Event #5 - The Dimming - OOC Info

[abraxasmods]

 

Event #5 - The Dimming - OOC Info

Welcome to our OOC information post for December's event! We hope you'll find there's plenty to do, whether your character is inclined to stay home and enjoy the season's festivities in their home faction or head out to take part in a dangerous mission to the Singularity itself in our first inter-faction PvP event!

We've decided to use a little wibbly-wobbly holiday season flexibility to give our players more time to enjoy this event. While for the inhabitants of Abraxas the various festivals kick off precisely seven days before the solstice and conclude seven days following it, the festival logs for Thorne, the Free Cities and Solvunn are live and ready for you to tag into now, with the events described covering the in-game period of December 14th to the 20th. Once we have the results from the mission to the Singularity, new information will be added to cover the period of the 21st to the 28th. Please refer to the schedule below!

Date (RL)	When (IC)	Where	What
Saturday, Dec 11		abraxasooc	This information post for the event goes live, with sign-ups for the PvP mission to the Singularity. Please sign up to be given your outcomes before the 18th, so we have time to write the consequences into the second half of the event!
Saturday, Dec 11	Dec 14th-20th	abraxaslogs	IC event logs for characters in Thorne, the Free Cities and Solvunn go live. In game, Abraxan magic wanes as the Singularity begins to dim on the 14th, reaching its lowest point on the 21st.
Saturday, Dec 18	Dec 21st	abraxaslogs	IC event log for the mission itself goes live. In game, characters will all arrive at the Singularity and face off against each other on day of the solstice, when the power emanating from the Singularity is at its dimmest.
TBD	Dec 21st-28th	abraxasooc	While we had originally planned to update the IC event logs to include new prompts describing how character actions at the Singularity affected the conclusion of festivities in each faction, we have decided to adapt to a slower pace at this time and offer an OOC wrap up post instead. In game, Abraxan magic is expected to return to full potency on the 28th...

The Dimming

Every year the days grower shorter, the nights stretch longer and the light of the sun feels weaker as we approach the winter solstice. On Abraxas, in apparent harmony with the cycle of the seasons, the Singularity also undergoes a brief period of lessened observable activity every year. Beginning on the 14th, the background level of magic across Abraxas dips significantly as the Singularity begins to dim, reaching its nadir on the 21st before stirring back to full strength by the dawn of the 28th.

This event has inspired annual festivals in Thorne, the Free Cities and Solvunn, and while the festivities have changed and developed over the centuries, all share a common root in the distant past. The level of detail, accuracy (and interest!) retained in the telling may differ from faction to faction, but everyone on Abraxas is at least distantly aware of the Thornean tradition and echoes of its origin.

Legend says that the High Mage of Thorne is entrusted with the stewardship of a stockpile of energy that was siphoned off from the Singularity eons ago— some say, by the Gods themselves. This energy is not inherently magical, nor are mages able to use it in its raw and untethered state. Details vary, but each piece of this secret hoard is commonly described as resembling a small, fist-sized ball of liquid light, contained in a spherical leaden casket.

Every year when the Singularity dims, so the story goes, the High Mage is charged with returning one of these little pieces of the Singularity's essence by physically delivering it to the statue at the center of the Singularity’s crater... though he cannot perform this task himself. A mage in his service, trained specifically the entire year for this one, singular duty, approaches the crater's edge at midnight on the Dimmest Day, and carries the casket to the statue at its center in an act of perfect sacrifice. Thus, the legends say, is the Singularity replenished and magic restored to the world.

Thorne traditionally marks the Dimming with a week-long festival of personal sacrifice and reliance on one’s neighbours, with a riotous celebration of magic taking place on New Dawn's Day as the Singularity returns to full strength. In Solvunn, villagers give sacrifice not to each other or the Singularity but to the Gods, thanking them for their continued favor. The Free Cities, rejecting the very notion of sacrifice, celebrate the temporary diminishing of the Singularity’s magic with an exuberant Festival of Enlightenment.

But this year is different. With the arrival of the Summoned, everything could be changed.

Faction Goals

The Kingdom of Thorne

As Ambrose previously mentioned, the mages of Thorne are concerned that the Singularity appears to be weakening— and what better way to combat this than to make use of the Summoned, who can feed it as much energy as they can carry between them? Ambrose asks for as many volunteers as he can inspire to take caskets to the replenish the Singularity, impressing on them just how vital it is that none of their precious but dangerous cargo falls into enemy hands.

The Free Cities

When popular militaristic Prime Minister Marlo Reiner of the Free Cities learns of Ambrose's plans, she sees a dual opportunity. She can prevent Thorne from pushing the Singularity towards potentially dangerous overload and take some of Ambrose's selfishly hoarded energy stockpile for the betterment of her own people at the same time. The raw form energy contained in Thorne's caskets is reportedly useless for mages anyway. It's time to give science a chance.

