller trees that lie within. It was like a spiritual fence. He could feel waves of energy radiating outward from the structure. But was it there to keep those like him out, or keep some malevolent force within?
A breeze touched his face. He inhaled, absorbing the aroma into his nose. It had a certain sweetness to it, like pine needles. But how could that be? There was no trace of coniferous vegetation, at least not on the surface. This forest was sacred, but whether it be the good kind of sacred of the bad was beyond his deduction.
Time to move, he thought as his right hand slipped down from its cross with his left to brush up against the katana hanging from his belt. He squeezed the hilt, as if in reassurance. There was no return of affection from his blade. To the naked eye it was no more then a sharp piece of steel. But to him it was more then that. It was an object, more sacred then the forest he looked at with the utmost respect. He stepped forward now, as if called upon by a royal being. He stood erect, kept his face straight, and held a humble look in his eyes. He felt he needed to prove himself to the forest, show it he was worthy of entering its depth to find whatever was leaving this empty patch in his soul. As if to answer his presentation, a powerful gust shot forth from the depths of the trees. It hit him with a tremendous force, throwing his cloak about and pulling at his short hair. He stumbled backwards. His center of gravity was knocked off and he began to fall backwards. As if by reflex, a small magnetic pulse caught him. A series of pulses kept his body mostly upright until the wind subsided, leaving the wolf with labored breath and stinging eyes. The wind left a low moaning sound ringing in his pointed ears. He played the sound back in his head until the word 'Enter' was removed from it all. Not waiting to see if it changed its mind he closed the distance quickly.
Within minutes his footsteps had closed the 2 or so football fields that was originally established between them. Hes stopped short then, being obviously hesitant to set foot on the massive roots that sprung up from the large Oak tree he now stood directly before. He didn't wish to offend this entity that held this sacred forest. After standing for the better part of a minute he finally stood on the 2 meter tall root. A wind now arose at his back, as if the forest was beckoning him to enter. As if by a nature that did not belong to him, he took several more steps in, finally crossing the threshold, hoping off another large root to drop nearly 5 meters, landing with his legs apart and dropping until the tips of his fingers touched the ground. It was cool to the touch and the granulated soil stuck to his hand as he stood back up and analyzed it. He brushed his hand against his pants to remove the dirt. Satisfied with the end result he began to walk deeper into the woods.
Directly behind the simply massive sentinel trees were what most would expect in a forest, average trees, decaying leaves on the ground, moss, mushrooms, the works. But this was no ordinary forest, upon setting foot inside, the sun vanished, leaving him in perpetual darkness. Lucky for him, wolves had excellent night vision. After stumbling around the darkness for several minutes, he could see clearly, but that wasn't going to be the problem. He could feel the prying eyes of other beings all around him. Occasionally he would see something moving in the tree tops, or on the ground, always a dark shifting wraith, always far away, and always gone by the time his amber optic focused on the distant plane. He knew something was there, behind every tree, around every corner. He felt wary, knowing that at any moment something could sneak up and.... His left hand fell to his sword as the rustling finally came behind him. In a flash he drew his blade, spinning a full 180 degrees to attack whatever was going for him. He felt his swing connect though he was moving too fast to see it. The wraith cried out a blood curdling scream of a high pitch nature that burned his ear drums, before it drew back to a shadowy tree 4 or so meters away. It was only a nick to their flesh, but hopefully enough to get the message across. As he turned to walk again, he lifted his sword to closely inspect it, looking for anything that might have come off the creature. He saw what he thought was blood, only it was green, thick, and.. steaming. It gave off the smell of something decaying. He swung his sword diagonally, expelling the foul congealed mass from his blade. Unfortunately he set them off.
The proximity between him and them seemed to drop almost dramatically. Now as he glanced behind boulders and large trees, he saw them standing there. And not only just standing there, they remained at that location for a second before moving beyond his field of vision. He wondered why they hesitated on their departure. Where they trying to ambush him when he least expected it, or where they just curious as to why they found someone like him trespassing in their sacred grove. His mind picked up a notch, as did his pace. He now began to feel angry; they found that one button and never ceased to press it. But what irked him the most was the pure and simple fact that he had absolutely no clue what they were The light condition was poor enough that all his eyes could capture was their silhouette, even at their hesitance to move away from him. He felt like stopping to ask someone, but the only 'someones' around were the wraiths. Plus stopping could arouse any type of reaction from his.. audience? They could run, or swoop in for the kill.
