< 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 Leigh Haskell on Dec 29, 2016 22:34:45 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh was all smiles by the end of Nicole's description. Man, she was fucked up. Leigh gravitated towards fucked up -- all pirates did, she supposed. "You sure he didn't kill your ma?" Leigh joked, wanting to grab the 'gun' Nicole had used, but she resisted.
"You know, Nicole Vanros, you might have a pirate in you. There're two things we fight for. Some of us got one, some of us got both -- I got both... There's freedom. That desire to be something the world just won't let you be. That want to live a life unburdened by what it wants from you. And then... There's that thing you've really got going on..." Leigh stepped a bit closer to Nicole, not closing the distance between them as she did before, but making it smaller. She put her hand on the girl's shoulder and stooped a bit to catch her eye. Leigh smirked as she noticed the fire hidden there and told Nicole exactly what it was: "Yeah, there it is, Princess. Vengeance."
Post by Nicole Vanros on Dec 30, 2016 9:23:49 GMT -7
Woodrow probably would kill Nicole's mother. She wasn't going to second-guess just how vindictive he would be. Nicole didn't even have the chance to know her mother, or if she had, she couldn't remember her, but Woodrow was a noble. He probably had some pull to find her mother. Nicole's father would always avoid saying if she died in childbirth, died by other means, or simply disappeared. The most he would over say is that she was "gone."
"I'm not a pirate, either. I am a soldier, and I will be a soldier." She had to be. Even if she was dishonorably discharged and had to carry that with her, she would win them back. She would even kiss up to Rowen… but that's exactly what Woodrow would want her to do. "It's not the world that holds you back, it's the law. Woodrow just turns it in his favor, and it sounds like you would far more of what he's capable of." She could correct the pirate, say she did not want revenge, that she wanted justice, but that wasn't it. She didn't want to hurt Woodrow because it would be the "right thing to do", she wanted nothing more than to see him suffer. She did want vengeance, and she wanted the freedom to get away with it.
"Damn it." Nicole found her way to her cot - the same one she had imagined Woodrow lying on. "Damn it! Why do you have to be right? Freedom, vengeance… I don't need to be a pirate to get any of that."
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 1, 2017 9:17:40 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh just listened as Nicole denied what Leigh had said. She stared at her blankly, perhaps a bit of a smirk on her face as she came to accept it. She still didn't accept that she had to be a pirate for those things, and Leigh just shrugged and moved to her own cot.
"Well you certainly can't be a soldier and get 'em," Her tone was blasé as she leaned against her wall once more, her stump lightly tracing the cold metal of the cot, "Soldiers have to follow orders. Ain't no freedom in that, is there? Sure you might think you're doin' good... But what happens when you get asked to do something that you think is wrong? Can't just say no. As a soldier you're always inferior... Always walkin' someone's else's path. Don't you have a path all your own, Princess?"
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 1, 2017 9:48:17 GMT -7
Nicole couldn't answer. For following someone else's path was her path. "Pirates have a captain, don't they? So, who's your captain? I bet you have to follow their orders, too." She knew she was just deflecting the question, but the pirate had to see Nicole's side of this. She was just a private, doing menial work day in and day out. The routines were familiar, even if they could be boring. One way or another, she could eventually rise through the ranks.
"You sound just like Woodrow, saying that I'll always be inferior." A pirate was showing herself off as if she knew more than Nicole, yet even that somehow wasn't as insulting as what Woodrow had done. In a way, she was right, Nicole couldn't get her revenge against Woodrow as a soldier. If she did have a higher rank, maybe she could have had the authority to find some form of revenge, but putting aside how long that could take, that had to be impossible now. She probably couldn't even be a real "Princess". Who would want some rogue soldier discharged for threatening Woodrow coming back to Dirys and calling herself their princess? "I had several paths, as a matter of fact, even as a soldier. Woodrow just ruined them all. The only path I have left is revenge against him, but I can't stake my whole life on that. I guess… I don't really know what to tell you. I need something to do, something that has nothing to do with Markus Woodrow."
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 1, 2017 10:04:52 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] She laughed. Sure, she'd follow some orders from the Captain. But it wasn't out of duty. That was the difference. "I don't need to follow anyone orders... If I did, you think I'd be sitting here right now? You think I'd have a rescue on their way? No... Pirates don't have duty, we have loyalty. We prove ourselves to one another, we protect each other. I'm not anyone important aboard our ship -- and yet they won't leave me to rot."
