the Rift


[OPEN] For everything there is a season.

God of the Earth Posts: 287
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: 22.0hh :: Ageless
Admin
#1

The GOD of the EARTH

for everything there is a season



Since the death of his son, the Earth God's heart had never been so heavy. Pride was not a sin that affected the rustic deity, and so the fact that Kaos has been parading about under the banner of the Earth's approval and order did not bother him. What did bother him in a way that was nearly impossible to articulate, for it ran so deeply within his soul, was that he hadn't even known about it. Only briefly did the God consider blaming his daughter for this. She had known about Kisamoa, but had said nothing. Despite her role in Helovia, the God could not bring himself to absolve any of his own blame by shifting it to her.

He should have seen this, but he didn't.

He and his kin had once abandoned the Veins for they realized that they had become too invested in the lives of those who lived within Helovia, that they lost sight and objectivity of their role as creators and sustainers of the world. So they had pulled back.

Slowly, they allowed themselves to return, fancying themselves somehow older and wiser for their time away. But were they? The God shook his bearded head. Apparently not. He knew more about which foals had been born within his borders than about the mad god running about. It would wound his soul more than it already had been, to do what he knew needed to be done, but there was no escaping this.

His siblings would understand, and hopefully with time, those who dwelt within the Hidden Falls would as well.

"Hidden Falls..." The God's voice was like a whisper, but each word was carried by every tree, leaf, and blade of grass to all within his borders. "Hear me now..." Time was of the essence. He didn't necessarily have time to wait for them to come to him, and so the magical amplification of his voice continued.
 
"Kaos has returned to Helovia. The four gods that were killed during the Rift Wars have some how .. joined together, and go under the guise of this new name and new face. But they are the same deadly threat that they posed to us and to the lands that they ruled over beyond the Rift. I-" The God paused, drowned in shade and sunlight and somehow unable to speak. Taking a breath and closing his eyes, he forced himself to continue. "I have become too invested, and have been spread too thin. I have not been here for you and did not notice the signs of evil, no matter how obvious they were. I cannot, in good faith, allow my selfishness and love for you and these lands to continue to distract me."

The God took a deep breath, and exhaled. As he did so, the magic that he imbued into the Hidden Falls, slowly disappeared. 

"I can no longer allow you to live here, knowing that I cannot be here for you. I have failed Helovia, and I have failed you. Know that I do not leave you lightly. I go to protect and serve us all, and though my heart wishes to remain here with you, I cannot."

In the center of the Hidden Falls, a spring emerged and bubbled. Over the next few days, it would connect with many of the tributaries and waterfalls within the land, but only here, where it was pure and coming from an unseen source in the earth, would his magic remain. 





The Hidden Falls is no longer a herd land! We realize that this may come as a shock and surprise to you, but we hope you'll see this as the fantastic plot-device that we do! It's no secret that the HF has always been hard to keep active, and we've heard over and over again from the members of Helovia, that you want to spice some things up. We think having only three herds will allow for some interesting plot development, and will finally break the curse that's always been over the poor HF ;)

This land will now be a regular posting board!

The Earth God has created a spring in the center of the HF which has healing properties! It can only heal things that a normal healer would be able to heal (so no healing cancer or magically fixing bones or anything). 



CREDITS

Areli Posts: 82
Absent Abyss atk: 6.0 | def: 10 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.3 hh :: 3 (Birdsong) HP: 65.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Bee :: Grey Wolf :: None Shady
#2
Areli
the flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly

She had traveled many days to make it back here, spent countless nights dreaming of her arrival. Would it be Daddy who spotted her first, out on his patrols of the border? Or maybe it would be Uncle Kaj who would come forward to greet her, wings outstretched, worried expression fast fading to one of relief. And sometimes, in her best dreams, Mama would be there. Mama, come back to the Falls, would lead the parade of her family out from the cliffs, and they would all be there—just like they had been before.

The dreams sustained her through the long journey, kept her trudging through the Frostfall snow. Little concerned was she with the comings and goings of Helovians about their tasks for the strange sea-being who had gifted her that horrid crown—she had held on to it, for it was pretty, but she could not bear to set it upon her head, for the sounds of the sea were her worst nightmare. No, she hadn’t bothered with all the fuss over Kisamoa, but maybe she should have…for when she finally arrived at the end of her journey, it seemed that another ending was nigh.
 
