enduring skies
a steampunk piracy adventure company
enduring skies
✧ freedom awaits ✧
FFXIV fc-rp on Halicarnassus
Mist 9-32All fc rp takes place after current MSQ.
They refused to be bound by anyone.
It started under Garlean occupation. The crew of the cutlass class airship was pressed into service, just as the airship had been. They served the Garleans on supply missions and troop transport, bent beneath the yoke of oppression.Until they didn't.It started with a whisper and a prayer. An old man from Sharlayan who'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Years of careful secrets and preparation until one day it was time. No guts, no glory, and they paid their way in blood. When they were free from pursuit, they named that old airship after the old man's words: the only master they would pay heed to again was the wind. For a time things were good.Until they weren't.Freedom doesn't mean freedom from strife. Eventually only the junior pilot, Ollix, was left of that old crew. Circumstance and need led him to picking up first one stray, and then another. The Zephyr found itself home of a different sort--a place for the misplaced and weary, those with checkered pasts and questionable morals. A place where one could go to take a step forward for themselves, against the injustices of the world. A place where vengeance was accepted as easily as breathing.They take what jobs they can, and take care of themselves first. When there's nothing to be had, they take from those with too much money and too little decency. The world is harsh, and they've nothing left to prove.When the world's taken everything from you, let the wind be your guide.
OOC
Enduring Skies is a diceless, narrative and character development heavy, pirate and grey-trade roleplaying group. We're here to cooperatively write low-powered stories about mundane people doing extraordinary things in an everyday way. A dark fantasy pirate version of Firefly meets the crew of the Rocinante from Expanse, set amidst the greater scope of ffxiv.We have purposefully gathered characters who range between good, bad, and complicated. We want there to be problems that cause moral quandaries. We want characters to be challenged on where they stand, and encourage inter-character conflict over what is the right way to do thing.Due to this, the separation of ic and ooc behaviors and thoughts is extremely important to us. We are not our characters.
Things to expect (updated 12/3/23)◈ The group will remain small, with member integration oocly and icly being important to us. Our current ideal cap is 10 members.
➢➢➢ Eventually we will recruit for non-member affiliates for broader rp opportunities.
➢➢➢ There is no cap on affiliates who wish to be involved in the rp without joining the fc/crew.◈ Discord rp is the bulk of rp due to player schedules. We are slowly creeping into more in-game rp.
➢➢➢ We do schedule live session Thursdays during active campaigns, with 20min post limits to help keep plot moving forward.◈ Loosely plotted. An overarching narrative is used to guide individual campaign rps that bracket 'downtime' rp.◈ Dark and difficult topics will sometimes come up as part of the overarching narrative. Our characters are deeply flawed people.◈ Currently on hiatus. PVE nights on Tuesdays (maps, variant dungeons, open to suggestions).◈ We're a slower paced group who enjoy some banter. Low stress is important to us. We are currently not super socially active.
We use a decimal system to show the order of our rp, so we don't need to rely on hard dates(barring the 5 year gap between the calamity and ARR). It is our way of trying to stay flexible given that we do not have hard dates on when msq happens. Should we ever get hard dates, we will adjust accordingly.Regular rp threads are in blue, member names in orange, game events in brown, campaign specific rp in yellow.
[Redacted]These are things our characters don't know yet, and may or may not be revealed depending on the rp.
