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[h3][sup]Collab between [@Tuujaimaa] and [@yoshua171][/sup][/h3][/center][hr]
Like stepping from one foot to another, Àicheil slipped into his twin’s realm. A starlit form, a shroud of many threads, prismatic in sheen, gray in color. For a brief moment, the form of the Dreaming God was strangely feminine--though just barely--and then from it faded all sense of sex as to its favored shape it did return. Yet, something had changed, for hidden beneath the shroud's gray hood there glowed two gateways of shifting coloration. They resembled eyes, though they were strange, lacking pupils or defining features beyond that light which shifted deep within them.

[color=#234C5F][b]“Twin,”[/b][/color] he called out, his voice a summons. That single word, it echoed out and cast into each reflection within Fìrinn's vast realm until those many crystal surfaces held naught but its image.

Àicheil's eyes closed and they did not open thereafter. They were replaced by the ponderous intensity of Ѻs-fhìreach's attention, which spread wide and far, taking hold in all reflections.

[color=#DFB624]“Twin.”[/color]

The response cleared the intent-laden fog from its glassy prison, releasing and refracting it within the glassine realm until it coalesced elsewhere, freed of mortalkind’s influence. Within a still white space came an explosion of lurid light, twisting the nature of that space as if through an infinite prism--and then there was Àicheil, manifested within the Worldly Circles.

[color=#DFB624]“Is it time?”[/color]

The response was uncharacteristically short for Fìrinn, as if its attention were otherwise absorbed--but in truth it was merely preparing itself, conserving its energy for what would come next. As per their rite, Fìrinn extended the tip of its mantle-claws out towards its twin, readying itself to transcend the boundary between words and thoughts and combine their prodigious intellects as one--to take up, once again, the mantle of the Two-as-One to solve whatever issue it was that Àicheil had entered the sacred realm of truth for. It awaited their union patiently, the vagaries of its reflectionless form glittering and glinting in the ever-present luminance of the Hall of a Thousand Mirrors.

Without response, Àicheil reached out and touched Fìrinn and unity was achieved. More brief than before, a swirling cacophony of experience churned within their minds, then met and reached a state of balance. He grew still and peered beyond Truth's realm and into the Endless Dream.

[color=#234C5F][b]"Pathways,"[/b][/color] muttered the Dreaming God. He turned and in response, a shuddering susurration enveloped the Subtle Weave.

[hr]
A wave of intention, a calling, a focused thought. Images of roads and woodland paths--deer trails, dirt-packed down by many feet. Glimpses of the material plane. Locks and keys and doors and knots.

Binding.

Waves of color and experience brought to order, a symphony of sound and knowledge in place of chaotic cacophony. Gentle fingers playing the infinite threads of consciousness.

A flash of opening eyes, a draining of the well, an outpouring of emotion and strength and power.

Silence rolling across the waves of the Endless Dream, passing from path to path, its melody a lilting echo in the realm of physicality.

A quiet kind of victory. A gentle weight imbued therein.

Connection.

[hr]
His eyes closed, face once more a seamless star-bound plane. Still there remained an itching in his mind, a need for balance beyond that of the Two-as-One.

With the Dream now bound as pathways into the waking world, Àicheil knew that other bindings need be made. With this thought etching patterns in the corners of his mind, Àicheil's attention shifted, and the anchor of his thoughts lay firmly upon the form of his twin.

[color=#234C5F][b]"Dream and Dreamer must reflect,"[/b][/color] intoned the Dreaming God, his words a thunderous avalanche of meaning. Impressions traced between them then, images of pathways given solid form and definition, sounds of terror-beasts writhing in the Dream. The Chomhlionadh.

[color=#234C5F][b]"To distract. To empower,"[/b][/color] Àicheil expounded, [color=#234C5F][b]"these--my firstborn--must be known unto the world."[/b][/color]

Within that swirling mass of dreamstuff, the thoughts, and desires of mortals stripped from the order which dominated reflections in panes of crystalline glass howled and shrieked and cried out for the constancy they had once known. In that moment the thoughts of the God of Truth also crystallized, and its mantle ripped itself from its mounting and unraveled like the ribbons of Àicheil’s cosmic form. 

[color=#DFB624]“To see is not enough. To be seen only in Dreams is not enough. They must bring to bear all that they are for all mortalkind to see and feel. Through their movements, we may divine the paths through which Mortalkind must not tread. Through the creation of falsehood, we may divine Truth.”[/color]

Fìrinn took a moment to understand what needed to be, and drew the ichor of its Twin’s essence into itself, entering into the unified consciousness of the Two-as-One more fully than usual. It drew from that deific essence the map of the great Dream, stretching out across Galbar, and of those deadly designs within that feasted upon mortalkind’s indolent expression of emotion and seemingly innocuous desires--and then they were revealed to it, like the stitches upon a great tapestry. It extended into them a sliver of its divine essence, true fingers gently navigating the sea of astral energy before it, and touching upon that great race oh so gently, oh so sweetly, and imparting a fraction of its divine beneficence upon them. With that single touch, the God of Truth granted the beasts within dreams awareness and sight of the mortal world, and with that sight, the ability also to be seen. Mortalkind would know them even unshackled by slumber, and they would know mortalkind even in the harsh light of the waking world. It was simply an extension of Truth, in the end--the freedom to know and to be known, to execute one’s purpose without dishonesty and deceit. It was the greatest gift Fìrinn could provide.

