The Church of the Servants of Hyne

Posts : 75

Spoiler:

Lorenzo awoke the next morning, a bit more refreshed than usual. Under ordinary circumstances, the Eyes of Hyne; the name he had given the power in his eyes that allowed him to detect magical energies, had prevented him from sleeping properly, because he, himself, as it turned out, was a powerful source of magical energy, and whenever he closed his eyes, his own eyelids would begin glowing against them. It made it difficult to sleep, and Lorenzo had had a bit of insomnia ever since obtaining this ability. Not that he regretted it for a moment, though; the power to see magical energies was far too useful for someone in his position. It had proven to be invaluable just the previous day, when he used his miraculous vision to solve the riddles of Odin and obtain the Gungnir. But, last night, the sound of the storm, through these thick stone walls, proved to be really quite soothing… and as such, Lorenzo did, in fact, manage to get some good sleep, for the first time in a long time.

He sat up, yawning and stretching his arms up over his head. Oh, right, he had almost forgotten. Gungnir was not his only reward for solving Odin’s many riddles, not by a long shot. Lorenzo had also received a large, intimidating, metallic gauntlet. This gauntlet was entirely empty, however, and seemed to react to Lorenzo’s mind, or spirit. It was an artifact of unknown magic, and an excellent prosthetic. You see, Lorenzo had lost his left arm not so long ago… or at least, Lorenzo thought it wasn’t that long ago… it was difficult to keep track of time, since he had passed out and awoken in different locations multiple times since then. But, the muscle of his shoulder and bicep had not had time to deteriorate into a shriveled nub just yet, so he was still under the impression that the injury was somewhat recent. Of course, now that he had this heavy gauntlet hanging from his stump, he sort of doubted that the muscles would ever atrophy; the weight and movement of his gauntlet prosthetic allowed for more exercise than would ordinarily be possible, after all.

The gauntlet itself was a dark, hard metal, almost pitch black. Lorenzo had never seen anything quite like it. And it responded to the slightest thought, as easily as moving a natural arm. He tried doing a few finger exercises, touching his index finger to his thumb, then his middle finger to his thumb, then the ring finger, and then pinky. Then, doing it all again, in reverse order. And then repeating it once more, up the hand in one direction, down the hand in the other direction, faster and faster, just to test how responsive the gauntlet was. As far as he could tell, this prosthetic was every bit as dexterous as his original hand was. He didn’t have a high speed camera or anything, so he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure of that, but he was confident that the magic of this sleeve worked in complete synchronization with his own mind. It felt a bit cold against his skin, likely because of the rain, and he realized he may need to wrap it in a blanket at night, to prevent giving himself the chills. But all in all, this arm itself was an amazing boon.

He wondered why Odin and deigned to give it to him, though the answer seemed quite obvious once he thought about it. The spear Odin had given him, Gungnir… as magnificent a weapon as it was, it was still a spear. Still a two handed weapon. If anything, the glory of the spear meant that he’d need to use both hands even more. So, this new gauntlet, this prosthetic spirit replacement was given to him simply so that he could best use the other gifts Odin had given him, the spear, and with it, Odin himself.

Marveling at his own luck, eternally grateful to Odin for giving him these gifts, and to The Great Hyne for sending him on the path to find Odin to begin with, he began to pack up his camp and set off. He looked over his map carefully, no longer worrying to keep an eye out for predators as he walked. He was no longer helpless; he no longer had anything to fear from the likes of everyday fiends or monsters. He was in the wilderness south east of Esthar. Esthar itself was blocked off by a massive force field and hologram projection field. No one could get in or out, from any direction, without the President’s personal say so. So, he couldn’t go that way. His only option was to head north, to the shore, and then hope that he might flag down a ship to take him to civilization. The northern shore of this area was a place called the Centra Crater. This name often meant the place got confused with the Northern Crater in the Cetra continent to the far north, but in reality, they couldn’t be more different.

Well, actually, now that Lorenzo thought on it, they were a lot alike. The Northern Crater had been caused by a massive collision with a meteorite. It wasn’t entirely common knowledge, a secret kept by the Shin Ra corporation, but inside that meteorite was an alien life form, the calamity from the skies, Jenova. Jenova, using its unusual powers, then systematically eradicated the Cetra, the race of people, commonly referred to as The Ancients, who had settled the northern regions. Meanwhile, the Centra Crater was caused by a Lunar Cry. The Lunar Cry was a natural disaster that happened once or twice every millennium or so, where trillions of monsters fell from the sky in a concentrated beam that decimated the land beneath it, and leaving swarms of monsters that covered more or less the entire rest of the world. The Centra race, and indeed the entire Centra continent, was utterly destroyed the last time the Lunar Cry happened.

Or, at least, the last naturally occurring Lunar Cry anyway. There existed a weapon, discovered and developed by Sorceress Adel, that triggered Lunar Cries artificially. The weapon, appropriately named the Lunatic Pandora, would have allowed Adel to single-handedly taken over the world. However, Adel held off on unleashing this power, when she became obsessed with finding an heir. Presumably she’d resume her march of global conquest once she had found a suitable girl, using the Pandora to decimate all that stood against her, but fortunately it never came to that, as the current President of Esthar, President Loire, dethroned her, effectively stopping the war from within. One of his very first acts as President was to sink the Lunatic Pandora into the sea, so that it could never be used to terrorize the people of Gaia. The people of the world had no idea just how close to utter destruction they had truly come before the Sorceress Wars ended and Esthar vanished.

