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[ abraxas - event #18 info page ]
EVENT #18: EMERGENCE
THE HERALD OF TRANSCENDENCE
PERSONALITY/DEMEANORAs a god, River is much more solemn and subdued than she was as a human. Her playful and inquisitive nature was lost over decades and centuries spent knowing and feeling everything there is in a world she increasingly felt she did not belong to. She struggled to feel human even in those earlier days, and so she forgot her roots entirely. After 800 years, she believes this is the way she's always been, moving through the world as a spectator and a phantom, removed from all other living beings as an act of protection - both for herself and for them.
Still, she likes to observe curious and mysterious things that happen on the mortal plane. It's hard to surprise an omnipotent entity, so she can quickly become obsessed with things that are strange or fantastic. She very rarely speaks directly to a mortal, but she might occasionally sit beside one of her fellow gods to listen or watch them silently. For the most part though, she keeps to herself and dances alone in the stars.
Don't be fooled by her quiet nature, though. Her emotions are volatile and her powers can lash out violently when she feels overwhelmed or enraged. In these moments, the only thing that can really calm her down is the subversion of her brother Kassa. If he's scattered to the stardust or can't reach her quickly enough, it might take the divine intervention of another god to knock her out so she can fall into a blissful silence. At least for a little while...
BLESSING ◎ CognitionUnderstanding through touch; absorbing thoughts or memories; seeing past and future all at once
AFFLICTION ◎ DeliriumFrenzy or loss of control; altered or falsified memories; confusion; planting harmful thoughts
ABILITIES
Still, she likes to observe curious and mysterious things that happen on the mortal plane. It's hard to surprise an omnipotent entity, so she can quickly become obsessed with things that are strange or fantastic. She very rarely speaks directly to a mortal, but she might occasionally sit beside one of her fellow gods to listen or watch them silently. For the most part though, she keeps to herself and dances alone in the stars.
Don't be fooled by her quiet nature, though. Her emotions are volatile and her powers can lash out violently when she feels overwhelmed or enraged. In these moments, the only thing that can really calm her down is the subversion of her brother Kassa. If he's scattered to the stardust or can't reach her quickly enough, it might take the divine intervention of another god to knock her out so she can fall into a blissful silence. At least for a little while...
BLESSING ◎ Cognition
AFFLICTION ◎ Delirium
ABILITIES
- omnipotence over everything in the mortal plane that is not warded in some way
- does not apply to other gods or the horizon
- premonitions of the future, including natural disasters
- may not be able to tell when it will happen, it could be tomorrow or 100 years from now
- controlling physical objects through telekinesis and force damage
- the transference of thoughts, emotions, past, and future through direct physical contact with another being
- on occasion, this can include foretelling someone's death
- granting visions of the past, present, or future
- manipulating dreams, implanting nightmares
- altering, creating, or removing memories
- creating individual and mass hallucinations ( physical, visual, auditory )
- a hypnotic gaze with eyes that burn a bright, fiery gold, scalding the mind of any mortal that makes direct eye contact
- this near-instantaneously inflicts madness/insanity
- inflicting madness/insanity, an inability to differentiate between reality and imagination and/or control one's thoughts/emotions/etc
- may also be experienced as enlightenment, a sense of understanding the world on a grand scale in such a way that makes it hard to engage with reality
- this cannot be reversed by her own powers
ALIAS
Serenity or "the Mad Maiden" ( derogatory )
DOMAIN
Chaos and Clairvoyance
ARCANA
The Fool
LOCATION
The Horizon; everywhere
APPEARANCE
Most of the time, River does not have a corporeal form. The information overload from touching someone can be overwhelming and painful, so she tries to avoid physical contact as much as possible. The only exceptions are when she's around Kassa or when she is intentionally using her powers on or against someone. Otherwise, anything that attempts to come into contact with her will pass right through her body as she dissipates into a cloud of white smoke.
What form she takes depends on where she is. River spends most of her time in the Horizon, where she can get some distance from the mortal plane and all the messy thoughts and emotions that come with them. Her domain is mostly in the sky or open expanses of nature where it is always nighttime. Notably, there are no buildings or human constructs in these spaces. Her body itself is composed of stars, although it becomes less humanoid when she's angry or upset. This state feels the most natural to her, where she can melt away from reality into the stars where her spirit feels called to return.
When she does step onto the physical plane, River's skin is a pale yellow/white, almost like the surface of the moon, while her hair is very long and pitch black. There always seem to be strings of golden stars circling her head or draped along her body, with little lights that glimmer in the air around her. She always wears a black blindfold, both to prevent mortals from looking into her naked eyes and because she does not need visual input to see everything around her. Her eyes burn a bright gold when the blindfold is removed. She exclusively communicates telepathically; the only times you may see her mouth move is when she laughs like the twinkle of windchimes or when she screams with the force of a raging storm.
