The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
This was all rather unsettling. He didn't recognize the woman's face at all, and the fact that she had apparently just been traveling through Dresmond? It all seemed like a load of half-truths, but luckily he didn't have to decide any of that for himself with Zevran quickly taking charge.
It also gave him a bit more confidence, feeding off his fellow Dresmondi. "You just happened to be traveling and thought Dresmond was the place to be? Where is your travel companion anyways?" His eyes flicked over the area she had come from, wondering if another wind was in order, this time a little more than just to throw back a cloak. Because this all still felt very very wrong.
Zevran's eyes narrowed at the woman, his hands tightening on his daggers. No red hair, so at least she was not an Eldouir. But that did not mean she wasn't still some form of an enemy.
Ermir spoke before he could, echoing his own thoughts almost exactly. Zevran lifted his eyes to scan the trees behind the dark haired woman, wondering if they hadn't somehow walked into a trap. His face fell further into a scowl.
"Yes, well, when you notice a hooded stranger watching you from the shadows of the trees, it certainly puts you a bit on edge. And then you simply turned and fled when approached. Now, not only have you somehow managed to find us again, you wish us to believe you're only travelers who are a bit lost and you just want to talk?" He shook his head and raised his daggers a bit more.
"I sincerely hope you have a better explanation to offer than that."
Luka slid to a stop a pace behind Zevran, close enough to throw a hard glare over his shoulder at the unhooded figure. Overhead, Grem darted between a pair of branches, lofting to a perch behind the dark-haired woman.
“He’s behind the tree.” Arms crossed over her chest, Luka threw her chin toward the tree that hid the remaining stranger. She couldn’t see him herself but Grem had. A nervous prickle made the hairs on her arms stand and her jaw clench. She wasn’t like Zevran or Ermir. She didn’t care who they were or where they came from. Curiosity had gotten more than one Dresmondi killed, and Luka wasn’t keen on adding another to the list. But they were here now. Might as well put as many eyes on the pair as they could.
Alys knew that no matter what interaction they'd have, it was going to be tense. After her own conversation with Fintan, she knew that the kingdom was a mess. Dresmondi were fleeing, asking once enemies for aide. If Hiram hadn't arrived in Coheed, she was sure that Fintan would've been able to make his own case with Cassian, but other things had taken priority. But Alys had had the conversation. She knew.
The mention of her traveling companion had angling her head a bit more towards Grant, but as Grem darted between the branches, a dark shadow would shift to block him from coming closer. A dark mass, nothing more, but the air thickening as the summoning Alys had circling them found the closest threat and created a barrier. Waiting for its witches command. "I'd like to point out you told us to leave." She held her hand in front of her chest in an 'easy there' motion as she curled her other hand towards Grant, coaxing the mountain of a soldier to come out.
"We are travelers, I know that the Eldouir rule hasn't made that an easy thing to believe as of late," her hand that was up in a way to try and cause ease though, was ready to whip for her dagger if needed. She'd try a slightly different angle, unsure of how it'd go or if they'd even know this Dresmondi. "I spoke with Fintan and Tana recently," she prayed one of them knew the man and dyr. "We had plans to meet later but it seems that the Eldouir's are venturing outside of Dresmond."
Post by Grant Delaney on Sept 3, 2022 2:33:10 GMT -5
Behind the tree.
Motherfuck--
Grant glanced at Alys, and then came out of hiding, hands held up and neutral as possible as he walked over and stood beside his aunt and partner. He had no idea the dynamic between familiar and dyr, and didn't act as if he had, doing his best to act as neutral as possible. Whatever was going on was not in his expertise, and his job was to protect Alys. No matter what.
At Alys' explanation, he nodded, still holding his hands up, trying to be friendly. Ish.
Kezia had been the farthest back, meaning she got to watch the whole thing unravel. The woman’s hood being blown back, the way the two men stood between them and Luka and Kezia. The second figure appearing, a man who almost rivaled Ermir in sheer size. Her breathing was heavy but suddenly, as the woman spoke again, little bells of familiarity were going off.