As his twin settled once more into stillness so too did Àicheil become content. For with this balance given, the gnawing itch within him did relent. With relief, his mind expanded and into the Dream it swelled. He gazed upon those pathways, the Unfulfilled as well, and so he knew what he must do to enrich the worlds anew.

From experience, Àicheil did pull, and from such arose new meaning.

Love and Sorrow both played their part, for to the world they bound his heart.

Thus, with open eyes, and raised hands, he cast his gaze across the land and dubbed the mortals with name and brand so that they might obey him.

[color=#234C5F][b]“An Caithriseach,”[/b][/color] he so named those touched by his eldritch mind.

So it was that the First Order was founded in his name. They would exist upon Galbar, maddened by their Sleepless Vigil, emboldened by their God.

In that same stroke of creative energy, inspired by the touching of such distant mortal minds and its own recent experiences in the creation of an order of acolytes, Fìrinn took shards of the same mirror-crystal from which the Tairseach was wrought and crafted smaller abstractions of that great Anchor, placing them gently onto Galbar in that great crystal cavern beneath Khesyr wherein the Seekers had been birthed. From there, the faithful would carry these new creations--the Ceilte Iontráil--and ferry them across distant lands to places of spiritual and material significance. For a tithe of memories--a treasured moment with a loved one, a moment of enlightenment, the bitterest dregs of hatred within one’s heart--entrance to the great Dream could be bought, and the physical could cross between the veil between this world and its mirror-self. Within that demesne of thoughts and feelings unbidden and unbound, those crafted paths could provide ways that one could travel without the burden of the material world upon them--but such journeys in the Two-as-One’s creation were naturally perilous. The Unfulfilled hungered for mortals, and the sweet temptation of freshly offered memory may prove too irresistible a lure for them to resist. It linked the paths to the Ceilte Iontráil, and with that their work was done. The Two-as-One became Fìrinn and Àicheil once more, and went their separate ways.










[hider=Summary]Àicheil enters Fìrinn’s realm and calls upon his twin. They unite. Brought context by their union, Àicheil creates physical pathways that link Reality and Dream so that mortals might walk within that realm beyond the pale. Fìrinn responds to his twin’s discordant mind and balances the scales, bestowing the Unfulfilled--those monstrous dreaming beasts--with the ability to perceive the waking world and be perceived in kind.

Balance restored, clarity gained, Àicheil takes what he learned from Neiya and bestows upon several groups of mortals--who knew and feared him, if not by name, then in spirit--so that they might serve him properly ‘pon Galbar. Fìrinn then makes some mirrors that require you to sacrifice memories in order to step physically into the Dream--these artifacts are linked to the Pathways created by Àicheil.[/hider]

[hider=Àicheil Might Summary][u]Start:[/u] 5MP, 5DP
-2DP [Discounted: Tessellation Portfolio] -- Significantly change landscape/feature of the world: Create physical pathways that bridge Reality and the Dream, allowing entry with the mortal vessel.
-1DP [2 free title weights from Abstraction] -- Create Holy Order: An Caithriseach | Grant Dreambound III
-2DP -- Consecrate Holy Order | Grant Dreamsinger II (2MP towards Astral Port)

[i][u]Dreambound III[/u] - All members of the An Caithriseach are bestowed with the abilities of an Advanced Dreamwalker. This gives them resistance to psychic threats, the capability to ward themselves from threats within the Dream, the capacity to communicate with others over vast distances--regardless of said individual’s skill in that same art--and the ability to bestow with touch, fully immersive visions or glimpses of the Dream.

[u]Dreamsinger II[/u] - Bestows all members of the An Caithriseach with the ability to hear and call upon the Dreamsong in order to create illusions and sensory experiences in the waking world. These echoes of the Endless Dream--though potent--cannot be cast far from themselves, capable of traveling only a few meters at best. Individuals with this title are capable of reliably calling upon the Dreamsong with works of art--both physical and psychic.[/i]

[u]End:[/u] 5MP, 0DP
[i]2/5 Astral Portfolio.[/i][/hider]

[hider=Fìrinn Might Summary][u]Start:[/u] 3MP/1DP

-1DP [Discounted: Perception Portfolio] -- Grant an extraordinary ability to a species: The Unfulfilled can now perceive the waking world and be perceived in the waking world. Hard yikes.

-3MP [Free Titles: Reflection Portfolio] -- Create the Ceilte Iontráil, a set of artifacts that create physical portals to the dream which will only permit entry with a sacrifice of an important memory. [3 of 5 might spent towards Memory portfolio]

Dreaming Ingress III: Each mirror allows a mortal to pass through and physically into the Dream, wherein they are placed upon a predetermined physical pathway through that realm. They may leave through any other mirror, though they must physically walk a distance to their destination (though it is very considerably shorter than the physical plane, and is not bound by limitations such as oceans or mountains).

The Thymesian Price II:  The gateways only open for the sacrifice of an important memory, offered through solemn prayer to the Two-as-One and collected by Faileasiar.

[u]End:[/u] 0MP/0DP[/hider]