READ THIS IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE
This is more of a test run then anything to see if an RP like this will work here. Yes, the plot is long and the stat system is more complex then I had wanted it. If you really insist on not reading either, honestly, don't bother signing up. It'd be pointless. I'm not going to throw summaries everywhere if you won't have the attention span to read the maybe four paragraphs that makes up the first post.

Thanks to Thaiberium for adding his "posh and style" to the story. It looked quite ugly before.

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Earth herself had not even made it to the Renaissance proper before a technological breakthrough capable of changing the geo-political landscape came about. The power of steam was now harnessed for the greater good and advancement of the world. Though the old arcane ways still existed, they served little now that technology was literally taking the magic out of everything. Those savvy enough in the ways of the world concluded that the next logical step was to meld these though forces in an unholy alliance as used for war. Why? Simply because as technology moved forward, the base intent of using it to dominate others has never changed. For that was what all races sought, plain and simple.

In a grand and expansive desert stood a tower. It was not an ornate tower, and it was quite simple in appearance and function. But such was the power of its function that no known mortal should ever master it. The function was quite simple, to weaponise sound so that it may travel the Earth and subjugate all. Nobody remembers who built it but they were surely mad and thus the wail of death that the tower emitted was dubbed the Sound of Madness. It's raw power was unrestrained, but anyone who made it up the tower could manipulate such a deadly weapon. Thus arose a cult of magi, who had deemed such a tower blasphemous towards all of existence who endeavoured to end it. The cult grew and the tower was assaulted by ever fervent and increasing number of magi wishing to destroy it. They knew not what their assays had done for woe befell the world when the magicks had finally infused the tower with sentience.

The Sound of Madness resounded through the lands, bringing down the once mighty and proud empires and races of the world. One city, a city of machines survived this onslaught as cold steel was impervious to the sound that rendered flesh and bone. Its populace was not as well off however and as the years passed, some races recovered, some did not. But such a recovery could not be spared once the tower sang the Sound of Madness once again, the maddening melody growing in intensity and frequency. Humanity, who had originally researched such a weapon, were ironically being killed off by it. Thus they proposed to the other races that the remaining course of survival was to band together and assault the tower, and destroy it. Many were reluctant to join shared the same sentiment, not wishing to suffer and lose more to the foolishness that the Humans birthed. Alas, in the long negotiations, those that were monitoring the devilish device had predicted that only a month's time remained before the next broadcast. Thus the date with destiny was set as this last broadcast could possibly be the end of it all.

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The Sound of Madness is capable of many cruelties. The simplest and perhaps, most forgiving one, was simply death. For those unfortunate enough to hear and not succumb to death saw a far more bleak a fate. Such unforgiving frequencies corrupted with magic could turn the minds of those that heard it, enslaving it to the will of the tower as well as to mutate the victim. Flora are not spared either, the vibrations in the air shattering plant cell walls, reducing harvest to a meagre handful of plants that could survive it. Beasts of all manners of shapes and sizes were not spared either. However, in the most cruelest twists of fate, this rendered the beast even more feral, aggressive and nigh-invulnerable. Only contemporary weapons and few otherwise could harm such things. The Sound of Madness could not be stopped either. Those who heard it fell victim, it could not be blocked out, and could only be dampened by machinery augmented with magic. Such machinery were as rare as an oasis in a desert as the world was reduced to rubble. It was more practical to destroy the source outright and be done with it, or at least, die in the process, for the machinery upon the tower only seems to grow in power with every broadcast it makes.

Stats

As most roleplays I make, there is a minor stat system, mostly for battle. Don't complain about it, it's much simpler then what I had in mind.

Each level, a character shall get four status points. This includes level 0, what the character starts at.

STRength: Used for low-tech weapons (weapons from the midevil times, mostly, such as swords, spears, you know the drill) that are actually still used in the steampunk era. Also applies to certain melee steampunk weapons. Instead of a set amount of gain from each point in this stat, the weapon itself will determine what sort of bonus it gets.

VITality: Your overall healthiness. The more you have of this, the healthier you are, and thus you can take more of a beating. 5 HP a point.

