Hoof Prince: Version X

OVERVIEW

Online Users

Hoof Prince is a post-by-post horse roleplaying game, which means that you create a character and post in the point of view of that character. Someone responds as their character and the cycle continues. This form of roleplay has existed for many, many years, but was first introduced in horse form in the mid-1990s on Expage hosted sites. Created in March 2000, Hoof Prince is one of the oldest horse rpgs still in existence. In order to survive, Hoof Prince has changed to keep up with the interests and passions of today’s young writers.

Hoof Prince started out as a basic wild horse rpg. Hosted on Expage.com, it began with a few herds, a battle board, and an ooc board. Over the years, boards were added for a stallion herd, all-mare herd, healing stream, evil herd, and even a human campground. Most of our writers came from sites like Horseland.com. The writing was simple and mostly one-lined with a mixture of proper terms and rpg lingo used for the descriptions.

Hoof Prince/Dominico Merge

In September 2008, Hoof Prince (which was moderately fantasy) combined with Dominico (a liberal fantasy elemental horse rpg) in order to share writers from both sites. To work with the two worlds, Dominico itself was plotted to be destroyed by natural causes and the world of Hoof Prince changed forever. In pre-Dominico Hoof Prince, characters that had been played for many, many years became Ancients. Ancients are characters gifted with immortality and magic. They can only be killed by other Ancients and they can go into Sleeps, which means that they can be retired and brought back at the same age. Dominico introduced Deities, beings that controlled the magic behind the eight Elements of the world. To earn favor with these Deities, one must earn Tokens for their character.

In order to work with the two different sets of great beings, Hoof Prince treats Deities and Ancients as two separate beliefs or followings. Ancients are stronger than Deities. While Deities can control their assigned Element, Ancients can Shapeshift, Disappear, Create, etc. To keep a balance of power, the Ancients usually Sleep. Only one Ancient is usually awake at a time.

The Ancients

According to Hoof Prince lore, the entire world was created when Desert Sands, a great being that existed before the world, grew lonesome in his existence in solitude. He split himself into four parts that became Desert Sands, Frozen Kiss, War Call, and Mystic. When Desert Sands split himself, he was no longer a lonely, loving great being. He became bitter and sinister. He is the most powerful of all Ancients. Desert Sands and his other three parts are called the Great Four.

It was Frozen Kiss who crafted the bodies of the first two equines and Desert Sands that breathed life into them. When Desert Sands was cruel to equinekind, it was Frozen Kiss who saved them from his brutal force. Frozen Kiss is considered the gentlest of the Great Four, but none of them are to be trusted. Each of them are victims to their own greed. In the beginning, they battled over control of the Earth (War Call being summer, Mystic being Spring, Desert Sands being Autumn, and Frozen Kiss being Winter). The further from the Great Four’s line, the less likely that the greed will affect their personalities.

Tokens

When the Ancients are Sleeping, Hoof Prince is ruled by the eight Deities. Each Deity has absolute control over their assigned Element. Unlike level Vs of their Element, Deities are not restricted to just manipulating their Element. They can morph into anything involving their Element and have special connections to the world around them. Though they compete with each other, each Deity lives with the knowledge that none of them can survive without the rest. It takes the power of all eight of them to keep the world in harmony.

In order for a mortal (also called an Elemental) to earn Tokens, the character must earn them through battle or other means. Characters earn the bulk of their Tokens through Wars, a series of battles controlled by Altus in the Ridges. The most battles you win, the more Tokens you earn. Occasionally, Elyria will hold a Debate War, a war that is won depending on one’s debating skills. Players can also earn OOC Tokens for bringing new players to the site, advertising (up to 100 ads/20 Tokens every two months), site-wide contests, and special events. OOC Tokens can be transferred to any character. Any Tokens earned IC cannot be transferred. Transferring IC Tokens from one character to another is cheating and will caused your character to be flagged by Staff.