The power of the Lunar Cry was impressive indeed… and today, a thousand years after the last Lunar Cry, the Centra Crater was still essentially a giant hole in the ocean, a few jutting rocks shooting out here and there, from where the land beneath the sea split wide open, the ruins of this ancient civilization making a beautiful coral reef. But, this reef made it an excellent fishing spot for the people of Fisherman’s Horizon, a settlement across the sea a ways to the north. The rocks also made it a good place for privateers and outlaws to hide from the authorities. But so long as they were willing to pick Lorenzo up, he didn’t rightly care. He could always slaughter them all and take their ship for his own, if they tried to rob him or force him into slave labor.

When he did finally arrive at the shoreline, however, late that afternoon, he realized that there was indeed a third option. True, he may be picked up by fisherman, or by pirates, or, alternatively, he could fail in his attempts to flag down a ship, and end up having walked across the entire continent (width wise, not length wise) for nothing. Sure enough, after the second day, sitting on the shore, signal fire going, he was about ready to give up. Two days may not seem like very long to wait for rescue, but when you have no food or water, it most definitely is. He was faced with the option of building a raft and braving the rocky waters in hopes of drifting to civilization, or else waiting a little longer, and risking not having enough energy to build a raft later if he needed to. Fortunately, this decision was made for him, when a ship came into view. After a few castings of his most exuberant magic, Lorenzo successfully caught the crew’s attention, and an hour later, was aboard.

This vessel was, as he expected, a fishing vessel out of the floating city of Fisherman’s Horizon. Fisherman’s Horizon was an interesting place. For one thing, it was a city built entirely on the ocean, using a series of metal plates and docks, not all that dissimilar to Midgar, except minus the factories and pollution. Fisherman’s Horizon was shaped a bit like a large bowl, with the majority of the city resting along the outer ring or rim of the bowl, while the interior was nothing but solar panels, providing energy for the city in a clean and reliable way. Again, unlike Midgar. To be fair, though, Midgar simply did not have the technology to sustain solar power. And, with Mako Energy being so abundant, they have very little reason to seek out any other forms of energy. But, Fisherman Horizon’s architecture was just one part of what made it interesting. In fact, in Lorenzo’s eyes, the structure of the small out of the way city was entirely mundane.

But, what was much more interesting, was that the city of Fisherman’s Horizon was founded entirely by Estharians, much like himself, who fled from Esthar way back when the Sorceress Adel first came into power. A smart move, it turned out, considering Adel’s actions as ruler. This meant two things, however; firstly, that these men and women were likely of a similar mindset to himself, considering similar cultural influences, and secondly, that they might just have a distrust of Sorceresses. This last bit was a bit of an assumption of sorts, but considering that the entire world became uneasy at the word, it wasn’t too hard to come to the conclusion that these people might be as well, considering their history. Which meant, they might be receptive to hearing the holy teachings. He conveyed this idea with one of the crew, who corrected him on one point. “Nay, we did not leave Esth’ r because of the Sors’ ress” he grumbled “We be peace lovin’ folk. We left ‘cuz tha’ Sors’ ress gone declared war. If ye be lookin fer hateful minds, ye tain’t be findin’ ‘em here. But I wun’t be stoppen ya from lookin’.” It took a few moments for Lorenzo to decipher this, but he essentially took it to mean “you want to preach, then go for it.”

And so it came to pass that the next day Lorenzo wound find himself in the galley, a small group of five or six men and woman sitting around him, listening to his words as he spoke about the evils of the Sorceresses and the glories of the Great Hyne. He was unsure how much was actually sticking with them, though. They could just be listening because they were bored; the ship had already filled its hold and was returning to port with its winnings, so there was nothing for the fishermen to do in the meantime. Still, Lorenzo had to try to reach them anyway. If enough people listened, surely someone would be affected by his words.

Now, as these people were from Esthar, they already knew the tale of Hyne. In fact, one or two of them even already went so far as to revere Hyne as a god, as he had been depicted in the stories. Still, there were those on the ship who knew not who Hyne was, and so, Lorenzo started from the very beginning. He explained how the Great God Hyne had lived on Gaia at the dawn of time. That how, over the millennia, the monsters that roamed Gaia became a growing nuisance. He told of how, annoyed by these monsters, Hyne took the entire lot of them, and carried them off to the moon, where he left them there to rot. He told about how Hyne grew tired from this long trip, and decided to rest, but when he sat down, he found that there was a mountain blocking his view of the sea. Doing the only logical thing, Hyne created a multi purpose tool that he named “humanity”. This tool was unique, in that it could create more of itself, if it needed to. Hyne instructed “humanity” to clear out the mountain, so that when he awoke, he would have a clear view of the sunrise over the ocean. And with that, he fell into a deep slumber that lasted many many years.

