[✓] Kal'Varak

[Fitermon 667]

 

 

The Kal'Varak

The Kal’Varak, which roughly translates to “Mind City,” is an ancient crystalline artifact. It is a sort of magical nexus, that generates an abundance of magical energy. Strangely enough, as opposed to exhibiting this energy outwards into the surrounding environment, it is all turned inwards upon itself, giving it the property which its name stems forth from, the realm within when somebody touches the crystal. Upon contacting the strange crystal, the user’s soul and consciousness are both forcibly drawn forth from their bodies into the Kal’Varak, awaking to find themselves within a bizarre dream-like world, which usually takes upon the form of a maze. They’d awaken confused, dazed, and unaware of what has transpired, at least for the first few times entering. With practice, diligence, and integrity, those who’ve transversed the dream realm before can grow accustomed to it, the negative effects it has upon one’s mind upon entering lessening each time.

 

 

How Do You Look Within The Kal’Varak?

Upon entering, one’s appearance would alter minorly, or drastically, depending upon the acclimation one has to the artifact, and the true nature of one’s soul. At first, one who is new to the dreamscape would appear as however their soul were to appear when within the realm. For instance, a human woman would appear as that, a human woman, while an archon would appear as they did in their intangible, mist like form as opposed to their transcorporeal form. However, due to the dreamlike nature of the Kal’Varak, one who is acclimated to being inside can begin to appear as their mind wills and desires for them to. For example, if a scrawny, ugly man entered, he may appear as a muscular, strapping one, and if a kha who wished to be an elf entered, he’d appear as a relatively hairless, slender being with pointed ears. So, how one appears is determined by their acclimation to the artifact, and the nature of their soul’s true form.

 

 

What Is The Realm Within?

When one is within the Kal’Varak, their mind will heavily influence the world within. The crystalline artifact will be populated with various things, including their fears, aspirations, memories, dreams, and nightmares. The more complex the minds of those within are, the more complex the maze is in proportion. Those with dark, buried away histories and thoughts may very well have to face the fruit of said memories, easily turning guilty moments within one’s past into a full-blown nightmare within the realm, adding the danger of such a reality to the dreamscape. An example could be if a former killer were to enter, who held guilt about his victims. Within the Kal’Varak, he may be haunted by the horrors of what he has done, be it being objected to a vision of the mother he murdered being buried as her son and husband cried, or being forced to relive the moment, watching as he impaled her with the old, rusty dagger he tossed into the river when wracked with guilt. On the contrary, the opposite can occur, where the artifact procures a realm in which the inhabitants would never want to leave, a paradise, if you will. For instance, the husband that lost his wife to a cold blooded killer that is inside the Varak may by happenstance stumble upon a vision of his wife, happily playing with their young son, in an effort to trick him into not wanting to leave the artifact, entrapping him within. The dangers in this come from the fact that although their mind and soul are within the artifact, their physical bodies outside of it still require the basic necessities, being food, water, shelter, and whatnot. If their physical body were to expire, be it inadvertently or intentionally, the soul would have no bodily home to return to, making it impossible to escape unless another vacant body present outside of the Kal’Varak is present, at a cost.

 

 

How Do You Leave?

In order to exit this bizarre, strange world, one must traverse the either hellish or felicity inducing maze to find a “door.” This “door” does not always have to take the form of a door as we know it, but is always clearly and unambiguously an exit from the Kal’Varak. Upon entering this "doorway," the person inside is ripped out, returning to their body. However, their is the offchance that they accidentially and mistakenly end up in another's body, which may pose a whole set of problems for all involved. Of course, this only applies if there is a different body to enter.

 

 

What Applies Within The Kal’Varak?

Due to the strange nature of the Kal’Varak, many things that apply and matter in the real world do not within the dreamscape. For instance, due to the concept of mana not applying within the crystal, one can effectively cast magic without any limitation as to how much mana they can utilize in a spell, or one can spend weeks within the Varak without food or water inside due to a lack of need of sustenance within, assuming their body in the physical world is provided nutrients vital to life, be it one way or another.

 

 

What Are The Benefits Of Using It?

The Kal’Varak, despite its great risks and horrors, can be effectively used to a great extent as well, if one knows precisely for what purpose to use it. Golemancers who have been rendered unable to create more golems due to “spiking” can perform a ritual to undo this prohibition once, which requires the soul to be out of the body, lest it kill them. One can achieve this by entering the Kal’Varak, providing a use to Golemancers. A spiked golemancer can remove their spike once and only once by utilizing the Kal’Varak. To remove the spike, they must enter the Kal’Varak, and as their soul is inside, have somebody remove the spike from their physical form, preventing the usual death that coincides with this action when the soul is present in the body.

 

 

Who & What Can Go In?

