amendment [Sprite & Fjarriagua Ability Addition] Seasoned Dealmakers

[Agy 326]

- VOLUME NULL: INTERMISSION -
Sprite & Fjarriagua Addition: Seasoned Dealmakers

Spoiler

Welcome back to this weird show!
Now including our guest for today's episode: The Sprites!!!

 

Part One: A DEAL TO BIND DESTINY

PACTING

[Non-Combat]

Whether out of gain, or out of sheer desperation after being exposed, the Fjarriagua may pact with those not of their kin, spreading a portion of their Mark directly onto a soul-bearing individual, where a bruise-like, frostbitten area forms on it. The pattern of that mark representing the Fjarriagua that one has pacted with and is fully customizable by the Witch. Some may inhibit the symbol of an eye for example, as if tattooed on their hand, although its ‘ink’ being frostbite, while others may merely have a bruise on their hand.

Spoiler

Mechanics
A deal, they make, one to benefit both ends. Such as a simple one where, for example, the Fjarriagua’s required to slay someone, in return for having certain material and objects granted. Or a way for the Fjarriagua to keep her identity hidden, upon one finding her true nature out, but these are but a few amongst a virtually endless list of pacts that can be formed.

Requiring [3] emotes to conclude the formation of a pact, as the Witch and the soon to be pacted individual shake hands. The person pacted with, may not pull away from the handshake, lest it interrupt the spell, canceling it and requiring the Fjarriagua to cast it again from the ground up. During this pact, the person is rendered unable to speak of the Fjarriagua and her kin to outside ears, their minds both shifted in a way where they begin to obsess over the pact itself. What may be a benign - constantly thinking of completing the pact - situation, can soon turn into utter and all-consuming obsession, spiraling even into an unrestrained insanity to achieve the Pact’s requirements should it take too long. Additionally, any rules and parameters of the agreed upon deal, will manifest as a mental lock, making it impossible for one to ever break the agreed upon rules of the Pact. Not even the Fjarriagua is exempt from this.     

Should a Fjarriagua wish it, she may additionally apply upon the pacted individual a Frost Curse of her choosing - where their target is required to complete their end of the deal, or - should all fail - wait for the pact to be shattered by the Fjarriagua for that Curse’s effects to dissipate.

Although, should the pact take too long to complete, and it is unlikely for either party to complete it, the Fjarriagua may shatter that pact - to a great detriment to whichever party was unable to complete the pact. Causing their mental health to deteriorate to major depression and even bouts of hysteria for the span of [1] OOC Week. This means, should the Fjarriagua be unable to complete her deal, while the pacted completed their side of it, the Fjarriagua may shatter that pact, causing to drop into a horrible bout of depression herself, while the person pacted with remain unaffected, due to completing their pact, now free from its chains. Upon the completion of the Pact, the person is drawn into a vow of silence, unable to speak about anything they may know about the Fjarriagua, their nature, and those who are one of them. After the completion of the pact, that vow of silence is extended to [1] OOC week, which afterwards they may freely speak of the Fjarriagua.

