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In || The School of Death || → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

In Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Last Tsoti is out and I will be honest, I got tired of writing this bit. I had lost the voice of the characters, it was stagnating, and I had no idea how to write the intricacies of the moment. I still liked it a lot, but overall, it was not what I had imagined, so I glossed over some bits to get it going, closure to certain plots will be given later.

There are still two more chapters of Mesathalassa history to go through, so let's hope I can do even better on the next one.

Oh, and as I mentioned, there will be an overall summary of everything relevant before I start to write the next one, making it a good jump in point if anyone missed the start of everything and the last two chapters.
In Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


TSOTI 7 (Final) (64 PR to 73PR)

It didn’t take long for everyone to realize Mavadzugji was back. Of course, Dzora and Batsami were the first ones to find him, the Manyadjir hugging her friend.

“It has been so long! It feels like an eternity since we last saw you!” the girl confessed. “Gods! Things have been so intense over here that I feel like you were gone for ages!”

”I felt the same, in all honesty, I have discovered so many things it seems hard to believe such little time has passed since I have last been here. It feels like I travelled in time and am seeing old friends.”

Of course, upon looking up and down at the young woman, he had to bring up the elephant in the room. ”That… is a lot of silver, eh? Something happened?” with the generous donations of all those who were interested in his writings, Batsami had climbed up the social ladder considerably, her dress full of true silver accessories denounced that.

“This dress was a gift from Llapur.” she deflected. “Halele, you just arrived and is already judging me, I’d rather keep the memory I was constructing of someone nice!”

Dzora laughed, but looked at the side, Mavadzugji had grown into quite a celebrity over the course of one year, so it was best if they moved already. “Let’s go home, okay? You two can keep up with each other once we are in the privacy of our house. It should not take too long before your priest friends also come over.”



In the time he was away, a lot had changed, much of it was due to the influx of writings about foreign lands. The common spirit of unity among dusklanders grew stronger among the common folk, while the chieftains and elders of clans grew worried, many had also started to be more aware and worried about the situation of their people as a whole in comparison to the rest of the world. Written language was spreading fast, especially among the population of the larger towns and villages.

Batsami had been slowing down the process of releasing the new parchments, as production was hard and they were still ironing out how to make the whole thing faster, scribes worked faster on works they already knew, but after a few copies, they became irritated with doing it over and over, so she had created cycles of works and consulted with each of the six scribes Tsefo had to know what they would like to do next.

Another process stopping the release of new writings as soon as they arrived was the need of clay murals to represent each work. Mavadzugji wasn’t sure that was really a need, but Batsami had tried to add parchments without murals and many were ignored, most people learned to read as they tried to read these works, so a visual representation of it was welcomed. And the family Batsami had making the murals had become quite ambitious with their projects, in particular, the world map, based on Mavadzugji’s writings, was something that was taking a long time but was becoming quite majestic (even if largely inaccurate).

As such, all of his land studies had been taking a while to be distributed, so far only the one touching the harbour kingdoms and the hainlands had been released, but since the Tsefo priests had all read the writings, the whispers of what was in later works had been circulating wildly, and needless to say, Alefpria was a hot topic.

It felt too much like the tale of the man who had invited a cougar into his home to eat the rats, only to be eaten by it once the rodents were gone, but the apparition of this new popular foreign figure was a good hit on Elysian cults, eroding the strength they had within the dusklands. Llapur, in particular, had been excited for the release of the writings on Alefpria because of how good it could be in the tensions against the southern tribes.

Since both had a base in dusklander myths, the heavenly daughter and the earthly son, Mavadzugji expected to be able to tame the beast once they got tired of fighting one another. But that was for later, once he had a strong theory to support his ideas.

“Hmmm, what else, what else. Oh! Tura wrote a cookbook.” Batsami said, having run out of topics to update Mavadzugji on.

”A what?”

“Its a compilation of recipes from all the corners of the dusklands. She has been doing a lot of travelling, and in my opinion, is one of the best at organizing younger priests into doing observation work. She sent a bunch out to talk with distant villages or refugees and has collected recipes from all sides of the Dusklands, from the delta to the tsefo valley to the mountainlands.” saying that Batsami picked up it and then laughed “She is more worried about safekeeping the cultures of the duskland than you at times. I know it sounds impossible… I guess, she focuses more on individual cultures while you focus on a unifying common ground? If that makes sense… look, I don’t know, I am not a priest or a reader, just take the thing already.”

Mavadzugji nodded and picked it up, and immediately noticed it was not a scroll, but a bunch of sheets of paper one over the other and bound together. ”What is this?” he said in sheer confusion.

“Tura didn’t like how each recipe didn’t have proper separation in scrolls, so she kept playing around with types of paper, clue, leather, clay, wax, until, uh, she showed up with this. She is a bit of an erratic genius that one.”

”She is great at organizing things.” he noted, reading more of the texts before setting it aside. ”And Tsevami?”

“Just been doing poetry as of late, really vanished from the leading ranks of Tsefo, he doesn’t care much for all the politics and theoretical works.” she pointed at a scroll. “He did some amazing work teaching others how to read, though. Without his system we would have been done for.”

”Well, we shouldn’t force him to do things he doesn’t like.”

“But sometimes I feel like he wants to be more at the centre of it all and becomes frustrated when it isn’t the case.”

”Heh, it's cute to see you worrying so much about others, seems like the times as my Manyadjir has changed you a whole lot.” he said, playfully rubbing her head as if she was a child.

“You remember I can easily beat you down, right?” she puffed her cheeks. “Drop that.”

”But I am sincere, thank you Batsami, I could not have done this with you. Hopefully, I can ease your work schedule. How have things with Llapur been? It seems you have finally met him, and from what I got, you…”

She sighed. “Well, I taught him and other clan important people to read. I… got him to talk a bit with me, but I had no chance to be charming with a bunch of old men annoyed that they can’t figure out the squiggles on paper.” she then smirked. “But he will come around again, there is this girl, cute little one, red-ish hair but dusklander features, I think she is related to someone close to his cycle. I think some sort of bastard child? At first, he was a bit arrogant towards her, but he seems to want to train her. I was like, thinking of keeping her close.”

”Do you want to reword that? You are making it sound unethical…”

Batsami looked up and then widened her eyes. “Oh! Right! No! Like, she likes to read about other places, and I taught her how to figure out the language, I do like her, I mean, getting Llapur to visit more often is nice too, I guess… His brother will also come over to study, and that would bring Llapur over anyway, but, eh, I don’t like his brother, Tsilluhan, he is a bit on the weird side…”

The conversation was interrupted by Dzora arriving with a plate of juice and fried flour cakes. She brought a lot, as she expected more people to arrive soon, and she was right, it did not take long before many Tsefo priests were over to welcome back their unofficial leader.

”Tura, it is great to see you again, great work while I was away.” he bowed to her, and Tura bowed back. Hugs were a common greeting among dusklanders, but not between priests.

“Ah, glad you liked. But I feel like I have done little in comparison to what you have done. How do you write so much so fast!”

”I had one chance to write down all I was learning, and it was while I was in the abbey. I missed a whole lot of content, but I managed to do what I considered to be the most important.” he smiled. ”I still have things in my mind that I need to write down, but I will leave that for later, today, I want to see my friends and siblings in vocation.”

The conversation was pleasant and casual at first, but, it did not take long before the topic went back to the many questions the priests had had while reading the works of Mavadzugji. Some were silly, like if tiger-horses or ogres truly existed, where angels fell in the cosmology of the world and if they were related to the star-fire demons. Others, had implications the writer felt unsure if he could touch, but it seemed like they would not stop if he did not answer.

Mavadzugji’s approach to Alefpria continued the same, acknowledge the implications but imply uncertainty, he also added that some of the Harbours of the sunlands said Elysium had dandelion hair, so one could not assume themselves to be some lost tribe of some distant empire because of the distant empire… But they could question, why do the two divines have descriptions similar to theirs.

”Maybe one or the other, or both of them, perhaps neither.” was the answer of the priest to the question of human origin. There were facts known, that the sunlanders admitted other humans existed before they immigrated into the continent, that ruins similar to their building styles existed, that many writings described the god emperor similar to them, some even other gods, including the patron of mankind. The truth, he assumed, would be to cross those foreign legends with the core of what their own local tales told, the truth was hiding between the knowledge of the elders, someone needed to clear it.

It had become a consensus in the room, however, including even with Mavadzugji himself, that the people who lived in Mesathalassa before the arrival of the other people were likely related to the dusklanders. That seemed obvious with the little information they had on the topic. And this immediately set up an angry mood, as if they had been robbed of something they had never owned in the first place, however, the head priest would not have that, anger was not a good feeling to have inside one’s heart, and he didn’t want this kind of tension rising. He forced the topic to move, and slowly, the immediate thoughts of mythical ancestries faded for more mundane conversations.

“So, how was the food in the sunlands? Was it good?”

”They really like greasy things. They eat way too many meats of animals that are much heavier than fishes, I felt like vomiting after a while. They don’t really eat flour as much as us, they prefer to just fry cassava. They have coconuts but are not creative in their production. The wine, however, was great. The Hain’s rice is also pretty good, but very expensive. Carrots were a mixed bag, better in the coast than in the inland.”

“Huh, that is disappointing.” the priest who asked the question answered. “I had heard it was truly something good, it is a shame it is not.”

Taking the chance, another priest questioned. “I guess the tales sometimes are biased, are the villages truly that large in the sunlands?”

”Yes, absolutely, larger than anything you have ever seen if we are talking about the harbour towns in the coast.” he was simple and direct, they had to understand this, even if it was something a bit shocking, causing the whole room to fall in silence.

“And the buildings?” one asked, and before Mavadzugji could open his mouth other person was already questioning “Did you take any notes about Metalcrafting?” “Is their craftsmanship as advanced as we hear about?” among many others.

To everything, there was a time, and Mavadzugji first broke down the architecture, then started to address the individual questions, however, at one point, he realized his wording had a lot of power here, while it was true the nations of the sunlands had many techniques that had yet to break into the Dusklands, the gap was even larger when one took the distant nations into consideration, however, there were also things that the dusklanders did well… and things the dusklanders could do better, and one way to incentivize this was to pick something unique that they did and elevate it beyond.

