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Home » Search » Roster » Whitepages » Records » FAQ » Guidebook
» the calm before the storm
Open Blood Falls 
Rift Presence
Currently championing:
#1
the Rift
It was like breathing for the first time after holding your breath for too long. That is what it felt like when the Frozen North became uncloaked of its darkness. The god stood among the Blood Falls, where the whites of the snow around it blended him in nearly completely. The only stark opposites to him that might have given him away were the sapphire blue crystals that adorned the top half of his body. And he watched, with glowing blue eyes, the Blood Falls surge with activity. The ruby hued waters flooding their banks were reckless and violent, threatening to drown anyone who dared step too close.

In this darkness, Vourib bared his teeth. When the light returned, when he was no longer cloaked in the dark veil of the Rift, it had taken awhile for his eyes to adjust – but when they had, oh the disaster that struck. The deep, darker part of his heart grinned with glee at the terror, but there was a sensible part of him (the part he used to be) that suggested perhaps it wasn’t what they wanted.

Calm.” His deep voice boomed over the rushing, churning waters. Yet in answer to that, they grew stronger, thrashing over and over again as though they chose to do the opposite of what he commanded. With a final effort, Vourib melts, pouring himself into the water to where the only thing seen are the crystals, smoking and oozing that vibrant sapphire hue, and his cracked yellow teeth as he attempted to get the water under control.
image


The waters of the Blood Falls have become torrential, surging things that will devour any of those that try and get too close. The land isn't listening to Vourib's commands either. Can you think of something that might help this heart?

The next round will come within a week or so, enough to give everyone time to do all the new things! :) There's no rush and no set posting order!
» Presence of the Rift «


Rixen the Vine King
Currently championing: Vjanta
#2
Rixen
Rise and rise again until lambs become lions;
There was always a barrier at the edge of the Pinnacle. I'd seen it for myself - massive and uniform, composed of a strange and impenetrable substance that surprisingly did not harm whoever dared touch it. It kept us safe inside, if the Rift could even be referred to as safe, but it also presented us from going out. We could not explore the land beyond. Whoever placed the structure at the edge of the sand dunes must've wanted it that way. Otem and I had made the discovery, although it was her idea to inspect the wall and see if it was dangerous in the first place. We'd both wondered about there being another place on the other side, and at the time, there was no way to find out. Not until now. 

After the party at the Pinnacle, the barrier seemed to melt away. I didn't notice it at first, for the barrier was never visible from afar. Up close, though, it was plain to see that no one could travel in or out. Hope told us that there were some things we might wish to explore. Today, I discovered exactly what those things were. Beyond the Pinnacle there now lay a snowy mountain range, akin to one that I'd seen before after leaving my homeland. Naturally, at the opportune moment, I took it upon myself to venture to this new piece of the Rift. 

What I found here was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Running down one mound of earth was a massive waterfall, gurgling and foaming as the liquid poured down the carved face. But this was not any old waterfall, for its waters ran red like blood, staining the snow around the edge of the pool pink. From time to time, bits of the mountain broke off and tumbled with the stream of scarlet down into the violent waters below. What was this place?

"TALK HERE"

image
{Image: untitled_drawing_by_indelyde-dceus9t.png}
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#3
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
Flying past the Pinnacle had been impossible since her arrival in the Rift.

You were met with a sort of strange feeling and disoriented when attempting to soar through, only to find yourself twisted about and flying back toward the Pinnacle, as if picked up and turned by invisible arms.

Now, that strange barrier had dissipated, revealing what lie North of the great mountain range of the Protector.  The new northern reaches of the Rift revealed a snowladen land, out of place in the middle of Drench, and one particularly disturbing land.

Waters the color of crimson blood flow like a severed artery, pulsing and gushing and overflowing the land around their shores.  The color of the water stains the crisp frost below, and leaves a queasy feeling in the pit of Taivas's stomach as she flies overhead.  Amid the snow, a rough outline of a bear can be seen, with massive blue crystals adorning his frame.  The pegasus circles uncertainly above, watching as the brute grows agitated and then proceeds to melt into the water.

In the rapids of the bloody water, two icebergs of cerulean remain, hinting at the presence which had just merged with the violent tides.

Standing at the edge of the great falls, a familiar golden mask glimmers enough to draw the shaman's attention.  She sails down toward Rixen, hovering still in the air beside him.  "Rixen," she says, his name to count as a greeting for the stallion she had met months before in the Summit.  "Do you know ought of this place?"
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas
Aurelia the Hopebringer
Currently championing: None
#4
Aurelia
There was two familiar faces as she approached, but they were all in a very unfamiliar location. It was red. red. red.
The water. She had never in her entire life seen something so strange and unruly (and she had seen a lot in her nine years).

