[center][h1]Excelsis, the Lord-Eminence[/h1][/center] To be born was a rather strange sensation. Excelsis, though it had no knowledge nor comprehension of that name, found itself on a blackened shore at the edge of creation. He didn’t have a form. Why did he not have a form? There was little else he could do than ponder the question. He had no eyes to see nor ears. So he posed the question internally to himself: why does he not have a form? His form would come as a mirror of… something. Something that was yet to be. Because it is not, he is mirrorless. That wouldn’t do. He needed a shape. Could he get a shape? The answer to the question came easily. The blackened sand rose up and gathered as if pulled by some invisible magnet. It gathered and condensed into an orb. Was this enough? Hardly, things existed. There was a reality beyond. The fact that he just formed a body from something was proof of that. So he had to sense things about him. He had to! So how do you sense something? The answers came in a thousand fragments of little truths. The black god-orb shifted and changed. A thousand protrusions formed and vanished again as they were deemed insufficient. One moment a hundred eyes formed all over the orb, then turned into half as many ears, which then turned into three times as many whiskers reaching out. He cycled through other senses as well. Three hundred tongues tasted the non-air. Rubbery skin formed to feel the difference between cold and warm. Bit by bit, the god-orb puzzled his sense of reality together by ever alternating his own shape. Eyes would be useful, indeed. Skin too. He cycled through other senses too. Deposits of a matter that aligned with greater forces. Large stalks grew to detect the minute changes in pressure. A lot of senses were discarded as well. There were also senses developing that he had little understanding of. The orb kept cycling through the senses. It began to shuffle the ones that worked through each other. Eyes and ears grew and vanished together as the god-orb examined the world. How curious, there was a reality but it was also only half-shaped. Much as he was only half-shaped. What should he do next? Well, if you have uncovered something, one gets to name it. It discovered itself so it could name itself. The name came presently: Excelsis. The word held no meaning at all, beyond that it was indisputably its name. So he was Excelsis and a half-formed world existed around him. It was clear what he had to do next. From the orb appendages grew. He used a hand to grab the sand. It clung to him for a moment – what was a moment? – and then fell, leaving behind light. A paw dug through the sand. It was all the same to the touch. Two eyes formed upon two hands and looked closer over the sand below – yes, there was a below, which meant there was also an up – and came to the conclusion it was all one form. The maybe-water behind was also of one form: everything. There existence raised a hundred questions that would require a – oh.. what is this? A newly formed claw raised something before Excelsis’ permanent eyes. Slowly, he turned it around. It wasn’t sand. It was irregular, larger, imperfect in shape and therefore so exciting! It was a crystalline thing. His physical form released it but his curiosity held it at attention. It drifted in the air around him, orbiting the god-orb Excelsis as eyes began to follow it along the other shell of the god. Other eyes detected other shapes nearby. They were out of reach, though. And then they weren’t. The god-orb moved itself. Three-jointed arm – which once would be identified as a grasshopper’s arm – reached out and grabbed something else. A shell? He knew what it was but not the meaning of – what is that? One of his newly formed eyes caught something on this shell. It turned to focus it again. Reality did not just have form. It had… color! All god-eyes of Excelsis blinked and in a moment they left him disappointed. The world was not filled with color. Quite the contrary. Only the shell seemed to hold an essence of not-nothing. The fading grasshopper arm vanished, and the shell began to orbit Excelsis as well. His god-sense screamed. Something stepped into the world. Other gods? Yes! No… They were something else. The name self-manifested itself: Ideals. Much like his own name, the name meant nothing beyond that Excelsis was certain that these new beings were named that way. The god-orb was enthralled by these representations of reality. Then one of them came into being that burned like a bonfire amid candles. Excelsis was both enamored and enraged by the sight. This was all he wished to be. It was all he wished to have. A base sort of greed overtook him. Innate divinity answered his voiceless demands. The god-orb short forth towards a glowing tear in reality from where the Ideal of Knowledge was stepping into the world. Black sand raged around him a hurricane. At the command of the god of discovery the sand turned into a mighty maw and engulfed the blazing Ideal. Metaphysical chains of divinity tangled with the entity. Excelsis would have it. He would have all the knowledge and it would serve as a foundation for his Everything. An Ideal, however, was not so easily captured. As the sand cage hardened, it slipped like water between the fingers. It moved and dodged, shrouded itself in light and dark all the same. It was never a fight between two creatures. This was a fight between two definitions of reality. The Ideal wished for its own freedom for all. Excelsis demanded its imprisonment and eternal obeisance. The two tangled in physical and metaphorical ways above the world. It was the First Battle of existence. Excelsis never cared to understand what was going on. With raw might he tried to overpower the Ideal’s every move. He would have his price, the consequences be damned. Whether the Ideal understood the futility of the battle, or Excelsis failed to understand it, it could not last. All that was, is, and would be fought against a being that could alter two of those things. A mighty, physical explosion rocked the world. [b]“NO!”[/b] The very word followed the blast! Knowledge in all sorts of shapes of reality flew out towards every corner of the world. As soon as it happened, tendrils and appendages reached out. Thousands of pages, steles, plaques, engravings, and other vessels of knowledge were captured and brought back. Not all, though. A few scattered bits of pure comprehension were lost due to Excelsis’ lack of omnipresence. Others were flung into the Ocean. They sank into the deep, forbidden waters. Excelsis cursed. He cursed the foolish Ideal that had chosen to shatter itself instead of admitting its defeat. Still, he was mostly successful. The pages were united into something that would be named the Akashic Vessel, which, in the presence of Excelsis represented itself as a simple, stone slate. All other senses that had littered the outside of the god-orb vanished. Instead, a million different eyes opened up to gaze upon the tablet. It was incomprehensible. None of it made sense. Not even the basic signs. [b]“No.”[/b] An unnerving sense settled over Excelsis. [b]“I captured you!”[/b] He roared for everyone and everything to hear. [b]“You are mine!”[/b] It was spoken with as much hubris as it was with desperation. [b]“Show yourself!”[/b] The tablet did shift. Its signs and symbols moved before the many eyes. It was mocking him. The new shapes made as much sense as the old ones did. That is to say, none at all. The Akashick Vessel was incomprehensible to his divine mind. [hider=Summary] Excelsis examines the half-made world, then detects that Ideals are coming forth. He tries to imprison the Ideal of Knowledge but fails. The Ideal shatters into billions of fragments of knowledge. Excelsis can gather most of them. Some evade him, others fall into the Ocean where he can’t go. Most of the pieces of knowledge (in the form of scrolls, steles, books, etc) are gathered and united into the Akashic Vessel. Which no divine mind can read. - 3 Conviction: Creating God-Tier artifact - The Akashic Vessel. Catastrophic Ripple Turbulence: 100% 2 convictions remaining [/hider]