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The Arx Secrets Thread
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When I took Duarte his secret was “Shreve says you can do some dark magics if you wanna!” but Shreve was already deader than dead dead.
So I built Fealty Volitant (a secret spy org) instead and had spies in all of your houses and orgs (sorry). It was inside and funded by Crossroads Casino and all the fashion shows/events we did there.
Wasn’t ever used for any PvP stuff and we didn’t target PCs with it, but we did know a lot about a lot of folks for a bit and got to pretend we were sneaky which was kinda cool for a bit.
Then a tree started growing out of Duarte and he had other things to worry about. Then he had a mental breakdown (ic reason for a very long period of inactivity). I almost rostered him but decided not to and kept logging in every other day or so just in case I got back into the game again.
I also played Avary but I retconned her secret because I really didn’t like it, even though I loved the character. She wanted to reinstitute an organized discipleship for Sentinel that veered away from the esoterica of courts and law and be more accessible to commoners and regular folk. Her story ended the best possible way I could imagine and I’m very happy with it.
I wrapped up Jeffeth at the end and I love the big guy, but he was very well played and very well taken care of by his original player so I don’t feel comfortable talking about his story since it’s not /mine/. But he did find a sense of redemption for past life things that haunted him in his threshold crossing and that was nice. Shout out to OG Jeffeth for keeping very good plot notes, rfrs and journals!
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Nurie had a full back tattoo of a rainbow maned unicorn that showed up in full technicolor (but ONLY in mirrors) on the night that Glittermaw first appeared and burned down that guy’s house in the upper boroughs! He and little singing rainbow squirrel demons visited her sometimes. He left a hoofprint impression in her workshop for a birthday present that had demonic glitter in it that would refill but would also catapult the quality of what she was working on super high if she used it. I did meet one person who I think has a secret as being one of the people who summoned him, but im not sure! Anyone who knows Nurie knows how amazingly spot on appropriate and perfect that was for her (and well worth the wait for a staff created secret). Glittermaw said she was a friend to all of Ruin’s children. I dont know agar that means exactly but it was fun. Anyone who saw her tattoo in the mirror would have it wink at them! She finally got to hug him in the lowers battle.
Edris started out hearing the song of the forest once he got to know the one where he was. Over time it deepened into two way communication. Getting to call up the treants for sanctum was amazing and left me teary eyed. That secret gave me such joy to play over the years–made for very enriching ways to inform play.
Ouida was Corusadin’s rider at the caer’alfar battle and defeated the champion there in combat. She also got to help raise/habituate to humans Cynara when she hatched.
So many fun things.
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this thread makes me really wish I had been able to see the characters I played through to the end of their stories, because they really did have some fascinating things going on that I was so constantly entirely wrong about whenever I guessed that it became sort of a running joke, especially Valenzo, lol.
wtf was his deal?? Massively Abyss-tainted for some reason according to the Nox’alfar king, he had a rude af mirrorborn, and he was being hunted by those shadow creatures…but even after RL years the poor dude still hadn’t made head nor tails of it. I still wanna know!!
Gaston was relatively straightforward in comparison…when he was a lad, he ate four dozen eggs every morning to help him get large, see. NOT SORRY NO RAGRETS
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Esme’s are pretty known. I’m not going to out secrets that others have that she knew.
Esme is GodTouched by Limerance. I know, everyone is super shocked by that. – She has the skill of persuasion and convince people to do things.
She tried to cast before it was a thing and got caught between worlds or something. She was saved by a Teddy Bear – more on that.
When she looked in the mirror she would have cat eyes and could sometimes see in the dark.
Her soul belonged to Princess Dulceali Valardin, the Fox Dragon. She’s the one from Velenosa that took over as High Lord of Valardin. I would get some visions of climbing walls and making battle tactics.
When she persuaded a tribe to come back to the fold in Tor, she accidentally founded a cult to herself. Never did anything with that, but it was funny background. I’d have to look back to remember the name.
She has a possessed (ish) Teddy Bear. She brought him to battle with her. He comes to life and talks, but normally when she’s half asleep and not usually to her directly. He talks to the shadows around her. One was that she didn’t know her lineage and could have saved from the threat in the North. I wish I followed up on that.
Most of these were known if people just asked or brought it up around her. She was a little protective of her teddy bear friend though.
Even if SOMEONE is a MONSTER and showed it being ripped apart at a bloodmoon party.