The two greeted each other as Aurelia's stocky form moved closer. She heard Taivus ask Rixen if he knew about this place. Aurelia certainly did not and as she approached she decided to offer her own opinion, something Taivus had never ever liked. "I think..." she began softly, calmly. "I think we need to help?" If they didn't know what she meant, than they were oblivious. The being that had just melted into the water after growing angry with it did not look like he was just bathing or having a leisure swim, it looked like he had a mission.

She had no idea how to help. She had never been very good at helping. Taivus was the one with the frilly philosophy about the way the world works, so perhaps she knew what to do, but why wasn't she jumping into action like Aurelia had seen her do so previously? Was she being stupid? Was there no danger or threat here? "Do we not?" She asked quietly, sort of confused.

She wasn't sure she'd be much help anyways. How was fire and belligerence going to stop the strange flood of red liquid? Did they even need to stop it? Standing there, waiting for a response from her company, she quietly contemplated if she was, for once, being helpful, or just incredibly stupid.

ooc
lolol derpy aurelia. just a quick post to get in on this :P
oh, tell me, what's the matter?

image credits
{Image: 1zxwow6.jpg}
Rixen the Vine King
Currently championing: Vjanta
#5
Rixen
Rise and rise again until lambs become lions;
Amidst the rushing red, a figure could be seen. He was- a bear? I could not get too close, for fear that the violent waters would take hold of me, making it hard to tell who or what the creature was. All that was left of his furry body were the deep blue crystals, gleaming as bright as the sun's rays lighting the ocean at dawn; radiant and shining, visible against the water cascading down the series of rocky outcrops. There was also the shape of gnashing bear teeth, large and pointed, making quite the ruckus as they attempted to subdue the flow. Something told me he was going to need some help. As a matter of fact, I was surprised the bear had made it so far.

It was not the gentle sort of waterfall you might see in a forest setting, it was the kind where torrents of water were poured over rocks hard enough to crack bone on the way down, then swirled in a plunge pool below, deep enough to drown you if you survived a fall and violent enough to suck you in if you stood to close. Getting caught beneath the falls would most likely mean instant death. As such, I maintained my distance. The water growled and roared, like a hungry beast waiting for its next meal.

I turned at the sound of my name to see Taivas just behind me, silver wings working to maintain her position slightly off of the ground. "No…" I was forced to shout, so that she might hear me above the violent crashing of blood-colored water on rock, "I have never seen this place before. It is new to the Rift." My verdant gaze shifted from the silver pegasus to the water, and then back again. 

Before any more could be said, another figure appeared. Aurelia. It had been a while since I’d last seen the fiery mare. "We do need to help. It’s just a matter of how." I replied, noting that the water was certainly not supposed to be this volatile. But how would one go about taming a waterfall? It wasn’t like the water would stop if I asked. The water didn’t seem to want to listen to the bear, what would change for me, or even us? "Any ideas?" 

"TALK HERE"

image


@Aurelia @Taivas
{Image: untitled_drawing_by_indelyde-dceus9t.png}
Roscorro the Dragon Heart
Currently championing: Caevoc
#6
Roscorro
He had never seen anything like it before. First off. he'd never actually seen a real waterfall before as it crashed from great heights like liquid thunder. To add to the list of 'things I've never seen' was the fact that the water that ran as red as blood. It was truly a spectacular, and disturbing sight. The voice within him purred with desire. The scent of iron in the air made the stallion's gums prickle at the memory of the taste of blood. The feeling of flesh tearing between them.

He shook his head to expel the memories and sensation. Things that were not his own, yet as familiar as if they were. His sense of awe and childlike wonder was severely dampened by these desires as he moved towards the raging torrent to where familiar faces were gathered. The air was cold, yet it did not feel as terrible as the Freeze he had encounter upon arriving here. He stopped next to Taivas, a smile touching his features before he frowned at the waters. He had heard the golden mare speak of helping and it was only now that he spotted the strange form in the waves.

His head cocked as Rixen asked for ideas. He had next to no experience with rivers of this size. The only water in his tunnel network was a small stream that ran fast and deep. Perhaps the knowledge he learned by watching this stream and the occasional rock falls that endeavored to block its path would be useful? "Could we use rocks and mounds of earth to try and build up the banks?" He asked. The cliff face shed boulders as the wind and ice eroded the stones away. Perhaps they could try and use those to help prevent the waters from spilling out? He wasn't sure, but suggesting things could help spark the thoughts of another.


talk talk talk talk
In your hands, there's a touch that can heal
But in those same hands, is the power to kill
Are you a man, or a monster?

image by Tech
You have my permission to use magic/force against Roscorro.
Maiming and killing is not allowed, though. 
Taivas the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Reszo
#7
If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
It is new to the Rift.

