Invisible

Starless

Got a really short post up. It'll get me to all the action.

Starless

The Great Journey and a Promise

Khavo the Grey, you’ve done as Goethia has wished. You have brought me a weapon which shall aid me in the battles which are sure to come.

Pricia stood in still as she pulled the staff from its resting place. With a single movement, Pricia twirled the staff’s core around her hand. The twirl quickly became a swing as a powerful gust of wind blew all signs of dust, ash, and leaves back outside. The inner hall seemed much brighter now that it was gone and Pricia could almost remember a time when the hall looked brand new and full of life….



“Welcome to your new home young one! This is the Great Temple to Goethia and you, as one of her blessed, are more than welcome here.” said the Head Priest who was silhouetted by the fire burning in the center of the Main Hall. It was a tremendous thing for one so young to see when all that had been known by her before was the rough stones of a castle. The clean, crisp cuts of the marble stone floors and the pillars seemingly made from trees which had grown into the Monastery itself. “Ah, I see you are amazed by how clean it is in here. You thought it would be a simple little wooden structure with dirt floors did you not? Don’t deny it, Goethia hates liars above all else and loves the beauty that is nature. But even she agrees that there are things humans can do better than Nature has.” responded the Head Priest to the look of amazement and disbelief on Pricia’s face.



The hallways were empty except for the remains of candles which had long ago gone out. Cobwebs covered many of the corners of the hallways and many of the closed doorways. Only a few beds had been used in the living quarters but it was obvious that nobody but Khavo had lived there in a while. But, Pricia couldn’t mope about how the Monastery has degraded over the year. It was obvious that something was wrong in the world if such vile creatures such as skeletons had invaded the lands. She must get to the Great Bastion even if it meant flying for a day to get there. It wasn’t long before the young woman known as Pricia was flying through the skies over the forest, her destination was northeast and she had plenty of time to dwell on her thoughts.

Home of mine and many others, I swear upon the Goddess who once guarded your grounds that I will come back. I will return you to your glory. Pricia said to herself as she flew quickly out of the forests, her staff between her eagle talons.

Starless

I am back all. Sorry for the disappearance, been working till 12pm nearly every night and going to school so I hadn't found time until now to get back on here. I'll be working on getting a post up soon.

Edit: I'll also be reading what is new. The post should finish up Pricia's time in the Monastery. I'll have her explore and have flashbacks to her time there Transience. Unless you have more combat planned, I am just going to have her find how empty and decrepit the monastery is. Perhaps have her realize that the Priest she buried was just one of a very few who still followed the dead Goethia.

Starless

Well, my internet explorer was being a derp and wouldn't allow me to come on the Guild. So I installed chrome specifically to get back on here. Anyway, going to read the posts now and get a post up some time later.

Starless

By the Gods! Are you implying that Ellarian is the Chuck Norris of Ansus?
_{Cause it is probably true.}

Starless

Got some combat, kindness, and flashbacks posted.

Starless

Foul Defilers and the Anger of a Hero

Beasts, nay beasts weren’t fitting for the monsters before her. They were monsters and they had brought death to the Monastery she had called a home for many years. Even in her anger, Pricia would not give these monsters an easy death by allowing them to die at the hands of her transformation. She wanted to feel the bones break and shatter under the forces of her own body and that is exactly what she would do. As the skeletons advanced upon her, Pricia ducked a sword swing and swung a leg under in a sweep to knock down the skeletons. The first of the two fell for the attack while the second hopped away quickly. Pricia took this chance to stomp on the skeleton’s leg bones, shattering them after two hits. The creature screeched in agony and tried to crawl away only for Pricia to grab its sword and stab through the creatures rib cage, pinning it to the position it was in.