Now, humanity succeeded in their task of destroying the mountain, but with Hyne still not awake yet, they were unsure what else to do. And so, left to their own devices, humanity grew, reproduced, and developed a culture for itself. Years later, however, when Hyne awoke, he was most displeased with the people. He had instructed them to remove the mountain, and they had, but he had not instructed them to reproduce. The world was crowded once more, just as it was before Hyne moved all the monsters away. This annoyed Hyne, angered him. In retaliation to the world, once again, being too crowded, Hyne rose, and began to burn the little humans. The children. The humans, naturally, retaliated. Such weakness is human nature. War broke out. The humans were, of course, no match for the likes of God. But, for some reason or another, most likely out of mercy, Hyne ceased his attack. He offered a deal to the humans; if they left him in peace, he would grant humanity half of his immeasurable Godly power. The humans agreed, and Hyne gave them a piece of his own body. This, however, started a new war, as the humans fought amongst themselves over which of the many tribes should be the one to hold this power.

Decades, even centuries, passed, and eventually one tribe, known as the Zebalgas, were victorious. The tribe, led by a dark king, travelled deep into a forest, where they attempted to harness the powers of Hyne. But, the piece of Hyne’s body was unresponsive to their commands. As they continued their attempts to use Hyne’s power, a man revealed stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to the Zebalga tribe. This man was the great sage Vascaroon, a holy man, and messenger of Hyne. He informed the men that Hyne had gone, and that the piece of Hyne’s body they had received was powerless. It was described as being similar to a snake or lizard casting off its dead skin. It was all a cunning ruse by Hyne, presumably to teach humanity the dangers of seeking power. Hyne himself, as it turned out, had vanished, with his powers intact. However, that is not the end of our story. Hyne had, in truth, separated his powers out into thousands of pieces, and placed each piece inside of many young women. Why young women? Because, the world, at that time, felt as though young women were weak and powerless creatures that needed protecting. Arrogant man, stubborn as they were, would not think to look for Hyne in such a place, and as such, his powers were hidden from the humans for quite some time. But not forever, as a few generations later, Hyne’s powers began to fester and take root. The Sorceresses were born.

This much had been common knowledge, this was the tale any child in Esthar or Galbadia or Balamb would have grown up with. Anyone who knew anything about the Sorceresses knew this version of their origins… it was at this point in the story, however, that Lorenzo was able to add to the tale. Explain what happened next. The people of the world grew, thanks to Hyne’s hidden tutelage. It was harsh, and it was cruel, but it was necessary. It was through the war against Hyne that humanity learned to band together for the greater good, and it was through the war with each other, over the cast off skin of Hyne, that humanity learned of the evils that lurked between their own hearts. And, even now that Hyne’s essence was scattered all across the world, the lessons for humanity were still coming. The interactions between the earliest Sorceresses taught humanity both the joys and the terrors of the emotion called love. It also taught humanity the meaning of self sacrifice. All of these lessons and notions that would not have been possible without the glory of Hyne.

He then told the tale of the earliest Sorceresses... and how eventually, the tradition of the Sorceress Knights was first established. Hyne, placing his powers within the young women, was intended to be a temporary measure, to teach humanity the value of equality, and not judging books by their covers. Hyne’s powers were intended to show the virtues of women, as well as shock the men who believed themselves to be the more powerful sex. This backfired, however, as Hyne divided his power too much. Spread it too thin. He no longer had consciousness, and once the lesson was learned, he was no longer call his powers back from within the women’s bodies. But, each speck of his power still retained Hyne’s subconscious mind within it.

And so, each Sorceress past, present, and future, is destined to eventually go mad, as their own minds battle against Hyne’s. Because, you see, Hyne’s power wants to be reformed, reunited. Each speck of power within each Sorceress is reaching out for other Sorceresses. In the early days, when Sorceresses were numerous, after they had lost their minds to Hyne’s power, they would systematically seek each other out, and kill one another, taking the other’s piece of Hyne’s power for themselves. And, so, almost naturally, Hyne’s powers began to reconstitute itself, Sorceress by Sorceress. And, those who still worshipped Hyne, took vows. Vows to protect the remaining pieces of Hyne’s power. And vow’s to facilitate the power’s transfer into a new Sorceress host when the current Sorceresses reached the ends of their lives… That was the beginning of the Sorceress’ Knights. It was almost a romantic position, protecting a young woman from harm, and being with her as she slipped into insanity, and standing by her, all the way up to her death. Which, of course, was part of the lesson.

Sorceresses Adel, however, did not have a knight. When she went insane, there was no one to mediate, no one to direct her towards other Sorceresses, to talk her down, and keep collateral damage to a minimum. It was pure chaos. Lorenzo continued his stories, mostly about famous Sorceresses throughout history, and the evil that they wrought. But he continually returned to the same point; Hyne’s power, locked within the Sorceresses, WANTS to be reunited. Hyne WANTS to be revived. And, the only way that could happen is if Sorceresses died. They had fallen out of Hyne’s favor, and had held onto his powers for far too long... A lot of the crew of the ship was with him, up until this point… But, then he went a step further, saying that, to resurrect Hyne, he was on a quest to kill the Sorceresses. Many of the pacifistic people would scowl and sneer at this idea. Lorenzo half expected the entire ship to turn on him at this point. And, publicly, they did. The galley grew silent as Lorenzo finished his speech, rallying the men and women into action. But, as Lorenzo lay in bed that night, thinking to himself that it’d be a long trip to shore, a piece of paper slid underneath the cabin door. He got up to read the note, and written on it were three words. I believe you.