”But all that aside, the best cloth is the sunland is still Dusklander textile. You’d also be impressed by how much they struggle with beekeeping, and use of wax over there is very sparse. I also found that glassmaking was in a weird situation, they know how to do it, but they don’t really care for aesthetics and variety, you don’t have multiple types of glass related to a region or another, unlike here.” in truth there were three major glass producing regions in the harbours, Lacesol, Mirny and Kivico, each was well known to focus on different objects, styles and colours, it was not a lie, however, that the dusklanders focused far more on variety and aesthetic usage.

The discussion lasted deep into the night, and then into the morning, but eventually, led by fatigue, the group dispersed. Mavadzugji had been left a bit shocked at just how intense it could get at moments, he planned to take a time to recollect his thoughts but had instead been flooded with countless questions and hard decisions as soon as he stepped into the land. More than the moment of arrival, it was the early morning next day that had the priest realizing just how much was on his back from now on.



Kadja Regjurnyarha arrived at the town not too long after Mavadzugji, but her presence, and the presence of the sunlander hunter with her, had had echoing effects that made a tangible change to how things were evolving. The priest’s wisdom was known and the Tsefo’s influence was acknowledged at the very least, but the mysterious dusklander born in the sunlands and the weird hunter she brought with her made it clear to all just the magnitude of the world outside and how much Mavadzugji had involved himself with.

The girl herself did not care much about politics and such, she just wanted to know the region, and to her, it all was very foreigner, very out of this world. Simply having a grandmother from the region did not attune her to it outside of maybe the vision, to her, the food was different from what she knew, the houses were far more closed off than she expected, the music was truly odd and many quirks of her village had no root in such culture. However, she made an effort to adapt, as foreigner and strange the Dusklands were, it was her homeland... Even if she did not feel at home. Where else could it be?

Mavadzugji was truly impressed she had brought the hunter with her, she was supposed to be in Mutaraka’s care from the moment they arrived, and the hunter was supposed to go back to his guild in Susah. Later developments along the week made it clear to him that perhaps the two had become quite friendly along the path. That was fine, albeit the priest found all the new talk they brought to be quite bothersome.

Not as bothersome, however, as the politics he would have to deal with despite his desire to focus entirely on his historical work.

The relationship between Dyetzu clan and Mavadzugji’s had always been a complicated one, the coalition of clans was positive towards his efforts, seeing it as the least problematic of the social changes the Duskland was undergoing, however, it was clearly the desire was for an ‘useful’ relationship instead of true devotion to the cause. The priest recognized they probably misjudged just how much was he proposed would change the way the Dusklanders would see the world and themselves, this was to his advantage, and from what Batsami told him, even Llapur’s own brother, Tsilluhan Dyetzu, seemed very interested in the Tsefo’s work, if not outright fully loyal to its ideas.

In return, however, there were dangers he should be aware of. Batsami was romantically interested in the chieftain of the Dyetzu clan, and it was obvious that getting to marry the Manyadjir of Tsefo would lead to some influence over the organization, however, that was also an understatement of Batsami’s loyalty to her friends. Nevertheless, it caused some complications with one of Mavadzugji’s closest allies… yet that was far from the only case of such trouble, it was clear Llapur desired not only surveillance but influence, countering Mavadzugji, to this purpose the figure of Tsevami was essential. The priest did not hide his love of luxuries and desire to be in the center of attention along with the likes of Mavadzugji, furthermore, he had always been friendly to the richer families and mastered the art of using beautiful words and strong imagery. So when the information that Tsevami was meeting with Llapur in secret was whispered, the priest knew that to be true, and feared it was not the only case, Llapur likely had been trying to influence every single possible internal rivalry within Tsefo, ready to try to tinker with the movement as soon as he felt their philosophical counter to Elysian thought had lost its use.

That was, perhaps, a bit too hopeful of his part, he was smart, but he was a man of war and politics, the world of strategies, and intrigues was a complicated one, but no wound or favor changed a man as much as history or philosophy could, and that was Llapur’s biggest strategic downfall, Mavadzugji thought, he was a man of clashing conflict, he could not see the underlying changes happening under his feet. As such, the priest decided to not ‘respond’ against his encroaching, but the accept it, to pull it in into the turmoil, this would be alien territory to the chieftain.



‘Order is able to manipulate time, the time between the sixty-second and the sixty-fourth years since the world was scarred by the fire of the stars felt eternal, each day was a new challenge and a new face, in comparison, once I was back at home and leading The Tsefo it felt like I could barely close my eye without a whole epoch going by.’

This was a comment Mavadzugji would make many times later in his life, and it was true that after returning home, his work turned into a far more monotonous one, and he did not mind that, at least initially. Far more important for him was to lead the priests into a more efficient way to collect the stories, forming what, in anachronistic terms, was a true supply chain of information, organized by him, Tura, Batsami and impressively enough, Mutaraka, who already used similar downstream ways of collecting information to keep track of the movements within his coalition of tribes.

As the collecting of culture continued, its character started to change in a significant manner, echoing the necessities of the Tsefo as a political organization. Simply put, not all agreed or supported with the Tsefo, Mavadzugji had learned no amount of kind words could lead to universal acceptance, and, much to his dismay, it became clear the group needed leverage to use against the most stubborn aspects of Dzanya society.

“I say, we just ignore them,” Batsami told, in a surprising admission of defeat, or so others thoughts.

“I cannot accept to just leave parts of our story untouched…”

“Oh… We don’t need to!” a smile suddenly showed the woman had other thoughts, hand going up to adjust her delicate hat before she continued her speech. “Others might be willing to tell their history for us, to say, if one clan refuses to tell us their tale, no problem, we ask their neighbors, I am sure they would love to share what they know.”

There was a sound of realization in the room, Mavadzugji rubbing his forehead, initially, he did not want to cover the more ‘recent’ story of the world, outright wishing to not write down even the mythical stories of clan foundations many were conveying to the priests, an act he had started to doubt the necessity later, and now Batsami had shown how such stories possessed a certain value to these nobles. It diluted the value of his work and it would create an unnecessary discussion of trivial political matters, but he accepted the implicit proposal.

From them onward Tsefo priests would not beg for information, they would not try to argue on why not telling them their tales was bad, there were other mouths to tell such things, what Tsefo provided was a chance to avoid being judged by what others had to say about you. This effort showed results quickly, and as Mavadzugji had reasoned in the difference between him and Llapur, the influence and prestige were being won with attacks that moved like mist, not with the clash of swords. The very nature of Tsefo’s work became a vicious cycle, more information meant more prestige, more prestige made others more willing to work with them, the more worked with them, the more information. All this was also on the top of the fact The Tsefo had so far had a true monopoly over most refined and cost-effective ways to produce paper and many of the secrets on training proper scribes, a clan chieftain who decided to seek to create his own tale had to do it with material and writing of lesser quality, which obviously was quite embarrassing for them.

Seminars on the topic of history, culture, and myth, and the release of great collections about the customs and tales from entire regions quickly became common as the group started to move past the initial moment of acquiral of information and instead started to digest all that they had collected, though a great deal of research was still being done. Initially, Mavadzugji thought this would have been the time to rest and let the Tsefo grow independent of his leadership, but his mind was sharp and he saw the patterns that others missed.

It all started with perhaps one of the most basic stories in all of Dzanya lore, the tale of the heavenly siblings, that perhaps because of its simplicity and social function, being the tale that set the differences in expectations towards males and females, was widespread from one side of the duskland to another, yet was so rare in the Sunlands that it was surely something related to Dzanya culture. The story covered two heavenly gods, siblings, who always competed over many matters. One day they discovered they could share their light with the world, the female did it first, filling the sky with countless shimmering light dots, her brother became anxious and envious, and decided to one-up his sister by creating the brightest and most powerful of the lights, thus creating the sun, though it was too powerful and ended up hurting him in the process, as well as all of the worlds.

In the simple cautionary tale of eagerness and envy, there were important bits of history, Mavadzugji noticed. For a start it was another tale that was set before the Earth was found, indicating that there was a time in which the Earthly and the Heavenly realms were separated, a second aspect was the use of sharing light, it meant light was natural to heavenly gods.

This was very important, especially in the context that some versions of this tale included, that presented the sunlight as invasive. That sounded illogical at first, how could light be invasive? How could creatures see without the light? And indeed it was not a motif that all versions of the tale shared, but then, one day, a priest was presented some proof by an elder, the exercise was simple, they waited until the dark night outside, looking at the woods bathed in the gentle light of the moon, then they entered the tent and stared at an intense fire for a few moments, when they left the tent again, the world seemed much darker, details that were clearly visible before vanished in the void of black. Light was addictive and light blinded living beings, a quick look up at the sun would provide convincing proof of the case.

This had been echoing in Mavadzugji’s head for a long while, especially in the context of the Dusklands. There was not a concise explanation of why the dusklands were dark, this was much debated in both the tribal cultural scenario of the land but also in the meetings of Tsefo. Explanations ranged from curses to blessings, to gods and chieftains. Why was the land covered in the dusk? Who knew. Chippers were also quite useless on this matter, despite being helpful in others, like for example, confirmed that indeed, the sun and the stars were the same things, thus proving the celestial siblings' tale.

Mavadzugji’s theory started with the concept of realms. Two heavenly gods, the Heavenly Daughter, and the Earthly Son, the latter inheriting or conquering the Earthly Realm. The tale was another one that was socially important to define the genders in their society, this time with a much more positive light into the male figure as new, harsher lands had been discovered, leading the the king of the heavens to divide all known lands between children, initially the Daughter would get the untamed lands, but The Son graciously took her role, leaving to his sister the tamer lands while he braved the wild. The function of the tale was clear from an outsider perspective, it thought about humbleness and courage in contrast to the previous tale’s take on envy and eagerness, but to those who grew listening to it, it was history, it was fact. It didn’t help that both gods were some of the most mentioned deities in the world and that indeed, there seemed to be two lands, one under a goddess, one under a god.

What left Mavadzugji curious was the separation of new and old land and how a new land was discovered. In his mind, the image started to become clear, and that is when his theory was formed, the theory that there was a third realm. It was impressive such a concept had not been developed before, considering how duality itself was a rare concept in Dzanya culture and they hard words for many things other people ignored, such as the space between earth and sky, among other empty spaces and frontiers.

