The Dark Lady

[Kaz]

As you may or may not have read in my roleplay application idea thread, I have come up with an interesting new twist for the Tonan story.

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=98

We currently have played our way through a selection of era's and we have reached a point where the old trinity are back, but walking Tonan as mortals. The immortal plane is empty, leaving the throne of heaven open for the taking.

The idea is to introduce an element to story before Olandar's murder, and before the birth of the gods. This element would then open the way for a new wave of action.

Era 0 - Before Olandar Fathered the Gods.
Before Olandar fathered the gods, he existed with his female opposite, The Dark Lady (name to be decided). After fathering the gods, the Dark Lady is banished to the void, via a means to be decided via roleplay.

Era 6 - Return of the Dark Lady
When the three gods escaped the void to battle the new gods, they left the way open for the Dark Lady to return (possibly through the help of an as yet uncreated 10th race). While the gods fight to regain their divinity and take their fathers throne, she ascends to the heavens.

I am thinking that it might be good to start a roleplay set in the current 'Mortal Kings' era, setting the scene for the Dark Lady. Maybe some kind of quest that as we go on we start to learn about an ancient evil?

We could then open a second roleplay forum set during Era 0, and roleplay a world with two gods, Olandar and the Dark Lady. We could use this to develop her character a bit before we consider a new roleplay direction for the Monarchy game itself. We also really need a character name, cos I cant keep calling her 'The Dark Lady'

[Kaz]

Idea's for how the elements associated with Olandar's children, might be split between him and the Dark Lady

Code: Select all

Olandar					                             Dark Lady
-----------------			                         -------------------
Angelique	Justice, Law, Morality, Charity		  Fanatisism, Oppression
Barnabas	 Balance, Order, Honour			        War, Elitism
Leto		  Freedom, Arts and Leisure		        Chaos, Decadence

Foret		 Justice, Purity				            Pride, Righteousness
Isonia	   Equality				                   War, Self Importance
Darden	   Caring, Charity				            Despair, Depression

[Desdemona]

When I first read the traits of the Dark Lady and/or her followers, my first thought was:

Martha Stewart!!

May I suggest the name "Mala" for the Dark Lady, or a variation thereof? I was fond of Lilith or Luna, but neither one seemed to work here, for me.

[Nether]

possible names:

Aglaeca: meaning both "demon, monster, fiend," and "hero, warrior."

USHA : Female Hindi myth name of a demon princess, daughter of heaven, and sister of night, meaning "dawn."

ADRASTEA: Variant spelling of Latin Adrastia, meaning "inescapable"

AEGLE: Latin form of Greek Aigle, meaning "radiance, splendor."

AELLA (Greek Αελλα): Greek and Latin variant form of Greek Aellô, meaning "storm wind; whirlwind."

ANGELA: Feminine form of Latin Angelus, meaning "angel, messenger."

CYRA: Feminine form of Latin Cyrus, meaning "like the sun."

DIANA: Latin name meaning "divine, heavenly." In Roman mythology, this is the name of a goddess of the moon and hunting.


will stop there before i go over board

[Desdemona]

Ooooh!!!

I like Adrastea, out of that list.

I was thinking perhaps to avoid any of the names sounding/reading alike, so I was not so fond of Angela, due to it's closeness to Angelique.

Cyra has potential, as well.

[Kaz]

Sorry I been a bit quiet. Have a lot on with coding that trying to organise roleplay is harder than I'd hoped.

I too like Adrastea, especially its meaning. Although the normal spelling Adrastia might be easier for people to remember when typing.

[Kaz]

I have been thinking about how to introduce the Dark Lady for roleplay.

As far as Era's go, we are currently roleplaying the 'Mortal King'. I think we should run a few interacting plot stories, around the introduction of one member of the new race, and the gradual introduction of handfuls more.

The new race will be of a Wraith like nature. I'm not referring to Stargate Atlantis style Wraith, but the normal undead Wraith. I'm thinking that to avoid any Stargate style 'Wraith' roleplay that maybe Wraith should be one of the 'troops' and we pick a different name for the race itself.