Perhaps she caught a glimpse of her god as he vanished from sight, or perhaps it was a trick of the light, but she heard his amplified whisper and reeled in shock at the proclamation. And as she looked around the deserted woods, she saw that it was true: it was gone, all of it. Not in the way that a burned field was, or in the crumbling way that the Veins were—the land was still there, yet simultaneously it wasn’t. Even in the new air of Birdsong, the streams didn’t gurgle as merrily, nor was the forest as warm or green. It was if what had once been the Falls was now simply the falls. Without the god, its essence was gone.
 
No,” Areli whispered, softly at first. A tear trickled down her brown cheek.
 
“NO!”
 
But her voice only echoed against the rocky cliffs, repeating over and over above her head until it too faded away. 

"speech"
Image Credits || original coding by Tamme; tweaked by Shady || quote by William Wordsworth
[Image: areli_by_moonstone_designs-d9dgh47.png]
Icon base: Bronzehalo
Please do not tag Areli except in opening posts!

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#3
isopia

No, this was not acceptable.

First she'd been promoted to the position of lead; a position she hadn't asked for, nor been asked if she'd wanted it. It had been thrust upon her, just like her very existence had, and came with a plethora of new obligations and responsibilities that were now hers to own and take charge of.

But she had. She'd tried. She'd tried in a way she hadn't tried at anything before. She'd assembled them, encouraged them. She'd called her Father down hoping to build a temple in his honour so that they might all have a common goal to work towards.

And he had said no.

He'd give her the keys, but had changed the locks.

He'd said to wait. To come together more. And so she'd tried at that too.

And then there was this. How did he have the nerve to say that he'd missed Kaos' presence because he'd been too devoted to them? The only time he came to see Isopia was when she'd done something wrong. He hadn't let them know about anything.

He'd done nothing for them, and yet he blamed his devotion to their little Hidden Falls-family as the reason why a maniac God was allowed to plunder their resources and take up residence in the land he'd cleared.

At least Kaos had gotten something accomplished. Could her Father really say the same? Kaos seemed to have a handle on things.

"You have failed." Isopia said, her eyes stern but equally disappointed. Disappointed in that way on a child's eyes can be, when they finally see through the veil of their parents to the fallible creature below.
"And you are selfish not because you love us too much, but because you use the love you think you give us as an excuse for your lack of command. These are mortal errors you've made here. You are supposed to be above all of that. "

Isopia hardly cared how blasphemous the words leaving her mouth likely were. Would he strike her down and create a new child from her ashes?

Let him. It wouldn't be the first time, after all.

"Let us make our own errors and set our own paths. Perhaps it is better that you are gone. At least now we won't have the false hope that you will be looking out for us. Helovia has been without your protection for longer that you'd likely care to admit."

Hubris, shocked at Isopia's anger and blunt honesty, cowered into a ball on her back, unable to meet the gaze of the God who had given him to her.

Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Aquila Posts: 95
Outcast atk: 5 | def: 9 | dam: 5.5
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.2 :: 6 HP: 62 | Buff: NOVICE
Craonos :: Common Narwhal Leviathan :: Boil smitty
#4
Aquila
the sea is hell
and I am its fury
“Hidden Falls…”

Again, the voice of their patron god run through the herdlands. And, despite all the mistrust built in the seaborne mare, there was some fission of trust that had begun to bud in her barrel. Or, perhaps, it was more appreciation for a purpose rather than trust, that she felt for the God.

Regardless, her scaled body rose out of the chilly, fresh water; webbed hooves padding through the season’s new growth as she walked towards the source of Earth’s amplified voice. However, as he continued speaking, her strong limbs faltered with his words. “I can no longer allow you to live here…”

Her legs stalled, ears tilting back. Although the Falls had never been the true home of the Seahorse, it had been her herd while in Helovia. She had been healed, she had patrolled, she had invested her time here. It had taken her out of the hopeless loneliness she had found herself in after failing to find Akvo.

