WIP - Introduction

WIP – Introduction Hey there. I'm re-writing the introduction to my roleplaying theme. Comment on it if you wish, but please refrain from spamming or very short messages. If you haven't noticed, the introduction (first post) of the Timeline & Introduction thread has been erased (not permanently deleted, I saved it in the archive).

Dawn and Twilight – Introduction

Welcome to "Dawn and Twilight", previously known as "Myths of Faith". It is a roleplaying theme for Warcraft III Roleplaying-maps (not to be mistaken for RPGs), where you have tools that allow you to create your own story.

History – Origins and progress

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This is a roleplaying theme that originated in the mix of two main lores:

• Rui's lore: My lore was nothing special. All I remember having created was a history of wars between Dwarves on a frozen continent, and even that came from a random themeless RP. I believe I also had a few continents planned already. Their structure came from Curse of the Magi Roleplay's, triggered by TheBlackMage and terrained by IamtheWalrus.
  
  
  swippy & RaiSeD-PsYcHo's lore: The most important, I guess. swippy and Raised-Psycho were responsible for creating Azhara, Curan, and Malagath, all of whom were pretty much the protagonists of the first "season".

I named the theme "Myths of Faith" at first. Back then the roleplays were pretty interesting (except when we had a few incidents with people who would loose their seriousness, but it didn't happen THAT often), many people were interested in participating and the story molded itself, changing now and then. Finally, we came to an end when the Stormthrone was taken down, I don't remember if I just wrote that or if we actually roleplayed it, my guess is that we didn't and I just made it up. Anyway, the reason we stopped was (I think) because nobody had the time anymore.

The theme was, in my opinion, far too interesting to be left to rot, so I picked it up and invented an earthquake that somehow monstrously increased the size of the planet (imagine that...). The problem is that neither Swippy nor Psycho liked the idea, and they both stopped playing it (that was not the only factor, but the others are irrelevant). Psycho even yelled at me that the theme was over, but I simply couldn't leave the theme to die -- I liked it way too much to simply do that.

Picking up a few roleplayers, namely naamloos123/Hatred, Black-cat (both had participated on the first "season"), along with a few others, I began a new roleplay: "Dawn and Twilight". Even though the name change could lead you to believe that it was a major change, the only major change that happened was the sudden huge size of the planet (which became even bigger with a second earthquake I came up with). Minor changes included a few new towns invented by new players (gold-panter, GlorfindelIl, Puppet...), and a new regime concerning magic (it was not a major change because I had never liked nor tolerated magic that much, for the simple reason that it was too close to Warcraft, which is what I originally had planned, by the way. I just found that it was non-fitting, and I really didn't like it).

The history was still interesting, in my opinion, but I noticed it would become less and less interesting over time: there was almost always a battle at the end of the roleplay, and the theme would center around that, eventually becoming repetitive.

The third season (which started to be roleplayed in the Summer of 2007) did not get out of this loop either. I had planned to continue roleplaying it, hopefully bringing something new this Summer (2008), and while naamloos123 had been developing a map (for which I designed units and a combat system ability) that could fit the theme, we never got to play it, since we lacked both opportunities and players.

The story

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Our world is-- or better, was, named "Eiroth". A better-suiting name would be Somnium.
I originally named it Eiroth because I wanted to make it another planet in the Warcraft universe. However, swords, bows/arrows, cavalry, and other medieval stuff has always fascinated me, and in Warcraft you have way too much magic. Even though I like magic, somewhat, in this theme I felt it wouldn't fit.

The initial theory for Eiroth's creation was that the Titans had forged the world, posteriorly placing a Well of Life to protect the world against any outer threats as well as creating a race known as the Snow Elves, to guard the Well (it doesn't sound like Warcraft at all, does it?).
After rethinking the world's history, I decided that it would be the World of Dreamers, a second dimension of Earth (this was somewhat inspired in Wanderers of Sorceria's lore).
Your role in Somnium is decided by the power of your belief. You may be only an insignificant peasant or you may a hero, you may be a long-living Dark Elf or you may otherwise be a Man (note, in our theme "Human" may also define a mortal being, and not specifically the race of Humans as we know them), depending on your weaker or stronger capability to believe.

Magic

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See also: WIP-Magic. It is currently closed, but you may PM me if you want to post ideas.

The magic policy I told you of.

The only beings known to have used Arcane magic were the High Men and the High Elves (the later were supposedly the first to use it). There were, however, other individuals who used it. The first was Xingdao Fan, a female of unknown race (apparently a race that can manipulate the Arcane's powers), and the second was empress Marie Antoinette of the Kan Dynasty. Now, Marie Antoinette was supposedly from the Lesser Men, but it is known that rage can make one do unbelievable things, and Marie Antoinette's hate for Azhara was certainly a strong motive. The alternative is that the empress was a descendant from the High Men, even though they were said to have vanished completely.

There is a mysterious science behind the Arcane magic. Everyone knows that it creates things out of thin air without the requirement of bounds to Nature, Spirits or magical items...

There are various races that wield Shamanism, most notably the Orcs (on thunder elemental magic) and Earth Elves (on earth elemental magic).
Using the power of Shamanism is easy, but acquiring such power is not. To use it, the shaman first has to learn how to communicate with the Spirits, identities (or "gods") of the various elemental powers: Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, and Wind. The shaman is taken through his dreams to their realm. The gods of the elements then challenge the shaman with his fears. If the apprentice passes the test of a Spirit, then he may call that Spirit.

The only known users of Druidism are the Wood Elves, beings that are taught to love the work of Mother Nature from childhood. Being a druid requires that pure love. No creature can simply start using Druidism simply because they want to – the druid has to pay Nature a debt, so that Nature may repay.

Fel magic is a counterpart of Holy/Light – while Men's magical strength derives from their belief in God, warlocks pull the negative energies off their connection to the Devil.

It's averagely easy to raise a corpse, the problem lies in having the mind power to control it. Being a necromancer is not as easy as it sounds. Necromancers are, of all spellbinders, the ones with most will power.
A master necromancer can control a maximum of 50 undead servants, more or less. The master of Necromancy is, without a doubt, the Overmind, a creature that rules over the Un'Oorg faction.