These are some ideas of the possible 'troops' of the 'Wraith':
Wraith, Specters, Phantoms, Shadows, Shades, Spirits, Ghosts

If Adrastea/Adrastia is to return from the Void, I think the wraith should be creatures of the void. A handful will find the way to Tonan and spread the seeds of our initial storyline. Eventually the wraith will lead the Dark lady through, but that will come later.

I am thinking - longtern - that the Roleplay subforums will start as just 'Mortal King'. We'll introduce the new race and the idea of the Dark Lady. This will mean that - for those of us without ancient character - we can use our existing alts to get us going again and help inspire us to roleplay.

If we can re-establish active roleplay, the next subforum to open would be 'Before Olandar Fathered the Gods' (although we need a better name for the era). We can use this to further develop the idea of the Dark Lady and her pre-wraith followers, and decide why and how she ended up in the void.

Finally, and in conjunction with the introduction of 'wraith' into the game itself as a playable race, we'll move the 'current' era on to 'Return of the Dark Lady'.

What we'll need initially is some form of plotline / quest that leads us to the introduction of the 'wraith'. There ingame ability will be that they can take on the 'stats' of the different races. Kind of like shapeshifters, but in the life sucking 'wraith' context, it would be related to aquiring the 'skills' from their latest 'meal'.

I dont think we can justify all our roleplay characters 'hearing of strange things' and heading of to the same place. So ideally we'll come up with a few ideas for initial plots that can lead up to things.

I have previously been quite good at directing a roleplay, but to be perfectly honest I have not done so for ages, and I need to get into it again. Hopefully, at least initially, some of you will step up to 'direct' things.

[edit] On a completely unrelated and sidetracking note, I cant beleive this was my 300th post already.

[Nether]

The idea is very compelling. I agree the whole, I heard somthing is going down over yonder has been played to death, I like the idea of random encounters during other quests, say bill and ted hear of an awesome phone booth that takes you to the playboy mansion basement and along the way they encounter one or two of the wraiths. I think its important that the wraiths stay very small in number until the dark lady is brought forth then they flood into this plain from the void, kinda like she already has an army prepped and waiting to go.

[Nagash]

Do not mock Bill and Ted. It was a most excellent movie duo.


Having plots run toward the same point in a more original way is quite good though. Have people do something in a region and then make something interest drawing happen would work.


"Dark Lady" does sound a bit porny in my opinion though. Might want to give her a more stately name. I was thinking along the lines of Dark Duchess or Dark Empress or something. But than a wee bit less downtrodden. Will think on it for a bit.


In addition to Nether's selection of names, I've dug up some Latin and Greek examples of my old RP days which may be of use for either the dark one herself, or perhaps one of her aides. That makes me want to raise a point which I have in the past already, albeit years and years ago: how can Leto be a god and not a goddess in our story? Leto - in greek mythology - was the daughter of two of the Titans, and mother to Artemis and Apollo.
A similar note can be applied to Adrastia/Adrastea if you want to go with that name: in Greek it'd be "Adrasteia", being the one who raised Zeus.



Lethe - "Oblivion". Also one of the underworld rivers one had to cross before being able to enter Hades. Can serve both as a male as well as a female name (though the word is grammatically female, and Lethe was also the name of one of the Naiades and dauther to Eris).

Eris - "Hate, strife, discord". In Latin she is called 'Discordia', which says it all. Goddess of that which her name means.

Ixion - Male name this time, with no meaning that I know of. Bloke committed some heinous crimes and got punished for it rather severely: he was bound to a fiery wheel for all eternity. Same say that he is carrying out that punishment in Hades, others think that he is the sun and travels around the globe on a daily basis. Choose whatever camp you like.

Aello - Already mentioned by master Nether. Wanted to add that this is one of the torture-happy Harpy sisters.

Niobe - Taunted Leto and had all her children killed by Apollo and Artemis as punishment. Daughter of Tantalus, whose fate was even more drastic.

Hecate - She who shoots far". Goddess older than the Olympic ones. Commonly associated with witches, cults and the like.