Suddenly, needing to see, her striped legs struck out in a quick canter and she breached where the Mountain and another were already present. Her scaled ears twitched at the dappled girl’s cry—a mournful sound of loss so close to the ever-present, painful pulse in her own chest.

But she was not left long to dwell on the similarities with Areli, for Isopia’s blunt words struck through the girl’s grief and God’s defeat. Her ridged head swung towards the Mountain, wide eyes unblinking as she listened.

And something strange shifted in her. Something sharp and persistent—it carved into her mind as she watched a daughter push her father away. Dioj are above us in nothing but power,” her low voice started—not in reprimand, but in simple observation.

She paused for a moment, a long breath expanding her plated, slabbed sides, before her throaty words continued, “No matter the wrongs, you are still blood. If he is gone,” she blinked once, pausing, “You will miss him.” There was a conviction in her strangely accented husky voice.

And then, finishing her unasked for and (likely) unwanted doctrine, the Akvian turned and left the Falls.



Dioj = gods
image | coding


@Isopia

Please tag Aquila in all posts.

Syrena Posts: 207
Dragon's Throat Forger
Mare :: Hybrid :: 16.1 hh :: 7 years
Thelxiepeia :: Royal Rougarou :: Water Kyra
#5

Life isn’t fair. She knows this. But it doesn’t stop the thought from coming. It’s not fair.

For the first time since coming to Helovia, she’d begun to think she could survive here. Begun to think of Helovia as more than a prison that had stolen her magic and with it, her heart. Begun to think that maybe, just maybe, she could find a way back to some semblance of herself.

And like everything else in this godforsaken place, the Gods ripped it away. His voices to them through magic, and she doesn’t go to find him. Not this time. There’s something in his voice that keeps her away, though eventually, she does go, if only to see the others. Not that she cares for them, but for the first time in her life she does not want to face this completely alone.

She is in time to hear Isopia tell her father that he failed. And in this, for perhaps the first and only time, she finds herself agreeing with the now ex-Czarina. Syrena had tried. But the God had denied them their quest. And now he’d taken their home, pledging to watch over all of Helovia when he couldn’t even watch over one tiny little herd.

Aquila is there as well, with words for Isopia. But Syrena can’t blame the Mountain for her anger. There’s no anger in Syrena though. No, it fell flat on it’s face inside her, turning to nothing. Simply nothing. Where once perhaps something had begun to stir, there was once again nothing. She’d just been fooling herself all along.

Fooling herself that she could ever be something with her powers gone. Fooling herself that the sea had come to the land for them. Hope. She’d felt hope before. Little twinges of it, smashed beneath the hooves of Kaos and the Earth God.

She doesn’t say anything, but lingers on the outskirt of the group, ready to go. But go where? And so she stays put, not moving, not speaking. Because there was nothing left for her to do.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me

image credits

Please tag in all posts
Magic use/power playing is okay, but check before serious injury/death
Image by Reli

Dragomir Posts: 275
World's Edge Glazier atk: 6 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Equine :: 17" :: 7 HP: 64.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Bunnie
#6

The call of the Earth’s voice across the rolling realm rouses the crafter from his thoughts, and he moves for the first time in well over an hour, to turn his eyes towards where he somehow knows the sound to call from. Slowly moving towards it, his heart heavy – not because he had truly come to love the Falls as his home, but for those who had - Dragomir arrives on the tail end of the God’s words, and the creation of his final gift.

He remains silent while women weep, and the Mountain places the burden of her anger on an obviously tired man’s shoulders. A most peculiar woman speaks next, in chastisement of the young girl’s mournful jabs, and Dragomir’s pale eyes move between them both for some time, following the seahorse as she leaves.

None of them speak about the worst part of what has been said, perhaps too numbed by the loss of their home to take notice of what, Dragomir considers, anyway, to be a massive elephant in the room. Though he had only been present for the battle with the Tigress, it had been bloody, and required an army and a God of Helovia’s own to quell. The thought that multiple Gods had become one…

He cared very little for a daughter’s anger, or the heartbroken, when presented with such a magnanimous threat.