ENGineering: Used for most steampunk-era machinery and weaponry. The more you have of this, the better you are with all kinds of machines. As with strength, the weapon itself determines the bonus you get from a point.

DEXterity: The same as agility, with a correct acronym. Determines your general speed and agility. In other words, the more of this you have, the more you'll avoid getting gored with a horn rather then getting hit and shrugging it off. Also effects whether you hit or miss an enemy. Every point gives an additional 1% chance to avoid, as the same for attacks, the former starting at 20% and the latter at 60%. Every ten points adds one to your attack roll, not exceeding a bonus of two.

Attack rolls are a roll of a 1d12 die. 1-4 is a miss, 5-7 is an average hit, 8-10 is a great hit (1.5x, but I still need to figure it out some more) and 11-12 is a critical (2x). If the roll surpasses twelve, it is counted as a twelve. Three moves may be made a "turn", the time frame of your post. a "round" passes when all players and enemies have acted. Turns will not be gained through a stat, but instead via level-ups.

I don't expect many of you to believe me, but this won't be as stat-heavy as you might think. It's generally for battle, as normal RPs can go on for literally pages before ending battles. Hopefully a system such as this will cut back on battle length. I will handle all the enemy-related stuff, so simply post your moves (and what they do, if anything). Use this link to take care of rolls. Enter 1d12, then add your roll bonus from DEX in (if any) and hit roll three times. Take note of all three numbers, use the format above to calculate. You should know what to do from there.

Sheet

Name goes here, as well as level. (I.E: Firstname Lastname Lvl. 0)
Race: (Any will do, really, but there are few in the alliance, so your choice will effect many choices throughout the RP. Actually, no, any will not do. No cartoonish, silly, or otherwise non-fitting races. An Easter bunny wouldn't exactly fit in this sort of world, would it?)

Weapon of choice: (Your weapon of choice. For starting weapons, one point of damage per point of strength. The weapon in question has a particularly low base (I'm talking around 1-10. Damage is absolute, and thus the numbers are simply guidelines for your base). The same applies for steampunk weapons and ENG. If the weapon in question runs on ammo (Say, a disc launcher), it may have up to a three damage bonus. No more then, say, four "clips" of ammo for starters. If your starting weapons' base damage is 9-10, you must have a stat penalty. This penalty must make SENSE; Such as a large, two-handed sword afflicting DEX because of its' massive weight).

Accessory: (Optional. Starting accessories do absolutely nothing, but accessories from monsters and such may or may not.)
Stats: (Goes in a base plus additional format. Otherwise, do what you please with it.)
Armor: (Gives VIT bonuses. You start with none.)

Biography: (It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just a few lines.)

Appearance: (Again, doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just try to avoid a list of clothes and features your character has.)



Skills

You start with two skills. They may not be damage skills unless you are a spellcaster of some sort, and even then they must be weak. A (very much passive) cool down is required for active skills (direct damage, healing, buffs, the works) rather then a warmup. Every two levels you may either upgrade an existing skill or create yet another. Skills go below your status line to keep

Something like:

Name: Celren Lowell Lv. 0

Race: Human

Weapon of choice: Customizable Mechanical Arm (CMA) with piston: Base Damage: 5 + 3 (STR & ENG)

Accessory: A pair of glasses (As a way to emulate the person who gave him the facination of machines)

Stats:
STR:1
VIT:1
ENG:2
DEX:0

Armor: 0

Biography: He was a scholar of technology, fascinated when he saw one of his father's friend build a simple machine. Eventually, he was in a accident that luckily only took off his left arm, and for unknown reasons (possibly of returning the many favors that Celren gave), a elder that he knew helped him by added a rare mechanical arm, under the oath that Celren keeps on his studies over technology. He took this by soon planning to go to the infamous tower he had heard of, but never seen, in hopes to study this.

Appearance: A gaunt figure around 6'1 hiding under a gray coat with a brown leather shirt and similar pants and boots. Brown haired, with green eyes.

Skills: Overlimit: Temporarily exceed the limit of his arm, increasing whatever attack he is about to do. Adds 1 to base damage for next attack.

