Qara

Description

The Isle of Qara is a floating landmass in the sky. There is one big island, the Capital of sorts, and several smaller islands connected by rope bridges. If one were to look at the edges of the islands, they'd find that they fit like one big puzzle. The offshoot islands all used to be connected to the main island. The separation of these islands will be covered in the history section below. The main island, however, is where the Council resides. In the center of the island there grows a large tree with a door. This is the Council's home and meeting place, the temple. Extending from the main island is a long dirt path, ending with a circle of rocks. This is the dock, where all portals to and from the island appear. Inside of the island itself is a maze of ancient tunnels. These tunnels are usually empty, but the occasional creature will make a home inside. The tunnels get darker the deeper you go in, so bring a torch or two when planning your next tunnel adventure!

The average lifespan of a Qaran Changeling is 1,000 years, having much larger gaps between generations. One can live for several hundred years before even thinking about starting a family. This led the Changelings to living full lives, having plenty of time to do whatever they want, and to live out their dreams.

Culture

Qara's culture is a messy one, it takes and adopts bits and peices of every culture it comes across, which is a lot considering the portals they often use to get to other worlds. Qara is a merchant island, many of it's residents make wares and sell them off world. As such, when the portals stopped working, the market suffered greatly. Many clients were lost and trade deals cut off. Food supplies became limited, the people were suffering. That is part of the reason Henry let some people venture down to the surface below. He was hoping they could bring some food and supplies back with them.

On the Isle of Qara, animals are respected greatly. Most of the residents are not vegetarian, but they will only buy meats from trusted sources to be sure they are not eating fellow Qarans by accident. Any animal found on the street is typically treated with the respect one would have for another human. After all, you never know when that stray dog is actually your boss, or something rediculous like that.

Qarans are typically very kind and respectful, but every nation has it's minorities. In Qara, the biggest one is twins. After the rampages of both Ember and Riptide, Henry made an elective decision to cast out all twins thereafter. For every set of twins born, one would be good and one evil. The twins would be indestinguishable for the first several years of life and often wouldn't show signs of either alignment until it was far too late. As such, Henry would send River to drop each pair off at randomly selected orphages on other planets across the universe. Qaran twins are born with a mental connection unlike any other. They can communicate directly in each other's minds. It is impossible to completely sever this connection, even if the twins are separated and forget one another. Even if they can no longer speak to one another, they can still feel each other's strong emotions. A large spike of emotion can even reconnect a pair of semi-severed twins.

Not much magic can be learned on the Isle of Qara, but anyone who travells off-world can learn magic wherever they go. Examples of this are seen through numerous characters from Qara's history.

History

At first there was only Henry, God of Creation. Henry was lonely. So he created a world. An island. And he put people on it. His very own island of Changelings. With a tree in the center, a temple for him to reside within. But he got lonely in his godhood. And what's the point if there's only creation?

So he made himself some Demigods. Amber, Born of Preservation. And her twin, Ember, Born of Destruction. Being born of Destruction, Ember went on a rampage. She destroyed many homes, including the temple. However, Henry and Amber were able to calm her down. And so the Council was born. A council of three. Following this rampage, Henry needed someone to help his people rebuild.

So he created another Demigod. Another child. Forest, Born of Growth. Now his world could grow and expand! But with Growth came dispute. The people argued over land and resources.

So he made another Demigod. River, Born of Peace. But there cannot be Peace without Chaos. So another was created. But not by Henry. Riptide, Born of Chaos. Riptide tore a hole in reality and created himself. Being born of Chaos, Riptide went on a rampage, just as Ember had so long ago. Riptide caused the island to break into pieces. The damage was irreversible, so Henry and River were forced to cast him out. With Riptide gone, the islands were peacful once more.

For centuries, this peace lasted. But now, something is messing with the portals. The portals are no longer contained to the dock like they're supposed to be. And sometiems the spit random people ont the islands. Occasionally, they pull people out, too. The Council works day and night to fix the portals. But nothing seems to be working. And that is how we got to here and now.

Here and now, of course, referring to when the Qara rp takes place. Which is still in the past. The rest of Qara's history is spoilers, so here's your spoiler warning for the rest of this page. You have been warned. Enjoy!

Present

When River helped to cast out Riptide, she left him with a parting gift. A Portal Ring with the ability to teleport anywhere except Qara. She wanted her twin to have as much freedom as possible, even if he could never return. Unfortunately, Riptide abused this power. Any time he sensed River drop a pair of twins on another world, he would pick them up before the chosen orphanage ever could. He took these pairs of twins back to the place he fell. A crater in the middle of South Africa. For Henry's biggest secret is that Qara is not his own world. It is his own island on someone else's world, Earth. In South Africa, Riptide built a town called Vredefort and filled it with the twins he gathered. To conceal himself, he changed his name to Piterdi. Prince Piterdi, to be exact. As the town's prince, he built his little army up and awaited the day he could return to Qara.

