The Prophecy OOC - Epic High Fanatasy Adventure

[Ashgan]

It does indeed look like Jaelnec is losing his grip. I truly wonder if the companions (and whoever else gets involved) can actually cure the Withering, because not only do they have to overcome the enemies that bar their way, but I fear they may just be crushed by the corruption within. After all, Jaelnec is not the only one with some grave issues (and, looking back at how he was at the start of the RP and what he's become, there's a good indicator of how much went wrong and is wrong with the group).

To refer to Jill and Gerald... hm. Renegades or outcasts would describe them, as would mages or sorcerers. Selfish bastards might apply as well. I suppose a better title could be found once we have a better idea of what they'll be trying to accomplish (which will probably mostly depend on Gerald given Jillian's general aimlessness).

Edit: I don't actually know how Harvesters are created, so why exactly is Aemoten more likely to become one, other than simply existing for longer than other mortals (and if it is a low-percentage chance every so often for any person with a soul, he would then simply have more chances to hit bingo)?

Actually, have I got that right that Harvesters have no soul, and want to make others like them (that is, bereft of a soul)? Would explain why Aemoten would become one if a Harvester got him, since he won't die from it?

[Shienvien]

True, probably... In relation to that, what will we do with the supply-stop? The fact that Aemoten would be talking to Thaler there is more or less fixed, but chances are he would try to speak with Jaelnec, too, if only to figure out what's up with him.

Harvesters (those who go rampaging like that) do not actually want to make more like themselves, but rather just are somewhat aware that they are missing something. And they feel others have it. So, they try to get it back by 'consuming,' and thusly destroying, that something others have. Sadly, it does not work to give them back what they have lost...

A Harvester is just that - a soulless individual. One born like that would not know the difference unless it learns it by accident, but one that has had a soul would, I figure, be far more likely to try and get it back. Well, and if Aemoten, who cannot die (losing the soul usually immediately kills the body) would somehow lose his soul...

[Ashgan]

I suppose you guys should play it out, in that case. Additionally, I wanted to leave a lifesign of Zacharias at the supplies provided by William and himself, probably a note if nothing else, which would also be useful to make the situation interesting enough to warrant playing it.

[Shienvien]

Mhmh... Might still want to play out Thaler/Aemoten's conversation separately, though, seeing how this might be a bit longer and more fast-paced. (Also, I believe at least Aemoten would be somewhat relieved to see that the explosion did not evaporate Zacharias after all...)

[And edited my last OoC with reply to your bit about Harvesters.]

[Ashgan]

In that case, I suppose we can all be thankful that the Withering is lethal; otherwise Rodoria would see itself consumed under a flood of harvesters ;P

[Shienvien]

True that... As I said, though, as far as I've understood, the removal of the soul itself is something that under any other circumstances kills (since the soul is what makes one alive and keeps the one so - think of specters, for example). ...So the main question is why it sometimes does not kill. And another main question is how to entirely remove a Harvester from existence once it has already devoured some lives of others.
[Jack once, ages ago, described a method of reversing a Harverster's condition, but that was so long ago (years, literally, and during the first incarnation of the RP, more than a year before this RP was even initiated) that it is probably no longer valid. At least I suspect he probably has changed that part. Or maybe he hasn't. I would not know.]

@Yoshua, mainly: I have also sort of concluded that it is a condition that one might both be born with or acquire later in life, with, as far I have understood, the born ones being not immediately harmful because they (initially) do not know they lack something. And as for Immanuel, he was not originally a Harvester...
Also, after he evidently turned into the monster he is now, Dreadlord (Immanuel's player) described him heading for the largest congregation of people he could sense, and they were in Nemhim...


Jack, any comments on anything (both on what Aemoten might or might not know [PM?] and on what would happen once the companions took off from the riverside [Aemoten/Thaler conversation would probably be played out in the group according to what I and Hymusia agreed on in PM])?

