< 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 Endless Laeretti on May 4, 2018 22:31:10 GMT -7
Endless was in the midst of a terrible change. Or perhaps a more appropriate word would have been a reversion. For it wasn't as though anything was happening to make Endless into something different; something was happening to remind Endless of what he'd already been. Where he'd been. What he'd seen. What he knew. And who he'd known. Endless saw it all play out in front of his eyes as clear as day. One moment he was sitting by a fire drinking a warm tea. And the next he was on a beach in Submiere. Urla had just died a few days ago. The sweet old lady he'd been living with. He was miserable. He didn't know what to do or where to go.
Then there was Tehodis, running into him on the beach. She seemed lost, confused. Didn't know where she was. Didn't seem to remember much. And then she was telling him about Fairy Rings, and how they could escape to the Feywild together. It seemed important to her to just... get away. And somehow they found one. In seemingly no time at all, there was the ring. And then they were in another place altogether, some place bright and strange and new. Streams of lava arcing through the air, a strange-colored sky, giant mushrooms that talked, condensed balls of magical energy hurtling through the air randomly.
And then he was there. Rill. It was like seeing him for the first time all over again and Endless could feel how his four-years-younger self was immediately infatuated. Rill was incredibly easy on the eyes, and the outfit he was wearing certainly aided in that. Rill took him and Tehodis to the nearby city, the Hidden City, and let them take shelter from a magical storm. And then he took them around, and though it was only a day or so of touring, the time seemed to stretch into weeks. Endless and Tehodis decided to stay. Rill gave them food. And Endless suddenly regretted his decision entirely.
More days that felt like weeks passed. Endless descended into misery. But Rill was there. Rill lit him up, if only a little. But Endless longed for the moon. And Tehodis and Rill wanted to give it to him. Rill gave it to him in the form of illusion... Tehodis tried to give him the real thing in the form of sacrifice. Endless and Rill raced to rescue her, to save her from...
Haelrin. There he was. The master of this place. The God who was like a monster. A fiend. He treated them as playthings. Property. He stole Tehodis's... her mind, her being, her something that Endless couldn't be sure of. He took Rill, commanding that wicked Sybelle. He banished Endless and summoned an involuntary exit for him. An exit in the form of a bird, a massive bird of blue plumage. A bird that chastised Endless for his errors and urged him to correct them. A bird that promised that he had a great purpose ahead of him. Endless did what he thought was impossible and grabbed Tehodis with his mind alone, snatching her from Haelrin's grasp.
The next thing he could remember, he was on the beach with Tehodis again. A memory that mingled with what fuzzy recollections he'd already had before taking the potion. Except this time, he saw the memory with the knowledge of where they'd just been. This time the memory wasn't quickly fading away. This time Endless had clarity.
And now he was back in Simon's cottage. He was gasping, heaving, staring at shaking hands. His tea cup was on the floor, shattered into pieces, and he was pretty sure Simon was beside him calling his name, a hand firmly locked on Endless's arm. Endless couldn't pay attention to it. A chunk of his missing life was back. He remembered why Tehodis was important to him. He remembered that the Gods were real and that one of them was a tyrant. He remembered that Rill was captive, and he remembered the way time worked between where he was, and where Rill was. His mind worked to try and figure out how long had passed for him, how long had he been locked away or tortured or dead. How long until a year had passed in the Feywild. How long before Haelrin might dispatch fairies to try and steal Tehodis away again. His mind was also frantically working at digesting the message he'd received from the massive bird. The bird that had seemed to stop time entirely to speak with Endless, and give him a message he'd had bare moments to even think about before he was trying to rescue Tehodis, and before his memory was then stolen away. Now he could recall the message perfectly, and nothing felt more pressing than the feeling of recognition deep in his gut as that bird locked eyes with him, speaking words that sounded like a disappointed mother, speaking words that stirred some sense in him, some feeling that he couldn't name. Like he'd been lost in the dark and finally found a light to lock his gaze onto for just a moment.
