February Undercurrent: Behind the Curtain

[lifeaftr_mods]

FEBRUARY UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: A sea of clouds in the moonlight...
When: February 3rd to February 15th
Where: The Floating Islands above Ensō
Warnings: Please mark anything as it comes up!

The Earth is Spinning

Far above all your heads, suspended impossibly over Ensō, there is a scattered collection of strange floating islands. Almost two years ago, adventurers had the opportunity to visit them when the heat of the phoenix-sun of LifeAftr burned away the clouds that shielded them. This time, it will be Water that gusts those clouds to the side - clouds are, after all, a form of water. Once more, these islands will become accessible. Just like before, all islands are accessible via mana pool - but those of you capable of flight will be able to reach them without needing those helping hands.

Additionally, the islands will be hanging very low over Ensō, casting noticeable shadows over much of the landmass, and parts of them will be trailing to the ground. Ladders, long tresses of ivy and vines, and ropes hang off the edges of these islands to brush against Ensō's floor, to make for easy climbing. You might also find that some of these trailing protrusions might take a more...active approach. If someone walks by, you might very well find yourself grabbed by these vines or ladders and more or less hoisted up to the floating islands, whether that was your intention or not. It's almost like they want you up there, for whatever reason.

This time, these islands will not be subject to the whims and desires of the islanders. The landscape will not shift to accommodate your memories and thoughts. This time, when travelers reach the islands, they will find that they have formed into four distinct locations. Each of the four islands are separate and more or less their own small patch of land, visible but quite isolated from all the rest. Just like before, the mana pools will be more than slightly glitchy for the duration of this event - it is entirely possible that someone simply attempting to travel by them, or stay near them to rejuvenate their energies will find themselves whisked up into the landmasses hovering in the sky. It seems that these islands have an inherent effect on the mana pool network.

The Water will communicate to all adventurers in whatever way possible that they are strongly advised to visit the islands above, if they seek answers. Those who pass near bodies of water on any island will likely hear the Water's quiet urging to do just that. Though even if they don't listen, there's every chance that they might end up there anyway!

So what are the islands up here like, this go around? Funny you should ask...

The Island of Stone This first island is the biggest of the five, and also the most central. It is the one you are most likely to end up upon if you travel here by accident. Much of it is comprised of a terrain of earth and stone. The upper clouds frequently gust through the area, lending it a strange and otherworldly look.

Immediately behind the mana pool, travelers will see a large carving mounted on a stone dais. It appears to be in the shape of a bear, carved from oak wood. Its eyes are set with a pair of emeralds. Below it is written a name: ZEMJIN. On this island, travelers will find what essentially amounts of a great deal of building blocks. Almost all of them are different types of earth and rock - from sandstone to fired clay to granite to obsidian to even some of your less common materials, such as iron or titanium or gold - and a great variety of sizes and shapes.

Each of these blocks defy ordinary size and weight restraints; as long as they remain on the island, virtually anyone can pick them up and move them around as you please, regardless of how much you should be capable of lifting. You can build tall structures of diamond or small huts from marble - the only limit is your imagination!

Well, that and reason. If any of your building materials fall off the island, they'll almost immediately dissipate into nothingness. However, there's nothing stopping you from building a bridge to another island...and that'd work, too.

---

The Island of Color This island is one of the most striking, as once one sets foot on it, they will note that it's almost entirely devoid of color. At least, all the solid parts of it are. The island hosts broad boulders, grassy meadows, beautiful trees...but they're all in shades of gray and white, save for the spot just behind the mana pool.

There, travelers will see a small statue mounted on a stone dais. It appears to be in the shape of a seal, a delicate shape made from expertly carved and polished sunstone. All around it, bright golden marigold flowers are in full bloom. Below it is written a name: JARUSKA. Further inspection reveals that the island isn't entirely colorless. In fact, all over the island, one can find deep wells that look as though they might contain water. Instead, they contain color, in every shade imaginable. One simply has to lower the bucket into the well, concentrating on the color they'd like to see, and when hoisting it up, they'll find it filled to the brim with it. The wells are lined with buckets and primitive, oddly skeletal tools with which one can use to decorate this island to their heart's desire.

Fill in the empty outlines! Use inks and powders to breathe new life into this monochrome land! The entire space is your blank canvas, and you don't even have to indulge in conventionality - you can very well make the grass pink and the trees blue if you like.

The only real drawback is the capacity of these colors to stain. They're rather inconveniently bright and tend to glow, and only sustained scrubbing will remove them. The color tends to bleed into whatever you touch, if you don't do a thorough enough job of washing all that away, even if you depart this place.

What's more? You can use these colors to paint new structures into place. You can paint new trees, new flowers, new anything of any color you like. Such as, say...a bridge to another island.

