Animus Musings
Log Info
- Title: Animus Musings
- Emitter: Whirlpool
- Characters: Cryosanthia, Toha, Stjepan
- Place: A06: Lower Alexandrian Gardens District
- Time: Tuesday, October 20, 2020, 10:45 PM
- Summary: Cryosanthia, in a somewhat effective but magically insufficient disguise, comes to the Gardens District to talk with the Resurrectionist representative, Griva. Toha is present, as this will concern her, and Stjepan. Griva indicates that being in public is safest, even if this is where Taaranites attacked a well known shard seeker. Especially with a Charnath delegation present. Cryo grills Griva, and Stjepan, saying she hears little in useful details and things that are more faith than evidence. Finally, Stjepan, Griva, and Toha describe events with possible and known animus shards. While there isn't any specific test, there are several magical indicators. Unfortunately, these are broad enough to include things like Fae Queen Salina's previous activities, and items in Merkabah, if not Merkabah itself. Cryo is rather disparaging about the gods, saying they haven't helped her much, and that the price of jumping in to help without full awareness can be significantly high. Knowledge shared, they go their separate ways.
-=--=--=--=--=--<* A06: Lower Alexandrian Gardens District *>=--=--=--=--=--=-
The city is divided, unofficially, into Upper Alexandria and Lower Alexandria. The Upper resides further up on the slope of the mountain, and rests to the east of the great river. The Lower resides to the west of it, and if the Lower could be said to have a heart, this verdant park might be its center.
Amid all the bustle of the Lower City, its Gardens District provides a peaceful respite. The warmth of Althea holds sway here, and though Daeus receives the occasional nod, this is clearly Her domain. She shares it with Dana, in the verdant green of this area. Vines and trees, remain green no matter the season and numerous flowers bloom along the park's walkways. Faerie-light lanterns hang from branches and along hedgerows.
A number of shops may be found here, most notably the city hospital, for which the park was originally built. Though now open to the public, the gardens by and large, remain underneath the hospital's care. However, in the Althean tradition, much of the work is provided by volunteers.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman. Toha 6'2" 282 Lb War Golem Female A woman shaped contrivance of leather and steel, with oruch weaponry. Stjepan 8'0" 534 Lb Giantborn Male Big, blonde jotun. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Whirlpool Lb Otyugh I am stinky! -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
The Gardens are a placqe that most spend their time sooner or later. Tonight, Griva is seated amongst the plants along with a few of her cohorts. They appear to be having a lively discussion of magical theory, or at least, that's wht it sounds like.
She did make a note she'd be here if anyone had questions or ideas they wanted to share!
A tall individual wearing very volumnous vestments that include a hood, long sleeves, and enough gown and cape it's impossible to see their feet, or tail if they have one, approaches the group of cohorts. The clothing is predominantly grey, with white, and devoid of any symbols. It's not the best disguise, certainly not as good as one worth selling a soul for, but it's serviceable. A voice, deep enough to be masculine but harmonic enough to be female says, "This isn't the best place to be talking about these things. A friend of mine got shot here because he was asking questions."
A pause, "Still. This one has a few."
Another curious soul makes her way to the congealing group in the gardens. For her part, Toha is unshrouded as she draws up on the periphery of the mana light, pinpricks of reflected light gleaming from the surfaces of her armor in places, though she doesn't do anything to interrupt. Stjepan comes along, picking his way through the garden district, looking relatively unconcerned. He is, however, using his height to look for the dwarf, scanning, scanning.
"Oh, did he now?" says Griva, seeming unalarmed. "Was that the crazy-taaarn-antics I heard about?" There's a smile on her face as she answers thatq coment, glancing towards Stjepan, and then nodding to Toha. The recognition of them is clear. The others with her have quieted to let her adress the locals.
"Yes." The shrouded individual who is attempting very hard to disguise his or her voice says. The shroud nods. The sleeves hang past the hands, and hide them also. The questions continue.
