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Site Wide Plot  - another one coming

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Kauri
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#11

Oh father, release me. Oh mother, believe me...
Kauri stalked about the peak for the few days to follow the summit. He didn't care for any of these gods here since he had his own deities to trust and respect back at his homeland. They earned those rightfully so, so he could never turn away from them. Even though his faith was locked elsewhere, it did not stop him from wanting to gain knowledge for the beings here. Perhaps if he returned with information of another pantheon, Mother would forgive his unspoken disappearance. Certainly, the matron goddess craved to know of others within the same divine power, whether that be a different land or a different world. It would do Her well to know more, to ensure the protection of Her people—of the deities She oversaw. With that, the nagging guilt he endured slowly began to subside. Now, he had a self-given obligation to uphold to.

What was this now? As he passed through a certain area, he noticed a crowd of equines. Path changed to end up with the rest of them, staying aback from the situation for the time being. Violet eyes pressed past the amass of strangers to look onto the one that caused this commotion. He hummed, intrigued by the god's looks. Ears tuned in to what others were saying, a surge of amusement running through the stallion. There were prayers, then there were bitter words he could easily taste from the air. Kauri scoffed when recognizing one of the angry ones was a mare he met at the summit. It is a curse, death is but the sweetest thing. He stood a prime example, a victim to decades of loneliness and despair; of course, no one knew or perhaps wouldn't care of his days as a demigod. Shaking his head, he moved in closer.

He watched one of these strangers examine the god quite closely. Admittedly, he wanted to do the same, but his eyes could see enough from the metre he stood away from Solis. Kauri breathed in any scent, searched for any essence from the golden being; one ear flicked back in blatant mistrust. He didn't like the energy from this one—it was too consuming. Nudging the air, he nodded at the god in acknowledgment. "Greetings. Glad to see you rest no more," he spoke.

@
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Jericho
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#12

Jericho
and the walls came tumbling down


The mountains, there was something about them that kept him, comforted him, urged him to stay.  Jericho had been wandering the peaks for the past few days, exploring the narrow paths and sharp summits, breathing in the crisp air and wading through cool, clear alpine creeks. It was familiar here, so reminiscent of the home he’d left behind that sometimes he imagined he might catch a glimpse of a familiar face.
 
But it was a dangerous mentality, and he knew it. Not many roamed these rocky slopes with him, and despite the promise of temporary comfort, Jericho felt as though he’d begun to let his mission stall—after the time he’s spent alone up here, he could safely say that there seemed to be a distinct scarcity of life in the mountains, let alone prospective brides. And so it was with a wistful heart that he began to wind his way down through the mountains, trading views of cloudtops for treetops in his descent.
 
He was making good progress that morning, working his way around boulders and across stony stretches, when he noticed that his journey had begun to grow easier. While before he had wandered into the wilder stretches of this mountainous terrain, now Jericho looked down and noticed a smooth swatch smudged into the land, a trail beaten into the granite by many hooves for many years. The track was just ahead, running perpendicular to his own trajectory. Curious, he scrambled over a final boulder and landed lightly on the trail. It led up.
 
For a moment, he hesitated, remembering his intentions to descend. But, he countered, a trail meant frequent use—perhaps others weren’t so far away after all? It did not take long to make a decision. Abandoning his original plan (for the moment at least), the young stallion followed the path that would lead him to Solis’ shrine.
 
It was in this way that he came upon the gathering. Smiling slightly to himself, Jericho slipped into the back of the crowd. He did not know why these strangers had met here, but he intended to find out.


"speech"
Image Credits || original coding by kaons; modified by shady










Played by Offline Staff [PM] Posts: 309 — Threads: 165
Signos: 989,640
Official Novus Account
#13





It did not take long for them to come, as Solis knew they would.

A smile lights up his handsome face, bathing in the compliments the warrior from his own court showered upon him. Seraphina greets him, and despite the chill in her tone he inclines his head warmly. “Neomu, Seraphina, welcome, my people…”

It did not take long for his grin to sour however, and collapse into a frown.

Bexley Briar seethes at him, and the sun god watches with a look of disdain. One mare questions him, then another, and another. Through it all, the god is silent—appearing far more interested in watching the light play off his own skin than he is in their words and petty concerns. It’s only when a fiery-colored mare gets too close for comfort, before quickly being pulled away by a dark pegasus, that the sun god finally stirs.

