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groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
applications
Eastbound is primarily an invite-only game — each existing player can currently invite up to one person per month, or get in touch about further invites. Existing players can hold two characters in game. A third character can be applied, if players can prove they have met activity requirements for two consecutive months with their existing two characters and have stayed engaged with the game. If you don't have an invite, somehow stumbled upon this neck of the woods, and you’d like to stay, drop the mod journal a line — we'll try to figure it out.
As of Oct. 1, cast/game caps are off. Please note, as of Dec. 1, Eastbound only has 3-4 months of gameplay left.
WHAT CHARACTERS CAN BE APPLIED?
YES: canon and original characters, if they have a solid and consistent personality and background. Characters brought in after they've died are a-okay. For characters taken from a time point just as they're in the process of dying, please read below on meeting medical requirements.
NO (at this time): real people, original characters set in a canon environment, characters from canons or canon instalments that have been released for less than one month, characters with imported development from other games (CRAU), alternate universe, or gender-swapped versions of canon characters.
Children or characters with very specific medical/magical/environment needs: appable, but please make a note of how your character will ICly meet their requirements and stay alive. Likewise, if you are applying for a character taken just as they're dying, provide a suggestion for how they can be kept alive on arrival (this might be easier in some app cycles than others). You can bend the world a little to make miracles happen (ex: a substitute for the medication your character needs to survive can be found for a high price at certain apothecaries, etc.)
Characters that were dropped or swept by activity checks: yes, but they’ll come back without their previous memories, if they are applied in by a different player.
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
→ NAVIGATION MENU
Yan Zhengming | Liu Yao
CONTACT:
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: friends!
CHARACTER: Yan Zhengming
CANON: Liu Yao: the Revitalization of the Fuyao Sect
CANON POINT: after the 100-year time skip, before he meets the new improved literally jade-like Cheng Qian
BACKGROUND:
Liu Yao: the Revitalization of the Fuyao Sect is a heartwarming story about five rag-tag disciples (“a narcissist, a troublemaker, a meanie, an idiot, and a wimpy kid”) and their silly master (who is also somehow a weasel?), and the hijinks they all get up to, as part of their modest, declining sect. Until tragedy strikes, and the narcissist, who thought he’d spend his life as a pampered rich kid whilst lazily cultivating on the side, gets thrust into the role of sect leader, for which he is woefully underprepared. This fledgling sect leader (Yan Zhengming), his three shidi, and his shimei are sheltered for a while by their shishu (Island Lord Gu Yanxue) in an isolated island sect (Azure Dragon Island) where they can cultivate, and have a few years to make up for the time they’d frittered away on Fuyao mountain. But that protection falters as well. It seems the Fuyao sect was once very powerful, and contains (questionable) treasures the rest of the cultivation world would (literally) kill for. Besides that, at least two of the previous generations of Fuyao Sect have spawned powerful demonic cultivators. Lord Gu is attacked, as other cultivators believe he, as a former member of Fuyao sect, might have these treasures on his island. Realizing that the next target would be the Fuyao disciples themselves, he arranges for them to escape.
With enormous difficulty, chased by multiple cultivators bent on murder, they manage to get away. They might have made it, except a powerful cultivator uses a demonic technique to control the fourth disciple (Han Yuan) and manipulates him into killing the third disciple. This is Cheng Qian, who dies in Yan Zhenming’s arms, as Han Yuan, still controlled, disappears into the ocean.
For close to a hundred years, Yan Zhengming and the remaining two members of Fuyao sect have to struggle to survive. They can’t go back home; Fuyao Mountain is sealed, and Yan Zhengming still lacks the ability to unseal it. Besides, the area is watched by powerful cultivators just waiting to pick them off. Yan Zhengming was a rich young master, but when he tries to return to his family home, that too has been destroyed, by the same forces that are after Fuyao mountain’s treasures. So all they can do is run.
At his canon pull point, Yan Zhengming has relentlessly cultivated to the point that he is a powerful sword cultivator, which is the rarest way to enter the Dao. It’s dangerous, difficult, and requires indomitable will. He has also managed to shore up his sect financially, and give them a home while he continues to try to break the seal on Fuyao Mountain. It’s important, because Cheng Qian’s final wish, as he lay dying, was to “go home.”
ABILITIES | POWERS:
1. He is a sword cultivator, which means he can form swords out of his own primordial spirit (which is a thing that apparently takes most people decades of intense practice to cultivate).
2. He’ll eventually be able to form himself into a sword too, or something.
3. He can do the standard wuxia stuff like fly on a sword. He can even ride on the sword formed by his primordial spirit.
4. He can carve charms which have a variety of convenient uses like warming things up or cooling them down, lighting a path, locking a gate, reinforcing a wall, etc. He can carve the charms into various objects, fabric, etc.
- One charm of note is called a “puppet charm,” which protects and identifies the location of someone who is under attack. It's good for absorbing one (1) life-ending injury, and then it breaks.
- He can also make imitation charms, and made a ring that forms a 3-D likeness of Cheng Qian. Apparently he constructed it to keep him company, but made a mistake somewhere, and now it only slaps people.
- Finally he can use charms to clean and change his clothes, swords, etc.
