To Be a Master
RP IRC Channel: #TBaM
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In an alternate Nasuverse, those who awaken their Magic Circuits and wield the power of magecraft gain the ability to summon a Daemon, manifesting their soul outside their body as an animal based on their elemental affinity and personality. It is similar to the idea of creating a familiar, only this is a process that is automatically invoked when one's circuits are first opened, giving the fledgling mage something of an assistant and a guide towards understanding their affinity. One's Thaumaturgical Crest may affect this in some ways, conferring special abilities or "spells" to the familiar (much in the same way that some pokemon have egg moves), but otherwise, one's Daemon is one's own, "levelling up" as the magus trains and betters him or herself, as it is a manifestation of the soul.
Now, as a creature of spirit, your Daemon can only be harmed by magecraft or other supernatural means - with the death of a daemon having dire consequences for the mage in question. The least consequence tends to be the loss of the ability to use magecraft for a period of time, and that is rare. More commonly, you will fall into a coma from spiritual shock, and may even die. But such is a small price to pay for a mage, as those who seek to impose their will upon the world walk with death anyway.
This incomplete materialization of the soul was what prompted the Einzbern to seek out the Third Magic as a more perfect form of this natural process. Over the course of thousands of years, they tried to improve upon this in any way possible - and at last succeeded. Wishing to preserve this secret, they created a line of homunculi to guard and pass down the powers as the family saw fit, but they did not take into account that even if the soul would not degenerate, the physical vessel could. One millennium ago, due to mysterious circumstances lost to the mists of time, the secret was lost, and so the Einzbern have spent centuries trying to recover what they once wielded.
To do this, they eventually came up with the concept of the Holy Grail War, using portions of Heaven's Feel in an attempt to recreate it in its entirety. Based on the Daemon materialization process (and the ability of Dream Mist to turn wishes to reality), it takes a raw soul and copies information of Heroic Spirits in order to generate a Servant. Their hope is to reach Akasha and there, gain the knowledge that was once lost to them, that they might once again rise to greatness.
But five Holy Grail Wars have come and gone, and the Association has not been happy with the costs. To their knowledge, the Gate to Akasha has never been opened, nor the Grail fully summoned, so they are considering dismantling the Greater Grail.
The Einzbern (and a few other Families) opposed this, and so one more chance was given. There would be one more war, but this time, the Association and the Church would take a larger role in testing and preparing prospective representatives, to prevent the...issues that arose in the previous Wars, with Lord El Melloi II being put in charge this process.
For the purposes of this test, they are putting on a great tournament of souls, reasoning that one must first master one's own soul before one can reasonably be granted the right of command over another. Representatives of the Three Great Branches, the Church, and a number of other organizations have stepped forward to test the mettle of would-be competitors, with each participant required to win a number of"blessings" before going to Fuyuki, lest he or she not be recognized as a Master by the Holy Grail.
The Clock Tower, Atlas Academy, the Vatican, the Wandering Tomb - these places and more competitors must find, there to challenge those who hold the blessing of each, and perhaps win a token of victory to be recognized as worthy. Who knows? One may even encounter a wandering magician who takes an interest in one's existence...
Premise:
You are a magus of the moonlit world (whether of the Association, the East, Freelancer or otherwise) who has heard the call for Masters in the Sixth Holy Grail War, and for one reason or another have become interested in this. The events of the Fourth and Fifth War are now well known (at least as far as accurately as they can be portrayed in rumors), and the idea of a wishgranting machine without corruption is not...an unappealing one. Plus, it is said that even if one doesn't qualify for the Grail War, the experience of getting a "blessing" or two (or claiming an artifact or two) might help with making connections, improving one's career or learning new abilities - all valuable to a mage.
Skill Share
As you and your daemon are part of a single soul, at start, you will have a single Skill Point pool of 250 Points to select your initial skills. The stronger (more evolved) your daemon is due to things other than level up, the weaker you are likely to be. The more you spend on moves for your daemon, the less remains for your spells.
On Alignment: You may freely choose one elemental alignment from the standard Fire/Water/Wind/Earth set. If you desire an additional alignment, each addition will cost 15 Skill Points each. Substitutions of normal elements for unconventional elements will cost 10 points.
On Spells: By default, on top of basic reinforcement of inorganic objects, you have access to 3 D-rank spells and 1 C-rank spell. 3 of these (including the C-rank) must be of your alignment. To boost a D-rank spell to a C-rank spell requires 15 skill points. To boost a C-rank spell to B requires 30 skill points. To boost a B-rank spell to A requires 60 skill points. A new spell slot can be bought for 20 Skill Points, though this begins as a E-rank slot, and can be upgraded to rank D for 10 skill points. If you want self/organic/spirit reinforcement, this must be bought as a rank D spell!
On Mage's Other Abilities: You may have up to 3 non-magecraft related skills for free at base. Consult GM for additional abilities, or to make sure they aren't *too* gamebreaking, or a cost may be levied.
On Pokemon Starting Level: By default, this is 20, though you may pay 5 SP to boost it to 23, and 10 SP to boost to 26, or 15 SP to boost to 29.
On Moves: Moves gained through the normal level-up process do not cost skill points. Other, however, Egg Moves, Transfer Moves, Move Relearner or TM skills may be chosen through a cost of (30 - Move PP) Skill points (if the resulting value is larger than 0) or 5 Skill points if the resulting value is less than zero. You are limited to a single Egg Move for your Daemon.
On Pokemon Abilities: You may choose any of the normal abilities available to the pokemon for free. Hidden Abilities cost 10 Skill Points.
On non-level based evolution: Realizing that trading basically impossible in this system, with trade evolution also impossible, one may buy a stone, friendship, or trade-based evolution for 30 Skill Points.
On Hold Items: Consumable hold items are 5 skill points each. Others (like Eviolite) may be acquired during the course of the game itself.
On Pokemon Typing and your Alignment: Elemental types gain access to the appropriate pokemon types for free- Fire gets Fire, for instance; Wind gets Electric/Flying; Water gets Water/Ice; Earth gets Ground/Rock/Steel, with Normal and Fighting types available to all. Poison, Grass, and Bug are available for 10 Skill points. Psychic, Dark, and Ghost types are available for 15. Dragon and Fairy types will cost 20 Skill Points to unlock. In the case of dual typing, refer to primary type to see if you get it for free. If not, you must pay the unlock cost of the more expensive of the two types. If your elemental alignment is something other than some combination of the normal elemental types, consult the GM.
On IVs/EVs: By default, your pokemon starts out with IVs of 0. You may invest 10 Skill points to raise them to up to 15, 20 to raise them to 25 or 30 to raise them to up to 31. In terms of Effort Values (EVs), you will have the full value of 510 available to distribute at the start.
On Mega-Evolutions: You will receive a Keystone on joining the quest, but megastones are rarer to find. In addition, you may only use the Mega-Evolution ability once a day between level 20-30, twice a day at 30-40, and so forth.
With all that in mind, will you join the quest to become the very best, like no one ever was?
Template for prospective Masters* (to be PMed to me):
Name: (No Canon Characters)
Gender:
Age:
Location:
Elemental Affinity:
Spells:
Other abilities (no MEoDP):
Reason for participating:
Background:
Daemon Template:
Pokemon of Choice: (select from Pokedex, with no legendary pokemon permitted)
Level:
Hold Item:
Ability:
Move 1*:
Move 2:
Move 3:
Move 4:
Interested Masters:
mangafreak7793
Soldat der Trauer
Elyrin
Lycodrake
Mooncake
Katie
EnigmaticFellow
Aces
Katie
Rin-chan
lethum