And with that, Lorenzo had renewed fervor, repeating his sermon and storytelling three times a day, from then out, usually to a group of eight or so crew members. After every sermon usually six or seven of the eight or so gathered would leave in disgust, but one, maybe two, if he was lucky, would seem thoughtful after his speeches. A few days later, he had started seeing familiar faces in the group, two or three of the crew members had taken his words to heart, and had been coming for continued sermons. Realizing that, if he’s going to be preaching to the same group of people over and over, he’d have to mix it up some, he decided to take a page from the book of other religions (not literally, of course), and instead focus each meeting on one story, on one major lesson each time. This actually seemed to help his popularity quite a bit, as well, seeing as he wasn’t talking about murder every meeting anymore. By the time they had arrived at Fisherman’s Horizon a few weeks later, he had really gotten the hang of preaching, and had three or four definite believers behind him.

Of course, then he was faced with a new problem. Because, while he did have handful of followers now, he also had more than a handful of people who didn’t quite want him around, preaching his hate and violence. Once he was ashore, he had to tone down his sermons just a bit, to stay under the radar of the peace-loving Mayor Dobe. As it turned out, though, this was easier than he would have thought, as he was constantly distracted by the new developments regarding a large meteor heading towards Gaia. This meteor had first been tagged by the Estharian government, and since Fisherman’s Horizon was built entirely by former Estharian citizens, naturally this radio broadcast was the talk of the town. Why had Esthar broken seventeen years of silence for something as mundane as a rock? The people of Fisherman’s Horizon were baffled. But, they, much like the rest of the world, seemed more at ease with the idea of Esthar as a whole. Perhaps they weren’t as war-mongering as they had originally thought. Was it wrong of them to have fled Esthar to begin with? Such whispers were shooting around, and Lorenzo, who actually was from Esthar, knew there was something else going on.

True, President Loire may well have been the most compassionate man on the entire fucking planet, but he put the needs of his people first, always. He wouldn’t break radio silence unless it was a really serious issue, and in reality, this meteor wasn’t. According to the reports, it was set to land in bum fuck nowhere Mysidia. Far away from civilization, and safe, all things considered. So, Lorenzo really had no idea what to make of this. But, he did take it as an opportunity. After all, if people here in Fisherman’s Horizon were beginning to question if the old ways of Esthar were truly so bad, then perhaps he could snare a few more followers. He upped his sermons, just a bit, and in doing so, found himself kicked out of two different taverns. No matter, he could still spread the word of Hyne from the streets, if he needed to.

But, that was more or less how he spent his time, locked up in his room, reading up on the news of this meteor, or else working the streets spreading the word of the almighty. Lorenzo did eventually come to the conclusion that he now had enough followers to warrant an actual church facility. Fortunately, there was actually a nice plot of land for sale in town, the site of the abandoned train station, a place that was shut down when Esthar closed its borders. Unfortunately, he still wasn’t all that popular with the locals. More unfortunately still, he could not possibly afford the deed to the place, let alone the repairs he’d need to make to it to turn it into a livable headquarters. And perhaps most unfortunately of all was that the sovereign city of Fisherman’s Horizon seemed to have very strict laws when it came to the practice of religions. Lorenzo would need to get a permit to preach within the city… something that he had been overlooking and sneaking around ever since he had arrived. The ravings of a madman in the street was one thing, and the officials of this town were not likely to act against him, but if he was going to make this place the center of his religious empire, there was simply no way around it, he would have to speak to the mayor.

Of course, he had to ask himself, DID he even really want to make this place his headquarters? True, the people here, or some of them at least, already believed in the power of Hyne, so it’d be significantly easier to get followers, but at the same time, his religion directly advocated the murder of Sorceresses. To do such a thing, publicly, in this peace loving town, was just asking for trouble. On top of this, the location he was looking at, there was simply no getting around it, was a train station. Abandoned, and falling apart, but even if it were fully functional, it doesn’t seem like the ideal place to hold a sermon. He considered the other options. Surely there’d be land for sale in really any major city. Even Esthar, that was cut off from the rest of the world, and therefore had no immigration or community growth to speak of, would have a few empty plots of land for sale, if not full buildings. He could set himself up wherever he wanted, really. And most places would likely be a bit less hostile. Still, to Lorenzo, it wasn’t as though he was making any commitments, if he just met with the mayor about getting an evangelical license, right? In fact, getting the license meant nothing at the moment, since he didn’t have the gil to actually buy the land… so it wasn’t as though he wouldn’t always still have the option to settle down elsewhere, once he could afford it. And, so, with that mindset, Lorenzo found himself arranging a meeting with the mayor of Fisherman’s Horizon. Depending on how this meeting went, he could be a happy citizen of Fisherman’s Horizon… or… he could be kicked out flat on his face. He would never know until he tried.

Spoiler:

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: The Church of the Servants of Hyne
Current BGM:

Getting a meeting with Mayor Dobe was no hard task, at this point, word of your preaching had reached him already, and while no action had been taken against you, it had certainly bothered the high command of a pacific town like this. They did not oppose to the tales of Hyne, nor to the details explained during your sermons, but the murdering of Sorceress was what caught Dobe’s attention, as some of the most naïve in Fisherman’s Horizon had already started searching for the Sorceress, essentially turning it onto a witch hunt and getting some of the women in panic mode, this was to be expected, after all, religion had its way to become exaggerated by the wrong people.

