[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/1bbdeb6c-71c0-4853-a9f2-6fc469a5041d.png[/img][/center]

Not fast enough. The crystal had climbed up into the vacuous expanse between the palace and the world below - or above? - swiftly enough, but its flight had slowed dramatically shortly thereafter as it spun, gradually adjusting its trajectory in spite of the considerable mass standing on it. Narzhak watched in annoyance as the far smaller vessels that bore his siblings overtook him. He leaned upon the platform's edge in an attempt to hasten the process, but rapidly drew back when the entirety of it almost flipped over as a result. The oscillation delayed the process some further, and it was only owing to his erstwhile good humour that he was not fuming when he finally began to drift towards the distant watery orb at a more agreeable pace.

Light flared up behind him as he went, but it was soon overshadowed by a form that even he discerned to be large. The great rock sailed silently past him, through the skies and down into the world. Narzhak, however, did not see it strike, for a thought had struck him instead.

[color=#CD2626][i]Now that is a fine way to travel. I should...[/i][/color]

He stomped down upon his airborne perch, shaking it perilously. A sanguine light flared up within the crystal's form, and all of a sudden it was flying faster. Far faster. Faster even than the large rock; had it not already shattered against the waves, he would have overtaken it. Sparks flew around his feet, then flames engulfed the platform's nether side, trailing behind its edges every bit as bright as a comet's tail. The ground came ever closer, yet the godly meteor showed no sign of slowing. The motion was force in its purest form; if he but wished, he could shatter the entire globe in one blow-

The ground?

Narzhak peered down through the fiery curtain his vehicle was leaving behind itself. Indeed, where he could have sworn a few moments before had been nothing but boundless waters now lay a harsh, rocky land. His eyes widened in surprise, before shrinking again in savage resolve. There was no better solution for unexpected complications than overwhelming force.

[color=#CD2626][b]"MAKE WAY!"[/b][/color] With a howling bellow whose tail was lost in the roaring of fire and air, the second great projectile to mark Galbar's surface streaked down in a veritable pillar of light and crashed into the soil. The impact reverberated through the landmass, toppling rocks before engulfing them in a tide of dust ad debris, and leapt out into the ocean, raising immense, unnaturally spreading waves that churned and spluttered in monstrous whirlpools for miles beyond the coastlines. Vast cracks and fissures that could have swallowed a mountain radiated from the blow, splitting the ground into tatters that met only in unknown deeps.

Amidst the havoc he had wrought, Narzhak did not stop. Planted firmly upon the crystal, whose supernal matter had weathered the collision, he pressed ever downward, digging viciously into the groaning earth. Teeth of stone rose and crumbled around him, displaced by the implacable force. For an instant, all seemed still as the world and the god matched their wills and brawn against each other. Then the world gave way, and Narzhak plummeted down again, slicing through the ground as though it had been thin air. And perhaps it truly was; he could not be certain if he was indeed burrowing through yielding earth or some impalpable darkness that closed upon him from all sides. As long as he moved still, it did not matter.

Yet, even that movement came to an end, as all things must. He was now certain this was earth around him, for he could only move with great effort, feeling his limbs struggling against nigh-immovable weights.

It could only mean he was deep enough.

[color=#CD2626][b]"Shatter."[/b][/color] The bloody light flared up again, and in an eruption so deafening that it might well have been silent the crystal burst open. All was stillness, light and shadow; then Narzhak found himself standing in a chamber that stretched beyond even his divine sight. Somewhere far away, he could feel it but dimly, the fragments of his vehicle were digging through the immense cavern's walls, riddling it with innumerable passageways, great and small. Where they would reach was a mystery to him. But then, there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Narzhak splayed his fingers, cracking their stiffness after the long flight, stretched his arms, and, carving treads in the stone with his steps as he descended from the plateau he had alighted upon, set to work.

