EVENT #5: SOVEREIGN CITIZENS

[aionmods]

Sovereign Citizens

All across Horos, even in lands that have long since forsaken the Legacies, Soviseri is a month of political action. Most years, this simply means annual elections; for the faithful, organizations and governments big and small take this opportunity to bask in the wisdom of the Sovereign while reassessing their leadership and strategies, while the more secular simply see it as a convenient waymark on the yearly calendar. Soviseri allows them to face the remainder of the cycle with fresh eyes.

Most years, these customs will pass uneventfully, barring the moderate confusion that can result when too many leaderships change at once. This year, however, is not like others: for the one that considers themself the most sovereign of sovereigns has witnessed the seeds of revolt take root in the most fertile soil. Though they have not yet begun to sprout, let alone flourish, the Regent knows full well where such small things can lead. It's because of this that they intend to salt the earth and remind the cities of Horos the value of the 'peace' they've experienced while allowing them their reign.

This event will last from the 13th to the 25th of Soviseri.

❖ INCLUDED EVENT PROMPTS

◆ THE REGENT'S ADDRESS: On the eve of the 13th, near the height of the Sovereign's Moon, all Aions will have their spirits summoned into a metaphysical court of the Regent's making. They'll only have enough time to seat themselves somewhere before the vision overtakes them, bringing them into the Regent's presence for what will be the first time for many. It is in this meeting of souls that the Regent will express their intent to punish the Pleroma's supporters in Godsblood and Venera, and to declare that it will be at the hands of their Kenoma followers. The Pleroma will be able to leave the communion unharmed, but the message is clear: without intervention, Godsblood and Venera will suffer.

◆ AN EXECUTION (GODSBLOOD): The 15th would normally be a day of public debates and speeches, a time for those in power to prove their worth in full sight of the Sovereign, but all of that will be thrown into discord at the public announcement that Vaeka Lovenskol is to face public execution for her crimes against the Regent. What crimes? Well, apparently she has been working as part of a resistant unit intent on aiding the Pleroma menace... a fact that any Pleroma in Greentruth will know to be true. Vaeka has been one of the brave souls working to keep the entry to Greentruth concealed, guiding what new Pleroma they become aware of to its gates.

How she was exposed is not exactly clear, but she is scheduled for a public execution in Godsblood's main square on the 20th. That means there are five days to snatch her from the Kenoma sent to guard her, lest she be made an example to her people.

◆ TRIMMING THE VINE (VENERA): While the execution in Godsblood is a public affair, what happens Venera is far more insidious. Despite the meek and escapist nature of its citizens, a spark has been lit beneath the surface, spurred by the Aion's actions within the city during the Innocence's contagion, as well as the Achamite's and Hylician's inaction. Some Venerans that were either spotted supporting the Pleroma or that seek to resist the Regent's will have been rooted out, and will be made to pay for their transgressions by the Kenoma first and foremost.

From the 15th to the 25th, the Kenoma will be ordered to work their way through a hit list of sorts, finding and imprisoning Veneran troublemakers, with the intent of essentially 'disappearing' them. Prisoners will be held for a day or so after capture for a meaningless trial by the Achamites present, and then be executed.

◆ MARCHING ORDERS (KENOMA): As the Regent has observed there is a finite limit to what the Kenoma will do without orders, they are now being explicit; all Kenoma are required to participate in the subjugation of either Godsblood or Venera during these activities. Whether or not Kenoma players are available to play out things on an OOC level, all must be at least handwaved to ICly participate in this mission by signing up for duty in either Venera or Godsblood down below. Failure to perform IC will be met with IC punishment.

In addition to their mission duties, the Regent is also ordering all their Kenoma to attempt to lure out and capture as many Pleroma as possible. How they go about this is up to each individual, but the Regent expects that most Pleroma will not be able to resist making an appearance at either location.

Comments

Hayame | Firebrand | "Pleroma"

[warmare]

◆ THE REGENT'S ADDRESS

Thank you, RP gods, for some very direct motivation for this fence-sitter Pleroma... I will note, however, that she will not sit down. Rude.