He snaps his head up to stare @Moira down cooly, before roving over each of the attending equines in turn. “Is this supposed to be my Regent? My people? Is this a greeting fit for the God of Solterra?” he asks in a rumbling voice, shaking his head so that his hair shimmers and cascades like liquid gold.

You. His eyes snap to @Bexley, his molten gaze matching the fury that shone in her own golden eyes. “You call yourself a Regent? My Regent?” His voice is incredulous, and his frown continues to deepen. Solis breathes in her smoke and flame, until his body seems to shimmer and burn the same way as her own. Flames lick at his mane and tail, turning them ablaze: they burn hot and wild, heat singing the equines around them.

Slowly but surely, Bexley’s flame goes out, consumed by Solis’. He steals her sparks and fury, claiming her magic as his own and simultaneously snuffing her flame like a blown-out candle. The sun god turns her heat back on her, until he is the one emanating blinding light and spastic embers, directing them back at the disgraced Regent. “Such big words for someone with so little power,” he sneers. “Let us see how you do without your magic.”

Satisfied, he turns away in disgust as his body continues to burn. He stares in turn upon each of the doubting mortals, from @Pavetta to @aethelind to @Moira to @jericho.  Solis doesn’t care why they do not know; ignorance is an excuse he refuses to accept. “Have you no eyes, have you not listened to the stories of how this land came to be? I am Solis. God of the Day, protector and keeper of the Sun. I am the reason you have days in which to live.” His eyes burn brighter and brighter, filled with fire and passion. “Bow now, or begone with you.”

“And you,” he says to the tribal-painted @turhan and @batty, a hint of disappointment clouding his brilliant features and causing a darkness to enter his stare. “You come to me asking about my sister? Perhaps you should visit her shrine instead.” He does not answer Turhan’s question; and why should he? It is not his responsibility to look after Vespera. His concern is for his own citizens and followers. “I suggest you go home now, return to your swamp if there is nothing else here for you.”

He turns away from them all, forcing his way through the crowd. His hoofs burn the grass the same way as Bexley’s did, but where she leaves only smoke and singed grass in her wake, he leaves fire and glass.

“Come, all those who worship me, and ask your questions. I have no time for the faithless or the believers of other gods.”




Solis is displeased with the Day Court Regent and steals her magic from her; @Bexley’s magic is on hold for the next real-life month! Any threads started between now and August 9th cannot include her magic; pre-existing threads may continue on as normal.

Solis also addresses those he deems unworthy, due to lack of faith or knowledge: @pavetta, @aethelind, @Moira, @jericho. He gives them a choice: worship him, or leave. He will not force the mortals to praise him, but he has no time to worry for those who do not.

He is further disappointed by @Turhan and @batty. Solis is a jealous and arrogant god; if they choose to care more for his sister Vespera than him, he suggests they leave and find her instead.

Finally, Solis begins to descend the cliff, leaving the faithless behind and commanding his true followers to go with him. Those who do, and can prove their devotion in their words and actions, will get to converse with the sun god… and may even get a prize! Those who follow but fail to worship him may be ignored or punished.



Only those who have already replied to this thread may continue interacting with Solis. You have between now and Saturday, July 14th, at 11:59 PM EST. Sorry for the wait, guys!





To tag this account: @*'Random Events' without the asterisk.
Please be advised, tagging the Random Event account does not guarantee a response!





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Kauri
Guest
#14

Oh father, release me. Oh mother, believe me...
One ear drew back while mind swept away this god's incoming wave of contempt. He looked toward the offender again that brought the flames upon Solis to lick the air. Worry lightly touched his shoulders, unsure what to do or believe when it went down between Bexley and Solis. Taking a few steps back, Kauri then began working his way to the back of the crowd and continued to listen in on what was spat at most everyone. A ghost amongst this mass, he'll keep true to that position.

Guardian of the Sun and overseer of Day. The masked fellow hums and tilts his head. What would Death think of this golden god? Although, his interest was more on who cared for the loving moon. Not all was lost. Violets glistened, thoughts stirring within each other. As he watched onward, intrigue slowly morphed into disgust. Something began to seethe within him, and he could look no longer. Sighing, he gradually began walking away from the gathering. Alas, the stallion had no place here and so, no where to look to. With a seeming divide between the gods, all he could think of was conflict, conflict—mayhem. Fantastic.

