reddosmod: (Default)
Deer Country Mod ([personal profile] reddosmod) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-12-08 02:19 am

I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't

DECEMBER 2021 EVENT
Hello! We are trying a new style of event this December with archival-like entries that characters can ICly find in the Archives. This should allow characters to be able to plan against certain events that occur in-game and do research ahead of time, during the event, or after the fact.

The idea is that these prompts will provide you with all the possibilities characters could theoretically face from the prompt. We hope this leaves more open-ended opportunities for people to engage with. Anything mentioned in the excerpts could be an experience characters encounter. You can always ask for clarification on any prompt on the plotting page.

This is a way to keep all event prompts relevant since new characters would be able to "read up" on these events/excerpts by visiting the Archives or other such resources for information about past events and what they can anticipate from the setting.

We hope this new style makes sense and is fun for players to work with! They will rely on players creating more of the atmosphere than the prompts, but we think that the prompts will provide the perfect guidance as to what the atmosphere should feel like. Enjoy!

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

Prompt One
[Image One: Holiday themed antler decoration.]
[Image Two: White stag with perfect, circular antlers with bits of ice attached.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Sculpture of white rabbit with neck caught in a snare. Non-graphic.]
[Image Two: Person in red cloak and wolf mask turning around.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Puppet making bloody snow angel in snow.]
[Image Two: Bloodied hands wrapped in bandages clenching.]

WINTER MOURNING
WHEN: Begins in December and can last until the end of Feb.
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Spoilers for various canons, survival situations, forced memory share


[A passage from Rituals of Trench: Remembering Our Pasts reads the following:]

"A long-standing tradition to celebrate Bone Season is for Deerians to collect antlers and bones salvaged from natural resources and create decorative home accents. These antler-bone decors are known formally as Winter Mournings and can be found in almost every residential home throughout Deer Country. Winter Mournings can be made to look like wreaths, candle holders, or simply an antler with a bow hung up on a wall.

Winter Mournings is seen as a way to honor one's past tribulations and how one has managed to survive and overcome hardships during their life. Winter Mournings serves as a testament to survival and a willingness to keep surviving even when things look bleak and dismal.

Creating Winter Mournings is considered a blessing to the Pthumerians Dorothea, Remina, and Argonaut. You will know if the blessing was accepted once your Winter Mourning begins to glow like the moon. Touch your Winter Mourning and you will be pulled back in time to a memory of a specific time when you or someone else had to survive something physically or mentally challenging. For some, it is merely a memory that cannot hurt, but for others, you may want to proceed with caution as it has been known to pull people physically back to times of war.

One cannot choose which memory they wind up in if it is their own, a friend's, or a complete stranger's. Winter Mournings was designed to create a sense of union and empathy among residents and is meant to open your mind and heart to those who have suffered around you. It is time you explore your past, or someone else's past, with an open mind and see how the other side has lived through hard times. These memories are known to be from adolescence, adulthood, or sometimes even futures that have not yet happened or timelines you have never known. After all, Remina sees all past and all history. That means they see all of your past and history too.

No memory lasts forever though. Once the memory has been concluded, you shall be brought back to the present by the Winter Mourning Stag: a great white beast with a circle of frozen antlers. It will come to you when the time is ready, and you will return to the present like waking from a dazzling dream.

Experiencing Winter Mournings can stabilize one's mood and provide restful sleep after, even if the memories may be difficult to swallow. It truly is a tribute to honor past horrors and traumas. Some memories are painful to remember, but forgetting them will never do anyone any good either. So hang your Winter Mournings and remember what matters.

Survive another day. You are worth it."

FAQ

1. Winter Mournings can produce new memories every time you touch them or the same memory.

2. Characters cannot choose what the memory is.

3. Characters can arrive in each other's memories regardless of if they already know each other. Multiple people can experience the same memory.

4. You can either experience the memory as a memory you can't touch or experience - or you can physically be in the memory and have to survive the situation as well. If you die in memory, your body will die wherever you had been touching the Winter Mourning.

5. Palebloods are capable of altering memories or how they or others experience memories.

6. Characters can be pulled into memories at random - as long as one of the characters in the memory share is touching a Winter Mourning at first.
RUN, RABBIT, RUN
WHEN: Month of December
WHERE: Everywhere/the woods
CONTENT WARNINGS: Themes of hunting, ghosts, curses, attempts at animal violence, hunting people based on blood types.


[An excerpt from Legends of Trench: Curses and Causations reads the following:]

"One of the most notorious legends of Trench is without a doubt the tale of The Huntress and the Hare. Most Trenchies have been told this tale since they were children, but for those unfamiliar, settle in.

This story begins with a mischievous god and an ambitious huntress. The Pthumerian Dorothea loved to play tricks on hunters trying to survive the Bone Season, setting animals free from traps and remaking the traps to catch the hunters instead. One day, a darkblood Huntress was fed up with Dorothea preventing her from catching food for her family and decided to settle the score. The Huntress began to hunt for Dorothea specifically, but it is no small feat hunting the god of trickery and survival.

