< 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!
Silence descended like death; in his idle thoughtfulness, the dream went mute. No wind whistled through dead flora. The waterfall halted it’s flow, pond sitting stagnant. No wolf howled. The dream waited, it’s breath bated, for Riku.
Just as – doubtless – he liked.
And then, with no preamble of rolling thunder, a bolt struck feet from them in the wide valley. Solana shied, hissing faintly at the shock of weather, hand instinctively raising to guard her eyes from the flash.
But when it was gone, so was he.
Her hand floated back to her side, slowly, stirred.
She hadn’t been wrong about him, it seemed.
Four.
She didn’t move to see it, only felt for him in her mind, the dreamscape shifting to provide her the information she sought. There would be no sudden flail; no lashing of a shocked head this way and that to locate his twins.
She was still, unsurprised; only movement the quirk of one interested brow.
On the outside.
“This, my Queen, is just a small taste of what I am capable of.”
Sterling eyes shifted to the one that spoke – the one who had been straightening his tie just a moment before. He approached her, dipping (gentlemanly, almost) to catch her two smallest fingers on one hand, raising it to brush dry lips across her knuckles.
She nearly smiled.
Queen. She liked that.
And then he was gone again, this time before her eyes; he dissipated, like steam into the air, dark tendrils dancing with the wind for a moment before fading, like a shadow swaying underwater...
“With your power mixed with my own,”
The next was bolder, gripping the silken tendrils at the base of her head, and she let a heavy breath hiss between parted lips, his own a butterfly’s kiss on her spiked ear.
“We will reap vengeance upon those that have wronged me,”
The last even moreso; he slid up from behind, thieving, hands pressing to her waist, rippling upward, slowly, head dipping into the crook of her neck; and Solana was not one to discourage such behavior, so she tilted into him, rolling her head back, shifting her hips –
And then this shadow was gone, as well. Leaving Riku. She let her eyes – which had fluttered closed, she wasn’t sure when – open, slide to her companion. He looked almost bashful, one foot digging at the dirt, but Solana knew better.
“I want your name, woman. What is it that you want?”
He suspected, it seemed, that she was no figment of his imagination, now; and she left her pretense behind her, bare feet tracing the start of a wide circle around Riku, transforming the death below her to water, nearly black in it’s depth, and she stood atop it.
“My wants are not simple. I’m a complex creature, darling, and so are my desires.”
The elf lifted a hand to rise a sapling from the dark lake, which grew swiftly into a massive tree, green leaves hovering just above their heads; fat apples bloomed from flowers, growing plump and red. She plucked one, appraising it, wrist spinning to turn the fruit.
“I want to take what I crave,” She pinned him with a wicked look, silver eyes shining below dusky lashes. “and I have a number of sins.”
She sliced the apple with a suddenly-sharp nail, and the inside was acid and yellow, the guts of a lemon. Solana squeezed the fruit, its juice staining the water below, snaking through the shifting liquid to Riku’s feet, burning the plants at his feet into ash.
“I want to harness the power of death.” The apple shriveled in her palm, shrinking to dust and fluttering from her hand on a light wind. Solana turned – to circle the trunk of the tree – but did not emerge from the other side, rather materialized behind him, lips dipping to brush the softest part of his neck, where she liked to bite, words whispered against the supple skin.
“And I want to help you with your revenge.”
But she had no fangs, now, so moved to face him again; revealing, instead of her flowing attire of before, a dark netting, stretched from neck to still-bare feet; knit tightly enough in the places that mattered to maintain some mystery – though very little. That was the point.
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Feb 8, 2017 18:12:30 GMT -7
There was something captivating about the elven woman, Solana, which Riku could not ignore. She was enthralling and beautiful to be sure, but there was an unspoken attraction that transcended the physical. As he watched her pace around him, turning the very ground she walked on into a pool of black death, he knew that she was for him. Her personification of dread was delicious.
