MAY MINGLE

[stellafortunamods]

May Mingle: Entombed City
Welcome to Teyvat - a vast magical world of adventure.
Everyone's hard work resulted in the gate to upper Dragonspine opening. These ruins have not been traversed in years, if not centuries - everything within has been lost to time and living memory. An entire city has been buried in the snow.

People once lived there. The broken buildings host damaged furniture and weathered streets. There are various cloth-covered mounds in a house here and there, accompanied by a sprig of blue flowers. Someone has laid these people to rest after they passed away.

Traces of technology can be found in the city - golden boxes that contain crystals capable of recording and playing back holograms. One of the boxes introduces this place as Vindagnyr; a land once full of greenery and life. Just what happened to these people? What caused the eternal winter?

The highest point in the city is occupied by a temple built into a Domain. Within the Domain is a pale white tree, split in half by a strange object that has fallen through the Domain's ceiling. This temple was once a site for worship for Vindagnyr's people, and even in death they continue to pray for salvation. The priests have been frozen in ice, and the sheer cold emanating from the Skyfrost Nail makes it obvious that it is the cause of winter.

The city's inhabitants worshipped Celestia. Why then were they left to die?

State of the World

On October 1st, the entombed city of Vindagnyr becomes open for exploration. Travelers can choose to look for clues or try to scavenge the city for ancient materials or tools. Recording boxes all around the city tell stories of Vindagnyr's greener past, and of the days when winter suddenly arrived. This is the cruelty of Celestia that Forneus wished you to see.

For all questions regarding May's mingle and events, please head over to our OOC post.

Comments

[sufferean]

[Elliot certainly does have best friend privileges, as he's the first person Rean doesn't immediately go on high alert for. He does jump slightly, but he relaxes easily enough. ...Well, as much as either of them can relax, after what they've just seen.]

...Yeah.

[His voice cracks, and he doesn't even try to hide it. There's no reason to. After all, he knows Elliot is suffering the same way he is right now, and there's no fear of judgement.]

...I never wanted to see anything like this again. It's like the worst of Celdic and Hamel...

[fiddlestick]

[Relaxing is asking way too much of them right now. But at least there's someone here that understands, at least to some extent, the stuff Elliot's seen before. His shoulders slump a little at the mention of Celdic and Hamel: those two have been weighing heavy on his mind]

Yeah...it really is. I kept thinking of those places.

[Celdic rebuilt itself, but even when he visited the town these days- his mind could never fully shake the aftermath of that attack, the raw grief and despair that hung in the air. And as for Hamel...well, it'd never have a chance to rebuild. Just like this place]

I found some recordings. It sounds like they didn't even fully understand why it was happening. They knew Celestia wasn't listening anymore, but they really thought they could win back their approval.

[With prayers and murals, from the sound of it. They'd been so sure they could win their gods approval again, they didn't try to find another way to survive. They just pleaded to uncaring gods until they froze.]

[sufferean]

[...Ugh. Elliot's description of those recordings only makes him feel worse, like a knife twisting in his chest.]

...I don't understand it. Why didn't they just try to communicate with the people? They clearly still loved their gods. They were still trying to worship them. Whatever they were doing that was so wrong, they would have just stopped if they got sent a divine message that... you know... made sense...

[His voice breaks completely on that last word, because none of this makes sense. This is sickening, this is awful, and he's not sure when he's going to be able to sleep again.]

[fiddlestick]

[Elliot knows the feeling too. Were it not so freezing, he'd probably be already on his way to crying by now]

...I don't know, I really don't. [he shakes his head, knowing it's a stupid answer]

It...It reminds me how Duke Albarea would treat the people of Celdic. How little he cared about them and wouldn't listen to Otto's pleads. But...

I always thought gods were supposed to be better than that.