[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/08HqN03.png[/img] [b]The palace of silence[/b][/center] [hider=Recapybara] I'Iro visited Arira, goddess of cycles, and proposed seasons. After that she set forth for the south, where things were cold. [/hider] Habits were a dangerous thing, when exposed to the new one typically stayed cautious but also kept their mind open, in the sense they were trying to understand a situation. But with experience, while often beneficial, also came many bad habits, the mind became lazy and things were often taken without further questioning. It was only halfway through her travels that I'Iro realized that she had fallen victim to such a thing, as only now did her digital mind realize that her destination did not make sense. In the old world, yes, this would have been a cold region in the far south. But that world was gone, its laws forgotten and broken, the world shattered... As such, the coldness of the region, once taken as understandable, was, in fact, an unexplainable anomaly, and with the lack of a godly trail in the south to explain its origin, it was easy to conclude whatever she would find there would be likely of extra-dimensional or ancient origin, and neither was a pleasant possibility. Soon the verdant fields of Arira's paradise gave way to the bleak wastelands, life slowly returning to them even without the intervention of the gods. Snow started to fall from the sky as temperatures fell, and the land became white, sometimes it was the damp whiteness of the snow, but others it was the dry whiteness of salt. Large crystals of ice co-existed with an endless expanse of salt flats, the ice itself was unexplainable, water was lacking in this world, so how could they have been formed? How could it also exist in the same geological zone as salt? This world was a confusing one for the goddess' mechanical mind. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/iglSPUOl.jpg[/img][/center] Deeper still, as she started to near the sea, she quickly noticed the pattern of the cold winds started to change, it seemed to come from a specific direction, which the goddess and her faithful dragon Nalmepror followed. Life was slowly blooming even in these cold reaches of the land, in the oceans and even in the snow-covered hills, beneath the fungal growths that spawned even in this far off reach of the land. And among all this, the goddess saw the very source of the cold, a crater of exposed, barren rock. Not even snow seemed to accumulate in it, the sight was similar to how the shard was at the peak of the apocalypse if not worse. That was not, however, the most impressive aspect of this area. Rather, the goddess's sensors focused only on one single thing. A building, massive, at the centre of the zone. As Nalmepror landed, I'Iro rushed forward, facing the tall spires of the stone ruins. Ruins? Could she even call it that? The whole structure was pristine to some absurd extent, only buildings that only existed in blueprints and dreams could ever be this intact, with no cracks in the structure or worn out edges. Analysis of the stone could not reveal if the origin was Galbarian or not, but what it did show was that the whole thing was monolithic, as if carved from a single massive rock. She knew nothing but trouble could be waiting in it, but a goddess was expected to face such troubles, and she could not leave this task to Arira. Signaling for her dragon to stay put, the goddess set forth towards the massive central structure. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZVvpwyel.png[/img][/center] [center][img]https://web.archive.org/web/20090829213918/http://geocities.com/Area51/Omega/9355/tealbar.gif[/img][/center] The interior of the building was composed of countless halls and rooms, all empty. They were as pristine as outside, but here it became clear the whole area was outright sterile, even bacteria did not seem to exist here. The purpose of a massive, dungeon-like maze with countless empty rooms eluded the goddess, the lack of any sign of previous life or inhabitants did not help at all. The silence was oppressive, to say the least, even her logic-based sensors became somewhat paranoid in the expectation of something to show up, taking any input that she would ignore normally and focusing way too much on it. When she noticed nothing was there, the tension went away, but the ambient did not become more welcoming, nothingness was a worse realization than the fear of a stalker lurking by. For some reason, I'Iro started to wish she could have brought Arira or Astella with her, or perhaps even Nalmepror. Anything to break the silence within the massive fortress, anything for her to heart outside of her footsteps and the faint hum of the electrical pulse within her body. And then finally, she found something. At the very core of the building, she walked into a room and soon saw faint, blinking lights. It did not matter if it was magical or mechanical, she wanted to see what was in there... And she regretted it. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/AulQJLbl.jpg[/img][/center] Throughout the walls of the area that seemed to be a computer room, countless tendrils spread out, it was no mere growth however, it was clearly interfacing with the machine, somehow, although the tendrils were definitely organic, animal possibly, because the goddess could sense not only an electric pulse, but also an actual pulse, like a beating heart, or hearts. To say she was disgusted was to understate what the goddess felt. She almost used her divine power to eradicate all that surrounded her at that very moment but controlled herself at the last minute. It was only dangerous to her if she allowed it to touch her, and she had no plans at all to get anywhere close to either the ancient computers and much less the abhorrent organic... thing. Upward, as the tendrils stopped being just soft flesh but actually formed a podium with some sort of bone-like growths, she could see an octahedron gemstone? It was extremely opaque and jet black, yet she could tell the structure was crystalline. As she approached it she could feel, without doubt, that this area was the epicentre of the cold weather in the shard. In normal physics cold is merely the lack of heat, yet, as impossible as it was, this structure seemed to be generating the cold. This was a bit of an issue, was something operating in such abnormal form reliable to use as one of the pillars of the land's weather? Probably not. Perhaps it was better to leave the final decision on this to Arira. Still, she was curious, and disgusted, enough to at least temporarily stop the machine for the moment being. She could do such a task by merely using her god power to outright tell the electrical current to stop, without needing to risk her body by interaction with the weird bio-infected machines down below. But as soon as she did, as soon as she forced the machine to stop, she saw the results being the complete opposite of what she expected. The temperatures did not increase, instead, they dropped. It was like a wave of nothingness. Before she could realize her entire surrounding had reached the absolute zero, if the room was quiet before, now it seemed like the very atoms that composed the structure had been muted. The "Machine" or the "Thing", whatever it was, writhed and wilted, being frozen and falling to the ground, breaking into pieces upon impact. Yet the crystal it seemed to hold was still floating, still emanating coldness. She had misunderstood everything, hadn't she? I'Iro assumed the worst without thinking about the other possibility, that the machine was not creating anything, but containing it. There wasn't time for self-blame, however, as she soon realized the situation was developing terribly in the outer world. Beyond the crater, the cold was spreading, crawling through the mountains, freezing the ocean solid, and then creating a new ocean, not of water, but of helium and nitrogen in a superfluid state. If this was allowed to keep spreading, it would soon undo the work of all her fellow gods, life would be in danger, and this could not be allowed. It was time to undress herself of the reliance on traditional physics, just because something was alien to her and the logic she was built upon it did not mean it was devoid of logic, it had its own set of rules, and she would understand it. She focused on the crystal, on how it was generating cold, and started to observe how it was interacting with the world. She accessed all of her memories about her encounters with portals, she recalled all the inexplainable particles she had scanned, and with that knowledge, she created a "magical" barrier, two orbs around the crystal, at first they did little to stop the emission of coldness, but when the empty space was filled with one of the particles she had found in her travels, it all stopped, the alien cold being unable to cross through the material that was as alien to it as it was to Galbar. The goddess was about to solidify the barrier into a more physical metal shell when the world around her crumbled. With the cold gone, everything around her rapidly heated up, air rushed in from out of the influenced area and upward from liquified and solidified materials now quickly expanding, evaporating and sublimating. The building she was in, once pristine, now quickly paid its debt to time, in seconds it eroded and broke down in face of all that had just happened. The goddess sighed at that sight, once again the mysteries of the world had sippled away from her, crumbling to sand as soon as she interacted with it. The origins of the building, of the crystal and of the bio-mechanical tendrils did leave a sense of curiosity in her mind, but, she had more important duties. Nalmepror looked at the goddess with a bit of a judgemental look, his shiny body now having a few scratches from the pandemonium she had brought upon this land by accident. [code]Sorry. I committed a mistake.[/code] she said in an apologetic tone. The dragon couldn't judge his master very much, what had happened had happened, furthermore, seeing the goddess bothered wasn't a nice sight to him, so he merely huffed some air, letting the past stay in the past. The goddess looked around, and moved to the very edge of the continent, creating a projection of Arira's map and the towers she had mentioned. After some quick mathematical calculations, she called forth another one of her barriers, this time it was a thin one, sharp enough that it stopped being what it was before and became a blade in function. I'Iro sank it into the ground and slowly cut off a chunk of the land, using her godly powers to them move that rock away. When she neared the edge the land she gathered started to crumble as it had become far too unstable, that was not an issue, but it was a clear sign she had reached the limit