The Seeds of Unrest: the Iconoclast Oracle

[beleos]

RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK

The situation is bleak.

The Blight - and the massive labyrinth of roots tearing both cities asunder, spreading deadly flowers wherever they penetrate - have progressed to a point beyond catastrophe. People are dying in rapid numbers. Bearers are having difficulty keeping up with the spread of infection - even among one another. The collapse of Kenos seems inevitable; a cure will not come in time. You can do nothing but watch as each new day brings further disaster, ticking down the seconds until it all falls apart.

And then, you feel something seize your Shard. As if physical fingers have wrapped around it, as if it is being clutched through you by invisible hands, you feel invaded. You feel wronged. But before you can panic, a voice enters your mind through Communion.

“Excuse the dramatics, but there isn’t much time for pleasantries. The Trees are about to hit the point of no return. But there's still work to be done. The Tree of Life will take you where you can find it: the Oracle and the creature causing all this mess. Fix this when you find them. However you'd like.”

Have you heard Aetos’ voice before? Perhaps it is the first time; perhaps it is familiar to you. Either way, the last thing you will remember is a confusing jumble: a spell of immense and incredible power, one utilizing the Tree’s strength to shelter you. The sensation of every cell in your body coming alive, yet seeming to break apart and render you into billions and billions of tiny pieces, all hovering in different times and places across all the different iterations, timelines, and realities in which you have ever existed. A voice that speaks not through words asking your forgiveness, unspeakably sad.

And then, there is nothing.

AWAKENING

Your eyes open, gritty with the feeling of a long, deep slumber.

Perhaps it takes a moment to shake off the heavy veil of exhaustion, to recollect what you were doing before you fell into this state of hibernation - but as soon as you do, you feel an immediate sense of foreboding around you. It is thick in the air, oppressive and pervasive, and you aren’t left long to wonder at its source. You lay beneath the branches of the Tree of Life, but as your bleary eyes focus… you see it. The Tree is all but bereft of life. Its bark has withered down to gnarled wood, the soft lichen dried up, and the grass that should be alive beneath you is long dead and gone. There is not so much as a single leaf on its decaying branches.

It has been this way for a long, long time... you realize this with a feeling of intense dread as you see it - the beautiful expanse of stars, of the cosmos, of universes scattered like starlight above the tree's boughs, gone. In its place hangs a sickly, ominously low-hanging, and dying sun ready to sing the end of everything.

You can't help but wonder how long Kenos has been in this state, but a sense of gratitude fills you as you realize that the Tree expended the last of its energies to protect you, the Bearers, during your state of rest. Had Aetos worked with the tree to see you sent here?

The next question comes quickly: how much time do you have left…? And can you find the Oracle before that time expires?

ABANDON HOPE (DAYS 1 & 2)

The cornerstones are still active and will take you to whichever city you wish to see.

Highstorm and Springstar sit like empty monuments to the cities that were once filled with life - yet the first thing you will notice is they are strangely absent the signs of the Tree’s overgrown roots, the Blight, the catastrophic damage that you can recall all too easily. Instead, each city sits as those they were summarily abandoned overnight, leaving nothing but their shells behind. There is a stillness in the air that is unnatural and unsettling. Despite the lack of any sign of the citizens of either city, you cannot help but feel… watched.

Something terrible happened here. Best you find the Oracle before something terrible finds you, instead.

The burning of a dying sun beats down on you wherever you go, unbearable heat sending waves off the aged cobblestone streets. Perhaps it is your instinct to seek refuge in the shade - but linger too long about the shadows and that feeling of eyes on your back, of being unable to breathe, of your world closing in around you will grow untenable and drive you back into the light. If you hope to explore the ghostly shell of your city in search of the Oracle - or to sate your curiosity, some problem-solving might be in order.

