The cobbled streets of the castle towns bustle with pokemon coming to and fro. At every street corner, on every business window, there is a postage. Various pokemon go past and read what it says every day, and while many entertain the thought and then go about their days, cooking and serving food, guarding the neighborhoods, designing buildings, painting rich clients, and courting those they find attractive, certain pokemon focus in on the postages. They read them over in detail, and make their way to meet a certain someone having read through the note in detail:
The gorgeous and glorious lands of Fortune call you, young adventurers! The Thirteen Counties are calling any able bodied pokemon to apply to this expedition team, in search of a city reportedly untouched by civilization, hidden deep within the mystical and mountainous jungles of our fair nation! If you would like to help our nation establish ties with this city, you will be handsomely rewarded for your time. Gold, Land, Titles? Fortune will spare no expense. Your heart's desire shall be your reward if the nation has the power to grant it, but only if you are able to prove your worth. Seek out Serenity Knight Farea the Aromatisse in Fellar Shol County for information on the application process! Only the five that most impress her will make the cut!
Small, mundane villages outside of large, spiraling towers wake up to see notices of their own posted on the tower doors, as guards look out from the tower windows, purposeful looking pokemon teleport to their destinations, charlatans use sleight of hand to trick tourists, and an innkeeper tends to their tavern as they keep their furniture in the air with a psychic. Pokemon that find their curiosity get the best of them look over this mysterious notice, that has appeared quietly, but suddenly and without warning:
Word has reached Daywich that a place or item of legendary power has been discovered, or is possibly about to be discovered, in the wilderness of Fortune. While Daywich and Fortune enjoy a relative peace, and are a considerable distance apart from each other, the Council of Sages and the Philosopher King agree that to allow any such power to fall into the hands of any nation but are own would be a disgrace. If you are of an intellectual bent, focused on the greater good, or like going on covert adventures through uncharted territory, please seek out Dirge, the musical Meowstic mortician of Zakoss, and continue the application process. We must keep our numbers small, so only the three most impressive to Dirge will join on this mission. Knowledge and Power await you, should you act swiftly enough to grab it.
Among the vast plains and sparse forests of most of Iodrone, traditional homes, temples, and shrines are opened up as a decorated military march passes by. Farmers nod happily to the soldiers. Merchants offer the most generous deals to customers, and restaurants are as hospitable as possible to their patrons, overflowing their plates with food and cups with water. Monks and shrine maidens offer prayers to the legendary pokemon, and entertainers perform exotic dances and plays to tranquil string music or epic drums. Those who enjoy this rural life, or venture far out enough into it, notice the following messages, often hidden behind buildings or at the base of town wells, and those that do quickly move out, spurred on with pride:
Long ago, Nishiki once ruled all of this continent, and now we are but a shadow of our formerly glorious empire. The current Empress and Crown Prince are weak, and unwilling to lead us back to our glory days, but the Nitta family will return us to our natural place as the Apex of Iodrone. To that end, our first mission is a conquest of the lands that rightfully belong to us, the wilderness that our beauty and art obsessed neighbors of Fortune have stolen from us for centuries! Rumors abound of a lost city, deep in the jungles. We shall claim it as our own, proving the might of Nishiki! Patriotic and Honorable warriors, if you know our cause to be just and true, seek out the Nitta family's head samurai, Ariuji the Lurantis, and follow his orders to complete your application process. Only four may join him on this sacred mission, else our weak and feeble government will feel the need to take action. For Honor! For Glory! For Nishiki!
To the northeast of Iodrone, in a steppeland characterized by wandering tribes of pokemon and unpredictable forest fires, in what few small towns and cities exist, there are fliers, but more often than not, the information is passed orally, between the wandering nomadic pokemon. Any who happen to be in the area might overhear, or might even be told outright by a friendlier tribe, and those that understand the intent behind the message head out at once:
Rumor has even reached the floating isles of Dammoghes of the potential discovery of a city deep within the jungles of Fortune. Knowing full well how powerful certain ancient artifacts could be, and knowing full well that a high likelihood of them being discovered on expeditions to this city exist, Hyacinth Manor has issued the following decree, Chotan the Dodrio of Zavror shall lead a small expedition, consisting of herself and three pokemon of her choosing, into the jungles in an attempt to find this lost city before any other expedition team, and to destroy any sort of powerful artifact before it falls into the hands of one of the warmongering nations of the Iodrone continent, or any other nation for that matter. A carefree lifestyle on the floating isles awaits you, house, land, money, and food all provided for the rest of your lives, should you be one of those three pokemon who help Chotan on this mission of highest import.
