Open [The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Open to one or two. Valien doesn't know what to believe in anymore.

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Valien on June 1st, 2014, 5:50 pm

5th Day of Summer, 514 AV

OOCSeasonal Challenge, ahoy~

Valien stood near the doorway of the Temple of All Gods, wondering who he was supposed to pray to now. It had been seven days since his and Serah's arrival in Syliras, seven days that he had avoided coming here until he didn't think he could avoid it no longer. Even in Ravok, Valien hadn't been a religious man, but seemed like inviting bad luck, starting something like this without saying a quick prayer. But to who?

Rhysol was definitely out. He'd instructed Serah long ago to not offer any prayers to that particular god. It wasn't so much for any moral reason as out of fear. He didn't know if the god could reach him outside of Ravok, or if Rhysol would even care about a couple of wayward Ravokians trying to escape the city, but Valien wasn't going to take any chances by saying prayers that the god would definitely hear.

And anyway, now that he had left Ravok, he'd heard some very interesting things that made him question the faith he had been taught.

But if not Rhysol, then who? Would any of the gods Sylirans worshiped want anything to do with someone like him? If he were a god, Valien would have cast himself out years ago. He'd long accepted that there was no redemption for the things he had done. But Serah was innocent. Maybe a god or goddess would accept a prayer said on her behalf. Maybe.

But the question was still which one. He didn't know much of anything about the other gods. So, Valien stood in the Temple of All Gods, staring up at the ceiling, and spent the next few moments overwhelmed by choice.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Ashe'nya on June 2nd, 2014, 2:17 am

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Day 05, Season Summer, 514 AV
Unknown Bell

Religion was not technically new to Ashe’nya. She had heard of the gods and goddesses, but in all reality she knew absolutely nothing about them. Her father had never made it a point to talk to her about them, and if he was devoted to any of them, he certainly didn’t tell her about it. When she had been younger it might have irritated her more—that he didn’t talk about much besides hunting—but she had learned long ago that his first love had always been hunting. She was probably the only person he ever did love more than his trade.

Having just moved into the city however, Ashe was more than ready to learn some new things. At this point she really just wanted to learn anything… the city itself seemed so lively. If she was honest with herself, she might have actually been a little lost. The whole morning she had been trying to figure out just how the entire city was laid out—instead she felt more that she had gotten turned around and inside out. After what must have been a bell, Ashe’nya finally admitted to herself that she just had no idea where she was.

The Temple of All Gods stood out to her for some reason, it seemed as though it just turned up out of nowhere. The fact that she was lost suddenly didn’t seem so vexing—not if it was a chance to explore something new. She had never been in a temple before, so it seemed fitting actually. A Temple that allowed worship of not just one god or goddess seemed like a good place to start if one was to become acquainted with religion.

As Ashe’nya entered the building, her eyes didn’t seem capable of landing on just one particular spot—instead they tried to inspect everything at once. The stained glass windows, the wooden pews, the intricate work of stone… how did they do that in the first place? As usual, one of her worst habits began to shine through—her inability to pay attention to her surroundings that might actually be of importance, in this case it would be a man standing in the temple itself staring at the ceiling.

Despite her sharper than most eyesight, she didn’t spot the man until it was too late. "Oh!" Ashe’nya felt the impact just as her eyes came to land on the man in front of her. There was no saving her balance as she fell backwards onto her rear, wincing as the landing jolted pain up through her back. Squeezing her eyes shut, her left hand immediately moved to massage her lower back. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry!" She wasn’t even sure if she had knocked the man over, or if she had just completely lost her balance with the collision—but the apology came out rushed none the less.

OOCHope you don't mind me ticking off another seasonal challenge! Let me know if it's an issue!
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Valien on June 2nd, 2014, 2:56 am


OOCI don't mind at all! I wonder if this counts as Valien bumping into someone too, or if he has to go experience a random bout of clumsiness later on xD

His thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of another body colliding with his own. Valien's eyes widened as he was suddenly knocked back against the wall, and he reached out almost reflexively for the woman who had bumped into him, his fingers closing around empty air where her arm had been just moments earlier. Since he was standing against the wall, he managed to keep his footing, but it was a close thing, and he had one arm braced against the wall to help keep him upright, the other hovering in the air over Ashe'nya.

Valien exhaled, feeling his heart pounding from the start she had given him. He scolded himself for his inattention. The fact that he was in Syliras didn't mean that he was safe, and now wasn't the time to start getting lax. He straightened up, holding out his hand towards the woman who had bumped into him.