The ground was plain and easy to tread, and that did not please him. He dug his claws into the stone, opening pits, crevices and treacherous maws. He smote it with his fist, and basins awned open; and he marvelled as molten rock surged up from somewhere far beneath to fill them. He wrought tall hills and forbidding cliffs, and mountains like blades. Under his hand, pillars rose up as grim sentinels of his realm. Loose stones were gathered into towers and strongholds that no siege could breach; some he left unfinished, others he cracked open with the flick of a finger. His domain was that of ruin; a Pit of Trials that none but the mightiest could surpass.

The air was clear and easy to breathe, and that did not please him. He raised his hands, and the final sparks of the crystal’s eruption blazed up again in scorching flames that drifted overhead like birds of prey. Magma spouted from its lakes, rising in writhing orbs that hovered [i]like unborn gods[/i]. He stomped down, and tremors coursed through the earth, never to fully fade again.

The land was barren, with nothing to beset a wary traveller, and this did not please him. His eyes flared, and through the iron he breathed out clouds of living anger. They settled down upon the soil, the mountains, the hovering orbs, and wherever they touched cruel life sprang up, deadly and invisible to the eye. Tunnels and caverns blossomed with dry, sooty growths that sickened the body. Dungeons were coated in deceptive lichens that corroded any who touched them. Worms with heads of iron gnawed their way through the rock, ready to burst to the surface and sink their daggerlike fangs into unsuspecting prey. Beasts with hides of hardy onyx stalked the wastes on spindly limbs, their frames little more than great mouths ringed with teeth. Strange drifting things hid among the clouds of fire and magma, uncaring of the heat, reaching down with hooked tendrils to snatch up those blinded by the infernal spectacle.

Narzhak saw his handiwork, and he was pleased. But one thing was still missing. It was to be the culmination of all his efforts, without which all would have been for naught.

He brought up his hands to the very spot whence he had shorn away a scrap of his armour, drove his fingers into the opening between two plates, and slowly, agonizingly pried them open. The flesh beneath barely looked like flesh at all - a murky grey mass, heaving and spluttering like a disturbed swamp. He reached in and tore out a chunk, oozing with dense black fluid and reeking of battlefields and manifold graves. With nary a wince, he snapped his iron skin back into shape. His hands danced around their prize as he gave it form.

[color=#CD2626][i]Iron bone, torn flesh, hungry blood.[/i][/color] The amorphous hulk hardened, grew lean, sinewy. An elongated, powerful body. Six strong limbs that bent and twisted every way, so that nothing could escape them. Fingers that were fine tools to craft, jagged claws to tear and tireless feet to walk, all together. A blunt, robust head with eyes no darkness could blind, a mouth to devour all things that lived, a neck that could follow any sight in all its angles. And within its plates of hardened grey skin, vitals so entrenched and fortified that no single blow could break them.

Narzhak lifted the fearsome, though yet lifeless form to his eyes, and breathed undying fury into it. It sprang up almost immediately, clawing and gnashing at the hand that held it. Its frenzy did not last long, for anon it was sailing through the air, flung away with a single smooth, careful motion. The thing writhed still as it struck the ground, spewing black blood to all sides. Far more blood than it should have contained. The dark flood grew, as a pond, a lake, a sea. Something stirred below its surface, sending ripples through the oily tide. A hand with jagged talons rose from it, then another, another, another. Hundreds, thousands of clutches grasped for air, followed by arms, then heads, then the horrors’ entire bodies. Each of them was its progenitor’s likeness. Some larger, others smaller; some walked on two legs, others on four, others on all six; and all of them were just as savage. The earth had scarcely dried up under the last one’s feet as they set upon each other, ripping, biting and striking, and ichor once again flowed in rivers.

The Iron God’s gaze shifted from a satisfied one, to surprised, to irritated. His offspring were a force for sure, but a force without cohesion was worthless.

[center][h2][color=#CD2626][b]"F O R M  R A N K S !"[/b][/color][/h2][/center]

The disorderly horde froze as one at the shattering peals of the voice from above. In silence, they hastily disentangled themselves from each other and crept in place to assume their positions in an unspoken order, barely daring lick their wounds with their long, tentacular black tongues.

[center][h2][color=#CD2626][b]"O B E Y"[/b][/color][/h2][/center]

The beasts shrank back, as if under the blow of an invisible lash.

