Ophar application [The Aurora RP]

8/9/2019 Ophar application [The Aurora RP]

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Created by Lorena Xavier in

2005 and developed in 2010 to

the His Dark Materials s RP The

Aurora . This is an exclusive ver-

sion of the Ophar World and its

use is restricted to the role play-

ing game mentioned above.

Any other use of this material isexpressly prohibited.

O p h a r L .S .F . Xa v ie r

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

INFO

http://c i ty inthec louds .proboards .com/

http://trustsome1.tk/

lorenafos la@gmai l .com


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Created by Lorena Xavier

Material made for The Aurora RP

Illustrations from Deviant Art

Credi ts at the end


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ERA

They l ive in a pre-industry era, depending on f ire, water , wind and animal

traction to make things work. Everything is sort of rustic (for humans), and the

other inhabitants of Ophar have a similar way of l i fe , though l itt le is known

about the Violet people .

In the past century the f irst rustic factories started surfacing, but their

expression i n Ophars economy i s l itt le and they are not very praised in any

opharian society, but they are starting slowly and firmly.

SPECIES

Humans Just l ike al l human beings, the ones l iving in

Ophar are a l w ays f ight ing against each ot her . Theyre

divided in several different civil isation, each one

adapted to a different natural environment there are

rumours of other people l iving in uncharted lands, but

they are just hearsay. As far as it is known, there are

only Humans in the Disparathe Continent and on the Kint

Archipelago.

Humans in Ophar are mostly very self-conscious that they are not wanted

among the other Ophar inhabitants the Violets and Els . So, even though they

fight against each other occasionally, they are always united against the other

species at t ack s . In t rut h , t heir w ars are pret t y st upid , but t hey just can t hel p i t .

In Disparathe we can f ind basical ly three different human civil isations,

which are the people l iving deep on the forests , the Fortressers; the people l iv-

ing on the seashore, the Vil las; and final ly the Drymen (Austicous) of the Great

Desert of Disparathe.


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Humans in Ophar have a tradition; it doesn t matter from which people

they belong to: they always wear a red cloak when going away from human terri-

tory. This is almost l ike carrying a f lag of humanity around, to make sure no

one mistakes you with any enemy and that you can beg for els mer cy i f you

need to.

Violets The Violet People (their self-proclaimed name is

unknown to everyone on Ophar) l ive in the farthest and

most mysterious place of Ophar: the hovering continent

of Violet (yeah, people in Ophar are that imaginative).

Truth be told: the whole f lying land seems to be involvedin a violet mist , thus the name.

Physical ly, the Violets are very tal l people, s l im, with a

violetish or blueish skin colour. Their eyes are always pitch black (though they

reflect at night l ike a cat s eye s), and they have six f ingers in each hand (and six

toes in each feet) . They have a good night vision, and they usually only come out

at night . Theyre night creatures, and it s said that the sun burns their fair skin.

They have the habit of tattooing themselves as they l ive and they can l ive a

very loooong l ife. The oldest Violet , they say, has 13.435 years old.

They don t l ik e human s neither els . They think they are the only r ightfulowners of the Holy Water in Ophar, and their theory is that there was nt even

any human in Ophar, until some Wire People found their way to Ophar.

They love f ighting to them, Fight Is An Art . They are very skil l ful , espe-

cial ly when it comes to creating weapons. They love music and the only reason

they ever approached Humans was the human abil ity with this art . Even though

they hate humans, they love their music .

Els The als , o r the green people , are mostly peaceful

with both humans and violets , it does not matter how

much they disl ike violets and despise humans. Their

phi losophy is s imple: we don t mess with you and you

don t mess with us. Living mostly on the Elen conti-

nent , they praise for its mysterious properties and se-

crets , making sure not even violets peer their knowledge.


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Even though their homeland is Elen, there are small communities of als

spread around Kint Archipelago and Disparathe, but they are not that many.

Els are quite different in appearance: they have the abil ity of mimesis ,

so they are usually very hidden in their forests , thus the skin colour of green.

But even when they l ive or walk around a desert , this green gets a l itt le paler , asif trying to adapt to the different environment. Els can also create f l imsy i l lu-

sions and go unnoticed in a crowd if they want to.

They are a very athletic people, who love running and any other kind of

physical activity. They are very good runners, by the way, and very good in cor-

poral f ights . We cannot say the same about their skil ls with weapons. The only

weapons they are real ly fond of are daggers and axes.

