[color=7bcdc8][h3][center]The First Rays of the Incoming Dawn[/center][/h3][/color]

[hider=Reminders - Summary of previous events]
Dzallitsunya - Goddess of the dusk, of shadows.
Zed - Leader of a tribe of humans who lived in a cave in Node 18
Croll - Leader of a tribe of humans who lived in the surface in Node 18

Twilight Valleys- The name of node 7, including both the swamp and jungle proper, as well as the dry highlands and mountains nearby
Mirror Marches - Node 8, a cold desert with salt flats that turn into massive mirrors that spam from horizon to horizon, to the north, ice covers the land

Marriage Festival - A plan by Dzallitsunya to fully and finally eradicate the differences between the two tribes and guarantee her realm
[/hider]

[center][b]Croll[/b][/center]

Croll was not a man to overthink, the world was simple when you broke it down, yet one thing had been bugging him, and that was... what he was. Was he still the tribal leader of his people? Were he and Zed Dzallitsunya's second in command? If he said he wanted to leave for another province, how many would follow him?

Not that he wanted to leave, the thought didn't even truly pass by his head, he was part of a small group of people who did not wander from camp to camp, but that stayed fixed near the major village of the Twilight Swamps. He had built what was probably the largest of homes, the first one to have a second floor, with the first floor now being dedicated to storing goods and meeting people.

He was obsessed with having as many materials as possible, every new herb, every new animal fur, every new rock, he wanted it. Initially, he travelled with the groups to collect them but now he saw far more results by centralising it to his home, where he could mix and match materials together, he could plant herbs, ferment them, burn them, he could polish rocks, melt them. The majority of results were mediocre at best and bad at worst, he and a few helpers had gotten themselves poisoned a few times. But when it worked, oh the results were amazing.

Textiles from plants, from animals and from whatever the mucous thing that made Tsillo was. New gemstones were freed from stone. New Dyes. New plants that worked either to eat and nourish or with unusual but pleasant spicy or sweet tastes. And although the tribe was becoming more distant, he found himself with a closely-knit group of associates. Kadja, master of foodstuffs, his wife Midzi who helped with working the stones, and many young and curious lads and lasses, some of his tribe, some of Zed's tribes. When seeing that, he almost felt like it was fine, he could just imagine that maybe it was fine, he could be happy with this arrangement.

But oh things weren't so simple.

For one, his son, Biedo. He saw in him good leadership, his work on the highlands had been tremendous. But like most of the young, he was too much of a... zealot, for Dzallitsunya. He even called himself Bedjo, using the goddess' own pronunciation, a mix of Zed's and Croll's. It felt like ironic karma for his sycophant ways when he first met the goddess, but that was a plan to get blessed, Biedo's desires were true.

Still, he was sure the boy would fix himself over time, and it's not like being too faithful to a goddess that was real and active in the community was that bad, until at least he rejected a great marriage opportunity, of him with Zed's younger sister, Daga, because of some misguided crush on the goddess and a belief he should rigorously follow the setting of the marriage festival to find his partner.

And that led his mind to the actual problem. He was unsure about the goddess.

There was no other god he'd rather work under, even as rumours of others spread about. Dzallitsunya, lady of twilight and shadows, was surely caring and rarely demanding, she was intelligent and amicable. He imagined trying to talk to other gods was like talking to a wall, and she was no wall.

She was a river.

When talking to someone as stubborn as a wall, you have no delusions of progress, you can see the points you make bouncing against an unmoving mind. Dzallitsunya? She was stubborn as a river, she gave the impression you could make it, the chance to put your full effort against the water, but the water is uncaring, its flexible in form but inflexible in destination, you can even swim up a bit, but what does that change for the river? Nothing. And that is what he felt when discussing with her, she was understandable but never willing to learn, she asked how they felt but only saw it with her own eyes, she expressed having doubts but never seemed to even consider his opinion as truly worthwhile, even if she wasted time listening to it.

This worried Croll, because if she was not listening to the humans closest to her, then she was all alone, alone with only her mind and thoughts, and nothing good could come of that. Not for the land, not for the realm and not even for herself. He would have to deal with that one way or another, sooner or later, for everyone's good.

Then suddenly he rose up, all this talk about moving rivers... it had inspired him.

[center][b]Zed[/b][/center]

The tall, pale-olive skinned man looked down at the bags of colourful pigment. In particular, he was interested in the colourful rainbow-like purple and cyan stones that seemed to appear less and less in the village.

"Maranya, my sweet friend, what is happening? Not only you don't have Chalcopyrite anymore, but the selection of powder extracts are so poor too. I wanted to paint the new wall of my home with something shining and colourful. After all, I will be having a bride there soon."