She only leaves the Horizon if there's something interesting she wants to see, like strange natural wonders and special events, if she's foreseen some big disaster or catastrophic event she wants to help prevent, or when her brother has dwindled himself down to dust. As his essence is scattered to the winds, River wanders the earth to collect his stardust and help him reform again before she returns to the Horizon. They are very rarely seen on the physical plane together; they only meet in this way when River is in a dire emotional state that requires Cassian's subversion, typically during times of extreme strife across Abraxas.
Because of this, mortals that spot her passing through tend to see it as an omen of something bad that's about to happen. The Mad Maiden heralds oncoming change, extraordinary and bewildering things that may change the nature of their lives forever, for better or for worse.
What form she takes depends on where she is. River spends most of her time in the Horizon, where she can get some distance from the mortal plane and all the messy thoughts and emotions that come with them. Her domain is mostly in the sky or open expanses of nature where it is always nighttime. Notably, there are no buildings or human constructs in these spaces. Her body itself is composed of stars, although it becomes less humanoid when she's angry or upset. This state feels the most natural to her, where she can melt away from reality into the stars where her spirit feels called to return.
When she does step onto the physical plane, River's skin is a pale yellow/white, almost like the surface of the moon, while her hair is very long and pitch black. There always seem to be strings of golden stars circling her head or draped along her body, with little lights that glimmer in the air around her. She always wears a black blindfold, both to prevent mortals from looking into her naked eyes and because she does not need visual input to see everything around her. Her eyes burn a bright gold when the blindfold is removed. She exclusively communicates telepathically; the only times you may see her mouth move is when she laughs like the twinkle of windchimes or when she screams with the force of a raging storm.
She only leaves the Horizon if there's something interesting she wants to see, like strange natural wonders and special events, if she's foreseen some big disaster or catastrophic event she wants to help prevent, or when her brother has dwindled himself down to dust. As his essence is scattered to the winds, River wanders the earth to collect his stardust and help him reform again before she returns to the Horizon. They are very rarely seen on the physical plane together; they only meet in this way when River is in a dire emotional state that requires Cassian's subversion, typically during times of extreme strife across Abraxas.
Because of this, mortals that spot her passing through tend to see it as an omen of something bad that's about to happen. The Mad Maiden heralds oncoming change, extraordinary and bewildering things that may change the nature of their lives forever, for better or for worse.
BACKGROUND & LORE
The omen with the (star)dust in her hair; Once upon a time, there was a pair of siblings that lived amongst the stars, traveling from planet to planet. They were two halves of a whole, each pulling the other in a perpetual cycle of flight and grounding, joy and sobering somberness. They were always together until they landed on Abraxas, and it was from that point onwards that they were rarely seen together.
The omen dances through the earth looking for pieces of her brother to pull him back together, and when he finally returns and is whole, she departs into space to dance among the stars until she hears word of her brother's disappearance.
They so rarely share a physical plane - until now.
MEMORY LOSSRiver has forgotten her time as a human, which means virtually all of her canon memories are gone. She does not remember Simon and believes Cassian is her brother instead, but deep down, she still feels like an important part of her is missing. The only thing she really knows is that they traversed the stars together, close enough to touch them if only they were willing to step into the vacuum of space. This has translated into her celestial theme and the feeling that this is where she's meant to be, somewhere out in the stars with her brother. The name "Serenity" has also stuck with her, although she does not know from where. She adopted it because it just felt right somehow, as though serenity is something they are chasing, knowing it has already been lost.
Because she doesn't remember being human, she believes she has always been in Abraxas, but she vaguely recalls being pulled out of the fountain in Thorne. It was less of a summoning and more of a birth, being brought into the world screaming and terrified like any child. The rest remains mostly the same - studying under Yennefer and Istredd in Castle Thorne while maintaining an inherent dislike of Thorne's mages, going on adventures and making friends across the different territories - but it feels muddied from time and the influence of delirium on her mind. She remembers some things more clearly than others, while some of it is missing altogether; maybe some things never happened in the first place, but who could say for sure?
It's been so long that it all blurs together, and her experience of time has become a continuous stream rather than the passage of days or years or centuries. It's all happening at the same time in both directions, past, present, and future all coexisting at once. Trying to hold onto a single memory in that constant flood of information is enough to make anyone go mad.