Taivas frowns, for she had been trapped between time and space for an unknown period of time. How new was new? When did the barrier fall? When Hope arrived? Before?

Her thoughts are interrupted by the surprisingly soft voice of one the shaman remembered as being anything but gentle. She turns a blank gaze toward Aurelia, not entirely sure she had the energy to deal with the fiesty golden-kissed maiden. Their last encounter had been less than successful, to put it kindly. Taivas found the argumentative mare to be childish and tiresome, but in this circumstance, they clearly needed aid. Whoever was willing to help was welcomed.

If she had been able to read Aurelia's thoughts, she might ask in what way she was qualified to quell violent waters or have any expertise in the subject. After all, Taivas was a daughter of the sky, not the earth. She had been born under the ethereal gaze of the universe in an open field of long grass and the hymns of elders. The only waterfall she had ever seen prior was a day's trek from her home, deep in the forests to the east. The river which ran through the Fields was large but overseen by a calm and gentle spirit.

Nothing about this was familiar to her.

Any ideas?

Taivas softly lands upon the snow and closes her eyes, listening to the stirring of the spirits under her hooves and trying to get a feel for the area around them. However, there is no clear emotion to the shaman, whether due to her weakened connection to the lifestream or the lack of one present, she is not sure. The overwhelming dance and tone of the pulse is chaotic and dangerous. She is uncertain as to why.

Thankfully, the familiar giant Roscorro arrives with at least a suggestion on what to do. The shaman glances over her shoulder to look up at his friendly features, a small, pale smile on her lips. "Unless one of us can move earth and stone, that would be a venture of time and muscle," she says calmly, though not really opposed. "We can try, but I fear the bank might be swept away long before we get a sizable barricade in place."

The girl pauses and looks with a thoughtful expression at the waters and the master which had melted into the rapids, leaving behind two pillars of sapphire dancing among the tendrils of chaos and rage. She is reminded the violence of the sirens when they first attempted to deliver hope to the Summit. What illness plagued this realm and drove even the land itself mad?

"We have returned hope to the Rift, but have yet to heal whatever malady the world suffers," she says calmly, thinking outside of a physical approach to the problem before them. "So, in place of apathy and desolation there is chaos and rage."
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
Taivas


[ ooc - Taivas has nothing practical to offer so she's rambling. ]
Seiji the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Caevoc
#8

Cold.

Cold.

Cold.

There's a voice in the back of his mind telling him to turn around. A voice someone long ago told him was named common sense. A voice he maybe chooses to ignore more often than he should. He ignores it now: climbing from a season of torrential rain to a season of wind and snow. North: a desolation of heaving earth. The ground trembles beneath his hooves; something in the distance roars. A waterfall? Seiji can't be sure. He must keep walking, moving. Sometimes he lifts his gait to a trot, cold air whistling between his ears. When he slows, his muscles seize and shiver. Cold.

But he keeps going.

Things here he hasn't yet seen; people he hasn't met. Voices he has yet to hear. He proceeds with hunger in his eyes, in the strident fall of each hoof. He cannot be idle while need presses down on him; he marches up through the snow determined, despite the pain. The false wing on his side twitches every time he shivers.

He follows the noise.

It is a waterfall, though unlike anything he's ever seen. The moment it comes into view, Seiji halts. Forgetting the cold. Ignoring the group gathered near the base of the falls. Such a horrible thing: red, red as gore. Red in a torrent thundering down, the color of hate. Something not cold shudders once in him. His ears turn back. No, he thinks. But he can see the others gathered nearby. Some of them he knows — a little. Maybe that's why he moves forward, instead of turning back.

Seiji finds them arguing, but he doesn't know about what. His dark eyes move from the antlered man to the great, winged man and then slowly over two mares he doesn't know. Both winged, as well. Something sharp, something a little darker, entering his gaze just toward the end of his approach. He is looking at them as he steps up beside Roscorro. Then he is looking at Roscorro, smiling, nodding. Nodding to the group at large. Seiji is silent, as ever, though if he could speak he would not. He wants to know what's going on, but he doesn't interrupt. His gaze turns thoughtfully toward the waterfall — he thinks they must be arguing about that, but he doesn't know how to fix it.

He blinks at the group, ears twitching. Patient until he learns more.

img by Tildae @ flickr
Explorer Kiada
Currently championing: Vjanta
#9

KIADA
troy falls a thousand times
in every dream i dream

She hadn’t realized that Hope meant more lands to explore. Though Kiada supposed it made sense considering every other time they had done something, more places were available. But as she traversed the cold and snowy landscape, there was a deep-rooted part of her that was filling that void within her with longing. She was homesick. And it was these snow-capped mountains that reminded her of all that she had lost so long ago – of the tundra of the North, protected by that fierce dark protector Deimos who was the Reaper in the flesh, that dark brooding creature that surveyed his home with pride and power. The very same that had smiled upon her as a child and bestowed his blessing to her for her recruiting abilities despite the fact she was barely a year old.

