"Where brilliance is good and madness is better..."
Helovia Info
Helovia opened in February 2012! We are an active fantasy equine RPG
Where once the world narrowed into naught but gray dust and desolation, the gods called for life. Wielding the elements of fire and light, dark and wind, earth and water, spark and time, they have created Helovia. The realm is set within the mythical globe of Loorien, a planet rich with all variety of creatures and blessed with all manner of magic. Originally populated by nomadic, tribal characters, they've since grown into massive empires saturated with culture and history. Separated into four distinct segments of Helovia, called "The Regions," each band of horse strong enough and capable enough, took up the power and responsibility of leadership. Unicorns, old, wise and mysterious, took to the north, hidden in forests of mists and shadows and rarely making themselves known beyond their cliffs of the World's Edge. Equines, vast, organized and militaristic, split into two, one group went north to the Windtossed Foothills and the other group went south to the Dragon's Throat. Pegasus remained nomadic, making their homes in various parts of The Wilds in a migratory manner. For many generations, the land was peaceful and calm, but peace was never the way of the gods. With a clash of argument, war and bloodshed massacred Helovia, and in the aftermath, the realm was eerily quiet. Now, as newcomers sweep into this land, they are met with the lingering bitterness of the gods and the struggle to reclaim what was lost. Nothing remains safe or certain while sorcerers and soldiers alike brood and bide their time for revenge, honor and glory.
Site Wide Plots
Kaos :: The Beginning of the End ☼ - 6/2017 - Kaos placed Helovia in a time-bubble for a short period of time, but the Helovian gods are fighting back. But Kaos is powerful- far more powerful than anyone thought. This may be the beginning of the end of Helovia as we know it.
Kisamoa :: A New Kind of Kaos ☼ - 3/2017 - Kisamoa asks Helovians to help him restore the Spectral Marsh. Which side will you choose?
Invasions :: All Out War ☼ - 5/2/16 - New layout and the brand new invasion rules are up! Thank you for your patience and we look forward to getting started with this new adventure.
The Rift :: Gods Do Die ☼ - 8/2015 - Helovia Gods are saving the Rift from corrupt gods! Can Helovians band together against these foreign deities?
The Literal Ship ☼ - 2/8/15 - Oh no! You have to pair up for Valentine's day!
Sky Island :: Murder ☼ - 10/25/14 - Vesta has been found dead on the island, and the gods have called to you to solve the murder!
Sky Island :: Peace ☼ - 7/7/14 - An island has appeared in the sky! Clouds carry Helovians from the Veins to the sky.
Restoration :: We Welcome the Dawn ☼ - 9/21/13 - The sun has finally risen on this day, giving the land new light, but the Time God and the Sun God have yet to be seen.
Endless Night :: Broken Magic Plot ☼ - 8/30/13 - The earth god has returned and is walking across Helovia to heal the land. Every area can now be considered lush and prosperous, but the sun has still not risen.
☼ - 7/19/13 - The moon has risen in the sky, heralding the return of the Goddess of the moon. Lamp trees which light the paths have grown brighter, moon flowers which grow in dark places have begun to grow and prosper and the world is brighter, filled with a new hope.
Endless Night :: Dead Magic Plot ☼ - 6/22/13 - The gods of Helovia, in order to protect the world, have disappeared into the rift, leaving the world sunless, moonless and magic-less in their absence. Only the herdlands have a source of light, but lamp-trees with glowing leaves and branches sporadically line the popular roads and paths from place to place.
Doppleganger Plot ☼ - 6/20/13 - The God of Time is still struggling to close the rift though which the dopplegangers have come. He has requested that his brothers and sister assist in closing this hole, but without knowing why it opened, the task is proving difficult. Magic still remains faulty and hard to control, but the herdlands continue to be places of refuge for those who are fortunate enough to call these lands home.
