Yes, but that's still more than nothing. Especially considering the machine deals with seemingly arcane matters.
[ Well, anyway. That's that and this is this. Double-anyway, SUFFERING. I think Karlach has the rune rock not him since his half got the machine part so he just makes a hapless gesture with his hand. ]
Do you need equipment to look at them? I'm afraid I'm a bit removed from anything magical or occult myself, I don't think I could if I tried.
[He has to pause a moment to thoughtfully consider something with furrowed brows. He looks at Daan, and then he looks into the middle distance briefly. Then looks at Daan again.]
I wouldn't know if I needed any equipment, but I don't believe I should. You... I apologize, this is off-topic, but...
Do you remember anything about your affliction, the murder?
[ Congrats, the part he was probably the most lucid for. ]
...
Gods each have their own sigils, attributed to them. Drawing them on the appropriate circles can increase affinity with them, although whether they answer you is ultimately their call.
Sylvian is the goddess of love, and healing is also in her domain. Rituals and acts done invoking Her can heal wounds and even recover lost limbs. As an older god, Her sigil requires being drawn on an Asymmetric Circle.
[ So that one is probably obvious why he tried it, right? ]
The other... I don't know whose it belongs to, but it's a symbol I've seen twice now, both under strange circumstances. It was just out of desperation, drawing entirely on conjecture. Clearly, neither worked, and I should've known it was pointless anyway.
[He looks thoughtful while he listens. As a man of little faith and greater logic, he would slap this all under occult anyway, but he understands the distinction.]
I'm... not really. I don't go to church or anything. I don't engage in any particular worship. My parents were the worshippers, and I lost them to their faith eventually.
It's hard to draw the distinction of being "religious" when you know it's not just pure faith. Sylvian is real, and I can attest to healing work done in Her name as being both true and effective.
[Hmmmm. Familiar. Well, like the memories before, the ghosts of other realities appear.
Essek is not in the usual ballroom sort of outfit that fits him. Instead, he is in the gold and white colors of some of the priests of his people. He is wearing a necklace with the shape of a dodecahedron on it.]
There are left over scars of war between the divine, but I can't say I am a religious man either. In fact, I have been somewhat vocal in my city about not accepting explanations of faith without question.
My mother, however, is a believer, and she has gone through the rites and lifetimes to become an Umavi which she attributes to our deity, the Luxon, and the relics my people are attributed to them.
[ Just because he knows the occult is real doesn't mean he encourages anyone to delve into it. In fact, he actively disencourages such a thing after seeing how it wore away at his parents' mentality, degrading them into nothing but mindless animals like the masks they wore, forgetting everything. Forgetting both him and themselves. ]
Mine lost their minds. A gradual decline. Most of the occult has that sort of effect -- powerful boons all in exchange for a bit of your sanity. It could be temporary, if you moderate or do it sparingly, but some like to chase after that high.
...
I'm not so stubborn as to go blind to their benefits when it best suits, but I don't want to become as they did.
[Unfortunately, what Essek doesn't know yet is that this rite performed to offer many lifetimes comes, of course, with the caveat that a person gradually loses their minds when all of these lives' memories begin getting compiled. Very funny.]
Yes, playing with the rituals of the divine often have bad consequences. As you can see here, too.
[The cult.]
I... also... [the hesitation seems cautionary] do not hold a great deal of trust in my people's rituals. Not without more study which is what I was doing. The relics offer an opportunity to be reborn into another life, other lives, but I want to know more about them first. What they're capable of, where they really came from.
I do recall it, yes. I think it's sound enough to want to properly understand these sorts of things before you delve into it. Of course, for most, I'd discourage touching it at all but I'd say you're a smart-enough man... and it'd make me a hypocrite besides.
[Stop telling him that when you are just as bad, idiod. Like before, he's quiet for a long moment again... almost like he's skeptical telling Daan anything.]
...Yes.
[More hesitation, but he glances at Daan's face, and then lowers his eyes.]
I said I wanted to study them. The beacons. I wanted to learn more about them. I decided... I would do what it took in order to find out more. I've always been an ambitious man.
...So I stole two of them. The only way I had to research them was to... hand them over to the Cerberus Assembly, a collective of powerful mages. However. The Assembly happens to be aligned... with an enemy nation. The Empire and Xhorhas have had rough tension for some time due to the Empire's desire to expand their territory.
[Well, he can't lie now that he's said all of that, pride or not. He finds it funny Daan says lion's den when groups of them are referred to as dens. So, yeah. Almost a literal lion's den.]