"Don't worry about it," he said, giving her a reassuring grin. "No harm done. Are you alright, Miss?"

The words and the smile came out almost automatically. Valien had spent a lot of his life learning how to be charming. Now that he didn't want to and didn't feel the need to, he found that he didn't know how to stop. Still, he did actually hope that the woman wasn't hurt by the fall.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Ashe'nya on June 2nd, 2014, 5:23 am

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Ashe’nya slowly opened her eyes open to look up at the poor man she had apparently attempted to bowl over in her distraction. He was lucky enough to have been standing close enough to the wall to save himself from a fall as well. His hand hung over her for a tick and she realized he had apparently tried to catch her of all things. Ashe could feel her face heat up from embarrassment, whether reflexive for him or not, she really should have been paying better attention.

"Ah then you’re lucky; I usually cause much more damage than this." Her attempt at weak humor was probably obvious, given the statement was half muttered. Brushing the hair that had fallen into her face out of the way she took his hand and used his assistance to pull herself up from the ground, wincing as her muscles protested against the movement. Oh she was going to have bruises for sure. "I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’ve done far worse to myself before." Her thoughts drifted for a moment to the first time she had tried to learn how to fly. Her father had fretted for weeks over those bruises.

Shaking her head slightly to clear her thoughts, Ashe’nya shot the man a watery grin as she released his hand in response to his smile. "It’s my first time in a temple, it seems I’ve found it rather distracting." Ashe’nya made a quick gesture to the rest of the building, as if it needed emphasis to how beautiful it was. Her eyes locked onto several others in the temple, watching them from her disturbance and she felt her face heat even further. Wonderful…

After a moment a thought filtered into her head, causing her eyes to widen slightly and shoot directly back to him. "You’re not… a priest are you? That’s what they call them right? Priests? Or do I have that confused with something else…?" Her eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. "I don’t even know what a priest would look like… religion isn’t my thing. At least I don’t think it is." It took several ticks before Ashe’nya realized she was rambling, and quite quickly too due to her embarrassment.

Ashe pressed her lips together for a moment as if it took great restraint to keep words from tumbling from her mouth. Huffing out a deep breath she grinned at the man again. "Sorry… again.” Clearing her throat, she did her best to stand taller—at least as much as her back would allow her—as she introduced herself. "I’m Ashe'nya. Clearly not from around here." This time she smiled more genuinely as she chuckled at her own bad humor with a roll of her eyes.

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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Nivel on June 2nd, 2014, 7:47 am


OocI hope it's okay if I join in
A large building caught Nivel's sight, it had had breath taking stone work and the glass windows almost reminded her of the skyglass of Lhavit. It was impossible for her to keep her curiosity at bay, like a hypnotist's victim she was going into this building whether she wanted to or not. When she got inside, she marvelled in the way the light shone through the glass and became colour that painted itself along the layout of the strange place she had just discovered. After she was able to gain her senses back she became aware that she had just entered a church after noticing all the religious artifacts present and the many people absorbed in praying. There were places of prayer in Pyconia as well but this was her first time in one made for the Tall Folk and it made her become overcome with excitement.

This didn't last long however when Nivel realized that she had not prayed to the mighty Harameus in a long while. This was an unforgivable offence that needed to be rectified as soon as possible. She found a place amongst the gathered Tall Folk who payed for their gods and after arranging herself into a comfortable sitting position she began her prayer by profusely apologizing over and over again.
“I'm so sorry great Harameus” Nivel sadly whispered “I have done you wrong, I hope you can find it in your Nexis to forgive my transgressions.”

When Nivel felt comfortable in the quality of her lengthy apology she began to walkout, when suddenly the two tall folk in her vicinity collided causing one of them to fall in her general direction. Nivel was normally a very agile creature but with her mind and sight busy she failed to dodge and found herself crushed under the falling Tall folk Female.
As the women got up from her fall She failed to notice the flattened lump of clay underneath her and it seemed that the other Tall Folk didn't ether as they started to converse without any mention of Nivel.

Nivel slowly reformed and when she felt she was capable of sound she made her presence known with a sad groan. The Pycon assumed this predicament must be a sign that Harameus did not accept her apology and this gave her a feeling of melancholy that only an Akvatari could relate to.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Valien on June 2nd, 2014, 5:21 pm

OOCNo problem at all, Nivel! The more the merrier! :)

Valien released the woman's hand as she let go, letting his hand fall back to his side as he continued to smile at her. In his younger days, he might have kissed her hand and given her a compliment—she really was quite pretty—but after marrying Avenna, those days were pretty much behind him. And now that she was dead, he found that he wasn't in the mood to flirt like that anymore.

