Tyonix - A Raw World

[Rith]

Tyonix

Through the miasma of nothingness, a voice, like a bell, rung out, and suddenly time began to flow.

In a distant corner of the cosmos, a single, small planet, covered in water and ice, swirled around a pair of yellow stars. This system, two stars and one planet, lay beyond the curtain of a nebulae of orange dust and red gas, with hot blue stars glaring in the distance, softened behind the bronze curtains surrounding the world

This planet was named Tyonix, and upon it, eleven gods witnessed one another at the beginning of time. Six greater deities: the thread, the blank space, the five-pointed star, the flame, the king, the prophet, and five lesser: the sun, the burning sphere, the darkness, the law, and the wise. They did not know each other now, but would come to love, hate, and know each other as well as they knew themselves.




Map
http://i.imgur.com/OWNbp0N.png

Tyonix is a planet about the size of Mars, just a few hundred miles less around the equator, but covered entirely in water, with an ice cap at each pole. "1 inch" equates to 1,400 kilometers, so 1 in by 1 in square is almost exactly the same surface area as Mexico.

The current round lasts until midnight, when Wednesday, the 18th becomes Thursday, the 19th.


Mechanics Reference
Power | First Age | Second Age | Third Age

Shape Land, 1" |
3 |
5 |
8

Shape Weather, 1" |
3 |
5 |
8

Create Life |
0 |
3 |
5

Create Race |
22 |
6 |
15

Create Subrace |
12 |
4 |
10

Create Hybrid Race |
11 |
3 |
9

Command Race |
8 |
4 |
3

Command City° |
6 |
4 |
2

Advance Civilization |
10 |
5 |
6

Advance City |
8 |
4 |
5

Create Order/Create Cult |
8 |
6 |
4

Command Order/Command Cult° |
4 |
3 |
2

Create Avatar/Create World |
10 |
7 |
8

Command Avatar/Shape World° |
2 |
1 |
1

Create Demigod |
5 |
7 |
9

Command Demigod° |
2 |
1 |
1

Event |
10 |
7 |
5

Catastrophe, 1" |
10 |
10 |
10

° Only once per target per turn.

Shape Land: This power results in the creation, modification, or erosion of mountains, hills, lakes, streams, rivers, deserts, tundra, steppes, floating mountains, glass fields, bottomless oceans, volcanoes, colossal underground tunnels, pillars of flaming diamond, and other land forms. On the game map, this power allows the creation of land forms within a "1 inch" diameter area. General climate is also encompassed by this power, so an area that would be plains can also be tundra, via lowering of the temperature, desert, via raising the temperature and lowering the moisture, or swamplands, via the increase of moisture. This power can not create any form of life, however, so forests and similar options are not applicable land forms.
Shape Weather: This power acts in a similar way to the Shape Land power, but where Shape Land instills common yearly weather patterns, Shape Weather can do much more, such as creating a permanent hurricane on top of an island, resulting in a desert which will never ever see rainfall, making an area rain blood and salt once every thousand years, even locking the air and water currents in an area of ocean into eternal motionlessness, or anything else that a player could dream up. This power affects a 1" area, like Shape Land. This power can also be used in conjunction with Create Life towards a separate effect.
Create Life: This power results in the create of a simple lifeform, such as some type of fish, tree, grass, reptile, or anything of similar complexity. The life functions to the specifications of the creating god, though no life which would naturally result in the utter destruction any other god-created life can be created. This life can be sentient, but not sapient, and cannot be used as a resource of any description (in game terms, that is, a tree can still be used to make a house), and simply allows life to exist. Life created with this power will spread into any location which can sustain it inside one round, resulting in wasteland turning to grasslands when grass is created, or becoming grand forests when trees are created, or some mixture there of. Due to the nature of life, borders of terrain areas will slowly shift over the years, going from forest to grassland to fungus-jungle inside a round or two. However, an area affected by the Shape Weather power can make one form of life more prevalent in an area, turning it into permanent jungle or kelp forests or coral reef or anything else, though the exact shape will be in flux, just the same.
Create Race: This power effects the creation of one race (a mother race), such as a race of magma-elementals, a race of desert-dwelling dust men, a race of rat-people, or anything else you could imagine. The more details given concerning a race's appearance, biology, social structure, and capabilities, the better. Each race must be given a starting point in the world where they begin to build their civilization.
Create Subrace: This power is used for the creation of new races descending from an existing race. For example, elves may be split into wood elves, then desert elves, then cave elves, each being it's own respective subrace. Any number of subraces can exist, having split off of a single mother race, and each subrace immediate gains any technology that has been ingrained into the mother race's racial identity (For example, dwarves and all dwarf subraces are known for their mining. See Command Race for more details on ingraining technologies.)
Create Hybrid Race: Via this power, two races are brought together to create a new race, half of one and half of the other. For example, half-orcs are the result of a coupling between a human and an orc. Any two mother races can be brought together to create a hybrid without issue, though to create a hybrid with one or both halves being a subrace or even a hybrid race itself, is another, more complex, matter, and requires the consent of the other players before it can be done. Hybrid races immediate gain any technology that has been ingrained into either of it's parent races' racial identities (See Command Race for more details on ingraining technologies.) Note, however, that a hybrid race is different from races and subraces in one key aspect. Where only the creating god would normally gain the ability to use Command Race upon the new race without an order or cult in it, with hybrid races, the creator of each parent race as well as the creating god of the hybrid itself gain this privelage.
Command Race: Via this power, a god can, either subtly or directly, influence a race to action. A god can use this power on any race he has directly created, or, in certain cases, on hybrid races. He can also use this power on any race he has created an order or a cult inside. Just about anything a race could do, can be commanded via this power. Though, some of the most common options are as follows:
Found City: This action is just as it sounds: it directs the race to found a city of some sort. A city can fit any description, be it a grand series of tunnels hidden far below the surface of the world, a tribe that migrates from place to place, carrying their tents with them, or even just a standard city. Remember, however, that cities founded via this action are major cities, and small towns or hamlets are either entirely independent of the Command Race power, or are founded via the settle territory action or via the Command City power.
Form Alliance: This action can only be used by the creator god of the race being Commanded, and allows a general hand of friendship to be extended from the race in question towards any other particular race. In order for the alliance to be formed, the other race must accept the alliance via it's own creator god using Command Race (Form Alliance). Should the alliance be formed, the two races are then open for political interaction and trade, and armies can even be donated from one race to another. However, should military action be taken between two races which have an alliance, the alliance is broken, and can only be reformed via the creator god of the defending race acknowledging that the alliance has been reformed (such an acknowledgement requires no point expenditure).
Ingrain Technology: This action results in one advancement the race possesses becoming ingrained into their racial identity. For example, dwarves have mining and stonework as an advancement which is very much tied to who they are as a race. Subraces and hybrid races immediately inherit any technology thusly tied to their parent race or races, and it is similarly ingrained into their own racial identity. If a technology is ingrained into a mother race after a child race is created, the child race retroactively gains the ingrained tech. If a tech is ingrained into a specific child race, however, it does not leak back up into the parent races. Ingraining a technology also carries benefits. The technology counts as two technologies, whenever the race which ingrained it and any race which inherits it are counting technologies for any reason. Do not use this action lightly.
Settle Territory 1": This action functions in a similar way to found city, but instead of a small area with high population density, this power creates a large settled area, a "1 inch" diameter circle, with an overall low population density. This settled territory grants a few benefits, such as allowing trade routes between civilizations to be secure, and, if a major city is inside the "1 inch" area, this territory creates a buffer zone around that city, which prevents opposing armies from reaching the city unless that "inch" of territory is taken first.
Create Wonder: This action directs the creation of some magnificent creation, be it a weapon, a city-sized library, a brilliant form of entertainment, some type of magic talisman which is mass produced and betters the lives of the entire race, or anything else the god could dream up.
Command City: Here, the god directs one single city to do something. This can be anything that the player could imagine, but what follows are a few options already statted-up:
Raise Army: This action results in the order raising one army. The army could be of any description, be it a thousand flying monks, fifty thousand mounted Kobolds in armor, or simply twenty four highly trained warriors. However, as a rule, in a vacuum, without any influence on a battle beyond the existence of the armies involved, no one army is any stronger than another. Armies are very useful pieces in the game when it comes to destruction and preservation, capable of destroying just about anything, or stopping the destruction of something, provided they aren't impeded. An army lasts forever, new recruits filing in to replace retired or deceased soldiers, until the army is defeated in combat. Unless otherwise instructed, an army will simply train and patrol the place they were created in, fighting only if another army impedes on the location in an aggressive manner. Only the god who ordered the creation of army can give it instructions. Giving an army an instruction requires no action, simple acknowledgement is required before the instruction is immediately acted upon, inside the same round that the instruction was given, unless somehow impeded. The possible instructions that an army can be given are 'attack' and 'defend'. An army cannot be given the 'attack' option in the same turn that it's raised. An army can 'attack' or 'defend' a city, a territory, an order, a cult, an avatar, demigod, or another army. Unless another army has been given specific instructions to defend something that an army is attacking (or unless that something is itself another army), the attack is immediately successful. In the case of cults and territories, this means that all cultists or settlers of that territory are either wiped out or captured. In the case of cities, avatars, and orders this means that the something being attacked is defeated and the attacking army takes possession of it, while the god who ordered the creation of that object is cut off from it, unable to give it commands until an army of his own creation attacks and defeats the army in possession of it. Should an army start and end a round in possession of a city, avatar, order, or demigod, the god in command of that army can have the army destroy the city or order, or kill the avatar. Combat with a demigod is explained in Command Demigod. Should two armies come into conflict with one another, each player rolls 2d6, adding +1 for each combat-applicable technology the armies native race might have, +1 for each combat-applicable wonder or structure that might help the army, +1 to the defending army, +1 for each avatar fighting in the army, -1 for each battle previously fought by the army in the same round, and -2 for each other object previously attacked by the army in the same round. The winner of the roll wins the battle and can then immediately be instructed to take another action. The loser of the roll, on the other hand, is defeated, and the army is scattered and stops existing, though a new army can be raised and be said to be the same army, with the few survivors finding new recruits. An army can attack any location they could logically gain access to, and can defend any avatar that consents to the defense, but can only defend cities, territories, cults, and orders of their own race or of a race which their race has an alliance with.
Political Maneuver: This action is very morphic, doing anything from stealing territory to delaying the construction of a wonder to combatting of another political maneuver. Simply put, the leadership of the city-being-commanded influence the people of the world towards an end, whatever it may be. This action can effect the game in any number of ways, and is left intentionally open-ended, so the player can invent new options as the game is played, but to give a few ideas of the power level of this action, it can detain a friendly army indefinitely, detain an enemy army for one round, deny a cult the +1 power point if gives to it's god until the cult migrates, secure trade relations with better terms for the maneuvering side, steal territory that borders on territory belonging to the maneuvering cities race, bring in members of another race so that the city is as much their's as it is the city maker's, or combat another political maneuver. Combatting another political maneuver is very similar to a battle between armies, and each maneuvering player rolls 1d6 plus an additional +1d6 for each diplomacy-applicable technology the cities native race might have and +1d6 for each diplomacy-applicable wonder or structure that might help the city. The winner of the roll decides what, if anything, happens as a result of the political maneuver that was being combatted. A player using this action must be very specific as to the nature of the political maneuver, as ramifications might make certain future behavior out of the same city impossible. For example, a ruling family could assert a resolute hatred for members of a particular race as the "nature" of the political maneuver (suppose the mechanics are that this cuts trade off from this city to that race). If so, then in the future, how could that city, still ruled by the same family, use a political maneuver to secure trade relations with that race? A political maneuver can also be used to change leadership, and doing so erases all permanent maneuver effects that where enacted during the era of the previous leadership, but doing so counts as a maneuver conflict, with the creator of the city as the opposing roller.
Found Satellite: This action directs the city to found a small town or hamlet near it's own borders, but distinctly separate. This small town is dependent on the city it orbits in some way, but is capable of surviving should the larger city fall. This town does not show up on the game map and cannot be commanded via Command City, but exists mostly for insurance. Should the main city be destroyed by an army or stolen via a political maneuver, it's satellites continue right on, still acting as hubs for trade, still possessing any technology that was given to the original city via Advance City, and still upholding and protecting the leadership of the original city. Supposing that the original city was destroyed with one or more of it's satellites intact, they can even rebuild it exactly as it was, given a Command Race is used to that effect. The satellites are not impervious, however, and can be attacked by armies, defended by armies, or stolen via political maneuvers like any other city, being is treated as it's own city for such matters, so any army trying to destroy a city and all of it's satellites in one go will gain considerable penalties for doing so.
Trade: This action can only be taken by the god who ordered a city to be founded, and directs the city to initiate a trade agreement with another city. In order for this trade agreement to be possible, the two cities races must have an alliance with one another, and it must be possible to draw a line on the game map from the one city to the other which only goes through easily traveled terrain and goes through no more than a total "1 inch" of unsettled territory. Should something change, such as too much territory becoming unsettled, a Shape Land creating a mountain chain right in the path that is usually traveled, or an alliance becoming broken, then the trade agreement is canceled until all conditions are met again, at which point it is added back. What the trade agreement does, however, is allow technologies and products of wonders or structures to be traded, back and forth. For example, suppose one city was advanced in woodwork and the other had a wonder which produced perfect diamonds. A player choose this action could suggest, as part of the manifestation of Command City, "Woodwork for Diamonds" as the end result. If the other player consents to this arrangement, then he merely needs to manifest Command City to accept, and both cities would now have access to both woodworks and perfect diamonds, as though the technology/wonder had been given to both of them. Any number of items can be included in a trade agreement, so five technologies/wonders could be offered on both sides with only a single manifestation of Command City. However, once agreed upon, there are only two ways add or take away something from the agreement. The first is by manifesting Command City (Trade) again, and making a new offer. If the new offer is rejected, the old one stands, though if the new offer is accepted, then the old trade agreement between those two particular cities is overwritten completely. The other way is via a political maneuver, which can only take away techs/wonders from one side or the other, and it can never completely take away all techs/wonders from one particular side. An alliance can also be broken in order to sever a trade agreement.
Create Structure: This action directs the creation of some magnificent location or structure, such as a colossal wall made of steel and miles long, or a temple of particular beauty, or a city street of nothing but theaters where the best plays of all time originate, or a four-and-a-half mile tall tower, or anything else the god could dream up. (Please note that structures and wonders are interchangeable, but structures can only benefit the city they are built in or that trade for the benefit of the structure, not the entire race, as a wonder usually would.)
Advance Civilization: This power causes a Civilization to gain expert knowledge of a given science or magic. These might include tactics necromancy, weather control, mining, orichalicum, bladecrafting, steam power, writing, literacy, philosophy, deceit, debate, logic, sculpture, dance, theater, or the like. So long as that civilization persists, it will always be the greatest in this field, and no other civilization can be advanced with a tech of the same name, though the tech can be traded via Command City
Advance City: This power functions almost exactly like Advance Civilization, except it only applies to a single city, and should that city be wiped out (along with all of it's satellites), the tech is wiped out along with it, and the tech can only be recovered via an Event, or, should a new city be built in the same location with the same name, via Command Order (Miracle).
Create Demigod: Through this power, the god adds a child of his into the world. This demigod could be anything from a single man with incredible strength who never ages, to a giant cyclops who lives in the mountains, to a race of angels or dragons or demon hounds that wanders about the world, to something eldritch and strange, like Scylla or Charybdis. A god can have any number of demigods in the world, though if one is defeated in combat by an army, it dies and can never be resurrected.
Command Demigod: Via this power, the god instructs his children to take some manner of action in the world. A few examples are as follows:
Terrorize: This action directs the demigod to act as an army for one round and to attack one object. A demigod does not function exactly like an army, however, and instead of rolled 2d6 and adding bonuses or penalties, the demigod-army rolls 4d6, and never adds or subtracts anything from the roll. Terrorize allows the demigod to act on the attack for one round, but it always acts as a defending army when being attacked.
Command Order/Cult: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Inhabit Territory 1": This action creates a large settled area, a "1 inch" diameter circle, which serves as the land of the demigod or demigods. This settled territory grants a few benefits, such as allowing trade routes between civilizations to be secure, if the demigod wishes it, and, if a major city that the demigod is friendly towards is inside the "1 inch" area, this territory creates a buffer zone around that city, which prevents opposing armies from reaching the city unless that "inch" of territory is taken first. It also ensures that the demigod will always be able to terrorize any city inside it's territory, if it so wishes. Note, however, that any particular demigod can only ever have 1" of territory, and once it's locked in, it is permanent, regardless of how many creatures make up the demigod. Demigod territories can overlap a Race's territory, but not another demigod's territory. A demigod is always acting as an army defending it's own territory.
Event: Through this power come the changing of fortunes for an avatar, demigod, order, or civilization. A wonder or technology may be lost, a race could go into hiding, a mortal might gain immortality and begin influencing the world for himself, perhaps an orichalicum mine is found, or an entire city is transported, inhabitants and all, from a god's personal plane into the main world. A land form could be made sentient, a never-ending storm is quelled long enough for an army to travel through, or maybe some cache of power is hidden somewhere in the world, waiting for the time when it is needed. Almost anything can be done with this power.
Catastrophe: By this power, the gods express their wrath. From country-wide desiccation to all the animals in a part of the world going mad and trampling everything to a structure or wonder collapsing to an avatar dying of old age in his bed, this power brings ruin upon them all by whatever clever mechanism the player can imagine.

God Types: Chaos - You are a god of change, action, impulse, instinct, speed, or something short-lived or chaotic. It is in your nature to act as much as you can as fast as you can, and following that nature makes your existence easier. Any round in which you end with 5 or fewer points earns a cumulative +1 point next round, maximum +3. This is the classic point-boost.
Law - You are a god of planning, calm, reliability, focus, facts, or something constant or lawful. It is in your nature to bide your time, and wait for the correct time to act, and following that nature makes your existence easier. Any round in which you end with 5 or more points than you began that round with earns a cumulative +1 point next round, maximum +3. This point-boost has an edge on the classic point-boost, as it allows the player to save up points while still gaining bonus points, but also falls behind the classic point-boost, as the bonus points can't be kept up indefinitely (as the classic point-boost can be) if the player wants to make use of his saved-up points.
Pantheon - You are not playing a single all-powerful god, but several distinct, lesser deities, each with their own flaws and strengths. Perhaps you are playing a mirrored pair of deities, or perhaps array of dozens of different gods. Regardless, these gods make up the pantheon that you play, and while they aren't as great as another god, even with all their power pooled, they are at least more consistent. You may choose to, once per power roll, take one reroll. You must take new roll regardless of if it's better or worse than the first. This point-boost has an edge on the classic point-boost as it prevents the god from being stuck with a dismal roll, but also falls behind the classic point-boost as it can never exceed a 2d6 roll.
Lonely God - You are not a god in the traditional sense, and stand aloof, separate from the pantheons and titans. Perhaps you are some manner of eldritch abomination from the stars, or a benevolent stranger watching from behind the veil. Maybe you aren't even sentient, and are instead a force of nature, unwittingly guiding members of the race towards something not even you know. You roll 2d8+1, instead of 2d6. This point-boost has an edge on the classic point boost, as it has a higher maximum point roll, but also falls behind the classic point-boost, as it also usually has a lower minimum point roll.

Create Order/Create Cult: Order Create Order: A god with this power may use it to create an order of people within a civilization or race. An order can be a major organization of any sort, be it a religious sect, a military force, or even a guild of some description. A god may have any number of orders in any number of races, though having multiple orders in a single race generally has no tangible benefit beyond allowing an edge in politics. An order's greatest strength is that it can take many of the same actions that a city can take, but at a lower cost.
Command Order: A god with this power may use it to instruct an order he has created to do something. This can be anything a player could imagine, however, there are a few options which are likely to be the most commonly used:
Raise Army: This action results in the order raising one army. The army could be of any description, be it a thousand flying monks, fifty thousand mounted Kobolds in armor, or simply twenty four highly trained warriors. However, as a rule, in a vacuum, without any influence on a battle beyond the existence of the armies involved, no one army is any stronger than another. Armies are very useful pieces in the game when it comes to destruction and preservation, capable of destroying just about anything, or stopping the destruction of something, provided they aren't impeded. An army lasts forever, new recruits filing in to replace retired or deceased soldiers, until the army is defeated in combat. Unless otherwise instructed, an army will simply train and patrol the place they were created in, fighting only if another army impedes on the location in an aggressive manner. Only the god who ordered the creation of army can give it instructions. Giving an army an instruction requires no action, simple acknowledgement is required before the instruction is immediately acted upon, inside the same round that the instruction was given, unless somehow impeded. The possible instructions that an army can be given are 'attack' and 'defend'. An army cannot be given the 'attack' option in the same turn that it's raised. An army can 'attack' or 'defend' a city, a territory, an order, a cult, an avatar, demigod, or another army. Unless another army has been given specific instructions to defend something that an army is attacking (or unless that something is itself another army), the attack is immediately successful. In the case of cults and territories, this means that all cultists or settlers of that territory are either wiped out or captured. In the case of cities, avatars, and orders this means that the something being attacked is defeated and the attacking army takes possession of it, while the god who ordered the creation of that object is cut off from it, unable to give it commands until an army of his own creation attacks and defeats the army in possession of it. Should an army start and end a round in possession of a city, avatar, order, or demigod, the god in command of that army can have the army destroy the city or order, or kill the avatar. Combat with a demigod is explained in Command Demigod. Should two armies come into conflict with one another, each player rolls 2d6, adding +1 for each combat-applicable technology the armies native race might have, +1 for each combat-applicable wonder or structure that might help the army, +1 to the defending army, +1 for each avatar fighting in the army, -1 for each battle previously fought by the army in the same round, and -2 for each other object previously attacked by the army in the same round. The winner of the roll wins the battle and can then immediately be instructed to take another action. The loser of the roll, on the other hand, is defeated, and the army is scattered and stops existing, though a new army can be raised and be said to be the same army, with the few survivors finding new recruits. An army can attack any location they could logically gain access to, and can defend any avatar that consents to the defense, but can only defend cities, territories, cults, and orders of their own race or of a race which their race has an alliance with.
Impede Command: This action directs the order to take some form of action to impede a specific Command Order, Command Cult, Command Avatar, Command Race, Command City, or Command Demigod action from being taken. The next time any god would manifest the specified Command power, the power costs 3 extra points to manifest for each time it has been impeded. The specifications of this action must be very exact, however. For a few examples: a certain order can be impeded from creating miracles, a specific cult can be impeded from migrating, or one avatar can be impeded from creating cities.
Political Maneuver: This action is very morphic, doing anything from stealing territory to delaying the construction of a wonder to combatting of another political maneuver. Simply put, the leadership of the order-being-commanded influence the people of the world towards an end, whatever it may be. This action can effect the game in any number of ways, and is left intentionally open-ended, so the player can invent new options as the game is played, but to give a few ideas of the power level of this action, it can detain a friendly army indefinitely, detain an enemy army for one round, deny a cult the +1 power point if gives to it's god until the cult migrates, secure trade relations with better terms for the maneuvering side, steal territory that borders on territory belonging to the maneuvering order's race, bring members of another race into a city so that the city is as much their's as it is the city maker's, or combat another political maneuver. Combatting another political maneuver is very similar to a battle between armies, and each maneuvering player rolls 1d6 plus an additional +1d6 for each diplomacy-applicable technology the order's native race might have and +1d6 for each diplomacy-applicable wonder or structure that might help the order. The winner of the roll decides what, if anything, happens as a result of the political maneuver that was being combatted. A player using this action must be very specific as to the nature of the political maneuver, as ramifications might make certain future behavior out of the same order impossible. For example, a family in charge of an order could assert that, as the "nature" of the political maneuver, a particular stone quarry is a holy sight to their order, and to use stone from that quarry is sacrilege (suppose the mechanics are that this ties up that race's ability to create a particular wonder). If so, then in the future, how could that order, still ruled by the same family, use a political maneuver to acquire stone from that particular quarry? A political maneuver can also be used to change leadership, and doing so erases all permanent maneuver effects that where enacted during the era of the previous leadership, but doing so counts as a maneuver conflict, with the creator of the order as the opposing roller.
Miracle: This action is, in a way, a miniature Event. Via this action, the order manifests some small portion of the god's power, and through this, a city could go into hiding, up to a hundred wounded or plagued members of a race could be instantly cured and made whole, perhaps an iron mine is found, or a single army is transported from a god's personal plane into the main world. A single stone could be made sentient or maybe some wonder entrusted to the order is hidden somewhere in the world, waiting for the time when it is needed. It's all up to the imagination of the player.
Create Structure: This action directs the creation of some magnificent location or structure, such as a colossal wall made of steel and miles long, or a temple of particular beauty, or a city street of nothing but theaters where the best plays of all time originate, or a four-and-a-half mile tall tower, or anything else the god could dream up. (Please note that structures and wonders are interchangeable, but structures can only benefit the order they are built for, not the entire race, as a wonder usually would.) Cult Create Cult: A god with this power may use it to create a cult of people within a civilization or race. A cult is similar to an order, but is far less influential and far less public. This is because a cult is less focused on acting out the will of a god, and more on finding ways to strengthen the god. With fewer members and an often less-than-savory reputation, it can be very easy for a cult to be completely destroyed should action be taken against them. However, cults are also quite good at changing themselves in order to survive . A god can only have a single cult in any one race. The greatest appeal of a cult is that a god who has created one receives +1 power each round for each cult that god has created.
Command Cult:
Impede Command: This action directs the cult to take some form of action to impede a specific Command Order, Command Cult, Command Avatar, Command Race, Command City, or Command Demigod action from being taken. The next time any god would manifest the specified Command power, the power costs 3 extra points to manifest for each time it has been impeded. The specifications of this action must be very exact, however. For a few examples: a certain order can be impeded from creating miracles, a specific cult can be impeded from migrating, or one avatar can be impeded from creating cities.
Migrate: A cult is not rooted in a particular location or tied to any specific race, and can move about without restriction, even change it's make-up. A cult directed to migrate will immediately leave behind their home, moving into a new territory, teaching their religion to an entirely different race, while the last members of the cult who belonged to the previous race die out. Effectively, this power allows a god to sacrifice a cult of one race, to create a cult in another race. A cult cannot be attacked by an army in the same round that it is migrating.

Create Avatar/Create World: Avatar
Create Avatar: Through this power, the god creates an embodiment of his divine will in the world. This embodiment could be a major figure in history, such as a dynasty ruling a nation or a colossal landmark such as a giant tree, or they could be simple, innocuous figures, such as a lone wanderer on the road or a network of shrines dispersed through a nation. A god can have any number of avatars, but each time he or she makes a new one, it costs 5 extra points for every other avatar he has. If slain or wiped out, an avatar may be resurrected or reestablished by the creating player for 5 points.
Command Avatar: A god can, once per turn per avatar he possesses, command that avatar to take action. An avatar so commanded can perform one of the following actions:
Command City: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Create Order/Cult: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Command Order/Cult: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Command Race (Create City): This action is just as it sounds: it directs the avatar to direct a race to found a city of some sort. A city can fit any description, be it a grand series of tunnels hidden far below the surface of the world, a tribe that migrates from place to place, carrying their tents with them, or even just a standard city. Remember, however, that cities founded via this action are major cities, and small towns or hamlets are either entirely independent of the Command Race power, or are founded via the settle territory action or via the Command City power.
Create Race: Any particular avatar may only take this action once, though it functions exactly like the power of the same name.
World
Create World: Through this power, the god creates a world, a plane in the cosmology of the larger world, where he is the only god capable of directly affecting anything, and when he makes this world, he immediately decides upon it's size, terrain, and weather, and does not have to spend points on the equivalent powers. However, this plane is far removed from the main world, or any other world, so any creation that lives in this world is not capable of interacting with those that live on other worlds, unless some power, such as an event or miracle, brings them into another world. The same works in reverse as well, so miracles or events are required for anything from another world to travel into and then interact with this plane. A god can create any number of such worlds, but each time he or she makes a new one, it costs 5 extra points for every other plane he has created.
Shape World: Once per turn per world, the god may fill his world with whatever creations he desires to create. Shaping a world in such a way allows for one of the following actions to be taken.
Create Race: This action may only be taken once in any particular world, and the resultant race is initially confined to the boundaries of the world, though, beyond this, it functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Create Subrace: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name, except that it can only create subraces of races native to the world.
Create Life: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name, except the life only grows inside the confines of the world.
Command Race: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name, except that it can only be directed towards races or subraces native to the world.

[Benthesquid]

In the beginning, there were the waters, and the spirit of the King smote the waters, and brought forth the land...

And the King stretched out his hand, and the wound that was there shed blood, and the King watered the land he had made with the blood of his suffering, and thus life was brought forth.

~From the Red Book of Kern

The world was not dead. Death implies a cessation of life, and there had never been life upon the face of this raw world. Sehk smiled at his fellow gods, and had there yet been mortals upon this world, they would have laughed and cried out and trembled at what was contained in that smile.

Sehk stretched out his hand, and the waters roiled and split, and from them rose the First Land. It was a rugged, harsh land, but oddly beautiful as suited Sehk's temperament. In the far south, where it reached down towards the polar ice cap, there was little but bare fields of ice. Further north it became a land of mountains and valleys, as yet little but bare rock faces, still largely covered with snow.
***

Sehk looked on the land, and frowned. There ought, he felt, to be something more. He stretched out his right wrist, and the blood from his wound scattered across the land he had brought forth. Trees sprang up where the blood fell, hardy conifers made to withstand the cold, deciduous trees that would stand barren and naked in the winter but flower and bear fruit the rest of the year, great ferns in the northern reaches, all of which were reflections of the One Tree upon which Sehk had hung himself- upon which he was, in a certain manner hard to explain to the non-divine, hanging yet.

He pressed his left hand to the wound above his heart, and let that blood drip onto the land as well. Where it fell, certain of the trees split open and disgorged beasts upon the land. These were for the large part warm blooded creatures, that bore their young in pouches. Some of them stripped the bark from trees for the diet, others climbed into the trees and ate the leaves, still others grazed on fallen fruit. Then there were those, by some odd quirk of Sehk's heart, who preyed upon their fellow creatures, running them to exhaustion, or leaping on them from ambush. The greatest and most terrible of these, with its enormous fangs tucked into the odd scabbard like flanges that hung from its jaws, prowled the pine forests in the heart of the First Land.
***

The Crunch

Die roll- http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220614 yielded me thirteen points.

Create Land x4=12 points. A roughly triangular landmass in the southern hemisphere, with the southern point approaching the ice cap. Essentially the set up should be
XXX
XXX
More or less. The bottom square is largely flat plains, the top three mountainous terrain.

Create Life X?= 0 Points- Woodland of various types over the four squares. Generally deciduous in the south, fading out as it gets really close to the icecap. The northern areas have a mix of some deciduous and coniferous trees, with a smattering of giant ferns in the north. Wildlife is primarily mammalian and marsupial, with the current apex predator being something like this guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial_Sabretooth).

One point banked.

[Omegonthesane]

The Destroyer has waited from the beginning of days. It was weaker then, for there was less need of its benediction - no tyrants oppressed their people, and no innocents cried out for salvation in fire.

Indeed, in those days it was a creator like the other gods, though even in creation its nature was wrath...

- The Rubric of Makhleb

The god that would one day make its name as the Great Destroyer merely observed, as the First Land was shaped from the will of another. Its need for destruction burned hot, but it had plans, and it was yet weak - so weak, in fact, that further delay would not even harm it yet.

However, total inaction was not Makhleb's nature. It turned its attention to the seas. All over the world, flames started deep underwater. They were soon snuffed, of course, but instead of leaving ashes, each flame left new and strange creatures, many of which died due to being unsuited to their watery environs. Yet enough lived that from that day on, the waters would contain a mockery of the First Land, life forms dancing after eachother and chewing on strange aquatic trees when they did not feast on one another's flesh. The day would come when this action affected the surface world; for now, Makhleb for once looked forward.

Crunch:
Power roll 2d6=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220772/)
Create Life x?= 0 points. A motley assortment of aquatic creatures, about 90% of which aren't aquatic and thus mostly drown, as Makhleb is at this point working out designs for the sentient race(s?) it will create in the future.

[Fiig]

first roll http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220809/
7 points

Aniqua saw the others starting to shape the land, and felt the need to make her own, as she came down to the oceans, life began to spring forth every where she walked, created by Aniqua's idle thoughts, while she was looking for a place, which she could form for life.

Of the numerous life that sprang forth from Aniqua, most was so small that seeing it with the naked eye of a mortal would not be possible, and as time went on, her idle thoughts began to create bigger lifeforms.

After she had searched the entire planet, Aniqua went to the north, and duck her fingers into the earth, so that she could form a mountain range, magma sprang forth and created vulcanoes, and through the years she created a large mounatin range, with icecapped mountains and many hot springs. As she walked around what would be known as the white mountains, she began to create various vegatation, which would be able to survive the harsh winter, and exploit the long days in the summer. Then she began to create larger animals which could live in the white mountains, herds of gazing animals covered in fur to protect them from the cold, some few select predators, which could keep the herds from growing too large.

During the summer some of the snow would melt and flow down into the valleys and create rivers and lakes, of pure fresh water.
and over the years many of the vulcanoes would die out, leaving only a few with dangers of eruption.

3*0 create life
2 shape land to create a large mountain range in the north, centered on the map.
roll for next round http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220825/
1 point left

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220666/)
Current Power Points: 9

There was a grey mist hanging over the deep swells of the ocean of Tyonix, as water rushed around the equator in a great current. However, as these swells reached the core of this fog, they dwindled, and died, until all the ocean was as flat as a sheet of glass, a perfect reflect of the grey that encased the world above it. This is where Eull first walked.

No poet would ever try to immortalized this moment. No priest would ever preach of this day to his followers. Not even Eull himself would ever recall this moment again, for he had not yet realized he existed.

It was a hundred years of his slow, indomitable walking across the surface of the water, his footfalls not even creating a ripple upon the world, before he finally registered that he was not in the location he had been in a moment before. The grayness around him was not the lack of existence, but the lack of color. Such a thing as color now existed? Such a thing as existence now existed?! Change had occurred, and in that moment, he perceived all things. All of this took less than the time it required him to take a single step, and as the step this realization had interrupted came to fall upon the surface of the water, a ripple spread out…

His next footfall was not upon stilled water, but upon a stone, and his next was the same, and the next as well, each footfall creating the very rock it came to rest upon. Years he walked, up the sides of mountains that only rose because he climbed them, a line of rock extending behind him, out of the mists, marking where he had stepped.

A millennia he meandered, doing nothing but walking, the world shaping itself to his desire for a foothold. A second millennia, he persisted. A third, a fourth, he simply walked, looping back around himself, closing gaps, before at long last, he allowed the grey mist that hung about him for all eternity to dissipate, and he looked out at the terrain he had shaped.

Cliffs plummeted before him, dropping straight to a vast valley which stretch to the north and south beyond the horizon, but which butted up against a second set of cliffs, far in the distance, rising sheer from the iron-gray stone far below. Rivers poured along the surface of this land, and dropped as waterfalls off the cliff edge that Eull walked along, to pour into this valley, which itself was as cracked as a puddle of mud dried in the sun, so that deep schisms rent the skin of the land. Hundreds of ravines dipped down into that stone valley, forming a natural labyrinth of uncertain depth, as even at the dim, dark, soaked bottom of the deepest ravine, the rivers which flowed there, continued flowing down, into caverns and tunnels a hundred kilometers deep, far and away, until they eventually reached the point where the river was no longer water, and the moisture was jettisoned, as powerful jets of steam erupting into the ocean, or into the bottom of the deep lake that Eull now found himself walking around.

This entire continent was like this. Grey stone rent with layers of ravines, tunnels, valleys, rivers, and chimneys, to the point that this land would one day be known as the latticework land.

However, the Tall One then noticed something he had not anticipated. A tree from far south was struggling to grow upon the dense, red clay that made the most common dirt of this place. He admired it's tenacity, and ability to have reached this far north, but this was not life that should exist here. No, the soil was too thin, and the rocks too close beneath the surface, the water ran too fast, and any roots that took hold would crumble the land underneath, destroying the tree's only claim to survival.

Eul stepped upon wet stones at the edge of a rushing river in the shade of a cliff, and lichen and moss spread far and wide. He walked along a curtain of moss that now grew upon the edge of a ravine, and it spread into vines, which dangled and crept up the rocky face of cliffs, clinging to cracks in the wall with shallow roots, but should the wall come away, the vine was truly rooted at the base of the cliff, where water grew. Soon, new forms of ivy grew, which shaded large places of the continent with large leaves, as good as any tree from the south. In the more flat places of the world, wheat and grain and grass took root in the shallow clay, and even a few groves of trees from the south. Around the vast lake in the east, reeds grew up, and deciduous trees towered over the shore, as colossal vines stretched up their aged trunks.

Animals were created as well. Snakes, slugs, and centipedes hiding among jungles of nothing but vines which tinted the deep, stone ravines a rich green with light filtered through their leaves. Otters and eels dancing among the deep, rushing rivers and the bottomless lake in the east. Bats and crabs taking up residence in the myriad tunnels and chasms beneath the world. Frogs and birds in the trees, jaguars and deer in the grain fields, manta rays and jellyfish in the deep lake.

Eull simply continued on walking.

3 Shape Land to create a land of mountains and ravines and rivers matching the above description, 1 inch tall by 3 inches wide, along the equator, a little to the east of the center of the map. There is a massive lake, deeper than even most of the ocean of the world, in the east of this continent.

0 points to create all forms of life mentioned in the above post.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220793/)

[Raunchel]

Let all who listen gain understanding, these lands are the will of Myra, as are all things. Bow not to your false idols but only to the true goddess who welcomes your sacrifice. In the first days she descended from her eternal paradise and spoke: "Let this world know my touch in all things, let there be wisdom, and let there be lands for the seekers to dwell, let there be birds in the sky to carry my words far and wide.", and so she spoke, and the fabric of the world obeyed, for what else could it do? When the goddess speaks all that is and could be must heed. That is our place in the order of the world, and none may ever refuse her will. The lands were sligtly sloped hills, covered with lush forests from which the untold number of birds sang their songs containing the wisdom of Myra into the world. They were in all the colours of the world, and in all sizes. Myra smiled, for her first messengers ranged free over the world to spread her song.

When the birds flew wide she looked without looking, understanding what happened in the world. There were other, lesser powers at work, they drew her attention from her work, and she paused, she paused to study their works, and she spoke ten thousand secret words and ten thousand secret chambers were created in the earth, sealed from all others, waiting for her great bounty.

Excerpt from the Sermon of Serdynage on Myra and the first days.
2d8+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220869/)
Shape Land*3: Raise up fertile lands from the ocean just northof the equator: 3*3
Create life there: Birds: 0.

[Neelien]

Rolled 10 : http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220911/

As Nios awoke to consciousness,the world was already being shaped. He was surprised. The Other gods had come close to striking a landmass balance with regards to north/south distribution. However, most of the land was on one side of the planet.

"Must correct state of Balance... Halt thought process. Leave time for other Gods to correct own mistakes or accept opposition as balance. Lenience required...

Continuing analysis of Tyonix.

Life forms created. Life is unbalanced but inevitable. Lenience required but minor retribution acceptable.

Unacceptable unbalance found: many complex life forms created directly. No evolution involved. Too few evolving creatures found. No evolution is bad for correct life, static world unacceptable. Must intervene. Proceeding to populate world with evolving organisms.

Suggestion : prepare world for forced interaction.
Pondering ...
Solution chosen: Embed essence into evolving lifeform. Spread lifeform through Tyonix. Guarantees minor control over other gods' possible creations.

Spare remaining energy to correct possible major unbalance."

And so Nios acted out his decisions, creating life to work on equal footing with other gods. He decided to wait some more until he would act upon the land, judging the current state of affairs acceptable.


Spend 0 points : Create Life - Virus, Bacteria - Similar to what exists in our world
Spend 0 points : Create Life - Lifestealer - An invisible blob that attaches to macroscopic lifeforms slowly draining their life energy, resulting in their death - introducing concept of life expectancy.
Spend 5 points : Create Demigod - Evolving Parasite

5 points remaining. +1 next turn.

[ImperialSunligh]

1. Lo! Upon the stars, there sits a tribe, Ladies and Men, glorious.
2. Standing, Eknad, void incarnate, death imbued, resting no longer,
3. At the table of the five gods.
4. He sees for all of us the rebirth of a world, for all has existed before and it will exist again in its turn.
5. But on this day, the great pantheon of Eknad saw other forces for the first time.
6. These forces on their own each stood above with great power, threatening virtue.
7. In fear, the pantheon combined its energy to create a single isle where they could exert their influence.
8. It took form through holy magic in the exact center of the world, as the gods saw it.

9. "Why the center of the world?" A fool may ask,
10. It is clear, as the mighty Sun is the greatest among the gods of the pantheon,
11. And he is not Eknad, who's domain lies in the North.
12. Nor is he Mam, who's domain lies in the East.
13. Nor is he Mahav, who's domain lies in the South.
14. Nor is he 0 who's domain lies in the West.
15. Nay, the Sun is all of these, and so he can be neither.
16. So on that day, at the start of the world, the land of the Sun was created and consecrated.

17. And for a time, all was still on that primordial isle.

~Excerpt from the Hallowed Book of Eknad

Power roll: 2d6=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4221329/)
Reroll: 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4221444/)

Shape Land (-6) Creating a circular isle two feet in diameter exactly in the center of the map. There is a small range of smooth mountains running through the land and the land is otherwise filled with fertile plains and forests. The land is blessed and consecrated with holy power. It is rich in natural minerals such as gold and silver. There is currently no sentient life, nor any animal life. The trees are taller than most and noticeably bend upward at odd angles to reach closer to the suns.

2 points left.

[Omegonthesane]

In those early days, great Makhleb yet hoped to create a microcosm of purity and truth, an area insulated from the lies and false laws of the impure world where enlightenment might exist. Thus it was that the earth shook as stone was piled upon stone, and the seas boiled away with the heat of Makhleb's forge, and thus was the Pure Land created.

- The Rubric of Makhleb

Perhaps, if the Destroyer had waited, it might have had its original plans. But hesitation was not in the Cleansing Flame's nature; it knew it must have a bulwark, a place where its servants might gather in preparation for war to come, but lacked the strength to make this place exactly as originally planned.

Instead, there was a rumbling across the earth, as it gathered soil to work with. In a place some way north of the hitherto northernmost Isle of the Sun, the seas boiled away, retreating from a great pillar of flames. When these fires burnt out, their ashes took upon the shape of soil and stone, and at the centre a great peak filled with the Destroyer's boiling blood.

While the new creation cooled, Makhleb saw to defending it as best it could, for already a scion of the divine walked the earth. The winds grew in speed, and the seas around the Pure Land raged; short of divine intervention, any people that wished to defile it would first have to cross an eternal storm.

With this done the Destroyer turned to its new creation, and seeded it with life, with a better success rate this time than in the aquatic experiment. A number of trees rose up, not enough to make a canopy, and between them grew a tide of grass that swayed like a sea. Great tusked beasts came next, to feast upon the plant life they were granted, each one strong enough to knock down one of those same trees. Their young were in turn were feasted upon by packs of howling creatures, small enough to share one kill between many and wise enough to work in unison. Yet both shuddered and quailed with fear at the sinuous creatures which shared their domain, dependent on Makhleb's heat to survive, some of whom could kill with a single poisoned bite while others wrapped around and choked the life from their prey. Never quite content to leave alone, Makhleb disgorged many more creatures into the Pure Land, and meddled with the fruits of the trees; they warred for food, and the victorious spawned a thousand young.

Crunch:
Power roll 2d6+1=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4222422/)
Power rollover: 5 points
Shape Land x1 = 3 points. A volcanic island in the northern hemisphere, about 1200km in diameter.
Shape Weather x1 = 3 points. The seas around this island now are on storm mode perpetually until some god says otherwise.
Create Live x? = 0 points. Fill a savannah with an ecosystem, with elephants, hyenas, and at least two kinds of snake given specific mention in the text before I looked at the time and went 'and he made a whole bunch more'.

Remaining power: 3 points
+2 to next power roll

[Fiig]

Aniqua witness the coming of the other gods to Tyonix, she saw how they shaped the land, each gaining a foothold on Tyonix. Their powers as great as hers, enough to transform Tyonix, little by little.

Aniqua feared some of the other gods intentions, so she decided to create her first avatar, The Oracle.

Aniqua gathered a shadow from a mountain, sewed it together with star light and breathed life into it. This was how Aniqua created her first avatar, but it was still young and she nurtured it for many years, showing it Thyonix and teaching the names of everything.

The avatar would be known as the Oracle, its form changes, but when it bonds with a living sentient being, they together becomes an oracle for Aniqua. Though the avatar will live on, the being it bonds with still age normally, and at death the avatar will seek a new host. The one it bonds with will continue to look the way they were before the bonding except their hair turn white and their eyes becomes radiant.

On the day she released the oracle into Thyonix, many new animals life form were created, mammoths great elks in the white mountains, algea , seagrass, kelp and corals in the ocean, seals and pinguins on the north pole.

It as the avatar came into the world so did a race of lithe humanoid beings, they are fair of skin, with tipped ears, medium sized horns of many different kinds, though they usually drape backwards, the height ranges between 1,7 and 2 meters, with male and females, their feet ending in cloven hoofs.

10 points create avatar
2 points to command avatar to create race
0 points create life
for next round
+2 from chaos bonus
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4222648/
power for next round: 11

[Benthesquid]

When he saw the lands he had created, Sehk was desirous of creating more. He smote the ice at the end of the world, and rock rose up through the ice- this is the mountain we call Hypernotia.

~The Red Book of Kern

The mountain in the distant south stretched towards the sky. From time to time, fire licked from its top, and turned the surrounding ice into steam, which fell as rain and froze again. About the mountain moved great stone beasts the size of a Diprotodon, six legged, each with seven heads, each head having seven mouths, and each mouth seven tongues, which dripped with acid. They moved slowly, and would often stop completely, and stand frozen for decades. Then, when the fire licked again from the mountain top, they would drink in the heat, and once again, and crash against each other in thunderous combats.

On the stony flesh of these beasts grew various lichens. Though dull grey and green by the light of day, during the seemingly endless nights, they would flash with bioluminescent splendor in all the colors of the rainbow.

Roll=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4221904/)+1 banked makes twelve.

Shape Land x1= 3 A volcano directly centered on the south pole.
Create Life x? =0 The Great Stone Beasts, bioluminescent lichen.

Banking nine points.


Edited to correct formatting errors.

[Neelien]

Rolled 7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4222714/) bringing me to 12 points.

As the other Gods continued to shape the land, it was becoming clear to Nios that the other gods had taken a liking to that one side of the planet. However, he did not yet see the need to intervene. He would wait another 5000 years.

Meanwhile the life he had created evolved. Viruses modified genes in bacteria, and bacteria merged together to the first of Nios' first Eucaryotes: Conea. These live in colonies on the deep ocean floor, feeding from the heat of Tyonix itself. If they spread enough, and they would cool the climate.

" New breed of lifeform evolved from own creation. Might prove useful in restoring unbalance produced by polar volcanoe. Might also help reduce overabundance of unevolving creatures.

No. Destruction is bad, must leave time for existing creatures to adapt while Conea restores Balance. Best will surive and unadapted will go extinct regardless.

Waiting for more approppriate time to intervene."

Spending 0 points - Create Life - Conea

[ImperialSunligh]

"II.

1. But see, the Sun was not accepted whole,
2. The gods did question him, on how he could
3. Begin to hope to stand against the scourge.
4. Oh, friends, the gods could hear him say that day,
5. Just that, no more.

6. The Sun, with flourish, suckled power from
7. The gods in turn, and they did not resist.
8. The Sun combined the force and shaped it to
9. Create the world of Paradi, in its
10. Reality, the Golden towers all
11. Seen rising bove the omnipresent city.

12. The gods were made silent for now.

~Excerpt from the Hallowed Book of Eknad

Roll: 2d6+2=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4223279/)
Reroll: 2d6+2=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4223282/)

Create World (-10): "Paradi", a world of order and unity. It is completely covered in empty cities of gold. Its size is not known and may be infinite or constantly changing. The weather is perpetually pleasant and clear. There is only one Sun that is always up.

0 left.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220793/)
Current Power Points: 9

Eull wandered about the world with the slow gait of an old man, gazing with half-lidded eyes upon the creations of his fellow deities. He walked across a rich, fertile land of towering trees and lush fields where millions upon millions of birds flocked through the sky. He climbed the sides of a volcano in the icy south, as beasts of stone wagged their 343 tongues at him, flicking acid here and there, but keeping their distance, for they knew that a god stood before them. He climbed a second volcano in the north, after crossing grand grassland where great herds of tusked beasts parted to give Eull passage. He traveled across smooth mountains, where the sun and the burning sphere shone brightly in the sky above. He even wandered to a place where tribes of horned creatures in his own shape huddled in the cold mountains, gazing curiously after the towering figure that was Eull.

At long last he returned to his own land, and looking at the rocky jungle of vines, the dense forest around the vast lake, and into the myriad caverns and tunnels plumbing beneath the world, he found that he knew where to step next…

Only gods were creating great mountains, grasslands, volcanos, and forests. Upon such a wet world, they made dry places.

So Eull struck out south, straight south of the grand lake he had created so many years ago, and he wades into the water. As he walked, the land slowly rose up to meet him, forming soft, sandy bars and thick fields of soaked mud. He walked on, lakes forming as rivers flowed into the pathways he carved with his own footsteps. The trees from far south were not suited to such moist land, and sank into the bog once they grew too large, leaving rotting carcasses scattered across this colossal land.

After many long years it came to be complete. This land was wide and flat, and wracked with constant rain. Near the ocean were a dozen kilometers of sandy dunes which were entirely engulfed by the sea at high tide. Just inland of that were a hundred kilometers of riverlands, where broad rivers flowed lazily through a rich land hidden behind a tangle of drowning trees. To the north was where this new land met with the latticework land, and the crevice-riddled land blended into rocky bluffs from which thousands of fast-flowing streams sprang, pouring due south, straight into the bulk of the land.

There, in the heart of the land, was an expanse, a thousand kilometers across, impossibly flat, where a hundred thousand cold streams fed, and constant rainfall fell, drenching the black mud of this expanse of stagnant water. The water formed wide, shallow ponds, even a few lakes, and water simply meandered, flowing from one still body of water to the next, picking up more silt and nutrients, until it was as black as the mud, before it finally found a way out, and joined the riverlands, filling them with the rich mud of this vast bog.

However, all this water would normally erode the entire land, supposedly, but that would not happen here, for beneath the thousand kilometers of swamp, a hundred geothermal vents groaned, pushing minerals as vapor up, into the water. On the surface, certain pools of water bubbled and burped their caustic contents into the air, as minerals were pushed into the land just as quickly as they were being carried away. Occasionally, a hot spring would grow intense, and the marsh would boil for a year or more, before the pool would erupt, coating a small area of the land in ash which would be eventually carried away like anything else in this place.

Plants from around the world were not suited to this soaked land, and as trees grew, their own weight would push then down into the ground, where they would dissolve and flow away with the water. Vines would not even find purchase enough to grow for even a day. Coral wanted water deeper than this, and grain wanted dryer land. So, this land would not sustain life very easily.

At least, not the land that currently lived in this place. Eull would need to create more lifeforms which would thrive here, and so he fashioned a tree whose form pleased him, with long leaves, thin, dropping branches, and a long for endless water. He called it the willow, and it was lightweight enough to remain on the surface of the water forever. He also created reeds which infested the land, green pads which floated on the surface of the water with white flowers sitting at their hearts, and a kind of vine which took root deep under water and spread it's vines out under the soil, and then growing up, as thin, swaying trees springing straight from the water's surface, an entire forest from a single plant.

Still, the old trees tried to grow here, and fell, and died, and began to rot, and Eull witnessed that these corpses provided the plants around them which vast amounts of growth, and he reflected that it would be a shame if only plants would enjoy the bounty of this rot. So, he created insects. Termites, centipedes, crickets, flies, beetles, worms, all breeds of tiny spineless creatures, entire worlds, entire ecosystems inside a single corpse of a tree. He paused a moment then, noticing how he had just created an entire world inside a log, before, in the spirit of creation, he continued, creating fungi and mushrooms and fuzzy rot to grow upon the dead. Then he noticed that the buzzing and the swarms of flies had grown too great, and so he created frogs, salamanders, flying lizards, and primordial oozes, all of which consumed insects by the hundreds. He then invited the serpents from north into the bog, and adapted them from trees to water, until black anacondas 10 meters long swept through the black water, swallowing amphibians whole and tiny vipers coiled on water lilies, killing anything that would float by them with a single bite. Some serpents didn't adapt at all, and simply stayed in the willow forests, preying on the birds which rested there, for birds had come. Cranes, sparrows, and bluejays. Still he continued to create more life, until crocodiles, alligators, predator oozes, and even small drakes fed upon the snakes and birds. Above these creatures, he created the fearsome hydra, a giant, 12 meters in entire length, with a dozen snake heads and the ability to regenerate so quickly, the loathsome basilisk, a lizard no larger than any toad, but possessing the ability to kill with a glance, and the sinister Arochno, a cousin of the insects he had first created here, with eight legs and twelve eyes, but much larger, nearly 3 meters in entire width, who weaved elaborate traps out of silk, to catch anything and everything.

However, as he beheld the Arochno, the first spider, he became transfixed, and decided that this creation of his would require some greater touch of his power.

So, stretching out his hand, the Tall One touched an Aochno upon the brow, just between the blinking fore-eyes, and it was filled with his divine will. Soon it laid it's eggs, but instead of dozens of Arochno swarming out of it when it hatched, instead a single spider came, newborn and already almost the size of a full-grown Arochno. This was Vroch, Eull's first immortal child, and the queen of all Arochno. She would be 20 meters in leg-span when she would become full-grown, and bear a thousand children a year. She could even speak, but only had her father to speak to, and even that only rarely.

Finally satisfied, the Wanderer left his bog, and began to wander the world again.

3 points to create a colossal swampland just south of the land I've already made, matching the above description.

0 points to make willows, water lilies, reeds, a breed of vine which mimics trees, mushrooms, fungi, centipedes, beetles, worms, termites, crickets, flies, frogs, salamanders, herbivorous oozes, flying lizards, giant swamp-anacondas, extremely poisonous snakes of small size, crocodiles, alligators, carnivorous oozes, hydras, basilisks, and giant spiders.

5 points to create a Demigod: Vroch, a colossal spider queen 20 meters long and sapient.

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220795/)

[Raunchel]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4223952/)
Power Points: 10

Once she had taken the first land from the waves the gaze of our goddess turned inwards. She saw the greatest truth of all, there must be a realm for herself to dwell, her eternal library containing all the songs of wisdom. And so she did. She opened her hand and a tiny rift appeared in one of the ten thousand chambers. She flowed through this hole into the nothingness that was beyond.

In this new realm her thought flowed freely, a plane of marble appeared, carrying another on great pillars. Ten thousand such layers were formed one by one as our goddess willed it. Each layer was connected to another by great stairs, and at the edges she created walls filled with golden inscriptions to proclaim her glory.

But in these great vaults there was darkness, and she knew that there must be light for true wisdom, and at the edge of each of the pilars she created eternally burning lights, to cast long shadows through her realm. In one of the layers she put many shelves, and benches for her scribes to work. In the lowest of the ten thousand layers she places great cages, to be home to the souls of the ignorant unbelievers, sent there to fuel her desires.

She went through each of the ten thousand layers, shaping it to her purpose and her great glory, until she reached the highest. This was open to the great nothing where she had made her realm, and she kept it open, planting her garden for her favoured birds to nest. And so it was that the great realm of Myra the triumphant came to be. Let all fall to their knees i devotion.
- From the Homes of the Goddess, penned by Alathose Vandul
OOC
Spend ten power points on create world.

[Fiig]

Aniqua felt her desire to create once again, and found herself far southwest of the white mountains. There she touched the water and it receded, as the land below rose up to greet her. The land was slightly hilly, but otherwise flat, with a deep layer of soil. Here Aniqua planeted all kinds of beautiful seaonal flowers, among them a tiny red flower, with three heart shaped flowers named Cions, another was flower the Kevine a pretty white flowers which sprouts the same place year after year, it would become known as the peace flower, and the rare purple flower Manin which only flowers seldomly a rare medicine. To shelter them from wind she created various deciduous trees, The large moaks which never stops growing with their many thick branches, the heart trees which carries large fruits with a nut inside and heart shaped leaves, the Egels grows think and tall, in the fall their nuts almost become dangerous as they fall down and the biggest tree of them all the Greatwoods a gargantuan of a tree growing larger than the oldest moaks, each of these trees flower in spring. As the leaves piled up in the fall, Aniqua made worms, fungi and insect to recycle the leaves to dirt, Aniqua made honey bees to polinate all the flowers. To control the amount of insects Aniqua created several different kinds of birds all with beautiful plumage, amond them the kuku bird with its blue and green shaded feathers named for its call, the mani bird the collect various items around its nest to attract a mate, and the Tange bird with its long beak and red plumage. Various places around the land Aniqua made springs with pure fresh water, thus creating many lakes and brooks trailing in and through the land. Lastly Aniqua created her largest creature yet, the Capri one and a half time as large a grown mammoth, they have a turtle like shell, which contains a lot of iron, which they get from rocks which they eat to grind their preferred food trees, branches and leaves. Because of the size they live solitary, but are able to communicate with each other from across several hundred miles by sound alone, they lack the colourful plumage of the other animals, in the area. So they use their ability to communicate on long distance to attract mates with singing. On can usually find out where a pair of Capri have mated, as they usually leave an open area which becomes a glade, for many years afterwards, the place they frequent the most becomes meadows as only the flowers, can repopulate the area quick enough.

In the white mountains the Oracle had bonded with a young Idrian female, with rare curled horns like a , who was the daughter of the Muir clan matriach, from the Murgan vallay. Aniqua told the Oracle to create a cult among the Idrian, to worship Aniqua and lead the Idrians spiritually and counseling the clan matriarchs. Their members called themselves druids and were scholars, teachers and healers. They would gather to perform various rituals few times each year. And make sure the clans had enough firewood and food for the long winters.

9 points on shape land to create
2 points to command avatar to create The Idrian cult of Aniqua
points left 1
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224160/
roll: 6
cults: 1
Chaos 3
power for next round 11

[Benthesquid]

And Sehk put his hand to his navel, and it came away bloody, and the blood fell onto the First Land, and the Heiligeiche split open, and Urat Sur came forth. At least, that is what the Suri say, in their oldest writings.

Urat Sur was made in the image of Sehk, but also in the image of those beasts Sehk had created to inhabit the First Lands. He and she was an enormous creature, standing ten meters tall at the shoulder, with great fangs like those of the sabretooth, hanging down into their flanges. He and she was created male and female, with all that makes a male male, and all that makes a female female.

For long and long Urat Sur walked alone among the forests and mountains of the First Land, reveling in the power and size that Sehk had granted him and her. He and she fought with the mightiest beasts the First Land had produced, and proved their master.

But he and she grew lonesome, and longed for one to share these victories with. So he and she formed a mannikin out of dust and blood, and placed it in her pouch, where it quickened and began to suckle. Urat Sur rejoiced, and made many more mannikins, which likewise quickened. And this was the origin of the race of the Suri, or so my informants tell me. If anyone knows the truth, it is Urat Sur, but he and she is nowhere to be found and questioned.

