InsaneJournal

Empires aren't built to last. The Assyrians could tell you that. So could the Romans. So could any British Muggle. In the fall of 1978, Millicent Bagnold will be assassinated and in her wake, by emergency Wizengamot vote (and a fair amount of blackmail), Bellatrix Lestrange, the youngest Minister in history, will be elected. It will signal the end of one empire and the beginning of another, and make clear to the many people who have been steadfastly fighting off the Dark Lord and Death Eaters for years that the time for drastic measures has come.

The general public will trust in their newly elected Minister, and cannot be blamed for that. Bellatrix's mind is merciless but not given public stage, and the well-spoken, well-bred, beautiful, strong-willed young woman will take much of the nation's frightened heart by storm. True, anyone in Wizarding society knows about the Blacks, and knows that Bellatrix has rarely done her family anything but proud, but the proposals made by their new Minister sound good. Death Eater activity quiets down. It seems that, by presenting him with one of his own -- a pureblood to the core -- the Ministry has finally found a way to scare You-Know-Who.

Only the people who know Bellatrix -- and who know the Dark Lord -- truly understand the implications of the new Empress's reign.

While Albus Dumbledore has been working together with a select and trusted few to fight the Dark Lord for years, the "election" of Bellatrix makes it glaringly clear to him that the time to act was yesterday. As the month of October approaches, a number of people are approached at various times, in various ways, to join an official group of people outside the Ministry to oppose the Death Eaters. It isn't long before the first group photo is taken, and the group gets a name: The Order of the Phoenix. One thing is clear to these hopeful heroes: between the violent activities of the Death Eaters, the heavy presence of purists in the bureaucracy, and the sudden ability to change the law itself to aid his goals, You-Know-Who is an almost impossibly strong foe. There is no room for ambivalence in this war. There are good guys, and there are bad guys, and whoever wins gets an empire with its foundations in the other side's blood.

What side are you on?

Fault Lines is an AU, MWPP-era RPG. Based both in the more traditionally Canon Death Eaters vs. The Order battles and the less obvious battles fought within the walls of a Ministry ruled by an enemy of the Ministry, Fault Lines is a game that takes big questions such as good vs. evil (and if there's any such thing as either) and mixes it in with a healthy dose of fun and madness. This is a game where you can spend an hour playing out a graphic torture scene and then relax with an hour of witty, sexually-charged banter, or stick to either, if you so please. We're very intent on getting together a group of quality writers with exceptional skills and brilliant ideas, who are looking to experiment with the alternative universe to see what stories they can tell using Rowling's as a starting point rather than an entire route. We began play on August 5th, but are accepting applications indefinitely. Right now we're focusing on getting bad guys, but as a faithful palaeopirates reader we encourage you to send in an application for a good guy if that's what floats your boat. (Why? Because Cait loves you.) We're especially interested in LUCIUS MALFOY, SEVERUS SNAPE and PETER PETTIGREW as far as bad guys go, and our Alice would adore a FRANK LONGBOTTOM as well. The vast majority of known Death Eaters and Order members are open, and we're glad to have well-written OCs as well. This is a plot-driven RPG with major plots planned out months in advance and smaller plots popping up all the time. Many of the players were formerly involved with an RPG that lasted a total of four years before being closed; this is not a game that will begin with a promising plot and simply fizzle out. The players are friendly, the mods are dedicated, and there will be a great deal of OOC camraderie between all of us.

If you're looking for a creative, supportive, friendly, stimulating environment in which you can see what you can do within Canon's logic but without Canon's constrictions, come by and have a look. We're accepting applications now and looking forward to meeting new people to write and plot with. As the game operates in real time (minus the year), September 1st 2008 will be the day Millicent is assassinated in game, when the plot really begins to thicken. We'd love to have new characters of all ages and backgrounds, Canon or not, so please, come by and have a look!

For more information write foltmods@gmail.com.