Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like 12 years ago 2010-ish!
I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.
I can’t decide on what kind of character I want to make damnit!
How does one even decide on this crap?!
I start by choosing one trait and then defining an entire persona around just that one grossly exaggerated part of a personality. See: Zephyrion's pride, Xos' bouts of murderous rage, etc.
It's an approach that makes interesting (albeit perhaps not entirely relatable or realistic) characters. Now that I bring this up, I'm interested in what you guys think about this approach to character creation.
Did Zephyrion actually use Liquid Light in lamps? It's possible that I've forgotten, but I seem to recall him only having been given one small vial by Astarte. He zealously guarded and hid that gift for a while before eventually using some of its magic to make Ventus and the djinn.
(@Kho HA! That finally solves the plot hole of how djinn don't have souls and yet Ventus was givdn somd soul magic by Astarte's rock. Ventus is exception because he was one of those origignal few born from Zeph's own power and some liquid light)
@Kho The simple solution for that is for Teknall to save Vetros like he saved most of the rest of Galbar from the Realta.
Seriously, though, Teknall wouldn't tolerate Vetros being obliterated. He'll take over management if Zephy and Ventus are unable.
<Snipped quote by LokiLeo789>
Yes, although technically the Grotlings don't get to choose what enchantment they get (which, thinking about it, is even more like Minecraft).
By all means, he should get involved. Y'Qar ran off into the jungles with the King's Law (or did the King's Law run off into the jungles with Y'Qar?) which leaves Akthanos mostly powerless to stop the Realta. I was going to have Heru grab the thing from his brother and run back really fast to just barely make it in time, but I'd rather write about stupid ogre things. You and Kho can do whatever; I might eventually circle back to that half done Heru plotline and do some flashbacks.
All of this occurs before Ventus' death, so Ventus would likely be there too. He could destroy a couple of Realta fairly easily.
I made a big deal a while back about how I was going to wrap things up and then bail since the start of my busiest year of university coincided with the coup in which Kho and the Australians seized my oh-so-coveted Co-GM status.
But things are a bit more stable now and it'd take ages to wrap stuff up to the point where I'd be content to just wipe off my hands and go, so I'll just abandon any notions of quitting.
I'll try to keep a trickle of maybe a post or collab every month or so. And maybe I'll do more ogre stuff.
Fun fact: An object weighing a few tonnes travelling at a couple times the speed of light will hit a planet with explosive force about halfway between that of the Tsar Bomb and the Chicxulub asteroid, on a log scale.
Wat? No. Allow me to explain in Elvish so that BBeast doesn't have to.
For an object of any mass to achieve the speed of light you need to apply an infinite amount of energy. To achieve multiple times the speed of light, we'd need multiple infinities (infinity being henceforth denoted by the variable banana, ) of energy.
So this brings us to calculate that the object's Force (F) = mass (We'll round to 6000kg because Jvan is a fat whale of girl) multiplied by acceleration.
Because the asteroid is travelling at a constant speed several times that of light and has no Delta-V, our value for acceleration is 0. Since we started with the claim that this object has infinite energy, we go back around with our circular (and highly waterproof) logic to fill in the variables. = (6000kg)*(0m/s^2).
We now check out answer by dividing by 0. How many zeroes can you fit into a banana? I bet you can fit about 6000 in there, so our answer must be correct.
As I dislike editing I'd prefer to just say whoops. I think that the mention of a "skeleton" is poor wording in hindsight, but it could refer to armor instead of literal bone. There is at leat some mention of metal fragments.
Or Kyre could have just changed forms sometime.
Is it a big enough deal to justify a retcon and edit?
A sort of sentience had been enchanted into the very marble and alabaster that made up the walls. The visitor's arrival had awakened dormant magic and the white palace seemed to gleam ever brighter in exuberance and anticipation, thinking that it recognized a familiar presence.
It took only a moment to pierce the thin veil of that false familiarity. Behind the shroud was something alien and terrifying.
Xos suspended itself in the airy space of a portal as it manifested, and then remained there motionless for a few instants thereafter. The Shade's presence hanged in the air with a crushing weight, like the sight of a headsman's axe looming over the neck of the condemned.
The Celestial Citadel waited, and trembled.
Like a specter, the visitor drifted through the window and descended to the floor with all the grace and eerie silence of a shadow. It advanced down a long corridor, walking without footsteps. At the end of the hallway was a spiral staircase that seemed to know no end. Xos looked up the path to the uppermost spire, and then it turned around to eye a small bird that fluttered in a window. A totally featureless and inexpressive visage stared at the bird with dead eyes, and then it was suddenly gone.
Xos reappeared in the chamber at the very top of that spiral staircase. Within the room was a great construct surrounding a small mirror, and into the glass's all-seeing depths there stared an ancient djinni. In a strange paradox, the mirror's reflection was that of itself. The Vizier stared at the image of that room with Xos and himself through the mirror, even as the spectre slowly glided through the air and towards the djinni's turned back.
Ventus at last turned around to face the Shade and behold it with his own eyes, no glassy haze or detached view to shelter him from the withering presence of that being. Xos stared, and Ventus met the gaze with a leveled sight that showed neither fear nor confusion. Never before had any being looked upon him in that way; there had been fear even in Kyre's eyes. Even Zephyrion cowered before him, though of course Xos acted as if he were blind to such things.
Nonetheless, it was perturbing now that such a lesser being seemed so impossibly stoic. Perhaps the Vizier had some sort of trick. Or perhaps he was either too foolish or too brave (as if there was a difference!) to succumb to terror's grasp.
"Have you nothing to say? Nowhere to flee?"
"Here is my home and my place, so here I remain. With the eyes of God I looked ahead, and I know that there was nowhere to flee."