Very keen and sensitive, els have a special abil ity of learning and under-

standing foreigner languages, and that is a plus when dealing with the wire

people. Most of their language was absorbed by the humans, and nowadays els

can remember more of the humans original language than humans themselves.


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HISTORY

The history of Ophar is a long and complicated history, and even though

the Violets seem to have a documented archive on their world's History, not al l

of this material is rel iable -- and they are never consulted by anyone but Violets

themselves.

It all starts with water. In Ophar, it always starts with water . This

world, a long t ime ago, was dry and l ifeless . Only underground, where subterra-

nean rivers ran, there was blossoming small plants and animals . But the water

was al ive. Water is the master of them al l , of al l universe, of l i fe and Death. This

is how it is said in the Holy Books of Al l , read by Humans, Violets and Els . Wa-

ter is their Master and, one day, when the small l i fe underground was not

enough to please the Water , I t start to break into the surface of the continent ,

and It f looded al l of it , and It ruled for many, many hundreds of years l ike this an aquatic world. And from the creatures that started to come to l i fe underwa-

ter , the Water sti l l didn't feel joy. So It receded a l itt le, because It wanted to try

something new what would happen in dry land?

And in dry land, Water blew the greatest seed of l i fe: the Violets and

Els . I t brought their race to l i fe, and It f looded their beings with holy essence,

giving them their inner gods 1, and giving them the chance to praise upon the Ho-

ly Water . I t created both Violets and Els according to Its own nature, in a way

that Its creation would always understand and respect the Water . And as long as

they are faithful and truthful to the Water , they wil l be al lowed to drink of the

Sacred Fountains the most special and vital Water in Ophar, the Water that give al l of them (Violets , Els and Humans) a long l i fe and feed their inner gods.

And so l i fe went. Wars and Peacetimes came and went, crisis happened,

and for three t imes Water devastated their world, c leaning their impureness,

cleaning their sins.

Until the Humans.

When they arrived, nor El or Violet could tel l where they came from.

Was it another creation of the Water? It must have. Water rules them al l it

would be no different with those l itt le humans.

But Humans were different Humans did not care as much as they did

about Water . So the Els taught them. They taught them about the Sacred Foun-

tains, the Holy Water , the Book of Ophar, and how they should serve Water and

Its desires.

And so Humans learned. And so, they took over two of the three known

continents held in Water for the Violet continent had always been unreachable.

They robbed the als of their archipelago and the Sacred Fountains in it . They

built their cit ies de ep in Disparat he s forest , and a l so t ook t he F ount ains t here .

1 I t i s b e l i eved th a t th e i n n er gods i s th e w a ter i n th e i r b lo od


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That was many thousands of years ago. Nowadays, few of them believe

that Water is a l iving being. Few of them understand the Book of Ophar, but they

all respect and do not dare to break traditions for al l of them know their long

life and strength come from the Sacred Fountains. But , curiously enough, they

onl y l earned t hat because of t he humans d isrespect w it h t he Wat er .

They fed their children with Holy Water and studied the world they

broke the air with Wires, even though Water f looded their lands for many times,

enraged. But Humans are stubborn, and they brought to Ophar strange people,

al ien humans, coming in f lying pear-shaped ships, eager to trade with Ophar.

And after yet another war, the Els got themselves their own right to the Wire-

trades.

The al ien humans brought with them many different things and know-

ledge, but the most surprising thing humans and els learned with the Aliens

was that the Water only existed in Ophar a nd t he Al iens l i fet ime w as short as

a breath.

And after the al ien humans, other people came. Different , non-human

people. But as long as they had merchandise, opharians would welcome them and

trade with them and talk with them.

Violets never agreed with the Wires and the Alien contact , and they

fought against both humans and els and lost . Violets did not forget about Wa-

ter , did not forget they were al l ruled by It , and they did know that Water was

not pleased with the wiretrades.

And then, Water started running thin, and slowly the Sacred Fountains

started drying out . This phenomena has been going on for 900 years now which, for them, is not that much, but enough to worry about.

Ophar is a water world. A holy water world. Without it , al l of the l iving

creatures that depends on the Fountains wil l have the l i fetime of a breath as

does the Alien humans.

The Violets blames the humans and els , and on their part , they blame

the Water Itself It said It would never leave Its children unprotected, but it

was leaving them for dead. Many were the wisemen and women who studied the

Wat er V anishing phenomena, but none of t hem got t o any conclusion.

