darkwolf687

Godspeed!

"Creation yes, but far from anything great. Just fish and algae. Plan, no. I don't have any plans, not yet." Orfai replied simply as he looked around; the land here was still barren. Perhaps he should lend a helping hand of sorts... "Secrets? Oh I can help with that- for I am the Keeper of Secrets and the Lord of Knowledge itself- but aside, if it is to support beings, it will need more than this. I shall help with this."

Orfai raised a shadowy hand out towards the island behind them, raising his voice and singing a chorus of notes; from the ground sprouted several large deciduous trees; they rose some 40 feet into the air and had many large long swirly branches from which hung fan-like leaves. Through the acceleration of Orfai's magic, these trees emerged not only fully grown but already with fruit in the form of large, soft and juicy red fruit for Rytia's birds to eat - and in doing so spread the seeds across the islands.

And then he reached out with his mind across to 'Him'. It was a strange feeling to convene with himself even across this distance- and it wasn't easy, at least not yet. But he managed to send 'Him' a message of sorts, a beacon with which to follow.

"So Rytia, what will these people of yours be?" Orfai said as he turned away from the sprouting trees and folded his shadowy arms again. "For I may yet have a request to make of you."

***

And 'He' did follow it. With the broken gramophone and the strange record carefully in his shadowy embrace, 'He' followed across the oceans towards his master. As useless as the oddity was now (And indeed, quite probably as useless as it was forever), it was strange and wonderful enough that he wanted it. Perhaps in time he or a servant of his might learnt something from it, however small, or perhaps it would remain completely useless forevermore and exist no more as a curious museum piece of cumbersome tableweight. 'He' didn't particularly care, for They were collectors.

= summary

Orfai decides to just add a bunch of trees to the Goddesses island. Oh boy, this could earn him a slap!

@Amethyst

Cost and progress summary

1 Miracle: Creating and accelerating a new type of tree to give the currently bare islands some life

0.75/4 acts of creation

1 Might remaining
1 Miracle remaining

Godspeed!

Orfai grunted and turned away from Gremju. Oddly enough, the answer the being had gave did not reassure him in the slightest as to the merits of this idea. Regardless for now, he would see to other matters for something else stirred in the world; he could hear and sense the rush of water from the oceans splashing against the side of Lei's construct- another disturbance, someone else had been playing at building islands.

Orfai's shadow broke its form again and collapsed in on itself, vanishing as it teleported beyond the walls of the construct and out above the oceans before sweeping over towards a spiral of islands in the distance now. New islands, raised from the depths of the ocean.

The shadow swirled around her for a moment before coming to rest upon the sand. It took a vaguely humanoid shape and paced along the beach for a moment, looking out to the other islands. He could hear the waves crashing upon the rocks, sending echoes through the island on which he stood. The winds caught in the caverns and was instead turned from a soft breeze into a whistle, like air passed through a flute. His eyes narrowed as he considered it, it was almost as if the islands themselves were large instruments rather than islands...

"Well, this is interesting." The figure spoke, looking to the vague spiral of islands. She could easily have taken any piece of land or any of the existing islands, why raise so many here? Was it to do with the construction ratehr than the location? The noises created were perhaps not random, for he sensed intuitively that this goddess had creativity to her that might have given rise to such a design; perhaps they truly were large instruments rather than mere islands; Perhaps in time it was intended to be the beginings of a holy site of some description, a place of worship? Or would be populated with creations of her own, a sanctuary far from the mainland and for now perhaps even safe from the Corrupter (not that he imagined that would last for long, not once something living was placed on the island. Lawren, it seemed, was very diligent when it came to corrupting just about anything he could get his hands on, from fish to swamp to worm...) "What is it, then?"

= summary

Orfai investigates the newest disturbance to the waves. @Amethyst

Godspeed!

'He' moved around the machine, examining it. It turned not to any earthly source of energy but rather by the planets far above (now accompanied by stars that burst into being, beautiful yet obscured too much by the ocean waters for him to truly admire at this time), an odd feature that he couldn't quite work out the significance of... yet what a beautiful construction, now broken and lost forever - repurposed into the home for a primitive creature that lacked the awareness to ever grasp what it was that had drew it to this ethereal device. It had played the music of time and now, it's song was done.

No. Not done. Paused. Stuck. Frozen. Locked at that point despite time continuing to progress away from it. A perfect record then, a perfect capturing of that moment of time from the greatest to the smallest detail. Delightful.

'He' yet had no where to place this, yet he sought to keep it for his own, hidden away from the prying eyes above the world and indeed from the mortals itself. 'He' made a mental note of the location and looked around carefully- off in the distance, 'He' saw yet another new creation, small fishlike creatures with razor sharp teeth. But 'He' turned his attention back to the strange device and reached out for it, cautiously placing his hands upon the machinery and the record and attempting to lift it carefully, seeing if it were possible to move it without disaster. Broken though it may be, it was certainly of interest to him and deserved more than to be left out in a random part of the ocean...

***

Orfai drifted among the gods aimlessly for a while, regarding them each in turn. This talk of 'perfection' caught his attention and Lawren's denigration of creation irked him slightly, and he knew that this would cause trouble further down the line; he for one at least did not mind alterations upon his work, in whatever form they came. Such was just the natural course of life and creation, and he welcomed creation.

Still, he felt that this Lawren would cause him difficulty in the future, if not directly then through conflict with some of the other gods. The attitude of this perfecting god left little room for anything but conflict. Seihdhara had responded to the Corrupter with a threat and set about reducing the number of his creations already, not that the Corrupter seemed to pay it much mind at all but brushed it off with a suitably demeaning reply.