-Pacting must be OOC consented, including the optional Curse.
-Pacts can only ever be formed with soul-bearing individuals with organic bodies, this includes the various beastmen races and even more 'magical' entities such as the Undead and Nephelim, as well as fellow Fjarriagua.
-There exists no limitation in terms of complexity for these pacts and can be as specific, long-lived and impactful as the Witch wishes them to be, as long as the pacted individual consents to OOCly.
-Should they take too long to complete the pact, whoever has not met their end of the deal begins to grow obsessive over the situation, gradually progressing into a state of utter insanity until completed. This affects the Fjarriagua as well.
-The pacted person cannot speak, write nor describe the Fjarriagua and their kin, as they feel something within them lock up should they attempt. This includes any additional agreed upon rules or parameters of the Pact. There exists no method, physical or magical, to bypass this lock, other than the conclusion of the pact.
-Should a Fjarriagua wish to Frost Curse the target throughout the duration of the whole Pact, this must also be OOC consented, and heavily advised for the Fjarriagua to take a full-screen screenshot or documentation, as once consent is provided, it can no longer be revoked during the pact.
- The Mark born of the pact does not actively harm or inconvenience the individual in any way, suffering no ailments and being purely visual in nature.
- When adding a Frost Curse, the mark of the Curse is to be a part of the Mark representing the Pact.
- Should a Frost Curse be added, it follows the redlines of Frost Curses, although it can never be removed by any means other than the conclusion of the agreed upon Pact.
- The Mark representing the Pact is fully freeform in Its appearance although for more ‘intense’ creative choices such as over the top size or ‘vandalism’ of one’s appearance, OOC consent will be needed.
-The pact must not be of any sexual nor romantic nature, nor can the pact include having the Fjarriagua do or say anything that may harm her kin, whether directly or indirectly.
-Upon the completion of the pact, the person pacted with will forget everything related to the pact, and the specific Fjarriagua, as well as all information shared about her kin during the pact. Although, the emotions - whether positive or negative - related to the Fjarriagua will remain, oddly seeing the witch in a positive or negative light, or harboring feelings such as resentment, fear, with no particular reason as to why, that they can never hope to explain.
- There is no limit to how many individuals a Fjarriagua can pact with at any given moment, although the effects shattering multiple pacts at once will result in the bouts of depression stacking upon each other, driving the witch into ever deeper pits of despair.
- While a Fjarriagua is incapable of forming multiple pacts with the same person, they may decide to end a given pact with the instant formation of a new one. This too, requires OOC consent
- The only way for the Pacted individual to ever get rid of their Pact, is by the Witch herself or the completion of the deal’s requirements. There exists no other method, physical or magical, not even slaying the Witch herself will work, with the exclusion of the event of the Fjarriagua being Hard-PKed or indefinitely shelved.

PURPOSE:

Presented here is a peculiar line from the "Mental State" section of the current lore of the Fjarriagua, something which is only spoken of once and never again repeated or showcased within the CA's abilities. Which is a bit of a shame as the creation of pacts and deals has been a staple of older variations of Fjarriagua lore but also 'Witches' in general.

So once more carrying over this mechanic from the recently denied rewrite (Which the LT seemed to specifically have no issues with this ability, yippee!!!), added a few clarifications and redlines, general polish as well as the addition of a mechanic to enforce any agreed upon"rules" of the Pact other than just their objectives to allow for more complex and interesting deals. (Which again require OOC consent).

Lastly in the matters of "Frost Curses" due to the fact that the Frost Curse amendment has yet to be reviewed by the looks of it, some details may get a bit muddy between the two, but otherwise I think it nevertheless has no issue in regards to that. (Yes, it's for both Greater and Lessers Curses, they do after all also need OOC consent)

 

 

Part Two: THE NATURE OF THE DEAL

An Innocent Bargain

“It only takes a single fateful decision for one to lose everything and for another to gain everything” 

A wondrous artform honed and perfected by the Sprites over their long stay within the realm of the descendants, one that they have become all too popular and notorious as a result of. Using their unique abilities to forge a link between them and a willingly chosen individual, so that they may enter the ever mythical realm of bargaining, allowing the mischievous Sprite and a chosen and perhaps naive individual to form what is to become a deal between the both of them, a deal like no other.

A Sprite’s bargain is never to be underestimated, for its powers and effects can alter the course of one’s future, but nevertheless its aim is to benefit both ends. Such as a simple one where, for example, an exchange of materials, knowledge and or specific objects, or for the completion of certain services to one another. These are but a few amongst a virtually endless list of various bargains that can be formed.

The process of creating such a bargain is simple in nature;
Requiring a Sprite and a chosen soul-bearing individual to willingly strike a bargain between the two of them - no matter how grand or simple in nature - concluding with the two engaging in a joined handshake, requiring 3 emotes to conclude the formation of the Bargain. During this, the person bargained with, may not pull away from the handshake, lest they interrupt it, thus canceling it and requiring the Sprite to reattempt once again from the start.

