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They had done it. At long last, the raid of the syk pyres was completed and the Alma were free to collect the souls of the dead. Now there were but two matters remaining before it became time to address the consequences of this.

The first was unloading the vast haul of Soul Crystals they had liberated from the sky pyres. A rather arduous process, as the secluded entrance to the vault of souls did not have the most convenient loading bay for such a massive influx of souls. The great armor of Luis drifted empty above the entrance, to and from which a stream of alma and gusts flew. Up on its back the armor’s own curators began the long process of extracting the souls from the many armored tombs and then carried them outside to be collected and carried down to the vault’s own curators, who then took them down into the vault. 

Acseal had also descended into the vault to see for herself the place where souls would be stored, while Luis had flown off to engage in some well earned R&R, which involved a bit of swimming and some exploration of the ecosystem Kalmar had created on and around the north of Kalgrun. The great whale was not entirely free from his responsibility however, as he ended up having to explain the broadcast to a bunch of orcas and narwhals he ended up hanging out with.  

“What is fire and burning” was a pretty common one that took an awful long time to explain to the ocean dwellers.

This left Azura by herself as she planned how to protect the north. Defence wise she had already erected the walls of her fortress. A circular ring of mountains surrounded the massive vertical peak that sata above the vault, and atop this peak was the sky bastion, which acted both as a fortified keep and, hopefully, as a decoy for the vault. However, the walls sat unmanned and the gates of the castle unguarded. In that state they did not serve their purpose at all, as Ashala had so perfectly demonstrated all those years ago.  

The Alma, empowered now with laser weaponry, where a good first step but they had a task that required them to go out into the world and would not make for an effective permanent garrison. She also had the Titan of Winds, but it alone could not guard the entire length of the wall.
She decided to start simply. The titan was an awesome beast, and it atmospheric control was a perfect tool for protecting a set location, so why not make more? Three shards of luft stone she plucked from the titan’s great form, and from these shards she grew three copies of the massive construct, capable of working in unison with their progenitor to command all the air in and around the tiny island. 

[color=lightblue]“I together dub you the four winds,”[/color] She told them [color=lightblue]“may you stand firm against the forces of death and may your power sweep away all who dare come to the place with evil in their hearts!”[/color] 

[color=silver]”It shall be so.”[/color] replied the 4 titans in perfect unison.

[color=lightblue]“Now sentinels, to your posts!”[/color] Azura commanded. As she instructed the titans moved apart, each drifting towards a tall mountain peak situated 90 degrees apart on the circular mountain. They touched down upon the mountain tops, crossed the massive cressend staff across their chests, and begin their watch. Their singular bright glowing eyes gazed out across the icy expanse that separated the twilight isle from the rest of the world, searching for intruders. To aid them Azura created a retinue of gusts to support each titan. These swarms of wind elementals would lay dormant, their solid stone parts piled atop their gemstone cores, until their Titan awoke their winds once more and called them to muster.  

With watchers set atop the walls Azura ascended to the sky bastion. Like the sky pyres her own sphere was wrapped its way around galbar and had many entrances that lay open and unguarded. Should her emaines, whoever they might end up being, find their way inside the Blue they would have the ability to simply bypass the titan guarded walls. Taking some inspiration from the dragons found on the Foot she created sky serpents, massive beasts that where something of a cross between a snake and a mosasaurus, who drifted through the blue in the same way that Sky slugs and Luis did, borne aloft by on bones of luft-stone. With their jaws filed with serrated teeth they would tear apart those who invaded her skies. She also wanted to make it so they could also be summoned down from the blue to aid her wherever she or her companions might need aid. In-order to facilitate this she taught them a simplified form of the verse, the music she used to create, so that they could be commanded by it, either by her, Luis or the Alma. Perhaps, she thought, she could also teach this technique to others, like Asceal, or her children or even mortals?

She nodded to herself, and decided that that was a good plan. The Alma needed to be carefully controlled so that they stayed on mission, but the weapons and tools she made now? They could serve a wider purpose, to be shared with others to let them make her strength their own. Letting her delegate while also avoid hoarding all the divine power to herself. 