His brows rose slightly as she claimed that it was her first time in a temple, and he looked her over. She looked like a grown woman to him. He didn't think there was anyone in Mizahar who could have gone their whole life without setting foot in a temple, considering the amount of deities worshiped in this world. Unless...could she possibly be a Kelvic? There were none of the obvious tells, but he'd already met one Kelvic in Syliras, so that could be a possibility. It wasn't the sort of question one just went out and asked, though, so he let that be for now.

"It is a striking place," he said, to put her at ease. "It would be distracting for anyone." It had been distracting for him, too, now that he thought about it. Or else he would have noticed her bumping into him.

He blinked at her next question, and found that he couldn't fight off the laugh that escaped him as he turned his head away from her, laughing softly into his fist. It had been a while since he'd honestly laughed like that, but the idea was just too ridiculous. "Me? A priest?" he asked, his eyes shining with mirth as he looked back at her. "Oh dear gods, no. I don't know what kind of god would want me as a priest."

Or rather, he did, but those were the gods he swore he was done serving. He was still smiling as she introduced herself, hoping that his bout of laughter hadn't embarrassed her too much. "I'm Valien," he said. "Not from around here either. It's nice to meet you, Ashe'nya."

At that moment, Valien heard a sound that made him look around, his eyes moving past Ashe'nya to the left and the right before finally looking down at the ground. He was sure that something had groaned. That something turned out to be...a clay doll? On the ground? One that looked like a small person? He stared at the creature for a moment, perplexed. He'd heard about Pycon in Ravok, but this was the first time he'd actually seen one—they weren't common where he was from.

"Er...Ashe'nya, I think you might have...sat on something." Someone? Maybe? Valien wasn't entirely sure. He did hope that his pointing it out didn't embarrass Ashe'nya further. "Are you alright?" he asked the Pycon.

It really was a small creature. Serah had had bigger dolls.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Nivel on June 5th, 2014, 1:21 am



Nivel reverted to her natural state but still felt an ache, like she had a minor muscle cramp and the muscle was her entire body. The pain of realizing that she had let her precious Harameus down, dwarfed this pain however.
The male out of the pair took notice of Nivel and asked her if she was okay.
“Yes, My body can take quite a bit.” The Pycon didn't want to make the man worry so she replied with false calmness despite having a storm of anguish going on inside her. “It's not like this is the first time I've been...crushed” Nivel's resolve to seem happy faded as she spoke the last word of the sentence and one of her bat wing shaped ears twitched uncomfortably. Internally she was thinking of ways that she could get herself back into Harameus's good graces.

The Female Tall Folk Seemed embarrassed and apologized profusely before stating that she realized she had some place else to be and proceeded to leave the church. Nivel accepted her apology even if the pycon didn't have much of a chance to tell her before she was gone.

Now alone with The Male, she though she should at the very least introduce herself even if she didn't feel like her usual talkative self.
“Well that was strange..anyway..My name is Nivel, what might yours be?” Nivel asked with her ear still twitching uncomfortably throughout.

Still going over what she could have done to offend Harameus, she had a hard time believing the mighty one would smite her for simply not speaking to him in a while. She questioned her own thought process further by speculating if Maybe devoting herself to the Order of Sylirian Knights was the source of Harameus's discontent. She formed yet another train of though that wondered if she had angered the slain god Sylir for not paying her respects yet. but soon realized Sylir is called the slain god for a reason. It could be the Windoak punishing her, it was only a fragment monster but it was once Sylir.
Going around in circles of guilt was making Nivel dizzy.

“do you know how to appease a god that is mad at you?” Nivel blurted out of no where. She wanted to know if this tall folk could help her with her dilemma, not realizing he had one of his own.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Valien on June 5th, 2014, 2:38 am

Valien nodded at Ashe'nya as she decided to make a graceful exit, then glanced back down at the Pycon, feeling somewhat out of sorts. It wasn't often that he had difficulty talking to people, but then again, it also wasn't often that he found himself talking to someone like Nivel. In fact, she was the first Pycon he had ever actually spoken to. He shifted his weight awkwardly as she spoke, noticing that she sounded depressed for some reason.

