For untold generations one royal line has ruled over the Empire. Every member of the royal family is blessed with powers beyond the human norm, and in every generation is crowned one Ruler, one Emperor or Empress who must prove themselves against the others and rule the Empire, find a spouse, etc.
You are a member of the royal family, whether you are a child of the current Emperor or one of his distant, but still royal relatives, and in the last few years since the death of the Empress the Emperors health has begun to fail. He has not died yet but he only has at most a decade left in his centuries long reign, and so the contest has begun. Every member of the royal family who has never competed in a previous competition for the throne has been entered into this. Each of you and your hundreds of eligible relatives are now free to begin your preparations. The current Emperor will continue his rule and protect the country from its many, many powerful enemies as well as managing the country itself internally with help from advisors. You, the royal candidates, must gather armies, make deals, gain wealth, garner allies, conduct espionage, and in general do whatever you can to knock your opponents out of the running for the throne so you may be crowned next ruler of the Empire.
Rules/Info:
-Every member of the royal family is born with a single unique talent/power/ability, only ONE. This may be a talent normal mages, warriors, etc or other people can learn but this talent/power/ability is a blessing from the Gods, and as such is at its start already above what most people could easily achieve without being a genius. They still require practice and work though, or else your fellow candidates who do practice will roll over you.
-Your unique talent(power/ability) may be nearly anything, be it a skill like sword fighting or magical or a manipulation. Essentially anything except for physiologies or any kind of Omni, absolute, almighty, ascendancy, ascendant, adaptive, reactive, transcendent, transcendence, meta,lord, embodiment, derivation, perfection, Arsenal, unlosability, path to victory, defiance or any kind of power/ability replication/creation/absorption/manipulation/destruction/intuition/learning or any growth/augmenting/upgrading/development/improving abilities. Nor any reality warping/chaos magic or similar abilities or omnipotent/nigh-omnipotent abilities. You CANNOT BE COMPLETELY IMMORTAL/UNKILLABLE, no full immortality.
-All royal family members(including your fellow candidates) are immune to direct uses of powers from other royals. Blood manipulation or organic manipulation couldn’t kill them by shutting down their body, transmutation couldn’t transmute them, nor could puppeteering/mind control work on them. This does not apply to indirect attacks such as making a spear out of blood with blood manipulation and attacking them with it, or making a monster with organic manipulation to attack them, or using chain manipulation to bind them.
-You may not kill any of your royal candidate competitors, doing so is grounds for immediate disqualification from the running for the Throne. Instead members of the royal family who lost the competition for the Throne in the past will monitor you at all times and they decide if and when a candidate is beaten. They cannot be bribed, controlled, or else wise manipulated and trying is grounds for disqualification.
-You may not ally with or utilize any forces or resources from outside the Empire such as secret help from other nearby powerful countries that may want a future empire in their debt(though this is a very loose rule, everyone considers it because you can get away with it if you are very very careful but if you get caught it is BAD, like immediate execution bad. Plus you’ll be in that countries debt)
-Every royal candidate is trained in all forms of armed and unarmed combat, magic, military strategy, espionage, etc but many excel at certain aspects. Select 3 skills to excel in, these must be specific, do not take “combat” but take “swordfighting”, don’t take “magic” but take a specific kind of magic like “storm magic”, for example.
-You start off with only basic resources, a small amount of gold, a small battalion of soldiers and a few close allies you pick(though none at your level). Previous competitors/members of the royal family are forbidden from assisting you and until such a time as a victor is chosen all royal candidates are stripped of their privileges as royals, you will win or lose this on your own merit.
-All members of the royal family have longevity, and live at least two centuries normally. The Ruler has this extended to around 4 centuries as base when they’re crowned.
Who are you?
Where do you fall in the royal family tree(child of the Emperor, cousin, distant forgotten relative, etc)?
What unique talent/power/ability do you have?
What three skills do you excel in?
What is your plan for the competition/What will you do?
Anything else?
Any comments/suggestions for the post itself?