Night was fast approaching. Even through the extremely dense canopy he knew that outside the shadows grew longer, and the sky darker. He wasn’t too worried about nighttime, seeing how his current surroundings bore no light as is. No, night meant sleep, and he had been traveling since the sun woke him the previous day. It would only be a matter of time before sleeps death grip took hold of his judgment, making him more perceptible to attack. He had to work fast while his mind was still awake. Something caught his eye; it was low to the ground, sticking out of it actually. He only recognized it in the left corner of his eye while the rest of the world moved on around him. Finally it clicked in his head, it was a sapling, a half a dozen leaves, and drooping like that painting by Salvador Dali, the one with the clocks. That gave him an idea. He looked left and right, looking for what his idea prompted him to have. The forest floor was surprisingly clear thought; it was a relatively flat pathway with nothing more on the ground but half decayed leaves and a few twigs no bigger then his middle finger. None of these would suffice as tinder. He sighed, not even a trace of lichen on the smooth barked trees. He frowned, sadly a fire wouldn't work with no tinder. He inhaled, as if to sigh again, and some strange scent had wound its way into his nose. It was sweet, faint, and with a distinct bite to it. It was indeed the smell of pine. But how could that be? The only trees that surrounded him were deciduous in nature. He looked to the right, not just looking in front of him, looking deep into the foliage. Something was tickling his vision, so faint that he could barely make it out. A very slight breeze caught him. The scent seemed to have originated form that way. It seemed to him that he may have been walking straight for far too long.
Time to change directions. He turned, slightly to the right, and set out toward the faint glow. It was a very pale blue-green color, though he couldn’t tell if that was its true color from his distance. He would have to close the gap in order to find out. He looked around a large tree trunk and… Nothing. There was no one they’re waiting for him. At least that solved one problem, now he was mostly alone. He could still see shadowy figures on occasion, watching him from a high branch, but more often then not there was no one there. The glow was stronger, emanating from a birch tree. Was this making the light? As he neared it, no, it was merely blocking the real source. He stepped around it and stopped short.
Personally i think its none too good and i did manage to start it about halfway through. I did convert alot of the measurements to metric though seeing how that's the standard everywhere else :\
This is an entire universe I created using a few unspoken amine shows as my spring-board. The first thing to address is the setting. The place is a large continent that I've yet to shape or name. The topography varies from empty deserts towards the center, to rolling hills covered in knee-length grasses, to forests one could get lost in for years. The time period is also unclear . It is before the advent of guns or any kind of explosive powder. These will most likely never exist. Oil will also be something only discovered in extremely small scales, and used for things like kerosene for lamps. People are reserved to fighting with swords, bows, and maybe even a shield. Humans, though very common, are not the only bipedal sentient creatures. There are demons with many different characteristics. Some are no more powerful or smarter or faster then average humans. But some are terrifyingly strong. These are determined by a ranking system, not an official thing and most don't even care. The ranking system consists of letters A to E, with A being the strongest and E the weakest. D is a slightly above average human. E rank is almost exclusively given to small creatures like pixies and fairies and things of childhood mythology. Most if not all A ranked demons have been destroyed and erased from the world. If any still exist they hide in seclusion and have not been seen for hundreds of years. Yes, demons can live for many thousands of years. This is a rare occurrence because most demons kill one another before they get that old. It is even rumored that demons live forever unless something kills them. Time moves backward for no one, but for demons, it can almost stop. They carry the ability to stop physically aging. Some demons can stay 10 for 1000+ years or 20 or 50, but they cannot age backwards. Demons are further classified by their inhuman attributes. For example, a “Wolf” demons is class 12, a “Fox” demons is class 7. Demons with no attributes other then human are class 1. Alot of demons can morph into 2 forms; one that looks human except for the ears and sometimes a tail, and a 'feral' form. Some demons have what is referred to in this world as Elementalism. Quite a few demons, normally of a higher rank then D, have abilities to control natural elements around them like the classical fire, earth .etc, but it doesn't stop there. Very strange things such as spirits and universal disturbances plague this world. It is a very