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!
Gideon's face was stony as he took the shortest route through the gardens towards the shrine, the dim light of the evening making him look older than his years, illuminating the tired wrinkles and grim line of his mouth. With the bandage on his still-stiff arm, it would have been easy to dismiss him as a weak man past his prime, if it were not for the steely determination in his step and eyes.
Behind him followed whoever in the Order had deigned to come - anyone who was not there would be noted in his mind for the future, should they ever need to question who was committed to their cause. They had suffered a huge blow as a whole and needed to come to the Gods humbly, together, to beg forgiveness for their pride and mercy for their futures.
Before the shrine, he closed his eyes, took a breath, then without turning around, commanded those behind him: "Kneel." Gideon did so himself. Once they were appropriately reverent beside him, he would begin the prayer.
working the goldfields on the high sierras the early snow began to fall
It’s something that Seraphina absolutely wouldn’t – couldn’t – miss. She makes a spot for it, dropping nearly everything else she’d been scatterbrained about, meeting Gideon at the start of the gardens to follow his imposing figure through toward the shrine. She’s silent, her hair pulled back, her clothes clean and well put together despite everything – wanting to look strong in the face of the blow they recently suffered.
She stays silent even further as she stops a few feet from Gideon, her eyes staring into his back. The command is given and she’s quick to follow suit, stepping up to the shrine and placing her basket of fruit and trinkets on the shrine as an offering, before she steps back to kneel beside and slightly behind Gideon, her head bowed, prepared to start her own little prayer alongside Gideon’s and everyone else’s.
buried treasure for my darling under redwood trees so tall
Finn is late. Finn is not put together. In yesterday's wrinkled clothes and with a head of curls that have not been tamed, he arrives with his offerings and places them down beside Sera's and Gideon's - for all the gods, this time, for there is no preference when it comes to something of this magnitude.
He kneels on the Priest's other side, gazing up at the shrine with tired eyes ringed with dark circles. Life is hard and it's only going to get more difficult from here, but maybe with a little guidance from their gods, they'll forge a way through.
Or maybe it will all go horribly wrong, and they'll just be here to bear witness to it. Either way, these are (of course) thoughts that Finn keeps to himself, letting out a shuddering breath as his gaze drops away to the ground.
one moment you’re lost in a carnival of delights
the next, it leads you somewhere you don’t want to go
Falke trails behind the other three, joining only because once Gideon told him that Mort held a soft spot for the Fixer and perhaps that might be of use now, should they be so lucky as to have one of the Big Three show up. Of course Gideon had the closest relationship with the Gods, but strength in numbers and all that.
Still, he does not kneel, but stands behind the three of them, supporting himself on his cane. Surely the Gods will understand that piety and prayer need not be given on one’s knees. Falke’s head bows with the others, eyes first on the heels of everyone’s shoes, and then finally closing as he offers up his own prayers for guidance (and Cian’s soul’s safe passage) to Mort, Ludo, and Vi.
01-26-2022, 08:58 PM (This post was last modified: 01-26-2022, 09:22 PM by Noah.)
Noah
we follow our own steps while our shadows keeps watching us
The hunter had had little to say during their last meeting. The information that was shared had been a shock -- he needed time to process it. While his stoic nature may be off-putting to some, it had always been who Noah was. Especially in a situation like this -- Noah had hardly been a member of the Order a few months, and still had basic understanding of how it all worked.
But he knew this part of his role well -- if they were to convene with the gods, Noah was to be there. While Gideon may lead them in prayer and supplication, Noah's presence and involvement in this conversation would be important.
Having traveled silently with the others, Noah silently placed his offering on the altar before them. There were many artisan gifts to give -- a beautiful and intricate gift for any god that would grace them -- from Stormbreak, Torchline, the Greatwood, and Halo. The territories that leaned into the Old Gods -- and one that Noah would reclaim in Vi's name. Before Gideon could make his prayer, Noah took to one knee and sent his own prayer in silence:
Vi, we need you. Guide us with your light.
the wrong steps would be not to start this exodus.
It wasn't quite the turn out he'd hoped for - Gideon would remember who did and didn't arrive on this day - but it seemed this was all they would get. With a quiet sigh he turned his head up towards the shrine and admired it for a moment before he spoke, giving his spirit time to adjust to the Gods' glory and get prepared for the prayer.
"Our Heralds - Ludo, Safrin, Frey - we pray for your guidance. After Cian's death, the Order feels lost and without direction. We were so sure we were headed down the right path; now we see we must have been wrong. Our pride and hubris has cost us and now we humbly bend a knee to you and ask you to set us right. To help us eliminate those that put our - your - world in danger." It was clear Gideon was used to leading prayers, the words coming from his lips with a fluid consistency, but there was something less confident about the tone than usual.