The walls where manned, the skies patrolled. Azura felt a certain amount of relief over take her, that at long last there was no more that urgently needed to be done. Certainly there where tasks hse need to attend to, Karthos’s system needed a replacement and there were no doubt many other problems she could aid in solving if she went looking for them. But she decided she could afford to take a break after all she had been through, if only for a moment. As she watched the great sky serpents and the fluttering sky slugs an itch that she had been suppressing since she found out about the sky pyres forced itself to be noticed and demanded scratching. She wanted to create again, to craft and mold things into being to fulfil a purpose not directly related to solving the soul problem.  

Energised, she tried making something for fun, spinning and weaving her power as she pulled pull inspiration from her muse, to create the perfect representation of her newly found creative freedom.

Power, magic, and music flowed together, creating a perfect symphony so beautiful it could make the most jaded listener cry until finally it made. It made! 

A floating Tuna. no feather wings or frills or decorations of any kind. Just a tuna that gave zero shits about gravity.

“Glub” said the tuna, before swimming off into the Blue to go hunt sky slugs.

[color=lightblue]“Well then... That was silly. Let’s try again!”[/color] 

And try again she did, to greater success. She made long necked fish-hunters, tusked manta rays that grazed upon the Blue’s now flourishing rain soaked greenery, a vicious little carrion eating trilobite and horse sized shark dragons that lurked in temples and around mountains. Then she stopped, not wanting to get quite so carried away with this. It had been an enjoyable creative outburst, but perhaps it would be best to use her power more productively. The last thing she did was dubb the Class of flying creatures ‘Tonnikala’, before descending back down to the twilight isle. 

There Azura returned to the vault, checking that unleading was still going smoothly. They where, but it made her realise that there was one place left unguarded and that was the vault itself, along with the surrounding landscape. Aerial dominance might be incredibly useful, but she could perhaps do with some foot soldiers as well.

Taking into account what she had set into motion with the Tonnikala she decided that maybe she could make something that anyone could use if properly taught. And so she sang into being songs, and bound to the songs ideas, ideas of how to form Luftstone from air, to craft it into constructs and fill them with music. She knew that these creatures might be used against mortals who fought for her foes or simply wandered too close to the vault, and so she gave them the power to be able to affect their foe’s emotions to cause sadness, fear and terror with their touch or songs in order to drive away mortals without causing them harm.

To balance these negative emotions she taught them to invigorate their allies in order to lift their spirits and bring them hope and instill courage, determination and focus.

The first she made was a small one, a humanoid that was about half the height of a Selke. Most of its form was made of a blue light, the verse made into a semi solid mass that was given vague form by a heavier, semi metallic, black luft stone that, while its mass did not feel gravity as much as it should, was still pulling the creation down to the ground. Tendrils of blue verse formed its hand and legs, which were tipped with long claws. It’s face was a solid helmet/mask with holes that formed the impression of an eye hole. A long wispy tail of the verse flowed out from behind the helmet, fluttering in a non-existent breeze.

It stood before her in animated idleness, moving its body to the beat of an unheard song. She formed a small target dummy for it to practice on. The creature leapt at it, slashing at it and leaving deep gorge marks with its claws. Then it backed off, pointed its spread out fingers at the target and made them extend, wrapping the now tentacle like digits around the dummy and sending a pulse of emotional energy into it. Then it backed off and became idle again.

[color=lightblue]“Hmmm.”[/color] a gust of wind pushed the construct, causing it to stumble and its light to flicker erratically for a few moments [color=lightblue]“hmmm. Not very sturdy are you?”[/color] 

She tried again, and this time formed an equally small one with a green body. It’s limbs were made of stone rather than light, and it held a small flute it its hands. This one danced around the dummy, playing an invigorating tune, before using the flute like a Blowgun to shoot a compressed wind shot at it that struck with the force of a punch. This one was also not particularly sturdy, though it was better than the last.

