Writes-Many-Posts
Champion of Grottos and Gremlins
[We are full right now, so there is no need to apply at the moment. If this is removed, we are taking in new members]
It has been long since Cidhna Mine has lost its status of toughest prison in Skyrim. A bigger building found in the wilderness of Haafingar with the name Drahonnal furiously carved in a bloody steel sign quickly became filled with prisoners that would dig up ebony from the rich endless veins inside as punishment. Still, it is nowhere near the ordinary prison, and has much behind it. Anyone unlucky enough to be ‘hosted’ in such a godsforsaken place will experience drastic changes in their personality, a new fear for disobedience and, eventually, the resigning acceptance of self-slavery.
History:
It didn’t take long before all the holds learned about the newly found prison, and their Jarls desired to get their hands on the still simmering ebony that came out of the mines. After many diplomatic conflicts, Elisif gathered every ruler of Skyrim and tried to make an arrangement to favor everyone and cease the chaos among every hold.
Other than Markarth, all the holds sent their prisoners to Drahonnal to get a part of the profit in the ebony extraction. Soon, the prisoners would be bigger in number than the guards that kept them in line, and they didn’t take long to revolt and form one of the most vicious group of bandits Tamriel had ever seen, using the fearsome structure of their former prison as a stronghold. Being Solitude the closest settlement to Drahonnal, this city was the most plundered of them all, losing entire shipments to the criminals, falling deeply in an economical crisis for a while.
In despair, Elisif sent her fastest scouts across the province to find somebody that could end the riot once and for all, and retake the ebony mines for Skyrim’s side. One woman returned to the Blue Palace after a few days. Her name was a mere whisper, completely unknown to most of the population, Nyvis.
Nyvis asked but for a few days, before she would take back the prison. Yet before leaving, she made sure the Jarl heard her demanded payment. The woman wanted nothing less than the permission to rule over the prison, establish her own rules, and have no questions asked about how many human rights would be broken as long as she was in charge. The crisis was too much to allow Elisif to say no. Nyvis had managed to get her desired payment.
A few days later, Nyvis and 40 sadistic men built a siege on the prison, avoiding as much damage as they could to the building, focusing mainly on the human targets. Their tactic was a mere distraction, while their archers focused on the 5 men that aimed catapults, most of the others would use ladders to climb up to the wall in the least guarded areas. The size of the prison, being once its pride, was its new residents’ doom. Nyvis and her men slaughtered every man and woman they found in their path, signed to the other men that were still outside to ram the gates open, and forced the enemy to surrender. It is said that after the punishment of all the prisoners that were still alive in Drahonnal, Nyvis had blood at the level of her knees.
Soon, the prison would open again, and welcome new prisoners. Despite the efforts Nyvis made to keep her inhuman punishments as far as she could from the population, the mighty feat of taking over Drahonnal once again made everyone aware of nearly all the details. Being well acquainted with Nyvis’ cruelty, no prisoner would have the word ‘riot’ flying out of his lips, which allowed her to tighten their leashes even more, by putting an end to their meals and forcing prisoners to chose between hunting skeevers for food or resting in the 5 hours given to them for sleep.
To let the prisoners hunt, Nyvis gave every person inside a shiv, and started to use the ebony extracted for armor to all of her men but herself, disliking the heat of such material. The well armed sadist guards implanted fear on everyone inside, and the exploration of the mine was drastically increased.
The over exploration of the ores caused one of the prisoners to find a new mineral, Lepiditte, being the chips of such mineral often called Lepids. It was purple colored, flexible, not fit for weaponry, but fit for currency. An underground society was created thanks to the Lepids, allowing prisoners to trade clothes, shivs, dead animals, bedrolls and other petty valuables for the new mineral, all without knowledge of the guards. Rumors were created about such mineral being sent by the Divines to Nirn, or that they were tears of a giant Daedric being that had somehow set foot on Skyrim, but its truth remains unknown. Deep down, the Lepids’ purpose seems to be to bring prisoners back to the society they once lived in, when they were free.
Layout:To avoid prisoners taking over Drahonnal once again, Nyvis let the catapults and ballista stand ready outside the fortress, guarded by at least four men, each, ready to crush any that dares to leave the mine.
The gates, usually guarded by two swordsmen outside, and two archers on one tower each, are made of wood and steel, and require four men to open it by moving a heavy mechanism. The 17 feet/5 meters tall walls that surround the entire prison are made of ivory bricks, connected by a strange cement of unknown origin. If any prisoner is talented enough to be able to climb up the orderly slippery bricks, he will be cut by the many pieces of shattered glass at the top of the wall.