Right now... no one knows. There is a group of would-be adventurers who are sticking their noses where it doesn't belong, however. The Mighty Nein. They could cause my plans to unravel without knowing.
Then the unruly group comes by, throwing a wrench in your plans. Sure. I feel like I can get a sort of sense of that, although my experience is far less organised.
We're the same in the instance of delving too deep into powerful sources that we probably shouldn't have for the sake of answers, but I'd say yours is a bit more lofty and involved.
[ For him it's very much more 'I was on a personal quest and then I got roped into a 14-person murder tournament I did not sign up for this thanks'. ]
I don't know about that. I just wanted to find answers. Whose god it was that my wife and my father-in-law sacrificed themselves to, whose sigil I saw. Why he did it at all. It wasn't meant to be any sort of grand overtaking. I just saw the name of a city repeated in his documents he left behind, so I headed there.
Of course, as you may have gleaned, I did end up stumbling into much more than I bargained for, but it's not related to what I was looking for. [ It is but he's not from a timeline that knows that because you need to literally be the worst person ever to get that ending. ] ...I'm afraid everything I've done seems to more or less be for nothing.
[His was I was on a personal but traitorous neutral evil journey, and then seven idiots walked in saying they were gonna give back one of the beacons I stole by essentially stealing it themselves.]
I suppose yours ended up being convoluted accidentally.
[ And then you ended up dating one of them so win-win in the end? That's literally as far as my CR knowledge goes with Essek.
Anyway observe his souvenir which says 'I went to Prehevil and all I got was trauma and this stupid t-shirt'. ]
I'm no wiser to the truth, and if anything, I ended up with more questions. And as of my memories of my last moments prior to coming here enlightening me, I was well on my way into becoming... something inhuman, I'd wager.
So yeah. Feels like it was for nothing, if not worse.
No winner of the tournament. We never figured out the truth behind the machinery.
[ Hilariously! He's feeling nervous and not very confident about this whole machine plan you guys have got going on because he's already failed a machine route once!!! ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ Well, anyway. That's that and this is this. Double-anyway, SUFFERING. I think Karlach has the rune rock not him since his half got the machine part so he just makes a hapless gesture with his hand. ]
Do you need equipment to look at them? I'm afraid I'm a bit removed from anything magical or occult myself, I don't think I could if I tried.
no subject
[He has to pause a moment to thoughtfully consider something with furrowed brows. He looks at Daan, and then he looks into the middle distance briefly. Then looks at Daan again.]
I wouldn't know if I needed any equipment, but I don't believe I should. You... I apologize, this is off-topic, but...
Do you remember anything about your affliction, the murder?
no subject
Sure I do. It isn't as if I've conveniently forgotten everything. Some things are a bit of a blur, but...
Why?
no subject
Just curious.]
There were an exceptional amount of interesting sigils left behind. Did they mean something to you?
no subject
...
Gods each have their own sigils, attributed to them. Drawing them on the appropriate circles can increase affinity with them, although whether they answer you is ultimately their call.
Sylvian is the goddess of love, and healing is also in her domain. Rituals and acts done invoking Her can heal wounds and even recover lost limbs. As an older god, Her sigil requires being drawn on an Asymmetric Circle.
[ So that one is probably obvious why he tried it, right? ]
The other... I don't know whose it belongs to, but it's a symbol I've seen twice now, both under strange circumstances. It was just out of desperation, drawing entirely on conjecture. Clearly, neither worked, and I should've known it was pointless anyway.
no subject
I see. Are you a religious man?
[The Wolfwood to Daan pipeline.]
Did you used to be?
no subject
I'm... not really. I don't go to church or anything. I don't engage in any particular worship. My parents were the worshippers, and I lost them to their faith eventually.
It's hard to draw the distinction of being "religious" when you know it's not just pure faith. Sylvian is real, and I can attest to healing work done in Her name as being both true and effective.
no subject
Essek is not in the usual ballroom sort of outfit that fits him. Instead, he is in the gold and white colors of some of the priests of his people. He is wearing a necklace with the shape of a dodecahedron on it.]
There are left over scars of war between the divine, but I can't say I am a religious man either. In fact, I have been somewhat vocal in my city about not accepting explanations of faith without question.
My mother, however, is a believer, and she has gone through the rites and lifetimes to become an Umavi which she attributes to our deity, the Luxon, and the relics my people are attributed to them.
no subject
You and me both in that regard, then.
