(((OOC:: As many of you know, Diritas is dead. So, presented before his consciousness is the following scenario. This is mostly to explain the poll beneath it. I want to make it clear that I am asking not the char's Diritas has interacted with, but rather those players who have interacted with him. So answer the poll not as a char, but with your own personal opinion. I also want to make it clear that the results of the poll are a strong influencing factor on what direction I take with Diritas in the future, assuming I bring him back. However, that does not mean I will necessarily choose to do as the majority of the poll indicates. He is still my char, and in the end I am the one who will have to play him. I do this poll, because Diritas has proven to have several different receptions and I am interested in what the community of rdi and my fellow players want to see happen. Also, if the poll does not work for some reason, feel free to reply to this post with your answer either IC or OOC. Just be sure to note how you are posting. So, without further ado and rambling whatnots" please enjoy and cast your answer! )))
Diritas opened his eyes to the visage of a beautiful woman. One he knew well though he had seen her face only a few times in his life. The eyes were unmistakable. Both shades of blue, but one was a bright sky blue that swirled with clouds and glowed with sunlight. The other eye was dotted with stars, the pupil a reflection of the moon in a pool of midnight blue. Her face was finely featured, the beauty of royalty evident in its structure. Her hair was a cascade of mahogany waves, and she was clad in nothing more than the massive wings of a golden eagle that curled and wrapped about her shoulders like a velvet downy gown. Before him stood his mother" Ashinabe, Guardian of the Balance, she who protected all things under the skies, whose domain was magic and ferocity.
"Mother?"
Tears welled in his eyes. He knew he was dead, but it didn't matter where he was or how he had come to stand before the great spirit. The ancient one who had given birth to him now stood before him and he had so many questions. But after that one word" he was unable to speak. Why wouldn't she let him! He tried to reach for her" but he couldn't move. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't even close his eyes and go back to that blackness that she had pulled him from.
Ashinabe nodded, her eyes giving nothing away as the timeless swirls of day and night regarded him carefully. Then she spoke again. Her voice was all the endless power of nature. Rushing rivers and roaring tides, rumbling earthquakes and violent volcanoes, raging fires and striking lightning, even the reserved power of the sleeping mountains and ocean depths, the vastness of the skies". All of it resonated through her tones.
"You must bear your burden and find balance my son. Or be damned" I will not save you again. Choose."
She held out her arm, and he could just barely see the edges of his vision. There" on the horizon of his vision' stood his father. The Spirit of the Northwind, he who covered the world in ice and ruled the seas, who spoke with a breath of storms and whose very word bent the skies around the world. His eyes blazed blue, white hair that fell down his back as fair and pure as snow. His face was regal, strong and sure as the white silks that covered his body barely swayed in the winds that constantly emanated from him.
As soon as he registered the second Great Spirit's form, the Northwind stood beside Ashinabe....When the Northwind spoke, a great tempest rose around them, glaciers formed and cracked, oceans rose and bowed, the skies trembled and the world was cold. Ice and snow blew through his body as Diritas listened to the words of his father.
"My son. I offer you peace, respite from the world of men. Embrace death, or continue your trials. I will not offer again. Choose."
That was when he saw it, standing behind the images of his parents. His reflection, as his soul appeared. It was a torn and haggard thing, scarred and broken. Darkness wrapped about it like a cloak, attempting to smother the small but growing light within it. Great sucking wounds were carved into his body, and inside them were the suffering and captured souls he had collected over the decades. They burned in black flames as they screamed, but their screams were indecipherable from the screams of the hunched and suffering soul that held them to its will. Chains wreathed in rust and spikes wrapped around the figure, blood poured from him and soaking the links. The soul was obviously dying, and it looked at him even as screams echoed from its depths.
When it spoke, it was quiet, insistent, and almost seductive. Its voice was blood and suffering, fire and ice, deception and rage, violence and cruelty, a darkness that consumed and destroyed. It was a voice that danced on the edges of madness.
"I offer you freedom, the power to make them all suffer as you have suffered. I will never stop offering. Choose."
Diritas could not speak, struck into silence by the power of both of his parents. After what seemed like ages....finally Diritas found his own voice.
"I choose"?
Diritas opened his eyes to the visage of a beautiful woman. One he knew well though he had seen her face only a few times in his life. The eyes were unmistakable. Both shades of blue, but one was a bright sky blue that swirled with clouds and glowed with sunlight. The other eye was dotted with stars, the pupil a reflection of the moon in a pool of midnight blue. Her face was finely featured, the beauty of royalty evident in its structure. Her hair was a cascade of mahogany waves, and she was clad in nothing more than the massive wings of a golden eagle that curled and wrapped about her shoulders like a velvet downy gown. Before him stood his mother" Ashinabe, Guardian of the Balance, she who protected all things under the skies, whose domain was magic and ferocity.
"Mother?"
Tears welled in his eyes. He knew he was dead, but it didn't matter where he was or how he had come to stand before the great spirit. The ancient one who had given birth to him now stood before him and he had so many questions. But after that one word" he was unable to speak. Why wouldn't she let him! He tried to reach for her" but he couldn't move. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't even close his eyes and go back to that blackness that she had pulled him from.
Ashinabe nodded, her eyes giving nothing away as the timeless swirls of day and night regarded him carefully. Then she spoke again. Her voice was all the endless power of nature. Rushing rivers and roaring tides, rumbling earthquakes and violent volcanoes, raging fires and striking lightning, even the reserved power of the sleeping mountains and ocean depths, the vastness of the skies". All of it resonated through her tones.
"You must bear your burden and find balance my son. Or be damned" I will not save you again. Choose."
She held out her arm, and he could just barely see the edges of his vision. There" on the horizon of his vision' stood his father. The Spirit of the Northwind, he who covered the world in ice and ruled the seas, who spoke with a breath of storms and whose very word bent the skies around the world. His eyes blazed blue, white hair that fell down his back as fair and pure as snow. His face was regal, strong and sure as the white silks that covered his body barely swayed in the winds that constantly emanated from him.
As soon as he registered the second Great Spirit's form, the Northwind stood beside Ashinabe....When the Northwind spoke, a great tempest rose around them, glaciers formed and cracked, oceans rose and bowed, the skies trembled and the world was cold. Ice and snow blew through his body as Diritas listened to the words of his father.
"My son. I offer you peace, respite from the world of men. Embrace death, or continue your trials. I will not offer again. Choose."
That was when he saw it, standing behind the images of his parents. His reflection, as his soul appeared. It was a torn and haggard thing, scarred and broken. Darkness wrapped about it like a cloak, attempting to smother the small but growing light within it. Great sucking wounds were carved into his body, and inside them were the suffering and captured souls he had collected over the decades. They burned in black flames as they screamed, but their screams were indecipherable from the screams of the hunched and suffering soul that held them to its will. Chains wreathed in rust and spikes wrapped around the figure, blood poured from him and soaking the links. The soul was obviously dying, and it looked at him even as screams echoed from its depths.
When it spoke, it was quiet, insistent, and almost seductive. Its voice was blood and suffering, fire and ice, deception and rage, violence and cruelty, a darkness that consumed and destroyed. It was a voice that danced on the edges of madness.
"I offer you freedom, the power to make them all suffer as you have suffered. I will never stop offering. Choose."
Diritas could not speak, struck into silence by the power of both of his parents. After what seemed like ages....finally Diritas found his own voice.
"I choose"?