dangerous place. People are carried off from their villages at night, or just go missing. Sometimes bands of demons raid villages, leaving them destroyed, burned husks. But most towns are protected by some form of shaman or monks, who bear intriguing spiritual powers that can even bring the most powerful demons to their knees, if only for a few minutes. Now that the basics are covered we can move into the character himself. His name is Kenji, directly translated from Japanese it literally means “child with a sword”. He is a wolf demon. He is 17 years old, about 170cm tall, short cropped black hair, yellow eyes, and a pair of wolf ears complete with wolf tail. His history is not something he shares often, so leave it at that. He has been a loner since his birth. He does not like to associate with other beings. Though, within the past couple years he had become aware of an empty feeling. He believes it to have been there all his life but only now was he attuned to “see” it. He doesn't know what it is he's searching for but he's confident he will find it. He had just begun an extensive journey through the massive country. It has been 8 months since he officially set out on this journey. He has been through the rolling fields, scorching desert, and along the golden sea shores. His policy is simple: Keep walking until you find what your looking for. He also has a peculiar personality. And outlook on the world. He is an elemenmtalist, with his element being electromagnetism. All things electric and magnetic are bent within his grasp. Still technically being a child, his powers do get away from him and run rampant. And this story picks itself up where he now stands, before a massive forest, a forest he has not yet seen in his travels. And its calling to him...
...Kenji lifted his head, so his optics could better focus on the objects in front of him. He saw a tree, another one, and another, until he stood before a massive deciduous forest. These were not ordinary oak and birch trees. They were in excess of 70 meters high, almost like the towering redwoods he has heard about, yet there was something that removed these trees from that category. Maybe it was because their bark was not quite red. It didn't really matter right now. These trees were all.. aligned somehow, as if to form a barrier around the smaller trees that lie within. It was like a spiritual fence. He could feel waves of energy radiating outward from the structure. But was it there to keep those like him out, or keep some malevolent force within?
A breeze touched his face. He inhaled, absorbing the aroma into his nose. It had a certain sweetness to it, like pine needles. But how could that be? There was no trace of coniferous vegetation, at least not on the surface. This forest was sacred, but whether it be the good kind of sacred of the bad was beyond his deduction.
Time to move, he thought as his right hand slipped down from its cross with his left to brush up against the katana hanging from his belt. He squeezed the hilt, as if in reassurance. There was no return of affection from his blade. To the naked eye it was no more then a sharp piece of steel. But to him it was more then that. It was an object, more sacred then the forest he looked at with the utmost respect. He stepped forward now, as if called upon by a royal being. He stood erect, kept his face straight, and held a humble look in his eyes. He felt he needed to prove himself to the forest, show it he was worthy of entering its depth to find whatever was leaving this empty patch in his soul. As if to answer his presentation, a powerful gust shot forth from the depths of the trees. It hit him with a tremendous force, throwing his cloak about and pulling at his short hair. He stumbled backwards. His center of gravity was knocked off and he began to fall backwards. As if by reflex, a small magnetic pulse caught him. A series of pulses kept his body mostly upright until the wind subsided, leaving the wolf with labored breath and stinging eyes. The wind left a low moaning sound ringing in his pointed ears. He played the sound back in his head until the word 'Enter' was removed from it all. Not waiting to see if it changed its mind he closed the distance quickly.
Within minutes his footsteps had closed the 2 or so football fields that was originally established between them. Hes stopped short then, being obviously hesitant to set foot on the massive roots that sprung up from the large Oak tree he now stood directly before. He didn't wish to offend this entity that held this sacred forest. After standing for the better part of a minute he finally stood on the 2 meter tall root. A wind now arose at his back, as if the forest was beckoning him to enter. As if by a nature that did not belong to him, he took several more steps in, finally crossing the threshold, hoping off another large root to drop nearly 5 meters, landing with his legs apart and dropping until the tips of his fingers touched the ground. It was cool to the touch and the granulated soil stuck to his hand as he stood back up and analyzed it. He brushed his hand against his pants to remove the dirt. Satisfied with the end result he began to walk deeper into the woods.