Sooner than you expected, you were walking down the bowl looking setup of Fisherman’s Horizon, the stairs were rather long and the guards escorting you didn’t look like guards at all, they were dressed as fisherman, bulky, but fisherman in the end, no weapons, just a bandana wrapped around their heads, open vests, sandals and a rugged look, half shaved beard and mustache and a look like they had been out at sea for a long time. They glanced at you, not really mad or anything, but they had that look of interest, as if they had never seen someone like you or just, thought your preaching was something new that could entertain them, hell even maybe “convert”.

“Here, just pass this door” One of them instructed as he opened the wooden door in front of you, leading the way into Mayor Dobe’s headquarters. Inside, you would notice a rather mundane house, nothing you would think a Mayor of a big city would live in, pieces of old furniture rested against the walls of the square house, as paintings of what looked like the construction of the town hung from walls. At the center of the first floor, a middle-aged man sat cross legged, as if in the middle of a meditation stage, the moment you walked in though, he started to get up and walked towards you to greet.

“Welcome! You must be the preacher I’ve heard so much about!” He said in a rather cheery way, it seemed that this man still wasn’t mad at you at all, you did noticed some sort of interest in you and your arrival at Fisherman’s Horizon.

“You know, while we do not enjoy violence, we do have a strict rule about preaching in our streets...and well those preaches involve...murder, well, you have to expect the Mayor of the town to do something about it, right?” He said, still in an upbeat tone, at this moment, he walked away from you, pacing back and forth across the furniture in the house, a few moments later, he looked over at you once more.

“A preaching license can be hard to get, you know...but, we have had an incident in town. Recently, while on a fishing trip, one of my men found this...relic...brought it back for inspection, it apparently held a rather strange and powerful energy...” He stopped for a moment and let out a sigh “It was stolen not long ago...we believe the thief might still be in Town...so, I’m offering you a deal. If you help us get this relic back...we can work out something for you to preach with ease in here, what do you say?” Mayor Dobe stuck out his hand to seal the deal, whether or not you accepted was up to you.

Options:
- Agree to the deal and head to the abandoned train station searching for anyone "fishy"
- Refuse to help and...?

Posts : 75

Spoiler:

I NEED ADMIN HELP HERE!

Spoiler:

Level : 1 Posts : 86

Matt had always considered himself a rather devout follower of Yevon. Especially after what had happened to him in Bevelle, the mockery of technology, magic, and science that had turned him in to this... whatever he was. Yevon was the way to defeat Sin, and thereby atone for the devastation that humanity had caused so long ago. Whenever he passed near a temple he stopped to pray, and regularly payed homage to the Summoners that had sacrificed themselves - and would continue to do so, until Sin was defeated.

But he'd been intending to pass through the Fisherman's Horizon on his way back to Spira. He could get provisions, and a boat, and though he was criminally close to Esthar - a land supposedly made of nothing but technology - it was better than trying to make it to Spira in a single shot. He kept pestering Carmine to get an airship, so that his travels weren't so roundabout.

She kept scoffing and telling him to hunt down real treasure and they might.

It was a friendly back and forth.

Either way, the problem came that one day, he'd been walking from a market, getting a small sack of food to take, when he'd heard a man who rather vehemently was talking about a figure named Hyne. How Hyne had been a powerful deity, who was responsible for the entirety of the Sorceresses - women endowed with true magic. That much he didn't understand - what was the difference between the little magic he knew, and the magic that the sorceresses did?

Nevertheless, despite himself, he'd listened to the remainder of the sermon.

And another one, the next day.

It had actually been four days, by the time he realized that he had questions that were not being answered by the indirect sermons, each one having something to do with another aspect. So, today, he'd decided to actually talk with the preacher. Of course, Matt was no priest of Yevon, he only understood the teachings as they had been given to him his whole life. Perhaps that was why he couldn't convince Carmine of the authenticity of the religion.

Nevertheless, he'd use it to question the man.

Except today, he hadn't come. Wearing his mask, as he had done every day, the mime-looking man asked around. A few other people had said they thought they'd seen him going to talk to the Mayor, hushed whispers about how they may ask him to leave. That thought was alarming - it would not do to leave his questions unanswered.

He made his way to the Mayor's office, though the masked Sphere Hunter didn't get too close. He wasn't exactly sneaky, but at the same time, he didn't want to interrupt anything. It was when Lorenzo finally walked out, and began jogging that Matt emerged, and started after him. He caught up relatively quickly, before saying:

"Hello. No sermon today?"

( WC - 487 )

Posts : 75

Spoiler:

Lorenzo didn’t get very far down the road before another person came jogging up beside him; a man, wearing a mask, oddly enough. Lorenzo had seen the man in the crowd a couple of times during his preaching. The last few days the man even stopped nearby. Though, because of the mask, Lorenzo had never really known if he was listening to the sermon, or just enjoying the scenery or weather. It was odd enough to find a man just randomly wearing a mask, but then again, Lorenzo himself had a gauntlet that happened to go all the way up to his shoulder, so he really wasn’t one to talk about odd appearances. The man asked him a question. Lorenzo thought it would be rude of him to just keep on jogging while someone was trying to talk to him, but at the same time, he really wanted to get this task over and down with, partially to learn what this relic thing was, and partially to go about his business and continue his preaching. So, he wasn’t going to stop completely, but he did give the masked man the courtesy of slowing down to a steady walk.