Scylla - Monster that lived on one side of a strait. Charybdis sat on the other side. Bottom line: no saf eplace in that strait, which led to many proverbs. Dutch version is "between two fires , but I'm sure in English there is a different one.

Anaxibia - Mother of the more famous Medusa (gorgon, got killed by Herakles himself).

Circe - Sorceress who fucked Odysseus. Then again, they all did that.

Aegina - Got abducted, myth related to the Myrmidons.

Themis - "In the right place". Goddess of good council.

Rhea - Titan. Wife to Knonos, mother of a fair share of gods.

Erebos - "Deep darkness"/ "Shadow". Son of Chaos, god of darkness and shadow.

Nyx - "Night". Sister and wife (!) of Erebos. Goddess of - how surprisingly - the night.

Lyssa - "Madness. Daughter of Nyx, whom was impregnated when Uranus (Titan) got castrated. His testicles, cut off by his son Kronos, landed in the sea and became Aphrodite/Venus. The drop of blood resulted in Lyssa. Probably where the name Lyssia was derived from, and would be a nice homage to her. She was one of the - probably just "the" - best RPers we had back at evernight after all.






That'll do for now, I guess.

[Kaz]

Of that list I think I prefer Nyx, however I'm still thinking of her as Adrastia. The name has a good ring to it, and its a translation of an appropriate word, rather than of a historical god. Having her named for the latin 'inescapable' is quite cool.

As for 'Dark Lady' I needed to refer to her as something before she was named. Dark Mother might work better if she is to be Olandars evil female counterpart, I guess.

[Nether]

"The Other" just define it as a power banished to the void so long ago that it predated other beings found there. Then we get the name when she is brought forth.

[Nagash]

Agreed on 'The Other' for the time being. Dark Mother would indeed be a fitting title. haven't been able to come up with anything myself yet.


Adrastia/Adrasteia sounds better than Nyx, even if it doesn't sound as evil.
It would also be a reference to Greek mythology though:

Adrasteia (Greek) (from a not + didraskein to run away)

That which cannot be escaped; a personification of one aspect of karma; a surname of Nemesis, not a synonym. Nemesis, Adrasteia, and Themis form a trinity: Adrasteia is the causes created by man himself, therefore inescapable; Nemesis personifies reverence for law, i.e., conscience; while Themis represents divine order and harmony, the inherent equilibrium in the cosmic structure. Adrasteia therefore signifies the effects that flow upon one sooner or later as the results of his good or evil doing.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrasteia

[Kaz]

I'm going to write up a 'prologue' instead of a short Era 0 summary.

This is a very very rough draft of the outline what I am thinking.

I'd appreciate comments, and suggestions of how to make it better.

Olandar and Adrastia are opposites and their nature is made up of opposing forces that are required for balance.

In order to banish Adrastia Olander betrays his nature and obliterates a large percentage of her followers.

In her weakened state Olandar banishes her to the void, creating the three elder gods using parts of Adrastia and parts of himself.

Unable to put all of himself into his children, certain elements of the dark lady found their way to the only places that would accept them; Intop and the moons Numi and Soma.

But by betraying his nature, Olandar lost his purity becoming weaker still. The lies he told his children to cover the truth continued to weaken him.

The addition of the dark lady's nature to the sun and moons caused their nature to change, become darker, forcing Olandar to spend much more of his power keeping the weather in check.

As time went on, Olandar continued to become less powerful as prayers were made to his children, and he spent more and more effort into keeping her lost influence from effecting Tonan.

Gradually he comes to the realisation that to restore balance, his remaining nature should be allowed to join that of the Dark lady that did not go into their children.

Olandar allowed his final aspects to find their way to the sun and moons. However this caused him to start to show signs of his weakness to his children

[Kaz]

I have just spent the last few hours, putting some life into a prologue. It is significantly longer than the descriptions of the other Era's.

Please give me some feedback.

Prologue - Beginnings and Endings

Who knows where the true beginnings lie, but our story begins with divine beings of light, and the discovery of the void, an endless vastness filled with raw power, every direction was filled with energy.

Some, scared of the unknown stayed within the realm of light. But others, greedy for power, set off out into the void in every direction. Searching for the elements scattered throughout the void, growing stronger from them, growing larger.