The Kingdoms

In pre-Dominico Hoof Prince, the world was divided into four kingdoms that were based on the four types of herds in old Hoof Prince. The Valkyries took the place of the all-mare herd while the Rajputs took the place of the all-stallion herd. There once was two evil herds, but now we have a kingdom (The Isles of Despair) and three herds under the kingdom seat. In the North, we have the Silver Lakes and three herds. While the kingdoms do the majority of the roleplaying in the world, the herds still have their own role. Herds are set up like traditional wild horse rpg herds with one male and many females. Herds act as militias for their kingdoms. They may participate in raids (wars that involve one kingdom against another), but they do not lose or gain anything in them. In a sense, they are protected from the most aggressive of IC attacks. This is a good thing since each kingdom has a reason to hate the others.

Valkyries vs Rajputs

The Valkyries and Rajputs are kingdoms that began as neutral herds that were not involved in the affairs of the North or South. They refused to obey the order of the world and were mercenaries in their own right. The Valkyries pride themselves on living without the leadership of males while the Rajputs refuse to allow the emotions and needs of women slow them down. They are aggressive and fierce. The North and South each try to win alliances with them because of their cunning in battle, but it is often a deadly mistake to force the Valkyries and Rajputs to fight on the same side. They despise each other.

The North vs The South

The hostilities between the North and South go back before the existence of the Valkyries and Rajputs. Of all the areas in the world, the North and South are affected the most by the events that have taken place in the bloodlines of the Great Four.

When the Great Four ruled the Earth, Desert Sands and Frozen Kiss came together. The result of this was the colt Flame, a mortal child that looked like his namesake. When the world was brimming with enemies like wolves and cougars, it was Flame that defended his herd longer than any other. The gods favored him, their child, but when the gods began to fight over control over the Earth, it was Flame that united equinekind and led to the defeat of the Great Four. This incredible feat started him on the path of becoming an Ancient.

King of the Silver Lakes, Flame led a prosperous nation that was never defeated just as their King had never been defeated in battle. This was the closest time during Hoof Prince’s long history that a relative peace lingered over the land. Even though Flame has long been Asleep, the Northerners remember his great reign. His is the King Arthur of the North.

Unfortunately, he is the enemy of the South.

The Southern kingdom grew bitter with the success of Flame’s kingdom. For many years, they attempted to bring down the nation, but failed. It would be a long while before the South had a leader strong enough to stand against the might of the son of gods.

Flame had lived for many, many years. During that time, he had done a great many things that were considered Sins in the eyes of the gods. Because of his long life, this Sin began to poison him. Praying for mercy from his Goddess mother, Flame fell into a deep trance. Frozen Kiss took pity on her son and used her power to drain the Sin from Flame. He would survive.

War Call, the mate of Frozen Kiss’s rival Mystic, saw what had taken place and decided to use his own power to reverse the gift. Aerista, Flame’s mate, slept while the growing Horatio was in her womb. War Call directed the Sin toward the womb and the womb absorbed it. When Flame discovered this, he knew that both Horatio and Aerista would perish if the Sin was not removed. Going to his mother again, Flame begged for his son and mate’s lives. His mother aided him.

The Sin was removed and formed the fully-grown, dragon-winged, bay stallion Ronin. Horatio was birthed without any difficulties, but he was not a normal colt. Because of the Sin being drained, Horatio was born Sinless and he could not die unless the thing that he loved most was destroyed. Until his Sleep, Horatio remained Sinless and he was the first of the Elders.

Ronin went on to lead the South and began a campaign against Flame. Using his own unique abilities, Ronin quickly took control over the majority of the world while gaining his own powers. Ronin could not love for he was Sin itself and he took the ability of any opponent that he defeated in battle. It was not long before Ronin could read minds and control those around him.

He sought to take over the North and, especially, to slaughter the innocent Horatio. Since Horatio could only die when the thing he loved most was destroyed, Ronin’s acquiring of this ability would make him undefeatable since he could not love.

A great war took place and the North fell in flames. The only thing that saved Horatio and Flame was a desperate, last minute Sleep ceremony that saved their lives. Years later, the North won back their freedom by defeating Ronin.

Flame is the hero of the North while Ronin is the hero of the South. Because of this, the North and South will always be enemies. Each believe that their hero followed the path of right.

The Elders

Elders are a select group of mortals that believe in equality for all. They only exist to pursue Knowledge and do not take sides. They work in kingdoms or live as nomads. Educated in history and magic, they provide helpful insight toward leaders. Elders do not fight or steal. They do not breed. They are not supposed to love.