Titles:
Lírha the Untarnished; Chaos’ Bane; The Great Devourer; The Guardian Shadow; The Merciless Maw
Lhuré the Resplendent; He of Endless Arms; Brilliance Unending; Lifter of the Veil; The Unyielding Tempest
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Age: Couldn’t decide on this. Ages kinda work different in their world (people live longer on account of how their world works, plus like…reincarnation is a standard thing sooo. Should I just put unknown? It’s kind of inconsequential).
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Form:LírhaAppearing fundamentally human when at rest, Lírha is a strong, if lithe, woman with a fierce beauty to both her visage and bearing. She moves with a natural grace, every motion filled with finesse and considerable poise. Fair of complexion and features, she is striking to look upon, but perhaps more notable is her garb, which covers the vast majority of her frame, up to and including strips of cloth that hide her eyes from the world. When in her full glory, though her precise anatomy and features can shift due to her prodigious control of her vessel, she can be seen shrouded in a dense miasma of amaranth and pitch. In this state, unlight burns through the crimson wrappings on her eyes, shining with an unnamable prismatic hue that can be described only as perfectly blinding in its radiance. Shrouded in the dark miasma of chaos, Lírha will become wreathed partially in the malaise-inducing storm of intermingled emotional lhuin. In this state, simply looking upon her can inspire equal parts glorious awe and gut-deep revulsion. If one were to ever peer beneath the wrapping ‘pon her eyes, they would bear witness to quite the sight: Startling eyes of gold and black and silver, colors writhing in a hideously beautiful dance.
LhuréAlways garbed in his regalia, Lhuré’s appearance is truly shrouded beneath the cloth and armor that adorns his form. Nonetheless, he moves with a certain weight to his step and there is a deep sense of serenity that emanates from his person. When in the full sway of his power, his mask shines with divine light and many almost ghostly limbs can occasionally be glimpsed about his form. Often a haze of drifting mist-like light will emanate from his being and at his behest solidify into any number of constructs. If ever he must stoke his fiery core to its most resplendent he becomes less a man and more a shining pillar of divine radiance. Were you to remove that which conceals his form, one would find a thin man writ from the same light as his constructs and bound with an uncountable quantity of silver threads weaving across his form in an endless array of sigils. Truly, he has become the light amidst the darkness, the Order shining resplendent from within the Bed of Chaos.
Hailing from a particular universe in a multiverse all its own, Lírha and Lhuré were born in an iteration of said world known as Tir na Itheil. Created by a warped Arbiter–beings who preside over each their own universe–Tir na Itheil is a world of twisted laws and hazy limitations. Rather than being bound by law as many iterations are, it is instead subject to the rules of Invocation, better explained as the Emotions of Lhuin–with lhuin being the exotic energy/substance that composes all things. This world is thus divided into several relevant parts, the innermost of which is referred to as the Heart of Starlight. Surrounding this bed of Chaotic lhuin is their equivalent of a material realm, known as Laghrian. This is where all mortal souls are born and die. Ever plagued by the gods unnamed and numberless who exist in the Geil beyond Laghrian, mortals of Itheil struggle even to survive in the harsh world they were born in. Whereas normally mortals would be capable of a magic called Intimation, which concerns itself with imposing the will to interact with and manipulate the physics of their world, the overbearing power of the emotional lhuin of their world–and its frayed worldweave–have rendered them largely incapable of this innate power.
So it is that Itheil is a world where emotion and belief, or Chaos as the mortals call it, serves as the driving arcane power of the realms therein. Beyond mortalkind–who can take a vast variety of forms–there are the Fey, which mortals refer to only as gods. These are beings of Emotion (Chaos) rather than Logic, as mortals are, and as a result of Itheil’s warped nature as an iteration, they rule supreme. However, with the rise of the Twins, and their healing of the Worldweave, some cosmic Logic has been renewed to their fraying world and so the struggle is not so dire as it was before their ascension.
Mortal
Greater Mianloinnir.
