Alrighty! I think we're coming up on the time where I need to start thinking about how to go about Ishmael's revival. He's been out of commission for far too long, and I miss my blorbo. 

I need to redo his form-- he did have one, but it was heavily centered around Silverskies and her OCs and I haven't seen her around in a While + I'd like to rework some things.

I know a couple of y'all have expressed interest in being involved in this and I'm open to pretty much any suggestions. I'd like for this to happen separate from any Anatina shenanigans, though I'm flexible about timelines. If Ishmael comes back before things in Anatina get wrapped up, that's fine by me, though I think he wouldn't get involved as he'll probably feel like he learned his lesson about meddling in mortal affairs like he did in the past (I've repeatedly alluded to some kind of incident with the Bushbeasts and we'll get to that eventually, I promise lol). If he comes back after whatever ends up happening in Anatina, cool.

The story so far:
Strange creatures fashioned out of obsidian raided Ishmael's domain. Milo died in the resulting fight between these creatures and the Bushbeasts. I vaguely remember I had him stash some important scrolls in a tree before kicking the bucket but I don't quite remember the plan I had for those, so something could probably be done with those. Ishmael went out on an ill-fated vengeance quest to find the culprit in the attack and was ambushed and killed by Dust, who extracted the god's soul and gave it to Orphos (I think there was a deal made? Idk I hate looking for things in the wiki).

Orphos laid low for a couple years (I think this was because of the Masked Ones killing Eidolon + Ishmael) until Bliss threw a birthday party in his domain behind his back. During this absence he was researching and experimenting with Ishmael's soul, though he hasn't been able to glean much information besides the fact that it seems to have retained some of Ishmael's abilities and affects the area around it, and is capable of defending itself/somewhat sentient. As of now, Time is the only person (besides Bliss maybe) who knows that Orphos has possession of Ishmael's soul.


Stuff I'm thinking about:
1.  Ishmael's soul is conscious, but its senses are extremely limited/primitive; Orphos's prodding at it has caused him to be blasted with Ishmael's memories of war as a defense mechanism. It might be possible to communicate with it via someone a little more specialized in souls or with greater magical capabilities than Orphos.

2. Orphos doesn't really want people to look too hard at this whole thing. The creatures that attacked Ishmael's domain are Firebeasts, creatures fashioned by the Raccoon, one of the Masked Ones, but under Shiloh's commands. With the Jackal all but abandoning the other Masked Ones, they have mostly been answering directly to Orphos, who is still using them to passively collect souls and funnel deals his way.

^^This is more of a general thing for like,,, NPC Masked Ones,  y'all who have MO OCs can do what you please with them, Orphos doesn't care about whereabouts of the Masked Ones at this point as long as they aren't attracting too much attention that could be traced back to him.

Orphos and Shiloh have made a deal (details unknown) to have the Raccoon loaned out to Shiloh to manufacture Firebeasts for her (Raccoon is happy as long as they get to make things lol). Combined with Dust's involvement of the Masked Ones, Orphos is heavily implicated in Ishmael's murder (and, by vague extension, the Corrupted Deities + Prospero coup in Anatina but we don't have to talk about that)


3. I've got no idea how actual resurrection would go, but he's going to be fundamentally different, mostly because he's not gonna be created by a 14-year-old with multiple undiagnosed mental illnesses lmao. I've briefly touched on the idea of him not having a physical body while searching for a suitable "host" or having no body at all, but I'm not married to any particular idea. Considering his original body is probably actual dirt right now, the opportunities are literally endless.

Like I said, very open to any ideas and suggestions. I'd love for this to be a fun little thing with a lot of people involved because I love me some big ol plot participation 

Also we keep talking about it but we need to have a deity meeting so badly