Leigh got up from her cot and moved to Nicole's, not waiting for an invitation before plopping down next to her: "You say that you don't want something where Woody's involved, but you just pretended to shoot a fucking mattress, and looked like it was the most amazing thing you've ever experienced. There's no person in this deity forsaken shithole of a world that's made to be inferior, princess. It's this 'law' you keep talkin' about, people like Woodrow, who make people inferior. They say that if you're poor, you're worthless. If you're beastfolk, you're inhuman. If you're a woman, you better get your womb ready, since that's all you're good for. Inferiority is some made-up bullshit to keep us in line. You've crossed that line once, spat in the face of the status quo. You telling me you're just gonna go back to keeping your toes on it? Or are you gonna grow a backbone and change shit for yourself?"
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 1, 2017 11:55:38 GMT -7
"I guess even some pirates have some standards if seducing some noble's wife doesn't really count as 'following orders'." Nicole turned in her cot, looking away from the pirate. "What can I do? Break out of here? You were right, I did think they'd treat me better with good behavior. Maybe if I could show that I'm good, they'd here me out, but claiming self-defense didn't work. They suggested I might have just 'imagined' him trying to threaten me. 'Sexual assault' only made them more skeptical of me, and they thought I might have just been changing more story."
Gods, the more Nicole said, she wasn't sure if she was really arguing with the pirate or actually proving her right. "The way I see it, I've got… about four options. First, I let them do what they want, since I'm sure I'll be sent to Dirys no matter what. I could try to win my way back into the military, or just go off on my own, see how that works out for me. So that's two options. The third is… well, it's crazy. My father says we're descended from… well, the old royal family. I didn't really think it would matter, but I guess I am a princess. Either way, I'd be trying to pretend I'm something bigger just to get back at Woodrow. How does that make me any better than him? I'd just be trying the same thing he did to me. Or… I don't know." She sat up in her cot, looking down at the pirate. Her cellmate. "You said I might have a pirate in me. Are you… offering me to join your crew?"
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 1, 2017 12:36:59 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] The princess really thought she was a princess? Leigh laughed. She was going to tell the girl that the very idea was stupud, whether or not it was true; she would have told her that she'd be making others suffer just as she had -- but she came to the conclusion herself. Good. She wasn't dumb, she was just... Lost. At least the princess thing explained why Leigh gravitated towards Nicole - she wasn't usually into soldiers.
When Nicole asked if Leigh had been making an offer, one answer might have been yes. She certainly hadn't intended to be offering Nicole a place in the crew. It wasn't necessarily her place to make the offer - but it also wasn't her place to refuse it. She had intended to convince Nicole that chaos was good, that order was a means of control, that she ought to fight against it. She was hoping to convince her to take up arms against Woodrow, one way or another. ...Being a pirate was one way of doing that.
She ended up smirking and brushing a fallen hair out of Nicole's face, "And if I was, Princess?" The name held a bit more stock now, the tease feeling like a secret shared between them.
Post by Nicole Vanros on Jan 1, 2017 13:06:27 GMT -7
Nicole grabbed the pirate's hand as she brushed her face. Now she was definitely mocking her by calling her "Princess". She had to give an answer one way or another. Going off on her own… how many opportunities did she really have? She could stay with her family, but they'd have to try defending her. Edgar's dances would be rife with scandal of he could live with himself knowing that his sister is a rogue. Zechariah's humble life would be wasted on trying to stick up for her. Her father probably wouldn't be fired, since this was her failure, not his. Maybe she was just paranoid, and no one would blame them when she was the one who threatened a noble. No one was blaming Woodrow, and why would they blame anyone but Nicole?
Nicole relaxed her grip on the pirate's hand, and leaned in close so no one else could hear. If Nicole could agree with both Woodrow and the pirate on anything, it's that the deck was stacked against her just because she was a woman. Even if she was wrong, and there were better ways out of this than she assumed, assuming was all she could do. There was only one path ahead of her that she was certain would lead her to vengeance against Markus Woodrow. Nicole whispered to the pirate, "If you get me out of here, I'll join your crew, and we'll take down Woodrow together."
