abraxaslogs | [OPEN] The black-clothed monk

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[OPEN] The black-clothed monk

WHO: Sasarai and OPEN
WHAT: Sasarai decides to explore the Horizon
WHERE: Horizon
WHEN: After Eifstide

Sasarai sets out from the pale shrine at the center of the Mirrored Valley that makes up the surface of his domain.

He has dressed himself in black leather with a heavy dark cloak and hood obscuring his face. What he is protecting his identity from he isn't sure. Nobody out there is so hostile to him that they'd kill him for roaming into their territory, surely... Not yet, anyway.

After the surge of spirits during Eifstide he's been waiting to hear information from the King and Queen or from the Mages or from...anyone. Anyone who could adequately explain what had happened... Nobody has said a thing.

Someone has to know something and he intends to find them. If only he could spend all night exploring the Horizon, chasing people for answers...

But he knows he realistically can't spend too long here. He's enough of a busy body in the castle that his prolonged absence would be noticed. Gossipy castle staff would start wondering why he spent so long in meditation.

No, at best he has a couple of hours...

So he tries to quicken his stride as he passes through the mountains clustered around his domain.

[OOC: If you want Sasarai to enter your character's Domain leave a tag! If not don't worry I will only assume he's visited people who explicitly opt into the log. He will leave if someone isn't in their Domain and able to answer since he's in a hurry.

When answering please let me know what your domain is like and who/what might greet him upon entering.]

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His are not the only mountains in the Horizon right now, and he'll soon find himself among the glowing peaks of Estinien's domain, though he'll have no way of knowing who inhabits it at first. Thankfully, the mountain range is fairly compact, given the limited space of the Horizon, and it is relatively easy to find a path inward through various crystal caverns. On the other side, of course, there is a stretch of lush pasture land, abundant with pastoral animals.

In particular, there are a lot of sheep, though they are somewhat different from the standard type. These are particularly round in shape, with long noses and friendly looking expressions. They will notice him before anyone else does, sniffling over in his direction.

It isn't along until there is another presence, however. In the sky, Sasarai will see the silhouette of draconic wings gliding down towards the herd. Upon a closer look, he may even noticed something more alarming - it's that same elf from Thorne's courtyard, the one that attacked Ambrose.

...And he's tossing around hay for the sheep to eat, apparently.

Sasarai sees the winged shadow soar around the valley. It takes him a moment before he realizes the fearsome shape is feeding the sheep. Strange... but, then "strange" describes most of the experiences he's had in the Horizon.

He adjusts his cloak then strides out into the green towards the curious sheep and waits for Estinien to notice him.

He's still but relaxed, his stance non threatening.

Estinien carries on with his business for a while, before something seems to peak his attention. Suddenly, he looks in Sasarai's direction - and from his immediate posture, it is not in a fond way.

"You," he says, even as the sheep nibble at hay around his feet. His wings spread once more, and he lifts himself in Sasarai's direction, landing several feet away. "Your kind are not welcome here."

He'll not soon forget Sasarai's face.

Sasarai watches Estinien closely.

What will happen if the other man attacks? Sasarai isn't sure he'd be able to defend himself, not when his current surroundings were literally shaped by Estinien's will.

Oh, well, too late to back out of this now. If he doesn't take this chance to ask a few questions he may never get another one.

"My kind?"

He lowers his hood and looks the other man over with an expression of calculated coolness.

"What 'kind' is that?"

Estinien snarls, in a way that is just slightly too bestial. Much like in real life, his draconic traits have a way of showing themselves here.

"The kind that would come to the High Mage's defense after all he has done."

He did note that Sasarai was a comparatively late arrival, but it's not much of an excuse to his eyes. In some ways it was almost more infuriating, thinking that the man was so ignorant of the situation he'd decided to champion.

"I see."

He takes a few steps forward, intending to show that he doesn't fear Estinien despite the flutter of cautious worry in his heart.

"What has he done, then? Tell me. Why did he deserve to die?"

Ridiculous, Estinien thinks. So, he truly learned nothing of his master's policies before acting. Either that, or he's playing dumb.

"For threatening the same upon me and a score of others," he says. "'Twas not all that long before that we were made helpless in his grasp, imprisoned without reasonable cause, threatened with death if we resisted. I nearly met my end in those damned tunnels he forced us into, deciding 'twas morally righteous to use such wretched beasts as slaves for the work too dangerous for his own men."

Estinien's look is one of disgust and deep anger, still lingering even months later.