The third realm theory was simple. It was implied another realm, that originally the realm of earth connected both to the heavenly realm and the third realm, the former being Elysium and the latter being Galbar. The third realm was one of darkness, and it was conquered by the heavens after the sun was created, this had been what made the mortal species unable to see in the dark as well as they did in the past. This included man. In Mavadzugji’s theory, mankind was not born in Elysium but was instead was native to Galbar, as seen in the ruins of buildings predating the exodus and the arrival of mankind in the region, of course, these humans were much more like the humans of Dzanya, the last unconquered part of the third realm, though now even it was about to fall. The man of the sunlands had been taken to Elysium by the gods, at the same time, Galbar became infested with other species, some civilized, but many barbaric and envious, this along with the years it took to adapt to the blindness led to the almost total extinction of humans in Galbar.

In Elysium, mankind was changed, adapted, and came back as the humans of the sun, bestowing gifts that led to great wars with the native Galbar population, likely aided by the Earthly Son himself. Why bring humans from other lands instead of using their own? It was a simple truth, the gods did not smile at those unchanged, as they were proof of Galbar’s true heritage, this is why both gods had light hair and skin colors like that of the Dzanya, but never blessed the land themselves, it was not that they had been made in the image of the gods, but that the gods had stolen their image, proof of this was the description of Lifprasil as a shapeshifter. This was a thought not only inspired by the strong Anti-Elysian feelings in the Tsefo, as well as suspicion towards the figure of Lifprasil and mainly, the philosophy of Runza Thanfong, the young queen conqueror and unifier of Imga and object of great admiration from Mavadzugji. Her denial of godly providence and alliances was key to turning the tides in the south, though due to her early death many started to have doubts about her philosophy in her own homeland.

Ultimately, the third realm theory was widely accepted in The Tsefo, as it echoed greatly with the frustrations and needs of the Dzanya population in such a delicate moment. They felt displaced and alienated from the world, after countless centuries living in isolation there had been a sudden influx of information about new and wonderful lands, sunlanders were no longer just those odd persons they met once or twice but an endless sea of lands foreign to them. Mavadzugji had provided a world where they were the centerpiece, the underdog, those who had been persecuted into nothingness despite their ancient history, it did not provide a sense of future in the precarious situation they were in, but it provided with pride, often misplaced, and a new sense of unity.



In 68 Post Realta, “Tsoti” was released, as the compilation of The Tsefo’s work in history, the work retold the entire history of the world, from gods to clans, and also presented counterclaims to ‘A sunlander vision of history’. The text was not only the apex of years of work in the collections of oral history and philosophical discussion but also of printing technology, illustration in mosaic and paper, and writing techniques, as Tzevami, despite his problematic relationship with Tsefo, ultimately would compose poetry to narrate the key moments of Dzanya culture.

The chieftain and other priests could do nothing but watch with a passive expression as the work had hit their world like a tsunami, in a year, Mavadzugji had become a better-known name than any other chieftain, dwarfing the fame he already had when he was the one bringing tales of foreign lands. When the next summer arrived, nobody felt like they were in the same land as they had been in last summer.

Much like Tsoti had changed from a factual book on history into something else between a glorification of the Dzanya and an analysis on early Dusklander history, Mavadzugji had changed along the way as well, his political thoughts went from just whims he had tried to control to something with actual weight and calculated positions.

A large part of this was due to the influence of the Mesathalassam Harbor Kingdoms and Hain Fortresses, texts arriving from the civilizations in the Firewind desert and many whispers of distant lands past the wilderness as well as the divine empire under Alefpria. There was a sea of information on the details of government and rulership, from factual… -ish accounts, to historical documents to philosophical text on the matter. As such, a natural shift from reactive political thought to constructive political thought started to happen, Mavadzugji no longer limited himself to question what he perceived as wrong but instead, he approached the matter much like he had approached math and history.

Obviously, his dislike of the influence the great clans had on his life meant those were to not have a place in a better society, in fact, Mavadzugji fully proposed a breakup and institutionalization of the clan society, with a division between military and economic clans, to fully prepare themselves for the urban shift that seemed inevitable, as well as greater social mobility. Centralization was a hot topic as well, with proposals of a hierarchy of city, army, and temple and organization that mirrored Mutaraka’s federation of tribes, though while that one was maintained by informal deals, friendship and a need of mutual defense, this one was formed by hard law.

His wish was not only to ensure the best for his people but also to avoid the mistakes that previous Mesathalassa civilizations had committed. The history of goverment in the Harbors had been one of constant failure, from the initial republics to the kingdoms and theocracies, people were often just thoughtlessly getting whatever remained after everything else had failed. Runza’s plans were by far the best the south had had, but they had to be spread through violence and ultimately had a fatal flaw, they focused on one single mortal being. A true society shouldn’t have to rely on anything but itself, a safe society doesn’t break down if their leader is killed.

All these thoughts would come to be compiled on what was somewhat of a sequel to Tsoti, The Dzarya, first published in 73 Since the Realta. The writings suffered internal resistance within Tsefo, and came out as weirdly utopic when reaching the public. To many, it resonated, a true future for the people, especially since the ‘oddlands’ were to spread all the way south, and leaving the homeland was inevitable, this was the time for a new society in their view. For others, it did not resonate so well, while the ideas of a unified Dusklander identity had been easy to spread due to the situation the region was in, and a denial of southern religion with the creation of a new philosophy and even a hypothetical god was quickly spreading, especially for the sense of pride and destiny provided in its absurd bias towards the locals, the ideas of society for society sake, and of not only defining a “dusklander people” but unifying them in one single state was a wild concept, that felt impossible without a deviation into something darker. The very idea of “economic” clans and “military” clans was foreign to the locals, and although already in practice, especially in the more urban areas, the creation of them as a concept felt complicated.

To further Mavadzugji’s issues, his monopoly on many topics was starting to waver, the very result of his acts and efforts to educate the locals had the obvious result of making his word questionable, even with the Tsefo, the organization growing exponentially as its prestige grew, his voice was becoming one of many, and albeit the most respect, it soon found itself stuck in the middle of growing factions and philosophies.

The cohesion of the movement was rapidly breaking as more and more clans had to migrate, so despite the fact the movement was slowly overtaking all of the traditional priesthood, Mavadzugji’s plans for it were not coming to fruition unless he had the means to keep Tsefo unified. A central priesthood was possible, of course, but not without proper economic and military backing, otherwise any attempts at that would be mere formalities and too easy to break, but Mavadzugji found himself not having the voice anymore to get enough backing, his new work was loved by fringe groups, but ignored by many, and nothing would keep Tsefo together if not the realizing of his utupia, the Dzanyavehar, the old word which had haunted his father were more possible today than it was in his time, but still, Mavadzugji could not reach it.

This was, after all, the way society work, as he had noted when he isolated Llapur Dyetzu, it was not something simple like a fight, it reached from under you like a wave. Mavadzugji had been the epicenter of a lot of change, his steps causing true tsunamis towards others, but waves after crashing bounce back, returning to the sender, and now the very prophet of a new duskland was stuck in a whirlpool beyond his control.

The priest, however, was not one to give up, even if the situation was deteriorating, he would do what he could. And what he could do was to prepare for the eventual exodus into the Sunlands. Kadja Regjurnyarha’s village was very fond of him, the whole region was, in fact, and the location was near the Abbey and far from the most crowded areas of northern Mesathalassa, where many of the local lords truly hated him. If he could not keep The Tsefo together, if he could not mend the relationship of the many dusklander clans and the “first lander” clans that had migrated before most of them, if he could not bring about the true Dzanyavehar, he would at least create something of his own, he could not let his political ideas die without at least trying them, and if they were of quality, the wealth and stability of the land would be proof his ideas were, once again, the ones that should be followed. Or at least that was what he assumed.

And so, as the oddlands crept ever closer to the last bastions of Dusklander society, Mavadzugji went on his last attempts to, if not convince more groups of the worth of his latest work, at least make sure more of the fringe groups who agreed with him would be with him when the time to leave came. Not all groups could, however, and he knew there was value in not centralizing it all on his project.

One of such fringe groups that truly believed in the worth of both The Tsoti and The Dzanya texts was about to have their first meeting…
In || The School of Death || → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Concept time, woo. I actually need some time to rewrite this later, since, uh, I am quite busy this weekend, but this is the overall gist, if it doesn't work I can make someone new.


In || The School of Death || → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Interest Checks
That is good to hear, I guess I will be joining then
In || The School of Death || → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Interest Checks
What sort of abilities can a student hold? Just normal skills or something supernatural?
In Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Would a flexibilization of the rules on the word limit for prestige gain be possible? I had planned a lot of my posts and prestige usage with a lot of breaks, but doing that now would be me multi-posting very hard. If prestige didn't stop being awarded after a certain word limit, that would help my life.
In Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™! → 5 yrs ago Forum: Advanced Roleplay
At the end of the day, after multiple downloads and years of trying to force myself to enjoy it, I could never get into Dominions. It seems interesting, I get why my friends like it, but whenever I play it I just feel apathetic to it, people say I should learn more about the game mechanics and give it more time, but in the end the more time I put into the the more I realize its not a tone and style I like and that I am often wishing the game was another game, with different mechanics and focuses.

Mk3 has made me think I was going under some heavy writer's block, so many times I just skipped on reading or writing in the RP, and I thought this had some deeper meaning. Then I branched a bit, re-read some old stuff, got into some newer stuff, and then I started to notice how my approach changed when it came to those, where writing felt easy, and more important, fun. I guess there are a multitude of things at play, Mk3 evolved to not include most of what I liked in the previous two Divinus games I was in, and while I know maybe waiting longer to see if things change and if mortals lead to a game more similar to the ones I enjoyed is a possibility, its not something I think its healthy, the writing is on the wall and multiple people have already voiced that its clear I am not syncing with the tone of the game. I also made a lot of mistakes along the way, made a goddess that limited me to a play style not fit for the game and got needlessly bitter over things like all the factions forming.

I will be around to finish the collabs I am involved with Kalmar and Li, though I will no longer be producing standalone posts as I am leaving Mk3. Best wishes to all of you, thanks for the fun and great posts.
In Divinus: The God RP, Mk. III. Finished in Record Time™! → 5 yrs ago Forum: Advanced Roleplay


&
Li’Kalla


Goddess of Rain
8 FP - 9 MP

&
𝔖 𝔢 𝔦 𝔥 𝔡 𝔥 𝔞 𝔯 𝔞




Time: The Day the Gods Came


When Seihdhara finally woke up, the memory of all her dreams hung heavily over her like a cloud that spat lightning and rain, but was also immediately at peace blowing in a blue summer sky. As individual memories came to her, she found herself brooding over that strange mice dream. It frustrated her that she had not been able to get to the sword - for the sword was the problem. The sword that always tore her from her loved ones. She looked down at her palm, and there about it was that familiar golden hue and the ghost of a silver-bladed short-sword boasting a pommel in the shape of a furious roaring bear head. It was called Ursus Mater, the sword her son had created and gifted to her. When sheathed it simply dissipated into a golden sheen around her. She had come through into this world along with her sword, for it was attached to her soul.
But had it truly been the sword in the dream? After all, it had all been a lie, and she had known it to be a lie and chosen - at last - to bask in it even so. Bringing her hands about her knees, she looked around the room she was now in. For a few moments she thought her eyes were deceiving her, but then it became apparent that the Purlieu and cave she had fallen asleep in was indeed no longer there. She reasoned that Urhu had likely moved her here at some point.

