jaistlyn

Yes, the paladins (the unnamed ones) can be used as NPCs. Read this for more info!

You can post! There’s no rolling or using actions anymore, it’s just pure prose.

Yeah they speak Terric in Yh'mi. Throughout Valucre, most people don't really write out how a different language sounds like, we just assume they are speaking the equivalent in English. And if two characters don't speak each other's language, we note that in the narration. For me personally, I have used italics to denote speech in a different language, or formatting it, /something like this/.

You had a post that didn’t go through Hollow? 😣

Fire, wind, darkness, and sharp steel. The Queen expected no less from those who had survived the nightmares, drawn from their own trauma and memories. Her babies had fed on their fear as they traversed through the nightmares, and now the final step was to assimilate their minds completely, and her young would evolve into a new, intelligent species capable of conquering this new, strange land they found themselves in. Even if only a handful survived, it would be enough. Even so, she could not help but feel pangs of hurt when so her larvae were stricken down; the renewal of the hive would be built on countless sacrifice. These larvae had not yet been fully formed, and if they were defeated here, they would be unviable for hatching. As Frederick’s shield was forming, the wriggling larvae latched onto its surface and climbed over it. Until the shield was fully formed, it was not going to stop their advance. The Queen made no move to avoid Charlie’s attack. Fire splashed across her, the impact obscuring their view of her for the moment. When it cleared, the group would see her unharmed, and protected by a transparent purple barrier. The arrows from Captain Jeorge and his archers sped towards her, and she turned around to face them. Jeorge’s arrow met her barrier head-on - and the impact was great. A force equivalent to Suru’s charge propelled her into the ground, splashing up the liquid which had climbed to a few inches above their ankles. Several heartbeats passed. Did they get her? Would they dare to believe that? “Impressive. But I told you it would be easier if you accepted this.” The Queen’s voice resonated in their heads. She rose up from the ground, the purple barrier protecting her from harm. “There is no point to your struggles - I’ll show you.” Images appeared in their heads, of a series of dark caverns, then a room with egg-shaped objects suspended from the ceiling. The view in their heads rushed into the interior of one of the eggs, and they saw themselves inside, surrounded by the same liquid that was lapping at their legs. Each one of them was trapped and in pain. “You are being devoured at this moment. Your powers are being assimilated into my young. These larvae, they are representations of them in your mindscape.” The image in their mind moved through a cord from the top of their egg, then snaked across a ceiling to another room, ending in another, different pod. This pod held a creature with an uncanny likeness to their face, but with no other resemblance to them. They were insectile creatures, with long limbs and a hard exoskeleton. Charlie’s copy, in particular, was lit up with flames similar to his own ability. There was some sort of commotion outside the pods. The view changed - and suddenly they saw familiar figures in the room. Ilene and Ed, battling more of the same creatures wearing their faces.. and Fidelitas lying on the ground. “Your companions, whose flesh will provide suitable nourishment. Stripped of their weapons and sapped of their strength, their struggles will be nothing more than a game for my newly hatched. They will not survive for long, and neither will you.” “Attacking me is futile, for I exist across realms. When one half is safe, the other half will not be damaged. Do you understand now where you stand? Give up your fight, and this will go easier.”

beak, you very much hit the nail on the head. Mild Powers is there as a moderation tool for conflict between players, and is a general guideline for people new to writing with each other, but if you and your writing partners (as well as the board leader, if you are wanting to affect lore) are in understanding about exceeding it and are having fun, then there is no problem. It is there to prevent players from using 'powers' to invalidate those who want to play weaker characters, or to (accidentally or deliberately) undermine the writing efforts that others have established over weeks, months, even years.

I had been looking for a nice whiteboard-type website for quick visualization in RP threads (e.g. mark the positions of characters), and one of my most-used UX design tools (Invision app) just released one for free! Just create an account and you can start your own whiteboard. You can join any whiteboard as a guest too, just need to input your email (no need to sign up). https://freehand.invisionapp.com/freehand/document/p8UCn5huF

