Post by Nina on Dec 29, 2023 11:36:37 GMT -5
Last edited: 29/12/23
Threads organized in the best approximation of chronological order available.
Nina
'Travelling painter, rope-maker, general adventurer and a bit of a wizard.'
• Edge of The Mist
Nina and Gray arrive in the Islands on a sinking tower. Collapsed in the sand, Nina is found and rescued by Theodosia, the fortune-teller. A friendship is made. Nina agrees to help with Theodosia's scams, as long as they do not hurt people.
• The Seraph's Chosen
To help her friend Theodosia, Nina joins her in investigating a budding cult. The two join the Angel-Touched on their pilgrimage. After revealing that the miracles are actually symptoms of a deadly fungal infection, Nina reluctantly kills their leader.
• Mess Tent: The Feast
While in recovery from her injuries, Nina joins a celebration in the nearby town of Port Argentium. Due to worries about the common people, she gets into conflict with the leadership.
• The Forest: Over the Hills and Far Away
Nina is foraging in the nearby forest, when she meets Katiana Graves. They escape a giant bird-dragon creature, and have a lovely breakfast together in The Camp in the Bleeding Tree.
• The Overgrowth
Nina regards it safer to leave the area of Port Argentium for a bit. While exploring, she comes across an area of land where all beings, from grass to flowers to butterflies, are oversized. She encounters Keph, the mute cartographer, and a strange bird. Shenanigans ensue, involving a gigantic slime mould, a forest fire, and surviving a nest of gigantic ants.
• Helsreach Shore
While on her way home, Nina follows a signal of magic onto the malevolent-looking shores of an island. She is welcomed by Elegastus, a devilish-looking man, who tells her more about his nation and its history. Nina's fears turn out to be unfounded, as she visits the peaceful and terrifying city of Helsreach. She feels compelled to ask for an audience with the local king in the Helsreach Spire, in search for the magic which she is certain is connected with hers and with Gray. The generous king is happy to give her the particular artefact that she desires. However, Nina ends up fainting due to the overall stress of shielding herself in a magic-rich area. She is taken care of and offered a home at Elegastus's farm.
• Theodosia's House
Soon after Nina's return, her friend Theodosia is plagued by a nightmare involving Gray. After it, Theodosia's cloth dolls come alive. Nina is called for help, and she attempts to negotiate peace. Heartbreak ensues.
• Grandma's Hillside Cottage
Nina visits the mysterious dark magician of Port Argentium, a statuesque woman by the name of Grandma, for help with her mentor. Later, near the Tower that had carried Gray and Nina to the new world, also known as The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants, Nina and Grandma enter Gray's mind in order to wake him up from his magical sleep. Nina learns unsettling things about both Grandma and her mentor.
• Nina's house
Nina is offered a house by Naoki, the leader of Port Argentium. The two talk through their differences. Ideas of starting a school are mentioned.
• Sylvanie's tree
Trying to bring magicians together, largely due to her concerns over Grandma, Nina approaches the local fae Sylvanie. They talk about their families.
• The Mess Hall
Nina also encounters a very kind man called Podor, who turns out to be an elemental magician. They go and meet his companion at the Waterfront.
• Campfire Seminar on Magic
Nina and Gray organize a seminar on the subject of magic, bringing together all sorts of magic users and magic-enthusiasts from all around. Among the meeting's purposes are finding common themes between different kinds of magic, ways these theories could be used to understand and circumvent the new world's limited magic, as well as (unspoken) making allies and identifying potential threats.
• The Black Dog Woods
Nina joins Alden, former spymaster that she had previously come into conflict with, on investigating a supernatural occurrence. Through both conversation and the supernatural, she learns more than she can bear, and is overall pushed to her limit. Alden carries her home to A Campfire on the Shore.
• Elegastus's farm
Nina visits her fatherly figure friend Elegastus once again.
• The Docks of Port Argentium
Nina dives for salvage.
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants
Nina encounters her friend, Theodosia, ambiguously plotting with Gray, her morally ambiguous mentor. Nina conceives of the Azure Coast as a country for the mental health of her mentor; Gray swears fealty to Nina. Nina and Theodosia talk.
