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goodmorrow2023-09-30 02:07 pm
morrowmods) wrote in goodmorrow2023-09-30 02:07 pm
Entry tags:
World Events
world events
This page serves as a summary of game events and a resource for those who plan to apply a character with a retroactive entry date. Retro-dating a character's entry is limited to three years prior to the current date. As of October 2023, characters may be apped from the beginning of Year Three.
Entries will be sporadically updated with developments as the game progresses and evolves.
Entries will be sporadically updated with developments as the game progresses and evolves.
Year One
Revelbrooke's religious leaders had toiled for generations to prepare for the most ambitious summoning ritual they'd ever performed. The community of the most devout worshipers prepared an extravagant bonfire and sacrificed a mass of its own population in a grand display of devotion, desperate to gain the attention of their gods.
This time, something answered. The willfulness of the mass of followers proved enough to raise a sigil up and transport something new. A handful of new arrivals became a proof of concept, a chance to recreate the rituals with different twists, plans to draw out other Chosen. They needed to figure out what worked and magnify it by exponential levels. The next months were dedicated to study, research, and planning.
Unfortunately, this study was largely conducted on the bodies of the first crop of novitiates, pulled from other worlds only to be shoved into a cult's mad schemes. Their first several months were spent crammed into a miserable church basement, barely allowed to eat or sleep as the natives prodded them with mystical objects and supernatural devices. They were violated repeatedly, over and over again, all in the unintelligible name of invisible deities. Something seemed poised to break, and all they could do was hope it wouldn't be them.
This time, something answered. The willfulness of the mass of followers proved enough to raise a sigil up and transport something new. A handful of new arrivals became a proof of concept, a chance to recreate the rituals with different twists, plans to draw out other Chosen. They needed to figure out what worked and magnify it by exponential levels. The next months were dedicated to study, research, and planning.
Unfortunately, this study was largely conducted on the bodies of the first crop of novitiates, pulled from other worlds only to be shoved into a cult's mad schemes. Their first several months were spent crammed into a miserable church basement, barely allowed to eat or sleep as the natives prodded them with mystical objects and supernatural devices. They were violated repeatedly, over and over again, all in the unintelligible name of invisible deities. Something seemed poised to break, and all they could do was hope it wouldn't be them.
Year Two
It was the sacrifices that caused the miracle. The cultists were certain of it. This time, they would give Devotion again and pay more attention to what became of the sacrifices. Would the Old Ones respond differently to being given a body bled to death? Burned? As the snow was just beginning to break into the warmth of spring, the villagers dragged their Chosen captives into their circle of chanting, completing their ritual with the bodies sent to them the previous year. It worked again. More Chosen spilled out, nearly twice as many as the first time., And while attempting to dispose of the bodies, the sacrifices were instead raised and given new life from their funeral pyre. This sign forced the elders to reconsider the existence of these visitors. The ones from the precious year could be taught. They strangely seemed more receptive to The Teachings after their resurrection. Once the first group began to exhibit signs of special abilities, ("Powers! Past the barrier!"), it was decided to move them into more civilized housing and begin treating them less like aberrations and more like the ones who could be taught to harness their abilities for the right purposes.
Left to their own devices, the group of Chosen travelers had an unsteady relationship with one another. The first group was jaded and nihilistic. Their hope had been shattered long ago, and was only reinforced by the droning lessons they'd been taught about their collective insignificance in the universe. Some members of the second group pooled together their meager resources and worked with the first group to process their trauma. For a while, there was a modicum of peace. and then, just after the autumn harvest, there was talk of another Devotion.
What could have been another bloodbath was reconsidered thanks to the newcomers' collaboration. If nothing mattered, they argued, then why bother with ritual sacrifices? What did it mater to entities that cared for nothing? Perhaps murder wasn't the only way to grasp their attention. Citing a passage about eternal perception, they convinced the church officials to focus the theme of their Devotion down a gentler path. Invocations were revised, and the tone of the Devotion changed. The members present at the procession found something surreal wash over them, tapping into a different element of what the Old Ones seemed to want. There weren't new arrivals this time, but it seemed like a lingering connection was opened.
The summoning rituals began again in earnest, sans sacrifices, and the population of novitiates continued to grow.
Left to their own devices, the group of Chosen travelers had an unsteady relationship with one another. The first group was jaded and nihilistic. Their hope had been shattered long ago, and was only reinforced by the droning lessons they'd been taught about their collective insignificance in the universe. Some members of the second group pooled together their meager resources and worked with the first group to process their trauma. For a while, there was a modicum of peace. and then, just after the autumn harvest, there was talk of another Devotion.
What could have been another bloodbath was reconsidered thanks to the newcomers' collaboration. If nothing mattered, they argued, then why bother with ritual sacrifices? What did it mater to entities that cared for nothing? Perhaps murder wasn't the only way to grasp their attention. Citing a passage about eternal perception, they convinced the church officials to focus the theme of their Devotion down a gentler path. Invocations were revised, and the tone of the Devotion changed. The members present at the procession found something surreal wash over them, tapping into a different element of what the Old Ones seemed to want. There weren't new arrivals this time, but it seemed like a lingering connection was opened.
The summoning rituals began again in earnest, sans sacrifices, and the population of novitiates continued to grow.
