Ten years after the Oblivion Crisis...

Death, disease, decay, have been lurking since the Oblivion Crisis. An army of the dead has arisen, soldiers, mages, archers, assassins, the necromancer's army hasn't discriminated. Disease has spread like a wildfire, at first its barely noticable, you get a little tired quicker, until you start coughing up blood, then your muscles weaken, and die. It is a plague that is destroying many. Death is everywhere, Ocato tried to stop the mysterious "kidnappings" that have been occuring, but to no luck, it is assumed the dark brotherhood has been killing them, but the mages' guild believes it the necromancers. Ocato has sent out legionairres across the provinces to look for the hideouts of these kindappers, but to no luck, he is beginning to lose hope, and has taken measures to protect himself, by quarrantining the Imperial City.

Morrowind has been hit hardest by the necromancer army. The Temple (or what remained of it after the crisis) has been exterminated. House Redoran has been missing many numbers. House Hlaalu has lost only a few members. House Telvanni has lost none. The imperial legion is working hard to discover the culprits, but they are failing. Vvardenfell has become a wasteland, the vibrant green forest-like lands and the mushrooms have all died and decayed. The island is filled with undead, both humanoid and creatures.

Cyrodiil hasn't been hit hard, probably because you can't get in. You cannot leave or get in, due to the legion guarding the border. The imperial city is only available to Ocato, the Champion, and a few others. It is guarded by the legion's finest. If the necromancer army continues with its assaults on Tamriel, it will weaken it even further.

The rest of the provinces have barely been touched, a few undead have risen, but very few have come more than normal.

The leader of their army is an ancient lich, born thousands of years ago (about the same time as Divayth Fyr), and he claims to have heard the voice of Mannimarco, telling him to raise an army to help him end the miserable life of Arkay. Ocato has called all adventurers forth to the white-gold tower to learn the battleplans.


Edit: Fixed

As always be sure to polish it up for the OP, but it seems sound enough. I would flesh it out a bit more, add in some little details that will help move us along. Things I see a lot are: leaders of respective parties (Mannimarco?), the necromancers' reasons for doing such a thing, the protagonists' plan to stop them, and a starting point for the characters. These things aren't always a requirement, but they tend to make RPs run more smoothly. And trust me, we're not going to lose interest just because you tell us who the necromancer leader is, or what they're after. Such mystery is usually just a lack of information, which is a major RP turn off. I've said it before and I'll say it again, don't be afraid to elaborate for your audience. RPs can't do like fan fictions, they don't always have that great hook with characters or drama; they need to pull us in with creativity and potential. So, flesh it out, clean it up, and you should be good


PS Wait until at least Thursday or Friday before making the next thread, be it sign up or actual RP. If you make it immediately people don't seem to want to look at it much anymore (personal experience), waiting makes them want it. Good luck, sounds like fun

Instead of a thousand-year old lich who has heard the voice of Mannimarco, why not just have Mannimarco?

Intresting, I found it more of an information dump though, the story needs to be fleshed out reather with some more intracate details- How and when did ocato try to stop the kidnappings and what happened? this whole story could and should be more fleshed out, love the idea but it needs more of a creative touch more than an info-line. It's great how you related both games Morrowind and Oblivion together keep up the good work!

4,000 actually. I don't use Mannimarco, because I do not support the slaying of gods. Killing Mannimarco in Oblivion was for lack of a better word, dumb. He is a god, not just another npc.

Calling Mannimarco a god is ridiculous. He is an old, very-powerful lich and nothing more.

I don't see why so many people have such a hard-on for Mannimarco.

Yeah, Mannimarco is not a God. I went to UESP to see if I could find information on him and here is what I came up with.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Mannimarco That's him in the game no real good info

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Vanus_Galerion Looks like the answers in here.

Here is one passage that shows he is a Lich;

The Great Battle
It was then that Galerion headed out with an army of Mages and Battlemages and traveled north to a cursed mountain path to settle his business with Mannimarco. Galerion and his army were met by an equally powerful army of necromancers on the mountain, and both sides were ready to do battle.

Galerion cried, echoing, "Worm King, surrender your artifacts, And their power to me, and you shall live as befits the dead." The hollow laugh of Mannimarco answered: "You die first." The mage army then clashed with the obscene and unholy force.

