this is Salem, a land filled with magic and maladies. It is a place where witches and their elemental familiars gather, a home to legend and
lore that predates time itself. Yet of all the wicked and wonderful stories the past can tell us of, the most magical are the ones yet to happen.
This is Salem - this is the start of your very own journey. Welcome to starfall
Starfall is an animaga witch roleplay set in mostly modern times. Members play as witches in a world plagued by monsters, where the only safe spots are walled cities. Starfall strives to be a character-driven roleplay with expansive lore and a highly interactive plotline. We want to allow members to
create and look back on a magical journey, and mold the site and its plot as their characters grow.
It was just a dream. That was all there was to all the things that constantly came to him in his sleep. They didn't quite have the pull of the true outcome... more like possible futures that not likely but possible. That was the worst. Unfocused.
He stepped into the large towering building as he had been instructed. He wished so much that he could have someone go with him that he knew well. He wished he could have dragged aiden emerson with him if nothing else. Something to calm his nerves. He'd probably being squeezing the shit out of his friends hand as he walked without confidence through the hall as instructed. The building was huge.
There was supposed to be a rune expert meeting him here to go over some kind of artifact. He hadn't been briefed very well about what he was to do except as Master Claire would say 'figure it out and quickly'. There was some kind of object they were supposed to figure out.
"Do you think we'll be okay Teddy?" he said turning his head to look down on the small canine walking alongside himself. The dog seemed to be exuding confidence rubbing his cheek in comfort on the boy's leg. He probably should have dressed up for this mission occasion seeing as this was directly from the council. Instead he just wore skin tight shorts and a sweater which was a little to large on him. It was kind of ugly but it belonged to a certain tanned boy and still kind of smelled like him. Charani often slept in. Don't ask. Please.
He walked down the hall towards the room he was asked to meet his partner in. Hopefully she... or he... or they? Whoever it was would be very knowledgable so they could figure out what the heck was going on with this artifact. Well no time like the present. He walked into the room.
Ling loves this sort of mission, with research and runes and the tantalising promise of new knowledge. Ancient artifacts and mysterious runic arrays, lore passed down in murmurs and superstition based in the tiniest grain of fact, working together with fellow researchers to try and find answers to phenomenons perhaps not meant for humans - it lights up her blood with fireworks of electric gold.
This certainly isn’t the first time she’s been called in as a budding rune expert. Sure, there are runescripters far more knowledgeable and experienced than she, but higher ranked runescripters are rather few and far in-between, not to mention generally occupied with other projects of their own. So Ling, all of sixteen with runes in her heart and a novice rank tucked under her belt, standing at an impressive less-than-five-feet and dressed in a pink top and green skirt (that looks wildly out of place within the professional setting of one of Sundial’s towers), finds herself excitedly buzzing around a strange artifact after her concerned guide leaves her to await her partner.
She cycles around it, taking in the strangely asymmetric shape of the thing. The base is podium-like, a strange gunmetal grey material curving up into a jagged embrace of a mesmerising blue crystal. Runes are carved into the podium, strange configurations and arrays that look vaguely familiar in the most alien way. Something tugs at her memory-
The door opens with a soft creak, and Ling looks up to see a vaguely familiar figure enter the room. She blinks, startled, then smiles and waves enthusiastically. “Hello! You’re the diviner, right? We’ve met before yeah? I’m Ling, here’s to hoping we can crack this mystery together!”
The girl who would be his partner. The young woman who was the rune expert was... the pranking girl from Jester's Den he'd met ages ago. He'd vaguely seen and talked to her in passing since that incident but that was still his biggest memory of her. The jester's pranking festival where she put up barriers for people like him to run into. Well this would be... fun?
On the plus side this was one of the very rare occasions he had the height advantage if it came down to a fist fight during this little mission. He couldn't say that very often... or well really ever most of the time. A lot of girls younger than him even sometimes towered over the boy. Teddy didn't seem to share the same sentiment as his witch seemingly either forgetting or moving past the previous incidents from admittedly a while ago away. The dog was all over the girl in an instant but not in the attack or aggressive way he was around any boy ever. He was being cute and puppy like instead whining and wanting to be pet with those big puppy dog eyes staring at Ling.