Eventually, the day came. Henry let a few people come down to the surface to investigate. This small crew of misfits landed outside Vredefort and travelled into town. The people directed this group over to the biggest buiding in town square, the Prince's "Palace". Inside te palace, they meet this prince, who, if you haven't guessed by now, is Riptide in disguise. Holding one of the misfits, Ruby, with a knife to the throat, he forces the whole gang to take him back to Qara on their flying machine. When they get back, there's a big argument between Henry and Riptide, but in the end, Henry lets him stay.

Future

Qara enters the most peaceful age it's had since it's creation, with the complete Council now living on the island. Turns out, Riptide was the one messing with the portals, so when he was allowed to stay, he fixed them. No longer needing his Portal Ring either, he gave it to Ruby as an apology. Ruby, sixteen at the time, set out on an adventure across several worlds and universes for around seven hundred years. In this time, nothing of note happened on the Isle.

Ruby travelled across the known universe for hundreds of years, having countless adventures, meeting countless people, and making countless friends and enemies along the way. One such friend taught her illusion magic and sent her on a quest to get the Dragon's Eye Scythe from a corrupt king. With her new weapon in hand, she travelled the worlds and gained the title "Crimson Reaper" for the demonic scythe she carried and the flashy red cloak she wore.

While out in this adventure phase of her life, Ruby met a man named Einar Heroux, and fell in love with him. The duo were meant to be, but unfortunately, he had enemies too. They lived on the run together for a hundred years, before Ruby became pregnant with twins. Einar didn't want the love of his life in danger so they settled down on a forest planet in the middle of nowhere. For years, they lived uninterrupted, undisturbed. But eventually, their past caught up to them. While Einar was away one day, his enemies discovered Ruby alone in the home, several months pregnant. Looking for revenge on Einar, they were going to kill her. Luckily, she wasn't going down that easily. With her trusty scythe in one hand, and Portal Ring in the other, she prepared herself for the onslaught.

She fought hard to defend her home, but in the end, it wasn't enough. She had to use the Portal Ring to teleport away at the last second. The only place she could think to go, was home. She opened a portal to Qara and dashed through it quickly. Unfortunately, a few enemies got through too. And these were no regular enemies. These were demigods. They rampaged Qara, ending the seven hundred years of peace and plunging the island into chaos. Riptide couldn't contain the chaos and lost control, Ember couldn't contain the destruction, losing control as well. River's peace was shattered, and Amber's preservation kicked into full gear. Amber accidentally preserved herself and nothing else, trapping herself in a magical coma inducing pod of amber. Without her and her siblings, Henry and Forest could not keep up. In the end, they ended up dying too.

With Henry's final breath, he gave his godlike powers to Ruby, hoping she could provide a better life for Amber once she woke up. With this new power, Ruby killed off the attackers and defended the sleeping demigod. Once the carnage was over, Ruby found her childhood home destroyed, along with the rest of the island and people. Through all this, however, Ruby was still pregnant. And about to give birth.

She gave birth to two beautiful baby girls, Daydream and Nightmare. With new responsibilities and nowhere to go, Ruby created the biggest illusion she'd ever made. She covered the entire island in trees and life again, bringing back all the people. Though only hollow illusions, the godly boost in power made them touchable, almost real. Eventually, Amber woke up again, she came out of her pod to find the world just how she'd left it, alive and well. Ruby raised her baby girls on that lie of an island for 18 years, when the two decided they wanted to become adventurers like their mother. Ruby gave them her ancient Portal Ring, sending them off on their adventures while she stayed on Qara, keeping the illusion alive for Amber.

Future, Part 2

Nightmare tried to make things work with Cres, but unlike their counterparts, the match just wasn’t quite made in heaven. Eventually they split and Nightmare seeks out her sister, trying to repair the damaged relationship while it even still existed. This leads Nightmare to adventure with Daydream and Mons across the worlds. They have many an adventure together, but eventually, the three of them settled down in Atheus, where Daydream and Mons have their first and only child, Qora.

For nearly 100 years, the three adventurers raised the kiddo together, ensuring they had a happy childhood, be it littered with battle and adventure or not. On the eve of their 100th birthday, Qora left home to forge a new path, but found it very difficult to live up to their parents’ names. While Qora was away, old enemies came back and attacked the trio of parental figures. Both Daydream and Nightmare ended up dead, while Mons simply disappeared. But the twins’ story doesn’t end here, silly. Iounn, the god of Fate and Prophecy took notice to the two mental mages and offered them a job. The Sisters became lesser known minor gods among the stars of Atheus, and “live” out the rest of their days watching over Qora and the rest of Atheus.