ScreamingDingo

Don't put Hou Zi in Aeldin. Otherwise it's fairly solid lore, Cathant/Oyashima were meant to draw those heavy influences but also had an increased presence of demon/supernatural aspects intertwined in the background of these illustrious empires. Based on actually making those spiritual influences from IRL actually real in the continent and creating a continuous barrier between man and the unknown. Also there's still the insanely large war happening between cathant and Oyashima

The canopies would encase the area in the deep tones of green that would collapse over the forest, a dreary yet peaceful sign of nature as a lone man would traverse through its bed. The branches would swing and rustle, ever following the intruder upon their space with each movement meticulous. The wind would stain itself with the scent of pine, with the suffocation of the senses through overwhelming the mind and body which would hinder most except for the intruder below. The symphony of nature and its true personification, nothingness. The stillness of the air and forest were mesmerising to him, but this had become his haven away from society. He’d approach the entangled ruins, his cloak of leather shifting which each movement as the man would embark on the journey to traverse the jutting peaks of stone that would break from the density of the forest. Where the wind would linger briefly and then pass by without another trace, where the birds would not perch and sing, this was where nature had overtaken man. His boots would clatter against the stone, their make allowing for the outlying stone to not be any burden to his journey. Time had passed as he entered the heart of the ruins, a lone map would sit in the center of the outlying area. The surrounding outcrop of the wilderness was encamped by four distinct areas to each cardinal direction, a fortress and outpost to the west and south, with a hamlet and a military camp to the north and east respectively. The inner depths of the forest sanctum were scrawled with previous markings either done by the man himself, or wherever this map was retrieved from. A tattered banner of red and yellow would be in the corner of the small area, hung up next to a makeshift weapons rack that would hold the man’s arsenal. An arbalest would lay on the bottom, while two axes would drape themselves across one another by the branches of the rack. One head made of silver and the other made of steel, yet both stained with blood and showed obvious wear. The man would drop his hood to revealed the disheveled appearance beneath it, age had taken his toll upon his entire form it seemed. His eyes carried the murky brown that most low-born were accompanied with, while the fuzz of grey would overtake his defined features upon his jawline. Streaks of grey would come through his mattered and otherwise dark hair, which hung loosely below his ears and glanced against his shoulders. A simple sigh and a yawn came from the man as he’d approach the other side of the small hideout, where a hole would be dug out and a large metal pot would be draped upon it. A contained fire it seemed, where smoke was to be hidden when possible. He was nestled between two sets of decrepit walls, where both of his flanks were covered by high outcrops that lead further into the forest. Contained and secluded, it is all that the man wished for. He would unclasp the cloak that would hang from his neck and place it over near the dug out pit, a cracking of joints and bones following as he would roll his neck around. After such a movement, the man would unclasp each of the straps upon his leather gloves. Distinct clicks and rattles coming from the glove before the man’s flesh would be revealed beneath. A scarred and brutalised hand, a faded brand wrapping itself around his palm and over the back of it. Though, it reached within the pot and grasped onto a morsel left from the last few days, the softness of meat before it rots is the most tender. The man would then slip the morsel of meat into his mouth, a squelched smack of his lips as he’d chew upon the meat. The silence would linger for the moment before it’d be broken by the sudden snapping of branch from the upper outcrop, the man’s vision shifting as he’d spot the yellow and red banner now raised from that position. The cascade of metal and men would fill the otherwise silent outcrop as soldiers would rise from the foliage, arbalests and swords at the ready as the men would assemble. But the single man would simply stand there, his finger slowly removing itself from his lips as he’d come to the realisation of what happened. The last morsel, the last piece of life within his pitiful existence. “Stand down! We of the Barony of Braibent have come to claim the bounty upon your head, of ten thousand marks!” The order would be simple, yet the man would gaze over to the other side of the outcrop where an almost mirror like assembly would make itself apparent. The man’s eyes would dart to each of the men, remarking their weapons and form. Though his count would be lost as he’d reach at least the tenth man on the adjacent outcrop, outnumbered, overwhelmed. Crossbows and arbalests were trained upon the man’s figure, the ever watching eyes and the judges of his next few moments. His dried and cracked lips would purse for the minute, then part as he’d speak. “You have got me, you have heard of my reputation have you not? I have hid and slaughtered more insurgents than you have within your pitif-” Sometimes silence is truly the answer, as the man would speak to the outcrop in front of him a violent snap would be heard from an arbalest. The bolt flying through the air and tearing through into the lower back of the man with a sickening squelch, the leather gambeson doing truly nothing as the man’s knees would buckle from the shot. Shock, realisation as pain would flood his body, the flaring of his back and each muscle twitching. His eyes widening as the coordinated strike would not cease, another bolt loosed from the back as it would strike into his right shoulder. Another squelch, another stagger as he’d shift his foot forward only a single pace. His eyes would droop as he’d hold his tongue, he did not wish to scream, he did not wish to plead, he only wished to observe. Through the darkness that now encapsulated his vision, a gauntlet would sent outward to point towards the staggered man. One… Two… Three… The strikes would come one after another, each bolt burying themselves deep within his form. The first one was towards his upper leg, flesh tearing as he’d buckle from the strike. Yet the second followed through with its course, aimed towards the center of his back. Another sickening strike as the bolt would eviscerate the flesh it would enter, another jolt of pain coming forth as his head would reel upward from the pain. The third, the flesh in the back of his neck would split as the bolt would tear straight through his tendons. His head raised for the moment would be followed by an attempted scream, but yet the bolt caught on to any words that may have come from his throat. The head of the bolt would protrude outward, the tip just passing by his chin as he’d gurgle and splatter upon his own blood. The stones around him now dripping into a pool of crimson, dragged from the first shot, yet now he would not see anything else. His last words were stammered, croaking as blood would fill his final moments. The horrific sensation of drowning was something people can imagine, but when the water is replaced by the warm ichor that flows through you, it creates a crueler fate that many would never wish to face. “Why did I join them.” Darkness would fade over the man, a final thud coming from the man as he’d collapse in his own blood. The last volleys of the arbalestmen would unload themselves onto the corpse, yet the corpse was not even a man anymore. He was target practice.

