The Powers That Be ([personal profile] powersthatbe) wrote in [community profile] synodiporia_ooc2018-01-07 04:33 pm

OUROBOROS RETROGRADE - Jaunt info

Ouroboros Retrograde
A timey-wimey return to Questing Country
January 15-February 24


Questing Country is a dreamspace shared by the young people of many species. In Questing Country, lucid dreamers are empowered by magic and guided by spirit companions to fight their own nightmares, slay the collective nightmares of their people, change the world by learning how to be heroes in waking and dreaming worlds, and literally change the dreams of all people for the better. The landscape of Questing Country 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. Only young and innocent people are 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. The nightmares have their own magic. 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. The most famous are Valences - collective wishes that can be sought and achieved so that one young dreamer can make their hope into reality - but there are others. A year after the last Valence was achieved, the constant Aspect of Questing Country that allows clear communication between Spirit Companions and Dreamers has passed into retrograde, which happens every so often, rendering messages unclear. More unusually, the constant Aspect of Questing Country that accounts for linear time is also in retrograde, causing those boundaries we take for granted between past and future to grow hazy, bridging times of crisis, and allowing the Powers of the past and the Wisdom of the future to collaborate on their dreams.

-Several centuries in the past, the Champions that fight the nightmares caused by the Diabolin Empire, who are themselves seen as Waking Nightmares more monster than being - these brave, outmatched Champions seeking to free the elves and the Hecatites from slavery - are dealing with something terrifying to them beyond even the Diabolin or the mystery of an Ouroboros Retrograde: the Rise of the Adversaries. These Champions and Oracles know that a Champion who gives in to despair becomes a Pillar, but they have never heard of a Dreamer who fights on their own behalf and defies the wisdom of Spirit Companions, and they may not trust corrupt futures in which these threatening new Adversaries are common. Surely, this is a future to be averted.

-In the first year after an unexpected Double Valence, in addition to both Communication and Time being out of their usual alignments, the Dreamers know to expect the return of the Travelers - a people pulled from their worlds by mysterious dream-beings like and unlike their companions, but infinitely more powerful. The Oracles noticed when so many Champions vanished after the Valence was achieved, discovered why, and predicted the Travelers’ return.

-And a generation later, in the first year of the Starquakes, the Dreaming people have been troubled by the vast and powerful dreams of alien minds. Portions of Questing Country have vanished in dreams of light and fire, or of cold and aurora and static, the march of mountains, storms of dust, seas of lava - and yet none of them harmful, simply overwhelming. But harmful or not, the Quests of Champions are interrupted when whole dream-continents vanish, and their ability to shape the Known Worlds is disrupted. Worse, their faith in that ability may be shaken; if a generation of Champions learns and believes that they are helpless to defy larger forces, it may become the truth - permanently...

As the three timelines temporarily converge, can the generations of the past and future make sense of each other’s dreams, worldviews, and agendas, and rediscover the power, wisdom, agency, and resistance to change the Known Worlds?

We can only hope.

The Known Worlds | Species | Dream Forms | Roles | Changing Roles | Timelines & Summaries | Bonds & Bonded Groups | Casting Call/Plot Role Announcements | Glossary | Skills | Calendar | Who’s the What of Which | Player Resources | Questions/FAQ | Plotting
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2018-01-10 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
For clarification re: Starquake era stuff:

Regular humans, not just the Conditioned, can end up in QC while in cryosleep, right?

Also, what sort of names are common among the starfaring humans? Is it mixed race sort of names, one country that took off with it more, etc.?

And one other general clarification - if characters keep Champion (etc.) magic, is that only available if they're lucid dreaming, or can they manifest it 'in the real world', as it were?
Edited 2018-01-10 07:09 (UTC)

[personal profile] powersthatare 2018-01-10 07:09 am (UTC)(link)

1: An Investigator could take a new archetype if their previous archetype had been an Infilself's; otherwise we'd want a role change.

  1. We apologize for nothing. Mwahaha.
wholeheaded: (shake this world off my shoulders)

[personal profile] wholeheaded 2018-01-10 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Fabulous, thanks, I've been sitting here thinking Anole-from-X-Men and am glad I wasn't COMPLETELY off the mark. All that other info is also excellent, thanks again.
professorwolf: (Default)

[personal profile] professorwolf 2018-01-10 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
So it doesn't repel them like it would regular dreamworld monsters, or force the merge out of the person at all? (That was my biggest curiosity XD )
firstcreed: (Default)

[personal profile] firstcreed 2018-01-10 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
1: One last question regarding that track: does being memory restored out of an infiltration count as investigating? (My impression was that it ends up working like a infiltrator persona but I could be wrong)

New Question: could a Dreamer with a really shitty childhood start as a Pillar, but then through childhood resiliance and new friends and such in QC end up moving to Oracle or Champion (or Adversary for that matter) later? I'd guess that Oracle is definitely possible, but on thinking on it, I'm far less sure if Champion is possible and I'm never quite sure how much Adversaries run on hope.
amadine: (Default)

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[personal profile] amadine 2018-01-10 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
If a character starts the Jaunt with Infiltrator Persona active, would it be possible for them to then use Memory Immersion to fully Infiltrate?
loyalrebel: (Default)

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[personal profile] loyalrebel 2018-01-10 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Can a pogemon partner infiltrate or investigate (as their partner does) as a Spirit Animal/Familiar?

