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With a satisfied grin, Sarhush looked to the distance. There were great plumes of white, gray, and black that rose like mighty towers to touch the sky, narrow at the bottom and wider on top. The sweet smell of smoke pleased him; already his followers were destroying those trees that still marred the horizon.

His revelry was interrupted by the arrival of another god. Sirna's appearance was as graceful as it was sudden; they had not been long upon this world but already he'd grown so accustomed to the crude stumbling and bumbling of these ur-humans, of Saries, and of the beasts that he'd domesticated. Those were things that he could hear from a mile away and which never took him by surprise.

But this shouldn't have been unexpected--it was bound to be only a matter of time before the other gods realized that they lacked his vision and came to him to seek counsel and direction.

[color=#e1ceff]'[b]Greetings,[/b]'[/color] the newcomer said.

[color=#9E5020]"You are seen,"[/color] Sarhush answered back.

[color=#e1ceff]'[b]Do I have you to thank for this influx of mortals on Ashuru’s surface?[/b]'[/color]

Those words did not elicit such a quick response. Sarhush ruminated over them for a moment or two.

[color=#9E5020]"In one moment I was in the sea, thrashing with the great beast that I have named Saries, subduing and domesticating it as is the proper way of things,"[/color] he began, [color=#9E5020]"Then in the next, I emerged triumphantly from the accursed waters, and I beheld thesee creatures all around!"[/color]

He gesticulated at a group of the ur-humans who stood watching the strange conversation attentively. There was an intelligence behind their eyes; they seemed to understand at least tone and meaning if not whole words, but they did not ever speak back.

So they could only stare dumbly back when Sarhush's gaze shifted from the other god and fell squarely upon them, and the god asked, [color=#9E5020]"What are you called? Where did you come from?"[/color]

It had never occurred to Sarhush until that moment to ask any question of the mortals--what use had he, the wise and all-knowing, have for asking questions?--but now he realized the great flaw in these mortal beings before him. They could listen, and obey, which already made them useful. But they could never speak or command, for they were bereft of such higher intellect. This left them mindless in a sense, and useless as vessels for civilization. Without speech, they near entirely were devoid of the powers of organization and initiative. If they would never accomplish anything on their own without his direct supervision and command, then they were limited and crude tools, like that sharpened stone before he'd crafted it into the first axe.

From the power of this revelation, a great brazen [i]tongue[/i] manifested in Sarhush's hand: the Me of Speech. Its metallic surface was covered in symbols too numerous and varied to count; there must have been one symbol for every sound that a real tongue could ever shape.

[color=#9E5020]"Behold! The Me of Speech. With this I shall bestow upon these creatures the power to tell us of the place whence they came from."[/color]

Sarhush gestured them forward. They approached with some trepidation; this turned out to be wise, as he proceeded to quickly strike them, one after another, with the great cudgel of a Me. But where before they had been silent or condemned only to grunts, they now cursed and cried out in pain with full words.

[color=#9E5020]"Where did you come from?"[/color] Sarhush demanded of them, his booming voice overpowering their moans and whines. He threw the bronze tongue to the ground; they could claim it carry on the work of bashing the rest with it later, for Sarhush had far more important things to do with his time.

"From the sea," one of them replied, "in one moment there was nothingness, and in the next, there was water. It blurred my eyes, but by instinct, I held my breath and thrashed until I could come ashore. There I saw the others, and we gathered to dry in the light of that first day. And then you emerged from the water, triumphant over the Great Beast, and we followed you."

[color=#9E5020]"Hmph."[/color] It was hardly an answer; then again, if one asked Sarhush from whence he'd come, could he have answered any better? Any more eloquently? [color=#9E5020]"They must have manifested from the Egg of Potential, where it was torn asunder in my battle. These ones look like me, so perhaps they were shaped from my thoughts and likeness. And perhaps the lesser and wilder beasts came from the chaotic, unrefined thoughts of Saries."[/color]

Yes, Sarhush was confident in that theory. But now that he was thinking about it, he still did not know what to call these creatures that looked so much like him. [color=#9E5020]"Another question now: [i]what[/i] are you?"[/color]

This one, none could answer. Even with the gift of words, they could only shrug.

It fell to Sarhush, naturally, to name them then. He had to name almost everything it seemed: the world, Saries, these folk. [color=#9E5020]"I name you folk humanity,"[/color] he began. But that word lacked power. [color=#9E5020]"Mankind."[/color] Again, the word rang hollow. He tried a third and final time: [color=#9E5020]"People."[/color]

There! That was a word that had power to it. There was so much power within it that a second Me manifested; this one looked like a tablet of hardened clay, imprinted only with the shape of a human hand and foot. The prints were perfect in their shape, too perfect to ever be real, almost like the divine Forms. But this was such a powerful Me that it transcended mere humans; it contained the knowledge of understand of all [i]peoples[/i], creatures capable of organization, of forging civilization. Perhaps it was as powerful as the Me of Ashuru. But Sarhush was not overly attached to these Mes, so he dropped it down and watched as the ur-humans gathered around it, trying to fit their own hands and feet within the shaped molded onto the tablet.

Sarhush finally turned back to Sirna. [color=#9E5020]"In short: yes. You may thank me, Sarhush, for these mortals. But you have not offered your name. Do you lack one too? From my customary abundance of generosity, I would bestow one upon you."[/color]

[hider=Actions]
Sarhush responds to Sirna, and in the course of his long-winded rant, he generates Mes of Speech and People. These are given to the mortal 'ur-humans' that have been following him around. (0 conviction in-domain lucid actions)

Then Sarhush asks if Sirna needs a name too, because he's on a roll naming everyone and everything in his "customary abundance of generosity".[/hider]