• The Shores - Rocky Tide Pools
Nina and Gray are visited by Piper, a lonely girl with a passion for music and a failing necromantic heart. They all work together to fix the heart, and Piper is invited to join their home.
• The Azure Coast
Moments before a massive wave much like the one that carried Nina away from her old world hits the coast, Nina is swept off her feet by a charming winged person, Qori. Though Qori may desire for the sweeping to be metaphorical, it is alas only physical. Shenanigans ensue. Qori joins the Azure Coast.
• The Forested Peninsula
Nina goes to investigate another magical item, finding its source onto what appears to be a pirate ship.
• Earthmound Village
Nina comes to Mikele, the leader of the Imilla, with greatly concerning news about disappearing people and necromancy that has been used to fuel the stone industry of Port Argentium. The two decide to investigate and put a stop to it, while Coatl, another renowned Imilla, gathers more information in the town.
• The Golem Mine
Nina, Mikele, Gray and the doctor Anastasia (kidnapped by Gray for plausible deniability) investigate the rumoured golem mine.
• Sindarin: A Waterfall in the Jungle
Nina decides to visit Helsreach, but the entire nation had mysteriously disappeared. She mourns. In their stead, she finds another group of people.
• The Quilted Steppe
Feeling that she has to stay away from Port Argentium for longer, Nina goes on a great exploration up the Argentium river in her new boat, Wing. She meets Sir Rudiger, the gallant the knight errant, and his remarkable horse Bob, who have been tasked by Gray with Nina's safety. They travel together.
• Flooded Ruins - The Old District
Nina and Rudiger sail all the way across the continent, to another sea. Nina discovers a city of heartbreakingly beautiful, half-submerged buildings. She meets Molenya, one of the Tueima 'mermaids' that inhabits it; much curiosity and amusement ensues.
• Yuletide: The Forum
Back in Port Argentium, Nina properly resumes her job as a travelling painter.
Gray
'Formerly the assassin of the Azure Dynasty, torturer and executioner for those important enough to waste his time.'
• The Dreamscape
Caught in the dream of the Clocktower and unable to wake up, the assassin Gray has little respite from pain. Yet for a few moments, he manages to escape in other people's dreams, including the exuberant Zasha Tolstov, and the dark and mysterious Belladonna Atropa. He tries to get into their minds. Even Theodosia, Port Argentium's fortune-teller, receives his visit, but something goes wrong as magic lingers around her after she wakes up.
• The Edge of the Forest – After being woken up, Gray struggles with the pain and loss in his mind. To find a semblance of order, he steals weapons from Port Argentium's barracks to train. This gets the attention of former spymaster Alden, and a battle of wits, trickery and might commences. Gray finds solace in the challenge.
• The Entwining Woods(The Forested Peninsula)
Still struggling heavily with his sense of purpose, Gray goes a-hunting. He nearly kills the mysterious Mademoiselle Noir by mistake, but the two bond over surviving and defeating a legendary predatory bird. Gray struggles with the realization that he wants to live.
• The Campfire on the Shore
After Alden returns a wounded Nina to her home, him and Gray talk about their past, similarities, and differences. Communication is a challenge.
• The Dreamscape: The Darkside
Gray returns to the Dreamscape, and is caught in a nightmare that seems as much his as Alden's.
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants
Still struggling with his depression, Gray is accidentally encountered by Theodosia. The fortune-teller gives him him impromptu therapy.
• The Docks of Port Argentium
Gray visits Port Argentium, and encounters a salty vampire.
• The Shores - Rocky Tide Pools
A stranger, Piper, is brought into the magical glasshouse where Nina and Gray live to save her life. Gray occupies himself with food, with keeping an eye on Piper to ensure she is not about to murder Nina, and with advising on matters of magic while keeping secret the fact that he no longer sees magic.
• Streets and Alleys of Port Argentium
Gray is a hobo on a bad mental health day.
• The Eastern Mountain Pass
Gray takes on a quest to find a missing prospector. He encounters Safa, a person who looks unsettlingly much like himself. The two collaborate, despite their equally secretive natures, and have to fight dangerous mountain weather as beasts of a less natural kind.