Are opharians real ly going to lose their holy Water? Is there any hope

for them? Wil l the different races unite against the oncoming tragedy? Or wil l

they die f ighting each other , trying to f ind someone to blame?


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SOCIAL STRUCTURE

The social structure in Ophar is intricate, once the Violets do not interact

very much with the other people humans and ebls and these two societies

has their own organisation and, however, share some common points . The Violet

society is fair ly unknown and usually considered unimportant to the majorworld relationship though this is not true at al l .

The humans and els in Ophar usually do not mix their societies , but there

are some exceptions and it is not unheard of els l iving among humans 2 though

the other way around is not as common.

Bellow can be found the human social structure. Al l c ivil isations basical ly

have the same structure, excepting maybe the people in the Kint Kingdom Archi-

pelago and some subtle differences among each human city. The Els also have

some similarit ies with the humans, since that at the very beginning of human-

kind in Ophar they were the ones who taught them how to deal with this world.

MOST C OMMON CATEGORIES :

V I L L AG E R S: Al so k now n as t he common peopl e . The most

common types of jobs and people f it here. Vil lagers are both

humans and els with normal l ives, l iving in their vil lages or

cit ies . Although vil lagers are mostly poor people, i f they ex-

press abil it ies of some kind (fighting abil it ies , leadership,

higher intel l igence) they are immediately send to a trainingcenter to work on it . Not al l learners end up being a Fighter

or Wisemen, but the training center is the only wa y to become

anything but a vil lager .

W I S E ME N AN D W I S E W O ME N: You coul d ca l l t hem w izards and

w it ches or scient ist s , just choose one . They are wise men

and women who study the myste ries of t he universe and the

w ires , t he connect ion of t heir w orl d w it h t he ot hers , and t he

true effects of the Holy water on them. The wise men and

women are the only people who get in touch with the people

coming from the wires, so they play the role of tradesmen aswell . They have a powerful mind, and can communicate very

clearly with their inner gods common people usually only

have a hunch of t heir inner gods, but can t act ual l y commun i-

cate with them. A wiseman is chose among vil lagers by his

abil ity of talking with his inner god.

CH I E F S: In the human societies , they a re sort of the kings in

Ophar, but it s not quite. The Chiefs are elected by the wis e-

men and wisewomen, and it is a common tradition in al l hu-

man civil isations to turn against their Chiefs and cut their

2 Th i s i s m o st c o m m o n i n t h e K i nt Arc h i p e l a go d e se rt e d e l s o r o u t -o f - l a w s l i v i ng t h e re a m o ngh u m a ns , t h o u gh t h e y a re no t p a rt i c u l a r l y f o nd o f i t . B u t t h i s i s no t a p a rt i c u l a r i t y o f K i nt .


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heads of f . I t s a dangerous posit ion , although very well re-

warded. Each City has their own Chief , and the vil lages

around t he C it y are a l so under t h is C hief s guidance .

F I G H T E R S: They prot ect t he Humans against V iol et s and El s

attacks, and they are the ones kil l ing themselves over sil lystuff when the human Cities decide to play war. Fighters

usually are strong men who use swo rds, axes and sabers when

fighting, or slender women carrying their bows and poisoned

arrows and that is a rule. Men cannot use bows and women

cannot deal with swords and axes.

WATER KEEPERS : Practical ly, it is the most important job of al l

society. The Keepers are vil lagers, but they are the ones who

take care of the Sacred Fountains and deal out the water to

their City and surrounding vil lages. They are responsible for

dividing justly the water between the vil lagers, chiefs , WiseOnes and fighters . This is the most honorable posit ion in both

Human and El society, and the ones chosen to serve as a

Keeper are very well chosen and educated. The Keepers have

t heir ow n secret societ y , and t he rul es t o be chosen as a

Keeper is a mystery, as much as what they are taught during

the training.

Regarding especia l l y t he el s societ y , t hey are a l i t t l e different from hu-mans they have kings, whose children are not necessarily the successor of

their parent . Also, the els kunuoimir (phi l osophers) ar e , at on e t ime, the

equivalent of the mens Water Keepers and Wisemen. A kunuoimi is an ancient

el responsible for protecting the Sacred Fountains and giving the kings advices.