Fidelitas Physical means did little to deter the insects attempting to enter his body. His panicked attempts to draw on the power of Gaia came up empty. Desperate, he clawed at his face, tearing at both the Wispereds’ wings and his own skin. Get away, get away![/i] He shouted internally to himself as he ran towards the light. Despite his best efforts, the Wispered continued their assault on him, and to his horror, he could feel them wriggling down his throat. The light source in front of Fidelitas grew brighter, and he drove himself to move ever closer, closer.. until he turned a corner and burst into the next chamber. The change in lighting made him unable to see anything while his eyes adjusted, but he could feel the Wispered pulling away. He dropped down to all fours and forced himself to retch; the more of those darned insects he could flush out of his system, the better. Someone moved in front of him, waving around a candle to banish the rest of the insects back into the darkness. Fidelitas caught a glimpse of chitinous legs, and snapped his head upwards to look - but before he could, a strong blow landed on the back of his head, knocking him out. Two Xer princesses stood over the prone form of the paladin. One bent down and ran a spindly finger over his cheek. Hmph. Do you think Mother’s plan will work? These creatures.. they are weak and fragile, and I doubt anything that is crossed with them will survive any better than us. Do you have a better idea then? Our numbers are dwindling by the day, and Mother’s the only one who gained the power of the many-limbed god. She alone can create the new species that will save our hive. Come, he should be ripe for the babies to feed now. - Ilene & Ed Ilene’s makeshift weapon smacked against the wall of the translucent contraption, but its impact was absorbed by a fluid that surrounded the creature. A tear formed in the egg, perhaps from Ilene’s blow, or perhaps it was already time for the creature to emerge from its shell. The tear appeared as a crack at first, then yawned into a gaping opening, spewing out viscous slime. The creature wearing Ilene’s face tumbled out and landed on its insectile legs, wearing a - her disturbing expression of hunger. The creature was smaller than the Xer soldiers that they had fought earlier, but it gave a sense of being faster and more agile. Ed sought out his doppelganger, and swung his shadowblade at it. The nature of shadows was that it warped and changed its form in light, and light was what threw the shadowblade off its original mark. The blade sliced into the egg and took off one of the doppelganger’s legs, instead of splitting it in half. An uncannily human screech of pain emitted from the creature as it was dumped onto the ground. The light source came from one of the other pods. If they looked closely, the creature within bore a resemblance to Charlie, though this one was visibly less physically developed than Ilene’s and Ed’s copy. Ah, see, the babies are hatching. A female voice spoke directly into Ilene and Ed’s heads. Two Xer princesses had entered the chamber, and between them, they dragged Fidelitas in and dumped him on the ground. The paladin stirred and groaned. You understand what you are, don’t you? Food. Your fears have shaped them, and your flesh will be the nourishment that completes them. As we are, we cannot last for long in this environment. There was a hint of resignation in her voice. Only by evolution will we thrive. Another voice chipped in. We travelled for days, and lost so many. Just when we have reached our wits’ end, finally - finally, we found a species that Mother could combine our young with. You. We are not cruel, this is just a necessity. Now, this will be a quicker process for you if you don’t struggle. One of the princess stood guard at the small entrance that they had entered from, and the other moved deeper into the chamber, and stood by a wall that looked to be of a different material than the rest of the cave walls. At the same time, the abominations wearing Ilene’s and Ed’s visages prepared to spring, while movement stirred within the other eggs suspended in the room.

Sure! My mailbox is open! 🙂 The thread for the building of a fort at the Furthest Point will be built soon, and that will present further exploration opportunities. You don't have to start from Inns'th and traverse the Broken Plains each time anymore, you can start from the Furthest Point. Also, a port to Ursa Madeum has been built nearby Inns'th, which is allowing more people and resources to flow, and the small encampment of Inns'th is starting to grow larger. This is both a boon and a bane - there will be more bodies to throw at Yh'mi, but at the same time, people-to-people conflict and crime will arise.

Hiiiiii! Glad to hear you're doing well! Things are good on my end too 🙂

Yes, it is possible! I assume active opposition means that you want to pit an antagonist against one or more white hand paladins in a thread? I don’t have plans in the short term to take on a new thread to play as the white hand, so such a thread will require either some pre-planning in order for me to tell you what kind of response or outcome is possible, or you could recruit other interested players to act as unranked White Hand paladins. In both cases, if you want the thread to be canon to Yh’mi, please do check in with me so that I can let you know the current situation in Yh’mi, and how your idea might fit in the grand plan of things! If it’s for purely development of your character (such as giving a background story), you don’t have to check in with me unless you want to clarify details about Yh’mi. Hope that helps! @Rembrandt

Next round's posts go out this weekend, so if anyone's wanting to get a post in, now's the time to do so!

I am loving the idea of this! Mark me down as a potential participant. There’s some time away from the event so I’ll check back in on my actual availability later. Oh question - 1.What happens if other participants in the same thread have to drop out/go MIA? Do we continue the story alone? 2. Is each round an elimination round, or everyone gets ‘points’ for each round and these are tallied when all the rounds are done?

I still mostly write on phone even when I have my computer on. 1. The comfort of being mobile and lying on my bed/sofa/floor 😂, 2. Less onscreen distractions. Though my post time has gotten longer for sureeee, due to both the nature of my current threads, and also because I'm working from home and my posting time is no longer spent on 'time on the bus ride'. Timeboxing myself is a thing, and without it, it is hard to motivate myself into the groove when there's so many other things I can do xD