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[Complete][Artifact Lore]Erythian Stars


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ooc

A small but vital part of the lore regarding the origin of the stars is not on this post. I will send it via pm to the lore master/lore masters reviewing it.



I would also like to thank Ezekiel Tarus (ilumtarus) for the precious feedback, suggestions and of course his idea to base this on the lore of the old north.

I will be answering any questions you might have, I also wrote this, in this form, to keep it interesting but again if it is confusing I will gladly clarify anything.

Last but not least, this lore is ready for review and pardon any grammar or vocabulary mistakes I missed.

If you did not already, reread this with a robot voice. It's hilarious.

 

WARNING

The two following parts (introduction and summary) were written in a rush. They have grammatical and vocabulary issues and are kind of derpy and trolly. I regret nothing.

Introduction

So what is this artifact? 

Imagine the palantir from Lord of the Rings. If you can't, here are some images for you.

300px-Palantir_Stone.jpg

 

King_of_Cardolan_using_the_Amon_Sul_Pala

 

Wouldn't a paladir be very overpowered for this server?

Of course it would but they are actually very different. See the summary or the lore itself for further details on how it will be balanced and what it actually does. Or read the lore.

 

Why are there so many parts in this? What else does the lore include?

I decided to make this more or less like a novel/book instead of the usual blunt pile of information. It's part can be read on it's own and more or less, all of them act like examples or provide information. But above all they give a taste of the roleplay I intend to bring with this spheres. If you choose to read the summary I will explain certain parts as some were made as examples of how the visions of the stars would work.

 

The lore also includes some stories about the old Tarusian kingdom and lots of information about the plant phegaryon.

 

What is this plant phegaryon? Why did you put it here if it does not requires acceptance, like all plant lore?

1.It is the sacred plant of Morighaen and is linked with the spheres. More is explained in the part I need to pm to the Lore Masters.

2. It makes more interesting the lore.

 

Who is this Letholdus? What does his have to do with anything?

Letholdus is the man who lived back in the Tarusian era and found the spheres and the phegaryon. By revealing his story you learn the lore about the spheres and have a nice read.

 

I have more questions!

Then read the summary, which again is question/answers or read the lore itself. If you still are not satisfied, ask me. I do not bite. A lot.

 

Summary

How do you call your spheres?

First the name. Erythian stars or Pheon(the material of the spheres is called Pheon) stones is the names I have come up with my spheres. I will find a better one which will be given Ic by my character in order to make easier refering to them. Something as good as palantir I hope.

 

What is the difference between the Pheon stones and the palantir?

The palantir allows you to choose what you want to see. The stones do not. No matter what the user does he can not control in character what to see.

 

He can see events of the future, past, or present, either very long or short. He can also choose to see the future past or present but the events he sees could happen a thousand miles away or right beside him. The events could be about individuals he has known for his whole life or people he has never met.

 

Despite that, the events are not random. They are important to the user, if he chooses to believe so or not. 

 

The catch is that although all of the visions are important and worth of investigation, there is always a chance of failure. What I mean by failure is that you might save people, you might die. Will explain further below.

 

What are briefly their characteristics?

-They look like the palantir, but can have different colors. The colors are :

blue, pale blue, white, faint yellow, yellow, orange/gold,red 

And all the colors between them.

-They are indestructible. Only concetrated dragon fire or one of the Weapons of Horen, Malin, Krug.. could destroy them. But that is obviously extremely unlikely.

-The maximum amount of them that could exist at the same time at the server is 12. They will only be given to people who can handle them ooc.

 

I want to know how will you regulate this.

It's vision you see will be an event. It will require good ooc cooperation between ALL involving parties. The event will usually be of an antagonistic nature and will require fair chances for both parties to win. Not all information must be given through the spheres so there is a challenge.

 

The people who will coordinate this will be the two leaders of the parties (or the leaders of more parties) and in the best circumstance only they will be told about it. The ycan choose to make a forum post or something but the fun part will be having this as a surprise.

 

What I mean by this is that although I might know everything about the event I will not tell anything to my people but allow them to solve it on their own. The vision needs decoding in order to properly take  the best out of it.

 

I need more information about the visions.

The vision does not have a set duration. It can have no one speaking at all and only images or it could have one or more people speaking to the user. If you are seeing the past it could happen a minute ago or hundreds of years ago anywhere. It depends on the coordinator/ors. If you are seeing the present it could happen anywhere on the server right now, but personally I would avoid this visions as they are very overpowered and I can not think how to regulate them. If you are seeing the future you could see again something happen minutes later or years later. It always need permission from the parties involved be it past, present or future. For example if I want to see the lore of House flay, I need permision from the flays. If I want to see when the antagonist will attack, I need permision from the antagonist. Of course the later example gives a major advantage to the user so it needs balancing or a totally new idea.