ORANGEMOON cools off the lands with a a viscious force. Colder than normal, a sign of things to come during Frostfall, Helovia is bathed in a rich tropical lushness - albiet a cold one. The coastlines of the Dragon's Throat are pelted constantly by tidal waves, and the desert climate is humid but chilly. Ice begins to form early in the Aurora Basin leaving the winding trails slick and dangerous. The mists of the World's Edge coat everything in a glistening crystalline shine which encourages mould to grow everywhere. The Spectral Marsh is the only area which remains fertile, blissfully temperature and lush.
Cotm
Character of the Month for
June, 2017
WEAVER, Corporal of the Aurora Basin, is a relatively recent addition to Helovia and has taken it by storm. Branded with the seal of Death on her chest, intrigue and interest follow both her past and present. Though she is assuredly beautiful, her sometimes sharp personality reveals that there is more to this uni-peg hybrid than meets the eye. Proving herself able on the battlefield in the Basin’s warrior ranks, we can’t wait to see her test her mettle against the looming Kaos happenings! Congratulations!
Helovia RPG was created by Tamme and Blu and coded by Tamme also known as Schwartze. All coding, palettes and imagery are copyrighted to the website and are not for use outside of Helovia. Thank you to our ServerMaster for hosting Helovia. A special thanks goes to Neo for all of her coding help and fixing Tamme's errors, Boom, for her loyal service and creation of the Time God, and to Ali for her consistent contributions and dedication.
LACE</style> Time Flies - Time Dies Truth like a blazing Fire</style>
Why had he even come? Of course there wasn't going to be anything here, not a soul to listen to a prayer or grant any favors. There was only the wind and the sea and the eerie glow of the blue lava, and the strange runes that whispered to his heart even though he had never seen symbols like them before. The stallion stared grimly at the ruins of the shrines, a wind whipped statue barely discernible against the gray rock. Cloaked in darkness, with only the faint pallor of the tiny dragon as a hint that someone was there at all. Was he the first to set hoof in this place since the darkness fell?
"Unlikely" Fajira noted and wrapped the scaled tail around the cold rock she perched upon, aggressively unconcerned that it was the shrine of the Sun God and not just a pile of rubble. "Others would have come running to ask what happened. Others would have left again, fearful and disappointed. Not all have WildRoses around to tell truths."
Lace hummed in consent and took a step back from the scripture he had been studying. Turning gilded eyes to look out towards the black sea he tried to spot a brightening of the sky towards the horizon, but in vain. All that met his gaze was darkness, deep and black and impenetrable. A soft curse left his tongue and with a grimace he shrugged and began to pace around the shrines, half searching for a spot where the wind didn't bite as coldly, half walking off a deep rooted restlessness that just wouldn't seem to leave him.
"Tell me what bothers you" the dragon demanded patiently, even though the knowledge was so easy to find should she choose to look for it. Sometimes, she had found, it was better to let the brooding stallion she shared a soul with explain himself - it seemed to clear his mind, and it was far better than to rummage through the jumbled heap of thoughts that raged through his mind in times like these.
Lace stopped and turned towards her, tail swishing impatiently as an ear ticked backwards. "You know what bothers me" he said, lips tightening in discontent. "The bloody darkness, the cold, the fact that I don't know if it's day or night, whether time has moved at all since the gods disappeared. Where did they go, are they coming back, if they do will I have to deal with the accursed magic again. I shouldn't wish for them to stay wherever they took off to, I know that, and I feel bad for all those who really want their powers back. But as far as I'm concerned they can keep their so called gifts and leave us alone."
A dark glare was shot at the ruins that silhouetted against the blue glow that surrounded them, as though they were the high lords of Helovia themselves. He began pacing again, speaking as he clopped across the uneven surface, careful about where he placed his feet so as not to hurt himself. "It's not just that though, is it" she replied, reptilian eyes reflecting the color of the lava as they followed him on his path, steady and clear as a spring sky.
