[VXA] The Voice of the Gods

Introduction

This is my very first RPG Maker project that I started as a way to familiarize myself with the program, but the project became bigger than I thought it would. I'm planning for this to be a long, multi-chapter/episode project with the sort of atmostphere of the anime, Slayers. The synopsis and the history of the world probably don't show this very well, but this is a comedy as well as a fantasy.

Story Synopsis

Chapter 1: A Thief in the Night

Spoiler for:

Kaguya is a thief hired to steal certain artifact from a mansion in the country outside the village of Holstead. Upon arrival, she finds the mansion is disarray; windows broken, holes in the roof, lawn unkept! It looks like something big happened there recently, and to top it all off, a barrier surrounds the mansion, making it inaccessible. There has to be some way inside. Kaguya begins her investigation in the village of Holstead, but what she finds will be something bigger than she imagined....

Chapter 2: Invitation to an Execution

TBA

History of the World

Spoiler for:

Several centuries ago, the land was wrought with war and strife. Man fought constantly for resources and territory resulting in the creation of almost two dozen separate nations. These nations came in many sizes some were large like the Four Great Nations of Kavanagh, Abbinik, Keils, and Celia. However, many of the others were only as big as a couple villages and sparse farmland. Any man with enough gall and thirst for power could raise an army and declare his own kingdom. Nations could easily rise one day and fall the next. It was an age of disorder. An age of chaos. Later, historians would call it the Endless War. At the center of it all was the Kingdom of Gael.

Gael was a small island nation in the middle of the great lake that is at the center of the world, but Gael was only as big as one of the four great nation’s largest cities. The great spans of water separated Gael from the rest of the war that consumed the land, and Gael’s king, Herald, was a benevolent ruler. They lived in peace.

One night, King Herald had a vision. He was compelled to travel to the Sacred Forest in the Westerlands. The king left Gael in the hands of his son and travelled the lands. On his pilgrimage, he crossed into many of the fleeting nations, witnessing many atrocious acts carried out in the name of kings who only ruled over small hills and farmlands. Killing. Raping. Pillaging. How could any king make his people suffer for the sake of their greed?

It took King Herald half a decade to reach the Sacred Forest. It is said that deep within the forest is the Land of Origins, Paradise, where all living creatures come from. What Herald saw there, no one knows for sure. Several years later, he emerged from the forest with a miracle; the miracle of the Voice.

With the Voice, Herald could cure those on the brink of deah, leaving no trace of a wound behind. He could cure any disease, part the rivers, shake the land. The people who witnessed this miracle threw down their weapons to join him. Where ever Herald went, the fighting stopped, and his followers grew in number. By the time he reached Gael, over a dozen of the roguenations joined under his banner. The only ones remaining being the Four Great Nations, but that little island that used to be the whole country of Gael grew into a nation well beyond the great lake. Gael was now the size of all four nations put together.

King Herald had ended the war and brought a renaissance to the world with the Voice at its center, but peace cannot last forever...

What is the Voice?

Spoiler for:

It is said that at the moment of Creation, when all creatures lived in peace in Paradise, that granted them the Voice with which to communicate. This was no ordinary language. Each word contained a fraction of the powers of the gods themselves. This was the origin of magic. However, peace did not last, and Paradise was lost. The Endless War began. Eventually, the mortals separated. The Voice deterriorated into the Old Tongue, which is the ancestor to the Common Languages spoken around the world today, devoid of magic.

When King Herald returned from Paradise he brought the Voice back with him, and started a renaissance in Gael. He established the Church of the Faith, who believed in the faith that the Gods put in all creatures to be righteous. It became the main religion in Gael. Many miracles were achieved with the Voice, but the peace did not last forever. During the reign of Herald's great grandson, Darius, a faction of humans known as the Black Mages used the power to cut their way through Gael to try to force their way into Paradise. The Mages were quelled, but not before costing many people their lives. After the conflict, King Darius made a law stating that any use of the Voice to bring harm to anyone would be punishable by death.

The Voice then became split in two: the Black Voice (or Black Magic), that which was used by the Black Mages, and the White Voice (or White Magic), that which is used by the Church.

Hundreds of years have passed, and the Voice remains, but in a smaller capacity. Commonly, only members of the Church, who spent years learning can use the Voice. They are encouraged to use the Voice to commit as many good deeds as possible, for they believe that each good dead carried out with the voice makes White Magice stronger. They also believe that Black Magic has the opposite effect, so they try to counter it as often as possible.

