[OOC] The Last Embers (Dark Steampunk/Fantasy)

[shylarah]

@Drakey plus being sheltered? yeaaaah. *amused* Unless you think he's been having affairs Ziotea somehow doesn't know about?

[Drakey]

@shylarah

Nope, no affairs. What I mean is that Rodion is just starting to have romantic thoughts about Ziotea and it's throwing him off.

[The Angry Goat]

I'm still around btw, just waiting for @Sisyphus to pop up so we can collab a post

[Lovejoy]

@deathbringer Fuuuuck. That was incredible. And heartwrenching. But mostly incredible. If you have any further ideas about Astraea's father and his past exploits, let me know. I'd love to include him more.

Also, did I read that right? Did Astraea's mom leave to fight in El? :o

[shylarah]

@Lovejoy@deathbringer Aaaah! *flailing* AAAAH! *screeches* I mean, I figured that they'd kinda note that inquisitor instructors are that, but...hm. Then again, Lady's Anger...I can see why they'd doubt, and be biased. AMAZING POST, DEATH!

[deathbringer]

@deathbringer Fuuuuck. That was incredible. And heartwrenching. But mostly incredible. If you have any further ideas about Astraea's father and his past exploits, let me know. I'd love to include him more.

Also, did I read that right? Did Astraea's mom leave to fight in El? :o

@Lovejoy

I'm glad you liked it!
I'll give it another read tomorrow I'm not quite happy with it yet but it's 3am and I need sleep

Yeah I thought that would be fun to add in with your permission of course! I thought if all the better warriors were being moved I thought that it would make sense for Astraea's father to be invalided out and as a Lanostran for him to be more bitter for it but her mother still to be active? Is that ok?

[Lovejoy]

@deathbringerYES. Astraea's mom being somewhere out there in the East is a really great development. I love it when players incorporate their character's pasts into the story like this. It's rad. <3

[Sisyphus]

@The Angry Goat

Sorry, been busy with a paper. I'll get a quick post up for Hassan tomorrow - raise a little hell for Stina to deal with. :P

[deathbringer]

@deathbringerYES. Astraea's mom being somewhere out there in the East is a really great development. I love it when players incorporate their character's pasts into the story like this. It's rad. <3

@Lovejoy

cool then :)
I may do character sheets for her father and mother and send them to you by pm but no promises. I still have a few character relationships to finish up plus time is a factor for me at the mo!

and i would love to get one of the wolves btw. Even if ragnar likely wouldn't hand one over!

@Lovejoy@deathbringer Aaaah! *flailing* AAAAH! *screeches* I mean, I figured that they'd kinda note that inquisitor instructors are that, but...hm. Then again, Lady's Anger...I can see why they'd doubt, and be biased. AMAZING POST, DEATH!

@shylarah

I think they would accept being taught by a T'saeran but Astraea has been getting "private lessons" from Antonin once a week on his own and unsupervised. Added Astraea's father had no idea she was a healer as he was always trying to put her down a more destructive path so from his side of things why would she be wasting time on a guy like Antonin unless...

[Scout]

I was out of townthis weekend! Hope everybody is well. :)

[Lovejoy]

@deathbringerI actually have a pretty cool idea concerning Astraea and one of the wolves. You'll see what I'm talking about soon enough :p

[shylarah]

@Lovejoy oooh~ this should be good!

[Lovejoy]

I-XVII (pronounced as "One-Seventeen")

The Aspect of Lord Varya that appeared to Warband Phoenix during Culmination. The visions it showed each member of the warband left a mark on them in different ways. Some were perplexed by what I-XVII showed them, others were left horrified, while others were left thinking to themselves in silence. Despite each inquisitor having their own unique experience with I-XVII, each somehow knew its name upon waking, and felt its touch upon their souls.

Like other Divine Aspects, I-XVII has no default appearance, but is perceived differently depending on the individual who sees it.

Rodion

Rodeon was brought to a place shrouded in darkness, where he felt the enormity of the world itself stretching endlessly around him, but found himself completely and utterly alone. The land beneath him was hard iron and his footsteps seemed to echo into eternity. As Rodeon traversed through the darkness, he could glimpse stars steadily coming into view. The stars grew myriad and beautiful until they exploded in an aurora of light and color. There, canvassing the darkness, he watched as they coalesced into a grand constellation of a massive dragon-like creature. When the dragon spoke to him, Rodion heard a woman's voice echoing in his mind.

"Remember me," it said.

Tatiana

Tatiana was back on the darkened ice surrounding the Black Glacier, on the day of her unsuccessful hunt. All was as it was, her father standing there watching, the bitter unnatural wind that manifested around the Black Glacier lashing at her angrily. When the demon closed in on her with fangs bared, ready to tear her apart, she reached out to it, and just as she did on that day, ordered the demon to stop.

Only this time, the entire world stopped. Even the wind ceased. She glanced at her father and saw him frozen in mid-step, rushing to her aid.

It was then that she heard it. The voice of the Black Glacier itself, speaking directly into her soul. When she turned to face it, she found herself standing directly in front of it, close enough to gaze upon her own reflection in the mirrored darkness of the Glacier's shell.

Her reflection spoke back to her, but not in her own voice, but in the language of the Black Glacier-- that mournful rumbling that was as apparent to every Lanostran child as the howling of the winter wind. Somehow, she understood it.

"Love," it repeated. Over and over again, until Tatiana woke from her vision.

