beleos: (Default)
beleos ([personal profile] beleos) wrote in [community profile] kenosooc2024-03-12 03:34 pm

THE ADVOCATE ORACLE - A RIP VAN WINKLE IN TIME


INTRO
Hello Kenos! Welcome to the Advocate Oracle! Did we say Stargazer? Shhh no we didn’t. As we hinted earlier in the Discord, the conclusion of this Oracle will lead to a timeskip that Bearers will be subjected to in the end. How long? Well, that depends on your choices, and how well you exemplify the Advocate Oracle.

Just like with the Exalt Oracle, and to keep things even until a little closer to the end game, this Oracle has been predetermined to go to Zenith.

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF BLISS
Bearers will find themselves being pulled into a deep sleep, where the Advocate Oracle will beseech them for their knowledge of home and seek understanding. Where did you come from? What made you as you are? What were the victories and challenges of your land? How did you become the you that you are? The Advocate seeks understanding and wants to see others achieve happiness. Does your world bring you happiness, or would it be cathartic to see it lost?

As the Advocate learns bits and pieces about Bearers, it will become clear that their dream is closing in on something that the bearers who have experienced it will recognize as the Timestream. The Advocate is not a thing, but a presence, and bearers will be able to sense the force (amorphous and shapeless) reaching into the Timestream, and you know – know that they are reaching for something on your behalf. As it slides out, you can feel a calming sense of joy, because you recognize it. It fills you with joy, bliss, or perhaps frustration and disgust, as you recognize the feeling of being home.

Everything will go white, and your one-on-one time with the Advocate will be at an end.

CLICK YOUR HEELS TOGETHER, DOROTHY!
Bearers will open their eyes and will find themselves in a new world. This is not Kenos at all, but familiar or not, you know it is someplace in the scattered worlds.

Where is it? Well, it’s either your world or another Bearer’s! That’s right, it’s a world share event! Bearers will find themselves scattered either on their own or in groups (up to you!) in a new world, that could be familiar or not, depending on your CR net. The Advocate has pulled the memories and description of a world from the Timestream, and for what purpose… well, that will become clear with time. However, these are not the worlds that characters came from, not exactly. These are worlds that are AUs of your character's canon, and this can be in very minor ways that would be essentially the same as canon, or it can be in very large, dramatic ways. Up to you!

You are not required to share a world, however, bearers will feel a strong compulsion to invite the Advocate to experience their worlds in their vision with the Advocate. (This leaves you all options to opt out of sharing your own world, but for those characters who may be less inclined, this is your opportunity to do so!)

But first, the logistics! Bearers will be in worlds for 12 hours each. You will not experience hunger or tiredness – but feel free to eat or sleep your way through worlds as you so choose (we expect there to be a lot of them!) – and the scope of each world is about what is discoverable within 12 hours. (You don’t need to describe the entirety of your world, but a city or area. Please make sure it's large enough to accommodate the entire shard-bearer population. For example, the Millennium Falcon would be too small, but a Star Destroyer would be fine. It should be a place that provides significant hold over your character.) There will be an open header here for players to post a short description of their world. If your character wants to go hang out at a coffee shop and watch shit go down, feel free! (The mod team has examples, and we will be sharing those shortly!) Please have your descriptions in by 03/15/2024 at 1:30 PM so that everyone can choose participation in other characters’ worlds before they get their TLs up!

For characters that are from shared worlds, we’ll leave it up to you how you all share that, but if you choose to have different regions or cities to share, go for it! For example, Batman might choose Gotham, whereas Superman might choose Smallville. Again, this really should be what’s feasibly travelable within 12 hours – they will cycle like the rest of the worlds – and your characters will not have money or funds on them for travel, so don’t feel like you have to describe the entirety of your characters’ worlds. Just a small blurb (you can include links of course!) to give players a general sense of what they can discover.

Also, these worlds will shuffle in the order on the taken list, just so the Savants have an unsolvable puzzle to chew on. (heh)

Characters will experience every world that is submitted into the header, but the Advocate’s last impression will echo as you move from one word to another. “Is this worthy of saving?”

Your twelve hours can be spent in one of three ways. Bearers can do whatever they want, and simply experience the world as they wish, they can hunt for the soul of the world, or they cant hunt for the soul of the dreamer.

  • The first is self-explanatory, of course. Each world is full of life, from creatures to people, to everything in between. (Conspicuously missing would be anyone of significant “closeness” to the character who manifested this world – think of it as the difference between a friend/family and an acquaintance.) Characters can create chaos, go to a café, find a precious spot you’ve heard about, and go wild! This is your opportunity to learn about your CR’s homes in a first-hand experience kinda way! This is your have fun and deepen connections sort of prompt.
  • The second, the Soul of the World will be a shard to be found by any who are searching for it. It is something that anyone can simply find, but it will be hidden. We ask that our players choose the location and list it in the description of their world, so players can actively plot for it! This is your opportunity to sneak, steal, fight, and destroy each other over the soul, it will come with a distinct benefit as you move onto the next world! They will be somewhere that is difficult to find, surrounded by shadows that creep closer and closer to the shard.
  • The last is the Soul of the Dreamer, which is, interestingly enough, a second Shard that matches the person who dreamed it up. The odd thing about these shards in these worlds is that they are of a different Aspect of the character that exists in game. (For example: Amos the Harbinger, or Hayame the Advocate) The character it belongs to will feel a pull toward it, but it is no guarantee that they will find it. Maybe someone else does! And maybe that’s a kind soul, or maybe it’s someone who would think to shatter that this Shard. Or maybe you keep it!