Purple next. It formed a body shaped like a suit of armor with only a few gaps visible where it’s verse was visible. It marched up to the dummy and struck it with sword it had inplace of a hand. It had a great deal of difficulty attempting to disable it nonlethal, eventually using its shield to pin it against a wall. It was much sturdier, but the cracks proved to be a vulnerability and it was slow to respond and less creative than the others.

Each construct was harder to form, and required a more complex song to form, to the point where Azura now had to use several of the green ones to assist in producing the finale. It was almost human in body structure, though it still had a mask in place of a face. Red Verse flowed out from behind it’s head and nowhere else. Unfortunately it seemed to be almost deaf and had difficulty performing complex actions until azura laid them out in detail. It performed exquisitely then, acting with the grace of a ballerina and speed of a martial artist as it used CQC to take down the dummy, but Azura had to sing loudly at it the whole time while spelling every action out in detail.

[color=lightblue]“ok. I think that is enough. A fully enclosed one would take far too much effort and be useless anyway.”[/color] Azura said finally. The first three all had their merits, the fourth she’d need to think about. Regardless, had what she needed

She then proceeded to make 5 armies of the blue, green and purple constructs. Some were ordered into the vault as guardians, where they would stay to subdue those who entered without permission and to raise the alarm and shoot to kill if this did not work. Others were sent to the walls, where the Titans could command them with their music playing bodies.

This left azura alone again, save for the red one. 

[color=lightblue]“hmmm. I think I have an idea of what to do with you.”[/color] she told it, before plucking it from the earth and soaring back up to the sky bastion. 

[hider=might summary]
Start: 8 fp, 5 mp

3 more titans 3 fp

3 fp for big fish

5 discounted to 0 remarkable Tonnikala species

2 fp for bodies

Portfolio progress:

Birds (6/10)
Bards (2/10)

end: 0 fp, 0 mp
[/hider] 

[hider=might/creation summary]
Start: 8 fp, 5 mp

New term: the Verse. The command music that Azura uses to design, program and control her various non intelligent creations. Some creations can echo or enhance it, others sing it and yet more are powered by it. The nature of the verse is such that, should they be taught, others could weave the verse, to command azura’s constructs and, possibly, create replicas of the cretions themselves if they know the right songs and have a magical powersource.    

3 Titans of wind for one (wind discounted) 1 fp each. Identical in structure to the original they lack its wind empowerment and thus cannot function in a vacuum. The prime Titan will be known as Boreas, while the other three are Zephyrus, Notus and Eurus, named after the north, west, south and east winds respectively. Together they have mastery over airflow on and around the twilight isles, which can make approaching it very difficult indeed.

3 fp [url=https://i.imgur.com/si4Ke0c.jpg]Sky serpents[/url]: Massive flying sea serpents that are most at home in the Blue. They eat griffins, large mammals, dinosaurs, sharks and other large Tonnikala. Azura has made sure they don’t hunt anything an Alma might want to save, having them using the verse to call of the great beasts and teach them what creatures are not considered prey. They patrol the Blue, descending out of it on occasion to hunt or fight. They can grow quite a bit larger that the largest dragon, but have no special abilities other than being able to fly.

Tonnikala Port: Tonnikala is a catch all term for flying sea-creatures made by Azura, be it mutated/blessed sea creatures or custom made oceanic themed sky-life. All Tonnikala have skeletons that are permeated with Luft-Stone that allow them to defy gravity. When one dies its body may eventually sink/be blown down to galbar, where mortals might scavenge their remains for their magical bones for use in construction, magic or alchemy. All Tonnikala know the Verse, and can be communicated with using it. The intelligent can be conversed with while the animalistic can be controlled if a singer know the right songs and even summoned if they have enough magical power. Tonnikala’s flying power is sourced from the blue, and if they spend too much time outside it this power gradually weakens. This stops them competing with Galbar’s creatures too hard, and means that summoned Tonnikala must eventually either return to the Blue or have their flying capabilities significantly diminished. 

0 fp: [url=https://i.imgur.com/fRAZ477.jpg]flying tuna[/url]: They tuna. They fly. They eat sky slugs. A lot of other things eat them.