During these 3 emotes, an odd plantlike ring will begin to grow upon the flesh of one of the fingers of both the Sprite and the bargained individual, harmlessly growing roots within it, being impossible to remove by most if not all means as it will always regrow itself back together, or simply grow in a different finger or part of the body. Its appearance, texture and colouration are custom-made to represent the Sprite behind this bargain.

With the formation of the ring, It will begin to slowly yet steadily instill an obsession over the bargain made. What may be a gentle yet everconstant thinking of completing the bargain, can really quickly develop into an utter obsession, spiraling even into insanity should it take too long. This applies to any rules or boundaries of the agreed upon deal, creating a mental lock, making it impossible for them to ever will themselves to breaking the agreed upon rules of the Bargain. One that affects both the Sprite and the chosen individual.

Should the worst come and one or both parties fail to meet the requirements of their agreed upon deal, the Sprite alone has the power to conclusively end the bargain in its entirety at any moment, although to a great detriment to whichever party was unable to complete the bargain. Causing their mental health to deteriorate to major depression and even bouts of hysteria for the span of [1] OOC Week. This means, should the Sprite be the one unable to complete their deal, while the one they bargained with completed their side of it, the Sprite may shatter that pact, causing It to drop into a horrible bout of depression Itself, while the person bargained with remains unaffected, due to completing their pact, now free from its chains.  

- An Innocent Bargain must be OOC consented between the Sprite’s Player and the Bargained’s Player.
-Pacts can only ever be formed with soul-bearing individuals with organic bodies, this includes the various beastmen races and even more 'magical' entities such as the Undead and Nephelim, as well as fellow Sprites.
- There exists no limitation in terms of complexity for these bargains and can be as specific, long-lived and impactful as the Sprite wishes them to be, as long as the bargained individual consents to OOCly.
- Should they take too long to complete the bargain, whoever has not met their end of the deal begins to grow obsessive over the situation, gradually progressing into a state of utter insanity until completed. This affects the Sprite as well.
- Any agreed upon rules or parameters of the bargain will manifest as a mental lock for both the Sprite and the Bargained individual, making them physically and mentally incapable of breaking the rules of the bargain until its conclusion.
- The pact must not be of any sexual nor romantic nature.
- Should one attempt to claw away at the ring to remove it, or alternatively completely severing the finger it was grown around, will result in the ring simply being regrown in another finger.
- Should the bargained individual completely lack any hands/fingers or is wearing  prosthetics, the ‘ring’ may in turn be grown around one’s body akin to a tattoo, the location being decided by the Sprite.
- The ring causes no physical pain or discomfort upon the individual being purely visual in nature.
- The ring is fully freeform in Its appearance and may include details such as small flowers or plants in general, although for more ‘intense’ creative choices such as over the top size or ‘vandalism’ of one’s appearance, OOC consent will be needed.
- There is no limit to how many individuals a Sprite can enter a bargain with at any given moment.
- While a Sprite is incapable of forming multiple bargains with the same person, they may decide to end a given bargain with the instant formation of a new one. This too, requires OOC consent.
- The only way for the individual that agreed to the Bargained to ever be freed from it, is by the Sprite Itself or the completion of the bargain’s requirements. There exists no other method, physical or magical, not even slaying the Sprite Itself will work, with the exclusion of the event of the Sprite being PKed or indefinitely Shelved.

 

PURPOSE:

This is but ONE of the many, many mentions of Sprites being not only capable but actively encouraged to strike deals and bargain with people for all sorts of things. For something that is pretty much core to the identity of this CA as well as the concept of the 'Fey/Fae' in media in general, It is quite the extremely odd thing that they lack such a mechanic to begin with, as things stand the only 'proper' ability they have in place regarding "Bargain-Making" is in regards to being able to produce useful alchemy-based reagents for various potions, which is a bit too niche and rather simple in nature to ever act as a 'consistent' source of individuals one would wish to bargain with.