This is the form the Suri were created in. They were much smaller than Urat Sur, the tallest of them standing only three meters tall at the shoulder, and hunched forward, so that the shoulder was the highest point. Each of them was both male and female, like Urat Sur, and so capable either of getting children on themselves, or by laying with each other as the True People do. Like the True People and almost all the animals of the First Lands, they give birth to their young, and then carry them in their pouch for several months before they are fully developed.

Like Urat Sur, the Suri are covered in light fur, of a grey or tawny color, and have long fangs, which rest in skin pouches that hang from their lower jaws. Their primary diet is meat, and they drink by submerging their entire heads in great cauldrons of water or mead. They do not wear clothing, and indeed, had not considered the idea until they met the True People.

When the Suri were first created, they ran through the forest and the mountains, and did not create more than rude shelters for a single night, coming together in numbers only when Urat Sur sang to them through the blood of theirs that was also the blood of Urat Sur.

~Ankha Raut’s On the History of All Peoples

The Crunch

Roll (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224196)=13, plus nine banked for a total of twenty-two.

Create Avatar- Urat Sur, 10 points.
Command Avatar Create Race- The Suri, 2 points
Ten points left over

[Omegonthesane]

Ancient and proud are the Singers, who walked with the being who forged them in the ancient days. Do not invoke them lightly, and treat them with the reverence and fear they deserve - they can no more be bound than can their dread mother, and must instead be appeased into doing your will.

- The Handbook of Convocation of the Damned
penned by Selywn the Sorcerer

Makhleb's flames danced throughout the world, bearing witness to the creations of its adversaries, and seeing a strange beauty in them - most especially in the stone hulks of the southern land. It also saw two that had something beyond beauty, two orders of beings that had a spark of intelligence - and which were far too numerous to be of its kind.

Yet these were... wrong. Impure. Imperfect. They reeked of the beasts that preceded them, and could not yet be subject to enlightenment. For how could purity be taught to the impure if it did not first exist?

At first the flames danced in the Pure Land, as the Destroyer mused upon creating a pure race to rule over it. But in this age of birth and forging, on this world of unrefined soil and water, it lacked the power to inflict purity.

Then the flames danced in a place beyond, and saw the existence of two accursed otherworlds, places forever beyond the Destroyer's reach. Yet, they served as a proof of concept, and in seeing them Makhleb remembered its original vision.

A third otherworld was made, a place hellish to mortal eyes, yet perfect for its purpose. In the middle there was a strange blue fire, and for a lifetime's double-march in every direction, electricity danced like wildfire, and made an unearthly crackling of thunder.

Makhleb saw this, and was pleased. It was like fertile soil, but pure of form and unspoiled by external hands. It gathered a handful of lightning into its own eternal fire, and shaped it into a ball about half as tall as an Idrian. To each of the eight corners of this ball, Makhleb added a tendril of lightning three times as long as the central ball was wide; these tendrils were more sensitive than a mortal could comprehend, each able to hear the faintest sound, feel the lightest brush, detect the faintest odor. Between all eight of them, the being Makhleb forged could sense its surroundings without anything a mortal would call an eye - though it helped that being lightning incarnate, it eternally crackled with thunder, creating a noise to echo from every surface and grant it a sense akin to sight.

This first being's thunder was the very hymn of destruction, and so Makhleb named it a Singer. Two more Singers were made as its companions and rivals, and together they forged more of their kind from the lightning in which they first resided. They would need prey-beings when they inevitably were brought into the impure world beneath, but as they could reduce most forms of matter to particulate ash and drink the energy released, they at least did not need a complex diet.

For an aeon, Makhleb simply basked in the hymn of the Singers, oblivious to the sullied world beneath.

Crunch:
Power roll 2d6+2=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224258/)
Power rollover: 3 points

Create World x1: 10 points. The biggest ball lightning ever, sustained by a magical fire that constantly creates a ball of lightning around itself. Not recommended for tourists.
Shape World x1 (Create Race): 2 points. The so-called "Singers", tentacled beings made of electricity which constantly crackle with a "song" of thunder and see by echolocation (from their thunder).

Remaining power: 3 points
+3 to next power roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4220795/)
Current Power Points: 12

The Gray One squinted into the sky. He perceived things there that no mortal ever could. He witnessed a garden atop a towering structure of such law that only a god could have created it, a swirling maelstrom of nothing but pure destruction, and an empty city of gold, which never ended in any direction. He contemplated these creations as he walked through his marsh, and wondered why they had been made. Surely the world beneath his feet was all that would be needed. Why would a god go to such lengths to create another world, when there was already a world with so much potential right here? He did not know why, only that such things were not in his path.

He had spent the last thousand years expanding his vast marshlands another thousand miles to the south and west from where it originally began, so the continent now took on something of a ">" shape. He spread all the life he had created before, as he went, filling the deep swamp until it was teeming with life, and even the rarest of creatures, the basilisks and arochno, could be easily found. With the new creation he also added a few 'islands' of dry land, raised up from the black slush that extended for kilometers in all directions. The largests of these isles was a small mountain, only a kilometer above the rest of the land in total, and the area it covered was only about two kilometers in diameter. These dry havens grew more numerous the farther west you went, until you reached an area of the continent were you didn't even have to travel a full day to reach one of these islands.

However, he was finished with the marshlands for now, and left it under the rulership of Vroch, who sat calmly from her titanic web in the heart of the land, a terror and a wonder. Eull went off across the oceans once more, finding hills covered in colossal forests, with a carpet of red, violet, and white leaves far beneath their branches, where the Idrians who had once stared after Eull in wonder and fear rode atop the sluggish, slow-moving Capri, singing to mimic the bird calls all around and relaxing in the cool shade of the trees. He found a new race of creatures, taller even than himself, and covered in powerful muscles. He watched them from a ways off, behind the trees, as they ran and jumped, but occasionally one would catch a glimpse of him, a gray figure unlike anything they had ever seen before, looking at them between the gap in two trees.

It was as Eull was seeking a new location to wander to, that he found himself walking though the heart of the northern oceans and deciding that this would be as good a place as any to create a new land. However, it would not be a land as one would think of it.

Just behind the god, where he had just been walking through the water, a pillar of black stone erupted, sea foam spraying in every direction as the spike settled into it's location, but Eull did not stop or turn, but instead continued on, and before long, a second black mountain shot from the sea behind him, then another a little while later. So it went, on and on, until hundreds of thousands of these pillars of rock stood, little, jagged islands, each just the tip of a pillar of rock almost a kilometer long, embedded deep in the sea floor. No pillar was more than 100 meters wide and no more than 50 meters from any one other pillar. He had also made the sea stormy in this place, so massive waves were constantly buffeting the rocky islands, but the rock was particularly dense, full of carbon so heavily packed that no matter how the sea raged, it would not tear these pillars down.

The cold waters here were a single kilometer deep, and now it was a labyrinth, as some pillars leaned as much as 45° in one direction or another, criss-crossing and interweaving so that to navigate even down here would be an impossible task. However, it was not all that it seemed. Many of the pillars were hollow, with tiny openings at the surface, leading into tunnels that plunged through the entire length of the pillar, and then into the bedrock at the bottom of the ocean, where a nexus of tunnels wove in and out of each other, some filled with brackish water from the sea above, and others with sulfurous sludge from the stone below.

This place was still dead, however, and needed to be brought life, so Eull called to the crabs and bats of the distant, unrelated caverns of the latticework land far to the south, and they came. As they came, he adjusted what they were, until the crabs were much larger, 2 meters across at least, with hard, red shells, and until the bats were massive, almost 3 meters in total wingspan, and ravenous, diving deep into the ocean to snatch a fish from the waters. The crabs created enormous colonies in the maze underwater, hidden behind curtains of kelp and blocks of coral. The bats took up residence in the silent caverns, far away from the ligh of day. He also brought in vines, his favorite plant, which grew tough, soaking up water from the pure rain, and holding within them hundreds of liters of water to survive in dry periods, as they stretched from pillar to pillar, shocking the black stone with bursts of vibrant green and deep brown. He also reached down into the water and created a few creatures to flourish in the labyrinth of pillars, from octopuses to shrimp to giant eels almost 10 meters long to a breed of crab which blended in with the black stone, and waited for days on end until something came close enough for it to snatch. He even created a special kind of plankton, which glowed a deep blue in the dark, lighting the sea floor with azure wonder and made the ocean glow eerily at night. He left the cavern empty but for the bats, however, for reasons even he wasn't sure of.

He was almost finished, but this place needed one more feature. With a wave of his hand, a dense, dark-gray fog engulfed this place of the world. Some days it would be so thick that a creature could not see more than 2 meters ahead of itself, and some days it would be thin enough to see as far as 100 meters, but it was always there, and always tinged blue from the glowing water below. The storms still raged, day and night, yet, through Eull's will, no matter how the wind raged, the fog would not shift in the slightest.

Leaving this place of danger and wonder, "The Black Pillars" as sailors would one day call them, he looked out at the world once more, and contemplated his next move…

3 points to extend the flatland another inch southwest of where it originally was, and add a few, sparse dry lands.

3 points to create the Black Pillars, as described above.

3 points to cover the Black Pillars with immutable and constant gray fog and constant storms, which can't sway the fog.

0 points to create dire bats, spider crabs, octopuses, shrimp, dire eels, stealth crabs, black pillar vines, and blue plankton.

Current Power Points: 3
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224395/)

[Neelien]

Rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4225635/) bringing me up to 21.

Nios was confused. Things had been moving much faster than he expected. That was true in every respect, starting with his own creation.

Another breed of micro-organisms had evolved. With so much residual magic coming from the other Gods' creations, some Conea became able to use that energy to proliferate. These became known as Ignea, eucaryotes living in colonies that blend into the environment. Ignea are dangerous to most creatures having even a tiny bit of magic in them, as they will drain it, likely killing the creature.

The Ignea rapidly colonized many places on Tyonix as they had no natural enemies. The Black Pillars particularly, offered a great environment to which they rapidly adapted. While they were still unable to survive on land, the great marshes provided them with the possibility to slowly adapt. Ignea had become present there as well and were rapidly creating an epidemic.

The Conea did not disappear either. Having colonized all the acean floors, they started spreading upwards, sapping heat from the oceans, likely killing many species of aquatic creatures. The climate on Tyonix was begining to cool.

Fortunately, a predatory Conea known as Omnea had also appeared and helped keep the numbers of Ignea and Conea just barely low enough that they would ot endanger the rest of the world too much. Omnea were still a problem themselves however. Unlike the Ignea and Conea, they did not live in small colonies, and they could survive much longuer without the need to feed. They could feed on a lot of things and this included organisms other Gods had created. Omnea had created a disease that could hit any living creature.

"Creation going out of control. Life is Unpredictable, must take into account. Balance still there, but Unbalance probable. Intervention requied:
Listing possible solutions:
- forcefully eradicate creation
- remove traits from creation that allowed it to propagate
- put creation to sleep
- Create new life to compete with creation
Opting for third solution. Will put creation to sleep for 60 cycles ("days") and make it awake for 50 cycles. Will allow other Unpredictable to better deal with danger caused by exposure to creation."

As Nios was observing the world to understand the damage caused by his creation, he noticed some creatures that were behaving differently from the others. As he looked closer, he understood: these were sapient creatures. He understood by watching some of them worship a Diety, which they called Aniqua. He then noticed another creature, on another continent (the First land) that was similar. They did not appear to worship a god, but instead worshipped another creature they called Urat Sur.

"Aniqua - Dangerous. Must develop better understanding of Unpredictable to prevent Unbalance. Will try to create own Unpredictable for studying purposes. Convicing Aniqua that Unpredictable causes Unbalance unlikely. Also requires means of communication. Unavailable."

As he pondered, he came to the conclusion that Aniqua's Idrians were not yet a threat.

"Other creatures less dangerous, not yet worshipping diety. Must pay attention pay attention to progression. Will create Unpredictable to do the work. Good experiment."

And so Nios Created the Shadow Lurkers - creatures that could hide in the shadows of the Suri. They are bound to be discovered and as such were created with ways to defend themselves. The Shadow Lurkers are flat creatures with hundreds of small legs that allow they to move at any pace needed. They are invisible while in shadows and blend in well with grass as they are covered in flexible spikes the color of which depends on the environment. These spikes solidify when the Lurker feels danger but are otherwise harmless. The Shadow Lurkers can also fly, being flat and possessing a lot of strength. Shadow Lurker blood is brown and can cure the disease caused by Omnea. They are not agressive by nature and if they choose to, the Suri would probably be able to domesticate them; but would they choose to fight, they would likely be killed unless they used weapons. Shadow Lurkers are herbivourous but can also use photosynthesis to survive. After staying at a single place for long, it is common that nothing grows where they stayed for more than 600 cycles.


Spend 3 points - Shape land - extend the north in multiple places, the resulting surface totalling one inch.
Spend 0 points - Create Life - Ignea,Omnea, Shadow Lurker

18 points remaining. Next roll will have a +3 bonus.

[Raunchel]

”When the creation of her domain was finished, Myra breathed once. From her breath her children were formed, her daughters in wisdom who would dwell in the ten thousand chambers, awaiting her worshippers to guide and counsel the worthy. We all know that the most famous of them is Lathose, who brought knowledge to our prophetess. She spoke to each of her ten thousand daughters, teaching them part of her knowledge and granting them one of the vaults of her home to dwell in. The first to speak was Serdynage, she fell to her knees in praise, and was followed by her sisters. She prayed for guidance, and offered the blood of a dove to Myra.

This greatly pleased the Goddess, and she spoke: “Let it be known throughout space and time, Myra accepts this offering of blood, and will reward you with your greatest desire.” And Serdynage whispered her desire, and with elation received her answer. All those who offer their sacrifice to Myra will be rewarded as they are due, and Serdynage is the most highly rewarded, and therefore it will always be the name of the high priestess of Myra.

Then the Goddess spoke to Renasha, and Renasha was elated for merely being spoken to. She looked at her creator and proclaimed: “O dark lady, I have seen you now, and it is pleasing to the eye. I shall let no sight less pure than you taint my eyes.” And she cut out her eyes, to never see anything after looking at divinity. And Myra smiled, praising the devotion of Renasha and gave her the sight of days to come. Therefor all those seeking the wisdom of the future must sacrifice their eyes on the altar of Myra, and the most worthy will be rewarded.”

-From the ten thousand daughters, written by Ghrusha, of the convent of Daral Myra.
2d8+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4225756/)
Create demigod: 5, to create her ten thousand daughters who dwell under the earth and in her home, to guide later followers.
Keep 4 power points in reserve.

[ImperialSunligh]

"III.

1. Nature did break old law, so that the ego of
2. Eknad may hold on to fate.
3. And so the seeds of the Sun were born.

~From the Hallowed Book of Eknad"

From the depths of the golden city came forth a brilliant light. The Sun's greatness could be seen in it, but something else as well. A form, divine, but very mortal as well. Cloaked in white gold feathers gleaming in the glow of the city, the first of the angels came forth.

He was known as Metael, rightwise lord of the golden city. From him, hundreds more angels were born, each of whom produced many more angels as well, populating the great, golden city of Paradi. Metael would rule for his lifetime, as was decreed by the Sun, and no angel would dare question that.

The angels had a shape that, to those in another world, would be considered humanlike, however, they were far from human. Many could tap into their abstract biology and take the form of near monstrous entities of pure divine power. Still, even those who cannot tap into this power have a far different biology than physical creatures that lives off of divine power, faith and order more than logical biology.

They live far longer than humans do and reproduce far less as there is no incentive of pleasure in doing so. An angel lives exactly a thousand years before fading away into nothing.

The Sun was pleased with his new followers. He turned his gaze back to Tyonix. He shuddered at the chaos being wreaked by the likes of the destroyer. "How can I bring life to such an uncertain world?" the Sun pondered. He decided, for now, with the approval of the four gods, that he would simply expand the land of the Sun to make way for the future.

Roll: 2d6=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4228242/)
Reroll: 2d6=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4228243/)

Shape World (-2), Create Race: Angels
Shape Land x 3 (-9), expand the land of the sun, still in a fairly circular shape

1 left.

[Omegonthesane]

It was to the Idrians that truth was first granted. The Destroyer saw that they lived under the heel of their false god's servants, who held the knowledge, who held the secrets of prolonged life, who held tight the advantage that let them rule their people.

Now it came to pass that twins were born on the same day, brother and sister. It came to pass that their names, Ceallach and Riagan, were justly remembered throughout the secret histories. It came to pass that Makhleb gave its wisdom to these twins, teaching them from the moment of their birth the truth of the world and the falsehoods by which they had been chained. Yet they were also taught things by their unwise guardians, and by the false priests of their false creator - things which filled them with fear, and made them unable to fully devote themselves. Yet, in secret, they taught the truth to their peers, who taught it to theirs, a single flickering candle in a sea of delusion. In secret they practised the ways of mortification of the flesh, starving and scourging themselves to prove their mastery over material lies; in secret they practised perfected sacrifice, torturing those they offered before burning them, that their departed spirits would not mourn their fleshy prisons.

So it was that the Idrians were the first on Tyonix proper to sing the Hymn of Destruction.

- The Rubric of Makhleb

Makhleb found the whole process exhausting - such close contact to impure flesh was draining, even for its immortal flames. Yet its first great task was complete - purity had been created, and taught to the masses.

It still burned with energy, with desire. Its gaze returned to the volcanic savannah it had recently disgorged, and the fury that raged there was pleasing to behold, yet it was not thoroughly complete. What good was the Pure Land, if no mortal could even gaze upon it before they died?

So the seas boiled again, and small islands of strange, glittering red sand emerged to the south of the Destroyer's land, stretching towards the other realms to the south. These isles were too small for any meaningful settlement, so those who made the journey would suffer every step of the way, half-drowned and sunburnt. Makhleb left the Long Road devoid of life, for now - those who might be put off by the fear of starvation were not fit to behold the Pure Land, and would more likely be put off by the sand they trod on - sand sharper than any tooth, sand that would lacerate and mortify the foot which stepped upon it.

Its desires sated, the Destroyer paused for breath, that it might work its will once more.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4226032/)
Power rollover: 3
Create Cult x1: 8 points. Now the Idrians have two cults, and no doubt mine will go squish next turn.
Shape Land x1: 3 points. Create an assortment of desert islands out of crushed red glass, about a hundred metres across each and no two closer together than two kilometres.

Power remaining: 3 points
+4 to next power roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224395/)
Current Power Points: 15

When I looked into his eyes, I was suddenly away from myself. I felt as though I stood upon the edge of a flower petal, and to either side of me was a pit I could not imagine the bottom of, each filled with dim gray. I felt helpless and afraid in that moment, when the only action that could save my life was to do nothing, not even breathe, less the petal I balanced upon shifted, and I fell to whatever lay below.

Then he looked away, and continued along, as though nothing had happened. I was back where I had been, rooted to the spot, still fearing to move, and my quarry was walking on. I left the cult of the destroyer after that day, after I learned the meaning behind another god, of a second kind of purity. I have dedicated my life to finding this being that I once hunted, but he is distant, and I am unsure I will ever hope to catch him.

-Journal of Rest Marum, the first sapient being to ever make direct eye contact with Eull.

What a strange Idrian. Eull had been wandering through the flowering meadows and all of a sudden this scarred, ugly one leapt out, screaming, and ran at him. Yet as soon as it got close enough to make eye contact, it stopped, rooted to the spot, terrified. This one was skilled, to have actually snuck up on a god without the god knowing, but he was still a mortal, and could not bring himself to harm an immortal.

Eull walked away after regarding the thing a moment more, thinking now on the races that wandered the world, and the worlds beyond. The were all interesting, all capable of doing so many thing, and so numerous. Perhaps he would build things upon them. But what would he wish of them?

He would want them to walk, he decided, after a few years of thought. However, where would they walk to? What on? This world was so much water, and he was the only thing he had seen which could walk on water (maybe he should make a creature that could walk on water), so, they would not be able to walk very far.

Well, that was a thing to remedy, and so he reached out with his will, and rose up a few more portions of land. One was cold, stone mountain and lush forest, carpetted with vibrant flowers, exactly the same as Aniqua's land, but extending to it's south, the cold northern mountains blending seamlessly into the smooth mountains of the sun, and the flowering forests fading away into the lush land at the heart of the world. The other land was a bit of smooth mountains and fertile lands full of birds, which connected the heartland to Myra's birdlands in the west, mountains eventually dropping away and forests fading into similar forests.

Now a creature could wander for ten thousand kilometers or more and never once need to double back. This twice pleased the god of threads, as his threads now tied three landmasses together into one. However, looking to the north of Myra's lands, he saw a place that was specifically designed to disallow travel into it. He had been there before, of course, and being a god, he had not noticed how things were different, but now, thinking about mortals and how they traveled, he remarked that it would be almost impossible for anything but an immortal to get past that ring of storms.

This baffled him. Why would someone want to make a place like that? Well, perhaps he would make a bridge there some day, so people could travel there. That would be for another day, though. As of now, he had an urge to create more life.

He started with a massive lizard that climbed the colossal trees of Aniqua's forest, each weighing as much as an elephant, but only half as tall, being twice as long, with six legs, skin the color of bark, a long, sticky tongue, compound eyes (unusual on a reptile), and feathery protrusions like leaves from it's shoulders and along it's spine. It it only roosted in the stoutest trees, relying on it's combination of stealth, strength, and the ability to attack from a distance to prey on anything it might fancy.

Next he turned to Myra's land, and took a bird, specifically a crane, and changed it. He increased it's size to that of a house, with a wingspan of almost 30 meters when in flight, elongating it's neck even further, until the head rested a full 10 meters ahead of the body, and turning it's beak into a sharp, deadly weapon, itself almost 3 meters long. He took away the bird's beautiful plumage, however, and left the Titan Bird with feathers in shades of gray. The feathers themselves changed as well, stretching in length and shrinking in width, until a single feather was half a meter long, yet only 2 centimeters wide at it's widest point. These feathers also grew more lightweight than usual. And more densely packed, until it almost appeared as though the bird were covered in hair. These feathers layered over themselves when at rest, providing powerful insulation in the cold times, but there was yet another alternation that Eull created: with just a twitch of a muscle, a Titan Bird could change the direction of any number of feathers. So they could all stand straight up to serve as air breaks, or to allow heat out, or they could even form troughs along the body, allowing for unbelievably good maneuvering for a bird that size.

Third, he took a seal from far in the north, and elongated it's body, until it was almost comparable to an eel or a snake, yet it retained it's front flippers. Next, he spread a soft, white fur all across it's body, which caught air bubbles when in surfaced, allowing it to stay afloat longer. He also added two long whiskers, like insect antennas, which trailed from the corner's of it's mouth, and ended in bright white flames which would burn, even in the coldest water. He also traced this fire down along the seal's 6 meter long back.

However, the vegetation of this land lacked some of Eull's touch: plants. So, Old Age reached out and pulled his vines to him. One he taught to wrap itself around the trunk of a greater tree and explode in flowers at the slightest hint of warmth in the air. He sent that vine to Aniqua's Lands. The other he gave several large pockets filled with lightweight gasses, which would then buoy the vine into the air, until it grew tight. The older the vines grew, the more numerous and massive the gas pockets would become, until they would be taughtly lifted enough to supply a stable roost for many birds. Elsewise, they would tug the tree's they had rooted into skyward, forcing then to grow ever taller, and bob along on the wind. This vine he gifted to Myra's land.

Once he was finished with this, he found himself pondering on how he desired another child of some considerable power. So, he looked to the Titan Birds he had created, and touched one, a smaller bird, but fast, with a shred of his divine power, and inside a month, it had laid a clutch of eggs, out of which came an entire flock of his new children. Able to speak to one another via telepathy, and being some of the fastest animals on the planet, the main thing that set them apart from the Titan Bird were the blue streaks that ran through their feathers.

The Seliss had been born.

3 points to Shape Land to connect Aniqua's land with The Sun's land.

3 points to Shape Land to connect Myra's land to The Sun's land.

0 points on five Create Lifes. One to create the Tree Dragon. One to create the Titan Bird. One to create the Flame Seal. One to create the Flowering Vine. And one to create Cloud Vines.

5 points on Create Demigod to create the Seliss, a group of about 10-15 Titan Birds that can speak through telepathy and who are incredibly fast.


Map
http://i.imgur.com/YfdGQ5u.png

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4228786/)

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4230433/), bringing me up to 28

The world had lost its balance. As Eull connected the lands, the last fraction of balance was lost.

"Other Gods created more land on that side of the planet, Unbalance reached. Lenience no longer acceptable. They will face consequences. Destruction of land incompatible with creation policy. Will amplify climate unbalance caused by other Gods' actions. Changing weather Tyonix-wide requires too much energy. Other solution required.
Pondering...
Opting for active balance. Land unbalance has caused modifications in gravity field of Tyonix, amplifying. Land patterns causing heavy hurricanes in seas, amplifying as well. Will take some time to produce effects, but will be good warning to other Gods to keep Balance in mind."

What happened that day is known as one of the most terrifying events in the history of Tyonix. Lands Broke appart, creating a new continent in the Southern hemisphere from the west of the Equatorial Strip, as Tyonix was shaken by earthquakes.

However the consequences of all of it were far from over, and more was bound to happend in the next 10 000 to 20 000 years.


Spending 10 points : Catastrophe - The Continental Break
Spending 18 points : Moving the leftmost three inches of the Equatorial strip to inches to the south and two inches to the west.

The other effects will be dealt with in later posts.
0 Points remaining.

[Fiig]

Once again Aniqua felt her power rise, and with it, her desire to create.

Aniqua went to the edge of her last creation and walked east and as she walked, the water receded and the land rose up to greet her. Aniqua walked until she saw a pond of kelp trapped on the new land, before the kelp had reached from the bottom of the ocean to the waves on top. But now there was no room for them, however Aniqua smiled as she now knew what she wanted to create, Aniqua took the kelp and from it made several different kind of trees, though all of which would grow tall enough to touch the clouds, the trees would be known as Troud's they grow several kilometers tall, and block almost all light to the bottom floor. Aniqua created arboreal life to live in the trees lemurs, flying squirrels, birds and a medium sized cat like creature called Azors, they have six limb with claws so they can cling onto the trees, and a long flexable neck. And various parasitic plants with fruits and berries which grows off the trouds, like the Enola eggsplant, its roots into the lower branches of the trouds to gain energy, and hangs its fruits, which glows to attract animals to eat the fruit, like most of the plants in the undergrowth of the Troud forest which are bioluminescence.

Meanwhile the Oracle had found a host in an old Suri female, and from her taught the teachings of Aniqua, to seven brave and curios female Suri. Those seven later went out and spread the teachings, firmly introducing the cult of Aniqua to the Suri. The seven as they would be called would always teach one female Suri to be their successor. And the cult of Aniqua would gather to celebrate life, and send prayers to Aniqua for the gift of life.

As Aniqua finshed her work, she heard the pleads of a young Suri who's mother were infected by an Ignea colony, after the plea Aniqua looked around Tyonix , to see the effects of the Ignea on the magicians on Tyonix. After seeing innocent magicians fall to Ignea colonies, Aniqua made a small bacteria named Aengi. Which would prey upon the Ignea, and to ensure its survival in times with no Ignea, Aniqua gave the Aengi the ability to make endospores.


3*3 create land The Troud forest are a mixture between the forests of pandora and kashyyyk
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4230570/
2 command avatar to create cult in suri
0 to create bacteria called Aengi, which preys on Ignea
zero points left in my power pool.
so
+3 for chaos
+2 for cults
+6 for roll
11 point for next round

[Benthesquid]

I saw a stone forest, and I knew that I had made it.
I saw thousands of the Suri moving about in it,
And I knew that I had brought them there.
I saw the plants and the beasts bowing to serve
And I knew that I had conquered them.
~ Unknown Suri Poet; Circa Year One, Ashtorat High Calendar

For thousands of years, the Suri wandered the First Land in small nomadic groups. Then the day came when the sky turned dark from the Great Eruption, and Urat Sur called to all of the Suri through the blood that he and she had shed to make them, and gave them a vision of a shining city, reaching up from the First Land towards heaven.

Those Suri who were in the place shown in the vision began to labor to make it true, and those who were not began to travel to where the first foundations for the City Ashtorat were being built.

Ankha Raut’s “On the History of All Peoples,”
***
Slowly, in the great northern Fern Forests, Ashtorat began to rise. It was not easy- many died from the cold and the dearth of wildlife, many from fights among the Suri not used to such large numbers in such close proximity, many more from accidents as the Suri worked out the safest methods of construction. But they had been called together by Urat Sur, and their blood yet sang with his vision, so they carried on.

When they failed to gather enough food by hunting, parties were sent out to drive large numbers of Diprotodons to the area, and burn down segments of the forest to create pasture for them. When collapses proved that the fern woods were not suitable for the large scaffolding necessary to fulfill the vision of Ashatorat, wood was hauled from the colder south. Slowly, they began to learn the art of building, first with wood and palm fronds, then with brick and mortar, and finally with great stone blocks that they carved from the mountains.

The fights between the Suri proved a more difficult matter. Urat Sur had gone into the deep south after singing his and her blood vision, and was not to be found. For many years lawlessness ruled in the City Ashatorat, until one Suri chose to put an end to it. This was Jakat Lau. It is said that Jakat Lau stood head and shoulders above all other Suri of the time, and that he could slay a carnifex with a single blow from his greatclub. Jakat Lau set off alone to the south to bring back the words of Urat Sur.

The battle lasted seven days and seven nights, and in the end Lau tore free one of the seven heads of Phixatatl and bore it back to the City Ashatorat. When the Suri percieved what a mighty beast Lau had battled, none dared to stand against him. Lau took a home, and mounted the head of the beast on a wall there, where, when a fire was burned beneath it, it would open and close its mouth, and drip acid.

Lau gathered a group of mighty warriors together, and called them his and her Fellows of the Stone Head. The Fellows kept peace in the new city of Ashatorat, and Lau wrote the First Book of the Law.

Roll= (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4230424/)15+10 banked for a total of twenty-five.

Command Avatar:Command Race:Create City, two points (this covers the construction of the city itself, along with a general movement from small bands of hunter gatherers to a ranch pastoralist society, but with no advantages in any particular area): Two Points
Create Order: The Fellows of the Stone Head: Eight Points

Total ten points, fifteen banked.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4228786/)
Current Power Points: 16

The Tall One squinted out at the ocean. That was odd. Hadn't he just created some land here not even six millennia ago? Where could it have possibly gotten off to?

Then he found it. The exact same land, just two megameters southwest. But how did it manage to get all the way over there? Must have been some other god who did it. But why? What exactly did it gain from having this land over there? Did it want a land like that? If so, why not just make a duplicate? Why take away Myra's land? Eull simply could not comprehend a reason for such an action.

Decades passed, then centuries, and still Eull could not begin to understand why this had been done. He opted to think about it later, though, and just continue with what he was doing before: connecting the lands together. To start, he reached out and another 1,400 km of land rose up, extending southwest, towards the misplaced land. This was similar to Myra's land, but was higher, more smoothed granite cliffs than forested land, while Eull also included a few crevices and ravines which led into caverns, like his original latticework land, but not quite so inhospitable. Here the Cloud Vines flourished, as did many trees from Aniqua's flowering forest, so the canopy reached far higher than the moutaintops. Waterfalls filled the land, as did many large lakes in the lowlands and cool ponds in the highlands. He brought in some of the plankton from the Black Pillars, and filled those ponds with the blue light, and also invited the Tree Dragon, the Arochno, and his snakes into this land. The snakes he changed slightly, to hang from the abundant outcroppings and dead falls, disguised as harmless vines, until something drew close enough, and they would strike. Between the Tree Dragon's stealthy hunting, the Arochno's trap setting, and this new breed of serpent, these highlands would be soonknown as a treacherous land.

Southwest of that, he began to create more land, but dropped it down from the highlands, until those smooth, towering mountains turned to stoney hills, and then they dropped into wide islands, each anywhere from two kilometers across to fifteen kilometers across, and separated from each other by a stretch of shallow sea water almost a kilometer wide, which flowed with sluggish sea currents. These islands were commonly full of caves, and covered in dense fern forests that had migrated from not far southeast, mixing with the giant trees of Aniqua's forest, and on some isles, the willow which had come from his own marshlands. These humid islands soon became populated with snakes, tiny basilisks, jaguars, frogs, insects of all sort, including his Arocho, a new kind of insect which he had created, naming it a scorpion, and it's somewhat larger cousin, the Vickit, which roved about in swarming colonies, swimming from isle to isle as food became scarce. There were also the thousands of colorful birds Myra had originally made, though Eull's Titan Birds did not enjoy these lands. Vines were also very coming here, with Black Pillar Vines migrating in, as the climate was very similar, as well as flowering vines from far north, and cloud vines, from the bordering land. These islands were a veritable melting lot of lifeforms.

Then, southwest of these islands, Eull brought the land together again, as it fused back to Myra's migrant lands, and formed it into a fertile land, almost exactly like Myra's original land, but he could not resist making changes, and now his variation on the fertile land stood with natural occurring rocky pillars of black stone like his Black Pillars far to the northwest of here. He created an offshoot of the blue plankton that grew in the Highlands and the waters of the Black Pillars, but turned it to algae, and soon these pillars were laced with glowing blue algae, which grew in bands on the black stone, feeding off it so very slowly. Occasional volcanic activity in this place would punch new pillars up out of the rich soil here, or shoot lava into the land as well, melting away old pillars, but infusing the land with new nutrients at the same time. The oldest pillars would be surrounded on all sides by towering trees from far north, as well as old trees from far south, and ferns around their bases. During a volcanic time, the land would be flat, as new pillars cooled and seeds took root, but the oldest pillars would been almost entirely covered in blue algae, while the youngest would have only small spatterings of it around their circumference. Vickit migrated here, as did Tree Dragons and even Capri and Elephants, who Eull specifically had to teach to travel here. He made sure there was a place for his Cloud Vines, and Willows were also common here, not to mention they were spreading across all of Myra's old land.

Once this was done, Eull walked along the sea coast for some time, watching his Flame Seals play out in the cold waters to the south, their manes flashing like silver stars in the night, and eventually found himself in a spectacular place. Trees kilometers tall all around him, and sounds from cats and Tree Dragons from so far up that no mortal could have glimpsed them. Walking through that Troud forest, Eull felt he needed to grant his own contribution to the wonder of this place, for his flowering vines weren't enough. So, he reached out and emboldened a few of them, until they grew in size to rival even the Trouds all around. So wide that you could build a city upon them, and so thick that crack in them were more akin to ravines and caverns. These were Titan Vines, and the most common roost for his beloved Titan Birds. Eull invited his serpents and alligators, but changed them further still, until the snakes were of a scale to compete in this land, and had hoods which would flash with brilliant bioluminescent displays to startle or entrance their prey. The alligators he rose onto their hind legs, made more robust, and grew in size, until the first Tyrannosaurus Rex prowled the Troud forest.

This would be acceptable for now.

3 points to Shape Land - Mountainous Highlands, filling the above description, southwest of the dangling remains of Myra's land.

3 points to Shape Land - Islands, filling the above description, southwest of the Mountainous Highlands

3 points to Shape Land - Pillar Land, filling the above description, bridging the Islands and the Moved Land.

0 points to Create Life: Blue Algea, Stealth Snake, Vickit, T-Rex, Titan Vine, and Dazzle Snake.

Current Power Points: 7
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224394/)

[Neelien]

Rolled 4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4231316/) bringing me up to 4
... that was unfortunate... I was hoping to at least get 6... oh well.

Nios saw the Aengi, created by some other divinity to protect balance from something he created, or so he thought. He grew curious.

"Other God recognizes balance. Must Identify creator. Will search for recurring patterns in existing life. Need for efficient mechanism to ensure discovery of creator. New life seems approppriate. Will create Life Tracer. Will allow identification of Gods creations. Organism will need time to adapt and survive, outfitting with efficient defense mechanisms."

And so Life Tracers were created. A life tracer is a virus that attaches to living creatures and identifes the god that created this lifeform. While not directly dangerous to larger creatures because it only infects a very small fraction of heir cells, the Life Tracers implant information into their host cells that cause them to die when they come in contact with magic. This trait would be lost once the Life Tracers populated the entirety of Tyonix.

As Nios was creating the new organisms, he could not muster the strength to do anything else in these 5000 years. The Continental Rift had drained a lot of his power and was impacting the world. One of the things it caused was a huge hurricane in the Middle Sea (what is it called?). The hurricane itself is more impressive than it is dangerous though. Being stationary, it is easily avoidable and it appeared that some creatures even adapted to it.

Amongst the creatures that adapted, a breed of flying fish grew enormous fins, which they used as wings. With their heavy scales, they could withstand the high winds of the hurricane, and it allowed them to hunt in the skies. They were still fish however and their fins were not proper wings, so they could only glide, and could not live without water. As the years passed, the fish grew adept at flying long distances and it became a common occurence to see them gliding high above the coasts of the surrounding lands.

3 points : shape weather - create a huge hurricane in the sea between the First Land, the Marshlands and the Land of the Sun. It is a single hurricane 1 inch in diameter.
0 points: Create life - Life Tracer - see description in post.
0 points: Create life - Armored Glider Fish

[Omegonthesane]

As Makhleb watched the deeds of its Idrian servants, it began to wonder if it had made a misstep with its chosen servants. Here, these mixlings cursed with the touch of a rival praised the Destroyer, yet it was they who were able to grow its power, they and not the Singers. Makhleb watched carefully, to learn what it could from these beings, and returned to the Singers with good news; as the Singers had let Makhleb teach purity to the Idrians, so the Idrians had allowed it to teach worship to the Singers. Beings of rage and destruction incarnate, they did not quite worship in the same way, instead enthusiastically mortifying one another's eldritch flesh in battle - and just as enthusiastically cavorting, rutting, and making more of their kind, so that more might know destruction and suffering. Makhleb had not at first designed them to take special glee in the act of reproduction, yet they took glee enough in the results and the excuse to writhe and claw at another of their kind in intimate quarters, and became more efficient than their creator originally planned.

Then suddenly there was a sound, and the Cleansing Flame returned to the material world to witness destruction on an epic scale. Lands were uprooted and relocated, whole peoples scattered, woe on a scale that Makhleb had never imagined. It was made only sweeter by how it touched the Pure Land, or rather how it didn't; it was also strange when the flame looked up from the last embers, and saw the stain that had created the Ignea, the thing hiding just beyond perception and too scared to wmeddle with the world beneath.

The thought reminded Makhleb of its first foray into creation, and its gaze returned there. The Long Road would likely need to be corrected in light of the world's changing shape, but that was hardly the most pressing matter; seeing the creations of others had changed the Destroyer's mind about single biome domains. Deep underwater, the seas boiled as a magma vein erupted, over and over for a thousand years, building rock upon rock until it emerged from the surface just to the west of the existing Pure Land, such that they formed a single landmass. When the land emerged, it rose high, higher than the volcano next to it, steep and scraping the clouds. Snow began to fall there, and Makhleb filled the mountains with what life could exist there, which was a lot with the Destroyer's hand adapting them. Flames danced on the mountain, and their ashes were twisted bone-like vines, with huge leaves to catch every drop of the little water that fell. In the less bitterly cold slopes to the south, plants of many shapes grew, yet it was their inner contents that would one day be of interest when sapient beings found them. As the Pure Land's new extension rose, the storm moved to accommodate it, changing from a circle to more of an oval.

A great orgy of life followed, much of which quickly died, the same way the aquatic experiment had gone. Yet much of it also prospered; special attention went to a strange kind of bird, blue, with a small beak, electricity dancing between its feathers, perhaps a foot in wingspan, infused with magical energies to fuel the lightning bursts it used to slay its enemies. Special attention also went to the parasite that lurked within its blood, which left their hosts nearly blind with rage in all circumstances, and which feasted gleefully on the plague of Ignea that would otherwise threaten these thunder-birds.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4231330/) points
Power rollover: 3 points

Create Cult x1 (Singers): 8 points
Shape Land x1: 3 points. Expand the Pure Land with mountains as described above.
Shape Weather x1: 3 points. Adjust the Pure Land's protective storms so they surround the new bit and don't separate the two bits.
Create Life x?: 0 points. Bone-vines, various mundane fauna appropriate to the Andes, and the thunder-birds, which are extremely angry and hunt with magical lightning bolts; and the Berserkworm, a parasite half the size of a maggot which infests the digestive tract, whose excretions make the host very angry and are fatal to the strain of Ignea that was dominant when Makhleb created them.

Power remaining: 2 points
+3 Chaos to next roll
+2 Cults to next roll

[Raunchel]

2d8=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4232495/)

"For ten thousand years our great lady spoke to her daughters, and each of them praised her and surpassed the others in sacrifice and loyalty. She touched each of them and declared them to be worthy and good, allowing them to shape themselves after herself.

She then felt the world, much had happened while she spoke and there were creatures walking the earth. She reached out to them through her daughter Wendali, who brought wisdom to those who would hear, illuminating them in darkness to the ways of Myra."


I'm sorry for the short post, but I have an exam coming up soon.
Create Cult: 8

[Benthesquid]

Sehk had been away on the tree for long and long, as Urat Sur had made the Sui. When he returned he looked fondly upon the creatures that his blood-child had made. He was desirous of testing their progress, but did not wish to disturb their newly made city, yet fragilely clinging to life.

So he stretched out his hand again, and the ground in the south of the First Land sank. Rivers flowed from the nearby mountains, and formed a deep, crystal clear lake, a hundred kilometers across, and more than a kilometer deep at the center.

In the center of the lake was a great matt of knotted kelp, floating free, but kept by the currents of the lake from drifting too far from the center. The ground at the bottom of the lake split open, and a great serpent drifted out, hundreds of feet long, with teeth lining the inside of its mouth and gullet, and raised serrated ridges along its length. Being a creature created directly by the divinity, it had no need to eat, but it gloried in blood and destruction, and so once a year it surged forth from the lake, laying waste to the wilderness about it, and leaving the broken and bloodied forms of whatever living beings it encountered scattered about the edge of the lake. It’s scales were formed of obsidian. This was Caralatis, the Horror of the Lake.

Atop the great kelp matt, Sehk placed a great flint axe, of the sort the Suri were yet using, and he engraved certain mystic symbols on it, that made not only an axe, but the Paragon of Axes, which sang in the dreams to all those who lived by the axe, and bade them come and test their strength against Caralatis, to claim their prize.

The Crunch

Roll=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4231196/) plus fifteen banked makes twenty-seven.

Three to shape land: the deep lake.
Zero to create life: The massive kelp matt
Five to Create Demigod: Caralatis, the Horror of the Lake
Ten for an event: The creation of the Paragon of Axes, currently resting on a floating kelp island in the middle of the lake, available to anyone able to defeat Caralatis
Total of eighteen, banking nine.

[Fiig]

As Aniqua's desire rose, so did the mountain chain known as the White mountains, reaching for the east. ground shaking as the mountains penetrated the earth to touch the skies. Aniqua filled the mountains with life, And added a new creature a hairy beast, standing on two feet which would be known as the elusive Yeti.

3*3 shape land to expand the white mountains toward the east,keeping in line with the polar ice as before.

0 points to create life the Yeti

2 points left
2 points cults
3 points Chaos
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4232876/
3 points
so 10 for next round
had to roll a 3 :smallsigh:

[ImperialSunligh]

The gods of the Eknad Pantheon, who had forged a forum in the tallest tower of Paradi, were in disagreement. Seeing the acts of the other gods, who would bring life to Tyonix, Mam suggested that the pantheon should do the same. She had passionate ideas about a great civilization that could be forged.

0 was enraged. She despised the idea of risking life by bringing it to Tyonix. Such a chaotic, unstructured world, she believed, was unfit for the pantheon's creations.

Mahav, who was lustful towards Mam, defended her idea with divine incarnations of war. 0 was unable to defend herself from the combined force of Mahav and Mam alone, and so enlisted the aid of Eknad, who agreed with her only to a certain degree. The combination of Eknad's death magic and 0's power over divine Law was enough to force a stalemate.

The Sun remained entirely silent for the thousands of years that they bickered, gazing over Paradi and Tyonix in deep thought.

The angels, seeing the debate, took sides in the conflict themselves, separating into different factions that lived on either side of the tower, the black angels, who wore black as a symbol of the unwavering void of law and eternity and the red angels who wore red as a symbol of passion, virility and war.

The battle obsessed red angels, by sacrificing many of their number, created a shining magical weapon of immense power known as the Sword of Life, which ironically had the ability to kill ten angels with a single swing, rather than granting life.


Roll: 2d6+1=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4233310/)
Shape World, Command Race, Create Wonder: Sword of Life (-2)

6 left.

[Benthesquid]

Just the Crunch:

Roll=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4233338/)+9 banked makes thirteen.

Spending two, in elaboration of earlier post, for command Demigod, to inhabit the lake and the immediately surrounding area.

11 left over.

[Omegonthesane]

And as I slept I saw a light, and as I woke it was almost blinding to look upon; I felt my eyes burn away, yet my sight diminished not at all. In that light I saw the truth of this fallen world, I saw that we are fools to build treasures in a place where they rot and break, we are fools to deny ourselves in what little time we are granted. I opened myself to the light, and it gave me a child.

- The good news of Orskek the Herald
as recorded in the Rubric of Makhleb

It irked the Destroyer to see those fanged beasts, the oldest of beings, build their cities and edifices. So foolish, to put so much into idols. So short-sighted, to plan for a year or a decade and assume the ground would be there at the end.

That, and in a rare moment of foresight, Makhleb began to realise it would need more permanent servants. Better to build them in this age of formless matter, when the world's laws were not yet entrenched - a horizon that crawled closer with every temple the Suri made.

In its true flaming form Makhleb descended upon a Suri scholar, a scholar who wept with joy to behold a true god at last. Together they danced as the Singers danced, and Makhleb briefly took mortal shape, so it might bear and demonstrate a birth of such perfect agony that a true mortal might not survive.

Their child looked like the mortal parent in many ways, but had fur of all the blazing colours of fire, fur that flickered and danced like true flames - as did the child's eyes. As Makhleb's first demigod grew, all who dared witness were rewarded with the sight of true divine power, for she - insofar as such concepts applied to the Suri - had strength like no mortal being, and was as relentless and unflinching as the god who fashioned her. With a glance it could set the enemies of the faith alight, and even without this divine gift its teeth and claws could rip stone asunder.

The Red Lord, as the child was soon known, was in some ways a cocky and rebellious scion. On the surface, her antics were hedonistic and excessive, and she led her followers to orgies and feasts; animals and heretics were not sacrificed in the old way, but cooked, and made the finest dish of any ceremony. Yet, Makhleb knew better - ecstasy soon became agony in great quantities, and in embracing excess with what little time they had, the Suri cultists wracked and pained their fleshy prisons, driving them to greater and more painful extremes to show their mastery.

At least, so the Destroyer told itself. Its progeny had to be doing something right, for it felt the divine power flow.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+2=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4233460/)
Power rollover: 2 points

Create Cult x1: 8 points. The Suri now sing the Hymn of Destruction. I think that means I've collected the set until angels get plane-shifted to Tyonix.
Create Demigod x1: 5 points. "The Red Lord", the child of Makhleb and a random Suri, with fur that looks suspiciously like fire and is actually very maladaptive for anyone who actually wants to hide, divine physical attributes and power to set anything it sees on fire.
Create Life x0: Infest the Red Lord with berserkworms.

Power remaining: 0 points
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4234061/) bringing me up to 10

As Nios studied the results of his Life Tracer he mapped the creatures of the world. While Nios did not need a physical mechanism to gather information from the Life Tracers, he decided to experiment. Traced Cells would produce a strong glow when in contact with a specific magic, the glow color depending on the creator. The cells would not be destroyed my the process and would allow beings from Tyonix no know what creature was which god's creation provided they had discovered that specific magic.

Nios noticed that most life had been created by a God who appeared to like long things. These creatures stored their genetical information in long stings, present in all their elongated cells. His most common creations appeared to be vines of various kinds. They glowed grey.

The next most creative god appeared to be the one he had Identified as Aniqua. Her creatures were of a wide variety but they shared a common point. Their cells were bigger and more robust than that of other gods. They stored genetic information as a massive sea of self-replicating information. Each small molecule contained one piece of information and because it was present in multiple copies, allowed the cells to be much more robust. They glowed green.

At a similar number of creations was the Deity that had created the Suri. Like Aniqua's creatures, their cells were robust. However, this was because they had multiple layers of defense. Each cell was like a separate society with different organisms that each had their own role. There was no overabundance of information, and it was stored in a similar way to that of the Gray god, but was compressed many times to fit the relatively small size of the cells. They glowed brown.

Finally there were the remaining 3 gods. One had mostly created birds, Another had created ferocious creatures, and the Last one was Nios himself. While not numerous, these creatures were wastly different from those of the other gods. These creatures were also mostly magical, which was a changlenge difficult to overcome for the Life Tracers.

The Birds were the easiest to Trace. While magical, their structure was still somewhat similar to that of the other Gods' creations, they had cells delimited by magic boundaries and information stored by complex spells. They glowed in a dark purple color.

The Fiery Creatures proved much more difficult. Most of them could not be traced, but a few of those that lived on the surface could be. Their bodies were extremely chaotic, with cell boundaries changing every second, and magical genetic information that would actually destroy outside impurities (such as most Life Tracers). They glowed bright red.

Finally there were Nios' own creations. They were not affected by the Life Tracers because there was no need for them to be; Nios already knew what he had created.

While Nios was studying this data, the world was still changing. As a consequence of the Great Hurricane, winds all over Tyonix changed drastically.

The most affected place were the While mountains. Precipitation there increased threefold. During winters, massive glaciers would build up, and as these ended they would melt, creating great rivers that would flood the lower lands. This water, when collected at the source is amoungst the purest in Tyonix, and by the time it reaches the lowlands, it carries great amounts of silt, making it ideal for plant life to prosper in the lowlands. Trees with with the deepest roots grew there. As the soil beneath withered away, the trees still stood, and as the floods receeded, the trees themselves would be meters above the land. These forests were so dense one could walk on the ginat roots as though it were flat land. This new biome was only predominant in river deltas though, as most life elsewhere remained relatively untouched.

Meanwhile, Ignea had been adapting to the new predators it encountered. Colonies diversified, and allowed multiple strains of Ignea within themselves. They were now composed of Attack Ignea, a strain that would move much faster and deliver a magical poison to its target; Defense Ignea, a strain would feed of the colony's collected Magic to regenate until the Attack Ignea had done their work, and Collector Ignea that would collect, store and distribute Magic energy amongst the colony. Somehow colonies had also managed to reduce inactive time to 50 cycles. Sometimes Conea would also be present within the colonies but that was mostly in places like volcanoes, where the energy collected by them allowed the colony to be much more efficient.

Spending 3 points : Shape Weather - Create patches of the above-described biome on the eatern side of the White mountains
Spending 0 points : Create Life - Deeproot Trees
Spending 0 points : Create Life - Complex Ignea Colonies (Attack Ignea, Defense Ignea and Collector Ignea)
7 points remaining, +1 bonus next round. Should be the partial relocation of the Suri and/or the Ice Age

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4224394/)
Current Power Points: 12

"Father," a voice came from a tangle of century old web and decaying trees. It was two-toned, at once both high pitched and cruel as well as low pitched and melodic. Eull stepped forward into the place where Vroch resided, but did not speak, for he did not have to. At the sight of him, however, the gigantic spider blinked, and spoke again, "It has been a long long time since you have visited me father. I missed you, in a way, as much even to go looking for you. I left the Marshlands for a time, and traveled as you always have. I feasted upon elephants in a volcanic land, snakes in some of your land, and Titan Birds in the Troud Jungle. Such great meals they were. Though, then I encountered a few, the Seliss. They said they were your children as well. It made me a little angry, so I ate two of them and they almost put out one of my eyes."

Still Eull didn't say anything. He was communicating, for sure, but not with words or thoughts. Vroch responded to him after a time, "So they really are your children? That's too bad. I was hoping that I was to be your only child. I am too old to take offense, of course. Still, they were tasty, and they can refill their numbers, so no harm done. Stay a while, if you would, father. I have wished for company."

Eull did not understand the need for company, nor the hinting of offense at his creating a second demigod, but he stayed just the same, for five years, before turning to visit the Seliss.

He found them flying in formation over the Sun Lands. As large as they were, and as numerous, they cast a fair shadow across the land, but they landed when they sensed their father nearby. Titan Birds were usually solo creatures, but not the Seliss. Their entire flock shared a single mind, so they were a single organism: "The Seliss".

When all twelve of the birds had landed, it reached out with it's mind, and sent a message into the mind of the god, "Hello father Eull. I am glad to see you, for I have a message about your oldest child, Vroch. All it does is eat and breed. The Troud forest was infested with it's progeny for a time, and we had to drive it out, at it actually slew two of my bodies. It barely thinks beyond these acts. I wondered why you had created such a creature and then allowed it to live? What is it's purpose in existing?"

Eull was baffled by the question. What was it's purpose? Might as well ask what the purpose of Eull himself was. It was odd, but he understood the minds of neither of his children, but perhaps that's what happens when you grant a piece of divinity to something else: it would change that divinity towards something new. Old Age answered Seliss with a notion of patience, mystery, and giving Vroch her space. It wasn't too pleased with that, but accepted it just the same while Eull went on, exploring the land.

He witnessed a few other gods creating children of their own, from a great serpent in a lake, to a Suri with flaming fur, and he began to think on them. Some seemed at odds with their creators, while others seemed fairly in-sync. Perhaps there was something he could learn, a way to create a child that would be like himself… but how?

Well, only one way to find out: try.

First, he thought that perhaps his children's physical forms were too dissimilar to his ideal. So, the Tall One looked towards his Flame Seals, and at the same time towards the great anacondas that prowled the Marshlands. Each were fairly close to ideal bodies in his own mind. He brought the forms of two together, and fed them with divine energy until a long shape swam throw the deep waters far away, black scales covered in fine white hair, with a mane of silver flames blazing around a seal's head filled with viper fangs. Two majestic fins trailed along half the length of it's body, as well as two whiskers trailing from it's snout, which ended in twin blazes of silver fire. Not content with just this, Eull granted it the ability to swim through the air as easily as it could the water, and as it rose the first time at dawn, some Idrians spotted it and named it Rel, or "The Dawn Star".

However, Rel was too meddlesome and fun-loving, always granting wishes to mortals or chasing whales and schools of fish across the ocean. Not enough like his father, who simply wandered the world.

Another failure then, so it wasn't physical form. Perhaps it was the power of the child that mattered. So, Eull took a Cloud Vine, and snapped it's base away from the ground, so it would drift up into the sky. Normally the gas pocket would burst from low pressure after a couple of kilometers, and the vine would fall back down, but this one, Eull kept whole, and filled it with divine power, energy far beyond anything he had ever before mustered. The vine caught fire, disintegrating into carbon and other base elements. Soon those melted and condensed, aligning themselves until the Cloud Vine was a thread of gemstones, with only the memory of being a vine.

What had once been a kilometer long vine was now a pillar of seven separate stones: a ruby, an emerald, a diamond, a sapphire, an opal, an amethyst, and a black onyx. These stones glowed unlike anything ever before seen, not with light, but with self, as though the emerald of this entity was the only true emerald to exist. When you looked away, you knew it to be an illusion, but when looking at the stone, it was as though it were alone in it's purity. This creation hovered for a few seconds of it's own accord, before it became self aware, and suddenly, with that endless sea of wandering energy sealed away inside it, each individual stone launched itself in a different direction, scattering themselves to the wind, and each stone came to rest, imbedded into some stone object in some isolated location. The diamond melded into the face of one of the White Mountains. The sapphire found itself underwater, in the side of a Black Pillar. The ruby came to rest at the back of a cave in the Highlands. The opal held a perch in the interior of the volcano of the Pure Land. The emerald melded into an isolated rocky outcropping in the First Land. The amethyst came to rest among the roots of a Troud. The black onyx hid in a small cave, towards the tip of Myra's misplaced land.

These stones were powerful, and alive, altogether sharing a single ego, and no small being could harm them, nor could they harm the stone around them, as the stones would soften any blow that would attempt such. If they wished it, the stones could shift the stone they were buried in, causing earthquakes and terrorizing others, but they did not, instead simply resting, and around them, for they had once been a single vine, they caused life to flourish. Soon even the opal's domain, in the heart of Makhleb's volcano, was surrounded by ferns and great vines that ignored the unbearable heat from below.

These seven locations would one day become known for their incredible safety. The Sanctuary Stones they would be called, for any creature who rested in the place a stone rested would be safe from all harm.

Yet this was still not what Eull sought. The Sanctuary Stones loved wanderers but did not wander. Eull was a wanderer, thus this child was not truly like him either, though they would be very close, Eull and the Sanctuary Stones, as their temperaments complimented each other quiet well.

No, Eull would have to continue his attempts.

5 points to Create Demigod: Rel. A kind of a Lung Dragon creature, but with a seal's head, viper fangs, and a mane of silver fire. Black and white in coloration. It can fly and grant wishes.

5 points to Create Demigod; The Sanctuary Stones. Seven stones of immense power that only wish to protect life and make it grow.


Map
http://i.imgur.com/MDF7fBq.png

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4233488/)

[Fiig]

As the cycle goes, the Idrians knew, when the mountains sprout in a generation. Aniqua powers is rising.

And so it came to be that the white mountains closed off, as Aniqua raised the mountains from the depths of the oceans, and seeded it with life. As always adding just a little more life as for the first time polar bears, seals, penguins and narwhales.

But this time the troud forest grew too, water receding before the expanse of the giant forest, as the ground rose and the trees grew up to the sky. Animals grew silent at the awe of divine magic, and then curious as new animals started to walk around the forests.

flocks of deer and elks, satyrs chasing nymphs, glow flies, salmons in the rivers and cranes.

6 points to expand the white mountains
3 points to expand the troud forest
0 create life
1 point left
2 cults
3 chaos
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4236324/
8+3+2+1=14 for next round

[ImperialSunligh]

The angelic war continued to rage, countless deaths tainting the tower of the gods eternally. The angel Polemel, the current leader of the angels, attempted to create a neutral space at the base of the tower where all angels who did not support either side could be safe.

Mahav, who saw no value in peace or subtlety, ran through Polemel in the streets without hesitation. He was simply in the way. Afterwards, he brought his army to the sanctuary of 0, where Eknad waited for him. He wielded the sword of life, his grip adamant.

Before any could react to his prescence, Mahav stuck, sapping the life force of 0 into nothingness. Law was dead and her blood flooded the streets of Paradi. Eknad, furious, but not wanting to cause further ruin, returned to the Sun's side in the tower of the gods, hoping that the conflict was over, and between the gods, it was.

The Sun, seeing the end of the war, and having already decided that he would eventually bring life to Tyonix, opened a portal at the base of the tower, informing every angel that they may go through it, only if they desire to do so.

In this, the conflict continued. The red angels went through the portal en masse. Using propoganda, they encouraged other, undecided angels to pass through. The black angels mostly still remained adamant that none should go to the strange other world. Some were pushed through by the red angels as a joke. Unfortunately, it was a single way portal and those angels would find themselves in a strange new land with thousands of the enemy angels and no friends to speak of.

