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

Champion - “magical girls,” anointed by Spirit Animals, come from any world on which sentient beings dream. Because they have great hope and great selflessness, they are empowered to defend their worlds from the powers of negative thought and nightmare, healing the psyches of their species by literally combating metaphorical threats. Young enough to not know what is impossible, Champions’ fearlessness and innocence is the root of their power. Champion Magic tends to be showy, grandiose, and direct, unless their Archetype is not. Their keyword is HOPE.

Adversary - some Champions lose their selfless heroism before they lose their naivete. They become Adversaries - free agents, radially independent powers seeking their own good. Adversaries may only be a “phase” a Champion goes through on their way to being an Oracle, a Pillar, or even a Champion again. As such, while an Adversary may be hostile to Champions, Champions are rarely hostile towards them. Adversaries are not evil, or even misguided exactly - they simple prioritize their own freedom and survival above greater causes, and walk their own paths. An Adversary’s Spirit Animal sometimes temporarily becomes a Doppleganger, an insubstantial image of the Adversary that tries to make trouble for them, as they reject its guidance. An Adversary’s magic is usually more subtle, indirect and manipulative than a Champion’s, sacrificing a little punch for more deliberate effect. An Adversary’s key word is AGENCY.

Oracle - as Champions age, they learn what is possible and what is not, gain experience, lose some degree of hope, and so their power fades. As it fades, however, it transmutes into wisdom, vision, and knowledge in their chosen Archetype. Oracles’ Spirit Animals become Familiars, perfectly comprehensible to them at last, but unable to communicate with anyone else. Adversaries who become Dark Oracles devoted to themselves lose their Spirit Animals entirely; they become full-time Dopplegangers. Most Oracles are mentors and resources for Champions, still devoted to their cause but less able to take action on their own. Their keyword is KNOWLEDGE.

Pillar - a Pillar is a very different way a Champion can go wrong. A Pillar has Power, Knowledge, and Agency. But a Pillar has lost Hope. Pillars are burned out, jaded by their experiences, and while they still find themselves drawn into supernatural crises and situations, they wish merely to be left alone and rest, not to fight. A Pillar cannot use their magic, doesn’t care about their knowledge, has no use for their agency. But all these qualities symbolically and supernaturally give them a great reservoir that they can, on the rare occasion they begin to care, lend to others. or which they can use to endure or avoid the supernatural. Nonsentient monsters do not attack Pillars. Spells wash off them without effect. Strange phenomena are repelled by them, if only for a few feet. A pillar no longer has a Spirit Animal of any kind. A Pillar’s keyword is RESISTANCE.