"I," he finally said, speaking up and turning to Simon, his chest still heaving. "I need to talk to Tehodis."
Simon awoke to the shattering of glass and immediately lunged out of the chair with all the grace and urgency of someone who had just been awoken from a deep sleep. That is to say, no grace at all but his heart was already running fast with adrenaline. It took him a moment to orient himself in the here and now before he realized that Endless was awake too, or something. Something was definitely wrong with him, because he looked like he was seeing a ghost. When Simon caught sight of the shattered teacup on the floor his eyes widened and he was at Endless's side in a flash. The idiot had drank the memory tea in the middle of the night when no one was here to make sure he was ok, probably because he didn't want to bother anyone because that seemed like an Endless thing to do. "Endless, hey Endy come on, it's okay, it's okay, whatever you're seeing is just a memory, it can't hurt you, Endless come on," He absentmindedly babbled reassurances as the other boy gasped and heaved, only quieting when Endless himself looked ready to speak. His request: to speak with Tehodis. "Yeah, yeah okay," Simon nodded and stood, moving over to the door of his bedroom and knocking solidly three times. If either of them had slept through the braking glass and gasping sounds they would likely be awake now.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 5, 2018 21:10:49 GMT -7
Tehodis had not been unconscious for long, before the crash. She had remained awake as long as possible before her body forced her to stop staring at the hideous grey stump where he arm used to be. While her exhaustion from a night of coping should have forced her to ignore the sound of fragile on solid, the empty scape of her trance-like dreaming had always made her a light sleeper.
Tehodis did not dream. Tehodis had waking visions, small spurts of memory or pieces of the immediate future which attempted to aid her with enhanced instinct. She would admit to the former, on occasion, and not to the latter. Still, she thought it mostly normal. Kina did not have dreams. That made sense. She did not know any Kina that could prove her wrong, and she could not conceive of the idea her dreams had been taken from her.
Could not, would not, could not.
She shifted the sheet, beginning to roll out of the bed in a way intended to least disturb Charlotte. As she did, that little spurt of instinct stopped her mid-movement. He drank the potion. Endless drank it, and he remembers, Her mind raced, her body frozen on the edge of the bed, Do you even want to see him right now? To hear what he has to say? ...No, you don't. And so, she didn't. She remained there at the edge of the bed, perfectly still, gripping the edge of the mattress with her sole hand. Until, as she dreaded, a knock came at the door.
Ignore it. You should be exhausted. You are recovering. Pretend. They'll believe you. She felt her eyes itch with tears, and so she squinted them closed. Then, she let out an infinitesimal sigh. "Is... Everything okay?" She finally whispered out, probably too long after those three knocks. But not long enough.
Post by Charlotte Firiana on May 6, 2018 17:14:48 GMT -7
Unlike Tehodis, Charlotte had actually managed to fall asleep for the past few hours, and had been dreaming well before her Kina companion's eyes had finally started to unfocus in the trance of meditation. And Charlotte's dreams were also not as empty as Tehodis's had unknowingly been made to be. Her incense was certainly doing its job; as she slept, her magic was renewed, her spent energy restored more than any rejuvenating tea could manage, and her third eye was opened wide to take in the shifting of all the pieces of reality that had moved since she last took time to look.
For the most part, not much had changed - infinitesimal shifts in various places that didn't give her any major clues, no cataclysmic events underway, no specific faces showing themselves to her... But there was change. Some of it was around Charlotte herself, and she could see an image of herself acting like the sun, surrounded distantly by thirteen revolving lights. The staves. The lights were all indistinct, however, their shapes unknown, and their distance implied she was no closer to finding even one of them than she had been prior to her arrival. But that was until she noticed something that one of the lights kept passing by as it revolved around her.