sorry where’s my breathing application??? @Elennanore

Human players with lore get 2 IRL years from about starting a character at 20. I just don’t believe it’ll be ever used, it’s not a bad piece at all it’s just more of a useless piece. The idea of humans having to take the fonts of immortality to keep their magic is something I do enjoy, old school liches (not how poorly they’re played on lotc) normally did as such to retain their magical knowledge and prowess. If the roots of that were explored it’d be great, otherwise I don’t think there is enough of a problem among human mages to make this worthwhile.

Look, I see the intention of this and everything. But is it really needed? Pseudo-immortality for mages is something I don’t think people will even use because of how consequence heavy it is and how anti-consequence the magic community is. Seems like it’ll become a dead piece quite quickly.

apps are accepted w/ fathers as werewolves and being basically mini strigas but AT won’t accept dwarves with lightish blue hair l o l

i only endorse necromancy if @drfate786 is the sole lead of it

The Kelly Winery and Co. now has a steady supply at the Mos'LeHarmless Cantina in Carolstadt. More affordable wines for the greater populace and the aspiring wine connoisseur

this was all good until you said this is a player eventline with the implication of running it and not being endorsed by any legitimate source

Kelly Winery and Co. An older establishment which was made by Frederick Kelly to ensure that the denizens of Atlas have access to regal wines, noble supplies and monetary investments. Located on the outskirts of Belvitz, this small manor is the base of operations for those who wish to gather any of these supplies. If Mister Kelly is not within the premises, please send a courier towards the address below and place the letter in his mailbox. Responses should be made promptly if an address is provided. Wine List - For wines for special occasions, contact to Mister Kelly is needed to negotiate prices and quantities Loans- Small monetary sums are offered to those within Adria and Carolstadt to establish businesses or rent homes. These will need to be negotiated personally, though small sum loans are presented below. 500 Minas - One Saint’s Week to return with 50% interest. (750 minas repayment) 1000 Minas - One Saint’s Week to return with 50% interest. (1500 minas repayment) 2500 Minas - Two Saints week to return with 50% interest. (3750 minas repayment) Higher sums will need to be negotiated personally and contracts drafted up outlining the terms and repayments Royal Supplies - For those wanting for perfumes or scents to go with their attire and general lifestyle. Former Chamberlain experience allows for Mister Kelly to produce high quality scents, personalised for a sum if one wishes for that. Contact him in person or through letter at his residence to organise the scents and what the buyer wishes for.

