warforged | [OPEN] The Redsworn Reception

Entry tags:

[OPEN] The Redsworn Reception

Who: The Redsworn of Ruby Sanctum + Guests [OPEN TO ALL FLIGHTS]
What: ~~Carolina~~ The Redsworn have invited everyone to dinner! Let's see how well diplomatic relations between the flights can be improved, eh?
Where: The Ruby Sanctum
When: Forward dated to 6th June.
Warnings: Fires, ~~food poisoning~~ cooking for all, shenanigans, possible bad language.
OOC: Come gets some cross-flight CR! c: Some setting options below the cut, or go ahead and make your own.

A: COOKING FIRE SHENANIGANS

Feeling peckish? Have a delivery to make? Or just want to try your own hand at serving up some grub? The Redsworn's usual cooking area has been expanded for the evening, with two extra firepits dug out to cater for additional mouths. Over one fire burns the now "traditional" starter meat of bear flank, something any newly sworn (red or otherwise) will have the pleasure of sampling first. There's also several baskets of berries, fruit and vegetables, while a pot obtained in trade from Silverglen bubbles merrily.

B: FIRESIDE MINGLE

The redsworn of the Ruby Sanctum have claimed a corner of their own beneath one of the larger trees. There's a smaller fire here set for warmth and ambience, and have logs set about for seating for those who don't like perching on rocks or roots, or don't find the comfy grass comfy - park yourself and have a chat!

C: OPEN/MISC.

Choose Your Own Adventure! Just remember: wander alone at your own risk, non-redsworn, for the Red Dragonflight will have their eye on you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's kind of interesting... We have creatures we call Daywalkers back home too, but they aren't some sort of other trolls or anything like that. They're terrifying creatures that drink troll blood. Another name for them is Rainbow Drinkers." Lacking complete knowledge of what had happened with her friends back home, Nepeta was unaware that her friend Kanaya had recently joined their ranks... and was a lot more personable and less of a slavering monster than the stories implied.

"So this Kael'Thas was Dath'Remar's descendant, right? That made him the next in line to take over the blood elf empire didn't it?" She really had no idea how that worked in non-troll cultures.

About to comment on the name Rainbow Drinkers, Mar put two and two together and instead shuddered a little, making a face like he'd bit into a lemon. "I think that is the first and only time 'Rainbow Drinkers' is a legitimately upsetting term. We have Sunwalkers in Azeroth, but those are Tauren paladins. Completely unrelated term."

Sitting up, Mar drew a line in the dirt as a completely unnecessary visual aid. "The Sunstrider dynasty progressed through a few leaders from Dath'remar--" He pointed at the top of the line, then slid his finger down to an inch before the end -- "to Anasterian, the last high king of Quel'thelas and probably the greatest. He fell in battle with the corrupted Prince Arthas during the Razing. And that is where the kingdom ends, because Kael'thas was never formally crowned."

"If you had blood in all sorts of diffurent colors you'd beware of creatures named that too. But wait... You have Sunstriders and Sunwalkers? I mean I get one of those is a name but doesn't that get confusing?" Then again, she wasn't sure what a "Tauren" was. Maybe the terms didn't overlap often.

She looked closely at the line until she realized that it wasn't going to turn into a diagram of some sort. "Oh, so you've had several Kings then? I guess even a ruler can't really live furefur." Though their empress was certainly trying. "Why didn't Kael'Thas become king though? I mean, you said he wasn't crowned but why not?"

"The Sunstrider line more or less ended, meaningfully, before the Sunwalkers came into being. Aponi Brightmare founded the organization about two years after we killed Prince Kael'thas. So it's not so bad." Aside from which he liked the Sunwalkers, and had even trained under one for a brief period, so he was willing to forgive the similarity.

"As for why he never claimed the crown, well... after the Razing, what was there, really, to claim? Nine tenths of our people were dead, and he had far more to do leading them and seeking a cure or at least a solution to our magical addiction to undergo a meaningless ceremony. After that, he did kind of betray our people..."

"Betrayed you how?" She was pretty certain she wasn't going to like the answer to this question, but then again it wasn't like the Alternian empress was precisely kind to... anyone. Ever. About the only reason some of her actions hadn't counted as betraying the troll race was that most everyone was taught from birth that they existed to serve her.

Probably the worst part of it all was that Mar didn't have to explain his answer. No 'Sunwells' or 'Tauren' to confuse matters. The one term he intended to use, she had already been introduced to.

"He threw in with the Burning Legion."

"He did what? Why? Was he insane?" She had only had to deal with the legion for a few minutes before deciding that these were the kind of creatures you did not want to join up with. How someone who evidently knew much more about them than she did could decide to do so made her head spin.

