Dancing fireflies: triggers made manifest
Fireflies came to Avalon in the last decade of the 15th century, imported from one of the holy isles by a fishermen happening on Pharos - the once-sacred isle of Ophelia, goddess of love - entranced by the unusual glimmering lights in the wooded coves, making landing and discovering colonies of these wonderful creatures quite willing to be transported in jars back to the mainland. The fireflies fetched a high price, especially as adornments in aristocratic gardens. The first species of these flying beetles gave off a green bioluminescence but after a gift was made to Astrea, the first goddess, loosed in her orchards and fed on enchanted fruit, a new breed of red fireflies soon thrived.
These red fireflies or "mage beetles" were so distinct they proved long-lived - 25 Avalon years on average - but outside of the divine orchards, they did not breed. Instead something of the benevolence natural to the little creatures came to fruition and the red dancing fireflies began a communion with individuals to whom they bonded, circling and following overhead ever ready to be instructed by their owner. Larger numbers of fireflies absorbed more instructions making them more and more useful until some of the realm's most respected pioneers and deadly fighters grew to consider a cloud of personal fireflies one of the necessary and oft-times life saving companions.
THE CORE FIREFLY COMMANDS
Syntax: FIREFLY (or FY) AFFLICTIONS.
Lists all afflictions, conditions or ailments that the dancing fireflies are able to train their sights upon. Each firefly is able to sight down one.
Syntax: FIREFLY (or FY) DEFENCES.
Lists any defences that the fireflies are able to look out for. The specific defence or countermeasure must be currently active on your DEFENCES list in order to direct the fireflies to memorise it. This means if you type FY DEFENCES when you have fifty listed in DEFENCES the fireflies can be instructed to keep up most of these but if you have only ten listed, the instructions will be limited by just the ten.
Syntax: FIREFLIES or FY on its own.
Informs you of any fireflies dancing about overhead (of your ownership) and what, if any, instructions they hold - what afflictions they target to heal and what defences they focus on restoring.
Syntax: FY <affliction> or FY NOT <affliction>.
Directs a firefly to memorise the specified affliction. Each firefly is able to "bond" itself to one only, and when this bonding is in place, the firefly can be used in FY TRIGGER (see below) to bring about one of numerous possible instant reactions when you are affected by whatever it is looking out for.
Syntax: FY <defence> or FY NOT <defence>.
Commands a firefly to bear in mind the specified defence or countermeasure. The firefly will be able to memorise anything currently active on your DEFENCES list and once the defence is set in its mind, it will keep that defence up for you whenever it is taken from you.
NOTE: you can have as many firefly instructions (afflictions or defences or ongoing states) as there are fireflies overhead. So if you have 20 fireflies, you get at most 20 afflictions and defences maximum.
Syntax: FY SUMMON.
Summons all your loyal fireflies to you in one fell swoop if they have been lost or separated from you in some manner.
NOTE: fireflies cannot be killed nor can they be separated from you for any length of time as you will find FY SUMMON works over all distances, including inter-continent or across planes of existence. Fireflies do not abandon their owner.
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#** NOT YET USABLE UNLESS YOU HAVE AVALON TRIGGERS SETUP:
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#*Syntax: FY TRIGGER <firefly> <trigger/HEAL/UNHEAL/UP/DOWN/ACT> [<action specifics>].
#This is the signature ability of the dancing fireflies and is used to bring about various instantaneous or immediate reactions to the criteria you specify. These "triggers" are activated by Avalon and can never be lost. They will never be confused by text in the game changing. They in many cases cannot be tricked and most importantly they are not subject to or affected by ANY lag.
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#ACT will take any text inputted after the "FY TRIGGER <firefly>" and turn it into a trigger with the response as determined by any text you input AFTER the "ACT"
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#*For example: FY TRIGGER You are most welcome to the land of Avalon ACT CCC Hello!
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#The above example here would direct a firefly to respond to the "You are most welcome to the land of Avalon" text and in return say hello on your city channel. The possibilities here are virtually limitless and indeed the power of the fireflies lies in their near-infinite capability to react in thousands of possible ways, instantly and flexibly to suit the preference of their master.
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#HEAL will instruct the firefly specified to attempt to automatically remove the associated affliction or ailment that it has been charged with "handling" as soon as you are affected by it.
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#UNHEAL will command the firefly specified to attempt to automatically restored the associated affliction or ailment stored in its memory whenever it is removed.
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#UP will ensure the specified firefly attempts to automatically replace a defence it has been directed to bear in mind - instantly restoring it whenever it has been lost.
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#DOWN will do the reverse of UP and purge an unwanted defence or countermeasure instantly, providing the firefly has it in its sights.
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WHERE DO FIREFLIES COME FROM?
Fireflies can be purchased individually from the old curiosity shop at cost no more than a subscription or in jars containing a hundred fireflies to cover all one's possible needs. Firefly lifespan of 25 Avalon years is the equivalent of 1 RL year.
Fireflies are naturally obtained in Avalon on special character birthdays, by performing certain quests, when encountering for the first time dozens of keynote experiences, by mid-high DEED and FEAT achievements, finishing guild honours and milestones in experience quests from the monarch, and so on. If one is of a mind, fireflies can be accumulated over the natural course of one's Avalon life to become an important leveller by the time one reaches senior standing.
