DeltaV

A Song of Ice and Fire -- Interest Check

I was hoping to hold out for another person or two. Life's been busy in any case; I'll try to get an OOC up sometime in the week.

Starless - Unique Fantasy RP

N A M E / A L I A S
Jacaerys the Godseer

A G E O F L E G E N D
A mere 1,500 years.

M Y T H O L O G Y
Unlike many of the ancient tales of tens of thousands of years ago, the story of Jacaerys the Godseer is perhaps unique in that it was all reasonably well-documented at the time, and the effects of the man's existence continue to ripple into the modern day.

The precise details of the Godseer's early life are unknown, though it is generally hypothesized that the boy grew up as an acolyte in the temple of Oraum, God of Purity. In the time of a millennium and a half ago, you see, almost the entirety of the continent of Ansus -- from the great deserts of the northeast to the southern coast -- was infected with a vile combination of plague and pestilence that killed men, beasts and crops alike. The general ledgers mark that approximately one-third of the population of the continent was dead of sickness or starvation by the time that we now recount. As a direct result, the tale goes, Jacaerys found himself an acolyte in the service of Oraum. Some say that the Godseer's parents died of the plague when he was a boy, prompting him to be delivered to the temple, while the man's detractors claim that he served in it as penance after being caught stealing food from a granary.

Regardless of the truth on that matter, it is well-documented that Jacaerys held thirty-nine years to his name at the time that the plague reached its peak. In the streets of once-magnificent cities bodies piled along the roads, food for dogs and maggots. Only the great Temples were safe, and even then it was said that any priest who traveled out of eyesight of the great ever-burning Fire of Oraum was liable to contract the plague. In fear, the head priest gave the order that the Temple be closed off entirely so as to keep it pure.

This did not resonate well with the Godseer, who could not bring himself to sit and wait out the plague while thousands died outside its door. It is said that he sat perilously close to the great fire for seventy-seven hours, forgoing all contact in a fervent bout of fasting and prayer. Upon the end of the seventh minute of the seventy-seventh hour, the story goes, Jacaerys, blanketed in soot and singed all about, found the favor of the God of Purity. In a great vision and a blast of light, the Godseer was told of a great and dark tower far across the deserts, where a half-dozen mountain ranges came together in one great peak. There, Oraum intoned, a great cult of necromancers channeled dark energies to bring death to the people of the continent. When too many were dead to bury or even to burn the corpses, Jacaerys learned, they would rise up and kill those who remained cowering in their keeps and temples.

Overwhelmed by prophesy, it is said that the Godseer reached blindly into the great flames, and drew out the great war mace Lightwarden, aglow with holy flame. As Jacaerys walked out of the Temple, followed by a number of acolytes who had seen what transpired, it is said that he took on a hale and healthy glow, and the charred flesh of one hand had already recovered to its natural state. His eyes, however, marked by Oraum, had turned a milky-white -- though by all accoutns Jacaerys could see even more clearly than he had before the events that transpired.

Thus began the Great Pilgrimage. The Godseer traveled northeast towards the dark tower that he had seen in his visions, and found himself able to cure the sick -- and, it is said in a slightly more hushed tone, to sometimes return the dead to the land of the living. In the center of each hamlet and great city alike he built a towering flame, and on it burned the corpses of those who had already succumbed to the plague. And as he passed nutrients returned to the soil, crops grew to five times their natural size, and the size of the Godseer's party grew with admirers -- and, perhaps more unsettlingly, worshipers. Many of the people of the furthest villages had never seen any sort of miracle performed, and to them this stranger with his holy mace who healed their sicknesses was nothing less than an Avatar of God.

So it came to pass that the Pilgrims of Oraum found themselves on the edge of the great deserts. But they were not met with emptiness -- Jacaerys had traveled at a leisurely pace indeed, and all the strength that the necromancers could muster stood before them. Thousands of reanimated corpses stood in the sands, advancing southwards. But by that time the Godseer's host numbered just as many, and he led a valiant charge into the heart of the ranks. It is said that with each strike the undead erupted into holy flame, and their souls were reclaimed for hte God of Purity. Though the costs were great, by the time that the sun set a great and cleansing bonfire glowed on the scrubby grass of the desert, white-hot with holy flame.