The culture of the angels on Tyonix was greatly influenced by the demographics of this immigration. Angelic culture became extremely militaristic and traditional, proud and organised. War and desire were much more prominent on Tyonix than on Paradi.

The new land would take much getting used to. The divine forms of the angels were unsuited to this land, and they found themselves physically crippled without a strong connection to the pantheon. Luckily, their divinity granted them significantly stronger divine and magical talent than others, as well as greater intelligence, which allowed them to survive.

Worship of the Sun and the pantheon continued on Tyonix, and work began on the consecration of many effigies and temples too complicated to complete for thousands of years.

Returning to the tower of the gods, Mahav relished his victory, becoming drunk and jubilant. He had a child with Mam. The child had not yet formed into a concrete god, and the pantheon's traditions forbade naming until maturity, but Eknad was greatly worried about him, seeing that 0, the one who had kept the pantheon in line in the past, was now dead and the destiny of the child was clouded in darkness.

Shortly after, many of the remaining angels, in an act of depression, tore off their wings. In doing so, they became humans. The humans were no longer any more divine than any race on Tyonix. They could reproduce with each other, and had no physical link to Paradi. Mahav was furious at this, as it caused even greater distaste for him among the people of Paradi, but the Sun was interested in the possibilities this new race posed.

The portal was already closed, however, and it would be long before the Sun would grant the humans access to Tyonix.

Roll: 2d6+6=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4237174/)
Reroll: 2d6+6=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4237178/)

Event: The Descent, angels come (red angels mostly) to the Sun's Land (-10)
Shape World, Create Subrace of Angels: Humans (-2)

4 left.

[Omegonthesane]

Drained from its recent actions, the Destroyer was not so capable as it had been in prior days - the seeds it had sowed among the Suri had yet to repay their cost, even if they had made obedience to its nature easier.

It felt a portal open, and a new order of being spill through - the servants of that pile of squabbling children who had created the central lands. These were filled with the rage and passion of Makhleb, and it ached to teach them the true Hymn of Destruction; yet there were more pressing matters. There was a change on the wind; the world was almost forged now.

The Destroyer turned its gaze to the Pure Land once more, and to the Long Road once meant to lead to it. That plan had to be aborted; too many beings swam for the islands to be any kind of test. Besides, it was too far from land.

So, a new stretch of razor-sharp sand grew, from the White Mountains all the way to the Pure Land itself. A cliff collapsed, forming a ramp of granite leading from the sand to the savannah. The storms changed in pattern again, to protect the borders of the new Road - and to open the one part of the Pure Land's border for which entry was intended. Any person who walked the Long Road and climbed the Broken Cliff would be permitted entry to the Pure Land.

Of course, blinding winds blew overhead - not low enough to pick up the lacerating sands, but still a bane to anyone who thought they might simply fly overhead.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4237442/)
Power rollover: 0

Shape Land x1: 3 points. Create a somewhat thicker continuous line of crushed red glass between the shores of the Pure Land (Volcanic Savannah) and the White Mountains (which I think are the grey ones near the north pole).

Shape Weather x1: 3 points. Adjust the protective storm to blow either side of the new Long Road, and to crucially not block access to anyone who somehow walks its length. In addition cause a gale across its length to push fliers into the protective storms.

Power remaining: 5
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4233488/)
Current Power Points: 13

It was a small clearing high in the smooth mountains of the Sun's Land. An angel woman sat there, in the shade of an ancient oak tree, scarred and wearing tattered black robes, gazing with dead eyes into a small trickling stream that ran through the clearing.

Thirty thousand years Eull had wandered the world, yet he had never felt called to a place before. Nearly twelve million times had he seen the sun and the burning sphere Mahav set, and this was the first time he had been compelled to do something, to go to a particular place. So, he had come, only to find this woman, quiet and alone. She didn't even look up when the god walked into the clearing, just sat in silence, trying not to remember…

Try as she might to hide her past from herself, though, she could not obscure it from a god, and even as Eull stood there, he knew. She had been born close to a thousand years ago, in the golden city of the sun. Born to two scribes of Eknad, she was raised as a Black Angel, and her love of law and structure eventually led her to become the companion to 0 himself. She was there when a god died, and grieved, but she had only been two hundred years old at the time. The Red Angels held her in the highest contempt, and so disgraced her in their victory, eventually throwing her into the portal when it was opened.

She had ran from them, then, with the belief that all she had been raised to believe now meant nothing. That it had all been for naught. She ran without knowing where to go. She encountered the Idrians, and made a place for herself inside their community, but after only a hundred years, those who had been her friends had all died, and, now alone once more, she found that soon all that she had built once again collapsed. She went to Ishatorat and tried to begin again, but this time she was kidnapped by the cult of the destroyer, and the most terrible things were done to her. She managed to escape, but with less than she had ever had before.

For another few centuries she tried a dozen different ways to actualize herself, to move forward, to enact her life of structure, but each attempt ended with her losing more than she gained, until today, when she only had one thing left.

As Eull gazed upon this battered woman, he saw her as she truly was: all around her was a void, a great emptiness. She dangled over the pit of deepest darkness, and the only thing that prevented her from plummeting into the naught, was a single thread, a single strand of silk, which trembled from it's weakness and frailty.

Eull saw this, for it was as he existed. Though, he had not come from a world where he believed that there was more around him. He came from the void before time, the great nothing-pit, and he had found that single strand, and saw it as the only thing that was true. It was the miracle, and it was something that could not be broken. This angel believed she had fallen, that she had been lowered into a pit, clinging to a frail excuse to live. However, what she perceived as a frail excuse to live, was actually the only immutable reason to live. All the constructs and emotions and illusions of the world would change, fade, and pass on, but that strand of silk, that lifeline, it remained, and it could not be changed.

As Eull had looked into her heart and past, she had turned, and now gazed into the face of the Gray God. Her face was sad, yet pristine and beautiful, while his was lined and cracked, beyond recount of age and beyond emotion. Only one thing lay between them. Only one thread lead from him to her, and it was the same thread they each held onto, dangling above the bottomless gray. It was the thread that had been tugged, to pull him towards this clearing. The thread was simple to explain: they both existed.

Eull stepped forward and knelt before the woman in the last century of her life. He reached out a hand and placed it upon her shoulder, and leaned forward, placing his forehead against hers. They remained like that until the sun went down and the woman fell asleep. It was not an act of comfort, or a healing, but a creation, and when the woman woke, she went back to her people's land, carrying a child…


---

Gaining access back into the strict lands of the Red Angels was a daunting task, as many still remembered who she had been before 0 had been slain, but the child made them more accepting. She did not enjoy her place in the society, however, and did not hold onto life very long after the child was born.

The child, however, was unlike the others. His wings were a dim gray, and his gaze colder than even his mother's had been. Many believed it to be the lingering taint of death and law upon his soul. "Such a Black Angel that even his wings cannot be clean," they would say. He learned the militaristic ways of the society, and proved to be quick, not to mention skilled with pole arms and bows. However, he could not fit in, as he took to wandering every moment he could, and even some times when it was forbidden. He broke regulations, and would not revere the things he had been educated to worship, so as soon as he was deemed capable of surviving on his own, he was sent into exile.

He did not care that his own people held him in ridicule and disgrace. He did not care that his mother's cause had been lost ages ago. He did not care if he had to hunt to obtain his food. He did not care when he saw war and pain. All he wished to do was wander, to see all that existed. That was all he believed mattered.

A thousand years passed, and he believed himself to be about to die, as angels always did at the age of a thousand, but he did not

Two thousand years passed, and he visited his people's land once more, just because he wished to wander there. He wasn't known, as his existence had not been recorded those aeons ago. No, they looked at him with mixed wonder at the mystery of him, and distaste at his lack of discipline and purpose. Soon though, he moved on.

Three thousand years, and he met a man, somewhat taller than him, who had the bearing of a god.

From that day forward, they walked together. Eull and his son, the Nameless Angel, his bodyguard.

5 points to Create Demigod: The Nameless Angel

Current Power Points: 8
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4231023/)

[Neelien]

rolled 12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4239480/) bringing me up to 19

Nios thought he had indexed all of the gods. He was wrong. Out of nowhere, a new sentient species had appeared. It resisted the Life Tracers for quite some time, but the fast-adapting creatures eventually found their way inside their cells. Those were strange cells, similar to that of Fiery creatures yet different. There was barely any genetical information in them, only enough to sustain the cells themselves. Most of the information was located elsewhere. The cells were nearly empty, devoid of both magic and information. They could exist but not reproduce, and at the end of their lifetimes of 1000 years, they would simply desitegrate. Somehow though, this species managed to survive. Being so alien to this world, it had no means to mitigate the very little damage Life Tracers did. Life Tracers were harmless to all other creatures - they were designed to - but in Angels they produced other effects. In the first 5000 years, those effects were minimal only causing variation in the lifespan of the creature. They now lived anywhere between 800 and 1300 years. The infected cells glowed yellow when the right magic was used on them.

Angels could not be affected by Life Stealers but since they were mortal by default, Nios did not see the need to adapt the Life Stealers to attach to Angels.

The world geography was nearing completion and as Tyonix started stabilizing a tremendous earthquake shook the planet. It was the last consequence of the Continental Rift. The South Pole volcanoe erupted in a great explosion of ash and molten rock. The ask rose to the upper levels of the atmophere, blocking most of the light from the two suns. The northern regions were hit slightly less than the southern regions but everywhere on Tyonix the eruption caused massive colling. For next 5000 years, the north and south glaciers more than doubled their size, and many creatures perished from the cold.

With the earthquakes, bits of land separated from the First Land the Land of the Sun. This was a strange event. Chunks of land were simply swallowed by the ocean, while others floated on the unstable "land" below, creating an area that would become known as the Unmappable Archipelago, a region where islands would appear, move and disappear.

In this archipelago, a new life started evolving. It was a strange creature, born of Composite Ignea colonies. It looked like a black string, so long that it often extended beyond the horizon. As the land moved and the currents changed, the string deformed and this produced enough energy to keep it alive. Sometimes, maritime creatures would get tangled up in multiple Strings, and as it struggled to escape, it would give all of its energy to the Strings, and die away.

As Nios looked at it he thought:
"Creature evolved from own creation. Looks like Grey God's creation. Strange."


Spend 10 points: Event - Ice Age
Spend 3 points : Shape Land - Create the Umappable Archipelago between the Land of the Sun and the First Land.
Spend 0 points : Create Life - Strings - An aquatic "carnivorous plant" (it isn't really a plant, nor is it actually carnivorous but that's kind of how it works)

6 points remaining
+0 next post

[Fiig]

Aniqua felt a surge of power, as it came over her, she knew a new age would soon be upon Tyonix.

So Aniqua gathered her powers and while she decided what to create, the blooming forrest grew out where they could. Sensing Aniqua desire to create, the oceans receded, to make space for the new forests.

Aniqua went to the western ocean the empty space with no land in sight. When Aniqua touched down the water around her evaporated, after that Aniqua raised it all above the water. Creating a land with spread tall and wide mountains, slow rivers trailing through the land and large waterfalls, mist coming in from the sea in the mornings.

The land was still empty, so Aniqua started with the plants creating banana trees, cocoa bean trees, bamboo trees and many others, which she planted around the mountains and some groves in the lowlands, where she seeded grass to cover the plains, and smaller bushes to for animals to hide. Then Aniqua created life to live in the lowlands, herds of bovines, bighorn goats, horses and small birds knowns as Hyaqins, with colourful tails, to combat overpopulations she made forest lions. In the mountains created the striped bears, whose beautiful furs would be admired across the world, she made birds to fill the skies and deers for the mountains forest.

Meanwhile the Oracle had gone to the Angels, to teach them about the wonders of life and why they should praise Aniqua for life on Thyonix. Soon after that the oracle had gathered a cult to worship Aniqua.

As Aniqua finished her work, she felt a disturbance in life, Nios. Aniqua felt life all over Thyonix died as the temperatur fell, and while Aniqua was powerless to stop it, Aniqua swore Nios would not succeed, for life will preserve no matter what. Aniqua went to animals all around Tyonix giving them abilities to survive all around the globe, as Aniqua travelled the world, she seeded more life where ever she went, to replace what had been lost to the vile Nios. Through this Aniqua created Brantas furcovered muscular horselike creatures with two nose-horns, Tlalusks large powerful creatures with six legs, curving horns and big tusks and packs of dire wolves.

1 shape land to expand the blooming forests toward east south
3 shape land to create the continent with the above description
2 point to command avatar to create cult in angels

3 chaos
3 cults
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4239977/
8+6= 14 for next round

[ImperialSunligh]

The gods of the pantheon felt a great sapping of power in this time. The powers of a pantheon are cumulative, after all, and the loss of a member had greatly weakened them. They decided to save their strength until the child of Mahav and Mam could grant its power to the pantheon.

Still, though, the Sun utilized minute amounts of power to create small life forms to populate the land of the Sun. He created furry creatures which had large teeth that dammed rivers and streams that he called beavers, winged horses called pegasi, a strange amalgamation of lions, serpents and goats called chimeras, nature spirits called dryads and tiny rodents called mice, all of whom shared a similar biology to the angels.

The angels were happy to see these creatures in their land as they offered great opportunity. The beavers were hunted heavily for their fur, pegasi were tamed and used for transport, Chimeras were hunted for military training, personal glory and meat and dryads offered company to travelers.

Mice were largely ignored by the angels, to the Sun's annoyance.

Roll: 2d6+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240317/)
Reroll: 2d6+4=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240320/)
Create Life: Beavers, Pegasi, Chimeras, Dryads, Mice

Left: 7

[Omegonthesane]

Many of those who read this account will not believe. It matters not, the blessed shall hear the song. Though, even in our tongue, no notes exist that can properly express the terrible beauty of our homeworld - which is perhaps for the best. It is neither test nor reward, merely the forge of our maker, and forges burn.

We at first felt despair, to enter into a world so black and so quiet, until we started thrashing about, and felt the strange material give way under our tendrils. We soon thrashed our way to the surface, and found a world dimmer than our own, yet more wondrous in all other particulars. Most of all, in that what we broke stayed broken, and what we built, stayed built. It took us less time to carve the mountain into something better than to truly understand what a mountain was, and for years we argued over how best to show we still served the master. Until we found something else to argue about.

We found some odd toys, you see. Things with big wings and four stiff tendrils, as well as a fifth tendril too stubby to do anything with. For perhaps a decade we played with them; we soon found they broke too easily, but they sang so beautifully when we struck at them, and they even fought back like a proper Singer.

Of course, those wiser realised, even then, that there was something more to these playthings. Their song was not something our bodies could naturally sing back at them, but it had to be more than the gibbering of lesser toys - every time we brought them out, they screamed a particular songlet; after hearing it for the hundredth time, I finally realised I was hearing the name of my maker.

The other Singers did not at first believe me, so I went to the toys, and I tried to sing like them. It took me another decade, but I learned they called themselves 'angels', and they cursed strange gods for making them and then abandoning them to such 'horrors' as we were to them. They even named our new home, "Destroyer's Peak", after the word they used when they wanted to avoid speaking the maker's name.

I taught them of our maker, and they listened. They were thinner and weaker than when we found them; as I learned their song, I learned they could not simply dig to satisfy their hunger, so I brought them softer food - with double helpings if they had the marks of hurt upon them, as a reward for those who embraced the maker's way. The toys were wroth to see us in the act of making new Singers, and they said they had no such pleasure when they reproduced, nor any such reason to fight another. I pitied them then, and gave those who asked the pain they so envied - and for all I knew, the maker would be pleased at their devotion and grant them a child regardless.

In the end, the toys escaped, and I was banished for letting them out. But I followed them to where the other 'angels' were, and I saw that they still sang the Hymn of Destruction. I came back with proof, an angel mutilated after dying in a ritual duel of worship, and the Singers welcomed me home.

- The good news of The Garden of Flies
as translated from the arcane tongue of Singers and recorded in the Rubric of Makhleb

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240395/) points
Power rollover: 5 points

Event x1: 7 points. The original Singers of the Hymn of Destruction are unleashed upon Tyonix, starting in the White Mountains.
Create Cult x1: 6 points. The Cult of the Destroyer spreads from the Singers themselves to the angels of the Land of the Sun.
Command Race (Singers) x1 - Create City: 4 points. The Singers use their destructive powers to strategically hollow out one of the White Mountains; the resulting network of tunnels gets referred to as Destroyer's Peak by the other races, and the name sticks.

Power remaining: 1 points
+3 Chaos to next roll
+4 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4231023/)
Current Power Points: 13

"Father Eull," the Nameless Angel asked as they stood upon a Cliff, overlooking the latticework land, "You created all this. Did you not?"

He had.

"I have only one question: why make any of it? What was the purpose in doing so?"

Eull turned to look at his son, the cold Angel with dim wings. Out of all his children, this was the most like him, but the Nameless One seemed a little despondent at times, which was something Old Age did not understand. The answer to the demigod's question was simple. He created it so that it would be. He had not created it for any reason more than this. All that mattered was that it existed. That's why he had created it. So that it would exist.

"I see," Nameless responded (Eull never spoke, but was always understood), "Though, why have you not created your own race, like the Sun and Aniqua and Sehk have?"

It hadn't been time yet. In fact, the world had been crowded, time had been jumbled with all of those races created in the slow beginnings. He might have created a race then, had fewer sought the path. Now, however, it was ironic that the question would be asked, because the coming of the ice and it's fading away had marked a change in reality. Soon a hundred races would walk the world, and it would still not be enough.

"Is that why we stand here in silence for ages? Are you going to create a race upon this site?"

What did he mean ages? They had only gotten here seven years ago.

"Seven years is a long time, father."

No, ten millennia was a long time. Seven years was like the batting of an eye to Old Age. Though, Nameless had been correct. They were here to create a race. In fact, it was already well underway. Eull turned away from his son, looking back out towards the valley of ravines and crevices of the Latticework Land, and waiting for the seed he had cast out there to take root…

It was another four years before it was finally ready. The Nameless Angel stepped up beside his father, a brace of otters thrown over his back. The demigod had been hunting, it seemed, "What's that red spot down there?"

It was the blossoms of a tree out in the valley. Gray bark and red flowers, it was a scraggly, low slung tree, clinging to life with shallow roots. Compared to the colossal organisms that were so common across this world, it was tiny, but also fast growing. It only took a year to grow to it's largest size, at which point it bloomed, releasing thousands of gray seeds within red flowers, which would then get caught on the wind and carried across the world. The plant, after blooming, would die, but the seeds would carry on. However, the curious part about this tree was that only perhaps one, or, on a lucky year, two of the thousand seeds would grow into copies of this plant. The rest would grow into oaks, vines, kelp if it landed in the ocean, or perhaps even a Troud if the land was correct. One or two would even land in holes in the ground and grow into mice or serpents. One of this first batch of seeds would one day grow into a Capri, even.

This was no simple tree. It was sentient, an extension of Eull himself, his avatar. A plant which could be anything, grow anywhere, be found in any time. The Wandering Sakura, it would be known as.

It had taken a few years for Eull to hone that plant to where it would survive. To where it could predict the future just well enough that, despite it's frailty, it would always have at least one seed that survived. Now, however, it was ready: an echo of himself which could enact many divine acts he himself would have normally enacted, but only requiring a nudge of power from him each time.

Eull willed it to bring him his first race, and so it separated five hundred seeds from the flock of thousands, and they rained down around the Deep Lake in the east. There, they grew…

Soon, men and women wandered the forest of the Deep Lake. Similar to Angels in appearance, though without wings, and less pristine, their eyes thin, slightly slanted, and a cool gray. Their skin naturally tanned, with an almost red hue (an echo from the Wandering Sakura, perhaps). Each of these people were short and slight compared to an Angel, standing anywhere from one and a quarter to almost one and a half meters tall (four to five feet tall). Their most defining features, of course, were the gray runes that appeared hidden in the creases of their faces, as well as the fact that every man had long, perfectly straight, white hair, and every woman had long, perfectly straight, black hair.

These people knew themselves to have come from the Wandering Sakura, and so named themselves the Saku Rasi. Their culture was simple at first. Fishing in the Deep Lake, living in hide tents, but they had a natural desire to wander, farther every day, until one day they had explored the entire continent they had been born on.

Their next step would not come for many years yet, though. In the meantime, they had to find themselves, to shape their culture…

7 points to create Avatar - The Wandering Sakura

1 point to Command The Wandering Sakura to Create Race - Saku Rasi.

Current Power Points: 5
Next Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240391/)

[Benthesquid]

The Ice Age came and went, but the Suri, safe in their relatively new city, withstood it well enough. Still, it was a dark time, with few resources available for anything but survival. Yet when the ice age ended, the Suri remained, and the period that would be known as the Ashatorat Blossoming began.

For millennia there had been hunters among the Suri with minor magical talents, or Knacks, as they were known, allowing them to guide their spears and arrows, and to pursue their prey more quickly. Now, as scholarship began to have a place in Suri society, these Knacks were investigated, theorized about, refined and developed. Presently, they were developed into the forms known as The Art of Twist- an Art partly performance, partly martial. Practitioners of the art could bend space itself, allowing them to travel between two points without crossing all of the intervening distance, or to suddenly create more space between themselves and an enemy, dodging a blow without moving themselves. These twists were very unstable, however, and space almost immediately returned to its normal dimensions.

Twist racers, speeding across the rooftops, shortening their own routes as they tried to lengthen the routes of each other, soon became a common sight, as did Twist dancers, moving in seemingly impossible manners as they bent space around them. Perhaps the most significant result though were those who used The Art of Twist in the duels still common among the Suri of Ashatorat, or in the more methodical head-breaking licensed by the Fellows of the Stone Head.

Meanwhile, another art was flourishing, that of Acoustic Thaumaturgy, whereby sounds, especially musical noises, were transformed into mind-affecting enchantments. Like the Art of Twist, it began among the hunters, who would sing to cloud the minds of their prey, but it was refined and developed into a variety of arts, both practical and fine. The greatest achievement, though, was the Casting of the Far-Sounding Bell, an enormous bronze bell, engraved with hundreds of runes in various eldritch scripts. The bell was rung constantly, but gave no sound. Instead, it’s enchantments were attuned to hundreds of smaller handbells, which, when rung, had a variety of mind affecting properties. The handbells did require constant reattunement by those trained in Acoustic Thaumaturgy, but even so, they were powerful tools and weapons.

Roll=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240671/) plus eleven banked makes seventeen.

Advance City: Ashatorat:The Art of Twist- Four Points
Advance City: Ashatorat: Acoustic Thaumaturgy- Four Points
Command Race: Create Wonder: The Great Bell and the Handbells- Four Points
Total of twelve points, five left over.

[Neelien]

rolled 2 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240946/ :smallannoyed:), bringing me up to 8

It was strange. Nios felt his power rise, as did that of the other gods. He did not understand why the change occured. Was it because of the Ice Age? However, his power appeared to increase slower than that of the other gods and he could not do much. So he waited, as his last bits of remaining power were drained by the newly created archipelago, so that its motion could be long lasting, allowing the Suri to travel to the Land of the Sun.

Not much else happened, as Nios studied the developing Suri culture, so that he could hopefully create a sapient species of his own, to answer his increasing amount of questions about how the world operated.

Spend 7 points : Event - The Island Drift - Allow the Suri access to the Land of the Sun . Now there are Suri Tribes known as the Exos, that live in the Land of the Sun - no major city yet.
1 point remaining
+0 next turn.

[Fiig]

Aniqua felt the change on Thyonix, as it came she noted more races coming to Thyonix, a new redskinned humanoid races, which reminded Aniqua of one of the other gods. And the singers broking through the veil for the first time.

For the first time in history, The old crone walked on Thyonix, the second of Aniqua's Avatars. The races of Thyonix would revere her and admire her, with powers of healing and protection, the old crone walks on unseen roads through out Thyonix, always appearing where she is needed, never staying in one place. When seen she appears as an old female belonging to no distinct race, with long white hair, clothed in practical travalling, she always carry a bag with her, in which she keeps what she needs.

The Oracle found the Saku Rasi, and bounded with a worthy young girl of 10 years, from whom it taught the reverence of life to those few Saku Rasi who would listen. From them it spread to others, for the respect of life came easy to the Saku Rasi.

The white roads lead the old crone to the hollow peak, where the she was needed, though no door was open for the outsiders, she walked into Destroyers peak, there only three saw her, curious and startled they followed the old crone, until she stopped in the middle of the city. There she taught them about the ways of Aniqua of life, healing and protection. Slowly she gathered a group of singer, who would sing the song of life to others. Then the old crone went on, along unseen roads.

12 point to create avatar
1 point to command The Oracle to create cult
1 point to command The Old Crone to create cult
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242267/
4 roll
3 chaos
5 cults(Idrian, Saku Rasi, Suri, Singers and Angels)
12 in total

[Omegonthesane]

It was hardly sooner that the Singers had been unleashed upon Tyonix that some started to stray. At first, Makhleb was bitterly aggrieved by this, but its fires burnt unusually low, and the knowledge that there were other tasks stayed its hand. Besides, it was the same cult that had been competing for the old races and, later, the angels, albeit varied by the mindset of Singers; reverent of life it might be, but it revelled in chaos and wild action nonetheless, so was less abominable than if they had started worshipping the Eknad.

Indeed, it was this sight that reminded the Destroyer of a more pressing concern. There was yet a people who did not know how to preach its name, and over the centuries, it had soon realised that it mattered how many species sang the hymn rather than how many within each. Having mostly forgotten its prior ambitions of making demigods, it had no agents among the Saku Rasi, so it worked as it had before through dark dreams and dire portents. Its followers among that people were wanderers, like all their kind, but with a vindictive edge to their travels; they wilfully left burnt earth and slaughtered prey in their wake, leaving them pointlessly to rot as an offering - a sign that these prey had been killed, not for food or for skin or for tooth or for bone, but solely for the joy that murder brought.

Meanwhile, the Singers' attempts to mate with angels bore long-overdue fruit. When the victims of these acts tried to create new angels to follow them, the results had strange, burning eyes, and instead of glorious white, their feathers were the colour of ashes. Their wounds, rather than healing into normal flesh, became filled with a substance not unlike the flesh of a Singer (albeit less noisy). Many of them became deformed by the time they were fully grown, growing bestial features like tails and horns, claws and fangs, the occasional pair of antennae, and stranger deviations still; however, these mutations always made their owner more capable in some respect, rather than merely making them different or outright hindering them. They had a special affininty for magical paths that caused direct, immediate harm, but their capability with other sorceries atrophied in comparison to their angelic parents. They outdid the angels in the depths of their wild passions, and the Singers in their variety; for Singers could see only through the lens of their master, while demons - as they came to be known - had no such special limitation in their minds.

All this Makhleb merely allowed to happen, the natural consequence of the Singers' deeds. However, had it stood by, this mixling race would have died out in a generation, for their natural mutations would have left them sterile and unable even to self-reproduce as the angels did. Instead, the Destroyer blessed its new children. granting them the power (and the requisite bits) to mate with one another as the Suri did, and with the same pleasure in the act; they did this with the same wild abandon with which they did everything, and but for the very essence of destruction that ran through their veins, they might have outnumbered the angels within a generation. As it was, they were lucky to see two hundred years, for the same essence that ripped their bodies apart filled them with fervour and energy until their flames burnt out; tied to a tree and taught calm and inaction, a demon might theoretically live a thousand years, if his inner destruction was not invested in his inevitable pleas to Makhleb for salvation.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+4=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242649/) points. Awful roll is awful, hence 'its fires burnt unusually low'.
Power rollover: 1 point

Create Cult x1 (Saku Rasi): 6 points.
Create Hybrid Race x1 (Demons): 3 points. Demons are like angels except where noted; they are ridiculously passionate about everything they do, and have superlative powers of destructive magic but are much worse at all other magic compared to angels. Their feathers are ash-coloured, and if they get wounded and recover, the new flesh glows like a Singer. Like the Singers and unlike angels they reproduce sexually with eachother, though specifically with Suri-esque hermaphrodite biology rather than Strange Magical Processes(tm). Since pop culture demands that demons have bestial features, "many, but less than half" of them grow horns, or claws, or tails, or some other useful deformity, albeit never a neutral or entirely harmful one; this is currently flavour text rather than a Subrace, and isn't meant to be restricted to any particular bloodline of demons. They are filled with destructive magic and their natural lifestyle drastically shortens their lifespan; demons can theoretically live as long as angels, but demons who live like demons are lucky to see two hundred.

Power remaining: 2 points
+3 Chaos to next roll
+5 Cults (Idrians, Singers, Suri, Angels, Saku Rasi) to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4240391/)
Current Power Points: 17

The ryokan spread along some of the coast of the Deep Lake. Stoic and inviting, it was painted a rich red and a mellow gray. Lanterns made of cloth hung from the top of each wall, ten to a side, and each room was full of luxury, from feather-stuffed mattresses to the finest oaken desks to the most delicious stews.

These structures, these Saku Rasi inns, had been cropping up all across the forest of the Deep Lake and the Latticework Land. They had not fully spread into the Marshes yet, but there were a few which marked relatively dry places of that sopping wet land. Not every Saku Rasi desired nothing but travel, after all, and those who wanted stable homes set up ryokans, to welcome travelers who sought a clean bed, company, a bath, or some food they did not have to catch and cook themselves. The ryokan was the race's most stable building built to date. They of course had also created a few rickety house boats and several elaborate tents, most of which could easily be mistaken for a house, while still being 100% portable, but those structures were nowhere near as permanent as the ryokan.

The culture of the Saku Rasi had grown and changed. Today, families would travel together, some groups being twenty strong or more. Some families worshipped the woman wanderer who had come many years ago, and spread the word of Aniqua. Those families were often viewed as preachy but wise to those who they chances to encounter on the road or in a ryokan. Other families had a few bad apples who enjoyed destroying the world around them. Those few were expelled from their families, so they would have to use what they destroyed, or they would starve, and they would be constantly straining to make by. It soon became common practice to shun lone travelers. Eull found this odd, considering he himself was the lone traveler. No matter, though.

Most Saku Rasi wore a robe named a Kerami, a garment of solid cloth painted in interesting patterns and sometimes inlaid with otter fur. The robe had full-length sleeves which ended in feathers of all sorts. Each Kerami came with a heavy hood, as a Saku Rasi didn't stop walking just because the rain had picked up. The robe ended around the shins, just below where the boots began. Their boots were often snake hide and bone, as they proved the most resilient thin materials. The Saku Rasi were fond of using bows and arrows to hunt, with a few even using long spears after the Nameless Angel taught them of it.

Mothers and daughters were the choosers of good camp sights, as well as weavers and cooks. Fathers chose the course of their wanderings as well as made weapons and hunted, while teaching their sons all that they would need to know when they came of age.

Families would often cross paths over the years, and after a time, certain family groups would encounter each other again and again, becoming friendly towards one another, and occasionally planning ahead, making plans to meet up at a ryokan or some landmark in a few months time. When the teenagers of these friended families grew close enough, they could decide to split away and go start they own family group. There was very little ceremony surrounding this "breaking away", but the consent of the girl's mother and the boy's father were usually required.

Saku Rasi women bore children with calm, grace, and determination, rarely ever needing to slow down, and, when the child came, barely flinching from the pain. The entire race bore pain fairly well, as a matter of fact. You would never hear a Saku Rasi scream. Grunt or gasp, perhaps, but even if the pain were enough to make their heart stop, they would not scream.

Their campsites were very minimalist. They only needed enough area to set up their tents, which usually contained their own fire pit, which was used for cooking. This became a custom because setting up a new fireplace every night had resulted in burnt patches of ground cropping up everywhere.

Ryokans actually seemed out of place in their culture, Eull thought, yet they were taken at face value, with no questions raised about them. In fact, they were eagerly welcomed. If a family group spotted one they were not expecting to see, perhaps on the side of a mountain in the distance, they would rejoice. Ryokans came to be known as gathering points, where up to a dozen family groups could be found at any time, all giving a few quality hides, some rare herb, or fresh side of venison in exchange for a comfortable bed and the chance to partake in such a large gathering. Like miniature versions of the Suri city Asahtorat, perhaps.

Eull watched them with a level gaze. They were growing quite well, and were almost ready for their next step. However, first he would need something from them. This was why he was here, at the ryokan by the Deep Lake, with it's red and gray paint and it's paper lanterns. This was were he directed the Wandering Sakura to drop a seed, directly into the heart of the front courtyard. In a years time, this seed would blossom into the Wandering Sakura, and it's seeds would scatter to the wind, but a single seed would land among the roots of the tree, and grow again, trunk winding with aged trunk. This ryokan would quickly become famous for being the only site where the Wandering Sakura would bloom every year, and so it soon swelled, traffic growing faster than the owners knew what to do. Other family groups joined in, and soon, this ryokan, the Sakura Ryokan, was on the verge of becoming a small town. It wasn't there yet, however. For now it was simply a place of worship.

Eull and Nameless turned away from where they had rested, in the shadow of a willow some kilometers away, and began off, north and east, across the water, towards the White Mountains.

When they stepped on the sandy beach at the foot of the stone, however, they saw a red burst of flowers halfway up the mountain. The Wandering Sakura was here as well, and when Eull reached where it was rooted, he realized that it was upset with him. It did not like the idea of having one of it's bodies rooted in only one place. Eull could sympathize, but did not rescind the request. The Sakura could be in multiple locations at once anyways.

This was not why Eull had come here, though, to get chided by a plant. No, the sky was clearest here, of all places. It would be clearest here for several years yet, and that was why he had chosen to come to this place specifically. Eull hoped Nameless wouldn't complain about being here for another few short years.

"Oh great," Nameless was already complaining, "You mean I'm going to have to find game on this particularly barren mountainside?"

Eull knew he'd be able to survive.

"Thank you for the confidence, father," Nameless replied with a bit of snark. The Gray God ignored it, however, and kept his eyes fixed on the sky.

Fifty years later, and the night sky had changed slightly. Now there were new stars glinting among the old ones. Fifteen new stars in total, if truth be told, three were red, three were blue, three were indigo, three were bright white, and three were dim and flickering. These stars weren't actual stars, by no means. They did not rest beyond the cosmos, but instead just very high in the air, and they moved about. Fifteen lights which rearranged themselves and were found in another constellation or part of the sky each night. Rel, Eull's third child, had been known by the Idrians, who had been the first to see him and who had given him his name: Rel, which meant "The Dawn Star". These fifteen would also be known first by the Idrians, who would call them "Ehk Rellis" or "The Mysterious Stars". It was the Idrians who would know the stars first, for it was to them that they first went, because they would begin worshipping the stars of their own accord, once they had named them.

The Ehk Rellis were the next of Eull's incarnations. A series of living lights in the sky. Distant and delicate beyond belief, able to affect the world beyond by shaping themselves into divine runes high above, and always watching the world below.

This would be good for now.

12 points to Create Avatar - Ehk Rellis

1 point to Command The Wandering Sakura to Create Cult in the Saku Rasi

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Create Cult in the Idrians.

Current Power Points:
Next Power Roll: 2d8+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242799/)

[Neelien]

rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242856/) bringing me up to 7As Nios began to slowly recover from the Continental Rift he had started, he noticed something.

"Unbalance found. The Red God's creations and followers causing too much destruction. Answer required. Need to recover and find good solution first. Will wait for a better time to address problem. Patience better than haste."

pass
7 points remaining
+1 to next roll

[Benthesquid]

Now, it happened that the children of Jakat Lau ruled the Fellows of the Stone Council after he and she died, and so kept peace in the city of Ashatorat. But there were those who said, “Jakat Lau is long dead. We followed him and her for their great deeds, but what deeds have the children of Surat Jat done, that we must be ruled forever by them?” They said this quietly, at first, but in time they spoke louder, until finally, thousands of years after Jakat Lau’s death, they went forth from Ashatorat, and built themselves a new city, which they called Bellephorat. Bellephorat was run as a democracy, with the citizens assembling to vote on all matters of importance. Whereas Ashatorat had been built with hundreds of near identical buildings, mainly enormous rounded towers, in the style of architecture known as Visionary, Bellephorat was constructed without the guidance blood-song of Urat Sur. Many different styles of architecture made it up, although it was dominated by two schools- the Tephounian school, named after Tephoun Dre, one of the leaders of the exodus to Bellephorat, was one of symbol geometric shapes, primarily pyramids and domes. By contrast, the Primitive School constructed vast edifices in irregular organic shapes, carved with intricate vine-and-leaf-work, meant to evoke the forests the Suri had lived in before the construction of Ashatorat. A third lesser but still significant school was the Pseudo-Visionary, which mimicked the forms of Ashatorat.

The mood was high in Bellephorat initially, as they revelled in their newfound freedom, and exciting new forms of art and spirituality were developed. The most significant among these was Spirit Walking, whereby Suri mystics would leave their physical forms to project their spirit bodies into the world. Said spirit bodies are capable of combating disease and sickness on a metaphysical level, and the most powerful can enter into other living beings, guiding their actions or even seizing control.

However, the citizens of Bellephorat were not altogether at ease- they were all familiar with the brutal methods by which the Fellows of the Stone Head enforced order, and it occurred to them that it was possible that they would simply try to bring the new city under their control. To forestall this, a Volunteer Army- the first on Tyonix- was formed, the centerpiece being a newly domesticated species of marsupial tapirs, whose bulk and large front claws made them ideal mounts for battle. Due to their strength, they could bear not only armed and armored Suri, but armor of their own as well.

As it happens, the Fellows of the Stone Head had enough trouble keeping order in their own city, and had no particular desire to expand their responsibilities. But they feared that the Bellephoratans meant to capture Ashatorat and depose those who had driven them forth. In response, the Fellows gathered their largest force yet, the Army of the Green Banner. The two cities were suddenly poised on the blink of war.

Roll=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242585/) plus five banked makes twenty-two.

Command Race: Create City: Bellephorat= Four Points
Advance City: Bellephorat: Spirit Walking- Four Points
Advance City: Bellephorat: Super-Heavy Cavalry: Four Points
Command City: Bellephorat: Create Army- Four Points
Command Order; The Fellows of the Stone Head- Create Army- Three Points
Total of nineteen points, three left over.

[Fiig]

For the first time Aniqua had gathered her power, but chose not to use it right away

didnt have time for a post, so i will just gather power this round, though it will cost me my chaos bonus

[ImperialSunligh]

The gods reawaken, after having lost so much power, reinvigorated. The angels, alone in the world, needed guidance, having difficulty living in the harsh land of Tyonix. This guidance, the Sun and his fellows granted without much debate.

The angels, granted holy power, gained the initiative to form into a more civilized state. A group of angels, ardent worshipers of the pantheon and its traditions, who called themselves "The Loyalists", gained a following among the angels. They grew to a governing position among the angels and under their rule, a great city was built.

Following the design of the Sun, The gilded city of Eupnea was built in the direct center of the land. Its architecture was inspired by the style of the great, golden spires of Paradi, which some remembered, mostly through oral tradition.

The Loyalists remained a significant political force among the angels. They mostly served both as a governmental organisation and as a religious guide to the angels, who had forgotten much of their old ways. They resented those who had taken to worshiping the new gods of Tyonix, seeing them as traitors to all they are, to their creators who gave them so much.

As time went on, hostility between the differing peoples of Eupnea caused the Loyalists to create a military force to ensure their supremacy. An army of angels, trained in the arts of assassination and divine magic, known as inquisitors, began to patrol the blessed halls of the loyal. Clad in hooded deep red cloaks, their silent presence alone penetrated the hearts of the impure.

Mahav was sent to the humans of Paradi to investigate their martial prowess, which seemed far greater than that of the angels. An army of human knights was freshly made, though they still would need some training for Mahav to be pleased with them.

His child, meanwhile, continued to grow, and Eknad and the Sun both knew what he would become. Yet still, they did nothing.

The arrival of the Suri to the land of the Sun was accepted by the Loyalists. They seemed to mean no harm, and didn't attempt to convert the angels, and so they generally reacted positively to their presence.

Roll: 2d6+7=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4244613/)
Command Race, Angels, Create City: Eupnea (-4)
Create Order of Angels, "The Loyalists" (-6)
Command Order, create army of loyalist inquisitors. (-3)
Shape World, Paradi, Command Humans to raise army of knights. (-1)

2 left.

[Omegonthesane]

As it lay dreaming in the Realm of Thunder, Makhleb heard a special prayer, a prayer it had not even taught to its Singers. It did not linger in intrigue or whimsy, but rushed straight to the prayer's source - its living child, the Red Lord.

Fires danced around the demigod, and inside them a blackened, charred figure appeared, perhaps three or four feet tall, like an angel born without wings, its exact features hidden by ash, soot, and heat distortion.

"Master, the Suri have raised an army. The faithful are in danger, What must I do?" the Red Lord asked.
"What you were born to do," the god answered. "My will. But, not alone - not on this occasion."

The flames around Makhleb's corporeal vessel engulfed its progeny, igniting her every nerve ending with unimaginable, rapturous agony, pain that would leave a Saku Rasi trembling. Yet Makhleb had neither time, nor need, for the full process. It floated away from the Red Lord as she quivered and caught her breath on the floor, and before her eyes, her creator's belly bloated within seconds, before bursting to reveal her new assistant.

Forced into this world so quickly, by the powers of the God of Destruction, Makhleb's new progeny was hardly even formed. It had appendages in the same places as a Suri, but these were stubby at the moment of its birth. It rapidly grew, and its shape became unnatural - for the surface at least; Makhleb had created beings in this shape in the earliest of days, and those starfish had survived.

"This being, this wretched star, your sibling and child, shall aid you," Makhleb informed its daughter, before extending a hand to help her up. "Send word to my followers, for the time has come."


Come the dawn, the cultists of Makhleb proclaimed that Ashatorat had good news. That it would never have to suffer the war it feared. That the administration set up by the Fellows of the Stone Head would never be made to bend the knee to Bellerophat.

They left out, of course, the fact that they would instead bend the knee to a far more hostile power.

The Wretched Star floated alone outside the gates of Ashatorat, and glowed like a true star. The citizens who were bathed in its radiance suffered many terrible fates. Some were twisted into pathetic, mewling beings, having this abomination's shape but not even its powers of levitation, let alone its powers of divine wrath. Some screamed as their bodies caught fire, some were struck by lightning, some suffered ten years of frostbite in a single second, and some were put into a permanent battle-frenzy, to turn upon their freinds.

Against this threat, the Army of the Green Banner was sent, for what else could Ashatorat do? With their discipline, their training in arms, and their training in the ways of Suri magic, they fought with skill and courage worthy of a hero. But, though they resisted the Wretched Star's power for longer than any other true Suri, in the end every one of them either succumbed to that dreadful radiance or fled to fight it another day.

With that signal, the Red Lord blew a fanfare, and her followers emerged. Gathering at the city's main gate, they began an unholy procession through all of its streets, the Wretched Star floating overhead. Those who were already followers, and those who merely did not yet fight the Destroyer's faith, were spared the wrath of the Wretched Star; those who fought were struck by narrower beams of foul radiance, and struck down just as the Army of the Green Banner had been. The Red Lord's servants gathered up the dead and the damned, carrying them to their final destination; the latter had their throats cut before being added to the bone carts, for even by the standards of Makhleb they had suffered enough. Along the way, idols of Sehk and symbols of tthe original occupiers were ritually desecrated and burnt, gifts to Makhleb and signs of the new administration.

At last, they reached the tower that had served as Jakat Lau's palace. The dead were piled in a circle around the stone structure, and the Red Lord burnt them all with her pyromancy, before entering the tower and declaring the new way of things. From that day onward, Ashatorat and its associated lands would be the dominion and protectorate of the Red Lord.

Amidst all this, no one saw the Wretched Star shoot high into the air; it feared for its life, for it had seen a vision of a flock of birds come to destroy it, birds who would simply laugh at its powers of horror and destruction.

Meanwhile, on another continent...

The Saku Rasi had taken a pragmatic approach to the servants of Makhleb, shunning those who caused ruin and leaving them to their own devices. Yet, importantly, not all the ryokan held to this tradition - most eventually came around, but there was one such lodging that did not, as far northeast as the continent went. This holdfast found itself surrounded by malcontents and exiles, a disproportionate number of whom worshipped Makhleb; in the end, all of them did, or else were shunned from the only hearth that would otherwise take them. Officially this place was called the Last Hearth, but as with Destroyer's Peak, the names of Makhleb's adversaries stuck; within a generation, even the proud, vicious people of that incongruous city called it the Serpent's Den.

Though it was full of criminals, murderers, and practitioners of the cruellest and most terrible rites, the Serpent's Den needed order. It at first was controlled by a series of warring gangs, but eventually the gang known as the Reavers won the turf war and imposed their own rules on the city. Tragically for public order, they were more interested in protecting the worship of their dreaded god than in protecting the city they dwelt in.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+5=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4244819/)
Power rollover: 2 points

Create Demigod x1: 7 points. The Wretched Star, a floating, glowing starfish-like object which radiates malice and raw power.
Command Demigod - Terrorise x1: 1 point. The Wretched Star attacks Ashatorat, and is impeded by the Army of the Green Banner! (Because all the flavour text says they're defending Ashatorat so it wouldn't be sporting to exploit the fact that they never quite took that exact action mechanically.)
Battle Resolution
The Wretched Star rolls 4d6=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4244821/)
The Army of the Green Banner rolls 2d6+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4244831/)
The Wretched Star wins! Ashatorat is now in Makhleb's... let's go with hand-analogues.
Command Demigod - Inhabit x1: 1 point. The Red Lord settles in the city her Cult now controls, acting as Defender of both Ashatorat itself and the Suri Cult of Makhleb contained inside it.
Command Race (Saku Rasi) - Create City (Serpent's Den) x1: 4 points. Located on the north-east-most point of the continent where the Saku Rasi are..
Command City (Serpent's Den) - Raise Army x1 "Reavers": 4 points. Unenhanced army, basically a poorly trained militia formed of the most capable thugs in the Den using the equipment of traditional Saku Rasi hunters.
Command Army (Reavers) x1: 0 points. The Reavers now protect the Saku Rasi Cult of Makhleb.

Power remaining: 2
+3 Chaos to next roll
+? Cults to next roll

[Benthesquid]

The news of the Fall of Ashatorat initially spread panic throughout Bellephorat. No one there had even imagined the existence of a being such as the Wretched Star, and at first no one was sure how to react. There were those who advocated its worship, but these were quickly silenced and driven forth from the city. In the end, a Suri named Selim Thur had a blood-vision from Urat Sur itself, and at his urging, it was decided that an expedition must be launched to try and recapture Ashatorat, and free their brothers and sisters from the tyranny of this newly emerged Red Lord.

However, it was acknowledged that at the moment, the First Volunteer Army stood little chance. To this end, the mystics and Craftsuri of Bellephorat were called upon to make the difference. First to step forward was a wild-eyed Suri by the name of Karim Thur, the whole-child of Selim Thur. Karim was a powerful Spirit Walker, and had even learned to effect the physical world while in his and her spirit body. He and she said that, with the assistance of a select group of comrades, he and she could steer the fury of a thunderstorm against the enemies of the First Volunteer army.

Next came a worryingly enthusiastic group of young Suri, who had been doing experiments on the edges of Bellephorat. They had succeeded in developing a form of crystal, superior in hardness and strength to the bronze currently used by the Suri for weapons and armor, let alone the wood and stone to which they were accustomed, which could be quickly grown in a variety of useful shapes. Moreover, they had developed a way to implant these crystals in living flesh, allowing them to feed on mineral supplements consumed by the host, and grow and shape according to the host’s will. Scores of the First Volunteer Army offered to have these crystal seeds implanted in themselves, and, after a number of unfortunate accidents, it soon became common in the streets of Bellephorat to see both Suri and warmounts with crystalline growths in the shape of weapons and armor growing from their flesh.

Last to speak up was another Suri spirit walker, who claimed to have projected his spirit body far enough to speak with Sehk himself, and to have brought back an- admittedly lesser and much diluted- form of the secrets Sehk had learned on the Tree, specifically the secret of engraving protective sigils. Though many doubted his story of how he had gained this knowledge, they could not deny that the sigils were effective, and many were used, either tattooed on the flesh, engraved into the crystalline armor, or directly onto the crystal seeds.

Finally, the army was prepared and marched forth, to victory or death. Paranoid about the sudden appearance of the Wretched Star, the Red Lord, or another being like them, the citizens of Bellephorat voted nearly unanimously to raise a Second Volunteer Army, which would stay behind to defend Bellephorat against any aggression.

Meanwhile, the Fellows of the Stone Head, after witnessing the destruction of the Army of the Green Banner, foresaw their own deaths quite clearly. Scraping together the remnants of the Army of the Green Banner, and all those who had escaped the purges of the Red Lord and the Mahkleb cultists, they fled the city, living again as nomads in the heart of the First Land.

The First Volunteer Army drew up their forces on the hills outside Ashatorat, crystalline armor gleaming in the sun, and the Red Lord came out to meet them. A bank of storm clouds racing before them, the cavalry of the Free City surged forward. Lightning struck about the Red Lord, unleashing the powers of the heavens upon the massive Suri, but ultimately to no avail.

A dozen Spirit Walkers, trying in unison to seize control of the demigod's body, cried out, both in spirit and body, as the flames of the Red Lord's mind scorched their souls. Crystalline armor and flesh alike twisted and melted as the demigod's gaze swept across the assembled army. The First Volunteer Army was the greatest military force yet assembled on the face of Tyonix, and they fought very nearly to the last Suri, coming within a hair's breadth of victory, but in the end, they were no match for the immortal strength and ferocity of the Destroyer's creation. To very nearly the last Suri, they fell. The Second Battle of Ashatorat was ended.


Roll=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4245097/) plus three banked makes twenty.
Advance City: Bellephorat: Storm Herding
Advance City: Bellephorat: Crystal Culturing
Advance City: Bellephorat: Protective Symbols
Advance City: Bellephorat: Biocrystal Implants
Command Avatar: Command City (Bellephorat): Raise Army (Second Volunteer Army)
Command Army: First Volunteer Army: Attack Ashatorat to Capture, fighting the Red Lord
Command Army: Second Volunteer Army: Defend Bellephorat
Command Order: Fellows of the Stone Head: Raise Army (Army of the Blue Banner)
Command Army: Army of the Blue Banner: Defend Fellows of the Stone Head
Total twenty points, zero left over

[Neelien]

rolled 10(http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4245430/) bringing me up to 17

Nios was still searching for a solution that would restore balance to the world. He noticed the war amongst the Suri, but he did not know what to think of it. He would wait and see.

He dicided that for now he should weaken the Red God's power over Tyonix, as it was bringing much Unbalance, and so he commanded the Evolving Parasite:

"Go to the Equator as inland as possible. Silence the Red spark."

And so the Evolving Parasite started adapting for this task. First it strengthened its defences so that it could survive on land. Then it adapted to consume Ignea so that it could use the Magic required to identify its target. Finally, it slowly crept through the rivers and woods, until it reached the Angels' Cult of the Destroyer. This process took years, but it was sucessful eventually, and none of the Destructive Angels remained as they were consumed from within.


Spend 1 point: Command Demi-God - Terrorize : Kill the Angels' Cult of the Destroyer
16 points remaining.
+2 next round

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242799/)
Current Power Points: 14

The Sakura Ryokan had grown beyond being a simple Ryokan. Anyone could see it. Where the usual Ryokan housed maybe a dozen or two family groups at a time, each of whom would stay for a week at max, the Sakura housed around at least hundred family groups at a time, and that was the least crowded it ever was. It could have as many as seven hundred family groups during a busy period, or close to five thousand people, and they would stay for perhaps a month. That wasn't including the people who ran the Sakura. It had been a single family group originally, and only nine buildings total, but now there were hundreds of buildings, from the kitchen complex that itself was three times the size of the original Ryokan, to the weavers hall, to the saké dens, to the bathhouses, to the herb gardens and fish corrals, which themselves had to be considerably large to supply a constant source of food to the Sakura. However, it seemed that the presence of the Wandering Sakura brought plenty, as their stocks never dwindled. That, and traveling family groups still brought offerings of what they had gathered in their travels. Fifty family groups lived in the Sakura, staffing the facilities day and night, most keeping things clean, but several others cooking, entertaining visiting family groups, tending the gardens, tending the Sakura's courtyard (which was kept pristine and beautiful beyond any other part of the ryokan), and rebuilding anything that might have gotten damaged, or building new buildings as they were needed.

Truthfully, it could not truly be called a Ryokan anymore, but the Saku Rasi had no other word for it, and it was the only one of it's kind that they knew to date, so they referred to it by the only name which everyone understood: Sakura.

Sakura was becoming a more and more important place for the Saku Rasi, for even those who worshipped Aniqua and the lonely wanderers recognized the Wandering Sakura as the piece of divinity which had given them life, even if they did not worship it. So, the entire race travelled to and from Sakura at one time or another, and eventually a time came that in the forests near Sakura, clear paths could be seen, etched out between the trees where hundreds of thousands of footfalls had forever changed the shape of the land. One day, the father of one family group, a Saku Rasi by the name of Jina Yetomu, noticed these paths while he was thinking on how his family had gotten lost a few times on his travels to and from different places. In this moment, inspiration struck. Over the next month, Jina Yetomu would speak of his idea to anyone who would listen, and he gathered a group of builders who would help him build the first roads.

Not even a single lifetime later, and the Saku Rasi had perfected the art of making roads. Raised off the ground a few centimeters, and made of stones fused together with a special kind of mud mixture that, once dry, would act as stone, and never turn back to mush. The roads were curved in such a way that water would simply pour off of them, and arranged so that traveling on one for no more than a full day or two would take a wanderer to a Ryokan or a sound camping site. However, travel one way on a road far enough, and it didn't matter which direction you had originally been walking, you'd wind up at Sakura, as the roads looped around the continent, and Sakura was their nexus.

With the advent of roads, encounters with other family groups became much more common, and, in following the example of Jina Yetomu, families became much more interested in sharing their ideas with one another. It was from this sudden constant brainstorming on the roads that led the race to collectively recognizing that they wished to travel across the ocean, to wander where their legs could not take them. So, it came that ideas for revisions on the boats of old were constantly being built, tested, rejected, and revised again.

This was a much greater undertaking than simply making roads, but a fair portion of the entire race was bent upon it, and soon very stable ships were built. Ones with three separate hulls that where connected with cross-beams. These boats would stay afloat regardless of conditions, even if a single hull cracked and they started taking water. They also learned that they could build the ship to any size and out of any material and, provided they met certain criteria, it would stay afloat. They learned how to best catch the wind with the sail, the shape of the hull which would allow the greatest speed, and efficient living quarters for anyone manning the ship. They learned many more things besides, and they quickly began consolidating topics they had mastered together, until they came up with three basic ship types:

The Kōpopé. A long, thin ship propelled almost purely by four or more dozen pairs of oars. Lightweight and shaped to cut through the water, the Kōpopé is design for pure speed, with no regard for carrying provisions. However, it is cleverly designed, with several fishing lines dangling from the bottom of the hull at all times, which can be retracted fairly easily through special hatches in the bottom of the deck. This, combined with a simple hooded fire pit at the back of the ship, supplies the crew of the Kōpopé with however much food they will need.

The Sangi. A three-hulled ship connected by crossbeams. The outer hulls are each approximately the size of a galley, with only a single deck, but the center is larger, having a total of two decks. The crossbeams cross to the lower deck of the center hull, and are large enough to allow traffic between the different hulls. Should one of the hulls somehow weigh down the rest of the ship, the crossbeams can be disconnected and retracted. This also makes the Sangi adaptable, able to gain more maneuverability by breaking into three ships should the need arise. Each hull carries two masts, each with a triangular sail. This design also carries oars, twelve pair to an outer hull and twenty pair to the center hull, overall making for a fairly quick and maneuverable vessel should everything work together. The center hull is usually used to carry provisions, while the two outer hulls carry crew quarters.

The Ikamas. A three hulled ship with a fairly shallow and wide hull being tugged by two faster hulls. The aft hull is a single deck deep, very stable, but incredibly difficult to maneuver, so is entire focused on carrying provisions and crew quarters, completely eschewing a means of propulsion, instead using the other hulls to maneuver. The forward hulls are more similar to the Kōpopé, with several dozen pairs of oars, but also with two large masts apiece. The forward hulls can be cut loose should the need arise, and then maneuver to another side of the aft hull, just to be reattached so they can propel the ship in another direction. In stormy weather, the forward hulls are lashed to either side of the more stable aft hull, to ride out the danger in safety as the aft hull drops anchor. Should either forward hull be lost, the aft hull carries two replacements in addition to everything else.

With these magnificent vessels newly crafted, the Saku Rasi left their home continent, and spread out across the oceans of Tyonix, leaving the ryokans of the Deep Lake and the Laticework Land slightly less populated. Life on the open ocean was unusual to the Saku Rasi, who could not travel in the conventional sense. Sure, the entire ship was traveling, but they weren't walking around. So, it became custom to weigh anchor and go swimming daily, and diving even became a common sport, with everyone doing flips off from the ship's prow or seeing how deep they could dive.

It was not long before the Saku Rasi found the other sides of the water, whichever way they went. To the north they found a forest of impossible size inhabited by towering, pale figures with horns and hooves. It took many years before the Saku Rasi could speak to the Idrians, but when they could, they were amazed to discover that they, as so many Saku Rasi, worshipped the god Aniqua. To the west, a land of rich forests and smooth mountains with a city full of colossal, menacing figures in red cloaks with massive white wings. It was in the streets of Eupnea that the Saku Rasi first understood what a city was, and began calling Sakura a city. East they found a strange land of grass and mesas. In this land, they also found bananas, which they found to be incredibly delicious, so many Saku Rasi would journey back and forth to this land over the next few centuries, and some roads would begin criss-crossing the Banana Land (as they had named it) soon enough.

A few voyages took the Saku Rasi very far, to the White Mountains, the polar ice caps, even, after much trial and error, the Pure Land. They even gained access to the First Lands, however, they happened to come at a time of strife, and some Saku Rasi even witnessed the Wretched Star fall upon the city Ashatorat, and the horror that followed. These few Saku Rasi would return home with stories of the danger that lay beyond the waters, and that, while they knew to defend themselves, if the horrid creations were to come here, they weren't organized enough, and they would need to be better prepared.

So, they trained. Not everyone believed that there was any real danger to prepare for, but they trained none the less. The art of archery was refined, as was the archaic pole-arm arts some utilized, and wooden armor was fashioned, until the first corps of Kyūdōka were stationed in Sakura, defending not the city, but the tree, the object of their worship. Roads were rebuilt and rearranged, until secret paths cut back and forth though the web of roads surrounding Sakura, allowing a defending force something of an edge in those lands.

However, they were not the stuff of legends, not yet, and there were other battles to be fought…


***

Far and away, Seliss looped in the air, high above the city of Ashatorat, which glowed with devastation to it's divine eyes. Their immense forms cast shadows across the blood that ran in the streets, staining the countryside red. They saw the blackened bones of uncollected bodies littering the alleyways of the once proud city. Outside the city, shattered crystals and the corpses of a thousand heroes, wise men, and their companion beasts had been left to rot on the heat-blasted, crater-covered stone. To the Seliss, it all glowed like a bar of iron heated until close to melting, and the divinity was filled with anger and the need to right this wrong. It would free the city of Ashatorat, starting with the one who had led the attack.

It did not take long to find the star, as it hid in the crater of the southern volcano, cowering, for it possessed the foresight of a divinity, and knew to fear what was coming. As the twelve colossal birds alighted on the lip of the volcano, the Wretched Star burst forth with light, but it's foe simply glared into the chaos with it's twenty four eyes. Their wrath would be swift and righteous.

