Yeah, that post features the second creation of Zerabil. I went back and re-read it for the third creation I posted a while back >.> if you read carefully enough, you'll notice that some aspects are word for word the same >.> >.> >.> >.> DEFINITELY FOR VERY DEEP ARTISTIC AND WORLDBUILDING REASONS. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME BEING A DAMN LAZY BUGGER.
I thought it was cool, I was like "wow" when I suddenly noticed what was going on in the Mk I post. Time and fate and stuff man.
Susa/Hurico/Uriko: Born in Mesathalassa, Susa was scouted by Lifprasil and went on in wacky adventures including two wars against hellish beings. When she returned, she was too young to be herself, so she took a new identity and has been working her way up the path of the shamans. She still tags between Imperial life as Susa and Shamanic life as Hurico.
Junjii: A boy from the dusklands who was sent to study the land down under. Susa figured it out as has become a quasi-tutor to him.
Marel Vasscogne and ZA GRIFFIN: Marel is an influential trader within the Mesathalassa region and is the current matriarch of the Vascgone family. She was gifted a bootleg version of Amazon Echo called The Griffin.
Concepts:
Innkeep: A shitty pun, also, a collection of wooden forts within the western wildland that act as meeting points for the wanderers and nomadic tribes. They are all connected by the large invisible network of the Shamanic Tradition.
Alefpria, Lakshimi, Lifpasil: Read Divinus MK II, wtf.
A series of small stories set in the region, with some Susa stuff in Alefpria too.
Marel is testing out the powers of The Griffin, seeing how it learns after she noticed it becoming increasingly more useful as she tried to figure out what the hell made the stars fall from the sky and burn everything. - Marel goes to Grehvew, participates in cultural tension, gets a nice deal on some crazy textile product. - Marel goes to Tabata, she hates Tabata. This is an introduction to the fact Mesathalassa did not develop the same concept of servitude as other regions, but recent changes have been adding pressure on the old system. - Susa has been getting increasingly dissatisfied with the situation on Alefpria. The system feels more bureaucratic by the day, and there is increased Lifprasilian snobbery on her path. While stuck in this dull hell, she picks up the habit of writing, and write reports on marine life, culture, and such. She tries to send these reports forward to Lifprasil, but the emperor doesn't seem to care. - Hurico and Junjii talk a bit about language, he hears Alefprian and is like 'fuck this'. Then, later, they are at an Innkeep. Junjii tries to carve a staff but doesn't know what location's name to carve in it. A mysterious woman appears and gives him a letter. That letter leads Hurico to a room with a collapsed man, they save his life and surprise, it's the Warden of the West, and he is very important. He asks the duo to go fetch him his grandchild. Hurico figures out that was a poisoning attempt, but she keeps to herself. - In the city of Puperute, the gardens dedicated to Elysium are slowly taken over by carrots after the local population discovers its good to eat and the regional population starts to see it as a luxury good. This part is told from the perspective of Seye, the young daughter of the local priestess, who after taking a nap, finds an odd being which leads her to some sort of box with music inside. - In the city of Jan, we see the proper introduction of actual cassava, not carrots. The king of the harbor laments that agriculture is leading to a social collapse and he fears the eventual return of slavery to the region, but he himself seems far more interested in fighting the neighboring towns of Krastas and Mirny. A shaman by the name of Krathud has been living in the village, he invented things such as the breeding of a fish whose scales work like a signature and turtle shell shields. However, his grandfather has called him to answer his call as the Warden of the West. - Susa gets more angry about Alefpria's government and gets suspicious when she looks into the borderlands reports from the Marquise's territory. She admittedly doesn't like Tauga, having fought her in the war, and she suspects corruption within her territory. - Krathud, Hurico, and Junjii travel towards the Core of the Halagan, a sacred land. Junjii can't go too far up the mountains because he is a normie. Krathud and Hurico go through a bunch of rituals and finally reach the highlands where the temple of the Halagan is, but they are attacked by mean people with obsidian knives. Before Hurico can wipe them out, the Warden of the North shows up and kills the assaliants, also snubs Hurico, before leading the duo towards the sacred cave.
The Griffin - Level 1 Hero 5kh + 9kh (12k) = 14kh
Susa - Level 8 hero 11kh + 10kh (14k+) = 21 Kh
2 Kh from The Griffin to invent Carrot Farming 2 Kh from The Griffin to invent Cassava Farming 2 Kh from The Griffin to further Sailing in Mesathalassa 2 Kh from The Griffin for Ore Mining 2 Kh from The Griffin for Metal Weapons 2 Kh from The Griffin to further Trade 2 Kh from The Griffin for Kodekzia Writing
Fish Breeding and Turtle Shields come from The Halagan Tradition holy order
15kh for Susa to level up 8-> 9
Final Data:
The Griffin Level 1 0 Kh
Susa Level 9 6 Kh
Nokeyeor 1
01 FE - Vascogne’s Storehouse, Mesathalassa.
“Yes, I can confirm, the whole region was set ablaze,” the traveler told, looking slightly to his right side. “The human villages were probably destroyed too.” as soon as he finished his phrase, he stopped moving, in fact, the whole world stopped.
“I think I figured this one out,” the merchant Marel Vascogne said, and with a snap of her finger, the man and everything in the room dissipated in smoke, giving away to her office, and what a sight it was compared to the damp hovel she had met that traveler a few days ago. Polished stone floor, cotton rugs on the wall, animal trophies from all sides of Mesathalassa and even beyond and many maps of many styles, including one done by herself, with the aid of The Griffin and precision unmatched.
“So this was the logic behind the sorting of the thoughts,” she said, in reference to the fact her familiar spirit, The Griffin, had suddenly changed the order of her key memories in the middle of her investigation on a topic. “Seems like it learned with me how to judge someone’s reliability by means of voice, facial expression, and even structure,” she noted.
At first, she had seen the Griffin as a bit useless, the spirit, a supposed oracle, would not answer her questions about the realm of divinity, even if it probably knew much more than her on the topic. It sensed what she sensed and knew what she knew, which at first sight was terribly disappointing, after all, she too could do those tasks quite fine! But, Marel was not one to give up quickly, and instead of dropping the amulet, she continued to try it out, and then she realized it, it knew what she knew but it forgot nothing, it sensed what she sensed but it observed everything.
With those tools in hand, she could easily tackle the issue of the recent ‘skyfall’ event that happened. In only two weeks, by talking to as many travelers as she could, the pieces started to be put together with incredible ease, Hain towns had been hit the worst, caravans of sculptors had gone missing, the human towns in the west and north were relatively spared, especially the ones that shunned concepts related to the entity they called Nugi-Hesig in the south, Anzarizig in the north, both translations of the thing the Hain referred as the Crawling One, the Crawling Mistake, or sometimes by her proper name.
It was somewhat frustrating for her, she sincerely hoped to increase ties with traveling sculptor for their amazingly rare goods, yet, being the aim of fiery god fury was a bit risky and could do a number on her profits, hoardings and even on her most precious asset, her family. For a moment she got the impulse to ask The Griffin yet again about the intrigue of gods, but she knew it was useless.
“I wonder what I should focus on now that the sculptor idea is dead…” she sighed, she had few personal projects left at this point in life, she was already a grandmother, she no longer had the impetus to adventure, but some was left, and she felt bored whenever she was stuck doing nothing but dealing with the family’s assets.
“Wait…” It clicked on her, how The Griffin had learned how to judge reliability quite quickly, perhaps, she should continue actively seeking out social and commercial interactions like she did while exploring the Skyfall situation. “Oh well, guess its time to seek out that fishy smell of a harbor town again.”
01 FE Grehvew
“Oh, look, if it is not the reindeer lady!” said the old man, shouting from within his half-open tent.
“For the thirty-sixth time, Koshuoy, it is a horse, not a reindeer. Big tail, no horns, not hard to remember you old fool.” Marel answered.
“You take its rein, its a reindeer,” he answered, laughing. “So, what brings the great Marel Vascogne to this dull rocky land?”
“Just checking on the business, so many cities getting burned lately, where would I be without Grehvew Silk?”
“Excuse me?” someone suddenly said in her comment, thick accent, trilled R, dusklander. “Gjereveh Silk? Is it harvested in Gjereveh? Is it traditional to Gjereveh? I think not.”
“Oh, I am sorry sir, look at me, I am an old lady, I cling to old words.” she talked down, she wondered if she could take out someone like the complaining young man with The Griffin’s help, it could outright make her think so fast that time felt slow, but her body did not become any faster. Of course, that was just a thought, she was not a fan of barbarism.
“Right… It is just… Uhm, annoying.” he struggled with finding the words, no lingua franca had been developed in Grehvew. “See, you would be mad, would you not, if one started to claim your products as his. The first sign of a bad deal, isn’t it?”
“You are absolutely right and I am absolutely sorry. I mean, I am Marel Vascogne, owner of that sweet purple stuff still clinging to the sides of your mouth. Why don’t we just forget this mistake? I would much rather have a nice time with some nice wine and maybe some nice talk about your wonderous land.”
The man stopped, both by the sudden reveal of who the old woman was, but also at the proposal of free wine. He nodded and shyly continued on his way. Koshuoy turned to Marel, signaling her to follow him deeper into his tent.
“Sorry for that Marel, these people are making the Iga look humble.” he huffed.
“Ah, pardon him, he was drunk. And we all knew people can be silly when drunk, is it not right, Shushuoy” she smirked.
“No, for real, I am getting mad. The rat-hair have been asking larger and larger shares of my profit.” At this point, I might as well drop the silk and go for the fish.
“Rat-hair? Those are incredibly mean things to say about your core trade partner, Kushuoy. And this was expected, you should never count on a good deal lasting forever, especially one where you buy something for the price of cloth and sell it for the price of gold.”
The man grumbled, “Did you travel all the way here to chastise me, Marel?”
“Not really, I came here to talk about investment. I would like to get some land and give it to my son. I want to see what other goods we can import from the dusklands. I would also love to add some pressure to get your people to finally increase the size of the harbor.”
“Ah, that would be good indeed. But a son? Why not a daughter? My grandson is unmarried you know?”
The woman smiled and changed topics. “Also, I need a lot of duskland cloth! That one that which light goes through, but it is not see-through, you know which one?”
“Tsilluhete, they call it.”
“Yeah, that was kind of it. Do you have any?”
“A whole lot. It is not popular.”
“Nice, I will take all you have away from your hand.”
The man raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms.
“Why?”
“Nothing important really, home renovations.” she smiled “I will send it home by boat, okay?”
01 FE Tabata, Mesathalassa.
There were few places Marel despised as much as Tabata, nothing would ever come from that town and if did it would probably be the end of the world, she thought. The hate was not born simply from the town's mediocrity, the fact it was neither a harbor (it was deep inland and only had a small pier as a river port) or a kingdom (really, a hill tribe at most) yet still figured as one, the terrible heat of the badlands that surrounded it or the terrible way the new inhabitants had built over the old ruins. It was born from the fact Tabata was close to the Vascogne's storehouse, and the king from that town had often gone out of his way to try to tax the merchant family, probably sending more guards to keep a watch on the routes than to guard his walls. Nevertheless, Marel was an expert in finding a way out of such situations, Tabata was no different.
The woman smiled and signaled to the guards. Luckily the ones on the gate already knew her, so she would not need to wait in the open for too long while the untrained force tried to find a superior to talk to. Soon, she was inside the town, the walls were like a huge ring around the circular dawnmen stone house in the middle, now it was a bit hard to figure that, considering the square clay house built within the stone house and the wooden palisades patching up the old wall, but an observant person could still find the pattern.
The king had yet to return from his trip to the port built outside of the walls, so the merchant was left waiting in the main hall, the clay house built over the stone one. Why the king would do that over rebuilding the house or demolishing it, she did not know, it was quite an eyesore.
"Griffin" the woman whispered.
<<Yes?>> the spirit answered, a metallic echo around her.
"Help me remember the conversations I had with the people from the north," she demanded, and the answer came quickly as her vision of the room was taken over by her memories.
Lately, she had been working on figuring out the language of the south and the language of the dusk, with The Griffin she hoped to be free from lingua francas and gesturing.
"Tsillu... is fabric?" she thought, making mental notes on it. "Maybe it is best to not mix assumptions with facts, help me to sort these translations by how much I trust them."
<<Done>>
"Ah, much better, so, let me go over my assumptions, we should have time to finish working on what I have over duskland speak today and maybe move onto southerner before I am back home."
She heard many steps walking into the room, and as such, made her senses return to the present, she calmly prepared her offerings, food and a whole lot of wine. The first time she tried to move from avoidance to appeasement, she tried just the food, but it was useless, as she was about to leave, the king would come and ask for a share of her goods in payment for keeping the land safe. It was not a formal thing, it was asked personally by him or one of the guards. That made it hard for her to react properly, but it opened one path, if the king and his guards forgot to ask, she was free to leave without a single worry.
In other lands that would have already grown into a proper taxation system, but one of the oddities of Western Mesathalassa, perhaps due to the lack of larger kingdoms, was how barter and taxation worked. A king did not own the land, a king owned the harbor, a middle class that owned boats would barter for use of the harbors, and the lower classes would work in the ships in exchange for food and goods. Similar systems existed deeper inland, Innkeeps largely supported the tribal population in an exchange of services without fealty.
Tabata was an irregularity to the system, but it was not a total aberration, but instead, the first sign of its failure. The little hideous fort stood far away from the sea, so it got no chance of receiving trader boats, as such, to try to claim the land to bite at the trade was natural, even if inconvenient. Similar issues appeared everywhere, Marel could see it quite easily, gardens and orchards existed entirely out of the system, and people like herself were quickly amassing goods despite the increasing barter standards of harbors and sailors. She could also see how her sons and grandsons abused the use of servants and how larger cities were struggling with the old method of allowing anyone to cut wood as they pleased.
Kivico in the south started to barter for the very opening of its gates, the inland harbor of Mirny and its rich mines lived on makeshift rules kept by a tyrant priestess, which fueled tensions between Jan and Krastas, common exporters of their goods and well known for their abusive kings too. Many other situations kept appearing each time she traveled around, the shift from harbors and obsidian to gardens and copper was something their society was figuring out on a technical level, but not on the social aspect.
The thoughts kept churning about while she waited for the king and his men to be done, soon, they were all sleeping like sloths, without nobody to pressure her into sharing her goods, Marel was free to continue her journey, giving just a share of her wine instead of the rare goods she brought along. As it was all based on informality and the luxury was not essential to the people, there was little repercussion. She did not expect this to work forever, one should not count on good deals lasting, a solution to Tabata would need to come up.
04 FE Alefpria
Susa woke up, she did not feel any bit more rested, perhaps this was why she had not slept a lot in the last few years. The day continued as normal, like every single other day before, she walked into the office, she had all sorts of people bow to her, she sat on her desk, she waited for reports from her scouting team. While waiting, she would continue her newly gained habit of reading, it had been suggested to her after one of her officials read her reports on climate, culture, and history. Everyone hated that official for a while.
The sun was high in the sky, a clear day for everyone but Alefprians, who lived under the mist. Not her office though, it was in Lifprasil's palace which was built above the clouds. She wished it was under, the humidity would do well for a human, but it was clear that the building had been designed to beings higher than her, she learned it was fruitless to complain a long while ago.
The sky was darkening, the sun was past the horizon yet its light lingered. No reports today, again. Not that Susa cared, she had been occupied writing down something of her own, she wouldn't be finished just in time, but maybe tomorrow. She was impressed how the Knowledge House of Alefpria did not have extensive papers on the oceanic flora and fauna, she expected to find at least notes on the topic dating back to times before mankind had even stepped on Galbar, but if that existed, she had yet to find it. She had also asked the Great Academies of Vulamera, of Jvan, and even consulted with Salassar, no results, but it was hard to believe it did not exist.
With a sigh, and as the night fell, she searched for Belvast, sleeping was not as relaxing as teleporting to the other side of the world.
04 FE - Western Wildlands, Mesathalassa.
"Come to think of it, you are quite good with pronunciation. People who lived much closer to this land have far more difficult."
Junjii was surprised by the sudden comment, though now he grew used to that, Hurico was the sort that would get distracted by random thoughts. "Ah, well, I think it helps that it was very hard to learn the language. If it was possible to take an easier path, we would take it, right? Also, I guess its because even in my homeland I had to learn how to speak two languages."
"Oh? I thought you said the language was somewhat similar all across the dusklands?"