Ziotea

Ziotea opened her eyes and found herself... exactly where she had been kneeling in the moments before closing them. When she looked around, she saw all of her companions on their knees with their eyes closed before the colossal doors of the Red Shrine, no doubt experiencing their own visions. Unsure as to what was happening, or if something had gone wrong, she rose to her feet. It was then that she heard the thunderous noise of a million voices crying out together.

Leaving her companions, she turned around and approached the edge of the great platform where the entrance to the Red Shrine stood. Beyond, the surface of the city of Magnagrad stretched onward and from its depths, the roar of a million voices rose up in mechanical unison. With the cacophonous ocean of sound ringing in her ears, Ziotea made her way down the steps of the Shrine to investigate.

When she was halfway down the massive stairwell, she finally saw the source of the sound. Looking upon the streets, she saw them choked with legions of people. All of them stood shoulder to shoulder, every child, man and woman in all the empire seemed to have gathered in every conceivable space-- every street, rooftop, plaza and alley was filled to capacity. She could see the dark azure eyes of native Varyans, the pale blue eyes of T'saraens, the deep emerald of Lanostrans, the cold indigo of Muraadans and the burning gold of Omestrians. Each of those eyes was fixated on her.

"Destroyer," the crowd of millions chanted. Over, and over, and over again. Suddenly, a great explosion of... something encompassed the city and the endless crowds of people disappeared as the maelstrom of golden light washed over them. She felt burning heat begin to cook her alive, it was pain unlike anything she'd felt before. The tempest of golden fire began to swallow her whole when suddenly, a blue circle of light manifested around her, and she felt the burning sensation begin to cease.

At that moment, she woke up.

Astraea

Astraea found herself waking up in what appeared to be a ruined war hospital. She was lying on a filthy old hospital bed, and the ceiling above her was heavily damaged by what she assumed to be mortar fire. Beyond the crumbling stones, she could glimpse a pale sky-- stark in its emptiness-- the kind of sky that only exists above Varya. When she sat up, she ccaught sight of the rest of the hospital, and to her horror, discovered that the ward seemed to stretch onward to a distant point in the horizon. Thousands of hospital beds were lined up in front of her, unending as they disappeared into eternity, all of them empty but hers.

Suddenly, from somewhere deeper in that eternal corridors, she heard the howling of a wolf. Astraea tried to get up from her bed, but for some reason, her body was heavy like a stone. Something was wrong. It's as if she had woken up from a long period of sleep. Nevertheless, she hobbled to the where the sound was emanating from, and soon enough, she found him. A cyan wolf with golden eyes, lying bloody on the tiles before her.

She could still hear its feint whimpering after she awoke.

Ragnar

Ragnar didn't see anything. When he closed his eyes, the next time he opened them was when Hassan roused him awake. There was no vision, no sound, nothing at all. This lack of any sort of vision weighs on him heavily, and when asked about what he experienced, he makes up a lie about the Aspect transporting him back to Muraad and seeing his family again.

***

I'll get to describing Hassan, Stina and Ilya's visions tomorrow, along with info on I-XIX (Leviathan's guardian aspect), and what it showed the inquisitors from that group. I'll also have that that stuff I promised you today @shylarah. I would've finished it tonight but it's late and I have work tomorrow!

[shylarah]

@Lovejoy *squeaking* I thought I was gonna hafta figure out what she saw (if anything). This is cooool.

I see Astraea's wolf! And a hospital, with people who need healing. A lady talks to Rodion, hm. Lanostre? I wonder... And the stars, too. Dragon's a bit odd, but eh. *shrugs* I don't know how Tatiana's first time at the Black Glacier went, but it is interesting that she's hearing it speak of love, when the demons and their glacier really exude hate. Maybe because she's a summoner, and has a connection.

Ziotea...I don't know that Omestrian eyes would bother her more than the rest, actually. then again, refusing to identify that way even though she clearly has their blood...I think it's a personal rebellion, because she's good at that. AND GODS YES THAT'S AWESOME. She's definitely a destroyer, and then everything exploding, and burning heat? Is she due to destroy everything? Was that her, eventually going rogue (or insane) and committing wholesale slaughter? She would have been uneasy, to say the least!

Clarification -- I'm not asking, I'm indicating what she would have wondered. ^.^;;

Does each nation have a particular eye color? Or is it only certain groups? Or is there a specific cause...? I thought it was only Omestrians, but then you did Lanostrans, and now the Varyans and T'saraens too.

[Lovejoy]

@shylarahOh, I should change that part about her being horrified about seeing Omestrian eyes in the crowd then.

Besides Omestrians, I did tell deathbringer about pure-blooded Lanostrans having emerald eyes being a thing, since its the same color as her aegis. As for the other races, yeah, it's something I just decided on. Just figured it's be a cool thing to like, set the races apart. Also just realized I excluded Muraadans in that crowd description. :(

[Lovejoy]

There! Now Muraadans have indigo-colored eyes. They're Targaryens. :p

[shylarah]

@Lovejoy yep, excluding Muraadans was why I asked. Of course this means that there's no wide variety of eyes...but I guess varying shades of a single color is cool? ^.^;;

[Lovejoy]

@shylarahYup, that's fine. For example, I picture Ragnar's eyes being more light violet than indigo.

[The Angry Goat]

@Sisyphus I feel it. got two of my own over the next few weeks

[shylarah]

@Lovejoy you should stick that vision thing in the 0th post for the OOC, or in the char tab, or something. Just so people can find it. ^.^