And while you acclimate yourself to your circumstances, you cannot help but note you feel wrong inside, somehow…

EXPLORATION

• If your characters choose to explore previously unreachable areas, please use THIS TOPLEVEL to report when they get there in the thread! We will get back to you with what is discoverable in that location.
• The following areas are off limits for exploration: below Yima’s Manor; below the Church of Heliopolis; Alenroux; Kowloon.
• The Great Trees of both Highstorm and Springstar are in a similar state to the Tree of Life and will not respond to Communion.
• Generally speaking, items will be of poor quality. Most will look as though they’ve aged thousands of years. Others will be in half-decent shape, but sparingly so. Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem like the whole city has aged at the same rate, so especially diligent rummagers can find worthwhile supplies. Please consider this should be rare and don’t go overboard!

NOTES

Here are some prompt reminders - see the full thing at the OOC Summary!

• Characters will have a diluted connection to the Zenith or Meridian.
• There will be periods powers are weakened or non-functional during days 1-2 (up to player discretion).
• The sunlight results in scorching; the shadows cause claustrophobia and fear while outdoors.

THE RITUAL (DAYS 2+)

The place you started your journey to Kenos is also where it seems it will end. As soon as the first Bearer makes contact with the Iconoclast effigy, you are collectively drawn to the roots beneath the Tree - like a pang sent through your Shard. Your objective has been found. The Oracle awaits.

Trusting Aetos seems like a fool's errand, but you must put your hope in the Tree. What choice do you have left? It's time to find what lies at the end of this.

Bearers descend, your steps echoing in the dark, cavernous space. Once brimming with life and vitality, the roots are now dried and brittle like the bones of some ancient leviathan that died long ago. As you make their way deeper into the earth, the deadened roots twist, leading you to a vast chamber deep within it; the air here is thick with the smell of decay, and the faint glow of luminescent fungi and mosses barely illuminates the space.

To your left, the Bearers will notice what has drawn them here - and the object of their search.

An effigy sits on the ground between two darkened tunnels. The effigy is made of gnarled, dead branches woven together in a humanoid shape; its hollow, empty eyes are sightless, yet you cannot help but feel it is watching your every move. Branded on its forehead is the Iconoclast symbol carved into the rough wood.

Once all Bearers are present, the Ritual will begin. Your means of exit have been sealed off, and you are trapped, slowly deteriorating together…

NOTES

• Bearers will have access to the Ritual Chamber which is a very wide, open space with the effigy situated against the far wall from the entrance. Several smaller tunnels off-shoot from the Ritual Chamber. They all run to dead ends; some are very small or narrow. This may afford you meager privacy away from the group.
• Once a Bearer steps into the Chamber, they can no longer head back out the way they came. They’ll find themselves automatically walking back into the Chamber as if of their own volition.
• For brevity’s sake we won’t list them out again here, but the complete description of effects Bearers will experience days 2+ is available in the OOC Summary.
• The effigy is impervious to damage.
• It Is Watching You.
• In a dead-end root tunnel attached to the Iconoclast’s Chamber is the Blighted statue of an Otter that may be familiar to some… Please see THIS TOPLEVEL for more information!

THE PURGE (DAYS 5+)

The sap has festered in your veins for what feels like days. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed; this place has no sunlight. The effigy watches as you remain trapped, huddled together around it, unable to leave as you find yourself sick with the affliction of the Meridian, Zenith - or both.

And then… something finally gives.

Though it does not move and speaks no words, you feel the effigy offering you guidance. Knowledge. Much like the Tree speaks to you in impressions and feelings, you are conveyed wisdom you did not have before: a way to take what you want and rid yourself of what you do not. A way to make your convictions known to all who would hear them. A way to be known. To write your path in blood, be it yours… or theirs.

When all is said and done, only one force - Zenith or Meridian - will gain its favor.

Show it who you are. Show it what resolve looks like to you - and what you are willing to do to attain it.

NOTES

Here are some prompt reminders - see the full thing at the OOC Summary!

• You can Purge your alignment through various methods: Trading, Corrupting, or using the Effigy itself.
• All characters will understand the end goal is for everyone to Harmonize; the alignment with the higher rate of Harmonized Bearers alive when time’s up wins the Oracle’s favor.

