You are the seedling shinobi in a world complex and ruthless. Will you be crushed under its heel or rise above it all?
The Village Hidden in the Sky
A swirling mass of putrid smog envelops the sky—an inkblot to an otherwise unmarked heaven. Jotting through this dome of pollution stands a cluster of monolithic structures; each one consisting of a uniform arrangement of steel as black as the dark clouds above. At intermittent levels, bulges of construction glow from the fires within and spitting out vapors of smoke from packs of chimneys located at oblique angles from the main structures.
Rising above the defiled skyline reveals a majestic realm of glass and metal reflecting the sunshine. Here, the monuments of metal and craftsmanship are unmarred by the soot and waste of the levels below; instead, it seems the architects devoted their entire efforts to aesthetics with attention given to every nook and cranny. Unlike the constructions of other shinobi villages, which limit the number of windows on their buildings; the spires that make up Soragakure are riddled with them. To a foreign eye, one might guess that the buildings, themselves, were made only of glass at these nosebleed heights.
A web of rails connects the edifices with one another. All of these slim bridges offer only room enough for one man to balance on, but at angles too steep to travel upon. Most of them have been made with the idea of l'art du déplacement in mind—using the fastest and most direct routes possible between places; while others swirl all around buildings taking whoever is on it for a fantastical ride. One can always see movement at these heights of Soragakure, shinobi of all types use their chakra to balance and push themselves through the labyrinth of monorails while the muggles of hidden village traverse by ingenious locomotives driven by manpower.
History
Spoiler
History is a sham. This is a fact more so for the entirety of the ninja world, which has constantly sought out to relegate even the most important events into the shadows of myth and legend. Whether distorted in the forms of fairy tales, written upon stone tablets only certain eyes can see, or simply forgotten by all—the actuality of historical moments are left abandoned, waiting for those curious enough to seek them out; however, the stories of contemporary history (especially after the transition from clans to nations) are slightly more preserved.
Though most hidden villages would rather keep their own personal histories hidden from outsiders due to how highly ingrained their pasts are with their own national secrets, the most obvious and thus well recorded of events come from the aftermath of the Shinobi World Wars. While the results of the last war brought upon the current state of militaristic tension, so did it also help sow the grounds for the fruition of new nations during this stagnated time of peace: one of which is the Land of Rivers.
Being a land full of natural resources thanks to the mineral-rich earth titular multitude of rivers, the Land of Rivers has always remained in the periphery of the Five Great Nations due to no one power (mainly the Fire and Wind who border Rivers) being able to wrench control over its vast resources long enough before rival nations fought to expel the land of its foreign occupiers. The land continued to balance between being destroyed by invaders and being "rescued" by greater powers who wanted to stop rivals from gaining the precious gold deposits at all costs.
Fortuitously, the local population's Katabami Kinzan was able to not only secure enough gold to pay off their would-be protectors from other nations, but also hired a small, private army of mercenary ninjas to protect their mines. Because of the Land of Rivers' lack of a shinobi village, the Village of Artisans sought out the protected mines of Katabami Kinzan and created their own quasi-shinobi village full of only well-paid mercs. The communion of the artisans and the miners resulted in a not only a small, powerful shinobi village but one that sought to match their might with beauty that extended into the heavens—Soragakure.
Years have passed since the founding and construction of the skyscraping village, and their newly created academy has just graduated genin native to the Land of Rivers. Of the minor nations, the Land of Rivers seems to be on track of rivaling even the greatest of the shinobi world with their propagandized limitless supply of riches and upcoming genin poised to take this year's Chuunin Exam by storm. However, the high hopes of Soragakure cannot wipe away the decadent bonds between the nations surrounding them. Years of stagnation have only left the Wind starving of resources necessary to fend off any invasion and the Fire is looking to reclaim their superiority in the eyes of the other Great Nations. Other lands have taken up strict forms of isolation biding their time for something or anything to set the world into chaos. Even locally in Soragakure, the politics of higher-ups are at odds over the first steps into creating a native-led village instead of relying upon the powerful yet expensive foreign ninjas. Indeed, it is a time of approaching change for all.