"No trouble for one such as you, I assume. After all, 'twas not you on the chopping block. Why not hold tight to your new master's bosom?"

"I see..."

Sasarai had heard about the tunnels, but had not been there to witness it and he's sure he's missing some key details.

His brow knits.

"I assure you I don't consider anyone my master. I protected him to protect us. All of us who were summoned to this world. If the High Mage fell then Thorne would want our blood for it. At best his death would cause immense political unrest within the kingdom and we would be treated with suspicion. At worst his death could ignite a war. People who fled to other lands might be rounded up and sent back if their governments decided it's not worth the effort of granting them asylum.

Whatever the result we would be the ones who suffered, you know. We'd die first.

Maybe killing him would have felt cathartic for you in the moment but nothing good would have come from it."

"You assume that's what would take place."

The idea has occurred to him before, but never for that long. It's just not how things have gone when it comes to his own experiences.

"You have no better means than I to determine the outcome of that choice, especially when you were but a newborn in this world when you made your stand. Unaware of the events that had come before and their ramifications." Estinien genuinely doesn't know that he's right, but he's not going to accept bold conjecture stated as truth.

"You give no thought to what evils may have been averted. That further summoning may be stopped, deemed too high a risk. That others might be spared his unjustified cruelty. Not all in Thorne support his ambitions, and if we are to operate based on sheer imagination, 'tis just as likely it could have slanted the world against his efforts."

"There are better ways to topple a tyrant," Sasarai says evenly. "Changing systems from within can prevent seeds of conflict from ever taking root."

He looks around at the sheep.

"I saved the High Mage to prevent any unnecessary loss of life. Maybe you're right that his death could have saved people but it was more likely to hurt them. At least now there is time to think about it. Now we can find the best path forward for everyone."

"The seeds of conflict have already taken root. That much should be clear."

Estinien takes another step forward, almost as if he doesn't like Sasarai looking at his sheep. Or maybe it just looks that way.

"What best path forward would you imagine, then? You are currently in service of the kingdom that would condone gifting themself a godlike power to control the universe... and I've seen better men than the High Mage try and fail to wield such strength. Do you imagine you will dissuade them, when they are more likely to adhere to the words of a magic book than their own humanity?"

"I don't know what the best path is," he admits and feels his expression settle into a light scowl.

"Not yet. I just know it will be the one that saves the most lives and prevents all out war."

His gaze drifts from the sheep back to Estinien.

"Do you think conflict is that inevitable?"

If he's honest with himself, Sasarai has to admit it probably is. Tensions feel too high among the different territories for peace to be a reasonable expectation. But that doesn't mean they have to all clash in open warfare that could kill tens of thousands and irreparably destabilize the world.

"I do," he says. "What's more, I think the conflict has already begun. If the nations of this world were amenable to talking out their differences, to compromising, they have had thousands of years of history during which they might have done so."

Thorne itself has been around for an impossibly long time, he's learned.

"They would also have had thousands of years to enter open warfare," Sasarai sighs as he adjusts his leather gloves.

"But the way you speak they are even now mobilizing against each other...Why now?"

If the nations are mobilizing it will mean he has to do something to preserve the peace. Simply speaking to the leaders of each nation won't do it, not with the world in its current state. As Estinien pointed out, if they were amenable to compromise a compromise would have happened by now...

But there are other ways to prevent open warfare. An overwhelming display of power might be in order to bring the other nations to heel.

He will have to think about this.

"Mobilization is another matter," Estinien says. If he had specifics he wouldn't tell Sasarai, but he also doesn't want to give the impression that there is any actual military movement happening. "What I mean to say is that the seeds of conflict have been sewn. To my eyes, the arrivals of the 'summoned' are a catalyst - as our presence means the issue of the Singularity is no longer but a distant ideal."

It becomes a lot more pressing when it seems as if a faction may actually become capable of affecting it sometime in the foreseeable future.

"That's true, isn't it?"

Sasarai thinks back on his salt flats and the crystal tower beneath them...or above them. He'd been searching for himself when he'd created his Horizon, had been trying to determine why he existed.

That search had led him in confusing directions, all of them reflected in his Domain.

"...Our ability to even create this space and connect with the Singularity makes us unique in this world. What do you think about that? Us and the Singularity?"

"Hmph."

Estinien crosses his arms, starring Sasarai down. At first, it seems like that is going to be his only response, as if not deigning to share such thoughts with an outsider. After a few long moments, however, he glances to the side, exhaling.

