[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/7oQVf7m.png[/img][/center] The pod of orcas jostled for position as they raced through the air, butting into each other as they tried to get ahead of the pack. On their backs rode undead, their souls frozen in crystal and then entombed in the stone bodies of Armonia animated by a deep red flowing Verse. The undead where armed with long staves that whistled as they were woven through the air, directing gusts of wind at one another in an attempt to dislodge eachother or fended off the snapping teeth of other’s mounts. With the dead rode small green Armonia, just as much a target of aggression as their mortal allies, armed with weapons that where a cross between violins and crossbows. The Armonia stood poised to obey instructions, but otherwise where passively indifferent to the action happening around them. The whales and their riders soared in between rows of floating columns that guided them towards a large floating gong held aloft by one of the pillars. Most of the skirmishing between the riders ceased as they drew near, and the air was filled with song instead of the sounds of battle. This caused the green Armonia to notch special arrows into their bows before letting them fly at the gong. Each bolt that struck true caused a specific note to echo forth, lighting up a glowing marker about the gong to indicate a successful hit. Some attempted to interfere with their opponents shots, gust of wind sweating bolts of course. On particularly aggressive former elf instead dead bade his mount ram a rival of theirs who had drawn close to the side of the track to get a better shot. The unfortunate orca was pushed too close to a pillar, clipping it with their side. A cry of pain and stream of blood followed as blubber scraped against the coarse stone. The rider, left unbalanced by the blow, was unhorse by a stave strike from another rider and sent tumbling from his mount. The Armonia fell more slowly than could have been expected from a being made of stone, but still took significant damage when it came crashing down on stone floor below. “Oh no. Leilani and Mila have taken quite the hit there! I think... Yes. yes, the medical team is coming out onto the field. I’m afraid this race might well be over for those too” boomed a voice across the stadium as a pair of undead and a Beluga whale rushed out from the side lines to aid the injured pair. The undead went to the side of their wounded comrade, his stone body cracked and shattered in several places, revealing the Verse flowing beneath their silicone skin, while the Beluga drifted up to the wounded whale. As stone and song where used to crudely repair the undead's masterwork body healing energy pulsed from the whale which had been told to exclusively drink water bathed in the lustrous garden’s glow. As the pair were seen to the race continued uninterrupted. The racers had all passed the target where the crash had occurred after each had eventual scored a hit and where now swerving through a slalom of stone pillars as they headed for the far end of the arena. That arena was the Lightning Dome, named in honor of Ashalla’s victory in her race with Cerule, which was a large sausage bodied stadium floating freely in the Blue’s clear skies. The sloped sides of its inside walls held a myriad of seats all looking down at a flat expanse of stone above which the race was taking place. Those seats were rather sparsely populated at the moment by only an odd hundred onlookers scattered across the stands that had been built with far larger future populations in mind. Here and there Alma where perched, their image projection capabilities providing close up shots of the action. While racing was the most popular and first ever event that had taken place within the Dome it was far from the only one. Since it had been built it had become host to a myriad of other activities from mock battles to lectures on a myriad of topics, Armonia dueling tournaments, concerts and half a dozen other newly invented and rapidly evolving sports. “Highly elaborate games were not what I expected after hearing a goddess’s pitch about making a better world after I died.” Garna’Tenth said loudly to her guide as she sat up in the stands watching the spectacle. Going from dying in the mud at the hands of Nebulite slave drivers to waking up in the clouds, meeting an old flame and then being asked if they’d like to go to watch the race together had been a rather surreal experience so far for the old Jotunder. “Yeah I can get that. But this is pretty new.” Kabarna, who had died before the Jotunder had even started doing last names, said back, half shouting to be heard over the intermittent cheering from the crowd and the words of the race’s commentator who was having their voice copied and amplified by dozens of Gemstone Gardners flocked around him. The colorful birds were everywhere now that Azura had finally. Finally. Reached out to her first creations and brought them back into the fold. “And there's a lot more to all this, but I thought you might want to start out with something fun for our first meeting in a decade.” “Decades.” “For