Antarctic Termite

Godspeed!

Holy fuck, I missed some things.

@Valorous

WELCOME TO THE GOD SQUAD, MOTHERFUCKER, IT'S TIME TO GET YOUR DIVINITIDDIES OUT AND F L E X

Godspeed!

Ochem study and also flailing friends decided to slaughter me today sorry. I'll try to post tomorrow. Ideally before six hours of "the intensest study we'll do all year" with my best friend. Send help, and make sure they've got a razor blade to scrape my brain off the floor with.

@Amethyst

dude. buddy. my bro. my guy.

don't worry about it. Take a day off and make sure you get your notes written. Sirenxmerfolkposting can wait.

Godspeed!

minorish announcement: I'll work on some updates to the prestige system soon. As is, the quest system is a little too fight-focused, and maybe too convoluted overall. I'll count up Yuu's prestige later.

Godspeed!

Yuu

&

Regulus

Yuu was glad someone had invented straw, because having a rice-hat to keep off the sun made it ten times easier to work.

"C'mon, girls," he said to the horses that had followed him along to the spot where he'd been digging. "Off you get. Kck kck. Shoo." Of flat ground on which to roam there was plenty, but of grassy field there was but little. The horses followed him around, and kept to the edge of the woods. Yuu hmphed, watching them trundle off a little ways, and met eyes with his hoe.

It was a demon hoe, a primitive one, all beak and head and mounted on a stick. With a little more time Yuu would have liked to fashion it so that no mass was wasted on a skull (a hoe didn't need one) and more could be used for some other tool, but for now it would do. Yuu shrugged at it and swung its makeshift handle, burying its head in the dirt.

With a few more strokes he lifted a wad of turf out of the grasses. It went into a woven cylinder along with a dozen others. With this makeshift backpack on his back, Yuu set off for the stream. Even with the grass he planted and the water fresh, the land still seemed barren. Hopefully not for much longer.

Regulus felt something occur in the nearby plains. He took a step forward, and immediately he disappeared and reappeared a few steps behind the curious androgyne. It seemed as though he was a mortal man, but he also seemed to not be native to his world.

He watched the man work for a short period of time. There was something right about it. While he had interacted with other gods before, this was his first time interacting with a mortal, or at least someone who seemed to be a mortal. He spoke up, "What is your name?" he said, more of a demand than a question.

"Ah- o- Hello." Yuu perked, looking up from his patch of turf with grass on his fingers. He recognised a god. Not this god, but a god. "I am Yuu," he explained, bowing somewhat. The big basket was still on his back. "Can I help you?"

Regulus stood paused for a moment. "I am Regulus. I noticed you working the land, and I came to watch."

Yuu smiled, as if he had some doubt about that but didn't mind. "Well, watch all you like, if that's what you're here to do," he said. Yuu looked at the mud stream and softly laughed. "I'll be here for a while."

The god looked at the horses with a strange glare. A foreign feeling came over him, jealousy. "Prehaps it would help if you had sturdier beasts to aid you." he said, taking his spear into the ground and displacing the earth. The hole that formed covered itself up, and the displaced earth took the form of an ox. As he did this, other oxen formed in the nearby region.

Yuu took a good look at the rising cattle, resting on his hoe. He slapped the bullock on the flank. It gave a small low, but didn't budge. "Well, thank you," he said, tilting his head. "I guess that saves me time, once I have a plough. But what will these animals eat? I'm..." he kicked a recently-planted patch of turf, already being chewed away by the cow. "...Running out of grass."

Regulus smirked. "That should be no problem." he said, dipping his spear into the river and then splashing the water symbolicly across the ground. Grass began to sprout out from where the water touched land, and it spread out from those points. Yuu took one long look at the green spilling across the earth, pulled the head off his hoe and threw the handle into the river. He wouldn't be needing it anymore. Truly, God helped those who helped themselves.