As she spoke of her complex desires, Riku found himself wanting to know more; more about this woman and the weave of wonders that she wove. Gazing upon her figure in a new black mesh, Riku began to appreciate her sultry allure. He was certain that, to some degree, she had her own plans to use him – but for now it did not matter. Solana would provide a useful tool for his need for vengeance against Elias Harel, as soon as he could accomplish one thing. “Wonderful, my Queen. If you are to help me with my revenge, then first there is the most important of matters. Escaping this dreamlike prison.” Riku reached up to the tree that Solana had created and plucked an apple from its branches. Unlike Solana, Riku did not turn this apple to ash. Instead, he merely held it for a moment, appreciating the weight of it in his hand. Having only truly existed for less than a day, even the simplest of things amazed him, but he knew that this was not real. Even now, he only existed inside the deepest reaches of Kikuriku’s heart. “I know that you exist, Solana. That you can walk freely outside of these walls. But I am a captive to the one that you met before. Kiku’s body is not my own – yet.” Unfortunately, Riku knew not how to break free of this dream world. The world outside was completely foreign to him, but he felt in his heart that there must be a way to be free. If not, then what was the point of even existing in the first place? Riku brought the apple to his lips and took a bite. The apple was juicy, a sensation that he had not expected. He wondered if the apple was juicy because he willed it to be, or if it actually was.
She only needed one step to close the distance between them, cradling fingers rising to cup his jawline, breath tickling his cheeks.
“Don’t you fear, my love. Some pleasures only exist in this ‘dreamlike prison’.” Her lips dipped to tease down his neck, brushing, featherlike, to his collarbone before halting. “But until his body is yours, we plan.”
Nimble fingers danced to his temples; and the elf slid her eyes shut, finding her soul’s connection to his, somewhere outside the dreamscape, and grasping the image burned into his mind, materializing the object of his desperate loathing.
Elias Harel materialized underneath the swaying apple tree; but Solana knew nothing about him, so he stood frozen, motionless and expressionless. She slid away from the ajatar, appraising their lackluster companion, waiting until Riku’s memories supplied him with a tangible personality.
“’Those who have wronged me,’” she quoted, breathy words nearly lost on the gentle breeze, more to herself than to her dark cohort.
Her next words were for him, though, and she turned to pin him with inquisitive sterling eyes, hair whipping over her shoulder with some bidden gust of wind.
“Did he steal your young lover? Or is it him who locked you away inside Kiku?”
The empty man seemed sinister, perhaps, in the right lighting – but an empty man nonetheless, eyes flat on an aged face.
“Or maybe he’s your father, who left you and your mother behind.”
But there was little resemblance to the snowy-haired man before her.
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Feb 11, 2017 15:40:35 GMT -7
OOC: It is worth noting beforehand that there may be some violent themes in this post. If you are uncomfortable with depictions of choking and death, I suggest you skip this post, and PM me for the cliff-notes version. Enjoy!
The chaos of this dream world wasn’t in its surroundings or its unusual atmosphere; the chaos was Solana. With a touch of her fingers to his temple, Riku opened his eyes to see a figure that he’d never seen before, but immediately recognized. Elias Harel. Riku didn’t know why he hated him, but his blood began to boil with the fury of a thousand Xankwile beasts. He grit his teeth, holding back a growl as he tried to remain composed in the face of his enemy – one who held a much higher status than he.
But for a moment, all Elias Harel did was stand there. He stood under a tree, completely unaffected and emotionless to his surroundings. It was almost as if he did not see Riku and Solana there – or he did not care. Perhaps they were so insignificant to the great Elias Harel that they did not warrant a remark, a sneer or even a glance. Perhaps they were nothing.
There were many moments of silence after Solana questioned who the rather plain looking, but important man was. In that time, Riku adjusted his thinking and stumbled upon the truth. Elias Harel was not there among them – he was just another figment of the dream. Even knowing this, Riku still seethed with hatred at the look of the man, though he could not figure out why. It was as if that part of his being – his reason for hating Harel – was locked away somewhere that he didn’t have access to it. “Solana, my Queen,” Riku said, touching his own hand to hers on his temple. “I do not know this man, but I look at him with bloodlust in my heart.” As he spoke, the ground around Riku and Solana began to decay and crumble away, leaving them floating in the void. Riku did not take his eyes off of Harel. “This man… this man is the reason that I have been a prisoner – I know it.” Not just the ground, but the sky also began to peel away, leaving nothing behind but darkness. Soon, all that remained was Riku, Solana and Harel.
Slowly, Riku walked towards Elias, his feet soundless against the void. As the distance between them closed, Elias’ face slowly changed expression. Whereas before he had no expression, now his face showed fear. Riku raised his arms, and clasped his hands around Harel’s neck. The void began to pulsate, flashing the red phantom of a Mouseling that Riku did not recognize.
“Do it,” the voice called out, echoing in the distance. “Avenge me,”
“Kill him!”