Concerning what can and can not enter the Kal’Varak, the factors considered is the presence of a functioning soul, and if the soul is stored within a physical object or not. The beings that can not enter under any circumstances include golems that are not soulbound, atronachs of any sort, ghouls, ghosts, or pale knights. Beings with phylacteries, or similar objects housing their soul, such as liches, or soulbound golems, can enter as long as the object containing their soul is pressed up against the Kal’Varak, and beings whose souls reside within their bodies, can enter at will, including but not limited to descendants, archons, wraiths, Aenguls and Daemons, and similar beings.

 

 

What Goes In With Them?

When one enters the Kal’Varak, anything they had on their person would enter into the dreamscape with them. For example, clothing, jewelry, weapons, bags, and similar objects that are carried or worn by the person entering would be with them in the dreamscape. If an object is nearby, such as a dagger resting a foot away, or a bowl of soup on a table close to you, it would not enter the Kal’Varak, as it is not contacting either directly, or indirectly but intentionally meaning to be taken. This prevents one, for instance, bringing in a catapult, or a small arsenal of weaponry, into the Kal’Varak, as to avoid unreasonable results of using such things within. However, the object will not vanish from the physical world, but rather a copy of the sorts would form within. If one were to take, say, a flower from within the Kal’Varak, and leave, they would not have a similar flower form within the real world, rendering anything made and taken from the Kal’Varak limited to the artifact’s reality, preventing one from conjuring objects into the real world with the Kal’Varak.

 

 

Drawbacks

So  after hearing of the benefits and understanding of how the Kal'Varak works, what are the disadvantages of using the Kal'Varak? There is one major drawback to entering the Varak, and such is the state of your mental psyche. The Varak utilises your own mental ability in this 'mindscape' and due to such, your mind can begin to take detriment if used too often, or for too long. Below is a list of possible drawbacks:

• Disassociation with people and the 'real world'.

• Short to Long Term Mania.

• Soulsplitting

• Soul lost to the Kal'Varak

• Illness, Nausea

• Starvation, Dehydration

• Loss of Time Comprehension

• Death

• Short to Long Term Coma

A note regarding body switching: This cannot be used to somehow negate the effects of the 'Race Curse'. Should a Human switch bodies with an Elf, the age Curse will still apply, and so on. This means that a ninety year old Human who switches bodies with a twenty year old Human will still likely die of old age at a young age. Age and the curse is effective and bound to the soul, not the body.  All the while a body is swapped, the mind of the swapped person will begin to deteriorate. Loss of focus, haziness, possible loss of memories if it goes on for too long.

 

 

Additions & Clarifications

 

 

Addition One

 

Aside from some very minor grammatical edits above, there will be other additions to the Kal’Varak lore. In this case, the Kal’Varak has been, is, and will be a thing that isn’t meant to be treated lightly, and to reflect that anybody entering will be granted and will be required two things: One, the player is granted a link to the lore in addition to a textually communicated warning that the Kal’Varak is very dangerous, and two, the player is required to OOCly consent to entering the Kal’Varak in addition to all of the possible consequences that may occur in Roleplay, be it death, permanent alteration of a character, or any similar effect regardless if the player is satisfied with the result of the roleplay with the Kal’Varak. This would be to prevent the Kal’Varak from being used simply as a lore playground of the sorts where the only limitations on what can occur inside are the lore of the Varak, the server, and reasonable effect inside. Furthermore, this further reinstates the Kal’Varak as what it was historically in lore, and what it was meant to be: A prison. If a player willingly enters such a treacherous, horrid realm, they ought to accept the consequences of doing such, as the sole purpose of the Kal’Varak in the server’s lore is to imprison and contain, not cater and reward. Albeit brutal, there is nothing forcing any player to enter the Kal’varak, and there is no reward for successfully doing so and escaping, aside from whatever pride one may garner from such. To prevent abuse, a player’s character can not be “forced” to enter, such as being pressed against it against their will, as an OOC clause to this clause. If a player does enter, and does feel as if any roleplay provided inside was unsatisfactory, discussion can be held to either alter or void the roleplay that took place concerning the Kal’Varak. Finally, the Kal’varak will be unable to be interacted with unless an appropriately instructed and informed LT or ET member is present to act out the effects of the Kal’Varak.

 

Addition Two

 

The former advantages of the Kal’Varak have been altered, namely that Shades can no longer utilize the Kal’Varak as a tool to “Conquer” one’s shade. Although Shades are still free to enter the Kal’Varak, and may face more difficulties as the Host is subject to various torments and throes due to the curse, they would be unable to enter the Kal’varak for the purpose of “quieting” or “dominating” the Shade. This is not meant to upset or disadvantage anybody, but rather to further reflect the fact that the Kal’Varak is as stated before, a prison. In addition, since it is the consciousness and the soul of the Host entering, the Shade Parasite is latched onto it, not a separate entity of its own. This would reasonably prevent a separate materialization of the Shade Parasite inside of the Kal’Varak, as there is no reason for a split to be made right off the bat.