The Solvunn Commune

Faced with the twin threat of Ambrose's ill-advised efforts overfeed the Singularity and Marlo's desire to finally get her hands on the kind of energy previously only held by the Singularity itself, Winifred Bordeaux decides to ask the Summoned in Solvunn to frustrate both factions' goals and bring as many caskets as possible back to the commune, where the dangerously chaotic energy inside will be kept out of harm's way. Or fed to the gods. Don't worry about it.

Questions and Answers

If after reading these you're still unsure about anything, or your question wasn't covered, please feel free to hit up our Questions thread below!

Does the waning power of the Singularity affect my character?

While Abraxan mages refer to this season as the Dimming, the power of the Singularity does not in fact diminish in any way— it simply focuses inward. The Summoned, having a direct link to the Singularity, will not find their abilities affected. Handy!

Can my character still access the Horizon?

Characters can still access the Horizon throughout this event by meditating on their connection to the Singularity as usual. However, physically crossing the border of the Singularity's crater will not send them to the Horizon automatically! The winter solstice is the one time of the year it is possible to physically approach the statue at the center without triggering the usual effect.

Can my character go visit the Singularity without joining the official mission?

No. This is a very sensitive time when none of the factions want unpredictable elements in the mix, and even if they were comfortable allowing free travel to the Singularity it is unusually difficult to create portals for travel during this season.

Can I use this event to have my character switch factions?

Yes— your character in the Free Cities could sign up for the mission but decide to go back with the group from Solvunn, for example— but please bear in mind this would be considered an act of betrayal and could damage your character's reputation!

PvP Mission to the Singularity Q&A

My character isn’t a fighter. Can I participate?

Yes! You are welcome to write your character attempting to persuade another to give up their casket instead of fighting them for it, for example. We would encourage you to try matching up with an opponent with similar preferences, however!

What if my character is a lot stronger than their opponent, but is rolled to fail?

Please work together with the player of your character's opponent to plan this out! Perhaps their character was wearing magical armor that helped them ward off attack, or they made a strong argument that your character ended up agreeing with. Perhaps another character intervened or distracted yours at a vital moment. There can be any number of reasons a stronger character fails to defeat a weaker one— we encourage you to get creative!

Can I offer more than one encounter?

Yes, but please only offer as many encounters as you are willing and able to thread out, for a maximum of 3. (They are heavy!). Likewise, players of intercepting characters may sign up to try retrieving a casket up to 3 times, but please limit yourself to claiming one encounter at a time so that everyone has a chance to play.

Can my character pick a fight with someone not from Thorne?

Absolutely! Characters from the Free Cities can face off against characters from Solvunn, either to try and prevent them reaching the Singularity in the first place or to steal caskets won from Thorne before they can get them back to their respective factions. If you'd like to offer an encounter with your non-thornean character (bearing in mind that they may lose control of any caskets they may be holding) please fill out the form and reply to the sign-up toplevel.

What if my character has a negative standing with their current faction?

Unfortunately, Ambrose will only be entrusting Thorne’s caskets to characters he deems trustworthy. The Free Cities and Solvunn will also only be sending characters they trust for this mission. If you’d like to work out a way to get your untrustworthy character involved, please contact us and we’ll see what we can do!

My character would want to take a casket for themselves!

Naughty. Hiding and keeping a casket for personal use would be extremely difficult and have potentially unpleasant consequences, but it’s not impossible. If this is something you’d like to have your character do, please contact us with your pitch.

---

OOC: Event #5: The Dimming

LOG: Thorne | The Free Cities | Solvunn

PvP: The Mission to the Singularity

Comments

Sign-ups

[abraxasmods]

This thread is for players who want to participate in the PvP portion of this event. Please only sign up here if you are comfortable with threading out your character losing a fight/argument, as we will be using RNG to determine the outcomes of these encounters for you. Please direct any questions to the Questions thread if you're unsure about how to proceed. Good luck!

How it works:

1. Players with a character in Thorne sign up by filling out the form below and posting it to this thread (one comment per character), with their character's name and faction in the subject line. This signifies they have been given custody of a casket and sent on the mission to deliver it to the Singularity.


<b>Name:</b> Your character’s name. <b>Style:</b> What kind of PvP thread are you offering? Will there be physical violence, magical dueling, philosophical debate, any/all of the above? Please remember to only offer the kind of interaction you are willing to write your character losing. <b>Caskets:</b> How many caskets is your character carrying? Please limit yourself to the number of threads you are willing to play out, to a maximum of 3.


2. Players sending their characters on the intercepting mission from either the Free Cities or Solvunn then reply to a defender's comment of their choice, with their character's name and faction in the subject line. This signifies an encounter between the two characters!


3. The mods roll to determine which character will succeed. This will be decided entirely at random, which means your character has the same chance to fail or succeed no matter who they go up against.


4. Using the randomly assigned outcome as a prompt, players then work together to thread out the action on the upcoming mission log!