These philosophers, though, do not interact with al ien humans and other

outsiders, they leave that to a special c lass of merchants, the merkan-siu (wire-

merchants).


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LANDSCAPE

It has many different landscapes the deserts and rain forests of the Dis-

parathe Continent , the cold lands of the Huella continent , many small is landswhere small communities l ive, etc . But mainly, Ophar is a huge rain forest where

clearings were open to build the human Cities and vil lages.

Excepting for the Violet continent and the cold Huella, al l land in Ophar

is covered by thick rain forest , and the cl imate is tropical and hot , with many

rains throughout the year .

There are, however, other continents beyond the ones l isted bellow, with

different landscapes and cl imates, but their existence is only a myth to els and

humans nothing can be aff irmed about the Violets , s ince their knowledge of

Ophar seems to go beyond any other species .

Siu s Is land on the

Kint Archipelago

Brul-S iu River on the

Elen cont inent

Whitelands ground zero ( H u e l l a )

Emptylands o f Disparathe


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Disparathe continent

Disparathe is the land of the greatest known civil isations of Ophar, the

ones who first learned about the Wires to other worlds and the ones who have

the mon opoly of trading with the wire people (as they cal l the outsiders of

Ophar). That is mainly the reason why they are so rich and so hated. In Dispa-

rathe we have basical ly three major civil isations: the people of Fortress, located

deep in the Rain Forest; the people of Villas , by the seashore of the Continent;

and the Drymen (Austicous) of the Great Desert .

Far up west of the Great Desert there is st i l l the Glass And Rock Emptyl-

and 3, but no one seems to l ive there it is , the wisemen say, the oldest part of

the world, inhabited only by ghosts of long dead kingdoms. Funny enough, the

Emptyland was chosen by the wisemen to serve as a trading center with the oth-

er worlds.

The shore of Disparathe is inhabited by the f ishermen of Vil las , which has

the main City in Versoellar that is also the closest Disparathe s harbour to Kint

Archipelago.

The Fortress people has their Cit ies and vil lages deep in the forest , c lose

to their Sacred fountains, and it is not easy to get there the roads build to

those Cit ies are rapidly taken over by the forest again, and it also not easy to

maintain those long, long roads through the forest .

On the Great desert , the Austiocus built a powerful empire, even though

they have few vil lages and only one City to rule them. The City of Parfel lar was

built around their only source of holy water , and they say it is the most well-

protected fountain in Disparathe.

3 O r ju st Em p t y l a nd , o r e v e n t h e na m e i n t h e i r na t i v e l a ngu a ge : H u p a rf .


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Elen continent

Encircled by mist and mystery, the Elen is a huge continent covered with

a deep and unique rain forest , where the holiest of al l Holy Water fountain exist ,

thus a place that tr iggers ambition of humans and violets . But the fountains are

protected by the v ery aloof Green People (or Els) , so not many humans get

any further than the harbours, and the violets cannot steal their territory.

Elen is a land at sea level , but it has many plateaus, where the Els build

their ellarh , their cit ies , so it is hard to attack any e l lah of the Els . Besides, to

get to these plateaus is a hard thing to do by itself : the forest in Elen is differ-

ent from any other forest known by Man. There, the trees and animals are bigger

and smarter , and the Sacred Fountains are very well-hidden, which only adds

more diff iculty to the trip you need to carry with you your own holy water

supply, otherwise you wil l only get plain water to drink, which is not a good

thing.

Among al l e l larh of the els , one is more important and sacred to this

people: the Iree e l lah , or Irel lah (City of Iree). Al l ellarh may fal l , but the els

would rather die than seeing their dearest Irel lah fal ls in the hands of men or

violets . This City is located in the highest plateau of Elen, the Iree.

The temperature is always warm and good, as much as it is in Disparathe,

but there is one significant difference: the whole Elen is constantly swallowed

by mist during the night , and not even the els can explain that .


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Hauella continent

The coldest and farthest continent of al l , Huella (Ah-ou-e-lah, in their na-t ive l anguage i t means Whit e l ands ) was only a myth until not long ago in Dis-

parathes records. But now they reached the Whiteland, even though the place

doesn t seem t hat invit ing or profitable. No one seems to l ive there, and its wa-

ters are inhabited by great sharks and other big , unnamed flesh-eaten creatures.

In some months of the year , the whole land is f looded by the icy water

surrounding it and those water creatures rule more than ever .

