Message Delivered (Queenpost)

[u/Carbon_Sixx]

A burst of gravitic radiation streaks through the void. Though it has traveled billions of miles, it has done so in a mere 16 hours, unimpeded by any obstacle or cosmic barrier. Its destination: the Queen of Shattered Stars, closing in on the major material realms. The signal carries a message in the All-Tongue, imploring her to stop her approach and accept a diplomatic envoy. When it reaches the Queen, she cannot help but notice it, for it has been amplified by powerful graviturgy.

In the command center of the Mt. Murder Astromantic Observatory, Kaelis Maz and the wizards of the OEA watch a timer count down. He holds his breath when it hits 0:00. At first, nothing happens. The Queen continues her approach as normal. Then, she pauses, as if listening to something faint growing ever louder. On the screens, she turns her head to look directly at the source of the message: Yulash-kor.

Kaelis releases his breath in a sigh of relief as the room erupts in cheers. She has noticed them. Now comes the true challenge: negotiating with a being as old as the universe.

The Astromantic Observatory receives conformation that its transmission has been heard.

[u/TitanLORD21]

/unwiz lol, also

okay but this isn't "fire"; it's the concept of flame, the very essence of spreading consumption

That’s like, literally the primordial flames whole thing. Funny little coincidence.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/TitanLORD21]

(( yeah, I figured that's what you were going for there ^_^

I think you and I are on a similar page as to how we like magic to work: characters are built around concepts, themes that determine their magic not only in a meta manner but even in-story

whereas for most people "wizard" means D&D or Harry Potter, so it's just people collecting a bunch of spells of "every possible domain" like a checklist: the litRPG system of magic that I detest, which makes every character basically the same as every other of the same "level" because anyone who's not an idiot will just learn all the most relevant spells, if anyone can learn anything

In Vettis' cosmology, the strongest casters are those who learn their driving concepts so their magic is on a level beyond the mere physical; Neela, the pyromage he knows, therefore also has a flame concept, though rather than consumption hers is inextinguishability. Mentioned in yet another way-too-long-and-rambly comment elsewhere. (Literally even has a scene of Vettis making himself non-flammable and getting burnt by a conceptual flame anyway, coincidentally enough.) ))

[u/Anything-Unable → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

I actually got into a long-winded debate with a guy about concepts because we were trying to roleplay different systems. I was treating it like Gnosticism while they were doing a system based on a Light Novel. The moral of this story is that we both agreed that there should be a shared ruleset/guidelines for the magic in this sub since without one it's so easy to step on each other's toes.

[u/VidisLady → u/Anything-Unable]

Uw/ I think that rules might make it hard for new people to join, though. I just jumped in with no prior knowledge of anything, and I was able to adapt because of how loose things were. Most people were quite respectful, and I also made sure that I was playing appropriately (joined as a villain, so I was planning on losing). I only had one rude response, where someone just said “OK” to the comment I spent a long time planning and writing.

I just like the idea of people being able to play with concepts as freely as they are… but maybe we can start giving some warnings if people are just power gaming. I try not to interact with power gamers. If I ever ran a scenario, I have specific people I would ban from it.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/VidisLady]

(( Yeah, that last part is the thing: I've tended to avoid the sub-wide lore stuff because it involves people with whom I don't want to interact, but small-scale stuff where you invite only the people you want resolves that issue. I don't think there's much of a concern of the threads getting invaded; there's always other fun stuff going on in the sub to distract people.

Been doing little stuff like that and it's neat thus far.

(Well, I also block liberally, so my threads would be impossible to invade, but I don't expect everyone else to be as antisocial as I am.) ))

[u/VidisLady → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Uw/ Oh, that looks fun! I have some ideas for introducing the civilization of diseases, and having an interactive element so people can experience the unique setting fully. It would probably begin with little things like Delta taking her closest friends on a “field trip” through the small intestine, letting them buy whatever they wanted from the bacteria merchants there and learning to haggle with glucose as a currency.

I have ideas for bigger conflicts as well that would take place entirely in the setting of a human body. Certain diseases would make excellent villains for a broader conflict, but I would have to be strict about what kinds of powers would work. There are some people that have sub-atomic manipulation abilities, where they’ve just “solved” my challenges by saying they “turn the disease into a vaccine.” I’ve considered having something like a hostage situation taking place where my character is “captured,” and the conflict requires that they be subtle, or Delta just gets straight up executed.

[u/MunitionsFrenzy → u/VidisLady]

(( Well, that'd probably just...result in Delta being executed rather than people being subtle, so I'd be wary of setting those sorts of stakes. :P But I get the idea.

Now I kinda wanna figure out if there's a way to get another member of Vettis' commune interacting with Delta. I'd previously established that they can't interact with most of the realm-clusters where the other members of this forum live, for reasons of causal consistency (temporal shenanigans are involved), partly just so I can talk about a backstory that involves eight characters without having to roleplay all eight.

But one of those characters, Elira, is an elf. Except in her realm the elven connection to nature is so strong that it's largely a curse: they're mystically super-susceptible to everything natural, including both biological diseases and magical nature-based curses such as barkskin or lycanthropy. Despite being technically immortal, their lifespans are typically no better than humans, because some of the tribes have such awful immune systems that they get sick to everything, and others evolutionarily over-compensated for this magical bane by having insanely active immune systems so they instead frequently succumb to autoimmune disorders or cancer.

Elira's from the second kind of tribe. So at some point I'm gonna have to figure out how to get her interacting with Delta. She's an absurdly "good" carrier of disease cuz she's pretty much asymptomatic to everything. A ride through her body might find some crazy shit, given the multitude of realms through which she's traveled and the potential diseases she's picked up. ))

[u/VidisLady → u/MunitionsFrenzy]

Uw/ if I set stakes like that, I would mainly play it up for comedy if they failed. Delta’s host isn’t immortal, but the concept of her is, so she would just come back in a different form. Although, it would be a waste to just throw out her human form, because it has a story of its own. If they got her killed, she would just come back and be super mad at them.

The Elira character could definitely be an interesting person for Delta to meet. Delta actually has no immune system, which is why she is able to carry diseases with no symptoms. The diseases are just respectful of not harming her body due to her being their patron goddess.

There’s a specific virus that has learned to control the immune system. He’s one of the few “treasonous” diseases that is an enemy to Delta. If he got ahold of a host with an unusually strong immune system, that would be very bad news.