Off in the distance, partially obscured by storm clouds, was a land with soil painted an unnatural red. Tainted with blood. Light and shadow in equal measure grasped at the land mass, reaching out to it from across the sea. The ball of light that represented one of the staves passed by this place again as it completed another revolution, and as it did, the glow from the light briefly cast away some of the storm clouds, revealing, just faintly, the suggestion of a path.
Charlotte had not yet been to the war-torn land she could see here now, had not yet received any indication that she should go. But now...
Before she could ruminate on this vision any longer, though, it shifted, this time to something tinged with more urgency, and more immediate relevance. The Moonborn boy, Endless. She saw him sitting alone in the darkness, knees pulled to his chest, arms crossed over them, and face buried in their crooks. He was drifting away, the moon above him dimming. There was no visual accompaniment for the feeling she had now, not this time, but something inside of her knew that this was not good. He was needed. If not now, then later. She would need him. He would be vital for something. She had been uncertain before, but now, in the depths of her vision sleep, she could be certain. Endless was a piece of the puzzle that was necessary. And he would need her guidance. As she watched him drift further away, she saw a cup falling from the expanse of nothingness, and shattering. She heard the shatter.
Her eyes snapped open.
Beside her, Tehodis stirred, and then stopped. Charlotte remained still for a moment, listening to Tehodis's breathing, evidently conscious, and noted the unnatural stillness the Kina woman currently imposed upon herself. Tehodis had likely determined as well what had happened. She didn't want to face it. And then a knock came at the door. Charlotte waited a moment longer, curious now. After just a moment or two, she decided Tehodis was not going to respond, and was prepared to get up herself. But then the woman surprised her, whispering out a response. Even if it had been too quiet for Simon to hear, most likely, it was something.
Charlotte rose from her position, extricating herself from the bed with a measured sort of grace so as not to make unnecessary noise, and turned her gaze upon Tehodis. The woman looked back at her, knowing that she knew she was awake, and the two stared quietly for a moment.
"I will go. You may do as you will," Charlotte said then, her voice quiet. She did not want Tehodis to think she was being pushed into any decision one way or the other. Whatever mess was happening, Charlotte would be content to try and resolve it with or without Tehodis.
She moved over to the door, not bothering to redress into her boots or cloak as she opened it a crack; wide enough to expose herself without revealing the awake Tehodis.
"Something has happened with Endless, yes?" she said to Simon, who looked not quite frantic but certainly concerned.
Simon waited at the door for agonizing seconds before he thought he heard noise from inside, though he couldn't make out if it was real or if he was just so eager to hear a response he was imagining it. Endless wasn't writhing around in pain or anything so as urgent as it felt when he'd first been awoken he realized maybe it could have waited a few more hours until morning? But he didn't know what it was that Endless had remembered so maybe it really was vital to speak to Tehodis this very minute.
The door opened, but it was not Tehodis on the other side but Charlotte who accurately guessed something had happened with Endless. She was a seer after all. ”He drank the potion, he replied to the affirmative. ”He said he needs to talk to Tehodis. It must be important, he added, looking back to the living room where Endless still was.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 7, 2018 7:24:17 GMT -7
No one responded to her query, the room a silence around her. It hadn't been terribly quiet, Tehodis had thought, just enough not to wake Charlotte, just enough to show a healthy respect for the time of night, but the lack of response did not seem to match the urgency of the knock that had sounded. She considered, with her attempt out of the way, simply giving in to the desire to ignore the need, her shoulders relaxing as if the decision had already been made. They then tensed, and Tehodis startled as Charlotte's voice made her aware: Charlotte was not sleeping.
Charlotte's voice was decidedly not intended for Simon, spoken in a haunting whisper that tickled through Tehodis' nerves. The words said something, permission to do what she wanted, but implied something else to Tehodis. As if there had been a duty she was not fulfilling by sitting here, in stillness, and so she needed permission from Charlotte to not move. She nodded slowly as the other woman rounded the bed, clutching the sheet to her chest protectively.
