Getting Started

This page is meant to help new people get started, including the important links and introductory notes.

Hello! Welcome to The Cosmic Academy! Ulysses here. If you're a literate roleplayer who's been on this planet for at least fifteen revolutions around the sun, then we'd be happy to have you in our roleplay! You may have found us through a friend, or an advertisement from a group, or even having followed us from our place of origin. Regardless of origin, we welcome everyone here with a clean slate. Equality before the law and all that.

Facebook, How Do It Work?
Short answer, it doesn't.

Long answer, we do our roleplaying on Facebook at this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1445069112267871/

You have to answer the questions to get in. Seriously. It's in part a test of one's ability to take the proper steps and pay attention. Once in, you'll be added to our out-of-character group chat. I recommend you keep it muted, since it gets awful busy sometimes and most of it isn't so worthy of your attention that you need notifications. It's where we shitpost and talk about the RP. The Facebook group is primarily for announcements, bios and certain events. The actual RPing happens in an in-character chat. Once you create a character, submit it to the Facebook group using our bio template. If one of the admins approves of it, you'll be added to the RPing chat. Then you can start!

DISCLAIMER: Remember, your OC is never guaranteed to be completely transferable 100% to the Cosmic Academy Universe. Something that works in a different roleplay might not work here, and sometimes Characters have to be revamped and/or altered to fit the universe.

Essentials
Species: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Species

This is one of the first pages to go to when designing your character, since you'll need to be one of the allowed species. Honestly, when in doubt, just go with human. The other species get some cool stuff, but humans are the best at raw kinesis power. We actually balance our races!

Kinesis: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Kinesis

Your character's chosen kinesis - basically an element, but some of them aren't elements in the scientific nor traditional fantasy sense - is one of their most defining characteristics, and should shape the way they live their normal lives as well as fight. If you started off with your character's personality, decide what kinesis would be interesting for them to have, whether as a compliment of their personality or a foil to it. Or just pick what you wanna try. Decide what they do similar to other controllers of their kind, versus what they do differently. Got any signature moves? If you're a student it's a good idea to flesh out what the character in your mind is capable of at the beginning, and then actually hold off from giving them one or two of those abilities just yet - let them learn those abilities early on from those first sessions of studying, fighting or attending class. If you're a teacher, I recommend fully fleshing out from the beginning all their powers and capabilities, then doing your best to avoid changing it, since such characters are supposed to already be at their prime and are now helping others progress rather than changing their own ways.

Give this careful consideration, because you can't change it later. If you're torn between trying multiple kineses, you ARE allowed to have multiple characters, though I advise just starting with one.

Role: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Role

Decide what role your character will have in the school. Most characters are students, with a lesser number being teachers, and just a few in other roles. I do recommend that your first character be a student, but don't feel like you're locked in that position; there will be opportunities to advance upwards into the next year, and from there even become a staff member!

Character Template: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Character_Template

Fill out your bio using our official bio template, then post it to the group!

Rules: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Rules

Make yourself familiar with these. A lot is common sense, but we just want to make sure everyone is on common grounds. We ban people on rare occasions, but they still do happen.

Your First Days
If you're like most people, you arrive at the academy via a lone, long road from the nearby metropolitan city to the academy. It is surrounded by beautiful green hills, though in strange contrast the borders seem to be defined by a strip of dark red dried blood. Within this school are all sorts of interesting people, but first you need to know how to roleplay here!

Campus: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Campus

This page has an overview on what the campus is like and the basic locations. Finer details are generally left up to individuals to shape, though more detailed pages on the wiki for them might be made later.

Spar: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Spar

This page is not only about sparring, but also just appropriate ways to improve your character in general! Even if you're not here for the fighting, this is good to know.

RPG Stats: https://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/RPG_Stats

On the topic of fights, some people like to use stats and other elements of RPG games when fighting. I will stress that such use is completely optional. Some people find it restrictive and oversimplifying, others find it helps with giving context to the impact of attacks and acts as a good metric for balance. Both are valid, but even if you don't use them, it's good to know in sparring what these things mean.

Overlaps: https://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Overlaps

These are simple to some people and totally confusing to others. It's mostly for idea generation, and people who intend to study under a professor of a kinesis under them. Proceed with caution, and it's totally fine if you don't get it right away.

Lore
Wanna know more about some specifics of the RP and the world of Cosmic Academy? Read on! Most lore is meant to be learned from participation in the RP, but some is on the wiki for the sake of reference, and understanding of some common concepts - as well as being important in the future.

The Afterlife: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Afterlife

This is pretty crucial, even though in-character you probably have no idea about any of it unless you're an angel or a demon.

Holy: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Holy

Unholy: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Unholy

These two opposing forces are as old as time itself, and you may find great power by going to one or the other. Or, don't! Remember that time spent getting into holy or unholy power is time that could also have been spent learning anything else to improve your character. These routes are just another option.

The Church of the Flame: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/The_Church_of_the_Flame

The most common religious affiliation in the academy. Some believers are just casual, others are fanatics. Other religions, or none at all, are certainly open to be picked though.

Ex Obumbratio: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Ex_Obumbratio

A shady organization involved in kinesis research. Responsible for doing some stuff, possible involvement in a future event.

Fomorians: http://cosmic-academy.wikia.com/wiki/Fomorians

This is mostly worth reading if your character has any connection to Ireland. Spoiler alert, it's in shambles because of these demonic beasts.

The others are best learned through experience - and, perhaps, your own researches.

I'm New, What Do?
Once your character has been approved, you'll be added to the RPing chat to RP whenever you want! I recommend doing a starter of your character's first time arriving at the school. If others are open and you made your beginning interesting, there's a good chance someone will come to help your character get settled in.

One of the only good uses of the OOC chat is checking for people who would like to interact with your character. Feel free to be persistent, just don't be so persistent you wind up as just being annoying. Also be on the lookout for voluntary events or scenes that other people are playing out, and see if you can join in! Our community is friendly and usually won't mind unless it's for good reason - best not to interrupt the few romantic moments we get.

The best RPing experience comes from a little bit of everything - Some fighting, some socialising, some OOC shitposting and some solo character development. Step out of your comfort zone, and even that of your character. Try some new stuff! We won't judge if you're more awkward with it than you hoped, all of us are losers anyway and have no right or desire to look down on you.