Post by empireoffire on Sept 26, 2018 23:47:42 GMT -5
Throne Room
Doing her best to appear as dignified as possible as she entered her throne room, Glinda walked in front of her throne, but before she could formally address the Outlanders, one of them began announcing to them the existence of jewels holding a great deal of power. One of the other Outlanders was more concerned that the animal was talking.
That... is a hedgehog?
"Errm... Let's proceed with one subject at a time, shall we?" Glinda suggested. "An explanation for why you were all brought here is long overdue. I sincerely apologize on behalf of my kingdom."
Glinda stood in front of her throne. Her guards lined up in a row behind her, weapons held in attention. The other attendants bowed, excusing themselves before leaving.
"Greetings, visitors to our world. I am Queen Glinda Garland of the kingdom of Yuleia. Though I dearly wish circumstances were better, I must still extend a welcome to this world: the world of Oz.
I have no doubt you are wondering why you were brought to this world; for what purpose you were taken from your own. The truth of the matter is... We... That is, this kingdom, is under siege. Not only are we locked in a war with Ephesus, the rival empire to the northeast, but to understand the real danger, that which is driving humankind in this world to near extinction, I must briefly speak about the history of our world.
...Oz used to have two ruling classes. There were the Wordsmiths, who wrote epic tales of heroes and villains, of monsters and machines, of gods and men. The technology they used to write commands a magic so powerful that their scripture is infused with magic that through psychic matter transmutation gives anything they write about the ability to come to life. The magic of their stories remained, even when alchemically reduced into storage in the form of Cards. Then there were the Dealers, who wielded these cards. Their rituals extracted the magic of the Wordsmiths to release this magic from their card forms. This allows the characters of the works to be brought to life. Unfortunately, the primary intent of this form of interactive fiction was quickly lost when the destructive potential of these cards was realized. In one particular war in Oz's past, Wordsmiths were called on to write the most devastatingly malicious and powerful characters they could imagine. The Dealers took these horrible stories to rain the hellfire of pure twisted imagination upon each other. Consumed by the desire to rain destruction to their enemies, both sides of the war continued creating creatures of chaos until at last, they had sealed the fate of the world for the following generations. These deities they created turned on their masters and continue to mindlessly terrorize and raze our world today.
In the following years, Wordsmiths and Dealers were hunted down until they were no more; whether by the abominations they summoned, or the rioting citizenry who hold them accountable for the suffering they've caused. The records and secrets of their magic soon became lost. Although the civilization had not fully collapsed these past years and the three kingdoms that remain -- Our own Yuleia, the isolationist elves of Nightingale, and our enemy Ephesus -- have amassed a fighting force to fend off extinction, the truth of the matter was that we were still outmatched; it was only a matter of time until we would be overpowered, and the human race here in Oz would be extinct if things continued this way."
"In time, however, the scholars of this world were able to discover a new form of magic: summoning magic. Similar to those used by the Wordsmiths and Dealers of old, they can summon individuals of worlds not of our own. Unlike the magic of old, however, our method does not use scriptures to summon works of fiction turned real. Instead, this magic involved searching through time and space itself and pull individual persons from their real worlds into ours. In desperation of any method of being able to possess a fighting chance at survival, the scholars prepared a ritual to do exactly that. Lady Cia was overseeing it. However, during the ritual, the palace was attacked and the ritual was interrupted. Though a great number of you have gathered here, others that have also been summoned were scattered across the land, possibly wandering out there as we speak.
...In order to repel the attack, Cia did something that resulted in her passing out and falling into a comatose state. While it was my original intention to give all of you the choice to stay and aid us or return to your own world at the precise moment you were taken -- with a margin of error being only a few minutes -- with Cia comatose, it pains me to say that it will take some time for you all to be able to return home, while she recovers."
Possibly too long...
"...However... I must ask... No... I implore you all that you please consider remaining in our realm to help us in our darkest time; our time of greatest need. My people are suffering, our soldiers dying to defend their loved ones. We... are at our last legs."
Glinda paused to allow comments and questions to be heard and allow the Outlanders a chance to talk amongst themselves.
