Author Topic: Ingénue - Jarra's Bildungsroman  (Read 4833 times)

MTYL

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Re: Ingénue - Jarra's Bildungsroman
« Topic Start: October 21, 2017, 12:19:20 AM »
- FINALLY! - --- - stuff's in chronological order - how events unfolded one after another and when they happened not how roleplays were sent and submited -

Roleplay from Jarra Bennet

"It would be my pleasure if you would accompany me..." - Sir Goriad II replied - "... but would Maura let you leave with such a dangerous man as myself?"

"Ah, Sir Goriad, perhaps you were a dangerous man half an hour ago, but now I believe most of your weapons are in my hair knot." - saying that Jarra giggled kindheartedly and quickly escaped the tent, looking back to ensure Goriad II follows her out. Outside she noticed that Maura was accompanied by a man, who promptly indicated that he's Goriad's captain and after receiving a brief report, Goriad II informed his captain:

"Good Sigmund, if Maura will allow us, I will take Lady Jarra ahead of the army for a short while."

Maura looked at them for a while gathering words and started saying: "M'Lady I don't think..."

"Oh, but you do..." - she was interrupted by Jarra - "... you do think quite a lot. Mostly about keeping my men in line and ensuring my safety, which I appreciate, but it's highly unlikely that Sir Goriad would plot to do me harm while on route frequented by our entire army. Shush now!" - Jarra concluded seeing Maura raising a finger. Her captain just said:

"Beautiful haircut m'Lady... is it new?"

With that Jarra whistled audibly and not a couple of minutes later a magnificent, white destrier of unparalleled sized was brought by a short boy in preposterously oversized chainmail and blue gauntlets. It looked as if a punt was towing a longship.
With one swift jump Jarra mounted the horse and turned to Goriad II with reinforced poise, saying:

"Shall we?"


Roleplay from Jarra Bennet

Few were the books and scrolls but many were the faithfull. Scarce was the stained glass, statues and decorations - spirit and piety were abundant. How strange is this temple - Jarra thought - how unlike the ones I've seen before. She felt not the true calling, she was unsure if she'd recognise the true calling if she felt it but she was certain that the fiery zeal of the Inquisition and pious devotion of the Heralds were not what she felt. Neither could she compare the disposition of her heart with the blazing flames of extatic crowd she saw in front of the temple nor with the smoldering embers of those she noticed meditating silently in the corners.
It may have been ambition that brought her to Beluaterra, it was apetite for adventure that brought her to Athol Margos; was it the need to fit in that led her inside this temple? Was it her purpose when she decided to join the Heralds? Certainly! But it wasn't her sole purpose. She did felt the need to define a cause and goal of her existence, and not just one of this hideously carneous plane but one of more etheral and perennial nature as well. And she felt it long before she entered the temple in Rines. "Feeling comes with understanding, not the other way around" - she recalled one of the very few lessons her cousin ever gave her.

Standing before the administrative clerk of the church with enormous tome of names in front of her certainly wasn't the way she dreamed of becoming a believer, yet her shy nature prevented her from asking for a private audience with the Oracle. Given name, family name, origin; given name, family name, origin; given name, family name, origin... Many rows had empty place in the middle column, those were mostly scribbled with crooked letters. The rows that had all position filled in were calligraphed beautifully.

"This is the register of faithfull, tome 11th, m'Lady. To officially become a Herald you need to have your name written in the register, though many nobles don't bother to do it personally. Then you will need to swear to serve Obeah, embrace her magic and renounce daimons and all things evil. Her Holiness haven't blessed us with official statement of faith yet, so you'll need to speak in your own words. It's intention that matters."

Jarra took the quill and wrote "Jarra Bennet, Flowrestown, Dwillight" then glanced as her captain scribbled clumsily "Maura, Desert of Sillhouettes, Dwillight" leaving the family name column empty.

"Now" - she said, looking at the tiny collection of scrolls she noticed in the temple - "where can I learn more of the Obeah?"


Roleplay from Jarra Bennet

"Now" - Jarra said, looking at the tiny collection of scrolls she noticed in the temple - "where can I learn more of the Obeah?"

The official just shrugged and pointed towards a small wooden stand where a short, bald scholar was copying one of the scrolls. Young lady thanked the official and made her way towards the strange scholar, who greeted her with a frown, clearly displeased that anyone weans him away from his work.

"I wish to learn of Obeah, brother..." - she asked and hearing him mumbling out his name incomprehensibly, she asked him to repeat.
"Imra, it's Imra. And I wish a lot as well! Fresh batch of parchment would be nice and a competent apprent..." - the scholar kept reciting things he would've wished in a half-mocking, half-ranting tone, clearly not intimidated by the noble lady, perhaps he himself was of some lower unknown noble family. When he finally finished Jarra enquired again:
"Brother Imra, what would one have to do to further himself on the path of enlightment?"
"Read the holy scrolls! Our most holy Sermon in Keffa in particular, listen to each word that comes out of Oracle's mouth or from under her quill and pray to Obeah! Meditate, practice magic. Anything that comes from or aims at what lies outside of this mortal plane is a beacon for the Veiled Goddess, practiced in her name and for her grace it brings Her closer to us and us closer to Her." - he replied barely interrupting his work and continued to mumble words as he wrote them - "... Obeah's Heaven, is to be made a place of worship and faith, of magic and study..."

