Antarctic Termite

I've watched this ghost so long / It feels like home to me / We've seen him wail / He keeps his tail tucked in between

DONE
Kap Gam
Gremju
Grimloq
Seidhara
Ipeyr
Pelegath

PLANNED
Kikoquatl
Aella

NOT DONE
Larwen
Orfai
Sebna

Godspeed!

@Lauder FUCK I DIDN'T SEE I MISSED THE 'DON'T'

DON'T NINJA ME

DON'T NINJA ME

I WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE IN PEACE

Godspeed!

[@Everyone], I'm writing a post for Mater Lei that encompasses everything that's been done so far, or near as. Please don't try to ninja me, it may take a few hours.

@Kalleth I'll look him over in a bit!

I've watched this ghost so long / It feels like home to me / We've seen him wail / He keeps his tail tucked in between

Mater Lei

---

The new gods passed in a blur. Like wind, they flowed from the door and rushed past her, whipping each way in colourful zephyrs of life and creation, speaking much, but saying nothing. Mater Lei stood fixed before the Door, holding the orb of the Lock like a beacon as they came.

A small tug brought her back to reality: a tiny fairy, pulling at the edge of her robe. Sensing her awareness, it scurried into the shade of the Towers.

Without turning, Lei gazed into the Vault. A single gramophone revolved silently on its table, nothing else around. Slowly she pulled a long pin from her coat, and rammed it through the vinyl. A second later there was a spark as its motor died and began steaming smoke.

Time squealed to a halt.

She'd been alone too long, Lei realised. She had grown used to unlimited time. Now that habit would have to end. Age would keep up with youth if it wants to stay alive. She turned her head to her sons. The younger had dutifully followed the Dragon as he swept away over the ocean. The elder was off in the forest. Lei rolled her eyes. He could stay there.

"Malkut."

The Avatar performed a fifth-dimensional turn and faced her from the edge of the planet, replying immediately. "It is as you suspected. The Dragon named Grimloq has raised an isle of magma, and laid a clutch of children upon it. Creation has been enacted to no great destructive counterweight- other than some localised earthquakes." She nodded. "However, there is a large tidal wave headed your way as a result of the vulcanism."

"Thank you, Malkut. And the other?"

"Gremju the Imp discovered a desert plain on the northern plateau, and has left it charred. Strange crystal hovers above it. Beyond this I do not know."

"Thank you. I will handle them from here." Brilliant lines and figures formed themselves from solid light, an intricate net that spun all around her. "Here are some schematics. Malkut, take my power and realize them before our Time re-starts." Malkut stepped through space onto the beach while Lei walked into the water. "Alto..." Some rustling from the bushes. "...Keep doing whatever the hell it is you think you're doing."

Mater Lei raised her cane in two hands and stretched it into a long staff, then brought it down over her knee, bending it into a sharp crook. As Malkut directed the silks and shadows of her power, she leapt into the air, past the atmosphere and through orbit, landing in Gremju's plain.

"Not so fast, lad," she said to the frozen gremlin, hooking him by the neck and dragging him along with her as she flew to the beach and dumped him there. "If you're going to be a nuisance, Gremju, then they should know who they have to blame." He landed face first in the swamp water. "Have fun."

She leapt again and landed upon Grimloq's isle, was about to hook him in the same way, then paused. As her hand brushed the surface of the brilliant eggs, Lei looked up and saw the beauty of it, this fiery island and its dragon emperor. She turned away. "Raise your children here and raise them strong, Creator," she said, crook tapping molten stone. "But come. You should learn the names of your brothers. Soon enough, so will they."

Lei returned to the Beach, where Malkut was still working. A great veil of dark and white had descended over the region, bearing streams of material from inland. She located Kap Gam, the first arrival, in the heavens. Did she know she was frozen? She looked like she might.

"You know why you're here," said the Mater, though she herself did not. She plucked a Tower spore from the air and watched it grow. "You are welcome in my universe, traveller. Be at peace." The rest could be left unsaid. Kap Gam knew she was trapped, and Lei raised no denial.

She saluted Promus, and plucked a spider-like mist from his clouds. "Only so much nuisance this universe can take, my dear," she said to the nascent Sebna. "Let the adults be."