“No,” he answered. “The Mayor apparently has rules about preaching in the streets, so unfortunately, no sermon today. However, he did say that he’d let me get away with it, if I helped out with a little trouble they’ve been having. So, that’s what I’m going to be doing today, and hopefully I’ll return to the life of the clothe by tomorrow.”

A thought struck Lorenzo at that moment. What if the mayor was lying? True, he was a pacifist and seemed to avoid violence and even verbal conflict whenever possible, but when you thought about it, wouldn’t that just mean you’d need to be clever and cunning to solve your problems? What if the mayor was just saying he’d give Lorenzo an evangelical permit to get him to do the town’s dirty work? And once he had returned the relic, he would be banished or otherwise gotten rid of then? Though, Lorenzo had to admit, that did not seem very likely at all. No one in the entire city seemed armed in any way, aside from fishing poles and flay knives. It would make it rather difficult for the mayor to threaten him into leaving. There was no way that Mayor Dobe would just turn on him like that. Of course, there was also no way that he’d just be okay with a religion that preached and condoned violence, yet that seemed to have happened, so who knew what was going on in that bald guy’s head?

And, of course, there was still the question of the relic itself. Now, Lorenzo may not have been the most popular person to visit the town, what with his musings of death and God, but thankfully the people were polite and friendly enough that he was still able to mingle among their masses without too much trouble. And through all of his time mingling, he had never heard of any such relic. It felt odd, like some sort of secret. Now, he had plenty of experience when it came to secrets, and it wasn’t the first time he had learned of some conspiracy. But this was different, as far as Lorenzo knew, this conspiracy or secret or whatever it was, didn’t involve any threat. There was no reason, that Lorenzo could see, for this not to be common knowledge. Perhaps it was? Perhaps the people of the town did know about the relic picked up by some fisherman, and stolen away. Perhaps they knew, and just didn’t like talking about it? They did seem the type to shy away from negativity, after all. But still, to not even hear a hushed whisper about it? Something weird was going on. How was he expected to find something he had no information on whatsoever? Was it larger or smaller than a breadbox? Would he even be capable of carrying it back to the Mayor once he found it? All of these were questions that he wished he had answers to. But, it seemed as though his best bet was to just look, and hope that the relic would be something so obvious that he would simply know it when he saw it. And so he continued walking, not entirely paying attention to the man who may or may not have been keeping pace with him.

Spoiler:

Level : 1 Posts : 86

The preacher slowed down to a casual walk, and so the masked man did as well. After all, the whole point of catching up to him was talking, and to do anything else would be rather pointless. He listened quietly as the man explained what the Mayor had done - telling him that preaching in the streets was illegal. That made little sense to Matt... the thought that talking could get you in trouble. Sure, saying the wrong things to the wrong people might do it, but to just speak in general? People could choose not to listen, so why make laws about it?

"That is unfortunate. Your sermons do a lot to challenge the thoughts of others - I must admit to being somewhat intrigued. I've extended my stay here in Fisherman's Horizon specifically to listen to you preach. It's... unusual. To be presented with something so different than what I believe." He replied, gently.

"If you would do me the honor of speaking with me on the subject, I would be glad to assist you in whatever trouble the Mayor has you dealing with. You may not need it, but I would appreciate the counsel." He added, mostly because it was true. Anyone who preached about the possibility of having to face against people gifted with powers beyond mortal comprehension had to have some strengths, be they strategic, or even sheer power. It was due to that that Matt even assumed the 'trouble' was any sort of physical confrontation.

Unless the Mayor had, for some reason, found a Sorceress in his midst?

"I am from Spira - if you've been, you know the primary religion is that of Yevon, a religion dedicated to the purification of the human condition, so that some day, we may purge Sin from this world." He did not know how much Lorenzo knew of Yevon, so the surface would be easy enough to work with. "We know what we must do, and why."

He remained quiet for a few simple moments, as he organized his thoughts. "I do not understand Hyne, or his decisions. Was Hyne, with all of his immeasurable power, incapable of forseeing what would happen, should his pieces be scattered to the world?" He asked, quietly. "Is it not possible that the continued existence of the Sorceresses is due to Hyne's will, not necessarily the madness of the women?"

He asked the question with legitimate curiosity. He was not sneering - though if he were, it would be hidden by the Mime's mask he wore. But his question was honest. The logic that the man followed made sense - the power needing to be combined again, so that Hyne could come back. But truly... did he want Hyne to return? Considering the countless amounts of slaughter that Hyne was supposed to have done in his anger at the human race... it did not seem entirely wise to strive for such a thing.

However, if those women truly were being driven mad by the power they contained, they could, in theory, do just as much damage as Hyne himself.

It was these questions that busied his mind - but beyond it all, there was one burning thought.

If Hyne were real - and a truly nigh-omnipotent being. Would bringing him back be a way to purge Sin from the world? Surely, a Godly entity would be able to rid the world of the mammoth creature bent on the destruction of the world? The only question became - if he did, what would stop Hyne from becoming the thing that chose to wreak havoc upon Gaia in Sin's stead?

Matt was, needless to say... a little confused.