Races

Spoiler for:

Humans

They are the predominate race in Gael, renowned for their ingenuity and prowess with science and technology.

Nymphs

They are nature personified. They were created by the gods to cultivate the land and make it prosperous with the help of the other creatures of the world. Some humans believe that the nymphs were created in order to serve them and some nymphs believe that humans are only known for their arrogance. There are four types of nymphs: Forest, Earth, Sea, and Wind.

Forest Nymphs



The nymphs of the forest live in the Sacred Forest which borders the west and north sides of Gael. They are very protective of their trees and block human expansion into that area. They are known for being master hunters and farmers.

Forest nymphs live for hundreds of years and when they die they are reborn and live their second life as a tree. They have dark skin like the bark of a tree, hair like the leaves on it's branches: green when young and red with maturity. It is said that just before they are old enough to start their second life, all of their hair falls off like leaves falling off a tree in autumn.

It is said that a forest nymph's name sounds like a breeze rushing through the leaves of a tree.

Earth Nymphs



Nymphs of the earth live in the mountains and underground. They are known to be great miners and blacksmiths. They chip away at earth and metal with their bare bodies, making them hard and bulky, even the women, and they forge the metal in the fires of a volcano.

They have skin, brown like soil and hair and eyes as black as coal. Their eyes shine like gold in sunlight.

Sea Nymphs



The nymphs of the sea live in just about any major body of water. They are master fishermen and swimmers. They have an underwater city in Gael's great lake, but the capital of their kingdom is out to sea. The 'fish people', as humans like to call them, bring many types of fish to people of Gael that can only be found in the ocean. The sea elves taught humans how to ride the currents, in addition to their other talents, which lead to the creation of boats.

Sea nymphs are thin and willowy with pale skin, flat noses, and eyes the color of seaweed. Their hair changes with age; starting at blue with youth and ending in white with maturity. They prefer to be nude because clothes only hinder them in water, but will wear some clothing while dealing with other races.

Wind Nymphs

Little is known about these nymphs. Not a single wind nymph has been sighted for the past several centuries.

Main Characters

Spoiler for:

Akiko Kaguya
Class: Thief/Ninja



From an early age, Akiko was taught the killing arts as one of the infamous ninja in the country of Wa to the east. She is the last known member of the Kaguya clan of ninjas. The Kaguya clan was wiped out by a rival clan several years ago. She was able to make a living for herself through use of her training in ninjitsu in addition to a certain quirk that she has.

Akiko is a kleptomaniac. In other words, she has an irresistible urge to steal things. However, these things are rarely of any value. At the end of the day, Akiko may find a number of random items in her pockets.

With her reputation as a thief she began going into the business as a professional. She takes requests from clients to steal certain items and is paid a hefty sum for her services.

She is the heroine of this story.


Marlena
Class: Illusionist/??? 



Marlena is an illusionist that lives in a mansion atop a hill outside of the village of Holstead. She is a lover of alcoholic beverages, especially wine, though her love of booze can also be seen as an unhealthy addiction. She is seen regularly in the town's pub, but she has not been seen by anyone for the past few days. The town-folk have been hearing strange sounds coming from her mansion.


Glenn
Class: Swordsman/Knight   



Glenn used to be a proud knight of the Empire of Kavanagh. But, after being conquered by the Kingdom of Gael, Glenn was stripped of his status as knight and was left to wonder the lands as a sword-for-hire. He is seen by everyone else as having delusions of grandeur for he wields what he claims to be a legendary sword that no one has ever heard of.


Jean/Jennifer
Class: Priestess/Swordswoman   



Jean was was raised by the Church ever since she was a little girl and as a result she a devout member of the Faith. She is an exorcist who has been given the task of hunting down those who speak the language of the heretics and practice the dark arts.

Jean has a weakness a weakness for pretty women, and is very popular among the young priestesses at the church in the capital.


Altair
Class: Demon Lord/Dark Knight   



Altair is one of the Banished Ones who were exiled to the Underworld by the Gods centuries ago for instigating the conflict that disrupted the original peace between all living things. He has been seen wrecking havoc in the realm of mortals recently, but who summoned him there?

Side Characters

Spoiler for:

Sybil



A know-it-all student of the University in the capital of Gael. She mangages to bump into the party fairly often, and usually talks their ear off about everything that has to do with anything before they can escape. Though she dabbles in all areas, she is currently focusing her research on a group of people called the Dark Men.


Edmond



The High Ruler of Gael turned 13 just last month. After the untimely death of his father, Edmond was crowned king. It is said that his blood can be traced all the way back to King Herald, who is believed to be a son of the gods. Edmond is both the spiritual and political leader of Gael (with the help of a council of elders, of course).