i see the gm director is being productive as usual

good ****

OKAY HERE WE GO. As much as I’d love to **** on the Ascended solely for their OOC reputations and mannerisms. I have to seem like a good boy so @FlamboyantRage thinks I’m a good enough pick for (LM). I also sent Lark a massive doc during the last rewrite so I feel obliged to speak on it. So, lets begin. First part I would like to address is the addition of the creation/origins lore that creates some cosmic battlefield to talk about why your powers have changed. But it is done in such a convoluted, messy way that interferes with world lore itself for the benefit of flavor. I’m all for flavor posts to start off lore, but in this instance its orientated towards glorifying your god and order with a story that is unknown to everyone. Though, I know for a fact it will be referenced and spoken of how Aerial battled a ‘Void God’ and defended the entire world once again, cementing the idea of the good faction of the Ascended. Jallentine even addressed the next issue, which is that the amount of tenents and “commandments” that you legitimise through lore is just insane. The over “fluffing” of in game commandments to ensure there is no potential for loopholes or corruption is quite a mystery to me, it shows that you as a playerbase cannot even trust each other to roleplay fairly and dynamically without pulling out rules to justify yourselves. The “Soul” and inevitably the “Heart” tenants lock the player into a specific niche of roleplay no matter the choice of the character. It is, “don’t do this or we’ll hate you. Though here are some exceptions that we will IC’ly ostracise you for, by only mentioning them in this post.” Disconnection should /always/ be held within the leadership of the group and dynamic enough to allow for legitimate power struggles and coups. If you have to reinforce your character’s thinking with lore, it oversteps the actual purpose of it. Lore should supplement the server and the mindset of the character, you create characters before you insert them into pieces of lore (or that’s how it should be anyway). What this does is not solve any issues, it simply creates a thought-police mentality that the Ascended, Clerics and Paladins have had when enforcing their in-character prejudices and problems. They go to an LT and report them, to make the god yell at them instead of reprimanding it. The tenant system you proposed is unhealthy for any group, no matter the justification at this stage. Even though Tearstones don't look that bad upon first glance, an aesthetic extension to use as an implement for the magic. It changes when you look at the loopholes that can happen within this. This seems like an attempt at balancing the magic in a cheap way that people will glance over, but it will be abused severely because of the lack of restrictions on how it can be utilized. There is absolutely nothing stopping an Ascended imbuing their plate armor with their soulshard in a super protective space that blunt weapons cannot hit it and therefore cannot disable them. Or there’s the idea of having it carried like a phylactery, just chuck it in your pocket, it glows a bit and then you have your magic powers. It’s seemingly written with the intent to pull and emphasis this obscure weakness of water evocation which has probably a total of 10 people. (Would need that to be clarified and I can be corrected, but that’s a very niche and rare evocation rivaling air.) The fracturing of a Tearstone is way too lenient, if a literal shard of your soul is destroyed then it would have more than, “o i cant cast magic anymore” effect on the user. It also being rebuilt in a single IRL hour is barely a drawback. It means you can just simply hide out somewhere for an hour and pop straight against the person you were fighting previously. (Tl;dr here Tearstones seem like a lazy way to try balancing the magic and have various loopholes that can be found within the very writing) Okay, the next thing is more of a personal qualm of how this lore has functioned for years. I really hate the entire concept of Ascended instantly shedding into a thousand shards upon death and disappearing immediately. It just seems to make the idea and consequence of death less severe, with the Ascended basically being immortal stasis babies with no true way to be PK’d. Why would the Aengul of LITERAL SOULS keep their guardians within the realm where her influence is probably the weakest. She shouldn’t care about how mature souls get or whatever, just