( wc - 617 )

Posts : 75

Spoiler:

As Lorenzo walked on down the road, the man also slowed down, falling into step alongside. Not that this was much of a surprise, after all, it’d be odd if the conversation just ended there. True “no sermon today?” could simply be small talk, and if that were the case, than Lorenzo’s response would have been sufficient to end the talk… But then, most people didn’t jog to catch up with someone just to make small talk. No, this person was genuinely curious. There was more to it than just being polite. Sure enough, he went on to mention how intrigued he was by Lorenzo’s words. Lorenzo was surprised to hear that the man was a traveler, and that he had actually extended his stay in this small town, just to hear more of Lorenzo’s sermons. This was a major shock. The man said it was interesting to hear a belief so different from his own.

Lorenzo was further surprised by the amount of respect and general attitude the man had. It would be his honor if Lorenzo would speak with him on the subject? He was a priest, talking to people about this stuff was his job! There was no need for such pomp. Still, Lorenzo didn’t say anything about it. He wouldn’t want to offend the man.

As Lorenzo had expected, the man revealed that he was a Spiran. A Yevonite. Lorenzo had had some experience with Yevon before. A dreadful and boring place, with a dreadful and boring religion if you asked him. This man spoke of the religion differently, however. With understanding and a small bit of praise. There was a pause, in which Lorenzo was fairly certain the man was trying to find a way to word his sentences without offending him. Eventually the man found words for his concerns. He did not understand Hyne’s actions, or how he could not have known what would have happened to him. And how did Lorenzo know that the Sorceresses’ madness was Hyne’s power attempting to re-constitute itself? Such questions were logical, and made sense. But at the same time, Lorenzo had thought the answers so obvious, he was almost thrown off by the questions.

Lorenzo had to think for a moment before answering, so as not to, in turn, offend the masked man either. “Well, to answer that, let’s look at another religion; one that neither of us believes in. Christianity. It is a small religion, not really practiced at all much, outside of Midgar or Vector. Even within Midgar, it is second to Minervanism. So I would understand if you had never heard of it. The religion believes that God created a man and a woman. The very first man and woman. And that he gave his children a garden paradise in which to live, and instructed them to not eat the fruit from a certain tree, as it contained all the knowledge and evil of the world. As you can imagine, they ate from the tree anyway. You ask how Hyne could have been foolish enough to not foresee what would happen if he divided his power among the women of the world, but I ask you, how could the Christian God not foresee what would happen if he placed a magical tree in front of the first human beings, in all of their curiosity. Such oversights are not uncommon, even among deities. Besides, Hyne did in fact know he would lose his power, and was fully prepared for it. What he was not prepared for was how long it would take for his power to re-assert itself. Because, you see, after Hyne vanished from the world, humanity reproduced, and grew, a lot faster than anyone, even Hyne, could have predicted. And, because of our growth in population, it has taken Hyne a lot longer to be reformed than he would have originally thought.”

And that was the truth, or at least how Lorenzo saw it. But the masked man had also asked about the Sorceresses’ existence, and if it were not possible that Hyne had willed these creatures to continue to be. No. Lorenzo had documentation, scientific evidence, numbers and graphs that showed otherwise. Professor Gast, of the infamous Shin Ra Corporation had even written extensive notes, that Lorenzo still possessed, that listed many parallels between Sorceresses and those infected with Jenova Cells. Now, Lorenzo knew next to nothing about this creature called Jenova, but he was certainly keen on learning about it, if it bore any similarities to Sorceresses. Still, this was not something he was prepared to share with the stranger, and, seeing as this man was of Yevon, Lorenzo felt confident that he didn’t much care about research anyway. So, simplifying the topic down a bit, Lorenzo addressed that issue as well.

“As for the Sorceresses continued existence… we know this is not Hyne’s will, because, you see… when a Sorceress goes mad, she slowly loses herself, and becomes driven entirely by Hyne’s power. When this happens, a strange thing occurs… she begins hunting other Sorceresses. Initially you might think that this is merely a lust for power, but it is not. A woman with no mind of her own cannot have any true ambition. It is clear, to those who have studied the Sorceresses’ movements, that Hyne’s will still exists somewhere within them, and that it WANTS to be reunited with other sources of Hyne’s power. And it is through helping these Sorceresses eliminate each other that Hyne’s powers can finally be reformed, and the God revived. It is my quest. I do not ask that others take up arms as well, though, if they are not comfortable with combat. It is enough that they know, and trust, that Hyne will return someday, and that they be prepared for the second coming of our master and savior.”

He could have kept talking about the glory of Hyne, but at that moment, he turned a corner, and the train station came into view. Remembering that this man had offered to help, Lorenzo figured it would be best to fill him in, before actually arriving. “Anyway, as for the task at hand. The Mayor told me of a relic that the fishermen found on a recent trip. Apparently it’s been stolen. I have been tasked with retrieving it. I am not sure where the thief could possibly be hiding in town, however, I think I know where we can start looking, if you would like to help.” He gestured towards the train station, the largest empty building in the city. The most likely place for a criminal to hide in this otherwise clean and peaceful town.

Spoiler:

Level : 10 Posts : 68

Current Event: The Church of the Servants of Hyne
Current BGM:

The moment you arrived at the train station, you saw him. A man around six feet tall, thin and rather dark looking, his hair fell all to way to his waist on his back and, on his right hand, you would notice the undeniable object that the mayor would be calling a relic. Your chatter with Matt alerted him to your whereabouts and he turned around, his face was expressionless, his eyes were a rather fluorescent green and the instant he saw you, his mouth thinned up into a wicked grin. It was as if he knew someone would come and...With good reason, taking a better look at your surroundings, you would notice something rather...disturbing.