"No" he admitted and kicked a stone out of the way, eyes following it as it clattered over the black rock. "It's..." He opened the maw but no words came out, and with a strangled sound as though something was choking him the steed bundled up all the tangled feelings and shoved them over to the dragon to see for herself. With a contemptuous squawk the White wobbled a bit on her perch as though something had physically struck her, and with a hard glance toward Lace she looked through the threads of thought, the images and sensations he pushed onto her. It was hard for the dragoness not to laugh the horse in the face as he came padding and stopped before her, head hanging low and with a miserable look on the face. Really, males. They made everything so difficult when it didn't have to be.
"I don't see the problem" she conveyed mildly and stretched her back in a feline manner, pearly scales rising and falling like a glittering wave as the slender back arched towards the black sky. A tiny clawed paw reached out and combed through his silken mane, as gently as she could be. "So you love her. So you want her. It is normal. Nothing to feel shame over, nothing to panic about. Let it take time, my Silver, and I don't doubt that good things will come to you."
With catlike grace Fajira gathered herself and took a leap through the air, landing deftly on the broad back of the crafter where she settled down, retracting the claws before beginning to knead the tense muscles along his spine. Lace sighed heavily, wishing he could be as hopeful as she. It didn't matter how many times he twisted and turned the subject, it always led to the same conclusion. He loved Mirage, in a very painful, very greedy sort of way that set his guts on fire whenever he thought of her together with the halfbreed. He'd never thought much about Vikram before, and when he had in the past it had been as a powerful stallion, a great asset to the herd... Now he would rather see the scaled stud take off somewhere and not come back, knowing fully well how unlikely that was to ever happen. Why would he, when he had the love of the DragonHeart and two daughters to prove it?
Swallowing back the bitterness that threatened to consume him the white maned horse shifted the weight between his legs in an attempt to make himself more comfortable; he'd allow himself a bit of rest before beginning the journey back north - though maybe not back home right away. The Edge had been feeling stifling as of late, and Lace much preferred the endless darkness to the veiled forest with its gleaming mists.
07-07-2013, 02:09 AM (This post was last modified: 07-07-2013, 02:14 AM by Yseulte.)
It was something her grandmother would have done and something her father would have scorned, most likely.
Visiting the gods.
What did she hope to find? Answers, perhaps, because she couldn't find anything in this desolate darkness—not her King of Thieves, not her summer-eyed Torasin, and not even that damnable white tiger. She searched feebly in the darkness ahead, scanning for the venomous flash of violet eyes, but only blackness and a certain sense of despair swamped her senses. Itzal had cut his connection with her, and she knew better than to press him. If he wanted to be alone, so be it.
She hated it. Hated it more than anything, this darkness. She was a desert flower that flourished beneath the intensity of the sun's scorching rays and blistering touch, and relished the feel of hot, dry wind running through her silver-gold hair like a man's loving caress. Where have you gone, my King of Thieves? She even missed the hiss of scorpions streaking through burning golden sand and the deep, thunderous thrum of a rattlesnake's buzzing tail rattling in the sparse shade of sagebrush and cacti. The sky was always a bright cornflower blue, and her tough skin was nearly scrubbed raw by sand, wind, and sun. She could go without water for days, survive suffocating sandstorms, and navigate by the stars, but what good were those skills when Helovia was clad in eternal winter and a plain cloak of immortal darkness that lacked the luster of decorative diamond stars?
She was lost even in the darkness now, with no stars to guide her. She hard never felt so alone, nor so useless. Perhaps that was what lured her to the shrines of the Gods. Didn't all desperate souls seek sanctuary beneath the eyes of gods that may or may not even care? She passed over veins of shimmering blue magma that reminded her of Zjarri's hair—glowing, scorching, and treacherously beautiful. The raw, hot stench of sulfur and ash scorched the back of her throat and filled her lungs. The heat that shimmered from the simmering magma caused a light sheen of sweat to glisten on her neck, and breathing in the hot air was like a healing salve applied to her heart. Even her leg, crippled by wolves nearly a year ago, didn't throb so fiercely and ache from the cold. The heat of fire and magma made her feel close to her ancestors, to the Firelord and his Firebird. She immediately felt more alive than she had been since Torasin's death.
