I’m thinking of trying to run a side plot again. Some of you might recognize the concept (I tried to get this started a while ago) but I’ve adjusted it and fleshed it out a bit more. This is still a post to see if anyone is interested in running this plot. I’ll probably be running some side RPs to get the plot established. If I do they’ll probably be run late night or early morning on fairly random days or even during the day on my days off. More details on the times can be worked out depending on who’s interested and when they’re available. This plot will probably be run at a slow pace and I’m planning on letting it integrate into the main RP too so even if you don’t plan on being a part of the side plot in an active way you’ll have a chance to interact with it if you want to. That being said if anyone has any problems with my ideas let me know so we can tweak them if they can be.


Before I break down the rolls I’d like filled I’ll start with the known and established facts that are already cannon IC as well as some semi-cannon speculations.

1: Kaolla Ronpotteh has the same last name/clan name as Bikho Ronpotteh the mithran member of the infamous Dark Lilies Coven. Kaolla believes that she is Bikho’s descendant and it can be speculated that she is at least related to Bikho in some way; however, with the mithran clan structure being as vague as it is there is no way to either prove or disprove any connection.

2: Kaolla posses an old grimoire. Kaolla believes that her grimoire was first written by Bikho herself; however, the book has the handwriting of at least 3 individuals inside it and could possibly have been written by any mage with the appropriate knowledge and perspective. Regardless of the books author it was somehow passed down to Kaolla’s mother whom Kaolla stole the book from.

3: Regardless of whether or not Kaolla’s believed blood ties to the original Dark Lilies exists or not Kaolla has always been fascinated by the coven and wishes to restart the group in an attempt to access the powerful magic that made the Dark Lilies Coven a thing of nightmares for generations.


So that’s it in a nutshell Kaolla wants to start her own version of the Dark Lillies Coven. That being said there are two main rolls I’m looking to fill for this side plot.


Dark Lily:

A Dark Lily is a sister of the coven, a “witch” dedicated to increasing her own magical powers and the powers of the sisterhood. To become a Dark Lily a character must be female and must be a mage. I would prefer that Dark Lilies be Black mages, but the coven can have members that are either Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, or Scholar. Summoner might be a possibility as well as Geomancer though the colored mages would be preferred. Blue Mages however will not be accepted into the sisterhood as Kaolla views Blue Magic as tainted. (Besides we already have a large side plot focusing on Blue Magic running.)

Now while I would prefer for RPers who decide to become a member of the coven IC to focus on their mage job I will not ask that they never change jobs IC. However, if a lily does RP as a non mage job she will be viewed as slacking in her responsibilities to the sisterhood. Also with the magic from her mage job sealed off any side benefits that come from being a member won’t work, even if the mage job is subbed since a certain level of magical power is needed for any of the planned IC abilities to function.

(The planned benefits will be something that will need to be discussed with the entire LS since it needs to be ensured that they aren’t disruptive and that they are balanced in with canon. However since we already have some characters with invented abilities I see no problem with a few extra powers being granted members. Mirror’s abilities with dreams comes to mind as an example of what I’m talking about.)

Warders:

(I’m borrowing a lot of this idea from the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan. I’m doing this to open the plot up to more players but it’s also what might get the most questions on if it can be canon.)

Warders are in short protectors for the witches. Tanks to draw the attention of foes so that the Lilies have time to cast. Warders serve a specific Lily as well as the coven overall. Their main duty however is to their own personal “Witch”. Warders can be either Paladins, Warriors, or Samurai. (I know Ninja’s can tank but I’m going for a certain feel here. However if someone really wants to use ninja we can talk about it. The new Rune Fencer job can also be a good fit if we allow them into RP.) There is a possibility that a female Red Mage that focuses on swordplay can be both a Lily and another Lily’s Warder; however, if someone does want to use this idea I ask that only one person does so. Warder can be either male or female characters and they are chosen by an individual Lily to be her protector. In addition to protecting the coven, when a Warder is chosen he (or she) is bonded to the witch that chose him. Among the benefits of this is a mental link. A Lily can hear her Warder’s thoughts and visa versa. This means that IC a bonded Lily/Warder pair will be able to know what is in the (thought) posts of their partner. This link however is forged of the Lily’s magic so if the Lily ever changes away from her mage job the link is muted and they can no longer hear each other’s thoughts. Distance can also mute the effect. A Lily and Warder separated by great distance might get occasional flashes of emotion passed over the link but no details.

Other IC abilities planned include an ability for a Warder to be able to sense whenever his (or her) Lily is in danger no mater how far apart they are. This ability should be active even if the Lily is not using her mage job; however, if the Lily is not on her mage job the Warder will not be able to feel where she is and thus will be unable to rush to help her.


To do this RP I want at least two lilies to join the coven (not including Kaolla) and for at least one Lily to have a warder.

On a side note the Lily Warder pairings do not have to be a romantic one. Though having each other’s thoughts in your heads will have an obvious effect on the pairs emotional state. It could be an interesting plot to have a Warder and Lily bonded when one or both of them are romantically involved with someone not involved with the coven. For example a Lily bonds a warder (maybe even against their will) but the Warder loves another woman (or even a man) and the Lily has to deal with feeling their warder’s emotions for their love and the warder has to deal with basically having a fifth wheel stuck in his head during his (or her) romantic pursuits. This isn’t the only plot possibility of course, and an old fashioned psychic bond between lovers plot would be just sweet, also hilarious at times. That being said Kaolla herself will probably not have a Warder since she would want to bond with another woman due to her preferences and prejudices. And while the idea of forcing Kaolla to mind meld with a male is hilarious the bonding is initiated by the witch and Kaolla would never open her mind up to a man like that IC. Though it could be plotted that the bonding is discovered by accident and that the mental link is an unintended side effect. Making the bound pair having to deal with a link they neither wanted nor were prepared for.