Doing her best to appear as dignified as possible as she entered her throne room, Glinda walked in front of her throne, but before she could formally address the Outlanders, one of them began announcing to them the existence of jewels holding a great deal of power. One of the other Outlanders was more concerned that the animal was talking.
That... is a hedgehog?
"Errm... Let's proceed with one subject at a time, shall we?" Glinda suggested. "An explanation for why you were all brought here is long overdue. I sincerely apologize on behalf of my kingdom."
Glinda stood in front of her throne. Her guards lined up in a row behind her, weapons held in attention. The other attendants bowed, excusing themselves before leaving.
"Greetings, visitors to our world. I am Queen Glinda Garland of the kingdom of Yuleia. Though I dearly wish circumstances were better, I must still extend a welcome to this world: the world of Oz.
I have no doubt you are wondering why you were brought to this world; for what purpose you were taken from your own. The truth of the matter is... We... That is, this kingdom, is under siege. Not only are we locked in a war with Ephesus, the rival empire to the northeast, but to understand the real danger, that which is driving humankind in this world to near extinction, I must briefly speak about the history of our world.
...Oz used to have two ruling classes. There were the Wordsmiths, who wrote epic tales of heroes and villains, of monsters and machines, of gods and men. The technology they used to write commands a magic so powerful that their scripture is infused with magic that through psychic matter transmutation gives anything they write about the ability to come to life. The magic of their stories remained, even when alchemically reduced into storage in the form of Cards. Then there were the Dealers, who wielded these cards. Their rituals extracted the magic of the Wordsmiths to release this magic from their card forms. This allows the characters of the works to be brought to life. Unfortunately, the primary intent of this form of interactive fiction was quickly lost when the destructive potential of these cards was realized. In one particular war in Oz's past, Wordsmiths were called on to write the most devastatingly malicious and powerful characters they could imagine. The Dealers took these horrible stories to rain the hellfire of pure twisted imagination upon each other. Consumed by the desire to rain destruction to their enemies, both sides of the war continued creating creatures of chaos until at last, they had sealed the fate of the world for the following generations. These deities they created turned on their masters and continue to mindlessly terrorize and raze our world today.
In the following years, Wordsmiths and Dealers were hunted down until they were no more; whether by the abominations they summoned, or the rioting citizenry who hold them accountable for the suffering they've caused. The records and secrets of their magic soon became lost. Although the civilization had not fully collapsed these past years and the three kingdoms that remain -- Our own Yuleia, the isolationist elves of Nightingale, and our enemy Ephesus -- have amassed a fighting force to fend off extinction, the truth of the matter was that we were still outmatched; it was only a matter of time until we would be overpowered, and the human race here in Oz would be extinct if things continued this way."
"In time, however, the scholars of this world were able to discover a new form of magic: summoning magic. Similar to those used by the Wordsmiths and Dealers of old, they can summon individuals of worlds not of our own. Unlike the magic of old, however, our method does not use scriptures to summon works of fiction turned real. Instead, this magic involved searching through time and space itself and pull individual persons from their real worlds into ours. In desperation of any method of being able to possess a fighting chance at survival, the scholars prepared a ritual to do exactly that. Lady Cia was overseeing it. However, during the ritual, the palace was attacked and the ritual was interrupted. Though a great number of you have gathered here, others that have also been summoned were scattered across the land, possibly wandering out there as we speak.
...In order to repel the attack, Cia did something that resulted in her passing out and falling into a comatose state. While it was my original intention to give all of you the choice to stay and aid us or return to your own world at the precise moment you were taken -- with a margin of error being only a few minutes -- with Cia comatose, it pains me to say that it will take some time for you all to be able to return home, while she recovers."
Possibly too long...
"...However... I must ask... No... I implore you all that you please consider remaining in our realm to help us in our darkest time; our time of greatest need. My people are suffering, our soldiers dying to defend their loved ones. We... are at our last legs."
Glinda paused to allow comments and questions to be heard and allow the Outlanders a chance to talk amongst themselves.