The small Dresmondi moved cautiously forward, watching the woman’s eyes flicker away from Zevran and Ermir to herself as she creeped forward. “I-I know you.” She said, her voice ringing out surprising loud for how cautious she was being. Her eyes narrowed as she drew closer, as if it would help pull the memory. It was the moment that all those freckles came into view that there was a bit of almost relief to her stance. Her shoulder sagging. “She’s not with them,” she said suddenly, pulling up to Ermir’s side. Looking the two others over. “I saw you in Lorendale.” She told the woman, not daring to get closer still. But just to confirm.
The dark head of curls nodded, her hands slowly lowering to her sides. “You could have, yes. I didn’t think Dresmondi went into Loren?” Alys questioned. Which brought the smallest smile to Kezia’s face. “We don’t. But I was there with an Arynnite.”
"And I'd like to point out that you were stalking us from the trees. And if you actually know anything of what our kingdom has become, you would understand why we told you to leave." The name of the Dresmondi they supposedly spoke with did not seem familiar, but it had been many years at this point since some had fled.
He was trying incredibly hard to give these travelers their time to explain themselves. He continued to hope they'd give him something that was fully believable. He didn't really want to fight them, after all, they were supposed to be the good guys. If they could not act any differently from the Eldouirs and other brainwashed Dresmondi, what was the point of them?
He quickly surveyed the man who crept out from behind the tree- exactly where Luka said he was. He noted the raised hands and how the man attempted to look friendly, but it was not until Kezia stepped forward and spoke that his grip on his daggers finally began to relax and he allowed them to drop a bit at his sides.
"What business do you seek here then? You said you were just travelers who got lost, but now you tell us you know of the Eldouirs and you've spoken to other Dresmondi, so clearly that is not the case. I want the truth."
Ermir went from confused to absolutely lost as Kezia mentioned that she knew the one with curly hair. There was far too much going on and he just let Zevran do all the talking, standing on alert as the other guy stepped out. Huge, apparently they fed their people well wherever they were from. Ciel scampered back and forth along his shoulders not sure where to focus. Ermir instinctively stepped towards Kezia, not sure what they was going to unfold. Anyone who traveled on purpose to Dresmond was crazy, even before the Eldouirs took over.
The truth. That was quite the hard part wasn’t it. Especially since she didn’t exactly know if she was dealing with potential hostile Dresmondi or not. Their actions to date told her they should be more cautious than ever. But the smallest one, who spoke of Lorendale and knowing Alys, gave her a twinge of hope.
“We seek the truth as well,” feeling Grant behind her gave her a bit more security. But knowing that a summoning circled them helped even more. One that was starting to slip and slide in the shadows, eyeing the dyrs. Calculating the threat, feeling and reaching out for anything that might be a sign that an attack was coming. Any shift in the air…
“I’ll admit we aren’t lost in the sense of knowing where we are.” Her eyes remained on Zevran now, a draw to step closer had one foot rise and fall, doing just that. She stopped any other further forward movement. “But more so in what has become of Dresmond. Of your people. We know your people have fled when they wouldn’t fight, we know the Eldouir’s had made home here. But we don’t know why.” She let her hands fall completely down. “And perhaps, with knowing, help can be offered.”
The truth was overrated as far as Luka was concerned, but she held her ground for lack of anywhere better to go. Her eyes jumped from the hoodless head of curls to the man emerging from behind the tree. The hoodless one spoke again, drawing Luka’s attention with a snap and a scoff. The more she said, the less Luka understood.
Her heels twisted in the dirt and her arms tightened against her chest. “People don’t just show up looking for ways to die because they want to help.” That was all taking on the Eldouirs was, after all. A good way to die. Luka had already made her peace with that. If they were lucky—like really, stupidly lucky—they might pull this whole thing off and she might live. If she was unlucky, she’d die and the world would go on being just as shitty as it was right now. She’d decided the most likely outcome was somewhere in-between. She’d probably still die, but if whatever she did to get herself dead meant Rabbit got to go free, to be a real Dresmondi again. Well, then, it’d mean a lot more than dying just because.