Casualties of Circumstance
First Campaign
Captain's LogNorthern Thanalan Border Territories
Sunny. Clear. Wind 10kt N-NWThis might be one of the strangest entries I’ve had to write. I think we’re mixed up in something despite my dedication to freelancing and offending nobody. It’s happened before. It was bound to happen again, but I’m still wrapping my head around this one.We came across a band of--I don’t know what. Smugglers, maybe. They’d had a fight with our buyers (the mushroom wine Alto sourced) and had a kind of pyrrhic victory I suppose. I wrote how the survivors accosted us.Well, Sanna and Aelred tracked one of them down, and it wasn’t a coincidence that they looked like us. They were impersonating us. Trying to pass off their own brand of wine. I can only imagine that wine was not going to sit well with whoever drank it, but it got torched in the fire. Don’t know who they work for, and not sure if they meant to frame us to take us down, or were just using us to get at our buyer or the buyer’s buyer. I’m not built for this level of scheming.Wasn’t the Flames though, and it wasn’t their buyer. Alto and Tsubaki confirmed that, so that means the deal might still work. Had Alto make contact later, and we heard back: we’re going to do the handoff the Flames were meant to do ourselves. We’ll need to bring the wine in via cart. They’ll have a man waiting for us at the checkpoint to wave us through, then we make the sale at an abandoned ceruleum warehouse on the western edge of the Sea of Spires. Wish we could take the ship, but there’s no way we can land around there, and plus, the ship’s conspicuous. Whoever this Johi person is wants this done quietly.Jumi and Mal made some headway figuring out what that weird tree insignia was, but there were some dead ends at least where we were. Mal’s headed by ferry back to Suodi to follow up, but I’m worried that we pissed off the wrong people. Don’t like sending our sawbones, but things are rarely ideal these days.Don’t like that we’re stuck into something of course, but that’s a big problem and I’m going to break that down into smaller bits. First is we finish this deal and put it behind us. Use the funds to reinforce the ship and make sure we’re stocked and secure. Hopefully Mal will have some info on that insignia, or, failing that, I’ll ask this Johi person directly about it. My fear here is that we are small fish, and will end up asking a shark to watch our backs.We picked up another crewmember on the bright side. Goes by Tyo. Seems nice, but is chummy with Jumi. Will be good to see how she does with this.Flank still hurts when I stand and I can’t sleep on my right side. Jumi said something odd about it, but that’s a whole thing I don’t feel like recounting at the moment. Been a while since I’ve been this hurt, and I definitely don’t heal like I used to.
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Dust and Dirtwine
Second Campaign
Captain's LogClouds Over Sea of Jade.
Sunny. Clear. Wind 20kt EWe did well offloading the Dirtwine and even double-dipped on the crate taking the late Flame’s pay as well as ours. Smuggled the crate on a rented carriage--Tsubaki posed as a merchant since she can clean up, and knows how to talk to people. Sanna, Alto, Jumi, Red and I acted like caravan guards, and the whole thing went better than any of us expected to start.Tsu handed over a bottle of some sedative-laced wine as a gift along with some coin to get us waved through. And they did, but not without some consternation from the one apple that refused to spoil with the rest of the barrel. That, combined with the fact that happenstance led to Jumi being recognized by an old acquaintance held up in import bureaucracy meant that the damn fool came after us while we camped. Alone, lest I forget that this fool was hellsbent on meeting his end.Because, sure enough, he did, though by no doing of ours. When we met the ultimate buyers for this wine that Alto’d secured so many weeks ago, they killed him like livestock. Cut his throat right there, and he bled out on the floor tied up like swine. The woman that spoke for the buyer goes by “Johi,” but that might be an alias. The had the look and the manner of a woman that might have one or more. She had her escort kill him, and tried to tell us it was our fault for capturing him in the first place.We buried him outside that dusty, abandoned town in a shallow grave, since Aelred broke the damn spade. Nothing to do but pile on some rocks.I tried to wring a bit more coin out of that Johi in exchange for what we learned about the imposters and how they might be targeting her puppeteer--someone she called The Lady. She offered to pay if we could bring something more concrete, and I said we’d try. The crew didn’t like it, but I don’t think they’re very good at reckoning with the notion that we must wring our living from the heavy fabrics on the upper rungs. After a month of work for this “Lady,” we’ve got near three full coffers of gil, which is more than we’ve had before. And despite that, faces are long and morale seems low. At least Aelred keeps quipping, Alto keeps turning up new opportunities, Tsubaki keeps us sane, Jumi keeps the ship running and Sanna glowers, same as ever.We should be in Suodi in two cycles if I’ve measured well, where I’ll sit with Jumi, figure out the Zephyr’s cut, then split the rest even as we always do. We need to dig in and find something more concrete for Johi, but I think a bit of quality time on the free island with full purses will do good for the crew. I hope I can get some time with each of them. Especially Alto. He seemed tense, and I think stoked his ire when I called the Flames a different kind of lapdog.I don’t see the point in pretending that collaring yourself in a uniform to protect your master’s property isn’t being a lapdog. However, I also hope he knows that I know that not everyone has an airship to fly off on.