Charlotte answered the door, not bothering with much modesty, and stood in such a way that Tehodis' small frame was concealed by both her, and the darkness. Simon told them what they had already suspected, and that Endless wanted to see Tehodis. Tehodis, whose face turned down to look at the wrinkles of the sheet, and who was... Angry. Why had Endless done that now? Why did he insist on involving her, when she clearly did not want to be involved? He had done this for himself. He could suffer the consequences by himself. This was his choice. If he had not wanted what came of remembering, he should have not remembered. It was that simple.
Even if she knew it wasn't necessarily. Nothing ever was.
"I need a moment," She voiced quickly, before Charlotte could respond. Then, she waited.
Post by Endless Laeretti on May 15, 2018 20:02:21 GMT -7
Once Simon had scrambled away to go and knock on the bedroom door, Endless was left with a few moments to collect himself, to figure out what words exactly he was going to say to Tehodis. He was still breathing somewhat heavily, but the longer he spent blinking away his visions and grounding himself in the present, the more composed he began to feel. Well, composed was a relative term, honestly, given that the level of urgency he was feeling at the moment could in no way shape or form be called composed, but it was still better than when he had literally been freaking out a moment ago.
Tehodis needed to know what had happened. She had made it clear earlier that she didn't want to remember, not like Endless did, but now that Endless actually had remembered, things were different. This was no longer just a matter of Endless wanting Tehodis to know what their shared past was. This was about Tehodis needing to know information that could be vital to her life. Haelrin had taken things from Tehodis, things she probably couldn't do without for much longer if she ever again wanted to be the person she used to be (of course, in her current state, she couldn't very well even know who she used to be in the first place). Haelrin was also most likely going to come after her at some point. Because Tehodis wasn't like Endless; Endless had been exiled from the Feywild during his first and final confrontation with the Fey god, but Tehodis? She had signed herself over to Haelrin as property. She'd continued to eat more of the Fey food after that first soup Rill had made them, and who knew how much of a sentence all that had built up for her? And Endless had effectively stolen her back from the god, which he doubted Haelrin had been pleased about.
What could he say to her? She was stubborn, she always had been. Even when that stubbornness showed itself in a more whimsical light, as it did when they had first decided to eat the Fey food, or as it did when she went to sacrifice herself for Endless without a word to him or Rill. But that was then. And now she was just plain inflexible. She'd arrested him and jailed him for stealing a loaf of bread, when he'd done it over a year ago and in a different country to boot. She didn't seem to waver once she'd made up her mind, and regrettably, she seemed rather adamant about not wanting to remember things now.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned, ready to try and get the first word in as quickly as possible, to explain why Tehodis should probably take the potion... but instead he saw Lila.
"She'll be a moment," the woman explained, and Endless found himself thinking she looked a lot less spooky without that cloak covering her up and shading her eyes. Still a little spooky though, especially considering the way she looked at him, like she was looking through him rather than at him. And also the fact that she never seemed to smile.
"O-Oh..." he said, not sure how else to reply.
Lila seated herself delicately on the arm of the chair Simon had previously been resting in, one leg crossed and her hands folded over a knee. She looked down at Endless as though sizing him up, and the expression left him feeling unnerved. The way her eyes pierced him, it reminded him of...
Lila squinted at him, the first change in her expression thus far, and jolted just barely as though a bug had bitten her.
"The Xinrra."
Endless blinked. "What?"
"An avian vision whose feathers swim in cerulean. Just now, I had the distinct impression it was occupying your thoughts."
Endless leaned back slightly. He blinked again. "You... can read thoughts?"
"No," she replied flatly. Then, a beat later, "Not without permission, at least. But occasionally I am host to such flashes of intuition, whenever they elect to visit. Am I not mistaken?"
It took a moment for Endless's thoughts to catch up with what she said, mildly distracted by the way she chose to speak, but then he nodded. "Yes. Er, I mean, no, you're not mistaken. I didn't, uhm, know what that thing was called exactly, but. I was thinking about it."