"Hmm, yes, but also no. They are similar if we compare to all the diversity we have down here. But, err, its still different, words change a lot, and the pronunciation really goes all over the place. For example, in the central tribes, my name would be Gjungjih, to just prolong the vowel like I do is seen as, well, idiotic."
"Wow, that is harsh."
"I bet you know a lot of languages, Uriko."
The woman shook her head. "Nope, I guess you are right about taking the easy path if it's available. I learned to gesture well and I learn the basics of each place, actually, I think in the harbors I just picked up on the shared lingua franca of the north coast and the south coast. Ah! There is this one language I learned in the empire."
"Oh? The imperial language? You rarely ever tell me anything about that place, but I imagine it must be quite elegant."
She stopped and stared him deep in the eyes. "e xe xe qu zɘ'ʉch jɤv hühuʀɶ e lʉ ʘornäwöxe xɶ qu so ɵlis edeʀɶ"
"... What.. Uhm, that sounds complex."
"Its a pain in the ass, if I am to be honest. You don't have enough years in your life to learn high lifprasilian."
"Wait, give me a simpler word, not a phrase."
"vǂuxä"
"Uh, do I need to click too or is that just a thing you do?"
"Let's try something, how about the word for thieves of small metallic objects that are not coins. 'ɐ'.
"a?"
"Nope, that is a verb for providing. It's ɐ'"
"ä..."
"High lifprasilian does not allow room for accent, you need to get this exact sound, ɐ, not a, ä, ɑ, ə or anything else, as they are considered other vowels entirely." she smirked. "Also, get the tone right."
"T-tone? How does that even work."
"It's like the difference between 'she called' to 'she called?' but of course, not nearly as simple."
"I see. Uhm. I think I will never visit Alefpria."
04 FE - Alefpria.
Return, go to the office, be bowed to, prosit prosit prosit, morning sky, sun at its height, orange sky, no reports. Go to the marshall, establish a mental link with the cosmic knight, receive promises of better work done next time, wait for no reports the next day.
"At least I finished the book while waiting" an extensive report on the marine life of the three great oceans. She never knew when another god would explode half the world, so she did not want to wait and leave the next generations wondering about the past, as clearly it was not something most beings around her cared.
Of course, Susa being Susa, the thing read like a hunting guide on everything from goldfishes to the eurypterid to all sorts of jvanic horrors of the deep. Speaking of the later, it was thankful she had Chroma to help, she liked to dive in the water, but one thing was diving in the Metatic, and another was diving in the Fractal Sea, even a being like her felt insecure. Chroma could also create gills and flippers, something she couldn't. "How nice would it be, to swim deep and fly high without any aid."
Manuscript in hand, she walked up the halls. One could cut the tension in the air with a knife whenever she did this, and she wished she could do that. Despite the glares, she walked to Lifprasil's chamber, as she was allowed to, and entered.
"I finished the book on marine life, I think it could be quite useful for everyone involved. The royal scribes won't take my work without your approval, I also would love your opinion on it, I am very new to this whole writing thing, but I am liking it, feels like teaching people again."
The emperor made a signal with his hand, to place the book on the table, he did not even turn to meet her eyes.
"Right... I will just... uhm, put this along with the last three manuscripts I tried giving you before." the book raised a cloud of dust when placed over the other ignored work.
04 FE - Yangadah, Western Wildlands, Mesathalassa.
Junjii washed his face and for a long moment, he looked into the lake. Words echoed in his mind, of his mission, of his future and of everything he had learned so far. "A proper plan has your next life in mind." was not just a saying to the many of the people who lived under the shadows, it was a philosophy. That was the reasoning behind sending people like him down south, but the reason proper was not so clear. Should they sabotage possible enemies? Should they get into high ranks and wait? Should they report learnings back? Should they help to enabled diplomacy? It was not so easy, most of his clan still didn't grasp that what they were doing was different from the long dances they had with enemy clans.
He wondered about it himself. There was a lot of doubt in the air, with such vague objectives and the social tension in the clans he doubted anything would be accomplished. Sometimes he wished to just give up and live life normally down south, but he never felt at home.
Despite his doubts, the day continued all the same. They were in Yangadah, one of the lively Innkeeps that acted as the meeting points of the wandering tribes. He walked past the wooden palisade, facing the long house and the many smaller houses that offered shelter to travelers and searched for a calm spot to work on wood carving. He found it behind one of the homes, a small garden of beautiful flowers and fluttering butterflies. He was making a traveling stick, it was not merely a tool to help one walk, but was also seen as a charm of good luck and safety on travels.
For the magical aspect of it to work though, he had to carve some traveler code on it. Traveler code was the language of the wanderers and shamans, each symbol represented a location, animal, or situation of the area. One could find the symbols on trees and rocks all across Mesathalassa, way beyond the western wildlands, but only the shamans and the ones Susa had taught knew how to properly interpret it.
Learning it was the first time Junjii had interacted with the written word, but Hurico had introduced him to far more types of writing. The Innkeeps had something similar to the traveler code, but it was used to classify people too, meanwhile, one of the harbors down the coast had developed a way to write words based on sound, making it so one didn't need to remember something as full of symbols as the traveler code. And that was only speaking of this region, there were many others beyond its reach.
He was almost done carving his staff, beautiful images covered it from top to bottom, all he needed now was a spell. But what to write? The thought kept him stuck in position for a long time, if he were to believe on the culture, he should logically write something to help with forests or jungles, but doing so would make him look pathetic. Writing about mountains, rivers or swamps was logical too, but would that also bring him closer to such locations?
His questioning was brought to a sudden halt when he noticed someone observing him, he did not see when the person approached him in the isolated area, but there it was. After reacting in a way that didn't seem honorable for an ever alert hunter, he got a better look at the person. A woman, she wore many layers of cloth that seemed to be of foreigner origin. There was little skin showing, or so he assumed, he could not even tell if what he saw was skin or not, her face was entirely covered by a veil and something close to a mask.
"Haha, friend, no need to be scared, I just got curious at your craft." the woman said, without moving a bit, just standing there. "It is a very beautiful carving, I have never seen anything quite like this." she reached down and picked the staff.
"It is not ready yet." was the first thing he said, but then he noticed the situation and went to a more direct issue. "And who are you anyway? Most people would find it to be rude to sneak up on others, don't you agree?"
"Oh I agree, I am to blame for sure." continuing to move in an unnatural way, she reached into one of her pockets and threw something towards him. "My name is Vanessa, friend, I am a traveler just like you and your tall she-friend."
Junjii picked the objected she threw, it was an odd disk built from what felt like smooth marble, on the edges of the disk there were little symbols drawn each in a different color, on top it was light blue, then orange, dark blue and back to light blue again, making a full cycle. It had a tear-shaped ruby gem, placed in a way one could turn it around and point towards symbols. "Ah? What is this?"
"A gift!" she clapped her hands, a metallic clink coming from her sleeves, probably from more objects like that. "But onto more important topics. Could you deliver this to your she-friend?" she once again reached, and brought some sort of leather piece with odd symbols on it.
"S-Sure?" he reached for it.
"Ah, great! You are very useful. Also, these spells, you cannot overthink it. Write what you want, not what you need." she said, also returning him the staff she had picked up. "It's very simple, really simple, it's a walking stick, you write where you want it to lead you, you know where you want to be led to, so just write it there."
"Ah... thanks, uh, miss, I will remember that."
"You absolutely should! Now I must go. Goodbye. Good Luck." she spun around and started moving away from where he was, the sound of clinking glass and metal following her as she walked away.
Junjii was left wondering if he had finally met one of the so-called sculptors Hurico had told him about, but it did not feel right, the shape under the cloths seemed to be human. After some more minutes of brooding, he gave up, picked up his things, and walked into the main inn, expecting Hurico to be back already.
And indeed she was, the huntress calmly making a mush out of herbs on a mortar and pestle, quickly turning towards the boy and acknowledging his presence. "Ah, you have made your staff already?"
He stopped and shook his head. "Not really. I can't find the right words to carve on it. Anyway, someone called Vanessa asked me to give you this."
"What an odd name, but sure, give me that." she told in a dismissive manner. Immediately, she started to look at the piece of leather in an odd way, standing up, there were many traveler code symbols, as well as little drawings of flowers she did not understand the significance of.
Without a word, she started to move about while looking at the text. Junjii followed, curious as to what she was doing but without the courage of asking her what it was. She continued walking, taking well-paced turns at certain places such as the water wheel or the tallest tree in the palisaded area. Finally, the huntress stopped in front of a door, vacillated for a moment, then opened the door.
An old man lied was in the small hut, he was on the ground, making an effort even to look up. The boy panicked, but Hurico was wiser, she brought one of her salves to the elder's mouth, waiting for a moment to see how he reacted. "Bring me a bucket of water from the well, quick."
Soon, the boy from the far north would return with the water, the shamaness would give it to the elder in small sips, the process would take a long time, but soon the man started to return to his senses.
After being sat on the bed with the shamaness' help, the man looked at the two. "Thank you... young girl. When I felt the pain, I thought this was my calling."
The huntress did something Junjii did not expect, she looked down, bowing to the man. With her hand, she signaled the boy to do the same. He was confused, but he knew listening to her was the best.
"There is no need for such formalities, it makes me feel terrible to see my savior bowing down to me." the elder told. "Furthermore, what authority does a shaman have if his life was saved by someone of such a lower rank?"
"Great master, there is no..."
"Wait, child, I am done speaking yet." he raised his hand, telling Hurico to stop. "It is a serious issue, if I had died here my grandchild would not be able to inherit my position as the Warden of the West. So there is a need to follow that old tradition, while I would like you to not tell others you saw me without my shamanic garb, I just take this as a greater signal that it is time for me to pass on the mantle."
Junjii was sweating at the words he just heard, a warden? there? with them? The five wardens were the highest authority within the shamanic tradition, at first, he even doubted they existed.
"You are Hurico, right? And the young boy, he is Junjii." the old man took a moment to continue. "Might I ask why you walked into my room? It seems odd, surely it was not at the Innkeep's permission."
"I had a premonition."
"Oh? Is that so? You really are talented, typically we would have you wait a few more years, but I think I am in a position to make an exception. I will give you a mission, that if you do correctly, you make it so you can move up into the inner circle of the tradition."
Both looked up, Hurico perplexed, and the boy amazed. "I need you to convince my successor to come back. Here, let me get something..."
As the elderly man stood up and searched in his belongings, the woman was allowed to look into where the man was before he fell, a bowl full of food had fallen to the floor, even from far away, someone as divine as the Shamaness could catch the foul smell within the bowl. She was impressed the warden of the west was not able to feel it like her, it seemed he was not aware of the attempt made against his life.
"Here, he will recognize this leather belt. Go to Jan. Ask for Krathud"
"I will do so with haste, great master. Might I ask, where you will go to now? Surely not here, after what happened."
"Yes, I will be away for a while, crowded places do terrible things to my health. Meet me back at the Core of Halagan. There I can work both on my succession and on getting you into the inner circle."
05 FE Puperute, Mesathalassa.
Puperute was a city of many colors. It's gardens were very well known in the region, a stark contrast to the rocky lands of the neighboring Grehvew and the dry lands of Tabata. But now, as Seye looked over the horizon, both the blue horizon of the sea and the green horizon of the land, there was so much more white than all else. What the girl saw was not winter, as the only seasons she knew was wet, dry and stormy, but something else.
The flower that changed Puperute at the start was only just a mild choice among the gardening rituals of the town. The small cluster of white was typically just a companion to plants with a similar shape such as the spider lily. Then, one day, and Seye could remember it well, a bird-beaked person, calling himself a... chirper? visited the town. It seemed to be interested in the flowers, but for odd reasons, whenever it bartered for one, it would uproot it, and look angry. Everyone thought it was odd, but the person had a bird beak, so they just assumed it was natural to him.
Then, he got one of the white flowers, and when it was picked up, he seemed to be happy, it had its hands open and its beak up, like a little dance. It said something, sasava? satava? It was incredibly hard to tell because the gods gave the little man a beak instead of proper lips. The little man would look at some drawing he had, it was of a plant much like that one, but it had many thick roots, while that one had just one big one. He did not mind, he left the village happily.
Of course, everyone was very curious what the deal was with the plant, for the next few days everyone would try to discover what it was. We noticed sometimes the root was purple, sometimes it was white, sometimes it was yellow, but we could not find an use for it. Then someone said, 'let's eat it', but it was not a good idea, Seye's mom had told her roots were not good to eat, and Seye's mom was the local priestess, the one who cared for the flower field they planted for the maiden goddess, so she was usually right.
But people ate it anyway, and when they did not die, more people ate it. There was not a lot of the plant, it took two cycles of the pretty moon for a new one to be born. People ate it at different times, and they discovered the right time to let it grow underground before harvesting it.
Then people planted a lot more of the flowers, and even in Seye's home, she was forced to eat the root plant, her mom did not like the idea too much but even she could not deny it added up a lot of flavor to the fish stew she had basically every day. Seye did not like it though, it tasted bitter and was very crunchy.
Next year, and more plants had grown, at this point, everyone who wanted to eat it, had it. They took a while to rot, Seye counted the days on her hand and they typically lasted three hands. Seye's mom had been talking a lot with the king lately, things were not going so well, the king seemed worried. The king's other friend, Kar, didn't seem to share their worry. Seye really liked Kar, he had many boats, and sometimes he'd allow her to sneak in and fish with his family.
More time went by, more plants. Seye's mom continued to talk a lot with the king, a third of the flower gardens were now pure green and white. Kar would never bring Seye to his fishing trips again, in fact, he did not even bring fish anymore, just people.
Many sorts of people would come by, Seye didn't like talking to them because they spoke oddly, but she liked looking at them and at their pretty clothes, she really liked the ones the people with bunny hair had. She also liked this old lady with bright purple eyes, even if she spaced out a lot and talked to herself, she always remembered to bring Seye nice treats and knew exactly what she loved the most, she was the only foreigner Seye's mom liked. Also, more of the little bird people came by, this time they no longer called the plant sasava or satava, but 'carrot'.
Then Kar's ship was no longer the only one going beyond the harbor anymore, many sorts of ships came by. Now Kar was not so happy anymore. The new people brought about many shiny things and all they wanted for it was the flower root. Seye did not understand why her mom was so angry about that...
Though looking up from the hill right now, Seye could understand it a bit, the garden was not so colorful anymore, there was a whole lot of white but not much of anything else, she wondered if the maiden goddess would be mad. She wouldn't be happy if her favorite spot, the hill in which she stood on, was entirely replaced by carrots.
But it brought about many ships from the ocean, with their white sails arriving and leaving every few days or so, today was a day full of ships, far more ships than Seye had ever seen at once. She really loved ships, and she would often watch them all afternoon from her spot on the hill, often she would rest against a big tree in the area and get sleepy...
A sparkle of light went by her face, immediately making her wake up. When she stood up, she was faced with a little person thingy with colorful wings. The two faced each other for a few seconds, then like a lightning, the thing darted away. Seye was never gonna let something like that just ignore her, and even as the person-thingy flew away from her view, she continued to give chase. "Wait!" she tried, but clearly the thing either did not understand her or was terribly rude.
Deep in the woods, she finally started to give up on finding the flying person, the clinking of its wings feeling more like taunting than a hint of where it was. Her mom would be mad at her if she arrived past the sunset and she was tired. But, when she stopped to take a breath, looking down and placing a hand on her worn-out knees, she noticed something on the floor, a little wooden box, carved almost perfectly smooth, except for some weird half-circle with a scratch in the middle. While it was surprising to find that randomly in the woods, the real shock was when she opened it and sound started to come off the box. She would have gasped and let it fall to the floor if the music was not so soothing, if not outright sad, with its faint metallic notes.
The girl stood mesmerized by the device for a long time, when she snapped back to Reality, she noticed how late it already was. Thankfully, it was easy to know the path out of the forest and back into the town, she expected her mom to be mad, but surely if she showed the song box she would change her opinion, in fact, she might even praise Seye. So, with a happy smile and the melancholic sound of the device, the girl went on.
05 FE Jan, Mesathalassa.
The king of Jan, Sbajan, looked over the vast horizon of his city. Jan stood tall on a broken hill, perhaps that was not a good aspect for a harbor kingdom, walking down the cliffs every day was a chore, but it did provide a great view of the region, especially in the shrine grounds, the highest part of the town.
He could see the ships of old sailing the seas, bringing the fish so vital to keep his people fed, but he also saw the fields of the new, felled trees and scars of brown soil all the way down the hill as his people planted something they called "cassava".