NOTES

• A reminder that the Harmonization tally will take place on Friday, the 19th and be open through Monday, the 29th. The results will be released on Wednesday, the 31st OOCly.
• Don’t forget to submit any deaths to the Death Tracker, with a gentle reminder characters will remain dead until the event conclusion!
• Reminder to fill out the SETTING POLL ASAP if you haven't already!
• Have some MUSIC if you'd like. LYRICS here!
• HAVE FUN!!

CODING

Comments

I-B

[wolof]

[ The girl speaking -- perhaps to nobody -- is what caught her attention. Ruby's voice, muffled against her knees and clothing is enough to still her slow walk, trying to do something -- perhaps expend nervous energy -- that Zenith left with her. It clung to Akua too, like a perfectly-fit glove, and the woman slowed, and knelt down beside her, before she leaned against the roots of the tree herself. Akua's own transformations are harder to note, with her skin looking more bark-like, richer and rippled like a tree's, and the dark -- almost black -- blossoms in between her braids, hellbores and hyacinths that blend in with dark curls.

She almost sounded sad, when she spoke in response. She knows she wasn't being spoken to, but...

The voice she remembered. Though Akua had played at being drunk during the Masquerade, she had remembered every word, and she had considered long and hard, of who it could have been.

It adds a layer to the girl's words when she speaks of things being different. ]

Do you truly think it cannot? [ She asked her tone without judgment. ] Why?

[appeale]

[ she should be acting. it isn't something she can drop just because she's tired or afraid; she needs to think ahead, to what comes after this and how to improve her reputation with the Meridian. even if she were with Zenith, there would be no difference, so it's absurd that its influence is making such an effort to lull her into apathetic complacency. but the memories of how wretched her existence has been, the failure of her life twice over — it makes it seem impossible to drag herself up from the depths.

it is a helpless brand of despair that permeates the Communion: what is the point of trying at all when the outcome is always the same? ]

Things just... don't go well for me.

[ conversation wasn't what she expected in response to her mutterings; caught off-guard, she quickly decides some degree of vulnerability is a better play than trying to brush it off. there isn't any rule that her character needs to be an optimist. later, she'll make up for it, play the part of the cheerful princess.

she raises her head just enough to look up at Akua through her hair with a sad smile, and although she's able to keep it out of her expression, she can't hide the bitterness colouring her mind. ]

I don't know what I did... [ a soft laugh. ] Maybe I'm cursed.

[wolof]

Cursed?

[ She asked, and it's pure curiosity that fills it. She leaned forward, almost as if she was inspecting her, as if her eyes that cannot even read High Arcana right now -- she feels like a plebian for not being able to -- could find the nature of the very curse she spoke of. ]

Curses have an aim, dear heart. A series of misfortunes, I'm afraid, is simply life, not a curse. I have met many people who are followed by misfortune, and not a one of them was cursed.

[ Sometimes, it was simply misery. It could be the story that influenced it, it could be that one stepped in the way of a villain, or it could be simply the will of the universe. Perhaps Above or Below declared one too dangerous to live. Or perhaps one was simply canon fodder. ]

It does not make it palatable, mind, but... accepting it as simply life at least means one can move to the next stage. [ A wave of her hand. ] Such as, oh, taking revenge for the misfortunes that befall you.

[ Really, she can't help herself. ]

[appeale]

[ at Akua's assertion that such a thing is the mundane unfairness of life, the Communion darkens further, thick and black as tar. although the specifics of Ruby's thoughts aren't clear through the muck, what can be understood is that she cannot be convinced; for some reason, it is fundamentally impossible to her, beyond simple belief. it is the helplessness of a trapped animal, knowing that it cannot escape. (because if it had been her first life alone, that would be one thing—but for her next to be such a perfect mirror of the same, it couldn't be coincidence. there's a cycle here that she will never be able to break no matter how many times she repeats it.)

her expression is harder to read than her thoughts: she looks at Akua with a dull, tired gaze. ]

I've never wanted revenge on anyone. I just want to live. [ it's a bleak sentiment, not born of real desire or joy for life. ] I think I must have done something wrong in a past life, or I wasn't... born good. God is punishing me for something. That's all I can think of.