Jarra pondered a bit and exclaimed while taking the scroll he was making a copy of from the wooden stand - "So to further my understanding of the one true goddess I need to read this... Sermon in Kaffa and practice magic in hope for epiphany?"
"Keffa! Sermon in Keffa!" - the scholar replied annoyed and took the scroll back - "And no - there is no one true goddess, many powerful dieties from outside of this mortal plane can be called gods as examplified by misguided followers of Daishi or heretics of the portal. There is but one right goddess. None of the other dieties has both the power and the will to deliver us from the tyranny of the Netherworlds. The Netherworlds is hell brought to earth and Obeah, and Obeah alone can slam the gates of hell on the archdaimon's face! It is up to us to accept her generous gift."

Jarra took on of the scrolls from the side and noticed that on the back-side of each scroll the scholar written several verses, those words she recognized, every believer she met prayed with these words. She read them out loud:

"Obeah guide us. Obeah teach us.
Obeah protect us. Obeah deliver us.
In your light we thrive.
In your mercy we are sheltered.
In your wisdom we are humbled.
We live only to serve. Our lives are yours."


She found beauty in those words and smiled at brother Imra - "I shall repeat it every morning."

"Evening." - the scholar thrown in.
"Excuse me?"
"The veil is at it's weakest during the night. Should we guide enough mystical forces towards the Veiled Goddess she's most likely to pierce the veil in the evening." - he replied.
"But shouldn't the goddess be all-powerful? Why wouldn't she pierce the veil on a whim and at any time she chooses?" - Jarra enquired.
"What would an all-powerful diety need followers for? What would be the purpose of faith and religion if it was all meaningless to ominpotent entity?"
"So she isn't all-powerful?" - Jarra poked the air with her finger as she tried to poke the scholar's reply, but to that brother Imra reacted with a mischievious smile and said - "Why do you assume that it can only be one way or the other? For all we know she may not be all-powerful at the moment, for there may be things she cannot achieve at the moment but if at any moment in time she was or will be all-powerful then her perception may well be - and likely is - unlike anything we can comprehend, perception of time in particular! Being fully aware of the flow of events in her history as they happen one after another, wether designed or merely accepted by her they are still what she choses. As such any event that occurs to anything that concerns the Veiled Goddess occurs with her acceptance and is thus by definition inevitable. Is she grand architect reliving her history in our presence, gently guiding the reality as it is to her own ultimate goal? Is she benevolent but not infinitely powerful being of another plane choosing our deliverance from evil for her passtime? Is she either? IT DOESN'T MATTER!" - he shouted - "It's meaningless to us. The nature of a diety is beyond our capacity for understanding. Mundane creatures pondering the essence of an absolute diety resemble rats pondering the grand designs of an architect - they're simply unable to! We shouldn't focus on what Obeah is in essence, for that would be unavailling effort; we should merely focus on what she is to us and what are we to her. Exactly as rats can't guess the grand design of an architect but it's architect's decisions that enable rats to poke holes through one wall and not through the other." - his self-satisfied smile slowly slipped off his face as he noticed the shiny eyes and held-back yawn slowly forming on Jarra's face.

"You lost me at perception of... did you just compared us to rats?" - she asked. Brother Imra sighed and started waving the scroll he just finished copying in air to help the ink dry. Afterwards he handed Jarra the scroll and said:

"This is what you seek, young lady, it's the first truth Obeah revealed to our holliest Oracle, it will teach you not only of what Obeah is to you and what you should be to Obeah but also many hidden truths about the nature of the magic and relations between our mortal plane and the plane or planes Obeah and wretched daimons come from."

She took the scroll and read several sentences inaudibly:

Obeah is a goddess of Magic. The Heralds believe that life itself is magic, and that humans, unique in all Creation, can channel the power that is their very existence to other planes, and draw power from these planes, in the form of magic. Even among Daimonkind, only their greatest are able to cast even the least of spells, with the rest of their souless legions being little better than...

"So which is it?" - she asked rolling the scroll and hiding it in her cloak. Seeing puzzled look on Imra's face she clarified: "Plane or planes?"

The scholar shrugged and pointed at one of the books near the altar saying "Perhaps one day that truth will be revealed to us."

Jarra thanked for the scroll and bidding her farewell walked over to the book Imra pointed. She read the letters etched on the cover - the Book of Mysteries. She took a quill and penned down:

"In our holy writings mortal plane and a plane other than mortal plane are mentioned. Somewhere else infernal plane is mentioned. Are those the same? Does Obeah come from the same non-mortal plane as Daimons, or from another one? How many are there?" - she pondered for a while and added - "Has Velied Goddess corssed paths with Daimons before? Is that the reason for their enmity to eachother?" - and happily underscored both questions.
_____
New family - Arnickles Renodin: Maura(OS), Myr(LN)
Old family - The (dead) Bennets: Max(SF), Joran(VT), Jarra(OS)