The dancing lights of the Celestine will glow and pulse with the goddess's arrival, and overhead stars will wink into existence within the canopy of leaves. Gazing from face to face as if she were some nude model to be painted who was gauging the skill of the artists around her, eventually Safrin's gaze lands upon Gideon and remains there.
Tutting under her breath she extends a hand toward the Priest's face, letting her fingers brush the strong line of his jaw. "Now Gideon, we both know that death is not always a failure." She muses. "Or has the Order leaned so heavily upon its Eye that the rest of you have gone blind? Nothing has changed, and yet as you kneel here it seems done with defeat instead of fealty."
As the shrine materialised a God before them, Gideon saw not the now-familiar darkness of Ludo, but the face of Safrin. He was unable to contain the sharp gasp from his lips; he had heard of her beauty, but to see it in person was something else entirely. The hand on his jaw almost took his breath from him entirely, but not so much that he did not listen.
Her words were at once kind and harsh. He paused before he replied, would have looked back to the others if it were not for the fingers on his jaw. "It is not so much that we have failed, my lady. More...in the absence of who was our Leader, we seek guidance and advice from the Gods before we appoint a new Eye. So we can be sure the Order maintains it's role as a force of the Gods." It would be easy for the motives to mutate and change without the input of the divine, at the mercy of a man's wills. "It is clear that we erred in the Draig Cordillera. Are we not to pursue the relic there?"
'What guidance is there to seek?' Safrin muses, the question almost playful despite the seriousness of her gaze. "Your mandate has been what it always has been." Looking at the rest of them, hallowed and on their knees, Safrin pulls in a breath as she pulls her hand away from Gideon's cheek and turns to regard a midnight-silver vine.
"To my knowledge, there isn't a relic in the Cordillera...What gave you the idea that there was?" It was true that there were things Cian knew that she had overlooked, but certainly the Eye had never been more omniscient than she. "The Knowtbook is an invaluable tool...without it you are at a disadvantage and your enemy is strengthened. You might try and recover it, though given your assumptions about who has it and the Order's inability to enter the Grounds, that might be nearly as impossible a task as creating a new book.
Perhaps then you might simply seek to fortify Stormbreak against the ascended...or to seek out more relics." Interesting that Ronin was not present, but then, perhaps that was advantageous. "Do you know that a certain man has two relics? You could try and devise a way to take them from him."
Even the words that were difficult to hear, almost-criticisms and the revelation that there may never have been a relic to go after at all...Gideon drank them all in with a reverent stare, nodding to himself as he absorbed Safrin's wisdom. "Of course, you are correct. Our mission is the same and we cannot falter." It seemed so simple, now: they had all the pieces, they just had to put them together.
Obtaining the Knowtbook would indeed be difficult, but relics and fortifications seemed easier. "Do you believe the Ascended might be so bold as to attack the city?" He asked, alarmed by the idea, though he believed the walls to be strong enough to withstand anything the Voice and her puppets could throw.
"Which man is this?" He asked finally, knowing full well that Safrin would likely not tell him, but it didn't hurt to ask. Moving forward, especially without the book, they needed all the information they could get.
With a slight and thoughtful narrowing of her eyes, Safrin considers the Priest's question. "To what end? They have 1 relic and little else. An attack on the city would cause them needless casualties and though it would be an annoyance, there is nothing here of any value to them." Noah was the one wearing the Order's only relic; as it always had been, it was the Order that made Stormbreak powerful.
With a condescending roll of her eyes—though this was not directed at Gideon, but moreso the man of which they spoke—Safrin's gaze flicks towards Finn for a moment before returning to the Priest. "Remi Taliesin."
02-06-2022, 08:22 PM (This post was last modified: 02-06-2022, 08:34 PM by Gideon.)
Gideon
Imposing penance one by one
You've got a virtue in a vice
Gideon had thought as much himself, but it was comforting to hear Safrin herself agree the Ascended would not make an attack on the city. While he was confident they would withstand it anyway, he worried about the people - what if some of them were close enough to speak with the silver tongued machines and lost their way? He knew from Torchline that it only took a few Ascended to poison the entire area.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear for the second answer, yet Remi's name still surprised him. "I see. I will speak with him." Quite what this talk would be he wasn't sure yet, but the hard set of Gideon's brow said it would be rather intense.
"Thank you, Safrin, from the bottom of our hearts, for your wisdom." Gideon knew better than to bother the Gods, especially this particular Goddess, for any longer than was necessary. "I hope we can please you in the coming seasons."