Oh, yeah, and she walked around as Juliana Pravus telling fortunes as I played guess the character to try to make them believable and effed up.
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@mietze said in The Arx Secrets Thread:
Ouida was Corusadin’s rider at the caer’alfar battle and defeated the champion there in combat. She also got to help raise/habituate to humans Cynara when she hatched.
Aleksei’s family the Morgans are descended from House Morganis, an old Cardian house that came over with Valar and stayed all loyal and whatnot. So Aleksei and some of his siblings were trying to get in touch with Relavor? Who sometimes watches over families like that? And we got a message that was like, “Fine okay but only if you bring that one knight. OOODA? I don’t remember.” Sadly I think you stopped playing here not long after, and I lost some sibling players and didn’t want to pursue it without them, so we never did end up meeting Relavor! But we definitely would’ve brought you.
@RightMeow said in The Arx Secrets Thread:
She has a possessed (ish) Teddy Bear. She brought him to battle with her. He comes to life and talks, but normally when she’s half asleep and not usually to her directly. He talks to the shadows around her. One was that she didn’t know her lineage and could have saved from the threat in the North. I wish I followed up on that.
omg WHAT, that’s amazing.
I know a PC who had a mirror with the soul of a former Archduchess in it, and she was sassy as FUCK and it was always amazing when she’d mouth off.
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I know someone who’s secret is that they have a book written by their future self called the Confessions of (Name). They would get clues/dreams/etc about stuff about them. I don’t think they followed up on that either.
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If Ysbail had any juicy secrets, I was too thick to figure them out, or just… not able to navigate the clues. Add on a lack of enough time to dedicate to uncovering things, and you got a big pile of woe. It’s fine though.
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@Roz i still laugh every time when I think of the first time Ouida met Cynara in game. She truly was a dumb jock of a knight and I loved that about her. I never imagined she’d have any kind of magic so like she had like 1 mana and 2 int and I must have failed like 5 or 6 checks in the scene in order to recognize Cynara until Herja mercy pulled for me. Ouida had been trying to chat up/flirt with the Pretty Lady the entire time and then…DOH!! But that would have been fun to travel with the Morgans!!
Also another fond memory came from NPCs having the same names as unrelated PCs. So this group of players and their pcs who clearly paid MUCH MORE ATTENTION than I did about lore abd history were like talking about how they should kill/take out the evil person Lady X, and Ouida was like what the fuck Other Lady X is hot and nice they’re not evil, and then the other pcs started getting worried like wtf Ouida how can you think Evil Lady X is hot and nice and where the fuck was this that you even saw her–and it went around and around and sidelined an Important Business Meeting for like 45 mins because me and my pc were too dumb to realize what they were actually talking about.
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In thought of two questions I never had answered!
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Who was Saverio? I know he was an NPC and I think he may have been at least a little evil but never figured out what his deal was.
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What was the deal with the times a bunch of reincarnates got snowy visions about saving the world? I think I heard they were from a Rex living up north?
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Most of Orazio’s family died of the plague when he was a young man. He nursed his mother, father, and a couple siblings through their horrific deaths–and then caught it, himself. In a moment of despair he tried to end his life and ended up summoning a demon instead. He agreed to its deal in order to save his life.
So, yes, he was possessed for a good portion of the time I played him. It didn’t control his behavior, but he always knew it was there. Watching. It was exorcised by Prism and Copper, but by that time…well, Orazio didn’t have many friends, and it was the only one he felt truly understood what he’d been through. So he was able to keep it in a bottle and was attempting to reform it. But mostly just…talking to it like he couldn’t talk to anyone else.
He also attempted to mend the relationship between the Nox and the Compact after the whole Nox diplomatic visit thing and ended up accidentally secret married to the Nox ambassador. He used that connection to get the weapons that had been originally on the table and distribute them, as well as to get part of the key that was necessary to restore Alaric to sanity.
Finally, when he died, his secret wife had him reincarnated as a Nox instead, and he was briefly Kathivor, Ambassador to Arx.
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I think mine were both fairly well known? I had no idea how to use them without telling them so I did!