Once inside, the first sight anyone has is the chopping block, never washed since Nyvis reopened the prison. Guards are always in this open area, usually training, or punishing prisoners. There is always a large square marked on the ground, near the wall, on the inside. This is where the prisoners must pile all the ebony they mine. A drawn red line at a considerable height on the wall marks Nyvis’ expectations, and if the result of a month’s work doesn’t best them, the guards kill one in every three prisoners in any way they please. Other than the chopping block, it is also possible to see a small cage, buried in the dirt, completely exposed to the sun. Such punishment is called the pit, and is the mildest of them all, being, in consequence, the least used. The last thing that is possible to see before going inside the large building where most of the people are in is a large cage with furious noisy hounds, used to the taste of human flesh, that have the job of cleaning the bodies of those that cannot handle Drahonnal.
Inside the surprisingly fresh building, a visitor will find stairs going up and down, being the first ones clean and guarded, while the other ones are dirty and made of a cheaper rock. The first floor is the treasury room, and keeps most of the profit the prison makes in ebony safes that are nearly impossible to crack, even with the best lockpicks. This is one of the floors that have most guards, possibly holding more than 15 inside sometimes. In the second floor, the guards sleep. Instead of hay piles and bedrolls that are nearly rags in poor conditions, they sleep on comfortable beds with silk blankets and pillows filled with soft duck feathers. This is also where the equipment from the prisoners awaits their owner’s death or freedom to be sold or returned, instead of kept in a locked chest. The belongings of each prisoner are kept in a different container with their name, and piled at the corner of the sleeping quarters of the guards.
Lastly, the third floor is where Nyvis sleeps. Other than that, there is also a large sauna and a big table with all the rich food types known. When guards have a break, they come here.
If, alternatively, a person chooses (or is forced) to go down, the first floor they will find will be the mine. There is little more to be seen than ebony veins, miserable prisoners and laughing guards, and little more to be heard than pickaxes striking rocks and painful moans. One floor lower is where the criminals sleep. Skeevers can be heard and sometimes seen, although they are fairly shyer than usual thanks to the extensive hunting from the prisoners. There is no concern about anybody digging a tunnel to escape because even in this floor, the walls are shielded by a massive wall of ebony ore vein. Guards force every prisoner to get out of this floor every day and mine on the one above. When they take their ores outside might as well be the only time when they ever see the sun again. The last floor is protected by a locked ebony door, and holds all the punishments hidden from the people of Skyrim. If somebody makes Nyvis put her whip back on its holster and press her ebony key against the lock of this door, they will walk out of there a bunch of hours later with severe wounds scattered all over their body.
Staff:
There is a limited range of people that seem to come to Drahonnal. The highest in number are definitely the guards. No matter which weapon of choice they have, it is always ebony made, and their skill is far greater than that of hold guards. Nyvis makes sure she hires the toughest and most sadistic men to serve at the prison, or lets a hardened prisoner that has lived through his time take the job.
Following the guards, the prisoners have the second highest number in Drahonnal, and don’t overwhelm the guards’ because many die every week. All they have is a shiv, rags and a variant amount of Lepids. Despite the guards caring very little about the well being of their captives, there is still a heavy punishment for killing a prisoner, if the killer isn’t a guard.
Lastly, there are the carriage drivers. They rarely spend more than half a day in Drahonnal, but they are those who deliver letters from outside and bring the gold to buy ebony from every Jarl. In short words, they are what connects Drahonnal to the rest of the province. Most prisoners are delivered in a carriage of the hold they were arrested in.
So this RP won’t have a plot. It is supposed to go on and on, with very little fighting, promoting mostly character development, relationships, loyalty, all that stuff that we need nowadays… Read through the rules before posting a CC.
Rulez:
Writes-Many-Posts
Khaotic3
AirshipCircus
Irishman
Shadowkitty
Nyvis bids you welcome...
It has been long since Cidhna Mine has lost its status of toughest prison in Skyrim. A bigger building found in the wilderness of Haafingar with the name Drahonnal furiously carved in a bloody steel sign quickly became filled with prisoners that would dig up ebony from the rich endless veins inside as punishment. Still, it is nowhere near the ordinary prison, and has much behind it. Anyone unlucky enough to be ‘hosted’ in such a godsforsaken place will experience drastic changes in their personality, a new fear for disobedience and, eventually, the resigning acceptance of self-slavery.