"Yes. Yes we have. Charani," he said turning his head to look down on the small canine who turned his puppy dog eyes towards the boy. He even did the little whine and pout to attempt to diffuse any tension in the boy's body. He shouldn't be tense. That was then and this is now of course. She had no reason to prank him during a mission... especially not a research mission like this.
He turns towards the object Ling was near. It was a very odd shape with lots of runes and a kind of podium type shape to the bottom. There was this weird grey metal going up and into this bright blue crystal. It was like something an artist would have made to be edgy and one of a kind. "The shape is so strange... hmmm... you're the rune expert right? Any idea what any of these mean or what they do?" They should work on the problem in front of them for sure. What could this strange object be?
Her partner looks pretty young too ( though Ling's not in any position to judge ), perhaps only a few years older than her, with thick brown hair and bright green eyes and a canine familiar trotting at his side. She brightens instantly when the cute dog bounds over to her; without a single thought to dignity or appropriateness, and crouches down to run her fingers through his thick fur, gently petting the familiar. Valkea watches on with his perpetual amusement, greeting Charani with a nod while patiently waiting for Ling to get back on track. "Valkea," he introduces himself.
Fussing over the cute ( cutest! ) dog familiar for a little while more, eventually the call to research becomes too strong and she stands up again, bouncing over to Charani's side and clasping her hands under her chin, enthusiasm all but lighting her eyes. "Yup! I'm the runescripter!" she confirms with a proud grin.
Up closer, there seems to be an odd... tension...? to her mission partner, as if he's worried or concerned or agitated about something. Or maybe she's imagining it, maybe it's just his natural demeanor. Ling considers it for a split second, then puts it out of her mind in favour of the more important things. Namely, the artifact.
"I don't recognise the arrays," she admits, doing a quick up-down of the artifact as though the runes might have changed since her inspection mere moments before. Though, with runes and weird ancient artifacts, such an occurrence wouldn't be out of the possibility. "The runes look kinda odd to me too, though I'm pretty sure some of them are modified standard runes. It's all kinda vaguely familiar, but I don't know what they say, or do. I'll definitely need to do some research." To someone who doesn't know her, the gleeful enthusiasm Ling says research with might seem out of place, or odd. But as someone who lives for questions / puzzles / discoveries like this, research is far more a delight than a chore.
"Does your divination tell you anything about this?" She turns to Charani now, settling firmly into her research role. "Or react in any non-standard way? Are you feeling anything unusual? Abnormal?"
She has fallen into his trap. The trap of petting a dog. Teddy rubbed his cheek into her touch until it was gone. As soon as she stood up and made to move away he started whining. He put those big puppy eyes upon her and whined like a lost puppy. It was like she'd just kicked him when she took her petting away. He was being a brat. Charani looked down at the familiar and gave a mental 'Stop it.' for good measure. He'd eventually stop whining.
"If they're modified then maybe if you know the base we can get a general idea of what they do? You know what I mean?" he said with a questioning inflection to both of his sentences. He wasn't really sure how rune magic worked so he was just basing it off other areas of witchcraft. If someone modified a spell it usually had a similar goal or at least partially similar idea behind it. That's what he's learned thanks to his time learning purification magic that you start from the simplest area or the base and then figure out how the magic worked from there.
"Honestly? To me at least... it feels like nothing..." he said turning his head to look down at the artifact. The be totally honest it didn't turn off any alarm or anything like that. It honestly felt like nothing which was much stranger. It felt like nothing was there... kind of like the artifact didn't exist at all. That was much more interesting than him just not feeling anything important. "I wonder if this will work." DIVINATION - TRUESIGHT VOL 1. is the best option he has at his current level. His green eyes glow in a similar fashion to his aura reading magic.
Hopefully he'd see something with the object. His field of vision started to bleed color. It was like someone was splashing water on fresh paint causing the color to ooze and fade away until everything was monochrome in color. It was just black, white and grey everywhere. It took a minute or two for his eyes to adjust and narrow upon the box. He was very curious to what he would see... if anything. Well hopefully this wasn't just a waste of mana.
Charani’s familiar lets out a soft whine, nudging against her and looking at her with large, liquid eyes until Ling almost gives in. But the call to research, to mystery, is far too strong, and her mind is very quickly overtaken by the whirling of golden cogs as it spins in an infinite generation of ideas.
“It’s not as easy as that,” she tells him, pulling out a pen and paper and tapping the pen against her lips. Circling closer, she begins to make a few notes, jotting down snatches of ideas and the rough outline of some of the unusual runes. “By modifying a rune, you modify its meaning too. For heavily modded runes and arrays, usually we can only work out the effect by analysing the geometrics and the mathematical fractals in the configuration.”
She pauses to squint at the runes, moving in so close she’s almost touching the thing. Her pen flies across the paper as she writes, the messy chicken-scratch handwriting probably making no sense to anyone but her. Even when she looks up in surprise at Charani’s answer, she continues to write - even more illegible than before if that’s eve possible, but hey at least it saves time. “Like nothing? Really?” She’s no expert in divination - believes in it yes, knows anything about it no - but to have the artifact feel like nothing at all is just weird. Even Ling, a non diviner ( like 99.9% of the population ), is half convinced she can feel some weird energy crackling like ghostly lightning against her skin.
Hey but it’s probably just a placebo effect. Charani’s the actual diviner, he would definitely know best. A rapid flurry of thoughts exchanged with Valkea and Ling nods, finally halting her pen and taking a step back, straightening with a triumphant smile. “Okay, lucky for us, I’m pretty sure the runic mods are from a standard set. A rare set - probably from one of the ancient northern civilisations - but I’m 75% sure I can translate them with a bit of research. The maths is weird, but I bet I can untangle it with a library dive or two too. After you do your thing, d’you wanna head over to the library for a few hours?”
Whatever her mission partner is doing, it looks hella cool. There’s some sort of glow emanating from his eyes, backlighting them in luminous green till his irises bleed into his pupils in a mass of verdant light. Absently, she kinda wishes she could do whatever he’s doing….
( Unknown to Ling, her own eyes begin to shift into a soft golden-amber colour… (DIVINING SKILL: GOD’S EYES))
There was some kind of energy shifting and crackling around the artifact like it was charged with energy. It seemed to be giving it off in small bursts like a little ball of electricity. That was all he could see... there was for sure something going on with it. No doubt even though unintentional Ling's God Eyes had greater scope in their sight so she'd be able to see more than he could having only practiced with the first step of Truesight. He was nowhere near as good at any of the diving skills as Lady Ezra.
"It's giving off something? There is for sure something strange about it..." he said as he let the mana flow outward from his eyes and the color rushed back into the world. His eyes stopped glowing and his sight returned to normal... sort of. His vision went blurry for a few seconds as it usually did with some of the ocular magic. He wondered if all diviners had this problem or maybe he just wasn't that talented at this sort of skill? Who knows... he should ask Lady Ezra when he got the chance.
"I think it'd be easier after we figure out the runes to do... well anything... I'm not sure how'd they'd interact with any mana we put out... ya know?" he said as he continued to stare at the object. Maybe it didn't feel like anything because it wasn't something for him? It's unlike how he'd felt around his grandmother's tarot deck which he could always kind of feel something towards. Maybe that was just sentiment though? Well they should go to the library.
He turned towards Ling at her suggestion for library time. After all she would be the expert in doing all this math and stuff as she said she could indeed figure all this stuff out given time. What he didn't expect was her eyes to be kind of glowing a bit. "Um... what's with your eyes?" There were many spells that caused glowing eyes so it could be any number of them... of course it could also be her mana reacting to the object. Who knows?
Suddenly, there seems to be some sort of imperceptible shift in the air, a weight, like it has become charged all of a sudden and poised upon the precipice of a moment just waiting to happen. Ling pauses, blinks, glances around instinctively in search of what might have caused this change, then has to refrain from dropping her jaw at the sight of the artifact.
Where it was just strange metal and prismatic blue stone before, now it’s come to life with some sort of energy field cloaking it; it shifts and crackles and sparks like lightning trapped in place. The runes seem to glow slightly and she has no doubt it’s connected to the energy. Distantly, she’s aware of Charani talking, mentioning it ‘giving off’ something, agreeing to figuring out the runes, but for the most part she’s almost entranced by the light.
“What is that?!” she finally exclaims, dragging her eyes away from the artifact and to her partner. “Do you see that too? Did your divining activate something? Is that-“ she jabs a finger towards the electrified artifact- “like what you saw with your divination?”
She’s so confused. It’s nothing like anything she’s seen before, and Valkea’s equally confused assertion that he can’t see anything unusual is only heightening her confusion. “Wait, you can’t see it?” She stares down at her familiar.
Then Charani’s question registers and it’s his turn to be stared at blankly. “…what’s wrong with my eyes?”
She could obviously see something. Perhaps it was the spark of energy he'd seen with the power of Truesight? Or maybe she was seeing something with the runes? He wasn't very familiar with runic magic so he couldn't say. Her familiar obviously couldn't see it given her responses to the creature. Well this was interesting.
Ling seemed mildly panicked. This was kind of annoying and he was way to tired to have to explain so many things assuming this was... well something extra ordinary. Of course this could all just be a misunderstanding. He missed his bed. He missed their bed. He missed many things. He didn't miss the nightmares. Onto todays problem though.
"Your eyes are glowing with mana? That's what I mean..." he said as he stared at the girl, a questioning inflection to his voice. She was probably unconsciously doing this seeing as she didn't seem to know what was going on? This was all very strange... very very strange.
"I've done nothing... what does it look like?" he asked as he continued to stare at the girl. Currently he saw nothing going on with the object... not the crackling energy he saw when he had his magic activated so it wasn't just something anyone could see. If she described the same thing he'd seen then for sure this girl could see something that she shouldn't be able to see. Well that very few could see at least.
She knows she’s panicking a bit, off balance not by the weird forcefield she can now see where there was nothing before, but rather by the fact that Valkea can’t see what she’s seeing. Speaking of Val, the fox is also mildly perturbed by this development, but being of far more calm and practical disposition, nudges her gently. “Hey, Ling-ling. Take a few breaths for me.” His steadiness and quiet, decidedly unpanicked words help bring her out of her alarm.
She takes his advice, breathing in slowly and relaxing the frenetic energy settled around her shoulders like an agitated cloak; and now that she’s done that, common sense and the excitement of a natural-born researcher kicks in. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she says with a small, sheepish smile. “I just… wasn’t expecting to see, well…”
She’s still not quite sure what she’s seeing, and definitely not sure what Charani means about her eyes glowing with mana. Turning to her familiar with a silent question written all over her face, she blinks at the quick burst of startled surprise that follows a slight widening of his eyes. “Your eyes are glowing, Ling,” he says, repeating the diviner’s words. “There’s no other way to describe it.”
She gapes at him, but thankfully doesn’t slide back into mild panic again. “Maybe it’s got something to do with the artifact? And the energy I’m seeing… I'll figure it out later, maybe.”
She considers the question, glancing back at where the energy field is still crackling and sparking around the artifact. “It looks… kinda like lightning? It’s blue-ish and it keeps sparking, and it’s surrounding the blue stone especially. And the runes are glowing a little, I think.”
An artifact with the power to effect someone who hasn't even touched it is not only unheard of but frightening if it was indeed the case. To be able to effect or warp things around itself would put it on par with some of the most powerful magic possible and maybe even some that are impossible. Then again who is he to say what is and is not possible?
He should feel for Ling. Feelings that should trigger signs of empathy or maybe compassion. All he felt right now was empty. Was this just how he was going to feel from now on? Empty. What happened to you? Her familiar and the breathing seemed to calm her down. Good? Good.
"Ling can you do me a favor? I want you to look at me and concentrate. Can you do that?" he said as he stared at the girl with what seemed to be a suggestion but there was an edge to his voice. He was curious... just a bit. Why was he constantly feeling and changing his mood so much. Mood swings? It was most definitely the lack of sleep it had to be.
"Concentrate and tell me what you see." What she had described before with the blue lightning and the glowing at least kind of matched what he could see. Well at least what little he could see since Truesight wasn't exactly his strong suit. He was much better with some of the other aspects of the divination affinity.
She looks up at her mission partner, slightly surprised at the request. "Um, okay?" she says, and it's more a question than an agreement, but hey can you really blame her? Ling looks at Charani like he had asked, looks at him and concentrates... on what exactly, she doesn't know, and she's a little bit too off balance to feel comfortable asking, so she just stares at his eyes really really hard and hopes it's okay. What he's looking for with this exercise, she really doesn't know - maybe it's a seer thing?