Taking up on the demand to leave, Kauri sauntered forward and down the mountain. As much as he wanted to learn more, he couldn't get through with how the god's presence continuously twisted his stomach. Curiosity enticed him to do more observing elsewhere, to go discover the one that graced the moon. Perhaps one day he would return and do so. But as of now, nausea pestered him from what all he has taken from this encounter.

~Exit~
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Batty
Guest
#15

The first records of our young world were those of tears and blood;
its last records will be those of tears and blood also.


Solis' glare could not shed light into the empty sockets of the witch doctor's mask, much less coerce her hidden eyes into blinking beneath his withering attention. He scorned the chosen of Vespera and Vespera herself, and for that the spotted mare happily scorned him. Her tusks scraped aggressively against the predator's skull as she worked her jaw around the shape of her ire.

With a switch of her bobbed tail and a clatter of beads against bone, the witch doctor tilted her head toward the elder. "We go, Kenkéknem. Yellow god not savvy bout um Vespela."

The gravel of her voice radiated understanding, as though she did not seethe inside at his arrogance, but there was a reason the Ilati did not pray to so hollow a creature whose very steps defiled the ground with their corrosive heat.

She nipped the old stallion's mane, tugging at a thick braid to urge his compliance, then turned her attention again toward Solis. Lips tugged into a saccharine smile made no friendlier by the harsh lines of her bony brow, the witch doctor nodded sweetly in the god's direction.

"Illen tek splep, broder Solis."

With a peculiar sway in her shaggy hips, the mousey mare turned and nipped Turhan more emphatically on the flank, indicating he should follow. They would find no answers here.


The Witch Doctor
there are no grotesques in nature


@Turhan









Played by Offline Jeanne [PM] Posts: 399 — Threads: 81
Signos: 100
Inactive Character
#16

☼ s e r a p h i n a ☼

I drink in the air like holy wine, like my last salvation
tomorrow may burn, but I'll be ready for it


When he looks at her, his gaze is warm; warm enough to make her freeze, chiefly because she doesn’t know what to do with it.

My people, rings in her head. My people.

Seraphina is the Sovereign Queen of Solterra, the Sun Queen – no gilded crown adorns her, but she wears her nation as her mantle. (Her title is something that she has had to grow into, and growing pains are something inevitable. It no longer feels wrong.) Before his attention is distracted by new arrivals, she locks her gaze with his, half-golden and inflamed. Her eyes do not burn like his, but they are no longer so empty, either. She is the queen of day, and he is the god of day; he is the god of the sun, and she is the sun queen. She tried to spurn the title, once, but titles were not something that their bearers decided.

He is still talking, but not to her, and so his words barely register – his voice, however, lingers. She is still trying to come to terms with the sound of it.

Could she be a sun queen if she was abandoned by the sun? Had he been the one to abandon her, or had she abandoned him? (Had it ever even worked? This was the first time he had manifest himself before her – it wasn’t as though they’d ever spoken. She thought it unnatural that they would ever have to.) He knows her name (and she imagines he knows the names of all of those that walk his sands), but, in spite of her status, she wonders if anything that’s plagued her is of any concern to an immortal, divine being. Probably not. She watches the way he stares at his reflection play against his own skin, distant from Bexley’s fury and the queries imposed upon him by the gathering strangers, and she finds herself wondering again if the gods could ever comprehend what it meant to be mortal. Immortal, with a divinity to shift the sky – and everything beneath it. What could they understand of the mortal condition, of what it meant to be powerless? He has always been a million miles away from her, a distant entity on high, but, in all of the time that she has known of him, she doesn’t think that she has felt quite so far apart from him as she does now, though only marble steps serve to separate her from all of his gilded glory.

It wasn’t his job to understand, she thinks. It isn’t really his job to intervene, either – it’s hers.

Again, his words roll through her mind; as the crowd burns brighter, swallowed by a sea of sparks, his words run rampant through her head again. She cannot help but think of Viceroy, and the snarling of his lips as they ran over her name. My Seraphina. My apprentice. Mine, all mine. Possessions, she thinks – were they possessions to him? (But, when she calls the Solterrans her people, she never thinks of them as objects.) My people. His people. Her people. Their people. He is no mere person, but they are both of the same people. Where she looks at him and sees blinding gold, she is only dusky silver; fire and smoke. Where she is powerless, unblessed, so utterly mortal, he is divine – but they are both woven from sand and sun, and she knows that, regardless of what the world rips away from her, it will never take that.