Perceivers~“Through Will alone, we conquer Chaos, asserting Order where we can. Still, it is not enough and our world remains fractured and impure. This, we will change. So we swear.”~
MortalsUnlike worlds most are familiar with, the term human, or mortal, in Tir na Itheil covers a vast quantity of bases. From animal-like, to the mundane biped with which we are so familiar, all of these are mortal. Possessed of the warm Black Flame, and imbued with silver Sparks of divine logic, mortalkind may take many forms but they hold within all of them the same essential nature. Each and every mortal is a being of logic–though obviously capable of emotion as all beings are–allowing them the innate ability of Intimation, a magic that works by allowing the Will, using lhuin as a conduit, to directly interact with the physical laws of the world. Thus, through skillful manipulation, mortals can harness cosmic law itself, bending the world around them to their Will. Though a lesser power of most humans, the mortals of Tir na Itheil are also capable of Invocation, which essentially allows individuals to channel distilled emotion to will lhuin into actions in line with that feeling. Rage might beget a consuming flame, whereas love and lust might cause growth in surrounding flora and fauna both. Similarly, Invocation allows those wielding it to harness the power of those connected to them through Chains of Invocation, which serves as metaphysical bonds between souls. These chains are created through strong belief as the force of one’s emotions connects them to another through the crystallization of ambient lhuin in the world.
Greater MianloinnirA title and a class of souls from their multiverse, the Twins are mortals who have cultivated and tempered their divine Sparks to the point of Ascension, pushing them beyond normal limits and into the realm of middling divinity. This class of mortal souls is called as such due to its namesake material, which are essentially confluences of perfectly balanced essences–various specific forms of lhuin–that come together to form what can only be described as universal perfection. Said material is unbreakable and more potent as both a physical and magical tool in essentially every way. This class of being was named as such due to the change in their nature as they ascend, as their souls and mind become utterly unassailable, incapable of being manipulated by Invocation or other magics through direct or indirect means. Despite this, Mianloinnir are still capable of being harmed or killed, though such requires drastically more effort than it would for a lesser being. Due to the ascended nature of their Spark, Mianloinnir are afforded preternaturally long lives, and though they can eventually die, they will typically reincarnate unless their souls are utterly destroyed, retaining all their memories and power when they do so. The last notable aspect of this class of being to which the Twins belong, is the inherent ability granted to those who ascend to this degree. Known simply as a Rulebreak, each Mianloinnir holds the ability to break one distinct cosmic law or smaller intertwined laws.
However, it bears knowing that the Twins are not like typical Mianloinnir who hail from Iterations wherein Order, and Law have some significant sway. As a result, the potency of their capabilities comes from elsewhere, and their Rulebreaks instead take on the form of twin Wills that are largely beyond reproach. This renders their magic particularly potent even for Mianloinnir–though not completely unstoppable–forcing others to engage them knowing that most arcane forces will pale in comparison to their own.
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♦ Legend & Ascent ♦】
Filled with optimism and understanding for others, Lírha–with great confidence–walked into the Darkness of the churning Geil. Harnessing her will and her lhuin, she survived the forces therein, but could not pull herself from such alone. Thus, her brother, a forgiving soul, intent upon unifying others with the clear vision of the world and the joy he hold as a light against it would have to aid her. Having remained in Laghrian amongst the people, Lhuré did not lose hope when his sister fell into the all-corrupting Geil. Knowing her worth, he trained himself, harnessing the lhuin of his vast internal light and stoking it into a beacon of intense and purifying fire given solid form. Pressing forth, to the dismay of many, he pierced the Geil and came to his sister’s aid.
Side-by-side, she who took on darkness and he who had harnessed light, fought against the Geil, seeking to free the mortals trapped in Laghrian. Yet, as they fought the twisted will of the nameless gods made itself known and soon, they were faced with the foremost children of such beings.
Navreden, he who gives and gives, twisting–his gifts taking more than they were worth.
Gnev, ever sleeping, restless…violent, sowing madness in all who touch his dreams.
Mir, never resting such that others may. In her shadow, the dead dream, sated and content.
Tvorec, a shuttered light, blinded, yet blinding. It sleeps, but in its sleep it weeps…and its tears reforge the firmament.
Surrounding them, these titanic forces might inspire in others Dread, but the twins did not falter. Instead, they clasped hands, and with palpable relief that blossomed in a great shield about their forms, they ascended. Erupting from their vessels were waves of intertwined chaos and order, light and darkness. Briefly overtaken by the force of such a sudden display, the four retreated, shielding themselves from the fury of the twins.
