Earth was a waste land. Was. It was born anew, many years back, however it is a far cry from what it once was. Tools are handmade-seldom ever the same as one another- and utensils are made of wood and stone. Houses, constructed of wood, metal and earth are almost the same as they used to be, except for the addition of one room; deep beneath the house, no matter who it belongs to, is a room barren of all furniture except one well kept alter. And once a week each family brings an offering to the alter, whether it be food, seeds, utensils or even -in the case of children- toys.

Should each family fail to provide an offering, they will be punished by whom it is they owe said offering. Their crops will fail, there livestock will die, if they continue to refuse to offer anything, then eventually they will die. The one who is responsible for this is known by many names; the reaper, shadow, or even -though only by his priests- Gabriel. However, despite his rather ruthless manner of collecting debts, he is not unkind. Should a family not be able to afford to offer something like food, or seeds, they might simply gather a handful of dirt and place it upon the alter for the creature to collect, and they will be spared.

For those who give offerings regularly, they will be met with wealth and prosperity. Should livestock manage to escape their farm, it will return to their estate by evening, unharmed. Should crops begin to fail, they will be healthy within the week.




the town of new haven is small, tucked away in a large forest, surrounded by woods on all sides. there is one road that leads to a main highway of sorts, where all the dirt paths from all the surrounding towns merge to form one big dirt road. this is the only way in or out of the town, unless you want to take your chances with the forest.

the town has two wells, and a farm with one cow, a horse named vega, three chickens and one puppy. besides the farm, the only other animals are from the exotic animal breeder which supplies pelts and meat for the town to sell and consume.

the church, small as it is, is the finest building in the town, with many resources being compiled to appease the creature. it has stained glass windows, each depicting a scene of a pure black animal hunting a normally colored animal. each window displays a different animal, but anyone can tell they depict the same person.


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please respond with readable responses and use quotation marks when your character is speaking, it makes it a lot easier to follow the story, thank you

note; last time i set up a roleplay, someone asked for signups so i thought i'd just put a link here before hand so anyone who is interested doesn't have to interrupt the story to ask for them.

https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=95657

andromeda:

climbing onto the saddle, i spur vega on, pointing her in the direction of ella's house. orion trots behind me and vega, snuffling at things as he passes then rushing to catch up with us. annoyed, i whistle sharply, commanding him to heel. he does so, holding his head near the ground and wagging his tail shamefully.

we come to the front of ellas house, and i swing my leg over, stepping onto the ground. grabbing vegas bridle i quickly tie her to a nearby tree so she doesn't wander off, whistling for orion again as he begins following a scent. he returns to my side, grinning stupidly and wagging his tail.

rolling my eyes at him i bang on ella's door, tapping my foot impatiently. "open the door before new dog eats one of your animals" i order, grabbing orion by the scruff before he can chase after one of her animals.

receiving no answer from the exotic animal keeper, i move on, climbing back into the saddle and heading for the church with orion hot on my heels. we ride through town, making our way up to the church. i tie vega to the post outside the church, quickly walking up the steps.

frantically pounding on the door. ella wasn't home, which means her animals were probably locked up. which means something else left a mutilated cow carcass on my property. "vitalus! Asmodeus! one of you answer the door!" i demand, orion whines anxiously, concerned about why i'm yelling and banging on the door.

Vitalus
Vitalus sighed and open the door to see Andromeda. "What's wrong Andromeda?" Vitalus asked as Glacis comes behind him.

"something left a mutilated cow carcass on the edge of my property. the edge that borders the forest. i thought it was one of ellas animals, but they seem to be all locked up and none of them have claws that would make marks like that" i explain "the claw marks are massive. bigger than even the most irradiated creature could hope to achieve. big like... big like the reaper's claws." saying his name, i glance around. it's bad luck to say his name if you aren't a priest or alter person. wouldn't want to call him to your location. "has everyone been making there offerings? i know i have but i'm closest to the forest, it could be a warning to us all"

Asmodeus appears behind Vitalus, silent and mysterious as usual.

Vitalus sighed and said, "I don't know," Vitalus then turns to Asmodeus, "Asmodeus has there been any people missing the offering to the reaper?" Vitalus asked.

"i think you need to come see the corpse. it's...wrong" i say, shaking my head. "you can either ride with me on vega or walk with orion" i offer, returning to my horse- which had began nibbling on the grass. she snorts when i climb on, and i pat her neck "we should get there before the birds start pecking on it."

Vitalus sighed, "I can walk with orion," Vitalus said to her.