This new habit had a great cost to his people, it was a well-known fact that time flowed downward, from the volatile sky down to the ancestral earth, and it seemed that mankind's greed to excavate the soils had figuratively brought back phantoms from the past.
All the sorts of man from the harbor kingdoms did not know how precious their freedom was to them, they did not interact with the elders like Sbajan did in his distant childhood and never heard the tales of slavery and suffering. They did not know true war and true tyranny, they thought the life they lived was the usual and all else was odd, but Sbajan knew best.
His great-grandfather had been the man who kicked the tyrant kings from Igar-Kuri, and the man who founded much of what would become the current model of government in the whole region, from Grehvew to Lacesol. He told his grandfather and his father about the importance of fairness in rulership, of the misery tyrants caused.
From the north, the Eveman, as the wiseman of the south called them, brought more warning tales, the people there had fought off slavers back in the old land, and for a while, the spirit of freedom lived bright on them, they knew honor and that their fellow man was not an animal to be traded. But generations later, those tales seemed to have been forgotten in the north, even if, thankfully, the practices did not return.
Sbajan could see the very work of his ancestors being brought down, he tried his best to keep the balance of the harbor on the farm, but it was hard, the beautiful harmony of his ancestral's work was not possible, the seas were the home of the gods of the free. Still, he made sure the right of a man over his work and his body was kept, not only on his land, but on the lands beyond.
And that is where the sinister town of Mirny entered. Once it was a beautiful place, a mountain temple, but with the spread of metalwork they quickly broke the sacredness of the mountain to search for ore, and they found them in great quantity. It would be typical of the priestess to object that, but the woman who was said to speak for the gods and the maiden goddess was in truth a wicked one. Not only she allowed the miners to work, she claimed ownership of the mountain, and in a moment, the people there were no longer free, working and dying in the mines of the tyrant priestess.
Of course, there were objections, in an ideal world, armies from all kings would march onto Mirny and free it from tyranny, but the real world was not as simple. Jan and Krastas had become rival towns long ago due to the people from that unhonorable town murdering an innocent man of Jan, and while he knew the king of Krastas also shared his hate for the tyrant priestess, he also knew he was petty enough to declare war on Jan should Jan move towards Mirny. And knowing he is such a petty man, Jan could not allow Krastas to start the war with Mirny, or they could easily use that as a move to become the hegemon in the area.
So, while both towns stayed at each other's throat, the tyranny in Mirny took deeper roots and their weaponry trade become more crucial to the region. Sbajan wanted to see it all end, perhaps a war with Krastas was unavoidable, but he feared what the war would bring, not only in terms of dead men but also the sweet temptation of rulership over others, if he died before the war was over, he could see his son being manipulated into enslaving the people of Krastas or Mirny instead of giving them an honorable death.
As such the king lived, wise enough to not turn his back on agriculture and metal weaponry, but with little idea of how to lead his kingdom and people out of the situation surrounding them.
He moved down from the hill and went into his town, walking the pathways on the hill until he found the shaman's house. That fellow was an odd one, most the shamans greatly disliked the harbor towns, but this one had taken residence in it, bringing about many new ideas and inventions to the people.
One of these, his breeding of a certain type of fish, had become a key part of the regional culture, the fish had a colorful scale with a vague shape, by manipulating their population, given a few years, one could make their thick scales show any symbol they wanted. A rare few of the fish were born with completely white scales, by breeding them to the ones with patterns, the offspring would have a perfect copy of that pattern.
By keeping a personal pond of fish and raising a unique pattern, the kings had a way to prove, even to faraway lands, that there was likely sanction to what the messenger was saying. And as the scales became increasingly dry over time, it was easy to tell how long it had been since the king gave the patch to the person or if it was legitimate. With the advent of writing in Kodekzia, further legitimacy was added to the fish scale system.
"Krathud, do you have any fish ripe for being used, I need to send a message to Kodekzia with haste..." Sbajan stopped talking when he noticed his shaman was talking to two people, a young man, and a woman. "Who are they?"
"They are from the tradition, Sbajan. Seems like my presence is requested to deal with some issues deep within the inland jungle."
"That is absurd, you cannot leave now. Our, ahem, 'situation' is critical, and I need your guidance."
The shaman shook his head. "I think my apprentice is ready to take over, Sbajan. It would be a great dishonor to my name to not answer the call. Furthermore, what else do I have to add? I feel like ever since the turtle shell shield I have not helped the city in any way."
"That is absurd Krathud! You helped us greatly, every day, if not inventing new things, you helped to organize the kingdom and to teach our children. At least, will you return to us, once these matters are solved? I fear if it takes too long I might not live to see you back, but everyone else will be happy."
"I..." the shaman stopped, and nodded, no sense in causing more pain to the old king, considering he would never be allowed to return, he wanted to part ways with sweet words. "Yes, I will always be looking after everyone, you have nothing to worry about."
05 FE Western Wildlands, Mesathalassa.
"What the... that is a whole lot of fish!" Junjii could not believe his eyes as Krathud walked back into the camp carrying on his back a net filled with enough fish to feed a whole village and then some, and he hadn't even been out of the camp for too long.
"Its nothing really, when you get to know the rivers and its inhabitants and when you know how to make reliable nets it all seems simple." the man calmly explained. "This should help the village near our camp, a gift is always a good way to introduce ourselves. People up in here only care about hunting land animals, I guess that is why I preferred the harbors so much, even if dealing with kings and politics is an annoyance."
"Haha, Uriko says the same thing. But she says that there are places even worse than the harbors."
"Oh right, I think Hurico mentioned she traveled beyond this land when she was younger? It is odd, she does not appear to be older than 30 cycles. Where is she anyway? She just disappeared."
"She does that from time to time. She is strange, but she knows a lot of things. She also has been helping me with the tradition."
"She seems to be a good shaman for sure, she is also very agile, even for a huntress. I am impressed she isn't of a higher rank, but being a foreigner, I guess she meets some resistance."
"Well, once this is done, she won't be of a low rank anymore. Your grampa has promised to promote her once we bring you there."
"My grandfather did? Well, it is logical. She will already be at the center of the Halagan, it would be awkward if she could not enter it."
"Yeah... I won't be able to go in there..."
"Oh right. You are so young you are not even in the line for the exaltation. You still got a lot of spiritual growth to do until that."
"I wanted to see the wardens..."
"You already saw the warden of the west, did you not?"
"Well... yes. But I wanted to see all five of them."
"Maybe, given the time, you will. You could even become one yourself..."
"I really doubt it. I don't have the natural skill for it... I could not even make a staff properly. That is more of a Hurico thing."
"I agree, Hurico could easily become warden of the north, she reminds me so much of the current one, and both are Hawks."
"Yeah? She is weird too?"
"Ah, no, not in that way. It's just, they both have that tall and aloof look to them, penetrating eyes, all that. Really comes to show how our minds are connected with our guardians."
"I guess..."
A few weeks later, the group would arrive at the swamps, stopping at the Innkeep of Ros-Zujau.
"Swamp-Swamp is such a silly name..." the shamaness commented to herself.
"What is that?" Junjii asked, hearing Hurico mumble.
"The name, Ros is an old word for swamp. So we call this the Swamp-Swamp."
This attracted the attention of a man resting against a wall, who eyed the strangers as they walked by.
"Ohh, right. In the north, they don't have a word for swamp, do they?"
"Uhm, my north or shadowy north?"
"Your north, not the duskland. Up in there, w... they have a whole lot of words for a swamp."
"I see, they have one, its usually Kear. It is just not used very often."
Suddenly, the man walked near to them. "It is rare to see young people who know so much about so many regions," he said, and there was a certain accent to his voice. The man was very pale for the regional standard, but not as much as Junjii, he had black eyes and even in his old age his hair still was of a strong black color with just hints of grey. "It has been so long since I last heard someone calling this area Ros. Where did you hear that word?"
"Oh, it is just, something I heard in a village once. I have very good memory so it just stuck with me."
"Ah, I see, so it was no one from your family?"
"I fear not."
"Well, it's fine. You are a good girl for at least paying attention. I see that you two are shamans, right?"
Junjii nodded. "Yeah. And our friend over there too!" the boy pointed towards Krathud, who had been talking with an old friend of his.
The man looked towards where Junjii pointed at, and nodded. "Oh, so it is. If you are stopping here, you three are surely going to the Halagan, right?"
"Are you a shaman too?" Hurico asked, starting to be a bit suspicious.
"Hmmm, I guess so." he sighed. "But I am old and sincerely, it has been such a long time since I last picked up a drum or carved something from wood. Well, I wish luck to you three, if you are to travel to that region it must surely be something very important."
With that, the elder turned around and walked away, as soon as he left her view Hurico hit Junjii on the arm. "Do not give so much information about us like that."
"Ouch, why?" the boy said, placing his hand near where the shamaness hit him.
"Just be cautious."
05 FE Alefpria
Susa walked the halls of the palace, everything felt increasingly lonely over there, if it was not for her travels back home she would have surely gone mad. The battle with Chaos felt pyrrhic now, the victory against Logos was important, but the extended raid against Xerxes had costed them so much. Not only in manpower, but going into the mist... it had effects, three years after the battle, they felt clear.
Everyone around her felt more corrupt, except the great people, the wise ones, like Lakshimi, but she was a minority in the droves of fools, and the fools were suppressing the good people, such as Lakshimi, and her. Her contempt grew each and every day. The elites of Alefpria were soft and unable to answer the challenges properly, all was moved by a cog of divine might carried by Lifprasil, but there were few that truly served the emperor properly like she did. Yes, she did not follow the rules and played around with the imperial orders, but she understood what it was about, she cared for the people and the advancement of mankind, it was obvious she was better than most of those around her.
"Why is there such a hole in the reports regarding the metatic islands?"
"Hole? Where is it, Yunsade Susa?"
"Are you legitimately blind or something? Here, all over it, this information is spotty. As if it is not enough to keep that person alive when the right decision would be to free her neck from the chore of holding her head..."
"Tauga being spared was by the emperor's decision."
"Don't interrupt me, I know who gave the order, Lifprasil is benevolent to a fault. Look, this makes no sense, we are being fed fake information about what is going on over there, most of what is reported seems to be made up information. I bet my boots she is breaking all of the imperial laws."
"Would you like me to launch an investigation, Yunsade?"
"The general won't accept, if there is corruption, anyway, it would have roots in these halls. Still, try it, maybe mask it as scouting. I sent the emperor a request to standardize all of the colonial reports, but as expected, I received no response yet, I will try to push for it later, it would surely reveal if any Xerxenian scum is trying to make this empire the same filthy puddle of decay as their so-called civilization.
The 'assistant' nodded, typically he would have a lot of authority, but Susa was one of the highest ranks of the empire, even if for her it never felt like it. He quickly scurried away, and the huntress was left alone in the room. Staring at her own reflection in the window until it came time to return to Mesathalassa.
05 FE Near the holy land of Halagan
One day away from the sacred caverns, the group was surrounded by a band of hunters, all wearing clothes made from pelts of albino animals. It was amazing how sneakily the group was able to move about, even if their clothes stood out a lot in this winterless land, not even the heroic Hurico was able to notice the group this close to them.
Of course, no one of the trio was worried, they knew the holy land was protect by people such as these and they had been expecting to be approached at any time ever since they first saw a tall stone monolith decorated with many symbols. Though it was definitely intimidating to suddenly wake up to find your camp surrounded from all sides by ghost-like figures. It almost gave the tradition the impression of omniscience and infallibility, which would be more convincing if not for two out of three people in the group having successfully fooled them.
"Hurico, Junjii, and Krathud" The leader of the group announced. "We were expecting you."
Next to her, was clearly a very seasoned shaman, not one of the big names, but his clothes made he seem like someone important. "Krathud and Hurico are free to walk into the divine ground, the elders agreed to it. Junjii, you are still too impure, you may walk until the fourth ring, but there you will stop. There will be a safe camp for you to stay in."
The lead-huntress nodded. "Now that the order is clear, please pack up and be ready to travel as soon as possible"
The group followed the instruction and soon walked deeper into the land. Up close, as they walked away from the swamps and into the highlands, Hurico almost forgot how small the Halagan were compared to the might of the Ironhearts. Tall rock pillars with something that looked like a very early traveler code decorated the rocky land, standing impressively tall, as if made not by human but by greater beings. Only a few of the band of hunters accompanied the group on their climb.
Soon, while walking a cliffside route, the group walked into a small village very well hidden between the rock walls.
"This is as far as you can go, Junjii." one of the hunters told, before pointing towards a wooden gate. "You two, through there."
"Good luck, Krathud, Uriko." the boy said, bowing to them.
"Junjii, this is a very holy place with many priests and sages. Take the chance to answer your doubts, I am sure soon enough you will be able to walk past here."
"Uhm, take care, I will be back soon."
Most of the hunters did not follow the two into the gate, only the lead-huntress.
"Did you visit this land before, Krathud?"
"Of course, a few times, this is your first time right?" he laughed softly. "I hope you enjoy rites. Otherwise..."
The lead-huntress cut him short. "Silence. Only talk if necessary."
Past the gate was a cavern path into the valley, sometimes it would break out of the stone and turn into a cliffside walk, where any misstep felt like it could lead to a fatal dive into the land below. To her side, Hurico could see many drawings, she was impressed that they even seemed to predate human inhabitation of the area, she could definitely see something that felt Hain-like it some of it, new coats of symbols were added by those who came after.
She could not identify the pantheon properly, beyond Slough, the imagery was not so clear, and even for someone who memorized most of the tradition, the walls seemed to be filled with references to unknown gods.
Once again the group wandered from a dark cave into a bright area, but this time, they were not outside, the chamber had an open roof, a strong waterfall flowed from it and many plants grew both hanging in the opening and within the cave. Masked clergy soon walked to the group. With gentle movements, they started to take away whatever the lead-huntress and the two shamans were carrying or wearing. Hurico had not been told this would happen, but she knew even flinching would be seen in a poor light.
A priest walked in front of them, opening a box with three amulets. Each had a leather circle on it with the traveler code equivalent to their status and spiritual name burnt into it. That would be the only thing they wore while they did the next rite, which involved praying and meditating under the heavy water that fell from above.
Hurico could not help but smirk, for someone like her, the water fell like a gentle drizzle, and even with her eyes closed, she could feel the other two struggling under the weight of the waterfall.
That ritual lasted for hours, even the huntress lost count. Once done, the priests opened a gate and offered them a simple tunic as they walked out of the small pond that formed in the center of the cave.
They would continue to walk within cavernous and cliffside paths, each going higher than the last, the difference was that now they walked with bare feet, which was far from comfortable along the rocky paths. Krathud was amazed at how Hurico traversed the path without reacting to the harshness of the floor below.
Finally, they walked into a well guarded artificial room, it was very large and led to a long stone-carved staircase. Around the middle of the stairway, there was a small flat section with a leather tent and a bridge to inner chambers on both sides. The lead-huntress stopped there, walking to the side of the other guards and being given a comfortable pelt cloak. The shamans were given a belt, color-coded on the realm of their spirit guardian, and allowed to proceed.
The staircase ended in a surface temple, which led to an open highland field, the wind raged against the land and the snow made itself present. Now that they were alone, Krathud no longer felt like being as quiet as a corpse.
"I told you so." he giggled quietly.
"I sincerely did not know how advanced the tradition truly was. Nobody told me of this." the huntress confessed, starting to walk out of the small shrine and into the faint path that traversed the fields.
Krathud was not even impressed as Hurico barely reacted to the wind striking her body. What even was that woman. "Impressive no? They say this was all here even before the Hain."
"Well, they say many things." she told in a dismissive tone, though she was a bit perplexed, as they walked into the highlands, more stone pillars towered over them, these ones even bigger than the ones below, when logically it should be the opposite. Here, the stones were all carved with red runes, the origin of the text felt familiar to her, but the grammar did not. It was not used like normal traveler code, for sure.
"Seesh, you are as harsh as this land, lady." Krathud laughed. "But if this is your first time here, I take you have never seen 'it'. I bet that will take a gasp even from someone as serious as you."
"It?" Hurico tilted her head slightly and crossed her arms.
"Wait for it, just above that hill."
So far, most of the open sides of the field they walked through faced the mountains that surrounded the highlands. But after that hill, they had a clear view of the land below, Mesathalassa, extending as far as the eye could see. She could even see the faint light of all the countless villages in the nearby wilderness, and, with her heroic powers, even peek at the lights of a few harbor towns. "Yeah, you got me, wow."