◆ TRIMMING THE VINE (VENERA)

Since she knows the city layout better thanks to the Innocence event and also she's following Estinien to hopefully snatch some Kenoma shards, Hayame will primarily be spending event time in Venera. She'll have a glamor spell to disguise her centaur-ness as long as she doesn't go into supper narrow or crowded spaces where people might run into her invisible horse rump. She also has a full-sized bow now thanks to Rand's craftsmanship, so she is fully armed and dangerous. Rather than try to figure out who the people being targeted are and protect them, she'll probably focus on... attacking any Kenoma she comes across, oops. Can she borrow that shard? She won't stomp on it, promise. (I actually do promise, she's been turned on to the capture vs. kill method.)

◆ AN EXECUTION (GODSBLOOD)

Though she will primarily be in Venera, there's a chance that she might emergency portal to Godsblood for a little bit, so she's also slightly open to Kenoma versus Pleroma run-ins here, too! Her glamor spell likely won't hold up in closer Godsblood quarters and she might cause a commotion. If she does go, she will have a more specific rescue goal in mind, though, so she'll be less likely to try and do fights to the death, if you're interested in more quick action or a fight in which she might be willing to retreat from before serious consequences occur.

As a general note, since this event could potentially involve a lot of fighting, I am not opposed to serious injury or worse if the situation is right! Hayame is very physically powerful in close quarters and a great archer at long and mid-range, but she's inexperienced when it comes to fighting magic things, and there are ways to work around her physical capabilities if she needs to take an L. Let me know what you'd like to get out of PVP things and we can work something out?

Edited to Add: for plot things I am actually kind of hoping to get her incapacitated through injury or temporarily captured towards the end of the event period, if anyone wants to do something like that!

[galdorleod]

Hello..... I have a magic bird-monster wizard to offer. One who would make for good target practice for an archer, but will probably be able to survive enough arrows to mess up even a big powerful centaur :3

[warmare]

A magic bird-monster wizard!? That sounds very fun to engage in some long range combat... and then some close-range combat???

What's Howl going to be getting up to in bird form? Or is there a chance to catch him transforming into it so that she knows he's a Kenoma?

[galdorleod]

So Howl will be doing his part to guard the location Vaeka is being held in, and from what I've plotted with others, that sounds like he's going to be outside with Misa basically standing guard and looking out for any Pleromas approaching. Misa is T2 so she's gonna be able to spot Pleroma from afar. Howl will probably have her on his back or something whenever he's circling around in the sky, but otherwise the two of them will be on the roof together.

Maybe they spot her from above, or maybe she gets the jump on them with arrows from the ground? And then they engage? (tbh I don't think she'll have a hard time knowing he's a Kenoma when he's gonna be this big bird man standing watch on the roof. we could just say she heard about the Aions guarding on the outside from others?)

[warmare]

Oops, sorry, I didn't realize you meant Godsblood! I'm afraid this is going to be kind of trickier than I thought 🤔 Which stinks, cause I'd love Howl CR, but-

I'm waiting on other CR's plotting atm to figure out if Hayame will end up in Godsblood for sure or not, and if she does it will theoretically be a rescue mission of an aion in trouble less than trying to rescue Vaeka ;;

If you don't mind waiting a while I'll find out if she's going to Godsblood or not, maybe we could arrange a different sort of encounter? If you'd prefer to get your chicks in a row earlier though I'd love a spot on the dance card next time, or maybe if he ends up in Venera in the later half of the event post execution day?

[galdorleod]

I don't mind waiting at all! Poke me if/when it ends up being doable and you wanna work something out. 👍

[warmare]

Thanks a bunch! I'd love to do something, so I'll keep you in the loop!!!

[warmare]

Hey there! I've got confirmation that the potential thing that would have drawn Hayame to Godsblood isn't going to be happening and I can't think of another IC excuse for it, so sadly I'm not going to be able to do fun bird shootings this time ;3;

I hope we can do something a different way, whether it's idk Regent speech glaring-eyes-meeting or next event or something in between!