It's twelve bodies leapt from the stone perches, diving into the pit where the horror lay in wait, piercing the creature with their needle-like beaks and tearing at it with their claws, but the blight did not desire death, and struggled even as the blood of a god was spilt, boiling, onto the ground. An inferno leapt from it's form, engulfing a single body of the Seliss, and reducing it to ash in the blink of an eye. The Seliss felt the pain of death once more, but pressed the attack ever the more ferociously, until fountains of blood spurted onto the ground, and the mountain groaned, lava leaking up to join in ecstasy with the blood of destruction itself. An eruption second only to that which had coated Tyonix in ice suddenly took place, but it would take more than magma to harm the forms of gods, so even as the world itself bled from the wound this first battle between demigods had cleaved into it, the demigods raged at one another, dancing back and forth between pillars of lava, sometimes even flying through curtains of molten stone. The Wretched Star ripped another body of the Seliss in half using only it's divine strength. The Seliss called comets into the maelstrom, striking the embodiment of destruction with the fists of heaven. The seven-headed acid beasts of the Deep South were seen swarming up the side of the exploding mountain, dodging between stray comets and waterfalls of lava to reach the cater and act upon the rage that the Wretched had sent into their primordial hearts, spitting acid that hardly scathed the bodies of the Seliss. The Seliss imbued lightning with divine power, which flashed, striking jets of magma, forcing them to freeze instead of explode, alighting into spears of obsidian still carrying the momentum they had possessed before, so they struck the crippled body of the Wretched, but had no more effect than the acid of the seven-headed ones had upon Seliss.

For hours the battle raged, until at long last, the corpse if the Wretched Star fell from the sky. It was a few hundred kilometers north, as it had been trying to flee it's impending doom, but the Seliss would not be denied their justice. It's bodies now circled the corpse of the first demigod to die, taking it's last breaths. Seliss had felt death five times in that conflict, and now only seven of it's bodies flew. It would not rest, however, and left, heading north, back to where the Red Lord rested in her palace. Ashatorat would be free…


***

As the Wretched Star lay dying, however, it's last sight was of a man of untellable old age walking up to his side, accompanied by a slightly shorter angel with gray wings and a dozen Suri. The angel spoke, "Such a waste of power. What is the purpose of all this destruction?"

The old man understood, though. The Wretched Star saw it in his eyes. It had been. They fight had been good, and that was all that mattered, for a conflict of that magnitude to have existed. Even now, knowing it's death was at hand, Wretched felt something akin to happiness, or a feeling as close as a child of destruction could ever feel. Wrath, perhaps. I felt this feeling, for it could see the eruption it had cleaved out of the planet in it's last conflict from this far away. It felt this, for, by it's action, a million acid hydras and five bodies of the Seliss had fallen.

The old one understood, but did not agree.

After the commune had ended, one of the insignificant Suri spoke up, "Why show us this?"

But if either the angel or the old man were going to reply, Wretched would never hear it, for the last of it's divine essence leaked away in tgat instance, and it died…

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command the Saku Rasi to Found Sakura.

5 points to Advance the Saku Rasi with Roads.

5 points to Advance the Saku Rasi with Shipbuilding.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Sakura to Raise an army of Kyūdōka.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Terrorize the Wretched Star. Dice come up with the Wretched Star losing.


Maphttp://i.imgur.com/MJcJvgm.png

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+3=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242798/)

[ImperialSunligh]

The Loyalists maintained their control of Eupnea still, and seeing the death of the cult of Makhleb, thanked the pantheon in ignorance of what had truly occurred. In turn, the pantheon offered thanks to Nios.

But there was still a spark of dissent in Eupnea. A cult to a "benevolent" goddess, less obviously evil, but still a monstrous worm crawling into the ear of tradition to the city's rulers. Soon, believed the Loyalists, if it was not destroyed, it would corrupt the whole city.

The loyalist inquisitors, their robes shaping them as blood red shadows in the night, were sent from the blessed halls of the loyal, to eliminate the stain, as elimination was their way. Yet before their blades shed the spirits of their fellows, they spoke words, rehearsed unto them by the gods, to their brothers and sisters.

"You were fed lies by Aniqua, told to thank her for life, when the gods gave that gift to you. You believed the turbulent goddess' lies. You were weak of mind and spirit both, and so you may thank her one last time, for death."

In their place was nothing, as all know angels cannot bleed.

The gods, seeing the purity of the angels return, granted them gifts. The Sun granted upon them his personal magic. His magic was divine in nature, and was amplified greatly by implements made of gold, a plentiful material in the land of the Sun. The magics could be imbued into golden weapons, or called forth by priests who held golden tokens. The powers of the sun could destroy, burning foes in the Sun's brilliance, or heal, infusing them with his gentle glow. The result was up to his whims, it is not a priest's place to choose for the gods.

The Loyalists reacted in joy at the gift from the gods. They formed a new army of priests, who stood in defense of the city. They stood around it, protecting it, while aiding the citizens with divine magic. Meanwhile, the inquisition returned to the blessed halls, waiting for orders.

2d6+2=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4246980/)
Command army, loyalist inquisitors, destroy cult of Aniqua
Advance civilization, angels: "Golden Magic" (-5)
Command order, Loyalists, create army of angel priests (-3)

Left: 3

[Omegonthesane]

Crunch:
Power Roll: 2d6+4+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4246530/) points
Power rollover: 2 points
Power total: 13 points

1 point: Command Demigod (The Red Lord) - Terrorize (Seliss).
Battle Resolution
Red Lord: 4d6=22 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4246531/)
Seliss: 4d6=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4246532/)
The Red Lord wins!

5 points: Advance Civilisation - Singers - Spells of Destruction
1 points: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Ingrain Technology (Spells of Destruction)
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) - Raise Army (The White Conclave)
0 points: Command Army (The White Conclave) to Defend the city of Destroyer's Peak.

2 points left, because my angel cult only went splat this turn rather than the previous turn.

Once more, the fates were not kind to Makhleb, and it found itself exhausted by the effort of birthing a second child. It felt a profound loss in its heart, and its burning eyes appeared over the Land of the Sun, watching for what had gone missing. It entered all the old sites of worship, and at all of them it found diseased and rotten corpses, all with the marks of a particular method of ritual suicide on them. Only the divine could have been this thorough, and only one demigod killed so slowly and subtly.

That day the Destroyer cursed Nios, and vowed revenge. For it had been there when the Evolving Parasite was made, disguised as one race, then as another, and another until its true nature was seen. That shape-changing mass had no purpose but to serve the Void's will, and the Void's will had directly struck at Makhleb for the first time.

Yet this was not all the fates had in store. There was an unearthly howl over the city of Eupnea, not to mourn the cult, but because Makhleb was manifest there when it sensed a far more profound loss. In the moment of the Wretched Star's death, the Destroyer saw its fatal battle with that wanderer's flock of pet birds - a flock with awe-inspiring destructive powers, but ultimately a flock hostile to Destruction. It had seen how Eull the Wanderer personally witnessed the dying moments of its wretched child, and it had seen the righteous anger in the Seliss' many eyes. It knew what was to come. Makhleb appeared over Ashatorat, once again in the form of a child the colour of soot and ash, its eyes locked upon the incoming birds even as it descended into Jarat Sur's palace - the Red Lord's palace, now.

"Child, what did you do?"
"Your will," the Red Lord angrily spat at its creator. "I did your will and I lost him in reward!"
"What?!... No, I didn't want him to die!" Even as Makhleb retorted, it looked into its daughter's eyes, and saw that for once her rage made its own look meek. It had lost a powerful tool, but she had lost a brother and a son.
"Didn't you? Then why didn't you save him? You have that power!"
"I also have a world to purify! Do you think I would have allowed our son to die, given the choice? My power is not limitless!"

For a day or two, they were permitted to mourn in a fashion more typically associated with the mortal and living. Then at last the Seliss' wings beat in the sky, and they had a chance to grieve in a more destructive way. Makhleb's burning eyes appeared on the skyline, but the Red Lord glared at its corporeal form, and it stayed its hand.

"This is my fight, master, not yours. If I can't avenge my son, then what good am I?"

As had happened before, when the 1st Volunteer Army approached, the Red Lord left her palace to confront the incoming foe. There was perhaps a light of relief in the Seliss' eyes, as this meant Ashatorat would not suffer the wounds of this second battle of demigods, but its first and foremost priority was expressed in the meteors that began falling from the sky. The Red Lord was only large for a Suri, and her flesh could not naturally have taken even a single strike from such projectiles - with divine grace, and the sorceries she had learned from her cultists, she danced and Twisted her way out of their path, until finally she missed a beat, disappearing from one projectile's path only to end up directly in the path of another, which slammed into her leg. Fortunately, her flesh was no more natural than that of her adversary, and for now she only had to wrench the broken bone back into place to be able to fight again.

The Seliss dived, all seven of it that remained from slaying the Wretched Star, and the Red Lord found herself surrounded by pecking beaks and raking talons. For a while, it was more than she could do to evade them all, and scratches and marks appeared on her body, so she acted to even the odds. Lunging into one of the Seliss, she seemed to disappear for a moment, and the earth cracked open beneath where she stood; it turned out, she had Twisted herself and one Seliss into the very soil to deny the fraction of a demigod room to move, and torn out its throat with a single bite.

Swifter than human eyes could see, two Seliss swooped down and clawed the Red Lord's shoulders, carrying her into the sky, where - they reasoned - she could neither dodge, nor Twist out of their grip. The error was realised as soon as the Red Lord had realised what happened; suddenly a sea of flames surrounded her body, and the two Seliss that had dared grab her were burnt to a crisp. She fell perhaps fifty feet, and where she landed, the very ground was not so much burnt as boiled away.

It happened that she looked on Ashatorat as she landed, and realised she had to end this soon, before her city received any of the fallout. She Twisted repeatedly into the sky, setting the remaining four Seliss alight with a glance each, before falling upon one of them and allowing it to tear a chunk out of its flesh. Wrestling it, she forced it to swallow the morsel, as a berserkworm fell from her wound; another had entered the Seliss-body that had attacked her, and accelerated by the Red Lord's power, it drove the body insane and drove the Seliss' consciousness from it. While the now subverted bird fought one of its brethren, the Red Lord Twisted again into the path of each of the other two, clutching them to herself before simply allowing herself, exhausted, to take them with her towards the Unmappable Archipelago below. With a splash that could be seen from both Ashatorat and Bellerophat, the two demigods entered the water. Had the Red Lord let the two Seliss go, they might have swam out despite their sodden feathers and their forms incapable of swimming; as it was, with their smaller lungs, they eventually drowned. As the Red Lord would have eventually drowned, had she not the strength left to find a pocket of trapped air in the depths; as it was, that one breath was enough for her to swim out despite her sodden fur.

A pair of Suri fishermen were surprised to see the sodden, now-undignified tyrant of their city climb out of the water, but she paid them no mind. Returning to the original battlefield, she found that the two remaining Seliss bodies had killed eachother - even better than she'd planned, for she had feared to fight the winner in her weakened state.

At first, she was enraged to see Makhleb's little humanoid form with the last Seliss, holding it, cradling it so it didn't have to die alone... with about all the awkwardness you might expect of a being of pure rage trying to show pity and affection. Then her maker explained - the wanderer Eull had similarly watched over the Wretched Star's dying hour, so Makhleb was returning the favour.

***

While its corporeal form cradled its dying enemy, Makhleb's fires and burning eyes were seen over Destroyer's Peak, in a formation spoken of in Singer prophecies. For it was written in the good news of the Garden of Flies that on the day great Makhleb gave that signal, the Singers were to prepare in earnest for the Day of Wrath. They formalised the teaching of the Spells of Destruction that had originally dug out Destroyer's Peak, and in doing so, improved the efficiency of these spells, and ingrained them into their cultural identity. As was, of course, inevitable - how, exactly, could the Singers of the Hymn of Destruction be outmatched in magics that caused destruction?

Soon, a cabal of sorcerers emerged from their ranks. The Singers had few natural distinguishing features, so had long ago learned to use various substances to change the colours of their thunder-flesh to other colours of the rainbow, but only with the formal teaching of the Spells of Destruction had they been able to make white. So, as the first military force in Singer history, the White Conclave had the unique honour of dyeing their entire bodies with the newly discovered dyes.

[Neelien]

rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4247719/) bringing me up to 22.

After the Evolving Parasite had done its job, Nios recieved some form of divine message from the Yellow gods. He had trouble understanding it, but he eventually managed to comprehend the general meaning of it : the Yellow ones had thanked him for his actions. He could not reply to them directly though, so he continued thinking.

There were many things he wanted done, and many things that needed correcting. The massive Pyrofight was not a pleasing sight, but Nios was still hoping things would calm down by themselves in the south. Maybe by destroying another cult of Makhleb, he'd manage to help reduce the destruction...

That's what he'd do in these years, he'd destroy a single cult, and see what happened.

The Parasite did its job, creeping up to the Destructive Idrians and infecting them. Over three generations, all those that had the slightest trace of the red Spark slowly became less apt at surviving long winters, as heir skin became weaker and weaker. Eventually most of them died. Many of them understood it was because of their worship, and those that abandoned the path of Makhleb were saved, but their skins would bear the mark of the infected, making their life difficult. Their children would not suffer the same fate though.

Spend 1 point : Command Demigod - Terrorize : The Evolving Parasite destroys the Idrian Cult of Mahkleb (It's undefended right, or did I miss something?)
21 points remaining
+3 to next roll

[Benthesquid]

Many Suri had died in the failed attempt to destroy the Red Lord- not only those of the First Volunteer Army who had fallen on the field of battle outside Ashatorat, although these were mourned long and loudly- immediately upon word of their fall, a vote was taken to erect a monument to their heroism, and a second that no future army would bear the name of the First Volunteers.

But there had been other losses. Following the speech of the Suri mystic who had claimed to speak with Sehk himself, many other spirit walkers had tried to duplicate the feat. Most had returned to their bodies admitting failure, but three never awoke, remaining in stasis-like state. None knew to where their spirits had gone, and they became known as the Sleeping Three. Eventually, the bodies withered and died, and the names of the Sleeping Three were inscribed on the monument to the First Volunteer Army.

More numerous were the Crystal Corpses. When the Bellephoratan boffins first succeeded in implanting crystals into animals, they were eager to attempt the experiment on Suri. Their first attempts, however, failed to account for a serious bio-theological consideration. While the animals they experimented on were the result of a Direct Divine Intervention- when Sehk had bled onto the trees and caused them to give forth the wildlife of the First Land. The Suri, however, were the result of a subcreation, being creations of Urat Sur, rather than Sehk himself. The incantations used to bind the crystals to the life force of the animals were completely different from those that should have been used for the Suri themselves.

The results were varied- from the merely disappointing, to the horrifying and grotesque. Some Suri merely rejected the crystals, which were removed with minimum injuries. In others, the growth of the crystals was out of control. The lucky died quickly as the crystals pierced vital organs or cut off important blood vessels. In others, the crystal growth, while unrestrained, was limited to the outside of the body- these Suri found themselves completely encased in unyielding crystal, and suffocated or starved to death.

Desperate to perfect these techniques, and fearing that they would be banned from further tests if the fates of these volunteers became known, the boffins buried the dead in unmarked mass graves. After the fall of the First Volunteers, when this became generally known, a smaller set of monuments was erected on the gravesites.

However, not all the Crystal Corpses rested easily in their graves. In one, a Suri known by the mononym Jalit, the death of the host body had not been accompanied by the expected death of the crystal. Indeed, just the opposite occurred, as the crystal spread throughout Jalit’s body, crudely mimicking the physiology. However, due to the precise and irreplicable nature of the bio-theological inscriptions used during the implantation of that crystal it did not, as in a few other cases, merely mimic the structure of the brain, but actually created a duplicate of the Suri’s mind. As the blood from the other Suri seeped into the soil around it, the crystals took it in, and since, removed as it was from Urat Sur’s blood, it still maintained an echo of his divine spark, it was enough to awaken the crystal that already half believed it was alive.

When the creature that only remembered being Jalit emerged from the ground, displacing a stone monument, it was not easily distinguishable from the more successful hosts of the living crystals, except that on close examination, those parts of its body still made of flesh were dessicated. However, the creature had died once, and it had a terrible fear that it would happen again. So it extruded long crystal structures into the ground, consuming the broken crystalline forms of the corpses that had shared its grave.

By the time a terrified group of Suri arrived to discover it, it towered over them, nearly three times as tall as the tallest of their number, and no longer shaped much like them. As it’s bulk grew, it had extruded more legs to support it, and coated itself in a layer of thick spikes and ridges for protection. Now it stood on six legs, it’s upper body only vaguely recognizable as Suri shaped under the irregular spikes and facets.

When they first encountered it, the Suri of Bellephorat thought that it was some new terror come down upon them, from the same source as the Red Lord and Wretched Star, and the Second Volunteer Army was called on to protect the city. However, it was soon noted that the Crystal Colossus took no hostile action, but merely retreated slowly before the advancing forces of the army. Finally, a spirit-walker, a bold soul indeed considering the fate of his and her fellows in the First Volunteer Army, made contact with its mind.

The mind had changed- it had only ever been a rough duplicate to begin with, and it had grown with the body. But it still retained a core of its former identity- Jalit had given his and her life once in an effort to safeguard the city, and as much as it feared death, the Crystal Colossus would gladly have embraced it rather than harm Bellephorat. Less than a week after it had emerged from the ground, the Crystal Colossus knelt before a special assembly in the largest plaza of Bellephorat, pledging itself to the city’s defense and aid. It was met with thunderous cheers.
***
Meanwhile, the city had been undertaking other measures for its defense. A group of Suri presented themselves, claiming a blood-vision from Urat Sur directing that the defense of Bellephorat be placed with a group empowered to make decisions without recourse to a full assembly of citizens. This provoked heated debate, which came to violence on more than one occasion, until a compromise was proposed- the Free Knights of Urat Sur, as the group of defenders came to be known, would be appointed by a full assembly, would serve for strictly limited terms, and were at all events forbidden from exercising their authority within any of the Grand Plazas in which the assemblies took place. The penalty for attempting to balk any of these safeguards was death and the obliteration of one’s name from the Rolls of Citizens.

The Free Knights, taking seriously their charge, immediately set to work. With intense study of the Crystal Colossus, as well as the other Crystal Corpses, certain strides were made in understanding the underlying bio-theology, and after years, a new use was devised. Rows of saplings were planted around the city, and crystals embedded in each. The saplings, as results of a Direct Divine Intervention, even, as they were, at a remove of thousands of generations, made for ideal hosts, and the crystals quickly grew and encased them, mimicking their form. A scant handful of years after the initial planting, the crystal trees, guided by spirit-walking horticulturists, had grown around and into each other, forming a massive crystal wall surrounding the city, in which gates could be opened only by those Spirit Walkers trained in the guidance of the crystal-trees.

Crunch
Roll=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4248111/) with zero banked, makes a total of thirteen.

Create Demigod: The Crystal Colossus (Seven Points)
Command Demigod (The Crystal Colossus): Inhabit Area (Bellephorat) (One Point)
Command Avatar (Urat Sur): Create Order: The Free Knights of Urat Sur: One Point
Command Order (Free Knights of Urat Sur): Create Structure: The Crystal Wall (Three Points) (+1 to defense of the city).
One Point banked for next term.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+3=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4242798/)
Current Power Points: 10

"How can we not do anything?!" Nameless was in a rage, "She killed my sibling, your child, the Seliss! How can we simply allow the one who did this to continue on?!"

They had left the Suri they had been traveling with far behind, so they might discuss things in private. Refugees fleeing Ashatorat, they had happened across the god and Nameless, but a god is not found by accident. They had a reason for being here. Though, the god would not yet reveal it to them. They thought that Eull had led them to the side of the dying demigod to show them something, but that was not the case. You see, Nameless had been becoming angrier and angrier as of late, as they traveled through these war-torn lands. Desiring to intervene, to act upon the power that he felt coursing through his very soul. You see, Eull had not led his companions to the side of the demigod for the Suri, but for his son. To show him what his sibling had wrought, and to show that all are equal. The Wretched Star had been acting on what it viewed as it's purest purpose, and for that it had won a war, and then lost it's life, and Eull had shown it mercy in that moment. In turn, Seliss had won a war against that creature, acting on what it saw as it's purest purpose, and then earned it's death in it's next battle. In turn, destruction had attempted to comfort the dying demigod, so it all came full circle. Eull did not remotely understand the emotions and ideas that led a soul to desire such things as the Wretched or Seliss had desired, but he had to admit that they existed. He also had to admit that they clearly existed for his closest child. Nameless might seek his own purest purpose like any of his other children. That's why he had taken him to the war of the demigod, to make sure that the Angel witnessed what that purpose might encompass. Such destruction would exist, and Nameless would certainly amount to great things if he sought that path… but did he want to? Was that his heart's desire? A war to fight? Eull wouldn't impede him if he indeed sought such a thing, but he also wouldn't pretend to understand if it was…

Nameless looked long and hard at his father. He had not considered it. he was closer to being mortal than his father, so he could see and understand such things that would lead to a soul desiring war, but was his need for those emotions stronger than his need to wander in neutrality? Would he part ways with his father, who was the only soul he knew to date that truly understood the core of the Angel's being, to go and fight a war that wasn't even his own? Perhaps not. The need for justice was not yet strong enough,

However, he wasn't planning on letting the subject die just like that, "I still think we, or more specifically, you, should try and restore the Suri their city. Something simply isn't right about how it's been taken from them."

In response, Eull turned back towards the Suri who stood in wait, and they then knew to catch up.

They travelled a long way, following the Gray God, those few men and women. Across the war-torn wastes of the Suri lands, where more Suri joined their caravan, most who had lost everything but the clothes on their back.They eventually crossed beneath massive fern forests, before emerging beside the coast, they found a few abandoned Saku Rasi life-boats that had been discarded due to cracks in the material. A wave of his hand was all that was needed for the Gray God to straighten the planks and make them air-tight. From there he led the Suri across the Unmappable Archipelago and to the Land of the Sun. They wandered past the city of Inquisitors, and then across the Smooth Mountains, encountering other tribes of Suri with different customs along the way, who had been displaced a few thousand years ago. The hundred or so Suri who followed the Gray God were in shock at the beauty of this place as he next led them through his highlands, with it's Cloud Vines and towering waterfalls. Some Suri had stayed behind with the misplaced tribes, finding peace in their simple ways, though around half stayed with Eull as he led them across the highlands, then through the thousand islands full of a thousand small creatures, and then through a jungle where the occasional standing pillar glowed black and blue. Eventually this gave way to simple jungle full of the cries of a million million birds. Still they traveled, and traveled some more until at long last, a decade after Old Age had first met them, he led the Suri into a cave, where a true Black Onyx rested, melded into a stone pillar and surrounded by a thick carpet of moss and a thousand ferns and vines.

Here is where they would part ways. They were simply the seeds, though. It would be another few generations before this act would bear fruit. They would need to forget their pain, forget the lament of their suffering cities. Perhaps twenty generations would be enough to smooth the pain away into legend well enough. In the meantime, the Black Onyx would be the center of this new tribe, who had taken to calling themselves the "Fari".


***

Ehk Rellis danced in the night sky. They were restless, and straying into Eull's line of sight constantly, spelling out runes in the night sky. Eull didn't quite understand how an extension of his divine will could possibly be that energetic, but if was happening before his very eyes, spelling out the runes for chaotic choice, basic life, abstract creation, and certain knowledge, all in rapid succession. Those runes had no particular power alone, so it had to be a message of some sort. Was it expressing the knowledge that it was alive? Oh, wait, a new symbol. Dispelling? Ah, that means "no". Chaotic choice was perhaps the first step in the pantomime? The symbol for coalescence! That must mean yes. So something dealing with choice. Ehk Rellis wanted to make a choice? Coalescence again. It wanted to do something then. Something concerning abstract creation and certain knowledge? He wanted to write a book? Dispelling again. Abstract creation and basic life? It wanted to create life? Coalescence! Certain knowledge must mean that it already knew what it wanted to make. All it wanted was for Eull to set it free to make whatever it was it wanted to make. Well, Old Age had no objections, and with a wave of his hand, the Avatar was set towards acting out it's own will.

The fifteen points of light immediately sped to the location if the being which had inspired it. To the lowest point on the entire planet, plunging beneath the waves of the Deep Lake, and diving down, beyond underwater mountain ranges, down the fairly gentle slopes of the landlocked ocean, to it's heart, where a chasm lay, fifteen kilometers down, itself a full additional kilometer deep. Sixteen kilometers below sea level, there is no light except that which was created by a few creatures that adapted to that place, specifically, a bioluminescent jellyfish that Ehk Rellis had sought out.

Selecting five, the stars broke apart, each surrounding the glowing jellyfish with three of their number, and began to rise up, pulling the jellyfish with them in bubbles of high-pressure water they kept preserved. Up and up and up they went eventually breaking through the surface of the water, and then up further, and further, until they reached the place where the atmosphere grows thin, and true stars shine all the clearer. In that place, Ehk Rellis began moving in tight, careful patterns, forming runes of divine power in rapid succession over and over again, while maintaining the bubbles of high-pressure water with the objects of their curiosity.

Again and again they formed the runes, a thousand and fifteen in total. For days they repeated the magic, and all the time, the jellyfish were being fundamentally altered. They advanced. The developed brains, muscle, and grew in size. Weeks went by and the power was simply poured on, until the bodies of the jellyfish grew opaque, but still brilliant in their bioluminescence, and they grew self aware of what they were.vThree months passed in that cold place high above the oceans of the world, and Ehk Rellis developed dozens more for each of the five jellyfish, for five alone was not enough to populate a race.

At long last, the fifteen stars unleashed their six hundred children, and the race plummeted through the air. Other creatures would have died, burning up as they built speed, but these simply tensed up, sculpting their shape into one that would slice through the air. Besides, their flesh was resilient, and heat alone was not enough to break them. As they neared the surface of the world, they had broken into five clumps of one hundred and twenty apiece, and they dived as one form, deep into the oceans of the world, a few kilometers away from each other, just off the south coast of the Pure Land.

These creatures were completely unlike the jellyfish they had been born from. They had a humanoid shape, with two legs, a torso, two arms, and a head, but were still boneless. Their flesh, however, was nothing but immense bioluminescent cords of heavy, dense muscle, which they tensed and compacted down until their bodies were as stiff and hard as steel, holding themselves upright on land with pure strength alone, without bones to support them. Needless to say that their physical strength was only overmatched by demigods, which was actually somewhat odd considering their stature of only perhaps a meter tall. Not only this, but if the need arose, they could relax, and gain a degree of flexibility that could only be had by a boneless creature. They did not breathe exactly, but instead simply soaked the oxygen up from the water around them. They could do the same above water, but it was much more difficult for them. They had no eyes, the top of their head from the mouth up was a gelatinous dome which contained the creature's analogue to a brain. Without eyes, however, they had too see through echolocation, or something similar. You see, they didn't emit occasional high-pitched tones, but instead a constant low-pitched explosion via convulsing every muscle in their body. In the ocean, they could "see" for kilometers in every direction, but above water, it was much lessened, to only about half a kilometer, and only across the ground. The tone was too low for most creatures to hear, but so incredibly loud that they had no choice but to feel it. They could also speak just as loud in tones that could be easily heard, and it became one of their favorite tactics to shout their foes into deafness and submission. They themselves had no fear of loud noises, however, nor of the ice cold of the bottom of the ocean, or of the heat of volcanic vents, or even lightning, for such forces barely impacted their flesh. With their immense strength and amorphous-to-a-degree body, they were very fast and agile in the water, propelling themselves up to almost five hundred kilometers per hour to catch their prey, being carnivorous. They weren't as fast on land, having to use their physical strength to remain upright. They had lost the poisonous tendrils of their original form in the transformation, but still maintained their bioluminescence. Though, the colors varied, and now the five different tribes glowed five different colors, corresponding to the three stars that had held them. One tribe's brick-red bodies would glow a deep red, a second glittered with shocking hues of bright blue on dark blue flesh, a third's mottled black-and-purple skin radiated in an eye-watering shade of indigo, a fourth, pearl-skinned tribe glared pure, bright white light, and the last barely glowed at all, with just a few tracings of white light here and there across their pitch-black bodies.

These were the Shou Tahs, as they would one day be named by the Saku Rasi, and they were daunting creatures. Capable of unparalleled brute strength, impossibly loud sonic battering, ludicrous flexibility, and even resilience to most forms of attack. The only fact that made them less-than-ideal warriors, was their low birth rate and the (incredibly petty) in-fighting between tribes, which kept their numbers so low that many races thought them to be a myth for many years.

Still, Eull looked with mild distaste at the Shou Tahs. They were simply too excessive. Looking up at the sky, he witnessed Ehk Rellis signing the symbol for Invoking Joy, and shook his head. That was the last time he allowed a piece of his divine will to do whatever it wanted.


***

Meanwhile, just a little ways south, the Saku Rasi were settling the Banana Land, setting up plantation as well as many different Ryokans across the mountains and grassland, though most remained on the coast. However, raids from Serpent's Den, those detestable pirates, were growing more and more common, so Sakura had dispatched a second army of Kyūdōka to defend the settled territory they possessed.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Create the Shou Tahs.

4 points to Command the Saku Rasi to settle the westernmost inch of the Banana Land.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Sakura to Raise a second army of Kyūdōka, which is directed to defend the inch of Saku Rasi settled territory in the Banana Land.

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+3=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4247279/)

[Fiig]

Aniqua loved the Flowering forest, calling it the Bloom, but it was devoid of sentient life, Idrians preferring the White mountain, which they call their ancestrial home. So the old crone created fairies, small creature with fine features, and gossamer wings, to them the old crone gifted beauty, a deep love of life and incredible intelligence. They sprouted up among the flowers and

As the carnage of angels came, three escaped and travelled to the bloomed, where they met the faires and in their last years taught the ways of Aniqua to the young race.

Aniqua was outraged, the sheer waste of life. For no reason, the murders of the angels who loved beauty and life. It was too senseless to Aniqua, so Aniqua sent the old crone to the angels to rekindle the faith of beauty.

Then Aniqua raised an army of Angels which would protect the cult from those who would seek to harm it.

In the White mountains the Idrians village of Rivis had grown so large that it was no longer a mere village, it was truly a city now, its population had swelled over the last many years, due to its position of trade and ready available materials

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249273/
12 from last round
+5+5
=22 for this round

6 create race
3 command order to migrate
1 create cult(avatar) in angels
4 raise army of angels
4 Command Idrians create city

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249294/
4 points left
6 from cults
1 chaos
7 from roll
=18 for next round

[Omegonthesane]

Makhleb heard the Red Lord's cries for additional aid, but they were in vain; the Suri were not its people, and it could not simply make them so. Besides, it was entirely possible that Bellerophat had tired of bloodshed. It had been at least a generation of Suri since the Wretched Star, by now - an attack on Ashatorat could hardly be called a liberation when many within its walls had known no other way.

Instead it turned its gaze to the Singers, its first born and its agents of purification. It was irked by the continued heretic singers of the song of Life, the followers of Aniqua, but it yet again stayed its hand - it had already attracted the wrath of three gods, the winds of fate still did not truly favour it, and it saw in the God of Life a potential ally against the void of Nios.

The Pure Land was pure no more, having been mapped by Saku Rasi settlers who had apparently crashed ship after ship through the protective storms rather than walk the Long Road. With this in mind Makhleb had no rancor when the Singers, independently of its edict, used their destructive spells of fire and heat to melt the glass into a nice safe road. If anything it was an opportunity - their creator directed them to capture Thunder Birds, and brew a strange concoction out of the secretions of Berserkworms which came with the Thunder Birds.

Meanwhile, in Eupnea, the demons saw their religious ancestors die to what, to them, seemed like simple plague. They had never quite seen eye to eye, but to see this publicly thanked as a holy act of the "virtuous" Pantheon was both appaling and frightening to many of these outcasts. It came to pass that one of their number, Esh'tan Marr, had been preparing madly for all his life instead of rutting and partying in the slums of Eupnea as many of his kin did; it came to pass that he was older than any demon could remember, for he had not indulged the destruction in his veins, and had reached six hundred years of age before opening his vaults and speaking his plan.

Before the next purge came, before the oh so pure inquisition decided that the colour of a person's wounds or the growths on their flesh was as poisonous as the worship of the other self-proclaimed God of Purity, the demons would escape, and they would found their own city. This was Esh'tan's plan, and though a significant minority of demons opposed it, in the end they did not stop their kin from fleeing deep into the forest on the eastern sea board.

Here, the refugees applied precision spells of destruction to cut down trees, clearing a space to make their shelters, and giving them raw materials with which to do so. At first, the new Sanctuary was nothing but shelters in the style of Eupnea; some of these served double duty as places of worship, but strictly religious buildings of any kind were forbidden, for though some demons still followed the Pantheon of Eknad, not one wanted a repeat of the Inquisition. After the shelters came the pleasure houses, and a simple hall of adminsitration where the heads of the Demon clans could negotiate and direct the city. They decided that their children needed distractions other than rutting and deforestation, and that Esh'tan, now dead, should not have died in vain; in order to achieve this, they built a forge to make weapons, and raised an army, the 1st Sanctuary Militia. These warriors would risk their lives to defend the city from invaders, laying down their lives without question, and enforce such few laws as the Council of Heads felt were necessary. They would be branded, on each cheek, to show the path they had chosen, and they would be held to standards of honour, restraint, and integrity that in any other demon would be saint-like. Any member of the Militia found to have betrayed their city, shirked their duty, or done unwarranted harm to any citizen or any fellow soldier would be put to death without appeal. In return, they would by the law have the unquestioning obedience of the citizenry while they were on duty, and received significant discounts from all demons who were trading items or services for any kind of wealth.

Meanwhile, in the Realm of Thunder, the original Singers realised they, too, should be preparing for the Day of Wrath. Their plane had become more nuanced over the ages, now capable of expressing forms other than thunder-material. They shaped some of it into a horn which, when blown, emitted a blizzard as well as a mournful note. They shaped this weapon and named it the Horn of Winter, in the hope that it might be sent to the world as a tool of destruction on that Day.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249129/) points
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 14 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) - Berserker's Brew. Tentative incursions along the Long Road into the Pure Land allow the Singers to capture and cultivate a nest of Thunderbirds, and more importantly the Berserkworms in their flesh, whose rage-inducing secretions can be extracted and concentrated into an extremely useful performance-enhancing drug.
4 points: Command Race (Demons) - Found City (Sanctuary). Situated on the east border of the Troud Forest with a view to the Black Pillars (and most importantly more than one entire "inch" away from Destroyer's Peak).
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Raise Army (1st Sanctuary Militia). Tactical description to be posted in the OOC thread.
0 points: Command Army (1st Sanctuary Militia) - Defend Sanctuary
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (The Horn of Winter).

Points remaining for next turn: 0

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+3=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4247279/)
Current Power Points: 21

Dust hung in the air above Bellephorat. The Wall of Crystal stood in the distance, glinting slightly in the setting sun as the farmer came in from his farm, wiping dirt from it's brow as it licked it's teeth at the smell of it's companion cooking. This was one of the oldest Suri farms on Tyonix, and this Suri's family had lived here for generations, since the days when Ashatorat wasn't even yet a dream. They had survived the ice age, turning from farm to hunting ground, and then the birth of Bellephorat, with everyone bickering over which leadership was the best. They had weathered through the last few thousand years of strife as well. One of this Suri's ancestors has watched the Wretched Star come to Ashatorat. That same ancestor had watched the birds, which the Suri had no name for at the time, bring the accursed creature low. Then, further north, it had watch the same birds fall to the Red Lord, after struggling to free the land of the Suri. That ancestor had scavenged the remnants of the last bird to have fallen, scarred and shattered as it was to have been caressed by destruction, and brought them back to it's grandsuri's farm, setting the immense skeleton up as a shrine to the courageous and powerful entity. This is where the Suri of this day stopped, before it reached the kitchen, where it's companion had dinner set and ready. This Suri stopped here every day, to thank the creature for it's shining example of bravery, as well as it's nearly successful attempt to free the First Land from the bloody grip of the tyrant, the Red Lord. However, when this Suri entered the shrine today, it found that it was not alone.

Standing before the skeleton was an angel with gray wings, standing with his arms crossed. Just before the angel, was a man of impossible age, regarding the shrine. This Suri was of half a mind to try and throttle these intruders from it's home, to cry out to it's companion to bring some weapon, but something stay it's hand. It wasn't until it's initial shock faded that it realized what held it back: these two men had the bearings of something far greater than men.

After a moment, the angel spoke, without turning, "I thank you and your family for providing such an effective monument to by sibling."

The old man felt that this needed no thanks. It had been done, and that was all that mattered. This Suri did not know how it knew this, it just did. Quietly, it replied, "Your welcome, whoever you are, but I wish to know. Who are you? What are you doing here? How can that creature be your sibling?"

"Companion, who are you talking to?" this Suri's companion came wandering up to the door of the shrine, just to fall silent at the sight of the two figures with their back turned.

The angel replied, "Did you know that the Wretched Star and the Red Lord were siblings? When a deity creates his progeny, it does not ever follow the same rules as when a mortal does so. As to who we are. I have no name, but I am the child of the entity before us, who is named Eull, or Old Age, or the Gray God, however you wish to name him. He is a deity, and he created the creature who you have constructed this shrine to. As for what we are doing here, I don't rightly know. My father doesn't always tell me what he intends to do."

The god was here because the bones were still alive.

This silent revelation shocked everyone present, including the demigod. The Suri couple went wide-eyed and looked up at the towering skeleton before them. Nameless immediately asked a question, "So she still lives?! You intend to bring her back to full life?!"

They didn't live quite that way. She would never draw breath again, or rise on the wind. However, this family, who lived on this farm, they had prayed to her every day for a thousand years, and the divine magic which had granted the Seliss it's hive mind went all the way down to the bones. The hive mind needed a living soul to exist in, so had truly died when it's last physical form died, but the magic which granted it such power was still here, and the opening of the souls to it had allowed it to live in them once more.

"So… you mean…"

The Seliss lived inside the minds of the two Suri by the door.

This Suri and it's companion looked at one another in shock. The great bird lived inside them? How could this possibly be?

It was still too faint. The mortal forms of the Suri were not designed to express the thoughts of a demigod. However, the faintest glimmer of life had returned to this monument. Perhaps Seliss could return… in a new form.

"We will do whatever is needed, god Eull, to give this icon of all the courage in reality life once more," this Suri spoke, to the affirmation of it's companion.

That was good, for that way would be easiest. As long as even a single fragment of this skeleton remained, the Seliss would have an anchor to build it's consciousness from. So, the skeleton would be split apart, with the skull hidden not too far from here, where a true emerald glinted on a shelf at the top of a cliff. Eull would carry it there himself. The people of this farm would have to get more and more mortals to open their hearts and souls to the bird. It may be difficult, but they would not even need to pray to the skeleton specifically. The things the Seliss had stood for, or the memory of it's last battles, even, would be all that were needed. If such things were given, the hive mind would begin growing stronger, until they would begin feeling each other's thoughts, and above and within them, the ancient consciousness of the Seliss.

The Suri agreed, taking down the skull in that same moment. Over the next few years, the old farm would begin gaining more visitors. Slowly at first, but then more, but it still wasn't fast enough. It took many decades before enough mortals opened their souls to the Seliss that the Seliss would live once more. The couple who had met the Gray God would not live to feel the life reawaken inside their own thoughts. However, the day came that it occurred, and in that instant, what had been called a new cult instantly became something different. Where before there had been a few clutches of foolish-looking Suri preaching the religion of "the Bird of Bravery", there were now clutches of world-weary and wise Suri speaking secrets of demigods lost to time. Soon after this, they began spreading out, spreading the hive mind across the world, until the Seliss even encompassed a few Faeries and Saku Rasi, even Singers and Shou Tahs.

The Seliss lived again.


***

Deep under the waves of the ocean, the Shou Tahs had barely changed at all. They were still as childish and shortsighted and confident in their own ability as they had been in their first moments of life. They were perhaps more territorial and bossy than they had been those days, but that might have been a point of contention, if anyone had desired to discuss it. As it stood, no one had any particular desire to discuss it. All sentient life that knew of the Shou Tahs, either were Shou Tahs, or did not want to think about Shou Tahs. After all, any contact the belligerent race had with other races always resulted in something being destroyed. The Saku Rasi actually had a list of ships which had specifically been sunk by Shou Tahs. Even Singers were a little dismayed by the recklessness of the jellyfish people.

Shou Tahs did not generally find that they needed possessions, as their own limbs were enough for them to catch their prey. They did not sleep either, so had no need for buildings. No sense of modesty meant they had no desire to craft clothing for themselves. In truth, if it wasn't for their ability to speak to one another, they would have perhaps been considered animals.

Ehk Rellis was still filled with joy at it's creation, but it found it odd that they hadn't developed a culture as quickly as the Saku Rasi or the Demons had. Also, why weren't they reproducing all that quickly? Five hundred years and six hundred Shou Tahs had become maybe nine hundred. Something certainly wasn't right in their society. Surely they were perfect creatures.

Maybe they needed leadership. Yes, that must be it, they needed a Shou Tahs to show them the way to civilization. So, with a simple rune, Ehk Rellis set into motion the birth of the Shou Tahs named Rounomin Roukalin. This Shou Tahs was of the brick red variety, and massive, even for one of his kind, and loud. He could bellow so loud that it ignited the air in his mouth, earning him the nickname Firetongue.

Firetongue had odd instincts. He desired conquest and rulership, which other Shou Tahs really didn't want to comply with. So, it took one brawl after another and another before finally they had no choice but to bow to his rule. Still, he had to fight every day to keep others from overthrowing him so that his rule might remain secure. He conquered the entire Red tribe, and led them to build him a palace, which the entire tribe congregated around at least once a week, on the undersea slopes of the Pure Land, just a few kilometers south of the edge of the storm line. He named this palace "Rou", after himself, while he fashioned himself the "Red King". His rule was petty and brutal, but he had resulted in the construction of something which was the closest thing to a full-fledged city that the Shou Tahs could currently amount to. That, and when the day arose that Firetongue was not strong enough to defeat his challenger, instead of the Red Tribe simply going back to the way it had been before, the challenger took up the position of King. This was the first sign of a desire for order that the race had ever shown, and would eventually lead to an actual culture…


***

Deep in the Marshlands, a Ryokan was opening it's doors for the first time. This was the most ambitious Ryokan ever constructed in this part of the land. Incredibly tall pillars of specially treated Troud wood had been driven deep into the mud, placed close together to form walls. Now, despite their remarkable length, only enough remained above the mushy ground for the walls to stand three meters into the air. Those walls enclosed and offered support to a courtyard of hard stone, built in the same way the roads of the Saku Rasi were built, but thicker and more carefully, so that it wouldn't crack and allow the bog to leak up. Upon this courtyard the buildings were constructed, including this place's pride and joy. It had taken years and considerably long periods of being encased in hot mud for the builders of this Ryokan to get it's central building to work correctly, but they had eventually succeeded. The bathhouses of this Ryokan were built on top of a hot spring, and after special pumps and filters took out the unpleasant contents of the water, it was a steaming hot bath in the middle of the Marshland, where such a thing was considered impossible, due to the uncleanliness of that water and the inability to produce a good fire to warm it.

Very few Saku Rasi enjoyed going into the Marshlands, due to this difficulty of travel, especially considering how roads were so difficult to build out there, but they went anyways, for there were many items which could only be found in those lands, including truffles as well as spider and moth silk, which were quickly becoming a favorite materials for clothing. A single spool of Arochno silk was itself worth a year's stay in Sakura. However, with the advent of this Ryokan, named "the Sela Ryokan", after the Sela family group, which had founded it, traffic into the Marshlands became much more common. Not only this, but the novelty of living in such a inhospital place actual drew in more family groups, and before long, they went as far as to rename the Sela Ryokan to simply Sela, as it had become another city, albeit considerably smaller than Sakura. They even rose up their own army of Kyūdōka, out of tradition, to defend the city. The army did come in handh, of course, for those from the Serpent's Den would often try and sneak in to rob the guests of the valuables they had gathered during their times in the Marshlands.

17 points to Create Avatar: The Seliss.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Shou Tahs to Found Rou.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Saku Rasi to Found Sela.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Sela to Raise an army of Kyūdōka.

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4247278/)

[Neelien]

rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4250085/) bringing me up to 30 points.
As he thought, there was no more need for Nios to intervene in te south, as the situation had calmed down. There was also no more need for destroying the Red God's followers.

For a while he observed the Shou Tahs.

"Creature has trouble developing society, compatible with current theory of what is necessary for civilization. Most impotant factors are physical limitation and extensive communication. Successful civilization like Saku Rasi are not strong but intelligent."

The Saku Rasi were a successful civilization indeed. They had build the most cities and had acquired dominance of the seas. No other species was as spread out as they were, and none had acquired as much knowledge of the world as they did. Being rather humble by nature, most of they would never admit to being the greatest navigators, but that they were, and this was especially true for those that were instructed at Sakura. Some of those navigators even challenged themselves to see how deep into the Great Hurricane they could venture.

In these years, Nios did not do much either, but soon he would use the power he'd saved up to create his own civilization, in the waters of the Unmappable Archipelago.


4 points : Advance City (Sakura) with Navigation

26 points remaining
+3 to next roll.

[Benthesquid]


Not long after the completion of the crystal wall, it was rushed into use. For the first time, a hostile army stood before the gates of Bellephorat, determined to make the city their own. Rather to the surprise of the Suri of Bellephorat, the army did not march on them from Ashatorat, nor was the fearsome Red Lord at its head. Instead, the army marched under a fluttering blue banner. These were the last followers of the Fellows of the Stone Head, descendants of those who had fled Ashatorat in the time of the Wretched Star. After centuries of wandering the wilderness without hope of reclaiming the city they believed rightfully theirs, they had hit upon a desperate plan- they would conquer Bellephorat, enslave its Suri, and use them as soldiers in what they almost universally referred to as the Holy War.

The Fellows of the Stone Head were having a harder time keeping control of their army through traditional means, and relied more and more on the techniques of Acoustic Thaumaturgy to ensorcel them and keep them compliant. So bespelled were the Suri who assembled on the hills outside Bellephorat that it never occurred to them that defeat was possible. They rang their bells- still, somewhat to their surprise, attuned to the Far Sounding Bell in distant Ashatorat, and wove complex thaumaturgical webs to turn aside the Spirit Walkers of their enemies. They sang the ancient war songs of Ashatorat, and celebrated their victory before battle was even joined.

Seeing this ragged, barbaric army drawn up before their walls, the Bellephoratans did not initially know how to react. There were some who said that the Ashatoratan exiles were after all their siblings, and, even if their martial disposition made it impractical to welcome them with open arms, that the order of the day was negotiations. Others, remembering the flight from Ashatorat that had led to the founding of Bellephorat in the first place, urged that the army be destroyed with all haste. These, in turn, were divided among those who suggested that the Second Volunteer Army take the field against them, and those who wished to call upon the Crystal Colossus to fulfill its oath to defend the city.

In the end, the Army of the Blue Banner solved the problem by charging the walls of the city. The advance troops Twisted their way to the tops of the walls, and then down into the city, seeking a way to force the gates open and allow the rest of their troops access. They were disappointed, and soon found themselves attacked by the Second Volunteer Army. There ensued vicious bouts of street fighting, as the highly mobile Blue Banner troops engaged the heavily armored, nearly impervious crystal implanted Suri of the Volunteer Army. The fight was surprisingly evenly matched, with the Blue Banner Suri unable to penetrate the defenses of the Volunteer Army, who in turn had trouble pinning the constantly twisting enemy in place. Gradually, however, the tide turned in favor of the locals, who had been born and raised in the streets, and knew every foot of them. Finally, a wedge of superheavy cavalry caught the Blue Banner forces in the flank, scattering them. From then, it was only a matter of time.

Outside the walls, the Warsingers and Bell-ringers fared little better. Although their acoustic thaumaturgy was sufficient to ward off the Spirit Walkers’ attempted possession, it accomplished nothing against the more direct tactics the Spirit Walkers soon resorted to. Storms crashed down on them, lightning striking at the upraised bells. By the time the crystal walls opened, disgorging the superheavy cavalry with their sigil-engraved crystal armor, this part of the battle, too, was a foregone conclusion. At the end of the day, the Second Volunteer Army marched in triumph through the streets of Bellephorat, carrying the Blue Banner captured from their foes.
***
The Crystal Colossus rested on the outskirts of the city. It did not know whether to be relieved that it had not been called upon to act against the Fellows of the Stone Head, for it had no special taste for violence, or disappointed that it had not been able to save the Bellephoratans who had died in that battle.

Abruptly, it turned to the left, a sense that no longer had much in common with sight as the Suri knew it focusing on the figure that emerged from the tree lines. It looked like a Suri- more than the Crystal Colossus itself did- but it was impossibly tall, taller even than the Crystal Colossus himself.

The Colossus all at once realized who it was that stood there silently, and fell to its knees. “Blood of my blood,” it said quietly.

Urat Sur said nothing- he and she was older than words, and generally disdained to use them, but the Crystal Colossus found what remained of the blood trapped within its mineral form singing to it. After a long moment, it responded. “You’re right, of course, Grandparent, there is much work to be done, but I don’t know how to proceed. How can I make them safer?” Another period of silent singing followed. “I see. You mean that safety is not enough. They could hide forever behind these walls, but it would be a stunted life, and they would eventually turn in on themselves.” Silence again, “Yes, yes. They will go forth, and make this land their own. But the Red One…” The longest period of silence yet followed this protest, and finally the Crystal Colossus nodded. “Yes, I will protect them. Thank you, grandparent.” With that, Urat Sur vanished again into the treeline.

The next day, the Crystal Colossus made a speech before an assembly in one of the Grand Plazas, in which it related its conversation with Urat Sur. After an hour to consider his propositions, a vote was taken. By a narrow margin, it passed. The Bellephoratans sent volunteers forth to settle the territory surrounding the city. There had always been the nomadic hunter/herders travelling the mountains and valleys and living in hide shelters, but now small permanent towns began to be built, rough wooden structures, with the occasional stone or crystal structure in the center. For the most part, these towns were merely for the support of the herdsmen, butchering and salting the beasts, and allowing them to experience the comforts of non-nomadic life a little more often than their semi-annual tradition of driving their beasts to Bellephorat for the slaughter. However, they also served another purpose- that of bringing the land more directly under Suri control.

The greatest of these towns was that called Calamorat. Located in a large and unusually fertile valley, it was from the start planned as something special, and its architecture was grown almost entirely from trees implanted with crystal seeds, and carefully cultivated by Spirit-Walkers.

It quickly became a major outpost of the Free Knights, from where they based their patrols, and their expeditions to capture or kill the outlaws who preyed upon the new settlers. However, the Free Knights knew that alone, while they could serve as lookouts and justicars, they could not stand against the possibility of another invasion. Which is why they were glad when the Crystal Colossus again made a speech, calling for enlistments in the Third Volunteer Army. This army, designed to defend a much larger region, was consequently constituted differently than its predecessors. Instead of the massive, crystal encased juggernauts of the First and Second Volunteer Armies, lighter armor was used, the difference in protection being somewhat made up by an increased use of protective sigils. In all, the Third Volunteer Army was a much more mobile force, on both a strategic and tactical level, but without the raw force of its predecessors.


Roll=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249378/) plus one banked makes seven.


Command Army (Army of the Blue Banner) Attack Bellephorat to capture.
Battle ResultsFirst fight, against the Second Volunteer Army:
Army of the Blue Banner= 15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249626/)
Second Volunteer Army=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4249626/)

Command Demigod (Crystal Colossus)- Command Order (Free Knights)- Raise Army (Third Volunteer Army) One Point
Command Avatar: Command City: Create Satellite: (One Point)
Command Army (Third Volunteer Army)- Defend Settled Zone around Bellephorat
COmmand Race (Suri): Settle Territory (Four Points)
Total six points, one left over.

[ImperialSunligh]

The Sun's fury burned even more now. "Foolish Aniqua who claims to value life, once again enforces her vain ideas upon the learned race of angels!" He cried out. The rest of the pantheon, without exception, supported the Sun in this. There could be no mercy for those turned to evil and the angels would be once again forced to slay their kin.

The pantheon saw that the cult had amassed an army to defend itself within the boundaries of their own city. This invasion could not be suffered to continue!

Yet to send the armies of the angels against these foes, no, said the Sun: "The blessed ones shall not be wasted." The gods collaborated in a ritual that pulled the cult's protectors from the land of the Sun, leaving nothing left. They reemerged in Tyonix, with a great flash of light, in Destroyer's Peak, where the gods hoped they might perish alone.

Meanwhile, the loyalists practiced another ancient ritual themselves, mirroring acts of the gods, and pulled from the holy realm of Paradi a sword used in ages past, sacred to the angels, the sword of life. Though it was unnecessary, the loyalist army took up the sword and used it to kill the remaining cultists of Aniqua in the city.

One by one, the sword of the worst of wars shed spirits again, rending them from their bodies with minimal motion. The sacred abomination proved not to have dulled at all since its fashioning.

Roll: 2d6+3=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4251090/)
Reroll: 2d6+3=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4251091/)

Command Order, Loyalists, Miracle: transport wonder, Sword of Life to Tyonix (-3)
Event: Teleport Aniqua's army into destroyer's peak (-7)
Command army, inquisitors, to kill Aniqua's angel cultists.

Left: 0 :(

[Fiig]

It was on the eve of the second slaughter of angels in Eupnea, that Aniqua created her third Avatar. The Maiden, always seen as a female of the race whom the looker belongs to, as this is the only way they can comprehend the astonishing beauty, the thrill of her voice resonate in the minds of those who listen, her fragrance reminding people of the things they find most attractive, and the soothing feel of her presence lulls people into a blissful state.

The moment the maiden came into the folk, magicians across Tyonix felt a waking sensation, and they knew that the true form of beauty now walked upon Tyonix, wishing that their eyes could gaze upon such beauty.

The maiden came into being in the land which the Saku rasi called the banana land, here Aniqua taught the maiden how to create life, it was through this that the race which would be known as the lizardfolk, would be born, they would know themselves as Maimec, as they came into the world they looked upon the maiden, and saw what their leader should be like, from then on they would always choose females as their leaders, and as they gathered before the Maiden, Aniqua spoke to them. "This land shall be yours, i created it long ago, it is a fertile land, with many possibilities, use it well for now it is yours"

The Maimec, are a race of reptoid creatures, their scales vary in shades between green, yellow, red, blue, white and black. they normal Maimec male stands 1,5 m, The females are 1,8 meters tall and lay between 70 and 100 eggs at a time once a year, of all the eggs, only few become female, as the eggs rely on temperature to decide what will become of the eggs, and higher degree of heat is needed for an egg to become a female. They do not have any hairs and their senses are mostly the same as the other races, although their sense of smell and taste are far better.

In the Destroyers peak, the rebel army was quickly hidden away by the cult of Aniqua in the singers, who saw their brethern in belief, and believe Aniqua would punish them should harm come to them, afterwards the angels was smuggled out of the city in secret, but the angels did not know where they were, and set out to explore the mountains stretching before them, as long as the bird could see.

17 create avatar: The Maiden
1 point to create cult... in you know who(Angels)
just kidding :smallwink:
1 point to create race Maimec(their culture is gonna be some mix of Maya/Aztec/Inca and their appearance think silurians from doctor who)

0 points left
2 from chaos
5 from cults
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4251802/
+4 from roll(well cant be lucky every time, hehe)
11 point for next round

[Omegonthesane]

By ancient tradition and command, only Singers were permitted inside the actual mountain of Destroyer's Peak; over the centuries, as Singers adapted to the impure world, the administrative area of the mountain had come to encompass a series of crude shelters for about a mile around it.

Irritatingly, it was not here that the angels of Aniqua were sent, but right into the heart of Destroyer's Peak, where only Singers and the divine were traditionally fit to tread. Yet, Makhleb had no need of making Aniqua its enemy as well. It acted subtly but surely, once it realised the angels were trying to hide, ensuring that every Singer acted like they were successfully gone. After all, they had not chosen to earn retribution.

The angels of Eupnea, sadly, had; and even more sadly, would have to wait. The time was not yet right; there were powers established as hostile, poised to counterstrike if Makhleb moved just yet.

The Singers continued their preparations for the prophesied Day of Wrath. Their rough treatment of one another was eventually researched. It was found that their magical nature, combined with their sadism, allowed them to extract sorcerous power from the hormones that elicited pain. The White Conclave were first to test this new branch of dark arts and first to perfect it, and soon their number took turns to be the one brutally tortured for magical powers.

Filled with a strange kind of excitement at this news, many Singers demanded to join the White Conclave. They were all refused, but the best of them were formed into a separate organisation in mimicry of it, their flesh dyed red with a particular set of runes dyed onto their tendrils in white. These were the Red Screamers, and they could be told as much by their trembling, oddly swaying gait as their markings; to separate themselves from the White Conclave, and best exploit the technology that was new in their time, they laced their bodies with barbed wires in the most painful places, which scoured and sliced them as they moved, providing a well of pain for their Cruciatic Thaumaturgy.

Faced with the benefits of their new power source, the quality of the Singers' Spells of Destruction atrophied significantly. They were still powerful, yes, but there was no longer such demand for the old, exacting texts when power deficiencies were no longer such a bottleneck. Besides, the Spells of Destruction could only destroy, and that in a boring fashion; the new power source led to many new ideas for new projects and advancements that could be powered by the new magic. Some dreamed of fires that heated and lit every wall without burning them down, others of stone tablets that regenerated and could be rewritten on, or that could be etched from thousands of miles away, all powered by a tower of dark offerings.

It is perhaps no surprise that the demons took quickly to this new path of sorcery, for the same destruction and suffering that formed Singers ran through the veins of demons, and there were many in Destroyer's Peak willing to share secrets with their kin. The most extreme of the pleasure houses began to function as a strange kind of mystic battery, offering clients the chance to be used in the new pain-magic for the benefit of the Sanctuary Militia and the city's utilities. One or two clan leaders tried to denounce these as temples of Makhleb, but most assumed this was uninformed slander at the time.

In a place beyond mortal reach, preparations for the Day of Wrath continued. The out-world Singers felt that more tools of direct destruction were boring; instead, they created a set of bells, attached to cuffs designed to fit around a Singer's tendrils. These worked on principles of acoustic thaumaturgy, crudely plagiarised by Makhleb from the Suri who build the Far-Sounding Bell; they compelled all who heard their ringing to join in the dance, overriding all but the most basic survival instincts and making easy targets of their victims. Unsullied by exposure to Tyonix, the outworld Singers were at first confused by the simple beauty the resulting dance created, for their narrow minds had to be taught if they were to comprehend anything but destruction.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4251642/) points
Power rollover: 0 points
Total 15 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) - Cruciatic Thaumaturgy
0 points: Reemphasise Technology - from this day onwards the Singers have Ingrained Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, and have not Ingrained the Spells of Destruction.
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (The Dancer's Bells). Description to follow in OOC.
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) - Raise Army (Red Screamers)

5 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

Rolled 13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4252468/) bringing me up to 39 - time to do stuff

Nios felt the time was right for him to create a sapient species like all the others (with the exception of the Purple God) did before him. He would base his creation on the Strings, as he felt they had great potential. He also felt that the world was stable enough, as no single god was currently dominant.

