MOD POST: PLAYER POLL: FEAR ITSELF

[thoughts]

Hey guys! Yet another poll for the month of October, this one is pertaining to the plot event Fear Itself and will determine the nature of the event. This one has the potential to have some very big IC consequences, so I'm going to give you some more background information to think on before we get into the poll. To skip all of this and move straight to the poll, click here.

Since this matter deals entirely with Tyr, we're gonna go into his backstory and who exactly he is! Tyr was born in the Third Era of Yggdrasil, making him younger than Odin, Njord, Mimir, Skadi, and Heimdall, and roughly the same age as Frigg and Honir, though he is the oldest of the three. Due to his kind and loving nature, Tyr became the god of diplomacy and goodwill towards all beings. His biggest mission - and largely considered an impossible one by many of the other gods - was to try to foster a relationship between the gods and the Giants to stave off the constant warring. This overall failed with Thiazi and Surt, but the youngest Giant, Laufey, was much more receptive to his words of peace.

Over the next two thousand years, after Thiazi and Surt left to form their own kingdoms, Tyr and Laufey became lovers, leading Njord and Skadi to leave Asgard and form their own kingdom of Vanaheim out of vehement disapproval of the affair. A short thousand years after that, Laufey died giving birth to the Loki twins, but Tyr in his grief couldn't let her soul pass on and instead trapped it within a doll. This was the first time anyone had performed magic on a soul, let alone an immortal one, and is ultimately how Thiazi learned to capture the gods' souls to use their magic later on.

When Laufey's grief and madness broke free from the doll, she killed Tyr first and Thiazi took his soul captive while the other gods were busy fighting Laufey to stop her reign of destruction. His soul was held securely in a very fancy jar in Thiazi's throne room for roughly eighteen thousand and four-hundred years, laying dormant though his mind and spirit were left to rot and fester in the same grief and madness that tore apart his beloved. Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked, and Thiazi's plans of using all of the gods' souls at once at the height of Ragnarok was interrupted with the theft of Freyr's soul by the Travellers.

Out of anger, indignation, and sheer arrogance, Thiazi absorbed Tyr's soul to use his magic against Asgard and their "heroes". The marker of this event was The Turning of the Tides when the strength of Thiazi's magic was bolstered by the addition of Tyr's. However, the conflicting natures of the gods' magic vs. the Giants' has disastrous implications, as was showcased by Laufey's violent death and the prophecy of Ragnarok to begin with. Though Tyr's soul has granted Thiazi more magic, as seen with events like Sept. 2013's Bad Moon Rising and Nov. 2013's A House Divided, it has also fostered a destructive decay and madness in Thiazi that has left her unpredictable and unstable, as seen in March's Burning Bridges and July's Christmas In July. In her bid for more power, Thiazi is burning up on the inside.

Which brings us to now! Zero brought back the information the gods needed to be able to draw Tyr's soul back out of Thiazi, but they've waited before making their move because the Frost Queen will know immediately once the spell is performed and they'll need to move fast afterwards to prevent her from taking Tyr right back. The decision for what to do with his soul, however, is being given to the Travellers both in thanks for their assistance in recovering him and because this will have big implications in the war. We want to write endgame in accordance with your decisions, and this is one of those big ones that will factor heavily into which direction the game moves in. Please do take a minute to consider the options and ask if you have any questions!

With that in mind, here are some pros and cons for the available options!

option one: Put his soul to rest.

pros:

• His soul has been imprisoned for over eighteen thousand years after his violent demise. It may be well past time for his soul to move on.
• Thiazi would not be able to recapture his soul to be used as a weapon again.

cons:

• Asgard may lose the potential for one more ally in the war of Ragnarok.
• They may also be losing an incredibly unique opportunity to learn more about Thiazi from Tyr's intimate perspective.

option two: Resurrect him.

pros:

• He has lived beneath Thiazi's clutches and may have unique insight into her strengths, weaknesses, and future plans for the war.
• He may be one more ally in the war of Ragnarok.

cons:

• His soul has been left to decay and rotting for over eighteen thousand years, when Laufey's soul violently exploded with madness after less than a decade.
• He may want nothing to do with Asgard and its struggle to overcome Ragnarok.

option three: Utilise his soul to bolster the gods' magic.

pros:

• The addition of his magic may amplify the gods' abilities and give them an edge over the Giants.
• Their magics are compatible and it would not damage them from within.

cons:

• This would involve committing the same atrocious act that Thiazi has planned for the gods.
• The gods themselves may not look kindly upon the suggestion, and this may drive a wedge between their relationship with the Travellers.

Alright already, Faith, enough with the rambling. Give us our poll!

Poll #16012 well this is fucking depressing

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 79

View Respondents

What should the gods do with Tyr's newly recovered soul?

View Answers

Put his soul to rest.
27 (34.2%)

Resurrect him.
23 (29.1%)

Utilise his soul to bolster the gods' magic.
2 (2.5%)

Other. ( Please explain in the comments below! )
27 (34.2%)

Please remember to vote ICly and only vote once per character. The poll will be considered closed on Oct. 16 at 11:59PM CST to give you guys time to discuss it ICly on the NPC post. Let us know if you have any questions!

Comments

[damselled]

Ask him about his perspective on Thiazi, then put his soul to rest. He's suffered enough, but they may not be able to afford the risk of losing his knowledge.

[asgardmods]

They can't speak to him without resurrecting him first, so they'd have to bring him back and then kill him again to accomplish this. Even if he volunteers to die again, this would be a difficult thing for the gods to do to one of their own. They'll take every single suggestion into consideration, though!