The second skeleton watched on in silent study of its adversary as she fought the first skeleton. It watched as she tore the first’s arm out of socket and ended the battle by tearing the monster’s head off and cast it aside. The squirming of the first skeleton had stopped a while before but the young hero had been in such a rage at those who dared defiled the Monastery. It was also sorrow which had taken over Pricia at this point as she remembered looking at the pyre which sat in the center of the large hall. She recalled a lesson which she had been taught early on in her days at the Monastery.



”You see this fire young one?” asked her Mentor as she walked into the hall.

“Yes Master, it is very big and pretty.” responded Pricia.

“Oh, quite good. I am sure the Goddess likes you quite well. This fire is the Great Fire of Goethia. As long as this fire burns, Goethia is alive and well. If the fire dies, it means Goethia’s powers have left the world. It will be a sad day for all those who rely on the protection of Goethia should she die. It is our job to keep watch of this fire and do anything possible to make sure it burns. When you grow old one day, you will come back here and tend the fire like I do.” said the woman.



Pricia stared at the second skeleton who now eeked out a sort of chuckle at the young woman. It had observed Pricia’s fight with the first and wouldn’t fall for any tricks this time. But it wasn’t tricks which she was going to use against the skeleton. Instead, Pricia grabbed onto the wrists of the skeleton when it tried to swing its blade at her. In a single movement, the young hero ripped the hands of the skeleton. She took the bone blade from its hand and started to smack the blunt of the blade against the monster of bones. Many bones cracked and almost shattered but Pricia finished the creature by knocking its head off. With the battle over, Pricia walked over to the hanging Priest. She knew not who he was nor how long he had been here but not even he deserved to hang there for the rest of the times his body would last.

Pricia walked outside carrying the body of the Priest and went back in to grab the bones of the skeletons, even a monster deserves a burial. For about thirty minutes Pricia worked to dig the graves and placed them gently inside each grave. She refilled the graves and stood over them for a short moment. ” Sleep well, Protector of the Fire of Goethia. Live well in the afterlife knowing that you’ve done what you can to Protect our Goddess. Ye monsters of the dark and killers of man. May your soul rest well in the afterlife even if you didn’t earn it in the living.” Pricia said before walking inside the monastery. There was a chest at the end of the hall which she cautiously approached. She knew not what was inside but the young hero would try to open it and see what artifacts might be inside it.

Starless

@Invisible What should we do about the deities of Pricia and Ki'ira actually. Cause well one is the Queen of the wilds and the other the Fox goddess. Any special relation we should decide on? Or we shall just keep it that each was just minding their own business?

@rivaan

Hmm, it is possible that they have some relation to each other. After all, Tavra is the Goddess of Nature and then Goethia is the Goddess of the Wilds. The only real way to explain why one exists while the other does is that they have a sort of story between each other. My thoughts are that Tavra created separate beings to rule over separate aspects of Nature and only really watches over them. As such, Goethia was created by Tavra to rule over the wilds giving her the name of the Queen of the Wilds as it would be in the pantheon rather than the Goddess of the Wilds. As such, it is possible that Goethia saw a particular liking in the foxes of the world and their cunning and decided to that they needed a separate being rule over them. Thus, it is quite possible that Goethia created the Fox Goddess.

All of this is open to discussion as we once again get back to the matter of a single Pantheon or multiple Pantheons. It does get kind of difficult for us to work out the relations of Gods and Goddesses to each other if we have yet to determine the Pantheons.

Starless

My two cents on that matter: I feel like we should account for heterodoxy and alternate religions altogether. My personal preference to setting mythology is an approach of "everything is true, and nothing is true." When religions and myth becomes accurate description of cosmology and history, it loses what differentiated it from science and study. Not trying to sound like I'm wearing a particular oft-ridiculed hat, but religion is truest when it is the best efforts of people to explain why the world is the way it is. Not that "true" cosmologies cannot be good or interesting, as the Elder Scrolls has an utterly fascinating and well-constructed mythos. Mostly because it draws from real religions such as Hindu and Gnosticism.