"Well, that's a debt," he said. "But who are you, Regulus? You've covered me in gifts, and I still can't tell why."

Regulus paused. He was confused, had he done something wrong. "Is that not the way of things. Besides, I do believe you have much more in you than being a simple grass farmer. That hoe you created is strange. You are not of this world, tell me what it was like in your native realm."

There was a smile, but mostly a sigh. "Oh. I see." Yuu suddenly regretted not having a gardening implement to lean on. "Well..."

A long steppe extended in front of him, stalks swishing softly in the wind.

"...It wasn't this quiet," he began. "That's... All you need to know, really. I'm glad I made it here." Yuu hadn't realised that before saying it, but it was true. "I'm glad I made it somewhere."

Regulus gave a solemn nod, his voice softened for just a moment, "I can understand not wishing to speak of places left behind. The realm I was... forged in was one that fell to dark entities. I have only glimpses of what it was like."

...Yeah. Yuu tried not to show anything on his face. He was good at it. Dark entities.

His voice returned to its normal cadence, "Though, surely you have grander aspirations than simply covering the land with grass. I thought you were creating a farm. Though, even then it seems like you are capable of much more."

A nod to confirm. "By trade I'm an armourer. A marksman. A demonicist. I... have had a lot of trades, come to think of it."

Regulus shook his head, "That is what you have done, not what you wish to do."

Yuu shrugged. "When you find a cause that's noble, you do all kinds of things."

He once again paused. He liked this mortal. "I am not one to know of demons or the ore of the earth, but I do have memories of markmanship. Perhaps I can leave you with one last gift. There may be a time in the future where you will have a noble cause to take up, you should have a weapon when that time comes."

From his spear, a gnarled branch of wood grew into the shape of a bow that he snapped off. He took one of his own hairs to form the bowstring, and threw it at Yuu's feet, before turning around. Yuu picked it up immediately, wiping mud off the bow.

"...Thank you," he said, trailing a finger along the stave of the bow.

Regulus took his spear, and threw it back towards the forest. "There may be a time where this world is threatened by the other gods who found their way to this world. I would suggest you prepare for that time." After a few more moments, he disappeared.

Yuu stood alone. After a while he walked to where he'd left his quiver, and nocked an arrow. Even at half draw, the recurved shortbow pierced low clouds.

...I'll accept that suggestion, thought the slayer.

Summary

Yuu is busy getting his farm on, spreading out patches of grass to the north of the citadel so that eventually they'll produce enough grassland to support more horses. Regulus notices him at work, and is pleased by his efforts.

Regulus creates some oxen to help him out in his farmwork. Upon realising that there's now double the demand for an already small amount of pasture, he uses his power to spread the grasses around the land north of the citadel bay.

The two talk for a while. They briefly discuss their origins and goals. Regulus leaves Yuu with an enchanted bow and advises him to prepare to help him defend the world when things get dark again.

Used 1 miracle to create cattle
Used 1 miracle to spread grass across the steppe.
Used 1 might to create an enchanted bow for Yuu

Regulus - Level 2
4 Might - 2 Miracles
Acts of Creation 2.5/4

Yuu
? Prestige
Level 1

Godspeed!

This wasn't actually a response to Seidhara's plot, I've had these things for a while and the citadel needed some guardians eventually. Lei is a busy woman, she can't be expected to do it all by herself.

Godspeed!

Mater Lei walked the halls of her citadel, watching the waves of Grimloq's latest contrivance batter and fail against its ashen walls. Spray soaked the window as though it were raining; it had been a sunny day before, but now Lei had made it clouded. She felt it more appropriate. She could almost hear the roar of his avatars duelling out in the distant sea.

The gods had left, by and large, to forge their own territories. One or two remained- Kap Gam was still here somewhere, as was Ipeyr, fostering his son. Kiko was still around, though fate alone knew where her tunnels led. Alto was gone. Malkut was resting. For the most part, she was alone. Lei pulled a thin slab of metalled glass, the Book of Alto, from her coat, watched the letters dance thereon; the only source of light in a dark dark hall. He did send reports. When he could.