History:
It didn’t take long before all the holds learned about the newly found prison, and their Jarls desired to get their hands on the still simmering ebony that came out of the mines. After many diplomatic conflicts, Elisif gathered every ruler of Skyrim and tried to make an arrangement to favor everyone and cease the chaos among every hold.
Other than Markarth, all the holds sent their prisoners to Drahonnal to get a part of the profit in the ebony extraction. Soon, the prisoners would be bigger in number than the guards that kept them in line, and they didn’t take long to revolt and form one of the most vicious group of bandits Tamriel had ever seen, using the fearsome structure of their former prison as a stronghold. Being Solitude the closest settlement to Drahonnal, this city was the most plundered of them all, losing entire shipments to the criminals, falling deeply in an economical crisis for a while.
In despair, Elisif sent her fastest scouts across the province to find somebody that could end the riot once and for all, and retake the ebony mines for Skyrim’s side. One woman returned to the Blue Palace after a few days. Her name was a mere whisper, completely unknown to most of the population, Nyvis.
Nyvis asked but for a few days, before she would take back the prison. Yet before leaving, she made sure the Jarl heard her demanded payment. The woman wanted nothing less than the permission to rule over the prison, establish her own rules, and have no questions asked about how many human rights would be broken as long as she was in charge. The crisis was too much to allow Elisif to say no. Nyvis had managed to get her desired payment.
A few days later, Nyvis and 40 sadistic men built a siege on the prison, avoiding as much damage as they could to the building, focusing mainly on the human targets. Their tactic was a mere distraction, while their archers focused on the 5 men that aimed catapults, most of the others would use ladders to climb up to the wall in the least guarded areas. The size of the prison, being once its pride, was its new residents’ doom. Nyvis and her men slaughtered every man and woman they found in their path, signed to the other men that were still outside to ram the gates open, and forced the enemy to surrender. It is said that after the punishment of all the prisoners that were still alive in Drahonnal, Nyvis had blood at the level of her knees.
Soon, the prison would open again, and welcome new prisoners. Despite the efforts Nyvis made to keep her inhuman punishments as far as she could from the population, the mighty feat of taking over Drahonnal once again made everyone aware of nearly all the details. Being well acquainted with Nyvis’ cruelty, no prisoner would have the word ‘riot’ flying out of his lips, which allowed her to tighten their leashes even more, by putting an end to their meals and forcing prisoners to chose between hunting skeevers for food or resting in the 5 hours given to them for sleep.
To let the prisoners hunt, Nyvis gave every person inside a shiv, and started to use the ebony extracted for armor to all of her men but herself, disliking the heat of such material. The well armed sadist guards implanted fear on everyone inside, and the exploration of the mine was drastically increased.
The over exploration of the ores caused one of the prisoners to find a new mineral, Lepiditte, being the chips of such mineral often called Lepids. It was purple colored, flexible, not fit for weaponry, but fit for currency. An underground society was created thanks to the Lepids, allowing prisoners to trade clothes, shivs, dead animals, bedrolls and other petty valuables for the new mineral, all without knowledge of the guards. Rumors were created about such mineral being sent by the Divines to Nirn, or that they were tears of a giant Daedric being that had somehow set foot on Skyrim, but its truth remains unknown. Deep down, the Lepids’ purpose seems to be to bring prisoners back to the society they once lived in, when they were free.
Layout:To avoid prisoners taking over Drahonnal once again, Nyvis let the catapults and ballista stand ready outside the fortress, guarded by at least four men, each, ready to crush any that dares to leave the mine.
The gates, usually guarded by two swordsmen outside, and two archers on one tower each, are made of wood and steel, and require four men to open it by moving a heavy mechanism. The 17 feet/5 meters tall walls that surround the entire prison are made of ivory bricks, connected by a strange cement of unknown origin. If any prisoner is talented enough to be able to climb up the orderly slippery bricks, he will be cut by the many pieces of shattered glass at the top of the wall.
Once inside, the first sight anyone has is the chopping block, never washed since Nyvis reopened the prison. Guards are always in this open area, usually training, or punishing prisoners. There is always a large square marked on the ground, near the wall, on the inside. This is where the prisoners must pile all the ebony they mine. A drawn red line at a considerable height on the wall marks Nyvis’ expectations, and if the result of a month’s work doesn’t best them, the guards kill one in every three prisoners in any way they please. Other than the chopping block, it is also possible to see a small cage, buried in the dirt, completely exposed to the sun. Such punishment is called the pit, and is the mildest of them all, being, in consequence, the least used. The last thing that is possible to see before going inside the large building where most of the people are in is a large cage with furious noisy hounds, used to the taste of human flesh, that have the job of cleaning the bodies of those that cannot handle Drahonnal.
