< atton revisited > The information page for Atton has been fully revised and updated with the new map!
< updated calendar > The Fortuna calendar has been updated in the "Other" lore section! This includes a document which displays the calendar for you to see, making it much easier to understand.
< moving map > The first functional map has been released in the News section! This map is also interactive, allowing you to drag and drop between points in order to determine distances. This is the first iteration, and there's more and better to come!
< first annual awards > The results for the First Annual Fortuna Year-End Awards have been posted! Go and take a look at who the finalists were, and who took home the big prizes!
< new default skin > Our new skin has passed the beta test, and is now the new Default for the forums! If you have any issues with this skin, send a PM or Discord to Mellie.
< human lore update > Humans have been updated with TWENTY-FIVE subraces/subcultures which add numerous options, and a little extra lore and flavour.
< magic lore update > Magical Lore has been enhanced with the addition of a post on Magical Education. From Beginner to Expert, this is how you learn the spells.
< a change to member groups > Member groups are now based on storyline! You can change your displayed storyline by editing the settings in your profile.
Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Nikolai Swiftwind on Jan 24, 2017 3:17:00 GMT -7
He couldn't tell if Violet thought his idea was a good one or a terrible one, but she nodded while he spoke so he hoped that was a good sign. After he finished speaking she seemed to mull over his words a bit before she announced it was perfect and proceeded to drop her paper while she went over a brief idea. He would keep his distance and have his bow at the ready, though (obviously, she said, though Nikolai hadn't thought it was quite that obvious) they would have to avoid outright violence if they could. Nikolai, for one, was absolutely okay with shooting the gnomish guard right between his beady little eyes if it meant he could get the younglings back, but when she mentioned extra guard patrols he realized that wouldn't be a good idea because even after getting the younglings out of the circus they still had to get them out of the country, and they couldn't do that if they were arrested for killing a gnome.
Suddenly Violet shapeshifted into someone else, a lanky boy and Nikolai figured she had to be going somewhere with this and then she explained he was one of the circus boys, though he noticed that her voice was still the same. He had noticed it hadn't changed overly much when she had changed shape in the past, though Mapleheart had the accent, but all her previous shapes had been girls so he hadn't thought much of it to be honest. Now that she was supposedly one of the circus boys, her voice was much more noticeable that it didn't match. Violet said as much a moment later but said that as long as she didn't speak no one would be the wiser. He hoped the person she chose to shift into was a naturally quiet person.
She suggested that she approach the tent with a bucket of centaur food, the thought of which turned his stomach. A bucket of centaur food? What did she think they ate? She said he would have to advise her on it and he huffed a bit, holding back the retort that centaurs weren't animals. The circus people would be treating the younglings as little more than animals, so her plan made sense. As disgusting as the thought was to him. Violet said that if she got in with the food she would sneak the younglings out, and if not then he could shoot the gnome. He liked that part of the plan. She looked up and and asked if Anja would make a good lookout, and Nikolai whistled loudly before replying, "She can screech if she sees someone else coming, and she can also swoop down to attack or distract. If I release her when we get there she will keep watch."
Anja appeared above them then and circled down into the alley where she alighted on a hand he raised for her. She looked maybe a little cold, and Nikolai felt badly about that but he didn't exactly have a little bird coat to give her. Hopefully they wouldn't be here much longer.
Post by Violet Macar on Jan 24, 2017 21:07:40 GMT -7
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Good. They'd be a swell team, she thought.
Nikolai in the shadows with a bow aimed directly at the gnome's heart - or head - or... Well, wherever was the best or easiest place to shoot at from a distance, in the dark, at a creature as small as a gnome. Anja would be up above, keeping her falcon eyes on the lookout to make sure that no one - particularly not the real Tabs - got anywhere close. And then there'd be Violet - master of disguise - walking right in and out without a single mite of suspicion!
She suddenly gasped, reaching out for Nikolai's shoulder but not quite reaching it, even with the additional height of her more Tabs-like form. "I just realized something..." She paused a moment, allowing him to wonder at what she was thinking, and then nearly shouted it out, "We need code-names!" Realizing it was a tad too loud, she quieted herself and repeated the words, not more conspiratorial and whispered, "We need code names.. No mission is complete without codenames. Oh how - oh why! Why did I leave this so long, dear Nikolai?"