[ Just because he knows the occult is real doesn't mean he encourages anyone to delve into it. In fact, he actively disencourages such a thing after seeing how it wore away at his parents' mentality, degrading them into nothing but mindless animals like the masks they wore, forgetting everything. Forgetting both him and themselves. ]
Mine lost their minds. A gradual decline. Most of the occult has that sort of effect -- powerful boons all in exchange for a bit of your sanity. It could be temporary, if you moderate or do it sparingly, but some like to chase after that high.
...
I'm not so stubborn as to go blind to their benefits when it best suits, but I don't want to become as they did.
no subject
...
[Unfortunately, what Essek doesn't know yet is that this rite performed to offer many lifetimes comes, of course, with the caveat that a person gradually loses their minds when all of these lives' memories begin getting compiled. Very funny.]
Yes, playing with the rituals of the divine often have bad consequences. As you can see here, too.
[The cult.]
I... also... [the hesitation seems cautionary] do not hold a great deal of trust in my people's rituals. Not without more study which is what I was doing. The relics offer an opportunity to be reborn into another life, other lives, but I want to know more about them first. What they're capable of, where they really came from.
no subject
I do recall it, yes. I think it's sound enough to want to properly understand these sorts of things before you delve into it. Of course, for most, I'd discourage touching it at all but I'd say you're a smart-enough man... and it'd make me a hypocrite besides.
no subject
Well... it's a bit late for that, I think...
[The touching.]
no subject
no subject
[He is quiet for a long time, debating.]
There are some... mistakes I have made which I'm going to need to... correct if I ever get out of here.
no subject
Was worth a shot asking, but I figured that'd be your answer.
[ And it'd be a hypocritical statement for Daan anyway. There's also no turning back. ]
So many of you came with mistakes you need to rectify... a pretty serious one?
no subject
...Yes.
[More hesitation, but he glances at Daan's face, and then lowers his eyes.]
I said I wanted to study them. The beacons. I wanted to learn more about them. I decided... I would do what it took in order to find out more. I've always been an ambitious man.
...So I stole two of them. The only way I had to research them was to... hand them over to the Cerberus Assembly, a collective of powerful mages. However. The Assembly happens to be aligned... with an enemy nation. The Empire and Xhorhas have had rough tension for some time due to the Empire's desire to expand their territory.
no subject
You're essentially now caught between a rock and a hard place, traitor to your nation while in the lion's den. That sound about right?
no subject
Yes, something like that.
[Well, he can't lie now that he's said all of that, pride or not. He finds it funny Daan says lion's den when groups of them are referred to as dens. So, yeah. Almost a literal lion's den.]
Right now... no one knows. There is a group of would-be adventurers who are sticking their noses where it doesn't belong, however. The Mighty Nein. They could cause my plans to unravel without knowing.
no subject
We're the same in the instance of delving too deep into powerful sources that we probably shouldn't have for the sake of answers, but I'd say yours is a bit more lofty and involved.
no subject
[This is more of a joke. He gets what Daan is trying to say.]
I'm not so sure about that necessarily. I imagine yours is rather lofty and involved in some ways. Having seen a little from you of what I've seen.
no subject
I don't know about that. I just wanted to find answers. Whose god it was that my wife and my father-in-law sacrificed themselves to, whose sigil I saw. Why he did it at all. It wasn't meant to be any sort of grand overtaking. I just saw the name of a city repeated in his documents he left behind, so I headed there.
Of course, as you may have gleaned, I did end up stumbling into much more than I bargained for, but it's not related to what I was looking for. [ It is but he's not from a timeline that knows that because you need to literally be the worst person ever to get that ending. ] ...I'm afraid everything I've done seems to more or less be for nothing.
no subject
I suppose yours ended up being convoluted accidentally.
[As Lovecraftian aesthetics go.]
Do you really think it was for nothing?
no subject
Anyway observe his souvenir which says 'I went to Prehevil and all I got was trauma and this stupid t-shirt'. ]
I'm no wiser to the truth, and if anything, I ended up with more questions. And as of my memories of my last moments prior to coming here enlightening me, I was well on my way into becoming... something inhuman, I'd wager.
So yeah. Feels like it was for nothing, if not worse.
no subject
Did you think your story was all over, though? You were becoming inhuman, but... what if you discovered the truth almost at the end?
no subject
No winner of the tournament. We never figured out the truth behind the machinery.
[ Hilariously! He's feeling nervous and not very confident about this whole machine plan you guys have got going on because he's already failed a machine route once!!! ]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)