She remembered the sight of Urhu’s sleeping face beside her, utterly at peace, and the memory of that brought calm and joy to Seihdhara’s heart. She closed her eyes, lingering there and treasuring that memory; committing it to the depths of her mind so that even if she was utterly destroyed that memory would gain a life all its own and live on. Exhaling, she rose to her feet. Urhu’s boat, the Nyeothay Tag, felt like home already to the goddess and she wandered about it until she was on deck. She looked at the various animal effigies on top of the great cabin-like structure on the boat, and her eyes were drawn to the canines. Dogs, she had instinctively known them to be, although she had never seen them in her home world and no one had deigned to create them in the previous universe. In the memories of her hair, however, she could find wild dogs roamings all the forests of her making, which she decided would not be called forests or jungles like other forests, but weihrds. She thought once more of that sleeping Urhu in the cave, and she wondered where her beloved was now. She continued staring at the canines, and an idea came to her, causing her green eyes to light up immediately with inspiration and her hair to brighten so that it seemed like embers lay in the endless fiery mess. Her lips broke into that characteristic full-toothed, hearty smile.

The goddess rose into the air until she was up top by the canines, and - gently - she tapped the two large effigies. They creaked. She tapped them again, and they shivered, their heads gaining greater definition as the two dogs stretched. Then - before she could tap them a third - they had leapt from the cabin and were growing in size down on the deck. Seihdhara jumped down after them and, to either side of the saffron-haired goddess, they lost their golden metallic quality and each grew a thick, harsh, and rough coat of black and grey on their body, head, and legs. It was especially long and wiry around their eyes and under the jaw. Before long they were so big that their heads reached her chest.



Horton, Irish Wolfhound/Wolf Cross. Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary. © Georgina De Caigny.
Twin Dogs of the Fray: Seihdharid Wolfhound


She stroked the two, and they yapped and pranced about her, and one of them - the stud - reared up and placed his forelegs on her shoulders and got to licking her face. She scrunched her face up and moved her head away.

‘Hey now big boy, I don’t know you that well.’ She said, laughing and pushing his head from her until he was off her. She then turned to the bitch and stroked her also, bringing her in for a hug. She decided then that she would give one of them to Rhu-rhu, a constant companion for her wherever she went during her endless travels and adventures, a second pair of eyes to witness all the tremendous things only the Wanderer could. Seihdhara considered this thought for a few moments. Could it be that Rhu could see the world in a way that no one else could? Could it be that her domain over wandering meant she could appreciate the novel and the beautiful in ways that no other god did? Seihdhara smiled absentmindedly. No wonder she loved travelling so much! She looked at the stud who was wandering all over the deck and she laughed. It was clear that that one was a curious wanderer too, so she decided that she would give him to Urhu so that she would never be lonely on her travels again.
The female dog ambled over and stared out over the side of the Neothay Tag, her intelligent eyes alight with curiosity. Seihdhara bent down to her knees and placed a hand on the wolfhound’s head, and both looked out for some time. ‘Hehewuti is a fitting name for you.’ She murmured, and the large canine turned her head towards the goddess and whined.

The goddess then looked over the side of the boat some more. She was not sure where on Galbar they were. And where was Urhu? ‘RHU-RHU!’ she shouted at the top of her voice.

The wanderer had returned to her own ship for a while, yet the non-euclidean interior of the vessels were large enough for the two goddesses to miss themselves, especially when Urhu was in the deeper rooms, sorting her store. “Oh… seems like she finally woke up!” the wanderer said before quickly going up the stairs, soon appearing near Seihdhara, donning her new outfit of gold, fine strings and leather. “Good morning! Seems like you finally escaped that bed.” she told her with a smirk. Seihdhara laughed and scratched her head in embarrassment.

‘I was out for a long time wasn’t I? I blame the bed. That softness is almost criminal!’ As she spoke the two wolfhounds ambled about the goddesses and Seihdhara pointed to the male. ‘Look Rhu, I got you a dog to keep you company! Those two weren’t doing anything up on the cabin, and now you’ll never be alone again while adventuring and exploring.’

“I did make those figures as an alarm and guidance system, so, uh, first of all, I will need to get some new ones since otherwise I might ram the ship into a mountain, but second, I wonder if it kept some of those traits.” she said, looking down at the canine, before smiling and rubbing its head, noticing its reactions to see how he preferred it. “But thanks! He is very cute, all doggies are.” Seihdhara seemed wholly pleased with Urhu’s reaction, though her eyes did widen guiltily at the mention of the navigational uses of the effigies. She looked at the dogs and thought it an interesting thing indeed if the dogs had some unique abilities due to their previous purpose.

‘How can we test if they do have some special ability?’ She asked the other goddess. Then she turned and looked out at the land before them. ’Do you know where we are now?’ It was a heavily forested place - forested, now that Seihdhara thought back with a frown, by her own hair. It had never done that kind of thing before. Perhaps its baptism by fire and experiences to date had caused it to develop a level of independence greater than in the past. Seihdhara did not mind all too much, but she did wonder at what that meant for her whenever her hair did decide to go off again. As if to reassure her, a few strands stroked her cheek. Shaking herself from her reverie she looked over at Rhu. ‘S-sorry, did you say something? Didn’t quite catch that.’

“I was saying we were near that Kalmar guy’s continent. Didn’t meet the guy yet, though he is my sphere neighbour, I think, makes sense to, we are kinda similar, I guess…?” she shrugged. “The island we are near to, however, doesn’t have his unique quirks in its landscaping, meaning its the act of another god, can’t guess who though.” Seihdhara nodded and smiled at how Rhu could already identify the quirks of this Kalmar’s landscapes. If only she could be as perceptive!

‘Alright! I’m ready to explore, fight, and meet more gods. I’m feeling in a fighting mood. Do you think we should ambush whoever made this place? You know, for a bit of fun.’ She looked mischievously over at Urhu, reaching out and touching the goddess’ pretty new dress with sudden interest.

The wanderer, in turn, looked back at Seihdhara for a long moment. “No.” she sighed. “But you are already sneaking out of the ship to do that, aren’t you?”
‘I, uh, n- noo?’ Seihdhara was a terrible liar and she knew it, so she slowly took a few steps from Urhu as if preparing to escape a potential telling-off. But then she stopped and pointed a finger at Urhu, ‘Hey! I wouldn’t trust that you could watch my back if we were going to ambush someone! In fact, we won’t be ambushing any gods until you’re in fighting shape! While your new dress is very pretty,’ she looked at it again, still impressed by how delicately and beautifully the gold and strings were wrought together with the leather, before getting back to what she was saying, ‘it won’t do you any good in a fight. So here.’ She reached into her hair and rummaged around with her right hand until she drew a short golden blade to match Rhu’s attire. It was an ever so slightly curved cutlass, though its blade was thin and elegant (which, Seihdhara knew, was not the norm: for this was meant to be a brutish blade).



A piece of her heart for the goddess dressed in gold


The goddess extended her right hand and leg in front of her, leaving her left foot in line with her shoulder, then swiped easily over and across with the sword. She moved it to and fro in a loose grip between her thumb and forefinger and seemed satisfied with its balance. Turning it over, she presented the hilt to Urhu. ‘For you,’ she said simply. Once Urhu had taken it, the battle goddess manifested Ursus Mater. Rather than its usual shortsword form, it too was now a cutlass.

“Huh? For me? What are you on about…? A sword?” The wanderer looked at her weapon with confusion. She had never been a sword user, so this was surprising, she couldn’t say she did not like the look of the weapon. She searched for the other goddess to try to understand what she was planning.

Walking away from the side of the boat, Seihdhara turned to Urhu with a flourish and took up a guarded position. There was a knowing smile dancing about her lips and a mischievous excitement in her eyes. She had missed this. She gestured for Urhu to take up the same stance.



En garde!


‘First things first - your weapon. As you can see it has two main parts. This here is the blade and this is the hilt. If you feel here, you’ll see that the lower half of the blade is not sharp - you use this part for parrying, not cutting. The upper half has a sharpened edge though, and it tapers to a point. The back edge at the top here is sharpened as well. This provides you with a greater degree of flexibility as to how to go about attacking. When a conventional slash,’ the goddess slashed downward, ‘or stab,’ she lunged suddenly, ‘won’t work, a surprise backward slash like so can subdue an opponent who is not expecting it - here I’ll do it slower: bring it around, like this, and it wraps round to strike at angles an opponent is not anticipating. Don’t worry about remembering that for now, we’ll go over it properly in a bit.



To know the blade


‘So the hilt here protects your fingers - yours has a basket-hilt, mine here has a cupped guard; both function in the same way. They prevent the opponent’s blade from getting to your fingers. But these guards are also useful if an opponent gets up close and personal: if they get very close you can easily punch at them, the guard acting as a metal glove. You can also hammer down with the butt of the blade. So a good punching and bashing weapon if the need arises. It’s pretty nifty overall and should serve you well if you master the technique.

‘Now you don’t want to wrap your fingers fully around the hilt - this isn’t a club, you want something that’s fluid in your hands, a true extension of your arm so that you have complete control of the blade at all times.’ She moved her wrist fluidly, causing the blade to jump back and forth with ease, though she did not even move her arm or wrist. ‘So use a pivoting grip like so - you see? Thumb on the back of the grip, aligned with the back edge of the blade, so you are easily able to squeeze and release into the palm of your hand. This allows you a great deal of flexibility and you can very swiftly change your angle of attack or quickly defend and counterattack as the need arises. So if you hold the weapon up straight in the grip, it's completely straight, then a simple squeeze into your palm and the grip pivots in your hand so that the blade moves forward without any great movement or exertion on your part. Minimum energy input, maximum output.’



