Frettzo
Vec
Lord Zee
Double Capybara
The Timeless One, The Celestial Above, Vicegerent of Fate, Guardian of the Timeline, Master of Creation, Lord of Time
Level 3 God of Creation (Time)
6 Might 3 Freepoint
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In the hallowed heart of the Deepwood, wordless war was waged. Ants were on the march. The proud colony of First Ants - proud, despite their lack of free will, at being the very first creations to emerge - waged merciless war against all other colonies in the name of Queen, colony and victory over all others. In this world, only the greatest deserved to exist, only the strongest deserved to survive and only the most merciless could. Though the First Ants were physically smaller than many other sub-species, they were known - and feared - for their viciousness in battle. Their legionaries were numberless, marching and striking as one. These small ants, with their instantly recognisable fiery colour, were absolutely disciplined and had one, singular goal in mind: absolute victory.
Their enemies and rivals were equally numberless. The entirely militaristic Black Ant colony who had long ago enslaved the peaceful Plant Ants were one. All Black Ants were legionaries, even their Black Queen was known for her might and nigh impenetrable exo-skeleton. Indeed, a Black Ant's exo-skeleton was its pride, and many were the enemies who with futility flung themselves against these armoured behemoths to no avail.
Many were the colonies of ants, and over time they spread all over Galbar. Whereas no other creature dared dwell in Vakarion's icy poles or in the Changing Plains, there the ants ventured and there they colonised and there waged wordless, endless, relentless and total war. In the depths of the sea, there marched and swam the legionaries; on land, they marched and fought and died. Only the skies remained safe from their perpetual warring. Wherever they went, they changed and adapted to their new environments, and over time new sub-species were formed, new colonies emerged and alliances were forged and endless enmities were created. It was not Galbarian soil if ants had not fought and died upon it.
In the Deepwood alone, due to the influence of Slough, there developed a few particularly enormous sub-species of ants, the largest of whom were the Mammoth Ants. A peaceful, herbivorous sub-species, Mammoth Ants do not seem able - or very willing - to travel beyond the heartlands of the Deepwood. With their one, rather enormous and intricate, colony and much reduced birth-rate compared with other ants, their enormous size appears to be the one thing keeping them afloat in the vicious world of ants.
Bull Ants could not be any more different from their larger cousins. Large as horses and omnivorous, they are the bane of most creatures in the Deepwood, whether on the ground, in the rivers and the lakes or in the highest branches. Aggressive by nature, the only thing that seems to keep them restricted to the Deepwood is the existence of three Bull Ant colonies which are ever at war. Their high birthrate is more than negated by the effects of total war. Other giants ants have managed to expand into the hinterlands of the Deepwood, but they do not seem to have gotten far beyond that.
Many thousands of years had passed since the first ant had emerged, only to be immediately whisked away by the god of Time. In his wisdom, he willed that the time had come for the Primordial Matriarch to re-emerge after The Long Occultation.
Near the great mound-entrance of the Mammoth Ant hive, there grew a small bone from the earth. The bone grew into a small shell and the shell grew over the years. One hundred years passed before the great shell, like that of a turtle, grew until a Mammoth Ant could pass through one end and emerge from the other. Plants and trees grew in it and around it and moss covered the great shell from above and the plastron sunk into the moist, lush and loamy soil below.
With the shell grown to its full extent, and hidden by the vegetation and earth that had consumed it, a single First Ant emerged from it. Her fiery ex-skeleton shone brighter than any other, and it seemed to glisten with an unlit flame. As she ventured beyond the vegetation, she slowly grew. Harsh years passed before she attained her Fated size, and without a colony she had to fend against the might of all the colonies of the Deepwood and all other dangers. But she survived, as was Fated and as Time foretold when it first siezed the ant. But this ant was not like any other, for it had seen what no ant had seen. It had wondered in The Gap and it had been influenced by the powers within. It remained, however, a most natural ant. The One By Immortals Altered dwelled and grew in the hallowed heartlands of the Deepwood, a single ant, without a colony, a Queen or a victory to be had. It waited upon its Fated moment and, until then, it was Fated to survive.