The woman sighed. "The rainbow rock is gone cause of something weird Croll's group did, some kid, a friend of your sister, discovered how to make metal out of it, somehow."

He laughed. "My my, isn't Croll on a streak? First, he discovers how to move the hot water from the central swamp, then how to use that to grow lots of plants in the fields. Now you tell me these sharper knifes that have been showing are also his design? That man's brain is as big as his belly."

Maranya shook her head "You are so rude Zed. Always were. Back in the cave, always felt like you were a prick to be fully honest."

He gasped, a hand in his chest. "How... How could you!" he then laughed. "Not like I asked to be the leader... In fact I don't even remember exactly what happened, was just born a leader, just like my sister was born my sister? You know. When the world was created."

She nodded at that, and then looked up at the starry sky. "Isn't it weird? How in enough time there will be no one left to remember the creation of the world?"

"It is not the future that scares me, that is natural, but the past, it does bother me Maranya. Dzallitsunya explained the origins of the world by the hands of a dying god... does that mean we are his imagination? Did he imagine me, my sister, you, Croll... maybe even Dzallitsunya? Were we people he knew and brought back? Was it some random act, and we, who we are, is just a random whim of fate? I feel lost when I think about this, everything around me feels so more brittle..."

The girl laughed, stepping closer to Zed. "Man... when you want to be smart, you really say some interesting things." she hummed. "Anyway, before we get too distracted, I just wanted to add that yeah, sorry for the lack of pigments, it's Croll's fault, his stock has been poor." she circled closer with small steps, delivering a sudden punch to the side of the arm, a playful one. "Though the information you would be in the marriage festival, well, that is new. Got any plans for any lady of your choice there?" she smirked mischievously.

Zed felt her eyes piercing him, probably for clues, he blushed at that concept, especially with how close she had gotten now and what he felt was something... very complicated to express here. "Say, Maranya, small talk is nice and all, but I should probably go and see what is up with Croll".

With that, he fled.

...

The fields of Croll's home were the closest to the boiling swamps near the volcano, and ever since he had started working on the farm, they were directly connected to his field by a simple dug-out canal. The hot water was not useful for irrigation, but what the other tribal leader had discovered was a method where the fertile land is put above a layer of stones. The hot water filtered through the stone, trapping both heat and nutrients that rose to the vegetable patches above. It was a complicated set up since it used multiple canals with different types of water, but growing crops that before had been rare were now flourishing in the central swamp.

Zed had been fully distracted by the crop patches until he heard something, it was Dzallitsunya and Croll, talking in a somewhat secluded area, their tone serious.

"My Lady. I do not see the true problem with this. It helps us to move the goods faster and get the people to have a better will to work. I am not doubting your ideas but... you cannot possibly believe the current arrangement can last, not with more lands being added to the realm, not with more and more babies being born. It's impossible." the slightly overweight man complained, avoiding an outburst however.

The goddess sighed. [color=7bcdc8]"I appreciate your ingenuity Croll, and I accept this must be frustrating for you, but the way things were developing was bothering me."[/color] answered Dzallitsunya, remaining calm and still, as she always did. She had a way to look imposing but also reassuring, perhaps not unlike the night sky, as black and as deep as a pit but never as scary, thanks to the small hints of light called stars.

[color=7bcdc8]"The way things were going, everything was starting to have a price, at first, it was the precious things people sought, the pigments, the tsillo, and that were fine. Then it was the tools, everyday clothes, that started to be bartered, then it was most of the food, and at that point, it was too much. What will be next on our society's bartering list?"[/color] she waved her cape about, showing a bit less control than usual. [color=7bcdc8]"Will we deny water to the man dying of thirst in the highland deserts unless they give us three pieces of amber? Will we let children drown unless their parents brought us a copper knife? Or maybe refuse to help someone with a broken leg just because they don't have enough snail conchs to give us."[/color]

Croll took a deep breath. "We can control it better, everything is new and we are testing things, I... I just find your actions to be a bit harsh my goddess, you can't stop bartering within the territory, you can stop us from doing things to streamline it, but is it good?"