"You've seen a Shard. Where? Who had it? Do they have it still? How did you recognize it? How would we," the disguised figure gestures about, "recognize one. Do you have a specialized Detect Magic spell which would do it? What about Scrying, Augury? This is Alexandria, something 'strange and oddly magical' describes the whole city and half the people in it. A shard could be part of the demon summoning circle beneath it, or in the Felwood, or the Spell Cannon."
Toha bows her head slightly as she's acknowledged with a, "Hello." and her attention, if not the bearing of her face, swivels between the Khazadi woman, and the shrouded soul, then back. She has to concede the figure has a point. That people have already been attacked over this positively reinforces her decision to keep Reason loaded.
Stjepan rumbles from the side. "I've seen the shards. They were pretty unmistakable, in the flesh." Arms fold on his chest. "That experience is why I'm here and also why I have questions still."
"Ah, I remember you," says Griva to Cryo. Her hands go up behind her head and she stretches her back. A nod towards Stjepan. "They can hide. They can also be unmistakable. That kind of power isn't easy to mistake for anything but, and typically, they are tied to Animus in some way. We first learned of them when one of the Conclave heads became possessed by it and thought he *was* Animus, briefly." She smiles towards Stjepan. "We'll need to trade stories." A glances towards Cryosanthia. "Anything cvould have potentially been infused by Him in the process of dying, I suppose, and there's no telling how long that process has played out for since the moment of his 'death'."
The shrouded figure turns its hood at Stjepan, then back to Griva. "Describe it please. Without using the words 'Animus' or 'Shard'. I saw lots of things at Tanith's. That's the Gold Dragon Emmissary of Daeus, Tanith. Her home, that I can't remember. One of them might have been one of those. If you've got a minor illusion spell, or dancing lights, perhaps you can produce a reasonable fascimili of what one looks like through a Detect Magic. 'You'll know it when you see it' and 'could be anything', isn't helpful. It's hardly evidence at all, more faith assurances. Is it connected to Universal Magic, does it flow, fluctuate? Do things in contact with it become magical and remain so when removed. Does it do things on it's own? Seems like the can, if one possessed someone."
"Did he take an obvious action, like stick it in his forehead, or did it just happen, being near it?"
Stjepan grunts for a moment. "One was a quarterstaff -- just a quarterstaff. It seemed plain at the beginning. It was where it was that was so remarkable." He nods to Griva. "We should."
Toha takes the discourse in without her own input for the time being, though, as the scattering of people is extreme enough, her head pivots just a bit as she turns to regard each speaker in turn.
Stjepan goes on. "It was on a broken demi-plane behind a magical gate. Existence itself was broken, rotating in nothingness. We were fighting Asumit's demons in that place, all over... a staff." His eyes glaze in the remembering, and he trails off a little.
Griva taps the side of her head as Cryosanthia speaks.
"I personally prefer a permanent arcane seeing spell, myself. It makes it so much easier to know the true nature of whaqt you're dealing wiht, but even that isn't a garauntee. Please, have a seat. Would you like some tea?" There's no tea present, but she's offering it kindly anyway and thus one can presume it is only a little magic away should someone aquiesce.
"I'm well aware of the danger in the locale stated. The choice was made for that reason. Especially with some kind of Charn delegation arriving in the city, I need to remain public and available, especially if something more were to happen. Staying in the shadows, paradoxically, can make us *more* vulnerable rather than less at times like these. Sometimes, it is light that is needed most. Now, as for the rest of your questions, I will answer, but I'd ask you gently to take a little more care with your own presumptions before you see fit to question my own biases... biases I havqe been nothing but up front about since I set foot in this city."
She lets out a breath. "Now, starting with the last question, no, I do not believe the Shards operate with a conscuous will the way some magical items might. While they may all contain a powerful nexus of divine magic, they are not *divinity* itself, they are not 'alive' in that sense. I think Master Sandstone was merely overwhelmed by the power and it clouded his mind, but he still remained true ot his own nature rather than that of the God in question. Such is the danger of power, and why we take care."