This here additions feels like the easiest and most simple way to help out what is otherwise quite the deeply struggling CA and I am sure this could lead to all sorts of wonderful RP opportunities for them and ones that interacts with them. I wish them the best of luck! : >

 

PURPOSE

AKA; 'Why the double post?'
The simple answer is that I wanted to give the Sprites a little bit of an amendment as well, they are after all a pretty one of the very few inherently magical CAs left in the server.
And additionally "Pacting" was going to be added as an amendment in the second batch of these silly FW amendments of mine, so I decided to just post it pre-emptively for them.

As for why they are both in the same post; they are pretty much a copy paste of each other in terms of mechanics.  It would feel more weird if I posted them separately, if one gets accepted then of course and the other is also getting accepted.

Lastly, as opposed to the boundless brainrot of the Fjarriagua that infests my brain-jar, my knowledge on Sprite and Druid lore in general is far more limited, so I unfortunately couldn't get all too unique and creative with the Sprite's capabilities and magical nature, although I would be happy for anyone to build upon this should it ever get accepted!

CREDITS

Writing by Agy (That's me!)

Music by Jonah Senzel

 Art in order of appearance by: San'OK, [UNKNOWN] and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite
Mechanics borrowed (With permission to also apply to Sprite lore) by Diogen's Fjarriagua Rewrite

Spoiler

 

 

CHANGELOG

21/3/2024
I fixed that one typo..!

 

Edited March 30 by Agy
minor clean up

[milksoda 719]

IS THAT Fjarriagua FROM THE ZU?

[Fleur___ 92]

SPRITES MENTIONED LET'S GOOOOOOO

[NightcastorKitty 1209]

Some of the sprite description has sprites referred too as 'she'. It's a bit to much of a copy-paste, dear. 😂

 

(But seriously, last sentence of yellow, 'the Sprite may shatter that pact, causing to drop into a horrible bout of depression herself') 

[Agy 326]

Just now, NightcastorKitty said:

Some of the sprite description has sprites referred too as 'she'. It's a bit to much of a copy-paste, dear.

 

(But seriously, last sentence of yellow, 'the Sprite may shatter that pact, causing to drop into a horrible bout of depression herself') 

DAMN IT! I tried really hard to make sure I had found all of them >:[
(Thank you very much!!)

[Gemini 1639]

1 hour ago, Agy said:

- The pact must not be of any sexual nor romantic nature.

Only in lotc you need a rule that a dead corpse and tinker bell can't erp :DDDDDDD lmfao

[Werew0lf 12022]

so ur now trying to steal our lingo 

 

the ZU will not stand for this

 

im an ST and I will ensure this is denied due to being on a power trip. only Demi-djinn can make contracts. do you hear???? Any other magic with this ability will go down!

[Agy 326]

Just now, Werew0lf said:

so ur now trying to steal our lingo 

 

the ZU will not stand for this

 

im an ST and I will ensure this is denied due to being on a power trip. only Demi-djinn can make contracts. do you hear???? Any other magic with this ability will go down!

Damn I've been found out for my nefarious schemes, but consider:
What if we make a deal to not have that happen?
 

I'll give onto you a 'Playmobil; The Tower of  the Wizard [70754] set' in exchange to get the lore approved. What say you?

[Proddy 2247]

I'm not so sure on this one.

 

Whilst I think the Sprite half of this is cool because it ties into their actual lore (and gives purpose and direction to a very presently purposeless CA) I just don't think it fits for Fjarriagua to be pact bargainers. I realize the mantra of Frost Witches to be men-hating cannibals is a little bit outdated (and hugely uninspired) by now but I'm uncertain if this is really the direction they need either. A pact magic for a dark CA fits way more with Naztherak/playable Inferi and yet I've never seen them make an attempt at such an amendment. 