To be the blade


The other goddess clumsily started to follow the torrent of advice she was being given. However, as a goddess, she was still able to get the hang of things quite quickly, especially when being instructed by none other than the goddess of combat herself. Soon she had her weapon raised in a confident manner, for many this weapon design had an air of elegance and trickery, though when wielded by the wanderer it had a sleek aura of swiftness to it, with a stiff stance and the unmoving eyes of a hunter observing their surroundings. “Like this?” she questioned, wondering if she had successfully followed instructions. Seihdhara’s sword dissipated as she inspected Urhu’s form. She tapped her back leg and told her to bring it back slightly and ensure her foot was facing outward.
‘It gives you a firm foundation, see? And the knees, keep them bent. Like this you’re strong, you can step forward quickly and retreat easily, and you’re in a good position to lunge and recover.’ With that said she inspected the Wanderer’s arms, bringing her elbow in slightly, ‘a tucked in elbow ensures your opponent doesn’t have an easy target. Like this it’s in line with the rest of your body, behind your guard. And here, you want the front edge of the sword to be facing towards your outside, like… so.’ With that said she expressed satisfaction at Urhu’s posture and got back in front of her, sword in hand.
‘Now, to the defence! With a short blade like this there are three basic parries you can make. There are others we can get to if you wish, but these basic three will serve you well. You begin with the guard position - sword in front, elbow tucked in, knees bent. Good. If someone cuts towards your leading shoulder, you want to gently move your blade from centre to cover that line, to deflect the blade around you - this one we’ll call the ‘first’. If someone cuts towards the other side, towards your chest, you bring the sword back and cover that line in the same way - this one we’ll call the ‘second’. If someone cuts for your head you simply lift and provide that protection - we’ll call this one the ‘third’. As much as possible you want to meet the strike of an opponent with the lower half of your blade. The closer to your sword’s hilt the blow lands, the stronger your defence - and if you’re clever and swift, you will know how to catch your opponent’s blade just so.’



The three basic parries: The ‘first’, ‘second’, and ‘third’


With those basic defences explained, Seihdhara now moved onto the six cuts one could make from a guard position or as a riposte from a parrying position with a sword of this nature and with this particular sword fighting style. ‘So the first two cuts are downward strikes - one comes down from the right and the other comes down from the left. The second two are upward from the right and upward from the left. And the final two are straight from the right and left. You could also cut down vertically and up vertically, making it eight cuts. Once you get used to the movements you should be able to very easily flow from one cut into another without moving anything but your wrist - no big swings, no elbow leaping all over the place, just a simple wrist movement. Now if you combine this simple wrist movement with a swift step forward, similar to what you do when lunging, then you give the cut extra power and lethality. The twisting motion of the wrist makes it difficult to predict what angle you are coming at until the last moment - and you can easily change from cutting into lunging, thus utilising the point of your blade. You lunge like… so.’



The lunge


‘Come, let us practise this. If you can master these basics then you will be well able to protect yourself - and then... well, then you can create and innovate!’ She waved her hand, and immediately the two blades lost their sharp edges. ‘Sharpened weapons are for killing, not sparring.’ She commented in a casual manner, extending her own sword and taking up the fighting form. Then she shouted for Urhu to begin.

Urhu was somewhat lost in the flash flood of words, Seihdhara was one of few words, yet suddenly she was delivering upon the wanderer very complex and conceptual ideas, though also with a strong practical backbone as the constant repositioning of Urhu’s body under Seihdhara’s command seemed displayed. Still, the goddess of travel could not help but to pout slightly, even though she was doing her best to follow everything that was being said, being strictly under such a strong set of rules was definitely not her style.

“Well then, let’s see how it goes! For sure the goddess of combat is in her home as we fight, but… in the end, what is fencing but trying to find a passage through your enemies’ defence?” the wander said, before slashing forward at the other goddess at a decent speed, her first moves followed Seihdhara’s instructions. But they never landed for the goddess willingly stopping her blade before it met the rival blade, relocating it as the shock of the lack of the expected sensory input was still in the mind of her rival, trying to do a sudden side lunge at Seihdhara, who smoothly lifted her blade so that the lunge was redirected up and above her head.
‘That’s a good lunge. When someone lunges at you, the parry to use depends on where the lunge is striking at. For a high lunge like this one, you take their blade and redirect it above - the third parry. Then you can riposte!’ She twisted her wrist so that the blade went from a third parry into a downward cut towards Urhu’s head, but as she had been speaking the wanderer had already assumed her guard position and could easily parry in return. ‘Remember Rhu, once you master the basic principles you can begin to be more creative. It’s like… hmm, like, if you know where you’re going right? If you know where your destination is then you can be creative as to the routes you take to get there. For now you’re not sure about the destination so I’m showing you a simple route. But once you master this route and know where the destination is, then you’ll be able to explore, find new routes, and create your own. Does that make sense?’

“I get that, and I am grateful, however, I still can find that time in which I am stuck to the old roads to be a bit boring. No matter, I will make sure to get used to it fast so I can take the more unusual paths.” she said, deciding to tone down her trickery for the moment.

The two goddesses danced around one another for some time, practising the different cuts and parries. It was slow and cautious at first with many stoppages and comments. Then the comments grew less and less, and they were not stopping anymore but easily parrying and riposting, stepping back and forth as now Urhu gained ground and as now Seihdhara pushed her back. Seihdhara lost track of how long they practised for, but by the time she allowed Ursus Mater to dissipate Urhu seemed well able to take care of herself in a fight. She had already started getting creative and coming at the combat goddess from novel angles that would have almost certainly gotten the better of less skilled opponents. The wanderer was of course no match to the military might of the other goddess, but she knew how to use her aspect of travel to pull-off distracting attacks and parries, taking the battle out of the conventional. It was a necessity when she did not have the stamina to keep up with a conventional battle for as long as the warlike gods. Nevertheless, Seihdhara would feel Urhu had truly understood the basics and was not merely moving adlib but had actual battle plans.

Still, Seihdhara wished for her beloved’s complete safety and knew that having her uncover her soul-name would go some way to increasing her natural martial skill. Then she realised that she had never told Urhu about soul-names. ‘Rhu! Did I ever tell you that I made soul-names?! Mine is Bear Over Red Water - we have to go find out what yours is! Maybe when we’re exploring the island?’ She looked at the wanderer with wide, excited eyes. The relatively level-headed instructor from before seemed to have completely disappeared.

“Soul name? Isn’t Urhu… or well, Rhu, good enough?” she laughed, clearly tired after such intensive training. “Seems… curious. Perhaps it will help me to understand my past better. You have a peculiar soul name, Seihd, for some reason, I always noticed the connection you have with bears.” she added offhandedly. Seihdhara seemed surprised at this, but then she smiled and her face reddened.
‘I guess it shows. I grew up with bears back home. The part of my soul that was true bear may have been torn away, but a bear’s a bear in the end.’ There was a slightly distance in her eyes as she remembered, but it swiftly disappeared as she took Urhu’s sword in her hands and passed her fingers over it so that it returned to its sharpened state. ‘So I guess our souls do hold memories that open the door towards knowing what is forgotten! When we get into those weihrds there-’ she paused and looked at the endless forests on the island. She could not quite get over the fact that she had created those even though she had never willed it, ‘when we get there you just need to be on the lookout. Eventually it will come to you!’ She returned the sword to Urhu. It was now in a beautifully decorated scabbard, lined with silver and red gold. Here and there gems were embedded - they seemed to be making a route round and round the sheathe. ‘Let’s rest a while and then we can head out. All that jumping and swinging seems to have tired you out.’



They had walked into the mist covered forest for a while now, after a quick rest in Nyeothay Tag. Urhu didn’t exactly plan to ‘ambush’ the god of this land, whoever it was, though a test of her sneaking skills would be interesting. She was mostly tagging along to make sure Seihdhara would not get herself blown up, killed, or eaten again. The wanderer’s hand was gently staying near her sword, which she had named Sheoneg Yin, Summer’s Horizon. She had yet to identify the owner of this land, as so far she had not seen these design peculiarities elsewhere in the world and the hints were not obvious, especially because she had just kept an eye on the more aggressive looking gods. It was a damp land however, almost depressing, the sky was oftenly overcast and colors gave away to the grey of mist. Despite Seihdhara’s weihrd being somewhat young, moss already crept up many trees and rocks.

“Oh, sorry, I am hurrying forward again.” the wanderer said, slowing her steps. “This thick fog is not as distracting to me, well, it is, but it's impossible for me to stray from my path.” Seihdhara caught up, though there was a frown and a concerned look on her face.
‘It’s alright - just… be careful Rhu. Something’s… off.’ She looked up ahead where yet another puddle had formed due to the incessant raining. She did not know why, but there was something just off about all these puddles. Like… there was something watching. She could not see anything, but she could feel it - a concentration of soul energy around some of the puddles. And it was not normal soul energy at that.

The wanderer, less sensible to the pain of souls, looked around confused, even glancing at the reflection of the damp spots but completely missing the ‘terror’ in the air. Instead, she focused on her surroundings, and there she found nothing, even if she reached with her godly senses. “Hmm. I will stay alert. If you spot anything weird do tell me.” the wanderer continued.

Going deeper into the island, the duo would soon notice the sound of thunder, as rain started to fall upon the land. The goddesses could simply will themselves dry, but it was another sensory distraction as they braved unknown lands. Soon, the trees would disappear, along with the shrub and grass, as they walked into what seemed like a very shallow lake. Looking down, Urhu saw her reflection perfectly along with Seihdhara’s, reaching down and taking some of the ground and sampling it with her tongue. “Salt. Seems like we are in a salt flat. Too bad it's raining and the mist is so thick, when its not, these things look like huge mirrors.”

Thousands of little ripples distorted the reflection of the shallow water. On the other side, nothing could be seen but an overcast sky and the falling rain. Seihdhara took a step forward, and when the water stilled enough to show a reflection, the two goddesses were no longer visible in it. Instead below them was a woman with long, black hair, dressed in an ornate white and golden gown, drenched in rainwater. She was standing, looking up at her sky. That is, until she gasped and turned around. Seihdhara slowly got to her knees, her hand hovering just above the strange reflection, her eyes were wide and pupils dilated and she seemed unable to peel her eyes from the black-haired woman. Her shadowed face couldn’t be seen in the reflection, but she balled up her gloved fists and walked away into the ripples of the rain. And then she had disappeared and Seihdhara was looking here and there, her hands passing above the water as if to draw her out once more. Soon there emerged after her a great lumbering shadow that blocked out the entire reflection, seemingly chasing after the woman. Its size and weight seemed to threaten breaking through the reflection but it never happened and when the shadow was gone, the reflections of the two Goddesses looked back at them as if nothing had happened.

