Take A Deep Breath

[+Invocation]

5 minutes ago, AonEne said:

“It’s okay,” Clare panted. “I got here.” 

Finally noticing where they actually were, Kazil noticed he was hungry and they happened to be in the perfect place to solve that problem. "Hey, Clare, want some food?"

[AonEne he/him]

1 hour ago, Invocation said:

Finally noticing where they actually were, Kazil noticed he was hungry and they happened to be in the perfect place to solve that problem. "Hey, Clare, want some food?"

She perked up a little, trying to slow her breathing. “Sure. Um, thank you very much.” 

[Honorless he/him]

Chapter 3

I don't need Breath, Rayas realized, well..., he corrected himself, it's not the priority right now.

He looked down at his stump, somewhat aghast at his stupidity in his logic for coming to T'Telir. I should never have come here, he realized, they would never have healed me... 

The Returned are gods here, living in luxury, why would they give it up? 

Why would they choose to die again, for a mere peasant? 

But Returned are not treated like gods everywhere...

In fact, outside of Hallandren...

I just need money, Rayas murmured, to get out of this city...

 

I need to get to Idris

 

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Because the Returned do not survive past the week outside of Hallandren.

In many places they are even looked upon with suspicion.

Idris is mostly somewhere in the middle, as Vivenna's musings tell us. Returning is mostly seen as an opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones but they are sometimes seen as demons who want to steal your Breath.

Rayas plans to go to Idris and talk a Returned there into giving up their Divine Breath to heal him.

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I also want to write the perspective of a Returned. *evil villainous laughter* I think you can see why *villainous laughter intensifies*

Wouldn't a Returned also qualify as technically powerless for the RP?

That one Divine Breath cannot be used without getting killed. The only place where they survive as long as they do or have any socio-political power is Hallandren...

Thoughts? If too many of you think that I shouldn't write two characters concurrently or that using a character who isn't a drab breaks the RP rules, I'll only write Rayas' perspective

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Honorless

[AonEne he/him]

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22 hours ago, Honorless said:

Because the Returned do not survive past the week outside of Hallandren. In many places they are even looked upon with suspicion. 

The only place where they survive as long as they do or have any socio-political power is Hallandren...

Do we know that for certain? Because while we do know they die quickly in Idris and aren’t worshipped, I thought we had no knowledge of how other countries treat the Returned. 

22 hours ago, Honorless said:

I also want to write the perspective of a Returned. *evil villainous laughter* I think you can see why *villainous laughter intensifies* 

To clarify, because you want to have them give up their Breath to Rayas? 

22 hours ago, Honorless said:

Wouldn't a Returned also qualify as technically powerless for the RP? That one Divine Breath cannot be used without getting killed. 

Thoughts? If too many of you think that I shouldn't write two characters concurrently or that using a character who isn't a drab breaks the RP rules, I'll only write Rayas' perspective

I actually disagree. There’s more than one form of power - Returned have influence, and that Divine Breath could be sacrificed spectacularly; even if they kept it throughout the RP, they’d be physically better than most, and could even figure out how to change their appearance on purpose. Just because they can’t Awaken doesn’t mean they aren’t powerful. 

I have nothing against you writing multiple characters - in fact, I’m trying to decide if I should write another myself. And I also think we could have a character who retains their Breath, because you can have someone who possess a Breath and yet is utterly without power. But I believe a Returned would be too much. 

This is merely my opinion, however. 

 

[Honorless he/him]

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Do we know that for certain? Because while we do know they die quickly in Idris and aren’t worshipped, I thought we had no knowledge of how other countries treat the Returned. 

Well, we don't know for sure, in Vivenna's and Siri's musings Hallandren treats Returned the best and Idris is not the worst.

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To clarify, because you want to have them give up their Breath to Rayas? 

That's a RAFO, lol but that is what Rayas would love very, very much to happen

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I actually disagree. There’s more than one form of power - Returned have influence, and that Divine Breath could be sacrificed spectacularly; even if they kept it throughout the RP, they’d be physically better than most, and could even figure out how to change their appearance on purpose. Just because they can’t Awaken doesn’t mean they aren’t powerful. 