Krathud smiled, and continued his path, from there onward that view would be a constant on the left side of their view. "Doesn't it make you feel small?"
"No... It makes me realize how much of a world there is out there, someone like me should know that already, but it is easy to forget."
Suddenly both stopped, three cloaked figures had jumped from behind the rocks, two to their front, one to their back. "What is this?" Krathud questioned, then he noticed that they all carried obsidian knives. "Bastards, do you want to desecrate this sacred land?"
Hurico took a fighting position, and Krathud looked around seeing if there was anything he could use to defend himself. The figures did not comment a thing, merely slowly approaching them.
Then a screech echoed the sky, and the lone figure behind them screamed, trying to fight off a hawk from his face, but clumsily stepping back until there was no ground to support him anymore, only a long, long fall down below. As the figure fell the hawk flew back to its owner, a tall woman with an aloof look to her, she wore a red garb decorated with copper feathers, and a beaked mask covered her face. Typically a falconer would use a leather glove, but the bird landed on the woman's bare arm and didn't seem to hurt her in the slightest.
Krathud and Hurico looked up towards the figure in amazement, the warden of the north. One of the figures tried to rush towards Krathud while the other was stuck in place, like prey in front of a predator. Thankfully, Hurico was far faster than the assassin could dream to be, punching the person into the ground before it was anywhere near the reach of the warden-to-be.
The warden of the north looked at the one who stood still, she made a sign, raising her finger and pointing it down. The man understood that as she saying he should let go of his weapon, he rose his knife in response, but that was not what the woman was signaling, when she rose up her finger, a strong wind traversed the highland with a clear destination, a wind djinn under the warden's command, the man barely had a moment to react before he was taken off the ground and launched into the air by the sentient gust.
"Seems like the other two are gone, glad I got this one, not the warden." Hurico commented to Krathud. "We can get some answers from this one, discover who sent them"
The warden calmly walked towards the two shamans, she had yet to speak a single word, but it was clear she was analyzing if they were fine with the movement of her head. "To fight with your bare hands like that... seems like we now allow any undeveloped soul into the sacred land," she told in a harsh tone. "You greatly disappoint me, Krathud. I expected nothing of the woman, but you are of a higher breed than that."
She then reached down, picked up the man by his collar, and without warning, threw him off the cliff to meet the same end as the other two. Hurico's eyes went wide, she clenched her fist and was ready to discuss, but she knew better, not even staring at the woman to not show her contempt.
"You are wise in your silence." the warden told. "I hope you understand why I needed to that, if you do not, I might have to ask you to leave before I am forced to do the same to you. This land is only for those developed enough to understand the tradition."
The shamaness nodded, "I understand."
"Or so you say." the warden turned around. "The sacred cavern is near, and whether I agree with it or not, we wait for you."
Oh hey, look, it only took me almost one whole year to put that Elementist idea into action >_>
This is a small little post, meant originally to accompany the final Makeda story, but I have been more interested in working on my mesathalassa post recently and it felt bad keeping this at the post fridge.
--It follows a young woman, first name Kadja Topami (its a double name, like Kate Lee, Divinus ain't ready yet for a full dusklander name) --She was always a sickly child, not strong, not smart, kids mocked her and bullied her. --One day, her papa struck gold and got hold of a gem mine, people started to try to gain her favor, beat up the bullies. --Kadja takes that talk of "If you fight back the bully, you are proving him right" in a bit of a twisted manner. --Just when she thought her life was getting good, boom, she gets the elemental plage, starts coughing sand. --As it is typical in the duskland, her answer to that is to isolate herself from the village and wait for her gruesome death. --One day, some teens decide to raid her tent, she wouldn't care, but they took the one thing she doesn't want to lose. --She follows the teens, gets in a fight, she is thin, sickly and has no idea of how to fight, she flails her arm around and hit one of the teens. Splish-splash goes the kid's inner organs.
Irikiri
There were few human things that were truly old in the face of Galbar. Outside of those who tamed the horses and deserts that the others races had neglected, most humans still clung to the flotsam of antediluvian and arconian culture or to some blessed tyrant. In the seashores of the Metatic, you can barely find a village with a native elder population, instead, grandsons and granddaughters hear from their grandparents tales of how they escaped the advancing seas, the chaotic hordes, the fires from the sky, among so many other catastrophes.
As such, there was little that truly connected the people across arbitrary regions, provided the absence of the divine. Sometimes, these few connections were logical, sometimes they were peculiar, the isolation habit that happened in the marshes under the dusk was the later.
Life was hard in the shadowy land, yet, a good many of the tribes that survived in it were not harsh to its people, having no issues with the old, the orphaned, the sick. Even so, at the sight of sickness, wounds, depression, a great many took the choice to move to the outskirts of the tribes and villages, avoiding contact with others and hiding their situation. The logic of it ranged from avoiding the shame of showing personal weakness in a society that valued excellence, to a more unhealthy selflessness of not wanting to consume the tribe's resources and time if they could not provide something back.
In the north, past the Dzanyar river, on the shores of the Dzamiri, a young woman by the name of Kadja Topami followed this odd ancestral habit. She had sand in her hand, it was bright beige with a hint of red, unlike the greyish sand under her feet.
Nyarmunru, she could remember the priest and travelers saying, their tales had scared her as a child, she could still remember the details of each one vividly. People burning to ashes even when under the water. Eyes and tongues turning into stone. Limbs swelling with water. Flesh evaporating into a scarlet mist. It was truly the greatest plague.
And now she had it, and hers seemed to be the cruelest one in the face of Gjalle-, because the sickness did not spread through her body and deliver a fatal blow like it typically would, instead, it provided her with a whole year worth of suffering. Every day she felt like she had a thousand blades in her throat and every week she had to manually remove sharp rocks that formed randomly on her skin, it had been months since she last ate any food as it made her ill and caused her to vomit.
She just wished for it all to be over already, so she would stop worrying her family and the pain would be gone. That is a feeling she had for a long while, even before the plague, she was always sickly, and always showcased a lack of cleverness and vigor. Weak child, chuchirikiri, the elders said. The fellow children would delight in calling her Chuche, that is, until her family found new wealth as miners and the people trying to gain her favor outnumbered and outpowered the bullies.
Those memories brought a soft smile to her face, there was such a delicious irony in the people who were mean to her because they saw themselves as physically superior being beaten by those stronger than them. None ever dared to speak of the logic of might after that, some even said sorry, but Kadja thought they were wrong, they were right.
It was too bad, that despite her change from a weak child to a more confident woman, she would never get to enjoy the life as one of the elites of her clan. One year ago, she counted the days until she would get married and enjoy a lifestyle of silk, honey, and servants, now, Kadja counted each day she stayed alive.
The light of the day turned silver as the sun had set, in the dusklands, that was one of the most meaningful change from day to night. As Julkofyr's darkness was not natural, it reacted oddly to the world around it, days had dark grey skies and light similar to an overcast day, but during the night, the light of the ring, two particular stars, Lluna- and Hufangje-, and of all the moons, Mepodzanyi, Edzudzanyi, Rutoidzanyi, Dyalludzanyi, Jofumidzanyi and even the black moon, the redundantly named Dzanyadzanyi, could be seen clearly.
The change in time caught the sick woman by surprise, she had barely noticed the day going by, in a sense, that was good, the long days she spent alone were the worse. Sometimes, when she felt well, she visited her family and pretended all was fine, she knew her father would try to help her if he knew of her situation, it did not matter if she was his third daughter, he always spoiled every single child. Though it had already been two months since her last visit, at this point there was no way she would find a good excuse.
With these thoughts in mind, Kadja Topami walked back to the small tent she had built, thankfully sleep did not elude her, in fact, she had started to sleep far more since the sickness started, sometimes for almost entire days. When she entered it, however, she found a surprising scene, two teenagers were rummaging through her belongings. She would be past the point of caring, if they had not been too greedy, if they had limited themselves only to the shiniest of jewelry and had not picked up a small amber amulet too.
For a moment, their faces met. Seeing the thin woman, who was too pale even for the duskland standard, they smirked and started to run away without a worry of being caught.
Kadja Topami followed right behind, she felt heavy and sluggish, her feet sank down in the mud of the bog and it was hard to free it again. In frustration, she threw a rock at the duo that had robbed her, and the shot was true, somehow, knocking one of the kids face first into the bog. The other kid stopped and went to help his friend. The woman was slowly catching up.
She tried to reach for her amulet, but the teen swung his hand towards her, hitting her face. It did not hurt, but it provoked her, she knew she was no match to fight the two kids, but she was past the point of caring. She rose her hand and tried to hit one of the boys, the result was far from what she expected, it was like hitting the surface of water, a little bit of resistance and a splash, except this one was of a dark scarlet color.
>Could it be imagined as the paper on which the Codex is written? Paper is a lot like fabric. Right? Right??
>As for its consciousness, I don't believe it's all in people's heads - the consciousness of the Fabric has been long-established.
>mirroring effect
Every single line you people say just make Ilunabar stronger. Soon, she will be unstoppable and all will tremble in face of her true neutral passive indulgence. The very fabric of reality will be made into a fashionable poncho. It was too late before it even began.
For realzies though, on that first one, I have always been kinda playing on that, since the Codex is said to be a parchment, which is pretty much fabric, which ties to the Dreamweaver, especially after it became a massive pipe organ - sewing machine. I outright described it as pulling strings in the fabric of all-stuff, which has always been quite literal in my posts, with outright noises of strings being pulled, but could also be seen in a metaphorical way since she is the goddess of aggressive marketing and could be making true to that old thing she once said to Vowzra about "What happens when the universe itself, from the largest galaxy clusters to the smallest bit of quantum foam, decides to tell a lie?"
Answer was apparently mosquitoes and lactose tolerance.
Arpeggio: Ilunabar's first holy site, a huge tower in the middle of Raka that herds the flow of dreams. Raka: The realm of dreams. Flow of Dreams: The collective dreams of all mortals. A great storm of thought that twirls from the chaotic bottom of the Arpeggio tower to the lawful top. Glamour: Concentrated dream energy that can survive and influence Reality. Changes living and non-living things in a similar way to Chaos and Holy, but with far more glitter.
Pictaraika: Ilunabar's second holy site, basically one big cork stopper in a hole that connects Reality and Raka. Stands where Julkofyr's Darkened Spires used to, surrounded by tall knife-like mountains, it is home to many realms where Dream and Reality interact. Index: One of the layers/realms of the Pictaraika, home to one of the greatest libraries in the universe and usually where Ilunabar makes her new plans.
Phantalei: When Ilunabar took over the Darkened Spires, the lands influenced by Julkofyr's darkness started to become influenced by glamour. Located west of the Pictaraika. Julia Island: A garden gifted from Jvan, full of Jvanic species and shaped like a fractal. Stands in the middle of the Fractal Ocean.
Makeda: An angel Ilunabar started to influence after the Vestec-Niciel war. Unlike most angels, she lives far away from the Valley of Peace. She recently fought the Realta yet all she did was stun a few of them before almost being killed. Theliel: A vampire that helped Makeda after she was almost killed.
Post 1 - Ilunabar
Not much happens here, more of a set up for what is to come and supposedly to keep her up with recent developments, but the post was stuck in procrastination hell for a while, so it's not up to date. -Ilunabar is meditating when she notices there is something odd in the flow of dreams, she cannot tell what. -She talks with Piena, who gives her a report on the other gods, she does not find a reason for the oddity there, but she notices something is up with Astarte. -She talks with Notte, who has been keeping an eye on Osveril but cannot do much lest the goddess decides what she wants to do. -She talks with Meimu, who was supposed to continue working on Phantalei fauna and flora, but has been getting paranoic over butterflies instead.
Post 2 - Makeda
I got stuck for over one year with this post, yikes. -Makeda, after the Realta attack, has been thinking things over, doubting her fate in Niciel but not falling to Ilunabar's plotting. -She talks with her vampire friend-ish Theliel, -On the way down, she spooks some village kids who were going up the mountain to talk with the Mist Witch (The local hain's name for Theliel) -Makeda notices they thought she was a freaking Realta, she is angry, but decides to help them to show she is a good girl. -She helps the village and hears rumors of an undead band attacking the region. She really wants to make up for that Realta stuff, so she decides to go back to acting. -Cut to a battle between the armies of a brick-city (as walled cities are called in the region) and the undead bandits. Despite the numerical and strategic advantage, the living army starts to lose, the reason being the fact a vampire had hypnotized their general and leading them to doom. -That vampire is actually acting out of his usual, he is a coward that just aimed at small villages, but then mysterious masked men (tm) blackmailed him into increasing his band and to aim at the key cities of the area. -Makeda arrives in the battle, vampire panics. -Makeda starts slaying most undead with ease, gets cocky, is attacked by one of the masked man, who being not undead was able to move through her attack unharmed and slash at her. -Still, tides of battle have changed, the undead retreat. -She wakes up later in a chamber in the palace of the brick city she saved, Thau. -She hears some context on stuff, finds out the general from that battle is about to be executed, so she makes a dramatic entrance and saves him. -Part 2 coming in 2020 at this rate.
34M - 0FP available.
30M - Level up from 6 to 9 - Not typically my style, but I want that extra domain. 2M - To create Flitterlings and Flutterlings. - Both to be introduced gradually, without proper warning.
2M - 0FP remaining
The reflected image of countless stars within the Arpeggio's reactor twirled around the goddess. She found the place, despite the high amount of energy being churned about, a fitting area for meditation and introspection. The clash of opposites from the Arpeggio and the visage of Reality helped her to notice new patterns in existence as well as her own place in the greater stage the primordials had set.
However, not all of her time could be spent in introspection, especially in such restless time. She noticed many oddities during her contemplation, including one within the very flow of the Raka, all of them would need to be dealt with hastily. Upon feeling ready to face another cycle of pressure and trial, she immediately moved to the Index within the Pictaraika.
Piena was in the room, and immediately noticed her master's arrival, bowing down. "You arrived at the perfect time. I was just organizing the reports..."
The goddess wasted no time. "Do you have the divine one ready?" she asked abruptly.
"Of course." the silver-haired diva held that one within herself, A0, as it was one of the most sensitive sets of data they collected. Touching the table in the middle of the room, the information started to be displayed above it by means of illusion.
As with most of the archives, the data was collected from a large network of willing and unwilling informants: The diva's reports, the dreams of mortals, the glimpses of mirrors, all left a trace. It was all quite limited to the realm of Galbar, with glimpses of Arcon through the biased lenses of dreams. The flow of information was intentionally bloated, with many of the key areas intricately hidden by misinformation and illusion, especially the plans with what did not belong to her. From the manipulation of Makeda to the surveillance of Amartia. All, of course, was for the greater beauty of the world in her vision, property can be a tool of beauty, but it should never be a toll, it was absurd that some siblings would oppose her generous work just because they thought she was being 'meddlesome'.
"How peculiar, no clues on what has been messing the Flow of Dreams." the goddess noted, upon finishing a quick review of everything from A0W1S1V1 to A0W77S9V21
"I do notice something odd with Astarte though, I cannot tell what, but it is related to magic and some odd tales near the southern purlieu of the Deepwoods, who is looking after Brown and her?"
Piena shook her head. "I fear nobody is near either. Meimu is in the Phantalei, Notte is entirely focused on the new void, Chronicle is, well, Chronicle, so you know what to expect, and I am here."
"Ah, what a mistake. I should have sent someone, but I guess at the time I thought the jewelry alone would suffice to keep track of it. Oh well, I will look into this later. What is this report on Lazarus though?"
"We found relics we believe to be a Dwarven shipwreck... on our planet. Jvanic-Vakarion technology is really... rampant over there."
"That is unexpected, Lazarus is always such an unpredictable figure, I would be inclined to be more active to slightly help Dundee, but the holy imperialism and research on divinity..." the goddess shrugged, giving the text one last read before storing it. "Well, this will be all for today... I need an emergency report on fauna, flora and the domain of Nature, heavy focus on neural systems. I will send you Meimu if I see fit to free her from the current duty. Also establish a facility to test Glamour..."
"Ah, you are leaving already? Piena interjected. "We also were scheduled to talk about Alefpria..."
The goddess stopped moving and turned to face the diva. "Talk about what? Is there any new development over there? I am up to date with the situation on the Metatic Islands, if that is what you are talking about."
"No, I mean, the capital itself, its people and Lifprasil. When are we going to do some sort of intervention to stop the current staleness of it all? The war... it changed the emperor, we need to..."