At the edge of the jungles, in small frontier towns where the order of society mixes with the chaotic natural mystery dungeons, pokemon look over at the knights with veiled disdain. Farmers scrounge what little they can, priests tend to the wounded explorers and hunters, and the songs the entertainers sing are full of somber notes and lyrics of desperation and loss. Pokemon that manage to pull themselves out of their funk might notice small fliers dotting their tiny towns, and those that muster enough will to read what they say quickly get a move on towards the destination mentioned in the flier itself:
No doubt you've seen the Thirteen Counties posting their expedition notices about a lost city in the wilderness, forgetting that it is the job of the Frontier towns to explore and map the mountainous jungles that overtake our northern and western lands. I implore you, DO NOT JOIN THEM! They will not harm the city, for they find it sacred, but they will harm us, our entire way of life! If a city really is out there, and anyone establishes trade with it, conquers it, or destroys it. If in any way it is made public to all of Ebonor, even all of Iodrone, the Counties will come to our towns armed and ready to raze them for more of their 'civilized' lands. JOIN ME INSTEAD! We will find the city first. Under that condition, we will be able to formally secede from Fortune, and form our own nation! They would not dare attack an ally of this lost city, and we could force their hand without bloodshed (for if bloodshed were the case we likely would be soundly defeated). I don't need too many pokemon, only three trustworthy souls. Any more than that, and news might reach the Counties. Please find me in The Lonely Rose, and quickly, for putting my name out here is dangerous enough. Sincerely, Desperately, Urifis the Shiinotic.
Up in the mountainous north northwest of Iodrone, where towns of mercenaries fight off knightly orders from all sides, and the poisoning of a noble pokemon's meal is a near monthly occurrence, where pokemon venture into nearby mystery dungeons, clear them out, and claim the new land as their own, where historians join knights in merriful song and glorious celebration, where castles mark directions as well as nobility. In the underbelly of this society, in the alleyways of its major cities, a strange note containing a code no normal pokemon can read exists. Only those who can remain in such a seedy, dangerous area for an extended period of time will be afforded the opportunity to read the note, and only the most intelligent or persistent will be able to finally make sense of it. To those that do, a cognitohazard of information awaits them, and they find themselves either smiling at the task asked of them, or frightened beyond belief, and they seek either to contact the name in the note immediately, or to hide themselves from the world and hope no one finds them any time soon. The note reads:
If you are even reading this, then I congratulate you on cracking the cipher. You're exactly the kind of pokemon I'm looking for. The latest gossip about the ancient city in the jungles of Fortune, and the various attempts by different nations to reach it raises some eyebrows, and while the High Lord of Braigia prefers to spend his time maintaining his underlings, this opportunity for influence expansion cannot be ignored. Braigia has a long history of establishing puppet officials in other nations all over Ebonor, in order to make diplomatic efforts easier, and trade agreements more agreeable. However, the way this happens is not nearly as happy as diplomacy. I only need two of you. Any more and the loose ends I have to tie up will increase to an unsustainable level. Your mission is simple. There are five other expeditions heading into the jungle, to Braigia's knowledge. Each is led by a pokemon with influential ties to powerful pokemon within their nation. They must all fail to return from the expedition alive. Further, should such a lost city truly exist, sleeper agents must be placed there. That will be your final task, living your lives out in the city itself. Marry locals and grow families if you start to age, because heirs to carry on the work if you fail are absolutely a requirement. If this mission is successful, you'll have changed the very course of history, and can expect rewards beyond your wildest dreams. Should you fail, or desert the cause, the result will be the same: A very short remaining lifespan for you, and your loved ones should you have any. Remember, I only want two. The two most willing to follow orders, and least likely to have moral hang-ups about effective methods. If you manage to contact me using the secret phrase I've hidden in this message, I shall be using the alias of Leila. You're looking for a Smeargle. Remember that I know you know of me.
All across the continent, pokemon find these notices. Large pokemon, small pokemon, good pokemon, bad pokemon, rich pokemon, poor pokemon, pokemon from all walks of life, from all sorts of nations, with all sorts of histories, they all meet up with their desired contacts.
An aristocratic Aromatisse who seems preoccupied with making sure she looks her best.
A macabre Meowstic with a permanently dour expression on his face, and a hard time differentiating between how to treat the dead and how to treat the living.
A stoic Lurantis who trains his moves against a target dummy during conversation, and always speaks in as few words as possible.
A restless Dodrio who asks her questions a mile a minute, three at a time, happily and energetically.
An anxious Shiinotic, paranoid that all applicants were followed, but extremely grateful for each applicant that seeks him out.
And a confidently smiling Smeargle, who speaks implicitly and seems unable to be intimidated.
These six pokemon screen their applicants, and form their expedition teams.
16Doobop13 Presents…
A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Story…
A Story Years In The Making…
EBONOR EDDA III
THE LOST CITY OF EY
AN: No, you can't find I or II because they aren't up yet. I'm doing this one first because it's an SYOC for you guys. The stories are mostly self-contained, so you don't need to know anything about previous ones to enjoy any given fic of these.