Geography of the World

Spoiler for:

The land in which the story takes place is a bit smaller than North America in area, and can be divided up into four simple regions: the Northerlands, the Southerlands, the Westerlands, and the Easterlands. The land is landlocked with the largest body of water in the area being the Great Lake. Half a dozen large rivers meet at the Great lake and run out to the rest of the continent. With the capital of Gael being in the middle of the Great Lake, it is often said that "All rivers lead to Gael" which, for the most part is true. The land is shaped such that you could say it looks like an eye.

The territory of Gael is mostly contained in the western and northern lands, with the Sacred Forest at its outer borders. However, there is a bit of territory in the Easterlands. Kavanagh, one of the Four Great Nations touches Gael's border there. South of Kavanagh is Keils. West of Keils is Abbinik. And even further west is Celia, the smallest of the nations. All of their outer borders run along a vast moutain range.

Ability System

Spoiler for:

Each character has a fixed double-class that they start with the moment they are introduced to the party. Abilities or special moves are acquired through spending Ability Points (or AP) at the end of each battle. Players are allowed to purchase abilities at their leisure in the main menu. There are three conditions for purchasing an ability: having the right amount of AP, being the right level, and having the prerequisite ability.

We will use a couple Kaguya's Steal ability as an example.

Thief Ability: Steal

Pickpocket -> Mug -> Hold Up -> Steal All

Pickpocket: Steal a random item from an enemy. Lvl: 5, AP: 50

Mug: Steal a random item from an enemy and deal a small amount of damage. Lvl: 15, AP: 75

Hold Up: Steal any one item from the enemy's inventory and deal medium damage. Lvl: 25, AP: 100

Steal All: Steal all items from the enemy's inventory at once, and deal large damage. Lvl: 50, AP: 125

Screenshots (WIP)

Spoiler for:

I only have a single screen shot at the moment. It is a shot of the outside of the mansion and the opening scene of the game. As you can see, it's not done, yet. I'll fill in the rest of the details (trees and such) later. This is being made with mack's tilesets.

Featured Scripts

• Yanfly's Ace Core Engine, Ace Battle Engine, and other various Ace scripts.
• Khas: Awesome Light Effects.
• Modern Algebra's ATS Formatting.

Although I like the idea, I would advise you NOT
to make your story based on chapters, and having a sequel.
UNLESS they are all in one game. Because sequels
tend to pretty much be less fun than the original. Neverhteless,
Good luck with your project!

Although I like the idea, I would advise you NOT
to make your story based on chapters, and having a sequel.
UNLESS they are all in one game. Because sequels
tend to pretty much be less fun than the original. Neverhteless,
Good luck with your project!

Thank you for your comments!

It's not so much that the chapters that come after this are sequels. They are all part of one game, and I'm just releasing them piecemeal. The Thief and the Magician is just the first chapter of a bigger story. I'm already putting together the bigger picture in my head.

Also, I was thinking about a title for the whole story and I came up with The Voice of the Gods while writing out the back story. So, what I'm currently working on is The Voice of the Gods: Chapter 1: The Thief and the Magician. How does this sound?

I like your main story's ideas so much that I wish I could implement them in my own project 
and yes Voice Of The Gods is a better name than The Thief And The Magician.
It goes with the story very well.

Thank you for you generous words!

Update: I've made a few changes.

-Decided to do this game in RMVX Ace rather than the regular VX

-Redid the face sets and character sprites. These were all made using VX Ace's character creator. All the old sets are in the spoilers.

-Honestly, I probably won't have any screenshots for a while. I'm terrible at mapping and I haven't motivated myself to get right to it, yet.

Not sure about these, but I may just make all the main character's faces be the ones that I make in Ace's character creator so that they'll all be uniform.

What do you think about these replacing the ones I have for these characters?

Altair


Marlena


Sybil

I love the new faces. I forgot they came from the Ace facemaker. I guess the full version has a lot of stuff for the face maker? It looks really sweet.

So, yeah. I'd definitely go with those.

Wow this reminds me of a gime I loved for the nes, shadow gate, I'm looking forward to its completion.

Wow this reminds me of a gime I loved for the nes, shadow gate, I'm looking forward to its completion.

I haven't played Shadow Gate before, but thanks for your comments!

I updated the thread a little with some more characters and a segment about the races of Celia.

Update: Screenshot of the first map, ability system description, rewritten history, geography of the world.