Post by Nikolai Swiftwind on Jan 27, 2017 12:05:20 GMT -7
Violet gasped and reached for him and he instinctively took a half-step back and her hand didn't grasp his shoulder like it seemed she wanted to. Anja flapped her wings as she steadied herself after the sudden movement. Violet said she realized something and again his mind immediately went to all of the most awful things she could have realized at that moment but after a moment she told him what it was that she realized and it was that... they needed code names. She quieted herself and repeated it, and said no mission was complete without codenames. "Okay, then we should definitely have codenames," he agreed, before pausing and asking, "What's a codename?"
Post by Violet Macar on Jan 27, 2017 15:30:58 GMT -7
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Oh, what fresh disappointment was this! He didn't know what a codename was? Were all centaur this uncultured, or had Nikolai dropped out of school early? Was he dropped on his head as a youngling? Did centaur parents hold their children? Oh goodness - was he... Special? She wouldn't judge, no, she never would. Violet's mind was a judgment free zone. Well, sometimes. It was when it came to friends. But dear oh dear oh dear -- what if there were no missing younglings? What if he had just made it up as a part of his coping mechanism in reaction to a world that treated not only centaur cruelly, but the mentally unfit as well! Oh, oh, what a sad tale! What a--
There were centaur at the circus. That much was true, she had seen it with her own eyes. Perhaps she was putting too much weight onto one statement. It didn't happen often... But, she couldn't put it past herself. She took a deep breath, preparing to discuss the complex topic of codenames, and came up with an answer, "It's a false name. Everyone in an 'operation' (she made exaggerated air-quotes and wondered if she ought to explain what that meant, too)gets a secret name to go by. That way, no one who..." She switched to a whisper, "'Overhears'(air-quotes once more) doesn't know our true identities. So Anja, could be... Hmm... Eagle-Eye!" She still wasn't sure if Anja was an eagle or a falcon.
Post by Nikolai Swiftwind on Jan 28, 2017 13:27:16 GMT -7
Violet looked disappointed. He could tell, because when she was disappointed her face made sure that everyone knew she was disappointed. This one seemed to be more of an exasperated disappointment, and he knew it was because he didn't know what a code name was. She described it as a false name so that no one who heard them would know their real names. That actually sounded very straightforward. He wondered why they were called codenames instead of false identities or fake names or.. no actually codenames sounded much cooler than all of his other ideas.
Violet suggested Anja could be Eagle-Eye and he nodded thoughtfully. Anja was a hawk, but calling her Eagle-Eye would certainly keep anyone from knowing who or what she was. So a codename should be something that isn't what you are. "Maybe your codename could be Quiet Girl. No one would suspect it was you," he suggested, then laughed. "I could be Biped," he added, clearly thinking this was hilarious.
Post by Violet Macar on Jan 28, 2017 14:08:52 GMT -7
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He wasn't always the type for fun and light-heartedness, which made his joking all the more hilarious for Violet. She gave him a heart giggle at her own assigned name, and then a laugh at his, her face (well, the circus boy's face) cracking into a giant smile as she hugged him. "Those are perfect, Biped! I couldn't have thought of better myself. Now-- Let's go over the plan again..."
The two of them ran through the plan more times than Violet had ever run through anything. She had never been a fan of editing before (it was a mere breath away from censorship at the best of times, she'd say), but accepted Nikolai's notes with... A modicum of restraint for her usual denial of any error in her thinking. By the time the sun had gone down, she was pretty sure they had come up with a fool-proof plan. Well, at least as fool-proof as it could be with how little they knew about her target.
The two of them made their way to the circus grounds, eventually finding themselves at a perfect vantage point for Nikolai's shooting. They could see the tent in question below them, a bored looking gnome sitting on a wooden chair at its front. He looked to be polishing something, but Violet couldn't tell what it was. "That's the tent," She whispered, though she was pretty certain Nikolai had already seen it.
It was only now that she began to worry about Nikolai being found. Sure, he was a bit concealed, but he wasn't far from another of the tents, and all they would need is for someone to take a night-time walk and he could be spotted. Yes, he could handle himself -- but if he were handling himself, could he handle her? She needed protection, after all. She bit her (Tabs') lip, and looked to him one last time. "You good with this plan?"
Post by Nikolai Swiftwind on Feb 6, 2017 21:10:54 GMT -7
They came up with a plan, reviewed the plan, revised the plan, and memorized the plan for the rest of the afternoon. It would be too obvious to go to the circus when the sun was up, so they had to wait for nightfall. The circus grounds were quiet when they approached - likely all the nightly merriment would be contained to one of the tents and hopefully there wouldn't be too many people wandering around to spot them.