But just thinking of those summer eyes made her heart wilt, and she sighed softly. Torasin only made her think of World's Edge...of Mirage, Thor, and Lace, that kingdom by the sea—of all she had left behind in the hopes that she would find her purpose. Despite all that World's Edge had done for her, she was slowly letting go of them one bye one. Thor, Mirage, Lace, Torasin.
She missed them, yes, Jackal perhaps most of all. Her Jack with wild red hair and cool silver eyes. She held him in her heart like a secret, alongside the terrible stains of her father's death. Yseulte was fierce, to be sure, but she did, after all, possess the passionate heart of a woman no matter how she strove to suppress it, and she desperately longed to love and be loved in return, however foolish it might be. When she thought Itzal was deep in sleep, she would lay awake every night (or was it day?) and whisper to herself: Forget him, forget him, forget him.
How else could she hope to move on with her life? There was precious little space as it was in her heart, and she knew that in order to make room for future relationships, she had to let past ones slip between the barbed wire wrapped around her heart. Even the King of Thieves.
Itzal brushed her conscience, strangely tentative at first, as if he didn't wish to disturb her, which was highly unusual. As if he, too, noticed how bizarrely polite he was being, he took hold of her mind by force, his conscience cold and unyielding as steel trap laced with poison. The familiar flavor of Itzal's mind flooded her conscious like a sea of bitterness, writhing with anger and tearing things apart destructively. She sighed. Her young ward mentally exhausted her more often than not. But he urged her on anyhow, traces of excitement leaking into the pool of consciousness shared between them.
Company ahead then, surely. When he wasn't busy tearing wings off of robins and sparrows, Itzal loved nothing more than sneering and tormenting the companions of strangers. Perhaps she ought to toss him in the magma and boil the bad boy out of him. His snide laughter echoed in her mind, and she caught glimpses of the shrines. She followed the path winding alongside the magma, anticipating whom she might find waiting for her, if the gods had truly not forsaken them. How long had it been since the Earth God had received her in this very place? A year or more. Even Hototo, the boy she'd met in the mountains, seemed to think the god would answer if he ever truly had need of his father.
She desperately hoped the boy was right.
But it was not a god in all of his divine glory she found on that perilous ledge.
"Lace," she said, surprise and uncertainty mingled in her voice. His sad eyes were the same as always--ancient as time, as if he had lived a thousand lives and none of them happy. They glittered like pirate treasure, bright and round as golden coins in the darkness and his hair was a shock of fluid silver in the stark blackness. His pale dragon stretched languidly along her former mentor's back, rippling and glittering like a cloak fashioned from ivory dragon scales. Itzal was by her side, suddenly, staring at the white she-dragon curiously. Oddly enough, his gaze was neither venomous nor did it hold spiteful contempt. Only powerful curiosity. But then again, curiosity killed the cat, more often than not. She gave him a stern look that promised to toss him into the volcano if he did anything foolish. He ignored her, but did not jest or taunt the dragon. Only stared with those unwavering violet eyes.
She could not find her tongue after that. The words stuck in her throat, painful and sharp, like the tiny bird bones Itzal so often cracked between his fangs. She could not remember when she had last spoken with the silver glazier alone. Was it that night, so long ago, when he fashioned armor from naught but swirling black water? She wanted to rush to Lace, wanted to embrace him like the long lost friend he was, but she did not. Aside from fearing her crippled leg would give way beneath her, she was Vasílissa, now, not Yseulte the Crafter or Glazier's apprentice. However badly she yearned to reach out to her former mentor, she could not. It was not the Valkyrie way. But that did not stop her from respecting him. Aside from her father, Lace had been the first man in her life, along with Torasin and Thor. Did he hate her for leaving? Leaving without a warning, or even goodbye? Did he even care at all?
She thought she could handle scorn and hate.