Demographics
Medium Village(Minor)
Average Wealth (Civilian): +8
Civilian Population: ~2,500
Shinobi Population: 165
Academy Student: 60
Genin: 45
Chuunin: 60
Special Jounin: 20
Jounin: 16
Elite Jounin: 2
ANBU: 22
Notables Kamisaka Kai: One of the three that make up the triumvirate, which administrates not only the hidden village but also Rivers in place of the more authoritarian system of the Five Great Nations, Kamisaka Kai is a relatively young woman who has made her way up the political ladders of the Land of Rivers to oversee the education of genin and act as a diplomat for the nation. It has become common knowledge that Kai managed to rig the voting system given no one knew of her previously, but the native population has little ill will towards her because of the many acts she has done to deregulate the shinobi population from the foreign hands of first and second generation mercenaries such as herself. This of course means she has made enemies who are now waiting for the popular opinion to wane so they can oust her.
Sonia the Deathless: The second of the triumvirate representing the ninja sector like Kai, Sonia the Deathless embodies the militaristic side of Rivers and Soragakure along with the police enforcement. While no one remembers Kai before her election into the triumvirate, no can remember a time without Sonia the Deathless protecting their fledgling hidden village; some argue her moniker comes from her longevity without a sign of age, but others respond with the fact that she has always been known as Sonia the Deathless. Whatever the conspiracy theories are, everyone knows she gets the job done with a ruthlessness gained from her time in the Land of Iron so long ago. Out of the three, Sonia the Deathless mirrors the ninja with mercenary roots and their apprehensive and sheer disdain for the newest graduating class seeing this as the beginning of the end for their long-term and well-paid careers.
Yamada Taro: The final member of the triumvirate, Yamada Taro represents the common man of Rivers: no training in the ninja arts but rich because of the gold mines (even more so given his ownership of a few). Like Sonia the Deathless, Taro's characteristics are easily elucidated: he wants nothing more than to see the Land of Rivers rival the stagnated great nations and sees pushing out all foreigners and their offspring as beneficial to the pockets of his people.
Teams
Team 1 Jounin Kaede: "Describe myself, huh? Hmm. I guess... Maybe... Hm... Is that... Uh-uh, that's... No, classified... Ah-ha! I know exactly what I can say now. Wait, what do you mean we're out of time?"
Okumura Romi: Female member of Team Kaede?
Tsuji Shamiso: Female/male member of Team Kaede?
Suzambo Bo: Male member of Team Kaede?
Team 2 Jounin Ryu: "What do you want? Get out of my way. No, I won't answer your questions. Move or I'll move you!"
Hisamatsu Hanae: A girl with lots of hair.
Asano Yuji: A boy of vague description who would be easily lost in a crowd.
Misaka Saicho: A boy with very large bangs. To date no one has seen his eyes.
Team 3 Jounin Maaya: "Describe me? Ha! I am who I am, and there's nothing more to say! Oh, you need something to say? Well, when I walk, everyone watches!"
Ozawa Hideki: Withdrawn from team and placed on another.
Sengo Iyasumaru: Withdrawn from team and placed on another.
Habu Manabu: An eight year old prodigy in ninjutsu. The boy is a living testament that hard work and natural genius can combine to create ninja of a level where age is irrelevant. Manabu is much the same as any other eight year old. He likes bugs and other gross stuff, he likes candy and sweet pastries and he doesn't care too much for taking a bath when he thinks he can get away without it.
On the flip side, Manabu is also a very skilled ninjutsu specialist. He can be quite serious and dedicated when the situation calls for it. But not much farther than that. He is still an eight year old, after all.
Kuroda Takuya: A ninja with a noticable tendency to avoid learning Taijutsu, Takuya still prefers to be a secondary fighter despite being a little on the weak side physically. Nonetheless, he is a little on the brainy side and prefers making a plan instead of just rushing in, but will gleefully follow that lead.
