Sins of the father
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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MP: 1897
#1
She was quiet that evening, as she lighted the candles and placed the usual offerings at the center of the old circle. The first budding rose from the garden for Safrin, the largest winter apple she could find for Frey, and a toy she had played with often as a child for Ludo. Her brother's, really, and the argument between them about who should have it had been endless. Just as the laughter once theyboth got older. But now that Maea could finally have it all to herself... well. Without Noah, the fun was just gone.

Sinking down on her knees, Maea let out a long, heavy sigh. The events at the Spire that very same day still flashed before her everytime Maea closed her eyes, and no matter what excuses, explanations or justufications she thought of, the taste of guilt still coated her tongue.

Perhaps it was not her fault, exctly, that the barrier existed and a man died in order to bring it down. She had not lived when it was created, and knew nothing of the reasons for it. Perhaps her fellow Loreseekers knew, but if so she had not been entrusted with that information yet. No, Maea had not killed anyone, but she was Abandoned, and thus guilty by association. She was at fault merely by existing, and it was the worst possible feeling she could imagine.

"Is there a way to atone?" she asked the wind and the pale stars, as the candles fluttered quietly in the balmy evening. "I don't want to walk the same path as the Acquired. I want no power, no glory, nothing more than to farm the land and help my friends. But if my kind did this, if we Abandoned are the reason for all of this... Please. Tell me how I can do things differently!"
Maea
Like morning dew
Love will come again to you
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Spooky Rags


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#2
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"You ask for guidance, sweetling. But it is not so easy as that."

Ludo's voice was quietly musing as it drifted down before her, pausing - of course - before the offering she had placed down for it. It nudged at the toy with one fabric tendril, seemingly distracted by it until it recalled the reason for its visit.

"There are those who would say that there is nothing you can do, not to walk that same path. It was hubris that led the Acquired to their downfall. And it is hubris that will lead the Abandoned there again, should they covet their power too fiercely."

It glanced up at her. "Why? Would you abandon your Abandoned nature...?"

Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
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Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#3
She shuddered, and inhaled, and looked up at Ludo. It was astonishing really. All her life she had prayed, and no answers had ever been given. Now she had been answered twice in a remarkably short timespan, and it boggled the mind. Why? Why now, when it had seemed so impossible before? What had changed, if suddenly the gods would listen to those who had never been heard before?

Not that she complained, mind. She was grateful, humbled, could have cried with gratitude because this, this was what she had always wanted and longer for.

To be seen.

Yet the definite answer she sought did not come, and Maea considered the smooth surface of the porcelain mask, admiring the way it seemed both expressionless and animated depending on Ludo's mood.

"Would that even be possible?" she asked, rather sceptically. "I've never heard of anyone being able to move away from the magic before. And even if I did want to abandon it... would it really change anything? Would you trust me more... or less, because I couldn't avoid temptation?"

In the end, what she sought was not to change her own nature. But rather, to be accepted despite it. To change the way her kind was viewed, and escape the shadow of past sins. Yes, the magic was a temptation, and so was the desire to have the gods favor. Using it was wonderful, being seen was wonderdul, even if admitting to that was embarrassing, but was it impossible to live according to the laws of the world and still be herself?

Was it wrong to want both?
Maea
Like morning dew
Love will come again to you
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#4
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

It saw straight through the windows of her eyes and into her mind; like a fledgling bird, hope and fear and anxiety all warred for their places, and Ludo watched quietly by to see what came out on top. "You know what has changed," it said quietly. "A group of Outlanders, spat into this world like a stain, where so many have never come through before. The Spire Demon dead and gone. The Voice, speaking to her blighted children. Everything is changing, sweetling. I do not think you yet appreciate how much."

Still absently playing with the toy, it flicked out a scrap of rags at her, tickling at her nose as if to tell her she was being too complicated. "The question did not have layers, child. I merely wondered what you would do - no one has ever forsaken their nature. No Abandoned, in any case."

The toy disappeared into the fabric folds of its being. "I like this very much. Thank you."

Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
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Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#5
No, it was true. Maea didn't know, and that was more frightening than anything else. To walk blind into a storm with no idea what waited beyond the next step was terrifying, and that was why she prayed. Hoping desperately that someone could see further ahead than her, and give some indication on where to go. With the faith that directions would not leave her tumbling off a cliff.

The rag tickling at her nose made the girl laugh, surprised but delighted at the gesture. It was heartening to see that the toy was appreciated; it did mean much to her, and that was precisely why Maea could give it only to Ludo. They would understand.