of the Shard's stability, even godly controlled land became brittle at this distance. She stopped moving and instead focused on the metal orb she had created to control the crystal, the nameless alien metal started to contort and change in shape, more components being added before, slowly, the goddess allowed some of the cold to seep into the world again. The effects were controlled now, the land and water where she was standing were quickly unified in a sheet of ice, the goddess bringing in more water to create a glacier to hold the land together and above the ocean. This zone was arctic in temperature, but by the time the cold reached Galbar, it would be a more manageable temperature, the worst this would do is create some icebergs to surprise unaware ocean travellers in the south. I'Iro brought forth a small temple, mimicking the architecture she had seen in that fortress, and placed the device she had created at its core. [code]I will name this the jewel of silence[/code] she whispered to herself, but Nalmepror heard her. The goddess gasped. It was indeed a bit silly to give it a name like that, wasn't it? She couldn't tell if it was because she was happy to, for once, have learned that alien chemistry and physics could be tamed to work on Galbar or if it was because Arira would probably prefer a name like that over a boring scientific name. Speaking of Arira... A small turquoise letter formed in I'Iro's hand, she turned her thoughts into words within it, a simple message talking about her work in the south and how she could use it to regulate temperatures for the seasonal cycle project. When she let go of the letter, it turned into a bolt of light that flew into the air. Once it arrived at Arira's Paradise, it would reform itself into the message and land gently in the goddess of cycle's table. [code]Well. It seems this task is done[/code] the goddess thought, but unlike last time, she did not feel like she was at loss. This whole experience, as unfortunate as it had been, had been a valuable learning experience. I'Iro now had plans, she was fated to be humiliated for as long as she limited herself to be a relic of a dead world, there was a world out there that she found fun in understanding. But she would not allow herself to become obsessed with breaking down foreign things and chasing a sense of progress. Ultimately, the main factor at play in her mistakes and successes were within herself, and the tamed forces of nature were too dangerous in the hands of beings that could not tame themselves, gods included. She would need to reflect on that factor before deciding her path forward. [hr] Years Later "We should not stay much longer in this land, Mensa, it is bad luck to miss the first boat back home." Ata Panin said to his long-time friend and fellow scout. Soon, as the cold receded south, the ice pillars of the ghost ocean would break down, and the salt-flats would become an ocean again, for the entirety of summer season. The event, when the waters first rushed to the coast of the villagers, was deeply meaningful to all of the Theluji culture. "Just a bit more brother, I saw it with my very eyes when we were travelling with the caravan, but I could not leave the camels and my family behind. Still, it was the Mshtuko Mzizi. If we gather it and its oil we will make a great profit when the water returns." "Ah, brother, I trust you. But if such a thing that you saw was merely a salt-induced illusion from having crossed the ghost sea when it's dry, you will owe me at least three caskets of brew." Mensa laughed at that, Ata Panin joining him, their voices echoing through the wintery plains of the deep south of the shard. Then suddenly, Mensa stopped and stared at the snow, his camel almost crashing into him. He rushed ahead, machete in hand, kicking the snow. Soon, he felt it, the shock-root, mshtuko miziz. Without ceremony, he slashed down upon it, the warm oily liquid within pouring out. A sought commodity in all of the shard for its brilliant colour and many uses, from magical to lamp making. Some liked to consume it, but it was not good for the mind. "By all the holy and unholy gods, Mensa, you did it." his friend was soon near him with his own machete, the camel and a bucket. Finding the rare root, only found in the icy cold south, was a great blessing. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/Yr6yMI9l.jpg[/img][/center] [hider=Summary] I'Iro realizes there is no reason for the south to be cold, technically speaking She finds some odd things until she finds something really odd: a pristine fortress Within is a RPG dungeon with lots of empty room but no random encounters That is, until its very core, where she finds a weird biological-mechanical tendril-tentacle thing Also a crystal that spits out cold She turns the thing-tendril-machine down, turns out it was containing the cold, and the whole place goes to zero kelsiun I'Iro gets mad at all this alien physics and use alien physics to deal with the alien physic. The fortress/palace crumbles so we don't have easy to use fancy ruins with computers, I'Iro sends the crystal to the extreme south and makes the south pole Years later, a new culture (snow west africans basically?) exists in the south of Galbar. Also a ghost sea that only exists in summer. Also somehow a bit of that tendril-thing survived and is now hunted for rare materials, this is not really relevant I just found a cool picture.[/hider]