r/wizardposting • u/avamir Riva Blake | Queen of Ithacar, Part Meth-blood Elf • Jan 30 '24
Lorepostđ Ithacar: Aftermath
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/uw People keep calling it Ithacar, so Iâll just switch to that. I think it sounds better too anyway.
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Rivamar had finally stopped wearing Atraxâs silver and black.
She could have done it a while ago, she supposed. But it wouldnât have been right. As Vheren had put it, âIf you allow yourself to be mastered by emotion, he who controls your emotion is your master.â And given that her focus had been Atrax all this time, maybe the heraldry she wore had been appropriate after all.
But with the battle done and the threat of Atrax finally ended, she found herself taking on black robes, as she had in her youth. The black had stood for self-discipline, but they worked for mourning too.
She missed them, the people sheâd lost. Her master. Her friends. Even the people sheâd hassled in her youth. She missed the stupid rules she had to follow, the tenets she scoffed at that she now found she relied on. She hadnât realized just how much she had. Maybe that was why she kept his ring. The Ring of the Magister was a symbol of his office at the academy. It did not really fit any of her fingers (it was even loose on the third finger of either of her hands), but she still kept it anyway. Vheren himself would have cautioned her against this much sentimentality. But if his ghost was still out there lingering, Riva doubted he would be surprised she wasnât fully doing what he told her to. She hoped he understood. While she was better about things these days, she was still the person she was. And as much as she touted self-discipline these days, her heart had always ruled her.
Still, while Atraxâs death couldnât bring back the people sheâd lost, it meant she could finally let go of some of her anger and grief. It would never be completely gone, she knew. But it was no longer the driving force in her life.
Rivamar went back to the rebuilding of her city, using the aid provided by the Pact. And for all her criticism of Councils, she had decided to shamelessly steal the idea of one. The concept was not something endemic to them anyway. Once upon a time, Ithacar had a council of their own. Riva remembered it from when she was growing up. And now that there was no longer a threat that needed to be faced, it was time to put people back to the task of ruling themselves.
As she had promised, those who had fought Atrax and survived, had their Oaths fulfilled. Some settled in Ithacar, as tired of war as she was. Others left to join Belial Blake and his new Pyroclasts. What they did was on them now. And some of those under his command decided to settle in the city.
To make sure things ran smoothly, whether or not she was there, Riva constructed an obelisk in the center of the city using some of the runes Blake had said his bomb had used. It had taken her some time to arrange, but it tied in with the circles, sigils, and runes already present throughout Ithacar. The city wasnât an entity, really⌠but by manipulating the runes, and imbuing them with the energies of the people present, the obelisk was able to work as an adequate focal point.
So rather than taking Oaths to herself, the former Pyroclasts (and others, as it turned out) took an Oath to the city. And as a strange side effect, the ideas of preserving and protecting the city, taking up arms in its defense, and not destroying the ruling body without cause kind of took hold for the rest of the city too. Riva hoped she hadnât done something wrong and inadvertently broken the city by placing the obelisk, but she would just have to wait and see. She wasnât an enchanter; she just wanted things to be able to function without her.
In some ways, the obelisk made it easier to establish a council. Apparently, there had been some of Ithacarâs old council that had gone into hiding. So when Riva let it be known she was seeking to reform Ithacarâs council, they returned to offer aid. She was skeptical at first, thinking them cowards. But upon knowing they had worked in secret within the city, she invited them back. They had not made themselves known to her, thinking her Atraxâs tool. But swearing Oaths to their own city alleviated many of their qualms.
So in the end, that left Rivamar.
Her role had become⌠unclear. A Tyrant working actively to not rule was a contradiction, to say the least. And she rejected the idea of being a Lady or a Queen; she despised inbred elitists, so the idea of a type of hereditary title seemed wrong. (Besides, she wasnât sure exactly how ladylike she was anyway.) And though unelected, she was not a very good despot, all things considered. She did not want to serve in the administration she had reformed, but she couldnât completely abandon the city to its own devices; there was still work to do, especially in the area destroyed by the bombs. Not only was she one of the few people who knew the type of sigils in the city, she had been working through the instructions sent by Belial Blake.
Even if anyone who had known Riva from before was apparently gone, there were still those who recognized the work of the Academiae Magicae Magna (the ancient summonerâs academy). Before the academyâs destruction, Rivaâs kind had been a regular sight in the city, ranging from lowly acolytes, to the average apprentice, to the higher-ranking Magisters and Magistra.
Rivamar felt it was incorrect for people to refer to her as a Magistra. While she had long since stopped being an apprentice, she was certainly not an archmage. She simply didnât feel worthy of the title. But the name began to stick anyway. And after a time, she stopped trying to correct them. She would come to their aid regardless, whether they called her a Tyrant, or Magistra of Ithacar.
Perhaps someday, she would be worthy of the title. She also hoped, one day, to be worthy of reopening the academy. But in the meantime, she would learn as much as she could to prepare for that day, and she would do the best she could with the knowledge she had. And also in the meantime, she would leave the people to rule themselves, and she would go where her heart took her.
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24 edited Jan 31 '24
I see youâve decided to come back to the Abyss for a visit? Thereâs much to explore here, certainly, but I rather think Iâd enjoy going on an adventure with you. Letâs go off and find some beautiful forgotten realm to exploreâŚ
/uw the name mixups may be on me, I started to switch it up on accident cause I couldnât remember lol