out of curiousity, have you gotten anything about how ishmael is worshipped canonified? wanna make sure i know what the treehuggers consider sacrilege so the devout can be better at being an ishmael stan

AshTheAvaricious wrote:

out of curiousity, have you gotten anything about how ishmael is worshipped canonified? wanna make sure i know what the treehuggers consider sacrilege so the devout can be better at being an ishmael stan

SO! I have a couple things so I'm gonna dump everything I have on you. If you have other ideas feel free to float them by me as well. He's dead as hell but I would imagine people still do these things out of hope or habit

Healing Followers (this is most relevant for the Devout, so I'll give you more here)
- Ish doesn't discriminate, anyone doing anything remotely healer-y can fall under his umbrella. Doctors, apothecaries, combat medics (these people specifically gain his favor), or even someone just trying to fix their little brother's scraped knee can get their prayers asked and answered.

- Shrines are typically small, easily-constructed things. It can be as simple as some plants put in a sunny window of an infirmary, gardens or courtyards, greenhouses, etc. Ish is a fairly accessible deity to contact. No sacrifices or offerings need to be made, though planting some things to get his attention never hurts. Temples tend to be more elaborate, with the most powerful/well-known ones being stands of huge old-growth trees (think redwoods or sequoias but other trees are fine depending on climate) with some buildings on, around, or in them. Some followers of Ishmael may permanently carry plants with them to act as a portable shrine. Caretakers of shrines and temples are affectionately referred to as Greenskeepers. Some local healers may set up camps at shrines and temples and it isn't uncommon for them to turn into temporary hospitals and sick bays. 

- Occasionally, someone tapping into natural energy to set up a temple for Ishmael may accidentally stumble upon a slumbering Bushbeast. The vast majority live in Ishmael's domain, but the largest and most ancient may have decided to bury themselves elsewhere, turning into hillsides and carrying large swathes of forest on their backs. Most of the time, people think they've just found a particularly potent spot of natural power, but some are aware they're setting up camp over top of a Bushbeast and act as caretakers of the beast beneath them as well as the temple themselves. Given the healing ability of the Bushbeasts, some who find themselves with a temple on their backs may take it upon themselves to aid in healing of visitors, even though Ishmael is dead. Their telepathy also makes it feel as if there is a large presence in the area as they tend to poke around the minds and thoughts of visiting mortals. This causes some of the more devout followers to believe that this is the presence of Ishmael, and that his divine energy has been split amongst his most "worthy" temples upon his death.

Plant Followers
- Bushbeasts are sacred creatures, and while few have seen them, they are typically seen as harbingers/messengers of Ishmael himself. In Ishmael's absence, some followers have started to live in his domain to protect them from poachers and watch over the domain itself. This has caused a divide within Ishmael scholars as living within a dead deity's domain is either the ultimate form of devotion, or a gross overstep to think mortals are worthy to live within it, depending on who you ask. Pieces of Busbeasts have very heightened healing properties, but the amber that makes up their eyes are particularly prized for their rarity, hardness, and difficulty to procure. Taking the eyes from a Bushbeast effectively kills them, so it's a little important they stay in their heads. 

- Like healers, anyone dealing with plants can call on Ishmael. Particularly devout farmers may plant or preserve trees in the center of their fields as a form of protection/blessing. Florists may have special flowers that bloom year round, take much longer to wilt, or never die completely. Someone praying over a potted plant they forgot to water for a month may wake up the next day to see it perfectly healthy. Stuff like that!

Peace Followers
- Typically diplomats and government officials (though for many of them, this is only performative)

- Soldiers are also common followers

- This is a difficult one to really wrap your head around, as some followers are complete pacifists while others believe in war in the name of peace. While other sects of Ishmael's charges tend to have a collection of highly respected individuals that interpret Ishmael's actions and words and set the dogma, followers of Ishmael that lean toward his dominion over peace are often, ironically enough, the most prone to infighting and disruption.

