Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Land of Ash (OPEN)

((I’m using the White Knight AU as listed on her account- I’ve been wanting to explore this for some time! Feel free to jump in, lets see where this takes us.))

It wasn’t often anyone came to the Ash Forest- that wasn’t its official name of course. But after the fire that claimed it, leaving the ghosts of trees standing tall against the sky, it’d gained that unofficial moniker among the nearby townspeople and even guards and knights knew of the area by that name. Years ago, it’d held within it a hideout of the Onyx Bandits- a name that’d terrorized the countrysides and been a constant thorn in the sides of the nobility. They were criminals, thieves and arsonists, killers of everything they touched. But that was long ago, and when the fire came, well. Everyone burns the same. Almost everyone, that is.


A stranger stood a little ways into the wood, while a variety of what seemed to be hounds wandered nearby, their white fur grey from the ash and dirt they picked up. The stranger stood in armor off-white and matte, a mess of wavy, nearly white hair on their head and a bag held gently in their armored gloves. The sword at their hip, not to mention that armor, seemed to label them as some kind of knight or adventurer, but most didn’t come to these woods for adventure. Whatever adventure there was to be had, it was most likely buried underneath here. No, the only people who came to these woods had something to run from, or in a less ominous assumption, needed the ash- occasionally a few townspeople would come gather the wood ash to fertilize crops.

This one though, clearly was no townsperson. And they opened the small back in their grip, gently reaching inside. One foot kicked away at the ash, sending clouds of it upwards, to expose the dirt below, before they scattered the contents in the dirt. The ash and decay had strangled whatever wanted to grow, but it seemed as if they were planting seeds. And in fact, this wasn’t the first time they’d come here- sprinkling various seeds, just to see if anything would grow, to find some budding hope in the dirt.

Nothing had come of this yet.


The Knight stood for a while longer there, staring out at the expanse. The hounds had taken to playing, rolling among the ash and fighting amongst themselves, and perhaps they were watching the actions, but their gaze was out further, deeper into the woods and lost in a memory of days long gone.

Clementine was walking through the forest, she had a garden near the end of the land and was trying to find some new ingredients when she came across the dogs. they were chasing her now and she was not happy. "ahhhhhhh save me" she yelled as she ran

Once they started chasing, it was clear those were NOT dogs- wolves. Big, fluffy and now dirty wolves running after Clementine, though not exactly in a predatory manner. They seemed to see her fleeing as an invite to give chase, ducking and weaving around eachother as they bound after her.

The strange knight let out a sharp whistle, barking out a series of words- probably names. One by one, the wolves backed down, a slow saunter back to the stranger, presumably their master if they came to heel without too much fight.

They advanced to meet the hounds, even ruffling one’s fur- though staying a distance from Clementine with a suspicious gaze, “Are you alright?” The voice was a bit worn, tired and monotone, but at least they’d bothered to ask.

She stoped to catch her breath then went up to him, “ phew, yes I’m fine, b it I saw you here, and I thought you looked a bit hungry” she said as she reached into her basket and grabbed some fruit. “ I have some fruit for you” she said as she held him up some fruit.

For a moment, the stranger stepped back when Clementine approached, raising an eyebrow. The wolves had all come to rest near them, but when she held out the fruit, they relaxed. Maybe not fully, but the eyebrow lowered.

“Thanks…?” They muttered, taking the fruit hesitantly. Being given things by strangers wasn’t a common occurrence- Iskra didn’t exude approachability, with the bone white armor they wore. Not moving to eat the fruit though, they simply opened the now empty bag of seeds and dropped it inside. There was a longer pause, awkward at least for the stranger, “…They’re… not too feral.” They gestured at the five wolves now pacing nearby.

"so what are you doing?" she asked him confused. " do you need a place to stay?" she asked him with a smile. "I have a place down the way, and I would love to have you" she said to him, as she was very lonely and she loved people. " the only thing is that you might have to watch your wolves, as I have a pet sheep." she said to him as she jestured with her hands.

Triggered to the sound of people the machine lifts its head out from the pile of ash it was buried under with 2 round orange glowing eyes Piercing through the plain grey dust. "People, people, people, you think those things would be a lot less likely to come to some depressing dainty place like this over and over and over again". It thought to itself "Well time for the fun part of scaring those annoyances off" it said before arising out of the pile scraping its feet on the ground under the ash, Stalking up to a tree almost out of sight from the two. Making sure to hide most of its body behind the tree it let out a loud horrific screech before scratching up and down the husk of the tree, increasing the glow of its eyes making sure to be the only thing see, trying its hardest to instill fear amongst them causing them to go.

" OMG not you again!" she said as she looked to the trees. " I know you are here, go away!" she said as she looked a them. she waved her hands over to the trees and sighed. " this happens every time I'm here!" she said as she waved her hands at the forest. " you always scare friend away! you know how hard it is to find a blue sheep! almost as hard as finding a green sheep!" she said in extream rage.

"Erugh, They're tolerant" he said before swooping behind the tree stopping all the noise. Then as soon as they thought it had stopped the entire forest had been filled with a ear piercing screeching noise. Char black chains, with black smoke falling off them, shooting from one burnt tree to the next making a chain cage around the wolves and the two people. only leaving the back entrance open as dark scrawny figure's crawl out from broken tree husk with a similar black smoke falling from them, then other open tree trunks shoot out a bright orange light with ember orange orbs sorrounded with wisps of dark energy leaving a smoke trail as they fly through the air. Amidst the chaos the tall dark figure emerged from the distance in front of them with long skinny mechanical limbs that looked like charred tree branches. Covered in soot and ash the only thing that didn't blend in with the forest was its fire orange eye's staring deep into the people. As it walked up to the chain field grabbing hold and shaking them violently as it let's out a deep metal-on-metal screech as the figures and orbs start heading towards the people.

Lurking in the distance, a Figure in a hooded robe is seen jotting down notes in their journal, wearing a mask of sorts, They sit up in one of the burned trees thats black as charcoal, one leg dangling down as she rests her back against the tree. So many interesting species and people, even killer machines! They know this will help out their studies.