I don't intend to put the Returned into any position where they can leverage that power anyway. They'll be in Idris not Hallandren.

 

I just realized Rayas sounds like Rayse... but it's supposed to be closer to my name, containing 'Aya', which I fancy sounds a bit like an Aon  I'm not a Worldhopper though, don't worry

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by Honorless

[AonEne he/him]

14 hours ago, Honorless said:

I don't intend to put the Returned into any position where they can leverage that power anyway. They'll be in Idris not Hallandren. 

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This doesn’t take away the powers inherent to someone with a Divine Breath. 

 

[Honorless he/him]

On 11/10/2019 at 11:33 PM, AonEne said:

This doesn’t take away the powers inherent to someone with a Divine Breath. 

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That is true. But as we see with Lightsong, those powers aren't instinctive: he couldn't change his appearance, for instance. The single-use Divine Breath is single-use, it can be suppressed, it might be used to heal multiple people and it might be used to do things other than healing, but it would still kill the Returned.

This, in my opinion, puts the Returned in a vulnerable position where they can be guilted into committing suicide, which is still the case even in Hallandren.

I find the whole system of BioChroma a bit icky, to be honest; Endowment seems like a misnomer, she's less concerned with giving and more concerned with giving at expense to oneself, making her closer to Sacrifice.

The Returned are physically better than most. Physical deformity isn't a requirement for a character to qualify for the RP, however, being powerless is.

 

It's fine if you disagree, writing from the perspective of this character isn't really essential. I would still like to do that though. If you have more concerns, do state them, I'll see if I can assuage them. If we still don't agree we can put it up to a vote.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Honorless

[AonEne he/him]

2 hours ago, Honorless said:

But as we see with Lightsong, those powers aren't instinctive: he couldn't change his appearance, for instance. 

The Returned are physically better than most. Physical deformity isn't a requirement for a character to qualify for the RP, however, being powerless is.

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That’s a fair point, I will say. 

While certainly no character needs to be physically hurt or weak, I still think a Returned would have an unfair advantage in much the same way as a Pewterarm would. I don’t remember how strong and fast they are, but it’s more than humans, certainly. 

But again this mattering is all merely my own opinion, and if the other RPers think differently then disregard me 

 

[Honorless he/him]

It seems we're at an impasse then, so @Karger, @The traveller, @Invocation, @Sorana, @I ♥️ Rashek, @I think I am here., @The Awakened Salad thoughts?

@AonEne, please add @The Awakened Salad's character to the list of active RP characters

Edited November 11, 2019 by Honorless
Edited out the quote

[+Sorana she/her]

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Tags dont' work when you put them in a quote

=====================

But to the topic:

A Returned is of course more powerful than a drab, that is no question for me. The advantages you get because of the breath are a lot and really powerful, and they definitely exceed what the other characters can do.

Does that mean, that I don't want you writing one? No.

If you want to, and if it adds to the general plot/ setting, then I wouldn't mind, at least if you don't hand that breath over to your own character, because that kind of makes the whole setting obsolete. In that case we all introduce a second character of some sorts, write a nice post and are over with this in seven more posts.

The only thing I see critical is the "Returned in Idris" part. The obvious point is of course that, your Returned would be dead as soon as he consumed his sole breath, and the second one, what I deem more important is, that for me a rp is about interacting with each other. All other characters are in Hallandren, if you move both of yours to Idris, then you can't interact with the rest of us, unless we all move our characters as well.

 

[The Awakened Salad they/them]

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I do agree with Sorana on the location point. There won’t be much opportunity for character interaction if Rayas goes to Idris. 

I suppose it depends on the exact circumstances of the Returned as to whether they’re considered too over-powered for the RP. You could put them in a circumstance where their power is limited, maybe? Maybe the Idrians think they’re evil or blasphemous, and are attacking them? (Sorry, I don’t want to tell you how to write your character, just offering suggestions). Lightsong was pretty lethargic and weak just before he needed a new breath, so maybe the Returned does as well, limiting their physical capabilities? But this, again, takes characters out of Hallandren. 