(frozen comment) [example] Ambrose Rhett - Thorne

[abraxasnpcs]

Name: Ambrose Rhett
Style: Magical dueling and magnificent oration
Caskets: 2

(frozen comment) [example] Aleksander Klingel - The Free Cities

[abraxasnpcs2]

You better ponder your orbs Ambrose

Stephen Strange - Thorne

[sorser]

Name: Stephen Strange
Style: Stephen can offer magical dueling and/or philosophical debate!
Caskets: 1

dean winchester → free cities

[righteously]

so how 'bout them first impressions am i right

Kylo Ren | Thorne

[photophobic]

Name: Kylo Ren
Style: Kylo's happy to give an impassioned speech about feeding the Singularity, but he won't be won over with words so... come at him with magical or physical violence please!
Caskets: 2 for now, may come back to offer one more

[hylife]

y/n???

tony stark - solvunn

[privatizes]

ok consider tony raises your impassioned speech about feeding the singularity with one of his own that constitutes "yeah but I can do something REALLY COOL with that" and then probably just kicks him in the shin and/or punches kylo in the face for being a dick

i am literally only doing this to see if the odds are in my favor, please punch him in the face

Goro - Free Cities

[fourarmedandangerous]

Goro wakes up every day and chooses violence of the decidedly physical variety!

Sasarai - Thorne

[harmonian]

Name: Sasarai
Style: Sasarai is a powerful mage but one that would prefer not to kill unless he has to. With that in mind he will engage with philosophical debate first but if anyone comes at him he will respond with magical offense in the form of geomancy while also protecting himself and his caskets from harm. If he ends up in mortal peril he will retreat to protect the True Earth Rune.
Caskets: 2

Himeka Sui - Solvunn

[aquaveiled]

Mage battle?? Like crab battles but without knives.

Estinien Wyrmblood | Solvunn

[coerthantorment]

Would you be down to have them fight again? Estinien probably won't be convinced with words, but they seem like they'd be a good match for reach other.

Ronan Lynch - Thorne

[nightwash]

Name: Ronan Lynch
Style: This is a good option for anyone who wants to avoid taking physical damage because contrary to appearances Ronan doesn't actually want to hurt people, so he'll be utilizing his mindfuckery orbs. (See here, here, and here for examples of how they work.) They're hard to make, so Ronan will conveniently only have three of them on him. If he is the winner, it will be a very short thread, as he'll just stun your character and run off. If he's the loser, it'll be because your character deflected or got out of the orb's range, so it'll become a proper fight instead.
Caskets: 3

Inej Ghafa - Solvunn

[shadowthief]

Slams a wraith girl down here~

She'll be armed with a few knives she's collected in the days leading up to the mission. She's got incredibly good aim, and would try rather to incapacitate him long enough to get the casket from him than hurt him in anything like a lethal manner– but if he's successful with his orb, that's an easy "that's how that failed" explanation! lmao

matthias helvar | free cities

[enelmord]

[shania twain voice] let's go girls

he'll mostly have uh his fists but his whole combat technique is based on restraining/disarming his opponent sooo

[cryptsleeper]

If it isn't too much to thread out, I'd be interested in seeing how mindfuckery orbs might work on an generally too flashy and fast moving dhampir. If not, no worries, absolutely understand.

Hennessy - Thorne

[impressionism]

Name: Hennessy
Style: Magic fight pls, with optional physical aspect; Hennessy will have some sort of dreamt illusory contraption that will produce a magical illusion meant largely as a distraction, but it can cause enough confusion for her to hastily gtfo... or not, as the case may be. She's got a magic sword with her, too, but she's unlikely to actually win in hand-to-hand combat because the sword's a better fighter than she is, but when paired with the distracty-bobble she'd take her chances on a brief skirmish if she thought she had a chance of knocking the person out and carrying on, so we can play with that as needed!
Caskets: 1

Emet-Selch | Solvunn

[unnecessaryflourishes]

Emet is good for magic fights, if you wanna do a thing! He can do more physical combat also, but his preference is for magic.

Syrlya - Solvunn

[chronosynthesis]

Oh man would you be up for illusion magic vs illusion magic, with optional swordfight.

yennefer of vengerberg | thorne

[vixening]

Name: yennefer of vengerberg
Style: it will involve lots of chatting and if that doesn’t work, also mage dueling, as yennefer is not interested in wasting time (specifically her own). however, should it come to it, she will have a blade on her and is not afraid of combat. she has some tension (man i wonder why) built up and she would be HAPPY to let it lose here c:
Caskets: 2

Estinien Wyrmblood | Solvunn

[coerthantorment]

You up to have these guys meet on the battlefield for real this time? It'd be just Estinien's luck.

castiel - free citites

[unwings]

sup, wanna fight c: and/or have words

alina starkov | thorne

[solmate]

Name: Alina Stakov
Style: Magic dueling, temporary blinding, and generally being a human glowstick.
Caskets: 2

[petcromancer]

So, up for a fight with a few of Hector's undead creatures? Hector is not planning on taking the casket (he's in the Free Cities faction but actually agrees more with Thorne with regards to the Singularity, so his thought is to lose a fight on purpose).

Abigail Hobbs - Thorne

[souille]

Name: Abigail Hobbs
Style: Philosophical debate, or ranged combat which she's fairly good at - happy for her to lose a physical or magic fight otherwise
Caskets: 1