Norwood: The Laurent house sword, Queensguard had a soul hanging out in it that would talk to Norwood. The soul’s name was Pimsley Egglesworth, and he was Jonathan Baseborn’s (Laurent founder & Norwood’s past self it turns out) steward. He liked to lecture Norwood about etiquette and was part of why I played Norwood as stiff as he was sometimes. The sword was also blessed to protect the heirs of Laurent so in super tough scenes were stiff seemed super bad i would excitedly text the GM “CAN MY SWORD GLOW PLEASE??” and if they said yes Queensguard would take out all of Legion’s baddies in a scene and it was awesome. Norwood asked once if Pimsley wanted to be freed (gonna go to Aureth and be like “remember that stick I gave you? Want to help me free a soul?”) But Pimsley was all “bah, I’m stay with you.” (Cue tears)
I loved that damn sword. I would spend happy hours imagining Norwood and it talking. Every scene involved the sword in the back of my mind saying things to Norwood no one else could hear (typically when I KNEW he broke etiquette!). When Margerie and Norwood married he told her about Pimsley and she put a kibosh to the sword living in the bedroom with them. >.>
While I’m sorry Laurent lost their house sword, the poetry of its ending with Norwood literally made me cry. When Queensguard was broken it released the spirit. Norwood died at the same time and Pimsley and Norwood went back to the wheel together - thus tears.
Kenna: She had a knack for finding lost things, or being found by lost things. She looked into it a lot until it lead to the Prince of Secrets (because I can’t find his name?). She got to visit some cool places based off stuff she found. One was this museum with possessed toy monkeys and clowns. I always wanted to go back again but couldn’t find people to join me. X.x Also people were all “wtf stop looking. Bad idea!” And it freaked her out. I eventually got tired of the pull and also ooc nonsense I can’t remember now so stopped playing. I do miss her energy.
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This is such a cool thread!
So, Alis secret: She had one from the beginning, about having nightmares that a den of white dragons was attacked in their sleep by a horde of shavs that were poofed in by a dragon with a black claw. And she realized after hearing what happened at Sanctum while she was training in Arx that she’d dreamt of what happened to the family, and knew it must have been something other than what it seemed.
But, later on I got a much bigger secret through RP. Irony had contacted several people asking for someone to tell her about being a Knight and what it was all about. And Alis being all Oathlands Knighty was like ‘I am not letting letting someone that isn’t a //Valardin// Knight talk about Knighthood without getting a word in about how WE do it. So ofc she volunteered. And when Irony asked to be Alis’ squire she absolutely said yes, and had no idea that Irony was really a dragon. Not until much later, when Tolv came to Alis and was like 'hey, there’s a dragon that’s been trapped in a pit in YOUR LANDS since forever. You might wanna get them out before they’re consumed for Primum. And in the course of the rescue, in the best scene ever, Alis was injured by giant insect things (b/c of course giant insect things) and Irony got BIG MAD. Literally big mad, and turned into a dragon cause someone hurt her human. And that is the story of how Alis became a young dragon’s familiar. Big ol secret to those outside the Red Wardens until endgame.
Azova’s secret, on the other hand, I didn’t ever get to fully explore, which makes me sad. It started with just having the ability in any battlefield or place like the House of Solace, to know who was the most injured and close to death and exactly where to find them so they could be helped.
Found out through my final rfr that she’s the reincarnation of a Caer’alfar era champion of Lagoma. One of the goddess’ aspects of healing in battle.
I didn’t know any of this when I leaned heavily into her being a Mercy and asked for Legendary Mercy as my title for getting Medicine 6. But, it would have been so cool to play on all of that in game.
All in all, I think both characters and their secrets in the end kicked ass
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@Roz said in The Arx Secrets Thread:
In thought of two questions I never had answered!
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Who was Saverio? I know he was an NPC and I think he may have been at least a little evil but never figured out what his deal was.
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What was the deal with the times a bunch of reincarnates got snowy visions about saving the world? I think I heard they were from a Rex living up north?
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mid aetheris spy elf guy.
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i think that as aetheris trying to pretend to be ‘good’ guys, still?
fr fr
(she/her) -
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@hellfrog lol at Aetheris still trying to make fetch happen
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I didn’t finish out on either Jael or Ailys, so I don’t feel comfortable sharing their secrets. But here’s Thena’s:
As a kid, she stole something from a mysterious stranger in a bar. It turned out to be a necklace, that bound itself to her with blood magic and was only visible in mirrors. When she helped take down a garganuan, the souls of the original Path of Storms shamans (I think? This was a long time ago) went into the necklace and she became their protector.
She left Arx with Silver to do Hero Things. I’m not sure what happened after that, but if she’d been offered the chance to become a nox’alfar she 100% would have taken it.
ETA: @Narson NOT DEAD!
