Alright. I will work on my post tonight, and try and have it posted by tomorrow.

I want to write more, both an IC post for the companions' scene and a bit more elaborate OOC post on this, but my hands hurt pretty badly today. My fingers won't move right... writing is difficult. Bad weather must be on the way... maybe.

There were a few things that I thought I wanted to address immediately, though, the first one being that the "extreme moral opposites" I refer to doesn't include dead spirits; these are indeed just as varied in the growth of their Seeds of Good and Evil as living mortals, and can be anywhere on the spectrum depending on their own perception of their actions and other's opinion of those (there are even some who live by such twisted personal morals, and are surrounded by people who share similar morals, who end up not fitting into the spectrum at all; these share the fate of certain other unfortunate souls and achieve an afterlife in the Spirit Realm rather than the Upper or Lower Planes). The extreme opposites are not the dead spirits, but the immortals: gods, angels and demons. When a dead spirit desires to cease to exist, practically committing suicide, they become immortals, and thus the immortal faction they join benefits from it. That is what I meant.
And yeah, I meant other versions of afterlife outside of the world of the Prophecy... though even within the Prophecy, there are a few other options, usually specific to the worship of some particular deities.

And I agree; I have mentioned this before, but I certainly would prefer to keep living, regardless of the alternatives. I want to live forever if possible, which is why research in means to achieve longevity fascinates me. They already have drugs that can literally reverse aging in rats; I am hopeful that I'll find a way to stay alive indefinitely before dying. (I write "I'll" because I am not naïve enough to think that longevity, even if a means to obtain it is found, would be easily acquired by any means. If everyone lived forever, that'd be a problem. So I consider it my own job to find a way to earn that longevity once it becomes obtainable.)

...I recall someone saying she actually likes her arthritis because it allows her to predict weather so well. But ouch.

- It would be interesting to hear what the other Reniam-alternatives for afterlife are sometime (not necessarily now, for obvious reasons)... I also wonder what the ratio of immortals and dead spirits is - I am inclined to imagine that there would be very few angels compared to all the dead mortals on the Upper Plane (both for less tormented life and the good deities hopefully being not inclined to pressurize the spirits into ending themselves despite the bolstering of lines it would offer), but quite a lot of lesser demons compared to dead spirits on the Lower Plane.

And oh yeah... Time is my greatest enemy, as the saying goes. So many things I want to and realistically could do and experience... Impending nonexistence itself leaves me fairly indifferent, but the end of opportunities and possibilities that comes with it means that the untold number of things I want to do (and the even more things I am inevitably going to come across and decide I want to do in the future) would become an impossibility. So yeah... If I could extend my life indefinitely, I would. (And not in the sense of a biological or electronic copy of me living on, either, though both could probably offer a similar amount of contribution to the world as I myself. I am egoistic enough to want to live on myself, though I am not opposed to all kinds of copies. My "electronic ghost" is probably here to stay already.)
- It is often regrettable that all kinds of protests tend to interfere with scientific advancement. While there are things I personally disagree with (such as many things that lastingly alter the mind and/or subject it to destroy-and-reconstruct - emphasis on the "destroy"-part - mechanisms, unsurprisingly), there are many which would greatly improve the lives of many, and which carry little chance of the condition worsening, but which has not even tried once on humans yet, despite the candidates being many. It has been a few years since we made a chip that restored a severed spine perfectly (rats again, it is always rats or mice - I had read about the aging enzyme some time ago). When will we get something like that for humans? It is - from what I've read - not likely to kill the subject or, for the matter, cause anything worse than the already-present full paralysis...

---

@Ashgan: Jack correct me if I am wrong, but teleportation - while a very exhaustive and rarely carried through spell (that is certainly more than likely to endanger or - with even higher probability - outright end the life of the average mage) - is not something that is generally considered impossible. Just something exclusive to extraordinarily powerful mages.

I figured if a spell was so risky and difficult to execute that it takes practically a superhuman to execute it, one might as well consider it "practically" impossible, even if, in theory, one knows that such a thing is feasible under the right conditions. Can change the wording though if I overestimated the cost of such a spell, up to Jack I suppose. Thanks for pointing it out.

Well... I did note a normal (though very powerful and highly talented) human mage NPC pulling it off at some point of the story, and there it was not commented on. One of the other players also had a warlock teleporting away from a scene included in a rather notable part of their character's back-story. There have been multiple other descriptions of it being done already, is what I am trying to say. (Ixion excluded here, Draigen - who was not explicitly told who or what even is -, too.) And humans are generally inferior by their magical abilities to deigan, dragons, xuhrl-njok sprynes (?) and a number of others... I had figured it would be the kind of thing which could be somewhat safely performed once from full magical reserves by a handful mages in Rodoria, and with a very high risk by around dozen or two others - so very rare indeed, but not mythical legendary scale of rare.