It was at this point, knowing that the deserts could not support such a vast host as he had accumulated, that Jacaerys sent many of his Pilgrims back to their homelands, to tend their fires and lament the dead. Embarking off into the wastes with his remaining acolytes and a few of the most devout followers, the Godseer traveled for several months across white-hot sands. Whenever it seemed that they might succumb to heat or hunger, great Oraum sent a pillar of flame to guide them to the nearest oasis.

The events that transpired at the great Tower that they found at the end of the wastes are not entirely known, as several of the lettered acolytes wrote occasionally conflicting accounts of what occurred. All logs agree that the remaining holy warriors fought their way up the great twisting stairs of the Necromancer's Tower, smiting hordes of undead. At the top of the tower, however, they found a great and dark flame, surrounded by the remaining sorcerers who channeled its power. As they had driven the forces of darkness from Ansus it had become more and more concentrated in its place of origin, until only the great Lightwarden's glow could hold out against the shadow. Several of the weaker-willed acolytes, looking on the heart of the great darkness, were consumed or driven mad by it, but not the Godseer. With a great war cry, he charged towards the source of the evil that had corrupted the continent.

This is where the accounts given by those few survivors vary. Some say that, guided by the light of his weapon, Jacaerys pushed through the overwhelming darkness to find and slay the remaining necromancers, severing the bond that kept the vile demon they channeled tied to the mortal plane. In this tale the great Godseer, it is said, built a magnificent bonfire and burned the corpses of the necromancers within, bringing their souls back to the light. When the white-hot flames burned their brightest, the story goes, Jacaerys threw himself into the blaze that he might forever sanctify the once-vile tower.

Other stories dismiss this tale, instead claiming that Jacaerys instead fought through the darkness straight to the nameless demon he faced, and there vanished from the mortal plane. In this version of the events, the Godseer does endless victorious battle with the force of evil on another plane of existence, slowly driving back the hordes of darkness that they might never again return to the world.

Both accounts agree, however, that when the tower was finally cleaned of darkness their leader had vanished. Some time after the remaining pilgrims had returned to the wastes to seek out and defeat any remaining evils that lurked, it is recorded that the tower itself burst into inferno, and stood as a glowing beacon of light for seven years. In this time, other histories tell us, not a single necromancer or bloodmage was able to channel any dark magicks into the land of the living.

In the modern day the Temple of Oraum stands somewhat divided on the status of Jacaerys the Godseer. Some of the younger and more cynical declaim it as a mere tale, Jacaerys himself the imaginary figurehead of what was actually a large and leaderless movement to end the Plague. Others still commend the Godseer as a great holy warrior. But in every temple, and especially among the smaller nightfires that burn in the continent's forgotten hamlets, there exist some who declare Jacaerys himself to have been elevated to godhood, serving as the right hand of Oraum forever and always.

In truth, perhaps the actuality lies somewhere in-between.

A P P E A R A N C E

Image

Accounts as to the Godseer's appearance vary greatly, with many of the known descriptions coming from common farmhands and elders who themselves have had the stories passed down and twisted throughout the ages. In the majority of tales he is clean-shaven, but some describe a great beard -- in truth, no doubt it depended on the time at which the person actually saw Jacaerys. In any case, 'official' frescoes and statues from the Temple of Oraum depict a man of slightly above-average height and hair of medium-length, wearing a tatter of armor and robes.

All depictions agree, however, that the Godseer's eyes were a milky white, and in many cases he seemed to glow with trails of holy light.

A B I L I T I E S / E Q U I P M E N T
Lightwarden
The only canonically-recognized piece of the Godseer's equipment is Lightwarden, the great glowing mace that he took from the fires of Oraum before setting of on his great pilgrimage. It is said that the weapon gave off a great glow at all times, and the mace's head was ringed with a dozen ornately-engraved steel blades. In many accounts foul mages and necromancers were rendered temporarily blind to look on it, and any blow delivered by the weapon to the undead would cause them -- and those nearby -- to erupt into white-hot flame.