Harel began to panic, clawing away at Riku’s arms – but the resistance only made Riku squeeze tighter. He could feel the jugular shifting in his palms as Riku crushed the dictator’s windpipe. Harel gasped out, trying to salvage what air that he could. Sweat poured down Riku’s brow. It would not be long now. He put all of his effort into the squeeze, and Elias Harel’s hands dropped from Riku’s arms. Letting go, the corpse fell down, down, down into the all-encompassing darkness below them.
Again, the rushing of the waterfall could be heard. The landscape returned in an instant; the beautiful night sky, adorned with stars and a big, bright full moon hung above them. The dead fauna had returned to life, filling the fields with flowers of purple, red and green. Solana remained, looking as alluring as she always had. “This, Solana. This is my dream,” Riku said, spreading his arms out wide. His hands were covered in blood and saliva and mucus. He walked over to the waterfall, rinsing the last of Elias Harel from this world.
His void, the empty dreamscape, was far darker than Solana’s, a white expanse of omni-lit space.
His was pitch, like floating in a starless space, the light betraying hovering bodies nonexistent, but they were revealed just the same.
His ability to exist in the dream without physical parameters divulged a level of power over his own mind that she had only ever found in herself – and she found herself, again, impressed. Most were consumed with their own small concept of reality, unable to imagine a world without gravitational pull, without solid objects to remind them of existence.
Not Riku.
And then he passed her, eyes lost, curled white digits around Elias Harel’s neck.
Squeezed.
A mouseling appeared, seeking vengeance, but was ignored by Riku and Solana and soon faded away.
The death was grizzly – far too much so for her liking, all spit and sweat and tears and snot. The elf nearly curled a lip, disgusted, but maintained careful stoicism.
This was his dream.
And when he was done; the body of Riku’s enemy fell into the abyss of his mind, to reemerge another time, in another way; an ever-present haunt.
The dream transformed, field returning in sheets of emerald and ruby and amethyst, her own dark netting shifted back to the looser dress of before, green and purple and exposing the slight curve of her back.
“This, Solana. This is my dream. I want to kill Elias Harel.”
He washed himself in the flow of insistent water, and she joined him, soothing fingers pressing into the taught muscles of his shoulders, then his back, working knots out of existence with the touch of agile hands.
“A man took something from me, once.”
The reflection of the moon in the pond below the waterfall suddenly shifted out of view, replaced by a man she knew well, who still stirred the frothing pot of hatred buried so deeply; her father.
“I had dreams, like you, about killing him," then, so blasé, “one day I did.”
The man was joined by a woman – a girl – young, beautiful, but angry; eyes deep with hurt and love and fear; emotions notably absent from her older counterpart, standing beside Riku. The girl in the vision pressed a hand to the man’s neck, and he convulsed violently, eyes rolled back, breeches stained with wet as he slid down the wall, ashen, lifeless. The girl was pleased.
It was not the truth, the vision she showed him.
But it never was.
She leaned in from behind, chin on a shoulder, full lips brushing an ear. Her words were silken, seductive; their tone that of a lover or a paramour, the words themselves coaxing.
“What will you do once he is dead? What will it look like – a world without Elias Harel?”
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Feb 13, 2017 15:48:22 GMT -7
Riku stood there for a moment, staring at his hands. Even in this dream world, he could still feel the heat of Elias Harel’s skin on his fingertips – this would be real one day; Riku would make sure of that. Killing him here brought a degree of satisfaction, but nothing would compare to the actual moment when Riku could watch the life drain out of his eyes.
Solana’s lips on his ear pulled him from his thoughts, not unkindly. Riku was starting to truly appreciate her presence. It was her who had helped free him, just as it was her who helped show him the extent to which his power would take him. For Riku, Solana was his muse – his dark ambition pushing him to succeed in his goals where his other self had failed. Elias Harel must die.
He listened intently while Solana recalled her own dark memory – a dream of killing a man who had wronged her. For a moment, Riku desired to know more detail. He was not sure why he wanted Elias dead; he just knew that it had to be done. Perhaps knowing more about the reasons why someone would want to kill another person could help fill in the blanks. But when Solana said that she had killed this man – her own Elias – Riku was filled with a feeling that could only be described as satisfaction.
She asked him what it would be like – a world without Elias Harel. Riku pulled his head back, fully exposing his neck to Solana’s full lips. Closing his eyes, he thought about his intentions after he exacted his vengeance. “With Elias Harel gone, Muerte would need a new ruler; one who was not as much of a coward as Harel. A man with much larger aspirations than just running one little desert.