[ that's what Zenith is seizing on, what her sister's voice is murmuring so sweetly about, but Rudbeckia knows better. whatever new world they create, she will live out the same wretched existence once again. she's comforted herself with the thought that she would rather suffer than die, but... ]

[wolof]

The Gods can punish --

[ She hedged, but shook her head, even so. It's...sad. To see someone so caught up in the misfortune, that in Akua's estimation, she will never break that chain, and step outside of it. Ruby should, she thinks, step outside of whatever cycle she's found herself in. Everyone should. It is difficult, she knows -- oh, how Akua knows -- but the gods Above and Below were not for punishment beyond the moment. The Great Game continued, and if souls were not simply lost to oblivion, and were reborn as some believed...

Why would they bother with punishment, when there were so many other things to deal with? ]

Though why would they? You're clearly doing the work for them.

[ It's not... sharp, though... her tone is a touch harder, though not quite sharp, or accusing. ] The gods so rarely intervene directly, dear.

I would know.

[appeale]

[ "doing the work for them"? all that despair goes still and placid, Ruby's mind wiped completely blank—and then it rises up in a sudden flash of incandescent fury, scorching her lungs and licking up her throat. it's not directed at Akua, not with any such precision; it seems more like the manner in which a wounded animal snaps its teeth at anyone reaching out to save it. appropriately, the laughter that wrenches itself from Ruby is a bark: ]

—Ha! So it's my fault? I'm just not trying hard enough? Of course, anything is possible if you just take things into your own hands and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, is that it?

[ Akua wants her to think that there is no such cycle, and yet here she is, saying the exact same thing that Rudbeckia has heard so many dozens of times before in her lives. any time she finally broke down and begged for help, that was the reason she never received it from even the kindest and most well-meaning souls. people love to tell her that she can change her own life, that she's wallowing in self-pity, that God helps those who help themselves. she's so fucking tired of hearing it.

but the cool waters of Zenith's energy douse her anger, and even the embers fade out. although her bitter smile remains, the spark is gone from Ruby's gaze. ]

It doesn't matter. There are things I've been through that can't— [ she swallows ] can't be explained any other way. Maybe it's not like that where you come from, but for me...

[ in this frenzied state of Communion, even their opposing Aspects are able to connect with enough clarity that Akua sees a memory through Rudbeckia's eyes – through the eyes of a child, her knuckles sore and marked by red welts, hands trembling as she holds them out under a teacher's cold stare. God punishes liars, █████, she is told, and she knows without doubt that it is true. even now, the knowledge is rooted deep in her heart. do good, and be rewarded; do bad, and be punished. and she tried, but there is a stain on her soul that simply will not wash out. ]

And it's happening again now. Everything here is the same.

[ that helpless feeling that surrounds Rudbeckia is inescapable, someone who lives every day with the awareness of a guillotine hanging over their head and nowhere to go that it won't follow. ]

[wolof]

Is it?

[ She asks. The phantom feeling of pain on her knuckles reverberates through her, from the communion, from the memory of being punished for lying. Really? For lying? She almost snorts, for a Praesi would not be caught lying, and it would be their own fault to accept the consequences if they were. That would be punished, not the lie itself, but she'd heard of other places, like the House of Light, where they punished children from lying, for deceiving, for doing what they should not, and she knows that it happens.

She does not, however, feel much sympathy. It does not reverberate through communion like that, only... somewhere between disdain, and fury, as if she is angry that the girl lets this happen.

Because she does. She can talk of bootstraps all she wants, and the story does punish those too weak to continue -- or even for no reason at all. To become a teacher is to inspire a new hero, and die. To be a lover is to be killed, and die. There are a myriad of ways to simply be killed off by the story, or tortured, or whatever.

It was simply fact. Not something to bemoan. It is not personal, it is... simply what it is. There is no... value judgement from the pattern of creation, no good or bad in that. It happens to Good and Evil alike. She does not know what it is to blame the universe for such punishment, or to experience such misfortune. Akua Saehlian has never allowed things to happen to her. ]

It is nobody's fault, dear. You ascribe punishment, but are you not despairing for this punishment you have for... so little?

