The Silver Roses
A serious, adventure-focused open-world roleplay community.
Who are we? (IC)
The Silver Roses are a small mercenary organization made up of fresh-faced adventurers and seasoned sellswords alike from all over the star; some may have an inclination towards combat and conflict, others towards peaceful resolutions and negotiation; some may take pride in their martial prowess, others in their magical talent, and others yet may instead choose to support operations behind the scenes.In their role as one of the subsidiaries of the Adventurer's Guild, the Silver Roses primarily receive their contracts from the various Grand Companies and city-states of the star; though they are informally headquartered in Ishgard, they hold no allegiance to any one entity in particular, instead roaming the lands and taking on high-paying contracts wherever they may be found, from whoever may offer them.In accordance with the strict stipulations and requirements of their primary business partners, the Silver Roses officially hold a stance of moral consciousness in their contract selection, foregoing potentially lucrative contracts involving typical mercenary business such as protection fees, trade blockades or smuggling in favor of contracts more closely aligned with the values of the Grand Companies... with reasonable flexibility.The scale of each contract varies greatly; while some may indeed involve the entire organization in some way, others may only call for one or two subject matter experts - a field research expedition, for instance, may make use of the full roster and the individual skillsets offered, while a simple protection contract for a merchant caravan may only call for a handful of members with basic combat experience instead.
Who are we? (OOC)
At the OOC level, the Silver Roses are a small-scale roleplaying community focused on providing a writing environment for players who feel more at home doing open-world roleplay and adventuring plots than being cooped up at a venue location every week. We are not profit-driven at the OOC level and do not make use of "real" Gil in roleplay; any exchange featuring payment will be kept purely in-character.Similarly, we also do not pump out weekly events or "openings"; though we fully intend to run events when inspiration strikes, we do not want to create an environment where hobby GMs feel pressured to regularly provide entertainment to players. Those capable of creating their own roleplay and pursuing their own plots will feel right at home; those overly reliant on outside influences will, unfortunately, grow bored quickly.Lastly, we set ourselves apart by our character-focused approach: storylines are primarily centered around progressing the individual narratives of the participants, i.e. it is not our goal to provide an on-rails experience like the MSQ, but rather to create a dynamic world where the actions of individual characters have consequences both for themselves and for the overall narrative (where applicable and reasonable, anyway).
Organization
Martial Combatants:
Forming the main fighting force of any mercenary company, martial combatants are those who wield physical weaponry- melee and ranged both- with no particular arcane focus. Although they will never be as powerful as a mage of equal experience, they have the advantage of not needing to manage their aetherpool and don't need to focus on incantations.
Healers:
No adventuring group is complete without some form of healer forming the core of the party. Apothecaries, chirurgeons, conjurers and anyone else who uses healing magicks fall under this umbrella; in a mercenary company, healers generally enjoy a great deal of respect as they are often the difference between life and death.
Magical Combatants:
Magical combatants are a diverse group encompassing all those whose combat style primarily involves the arcane arts; whether they use destructive, building-leveling magicks or illusory spells that manipulate the battlefield and enemy both, they all have one thing in common: mages are best positioned behind their martial counterparts.
Support Staff:
At the end of the day, even the greatest of warriors need food, water, shelter, equipment maintenance and, of course, pay for their contracts. Although they're not in the field as often as their comrades, those considered support staff - culinarians, quartermasters, negotiators, researchers and more - are nevertheless vital parts of the greater whole.
Roster
Anri Alimont
Martial Combatant; Command
Profile link.
Cotze Valnain
Support Staff; Intelligence
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Eleanore Portelaine
Support Staff; Chirurgeon
Profile link.
Khali Orl
Support Staff; Smith
Profile link.
Nizha Moshantu
Martial Combatant
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Ostera Toralen
Martial Combatant
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Princess Eldaren
Healer
Profile link.
Raiko Rikimaru
Martial Combatant
Profile link.
Yuki Silverthorn
Martial Combatant
Profile link.
Employment
Should you find yourself interested in joining the Silver Roses, you may start the recruitment process by reaching out to myself (Anri) either in-game, via Discord, or through any other line of communication (i.e. social media DMs, having a mutual friend contact me, or even just having an existing member reach out).
Each potential member will be given a full in-character interview and orientation; we believe it is detrimental to storytelling to simply have people join without any narrative context whatsoever.To facilitate this, we schedule and plan the recruitment scenes at the OOC level with the other party - past experiences have taught us that it is too unreliable to keep recruitment purely at the IC and in-game level, i.e. people are naturally not online 24/7 which means they can't always be contacted, may have schedules that keep them from roleplaying at certain times, may not be in-character / RP-tagged at the right time, et cetera.For the recruitment talk itself, you can generally expect an interview format of some variety: often this is done with the basic scene idea of a pre-arranged meeting on neutral grounds through the Adventurer's Guild, but we're more than happy to set up something more unique if you (or we) have any fun ideas at the time.
Out-of-Character
Hi! We have a lot of expectations for potential members. These are not duties or actions that have to be taken or rituals that must be completed, but rather prerequisites to be fulfilled in order to join the Silver Roses. If you're a sane person, the OOC requirements shouldn't be an issue. The IC requirements- with exclusion of #1- may be discussed on a case-by-case basis, but know that potential exceptions will only go so far.