"What of this…Kaos?" he inquires, without condemning, his concern for his young family evident; accepting the blame that Helovia had earned during the theft of the Rift, and the murder of its Gods, he continues, "even if you focus on defeating him, can you? How much more blood will the Rift lands cost, if you cannot?"



Wishlist | Table Tracker  

Any violence/magic is allowed to be used upon Dragomir at anytime, permitting it doesn't kill or seriously maim him without my permission <3

Brendan Posts: 31
Aurora Basin Medic atk: 4 | def: 8 | dam: 7
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 16hh :: Two Years (Orangemoon Born) HP: 67 | Buff: NOVICE
Arwen :: Plain Hellhound :: Acid Emily
#7

BRENDAN
HARDSHIP OFTEN PREPARES AN ORDINARY PERSON FOR AN EXTRAORDINARY DESTINY


Arwen and I had been traveling Helovia, looking for herbs and other plants that could help the herd. I had tried to hard to take my role and Earth Medic seriously. Maybe, to seriously. We have been gone for weeks now, and I regret not telling the others where I had planned on going. What if all three of us had gone on similar missions? What if the Falls needed us and we were not there? That had caused us to return. Little did we know, what exactly we were returning to.

Hidden Falls... The call reached my ears long before my hooves hit the border of my home. Father Earth was calling. I push myself forward, Arwen hot on my trail as we race to see why he was calling us together. It was not for the reasons I had expected. As he spoke, I could feel my God given power drain from my body. No longer could I call upon the earth to save another, to heal another.... I stand there, dumbfounded at first. I move to stand by @Areli as she cries out the word no. Her voice echoed the feelings in every fiber of my body. Others speak, but I can't focus on what they are saying as for me I am still spinning on the inside.

"You, what?" I stare at the former patron with disbelief. How could he do this to us? Arwen whines softly, both of us wondering if we had done something wrong to cause him to leave us. He had been Father Earth.... Now.... He's just another father figure in my life to walk away for whatever the reason. I could feel the anger and hurt rising in my chest. So instead, I focus on the girl I had chosen to stand beside. "Where do we go now?" Yes, I said we. I may barely know the girl, who looks to be about my age now that I actually pay attention, but I was sure I didn't want to go traveling alone.

"Talk"


Areli Posts: 82
Absent Abyss atk: 6.0 | def: 10 | dam: 4.5
Mare :: Pegasus :: 15.3 hh :: 3 (Birdsong) HP: 65.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Bee :: Grey Wolf :: None Shady
#8
Areli
the flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly


Through the haze of grief and panic, she saw others approaching, but their voices sounded like buzzing in the back of her skull, facts barely registered. She knew none of them anyway, no one who arrived gave her a side to rush to or a hint of familiarity to grasp in her heart’s hot little hands. She watched numbly as a boy approached with a dog of his own, but did not turn as he spoke to her. Parelia would have chastised her for this lack of manners, but what did it matter? Her mother was gone. Her father was gone. And now her home had succumbed to this black hole of loss too, crumbling away before her eyes at the very moment that she had arrived on its doorstep. Would pleasantries really serve to make any of it better?
 
Areli was vaguely surprised that the boy chose to address her, asking what they would do. She hardly knew. Go back to the Throat, she supposed, and live with Ilios—though a part of her cringed at the thought of knocking again at the Dragon’s door when she had just denied Volterra’s offer of a home there. How foolish she must seem! But then, she had only wanted to come here. How was she to know that it would not be waiting for her when she returned?
 

“I don’t know,” she finally replied, voice low and heavy with emotion.
“I…I suppose I’ll find my brother. He’s all I’ve got left now.” And then, just for old time’s sake, or perhaps to honor the memory of the mother whom she’d surely never see again, the best and most polite woman in the world, she said,
“I’m Areli, formerly—“ here, she choked on the word,
“—of the Hidden Falls. Who are you?”


"speech"
Image Credits || original coding by Tamme; tweaked by Shady || quote by William Wordsworth


@Brendan
[Image: areli_by_moonstone_designs-d9dgh47.png]
Icon base: Bronzehalo
Please do not tag Areli except in opening posts!


Forum Jump:


RPGfix Equi-venture