AN2: Alright, some rules to go over before the application, there are 14 of them, but they are all very important.
Rules:
1: Submit through PMs. Any applications I see in the reviews will not be accepted.
2: I can only accept so many OCs, please, if you do not get in, do not feel bad about it. Chances are I really liked the character, and simply liked another submission more. I might offer the character a spot in another SYOC Ebonor fic if I think they'd be a good fit for it.
3: You'll notice that the application doesn't have a section for the moves your pokemon knows. This is intentional. The 'Class' you want your character to be will determine the moves available to it, and it will gain more as it survives through the story. If the pokemon survives to the very end of the story, it should have roughly 16 moves at its disposal. You will have a small degree of control in what order the pokemon learns these moves. In general however, weaker moves are learned earlier on, and stronger moves have to be learned later (To give you an example of how the moves are different, a Sceptile Wizard would likely have more special attacks and status moves compared to a Sceptile Fighter who would likely have mostly physical moves with an occasional special or status move sprinkled in). This is all done so that pokemon who are not fully evolved and pokemon that are fully evolved won't suffer too much power disparity.
4: Evolution. If you start as a fully evolved pokemon, you will have higher starting stats than not fully evolved pokemon, but you cannot multi-class. If you start as a not fully evolved pokemon, you have the option to multi-class if you manage to evolve, this will give you a wider variety of moves to use, but you will still only be able to use roughly 16 moves should you make it to the end of the story. Evolution does give some stat bonuses, but a pokemon who evolves into its final form will still not be able to get their stats as high as a pokemon that started already in its final form. Likewise, a pokemon already in its final form will never have the wide variety of moves a pokemon that evolves into its final form will have.
5: Your OC can be any alignment, but they are NOT the villain of this story. They ARE a protagonist, actually trying to accomplish the goal of whatever expedition they join. They can be doing it for whatever reason they want (maybe they'll use their newfound power to start like a death cult for a really out there example of how an evil character can work as a protagonist), but they do want their specific team to succeed in its plans.
6: The Background section doesn't need to be very specific, since Ebonor is a vast world with a lot of places that someone who didn't create it and doesn't have any sort of guide can't possibly be expected to know. You can keep the background light/vague on the details and I can flesh them out to make sense in the story. The only limitation is that your character cannot be the ruler of a nation.
7: Personality is very important, and is different depending on who your character is interacting with obviously, so a general overview likely won't cover all the bases. What I would like, at the very minimum, is a brief description of how they act towards pokemon they are meeting for the first time, how they act towards pokemon they've become friends with, how they act towards pokemon they have become enemies with, and how they act towards pokemon they need to take orders from (like parents/teachers/bosses).
8: Romance is a thing that can happen, but is entirely optional. Only characters that opt into Romance need to fill out that section.
9: Everyone is afraid of something. Your character is afraid of something.
10: Your character is not perfect. Give them flaws.
11: Like in The Last Legend, and like in the earlier drafts of Ebonor Edda, your OC can in fact die. There are no do-overs if your OC dies. No character will come to replace them either. They are dead.
12: This particular fic is rated T. Any actions taken by your OCs should reflect that.
13: By submitting this application, if accepted, you are giving me control of your character for this story. There may be instances where I ask you to choose your own OC's actions. In this situation, I will wait 1 week for you to respond. If I do not get one, I will choose for you.
14: I will wait until November 30th before finalizing the cast. If I do not have enough by then, I will start with undersized expedition parties and have npcs join them along the way. I will not accept late submissions to the story.
AN3: Finally, here is the application! It's also on my profile for easy access. I can't wait to see your submissions and I hope you will read no matter whether your OC is accepted or not.
Ebonor Edda III Application:
Name:
Sex:
Pokemon Species (No Legends/Myths/UltraBeasts etc):
Ability (Hidden Abilities are allowed):
'Class' (like Bard/Fighter/Wizard etc):
Alignment (Lawful Good/Chaotic Evil/True Neutral etc):
Background (What was your character doing prior to joining the expedition?):
Personality (How your character acts around various pokemon):
Fear(s):
Flaw(s):
Which Team(s) would they MOST prefer to be on? (up to 3 of Farea, Dirge, Ariuji, Chotan, Urifis, Leila):
Which Team(s) would they LEAST prefer to be on? (up to 3 of Farea, Dirge, Ariuji, Chotan, Urifis, Leila):
Are you okay with Romantic Subplots (RS) for your OC? (Yes/No):
*Romantic Orientation (if yes to RS):
*What personality would they fall for? (if yes to RS):
*How would they court their crush? (if yes to RS):
*How would they act towards a lover? (if yes to RS):
*What would make them break up with a lover? (if yes to RS):