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18+ Only Space: This group is run by adults for adults. We value a space where adults are free to express themselves (within reason as outlined below) without fear of needing to censor themselves for the sake of minors.
IC Rules
◈ This group is low-powered and mundane-focused. Race wise we only accept what is available in the character creator, including halfbreeds of those races (note: Garleans are also welcome). We're here to tell mundane pirate and criminal/victim stories.◈ Writing matters. We're folks who care about writing and improving our writing.◈ Pirates and their affiliates are not inherently evil, but they do exist around/in circumstances where non-consensual acts up to and including murder may come up. However, no depictions of minors are allowed during any scenes of this nature.We are not here to glorify amoral behavior. However, social issues that lead to a life outside of cooperative society do sometimes include these topics.If you have any questions or concerns, please join our discord.
OOC Rules
◈ Bigotry, discrimination, sexual harassment, and/or harmful speech in our discord or in game is not ok. Don't be an ass.◈ Please show courtesy to others. Don't spam, please try to not be excessively negative or create an atmosphere where people feel like they have to attend to you. RP is a team hobby, be a team player.◈ Please reach out to staff if you have conflict with another member that you can't resolve on your own.◈ Discord specific: R-rated graphic depictions of violence and sexuality are allowed between consenting OOC players in roleplay scenes, but are not permitted in OOC channels when they pertain to real-life persons. Events or scenes that are likely to include them must be discussed beforehand.In-game, for consent's sake (and your account safety), keep it to party or behind locked doors.◈ Overcommunicate any intent to delve into RP or OOC RP topics that might include upsetting subject matters like self-harm, animal cruelty, racism, sexism, abuse, violence, etc. Officers may ask you to use a thread depending on member sensitivity to your discussion.
Ollix Ronacent
captain/pilot
Alto Lagrinoux
quartermaster/muscle
Jumi Juradi
mechanic/backup gunner
Strongly opinionated and rough around the edges, she has a hunger for profit and no qualms about doing what's needed.
Tsubaki Tachikake
chief steward/cook
Aelred Kisser
sniper/gunner/gun maintenance
ON HIATUS
Lighthearted at best and dodgy at worst, he has an earnest desire to see the world—and to annoy whoever he possibly can while doing so.
Sanna Fryth
navigator/muscle
MISSING
A veteran of life's turmoils, Sanna is a pragmatic woman determined to keep herself and the crew on the right track--no matter the cost.
Enduring Skies is a 18+ mature themes fc on Halicarnassus run by two crusty mid-30s adults with ooc responsibilities: our belief for this group is that real life comes first and everyone's time should be respected.Membership in the fc requires a quick fit-check application that can be found in our discord. Members must join with a main or alt character on Halicarnassus.Affiliates who rp with us, but are not part of the airship crew are welcome from any NA datacenter.Due to the mature themes and mix of bad with the good, if you're looking to tell low stress feel-good stories, this fc/group probably won't be the best fit.
Recruitment Needs
Enduring Skies is an ensemble-based, character-driven fc. Please expect that your character will need to be able to contribute to the airship's operation and/or maintenance in some way. Even if it's just swabbing the deck.Looking For:◈ Specific roles such as a loadmaster (the so-called "resident physicist"), engineer specializing in magitek, more gunners, chaplain, co-pilot, carpenter, various maintenance positions, electrical engineer (or magical equivalents) are still available. Please see here, to see what is already taken.◈ Any low-powered characters with reason and desire to be on a grey-trade/pirate airship--if they know nothing of airships but are willing to learn in order to perform a shipboard job, that is good too.◈ A variety of moralities, from good characters to bad. Be aware there are conflicting moralities on board and your character will need reasons to stay (we can brainstorm, but ultimately the crew won't be responsible for holding your character hostage!) if different sorts are objectionable to them.◈ A character you think could fit in a diverse group. Let's chat and see if we can make it work!◈ Affiliate characters of all stripes are welcome, but please mind that if your character is from a vastly different background, you'll need to be willing to brainstorm why they get mixed up with us!
Not Looking For:◈ Characters whose sole focus is playing out anime tropes & whose advancement is solely through getting better at fighting.◈ Characters who only have ground-based skillsets and are unwilling to do ship chores. Examples: assassins, spies, thieves, trackers, hunters, etc. (note these are welcome in addition to being willing to do ship chores or having airship specific skillsets)