 

Most of the times if you see the present you will see something totally worthless like trees, nature or landscapes. So you will have no reason to try to see the present, cause IDONOTLIKEABUSINGSTUFF.
 

I want to know more about the procedure of seeing a vision. How do you choose to see past, future or present?

Unlike the palantir there is whole procedure to see the vision. You do not simply touch the sphere to see anything.

 

Instead you raise the sphere and see the sun through it. Depending on the position of the sun you will see future, past or present.  If you see the sun at dawn, you see the future. If you see the sun at dusk you see the past. If you see the sun at any other time of the day you see the present.

 

Sometimes you will not see anything despite looking through it.(That means that you have not made a vision to see, dummy.)

 

WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE ORIGINS???

According to the lore bellow both the spheres and the phegaryon fall from the sky (like meteors), but this is what you will all know ic. I do not want everyone to know how to claim that he found his own palantir. I will pm the lore about this to a lore master when he wants to.

 

Cause really who would not like his own palantir?

 

:livid: I HATE YOU!!!!! RAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASDJISADJZXC!!!!!!

:crys:  MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMY HE HATES MEEEEEE! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

 

What about phegaryon?

APOLOGISE FIRST YOU BIG MEANY!!

OKAY OKAY, I AM SORRY! JEEZ. What about the plant?

Phegaryon is a flower that grows very high on mountains. On the duration of its life it takes many different colors. Much like the variations of the pheon stones.

 

It has an incredibly long life span. If you want to find such a flower roll out of 50 on the top of a mountain. If you get 50 you got yourself one of the most beatifull, color, changing flowers ever,

 

I am not kidding.Please do  not  rage..

 

Is it worth reading any parts of this gigantic pile of text?

The prologue is just for fun and get you in the mood. Part 1 tells some background story and introduces Letholdus in a better way. Part two explains everything about phegaryon and some stuff about the spheres, via dialogue in a marriage.

 

Part 3 shows the whole logic of a proper user of the spheres through the thoughts of an old librarian and a boy.

 

Part 4 shows some possible preparations before witnessing a vision. Roleplay example if you will.

 

Part 5 shows the first vision ever seen by Letholdus after descending the great mountain where he found them. I will explain in the next question why it is a good example.

 

Part 6 says how Nestor, my character, will meet Morighaen who will tell him how to find the spheres and introduce him to the whole concept.

 

Who on earth is Morighaen?

Goddess of the old northern religion. Read Ezekiel's lore about her.

 

Did not you say you would explain the example in part 5?

Yes! You interupted me, so I will have to explain it here.

 

Letholdus thought that the voice was talking about the prisoner when she said "Should you better avert your eyes?" meaning that he thought that the northerners where choosing not to scout in these forgotten parts.

 

What it actually meant was will you abandon delvar and the other guy just to save yourself and the prisoner?

 

The fun part about this is that they had agreed to leave everyone that gets caught behind so the others can escape. If he had not stopped they would have caught him a few days later.

 

This is a fine example of the whole concept. Unless you do your finest with the visions you will be defeated. This is why the visions need careful planning. Another good example is this.

 

You see some prisoners running from the antagonist, an old man and a woman.

 

What the user will first think is to go save them. The catch is that they where sent here to sabouter. Others close to them will be executed if they do not comply.

 

The catch will be to save them and avoid the sabotage. Ideally they would save the other prisoners as well but I doubt this would happen.

 

What music should I hear when I have a vision?Wait why did I ask this?

Game of thrones intro. I do not know, it fits perfectly.

 

Won't you run out of ideas?

Perhaps. As long as people help we will hopefully have stuff to do. I would update via status and ooc in game to ask if anyone is interested in making such an event. Others might have better ideas than me. If they provide good such events, they will be possible future owners of the spheres.

 

What are you doing in my house all this time?

The light was on I thought I could hang out.

Do you have any more good questions or are you messing with me?

Look I..

:livid:  GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!And stop changing the size of the letters! ARGHHHH!

 

The Tale of Letholdus

Prologue

I have been ordered by his grace the king of the Tarusian Kingdom Orthus Tarus the III to gather all known information regarding a great historic figure of the Tarusian kingdom, Letholdus, the man known as "Oracle" here in the north.
My research was long and extensive as I had to include many many stories, myths, legends, clear facts and undeniable truths in this book.
I was worried that such an odd compilation would make unclear the line between truth and legend and that the reader would end up being confused.

Thankfully the answer to this problem was given to me from none other than his grace, King Orthus who requested a prologue which would point out all of these problems to the reader.
Therefore, please do understand that this book is neither a simple fairytale or a child's bedtime story with real names and locations. Neither it is compiled from facts and historic events or will it include scientific or religious explanations about the entirety of items and people mentioned here.
No, this book is written from the general perspective of the average person of the Tarusian kingdom. A person who has spent its entire life listening about Letholdus.

Was this man a religious leader? A noble warrior? Or was he in fact nothing more than a mere man?

What his grace and ultimately I wanted was to answer the above questions of a total stranger to our beliefs and culture and provide him with the truth about what we believe he was. Cause in the end that's all that matters.




Part 1


Letholdus, the man who would be later known throughout the north as the "Oracle", was born in Tarisport.


In these times, the three cities of this cruel north were declining. Nothing more than a shade of their former glory.

Stormwatch the once great fortress still stoud proudly against the harsh climate of the north.

But a fortress is not supported by mere stones, for the stones where not responcible for keeping the kingdom safe. It was the men that protected it.. men that were begining to grow fewer and fewer as the years rapidly past.

Many were killed and more had dissapeared in the cold and unforgiving tundras that layed beyond. Those who survived were harsh and strong as the cold touch of winter was to them, familiar.
Wolves were their companions and a simple fire was all that it was needed for them, to consider anything, home.

But now Stormwatch was not occupied by such men. Their ranks were now formed by weaklings from Bruti and the occasional mercenary from Tarisport.

Stormwatch did not have the military power it once had, despite its Lord's efforts. The rulling Lord of Stormwatch at the time was Norsem Norcross. This once strong and proud man had five sons.

The first and most adored was covered by ice and snow, his breath fading into the raging storms.

The second and the third, twins in life and in death. Their bodies were found
lying by the enormous corpse of the "Tyrant" wolf. A beast which prayed on all the brave souls which dared to venture in the eastern plains. The beast although ferocious was killed by the twins, but not without leading them to their deaths.

Norcross had enough time to witness the death of his third son. The young man still bleeding was trying to protect his dead brother from the cold, in a pointless effort to keep him alive. The lifeless beast laying beside him. The Lord witnessed his life slip out of his damaged body.

He grew bitter and cold. Curses to his men for their weakness and curses to the Tyrrant Wolf. His knife pierced the beast a hundred times and dragged it alone off a cliff, into oblivion.

When his blood slowed down, his heart questioned. Where is your fourth boy?

He rided with haste and hurried up the steps of the highest Tower of Stormwatch.

And what a joy! the youngest of his line still alive. Still here.

He worringly closed the doors and put two fierce and obedient men to guard him at all costs.

He send worth for his fifth. All that arrived was the message "He dissapeared.". He took fourty men and retyrned with twelve. His traces dissapearing further in the unforgiving north.

His fourth boy was young and has always been frail. He needed to survive. The North would not take anything else from him. No more.

Overprotective and cautious.. or even mad as some dared say, Norcross would protect his lineage behind the strong stone walls of Stormwatch. Both North and East were no longer in his interest.

And thus the northern warriors faded.

The king Colfrieg Cold distant cousin of Norcross ruled all of the kingdom in these troubled years. He was unaware of Norcross stance due to the rising problems in the south with the Adunians. Both sides had dragged a long war.

But both armies were tired and peace was needed by all. The King would soon have it and the North would finally be united again.

Tarisport, as the last major city of the kingdom had also it's worries. The travelers and merchants that made this city once the heart of the kingdom, had now been replaced by fugitives and soldiers.

Lord Fenrir was responcible for the city's current state and was in fact brother of Letholdus. Fenrir as the older brother was by right the next Lord of Tarisport.

Letholdus being the younger son ended up in a small house outside of Tarisport all after a quarel with his older brother.

Fenrir would always look after his family and city but his arrogant nature was not allowing anyone to dictate him what to do or question his judgement. Letholdus had enough of this and chose a life away from his brother's troubles.

He and his wife ended up on a relatively isolated house on one of the four hills that were located outside of Tarisport. The life there was quite and peaceful in contrast to the rest of the land. The forests were generous and the woman was pregnant with what was soon to be a healthy child.

Letholdus life of cerenity would soon have a strange turn. A delay in the life's ordinary plans.

It was late in the afternoon shortly before dusk and Letholdus was chopping the last logs for the day when a woman appeared with her mind in a task.



Part 2


-Writer's Note-
The following incident was recorded by Poleon Korst the Librarian. It proved to serve quite well as a synopsis of Letholdus story despite slight alterations by myself in order to make it more appealing to the average reader. The terms that are also explained allow a more fluent story later on.

The Lady and the Lumberjack

A lumberjack was sweating from the work he had to endure for his daily bread. Then this woman appears just before the sun has set.

Her movement like her mind, characterised by grace. Her steps like the breeze, barely lifting the autumn leaves.

Her eyes were vivid, keepers of a great power and will strong. Her words although undeniable, always soothing like someone too old.

She spoke strangely and their conversation was short but when she had finished he spared no seconds for thought.

A strange request towards the face of the lumberjack. An even stranger responce to leave in a rush.

Bewitching and enchanting, terms often used for her words.
In reality he was conviced with the quest that she brought.

So he walked through the forest.
Up and beyond, up and beyond
Till the clouds he reached, in the cold, so cold distand north.
Up and beyond, up and beyond.
'till he almost reached the sky.
Searching for stars and miracles deep in the night.
After time, after thought he find four stars low enough to be reached with the palm of his hand.
And the stars dissapeared and the lumberjack left.


"This is the story of Letholdus?" asked in disbelief the ambassador.
The old librarian had just finished his small speech and his throat was too sore to answer. He looked around the room for the servant which was supposed to give him his hot beverage.

There was a great amount of guests filling the room from many parts of the realm. This marriage was held only a few weeks after the peace treaty between the two kingdoms. It would act as a reasurrance to both the nobles and common folk that this peace would last for a long time.

Both the marriage and the feast afterwards where quite expensive even for nobles, judging by the enterior of the room.

He soon was pleased to find the waiter passing him some hot tea.
"Besides being the smallest version of his story, it is also my favorite one."

"This was more confusing than enlightening." said Torel with his blunt manner. He had spent long enough time with both soldiers and politics in order to learn to avoid deciphering small truths covered in lies such as these legends and stories.

"I used the fewest words possible young soldier. What was so confusing to your ears?"

"This man ran away from what he knew simply because this woman blinked her eyes." said Torel bluntly.

"According to the legend she was none other than Morighaen." replied young Poleon instead of his master.

"If i am not interrupting.." he added soon after in fake embarassment.

"Go on.." said the old man with a warm smile.

The man took a short breath before proudly flooding his listeners with information.

"In this story the woman has many virtues and is able to convice him to travel very far and away. These godly virtues and somehow mystical acts dictate that she was a divine being and not without reason. As it is said Letholdus himself claimed that she was the Lady of the Night but he did not recollect much of their conversation or ,for his own reasons, choose not say more."

"And these stars are obviously the Erythian stars." said the ambassador.

"Yes and the story of Letholdus is the story of their origins you see.."

"Wait.. wait.." interrupted the ambassador while still processing the information.
"I am still unclear of those stones'or stars', whatever.. usage. I understand they are used for prophecies but no one of us Adunians have learned much, including Torel." he said while lifting his finger briefly towards him.

"Ahm.. yes.. yes." said the librarian.
"Well.. indeed the stars do provide prophecies but in a rather unusual way.. for you see the person that touches the sphere is not able to choose what he wants to see or learn about. Neither by chanting or praying. Not to mention rarely will there be much personal gain to the aspiring oracle. There is a whole procedure in order to see a vision and many times it is not a future one. You can see past events or current happenings. Moreover the..-

"Oh dear god, he will not stop talking." thought the warrior while lifting his eyes in the ceiling. Thankfully to him, he spotted the waiter and made his way through the crowd for another drink. Only a bottle of alcohol would make this interesting. If only he did not have to acompanny the ambassador..

Thankfully no one had much time to notice Torel leaving since the bride came over. Although many people deemed this nothing more than a political marriage the one's close to the couple understood that it was genuine love and to many a happy coinsidence.

What was the really astonishing about the bride's appearance was neither her remarkable dress, long silk like hair or vivid eyes. No, what distinguished her from many other women still with the beauty of youth was a fairly large silverish flower resting on her right ear.

The old man excused her and asked to borrow this rare gem. After a few minutes of promises and reassurances that he would take care of it, the bride hurried off to other guests who were enjoying the feast.

"Thankfully I was an old friend of hers. Otherwise we could spent whole night pointlessly trying to take a hold of this beauty." said the old man with a playful smile. He handed over the flower very carefully to the much younger Poleon.

"Such a flower.." he continued,
".. was the fourth star that letholdus found."

"What fourth star?" said the ambassador slightly confused.

"After descending the mountain, he retyrned with the three spheres known as the Erythian stars. But he also was carrying this flower with him."

"Highly Interesting.." said the ambassador without lifting his eyes from the plant. "So in total we call them stars, seeing spheres and Erythian stars?"

The old man nodded. "Along others. Each star can have a specific name from an event that made it known or based on it's unique color."

"Prime examples are the star of Golden Dawn or star of Dragon Fire." he continued.

"But why would they characterize this plant as a star?" asked the ambassador while pointing at it.

"This .. plant had quite many nicknames over the past years.. but the answer to your question is that this flower.. along with the spheres has its origins from the night sky.. that we gaze upon."
"All of them according to Letholdus himself had fallen long ago from the Night lady's hands and before making their way here.. to the earth."

"Did any more of those fall to the ground as you say?" said the ambassador with poorly hidden ambitions.

"Well.. no not really. Rocks have fallen from the skies before.. some even containing precious minerals but none containing such precious objects."

"Then how did Letholdus find them?"

"A few decades or even centuries before Letholdus birth, there were.. strange sightings in the sky."

"Lights and fire.. all accompanied by great rumbling sounds , which ended in terrifying sightings. Even in these days .. we still see such marks to the ground by objects hitting ferociously the ground."

"But as it is said and from our observations we conclude that .. most of these happened even further north. To this day we have not ventured this far.. and despite that, Letholdus did.. despite the tribes and monsters that still prevent the strongest of warriors, he suceeded. It is said it took him sixteen days alone on the highest mountain to find them."

"This flower.." said the ambassador while taking an extensive look at it. "How did the lovely bride acquire it?"

"If I remember correctly.." he said while stroking his long grey beard. "It was given by a lone farmer in exchange for some taxes. He claimed that he had found it from a merchant of sorts which had past from the eastern mountains.."

"Even without this story.." said the ambassador while passing the flower to Poleon who soon gave it again to the old man "It should be worth quite something from its shining grey color and barely distinguishable pale blue lines."

"What is most fascinating is that it is a plant that changes colors as the time goes by." The old man gave a big smile to his stunned listener.

"Yes you see it is a not very known fact since this theory had been proven only two decades ago. Or because few are interested in such things." He took a brief pause to see if the ambassador was interested. The middle aged man's expression was more than enough for him to go on.

"Despite the loss of the original flower Letholdus brought, there have been numerous sightings of such a flower and only one was found and kept in Stormwatch. Haven't you all heard of this?" he said as Torel approached.

"This flower was more gold like." added Torel slightly proud he could contribute to the conversation.
"Yes but as I said it changes colors. For you see in the begining it was more of a fade yellow and now it begins to become slightly orange."

"You seem very familiar with the subject." said the ambassador.
"Another librarian who is also a botanologist in Tarisport had finished this theory. He was an-"

"And how did he prove this theory of his that this.. how do we call it.. has many colors?" asked Torel the old and knowledgeful librarian.

"Ahm.. yes.. this botanologist chose Phegarion as it's name due to it being the first named used for it.. and how did he prove it.. hmm I do not quite remember.."

"I had read a synopsis of his research-" said Poleon while Torel sighed.

"-He crossreferenced all of the descriptions of such rarely seen flowers and saw a number of characteristics that can be used to distinguish the Phegarion from the others. First its fade glow. Second the bizzare shape. And last but not least its always near or on mountains."

"You better give her, the Phegaryon back." said the ambassador. "She has been staring us for the past couple of minutes."

"Yes of course.." mumbled the old man as he hurried off towards her.

"Remarkable." commented the ambassador to the others.
And the subject soon changed towards the happy couple and the organisation of the feast. All seemed to forgot to ask the whole story of Letholdus.



Part 3


"Are you excited about your first prophecy boy?" said the old man with an encouraging smile.
"Does it matter? i will not be the one doing it." said the boy in a sad tone.
"Yes, but you will be witnessing such an event."
The boy sighed and looked around the room. They were sitting on some wooden benches parallel to the bookcases, waiting for the prophecy to begin. They were in the bottom floor of the tower but the event would take place on the highest floor. Up, up in the top there was no roof or collumns in order to let the first light of the day pass freely. There has been quite some planning that was leading to this moment. But all would come to an end at dawn.
"I as a simple librarian only once had this chance and after many requests and arguments. The only reason I teach many like you.. of such a short age, is because of my extensive knowledge on the wide array of subjects you are required to know about. Not many people of your order can contribute like this."

The boy started yawning. He was trying to wake early the previous days in order wake up more easily, but he was so tired! He had to wake one and a half hour before dawn and he was struggling to stay awake. The others seemed to have no problem. A couple of people where running around preparing the last needed things for the ceremony but most where sitting idle and were awaiting patiently. Two guards where standing on the door towards the stairs before they ascend like most else to the tower.