Travelling in family groups, burning fireballs of divine light flew through the void collecting, and feeding on elements of power that they found. As they grew stronger they learned that they could use their will to attract the power to them rather than collect it. This enabled them to venture deeper and deeper into the void.

Eventually a group of divine beings settled within the midst of a huge well of power, and stopped. Time passed, and they continued to grow, moulded by the elements that they most craved.

Head of the family, Intop, grew largest and fastest, as he grew he became hotter and brighter, his will extending throughout a region of the void he asserted dominion over the others. Some tried to circumvent his will but his control over the family was absolute. One by one they were given the choice, fall in around him and accept what they were given, or leave to find power elsewhere in the void.

The being Tonan, orbited close to newly formed star Intop, not as close as her fiery older sisters, but close enough to catch the eye of Intop. Gradually she seduced him and convinced him to let her create life, she beckoned her closest allies, the siblings Soma and her brother Numi, and they took up positions around her. In return, Intop and Tonan offered them a share of the power that would come from life, if they would help shape the world we have come to know.

It is unknown exactly how many races were created, though it is theorised that many of the earlier races understood their nature too well, and left seeking power. Others destroyed themselves.

As far as can be established, of the known races in existence, the Dragons were the first race to claim free will and understand their nature as orbs of light. They understood that they had a choice, they could take their share Intops resources, or they could venture out into the void to claim a dominion in their own right.

Hungry for power, many of the dragons chose to take the power they had been given, and hunt the void for their own sources of raw energy. But for the first time, some beings that understood the nature of existence, decided to stay on the mortal plane.

Trying to find the perfect balance for their creations, Intop, Tonan, Numi and Soma created the Elves to tend the forests and the droben to guard the mountains. Eventually they created the Humans.

Unlike the long lived races that came before them, the humans lived short lives and produced many offspring. Their quick life spans created a very inquisitive and hurried people. Eventually thier nature led to the idea of the nature of Good and Evil.

Olandar and Adrastia, two of Intops original rivals for ultimate power, accepted the names given to the beings who claimed the prayers of the people. Between them taking on the mantel and responsibilities, of godhood. Olandar held dominion over the heavenly plane, Adrastia the fiery depths of the deep places. These would come to be known as the circles of Hell.

Eons passed and Olandar and Adrastia started to learn how to influence the development of life. Adrastria - not happy that Olandar was more loved and more powerful - was the first to will the creation of new races. First she made the demons, minions that served within her domain. Later, Goblin-kind was created with a lust to kill the followers of Olandar that matched that of her fire elementals. For the humans that followed her, she bestowed her kiss and the Vampires were born.

Fear flooded through the population as Adrastia's armies stole souls in her name. Worried, Olandar beseeched Intop for advice on how to deal with her aggressive tactics. "Master.. What should I do?", "Chose" came the cryptic reply."

Olandar considered his worshippers, the magical Elves, the hardy Dwarves and the brutish Droben and made the choice that would set the wheels rolling in a new direction. He summoned the Droben and told them that they were now charged with one goal, the total annihilation of Adrastia's followers.

Betraying his very nature and sacrificing his claim to the prayers and deeds of purity, Olandar ordered his forces to take no prisoners. The Dark Mother's disciples and priests were the first to be destroyed by Olandar's surprise attack. Next to die, were large numbers of Demons and other races loyal to Adrastia. Finally, weakened and defeated, she fled into the void.

With Adrastia gone, the consequences of evil deeds and prayers of the sinful went unclaimed. Not interested in the power of blood sacrifice, Olandar allowed the lingering evil to find its way to Tonan, Numi, Soma, and Intop. But the effects were not anticipated, causing their very natures to change. Chaos began as the four most powerful beings in this populated region of the void started to consume the evil left by the removal of Adrastia, huge storms and earthquakes started to ravage the lands. The borders between the circles of hell and the mortal plane became thinner, as magma found its way to the surface, from the deepest places of Tonan's core.

The Balance was broken.