you. Only been 10 years since I died. Guess you could say I slept for most of the rest of it.” “Then you slept through alot.” Garna’Tenth left out how unpleasant what Kabarna had slept through was. “Yeah. You can tell me about it when we go meet one of the Chroniclers” “Cronicilers?” “Some of the dead decided they should try” Kabarna began to explain before being drowned out by the enthusiastic cheering of some nearby spectators as the injured rider and orca re-entered the race with a vengeance, aiming primarily to take down the elven rider who had knocked them out with a series of powerful wind blasts fired across the center of the field while their orca pushed themselves to their limit to try and catch the rest of the racers. Garna gently punched the distracted Kabarna on the shoulder and then jerked a thumb up to the back of the stadium. “Could we talk elsewhere. I still have so many questions” The other giant took one last glance back at the race before nodding and rising to lead the way. With long strides the pair ascended the stands and eventually arrived atop the stadium’s outer wall. There they approached a large double banister sized to keep both giants and smaller people from falling off the structure into the open air. Beyond, stretching out below them, was Glabar as seen through the Blue, fuzzy and slightly warped to allow a round world to sit a the bottom of a flat realm. Above it floated a number of temples, most drifting freely but a few bound to a spire like mountain that stand its way up from the world below by cords of Luftstone and Verse. Atop that mountain sat the sky bastion where Garna had been given her new unlife, slowly rotating around its peak, while around it and the temples strange fish like creatures swam through the sky. With them where the colorful Gemstone Gardeners. Garna had freaked out upon seeing them and it had taken a while to calm her down and convince her that Squals would not be coming to vaporise her at any moment. The pair leaned against the banister, far enough away from the sporting event that they didn't have to shout to hear each other anymore. “So. Like I was saying. Some of the dead decided they should try and record everything they can into something they’re calling the people’s history. Technology, culture, stories, music, and all kinds of other stuff. Pooling the wisdom of the dead into one place. Most of its really dry, but every now and then they find out something incredibly useful from the questions they bombarded the newbies with.” Kabarna explained “But they store everything. There rooms and rooms filled with stone slates in the Sky Bastion covered in this stuff called ‘writing’ which is words carved into stone.” “Carved into stone?” Garna said disbelievingly. “There’s pictures and these lines that the pictures are written between. So say the sound or word that corresponds to the picture, and how high or low you say it based on where it is between the lines and that lets you ‘read’ the words to say to yourself what the person who wrote them said in their own head as they carved the words... It just sort of works. These bodies” Kabarna smacked her chest with a palm, “kinda figure it out on their own like they do with speaking with the verse.” Garna looked sceptical. “You’ll get it when you see it. Trust me.” Kabarna insisted. “Sure… so what do you do? Your not one of these Chronicles are you?” Kabarna laughed at the suggestion “No. No definitely not. I’m a Guardian. A warrior. Same as I ever was. Though now we’re all protecting and building instead being killed by monsters at the whims of the gods while trying to destroy stuff.“ Garna nodded, but before she could ask about what exactly all of this was building towards somthign sreaked though the Blue in the distance. A burning tail plummeting towards Galbar. The pair watched curiosity until it exited the blue and struck the icy ground of Kalgun’s northern shore. The impact looked insignificant from up on high, tons of snow, dirt and stone being hurled skywards by the impact looking like a stone splashing in the river. “Is that normal?” the newly dead Garna asked as the first meteorite was soon followed by others as the very beginning of Abraxes’ bombardment began to hit the planet. “No...” Kabarna replied, stone fingers scraping thoughtfully against her chin “Whatever it is it’s beautiful.” The pair watched the falling fires together for a few more moments before Kabarna remembered a tale Azura had told them when asked about Orvus, one of a close call with an ancient impact. At the sight of something flashing into existence high above them she turned sharply away from the other giant and strode towards the stands calling out “CERULE!” [color=007fff]“What?“[/color] came the response followed by an [color=007fff]“Oh shit!”