"I'm glad you do" she replied, very softly, as the item disappeared into the folds of the rags. "Sorry, I do overthink sometimes. I think..." Maea looked down on her hands, thought of the magic at her disposal. At the anguish it caused her, the joys, the many uses it had, and all the things she could do without it. Would she really be less herself if she couldn't make things zoom through the air?

"You know what, Ludo, I think I would" she said, as the answer became obvious. "I don't need the magic. Not really."

She just wanted it. But Maea wanted a great deal of other things too, that she could live without. This was no different.
Maea
Like morning dew
Love will come again to you
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#6
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"Overthinking is a sign of an overactive mind," Ludo said, moving on to the other offerings now - a trickster at heart, obviously it thought little of messing with its fellow deities' gifts. As she uttered the impossible - that she would give up her magic - it tilted its porcelain mask up to regard her quietly. They remained like that for a moment, the silence only broken when Ludo naturally pushed the winter apple from its place on the shrine, sending it rolling away somewhere.

"Noble," it remarked. "Regrettably... it is not possible for an Abandoned to redeem themselves in that way. But... still. It is noble, and ought to be rewarded." Surging up, it hovered directly before her. "You were born in Deepfrost, were you not?"

Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
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Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#7
Eying the apple as it rolled off into the spiring grass, Maea was startled by the sudden intensity of the masked soul guide. She stilled instinctively, that overactive mind of hers rattling off an array of possible things she might have done wrong... It took a moment för her to realize that Ludo spoke of a reward rather than retribution.

"Y-Yes, Ludo, I was" she stammered, back ramrod straight and quivering ever so slightly. "It was snowing, and the healer had trouble getting through the snow to reach our house."

Her mother had died a few days afterwards.
Maea
Like morning dew
Love will come again to you
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: - Strg: - Dext: - Endr: - Luck: - Int:
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#8
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Ludo regarded her silently as she spoke, the cloak of shadows it was wrapped in seeming to writhe and flicker of its own accord. "Such a fragile creature, born into the harshest of seasons," it muttered. "I dislike Deepfrost, but for the snow. The cold bites, and it brings the longest of all the nights. Almost all your family have perished during that time of year."

It spoke without malice but without warmth, either; frank, calm, cool. And then it lurched forward, wrapping itself around her in warm and suffocating black. When it retreated, it left in its wake a pitch dark shawl snug around Maea's shoulders. Lightweight, as though it was made of nothing, it would seem to keep out any bit of chill in the air. If one were not mistaken, it appeared to be made of the same material as Ludo's rags.

"Use your magic humbly, sweetling. Use it under the eye of the Old Gods - without pride and without expectation of anything more. Your modesty will be your atonement. And in return, you shall never feel cold again."

Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
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Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#9
True.

The deep snows, the biting chill, the quiet and the dark. The long nights and the longer silence that followed... none were things she loved. They had that in common, at least.

The darkness within Ludo was frightening too, but though the sudden embrace - was that what it was? - did startle her, it did not last long enough for true fear to take hold. And when the world returned around her - or perhaps she had been been returned to the world - some of that warmth lingered around her shoulders, close to the heart.

"Thank you Ludo" Maea said, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears. She touched the marerial, marveled at how light it was, and smiled happily at the dark God. "I will. And if there is ever anything I can do for you, just name it."

She would do anything to be worthy of them. Everything, she thought, without knowing what everything might mean. Yet in that moment she meant it with every fiber of her being.
Maea
Like morning dew
Love will come again to you
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Spooky Rags


Age: 7 | Height: | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: - Strg: - Dext: - Endr: - Luck: - Int:
Played by: Admin Offline
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#10
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

The mask might have just seemed a touch pleased with itself, Ludo bobbing in agreement and acknowledgement of the gratitude. "We already have an arrangement, sweetling. Let us see how Fiat Lux goes before there is any more bargaining." Happy with its toy and having irritated Frey (probably), Ludo began to swirl up and away again, though it did hover and look back at Maea for a moment.

"We watch," it said. "Even when we do not answer. We watch, and they watch. Your brother, his family. Your mother, even. You are not nearly so alone as you think." Whether that was comforting or eerie was entirely down to her. Without another word, the god was gone.



Maea has obtained the following item:

Type: Dark
Ludo's Rags | A shawl made of pitch dark, lightweight material. The wearer will not feel cold or the effects of the cold, regardless of the temperature. You look spooky.



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