Fantasy ooc for elemental royals

For out of character discussions about the plot, the characters, or whatever is happening in your day!

I'm here!

So, we're starting exactly where we left off? I think that makes it my turn, right?

I'm here as well.

yeah i believe you are next coso- the post log is linked to in the 'main' thread (see the top of this thread). Though we could potentially repost the older ones and retool them a bit if you'd like?

I would be okay with either starting where we left off and just ghosting the Dark Kingdom people for a bit or jumping ahead and saying that they already split ways. Whichever works better.

Maybe they took off in a rush to warn the dark kingdom ?

I could go either way, though if it's the latter, we should probably agree on some things before I write/finish my post.

Last time our characters discussed plans, Amarina and Cain suggested they send help to the Fire Kingdom and warn the other Kingdoms of the impending war. Nima wanted to send her own soldiers to help the Dark Capitol and some messengers to the Fire Kingdom -- or at least riders to each of the capitols. And Dagon says that as long as the message is from him, his father will believe them.

So... Maybe they agree to send some soldiers to the Dark Kingdom with Viktor and his two, which would serve two purposes: the Light soldiers can protect the Dark trio from traitors, and the Dark Prince could legitimize the presence of Light soldiers in their lands. The Light soldiers can then help suppress the uprising, put out fires, etc, while Viktor works to convince his father that this is a set up.

Meanwhile, Dagon writes a letter to his father, and they get some messengers to send it that way.

Which leaves our characters..?

All of that sounds good to me. It gives a bit more logic to the "run off to warn the Dark Kingdom" idea for our disappearing trio.

How that leaves our characters I suppose depends on what's actually happening in the Light Kingdom. If the queen is dead, as Nima suspects, how will the traitors react to the heir revealing herself? How far does loyalty to Nima go and how long will that protect them? I can say for sure that, now that he knows what's happening with the Fire Kingdom, Dagon will want to go home asap. Depending on what direction we choose, there are many different reasons why he's not able to do so right away. For starting out, we can simply say that the messengers can travel faster. Still, I think the first thing we need to figure out is how the Light Kingdom ties into the Earth Kingdom's plan. Kill the queen to throw the kingdom into confusion and hope they don't recover in time to help either side in their neighbors' war?

That sounds like pretty good motivation to me. Especially if it's known that Nima would rather be a Commander than a Queen. Would explain why they killed her brother, too; they needed the weakest heir to rise to the Crown, under the assumption that her weakness will take the kingdom down on its own.

I think the Earth Kingdom hoping for internal collapse of the Bright Nation makes sense- It’s been several generations since they have really had any major external conflict with the other countries, so both Nima and her army are untested in many ways. Even if she was able to martial forces and attempt to meet Earth in battle, she is young (and perceived as reckless and arrogant, probably) and inexperienced and so are many of her fighters, so the Earth King might anticipate a bloody conflict, but a brief and final one.

The threat of outside interference is a common uniting factor between all factions in the Bright Nation and this would the first transfer of power caused by outside interference (Nima’s mother led a rebellion against her cousin and aunt) since the formal creation of the Assembled, so the Earth King is right to suspect there will be chaos- Some will feel that they /must/ rally behind Nima, and that it would be a betrayal of the Throne not to retaliate…. And others will feel that the Nima’s mother specifically gave the Assembled more control than it had previously so as to prevent the consolidation of power, and to simply throw all their power behind the Commander as they would have in old times of war would be the betrayal… And on and on and on

I think that generally speaking, Bright Folk who live inside the valley would be loyal to Nima (not that they would agree with her, or support her, but they are probably not part of the conspiracy), but those who have lived in the other countries (as mercenaries or medics, the most common professions for expats) are DEF more susceptible. There are also more people like Ryet who are loyal to old prophecies and willing to collude with the enemy in their hopes to make those prophecies come to pass, and I was also scheming that one of the two Assembled members from Yarrin was taking bribes from the Earth King or some similar corruption.

But Nima is a fairly beloved public figure, so I think they would be able to travel in Bright territory unhindered just because obstructing or harming her would be so unpopular- Like if someone tried to attack her while walking down the streets of Yarrin, the townspeople would absolutely dish out some mob justice on the perpetrator, no questions asked, probably even if Nima asked them not to.

Sounds great!

So now the question is, where does that leave our characters now? We could begin after they agree to send the soldiers and the Dark trio back (rather than repeating all this in dialogue), but would you like us to start before Nima officially reveals herself and rallies the troops? Should we skip that too and go directly into tackling the issue of getting Dagon home?

i think it makes sense to just skim over the sending of soldiers/Dark trio- i guess it kind of depends if you guys want all of the heirs to be announced, or just nima? or maybe just nima and dagon? with the exception of the Assembled members or people from other nations, there probably isn't a high chance of recognition for the other heirs unless they chose to make themselves known. Dagon would probably be received fairly positively or at least neutrally- no one is morally opposed to helping him get home or offering aide to the Fire Kingdom, but there may be concerns of if it is an appropriate course of action to get involved in the other nations' affairs, etc.... Whereas I don't think the water siblings would be made to feel very welcome!

maybe i could make write up a set-up in which Nima has already recruited their new friends from lunch into helping the dark trio get home and get word to the Fire Kingdom and now they are having an audience with the Assembled from Yarrin to discuss their options for getting the others home?

(Edare could diplomatically introduce them as 'Prince Dagon, our trusted ally from the Fire Kingdom who we must help return safely home' and Amarina and Cain as 'our new friends from the Islands delegation who bravely joined us in the fight against the traitors. Who we should strive to also get home and/or at least get any information about the situation in their homelands, as thanks for their protection of the Commander in these trying times. Oh, their titles? Ah- Lesser nobility of some sort? They have such unusual rankings of power over there, I hardly understand it, but I'm sure they are important enough that they could put in a good word about us to their own Throne, but surely not important enough to be concerned about it')

Just to make sure I understand -- you want to skip ahead to the team meeting up with the Assembled? Sounds like that could work.

And yes, Amarina would probably insist on keeping their real identities as secret as possible.

if that works for you guys? i feel badly cuz we're missing you're chance to reply but also this way you'll have something to reply to

Don't feel bad! I don't mind, because honestly I'm struggling a bit to get back into the swing of it. I actually feel really guilty about holding us up for so long. I think this is better, all things considered.

awesome, i should have something up tomorrow !

I agree. It's been long enough now that I think we just need to start somewhere to get things rolling again. I don't have any particular idea of where that place should be, so I'm good with what was suggested above.

im gonna post it in chunks, because its getting long(ish)

okay, done!

feel free to take any liberties with new or offscreen characters as needed (which of them is the traitor.... HMMMMM)

So, are we continuing with normal paying order, or..?

If we are, I know that makes it my turn. Sorry for the delay. I work at a summer camp, and we're about halfway through our crazy busy time. I'm off today though, so I will try to get a reply up tonight.

It's all good! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't holding the RP up even more than I already have. x__x

So obviously Tuesday didn't happen. I promise I haven't forgotten though.

eh, no worries! I've been pretty busy myself so its prolly for the best