Something was amiss. Allianthé had just finished her fount. The shimmering azure waters that she had drawn from the Wellspring surrounding her tree had turned a vibrant green. The pool was now nestiled between some mossy stones, in a small clearing in the forest that was slowly becoming Arbor. The warm sun could peer through the canopy to shine upon parts of the pool, while a large, drooping willow hung over another part of the pool, offering tranquility and shade. Some mortals - mostly elves and syllianth, mortals that had a closer bond with her. She started to explain what it was. The fount of Greensinging. Those who would bathe in its waters could weave arcana and the energies of life. It had it’s trappings of course, but an overwhelming sense stopped the goddess of Life. Something was wrong. A shill spread over her spine. Death had always been a part of her. Across the world she constantly felt the sudden, evercruel ceasure of her gift. She felt it like being stapped a thousand times with tiny needles. It had been wearing on her, even though she hid it behind her smiles and kind demeanor. What she felt now was not the tiny needles she was never quite getting used to. This was a slash, a stab, a sweep. In one fell strike someone had caused hundreds to die nearly at the same time. The goddess stopped talking, and let the pain sweep over her. Death, she had to accept it. For now. Though it only strengthened her resolve to offer everyone eternity someday. Except the pain kept coming. Another stab, another sweep, another hundred lives consumed by a wretched reality. It was starting to bother her more and more, and the waves of pain got worse as well. “My queen!” A syllianth rushed over. “My queen! The Khodex!” He was out of breath, his metallic shape nestled within the plants was heaving. “It-it-” “Calm down.” Allianthé said, hiding away her own pain. She slowed her own false breathing - something she had been doing since she walked amongst more and more mortals - to help put the syllianth at ease. “Deep breaths. Calm down. What about the Khodex?” “It was glowing, my queen! Colors swirled beneath its surface. Light tried- tried to escape!” Allianthé’s eyes grew wide. In a blink she was gone. And in the next blink she stood before the Khodex. Sadly it wasn’t glowing. It didn’t have swirling patterns over it. It was just…jet black. She drooped her shoulders in disappointment. Was the syllianth lying? And if so, why? Or had the Khodex glowed and- “Was glowy!” A goblin next to her exclaimed. “Real glowy biggest missus!” The goblin continued. “Really?” Allianthé said, another wave of a hundred or so deaths washed over her. She hid it. “What did it look like?” “Oh lotz o’ colors. Like da watah outside.” The goddess knew that goblins had become ever curious creatures, even if they didn’t always manage to speak as eloquently as their larger mortal peers. She took a knee before the little goblin. “Do you think you could…show it to me?” “Oh… Oh no. Me no crafter, like dem knife-ears. Sorry biggest missus. Sorry Chumpah can’t help there.” Allianthé smiled. “This might help.” She tapped the forehead of the little goblin and channeled some of her divinity through him. The goblin, his form so small, seemed to hold a boundless amount of inspiration. The flickering of the khodex had a profound effect on him, but he lacked the insight to reflect what he had seen. He couldn’t put it back into the world. With this blessing, one that lept to so many goblins within the Tree of Life, opened his mind to it. “Oooh!” He exclaimed. “Oh I- I think me can show you now, biggest missus! No, no not now.” He quickly looked away. “Needz them colors. Needs da black and da redz and da… da purplez! Purples a sneaksie color me thinks. To get- to get. But I shall make hurry. Hurry to show the biggest missus.” Like a little goblin possessed, he scampered off. Probably to find some even place somewhere around, together with some easy colors. He wouldn’t make a masterpiece. Surely not. But any approximation would not just bring joy to the goddess but to Arbor as a whole. Another wave of pain went over Allainthé. This time she couldn’t suppress the wince. A thousand lives extinguished. She couldn’t ignore it anymore! In the blink of an eye Allianthé was gone. A gale wind blew for a moment, before the air itself calmed around Arbor. At the edge of the Land of Origins, the creation of the Khodex itself, she cast her gaze out further south. A dust storm was travelling straight towards. But her eyes saw more than just dust and wind. It saw fear. Rickety creations upon wheels were charging straight for the lands. More life! For a moment the goddess was overjoyed. Then the first goblins’ cart felt. The others didn’t even slow down. Small bodies fell down upon the ground. The few that could still move were mangled by the irate horde following behind. “No stop! You’re killing