< 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 Ellis Danton on May 11, 2018 17:38:58 GMT -7
Ellis had precious little time to continue being conflicted, or depressed, or-- worried about Xanthe. It had come to a point now where he needed to pull himself up by his bootstraps, and get to work. Or, someone had told him something of the sort when they'd set him on this mission. It was meant to be encouraging, he was pretty sure. Whether it was, or wasn't, it was not as though Ellis could rightly refuse.
Well, he might have been able to refuse. The brand, that sigil of the Gold Leafs Pelagia had scarred onto his hand was evidence enough that he suddenly held a strange modicum of power. Yet this was still Ellis Danton, and he most certainly wasn't going to stand up to a general.
No, it was true. Ellis had precious little time for things like being Ellis.
Ellis was dressed in a strange uniform that was not quite like the camouflage he had worn in Atton until it was worn right through; it was not a thing similar to the leather Attonian garb that Xanthe's people had given him; No, here was a different person indeed. His uniform was a pressed and enchanted dark blue, built to resist dirt so that it would maintain its brilliancy. The coat of it was well fitted, and bore the symbol of a willow tree in golden stitching across one pec. The arms were well-insulated, and lead to tan gloves, which were tight, and made to reveal the mildly stinging brand with a bead-embellished cut out. The uniform was finished with a lilac scarf, the colour of the Tree of Life itself, which Ellis had tied tight, and stuffed into the neck of the jacket for warmth. The night was icy cold, bringing out a fog from each breath.
Ellis' task out in the biting night air was to locate a missing Corporal from their army. It was a scouting job, which was something Ellis was good at, so he at least knew that even if he wasn't here as Scout Ellis Danton, that Gold Leaf of Lord Pelagia Xista Ellis Danton could likely do just as well a job. The man he was searching for was the half-orc Evard, who had last been seen in an area Ellis had already investigated on his way here. The trail had lead to a new territory, one that was neither controlled by Aurcaele, Peacekeepers, or Atton. Territory that wasn't peaceful yet. Malscure-Rielcia territory.
Even after Feofil had spoken to him about the potential positives of the Malscure-Rielcia purpose, Ellis knew he wasn't safe here. He was wearing Aurcaele colours, Aurcaele symbols, and that meant he was an enemy. As such, he had been keeping to brush as much as he could, and had stayed well out of sight. That plan was ruined as he came to the end of the dryer bushes however, and looked down upon an almost swampy valley, where trees and bushes were broken up by dramatic expanses of algae blanketed waters.
Still-- There was likely no one around. This was Malscure-Rielcia territory, yes... But he hadn't seen any soldiers yet. This was their territory, and he had come upon no patrols. At this point, Ellis almost had to think that he was perfectly off of their pattern, and if he kept in the right direction he'd make it through just fine. He definitely had to think it, because there was no other choice. Not if he wanted to succeed, and please Lord Xista. Which meant--
With minimal squelching of his boots on wet grass--
And only a slight slosh as his legs pierced through the water--
The Malscure-Rielcia forces considered the wetlands to their advantage, but then, there was little about Atton that Iunia’s superiors didn’t consider fortuitous. The newly discovered land was considered a fitting sibling for the rest of Eleusia, with the immense power of its storms matching the magic that thrummed through Rielcia, and the hidden secrets and dark underbrush that made it seem a second home to the Malscuri. Even Iunia, who had not been born on Eleusian soil, felt the same fierce protectiveness that she saw in the eyes of the other soldiers. It felt as if Atton were already theirs; yet another allied land that they were duty-bound to guard from invasion.
Still, as advantageous as they might be, the little pockets of swamp that were scattered about the region weren’t well liked by Iunia or her kin-at-arms. Though the common opinion was that the other armies would turn their nose up at the muck, making their base all the safer, it was little more than a joke. Someone had to hold this miserable edge of their territory, and everyone knew that was the real reason they were camped out here, and not that the area was in any way ideal for housing an army. It was difficult even to patrol properly, but it was a job that had to be done, and tonight part of the border had been assigned to Iunia.
