The winds slowed, and in many places stilled entirely and plants no longer rotted on the vine. The world stops to catch its breath, waiting for what comes next. Even now, word had spread, and no one knew what the outcome would be. Would the gods choose to essentially declare war on each other, or would they act in the spirit of communal preservation and return to their realms? It was the question on everyone’s lips. Rumors were varied, and it was difficult to tell which were true.
"I's thinkin' the god are already dead and gone. Why's the wind stopped for if they're still kickin'?"
"Silas must have figured out a way to appease the rest of them and stop the madness."
"T'weren't Silas there. Musta been Jishrim or Visage. 'Course they'd want the rest of 'em to bugger off."
"But surely they wouldn't LEAVE us? They have to protect us if the Corruption ever returns!"
"You sodding idiot, were the gods what brought that on us last time."
Pilgrims still congregated at the central cathedral, praying through the day and long into the night. Some claimed that the gods answered them, but most simply heard the wind that still whistled through the rafters here. There was weeping that punctuated the prayers and chants of the pilgrims. A woman loudly and almost accusingly offered her remaining daughter to Shalherana, if only... if only she would remain, stay alive, and protect the woman. And her family, of course. In a nearby shrine, another woman, also a mother, bowed her head as tears streamed down her face. Her prayers were silent, but were for her son. She wanted him returned to her, and if that meant the gods must withdraw from this world, she wanted that more than anything.
OOC Note:
A bit of clarification, here: the gods have not withdrawn... yet. How quickly this happens is up to you guys (and I suppose that by extension, this means whether it happens at all), but some details should be given first. The gods are more or less in danger. We may have overstated the danger to the entire pantheon, but there are certainly members who do not have the support to survive much longer in the competition for followers and worship. That was the intent of scattering folks to go pray to their particular god - we noted all those down (and the results were interesting, lemme tell you).
So, in the next week or so, Sally and I are going to get the cathedral set up with a shiny new worship plugin, and it will record prayers for us. We have a list of gods who support the withdrawal, and those who don't/don't care. Offerings and prayers will help determine how strong they are. Prayers will help sway them to a particular side, if possible. That's the next event-cycle of this campaign.
Once the gods withdraw, that does not mean they're gone completely. That was misinterpreted. This is intended to be the transition to the Exalted system that Mich initiated (and we kind of had to accelerate), so there will still be a link between Altera and the gods. And if they HAVE to, they can reappear at very infrequent intervals.
Now, on a personal note, I do want to apologize for the "underwhelming" feeling most of you got from that event. We were trying to emphasize player events more, which some of you got to experience first hand, and this was only intended to try and clear things up from the bits and pieces that had been dropped before. Clearly that failed, which is why I'm being a lot more forthcoming with you guys than has been done in the past. I was pleased that the prompts resulted in some absolutely wonderful player-initiated world-changing RP, but the destruction was not intended to be permanent. The focus on player events IS.