"I think it makes the leadership of Thorne fools, to behave as they have," he says. "But, more importantly, I think that it falls to us and our kind to act with care. Though it has not yet been quantified, there is much at stake."

Black stone juts from the ground of the Horizon, like a piece of a mountain cliff cut out and placed. Two large stone doors are carved into the rock, flanked by statues of four-armed Shokan warriors, their expressions both fierce and leering. The doors look like they should be heavy, but are pushed aside with ease, revealing a large set of stairs winding downwards, illuminated by a series of torches lit by green flames.

It takes probably three or four minutes to navigate the stairs as they run underground, where a small stone hallway and another door leads into

the Lair.

[additional aesthetic images so you have an idea of what Sasarai is walking into: here, here, here, and here, cuz you gotta respect the OG. But yes, it's all there, the currently empty-throne, the cells, the assorted corpses/skeletons.]

There's also a stone table set out, across a wide open space from the throne, in which a feast appears to have been laid out, but it's an Outworld feast, so the food seems to be primarily meat, though of what is...difficult to determine. Also not all of it appears to be dead; something slithers around in a liquid-filled bow, and various chittering noises can be heard from the plates left out because it's not a true Outworld feast if you don't have to kill at least some of the food yourself first. However, this might be difficult to see because the table and the benches provided are all sized for a Shokan, meaning you'd need to be approaching eight feet tall to make use of it. Otherwise, the central chamber is an uncomfortable combination of throne room, banquet hall, fighting arena, and prison. Two side passages lead out of either side of the room, while behind the throne another passage has a curtain drawn over it.

This is the domain into which Sasarai has apparently willingly walked.

[Goro's Domain will get a bigger rundown next month, but Goro's just chilling in his private quarters behind the throne. If Sasarai wants to check the place out a little, he'll attract Gorp's attention.]

Edited 2021-11-26 02:35 (UTC)

Sasarai has to pause when he comes to the end of the stair case and passes the doors.

The cavernous room with its imposing decoration and massive furniture is not like anything he's seen before. Whoever owns this space must be enormous compared to a human... Or at least they are while they're in the Horizon.

He steels his nerves and, not wanting to be considered a nosy intruder even though he very much is one, he calls out into the candlelit darkness.

"This is quite a sense of decoration you have."

Behind the throne, in the spacious chambers that serve as his private retreat, Goro relaxes, tipping back a jeweled goblet sized perfectly for his fists, of one of the finest vintages he ever remembers savouring. He should hate the Horizon, and this...domain he's built, a mixture of Kuatan and his old island retreat smashed together. None of it is real, just a fantasy built and maintained by the magical energy of the Horizon. There is nothing meaningful here, just cheap escapism. He should hate it...

but he has looked upon his domain and saw it was Good. Everything is sized right here. The food is familiar, filling, and always available, and the drinks actually succeed i getting him nice and happily drunk, a sensation he has missed dearly. His own private retreat, away from the outside world, where no one will bother—

—ah. Of course he thought that too soon. Setting the goblet down for now, Goro rises from where he was reclining, savouring a tray of food taken from the feast outside. He thought he had built this place to be so obviously dangerous that nobody sane would venture into it to bother him. But it seems he forgot, if you put a "WARNING, DO NOT ENTER: DANGER" sign, there's a not insignificant portion of the human population who would see the sign, then enter anyway so they can find someone to ask what it is they should be trying to avoid. And one of those humans is now in the central chamber of his domain. Sadly, his bath in the boiling hot underground pool that takes up space at the end of his personal quarters will have to wait for now while he addresses this pest.

He pushes back the curtain and steps out, delighting secretly at how easy it is to fit through the passageway. He doesn't even have to straighten up again! "I summoned no one to explore my domain."

Goro's Horizon form is much the same as his actual form, but with the inclusion of a blood-red cape with gold accents that hangs off his broad shoulders, and a heavy brass necklace set with a large, dark red ruby in the center. Golden armbands and footbands adore his limbs, while his head is crown with a silver jeweled circlet, a symbol of his royal authority.

He regards Sasari with curiosity, his eyes narrowing. This one...this one he does not recognize. Either he lives in a distant Free City, OR, perhaps more likely...this is a Summoned of Thorne or Solvunn. His first encounter with a member of that group. An interesting opportunity.

Moving past Sasarai, Goro moves to take his seat on the throne. He lowers his bulk onto the stone chair, and then leans back, and yes, he's grateful for that.