"We need not. It is due time for Alefpria to find its own path, it suffers from the same illness of all divine empires, this is an opportunity for a cure. Mortal civilizations held only by the divine are like a tree that grows in reverse, it has a lofty canopy and succulent fruits, but its trunk is merely an illusion and even a sapling has larger roots, it's little but a collection of fragile twigs and leaves suspended in the air by bewitchery. These odd trees also cast a thick shadow that makes it impossible for the seeds of more legitimate plants to grow into great trees themselves."
"I see, so I take you will not allow us to intervene anymore on Alefpria?" the diva asked.
"You may do as you will. Just remember, when you first designed the city with Lifprasil and your sisters, you made sure to provide for most of the people's needs, from food to transport to leisure, yet you forgot one key thing, a graveyard, an understandable mistake." the goddess sighed.
"Well master, I understand my approach has not been ideal, but you must remember the role the empire played in curbing Logos, and the role it could play keeping chaos, ogres, undead and all other sorts of unsightliness in check."
"What can I say, I am romantic. I would rather have true beauty for a week before facing the end of the world than to live eternally in a place of fake beauty. But there is no need for this much tension, Alefpria is not yet fated to fade, the people might be lacking the will right now, but if there is one divine empire that can find a true path, it's theirs. On the same note, if there is one Diva that I would trust with actually helping them over just adding more illusion of wellness, it would be you, provided you start seeing the people where you see just pieces in a game of the divine."
"Notte," The goddess says as she suddenly stepped into the area, without the typical fanfare of her arrivals.
"Master," the Diva answered, looking particularly invisible at the moment, but quickly fixing that by slowly starting to look less translucent.
The Diva had been sent to scout the region directly to the north of the Pictaraika, Ilunabar was quick to notice something amiss and the dreams soon confirmed her worry. It was still hard to tell what she was facing, but she could see the bizarre work of the entity in the unsightly voracious creatures doing wicked work on the beautiful land.
"I have been culling the creatures discreetly on the side, glass dust and obsidian mostly, no hints of our work left once it is done. But, che, without facing the main horde, not much can be done."
"I would rather not." the goddess explained. "There is simply no joy in brute forcing a solution. I feel like there are better approaches."
"Hmmm? Diplomacy then? This all looks like unreasonable aggression, so I doubt that works. Or do you plan to just let it happen and see where it goes?"
"Indeed, I doubt just talk will work, but neither will I just be letting it run wild, I am an active deity, unlike many of my siblings. But there are other paths. You will see."
The Diva of Glass nodded slightly and once again became more transparent and harder to detect. "I hope you know what you are doing."
The transition from the dusklands to Phantalei continued slowly, Meimu had calculated the process would take almost an entire century to be done, yet even with a small sample area, the land provided far more than what the muse was capable of keeping track off.
The diva of petals continued her work over there, it was better than being on Julia Island for sure, but still, it was not ideal, even if the local flora was interesting, she would rather be working on her gardens over playing warden of the marshes.
To make matters worse, the number of insects that thrived in the swamp was an absolute disaster for any of her attempts at building up gardens. Butterflies were the worst for her, not only their spawn ate her flowers any time she looked away, but the Diva was sure they were up to something, much of the research Ilunabar had asked had been sidelined in favor of an unhealthy amount of notes taken about all sorts of lepidopterans.
"Uhm, I appreciate the enthusiasm about this one niche, but I do believe we have more urgent matters at hand." the goddess said, having arrived at the diva's camp before she had returned from her daily chores.
"Ah, you are here." she said, quite surprised and somewhat embarrassed too. "I did not expect you to outright do a surprise visit like this..."
"Ah, did I not announce myself? My bad." the goddess continued to shift through the diva's notes. "I take this whole butterfly thing is because of caterpillars? Not judging, I understand why you would have instincts from when you were a rose."
"Eh? No... Well, maybe, they are annoying, but so much stuff is annoying in this world, I would have no reason to dislike this one the most. The real issue is all the oddities they have, I mean, we noticed it right? How there are species of butterfly here that only exist in far-off corners of the planet, or even some Arcon ones."
"Oh? That is just the intrinsic blessing of Slough."
"I do not think you ever mentioned that term before."
"Oh, it is a very recent thing I theorized. It would explain why Arcon and Galbar share so many species, sometimes varieties showing up on Galbar after they are extinct on Arcon. It would also explain why the Metatic Ocean is inhabited by many new species that could have not simply traversed Shalanoir. I think it is because Slough inhabits Galbar, making it so that life based on the greater motifs is spontaneously born, especially in barren lands that could support it."
"Oh, I see. Hmm... Well, it explains some of it but..."
"Anyway, I noticed you have two new categories beyond the ones we had set before?" The goddess pointed towards the notes on local fauna the diva had taken.
"Oh? That is nothing too wild. See, uhm, the first two did well for the early fauna, but later I decided to cut all sentient beings into Leyur, especially, because, uh, there is some sentient stuff that should not be all that sentient, in theory. Also, size changes, not all creatures get small, some grow bigger. I call them Magos."
The first one caused a reaction of the goddess, she wondered if it was an interaction with souls and astartian magic or something else. "Hmm. What a situation. So much to do, so little time and helping hands." the goddess complained.
Anything bad happened to you recently? You sound more annoyed than usual, lady master."
"Not bad per se. But there is something on the flow of dreams over at Raka. It intensified when I built the mirror within the Arpeggio, it does not look serious, but I hate to have something within the core of my realm that I do not know."
"Ah? And you do not even have a hint of what it is?"
"Not at all, it could be your butterflies for all I knew." the goddess chuckled.
"Well, it could be worse, it could be the ants."
"Seesh. Tricked by insects, now that would be just shameful. Nevertheless, I originally planned to send you to help Piena but I believe I will send Piena to help you, as it seems this area became ripe with opportunities to study the dream-mind interactions. And please, forget about your conspiracies, okay? Time is way too short already."
At the cliff's edge, Makeda sat and contemplated her situation, the view of the endless plains in front of her being both a haunting and beautiful one. The scars of fire made by the Realta were still clear, yet mortal life continued, and little by little, they were rebuilding. The crumbles of previous buildings became the foundation of new ones and the ashes nourished new crops.
Still, nothing changed the feeling of failure she felt and the cracks the unsureness of it all caused on her mind. The words of Niciel, the words of Ilunabar and all the memories she collected across the land crashed against one another.
"You... Have been meditating in that rock for a while, no?" the vampire suddenly said to the angel.
"You know very well our species does not need anything but that to survive."
"Well, that is not entirely true, food and sleep provide not only better healing for a tired and hurt person, such as you, but also... it feels nice."
The angel thought it over, finally deciding to concede to Theliel's point. "Maybe some fresh water would help me to heal faster," she said.
The vampire knew well Makeda was back at full health already, she had been for days, it was easy to notice her issue was one of mind, she did not want to just return to the Valley of Peace or concede to Ilunabar. He wished he knew how to help, but it was his very trouble understanding other people that led him to a hermit lifestyle even before he fell from angel to vampire. He was trying to do what little he could and hoping he was doing something good.
Makeda took flight down the hill, going in the direction of a spring not too far from there, provided you could fly over the steep land. As she went down, she noticed the little track between trees mortals used to go up the hills. There was a shrine there, and by living near to it, Theliel's became part of the worship.
Mist witch, the mortals called the spirit of the mountain, as she moved in the form of mist and only sometimes took a humanoid shape. Seeing as it could dissuade them from sending hunters and such after him, Theliel went along and performed a few tasks for the villagers using hypnosis, his ability to communicate with animals, among other skills. He clearly disliked it to an extent, going as far as making the path up the hill harder to use, yet he also seemed to do his best once someone managed to make it.
A sudden scream took Makeda out of her thoughts about her odd host, immediately the angel swooped down thinking she needed to help someone, yet all she found were two lone hain looking terrified. Or more correctly, looking terrified at her.
This made the angel incredibly perplexed, she looked down at her hands and body trying to understand what was going on. Then she realized it.
"I cannot believe this happened, I doubt it is a local thing." the angel told in a frustrated tone, swinging a wooden spoon in the air instead of using it to eat the venison soup he had prepared.
"It is logical if you stop to think about it. While we know the full context, mortals cannot tell one person from the heavens to another."
"Still, I am not a metallic being of death, I am not hurting anyone, I spent decades saving people and villages, this is so insulting, to me, to Niciel. Even Vestec would not imagine a trick as terrible as this, and he really tried."
"Well, you do have an aura of purity to you, Niciel is a purifier, so was Logos. In that sense..."
"Do not."
"Sorry, I understand this must be frustrating. Still, surely someone will fix it, The Crafter can, with his sect, given a century. The Muse could, too, but I doubt she does not find it amusing."
"Why are you ignoring Niciel?"
"Not really it's just that... Oh, I forgot to ask, and what about the Hain?" he suddenly changed the topic to avoid provoking the girl further.
"Ah, yes, the two were just trying to get the witch to heal their cat, I, as an angel, was able to do a better job."
"Ah... Did the village share the misunderstanding or did they realize you were not a Realta?"
"I can hide my angelic nature quite easily, for the villagers I was just a human traveler with odd medicines." she then became a bit distracted, stirring the soup with her spoon.
"Do you know any other vampire who acts in this region?"
"Ah, yes, my brother actually, as impossible as that sounds," he said. "For you to ask this question though... what has happened?"
"Somebody has been leading band of undead bandits."
"Ah, I see, but couldn't it be a lich behind it? What makes it sound like a vampire?"
"There is this one aspect of the attacks that hints this is the work of a vampire over any other type of servant of chaos."
"And I take you are planning on defeating the band to force people to remember angels are not all about purging the land?" he rubbed his chin "A logical plan. I wish you the best of luck."
"I just wonder what led my younger brother into causing trouble, should he be the person behind this. Mind you, he is not wise enough to understand the paradox of becoming a being of chaos yet acting exactly like some random god would expect, however, it is also so uncharacteristic of him to go out like this."
"Are you asking me to spare him?"
"Oh no, not at all. I am giving you a reason to pay attention."
From the general's tent, one had a good vision of the battlefield in front of them. This city-state, in particular, used a two-part formation, hain spearman and human archers formed something called the stone, and the human horseman formed the river. The contrast of dynamic and static gave the soldiers their clear role.
The army of the undead in front of them would be lost for sure, fighting a Brick City's full militia was too much... thankfully, their savvy general, who devised the tactics, who armed the men, who united hain and human... made a silly little mistake not compatible with his great fame.
He divided his army in three and had not even bothered with starting the flare once it became clear this particular group would be facing the entirety of the undead band.
The living army maintained their position and was superior in the first clash. The undead were too slow, breaking against the Hain's wall of tall leather shields or under the sudden strike of the horseman.
But one undead was merely a part of the bigger entity, they could fearlessly move in front of the horses, using their own shattered bones to harm the animal, they could hold spears impaled on them, and use their bodies as ramps for the next wave of the undead to jump right over the soldiers, panicking them.
"Ohh, seems like you are almost losing." the vampire told the general, who did not answer, merely drolled. The vampire could not help but laugh softly, deciding to take a sip of the commander's personal glass of wine now that it seemed the battle was almost over. "Must be terrible no? You cities make such elaborated defenses, but a bit of hypnosis on a wall guard, king or general, and its all over."
Yet, as nice as it felt to be on top again, he could not help but feel some anxiety over this. He had been living a somewhat simple life with his band of undead, raiding small villages, getting whatever was tasty, shiny or pretty, then killing and burning what remained.
But then the odd masked men from gods know where showed up, slaying some of his prettiest thralls, before forcing him to change the way he acted. Now he aimed at the bigger towns, which did give more loot, but also more infamy, and as the tales spread, he feared what could happen, "My tricks wouldn't be enough to stop a band from the Great Ring, or worse, an..."
Suddenly something crashed into the field, sending a good many of his undead into the air, disintegrating into ashes. The thing shone with golden light, at first, he thought it was one of the star-fiends, but it was controlled and not aiming at the humans. A closer look allowed him to see its details, the brown skin, the auric armor. "Angel"
"Crap, why here? Why now?" the vampire said, ducking into the ground and hiding behind the hypnotized general. Gone was the battle, his focus now was one surviving. She would not know he was there, for sure, he did not mind losing his band, people died every day.
But Makeda knew where he would be, the very thing that made her suspect the actions of a vampire was how the attacks were always supported by convenient mistakes from the competent and betrayals from the loyal. With a single wave of her hands, the general's tent was ripped apart.
The vampire gasped in fear, immediately turning into mist to avoid the burning effects the sun had on his body. When he arrived at the other side of the battle, his thralls had prepared him a black cloak to avoid the light. Not that it would help, as the angel was upon them already.
Undead sacrificed themselves to give him passage, but quite quickly, the angel was learning how to better dispatch of his band. There was no need for fancy holy energy hammers and such, a simple wave of hand irradiating the angelical power was enough to cause immense damage to the lesser undead, even his thralls suffered, though they could at least put up a fight for a few moments.
The vampire was trying his best to simply escape, but the angel knew it was him who was in control, and for her, nothing but striking the head of the serpent would suffice.
Makeda was about to prepare a strong concentration of energy to vanquish the vampire, however, one agile enemy jumped over the shoulders of another and prepared to strike the angel with a sword. It looked like all other ghouls, pale and thin, but masked, as such, the angel simply did to it what she had done to all other, but to her surprise, the low amount of holy energy did not harm him, on the contrary, it healed him.
What her hubris did to place her in danger, her discipline and battle wit did to bandage the situation. She knew exactly the reaction to get out of harm, rapidly beating her wings and sending her arm up. The living person allied with the undead, however, was also exceptionally skillful, countering her movement as best as he could, the strike would no longer be fatal, but the angel would suffer.
To his great disappointment, however, his great effort was wasted, as the fool he used to control the undead had been too focused on his own wellbeing, and instead of sending all of his thralls and lesser undead to finish the angel, he fled leaving his army confused. The living army was not idle on all of this and was already closing down on them, focusing on protecting the injured angel above all. Yet, the memory of their almost demise on the undead band's cold hands was not lost, and as such, both armies ended up tensely retreating from the field.
Makeda woke up slowly, beige dominated her view at first, but as it focused, she noticed it was not flat, but carved with many figures, their shadows dancing around the flickering light of two braziers.
Standing up, she felt the weak sting on her stomach near where she had been slashed. "What a fool" she commented about herself, this was such a downgrade from the battle with the Realta, there was no honorable defeat this time, no knowledge that she had done her best.
Sliding to the side of the comfortable bed where she was, she prepared to stand up. Unlike with Theliel, this time she had been provided quite comfortable cotton clothes and there was no sight of a caretaker nearby, as such, she found it would be simply better to fly away and not face the people who witnessed her battle. When stepping on the ground, however, she let out a short scream as her feet sunk into something way too hot.
At that exact moment, a young woman entered the room, immediately running to her and displacing a bowl from under her feet. "I bet for your forgiveness, holy one. I did not expect you to wake up while I was out. This incense was supposed to help... but, are you harmed? You don't seem to be so. At least let me clean your feet."
The angel was still shaken by the damage from the battle, and was having trouble following the girl's words. "It is fine, really... I am not harmed." she tried to smile. "Could you tell me where I am?"
"Ah, we are at Thau. The greatest city in the world they say. I do not know about this, some say the Great Ring has ten times more people..." she forcefully shut her mouth "I shouldn't be saying such things after what happened, some savage camp of hunters do not compare to our walled walls and civilized work."
"Thau... Ah, a brick city..." the angel concluded, it made sense, the soldiers she helped earlier probably saved her.
"That is the name outsiders gives to a city such as ours, yes." the woman stood up, she had a face full of unnatural serenity. "But you can feel welcomed here. I mean, you are an angel, after all, you would always be welcomed. But you did something great yesterday, we had been betrayed and if not for you, I and everyone else in this city would have faced a terrible fate."
The angel smiled and looked up. "Ah, yes. It is a really terrible thing, how vampires can just take over the mind of mortals, force even the most loyal of men to betray their kin. I hope the general has gotten better, it is a strong spell..." as she said those words, the young maid's eyes went wide, for the first time her face seemed genuine.
"What?"
Makeda looked at her with curiosity. "What what? It is as I say, the being behind the undead band can take over other being's mind. It is how he has been raiding cities and towns, no normal person is safe..."
"So... That... It wasn't his fault?" she started breathing intensely, sitting on the same bed as Makeda as she lost her composure. "Gods above..." she looked towards the window of the room, to the temple across the walled city.
"Wait, is something happening? Tell me."