She spreads her hands out in front of her, apparently intending to continue if no one interrupts her.
Stjepan comes out of his reverie, and nods towards Griva, refolding his arms, murmuring: "Or just see the magic in the world." Toha continues to absorb and process this. That would be a useful upgrade, but her best estimates put it well out of... well, her foreseeable future, anyway.
"No... I don't want tea... bad associations." The shrouded figure says, with a sigh. If disguises are useless then the only way to be safe is not to be involved at all. She also remains standing, finally saying, "Sorry if I sound presumptuous. I have a friend who will broach a topic then forget about it without giving any details, and it's made me easily frustrated when I'm seeking details and can't get any. So sorry again. Please continue."
"It's quite all right." Griva taps her nose with her fingers to Cryo, "I appreciate both your candor and your caution and precaution." A nod to Stjepan follows. She takes a moment and casts a spell. In her hand appears a simple, wooden quarterstaff. It's illusory. She twirls the illusory quarterstaff in place. "Illusions aren't my forte, if we're honest, but I'm an abjurer. The laws of magic are my specialtiy, and my job when the Conclave stood tall was capturing and punishing those who violated magqical laws. The constants of the Sea of Mana are more ... guidelines than anything else."
A slight smile.
"The Shards may not possess conscious will, but it's likely that they are attuned to things of significane to Animus, or perhaps merely that's how we choose to see them. For example, a battered quarterstaff, as plain as can be seen. But, were you to actually study it with detect magic, it would be a brilliant white to your eye, imbued with divine power. Not divinity, as I said. Divinity is *living*. This is jusqt ... power. Like an individual note in the Hymn that brought Him from the Source. A lone note onn a torn piece of sheet music can't play a song. Get enough of the scraps, though, and we might be able to see somethingh we recognize in it."
"However, there is *one* story about one person who made contact with a Shard. One person who heard a voice. I've heard of nothing lik that happening before or since, but ... a voice all the same. Animus,or something talking thorugh the shard. Perhaps another shard holder? I don't know. But we hve to find out."
"...they said it asked for help."
Stjepan nods. "That seems logical, in its own way." He refolds his arms, thoughtfully. "I don't think I dared look at the magic of the shard." There is movement beneath the clothes of the shrouded figure, suggestive of a tail, sweeping and curling in. The figure nods. "Power. Blinding Light. Like staring into the sun, worse? I've seen that when using Detect Magic. I understand the song analogy, that makes sense to me."
There's a pause, a shudder beneath the clothes, "It could be his last dying thought." Another pause, "Perhaps with more you'll know more. I already look into odd things and help people when I can. If there are no tools I can use to search, I'm left relying on someone posting a notice or having a bright idea."
Toha remains reasonably mum for the most part as the back and forth continues. This is reasonably far out of her experience, but it'll eventually touch her life no matter what she thinks she's going to do, and she wants to be properly informed.
"A possibility," agrees Griva, "Or perhaps something else. I've never heard of anything like that happening to me. I wish I could tell you more about where to look but .. the world is a big place. Adventurers go to all manner of places. I imagine weird things will be drawn to them, ergo increasing the likelyhood of one being found by the community here. My hope is thawt we can educate people to look for them, to be aware of them, and then locate them but... we have so much more to learn! The shards could be part of *anything*. Yes, even the spell cannon. Such a powerful magical artifact could logically have drtwan, or been infused by, the shards as they fell. We have no evidence of that beyond 'well it's possible'. The quarterstaff as located within an Animusite temple, however, so who knows? They may land in places that were significant to him. I ... honestly don't know. None of them wound up in Rune to the best of the Parliament's knowledge."
Stjepan nods slowly, considering. "They have a weight of power. I think they shape the world around them. Existence."