There will be a header on the turn-in post to list if your character chooses to keep the different Aspected Shard of themselves. If you find someone else’s Shard, and you keep it to the next world, it will return to that Bearer to decide what to do with it. Essentially, if you don’t shatter this Shard, they’ll be able to do with it as they see fit before you leave their world. If you do shatter the Shard, there will be no consequences to the owner. Or at least none that will appear in this event.

It goes without saying, but please plot this with that player, so there are no surprises!

AROUND THE WORLDS IN 60 SECONDS 12 HOURS
As you close your eyes, in that last moment, the Advocate will reach out to all of the Bearers that have made it to the end of this world, and beseech them to make a choice. Does this world have something of value? Something to be preserved? Do you understand the Bearer who dreamt of this world better, now? Do you think that this world has enough value to continue its existence? Before you open your eyes into the next world, Bearers will be compelled to answer yes, or no. This will be on a separate header post that will go up on the turn-in log. You will have until Wednesday March 27th at 10:00 PM.

As an aside, whatever bearer has captured the soul of the world will count to double their action's choice. (For example, if they choose to destroy, the total destroy votes will be doubled.)

We’ll be tallying the results, so there will be some extra exciting consequences to your choices as Bearers! Always keep in mind the tenets of your faction as you make your choices, bearers. Now that you have lost your leaders, the members of your faction back home are looking to you for victory. Of course, your choices will also determine the state of the world when you return, and how long it has been. Stay steadfast, and understand that you will have to make choices based on what your character believes is the best path forward. Your leadership trusts you – or if they don’t, they will have no choice, now will they? It’s up to you now, Bearers.

FAQ AND QUESTIONS
This Oracle is a touch more free-form than previous Oracles, and that is intentional! You are not required or expected to explore or have major action in every world. In fact, it's strongly discouraged, since this will provide opportunities for all players to have an opportunity to make big decisions! Even if you do not thread in the world, please still vote for them before 3/27/2024 so that we can have an accurate tally! The votes will make a difference in what our world looks like moving forward.

And finally, since they didn’t fit in the above, here are some quick FAQ style questions and answers about things we figure might be asked:

Are these really our worlds?
These are versions of bearer worlds. They can be very close (ie: identical) expressions of your character's worlds or they can have one event change such that the world is rather different. So they are alternate universes, but not so far that you're making up a whole world on the fly! The Advocate, unfortunately, cannot bring back your worlds. There's a lot of options out there in the Timestream. :(

What About Discord?
Characters do not seem to experience heightened Discord. Weird!

What happens if my character dies in the event?
They will fall into a deep, deep sleep and can no longer participate in the world-hopping adventures! They may be asleep for some time, depending on when they are dissipated, as they won’t revive early compared to their fellow Bearers. Whatever votes your character made leading up to the point that they died will count toward the goals of the faction. The Advocate accepts you for your efforts, even if they draw short.

Please make sure to post your deaths to the death page! You're gonna be sleeping a long time, and there may be things your Bearer discovers as they dream...

Are characters depowered?
Your powers will work perfectly fine! Oddly, if you are in a world where powers don’t exist, the denizens of the world may stare blankly, as if they Do Not Perceive. You gotta protect those little minds somehow.

We hope you have fun, and happy plotting!

CODING
dreamflowers: (psst)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-13 11:22 am (UTC)(link)

PLAYER

NAME: Beck.
CONTACT: Plurk ([plurk.com profile] whippoorwill), Discord (beck.nightengale), and PM are all fine with me. Feel free to just add me on Plurk and Discord!

CHARACTER

NAME: Jeheol Gris Jade the Prophetess
CANON: Enderal: Forgotten Stories
FACTION | ASPECT: Meridian | Harbinger
Give us a blurb about them: Since this is an obscure as fuck canon with a messy wiki and this is basically my first plotting intro for this crazyhead... I've written out the basic rundown about Jade here. But the long and short of it is that Enderal is like what would happen if Skyrim and Silent Hill got together and had a fucked up lovechild. Jade herself is a character I would describe as one who tends to mask her self-loathing and true emotions with levity and sarcasm, though she is a bit of a closet romantic who craves connection with others. She's a refugee from a 30-years-long civil war that tore her country apart, a former fugitive urchin (runaway slave) who has spent much of her life living on the streets, and is canonically plagued by horrors that send her waking up in screaming fits almost every night. The Prophet's backstory is by design pretty fucked up, so I'd recommend checking out her Permissions section for some of those more sensitive subject matters, and I'll be as mindful as I can if any of those things come up.