Inside the surprisingly fresh building, a visitor will find stairs going up and down, being the first ones clean and guarded, while the other ones are dirty and made of a cheaper rock. The first floor is the treasury room, and keeps most of the profit the prison makes in ebony safes that are nearly impossible to crack, even with the best lockpicks. This is one of the floors that have most guards, possibly holding more than 15 inside sometimes. In the second floor, the guards sleep. Instead of hay piles and bedrolls that are nearly rags in poor conditions, they sleep on comfortable beds with silk blankets and pillows filled with soft duck feathers. This is also where the equipment from the prisoners awaits their owner’s death or freedom to be sold or returned, instead of kept in a locked chest. The belongings of each prisoner are kept in a different container with their name, and piled at the corner of the sleeping quarters of the guards.
Lastly, the third floor is where Nyvis sleeps. Other than that, there is also a large sauna and a big table with all the rich food types known. When guards have a break, they come here.
If, alternatively, a person chooses (or is forced) to go down, the first floor they will find will be the mine. There is little more to be seen than ebony veins, miserable prisoners and laughing guards, and little more to be heard than pickaxes striking rocks and painful moans. One floor lower is where the criminals sleep. Skeevers can be heard and sometimes seen, although they are fairly shyer than usual thanks to the extensive hunting from the prisoners. There is no concern about anybody digging a tunnel to escape because even in this floor, the walls are shielded by a massive wall of ebony ore vein. Guards force every prisoner to get out of this floor every day and mine on the one above. When they take their ores outside might as well be the only time when they ever see the sun again. The last floor is protected by a locked ebony door, and holds all the punishments hidden from the people of Skyrim. If somebody makes Nyvis put her whip back on its holster and press her ebony key against the lock of this door, they will walk out of there a bunch of hours later with severe wounds scattered all over their body.
Staff:
There is a limited range of people that seem to come to Drahonnal. The highest in number are definitely the guards. No matter which weapon of choice they have, it is always ebony made, and their skill is far greater than that of hold guards. Nyvis makes sure she hires the toughest and most sadistic men to serve at the prison, or lets a hardened prisoner that has lived through his time take the job.
Following the guards, the prisoners have the second highest number in Drahonnal, and don’t overwhelm the guards’ because many die every week. All they have is a shiv, rags and a variant amount of Lepids. Despite the guards caring very little about the well being of their captives, there is still a heavy punishment for killing a prisoner, if the killer isn’t a guard.
Lastly, there are the carriage drivers. They rarely spend more than half a day in Drahonnal, but they are those who deliver letters from outside and bring the gold to buy ebony from every Jarl. In short words, they are what connects Drahonnal to the rest of the province. Most prisoners are delivered in a carriage of the hold they were arrested in.
So this RP won’t have a plot. It is supposed to go on and on, with very little fighting, promoting mostly character development, relationships, loyalty, all that stuff that we need nowadays… Read through the rules before posting a CC.
Rulez:
- Only join if you plan to stay around us – It is simple. Why would you join if you would leave ten posts later? There are enough threads with many people joining and only 3 in the end…
- Manage your time – If you are in 2-3 other RPs, you already have your hands full. Make sure you have no real life business or much other forums stuff to do.
- No marstonning up characters – I will explain. Marston is a character in RDR that can use a power to kill ten armed men without even taking cover. I don’t want anyone defeating enemies once outnumbered without any plan. This is a prison, I know, but I am putting rules I see fit in many RPs that should have been posted.
- No Buddhas! – No flawless Nirvanish characters! Everyone must be either stubborn, easily angered, etc… If they were perfect, they would go to Sovngarde or Nirnvana.
- Equipment on Elven, Orcish or below – I know you will be devoid of it anyway, but if a character is used to work with Stalhrim or Dragonbone, that will be his first step towards OPness. Modded weapons (if reasonably) are okay and so are weapons from your mind.
- No master skills for characters below 30 – It is really unrealistic! If a character of 20 something years old mastered a blade he would need to spend 20 of those years training, which means he would have slain a dragon before he kissed a girl! Each decade above 30 gives you the right to one master skill. Now because you can’t have many master skills, don’t unload everything on expert!
- Below 45 – If your character was 50, let’s be honest, he would die in Drahonnal. This age limit lets you only have 2 master skills tops.
- No infinite Lepids – I have seen many characters giving no worth to septims. Nobody is rich in Drahonnal. Everybody ponders wisely about how much to spend on food or clothing.