The tent containing the younglings stood imposingly in the distance, guarded as Violet had said by an ornery-looking gnome who was probably bored to pieces being there. Violet pointed it out and whispered that was the tent and he nodded, scanning the area for any other people who might be nearby. Empty. At least as far as he could tell.
She asked if he was good with the plan and he unslung his bow from across his shoulder with another nod. "I'm good. I'm ready. Anja will screech if she sees anyone approaching the tent, and I have your back. And Violet, thank you for everything."
Post by Violet Macar on Feb 8, 2017 14:24:42 GMT -7
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As he spoke, Violet busied herself with getting ready with a series of strange mouth exercises. She didn't plan to speak - that would definitely give her away - but she found it relaxing. So a series of 'brrrrts' 'pthssbbbs' and 'blooloolooloobthabs' acted as extra punctuation for Nikolai's words. When they'd both finished and he thanked her, she smiled and gave him a wink, flicking her quill and transmuting it into a steel bucket full of grain and grass.
She seemed confident, but she was nervous with the hope that he damn well did have her back. She was a risk-taker, and she had certainly been in dangerous situations before... But it had always been for her sake. Her story. She'd never broken the bank for the sake of someone else. It was new territory.
The gnome was sitting in his chair, distracted - but not distracted enough. The moment Violet-as-Tabs came into view, his gaze raised and his hands began to burn with a spell. It was too dark to tell much of the sort of spell it was - and even if she could tell, she didn't know of a way to communicate that to Nikolai. So instead of squinting in the darkness trying to make it out and looking suspicious, she raised the steel bucket up to Tabs' head with a clang and crouched a bit in fear.
"Who be there?" His wimpy little gnome voice rang out, (Violet hated gnomes. He could have had a suave, deep, sexpot voice and she'd still have called it a wimpy gnome voice) and Violet was able to hide her cringe behind the bucket. She added a little shiver and shake to make her seem more fearful. The gnome approached slowly, spells burning audibly until he came close enough to see what was happening. One spell died down, the other continued. "Tsk. What you doin' here Tabs?"
She opened her mouth to respond, and caught herself before she messed up. Her long, Tabs-legs straightened up a tad but she stayed half crouched as she pointed to the bucket still in front of her face. She heard another tsk, and slowly lowered the bucket, peeking over the rim to see what the gnome would do next.
OOC: Thought it might be cool if you decide what happens with the gnome! If you don't want to, that's cool too, but yeah!
Post by Nikolai Swiftwind on Feb 11, 2017 21:40:07 GMT -7
Nikolai watched as Violet walked away, down towards the tent. He pulled out an arrow and knocked the bow, holding it loosely for now but as she approached the tent he pulled it back and aimed it at the gnome, who had immediately stood when he saw Violet approach. When he saw the circus boy approach, with a bucket. Maybe Violet had chosen a suspicious circus boy to turn into. Maybe that particular circus boy wasn't supposed to go near the tent, and that was why the gnome was suspicious. He couldn't hear what was being said, but he made sure to keep the bow steady, aimed at the gnome's head just in case.
Meanwhile, the gnome was watching the bucket curiously as Tabs lowered it, until it was of a height that he could look over and peer into as well. "Food? Tabs you id'jit they don't get no food tonight after they done messed up their act so bad. Gotta teach 'em not to mess around, y'know?"
Post by Violet Macar on Feb 14, 2017 13:40:50 GMT -7
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Violet frowned as Tabs, trying to look as pitiful as possible as she looked into the bucket with the gnome. What could she do? What could she say? She tried to copy the look of thought she had seen on Tabs that day, that pursed lip look, that look where his brow furrowed and made him look older. More like his father than the boy. His tongue poking out just a tiny bit. His other hand went to his stomach, rubbing it with a bit of concern.
He met the gnome's eyes and then turned the bucket to its side, shaking out some of the feed until it was piled on the ground and only a quarter of the bucket remained. He held it up (not up for Tabs, of course, but up for the little gnome man who she hated and wanted to just smack with the damn thing) and showed him again.
Less food.
They had to eat something, didn't they? They'd only perform worse if they had no food. Of course, Violet couldn't make the damn argument since she couldn't do a man's voice in any convincing fashion - even if it was less of a man and more of a Tabs. She faked a couple coughs, hoping to insist that she was hoarse. Ha! Hoarse. She'd have to tell Nikolai about that one later.
Reported on Location by Tabs, the Sore Throat-ed Circus Boy (Please?)
The skin OTHERWORLD was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
FORTUNA-RPG was created by MELLIE. Images belong to their respective artists. All codes and scripts belong to their respective coders. Please DO NOT take anything without the owners' permission.