[color=7bcdc8]"I do not understand why you think your methods are deserving of being given chances, but mine should be made to step back for it because it too has mistakes."[/color] she half turned away, the ringing of her jewellery filling the tense room for a long time. [color=7bcdc8]"You and some others even started paying people in earrings and gemstones to work as your maids and servants, how long until what is being traded are not people's services but people themselves? Sold off in a market not unlike an animal fur or a pet fish."[/color]

"Selling people? That is absurd no one would..." he noticed in his own words that his tone was naive. "And even if they did, you can make that a crime. On the other side, as you are managing the system now, any mistake you make will also result in unhappiness, things cannot be solved by gift sharing and supplies from the temple. And we already struggle with jobs, most young males want to be hunters and explorers but we already have more than we need especially now that the farms are providing food, meanwhile more boring and mundane tasks are piling up, to give them a payment they can exchange for something they like, it gives them the drive to do those tasks."

[color=7bcdc8]"I can assign people manually to the jobs they must perform."[/color]

"But would that not lead to unhappiness? To lock someone in working on something they do not like and that provides no benefit?"

[color=7bcdc8]"It keeps their community safe and healthy, is that not enough benefit?"[/color] she sighed, rubbing her chin. [color=7bcdc8]"Perhaps, make it a duty all would perform from time to time."[/color]

"The latter proposal does seem sound goddess, but what about the people's main work?"

[color=7bcdc8]"We will see about that later, look. For now I am too busy, I am sorry, I did not come here to discuss this, I came to discuss the new lands we need to explore and connect. But now, I do not think I have time even for that. We will resume this conversation in a few days, after the festival."[/color]

The shadow goddess left, her dark cape twirling, Zed not even saying hello as she left, instead immediately looking at Croll, who only now noticed him.

"That was rough." Zed said. "From what I got, she shut down your operations here? Shame, this warehouse was doing wonders for my work."

"Bah. It's useless my friend." he patted Zed's shoulder. "I will be lucky if I get even a minor concession, there is no reasoning with the goddess on this."

Zed turned, surprised. "Do you think so?" seeing the other tribal leader tilt his head in confusion, Zed continued. "She was passionate about the topic, and yet, she did hear your points. At least I felt like it. More than usual at least. Dzalli has cold words but you need to pay attention to her expressions and the way her body sways."

Croll was surprised. "Do you think so."

"Well, at least she admitted she has issues going on, despite things still being good. At the worst case, she will prepare for those problems." Zed added. "Come on, you are so boastful normally, yet you don't realise how good you are at this? To talk back to the goddess like that, I would not have the courage."

"I am boastful? You are the one spitting remarks as edgy as snake fangs."

"But that is with friends, and with humans." Zed sighed. "Plus, well, it's easier to be nasty than to be sincere. When I am fearful, I freeze. Goddess, all eyes on the marriage festival will be on me, and I think I will freeze in place. How did you ask your wife on marriage Croll?"

"We... didn't?" he laughed. "Woke up with her as my love, and our kids too. But if I had to say, you should just take the dive Zed. The girls love that fancy talk of yours and the whole event is meant to help people not to be shy. Now, speaking of which... about Daga..."

"I am sorry Croll, I think that ship has sailed all the way to the geysers. She also now seems to favour another hunter from your son's groups, one that doesn't leave her hanging."

The merchant nodded. "Hmm. Who else could be a good match to him. Hatzur seems too rough for his taste. Maybe the pigments and paints girl, do you know her, Maranya? I am sure he seems to fancy her."

Zed gulped. "Maranya huh? I... don't think..."

[hr]

[center][b][color=7bcdc8]Dzallitsunya[/color][/b][/center]

The festival had started, the people had gathered once again like they never had before. The goddess even felt like she had seen some people she had never seen before, from the nodes beyond the swamps and highlands of the twilight goddess. Of course, the entire getup for the young ones in the festival was meant to make it hard to instantly recognise who was who. The young unmarried this day wore colourful masks and clothing, unlike anything that one would see on an average day to day of the city, colourful, sparkly and far more revealing. The duskladers had barely started to produce music and yet it was already a key part of the festival, the musicians played flutes, messed around with copper bits that produced sharp small ringing noises, and, for once, used percussion such as drums, which was most of the time seen as an unpleasant noise. The latter was probably appreciated for once because it gave the cover of sound to the already masked individuals, add to that the fragrant incense burning and oil fires illuminating the night, and the party-goers were given full anonymity until close and personal, unless they were very obvious people, like Zed for example.

To the sides was the realm of the older, the married or the left behind. The families discussed and whispered at dimly lit tables filled with the best food the swamps had to offer, shifting from table to table, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and uncles, tried to set up new deals for their future family unions. In the middle of all that, in the horizon line between the young and the old, those rising and those setting, stood the goddess of twilight, her face was at first filled with joy, but then, well, the message arrived.