The Huntress started to rely on her darkblood powers to alter reality to make the perfect traps. Innocuous trees turned into glue traps that anyone would stick to until they were freed by a darkblood or death took their pain from them. Walking through bushes would snag legs and necks, effectively trapping whatever creatures were unfortunate enough to wander for food. Magical snares and beartraps lock around victims with unrelenting force, leaving people and animals to try for help until they cry no more. While this took many innocent lives in the woods, animals, and people alike, it never seemed to work on Dorothea.

Dorothea continued to outwit the Huntress until she eventually drove the Huntress insane. The Huntress died without ever catching Dorothea, but they say her vengeful spirit awakens in winter and begins to set her traps yet again. The Huntress sends her traps and her dead animals after vilebloods and warmbloods to spite Dorothea and hope to maybe catch the god's attention. But Dorothea is no passive god. Dorothea spurs vilebloods and warmbloods to defend themselves against darkbloods and coldbloods.

Infamously, this has created enormous tension between the blood types during December some years, and it is said that the blood lust has caused the types to begin hunting one another regardless of old friendships and alliances. Beware the Huntress's curse. Some believe darkbloods and coldbloods can still hear her haunting commands and cries from the Trenchwood.

They say there is no ease for the tension between the bloodtypes until December has passed, but some believe palebloods may provide relief if they are willing."

FAQ

1. Characters will increasingly feel the urge to actively hunt one another using traps/etc.

2. The Huntress's curse includes undead animals/beasts chasing after warmbloods and vilebloods and magical traps. Players can invent unique traps for their characters.

3. There will be an innate urge to chase/hide from one another.

4. The curse can be broken by paleblood intervention, character death, or a gradual wearing off by the end of the month.
LOCKJOINT
WHEN: All of Bone Season
WHERE: On Sleeper bodies
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mild body horror, blood magic curses, physical curses, cures through blood ministration/blood letting, possible skin removal, injuries, possible death via starvation/exposure.


[An passage from The Sleeper Condition; Chapter 13: Bodily Aches and More. Found exclusively at the Lumenarium:]

"Generally speaking, Sleeper blood allows Sleepers to navigate this world without the fear of illness and disease. However, no organic body is perfect, and Sleeper blood has its own set of ailments to fret over. Blood Ministers have studied the phenomena of Lockjoint for years now and believe that it is linked to the crystalization found in Sleeper death, though the exact connection remains unknown.

Lockjoint tends to begin and last throughout Bone Season. Some Sleepers may never experience it, but for many, it becomes a reoccurring issue to dread each season. This condition forces blood magic to gather at the joints and effectively lock up. Sleepers find it difficult to move their bodies at the bends, fingers, knees, shoulders, etc without some form of discomfort. Minimal lockjoint can be painful and annoyance, but critical lockjoint can be fatal.

The most severe cases of lockjoint documented have shown Sleepers to have crystalization form over their joints, rendering parts of their bodies completely immobile. Some Sleepers have been found dead in this condition, all their joints crystallized, and it is believed most died from natural causes thereafter.

One can determine they are experiencing lockjoint when the coloration around the joints begins to darken in color, typically looking like a bruise. Calcification may occur rapidly the more magic a Sleeper uses or the more they expose themselves to outside elements. It is imperative that Sleepers remain properly clothed during Bone Season, even if they are coldbloods, and to invest in enchanted clothes that can lock in heat.

A known cure for lockjoint is the art of bloodletting. Puncturing the joints with small incisions seems to allow a release of the built-up magic and can provide immediate relief to the Sleeper. Catching lockjoint early is imperative. Alternative methods are soaking in hot springs and salted water.

Those who are in a more severe state will have to carefully have the crystals removed. This will likely remove the skin as well. Local anesthesia is highly recommended for the procedure. This process is known to leave scarring. The crystals can be saved and used as bloodstones from whoever they were harvested from. If you find a Sleeper dead from lockjoint, make sure to harvest the crystals as they are incredibly valuable.

This curse is believed to stem from Sleeper blood magic congealing within the body in contrast with the atmospheric magic of Bone Season. There is no known prevention for lockjoint. Lockjoint can impact all Sleepers regardless of bloodtype or the material their bodies are made from."

FAQ

1. This impacts characters regardless of blood type or their body - meaning it can impact characters with metal/plastic/plant/wood/etc bodies.

2. Players can choose how rapid or severe this gets and how quickly they can be healed.
CODING
a_gaggle_of_ghosties: (Default)

[personal profile] a_gaggle_of_ghosties 2021-12-10 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
Jedi seldom do. But, credit where it's due, you at least appear to have handled the matter better than most. I've certainly seen worse.

[He wouldn't pry into the particulars--Nox wasn't that interested, nor did he waste his time with the usual Sith machinations that would have made such information useful--but he did still have a decent idea of how that discussion likely played out. The Jedi tended to have a loyalty to the Order that bordered on reverence.

Something that wasn't altogether wrong, but when mixed with their usual teachings regarding emotions, it did mean they often failed to extricate themselves from romantic entanglements with anything resembling delicacy.]


