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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
It had taken a few days after his completion of Safrin's quest to properly consider approaching this particular shrine. Days of walking The Ark's deck, of checking her sails and her rigging, of running calloused hands across dark wood tested endlessly by the open sea and sky without once buckling under the things he'd asked of her. Days of listening, as if he might be able to find what the starlit goddess had planted in his mind without the assistance of nature itself.
But The Ark is silent as always - a blessing and a sanctuary in many ways, especially when the Captain is at his worst, which is often - but this time he'd perhaps been hoping for something different.
It's that hope that brings him here now, quietly resolute but puzzled at the same time. The morning sun is already scorching, and his ship hovers above the shrine in the safety of a few clouds that will burn away before midday. Jack has no such protection, but his magic provides what the world cannot (story of his life), and a cool breeze tousles his hair as he reaches out to set his offerings to Rae atop the shrine.
Two pearls, one black and one white, still nestled in the saltwater cushion of the oysters he'd found them within.
"Ain't come to a shrine of yours before," he says with an air of reticent apology, his telepathy withdrawing tight around his mind as if to protect it from what it might sense. "Ain't even sure what I'm askin' for. Maybe you'll know anyway, though." It seems like the sort of thing a god would be able to give voice to where mortal concepts would struggle.
Just in case, though, he holds that image in his mind's eye again, the one Safrin had planted - his ship but not, all maroon tossed curls and eyes the colour of the sea.
Jack is using his COTY big god pass to speak to Rae!
dance beneath the stars as you drink in the night let the thunder overtake you as lightning fills the sky.
Rae is simply there. Two figures stand before The Captain, their eyes rest on him with the same steady, unblinking focus, not curious so much as exacting.
For a telepath, their mind is like a vast and endless world: shelves upon shelves, catalogued thought and memory arranged with obsessive care. A library that bleeds seamlessly into a museum, artefacts labelled and preserved, and beyond that a workshop where ideas are dismantled and reassembled with surgical patience. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is misplaced. There is no clutter, no emotional residue, no raised voice. Only order. Only knowledge.
They look at the offerings, then back to him, uninterested. "The Ark has served you," they say together, voices perfectly aligned, "in ways you already understand." One head tilts a fraction; the other mirrors it a heartbeat later. "Safrin has shown you," they continue, unbroken, "that there may be more it could be. You would have us fashion the soul of the ship into something that exists as more than masts and beams." Like a relationship.
"Correct?"
feel the force of nature penetrate your skin, spin with the world as the magic sinks in.
It isn't overwhelming in the way that standing in Safrin's presence had been - there's no collision of his mind with hers, no overwhelming sense of something unfolding, endless and enormous and wanting. But that doesn't mean it's any easier, and for a second Jack is swamped with the mere possibility of all that Rae is, that they've made and destroyed and could yet see develop further.
He loses himself in that library of artifacts and ideas, his magic eager to peruse and linger but the rest of him too cautious and grounded to dare to look too closely. Instead, when they speak - they, as one, as the same being but in two facets - they are able to give voice to something that has so far only been a laughable wish, a covetous possibility that Jack has never truly believed could be.
And yet Rae says it so simply, like he's been slow to understand his own desire, and to say that the Captain is unaccustomed to being humbled like this is an understatement. "Yeah," he says, the threads of it beginning to tie into something more concrete even as the seconds tick by. "Is that possible? And if it was, what would I need to do?"
dance beneath the stars as you drink in the night let the thunder overtake you as lightning fills the sky.
Rae nods, the motion is mirrored, precise. "It is possible," they say together, tone level. "With the correct components." One says before the other adds, "We will provide none of them."
A pause, brief and deliberate.
"You will require a soul," one says. "A body," the other continues. "The means to weave the magic," they say together. "And the fire of life."
Their eyes remain on him, unblinking. "Only then may the Ark exist as more," they conclude evenly, "than wood and sail." Another pause. What you choose, the effort you put in," they add, voices aligned, "will determine what she becomes."
Jack has been given a quest. He must:
- Kill something sentient (PC is best, companion next, NPC last (must have 5 posts from Jack))
- Gather Memory Mud from the Greatwood
- Kill a mirage crab or a banshee (initiate a KQ)
- Gather fire from the Everlasting Bonfire or fire from Caido's Lighthouse
feel the force of nature penetrate your skin, spin with the world as the magic sinks in.
The scent reaches you before you see it — sharp, resinous, and unmistakably warm. Just off the path grows a dense cluster of plants thriving in the heat, their leaves dark and glossy, their stems heavy with sap.
When the breeze shifts, the plants release a rich, smoky fragrance that clings to the air, the kind that would burn slowly and sweetly if dried. Some of the leaves are already curling at the edges, sun-cured and ready.
The cluster stands out from its surroundings, vibrant and intentional, as though cultivated for a purpose far beyond simple growth.
You've found an offering for Tanau! Whoever is next to post in this thread will be the first one to see the offering, but if they wish to give it to someone else, they're more than welcome! No need to post in account updates, just keep track of this thread for the Longheat SWE!
Jack almost has to do a doubletake (and no, he's not thinking about the other connotations of that word right now, before you ask) when Rae lays out the components and the necessary tasks to make something that has seemed all too ambiguous suddenly very, very real. It's not that it's difficult or surprising - no, quite the opposite in fact. It all seems very simple.
"Oh," he says, furrowing his brow and giving a slow nod, as if waiting for the rest of the quest to drop. Perhaps for someone with a much stronger moral compass, the gravity of the situation might have been more apparent. But this isn't the first time Jack has killed, or even killed for a quest. And so, when the deity offers nothing further, he nods again more firmly, and even dares to allow the ghost of a smile.
"Then I'd better get to work," he says. "Thank you."
Once Rae has vanished, Jack turns to leave the shrine, and it's as he's stepping away that he notices the cluster of plants, the fragrance in the air. Knowing little about flora other than their potential value, he reaches out to snag them before he departs - who knows, maybe they'll be worth something later.