As Lei flicked Sebna into the forest and descended to it herself, she moved on to the other one, the one that had demanded her attention. "There comes a time, Seidhara, when all mothers must let their children go." Her crook drew idly in the sand as she spoke. "My Door does not open so easily. If you would yearn for cubs not of this world, show me, first, that you can provide." Lei moved on. For now.

Ipeyr received a comforting pat on the back. "Pleasure to have you, my dear," she purred. "Keep working on your introductions."

She walked over the waters of Pelegath's swamp, merging smoothly with the roots of Ipeyr's woods. "Romantic, isn't it?" she said, stirring some gunk with her foot. When she realised she meant it, she laughed. She stroked the cheek of his bird. "There is always a place for those with an eye for the odd and the subtle. Be welcome, Pelegath. Renew."

As she spoke this, Lei emerged from the Vault with a thing like a double pendulum, but that it had infinite joints and infinite branches, and was swinging in every direction at once. She tapped it, and the simple forces of change accelerated in all the newborn life beyond her. Released for a moment from the grip that held the gods, swamp, woods and shore soon interlocked to form a mangrove, then a salt marsh further out. "You may enjoy this," she said, not only to him. "Only do not lose track of what you grow."

"...but I don't have to tell you that, do I, Larwen?" she said, draping an arm over the Corrupter's shoulder. Side by side with him, it was remarkable how similar they were in frame: too tall, too spindly, and too horned to be human. He had escaped notice, but not from her. "You've embodied a noble quest. Not graceful, by any means, pft- but noble." She flicked her hand idly to the trees. "Don't get yourself killed."

Lei walked away, running her metacarpels over the biolithic shell of the Goldari. Such a beautiful thing, she thought, deep underwater, stretching her crook out around the neck of the nearest Faliargun to pull his body away from its jaws. One by one she drew the newborn humanoids into the safety of waters enclosed by Malkut's rising construction, and the Goldari she left outside.

"In time these gates will open, Orfai," she said as she finished her work. "In time you will teach them many things, and they will live or die according to such. For now, I offer them sanctuary. For a little while." She walked off into the Ipeyr wood. "I'm sure you'll find a secret to tell them in due time."

It seemed a shame to lose the graceful cypresses of Ipeyr's forest to the coastal evolution that reigned outside, and so Lei sequestered them within the structure Malkut had built. It was finished, now, silently and in full beauty. Lei could ask nothing more from a son.

And so she sheltered the gods from the world and the world from the gods

The exterior of Lei's shelter was a mere fortress, but the interior was the work of gods. Larger within than without, it easily contained much of Ipeyr's forest, and Kap Gam's towers and Orfai's shoreline, and Pelegath's swamp. All of these spilled outwards, beyond its walls, and onto the coast, but here, now, a little of their first work was preserved. It was grim, and it was colourless, and it was cold and impenetrable, and in its hardened wings it would shelter every beauty they provided forevermore. And thus did Mater Lei show her splendour.

...she supposed she did have to make something with colour eventually.

When she found Kikoquatl in her tunnels, Lei simply laughed, and she laughed for a long time. Without a merry word, she cast her shade around the edge of the pit by which the little insect had emerged, and the shade silhouetted light, and became light, firelight; and the firelight condensed into bright orange fruits, huge and heavy, as tall as a man or larger laying amidst creepers on the ground.

Lei took one and carved it, and hung it on the Orb, where it soaked up the energy without burning and shone light from its mouth and eyes, and thus was the first jack-o-lantern made.

There was only one more, the one Seidhara had been speaking with. She seemed the patient type, even disregarding the break in time, so Lei-

-something behind Lei's mask went very wide. Aella could not hide the shadow of the blood, nor the shape of the armour. Not from her. Mater Lei reached out an unstable hand. "Do I..."

The hand returned to her side in a trembling fist, the question drawn back. No, thought Lei. I don't know you. I deleted those memories. The past was over. There was no blood.

"Thank you for comforting our new sister, Aella," she said, simply and kindly. "May this world be gracious to you, also."

With that she returned to the shore. She was just in time to watch Time escape from the grip of the smouldering instrument on the shore. The world and its gods returned to their business, perhaps a little wiser of the one who had invited them in.

Lei watched the machine quiet down. The table was nice enough. She spirited it away somewhere into the fortress. The gramophone she hurled into the sea, where it belonged. Just a flick of her wrist.

"Welcome," she said to them all, replacing the pin.

Godspeed!

“Akbaba, search for the dead from the skies.”

