[center]
[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/2b4925ee-b215-4b89-a794-5058a6c53e13.png[/img]
[colour=lightseagreen][h1][b][i]Ashalla[/i][/b][/h1]
[b]Goddess of Oceans[/b][/colour]
[/center]

In that great chamber where the Architect sat were souls, divine essence and water. The Architect banished all but a handful of chosen souls from his chamber and these chosen souls drunk deeply of the divine essence and became living gods. And with the power granted by the divine essence infused with their souls these new gods conjured matter and sculpted bodies of all varieties to house their spirit.

Yet raw divine essence is a fickle thing. It is creation manifest. It is the power of the gods. It bends the universe and reality to conform to itself. And it is loathe to be inactive.

The room was rich with divine essence, too much for the souls gathered to all absorb. So this free divine essence sought substance to which it could bind. It tried the stone of the cavern, but found it too unyielding. It tried the air within the cavern, but found it too weak. So instead it suffused through the water of the cavern, the water which flooded the bottom of the chamber and which fell in great sheets from the sundered aquifer above. And from this binding of matter and divinity, the water became a god.

Yet what was a god without form, who could not manifest? Gods create, and every god's first creation is their own form. But the water-who-was-god had no notion of its own form. It carried no vestiges of a past incarnation like the souls around it. Nevertheless the water-who-was-god gathered itself together. The great body of water in the chasm began to flow towards a single point, accumulating into a rising bulge. As the water gathered, the flow accelerated and the bulge rose higher, defying gravity and entropy until to stood like a colossal wave, towering over all but the largest beings in the room. Although it hadn't yet a mind to express the feeling, the water-who-was-god felt powerful. By its strength and might it had overpowered the force of gravity to manifest its vast form, and this taste of power left it wanting more, to exercise dominion over other forces of nature.

Yet power was only part of the impetus given by divine essence. The water-who-was-god was missing creativity. What was the use of all this power if it did not create anything? The water-who-was-god had assembled a featureless blob for itself, but this was inadequate. The water-who-was-god felt the divine essence of the others around it and felt their forms, water lapping at the feet of those in the chamber. It felt most strongly the aura of the Architect, so it started by imitating aspects of its form. The blob narrowed at a point near the top, pinching off a smaller blob of water which could pass for a head. Two great protrusions of water stretched out from either side of the water-who-was-god like arms just below its 'neck', water falling in great droplets and being pulled back up through the base of the water-who-was-god.

Finally, the water-who-was-god imitated the Architect's great eye. Water swirled around its head, creating an indentation which vaguely resembled an eye, and the divine essence peered through it and came to see the cavern and everyone within. The Architect dominated the room by his mere presence, but there were other gods too. It inspected the lesser gods and their diminutive forms, both with its eye and by feeling through the water. The water-who-was-god realised that it was not restricted in its creation, that it could create a new shape for itself. There were so many forms to choose from!

Tendrils of water rose up and wrapped around the water-who-was-god. Watery limbs sloughed off, falling with a splash into the lake below and replaced by new limbs with new shapes. Faces sculpted themselves into the water-who-was-god before being washed away by turbulent currents. The water-who-was-god exercised creation in its own form, sampling every shape it could sense.

Yet after a few seconds the water-who-was-god stilled, a blob once more. It had no purpose, no reason, no direction, so had been shifting randomly. Yet this was just as unsatisfactory as having no form at all. It needed a purpose. It needed thought. It needed what the other gods in the room had -- a soul.

The water-who-was-god might not have had the capacity for true thought, but its divine essence recognised its will. So a soul coalesced within the water-who-was-god, a soul shaped to what it knew -- power and creativity. The water-who-was-god looked out at its kindred divines as this soul took shape and it became aware of itself. The water-who-was-god's purpose crystallised and it came to know its nature and identity.