- No god-modding – If somehow you are stubborn/creative enough to follow all the rules 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, you will have to change your CC. Make sure you don’t put too much strength/stamina/health/magicka on a character. You are weak both psychologically and physically for being put in the worst place Skyrim has to offer.
- Be nice to everyone – For that to happen, real life must be kept as far as possible from our magical, tortuous world. Anything that generates debates and conflict goes away. Politics, PS3vsPCvsXBox, Religion, Science and Environment, all those things that make me wish I was a monkey instead of a human, go away!
- The lore dictatorship goes down – You can flee some rules of the lore. You can have your character be part of a non-existent faction of the game, have a different eye and hair color and have some equipment that didn’t exist in the game.
- Hostility towards guards is forbidden – There is absolutely no way your character can kill or even fight a fully ebony armored guard with a shiv and no armor. Just because your character is a mage, it doesn’t mean he/she can do magic any time. Magic is as punishable as anything else, and ends with a painful punishment for the caster. Even being disrespectful will get your character in a stretching rack, so watch your tongue. Nobody is really confident in this prison, at least, not for long. This same rule goes for the prisoners. Killing one cannot be forgotten. You get punished for it.
- Don’t leave your keyboard unemployed – Use grammar, punctuation, commas, and capitals once they are needed.
- Don’t one-line – If you can’t think of anything to write, either ask someone else to post for you or describe the environment, thoughts, desires or feelings your character has.
- No typing machine guns – I’ve seen several cases of people falling behind and even leaving RPs thanks to a few writers that love to post and post and post. Unless everyone is keeping up with you, don’t progress much. Exceptions are made for dialogue between to roleplayers, but even that has a limit.
- You just don’t kill anyone’s character – The only way for a player controlled prisoner to die is if they become absent or as a punishment for breaking a rule severely.
- No mighty 0bl1t3r4t0r5 – Everyone’s had it with characters that nearly insta-kill weak enemies as soon as they move, sneeze, blink or breathe. Remember, you are weak too, and some people like to do creative executions.
- 2 characters are allowed – But they must know each other from before the story line, or, at least, have had a minimal interaction.
- Just to prevent god-modders… - No CC should have the words ‘unmatched’, ‘undefeated’, ‘invincible’… Your character must have already failed in everything there is to fail, unless he hasn’t tried it.
- Reason compels you! – Your character wouldn’t just go to the toughest jail in Skyrim ‘cuz’, there must be a good reason for him to be thrown to the mines of Drahonnal.
- Don’t metagame – Secrets revealed in the IC thread or CCs aren’t supposed to get immediately figured out by some Mr. Fancy Pants. For example, prisoners don’t know what exists in the three floors above the ground. Your character doesn’t know what you know, and will most likely make mistakes over time.
- CCs must have… - Race, Gender, Weakness, Skills and a Reason to be in prison. Other than that, you can put anything you want (and should, because it is fairly empty that way).
- Accept your punishment – Fleeing makes it worse, fighting gets you killed, arguing has the same effect as fleeing. There is no way out. Whether it is just or not, your punishment will happen and you must accept it.
- This will be +18 - Not only because of intense violence, but also because people will be allowed to develop intimate relationships between their characters.
- Who’s got the power?! Not you – Shouts are forbidden, daedric artifacts stay away and both vampires and lycans are executed when they get to Drahonnal. And don’t even think of hiding those canines if you are a nightspawn! They will press a silver ingot against your skin once you arrive, and if you fail the test, you go to the chopping block.
- The evil rule - You must prove that you have read all these letters. To do so, somewhere in your CC, you must put a red comma. This not only proves you have read these rules all the way to the 26th but also that we have read your CC all the way to the red comma.
- Really making sure no OP guy shows up – If its just to be a strong d-bag and have an ebony armor, no, you can’t be a guard. Nyvis is very nerfed compared to a regular guard, which is already highly unrealistic, since she leads them. Plus, this is mostly about relationships, and ALL prisoners hate guards in Drahonnal.
- I ain’t alone! – UnLonged monitors this thread with me. If you don’t want to ask me a question (I don’t judge) you can rely on him instead
- For those who enjoyed reading these rules – It must mean you like OP’d players as much as I do, and you would most likely get along well with this RP. Go. Make a CC. Now.
- Have fun! – I cannot be more specific than that.
Writes-Many-Posts
Khaotic3
AirshipCircus
Irishman
Shadowkitty
Nyvis bids you welcome...