"I do not know you. Who are you, that you walk so bravely into a place like this?" He asks, taking a sip from the goblet that he absolutely carried out with him. Even as he drinks, his eyes remain fixed on Sasarai.

Sasarai holds his breath as the strange creature moves past him but he keeps his expression calm.

Showing weakness would only invite trouble.

"Call me 'Wander'. In this realm wandering is all I'm really good for."

Slowly, he approaches the throne, his black cloak whispering across the stones behind him.

"I'm sorry if I've intruded, Your Majesty."

The apology is followed by a grin visible beneath his hood.

Sasarai's grin is met with a scowl from Goro. He leans forward on his throne. "You walk into my domain uninvited, and then refuse to name yourself when asked? You play a dangerous game, "Wander"."

After a moment he rises from his throne. "But I shall still observe the rules of courtesy, even if you will not." He has no fear of his identity being known. In fact, he wants to be, wants his enemies in Thorne and Solvunn to know what they face. "I am Prince Goro of Kuatan. Son of King Gorbak. Why have you come here today, wanderer? Perhaps you wished to look upon the face of your enemy, hmm?" He folds his upper arms over his chest. "Then do so, and know the pain that awaits you...little human." He sneers confidently down at Sasarai.

Sasarai's lips twitch at the words "little human". "Little" is fair enough but he's not human, is he? That's a fact he's still struggling with.

Of course to everyone else he is close enough to being human for the differences not to matter.

He shifts his boots, evens out his stance and peers upward at Goro through the shadows.

"Actually, I was hoping to look upon the face of a friend. What makes you my enemy?"

"Friend." Disdain drips from Goro's voice as his lips curl. "Friendship is meaningless." After a moment, he sits back down upon his throne, steepling the fingers of his lower arms together.

"Whatever your wishes, war has come to Abraxas. It will not end until two of its three nations are dust, and the survivor lays claim to the power of the Singularity. And I do not intend to be dust."

[Even at a distance, the gleaming spires of Emet-Selch's domain have a way of dominating the horizon. Enough, certainly, to draw attention, and all the more so had someone not expected to see what looks like a modern city in amidst all the rest of the domains scattered around the Horizon.

Nor, for that matter, is it any less impressive up close; once Sasarai steps beyond the threshold of the city, he'll find that it's no less impressive in person, from the brass and crystal structure that stands in the middle of what seems to serve as a central park to the buildings themselves. There are even people, of a sort, tall figures dressed in long gray cloaks that drift in and out of sight, as if they're hazy memories. Echoes of something that has once been, though some of them will stop and hold conversations (of a sort) if spoken to.

There is, however, one very noticeable fact: nothing here is built on a scale well-suited to the average human. The memory-ghosts stand some fifteen feet or so high, and the city itself is built to accommodate them, and not a lone wanderer who has happened into it.

(Whoever built this domain is, it would seem, at least not immediately visible, but it's possibly they're inside one of the buildings, or somewhere further in than the outskirts.)]

Edited 2021-11-27 08:16 (UTC)

[Sasarai has never seen anything like this before. It seems like it must be a city but the structures are high and alien, and well beyond the ability of even the most accomplished Harmonian architect.

As he passes by them he sometimes does a double take, looking at what appears to be doors at first glance but must surely be walls. Nobody needs doors that tall.

After a few minutes of wandering, searching for the owner of this domain, he finally stops and removes his hood.]

Is anyone here?

[He sees an impossibly sized cloaked figure out of the corner of his vision but when he turns to look at it, it's already gone.]

[At first, there's no answer. Just the town, tall and somber, and here and there a drifting soul. A memory of a soul, there and gone again - though if nothing else, the apparent size of them suggests that the doors are at least not as ridiculously tall as they might seem, by the standards of those who might have lived there.

And then... suddenly there is another figure. One that is real, and solid, approaching from behind - and one who seems to have at least heard some of his question besides.]

I know of very few places here that are truly abandoned.

[Unattended for a time, perhaps. But not abandoned.

More immediately relevant, though Sasarai may well recognize Emet-Selch's voice - even here, it is not so different to how it would be outside the Horizon - but the sight that will greet him should he turn is anything but familiar. This Emet-Selch stands tall - easily near 18 feet, if not more - with long pale hair, and dressed the same robes that the ghosts born of memory wear. His eyes, though, are the same yellow as ever, though they seem to nearly glow besides.]

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[OPEN] The black-clothed monk

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Goro's Domain; cw corpses, food horror

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This tag is embarrasingly old and I'm very sorry for taking this long on it