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@Snackness Jael’s Furyborn status at least became really public at the end!
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@Roz Yes, I heard
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So to understand Jaenelle’s original roster secret you have to know what her original personality was!
Jaenelle Personality: There are the wise, there are the intelligent, and there are the savvy. And then there is Jaenelle. She may be the sweetest woman, the most sincere, but there are some quarries full of rocks with more brain power than the noblewoman. Quick to giggle, and to stare vacantly at any sort of conversation, she often laughs at jokes days later or is certain birds are secret spies for the animal overlords. The one thing that stands out, is that matters of running a household - the numbers, supplying, organizing the servants… Jaenelle seems to be a complete savant. Math and numbers are as easy to her, as everything else is completely beyond her reach, almost eerily so.
Secret #1 of Jaenelle: Jaenelle had her husband killed. She even said ‘Yay!’ after the deed was done, too. She’s always been a quietly brilliant woman, but learned very early on that most of the men of House Thrax were not particularly interested in what a woman had to say, so she found it far easier to feign ignorance while manipulating matters. She decided she wanted to be married into Velenosa, due to the far more freedom it would grant her, and a few choice words to her grandfather had him begging his beloved cousin Prince Donrai Thrax, the Prince of Maelstrom, for the opportunity to give you away as his dying wish. Unfortunately, House Velenosa was only too happy to marry Jaenelle to Gersard because the man had already courted two scandals by not being able to stay away from women and they knew it was only a matter of time before the imbecile did something truly stupid. Jaenelle was married in a lovely ceremony (Yay!) but he couldn’t stay away from the Queen Genevieve, and if they became known as lovers it would have ruined everything. Fortunately, Duchess Esera was just as sick of her brother as Jaenelle could have hoped and agreed that it needed to be done. Jaenelle understands Esera gave Talen the nod to take care of it, who made certain it seemed like Prince Gersard was drunkenly walking along the walls while mourning the death of Queen Genevieve and had an ‘accident’. Yay!
This is the reason most of my requests handled by Apostate in the last almost 8 years ended in ‘Yay!’. He is the best cheerleader a petty manipulative girl could have!
Her second secret came about through natural RP relationships and was her Deathspeaker and Soul healing abilities that I stopped hiding in the last few months.
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When I asked for an OC secret for Bhandn, it was basically: “can I have a magic sword”? Exploring it was one of the most fascinating and nerve-racking experiences I had on Arx. I’m extremely grateful for @Apos for taking the time to write it. I’m extremely upset at myself I never pursued it fully; between burnout and feeling increasingly certain I had to do some of it solo (for reasons explained below), I eventually ground to a halt.
Secret #1 of Bhandn
It all began when he received the sword. The gift itself was mysterious. It was anonymously delivered and none of the other inhabitants of the Crown Apartments could figure out who sent it, though a few mentioned an odd redheaded crippled man was wandering nearby. Since receiving it, the sword has just felt -right- in his hands, and its craftsmanship is unreal, though he’s had difficulty putting it down… and when he saw that Cardian ship still lingering in the harbor, he suddenly was wracked with horrible pain, an overwhelming crippling pain that sent him to the ground in a fetal position and passed after he looked away. The sword looks vaguely similar to the style that the Praetor from Cardia was seen carrying about the city, though what it means is anyone’s guess, and Bhandn feels an uncomfortable sense of something wrong whenever he gets near the Palace of Arx.The rare times since he’s caught sight of the Cardian representatives, the agony has returned.
In exploring Bhandn’s secret, a few things became fairly clear in my mind: the extreme pain he received seemed to be linked to the Malardin. One key point of this was that he did not succumb to that sensation when viewing anyone from Cardia. It was specific to Marcus’s ship, and quite possibly Marcus himself (I never tested this). And it most certainly triggered during Malar’s flyby over Arx on the day of the “Questions of Cardia” event Sina hosted where we first met Petraea.
So it seemed certain to me that it was something associated with Malar (and those sworn to him?) were the root cause of these painful episodes. There was a point where Kael, as then Sword of Sanctum, actually asked Bhandn to possibly reside at the Valardin manor to see if he could weed out Malardin. We never put that into play; I can’t remember why, but it was on the table at one point. I think it resolved itself, according to my vague memory.
So that was one aspect of his secret I thought was fairly clear, if not why it happened (what supernatural effect was causing the pain, rather than why it triggered.)