He would give them the intelligence and strength they lacked to develop a civilization. This did not amount to a lot, as Nios only gave them two small separate brains and unified some of their cells to create smething similar to muscle. The Strings were now in control of their movement. This small change alone would not be enough to create a society however, so Nios Allowed their brains to extend from one side of the String to the other allowing easier communication between separate Strings. They could convey information much faster and over much greater distances than any other species, as most indiviuals were at least 20 km long.

Alone the Strings were still about as intelligent as most fish, but when, about 100 years after their initial creation, enough of them connected together a new society was born. It was one common mind, known as the Stringwork.

After a few years, as more Strings connected to the Stringwork, there appeared a place where connections were more common. In this place Strings began branching, connecting together in intricate patterns, that would evolve to increase efficiency, until the Stringwork managed to coordinate itself. It started organising itself, putting longer usually tougher Strings in further away so that they could collect the energy required for the others to specialize, and keeping the shorter Strings, that were more efficient at working with information, in the center. This huge black mass became known as the Stringwork's First Core.

The First Core had some specific regions, known as Agglomerations that would be more or less independent from the rest of the Stringwork. These served the purpose of bringing new ideas. They consisted mostly of Strings that were too different from the rest to fit correctly into the Stringwork. Because of how different they were, in many cases the ideas they brought were rejected by the Stringwork, but sometimes they would formulate ideas that would allow the Stringwork to grow more efficient, and they were kept for that reason.

250 years after its appearence,the Stringwork faced its first real challenge to expansion. It was becoming too large, as it easily acquired the energy required to grow from the Archipelago's moving isles, the fish and occasional Shou Tahs that would get tangled in it (the later usually causing some destruction but providing higher energy yields). As a result, it was begining to have trouble managing itself. Unwanted connections were becoming much more common, and the Stringwork was beginning to fall appart. Something had to be done, and so the Stringwork's finest Agglomerations were put to work, in search of an answer.

It took some time, but eventually a solution was proposed: the Stringwork would have to be mapped. This required specialized Strings. There would be those responsible for storing the information and those responsible for analysing the Stringwork. The first saw their data brain's size increase, and the second found themselves aware of their surroundings. Together, these Strings created the first ever map of the Stringwork, a map that would change as it evolved. As a side effect, the Stringwork also now had very accurate data on all of its surrounding terrain.
This process took another 150 years.

Nios knew most mortals would not be aware of the Stringwork's existence, but the other Gods might be, so he directed the Evolving Parasite to protect the Stringwork from harm.

And so the Stringwork had come into existence. It was still far from being as intelligent as Nios wanted it to be, but eventually it would evolve and become a tool for discovering the truths of the World.

6 points : Create Race - the Stringwork (The Stringwork is "amphibious" by the way) Starting in the Unmappable Archipelago.
4 points : Command Race (the Stringwork) - Found City "The First Core" in the Unmappable Archipelago. The Core's location is not fixed, as it moves alongside the isles.
6 points : Create Order - The Agglomerations for the Stringwork
5 points : Advance Civilization (the Stringwork) - Mapping/Cartography
1 point : Command Demi-God (Evolving Parasite) - Inhabit Territory (The Unmappable Archipeago)

17 points remaining
+0 next round

[ImperialSunligh]

While Aniqua's army avoided its end in the north for now, the gods at least took solace in the return to purity in Eupnea. Seeing this as an opportunity, the gods granted upon all angels a gift of inspiration. They took into their nature an innate affinity for weaving the divine forces, especially those of the Sun. It became a great aspect of their culture, angels tending to use it to accomplish feats other races would normally use brute strength for.

While they did not follow the angels to quite this degree, the humans of Paradi were still partially divine, and learned much from their time living with angels. They grew the same knowledge and affinity for golden magic.

The Loyalist council was directly contacted by Eknad, who delivered a message on behalf of the pantheon. The pantheon, seeing both the martial strength and intellectual skills of the humans, had come to a unanimous decision to allow the humans to descend to the land of Tyonix. But the gods needed assistance with this. The Loyalists, overjoyed at being directly contacted by the gods, gladly followed their orders to the letter.

First, the loyalist inquisitors were sent on a pilgrimage up the mountains to the north. The loyalists in Eupnea would work a miracle to bring a group of select humans from Paradi, depositing them on the mountainside. While they would not yet have the power to create an organised city, the humans would find themselves under the defense of experienced angelic assassins who would defend them from any attack.

The priestly army remained in Eupnea to defend the city, especially necessary now that their forces were divided.

The humans began to call the southern area of the mountain range where they lived, "Eknad's Bosom". The humans in the area grew particularly fond of Eknad, who they praised for his variable nature, which they identified well with.

Roll: 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4252886/)
Command Order, Loyalists, Miracle, Transport Humans to Tyonix (-3)
Command Race, Angels, Ingrain Tech, Golden Magic. (-4)

Left: 0

[Benthesquid]

As the years passed, Calamorat grew more and more in size and importance, although it would never truly rival Bellephorat. It became known as the Second City, or the Little Sibling. In fact, it grew so large that the Crystal Colossus, who with its strange mineral mind had become the chief strategist of the Free Knights, judged that it deserved its own defensive force. In due time, the Fourth Volunteer Army was raised, and dispatched to protect the Little Sibling. They made heavy use of a new craft that had developed in the Second City, although in time it spread to the other two Volunteer Armies as well. This was the art of Animating Sigils.

Like the similar art of Defensive Sigils, its origins were shrouded in mystery. Although no Suri Spirit Walker stepped forward with claims to have spoken with Sehk himself, one claimed to have made contact with the still wandering spirits of the Sleeping Three. According to the Spirit Walker, the three had taken him and her on a spiritual journey. He and she had watched a single seed fall from a tree, and over the course of what must have been near a century, watched it grow into a mighty conifer. He and she watched the birth of a Suri child, and recognized it as his and herself. Then came the rising of the Crystal Corpse, the implanting of the first crystals. Time ran backwards, and he and she watched Urat Sur emerge from the Heiligeiche. Time sprang forward again, and Urat Sur was bleeding onto the clay mannikin that became the First Suri.

When the Spirit Walker awoke, it was with a fundamentally deeper understanding of the divine spark of life. Had he and she already been schooled in Bio-theology, there is no telling what the results of this vision might have been. Unfortunately, although a powerful Spirit-Walker, he and she had no scholarly training. After a desperate night of trying to make sense of what he and she had seen, the Spirit Walker was only able to produce a single symbol, albeit one of incredible complexity. When that symbol was inscribed in the dirt, and the Spirit Walker bled onto it, the dirt began to roil and buck as it strived to be alive.

This was quickly inspected by the bio-theological boffins and the sigil-workers. After much theorizing and examination, they were able to identify the seventy-seven aspects of the symbol, and begin to understand what each one signified. With assorted combinations and recombinations of these, they were able to create crude semblances of life. These creations had no minds of their own, but they could be imbued with crude instructions, or could be guided by Spirit Walkers.

The most common form was that of the Servitor, a crude bipedal figure formed of mud, which would be imbued with a very simple instruction, such as drawing water from a well, or chopping wood. Rarer, as the sigil they required was far more complex, were the homunculi, diminutive Suri figures carved of bone or horn, with articulated limbs and joints, their sigils engraved with a pin. These could follow more complex instructions, with the most complex being able to copy written text or drawings.

Of more use in the military were the Willow-Folk, figures of dried limbs and woven withes, half again as tall as a Suri, which could move forward, swinging huge clubs methodically in front of them. Also of use were the Rope-Babies, knotted figures no larger than a child, with dangling arms of frayed rope, which would lurch forward and spin wildly across the ground, entangling anyone in their path.

Much to the disappointment of the bio-theological boffins who worked on these sigils, they were unable to find a combination that would animate a figure composed wholly or largely of cultured crystal.
***
Meanwhile, back in Bellephorat, advances were being made in a very different manner. The Spirit Walker Bellis Sur announced that he and she would make a very special demonstration. Ever eager for some diversion, the Bellephoratans gathered outside the crystal facade of Bellis’s home. Bellis was nowhere in evidence, but a fog quickly descended upon the crowd. Then a wind sprang up, howling in a dozen different directions at once, whipping the fog into fantastical and grotesque shapes. Finally, clouds gathered and a warm rain fell, quite briefly, before the clouds again dispersed to leave the suns shining down on the assembled crowd.

There were whispers among the crowd, which quickly grew to jubilant shouts as they realized the implication of what had just happened. Bellis Sur had perfected techniques for sending his and her spirit out to control the winds and rain, not in the crude manner the storm herders had employed for centuries, but with finesse and precisions. When Bellis Sur and a small group of followers explained the full extent of their plan- they proposed to build a tower to house dozens of Spirit Walkers trained in these new techniques, who would send their spirit forms forth to manage the weather in the entire area of settlements controlled by Bellephorat- they were met with near unanimous acclamation.

The tower, built at the insistence of Bellis Sur out of stone, rather than crystal, and topped with a large copper dome, was christened the Tower of Storms. The Weather Walkers, as its inhabitants came to be known, were not perfect in their methods- there would still be unwanted storms, floods and droughts, unseasonably cold spells, and all the other malign forms of weather, but they would be further apart now, and much less severe when they came.


The Crunch

Roll=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4252582/) plus one banked makes eleven.

Advance City (Bellephorat): Animating Sigils (Four points)
Command Demigod (The Crystal Colossus): Command Order (Free Knights of Bellephorat): Raise Army (Fourth Volunteer Army)
Command Army (Fourth Volunteer Army) Defend Calamorat
Advance City (Bellephorat) Weather Control (Four Points)
Command Avatar (Urat Sur): Command City (Bellephorat): Create Structure: The Tower of Storms: One Point
Edit to add totals: Ten points, one left over.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4247278/)
Current Power Points: 14

A new class had risen in the Saku Rasi culture. Before, there had been traveling family groups and the more stable Ryokan owners, each with their own classes and networks within them. Now, however, the Kyūdōka were effectively becoming their own cultural group.

This transition had started when it became common knowledge as to how, for over a thousand years, no single Kyūdōka army had ever come close to being defeated. Kyūdōka had died of course, in small skirmishes with stray Reavers, but those were minute, only fifteen out of perhaps ten thousand Saku Rasi would die. This led to a common belief among the Saku Rasi that the Kyūdōka were an unbeatable fighting force, and thus even the most incompetent Kyūdōka soon became a hero welcomed readily into the best rooms of any Ryokan at no charge. It only required a decade of this idea gaining momentum before ego ran rampant in the ranks of the three armies, while simultaneously resulting in some Saku Rasi actually neglecting their training in lieu of indulging themselves in the newfound luxury, thus weakening the ranks of the Kyūdōka.

In turn, the higher ranking officials of the armies had to reconstruct their approach to how they trained their troops. To begin with, they disallowed the Saku Rasi from visiting Ryokans except on business. Even armies which guarded a specific Ryokan-city remained outside it's walls. Instead they constructed their own, unique buildings, where they tended to their own gardens, their own livestock, and their own living quarters. They were more than welcome inside the walls of Ryokans, of course, but still chose to live on their own, in these structures, which they named "Edakyū".

Next, as bickering was arising among the ranks from competing egos, the leaders of the armies implemented a more finely grained rank system than they had before, with the army being broken into one thousand (give or take a couple hundred or so, depending on the year) different groups of ten Kyūdōka apiece. These groups were called "Gōn", and each had their leader, their "Sho", who was recognized as the best in that Gōn, and had official rights over the rest of the Gōn. Ninety of these thousand Gōns, however, were elevated to a higher station, where each member of the Gōn was considered on-par with a Gōn Sho. These Gōns were referred to as "Dō Gōn", and their Sho were above even Gōn Sho, able to direct any regular Gōn as if they were members of their own Gōn. Nine of the thousand Gōns, however, were raised so highly that any member of them where on a level equal to the ninety Dō Gōn Sho. These Gōn were called "Yet Gōn", and their Shos were only matched by members of the one-in-a-thousand group, the Saku Gōn. The members of the Saku Gōn were the leaders of the entire army, and their Sho was the Saku Gōn Sho, the leader of the entire force of Kyūdōka.

When Kyūdōka became as isolated as this, however, their manner of keeping wives from the Ryokan families became all but impossible, as they were not allowed to visit often enough to act as husbands. Still, many wanted children sired by Kyūdōka, so it became a common practice for some Saku Rasi woman to never marry, but instead, as they were permitted, to occasionally visit the Edakyū, acting as a secret wife to a Kyūdōka, with only the purpose of having his children. There were mixed feelings about this practice, as the woman always remained as a child, still living with her original family group, and never starting her own life, but others insisted it was a noble act, to sacrifice herself to strengthen the ranks of the Kyūdōka. Her daughters would also remain with the family group, choosing their own course in life when they came of age, but the sons would, at six years old, be sent to the Edakyū to join the ranks of the Kyūdōka. The boys could also stay behind with their family groups, if they so desired, but many took the opportunity to become the honorable Kyūdōka instead.

This was how the Kyūdōka refilled their ranks, as slowly as they were depleted. As Gōns lost Kyūdōka to promotion, death, or retires, they would shuffle freshly trained Kyūdōka into the ranks, from the bottom up. Occasionally someone outside the family trees of Kyūdōka would nominate themselves to become a Kyūdōka, but it was very uncommon, and eventually became frowned upon, and then unheard of.

The Edakyū varied from army to army, but all generally tended to be fairly tall. The Sakura Edakyū was a series of camps a few kilometers outside Sakura, built on raised foundations some ten meters thick, with raised walls even above those foundations, and towers every so often along the walls. This provided the best locations to survey the forests surrounding Sakura, as well as a good place to get a decent long shot on anyone they might spy out in the woods. These Kyūdōka were some of the most honored in the world, considered the holy guard of the faith of the Wandering Sakura, but they also received the least amount of combat, as the only thing in Sakura was the Wandering Sakura, which was itself only important to the people of the world as a symbol.

The Sela Edakyū was constructed much in the same way as Sela itself was constructed, but with much taller walls, them with their own towers. These weren't as high as the Sakura Edakyū walls, but still provided a decent lookout in the flat lands. The real defense in this land, however, were careful built roads which zig-zagged through the marsh, hidden just beneath the mush. The Marshland Kyūdōka memorized all of them around Sela, and they were built in such a way that a Kyūdōka could get close enough to any location to fire an arrow at a target with decent accuracy, but if that target were to move closer to you, they would just flounder in the mud, moving very slow, unless they knew the exact shape of the hidden road. This army was well respected and fought fairly often, but were considered ugly and crude, as they always remained in the marshes, getting muddy and sweaty every day, and rarely ever getting a proper bath.

The Banana Land Kyūdōka had multiple Edakyū spread across the Banana Land, each small and simple. A tower or a keep surrounded by a fair bit of open farmland. Considering how much land they had to patrol, however, only one Gōn staffed each Edakyū, acting as full time farmers during their time at the keep or tower. The remaining Gōns would wander the Banana Land, patrolling it until they reached the next Edakyū, at which point the previous Gōn who had staffed it would gather up their provisions for the road and head out to begin patrolling, while the new arrivals would staff the Edakū. This army was the least respected (though still highly respected as Kyūdōka), as they guarded a distant land of seemingly little importance. However, they also partook in the greatest amount of conflict, as their forces encompassed huge tracts of land, and they responded to every conflict in their territory.

One day, a Kyūdōka keeping a night lookout for a Gōn in a Edakyū at the far eastern border of the Banana Land's settled territory witnessed fires in the distant east, where there should be no one. Baffled, he woke his Sho to ask what they ought to do…

It was on the dawn that two of the Kyūdōka would go out to find the source of these fires, and encounter, for the first time, the Maimec. Those two men wandering into a den of lizards. Many exchanges would come in the following decades, and several would consider the Maimec to be savages or pests, but the vast majority would see simply a new race in the world, and one in their own backyard… The Saku Rasi would extend a hand of friendship to these strange people, attempting as best they could to interact with the neonate race, but it was unknown if it this friendship be accepted…


***

It's true that the Saku Rasi had indeed developed navigation fairly early in their existence as a race. They had identified patterns in the sky and built a few simple apparatus, such as the astrolabe, to help keep themselves straight on the open ocean, but had not been very adept at it. They were able to keep themselves organized well enough to hit another coast 99.7% of the time, and the coast they actually wanted to hit 95% of the time, while not getting turned around and before they ran low on provisions. However, something had changes. Today Eull and Nameless walked along near a beach where several sailors were planning a voyage, their Kōpopé bobbing along some ways off shore. Nameless couldn't see them clearly from this far away, but Eull watched, intrigued.

Looking at the table between them, the god saw complex maps, devices, and mathematic diagrams which he had not believed them to be capable of for another millennia or so. From the evidence on the table, they appeared to even be capable of pin-pointing their exact location on the ocean in mid-voyage or of plotting the perfect, quickest course from any one place on the planet to any other place on the planet. Just from what he saw, they must have understood the curvature of Tyonix. Even more so considering there was a globe on the table.

Looking closer, the deity noticed that this particular voyage was to the Black Pillars, and they actually planned to try and navigate them. They must truly be confident of their abilities if they dared approach such a dangerous place. Where had this ability with navigation come from? Wherever it was, it had to be a single place, because the groups they had passed not even two years ago had not been quite this developed.

Old Age peered into the histories of this group of sailors, and saw Sakura. Specifically a saké den where these sailors had met and conversed with a particular bartender. It was in Sakura that all this technology had originated. From the mind of a single bartender who appeared to have an usual knack for understanding maps and navigation. He had no desire to go sailing, but just enjoyed the methodical organization and planning involved in navigation. He spread his findings and theories among his friends and colleagues among the Ryokan, and they in turn would direct interested sailors to him. His name was Teha Shūpo, and for twelve years he'd been compiling info, making breakthrough after breakthrough, and talking to any traveler who might be interested in navigation, until there were as many professional navigators as there were.

Teha had even discerned the fact that Tyonix was a sphere, and crafted the first globe. Such brilliance seemed immensely improbable in a simple bartender, and even as Eull stood at the edge of Sakura, a year later, he saw the telltale signs of a god's influence on the man's life. Some other god had a hand in Eull's creation? That was an interesting development. He wondered how it would progress as they interacted with one other on the destiny of that organized race.

However, Eull noticed that whichever god had done this, it had been meant that Teha would never gain fame for his developments, and the knowledge would be remarked on as merely a helpful guide for many years, and only remain developed inside the confines of Sakura. That confused Old Age, so he reached out a hand, and altered the border around the city. Not even a decade later, Teha Shūpo was being lauded as the greatest Saku Rasi genius to have ever lived, if not the greatest genius of any race to yet walk the world, and his name would go down in history as the father of the globe. Soon his teachings were engraved in the hulls of Sangi, and compiled scrolls belonging to him were found in many port Ryokans.


***

The Saku Rasi crept through the simple jungle, the cries of birds overhead deafening him as he looked for a fresh water spring, glancing about nervously in the dimming light. He hated going out alone, but they'd lost quite a few crew members during that sudden hurricane, and they had to ration their men accordingly. This, only one man could be sent to find a way to replace their water stores. This Saku Rasi found plenty of wet places in this forest. Leaves that caught water and the like, but nothing that would provide them with enough drinking water for them to make it back to the Latticework Land. What he needed was a river, or a stream, or perhaps a standing pond… like that pond there!

Rushing over to the edge of the water, the man was careful, testing for some kind of poison before he plunged his canteen in the water to let it fill up. He was excited though, this was a lucky find. They wouldn't have to search up the coast for a river or a waterfall. In his excitement, however, he didn't notice the shadow fall over him. Not until he felt the javelin punch through his throat, however, silencing his cry of pain before it was even thought of.

This was the Asaka Pond, the water of the Asaka tribe. This short one was steal the Asaka water, so Kuro Asaka had killed him. It was justified, though sad, for the short one had seemed so excited. Kuro Asaka dragged the body away from the Asaka Pond, so that his blood would not foul the crucial water.

Kuro was a Fari, a child of an ancient tribe of Suri. A tribe which had long ago been led across the world by a god and an angel. They distantly remembered the days of Ashatorat and Bellephorat via legend passed down from father to son and mother to daughter. They were much different now, however. Their fur had once been red and stiff, but was now sleek and black as night, as with the Black Onyx at the heart of their civilization. They had lost some of their upright marsupial stature, and gained a more supple feline grace. Though, their size and the way their mouths were shaped remained ultimately unchanged, as they still stood three meters tall, and had "sheaths" for their oversized fangs. However, they were less muscular, instead growing agile and lightweight, which aided as their hunting tactics involved climbing the trees and striking from the shadows with thrown javelins.

Their speech had even changed over the years, becoming all but an entirely separate language. They had also reverted to hunter-gatherers, but they still kept cities. Or, more specifically, a city. Around the cave of the Black Onyx, trees grew much closer together and much larger than elsewhere in the jungle, and in the canopy of these trees, they built their city from the insides of the trees themselves. Their architecture distantly mirrored the architecture of the city Ashatorat, halfway around the world, but was almost turned upside down, with huts hanging from trees instead of towers rising from the ground. This city was named Ruttivorat. Outside Ruttivorat, tribes thrived, but developed strong rivalries, especially over water, for it possessed religious qualities to the Fari. More on that later, however. For now, these were the tribes of the Fari, and what was once the name of a simple tribe, was now the the title of a new race.


***

Deep under the ocean, Rou had changed. In the abyssal darkness several kilometers down, what had once been a single palace for the Res King, was now a complex of buildings, as different kings had different tastes. One had ordered a grand kitchen be made, where he would feast upon all manner of creature. Even other Shou Tahs. Another enjoyed watching brawls, and so a colosseum was built so he could pit his fellow Shou Tahs against one another. A third king had been fascinated by shiny things, and his orders had eventually brought a hall of mirrors into Rou, as well as a few hundred orbs which were filled with Blue Plankton from the Black Pillars, hallway around the world. During the reign of another king, some Shou Tahs had grown tired of having to come back to the city once a week. Thus the king had commanded that they set up permanent residence. So on and so forth, until Rou was now an official city, even with it's own economy, which itself had risen when a king who had enjoyed counting had learned of economies from the dry land high above.

The current king was the fifth in a line of kings who had actually been born from the king before them, instead of simply killing the king. This one had indeed killed his father to gain the position, but that was considered beside the point. This king was an oddball, though all Red Kings had been oddballs when you consider it. This king, however, enjoyed peace and cooperation, which made him likely the first in the entire history of the race. Though, he could not be overthrown, as he was too skilled in combat, so his subjects had to learn to work together and get along, so that the first Shou Tahs army might be formed. Fifteen Shou Tahs which remained in the city of Rou, simply patrolling the area and acting together. They weren't happy about it, however, and often strayed from their posts, looking for a pod of sharks to beat up or a whale to toss onto the land.

Over the years, however, the Shou Tahs in this army learned to enjoy each other's company, and even became closer than siblings (not that Shou Tahs siblings were close), and they actually hatched a plan, to overthrow the king. Fifteen on one is not a fair fight, of course, but what came next was the first Army of Kings. The fifteen Shou Tahs shared the position of Red King, so that they were each granted the title Red King, and while each being individually brutal and insane, as close as they were, they actually proved to be able to do what no individual Shou Tahs had been able to: provide wise and even handed rule.

They even developed a system for succession where only groups of fifteen proven close allies could take the fifteen kings on at once. If the challengers lost even a single Shou Tahs in the fight, they would not be allowed the title. The Red Kings would never allow themselves to continue on if one of their brothers died, and so the instant a Red King fell, the challengers gained the leadership and the previous Army of Kings would commit ritual suicide. What they didn't entirely notice was that there was a separate consciousness inside their own, sharing their thoughts and tying them closer together…

Ten iterations of the Army of Kings leadership method, and the current Army of Kings found a collective love of watching the night sky. Thus, they decreed that the Red Tribe would watch the stars every night, and should the Ehk Rellis appear, they would shout out in unison, creating small tidal waves from the sonic shockwave.

4 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Form Alliance with the Maimec.

1 point to spread Navigation from Sakura to the entire Saku Rasi race (one-time event)

4 points to Create the Fari, a Subrace of the Suri.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command the Fari to Found the city of Ruttivorat, on the westernmost tip of The Misplaced Land.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Rou to Raise an Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Create a Cult in the Shou Tahs.

0 points to direct the Army of Red Kings to defend Rou.

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253096/)

[Fiig]

The Maimec race quickly started to populate the land given to them by Aniqua, which they in turn named Quaxants, the heavenly gift. In the first years young Maimec males explored the land to find places for settlements, as finding a good settlement would be greatly rewarded. After some time, Aniqua started to hears weird prayers from Quaxants, and realized that she had not taught the Maimec how to ask for her guidance and help. So she sent the old crone to teach them the fertility rites, how care for life and beauty. As they started to find their settlement Aniqua realised that they didnt have any where to find good shelter, and so taught them what they needed to know on how to build. Though the Maimec took it a step further and decided that Aniqua must have wanted it of them to build grand buildings in her honor, and so they quickly expanded upon the ideas Aniqua had planeted in their matriarchs. making interesting architecture, which was beautiful to look upon, yet still held function.

The leaders of the Maimec were called Mhysa, and one Mhysa leader had been travelling far, towards the location were she planned to build her home, during the early hours one morning before the group had packed the things and gathered food for the next days, two tall beings wandered into the camp, however it were obvious that they too were sentient, as no other animals in Quaxant wore clothes. Over the years many more encounters happend, and slowly they gained a little understanding of each other languages, the Maimec would come to know the tall beings as the travellers, who lived on the roads. One day a travellers walked into a Mhysa gathering, and spoke to them. About friendship, the Mhysa saw no reason to deny the request, and agreed, though they perhaps did not understand the full meaning.

The Angel rebel army had wandered for many years, but had not found a place to settle, for they did not wish to go back to the conceited people of Eupnea, in the end the found the closest thing to kindred, the fairies.
They worshipped Aniqua like themselves, were free of the other angels obsession with purity and order. But the angels were concerned for the fairies, as they had no protector, and so when they found the Oracle inhabiting an elderly fairy named Lily, who invited them to stay in the beautiful Bloom, they offered their protection of the fairy cult of Aniqua, not wishing to see blood spilt needlessly for the simple love of life, that so many of their brethern had.

The oracle had come to the fairies to direct them to build their first city, from this came the city of Farea, the fair flower. A city filled with various colours, they celebrate the founding each year with a colour festival, filled with laughter, flowers and lovers promises. The city itself consists of family houses, where each fairy family lives together, and when two fairies are joined in sight of Aniqua, the groom moves into the brides house.

Aniqua noticed that below the water sentient life was also beginning to stir, so she sent fourth her avatar to find them, and locate the ones who would worship her, the Maiden dived beneath the waves and soon found the Shou tahs, and were able to find three young shou tahs who would listen to the word of Aniqua, they were the first cult of Aniqua beneath the waves, and went fourth to spread the hymn of Aniqua to those they knew, would follow.

1 point to command avatar to create cult in Maimec
0 point to command rebel army to defend the cult of Aniqua in the Bloom(the fairy cult)
1 point command avatar to create cult in Shou tahs
1 point to command avatar to command fairies to create city Farea
5 Advance race Maimec Architecture


3 points left
3 chaos
7 cults
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253802/
5 from roll
so 18 for next round

[Omegonthesane]

Excerpt from The True Academic Summary of Arch-Scholar Nishtael's The Deeds and Desires of the Lost and the Damned, Volume Seven, Being a Brief History of the Seventh Cycle of the Second Age

Of the first Kyudoka of Serpent's Den, and the Burnt Effigies of Deserters

The Serpent's Den had not been able to escape the societial changes of the rest of the Saku Rasi; innately something of a prison colony, they had picked up those behind and those ahead of the curve, and in this way received news from their less obviously dangerous brethren. They heard of the new exalted status of the Kyudoka regiments that had harried the Reavers; it was inevitable that they would ape it when Ode Yo XVI, the current owner of the Serpent's Ryokan, finally ordered the creation of a Kyudoka to defend Serpent's Den.

The agglomeration had lost its religious edge over the years; one only had to pay lip-service to Makhleb to escape the Reavers, but Ode Yo wished to formalise this status. The first Dark Kyudoka did not number itself, but instead assumed a name, in the style of Singer military formations; as their purpose was to protect Serpent's Den, they called themselves the Serpent's Fangs. These warriors either aped or mocked the practices of the "normal" Kyudokas they were modelled after; the Serpent's Den knew no traditions other than defiance of tradition, and so the wives of soldiers were not forced to play a silly dancing game. Instead, they served openly alongside men as Serpent's Fangs, and their daughters as well as their sons were trained for that fate, doomed to it unless they ran away to join the Reavers or do absolutely anything else with their life. The hunt for Serpent's Fang deserters, required by standards of honour that Serpent's Den lacked, became a strange annual celebration in which crude mannequins and effigies of those who had fled were created, carried across the entire continent, caught, and burnt, sacrificed to Makhleb - or occasionally other gods - for crimes for whichs the actual perpetrators would suffer no consequence.

Of the Sanctuary of Excess, the Construction of the Demonic Temples, and the Second Militia
The city of Sanctuary grew under the new capacity granted them by their dark crafts. Freed from the old limitations of strong backs and their lifespan issues, they constructed tall pointed edifices of wood transmuted to steel, spires that could hold once built but would have collapsed in the construction beforehand, and many other wonders both practical and impossible. This new technology inspired the demons to work harder, to try to impress the very gods themselves; as such, the Clan Council at last lifted the ban on buildings devoted only to worship.

About one in every ten of the most extreme of the pleasure houses revealed themselves, on that day, as the temples of Makhleb they indeed had always been, and merely in knowing this they received many customers eager to plumb new depths of suffering and ecstatic agony. In many, this pain-seeking became true worship, and Makhleb itself felt divine power enter it as dying demon after dying demon willingly offered themselves up for the most exquisitely horrifying deaths the priest-lovers could devise. These were not the only temples made, for many demons still continued to worship the Eknad, and used the new magic to construct garish, impossible cathedrals of solid gold to their glory. Similar attempts were made to impress Eull, Aniqua, and Sehk, though at first these edifices lacked any kind of divine guidance or understanding of what these gods would actually appreciate, and came off suspiciously similar to the Eknad cathedrals or the Destroyer's brothel-churches. One demon, driven mad by visions and anxieties, even tortured herself to death to construct a monument of billions of metal strings, an effigy of the Strings of Nios.

In this new age of zeal, a second Sanctuary Militia developed almost spontaneously, though the First helped train and guide it. These had the same sign branded on their left cheek, and an II on their right, marking them as the second regiment; however, nearly all of them had the sign of their chosen god branded on their forehead, usually either the circle of the Sun or the flame of Makhleb. The militia split into separate squads based on their faith, and their consequent preferences of which garish tributes they wanted to die protecting; however, all acknowledged the wonder that the assortment of bizarre devotions was a wonder that ought to exist forever, and swore oaths to die to the last before allowing even a single Demonic Temple to fall, no matter the god it was devoted to. Even the monument of Nios was not permitted to be defiled.

Of the Almost-Battle between the Wild and the Cruel
A Second Sanctuary Militia had been, by this time, raised. Therefore, the First Militia felt it was time to march upon the forces of the Eupnean Inquisition. Some of these claimed that, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, these sacred murderers and their work in the night was an affront to the Eknad and deserving of death. Others proclaimed their desire to sacrifice the Inquisition to Makhleb, or a variation of one of these arguments with an entirely different god in mind - though none were quite so stupid as to think it was a good idea to burn people alive as living sacrifices to Aniqua. One way or another, they all agreed that this army of madmen had to fall before their way of life could be safe.

Yet along the way, they encountered a more terrible foe still, a small band of red tendrilled beings, that crackled with a thunder that almost sounded like screams of pain, a band who carried a collection of starving Idrians on giant stakes. The two armies gathered for battle, but - perhaps guided by Makhleb - first sent each one an emissary, to discover one another's purpose. The emissary of the abominations explained that it was the leader of the Red Screamers, and their purpose was to march upon the city of Eupnea and retrieve the Sword of Life for the glory of Makhleb the Destroyer. Knowing that they had a common enemy, and each fearing to be distracted by the other from their original purpose, they agreed to a compromise. Each would work towards their original goal, and only if both were victorious would the 1st Sanctuary Militia attempt to utterly exterminate the evil of the Red Screamers. This bitter and uneasy truce made, the demons, depraved and wild, marched on the mad Inquisition, while the cruel and wicked Singers prepared to make war upon the pure city of Eupnea.

Of the Battle of Eknad's Bosom and the Victory of Madness over Depravity
Soon after beholding the walls of their original home city, the demons of the 1st Sanctuary Militia began preparations for war. They were far from hom eand needed all the power they could gather, and the captains of the army argued long and hard how best to decide who would be crucified for the purpose. In the end, it was felt that the twelve companies, each company having twelve squads and each squad twelve demons, who formed the Militia would work best if it was not their own squadmates who were denied glory, and so the champions of each squad drew lots for which entire squad would fuel their magics that day. The squad champions deliberated before beginning this draw, and decided in secret to prevent the Militia's Grand Champion and her squad from "winning" the draw, as such a loss would break the army.

Two of these lots were drawn, and as the demons made camp inside Eknad's Bosom, they raised twelve wooden frames. Onto these, the squad who had "won" the first draw were willingly nailed, and the squad who won the second lot stepped up with cruelly hooked knives. Then, they waited; for they knew that the Inquisition would see their presence as an affront and proceed to strike.

Their plan proved true, and in the dead of night the shapes of angelic Inquisitors were seen approaching. As the alarms sounded, the chosen Cruciatic Thaumaturgists did their work; it is not best to dwell on the details of this, save that it fuelled mystic lights cast into the sky to illuminate the battlefield. Assassins that they were, the Inquisition were not so easily revealed, and launched arrows and sling bullets from their hiding places which struck down many of the Militia. However, the Militia had brought shields - a shield of magic around the site of the tortured, and shields of wood for the soldiers. Once they realised what was going on, the Militia hunkered down and waited for the Inquisition to run out of ammunition.

It is testament to the Militia's discipline - especially compared to other demons - that they weathered the storm as long as they did, but after eight full hours the hail stopped. However, their turpitude had given their enemies time to maneuver, and they were barely fast enough when the entire Inquisition suddenly leapt into the air, swooping down on holy wings to destroy these defilers. The unfortunates who struck directly at the torture site slammed against its protection spell like a pigeon into a wall, but the rest were a shockingly effective strike, many able to knock a militiaman down just by landing. Fully a tenth of the demonic soldiers were butchered before they fully realised what had happened; after that, all the tactics and strategies of their champions broke down along with their formation. Angel fought demon and demon fought angel, with spear and shield until their spears broke and their shields were sundered, with sword and axe until their swords were blunt and their axes trapped in their enemies, then with table knives, then at last tooth and claw. The golden rods of the Inquisition had no effect on their demonic kin; perhaps the Pantheon showed pity upon their sort-of descendants, or perhaps Makhleb had perverted the golden magic of the angels so that it would work for the demons.

Whatever the case, where magic failed the Inquisition, steel and faith won the day for them. The demons, for all the fact that their magic actually worked, were wild and undisciplined, fighting like a mob of individual champions instead of the squads and regiments they nominally were. Many were less brave than they imagined, and their lines broke when they realised they were in true danger; had they been more disciplined the demons might have won the day with their tactical superiority. Ultimately though, they importantly didn't, and the Militia were destroyed beyond question as a coherent force.

In the wake of the bloody battle, several demons were captured and interrogated. To the last, they complimented the Inquisition's skill and bravery, condemned their slaughter of harmless cultists, and warned them of the Singer army that marched on Eupnea - the army they themselves had been planning to slaughter, had they defeated the Inquisition.

Of the Battle of Eupnea, the Victory of Wickedness over the Pure, and the defilement of the Sword of Life

In the end unhindered by their demonic kin, the Singers of the Red Screamers Cabal set up siege lines a mere league away from Eupnea, wooden stakes in the ground connected by the entrails of living beings. They then divided their ranks into five parts. The first part was to scour the land immediately around Eupnea, to gather the poor unfortunate souls who had the misfortune to be in the Singers' range, Idrians and Suri and Angels and even the odd Saku Rasi. The second was to cut down trees and build the devices with which these unfortunates would be sacrificed, the wheel-shaped altars on which they were to die, the hemp ropes with which they would be bound to these altars, the birch rods with which they would be beaten, the horn knives with which they would be flayed, the great stones with which their bones would be broken. The remaining three parts divided into three shifts, each one lasting two-thirds of the day; so that at all times during the siege, two of the five parts of the Red Screamers would guard the siege lines, dancing strangely beautiful dances around the entire city, chanting songs both terrifying and hauntingly beautiful which told of the fate that Eupnea had been honoured with, and slaughtering those who came too close with spells of destruction. The priests of Eupnea had plenty of time to gather up their golden magics, add emergency levies to their ranks, prepare the stores to avoid being starved, and prepare for battle. They even had time to sing the proper devotions, and prepare a champion to wield the Sword of Life against the invaders.

All this they did, but having done it, they dithered and faltered. They were priests and civic defenders, not truly enthusiastic murderers like the Inquisition or the Red Screamers, and they saw that their scouts had been annihilated by dire spells. Had they nonetheless stormed the siege lines before the Singers' altars were fully prepared, they might have fared better, might have taken more of their enemies with them. As it was, they allowed their enemies too much time; the offerings were so many, and their fates so horrific, that the Red Screamers were almost annihilated by their own overflowing reserves of magical power. Tragically for the citizens of Eupnea, they did not suffer this ironic fate, and instead began a haphazard but highly effective assault when the danger to themselves became clear; a series of meteors appeared from nowhere and crushed the walls into dust, while bolts of barely controlled lightning arced from the Red Screamers into the priests who would guard against their dark deeds. Their phials of Berserker's Brew were shattered by the magic in the air, but they turned even this tot heir advantage, launching the broken bottles high into the air and amplifying their effects with sorcery; on that glorious, horrible day, a mere drop of the Brew on the skin was enough to send an angel into an irrevocable battle frenzy, a fact which killed more priests than did the wild, uncontrolled spells of destruction themselves. Rods of gold waved this way and that, healing even warriors who had been reduced to bones, but it did not work fast enough to halt the storm. The Sword of Life was rushed to the front, but too late; its wielder met his end in a pillar of fire, and the storm of magic continued as the Red Screamers raced for their lives to empty their reserves of magic before their cruciatic thaumaturgists caused them to disintegrate.

The battle was soon over. Those conducting the offerings took a while to stop after they realised their folly, and during that while the haphazard blasts had levelled much of Eupnea. Fortunately, they had plenty more sacrifices with which to rebuild it, once the city's defenders were slaughtered and the Red Screamers had had time to rest. Exhausted, ecstatic, and victorious, the cabal's leader picked up the Sword of Life and led its followers into the only somewhat damaged central palace. Over the following year, the Singers rebuilt their new toy, mostly in the style it had previously had - though they went out of their way to make the new gold look blackened, as if it had been too close to an underfed fire. All the more overt signs of the Eknad were burnt, melted, defiled, or otherwise made to no longer be worthy symbols of the Eknad, and somewhere in the void, Makhleb smiled at the dark work of its children.

Crunch:
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253276/) points
Power rollover: 5 points
Total 18 points

4 points: Command City (Serpent's Den) - Raise Army (1st Dark Kyudoka "Serpent's Fangs")
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Raise Army (2nd Sanctuary Militia).
6 points: Create Cult (Demons)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (Ocarina of Fire)

0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) - Attack Eupnea!
Battle Resolution
Red Screamers 2d6+2+1+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253291/) (Cruciatic Thaumaturgy +2, Spells of Destruction +1, Berserker's Brew +1)
Angel Priests 2d6+2+1=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253293/) (Golden Magic +2, Defenders +1) +1 Sword of Life, apologies for forgetting that in the original roll, making 7, which is not enough
Red Screamers win! Angel Priests are destroyed. Red Screamers take Eupnea and seize the Sword of Life.

0 points: Command Army (1st Sanctuary Militia) - Attack the Inquisitors! (Specifically the Inquisitors, not the ground they protect)
Battle Resolution
1st Sanctuary Militia 2d6+2=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253300/) (+2 Cruciatic Thaumaturgy. Demons cannot use Golden Magic against Angels.)
Inquisitors 2d6+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253301/) (+1 Defenders. Angels cannot use Golden Magic against Demons.)
Inquisitors win! 1st Sanctuary Militia is destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) - Defend Eupnea
0 points: Command Army (Serpent's Kyudoka) - Defend Serpent's Den
0 points: Command Army (2nd Sanctuary Militia) - Defend Sanctuary

3 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+4 Cults to next roll

[Fiig]

The Idrians were an old race when the other races began to walk the earth, they had walked the lands with few exceptions, and while they had been able to do many things, many have been forgotten as soon as their inventor had ceased. But in recent years with the growing need of materials for Rivis and other villages that were starting to grow in sizes, more materials were needed, and in such quantities that no lone worker could just gather it, so the first groups of miners that worked together started to form, where each developed its own techniques to get more, faster or better materials. But even these first groups started to have trouble keeping up with the demands, this was when the first miners guild in the white mountains were created, they combined their knowledge of mining, in order to keep up with the demands, and so it came to be that the Idrians became the best miners in the world.

The Idrian population had risen several times since the ice age, to the point where the conventional means of gathering food for the general population, had become insufficient. There were some Idrians who had gotten the idea of cultivating plants for food, but they faced some problems as the white mountains valleys were usually reserved for villagers and foresting areas, so the only place left was the mountain sides, though the water would run off the mountain sides and pull the soil with it before the plants could grow. So it took the Idrians some time to figure a solution out, but in the end they solved the problem, by making the farming area flat in receding flat areas up the slopes. Which would become known in the rest of the world as terrace farming.

Aniqua felt the Fairies needed more protection after seeing the wars going on in the south, and so Aniqua had the leaders of her cult gather the elder fairy magicians, and taught them the basic of abjuration magic, of how to create barriers, negate powers and otherwise repel intruders.
Ofcourse Aniqua didnt tell them all the secrets, leaving the fairies to discover and master the finer points themselves. The magicians took the basics and started to master the new kind of magic, quickly gaining mastery of the art of abjuration magic.

Meanwhile in the land known as bananaland or Quaxant the Maimec were finally ready to construct their cities, they had used much energy gathering materials and clearing the areas for their cities, and then guided by Aniqua three avatars the cities took form so quickly, that it baffled the
Kyūdōka patrolling the land.

The first city would be known as Iztec, the seacity, built at a natural harbor, its not built quite like the others, focussing more on straight lines, instead of circles. Th e city is has three large plazas for trading goods, and more warehouses than the other two combined.

The second city Juqax, known as the floating city, was built in the middle of a large lake, it is not built as grand as the other, but contains many beautiful buildings. It does not have conventional roads, instead relying on waterways and barges to transport things around.

The third city is the most beautiful of all the three, called Aztla. Built around a lone mountain in the central upper mainland area. The city itself is built in circles around the central palace on the top of the mountain, and decending down the mountain.

3*1 point to command avatars to order the maimec to create city
2*5 point to advance race Idrians with mining and terrace farming
5 point to advance Fairies in Abjuration magic

3 chaos
7 cults
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4254660/
3 from roll.
so 13 for next round to me

[Benthesquid]

While there wasn’t anything akin to a functioning patent system in Bellephorat, Bellis Sur was still made wealthy by his and her development of the Spirit Walking techniques necessary for controlling the weather. The city voted Bellis a large reward for the good the techniques brought the city and its outlying territories. In addition, Bellis, a savvy businessperson in addition to his and her visionary techniques, required all students interested in learning the techniques to sign contracts promising to pay Bellis a percentage of any payment they received.

Much of these profits went into making up the difference between the funds the city was willing to allocate and the actual amount necessary to complete the Tower of Storms, but as requests for weather control continued pouring in, from farmers and mill owners across the Bellephoratan territories, the remainder was still enough to make him and her one of the richest Suri in the world.

More than able to live luxuriously, Bellis used his and her vast new fortune to endow a new Academy, one which would delve into all the secrets of the universe, and turn them to the benefit of Bellephorat and its people. Bellis dedicated this Academy to Urat Sur, erecting a large statue of the Avatar outside the gates.

The Academy had three main branches- the Spiritual Society, dedicated to matters of esoteric practice and bio-theology, the Logos Society, dedicated to the study and improvement of the various sigils used by the Bellephoratans, and the Physical Society, dedicated to the study of the natural world, although there was a provision in the charter allowing the establishment of new branches should the Academy Board deem it worthwhile. There was much jockeying within the Academy for prestige among these three groups, but the Logos Society took an early lead due to their important role in the forging of the Great Sigil.

The Great Sigil was perhaps the single largest undertaking in the history of Bellephorat, and it very nearly did not happen. When the idea was proposed by a committee from the Logos Society, it was greeted with enthusiasm from the Suri of Bellephorat. However, once it became clear what it would require- not only the funds necessary, but the demolition of several thriving neighborhoods. The very shape of the city would be changed, as the streets were reworked to form a complex sigil. Gallons of blood, collected from numerous Suri volunteers, would be necessary to activate the sigil once it was completed. It would imbue the whole city with its defensive magic, rendering it resistant to harm of all sort, and sapping the strength and vitality of any who sought to harm it.

The first two times the Grand Assembly met to debate the issue, they were unable to come to a majority vote either for or against the undertaking. Finally, aware of public opinion turning against them, the committee from the Logos Society submitted a radically altered proposal. The sigil, they now said, could be constructed underground, at a greater cost but with vastly less disruption to the city. By a narrow margin, this alternative was agreed upon, and work on the Great Sigil began. Specially designed Willow Folk with shovels and picks bound to the ends of their arms excavated an elaborate system of tunnels beneath the city, followed by Suri engineers who shored up the walls and did the finer work, carefully managing the length and curve of each tunnel to an unprecedented degree of exactness. Finally, the Great Sigil was complete, and dozens volunteers opened their veins, spilling great quantities of blood at designated focal points, and activating the Sigil. The Sigil itself, buried underneath the city, was invisible, but the enormous energies generated generated patterns of light in the sky, drowned out by the light of the suns, but visible by night.
***
Meanwhile, the Physical Society was hard at work. Their intention was to develop a way of culturing crystals that would achieve equal effects to the current strategy of implanting them in living creatures, but without the need for the guidance of Spirit Walkers. Though they claimed that they wished to free up the use of Spirit Walkers for more important tasks, the truth was that they sought to weaken the prestige of their fellows in the Spiritual Society, and bring their own branch of the Academy into greater prominence.

The result of their investigation was a form of crystals that was exceedingly hard and light, which formed in large sheets. Unfortunately, they could only be worked at extremely high temperatures, requiring specially built furnaces and massive amounts of fuel. While a suit of this armor would provide greater protection at less bulk than either conventional crystal or bio-crystal implants, the prohibitive cost meant that it was rarely considered worthwhile to equip troops with them. Instead, this Crystal Foil, as it came to be known, was initially only produced in very small amounts, as ornaments and status symbols for the extremely rich of Bellephorat and Calamorat.
***
Meanwhile, the Crystal Colossus, in conference with the Free Knights of Bellephorat, decided that the time was right to raise another army. By this time, no one was surprised when it was christened the Fifth Volunteer Army. However, in its composition and duties it was notably different. Like the Third Volunteer Army, its cavalry troops were focused on mobility, lacking quite the the raw crushing power of those in the First and Fourth armies, although still heavier than anything fielded outside of Bellephorat. They also included a new form of animate form. Called the Harvesters, they were similar in appearance to the Willow-Folk, being likewise covered in woven withes, but these had a bronze frame underneath, and instead of the Willow-Folk’s clubs, carried enormous scythes, again wrought of bronze.

In addition, the Fifth Volunteer Army was the first not to be assigned to the defense of any particular territory immediately upon its creation, instead being tasked merely to drill and prepare, although for what they were preparing the Crystal Colossus was not ready to disclose.


Crunch
Roll=10 points (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253908/), plus one left over makes eleven.

Command Avatar (Urat Sur): Create Order (The Universal Society) One Point
Advance City (Bellephorat) Crystal Foil (currently just a fluff technology/luxury good, as the infrastructure to manufacture it in any great amounts does not yet exist) Four Points
Command Demigod (The Crystal Colossus): Command Order (Free Knights): Raise Army (Fifth Volunteer Army) One Point.
Command City (Bellephorat): Create Structure (The Great Sigil) Four Points
Total ten points, one left over.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4253096/)
Current Power Points: 22

Over the past millennia, the Seliss had grown and layered itself as it awoke once more. It's memories were fuzzy, but it could recall the great moment's in it's life as a demigod. When it had skirmished with Vroch. The battle at the volcano at the southern pole. Now, however, it was not a demigod, but instead an idea, an extension of it's father, Eull. It's own nature was distinctly different from that of it's father, but that was what gave it form, for to be part of a god, yet have nothing to differentiate oneself from that god, would be to lose yourself, and simply become that god.

The Seliss currently existed as a skull, gazing out across the forests of the First Land atop a rocky cliff. This land where it had met it's demise. Yet it's mind, it's essence, that was a something new. At first it had grown into minds that had worshipped it's decaying form, but the strongest connections were to souls who did not worship the corpse of a bird, but who worshipped the ideas and concepts that had motivated the Seliss in life, and who associated those things directly to the Seliss. That is how the Seliss had reestablished it's consciousness, for once enough souls who payed homage to the Seliss defined the Seliss as those qualities and ideals, it had become those qualities and ideals.

The betterment of a clan, a city, or a nation. Sacrifice of the self to raise the many high. Love of cooperation, friendship, and charity. A need to correct imbalances, to prevent or end suffering, and to punish those who would sacrifice the many to raise themselves high. These were the ideals and concepts that now defined the Seliss, and it lived inside all hearts and minds in which those ideas lived. If a soul had even an inkling of friendship in it, the Seliss lived in that soul. The stronger these ideals were held in a mind, the more the Seliss lived inside that mind, until eventually an individual could be said to "have Seliss", at which point the individual would remember things only the demigod would remember, and act only as the demigod would have acted.

There were in fact many souls which the Seliss lived within. Even one ancient Red King of the Shou Tahs had possessed a fair amount of Seliss. Through that, the Seliss had actually manipulated it's life and thereby crafted conditions such that future rulers of the Shou Tahs would more easily bring their society forward, though it required that future rulers would have qualities that led to having some small amount of Seliss in their hearts. Thus the rulers were directed towards having strong ties of friendship and cooperation, no matter how demented they would otherwise be.

Seliss even found itself in the hearts of some of the newfound Fari, in their distant city of Ruttivorat. From there, it saw the land from which the Titan Bird had arisen, and it was from the Titan Bird that the Seliss had originally arisen, and so it pleased it to witness the place of it's genesis so many years later. Pleased it so much that it desired to grant some manner of gift to the Fari. Perhaps a magic of some sort. That would be fitting, Seliss thought, as they lived in a city built around a stone of divine power and they themselves were born from a race which had all manner of magical arts, from twisting to animating sigils to dream walking. However… what would best suit the agile Fari, who so loved to climb trees?

An idea struck the Seliss, and so it went into the mind of one peculiar parrot who had a small part of Seliss in it's heart. It directed the bird to find a Fari in a nearby tree, landing on it's shoulder, just to squawk once, twice, and then make a sound like the Fari word for greeting.

The Fari was confused by this, eyeballing the bird on his shoulder cautiously before replying, "Hello to you as well, bird. How fares the world?"

"It fares well," the parrot replied, in it's strange, stopping, squeaking voice, "Though it needs something new in it. That is why I come to you."

"I am to make something?"

"No. You are to learn something." The bird had no idea what it was saying, it only acted on the compulsion sent to it by the Seliss.

"And you are here to teach me this thing I must learn?"

"Correct. The many birds of the world are mighty and varied, remnants of the forgotten goddess Myra. I am here to teach you runes and magic through which you may charm, befriend, command, or summon birds across the world. Then, you may use this art as you see fit."

So it came to pass that the Seliss passed on the knowledge of Birdcharming, and the knowledge spread through the Fari. Soon, even child Fari could call up pigeons or parrots from across the forest, while journeyman birdcallers could direct a hawk to kill a field mouse from kilometers away, and a master could bring a Titan Bird to heel. These were only the beginnings, though. Soon the Fari had companion falcons which remained within two meters of them at all times. The Fari would summon swarms of sparrows to dive-bomb their enemies, call Titan Birds to carry them across the jungle, or teach a raven to repeat a message perfectly to another individual after making a long flight.

This art was greatly appreciated by the Fari as the gift that it was, and so, out of desire to express their gratitude to whatever force had sent the gift to them, they constructed a great aviary, spread out atop the tallest four trees in Ruttivorat, where all birds were welcome, where sickly or lame birds would be nursed back to health, or where nesting birds would be given protection from potential predators.

Beneath this grand aviary, they constructed the first Bird Charmer's College. Just a few simple structures at first, as the Fari were still simple in their architecture, but still a proud place, where Fari would be taught many things in the art of charming birds.


***

In the deep waters just south of the Pure Land, Rou was growing boisterous and proud. Gambling houses had opened up, festivals were held every few weeks, and food was never an issue. The Red Tribe had once despised the idea of a city, of being tethered to a single place, but now, more than a millennia to grow and it had become the best location the Red Tribe could have ever wanted. However, their happiness was noticed by the other tribes, who still had to hunt daily, and who didn't quite understand why or how laughter could be exploding out from Rou from so many voices every single day.

So, the other tribes attacked Rou, partly from envy, partly from fear of the unknown, and partly from the desire to fight. These attacks came slowly at first, but then increased in frequency until they occurred twice a week, but the Army of Kings, with their martial prowess and their focused teamwork, were always able to fend off the attackers without difficulty, and learning a little bit more each time.

One day, an attack came, the White Tribe swooping in, and the Army of Kings, bored with the usual fights they had been partaking in, decided to try and fight the entire fight with nothing but shouts. When the White Tribe realized what was going on, they took it as a challenge, and also resorted to using nothing but shouts to fight. The two forces were fairly evenly matched in this kind of battle, so it would last until either one or the other resorted to brute strength, or one or the other figured out something new to do with shouting. Strangely, the latter came first.

Two of the Kings had noticed how their shouts interacted, and began to try and shout things in unison. The effect was dramatic. Some combinations would result in the shouts interfering and turning into a cone which would blow a Shou Tahs back. Another combination would shatter glass for meters in all directions. Another negated all incoming sounds, only allowing sounds to escape outwards.

Needless to say, the Army of Kings won the conflict, but what came next was the truly remarkable part. They continued on with the intriguing interactions of shouts. They tampered with tone and pitch, all the while not realizing that, when they made a sound that affected the world around them, they were speaking the vocalization of the divine runes which their creator, the Ehk Rellis, used to manipulate the world far below. They figured out combinations of shouts which could create whirlpools, which could crack stone, which could create lights around the speakers, or which could negate magic itself. Some combinations could be carried out by individual Shou Tahs barking out syllables in rapid succession, such as "Ja Pa Ka Zoul", which resulted in a wave of sound that prevented others from moving towards the speaker for several seconds. Others were more complex, requiring two, three, four, or sometimes even fifteen Shou Tahs bellowing in a choir. The most complex of these was a ballad sung by all fifteen Kings in the Army of Kings, which required half an hour to finish, but which made attack on Rou all but suicidal for the next three days, as currents of sound and water whirling around the city would rip attackers to shreds.

When it became apparent that Rou was not going to ever be taken, the other tribes mostly laid back and resumed the old, petty squabbles among themselves. However, one Shou Tahs, by the name of Eraminelis Eraminepon of the Blue Tribe, would not surrender. He wanted a city of his own, but it seemed he would not take Rou by force. So, instead, he looked for clues, records as to how the city came to be, and he discovered the tale of Rounomin Roukalin, who had forced the Red Tribe into a city via brute force.

So, this is was Eraminelis Eraminepon chose to do, but with the Blue Tribe. He had something of a more difficult time of it, but he had been watching Rou for some time, and learned their secrets of the War Song. Thus, he was able to replicate it, and begin making his own city, Eramine, named after himself, upon the great, empty fields of silt in the open ocean southwest of Rou. His palace was built of whale bone and yellow coral coaxed to grow there, with only the light from the Shou Tahs own bioluminescence. It would take many generations for it to reach the state Rou was in at the day Eramine was built, as it would have to follow the same evolution, but it would reach there, for the Blue Tribe had witnessed Eraminelis Eraminepon bring them something close to the Red City. The Red City which they had coveted for years.


***

"Rare white blossoms from the far north! Crystal trees from the far south! Thunder Bird tail feathers! The hide of a Tree Dragon! Pomegranates! Oranges! Arochno silk! Vickit venom! Desks made from fine Troud wood and combs of the most flawless jade! Such treasures and more I have for trade, here in this humble stall!" a Saku Rasi stood upon the dock of Iztec, a display of tapestries, potted plants, strange metal objects, and jewelry set up behind him.

The Saku Rasi had been on the high seas for a long time. More than two millennia, in fact. There had been children born on the sea who would live their entire lives and never see the shore of their ancestral home. Instead they had meandered on the waves, wandering across the world much in the same way that the original Saku Rasi had wandered the Latticework Land and the shores of the Deep Lake. However, they had lacked the Ryokans of those ancient days. No place of camaraderie where they could meet new Saku Rasi. So, they had built docks across the world. Few possessed anything except a few posts to which to tie your ships, so all that was there at these docks (besides land) would be other Saku Rasi ships. People to talk to, and friends to make. It often became a common practice for ships to compare items they had gathered, and then a common activity to haggle and trade. This activity was mostly for sport, but there was often something in it for one side or the other just the same. Suppose one ship was low on food or needed nails to affect repairs.

With the coming of navigation, however, it became apparent that certain docks were more efficient locations to stop at than others. These docks began accumulating more traffic, and thus Ryokans were built, or just simple saké dens. However, one in particular, on the southernmost tip of the Banana Land, a few Saku Rasi constructed a place explicitly designed for trading items. Just for trading items. This was a brilliant development, as certain Ryokan owners would need particular supplies, but hardly ever receive them. Thus, they would often actually send members to this place for the express purpose of finding what was needed, and they would always find it. Several Ryokans quickly opened within a few kilometers of the docks, and they all quickly swelled until they were bickering over land. This place was the newest city of the Saku Rasi, and it was named quite simply, with the Saku Rasi word for "Docks": Wetami

5 points to Advance the Fari with Bird Charming.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Ruttivorat to Construct the Bird Charmer's College.

5 points to Advance the Shou Tahs with the War Song

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command the Shou Tahs to Found Eramine.

5 points to Advance the Saku Rasi with Trade.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command the Saku Rasi to Found Wetami.

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4254290/)

[Neelien]

Rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4254801/) bringing me up to 26
Time passed and Nios felt little change in the world. Armies were appearing and disappearing but he paid little attention to that fact. He did not however simply ignore the actions of mortals. The Demon's temple to Nios intrigued him particularly. He did not expect them to know about him or the Strings.

"Ability to detect own existence interesting. Must find root of creation. Found. Creature appears to bear the mark of Red God. Unexpected. Creature appears to be different from that of its kind. Knowledge of self damaged cognitive processes. Not optimal, but interesting nevertheless."