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 1, 2017 13:23:55 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh had to wonder if Nicole realized how soft her hand was as she grabbed Leigh's, or how sweet her breath was against Leigh's face as she leaned in to whisper. That just wasn't fair. Leigh smirked and met Nicole's eyes evenly, "I don't think getting out is the problem."
As she said it, a guard knocked something loudly against the bars, "Hands off the prisoner, Jane." Leigh pulled away from Nicole and turned towards the bars where the same guard as earlier stood. This time, however, he wore a cocky grin, and Leigh seemed plenty more interested in him for some reason, smirking back. "Room for one more?" She asked, nodding towards Nicole.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 2, 2017 20:37:13 GMT -7
Sometimes it's easy to forget How it all started
H e had been standing at the ready for longer than he would have liked Leigh to know.
Springing a mate from prison was a fairly routine sort of job for Maldrem. As a master of decoys and infiltration, and with unmatched lock-picking talents, it stood to reason that he would garner the reputation as the go-to for when an ally got themselves locked up in jail. Tonight would be a little extra special, though, because it was Leigh who had gotten locked up. Maldrem particularly enjoyed teasing her. She hadn't been with the Grail for too long just yet, just under a year right now in fact, but the time she had spent on board had earned her quite a reputation already. She was a sharp shot, a brutal fighter, a short temper, and a loyal ally who looked out for her mates when it mattered even if she didn't take their shit otherwise.
She was just the perfect sort of person to pester when there was nothing to do, and though Maldrem would describe their relationship as... strained, at best, they got along well enough that some playful ribbing would certainly not be out of the question once he rescued her (not like she had a choice, him being her savior and all).
Getting in was easy enough. He waited till nightfall, sneaked into the prison right through the front door by using an illusion as cover, then hid in a corner until he spotted the officer who would be making his rounds of the cells. Said officer happened to be carting a very pretty freckled beauty with him, a new addition apparently, and Maldrem would have liked to ask her out to dinner if he weren't so busy at the moment. He silently followed the officer into the hall of cells and then hid in the shadows while waiting for him to come back. Once he did, Maldrem made quick work of knocking the man unconscious with a touch of necrotic energy, dragged him into the corner with him, and then used his illusions to try and replicate the man's clothes as best he could. It probably wouldn't pass a thorough inspection, but at a glimpse no one would notice anything.
He made his way down the hall then, looking for Leigh, but he ended up hearing her voice before seeing her. And she was chatting with someone. Curious, Maldrem had stopped to listen in on this chat, and a brief listen turned into a good short while of eavesdropping as the conversation continued. He couldn't exactly help it. The story that Leigh's cellmate was telling... it struck a little too close to home for him.
Aside from reaffirming his general dislike of Markus Woodrow, it served as a reminder for how his own career in piracy had gotten kicked off. A legal official, a man who considered himself above the public, had victimized this girl, used his influence to ruin her, and used his status to pin whatever crime he wanted on her. It didn't matter that it wasn't true, because society would take his word over hers. And now her life was ruined and she was being left to rot in a jail cell. It was an uncomfortably familiar scenario for Maldrem. The only difference was that this girl hadn't had the opportunity to kill the man responsible before she was carted off to jail. That was unfortunate.
He took a few minutes to school his features back into their usual sorts - it wouldn't do to let Leigh see him with a somber frown, after all - and by the time he finally showed up in their sight he was back to flashing his signature smirk. This smirk only grew when he realized that Leigh's cellmate, the one she had just offered a spot on their crew to, was the same pretty redhead from earlier.
"Hands off the prisoner, Jane," he chided, playful, catching Leigh's eyes in a fashion that made it obvious who was underneath the glamour of the prison guard she was seeing.
"Room for one more?" she asked, nodding towards Nicole.
Maldrem simply chuckled, his tail unfurling from around his waist and sticking into the lock on the cell door. It took barely a few moments for the simple thing to click open - honestly, Liesdro prisons were such a joke. "I think I'd be offended on her behalf if you hadn't asked," he said, pulling the door open. "Hello hello~" he added, this time to Nicole. He took off his illusory hat and performed a sweeping bow, letting his true appearance show through the illusion for a moment. "They call me Wight. And what might I call the lovely creature before me?"
The skin OTHERWORLD was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
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