Seihdhara stared at the puddle for a few moments more before rising to her feet and looking around with hard eyes. Her nostrils flared and her eyebrows furrowed. She could smell it on the air, feel it on her skin, taste it. Somewhere not far from here death-battle had been given. Her eyes were cold as Ursus Mater materialised in her right hand, once more in its short-sword form. She looked over at Urhu, and her frown seemed to deepen momentarily. She extended a hand to the shorter woman and placed it on her shoulder, squeezing ever so slightly. She glanced down at Urhu’s hand, resting on the hilt of her cutlass. ‘It may be so that the time of drawing that has come,’ Seihdhra said in a low, gentle voice that was at complete odds with the animalistic focus in her eyes and on her face. Her nostrils flared once more and her eyes suddenly attached themselves to one unseeable spot ahead of them, off in the midst of the fog and mist. ‘There she is.’ And with that, she began stalking forward. Every now and again she paused and looked behind her to ensure that Urhu was close by, even though it was more likely for Seihdhara to get lost in the fog and rain than the lady of travel.

The wanderer had no seen as much as Seihdhara on the reflection, but by now even she could understand that this was no normal misty island, she nodded reassuringly at Seihdhra and smirked, as if to lighten the mood. “So much for ambushing this god, eh, Seihdh?” she said, drawing Sheoneg Yin, but not raising it, still keeping it near her hip as they walked forward. Seihdhara could not help but chuckle at Urhu’s words. It was rather ironic how swiftly this had turned from an attempt to pull a prank on some unwitting god to something… far more sinister. She looked back to her sister, relief washing over her when she saw that she was still there. Urhu raised an eyebrow each time Seihdhara looked back at her, as if telling her, ‘yes I am still here, yes I am still whole, there is no need to stop now.” And then she looked back again and Urhu was suddenly not there.

Seihdhara froze, her eyes widening. She looked first in one direction, then in the other, trying to penetrate the fog with her sight. For one reason or another, she found that she could not bring herself to shout out her name. A moment passed. Her grip on Ursus Mater tightened. She shifted, turning her body so that she was now facing where Urhu had been not moments before. A quick glance here and there followed… and then she took a step.
Almost immediately the goddess found herself bathed in blinding sunlight, and a great screech ripped through the deathly quiet and incessant rain of the island. Seihdhara instinctively raised a hand to shade her eye from the sudden light, but before her hand could do any shading she found that a shadow fell across her face. Looking up, she beheld a great hawk flying right out of the eye of the sun. Her eyebrows rose, and her mouth fell ever so slightly open. And then Urhu was by her side again. Seihdhara looked at her quizzically, then back up at the single spot of clear sky and sunlight that had suddenly arisen in all the fog, and the hawk.

Urhu had notice the opening in the clouds, for a moment she even thought she had been the one to call for it, with some innate passage powers or something similar, but it wasn’t the case. A bird seemed to have taken the opportunity of the opening to dive towards the bogs bellow, aided and coated by the sunlight. The wanderer rubbed her arm seeing the creature, in particular, a spot on her forearm. “Ah, this makes me quite nostalgic, and I don't even know why.” the itch continued, and she followed the hawk’s dive with her eyes, now the bird was cloaked among the mist, catching an unsuspecting lizard before scanning the area. Gold met gold, and almost instinctively Urhu raised her right arm in a stiff position at the height of her shoulder, the bird understood the invitation and flew towards the goddess, landing on her forearm.

Four golden eyes stared straight at Seihdhara, Urhu smiling as wide as she could. “Hey, look at this.” she said with an easy to notice tone of adrenaline-fueled eagerness. “Seems like we got a new ally, and just when we most needed one.” With the sun bathing them in its light, the danger and strangeness of the island seemed to slip away suddenly, and the wary Seihdhara relaxed and approached Urhu and their new friend. Smiling curiously, she extended a hand to the hawk and stroked the top of its head with a finger. As she stroked the bird of prey, she cast a sidelong glance at Urhu.
‘You realise this is no coincidence, don’t you?’ she grinned, her eyes gleaming as though she had just secured a mighty triumph, ‘do you feel something? Did something come to you when you first saw the bird?’ The small bird of prey extended its wings and ruffled them slightly, shaking its head and releasing a screech before settling back down on Urhu’s hand, who looked at both Seihd and the hawk and closed her eyes. “Outside of this feeling of familiarity?” she questioned.

“It's not the first time I see this image on my head. I guess I also saw it when I was creating the symbol I would use as my signature. The sun is about to set, but still fully visible, strong colors fill the sky, then, I notice a hawk in the eye of the sun, approaching, diving quickly towards the dark lands below along with the sunlight.” she told, opening her eyes. “Gah, it feels silly to talk about such things.” Seihdhara turned towards Urhu more fully, fixing her green gaze on her.
‘And what’s wrong with silliness Rhu? Go on, tell me. I want to hear all the silly things.’ She stroked the hawk again, which then turned its beak against the goddess and pecked without fear, causing Seihdhara to half-smile. ‘And a hawk in the eye of the sun is no silly thing at all. It is fearsome, powerful, sure! It sees everything, the world bows before it for miles and miles and its claws dispatch death or allot life. And it can, if it wants, descend from on high and fraternise with gods.’ She smiled and raised an eyebrow at the hawk before returning her attention to Urhu. ‘So tell me the silly things.’

The other goddess shrugged. “What is there more to say? I already told you the flights of my mind, now there is no more to say beyond what has been said already, I guess… Well, I like contrast, the bird in the eye of the sun is living contrast, it stands in the center of the light yet it turns into a pure black shadow. Though, there is more to that, I do not like dualities, people see night and day as the two opposing halves, yet sunsets and dawns are worlds of their own… Should we truly be talking about my mind in this situation? There are surely better topics! Such as, for a quick example, survival!” Seihdhara looked around, the strange spell that had descended broken. The ray of of sun quickly disappeared and clouds returned, and rain. She nodded wordlessly and moved off. Eventually their walking brought them to a ring of marble suspended in mid-air. It was ejecting a constant plume of clouds and steam, and not too far from it was an utterly ruined manor beside a bubbling lake. Seihdhara surveyed the area for a few moments, a deep frown on her face, then sighed.

‘There’s nothing here. Whatever fight took place is over, and it seems that the ones fighting are gone too. I don’t think we’re going to find any gods here Rhu. Shall we keep heading north? I’m sure there are all kinds of creatures and landmarks about. Or shall we head back to the Nyeothay Tag?’ But a few moments after the words had left her lips she looked at the ring of marble ejecting the constant plume of smoke. It seemed to her like the soul trail she was following disappeared into that. She looked at Urhu and gestured towards it and, kicking off easily into the air and leaving her hair behind so Rhu could clamber onto it like a staircase, she rose up to investigate the ring. ‘It’s weird. There are plumes coming out of it from this side but… there are none going in from the other side.’ She placed a hand on the ring and then stuck her foot into the thick plumes. For a few moments nothing happened, and then she found herself being drawn in. Her hair, with Urhu on it, was swept into the ring.

With Urhu safe in the grip of her hair, Seihdhara surveyed the familiar landscape. It was extremely similar to what they had seen on the other side of the ring. There was the ruined manor and the steaming lake. But unlike the other side, this place wreaked of conflict and blood was everywhere. Below them was what appeared to be a giant lizard, asleep. Seihdhara glanced at Urhu before placing her on the ground and releasing her. She landed softly and walked over to the sleeping lizard. There was a flower on its snout, which caused Seihdhara to raise an eyebrow. Already she could see that the winged lizard was severely hurt. Seihdhara could identify marks of damage no doubt caused during a fight on it. Its soul was deeply frayed and… had actively been broken? Bits and pieces of it were missing in ways that did not seem to have come about from a natural fraying process. Idly she picked up the flower from its snout and fiddled with it before placing it on her head where her strands latched on to it.

The souls before her seemed to have been split in two, the smaller part taking on the form of a shard embedded in the side of the larger mass. She extended her consciousness to feel around the shard ever so gently, trying to coax its consciousness to speak to her.

To Urhu it had been shocking Seihdhara had not reacted with more caution upon seeing this situation, so shocking it made the wanderer believe the other goddess had her reasons, being far more sensible to the world of the supernatural than her. The brown haired goddess, however, was still very much in the visible realm, and there was a lot to be investigated while Seihd focused on the beast, which she could identify as a god, though Urhu did not recall any god like that ever exist.

Looking around, two types of ichor could be found, raw ichor was easy to identify, Vakk and Li'Kalla , yet three godly trails were found, she could sense K’nell. Rubbing under her chin, Urhu tried to replicate the situation. Was this the shifty dream god’s doing? It could be possible. It was then she noticed something, a broken door in the ruins of the mansion, the goddess of passages could immediately notice this door was not ruined in the same way as the rest of the mansion, which had been broken from within, debris outside, the door had been broken from outside. Lowering her hands, she touched the door. The same way Seihdhara had an affinity to souls, Urhu had an affinity to passages, and it just happened one of the acts committed on this ruined land had been trespassing. She could see in the door, the wish for it to stay closed, the wish for it to bring safety, then the break-in. Someone had been a bad guest, an uninvited one, and now Urhu knew his name. Behind her, Urhu sensed the monster begin to stir.

There was a low rumble as the Monstrous lizard covered in blue scales and vines twitched, scrunching up its snout. Behind its closed eyelids, its eyes started moving rapidly and violently, and a green glow started to seep through the very flesh covering the eyes. Then, its eyes opened. Like two spotlights of green light, they focused immediately on Seihdhara. It tensed up the muscles in its limbs, and let out a small growl when it tried to stretch its wings, the broken one of course not moving.

It got up, never taking its eyes off Seihdhara, and with a slightly open maw, extended its long, rough, and saliva soaked tongue toward the Goddess and licked her. Seihdhara could not help but laugh at this, the peals infectious and free. She placed a hand on the lizard’s snout and stroked it, and even as she touched it the physical wounds that had been inflicted on it began to heal and its wing snapped back into shape. ‘That’s better now,’ she murmured with a motherly love. It would take a lot more to see to the lizard’s soul however. Again she extended her consciousness towards the lizard’s soul and towards the shard, attempting to coax any consciousness out with assurances and consolation, remaining calm, still, and unthreatening. ‘Talk to me missy,’ she continued.