simply that they get up there untainted and fine. Extending the life of a soul beyond its natural capabilities seems like something that would be unironically the antithesis of Aerial’s own philosophy. (But that is how it has been roleplayed and the LT have done so in the past. So this criticism doesn’t ring true and I expect the reply to this to be, ‘its how its always been done’). Albino Ascended Children are irrelevant and definitely not needed in this lore at all. I'd rather not have power babies coming from ascended claiming their Aerial’s fourth nipple. There’s literally zero reason to include this in a magic re-write apart from wanting to ensure that people are happy they can bang and have family RP in a pretty daunting and life consuming magic. Okay, into the meat and abilities of the magic, let’s start with Highlight. I believe it’s quite an interesting move to include highlight to not need line of sight after its casted. Though this can mean an absolute system of abuse for a system that relies on buffing and debuffing (which generally don’t make sense within the lore themes, but whatever). You can run around a target, go “bonk” and then chuck four weakness emotes on them while you hide behind a wall. There is absolutely no risk with something that can be honestly quite game-changing within a fight. All it takes is for a quick highlight and a thought to make your ally absolutely shatter your opponent with uninterrupted buffs and debuffs. From a balance perspective, I hate having any abilities that imbue or weaken strength directly for how abusable it can be. I can’t **** on moonlight illumination, it’s just literally highlighting an object. It does fit with the theme and I cannot really find any complaint of such. Same with the next one, it just seems unneeded to have a magic have the ability to make people calm and go to sleep? Okay, I remember talking to Lark about this next section. Moonlight radiance. The absolute absurd power of this ability is something that people will skim over, because it’s effects really seem mundane until you really observe it. “These faintly glowing wounds do not naturally heal and will remain indefinitely, locked in time much like an agent of Aeriel is. However, unlike an agent, these open wounds may make other areas of the body susceptible to infection.” So essentially, this is a “one strike” kill hit to any area that bleeds a solid amount or is immensely prone to infection. It’s implying that it will become common knowledge that you can soak these wounds in water to heal them, but even by the time its meta-gamed off the post. You’ve killed someone. You’ve essentially created a weapon that can be so lethal to kill someone in a single strike, which is absolutely not on. I understand debuffing it for more participants but you'd be silly to use this with anyone other than yourself to buff your blade and insta-kill an opponent. (tl;dr semi permanent wounds are absolutely broken) Crystalise is a poor frost witches’ vapor freeze which can basically disable an opponent instantly by conjuring it onto their face. Nothing stops this being abused mid-fight to simply disable opponents and lead to their death, (which seems like the complete opposite of what Aerial wants. Giving these mages the ability to kill and harm descendants with ease, when their entire purpose is on the maturation of souls. That’s a yikes from me) The slowness is not what the true powerful thing about this lore is, it’s being able to basically just place horrid amounts of frostbite on people’s exposed skin for a duration of a time, which will be abused and I can imagine how so already. Astral mirrors are broken because what they can reflect back is absolutely limitless. A single Ascended metaphorically could absorb a meteor into their shield and launch it back into the sky with how it’s written. There’s no actual limit to projectiles instead of “one”. With the ability to also cause those never healing wounds that Radiance causes. Absolutely yikes. It's an overpowered spell that has limitless potential. I’d like to cut my intermission to bring back my original post. Absolutely hate the use of the WORD ASTRAL SINCE WE’VE MADE LOTS OF EVENTS AROUND IT Okay lets continue. Astral Armor once again suffers from the same problems as the Mirror and Highlighting in general. Allowing for an opponnent to take any ‘two’ determined hits no matter what in Melee for basically free is insane. I understand the Astral pooling and everything, but that stops basically everything from