 

Addition Three

 

The following players are now allowed to run and manage the Kal'Varak, as well as roleplay and consequences listed above...

 

Fitermon

 

 

Big thanks to Tahmas, Tsuyose, and HeeroZero's books for composing this lore.

 

 

Edit Made: Additions & Clarifications Added

Shade "Benefit" Removed

Forceable PK / Permanent Alteration Clause Added

 

 

Edit Made: Added list of "Approved" ET or LT to run Kal'Varak RP.

 

[itdontmatta 7191]

As leader of a Kal'Varak event line I approve 

[Thomas 3014]

urgh

[Mr. Etan 2839]

Shouldn't there be side effects to body swapping, it shouldn't be so..... easy.

[Thomas 3014]

I'm going to write up the side effects for body swapping and the additional parts that was supposed to be added before this actually went up on the forums. 

[Hiebe 2475]

As holder of the verak at one point, it's almost spot on but I guess lore changes when different people get involved.

[_Jandy_ 3174]

Looks dope

[Nowak 876]

Augustus stares at his bread, wondering what it would feel like to be slowly devoured. He then continues to eat it

[Gladuos 857]

What happens if someone is forced into touching the Kal'Varak? Does the person need to be willing ICly or does it just happen?

I know it's not always been like this, but I think something that could potentially permanently change your chars entire body or even irreparably decimate their existence should require some kind of OOC consent.

 

What happens if someone that's been body-swapped gets healed by a monk? The monk heals based off the soul inside, and that soul doesn't match the body so... What happens?

 

EDIT: And S M H. Opening the floodgates into IC genderbending now too, eh? ;^]

[Ambduscias 1027]

i actually hate you

 

the formatting for this post is disgusting and your choice of colour is subpar. fix it, kid ....

[Thomas 3014]

Updated Main Post

Additions:

Drawbacks

So, after hearing of the benefits and understanding of how the Kal'Varak works, what are the disadvantages of using the Kal'Varak? There is one major drawback to entering the Varak, and such is the state of your mental psyche. The Varak, or the Mind City, utilises your own ability in this 'mindscape' and due to such, your Mind can begin to take detriment if used too often, or for too long. Below is a list of possible drawbacks:

 

• Disassociation with people and the 'real world'.
• Short to Long Term Mania.
• Soul splitting
• Soul lost to the Kal'Varak
• Illness, Nausea
• Starvation, Dehydration
• Loss of Time Comprehension
• Death
• Short to Long Term Coma

A note regarding body switching: This cannot be used to somehow negate the effects of the 'Race Curse'. Should a Human switch bodies with an Elf, the age Curse will still apply, and so on. This means that a ninety year old Human who switches bodies with a twenty year old Human will still likely die of old age at a young age. Age and the curse is effective and bound to the soul, not the body.  All the while a body is swapped, the mind of the swapped person will begin to deteriorate. Loss of focus, haziness, possible loss of memories if it goes on for too long. 

---

 

On 27/12/2016 at 2:29 PM, Gladuos said:

What happens if someone is forced into touching the Kal'Varak? Does the person need to be willing ICly or does it just happen?

The person has to be willing OOCly due to the major drawbacks. ICly consent doesn't matter.

 

On 27/12/2016 at 2:29 PM, Gladuos said:

I know it's not always been like this, but I think something that could potentially permanently change your chars entire body or even irreparably decimate their existence should require some kind of OOC consent.

Updated with drawbacks.

 

On 27/12/2016 at 2:29 PM, Gladuos said:

What happens if someone that's been body-swapped gets healed by a monk? The monk heals based off the soul inside, and that soul doesn't match the body so... What happens?

The soul will effectively 'accept' the new body for the time it has been swapped, is the basic work around we've determined. It will heal that body as the soul has accepted the new body. The mind however can and will deteriorate. 

On 27/12/2016 at 4:53 PM, Ambduscias said:

the formatting for this post is disgusting and your choice of colour is subpar. fix it, kid ....

I fixed it.

[BANFLASH 50]

On 12/27/2016 at 9:29 AM, Gladuos said:

What happens if someone is forced into touching the Kal'Varak? Does the person need to be willing ICly or does it just happen?

I know it's not always been like this, but I think something that could potentially permanently change your chars entire body or even irreparably decimate their existence should require some kind of OOC consent.

 

What happens if someone that's been body-swapped gets healed by a monk? The monk heals based off the soul inside, and that soul doesn't match the body so... What happens?

 

EDIT: And S M H. Opening the floodgates into IC genderbending now too, eh? ;^]

you can be forced into the kal'varak, that is literally the point of it

 

 

it's been used to force pk people all the time

[ShameJax 1391]

This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon.