outofsticks | A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

Once upon a time, in the continent of Ostorn, there was a town called Haven. After a deadly plague had ravaged the lands, a man decided to strike out and pave a new trade route to cities barred by a lack of roads and an abundance of natural blockades...

Welcome to the first past life plotting post of 2025! Sticks and Bones is a setting where player characters are the reincarnations of previous residents of the town that Aldric founded within the woods as a midway stop between cities on his new trade route. The continent of Ostorn and the world of Sticks and Bones is a magical land inspired by the Tales of series, among other games. Below in the comments are some explanations, locations and pre-existing NPCs who can be referenced!

Players with dropped characters are encouraged to include their dropped characters if only for potential backstory purposes for others, but it is not a requirement.

While we don't want to restrict things a lot, we must ask you keep the following in mind!

Although this is a magical setting where plant-animals and beasts like the Guardians exist, characters must be human in their past life, with few exceptions. Please speak to the mods if you feel something else is better for your character.
The level of technology was a bit skewed, but largely it was very basic electricity that just... happened to be magic. Light bulbs, the magic of indoor plumbing.
Speaking of magic, while there are forms of magic such as enchantment and standard RPG mechanics, the Celestial magic that's been included in the game plot is not open to characters in their past lives.
You are more than welcome to include new locations or expand on current ones, though if it is noted to reach out to a specific player about it, please do that. Ostorn is a large continent, and there is an even bigger world out there.
The Goddesses are known, but very distantly as ancient history. Religion depends on the region, but Guardians, being demigod animals, are frequent objects of worship.
Your past life should not be a 1:1 parallel to your current life! Things change, situations change, and the new reincarnations got off very badly actually.

When you're ready, please use this form and then tag out!

Name: it u
Place of Birth: where u from
Reasons for Joining the Grove: why u here
History: whahappun (also how did u die)
Role: what u doin
Looking for: what are you most interested in having for your past life cr?
Wants and Wishes: anything else!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Name: Ainchase Ishmael

Place of Birth: Roseroot

Reasons for Joining the Grove: :') Mom's fault—

History: He and his mom and brothers were priests! Unfortunately I don't have normal art of his mom but this is his mom :) Probably assume she had the blue hair/face veil but was less monstrous. Very tall tho. Here is a brother, idk assume there are like 6 of these running around. They Probably all look different but the game provides me with One other angel okay :/ Whenever I have modern AUs I call this brother Almeric— so we'll go with that here. I feel like at some point I named the others but I can't find my names now.

Anyhoo, when I say his entire family were priests I mean it in a very Evangelical sense. These were not people you'd want to hang out around. They were from Roseroot and came here to Spread The Word Of God, meaning they were a) very posh and b) very stuck-up, so sorry to anyone who knew Ain between the ages of 10-18 he was very much An Asshole. It did not help that his mom, known by "Lady Ishmael", kept all of her children on a short leash and basically sequestered them in her house constantly (which she was trying?? to turn into a church dwbi). There was a lot of "those people outside are dirty / we don't associate with them / they must be brought to God's Light" type of Evangelical bullshit. Which, you know, a Smol Ain bought into and I'm sorry to say he was the most annoying motherfucker for many years due to this.

Good news is, Smol Ain would later snap out of this because he realised Boys Cute and maybe those people outside their walls aren't so bad. Unfortunately his mom and brothers were the type of people to boot his ass out for this, you may insert other religious homophobia overtones here because I am not writing them down but it was Bad Enough that Ain was very self-hating for quite a while. In the end he wound up couch-surfing and probably had a lot of sordid gay rendezvous behind buildings and in the woods, especially in his twenties.

I'm sure he had a house of his own at some point but he was very much the "I'm trying to avoid my entire family while they try to form a cult" kid. He probably had 300 crushes and this was known about him... near "the end" we'll call it, he picked up music and gardening and finally started to be happier with himself.

As for his death, it was swift and merciless; his freak of a mother thought the sudden apocalypse was Great and had his brothers grab him and offer him as a sacrifice to a monster. It's okay, they died soon after. Ain will have absolutely no PTSD about this when he discovers this memory heyo—

Role: After abandoning being a priest and giving into the sin as mom would call it, he took up singing, and would often be seen gardening. No tailoring for him in this past life, that's for future-Ain to figure out. He wasn't really trying to make it big so much as just find something he loved. ...and then he died before he could figure himself out totally so oops.

Looking for: I'm down for pmuch anything. Bandmates, romance arcs, couches to surf on, people to shake the religion out of him...

Wants and Wishes: idk right now ask me again later (8ball voice)

---

Updates from plotting with folks!
- Ain and Livio were A Thing, they were very cute and soft, Ain tried to serenade him and his guitar kept going out of tune :') also couch surfed at Miss Melanie's often (because Liv Was There)
- He was however also interested in Ezell, and Ezell was one of the ones who would comfort him when his mother was acting, uh, Like That. However, he didn't confess until it was too late, by leaving an ominous note that essentially read, "I feel like my mother's going to do something. I don't know why. But if I die, it's her fault. I love you, I hope I'll see you soon."
- anyway then that didn't happen
- Aside from his mom sacrificing him, Alexi also helped with this, and both of them combined are what wound up with Ain dying in the end.

Edited 2025-01-16 21:53 (UTC)

A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

it's ain! cw: religious homophobia n such