gut impales to neck slices, the works. This is a “get out of jail free card” which now lines up with the thematic idea, but from a balance perspective lacks any true thought into it. It’s biggest weakness is the water evo push wish is just so, out of place. Quickening is just an excuse to let people double emote and break the ideas of how it works. You wouldn’t be able to also just load and fire a crossbow in a single emote because you’re faster, because that’s not how it works. Being able to draw and attack, double attack and the works can lead to some very broken scenarios. If you look at it this way, if a CRP continues its momentum of you keeping on the offensive. The opponent has to block two attacks for the next five emotes, each emote. While normally suffering this ‘instant kill’ radiance buff that’ll be applied in the scenario if you stack the different magics. This makes absolutely no sense thematically aswell. Why would Aerial make people quicker? These protective and offensive buffs and debuffs make no sense in the idea of trying to preserve human life. If you’re going to stick with this pacifist good idea, you can’t just immediately have things that are super effective combat wise that everyone else would want. Stasis isn’t too bad, makes sense with the themes Chemical yadayada makes absolutely no sense though, why are Ascended able to enhance alchemical ingredients within a user. Increasing the potency of potions after consumption seems absolutely absurd balance and theme wise. Why in the world would they be able to somehow prolong functions of the metabolism when this magic is meant to be targeting the soul. It also means that you can abuse this section and basically insta-kill someone with a poison upon consumption. Many avenues of this not fitting at all. Communion is powersharing, nothing fancy and I guess it makes sense thematically. Nothing too wrong with Sanctuaries, they’re basically just a place to shelf your character and ensure the wounds of your battle recover instantly. I’m not keen on it at all but from a thematic and lore perspective this does fit within the piece. Astral Dream seems like a weird thing to give its own section. It’s essentially just resaying what sanctuaries do, except they can be a minor appearance fountain of youth for others that aren’t ascended. Soul shattering I have a massive part on above talking about disconnection and tenants. This just once again creates a hostile environment and forces too much emphasis on OOC enforcement of a roleplay group. I also dislike the entire idea of having to consent to a disconnection OOC’ly unless they have broken an “OOC” rule. RP disputes and genuine problems cannot be enforced by leaders. Instead its based on an arbitrary system of moderation the LT should not ever have to do for a magic group. And that’s the basic run-down. There are so many balancing issues and thematic mismatches throughout the lore which make me worry for this piece to be accepted. This isn’t me just hating, fyi. This is the criticism I can give without going into the other problems the ascended face.

omegalul imagine having years of staff teams hammering in convuluted and poor druid lore to the point where it is somehow so vague but bloated at the same time

Name: Quentyn Race: Human Age: 40  Discord#: joel#4235

I’m pretty happy the birthing thing got removed from ST’s. The only real clarification I’m confused with is Apostasy. I understand “why”, but within lore it would make no sense for the body to not just be instantly killed. As you’ve stated, it is a full commitment to the Aspects, the moment that it is removed, it makes sense that they would just succumb otherwise. The Aspects don’t actually care about druids and their squabbles, (or shouldn’t anyway). Why would something they’ve dedicated their lives to not kill them, even if the process was basically them being impaled and wrapped into a tree. If that protection goes, they’re still just impaled in a tree. (Or killed in whatever manner) I understand all the OOC drama surrounding it, but it was probably one of the better parts of ST’s that had a consequence that basically 90% of other magics didn’t. It has the potential for great roleplay, I believe anyway. Though I’m not part of the druid community so I can’t comment on how relevant my take on it is. Also why the moonlight requirement it makes zero sense. Otherwise, it doesn’t actually look that bad.

A Velian man spots his potential competition and readies his glue vats filled with discarded foals