I think that about covers it. I was considering having a third group called Hounds or something of the like, which would basically be a group of attack dog assassins that did the bidding of the lilies but weren’t a part of the coven or even bound to it like the warders in order to have one more place for involvement, but that’s something that can be considered at another time.

And since I know someone will bring up the issue of male mages I’ll go ahead and address that here too. The Dark Lilies are a coven a sisterhood, and yes I know the original group had a Galka member, but at the moment including male mages in the coven isn’t planned mostly because I’m looking to create a kind of sorority feel among the witches. It will be a group for the members to grow in in both power and as women. The simple fact is that if the coven is just opened up to all mages it will do longer be the Dark Lilies. And while doing a kind of magic school, or mage tower RP sounds like fun too I have a specific feel I’ve wanted to try and have had floating around in my head ever since I picked Kaolla’s IC last name. There is a possibility of expanding the RP to include a kind of full Mages’ Tower RP in which the Dark Lilies can be a part of. If this does happen maybe the male mages can group into their own fraternity type group, maybe to contrast put Rose in their name Order of the Blood Rose or something like that :3 Don’t know if male mages would want to have a Warder like system like the Lilies or if they would like to make up their own perk system. I think it would be more interesting to come up with a completely different way for a male mage group to work, it will also be interesting to see at what level the two groups will be cooperative or rivals, but this is all stuff that can be discussed later if it needs to be.

Okay that’s my idea and I’ll wait to see if I even get any interested replies before I work on more detailed ideas for structure and plots.

Unfortunately while I think Chiaral could fit the requirements in this scenario, I've already got my hands too full with 2 (sort of 3) characters in the Aht Urhgan plot, so for now I'll have to sit out. I could look better into this at a latter time, if it gets rolling.

With all that's going on right now with the Aht Urhgan plot, not to mention that Aht Urhgan zones can be very unfriendly to mages, I wasn't planning on starting this plot any time soon. More than likely this will not be started until Aht Urhgan is done. The side plot slots are really quite full at the moment after all. I just wanted to get this posted so that if people are interested we can start brainstorming on how Kaolla will either invite or entice characters to join the coven. As for warders it's up to the individual witches to "bind" them lol Also to clarify that a Lily doesn't need a Warder since the warders serve the entire coven though orders are passed to the Warder by their personal Lily. It's actually possible for one Lily to bind more than one Warder though I don't encourage that road being taken since it'd be somewhat limiting for others. But it's all still in the planning phase so adjustments can be made.

I'm pretty much out. Draen doesn't have magic or fit the criteria to be a Warder, and Mal… well…. even if the 'good ending' of ToAU for her happens and I get the drive to level the placeholder char, she'll always be at least /BLU. Saeth wanders way too much to get involved with a group, Hae would consider the whole idea foolishness (she's a grumpy cat), and Tarauial is too religious and crippled to be a Warder to anyone.

I'm pretty much out. Draen doesn't have magic or fit the criteria to be a Warder, and Mal… well…. even if the 'good ending' of ToAU for her happens and I get the drive to level the placeholder char, she'll always be at least /BLU. Saeth wanders way too much to get involved with a group, Hae would consider the whole idea foolishness (she's a grumpy cat), and Tarauial is too religious and crippled to be a Warder to anyone.Draenen Wen

RDM/BLU could maybe work for the Lily and Warder oddity combo but it would probably create a very tense situation depending on who is the Lily she's bonded too. Especially since the Lily/Lily+Warder bond is a double bond which will create its own unique set of complications. As for not fitting the Warder criteria the criteria isn't set in stone, actually nothing is set in stone so if you or anyone is interested but would need something to be changed in order to join in the changes can always at least be discussed before a character is written off on joining in.

As I said before, I'd be interested in joining. Either Sae on WHM, Sobe on RDM, or perhaps another character that I have in the works, would probably work. However, between work times and my End Game schedule though, I might be hard to catch. (This is where the RP forum might be useful!)

Forum RP might be useful but I do want to do this RP in game. And for it to have any real depth I really need 2 more Lilies and at least one warder actively RPing in game. It might be possible to open up Warders to other melee jobs but will need at least one warder that can fit a tank roll namely either a paladin or a war/dnc. Sam/dnc could work too since I doubt we'll really be fighting anything too dangerous IC in this RP.

I might join… I have an idea for a new character that can be used for this or Adoulin if that starts up… and Aurou is at a standstill right now as it is… so either new or Aur might work. My mule Elvaan male character was supposed to be a SAM if I ever unlock it (30 MNK atm), so there is him too. Like Sae though… between work, life, and endgame it might be tough to schedule. I'm really only free Thursday and Friday evenings… Saturday and Sunday all day are hit or miss.

Yea my work schedule is far from stable too so this probably won't be a weekly RP it will more than likely be done pickup RP style at random times on random days when people are available. Also if someone wants to start a new character for this one of the goals of the Coven is increasing the magical power of the members and the combat strength of the Warders. This means that XP parties can defiantly be a part of this RP. Can do either level sync parties or at higher lvls stuff like besieged or Campaign. Considering that we might be getting into Wings of the Goddess by the time this gets started it could be an interesting side plot considering that Shadowhand more than likely is Poseaulloie the Elvaan member of the original Dark Lilies Coven.

Canceled again. It seems we just don't have the people to do this right now. I might try to revive this idea again later but since I can't even focus on the main RP right now there is no way I can even think of running this. And like I said we don't have the people for it. To be honest I doubt this idea will ever be used.