The world is young. Humanity is younger still.
You were 17. Already a man in your tribe, you were blessed with a sharp eye and even sharper mind, destined to become a hunter since birth. The chief let you lead a hunting party, you and four other young men from the village. You loved it. It took days of tracking, quiet solitude as a precursor to the storm. A screaming primal battle, all of you with you with sticks hardened in fire and sharpened on rock, a glorious and bloody conflict. The return of course was the best of it all. To return victorious, the bearer of meat, a savior to the tribe as it clung to its bare sustenance. It was two months after your first hunt when it happened.
A burning purple star, out of nowhere. It clung so low to the earth that the night itself gave way to its faint purple glow. People grew sick from its influence, and prey was scarce under its light. The village was dying, and the people began to grow scared. It was that which led them to turn on you.
"his eyes" They would whisper. "were they always as such?" Never in front of you, but you knew. Hushed voices at night. Quick glances from those who used to be your friends, and no one would meet your eye.
"The dying of a star is caught in his gaze." One said.
"Or is his eyes what causes the star to die" replied another.
When the first among them died, a young girl, no more than 12 cycles, it came to a head. They had gone to bury her, and when they made the ceremonial cuts; that her life blood might return to the earth which spawns us all, she had bled out purple, vibrant and steaming it burnt the grass where it fell.
They came back in shrieks and wales wails, they called you soul killer, demon, monster. They threw things, they would have torn you apart if not for the chief. He stepped up, right in front of you. He looked you straight in your vibrant purple eyes, though you saw him shudder to do so. He sealed your fate in three words.
"You will go"
You knew not where or how, but you knew it would happen.
You pleaded, "Food, Just for a day or two, and my spear that I might still survive"
"The village is dying, you know we can not spare these things" His voice never wavered and you realised this decision had been made before this day.
"You will go" he said again, and so you went.
You struck towards the mountains, for that is where the star was pointing. You traveled for three weeks, slowly starving from a diet of scavenged berries and birds eggs. You caught what prey you could, but without your spear you only tasted meat twice on that journey. All the while, the star burned lower almost touching the mountains that you moved towards. You found a pool of water once and you stayed there for hours, seeing the color in your own eyes for the first time.
When you woke up one morning at the base of the mountain the star was gone. It seemed unreal, just plain yellow light and birds calling over a clear sky. You stared out over foothills with the scrub grass and low bushes, it could have been any day, the star might never have existed at all. There was no water nearby, but you wondered if your eyes still held its color. You wondered if they would let you back to the village.
You found the crash site three days later. 30 feet back into the solid rock of a cliff face, you knew it immediately. The air itself here held faint purple hue. By the time you had climbed up to it's indent it was already night. You entered the cavern in wonder, with just a hint of trepidation. The air seemed to glow the color of the star, and strange haphazard crystal growths sprang from the wall in all colors of the world. In the center lay a shimmering sphere of pure purple color. It seemed to sit out of synch with the rest of world around it.
Unable to control yourself you walked forward and seized it in your hand. It burned. It burned like fire, and it spread like it too. Crawling out of the orb and up your hands you could see literal flames of purple. You were screaming now, thrashing back and forth as you tried to throw it from you hands, but the sphere was gone. It was only on you. You watched as your hands dissolved down to the bone, feeding the purple flames. You kept screaming as it chewed through your body until it reached you head and all at once you were gone.
You awaken in a shallow cave, seemingly in tact despite your ordeal. This is a different cave then the one you found the orb in, and you wonder how you got here. The sphere is gone, and but for a few of the odd crystal growths it might be a normal cave. The air is clear here, and you can feel the cold nip of the air from outside. This leads you to notice that you are completely naked, and you can really feel the cold down there. You walk out to the edge of your cave and confirm by way of your surroundings that you certainly are somewhere different now. The cave is apparently half way up a hill, and the forest surrounds you as far as you can see. Your stomach reminds you that you are in fact hungry, and you realise that it seems late in the day already. How long were you out?
You have a few hours left before night fall. It would appear that you immediate survival is your biggest concern. If your past experience is anything, it will be difficult to catch anything without a weapon. Perhaps you could find food another way?
What do you do?
Hunting (armed) - 2
Tracking - 2
Foraging - 1
SPIRT-A
Strength - 5
Perception - 6
Intellect - 6
Reflexes - 5
Tenacity - 5
Affinity - 4
-Hungry
-Cold
-Naked ( this one is more an observation than an outright problem)
-Traumatized
You don't even have a shirt on you back to own.
*Feel free to tell me what you look like (except for eye color). I didn't design a character so much as I designed a story, so that's fair game. I'll let you move stat points around until the next post too, but anything over 7 costs two points.
**Feel free to ask questions, I'll try my best to answer.
***Your ultimate goal here is to develop and spread magic to the world. How you do that, and what you do with that power is up to you.
Author
Topic: The Birth of Magic (Read 2355 times)