The Demon did not live much longer, but its creation was enough to make Nios understand that he could not interact with the world without making his presence clear, as there existed magic that could allow anyone to know his whereabouts.He then turned his attention to the Fairies. He found they had acquired a magic that could negate other magic. This, he thought, was interesting, and he would need to understand how something like this could be done.

Nios knew how to plant thoughts but he had no direct way of communicating with the creatures and he did not particularly wish for it. So he directed the Stringwork towards the Bloom by planting in it the thought that vast amounts of energy could be collected from the rivers that flowed in the northern lands.

The Stringwork began spreading towards the north. It took it a long time, but eventually it arrived at the coast nearest to the forest. It created a separate agglomeration there, and this rapidly evolved to become The Second Core. This was because the distance between the First Core and the Second Core was too great, and this slowed the thought process of the Stringwork.

The Stringwork was still a single unit, but now it had two minds, each responsible for their own region. To maintain their status as a unit, they needed to communicate. New Communicator Strings appeared that would carry information from one string to the next much faster than the others. In these early years, the communication method was rudimental and this led to a separation between the two Cores. The Stringwork was displeased with it as it strived to reconnect to what it saw as the other half of itself without great sucess. A way of communiction was needed, but something like that was complex, and would require time to develop.

Meanwhile, the Second Core had begun extending inland, where its presence was noticed after it exited the deep waters. Many creatures viewed the dark mist surrounding the slowly advancing Strings as a threat as it would sap the heat and the magic that around itself. This was a remenant of the Strings' origin as composite Ignea colonies.

Eventually, it met the Fairies and the Angels that protected them. It had no malicious intent, but the Angels would not let the Strings get near, cutting them appart with their weapons. The Stringwork had come here in search of Energy, and now it faced a challenge. On land, it was unable to create the complex nets it used to acquire energy, and its properties made it a threat and therefore an enemy to all that lived on land. So it retracted back into the ocean while it devised a way to expland onto the lands.

Spend 4 points: Command Race (The Stringwork) - Create City "The Second Core" just off the coast of The Bloom
The Fairies and The Angels now know of the existence of the Stringwork.
22 points remaining
+1 next turn
(I'm goin to build my modifier back up and hopefully add Advancements to the Stringwork in the mean time. So most of the posts' content will be fluff.)

[ImperialSunligh]

The Sun was not found in the Tower of the Gods when the time to discuss the future of Tyonix came. The gods searched but could not find him. None apart from Eknad, who knew where he was, for the Sun had been in his black embrace since the day that Eupnea fell.

Perhaps only to get him to stop sobbing, and not because he believed it would help, Eknad encouraged the Sun to not give up, to forge a new army of angels to fight against the evil creatures occupying their great city. The Sun refused.

"I cannot do it," said the Sun, "I cannot send any more of my children to that damned place. I have tried to be a strong father to them, and to ensure their purity, to save them from the corruptions of the monstrous gods, but I have had to watch them all die. It hurt me terribly to order their deaths, but... now you see what the other gods will do to them! I will not continue to condemn my beloved children to death."

Eknad made a great sigh, which calmed the Sun slightly.

"Eknad, you know what you must do," the Sun solemnly stated.

Eknad did know. He went to the council himself, and took the seat of the Sun. This was met by great uproar by the other gods, who did not understand, but they were quieted by a wave of golden energy emanating from the seat and lashing their faces. They all knew the only possible source of this, and knew what it meant. The north would inherit the throne of the Sun on this day.

The Sun continued to watch over his angels and his human followers, but distanced himself from the pantheon. He hid now, somewhere between the planes where he could find silence and order, and so the sun, for the first time, set on Paradi, replaced by an endless, misty night.

Eknad's council began. Eknad brought up his plans for Tyonix, which he knew would not be questioned. It was too much the style of Mahav and Mam for them to question it.

With the support of the gods, Eknad spoke unto the current chieftain of the humans on Tyonix, who had no name, telling him that he was chosen of the gods as the leader of the humans in fighting back the scourge of evil surrounding them. He was a strong leader with unwavering faith in the gods and great skill with a sword. He took up this mantle with unmatched zeal, despite the dark days he was faced with.

Eknad named him the first King of Axon, the mountains he now ruled over, and helped him to form an order of human paladins, knights and priests devoted to the gods known as The Order of Eknad. They had a similar role to the Loyalists in that they served as government for the humans, but unlike the Loyalists, they were focused more on survival in the face of evil than on purity and piety.

The first major act of the Blades of Eknad was to create an army of holy knights known as paladins, devoted wholly to the pantheon's ideals of order and law, who could wield the magic of the gods as well as any priest and the sword as well as any warrior. The paladins were tasked with joining what remained of the inquisitors in defending the humans of Eknad's Bosom.

The angels who were not still within Eupnea under the, rather ironic, tyranny of Makhleb, wandered aimlessly, unsure of where to go. Many settled in Eknad's Bosom with the humans. They still worshiped the Sun, who could no longer bear to speak to them, but offered his blessings still.

2d6=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4254801/)
Create Order, Humans, "The Order of Eknad", -6
Command Order, Blades of Eknad, Create Army of human Paladins, -3
Command Paladins, join the inquisition defending Eknad's Bosom

0 left.

[Omegonthesane]

When the final touches were placed upon them, the Demonic Temples were an inspiring beacon to all who dwelt near them, a sign that wonder still existed in the world, and a show that there was always something worth dying for.

However, the small cabal of demons planning to die for the Sun did not do so in one of their own golden cathedrals, no. Instead, they made a long pilgrimage to Eupnea, to the still-present altars of sacrifice built by the Red Screamers. After chanting the songs and performing the rites which, they thought, would rededicate these to their gods, they utilised them, mortifying one another's flesh to gain the power their ritual would require, and waiting for just the right moment.

Makhleb initially rested in its demiplane, content with the horror and slaughter below. That, and it was waiting for the completion of the Plane of Thunder's latest project, a set of instruments of destruction that would be used for its glory. Already they had constructed the Horn of Winter, whose blasts were death to many beings; the Dancer's Bells, which rendered insensible all who heard; and the Ocarina of Fire, which gave the player similar powers to the Red Lord so long as the music continued. Now, they completed the set with the Earthquake Drum, a simply named horn and skin drum whose sound shook the earth beneath the drummer.

Pleased with these gifts, Makhleb opened a portal to Eupnea, hoping that the Red Screamers would complete their crusade of purification across the northern continent. It was at this moment the demonic sorcerers struck, casting a risky, experimental spell that they hoped would destroy the four instruments before they ever reached Eupnea. But, such feeble mortal magic was a pathetic gesture incapable of destroying the finest works of Singers... yet entirely capable of disrupting a god's plans.

Somehow, the spell interfered with the portal, causing it to appear and disappear in the wrong places, and scattering the instruments that were meant to be united. The Horn of Winter landed in the sea and sunk to the territories of the Shou Tahs, there to be used by the first being to realise its significance. The Dancer's Bells fell through the air onto the Second Core of the Stringwork, perhaps causing unexpected effects, but certainly denying their power to the Singers. The Ocarina of Fire was located half-buried in human farmland within Eknad's Bosom, placing this most destructive of instruments in the hands of those who had lost the most to its intended wielders. The Earthquake Drum, in some strange coincidence, found itself in Rivis, in the home of the Idrian stone-masters.

When Makhleb realised what had transpired, the results were not pretty - certainly not for those Singers who had been immediately nearby. The results already had not been pretty for the spellcasters, who had welcomed death from their injuries once they knew that not one of Makhleb's instruments would be added to the Singer arsenal.

Power roll: 2d6+3+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4255791/) points
Power rollover: 3 points
Total 17 points

4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Create Structure (The Demonic Temples)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (Earthquake Drum)
7 points: Event - Scattering of the Instruments (Rou [Shou Tahs] gets the Horn of Winter, Second Core [Strings] gets the Dancer's Bells, Eknad's Bosom [Humans & Angels] get the Ocarina of Fire, Rivis [Idrians] gets the Earthquake Drum)

5 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+4 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4257346/) bringing me up to : 32

In the last 300 years the Second Core was doing its best to find solutions to the two probems it had encountered, namely its inability to expand into the land and the fact that connecting to the First Core. The second was proving impossible to solve, but after long debate about the creatures encountered on the land the Agglomerations decided it would be best to try and communicate with them. It took time but eventually some Strings managed to remove their heat and magic sapping properties and even developed a dendrite that could connect to other creatures' brains communicate with them in a way that was similar to how the Second core was communicting with the First Core.

As the Second Core was about to try expanding into the land once again after adapting to not be a threat for the local fauna, a strange object fell right into its center. It was not alive, yet there was magical energy radiating from it. When it touched the Stringwork, it felt a surge like it never had before. The Entire Stringwork convulsed asynchnously as the pulse travelled throughout the Stringwork. Many Saku Rasi report strange waves forming on the stuface along along the line connecting the two Cores. The Stringwork did not know what to do with the strange object, and started experimenting with its effects. Somehow, it found a way to transport the Bells around without causing too much disturbance. As it passed from one String to the next, some found pleasure in moving the object around so that it would produce just enough sound for only one String to be affected by it, but it was mostly no used. So after some time, the Second Core resumed its attempt at expanding inland.

This time around, with the black mist gone, the Strings had a much easier time not being detected. With their new dendrites they managed to connect to various animals, but the information they gained from them was mostly useless, yet surprisingly difficult to process. After a century of analysing the way creatures communicated with them it found patterns, and tried exploiting them. After the communication methods had been confirmed to be effective, the Stringwork set out to try communicating with the magic-wielding creatures, which it had avoided up to that point, as they were the most dangerous creatures around. Without the dark mist surrounding them, the Strings managed to enter the Fairies' territory without being noticed by the Angels. On one day it entered into contact with one of them (that being a airy) while it was asleep. In the short 30 minutes it was in contact with the creature's brain the Stringwork collected an amount of information so large i would take it many years to process what was only the outer layer of a sapient creature's conciousness.

It is said that on the next cycle, the Fairy awoke to nightmare beyond imagination, and fainted multiple times as it tried to explain itself. In the following cycles, it suffered severe mental disorders. Its speech became so deformed no-one could understand it, and it talked about things no-one understood. This state didn't last more than more a few cycles but left the Fairy a scarred individual, and many feared the same might happen to them.

The fears were not justified. The Stringwork had gathered a lot of data, and it spent the next century trying to understand the concept of language. It was a difficult concept, but it was required to communicate with other creatures. After so many years trying to figure it out, the Stringwork had gained invaluable experience. It would likely be much easier now for it to understand any language.

With its newly acquired skill, the Stringwork once again set out to communicate with the Fairies. As previously it managed to connect to one rather easily, and for the first time since it had been conceived the Stringwork spoke :

"We are the Stringwork. Our wish is for our species to collect energy from the rivers and we mean no harm. For that reason we apologize for the troubles we have caused, and we would like to know if it would be possible for us to live without destroying each other. If you so desire, we can offer you with valuable information regarding the terrain you live on. We will contact you a few years from now, when you decision is made. In the mean time, we retreat back to our waters."

Being asleep, the Fairy could not reply, but in the following morning, as the message resonated throughout its head, it found itself aware of places where it had never been. When it talked about it to te others, at first they though it was crazy, but when it justified itself by describing places it had never been to an incredible degree of accuracy, and after checking that what was said was indeed true, the Angels and the Fairies came together to think about the Stringwork...


Spend 5 points : Advance Civilization(Stringwork) with Communication - The Stringwork can transmit great amounts of information in very short time periods and understand most languages after being in contact with them for a few years.
I'll leave the decision on what angels and airies do with the Strings to Aniqua.

27 points remaining.
+2 next turn

[Benthesquid]

Fluff, spoilered for Wall 'O Text

Now:Jellat Kur awoke to slaughter. The air was filled with the acrid smell of burning fur and the screams of the dying. Slowly, painfully Jellat Kur stumbled to his and her feat, and took account of his and her injuries. The left arm was shattered, hanging useless from the shoulder. The crystal ridges on the right arm had been shorn off, and only jagged stubs remained, barely poking through the skin. A number of small teeth were missing, and the bottom half of the left fang had been snapped off. Yet he and she was still alive, and as long as that was so, had sworn not give up the fight.

Finding that he and she stood on the hillside, and that the battle yet raged below, Jellat Kur picked up a spearshaft, it’s crystal tip having been broken off at some point, and using it as a crude crutch, hobbled down the hillside.

Last Night:
The Spirit Walkers’ camp was quiet. Many of the Suri lay insensate, safely strapped into hammocks hung between the great war-wagons, as their spirits scouted the countryside or marshalled the storms. The rest sat nervously around the fires, wondering how many of them would live to see the suns set once more. Jellat Kur, the leader of the expedition, and a Grand Marshall of the Free Knights, moved about the camp, patting a Suri on the shoulder here, checking the straps on a Spirit Walker’s hammock there, and generally reassuring his and her troops.

Finally, he and she stepped up onto the platform at the center of the camp. Jellat Kur was not a large Suri, at barely two and a half meters tall, but he and she commanded attention. He and she wore a shirt of lamellar crystal foil, small overlapping plates falling to his and her waist, each plate inscribed with a complex defensive sigil- a staggering display of the wealth the Free Knights had invested in this event, and in Jellat Kur as their chief representative. Rings of crystal circled his and her legs, poking through the fur. A ridge of crystals ran down each arm, the crystals carefully filed into points. He and she slowly withdrew his and her fangs from their sheaths and yawned luxuriantly.

Once sure everyone’s attention was focused, Jellat Kur began speaking. “We all know how serious this is. The Red Lord… it may look like a Suri, but it is never Whole-Child of Urat Sur. It is an Other, something from beyond our understanding of the world and the divine. It is an intrusion on the First Lands, and it must be cleansed.” This drew scattered cheers.

“Normal tactics will not work here,” Jellat Kur went on. “The Red Lord is not some bandit chieftain hiding in the mountains, to be routed at the first cavalry charge. It is not some made sigilist, sending staggering Willow-Folk against those imagined to have cast some insult. It is like nothing any living Suri has ever faced on the field of battle.

“You are all brave. You have all come here- left farm and ranch and workshop, to come here, across the First Land, and end this threat once and for all. You have given more than any Suri should be asked for, every one.”

Jellat Kur’s voice lowered in sadness as he and she went on. “And it grieves me that I must ask some of you to give yet more.”

Hours ago
The Willow Folk and the Harvesters marched into battle, their animating sigils directing them to turn slowly towards the Red Lord, wherever it might be. They swept their weapons in front of them, the huge clubs in the hands of the Willow Folk, the great bronze scythes bound to the limbs of the Harvesters.

The Red Lord laughed at their temerity. Wooden soldiers against a creature of flame? It swept its gaze across them, and they burst into flame. The Willow Folk quickly crumbled as their sigils were consumed, or as their forms collapsed, and altered too much to be bound by their original sigils.

The Harvesters initially fared better- their bronze skeletal structures holding up even as the withes that coated them burned off. But they were slow, unwieldy things, meant to wreak havoc on a massed enemy, not to battle a single foe. The Red Lord snorted in frustration as they refused to burn, and Twisted among them.

Now

The Red Lord was still raging, tossing about the bodies of Suri knights like they were no more than rag dolls. Somewhere along the line it had seized the scythes of one of the Harvesters, and Jellat Kur felt his and her stomach turn at the sight of what had been done with it.

The Suri were mostly fleeing now, but one stood his and her ground, buying time for the rest to get away. He and she was tall and strong, carrying a great mass of crystal armor. The Suri knight lashed out with an arm covered in crystal shards, ending in a great two pronged fork. The fork caught the trident, and with a great effort, the knight snapped the blade off.

The Red Lord let out an inarticulate sound of rage and hurled the jagged shaft, piercing the knight through the throat. He and she gurgled wetly and fell to the ground.

Praying to the Sleeping Three, to Urat Sur, and to distant Sehk himself, that his and her call would be answered, Jellat Kur shouted out “Now!”

Hours ago

There was a tendency among the uninitiated in Bellephorat to think of the Spirit Realm as a shadowy, misty realm. This was incorrect on two levels- first, there was no Spirit Realm as such. Rather, it was coterminous with the physical realm, simply invisible to those who hadn’t trained to see it. Second, contrary to the view of insubstantial mist in the popular mind, a Spirit Walker saw everything as vibrant, in many ways more real than the waking world.

Now, as Marat Lau’s spirit approached Ashatorat, he and she saw the Red Lord, and recoiled at the raw red wound on the First Lands that was the presence of the demigod. Marat glanced about at the other Spirit Walkers, to ensure that they were still committed to what they had come to do.

To the left was Ankar Aut, whose spirit body was merely an idealized form of his and her physical body, without the scars and blemishes inherent in the physical. To the right was Heltar Gan, incarnate as a luminous cloud occasionally manifesting claws and tendrils.

Suri Spirit Walkers had tried to seize control of the Red Lord mind’s once before, when the First Volunteer Army had marched on Ashatorat. It had not ended well, as the alien energies of the Red Lord’s spirit had burned the very souls of the Spirit Walkers who had the audacity to make the attempt.

This time, they were not there to affect the Red Lord itself, but rather the numerous tiny creatures that dwelled within him, urging them on to do something that was, after all, in their nature. Even as the mere proximity of the Red Lord twisted and distorted space around them, they knew that their job was much easier than that of those who had come before them. After all, they weren’t trying to control a demigod- just drive it mad.

Now

The Red Lord sank its teeth into another corpse and then tossed it aside. Its eyes lit on Jellat Kur, and then it twisted, bending space itself to step from one point to another without bothering with the intervening distance. It stood in front of Jellat Kur, and then the rage filling its eyes abruptly faded. Then, in that instant, as its rage waned but before its consciousness mind had time to wax, the Spirit Walkers struck again. The Red Lord stood, dazed, struck in its one moment of vulnerability.

Jellat Kur grimaced, and reached into his and her belt pouch, drawing forth a folded piece of parchment. Slowly, clumsily, with only one good arm, he and she unfolded it, revealing a complex sigil. Nearly a mile away, Ankar Aut screamed as his and her body was consumed in spectral flames.

Jellat Kur fumbled with a large metal pin, and poked it through the top of the paper, stumbling towards the Red Lord all the time. As, in the distance, Heltar Gan flared up, Jellat Kur reached the paralyzed demigod, and thrust the pin into its flesh. The Red Lord was by this time coated with blood, and the sigil flared immediately to life.

It should not have worked. The theory was sound, animating a living body and commanding it to shake itself to bits, and had, with some distaste, been tested both on dumb animals and on condemned bandits, but there should not have been enough power, even in all the blood spilt that day, to have turned the body of a demigod against itself. Later, Marat Lau, the only survivor of the day, would claim that Sehk himself had reached out his pierced hand and bled onto the sigil. Whatever the truth, the sigil activated, and the Red Lord screamed as its flesh and bones ground themselves to pieces.


Crunch
Roll=12[/roll] plus one banked makes thirteen.
Command Army (Fifth Volunteer Army) Attack Ashatorat to Capture, fighting Red Lord
Event- Sehk interferes with the battle, allowing Fifth Volunteer Army a reroll. Six points
Seven remaining.
Battle results

[URL="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4257862/"]Fifth Volunteer Army- (http://invisiblecastle.com/search/?roll=&name=Sehk&player=&campaign=&latest=)
10

Red Lord (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4257861/)- 15

Reroll (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4257869/)for the Fifth Volunteer Army results in a 15.

[Fiig]

The maimec finally sent word to the saku rasi, in which they agreed to the proposed alliance.

Though the maimec was partially inclined to say no, after their dignitaries had been unable to for so long, figure out where to deliver the message, as the saku rasi always appeared to be moving around

4 point command race, cement alliance

i will do the calculations when i get back(see ooc thread)

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4254290/)
Current Power Points: 18

The Bird Charmer's College was still a humble building, made of reeds and vines and carved out of the interior of the trees themselves, with no furniture to speak of, just a place to sit and listen to the teacher of the room. However, colorful displays of feathers and tapestries in vibrant hues decorated had been added to liven up the lecture rooms. Not only this, but teachers would often weave feathers of birds they had been proud of summoning into their Reko, a garment similar to a vest, but which dangled to the knee, and included several pockets designed for carrying all manner of items.

Lectures would last all afternoon, after the hunters came in and the world became too warm to act. During that time, a student would sit in on any lesson they wished to learn. There was no obligation to learn everything that there was too learn in the college, or to even learn enough to become a competent Bird Charmer, but to attend, one would have to bond with a bird, who would become their Kefi, or "Companion Bird" and was usually either a parrot, a crane, a falcon, or an owl. They would keep their Kefi close at all times, learning from their time with it as much as they learned from lectures.

Outside the College, tribes still warred over the empty, sacred ponds they built years ago, and rivalries quickly grew stiff. The Dunof and Ori tribes in particular were often at each other's throats. However, when members of these tribes visited Ruttivorat, they would set aside their hatred, and act in peace towards one another, partly because of the peaceful effects of the Black Onyx, and partly out of respect for the great city. Many tribesmen often visited the city, after all, to attend the College. Of course, they were nothing to the swaths of Fari who would visit during days of great festivals or feasts, such as the Telok Yem.

Marriage was not a concept the Fari possessed, but instead they had a yearly festival in Ruttivorat, known as "Telok Yem" or "The Loud Night", where the festivities lasted well beyond sunset, and it was expected that men and women would lay together throughout the event. There were other times where a child would be conceived, but none of that was formalized. Indeed, Telok Yem was the only formal Fari route to couplings between a male and a female. Also, it is a fact worth mentioning that the Fari were indeed separately male and female, unlike their Suri ancestors.

Elders were often the leaders of tribes, though if the majority if a tribe opposed a decision of the elders, they would be overruled, and have to come up with a different decision. Inside the city of Ruttivorat, elders were also the leaders, but there were quite a few citizens of the city, and thus several elders. Thus, only the ten eldest of the city would rule, barring any who were addled in their old age. The remaining elders would either hone their ability with Bird Charming, or teach what they knew in the College. Any and all were allowed to lecture in the College, but it was up to the students if they took a teacher seriously and decided to listen. A few of the remaining elders took up a hobby, of breeding birds. Most thought this a mildly odd activity, but after a few generations, it proved that careful breeding would produce superior birds of some sort.

After some time, the art if breeding birds gained interest, and soon it would be enough to result in the next great project of Ruttivorat beginning: the Grek Aval. An aviary explicitly for the breeding if birds. It would take decades, but eventually second aviary across the city from the College, but with tree limbs bent to grow in a certain way, which resulted in the canopy gaining plenty of light, but being entirely closed off, essentially trapping the birds within. The aviary was also sectioned into several different groups. One for each different kind of bird raised in the place. Each section had it's own hut, where caretakers of that section would watch over the birds, feeding them, protecting them from dangerous rivalries among themselves, and primarily making sure the ones they wished to breed, did so.

Soon, birds bred in the Grek Aval would be famed the world over, as Saku Rasi met some of these breeders, getting their hands on some deadly, well-trained falcons, and began trading them as hunting companions across the globe.


***

Wetami was receiving scorn from Sela and Sakura. Not only did "Docks" have no clear owner, with dozens of different Ryokans making up the traditional part of the city, instead of just one, but they hadn't even trained their own Kyūdōka yet, after even five hundred years. Some were not even willing to call the location a "city" yet, or maybe ever, for these reasons. Not only this, but it had become apparent that Saku Rasi from Serpent's Den had actually slipped into the city among the crowds, and set up underground bases in the city. As quickly as the city had risen, it seemed prepared to collapse under the weight of doubt and ridicule.

The combined owners of the Wetami Ryokans had to act. They had actually delayed their actions, due to their own doubts, but now the hour was late in the life of Wetami, and so, to gain the approval of the rest of the Saku Rasi world, they would need to take grand measures. The Wetami Ryokans consolidated their materials and man power, naming the owner of the most successful Wetami Ryokan, one Ishami Kupu, as the official owner of Wetami, and set about building an Edakyū, while asking the Banana Land Kyūdōka to split off a few Gōn to help them establish their own army.

These were only the starting measures, however. The Edakyū itself would be the extra push that the city needed. It was a massive undertaking, but with all the wealth and personnel the Ryokans had accumulated, it went quickly. once it was finished, the structure was akin to a mountain, looming high above the sea, upon the cliff Wetami was built under, built up higher and higher, the foundations alone 50 meters tall, until the Kyūdōka could see every street if Wetami from above, and several kilometers inland or out to sea. They also constructed several keeps, the central one of which topped with a grand fire, the first lighthouse ever built, marking the location of Wetami for all to see.

This Edakyū Keshé, as it was called, had the desired effect. As it was the most impressive Edakyū built to-date, a fair amount of previous ridicule concerning the safety of the town was lifted. There would always be those who insisted that it wasn't entirely safe, and they would be at least partly correct, as the Serpent's Den would keep a strong presence in the city for years yet, but the city gained a high enough opinion in the eyes of others to keep going, like all other Saku Rasi cities.


***

Darkness had crept into the flowering woods of the Faeries. Where once there had been shafts of pure light illuminating pristine clearings that acted as courtyards to the Faerie people, now there were tangled webs obscuring the light, and in the clearings an meadows lay the desiccated corpses of a thousand animals, the victims of the Arochno.

It was a plague, these immense spiders swarming about and devouring as much of the forest creatures as they could manage. There had even been a few angels found, empty of life and of blood, discarded in the meadows. So, the societies of the flowering woods looked out into the dimming trees with building fear, and horror at what might be waiting for them out there.

Such a plague had come before, untold eons past, so long ago that only the most ancient Troud would have remembered it. In that time, Vroch had spread her progeny among the lands of the north, and it had almost consumed all life as it was known in that age. The beast and it's brood had been thrown back, however, by the Seliss and her many bodies. However, the Seliss was gone now, only a spirit, and not present to save the lands of the north.

None truly knew this tale of foreboding, but still felt fear as the tide of death slowly filled the flowering woods.

Deep in the woods, Vroch sat upon a web which stretched through kilometers of trees, looking curiously at the tiny creature caught in it's silk, "What have we here? Like one of the silly mortals, but so minuscule. What are you, creature?"

The Faerie looked up at the immense spider with fear and confusion, knowing he was about to die, but baffled that one of the spiders actually spoke, "I-I am a Faerie, Mrs. Spider. What are you?"

"My meals don't usually ask questions, but I am Vroch, the mother of all Arochno, the spawn of god, your captor and executioner, and most importantly of all, hungry. Looking at you, you would hardly make a mouthful, but you smell awfully nice. I suppose I deserve to have a nice gourmet meal. Once I'm finished with you, I'll find more Faeries, and make a meal out of them," and those were the last words the Faerie ever heard.

Later that night, there was a city of Faeries, specifically of the Bloom cult, where angels stood vigil against he encroaching darkness out in the trees. There was more movement out there tonight. A leg would be spied slinking around a tree, or a web rustling from a soul trapped inside. They had felt a new degree of fear, and so had tripled the night's guard.

Their fear was well found, but was nothing compared to the terror as, from the tree line, thousands of Arochno spilled, rushing the Angel's lines. The Angels held firm, however, and raised their weapons high in defense of their friends.

The lines of black insects collided with the golden armored Angels with the sound of a thousand shells being sheared open, and of a hundred Angels crying out in death. The defenders looked to be winning, cutting down twenty Arochno for each Angel who fell, hacking at the bodies of the sudden attackers even as they lay twitching on the ground.

Soon a hill of Arochno corpses were piled up around the city, and the Angels stood atop it, using the high ground to help turn the tide of battle. The commotion had woken a few Faeries, who peered out into the shadows with horror, for most had never seen even an iota of such violent death. Those with stronger stomachs left their homes to try and shroud their defenders with abjurations.However, the forces still poured in, and the Angels grew tired of their constant warring against the beasts.

The battle would not last much longer, however, for Vroch had finally reached the sight of the slaughter, and witnessed hundreds of thousands of it's children cleaved into pieces. In that instant, it cried out with a note of divine anguish so powerful that dozens of Angels succumbed to their wounds from the sheer sound of it, "My children!"

The mother spider danced forward, joining with her children in the fight. Many Angels were shocked to see a creature of such size, but fought on, in vain once the demigod fell upon them, as it tore creatures in half with it's bite, strangled them with venomous mist it summoned from the world around them, and simply crushed them beneath it's awesome weight. Blows rained down upon her, of course, but her hide was too thick for the weapons to leave much of a mark. It was laughable, how easily the spider threw aside these creatures.

Eventually, only a handful of the Angel defenders remained fighting solo out among the sea of spiders. These were the most skilled warriors, to still be fighting even as dawn broke. However, they were running out of options, and none could face the Mother Spider. One, however, a young Angel, of perhaps fifty years, named Nathaniel, had scavenged the heaviest armor he could find from among the corpses of his fellows, and convinced a few dozen Faeries to shroud him in the strongest abjurations they knew. Hefting two bastard swords, one in each hand, he charged Vroch.

The colossal spider swung out with a leg, knocking the charge aside, but Nathaniel remained upright, and cleaved the leg in half, putting all of his might into the swing of the blade. Screaming in pain, the spider whirled, now stumbling, and charged the Angel. It's charge was stopped short by a flash of divine, golden light from before Nathaniel, which knocked the spider back and dazed it. In that moment of hesitation, Nathaniel dove forward, leaping onto it's back and hacking away at it's thick carapace, attempting to remove it's head from the rest of it's body. As he chopped, however, the great spider bucked, even as her progeny swarmed up onto her back to dislodge Nathaniel. He would not be deterred, however, and sliced through their ranks even as he attempted to maintain his balance.

However, Vroch was a demigod, and would not be so easily beaten. So with an incantation in a language only known by the gods, she summoned a rift of black energy before her, which unleashed a bolt of black lightning, striking Nathaniel full in the face, throwing him back into the trees.

It was a testament to the power of the abjurations laid upon him that day that he had not been instantly reduced to a pool of blood, but when he awoke, the battle had been lost, the Faerie cult devoured, and the city turned into Vroch's permanent den. Nathaniel rose from his place some kilometers away, still armored in the heaviest of armor, but only carrying a single blade, for one of his arms and several ribs were broken. He walked away, then, in defeat, but he was still young, and would live to fight another day.


***

The Idrian child wept upon the shores of the White Mountains, despondent and cold in this starless night, he was all alone in the world.

But as he sat there, unable to see where to go next, a vibrant, silver light washed over him. As he looked up, he saw a serpentine figure descending from the heavens, with the head of a seal wreathed in silver flames that burned as bright as the sun. When this vision spoke, it revealed a pair of daunting fangs hanging from it's upper lip, "Young mortal. Why do you cry?"

The child was unsure how to respond. He had never heard of a creature such as this, and was uncertain on whether to flee, or answer. He opted for the latter, after a moment of staring on in wonder, "My family has been taken, killed by the White Conclave. I'm all alone in this world. That is why I cry."

The fiery seal looked upon the child for a time, considering him, before speaking once more, "My name is Rel, little mortal, and I am the child of a god. I have considerable power in me, so I can grant you your hearts desire, and in fact I will, a single wish, all you need do is ask. Though alas, I lack mastery of life and death. I can not bring back your family. Anything else in the world that you want, I will grant it to you. What would you desire?"

The boy looked on the entity with confusion and shock. He could have anything in the world that he would want, but just not the one thing in the world which he actually wanted. He looked down at his hands for a long time, thinking, before he spoke, so low that the demigod had to actually try and hear it, "I wish that no one else would ever die to the White Conclave."

"Your wish will be granted."


***

It was always up to Rel to decide the particulars of how a wish was carried out, but this one would be tricky. He considered all sorts of avenues, such as appealing to the Singers to disband the White Conclave, but that would be utterly idiotic. Perhaps he could put then all to sleep, but that many creatures, one or two would eventually break free of that spell and begin awakening the others. No, the only option with any realistic chance of success was to crush them in combat. This was why he circled Destroyer's Peak now. It would be a considerable risk to himself, so he would have to be careful.

With one last pass, he plummeted towards the mountain, turning ghostly at the last second to streak down into the structure, until he came out into the barracks for the White Conclave, where hundreds of white Singers mingled.

After a moment of stunned silence, Rel writhing near the roof of the chamber, he spoke in a cheerful tone, "Hi! I'm here to wreck your day!"

How it was a moment of confused silence, before the thousand Singers brought their magic to bear and hurled a swarm of explosive spells at the intruder. However, Rel was prepared for this, their trademark attack, and used a simple spell to turn the bolts of energy into fish which flew through the air, just to be caught and devoured by the demigod.

When the Singers realized what was happening, they stopped, leaving Rel a moment to swallow and speak, "More please."

However, this was the last simple moment of the conflict, which would spread eventually into every part of the Destroyer's Peak. The Singers would melt giant slabs of stone and hurl them at the demigod, while Rel would use his power to cool it instantly into gravel, and then turn the stone into a thousand buzzing insects, which turned and swarmed upon the attackers. Singers struck the fabric of reality with a wave of pure destructive force, but before it had even expanded beyond the size of a teacup, Rel created an unbreakable shell around it, and blinked the shell and it's contents out of existence, while he bit and ripped Singers into fiery blobs. The Singers tried to box the demigod in, and Rel simply faded through the walls. They tried hemming it in with destructive spells, and Rel split into multiple copies of himself, each one going a different direction. The Singers tried to catch the demigod by surprise and drop an entire corridor on him, but Rel caught the falling stones in a spell, turned them to balls of iron, and hurled them at the Singers.

Hours this interchange went, back and forth across the city, the Singer's attempting a new attack, while Rel batted their attempts back, laughing at them. Eventually, the White Conclave was destroyed beyond recognition, and a massive amount of Destroyer's Peak needed to be rebuilt. However, Rel's work was done here, and so, with a flourish, he left the city behind…

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Ruttivorat to Build the Grek Aval.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Wetami to Build the Edakyū Keshé.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to raise an army of Kyūdōka.

1 point to Command Rel to Terrorize the White Conclave (Rel wins)

1 point to Command Vroch to Terrorize the Faerie cult of Aniqua, also fighting the Rebel Angel Army in the process (Vroch wins)

Current Power Points: 13
Next Power Roll: 2d6+4=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view4256985/)

[ImperialSunligh]

A young human farm boy sat in his family's field on the mountainside of Eknad's Bosom, hoping something interesting would happen. It was then that he noticed a glint of light in the field. He went to see what it was. It turned out to be some kind of musical instrument. The boy had little musical knowledge, but he felt compelled to take the ocarina in his hands and play it.

Before he had the chance to breath out a note, however, he was struck by a great pain in his stomach, followed by the haunting sight of a blade protruding from his torso. It was the blade of his father, knight of the Order of Eknad. His father was a skilled paladin and could see the nature of the ocarina instantly.

The boy slumped down on the grown and died. His father mourned momentarily before meeting with the king. The king, seeing the importance of this object, held a special meeting of the highest members of the order to decide what should be done with it. Many suggested to use its power against their enemies, but still more ardently claimed the device evil in source and nature, suggesting that it be cast away. And so it was.

The king led a ritual of the order, in which the highest dukes chanted the divine words taught by the gods that would exile the ocarina from the world. The ocarina responded to the chanting, falling through a tear in reality into the void, where as long as it remained, it would harm no one.

Roll: 2d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4259323/)

Command Order, The Order of Eknad, Miracle, cast the ocarina into the void, -3

3 left.

[Omegonthesane]

Aggrieved by first the loss of its instruments, then the loss of its first Singer army, and finally the loss of its only living child, Makhleb apparently slumbered for an age, for all the people of Tyonix knew.

The news of the dark deeds of Vroch troubled the demons of Sanctuary, but they had already lost their expeditionary force to the Inquisition and could not yet have any confidence in their abilities against a demigod. The 2nd Militia could not leave Sanctuary's walls without violating their oath to defend the Demonic Temples, so their hands were very much tied. Nonetheless, the survivors of the 1st Sanctuary Militia were eager to train a new generation to continue the fight against threats to their people, and relatively soon had reformed.

Life in Sanctuary had settled enough that most demons lived past their one-time average of two hundred years. Indeed, with their eagerness to work dire blood magic upon their own bodies, many succumbed to infected wounds before succumbing to the destructive energies within their flesh. The Golden Magic of their angelic kin was a partial defence against this, but being inherently tied to a specific god it was controversial within their city - and worse, did not work reliably on any demon who did not follow the Pantheon.

Thus it was by simple necessity that the demons spread out into the Bloom, seeking ways that these infections might be prevented. This effort resulted in many hunting camps that simply became villages over the years, as the demons sought any plant, any animal, any mineral that might reduce what was now the primary threat to their existence.

Their search was not entirely in vain; many demons ultimately perished to failed experiments, but the successful ones were repeatable, and before the last demon to fight the Inquisition had died, all its kin were trained to a minimal standard in the cleaning of wounds and the curing of the most common infections.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4259517/)
Power rollover: 5 points
Total 14 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Demons) - Rudimentary Medicine
4 points: Command Race (Demons) - Inhabit Territory (A sort-of semicircle of all the land near Sanctuary that one Inhabit Territory can cover, since Sanctuary's always been a coastal city)
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Raise Army (Regrouped 1st Sanctuary Militia)
0 points: Command Army (1st Sanctuary Militia) - Defend Sanctuary

1 point remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d6+4=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view4256985/)
Current Power Points: 28

Eull and Nameless strolled into the web-infested clearing, where the corpses of a hundred thousand Arochno lay festering, covered in dense webs and Arochno young, feeding upon the bodies as they grew. There were hundreds of fully grown Arochno here, but they gave the god and demigod a wide berth, knowing what it was they stood before.

The pair went past the barricade of husks, straight to the heart of the web, where Vroch rested, nursing her severed leg and the cuts upon her back in stillness. However, when the two entered her sight, she turned, calling out in that two-toned voice, "Father! Brother! I rejoice to see you! As you can see, though, my latest meal was not as cooperative as they usually are. Destroying almost a quarter of my brood in a single night, and maiming me almost as badly as your dead child, Seliss once did. So, I may not be in the welcoming of moods. Though, please, do come closer. I have missed you so. What brings you to me this quiet day?"

Nameless nodded to the giant Arochno, "Greetings sister. You've really topped yourself this time. Wasn't this once the holiest of sights of the worshippers of Aniqua? I bet they're not happy that you've turned it into your latest breeding ground."

"They are mortals, simple meat for me and my ilk. If they're unhappy, it's only because they don't yet realize their place in the world. Do you have sympathy for them?"

"Not in particular. Just stating that which is true."

Eull had not come here to discuss the deaths and conflicts of the Faeries, however. No, it was because the god wanted to bring his presence in the world to near completion. This had been the first true act of Eull's first ever child, and as such, it carried enough weight to become something more, such as the death of his second child taking place in it's own second great act, which had become something more as well.

"So, you mean to turn Vroch into another extension of yourself?" Nameless asked.

"I am not sure I am content with becoming an ideal. I enjoy eating a fair deal," Vroch added.

No, the child Seliss and the child Vroch had been as different as two entities could be. Thus, what their profound acts would lead towards would be just as different. Though, Eull was merely here to take the catalyst which would allow the act to progress.

"What would that item be, father?"

It would have to be a drop of Vroch's blood, which had been shed in this fight. It had actually already been collected by the deity, as they passed the wall of corpses. Eull had only continued farther in because Vroch always wanted visitors who she considered equals.

"Oh, how sweet of you. Sit a spell, and regale me with tales of the world."

The two stayed there for another two years, before Eull truly had to leave, so that he might progress his fourth Avatar. When they finally left, with Eull carrying a speck of dried blood, they went to the Latticework Land, and there, dropped the fleck of Vroch's essence into a rushing river, and a pulse of his power followed it. As the river ran, it turned red, and thick, turning to blood even as wildlife opted to avoid it, and even other rivers altered their course to avoid being tainted.

This current of blood slowed as it became more viscous, until it was truly blood. At this point, the terrain had shifted slightly, disconnecting the other parts of the waterworks from what was now an isolated, free-standing pond of blood, deep in a ravine. Once it had reached this point, arteries and veins started forming, as vines creeping out of the coast of this lake of blood, and I to every crack they could find. The rock surrounding these threads of blood would turn black as though from soot or an ever present heat.

After a year, the entire ravine the pool of blood rest within was covered in blood vessels, and the location was shunned by all, even the darkest souls, for the ravine knew what it wanted: to kill. Others felt the desire emanating from the pit as well, and stayed away, for if a creature strayed too close to it's lip, the stone would surely crumble, and they would always slip, and they would fall into the abyss, where the blood of Vroch now boiled.

After a few decades of growth and something else changed. Down in the dark depths, a shape rose from the blood: a face of pitch black stone, sculpted in a perfect expression of agony and rage, screaming in eternal silence. Once it had achieved this level of power, however, it decided to rest it's newfound abilities, and the ravine it rested in snapped shut, closing as though nothing had ever been there, and leaving behind only a puff of thin, evil smoke.

Elsewhere in the world, in the high mountains of the Pure Land, a blackened fissure opened, and down in it's depths lay a pool of boiling demigod blood and the face of Eull's understanding of darkness. Yes, even as the most ferocious creatures in the world fled from it, the Blood Pit knew this would be the place it would begin.

A few years passed, and creatures continues to slip into the waiting maw of the Blood Pit, and before too long, bits of blackened bone could be seen floating in the pond, collecting and coalescing into more complex shapes, before they dipped back below the surface. Then, a day came when dozens of shapes, formed out of collected scraps of bone, came to the surface of the small lake, dripping black, denser blood, from the bottom-most reaches of the pool. Even as these figures climbed the walls of the ravine, clutching handholds with bitterly clawed hand, their bodies contorted and cracked, bones rearranging and muscles ripping so they might grow in a different arrangement. Once they reached the surface, they all had essentially the same shape, however, as the magic that had created them had settled into a single shape.

Two meters tall, these creatures were long-limbed, their dark gray skin stretched taut over frail skeletons and sparse muscles. They possessed no mouths or noses, instead a blank slate where they normally would have been. They would instead eat via soaking blood in through their leathery skin. They had eight eyes, each beady and pitch black, arranged in two rows of four, extending back around the head. Their hand each had four fingers, and each finger a razor-sharp talon as long as the finger it was attached to.

These were the Kraith, and they went out into the savage world, looking deceptively malnourished and frail, but once a creature reached close enough to strike, they would find themselves without a throat, as the Kraith had blinding speed, allowing them to place themselves so they would shower in the blood of their prey even before the first drop had leapt from the wound.

For many years, the Kraith brought offering back to the Blood Pit, tossing anything that had survived being bled to feed to the Kraith into the Fissure, a few Kraith even falling in themselves. However, one day, the Blood Pit shut, like an eye blinking, just to open up again in another location, halfway around the world, leaving the Kraith, the only thing to ever come out of the Blood Pit, in the rocky highlands of the Pure Land, to fend for themselves.


***

Far away, in the First Land, the Seliss shuddered. It felt the darkness that had been added to the world in the form of the Blood Pit, and felt actual pain as it had created the Kraith. Such evil had to be met. It seemed even in it's existence as an extension of it's father, Seliss had to fight it's war against Vroch, the ancient plague. However, now, it was different. Now, this new incarnation of Vroch was as much an extension of Eull as Seliss was. So, it would not be attack and defense, but a war of acts. Meeting destruction with creation, or evil with good.

The first act in this fight, would be to create a foil, an opposite to the Kraith. Those creatures who deceived as their only way to acquire food and who wasted so much food, leaving behind an entire corpse once they had bathed in it's blood. Those creatures who huddled in the darkness, pathetic yet deadly.

It would have to be a race which stood proud in the sunlight, which did not waste anything they acquired in their lifetime. A race of kindness and strength, self-sufficient and gentle, but able to act if they had dire need to do so.

Seliss knew exactly what to use to create this creature. It had been gazing out upon them for ages. However, this would not be ideal. Instead the spirit bird looked north, to the Blooming Forest, where even now the physical form of the great plague sat, tainting the beautiful land. Looking there, she crept into the wood of an ancient heart trees, with their weathered, gnarled trunks. There, she sparked divine energy, shifting the wood slightly here and there, shaping it to her designs, until fifty years passed, and the first Trell stepped from the trunk of the heart tree.

Humanoid in shape, the Trell were entirely made of wood, with bark instead of skin, vines and moss covered their bodies, growing as they remained still for years on end, soaking up sunlight with their mosses and flowing water with their feet. They possessed great weight, even the smallest Trell weighing in at several tons, though, they never grew more than twice their original size. They would live for thousands of years and most would never stand taller than five meters tall.

They were not born in the traditional sense, as Trells lacked genders. No, a Trell might not grow taller, but they still grew, with fruits and flowers appearing across their forms, which they often gave to other races to feed and help them, even the demented Demons. However, once in a while, they would keep a fruit, for the seed inside, planting it deep in the trunk of a tree, allowing it to, over the years, shape itself into a new Trell, until it was fifty years old, and stepped out of the tree as a full-grown Trell, completely aware and awake. If another race attempted to plant a Trell seed, even if they placed it inside the trunk of a tree, the seed would not grow, instead becoming as a rock.

Seliss retracted from the Trell, momentarily, to allow them a chance to grow and spread throughout the north.


***

Meanwhile, beneath the ocean, Eramine had finally grown to the point that they possessed their own Army of Kings, as they attempted to emulate Rou. It had been a long and arduous process, with years of failed attempts at Armies of Blue Kings bickering and tearing each other down, until only one Blue King ruled again. However, in recent years, new structures were added to the city of Eramine, all of which were designed to take on a yellow hue, making the city look to be made of gold, with the people glowing blue like sapphires studded into the metal. With many of the new structures had come a harem, and the women within had formed a bond so strong that they felt they could stand as the first Army of Blue Kings, and as it turned out, they could. They earned the nickname "Army of Whores" rather quickly, but wore the title with shrewd pride. Under their (considerably lengthily) rulership, the city was changed dramatically, until women were actually the dominant warriors. This resulted in a fair amount of turmoil, but overall pitted men against women, thereby forcing each respective gender group into having a stronger sense of camaraderie, so the city actually started coming together as an actual city.

Meanwhile, the Horn of Winter had been discarded as a lump of trash some Saku Rasi had thrown overboard, and was now resting among a tangle of bones some distance outside Rou, where it had been discarded with the trash.

This was where the Shou Tahs child known as Gerkibasio Gerkiselio, found it. He was a fairly scrawny child of the Black Tribe, and thus didn't hunt as much, instead scrounging through trash for food. He had dreams of commanding his entire tribe, but he was weak, and it was assumed that another child would kill him before he reached adulthood.

When Gerkibasio Gerkiselio found the Horn, however, everything changed. He wasn't even full grown before he had conquered the Black Tribe, having them construct Gerki by the undersea ravines far to the west of Eramine and Rou, just north of the Banana Land. It also came to pass that he never was bested in his entire life. He was at the end of his life, a place no Shou Tahs had ever been before, as they all died in fights, and no successor had been decided upon in the proper way. So, one day, the Black King named his heir to be his son, and he was so respected that none contradicted him. With that, he left the city, taking the horn with him, fading into history as "The Hornblower". Gerki, from that day forward, behaved different than the other cities. Instead of successors being whoever defeated the previous King, the position of the Black King was forever inherited. The Hornblower was respected so much that there were never even any real challenges to the throne. Sure, the Black Tribe would rough up the new King to make sure he was strong and knew how to win a fight, but if the King lost, they would not kill him. They would get angry and disgrace the King, but they would teach him, force him to become the best fighter in the tribe.

22 points to Create the Blood Pit.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Create the Kraith.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Create the Trell.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Eramine to Raise it's Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command the Shou Tahs to Found Gerki.

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4259419/)

[Neelien]

rolled 12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4260959/) bringing me up to 39

Nios was not particularly pleased with the pace of the Stringwork's progress but he decided not to intervene for now, as world was still in a state of balance, even though things were begining to take a turn for the worse. However, it was not critical yet so there was no need for action.

Meanwhile the Stringwork crept slowly back onto the land, unaware of what happened to the Fairies and their protectors, as it began searching for them. It rapidly noticed that noticed the maps it had made were incoherent. It decided to simply remap the area, not giving it much thought at first. As the mapping progressed, the Stringwork managed to find correlations between the older map and the new one. As some Strings were wounded by the spiders, it understood the area had suddenly become more dangerous, so it retreated back into the safe waters of the ocean where it decided to plan for is next move.

Sometime after, the Agglomerations came up with a new idea. The Strings were clearly not very efficient on land, and that would need to be compensated for. Having noticed that land creatures were significantly smaller than themselves, they decided to emulate their appearence. An experimental Agglomeration named the Outgoer was set up, it would consist of the shortest Strings coiled up in a small space. Incidentally, the smallest Strings also had the most efficient brains. This made them perfect for the experiment, as the Outgoer would need to be disconnected from the Stringwork at times. With enough training, they could move in a coordinated fashion, which would allow them to move quicker over land.

For that, the Stringwork developed a training technique involving the Dancer's Bell. What was once as dangerous item was now seen as useful, as it allowed Strings to learn how to coordinate movement and strengthen themselves.

In the end, the Outgoer proved to be a success. It had no define shape, as the Strings inside would work together to take the shape of other creatures. With more training, the Outgoer managed to emulate sight and color, and shape itself to look like pretty much any creature. Once the Stringwork felt that the Outgoer was ready, it sent it on its first mission : "Locate a safe river so that the Stringwork may obtain what it came for."

The Outgoer executed the command, mapping the lands as it walked and crawled the forests. Eventually it found its goal : a lake that had a river streaming from it. This place would become a source of energy for the Stringwork, and since it was untouched by the spiders, the Stringwork considered it safe. Once its mission was complete, the Outgoer broke up into its individual component Strings. These then rode the stream back into the ocean, where the information was transmitted back to Stringwork.

The Outgoer proved to be an interesting and powerful tool for the Stringwork, and it decided to use it for its operations on land. It would most likely be the tool used to communicate with other species.

Spend 5 points : Advance Civilization (Stringwork) with "The Outgoer" a.k.a. Shapeshifting
34 points remaining
+3 next turn

[Benthesquid]

Weeks after the Fifth Volunteer Army had been destroyed in combat with the Red Lord, Marat Lau staggered into a village on the outskirts of the Bellephoratan zone and told the story of the Fall of the Red Lord. The reaction was immediate- the Free Knights of Bellephorat swore that they would honor the sacrifice of their fallen comrades by finishing their work. The Third Volunteer Army marched on Ashatorat, intent on destroying the Red Lord’s cult, root and branch, and wiping the city itself off the map, leaving Bellephorat as the only power in the First Land.

***

Meanwhile, Sehk was, for the first time, turning his gaze away from the First Land. In the area that had become known as the Banana Land, he once more spilled his blood. Vines grew from the ground, and knotted about themselves, slowly forming into a form reminiscent of Sehk’s own. This was the first Werblume, and it was quickly joined by others.

The Werblumes were humanoid in form, and at first glance might be mistaken for a small Saku Rasi. However, a second glance would quickly show that something was different. Their skin was much lighter in color, nearly white with a slight tinge of green or pink. Their hair, meanwhile, was extremely dark, nearly black with a tinge of blue. The most significant difference, however, was the leafy vines that sprouted from their temples. There were six in all- two grew around the head, giving the appearance of a leafy crown.

The other four wrapped around the torso and then split up, one wrapping around each arm, and one around each leg. The Werblumes could control the vines to a degree, unwinding them and manipulating them like extra limbs, although they were much weaker and clumsier than their arms.

The chlorophyll in the leaves provided the Werblumes with some energy. It was not enough to live on alone, but it meant that they ate only sparingly. In order to get certain proteins that they could not synthesize photosynthetically, they survived primarily on a diet of blood, usually that of large bovine mammals.

The Werblumes were naturally social, and initially lived in small villages. There was no formal governmental structure, but each village tended to throw up one or several individuals who had ecstatic visions, where, after hours of meditation and chanting, and imbibing a beverage made of fermented honey, they would drop into a trance and shout out prophetic quatrains. These individuals were greatly respected, and held to have secret insights into the nature of the world.

As the years wore on, these visionaries joined in a loose association, known as the Sehkian Society, which established sweat lodges in numerous villages. The Society still had no official power, but their advice was generally listened to, and they became de facto leaders of Werblume society.

Crunch
Roll= 7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4259884/), plus six banked makes thirteen.

Command Fourth Army- Destroy Ashatorat and the cult therein: Zero Points
Create Race: Werblumes: Six Points
Create Order: Sehkian Society: Six Points
Total twelve points, one remaining

[ImperialSunligh]

The pantheon watched as the humans thrived on their mountain, most blissfully ignorant of the dangerous forces surrounding them. The Order of Eknad, its kings and knights, however, knew, and they worked to build human society into something that could last. Under the leadership of King Figura XIII, the most populous area of Eknad's Bosom was transformed into a fortified city matching Eupnea's beauty, though, in a slightly humbler manner. It was a practical city, serving the people of the city primarily, and the gods second.

The city was named Figurae, after the line of kings before and including Figura XIII, who saw the city as a triumph of humanity's faith as a whole, not only his own. The city was the home of the palace of Eknad, where the king held his court, which was firm in judgement, but just, and made easily accessible to any human who wished to witness the proceedings, or offer thoughts.

On the streets of Figurae, various fledgeling concepts of honour and chivalry emerged, and the young people of the city would often duel each other to the death in the names of these things. While in some ways foolish and barbaric, these contests, through necessity, gave rise to a tradition of excellent swordplay. Most humans would learn at least a small amount of duelling skill before adulthood, and a few would become masters in their old age, making money selling their tutoring to families fearing for the lives of their children. This practice was a great opportunity for the armies of the humans to increase the skill of their swordsmen.

Roll: 2d6+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4261880/)

Create Human City, "Figurae", -4
Advance humans, "Swordplay", -5
(It is implied that the armies currently defending Eknad's Bosom are defending Figurae)

Left: 2

[Omegonthesane]

The fall of the White Conclave had been an annoyance; the fall of the Red Lord, an affront for which Bellerophat was doomed to pay one day. But, the destruction of Makhleb's worshippers was what finally moved its hand.

A strange red star appeared in the sky, the day that Ashatorat was demolished. Astronomers all over the world noticed it, and even casual gazers at the night sky could not mistake its mere presence. Every day it grew closer, though for a year not even the keenest mortal eyes could have noticed. After a year, it started to visibly grow - not quickly, but quickly enough - and those who studied such matters began to realise it was definitely in the south, hanging above the First Land.

Within two years of the red star's appearance, they realised it was not so much hanging above the First Land as hurtling towards it. The odds of it striking were billions to one, had this been a truly natural event. Of course, it wasn't, and the star was correcting its course to home straight in on Bellerophat.

From this time until the red star's task was completed, every Spirit Walker felt a strange sense of doom and foreboding whenever they walked outside their flesh, though they never saw anything to justify their dread. There seemed to be a disquieting urgency to the actions of the Willow Folk and the Rope Babies, as well, though this was even less explicable - these constructs had no supernatural senses, surely. As the star came closer, over and above the natural fear that it caused, people in Bellerophat and Calamorat seemed on edge, angry, prone to react with outbursts or violence at far slighter provocations than had once been required.

These omens subtly grew in intensity, until seven days before impact, at which borderline even Makhleb's own mighty powers could not hide the star's nature from the Suri it was to kill. Every Spirit Walker, even those who were not using their skills, screamed at the top of their lungs, continuously, catatonic and helpless until the day of their doom, as the veil was lifted; for the red star was no demigod or wonder or army but Makhleb itself, its soot-coated body surrounded by a ball of flickering flames, and all this time they had been looking upon that god's fiery heart whenever they left their bodies. The Great Sigil flared into life, and its light could now be seen over the suns, and even over the light radiating from Makhleb's wrathful form. It did its work, sapping Makhleb's life, but the God of Destruction had plenty to spare. In desperation, the weather-controllers and operators of the Storm Tower whipped up a storm that struck at the skies, akin to the height-specific protective storms of the Pure Land, yet they might as well have tried to knock a rampaging Shou Tah aside with a feather for all the effect it had.

The Crystal Wall would be no defence, they all knew that; it was not, after all, a crystal roof, and there was no constructing a crystal roof in a mere seven days. The rage that had built in the hearts of the Suri grew, and battles erupted on the streets - fuelled both by the supernatural rage of the Destroyer and by simple despair at the knowledge that death was imminent and seemingly inevitable.

For those able to keep their heads, it wasn't truly inevitable, as it happened. Many Suri simply packed their bags and fled, both at a trickle during the years of build-up, and in a flood during the final week when all doubt was removed. Yet, tragically, most of this second wave did not survive, caught up in the warring crowds or trampled under the hordes of their own.

Compared to these days of panic, the final destruction was mercifully brief. When Makhleb impacted Bellerophat, a wave of fire lashed out, striking all those within seventy miles of its outermost borders, vaporising the living in an instant - even the Crystal Colossus, hitherto thought unstoppable.

Great cracks appeared from the site of impact, reaching through buildings to near the edges of Suri territory, cutting through the Great Sigil and right to the mantle, erupting in magma within seconds and melting much that was near them. One such crack formed beneath Urat Sur, grandmother and grandfather of those who had dared to oppose Makhleb's will, who had slain its only living child and who had destroyed the only thing she existed to protect. Few witnessed the fine details; it is possible that the avatar of Sehk attempted to escape, but short of fleeing the land of his and her creations, there was no hope of Urat Sur's original body escaping Makhleb's anger.

It was almost a miracle that any of Bellerophat stood, let alone that it was still recognisable on the skyline, yet the damage was done. All the grand spells and sorceries that had made the city's name were gone, lost with the Suri who knew how to perform them. The Storm Tower, the Crystal Wall, and the Great Sigil had all been utterly annihilated by Makhleb's wrath, and despite having once been more dangerous than the Singers themselves, the Suri were set back to a point as primitive as their Fari offshoots.

Meanwhile...

In the shape of a pillar of flames Makhleb danced among the Bloom, incinerating the various dead angels and fairies left behind by Vroch's wicked deeds, examining these and distilling them, yet failing to ignite the rest of the forest. Once it had harvested enough, it remained still, and out of it walked a strangely humanoid being, the same three or four feet in height as Makhleb's corporeal form, which somehow combined a fairy's beauty and apparent fragility with the dignity - though not the wings - of an angel. It indeed had neither gossamer nor feathered wings, due to some strange quirk of their combined ancestry. Ten, twenty, two hundred of these beings walked out of the flames, male and female, of various heights and builds, and together formed a wild, savage, primitive civilisation in the Bloom. They indeed loved Life, feasting cruelly on its vibrancies and its excesses as eagerly as they nurtured its spread and growth. These were the first Elves, born of the passions of the angels and the fairies' deep love of life, and tainted irrevocably - though by no means unmanageably - by the cruelty of Makhleb.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4261275/) points
Power rollover: 1 point

10 points: Catastrophe - The Fall of the Suri. Target: Bellerophat, Calamorat, and Ashatorat if the rules call was wrong and it can't yet be destroyed. Intended casualties: Bellerophat, Calamorat, the Second and Fourth Volunteer Armies, all techs within Bellerophat, The Crystal Colossus, Urat Sur if it wouldn't flee in-character.
(How much of its original structure the Third Volunteer Army retains is up to Benthesquid but it's dispersed enough that a fair amount of it would survive the actual attack.)
3 points: Create Hybrid Race (Angels + Fairies = Elves).

0 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264306/) bringing me up to 40.... also I didn't find inspiration to post something good.

Nios saw the destruction in the South. He understood it was a one-time event, however something like this should never happend again, and if it did, he would take action to undo as much of it as he could. However he would wait more. This wasn't time for action.