"So you know what comes next?"
A solemn silence followed.
"Every fork in your path leads to fire."
"There is beauty in a burning world. But I am not here to discuss my fate."
"No," the Vizier agreed.
"I am here to reclaim the Sky's Throne and punish your theft."
"Theft?"
The shadow surged forward with unimaginable speed and seized the Vizier in a merciless grasp, holding the writhing djinni lord against the wall. "What other word describes what you have done? You have stolen divine power, and for such a crime the retribution will be horrible," Xos began. As Ventus struggled, words could not escape him. "How will you plead for mercy with my hand around your throat?"
A blinding flash of golden light erupted from the Ventus. A godly force slammed into Xos, and though it lacked the force to beat back the shade, it did allow the djinni to writhe free. Ventus dissipated into a mist and coalesced back into a form. It was one of flesh and solid constitution, with all the regality and fortitude befitting of a god.
In his thousands of years upon Galbar, not even Zephyrion had ever mastered his inner turmoil and chaotic form enough to take on more than a misty facade of something else. And Xos was immutable, locked into the shape of the one that had first cast the shadow. When Ventus transformed it showed that he was nearly a god--apotheosis was surely close, and in a way he was already superior.
It drove Xos into a wild rage.
By this time the other djinn about the Celestial Citadel had sensed something amiss, and a hundred whirlwinds billowed through windows and up the stairwells. Without a moment's hesitation the Zephyrean Skywatch moved to strike at the Vizier's assailant, but Xos annihilated them with no more effort than a man puts into batting an eyelash. They were all pulled into the dark maelstrom that was his body, obliterated by a force powerful beyond their comprehension.
He advanced towards Ventus, but the djinni raised a hand. Rather than strike at Xos, he struck at the air.
A portal was torn open, and out from it flowed an unending tide of primal magic and energy. Ventus directed all of that power at Xos in the hopes of overwhelming the maddened entity, but little did the Vizier know that his foe was born in the very realm behind that portal. That energy that would have drowned other gods was utterly powerless against Xos; nay, it energized him. With an outstretched hand, Xos blocked the beam of chaotic and flashing magic.
"Power," the shadow spoke, his words cutting through the roar of enough magic to tear a world asunder, "belongs to those that can wield it."
From out his other hand he redirected that beam of magic, the vibrant hue of metamorphosed into an ineffable black. The beam of raw destructio struck Ventus with a force that shook the sky. The stone of the Celestial Citadel heaved and groaned as the structure was blwon apart, the bottom half separating from the upper tower and cascading down to the ground below.
Xos willed shut the Vizier's portal to the Mechanism of Change, then searched through the debris for his foe. There was nothing left.
With a satisfied breath, he stabilized the sundered tower and willed it to ascend further. From above he looked down on Galbar. The shade cast a long shadow from so high above; the shadow of a shadow was dark and dreadful indeed.
Far below, Ventus fell alongside the monumental pieces of white stone that had been a part of Zephyrion's palace. With one hand he clutched the open void in his body where the shade's magic had struck; it was a grievous wound. A mortal one.
...
It was silent and tranquil, so far above the world. Ventus looked down and saw the Mahd and Vetros below, for one last time. He smiled, but then shifted his body to drift another way.
Away, away from man and god to the wild woods seldom trod, the deepest wilderness, the sweetest oasis Where a soul needn't silence its inner music.
He came to land at the foot of a great tree amidst a dell, at the side of a winding rill. There he had his serenity--almost. Two djinn looked on from afar.
"O, thanks be unto the world-- the tyranny of wind is at end, but weep for the Father, his first son is dead."
"Peace. He is not gone, merely roused from his slumber; awoken from the dream that was life."
Xos' manifestation in the Celestial Citadel brings an irrepressible air of dread, but Vizier Ventus saw the Shade's in the True Mirror and is unafraid Sensing the presence of an invader, the Zephyrean Skywatch*** come to accost Xos Even together they are hopelessly outmatched by a god, obliterated by a power beyond their comprehension Ventus demonstrates divine power; he is upon the verge of apotheosis. Xos confronts him about his stealing Zephyrion's power The Vizier taps into the Mechanism of Change and tries to unleash a torrent of energy upon Xos A storm of chaotic and primal energy that would have maimed most gods is a breeze too weak to even rustle Xos' robes; he says, "Power belongs to those that can wield it." He then kills Ventus with the very magic that Ventus attempted to bear against him The Celestial Citadel is sundered by the collateral damage and falls to the ground far below.
***A holy order established by Vizier Ventus some time before; they consist of numerous powerful djinn including Murmur and Basheer, and guarded the Celestial Citadel when they were not needed for other tasks
In the fashion of Kho, I shall disclaim that the poetry at the end was inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like [s]12 years ago[/s] 2010-ish!
I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.
[center]Word of my splendor:[/center]
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[hider=My fellow monarch's response][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-a418-774f-a117-1ae23ac670fd.webp[/img][/hider]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like <span class="bb-s">12 years ago</span> 2010-ish!<br><br>I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.<br><br><div class="bb-center">Word of my splendor:</div><br><div class="hider-panel"><div class="hider-heading"><button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-xs hider-button" data-name="My messenger's letter">My messenger's letter [+]</button></div><div class="hider-body" style="display: none"><img src="https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-4706-75b9-bfe5-fd4ef6737466.webp" /></div></div><br><div class="hider-panel"><div class="hider-heading"><button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-xs hider-button" data-name="My fellow monarch's response">My fellow monarch's response [+]</button></div><div class="hider-body" style="display: none"><img src="https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-a418-774f-a117-1ae23ac670fd.webp" /></div></div></div>
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) of energy.