[daistanbul]

Plus-one here, though I OOCLY (and Yusuf ICly) would be interested in asking Tyr (if possible) what he wants, whether it be leaving this plane or helping in the war effort before leaving this plane, or something else entirely.

[bythewaves]

plus two because... Mags is also aware that they may not be able to afford loosing the info that he has, but... he can sympathise with eternal torment and... he'd want Tyr to have the option once he's spoken to, to *rest*

[littlesurvivor]

Going with this. Because if they can't ask him what he wants to do without first resurrecting him that's apparently how it has to go and they can then get the info and/or then let him finally rest proper. So it is kind of a combo? But yeah. Clem would want to ask him what he'd like most of all.

also may have accidentally voted with another journal. :l go me. may have been 'protegere' with Sophie

[asgardsverse]

As a god who has died, had his soul (briefly) held in a jar by Thiazi, and was subsequently resurrected, Freyr would be happy to talk to anyone who might seek him out for this!

[samantha_grey]

Samantha actually... would like to speak to him about this. In point of fact, *goes to his inbox*

[bloodypocket]

Eyes would definitely like to speak to Freyr about this, so adding another dropping a message in his inbox... :')

MOD QUESTIONS

[asgardmods]

[hollowchild]

Is it possible to ask Tyr what he wants? Because that'd be Sophie's first IC question.

[ka_sera_sera]

will the npc post be going up before the poll closes? I'd like to know what Roland will know about the situation before I vote for him.

Also, not that this effects things, but I must have missed a few events, or maybe just gotten confused. Who's Zero, and when did they get Tyr's soul back? Also, if the gods haven't been talking about Tyr, would any of the travelers know who he was before the NPC post goes up telling them?

[asgardstricks]

Unlike Mister Fancypants, Loki wants fuckall to do with this discussion so obviously he will be on hand for rude remarks and general shit slinging!!

[damselled]

Loki needs to learn to express his feelings

[bonnypiperlad]

So would he actually say what he'd prefer if asked or just add in some extra rude remarks on general principles?

[izanyagi]

Loki do you need a protag social link

He'll hold your dad's soul in exchange for those great winter holiday cat shirts.

[mullets]

i say we take his soul

and move it somewhere else

[gwenhwyfar]

i like the way you think

[infomodder]

The NPC post set to go up on Day 525 about Tyr and his soul—will it contain the backstory you've just given us in this post, about his kind and loving nature and his thing with Mission Impossible and so forth and so on? If not, scrolling back through NPC posts/posts with NPCs, would it be possible to glean all of this information?

[thoughts]

It won't be available anywhere in previous conversations and it won't be in the library anywhere, since it was sort of mutually agreed that no one would ever talk about him or Laufey. Odin will be making the post on Day 525 and he won't give this information by default, but if someone asks about him, there are a few NPCs around that would tell them everything. I'm planning on having Honir do just that, because he loves Tyr like nobody's business. Haha But no, this information isn't easily available by default.

[izanyagi]

Okay, okay okay....this is probably just a stupid idea, and I have no idea if it is possible at all, but because I love heroic stuff and Souji is the dumb type of protag hero;

Is it possible for him to offer his body to house Tyr's soul for a while so that they'd be able not only to speak to him properly, but also be able to hold him back should the entire situation turn sour? Tyr could have someone who is not power hungry and trying to help him and also see his son,

Resurrect him in full if they manage to keep him sane after that and it looks like he's not coucou, and worse off, they can just kill off the body. Souji's died once before, and he knows he'd be back.

Now to post this before I think it's too stupid

[thoughts]

That is actually a super cool idea that I really, really like! It would, however, require another trip back to Mimisbrunnr to ask how to accomplish something like that, because the gods can't put someone's soul in another person's body to their knowledge. If enough people vote for this option, we can discuss how to work that into the plot. But it's a really awesome suggestion, thank you for thinking so creatively about it!

OTHER

[izanyagi]

As seen here Souji would volunteer to house Tyr's soul in himself however temporary so that thye are able to talk with him.

That way they can talk with him, he can be with a soul that isn't trying to use him (and would gladly share happy memories with him) and also if it all goes sour, they can just kill him.

[damselled]

Maribelle thinks Souji's an idiot, but... if Tyr agrees, she thinks it could work.

[gwenhwyfar]

gonna sit in the unpopular corner and use his soul for magic

because regina is not a very kind person sometimes :')

[allpurposescarf]

Putting this here so as not to clutter up one thread with unnecessary comments. While Four would definitely prefer letting Tyr decide what he wants to do (possibly by putting his soul somewhere else if possible) if that turns out to not be possible, he'd probably eventually fall on the side of letting him rest. Even it means losing out on the potential information.

[pushesgently]

I voted "put his soul to rest" but I'd be cool with Souji's plan over the other two options.

[wasbrave]

Voted "put his soul to rest" but now that I'm seeing Souji's idea that's completely insane and also excellent. IC vote is IC vote but she'd be fine with it more than the other things.

[zen_en_vert]

Bruce and Quentin are both game for Souji's plan!

[realmenknitplushies]

Kanji voted "just resurrect." Sorry, guys. He can't ask anyone to die. That said, he'd be cooler with Operation Dumb Protagonist Soul Host than just killing Tyr straight off, though if Souji tries to step up to doing it he'll probably try and take his place...

[runtothesunlight]

awww Kanji

/smothers him with kittens and bunnies