Equipment aside, there are several known and documented supernatural abilities that Jacaerys seemed to possess without any special sort of equipment. It is said that he was immune to any sort of flame, and could walk across hot coals and into infernos alike without being singed. With a touch he could heal many wounds and diseases. Two times the Godseer is recorded to have raised the dead -- once at the first village he came upon, to bring a grieving mother's infant son back to life, and the second time upon finding his most trusted friend and ally, the acolye Aelar, dead following the Battle on the Sands. In both cases, eyewitnesses agree that it took significantly more effort than your average necromancer's ritual or incantation, and left the Godseer utterly drained for some time -- though unlike your average necromancer, the revived seemed to be reasonably healthy, if a bit frail, rather than walking corpses.

Starless - Unique Fantasy RP

Jacaerys the Godseer

N A M E / A L I A S
Jacaerys the Godseer

A G E O F L E G E N D
A mere 1,500 years.

M Y T H O L O G Y
Unlike many of the ancient tales of tens of thousands of years ago, the story of Jacaerys the Godseer is perhaps unique in that it was all reasonably well-documented at the time, and the effects of the man's existence continue to ripple into the modern day.

The precise details of the Godseer's early life are unknown, though it is generally hypothesized that the boy grew up as an acolyte in the temple of Oraum, God of Purity. In the time of a millennium and a half ago, you see, almost the entirety of the continent of Ansus -- from the great deserts of the northeast to the southern coast -- was infected with a vile combination of plague and pestilence that killed men, beasts and crops alike. The general ledgers mark that approximately one-third of the population of the continent was dead of sickness or starvation by the time that we now recount. As a direct result, the tale goes, Jacaerys found himself an acolyte in the service of Oraum. Some say that the Godseer's parents died of the plague when he was a boy, prompting him to be delivered to the temple, while the man's detractors claim that he served in it as penance after being caught stealing food from a granary.

Regardless of the truth on that matter, it is well-documented that Jacaerys held thirty-nine years to his name at the time that the plague reached its peak. In the streets of once-magnificent cities bodies piled along the roads, food for dogs and maggots. Only the great Temples were safe, and even then it was said that any priest who traveled out of eyesight of the great ever-burning Fire of Oraum was liable to contract the plague. In fear, the head priest gave the order that the Temple be closed off entirely so as to keep it pure.

This did not resonate well with the Godseer, who could not bring himself to sit and wait out the plague while thousands died outside its door. It is said that he sat perilously close to the great fire for seventy-seven hours, forgoing all contact in a fervent bout of fasting and prayer. Upon the end of the seventh minute of the seventy-seventh hour, the story goes, Jacaerys, blanketed in soot and singed all about, found the favor of the God of Purity. In a great vision and a blast of light, the Godseer was told of a great and dark tower far across the deserts, where a half-dozen mountain ranges came together in one great peak. There, Oraum intoned, a great cult of necromancers channeled dark energies to bring death to the people of the continent. When too many were dead to bury or even to burn the corpses, Jacaerys learned, they would rise up and kill those who remained cowering in their keeps and temples.

Overwhelmed by prophesy, it is said that the Godseer reached blindly into the great flames, and drew out the great war mace Lightwarden, aglow with holy flame. As Jacaerys walked out of the Temple, followed by a number of acolytes who had seen what transpired, it is said that he took on a hale and healthy glow, and the charred flesh of one hand had already recovered to its natural state. His eyes, however, marked by Oraum, had turned a milky-white -- though by all accoutns Jacaerys could see even more clearly than he had before the events that transpired.