them!” Allianthé shouted. Her voice carried over the vast expanse to hit the horde. They didn’t listen. Why didn’t they listen!? She saw them reach small settlements. They slowed this time. Some stopped. Where they picking up others? What was going- With spear and bow and sling more goblins died. Fire was consuming huts. They were dragging away bags. From so far away Allianthé could still see them filled with fruits. Why were they taking food!? She had tried so hard to make sure there would not be a shortage. Sure enough, her touch might not be complete out here but was there a need for such savagery. For such finality? Wrath struck Allianthé like no other. Like a furious wind she sped towards the horde. The air could not move fast enough around her. A loud bang rippled across the sky before the goddess slammed in front of the horde. From the dust that billowed around her a dozen, silken arrows from shot forth, catching carts and stopping them in their spot. Hundreds others veered off. At first they tried to return fire with slings and bows. None of it hurt Allianthé. More silk-spun arrows flew forth. The goblins were fast to realize that they stood no match and fled. The goddess wasn’t done. Her bow turned back into a spider-ring as she jumped from the still settling upon one of the carts. “Why are you killing!?” Allianthé demanded from one of the goblins. He was frantically trying to cut himself loose but stopped when the eyes of a goddess looked straight at him. “The things! The monsters! The beasts! Killing is all they do! South we must go! Away we must go!” He yelped. His pleas pulled Allianthé out of her anger. He was right. The death, or rather the sudden end of life, that she felt could not have been caused by this horde. Not even by two or three of them. It was something else. Something bigger. The baying confirmed her fear. Something far beyond the horizon was coming. Something big, something dangerous, something that killed indistriminately. With a flick of her hand Allianthé released the webs. Some of the carts could continue. Others were broken by the sudden stop. The goblins frantically tried to repair them. Allianthé would’ve helped them, if she didn’t feel the desperate need that a cataclysm was moving towards her and the lands of origin. She flew up, slower as to not deafen the little goblins, to see from higher up what was coing. The little goblin was right. Some horrific creature was thundering towards the Lands of Origins. They weren’t marauding, they were fleeing. Allianthé would have to give them a propper home. But first she had to deal with this. A land-blackening army of monsters followed the titanic beast as well. From high up Allianthé could see them at work. They crushed and killed and bit and slaughtered. Some of them, their backs laden with corpses, hurried back. That was a mystery to unravel when she had the time. First she had to reason with this thing. “Stop! In the name of Life itself!” Allianthé bellowed as she flew down towards the beast. It didn’t listen. In fact it almost rammed Allianthé aside. She flew away and down again, stopping further. “In the name of your very life force I command you to cease!” It had no effect on the titan. Who kept coming at her. Her eyes glowed a pale, sickly green now. With a thousand voices as one she commanded: “Stop!” Some of the smaller creatures stopped. It was hard to disobey life itself when you were a breathing, living thing. Others, in the shadow of their titan, barely cowered. “Stop!” Allianthé repeated. More smaller ones slowed and stopped. The power, the divine Might, projected was flowing over the world now. But the titan kept going, kept crushing small creatures under its path with little care. “Stop!” Allianthé shouted a final time. She poured all authority she had as the Verdant Queen into that command. Egrioth reared up before her. At first seemingly to stop her. Then two of its spire-legs came down on her. Allianthé’s small shape was sent flying towards the ground with such force that a crater spawned around her. She tried to get up. The two legs came down again. Quaking the earth. It raised its legs again and continued its charge. Thousands of creatures swarmed the crater, braying for the divine ichor. Allianthé was downed, her divine essence spilling from beneath her. Pieces of broken bone and bark laid strewn around her. Blood poured from a half-shaped body in which she tried to encase herself in. It never stood a chance at living. But for a split second it had, and then Esgrioth had killed it. Outside the beasts were calling for her. Why did they want to kill her like she was some mortal? She was life! She was them! In all of them! Allianthé didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. There was only a vile frenzy. The wounds she was dealt was not a simple thing. It was not something that would just heal. Something in her very core