How could she ever really leave him, without leaving a piece of herself behind with him?

There were some things that you could never shed, no matter how much you tried to get rid of them. Little nicks and scars that lingered, even beneath the skin. As he continues to speak, her eyes light again on the sun medallion on the steps of his shrine, and she thinks that god might be a little bit like a scar; the harder that she tries to push him aside, the more he seems to command her attention. But I am no longer yours. Her own words resound in her head, sharp and quick as a thunderclap or a slap to the face. It occurs to her that she doesn’t know what he wants from her – she never has.

She still remembers standing on this peak, not too long ago, her lungs consumed by smoke and her thoughts consumed by fire. She thinks of Avdotya with a sharp pang; the sun god’s chosen one, with her strange vitality and her earth-twisting magic and the hound that yapped at her heels. She remembers her dead, and she remembers who killed them. She never blamed him – the actions of mortals were not the fault of gods. What happened was her fault, her miscalculation, her misplay…and she had never denied that.

But he’d chosen someone in that fight, and it hadn’t been her, and rejection hurt like hell, and she is tired of devoting herself to people – to things - that would never return her devotion. How many years had she spent worshipping him? How many times had she whispered prayers to him? How many times had she come to pray at his shrine, left offerings at his altar? (And if it was a matter of devotion, rather than time – hadn’t she loved him like she had loved nothing else, more than anything else, or anyone else? Solis is a jealous god. If there were no other consolation for her abandonment than this, it was that she had never loved like she had loved him – no god, no mortal, nothing. Her love was mostly a cold, impassive thing, bred of necessity and force-feeding; but she had loved him as a girl, long before all that. It was no romantic love, nor a familial love, nor a love of nation, and now she thinks it was a foolish, naïve, childish thing. But it had been something, and that was more than she could say about most anything else.)

(He was not a loving god.)

Maybe, she thinks, she needed to get away from him then – she needed to get away from everything. Seraphina had spent her entire life playing the puppet, tugged around on strings. Viceroy’s. Zolin’s. Solis’s. Hell, even Avdotya’s. She’d never had to make choices, and she’d never been the one to bear the brunt of the consequences. She’d never even been a person; just a tool, a living, breathing weapon, a collared beast. She wanted to run. She wanted to run and run and run until she figured out what she was, or who she was supposed to be, or, for the love of god, at the very least until she wasn’t tangled up in someone else’s strings.

She wanted to be free.

(But that collar still rests around her neck.)

They were still the same people; she couldn’t truly abandon him any more than she could abandon Day, any more than she could abandon the collar around her neck, any more than she could abandon herself. (And she had tried.) My people. Well, if she was one of his people, he was also one of hers – he was her god, the god of her court, one of her brothers and sisters in her arid desert kingdom, and no severance could break bonds that were forged in blood.

She is not the same girl that she was when she ran with her mother, nor the same girl that Viceroy picked up in the wilds of the Mors; she is not the same girl she was when Zolin died, nor the same girl that Maxence appointed his Emissary; she is not the same girl who took the crown, nor the same girl who weathered the Davke attack and saw her nation burn twice over; she is not even the same girl who stepped into Tempus’s Summit.

Burning one - well, she is white-hot now.

Seraphina stands stock-steady, even as sparks fly rampant around the peak, even as Solis’s voice curls into a sneer, even as the familiar figure of Moira and a less familiar, dark pegasus – foolishly – approach the sun god, even as two strangers appear seeking Vespera, even as an array of other faces materialize at the edges of the gathering, even as Solis strips Bexley Briar of her magic. She does not move. She is as stiff as the statue that Solis was only moments before, eyes distant and contemplative.

Solis turns to leave, a trail of molten prints in his wake – like small, gleaming mirrors. She drags her tongue along her lips, brow drawing into a firm line.

He offers what she has been begging for: answers. Well, at least one of the gods is willing to offer an explanation for the events that had just transpired; at least one of them is willing to face their people and offer some degree of accountability, even if it came at the price of their devotion. (Solis, she thought, might be a little bit more mortal than the other gods, even though the ambrosia that ran through his veins – and the brilliant gold of his skin, a sheen that put the sun to shame - was all divine. The others kept their distance, but he was fire and rage, arrogant humor, pride. And, as she thinks of what little she caught of his argument at the Summit, perhaps he trusted his mortal children bit more, too…if nothing else, to hold them to task for their actions.) Pathetic as it is, she thinks, she still wants to trust him.

