Ookla the Mountain of the Gods

[xinoehp512]

I looked up from my chair. "Someone's posted in the Chat thread, so I'll move my discussion there. We can use this thread to discuss about Karnatheon's point."

[Vargo Seldon]

11 hours ago, Badadah said:

"Yes, I wouldn't vote before reading it. If ANYONE wishes to change their vote, please just tell me in thread."

I would love to change my vote.  Love to.

[Sherlock Holmes]

The distinct sound of 80s rock could be heard emanating from Axe's fourth wall break. Wereci and Dusk were sitting on his bed, Wereci rubbing Grizzly's belly furiously (enough to make the dog kick his leg, somehow) and Dusk craning his neck to see what Axe was writing. Axe stopped typing for a moment to take a bite of his donut, then continued. "Oh, Tena," he said quietly to himself, "you are my soul. You are me, in essence. I wish you weren't beyond this wall."

Wereci looked up from praising Grizzly of his virtues, to which Grizzly responded with a high-pitched bark that Wereci ignored. Wereci glanced over at Axe and asked, "Aren't I your soul?" 

"You are."

"Then why are you saying that Tena is your soul?"

"She is, but a different part of my soul."

"Ah. Logical. Also, when did you come up with the shoulderblades pun?" 

"When I was skateboarding home from school on a snowy day, yesterday."

"Oof. I feel young, and I'm older than you."

"Oh, shut up." 

[xinoehp512]

"Look, does anyone disagree with the fact that we, as Authors, can add and remove ideas from the alleyverse?"

[Sherlock Holmes]

"No," Axe answered.

[whattheHoid]

"No." Freyja answered.

[little wheel]

"Seven," I answered.

[+Ark1002]

I smile. "Yes, I voted that. I'm surprised others did though."

Quote

Can't delete this...

"Also, @Kaladin78, what would you like to change it to?"

Edited November 22, 2018 by Badadah

[Karnatheon]

"No. But I think we need to be careful not to abuse it. I also think we should restrict our Avatars movement around the 'verse for stability reasons. Enough shattering of the fourth wall could have unknown repercussions, even to the 17th shard itself."

[xinoehp512]

I saw shakes of the head. I asked my second question.

"Does anyone disagree that the Avatars are tied to the accounts on 17th shard?"

[Life&Death]

How much more meta can this get? Life is here and will be called as such even though he is technically Death as well. Do I need to put quotation marks to represent speech? So many questions. Also, none of my current characters do much currently so I might use this “quote unquote” infinite power to bring Soul back as he should be. 

There.

My two cents have been thrown in. I might chime in later but this Author has lots of food to eat today and might not get very many chances to hop back through the now destroyed fourth wall.

[old man moomba]

"Of course, the Avatar is a pathway allowing us to communicate with each other, and manipulate our shared realtiy. It also, by extention, allows us to interact with beings within the shared reality. Of course, that interaction is unique to the Aleyverse, but I would say that all shared realities are manipulated by Avatars, on some level."

[kenod]

I stood up. "True enough," I replied to Xinoehp. Looking down at myself, I wondered why I was a fox. I decided it didn't matter, since foxes are fun. I walked down to Ark. "There's something I'm wondering about, before I vote. You said that the Eye of the Prophet will allow Hellbent to see the future, but how does that work? While you might be able to predict what the world in general will do, I doubt you have the ability to foresee our interference. Or would this be limited to just relaying the information you find out, as well as your own influence, back to Hellbent." I sat back down to wait for an answer, in the mean time wondering how I could speak as a fox.

[+Sorana]

I wave at xinoeph.

"I have nothing against it. As long as we as avatars don't destroy the other layers of this rp I'm fine with it. We definitly need to be careful what we do and how we do it, or we end up with tons of all-powerful characters each supported by their respective avatars."

Suddenly I feel sorry for the characters that rely on me. Regarding the current development, they are facing hard times.