She missed him, she missed this place. And her heart hurt even more as she trudged through the thick snow to reach a place that had been so familiar to her, despite her homesickness. This, she knew, was the Blood Falls. This was the place the Harpy was born. As she came to a stop a bit away from the group that had already begun gathering, she could hardly notice the faces standing there. All she could see was the raging rivers, the blood hued color seeping up through the icy white of the snow. And it angered her, some deep slumbering darkness within her. Perhaps the monster that was born of Helovia was from this land – the reason she was the way that she was before the Rift, before the betrayals and family that had simply vanished.

Kiada snorted through her nose and glanced to those gathered before beginning to trudge toward the shores. “This is the Blood Falls.” She announced as she passed, her eyes never leaving the riverbanks. “This is where I was born. We must try to fix it.” Her voice was deeper, rough sounding as though the sudden onslaught of memories had left her hollow and raw. As she reached the shore, she stared down into the raging river, wondering what they could do to settle it. Khairi, the ever wonderful companion, swooped from the trees with a branch clutched in his talons. Kiada, in the meantime, had summoned her flames along her spine – the flames flickering in shapes of stalking wolves moving in for the kill as he swooped low enough to catch some of the flame on the end of the branch then pass off to the Harpy. She then, stretched her neck out with the stick to press the flame toward the water to see if it would do anything. At least it was something.

"Talk."

like ashes, like ashes,
like a star burning out —



img | bg

TROY FALLS A THOUSAND TIMES,
IN EVERY DREAM I DREAM.
(LIKE ASHES, LIKE ASHES,
LIKE A STAR BURNING OUT.)
Valkyrie the Hopebringer
Currently championing: Caevoc
#10
VALKYRIE
She stood in the storm


It was long after the hour of midnight.

The Shieldmaiden and her young, weary company had departed the celebration by the light of The Pinnacle perhaps earlier than was polite, but it became quickly apparent to the white, winged mare, that the unwell child she’d arrived beside and remained with, was too exhausted to remain. Very slowly they’d followed an overgrown path towards the north, for though Halyven (the destination suggested by the luminous deer-goddess), lay rather more southeast, there was a region of tar in the area directly between that she felt the younger would be unable to navigate safely.

Dutifully, along the way, she presented before the underfed filly an impressive selection of grasses and fruit, yet it seemed not to inspire an appetite like it did herself, and in the end, Valkyrie was the one who consumed the lot. She’d not come across the implantable wall of black that had prevented their movement beyond the monolith previously, so it came as no surprise that they should come across the land beyond - it allowed her to focus her effort into pushing the weakling waif along or insisting she rest briefly, so that they could move along faster. They were travelling the long road after all, and the Daughter of the Sunnmōre had no doubt that her companion would perish through the night without her…

“I’m sure we haven’t long to go now…” Valkyrie lied blatantly through an impatient sigh, nudging the wasted thigh of the filly as it paused, again. It didn’t occur to the stronger woman that those twisted front legs, or atrophied muscles would impact their movement, quite the way it did; certainly the extent of emaciation wasn’t clearly visible beneath the woollen, shaggy mass of muddy, matted coat. Frustrated, she urged the mute creature forward.

Eventually they came upon a change of terrain: a quite startling spread of real snow and bitter weather. The Shieldmaiden infant hailed from a home very similar and her pounding heart grew all the lighter (her duty more careless), as she pranced and paraded ahead through the slush. There were tracks, deep channels, that allowed them good passage and Valkyrie chose to lead at last, even while the slower began to lag; it seemed all at once, that the Rift had finer features on offer.

The child never spoke, so it was too easy to forget her amid distraction and the Shieldmaiden arrived by the raging river long before her charge. There were many gathered on the shoreline, all inspecting the water like it were something more… than nothing. Her eyes rolled as she recalled the herd of green-thumbs: Vynter and his silly cohort, Zoeya and the other fusspots. Thank the Shield they were not present now. “Can’t any of you swim?” She blurted insolently, smiling, stepping between them as though to test the chill with one hoof extended.

But that was not her intention (especially given the swollen nature), and she paused to examine it - half expecting that it might suddenly grow legs and flee. She wouldn’t get too close. At least, not yet.

and when the wind did not blow her way,
she adjusted her sails.



img


Valkyrie being herself - forgets about Eira and strides on through, 'pretending' she's going to go ahead and cross. She stops and inspects it at the last second though.