It was indifference that would break her heart.
yseulte & itzal,
ALL THE WAYS I GOT TO KNOW
YOUR PRETTY FACE AND ELECTRIC SOUL.
and i'd tell that i miss you but i'm sure it doesn't matter at all
She didn't know why she had traveled this far out here alone. It was too dark. Her eyes couldn't adjust right to all the shadows and with only one ear she couldn't hear everything around her. But something inside of her had pushed her to start moving. To keep edging forward and slink away for a while. Of course, don't get her wrong, she didn't like being alone. And, in all honesty she hadn't expected to be alone for long - Quil was usually right at her side as soon as he had realized she had started to wander off on her own.
But, perhaps he had sensed the difference in her stride. She was slightly stronger in her sense of capability to leave, though she was still jumping at everything in her path. Her mind was easily drawn into her own thoughts and she had started to become reserved. The darkness was not only plaguing the world around her but it was beginning to plague her mind. It was keeping her stressed and keeping her adrenaline pumping. Rest had been short with long times in between the moments of it's gracious calming effects. She was pushing uncertainly onward without a real direction or meaning.
Res had heard of the Gods, though, and she supposed that was what had drawn her in this direction. Her feet tripping over roots and branches she couldn't see as she catapulted left and then right and then left again at every noise her audit dared to pick up on. She couldn't tell what it was, and her eyes dare not adjust well enough between swaying lanterns to gift her with the grace of making out the world around her with the sense she had to rely on more with her hearing lacking.
By the time the lanterns died her golden orbs picked up the site of glowing rivers of... what was that? Her eyes widened instantly as she stumbled back into the amber light of the lantern, hooves kicking dirt up in front of her face as she struggled to understand just what was going on around her. Light. There was light. But there was no sun...
She shook her head violently in an attempt to pull herself together before stepping cautiously over the glowing liquid. Each step cautiously placed as she attempted to pull shadow from rock as the lava lit up different shadows for her to attempt to place in her mind when she had not once been to. Climbing for a little while she continued the process of picking up one hoof, eyeing the ground uncertainly and then testing the terrain before fully resting her weight upon it.
Then, she stopped suddenly in her tracks. Her orbs shot in the direction of the voice whose sound she could make out but not the words. Confusion flitted across her features and she began to trek forward again. Except, this time, she was too intrigued by the voice who seemed to have stopped to take full attention to her steps and her back hoof slipped off the slick rock and almost sent her sliding back into the lava.
In a swift movement she had leaped onto her feet and shot about ten feet forward. Her heart racing more than she could recall from the trek out toward this place. That was close... that was too. All she had wanted in coming out here was some guidance - was to see if these Gods were still around and to see if they were testing the world or playing some kind of sick joke. Because, honestly, this was one horribly sick joke to be shrouding the world in complete and utter blackness.
Again, she jolted forward, eyes locking on the liquid as it pulsed close to her hind legs again and by the time she had reached a safe area she had almost ran straight into two other equines. Except... one had a horn attached to it's cranium. A very sharp horn if she did say so herself. Instantaneously she began to stumble backwards. "S-so-sorry!" she choked out, velveteen chords sharp and broken from surprise, "I d-didn't me-mean to interrupt..."
And then Resplendence allowed her eyes to take in the pair... really take in the pair. It took her a second to lock onto the one without the horn, a stag she later deemed only to realize that there was a dragon lurking upon his back. Her eyes widened even more as she shuffled her feet, head swinging back for a second to ensure she didn't step in the glow liquid. Oh God. Those things were not meant to exist. And horses were not meant to have horns on their heads. And lava was not supposed to glow. And the list could go on and on. But it did nothing to calm the claybank dun mare down as she shuffled her feet in place.
Her eyes switched toward the horned one in hopes of some kind of reassurance only to see the white tiger at her side. She shuffled in place again. It was going to eat her! She just knew it! There was no other explanation. God. Why had she come?! Why had she decided to see if the Gods were still around? Why had she put herself through this. Oh she didn't need this stress. Her heart was still racing outside of her chest and uncertainty was clouding her vision. Should she run? Should she stay? Oh. She just wanted Quil back here right now! He had always been with her since they had found each other again! And she had chosen today to attempt to be brave and to move on forward about it all. She knew she needed to be braver, stronger, less... well... her. But, that was easier said than done and all of her attempts at doing so had only left her with an elevated pulse and a bit of sweat gleaming against her expanding and collapsing ribs as she fought to take deep breaths to calm herself.