About five or less warriors where also standing outside. He had passed them on his way in. Their light armor was shining on the faint moonlight and their cloaks were moving from the faint breeze.But behind their small talk you could sense anxiety. Soon their leader would ascend along with priests and scholars while his men would await for his orders outside.

Should something happen they would need to hurry off to the strangest of places fighting the strangest of foes. Most of the time they would not be needed. But the few times they would..

Another couple of priests were sitting on the benches directly across the hall.Some books were resting infront of them, but they weren't in their interest. They were talking on a very low tone almost whispering to each other.

The young man was quitely sitting while the older woman was reminding him what he needed to remember. He would be responcible for carying the ceremony for the first time.

The boy would simply watch the ceremony. Understand before he one day does the same.

That was his and many other young ones goal. To learn to use such small knowledge about the future to protect their lands from the beasts and monsters they had come to fear. For evil is persistent and the end unknown.

Death and despair. Wrong choises with frightful results. All of these legends and tragedies were written in many and extensive lines in those dozens of books.

History repets itself as the old librarian taught. But he would not fail like else. For ultimately, this order of Holy warriors created decades ago by Letholdus had this purpose. Keeping this unhospitable lands safe despite the dangers that existed in these troubled times.

The old librarian leaned back to rest his tired waist, his frail bones cracking in the procedure.

The boy was dreaming ..and hoping for the best like all youngsters of his order. But he knew. He knew the fearfull drawbacks of such prophecies and such.. promises.

They were appealing in the beggining but.. in the end, they were not gifts that you could simply claim your own. Not knowledge that granted you greater power.. or riches.. that each and everyone secretly lusts for.

He could see it in the veterans' faces. Behind their small ordinary jokes.. and warm smiles. For every sucess there was an error.. and every victory was cast into the shadow of the crushing.. trully crushing, defeat.

Why did they attempt this act then? Why do you glimpse into the shadows of the unknown? It was.. a promise. A promise that you unknowingly gave when you touched the material.. of these spheres.. this unbreakable material. This immitation of glass called Pheon.

You promised that you would use your knowledge in the finest possible way.

And the promise that came back was.. that .. in the end.. something good would come out of it.

What that boy did not knew.. was that.. dreams.. are.. illusions. And illusions.. fade. They all fade infront of the sunlight. The blinding sunlight that we both fear.. and adore.

When they were soaked in theirs.. and others blood. When their hearts were pounding faster ..than their long and tiring steps, they all knew that.. their vigorous and boasting words meant nothing at those few but decisive moments.

That effort.. is.. not a word, neither an idea. Effort is nothing less than a choice! A constant .. simple.. and painful choice.

Everytime you avoid it.. everytime you disregard it.. it still remains.. there in the shadows .. waiting to repay you. Repay you for selfish.. and wicked acts.

None of them.. none of them indeed, had done all that they could do prevent the nightmares and their fears. None of them indeed..

And they all witnessed.. the reprecussions that came from failing a promise. Those same reprecuscions that were underestimated so.. blindly.

And perhaps.. the shiniest the dream, the longer it will hold in this dire.. and frightful times. Perhaps this boy would do better than most.

The hooded man descended from the stairs, and without anywords and without passing the guards he gave a single nod to the people in the room ahead. Both of their thoughts were interrupted and they followed him. Up and beyond to the top of the tower. Right before the dawn.



Part 4


The sun was descending and the man was standing infront of the altar gazing at this circle of light.

Besides him were others. Hooded in the same ceremonial cloak. Two scribes where sitting near him but not in his line of sight. They were waiting for his words, his every single word. His words were to them like names of loved ones. Each and every sinlge one was important and worth remembering.

On his right leaning on the shade of the column, to avoid blocking the precious rays of the sun was a warrior. Standing tall and vigilant. Alert for his command.

All of them waiting for the message. This beatiful or frightful moment this man glimpsed into the past. Just when the sun bowed for the last time to his audience, the world.

What could he see? Images flashing like thunder in the dead of the night? Or a solid picture that would act as a canvas for the entirety of the artist's life? It could be both. It could be none at all. It could be a slow and calming story of a person too old too rush with his words. Or it could be faster than the heartbeat of a man trully in fright.

He could hear a voice of a man, of a woman of one or two childs. He could hear whispers but nothing like lies. No. For lies where not spoken in this small world of glass. But not all secrets were revealed in this glimpse to the past.

He could see moments or a lifetime. In the end for all others it would last the same.

Trully he did not know what he would see.
And the sun was descending fast.
Surprisingly fast.
And as the sun was setting the man stepped forward and took hold of this sphere. This object that many choose to call "star".

