Mokley

Lantern

OK DID IT! xD

I defer any confusion to the first page of this OOC.

Lantern

"You all must be very weary of this death," She stated warmly. "Come with me, and I will free you of this prison as soon as I am capable." She then pulled in the wave of willpower in a focused attempt to create a vacuum effect and possibly absorb them. "Join with me. Help me free the Light." Her voice was a soft whisper, but it carried an incredible amount of weight.

The gray forms flashed and flickered, faceless, watching her, but they did not move. The light of the candles passed through them, indecisive. A dark, undulating mass of shadow pulsed where their hearts should have been, squeezing and expanding as if it breathed.

Just as the spirits weakened, their bodies staticked and translucent, their black hearts surged with renewed power. The Lord of Shadow held tighter to them, fed them with more power, intent on victory no matter the cost. The darkness became blacker, beat harder, furious and defiant.

The spirits' blank faces split slowly, to reveal black mouths and white sharp rows of teeth. They continued to fizzle and flicker, but as their mouths widened their strength grew.

Anise, now, was fading. She would find her own limbs flashing in and out of existence, a lightheadedness overcoming her head, a taut discomfort in her chest. In reality, her skin became paler, her lips blue, and she barely breathed.

Peck had noticed, and he crawled forward to place his hands on her shoulders. "Lady!" he called uncertainly. "Anise! You okay? Hey I think this is bad. C'mon." He shook her gently; her head hung limp, her eyes slightly open and still. "Anise, c'mon! Stop! What's happening?" Alarm swelled in his voice. The spirits he couldn't see gnashed their frightful mouths.

Anise could feel their pain. Their desire for freedom, for light. While she faded and weakened -- without the Lantern to fill her thoughts -- she was stripped vulnerable to the emotion of the dead that walked in the dark.

I'm scared.
This is eternity.
We are only objects.
We were never alive.
Nothing has meaning.
Fighting is useless.
There is no point.
There is no good.
I'm scared.
I'm scared.

Come with me.

Buried among the thoughts was an echo of Anise's own voice -- weak and hidden, but present, like a tiny spark in a sea of darkness.

A spark is all it takes to start a fire.

Anise's memory of the sun swelled in her heart, displacing the cold and the dark. The scar on her hand began to glow, and the sunlight swept through her astral body -- the same light that glowed out of the bottom of the Lake. The Lady of Light had found her, had touched the rune of Anise's own making. Should Anise open herself to it, she would find a new and deep reservoir of bright power, buried among the weeds under the water.

Her other hand, too, began to glow. The rune of the Lady of the Pond added a blue light to that of the sun, surged through her like ocean waves.

The spirits' mouths closed slowly, and their eyes opened. The black in their hearts gradually faded, while their shapes took human forms. Anise's grip on them strengthened, while the Lord of Shadow lost his hold.

The despaired whisperings ceased, replaced with a quiet light of hope.

The gray spirits were no longer gray, but stood human and emitting their own gentle light. Anise would feel their renewed hearts link with hers. Their renewed eyes took on a gleam of determination and fury; with the support of Anise's power, each of them clenched their fists and fought against the last threads of darkness.

The moment the last dark chain snapped, Anise was thrust back into her own body, where she could no longer see the spirits -- but she certainly could still feel them surrounding her.

"Anise!" Peck searched for her eyes, then jumped back a little to see that her hands were radiating light -- one yellow, one blue.

---

Artemis opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She closed it again. Her grip tightened around the staff. She looked to the Lantern. Finally, she spoke.

"I'm sorry I ran." She was sorry for so many things. Her voice was still raw. She looked again to the Witch. "I can help. But I need the Lantern."

The Witch was not surprised to see Artemis drop out of the sky, and she raised the Lantern and raised her eyes to peer up at the thief that had refused her help. The old woman had new scars on her face and hands; her balance was unsteady and defiant; her eyes were a little grayer than they had been before, drained of the power that had brimmed within her not so long ago. Behind those eyes rested a dim doubt, the seed of hopelessness that she'd spent a lifetime battling.