0 fp  [url=https://i.imgur.com/RA8b41U.png]Niseag[/url]: long necked fish hunters, come in greater and lesser variants. Relatively well armored, they make good summons if your foe has only short ranged weaponry.

0 fp: [url=https://i.imgur.com/XPocfx8.jpg]Manotogs[/url] aka flying hogs: The establishment of connections between galbar leading up into the blue has let rain come to the infinite sky. This has allowed planlife to grow sustainably and allows larger herbivores, like these great tusked beasts, to make a home in up there. Can grow as large as elephants.

0 fp: [url=https://i.imgur.com/mgOdLiL.png]Hammer-drakes[/url] Adapted to live inside sky temples or around the mountains poking about the blue. They aren't the best fliers but they are effective pack and abush hunters when working in and around their chosen habitat. Relatively quick over both land and in water, they can be used as all terrain mounts by singers skilled enough to tame these savage beasts. Their odd heads give them 360 degree vertical vision and are the core of their electromagnetic sensory equipment.

0fp [url=https://i.imgur.com/qNoGzhY.jpg]scrappers[/url]: A rat sized carrion eaters that wiggles its way through the sky. It is propelled by dozens of feathery fins that it uses in-order to find the drifting bodies of dead Tonnikala. Then it strips them clean of flesh before they are blown down to Galbar.

2 fp [url=https://i.imgur.com/qN1C9tM.png]Armonia[/url] aka golems

Shells of a dense metallic Luft stone filed with physical, viscous fluid like, Verse. They are made to fight, but can be turned to other tasks if conducted correctly to do so. They have the innate bardic ability to manipulate emotion via touch or sound, although the strength of this power is inversely proportional to how tough they are. To kill one you must disrupt its verse, which can be done by damaging the glowing parts of their body as if it were fresh.  They have no organs, and therefore no weak points inside their flesh, but a wound that would be large enough to cause a creature of the same size to rapidly bleed out will kill one instantly, as will multiple wounds equaling the damage of that greater wound. 

Despite being made of bulky material they are affected by gravity less than is to be expected, and thus can perform impressive feats of agility. They are no stronger than a creature of equal size. Armor is equivalent to metal. Intelligence is very low. Endurance is high.


They can be created by mortals with the power of mana, soul crystal energy or any other suitable magic supply. Requires that they be musically performed into existence, with bigger and more durable constructs needing more complex songs, sometimes involving multiple instruments/singers.

Armonia can be commanded by complex music and songs. If multiple individuals are attempting to control a construct it will obey the best performed command. To avoid interference (either intentional interference by more skilled performers or accidental interference by other performers on the same side playing in close proximity), they may also be keyed to only obey a voice accompanied by a specific instrument’s accompaniment. A master could play or sing a song to effectively puppet the construct, getting it to perform a complex task as they describe it, but it is more common to simply give basic commands (Defend this place, go here, play this song, attack this foe and so on). As constructs they are very dumb they are generaly only fit for a relitivly specific perpose, be it fighting, playing, manual labor etc. 

Divided into 4 subtypes, broadly categorized by how exposed their internal verse is. Lowering exposure increase durability but also increases magic cost and song complexity while also and reducing their ability to use the verse and makes them even less autonomous. There can be overlap between subtypes (turquoise, yellow, and pink) as they are not hard and fast categories.

Quaver  (blue aura): Verse is actively spilling out of their framework. Use the verse that powers their bodies as weapons, via tentacles, claws or other methods. These attacks often have an emotional component. 

Crotchet (green auras): Verse is exposed but contained within the framework. They focus primarily on composing music to generate various effects, such as emotional manipulation, wind based ranged weaponry or the aiding in constructing more of themselves.

Minim (purple aura): Verse is mostly covered by framework, with only some cracks where it is exposed. consisting predominantly of armor, they rely on brute strength and physical weaponry

Breve (red aura): Verse is entirely contained by their framework, with no cracks and with at most one primary exposure point. Made specifically for the souls of dead mortals to inhabit they are of the highest quality and are also the most resilient. Poor musical ability but the power of the user’s soul crystal offsets this disadvantage significantly.

end: 0 fp, 0 mp
[/hider]