Year Three
The third year brought more routine to everyday existence. Many new arrivals were Chosen, enough to require full neighborhoods of housing. The community resources began to sway under the weight of the additional populace, but several novitiates were happy to accept full-time work to balance the stress. By midsummer, the bleak obsession with despair seemed to be lifting. The people hwo least wanted to hear about the hopelessness of existence had other options and opportunities. Several novitiates worked to make their new housing feel more like real homes.
Near the end of the year, a severe snowstorm trapped most of the villagers indoors, and many of the more modern novitiates found the primitive accommodations unbearable. Some of them set to studying their texts in the search for a supernatural answer, and used their understanding of previous rituals to try to perform one at home. It proved to be more than they could handle, however, without the experience of help from those at higher ranks, and the group of them suffered intense disfigurement. They achieved substantial improvements in the cottages, but several from that group ultimately forgot why requesting the improvements was so important to them. It became a warning to others about the cost of comfort.
Near the end of the year, a severe snowstorm trapped most of the villagers indoors, and many of the more modern novitiates found the primitive accommodations unbearable. Some of them set to studying their texts in the search for a supernatural answer, and used their understanding of previous rituals to try to perform one at home. It proved to be more than they could handle, however, without the experience of help from those at higher ranks, and the group of them suffered intense disfigurement. They achieved substantial improvements in the cottages, but several from that group ultimately forgot why requesting the improvements was so important to them. It became a warning to others about the cost of comfort.
Year Four
Whether a result of the harsh winter or from the influx of Chosen with shorter tensions, the winter broke to a series of schemes. Stir-crazy captives spent ages circling the border and struggling to find some kind of escape from the madmen holding them in a hellish loop. By harvest, several groups of children and teens would spend their evenings harassing the enigmatic elders whenever they would emerge from their impenetrable fortress on the hill, throwing rocks and shouting insults. And while it was ignored at first, the aggression eventually received retaliation from an elder able to harness lightning from the sky. The child who died was deposited in the Graveyard rather than being offered to the Old Ones for judgment, as was the usual course of action after a death. It started a flurry of rumors about the elders' true motivations.
But it didn't dissuade newcomers from their work at the border. One determined person remained near the bridges for most of the after-harvest season, studying the fuzzy terrain beyond. Eventually, they would catch sight of a messenger who was able to reach through the barrier to deposit a scroll and scramble off. Through an accident of luck, the Chosen population intercepted a message intended for senior church officials, threatening retribution if the blatant assaults on their truce did not cease.
Upon inquiry, it was revealed that the barrier separating the town from the outside world was not in fact a prison intended to keep novitiates trapped long enough to undergo a slow, maddening indoctrination. Instead, it was erected by the surrounding civilizations determined to keep the village's activity contained. Given the chaotic murderousness in the town's history, they were deemed unsafe. The experiments and rituals they insisted upon performing could only bring damage to the communities beyond. And given their penchant for summoning, whatever world-ending creature they intended to raise would need to stay trapped within with them, locked away until the crops died and the last cult member starved. Contrary to the then-pervasive belief that the barrier was supposed to keep newcomers depowered and compliant, it seemed now to be more an accident of random chance.
But it didn't dissuade newcomers from their work at the border. One determined person remained near the bridges for most of the after-harvest season, studying the fuzzy terrain beyond. Eventually, they would catch sight of a messenger who was able to reach through the barrier to deposit a scroll and scramble off. Through an accident of luck, the Chosen population intercepted a message intended for senior church officials, threatening retribution if the blatant assaults on their truce did not cease.
Upon inquiry, it was revealed that the barrier separating the town from the outside world was not in fact a prison intended to keep novitiates trapped long enough to undergo a slow, maddening indoctrination. Instead, it was erected by the surrounding civilizations determined to keep the village's activity contained. Given the chaotic murderousness in the town's history, they were deemed unsafe. The experiments and rituals they insisted upon performing could only bring damage to the communities beyond. And given their penchant for summoning, whatever world-ending creature they intended to raise would need to stay trapped within with them, locked away until the crops died and the last cult member starved. Contrary to the then-pervasive belief that the barrier was supposed to keep newcomers depowered and compliant, it seemed now to be more an accident of random chance.
Year Five
The fifth year seemed poised to provide more of the same. The same Devotions, the same arrivals and departures, the same slow instruction seemingly designed to strip hope from the inmates trapped here. The occasional glimpse of movement from outside the barrier became a tease, a reminder that there would be no help from the jailers outside or inside. There was only suffering broken up with stretches of almost seductive peace.
The horrors could stop feeling horrible if one just went numb. And so few of the first arrivals remained that the murder and tortures of the early days are almost never remembered in the community consciousness. There's just a spiral now, re-enforcing the idea that nothing has meaning. No one will look for any of them in the infinite abyss of parallel dimensions. There is nothing to hope for other than the end of all things.
But perhaps the newest group will have new ideas.
[Game open: October 2023]
The horrors could stop feeling horrible if one just went numb. And so few of the first arrivals remained that the murder and tortures of the early days are almost never remembered in the community consciousness. There's just a spiral now, re-enforcing the idea that nothing has meaning. No one will look for any of them in the infinite abyss of parallel dimensions. There is nothing to hope for other than the end of all things.
But perhaps the newest group will have new ideas.
[Game open: October 2023]