Some of her followers survived the onslaught fleeing Olander's wrath to hide, or aligning themselves with Olandar. Asdrastia's name was erased from the history books; even to speak it out load was a sin of the greatest degree. The Droben, initially drawn to Olandar for his - now lost - purity, were appalled by what they had done in his name. In a self imposed exile, they retreated from the lands to their cavernous mountain homes.

Frantic to fix the balance, Olandar searched for life that held his nature and that of Adrastia in equal balance. Eventually he found two men and a woman among the many races. Sacrificing half of his total power and influence, he uplifted them to the immortal plane and granted them half of Adrastia's influence to go with his own.

Soon his three children became loved by the races of life that filled Tonan, and they started to take on the persona's given them by their new worshippers. Life was not so good for Olandar. With the remainder of Adrastia's influence now balancing his children, Olandar turned his attention to balancing the effects caused by the changes in Intop and the other celestial bodies.

As his children started to learn their names, Olandar understood his choice. He could sacrifice the rest of his power to dilute the celestial imbalance that Adrastia's departure had created.

Shedding everything but his divinity, Olandar gave his essence to heal Intop and the older powers loyal to him.

Continued belief sustained his immortality, and he was finally able to turn his attention back to Tonan and his new children. One day he knew, they would learn of his true weakness, and try to claim his throne for their own. But until that time, Olandar vowed to teach them what he could, and hoped to help shape them into what they would become.

[Topheh]

I really like it, Kaz. Has a great sense of 'epicness' about it and explains perfectly why the Droben fled into the darkness and did not return until long after both Oleander and his children were gone.

I noticed that you got all the races in there too, except for the Sidhe... A few years ago we worked out some sort of creation story for us *rummages through his old RP* Lets see... Ah.

The bottom line Astavia is this. Despite your cries for acceptance and your rationalization of Mede's existence, she is not a true Sidhe nor will she ever be. She is a human, twisted and transformed into the likeness of a Sidhe. At best she is sharing a symbiotic relationship with the soul of the Sidhe that resides inside her. That is not a fitting end for a Sidhe, forced to practice its Art through a fragile human shall unfit and unworthy of our magic. Azrael emphasized the last words, to make clear what he spoke of.

Yes Astavia, our magic. The magic bestowed on us by the Gods of creation themselves. We do not peddle in the meek and pitiful magic that resides in runes and powerwells. We do not need your precious mana. Our magic is not something we have to mine for, search for, it is not magic that needs the assistance of outside forces to be weaved. We are magic itself! Is it now obvious to you why we may be disturbed by this? Perhaps not, thus I feel it is now time to give you all a history lesson. Azrael now took a seat, he had stood long enough. Taking a sip of wine, Azrael relaxed and began his tale.

It is safe to say that to get the full understanding of what we are now dealing with, I must start at the beginning. Many of us know of a world, remember this world as our home. Now it is spoken in hushed whispers, talked about as if it is a heresy. Conversations kept secret as to not draw the ire of agents and Voices of the current deities of this world. I for one have never cared for our supposed gods of Maxim, and will not keep quiet about the past. I am one of the few who remembers. Azrael's eyes shot to Lyssia for a split second, she was one who knew

This world was called Mo'Pri. This is the world of my birth as well as the original place of origin for all Sidhe. We were not created on Maxim, our current Gods were not even real then. I must even stress that our current gods are there by our own placement. They created nothing. This can all be found in the Tismad.

I now will speak their names for be it accepted or not, it is our history. The father Olander and his children Barnabas, Angelique, and Leto. These are the Gods of creation, at least when Sidhe are concerned.

It was told in ancient tomes and codexes, that the Sidhe were the first of the God's creation, created even before the world was. In a sense we are angels. Even for a God, the creation of a world is taxing, thus the Sidhe were employed to aid in this creation. Imbued with the God's magic itself.

These first Sidhe shared their thoughts with the God's and each other. The binding force in all of it was the Art. Even when placed upon the world to populate it they shared this fabric.