was broken. With pure dread she realized that she could not fight this thing. But she had to do something. Monstrous beasts kept gnawing and snarling against the strange, wood and bone cage. Things were breaking all around her. They were getting closer. What was she supposed to do? Mantibles broke through a nearby rib. She could see the frenzy in whatever creature was behind that maw. It got closer, with a strange desperation it was squeezing its body through the hole it made. Others were making their way in as well. What wa she supposed to do here!? “Please.” Allianthé begged. “Please you’re… You’re alive as well.” They were. Everything around her, they were her children as well. She didn’t want them hurt. She didn’t want them hurting her. “Please just… calm down.” The beast broke through deeper, Allianthé could see its five eyes now. There was a maddened frenzy in them. A hunger for… her. For anything! “Please just… calm down. There is enough- there is enough food around. I promise.” The beast could understand her, that was certain. All creatures could understand their mother. This one just didn’t care. He kept snarling at her and pushing its body through the hole. Bones kept breaking around her. “I’m sorry.” The creature before her collapsed. In a split second the thousand creatures in the crater dropped down as well. Their maddened frenzy stopped dead in its tracks. The lively fire behind their eyes, that burned with nothing but hunger and madness, was gone. From amid the pile of flesh, carrapace, bark and regret an emerald star began to rise. “I’m sorry.” Allianthé said. Godly tears fell from her eyes as she held the condensed life force in both of her hands. A thousand had died around her, because of her, and the resulting pain was beyond anything she had ever felt. Despite that, her tearful eyes turned to look at the Monster. In her hands the emerald light began to glow. “You must be stopped. I will stop you.” The green light turned into a shape, an orb made entirely of Jade. At first it was solid, then the color began to recede from the edges, until the only thing within the now glassy orb that was still jade was the Beast. [center]“Egrioth. Your madness must be halted. Egrioth. Your savageness will be stopped. Egrioth. Your wrath can be cooled. I mark thee, for endless, restless, relentless life will follow thee. I mark thee with the Eternal Marshes.”[/center] Impossible life burst from the very ground below the horse-like beast. Giant willows reached out, broken by the charge and reached up again. Pits of murky water filled with biting fishes and wrapping vines trapped the millions of bestial servants. Even more vines reached out towards the Outer Beast. Wherever it stepped the swampy ground below gave way for wrapping moss and strangling vines. And it still could not stop him. Allianthé could barely see that her artifact’s curse did not stop Egrioth forever. It only slowed it down. But at at least its mortal servants would have a tougher time sticking close to its master. As Egrioth charged on, the very marsh around it moved with it. [hr] Allianthé did not land gently. She fell near her tree. Elves, goblins, and syllianth came flocking towards her. In a second they realized something was very wrong with their god-queen. Golden light was flowing out of her. Was she bleeding!? Could a god bleed? “Goddess!” An elf reached her and tried to get her up. Allianthé was still shaken. She looked up and peered into the elf’s eyes. “Aenos.” She said with a smile, for of course she knew every name. “I will see greatness in you.” She touched him on the shoulder, and a beautiful, emerald light shone from behind his eyes as their color turned from hazel to bright green. “A titan is coming.” she started coughing, like she was sick. “And an army comes with it. Arbor… Arbor cannot fall. Do you understand,” “Goddess… no!” Aenos exclaimed. “You must find- find a way to stop the onslaught.” A syllianth arrived as well. She reached and helped up Allianthé as she tried to fashion some support from the metal within her. “Goddess, what happened.” “Irrithae.” Allianthé said and smiled at the syllianth. “You remind me… of your other mother a bit.” She touched the syllianth’s shoulder and again verdant green light shone from behind her eyes, forever transforming their color. “I will have to… rest. For a time. The world… cannot forget. Killing, hurt, it is wrong. There must be growth. Eternal, ceaseless. Promise me, Irrithae. Have them remember.” “Goddess- I-” Allianthé collapsed in the arms of the elf and the syllianth. Other mortals came flocking too. Each held up the all-mother. She was breathing ragedly, even though she did not need air. “To the Tree!” Irrithae yelled, and all followed. Allianthé, wounded Allianthé, was carried into the tree and laid before the Khodex. Leaves from the great tree fell down from above, and wrapped themselves