Event specific plans: Because I'm terrible, I'll basically be doing A Song in the Silence for Jade's world, which can be found here. Since she's already been through this song (of silence) and dance, she'll kind of know what's up with the weirdo village and why the people there are the way they are. I gave three different options for how the World Shard can be obtained that are kind of how the ball rolls in the game, though Jade will probably be very protective of her "little brother" (can't you see the resemblance?!) so that will probably cause some complications when him surrendering the Shard will only cause him to die all over again! 🙂 Ideally I'm hoping to set the destination for the Silvergrove visit later in the timeline of world explorations because I feel like it's going to be a doozy on her mental and emotional state, but we'll see.

As for other worlds, I'm currently 👀 at Bloodmoon Island, Femblem, The Tower, and definitely interested in the Undercity and Jinba worlds (next meltdown over orphans + opening up that cannibalism trauma of hers, funfunfun). I'll be keeping an eye out for others and my plans are subject to change as things develop, but I 500% want to get Jade more proactive for her first Oracle event!

Things you’re looking for from others: Though Jade might attempt to go it alone at first, she isn't much of a solo fighter, and without her ghosts or summons to help back her up, she'll be relying on her magic and rogueish skills to keep herself alive. I feel like she'll most definitely get her ass handed to her fighting in some worlds while looking for Shards. Essentially I'd like to establish more CR with her, as I feel like there are opportunities to create some pretty decent ones here as she is like, probably prime for a mental breakdown or two. I mean, damn, she just got here and you're going to mess with her already like that?! Rude.

Anyone who isn't a jerk to her best bro Rynéus will be appreciated by her. She might try to fight anyone trying to convince/force him to give up his Shard at first, since she has a strong feeling about what will happen to him, but hey, we need a little controversy.

Things your character can offer: As an Arcanist with some pretty good handful of spells at her disposal, I'd like for her to be able to make use of those in battle. She doesn't do big group fights very well, but might work with other magic/ranged fighters whom she's less likely to friendly-fire towards. Otherwise, she's a pretty good stabby-stabber. She can do some pretty sexy sneak attacks, too!

Do you want your character to find your shard? I think I would, yeah! Especially considering where it's coming from, she's going to want to keep it and maybe cry over it a little.

Optional shitpost: LET'S HAVE FUN AT THE BEACH YOU GUYS YEAAAAHHHHH NOTHING WEIRD GOING ON HERE YEAAAAHHHHH.
a_noble_flame: (057)

[personal profile] a_noble_flame 2024-03-14 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
I totally have my eyes on Silvergrove 100%. It sounds really neat ... in a depressing way. But still neat?
dreamflowers: (but i hate myself instead)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-14 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
Aw yeah, please join Jade back on the recent memory lane of depression and horrors.

Especially the depression.

But I feel like Alice will be great for this little "quest".

Edit: SOOOO I got a Silvergrove toplevel here, and I see Alice has some prompts as well that I could alternatively hit up. I also feel like Alice might have some success in getting Jade to take the Shards so they don't end up shattered by someone else or whatever, even though she really doesn't want to.
Edited 2024-03-17 01:37 (UTC)
a_noble_flame: (009)

[personal profile] a_noble_flame 2024-03-17 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
I'm definitely coming for your toplevel for sure!
hauntedking: (13)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2024-03-14 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
Happy to throw Dimi at her and keep their burgeoning CR rolling!
dreamflowers: (here lies one greasy motherfucker)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-14 11:15 am (UTC)(link)
I'm down! So many worlds to dive into now and so little time, but is there any one you'd like them to explore together or just wing it when the full log thing goes up?
hauntedking: (15)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2024-03-14 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy to wing it for now; if we wanna figure out something specific we can revisit later if we need to.
dreamflowers: (16859922)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-15 08:34 am (UTC)(link)
Wingin sounds good. Now there are so many more options, but I'm really wanting to do jinba-fied Jade because orphans and Mikuni and yeah.
hauntedking: (02)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2024-03-15 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh nooo that'd be great.

I am down for more jinba shenanigans tbh.
dreamflowers: (17037746)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-16 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Eggselent.

I got some starters up here including jinba stuff! I figured Jade can maybe run into Dimitri at night just in time to be fawned over by kids, and maybe horrible mealtime?
hauntedking: (06)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2024-03-17 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds good! I will try to hit this tonight and failing that, tomorrow morning.
fursuit: (① zan ilihuiz.)

[personal profile] fursuit 2024-03-15 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
ignore the tezca journal since he's just the one I'm logged into lmao BUT

since you mentioned interest in Bloodmoon island and they had a nice little start talking about magic (and taboo magic...) I think Fane and Jade meeting up there would be a great continuation! The island itself is like chock full of taboo magic of many varieties that I didn't describe (because they weren't super relevant for most people), plus they can help back each other up since the demons are pretty strong. At least Fane has already gone through them!

...But you know, with double the party members so. They'll be fine!
dreamflowers: (16884025)

[personal profile] dreamflowers 2024-03-16 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohhh that would be great! I see Fane has a top level for Bloodmoon Island, so I'll be sure to hit that because Jade can definitely see the ghosties. And getting to explore other magic varieties sounds fun!