From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Usually, Roana tried to include her boys in the various goings on during the different seasons. But not this time. Her eyes scanned the shrine, watching as some carefully collected roses and as those blighted stalked them like rabid animals, destroying whatever roses they could. This was definitely a less than ideal situation for children, that was for certain. So she entered the shrine on her own, boys safely locked away at home.
Kneeling by a small patch of roses, Roana set to carefully digging up the flowers. It was delicate work, gently removing the roots of the flowers from the hard ground. But slowly, Roana managed to remove three roses from the ground, holding them close to her waist as she rose. The former captain unsheathed her blade, prepared to fight off any who might try and attack her. But hopefully the sight of the claymore would keep them at bay.
People, shambling shadows in he corner of his eyes. Coming and going as they damn well pleased. A mockery of everything that was right and good in the world. Heathens so dead set on playing straight into the hands of the one that would rather have their whole world plunged into the depths than admit defeat. Yet, a part could not but long for the moment the absolute silence covered them all. Because there in the ashes of a risen corpse would only solemn peace rule, and above it all would a raven on rag wings rise. A blackened master of the void, a final embrace as the work of one not yet dead came to an end.
Tiny clouds of newly fallen snow tumbled of the ragged ghost of a man as he woke from his open-eyed slumber. Creaking of stiff leather as he with new-found purpose entered the finally calm clearing. A haggard figure but nonetheless menacing, axe and shield held in white-knuckled fists, mottled eyes darting around in search of whatever roused him from finally finding peace among the fallen leaves.
A speck of fire, burning ever so bright in the face of what was good. A flame stoked by heretics and apostates. An affront to the very god he'd sworn his life and death to. "They demand it." a raspy voice whispered from within the hooded helmet and purpose turned to power.
An arch of steel, gleaming through the cold and throwing up whirls of snow as the axe was driven deep into a source of the scalding indignity. A triumphant, black tinged roar as the warrior finally stood victorious over something that mattered.
Renaud found himself in The Wildwood out of a sense of desperation more than out of any desire to achieve an objective. He hadn't been on Caido for long, but it had been long enough for him to realize that his relocation was for the very long term, if not permanent. He had also learned that his changed status made it necessary for him to venture to the Shrine at night, rather than in the daylight.
In his own time, Renaud held that the god of his people was of course very real, but not interested in meddling with the day-to-day affairs of mortals. On Caido, though, he had been getting the impression that this was not the case. Almost everyone he met had something to say about the gods, and so the young soldier found himself venturing to the Shrine in the Wildwood in an attempt to learn all he could about the spiritual realities of his new world.
The snow crunched under his boots as he approached his objective. A thick gray coat hung down to his ankles as he marched along, eventually noticing a thick blanket of beautiful red roses around the shrine. Renaud had never been much for flowers, but all of a sudden he felt a deep instinct to dig up a few and take them with him. Obviously his rational mind questioned why he might do this, but this side of his mind was left arguing with itself even as his body knelt down and dug up three roses by the root.
He had completely forgotten to investigate the shrine, or to attempt to pray or commune with the gods. Instead he found himself turning around almost immediately, marching off into the night with snow underfoot and roses in hand.
Ashe stood at the edge of the shrine, silver light of the moon bathing the snow, lightning the clouds of breath in front of her lips. The roses were brilliant against the white, bright blooms of blood, a gift. Some measure of hope as her brother was consumed with sickness, as everyone she had just started to meet and know fell to it. She had said she would do anything to help, would try anything. Even accept something from a god without know what would be asked in return.
She approached finally, kneeling down before the flowers. She swallowed and brushed away any snow, her scarred and slender hands careful. She pulled out one of her knives, her mind drifting back to a beautiful Flowerbirth day in the woods, out in front of a cabin with her mother. When there had been no terror of losing Ronin, when there was only her own mistakes to contend with. Stakes were higher now. The pain greater, when she had never imagined she could withstand any more suffering.
As she gently loosened the frozen earth and reached down for the roots, like her mother had taught her, she felt her eyes prickling. Thank you, Vi, she thought silently, unsure if it was right, unsure if she should thank him, or what it meant to pray. Even thinking the words were a strange discomfort. Was this.. a final hope? The only one? She unearthed one. Then another. Then another.
in the right heaven-yellow light, anything could be
holy enough to save you
She slips in at night, brought by the call, to spot the flowers with the golden thorns. She thinks they are possibly one of the most beautiful things she’s seen, as she approaches and gathers a better view of it all. She hopes nobody comes for her, with this. She hopes nobody comes to point the blame, to demean when all the Penumbra wishes to do is help.