Directly behind the simply massive sentinel trees were what most would expect in a forest, average trees, decaying leaves on the ground, moss, mushrooms, the works. But this was no ordinary forest, upon setting foot inside, the sun vanished, leaving him in perpetual darkness. Lucky for him, wolves had excellent night vision. After stumbling around the darkness for several minutes, he could see clearly, but that wasn't going to be the problem. He could feel the prying eyes of other beings all around him. Occasionally he would see something moving in the tree tops, or on the ground, always a dark shifting wraith, always far away, and always gone by the time his amber optic focused on the distant plane. He knew something was there, behind every tree, around every corner. He felt wary, knowing that at any moment something could sneak up and.... His left hand fell to his sword as the rustling finally came behind him. In a flash he drew his blade, spinning a full 180 degrees to attack whatever was going for him. He felt his swing connect though he was moving too fast to see it. The wraith cried out a blood curdling scream of a high pitch nature that burned his ear drums, before it drew back to a shadowy tree 4 or so meters away. It was only a nick to their flesh, but hopefully enough to get the message across. As he turned to walk again, he lifted his sword to closely inspect it, looking for anything that might have come off the creature. He saw what he thought was blood, only it was green, thick, and.. steaming. It gave off the smell of something decaying. He swung his sword diagonally, expelling the foul congealed mass from his blade. Unfortunately he set them off.
The proximity between him and them seemed to drop almost dramatically. Now as he glanced behind boulders and large trees, he saw them standing there. And not only just standing there, they remained at that location for a second before moving beyond his field of vision. He wondered why they hesitated on their departure. Where they trying to ambush him when he least expected it, or where they just curious as to why they found someone like him trespassing in their sacred grove. His mind picked up a notch, as did his pace. He now began to feel angry; they found that one button and never ceased to press it. But what irked him the most was the pure and simple fact that he had absolutely no clue what they were The light condition was poor enough that all his eyes could capture was their silhouette, even at their hesitance to move away from him. He felt like stopping to ask someone, but the only 'someones' around were the wraiths. Plus stopping could arouse any type of reaction from his.. audience? They could run, or swoop in for the kill.
Night was fast approaching. Even through the extremely dense canopy he knew that outside the shadows grew longer, and the sky darker. He wasn’t too worried about nighttime, seeing how his current surroundings bore no light as is. No, night meant sleep, and he had been traveling since the sun woke him the previous day. It would only be a matter of time before sleeps death grip took hold of his judgment, making him more perceptible to attack. He had to work fast while his mind was still awake. Something caught his eye; it was low to the ground, sticking out of it actually. He only recognized it in the left corner of his eye while the rest of the world moved on around him. Finally it clicked in his head, it was a sapling, a half a dozen leaves, and drooping like that painting by Salvador Dali, the one with the clocks. That gave him an idea. He looked left and right, looking for what his idea prompted him to have. The forest floor was surprisingly clear thought; it was a relatively flat pathway with nothing more on the ground but half decayed leaves and a few twigs no bigger then his middle finger. None of these would suffice as tinder. He sighed, not even a trace of lichen on the smooth barked trees. He frowned, sadly a fire wouldn't work with no tinder. He inhaled, as if to sigh again, and some strange scent had wound its way into his nose. It was sweet, faint, and with a distinct bite to it. It was indeed the smell of pine. But how could that be? The only trees that surrounded him were deciduous in nature. He looked to the right, not just looking in front of him, looking deep into the foliage. Something was tickling his vision, so faint that he could barely make it out. A very slight breeze caught him. The scent seemed to have originated form that way. It seemed to him that he may have been walking straight for far too long.
Time to change directions. He turned, slightly to the right, and set out toward the faint glow. It was a very pale blue-green color, though he couldn’t tell if that was its true color from his distance. He would have to close the gap in order to find out. He looked around a large tree trunk and… Nothing. There was no one they’re waiting for him. At least that solved one problem, now he was mostly alone. He could still see shadowy figures on occasion, watching him from a high branch, but more often then not there was no one there. The glow was stronger, emanating from a birch tree. Was this making the light? As he neared it, no, it was merely blocking the real source. He stepped around it and stopped short.
Personally i think its none too good and i did manage to start it about halfway through. I did convert alot of the measurements to metric though seeing how that's the standard everywhere else :\