In the last 500 years, the Stringwork had been sending Outgoes throughout Tyonix, slowly creating a map and referencing the species that were walking the planet. It tried to interact with them by taking the form of their kin. This went better with some species like the Saku Rasi, the Idrians or the Fairies than with species like Demons, Angels or Humans. Besides that not much happened to the Stringwork.

pass
40 points left
+3 next turn
I just didn't find the inspiration to write anything more. Sorry about it.

Wow, this probably my shortest post to date...

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4259419/)
Current Power Points: 19

Seliss stated out across the tree line. The sky was dark, but the world beneath this cliff was glowing with undying fire to the horizon, in all directions. Everything but this oasis, atop the cliff, where the Sanctuary Emerald rested, holding the excess flames from the wrath of Mahkleb at bay. A few Suri had made it here, including the farming family who were still in possession of the rest of the skeleton of Seliss's last mortal frame. Seliss had actually set to them ahead of time, to try and ensure that as many as could survive, would.

If Seliss could have gone out and fought against the god, it would have, even knowing that there was no fighting the will of a god. If it could not bat the flames aside, he would have shepherded the Suri to safety. Alas, as an Avatar, it's purpose in the place was far different now. Still, though, those with some small amount of Seliss had gotten many Suri to safety, including the three families that rested in this safe haven.

However, there could be no dwelling on this act. There were tasks to be completed. Seliss turned it's vision away from the flame, and north…


***

The Shou Tahs of Rou had been growing more and more belligerent of late. After so many hundred years of plenty and a state of somewhat decreased violence that they had incorrectly defined as "peace", many found that the city life had grown stale, and so were beginning to rove out, looking to start larger and larger fights with other tribes. Small groups of friends, two or three or sometimes even as many as seven, would group together and name themselves as "armies", though that title was scoffed at by the Armies of Kings. These small forces were still fairly destructive, of course, and when they met other groups of Shou Tahs in the open water, there would be conflicts comparable to wars. A few of these small armies actually attempted to take other cities, especially the beautiful Eramine. True Armies of Kings had to refine their War Song, and use complex hymns to deflect oncoming attackers, and this only worked three out of four times, as a few Shou Tahs had discovered shouts that would disperse the Somgs of others, if used in exactly the correct way at exactly the correct moment. However, none of these raiding parties ever found any purchase, as the defending Army of Kings would make quick work of them.

The uncivilized tribes, on the other hand, had a much more difficult time. There were only two left, Indigo and White, after all, and they had stopped attacking the cities of other tribes in ages past. They still fought each other and even inside their own tribe, but they were no match for the far more organized raiders from Rou. It had become less of a desire to have your own city as it was an absolute requirement.

The Indigo Tribe only survived the outflow of attackers where they were forced to group together. These groups then clumped into larger groups, and before they new it, they realized that they couldn't migrate constantly as they had before, and so, after many conflicts to try and decide upon the leadership of the city, they settled down far to the south of the other cities, and somewhat west as well, erecting small huts of stone upon the southern slopes of the Banana Land, while the fifteen Indigo Shou Tahs patrolled the city in groups of five. It took much time for these fifteen to grow close enough to be called Kings, but through necessity, they arrived there faster than any other Tribe yet had. They were somewhat irresponsible and prone to fighting among themselves still, but the city could not break apart, less the Indigo Tribe fall in danger of extinction, and so the Indigo Kings remained, and attempted their best to protect the city.

However, having been founded in a rush, through necessity, and not because of a conquerer, as the other three cities had been, it went without a name for several centuries, being simply referred to as "the Indigo City", until one Army of Kings arose where each of the fifteen Kings had similar names, and the city was christened "Kaz".

The White Tribe would attempt to fight for their ancient way for a time longer, but they would not fare well, and in several centuries a change would have to come…


***

Far to the north, Vroch was spreading into the Troud forest. Small Demon villages would be found devoid of life and encrusted in webs, corpses tangled in the silk or laying sprawled out on the ground. The First Sanctuary Militia was on high alert, and even moving onto the offensive, trying to flush out nests of Arochno. This was risky business, however, as the Arochno would often attack back, and a Demon or two might lose their lives in the skirmish. Though, anything less that outright death was a non issue to the militia, as any injury would be bandaged or disinfected and the soldier would be back on his feet again in a few days. This, with their methodical attack patterns sweeping across the Troud forest, they were wiping out Vroch's progeny fairly efficiently.

However, this was not to last, for Vroch was in their midst. A strange mist would occasionally sweep in across a small force of Demons, and before they were even aware of what was going on, they would fall over dead. Others would suddenly have the giant spider fall upon them and tear them limb from limb. Others still, the most wise, diligent, and skilled combatants, would face a darkness which threw bolts of fell lightning into their midst, turning them to piles of red sludge in an instant.

It quickly became apparent that these smaller groups were not going to survive against the onslaught of Vroch. So, they few bands began to clump into larger groups, and hung back, near some of the more populous settlements, fortifying them for the floods of Arochno that they knew would come. They set up protective spells and medicinal tents, each with their own mana battery. These made it so that, when Vroch did come, her lightning and venomous vapors were held at bay. The fortifications soon had resulted in thousands of her children being slaughtered by only a handful of Demons. This drove Vroch into a rage, and soon she was ripping walls of stakes out of the ground and hurling them at the Demons, impaling several dozen of the defenders, as they had impaled her children before. The Arochno poured in through the gap, and soon Vroch smashed through buildings, chasing the remnants of the defending force through the streets of the settlement.

This happened time and time again, until there were only a scant few Demons of the First Militia still alive, and limping back to Sanctuary, as their new homes had been swallowed whole by the spiders, who now rested in the towering trees, entangling them in colossal webs as the Bloom had been before.


***

The Trells slowly wandered the north, moving perhaps a kilometer in a week's time, or sometimes even standing still for four or five years, soaking up the sunlight and simply growing. They were a simple, patient, quiet race, as they had no drive to build or collect anything, but simply to wander, to feed the few mortals they encountered, and to grow. Many grew fond of the Faeries, who were so friendly and quick to laugh, but were saddened by their short lifespans. Some reprimanded the Elves for their overzealous ways, and attempted to teach them moderation. They also encountered some Idrians, Angels, Demons, and even a few Saku Rasi, but truly could not very well understand them, especially the Saku Rasi, who would gather up entire baskets of the Trell fruit before leaving.

They did have a passion though, and it was fairly closely entwined with their base nature. They loved plantlife. Watching it, classifying it, understanding it. A few Trells, after a few hundred years, learned that the Saku Rasi travelled around the world. So, they struck a bargain with the short race, and promised hundreds of fruits if the Saku Rasi would bring them plants from around the world.

Soon the Trells understood willows, ferns, kelp, vines of all sort, fungi, flowers, hart trees, moaks, greatwoods, oaks, mosses, bushes, water lilies, grasses, and all sorts of trees. With pride, they could identify plants which would make the best building materials, ones which had medicinal value, ones which produced material which could be turned into cloth, ones which bore fruit, and ones which were poisonous. Though, not all Trells truly knew of this information, and so those who did tried to tell the others. Of course, it takes a long time for Trells to grasp new ideas, so they would often be standing there together, talking, for some twenty years or more. During that time, perhaps one or more other Trells would wander in, and the education would begin anew for them.

There was one of these locations, a large clearing in the Flowering Forests near the White Mountains, where hundreds of Trells eventually ended up, and many remained there for a hundred years or more. Long enough, in fact, for new Trells to be grown and be sent to the Trell Grove, as it was called, to learn the secrets of Botany. This was the closest thing to a city the Trells would ever have, and it was really more akin to a school.


***

The Kraith had their own city as well, little more than a hole in the mountains of their birth where outlets had been dug into the walls with the Kraith's own claws. They raised their children here, in holes in the ground, where they dumped the blood of their freshest kill, just about drowning the Kraith young. The race was cruel, after all, and had no issue with killing their own. In fact, such a thing was fairly common, as sometimes a Kraith would not feel like going hunting, and would instead slit the throat of a fellow Kraith to feast of their thick, black blood. Some would even do it to a family member or a mate, but these were in the minority, for even to a Kraith, such bonds were respected.

This city was known as Khral, and extended deep into the mountain. It wasn't even a hundred years before the rocks began to smell of blood, decaying corpses, and diseased flesh. The Kraith didn't mind, though, as these were the smells of life, but other creatures of the Pure Land shunned it, avoiding the hole of death in the mountains.

After about three hundred years of this city, there were enough overflowing pools of blood and excess waste that the stone was permanently stained red, and in the lowest places of the city were a constant film of blood which had not yet dried. It was in these low places that the Kraith first discovered their ability to manipulate blood.

In those pits, small Kraith children would play in the old blood, and after some time, discovered that they could coax it to rising into a solid shape, or boil, or freeze, or flow uphill into another room. They simply needed to have touched a drop of the blood first. When the older Kraith learned of these skills, they soon were coaxing blood to form into armor, tools, and weapons, while now, on their hunts, they only had to scratch a creature to gain access to it's blood, and then they could rip all the blood in the creature's body out through that hole in the skin, and have it float in a ball through the air all the way back to Khral. Such an attack was complex, of course, and it was more common to simply slow the creature down, or to heats it's blood up until it started experiencing delirium. The onset of Sangromancy, however, made them all but unstoppable killers.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command the Shou Tahs to Found Kaz.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Kaz to Raise it's Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command the Kraith to Found Khral.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command the Trells to Found Grove.

1 point to Command Vroch to Terrorize the Demon's settled territory, thereby fighting and defeating the First Sanctuary Militia.

5 points to Advance the Trells in Botany.

5 points to Advance the Kraith in Sangromancy.


Map
http://i43.tinypic.com/2qvbbmc.png

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4262061/)

[Benthesquid]

The center of life in a Wehrblume village was the Mead-Hall. Initially, it's importance was simply as where one could generally find the dreamers and visionaries who served as spiritual leaders of their communities. However, as time wore on, this importance engendered others. Visitors from other villages would inevitably visit the Mead-Hall first to seek the wisdom and benediction of these visionaries, and so they became hubs of gossip, news, and trade as well.

As the Werblume became more accustomed to village living, they began domesticating the large bovines of the Banana Lands for their blood. Trade between the villages increased, and they began to take pride in their individual villages. Each wished to prove that they had the finest Mead-Halls, the greatest visionaries, and the finest blood-stock. Finer and finer Mead-Halls were built, until finally the Werblume of several villages came together to construct Heor, the Hall of Dreams.

The Hall was built of wood, a long, low building. It was full of bundles of dried fragrant herbs, which would frequently be thrown into the long, raised firebeds that ran the length of the hall, creating pungent smoke. It was filled with glittering ornaments, both of silver and gold, and of mere shiny rocks brought by those who wished to pay tribute to the many visionaries who slumped on the benches, breathing the pungent smoke, drinking mead mixed with blood, and occasionally leaping up to call out their visions.

As great an attraction as Heor was, it was no surprise that many who came to visit chose to settle there- either to be near the Hall of Dreams itself, or hoping to make their living by catering to the many who came to visit. Just as the lesser mead-halls were the center of their villages, Heor gradually came to be the center of a much larger settlement. This was Myrha, the first Werblume City.

As more and more Werblumes came to dwell in Myrha, the city became a melting pot for the different techniques- in hunting, herding, apiculture, and most of all, the brewing of mead. As wanderers from Myrha set out again, the syntheses of these varied techniques spread with them, sparking new innovation in the outlying villages, as the Werblumes ever refined and experimented with their techniques.

Roll=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264582/), plus one banked makes fifteen.
Command Race (Werblumes) Create Wonder: Heor, the Hall of Dreams (4 points)
Command Race (Werblumes): Create City: Myrha (4 points)
Advance Civilization (Werblumes): Brewing (5 points)
Total 13 points, two left over.

[ImperialSunligh]

Another call of recruitment was issued by the new king, pulling zealous youth from all corners of Figurae. If the city was to be defended from the hoards of enemy forces surrounding it on all sides, or so it seemed to the people cooped up within its walls, it would take many hands. Preferably, hands holding blades of divine power. And so the second army of paladins was created.

The drama of Paradi seemed to have quelled under the enlightening prescence of Eknad in his seat of power. A cold darkness swept through every corridor of the golden city, filling the angels and humans who remained not with dread, but an authoritative, spiritual calmness.

It was in this time of silence that Eknad wrote various books. One of these was the hallowed book, telling the story of the gods' experiences in Tyonix, but it was a work in progress. Others saw completion. While some contained great power, the only ones to be passed on from Eknad's mass were a group of scrolls detailing the scientific structure of Paradi's city. It was constructed of gold, yes, but was simultaneously formed of divine alloys beyond mortal comprehension.

These scrolls were dropped from the sky of Tyonix, falling down around the Axon Mountain range near human civilization. Many of these scrolls were lost to Eknad's cryptic delivery methods, but some were found by humans, most of which were handed over to or seized by the Order of Eknad and placed in their archives. Upon study, the scrolls, while nearly illegible at first, did offer some information to humans that provoked vast strides in the field of metallurgy, making humans the greatest workers of metal in all of Tyonix, creating powerful alloys for armour, weapons and domestic objects. Actually creating the fabled materials that composed the city of Paradi was simply impossible with the information in the surviving scrolls, but the hints toward it caused many to waste their lives in pursuit of that knowledge.

Roll: 2d6+2=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264782/)

Advance Human Civilization, Metallurgy, -5
Command Order, Order of Eknad, form second army of paladins, -3
Command 2nd army of Paladins, defend Figurae

Left: 1

[Omegonthesane]

News of the rampage of Vroch horrified the demons of Sanctuary, not least because it meant their buffer zome was destroyed. With the old training grounds infested with Arachno, there was no question of trying to raise a fully fledged new army despite the severity of the threat; the 2nd Sanctuary Militia increased the durations of their watch, took on more troops in preparation, and prayed for deliverance to whoever would listen - or for whatever psychological benefit it would give.

Apparently, Makhleb wasn't among those listening.


The Singers of Destroyer's Peak had not quite recovered, culturally, from the destruction of the White Conclave. Their formal society was almost nonexistent in the civilian population; the Singers took far too much joy in violence against one another to need a more civilised way of resolving disputes, and those who did not wish to practise Cruciatic Thaumaturgy needed little from other Singers besides teaching of their various methods of spreading death and despair. At various times, one band of Singers created an arena or twenty to celebrate and elevate "proper" ritual combat between Singers as opposed to rampage against the impure, but inevitably these had been blown up by other Singers who had some petty disagreement with the structure, for even the White Conclave cared little for protecting their charges from themselves.

So, it was not initially remarked upon particularly when various, seemingly random Singers started screaming inconsolably, a sound akin to lightning striking in every blink of the eye, in various parts of Destroyer's Peak. These attacks tended to last ten, fifteen seconds each, but there seemed to always be at least one or two current victims within Destroyer's Peak at every second for the entire month following the moment when it was officially acknowledged. Worse, certain of the original victims seemed to be able to make others suffer the same symptoms, and initially this was not understood.

Within the season, however, the Peak realised what had happened, after piecing together the message encoded in nightmares. In far Eupnea, while toying with their angelic slaves, the Red Screamers had stumbled upon a way to send dire visions directly into the minds of their intended victims to further disorient and torment them, and they saw no swifter, faster, or more entertaining method of informing their kin back home than to use this way itself. Those more enlightened called this method Telepathy, and a few rogue elements learned that it could be used to send things other than horrible disorienting nightmares, but the mainstream Singers were far too narrow-minded and sadistic to think of that without the push of necessity.

Inspired by the new technology, a new Conclave stepped up to replace the old. These discovered that the old stashes of white dye used on the original White Conclave had faded, having an eerie green tinge like the rotting corpses of angels. Rather than brew a new batch, the city's new defenders insisted on using the old, and worked to replicate the new colour so that their ranks could be quickly filled; in addition, not feeling worthy of the honours of the very first warriors of Makhleb, they drew runes upon their bodies in black, similar to those of the Red Screamers. Thus, the Pale Nightmare took up the old patrols and training camps, and Destroyer's Peak had its only cultural institution once more.

As they watched the growth of Eknad's Bosom, the Red Screamers became painfully aware that the humans were actually starting to advance. Individually, their fancy metals and their pointed sharp sticks of fancy metals were no match for the antediluvian power of the Singer scourge, but whatever the speeds of breeding involved, easily a hundred times as many humans as Singers lived to adulthood. They had to act, now, before these new beings undid their great work.

Thus they departed Eupnea for a campaign of ten years, leaving behind those quisling angels who had embraced their wickedness to maintain the oppression and enslavement of those lesser beings. Truly, they cared little for the fate of their now centuries old playground, but it had some small use as a base of operations. In order to minimise the risk of reprisals, they rounded up all the known revolutionaries - hitherto a source of sport and amusement - and set them high upon a stage, naked, flayed, and arranged on spikes in humiliating positions to remind the angels what would happen if they defied their new masters. That left only the unknown revolutionaries to worry about.

Eknad's Bosom was large, but the Red Screamers cared nothing for hunting. As their doctrines indicated, once they had found the highest hill they could be bothered to, they divided their forces into eight parts of twenty-five Screamers each. At any time two of these parts would guard their base camp, three of these parts would rest and sleep, two parts would seek bait for their trap and one part would patrol a wider area to see if the prey took the bait. Some argued that they need not bother seeking bait, that their mere presence was affront enough, but these were shot down; they sought the Paladins, who were more interested in fighting evil than polishing boots, and in any case needed offerings for Cruciatic Thaumaturgy on the day of battle.

The two roving hunter teams skulked through the night, avoiding the two other armies that patrolled Eknad's Bosom as if these were certain death - which they might well have been, to the divided segments. However, no single village nor single farmstead stood a chance against twenty-five Singer warriors; their watchmen were sniped with the subtlest destructive spells, and their people surrounded and overwhelmed. Many, especially the old, young, and sick, died in agony in these raids, yet it was those who survived who were truly to be pitied, carried off to the Red Screamers' base camp. It is not best to give a full account of their fate after that.

After three raids, the Red Screamers felt they had enough sacrifices, and so they became bolder. Every night, a huge fire burned in their base camp to attract the attention of their enemies, and while the prisoner raids continued, they went to more trouble to point out where the prisoners were going. In one village, they impaled every child under ten years into a pattern which, from the sky, would form an arrow pointing at their base camp. In another farmstead, they daubed detailed directions in blood, and in a third they went so far as to leave a trail of wasted harvest leading directly to the camp. With these dark acts, it was not long before the 1st Paladins attacked them in force.

Reliant on melee combat as they were, the Paladins were not perfectly suited to attacking an enemy who had relied so heavily for so long on ranged attacks as the Red Screamers, and over a fifth of them were maimed or wounded by mystic blasts or by the ground exploding beneath them before they even reached the foot of the hill where innocent people were still suffering unimaginable fates before their eyes. Yet their Golden Magic greatly reduced this toll, healing the injuries they took, and many of the Spells of Destruction were material in nature - material, and thus subject to the protective effects of mail, which blunted the worst of sharpened edges, and iron shields, which deflected nearly every mystic blast they intercepted, albeit becoming dented and scratched in the process.

The paladins were a quarter of the way up the hill when their advance ceased, interrupted rudely by various of their members suddenly falling to the floor and clutching at their heads, screaming and begging for mercy. It had taken that long for the Telepath division to devise and distribute nightmares which would be more horrible and crippling than what the Paladins were already fighting against. These were effective indeed, separating the weakest one of every five from the cream of the crop, and the remaining paladins had little sympathy to heal these apparent cowards.

Worse, they had closed in enough for the spells to actually be accurate, and for the Singers to adapt their choices to the enemy. Instead of simply getting a hail of magic bolts, those Paladins struck by the Red Screamers found their armour roasting them alive, and their shields too hot to hold, as bolts of incredible heat powered by the suffering of the Singers' prisoners had their effects amplified by basic physics. Nonetheless, the paladins advanced, and once in charging range each one threw a metal-tipped spear, to hopefully impact and wound a Singer. Many did, and at least ten of the two hundred died to this - but though only three Red Screamers escaped injury at spear point, very few of them were troubled by pain.

When finally the paladins had thrown their ranged weapons and were closing in, fifty Singers who had not actively participated until now drank their Berserker's Brew and counter-charged, most wielding a large, heavy farm tool in each of their four upper appendages, or two trees, each wielded in two tendrils. They had almost no skill, having never needed it; they flailed wildly, but with strength that barely qualified as mortal, breaking the bones of those they struck and even cracking those who were able to block - though in most cases the Singers' own crude weapons were broken by their own strength upon contact with good steel. Of course, once disarmed, most Singers actually became more deadly, for they had a long tradition of brawling unarmed with one another - often while mating - and had significantly more skill than a drunk five-year-old child.

However, there was an exception to this rule, an exception which enraged and - more importantly - killed many Paladins. Ever since the conquest of Eupnea, by tradition one particular champion of the Red Screamers had spurned magic, instead devoting its life to mastering combat with only one sword. Thus, the Red Screamer Blademaster left six of its tendrils free, using two to wield its only weapon - the Sword of Life, forged in Paradi, bestowed upon the Priests, and defiled and bent to the service of evil. Its agony and rebellion at being wielded by enemies of the Red Angels was mingled with glee, for humans were close enough to Black Angels for its tastes, and it felt it was doing what it was created to do.

In desperation, the paladins started to dogpile the Red Screamer Blademaster, for they knew that while the Sword of Life was against them they could not possibly win. Despite its speed, the Blademaster could not swing the Sword of Life quite fast enough, and found itself filled with grievous wounds. Sadly, this necessary but foolhardy maneuver exposed the paladins' left flank, and the less empowered Singer berserkers poured in that direction to surround and slay the impetuous little beings, while their supporting sorcerers slew the hordes with magic blasts or crippled their minds with dreadful visions. One way or another, the army of paladins broke. Those few who were both too brave to flee, and not lucky enough to die, were added to the towers of offerings for the Cruciatic Thaumaturgusts.

The Red Screamers were not granted time to rest and recuperate. A full segment of their forces had outright died, and another three full segments were too injured to keep fighting the same day. Those who remained regrouped into four new segments, one of which was undermanned. They put out the fires, they tended to the wounded, they kept a watch.

The moment that dusk turned into night, however, the sky was filled with winged shapes, as the Inquisition revealed themselves, having arrived too late to the first battle and got into position to fight the way they knew best. Their current strategy necessitated their unusual haste, for they had hoped precisely to catch the already battered Red Screamers off guard and on the back tendril. Yet in so doing, they had neglected to tactically analyse the area they struck from, and had chosen easy hiding places thinking they would have a relatively long time to swoop; instead, nearly half of them found themselves swatted out of the air, unprepared for those Screamers who were still on guard and still empowered by the pain of neabry innocents. Many inquisitors nonetheless landed entirely safely, only to strike at the immediate threat; had they instead attacked the wounded, they might have struck a lasting blow against the Screamers, but alas, survival instincts said otherwise. As it was, those who did not die or incapacitate themselves on crash-landing were able to be held up long enough to die under the Sword of Life, or else to retreat when they saw which way the battle had turned.

With their dark work completed, and their troops badly thinned, the Red Screamers recuperated for a week before returning to Eupnea. Had they known this was the last time they would wield the Sword of Life in anger, they might not have taken so much joy in the victory, and it was not truly in their nature to celebrate having had a thing rather than mourn no longer having it.


Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264961/) points
Power rollover: 0 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) - Telepathy
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) - Raise Army (Pale Nightmare)

0 points: Command Army (Pale Nightmare) to Defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) - Attack the 1st Paladins!

Red Screamers 2d6+6=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4265021/) (+2 Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, +1 Spells of Destruction, +1 Berserker's Brew, +1 Telepathy, +1 Sword of Life)
1st Paladins 2d6+2+1+1+1=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4265020/) (+2 Golden Magic, +1 Swordplay, +1 Metallurgy, +1 Defenders)
Red Screamers win! 1st Paladins destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) - Attack Eknad's Bosom, provoking the Inquisition!
Red Screamers 2d6+5=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4265023/) (+2 Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, +1 Spells of Destruction, +1 Berserker's Brew, +1 Telepathy, +1 Sword of Life, -1 1st Paladins)
Inquisitors 2d6+3=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4265025/) (+2 Golden Magic, +1 Defenders)Red Screamers win! Inquisitors are destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) - Defend Eupnea

4 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4262061/)
Current Power Points: 18

The White Tribe was almost entirely gone. Only perhaps thirty remained, and they were being hounded by the raiders from Rou as well as the new attackers that Eramine had sent out, in answer to the Red Raiders. The White Shou Tahs were furious at how their foes had bested them, and were intent on driving the White to extinction. However, it was too late to try and form an Army of Kings, even if they did have enough to do so. It would require many fights to form the tight bond the armies had, and those fights would have the White Tribe kill itself before the other Shou Tahs could do the job.

A few had all but given up, and simply lived their lives as their ancestors were said to have, as they waited for the parties to come and end them. One White Shou Tahs, by the name of Ikilimas Ikilimerik, knew what had to be done. He tried to reason with his fellow White Tribesmen at first, but when that proved impossible, he had to defeat them in combat, but spare their life, so that the tribe would not be lessened. Once he had all thirty of the Shou Tahs under his command, he led them fast and straight, towards the shallow waters of the Thousand Isles. This was an uncomfortable place for the Shou Tahs, too shallow for free motion, so not many Shou Tahs came here. This was why Ikilimas Ikilimerik drove his fellows to this place: for he knew they would not be found.

Of course, he didn't stop there either, instead driving them over the isles, through the narrow channels, leaving wreckage in their wake, until they reached open ocean once more. A great gulf with steep oceanic walls and an immense undersea plane at the bottom of a grand deadfall Ikilimas Ikilimerik had not known what would be found here, and had only been trying to save his people from the onslaught of the other Shou Tahs, but this place was isolated. Saku Rasi rarely sailed here, for there were no cities to speak of along the coast, and it was separated from them on either side by land. Shou Tahs did not come here for there was a grand swath of land between this and the land they had already claimed as their own. Other races had no interest in the sea at all. Thus, this land was fresh, and even as they floated there, at the edge of the grand abyss, they could hear the call of a hundred thousand whales and smell the scent of a billion untouched fish out there in the ocean.

The White Tribe loved Ikilimas Ikilimerik after the day they found this place, constructing a palace to start their own city, naming it Ikilim, as was to be expected, and trying to build it up as fast as they could. Each women of the White Tribe wanted to carry at least one child for him, and the men even respected his rule. Their gratitude lasted even up until his death, at which point he named fifteen of his children to be his heirs, and went out in the ocean a the Hornblower once had. The fifteen became the next Army of Kings, and each kept their own line, naming an heir for himself (or, on occasion, herself) for generations that day forward. Ikilim worked in many ways similarly to Gerki, far to the north and west, but kept itself distinct in many ways. The White Tribe meanwhile, slowly rebuilt, and, humbled by how close they had come to extinction and the colossal benefit Ikilimas Ikilimerik had brought to the tribe, they actually achieved a state of true peace, an act that others would have thought Shou Tahs to be incapable of.


***

Meanwhile, back across the Thousand Isles, with no primitive tribe remaining to bully, the Red and the Blue Attackers collided with one another more often than not, but they were quite often fairly evenly matched. Sure, one Shou Tahs would surely be stronger than another, or one would be more skilled with the War Song, but when groups met up and conflicted, they found that the battles often came down to the wire.

Of course, if any one particular army had instituted a chain of command or began using more advanced strategies, they would have surely become the best Shou Tahs army ever risen. However, such things were far beyond the bounds of Shou Tahs thinking, and thus the combats remained all but dead even. No, it would take a different kind of advancement to change the patterns of these skirmishes.

Now, Gerki had no Army of Kings. It only had a single king, after all, and thus when the raiders came to the Black City, the entire City rallied to sing the War Song and defend their homes. The Black King of the era noticed how they seemed so ready to band together with those who they had been brawling with not even fifteen minutes before, and thought that perhaps something could be built from that readiness to fight. Thus, he directed two forces be raised, out of the twenty nine closest Shou Tahs in the city, with himself making the thirtieth. These two armies were not named "Armies of Kings", but instead the "King's Armies". The one he rested within, he commanded to defend the city. The other, he sent out into the waters surrounding Gerki, to discourage any Red or Blue Shou Tahs who might get too close.

This was when the first major change to the formula of battles in the Shou Tahs waters came, for the Black Tribe had always had a habit of using their raw strength before their shouting abilities, and even after they had learned the War Song, they would opt for a physical confrontation over a vocal one. This trend remained in the King's Army which was encountering the raiders from Eramine and Rou. As the army fought together, they quickly grew as close as any Army of Kings could be, but fighting so many foes every day left them with casualties, and so they often had to recruit new Black Shou Tahs. However, in each conflict the army partook in, the veterans watched the others in battle. Soon they realized that particular attacks were far more effective, and attacks to particular areas of the body were far more devastating. Speaking of this with their fellows and the Black King himself, they soon had a simple pattern figured out. The next time a conflict involving a King's Army came, they were evenly matched in strength, in War Song, in mobility, but the King's Army had the force of Pugilism on their side. Not a single Black Shou Tahs lost their life that day.

However, Gerki made little attempt to hide the art of Pugilism, and soon surviving warriors of defeated Rou & Eramine armies would repeat their discoveries to their leaders, and spying would commence, leading the art of Pugilism to quickly spread across almost the entire race.


***

Nathaniel stood before the crumbling towers of Eupnea, where the red blobs that were the Singers moved about, a materialization of pain over the golden city.

He was an old Angel, now, nearly at the end of his life. He had only been fifty when he faced off against the creature Vroch, and he had thought to make it his life's work to dispatch the horrid creature. However, age had brought wisdom. Vroch was a demigod, and no single Angel could ever hope to surmount such a creature, even with the skill that Nathaniel had accumulated. No, he needed an army to face off against the army of Arochno, at least, and seeing as all of his fellow rebels were gone, and Eupnea had fallen, there was little hope of that. He suppose he could have turned to the Demons or the Humans, but that was a third hand hope at the best. No, his life's desire was simply to correct some of the wrong that had been done to his people. Thus why he was here.

Before him lay the bisected corpses of three Singers, their forms fading into raw energy before his eyes. These had been Red Screamers, lookouts guarding the wall, but Nathaniel had been too fast, and his blades had cut them down before they had the chance to cast their first spell. Now Nathaniel stood atop the wall, looking towards the citadel at the heart of Eupnea, where he knew the Sword of Life to rest.

Nathaniel snuck through the streets paved with gold, now half-melted from the constant presence of the Singers. He slipped past the sparse patrols, and continued deeper into the city, until he found himself upon a balcony in the shadowed side of the tower, a fourth Screamer corpse laying before him.

From there he quickly found the cages where his fellow Angels were trapped. In an act to in part give them power over the rest of their lives, and in part to create a distraction, he released them, and led them to gather up some weapons and give the Red Screamer's hell. In the commotion that followed, he managed to locate and slip inside the room where the Sword of Life was being held.

Unfortunately, there were a dozen Singers guarding it, and these weren't like the mooks who Nathaniel had already felled. No, they were honor guards, and matched the Angel's speed with their own. His skill allowed him to survive their onslaught, and even take two of their number out, but he could not last forever, and one of their attacks lashed him across the back, unleashing and untold sea of pain within him.

Screaming, he whirled and rolled, breaking out of the conflict in any direction, anything to escape the pain. He found his senses again with his back to a table, his guard up, and ten angry Singer paragons charging him.

However, in that moment, a sensation overcame him, an instinct, and he reached behind him, to where the hilt of a sword rested.

There must have been some terrible enchantment laid upon the blade, for it partially melted Nathaniel's hand as he closed his grip around the hilt, but that was nothing to the flash of gold which erupted from the Angel's body as he swung the blade in front of him…

It must have been the glory of the Sun himself, returned to the land once more to bless Nathaniel in his great act. The flash had torn the top of the citadel asunder, rendering the remaining ten guards immaterial, and showering the city below with blocks of solid gold. However, despite his continued survival, and his success in recovering the blade, Nathaniel sat, huddled on the floor, clutching his right hand, which had been melted together, so that he would forever be holding the sword, unable to use his right hand or to put the sword away. It must have been a grievous curse upon the weapon, for even now, it felt as though his hand and arm were on fire, and he knew, they would never stop.

He might have asked why didn't the curse just kill him, and later he would indeed ask, and decide that it was the Sun's will that held the fell magic at bay. Just now, however, he had to come to his senses, and escape the city.

Every Red Screamer within the city seemed to be firing everything they knew to conjure at Nathaniel as he flew across the city, diving down into the streets to evade their line of fire, but something must have been protecting him that day, for not a single blow fell upon him.


***

"Why did you do that, father? You made him think that the Sun blessed him and protected him. Why did you copy the Sun? Also, if you wanted to protect him, why curse his hand in such a way, so that he will always be in pain? Also, you made him immortal for as long as he carries the sword? Why?" Nameless was full of questions today.

Nathaniel had to exist. That was why. Nathaniel had to exist.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command the Shou Tahs to Found Ikilim.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Ikilim to Raise an Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Gerki to Raise a King's Army.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Gerki to Raise a King's Army.

5 points to Advance the Shou Tahs with Pugilism.

7 points for Event: The Sword of Life is "lost", carried away in the hands of an Angel named Nathaniel, who once fought Vroch head-on and even gave her a run for her money, and who will soon learn that he is immortal.

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264883/)

[Benthesquid]

The Mead-Hall had always been a central fixture of Werblume civilization, and as an ever wider and more potent array of meads, and even a few beers and wines, became available, it only became more so. The leading citizens of any Werblume village, after the visionaries themselves, were the master brewers.

Meanwhile, the visionaries of the Sehkian Society, as well as the independent visionaries- a minority, but a sizable one- were developing new techniques to slip into deeper and longer trances. These involved not only the drinking of specially brewed meads, but the inhalation of smoke from various pungent herbs, hours of crazed dancing, and self-flagellation with their vines.

Sehk, who had kept a substantial distance between himself and the other race that had ultimately sprung from his blood, the Suri, was intrigued by these techniques, and many Werblume visionaries saw an image of Sehk on the Tree. To a favored few, he even spoke, telling them to go forth and build another city. On the northern coast of the Banana Lands they built Adonia, a smaller city without the draw of a wonder like Heor to draw settlers, but a thriving one nonetheless.

Sehk, having seen the problems wrought by the conflict between the cities of the First Land, spoke to the visionaries again, commanding them to ensure a steady exchange of individuals and ideas between the two cities, that they might remain bound together rather than developing into enemies.

Roll=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4265178/), plus two banked makes fourteen.
Command Race (Werblumes): Ingrain Technology (Brewing) Four Points
Advance Civilization (Werblumes): Visionary Trances: Five Points
Command Race (Werblumes) Found City (Adonia): Four points
Total thirteen, one remaining

[Neelien]

rolled 14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4266481/) bringing me up to 54

The Stringwork had mapped the world. Some places were better mapped than others, but it had a good idea of what the world looked like. With this done, it realised that it was not living for the single purpose of continued existence anymore. It had found another purpose : to explore the world and discover its mysteries. However it had done that to some extent now and for the first time since its formation, it was bored. It desperately needed new ideas. After many years of idle existence and Agglomerations pondering on the matter, it finally decided on something to do. Inspired by the reports from the Outgoers about the techniques developed by other species, it decided it would strive to amass as much knowldge as it possibly could, and obtain mastery of as many subjects as possible. For that purpose it would also encourage developements in other races, much like it did initially with Agglomerations.

First it would need to better comprehend the other species so that it could infiltrate their societies and influence their decisions from within. This process would take time, for there were many societies in the world that had very different principles. Eventually though, with time and patience, typical of the Stringwork, it managed to understand most societies, and as a result became the most knowledgeable species on the matter of Civil Socilogy.

[timeline 1 - cancelled for now]
To prepare for its next plans, the Agglomerations opted to create a series of Outgoers that would protect the city from the possile backlash of the Actions the Stringwork would take inside of the other civilizations' societies. This force would one day become known as the first Protective Outgoer. It was composed of roughly 30 000 individual Strings and its primary offensive mechanism was the ability to shapeshift and cause panic amongst the enemy ranks. It could also spread into a thick heat sapping net that would kill most creatures in minutes.

So the Stringwork began planning its next experiment...

[timeline 2 - what actually happened ]
As an experiment to test its theories, the Stringwork sent an Outgoer into the Serpent's Den where it spread rumors of an incoming attack by the Angels of Eupnea. They would also be carrying the Sword of life for the purpose of anihilating the entire Ryokan. This was an absurd rumor, and the Stringwork was experimenting to see to what exteme it could push that it. It turned out that the rumor spread like wildfire with the way the Outgoer presented it to the inhabitants. After a few days, fearing the worst and uncertain that the Dark Kyudoka would protect them, many inhabitants came together and gathered their own army, which they appropriately named the Shinte Yashiroko (or Angel Killers). Eventually the rumor was confirmed to be nothing more but the army had appeared, and it had trained intensely. It might be disbanded, but until public opinion decided on its fate, it would remain in the city.

Meanwhile, as Nios saw the Strings begin making progress towards comprehending the world, he decided it was not yet time for him to act.


Spend 5 points : Advance Civilization (Stringwork) with Civil Sociology
Spend 3 points : Command Order (Agglomerations) to Raise army in The Second Core. Name: Protective Outgoer. / Command Order (Agglomerations) to perform a Political Manoever in the Serpent's Den, raising an Army to be commanded/disbanded by Makhleb.
48 points remaining.
+3 next round.

[ImperialSunligh]

The city of Figurae was the most shocked it had ever been. Duellists who before had lauded their prowess flocked into shelters in droves. The evil going on in the surrounding countryside was sickening to all who heard of it, and countless humans mourned for their lost family members.

But Figurae still stood. And as long as Figurae stood, there was hope for the humans. Another call was sent out by the crown to any able men and women.

From these, a new breed of warrior was created. They wielded rapiers of the highest quality gold imbued steel, used to impale an enemy before they could have a chance to attack as well as daggers in the second hand to deflect enemy attacks. Images of Eknad were carefully carved into the hilts of each blade by the wielder.

Those who wielded these new weapons would come to be known as battle clerics, less armored warriors who used blessings of the gods as well as expert swordsmanship in battle. They added themselves to the dwindling defenses of Figurae.

For so long the art of swordsmanship had lived in the humans' culture that they became known throughout the land for their skills. None could best human soldiers when it came to the sword.

Meanwhile, the king sent the order for the 2nd army of paladins to end the Red Screamers' assault of Eknad's Bosom.

The paladins reluctantly marched side by side into the camp of the enemy, a typically straightforward strategy of the humans. There would be no trickery, or foul play. The paladins would not show themselves as dishonorable and vile as their enemies.

Each paladin turned their blade to their enemy, advancing in a predictable wall of shields. In this foolish advance, many paladins died to magic, but their enemy was too weak from their previous battles to truly take advantage of this. The paladins continued to march, stepping over the bodies of their companions and winged ancestors without mourning. They would not mourn or cry when their enemies stood before them.

When the shield wall reached the enemy, it was already over. The attacks of the weakened Red Screamers were unable to penetrate the humans' shields, warded by magic and expert craftsmanship. Slowly, the humans sliced the helpless enemy asunder. They returned to Figurae in fewer numbers, but carrying the remains of their enemies, and they felt no remorse for their justice.

Roll: 2d6+1=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267124/)

Command Order of Eknad, Form Army of Battle Clerics, Rapier wielding users of holy magic. Generally less armored than Paladins, -3

Command Army of Battle Clerics, defend Figurae.

Command Humans, Ingrain Tech, Swordplay, -4

Command 2nd Army of Paladins, attack Red Screamers

Red Screamers 2d6+3=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267208/) (+2 Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, +1 Spells of Destruction, +1 Berserker's Brew, +1 Telepathy, -1 1st Paladins, -1 Inquisition, +1 Defending)

2nd Paladins 2d6+5=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267207/) (+2 Golden Magic, +2 Swordplay, +1 Metallurgy)


2nd Paladins win! Red Screamers are destroyed.

Left: 0

[Omegonthesane]

Inevitably, word of the Red Screamers' hideous deeds and eventual defeat reached Destroyer's Peak. Riots followed, as many Singers expressed outrage at this humiliation the only way they knew how, forgetting the magnitude of the deeds the Red Screamers had lived to perform. Perhaps as many Singer "civilians" - insofar as the term applied - were killed in the resulting chaos as had Singer warriors in the entire Eupnea occupation, as the Pale Nightmare crushed these reprisals with their kind's characteristic brutality, insisting that they had seen the signs, insisting that Makhleb's retribution would be more subtle and not by their works.

Indeed, Makhleb had other plans for striking back at upstart humanity - it knew Nios had slumbered for many centuries, and feared the void's wrath if it worked too openly again. Instead, it exploited existing doubts and discontent within Figurae.

Many humans did not match up to the standards of absolute loyalty and faith that had been commanded of their angelic ancestors. The worst of these saw the crimes of the Red Screamers and saw not an evil to be opposed, but a terrible and wrathful power to be appeased and kept docile lest it strike again. This was the origin of the human cult of Makhleb, who in secret performed dark rites upon the coerced and vulnerable in the hope that their master would not inflict worse upon their entire people. This cult was at first ignored, mainly due to the actions of those nobility who had fallen to worshipping the God of Destruction, but in no small part because the people of Figurae were weary and did not relish the thought of new war. Inevitably, the time came that the King and his council were informed, but by then there were cultists within the very ranks of the Paladins, a secret army of Betrayers who had realigned their souls - and their Golden Magic - to the service of the most terrible of the gods, a legion to protect the faithful from purges.

Meanwhile...

The 2nd Militia's preparations for war had included extensive scouting out of the territory that once belonged to demons, seeking the exact positions of Vroch and its attendant swarm so that they could predict in advance when the bells would have to sound. In this great endeavour, they discovered a crucial fact which they had not previously taken into account - they could fly, and their adversaries could not. Though the arachnids could outrun any demon on solid ground and climb terrifyingly fast if granted a surface, they could not cross directly through thin air as the winged demons could. Thus, training of a 3rd Militia became a possibility, as the Arachno had not claimed the airspace above the old training grounds. Whenever the new recruits who were to become part of the 3rd Militia encountered the spiders, they simply flew away, continuing their training above the forest canopy if they so dared.

This evolutionary pressure caused demons to develop ways of aerial combat to an unprecedented extent. Previously, most demons had used their wings to travel from place to place, or to swoop down upon prey before engaging them on the ground, but now their warriors trained for sustained flight as not even the Angels had ever dared. Unfortunately, their anatomy would not allow them to hover in place, but this simply meant that the flying archers of the 3rd Sanctuary Militia had to be sharp shots as well as mighty warriors. The more bestially formed of the two Militias developed techniques that involved carrying a still living opponent into the sky, so that even if they won the ensuing duel they would only fall to certain death. Other martial arts were formed that involved exploiting the properties of flight, using it to quickly attack from different angles, or adding the momentum of a warrior's entire weight to the force behind a spear-thrust.

This new emphasis on aerial movement even filtered down to civilians, who started to make new buildings of unprecedented heights, designed to be accessible only to those who flew. This new emphasis even affected their coming of age rituals, which came to require that a demon carry themselves to the nearest extremely high monument before they were considered grown. The typical benchmark was the tallest spire of the first Golden Cathedral, which had been at the insistence of its priests unaltered by the new art styles, but the demons were all too aware that new settlements would have to select new places as the target for a youth's Day of Flight.

Meanwhile...

Once again, the urge for construction welled in at least one mad artist among the eternal strife of the Plane of Destruction. This time, it took the form of a set of brass trumpets, etched with runes within runes to a level too small for eyes to see with extracts from the Singer translation of the Rubric of Makhleb. Its sound was the fanfare of bloodshed, and drove all who heard it mad with bloodlust - not for a long time, but for easily long enough to drive a sword into their own brother's back. The creator had learned from the tactical issues presented by the Dancer's Bells, and had designed the horn to not function on those who had, within the previous five minutes, recited the proper incantations to retain their sanity in the face of its compulsion.

Meanwhile...

Omegonthesane was sued by the writer of legolas by laura for gratuitous use of "Meanwhile".

Power roll 2d6+3+3=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267333/) points
Power rollover 4 points

6 points: Create Cult (Humans)
4 points: Command City (Figurae) - Raise Army of Betrayers, dark paladins who have changed their allegiance to Makhleb and corrupt Golden Magic in a similar way to the Demons
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Raise Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia)
5 points: Advance Civilisation (Demons) - Airborne Personal Combat
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (Trumpets of Discord, a set of trumpets which cause those who hear them and are not properly prepared to go briefly mad and attempt slaughter everything they can reach before they calm down. +1 to combat.)

0 points: Command Army (Betrayers) to Defend the Human Cult of Makhleb
0 points: Command Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) to Defend Sanctuary

2 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 (4) Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4264883/)
Current Power Points: 15

The Pit of Blood laughed, puffs of black smoking curling into the air, issuing from the carved faced screaming silently in it's depths. It had felt the dark deeds committed by the Red Screamers. Those deeds had mildly entertained in. Then death fell upon the Red Screamers. That had been quiet pleasing to the Blood, for death and suffering to beget more death and more suffering. Those who had set out as a blight to one, had found themselves blighted. Not only this, but the news had caused death to flood into the Peak of Destroyers. It was a lovely chain reaction, all centered on the Singers. They really were quite the dark race, the Blood would have to throw a wrench into their works, to see what evil they might feed it in response. Perhaps that Shou Tahs army he had influenced into creation would find a reason to march on the Peak.

Though, that would be for another day. Right now, the Blood hid in copse of trees in the flowering forests of Aniqua. It was the blood of Vroch, and as such, remembered all that Vroch remembered. One thing it remembered, though, was the delicious taste of Faeries. Being an extension of Eull, however, meant that it could not simply eat them and enjoy them that way. That is, it could indeed simply swallow them up, as it had millions of other creatures, but that would give the avatar no joy. No, in order to truly relish the taste of the Faeries, it would have to twist them to it's way. Contort their minds into something like it's own. Then every act they committed would be a tribute to the Pit.

That was why it was here, in the forest, hidden. Occasionally a Faerie or two would slip by overhead, just to find themselves suddenly gulped down into the depths of the chasm, and floundering in scalding gore. For weeks it gathered up Faerie bodies, as it shucked out their souls, their minds, and rearranged their desires and personalities. Once it felt it had enough flesh and soul-stuff of the Faeries, it snapped shut, and reopened in the Highlands, where towering mountains were thick with rivers and waterfall, with Cloud Vines rising above all else.

When it opened, however, a swarm of minuscule figures rose from it's maw. They appeared akin to Faeries, but with skin a mottled black and red, and their wings were not gossamer, but leathery and bat-like. Their faces were also wider and flatter, made for sneers and grimaces, instead of grins and glares.

These were the Imps, and they immediately went out into the world, performing grim pranks on the creatures who would be unfortunate enough to come too close. They immediately developed a culture of thievery and betrayal. If food could be readily had from another source, an Imp would still try to trick a fellow Imp and steal their food from them instead. Most Imps lived solitary lives, surviving on bugs and the occasional bit of meat from a creature they had killed in a "prank", And only interacting with other Imps when they would chance across each other in the Highlands. A few, however, teamed up, to create more and more elaborate pranks upon the world. Groups fifteen strong could be roving about in the tall land, laughing constantly and, in the absence of other creatures, playing grievous pranks upon one another. These lands soon became shunned by other races, for fear of whatever might be waiting behind the next rise.

Now, the Imps had very short lifespans, living perhaps twelve years, and the Blood Pit had left them inside the first year, laughing and content with what it had wrought. These two facts together meant that their creator quickly passed into distant legend, leaving only a cultural fondness for ravines and crevices. The affinity was so strong that in the largest of these crevices, a narrow canyon some two kilometers deep and dozens long, while never being more than a hundred meters wide, a good thousand Imps found themselves congregating daily. The pranks also grew in intensity as the population grew, and soon dead Imps were stinking up the ravine, and making it unpleasant to live in. To control this, a few Imps stepped forward, naming themselves "Prank Overseers of Imptopia", with the intention of making sure pranks were kept controlled. This was the moment that this canyon became the city of "Imptopia", also the moment that Imptopia gained it's first army, for, while many despised the Prank Overseers for impeding their ability to prank, they also noticed that the Prank Overseers themselves were not under scrutiny. Thus, every single Imp who lived in Imptopia wanted to be a Prank Overseer, and the pseudo-police force was soon bursting with a hundred thousand Imps, while the pranking problem was as bad as it had been before.


***

The Trells had learned a great deal about the vast majority of mortal plant life, and small gardens were now spread out across Grove, ferns and cloud vines being slowly tended to by young Trells, most only 50 years old or so. However, they had learned of a strange plant, a tree which bloomed into red flowers and whose seeds could grow into any living thing, be it plant or mortal. The only issue was that it could never be predicted where it would land, and even if it could, it would only last a year before moving on, and that was like barely any time at all to the slow-moving Trells. However, from the Saku Rasi who brought new plants from around the world, the Treefolk learned of a place, a city like Grove, named Sakura, where the plant remained indefinitely.

Later that same year, five of the oldest Trells found themselves on a Saku Rasi Ikamas, tormented by their time away from soil, but on the way to Sakura.

Now, there two races were not particular friends yet, so the owner's of Sakura were a little hesitant to offer passage to the giants who looked likely to trample over everything in their path, but after around a year, they learned enough by watching the Trells to know that it would be safe to allow them inside. Still, they kept Yet Gōn of Kyūdōka on each of them at all times.

The next several years that followed granted the traveling Trells with a bounty of information, and introduced a new element to Sakura, as visitors would often be enjoying fresh Trell fruit, and, when visiting the courtyard of the Wandering Sakura, they would be greeted with the sight of five tree-people standing vigil behind the holy plant.

Time eventually came that the Trells had to depart, and the Sakura owners bid farewell to their friends of over twenty years. This had been a short stay from the Trell's point of view, and they would be back "soon" as well, after they related the information back to Grove, but they would be greeted by entirely new Sakura owners, a new generation.

In Grove, however, the information brought back about the powerful plant was ground-shattering, and in the resulting turmoil (a few Trells even took a step back), several theories began cropping up among the Trell people. Inevitably, a few Trells came up with a means of how to cultivate their own Sacred Tree, as they had named the class of plant the Wandering Sakura supposedly belonged to. It would not simply be the act of growing a plant, but instead of infusing a normal plant with raw power and growing the two together at the same time.

For the plant, they chose a willow, for it was expected to soak up the power as readily as water. For the source of the divine power, they had to create that themselves, and patiently carved a massive stone slab with thousands of powerful runes in patterns that many would call outright dangerous. Meanwhile other Trells searched for the perfect willow seed, using their affinity with plants to ascertain qualities of the unborn tree.

Once both tasks were done, the Trells erect the stone slab, 4 meters tall, a monolith, and just before it, they planted the willow. Around all this, they dug a deep moat, filling it with water to feed the willow as it grew. Once the willow sprouted, the runes on the stone flared into life, glowing gold on grey as the willow shined a crystal-clear white.

The tree grew quickly, and soon blossomed out, it's leaves brushing the ground well outside the edge of it's moat, while the island it stood on was entirely engulfed in roots, the stone slab shattered and adding nothing more than texture to the land where the plant grew. It's power was no longer needed, however, as it lived on inside the willow, which glowed a constant white, bark, leaves, and roots, all shining equally white and equally beautiful.

Those who stood beneath the branches of this tree would find a feeling of infinite calm, and a strange feeling of understanding what it was to be a plant. The Trells already understood this, of course, but to other races, it was an odd sensation.

This tree would come to be known as the Marrow Tree, and across Tyonix, divine beings would subtly become aware of it's existence. A new mind in the godscape.


***

There had evolved two main classes of Saku Rasi over the years. The traditional Saku Rasi and the trader Saku Rasi. They could each be separated into further categories, such as wandering family groups, Ryokan owners, and Kyūdōka, but those were the two most major substrates of the race. The traditional Saku Rasi had slowly been becoming more rooted in their ways as of late, however, and less and less welcoming of the trader Saku Rasi.

A few Saku Rasi noticed a schism forming. One in particular, a Ryokan owner in the Latticework Land by the name of Osiko Hahebuto, perceived it as a threat to the entire race, and so, he decided to take action and try to bridge the gap before it was too wide.

To start, he welcomed every trader he happened across into his Ryokan, at less-than-standard fare, learning of all the cultures and tribes living out across the oceans. Once he had enough information on other races, he began throwing exotic parties once every few weeks. Faerie-style festivals, Werblume saké parties, and Angelic banquets were all fairly popular events that were being used. Osiko kept a high degree of traditional ascetics at the same time, of course, so as not to distress the wandering family groups in his Ryokan.

As word of these garish parties spread, more and more traders would make port in the Latticework Land to go to the Hahebuto Ryokan, and thus, the Ryokan grew. The parties became more and more grand as time went by as well.

Once the Ryokan grew large enough for Osiko to feel secure, he sent word to Sakura, that he would like a detachment of Gōns from the Kyūdōka army of Sakura to help build his own army, to defend the new city of "Hahebuto". Meanwhile, he had a new Edakyū built, as several towers in the Angelic style atop separate mountains, with bridges spanning the distance between them.

In this act, Osiko showed his Ryokan as a highly traditional Ryokan, while still reaching out to the traders, thereby making Hahebuto a kind of middle ground between the two factions. They were still spreading apart, but now they had a tether tying one to the other.

4 points to Create Imps, a Subrace of the Faeries.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command the Imps to Found Imptopia

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Imptopia to Raise an army of Prank Overseers.

4 points to Command the Trell to Construct the Marrow Tree Wonder.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command the Saku Rasi to Found Hahebuto.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Hahebuto to Raise an army of Kyūdōka.

Current Power Points: 3
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267300/)

[Neelien]

rolled 13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4269004/) bringing me up to 61

After having conducted its experiment, the Stringwork made an interesting discovery. Among the methods it used for the spreading of rumors in the Sepent's Den, there was one that had a lot of potential. This was the String's ability to transmit information directly into the brains of creatures. If this could be modified to also allow erasing and modifying of other memories, it could be amongst the most powerfull tool at the Stringwork's disposal, even despite the current limitation of only accessing the outer layers of conciousness.

So the Agglomerations started research on the matter. Soon they found ways of doing what they wanted. This skill became known as Memoryworks. It was still in its early stages of developement so most the modifications it could do the brains of their target were reversible, but for now it would be enough.

With this done, the Stringwork was almost ready for its plans. However, it felt that there was still not enough certainty that its plans would succed. So it developed another skill. The Ability to detect godly influcence on any creature was something that so far, only the evolving parasite could do, and after the many years it spent in the First Core, the Stringwork managed to understand how to use it. Now, a few specialized Strings could see what god an idividual worshipped. This was possible because alongside the main color of the creature's cells (refer to post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16104827&postcount=37) where Nios specifically gave each god a color), there exist a much less noticeable, but noticeable secondary color, known as 'the spark'. This allowed the Stringwork to see what god any given creature worshipped. This skill became known as the Faith Sensing amongst other races when they discovered the Stringwork's ability. The Stringwork itself prefered the name Sight of Divine Affiliation.

With these new skills, the Stringwork could now begin controlling other civilizations from the Sadows, but there were still two thinsg it needed for its plans to work as inended. The first was a specific Agglomeration, named Proxy, that would serve as the base of operations for the Outgoes performing missions in societies. It would give them the information they needed in order to fit in the city and serve as a relay for Stringwork, allowing it to concentrate on other matters. The second was a specific Outgoer, named Packet Protector, whose sole purpose would be to protect Poxys from any hostile force that would no doubt seek to destroy them.

The Stringwork produced two such Outgoers, and named them appropriately Packet Protector 1 and Packet Protector 2 (or PP1/PP2 for short). PP1 was posted around the First Core and PP2 around the second.

While the two Packet Protectors organized themselves, and searched for Strings that would be approppriate for their ranks, they came across Srings that had retained most of their Conea and Ignea properties. These Strings would be the foundation of the Packet Protectors.

In the mean time, the Agglomerations were preparing for the first large scale knowledge forming experiment. The aim of the experiment was to induce competition amongst the members of a specific community, that would result in technological progress. First the Stringwork had to find an appropriate community. After some thinking, the Stringwork chose the Humans as the prefered race. After the choice was made, the Stringwork sent a Proxy to the Land of the Sun. This Proxy would serve for all future experiments involving Humans, so it was kept mobile. Then the Outgoers were sent to mingle with the Humans. After many years, they managed to blend in perfectly and so the experiment could begin.

The experiment started out in a small mainly Human village. There, the Stringwork subtly introduced memories of the feelings of Humans getting cut by their swords. After some time, gloom set in the village. Villagers were becoming scared of swords, so they began trying to do their best at constructing armour that would protected them from these. Many concepts were experimented with. Many materials and Armour arrangements were proposed, and after nearly a decade of paranoia the villagers felt safe again. They had made the best armour that existed on the planet.

Unfortunately for the remainder of the Human race, they were not the first ones to profit from the armour. It was the Stringwork that first obtained the crucial data after sealing the memories of the Humans that made it. Experimenting with other races, they tested the armour and perfected it, and while the Stringwork itself had no use for the technology, the knowledge of how to make good armour and how to take it appart would be a major advantage for the Stringwork. In the process, the Stringwork also gained valuable information on the different race's weak points, as those were the places where armour should be most resilient. While it did not test armour on all races, it did manage to find patterns, and derive likely weak spots in most species - spaient or not. Eventually the knowledge of how to create good armor came back to the Humans and spread, but the Stringwork had already become more knowlegeable that the Humans in that respect.

Meanwhile, Nios was Content with both the progress of the Strings and the balance of the World. He did not view the recent conflicts as balance-shattering, especially since he did not really consider the death of a creature as something that would affect the balance of the world.

"No real Unbalance detected. Peaceful times, good for collecting power. Will need it if Creatures start destroying the Planet.

Also repairs of he South are in order. Proceeding with Rebuilding structures destroyed by the Red God. Will use aplified winds from Hurricane and lava flows created by Red God."

After many years of Nios's continuous work, eerie structures began appearing amongst the remains of Bellephorat and Ashatorat, structures that from afar looked like the cities, yet were only huge lumps of solidifed rock with occasional patches of moss on them.

30 points : 6x Advance Civilization (MemoryWorks,Faith Sensing, Body heat Absorbtion, Mana Absorbtion, Armour making, Combat Anatomy (as opposed to Anatomy for medical purposes))
8 points :2x Command City (Core 1 : Raise Army PP1 , Core 2 : Raise Army PP2)
3 points :1x Political Manoever (Human Proxy - "Reverse Steal" Armour Making for Humans)
7 points : event - Unnatural Activity. The Shapes of the Two Suri cities reappear. These are not populated.
13 points remaining
+0 next turn

[Benthesquid]

Slowly, the Werblumes began to realize that they were not alone in the world. The first outsider they encountered were the Saku Rasi, travelling along animal paths or landing on the coast. The Werblume reaction to the Saku Rasi was one of deep mistrust. Being very similar in their form, but lacking vines, there were many who say the Saku Rasi as being in some way corrupted or inferior versions of the Werblumes. Their ships, showing evidence of technology well beyond the Werblume’s capability, provoked outright fear. In general, the Werblumes attempted to avoid the eerily similar humanoids, and, when they could not easily retreat- when, for example, the Saku Rasi approached a Werblume village- they gathered in large numbers, waving spears and clubs, and making loud menacing noises. As no organized attempt was being made to establish contact with the Werblumes, they were generally successful in driving off the interlopers.

