The Ivory That Awaits

Eritheyl

Traces of saffron and ivory emerge from the air, curving themselves into broad loops and repeating fractals of mehndi designs. From this, sweet smoke issues, resinous and laden with the scent of fig wine.

Warmth falls across your skin: glancing at your hands, you find them speckled with light. Looking up, you see the pinpricked walls of a vast eggshell.

As you stare at the interior of this manse-sized egg, you begin to pick out star maps - those of the Void itself.

-- running running running to my favorite room in the temple --

Within an ivory eggshell.

Throughout the location, small dancing flames flicker and spark. This chamber has been carved from what an enormous off-white eggshell the size of a manse, though what could hatch from such a thing -- much less lay it -- is perhaps best left unexplored. Delicate holes pierce its shell in lace-like arrays, those on the bottom forming a star map of the glittering Void below while the patterns along the egg's tapered top write paeans to aspects of Mysrai as yet unrevealed. Lamps made from smaller eggs hang from the ceiling, clinking softly against golden rings tied with ribbon, while curls of incense smoke twirl towards the curving floor to escape through the holes in the shell. In the center of the egg is an empty nest on a plinth with offerings of sticks bundled at its foot. A sneaking orange thief prowls here, eyes gleaming amber with secrets. Thick, coiling tail wound in and around itself, a terrifying basilisk trills curiously. Sebitti Silkenhand waits here, her eyes sharp and amber. Nightmarish waves of bizarre hues flow from the massive wings of a maddened dreameater moth as it soars here. Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects floats here, surrounded by twisting manifestations of half-realised paradigms.

You see exits leading north and northwest.

-- some things happen, also @Alary comes to back me up --

Mysrai steps forwards, cupping your face in slender, many-jointed fingers.

The patterns of paint on the Empress sparkle like stars against Her jade-hued scales, and Her eyes flicker with slow-moving constellations.

In the wake of the stars, the Empress begins to glow, Her scales fading, becoming translucent, Her eyes seeming like vast galaxies that echo the radiance of the pinprick star map above.

From the hands of the Goddess, you feel at first a vast, searing heat, and then merely the warmth of sun-warmed stone, of hot springs, of a warm blanket on a cold night.

In the star map, new stars glisten into place, their hues strange and vivid amidst the sea of ivory. You glimpse...

A pinprick speckling of indigo stars that glow with solemn, midnight depths.

Vivid scarlet, glowing like rubies against the ivory firmament.

Coppery motes, floating dreamlike in the depths of the Void-map.

A hint of saffron, fading away like the memory of fire-sparks in the night.

The stars shiver and settle, glowing cold and colourless once more. Between them, however, thin lines begin to describe themselves - constellations of figures moving amidst the great nothingness.

Soon, even these figures and their lines blur together, becoming overlapping petals and pinpricks, mehndi swirling and swirling until all is a vast veil of light and star-sequins.

Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects intones, "The stars change and move, My Speaker, but so too does your perception."

Sebitti Silkenhand murmurs softly to herself.

Sebitti Silkenhand's eyes go black, swimming with oily shadows. Cold pinpricks of light sparkle within her eyes as she stares forwards, unseeing.

Sebitti Silkenhand tilts her head back to stare upwards, rapt.

Alary lifts her head up as well to watch the proceedings.

Mysrai strokes you tenderly.

Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects intones, "They will dance so for you forever, My Eritheyl."

Congratulations! You have formed a Divine Cult under the auspices of Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects.

You use 10,000,000 of your divine essence.

A vast radiance explodes outwards, the skin of the Goddess going wide and brilliant, until only the stars within Her are visible, searing pinpricks of light that envelop Eritheyl as well.

In the morning sky, brilliant as the sun, overlapping, looping patterns of starry brilliance become veils, become figures, become other, less formed things as Eritheyl Somnius forms the Cult of the Ivory That Awaits in the service of Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects.

The Goddess steps back, Her hands slipping to cup the air. Between Her hands a smaller egg, this one halved and hollow, save for the altar within, is formed from starstuff.

Within an ivory eggshell.

Throughout the location, small dancing flames flicker and spark. This chamber has been carved from what an enormous off-white eggshell the size of a manse, though what could hatch from such a thing -- much less lay it -- is perhaps best left unexplored. Delicate holes pierce its shell in lace-like arrays, those on the bottom forming a star map of the glittering Void below while the patterns along the egg's tapered top write paeans to aspects of Mysrai as yet unrevealed. Lamps made from smaller eggs hang from the ceiling, clinking softly against golden rings tied with ribbon, while curls of incense smoke twirl towards the curving floor to escape through the holes in the shell. In the center of the egg is an empty nest on a plinth with offerings of sticks bundled at its foot. A sneaking orange thief prowls here, eyes gleaming amber with secrets. Thick, coiling tail wound in and around itself, a terrifying basilisk trills curiously. Sebitti Silkenhand waits here, her eyes sharp and amber. A single half-oval eggshell, an altar rests here, glittering with rich gemwork and oil lamps. Nightmarish waves of bizarre hues flow from the massive wings of a maddened dreameater moth as it soars here. Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects floats here, surrounded by twisting manifestations of half-realised paradigms.

You see exits leading north and northwest.

You have emoted: Eritheyl falls to his knees before the altar in worship, in terror, in wordless thanks, the ground below speckled with shed tears as he touches his forehead to the ground.

Mysrai smiles softly.

Softly, Sebitti Silkenhand says, "Well done, Beloved Eritheyl. Your Will forms glorious dreams."