The temple was silent, cold tension filled the air. Typically, the people of the city would cheer at such events, but this one left everyone with wide eyes and mouth agape. If the very family of the soldiers did not confirm the accusation, there would have been a revolt.
"I understand it, please do not hesitate." the general whispered, bowing to his king, yet his very act just filled the young ruler with more doubt, he knew most of his other generals would be mad, the damage done to the honor of their name and their laurels of war would take away their reason of existence and make them mad, but that man, he knew, fought for neither.
"What were you even thinking when you betrayed us? What could have driven you to that? I cannot even begin to imagine it."
"Well, my liege, neither can I. Still, a crime is a crime you have been as benevolent as I could have asked from you, and then some. Men died because I helped that fiend." from up in the altar, it was hard to hear them talking, this just fed to the crowd's anxiety.
"Right... You are right, you were always a great tutor, even in a situation like this you still teach me. It is a shame, you did what you did. I hope the gods can forgive you where the law could not." the king's hand gripped at his bronze blade's hilt and he rose the blade upward.
At this moment, something hit his hand with great power, sending the sword flying out of it. "Let us not make a holy temple the stage of a great injustice. The man is innocent. The fiend had merely used dark powers to take over his mind, he had no chance of fighting back.
The crowd went wide-eyed and mouth open again, even harder to believe that their most noble general had betrayed them was that the army was saved by an actual angel, yet there she was, walking up the temple's stairs towards the king.
"And whose fault was it for not being able to defend his own mind? The laws of heaven do not free him from judgment! It was the very taint in his soul that made it possible..." the great priest suddenly interject, the old man not intimidated by the shining woman in golden armor.
"It was not. Any of you here, from the poorest of the poor to the king himself, would have fallen to the vampire's control. Those are great powers of evil."
"Still, the laws of heaven..."
"Do you truly dare to imply you know more about heaven than I do?" she said sternly, opening her wings and beating her hammer against the floor.
"Men have died." this time, it was not the priest interrupting her, but the condemned man himself. "And it was my fault."
"By that logic, all men would have died if I had not saved your army, so it is my command that you shall not be judged for this." she then whispered something more in a lower voice. "Think of your family, think of your daughter."
"It is decided them. By the sanction of heavens itself, I will judge this man innocent." the king announced, the crowd answered in a mixed tone, not of positive or negative contrast, but mostly between cheers and people still in shock.
Only two seemed to be doing neither. Two women sat in the crowd, one looking quite happy while another looked distracted.
"Everything went amazingly well this time, it is rare for all to fall into place like this, isn't it?"
"I am impressed Makeda had the sense wait and not walk into the execution before the very last moment. Still, just walking through the door like that?"
"Oh? You expect she to use the window?"
"Well yeah, but it seems people just fly through a window when I want them not to. Talk about stage of great injustice.
"So... I guess we should start preparing for the next step? I already know where the guards have taken the undead prisoners."
The woman took a moment to react, looking over at the stage. "Let us not rush into action. Why not focus on those masked men instead? They were a surprise factor, though a nice one."
"Hmmm.... I thought you really wanted to finish this countermeasure so we could move on to the actual plan, but fine."
<Insert cool banner here. Insert it, Frettzo!> Divinus: The Deity Roleplay (Mk.III) Prologue <Will fill this with some fluff later, and then put some credits on the bottom.>
Foreword
Divinus will be a story about a pantheon of gods, their creations, and the world of Galbar as it is shaped by our collective actions.
One great and enlightened being, the Architect of the Spheres, tried to create an entire universe on his own. After toiling for unknown aeons in maddening solitude, he accomplished nothing but the bare shell of a planet called Galbar and the blank cosmos that surrounded it. He reflected and ultimately realized the limits of his own strength. It was then that he made the fateful decision to open a rift to What Lay Beyond, allowing several spirits to enter the realm of his making to help him see his vision fulfilled. Regardless of whatever those spirits might have been before, they were, in the Architect's arms, made as gods over this universe. Though his expectations are reasonable, the Architect nonetheless expects the gods to ‘earn their stay’ by not slacking in their duties, and to show him some measure of gratitude and fealty. Incurring his wrath can have consequences, for he is a powerful being; however, he is not infinitely so. Through the combined might of many rebellious mature gods, the Architect could perhaps one day be overthrown.
Though these gods may start small, in time they will raise mountains, gouge rivers, sow jungles and freeze oceans, and having done so they can create every manner of flora, fauna, spirit and mortal folk to populate them. Their colliding visions for the world may drive them to invent mighty weapons and field vast armies, conjure horrific monsters, and sanction glorious heroes to defend their dreams from the passion of the other gods.
Each god will be important. Each will potentially wield great influence over reality and all the life that comes to arise, as every god will control a ‘Sphere’ that can be thought of as a piece of the intricate system that constitutes Galbar’s universe. The gods’ power is measured in Might, which they must spend wisely on the aspects of creation that are most vital to them. As they continue to grow their powers and shape the world ever more, the gods may build holy sanctuaries in which their mortal disciples may glorify their name, raising them to new heights of terror and splendor.
The game of gods has many rules but do not be daunted! This RP is about weaving interesting tales, not about such crass motives as winning or losing. All rules are here for your benefit to make sure everyone plays fairly, in a collaborative manner and to work for the betterment of the story. We've put a lot of effort into the system, so I hope it brings as much pleasure to you as it has to us. Important Terms
Galbar This is the name of the primary setting for this RP, the middle and most important Sphere of the universe, and the realm in which most mortals will reside.
Sphere This setting is a magical one. This is reflected in how the universe itself is divided into numerous Spheres, similar to Aristotelian physics, and Galbar is the aforementioned Middle Sphere in the center of this system. Each sphere can be conceptualised as a bordered physical space in which all manner of things could be made. Each god in this setting will come to be attuned with one Sphere, taking charge over it and shaping it with their powers so that it may serve some purpose in the greater system and influence Galbar in some way.
God In Divinus, the pantheon of gods will be the focus and main characters of the story. Though mortals, demigods, and other beings will eventually emerge, in the beginning there will only be gods. Gods are powerful beings capable of traveling throughout the Spheres (though this may be difficult and take time), but they are not omnipotent or omniscient. The baseline of every god’s power will be explained in greater detail below.
Hero A hero is a lesser being that has been endowed with great power by some god, often to act as a champion or noteworthy servant of some other kind. Heroes can be granted a great deal of power, but even if they start with more humble beginnings they can become formidable over time. A hero’s actions can earn them Prestige, which in turn can be spent on increasing their power or on having them perform godly acts (such as creating powerful artifacts or performing miraculous feats) albeit on a smaller scale than would be expected of the gods themselves.
Demigod A demigod is a being that exists in the sizable space between a hero and a god. Players who enter the RP after the beginning will start as demigods rather than gods. They are immortal in the sense that they can weather time and disease and other natural forces with ease, though they could still potentially be killed. Demigods are divine beings in that they can potentially traverse the various Spheres, but they are not attuned to any of the Spheres and nor do they have a Sphere to command as their own. They will thus find themselves wanderers, usually unable to truly ascend to full godhood until they prove themselves worthy enough to be uplifted and sponsored by an existing god.
MP This is an acronym for Might Points (sometimes just Might), our way of measuring the power and exertion that a god puts into their various actions. Gods have immense powers of creation and can alter reality around them, but most actions that do not directly pertain to a god’s portfolio will cost some amount of MP. Gods will earn an income of MP over time as the RP goes on; the IC will be separated into turns, and MP is be issued out in chunks at the beginning of each turn.
FP and Ages Just as the IC is divided into turns, the turns will be grouped together into Ages. Each Age will generally span for 1-4 turns and will set a theme and rough timescale for the IC events. FP is an acronym for Free Points, which are functionally the same as MP except for the caveat that they can only be spent on actions pertaining to the theme of the current Age. For instance, in the beginning we will have an Age of Creation during which a substantial amount of FP will be given to every god for the purposes of shaping their Sphere as well as the landmasses and various features of Galbar.
Portfolio In most mythological settings that feature a plethora of various deities and other divine beings, the major gods each rule over certain aspects of reality. This is the case in Divinus as well; we describe a god’s powers in terms of short and highly specific words (preferably one word) called Portfolios. A Portfolio could be anything from a natural phenomenon like fire, to a craft like carpentry, or to a more abstract concept like authority.
Detailed Description of RP Mechanics
Each god in this setting will come to be attuned with one vast plane of existence known as a Sphere, taking charge over it and shaping it with their powers so that it may serve some purpose in the greater system and influence Galbar in some way. A Sphere could take many forms: the deepest depths of an ocean, a cavernous underworld, a parallel forest land, the stratosphere, or a band of space in the sky occupied by a body that comes to be Galbar’s moon.
The universe consists of many concentric spheres that conceptually wrap around one another like layers of an onion. However, the physical dimensions that measure where the Spheres touch and how large or small they can be are not bound to the three euclidean axes that would describe a root vegetable. While the central sphere of Galbar is most like our own Earth of any of the Spheres, with dirt below and an atmosphere of air, there may still be Spheres 'above' Galbar that cannot be seen or flown to and there may be other Spheres 'below' Galbar that cannot be breached with the deepest of holes.
The distinction of 'above' and 'below', in its abstract sense, forms the two categories of non-Galbar Spheres. There are ‘upper’ or ‘celestial’ Spheres above Galbar and ‘lower’ or ‘chthonic’ Spheres below. This is significant because as Celestial Spheres cannot connect to Chthonic Spheres except via Galbar.
By no means are Spheres insular, isolated things. They interact with one another as a system, and each one has its own unique aura that is the lifeblood of what lies within. The seals and boundaries between Spheres are not perfect, so this essence will leak into others and could manifest itself as anything from simple energy (be it in the form of heat, or perhaps some sort of magic) to something even stranger, like luck or nightmares. Life and objects originating upon a Sphere are intrinsically bound to it and its essence, as is the god that controls said Sphere--they will be more powerful and more at home there. An object that leaves its Sphere might be altered as foreign magics begin to change it, and lesser beings may feel sick and struggle to adapt when somehow brought into another Sphere.
Through divine manipulations, ‘gateways’ can be made with MP to connect the Spheres (though remember, upper spheres cannot directly connect to lower ones). Such gateways make traversal between Spheres much easier and more consistent. They can take various forms, but often have a profound impact upon the terrain around them. Gateways work in ways subject to the whim of their creator; a gateway to a nature goddess’ fairy realm might be located deep within a magical forest, whilst the gateway to the sky god’s stormy Sphere above Galbar might be the entirety of the sky above a certain altitude. Be creative; gateways could even require certain rituals to activate. For instance, the evil god of some hellish realm might create a gateway but only have it manifest before a warlock that performs a mass sacrifice of blood.
Natural connections may also occur between adjacent Spheres to present an opportunity to travel between them, but such gaps are rarely permanent or stable; they are shifting, perilous things warped by the essence of the two connected Spheres muddying together. These natural connections can occur because every Sphere occupies a physical location relative to the others, although, again, not necessarily in regular three-dimensional Euclidean space. Nearby Spheres might even be able to physically see their neighboring ones. Journeying from some Sphere in the high heavens above Galbar all the way down to some Tartarus analogue might require journeying through numerous other underworld realms along the way. Eventually, gateway networks of rainbow bridges or something of the sort might be established by the gods to provide shortcuts and convenient pathways between the Spheres. But, at least initially, travel between the various Spheres will be a somewhat time consuming task for the gods and an all but impossible one for any lesser beings.
Galbar is the Middle Sphere and the most important and special of them all. As the essence of the Spheres above trickles down and that of the ones below wells up, they meet and mix in Galbar to create a perfect balance, a magically rich environment, and a suitable plane for life that no single god can wholly claim or control. Because of the pressure exerted on it by the other Spheres, the barriers between Galbar and some of its nearest Spheres are somewhat strong. Mortals born upon Galbar are very tightly bound to it. Asymmetrically, beings like demons or angels could perhaps be summoned onto Galbar from another Sphere, but it would be much more unusual and difficult for a beast of Galbar or one of its mortal inhabitants to somehow visit another Sphere intact. If a mortal managed to delve down into some underworld realm on a quest like that of Orpheus, and he then returned to tell the tale, it would be a legendary feat indeed and likely done in no small part with the help of magic and one (or several) divine beings.
The only three premade Spheres that will be in this RP are the Middle Sphere, the Core, and the Barrier. That’s respectively to say Galbar’s surface, the very center of Galbar, and the very outermost layer that separates this universe from whatever unfathomable void lies beyond. Both the Barrier and the Core have been covered in powerful magical seals by the Architect, who has mandated that they remain untouched and unclaimed. All the other countless Spheres are empty and open for the taking!
The rules and nature of this universe will naturally depend upon just what Spheres are made. The fundamental physics and laws of the world will be somewhat fluid as Spheres change over time.
Might Points (a.k.a. MP or Might) are the primary ‘currency’ of your characters IC and are a way of measuring the power and exertion that a god puts into their various actions. The ultimate limit on the powerful acts of your gods are their Might Points.
All gods receive a base income of 5 MP per turn, though this can raised through the ownership of Holy Sites (and mortal worshipers within said sites). Gods also receive a variable number of Free Points each Turn which can be spent like Might Points except only on a restricted set of actions. At the start of each Turn, unspent Might Points from the previous Turn carry over, while unspent Free Points are lost.
Might is spent whenever your god creates something significant or performs a feat of great godly power beyond your regular capabilities. Typically more Might is expended for more powerful actions. MP can only be spent in whole number increments; an act which would be worth less than 1 MP could probably be performed for free. Below is a (far from exhaustive) list of some potential uses of MP and a rough price point, arranged by category.
2 Might: Creating a relatively minor change to the landscape; rending a small valley or canyon, creating a river, raising a mountain or a (small) island.
8 Might: Significantly changing the landscape; creating a chain of mountains, or an entire desert, raising a large island or an archipelago of smaller ones.
25 Might: Causing extreme change to the landscape; raising an entire (mostly empty) continent from the sea, or willing into existence a sizable (moon-sized) Celestial body in one of the upper Spheres.
2 Might: Create a small ecosystem, which can fill a region such as a river, valley, mountain or small island.
4 Might: Create a large ecosystem, which can fill a large geographic region such as a whole mountain range, an archipelago, or desert.
1-3 Might: Create an extraordinary but unintelligent species. More powerful species need more Might.
2 Might: Create a single beast of phenomenal power (e.g. the Kraken, the Thunder Bird, Jormungandr).
4 Might: Create a sapient species.
6 Might: Create an extraordinary sapient species. Exceptionally powerful traits may require extra Might.
2 Might: Confer a single extraordinary or powerful ability upon a species or set of people. These abilities are weaker than those attainable by gods.
1 Might: Teach people an idea or technology. This idea or technology should be reasonably attainable from the people’s present culture and technology.
1 Might: Bestowing a group with a one-time gift of powerful artifacts beyond their present abilities to craft (e.g. a set of steel swords in a timeframe of copper age technology).
1 Might: Blessing or cursing a group of people. These should come in different flavours for different gods, but in general, incurring the curse of any god should be a frightening thing indeed. The curse or blessing is like a whip or a carrot respectively; though it is the will of your god made manifest, it is not so powerful as to spell certain doom or utter paradise for those affected. Think something along the lines of perpetually good harvests for a blessing, and incessant nightmares or general sluggishness and fatigue as curses. Blessings or curses can last indefinitely and affect entire bloodlines or regions. A blessing or curse from a given god can be broken by said god free of charge or counteracted by a 1 MP expenditure from any other god.
1 Might: Censure or praise. This is very similar to the above blessing/curse, but it is applied to an individual and can be far more extreme. For instance, one who is censured may turn into stone or find themselves with green skin and snakes for hair, while one who is praised may be granted a halo or other mark of greatness, have a much longer lifespan, great fertility, and/or possess the ability to perform minor miracles. Countering a censure or a praise is more difficult than a blessing/curse, and therefore requires 2 MP.
2 Might: Create a Hero. These are exceptionally powerful individuals among your creations whose powers and skills are renowned and well beyond the capabilities of normal members of their species. Those who gain such an honor may also receive agelessness, immunity to diseases, and superhuman resilience--effectively a degree of immortality, but not true invincibility. These blessings can be made conditional, and the extent of powers gifted onto the hero can be decided upon by the god (within reason). See the rules on Heroes/Orders for further information.
2 Might: Form a holy order. A holy order is essentially a society of people that are collectively treated as one hero. A god may decree a band of mortals to organise under a cause, philosophy, or similar motivation in their name. These societies are generally specialized and skilled - if you want to create the Jedi, the Knights Templar or the Valkyries, this is your port of call. See the rules on Heroes/Orders for further information.
