Empatheias Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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empatheias_ooc2015-05-18 12:36 am
simpathis) wrote in empatheias_ooc2015-05-18 12:36 am
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE: JUNE
Welcome to
empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:- Date reminders. Reserves open Monday, May 25th and Applications open Monday, June 1st.
- Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.
- Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.
- Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.
- First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format.
- IMPORTANT! We have made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!
Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!
• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try? The following emotions will have more effect than usual: hope, despair, fear, and bravery.
• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request.
• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...
• Prompt D: The latest entry in the hot 'Forgefires' series is about to come out, and lines in front of bookstores are blocking the streets! How will you get to your destination when your path is full of frenzied cosplayers who don't dare move lest they lose their spot in line? You might want to be careful, too—some fans are getting into heated arguments about their favorite characters so things might start literally flying if left unchecked!
• Prompt E: Things have been getting a little gloomy lately, so a group of youths have designed the first ever Verens Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament. Somehow you've won through the lower ranks, and are now a finalist. The state of the city is riding on you (or so they claim), so face your opponent and somehow manage to make this farce exciting enough to lift the moods of the spectators (mostly kids). Just be careful. If you do poorly, you might find a tomato or two thrown at you.
• Prompt F: Welcome to FEAR FACTOR! An exciting new brand of entertainment where contestants participate in various challenges that touch home to the most innate fears humans share. Lying in a pit of creepy crawlies; climb up high, precarious structures; go one-on-one with wild animals—can you handle it? Are you brave enough to go for the 1 million sylv prize? Or will fear cripple you and leave you with nothing!? Only one way to find out! Oh, and one more thing—your emotions will definitely effect everything, so if you're climbing up that rusty, half broken steel tower and it starts shaking, that's probably because you're scared out of your wits. Don't let it crumble!
• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include giant cheese wheels and/or bucket of nails.
• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request.
• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...
• Prompt D: The latest entry in the hot 'Forgefires' series is about to come out, and lines in front of bookstores are blocking the streets! How will you get to your destination when your path is full of frenzied cosplayers who don't dare move lest they lose their spot in line? You might want to be careful, too—some fans are getting into heated arguments about their favorite characters so things might start literally flying if left unchecked!
• Prompt E: Things have been getting a little gloomy lately, so a group of youths have designed the first ever Verens Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament. Somehow you've won through the lower ranks, and are now a finalist. The state of the city is riding on you (or so they claim), so face your opponent and somehow manage to make this farce exciting enough to lift the moods of the spectators (mostly kids). Just be careful. If you do poorly, you might find a tomato or two thrown at you.
• Prompt F: Welcome to FEAR FACTOR! An exciting new brand of entertainment where contestants participate in various challenges that touch home to the most innate fears humans share. Lying in a pit of creepy crawlies; climb up high, precarious structures; go one-on-one with wild animals—can you handle it? Are you brave enough to go for the 1 million sylv prize? Or will fear cripple you and leave you with nothing!? Only one way to find out! Oh, and one more thing—your emotions will definitely effect everything, so if you're climbing up that rusty, half broken steel tower and it starts shaking, that's probably because you're scared out of your wits. Don't let it crumble!
• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include giant cheese wheels and/or bucket of nails.
For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!
Re: more experimenting with that amulet stuff because this guy's chock full of feelings
"A peninsula, actually. And, not unless the Aramanthine Ocean is what we call the Endless Ocean," Sandry said. "There are lands on the other side of it, despite the name. One of my foster-mothers studied the plants brought from there."
Plants would be a way to tell if they shared the same locale. Of course, Sandry would have to know a bit more about plants than she did: she'd lived with two green mages, but wasn't one herself. Even if she saw some of the plants she ate, she might not recognize them without Rosethorn's threats that if they touched anything in her garden, she'd hang them in the well.
Thinking of her family changed the air to smell of new-turned earth, the sort of scent one got after the rains.
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"I see. If it is, I wouldn't know that. Still, even though Thedas - that is the land I come from - is all that the people of Thedas know, they acknowledge that there are other lands. Qunari had come from another place, after all, if we are to believe historians."
Seems to consider something for a moment.
"This could be useful information for both of us. I hope you're not offended if I assume you also plan on leaving this place as soon as you're able. Tell me: who lives in your land, apart from humans? Have you ever heard of the Qun?"
The fact that she is human, or mostly human, and so, humans must live in that place seems obvious, so Fenris doesn't even consider not making that assumption.
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"That's curious. If you're not lying, that is. You mean to tell me you've never heard of dwarfs, of elven, of Qun? And no, these are not animals, but other kinds of people - maybe ones that your legends speak of."
