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: Oscar Pine
Place of Birth: Roseroot
Reasons for Joining the Grove: Brought there with the rest of his family

History: My thoughts for Oscar's life in the Grove are very vague for now, but I do have some ideas for his history before!

He was born in a farming community outside Roseroot.

Oscar's birth family got wiped out by the plague when he was very young, which nearly killed him as well.

After he recovered he spent a few years bouncing between whatever families would take him. While he was not mistreated, these families were already stretched thin trying to recover from the plague and he didn't get as much attention as kids his age generally need.

Eventually he met Ozma! Ozma would travel between the cities and villages of Ostorn helping people that had run into trouble on the roads. Oscar was completely dazzled by Ozma, and Ozma had a soft spot for kids. So when Ozma moved on, Oscar ended up following him.

Ozma had already semi-adopted Ozpin prior to this. With Oscar being so young Ozma decided they needed to have something that could be considered an actual home. I'm thinking he had some admiration for Aldric for establishing the trade routes in the first place, so Ozma took them to the Grove.

Ozma, Ozpin, and Oscar arrived in the Grove when they were somewhere in the range of 20-25, 15-20, and 10-15 years old. They introduced themselves as brothers.

For the next five years Ozma kept doing his traveling hero thing, though he returned to the Grove frequently. Ozpin was happier to stay in the Grove, where I'm thinking he did a lot of research and archiving of history, mythology, and fairy tales in Ostorn.

Though they were close, all three brothers would be known for being pretty independent! Ozma was away more than he was home (up until things started to unravel near the end). Ozpin regularly left to go do research in other towns and only sometimes took Oscar with him. And Oscar was always good at keeping himself occupied.

Misc: Some other backstory points I'm considering but haven't 100% committed to yet:

Ozma's girlfriend/fiance/betrothed, Salem, died during the plague, which kicked off his wandering years.

Ozma was extremely well-meaning but had some culty tendencies; I'm gonna say that while he was not outright starting cults (we have enough of those already) he had some followers/admirers and could be a little intense about maintaining connections with them and his brothers.

Oscar outlived both of his brothers, if only barely.

At some point, Salem came back Wrong. c:

Role: Oscar lived in the Grove during his teenage years and was a pretty normal kid in that time! He would have had an intense interest in gardening, farming, and arboriculture. I don't want to say he was outright studying the corruption (again, he would have been 18 or 19 at most by the end) but I do think he would have stumbled across it.

Looking for: Other families that would have been willing to keep an eye on Oscar whenever both of his brothers were out of town. Apart from that, anything!! Since Oscar would have been pretty young for a lot of his time in the Grove, I'm okay with making CR connections through his either of his brothers.

Wants and Wishes: Ozma and Ozpin are both characters in RWBY! While I'm unlikely to get either of them as castmates, Ozpin is the way more common character in DWRP. So Ozma will generally be much easier to work with if we want to brainstorm any past life connections, since I'll be less worried about possible retcons if we ever get an Ozpin.

Edited 2025-03-24 21:09 (UTC)