1 Might: Transport a being quickly between Galbar and your Sphere, or between two arbitrarily distant points within Galbar or your Sphere, covering the distance in a drastically shorter time than otherwise possible (possibly instantaneously). Typically the means of such transportation will be thematically appropriate for your Portfolios and Abilities. Demigods lack this power.
3 Might: Resurrect a mortal or a hero. Reaching into the depths of death and plucking back a mortal soul is no easy task, even for a god, and will likely involve a quest to whatever Sphere the soul has gone for its afterlife. The cost for healing or building a new body for said mortal is included in this act. This cost does not cover any sundry expenses incurred during a quest to the afterlife and back.
1+ Might: Perform a godly feat. You can expend Might to perform incredible actions beyond your innate abilities, such as manipulating the weather, hurling mighty fireballs, putting a city to sleep, shrugging off a devastating blow or punching someone really hard. Typically an Ability, Portfolio or Cluster will provide you with a wide set of godly feats you can perform for free, and Artifacts and Monuments provide more potent ongoing/reusable abilities. The more Might spent on an action, the more potent it is.
7 Might: Create a gateway. You can use this action to create a permanent connection between any two places, including between Spheres. This connection can take virtually any form, from a discrete portal to a broad region or even something more abstract such as an elaborate ritual. You specify the challenges and conditions for traversing this gateway. While easier to traverse than a natural connection, gateways between Spheres, especially from Galbar, are typically difficult to traverse, especially for mortals, although the form of this difficulty varies from gateway to gateway. Gateways also act as a channel for a Sphere’s energy and influence, making gateways hotspots for magical energy from other Spheres. The area around a gateway is affected and modified by this influence in some significant manner. A gateway is not necessarily indestructible. The creator of a gateway can close it using no Might. Another god can close a gateway for 7 Might, or it can be destroyed with a more thematically appropriate method which the creating player (although not necessarily that player’s god) approves of. Demigods lack the power to manipulate gateways.
1-5 Might: Create an artifact. It does one or more cool things which you decide on creation. Might dictates rough amount of power. If multiple gods work together to create an artifact, each can contribute up to 5MP, so the most powerful artifacts will be ones that were made through the combined efforts of several gods. Artifacts can be lost, stolen, destroyed, traded, etc.
1-3 Might: Create a monument. This is like an artifact but is generally a large physical structure that cannot be handed around, like a temple, a tower, or a formation of menhirs. As with artifacts, multiple gods can contribute to a monument. Monuments are more powerful than an artifact of the same MP value, however this advantage is offset by their disadvantages in being largely immobile and possibly harder to defend.
By the way, congratulations! You've found the code word entropic. Remember to put it into your character sheets, mentioning the word ‘entropic’ at least twice so that we know it’s no coincidence!
1-3 Might: Acquire an ability or form. See ‘On The Abilities Innate and Attainable Independent of Portfolios’ for more details.
5 Might: Acquire a new Portfolio if the requisite Portfolio-related acts have been performed. See 'On Portfolios and Clusters' for more details.
5 Might: Acquire a Cluster if the requisite Portfolios have been acquired. See ‘On Portfolios and Clusters’ for more details.
2+ Might: Create an Avatar. Avatars are small fragments of a god that operate independently. They are unique and powerful beings that enact the will of their creator; devastating in war and glorious boons in peace. They are considered second only to the gods themselves in overall ability, though they may be significantly more specialised. Other gods, avatars and potentially heroes or demigods could destroy an Avatar if they can overpower it. An Avatar possesses the abilities of their creator god or some subset thereof, with the exception of form; an Avatar may be created with a physical form distinct from any possessed by their creator, although Avatars may not have a mightily fantastical form (one which would cost 3 MP for the base form). A more specialised Avatar is better capable of performing those specialised roles than an Avatar with a broader skill set. The cost of a god’s first Avatar is 2 MP. Their second Avatar costs 4 MP. Their third Avatar costs 8 MP. Further Avatars cost 4 Might more than the previous Avatar. An Avatar which is destroyed does not reduce this cost, so they should be protected.
Holy Sites are an important mechanic and among the most important things that a god can invest their Might Points into, so let’s first define them. A Holy Site is a physical location upon Galbar that is attuned to a god and their Sphere, and which is a center of worship for that god’s mortal followers. Gods can only erect a holy site once every 5 turns, and gods can only spend a maximum of 10 MP on any given holy site. Free Points can not be used to buy Holy Sites.
In exchange for this investment, provided that a holy site continues to be maintained in some way by a sizable number of mortal worshipers, it will provide additional MP income on top of the god’s base 5 MP per turn. The exact amount of additional MP income each turn will be half the holy site’s initial cost, rounded down. Therefore, a holy site built with 4 MP would confer 2 MP per turn.
A holy site can take many forms; a god of war might have some brutal arena where his followers stage gladiatorial fights, whereas a god of nature might decree a great tree to be his sacred shrine worthy of veneration. A holy site should in some way be thus representative of a god’s Portfolio, and each Portfolio should only support one holy site. In this way the number of potential holy sites for a god is capped by the number of their Portfolios.
Holy sites are easily sensed by other gods and potentially even by magically-attuned mortals, because they project a divine aura of power that can alter their surroundings similarly to gateways. This effect should tie in to the specific Portfolio that the holy site represents; for instance, a death god’s holy site could be a great well that acts as a siphon, drawing in souls of the recently departed and sucking them down into the underworld. The war god’s gladiatorial arena might make the combatants within better at fighting while inside the holy site.
The early Ages will likely not have enough mortals to sustain a holy site, and these Ages are also likely to be fraught with dangerous beasts and world-shaping phenomena that could damage or even outright destroy a holy site. That raises the topic of destroying (or more generally, desecrating) holy sites--this can potentially be done. A god seeking to indirectly attack one of his or her divine foes could target either the said foe’s holy site itself or the mortals that maintain it, and in doing so potentially weaken their enemy’s influence significantly. The mortal worshipers could probably be replaced easily, but a desecrated holy site will no longer be able to provide MP until it is repaired or rebuilt. Desecrating a holy site should require MP or overwhelming force from the attacker, as mere superficial damage will not affect a holy site’s performance. Repairing or rebuilding a holy site can be done at any point, regardless of the normal mandatory 5 turn wait for the construction of each consecutive holy site. Repairing or rebuilding a desecrated holy site replaces the original MP value of the holy site with the amount of MP used to replace it, up to the normal maximum of 10 MP.
Though investing in holy sites is a wise usage of MP as they can quickly pay for themselves and allow a god to accumulate power, it would be unwise to invest in them too early. Consecrating holy sites is an action that should probably be deferred until later Ages when a god has more worshipers and more resources with which to safeguard their holy sites.
The game is divided into Turns. The GMs will decide when the next Turn begins on what will probably be an irregular basis. If the GMs take too long to change the Turn, prod them on the OOC or Discord.
At the beginning of each new Turn, each god gains 5 Might Points, plus however many MP they gain from Holy Sites. Demigods gain a lesser amount of MP, as specified in ‘On the Dangers of Deific Pregnancy and the Resulting Demigods’, although they benefit normally from Holy Sites. Unspent MP from previous Turns are kept, allowing you to save MP for later Turns.
Also at the beginning of each new Turn, each god gains a number of Free Points (FP). This number is determined on a turn-by-turn basis by the GMs. Unspent FP from previous Turns are lost, so they cannot be saved up.
Free Points behave like Might Points, and most references of Might in these rules also apply to Free Points, but they carry numerous restrictions. Most significantly, Free Points can only be spent on things directly related to the current Age. Free Points have a few other limitations. Free Points can never be used to acquire Portfolios, Clusters, Holy Sites or Avatars. The use of FP to acquire Abilities should be done sparingly and only if they are really directly related to the Age.
This brings us to Ages. Ages will generally span 1-4 Turns and they set the theme and timescale for the world during that time. Might Points can be spent on whatever you wish, but Free Points can only be spent on things directly related to the themes of the Age. The GMs will specify what is and is not a valid use of Free Points for each Age. For example, the first Age will be the Age of Creation, in which FP can be used to shape the landmasses, climate and ecosystems of Galbar and the Spheres, sculpting the world we will be playing in for the rest of the game. The next Age might be the Age of Monsters, in which FP can be used to populate the world with fantastical beasts.
The theme of each Age, to be determined soon before the start of a new Age, will be determined partially by the actions which have been taken IC and partially by discussions OOC with all the players. Ultimately, it is the call of the GMs what the next Age will be, but hopefully we should be able to achieve an organic progression of Ages.
A Portfolio is an aspect of reality over which your god has mastery. A Portfolio is described in terms of a short, highly specific word or phrase. Portfolios may cover things such as natural phenomena, crafts, skills or even abstract concepts.
Your god starts with a single Portfolio, but you can acquire more over time. However, you cannot simply buy a Portfolio, as first you must exercise your power performing acts related to that Portfolio. Specifically, you must spend at least 5 Might Points on actions related to that Portfolio before you can claim it. Free Points contribute half as much as Might towards unlocking Portfolios, meaning you would need to spend 10 Free Points on actions related to a Portfolio before you can claim it if using only Free Points. Once you have performed actions related to the Portfolio, you may then spend 5 more Might Points to claim the Portfolio as your own.
You cannot use Free Points to buy a Portfolio.
Two gods cannot possess the same Portfolio, or Portfolios which are too synonymous with each other. Portfolios are acquired on a first-come first-served basis, although you should be considerate to avoid stepping on the toes of other people’s characters. It is possible that a god could be forced to abdicate their Portfolio, although this should be a rare occurrence. In the event that two gods with different but similar Portfolios are in conflict over something covered by both their Portfolios, the more specific Portfolio takes precedence.
Having a Portfolio grants your god power over things related to that Portfolio and gives you abilities which are appropriate for the Portfolio as an innate part of the Portfolio, beyond the basic abilities possessed by all gods. For example, the Trees Portfolio would let you grow trees at will, allow you to walk unimpeded through forests, give you great affinity for working wood, allow you to speak with trees and other tree-related things which extend your normal abilities. In general, a more specific Portfolio provides more potent abilities than a broader Portfolio, trading off the wider scope that a broad Portfolio grants. More specific Portfolios are preferred over broader Portfolios.
It is also far easier for you to perform acts with Might (or Free Points) which are related to your Portfolio. If you spend Might on any action which is closely related to your Portfolio, the MP cost of that action will be halved (and then rounded down to the next whole number), representing the ease with which you can perform deeds within your Portfolio. Alternatively, instead of obtaining a discount, you can spend the full amount of Might to make your Portfolio-related action especially impressive, enhancing the aspects of it which are related to your Portfolio. As an example, with the Volcanos Portfolio, you could create an ordinary volcano for 1 MP instead of the normal 2 MP it takes to create a relatively minor change to the landscape, or you could spend the full 2 MP to create a spectacular volcano which towers to great heights, has continual lava flows and erupts regularly.
Note that this discount means that if something costs 1 MP without a Portfolio, you can do it for free with a Portfolio. In limited cases, more powerful abilities and actions might also be able to be done for free under a Portfolio, although this will depend on the scope of the Portfolio and whether it makes sense and is balanced.
If you have multiple Portfolios which can be applied to a single action, then you must choose a single Portfolio to apply to that action.
Holy Sites, Heroes, Holy Orders, new Portfolios, Clusters and Avatars cannot be discounted by Portfolios. Gateways are only eligible for a discount if you have a Portfolio that directly relates to the core function of Gateways, such as Space or Travel. This means that, for instance, making a lava pit your Gateway does not confer a discount from the Volcanos Portfolio. The same applies for fast-travel; a Portfolio which assists in moving between two points is necessary to provide a discount on fast-travel.
Besides not claiming Portfolios which another god already has, there is no strict limitation on which Portfolios you can claim. However, focussing in on a theme provides the advantageous option of unlocking a Cluster which extends the breadth of your abilities. Essentially, a Cluster is like a Portfolio but not as strong and much broader. To be eligible for a Cluster, you must have three or more Portfolios with a related theme. For example, the Portfolios of Volcanos, Smithing and Hearth could be used to unlock the Cluster of Fire. If you are eligible for a Cluster, you can spend 5 Might to claim the Cluster. Free Points cannot be used to buy Clusters.
A Cluster must always be associated with at least three relevant Portfolios, and a Portfolio cannot be associated with more than one Cluster. You can change which Portfolios are associated with which Clusters without cost as long as it satisfies these conditions, although this should only be done when you gain new Portfolios or plan to gain new Clusters.
A Cluster enhances the Portfolios it is associated with, and provides a degree of control over and affinity with all things under that Cluster even you don’t have a Portfolio for it. Like a Portfolio, a Cluster also confers abilities upon your god related to the Cluster, although these abilities are weaker than those provided by Portfolios. A Cluster does not provide a direct discount to acts which cost Might, but a Cluster does enhance the aspects of your acts and creations which relate to that Cluster. Something enhanced by both a Portfolio and a Cluster is more powerful than something enhanced by a Portfolio or Cluster alone. You can only apply the effects of a single Cluster on each action.
As for Portfolios, a more specific Cluster is more potent than a broader Cluster. Unlike Portfolios, two gods could potentially claim the same Cluster; a Cluster represents a very broad dominion which is hard to lay an exclusive claim to.
Gods are mighty beings, with qualities beyond those mortals can acquire and capabilities which grant them great power over the world around them. By default, a god has a number of traits which do not cost any Might to exercise:
Form: All gods start with one free form of their choosing. They cannot change this form without acquiring additional forms.
Immortality: Gods live forever, do not age, and are nigh-impossible to kill. Typically only the direct efforts of a very powerful god or a group of gods could sufficiently harm another god to kill it and scatter its essence back into the void. Mortal efforts could at best cause superficial harm to a god, and more often have no effect.
Acclimatization: There is no place that is unsurvivable for a diety. A god is unharmed by mundane environmental hazards such as extreme temperatures, extreme pressure, poisons or falling. A god does not require food, air, drink or sleep to survive. Gods are also not negatively affected by being outside their home Sphere. However, extreme environments may still prove difficult to navigate.
Strength: All gods are very powerful, able to shrug off mundane threats and perform impressive feats such as smashing large boulders with ease.
Senses: Gods can see in great detail up to the horizon line, able to see even in the true darkness of deep space, and can observe aspects such as heat, magnetic fields or souls. They can hear as far as they can see, are able to pinpoint the direction of sounds and are able to simultaneously understand all speakers of a large crowd. Gods also have a metaphysical sense that can perceive reality as raw information.
Mind Reading: A god can read the thoughts and memories of mortal creatures, although doing so typically requires focussing on a single mortal at close range.
Travel: A god can run and jump at inhuman speeds, float on air, walk on water, and similar forms of locomotion. A god can easily locate the gateways and connections between Spheres and can traverse them more easily than most beings, able to ignore the weaker barriers preventing travel through a gateway or natural connection.
Communication: Gods understand and are fluent in all languages, including those of wild animals. Gods can communicate telepathically with beings they can sense or with whom they are familiar. If a mortal prays to a god, that god can hear that mortal’s prayer and knows that mortal’s location, regardless of where the mortal is relative to the god. Gods may also send messages to other gods across any distance and across Spheres.
Mutation: A god may modify existing life-forms using their essence in a manner befitting their Portfolios. Such modifications are typically minor and only affect a small number of individuals.
Environmental Manipulation: All gods have the ability to control elements within their vicinity using only their minds. They may raise rocks and water from the ground, purify or mix materials, extract a particular element out the ground, or compress, melt, ignite or freeze something.
While powerful, gods are far from omnipotent. By default, an ordinary god cannot freely perform great acts such as manipulating the weather, dominating a mortal’s mind, or any other action which would require Might. They also do not automatically possess skills which require a high degree of training, such as being able to create high-quality craftsmanship without spending Might. Acquiring Portfolios and Clusters is the most effective way a god can extend their set of skills. Artifacts and Monuments grant powerful traits beyond a god’s normal abilities, although these are tied to physical objects rather than gods. In the heat of the moment, a god can spend Might to perform a one-off incredible feat.
However, a god can also gain more specific abilities, improving on and adding to their existing skills and form. Acquiring new abilities typically takes some time and effort and should not happen spontaneously. Acquiring a new ability costs between 1 and 3 MP. An ability which costs 1 MP is something potentially attainable by a Hero or other exceptional mortal, or something of a similar level of power. An ability which costs 3 MP is a truly extraordinary power which is the limit of what can be done without using Might or an Artifact. An ability which costs 2 MP is greater than what can be done by mortals, but not as mighty as a 3 MP ability. As normal, Portfolios can enhance or discount related abilities.
