synodiporia_ooc | Questing Country: The Next Jaunt.

QUESTING COUNTRY
July 22nd - August 26th

Nobody knows quite how Questing Country works. Any species who are capable of lucid dreams can enter it. Six Known Worlds are connected to it - planets which may or may not remember one another in the waking world, but whose Chosen have formed alliances through Questing Country for thousands of years. The landscape changes, but the place is real - anyone who dreams of Questing Country vanishes from their bed, and wakes up with the wounds, marks, or treasures they earned there. But a few things are clear: it taps into the most powerful beliefs in the minds of sentient beings. When those beliefs are too dangerous, Questing Country births strange talking beasts who lend abilities to the young, the only people hopeful and naive enough to believe one person really can change the world - and so, they’re the only people who ever have the chance to change it.

But there’s more to Questing Country than the Champions it anoints and their dangerous lives and uncertain fates. These troublesome beliefs - they take shape, too. The Fire Mushrooms range out from the place called Nuclear Winter. Hordes of Men in Black come from Conspiracy Country. If they’re not stopped here, they gain power in the dreams of the Known Worlds… and those are only a few of the more obvious ones.

Sometimes, though, the untapped powers of Questing Country find other shapes, as well. There are unstable nodes of energy called Valences that appear only a few times a generation… and when they do, Champions and Oracles and Adversaries all fling themselves into Questing Country with wild abandon. Because every Champion has some belief they’re fighting for, some hope they want to come true… and deep in their hearts, every Champion believes that one day, if they’re strong enough and pure enough, it will. The Valence is that belief, taken shape, the hope of hopes, the power to make dreams come true in an instant… but because Champions believe they have to prove themselves worthy, well, they’re right about that, too. To gain the Valence, they first have to succeed in a series of tests, tests that will send them against their friends and allies from across the worlds...

Age & Gender Swaps | Roles | Species | Casting Call | Bonds & Bonded | Skills | Calendar | World Info | Player Resources | Questions | Plotting

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Human - what it says on the tin.

Elf - elves come from a low-tech world of vast, sweeping forests and intense natural beauty and wildness. Given to music, woodcraft, art, & philosophy, elves are nimble and keen-eyed, but fragile & weak-willed, and have none of the benefits of technology, living rustic, simple lives.

Gorgon - Gorgons have brightly tinted skin, prehensile tentacles for hair which have sensitive eyespots & other sensorium, & the ability to slowly calcify what they touch or breathe on. An individualistic people who prefer to dwell underground, Gorgons are very practical, great architects & engineers, often cranky and withdrawn & with poor long-range vision & light sensitivity.

Hecatites - are humanoids who can grow crystalline structures from within their bodies. Hectatites have a great deal of scientific advancement, but they tend not to use tools except what they grow, instead focusing on the disciplined acquisition of knowledge & yogi-like control of themselves . Hecatites tire easily and are vulnerable to loud noises and bludgeoning, but have much keener intellects than other species.

Spartoi - warlike, with bone spurs, a scattering of scales, and a wide range of mutations, Spartoi are an authoritarian, impatient, and militaristic people. Passionate and loyal, they are not intellectual by nature and scavenge most of their tools and technology. Spartoi Champions have a shorter life expectancy and a greater chance of going Adversary or Pillar than they do Oracle, but Spartoi Oracles are remarkable for their psychological knowledge of how to bring peace and calm to any situation.

Vodyanoi - aquatic, with finned ears, shining, smooth scales, & mild hydrokinetic abilities, the Vodyanoi are a naturally timid race of observers, slight in stature, with quick maturation and shorter lifespans. As such, Vodyanoi advance from Champion to Oracle very quickly, so Vodyanoi Champions tend to be overworked and yet inexperienced, burdened with far too much advice and inclined to indecision & paralysis.

Other - players may feel free to devise other species that play with fantasy and magical tropes and have about this mixture of strengths and weaknesses.