The monster regarded the strangely haired Goddess curiously, its tongue running over her more and more intensely, savoring the taste and scent. It stretched its wings and flapped them numerous times, sending immense gusts of wind that knocked over rubble and lesser trees. Seihdhara brought her hair beneath her to steady her as the lizard continued its oral gymnastics more and more insistently. It seemed to her that the small shard lodged into the greater soul mass was attempting to call to her - it was a muffled cry, however, terrified and uncertain. The greater mass seemed to be actively preying on it, and even now Seihdhara could feel the shard losing a shred here, a piece there. Like a giant parasite eating up what remained of its once-host, the soul of the lizard was destroying the shard.

Aware now of the lizard’s essentially predatory nature, Seihdhara could not help but view its tonguely ministrations with some caution. But there did not seem to be any reason to think that it intended to go from its relatively benign licking to anything more aggressive. She hummed a small tune for a few moments, and then began singing in a low voice, to keep the lizard calm and passive as she worked on loosening the shard enough to work out the best course of action for the soul as a whole.

‘This one is for my children. I haven’t seen them in a long time see? So it goes - listen now, or you might miss it… it goes…’ she took a deep breath and sang softly. ‘My children lie over the ocean… my children lie over the sea.. My children lie over the ocean… oh bring back my children to me!’
She felt the shape of the shard, felt where it began and where the rest of the lizard’s soul ended. It did not seem like it was sealing anything in. Simply removing it did not seem like it would have any destabilising effect on the rest of the soul.
‘Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my children to me, to me.. Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my children to me, to me!
O blow ye winds over the ocean, o blow ye winds over the sea.. O blow ye winds over the ocean, and bring back my children to me!’
Slowly she isolated the shard from the predatory aspects of the lizard’s soul, preventing anymore of it from being consumed. She listened. It was still difficult to make out what the consciousness within the soul shard was saying, only that its terror was now all the greater.
‘Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me, to me! Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me!
Last night as I lay on my pillow.. Last night as I lay in my bed.. Last night as I lay on my pillow.. I dreamt that my children were dead!’
She tugged gently at the shard. The soul seemed to exhale. She paused.
‘Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me, to me.. Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me!
The winds have blown over the ocean.. The winds have blown over the sea.. The winds have blown over the ocean.. And brought back my children to me…’
She did not tug this time, but drew in a slow, certain, and clean motion - and the shard was out, hanging between her ethereal hands. She froze.
‘Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me, to me.. Bring back, bring back.. Oh, bring back my children to me…’
As the last word left her lips, she drew back from the lizard and looked up to it with a great smile. She stroked its snout with one hand, her other gripping the ethereal shard. No anger or pain came from it. Instead, it was simple curiosity. Its wide open eyes regarded Seihdhara closely before it opened it maw wider and the muscles in its jaw tensed.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a sound came from deep in the Monster’s throat. It resembled a growl, but words snuck their way into it every now and then.

“... GIVE… I WANT… SHE...”

The words came slowly, and eventually gave way to an aggressive growl. It closed its mouth and blew hot air onto Seihdhara from its nose, a snarl forming on its snout. Seihdhara bathed in the heat for a few moments. It was a nice sensation all things considered. ‘You want me to do that too?’ She asked. Nodding, she took a few steps back then took a deep breath of her own and sent a warm breath towards the great lizard. The breath had a distinct orange colour and seemed to be almost aflame, but it was nothing of the sort. It bathed the lizard in a sunset glow and was as a gentle evening breeze after a long summer’s day at the beach. With that Seihdhara bounded a few steps into the air and looked at the lizard. It had shown some signs of aggression this was true, but a part of Seihdhara felt that it just wanted some company. Someone to have fun with. She laughed again and sent a mischievous strand of hair to tickle its snout.

The tickle made the beast recoil and sneeze, and then it stomped its clawed feet onto the ground in frustration and roared. The roar was strong and bone rattling, the earth shattering and the mist dissipating.

After a few moments, it fell silent. Its wings still outstretched menacingly and its legs twitching, it leaned closer to Seihdhara and licked her again, its large tongue subtly making its way around her arm and trying to pry open the hand gripping the shard. The saffron-haired goddess frowned. She knew now what the lizard was after. So it had felt the removal of the shard after all.

She tightened her grip around the shard until it cut into her. She tightened it further and suddenly it was no longer in her hand. Rhu, catch! She spoke directly into the other goddess’ mind. The shard emerged in Seihdhara’s free hand and she threw it in Urhu’s direction in one swift motion. Even as she did she opened the hand the lizard was trying to pry open. ‘My hand? See, there’s nothing in it. Lick it all you like!’

The Monster licked the palm and froze, then it withdrew its tongue and roared, stomping the ground. In a split moment it snapped its head towards Seihdhara, maw open and ready to devour her even as its eyes followed the trajectory of the shard through the air. The battle goddess sensed the change in the lizard’s disposition almost immediately, and the hair that had been idling about on the ground and in the air suddenly flared like a second heliopolis. Seihdhara’s gaze, playful and motherly not moments before, had become terrible visage, as steel, and her mouth set in a small grim line. Swift were the strands that caught the monster’s jaw and muzzled it so that its mouth snapped shut just before it reached Seihdhara. And when it reached her, she placed her hands on its snout and looked into its eyes. She sent calming waves into its soul, trying to avoid a confrontation with the creature. ‘There now,’ she spoke firmly, ‘you have no need to fight me. Settle down, calm. We were having fun.’ She glanced briefly at Urhu - while the Monster struggled and resisted against the bonds of her hair - to see whether she had caught the shard.

Unknowing to Urhu, she had slowly developed a dark cloak around her body as she watched Seihdhara approach the beast. She trusted her sister to know what she was doing, though many times she had tensed up to jump in and help, she was allowing the other goddess to lead. When she was finally given the command, she swiftly moved forward, grabbing before staring forward, at the beast, who seemed to have followed the path of the throw all the way to the goddess of passage. Confused with what she had in her hand, Urhu looked down, pressing it slightly, trying to not lose her sight of the monster, however.

There was a sharp stab of pain in Urhu’s hand and when she looked back down, the shard had disappeared and a gentle glow extended throughout her body before disappearing. At that moment, she could feel it. It was as if a foreign entity had reached her core, and she could feel what it felt. Hopelessness. A distant, muffled sobbing that died out every few seconds. But also relief and gratitude towards the Goddesses. The wanderer looked around trying to find the sobbing, clawing over her chest lightly as she felt that foreign sense of melancholy. “Who… is there?” she asked, not knowing what else to do, it was disorienting to hear the echoes of sobs and feel her body react to emotions that were not her own, a gut wrenching sensation within though she felt no fear.

”I-I’m sorry, I… I just thought- That maybe- I’m… Li’Kalla.” A soft voice whispered inside her head, but quickly fell into silence and the sobbing continued.

The wanderer stopped, looking to the side, as if trying to stare at her own ears. “Uhh… maybe? Usually you don’t guess who you are. Though Li’Kalla was a good guess.” crossing her arms, the wanderer started to understand a bit more of what was happening. “Hey, you don’t need to worry, you are no longer inside that beast. How did this even happen though? Did the creature consume or absorb you somehow?”

“This can't be real, but- but, why does it feel so vivid…?” the voice said, falling silent once more. This time, after a tense moment, it spoke again. ”it got angry at him, Vakk, and I couldn't control my body anymore. I was trapped in there… inside my own body. I had no idea I could be this… well, this.”

“So the creature is part of you…” Urhu took a moment to weigh up those words, she wanted to ask more about Vakk, but she assumed it would not be a pleasant topic for the broken soul. “We need to calm it somehow, Vakk is gone, there is nothing to be angry at!”

”T-That’ll be difficult…! She’s terrified, of everything. I felt her… So much anger, she thinks she’s defending herself.” A feeling of deep seated disgust washed over Urhu suddenly, and she could hear the voice groan, ”I’d say let her tire herself out, b-but… She’s a Goddess now.”

Urhu shook her head, not so much to disagree but instead to try to shake off that foreign disgust making her sick “Well, I reckon Seihdhara can tire her out, but I would rather not risk so much.”

”Seihdhara! That’s the one that’s keeping her tied up? W-Wait, look! A wing-” At that moment, the ground exploded into a wave of dirt and grass and the large form of the beast, having freed its wings, flapped into the sky, Seihdhara in tow as she still tried to apprehend it. As the great winged lizard flew free Seihdhara’s hairs snaked about its arms and legs, but she did not attempt to bring it back down. The goddess glanced at the ring that they had come through. Uh, Rhu. Not sure if it’s a good idea to stick around. Maybe if we leave the lizard will go back to sleep or something. I can’t get through to it and I don’t see any reason to hurt it.

The wanderer jumped close to Seihdhara, placing a hand over her shoulder as she also looked towards the monster. “What a change of heart. But you are right, for now it seems to be worthless to stay here any longer, we will just be hurting it and ourselves.” she added, before taking Seihdhara’s hand and running away from the clearing where the ruined mansion stood. Seihdhara released the flying lizard from her hair’s bonds and, tightening her grip on Urhu’s hand, leapt forward and shot very suddenly towards the ring in an attempt to effect a swift, clean escape. Her hair erupted behind her like a comet’s tail and roiled.

A loud rumble echoed through the Sphere as the Monster flapped its powerful wings. The thick mist thickened even further, perhaps trying to defend itself against the onslaught of wind blowing it away. Waves took form on the surface of the boiling lake.

It roared, and its roar died in its throat as a loud CRACK echoed. It shut its jaws with all its strength around the comet-like tail of Seihdhara’s hair and pulled her back, its eyes boring a hole into the back of her head as it let itself drop onto land to get better leverage. The hair flexed at the attempted assault, but for all its pulling the lizard could not seem to be able to pull the goddess back. The hair seemed endlessly long and Seihdhara disappeared along with Urhu into the ring. The hair did not move or attempt to repel the maddened godlizard’s bites for a few moments, but when it became clear that it was not going to give up the hair began to thicken and churn and bristle angrily. Burning tendrils slipped around the lizard’s neck and the base of its wings and tightened. Other strands crawled about its face and aggressively assaulted the innards of its snout to force it to open its mouth. Within its mouth strands leapt fearlessly down its gullet in an attempt to cause it to retch and convulse and open its jaws.