TIMELINE
⚝ YEAR 0
⚝ YEAR 100
⚝ YEAR 200
⚝ YEAR 300
⚝ YEAR 400
The omen dances through the earth looking for pieces of her brother to pull him back together, and when he finally returns and is whole, she departs into space to dance among the stars until she hears word of her brother's disappearance.
They so rarely share a physical plane - until now.
MEMORY LOSS
Because she doesn't remember being human, she believes she has always been in Abraxas, but she vaguely recalls being pulled out of the fountain in Thorne. It was less of a summoning and more of a birth, being brought into the world screaming and terrified like any child. The rest remains mostly the same - studying under Yennefer and Istredd in Castle Thorne while maintaining an inherent dislike of Thorne's mages, going on adventures and making friends across the different territories - but it feels muddied from time and the influence of delirium on her mind. She remembers some things more clearly than others, while some of it is missing altogether; maybe some things never happened in the first place, but who could say for sure?
It's been so long that it all blurs together, and her experience of time has become a continuous stream rather than the passage of days or years or centuries. It's all happening at the same time in both directions, past, present, and future all coexisting at once. Trying to hold onto a single memory in that constant flood of information is enough to make anyone go mad.
TIMELINE
- For the first century, things are pretty great! River studies with Istredd and Yennefer, eventually growing to view them both as parental figures as she builds up a level of mastery over several different classes of magic. She learns everything incredibly quickly, absorbing information about the world at large like a sponge.
- She begins to view Cassian as her real brother and her memories of Simon/canon events starts to fade the deeper she goes into her connection with the Singularity.
- As borders open up for them, she travels the world to learn about other branches of magic and the wild nature of Abraxas overall.
⚝ YEAR 100
- By the second century, her canon memories have gotten blurry enough that she only really remembers travelling in a spaceship with her brother - Cassian - and arriving in Abraxas through the fountain in Thorne.
- Her studies start to go sideways as she begins to absorb magic faster than her human brain can process it. Her control over more basic elements of magic begins to go haywire while her psychic abilities amplify exponentially.
- It all comes to a head when she's hanging out with Wilhelm and his budding affliction triggers her own. Her magic goes out of control, a village is buried beneath a collapsing mountain, and Wilhelm protects her from the falling debris by covering her with his shield. Being so close to him while they're both in a heightened emotional state overloads her system and she vanishes for several years.
⚝ YEAR 200
- River fully loses herself to the delirium and accidentally causes a handful of minor disasters. Cassian, Thancred, and some other gods end up intervening to prevent her from causing further damage to herself and the world around her.
- Abraxas natives begin to know her as "the Mad Maiden" due to the trail of chaos she leaves in her wake as she wanders the world. She takes on the name "Serenity" because of a deeply buried impression of clinging to something that used to bring hope before it was violently taken away.
- She spends a few years under Henry's thrall, travelling the world to trick and manipulate reality around mortals he targets with his malice. Eventually, her empathic abilities start to impact him and they go their separate ways because gross, emotions.
- She eventually retreats to the Horizon and stays there for several decades to get space from humanity and try to calm the madness in her mind.
- Her ability to use other forms of magic fades away and she's left with abilities that primarily manipulate and distort the mind, including her own. Feeling a lot of guilt and shame for winding up in this state, she hides from Yennefer and Istredd and only really talks to Cassian.
⚝ YEAR 300
- Things start to calm down! She comes out of hiding and slowly starts hanging out with people she used to know. Her memories of them are very fuzzy so a lot of their time together is mostly spent with her watching them curiously.
- Her control over her powers settles enough that she starts to use them more intentionally. She may be a bit more meddlesome in this era than gods probably ought to; she doesn't abuse her powers, but she does appear suddenly when there's something she wants to intervene, someone that needs help, or someone that needs to be shut down. She floats in a morally grey area of protective and vindictive.
- Toward the latter half of the century, she starts to spend more time in the world, wandering around looking at things or specifically checking out events that she finds interesting, which tend to be the most unusual and bizarre things happening across Abraxas.
- As her visibility increases, a very small number of people start to beseech her for help, usually during moments of desperation. Mortals also begin to assign a sort of lore to her as a god, viewing her as an omen for strange happenings and a mysterious understanding of existence. This is when the first gatherings of her cult form.