There were some human attempts at sett l ing a vil lage on Huella to ex-

plore its land more deeply, but they al l failed with a tragic ending the whole

vil lage dead. The cold and the White Animals took care of them al l , and the Great Sharks made sure the last group did not even reach the land.

There are no rel iable data on what kind of animal l ives in Huella, but

there is one point everyone is sure of: they are al l white. Some talk about giant

monkeys, others about giant white serpents , and there are even some who talk

about another species with inner gods a kind of monkey-serpent thing, but that

is mostly considered heresy.


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Violet continent

The Violet continent , where the violets l ive and try to stay as far as poss-

ible of other opharians, has a unique characteristic: it hovers above the sea, and

how to reach this place is a mystery only the Violets know how to go there.

Being so, the landscape of this continent is mostly a mystery to every other spe-

cies of Ophar, but from what is possible to see through the clouds, Violet has

great , pointy buildings that , they suppose, are the castles of the Violets Kings.

What they dont know, however, is that those pointy shapes they see

against l ight and mist are the Watching Towers to the underworld as they cal l

the rest of Ophar. From those towers, the violets can see almost every corner of

Ophar. It is almost a spying structure, al l focused on humans and els .

The cl imate in the Violet continent is cold, but not as cold as the Whitel-ands (Huella) . I t is cold enough, though, to make tropical humans and els

freeze. It is always raining l ightly there, and that is the reason why the enorm-

ous waterfal ls of the continent never dry out .

Although hovering high above any other land in Ophar, Violet is static on

its place, which is above the ocean between Disparathe and Elen. When ships

cross this ocean and happen to pass just below the f lying land, the waterfal ls can

be seen, with its r iver water fal l ing down on the salty ocean. But the fal l is so

high that when the river waters get to the ocean they seem l ike an endless rain

(t he area l ocat ed bel l ow V iol et is k now n in t he chart maps as Rain Spot ) .


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Great int ingdom Archipelago

What is ca l l ed The Great K int K ingdom Archipel ago i s basical ly many

small (pirate) is lands between Disparathe and Elen, a place for thieves, mur-derers, prostitutes and al l kinds of out-of-laws. In this land, the common struc-

ture that works on the Disparathe societies is just lame: the so- cal l ed chief of

the Kint Islands is nothing but the master of the pirates, trying to keep Dispa-

ra t he s f ight ers aw ay , and shelter the unwanted.

At f irst the Kint Archipelago was inhabited by The Most Ancient Tribes Of

Al l , but they disappeared mysteriously after a rare event occurred in Ophar: the

Ellamas ar brul ( bright l ights of the sky) . S ightings were reported 1000 years

ago, and after that , al l natives of the Kint Archipelago disappeared. Since then,

Kint became a refuge to everyone with some issues with the Law in any place of

Ophar.

The cl imate in the Kint Archipelago is a bit hotter than in any other part

of the known lands, which makes the kintians hate to go to Huella and that is

something they do a lot , in order t o hide their secrets there.

The archipelago has about 50 islands, but only 16 have vil lages and har-

bours. The biggest island is the Sius Island, the commercial center of Kint and

t he capit a l of t h is k ingdom.


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CREDITS

Formatting and PDF by Lorena Xavier

Logo & poster by Lorena Xavier

Red cl oak ed humans by AliceCullen88

V iol et g ir l by fb101

El by fb101

Emptylands of Disparathe by DylanCole

S iu s Is l and on Kint Archipelago by CarolFalco

Brul -S iu River on El en by [Unknown]

Whit e l andsground zero by D ave Walsh (D eadlyphoto)

Disparat he # 2 by toplok420

El en #2 by B lu3Gh0st

Huel la #2 by RebeliousAngel

V iol et cont inent #1 by Wanski

and edited by L. Xavier

K int Archipel ago #2 by Maxwell (dvc omk)

All artists can be found at D eviantArt.com

THE AURORA:

http://cityintheclouds.proboards.com/index.cgi

LORENA XAVIER:

http://trustsome1.tk/ | lorenafosla@gmail .com

April, 2010.
http://www.deviantart.com/http://www.deviantart.com/http://cityintheclouds.proboards.com/index.cgihttp://trustsome1.tk/http://trustsome1.tk/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://trustsome1.tk/http://cityintheclouds.proboards.com/index.cgihttp://www.deviantart.com/

Documents

Ophar application [The Aurora RP]