Usually cheerful, but prone to brooding and over-calculating, he hangs around with Atusuhi and Yuno in his downtime a lot.
Uchiha Momo: A 15-year old kunoichi from a clan that's supposed to be big in Konohagakure, Momo is mostly known to the inhabitants of Soragakure as "Kaede's sister". Nevertheless, as a skilled genjutsu user herself, she takes care not to remain in her brother's shadow- a fact that sometimes pushes her out of her usually sensible mind to dare do things most people would shirk from.
A generally easy-going person, Momo's actual character is a bit harder to pin down than just that, though, as she adapts from situation to situation with surprising grace, swinging from coquettish to shy, friendly, or even dangerously aggressive; leaving the observer confused as to think whether they are acts she uses to her own ends, or merely different facets of her genuine character.
Team 5 Jounin Cybele: "D-describe myself? I-I... Um..." *Blushes and fidgets furiously* "Kaede-sama, help me."
Konpaku Yousuke: With a sword always at hand, Yousuke is the sort of kid who comes to class with cuts and scrapes and hastily wrapped bandages on a periodic basis. If this sort appearance doesn't scare the young kunoichi and shinobi of the class, then it's his constant glares (mostly targeted at the girls when they're talking) that does the trick. Along with this rough presentation, he speaks in a clipped and officious manner; though, sometimes coming off as quite respectful.
Everybody knows Yousuke doesn't have any friends within the school and during lunch or break periods, he is often found in the academy training area. People tend to avoid him during these free periods because Yousuke always scowls at people who try to talk to him while he is training.
Kita Eisen: Withdrawn from the team due to personnel differences.
Yamana Amon: Title 'Shokunin Amon'. At 15 years old, she is actually older than Cybele, though one would never tell from their normal appearance and attitudes. A master blacksmith, as well as a trained medic-nin, Amon has many talents in support as a testament to her emphasis on team work - that and her love for mechanics. While no one is sure what became of her old team, it is known her hiatus from the program spanned over two years and that she bears serious mental trauma that is almost certainly linked, and that has left her emotionally unstable in some ways. While very sociable, she just never seems to get on with her fellow ninja - much to her own dismay. While not known to be rebellious, she does have a serious moral imperative and so tackles most situations through nonviolent means when she can.
Amon's known for changing her costume as often as most girls her age, but in terms of appearance her big blue eyes and long, long blonde are rather overshadowed by her prosthetic; after losing a leg and some fingers, by the time she returned to the field, she bore wooden replacements. After many months they are rather worn down, but by the craftsmanship of Alice they are still of masterful enough make of her to use them like regular body parts. More recently, Amon has been taken in as Alice's student as a puppeteer and dedicated herself to being strong enough to keep her party together.
Takeada Houshi: The tallest kid, possibly person, you've ever seen, Houshi is already six and a half feet tall, only twelve years old and he's still growing! He's not from a long line of shinobi or anything of the sort. He doesn't talk much or at all really. On the few occasions he did speak, he's was known to be very polite and well-mannered. He always carres a fullblade on his person, which he has shown to be quite proficient with.
He has shaggy black hair, deep brown eyes, bulbous nose and caramel skin. He wears baggy gray pant that still seem like they shouldn't fit. A black, long sleeved shirt with three, thin white lines running down the top of the arms. Then, on the front, white below the chest.
Rumors
Politics: "The Fire Daimyo met the Wind Daimyo in private this week."
"Why?"
"Peace talks they said. Something about the Exams bringing the two countries together."
Haha! Peace. The Wind Country has always hated the Fire after the second great war.
"Even so grandfather, I can't believe the people would stand for something like a war after this long."
"It doesn't really matter what the people want. It's up to Konohagakure and Sunagakure as to whether they fight or not."
Gossip: "Did you hear? Sonia got arrested this morning."
"What, really? I can't believe that. She's always protected us."
"Mh-hm. Rumor has it that Taro had her arrested for conspiracy to commit treason. Treason!"