Corpses were spread around, above the battered train station, the body of a man whose guts had been ripped open could be seen, the blood was still dripping down on the ground below and his expression showed just how afraid he had been at the time of his death, on the side of the tracks, limbs of unknown bodies laid, bleeding, rotting in place, this whole place looked like nothing else but a slaughter zone, had this man been responsible of this massacre?

“Did that idiot not learn his lesson yet? I told him I would be gone today, but...apparently, he does not understands reason” He spoke, his voice was low and calm, on his hand a large, golden scythe was being held, for some reason though, it looked very...opaque, as if the shine and glory of the weapon had been drained away. But, he looked rather good with it, as he started walking towards you both, twirling the humongous weapon that still dripped with blood from the blade.

‘Now now...which of you wants to play?”

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Name: ?????

Race ?????

Age: ?????

Gender: Male

Equipment: Scythe (Relic)

[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Stats:
HP: ?????/?????
MP: ?????/?????

Scan to Obtain - Requires 1 Action

Strength: ?????
Defense: ?????
Magic: ?????
Magic Defense: ?????
Speed: ?????

[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Doom Blade: ?????
Hell's Howl: ?????
R.I.P.: ?????
Darkness Falls: ?????

For this fight, it won't be possible for you to defeat your enemy. Your goal is to stall him by the use of the environment and role play. Wood from the train station, metal, rocks, etc. Your abilities will stall him as well depending on the damage inflicted or the effects they do.

Rewards will be given for how creative you stall him

Lastly, it works like a normal fight, you have your turns (2 actions or 3 if you have haste)

Level : 1 Posts : 86

He was glad to not be looked at as though he'd lost his mind. Of course, a priest of any religion was bound to be more respectful than the casual layman. He'd tried to explain Yevon only once before, to a person of Midgar, who merely scoffed, because he'd never seen Sin, nor knew what it could do. He treated it as superstition, and frankly, it had made Matt feel... bad. Ignorant, somehow. It didn't break his faith - or even make it waver - but it did make him reconsider explaining himself in the future.

As the other man went into explanations about how Christianity proved the fallibility of even deific creatures. Thankfully, his mask would keep his skepticism hidden. What did one have to do with the other? Was he indicating that his Hyne was on par with another deity? Even one as silly sounding as one that would put all evil and knowledge into a tree. But he wasn't going to argue the point.

It was just strange, as far as he was concerned. That opinion was kept to himself.

However, the explanation as to why the Sorceresses were going mad made a lot more sense. If there were a sentient force behind the power, desperate to get out and return to its primal form, he could imagine that making someone crazy. He had firsthand experience of the oddity of having a conflicting force within him.

"I understand, I think. It makes sense, what you're trying to do. I certainly wish there would be a way to extract that magic without killing someone - before they went mad. But when something goes berserk, not much else can be done but to put it down."

A quiet advocate for the violence that his religion espoused? Absolutely. He was a Sphere Hunter - and a dedicated one at that. He didn't like to kill, but he wouldn't hesitate, if he had no other choice. If that's what he had to do to resurrect his God? Who was Matt to disagree with that necessity? Especially if Sorceresses were as potent as Lorenzo described them. The men and women of Fisherman's Horizon might not agree with violence, but you couldn't talk to a madwoman with the power of the Ancients at her fingertips.

When push came to shove, sometimes the only thing you could do was fight for your life.

It was then that they happened upon the man and the bodies and...

The sheer carnage of it all. What had Lorenzo been sent in to? The Mayor had asked him to get involved in this? The man spoke, and the masked Sphere Hunter gritted his teeth behind the protective covering. "This is the thief you were tasked with hunting?" He asked, his voice quiet, hands curling into gloved fists.

Well, at least he was dressed for work. The scythe, wicked as it was, didn't scare him terribly.

Extending his hand forward, the Variable Blade responded at his need. The staff took shape, a thin white thing with a single sphere resting along the top, inert as it was. Thankfully, his mind was currently drawing on the White Mage's memory for the basis of his skills. After all, he had been in a rather religious frame of mind. But regardless, it was not his place to simply start swinging his sword. Lorenzo was the person taking point - the mayor had tasked him with this, after all.

"This is your job - I will support you in whatever you choose to do." White light flickered from within the sphere, as he reached inwardly to the magic he was tapping. He lifted the staff for just a moment, and brought it back down to the ground with the smallest of taps. Emerging from the small impact point, gold-white magic flared outward along the ground, in the shape of a clock - the face of which was steadily speeding up.

The image, beneath himself and his priestly friend would give them both the Haste enchantment - just in case they needed to move quickly. Slowly the clock faded, and he took a deep breath from behind his mask. Who knew? Maybe the scythe-wielding man was going to just give up and let this go peacefully.

Yeah, right. And you're a chocobo's mother.

(WC - 737)

Battle Stats
HP » 300
MP » 230 / 350
Status:
Haste » 1 2 3
Limit: 0%

ACTION 1: Haste on Lorenzo
ACTION 2: Haste Self
ACTION 3: No action taken.
Calculation: N/A
Turn Damage: 0