 

And if we open up a lore piece that's thematically unrelated to pact bargaining, doesn't it just open Pandora's box to every dark CA justifying the existence of pact magic within their own respective niche? If Frost Witches can have it, why can't Necromancers? Or Mystics? 

 

Do I think the concept of dark pact magic is neat? Absolutely. Do I think it could open up fun roleplay if roleplayed correctly? Sure. Do I think that it should apply to Frost Witches when their theming is taken into account? Not really.

[Agy 326]

2 hours ago, Proddy said:

Whilst I think the Sprite half of this is cool because it ties into their actual lore (and gives purpose and direction to a very presently purposeless CA) I just don't think it fits for Fjarriagua to be pact bargainers.

Within the seemingly extremely outdated wiki of the Fjarriagua, there is the ever consistent mention of one gaining a "Witch's Favour"
> However, Fjarriauga are not entirely a plague. Some bold men and women may earn a witch’s favor if they are clever and strong enough. The ageless Fjarriauga prove to be powerful and wise allies. Many tales in old Skjoldier were told of conquering heroes who enlisted the aid of a powerful coven. Subterfuge and seduction, the trades of the Fjarriauga, proved immensely useful in whittling down the barbarian hordes of Skjoldier warlords.

 

Which very much is repeated countless times within said old lore, infact seeming to be a very core trait of what I believe once was a rather "Dark Grey/Neutral" CA as opposed to the kinda most objectively evil CA left around that it is today. And as I mentioned within the post itself, this idea of "Favours" is still very much prevalent, although as is to be expected of the current lore; It was entirely ignored from being properly implemented as a mechanic.

Long story short; It is infact already part of their lore.

 

And truth be told; even if that wasn't the case, I do strongly believe that the Lore and Themes of Fjarriagua are deeply underdeveloped and outdated (Like for example needing to wait 9 irl years just to finally have Wyrvun be stated to be their creator in his own lore) despite being one of the oldest still existing Dark CAs within the server. There should be attempts being made for them and their oddly unique story to actually grow beyond this seemingly decade-long stagnancy of theirs.

 

2 hours ago, Proddy said:

I realize the mantra of Frost Witches to be men-hating cannibals is a little bit outdated (and hugely uninspired) by now but I'm uncertain if this is really the direction they need either. A pact magic for a dark CA fits way more with Naztherak/playable Inferi and yet I've never seen them make an attempt at such an amendment. 

And yes, you would be right. But at the same time both the Naztherak and the Fjarriagua both have "Witchcraft" as one of their core concepts, with the difference that the FW are more related in the concept of "Witch/Vile Banshee of the woods" while the Naz are the ever-beloved demon worshipers, which 100% goes hand in hand with Witchcraft while being its own entirely different and unique thing. And yes, It would make sense for both of them to have such a mechanic, Its kinda unavoidable for there to be overlap between them.

 

Although, the Naz do have their whole rather wonderfully made system of boons and banes as a method of creating deals with people..?

 

2 hours ago, Proddy said:

And if we open up a lore piece that's thematically unrelated to pact bargaining, doesn't it just open Pandora's box to every dark CA justifying the existence of pact magic within their own respective niche? If Frost Witches can have it, why can't Necromancers? Or Mystics? 

And yeah, that is a good point. Binding deals with dark and ruinous powers that always come back to bite you is after all one of the most well known story beats in various well known tales.

 

My guess as to why that wouldn't happen is due to the fact that its usually a very specific kind of 'magic', just because you are evil or magical doesn't mean you get magic soul-binding Pacts. The Sprites (Fey), Fjarriagua (Witches) and Djinns (Jennies) all are based upon the most well known kinds of deal-makers, whether evil or good. With their actual lore supporting this kind of thing as a rather core part of their identity.

A necromancer/azdrazi by comparison doesn't really have much in comparison to excuse them having such an ability other than it being "pretty neat to have".

Edited March 22 by Agy
typoss :'<