---

The Island of Stars This island is among the most striking, and will probably be quite visible from a distance. Once one sets foot upon it, it'll be obvious why: the landscape here looks like an inverted night sky. The ground is a deep, swirled pool of blues and purples and blacks, stippled with bright pinpricks. It looks very much like you're standing on the night sky itself.

Immediately behind the mana pool, travelers will see a small statue mounted on a stone dais. It is in the shape of a turtle, an artfully crafted likeness made from the deep indigo blue of polished iolite. Thready blooms of red-and-green tillandsia sprout about it in colorful abandon. Below it is written a name: TSAMAYAR. All around this island, twisting pathways, roads, and tunnels unravel in and around the starry landscape. Some are simplistic, and look like they are made of ordinary (if strangely celestial) gravel. Others are made of dark, paved stone. Still others look a little like they're cobbled with fancier materials, such as polished obsidian or marble.

And all over, you'll be able to find a vast collection of rather primitive but nonetheless fully functional bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and other forms of self-powered travel. And unlike any of the other islands, if you manage to get these vehicles off the island somehow, and back to Ensō fully intact? You can keep them.

It's no Rainbow Road, but it can make for a beautiful place to ride a bike, take a load off, and simply take in the sights. And, at some point, you might realize that you recognize some of the stars set into the ground. Maybe some of them are constellations you know. And what could that mean, exactly...?

---

The Island of Webs The final island is the most mysterious, and potentially the most off-putting. It's thick with mist and fog, and almost everything is dead and black, as though all of its color has been sapped away. Only this place doesn't have any colorful pools of ink and dyes to bring luster and life back to its scenery; it is simply bereft.

Immediately behind the mana pool, travelers will see a small statue mounted on a stone dais. It appears to be in the delicate likeness of a spider that has been carved from the rainbow blue-greens of labradorite. All around the statue, heavy twines of ivy have climbed up along the dais and threaded around the spider's legs. Below it is written a name: OSORU. The most obvious and probably unnerving aspect of this island are the thick webs that hang from almost every surface. Almost everything is draped in limp, dead trailings of a whitish material that seems almost silklike. It isn't sticky; travelers can touch and handle it easily, to no ill effect. More unsettling is likely to be the buildings that can be found on this place - for they are all almost certainly ones that many of you will recognize.

The Storyteller's Temple. Chunks of the city of Ai'tuoh. A windmill from Nuidan. Parts of the sunken city of Tempide, and so many others. All structures that were found in LifeAftr in varying stages of ruin - now in pristine condition. They look as neat and tidy as if they were just constructed, though all are empty.

Perhaps even worse is the fact that those weblike strands seem to have a life of their own. As the days progress, they start to slither toward the island's very edge, straining to try and reach the other islands. You can help them, if you wish, by building or painting bridges between those islands and this one. Because, as it happens, this appears to be what this place wants more than anything - to draw all these separate pieces together, into one cohesive whole.

If you wish to fully uncover the secrets of this island, please let us know if you are interested in NPC interaction in the subject line of your top-level.

Your Eyes are Shining in the Glittering Light

Of course, there's a lot going on in the background as well. You're free to use this log as a catch-all for the duration of February's Undercurrent Event, as well as any of the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. And, of course, you are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on the Questions header on our Monthly Rundown post!

February Timeline

[ ♆ ] February 1st: "Free Real Estate" begins and lasts until February 5th
[ ♆ ] February 3rd: "Behind the Curtain" begins and lasts until February 15th
[ ♆ ] February 6th: "No Yan is an Island" begins and lasts until February 12th
[ ♆ ] February 13th: "A Rainbow, Not a Painbow" begins and lasts until February 29th
[ ♆ ] February 16th: "The Sound Resounds" begins and lasts until February 27th

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[thankgods]

[The spider makes a faint sound, almost like a noise of approval.]

An astute observation. Yes, you would be correct. There is a reason that my worshippers viewed me as a spider. So intent was their belief that it is the only form I feel I can assume now.

[shatteredlenses]

Your worshipers? Does that make you the god of perception?

[Perception seems like a bit of an odd thing to rule over, but one's perception of things does influence a very large part of their life. Just look at how differently he and Ardyn view-

That thought is cut off as another crosses his mind.]

Does that mean you believe that it's possible to change ones fate? After all, it is all a matter of perspective, right?

[thankgods]

A quaint notion. No, it does not. I was the god of...destiny, I suppose was the mortal word for it. Fate. Prophecy.

But we were all shaped by those who honored us. I am not really here, after all. I have lost the ability to be truly separate from how I was perceived. I am little more than a memory, now.

I suppose it all depends on how you define "fate."

[shatteredlenses]

['Prophecy.' It's a word Ignis can't help but frown at. Of course of all the gods he would find, it would be one to do with that, but prophecy is a part of fate and destiny, things this god, at least, has not yet said cannot be changed.]