At least do something to deserve it, if you think it is deserved. [ Her smile is sharp, knowing. ] If the universe wants to punish you, why not dosomething to deserve it. At least you will enjoy the experience far more than simply... living like this.

[ Pity, that's what the sense is, through communion. It's pity. ]

[appeale]

[ this is the problem with their Communion in the state it is, uncontrolled and bleeding out – Akua can say aloud that the fault lies with no one, and yet Rudbeckia feels it herself, that contempt, the scorn directed towards her for "allowing" herself to become this way as if there was no cruel hand, no wretched and unending nightmare that shaped her. as though she has any real power to change it. she feels the pity devoid of sympathy or understanding: simply condescension. Ruby has never liked to make assumptions on what others may have suffered through in their life, but this woman—even if she's been through hardship, this is someone who has never known victimhood. helplessness, abandonment, desperation... surely they must just be words on a page to Akua Sahelian.

in return, though Ruby's thoughts have become murky with the intensity of her muddled emotions, a roiling and suffocating tar pit, what Akua will feel and know instinctively from Communion is this: what she intended to be the precision cut of a scalpel may as well have been carving at Rudbeckia with a butcher's cleaver. whether she means kindness by her cruelty, or a lesson to be taught, the only thing her words are achieving on Rudbeckia is harm. she is not a child stubbornly refusing to take her medicine; she is a bleeding, gasping thing, body riddled with arrows.

but none of this is expressed by Ruby herself. she looks at Akua with a dull, weary gaze and she thinks: Why did I try to explain? What good comes from knowing the details? You're supposed to be better than that, idiot. the Zenith influence coursing through her had fooled her, tried to convince her that she could shed that weight and start anew, but she shouldn't have listened. ah, that's right – as much as her words had sparked that anger in Ruby, it's really no fault of Akua. Ruby shouldn't have tried to speak in the first place when she knows better; she wouldn't be scolded if she could just get it right. ]

Because I'm a coward. [ it is a frank, shameless admission spoken in exhaustion. there's no defiance in her expression, and her words are not meant as a defence. she still hasn't moved at all from her place in the dirt, curled up as small as she can make herself. ] Signora, the only thing I want to do is survive. I'm not a greedy person; I know my place.

[ and she is well aware that place will not change; not in her past life, the present, or the future. ]

If my existence is so pathetic to you, then please simply overlook it. I'll try very hard not to be an eyesore in the future.

[wolof]

[ Akua looks down on her with golden eyes that could almost flash in low light, for she can feel this mire, this tangled mess that is like burrs and vines, so complicated and wound up that the girl is practically trapped within the tangle of it. Her precision is not as accurate as she would like -- perhaps it would be better, if it were not for the fact that she could not Appraise the girl like she would wish -- but her instincts had normally been well tuned and crafted.

But Akua was used to dealing with Named individuals. People who took one look at the state, and made a promise to enact their will on the world, a promise of action and to seek power, and thus the Gods Below would bend Creation itself to the will of such individuals. She is from a world where Good and Evil are balanced forces, and to be Cursed is to have a Monicker that Means something. A Bestowal of power upon the good, and a Damnation of eternal hunger for the Evil, but they often had their own victories.

She has ran for too long with people who looked at the fact that Evil Will Always Lose, and determined that it was not acceptable, and changed the fate of Calernia itself. She does not know what to do with cowing, or bowing to the powers that be. She has spent too long with Challengers that those who need a softer touch are not...truly someone she knows what to do with.

That had always been the sort of thing Catherine was better with. Forcing people to fall within her influence easily, like it was nothing.

She only smiled, a hint of teeth, a touch sharp. She does not back off, for that would be admitting defeat, and what Praesi admits defeat -- short of being murdered, and shoved into your killer's coat? ]

I wonder what value the tree of life would see in someone like you, if it did not think you would be able to overcome such... misfortune.

If your only goal is survival, perhaps you are best suited to Zenith? In my experience, they are well-known for fighting only for themselves, and what they want.