To access the forums and start your adventure in Idalos, you'll need to create an account.
Register Now Already Have an Account? Login Learn How to Play
A fantasy RPG (Role-Playing Game) is a game where each player takes on the role of one or more characters, and thrusts them into a fantasy setting or environment where they act out the role of their character(s) in a scenario governed most often by a dungeon master, whether virtual or another live player. There are as many formats for this type of game as there are forms of media, as the Role-Playing Game as a form of entertainment has become very popular in recent years.
Standing Trials (or ST) is a play-by-post forum-based fantasy RPG. We engage in collaborative story-telling through forum threads where our player characters interact with each other. These interactions take place in story fragments, written in turns where each player adds more to the narrative in their own post, written usually from their own character's perspective. Occasionally these stories are moderated by a member of Staff or a Guest Storyteller. In these cases, the Staff or Storyteller may introduce many NPCs or Non-Player characters who add to the narrative and offer engagement or challenges to the player characters.
Our comprehensive wiki contains everything you need to know about Standing Trials, from game mechanics to world lore. Start your journey with these helpful resources:
The world of Idalos is one still wrestling with the aftermath of a calamity that set the sky aflame. 11,000 arcs ago, it had been a peaceful co-existence, known as the Tranquil - where the great spirits of nature and their loyal protectors, the Dragons of Idalos, worked together to provide a sheltered life for their greatest creation; the first race of intelligent beings, known as the Shay.
This was the idyllic land that the Original Beings arrived upon. Travellers from a distant world, its fate unknown, only nine in number, but possessing unparalleled strength, powers that reshaped the world, and immeasurable lifespans. They were nearly gods… but even nearly was not enough. They fought with the very spirits of the land itself for total dominion, to wipe out any that would pose a threat to their rule, and the war nearly tipped both sides into destruction.
One discovery alone tipped the balance; a secret rite all but one of the Original Beings undertook, carving out parts of their own bodies to create new creatures, a fraction of their parents strength and imbued with fragments of their powers and personality, which they called Immortals. Some used them as loyal soldiers to turn the tide with numbers and win the war, slaying the very spirits of the natural world and driving the Dragons to the distant corners of the map. Others raised them lovingly as their own children, the weight of the conflict too heavy for their conscience.
The war ended with the end of the World-Spirit itself, and its twelve closest advisors, the Verses. The Original Beings thought themselves the victors, and were readied to claim their spoils, but their dabbling in unknown powers had marked their victory a hollow one from the beginning. The true reason for their Shattering isn't entirely known; presumed to be the result of the creation of the Immortals. As each Original Being erupted suddenly, in an explosion of powerful energy that left behind great swirling rifts of space, it very nearly tore the world apart all over again.
Their children, the Immortals, survived. From their ashes rose something new as well; something that resembled their image, but smaller, lacking powers and any of their longevity. They would become known as the first humans of Idalos.
In the wake of the destruction of their parents, many Immortals fell into despair, anger, and bitterness. Some took pity and even comfort in the new mortals of the world, while others turned on them with disgust. Experiments on their bodies allowed some Immortals to shape the humans into new races in their own image. Others ingrained themselves into blossoming society until their power had them revered as gods. Some lands fell into tyranny.
The spark for this bed of kindling was the death of an Immortal, at the hands of a human. Some finally saw humans as the new threat to their existence, and old instincts took hold, demanding they eradicate the threat permanently; others fought back, trapping them in a war for control, Immortal against Immortal.
However, the Original Beings had not designed their creations for infighting. While they could rage against one-another, razing the land to dust and molten stone with their power, they could not deal a killing blow against their own kind. By the time their tempers cooled, the destruction was nearly absolute, and countless human corpses littered the hills, caught in the crossfire. With the spirits of the land all but dead, there was nothing to balance their destruction; they were the last thing standing between Idalos and a barren wasteland, devoid of all life but themselves.
Chastised, they created an Oath sealed in blood, to never raise a hand against their fellow kind again.
Today, humans and their many fellow races roam the lands under the watchful eyes of many Immortals, each scheming in ways to turn the mortals against their fellow Immortals instead. Some mortals dabble in powers discovered just after the Shattering, that seems to hold a will and mind of its own, known as magic. Some Immortals even turn to mortals for more than comfort, and raise half-Immortal children with their mortal companions, known as Mortalborn and imbued with remnants of power.
Create your character, explore the world of Idalos, and write your story alongside our vibrant community.
Create Your Account