5. He can destroy magical arrays, if his cultivation is higher than the caster
6. He has a powerful "sword aura" which can repel people and objects, and cause pain and injury to people of lower cultivation than him, and be intimidating af
PERSONALITY:
The official novel summary identifies him as a narcissist. He’s obsessed with beauty, in others as well as himself. When his shimei tells him she’s met a man handsomer than him, he gets angry—not because he’s jealous, but because he’s annoyed that she could possibly think there’s anyone as good-looking as him. As a teenager, he’s pleasant to Cheng Qian mainly because he thinks the other boy is sufficiently attractive. Things like talent or dedication don’t matter to him, only looks. His second brother, Li Yun, is passable as far as looks go, but he has disgusting hobbies (frogs). His fourth brother, Han Yuan is a former beggar and ugly; Yan Zhengming won’t bother with him at all.
He's fussy to the point that his fellow disciples call him "niangniang." As a teenager, he couldn't bear to sit on cold stone and made his servants place cushions for him first. As a 120+ year old sect leader, he uses his prodigious magical talents to keep himself looking spotless at all times. When Cheng Qian touches something gross and then touches him, Yan Zhengming reacts like this:
He has a difficult relationship with money; after having spent his youth as a pampered young master, and then having to live in fear and poverty for decades, only in recent years has he become rich once again. This has led to some bad habits. Like a peacock, he arrogantly preens and flaunts his wealth, even more egregiously than he did as a youth, only ordering the "most expensive" dishes and staying in the "finest" rooms. However, he becomes very annoyed when he sees other people showing off as well.
Despite the above, he is very much able to rise to the occasion. Yan Zhengming, as a teenager, cultivated in a strictly desultory fashion. His main obsession was having his hair combed all the time, having orchid-scented clothes, and being looked after by maids. When he was presented with the Sect Leader Seal, his initial thought was, “I don’t want it.” His impulse was to bring his junior brothers and sister back to his family home and give up on cultivation, and be a pampered young master for the rest of his life. Instead, he stayed on Azure Dragon Island, despite humiliation, and worked extremely hard to bring his skills up as quickly as he could. At his pull point, he is said to have a sword aura so powerful that normally he’d have “tens of thousands of disciples” worshipping him for his skills. To achieve what he has in terms of sword cultivation, requires years of grueling physical and mental training. Most sword cultivators are not able to bear this, and qi deviate, making it one of the most difficult and dangerous paths of cultivation.
Yan Zhengming is described in the text as being "broad-minded." His fury is incandescent, a flame that burns itself out in a flash: he's quick to anger, but doesn't hold a grudge afterwards. His martial siblings prank and bicker with him constantly, but he never stays mad about it. Han Yuan was manipulated into killing Cheng Qian, and then became a demonic cultivator afterwards, doing great evil; but Yan Zhengming always wanted to find and protect him, and never expelled him from the sect, even as he grieved for Cheng Qian for a century, loathing himself for his failure to protect his martial siblings.
He had multiple opportunities to reject being the Fuyao sect leader, and given his personality, this is definitely what he wanted to do. However, despite himself, he has a powerful sense of responsibility, and refused to abandon his fellow disciples. Also, even when he was a pampered young master, as a teenager, he led his junior brothers into a cave of monsters, negotiated with a giant chicken, rescued Han Yuan (who had wandered in there), and got them all out safely—this even though the monster cave was a dirty, disgusting place, and Yan Zhengming is the ultimate neat freak. Yan Zhengming’s sense of responsibility is also the reason why he refuses to disclose his feelings for Cheng Qian, as he feels they're inappropriate.
Despite his achievements, he has a terrible sense of self-worth: he's a self-hating narcissist. He feels that he has “ignorantly muddled through his whole life." He frittered away his time with his master, on Fuyao Mountain. If he’d worked harder, perhaps he’d have been able to avert the tragedy that claimed his master. If he’d been stronger, he might have saved Cheng Qian. At his canon point, he takes little pride in what he's been able to accomplish as a sword cultivator, because he's still unable to open the Sect Master Seal, and so still cannot enter Fuyao Mountain, to lay Cheng Qian’s bones to rest.
SAMPLE: here!
INVENTORY:
- sect leader seal, that contains memories of former Fuyao sect leaders.
- his own sword, with a nick in the blade
- Shuangren, Cheng Qian's sword
- A fan
- A stone seed: basically a goose egg-sized stone that can expand into a villa complete with courtyard and bedrooms, and can then be packed up again
- gold, silver, and jewels, including several glowing pearls that work as flashlights
- a ring in the shape of a copper coin, that creates a half-bust figure of Cheng Qian that slaps people
- a bag of hoarding that fits in his sleeve and carries all the above (it's bigger on the inside).
NOTES: n/a
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? Plot-heavy!
APPLICATION RECEIVED
ACCEPTED
Thank you for your application!
ADMIN
E.T.Yan Zhengming go home.NOTES
The timing makes it slightly difficult to accommodate a plot-heavy intro just yet, since we’re a few days ahead of transitioning out of Arc II. But Yan Zhengming is first on the list for a proper custom quest during the voyage out of Taravast, which is due to kick off shortly.
For now, to warm him up, he can enjoy getting chased down for an inordinate amount of time by Eastbound’s favourite fixture, the beautiful polar bear possessed by undead warlord Anurr, who is traipsing through Taravast. Ouhrsson is impervious to a shocking amount of damage, willy and eerily stubborn, but he won’t harm Yan Zhengming… as long as he runs quickly.