The Monster recoiled and bit and growled, but the hair kept moving, assaulting it. It's wings tensed and it gagged. Once, twice, until eventually it bowed its head and vomited. Tons of material was expulsed from its gut. Leaves, acid, wood, as well as dirt, copious amounts of a dark, almost black Ichor and chunks of godflesh. The foul mix seeped and mixed with the hair.

The strands recoiled, partly in disgust at the spew and partly due to having secured freedom from the monstrous jaws. Whipping here and there to get the ejecta off, the hair quickly retreated towards the stone ring. It was immediately noticeable, however, that a significant portion of Seihdhara’s signature red hair had become stained a dark green as though Seihdhara had dyed her hair ends. The last of the hair made it through the stone ring gateway and the great lizard was finally - truly - alone, left retching and growling.

On the other side, Seihdhara did not stop outside the gateway but took off into the air. She held tight onto Urhu’s hand and made for the Nyeothay Tag. The hawk from earlier swung alongside them, having waited vigilantly outside the sphere. When they got to the boat it perched up on the main cabin and watched with disinterest as the goddesses were excitedly greeted by their two wolfhounds. Seihdhara patted Hehewuti, but her eyes were distant. She then seemed to remember something and turned to Urhu. ‘The small shard of soul. Is it ok?’

Urhu had commanded the ship to start flying away, she stopped, and nodded though she didn’t seem quite too sure. “Well, I am no soul specialist, but it seems to be fine… well, fine enough. Its sobbing a lot, and its sending a lot of emotions to me I’d rather not deal with, but overall, she doesn’t seem to be fading away or something.” Seihdhara raised an eyebrow at this information and approached Urhu.

‘Odd. It wasn’t very responsive with me before. Probably because of the lizard. Let’s see.’ She released her soul and extended her reach towards the shard, finding that it was now snugly embedded in Urhu’s soul. It was of no danger to Urhu and the reverse was also true, but Seihdhara found that she could now hear the soul clearly. While the proximity between the shard and Urhu’s soul made the movement of emotions and thoughts easier, Seihdhara reckoned she could bolster the barrier so that communication between them could only take place telepathically and with active will from either. Urhu did not seem to appreciate the constant influx of foreign thoughts and emotions. She considered asking Rhu if she would like it bolstered, but she took pause. Urhu was very closed off and it was not easy for her to open up. Maybe an experience of this sort would be good for her? And the shard was closed off from the world, to close it off further so it could no longer feel the warmth of another soul’s presence would likely be harrowing. Yes, best leave the connection between the two permeable and natural. Maybe they would even become good friends!

With that thought, Seihdhara nudged the shard slightly in an attempt to get its attention. Hello there. How are you doing? Nothing to be afraid of anymore.

At those words, a gentle mist seemed to emit from the soul shard. A thin, nearly invisible thing that spread before finding its direction. It flew upward, outside and onto Urhu’s shoulder, and there it congealed into the transparent, easily disturbed by wind and breeze image of a fair-haired, beautiful maiden dressed in an ornate white dress. Her irises were a striking silver in color and, even though weakened and darkened with sorrow and sadness, its core shone brightly and beautifully, and filled Seihdhara with pleasant feelings in her tummy. ”H-Hello, Miss S… Seihdhara…? We’re okay? We escaped?”

The saffron-haired goddess grinned and nodded. Yep, it was a glorious escapade. They’ll sing of it round fires for years to come. She declared with pomp and ceremony, then chuckled. It was easy enough. That little beastie in there had a wee bit of a tantrum, but nothing a bit of firmness couldn’t deal with. What’s the story anyhow? How’d you come to be huddled in there all curled up on yourself?

”Easy?! Did you hear how it growled and roared, Ms. Seihdhara? That was terrifying!” The little apparition gasped for breath, even though she had no lungs to breathe with, ”And, forgive my cowardice, b-but… I was scared. I didn’t want to face my s-situation. I didn’t want to acknowledge where I was. Like before...” She trailed off, looking down at the ground far below her perching spot on Urhu’s shoulder. After a while, the maiden looked up at Urhu and did her best to smile, a shaky grin forming on her face.

”T-Thank you.”

The wanderer rubbed behind the back of her neck. “Oh… uh… you are welcome. Always out to help a sister, especially one that was stuck inside a beast.” she then turned to face Seihdhara, placing a hand over her mouth before whispering. “There is a little person inside my body, what the… We need to find a way to bring her back to her own body safely.” The maiden’s forced grin slowly vanished and her image wavered before dissipating completely. Seihdhara watched as she dissipated, and she sympathised with the poor woman. She had not even learned her name, but she decided to leave her with some words before returning to Urhu.
Here Missy. There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion. Heroes are people who face down their fears. It is that simple. A child afraid of the dark who one day blows out the candle; a woman terrified of the pain of childbirth who says, "It is time to become a mother". Heroism does not always live on the battlefield - why, that is seldom the fear we face! Fear... it is like a fire in your belly. Controlled, it warms you and keeps you alive, a small fire burning that heats the muscles and makes you stronger. It can be good because it makes us cautious and aids survival. But uncontrolled it is panic and terror - it burns and destroys you, consuming all courage and pride. Then it is like slow poison; it paralyses the limbs and blurs the mind. Consider fear to be your friend - but it is a cowardly friend. You should heed it, but know that if you afford it the chance it will sink its claws into you and drag you down into the deep dark pit where it dwells. And with those words, Seihdhara’s soul placed an ethereal kiss on the little shard and returned to her body.

She turned to Urhu with a grin. ‘Yeah, I noticed your little person. She’s cute! And she’s a brave hero, I can tell.’ She paused and thought for a few moments. The little Missy was only a shard, a fragment of a soul, and it was not clear where her body was exactly. Even if they did create a new body for her and place the shard in it, it was doubtful whether the shard alone would be sufficient. ‘I’m not sure if we should remove her from you for the time-being. I think you should try speaking to her more and working out what happened to the rest of her soul. She’s incomplete. If the rest of her soul can be tracked down then there may be a possibility of returning her to a body. It’s possible that the lizard ate it all. Either way, until a solution is found, you’ve just become someone’s guardian angel.’ She said the last sentence tongue-in-cheek, but it held truth in it.

“I don’t think that is how it works, I mean, I am all about hospitality and the likes, but making my own body someone else’s home is a whole lot to take… I mean, what if next it's Chopstick here, following the real estate opportunities.” the goddess jested, laughing at her own joke. Seihdhara’s laughter rang out loudly and she punched Rhu’s shoulder playfully. She seemed to find the joke genuinely funny and muttered something about real estate opportunities as she wiped a tear from her eye.

‘W-well-’ in that case you- you,’ Seihdhara paused and tried to get a grip before continuing, ‘in that case you’ll have to tell that Meatchops to get the bloody hell off of your turf!’ She chuckled for a few moments more before acknowledging the seriousness of Urhu’s concern. ‘Look, I know it’s probably really uncomfortable for you. You like your emotions to stay your own and you certainly don’t declare them to every bird and dog in sight like yours truly, but consider that the little Missy is depending on you. She was embedded in another soul before and that kept her anchored. I imagine if we remove her from you now she’ll be swept off to that Cat-head. And look at her, so lonely and sad - she needs the warmth of a friendly presence after so long in that lizard. This is about more than hospitality, this is about protecting what little of her yet remains and strengthening it. Even heroes stumble. Be her support now. And…’ she looked at Urhu and took her hand, ‘and maybe she’ll be good for you too.’ She allowed the words to hang between them until Hehewuti got up and started vying for the saffron-haired goddess’ attention. Seihdhara was only too happy to spoil her.

She walked her around the deck for a while and then stared out at the world below. It was all stunningly beautiful - far more than it had been when her strand had flown over. Now there were mountains and rivers and greenery, and there was another great landmass. It was great! There would be so much to do, so much for them all to do and enjoy, together. And- Seihdhara’s eyes widened as she recognised the river from that single strand’s memories. She shouted for Urhu to make for the river and the lake that was its genesis.

When the Nyeothay Tag had landed, Seihdhara leapt off and made her way through a forest of strange moving trees. They seemed to recognise her and did not disturb her and Urhu - and Hehewuti - as they made their way through to the lake.

With Hehewuti by her side, Seihdhara stared at the blood lake, her face impassive. So this was where her body had made landfall. Somewhere in the depths of this seething mass part of her original body lay still, gushing blood eternally. The thought caused her breath to catch in her throat for a few moments.
She turned back to Urhu, her eyes glistening. ‘H-hey,’ she managed as she leaned in and wrapped an arm around Urhu, brushing her lips against the other’s cheek. Strands wrapped around the wanderer’s wrist and waist as if it to keep her forever near.
Then Seihdhara spoke softly; words that she had spoken thoughtlessly long before - she spoke them thoughtfully now. Her brush with death had taught her something - not all things could last, not even her. Powerful as her form was, mighty and fearless as she was - even Seihdhara could fade away, perish, die; at the stroke of a fickle and capricious universal pen. That was all it would take - what was she, truly? What was her defiant but ultimately imagined strength and eternality when the hammer of petty tensions far beyond her was brought down and the pen wrote and unwrote as it pleased?
And so she spoke simple words as her lips brushed her lover’s cheek; ‘hey, Rhu… don’t forget me,’ and barely had the words left her mouth before she turned away. In one swift motion she disappeared into the depths of the burning blood lake, her hair whipping the heavens for a time before eventually following her into the depths below. Hehewuti followed after her and, by the will of the goddess alone, passed through safely into the Seal.

She remembered this place from the dream. She walked through the verdant and virile land until she reached the stone circle at the centre and the great oak with leaves aflame. There she conjured up a rocking chair, just like the one an old man with an endless white beard once sat in, and she sat on it and began to rock. A fire erupted before her and her hair snaked here and there - on the ground and in the air, about stone pillars and in the flaming tree. Hehewuti lay down by her, guarding her creator. There erupted from the goddess two great apparitions - the first was a mighty werebear and the second was a great formless spirit. Each took up their positions atop two of the stone pillars. Seihdhara rocked gently, firmly, and the warmth of the fire carried to her sweet memories and laughter. And even the tears, even the pain, was oh so sweet to her. She rested back and closed her eyes.

And when she opened them again, she was nowhere and everywhere.



In Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II → 5 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
It seems like it was yesterday, but it has already been three years since the first Fibeslay post (which kinda is the first Mesathalassa plot). Just notice today was the exact birthday after searching for info for a collab.

It has been a fun ride.
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