Moving on to the sword itself, I never changed the desc that was written for it:
a beautiful greatsword engraved with sapphires
A beautifully crafted greatsword with a silvery sheen over its diamondplate, the pommel is covered with sapphires and engraved with the entwined rings of Limeance. On the hilt are words written in a non-Arvani tongue.Adornments: 13 precious stone
It is a diamondplate huge wpn.
Its level of craftsmanship is perfect.
It contains script in a foreign tongue.The script in the foreign tongue was Draconic. Laric was the first PC who saw it and provided the following translation:
“This sword’s name is Fidelis, to be wielded by a holy knight who is sworn to defend and never yield.”
It turned out that Fidelis was made in Cardia, by the master weaponsmith Galvinus. For House Morganis. Discovering that clue led to a very interesting and enjoyable scene with Petraea where she divulged quite a bit of information about Cardian crafting techniques. I don’t recall my exact thought process as to why, but it led me to wonder that Fidelis had been modified from its original state, gaining both the sapphires and possibly the Rings of Limerance engraving, though it was possible the latter was present on the original work. (I’d have to find the log for Petraea’s quote so I don’t misrepresent what I was told.)
Also, the sword was heavily infused with primum. I never found out why or for what purpose it was imbued.
Bhandn and the Morgans had a meeting about that, needless to say. “Hey. I think I have your ancestors’ House Sword.” and off we went. Aleksei also went and used magesight on it during that scene and got a headache.
Users of magesight having adverse reactions to the sword were one of the reasons I was trying to figure out how to get it for Bhandn, since I suspected he could look at the sword “safely” compared to others.But what about the sensation he got from the Palace, as indicated by the secret? In the spoiler block is the action about it. And that led Places
.Sir Bhandn arrives at the Palace, and already it feels wrong, somehow. He waits patiently, and soon enough the King’s Own show up - Sir Corban, Sir Austen, and a contingent of Silver Swords that follow. The Mother Mercy also shows up, and it isn’t until then that Bhandn unsheathes Fidelis.Almost immediately he is awash with a sense of nausea, but he gives a grim nod and together they proceed into the palace. The first place they look is the Hall of Metal - because the King’s Own is adamant that they first determine if this is something that might affect the King. But whatever churns in Bhandn’s stomach isn’t heightened by his presence in the Hall of Metal.
And so they turn away and walk back to the Great Hall, and this time Bhandn leads them on a different path. There’s a pounding in his ears, and that stomach-churning sensation grows stronger and stronger with each step downward. There is a moment where he stops at the entrance to the prison below and - here he can go no further. Instead, he falls to his knees weeping, and his sword slowly turns until it is pointed at himself.
The Hundred quickly surround him, for his protection more than in concern that he is a danger. He is clearly struggling, tears streaming down his face. He murmurs words that make no sense, in a tongue no one can understand. He sounds like he’s begging, pleading for something. Remorse covers his face. And then he passes out on the floor.
Sophie moves to examine him immediately, but there seems to be nothing wrong with him at all. Strange. He’s just passed out cold.
One of the guards picks him up and she looks to Corban and Austen - “I’ll just take him outside then Sirs? If someone could pick up his sword and bring it too?” She waits for confirmation, and then hauls Bhandn outside. It isn’t until she drops him at the fountain of Alarice and splashes some water on his face that he awakens - and all she says is, “You might want to be more careful there. Don’t you know that place housed the worst criminals in history? Didn’t know you Knights of Solace were so sensitive.” There’s a spark of amusement in her eyes now, but she waits while the others join them, and then she salutes. “First Captain, I’m on duty with the King presently.”
Corban absently salutes and dismisses her - and it isn’t until much later that he realizes the duty roster doesn’t change over for another hour.
And that’s how he got Sapphire’s attention. But more than that, one of my meditation actions led to the realization that Bhandn’s past life was somehow involved with guarding the Bijoux’s occupants. I suspect his past life was around the timeframe of the Fractals’ escape from the Bijoux, at which point he took his own life. I never discovered what he said in that action when he tried to kill himself and had to be restrained, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a plea to a god, possibly Limerance.
Anyway, that’s about as far as I got. I was OOCly trying to figure out how I could get Bhandn to progress to magesight to delve into the sword further, but unfortunately that just wasn’t to be. I was one of those people who didn’t want to burden staff with that; it felt like something I needed to do for myself.
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So many of these secrets made it into cat drawings and the tarot deck and I had to be so careful.