"No... Has Taro gone crazy? Sonia would never betray us."
Maybe he has... Who knows what's going on anymore?
"They say that Uchiha boy is leaving."
"Really? Huh. He's such a nice boy. I hope he'll be okay, wherever he goes."
"Bah! You've both gone soft in the head. Taro would never let that boy leave."
"Mh. Maybe so. But Taro can't hold him here forever."
"That's what you think! Taro has that girl of his... whats her name now... Mami? Momu? Well, whoever she is, he has her! And he ain't the type to abandon her."
"I saw another one of those little purple-haired girls today."
"You mean like that one ANBU we used to see a lot?"
"Ya, just like her. You think that's her daughter?"
"Don't be foolish. ANBU don't have lovers. Can't, or else they wouldn't be 100% loyal."
"Well, I know she was around. Crying her eyes out about somethin'."
Enemies - Team Maaya: Gonzou: No known last name. Powerful gangster in Sunomou, and potential crime lord for the entire city. He's driven solely by how much profit he can make off something, and is worth hundreds of millions of ryo. Dead.
Kyousuke: No given last name. A ninja of some moderate skill. He assisted in the downfall of Gonzou, but did so by fooling Team Maaya into believing they were acting under the orders of his brother: Kyohei.
Allies - Team Maaya:
Muro Remi: The lead singer behind the J-Pop band Queens of Flowers. She, alongside her other three bandmates, can be called upon to provide a bonus to diplomatic relations in the pop-culture world, or to provide a bonus to monetary transactions for Team Maaya.
Kyohei: No given last name. A mundane boy of some small renown. He is the crime lord that took Gonzou's place. While he would never openly assist Team Maaya, he can be called upon for a bonus to intimidation or whenever the Team needs goons. Only effective in or near Sunomou City.
Enemies - Team Cybele:
Yusa of the Black Sand: A powerful doton-user from the Wind Country. She's the daughter of a Kazekage from the past, and was set up to become the next Kazekage after her father passed. But agents within Sunagakure had her branded as a criminal. Refusing to be exiled, Yusa attempted a coup from within Sunagakure, but the loyalists of the village defeated her tiny rebellion. They cast her out, and recently she had been captured by Soragakure. She was freed by Hisagawa Hinami, Suzunabu of the Wind, and an unknown third party.
Human Princess Suneko: A powerful oni summoner from Soragakure. She came to the village as one of the mercenaries under Sonia's command. She recently abandoned and betrayed the village under an unknown person's orders.
The Hungry Wolf Clan: A clan of cannibals hidden in the wilds of the Country of Rivers. They pose a serious threat to Soragakure, and by proxy the other ninja villages, due to the possibility that they've acqured the Rinnegan.
"Doctor" Euryale Setsuna: A missing-nin from the Grass Country. She kidnapped Euryale Camille and gave her the powerful bloodline limit she now has. Assassinated by Euryale Cybele.
Allies - Team Cybele
Suzunabu of the Wind: A dragon spirit called from the great Mount Amatsugoten. She had been summoned in the ancient past, bound into a pot, and forced to attempt to remove the curse from the Eurayle Clan. Her inability to do so resulted in the clan sealing her for years, until she was sealed within the body of Hong Meiling of Konohagakure. She can be called upon to provide a powerful ally in battle... As long as you know how to summon her.
Blue Princess Obana: An oni with the body of a small child. Her immense physical strength and endurance betrays her supernatural status. She's a servant of Suneko, but seems extremely reluctant to fight. She cannot be called forth, as the Oni Blood Pact is out of reach of Team Cybele at the moment.
Uchiha Kaede: An ex-leaf nin turned sky jounin. He can be called upon to interrogate captured enemies, infiltrate enemy locations, or provide a deep insight into the workings of ninja from a given area. He's frequently busy, but is happy to help when he can.
Sand Ninja - Team Shoin: A group of three sand genin who've struggled to step out from under the shadow of their previous jounin. The sand-nin can be called upon to provide competent allies, but are as likely as not to botch things up.