The centaur took her job seriously, truly, she did. But when Iunia saw a flash of blue in the dull underbrush, she was far happier than any soldier should be upon spotting a possible enemy. The days recently had been so long and uneventful, and patrols were always fraught with boredom. Whatever this turned out to be, it was at least something new.
Iunia got a better look at the figure when they began to cross the still water of the swamp. He was tall, with red hair much like her own. Those were the only prescient details the centaur noticed before she started looking at his clothing, gaudily bright, untouched by the mud— he looked just the sort of person that the soldiers would joke about turning around the moment he saw the swamp, but here he was, wading into it. He was also Aurcaeli, or dressed like one, dressed like an important Aurcaeli, at that. He didn’t look the type to be sneaking over borders.
Yet he was sneaking over borders, which was exactly the thing Iunia was tasked with preventing.
The centaur stepped out of the foliage and onto the bank opposite the intruder, pulling her glaive from where it was slung over her back. She’d prefer to avoid a fight, all things considered. Not only because she didn’t enjoy bloodshed, but because she got the feeling that the less she injured this man, the better. Even if he persisted in trespassing, her superiors wouldn’t want her to harm someone valuable, and anyone wearing that kind of finery was valuable to someone. “Aurcaeli,” she said, just in case she hadn’t already alerted him to her presence. “You are on land controlled by the Malscure-Rielcia alliance. What is your reason for being here?”
Post by Ellis Danton on May 14, 2018 6:53:03 GMT -7
Ellis had not been sure if his uniform was made well, and magical enough to resist the water of the swamp, and so he was pleasantly surprised. He could still feel it squelching over the lip of his boots when his foot depressed too much into muck, but the cloth itself seemed to force the water back when it tried to soak in. It was to the point where he could feel a mild dampness and a small trickle at his leg, but not the soak he had expected. The oddity of it distracted him long enough for a centaur to step out of her cover not far from him. Long enough that as his eyes drifted back, it looked almost like she had appeared from nothing.
His steps ceased with urgency, the mud pressing down with his weight and bringing another lick of cool water into his boot, and he held his arms slightly wide of his body, palms unclenched. Nonthreatening, he hoped, as she questioned his purpose there.
As always, Ellis was not much of a talker. He wasn't good at it. Nor was he good at lying. He was honest, mostly to a fault, as his honesty had hardly proven useful in the last few weeks, and that could be a problem here. If he just told this guard what he was doing - and Eleusia had something to do with Evard's disappearance - they would not be cooperative. If he just told the guard what he was doing - well, he considered how it wouldn't matter to her. He was purposefully invading here, wasn't he? Which meant... He was going to have to lie.
Ayniea help me, He whispered, not to a God of fallacy, but to the only God he cared to name. He hoped, as his hand stung with the reminder of his alliances, that she would uplift him now. And perhaps also cease his stutter for the sake of the moment.
"H-hold! I..." He began before the thought came to him, struggling over what he could try to say, "I f-found mys-s-self-- d-deserted. M-muh-my men. We were... We were attacked, and-- I've... L-Lost my t-t-trail..."
Perhaps Ellis would need more than Ayniea's blessing.
Iunia didn’t lower her weapon as the man stammered something about an attack, getting lost. She had no way to tell if the stammering was caused by fear, nervousness, or something else, and she didn’t care to guess. There were more important questions she needed answered. If he was telling the truth, there had been an attack close enough to their borders that she should probably find out as much as she could, and report it. If he was lying, then he was there on purpose, doing something worth lying about, and she’d have to find out what that was, and report it. Which was a solid plan, of course, except that getting someone to tell the truth when they don’t trust you at all is near impossible.
Iunia huffed, sticking the base of her glaive in the mud like it was a walking stick. Pointing sharp objects at someone wasn’t a good way to get them to trust you. And damn it all, if the man had an inch of sense he wouldn’t trust her anyway and she was baring her neck for nothing, but she had to try. The things she did for duty.