Those were odds she could live with.
Coming to a shithole like Dresmond from a place like Lorendale just to 'help,' Luka practically spit at the notion. “It’s a trap,” she decided. Some Eldouir scheme to catch people like them dreaming up better ways to live, to fight. Grem side-stepped down the branch to give himself a better vantage of the scene unfolding below.
Post by Grant Delaney on Sept 12, 2022 20:05:08 GMT -5
What a friendly bunch. At least one of them recognized Alys from Lorendale, though Grant supposed it'd be too much to recognize him as well. He decided to just stick close to Alys for now.
He looked at the little one with the mouth, cocking an eyebrow at her. "We're not here to start anything with you," he said. "My partner's telling the truth. We're here to see if we can help. And we're not here to die." Grant wasn't sure if he cast the most convincing picture of diplomacy, but he couldn't just stand there silent anymore. The Dresmondi were paranoid, for pretty good reason, from the sounds of things.
He was not going to die in this hellhole before getting something done.
If he'd had a human face, there would have been the smallest wrinkle between his brows, the slightest thinning of his lips and he might've shifted his weight a miniscule amount but enough to give him the edge to do what he must. His eyes would've jumped from person to person to creature, taking into the details from posture to expressions to tone, where someone could have tracked his focus with how he would have watched each person, maybe tilted his head just so for better hearing, to disguise a possible tension sitting in his body somewhere.
But he was mist, not human, and therefore he was still. Was resting and watching. Outsiders wanting to get involved in their business here in Dresmond. Ironic and he'd be a hypocrite to be offended at their daring. (But he was a hypocrite, knew himself well enough, after all.)
But still, there was a buzz of curiosity in his mind. So, he would linger a bit more. Even if this would be enough for Hiram right now.
There was an easing of tension, she could see the way that Zev’s shoulders relaxed a touch at her words. And yet Ermir stepped closer to her, and instinctively she reached for him. Her head whipped backwards almost immediately as Luka claimed it to be a trap. “Why?” Her brows shoved together as she stared at the one she hadn’t bonded with much at all. Mostly because of Luka’s standoffish way. Mostly because Kezia was nervous about her.
“They haven’t attacked us, they certainly don’t look…” her eyes scanned once again the two. “They don’t look Dresmondi. Nor Eldouir.” She stared at the woman again. She knew she had seen her. She had been there at the palace in Lorendale. “What if they can actually help?” She whispered up to Ermir, her hand tightening its grip on him. “We’ve been trying to get who we can to help. Why is this different?” She looked at the other three, Raiden chattering his teeth at her shoulder.
Zevran's gaze never strayed from the woman in front of him, even as the others spoke around them. He was studying her face intently, looking for any tell that she was lying. It was clear she was the leader between the two of them and the most important to decipher.
But between the lack of information, Luka claiming it was a trap, and Kezia insisting it wasn't, everything was about as clear as mud. Even Rune, who was still crouched low between his feet, had no advice on how to proceed.
His growing frustration became evident in his tone, "So you're Lorendalers out looking to play hero to the poor Dresmondi? The last I heard, the other kingdoms had left us all to die here because it wasn't beneficial to them to help us. So what help could the two of you possibly offer?"
His gaze finally moved from the woman to the man behind her. "You may not think you've come here to die, but if you actually mean to offer assistance, you may want to get a little more comfortable with the idea.
With information and advice flying from all angles it was hard to sense what was going on. Usually Emir was the type to go based on his gut and fake it till he made it. In this case though his gut was telling him to run like Luka's was, no matter what words these Lorendale people spoke.
So instead Ciel spoke to the others. "Have any of us really been this lucky? To just stumble upon help so close to the tribute?" There was hope in his eyes though as he looked down to Kezia before they traveled back to the pair. Squeezing her arm as he allowed himself to hope for a minute that things might be finally clicking into place.