• The Infirmary
Gray carries a gravely injured Nina to the Infirmary. Though he struggles with not being able to help himself, the man is amazed by the surgical work of Anastasia, the lead medic. While Nina recovers, the two bond.
• Anastasia's House – Gray later visits Anastasia's home for some more bonding, including of the intimate kind. (Described as 'Two freaks having a moment').
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants: Gardening Day
Gray invites Sylvanie, the young plant-mage, to help out with his garden. Though the man is worried about her seeming inability to fear him, he nevertheless asks for more of her, in particular related to a magical seed that he cares strangely much about.
• Tales from the Azure Archipelago
Gray talks about his scars.
• Yuletide: The Forum
Gray joins the festivities as a rope-walker. At the end of the representation, he meets Anastasia.
Potential future concepts to explore:
(I am open to a lot of things, and of course I am open to other people's plots; these are just examples)
• magic : I would like to explore sensing, understanding and/or building magic, especially with Nina. Gray may be able to help with some of the theory if appropriate. This may or may not be related to the Clocktower, the eldritch collection of magical artefacts that grants Nina its power.
• faith : What happened to the Angel-Touched? The Angel-Touched cult was created by my roleplay partner, Sharky, in 'The Seraph's Chosen'. With his permission, I would like to explore a future in which part of the cult perished to their disease, part of them were 'disappeared' by the Inquisition, yet some remain hidden and reframe their faith into a peaceful mystery religion focused on selflessness and joy of life.
• faith : Nina's animistic/shamanistic beliefs are something that I would like to explore at some point. In particular, I am interested in ritual and challenges that push her to the edge enough to result in altered states of consciousness, with or without ingesting consciousness-altering flora.
• trade : How does the Azure Coast sustain itself economically? It would be interesting to discuss the items/services of value they can provide to other places, either directly or as intermediates. (For example, I have considered Nina trading with / loosely organizing the regional non-affiliated homesteads).
• the post office! - Nina delivering messages. While much of the messages in Port Argentium are carried by local children, there remains a niche for long-distance messaging, as well as special occasion messaging (think painted postcards). Potentially interconnected with the trade aspect, the post office idea is something that I would like to try out.
• pigment/paper making
Threads organized in the best approximation of chronological order available.
Nina
'Travelling painter, rope-maker, general adventurer and a bit of a wizard.'
• Edge of The Mist
Nina and Gray arrive in the Islands on a sinking tower. Collapsed in the sand, Nina is found and rescued by Theodosia, the fortune-teller. A friendship is made. Nina agrees to help with Theodosia's scams, as long as they do not hurt people.
• The Seraph's Chosen
To help her friend Theodosia, Nina joins her in investigating a budding cult. The two join the Angel-Touched on their pilgrimage. After revealing that the miracles are actually symptoms of a deadly fungal infection, Nina reluctantly kills their leader.
• Mess Tent: The Feast
While in recovery from her injuries, Nina joins a celebration in the nearby town of Port Argentium. Due to worries about the common people, she gets into conflict with the leadership.
• The Forest: Over the Hills and Far Away
Nina is foraging in the nearby forest, when she meets Katiana Graves. They escape a giant bird-dragon creature, and have a lovely breakfast together in The Camp in the Bleeding Tree.
• The Overgrowth
Nina regards it safer to leave the area of Port Argentium for a bit. While exploring, she comes across an area of land where all beings, from grass to flowers to butterflies, are oversized. She encounters Keph, the mute cartographer, and a strange bird. Shenanigans ensue, involving a gigantic slime mould, a forest fire, and surviving a nest of gigantic ants.
• Helsreach Shore
While on her way home, Nina follows a signal of magic onto the malevolent-looking shores of an island. She is welcomed by Elegastus, a devilish-looking man, who tells her more about his nation and its history. Nina's fears turn out to be unfounded, as she visits the peaceful and terrifying city of Helsreach. She feels compelled to ask for an audience with the local king in the Helsreach Spire, in search for the magic which she is certain is connected with hers and with Gray. The generous king is happy to give her the particular artefact that she desires. However, Nina ends up fainting due to the overall stress of shielding herself in a magic-rich area. She is taken care of and offered a home at Elegastus's farm.