In-Character Requirements
1) Your character must be an adult, which we define as 18 years old and ideally 21 years old, and must physically appear to be an adult as well - if it requires further explaining or if it's prone to raising questions, it's probably a problem.2) Your character should fit into an adventuring-focused writing enviroment. A social media influencer wouldn't be a very good fit for the Silver Roses, for example - it's a fantasy setting, and we encourage people to lean into the fantasy setting.3) Your character must be reasonably lore-friendly. We welcome and encourage a small degree of lore-bending (i.e. custom magic, homebrew locations), but we do not permit things like isekai characters, characters from other settings, or similar.4) Your character must be capable of acting within the framework of a mercenary organization with a hierarchy; while in-character conflict is permitted, continuous disruptions through disobedience or infighting may lead to being kicked out.5) Your character should fit in with the vision of mostly-average adventurers banding together. You can find a list of examples for what we mean by this by clicking this link. If any of these examples describe your character, don't take it personal!
Out-of-Character Requirements
1) We are an inclusive community. Queer people, people of color, people with disabilities and anyone else is welcome; slurs and hate speech will not be tolerated. We explicitly forbid Queen of Spades or Futa/F+ characters and interactions with such.2) The Silver Roses exist as a mature writing space intended for adults; players below the age of 18 will be removed from the community if suspected beyond a reasonable doubt, and players below the age of 21 are politely discouraged from joining.3) While we do not condemn erotic roleplay, we do condemn being a sex pest and ask any members and affiliates to maintain reasonable public decency both within context of the Silver Roses and towards outsiders. What you do in private is your choice.4) We are not a high school locker room. We do not seek, perpetuate or permit drama, trashtalking or endless public arguing; be the bigger person and don't add fuel to any fires. If it's relevant for administrative purposes, bring it up to an admin.5) Should you make use of customization tools, we ask you to ensure your vanilla appearance at least resembles your non-vanilla appearance. We understand this isn't always easy and there's leeway here, but please at the very least make an effort.
Should our IC requirements give offense, we apologize. These restrictions exist not to judge and belittle others for what they enjoy writing, but to narrow down the scope of our own efforts: we are curating our space and ensuring everyone is on the same page as to what to expect and what not to expect to prevent disappointment.
Who are you?
Below is a non-exhaustive list of various examples of what we would consider suitable or unsuitable for the Silver Roses. As before, keep in mind that this list does not exist to cast judgement upon those who like writing these kinds of characters - it's just not what we're looking for, and would feel out of place in our narrative.
This does fit!1) Non-playable race characters. This primarily means mixed-race characters (i.e. miqo'ra, half-elezen), but allied societies (i.e. Kobolds) are also fine if they're allied with the Grand Companies.2) Special backgrounds. Noble families, wealthy parents or reasonable political ties - as long as it's still reasonable to go adventuring or get involved with mercenaries, it's probably fine!3) Characters who participated in major MSQ events, i.e. the Dragonsong War, the liberation of Ala Mhigo, the Final Days, the defeat of Garlemald and other world-changing or nation-wide events.4) Characters who have mastered something they've specialized in, or characters who can do multiple things at basic aptitude. The more different things you learn, the less thorough you can be individually.5) Jobs stated to be common, uncommon or rare (within reason): anything not listed on the right, really. Note: you can wield a scythe or staff without specifically being a Reaper or White Mage.6) Neutral-aligned or good-aligned characters who sometimes do bad things: threatening or hurting people, killing their foes instead of capturing them, and other circumstantial bad deeds.7) Nightkin and other characters with voidsent pacts. This is a very strong case-by-case thing as each case is going to be unique, but be prepared to face in-character consequences either way.
This does not fit!1) Gods, demi-gods and those otherwise directly related to (or involved with) the divine. This is not limited to The Twelve, but encompasses all divinities of all faiths, be they canon or custom lore.2) Characters who are objectively powerful and special. This encompasses special powers given to them at birth, possession of unique artifacts (i.e. dragon eyes) and "chosen one"-type characters.3) Characters directly involved with the MSQ. Witnessing or participating in major events (i.e. the Dragonsong War) is fine, but being a major actor in the MSQ (or rubbing elbows with them) is not.4) Jack-of-all-trades characters who are notably skilled in everything they do: a master craftsman who is also a legendary swordsman and a fabled poet and also a successful politician who is filthy rich.5) Jobs implied or explicitly stated to be unique, extremely rare or outright illegal in most places: White Mages, Black Mages, Reapers and "high-level" Summoners. For more, take a look left!6) Evil-aligned characters who do objectively bad things because they enjoy doing them: cannibals, serial killers, war criminals, slavers, Imperial loyalists, pure voidsent and similar sorts.7) Multi-universe characters, i.e. characters who have "different versions" of themselves participating in public roleplay. Your private WoLverse is obviously fine; enjoy the MSQ as you please!
We hope this clears up potential questions; should you still be uncertain about something that is either not listed or not explained in sufficient detail, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask us about it.