Loading...... Prayer.exe

[fourthmade]

This is a place to send your prayers to the Fourth god. He may not always respond, or he may respond in ways you don’t expect, but he is always listening.

Speak, he hears you.

OOC note:  As of April 2020, threads with the gods will be capped at three NPC replies! Please keep this in mind when writing god prayers to make sure you get everything you need out of the thread.It’s also possible to handwave prayers by titling your comment HANDWAVED PRAYER. Handwaved prayers lack our usual flourish, but you can expect a faster response!

As of February 2024, god prayers will be handwaved only. Please only submit a prayer if you have a question for either god which needs answering in order to progress your character's arc within Ryslig. If this is something you need to tier up within the god boon system, or just to set up a player plot in general, please don't hesitate to submit a prayer about it! You may shorten it down to an OOC summary of what your character is asking. This will allow any of our helper mods to reply much faster, without having to dig into the specifics of either god's personality/writing quirks. Should this limitation be lifted again in the future, this note will be removed.

Comments

backdated to mid-June

[borntoreign]

[He waits a few days after his conversation with the Fog to get in touch with the Fourth. Call it propriety, or an excess of caution.]

[Either way, he's sitting down now, snaps open his laptop and begins to type.]

This missive for the attention of the man who calls himself the Fourth God:

I am told this will reach you easily, if I write it here. I will give you a day to reply, before I assume I`ve been misinformed.

I will spare you the introductions. I shall assume that you know who I am, and who I was before I came here. You may assume that I know at least the basics of who you are.

I write because, in your story, I see much that is familiar. I too was given power while still young, and set upon by foes at every side. I admire your tenacity and the loyalty you have inspired among certain of your followers. However, I also see that you are making little progress, and your adversary seems to show no fear of you. I will be blunt: I believe we can be of aid to one another, if you wish it.

The Fog God is more powerful than you are. This is not an insult, only an observation. Her followers are more bold and more public in their loyalties, her territories are greater than yours, and she has a following among the native population which, as far as I can see, you lack. It would be easy to take her side. She has already promised me a great deal if I do so - land, power, a seat at her right hand as her temporal representative. I would be a fool to ignore the opportunity.

Still, my inclinations are not with her. She has poor control over her followers, and she lacks vision, clarity of purpose; she seems barely to know what she wants, nor do her followers.

Tell me what you want from this conflict, Elias. Tell me why I should help you to win it.

[fourthmade]

[Casimir doesn’t need to wait a day for a reply. He doesn’t need to wait more than a minute, when the laptop screen flickers red and the text is wiped clean, swallowed by the ghost in the machine.

Letters appear, one by one. They’re scrambled at first, Elias chewing on the pontification in a deliberately irreverent test. Soon, the letters assemble themselves, marching out to reveal a cunning and incisive response from the boy God.]

i want to win because i want to destroy her and all shes done

i want the rest of her power for me
and when we win
i get that power
my friends get that power
and we will own this world
and fix all the wrongs that happened to it

[borntoreign]

[Casimir watches patiently. Despite his blunt and intentionally disrespectful missive, he does care about the outcome of this discussion, and part of that outcome is getting the measure of this god, as he feels he got some measure of the other.]

[The answer, when it comes, satisfies him. It's simple to the point of childishness, but there's nothing wrong with that, in the right place. Besides, it's something that makes sense to him, at least up to the last part. It's more honest than high-minded. That suits him very well.]

`When we win`. You seem confident. Tell me, what do you suppose will happen if we lose? Or has that not factored into your calculations?

[It is, in a way, a trick question. For his part, he never wastes much time on calculating what will happen if he is defeated. It gives the possibility too much credit.]

And when you win, will the world be restored? So little of it remains. It must seem a paltry kingdom, to a god.

[fourthmade]

why should i bother to restore a ruined kingdom
when we can start over from scratch?

think of the possibilities

[What follows is a pixelated tableau, first of the ruined stormy land outside of Ryslig peninsula. Casimir might not be familiar with The Oregon Trail, but it sure resembles a desert scape from the first iteration of that game.

The desert scape blinks away, and from the ground sprouts looming skyscrapers, neon space needles, a sophisticated and advanced city-scape. A crude, pixelated blue river runs through it.]

we can create whatever we want
when we take the last of her strength
for ourselves
dont we deserve to have a little bit of revenge
for all the wrongs shes done?

[A rising sun pops into place along the horizon of the scape.]

lets make a new clean slate together
a better foundation
i lend you a taste of what i can give to my friends
and you swear to work with me

losing wont happen
we are immortal
we can play for as long as it takes to win ;)

[borntoreign]

Losing won`t happen, unless something changes immensely. But a prolonged stalemate is no victory, just a refusal to admit defeat. Admirable, yes, but not, ultimately, successful.

The longer you go without solid victory, the more you will haemorrhage support, while your opponent swells her ranks with her own selection from as many worlds as she likes - and, it seems, with deeply dedicated humans from this world, as well. You can hold this campaign for centuries, if you must, but to what end?

You need to seize attention the same way that she does. Make people afraid of your wrath, and hopeful of your victory. Your priests and followers are too circumspect, where hers are unignorable. Far more people should follow you than are apparent. You should have the advantage of loyalty from those who do not want to be here, but too many of them are loyal only to one another. You do still have the advantage that she is not much of a leader, and her following can`t even agree among itself what it is she wants them to do.

First, make a proof that it is only your power that offers an escape; that monsters and humans cannot make headway without your guidance. Second, find some terrain that is easily won, that will sting her pride and remind her that you are a threat. Third, be a voice of clear reason. The people respond to vision and to perceived honesty. You have both, where she does not.

I will be at your side. Tell me what land she holds, and by what power. Let`s win your war together.

["At your side", in any case, until it ceases to be convenient.]