[center][h1][color=#D9C966]A[/color][color=#AC9E49]s[/color][color=#80742D]t[/color][color=#AC9E49]u[/color][color=#D9C966]s[/color][/h1][/center]

[center][b]I[/b][/center]

It was with a great, deep breath that Astus finally stretched his back and stood up from his rocky, uncomfortable chair. He had a neutral expression as he let his eyes close, and then he started to work.

It was a task of massive proportions -- to build something, anything in this world with no previous infrastructure. He wasn’t the kind of God that could just conjure up metals or materials after all, so all that he had left was his determination and his knowledge. 

It took time. Knowing and doing were two different things, and so through trial and error Astus managed to learn how to do things properly and efficiently. Eventually, he had set himself up a nice little base of operations. In a moderately big structure made of wooden logs, beams and the occasional stone block for foundations, Astus had managed to set up a workshop where he could refine wood logs into a number of materials, as well as manufacture glues and chisel stones and all other kinds of basic things. 

The building itself, while only moderately big, had been enchanted by Astus himself in order to make it self-repairing and self-modifying, with the capability of changing its layout and colour and size whenever the owner wished it. 

Of course, the surface building was only the first step. After that was all done, he began to work on the multi-level basement.

[center][b]II[/b][/center]

Astus had a long, bushy, flaming beard by the time he had finished working on his basement. There, he had everything he needed at the moment in order to bring his ideas to life. He sighed and wiped the sweat off his brow as he looked out at the positively massive chamber he’d cleared out. If he didn’t have God Sight, he probably wouldn’t be able to see the other side of the wall, even with the lighting he had set up.

The chamber was mostly empty at the moment, but that would soon change. Inspired by the abundance of the Galbarian lands and the industriousness of his colleague Voligan, Astus had a big initial goal. So, without further ado, the God of Industry got right into the work mindset. 

The most important part to ensure the success of his new project would be to ensure that he would actually have enough materials in order to see it through to the end. So he tapped into his reserve of Monarchic Vigor and used a considerable amount to seed hundreds of areas of the Galbar with an incredible density of resources. These, he catalogued in his mind as possible places to expand to in the future, and of course he had also made sure that the area his base of operations was located in was one of those areas. 

So now that he had the raw material, he had to mine it and refine it and shape it. Picking up his trusty Godnail-tipped pickaxe, he delved into the cavern system below his home.

[center][b]III[/b][/center]

Astus shaved the last of his beard with a bronze knife and whisked the flaming hair back into the pile without looking as he grinned at how clean his reflection looked now in the quiet surface of the pond blocking his exit out of his home. With that done, he ran his hands through his hair, picked a piece of charcoal out of between his fangs, and flew out and onto the roof. 

There, he sat down and leaned back against the tiles, making sure to stuff his hand into his bowl of charcoal bits to snack on.

“It should begin… About now.” Astus said before beginning to chomp down on his well-done snack. A moment later, the earth rumbled. The whole structure began to shake, with some of the more delicate glass implements breaking. Astus paid to heed to the noise, as he knew his structure would hold. Thinking about it now, he had been lucky that the mountain he’d chosen as a home was so large, as that was the only reason he had been able to do things the way he had.

A gigantic, metallic limb broke through the side of the mountain. Then another, and then a head. Eventually the mountain wall could no longer hold and the largest landslide that Astus had ever seen began. With him absent-mindedly keeping the bigger pieces of debris clear from crushing his base, he was still able to watch as his babies, the fruits of his never-ending labour, finally stood on all their limbs and stepped out into the light. A single superheated tear escaped his right eye as his creations stood tall and mighty on the Galbarian surface. 

They were truly massive--Big enough that thousands of homes could be built on their backs, and with the landslide that had just happened, they would soon have vegetation growing all over their backs as well. Their shapes and forms were diverse, and if everything worked properly, they would serve as his first subjects. They would travel the world in search of their preferred food, be that stone or sand or dirt or even water--And then they would eat, turning that food into processed materials that he would then periodically come to collect.

As he watched his twelve pets walk out into the world, he sniffled a little and his concentration broke for long enough that a large rock fell right on top of him and crushed his entire base. Almost immediately he blew the stone into dust, but the damage was done. 

As he looked around himself and saw all his things --ranging from hunting trophies all the way to his super-secret stash of erotic piston drawings-- crushed beyond any repair, he rubbed his temples. “Fuck.”

The building would repair itself eventually, but there was no way to recover his prized possessions now. The sacrifices one had to make for the sake of process were indeed painful, Astus thought.

[hider=Summary]Astus creates his base of operations. Above ground it is a moderately sized wooden structure with everything ranging from workshops to bedrooms. Below ground it consists of an expansive multi-level basement. The whole structure is self-repairing and self-expanding and only needs Astus to will it to make a change before it does it. After that, he seeds the whole world with hundreds of areas of high resource density (fossil fuels, metal ores, gemstones, etc.).

Finally, he creates a dozen massive Colossi. They’re mechanical ‘creatures’ of a size large enough that they can potentially host a whole city on their backs. These creatures move slowly, eat sand, dirt and/or stone, and produce much more traditionally sized mechanical versions of animals that they may eat by mistake as well as materials. Each of them has a different skill set and produces different materials, as well as has different systems to ensure that whoever settles their backs doesn’t suffer from eternal earthquakes as the Colossus moves.[/hider]

[hider= Vigour]
Starting=9
Used 2 to seed the Galbar with hundreds of areas of high resource density. Stuff such as fossil fuels, metal ores, gemstones and the like. No soil fertility, unfortunately.
Used 2 to create his own self-repairing and self-expanding base of operations.
Used 4 to create the Twelve Colossi, mechanical entities of a size so large that they can host a whole city on their backs. They all eat sand, dirt and/or stone and produce both materials and more traditionally sized mechanical versions of whatever animal they happen to eat by mistake.
Ending=1[/hider]