[hider=Blue (A message for Dzallitsunya)]
My Dzallitsunya,

Tragedy has struck us early, dear. It would appear that Anak’thas has succumbed to a certain madness or even illness of the mind. He seems only interested in gathering power and nodes at the cost of our order, even. I could see the infection inside of him as he spoke, his words disguised to being in favor of order but his actions bringing chaos to the future. For the sake of peace, I have detained him and Node 14 until I can cure him of his madness.

I would ask that you do the same for Node 13 and coordinate with our beloved Xavior and Monica. Us four are the only things currently standing between either a world of chaos and war, and one of unity and order.

Stay strong, darling.

[/hider]

Like in the day of the creation, hope was followed by trouble. She had believed in Benea's future and naively believed all would obviously follow it, but of course they had not, even excluding the degenerate gods like that foul smelling woman who defiled a corpse to steal teeth, one's ambition could get in the way, and in this case...

It hit too close home.

The mention of lust for power and nodes, she knew that, she had felt it. Those shadow flowers with cells made of pure raw godly power among the void and chaos. Her godly power. Twice she had felt it, and she could not lie that she needed a third time, then a fourth...

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/xt34REC.gif[/img][/center]

But she wasn't mad, of course she wasn't, she was actually extremely bothered she had over-expanded faster than HER civilisation, if she could choose, she would rather have Anak'thas keep his node. She wasn't mad. But of course, if she could have all the nodes, she would...

But for no other reason than to have some more freedom when creating the land, she constantly found herself struggling against seasons and the sun, who never accepted it was just obnoxious, and every time she tried to reduce the time it ruled over the sky she found herself being held in place by the other provinces, be it those ruled by chaos, or those ruled by others.

The goddess sighed, holding her forehead and looking up at the starry sky. Of course, she wasn't mad. She was sensible and listened to others. She told herself. She did not even know what had really happened between Anak'thas and Benea, and how mad Anak'thas had been, she was just filling the blanks with her own experience and thinking of herself being 'trapped' for being 'mad', she reasoned.

So with a deep breath, she turned away from the party, moving behind a stone-walled home and creating a mirror of silver-light.

[quote]Greetings my dear Benea.

It is regretful to know that negotiations went poorly in the south. In the mirror marches I had set up the land to be of easy access to there in hopes of helping trade flourish among our friendly realms, that Anak'thas has turned such an opportunity into tragedy is upsetting.

At the moment my hands are tied in the land, but I will start to prepare a force to keep the peace in the surroundings of the 13th node, just please forgive me if I turn out to be late, as the last few days have been eventful among my mortals and my manpower is running low.

I hope to see you again soon, and to discuss the events with Anak'thas, to better understand what this affliction is.

May the shadows bless you with respite, Dzallitsunya[/quote]

Copying Benea's technique, she sent the message away, back to the goddess, the silver light fading as it flew like a thrown disk into the sky. The goddess merely stood in silence and darkness, closing her eyes and pondering deeply.

Then she heard a rattle by the docks, a little spark of light. With gentle, silent steps, she sneaks upon the anonymous duo.

The marriage festival was, of course, not just a festival meant to have fun and wear masks, the core was finding a partner. The way this worked, at least in this first version of the event, was by uniting together the materials to make an oil lamp. Following temple specifications, the bachelors and bachelorettes would collect additives for the oil and test them as an individual flame of aspects such as intensity and colour that was of their liking. When the day of the festival came and their partner was selected, the two concoctions would be mixed and used in a single lamp, the resulting flame was to be later used to kindle the first flames and hearts of the couple's house and its recipe would have to be remembered and followed as the unique signature of the family for many future festivals. Already, some couples had made their matrimonial lamps, some with good results, some with poor results.

But this one was the first that seemed to have wandered off, and the goddess could not help but wonder why.

[color=7bcdc8]"Hello?"[/color] the goddess of starlit skies said when she was already upon them. [color=7bcdc8]"Oh. Hello Hatzur, Maranya."[/color] she smiled, but the two did not, they let out a surprised eep, something unusual for the two of them, one steadfast and another one quite a trickster. The goddess was made to stare at them for a moment with true confusion in her eyes, not following the situation nor understanding why they were by the docks... only with overwhelming evidence, like a rock for starting a fire and the lamp with a united concoction did she finally connected the dots.

[color=7bcdc8]"Oh!"[/color] It was hard to get at first, mostly because concepts of love felt so distant and hard to understand her, to her this whole festival had been about having the humans find mates and intermarry the clans and tribes, practical reasons, childbearing, the romance and love of it was lost to her. But she appreciated those concepts, perhaps she even wanted to be able to feel them as well, though it felt impossible, as distant from her as the feeling of godhood was from humans. 

"Goddess we didn't..."

Dzallitsunya shook her head. [color=7bcdc8]"No no, it is fine. This is a festival of love, isn't it? If you two love each other, then you have my blessing."[/color] she added with a smile, then turning her head. [color=7bcdc8]"I would just like if you two lit the fire together with everyone, okay? There is no reason to be shy."[/color]

Despite her words, the two feared a scandal, but it was hard to deny the goddess' own invitation. So they followed her, but soon enough any fear of scandal would be lost, as the talk of the town for the evening and morning would be something else.

Because as they entered the central plaza again, they were quickly approached by Zed.

"I..." he took a deep breath. "My goddess. I wanted to say, that I really enjoy the time I spend with you, be it talking to you, or just being by your side. Your beauty consumes me like the depths of the night sky, and when I am lost, your words are the shining stars that show the way. I... I know it's insolent of me, and if I am to be punished I will understand, but, I just must do it. Dzallitsunya, would you marry me?"

There was no gasp, the world just stood silent, music stopped, all eyes, even of those dancing and holding their partners close, was upon the duo. Dzallitsunya for her part was flabbergasted, Zed was many things, lazy, fussy, but he had never been such a fool. The full extent of her godmind could not for a moment understand what logic was at play here, from all angles, it was a terrible idea that would shake the political arrangement of the land.

It already did in fact, Croll had stood up with an indignant stare, visible to all despite him sitting quite far away from the light-giving bonfire, his own son was the one who stopped him from stepping into the light, reserved only for the young and unmarried during the festival. They bickered in whispers, the son strongly advocating for the father not to make a fool of himself.

And yet... Dzallitsunya was grinning. This was insanity, couldn't Zed see? He was the smartest mortal of these lands, despite wasting his intellect on frivolities. It was everything wrong with Humans... and that made it enticing, a tingle in her chest making her heart skip a beat, wouldn't it be funny if she said yes? What would happen? It was entirely out of her plans... before her senses could return, she found herself talking.

[color=7bcdc8]"I cannot marry someone who is a tribal leader, it would break the peace of the land."[/color] the bait had been set and it was not subtle, she still had the grin and one eye closed.

"Then I will let Daga have it all, my title and possessions, I wish for nothing but the title of being your loved one."

He actually did it. She thought in her mind. No hesitation even! How did humans even work? Were they all this insane? This was just too much, too much to let go.

The goddess opened her hand and revealed a vial containing a dark material, one she had gotten in the ever dark lands to the west. Umbrium, tamed and diluted by the lady of shadows herself. She handed it to Zed, the people in the plaza just feeling more and more incredulous at each passing event, if a maniac was to fall in the middle of the plaza and start crushing people to the death against walls they would probably be less startled.

The man took the material of exotic matter and walked to one of the religious agents controlling the event, the old woman, with shaky hands, gave them the special lamp, Zed added his materials and then Dzallitsunya's exotic dark matter. The flame was lit, and all gasped as in front of their eye they saw something impossible, a dark flame, eating light instead of giving it. Zed's ingredients gave the flame some colour, an aura of turquoise among the dark dancing shape, solid at the core but spreading into little sparkles at the borders, to the mortals like a piece of the starry sky taken down to earth, to the goddess, not unlike those dark flowers of flowing power she felt when she overtook a regional node.

Dzallitsunya advanced and held the lamp together, her fingers touching Zed's. "Then, let us be husband and wife." she pulled him closer, and shared their first kiss by the darkness of the lamp-gloom.


[hider=Summary]
This big post starts with Croll, as the man ponders over how hard it is to actually get Dzallitsunya agree with anything, how much of a zealot his son is. Still, he is happy, having a group of people to find use and purpose for every last rock and plant in this land.
This results in copper work and agriculture being invented.

Zed overhears Croll and Dzallitsunya discussing economics, Dzallitsunya being very worried that the increase of trade will lead to slavery and paid medical care. Since she is a goddess, she shuts it all down, and Croll is left to cope with the consequences.

Dzallitsunya receives Benea's message and is left quite bothered.

The marriage festival finally stars, Dzallitsunya is left pondering about love after she sees a same-sex couple, how humans got together not for the sole purpose of mating and babymaking but for genuine affection. For someone who made this whole event with the cold purpose of intermixing the clans with marital ties and thus centralising power on her, it is quite curious.
Then Zed goes full mad-lad mode and actually proposes to Dzallitsunya. The goddess thinks he is insane. But given her previous thoughts, she is finding human insanity kinda hot, so she says yes and kisses him.
[/hider]

[hider=Might]
Initial: 4

Used:
- 1: Advance the society to copper age

Final: 3
[/hider]