He raised it slowly and placed with ease between him and the sun.

The rays were changing color as they passed through this strange glass. The rays for nothing more than a mere moment changed their route.

He lowered the sphere very slightly right before the sun was about to completely dissapear and witnessed the slight glow of the sphere to his and many others relief.

Like water disrupted from its essential flow, the light was being stirred in this crystal ball.

And then it awoke from its slumber, to reveal what it knew.



Part 5


"What lies in the mist?

What treacheries and blood.. Is there anything beyond death and sorrow deep within the white veil of the north? Or it does not matter cause you will fearfully avert your eyes?

Even with they eyes of an eagle you would not be able to look beyond the thick mist that constanltly surrounds these forgotten parts.But you need to look past it. One hundred feet would be enough. A hundred feet and the barricade between life and death would be broken.

But do you trully want to witness such terrors, Letholdus?

Or should you better avert your eyes?"


Letholdus eyes narrowed as the vision dissapeared. But the mist was still here. He looked at the others beside him. Delvar was awaiting patiently while sitting on the soft snow and Belvor was marking the ground beside him. The sun ha rissen and the moment of the vision that Letholdus saw, there on the side of the mountain was nothing more than a memory.

They both stood up and asked their leader the obvious question. What did he see?

What he trully saw was barely recognisable by the mist, but he could figure it out. A tower of ice made by the constant winter coat that covers everything. And then.. blood. Blood and bones. Remnants of a furious battle. Axes crashing human skulls. Native tribes that were destroyed by something worse than them.

Some lived. Only to wear shakles.
Those prisoners were walking through the mists with shadowy warriors besides them.

But different shadows covered the cell that Letholdus saw. A man with his skin covered in blood. The shadows concealing his tortured soul and body.

"That's what I saw." said Letholdus.

They stood to discuss it a little again in case they had missed any crucial details. But the conversation ended with a few obvious words.

"What do we do?" said Belvor.

"We ride to this ice tower."

And so they hurried through mist, snow and night.
'Till they reached the ice tower which stood tall in the mountain's side.

And with the lack of sunlight and steps very light, they reached the cell they had seen, too near the evil's reach.

The man was released from his imprisoment so far away and they hurried to flee when they were caught by the light of the day.

Hounds and beasts, all released to tear their flesh and bones apart. That's what Letholdus heard when his men dissapeared in the mist of the dusk.

And he stopped and he questioned. Crucial hesitation when his friends where in desperate need? Two steps back and a turn, facing the mist.

And the one was long dead. Brutal wounds from the beasts' sharp fangs. The other soon faded in the arms of the only brother he had.

And he rised and he left, with the man they had tried so hard to keep alive. The man Norcross thought gone in the north's furthest side.

A glorious day in the fortress. A relief from the sorrow it constantly endures. Good news for the men when the lost son retyrned.

And a gift to each Lord was given. A star shining in these dark days. An opportunity to thrive in so many ways.



Part 6


Nestor had finally reached the mountain top and his eyes were moving from the enemy fortress to the remnants of the once proud ice wall.. looking for something .. something of importance.

But it was to no avail. He had learned nothing more than dozens others before him. And therefore he started descending the mountain before he was seen by the enemy.

His steps lead him back to Whitescar and then to the snowy dwarven lands he had learned to respect. The hunt was fairly good but his mind was still not resting from its laborous task.

Soon he found a woman speaking to him. Her words where strange and her composure bizzare. But by the end of their conversation, he knew he had to do something different from what he had in mind. And so he left with haste.

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Was great for me to read. Super glad he finally posted this. I love the idea and presentation and am glad to have given (very little, 99% Amfionas's work, 1% my lazy suggestions) advice as he wrote this. Well done Amfionas, 10/10.

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I will give a detailed reply tomorrow. :)

 

It would help if you had a preface and summary to the lore. It helps people wrap their minds around reading all that text.

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I love this, though through reading it, they behave more like the Mirror of Galadriel, then the Palantir. But they're Palantir, and that's /awsome/. I love it!

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Alright, I'll give my best to give some detailed feedback. Let's start.

 

In my experience things like this never work. That's a simple but brutal truth. Anything that gives the user manipulation over future events ((A.K.A Seeing the future. Time Traveling. And so on)) Fall into a fiery grave. Why? Simply put they are generally too "over powered" Too "God modding". In a server with such a huge playerbase generally giving such power like that has never worked.