He watched the Corrupter slink away, off to change more of the world, most likely. Orfai watched each of the gods who had been left for a moment; Seihdhara moved on swiftly away- then Aella skulked away towards the forest clearing, having muttered something to herself. Orfai's shadowy figure glided after her to see what she was up to; after a while she came upon a clearing, where she set about crafting flowers and creatures, imbuing the world with life; pretty and beautiful life, with the utility set up for it to reproduce. Simple but elegant.

She had avoided the corrupted lands, and had walked away from the group. There was something buried within her mind, something that she was hiding from, or pushing it away from her at least. And she was not new; several of these beings were not new, they had come from elsewhere. What had driven them away from their original planes? The shadowy figure almost moved forwards- but then turned again, gliding away through the trues. Something called to him, a change. A mark. Some... mark of madness, or another.

He swept out and towards the altered fungi and looked upon Gremju with concern; Had he been playing with the minds of the mortals? That- that could be problematic. Perhaps this could provide some amusement or interesting effects, but it could just as easily be deleterious and damaging. This mark would doubtless harm the mortals and Orfai very much doubted it's value. True, it was potentially the case that some forms of this madness could provide a source of inspiration or innovation, but he had his suspicions that this would be far, far outside the norm. And to claim that sanity was merely 'one dull way of thinking' made him think that Gremju had somewhat missed the point of sanity entirely. The mind was the most vital part of any thinking organism for it held the subjects memories and knowledge and secrets and thoughts, the very fabric of a being. A bunch of mortals running around with fractured mind wasn't a particularly appealing idea to him, as amusing and interesting as some of the eccentricities might be. He supposed it depended just how far this madness went and how much of a detriment it was.

"What precisely do you mean by this, Gremju?" He asked.

= Summary

While 'He' examines the strange oddity, Orfai himself listens to the exchange between the Corrupter and the other gods. He then follows Aella and is about to ask her about the world she comes from but then Gremju's mark catches his attention and draws him away. Being a god of knowledge and feeling that the mind is rather important, he's not convinced that randomly handing out insanity is a good idea.

Godspeed!

But what if- I were to create a shadow man to send into the waters and disguised it as myself! Delightfully devilish, Seymour Orfai.

Godspeed!

Orfai left his creation, frozen in time within the waters of the Great keep, to follow the Mater. She had set something else to work, another machine that was accelerating the development of life in the world. How came she by these oddities, locked behind her little door? A trove, treasures and secrets of an eternity locked away just outside his reach! How cruelly teasing, in time he would come to possess them all! He would document them and mark them, each would be known to him. In time. All in due time.

Time. For now, it was his to learn precisely with what she had frozen time itself. That machine she cast aside, perhaps, flowing form its very turn... Oh he must have it! He must possess it, to study it and to know it - or what was left of it at least. It called to him, it beckoned him in, an enigma from a different time, a different world. His eyes locked on the gramophone as it arced through the air and into the sea, and he gave a wide grin. His form shifted once more, back into the shadowy shapeless being which it had started as.

He'd follow that in time, once the socialising and introductions were over. Although he could hardly resist such a tempting mystery, he realised it would be rather too offensive, even by his standards... Wait, no, that wasn't true. There were ways around this! He was a god after all, if in all his divine power he couldn't work out some way to be in two places at once then what kind of God was he, really?

The shadowy Keeper swirled around for a moment and with a hum of energy and a symphony of notes, a fragment of himself broke off from the main body and began to take a vaguely humanoid shape. The two figures looked at each other for a moment before- well before the other one- the-

Well, before 'He' started off towards the pool of water, with the real him remaining behind to continue socialising with the others and- he'd have to name his Avatar, this was far too confusing. For now 'Him' would just have to suffice.

So he turned his attention back towards the Mater, tilting his head slightly to the side 'It is good to be here.' He replied simply, glancing around the walls that now surrounded them. It was a cold fortress, as bare to him as much of the world was - although such would soon not be the case, given what else the Mater had done. "It is good of you to build this place and offer sanctuary to creation. I greet all that now stand here warmly." The god turned his shadowy, featureless head, examining each of the other gods in turn...

= Summary

Orfai 'cheats' the necessity of socialisation by creating an Avatar, thus allowing him to remain behind while also allowing 'Him' to seek after the tossed aside relic. What a cunning and delightfully devilish plan, he thinks to himself, rubbing his shadowy hands together!

1 Might used - Create Avatar; Him.
2.5/2 acts of creation. -> 0.5/4 acts of creation

Godspeed!

So what actually was the gramophone if she's just going toss it into the sea after o.0 at first I thought it was the thing managing the time, but I guess that's the pin... My god I'm confused.

Well, since she tossed it into the sea... Time to start a sunken hoard of destroyed oddities or some such thing

Godspeed!

True, and I suppose it'd a rather simple matter to simply remove genetic deformities when you're powerful enough to create them to begin with.

Godspeed!

@Antarctic Termite

Less than 10 individuals is far too small a population size to to be viable; They wouldn't survive enough generations to develop much of anything due to genetic problems from inbreeding. I won't pretend to know the average size of a school of fish and I know they vary widely, but I'm fairly sure that a single one being the extent to a species population would be a dangerously small population as it stands.

Edit: @Cyclone No worries mate, it isn't a bother at all to change.

Godspeed!

Making fish isn't much of a challenge! We don't have a god of the sea or anything yet after all.

Godspeed!

@Antarctic Termite I might have to do something to sort that out then lol