• Theodosia's House
Soon after Nina's return, her friend Theodosia is plagued by a nightmare involving Gray. After it, Theodosia's cloth dolls come alive. Nina is called for help, and she attempts to negotiate peace. Heartbreak ensues.
• Grandma's Hillside Cottage
Nina visits the mysterious dark magician of Port Argentium, a statuesque woman by the name of Grandma, for help with her mentor. Later, near the Tower that had carried Gray and Nina to the new world, also known as The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants, Nina and Grandma enter Gray's mind in order to wake him up from his magical sleep. Nina learns unsettling things about both Grandma and her mentor.
• Nina's house
Nina is offered a house by Naoki, the leader of Port Argentium. The two talk through their differences. Ideas of starting a school are mentioned.
• Sylvanie's tree
Trying to bring magicians together, largely due to her concerns over Grandma, Nina approaches the local fae Sylvanie. They talk about their families.
• The Mess Hall
Nina also encounters a very kind man called Podor, who turns out to be an elemental magician. They go and meet his companion at the Waterfront.
• Campfire Seminar on Magic
Nina and Gray organize a seminar on the subject of magic, bringing together all sorts of magic users and magic-enthusiasts from all around. Among the meeting's purposes are finding common themes between different kinds of magic, ways these theories could be used to understand and circumvent the new world's limited magic, as well as (unspoken) making allies and identifying potential threats.
• The Black Dog Woods
Nina joins Alden, former spymaster that she had previously come into conflict with, on investigating a supernatural occurrence. Through both conversation and the supernatural, she learns more than she can bear, and is overall pushed to her limit. Alden carries her home to A Campfire on the Shore.
• Elegastus's farm
Nina visits her fatherly figure friend Elegastus once again.
• The Docks of Port Argentium
Nina dives for salvage.
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants
Nina encounters her friend, Theodosia, ambiguously plotting with Gray, her morally ambiguous mentor. Nina conceives of the Azure Coast as a country for the mental health of her mentor; Gray swears fealty to Nina. Nina and Theodosia talk.
• The Shores - Rocky Tide Pools
Nina and Gray are visited by Piper, a lonely girl with a passion for music and a failing necromantic heart. They all work together to fix the heart, and Piper is invited to join their home.
• The Azure Coast
Moments before a massive wave much like the one that carried Nina away from her old world hits the coast, Nina is swept off her feet by a charming winged person, Qori. Though Qori may desire for the sweeping to be metaphorical, it is alas only physical. Shenanigans ensue. Qori joins the Azure Coast.
• The Forested Peninsula
Nina goes to investigate another magical item, finding its source onto what appears to be a pirate ship.
• Earthmound Village
Nina comes to Mikele, the leader of the Imilla, with greatly concerning news about disappearing people and necromancy that has been used to fuel the stone industry of Port Argentium. The two decide to investigate and put a stop to it, while Coatl, another renowned Imilla, gathers more information in the town.
• The Golem Mine
Nina, Mikele, Gray and the doctor Anastasia (kidnapped by Gray for plausible deniability) investigate the rumoured golem mine.
• Sindarin: A Waterfall in the Jungle
Nina decides to visit Helsreach, but the entire nation had mysteriously disappeared. She mourns. In their stead, she finds another group of people.
• The Quilted Steppe
Feeling that she has to stay away from Port Argentium for longer, Nina goes on a great exploration up the Argentium river in her new boat, Wing. She meets Sir Rudiger, the gallant the knight errant, and his remarkable horse Bob, who have been tasked by Gray with Nina's safety. They travel together.
• Flooded Ruins - The Old District
Nina and Rudiger sail all the way across the continent, to another sea. Nina discovers a city of heartbreakingly beautiful, half-submerged buildings. She meets Molenya, one of the Tueima 'mermaids' that inhabits it; much curiosity and amusement ensues.
• Yuletide: The Forum
Back in Port Argentium, Nina properly resumes her job as a travelling painter.
Gray
'Formerly the assassin of the Azure Dynasty, torturer and executioner for those important enough to waste his time.'