- I'd expect Gerald's Shadow Image to be at least of the same rarity, if not rarer spell to be pulled off, by the descriptions.

Heh, my aching is usually about as accurate in its readings as any other weather forecast, so the advantages it gives is really neglectible. It turned out that my hands were a bit off on their forecast for today; it did get extremely dark and cloudy outside, but aside from that weather today has been as hot as the past couple of weeks. Consulting the internet told us that there were some pretty bad rainstorms and thunderstorms further south, but up here it just got a bit dark for a while. So convenient as it might be to some, it just doesn't seem reliable enough to me to be worth the disadvantages that comes with it.
I can move much better now that it's cleared up again, though, and the pain has lessened, so I'll at least deal with some OOC posting now. Today wasn't even that bad when I think about it; there have been times when I could barely think coherently from sheer agony and have been incapable of bending or stretching anything but the outermost joint of my fingers. Those are the really bad days... normally it's just a relatively dull constant aching that I've gotten pretty used to, yet am always aware of at the same time, and a decrease of dexterity... oh, and the fact that my knuckles crack every time I clench my fingers even some of the way, whether I mean to or not. Heh, new real-life acquaintances often seem deeply disturbed by that part. It's always interesting to see if they're the kind of people just shooting sidelong glances at you and shuddering each time you produce the sound, or if they're the kind to openly complain that it's disgusting. If not for the pain and impending disability of my hands, it might've been a fun toy to have.

Ah, there are a number of other alternatives, just none more widespread than the concept of the afterlife in the other Planes. The Catolohne worshippers of the Creator, for instance (since they completely discard the religious ideas that are prevalent in other countries), believe that just as all things came from the Creator, all things return to the to him when their time comes. Because of this the souls of Catolohne Creator-worshippers don't get afterlives like others, but have their souls fed to their Creator to be reentered into the circle of creation and destruction. People who sell their souls to the Grand Master of Evil usually don't get a traditional afterlife either, but get to live out the rest of eternity bound to the Grand Master's will by the power of their infernal contracts.
And yeah, there are far less angels in the Planes than there are demons, and far more dead spirits in the Upper Plane than in the Lower Plane. Some gods might try to convince a dead spirit to become an angel once in a while, though most won't, but they are infinitely more merciful in their recruitment of angels than the demons are to bolster their own ranks. Even Rilon will usually only try to persuade dead spirits to become his angels through temptation and trickery, which is still much better than the continuous hunting, torturing and killing of dead spirits that occurs in the Lower Plane until they surrender and become demons. In comparison, there has accumulated about twenty thousand angels since the creation of their kind, whereas there exist untold billions of demons. This is also why angels are generally stronger than lesser demons, since the power bestowed upon them is distributed to a much smaller number; the orlgarhi is the only known kind of lesser demon that is stronger than the average angel, whereas thalks are just comparable to them. There are naturally many types of both angels and demons that haven't been properly documented yet, but you get the idea; the average angel is far superior to the average demon.

I'm probably not even as ambitious as you in regard to my desire for longevity, Shien, and even more selfish; yeah, the prospect of ceasing to exist is a bit inconvenient to think about, but I'm pretty sure that not existing would not particularly bother me once I've gotten to that point, even if there is no alternative to not existing (if I die and it is at all possible, I'm definitely sticking around as a ghost), and it is annoying to think that no matter how much I accomplish during my life I will always want to do more and never complete it all, but that's not really why I want to live forever. It's not that I want to help people, to contribute, or for any kind of noble purpose like that; I simply like living. Every mundane, repetitive minute of it. I like eating, even if it's the same thing as I've eaten a thousand times before; I like watching good movies, and even half-assed ones if the mood strikes me, and even rewatching them after some time; I like to read books, write books, and reread books; I like to play games, and replay games. I like the warm sun and the cool breeze, the sight of flowers and the smell of rain. Heck, I even like just sitting around doing absolutely nothing besides delving into my own thoughts. It's not that I need to achieve as much as possible, I just want to be comfortable and stay comfortable. Being dead doesn't sound comfortable at all; I probably won't be able to do any of the things I like if I'm dead. So I don't want to die. I want to live.
The bit about the hindrance of scientific advancement is certainly one I agree with. And as if useful and downright beneficial technology getting unnecessarily delayed or discarded for reasons that I can only imagine must originate from some vague concept of ethics was not bad enough, other technologies are being withheld simply due to sheer greed (*cough*hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles*cough*). I honestly think that it's an even greater crime for humanity to halt scientific advancement in beneficial areas than to pour all their resources into ultimately detrimental ones.