Leaf Ninja - Team Mako: A group composed of two genius level genin from the Hidden Leaf Village as well as their hard-working counterpart. Their team specializes in tracking, and they can be called upon to provide insight into a direction a given target would flee, or to track down a given enemy.
Jounin rumors, preserved for posterity's sake.
Spoiler
Euryale Cybele: "Have you heard about that Cybele? There's rumors goin' around that she only got a genin team 'cause someone higher up had the pull and was sweet on her."
"I heard she's some kind of servant to the Uchiha clan members hiding in Soragakure, or at least spends a lot of her time there and frequently plays with the youngest Uchiha."
"Supposedly, she's extremely sick, to the point of being a liablity to her ninja team."
"That's not right. She's supposedly extremely mercenary, even killin' the child of her target for a few extra yen."
"You sure? I always heard she was secretly very sweet, giving candy to young children and helping the elderly, poor, and sick in her free time."
"All lies! She's a horrible monster who poisons young children, wears tiny miniskirts in front of old men, steals from the poor, and physically assaults the sick!"
Maaya: "Maaya? Oh, yeah I heard of her. That crazy self-styled master of the shuriken and mid-air combat woman trying to forcefully create an advanced chakra type, right?"
"No, no, no. That's not right. You need a kekkei genkai do that. No. She's just got some genetic disease she's too proud to admit to."
"Yeah, that does make more sense. Especially with how she keeps clutching her chest."
"Yup. Can't blame chest pains out of the blue on training too hard. It also explains why she's only a special jounin too."
"Yeah, it does. She was such a gifted student afterall."
House Rules
Spoiler
Fractional BAB.
Shinobi Archetypes as seen here including the afterword.
Hostage Maneuver Variant (page 34-35).
Reflex Saves and Movement Penalties Variant (35).
Free Bonus Feats: Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin. Of course you only receive these when you are promoted. (E.g. Players start fresh out of the academy so they all have Genin, and they can receive Chuunin after the Exams. Jounins get all three.)
Due to Soragakure's unique locale, academy students are required to learn specific techniques before graduation besides the Duplication, Transformation, and Body Substitution Techniques: Jumping Technique, Tree Climbing Technique, Minor Harmless Fall Technique, Warmth Shield Technique (5th Mastery), and The Art of Grinding (a technique that allows movement on Soragakure's rail system without vehicles; rules to come).
Jounin gain a number of masteries equal to their highest mental score before all modifications. Example: Toshio has 16 masteries because his player rolled a 16 in Charisma and his Wisdom and Intelligence scores are only 14 and 15 respectively. Genin do not have the sort of training regimen that allows for mastery (Warmth Shield excluded).
There is a limit to the amount of techniques you can learn per rank. Any character may have up to 2 techniques of the highest rank available to the character, 3 of the second highest, 4 of the third highest, 5 of the fourth highest, and any number of those below. Example: Toshio is level 13 and can have 2 techniques of rank 13, 3 of rank 12, 4 of rank 11, 5 of rank 10, and any number of those of rank 9 and below. This helps characters have a balanced repertoire to select from, but this rule can be flexible given a decent explanation of how a different ratio of techniques reflects your character.
Due to how isolationist most countries are, some bloodlines will be highly restricted to the players. Examples: Sharingan and Byakugan are very protected by Konoha, so there will not be many good reasons why sky-nin would have one.
Stolen verbatim from The Unborne here. I don't know where he went, but I've been away for awhile. I came back recently, and noticed that the game(s) were still dead. So I'm stepping up to restart them. This post will be edited as need be, so watch it often over the course of the game.
New OOC thread since the old one hit 50 pages.
Last edited by ZeroNumerous : 11-08-2012 at 06:09 AM.
Right, Yousuke's got a duel on, Amon is temporally displaced about 13 hours in the past and is going to be Sherlock-ing it up with Kaede as soon as she gets some word from her family (or at least searches for it) and I'll bring Camille and Houshi. Amon will only be so bold as to invite herself in though, since she's a medic.
