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He traveled ‘cross roads and plains, over hills, and through valleys, avoiding notice as he pondered future plans. His designs were many, his machinations both intricate and vast in equal measure. Yet, though the road was easy, his path was dark and full of terrors, unseen, unknown, and impossible to predict. So it was that after many musing thoughts, a multitude of manifold reflections on his past, Kaelhmor came to a conclusion.

[color=#439164][b]“It is an agent I require now to do my works while others have turned their gaze to me.”[/b][/color]

At the thought spoken into the empty open-air, Kaelhmor felt a dark amusement overtake him, then laughter spilled joyously from his throat. As his jubilation filled his surroundings, the burning moon shining upon his visage, Kaelhmor reached deep within himself and grasped the power at his core. Yet, as he drew upon that power, the new strength he had wrought from his work upon the heavens, and the artifice of his pendant, finally bore fruit. Unexpectedly, as he drew his hand up and outwards from his chest, a blinding burst of light erupted, followed by a tail of inky black and iridescent darkness. Welling up from within him beyond his expectation, this power blossomed outwards and overtook his visage, limning him in golden light that hid entirely the truest Aspect of his nature.

Smiling and struck silent by the revelation of this new power, Kaelh nonetheless turned his mind back upon his goal. Considering his needs, the Lord of Light and Lies, the God of Deception, and Illumination both drew further upon his essence and began to weave it before his form. Shadow and Light–two sides to the same coin–often opposed, now he would unite them. First, the veil of Illumination, a cloak of effervescent brilliance, light so intense that it touched the soul as much as it did the eyes.

Gradually, that veil of light parted to reveal the dark beauty that was his first sapient creation, his agent, his confidante: His avatar.

[color=#439164][b]“Lhumina,”[/b][/color] he said, her name a blessing, a gift, and a proclamation too. Blinking, Lhumina’s molten gold gaze, glowing with a light more intense than the sun, or moon, or stars, focused upon his form. Slowly, a gentle smile spread across her features fair, and she bowed her head in thanks to her Lord.

Gently stroking her cheek with the back of his outstretched hand, Kaelh nodded, then turned away and continued on his trek, assuming she would follow. As sure as the sun would rise, she did, following in his footsteps as the moon did to the sun.

[color=#439164][b]“Will you help me, dear child, favored sister, my Lady of Bright Skies and Shadows Darker still?”[/b][/color]

Lhumina did not answer, but her visage brightened, her expression growing eager even as the light that limned her form lit the night such that almost it seemed twas dawn. Kaelhmor simply smiled.

[color=#439164][b]“Very good, my starling. Soon, I shall make you a brother, but for now you must work alone. So to you this task I shall give. Work in the light as I would to hide our truer nature. Work in the shadows as I might, to sow the seeds for many better futures far and wide. You will be my beacon in the dark, my Shadow in plain sight, hidden by the bright brilliance of the dawn. Can you do this, avatar, is this your desire, dear Lhumina, first and only child of my soul?”[/b][/color]

Stopping in place, half turning to his youngest creation, the only sapience wrought from his essence most divine, Kaelhmor regarded her with a graveness to his bearing, his eyes calculating and cold, yet lit with the warmth of love for what one has most carefully borne unto the world. The love of a father, of a brother, of a craftsman for his craft, of an artist for his art, yet at once the harsh eye of such folk, the judgment of those who care so much as to crush, as to mete out discipline or destruction.

Yet, before that twofold gaze, his avatar did not falter. Lhumina did not blink; she shone only brighter, her shadow growing deeper and longer and fuller all at once. [color=#E69E0E][b]“There is nothing I desire more, my lord. Nothing a yearn for beyond these things. I would be honored, it would bring me joy beyond measure to do this for you. After all, your joy is mine, and I do hope mine is yours,”[/b][/color] she bowed her head as she said it, then met his gaze with her own glittering golden eyes.

[color=#E69E0E][b]“I will go now and be a burden no longer, oh Lord of Light, Master of the Blinds, ye Seer of Masked Light.”[/b][/color] So it was that Kaelhmor’s judgment melted away into relief and adoration, and so too did Lhumina beam back to her master, her father, her brother, and her lord.

Then, without further words between them, with nary but a glance, Lhumina nodded once and lept into the heavens, her veil flaring out into wings with bones of shade and feathers of purest Illumination. In the next instant, she was gone, flying buoyed by the rays of ruined moonlight. Kaelh smiled fondly after her and then returned to his journey into nowhere, almost content. Yet, inspired by the sight of his avatar’s departure and gladdened by the brilliance of her mind and heart, Kaelh drew out the pendant from his garments and unclasped it from his neck.