No one would be particularly happy about being landed on, he imagined.

"Erm, well, that's good to hear, I suppose," he said, when Nivel answered that she was alright. She certainly didn't sound alright, but he wasn't going to call her out on it. "I'm Valien," when the Pycon introduced herself as Nivel. He kept his voice down as he spoke. This was still a place of prayer, and although he hadn't been doing much praying, a few of the people that had come here to pray were already giving them nasty looks from Ashe'nya's little mishap.

"Is your ear going to be alright?" Valien found himself asking. It was twitching quite a lot. He didn't know much about Pycons, but he wasn't sure it was supposed to do that.

His eyes widened at Nivel's question, and he blinked, looking from her to the Temple of All Gods still behind her. That was certainly a question he'd never been asked before. What could this little thing have done to offend a god? "Sadly, I don't," he said, looking back down at her and giving her a regretful smile. "Let me know when you figure it out, though. I'm not exactly in the gods' good graces right now."
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Nivel on June 10th, 2014, 12:31 am



“Nice to meet you Valien” Nivel replied while mimicking Valien's hushed manner of speech “why are we whispering?” Having only gone to pycon churches where it was perfectly acceptable to speak as one normally would, she didn't understand why everyone was so quite here. Praying was still a practice best done in whispers, Nivel assumed it was because speaking with a god should be a private affair and not something everyone needs to hear. Maybe the tall folk were afraid that gods wouldn't be able to hear if the people around were being too noisy, this idea seemed a tad silly to Nivel. If a god wanted to hear you they would.

“What do you mean?” asked a perplexed Nivel “It doesn't hurt and it's in the form it should be..” Nivel took a moment to examine both of her ears just to make sure. Of course, now that attention was drawn to her ear it stopped moving. She had a sudden thought that this tall folk may be under the false assumption that since her ears were shaped like wings that she could use them for flight.
“I've never been able to fly with them if that's what your asking” Thinking back on the many failed attempts she made trying to soar in the sky like the birds “believe me I've tried.”

Waiting on baited breath for the tall folks response to her question she was a little sad that he didn't have the answers she sought. Although at the same time it was a little comforting to know she wasn't alone.
“What have you done to anger the gods?” Nivel was genuinely interested in hearing that he had done to make the gods angry. Nivel figured if it was something similar to her reason they could work out the problem together.

“If you want maybe we could pray together” The pycon asked with just a touch of her usual cheerfulness. She still wasn't her usual happy go lucky self but talking to Valien was slowly raising her spirits even if only a little. Nivel was a predominantly social creature, sometimes just communicating with someone was all she needed to slowly regain her pleasant demeanour . She was also under the impression that if she encouraged another to pray for their god it would be enough to appease the ones she felt she had wronged.
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[The Temple of All Gods] The Problem with Choices

Postby Valien on June 12th, 2014, 8:59 pm

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Valien's brows rose as Nivel asked why they were whispering, his eyes moving from the Pycon to the rows of pews in front of him. Most of the people there continued their prayers, ignoring the two of them. He wondered if Pycons were typically louder when they were praying and realized that he didn't know much about the race at all. Didn't know much about any races, in fact, except those that were human. "I suppose it's to be respectful," he said. "Most people don't like to be interrupted while they're praying, and some people find a conversation distracting."

Of course, this was all conjecture. Even in Ravok, Valien hadn't been what most would consider religious. He'd paid his obeisances to Rhysol, had gone to temple with Avenna and Serah when masses had been held, and had done all of those things, but he hadn't done much outside of that.

He blinked as Nivel mentioned not being able to fly with her wing-like ears, looking over at them again. In all honesty, he hadn't been wondering that, but now that she pointed it out...

It really was interesting how her ears simply formed that way. Could Pycons change their appearance at will, then? He wanted to ask, and would have, if Nivel's next question hadn't taken him completely off-guard. Valien frowned, slipping his hands into his pockets as he thought about how best to answer this one.

"...I've done a lot of things," he finally settled on, looking past Nivel and at the rest of the temple. "Things that I probably shouldn't speak about at this venue. Let's just say that I followed the wrong god, and lost someone I cared about because of it. So, thank you for the offer, Nivel, but I'm not sure I know who to pray to right now."

He wondered with a slight touch of fear whether or not Rhysol was actually listening in on this conversation. After all, it was the Temple of All Gods. Would the dark god care? Valien sincerely hoped not. In the grand scheme of things, he hadn't been that important. Still wasn't.
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