[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/893273948526108742/894758899872317440/YUDAIEL.png[/img]

[i]&[/i]

[h3][color=#C59401]Arvum[/color][/h3]
[/center]

[hr]

Before there was life, there was the Dream. Stars and aurorae of color wheeled overhead, and there was serenity. A great multitude of souls drifted through the phantasmagoria like so many little fireflies in the night sky. They did not and could not speak or smell or touch or feel, but they [i]could[/i] see, and the world was a beautiful garden. There were many dimensions, and yet there was no time to sully the majesty of creation; everything seemed immortal and immutable in its permeance, and there was only one infinitely long instant of experience before the colors faded and they were dragged into the grim reality of corporeal life.

In an instant all that they had known was uprooted, and they had been trajected to somewhere else. These first people suddenly found that they could feel, could touch, could scream and cry, and they did. But they could not See; the world was too small in its three dimensions, and that horrid yellow orb in the sky was too oppressively bright!

They writhed on the ground, dazed and confused, until sunset’s reprieve finally afforded them the mercy of being able to see. A kinder orb with a softer and more pallid glow appeared in the sky as night began to fall. It was there in the sky that their future was born. Even in the dusktime the light was blinding, but a few of them could See past it. They took it upon themselves to lead the others forward, and so a long journey began.

They walked the land in great roving bands, not staying as one great horde but splitting into many groups. They were not true nomads, for they each followed the guiding light, and knew that at the end of their road was a destination where their journeying could end. But until their arduous trek to paradise ended, they could only march.

Led by the radiance, a mob of nascent humans found a large barrier of water. Continuing their unknown pilgrimage, they journeyed along the land adjacent to it until they came across a circular pool of water, on both sides of the river it was flanked by three pillars of stone with strange symbols etched into them. A lone stranger paced around the pool, unaware of the approaching humans. 

The prophet who walked foremost among the procession made for this enigmatic figure who paced among the standing stones. That man walked with his eyes closed, even in the daylight, and he did not stumble. The moon, even on the far side of the Galbar, guided him onward. Like all those behind him, his flesh had been baked red-brown like clay bricks in the sun, for he was clad like the hairless animals of the land. He hummed in his approach, and when he finally drew near enough that he felt it right to speak, his voice was soft and musical, “An auspicious light has brought us together.”

The stranger peering into the lake mused, [color=#C59401]“A light, or perhaps something else.” [/color] he said, turning to face the humans. He was dressed in the traditional furs of Eidolon. His face was different from theirs, bearing two horns with one broken. His eyes did not match each other, with one red and the other blue. If one could glance over his face and look at his arms, they would see rectangular patterns also colored one red and one blue. 

He continued to speak, [color=#C59401]“I did not know that anyone else was here. This might complicate matters.”[/color] his voice trailing off towards the end. Beyond the strange color, if one looked closer they could see a certain weariness in his eyes. 

The prophet opened his eyes at last, and the two mud-brown orbs gave a knowing look to the stranger before him. He Saw more than most mortals could, and perhaps more than any of them ought to. “If you keep to your path and walk ever on as do we, perhaps you will find the answers,” the man mused, looking to the lake. “It seems so wrong that with these two eyes I behold these waters and see that they are tired, so tired, all but slumbering -- and yet my third eye Sees something else, something beautiful and terrible: the water is alive and thrashing, and it surges and washes away the banks and cleanses the hills.”

[color=#C59401]”As said, your presence complicates matters. Within this lake is well and woe. It was not meant for you or your kind.”[/color] he said with a resigned voice. 

“For whom was the lake filled, then, if not those who walk these lands?”

His face grimaced as he looked out to the lake, [color=#C59401]”While you were still, these waters were here. When you return to stillness, they will remain. This a monument ”[/color] he paused, attempting to find the correct word, [color=#C59401]”This is a monument to well and woe, unpredictability, chance, happenstance.”[/color] There was another deliberate pause, [color=#C59401]”Potential. The word has become cruel to it and conspired against it. Within these boundaries, it is protected. However it would be a disgrace to confine it to such a small container, it would become its prison. It wanted, it needed ways to sneak back into the world that is hostile against it.”[/color]

“A monument,” the man echoed back. He didn’t understand, not yet; while his body was in its prime just like all of the other humans that followed him, they all had young minds. How could a people without history know of history or the sentiments that drove one to build monuments? “I See many things: the path that we must walk, which leads beyond this river; my brothers, who followed another and who are beyond the hills and the horizon; the moon, even as she sleeps below that same horizon; and you, who are more than you seem. But while I sense that this river bears rage and that it will flood, I know not when or why or how. This ‘happenstance’ defies order and reason. What is to become of we who must suffer its whims?” 

