PROLOGUE: THE JOURNEY
To arrive somewhere, one must necessarily take a journey; travel from one place to another in order to arrive. Between any given Point A and Point B there are any number of places that may constitute part of a journey depending on the route taken.
Khazan is the centre of all things and to travel there is to, in some senses, travel through all places.
In times past this would have been a smooth zip through a dimensional webway, unknowable forces carrying travellers along through countless realities, invisibly and instantly like a fish beneath the surface of the water. So fast and smooth a journey that it could almost have been said to have taken no time at all. To travel all of creation and come to its great centre took all of one step.
Things are different now.
You were somewhere before and something prompted you to leave; a desire, a need, a want, perhaps you just could no longer remain where you were. In the moment that you made the decision to leave, you felt something seize hold of you; a tug that felt like a hook deep in the core of your spirit and you were suddenly in motion. There may have been other factors; a gate, a rip in reality, an ancient ritual, a realisation of enlightenment, a curse, some newly developed technology, an experiment gone awry, a prophecy, some secret wish granted by a greater power or any other number of things. Exactly how you started is immaterial, all that matters now is the journey.
All doors will lead Khazan for Khazan is the centre of all things.
This was not a journey of one step. This was not a calm and comforting invisible zip through a billion billion dimensions and timelines in an instant like a fish beneath the water. This was like a stone sent skimming across the surface sending ripples and disturbances in all directions, unsure of where you were going and where you might end up, just a prisoner of this terrible momentum and speed as you again and again make contact with the water.
As you travel, each step brings you momentarily to a different world, a different time, a different reality and for a fraction of a second you collide with it through your unstoppable momentum.
STEP. You collide with a the back of a surgeon, scalpel in hand, sending the blade skidding across the body of his patient to where it should not go, machines erupting into warning bleeps. STEP. You shatter through a shop window, sending glass flying into the display, an alarm going off and children screaming. STEP. You stand momentarily on a world being consumed by a solar flare, a creature with far too many eyes regards you sadly for a moment, tears on their eyes being boiled away along with the atmosphere. STEP. You blunder through a duel of two crystal lords, both bleeding and fighting for their kingdoms, sending one crashing to the floor as his opponent roars with triumph and thrusts. STEP. You fall through a dark void, screaming in a vacuum that denies you all sound. STEP. You trip across the face of a sleeping god, breaching the sanctity of a cosmic nursery. STEP. You find yourself waist deep in a cancer dimension of misshapen bone and flesh, something hungry sees you and pounces. STEP. You walk a frozen lightning bolt that houses innumerable tiny beings, the weight of your mere existance shatters it causing their civilisation to tumble into darkness. STEP. You trip over a monk meditating in glade, you hear him yelp with surprise and dismay at the universe breaking his quest for peace. STEP.You stumble through a paintingof aworldandthecanvasripsSTEP.
youeruptthroughthefloorofanantnestSTEP.
youtouchthebottomoftheoceanSTEP.
youslamintoabarroombrawlSTEP.
youarehurtSTEP.
youarelostSTEP.
youfallSTEP.
yougoSTEP.
youSTEP.
youSTEP.
yo-STEP.
y-STEP.
STEP.
STEP.
STEP.
STEP.
All this and a thousand thousand more, you leave a trail of confusion, disarray and destruction across the face of all creation as you, something that should not be in that world, momentarily collides with it.
Your journey is from one place to another but to Khazan is to travel through all places.
You lose count of the steps, you lose all sense of how long this has been your existance and for a moment you fear that this will just be your life for the rest of time and then suddenly it stops.
The steps stop.
You stop.
You are covered in small wounds and are bewildered by the sheer sensory overload of perceiving so many things so fast.
Your feet touch solid ground and, for once, it does not instantly shift into somewhere else. You collapse slightly, stumbling as if pushed and you realise you have arrived at the end of your journey.
Before you is a gate, higher than any that you have ever seen before or since. Something in you knows that this isn't just "a gate", this is perhaps the idea of "gate" made manifest. What all other gates are informed by. As you look at it, the moment your attention wanders, its composition and design changes incrementally. If asked, you would be unable to say what specifically had changed but after a few moments of inattention, you would suddenly realise what was once great varnished timbers is now stone is now metal is now bones is now solidified magical force and so on.
It is constantly shifting but when you look to try and catch it in the act of changing, the gate remains static and impenetrable.
The gate is set into a set of walls that loom impossibly higher than the gate itself. That same thing in you knows that it would not be possible to climb or fly over the walls for, despite you thinking you could see the top from the ground, they could stretch up into infinity. They are always tall enough to seem imposing.
The walls rush away in either direction, at some point in the far off distance seeming to curve. Behind you is a great ocean of dark stardust, endlessly deepy with small ripples that cause translucent lights and sparks to dance in its depths. Above is an impossibly complex aurora of points of light joined by shimmering strings of energy. You suspect that you might be looking at all possible creation from the outside.
It is quite, there is a light breeze that slightly disturbs the innumerable fallen leaves on the ground. There are a number of dead bodies from beings of dozens of species around you, the variety of wounds and states of the bodies suggest that they did not survive the journey as you have. Some are in pieces, some just skeletons, some on fire, all still and definitely dead.
The gate ahead of you is open, just wide enough for a horse to pass through and what lies beyond it awaits.
PLAYERS: For your opening post, please describe the last thing your character experienced before travelling and their experience of the journey.
ALL PLAYERS HAVE TAKEN 10 POINTS OF DAMAGE TO THEIR CORE HP.
ALL PLAYERS HAVE LOST 50% OF THEIR MASTERED ENERGY.
You do not all arrive at once and you don't know how long you will be alone for.
Current Cast
> Krys: Once-Sword of the Goddess played by Sharpandpointies
> Jane Doe played by Postmania
> Vánagandr Fenrir played by Siriel
> SIN/D3R-E1Ia *Ella* played by MrSandman
Mood Soundtrack: Tosca - E Lucevan Le Stelle