The shrouded one adjusts its clothing, ensuring the hood is far forward and the sleeves remain dangling and long. "I have a pretty good idea for one, then. Yes. Everything you've said aligns. Shapes the world around it, blinding light of power yet apparently everyday, a weird artifact, connections over great distances and across planes." The hood nods once more, going silent in seeming thought.
"It's /possible/, yes, they could have effected things in ways we don't see or can't be aware of." Griva shrugs her shoulders. "I don't mean to be vague, it's just we're in uknown territory. A God has never died before in our lifetimes. Not even the lifetim4es of the eldest Llyranessi amongst us, actually."
Toha's chin dips some, still holding to her own counsel so far as the parameters of discovery sort of drift wider and wider. She folds her arms in lingering silence and continues to observe the back and forth amongst the others.
Stjepan nods slowly, frowning. "Animus wasn't the only god to die, right? There was another?" He looks vague, uncertain.
"The gods... really haven't done much for me." The shrouded figure shrugs, "One prayer answered in a way I thought was a good portent, which made things go badly when I acted on it. The rest, if any, receiving a 'make the best of it and try to find inspiration in what happened'. Something a friend might give. The Angoron drums are nice. Overall they haven't helped much in my affairs and seem to need help with their own. Notes can be arranged in many different orders and the spaces between them are important too. The wrong music in an orchestra will ruin the whole symphony."
The hood turns towards Stjepan, "I'm not sure. I thought Elhim created everything, including the Void, which got attached to things and nibbled away at him enough he broke apart into the gods we have after setting some rules. Religion isn't my strong point." If that wasn't obvious. "Oh, certainly, other Gods have died. There are Gods we don't have record of from the War of the Gods before time began, for example, but he is the only one in *memory* to die. There are legends of other beings, like the Champion, and Kosomoth, of course, if you count him. I think he was more demi-deity than anything else."
Griva shakeqs her head.
Stjepan grunts. "Kosomoth. That was the name." He hooks his thumb into his swordbelt, and scowls. "Nobody found shards, hmm." "What are the chances artifice will attract these Shards?" Toha uses to break her silence, lifting her chin to it's proper angle to regard Griva. Her focus swivels toward the shrouded one, though her face doesn't overtly reorient.
The shrouded figure turns to regard Toha, nods once, "That's a good question. Any chance one of them is in Merkabah?"
Stjepan gives a grunt, thoughfully. He looks at the figure. "Did you see something?"
"I couldn't say," says Griva, spreading her hands. A glance towards Cryosnathia. "I think the Gods have probably done more for us than we realize. Elhim did not create the VOid. The Void is simply everything that isn't inc reation. It's the nothing that creation was cleaved from. Our world is protected from it, but the maw of oblivion is ever hungry." She lets out a sigh.
"They don't... really care about us. We don't live long enough to be meaningful for them. At best, useful objects, easily replaced. Or like hair. Like how you care about it. Hair is important, but a strand, a strand from last year. Not. That's how She... immortals, the gods see us. Something pretty and passing in the mirror." The shrouded figure says, sounding vague and distant, staring off at a statue of an angel for a while.
Addressing the group again, "I saw a goblin child use some stolen artifice and turn into a giant monster. It could have been just his wilding magic but that still seems rare. I don't think it was a shard, but if artifice could attract them, maybe that explains its power. There's no real reason they couldn't have gone backwards or forwards in time at his death, right? Ended up in the floating city somehow?"
"I would *strongly* disagree that they don't care about us. They care, but there is more to the world than just us. And they are bound to respect our freedom to choose."
Griva shakes her head. "That is the laws of the world. I find your cynicism disheartening, in truth."