Devoted to his cause, the stranger replied with a soft anger, [color=#C59401]”Your understanding is not required.”[/color] He mused upon that idea. [color=#C59401]”No. Perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps you do need to understand.”[/color] He pulled something from beneath his furs, a red gemstone stained with a blue coloration over part of it. He pushed it towards the prophet, [color=#C59401]”Take it and understand.”[/color]

A trusting hand claimed the offered gemstone, and the man curiously inspected it.

The stranger peered into the sage, seemingly annoyed, [color=#C59401]”You are still blind to it.”[/color] A moment of revelation passed over him, [color=#C59401]”But how can you understand without experience?”[/color] He reached over to his back and pulled something that shouldn’t be there, a grain of barley and a fruit, before eating them. He conjured another few grains of barley and a fruit before handing it as well to the man, [color=#C59401]”Do as I have and eat it.”[/color]

The prophet complied once more, without question.

The stranger pulled a handful of water from the lake and dumped it to one side of him. He waved his hands over the ground, and on one side of him was a plate with the same amount of grain as he gave to the seer and on the other side where he had first wetted it with water was a covering of animal skins. [color=#C59401]”I shall permit your entire group to have either what is on this plate, or what is on this other.”[/color] he said gesturing to below the animal skins. 

The prophet only stood statuesque in silent contemplation. After a pregnant pause, one of his followers at last stepped forth to gesticulate toward the furs and inquire, “Brother, what is hidden beneath that?”

“Were that I could See, I would disclose that to you,” the prophet confessed, “but alas, the images are like those in the clouds, hazy and ill-defined. I see this stranger hiding a lustrous stone that glows like the sun beneath it, but I also saw him hide a fruit, some grain, some odd-smelling water that foams and froths like the river’s rapids. It must be influence of this lake; like a dust-storm, it obscures the way.”

[color=#C59401]”This is risk, danger or reward.”[/color] he said. Gesturing towards the revealed plate, [color=#C59401]”Do you accept the mediocrity of certainty?”[/color] and then towards the hidden plate [color=#C59401]”Or the grandeur of potential, knowing it might betray you.”[/color]

Much clamoring ensued between all of those humans that were close enough to have heard the offer, but the prophet paid them little heed. He finally pointed one finger toward the cornucopia that he could see, and a raucous outcry sounded out from the throngs behind him. For the first time, the prophet turned his back to the stranger and addressed his own people, “You looked to me for leadership and followed because I can See, and yet to walk the hidden path is to travel in blindness. Fate is like a lion; it is not to be tested or prodded.”

[color=#C59401]”It is unfortunate that you did not choose the greater of the two plates.”[/color] he said, before revealing the second plate which had a larger amount of grain than the first. At that, the tumult only grew. [color=#C59401]”Know this prophet: there are greater forces in this world than mere lions.”[/color] he said, waving his hand and the revealed plates vanished. But as promised before each human gathered a plate identical to the disappeared one appeared before them. 

A few angry outcries pierced through the din of the rest, because they questioned the Sight that their prophet had claimed to possess. The leader heard them, of course, but he kept calm even as one mighty man who towered over most of his peers advanced toward the head of the column. “This is proof,” that second man proclaimed, “that it should be the strongest, the bold, who lead us down the path and choose the way. I would have chosen the hidden bounty, and earned us more than [i]this.[/i]”

The challenger held up his fistful of barley; it wasn’t much. Though he was hungry, he cast the grains to the ground to make a point; in time, those seeds would sprout. That band of men, who remembered his act, would uncover the nature of grain and seed. But in the moment, all eyes were upon the challenger. “The soles of our feet crack and our legs grow weaker; we have walked far enough, and with this water now, we have arrived at paradise. I say that the journey is finished,” the man dared to shout, and many nodded in agreement for he said what they had hoped to hear for many days. More quietly, he murmured, “But perhaps I will still lend my ear to you if you submit, [i]prophet.[/i]”

The prophet was troubled by none of it, having only offered a soft [i]’So be it,’[/i] when he saw that the crowds’ mind was made. More concerned with the stranger, who he had turned to face once more, the prophet finally asked, “Who are you?”

