RuneScape Forum Archive | Fall From Grace

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2020

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Divus shook his head from side-to-side, rejecting Raphael's self-inflicting words. "Raphael, no man is indestructible," the king replied, tending to Raphael directing the cutting blade of his anger at himself. "All of us fall and shatter in at least one point of our lives. It's within these moments when we must pick up the pieces that truly defines us."

"It's no use," Raphael denied, shaking his head. "The Resistance, everything... It's all gone."

"And why is it that you believe that?" Divus returned.

"There's no one left," he answered. "How can there be a Resistance if there's no one left to fight for it? Sure, the Desert Assassins fight, but they'll just end up like the Resistance! There's no chance against Governanti, there can't be any victory for the humans!"

"Answer this for me, then," his father then said. "Do you think of the Resistance as an army of bodies, of hands clenching steel?"

The silver haired young man then quickly looked up at his father, seeing a very earnest look upon his face. His son then shook his head, agreeing with that statement. "Of course," Raphael returned, his voice hesitant and confused by Divus' question.

"Listen to me," Divus then requested in a serious but sincere tongue. Having heard the king's request, Raphael gave his father his undivided attention, listening well to what he had to say. "I held the throne for a very long time, have felt the heaviness of the crown. At its beginning, I saw only the deepest hatred and bitterness conceivable in the eyes of every human. Rightfully so, given the situation placed upon them. But then, I saw those ill feelings shift, grow into something else, something... more. When the Resistance appeared, that hatred, that bitterness, it changed. Over the years, the Resistance has become something like a tree, flourishing, growing with hope and giving it to those who had previously tasted nothing but despair."

"But now that tree's withered and died!"
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05-Jan-2015 16:58:21

Jul

2020

Serene End

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"Raphael... What made that tree what it was? What made its roots?"

"Its people who fought for it," he threw out an answer, truthfully believing it.

Divus closed his eyes and shook his head, rejecting that notion. "No," he denied Raphael's belief, his son's eyes reacting with surprise. "The Resistance isn't about the people fighting for the idea, but the idea for which the people fight for."

"But I still don't understand," Raphael declared his confusion, his face reflecting it. "How can there be a Resistance if there's no one left to fight for it?"

"Ah, but that's just it," said the king. "The Resistance doesn't need people to fight for it to exist."

Raphael's face grew unclear, being lost out in the wilds of his puzzlement. "...What?" the young man muttered, utterly perplexed by Divus' words.

"What you've yet realized is that the Resistance has evolved into something far more than a banner," the king went on. "In the action of standing against your oppressors, you've inspired the hearts and minds of thousands of individuals, you've become like that tree. You've shown them that they too needn't bow anymore, that they can reach out and grasp the branch that has so long been out of their reach. The Resistance is no longer just an army or body bound to the earth, no longer just the action of rising from the ashes. It resonates in the hearts of, not only humans, but all who crave peace and equality, transcending far beyond mere bendable words and eroding steel."

Divus' eyelids peeled open once more, revealing his indigo-purple irises upon Raphael. "It's transformed into an idea, a hope, a belief," he wholeheartedly believed. "It's the outright rejection of racial superiority and dominance, the intolerance of the lives of living beings and the lives of their children be spent subjugated, oppressed, forced into submission."
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05-Jan-2015 17:02:14

Jul

2020

Serene End

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The king's lips rose once more, a gracious, tenderhearted smile blooming. "It's the promise of a future beyond ravaged homes and lives, a promise of a better world," he continued. "So long as there is so much as a single being who believes in those concepts, just as assured as the night always starting from its rise above the sun and the day always emerging from the dark, there will always be hope, always be the fight, and there will always be a Resistance."

Raphael gazed upon at the smiling king in disbelief, his weary eyes forced apart from the words Divus reached out to him. He didn't even know what to think, what to say. The idea of the Resistance, even if they might not exist anymore in the world, but now exist in the hearts of those it inspired and touched. Was it true?

In this instance, the young man began to feel the weight on his shoulder ease up just slightly. Hearing this advice and wisdom come from this lost king truly did make Raphael's heart ache, missing the days of talking with this man, this father of his. He yearned with everything in him for them to be returned, but he knew that he had to take Divus' beliefs and make them his own, just as Master Malik taught him.

The two simply stared down one another, Divus appearing as though he were confident and happy that he managed to get something through to Raphael. But then the king's eyes seemed to scan Raphael's face, seeing the restlessness that wore his skin down. "You seem tired, child," Divus believed. "Perhaps you need to rest."

Raphael shook his head. "All right," he concurred, his body then began to collapse sluggishly upon the bed. Divus assisted the young man, laying him down upon the comfortable cushion that wrapped itself around him. He then pulled the sheets over the exhausted Raphael, the young man looking up at Divus as he laid down in the place where it all started.
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05-Jan-2015 17:05:29

Jul

2020

Serene End

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Standing over Raphael's bedside like the the past had repeated itself, the king looked fondly down upon the silver-haired young man. Looking into Raphael's desolate eyes, he could see a battlefield scarred, a plain fraught with concern. "Don't worry, my boy," said Divus, his left hand reaching over to Raphael's head and lightly tapping underneath the young man's chin with the side of his index finger, a sign to 'chin up.' "I've no doubt you'll find a way, and because of it, be made better."

Divus' body began to twist, turn off to its right. Looking now at what was behind him, he began to step away from Raphael, putting one foot forward. At this moment, a concern rose up like a white flag in the young man's mind, a question he needed answer. "W-wait," he spoke back to Divus, causing him to cease all motion. "where are you going?"

Hearing the young man calling out with worry, the king looked back at him. "Nowhere too far," he responded, the image of Raphael's distraught face reflecting off of his eyes. "Be at peace, child. If you require guidance, you need only look within yourself to find it."

With a turn of his cheek once more, Divus began walking away from Raphael once more. Quietly did his footsteps land upon the floor, unable to make a sound. The young man truly did feel suddenly so tired, so taxed despite having just woken up. His eyelids like lead, so heavy was its burden that Raphael couldn't fight it any more. They quickly pulling over his eyes, falling down and blackening his vision.

But the young man didn't want this, he wanted to stop Divus, he didn't want him to go. He fought of the decider, the judge like the struggle between life and death, fighting a mighty battle with all his effort. But his eyelids wanted to make the event end prematurely, striking back furiously. He tried to speak, but his voice was cancelled out with a silent gasp.
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05-Jan-2015 17:09:19 - Last edited on 05-Jan-2015 17:09:41 by Serene End

Jul

2020

Serene End

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He lost all form of communication, stumbling thoughts that questioned why he had lost his voice flared up in his mind. In a last ditch effort, he reached his hand so desperately out to Divus. His questions melted into nothingness, even the ability to think disappeared from this world. All he had were his eyes and ears, and that was only because he fought with all of his might to retain them.

His purple eyes watched Divus' body stand in front of the door as his eyelids made his view flicker like an old movie, the king's hand reaching for the doorknob. Raphael watched as Divus paused, looking back at his son with a gentle smile lifting his lips, one that was so grossly incandescent. "You know, your mother was right," Divus' kind voice passed one final thing to Raphael, the young man seeing the radiant smile and hearing a light laughter come from his father's way. "You're definitely more of a "Raphael" than an "Avitus.""

Having heard Divus' final, departing words to him, Raphael's eyelids would best him in this struggle, wrestling his consciousness down into the black. His mind faded away with nothingness, his last moments watching as Divus slowly twisted the doorknob and pulled open the door. The heart-warming place that melted the frigid grip upon Raphael's life had suddenly lifted, dissipated from around him.

From that fantastically comforting environment, he was ripped out from under. Thrown into the barren wasteland, a land with no sky and ground, not even he existed. All around him was black, screaming furiously at him like a funnel was his own thoughts. Raphael could hear them echoing out to him, haplessly flying out from seemingly everywhere yet nowhere at the same time.
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05-Jan-2015 17:15:10 - Last edited on 05-Jan-2015 17:16:13 by Serene End

Jul

2020

Serene End

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He began to hear himself thinking, "Where am I? Is this the end for me? Why can't I return? Why can't I just die?" So many parts of him demanding his attention, beckoning for his approval and action like a helpless campaign. He heard more, this time it truly was himself asking if it could end, hoping it could only end. His rational thoughts drowning under thousands of others, feeling as it spanned an eternity.

But then he began to feel again, the blackness disappearing as suddenly as it came on. His eyes cracked open, feeling the weight of his world and body again. He found himself laying flat upon a hard, smooth surface. His blurry vision quickly refocused, gazing upon his pale skinned hand laying upon an earth of what looked like cracked adamas.

He began to assess the situation, trying to remember what exactly happened. His mind then played images of his falling into the whirlpool, but then what? His spirit seemed almost lifted, like multiple of the tons of burden upon him had been taken off of his shoulders. Yet still, he felt utterly brought down, damning his mind which seemingly tricked him with the father that he so longed to be returned to him. But what of the things Divus said, his final words? Did Raphael's mind just make those up too?

Regardless, Raphael found himself laying on the ground. His body felt forced down somewhat, heavier than usual. His eyes scanning his surroundings around, finding himself in an unknown space. It was so surreal, so fantastic, his environment straight from a majestic dream... He heard the grumbles of pain from his allies around him, all of them standing up.

Raphael then began to pick his body up, planting his hands flat against the ground, digging his knees. But as soon as his hands even so much as touched the ground, the adamas cracked like thin, frail ice. His eyes peering down inside the semi-transparent adamas, seeing a steady creek of glowing, yellow liquid just under him.
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05-Jan-2015 17:17:51

Jul

2020

Serene End

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It flowed to his north, in which his eyes turned to with intrigue. It was the first real time his eyes got a good look of his surroundings, causing his body to stand up. His ears hearing as the adamas crackled under his feet, causing him to become slow, reluctant on his rise. But once he got a good, steady stance, his eyes looked onward. What laid before him took his breath away, even in his state.

They were encircled by a sublime, extravagantly crafted city made entirely of adamas, and far off from them was a large castle of crystal. The sky a vivid dark blue, but an ethereal stream of infinite pinks and purples divided the sky in half. An overwhelmingly stunning milky way that bent and veered, its body standing abreast thousands upon thousands of other stars that brightly dazzled, making this night sky seem glowing.

To their view, this milky way looked as though it headed into the very top of the castle, which looked like a steeple. To the very north hung a small moon, and just behind them was a much larger planet that graced the sky. The group's immediate surrounding were almost just as alluring to the eyes, founding themselves in a center of a once hustling city, a heart shaped like a oval.

Around this oval were many different, very jagged-shaped buildings made of adamas, all of their roofs coming up in a point. Their doors were made of a strange, wood-like surface, but it was like a pale red in color. At the side of each door hung what looked like a diamond-shaped lantern, and with each one housed nothing. Perhaps what was in there had faded away with the time.

There was an apparent mechanism about these doors, a string hooked up to a small bell at the top of the door. Most likely activated when the door was opened or closed, thus allowing the bell to ring. This might have been due to bells in Solasúian belief, being that they signal Utopia. Coming home to your family, what else could possibly be closer to a utopia than that?
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05-Jan-2015 17:19:16

Jul

2020

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There were no windows in these buildings, just the door. The body of each house was adorned with many different carvings and decorations, all varying in skill level. Some of them looked like children's drawings, but then there were many that were more on an expert or even master level of crafts. Visages or full body images of men and women in power, among a variety of other popular Solasúian symbols, were etched into the buildings, displaying the very devoted attitude of the Solasúian race.

But these walls were faded and injured deeply, falling apart even. Some walls and roofs had collapsed, succumbing to the ever-pacing disease called time. In front of some of these buildings were stall-like structures, they were made of that weird wood-like material. But their shelves were bare, just like the rest of the buildings.

In the center of the oval was a large statue, facing south. Off to its left and right were rectangular stretches of nature, one for each side. They both went from one side of the area to the other, their bodies made up of soil. They were allotments of sorts, their edges made of hexagon-shaped adamas pieces mended together, all smoothed out.

Inside those rectangular gardening plots were those glowing root-like trees, looking like a twister made of roots. They all shimmered a brilliant golden aura, attracting those eternal sunflies to them. Those small, flying, ever-glowing orbs floated to those tangled roots, calling them home. At the feet of each and every single one of those wildly spiraled-up trees were flowers, each glowing vibrant in their own way, bringing a striking, eye-catching shade of color.

But there, standing in the heart of the center of this large, inviting city was a adamas statue. The statue was tall, would even stand several feet above Soter's head. It was battered and bruised, it had to have taken a beating somewhere along its life.
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05-Jan-2015 17:21:45

Jul

2020

Serene End

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The statue's appearance looked like a very strange, alien-like being. It was humanoid in shape, complete with a head, torso, two arms and legs, hands but no feet. The skin on its arms and legs were entwined around those limbs in a twisted fashion, its fingers long and ended like claws. It had long, thin tendrils coming out from the sides of its arms, legs, even from its back. Two thin, craggy horns stood up from its head, at the end of its brow.

However, its face couldn't be made out, literally incapable of being described. A large, X-shaped cut carved with ire into the statue's face. Its torso as well, nothing could be made out. This statue was defamed, defaced, having been angrily, menacingly, hatefully etched out, standing now like a faceless, near torsoless being. It felt almost like a denial, ridding of a dependence, severing the ties that bind.

But that bound was anyone's guess, the identity of whoever or whatever this being was was a mystery. After all, Solasúian belief was well guarded unless you were Solasúian yourself, and sadly, the people with Raphael weren't.

The statue looked to have wings on its back, but they were broken in half. Its left arm had been raised up, but that too was broken off. Its severed arm laid below him, the being lacking feet. Clenched in that hand was a bell of some kind, left silent. Both the being's broken wings and chopped off arm laid there, quietly ruined by a horrible vandal.

Three feet around the statue was the blue grass of this plane and wonderful flowers, all coming in a variety of colors and appearances. Overall, the city's appearance was crumbling, ruined, aging, as nature slowly took it back. Their faces melted with astonishment, their eyes zooming from one place to another, even the unfazed Raphael was stunned.
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05-Jan-2015 17:23:49

Jul

2020

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They all simply couldn't help themselves, gawking at the sights. But now was not the time for such trivialities, to forget themselves. The situation they were forced into was still very much alive, and there was no time for this. They had to close their jaws, recompile their thoughts, regather themselves...

Hearing the gentle splashing and flowing of the liquid beneath their feet, the group had to make the effort to recompose themselves. Shinon looked all around, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, so..." he said, trying to break the flabbergasted silence. "Where in the hell are we?"

"Solasúila," a familiar, stern voice then answered, everyone turning to the source of that voice. It was Soter, envoy of the Elder Gods. His armoured body stepping over to the group, who stood just a few feet before the statue.

Telvern's body just stood still, looking at the statue in the center. His mind was ravaged with curiosity, interest in this figure. His hand reached out, drawn to the statue. But the very second his touch made contact with the adamas, it became to crack like faulty glass. His hand immediately retracted, his eyes watching as the crack ran up the statue's leg.

The genius was startled, bewildered, taken back by the adamas' reaction to even the slightest touch he made. This truly did leave him quite intrigued, but his ears heard Soter speak a name he had vaguely heard throughout his life, a name he thought belonged only to something in fairy tale. "You mean the fabled homeworld of the Solasúians?" he was quick to ask, trying to verify, lifting with an eyebrow.

"Yes,"

Calvin looked up at the starry sky, its enchanting, mystifying beauty reflecting off of his pale blue eyes. "So, dis is yer home, eh...?" he muttered quietly. "Yeah, I can see why ya left dis place wit' such sorrow."

Soter stepped passed the group, showing his back to them. "Let us go," he said, walking away. "We mustn't keep the masters waiting anymore."
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05-Jan-2015 17:25:18

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