Teleportation usually requires so much magical energy that it would outright kill an average human to attempt it, but this is only the case for average humans. Some humans have naturally stronger souls than others, and many other species are usually stronger than average humans, and this is not even taking into account the fact that mages naturally increase the power of their souls simply by doing their magic, meaning that even that average human could eventually come to possess the power to teleport in time (in other words, nearly every mage can potentially possess a superhuman soul). It would not be something that anyone had the power to do, and definitely not something to be done repeatedly or from anything but full capacity, but certainly not in a level that would be commonly regarded as impossible (Shien's estimates sound pretty probable in regards to the rarity of the ability). The greatest obstacle when it comes to teleportation, the substantial requirement of magical energy aside, is the sheer difficulty of doing it right; while many mages would theoretically be strong enough to teleport if they rested themselves completely beforehand, the skill to do so successfully is much rarer than the strength. It is something that can be learned, but which is so extremely difficult that it is indeed practically impossible to most mages, and thus the ability to teleport is the mark of an incredibly skilled mage more than it is of an extremely powerful one.
And as Shien surmised, Shadow Image is indeed an even rarer spell to master than the various different spells of teleportation because it is even more difficult, as you not only move yourself somewhere else, but actually exist in multiple locations at the same time.

All right, thanks for clearing it up. I'll make some slight edits to that paragraph eventually to make Jillian's perception of this spell more appropriate.

Sorry for the lack of a post. I got busy again. Jack, do you want me to wait for another post from you since Ashgan has posted now?

I am fine with whatever you prefer right now, actually. I was wondering whether to post for that scene today since Ashgan posted, but ultimately decided to wait since you had announced that you were writing a post for today. So if you want to post as Salas immediately that's still completely fine, and if you want me to post first and have Salas all healed up that's fine, too.

I'd prefer you to post first, so I don't end up controlling any of Crone's actions.

Ashgan, do you want to post next or should I?

And by the way, how is your post coming along, Merc?

Since both you and Ink have posted already, it'd be logical for me to have the next one, unless you insist on taking the initiative. Will be taking a nap now, when I get back up I'll see what I can get done.

Hi all,

My post has been coming along fine, though I'll have to do a brand new post as that one is on my desktop, which is all boxed up from my move back home from university. I can get one up momentarily as I'm not too fussed with the England Vs Uruguay game.

Also on a more positive note, I've finished my degree with a 2:1 result (one behind the highest degree possible in the UK).

M3

Congrats on the news, Merc! That's awesome! :3

Also, do you want to go first this time, or is the floor mine once more?

*Edit*
Derp. Apparently, I should have refreshed before asking who goes first, haha. Post coming up!

*Edit2*
Aaand post is up! Enjoy! :3

Rhae, just a pointer that Ixion landed onto the beam :)

M3

Sorry about my recent ineptitude when it comes to keeping up with the RP, everyone... For some reason I've just been feeling inexplicably fatigued a lot these days and can only seem to barely find the energy to write a post every now and then. I will keep posting - first in the Jillian/Salas/Gerald-scene since that's the oldest one I need to get done, and then in the Ixion/Morgan-scene, since it seems like my input is needed again already, with Morgan being about to bash the agent's skull in and everything - but please be patient with me, at least for a little while. This funk of mine is sure to pass eventually, and I'll be more active again.

Hmm... since I'm writing an OOC-post anyways I might as well bring up another thing that I've been reminding myself that I needed to do for a while now, only to forget it over and over again. I would like for all of you to pick a number from two to twelve for your characters (that is, Shien will have to pick a number for Aemoten and Etakar individually). You can pick the same number for a character than has already been used for one, but honestly I think it'd be more interesting the more numbers are represented. I pick 2 for Jaelnec; Gerald and Olan don't need numbers.
Once I have numbers for all characters (that means yours too, yoshua and Syn) I'll roll a couple of dice and let fate run its course. I won't tell you which number comes up or what it means, but it will have significance for the RP later on.

I pick 6 for Salas.

Take your time, yo. I know I do so often enough <__> That said, I imagine that Ink could, probably, make a post without your input at this point if he so desired.

Also, 11 for Jillian. Does Zacharias need a number, since he still exists somewhere? If yes, give him an 8.

Edit: Out of curiosity, would it be too revelatory to ask what kind of dice you're gonna be rolling? Regular D6, D12, or what?

I'll pick the unlucky four (well, if I was Chinese :P) for Morgan.

Okay... Jaelnec: 2, Morgan: 4, Jillian: 11 and Salas: 6. Still missing numbers from Aemoten, Thaler, I'on, Ixion, Draven and Etakar (I don't think it'll have any particular relevance to the RP if Zacharias' number comes up unless he becomes an active part of it again, but I've noted his 8 as well).

And I'm going to roll regular two six-sided dice since I don't own a twelve-sided one... that is why 1 is not an option (not because 1 is an automatic "no one got picked", which could be a completely credible option).