The centaur was mostly sure the Aurcaeli was lying, but she also knew that playing along with a lie was often more effective than questioning it. And, perhaps, some small part of her was absolutely gleeful at the opportunity to mess with the poor liar in the fancy coat. “Attacked? Who or what attacked you? How many of your men were lost? I need to know, else the border is threatened by... something other than yourself. I think such information is more than a fair trade after your trespassing.” Her words were uncompromising steel honeyed with mild concern, and while she didn’t often pray, to her own goddess Khades or to anyone else, she had chosen her patron for a reason. Lies were a game to her, and she played to win.
Post by Ellis Danton on May 15, 2018 19:36:44 GMT -7
Ellis slowly released his held breath as the centaur lodged her weapon into the mud. It was a chance, if not a symbol of trust, and that was all he could really hope for now that he had been spotted. He thought briefly of Feofil, and how the man had told him just days ago how trust could be a risk such as this - but that risk could also pay off. Ellis hoped that neither he nor the centaur would regret this trust. He hoped that Aurcaele would see pay off from this chance encounter.
"B-b-back the-there," He answered, pointing vaguely behind him, "N-north eas-- west of here... I th-think. I... I... I d-don't know. It w-was last n-n-night, and I've b-been t-t-t-turn-- Turned around since-- H-hey, are you..." He squinted his eyes, hand rising as if to block out a sun that didn't exist in the dark of the night suffocating them. It was true he couldn't see her well with his weak human eyes, but perhaps his vision wasn't as terrible as he was attempting to pretend it was.
"Yifu teni," He spoke easily in Attonian, "Wh-which... Whose... What c-c-colours do you wuh-wear? Teni, teni-- Where h-have I c-crossed"
Iunia was surprised when the man spoke Attonian— was the language well known to the Aurcaelians? She hadn’t thought so, and maybe it was something only known by certain members of the rival army. Still, her curiosity was piqued, as was her doubt in the veracity of the man’s words. He wasn’t answering her questions, not really, and now he was asking his own. He could be blinded by fear, or he could be trying to divert her attention. Iunia, who had a healthy sense of paranoia, immediately assumed the latter. Nothing was ever so innocuous, especially not trespassers from an enemy front.
Still, she might as well answer his question. There was no harm in it, if it led her to getting answers of her own, and she would hope such an apparently high ranking man was already aware of his location, anyway. “You’ve crossed into Eleusian territory,” she said, studying the trespasser’s face for a reaction. “I am Iunia, a soldier of Malscure.” There. Now he had no more excuses to be squinting at her in the dark, and perhaps he would decide to stop playing dumb now that she’d been honest herself. Even if that honesty was hardly about anything important.
She twisted her features into what she hoped looked like concern. “Now, you really must tell me who attacked you, soldier. I would not want the same fate to befall my people which befell yours.”
Sorry for the wait! Hopefully I can post more often now.
Post by Ellis Danton on Jun 18, 2018 10:30:14 GMT -7
Ellis feigned surprise as the centaur answered his question, his breathing shifting as his jaw slackened. If the surprise had been true, he might have paled and trembled. Perhaps he would have raised his hands higher and fallen to his knees in obvious surrender. That was what Ellis the scout would have done. Ellis the Gold Leaf couldn't do something like that, however, and he knew it. There were new rules, both spoken and silent, that he needed to survive within. New rules that meant he somehow needed to get out of this encounter.
"I-it wuh-was hard t-to... T-to see," He told her, the words spilling out as quickly as he could think them into existence. He considered who a favourable enemy could be -- someone who would attack him on sight, someone who might attack her on sight -- and devised a single answer. Now he just had to hope she would be the one to say it. Sputtering, he continued, "Th-they attacked ssso quickly... I-i-i-- R-remember l-lightning. N-not n-natural. N-not magical-- I d-don't think so... D-does that even m-make sense?"
Last Edit: Jun 18, 2018 10:31:30 GMT -7 by Ellis Danton
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