 

With that out of the way, I can safely say that this is does not fall into the same category. When you brought up your inspiration being the Palantir I let out a small groan. I expected that you would copy it in it's entirety. Though you didn't. There is a safety net that keeps this lore from being /too/ over powered. Though that is not to say it is without it's faults. Having to get ooc permission to be able to see certain events will be the bane of this lore. It is a /huge/ pain in the ass because generally speaking no one likes to lose. And giving your enemy the advantage of seeing what is going to happen before it happens is something most people don't like to do. You would have to find a special player to agree to let you actually see the future. It is a sad truth.

 

So I support this lore, I believe it is wondrously written and could not applaud you more for writing it, but I do not know entirely if it will work on a server with such a large playerbase. A concept like this works in a book, works in a movie, but when your playing with other real players it is a whole nother ball game. Regardless you have my unyielding +1 friend. 

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Thanks for the support, I really really really appreciate it.

I agree it is a necessary drawback because as you said otherwise it is overpowered. How can you judge what knowledge will give you significant advantages and what events need to be set in the future?

It won't be the bane of this lore but it will certainly be something that greatly confines it. But truth is I did not make this purely for gruesome warnings or as a mean to win all wars. I made this for the roleplay. So that I and others do not get easily bored again.

There are many more good examples of visions which I did not include because this is enormously huge. I believe that the true inspiration was a prophecy which my character heard in the first days of me in the server. It was unbelievably good and I still loved those exciting moments where you learned something truely important.

I also got a second prophecy about my character. How he would die in a great war and be remembered and forgotten. People that use these spheres can see their own future. Not like "I will be king" but like choosing how they die or a few crucial monents they can coordinate with friends(romance, adventure, loss of a loved one). I doubt I will be listened about wars but those little moments will be breathtaking. Not to mention I will be annoying the event team a lot with events I come up with. And many more. Finding hidden relics/treasure(event) or uncovering lore and stories some of importance some just for fun!

And lastly the true base of the idea were greek oracles. Other things that contributed were the machine in person of interest, the mirror of galadriel (nice spotting hobo), greek myths where the sun sees all, batman with the blue flower in batman begins, and I believe uncosciously much more! Thanks a lot for the patience you showed by reading this. Your feedback was great. It crossed my mind at a point, but I did not think it through.

The support means trully a lot! :D

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The support means trully a lot! :D

Anytime friend. I know the feeling of dedicating yourself to something like this and not receiving some feedback. After writing that much you deserve it. Glad you took the critique with a grain of salt, I hope everything works out for you ^.^

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Seeing the future would indeed be difficult to do, even if the stars are ICly capable of it. Perhaps have them used ingame to see the present, like a sadly abandoned part of Kha magic did? Then again, anyone with a star could then use it to see their friends deaths and enact retribution on their killers, allowing what otherwise would be metagaming of the worst kind. Like Voidsoldier, I'm trying to see how to get it to work practically ingame.

Also, would it be possible for you to post an OOC summary of the function of the stars? It'll make things much easier for anyone coming in future to check on the function of the stars.

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I had made a huge wall of text to respond in this but i decided to be short cause I will end up with a headache while confusing all of us.

1. This kha idea does not work in so many ways I have trouble finding from where to start and I really can not think how to fix it. Either by powergaming or granting useless knowledge, present visions do not work as I said in the summary. Can elaborate if need be but it is pretty obvious why.

2. The future visions will work even without relating them to other parties in the server if we made specifically events while keeping in mind that they will be seen in such a vision. Either with the event team or without it. Can not elaborate without examples because this idea becomes too theoretical. I really tried to explain , did not work.

3.I thought that the spheres function was explained on the 3-5 question of the summary. I do not know what else you want me to add. Will add it if I understand what you mean.

4.If I try to explain further I will start being unecessary long and confusing. I can give either better examples of visions+events here on the forums, in game, or via skype. Exactly in the way they could/should happen in game and how they can be enough in quantity to keep the spheres interesting and fun.

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Yeah, I agree, the present thing doesn't really work. As for the summary, that's what I was looking for. Somehow, I managed to miss it.

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I had forgotten pasting 8-7 lines of text and only took notice of it yesterday. It's increndibly easy to get lost in this despite the spoilers and obvious difference in context.

Back on topic. What I had in mind was that he most visions that can be shown in an elven month will be three to five. Considering the ooc preparation that it is required even for the most minor event/vision.

A good ic explanation for the waiting time between the visions would be the astral and planetary alligments and moon phases. You need specific ones to see a vision. In such away we would avoid the constant ic dissapointment of "nothing is happening." and have somethig to occupy one self.

I believe it would work for such an amount of visions.

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This has been ready for review since I posted it in JULY.PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE IT A VERDICT.

I am tired of seeing oter threads getting reviewed while I patiently wait for signs of god damn life in this abandond planet.

Pleaaaaaaaase review it.

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