[whattheHoid]

I wildy wave my arms about in confusion.

"None of these blessings that Hellbent may get like the Oracle or Horn won't destroy the fabric of the Universe? Like him, Hellbent, his super powerfulness won't break things, like natural laws?" 

[Voidus]

1 hour ago, xinoehp512 said:

I saw shakes of the head. I asked my second question.

"Does anyone disagree that the Avatars are tied to the accounts on 17th shard?"

"No, but then so are almost all characters."

[+Ark1002]

I smile. "No. These will all make him a force for good. A guardian and guide."

[old man moomba]

I raise my hand. 

"Sooo, I had a dumb idea. Would it be possible to bond Hellbent, or something? Like a Bondsmith, yeah? By the way, I'm really dumb, and hungry."

[kenod]

With a little grin I looked up. "Natural laws? That doesn't mean much where we currently are, though I get what you're saying."  I then continued in a more serious tone. "I'm also not sure about the idea of us actively interfering in the world. Our current methods work just fine, and any active interference could cause conflict between the avatars themselves, which could be catastrophic. I'm also not sure if a protector would be such a good thing. Why would we want one? Conflict is what makes the world evolve. All of us enjoy it. Some enjoy causing it, and some enjoy solving it, but the main point is that this causes change. If we have a protector, this conflict is gone. What does it matter if the bad guy wins, or if things get destroyed. We will still exist, and so everything will keep going, and stay interesting." I paused. "So, I vote that Hellbent will not receive our blessings, and that the same will apply to all who follow him here. While I will allow Hellbent to keep his spoils, as a reward for being the first to reach us, I also propose that we ensure he will not remember exactly who reside at the top of this mountain, only that we rejected him. I also propose that any who reach us after this will be treated the same, and that they will not keep their spoils, to prevent dangerous influences in this world."

Remembering that others had brought their own people here, I spoke again: "Also, for any of those who have brought their charges to this mountain, I'd suggest not leaving them fully aware of their true nature. This might cause... disturbances for their personality. Perhaps make them believe that certain beings have influenced them, but don't make them aware of the fourth wall, or to which extent we control them."

Having finished, I sat back down again.

[+Ark1002]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Jacques Rodriguez said:

I raise my hand. 

"Sooo, I had a dumb idea. Would it be possible to bond Hellbent, or something? Like a Bondsmith, yeah? By the way, I'm really dumb, and hungry."

 

2 minutes ago, kenod said:

With a little grin I looked up. "Natural laws? That doesn't mean much where we currently are, though I get what you're saying."  I then continued in a more serious tone. "I'm also not sure about the idea of us actively interfering in the world. Our current methods work just fine, and any active interference could cause conflict between the avatars themselves, which could be catastrophic. I'm also not sure if a protector would be such a good thing. Why would we want one? Conflict is what makes the world evolve. All of us enjoy it. Some enjoy causing it, and some enjoy solving it, but the main point is that this causes change. If we have a protector, this conflict is gone. What does it matter if the bad guy wins, or if things get destroyed. We will still exist, and so everything will keep going, and stay interesting." I paused. "So, I vote that Hellbent will not receive our blessings, and that the same will apply to all who follow him here. While I will allow Hellbent to keep his spoils, as a reward for being the first to reach us, I also propose that we ensure he will not remember exactly who reside at the top of this mountain, only that we rejected him. I also propose that any who reach us after this will be treated the same, and that they will not keep their spoils, to prevent dangerous influences in this world."

Remembering that others had brought their own people here, I spoke again: "Also, for any of those who have brought their charges to this mountain, I'd suggest not leaving them fully aware of their true nature. This might cause... disturbances for their personality. Perhaps make them believe that certain beings have influenced them, but don't make them aware of the fourth wall, or to which extent we control them."

Having finished, I sat back down again.