Lila leaned forward an almost imperceptible fraction, and her eyelids lifted a tad. Endless would guess this was how she looked when she was interested in something. "Shall I assume then that you saw it in your memories?"
Endless glanced down. "Right again."
"Why don't you tell me about them?" she asked.
Endless lifted his gaze again, willing himself to meet the fortune teller's unnerving eyes, and for the first time since meeting her, he didn't quite see the same intimidating hardness there that he'd been seeing previously. Now she actually looked interested, and apparently willing to listen. Endless couldn't begin to fathom her reasons when he knew so little about her, but as long as he was waiting for Tehodis (who he suspected was taking her time), he figured: why not? Tehodis seemed to listen to Lila, if nothing else.
And so Endless started telling her what he'd recalled, as quickly as he could without skipping crucial details.
Post by Charlotte Firiana on May 15, 2018 20:12:07 GMT -7
"I need a moment," Tehodis had said, once she had finally dared to move from her position in the bed.
Charlotte had turned back from the doorway, away from Simon, when she heard the words. Tehodis was sitting now, poised at the edge of the bed, no longer feigning sleep. But she was still waiting. "Taking a moment", as she had said. Charlotte let her gaze linger on the other woman for only a short beat before she offered an invisible nod to her back. "Very well."
She offered no further words as she turned back to Simon, brushing past him as she pulled the door open wider. She said nothing to Simon, either, but did pass him a look as she passed, one she was sure he would be able to read with his own intuitive gifts. Keep an eye on her. I'll go ahead.
'And what are you up to, Darling?' Diamond chimed in her head.
Clearing the way, I suppose, Charlotte answered. And as she approached Endless, stooped in his seat, she added, And perhaps finding some new answers.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 16, 2018 11:27:05 GMT -7
Tehodis did not move from her seated position at the edge of the bed as Charlotte slipped through the door, leaving it wide open. The light from the hall spilled into the room, no longer blocked by Charlotte, and illuminated Tehodis. Her jaw fell somewhat, and her cheeks flushed grey as she pulled the sheet to herself tighter. Legs shaky, she moved somewhat like a newborn foal to the darkened corner behind the door, stumbling over the sheets that she dragged with her, and clumsily pressed her shoulder against it to shut it.
"A moment to get dressed," She hissed more aggressively than she intended through the door, punctuated by the latch clicking shut. Tehodis' heart fluttered with morbid embarrassment as she tried to sort herself.
She was now left in the dark, the only light left coming from the jamb of the door and the dying but nigh-imperceptible glow of the incense Charlotte had lit the night before. In the darkness Tehodis felt a little safer; she couldn't see the explosion of scars on her body. In the dark she could feel alone for a little bit, a place in which she felt somewhat safer. After all, of every terrible thing that had happened (of the things she could remember) - all of it had been caused by someone else. Loneliness had it's own frights, but none so threatening as the ones provided by the Lamini man, or Woodrow, or -- now -- Endless.
Tehodis' shoulders relaxed somewhat with a sigh as the wave of shame passed her by, and she let the sheet drop into a mess at her feet. She still wasn't at ease as she scanned the floor for her clothes -- eyes drifting to the door in fear of it opening while still in only smallclothes - but this was better.
Finally locating her clothing, she was slow in getting dressed -- unsure of how to do so with one hand, and in pain as she made the attempt. It was certain Tehodis had thought last night that undressing herself with one arm was difficult, but now realized how much harder it was to do the opposite. She had to angle the right arm of her shirt downward, grip the collar with her teeth, and hold the end of it with her knee to slide her hand in, releasing her knee's hold only when her fingers had found the edges. Then, she bit down tightly the collar and tugged it the rest of the way on. She then, cautiously, pulled the cut end of her shirt to rest on her shoulder, the scars burning and stinging as crisp fabric lingered over them. She stopped for a breath at each sting, but finally found herself partway dressed.