And so she uproots three roses, her hands easily finding their purchase in the frozen ground of the shrine, and she pulls the roses out one by one until she has them in her arms. Then, without a second thought, she begins to plan where to put them, following the pull to guide her – still half Abandoned, half Ascended. She hopes they forgive her, the people and the gods, for the attempts she’s making.
Vi's roses call even to her, the instrument of her Lady's destruction. And it's more than just a symbolic gesture of goodwill, there's a genuine desire to see the blight cured (however selfishly part of that desire may be), to see her people restored to normal, to move past all the blame and anger and feeling like she has to justify her place in the world.
The night is dark, moonless, snow-laden clouds shielding the stars from view. Wessex approaches in the quiet depths of the morning and, finding three singular stalks still standing amidst some destruction, unsheaths her talons. Oddly useful tools, these things are. They cut through the cold ground and she plunges them into the dirt in a wide circle, pulling the plants up. A delicate bulldozer, the Ascended is careful to avoid the thin roots. Once she has three, the Wraith, true to her name, slides silently out of the shrine and into the cold, eerily silent deep gray of early morning.
While Vi wasn’t the god she worshipped most devoutly, the balance of life was important to...well, life. The Greatwood, her home, was in pain. It was suffering, and she refused to allow it to go on without at the very least trying to do something about it.
Equipped with her bow and quiver full of arrows - as usual - Eliza fluttered towards the shrine in the Wildwood, a cautious hopefulness within her heart. She couldn’t help but be hopeful. It was her home… The plants and animals were her friends, the Fae were her family. Even those who had come from within the Hollowed Grounds didn’t deserve to deal with the quickly spreading sickness.
Her wings wavy ever-so-slightly even as she touched ground, the Fae girl looked fondly upon the beautiful roses. She knelt down and removed her gloves, not wanting to hold the plants with gloves on. Taking an arrow from her quiver, Eliza carefully dug into the dirt around one of the roses, taking special care not to sever any of the roots.
Uprooting the first, she repeated the action with two more. Eliza wiped the dirt from her arrowhead and slid it back into her quiver, then took the roses, gently feeling the velvety petals, and tucked them into the satchel she wore around her body.
Immediately after, she smiled at the shrine and slipped her gloves back on to protect her nearly numb fingers. “Vi, guide me,” she said quietly. She kissed her fingers and touched one of the statues, then turned around and took to the air with a few quick movements of her wings.
For better or worse, Ianto had almost always just let the alchemist be. When he'd lost his memories, when he'd fucked up, when he wanted to let himself fall into a pit of despair, when he wanted to run away from the world, the fox was always there with a golden smile and a willingness to take it all in stride. It probably wasn't what Remi actually needed, but dammit if it wasn't what he wanted. Especially now that things with Ronin had seemingly hit a crucial point nearing no return, the fox's easy friendship was a balm to his frayed nerves.
"If these are Vi's roses, why do we need to pray to Rae?" The alchemist had wondered to his friend as they returned to the shrine, their tasks complete. The answer the fox had given wasn't entirely satisfactory, but then again, nothing about this process was. Mortal minds, mysterious ways, and all that.
Instead of moving towards the shrine proper, the alchemist all but sank immediately to his knees, his eyes falling shut as he pressed his hands deep into the dirt. As he did life bloomed (literally) around him. Vines, clovers, plants and flowers of every shape and size. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the magic that he let flow out of him; it was merely an outpouring of life, of gratitude and confusion, of all the wordless emotions that the alchemist couldn't give voice to but that he keenly felt. Besides, why offer the god of nature words when he could offer something much closer to home.
A handful of flowers came alive then, imbued with his new magic. They crawled into his curls raising tiny hands made of leaves to the Deepfrost sun.
Please. The alchemist silently prayed, his eyelashes still tightly closed against the tears that threatened to part them in a stream. Please let it be enough. I would give everything I am for him. For them. Please, let it be enough. So praying yet more magic raced out of his dirt-drenched fingers until the entire shrine was like some strange secret garden, completing un-bothered by the chill in the air or the frozen ground.
NON-BLIGHTED CHARACTERS:
Post in {SWE} Deliverance and collect three of Vi's Roses (do not pluck them, you must have roots and all!)
-- Above
Complete three threads planting the roses: one must be at Mathair, one must be at the Spire and one may be in a place of your choice!
Mathair: touch me and you'll never be alone, Spire: {PQ} hope as fragile as a rose, Guildhall: closest to home
Try to convince a blighted individual to prick their finger on one of Vi's Roses - you don't have to be successful.
