Whispers carry. They drift from breath heavy with the candied taste of plum mead or swift from the honeyed promise of narcotics. They echo off stone walls to weave through the underbelly of civilization, where the virtuous seldom venture. And when what remains of a body, flesh long since stripped apart by carrion and rats, surfaces adorned with soft carmine petals, the name "Rose" carries on those whispers. A woman whose ever-growing reach stretches from the thick air of the Indigo Deep to the snow-topped estates of Ishgard. A woman whose path lies littered with the bones of lesser demons. A woman who has a place among her court for promising souls unencumbered by an abundance of morality. Whispers….whispers carry.

The Obsidian Court is a small organized crime circle that thrives in the shadows. From small pockets of creeping influence, it silently tightens it's suffocating grip in the underworld through the illicit narcotics trade, bribery, extortion, and murder. 

The court has a place for any range of skill sets to be put to use. From mercenaries and business owners to physicians and academics, there is a place for any expertise within the gilded confines of the court. Any gift can be shaped into something of value, provided the bearer is deemed worthy of developing it within the organization.From the bookish recluse whose talents could assist in laundering income and engineering instruments of espionage, to the seasoned veteran who finds a sense of peace in eliminating those marked enemies of the court, there is a place for all who wish to be of use.

 In exchange for their services, associates and soldiers are rewarded generously with gil and protection. Those who demonstrate leadership and dedication are rewarded among the courtier rank, and while burdened with responsibility over their underlings, are given funding for the development of their independent ventures. One thing is certain: those under the blackened wing of the court are family.

Obsidian Court was founded in 2017 and has since grown to a small but close community of long-term characters. We aim to remain fairly small so that each character can develop meaningful relationships with others. We are RP-heavy, US based, and embrace a plausible realism approach to the lore. Our focus is on developing characters and all their storylines through regular RP, and events stem from that RP as they develop. Our members are adults, most of whom are employed full-time. Because of this, our FC is more active in the evening. Due to the nature of our community and storylines, we ask for applicants and their characters to both be over 20 years of age. 
 

While we aim to remain small, we seek to expand with fixtures to our little community who similarly enjoy roleplaying morally gray/dark characters.  We aim to be a curated community, and evaluate applicants based on the following criteria:

• Command of English - To keep our RP as immersive as we can, we aim to have high levels of literacy among our members. The standard we apply in evaluating applications is that spelling and grammatical errors appear incidental, and not an ordinary part of an applicant’s communication. We additionally consider the complexity of the writing. 
• Character Complexity - Not all characters need fit into the same mold, but we favor characters who appear multidimensional, developed, and balanced. We believe that weaknesses are as instrumental as strengths in creating interesting characters.
• Maturity - It is integral to our functioning as an FC that members display high levels of maturity OOC and conduct themselves in a way that neither creates nor contributes to strife among players.
• Activity - While we do not require a constant commitment, we aim to remain an active community and look for members who are willing to RP regularly. As such, we may be more apprehensive toward alt characters at this time.
• Initiative - We love when characters engage with the stories and understand that their actions will influence the flow of them.This extends to demonstrating reciprocation in RP, and effectively providing content to respond to. We also love to see players creating RP opportunities, be it from creating an event or something so simple as announcing that they are available for RP and stating where they can be found.

If an applicant appears to fit what we are looking for, we invite them to test our FC out for mutual compatibility throu gh a short RP. While we are happy to assist to some extent in developing hooks, we feel that allowing for the applicant to create their own hook is a useful creative exercise and allows for a more natural meeting tailored to their character, as well as demonstrating a potential applicant’s innovativeness. 

We like to see during the initial meeting phase that a member is capable of convincing the court that they have potential. We heavily favor characters who can demonstrate their unique skills more than merely speak of them. Typically approaching the court outright and asking for work is insufficient. We place a high value on creativity, and are willing to help develop a potential recruit’s approach, but largely limit that assistance to having the applicant’s ideas feasibly fit into our ongoing storylines. We love to see the extent of the interest the character has taken in the court through tangible action, regardless of whether that action benefits or harms the court. 

After the initial meeting, if there seems to be good compatibility, we invite the applicant to enter the trial rank of the FC, which is designed to last long enough for us to get a sense for the character and their player before deciding to move forward with their membership. 

While we are selective in our membership, we don't want to discourage anyone from applying because of this, so please don't hesitate to apply or reach out if you have any questions!

More detailed information and our application can be found on our website (obsidiancourt.com). Any questions may be directed to either Dovienya Cuenn (Dovienya#0666) or Livia Crane (Livia#7728) in-game or over Discord.