[Dark Jack]

Ah, see, there is a difference between losing one's soul, which is basically what happens when one is claimed by the Withering (and almost what happens when one dies from magical exhaustion), and becoming a Harvester. The soul of mortals and immortals alike is the embodiment of their life force, which is why life ebbs from them when their energy is depleted. Harvesters have no souls, no magical energy, yet they are not dead... so clearly they must be driven by a wholly different kind of life force than other living beings, one so alien to them that the ordinary mortal would not even recognize this life force if they were to see it with their own eyes. To be a Harvester is to be fundamentally different from everything else alive, except other Harvesters. To become a Harvester is to have one's soul converted into... something else, and to lose oneself in the process. For a person to die, and be reborn as a Harvester. Aemoten would not become a Harvester if he lost his soul - more likely his body would simply be preserved by Koraakan, although without a life force to drive it and a consciousness to animate it, it would be reduced to a perpetual empty shell.
I know which method you refer to when you speak of reversing the Harvester-condition... but that method no longer works in this version. Now, there is no known way to transform a Harvester back into a mortal (or even immortal), at least not one that Aemoten could possibly know (as Koraakan (I assume) cannot bestow knowledge he himself does not possess, and the only one that could possibly know of such an obscure thing would be the Oracle). A Harvester's abilities... are actually surprisingly similar to what the abilities of the corresponding creatures were in the previous incarnations of the RP. Most of the general traits are the same, with some details being different. Not enough to be significant, and not even enough that I think I could actually put into words what the difference was.

As for the supply-stop on the way to Zerul City... well, I was originally hoping that we could just skip past it and take the trip from the ferry to the city in one fast-forward, but with everything that happened at the ferry I suspected that would be unlikely, and seeing as it sounds like there are quite a few things that need to be taken care of there aside from them just stocking up on supplies, the decision seems to have boiled down to having to be played through. The guys in Zerul City will just have to entertain themselves a bit longer before the Companions arrive...

[Shienvien]

Hmm... I'm now wondering what would happen if a tragaterg (or terg in general) were to try to host a Harvester, or even just encounter one, seeing that they are an entire different kind of alien entities who likewise have souls which aren't identical to those of common life. (Which is a question you can't probably answer right now, since the discussion about them was kind of pushed aside by other things; might take it up a bit later.)

As for Koraakan... Well, in original version the one was, at least in a sense, completely omniscient. However, as soon as something even slightly hypothetical became involved, Koraakan would not give an answer, since it would not be the absolute truth anymore. If there is something that conceivably could thwart it, even if it definitely wouldn't happen, it is not something Koraakan answers - and that automatically means that you won't receive a direct answer about anything which is set in the future.
You can't, for example, ask what would be going on in the room after ten seconds have passed and receive a reply, just because (despite the probability of it actually happening being roughly zero) in case the world stopped existing after five seconds, it would no longer be true. (Note that the Karakon might still try to offer what is probable based on how the things currently are; they aren't the god.) You will be answered when you ask what place someone is moving towards or what place the one currently intends to reach, but not when you ask whether the one will reach the place. And the answer to 'Might this work?' is always positive, since it is impossible to say with absolute certainty that it would not, even if it would require the entire reality to tie itself into knot to work.
So, only the past and the present - which cannot be altered due to how time works - are in Koraakan's disposal; the future is entirely the Oracle's.

Aemoten and the others might get some good hints as to what might help against what was once Immanuel if they tried hard enough, I presume (to be discussed?), but nothing along the lines of a direct set of instructions detailing every step of the process. Also, they would have immeasurably harder time putting the picture together without Menepth or another Karakon there.


...Did I make it any clearer in which way Koraakan functions in this aspect?

[Dark Jack]

I think so, though the end result would be the same: the only ways that could possibly undo a Harvester's condition (if any) would likely be beyond what Koraakan would impart within the boundaries of certainty. Even the Oracle, I suspect, would likely only have answers of "if's", "but's" and "maybe's" if she was asked, as she sees the future not as it will be, but as it may be, depending on the threads of fate traveled.

(On an entirely different note altogether, I think you once pointed out that the word "Nightwalker" should not have a capital first letter, and I don't think I ever actually addressed that... Well, I'll give you a hint as to why it does have capital first letter. The ancient empire of their ancestors bore the name Neitwakar.)

[Shienvien]

Well, remains to be seen whether someone manages to figure out a question that Koraakan would answer, I presume. ...In any case, not wont to be a problem with an easy solution, as if the Withering alone was not enough of a disaster.
Just how different is a Harvester's substitute for a soul, and in what manner, for instance... Koraakan might also give some hindsight about the transition process from ordinary souled being to a Harvester, given how it's a past happening and all... - Those kinds of questions could be perfectly answerable, and might or might not prove helpful in eliminating a Harvester.


(Yeah, that is correct... I also presume Sartal is capitalized for some nuance of the deigan language? To distinguish it from the adjective?)