As the two armies clashed, lightning and frost cascaded around them. The necromancers summoned various undead creatures to their sides which were battered by streams of light forged by the battlemages. Galerion noticed, before the end of the battle that Mannimarco was no longer alive, but had turned himself into a lich thus gaining immortality. Galerion and his army won the battle and managed to crush the remaining necromancers. Mannimarco also appeared to be dead. Although Galerion won the battle and many necromancers were killed, the practice of necromancy would live on.

Hope that helps, but anyway a 4,000 year old Lich would be cool because you would create your own lore around him

Actually, according to the Imperial Library (and in terms of lore I trust the IL more than UESP):

(From http://www.imperial-library.info/characters/daggerfall.shtml)

'In fact he seeks only Mantella, a gem of power that fueled the Numidium. With this gem he seeks to become a god. The use of the gem lets him to leave his mortal frame and joins the ranks of the Gods of Oblivion. Another Daedric Prince? Some speculations arise. From Nu-Hatta of the Sphinxmoth Inquiry Tree, we learn that "The Jills of Aka-tosh have mended this numidition. Mannimarco remains as he was: the high priest of maggots." However from "Arkay The Enemy", he wrote, "Once I was a lowly man such as yourselves. By my will I entered the ranks of the gods." The truth? Only time will tell.'

So we can at least speculate that he has ascended godhood; at very least it certainly isn't 'ridiculous' to call him a god. His battle with Galerion would obviously prove him to be a lich, because it took place before the Warp of the West; afterwards however, no one can say for sure.

What you quote comes from http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/mannimarco.shtml, which is written in verse, and I recall one source (can't recall exactly) mentioning this work as dubious for credibility. Likely because it is written in poetic form, and comes off as quite stylized and embellished for public 'wow' factor. However, it is likely still credible in the fact that Mannimarco was the world's first lich (recorded anyways) and Galerion did have an issue with him; if the confrontation occurred like described in the poem is debatable.

Now the simple fact remains he is an old bugger, still present on the mortal plane in Daggerfall -alive or undead- and still very much power hungry, and over a thousand yrs old, considering the Mage's Guild was founded 1,100yrs before the Oblivion Crisis, and who knows how old he was before the founding of the Guild.

The Warp of the West, however, gives the impression that every alternative of Daggerfall's ending did, in fact, occur. Which means all the kingdoms won the war, Mannimarco became a god, The Underking slew Numbimim (sp?) and the Orcs got their own kingdom. Considering he was also alive in Oblivion, I personally hold the theory that the Jills of Akatosh took care of Mannimarco's Godhood in the same way they took care of the kingdom wins.

Basically... He received partial godhood; evident by the effect of the Revenant, or Necromancer's Moon, there is some form of powerful celestial body working in the necromancer's favor. Mannimarco is the God of Worms. But he is also the King of Worms. To me, he got both; mortality and immortality. He is both material and celestial. Several bodily manifestations and a single god-head manifestation, all individually too weak to be of major threat but combined, as powerful as the Mannimarco of old.

Indeed, the Dragon Break made it so that Mannimarco did three things simultaneously: died, ascended, and stayed the same. Thus, he has a mortal form (OB guy), an immortal form (the Necromancer's Moon), and somewhere in Daggerfall is a corpse. So, he can be slain, but he is still very powerful being he most likely has use of the Moon.

All lore aside, I agree with Beorn that this could use some more fleshing out. Or as I called it, cleaning up. Don't just tell us that there is an army of undead, tell us why. Tell us why Mannimarco chose now to attack, and what Ocato and the others plan to do about it, and what their suspicions are. An OP can be a tricky thing, but there are plenty of great examples of informative, gripping explanations of an RP.

And one thing before I go (and don't take this the wrong way), don't just add on to your OP with a last minute sentence about a lich. When I said to clean it up and add more detail, I meant take the whole idea back to the drawing board and dive into it. Go into the deepest causes and effects of the main plot. Plan it out like you would a story, albeit with less focus on characters and concrete events so much as major plot points and further details about non-player characters. As it is, the whole OP can be summarized by "Mannimarco's army of undead are attacking Morrowind and Cyrodiil. Ocato has boarded himself up in the Imperial City, and called champions to help him." Detail doesn't mean needless fluff, it means real ideas that make us stand up and go "Wow, I'd never thought of that!"