@Dead Cruiser

Hmm, I would indeed have to agree here. I feel that some of our Gods would be from separate religions. They all would exist on the same plane and there may be a few who's power's collide which I'm sure could be reasoned into the way the world was formed in an overall view. As you have stated though, I feel as if each separate religion should have a different way to explain why and how the world is the way it is now. There would just be an sort of story woven from the separate creations stories which would tell how the world formed. Though, it may just be better to keep them separate. Anyway, on to the main reason I believe that some of our Gods are from separate religions. To begin we must cast an eye at the opening post of our dear GM where his/her character is sitting a star filled space which is virtually empty. Now we look at my character.

Pricia is found in a lush forest in night time after her death and, quite like Ansur's empty plane, time has no real presence here as mere seconds can pass thousands of years. Meanwhile, Ellarian and Altim sit in a plane similar to Ansur's. Why would Pricia's plane be any different than the other's? Sure you could explain that each plane is a space in which the dead heroes see only which they want to see but I prefer the answer the some Gods rule over a space similar to others while others don't. Goethia, for example, rules over a plane of the after life which looks almost like a forest at night time and only those who she favor's have been allowed into it. She could very well be from a separate pantheon than the other Gods and manifests her plane of the after life in a separate fashion than others do as a part of this. Anyway, this is just my ranting on the idea of separate pantheons for the night.

Starless

I propose that we divide the Pantheon into 7 ranks of gods, the highest being the oldest and strongest and the lowest being the youngest and weakest. These ranks will be divided into what I call the Vanguards.

The First Vanguard contains the gods who existed from the beginning of time—or perhaps transcended it. They include Tael, Novissah, Faerthus, and Andurias (Perhaps? Depends on his role, which I do not know). I don't know if any of the other gods fit into the First Vanguard, but that hinges more on the importance of specific elements and how they govern the universe.

Thoughts on the proposal? Any idea what the prime elements that control every aspect of the universe are, perhaps? I know thus far that Time and Wisdom/Knowledge must be in that highest level because we're talking about stuff that's everywhere—all of those things are infinite and have an effect on things.

Maybe I'm just rambling, this might be a silly idea that we don't need to elaborate since I know it's not intrinsic to the plot, but I feel like it would fill some gaps in our knowledge.

@ravenDivinity

Lore is always important. We may not need any of this but is does seem like these Gods and Goddesses do deserver different rankings.

Edit:

The Goddess Goethia

Goethia, Goddess of the Wilds

”O Queen of the Wilds, Protector of They Who Walk the Forests, we plead to thee to protect us and provide for us as we venture into Wilds. We wish not intrude on your territory except to take what we need and leave. This is our offering and our payment to you, Goethia.” - The Ritual of Protection by Priestess Nastarine of Goerale

The Wilds are a dangerous place for the common travel as they filled with beast which hunger and know nothing of the wiles of man nor fear their coming. If one fails to perform the ritual to Goethia, it is unlikely that your ventures into the Wilds are likely to come back with nothing more than the smallest rabbit. The Goddess will have considered your act a transgression against her and all she stands for. As such, you should be careful when entering the forests again after this otherwise one may face her anger. And the anger of the Goddess of the Wilds is not anything to be toyed with. The being known as Goethia is quite like the lands which she rules over. She’s quick to anger and quick to calm. She can be violent like a summer storm or gentle like an autumn breeze.

She occasionally grants those who she particularly fancies or finds interest in the Mark of the Wild. The powers granted by these Marks can vary from Shapeshifting to the control of creatures of the Wilds. Only a select few have ever been blessed by Goethia with her presence and a gift from her. The Pendant of Safe Passage is a tooth attached to string which acts as a permanent form of blessing which allows the wearer to pass through the Wilds without fearing the creatures within. A pendant is just one of many artifacts given by Goethia which have been lost over the ages. Hidden deep in the Western Forests is the Monastery of Goethia which can only really ever been found by those who have been there before. Within lies her fire which has burned for thousands of years. It is unknown if it burns still.