Thus began the Great Pilgrimage. The Godseer traveled northeast towards the dark tower that he had seen in his visions, and found himself able to cure the sick -- and, it is said in a slightly more hushed tone, to sometimes return the dead to the land of the living. In the center of each hamlet and great city alike he built a towering flame, and on it burned the corpses of those who had already succumbed to the plague. And as he passed nutrients returned to the soil, crops grew to five times their natural size, and the size of the Godseer's party grew with admirers -- and, perhaps more unsettlingly, worshipers. Many of the people of the furthest villages had never seen any sort of miracle performed, and to them this stranger with his holy mace who healed their sicknesses was nothing less than an Avatar of God.

So it came to pass that the Pilgrims of Oraum found themselves on the edge of the great deserts. But they were not met with emptiness -- Jacaerys had traveled at a leisurely pace indeed, and all the strength that the necromancers could muster stood before them. Thousands of reanimated corpses stood in the sands, advancing southwards. But by that time the Godseer's host numbered just as many, and he led a valiant charge into the heart of the ranks. It is said that with each strike the undead erupted into holy flame, and their souls were reclaimed for hte God of Purity. Though the costs were great, by the time that the sun set a great and cleansing bonfire glowed on the scrubby grass of the desert, white-hot with holy flame.

It was at this point, knowing that the deserts could not support such a vast host as he had accumulated, that Jacaerys sent many of his Pilgrims back to their homelands, to tend their fires and lament the dead. Embarking off into the wastes with his remaining acolytes and a few of the most devout followers, the Godseer traveled for several months across white-hot sands. Whenever it seemed that they might succumb to heat or hunger, great Oraum sent a pillar of flame to guide them to the nearest oasis.

The events that transpired at the great Tower that they found at the end of the wastes are not entirely known, as several of the lettered acolytes wrote occasionally conflicting accounts of what occurred. All logs agree that the remaining holy warriors fought their way up the great twisting stairs of the Necromancer's Tower, smiting hordes of undead. At the top of the tower, however, they found a great and dark flame, surrounded by the remaining sorcerers who channeled its power. As they had driven the forces of darkness from Ansus it had become more and more concentrated in its place of origin, until only the great Lightwarden's glow could hold out against the shadow. Several of the weaker-willed acolytes, looking on the heart of the great darkness, were consumed or driven mad by it, but not the Godseer. With a great war cry, he charged towards the source of the evil that had corrupted the continent.

This is where the accounts given by those few survivors vary. Some say that, guided by the light of his weapon, Jacaerys pushed through the overwhelming darkness to find and slay the remaining necromancers, severing the bond that kept the vile demon they channeled tied to the mortal plane. In this tale the great Godseer, it is said, built a magnificent bonfire and burned the corpses of the necromancers within, bringing their souls back to the light. When the white-hot flames burned their brightest, the story goes, Jacaerys threw himself into the blaze that he might forever sanctify the once-vile tower.

Other stories dismiss this tale, instead claiming that Jacaerys instead fought through the darkness straight to the nameless demon he faced, and there vanished from the mortal plane. In this version of the events, the Godseer does endless victorious battle with the force of evil on another plane of existence, slowly driving back the hordes of darkness that they might never again return to the world.

Both accounts agree, however, that when the tower was finally cleaned of darkness their leader had vanished. Some time after the remaining pilgrims had returned to the wastes to seek out and defeat any remaining evils that lurked, it is recorded that the tower itself burst into inferno, and stood as a glowing beacon of light for seven years. In this time, other histories tell us, not a single necromancer or bloodmage was able to channel any dark magicks into the land of the living.

In the modern day the Temple of Oraum stands somewhat divided on the status of Jacaerys the Godseer. Some of the younger and more cynical declaim it as a mere tale, Jacaerys himself the imaginary figurehead of what was actually a large and leaderless movement to end the Plague. Others still commend the Godseer as a great holy warrior. But in every temple, and especially among the smaller nightfires that burn in the continent's forgotten hamlets, there exist some who declare Jacaerys himself to have been elevated to godhood, serving as the right hand of Oraum forever and always.

In truth, perhaps the truth lies somewhere in-between.