Ronin: Beneath the trees where nobody sees
Once all of the above is complete return to the Deliverance thread (yes, post a second time) and pray to Rae.
(this post0
I forgot what it was like, to think I found you finally
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
09-10-2019, 03:56 PM (This post was last modified: 09-25-2019, 02:52 PM by Lily.)
LILY
Fools, she hisses to herself, staring at the Roses with an ugly snarl across her face and rancid, heavy breath. It comes hot and heavy, steaming through the air as the ragged, fiery woman stands out in the cold she so loathes, in little more than breeches and a sweater. At least she’d had the sanity before she completely devolved to put that extra layer on.
Her head tilts eerily to one side as dirty nails begin to comb hair that is slowly turning into a windswept rat’s nest. She hums to herself, a haunting and eerie little ditty that goes round and round and round - the same notes, over and over again. If there’s a plan forming in that empty little head of hers, no one will know. But Lily smiles sweetly (is it, though?) and then turns away - gaze far away and mind easily elsewhere.
“Ring around the rosy…
Pocket full of posy…
Ashes, ashes
We all…
Fall… down.”
Roses to ashes. Roses to ashes. They’ll all fall down. There’s a sudden, gleeful cackle and the former entertainer darts towards the roses, rips one out of the ground, and then scampers into the woods.
Hotaru is not new to this game of doing the bidding of Gods. She knows the celestial call, the way it tugs on her soul and drags her from her slumber, leading her onward to a place she has never been and yet knows the path to intrinsically. There's no point resisting or fighting, not when her own curiosity is a guiding needle on this compass of bullshit. So out she goes, into the snow, into town and through an unmarked door that would otherwise seem unassuming.
Within, there is nothing that could possibly go by that word.
Flowers - roses - bloom in dizzying multitude. They are beautiful, radiant, emanating a sort of life that she can scarcely bear to look at. It takes her breath away, and Hotaru can't help how she stumbles forward gracelessly at their beckoning call. Drops to her knees, uncaring of how the soil stains her dress, barely sparing time to gaze upon the shrine in the thick of it all.
She has nothing but her hands with which to accomplish the task, but as she digs her fingers into the cool earth Hotaru wonders exactly what the purpose of this is. There is evidence of uprooting and destruction in equal measures, but the Valkyrie knows next to nothing about the presence of the Blight. So she wanders off with her little trio of roses, intent on finding out as she goes.
i was a child who only wanted to heal things
now i want to be an abomination
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
Amalia returns to the shrine alone, settling onto her knees before it, barefoot in the snow. She has spent the last days (weeks, months, years) doing her best to fulfill Vi's teachings, planting and defending roses, praying and hoping, baking and living, trying to solve problems she does not understand.
It does not feel like enough. Each rose she sees is a reminder of Ronin, of Jigano and Kiada, of Remi's scars. Of Safrin, crying tears of black, hissing icy condemnation on her attempts to help. How can she call herself a Shield when she has failed to defend anyone? A foolish child is all she is - mortal, minute, weak. For a brief moment she had believed herself worthy, had managed to convince herself she might be more, that goodness was truly in her grasp-
At least she managed to plant the roses. At least she has not failed in that.
"Vi," Amalia whispers softly, her head bowed as she runs a finger along one of the stems. "I planted three roses - at the Mathair, the Spire, and... and at Safrin's shrine. She... she isn't well, and she asked me..." A shuddering exhale; she bows her head further, tears behind the lids of her eyes. "I... I know that the roses will help. They helped her, for a minute. But... she's suffering so much, and I don't... I don't want to have to..."
A sob pushes through her, but she bites it down, sniffing in the silent woods, her tears melting rivulets in the snow. She could fall apart here; Gods know her seams are frayed enough. But that would imply she has a right to make this about her. With a sigh, the baker composes herself, biting her lip, hands in her lap as she settles into the snow. There is more work to do here, yet.
Sitting cross legged on the frozen ground, Amalia begins to sing.
"Roses red with the blood of Vi
"Ruby white on snow,
"Planted into frozen soil,
"Blessed by Rae to grow.
"Long we've waited, long we've prayed,
"For our world to be saved.
"Rae, we know you heard our call,
"Let love and nature save us all,
"Rae, your children are at war,
"Let balance reign forever more."
