Like the complacent stone that weathers the wind of ages, worn down but not worn away by the cyclic advance of the tide, trod upon by beasts large and small, witness to days and nights innumerable, the split-second home of the booted foot of some landing conqueror or departing traveler, blind to the eons that slip by and deaf to the tireless song of nature, infinite in distance and unbound by death, the little egg lay during the conference of the gods. Following the performance of Illunabar, the universe itself seemed to be filled with a visceral, based form of song: the thrumming spirits of those who hovered in limitless black. So too did this tune change, rising up and dropping down, quickening in tempo as the gods quickened in temper, and for the grievous wounds of Jvan it served as a dirge. Slough would have marveled to hear it, if only she had ears to hear and a mind to know. Of all the rage that threatened to squash the tiny but momentous speck that would be the advent of all true life in the universe, however, the paragon of purity proved most pernicious. While the spiteful and blindly selfish flames of Vestec failed to obliterate the plan for the universe, courtesy of the watchful eye and strong arm of the journeyman god, the searing lightwave of Niciel swept across the divine parchment and sent Slough's cocoon flying. If not for the awareness and preventative measures of Jvan to capture and protect the egg in a net of twisted flesh, she might have spiraled away into the darkness and been lost forever. Though Logos grouped Jvan with those who would ruin all of creation, the All-Beauty had been the only one to preserve life in a moment of violent contention among the universe's varied architects. Even once the storm passed, however, the cocoon could not be laid back upon the plan. It remained in the shelter of Jvan and the shade of Kyre, who though cognizant of the risk could not have stopped Slough spinning away into forever had the All-Beauty not intervened. In order to preserve the great plan from the foolish gods like Vestec who would have sacrificed an eternity of delightful chaotic meddling for the mere moment of outrageous joy it would take to incinerate the parchment, the formless mind enveloped it within herself. Slough knew none of it, yet the cocoon seemed to pulse faintly. A god might take it for an omen that a great thing was about to happen—or for nothing at all. Between the odd, tendril-laden lattice formed by Jvan, there came the touch of another one who cared. Through the protective shell, the life-force seemed to gravitate toward Mammon's hand, as a critter in a pet shop might to the face of a child staring, entranced, through the storefront glass. No power passed into the cocoon, and no words discernible to a bestial mind, but all the same the curled-up ghoul felt something. And she would remember the touch. Shortly thereafter, there came the light. It dazzled Slough, confusing and frightening the beast within the cocoon. No moment in the history of the universe would ever surpass this moment of [i]being[/i]. Inspired by the guiding light of resplendent Ull'Yang, a billion stars burned into existence. According to the decree of the disharmonious plan, the universe gave forth vast quantities of barren stone, various temperatures, precise natural laws, and infinitely more. In this moment, the force of electromagnetism was perfectly tuned so that the protons of over a hundred elements could be held together and not blown apart. This moment decided that one dimension of time would exist, so things could happen sequentially. This moment decided that the cosmological constant for gravity would be astonishingly close to zero, so that atoms couldn't be ripped apart by the ferocious expansion of a positive-constant universe or that the universe wouldn't last for a fraction of a second thanks to a negative constant. The vacuum expectation value would determine the masses of the fundamental particles in nature, so that atoms could properly exist. All this and more was decreed by the great plan, so that the universe would be perfectly palatable for life. No sooner had there existed a planet beneath the assembly of gods than the egg began to fall. It slipped through the tendrils of Jvan, perhaps forgotten in her awe of the universe's inception, and drifted toward the barren gray sphere at a steady pace. It felt slowly; slow enough so that Vestec could descend first and wreck havoc on a portion of the surface with his struggle for self-assertion; slow enough so that Vakarlon could descend, blanket the extremes of the world in cold, find solace in the refreshing chill, and carve on a whim a huge and intricate system of openings beneath the ground; slow enough so that Jvan could descend, engorged, and create a vast expanse of water in a scintillating pattern. By then, however, the cocoon entered the atmosphere. It rocketed down through the air, reacting to the fresh gas and gaining an aura of rippling green, and comet-like the egg cannoned into the surface of Galbar. Its force broke through the surface into a huge underground cavern created by Vakarlon, shattering its ceiling to make a basin several miles in diameter. Gradually, the stone and dust settled, some of it changed by the life aura into nutritious dirt. On a pile of dirt in this huge basin Slough's egg lay, irreparably damaged by the fall. Then it cracked. An explosion of green energy washed over the entire basin, pouring from inside the egg like light from a star. Rich green grass sprang from the soil. Trees shot up, small at first but growing at an incredible pace with no sign of stopping. Higher and higher they soared, thick and sturdy. Some failed in their mission and broke apart, becoming multiple snakelike branches slithering through the towering forest like walkways. Only when the remaining trees crested and then left behind the lip of the basin did they begin to stop growing upward and start growing leaves. A blotch of green appeared, visible from orbit, a forest that stretched from beneath the surface to scratch the sky. It was the Deepwood. The bark did not, however, remain flawless. Throughout the Deepwood, green pustules began to push through. These growths, surrounded in membranes, kicked and shook as the life energy within them took form. In very short order, the growths burst, releasing a variety of living creatures to disperse through the forested basin. Not much light penetrated the canopy; many of these beasts sported [url=http://img08.deviantart.net/443f/i/2010/197/a/f/creature_test1_by_mikeypetrov.jpg]acute[/url] [url=http://orig01.deviantart.net/136c/f/2012/005/0/b/spider_variants_by_gorrem-d4lftv4.jpg]night[/url] [url=http://pre11.deviantart.net/6804/th/pre/f/2011/026/b/e/be892d4cd07e152e00d18275e2a7e553-d384sss.jpg]vision[/url], [url=http://pre08.deviantart.net/44da/th/pre/i/2011/270/7/8/moorish_architect_by_eclectixx-d4b49ng.jpg]their own[/url] [url=http://orig11.deviantart.net/b5a2/f/2010/097/1/8/death_dealer_by_striderden.jpg]sources[/url] [url=http://orig05.deviantart.net/1ebe/f/2011/207/7/9/797818664184f7abf557170a11694730-d41oz7t.jpg]of light[/url], or [url=http://pre04.deviantart.net/6310/th/pre/f/2011/025/7/2/jungle_monster_by_energise-d3823ts.jpg]no eyes[/url] [url=http://orig14.deviantart.net/02e2/f/2011/094/b/2/monster_no__055_by_onehundred_monsters-d3d87y8.jpg]at all[/url]. Less fantastical creatures existed also, though they were no less splendid. Some would eat plants; some would eat one another. If she had eyes, Slough's eyes would have opened as she stood, shakily, on her feet. She looked up into the towering trees, and spotted tiny dots of sunlight. Her skeletal jaws opened to suck in air as she remembered to breath. Then, the rotting beast bent her neck down to nibble at the grass. [hider=Rottenbone Slough, Instigator of Nature] -Saved by Jvan from the quarrel of the gods -Touched by Mammon the Adversary -Present for the creation of the universe -Fell to the planet like a meteor, breaking into one of the caverns made by Vakarlon from above -Free point spent to make some dirt inadvertently -The release of life energy, and 1 might, has created the Deepwood and all of the creatures in it -Slough has awakened to her true state of life and existence, becoming powerful enough to start proliferating nature—represented by a level up with her remaining 4 might MP: 0 FP: 1 [/hider]