As he walked effortlessly over a hilltop, the Lord of Lies and Light regarded his creation and decided that it was time to make it [i]more[/i]. So it was that, like a flare, the Lens flashed and sparked beneath the starlight and the ruined, burning moon. At first nothing changed, and then all at once, the pendant’s centerpiece warped into liquid light as if the light had somehow taken on the form of matter. Indeed it had. Within that swirling abyss of brilliance at the pendant’s center, a single bead of darkness shone, all the more empty for the brightness all around it. Smiling, Kaelh etched [i]sigils[/i] upon the outer holding of the necklace, each symbol impossible to decipher yet clearly filled to brimming with power and meaning both.

Still smiling and now truly satisfied, Kaelh once more drew his cloak close around his figure and vanished into the night, continuing his travels to a yet undecided destination.

Soon, he knew, soon the Great Game would begin. It was only a matter of time.

[hider=Imagery][hider=Lhumina][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1007015292976771243/1026332742113296394/yoshua_attractive_woman._feminine_silhouette._veil_of_light._Bo_794232b3-99c2-4500-8f79-21c634ab89d5.png[/img]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1007015292976771243/1026319218070794350/yoshua_form_of_shadows_bound_in_a_veil_of_light._Cloak_of_light_255e3171-f682-4b99-ad8d-b4b7c8423032.png[/img][/hider]
[hider=The Lesser Lens][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1007015292976771243/1026337848082829332/yoshua_hurricane_pendant._liquid_light_necklace._swirling_gold._3c0299c1-a8f5-4c2b-bca6-b8d07ae765e6.png[/img][/hider][/hider]
[hider=Summaries][hider=Narrative Summary]In which Kaelhmor claims the Aspect of Illumination, creates Lhumina, his first avatar, and empowers the Lesser Lens with power greater than before.[/hider]
[hider=Might Summary]Starting Might: 5MP / 5AP

-3MP to Claim the Aspect of Illumination.
-5AP to Create an Avatar: Lhumina.
-2MP to further empower an Artifact: The Lesser Lens (Total might: 3).

[i][u]Lhumina:[/u][/i] Kaelhmor’s first avatar, Lhumina is the Lady of Bright Skies and Shadows Darker Still. She is his agent, his confidante, a reflection of his nature wrapped in the guise of a dark-skinned beauty with glowing golden eyes and a veil of purest Illumination. She is the seed from which Deception grows and the source from which enlightenment can be gleaned.

[i][u]The Lesser Lens:[/u][/i] A necklace of excellent craftsmanship with a pendant composed of mirror-like crystal capable of siphoning, trapping, and releasing light at the user’s behest. Can emit a flash of light of variable brightness relative to how much light is held within it, as well as make a space totally bereft of light or illuminate a space to a variable degree depending on the light held within. Now imbued with power greater still, the Lesser Lens can generate its own light for its center is composed of light in liquid form, swirling like a hurricane around the jet black marble that is its ‘eye’. The Lens may now focus and manipulate light within the vicinity of the wearer in addition to creating incredibly bright ‘flashes’ or even persistently blinding screens of illumination. So too can the pendant continuously siphon all illumination from a locale, rendering it darker than any other place ‘cept perhaps the birthplace of shadows themselves, wherever that might be.

[u][b]The Aspect of Illumination[/b][/u]
The brilliance of primordial Light brings clarity to many things, be they physical spaces or the immaterial Truths of the world, they nonetheless fall within the domain of Illumination. Wielding such a power, the divine might alter, create, or destroy physical light with abandon or wield the subtle forces upon the metaphysical, bringing clarity and enlightenment into the world. With the former, beacons of unquenchable brilliance can be created, making darkness flee from the source and bringing sanctuary to the denizens of the world. With the latter, lies and deception can be utterly destroyed, obfuscation obliterated and the confusion and discord of the unknown brought to light. This metaphysical power is the greater of Illumination's twofold nature and it is through wielding this that mortals can be brought to enlightenment, that darkness can be destroyed, and that the mysteries of the world can be unveiled to all.

Still, Illumination is but a tool for the Seer of Masked Light, mastered only so that he might hide behind its incandescent splendor. With its power, he will reveal to mortalkind the truths he desires them to know, while blinding them to all else. With it he will take the guise of Primordial Light unto himself to hide his so-called deceit-filled core.

[i]Tl;dr:  Illumination can be used both to literally bring light in the sense of creating or destroying sources to illuminate the physical world. So too can illumination cast metaphysical light onto the world, allowing mortals to make connections they otherwise might not, enhancing the clarity of their thoughts. Through this aspect of Illumination's power, deception can be removed, details revealed, or mysteries unraveled.[/i]

Ending Might: 0MP / 0AP[/hider][/hider]