Ignoring the prophet inquiring about his identity, the stranger addressed the challenger, [color=#C59401]”Is that so? Grant me the chance to prove your words to be more than sounds. You may settle upon this river, but know that he was not speaking false when said that one day the waters shall overtake the dry and carry away whatever it can grasp. And upon other days, it shall escape the ground and leave you with little of itself to take. You will not know when these times will come, except that will. But when the waters choose to remain steady, you will not find more prosperous land. At least, any that there are will be further than your feet could carry you. On the other hand, this is just one of several great rivers. I know a river which is far less fickle. It shall still wet the earth around it, but at times that are known to you. And rarely shall you find a lack of water there. If you settle there instead, it shall provide a meager but certain living.”[/color]

The prophet showed a hint of a triumphant smirk upon his visions being vindicated, but the vigorous and mighty contender only scoffed. “I do not fear water,” he declared, for of course he had not Seen the river’s wrath as the prophet had. “We are tired, and you say that this will be the most prosperous of lands at times, so we shall stay here. And if the river should overstep, we need only carry ourselves and our things to the high banks and the hills, and then return. Our brothers that wander the badlands still will envy us for our place beside this river, and in time, they might even come to join us here.”

Many agreed, but a few muttered dissent and looked once more to the prophet. He squinted at the stranger, and said, “If you will not disclose your identity, then at least tell us of this tame river and where we might find it, that we who care not for the fickle can make our way to it, and leave these others to their doom.”

The stranger replied, [color=#C59401]”Choices have been made, and I shall respect that.”[/color] he said, looking towards the seer. Reaching his hand out, the gemstone shifted from the prophet’s grasp and returned to the stranger’s. [color=#C59401]”Possibility eludes you, but the safe path will be known to you.”[/color] and his words were true. He looked towards the brute [color=#C59401]”You are likely correct that the others shall envy you. Some shall join you, while others might attempt to take it from you. If you wish for my blessing for when that time comes, follow me.”[/color] he said, walking along the lake and towards the river.

So it was that four of every five of them followed the bull-like man-who-be-Shah as he advanced at the stranger’s heels, and the rest of them looked to the prophet, and soon took back to the badlands and the deep desert.
After walking a short distance among the river, [color=#C59401]”For my protection, I ask that you do as the leader before you did and claim this gemstone. So that you understand.”[/color] he said, tossing the gemstone into the river.

The stone skipped once, twice, and then fell into the rushing water. So far upstream, the water carried little sediment and so the jewel’s shine gleamed even from its place on the muddy bed. It was so close to the bank where the man of great stature stood beside the stranger, and yet it was so far. “How is such a feat possible?” the man demanded. “We cannot walk upon the water, for we were meant to stay upon land. We are not like those there fish darting back and forth in the water, nor like the birds that fly. Our feet must remain upon the ground.”

[color=#C59401]”It is a skill you must learn.”[/color] he said, diving into the water and swimming as a mortal would. While he could have done the miracles mentioned, as he had said, they could not. It was important to show it was possible. He moved to behind where the shine emerged and paddled in place. [color=#C59401]”If you can not even enter the water, why should you have a claim over it? [/color]

The eyes of the hundreds behind burrowed into the mighty man's back, spurring him on where his courage might have otherwise faltered. His bare feet stepped into the river's cold shallows with trepidation; he was afraid, and yet in that moment he was also brave. Carefully, the man watched the stranger as he swam, examining how he paddled and made strokes to push himself through the water and stay afloat. Calling out to those that he claimed to lead, the man said, "I will do as he asks and claim that stone. If I perish, remember that my name was Darius, and that I died trying to conquer the water and seize for us a blessing."

He trudged forward into the river, one step after another, and suddenly was submerged up to his knees. His body faltered, but he pressed on and took another step, and now the running water brushed against his thigh. The current threatened to sweep him away, and he hadn't even begun to swim -- still his toes clung to the muddy bottom! Strengthless he felt, and not from fear or the water's cold, but by some power that he did not understand.

But the gemstone's sparkle urged him onward, so he strode forth and the water came to his waist. His jaw clenched and his bronze head reddened, his back glistening with sweat that gleamed in the sun even brighter than the river. He suddenly threw himself forward, no longer standing but floating on his stomach, and desperately tried to imitate the stranger's strokes and swim further.

As Darius continued to flail about the water, his strength only left him faster until he faltered. His head began to fall beneath the current, and his breath was taken from him. However, within a second, he found himself once more along the shore, laying on his back with the stranger standing above him. The gemstone laid right within his reach, and after heaving and coughing out a lungful of water while the crowds watched apprehensively, he finally rose to his knees and clambered over to the gemstone. 

[color=#C59401]”As I have been truthful to those who left, I shall be truthful to those who remain. Know these waters can be capricious. You will need to learn to manage its ebbs and flows, and how to cross it with your own power.  Know that the sacred lake is not for you, and that I am its defender. I stole away your strength so that you will know it will not serve you against me. However, should invaders attempt to steal your land and you have not offended me or the lake, I shall grant you my aid. ”[/color] he said, before turning away from the group.

Darius grasped the gemstone and rose to his feet once more, trying to project strength even as his robustity had been shown its limits. Still, now none among those in his band would be able to fault him for a lack of courage. “So it is done, then?” Darius asked the clearly-divine stranger. “What is it that you will us to do next? How are we to flourish here in this land that you say is prosperous?”

The stranger stated, [color=#C59401]”I did promise you prosperity. Thus, I suppose you are entitled to the secrets of its fertility.”[/color] he said waving his hand once more. Burlap sacks and tools appeared on the ground in front of him and a seed of inspiration placed in the mortal’s minds. [color=#C59401]”The work shall be hard, but the work shall be rewarding.”[/color]

He gazed out to where the lake would be, and for a moment he was lost in thought. 

“Will you return again? If we have need of you to repel some who would seize these lands by the river, what should we do?” Darius asked, sensing somehow that the stranger was not going to stay much longer.

“I am an honest soul, should invaders come, return the blue and red stone into my lake. I shall grant you aid.” he said, before vanishing.

[hider=Summary]
The remaining humans borne by the three colossi that Homura commandeered were all dumped out and given to Yudaiel. She scoops up their dreaming souls and crams ‘em into the bodies, and they wake up and complain that it’s bright outside. Some cool dudes have sunglasses and can See, so these seers become leaders of the many bands of humans that are left to wander around the area of Nalusa in different directions, looking for paradises to settle.

One band stumbles upon a river and follows its banks until they find a lake, with Arvum-in-disguise musing around some obelisks by the lake. Arvum does a trick to show the prophet’s limited powers, and just like that, theocracy is defeated and Darius -- the biggest, strongest, boldest human present -- becomes leader of the band without anyone really contesting him.

Darius and most of the original band decide to settle on this river, despite Arvum and the prophet warning that it will occasionally flood, because it’s fertile and they don’t want to walk much further. The prophet and some others return to the desert, moving on to settle alongside a calmer (but less fertile) river that Arvum had told them about.

Darius undergoes a trial to earn the patronage and protection of Arvum, who teaches the humans farming stuff and also agrees to return if they cast a special blood diamond into the lake where they met him.
[/hider][hider=Vigor Expenditures]
[color=#C59401]Arvum[/color]
Starting: 12 
Ending: 7

-2: Created Four Great Rivers (discounted by cultivation): One river is particularly fickle and is prone to random flooding and droughts, but is especially fertile. One river is particularly stable, and has very predictable flooding and rarely ever dries up, but isn’t especially fertile. And two rivers are somewhere in the middle ground between the two extremes. 

-3: Created Fortune’s Wellspring monument: A perfectly circular lake encircled by six rune-carved pillars. It acts to counter the influence of the codex’s anti-luck properties in the region, and its waters can bless or curse people or items with either good or bad luck. It is also set up to alert Arvum when it is threatened or a blood diamond enters it. 

Free: Taught Darius and his group how to farm and provided them with farming supplies (discounted by cultivation)

Yudaiel begins and ends with 4.
[/hider]