"I'm not really seeing anything?" she reports after a moment, increasingly confused. "Well, nothing unusual anyway." Unknown to her, her eyes that had been glowing a soft hazel-gold, fade slowly back to their regular amber-red. She blinks, turns around to look at the artifact again, then exclaims in surprise, "Oh! The artifact's stopped glowing!"
Valkea steps up to her side, a steady, unwavering presence that is beautifully solid and comforting amidst the confusion of everything. "Your eyes have stopped glowing," he comments, tail wrapping around her leg in the same silent reassurance as he offers in her mind. 'Don't worry,' he murmurs to her. 'I'm sure we'll figure it out.'
As she stared at him her eyes slowly faded back to their original color. Maybe he should ask Lady Ezra about this? She'd probably know. She knew so much more than he did about the future and about... well most things to be totally honest. He didn't get to see or talk to her often but she was always a great resource when he could track her down. Maybe she did it on purpose? Who knows.
"He's right they stopped glowing. Whatever magic was working isn't anymore. Oh well..." he said with a huge sigh. Well that wasn't helpful at all. He had hoped if he could use his purification sight to see what exactly her mana was doing that he could tell if it was her or the artifact doing the mana manipulation. He wasn't nearly fast enough though. Maybe it was the lack of drive or more likely the lack of sleep.
"We should get back to researching then." They should make their way to the library at the very least. They needed to know what the heck was up with this strange artifact that seemed to combine more than one affinity. It was either someone with a very specific set of magic or more than likely made by more than one witch given the caliber of the spells used upon it.
Charani and Teddy made their way past Ling towards the door. They would need to head to the library for the girl to research the runes wouldn't they? "Are you coming?" He didn't turn his head as she kept walking. She'd follow suit eventually. She had to after all since the library was her idea after all. The canine proudly trotted at the lead of the pack of course.
Unfortunately, Charani doesn't seem to have any more information about her spontaneous eye-glowing than she does, thus bringing her back to her hypothesis that its root cause lies in the function of the artifact. She lets out a shaky breath, then shakes herself and sternly pulls herself together. She's on a mission. She's on a mission, and she's a novice, and she needs to stop acting like a kid and start acting like the professional she is.
"Yeah," she says, trying for a smile. "Yeah, library it is."
She follows after the Knight and his familiar, giving the innocuous-looking artifact one final look before heading out the door. Thankfully, it's really not a long walk between Sundial Tower and the library, and they're quickly surrounded by ancient shelves filled up to the ceiling with tomes, scrolls crammed together in messy rows on a dazzling array of topics. She loves this place, honestly and truly loves it, and if it weren't for her mission goal she'd be wandering off already to grab at the first scroll to catch her eye.
But she is on a mission, so she looks around and quickly leads Charani over to where she knows the scrolls she wants are. Or, around about. With mysterious stuff like the artifact, there's no certainty involved unfortunately. Or fortunately - she loves a good mystery. Running her finger along the spines, Ling begins to grab out any scroll that she thinks might be related to their search; "We're looking for 9th and 13th century runes and arithmetic from the northern civilisations," she tells her partner, ducking down to grab a book from the bottom row. "Also astrological arithmetic from the same time period and region, if you can find them, but they're kinda rare." She pauses long enough to grin at him sheepishly, arms already stacked full of scrolls. "This might look like a lot, but with research like this, it's really not that much, trust me."
They made it to the library where the girl seemed to spout a whole bunch of words he didn't really understand. Northern civilization and something about math. Okay but where would he find that kind of thing in this massive library? No clue... time to start looking.
"So old books? Got it..." he said with a hum. Well that wasn't helpful at all. He had hoped that he could at least find one book to help or something. His eyes trailed down the aisle of book upon book. The literary knowledge contained in this library was second to none. He let his fingers trail along the backs of the old tomes not to far away from Ling.
"This feels right." His fingers rubbed upon the back of one of the books that seemed to fit the criteria. Thirtheen century runic structures or something like that appeared to be the title. Where else should he look? Maybe a little magic could help. He poured his mana into his eyes and let GUIDE take effect. He could see a brightly colored line appear in front of him in short flashes.
Charani followed the short flashes of light away from Ling. The line seemed long and wove down the aisles of the library. It appeared to be going towards the stairs from what he could see up onto the second floor. "I'm going to go look on the second floor... I'll be right back," he said back to Ling as he went towards the stairs. What would his magic find?
