Antara

[Tangential]

[ic]Where was he? His eyes refused to work, no digit, no limb would move. With great effort he trembled and shook. He vomited, a sweet release as his body crumpled.

"Rise"

Without comprehension, without assent from his body, he climbed to a kneeling position. He realized he could hear. The sound that thus alerted him was a throbbing, a swelling of voices, speaking all at once and over each other. But each speaking the same thing. Instinctively he tried to move back from the foul sounds.

"What man can stand among us
Sinless?
Without a stain to mar his untouched
Soul?
What man can pray to the Gods
Riskless?
Without confessing his deeds black as
Coal?

They say He listens and Knows
So why do we pray?
We think that there is something in us
That wants Him to listen to what we've done with our day
And our night.
Each time.

What man can kneel before us
Pure?
Without a black mark upon his wretched
Face?
What man can press his palms without
Fear?
What man beseeches us for merciful
Grace?"

Shaking in spiritual agony he tried to call out. To will his tongue unslack, his body to move. Instead, he broke.[/ic]

The Veil is unraveling. Man has known before that he is not alone. In whispers he has told others what he has seen. The angels and the dragons the things from the unquiet grave. But heavy lay the blindfold of Truth. In a bold voice man proclaimed there was nothing to be afraid of in the dark. There were no lurking terrors, no blinding lights. With the Veil in place this was possible to believe. The simplest explanation is the Truth. No more.

[ic]"The Veil is tearing little one. Things are stirring in there caves. Things like me. Your heart beats faster...but it can not outrun me child."[/ic]

[ooc]Taking the themes and mood presented in World of Darkness and mixing in a large dash of good old fashion fantasy. I'm going to be careful not to tread on the toes of nWoD, Vilydunn, or Ravenloft and still present my take on a horror-based campaign world.[/ooc]

[Tangential]

The scientists of the day will tell you that there was Singularity and then with a Bang the universe started. Witch's have they're own theories about the Gates between the Worlds. Followers of the One God speak in psalms about The Beginning and the might of the Lord. Men who pray to other gods tell tales of their deities role in creation.

They all live in ultimate heresy, though shades of the truth bleed through each. Everything is wrapped in wheels and rings and mystery. And there can be no truth until all men believe the same thing. That's what most who are UnVeiled will tell you. Simply because that is how it seems, with so much proof for each. One can see look into Mirrors and see the past, see a void and a spark and a beginning. One can hear the voice of G-D tell that he created all. One can dig deep into the Earth and not be consumed in the core, but rather fall into chasms of the dead flesh of Ymir and swim in seas of his blood and find his marrow in the mountain. Or one can go Outside and see the Turtle and Elephants in the Endless Ocean of Milk. One dance lightly on Spider Womans web. Or lose your sanity to the Ancient Fathers. How can one do all these, they contradict each other. The cannot all be True.

They are wrong too. The problem is not with reality. Life and death and the thousand grays between and blacks beyond and whites above are simply the lenses through which we perceive creation. Each being does so differently and each is innately correct. Don't be mistaken Reality doesn't bend to the whims of It's inhabitants. Antara simply lets them play out their shadow shows inside it's walls. The TRUTH is not beyond the Veil and you won't find it in your soul. The TRUTH is Antara...or perhaps not.

[Captain Obvious]

wow.







seriously. wow.





well begun there man. Got some nice imagination skills goin there. a hearty high five to you. hmm... we don't have a high-five :fluffy:

[~Kalin~]

i have to echo Captian Obvious' post



Wow.

[Hibou]

Well done. Keep it up :)

[SA]

Tantalising, especially so for me because you use the foremost conceit I employ in my own work: paradoxes and cosmic contradictions, as well as more than one's fair share of madness.

Is G-D "God" with the omission of the 'O', kind of like the Tetragrammaton (YHWH)?

[Wensleydale]

Wow...

Wow wow wow...

Wow...

*cough*

Keep it up! Just, one thing...

[spoiler=Grammar Reminder]
apostrophe ess ('s) equals possession.
no apostrophe ess (s) equals plural.
sometimes, ee ess (es) equals plural, depending on the sound the word ends in.

This holds true for all words except it, where 's means instead that it is a shortened form of 'it is', and a simple 's' indicates possession.

So, witch's have their own beliefs should be witches have their own beliefs.