Then the world itself tilted on its axis, the shattered heavens and the mirrored lands below were healed. With threads of darkness, and rays of purifying light, they were woven back together and Itheil knew Order for the first time in many eons. Stepping from their home, from the yin and yang of quintessence that had borne them anew into the world, the twins revealed themselves to their fourfold foes.
On the right stood the brother, Lhuré the Resplendent. The very laws of the world draped about his form in the shape of crimson robes, golden chain and mask. Surrounded in an uncountable array of floating crystal blades forged of purest pale gold light, he was brilliant as the sun and stars combined, more blinding than the foremost god.
On the left beside him stood the sister, Lírha the Untarnished, garbed in the Chaos of the gods, yet bereft of its ghastly touch. Writhing at her back was an endless cloak of darkness from which sightless eyes peered out, alien and strange. Wound about her arms were cords of ink-like essence, pulsing with the infernal wrath of her divine power. Raising her chin, a hood fell away, revealing startling eyes of gold and black and silver. They were the image of hunger and control.
So it was that as a pair they faced off against the Four and after a titanic battle, won. However, they were not satisfied with this, for the very laws of their world remained frayed, and the gods unnamed and numberless remained lurking beyond in the Expanse. Thus through sheer will, they pressed on, piercing and subsuming the Chaos all around them to reach their unknown adversaries. Facing those faceless entities was a struggle all its own, one impossible to describe, but in the end they won the battle, but lost the war. Unsatisfied with this result as well, the twins sought out the center of their world, and submerged themselves in the wellspring of chaos at its core. Though they were never seen again, the world restructured itself with their passing, giving the rest of their kind a fighting chance against the many horrors that lay beyond Laghrian.
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♦ Will ♦】
In truth, the two did not die but merely transcended the confines of their world, and so stepped through the Sea of Stars and into the greater cosmos. Intent to change the nature of existence such that mortals such as they would
always have a fighting chance, if not a fair one, they pressed on, ever searching for the source of their people’s misery. Be it gods or primordial beings beyond even the ken of the deific, they would fight for their right to change existence to suit the needs of the small, over the will of Chaos and its servants.
~“From Chaos and Despair, to Order and Prosperity. This is the promise we must uphold, no matter the obstacles before us, the foes upon are path, or the costs such might incur. We will see it done.”~
Chaos Subsumed: By conquering the chaos of emotional lhuin, and mastering her own psyche as well, Lírha has become an endless font of emotional lhuin. Through this power, she can manifest a wide variety of constructs with varied properties by channeling specific emotions through her essence internal, and then releasing it into the world, ordered by the power of her Will. However, there are some limitations to her beyond considerable potency, and that is essentially a matter of range and manifestation. While most mages can utilize their magic at a wide variety of distances–moreso for most Mianloinnir–Lírha’s power is constrained to her vessel and the area around it relative to her size. To make up for this, however, she is capable of drastically altering the shape, size, appearance, and composition of her body. Nonetheless, her maximum range is never greater than her own height twice over in any direction starting from the surface of the nearest part of her body, going outwards. Notably, this mastery of her vessel and Invocation as well allows Lírha to more easily recover from, or conceal damage that she does take. Further, since her vessel is composed of the Worldweave–the nature of which was to preserve the physical and arcane laws of Itheil and all other Iterations–she is innately much more durable than one might expect of a being composed of what at least appears to be flesh and blood.
Piercing Order:Having distilled his essence internal into an all-consuming, ever-piercing luminance, Lhuré’s power largely takes on the form of brightly shining, or pale, golden light. This light is, in actuality, lhuin with the imbued properties of strict and unrelenting Order. Thus, when it comes into contact with other magics or substances, Lhuré’s power will attempt to reorient them to his will, either destroying their initial formation in the process, returning them from whence they came, or converting them into more of his distinctive golden essence. Unlike his sister, Lhuré is capable of manifesting his golden essence at essentially any range, but this reveals that much of his magic is external in nature. Reflecting this, despite the fact that his vessel is composed of the Worldweave, just as Lírha’s, his is not nearly so resilient or transmutable as hers. As a result, he keeps himself shrouded in crystallized golden light, which has over time taken on the form of his garments, protecting him from the outside world.