"In the end, probably, but allying with the Legion is a choice many have made voluntarily and of their own free will." His sidelong glance held a cold warning -- not because he feared for her loyalty at all, but because this discussion would be dangerously charged if it ever came up around the draenei of their flight. "It all came back to power, ultimately. He spent so much time seeking it that he failed to stop when he had to, and to develop the Sin'dorei's own instead of getting it from elsewhere."

"Power, huh? ... Actually, one of my friends is like that. The only reason I can't imagine her doing the same thing is beclaws she'd nefur want to let anything else control her, and she's too paranoid to trust them. I mean, unless she thought she was outsmarting them."

Which... was a decisive possibility, now that she thought about it. Vriska had a tendency to be seriously overconfident.

"Plus, she's interested in it fur herself, not fur all of us."

"He betrayed all of us who hadn't come with him... though admittedly, many of them betrayed him first, and were wise to do so." Even if they hadn't exactly learned any lessons. The Scryers had remained nasty pieces of work in many ways, more concerned with petty politicking than accomplishments. "But I think in the end his sanity and reasoning had truly slipped."

"Well that's hardly surpurrising, if he did all of that. But if he's gone, who's leading the Blood Elves now?"

She had absolutely no idea what would happen if the Empress and the Heiress were to die simultaneously, but she had a feeling it would be rather chaotic.

~~No one knows~~ Okay, a few people remember these days after the active role he took in Pandaria... "Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron. Damn good man, probably better than the Prince himself." Though the blood elven people... who knows what would have become of them had they not followed Kael'thas's path at first? Likely, destruction. As much as it had been the wrong choice in retrospect, the fel energies and stolen Light from the naaru had kept the race alive and functional.

"What's a Regent Lord?" She knew of the title "Lord", though she wasn't really certain where exactly that fell in the troll empire's hierarchy. Probably among the violetbloods. But regent was entirely new to her.

"A regent is a person who rules in the absence, incapacity, or ineligibility of the proper ruler. In this case, Kael'thas appointed him to the position when he left for Outland. Regent Lord just means he's the lord who's the regent." Political explanations were just one of the many services he offered!

"Oh! Well no wonder I've nefur heard it befur, the Empurress would nefur let anyone else have her kind of power, even fur a moment." Trolls in general were kind of jealous about power and loathe to give it up, either because they had developed a taste for it or because they usually had so little that they latched onto whatever they could get.

"Even if she had something really important to do somewhere that wouldn't let her be in touch with the duties of ruling?" The way she talked, Mar guessed the Emperess didn't obey normal lifespan rules.

"I'm not really sure what she'd do then... purrbably let the duties wait, or ignore the important thing. There's not much that's actually important to her, aside furrom her own power and making the empire expand."

She didn't actually know that for sure, but everything she'd ever heard about the Empress implied it pretty heavily.

"Then she's asking to lose that power, either when she's overthrown or when her empire collapses." Which was not a prospect he could treat with his usual lighthearted tone. Too many leaders had proved evil, of late.

"She'd have you executed fur saying that." He was right, though, but the empire hadn't fallen apart because of how one might have expected. It was a rain of meteors on the home planet and the dying scream of an Eldritch Abomination that had done it.

That was a hell of a long and confusing story though.

Mar flicked his fingers dismissively. "She could try. Enough unfathomable evils certainly have made the effort." If he'd lived under her, he might very well have joined an active resistance -- much the way he had signed up for the Darkspear Rebellion.

Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised by his attitude, but the usual reaction people had when the Empress was brought up was intense fear, even if it was hidden. Not that she came up often among a group as young as hers, but still... "The only one I've efur heard speak so casually against her is the Heiress."

"We in Azeroth have a history of opposing beings of incredible power and ferocity, and even winning against them. We even handed the Legion their first defeat in literally ever." Which he'd had no role in, but he'd done enough since then to feel pride in his accomplishments and those of his world.

"I'm starting to realize that." Really, given what he's told her so far she's starting to really get interested in the stories he has to tell. And it seems like he has quite a few.

Deep beneath the armor and the resolve and the desire to crusade and vindicate beat the heart of a scholar. It might be scarred and battered and completely repurposed these days, because no one could argue that Mar put himself body and soul into his life as a Blood Knight, but he still delighted in history and knowledge even as he shaped it.

She could get as many stories out of him as she wanted; he'd be happy to tell them all.

"There's a certain value in deciding you have to fight, and then doing it. Sometimes you succeed when you didn't think it was possible."

"I kinda think nothing's impawsible, really. I mean, after what I've seen."

Going through a video game designed to create an entirely new universe was something that could result in that kind of outlook.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject