We took our sweet time in writing out this message, but you all deserve a prompt response and a plan for the future. For the time being, our work here will have to be put on the back-burner. A big part of our members are on hiatuses right now, and due to an all-around decreased activity in the rpc ( thank you, miss ‘rona ! ) we simply cannot ensure the number of taken roles necessary to keep this going. It goes without saying, but this was never intended to be a small rp. It was lovely to write in this dynamic, which ultimately permitted such fantastic characters to be developed, and such subverting takes on their interpretations — we honestly can’t believe we’ll be able to read something about greek mythology anytime soon without seeing y’all’s muses. But the restrained outline simply cannot continue long-term and still remain entertaining for everyone involved. As it is, we would need far more characters essential to the plot to be thrown in. In order to do justice to the individual stories of your muses, formidable to the last one, as well as the magnitude of our plot overall, we need to await better times & clearer skies to relaunch this.
Because we do plan to reopen again in the following months. Certainly, we’ll give iliads a lil’ rebranding, and clear out some aspects that might do wonders in terms of clarity and accessibility to the general players, out of whom not all are versed in the chaotic intricacies of greek history. At the same time, we plan to extend the character limit per writer, and release all the skeletons at once. These are all things we couldn’t have known before we started. We developed this along with you, as we went, and we cannot thank you enough for the help. As they say, hindsight is 2020. Most of all, the fact that you chose to devote your time to this group ( in such uncertain, nerve-wracking circumstances, as the world literally transforms ) is just... truly something else, folx. We’re gonna put a damper on the words of gratitude now, bc else we’d never stop. So, with everything being said — please, throw us an IM or a discord message if you’d like to be notified once we start preparing to relaunch.
hello! i was wondering if this group only allows applications from published skeleteons? or can we apply as a figure from mythology and fill out the application as it is? thank you in advance!
Hey and thank you for your interest ! Because a lot of our published skeletons are very important to the plot, as of right now we would like them to get taken up before considering accepting OCs.
Please turn in your account within 24 hours & read the checklist here.
i. rhi as NYX
— while both applications were excellent, rhi, yours was dripping with luminous prose that captured nyx’s dark and effortless command and her primordial power. "careful now, young thing. when you look into the night sky you only have one god to fear if you see her looking back.” nyx has officially emerged from the shadows and we can’t wait to see what she does!
There is a low rumbling heard in the air, as if some kind of reckoning is to come—yet no natural cause can be attributed towards this deathly knell, this portentous war-cry that deafens the ears of all those who would hear it. Instead, it is the union of many human voices joined as one, so loud as to become a beast in its own right, hungry for some kind of reckoning, baying for blood to be spilt on the granite-coloured sands of the arena. An unholy shrieking fills the scene: every pummel and blow is met with cheer upon cheer, as violence holds the holy rule of the day. From opposite rows of the sidelines, they all strain to see fist pound into flesh, bruise blossom and swell, skin tainted black and blue in proof of their dedication towards the Spartan prized bride-to-be. The day started with the shrieking of the birds, an unholy cawing waking all those still caught by the spell of Hypnos. But even before this early hour, some eager participants were already sparring in the arena, trying to measure up against each other one last time before matters come to head.
In this window of time, limbs alight with sweat and brows knitted in furor,THESEUS crosses ACHILLES while still on the practice grounds: at first, their exchange is mostly verbal, sniping words meant to get under each other’s skin. It was only meant as that, but then it comes to a breaking point: exile stands against prince in a way that makes clear their intent to face off—but in the nick of time, MACHEON intercedes, breaking them apart and making sure that all injuries are to be sustained only within the confines of the competition proper.
For Tyndareus had, in his prudence, declared that this is to be a test of pure physical prowess: no swords, no shields, no armour with which to defend oneself with. Instead, this is bare flesh colliding with bare flesh, almost as if the hands of men are less destructive when deprived of a sword. But whatever hopes for minimal violence are dashed quickly as soon as the bell signalling the start resounds. Almost immediately, assigned pairs descend against one another as if themselves possessed by some malefic spirit.
The first notable match-up is announced to be between PARIS and MENELAUS, met with the enraptured screeching of the crowd, transformed into voyeurs of pain in this spectacle of sheer & unmitigated strength. Held in a fierce elbow-grip, the Trojan relents. He steps away on his own two feet from the arena, scalded in light injuries, but not before attempting to shake the other's forearm, as is the wont of proper sportsmanship after a loss — and being refused. Breathlessly, the Atreide Prince moves on to MACHEON, who is also rammed into the ground, though, to everyone's suprise, after a rougher resistance than that of Paris.
Elsewhere, AENEAS and ACHILLES are fighting, and a proverbial sigh washes through the Mycenaean rows of spectators at the announcement. ALmost uniformly, they seem to be reeling with relief that the Thessalian's first match was not the one he nearly came to blows with.
From Sparta, though bearing the colors of the Amazons, no mistaking who she's really there to represent, it is PENTHESILEA who wrestles THESEUS first, and she is defeated by a whole-body tackle from the Athenian, skidding over the rough sand. Bull-like, onlookers whisper, their palms taught over their mouths. He has become what he bested.
In the end, three contenders remain. Two names are already familiar in everyone's mouths; they taste like stupefaction, they taste like legends taking flesh. Theseus, Achilles. This time, it is rounded by a third: Menelaus, brother to the man who would be High-King.
Wrapping up the second contest in the betrothal competition, we would like to thank everyone for participating and giving us the chance to see such fantastic dyanmics ! The winning faction is SPARTA, and the individual victors are THESEUS, ACHILLES & MENELAUS. As per our point page, Sparta is now owed a due SECOND REWARD, namely the CALL TO ARMS. We would ask members to please discuss, vote, and debate in their faction channel which mythological character they would like to request to be released. This can be a role a member likes to play, someone they would like as a connection, or even someone that might help them in the conflicts to come.
hello ! how often do y’all accept? i’m really interested in applying for a second batch character but i won’t have the time for the app
Hello! After the batch acceptance for the second batch of skeletons happening at 2 PM EST, we’ll be doing rolling acceptances for all skeletons - so whenever all the admins are online to accept! But if you get a reserve in before 2 PM EST, we won’t accept for the skeleton until the reserve is up or until you turn in your application!
Hello to members and tag lurkers! This is just a quick reminder that acceptances for Batch 2 (Thetis, Eris, Nyx, Khrysea, Demeter, Hercules, Ajax, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Harmonia, Castor, Pollux, and Leto) will be held on April 22nd at 2 PM EST! We hope to see your application for any of newer skeletons soon!
Also, to our members: please be sure to finish tallying your points by midnight EST tonight for them to be counted! You can post the count on your blog or on the respective Discord faction channel.
I’m confused by the spartan families fcs. His suggestions are men of color but helen and clytemnastra are half white and castor and pollux don’t match?
This is because the siblings have different fathers. Leda, who is an NPC, was cast as Filipino. Her children, namely Helen ( fathered by Zeus ) and the half-siblings Clytemnestra, Castor & Pollux ( supposedly fathered by Tyndareus, but rumored otherwise ) are at least 1/2 filipino. The parentage of the “mortal” princes is subject of much debate, and will have quite a significant relevance plot-wise. This being said, we only suggested fcs that respect the 1/2 filipino rule, as this is the only lineage they have in common. Hope this answers your concerns !
this looks beautiful! do you possibly have a few more fc suggestions for castor and or pollux ?
Thank you for your interest, lovely ! Due to Castor & Pollux being related to Helen and Clytemnestra, they would have to be at least ½ filipino on their mother’s side. This being said, we can suggest alt FCs such as James Reid, Xian Lin, Steven R. McQueen or Michael Copon.
Hello everyone, members as well as tag lurkers ! You might have noticed we've released the entirety of the second batch — which means we are ready to set an acceptance date ! We have agreed upon a hard acceptance date for all second batch skeletons, after which we will continue to carry acceptances on a rolling basis for the remaining open roles after this date. That being said, acceptances for the second batch of characters ( Thetis, Eris, Nyx, Khrysea, Demeter, Hercules, Ajax, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Harmonia, Castor, Pollux, and Leto ) will be held on 4/22.
— FACE : freida pinto, aishwarya rai, olivia munn.
Your downfall was a glance — not by naive blindness, but by choice. From a lineage of women, of small Goddesses and woodland nymphs, Zeus had laid eyes upon your body. His hands drew out your soul. Even then, the torment it would entail was all too clear; you knew what to expect, the disdain spewed by older Olympians, ancient in a newborn age, the uncessing persecution. Hera's Great Hunt. The corners of the earth closing in on you. You knew Zeus would never cast his wife aside, for she was more than consort to him, but pillar of judgement too, cunning advisor. You understood the terms of this bargain, though they were never spoken into fact: the King of Gods is not one to indulge clarity. By walking into his arms, you would melt your name into his, render yourself casualty, appendage, a footnote to this encompassing tale which spins even today. You did it nonetheless — you bit. Your vestments fell to the floor. Disrobed, core burning, you yielded to a God. This is what gained you immortality, this is what made you holy: the courage to submit. And it was in this you reaped the greatest joy, the birth of your children, Artemis & Apollo. The twins that harness the sky, the twins that carved their deeds into the soft skin of cosmos.
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.
✹ APOLLO — Since the moment of his birth, upon a bloodied shrine of barren rocks, on a land deserted save for your screams, you felt his nature. He is exalatation & pain, he is abasemenet, adoration, dies irae trapped in a single soul. Mortals think Zeus defines you, but they are in grave error: only a part of him does. His son. And with the oncoming war, deeper layers of that nature are revealed to you. How can tell him that vengeance was never his inheritance, never your sign, but Hera's vicious mark ?
✹ POSEIDON — To this day, Gods and mankind both believe it was Zeus who took pity on his lover, and stopped Hera from banishing you in travail. You'd be quite surprised if Zeus was even aware it was happening. Instead, his brother interceded, a lighting rod before Hera's rage. It was he who spirited you to Delos, far into his domain, and granted safe passage to your children, no more than soul-splinters in your womb at the time. Such a debt is never incurred; if they asked, you would follow them to earth's ends once again.
✹ ANDROMACHE — Save for the acts you dedicate on behalf of your twins, your presence in Olympus in scarce, dwindled to the steady flicker of a distant star. But more and more in recent years, women have started to dedicate their prayers, their oblations to you, chanting your name over Athena or Aphrodite. Perhaps it is their desparation that imbues you with power. Perhaps it is their deep knowledge of what really occurred all those centuries ago, insight which surpasses even the priests'. Whatever its cause, this daughter of Thebes is such a woman, and she has set your eyes upon her plight.
will there be points for answering memes, or completing threads?
There won’t be points for answering memes, with the exception of taking a meme prompt to write a self-para or a starter meme to make a starter, which of course will earn 10 points as per regularly ! As for completing threads, though we are happy to see our players conclude stuff and move forward with their plotlines, we know many threads never get concluded despite plot advancement and so we will not count that in.
— FACE : bob morley, charles michael davis, manny jacinto.
While the fates of you & your twin are illustrious, plainly written for the heavens and already ringing with the chorus of triumph, they are still occluded to you both. The full extent of your purpose, of what you will be called to do, is still a silhoutte in the treeline. Among mortals, you are strewn aside for reasons left unsaid. You've taken it in stride, in a manner similar to that of your true sister, resorting to velvet whispers and the politics of the court rather than demanding respect yet unearned; reverence that could not hold a rotten candle to the one received by your other sibling. Yet can anyone ascribe Helen anything earned ? Out of Tyndareus' lineage, only Clytemnestra and Castor will ever forge their own name. But while Castor designs his little acts out of ambition, out of ardent desire to further his reach, you do it because it is fun ; because you are good at it. Your machinations are effortless, and you look beyond this contest, this show of golden fools, beyond Sparta — such idle curiosities are best left to the short-sighted and the desperate. Beware the spider that bites out of whimsy rather than self-preservation or hunger, for this is the venom that kills.
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.
✹ CASTOR — Your life at court is defined by the grapevine, by splinters of rumour that you and Castor are both illegitimate. Something more than love-children, less than acknowledged, you are seen as open-ended questions to the dilemma Leda once was — do we call a God's paramour holy, or harlot ? Throughout it, your brother kept bitterness at bay, and lent you delight instead. You work in the same tandem of chaos: pranks, ruses, hordes of gossip of your own. There is not a soul in Sparta that is not subjected to your web of knowledge, laying in wait for when the moment ripens, and the target comes under.
✹ CASSANDRA — This princess, this emblem, more fable than fact. Perhaps it is this aura of rumor that did you in; what started as a professional challenge, an natural itch to learn more things about her, unravel myth from truth, turned into a quest for something much greater. You must approach her: you have to let her know. She possesses your thoughts, besieges your waking hours, and how can it not be so ? In a world where women raise hell to become legends, she was already made one without a single word.
✹ HEPHAESTUS — You have an eye for lost things, hints that stir in the shadows. And you are adept at wielding them, too, these vengeful souls, mind brimming with plans of retribution, veins alight with repressed power. The Burnt God always seemed like a useful patron: a knack for building matters up as well as grinding them down, ruining them on a whim. Their grudge against Aphrodite is only an afterthought to you, a secondary element. Their plans for your sister' marriage, however, need to be closely observed.
— FACE : bob morley, charles michael davis, manny jacinto.
Ever since you can remember, they called you star-bound and glory-fated; your destiny was writ out in the heavens in a way that stood apart from the others—and it is a fate that you have come to call home. Betwixt cunning tongue and clever wit, you played at the ambitions of your father in an effort to bolster your own station in the Spartan court, where you played your little games with your brother. Soon, this too became stale, and so the world in its entirety becomes the setting of your inevitable ascent. Every turning of page in the story of your years shall weave a greater narrative. What better way to rise above your station than this moot for your fair sister's hand ? From the rooftop gardens of the palace, built by that same man who would call himself your royal father, you can survey all the kings of the world and their vast schemes; you can stand joyous sentinel to their designs. The world is so much clearer at such dizzying heights, and there is nothing that isn't shown to you. The only question left is: how high can you go ?
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒.
✹ POLLUX — There is nothing that can come between two people who have the same memories. It's not a meager share, nothing fairweather about it— you are forged from the same alloy, laid unto the same anvil. All along, you weathered the same obstacles, the slithering rumors that you are both bastard-born; one more testimony to Leda's straying. You sharpened your ends to the same goal. But there comes a passage you cannot both thread. And from the way your brother's eyes flit towards Cassandra, that passage is nearer with each passing day, looming on the horizon of your fates.
✹ AJAX — You catch him on the fringes of your view and the world falls dead. It's like the air itself moves through a bellows, becoming at once heated & heavier, until every remnant of judgement is expunged from you. The fact that he is a man matters very litte; the only ones more free in pleasure than Sparta must be the Sumerians. The fact that he is a soldier, and under Agamemnon's thrall... now, that might have the faint ring of a mistake.
✹ HEPHAESTUS — Your brother said they have some consortium together, a plan neither of them tied the ends of, but that shall soon come to fruition with the marriage contests. Truth is, it could be anything from coup to boyhood ruse, and in any other circumstances it's a chance you'd take. For what defines the Spartan twins, if not wiles & trickery ? But you have never been as trigger-happy as Pollux to jump into nebulous things; and you are far, far less indulgent with the dice games of dishonored Gods.