If so, would they be able to take it as a Skill and use Volksgeist things if a True Bond exists between a pair of characters? Would spirit animal/familiar status function like a pogmentation or be a more permanent change?
whatspringislike: (Default)

[personal profile] whatspringislike 2018-01-10 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
It works like infiltrator persona.

Unfortunately, no. Everyone starts as a Champion - it is Champion-potential that Questing Country seeks out and draws in.

[personal profile] powersthatare 2018-01-10 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Correct.

[personal profile] powersthatare 2018-01-10 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Correct.

Any names used by any culture.

Travelers have used QC magic in the real world before - they could not do so in this universe, but in others, the rules are different.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[personal profile] powersthatare 2018-01-10 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooooh. Yes.

Re: QUESTIONS/FAQ

[personal profile] powersthatare 2018-01-10 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, yes, and like pogmentation.
papacerberus: (Default)

[personal profile] papacerberus 2018-01-10 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to make absolutely sure so here's what I planned: Infiltration (with Will as archetype; which Lupa already has the skill for) -> memory restoration -> Lupa acquires his own archetype (Branches) and takes that as a separate skill

Does that sound feasible to you, or would I have to put it off until post jaunt?

I can work with that. A struggling Champion going Pillar really fast and then getting helped back out of it. Actually can Pillars ever go back to being another role ever? I suppose that's the most important first question to ask. If the answer to the first question is yes, when a Pillar stops being a Pillar, can they potentially go back to Champion or Adversary?
whatspringislike: (Default)

[personal profile] whatspringislike 2018-01-10 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)

That can work.

A Pillar can, rarely, recover, but it takes something explosive enough to break their despair - a moment where they no longer feel apathetic, where they don't care that they no long believe they can make a difference, when the chips are down there's something they absolutely must do. In that moment, all the dream-power they've been soaking up and absorbing comes rushing back to their fingertips, a sort of Champion supernova moment. After the 'nova' fades, they'll take on whatever role is appropriate to their outlook.

whatspringislike: (Default)

[personal profile] whatspringislike 2018-01-10 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
As an example - in this clip, emotionally, Wyatt Earp is a pillar as he wades out into the river ignoring gunfire as irrelevant, and a Champion again as he starts shooting.
starshaper: (Default)

[personal profile] starshaper 2018-01-11 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
Misplaced Champion here o/
scarsolderthanyou: (Default)

[personal profile] scarsolderthanyou 2018-01-11 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
Stone is the Oracle from the Rise generation in the Council of Senpais! Anybody who needs info, he's your go-to old guy <3
loyalrebel: (red magic)

Re: PLOT ROLE ANNOUNCEMENTS

[personal profile] loyalrebel 2018-01-11 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Harbringer of Storms here!
lunchleader: (THIS is why you don't piss him off)

[personal profile] lunchleader 2018-01-11 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Right is the Oracle-sempai from the Starquakes generation! Anybody trying to learn more about the future? Go bother him!
bigbookofd: (:adversary)

Re: PLOT ROLE ANNOUNCEMENTS

[personal profile] bigbookofd 2018-01-11 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
Ringabel will be playing both the Adversary and Oracle of Resonance!
triggerhappytraitor: (Somebody talkin science?)

[personal profile] triggerhappytraitor 2018-01-11 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
So do Oracles have magic or not? There's no skill for them having magic, just having knowledge, which implies that they can't magic once they shift to that status, but plotting chat has implied otherwise? (Thematically, magic shifting to just support magic/buffs would make sense but again, no skill for it, so don't know if it's a Thing or not?)
galvanizer: (Default)

[personal profile] galvanizer 2018-01-11 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
Eidolon of Shadows here.
uzoda: (Henshin)

[personal profile] uzoda 2018-01-11 10:34 am (UTC)(link)
Kenzaki's the Arch-Adversary!
ninjayeehaw: (u sure about that)

[personal profile] ninjayeehaw 2018-01-11 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Are True Bonds formed between groups composed solely or majoritively of Adversaries very common?

I think it was established somewhere that a single Adversary's Spirit Animal in a volksgeist could potentially cause it to turn on the Bond group - what would happen if the volksgeist was composed of more than one, or only Adversary companions? not that it would happen i just really need to know now
reallymean: (Default)

[personal profile] reallymean 2018-01-11 02:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Allura will be the Freedom Fighter!

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