These eyes studied Artemis, the tear-tracks through the ash, the changed eyes, the marks of Oseely and The Unnamed One upon her hands, the sigils and strange clothes. The very grass raised up to soften the ground beneath Artemis' feet, and fire roiled raw in the girl's heart. The Lantern cast its red glow between them, the staff brimmed with electric anticipation; their silhouettes darkened the trees.

It was clear to the Witch that Artemis was not here to talk. There was something strained about the girl, something unwilling to listen to reason, to answer questions, to delay the mission she'd set for herself and risk everything. The Witch's bony grip tightened on the stick that held the Lantern, which swung and shifted the light around them.

"I suppose I've been expecting you." Artemis was standing in the path between the Witch and her home; she did not move any closer. "I can see you're not lying to me now, Artemis. Have you stopped lying to yourself, then?" For a long moment the old woman's glinting eyes studied the sooty girl before her.

She huffed and waved her walking stick for Artemis to step aside, let her pass. "You're the reason my magic's fading." She poked her stick at Artemis' hand. "Old Oseely picked you, that bald-headed rascal. Used to be me." She pressed the walking stick under her arm and held up a lined hand to show the fading, faint image of Oseely's mark. "Guess he's lost faith in this old woman -- but I don't blame him."

She hobbled past, shoving her way down the path, back toward her ruined cabin. "Come on, then. I've got something for you."

Still she hadn't relinquished the Lantern, but used it to light the way through the teeming forest and into the clearing, where the stars cast a blue glow on the high grasses. The twisted tree and broken wreckage of the cabin was a dark jagged shape ahead.

The Witch went inside for a moment, and returned again with the Lantern in one hand and a short sharp instrument in the other. She shuffled forward, set the Lantern down in the tall grass, and with a determined and defiant glance at Artemis' face, grasped the iron pendant of the rosary that Artemis kept in her possession, that had been found on the wooded path.

The iron rose was heavy in her gnarled hand. It held the latent power of years of prayer and hope, of the dreams and fears of a young girl trapped in a dark and unfamiliar world, who had been lost to those same shadows -- but there was something else, something far more important. There was within this rosary a resonance so similar to that of the self-proclaimed Lady of Light, whose actions had directly led to the Dragon's resurrection. Hania.

The Witch hesitated, but turned over the iron rose and scratched a sigil into it. Her expression was grim, uncertain, necessary. She returned the rosary to Artemis, and she took a step away from the Lantern in the grass. It was not hers to give.

Oseely's mark on the old woman's hand was still fading, as was the light in her eyes. On her other hand was a different mark, still strong, shimmering faintly white.

"You have what you need, when you need it," the Witch explained with halfhearted irritability. "No more lies out of you."

Lantern

What? Me? Put things off until "inspiration strikes"? Make excuses that it's too hot to post? Wait on people who probably won't post? Ha! Never!

I am on this! XD

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

@Crawkid It'd probably be easier to find/categorize certain ideas if each were in a separate post -- so maybe pick your favorite ideas now and then and post about that? x3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

@Zealous Blade Ooh more mysteries! So the hunger was a plague that turned people into zombie-like ravenous monsters, and it permeated from the castle -- so Ceolmaer cast a spell, using his own sacrifice as charge, to seal the hunger inside the castle? And the hunger may still be spreading elsewhere?

I should do a synopsis on spellcasting too. Hmm...

@Crawkid Purple ore! Yeaa! This is totally the stone used in the FENIKS project, and the floating stones in a yet unwritten location. Maybe even the power source of some manufactured Ruse.

Definitely have to write that thing on witchcraft, haha.

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

Wait, is this still a fantasy setting?

@SepticGentleman

I'm thinking of it in terms of a worldwide scale: some locations will have developed magically propelled technology while others are living in medieval kingdoms or tribal forests. They can coexist.