Sacrilege
- turning away patients if there is still capacity to care for them, abandoning wounded on a battlefield regardless of their affiliation
- if you are working from a shrine or temple, you are prohibited from charging for your services
- harming Bushbeasts (some people think even approaching or contacting them is taboo)
- harming people for no reason
- generally being a shitty person

Ah! Normal plants would be anything native to the area as well as ferns and olives (the literal extending of an olive branch and all that). I think I had a specific flower for him at some point back when I got fixated on bouquet flower codes but I can't remember it. The most on-the-nose one would be peace lilies I guess

Any plants near a temple or shrine would grow quickly, regardless of season or condition. I think people would naturally just put whatever plants they want or need in there because they'd stay alive no matter what, so there'd be all sorts of weird rare and magical plants around there. 


Anatina had/has a temple to Ish. The original one was a big collection of trees and was cut down for lumber shortly after Prospero took the throne. Most of the land around the main castle is fucked up by some kind of spell and Prospero is actively attempting to turn the public opinion of Ishmael, but the ground where Ishmael's temple was is one of the only green places left outside of the inner wall and people occasionally visit it, but it's under observation by the royal guard to make sure no one tampers with it


Anyone in Anatina actively following Ishmael has either fled the city or is worshipping in secret

Given Dust's stature/connection to the crown I would assume she would not be directly approached, but her actions would likely be reported. If it is important to her, Prospero may have given her a time frame she can visit in. If she went without asking for permission, he would allow it by surreptitiously having his guards clear the area of witnesses so she can carry out her work. One of his means of control is allowing people their little rebellions. 

Disney stealing my "kingdom with royalty named after wealth/excess/extravagance and the king is highly manipulative and in actuality is depriving the kingdom of its own wealth/excess/extravagance" thing but doing it worse

If I see King Magnifico I'm beating him to death with a hammer

Surprise Anatina's temple to Ishmael is on the back of a bigass Bushbeast that hasn't surfaced since the day it was created (it was one of the first and is Really Messed Up)

Stream of consciousness lore, go!

I never give much thought to like,,,, timeline continuity because so much of Forengard's history is (intentionally?) squishy but I need to pin down how old Ish was when he came to Anatina because I think that significantly impacts the type of relationship he would have with Queen Fortuna


Way Back When when I first created Ishmael I think I had him in his very early 20s at his death because that seemed like an Adult Age when I was 15 but I don't think that's very fitting now

I'm toying with the fact that he might have been off doing other things shortly after he became deified. I think I had some vague mention from Shiloh a couple years ago that he just came back to his (now dead) father's estate and slept for A While. I was originally thinking like a month or two but now I'm leaning towards several years.

OR

He immediately goes to Anatina, does his shoddy repair job to the region, and the whole Bushbeast Incident drives him back to his domain where he enters a long period of dormancy.


Basically my concern is that Fortuna already had a kid before Ishmael's arrival. Prospero II was old enough to enter the war.  On his form, his age is unknown but I noted that he should be in his 40s. Felix is in his late 20s, so Prospero would be in his 20s when he disappeared. Generally speaking, if Fortuna had a kid in her 20s, that would put her in her 40s during Ishmael's arrival.  If Ishmael is (physically/mentally) in his 20s when he shows up to Anatina, that's a little fucked up

Immortal/mortal relationships are always a little funky in terms of age gaps but I don't want to go in that direction if I can help it


Maaaaaaaybe Prospero II is from a previous marriage (Prospero I and some queen prior to Fortuna) and Fortuna is Prospero I's wife #2 via political alliance by marriage??? 

Or I could age up Ishmael... I've been thinking about tweaking his backstory a little bit to give him some time between his military school and war experience to put him more in his late 20's - early 30's.... but I'm on the fence about that one.



uhhhhhhhh
Tentatively, I think I'll say Fortuna is a second (or third or whatever, not the first) wife/queen. Prospero II is the son of Prospero I and a deceased queen, with Fortuna coming in later in her late 20s as a political alliance by marriage. This removes Prospero II and Felix being half-brothers and I'd rather they be related (I think that makes both of their claims to the throne more interesting) but as far as the kingdom is concerned, Felix is a legitimate heir. Ishmael is in his late 20s coming in to Anatina-- as in, he was in his early 20s when he was deified, was down for the count for some years, and awoke or was tracked down or a secret third thing to handle Anatina. Alternatively he handles Anatina and then passes tf out. Not sure which I like more.