Toha remains largely still as the musings expand to encompass her question, "Making a flying city would take a lot of power, wouldn't it?" she speculates tenatively. Wait. Shards. She lifts her chin and cants her head, "I don't know if this truly has any bearing, but, there was a time I was doing something for a fae, there was a black crystal inside of a grasshopper." She pauses for a moment, "It doesn't make sense in context, either, but it was a source of concern, even something they may have been gearin' up ta fight over. We shattered it, scattered the pieces, but it kinda... stained us where it touched. This's a little over a year ago."
"I do too." The shrouded figure says, "I made a poor choice and I'm still paying, because I didn't know all the details and thought what I was doing would help."
Then Toha shares her story, "That, sound interesting and unusual. Do you know which Fae? Was it here or in their domain?"
"... huh. Well, let's not assume everything we don't know is a Shard too! Let's just be open to the possibilities. I'd like to hear more about this from you, though!" Griva smiles at then golem, curiousity gleaming in her eyes. "So do share more."
The braided one shakes her head, "Tiny, little curly fish looking thing with a head like a horse, with itty bitty glowin' wings an' a loud damned voice. Claimed we'd be actin on behalf o'the Forces of Light." There's a little shrug, "Probably theirs, I reckon. Called it th'Feywild's Nightmare. Everthing was... too much. Details too sharp, colors too bright, and everything was huge. Especially the Crickets. We were sent ta remove some source of disharmony, A malignancy... he(?) called it." Her face turns between the shrouded one and the Khazadi as she speaks, a hand lifting tu rub at something at the back of her head, "It made really obnoxious noise, then when it cracked, a misty shadow come out an screamed a lot, like ever watch a hog get butchered? Sounded like a hunnerd o'those at once. It got hit with a death ray an exploded. Ate a bunch o'the shrapnel, but I pulled all the pieces out. Then we noticed it was darkenin us where we touched it. Skin, cloth, metal, didn't matter."
"That's... unusual. Wow." The shrouded figure says with clear surprise. "I can look up some of those things. Certainly sounds Fey. Did the dark marks stay? If they faded, how long did that take?"
"... worrisome," remarks Griva, nodding her agreement with the question already posed.
Another shrug, "I replaced th'components. Didn't see any marks on my partners a while after, so... I guess it faded." Toha replies, and looks between the two again, "Th'Fae said it was some kinda new power. I... ain't heard any more out of it, though, less it was tied ta all that mess with that Queen."
The shrouded figure shakes its head, the hood flapping about, then a pause. "Possibly. She found some things that would cause corruption, and ways to directly manipulate Universal Magic. The Malignancy might have been part of that. She found something, a bunch of somethings, enough that she was twisting magic away from the Dreaming Dragon."
"She no longer holds them, but they're still out there."
Griva rises, making a small bow to the ones gathered. "Interesting. Thank you for your questions and stories. My friends and I must depart now, to eat." The others with her stand also, as a group they leave.
Soon the others do too, all that remains are the statuary.
"They don't... really care about us. We don't live long enough to be meaningful for them. At best, useful objects, easily replaced. Or like hair. Like how you care about it. Hair is important, but a strand, a strand from last year. Not. That's how She... immortals, the gods see us. Something pretty and passing in the mirror." The shrouded figure says, sounding vague and distant, staring off at a statue of an angel for a while.
"I would *strongly* disagree that they don't care about us. They care, but there is more to the world than just us. And they are bound to respect our freedom to choose."
Griva shakes her head. "That is the laws of the world. I find your cynicism disheartening, in truth."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "It's hard to have that talk as staff, because I don't want you to feel I am Word of Godding you, which I am not. xD"
<OOC> Cryosanthia nods. "Cryo is talking about Salina, an immortal Fae, and extrapolating to say all gods are like her, and it's a bitterness that comes from being cut off from them for 80 years. So they may care, but her evidence For is vastly outbalanced with evidence Against."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "I get you're speaking from experience. :)"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "I just didn't want you to think I was throwing things at you that I wasn't intending to! :)"
<OOC> Cryosanthia nods