[center][h2][color=#CD2626][b]”C O M M A N D"[/b][/color][/h2][/center]

Blank eyes turned to each other in uncertainty. The creatures glanced at their fellows, then at themselves; some began to point at those near them. Gradually, circles gathered around the largest of their number, who gestured vaguely at their newfound subordinates.

Not ideal, but this would have to do for now. Though Narzhak was loath to admit it, these exertions had left him feeling rather drained. He motioned dismissively at his host, and the beings scurried off to the nearest wall, crawling their way up to the cavern mouths with the agility of spiders.

The giant retraced his steps to the elevation he had first found himself standing on. With some effort, he climbed its side. One foot was on the edge, then another-

Narzhak clambered out of the crater his fall had left in the nameless land. The earth around him still bore the scars of his arrival, and it probably would forever. [color=#CD2626][i]A scar on the world. Why not?[/i][/color] Spiderwebs of fathomless rifts spread to all sides, interspersed with mounds of rubble. Some of the debris had never reached the ground again, and remained suspended in midair in a startlingly unnatural sight. Here and there, boulders glowed with residual sanguine light. [color=#CD2626][i]Not bad for a beginning.[/i][/color]

As he rose to his feet, something clattered upon his head. He looked up, but could not see anything out of place - the sunlight was still there, as was the blue of the sky.

With a monumental shrug, Narzhak trudged off to see what had become of the world, every step shaking the ground a little.

[hider=Asteroid, statesman, interior decorator]

A god’s got to be a lot of things in today’s economy.

Narzhak is struggling to make his crystal go down faster, with little success at first. When he seen Orvus’ asteroid zip by, though, he thinks that if a rock can do it, so can he, and makes himself go [i]very[/i] fast indeed. However, he wasn’t counting on Kirron’s continent being there to greet him on arrival, and slams into it so hard that he does a number of things [b](7 FP spent on creating a gateway with some side-effects)[/b]:

break space, creating a connection between the spot where he landed and somewhere deep below the surface;
create a craggy wasteland with floating and glowing rocks, provisionally named the World Scar, which acts as the upper half of said connection;
rock half the world with a quake.

Having somehow ended up far under Galbar, he makes his crystal explode, resulting in a huge cavern. Since he doesn’t like anyone having it too easy, he decorates it with various deadly perils, from hostile landmarks to permanent earthquakes and a multitude of sprouts and creatures, all of them very nasty [b](8 FP spent on creating the Pit of Trials; 4 FP on seeding it with an ecosystem; 1 FP for a lasting, erratic tremor)[/b].

Not satisfied, he makes himself some slightly more intelligent servants [b](4 MP spent on a sentient species; see below for some particulars)[/b]. They immediately start doing what you’d expect the creations of a war god to do, so Narzhak hammers the concept of [i]hierarchy[/i] into their thick skulls [b](1 MP spent)[/b]. It doesn’t do much, since they can’t communicate properly and aren’t very bright, but at least they’re not going to wipe themselves out until he figures out how to properly order them about.

[hider=Some specifics on the yet-nameless creatures]

The best approximation is probably that they straddle the line between exceptional unintelligent beings and regular sapient ones. They’re definitely sentient, but largely lack complex thoughts,  imaginations and an ability to innovate. Intelligence-wise, they’re closer to great apes than humans, though with a different mindset. They do have a decent memory, and can process abstract concepts and complex systems, provided someone teaches them and little independent thinking is needed.

Physically, there’s not much to make them extraordinary, except for strength and aptitude for combat that comes from them being Narzhak’s creations.

As with all life, they're bound to their sphere of origin, and can't reproduce or thrive outside it. 

[/hider]

Leaving the creatures to their own devices for now, Narzhak pops back up aboveground. He gets hit on the head by a fragment of Asceal’s Furnace, but, undeterred, goes for a stroll.

[b]Starting:
5 MP
20 FP

End:
0 MP
0 FP

4/5 MP towards unlocking Earthquakes
[/b]

[/hider]