Memories still have great power. All it takes is for one person to recall them when the time is right. That can change the course of everything.

[At least, that is what he would like to believe. Deep inside, though, there is still part of him that is afraid that might not be possible.]

'Fate' would be the course one's life takes. On our world, for example, there is a prophecy that claims the King of Light must die in order to save the world from the plague that has been set upon it. The prophecy is thousands of years old and people have let it guide them for just as long, but does that mean it is the only course of action? If no one has looked for another way, how would we know that has to be his fate?

[thankgods]

That, I cannot say. It was a subject of much debate among my worshippers, once. Frequent arguments over whether fate was something I merely perceived as it was, or if by regarding one thing or another, I would cause it to become fated by consequence.

[Very "chicken or the egg," cyclical arguments. I'm sure you wouldn't find it very interesting.]

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis has pondered plenty of those arguments himself, thanks, and while it's something of a disappointment to hear the answer again, it's also a relief not to have his hopes shot down.

Besides, even if they had been, would he really have listened? Probably not. He's stubborn that way.]

Free will would mean little if fate was decided ahead of time, but then again, free will is also a matter of perspective. I suppose I will just continue to dance the threads and see where it takes me.

[Speaking of going places, though...]

If you and your fellows have passed into memory, why are you here? Is there something you need to tell us about the Storyteller or the Water?

[thankgods]

I am here because I was always going to be here, of course. It was an inevitability, and so I am here.

[Again, it's hard to say which of those things came first.]

The Storyteller and the Water...two gods opposed. I suppose I could tell you of them, if you ask the right questions.

[shatteredlenses]

[The answer causes Ignis to snort softly. Could any other answer have been more perfect for this god?]

Questions are tricky things. 'Correct' questions are very much a matter of perspective, but I will do my best.

[Here's hoping his knack for words won't fail him now, not that any of his training had to do with speaking to gods.]

I want to have faith in the Storyteller, but no matter how many stories we have given them, they still struggle so hard to protect us. The Water has much more power, but I cannot forget just how much the Water frightens the Storyteller. Can you tell me anything about why that is?

[thankgods]

They disagree very strongly on the outcome of this world, and the outcome of the world that preceded it.

[Regardless of whether those questions were the right ones to ask or not, Ignis will be receiving an answer of a sort.]

The Water was never inclined to agree with the notion that things should be preserved past their preordained point. They believed the destruction of the world was justified, as it was always going to be.

[shatteredlenses]

That certainly gives 'going with the flow' a new meaning.

[By the frown on Ignis' face, it's obvious it's a meaning he doesn't like despite the pun he can't help but include. Part of him had hoped that the Water's power might help them actually get somewhere, but that philosophy means where they get might not be someplace he likes.]

And the Storyteller wanted to fight for a different ending? To change fate so to speak.

[thankgods]

That they did. And, in a sense, they achieved it...though it came at a cost.

[Perhaps the meaning there is obvious. This shattered land, rent in more ways than one, was only a small piece of that greater cost. These floating islands are but a microcosm of a much deeper rupture that split these lands apart.]

[Why do you think every land you have visited has been an island?]

[shatteredlenses]

[The answer is obvious, so obvious that Ignis has overlooked it until now. When it hits him, though, he can't help but let out a soft sound of surprise. Even as he does, his mind tells him there has to be more than the shattering of the land involved. More than just it has suffered. After all, the power had to come from somewhere.]

You said you are just a memory now and these islands are so dead. Were you and your fellows the cost as well?

[thankgods]

Not exactly. We were always going to perish as we did. But some of our number chose to attempt to circumvent fate - to prolong this world's existence when it was no longer feasible.

[shatteredlenses]

It must not have seemed unfeasible to them. Not if they were willing to give so much to try.

[Ignis' voice is thoughtful.]

Their point-of-view, correct? It sounds as if you believe them to have been wrong, much like the Water did.

[thankgods]

They were not alone in those efforts. But I am the god of fate and destiny - I know when such endeavors are doomed, and when they are not.

[shatteredlenses]

It is merely their method that dooms their efforts or is there really no hope in changing this particular course?

[thankgods]

That which has led to this point was set in motion long before this iteration, I am afraid.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis frowns. Why is so much of this set into motion long before any of them knew of it? Are they really suppose to sit back and just let it happen? That isn't how he wants things to go on Eos and it's now how he wants things to go here either.]

I can't say I much like that answer. It sounds as if you think we should just give up and let the inevitable happen. It only becomes inevitable when we give up, you know.

[thankgods]

I am a shade of fate and of destiny. One way or another, this story will end. All stories end.

[Their tone is almost gentle as they say it.]

But it is yet being written. Knowing the ending does not mean that one knows how one gets there. Or the result of the ending when it comes.