Could be bothered.

Lei looked into the darkness, the corridor extending endlessly before her. It was moody. Every wall bore the scrawlings of the desperate golem. Her magic still soaked the place, residual power that would come when she called and until then stayed where it had been left, darkening. She curled her fingers. The magic zephyred. Tiny specks, so small as to be fog, hanging in every corner, living but not breathing, dead, hungry. Her magic was the magic of dust.

She clenched a fist. The walk that had been dim was now black. Beneath her mask, Lei smiled. It had been a long, long time since she had indulged herself.

She didn't need to be lonely, of course. She was just watching the Door (that cold and distant door that ever seemed to be watching back). She could make this place as lively as she wanted, a sight to heal tired hearts. She could make her guards like flowers, dancers and warriors, fill it with shrine maidens to please her eye. Then she could wander.

But, thought Mater Lei, watching the lightless curl, she had a theme going.

The dust swirled and condensed, thickened with flesh. It did not take shape- it was still dust and dustshadow. Lei kneeled, extended her finger, and bored a wound of light into the black. The bright spot wavered, shook, swam, and split in two. Lei grabbed the darkness by the throat and pulled it out.

A Haze Man.

Lei threw it back into the dust and it stayed there. She looked into the dim. Plenty more where that came from. One by one she filled her halls with Haze Men. They lay in the dust, the shadow, embedding themselves in the concrete, motionless, unseen, traps for the audacious. When she had some two hundred, Lei filled a bag with rabbits and threw them into the Citadel. They didn't last long. Those thin arms sprung like beartraps.

Lovely.

Lei selected a room in the Keep and filled it with weapons, great iron weapons, spears and hammers and axes, and garottes, and bolas and boomerangs- not the light returning kind, made for sport, but the heavier kind, for killing. They were crude weapons, heavy and huge, sharper than they ought to be, and the Haze Men suited them well.

That will do, thought Mater Lei, for now.

She stepped into the garden and listened to the Plumes. Did she hear a knock?

h a z e m e n

Lei realises that her pretty much utterly empty citadel is kind of creepy, so she decides to mAKE IT EVEN CREEPIER

The Haze Men are created for 1 Might. There's about 200 of them and they don't reproduce, so that's pretty much the upper limit on their numbers unless Lei decides to make more. Composed of a strange dust, Haze, they dissolve their bodies and blend in with shadows and walls until disturbed. They're quite strong and lack blood, but can be carved up or returned to dust by strong impacts. Haze can be rearranged into new Haze Men, so over time they'll tend to lose numbers as a result of their dwindling total mass rather than individuals being killed.

Haze Men are not sentient. They follow a strict set of instructions and triggers written by Mater Lei. They can be 'curious', though, when they are allowed to investigate.

Lei spends a Miracle to make weapons for them, because fuck, guys, I love these things

Mater Lei
5 Might
3 Miracles
Level Four
7.25/8 Acts of Creation

Godspeed!

Fun reminder for the new turn: you can advance your creations much faster not only by pooling your resources with other gods, but also by stealing, copying and adulterating their shit. So before you blow all your Might and sit around waiting fifty years for the next turn before you do anything more, consider co-creating and building on what's around you.

With your own unique spin, of course.

Godspeed!

@Double Capybara Also, for aquatic races, are we gonna say Ley is capable of surviving in saline environments or does it change to mimic an organism that fits the environment, like an encrusting sponge? Fungus doesn't do too well around sea water.

_{i may or may not be making Lei's first species a marine one}

Godspeed!

@Double Capybara Sounds good to me. I was thinking the fungus would grow to represent the aesthetic or values of the souls surrounding them, but it's your domain.

Godspeed!

@Guy0fV4lor Did you check your messages?