I think it would be cool if you wrote a Returned character though, and I don’t have any objections if there’s a workaround to them being too strong. However I am new to RPing so I don’t really have the experience to know what exactly will and won’t work.

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by The Awakened Salad

[Honorless he/him]

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Oh crud, I didn't know that, thanks Sorana!

A Returned's Divine Breath isn't handed over when they use it, it is consumed and goes back to Endowment. And Rayas is labouring under an additional burden of being crippled, rather than just a drab.

I've already described why I think that the Returned are in a vulnerable position even in Hallandren. Most of Brandon's magic systems outside of Scadrial aren't complete hard magic systems (and they're better that way!). Surgebinding is a better example of this than BioChroma though. I'm more concerned with exploring the psychological, philosophical and social implications that the magic system creates and the resulting vulnerability of a large section of the population than just having a quest with the end goal of Breath (or extending a character's suffering for as long as possible). I don't intend to drag my character's story for as long as possible, hence the chapter marks. But I'm also not going to have them succeed just after 3 chapters.

A Returned is a great character for exploring this vulnerability I mentioned in the paragraph above, as they are basically guaranteed to die but can also choose to die to save someone else (which is pretty messed up), are often mistrusted outside of Hallandren, guilted on a regular basis within Hallandren itself, have to consume Breath to continue to live (more guilt), lose their memories (which is the most vulnerable thing about them, imo). Powerlessness is about the options that are available to you, the Returned don't have many.

Rayas wants to trick or coerce a Returned into giving up their Breath, whether he succeeds or not, isn't written in metal yet.

I prefer to RP a bit differently, actually. I focus more on other RP character's background details or nexus points, an event where multiple RP characters are interacting as launch points (see chapter 2). I also like to have several possible end goals in mind while RPing (I have done Quests before, which are slightly different). Don't forget that interacting with other RP characters isn't the only goal of an RP, as characters influence and change the settings, however minutely.

I don't intend to location lock my characters either. Think of it like my character unlocking a new zone in a video game. I don't intend for Rayas to settle in Idris either (he probably won't like it). I won't just create locations that haven't been shown in the books either, so only these two places are available. Let's not restrict ourselves even more!

Hopefully I've addressed your concerns, feel free to debate against my points if you disagree.

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Honorless
noun to verb change

[Karger he/him]

On 11/9/2019 at 10:24 PM, AonEne said:

Do we know that for certain? Because while we do know they die quickly in Idris and aren’t worshipped, I thought we had no knowledge of how other countries treat the Returned. 

In some rich people keep them around as life insurance.  Other that that we only have Idris and Hallandren sorry.

 

On 11/9/2019 at 10:24 PM, AonEne said:

I actually disagree. There’s more than one form of power - Returned have influence, and that Divine Breath could be sacrificed spectacularly; even if they kept it throughout the RP, they’d be physically better than most, and could even figure out how to change their appearance on purpose. Just because they can’t Awaken doesn’t mean they aren’t powerful. 

Agreed.  In Hallandren they will be powerful anywhere else that we know they will either end up property or dead.

[Honorless he/him]

9 minutes ago, Karger said:

In some rich people keep them around as life insurance.

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That's messed up. Is this speculation (but most likely true) or mentioned in the books (I can't believe I'd have missed something like that!)

 

[Aon Tia she/her]

28 minutes ago, Karger said:

Agreed.  In Hallandren they will be powerful anywhere else that we know they will either end up property or dead.

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I think if the idea is to have powerless characters, then there you have it. Outside hellandren, returned are in a real bad situation and it could be interesting exploring it. 
And as for other interacting with others.. I think some more of us can write additional character based on idris if they are up for it....

 

[Karger he/him]

19 minutes ago, Honorless said:

That's messed up. Is this speculation (but most likely true) or mentioned in the books (I can't believe I'd have missed something like that!)

Its a WoB.

[Aon Tia she/her]

2 minutes ago, Karger said:

Its a WoB.

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Wow.. really.. that is really messed up but makes total sense.. I mean why not? They are the ultimate health insurance..