[galdorleod]

No problem! Let's definitely earmark it for next time!!

[warmare]

I'd love that, thanks! I'll even use my one smile icon.

[sterngaze]

I know we discussed a little on plurk, but I may as well hit you up here so we can get our ducks all in a row. I asked vee for thoughts and the current plan is that makoto can see liem being naughty and colluding with hayame, and can maybe call in kenoma backup to take care of things, so we can have a little rumble. thoughts on this? I don't want to jump into rumbling IMMEDIATELY since I do want to... actually have them talk about stuff, but I thought it could be fun if everything went to shit.

[warmare]

That sounds perfect to me! We can have Liem and her run into each other, have her be ready to attack but then no ok Liem is being a bad Kenoma… confusion… turmoil… talking… Makoto shows up, Hayame tries to shoot the shit out of him… he can either retreat or call back-up, maybe a rumble???

I’m hella down

[sterngaze]

I believe the plan is for him to hit up eustace specifically, so this can be a reprise of both hayame and eustace going at it, and also a reprise of eustace beating liem up lmao.

[warmare]

wow Hayame gets to fight the guy who tried to Kenoma recruit her AND the guy who said she was an animal that needed to be put down?

Is it her birthday???

[locumstudentesquire]

Would Hayame like... To help out with making sure the Venerans being targeted actually make it the whole way out of the city to somewhere safe? :')

I'm attempting to organize an effort over here if you're interested, IF NOTHING ELSE we'll likely need bodyguard duty/people willing to kick some achamite/kenoma butt to help keep the heat off the defenseless Venerans... But I know Hayame is a jinba of many talents, so if there are other ways you'd like for her to help out there's plenty of room for that.

[warmare]

Ooooh, thanks for reaching out about this, I really appreciate it!!! That looks interesting!

I’m ngl after the Regent’s speech Hayame just wants to kill people foeofmfpejt BUT… if she’s approached with the very realistic point about how poorly she blends in physically with the crowds making bodyguarding/escorting people OUT of the city perhaps more suited for her talents… and also yeah tell her they might get attacked and she can maybe murder some Regent guys in the process and you’ve got her she’ll be in…

[locumstudentesquire]

Hell yeah hell yeah. Honestly it sounds like we may need heavy hitters/people willing to beat the snot out of or kill achamite guards LOL but this whole plan is all VERY loosely formed at this point (I have no idea what I'm doing), I just put a longer writeup with some ideas under the discussion level here https://aionooc.dreamwidth.org/5541.html?thread=2599845#cmt2599845

My guy probably wouldn't advocate for her to kill anyone bc he's a fuckin weenie but I'm sure one of the others involved might.

[warmare]

Please let her kill Achamite guards....................

Running over to that thread now!

And thankfully... all Ryunosuke has to say is that they might fight Regent servants and she will just. Go straight to "I can kill them" all on her own................. she's creative like that.

[locumstudentesquire]

LMAO Ryunosuke just like "oh... um... maybe avoid doing that? If you can..."

He doesn't want to argue with the gigantic angry centaur though,,

[warmare]

Ryunosuke... Look at this face.

Look at this face and tell her she can't have a treat.

... Also she'll just ask him what the point would be to letting guards get away and potentially tell people what they're doing? Better to just shoot them in the throat. Or the heart. Or the head.

[locumstudentesquire]

DS:LFKMDS:LKFMK:LDSfkln

OK do what you gotta do......... Hayame.......... just spare him the gory details, plz, he gets the picture.

[warmare]

…

Please don’t ask what’s in the bleeding bundle(s) she brings home with her, then.

[locumstudentesquire]

............

Yeah he'll keep his questions to himself for once. For his own sanity.

(It's heads, isn't it.)

[warmare]

...





(It's gonna be heads. You think she's gonna let the Regent talk to them like that and not take the heads?!?!?!)

[locumstudentesquire]

Hayame please..... he's not samurai enough for this......