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

[bakedapple]

[ Echoing against the recesses of his soul, transferred inadvertently through the heightened Communion that exists here below the dead Tree, Link hears it too. He feels it, that single, simple concept that carries a sentiment just as applicable to his world as it was to John's. The world is always ending.

The world is always ending.

Every time the Calamity had been defeated, it was not a true defeat. It was simply a resetting of the clock. A gift of peace to many lucky generations of Hyrule, paid for in the blood of the unlucky generation born around Ganon's subsequent reawakenings. A cycle that has gone on for tens of thousands of years in his world, each colossal disaster erasing hundreds of years of prosperity and wiping clean the slate of written history.

This concept hits him so hard, and so suddenly, and yet resonates with him so thoroughly as the truth, that Link nearly finds himself physically reeling from it. He's still blinking, reaching up with his shard-bearing hand to lay over his heart in an instinctive gesture of disquiet, as John continues to talk. Somehow, he manages to listen through the roar of the Zenith blazing within his Shard, his words acting like a gallon of gasoline thrown into the flames. ]

No. No, the... the Goddess wouldn't let that happen.

[ But even as he says that, he knows that it isn't true. Or, maybe it could be, but it's certainly not something that can be said with confidence. After all, the Calamity happened in the first place. More horrifying is the thought that what John is talking about has already happened. Hyrule is gone. They'd failed. If it never comes back, then... that was that. Ganon prevailed in the end, before the end. ]

You... [ He takes a ragged breath. ] Why are you saying these things?

[eyesite]

( it is the natural state of existence to decay — this is the natural law of entropy. ironically, once the Fears had finally gotten their way and rushed into the physical world to claim it as their own, this is one of the first laws that they had undone. almost universally ignorant of past and future, they sought to make the present eternal. a constant, ceaseless state of terror and pain for those lives trapped in the fabric of their domains which, of course, transcribed to a constant feast of fear for the Dread Powers and those avatars that carried out their will. but even in a world as twisted as john's, there is always something which places its hand upon the scale to cause things to slowly trend towards finality. for him, it had been Terminus, the End, the Fear of inevitable, inexorable Death. those that made their way through its domains did die, permanently, freed from the wheel that all the others would be tied to.

and when one of Terminus' domains was emptied of lives? what then? well, they could not be left fallow, so they would have individuals transferred to them from the other Fears'. and one day, so far into the future it's hard to even define it, they would be entirely barren. all the lives of Earth would have finally been spent, and the Fears would be left to riot and starve in their absence, trapped for all eternity. perhaps then, the End would have its last feast, feeding from the animal horror of its siblings.

one day, even Hell would end.

one day, kenos would too. they've now seen the proof.

john laughs, though it's a wounded and broken shard of a sound. ) In all my time recording and researching the statements of those who have encountered the supernatural, I've never once been given a statement of a miracle. If there are gods and goddesses... they either don't interfere, or they can't.

( gods and goddesses walk among them here on kenos. how can link think that they might be any less powerless than they are?

john has long since stopped wasting his time thinking of such things. he had once hoped (perhaps even gone so far as to consider praying) that there were "good" entities, diametrically opposed to the Fears, which could be relied upon to combat them. there aren't. just as it is in life, it is a matter of those that feed and those that are fed upon. faith and miracles have nothing to do with it.

he doesn't intend on hurting link. later, he will regret it. but it is the shameful, foolish nature of someone in pain to lash out and try to drag others with them — for a drowning man to thrash and cling to those also fighting for their own lives so they might both sink to the depths. )

Because they're the truth.

( regardless of whether or not that's true, he speaks with ironclad conviction. )

Because I have never seen, read, or felt anything to convince me otherwise.

[bakedapple]

[ At the edges of Link's perception, a harrowing darkness starts to enclose around him. It is quiet and gentle, but it encroaches without permission, unceremonious in its intent to snuff the last of the Meridian from his soul. His Shard, normally warm to the touch, feels freezing cold, prickling the skin on the back of his hand. Where his palmis laid over his heart, it saps the body heat underneath it — but no, it is not absorbing that heat, but obliterating it outright.

The state of his mind is just as grave. A voice — his own voice — wails sorrowfully that John is right, that Hyrule, and all worlds, and this world too, are all doomed. The young Hylian has seem immeasurable loss in his short yet unnaturally long life, and every ounce of it the seed for a pound of grief. That grief is greater than any burden the Goddesses could have saddled him with. A responsibility for the deaths of countless victims, the enslavement of the ghosts of his friends, and one hundred years of suffering by his princess. Saving Hyrule has been about his redemption, just as much as it was ever about saving his people — but he will never find the redemption he seeks, will he. Even if he did, it would all fall apart eventually. It would all trend towards collapse and disaster.

What's the point of fighting to survive if you will always lose in the end?

The last of his hope is vanishing fast, like an ice cube thrown into a blaze. Only a few more seconds and it would be completely burnt away, replaced by the brand of the Zenith on his soul. But then, cutting through the miasma, is a sharp, horrible pain in his hand. His other hand. Like a screeching alarm clock, it interrupts the spiral long enough for Link's mind to come up for air, just long and barely enough for him to look down at the searing pain. In his hand, his other hand, is the sharp rock he'd picked up for the purpose of drawing his blood for the Trade. He was squeezing his hand so hard that arrow-like point of the stone was driven deep into his palm and now scrapes against his metacarpals.

Gasping, he drops the rock. Gooey, viscous, blood-colored sap begins to ooze uncontrollably from the deep wound. Staring down, watching the foreign compound bleed from his body, gives him a strange and new kind of clarity. This, he knows. Pain and injury. The fear of another death, of becoming permanently disabled in some way such that he could never complete his goals. This hand is his sword hand. He needs this hand. What would he do if he couldn't hold a sword anymore?

What would he do. How would he spend his days. What would he look forward to? And this is the core flaw with the Zenith, at least insofar as it has any application in Link's life. If he were to abandon Hyrule, to stop caring about its fate, then he would essentially abandon the meaning of his very life. He would have no reason to go on, no reason to care about any world, including the new world promised by Yima. If there is "no point" in trying to save his home, there is no point in trying to make a new one either. Because if all of it is pointless then all of it is pointless.

A glowing warmth suddenly rushes back into his Shard. Taken by a sudden panic, Link jumps to his feet, clutching his right hand in his left. He turns and stares down at John with wide, intense eyes. ]

What was that? What did — what are you trying to do to me?

[ He's stunned, angry, hurt, and betrayed. John had just tried to corrupt him, hadn't he? To force himself into Link's soul. To change his mind, to hurt him. His other emotions give way to his anger now. Very few things make the level-headed and mild-mannered Hero openly, visibly angry. Betrayal is one of those things, and at the moment, he is feeling very betrayed. ]

How dare you. How dare you try to... lead me astray...!