The buttons of the shirt, which had been difficult to undo, were next. It was a slow adventure of perfect tautness and exact angles (and pain, for if she pulled too roughly the fabric at her arm seared over the scars), but eventually, she had managed most of the buttons, missing only the top two and bottom one.
Her trousers were another challenge, requiring forethought before she could even begin an attempt on them. Eventually, she decided the bed would be a required tool, and stumbled over the sheet as she made her way back to it. She found herself sitting at the edge, only the furthest curve of her bottom holding her in place, and she tried to both lean back and slide forward to get them back onto her legs. The sliding and leaning and pressing and pushing on the bed made the scars along her back sing with pain, and her eyes prickle with tears, but she kept going until she finally managed them to her waist. There, she tugged her shirt down to cover the buttons to not bother doing them up unsure she could manage if she tried.
Finally (somewhat) dressed, she gave herself a moment to dry her tears and gather her resolve, and then approached the door with an exhausted shuffle. "S-sorry," She mumbled, as she pulled it open and filled the room with the hall's glow once more. Her eyes flitted to the mirror as she became illuminated, and her face briefly formed a cringe as she saw the mess that she had sorted herself into. Her shirt was misbuttoned and misaligned so that the left and right were off by a full inch and a half, and the fly of her pants was jutting out under the blouse, making it appear as though she had some gall growing upon the base of her stomach. She looked, simply, an awful mess.
"Sorry," She repeated, eyes downcast to Simon's feet and skin greying from cheek to neck to extremities, "Th-thanks for waiting."
OOC: Just a note to clarify for readers that Tehodis had not been feigning sleep at all! She had an inner thought of staying quiet so that Simon would think she was still asleep as he couldn't see her, but she's been sitting up since Simon first came to the door in my 1st post before Charlotte got up, and hasn't moved at all since, except to clutch the bed sheet to her chest for the open door in the 2nd post (:
Simon had slept, for however short or long that had been, fully clothed and it was only as Charlotte started back towards the living room and left the bedroom door open that he realized neither woman had done the same. Or was that what Charlotte was wearing under her cloak the whole time? He didn't really know or care about Charlotte's clothes to be honest, because she had already given him a very pointed look that he had taken to mean, stay here. He looked back into the room automatically, but when he saw Tehodis looking towards the door with the bedsheet clutched against herself, looking like she had probably only slept in her underclothes, he turned back away with a quickly muttered "sorry". A moment later the door closed and Tehodis hissed that she'd needed a moment to get dressed and though the door was closed and she wouldn't be able to see him he threw his arms up like 'well, sorry!' He hadn't been the one to open the door, he could hardly be blamed for looking into the room, and he hadn't leered at her or anything - please, his morals were wildly out of whack but even he knew better - and he'd looked away as soon as he realized the state she was in.
He leaned against the wall and reached down to pet Kilik as she came by and rubbed against his leg. She was cool to the touch, which meant she must have spent at least some time recently outside. Probably hunting. "If I knew they were gonna be this much hassle I would have charged them," he muttered to her, making sure it wasn't loud enough for the others to hear. He doubted Tehodis was listening, as he could hear shuffling around in the room, and the other two in the living room were deep in conversation from the sound of it. Endless was talking, which meant he was probably telling Charlotte what he remembered. Simon was interested in hearing the story too, but the way Charlotte had looked at him made him feel like he should stay here and make sure Tehodis was ok.
Eventually, the door re-opened and the Kina woman emerged, dressed (or mostly), but looking like more of a mess than she did when she was only in her underclothes. She apologized both when she opened the door and a moment later, looking to the floor rather than at him, and thanked him for waiting. It was a sight sad enough to make him sympathize. He wanted to put a hand on her shoulder but frankly after what happened to her she probably didn't want to be touched by surprise so instead he just spoke. "I know we don't really know each other, even after all the stuff from yesterday, so I get it if you say no, but I can help out with your buttons and stuff if you like, before you go out there?" At the last part he nodded towards the living room where Endless and Charlotte would be waiting.
The skin OTHERWORLD was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
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