She steps forward without hesitation, striding past fleeing bodies and still figures; Seraphina only pauses at the side of her Regent. Flame met flame, hellfire and brimstone – they are too alike, she thinks, her gaze still trained on the sun god. She presses her muzzle against Bexley’s shoulder. Tentative. Gentler than usual. “I have to go,” Seraphina whispers, her gaze following the golden god as he begins his descent down the cliff’s-edge. “For Solterra.” Gods only know what he’d do if his Court’s own Sovereign scorned him; she isn’t even sure that Solterra would survive the day.

With that, she brushes past her golden girl, quickening her pace until she lingers near the heels of the sun god. He’s blinding, brilliant, beautiful – more beautiful than anything she has ever seen. Oh, she had seen lovely things before, but his radiance eclipses them all; the wild tangles of his hair, the metallic sheen of his coat, the glowing embers of his eyes, even the vicious sneer of his lips. She thinks, with something that is both a pang and comfort, that of course he is the day. In him, she sees every rolling dune of the Mors, the gleam of the mid-afternoon sun on the Vitae Oasis, the swirling reds that paint the canyon walls of the Elatus, the first and last light that touched the sandstone walls of the capitol. In him, she sees the faces of all of the creatures that called Solterra home, from the teryrs and the sandwyrms to the desert-wind silhouettes of Davke to her own people. It strikes her then that he is her people’s god, that he is really a god, that she stands by something inconceivably ancient, something that created everything she knows.

And, to that revelation, she can’t seem to find the right words to say. As usual.

In For a moment, she allows a silence to linger, contemplating her own words. “Welcome back,” She says, finally, still with the uncertain familiarity present in the cadence of an old friend – but this time, not quite so cold, or so detached, “though I doubt you ever truly left.” Of that much she is certain. She sees him in everything, after all; the change of seasons, and each passing day. In any case, she is not a woman of much embellishment, but, if nothing else, her words are sincere.

Questions swirl her mind in a disorganized mass, but, for the moment, she pushes them aside, opting instead to wait for him to speak.



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tags | @
notes | hi staff I'm sorry for the novel. Sera why did it take you 2000 words of rambling to say "welcome home buddy." anyways, girlfriend's sticking around to see what Solis has to say, feel free to judge her for it.




@







I'M IN A ROOM MADE OUT OF MIRRORS
and there's no way to escape the violence of a girl against herself.


please tag Sera! contact is encouraged, short of violence








Played by Offline Staff [PM] Posts: 309 — Threads: 165
Signos: 989,640
Official Novus Account
#17





Some of them leave, some of them stay - and some of them follow.

Solis pays no mind to the ones who leave or stay. He will not waste his breath trying to convince them to follow him. He is the god of the sun. His land is a desert, and he is as hot tempered and unforgiving as the dunes of sand and heat. It is only fitting; to survive in such a place, one must mold themselves to it, embrace it even. Learn to not only live in spite of it, but because of it.

Even gods must follow this rule.

The following he claims is not as big as he would have liked, but his pride is too much to let him comment on it. He is sure he will find those to follow him in Solterra - and if he doesn’t, what does it matter? He knows of his beauty and power and strength, and that is enough for the god. He doesn’t need to be popular.

Even so, he will not be cruel to his followers, nor take their faith for granted. As they walk, he pulls strands of gold from his hair - and he asks each of them in turn what they would like. He crafts it for them in gold, keepsakes to take back to their friends and family. Tokens from the Sun God, testaments to his power and divinity.

He addresses Seraphina last. With a word and a gesture, the other horses fall away and leave the two walking alone: Solis as bright and flaming as the sun, Seraphina as elegant and deadly as the smoke that follows a fire. He spins the golden strand in the air before them, listening to her words with a patience that might seem out of character for the otherwise reckless god.

“No, Seraphina, I did not leave. I have watched Solterra, even all these years away.” It is a partial truth; sometimes, Solis had turned away from the lands of Novus, a blind eye to the actions of the mortals. But he could never look away for long. “What is it you desire, Queen of the Day Court?”





@kauri @batty and @Seraphina have been given 250 signos each for responding to the Random Event! Solis has also pulled @Seraphina to the side to speak with the Solterran Sovereign alone; this thread is now closed between the Queen and the God.





To tag this account: @*'Random Events' without the asterisk.
Please be advised, tagging the Random Event account does not guarantee a response!





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