Mechanical Knowledge: Is able to fasten various parts to change or upgrade his arm. Can only do basic operations.

Sorry if there are any flaws, can never seem to find them without someone else.

((Yeah, that's good, but maybe you should have paid more attention to the guidelines. Damage is absolute, meaning there is no minimum and no maximum. There is only the number from your weapon and your STR/ENG bonuses. Otherwise, your bio is great. Fix that and you're accepted.))

Helen Harviah, Level 0
Race: Human

Weapon of choice: Steam Rifle. Base damage, 12+2 (ENG). 24 rounds (4, six round clips)

Accessory: ---
Stats:

STR:0
VIT:0
ENG:2
DEX:2

Armor: ---

Biography: Helen is a witch, or to be more correct a witch in training. She was kidnapped at a young age, because of her magic potential, and taken to the coven. When she learned about that she escaped to find her parents. I mean how hard can it be, people in stories do that kind of thing all the time, boy did she make a mistake. When she got to a town, she had nothing, and you can't eat nothing, so petty thief was her carrier for a while. She obtained her rifle from a trade with her "magic broom", which in really it's Helen that's magic not the broom. After that she became fascinated with machines and began to think how to fuse magic and machines. And there happens to be a tower that has already gone though that process, so what better to study?

Appearance: Helen has deep green eyes, a round nose, and a smiling face. Even if she hides it in the shadow of her brown witch's hat, or under her neck length red-orange hair. She wears a brown cloak, over clothes you'd be likely never to see, but judging by the occasional gust of wind blowing her cloak back, it would be safe to say she's wearing a lavender skirt. Normally she is side-saddling her hovering broom.

Skills:

Trifle: Basic spells that have really limited use. Trifles include a quick burst of fine mist, levitating a broom, and anything else that can't do much except make life the tiniest bit easier. (No combat implications)

Daisur: Daisur is a shock of dark magic. It deals 4 damage, always hits, and ignores armor. (Cool off: 2 rounds).

OoC: Er...I tried to make the bio shorter than usual...

Name: Melody (Mel) Empire, Level: 0

Race: Human

Accessory: Vial of quicksilver.

Weapon of Choice: Mercury Whip, Base Damage: 5

Stats:
STR:0
VIT:1
ENG:
DEX:3

Armour:

Biography: Melody's father was a die-hard biomagic technician, a scientist whose work was devoted to the merging of magic and modern technology in living organisms. His colleagues had conducted many different tests, even using their own children, granting them strange "magiscientifical" powers. His child Melody, was born with the ability to "magiscientifically" manipulate quicksilver (aka Mercury), and magically conjure lightning. The entire operation was brought to an end when the Empire sought to take the children for living weapons of war (the reason of her last name). The children were raised by scientists, who scrutinized and watched their every move. It wasn't until they were a lot older that one of the elder children, Mathias, rose up and rallied the rest of them to fight off their jailers. They all fled the empire spreading throughout the world each pursuing different jobs and careers. Melody now free, at first attempted to assimilate with other magically inclined like herself, but they declared her magic unclean and a weapon of mass destruction leaving her alone, and unloved. It wasn't after many jobs slowly leading her away from the empire that she learned of the Tower of Madness and its impending doom. She now could prove to the world that her powers were not only for war but the bringing of peace....if she managed to destroy the tower in time that is.

Appearance: She is an average height for a young woman with a slender build. She has long brown hair though strands of silver grows on her bangs, her eyes are noticeably silver. She wears a white long sleeved short dress. A beige vest is worn over the dress so mainly the sleeves and the skirt show. A light blue ribbon tied around her waist in a neat bow at the back from which her whip and a pouch hangs. She sports light brown laced high heeled boots, that stop just below her knees.

Skills:

Mercury Shield - Creates some sort of shield made of solidified mercury around or on the target. It can be a small triangle on the user's arm, a circle in front of the target, or an entire dome around the target for example.

Mercury Vapour - The mercury is manipulated into a poisonous gas. If inhaled by living creatures, the gas can make the target feel faint to being overcome by the toxic fumes. It does not effect Melody however.