• The Dreamscape
Caught in the dream of the Clocktower and unable to wake up, the assassin Gray has little respite from pain. Yet for a few moments, he manages to escape in other people's dreams, including the exuberant Zasha Tolstov, and the dark and mysterious Belladonna Atropa. He tries to get into their minds. Even Theodosia, Port Argentium's fortune-teller, receives his visit, but something goes wrong as magic lingers around her after she wakes up.
• The Edge of the Forest – After being woken up, Gray struggles with the pain and loss in his mind. To find a semblance of order, he steals weapons from Port Argentium's barracks to train. This gets the attention of former spymaster Alden, and a battle of wits, trickery and might commences. Gray finds solace in the challenge.
• The Entwining Woods(The Forested Peninsula)
Still struggling heavily with his sense of purpose, Gray goes a-hunting. He nearly kills the mysterious Mademoiselle Noir by mistake, but the two bond over surviving and defeating a legendary predatory bird. Gray struggles with the realization that he wants to live.
• The Campfire on the Shore
After Alden returns a wounded Nina to her home, him and Gray talk about their past, similarities, and differences. Communication is a challenge.
• The Dreamscape: The Darkside
Gray returns to the Dreamscape, and is caught in a nightmare that seems as much his as Alden's.
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants
Still struggling with his depression, Gray is accidentally encountered by Theodosia. The fortune-teller gives him him impromptu therapy.
• The Docks of Port Argentium
Gray visits Port Argentium, and encounters a salty vampire.
• The Shores - Rocky Tide Pools
A stranger, Piper, is brought into the magical glasshouse where Nina and Gray live to save her life. Gray occupies himself with food, with keeping an eye on Piper to ensure she is not about to murder Nina, and with advising on matters of magic while keeping secret the fact that he no longer sees magic.
• Streets and Alleys of Port Argentium
Gray is a hobo on a bad mental health day.
• The Eastern Mountain Pass
Gray takes on a quest to find a missing prospector. He encounters Safa, a person who looks unsettlingly much like himself. The two collaborate, despite their equally secretive natures, and have to fight dangerous mountain weather as beasts of a less natural kind.
• The Infirmary
Gray carries a gravely injured Nina to the Infirmary. Though he struggles with not being able to help himself, the man is amazed by the surgical work of Anastasia, the lead medic. While Nina recovers, the two bond.
• Anastasia's House – Gray later visits Anastasia's home for some more bonding, including of the intimate kind. (Described as 'Two freaks having a moment').
• The Glasshouse of Poisonous Plants: Gardening Day
Gray invites Sylvanie, the young plant-mage, to help out with his garden. Though the man is worried about her seeming inability to fear him, he nevertheless asks for more of her, in particular related to a magical seed that he cares strangely much about.
• Tales from the Azure Archipelago
Gray talks about his scars.
• Yuletide: The Forum
Gray joins the festivities as a rope-walker. At the end of the representation, he meets Anastasia.
Potential future concepts to explore:
(I am open to a lot of things, and of course I am open to other people's plots; these are just examples)
• magic : I would like to explore sensing, understanding and/or building magic, especially with Nina. Gray may be able to help with some of the theory if appropriate. This may or may not be related to the Clocktower, the eldritch collection of magical artefacts that grants Nina its power.
• faith : What happened to the Angel-Touched? The Angel-Touched cult was created by my roleplay partner, Sharky, in 'The Seraph's Chosen'. With his permission, I would like to explore a future in which part of the cult perished to their disease, part of them were 'disappeared' by the Inquisition, yet some remain hidden and reframe their faith into a peaceful mystery religion focused on selflessness and joy of life.
• faith : Nina's animistic/shamanistic beliefs are something that I would like to explore at some point. In particular, I am interested in ritual and challenges that push her to the edge enough to result in altered states of consciousness, with or without ingesting consciousness-altering flora.
• trade : How does the Azure Coast sustain itself economically? It would be interesting to discuss the items/services of value they can provide to other places, either directly or as intermediates. (For example, I have considered Nina trading with / loosely organizing the regional non-affiliated homesteads).
• the post office! - Nina delivering messages. While much of the messages in Port Argentium are carried by local children, there remains a niche for long-distance messaging, as well as special occasion messaging (think painted postcards). Potentially interconnected with the trade aspect, the post office idea is something that I would like to try out.
• pigment/paper making