Either that or we can be developing several time periods at once, but I'm a fan of the former idea. X3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

Hey guys, how's this for a world map concept? Please do feel free to edit this as inspiration strikes, just keep in mind it's meant to be on a world scale similar to a map of earth: https://inkarnate.com/maps#/316344

@Crawkid True, it would feel too easy for an epic journey!

I can't help but think of The Author from One Shot. xD

---

@Polybius Awesome insight! Am I right in interpreting that dreams and nightmares become reality? That opens entirely new weird possibilities. x3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

The FENIKS Project

article by Zhu Ruogang for IDYLL GAZETTE

Idyll City -- the sky-island best known for its brightly painted skyscrapers and gravity-defying architecture -- has been hiding one of the most impressive feats of Thought Technology recorded to date. It is called the FENIKS Project, and it is causing ripples among intellectual communities throughout the world.

After decades of dedicated research at the Razum Research Center, Najima Kiira's team -- called the FENIKS Project -- has announced its success. "Death has been conquered," Najima said in a recent interview. "Fear and loss have been obliterated. This is a new age of hope."

Participants in the FENIKS Project -- some as young as six years old -- undergo surgery where a sliver of charged brightstone is implanted into the patient's skull. After a day's recovery, the patient is free to live a normal and happy life, with only annual checkups to ensure the stone is performing correctly.

Upon the death of the patient's natural body, the stone is retrieved and transferred to a Telo: an artificial body, likened to a doll, which does not age nor die. The patient, upon waking, remembers their life up until the moment of death -- and sometimes beyond -- and retains the entirety of their personality. After a brief period of therapy to learn to utilize the new Telo body, the patient is free to continue their life free of sickness or injury or further threat of death.

THE CONTROVERSY
"My Telo has wings!" a ten-year-old patient cheered in an interview. "They said I'll be able to fly! I've already got plenty of pretty dresses picked out. There's a boy in my class who's a Telo, and he has teeth like a shark. I think his mom's gonna make him file them though, he bit the teacher's dog."

"I'll be able to watch my grandchildren grow up," an elderly man wrote. "I'll captain the ships again, see the world, climb the highest mountains, and these old bones won't be slowing me down."

"I feel better knowing my husband has the FENIKS Project behind him," a mother of three told the GAZETTE. "I can't imagine our children growing up without a father."

"This isn't everlasting life," said Eliana Reyes, the FENIKS Project's most vocal critic. "The patient still dies. The implant is simply recording, storing the person's memories and energy. The process of transfer to a Telo is a glorified spell of witchcraft to create a Ruse. What gets up off that table isn't your son or daughter: it's a Ruse that thinks and acts like your child."

"What happens in the long term?" asked Frede Dall, an anti-thought activist out of Loris City. "This thought technology was only developed six years ago; its oldest successful patients have lived in their Tela for only that long. What happens after a decade? A century? Not even the Ruse are immortal."

"You realize witches have been doing this since the Bubbling," said Louis Wallace, leader of the Black Cap Coven. "The clan mothers would wear the stones, and when they died the stones would be put into a dog or a horse, and she'd continue to guide the clan in spirit. It was an honor to the ancestor, not a resurrection."

"The FENIKS Project is the future of the preservation of knowledge," insists the founder, Najima Kiira. "The mistakes of our past will no longer be left to history books; we will learn directly from our ancestors, and we will no longer repeat their mistakes. Ahead of us is an age of peace, hope, prosperity, and a release from the grip of Death."

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

Now that the articles are mixing it up and intertwining a bit more, they're getting harder to categorize, haha. This is a great thing! Maybe I'll end up listing the same article under multiple categories. Let me know what you guys think!

Elaborated on Mirror, Mirror by the River with a conversation that I hope gives myself and all of you out there a bit more insight into exactly how the phenomenon works. I tried to still keep that mysterious air around it.

@Zealous Blade

This is haunting and awesome. After some debate I placed it under Locations and not Stories, since it'll probably eventually be mapped. :D

---

Added a example of the sort of thing that gets people killed in Elohim.