[/color] and the rapid pounding of feet that brought an avian undead dashed into view. Before Garna could ask what was going on the new arrival leaped up onto the banister of the balcony and then out into the open air, whistling loudly as she plummeted down towards the world below. “What? Who was that and what’s happening” “That’s Cerule. She’s a god. Or an avatar of a god. Same thing really” Kabarna explained as she returned. Garna was unsure how to take the news that the first god she had actually seen was someone who’d been hooting and hollering a few rows away along with the other dead. There was little time to digest this however as the Avatar returned moments later, racing skywards while standing atop the head of an immense sky serpent to confront the incoming bombardment. [color=007fff]“Don't just stand there gawking! All hands on deck!“[/color] she yelled indiscriminately to anyone and everyone who might be able to help. As she did divine inspiration suddenly flashed into the minds of the onlookers. As the first meteorite hurtling towards the north pole drew closer the avatar cupped her hands together at one of her hips, spacing them as if to hold an invisible ball. Into this space wind gathered, drawn both from her surroundings and from blasta and torrents shot towards her by the freshly inspired undead who wove a tapestry of sound at the behest of the conductors. Air condensed ever desner between her palms until moments before impact she motioned to hurl the sphere at the approaching rock. As the Avatar screamed wordlessly in defiance a shockwave burset from her hands and a torrent of air intense enough that its passage could be seen blasted out from her now outstretched hands, a beam of force that hammered into the descending rock. Shattering into a dozen pieces. Yet even these could do grievous harm to the scattered temples Then a second pair off attacks came, one a half dozen of soul gems shot like bullets from the massive avian Azura and a flurry of laser augmented wind blasts from Luis’s mighty stone armor Bruna, that shattered the sub rocks into splinters. Finally a shield dome of air engulfed the moon facing part of the north pole as the Colossi of winds were activated for the first time in ten years, scattering the fragments to either side of the inhabited floating temples and precious vault. Yet it was only the first of many stones to be thrown and so the people of the north pole came together and held the line against the descending death till eventually, suddenly, it came to an end. [hr] [i] With blind eyes we see Something that is not meant to be You stand alone, oh shepherds of souls Prevented from pursuing other goals Yet galbar is threatened from the sky And without you its people will surely die Orvas’s act leave me enraged safety locks are disengaged Bring light to this universe May darkness fear your verse [/i] Where mortals gathered, the Alma flocked. Where the Alma flocked, death often followed. They took no sides. Monsters stalked the dark of the night and mortal kind mustered to slaughter on another for wealth, land, revenge and a hundred other reasons. The Alma did not intervene and simply collected the dead. On the dragon’s foot the forces of the Giant whose world would ignite the world prepared marched forth from his mountain kingdom and the Alma gathered like carrion birds around them. To the north strange demons advance upon the kingdom of apes and so for death and liberty the giant’s would march south. Then the sky began falling and the Alma answered. The colorful stalkers gathered together on hills, cliffs and mountains and unleashed great pillars of light that screamed skywards in defiance of the desolate moonfall. Across the world, wherever mortals gathered in great numbers and where undefended by the gods, the Alma did what they could, draining their reserves of energy to try and fend off what they could. Where tye perished from over exerting themselves, failing and being obliterated by what they tried to stop or being picked off by power hungry mortals, they left treasure troves of soul crystals to be claimed by the quick, be they curoise or conniving. [hider=summary] The dead have a civilization of sorts up in the blue now. Garna-tenth, recently resurrected, gets taken to see an orca race by Kabarna whom she knew before the giant was killed near the end of the Sartravarian war. She learns that the dead have been recording/learning everything they can from each other, writing it and storing it all future reference. Then the meteor shower happens and Cerule, Azura, Luis and the dead all team up to skeet shoot some rocks. All across the world Alma get to use their laser ability to also shoot rocks. Some die due to falling rocks or exhaustion leaving them vulnerable. Quest. Acquire Soul crystals. Either learn to harness their power or stop others from doing so until they can be retrieved. [/hider] [hider=The Windweavers] [i]Start:[/i] 10 Prestige [i]Spent:[/i] 1 Prestige spent to aid the gods in shooting down space rocks [i]Earned:[/i] 3 Prestige (minor role, major role, quest) [i]End:[/i] 12 Prestige [/hider] [hider=mp summary] Start: 13 FP 7MP Lightning dome 1 fp Epistemology 1 fp History 1 fp Archiving 1fp Writing in the verse 1 fp SPORTS 1 fp Verse based construction 1 fp Verse based writing 1 fp Wind magic tool crafting 0 Tonnikala riding/teamwork/taming 0 Mass wind bending 0 End: 5 FP 7MP Portfolio progress: Birds (9/10) The Verse (6/10) Resurrection? (7/10) [/hider]