How did she manage to rule Mandalore with a commitment to neutrality of all things? I've met my fair share of Mandalorians, and none of them ever managed to stay out of a fight longer than a day or so.
Edited 2021-12-10 02:06 (UTC)
jedies: (Conspiracy)

[personal profile] jedies 2021-12-10 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Mandalore was in the midst of a civil war when Satine finally took over and ended it. She has a will like no other.

[ when satine puts her mind to it, she can accomplish great things. he recalls it fondly then and still now. after all, he still loved her. he always will. ]

It wasn't perfect, but no place is.
a_gaggle_of_ghosties: (H-01)

[personal profile] a_gaggle_of_ghosties 2021-12-13 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
I assume that had something to do with how the two of you met.

I can't imagine the Republic ignoring an opportunity to remove an Imperial ally, or the Jedi an opportunity to eliminate an old enemy.

jedies: (Ambush)

[personal profile] jedies 2021-12-13 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ mildly. ]

Well, I can't speak for your lack of imagination. We met in order to lend her our support. That's all. The rest was up to her.
a_gaggle_of_ghosties: (H-05)

[personal profile] a_gaggle_of_ghosties 2022-01-02 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
I don't doubt that it was, the Jedi have always employed a lighter hand than the Sith in that regard. But it was intervention in another world's affairs all the same.

Call me overly idealistic, but just once I'd like to hear it acknowledged as such by the side that should be more forthright about their activities.

[He sounded more disappointed than vindictive, something he wasn't particularly trying to hide, but frankly even over the course of his admittedly short life he'd already had to deal with his fair share of political machinations from Empire and Republic alike. It was, to put it mildly, tiring. No matter what the reasoning behind the interference.]

So. How did it all end? A pacifist Mandalore, not whatever quarrel you two are busy with at the moment. I can't imagine Mandalorians being comfortable with that sort of policy for long.
jedies: (Ambush)

[personal profile] jedies 2022-01-04 10:11 am (UTC)(link)
I have no qualms over acknowledging it.

[ intervention in itself isn't negative. and it was done on the behest of another, not through their own personal agendas. ]

And there were uprisings, but it was the war bleeding onto neutral worlds that Mandalore struggled with. And a Sith took over, launching them into a civil war.
a_gaggle_of_ghosties: (H-04)

[personal profile] a_gaggle_of_ghosties 2022-01-12 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Then I may yet find you more welcome company than most Jedi.

[He mulled over the explanation Kenobi gave, and while he didn't distrust it, per se, it did sound unusual. Then again, if Mandalore had gone neutral and embraced a more pacifist ideology, anything they did would sound unusual. It certainly wasn't anything any of the Mandalorians of his time would have endorsed--in fact, their opposition to it would have undoubtedly been one of the rare things they could agree on.]

I can't say I'm surprised, but I suspect you may have missed something. At least if that's the extent of your knowledge of how it happened. I've yet to meet a Sith capable of causing that kind of fracture in society who didn't exploit an already precarious situation. The usual approach was to manipulate existing divisions one of two ways.

One was to promise aid to a party that already felt particularly aggrieved, be it resources, military support, greater political power, or some combination of the three. The other was to carefully deceive the more foolish figures on either side in various ways. Whether it was to their deaths or just to cause an ever-increasing number of diplomatic incidents until conflict broke out on its own.

I'm sure more than one enterprising Sith tried to do both at once.

[Still, he was getting distracted trying to make sense of something well outside his own era that even he doubted he'd live long enough to witness. It was an exercise he could devote more effort to on his own time, the last thing he wanted to do was wind up lost in thought inside a Jedi's mind. If that's where they were anyway, and this wasn't just this place's equivalent of a mind prison.]

Something to contemplate, should you ever manage to leave this place. Regardless of whether or not this incident is recent enough that it could be salvaged. There are always other worlds. And other Sith.
jedies: (Jane Got A Gun)

[personal profile] jedies 2022-01-13 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, it was certainly more complicated.

[ he was abbreviating. not out of a desire to omit, but because . . . well, he doesn't know nox and he doesn't like to go on long discussions with only first impressions.

still, his words made obi-wan pause. ]


What other Sith? There are no others.
a_gaggle_of_ghosties: (H-02)

[personal profile] a_gaggle_of_ghosties 2022-01-19 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
There are always more Sith. The only uncertainty is just how many have chosen not to reveal themselves or their motives.

[Something that wasn't a boast, and was treated with the gravity such a warning deserved. He knew quite well just how dangerous the Sith you didn't know about could be, regardless of whether it was their existence or their schemes that remained hidden. And when it was both, that meant you were in a precarious position indeed.]

The dark side will continue to exert its pull on anyone with any affinity with the Force, just as the light will endure no matter how extensive the effort made to snuff it out. It's one reason of many reasons why the repeated wars of eradication were--and remain--so pointless.

In the brief period I've been alive I have witnessed the Jedi, the Republic, and even the Sith virtually wiped from the face of the galaxy on one occasion or another. And each time, without fail, they would all rebuild and regain much of their former strength in less than a decade. Anyone who deludes themselves into believing they will be the one to eradicate even just one of those institutions for good is chasing a fantasy.

You would be wise to avoid making the same mistake.