Riku exposed his neck to her; and, for him, psychologically, it was likely a sign of trust, a eagerness to share with her, the exposure of tender muscles no true invitation...
But his blood thrummed audibly, the scent treacherous and tantalizing, tempting hidden fangs, and her grip on his sides tightened, a physical reminder of restraint, as she allowed her fangs to emerge for a moment, lips parted only slightly above exposed flesh.
And then he spoke, jerking her from her ardent fantasies, and her fangs retracted; gone as soon as they’d come. Mind whirred – would he notice her hesitation? – and so she brushed seductive lips along his neck, nipping at the soft skin just behind the link of his jaw, below his ear, with flat human teeth.
That ought to distract him.
“With Elias Harel gone, Muerte would need a new ruler; one who was not as much of a coward as Harel. A man with much larger aspirations than just running one little desert. A man like me.”
She allowed the smirk, breathing a silent laugh against that succulent dip in his neck, stepping away from Riku to envision a stark white desk, ribbed with the grey of marble, a tall ebony chair; the desk of a ruler. The office of a dictator. It sat, out of place, in the centre of flowing vegetation; the shade of her tree dappling the desk.
“Now, there’s an idea, boss.”
Solana perched herself on the marble, one leg crossed, toying, over the other, eyes lidded with suggestion, smirk still playing suggestively on taught lips.
This was the point of her dreams, wasn’t it? To tempt one’s most wicked desires, indulge in those wayward enticements one dispelled in their waking hours; play seductress to their deepest wants, where there were no repercussions...
“I’d say ‘smite the wicked’...” The elf’s eyes shone, roguish, provoking, “but we are the wicked, aren’t we, darling?”
Post by Kikuriku Gouken on Feb 17, 2017 16:52:08 GMT -7
Riku was pleased.
Solana was not only the catalyst to not only his birth, but his prosperity as well. She called up a marvellous white desk from the beyond – the sort of desk a ruler might sit at. Even though they were in a dream, the desk called out to him just as much as the woman did.
”We are the wicked, aren’t we, darling?
He approached the desk and sat down on its chair – a rather regal looking white chair with engravings of demons carved into the back. He leaned his shoulders into the cushion; it felt right. So right, in fact, that Riku had made up his mind. The words he had spoken were not empty threats spoken into the void – they were his new aspirations. Riku would be the ruler of Muerte.
“Come, my Queen,” Riku said. He reached up from his seat and placed his hand behind Solana’s head, lightly pulling her hair as he brought her in close. This would be no request, but a command. Riku was leaving this place.
“When I wake from this dream, my other self won’t remember a thing. You are to find him in the real world. When you do, you are going to give him something from me.” Riku pulled Solana in, pressing his lips to hers – softly at first but then more aggressively. As they kissed, Riku released a part of his soul into Solana – it was this part that would take over the real-world version of Kiku, and grant Riku the body that he so craved.
OOC: It's rushed, so rushed. God, I'm sorry, but I wanted to give you something! It's the direction I was going anyway, just less awesome. I'll edit if you hate it. Solana Heiralei
Solana was pleasantly surprised – yet again, somewhat of a happily frequent occurrence in this dream – at the man’s control over his own lusty impulses. He grabbed her, and the subtle yank of dark hair was by no means a suggestion; but he sat in his chair, unfazed, regal.
She approved.
And so it was with a knowing rock of her hips that she followed the motion, sliding a knee onto his chair – throne – as he murmured his command against her lips, the other following close behind, on his other side; and the elf hovered just above him, straddled over his seated form; teasing, haunting, lips tilted upward, the hint at a knowing smile.
It was no surprise he kissed her then, looking the way she did.
Their lips moved in feverish symmetry, heat gripping her, the kiss – at least, for her – quickly escalating into the wild crashing of hungry lips, and her hands (much without the permission of the logic of her mind) found their way to the buttons on his shirt; but before she could stop herself with cool thoughts, she felt the exchange of a dark soul, a curiously familiar sensation, as the method was exactly the one she used to invade his dreams. Her lips paused on his, smirk playing again at the corners of her mouth.
“Of course, darling.”
She dipped away from his gaze, flat teeth nipping at his ear, brushing implying lips down the line of his neck, whispering against his jaw, “And then we rule the world.”
Her lips were on his again, torso pressed insistently against him; but this was the kiss that ended the dream, this was the kiss most woke with the ache of memory still etched on their lips.
This was the kiss where she took her own soul back.
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.