Post in {SWE} Deliverance and collect three of Vi's Roses
- Done
Complete three threads planting the roses:
- Two Sides of the Same Coin (Mathair)
- {PQ} hope as fragile as a rose (Spire)
- {SE} your stardust soul (Safrin's Shrine)
Try to convince a blighted individual to prick their finger on one of Vi's Roses
- took the stars from our eyes (Safrin)
Once all of the above is complete return to the Deliverance thread and pray to Rae
- Done
Trying to explain a mixture of faith, and the strange reliance that the gods might even have upon one another... it would make one's head hurt on an ordinary day, let alone a day like this one. So whilst Ianto had tried to give his thoughts words, he had eventually let the silence do the talking for him. And then the shrine had been upon them, and the fox gazed around at the still blooming roses, at the way the air seemed... cleaner, somehow.
He had gotten halfway inside the shrine proper when he realised that Remi was no longer with him, Ianto turning to regard his friend and watching, lips parted in an 'o' of surprise as the world around them roared with life. Soon recovering enough for a smile to spread across his face, Ianto shifted swiftly into his cardinal shape, swooping and diving and settling, at last, on one of the tallest vines.
Beak parting, his song was a soft and mournful trill to Rae; a plea, a celebration, a handover. We are here. Our tasks are done. Now it is up to you.
Post in {SWE} Deliverance and collect three of Vi's Roses
- Done
Complete three threads planting the roses:
- we could turn the world to gold (Mathair)
- guardians at the gate (Spire)
- closest to home (Monster Hunter's Guild)
Try to convince a blighted individual to prick their finger on one of Vi's Roses
- the road ahead (Jigano)
Once all of the above is complete return to the Deliverance thread and pray to Rae
- Done
Vi's Roses have been planted, have begun to spread their cleansing aura throughout the Greatwood, throughout the Hollowed Grounds. But alone it is not enough.
The blight has sunk its teeth into the world like a snakebite, but with the help of man and Fae alike, it may finally be possible to suck the venom from the wound.
Within the shrine, the roses bloom and grow. Buds appear on fresh stems, thorns glitter through the ice, red blossoms on white.
And Arduinna appears, resplendent in whites and coppers as if touched by Vi himself, her fiery hair all the brighter on this muted landscape. She kneels at the centre of the shrine, her hands clasped around one of the roses, her head bowed.
"Rae." She speaks softly, her voice carrying further than it ought to. Around her, healing energy pours out and into the earth, seeking out the roses wherever they may have been planted. Seeking, finding... and drawing back.
"Sweet Rae, Devoted Vi, hear our call. Let nature thrive as it ought to, not through the force of another's hand."
Arduinna begins to sing, a low and sorrowful melody, and her words echo far, far into the woods. Unintelligible, they stroke along the skeleton branches, they dig deep into the roots and boughs...
And back, carried through the channels of her energy... the blight floods in.
Still she sings, the lady of the woods, even as her alabaster skin darkens to black, as her fiery hair dulls to obsidian. Only the rose in her hands remains crimson - as it will forevermore. Like petrified wood, Arduinna grows still. A statue to contain the blight. A sacrifice to life.
Hearing the prayers of those at the shrine, Arduinna expends all of her strength to draw the blight from the places where roses have been planted. She has sacrificed herself in order to do this.
Forever, she will draw the blight into her own body to contain it. The SE will continue as normal from here, but your blighted characters may now begin to show signs of improvement. By Flowerbirth, all signs of blight will be eradicated - all thanks to you guys! <3
You may have your characters recover as quickly or as slowly as you like.
In addition, any magic connected directly to Arduinna will no longer work.
Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown
He didn’t frequently stand at altars like so many of them, incapable of uttering anything resembling prayer; they were oaths, assurances, begging, pleading things instead. The beast watched the rest of the world come and go, roses fleeting, roses broken, particles and patterns of blighted madness stretching along their seams. A layer of fatigue pressed against his shoulders, but he didn’t hold them down, didn’t fall apart, didn’t reel into the realm as a broken, despondent piece (though he wanted to; the exhaustion curling and coiling, but there was too much to be done so ever consider drifting into melancholy’s grasp). Somewhere nearby, Amalia sang, Remi’s magic intertwined, and cardinal-red beckoned, Arduinna’s sacrifice in flames and then wood, twisting and turning into petrified mass until he couldn’t fathom or prolong his wait any longer; Deimos kneeled, breath heavy, naught to offer but his presence and the work completed. A pressing, compelling notion spiraled through his head, his veins, his skin, perhaps work of the Attuned, far more in touch with the earth, with the gods, with any sensation of piety than his Abandoned side, his eyes closed and his head murky, mired, rooted. It is done was all he managed to conjure, sending it into the soil with his bare hands touching earth and snow and scraping into the void; Zuriel slipping beside him, bending her knees, tipping her horn to the grace of the shrine.
--
Post in {SWE} Deliverance and collect three of Vi's Roses (do not pluck them, you must have roots and all!)
- Done