And on 'their, there', you also made a small mistake by putting 'in there caves' instead of 'in their caves'.[/spoiler]

;) anyway, great writing, keep up the good work!

[Tangential]

Hey, thanks for all the encouragement.
Grammar and I war a lot late at night.
G-D is how God is typically spelled in English by the Jewish community. So yeah, it's pretty much an extension of Tetragrammaton.
I'll probably check this one more time before I'm gone for three weeks. It'll come along though, I promise.

[Wensleydale]

*nods* Still, amazing writing.

[Sarandosil]

wow.







seriously. wow.





well begun there man. Got some nice imagination skills goin there. a hearty high five to you. hmm... we don't have a high-five :fluffy:

What he said  :huh:

[Tangential]

[ic]The old factory creaked and groaned from the pressure put on it. Rust flaking to shower the ground in an eerie parody of snow gave a screeing sound as it fell. In the abandoned lot below, beneath the reddish full moon an old man smiled. His style of clothing could only be described as Victorian, his suit clipped and grey, and his sword-cane clutched tightly between shaking white-knuckled hands. He remembered then, as he gazed skyward through the smoke of the city, that they called it a Blood Moon.

How fitting.[/ic]

"Only a fool humbles himself when the world is so full of men eager to do that job for him."

Those who are UnVeiled are begining to take note that their actions are not so easily hidden in the shadows any longer.

There are many players who wish to exploit the unraveling of the Veil to their benefit. It is no coincidence that seven men, flesh carved with runes, are found swinging from an oak tree the day after a series of lightening storms rocks the English coast. Score a point for general belief in Odin. Nor that a dragon allows itself to be captured on tape...and strangely the 'experts' can't prove that it's a hoax. Score for dragons existing. Not even when an UnVeiled doctor belonging to the Skaidan demonstrates a new theory about pink noise. 1-UP for science.

But there are just as many who would prefer that the world remains torn, in it's multifaceted realities. Who want to see Saturn on Monday and Olympia on Wednesday and don't mind going through a crack using vampire clan on Tuesday to do it.

And there are those who want only to survive the unraveling and are willing to do anything to make sure they continue to exist. Because how many people really remember He Who Makes Things Sprout?

[Ghost]

Since there's no link to a discussion thread, I can only assume this is the place to talk about Antara.

I'm really liking it a lot. Especially the latest scene, with the older gentlemen in the abandoned factory. It seems similar to the Urban Arcana setting, but with far more horrific and disturbing elements to the Unveiled. That also brings up another question: does this take place on Earth (or an alternate Earth of some kind), or another world entirely?

I'd like to hear more about the Skaidan. A race or species of hominid? or merely a political entity? and He Who Makes Things Sprout sounds very interesting. I can't wait to read more of Antara.

[Tangential]

Since I have so little worked out about Antara at the moment I decided an auxiliary discussion thread would be unnecessary. Maybe a division will come in a latter version.

You pose an excellent question. To be perfectly honest I have yet to decide that for myself. I'm leaning pretty strongly toward Earth, although a somewhat alternate Earth is also a possibility.

[Tangential]

Skaidan: Those Who Rend

The Skaidan are a cabal of UnVeiled scientists from all walks of life, all countries, and all fields. They are united in believing that only a scientific world is rational and worth living in, despite evidence to the contrary. While some truly are in disbelief, the majority realize that in order to "restore balance" to the world they must make everyone believe fully in science (and essentially the Old Truth), while simultaneously discrediting and destroying any other Ideas that appear.

Led by the Seven, and based in an eco-friendly university town near the northern reaches the Skaidan are among the largest and most unified factions of UnVeiled in the world. A Skaidan agent is likely to approach any reasonably traceable member of the scientific community if they suspect that person is free of the Veil. On some occasions Skaidan operatives will even attempt to UnViel prominant scientific members before wooing them to their own cause.

<more if desired>

[Tybalt]

Very very interesting. While it is evocative of similar ideas I like the fact that it has no tone apart from mystery. It is not submerged in the doomlike horror of Call of Cthulhu or the overwhelming sense of personal responsibility and personal terror of Kult or the weird mishmash that is Mage. While I enjoyed exploring the other three your last entry is a good indicator of how different it is. By the way I would like to hear more about the Skaidan.