@Jarl Coolgruuf

Another note while I'm handing them out like rice crackers: while occasional and subtle references like this one are fine, try not to rip off ideas straight up from other fiction. We've had some issues with that before.

Godspeed!

Kap Gam hears Seihdhara's request and is like. "My dudette, they are gonna suffocate and starve."

@Double Capybara

THEY HAVE OXYGEN

THIS IS WHY MATER LEI CREATED BACTERIA

1-Terra forming a barren plains in the Plains of Madness- a land of blackened sand and little else

@Pyromaniacwolf

Same deal as Grimloq. This is fine, but again, don't rush. Your character has just been born and we still have plenty of time left in turn zero.

You can post as much as you want, guys, but pay attention to the in-game passage of time. Start as many big projects as you want but consider not finishing them the very next sentence.

Level 2
4/4 acts of creation
--> Level 3

@Jarl Coolgruuf

Jarl, re-read the OP, and try again.

Godspeed!

Holy hell okay hi I was in an exam for three hours and come back to all of this. I'm probably not going to post (...or port the sheet, yay awkwardly-stuck-on-mobile-ness) till tomorrow because I'm tired as all heck but thanks for the warm welcome and I can't wait to get started!

@Amethyst

That's fine, I think these nutters will calm down after a little while. I plan on extending turn 0 for a while anyway, so gods who blast through all their Might have a chance to calm down and interact a little and gods who stand around chatting will still have an opportunity to make first creations.

Godspeed!

Essentially a human, without the title. What it can do are extremely basic; Eat, Drink, and Sleep.

@Valorous

Oh I see.

BEHOLD! A MAN!

Godspeed!

If being put to compare, Sebna would probably be something like a massive eraser that specializes in wiping sentient and alive beings’ minds and instincts to nothingness.

@Scarescrow

This is much better! Ending things by allowing them stop doing what they do to stay alive.

I'll accept it, but do keep in mind that there still isn't much of an example of how or why or when it might use these powers, so please either provide an example of some kind in the goals section, or, if it doesn't or doesn't know how to apply its powers to its goal, state that.

ed: you mention it has a duty; what is it?

Godspeed!

Still reading through all the posts, won't be able to write anything until I'm back from class in like twelve hours or so.

1 Might- Created Species/Life

@Valorous

...what species was this exactly?

Hider

And so Orfai gave unto them the spoken word and their first language, Argunvar, and from that they derived a name for themselves; the Faliargun. It was a primitive tongue, but a base on which they could build and one that Orfai was sure in time would fracture into many dozens of languages far flung from each other. He taught them runes, and the method with which to carve them into bone and rock, that they might have writing and preserve their knowledge. Then, to them he gave instruction to go forth and be fruitful, to reproduce and spread and to explore the world they had been gifted...

---

3- Give the Faliargun their language, Argunvar
4- Gave the Faliargun knowledge of the written word

@darkwolf687

I know I haven't really mentioned pacing much yet, but at the moment it is very, very early for the development of society, especially given that we have a civilisation-god of speech who probably wants a chance to do his thing. A few notes here.

Like in any other roleplay, time is a factor. Even if you spend Might to a goal, your creations will take time. Major changes like speech, city-building, terrain changing, and cultural revolutions may take generations. The gods have existed for a few hours at most.

Once we're at the point where we can consider working with mortal societies, many creations involving them will also require your god to interact with that society. What are the people like? What do they do, what do they believe, how do they survive, how do they relax? What does your god say to them and how are they received? Even with short posts, this is important material that shouldn't be overlooked.

Additionally, level one gods struggle to do things en masse. At the moment time is a more important factor for you all than Might. I'll try to start setting up a timeline for you all.

Even with quicker and lighter posting, we'll hopefully be playing this game for some time. There's plenty of room to relax and take a while to play with the other characters before we start with massive creations, and there's no need to spend Might every post.

In the light of this, and at Cyclone's request, I'd prefer if you edited your post to make only a small number of Faliargun (<10), and either declare Orfai's intention to give them speech or leave it limited. Leave writing until a little later.

Or, go ask Promus to do something about it! There's a reason we have other characters, after all. GODS CAN TALK TO ONE ANOTHER, GUYS, INTRODUCE YOURSELVES BEFORE THE MOTHER HAS TO MAKE YOU PLAY ICEBREAKERS