"I understand your concerns. This is not a protector in that way. This protector will give help, in different forms. For the Eye of the Oracle, a prophet, who will warn of major events to come. For the Sword of the Champion, a warrior, to give the world a fair justice system, and enforce it. For the Horn of the Herald, to intervene in time of greatest need."

I look at @Dr. Jacques Rodriguez. "Yes, technically. He had enough investiture and is a cognitive shadow, so with a bit of work, yes."

[kenod]

" I see. I'm sorry, but I've already cast my vote, and I do still feel that we shouldn't be giving out things like these to mortals. Though I am curious. How would the Eye of the Oracle warn of large events? Will you simply use it to send Hellbent information you personally gather? Since I doubt you'll be able to predict what we will do."

[xinoehp512]

I heard no objections to my proposal. I sighed in relief.

I turned my attention back to the topic we were originally discussing. "So, what exactly does all that stuff he picked up do?"

[Voidus]

Weighing in on the topic at hand, yeah I agree that this feels a bit like being railroaded, the choices are either give a character an item that is unbalanced, or make the character as a whole unbalanced. Only using items for good isn't necessarily an argument against this either, people who have evil characters will have to deal with it exactly as much, not to mention the nebulous nature of what exactly justice is.
I also don't like setting a precedent of giving people an easy way to suddenly spike their characters power to OP levels, if we set a precedent then it's not exactly fair to only give this choice to Hellbent so other characters who journey here could accomplish the same thing, and then everyone has an OP character which both defeats the entire point because then everyone is at the same power level again so it's no longer OP, and also probably breaks the game.
Now if instead of using the defense that he'll become a force for good you wanted to say that he'd become entirely non-interventionist then I'd be fine with it, it just becomes like the DA or an Avatar, powerful but that power doesn't matter because it's not used to alter the story.

[Karnatheon]

I agree. If Hellbent ascended to a higher existence, either by staying merged with Babadah as he currently is, or gaining one of these items and assuming a non intervention policy, with minimal interaction with anyone or anything, that would be rewarding for the character without providing the unbalance mentioned. Because yes only rewarding Hellbent like this for ascending wouldn't be fair, and everyone having this power would break things, so no one should have it.

[+Ark1002]

1 hour ago, xinoehp512 said:

I heard no objections to my proposal. I sighed in relief.

I turned my attention back to the topic we were originally discussing. "So, what exactly does all that stuff he picked up do?"

 

1 hour ago, kenod said:

" I see. I'm sorry, but I've already cast my vote, and I do still feel that we shouldn't be giving out things like these to mortals. Though I am curious. How would the Eye of the Oracle warn of large events? Will you simply use it to send Hellbent information you personally gather? Since I doubt you'll be able to predict what we will do."

 

1 hour ago, Voidus said:

Weighing in on the topic at hand, yeah I agree that this feels a bit like being railroaded, the choices are either give a character an item that is unbalanced, or make the character as a whole unbalanced. Only using items for good isn't necessarily an argument against this either, people who have evil characters will have to deal with it exactly as much, not to mention the nebulous nature of what exactly justice is.
I also don't like setting a precedent of giving people an easy way to suddenly spike their characters power to OP levels, if we set a precedent then it's not exactly fair to only give this choice to Hellbent so other characters who journey here could accomplish the same thing, and then everyone has an OP character which both defeats the entire point because then everyone is at the same power level again so it's no longer OP, and also probably breaks the game.
Now if instead of using the defense that he'll become a force for good you wanted to say that he'd become entirely non-interventionist then I'd be fine with it, it just becomes like the DA or an Avatar, powerful but that power doesn't matter because it's not used to alter the story.

"To the first, they are mostly just weapons.

The the second, anything main plot level will probably have warning, and Hellbent either give that warning to any who give to them.

And to the third, Hellbent would take different views, if the Horn were given he would take a non-intervention policy, in regards to his shard, with the some exception if the vessels voted him to now the Horn. With the Sword, he would make a law system, and only fight lawbreakers. With the Eye, he would only intervene in the form of prophecy."