 

[AonEne he/him]

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Sorry about that, Salad, Ana is on the list now. Not sure how I missed doing that.  

Remember quote boxes, Karger  

I didn’t even think about the location being an issue, so thanks for bringing it up, Sorana. I agree with that - while there are other ways to RP, interaction is generally what gets everything done. In my experience, that and fight scenes are faster than posting character development scenes from a character who is alone, and they usually accomplish more; besides, RPs exist to let multiple people write a story together, and if someone goes off on their own for any long amount of time (not including plot villains or the like), it ends up being an RP with a short story of one character to the side. You can still pull it off, especially if you do it for only a while, but I’d generally advise against it. Totally up to you, though, I’m not gonna stop you. 

 

[Honorless he/him]

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Is anyone interested in adopting @I ♥️ Rashek's character, Elias? 

 

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I live in a different timezone. I might slow down the RP as a whole if I try to make it too interaction heavy.

I definitely plan for Rayas to interact to interact with other characters though. I'd again point to Chapter 2 as an example of how I chose handle the issue. I'll just have to ask you trust me, I guess.

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Honorless

[+Ed Venture]

1 hour ago, Honorless said:

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Is anyone interested in adopting @I ♥️ Rashek's character, Elias? 

 

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*half raises hand* *freaks out and runs away* Um...so...I...uh...can’t...but I wanted to. So...good luck? Sorry. 

 

[+Sorana she/her]

4 hours ago, Honorless said:

I live in a different timezone. I might slow down the RP as a whole if I try to make it too interaction heavy.

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I don't know where you live, but I'm from Europe and Itiah is from Australia. So no matter where, we already span the whole globe in this rp. This moves at a slow pace anyway, if you want to interact with somebody, don't let your timezone stop you.

 

3 hours ago, Butt Ad Venture said:

*half raises hand* *freaks out and runs away* Um...so...I...uh...can’t...but I wanted to. So...good luck? Sorry. 

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-.-

(don't let me pressure you. But it would have been fun ^^)

 

[AonEne he/him]

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6 hours ago, Honorless said:

Is anyone interested in adopting @I ♥️ Rashek's character, Elias? 

We should probably ask him if that’s okay with him first, as it’s his character. And while someone certainly could, if they wanted to and Rashek was all right with it, there isn’t any burning need to - Elias had one post, which had no impact on any current events or characters. So we could just as easily remove him from the RP with no consequences. 

2 hours ago, Sorana said:

I don't know where you live, but I'm from Europe and Itiah is from Australia. So no matter where, we already span the whole globe in this rp. This moves at a slow pace anyway, if you want to interact with somebody, don't let your timezone stop you. 

Hear, hear!  

@I ♥️ Rashek 

[Honorless he/him]

2 hours ago, AonEne said:

We should probably ask him if that’s okay with him first, as it’s his character. And while someone certainly could, if they wanted to and Rashek was all right with it, there isn’t any burning need to - Elias had one post, which had no impact on any current events or characters. So we could just as easily remove him from the RP with no consequences. 

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I forgot tagging doesn't work within quotes; he did have an impact on my character (his character was a doctor & philanthropist, someone Rayas was planning to meet when he came to T'Telir) and I was planning for an interaction.

 

[The Awakened Salad they/them]

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Not that it matters too much, but I was planning to ask @I ♥️ Rashek if Elias could be the doctor that tried and failed to treat Ana's parents. It would've made for some interesting interactions, so I would not be opposed to someone adopting him.

 

[+Invocation]

On 11/7/2019 at 3:07 PM, AonEne said:

She perked up a little, trying to slow her breathing. “Sure. Um, thank you very much.” 

Kazil strolled over to the vendor and grabbed two seafood kabobs, plucking a pair of flatbread circles from their resting point to keep from burning their hands. "So what now? Remember anything about your family yet?"

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Very, very sorry about the nearly-week-long delay here, Ene. I don't mean to stall, I promise.

I also have no idea how to initially make contact with the people we're not directly involved with yet since the bait of answering the yelled question wasn't taken, so if you can do it/are willing to toss suggestions at me, go ahead.