Looks at her warily, his hand on his chin, for a moment. "It may be truth, at that. After all, if only humans inhabit your land, it may be human place of origin - before any arrived in Thedas."
Because Fenris is still suspicious of "other world" statement he's heard. If he was in other world, that would be possible, that much was probably true - but it would mean his kidnappers have taken him through the Veil, more than once, and he was powerless to cross it back on his own.
So he preferred, at least for now, to think that only an sky, and a sea or an ocean, or five, or fifteen for all he knew, separated him from Thedas. And when he crossed them someday, on his own... then he could make his way back to Kirkwall, even if she, and they, his companions, no longer claimed as their home. He'd then hear where they all are now.
That was maybe a foolish hope. Maybe he was indeed beyond the Fade, in a place stranger than even somniari probably couldn't imagine. However, that wasn't certain yet.
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"I know sailors say other humans live across the Endless Ocean, but they don't speak of much else. At least, you can't tell if they're telling tales or not."
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Fenris nods slightly, looking thoughtful. "Our lands, if they are in same world at all, separated just by bodies of water, must be far indeed. Though I have heard it suggested here that this is no the same world at all. In such a case, it would mean that what usually separates us may be not distance, but Veil."
Something seems to flicker and shimmer anxiously in the air, with a metallic tinge, and with a clinking sound, when he pronounces the word, but that passes quickly and then for a second or two he seems... upset? Ashamed of himself? It's hard to tell from his rather reserved expression.
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She felt the temperature drop, but she shook her head. That was silly. Young women didn't just die, and certainly this wasn't the sort of afterlife she'd picture for herself.
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"If you've ever heard of Fade, or Beyond, or whichever other name you may not it by, the Veil is what some call the barrier between the Fade and the waking world. The Fade is where demons dwell, and where the mages draw they powers from. The place people visit where they sleep."
And then he shooks his head. "But this is not the Fade. And I'm beginning to suspect we may be somewhere further still."
Maybe in the place that cursed mirror would lead to. If he had asked about that, back then, would he know know how to return? Would that blood mage even know? Would he risk it?
"We may be in a land that only forgotten legends and chantry warningswould speak of."
There's a vague impression of something golden in the air, but it dissipates quickly.
"Now the question is, how to travel back without unleashing something terrible on our homes."
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Granted, she could think of mages that, were they offered a power source from dreams, they would take it. But that was true for people without magic as well.
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"Truly? If you say that they also don't use either lyrium of blood for their powers, then such magic is a complete mystery to me."
He'd ask what do the mages she know use, but unless she was a mage, she might not know much. And if she was, she could be wary of sharing such knowledge with a stranger, now that he knew him to be more ignorant of it than probably even any child in her land.
He should also ask locals, but if this place was so far away, that even Fade was unheard of... the possibility of going back was becoming more and more distant.
Isn't it ironic that he would miss the world he knew? If he was feeling homesick, did it prove that somehow, he really was beginning to consider Kirkwall his home?
Home. Something that only free people had. Maybe he truly was free - had been, rather. Before some unknown kidnappers or slavers snatched him away again, to the island flying though unknown skies. How far far one had to be, for even the sky to be another one, as he was certain it was? Would he ever share the same sky with Hawke and others?
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It was possible. On the other hand, every one of her teachers had informed Sandry and her foster-siblings that if they ever did it, they better hope the Mage Councils of Lightsbridge or Winding Circle caught up with them before their teachers did.
She felt the cloth of her dress rustle and assumed that Fenris's was having the same effect. She took a deep breath, calming her emotions. Her powers had been unsettled ever since coming to Verens, and it almost felt like back when they had been tangled up in her siblings: she was used to cloth and fiber, but not things like plants or the air itself. She would have to remember to be more attentive about her meditation.
"Where I come from, there's two types of mages. Academic mages get their power from their own bodies, just like people get their stamina and strength. Ambient mages get their power from their surroundings, like plants, or the weather, or doing certain crafts. Or even dancing. Not many people have heard about the second type: they're not as common."
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So, different races, different customs, different magic. Wherever she came from must be a land that he'd never be able to come to, even if a mage transported him. A mage from Thedas, that is. But apparently somebody from Verens, or whatever this island was called, could easily kidnap all sorts of people from all sorts of realms here without breaking a sweat. That was a terrifying thought, and he had a feeling he knew how that accursed amulet would react the moment he let himself be afraid, so he tried not to dwell on it.
"The more I learn, the more I am certain that our captors must possess powers beyond our imagination. I wonder where they are."
Because right now, the only solution seemed to be to seek the answers at the source - to confront their captors. It was also the solution he preferred. Still, so far he hasn't really been able to learn much about who was responsible.
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