Lifting his head, though his eyes remain closed, you say, "And for the Will of the Beloved I shall dream a thousand and more, that their own might be realised."

Mysrai leans close to you and gently lays a kiss upon your forehead.

Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects intones, "So shall it be."

A perfect half-oval of polished white eggshell set with a single shelf of polished ivory jade, this altar is adorned with curving, flower-like mehndi patterns traced in powdered gemstones. Sapphire, beryl, emerald and black diamond flecks glint in the gentle radiance of clear glass oil lamps set beneath. Ringed by the lights and the brilliant refractions, an enameled, ivory-framed votive image of the Empress of Bright Aspects rests, Her eyes glinting with obsidian and diamond stars. At Her feet, a polished bone bowl has been carefully centered upon the altar, shallow interior filled with discarded orange rinds and pips.

Mysrai, Empress of Bright Aspects intones, "Contemplate now in this place the Ivory that Awaits."

The Goddess fades away into a shadow, then a dream, then nothing at all.

-- not shown: me peeing my pants, me nervous-babbling on clan about being nervous and unresponsive --

Daraius

Mysrai's stuff is really beautiful and evocative, but does it actually make any kind of sense to order members? It's totally lost on me.

Altrea

@Eritheyl: Woo! Congrats!

@Daraius: Yeah, it makes more sense the more you're exposed to it, and asking older order members questions helps a ton if you don't get something. In my experience, Mysrai's also quite patient if you miss something important, so... that's helpful as well. I will say though that even as long as I've been in the order and as high up as I've gotten, some of it still confuses me (like... 30% or so), but I'm also a very literal person and metaphor is often lost on me regardless. There is, however, a lot of repeated imagery Mys uses and some very basic concepts that, when expanded upon, help a lot in understanding all of it.

Eritheyl

Daraius said:

Mysrai's stuff is really beautiful and evocative, but does it actually make any kind of sense to order members? It's totally lost on me.

Yes and no. Sometimes, you just have to know when to take something and run, not worrying about if you're going in the right direction - at best (being that you're just not right), They will work with whatever you're feeding back and take it to a good place. At worst? They say 'No actually you're wrong but here this is actually what I meant', usually with few or no words, and it still works out. Still, I can't tell you how many times I've just been utterly stumped by something, which is when I take to a clan saying OMG MYSRAI Y U NO SPEAK PLAIN (shoutout to @Shaddus). They catch that, and will take the time to reword or give you another angle to approach it from if you're just stuck and flailing.

The worst thing you can do when interacting with Them (which I've done, and I'm sure others have once or twice as well), is just getting frustrated and saying NOPE DUN GET IT. But even then, They're patient and won't just leave you in the dust. The onus isn't just on the player to make sense of things, but also on @Mysrai as a roleplayer to nudge the story along in a way that makes sense (if indeed it's supposed to), which is something she herself is very -very very very- good at.

It boils down to trust. Trust Them to guide you, and trust yourself to judge whatever's coming your way. If you're wrong, you're wrong, and that's okay. If you're right? Hare Mysrai, now you have something to feel good (or...terrible) about. I can honestly say that, were it not for playing around in the sandbox of the Order, I wouldn't be as developed or comfortable with roleplay as I am today. I've always been a roleplayer, sure, but when you put yourself out there and are consistently handed situations, conversations, storylines that are yours to grow into and shape your own persona from? It's just...fffff. There are reasons some of us are staunch defenders of the Mysrai character IC and OOC both, that being one near the top of the list.

And yes of course there are the parts where most of us just make shit up off the top of our heads. If They like it, there's a very good chance it comes up again. If not, you still get forehead kisses and truefavours for effort.

Also thanks @Altrea

Eritheyl

- breaking this off into a second post because it's getting to be a lot of thoughts

One great example of just running with things is...well, the entire basis of my cult. I knew it was going to be tied to the Ivory path (which is a thing that can be extrapolated on later), and through older (a few MUCH older than older) discussions with Mysrai and two temple mobs, I was given leave to revamp two of the left-behind Order paths, Saffron and Indigo. Was this still the point of the cult, after some lapses in time and communication? Did I really know enough to commit Eritheyl to these things, and moreover teach others about them?

I didn't know yesterday, and I still don't know 100% today, but the cult already has its unveiling newspost, entry into the Order scrolls and a whole lot of other fluff that was just punched in with wild abandon and lots of silent prayers that it would be 'okay'. So far so good, though!

Mysrai

There's an element of 30-40% of symbolism, plot, metaphor, etc, that I throw in as stuff for folks to elaborate on or not, and if folks don't latch onto it, I don't run with it. Sometimes, people notice and use it later, or catch on to it. Sometimes, interestingly enough, I make throwaway mentions of things and people grab onto it and go 200x in a direction I didn't expect. That can be really cool, but sometimes I don't go with it because it won't fit or doesn't match what I'm doing. Either way, I like working with players to develop stuff. Mostly I'll spend more effort on things useful or meaningful to more than one player, but I do individualized stuff as well as is rewarding to me and the player, and as fits with the vision thing.

Making Shit Up is something I like to see from people in the Order, but I tend to require it to be rationalized within the existing plot, structure, symbolism, history, etc. That's part of why there's a lot of vague, broad concepts - they're meant to mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. You get more specific stuff with individual worship, cults, etc, and I try to work a bit more closely with that. Obviously compromise from players goes further than not, and that's how people get shit built.

Siam

Soo....beautiful.