That Final Fantasy title seems familiar somehow
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
What if I took the Mastercrafter feat, and a LOT of ranks in Craft(electrical). Could I make a smartphone with a good enough check? I just thought it would be fun right bakc to when I made teh character to invent anachronistic things, especially with incredible ease.
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
What if I took the Mastercrafter feat, and a LOT of ranks in Craft(electrical). Could I make a smartphone with a good enough check? I just thought it would be fun right bakc to when I made teh character to invent anachronistic things, especially with incredible ease.
No. The technology just isn't there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Situation
Does Yousuke know about the deal between Youki and Youmu?
It's up to you. Does he?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacior
Also, there are 51 pages on the other OoC. I'm curious as to why
Because there were enough posts to have 51 pages. The forum doesn't auto-cut off at 50 pages. Mods simply lock a thread with more than that.
Lame. That wouldn't slow down certain other anime-style inventors.
Nitori doesn't invent anything. What isn't believed to exist is reality in Gensokyo. So her crazy inventions which would not work in the real world? Pure genius in Gensokyo.
Meanwhile, Naruto works on real world analogies, and you have no idea how complex a smartphone is relative to the 1980s. Their concept of miniaturization concerning chipsets and processors alone would make it infeasible, nevermind creating anything similar to the network we have that allows smartphones to be half as useful as they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TraceHyde
Well, maybe i can invent a bulldozer
Bulldozers already exist.
@Bad: If you're expecting me to move things into the room, then you're waiting for the sky to fall. Yousuke has to choose to take the plunge on his own.
Last edited by ZeroNumerous : 10-26-2012 at 09:02 PM.
Oh, I know all that. But you see [insert idiot-awesome Gurren Laggan speech here]
At least I can make some baby steps towards that. Amon's got the rest of her life to create modern networking technology, so some early cell phone is as good a start as any
At least now I've identified what Amon could invent. I should make some electronics-based techniques
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
Try not to start this martial arts fight without me getting up to date, or else we'll have to awkwardly retcon in Amon sitting there the whole time with a medkit on standby
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
Try not to start this martial arts fight without me getting up to date, or else we'll have to awkwardly retcon in Amon sitting there the whole time with a medkit on standby
Amon hasn't arrived yet. Otherwise, I would have used [Yousuke and X] tags instead of just [Yousuke]
Last edited by ZeroNumerous : 10-26-2012 at 09:07 PM.
Camille and Houshi, apparently. Why, would it affect Yousuke's performance for the worse? I guess it might split his focus if it isn't PERFECTLY honed. Amon was actualy going to have Camille (and Houshi) wait outside for the result while she watches with Youki. After all, if Yousuke starts bleeding out, what's Houshi going to do except something stupid that'll get us ALL killed? I'm sure he'll hear the screams. Anyway, I'm sure Amon can just be tuned out in Yousuke's mind easily enough.
Altered the second half of my IC post a fair bit
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
Camille and Houshi, apparently. Why, would it affect Yousuke's performance for the worse? I guess it might split his focus if it isn't PERFECTLY honed. Amon was actualy going to have Camille (and Houshi) wait outside for the result while she watches with Youki. After all, if Yousuke starts bleeding out, what's Houshi going to do except something stupid that'll get us ALL killed? I'm sure he'll hear the screams. Anyway, I'm sure Amon can just be tuned out in Yousuke's mind easily enough.
Altered the second half of my IC post a fair bit
Just wondering. It doesn't really matter though. With the situation as serious as it is, Yousuke isn't going to be distracted by the appearance of other people.
I guess "Yousuke's going to fight his mother to show the true way of the sword. If he loses, it'll be his last day in Soragakure. Would you care to come and show support? I'm not sure if it would be respectful or not to even be there, so be on your best behaviour."
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Got my PC back - posting should return to normal now, once I add some 'minor' finishing touches.
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Soragakure OOC IV: The Best Final Fantasy