Your ideas are usually good, Zalphon, but they always lack detail and planning. They seem more like notes on a story, a summary of the main idea. Check out some of the really good RPs, and see how they started out. Look carefully at their OPs. I have faith that you can make a great RP, one that will last several threads, if you just took the time to flesh it all out. Good luck :goodjob:

I plan on working on it

edit: Don't be upset about my lich lore, but he isn't a run-of-the-mill lich. He is a heavily armored lich, but also an amazing spellcaster dedicated to [Yeah right, like I am going to tell you all this, before the RP has started ]

He is, THE LICH KING!!!

Liches can be powerful enough as it is, no need to add in anything else. And you are doing Mannimarco, correct? We have all agreed a long time ago his Oblivion version was incorrect, and any lore within was not canon He has a moon for Talos' sake.

Yes, that is exactly what I want you to do. Tell us a lot about him! It's only going to make us more interested, and it doesn't effect our characters at all. There is no downside to telling us things in an RP, fan fictions are when you use mystery and suspense. I hope you have enough plot worked out so that a major mystery isn't who in Oblivion we're fighting.



EDIT: It seems you are, my friend

Im too used to fanfictions

"Thousands of years ago, a child was born. He watched his parents die at a young age. The boy left and found a sload who taught him much about necromancy. After he learned all the sload knew, he killed him, and reanimated his corpse to serve as his "assistant." The boy craved knowledge, it became a part of him, he loved learning, he needed it. He stole tomes from the mages' guild, he killed wizards, he slaughtered soldiers for the knowledge. A thousand years had passed since his birth. He had decided to ascend to lichdom. He travelled to an ancient fortress, there he kidnapped hundreds of people. The necromancer killed them all, and used them to ascend. He ressurected them all. It is said they are still around, lurking. The man became a lich, and with his new ascension he used his army of dead to defend him while he studied. He watched as Mannimarco rose up and conquered. With joy he stole the work and research of the lich, to use it for himself. With time he became a powerful lich, more magic than man now. His flesh was kept alive by an evil magic, his blood was black and tainted by the dark magics used to keep it alive. He watched as Mannimarco fell, and transformed into three parts. A god, a corpse, and a mortal. He declared himself the Arch Lich. He decided that the Arch Lich should rule Tamriel. He should claim the throne that taunted him so..." ~Ledgend of the Arch Lich

I am revamping the story to be all about this guy trying to conquer Tamriel, because he thinks the Arch Lich, him, deserves it. There are a lot of hes for a reason, it is folk ledgend, they aren't trying to sound good.

edit: His/her gender is secret for the time being (not that it really matters after being alive that long) as is his race (after being rotting for three-thousand years you kind of can't tell anyway)

edit 2: This is LEDGEND, not fact (well it all is fact, except for the last part about him trying to conquer which is ledgend)

No, it's Mellifleur XD




EDIT: Looks simple enough...

May I suggest a few things? Only elves can live that long, and since a lich's soul is bound to the world. Wouldn't his flesh and such completely decayed by then and he'd be more or less a magical link in a way?

Mistress Dratha is a few thousand years old thanks to necromancy (and not a lich)

And like I said, more magic than man. His flesh is decayed, but only a bit, because the magic in his veins as preserved it.

In that case, sounds good.

Tell me when character apps are open please

Sounds fun! I guess I can squeeze in being in another RP, this one seems fun

I still don't see why you can't just use Mannimarco :shrug: That was my whole point behind telling you about the lore. But oh well, it's your RP, and if you want an original (albeit unecessary) character, you are more than welcome to have one. The OP sounded a little redundant at times:

"He declared himself the Arch Lich. He decided that the Arch Lich should rule Tamriel. He should claim the throne that taunted him so."

I can really sum that up in one line, "This malevolent force took up a new mantle, that of the Arch Lich, and set off with his new power to slaughter the whole of Tamriel."

Nothing really wrong with it, it just seems like it can still use some cleaning Keep up the good work.

Why use Mannimarco? Why not make my own guy? Creativity isn't discourged on these forums last time I checked... :shrug:

^ exactly, ever see Willy the Worm? Yeah he's a necrophilliac lich who found a way to open a gate to oblivion releasing millions of daedra

There was also Gratch... *shivers*

I am going to keep this guy, but tie Manni in somewhere (can't tie in his mortal form, that got killed, perhaps his god form?)

There is nothing wrong with keeping him alive; nothing says the Oblivion Archmage succeeded in killing him.

No, creativity is not discouraged, but needlessly making up lore is. But hey, that's your call. You can use your own guy if you like, it's your RP, and I can't stop you. Best of luck :goodjob: