Post by wanderingmagus on Jan 31, 2014 17:48:10 GMT
Sign-up: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/36/after-equestria-sign
OOC: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/58/after-equestria-ooc
What happened before this point: pastehtml.com/view/dvmwunvec.html
one sentence: All gods and demigods vanish as an Ice Age comes, and ponies have to figure out how to fix it.
short: Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight, Discord, and sentient god- or demigod-level creatures have mysteriously disappeared. Meanwhile unstoppable blizzards suddenly take the world by storm without warning, plunging the entire land into subzero temperatures and blizzards that overwhelm even the united efforts of all the ponies of Equestria in an undending Winter. You, and the other survivors, must figure out a way to solve this mystery and bring back the Spring, and Harmony itself.
long:
*****
Please see Sign-Up page for Rules and more information.
*****
Accepted characters:
Frostina "Frost" Nova (Midnight_Aurora) - Factionless Wanderer
"Mr. Brown" (Wavelength) - Farm Assistant, Duchy Fancy
Aldorn Ceraphil (Bane Emural) - Factionless Wanderer
Asterian Élire (Asterian) - Noble, Duchy Fancy
*****
Factionless:
The snow is blinding, as usual, but overall it's what might be considered mild weather. Mild enough that the winds only throw you about twenty lengths rather than over and across the mountain, and that's not an exaggeration, as you've come to realize during the span of your life. Nopony knows how high the storms go; pegasi that went too far up never came back down, and the rest never saw even a glimpse of light up there, though presumably the Sun and Moon had to exist.
Most caves and shelters were, obviously, occupied and heavily fortified by surviving communities, and many were less than friendly to wanderers, since there was so little food and space to spare already. The ones that weren't occupied by ponies were often occupied by all manner of creatures. If you were lucky, you found an animal that only hurt you slightly before giving you what nutrients its body could provide. If you were unlucky, well, you never lived to tell the tale.
Out in the cold, the few wanderers consisted mostly of ponies with some sort of personal heating device, strange ponies who actually weren't hurt by the cold, and of course all manner of monsters and creatures. Star-creatures, like Ursae Majorae and Ursae Minorae, were fortunately rare, and mostly in their millennium-long hibernation cycles. Unfortunately, Frost-Wolves, Ice-Drakes, Snow-Bears and White Lynx seemed to prowl in abundance. One might find herds of Woolly Mammoths or Hoary Aurochs out here, but those were rare also, feeding on the rotting plants beneath the ice with gigantic tusks, or occasionally finding rare Snowberries and other plants that somehow adapted to the subzero temperatures and hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds.
The last pony you heard from, oh, maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe just a week ago (time was hard to keep track of without sun or moon or stars), probably mentioned a rumor about an unbelievably large underground CITY somewhere around here, with its symbol being the Triple Crown, mark of the legendary Lord Fancy Pants from an eternity ago, before the Ice. "Look for the Mountain," they'd said. "A mountain with doors, and a great stallion of stone clad in gold." Most likely just a rumor... but at this point, it might be better than nothing, at least.
*****
Duchy Fancy, Orod Khazad:
It's mid-morning on a mild summer day down here in the stone cities, and somepony over at weather control decided to turn up the temperature and let the warm air from the Hall of Fire fill up the rest of the place. It's pleasant, and there wasn't such a thing as "too warm" unless you were right next to a forge or kiln, or a magma river. Birds were singing in the parks and gardens, little chicks, kids and foals going to and fro, playing hide-and-seek among the grand columns of the Merchant's Hall and trying to keep their mind off the fact that school starts again in a month.
Morning actually does shimmer, seeing as that the stored sunlight from the Sun-Crystals up in the far reaches of the massive cavern light up all the polished angles of the stone and crystal buildings, and the tiles underhoof. In smaller places like Gemton and Rockton, you might see the mayor giving a speech, and everywhere you went you could always find merchants and artisans, street hawkers, street cleaners and errand-colts rushing past with "very important" messages. The occasional odd pet.
