Ekkehardt Gehring (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spelleton) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
daybreakacademy2020-05-17 12:20 pm
spelleton) wrote in daybreakacademy2020-05-17 12:20 pm
At Death's Doorstep
Who: Ekkehardt and whoever signed up to go on this fun trip right here.
What: Ekkehardt takes a group of people back to his family's base in the Outlands, and then takes an even smaller group of people into the underworld.
Where: Outlands.
When: Mid-May
Warnings: Death, potential backstory trauma. Will be updated if anything comes up.
Notes: Doing your own toplevels is absolutely fine! Let me know if you need NPC involvement for your threads.
Passage to House Gehring's territory is ultimately a simple matter, and while it involves some transit time, it's smooth overall. The living quarters for patients and guests have been refurbished and built out to accommodate extra people since Ekkehardt's last extended visit; an addition made especially for Héctor's undead family. House Gehring's base of operations looks and feels far more like an especially large, cosy house than a protective bastion.
The supposed passage to the underworld is much less hospitable. It's a yawning cavern far beneath the house; water from some vast lake or river in the world below laps near-silently at a shore decorated with silent statues, all facing out towards the darkness. An ancient-looking longboat with a lit lamp at the prow, moored to nothing at all, floats there. Their passage is expected, it seems.
And as for the underworld itself...
Eventually, the boat cuts into an impossibly still lake, and Ekkehardt steps out, leaving the boat behind. It's possible to walk on the water, though it takes concentration not to sink, at least at first. With every step you take, flowers bloom, leaving a trail.
And all around, above and below, are stars. And if you walk long enough, you might encounter ghosts, of a sort - of the people you used to be, predominantly. Fragments of your past selves that no longer exist. But if their own feelings were strong enough, you might even meet the ghosts of those who were once important to you - or still are.
[ More content in toplevels below! ]
What: Ekkehardt takes a group of people back to his family's base in the Outlands, and then takes an even smaller group of people into the underworld.
Where: Outlands.
When: Mid-May
Warnings: Death, potential backstory trauma. Will be updated if anything comes up.
Notes: Doing your own toplevels is absolutely fine! Let me know if you need NPC involvement for your threads.
Passage to House Gehring's territory is ultimately a simple matter, and while it involves some transit time, it's smooth overall. The living quarters for patients and guests have been refurbished and built out to accommodate extra people since Ekkehardt's last extended visit; an addition made especially for Héctor's undead family. House Gehring's base of operations looks and feels far more like an especially large, cosy house than a protective bastion.
The supposed passage to the underworld is much less hospitable. It's a yawning cavern far beneath the house; water from some vast lake or river in the world below laps near-silently at a shore decorated with silent statues, all facing out towards the darkness. An ancient-looking longboat with a lit lamp at the prow, moored to nothing at all, floats there. Their passage is expected, it seems.
And as for the underworld itself...
Eventually, the boat cuts into an impossibly still lake, and Ekkehardt steps out, leaving the boat behind. It's possible to walk on the water, though it takes concentration not to sink, at least at first. With every step you take, flowers bloom, leaving a trail.
And all around, above and below, are stars. And if you walk long enough, you might encounter ghosts, of a sort - of the people you used to be, predominantly. Fragments of your past selves that no longer exist. But if their own feelings were strong enough, you might even meet the ghosts of those who were once important to you - or still are.
[ More content in toplevels below! ]
no subject
They are such short-sighted children. All the magic and power in the world changes that so little. But they are filled with fire, for all their flaws. They can rise to become exceptional, or sink under the weight of their own sins.
[ The water moves around the boat, rustling the flowers. She gestures to the endless stars above, the lights that lurk below, in a sea that never moves. ]
Every star you see here is what remains of a soul. Many of them are human. Many more never know that humans existed.
You ask if I appreciate humankind, perhaps even if I love them. I can only say that I do.
But in return, lord of fears, I ask you this. Do you think the humans you have met, the ones you treasure, are enough to balance your views of their kind?
no subject
There's a faint smile that tugs at his lips, a glimmer of both nostalgia and the present alike.]
I wouldn't do what I do if they didn't.
[It'd be one thing to just do as she had asked and simply... left. Left humanity behind to just be another daemon in the Outlands. He could've walked away. But he didn't, and he hadn't for four centuries.]
But there is some relief in hearing your answer, for a couple of reasons. Many have asked me if I was taken by some sort of madness four hundred years ago, in abandoning my old ways. Sometimes, I wondered if they were right. Not that it would've changed anything.
And also that... someone on the other side would be there. Someone who cared. It's a relief that brings some comfort to an old scar.