[center][h3][b]Asvarad[/b][/h3][/center] [center][i]The Great Serpent[/i][/center] He could not be trusted. Asvarad knew that even as he watched Vatarr, his new ‘ally’, vanish into the depths and shadows of the metal forest. A peer already capitulated. The worm-king’s appeal to pragmatism was sensible, but he’d only made it after all but gloating that this world was doomed even beyond death. Vatarr offered no assurances, and Asvarad was not inclined to offer his own. Not to someone so pleased with this prison and its cycle of violence. For now, though? The serpent would have to stand beside his peer against others not merely surrendered to the supposed inevitability of a cycle grown old and decrepit with repetition, but willing participants in it. Vatarr had not been wrong when he said they would be coming. If Asvarad was to honor his word and keep all those labouring with him to escape their supposed fates safe from the maddened players of a sick game, he would need more than just himself. He would need an army. He was caught in the thought by a gentle shove, and at once was reminded of the sapling who’d woken him. Had Vatarr not encountered that obstacle… Asvarad didn’t recall creating the young tree, but it had not hesitated to protect him. An encouraging fact, given the serpent’s last foray into creating life. Asvarad turned to face the human-like sapling and thought to it reassuringly, [color=785A6E][i]“He is gone, and any danger with him. For now.[/i][/color] It regarded him skeptically, face akin to a gnarled carving long since disfigured by growth, and pointed in the other direction from where Vatarr had gone. Towards the chaos of node twenty-four. The Forest’s Sentinel, for that was the sapling’s title, conversed with Asvarad in a language of intent and thought, but its meaning was no less clear than if it were spoken. It feared the darkness more than any ‘god’. It did not understand why its creator would defend the madness beyond the world when it had almost killed the serpent. [color=785A6E][i]“An understandable fear, if a shallow one,”[/i][/color] Asvarad’s own thoughts reassured the Sentinel, [color=785A6E][i]“I did not speak the full truth to Vatarr. Yes, I do seek to study chaos before banishing it, that was no lie. More than that, though, I mean to keep it here and contained because I believe it can buy us more time. All I’ve learned of the end prophesized by our world’s creator is that in his time it came after chaos was banished and one so called ‘god’ held sway over every node in existence. Securing chaos is all we can do to be different, at least until I, until we all know more."[/i][/color] The sapling, young as it was, listened to its creator and believed it understood. It even nodded it agreement, if not without qualification. If the world itself hung in the balance, then, and only then, chaos was a lesser concern. Even so, for all it’d sworn to ease Asvarad’s burden the Forest’s Sentinel was one being set against not just the darkness beyond but the clawing avarice of the great serpent’s own peers. It wanted to help but the odds… Asvarad understood that feeling most of all. Imprisoned in flesh, chained by destiny, and evidently the only one of his abilities interested in doing something about it. The odds indeed. The serpent pulled himself up and cast his gaze from the young sapling and to the forest around them. If Asvarad’s power had given birth to one like the Forest’s Sentinel, intentionally or not, then it could surely give birth to more. The answer was all around him. He slithered between the trees, his scales scraping at them and scoring the softer copper and tin trunks. The serpent swept about the forest surrounding the node, searching until he felt the telltale scrape of his body running against hard iron. Only then did the serpent stop. He turned on the Ironbark tree and, in a flash, struck. Teeth reinforced by divinity cut into the dull metal and Asvarad beheld the heart of his creation. He felt its roots digging down, so deep that the earth would burn them were they not armoured, and bid them to fan out instead. The tree groaned, creaked, and shuddered as reality itself warped so that it could comply with the impossible order. Ironbark roots shot out in every direction below the soil and the world seemed to shake as they did. They sought out their kin and dug deep into them. One by one Ironbark trees came under Asvarad’s sway. Each one added every other to its own being and so the web of roots grew and grew until there were not many Ironbarks in the forests of node twenty-five, but one. Once the serpent commanded that one organism the countless saplings that grew from its body began to change. Reflections of the Forest’s Sentinel, as short as a human child or a tall as a building, they stood and unblinking though they might be they beheld the world with wonder and no questions as to their purpose. Asvarad had made a mistake with their first Servant, but not again. This great army would understand, from its very inception, the weight of its duty. It would be foremost in their minds. And of those minds, there was one that would lead them. Asvarad instilled one command into his new army as he withdrew from the Ironbark and spit out the chunks of metal and wood that came out with his teeth. The great host that had been born from the body of their vast mother and the will of their divine father would answer to the first of their number and the only one who’d truly made the choice to take on the burden of a god. [color=785A6E][i]“An army to make my peers tremble,”[/i][/color] Asvarad addressed the Sentinel as he cast out, watching countless reflections of the young sapling rise from the soil around them, [color=785A6E][i]“And one you shall find more than sufficient to fulfill your… Oath to me.”[/i][/color] The Sentinel spun about trying in vain to see all its new kin as it thought to Asvarad. It was thankful, joyful even, to not be the only one, but its thoughts, as they were, came tinged with the fear of chaos. A vast army, beyond a mortal host, but not enough to fight Chaos. For that the Sentinel begged something more. A newborn people, all the same and yet each one its own alien mind, would not be found wanting by their enemies. Asvarad agreed with the Sentinel and, grating as it was, spoke with a rumbling voice that carried on the winds and filled the forest with power, [color=785A6E][b]“Sentinel of this forest, warriors all, I task you with the defense of all who labour to secure this world against hateful destiny. I bid to you contain the Chaos of node twenty-four, the dark land to the southwest. Let none enter and nothing leave. Take on your duty and be fortified in spirit. Know you will have nothing to fear from disease or curse, that your body will never fail you.”[/b][/color] Countless young trees looked away from newfound hands and to the source of the voice. They heard it and each one took on their duty willingly, insofar as their thoughts could be understood at all. They made their way to the heart of the forest and their creator blessed with purpose and the strength to do their part whatever the cost may be. They were terribly young, but that was not a thought the serpent ever had. [hider=summary] Asvarad doesn’t trust vatarr. He doesn’t trust the northern gods even more. He thinks he’ll need an army, and not just for the other gods. The Sentinel wants to know why Asvarad is trying to keep node 24 in chaos, and the snake spills the beans: it’s the only thing he knows didn’t happen in the last cycle. Maybe it will buy time. The sentinel thinks, well ok, but how the fuck do I contain chaos. Asvarad thinks, well, army time! He makes every Ironbark into one giant clonal colony that gives birth to an army of ironbark people like the sentinel. Caveat: unlike the sentinel they won’t keep growing as a normal tree would. Most are human sized, some are bigger, some are smaller. Still, the Sentinel is still afraid of chaos. So Asvarad is nice and gives every tree that accepts their duty a blessing that will secure them against disease, curse, poisoning, that sorta thing. [/hider] [hider=mp] 5mp +4mp: The Quiz 9mp -5mp: The Ironbark: A vast clonal colony spanning the entirety of Node 25 the Ironbark is a forest to itself. The majority of its saplings will become Ironbark warriors at some point, though it is never certain when. As such Ironbark warriors vary greatly in size. -4mp: Duty’s Blessing: All Ironbark warriors, on their birth, understand what Asvarad does about the world. They are given the choice to fulfill their duty and take on a blessing that fortifies them against curse, disease, or poison if they choose to. As all are born with the same thoughts, at first, all agree. At first.[/hider]