There are several (non-exhaustive and possibly overlapping) categories which abilities fall into, listed below with a few examples.
Form
This is the most important type of ability, as it describes the body your god has. Each god starts with a single form of their choice, whether it be humanoid, giant, gaseous, a swarm of bugs, or whatever else. A god can have more than one form. A god which has multiple forms can change between forms, but only slowly (read: not mid-combat or mid-scene) unless they possess an ability which permits them to do otherwise. The ability to rapidly shift between forms costs 2 MP.
Might may be spent to acquire new forms. For instance, a form based on a mortal creature would cost 1 MP. A form similar to that of a legendary beast might cost 2 MP. A truly fantastic form, like that of a storm of celestial proportions, might cost 3 MP. Might may also be spent to modify or enhance an existing form, adding features to the form.
Mobility
Some abilities enhance your capacity to move and get between two points. For instance, a set of wings to allow graceful and fast flight would cost 1 MP and would be attached to a particular form. The ability to swim rapidly or run even faster than normal would also cost 1 MP. Something extraordinary such as being able to walk through walls as if they weren’t there might cost 2 MP. The ability to frequently teleport relatively short distances would be a powerful ability worth 3 MP.
Skills
Some abilities make you better at performing certain tasks. What could take a mortal a lifetime of training to master a god could achieve with just a little practice or meditation combined with a pinch of Might. For 1 MP, a god could become a master carpenter, a skilled archer, or a fantastic dancer, as just a few examples.
Auras
Some abilities warp reality by your very presence, passively influencing things in your vicinity. A simple aura costing 1 MP might be one which causes wild animals to become peaceful in your presence. An aura which causes lowly mortals who see you to succumb to madness or go permanently blind would be a powerful aura worth 3 MP. A powerful aura is often difficult to suppress, possibly requiring more MP in the ability, another form which does not have the aura, or an artifact which blocks the aura to allow you to enable and disable the aura at will.
Divine Trail
Gods leave behind traces of their divine essence wherever they go. While all gods can sense strong accumulations of a god’s essence, such as in their mighty creations or physical presence, detecting the faint traces requires more finesse. You could acquire the ability to perceive these divine trails, allowing you to see through mundane disguises on a god, see if a god had passed through an area recently, or detect a god’s influence in something (when it is not otherwise obvious). As a counter to this, you can also acquire the ability to hide your divine essence from gods who can perceive divine trails. These abilities can be improved incrementally, up to the normal maximum of 3 MP in total value per ability. A god needs more MP in sensing divine trails than their target has MP in hiding their trail to see the target’s trail, unless the target wishes to be tracked.
These are just a few examples of what can be an ability. Other abilities might include enhanced senses or the ability to cast certain types of magic. Get creative. This is your opportunity to customise your god. Remember, though, that abilities are typically weaker than what can be done with Artifacts and far narrower than what can be done with Portfolios. If you want an ability that is more powerful than those outlined here, you will either require a Portfolio to enhance that ability or use an Artifact or Monument to replicate that ability.
Wip
Gods are capable of procreating. This can be accomplished through a variety of means both conventional and unorthodox that I shall leave to your imagination; however, the result of a god’s procreation will always take the form of a demigod, regardless of whether the child’s parents are two gods, ten gods, one god, one god and one mortal, or any other combination. Incredibly powerful lesser beings, most notably heroes, could potentially ascend to demigod status as well.
Once the RP has already started, any newcomers will have to join as demigods (or heroes, potentially). This rule exists for many reasons: because it makes little sense IC for a full-fledged god to simply appear, because arranging to have your demigod born (or created) and then pursuing your demigod’s ascension to true godhood is a good way for us to encourage immediate player interaction, and because limiting the initial power of new players is also a way for us to limit the disruption that would be caused by a full-fledged god making numerous drastic alterations to our setting before the new god’s writer vanishes.
When a new player wishes the join as a demigod, they are to discuss OOC with the other players and GMs on their character concept and their divine parentage. The choice of divine parentage is generally made by considering which gods best fit the desired demigod concept, which gods make sense for producing a demigod, and which players are available. Once parents and a method of birth/creation have been chosen and the GMs have approved the new character, the new player and the player(s) of the demigod’s parent(s) generally write a post together introducing the new demigod into the world.
So how do demigods work, and what are the key differences between them and gods? In most aspects, a demigod functions the same as a god, and most places in these rules that refer to gods apply equally to demigods. Demigods start with one Portfolio and form just like a god. However, demigods are considerably weaker than gods and do not possess the full extent of a god’s powers. Demigods differ from gods in the following ways:
Demigods receive a baseline of only 2 MP per turn, with the potential to earn more if they have a substantial number of mortal worshipers. Up to 3 additional MP can be earned in this way; the threshold of mortal worshipers needed for 1, 2, or 3 extra MP income will increase as mortals become more numerous in the world. In general, +1 MP is awarded for small cult worship, +2 for perhaps being worshiped by a city or two, and +3 MP for receiving the worship of an entire nation or of people scattered globally.
Demigods also receive only half the amount of FP issued to the ‘true’ gods every turn, rounded down.
Demigods do not own a Sphere. Acquiring a Sphere of their own is the mark of a demigod’s ascension to true godhood.
Demigods cannot create gateways, and neither can they rapidly transport a being between two distant locations.
A demigod’s strength, acclimatization and immortality are more similar to a Hero than a god, although demigods are generally somewhat more powerful than Heroes. They are ageless and resilient, and do not require food, drink, air or sleep to survive, but extreme environments are still hazardous to them and powerful mortals can potentially harm them. Given extremely favourable circumstances, a demigod might be able to fight toe-to-toe with a god.
<Senses. I’m inclined to suggest that a demigod’s sensory abilities are nowhere near as acute as that of a god’s and closer to that of a Hero.>
<Mind reading. What do you think- should this be a default demigod ability like it is for gods? I think it might be a bit powerful for them, although could be acquired as an ability.>
A demigod’s ability to freely manipulate their environment is weaker than that of a god’s.
Demigods, like mortals and mundane objects, can find themselves bound to their native Spheres. Traversing the Spheres is quite difficult and strange effects may occur to any that find a way to somehow leave their home Sphere.
In order for a demigod to ascend to godhood, they must become master over a Sphere. This poses numerous almost insurmountable challenges: first they would have to leave whatever Sphere they originated in. Then they would have to find an unoccupied Sphere (or conquer an occupied one, perhaps) to take as their own. Finally, he would have to bend the Sphere to his will and attune his essence to its. Only then could he indisputably be a god.
Naturally, the above processes would be very difficult without aid from preexisting gods or perhaps the Architect himself. The fate of most demigods is to either remain as they are -- lesser divines -- or else prove themselves worthy in the eyes of their betters that they may come to be welcomed into the higher pantheon.
WIP
General Rules and Regulations The Golden Rule--Do not godmod/metagame/powerplay. It’s ironic because this is an RP with actual gods as characters; however, there are definitely limits as to the power level of our gods. We’re trying to make a collaborative story rather than host a game meant to be ‘won,’ so please keep that in mind as you write. The Rule of Fair Warning--Before significantly influencing someone else’s creations, especially if it is going to be in a destructive way, give them some fair warning OOC so that potential objections can be made ahead of time and plans can be shifted. Ideally conflicts between two gods that lead to destruction or harm of one god or its possessions will be written with the consent of both players, but if you think that somebody is being unreasonable us GMs can intervene. The Good Summaritan Rule--Somewhere in every post, please attach a hider box containing a short summary of the post’s actions, including how Might has been expended in the post if applicable. As Divinus RPs have traditionally had some massive posts, this helps greatly when trying to keep track of all that’s been going on and when trying to make sure you didn’t miss any important plot point within some massive post. That being said, please do still try to read all IC posts and not just the summaries. The Bookkeeping Rule--We will be using a wiki to store character and creation sheets, as past experience has demonstrated that RPGuild character tab on this thread won’t be enough space and will get too cluttered. For all creations of significance, please make at least a 1-2 sentence page for them on our wiki. The 0th post on the characters section will contain a link to our wiki; if you need any help figuring out how to use the wiki, by all means feel free to ask. Leave of Absence--Please give us forewarning on the OOC if circumstances dictate that you will become inactive in the RP for a time. I’m sure we’ve all seen the phenomena of people simply vanishing; it’s frustrating and leaves work where the others have to pick up the narrative pieces. Failure to follow this rule can potentially lead to your god being deposed IC; the Architect won’t look kindly upon squatters that sit around in his realm without contributing to Galbar’s development or fulfilling their divine duties.
The above commandments are most important. Almost every other conduct is to fall under the domain of common sense and the RPGuild rules, with the understanding that our goal is to collaboratively create cool narratives. Be considerate to one another and facilitate storytelling. If there are any concerns or clarifications required, the GMs are always happy to help.
Character Creation: I would like to reiterate that we will be using a wikia (link can be found on the 0th post of the character section) to store and organize all character sheets, rather than the character tab on this RPGuild thread. This is obligatory; however, if you need help figuring out how to work with the wiki, just let us know. If you like, you may still use the character tab to compile links to the various wiki articles for you creations.
With that out of the way, feel free to format your sheet however you like, so long as it clearly contains answers to at least the questions posed by this example sheet below.
As you consider ideas for your character and grapple with what you want to do, I would encourage you to first focus upon what sort of Sphere or portfolio you want to have, and then use that as a foundation to construct a god that makes sense given that dimension.
Beyond the concept for your character, you should also have an idea of what you want your god to do, how your god might change or progress, how they will contribute to the story and how they will interact with other players. In particular, note that the first few Turns will likely be inhospitable to mortal races. Otherwise, an otherwise excellent character might become very boring to play very quickly, and nobody wants that.
Name: ((To know your god, name your god.)) Their Sphere: ((Give it a name, a brief summary of what it’ll be like, what goes on inside this Sphere, and how it affects Galbar. You needn’t be too detailed in your sheet as most of this stuff relating to your Sphere’s impact can be fleshed out IC.)) Location of Sphere: ((Upper/Celestial or Lower/Chthonic? What other Spheres does it touch most closely? We strongly encourage collaboration with other players when they make their Spheres.)) Portfolio: ((The name of your first portfolio, as well as a paragraph or so description of the powers conveyed by said portfolio)) Persona: ((General moral alignment, ambitions, personality traits, etc.)) Appearance/Form: ((Every god can eventually take multiple forms, but at the start they will have only one, barring some sort of portfolio that offers a compelling explanation as to why they might have inherent powers to take other shapes. Your god’s first form could be a humanoid, a colossal dragon, or even something as wild as a cloud of pure fire. Just choose carefully, and note that certain shapes will be rather...inconvenient at times.)) Musical Theme: ((What’s their jam? Optional.)) ((Lastly, remember to read the OP thoroughly!))
A reminder: Once the RP has already started, new players will only be allowed to join as demigods.
The above character sheet is designed for gods, but for demigod characters simply remove the parts pertaining to Spheres, and perhaps instead talk about your demigod’s parentage.
================================================= List of burning topics to address: Info on Avatars purchased with MP, for both gods and heroes Info on Relics/Monuments " " ". A fleshed out section on abilities and their MP costs. Need to codify prestige, heroes, and holy orders Move over this MP stuff below and talk about portfolios/clusters in more detail Make the effects of owning a Sphere and being outside your home Sphere more concrete, possibly, although we do have a paragraph on it and it is good to keep it vague. Ages and Free Points. We have it in the glossary, but we should have a separate section for it.
Innate abilities (stock with every god): Form All gods start with one free form, whether it be humanoid, giant, gaseous, a swarm of bugs, or whatever else. They cannot change this form without purchasing additional forms as detailed in the purchasable abilities.
Acclimatization As immortals, there is no place that will be unsurvivable by a deity. However, larger storms, the depths of a molten lava lake or the blizzards of the poles are hard to navigate without affinity to such locations.
Strength All gods are powerful by nature, they will not be harmed by most mundane threats and can do acts such as smashing large boulders with one kick no matter their domains.
Senses Gods can see in great detail up to the horizon line, able to see even in the true darkness of deep space, and can observe aspects such as heat, magnetic fields or souls. They can hear as far as they can see, are able to pinpoint the direction of sounds and are able to simultaneously understand all speakers of a large crowd. Gods have a metaphysical sense that can perceive reality as raw information. (what we call perceive in MK2)
Senses - Mind Reading All gods can read a mind and understand thoughts and memories, however, this is an act that requires some focus and a target for deities unrelated to the domains of the mind.
Travel Gods can run and jump at inhuman speeds, float on air, walk on water. They can access the realms beyond.
Weather Changing the weather costs might for gods without a domain related to it.
Craftsmanship All gods can create relics with might points, but do not have a natural ability to craft mundane high-quality crafts unless it is pertinent to their portfolio or cluster. (A deity of the hunt is able to naturally craft great bows, but a deity of nature might struggle to do the same.)
Fauna and Flora All gods can create any life using might. All gods may mutate life using their essence for free, though the changes are limited to their domain. All gods are able to discern the thoughts of animals and can communicate with any animal, but plants require affinity. The innate ability to create existing animals from nothing requires a domain related to the life being created. Plants can be created from nothing but will grow at natural speed without affinity.
Materials Without might or affinity related to the material, a god will have trouble creating matter from nothing. Simple things such as sand and rocks are easier to create than metals or rare materials. All gods have the ability to control elements within their vicinity using only their minds, they may raise rocks and water from the ground, purify or mix materials, extract a particular element out the ground, or compress, melt, ignite or freeze something.
In simple words, most gods cannot just take a bar of gold from their sleeve, but if they are near a gold deposit (which they can perceive) they can reach into the ground and extract a pure bar of gold from the very soil.
Sphere Adaptation All beings are bound to their home sphere. <Gods don't get sick we'll word this out later>. (a god is probably also much stronger within their own Sphere, but that's a separate discussion).
Mighty A god wields enormous creative power, literally shaping reality to their will. Each god has a pool of might points which may be used to perform the acts listed under the Might Points rules.
Possible abilities: New forms. Or enhancements to an existing form Changing between different forms is generally slow (read: can’t practically be done mid-combat or mid-scene) unless you have a shapechanging ability. Ability to better hide your trail. Ability to better perceive hidden deific trails (counter to above point). (Not like the levels of Mk II) Auras (Madness, blinding, charismatic, musky) Enhanced innate abilities (stronger, faster, etc.) Potentially split soul for avatars(?) A shard borrowed from a portfolio. (Trumped by portfolios themselves and quite limited) This can probably encompass almost everything. 3 reference examples with escalating cost and power, like landscaping? New skills. Possibly 1 MP. Things like good archer, good tracker, good blacksmith, good swimmer, etc. These are granted automatically by a Portfolio (they’d be free to buy anyway), so if you already have skills and you get a Portfolio then these skill are enhanced. Example: with ‘good archer’, you are very good at archery, with skills comparable to legendary mortals. If you have the Archery Portfolio, you get this skill for free. If you have spent Might on being a ‘good archer’ and have the Archery Portfolio, your archery skills are truly god-like, able to pull off impossible shots with flawless accuracy. Price-point: 1 MP grants something a Hero or other legendary mortal could do, or something of similar potency. How high do we go? We want Abilities to be less potent than Portfolios or artefacts. A good point to start might be considering what is the strongest ability (outside being enhanced by Portfolios, since buying a full-price Ability that aligns with your Portfolio will give it a super-buff.) I feel like 3 MP might be a good upper bound, maybe 4 or 5, although this might step on the toes of artefacts. E.g. Teleportation. Long-distance teleporation is a Might-costing action, but short-distance teleporation (blinking, even) would be in the reach of Abilities. I feel like this would be a high-end ability. A relevant Portfolio could extend the range indefinitely within your Sphere or Galbar (allowing the fast-travel action, which is free if you have a relevant Portfolio, to be spammed rapidly). E.g. an aura which blinds mortals which look at you. This is also a high-end ability, as it has a powerful effect on all around you.
Details: Should purchasing abilities count towards unlocking portfolios? Consensus: Yep. Should abilities come out of nowhere or must they be 'attained' IC somehow each time they're purchased? Consensus: Yep. Should we limit the scope of abilities to minor things instead of bringing it to the level of artefacts etc.?
Scrawl Banditta
Lord Zee