It hadn't mattered that it was cold, no. Anxiety hadn't cared and it had definitely taken it's toll already...
1040 words
Res broke the awkward moment by... making it more awkward? XD
-also I tend to tag each post so if you'd prefer I didn't just let me know!
@[Lace] && @[Yseulte]
LACE</style> Time Flies - Time Dies Truth like a blazing Fire</style>
Alerted in advance by the clop of hooves against steaming rock, neither stallion nor dragon showed signs of surprise as a shape materialized from the shadows. Lace wasn't in the mood for skittish guesswork about who or what might be coming to visit the toppled shrines, nor did he care whether the unseen being was after a fight or not. There were limits to paranoia, and in all their absence he wanted to see the soul brave enough to start trouble at this holy ground.
"Since when do you care about such things?" the dragon asked quietly and stopped her kneading, instead stretching out casually along his back, a content sound rumbling in the depths of her throat. "Just because I don't like them doesn't mean I can't respect their power or the faith others have in them" he replied and turned the head ever so slightly as the hoof beats came closer, eyes locked at the point where the wanderer would have to appear. "Besides, I wouldn't like if others made a mess of my special place... Why should they be any different."
A soft hum acknowledged the fairness of the arguments, and with a small sigh the dragoness let her head come to rest upon Lace's gilded whithers. The shape of a horse was slowly coming into view, and as it did the expression began to harden ever so slightly on his face. It was all too familiar even in this strange light, no mistaking that unusual hue of lavender or the milky white stripes that draped across shoulders and back. Would he ever be able to get the memory of those blonde locks out of his head? Would he ever get used to the lack of the vibrant voice that now haunted the forests they once had shared, master and apprentice, brother and sister... friends of a common purpose?
"Yseulte" he replied laconically and straightened the legs beneath himself, neck swelling as it raised to get a better look at her. "It's been a while." The tone was reproachful, hurt; full of all the hard words that stirred every time he thought of how she had simply up and left them all without as much as a goodbye. But he didn't voice them, unsure whether he'd be able to stop once the flood broke the dam. Instead he simply watched her, waiting for but not expecting any of the apologies and excuses he knew might come. Would she have enough shame in her to actually give an explanation for why she chose to leave?
Part of him didn't even want to hear it; there couldn't be one good enough.
Meanwhile, the approach of the violet-eyed cat had caught the attention of Fajira. Mostly ignoring the conversation between the horses, the White cracked and eye open and glanced down at the feline with a cold blue eye, not unlike someone might gaze at an ant beside their foot. The tip of her tail curled, a wing stretched and folded back against pristine scales - then the eye closed again, utterly disinterested in the cub that stared at her with such intensity.
The silence that hovered between the two pairs could have stretched out endlessly. Instead, before either of them had a chance to speak another word, the clatter and rattle of shifting rocks and rapid hooves sent the black-rimmed ears of the silver-maned steed swirling. Frowning slightly at the rapid approach, almost without thinking he started forwards and walked past the frail-looking mare until his body barred the way between her and the approaching menace. Lines around gilded eyes deepened, only to widen again in surprise as an unknown mare appeared from the gloomy darkness, wild looking and stuttering.
What was this, was every horse and their shadow coming to the veins now? Lace folded an ear backwards against the poll and flicked the long tail irritably, giving the spooked mare a hard look.
"Who are you?" he demanded, automatically shifting the weight to the hindquarters to make movements easier. Not that he thought he would have to do battle - not with someone who looked as though she wanted nothing more than to turn and run the other way. No, it was more a matter of keeping the skittish girl away from the searing hot streams of lava that flowed around them; he really didn't want to see anyone burn their hooves off right now.
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[O] A sound of Silence