Being so like the God's had its drawbacks. It was soon obvious that the Sidhe were aloof and solitary like their creators. Although blessed with immortality and the craft of the Art, they did not populate the world as the God's had imagined. Thus the other races were created, humans, elves, dwarves and so on. These creatures did not share in the Art as we do. Instead those inclined to use magic had to find it on their own. In the ground, in the air, basically the residue of all magic used in the creation of the world and the presence of the God's.

It was then realized when the faith wars began on Mo'Pri that those loyal to one of the three deities could ask for favors and call down magic through their priests and temples. Again, this was not akin to Sidhe magic, this was from an outside source.

Through all the eons and wars on Mo'Pri, the Sidhe always kept their magic and immortality. They saw magic being used left and right by people who had no true knowledge of its workings and no real control over it except for force of will and spoken spells. Thus the Council was created, to keep an eye over the use of the Art and its potential impact upon the Sidhe. They were not vain enough to think no one should be allowed to practice magic other than the Sidhe, as long as they kept to drawing it from the Gods and from the world itself, the fabric of the Art and its connection with the Sidhe would be safe.

Now, I'm fine with scrapping a lot of this, as we should be striving to create a unified storyline... and in all honesty Azarael, who wrote it up was always a little... pompous Other things that have come up in our RP over the year is the presence of a consort to the highest ranking Sidhe who was banished to a void from which there is no escape (I see a paralell there) and some sort of punishment exacted on the Sidhe that resulted in their decline as a dominant power.



I don't really want to make my Sidhe ancestors evil, but one way to work this in would be to have the Sidhe be created by Adrastia (or Oleander/Intop/Tonan/etc and seduced) and have their race cursed by Oleander or his followers to suffer their long decline. If we wanted to maintain parts of the story above, we could have them be some sort of 'fallen angel' sort of race... designed to help foster life, but seduced away by the Dark Mother.

Oh, and I am quite curious... what happens to the dragons that go out to seek their fortunes in the void?

[bandit]

very good kaz and toph. i wish i could write as descriptively and accurate as you two.

[Topheh]

Well, thanks but... I really can't take much credit for that... I was a participant in the thread, as I was one of the, err... 4 or so Sidhe that were still RPing at the time, but my RP quality when I was that age... needed work.

No, that post was Azrael's doing, he-who-was-eventually-banned-for-being-a-Godmoder. Great writer, though.

Any word on the progression of the story, or (hope beyond hope) plans to try and revive some RP here? I now RP on other forums, but Evernight/Monarchy is my first home for RP, and I always wish that, somehow, we could revive it here.

[Kaz]

Banned for Godmoding??

Didn't realise that was a bannable offense, must have been way back in the day, prior to several 'unbannings'.

As for the roleplay.

I'd love to see it return but the simple fact is that most people are not that interested.

Maybe we'll see a change once I've got some artwork to spice the game up.

Artwork will include Adrastria and the Wraith... just in case

[Topheh]

Well, thats a dramatic simplification of what happened... he direclty contravened and attacked Decae's character (who was RPing at the time as a messenger of the Gods or something) and declared in a single post that he had defeated him. Decae grew upset... Azrael grew upset, words were exchanged... and, well... Decae had a banhammer

As for RP... I'm interested... and it appears that a new thread has opened up. I take this as a sign!

[Tara]

Oh DERP! I remember those RPs an' that one inparticular lol Hell yea ya could get banned for Godmoding unless yanno ya were The God *snicker* But yea, Dustin was like "oh I'm dead am I?" fucking Ka-BAN! lmao that still makes me giggle, out loud even. Classic dick-measuring an' the Furry Fuck Rug took it by a mouse click lol damnit I miss dem days an' nights. Az and his wife were sooo mad. Amazing how a game got our emotions going like that.

Anyways...so this Void thing, that whole storyline fits right along with my sl for Alcestis and her Shadedude, their travels between here and there, and everywhere, and their original sl is based on a Greek myth too so that was kin'a cool. I can totally see Alcestis having chilled on the other side with the Dark Mama (heh) yanno they have the best wraith-gotten-weed over there.

And I have an old Sidhe character, old Elemental one too. I suppose I could try to make some new character if we stumble on the need but I like the ones I have, besides they always GMed so they always knew what's ta know, yanno? ;>