⚝ YEAR 400
RELATIONSHIPS
FAMILY
- Cassian: older brother; the center of her galaxy and her anchor to the earth ( x )
- Istredd: estranged father; she feels shame for her descent into madness after everything he did to raise her, but she "sneaks" back into his library when she misses him ( x )
- Jacob: disaster brother; they unintentionally bring out the worst in each other but stick together through the storm ( x )
- Sylvain: sunshine brother; a bright light in a dark world, one of few people that can pull her out of the gloom, also her brother's babysitter :| ( x )
- Jack: moonbrain brother; they ride the chaos together in search of better dreams ( x )
FRIENDS
- Eddie: friend; I love you but you are so loud :( #1 Goat Destroyer fan, has all their merch but hasn't been to a concert in 500 years lol ( x )
- Nate: friend(?) and charge(d); they share a cycle of chasing and escaping from the memories that weigh him down
- Geralt: friend; a calming presence and a beacon of hope, his horse is her BFF everyone else can go home ( x )
- Wilhelm: baby-god friends; their relationship is strained due to the accident they both caused, but they continue to try to repair their friendship and build each other back up ( x )
MYSTERIES
- Yennefer: a stranger and a savior; river pretends not to know it's yennefer but they always find their way to each other again, and her gentle guidance keeps her going ( x )
- Kyle: ??? ( x )
- Henry: former master; there's a chance they may have done some terrible things together but she feels drawn to him anyway ( x )
THE CULT OF SERENITY
River is not a popular or very well known god, but the followers that she does have are devout, typically to the point of fanaticism. She appeals to those that are lost or confused, seeking answers to make sense of a world that seems to be full of mindless chaos and turmoil. Her heart feels called to tormented souls and vulnerable children, those that have been harmed or cast aside by society for being different; she may appear to them in their dreams or as a whisper in their ear, telling them of a future where they will be free from their chains. Those that find hope in her message follow her into the dark, embracing uncertainty while seeking clarity.
The Cult of Serenity is not necessarily an organized religion but small gatherings of people across the world that come together in the dead of night to worship her. There are no churches, temples, or other large structures devoted to her. Instead, you can find altars and shrines in the middle of a forest or inside of a cave, in dark and hidden places where the candles they burn can bring them into the light. All of her altars have ceremonial bowls full of various types of dust and sand or fresh food and alcohol in tribute to the god Andor. Due to the chaotic nature of her magic, her followers sometimes use mind-altering drugs in rituals to interpret their visions or explore the metaphysical connections between their bodies. They seek to transcend from their ordinary lives to be in communion with the stars and the whole of reality that exists beyond the boundaries of their physical form.
The visions River grants her followers are often translated into prophesies. They may try to share these prophesies with others, but due to the generally negative perception of River's influence and domain, non-worshippers may not be keen to accept them - even though they always come true. Her followers may be oracles or fortune tellers, advisors to the ambitious or mediators of conflict, or in many cases, the last resort for desperate people hoping to curse their enemies, escape from bad dreams, or release anchors to their past.
One thing is true for anyone that comes seeking Serenity: they want to move beyond the current state of their lives, chasing something brighter on the horizon - whether it takes them into the sunrise or consumes them in flames.
The Cult of Serenity is not necessarily an organized religion but small gatherings of people across the world that come together in the dead of night to worship her. There are no churches, temples, or other large structures devoted to her. Instead, you can find altars and shrines in the middle of a forest or inside of a cave, in dark and hidden places where the candles they burn can bring them into the light. All of her altars have ceremonial bowls full of various types of dust and sand or fresh food and alcohol in tribute to the god Andor. Due to the chaotic nature of her magic, her followers sometimes use mind-altering drugs in rituals to interpret their visions or explore the metaphysical connections between their bodies. They seek to transcend from their ordinary lives to be in communion with the stars and the whole of reality that exists beyond the boundaries of their physical form.
The visions River grants her followers are often translated into prophesies. They may try to share these prophesies with others, but due to the generally negative perception of River's influence and domain, non-worshippers may not be keen to accept them - even though they always come true. Her followers may be oracles or fortune tellers, advisors to the ambitious or mediators of conflict, or in many cases, the last resort for desperate people hoping to curse their enemies, escape from bad dreams, or release anchors to their past.
One thing is true for anyone that comes seeking Serenity: they want to move beyond the current state of their lives, chasing something brighter on the horizon - whether it takes them into the sunrise or consumes them in flames.
SYMBOLS: the Blue Sun ( 1 )( 2 )( 3 ), the Third Eye ( 1 )( 2 )( 3 )
COLORS: black, gold, and blue
ANIMALS: owls, crows, hawks, butterflies, cats, snakes
SOUNDS: ancient traditions ( 1 )( 2 )( 3 ), new age customs ( 1 )( 2 )( 3 )
OFFERINGS/SACRIFICES: colorful crystals, meteorite fragments, eyeballs, tongues, hearts, brains
- River tried for several centuries to get people to stop sacrificing animals to her but humans are always gonna do weird shit. She does not like it. :(