Yet the identity was missing a form. The water-who-was-god looked at the gods and goddesses in the room with a newfound awareness. It felt their souls and essence, then the water-who-was-god found the traits it felt best described itself and pulled the water into a more definite form. The form was wide at the base, so as to be well-connected to the water; the water-who-was-god even extended far into the water below, but that part was formless. The form extended upwards with smooth and elegant curves. Near the top two 'arms' extended, although these too were made from flowing curves which branched at the end into fingers. Above the bulge where the arms connected was a narrowing like a neck followed by a round blob of water like a head. On one side of this blob the water shaped itself into a supple face with two eyes, a nose, a mouth and ears, this face being the most sharply defined part of the form. From the top and back of the head fell water in great streams, running down the form's back. The form resembled a human woman, like a number of the goddesses around her, although many times their size and made entirely from water. 

The water-who-was-god had awareness, understanding, a persona and now a form fitting of her persona. But her identity was missing one crucial element -- a name. The water-who-was-god stalled in thought. It heard the others speaking around her, voices and noises being made, so it started by imitating them. Rushing water within her produced sounds as she toyed with phonemes, finding sounds which had a pleasant flow.

[colour=Lightseagreen][b]"Shhh...llll...ooaa...shhh...ll...ff...hhhh...ss...ll...aaassshhh...llaaa..."[/b][/colour] She then stood upright and the water-who-was-god declared her name with a voice like waves breaking on a beach. [colour=lightseagreen][b]"Ashalla!"[/b][/colour]

Then Ashalla let out a joyous laugh which rang like undersea echoes. She had created a name and a form and an identity! She now knew who she was and was revelling in the power and creativity which she now knew she wielded. What else could she do?

Ashalla surged forwards, her form losing distinction as she became a hurtling wave that raced around the room. Yet there was a disturbance in the water, a force acting against her. It was the god with a form larger than her own, rivalled only by the Architect in size, who was a mountain of flesh covered in metal. Its motions and own bellowing laughter was sending waves through the enormous lake. It was influencing [i]her[/i] domain, the water from which she was made, and it made her indignant.

Ashalla slowed to a halt and regained some of her appearance. She felt the water of this lake, a lake so large some might have called it a sea, and felt its every wave and ripple. Ashalla's form sunk down as she extended her essence into the water of the lake, then with a great heave she willed the waters to calm, and they obeyed. Waves stalled, currents stagnated and ripples faded.

There were several seconds of quiet, then they were broken by Ashalla's echoing joyous laughter. Euphoria washed over her from her exertion of power, greater than any of her previous feats. She was made for wielding this might.

Diffused throughout the lake, Ashalla took a moment to calmly observe the universe around her. The divines in the room were impossible to miss, but with her broadened senses all but the Architect were indistinct. With the cacophony of the chamber momentarily dulled, Ashalla saw the universe beyond the cavern. The sky dimly lit with the Barrier's magic framed a distant blue orb, and immediately Ashalla felt a connection with that orb. There was where she was meant to be. This lake was just a tiny taste of what lay in that Sphere beyond the cavern!

Ashalla gathered her essence once more and coalesced another watery form in time to hear the tirade of a man of blazing fire -- Sartravius, if the knowledge which had been imprinted into her and her feeling of the god's essence were accurate. Ashalla lurched towards him, and she spoke in answer to his question.

[colour=lightseagreen][b]"Can't you see? We have been brought here to create!"[/b][/colour] Ashalla said in a voice like a sea breeze, carrying the mirth of her existence. She gestured upwards with an aqueous limb. [colour=lightseagreen][b]"Look at that Sphere over there. I feel it is much greater than this place here. There we can exercise our might!"[/b][/colour]

Ashalla's form collapsed back into the water, then emerged a few moments later next to one of the floating crystals. [colour=lightseagreen][b]"Come! We have a world to create!"[/b][/colour] she beckoned to Sartravius and the other gods.

[hider=A goddess is born]
Ashalla forms, not with a soul who forms a body and collects divine essence, but as divine essence which forms a body then collects a soul. Who needs a backstory?

Ashalla revels in her existence, primarily in her might and creativity.

Ashalla stills the waters of the lake, ceasing Narzhak's disruptive waves.

Ashalla answers Sartravius' question to the Architect, inviting everyone to fly to Galbar so they can get creating.
[/hider]