around her. Trillion spiders came from every nook and cranny, sending goblins and elves that had taken up residence inside the tree running. They began to move towards the crowd, and in utter fear they began to run out of the tree. A few, sad stragglers were caught in the great web that was now filling the hollow inside of the tree. And so the people of Arbor stood before a sealed Tree of Life. “Life… is locked away.” Said Irrithae, confused as to why she knew what words to speak. “And Life will remain locked… until the world is freed.” The people were looking at her. In their eyes she could see the endless questions they had. “Aenos?” She asked. The elf was standing beside her. “What should we do.” He looked around. His eyes were somehow sharper. None of it gave him any answers. “Aenos?” He was a young elf. A faithful elf. He had followed the edicts of his goddess to the best of his capabilities but he was not without his sins. He had to protect something but how? His eyes caught those of a friend and rival of his. When he wanted to grab a piece of Aenos’ fruit, he had punched him. Was that what he was supposed to do? “We- I… I will do what I must.” [hider=Summary]Allianthé starts to realizing that quite a bit of life is extinguished in an instant as she makes the Emerald Pool, a place where people can bathe to access Greensinging magic. But first she is informed that the Khodex did a weird. She investigates and finds a goblin who was witness to it. She blesses the goblin, and the othr goblins of Arbor, with Art to let them recreate the event. After that she goes to inspect what’s causing so much absence of life. First she finds the horde of goblin carts rushing for the Land of Origins. She stops a few in a rather forceful matter and demands an explanation. The little gobbo frantically explains that monsters are coming. He’s not wrong, and Allianthé tries to confront Egrioth and his army. With disasterous results. Allianthé is thrown to the ground and nearly killed by the Outer Beast. Which prompts her to resort to a last resort: killing. About a thousand beasties die to create her Godsbane artifact: the Marching Marshes. She marks Egrioth with it. Everywhere he moves, a Marsh will form around him to slow him down. Finally, Allianthé returns to her tree. There she makes two heroes, the Protector and the Prophet. They carry her into the tree which seals itself off to let Allianthé heal within.[/hider] [hider=MP summary] [b]Start MP:[/b] 12 - 1MP: Mix her own magic with that of the Wellspring to create Greensinging, a magic that allows the wielders to manipulate plants. It does suffer from a curse, one slightly modified. The more you use Greensinging, the more one turns into a plant themselves. It starts with small things. Skin turning into bark, a natural wreath forming around their heads. Though with time and use they will one day find themselves rooted to the ground. By then most might not even care. - 1MP: Bless the goblins of Arbor with the capacity for art. This gives them the artistic insight and desire to put their inspiration to words, drawings or express it through any other medium. This does not make all of them into master artists! - 1MP: Demand living creatures to listen to her command - 1MP: Extinguish the life within a smaller Outer God Creature (1MP towards the Death domain) - 5MP(Boosted due to Life domain): Creation of the Jade Orb of Eternal Marshes Godsbane Artifact. The curse of the Orb locks onto a creature of the wielder’s choosing. Once marked, life will follow them until they die. An eternal marshland forms around them, with deep pools, willows and vines that try to stop them. The area it manipulates it large, as it can slow down not just an Outer Beast but also the army that follows it. However, only one creature can be targetted at a time. Once the creature and the marshes passed, the biome slowly but surely returns to its natural state. - 1MP: Turn Aenos into a hero - “The Protector” Charged with the defense and protection of Arbor. - 1MP: Turn Irrithae into a hero - “The Prophet” She speaks with the wisdom of the goddess herself, created to remind mortalkind of the goddess’ edicts. [b]End MP:[/b] 1 [/hider] [hider=Death Domain]It is easier to explain first what Allianthé’s death is not. It is not gentle, nor cruel. It is not the pain that might come before, or the serenity when the end of a long time approaches. It is not what comes after, the underworld or the next life. It is not the corpse left behind or the grave others mourn over. It is not the soul - its presence and sudden absence - that she governs. The authority she would hold would be over a singular moment that all mortal kind so far had to suffer. She is the moment when the body or the mind or both fail, and life ends. It can no longer grow and it can no longer create other life. That one moment she would hold unwilling dominion over.[/hider]