This puts the question mark squarely on Prospero I's age but I'd like to keep that nebulous. I'm still working out how I want the Prospero power/magic structure to work as some of Prospero II's abilities are genetic

It really does!! I could just leave things up in the air and shrug vaguely at it if it ever comes up in rp but most of my time that I spend drawing up outlines for my plotlines these days involves me having to untangle all the weird narrative choices I made when I was 15 and posting threads while walking between class periods. I did a bunch of weird half-baked things and I hate retconning stuff when others have had their characters involved, so I'm trying to stitch together something vaguely coherent

There's all sorts of little hooks and weird offhand mentions I remember doing but there was never any payoff to them, but they are quite literally the building blocks on which everything else stands on. Like Shiloh and Orphos have made numerous deals before and after her first attempted takeover (5 years ago?!) and leading up to Ishmael's death but this has made maybe two actual narrative appearances outside of me mentioning them ooc so what is anyone supposed to do about this??? Bliss is literally standing on the consequences of those actions right now but I'm the only one who has the full understanding of the gravity of it and that's entirely on me lmao. Trying to fix that and also remedy my chronic "all my OCs need to be connected by intricate plot when there's so many other people I could pull in to things" disease so I'm not backing myself into a corner.

Shiloh full on took Bliss hostage that one time she actually succeeded being a deity for a bit and there's a nonzero chance Bliss could run into the woman who literally almost killed her to sate her own ambition. I really wish I had played with Shiloh's god arc more. I don't know if it's super clear right now but I'm really enjoying digging into the idea of Ishmael being a somewhat sucky deity because he had absolutely no clue what he was doing and was actively working through his trauma while being a god, especially in the early years. One of Shlioh's driving points is that she truly believes she could do a better job. and she honestly probably would have, if I had given her space to breathe at the time and had properly built her besides her being "evil tree lady".


I sort of have a do-over with Prospero and Felix. The circumstances are roughly the same (I'm a sucker for parallels) and I want to take the time I have with Prospero on the throne to just let things sit and see how things fall. Prospero is really bad at taking care of his people's needs (on purpose) and I want Felix to have a better sense of self before he does anything. IF he even tries to take the throne back in the first place which I'm not even sure I want him to do.

Anyway. My timelines have always sucked. I don't even want to look in the direction of the Masked Ones. They've been around simply for as long as I need them to be

I've had a fic for Ishmael's Anatina arc rattling around in my skull for some time now. I guess it's not actually a fic because it's my characters and my storyline but,,, y'know.

It was originally going to be my NaNoWriMo project, but the month got away from me and I didn't have a whole lot of time. I usually lock down into a kind of survival mode the first 12 weeks of the semester and I have hardly any mental/physical energy to do something that requires that many creative spoons. I'm doing really well right now, so I might pick at it during this time and over break, as well. I always get nervous sharing my writing but paradoxically I have a hard time writing anything if I don't share it.

My compromise that let's me still have some creativity but less self-imposed pressure is themed music playlist. I might go with that to warm up to and start off with. I'll definitely share that one, I like seeing people's interpretations of those.


I'm generally easing back into roleplaying as a whole, not just here but other spaces/platforms as well. It's something that's very fulfilling for me and I like doing it, and it helps me a lot. I have a lot of creative energy and oftentimes nowhere to put it.

I would be super interested in seeing more about the whole Anatina thing! I was kind of inactive during the time the plot first popped up and I haven't been able to do much after that other than espectate and try to piece together stuff but I genuinely feel like the lore behind the city is interesting and I'd be thrilled to see more of the deity-related details.
Felix forever seems like a cinnamon roll to me for some reason.

The vine I had in mind for this one is the guy falling and sobbing because his spaghetti fell out of his pocket