@Arawak

The inverted people are so very weird and unique and, in their own strange way, horrifying. I could see adventurers approaching out of mystified curiosity and soon regretting it. I placed them as a sub-point under Elohim, but let me know if you think it should be placed elsewhere!

---

The Web of Fate

The word "Fate" is a well argued philosophical point. Some think it is non-sence, some think it is an element of mystery similar to the Ruse, And yet more think that there is a diety out there that controls everything.

For the most part, everything is speculative and one's belief in the concept only goes so far as how comfortable they are with the idea. But in the oldest library there is an article filed away, explaining a phenomenon that's been perceived by many great philosophical minds in the past.

(think I'll make this into a full article, but first food and stuff)

@Crawkid

In a world debating whether the persistent soul is truly that or a Ruse imitation, the question of Fate is definitely relevant. The Man on the Tower seems like quite a person to stumble across. Might he have published books? I wonder if he'd be the same Author that our heroine is looking for.

---

Edit: I'm going to go ahead and start linking articles from the OOC in the Characters tab, else I fear their ideas might be lost!

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

The FENIKS Project

article by Zhu Ruogang for IDYLL GAZETTE

Idyll City -- the sky-island best known for its brightly painted skyscrapers and gravity-defying architecture -- has been hiding one of the most impressive feats of Thought Technology recorded to date. It is called the FENIKS Project, and it is causing ripples among intellectual communities throughout the world.

After decades of dedicated research at the Razum Research Center, Najima Kiira's team -- called the FENIKS Project -- has announced its success. "Death has been conquered," Najima said in a recent interview. "Fear and loss have been obliterated. This is a new age of hope."

Participants in the FENIKS Project -- some as young as six years old -- undergo surgery where a sliver of charged stone is implanted into the patient's skull. After a day's recovery, the patient is free to live a normal and happy life, with only annual checkups to ensure the stone is performing correctly.

Upon the death of the patient's natural body, the stone is retrieved and transferred to a Telo: an artificial body, likened to a doll, which does not age nor die. The patient, upon waking, remembers their life up until the moment of death -- and sometimes beyond -- and retains the entirety of their personality. After a brief period of therapy to learn to utilize the new Telo body, the patient is free to continue their life free of sickness or injury or further threat of death.

THE CONTROVERSY
"My Telo has wings!" a ten-year-old patient cheered in an interview. "They said I'll be able to fly! I've already got plenty of pretty dresses picked out. There's a boy in my class who's a Telo, and he has teeth like a shark. I think his mom's gonna make him file them though, he bit the teacher's dog."

"I'll be able to watch my grandchildren grow up," an elderly man wrote. "I'll captain the ships again, see the world, climb the highest mountains, and these old bones won't be slowing me down."

"I feel better knowing my husband has the FENIKS Project behind him," a mother of three told the GAZETTE. "I can't imagine our children growing up without a father."

"This isn't everlasting life," said Eliana Reyes, the FENIKS Project's most vocal critic. "The patient still dies. The implant is simply recording, storing the person's memories and energy. The process of transfer to a Telo is a glorified spell of witchcraft to create a Ruse. What gets up off that table isn't your son or daughter: it's a Ruse that thinks and acts like your child."

"What happens in the long term?" asked Frede Dall, an anti-thought activist out of Loris City. "This thought technology was only developed six years ago; its oldest successful patients have lived in their Tela for only that long. What happens after a decade? A century? Not even the Ruse are immortal."

"You realize witches have been doing this since the Bubbling," said Louis Wallace, leader of the Black Cap Coven. "The clan mothers would wear the stones, and when they died the stones would be put into a dog or a horse, and she'd continue to guide the clan in spirit. It was an honor to the ancestor, not a resurrection."

"The FENIKS Project is the future of the preservation of knowledge," insists the founder, Najima Kiira. "The mistakes of our past will no longer be left to history books; we will learn directly from our ancestors, and we will no longer repeat their mistakes. Ahead of us is an age of peace, hope, prosperity, and a release from the grip of Death."