Nobles were likely relaxing in their grand marble mansions, or surveying their vast estates while having tea and crumpets served to them on platinum platters. Most other ponies had "real jobs" to do, but life was actually rather relaxed around here, with plenty of spare time for hobbies and the odd "adventure" through a park-forest.
Many citizens had completely forgotten that there ever was such a thing as "above-ground". The foals, kids and chicks certainly had no comprehension of that place, only rumors of some sort of death world if you dug or wandered too far up or down, filled with either ice or magma. The magma, at least, they could understand and see. Nopony WANTED to see the Ice. To them, this was the universe, an endless series of tunnels and caverns to explore, work, and live in, and occasionally discover and colonize when they grew up. Equestria was an ancient civilization from what for all they knew was a million years ago, the sort of thing you read about in a boring history book and forgot. Oceans, stars, grassland, beaches, deserts, all these were pretty pictures on a wall, or strange and exotic places you heard about in old stories and sad songs that always seemed to make the adults cry when they listened or sang.
But some ponies couldn't keep their minds off that world far above, and the ponies that might still be alive up there...
OOC: innofwanderers.freeforums.net/thread/58/after-equestria-ooc
What happened before this point: pastehtml.com/view/dvmwunvec.html
one sentence: All gods and demigods vanish as an Ice Age comes, and ponies have to figure out how to fix it.
short: Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight, Discord, and sentient god- or demigod-level creatures have mysteriously disappeared. Meanwhile unstoppable blizzards suddenly take the world by storm without warning, plunging the entire land into subzero temperatures and blizzards that overwhelm even the united efforts of all the ponies of Equestria in an undending Winter. You, and the other survivors, must figure out a way to solve this mystery and bring back the Spring, and Harmony itself.
long:
It began with a single snowflake that wasn't supposed to be there. Then came news that the Princesses, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, the Tree of Harmony, and Discord had all vanished, everywhere. After that came panic. Ponies crowded the streets, the Guard standing helpless as the Sun and Moon once again hung still in the sky, and the snow kept falling. Pegasi succeeded in pushing the first of the clouds back... but they couldn't hold the storms for long. At first most ponies thought it only a temporary thing. That thinking changed after the first year. Then the second. And the third. The world was covered in ice all the way from deep within the Arctic North down to just before the tropics far to the south. It wasn't Windigoes. It was something... more sinister. There was SOMETHING in the blinding snow, SOMETHING that survived the subzero temperatures with ease, consuming, devouring, and keeping this endless Winter in place. Ponies went underground, or the wise ones did. Almost anypony who came out of their shelters froze instantly. Canterlot was a frozen monument to an empire long gone. Ponyville was abandoned, then covered in snow, and forgotten. The Everfree Forest shielded itself with its wild magic for a while, but soon it, too, was frozen. Only a few communities survive now, most underground, besides the Crystal Empire far to the north, now cut off from the outside world without their princess to support them. Some of you will lead these communities. Others will come from them. But there is a key, one last hope to saving the world, of bringing back Spring. A letter found in Fluttershy's home.
From Oak to Holly, from Holly to Oak,
The tale we hide, The meaning cloak.
From Smooze of old, to great Tirek,
They ever come, the world to wreck.
A thousand years, ten thousand more,
The land was safe from shore to shore,
For Princesses and Elements,
Did grace us with benevolence.
But now the ancient curse is come,
Our bones to chill, our skin to numb.
To solve this ancient mystery,
Look back into your history.
No longer is it endless hate,
Nor arrogance, nor anger great,
But snow and ice are just the same.
Return to that from whence you came.
The tale we hide, The meaning cloak.
From Smooze of old, to great Tirek,
They ever come, the world to wreck.
A thousand years, ten thousand more,
The land was safe from shore to shore,
For Princesses and Elements,
Did grace us with benevolence.
But now the ancient curse is come,
Our bones to chill, our skin to numb.
To solve this ancient mystery,
Look back into your history.
No longer is it endless hate,
Nor arrogance, nor anger great,
But snow and ice are just the same.
Return to that from whence you came.
*****
Please see Sign-Up page for Rules and more information.
*****
Accepted characters:
Frostina "Frost" Nova (Midnight_Aurora) - Factionless Wanderer
"Mr. Brown" (Wavelength) - Farm Assistant, Duchy Fancy
Aldorn Ceraphil (Bane Emural) - Factionless Wanderer
Asterian Élire (Asterian) - Noble, Duchy Fancy
*****
Factionless:
The snow is blinding, as usual, but overall it's what might be considered mild weather. Mild enough that the winds only throw you about twenty lengths rather than over and across the mountain, and that's not an exaggeration, as you've come to realize during the span of your life. Nopony knows how high the storms go; pegasi that went too far up never came back down, and the rest never saw even a glimpse of light up there, though presumably the Sun and Moon had to exist.
Most caves and shelters were, obviously, occupied and heavily fortified by surviving communities, and many were less than friendly to wanderers, since there was so little food and space to spare already. The ones that weren't occupied by ponies were often occupied by all manner of creatures. If you were lucky, you found an animal that only hurt you slightly before giving you what nutrients its body could provide. If you were unlucky, well, you never lived to tell the tale.
Out in the cold, the few wanderers consisted mostly of ponies with some sort of personal heating device, strange ponies who actually weren't hurt by the cold, and of course all manner of monsters and creatures. Star-creatures, like Ursae Majorae and Ursae Minorae, were fortunately rare, and mostly in their millennium-long hibernation cycles. Unfortunately, Frost-Wolves, Ice-Drakes, Snow-Bears and White Lynx seemed to prowl in abundance. One might find herds of Woolly Mammoths or Hoary Aurochs out here, but those were rare also, feeding on the rotting plants beneath the ice with gigantic tusks, or occasionally finding rare Snowberries and other plants that somehow adapted to the subzero temperatures and hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds.
The last pony you heard from, oh, maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe just a week ago (time was hard to keep track of without sun or moon or stars), probably mentioned a rumor about an unbelievably large underground CITY somewhere around here, with its symbol being the Triple Crown, mark of the legendary Lord Fancy Pants from an eternity ago, before the Ice. "Look for the Mountain," they'd said. "A mountain with doors, and a great stallion of stone clad in gold." Most likely just a rumor... but at this point, it might be better than nothing, at least.
*****
Duchy Fancy, Orod Khazad:
It's mid-morning on a mild summer day down here in the stone cities, and somepony over at weather control decided to turn up the temperature and let the warm air from the Hall of Fire fill up the rest of the place. It's pleasant, and there wasn't such a thing as "too warm" unless you were right next to a forge or kiln, or a magma river. Birds were singing in the parks and gardens, little chicks, kids and foals going to and fro, playing hide-and-seek among the grand columns of the Merchant's Hall and trying to keep their mind off the fact that school starts again in a month.
Morning actually does shimmer, seeing as that the stored sunlight from the Sun-Crystals up in the far reaches of the massive cavern light up all the polished angles of the stone and crystal buildings, and the tiles underhoof. In smaller places like Gemton and Rockton, you might see the mayor giving a speech, and everywhere you went you could always find merchants and artisans, street hawkers, street cleaners and errand-colts rushing past with "very important" messages. The occasional odd pet.
Nobles were likely relaxing in their grand marble mansions, or surveying their vast estates while having tea and crumpets served to them on platinum platters. Most other ponies had "real jobs" to do, but life was actually rather relaxed around here, with plenty of spare time for hobbies and the odd "adventure" through a park-forest.
Many citizens had completely forgotten that there ever was such a thing as "above-ground". The foals, kids and chicks certainly had no comprehension of that place, only rumors of some sort of death world if you dug or wandered too far up or down, filled with either ice or magma. The magma, at least, they could understand and see. Nopony WANTED to see the Ice. To them, this was the universe, an endless series of tunnels and caverns to explore, work, and live in, and occasionally discover and colonize when they grew up. Equestria was an ancient civilization from what for all they knew was a million years ago, the sort of thing you read about in a boring history book and forgot. Oceans, stars, grassland, beaches, deserts, all these were pretty pictures on a wall, or strange and exotic places you heard about in old stories and sad songs that always seemed to make the adults cry when they listened or sang.
But some ponies couldn't keep their minds off that world far above, and the ponies that might still be alive up there...