Notably, though his magic is far more narrow in manifestation than his sister’s, Lhuré’s piercing light is not to be underestimated, as he is capable of creating any construct he can imagine, at any distance, he can perceive, as well as moving them with incredible speed and force with his mind alone.
Twinbound:Having ascended together, and further, having done so in an Iteration of twisted laws where Invocation rules, Lírha and Lhuré’s souls have been inextricably bound to one another. Their fates are forever intertwined and truly they are at eachother’s mercy. This has both benefits and limitations of course, the latter of which is most prominently represented by the fact that they cannot stray from one another’s senses without significant consequences. Should they ever be well and truly separated–be it by distance or potent magics–the severance or weakening of the Chain of Invocation that binds them together will cause both Twins to enter a drastically weakened state. Where before Lírha might be an unstoppable juggernaut, consuming all before her and bending the very laws of the world to her Will, she would be reduced instead to the likes of a more mortal mage. In such a state she would lose much of her inherent power, retaining only her resilience, healing factor, and the ability to make more subtle alterations to her vessel. Furthermore, she would retain the ability to make constructs of lhuin, but their potency and range would be even further reduced, forcing them to remain within an armspan or so of her person. Lhuré on the other hand, who before was a beacon of unending purity and light would become but a lantern in the dark. Forced to preserve himself, he would be forced to rely on his defensive aura, and be limited to summoning only a sparse few constructs at a time or manifesting his light only in limited amounts and at closer ranges than before.
However, so long as the two remain together, they are more than a force to be reckoned with, for while they each possess their individual boons, they too can call upon their sibling’s power through the chain of their entangled souls. So it is that the piercing light of Lhuré might emanate from the vast Chaos of Lírha’s shroud or vice versa. Furthermore, one twin may reduce their own capacity to drastically bolster their counterpart, and indeed the two may weave magics together with frightening dexterity beyond the abilities of most mages–even those considered masters of cooperative magic.
【Ephemera】
♦~“Creation; Destruction. Purity; Corruption. We will use whatever means we must so long as the ends are just.”~
Sgàil(Shroud):Typically taking the form of a crimson cloak that drapes down from her shoulders, Sgàil is composed entirely of indestructible mianloinnir and is attuned to Lírha’s soul alone. Its precise form can transform and move according to her will, and it can also be used as a conduit to enhance her various magics. Notably, should she channel her inherent nature through the living cloak, it will become just as deadly as any of her direct physical assaults, taking on the properties of subsumption and domination in kind.
Òir-gheil(Brightmaw):As with his sister’s implement, Lhuré’s is also composed entirely of mianloinnir attuned to his soul. Not often seen, it is instead integrated with his body and thus hidden from the world, Òir-gheil is liquid mianloinnir infused with the inherent power of his being. However, though its form can shift according to his desires, the implement’s favored form is that of a prismatic greatsword, shining with blinding light. Whereas Lhuré’s typical projections can transmute energy and matter into more of itself, or pierce/destroy it utterly by returning it to its most basic state any attack delivered by Brightmaw cannot be resisted. This stands in stark contrast to his typical attacks which can be matched, overwhelmed, or prove ineffective in various circumstances.
Mianloinnir Regalia:Created when they dove through the Heart of Starlight and transcended their Iteration, the regalia of the Twins was crafted to contain and stabilize the tremendous potency of their ascended sparks and the souls tempered by their presence. For Lhuré, this meant containing his vessel in a solid shell, protecting him further from outside influences, and ensuring that he retains cohesion. Should he be deprived of his garments and rendered in his purest state, he will lose solidity. In such a state he would remain a considerable threat but would lose some of the intense focus required to wield his vast power.
His sister, Lírha on the other hand found her typical garments simply transformed by their traversal to realms above and beyond their own. These alterations made her regalia better complement her powers, making it an extension of her vessel. While this allows her to transform her armor as well and always maintain a protected state regardless of her form, it also means that she can quite clearly feel pain even through her armor and anything affecting it will also affect her to a lesser degree.