A P P E A R A N C E

Image

Accounts as to the Godseer's appearance vary greatly, with many of the known descriptions coming from common farmhands and elders who themselves have had the stories passed down and twisted throughout the ages. In the majority of tales he is clean-shaven, but some describe a great beard -- in truth, no doubt it depended on the time at which the person actually saw Jacaerys. In any case, 'official' frescoes and statues from the Temple of Oraum depict a man of slightly above-average height and hair of medium-length, wearing a tatter of armor and robes.

All depictions agree, however, that the Godseer's eyes were a milky white, and in many cases he seemed to glow with trails of holy light.

A B I L I T I E S / E Q U I P M E N T
Lightwarden
The only canonically-recognized piece of the Godseer's equipment is Lightwarden, the great glowing mace that he took from the fires of Oraum before setting of on his great pilgrimage. It is said that the weapon gave off a great glow at all times, and the mace's head was ringed with a dozen ornately-engraved steel blades. In many accounts foul mages and necromancers were rendered temporarily blind to look on it, and any blow delivered by the weapon to the undead would cause them -- and those nearby -- to erupt into white-hot flame.

Equipment aside, there are several known and documented supernatural abilities that Jacaerys seemed to possess without any special sort of equipment. It is said that he was immune to any sort of flame, and could walk across hot coals and into infernos alike without being singed. With a touch he could heal many wounds and diseases. Two times the Godseer is recorded to have raised the dead -- once at the first village he came upon, to bring a grieving mother's infant son back to life, and the second time upon finding his most trusted friend and ally, the acolye Aelar, dead following the Battle on the Sands. In both cases, eyewitnesses agree that it took significantly more effort than your average necromancer's ritual or incantation, and left the Godseer utterly drained for some time -- though unlike your average necromancer, the revived seemed to be reasonably healthy, if a bit frail, rather than walking corpses.

Starless - Unique Fantasy RP

Very interested in this premise.

Of Mice and Men and Zombies

Are we just going to let this die, then?

Old Gods: A Tale of Monsters and Men

I'm interested, but I'll probably wait for a few more characters to get made so I can get a better sense of what's needed.

Also, where are you getting your images from?

A Song of Ice and Fire -- Interest Check

Good to see we've got a decent group going, I had my doubts. I'll give it a few more days to see if any more interest accrues, and then set up an application for people to get characters made.

A Song of Ice and Fire -- Interest Check

Yep, that was a typo -- got the two numbers switched around. Welcome aboard!

A Song of Ice and Fire -- Interest Check

That is largely up to interpretation -- literally the only mention of her is, I think, in one of the appendices. I'd imagine somewhere in the mid-twenties; everything else is up to you.

Of Mice and Men and Zombies

---

John Roberts

---

John sat on his bunk in the musty cool of the barn, frowning. He had been taking a quite refreshing nap, if he did say so himself, only to be awoken by some shouting about a maniac in the woods who had killed Clay. And as though that wasn't enough, only minutes later the radio had begun to sputter about a plague and fits of madness -- and it hadn't taken long for even the dimmest of farmhands to make the connection.

If only John hadn't been sleeping, he might have been able to take a look for himself, but by the time that he had truly been awake and alert the command had already gone out to stay shut in the bunks. John was no stranger to rabies, though in truth the disease was hardly well-known to him -- nine times out of ten, some mongrel dog would be found wandering the roads and be put out of its misery before any poor soul was bitten. Nonetheless, John had seen the disease for himself several times, and if there was anything that could inspire madness he had no doubt that rabies was a likely candidate. He'd heard stories of men killing themselves upon being bitten by a suspicious stray rather than fall prey to the disease.

Nonetheless, John had not joined the more social men in chattering about the apocalypse. He had seen worse deaths in the trenches than anything that half of the farmhands could envision, and saved men from even worse.

John considered the possibility of asking Tackett to take a look at the body of the attacker come morning, assuming that he'd not yet been buried. And with any luck, the storm would let up and the radio would begin to function again.

Shrugging, he laid down in the bunk and dozed.