Werblume wanderers, meanwhile, had encountered the Maimec. Oddly, the very fact that they were much more different from the Werblumes made them much easier to accept. After all, they were clearly separate creatures entirely not, as many Werblumes feared, twisted reflections. Werblume traders, bearing jugs of mead sealed with clay stoppers, soon began venturing into Maimec settlements, offering their burdens as tokens of friendship.

However, the Werblumes were still frightened by the possibility of a large Saku Rasi incursion- especially as, in contact with the Maimec, they began to understand that the Saku Rasi’s civilization extended beyond the Banana Lands, and far across the sea. In order to head off this possibility, a group of warrior-poets in Adonia recruited a large military force. They shaved their heads as a symbol of their dedication to their comrades and their goals, and swore to take no lovers, bear no children, and drink no spirits while they served. As the most immediately apparent feature distinguishing them was their lack of hair, they became known as The Shorn Ones.

Roll=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4268064/)
plus one banked makes nine.
Command Race (Werblumes) Extend Alliance (Maimec) Five Points
Command City (Adonia) Create Army (The Shorn Ones) Four Points
Command Army (The Shorn Ones) Defend Adonia

[ImperialSunligh]

The king held a major council to decide what to do about the cultists. There was heated argument for days on end. A close deadlock due to the zeal of some, the compassion of others, and likely further affected by the presence of the cult within the court.

The gods knew that they would have to intervene, to help their people to decide what should be done. Yet there was just as much strife in the tower of the gods.

"Dammit, we have to exterminate them!" Mahav cried, "We cannot relent to those heretics, we kill them all!"

"I'm afraid your decision is not law in my court," Eknad calmly stated, "Though, I do recall you threw law away, when you killed her. Give me a reason to avenge her death, I so beg you."

"How dare you? I am the strongest of all of us! You take control of our council on behalf of the cowardly Sun, and you expect us to give in to your authoritarian whims!? I'll end you."

"You are pathetic, Mahav. You have thrived on every death invoked by our tradition, and every dark pleasure in this world. If you will question my rule, I will not hesitate to finish you, even with your wife and child here."

Without a thought for the two, the red giant sent a punch at the throne, one that could move mountains. And yet, it moved nothing. Eknad was still on the throne, unphased by the punch. Confused, Mahav realized that he could not return his hand. His fist was tightly sealed, and was gradually being pulled into the void of Eknad. Eknad grinned.

"Yes, Mahav, I shall consume you, and will add your power to mine. Your son has not matured in these millennium. I shall take care of him and your lover when you are gone. Perhaps with a father who pays more attention to him than his battles, he will finally grow."

As Mam watched in horror, Mahav was pulled into Eknad, his mad struggle helpless to change his fate.

"Curse you, Eknad!", Mahav screamed out his last words, "Now that you let the seeds of evil into our societies, they will destroy everything! You'll see!"

Mahav was consumed with a final creak, leaving none but the void to appease Mam's sorrow.

A message was sent by Eknad to the king in his sleep, "We shall embrace change. As long as they do not fight against us, we shall not waste resources on the Cult of Makhleb."

And so it was decreed. Though there were some particularly zealous paladins that took up arms against cultists, they faced justice for their vigilantism and for now, no organised movement was made against the cult.

Another army was still created, however, for defensive reasons, and to appease those who wanted more security with possible enemies in the city.

Roll: 2d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4270182/)

Command The Order of Eknad, Create 3rd army of Paladins.

Command 3rd army of Paladins, defend Figurae, -3

Left: 3

[Omegonthesane]

For the first time in Makhleb's memory, a structure had lasted one hundred years in the rolling chaos of the Plane of Destruction. It was small for a groundside building, barely twenty feet in height and proportioned as thin as physics allowed, hardly worthy of the name of belltower, but a belltower it unquestionably was. In many ways, though, the true wonder was - shockingly enough - the bell inside, which reknitted the flesh of all who heard its ringing. Upon further investigation, Makhleb realised that this was what had kept the Belltower of Life standing - it was made of the same warp-flesh as the Singers, and so it had been reknitted by the tolling of its own bell.

The Singers, naturally, had discarded this as an embarrassing failure, for it did not directly hurt people. Makhleb, however, quietly ferreted it away in the same place as the Horns of Discord, for properly applied it was far more useful than yet another way of blowing up one's enemies.

The 3rd Sanctuary Militia gathered in a makeshift plaza just outside Sanctuary's city limits - more of a clearing really, but it had huts to spare opening out onto it, and a campfire in the middle from when it had been an inhabited village. The twelve companies stood in formation, to witness an address from Mastema, their Grand Champion, flanked by the other eleven Company Champions.

"Many of you will have joined our ranks seeking glory, a chance to show your courage. Today, you will have your wish!" The assurance invited cheers, which were silenced once Mastema had had time to draw in a full breath. "For decades, a cancer has feasted upon our life's blood, driving us from our homes, and ensuring we spend our nights in fear. I do not speak merely of the long-gone Inquisition, nor of the faraway monsters of Destroyer's Peak, no. I speak of a much clearer, closer danger, the spawn of a god grown fat on innocent lives. I speak of Vroch, who has feasted on our lands for too long. Before winter is done, we shall witness its last meal!" Another cheer arose, though not as loud, as not all the demons appreciated the choice of war cry.

"You all know, I am sure, of the Arachno, the mighty spiders who accompany this abomination into battle. Their fangs bear terrible venom, so our medics and healers shall be ready to cure us! Their legs let them sprint as fast as any of us along even a sheer cliff, so we shall take to the skies and fill them with our arrows! Their webs can ensnare us, so our swords shall cut them to pieces, while the blessed among us burn them down with their breath! They outnumber us many to one, so every one of us shall have ten trophies before spring!" That raised a larger cheer.

"We have arranged a search pattern by which our old homes can be scoured. No inch shall escape notice. Vroch shall have nowhere to hide. The gods are with us. The spirits of the fallen are with us. Vroch came for our blood - let her drown in her own!"

And with that, the twelve companies began scouring the old settled territory.

The ensuing months consisted mainly in combats with Arachno, which went largely as Mastema's speech had indicated, with hardly a casualty now that the demons could take to the air and escape that way. The companies ultimately broke into individual squads to cover more ground, and in most it was agreed that the Champion should be garbed in strange, barbed instruments akin to those of the Red Screamer menace. For as much as they were great warriors, their true contribution lay in directing their eleven squadmates, and someone had to provide pain as fuel for demonic sorcery - the Arachno did not suffer enough to be harvested in this way. Between the bandages and herbs of their physicians, and the divine power of the golden coins they all carried, the 3rd Militia lost only four soldiers to mere Arachno attacks in the entire campaign.

This was less impressive than it sounded, as fully a quarter of the Arachno population was bunched in a single place - with Vroch, their queen. It took two months for the scouts to find her, and another week for the Militia to redeploy, by which time webs within webs had been stitched for them to carve their way through.

The shock troopers of Fifth Company were first to enter the spider's lair. Denied room to draw their swords, they instead ripped open the webs with their claws and talons, and burnt them down with fiery breath. Yet even this was enough to slow them down significantly, and they did not have time to arm themselves before the Arachno were upon them, a horde without number, a flood trying to seep through a hairline crack. It was not an indictment of Fifth Company that even with the backup of other troops they ultimately fell back, but that they lasted as long as they had, and did as much damage as they had; the hole once blocked with webs was now blocked with hundreds of thousands of Arachno corpses.

Had that been the end of that front, perhaps three of every four of the one-hundred-and-fourty-four in the company would have survived the many poisonous bites and grievous wounds suffered, but it was then that Vroch acted, spitting a globule of venom from where she had hidden to watch the first strike. This poison completely missed all targets concerned at first, but blossomed from its original position to become a vapour, which forced its way into every pinprick wound and, ultimately, into every nostril. Once it entered the bloodstream, this divine venom was instantly fatal, and as every warrior of Fifth Company had been hurt, every warrior of Fifth Company died, filling the last parts of the hole.

Deprived of their shock troopers, the 3rd Militia resorted to other ways of smoking out Vroch. They flew overhead, above the forest canopy, and launched flaming arrows down below, arrows which caught the webs and started a fire. The millions of Arachno not already slaughtered soon fled from the forest fire that ensued, and ultimately it exposed the forest canopy, revealing Vroch - who had simply remained unmoved, content that the flames would not harm her, the smoke would not choke her, the fallen branches and even trees would give way against her limbs rather than the reverse. All this she had assumed, and her resulting tactical decision would have been sound but for the demonic sorcerers she faced. For in the numbers they had below, the Arachno felt pain enough exposed to the heat of the flames, pain enough to provide more spells - some of which provided fuel, while others provided air when the smoke would otherwise have been too thick. A flame that should have stopped with a few clearings instead burnt the Bloom away for a mile in every direction, leaving Vroch with neither web nor swarm nor even forest canopy to hide behind.

This attack was followed by swooping archers, who let off entire volleys of arrows into Vroch's hide before landing. Any one of these would have felled one of her Arachno children, yet not even one of them had enough mass or speed to pierce the divine.

"Murderers!" Vroch screamed. "You slaughtered my children!" Her cries of divine anguish had struck down angels in an age only just within living memory, and perhaps they shortened the lives of the demons present, but the 3rd Militia were a force of destruction more terrible than the Rebel Angels had ever been, and were made of far sterner stuff. However, this was far from the only threat of Vroch's cry. Even as she spoke, she emitted a web which wove itself around her, almost invisibly thin and filled with divine strength. Had a demon swooped into it unwary, with their usual speed, they would have taken bruises, broken their bones, or at the worst extreme had limbs or wings severed by their impact with the deceptively sharp threads. It was along these threads that Vroch climbed, seemingly taking flight, and certainly getting into better firing positions to launch venom from. However, this time the 3rd Militia were ready, and repositioned themselves in reaction to her strikes, evading the worst of her mortal poison. Indeed, their sorcerers were able to conjure forth slight variations in the wind, just enough to coat her webs in deadly poison, just enough to show the demons where not to fly.

Several troops from Ninth Company took up their spears and tried to fight that way, as their training included the art of putting one's entire swooping body behind a strike. Two of these missed, and a third died mid-flight, coating nearby webs with his blood, but the fourth, barrelling and twisting through the webs, struck home. The warrior had weakened the thrust by changing their direction of flight, and so had not fully pierced to Vroch's innards, but divine blood had been shed, and that was an achievement in itself.

Of course, the achievement was rather dampened when Vroch swatted the demon away with one leg, leading to it being bisected as it passed through divine webs.

Throughout all this, Grand Champion Mastema had remained on the treetops, watching his plan unfold and waiting to see if it was all for nothing. The sight of Vroch being struck was the trigger he needed - it was the proof that mortals could kill the divine. The deeds of the Wretched Star, the Seliss, the Red Lord, and the Suri armies of lost Bellerophat were legends from far away, not proofs on which a strategy could hang. The most important theory had been proven.

The Grand Champion Mastema leapt into the air, and swooped high into the skies, before drawing two mighty swords as Nathaniel had in a past age. Nathaniel had been a hero, courageous in the extreme, but Mastema combined that courage with discipline and training that no angel had ever been granted. Not quite enough courage to engage foolishly, however; he instead swooped all the way to the ground, before swinging one of his swords every way, to cut down Vroch's web frame. His steel sword would simply have bent against the divine threads, but his golden sword was powered by the ancient Golden Magic, and burnt through even the divine - for this divinity was loathsome to the gods.

However, Vroch was a demigod, and not to be defeated by the mere removal of her primary workaround. Creating webbing had been the clever way, the efficient way, but that option was removed. Instead, as she fell to the ground she spoke a single phrase in the tongue of gods, and her fall first slowed, then stopped, then suddenly she was chasing after Mastema through the skies. Worse, hundreds of thousands of Arachno had been in range of the spell, and had taken flight along with their mother and queen.

A landing, a brief tactical assessment, and Mastema shouted out orders.
"Second through Twelfth, halt the swarm! First Company, ATTAAAAACK!" With that, the remaining twelve hundred soldiers of the Militia all took to the skies. As they heard their Grand Champion's war cry, the remaining ninety-four of First Company drew two swords, one of steel and one of gold, and all flew after Vroch as Mastema had. Fourteen, then twenty, then thirty-four of their number were slain by Vroch's venom clouds, and a further ten knocked out of the sky by her mystically arranged webbing, while thirty more were knocked down by blasts of the same black lightning that had defeated Nathaniel of old. But the twenty who survived this onslaught were enough. With blades of steel they blocked and parried the monstrous being's limbs and fangs, and with blades of gold they slashed at her flesh, being easily able to pierce it if they combined the momentum of flight with the Golden Magic of their swords. Four more of them perished to Vroch's poisonous bite, but the rest were swift enough to avoid this inescapable death, and while no single one of their slashes could have much affected the demigod, a thousand cuts added up.

There was a sound of splatting, as Vroch ceased to be able to maintain her flight spell, and the Arachno started to fall to the ground. The dying demigod found a soot-coated humanoid child waiting for her, when she landed, a fall that would have broken her children's legs but which merely bruised hers, a strangely poignant look in eyes that had once contained only rage.

"You fought well," Makhleb said, to the sister of the flock that had killed its son and been killed by its daughter in return. "Do not fear for your children; they will bring suffering to this world until its end, while your Blood Pit shall likewise last for eternity." This being was many things the Seliss had never been, and required different comforts; yet, as God of Retribution, Makhleb understood well that it would earn what it gave to the children of gods. It had witnessed how Eull acted to the Wretched Star, and even then it had understood it had to return the deed, in the same way that its child had retaliated against the Seliss. It had seen how Vroch had butchered first the fairies of Farea, then the demons of the Sanctuary Settled Zone, and it had come as much to witness the demons' attempt at retribution as it had to see to the dying demigod.


Once Makhleb had departed, and the death was confirmed, the 3rd Sanctuary Militia yet remained in Vroch's lair, for they found strange ruins when they looked - many of which had been damaged or destroyed by the forest fire they caused in defeating the demigod. Exhausted, and poisoned basically to the last man, the Militia used what buildings they could of the strange ruins, but mostly set up their own tents as they spent the rest of winter recuperating.

Come the spring, they had named the place "Spider's Grave", for the body of Vroch that lay buried beneath - and the head of Vroch, which having been painstakingly severed over about a week was instead was placed on a golden pike somewhere nice and public, as proof that even the divine could die. For some time, they considered simply settling here, sending only a messenger back home to report their success in their original mission, until things started disappearing, and small beings were seen in the shadows.

Sooner or later, they were bound to discover the ultimate reason for these events - the 3rd Militia had in fact spent the last month acting as an occupying force in the fairy city of Farea, and while some fairies were glad to have their home back, most were horrified that the 3rd Militia had, not with recklessness, but with cold calculation and without a hint of remorse, caused a forest fire that burnt half of Farea down simply to kill a demigod.

In order to remedy the public relations disaster that resulted, Mastema offered to help protect the city while it rebuilt and created its own armies, with a long speech that emphasised the threat Vroch had once posed, the threat the Singers of Destroyer's Peak still posed, and which carefully avoided mention of the threat the 3rd Sanctuary Militia yet posed. Since the fairies were flyers, he even suggested an exchange of learning, in which they would be instructed in aerial combat in return for teaching demons the spells of Abjuration. They tried to avoid mention of their torture-fuelled magic, for they knew all too well that the other races were unlikely to see that among demons this horrific practice was inflicted not on the innocent, nor even the guilty, but only on the willing. If nothing else, it was the same art practised by their Singer cousins, who had no such qualms about violating the rights of others.

One way or the other, demons would make themselves known to the fairies. Sanctuary had been full to bursting after years of being unable to expand, and suddenly freed, the new wave of second sons and second daughters filled the area to the northwest of Sanctuary and the northeast of Farea, pushing to the forest's edge and into the White Mountains.


Many of the 3rd Militia were dejected when Mastema returned from Spider's Grave with the news. The faeries were too fearful of the demons' destructive and angry nature, and wanted no traffic with such mercurial and violent beings.

Many of the Militia proposed that in reaction to this, the demons should simply make the fairies be grateful, by forcibly taking the defenceless Farea and teaching their children how bad life had been before they had demons as "protectors". Many others felt that perhaps the demons had indeed overreached, and should be content with the buffer zone around their Sanctuary.

Mastema had more sympathy with the first group, but felt their proposed action was utterly counterproductive. Instead, a new military campaign would be needed, to show that the demons were not people you wanted as your enemies. At this, there was a little debate as to who would be the target, but not much; the angels and humans of the south had done nothing to harm the demons as yet, nor gained a widespread reputation as a cancer upon the world.

The name of the base camp was more hotly debated than its position or its target, with some of the Militia offering up the names of virtues that Sanctuary stood to defend, while others named Grand Champion Mastema or the hero Nathaniel as the proper namesakes of the new military camp. However, it was ultimately a virtue that won the deed poll.

Thus, Fort Liberty was raised in the mountains northwest of Sanctuary, and there would be built the armies that one day would march on Destroyer's Peak.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4269292/) points
Power rollover: 2 points

0 points: Command Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) - Attack the Sanctuary Settled Zone to reclaim it, provoking the terrible wrath of Vroch!
3rd Sanctuary Militia 2d6+6=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4269297/) (+2 Golden Magic, +2 Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, +1 Rudimentary Medicine, +1 Airborne Personal Combat)
Vroch 4d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4269298/) (+2d6 Demigod)
3rd Sanctuary Militia wins! Vroch is destroyed.

4 points: Command Race (Demons) - Form Alliance (with Fairies)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (Belltower of Life)
4 points: Command Race (Demons) - Settle Territory (A circle encompassing some of the Bloom and some of the mountains, as close to Farea as possible while still being contiguous with the First Settled Zone.

If the fairies Accept the alliance:
0 points: Donate Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) to the Fairies
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) - Trade (Airborne Personal Combat for Abjuration)

If the fairies Reject the alliance:
4 points: Command Race (Demons) - Found City (Fort Liberty) on the northeast edge of the Second Settled Zone.
0 points: Command Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) to Defend Fort Liberty

Either way:
1 point remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 (4) Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4270675/), bringing me up to 20

Nios watched the world, as peace settled. It was time, he felt, to leave the mortal world for some time, as things no longuer needed his attention. So, Nios dissapeared from the world. He had not shown much presence, but when he disappered, every single being that was sentient to a certain degree felt it, as though a load had suddendly lifted. The light coming from the suns seemed brighter, the flowers seemed more coloful, and life began spreading faster.

To where the Blank Space had disappered was a mystery, yet it was a place accessible by any. It was a place that would later become as the Void, a place of unspeakeable horror, where the very laws that held the world together were forever changing. It was a of both pure energy and of nothingness. Nios was the only being that could exist in such a place for more than a few seconds, but despite that, there were occasions on which things could travese the void. At that time, the Void was a gateway, and could be used to move across planes and worlds. However, this was a rare event, and it never operated in the same way, and anyone trying to use it, be it mortal or God had no guaratee of anything.

Meanwhile, the Stringwork, after its last experiment was done, sent a few Outgoers onto the land, to search potential candidates for the next experiment. The Outgoers visited the Sanctuary where the Stringwork learnt of the Defeat of Vorch, and renewed its hopes of obtaining the energy of the Rivers of the Bloom. Not much else would be done by the Stringwork in these 500 years.


Spend 7 points: Create World - the Void

The following races now know of the Stringwork's existence as a sapient species (the Strings are easily confused for plants, and when other species see them, they will most liely label them as such):
Fairies, Angels
Demons
Not Humans (this is partly why I used Political manoever. They think they are the best at using Armour, and why this advancement happened remains a mystery.)
If they wish, they can spread knowledge of the Strings Existence.

[Benthesquid]

The Werblumes had long been cultivating bees, using their honey in the brewing of mead. Werblume beekeepers, living in close proximity to their charges, became accustomed to the rhythms and movements of the hives. They gradually learned techniques to control the swarms of bees more effectively, lulling them into near stasis or increasing their activity to a near frenzy. The most skilled beekeepers, who became known as Bee-Grooms or Bee-Wives, according to their gender, were even able to direct them more specifically, ordering them to sting a rival or some dangerous beast.

A small contingent of Bee-Wives joined the Shorn Ones, where, due to their skills, and their acknowledged close ties with their swarms, they were granted some special dispensations. They were still required to shave their heads, and to forswear love and family, but they were permitted a small ration of mead, as they argued consuming the fermented honey drink was necessary to maintain their links to their swarms.
***
Meanwhile, a Werblume lass by the name of Fer Ainsdotter had died after being gored by the blood-stock she tended. While a tragedy, this was far from unheard or in the Werblume villages. What made this time different, however, was that her mother, Ain Linsdotter, was a powerful Visionary.

Devastated by her daughter's untimely death, Ain took the body to her hut, and entered into a deep trance. After days of chanting, ecstatic whirling, and self flagellation, Ain knelt by her daughter's side and breathed something out over Fer's face.

It was not quite life that she breathed out, but it was something that mimicked it for a little while. Fer sat up, and called out to her mother. Weeping, Ain gathered her daughter to her breast and said good-bye before the lass lapsed back into death.

The Sehkian Society was incredibly interested to hear of this, and investigated more closely. Eventually, after many failed attempts, Ain's feat was duplicated, this time with a long-dead Visionary of the society. Excitement spread, and soon many other dead had been, if temporarily, revived and shown themselves able to answer questions. What's more, it became evident that the dead often had information they had not possessed while alive.

The origins of this information were unclear, though many Werblumes theorized that Visionaries were subject to a final Great Vision at the moment of their death. Certainly, the more powerful the Visionary in life, the greater in breadth and depth their postmortem knowledge.

To better maintain and exploit this new resource- the knowledge of the dead- the City of Adonia was chosen as the site for a new Wonder. Called the Necropolis of Amosehk, it was a massive earthen mound, honeycombed throughout with hexagonal rooms. Each room had three doors, leading to other hexagonal chambers. The remaining three walls had niches in which were placed glass sarcophagi filled with the corpses of prominent Werblumes preserved in honey. They were primarily Visionaries, but prominent brewers, architects, and any other Werblume who excelled in their field was likewise preserved.

Roll=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4270812/), with zero banked makes sixteen.
Advance Race (Werblumes) Swarm Manipulation
Advance Race (Werblumes) Necromancy
Command Race (Werblumes) Create Wonder (The Necropolis of Amosehk)
Total Fourteen- Two remaining

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4267300/)
Current Power Points: 11

Mastema headed up towards his tent. his head bent forward as he quietly read a message from Sanctuary. He was so engrossed in the words before him that, when he ducked into the tent, he didn't notice the figure standing there at first, and was halfway across the room before he caught of glimpse of him from the corner of his eye.

"Oh, my apologies. I wasn't paying attention," Mastema spoke as he stopped and looked up. "May I help--" but he never finished the sentence, as in that moment, he noticed the naked steel in the figure's right hand, and the tense way that arm was held. The figure wore a nondescript cloak with the hood up, but Mastema could see the outlines of wings beneath the fabric. The Demon narrowed his eyes and edged his way closer to his sword rack. Was this one of the inquisition sent to assassinate him? But why? And hadn't they been eradicated centuries ago?

The figure spoke after a moment, a smooth, baritone voice, but it carried an inherent edge, an anger in each syllable, "I hear you bested Vroch."

More confusion. Had there been a creature on Tyonix who actually wanted the spider to continue? No, more likely this was some glory-seeker, an angel who had wanted the deed for himself. Well, best keep him talking until Mastema could reach his bastard swords, "That's right, but it took an army, and we suffered many casualties."

"None the less, it was your strategy, your ability to lead an army, that led to the act being done… I've come to congratulate you. I barely escaped with my life when I fought the creature."

Mastema paused for a moment. This angel's words and lack of action did not match up with his hostile tone and body language. Clearly he didn't completely understand what was going on here. Some elaborate trick perhaps? He'd have to choose his next words carefully, regardless, "You fought the beast and lived, you say? How is that? For the past few centuries, she's remained in her nest, unmoving, letting her Arochno do her work for her. Longer than the lifetime of any Angel. When would you have had chance to fight her?"

To this, the angel simply turned to look at Mastema. His face stopped the Demon in his tracks, however, for he had only seen that visage in paintings or carvings, of that ancient battle with Vroch, or of the recovery of the Sword of Life. Though it could not be mistake. As the revelation hit him, Mastema could only get out a single word, "…Impossible."

"That's exactly what I thought. I had found a quiet place in the Axon mountains to fade away, but my appointed time came and went, and for days I waited, weeks, but death never came, and this pain never left," he trust out the hand which carried the blade Mastema now recognized as the Sword of Life. The flesh of the hand was fused together and to the hilt of the sword, raw, bloody, and visibly throbbing, "It's the curse those damned Singers had upon the sword. I am cursed to live forever, in constant pain. The hand which clutches this sword is forever drenched in flames. The only reason I do not collapse in agony is because the Sun lends me strength."

Silence. It was several more moments before Mastema managed to digest all the information and find his voice again, "You know, you could use that pain. If it is as mighty as you say, not only could you wield the greatest sword ever forged, but possess an inexhaustible supply of power with our arts. Stay here a time, allow us to teach you."

"No, then others would come to know of my existence."

This confused the Demon, "But… why must you remain hidden?"

A long silence, and then, "Vroch was ancient beyond reckoning. Some say she may have been the first evil to ever rise, before even Mahkleb. I don't know if those rumors hold any water, but you cannot deny her age. She came from before history was ever written down. Thus, we cannot know what her first years were like, or what led her to become what she was. I fear that I myself may fall down that path, if things fall out of my hands. If others learn of my existence, a little part of my fate falls into their hands, as knowledge would spread, and many would come looking for me, and some would actually find me. Those who would find me might influence me one way or another. Should they fight me, I might best them, or they might best me. No matter what, they will change my path. So, I must first know the paths that lie before me, so I will see where my path is being changed to, lest I become something I detest. This pain fills me with rage, as is, and I fear what I may do if a stranger confronts me and forces my hand in some way."

Mastema blinked. This could not be, he had to speak, "Of all the things I had dreamed, I never thought I would one day meet you. It still seems truly impossible, but to learn that you are a coward, that is a step beyond impossible."

Then the Angel was upon him, the Sword of Life against his throat, and a voice, trembling in rage, came from the shadow of the hood, "Call me a coward?! There is a darkness in me, Demon. The pain corrupts thoughts that would have been pure. I fear, but I only fear myself and what I may do. I am difficult enough to control when all I have is myself, and so I must remain a secret."

After a moment more of silence, the angel took a step back, "Congratulations on your victory. Lead your people to peace and plenty."

With that, he was headed towards the tent flap, but Mastema called after him, halting the stranger a moment before he could leave, "Inch forward for ten thousand more years, eventually the pain will wear you away and force you into a darker path no matter what you know. You must act! You must take a risk and do some good while you still know what 'good' is! Hide from the world, seeking the way forward, and you will rot inside before you find it. Take that risk, blunder down a path which only might be correct, and you might find yourself rotting just the same, but you may find the correct path as well. I believe it's your only hope."

The stranger lingered for only a moment more, before vanishing into the night…


***

The Pale Nightmares saw them coming from kilometers away. Fifteen figures of black as dark as night, climbing the mountains before Destroyer's Peak in formation. They were no larger than children, it seemed, but any would-be invaders would be eradicated, without exception, so the Pale Nightmares prepared their defenses, stringing up a dozen Singers to act as batteries as they sent their spells out at the foreigners.

But then, the fifteen strangers all erupted into song simultaneously. It was hardly melodic, but it had a steady rhythm, a concussive beat that each individual roar built upon. It was loud, as well. So loud that the Pale Nightmares at first didn't believe it could possibly be coming from the fifteen. Surely it was something far closer.

Though, even as they watched, the force drew together, marching in perfect synchrony to the cadence of their song, while molten globules of metal the Singers had fired at them with perfect aim were smashed aside by some invisible force.

One Singer turned to another and spoke, "Bring the others."


---

Mountains fell from the sky, molten sheets of lead and beams of raw energy. The King's Army simply marched, and their War Song perpetuated, "So Ko ASAHETEHO! Neli Kesi Fasi RO! Del Deke Dere DO! Mela Ko So MA! Mela Ko So MA!"

From their voices, mountains shattered, sheets of molten lead parted to leave a path for them untouched, and beams of raw energy impacted their flesh and left barely a singe. Forward they marched, up the ridge, until they stood directly before the face of the grand city, and there, one Shou Tahs stepped forward, bringing an object to his lips. An object that the Singers would recognize. As he inhaled deep, his fellows continued the War Song, but one looked forward, and roared, "HORNBLOWER! BLOW YOUR HORN!"

The Hornblower did exactly that.


---

Liquid nitrogen, liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen fell from the sky, blanketing the side of the mountain, flooding into the colossal fissures the initial shockwave had rent in the side of the city. Dozens of Pale Nightmares had fallen to that first blast of the horn, and hundreds of civilians as well. They would not be cowed, however, and orders were bing barked out, "Telepaths forward, everything you have on the Hornblower! Berserkers, take your brew! We charge, all Pale Nightmares are to charge these few. They are nothing, you hear me! Nothing! They use our ancestral weapon against us, and they WILL SUFFER FOR IT!"


---

Green shadows streaked down the frozen side of the now-tilting mountain while the Hornblower breathed deep to unleash his second blast. However, before he could bring the horn to his lips, his eyes went wide, as he experienced the most terrible things he could ever imagine.

However, a Shou Tahs is not a creature that feels fear.

"THEY WILL PAY!" The Hornblower bellowed, as he hefted the horn in his arms, and sprinted forward, leaping from ridge to ridge as the remaining fourteen Shou Tahs looked to one another in confusion. Well, the Hornblower seemed to know what was going on, so they followed him.

Upon the slopes of a mountain still slick with frozen oxygen, the Hornblower met the charge of the front Nightmare, ripping bodily through it, using the Horn as a colossal club to bludgeon a second Singer into mist as erupted from the other side of the first.

The other fourteen caught up, then, still roaring the War Song as they met the Green Berserkers in battle. One Singer carried two entire trees, each held by two tendrils, and clearly meant to crush one Shou Tahs between them, but the single-meter tall creature simply caught the blows, and in the moment of surprise that followed, ripped the trees from the clutches of the energy-being, and then, a tree in each hand, crushed the Singer between them.

A second Shou Tahs found himself caught off guard by an enormous boulder hurled by two Singers combined, but after it rolled over him, he simply sat up, shook his head, and got back into the fight.

A third Shou Tahs used his War Song to cause an avalanche, burying a dozen Nightmares at once.

Five Nightmares piled onto a single Shou Tahs, and forced it into a pool of liquid oxygen, and though it's struggling cost one of them their own life, the Shou Tahs froze solid.

Twelve Nightmares focused their telepathy into a single Shou Tahs, confusing it, making it see foes all around, and directing it to kill two of his allies before the Hornblower turned and used a second blast to destroy the rogue Shou Tahs and a few Singers.

One clever Singer ignited the air itself, causing tornados between the impossibly hot air and the impossibly cold liquid, but best of all, it erased the air, the medium of their War Song, and suddenly three of the invaders fell to waves of destruction that befell them.

Suddenly, the fight quieted. Nineteen Singers stood in a circle, ringed, facing inwards at the Hornblower and two other Shou Tahs. Around them the tornadoes still raged, and ice melted into rivers flowing around their feet.

The Singers inches forward cautiously, as all the berserkers had been torn asunder. The Shou Tahs simply grinned, and, as the pause had been all they needed, resumed their War Song, but this was a different tune, and instead of charging into the ranks of Nightmares, they turned towards one another.

The moment of confusion that shot through the ranks of the Singers was all that was needed for the Song to build the shockwave between them, so when they actually did charge, it was too late, and the sound snapped.

An earthquake shook the Destroyer's Peak as all but two Nightmares were blown back from the epicenter of the sonic snap, being shredded from sound alone.

Two of the Shou Tahs were too badly wounded by the sound to continue either, so, only the Hornblower was left to return to his Black King, and tell him the good news: they had been victorious!


***

The Saku Rasi were distressed by the dislike the Werblumes expressed towards them. A few reciprocated the feeling, as, to them, the Werblumes did looked like female Saku Rasi with vines growing beside their eyes, but Werblume alcohol was widely respected, and considered a rare commodity to even Saku Rasi traders.

So, it was decided that a concerted effort would be made towards the Werblumes.

One day, a large group, part Maimec and part Saku Rasi, carried several crates of food into Myrha. Trell fruits, potatoes, raspberries, hart fruits, honeydew melons, pineapples, rice, strawberries, oranges, dragonfruit, blueberries, and even a few lemons.

After all the food was placed, a Miamec stepped forward, as it had been decided that they would do the speaking here, "The Saku Rasi bring a gift. Dozens of fruits and berries which would make excellent or powerful alchohols. This, for example, is a potato, and when fermented, produces an alchohol so strong that the Saku Rasi can't even drink it. This is rice, and it turns to saké, the ancestral drink of the Saku Rasi. These are strawberries, very rare and difficult to transport. so much so, in fact, that no one has ever bothered to try including them in alchohol, instead opting to actually eat them. None of these items are found here, in your land, but the Saku Rasi have them in plenty. The Saku Rasi seek friendship with the Werblumes. May this gift be the first of many between these people who are so close, yet so far away."

And with that, the party took their leave, allowing the Werblumes to decide on the matter for themselves.

Second Black King's Army attacks Destroyer's Peak, conflicting with the Pale Nightmares and earning mutual destruction. The Shou Tahs only perceive it as victory because they're crazy.

4 points to Command the Saku Rasi to extend an alliance to the Werblumes.

Current Power Points: 7
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4270398/)

[ImperialSunligh]

Mam stood crying on the tower's roof. Eknad was there as always, a reminder of her loss.

"It is time to grant a blessing to the humans," said Eknad.

"Just do it yourself!" Mam screamed, "You didn't hesitate before!"

"Mam, this is a council of the gods. You must have a say."

"You won't care what I say, you have all the power now."

"That's true, I do have the power. But I give it to you now."

"What?"

"The humans need your wisdom."

Eknad said nothing more as he faded away, Mam watching in disbelief.

A revelation was granted to a select few humans. These realized that they must leave the busy life of Figurae, and start a community of thought and contemplation elsewhere. These people joined together to petition the king for aid in doing so. The king agreed and the First Army of Battle Clerics were ordered to defend these people as they searched to the north for an adequate place.

Finding a shoreline to the north, the humans were inspired and created a gathering of huts that eventually grew into a small city. This city was named Sophei and became the center of learning for humans and had no less than six libraries filled with the works of its denizens.

The group that founded the city formed a council of elders, who led the city's development. Over time, it was understood that the original inspiration for the city's creation cam from Mam, and she was made the patron deity of the city.

A second army of clerics was created in the city of Figurae during this time, and they were sent to Eupnea to defend it from being captured again. They also worked to try to restore its former glory, though this was largely in vain for how far it had fallen.

2d6+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4272955/)

Command Order, Order of Eknad, Create 2nd army of Clerics, -3

Command Race, Humans, Found City of "Sophei", -4
(On the coastline northwest of Figurae, here (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90658895/MJcJvgm%20-%20Copy.png))

Command First army of Battle Clerics, defend Sophei.

Command Second army of Battle Clerics, defend Eupnea.

Left: 10

[Omegonthesane]

Increasingly, the Singer smiths of the Plane of Destruction were rejecting embarrassing failure after embarrassing failure; for their most inspired artisans inevitably had visions that were of something new, something daring, and most forms of direct destruction were neither. The Rings of Telepathy were presented to the great priests of Makhleb officially as a torture device, for if a victim wore one of the Rings and was not properly instructed in their use they would be defenceless against a stream of unimaginable horrors transmitted directly to their senses. However, while this farce was necessary for cultural reasons, even the priesthood saw the real purpose of the Rings as a means of instant communication across long distances for even the untrained.

Even these priests failed to see the deeper purpose the Rings had, which Makhleb had divined instantly. One of them was designated the Master Ring, and all the others broadcast all of their sendings to the Master as well as to their actual target. In this way, if the others were scattered, whoever held the Master Ring would gain a significant strategic advantage over the rest of the world, disguised as a boon.

The Singers had long believed their own kind to be, in some sense, stronger than all the other beings of their world. This illusion was shattered when they witnessed the Pale Nightmares defeated in mutual destruction by a mere fifteen warriors, and the removal of it sent unprecedented discord through the Peak. Many Singers simply fled in panic, seeking a new life somewhere else now that the underpinnings of their whole society had been destroyed, while others sought to take the Peak for their own petty agendas, little realising that no single Singer could hope to keep them all in line. Many separate armies and tribes formed over the following half a century, each with their own garish colours and markings; to students of Singer lore, it would have come as a surprise that there were as many as eight tribes left on the day the Anarchy came to an end.

The twenty-five mightiest warriors each of the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and White tribes met in the clearing at the centre of Destroyer's Peak, the place where The Garden of Flies had long ago written its contribution to the Rubric of Makhleb. There, they performed a set of elaborate posturings to determine which Tribe was to win the war, for as warriors, they knew the slaughter of their own could nto continue indefinitely - and in any case Makhleb had guided them to this day over years of manipulation. These demonstrations of martial and sorcerous skill left no clear winner, so the single mightiest warrior of each tribe stepped forward, each bellowing threats and promises in turn.

Each, except for the White Champion, who had retained its coloration from when it was a member of the White Conclave of old. It revealed to those present the secrets of the organisation of the White Conclave, and the Red Screamers and Pale Nightmares after them - that ultimately they had split into eight segments not merely for tactical reasons, but because their champions recognised a Singer could stand to have seven equals. Indeed, each tribe had sent exactly as many as a traditional segment of a Singer conclave.

In the resulting pact, the warriors each dyed eight runes into their flesh, one for each of the eight tribes present, each in the colour of the tribe it corresponded to - or in black, if it was being added to a warrior of that tribe. Eight tribes entered that meeting, and one unified force of eight segments, the Rainbow Scourge, left it.

Of course, the Rainbow was intended as a temporary solution - the long-term ambition was for each segment to grow its ranks and become an army in its own right, to go forth and purify a segment of the world. However, multiple forces were at work with the express intent of preventing such a dark day...

The sort-of city of Fort Liberty had been raised with the express purpose of war, and with a degree of foresight that its predecessor lacked. Where Sanctuary had gone from a refugee camp to a mad sprawl of buildings, Fort Liberty was ironically restrictive in its construction; where Sanctuary had relied on its secrecy as a defence for centuries, Fort Liberty raised wooden walls twelve feet in height before they began work on permanent shelters. It was always the intention that these walls would be exchanged with stone within a century, and after that raised taller in every generation as a sign of demonic power.

More permanence was assigned to the stone guard towers, twenty or thirty feet in height at their first iteration; for the Demons, as inventors of aerial warfare, were all too aware that no walls were high enough to stop an army of their own. Their best defence was not fortifications, but alertness and training. The camp's entertainments were as lavish as anything in Sanctuary, but just like all other buildings in Fort Liberty they were designed to withstand direct hits from siegeworks; indeed, great battering rams were used to destruction-test the doors of these stone houses, to ensure they would last for at least ten strikes if properly bolted.

The many demons who came to the city found themselves faced with a simple choice: aid in the coming war effort or leave. There was markedly less room for entertainers and artists than there was for chefs, blacksmiths, tanners, bowyers, or other practical workers who could measurably aid the war that Fort Liberty prepared for.

Within ten years, though, a new Garrison marched the walls and streets of Fort Liberty. With no enemy yet to fight, they entertained themselves largely by designing new drills and annual parades. In the former case, it was simply a matter of seeing how best to train new recruits; in the latter, although such ostentation was normally frowned upon in Fort Liberty, a show of mass coordination and cooperation was a show of the skills an army needed even more than competence at personal combat. The changes in design, of course, were aimed at making it as easy as possible for the parading army to suddenly redeploy if Fort Liberty were attacked, with ostentation only being increased if it could be done without sacrificing a whit of practicality.

Once they had played their part in training the Fort Liberty Garrison, the vast majority of the 3rd Sanctuary Militia pined for home. Many had left behind lovers, even families to do battle with Vroch, and could see they were no longer needed outside their home's walls. A few felt differently, and wished to remain in Fort Liberty to join their expeditionary force, but this was not possible while the existing squad brands were the standard.

Naturally, when Mastema and his militia finally returned to Sanctuary, he pushed for a change in squad brandings, in which they would be placed upon the chest and arms of warriors rather than the cheeks. This, he argued, would allow room for the alteration of a soldier's brands to reflect their transfer into a new force, as indeed many of the 3rd Militia had requested transfers to Fort Liberty.

This change was voted into force by the Clans, with one slight addendum - from that day forward, the Demonic Militias would wear a particular uniform in addition to any personal clothing or armour they brought, which would be supplied to soldiers as part of their arrival. These tunics would display the symbols of the demon's current allegiance, as well as their current rank within that force. As a side effect, it became fashionable for a demon to not cover their arms except in the coldest weather, for surely only a deserter hiding their squad markings would need long sleeves in summer.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4273156/) points
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 14 points

4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) - Raise Army (Rainbow Scourge)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) - Command Race (Singers) - Create Wonder (Rings of Telepathy)
4 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) - Raise Army (Fort Liberty Garrison)

0 points: Command Army (Rainbow Scourge) to Defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Garrison) to Defend Fort Liberty
0 points: Command Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) to Defend the Sanctuary Settled Zone

5 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4270398/)
Current Power Points: 17

"He's becoming another monster, you know. Nathaniel," Nameless spoke for the first time in centuries, as the duo wandered along the bottom of a ravine in the Latticework Land, "He once despised Vroch. She was what she was, of course, and there could be no changing that, but he despised her. That pain you placed upon him is making him rash and unstable. He'll become worse than Vroch was, soon, and despise himself. Some would call what you've done to him cruel…"

Eull turned to look at his son without breaking stride. Nameless didn't quite understand all the forces at work here. Yes, the plight Eull gave the chosen angel was one to lament, but it was not there to turn him into anything like Vroch or the Singers, nor would it. The Gray God did not give it to him for such a purpose, but instead for many other reasons.

First, to toughen and test his resolve. After a few millennia of such pain, nothing would daunt him ever again.

Second, to drive the angel into isolation. At first Nathaniel had sought help, but when the pain made him irrational, he maintained peace enough at heart to know he was being irrational, and so, he took himself away from all life which he might harm. Eull had known he would react that way, having seen his soul. That's part of why he granted the curse. He needed the isolation because he needed the Angel to become an unconfirmed rumor, a figure that would cow even the bravest man by simply appearing.

Third and last of all, he had needed Nathaniel to find resolve and conviction. He would need to have a reason to fight, and the torment that was placed upon him for ages, that would be plenty of reason to fight.

The pain would indeed one day break the Angel, and that day the pain would end. What was planned for that day would remain a secret, however.

Nameless regarded his father for a moment, then returned his gaze forward, dropping back into the silence of the past few centuries. He did not need to continue the discussion. He knew by now to trust the deity, for he had never once faltered…


***

Two lines of Saku Rasi marched into the streets of Sanctuary, their long-sleeved Kerami's rustling in the breeze and their bone & snake skin boots clopping against the cobblestone of the street as they carried a series of large crates between them.

They went straight for up to the place of leadership in the city, and arranged the crates in a half circle there. They had taken the scenic route through the streets, and thus gathered a large crowd as they walked. A crowd which now watched as the leader Demons stepped out of the building, curious as to the commotion right outside of their fort.

Once the leadership had gathered, one Saku Rasi who wore a vibrant Kerami of green, purple, & white stepped forward, speaking in broken Demon tongue, "Blessings be upon you, Your Grace. You will not know who we are, so I will explain. We are known as the Road Builders. We are a group who see that our people have wandered for ages and ages more, yet we only act among ourselves. We trade with others, certainly, but we are not truly friends. We mean to correct this, and offer a hand of friendship from Hahebuto, Wetami, Sakura, Sela, and a thousand Ryokans in the form of a grand gift." At this the other Saku Rasi stepped up and pried the five crates open, revealing their contents.

The lead Saku Rasi stepped off to one side, indicating the shadowy, shiny chunk of material inside the far left crate, "This is pure obsidian, cultivated from deep in the caves beneath our ancestral homes. This stone holds a razor edge with little effort, and has an eternal luster without needing to be polished. It is difficult to find and cultivate, for it grows in only from the violence of magma and lava. Though, this is the least of our gifts."

Stepping to the next crate, the Saku Rasi regarded a pile of pearly white spikes jumbled together, "The bones of a thousand Basilisks. These also were cultivated in our homeland, but at great risk, for to gaze upon a Basilisk while it still lives is certain death. A magic runs deep in the bodies of these creatures, all the way to the bones you see before you. Being bones, they last for centuries before disintegrating, and only a single pinch of the powdered bone is needed to evoke the power of the Basilisk. Thus, they are highly regarded as a magical reagents among many spellcasters the world around, and are so highly valued that a single of these bones would earn enough food to feed a family for a month."

The third crate contained several bolts of cloth, "This fabric is known as uzeli. It is as soft as velvet, as smooth as silk, as sturdy as burlap, and breathes like cotton. The secret of it's creation are held by a certain Ryokan in our homeland. Not even I know how it is made, but it is said to be very difficult, and only a single bolt is crafted each year. There are three bolts of uzeli here, a token of the Rekuto Ryokan, which wishes this friendship to be formed."

The fourth crate contained a strange, spherical object, "This is the greatest gift yet: A globe of all Tyonix, crafted with great care to detail and proportion. This is a great secret of our people, the exact shape of the world, and we never trade away our globes, less the secret fall. We hope that it shows how much we desire this friendship that we hand one of such craftsmanship away freely."

The last crate contained a massive block of some translucent, green material, "This is the largest emerald anyone has ever found, cut by the best gem cutters in the world. We thought it might look pleasant at the top of one of your temples."

After the five crates were explained, the Saku Rasi, in his green, purple, and white Kerami, and spoke one final time, "We hope you cherish these items. Take some time to decide if you wish, but we, the Road Builders, must rest in your port until you return with a yes or a no to this suggested coupling of our races. Know first, though, that this generosity is only the first taste of what would be offered to a friend of the Saku Rasi."

Thus the visitors took their leave, leaving the crowd dumbstruck and mildly confused. The Road Builders believed the alliance would indeed be formed. If it were, they were prepared to initiate an act never-before enacted upon such a scale: the trading of ideas and concepts. Specifically, they would offer the secrets of Navigation and Roads, in exchange for Rudimentary Medicine and the secrets of Golden Magic.


***

The Marrow Tree swayed in the wind, it's brilliance shifting and shimmering upon the hundred Trells standing beneath it's branches, soaking in the peace and wisdom of the grand plant.

This was the number one pastime in Grove: to meditate beneath the Marrow Tree, and allow one's mind to drift. Many revelations had come from Trells who had simply remained there for a few centuries. The tree seemed to be a font of wisdom and secrets, after all, and soon the Trell civilization came to be known for their wisdom and patience, to the point that other races actually came to them to help resolve disputes.

Secrets were also found beneath the Marrow Tree. Simply standing beneath the boughs, the Trells learned many things of the workings of the heavens, of the secret angers or desires of gods, of earthquakes yet to strike the world, or of magics none had ever dreamed of.

One such magic took the Trell people by storm: the magic of manipulating the plants of the world, of breathing life into a still vine or a lone tree. Grass could carry a whispered message and fungi could cure an ailment. They could also steal life away, draining the energy from a plant to leave it a husk, to turn a grass blade into a blade as sharp as any knife, or to have a vine strangle a fleshly mortal. However, these deeds were not even considered by the vast majority of Trells.

This magic art so well meshed with the Trell people that soon, they were inseparable, indistinguishable from one another. Any who knew of the Trell knew that they could make a forest walk away as easily as another creature wakes up in the morning.

5 points to Advance the Trells with Plant Charming.

4 points to Command the Trells to Ingrain Plant Charming.

4 point to Command the Saku Rasi to Form Alliance with the Demons.

Contingent on the Alliance being accepted this same round 1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to offer a Trade to Sanctuary: Navigation & Roads in exchange for Golden Magic & Rudimentary Medicine.

Current Power Points: 3-4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4272874/)

[Neelien]

rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4273458/) , bringing me up to 19

The Stringwork learns of the possible alliance between Saku Rasi and the Demons and begins setting up its next move:
For many years, the Outgoers wandered the World, seemingly aimlessly. The Stringwork's purpose was to gather information about existing technologies and try to see how those could be used.

Outgoer 11 went by the name of Kuroba Manui. It was travelling with a Saku Rasi group of merchants. It was not an easy task to prefectly emulate the Saku Rasi knowledge, but Outgoer 11 was the most experienced Outgoer in operation so the risk of discovery close to nonexistent. On one cycle, as the group was resting from a long week of sailing at Wetami, news spread that the Saku Rasi had extended an alliance to the Demons. There was a fair bit of excitement that night, but since the alliance was still unconfirmed, nothing particular happened.

A few cycles later, Outgoer 11 went to make its monthly report to the closest Small Proxy. As it approched the location, Strings converged and formed a massive dark blob. Kuroba Manui extended his hand and touched the blob. What followed would have been difficult to watch for any sane creature. Outgoer 11, with its experience could emulate even the organs of the creatures they took the shape of, so when Strings began detaching and reattaching from the Outgoer, the fake blood it accumulated to give itself more credibility poured over the exposed fake organs that in term would be separated into their component Strings and then reformed. While the process was unsightly, it was necessary, for each String held onto different pieces of information. Later, that cycle, after having recollected some blood, Kuroba Manui rejoined the group, as though nothing happened and the mission continued. The Stringwork always made sure that no-one would be watching as such things occured.

The Stringwork now knew that there might be a possibility for an alliance between the Saku Rasi and the Demons, but this was not the most interesting information. What was was the fact that the Saku Rasi were ready to exchange technologies with other species. Good things could come of this, but the Stringwork Needed a way to convice the Saku Rasi. For that it use Kuroba Manui but the process would take time.

The Ocarina of Fire survives travel through The Void:
The Void was a strange place where Nios experimented with the very laws of the world. Even time there was constantly distorting. Things that survived the journey could end up in different worlds or in the same world but many years later or earlier.

One of the first Items to survive the Journey through the void was the Ocarina of Fire. How it got there and what happened to it will forever remain a mystery, but what is known is that when it reappered many years later, it was not the item it had been before. The Void had altered its very nature, and when it would finally reappear, some of its properties would not be the same as when it was banished.

Strange flying creatures might be coming to Tyonix
At one time, as the Void's Laws changed once again, it connected to another world. Objects from that world were sucked into a portal and through some miracle became sentient. These creatures, when they exited the Void a few microseconds after being sucked into the portal, would became known as The Shadow Birds. There where two sorts of them. The first, the Owteb were wide and flew at high altitudes and could easily cross long distances without landing to eat and drink. The second, Owtfe were thin and flew at high speeds. Both creatures could change color to hide in their evironment, but the metal tips at the end of their wings would always stay the same.

Spend 1 point : Shape world - Create Race - ShadowBirds
18 points remaining
+1 next round

I think the way Omegon lays out his posts is cool and approppriate, so I'll be doing that as well from now on.

[Benthesquid]

Part The First

In which the Dead speak

Kir Rinsson was in the eleventh hour of his trance, dancing in the smoky tomb within the Necropolis of Amosehk. A single Adonian scribe had accompanied him. Kir Rinson's whirling grew ever faster, as he cried out in strange meaningless syllables. Suddenly, he collapsed to his knees, his forehead touching the floor, and his arms stretched out towards one of the three sarcophagi in this chamber.

The scribe turned her attention to the sarcophagus, and her breath caught in her throat. She had seen the ritual before, but the results never ceased to astonish her. Slowly, the vines of the Werblume man preserved in the honey-filled Sarcophagus began to unwrap from his limbs. Slowly, they raised themselves to the open top of the Sarcophagus, and levered the man up to a sitting position.

Honey ran down his dessicated form as he stared blindly about. In a dry and rasping voice, it spoke.


Road builders, plowers of the whale's way
Gift bringers- no blood of our blood
No kin of ours,
No dark selves

The scribe hastily scribbled down these words, and then whirled to see the Werblume woman entombed in another of the sarcophagi sitting up.


Willow bears no fruit
No Banana ever weeps
Judge only by what is.

Expectantly, the scribe turned to the remaining coffin. The corpse there entombed was so old that she could not guess at its sex.


Destroyer of the hunger of the bloodswans!
The Sleeper who Awakens!
The Queen of our Damnation!
The Breather of Locusts!

Abruptly Kir Rinsson drew in a shuddering breath, and the three corpses sank back into their honey-filled coffins. "Did they give an answer?" Rinsson asked, slowly climbing to his feet.

"I think so," said the scribe, glancing at her notes. "But there was something else..."

"One thing at a time," said Rinsson, taking a torch from a sconce on the wall, and handing another to the scribe. "The others will be waiting. Is it yea or nay to the alliance with the Vineless?"


Part the Second

In which an Answer is given, and an Unusual Gift presented

An honor guard from the Shorn Ones accompanied the Werblume contingent, marching in strict order, but with no weapons, and with their vines tightly coiled about them- a gesture of peaceful intent on the part of the Werblumes.

Six Werblumes from the Sehkian Society carried a large glass sarcophagus on their shoulders. Others pulled carts piled with barrels of mead, or drove the large mammals the Werblumes fed upon. The procession wound its way through the continent, more or less ignoring the Saku Rasi roads on the basis that they did not know where they led, until they found their way to Wetami.

Assembling in a square, the appointed spokesman stepped forward. "We of the Werblumes thank you for your gifts, and your offers of friendship. When first we saw you, we distrusted you, because you were like us, yet unalike." To drive his point home, he waggled the vines that grew from his head. "Yet you are more different from us than we first thought- and so it was unfair of us to judge you for the ways in which you differed, instead of judging you merely as what you were. We wish to make amends for that unfairness." He gestured, and the Werblumes behind him began unloading the carts and driving forward the animals. As each gift was brought forward, the spokesman named it.

"Mead, and the honey it is brewed from- many say the pinnacle of our civilization. A hundred head of our finest stock- most docile of nature, most savory of blood. A copy of the Sayings of Mauti Lifsdotter, the first Visionary of our people."

He paused. "And then, to return the kindness of your gifts, we have brought some of our own." He produced a small stoppered clay jar from his pouch. "The Mead of Poetry. Brewed according to instructions given by Haf Gertisson a full fifty years after his death. It is said that even this much will send the drinker into an ecstasy of divine madness for years on end. This is fully a third of all that has been brewed."

He gestured again, and the Werblumes bearing the coffin stepped forward and set it down, standing upright so that the preserved form of the Werblume inside was clearly visible. "This is Mun Hafsdotter, one of the great Visionaries of Adonia. May she guide you as well as she has guided us."

Roll=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4272963/) plus two banked makes twelve total.

Command Race: (Werblumes) Accept Alliance (Four Points)
Eight points left.

[ImperialSunligh]

In this time, Eknad focused much on the child of Mahav and Mam. While he lacked maturity, he was not starved for the wisdom of his mother. In some ways, at least. Some may say he was more logical than his mother, and less wise, probably a reflection of his father's brutality.

Eknad proved to be no more more compassionate of a father figure, though he was active to the point of obsession. He would constantly watch the child, whether he knew it or not, and put him through tests that would mold him into maturity.

For this time, however, he remained a child.

Meanwhile, Mam mostly watched and subtly guided the humans. The budding intellectual community in Sophei was reaching a cultural zenith, and with her influence, developed into a new tradition of poetry. Poets known as rhapsodists could blend and form such intensely powerful wordings that, when sung or read out well enough, had a quantifiable magical effect. This field of study quickly spread throughout the entire of human civilization, and rhapsodists of variable talent played on most every street corner of Figurae before too long. It became fashionable for the nobility to patronize rhapsodists, and there was no better place to work than on the rich streets of Figurae.

While most of these rhapsodists worked alone in service of their own needs or the needs of the community, some decided to dedicate their works to the gods of the pantheon. The Order of Eknad saw this development as an opportunity. They offered patronage fees far exceeding any nobles for rhapsodists to come under the militant gaze of the church, teaching them to meld their talents with divine, golden magic. They would work in the church granting their manifold blessings upon the humans and preaching stories of the gods and their struggles against the less benevolent gods, as well as of some unknown gods who appeared less hostile. Regrettably, there were no tales of a hope-giving force outside the human cities, no, only death, doom, and the dark unknown.

Some of these rhapsodists were soon made into capable warriors in the military. They were given fencing training, and learned to read divine texts in order to produce militant magic. These magics were in some ways more predictable to the caster, but often less potent than those of the other clergy.

An army of rhapsodists were sent to protect and enrich Sophei, as a gift for the vast breakthroughs the city made for human civilization.

Roll: 2d6+6=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4276629/)

Advance Civilization, Humans, Poetry, -5

Command Order, Order of Eknad, Create Army of Consecrated Rhapsodists, -4

Command Army of Consecrated Rhapsodists, defend Sophei.

Left: 5.

[Omegonthesane]

The Demons were at first uncertain how best to react to the sudden appearance of the Road Builders, who had managed to cross the sea all the way to Sanctuary itself; they had heard fables of these beings from drunken sailors and long-lost wanderers, but never thought that such tiny de-winged replicas of angels could exist. Fortunately they escaped the Wehrblume fear; though many demons looked much like Saku Rasi, between their greater stature, mighty wings, and oft-present bestial mutations, very few of them looked like eerie mockeries.

The Twelve Clans had essentially split into two factions over the whole matter. A smaller, xenophobic faction argued that these sudden newcomers were not to be trusted, that the flighted demons had no need of roads and could see from the sky just fine. A larger faction expressed markedly different views - flight was tiring and could not carry much, and therefore roads would be a great aid in the coming war with Destroyer's Peak, both to shuttle their own troops and carts, and to know which routes to watch if the Singers made the first move, while there was no need to reinvent the wheel when the original was offered.

Mastema, nearing the end of his natural lifespan, his body cracked and glowing from old wounds, initially tried to stay out of the argument - to respect the separation of military and civic matters. However, after many entreaties, he expressed a considered opinion that supported the larger camp, despite his clan being among the xenophobes. Though the slayer of Vroch had no formal authority, the news of his opinion on the matter swayed the leaders of two clans, one of them his own. Seven clans had not been able to overrule five, but nine could overrule three, and to some noises of dissatisfaction the alliance with the Road Builders was accepted.

Fort Liberty continued drumming up support for its main purpose, but the flood of demons was no longer forthcoming, and they were only able to raise a single Expeditionary Force. Perhaps, if the signs in the stars were to be trusted, and the priest-wizards could do a better job of thwarting Makhleb's aims, that might be enough.

Within Destroyer's Peak itself, of course, the Singers worked to ensure it was not. Their numbers swelled, and the Rainbow Scourge took upon two hundred new recruits, twenty-five in the colours of the White Segment, the remainder in the colours of the Blue. When this was done, and their training was completed, the Scourge officially separated into two armies; the now bloated, army-sized Blue Segment instead became the Blue Chorus, who expended their energies in trying to imitate the battle chorus of the Shou Tahs; they never gained its literal and direct power, but it did allow them to act in a more coordinated fashion than was typical for Singer armies in days of old. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Scourge was reduced to six colours, and now had two White Segments to train the armies yet to be raised.

While the new Chorus was raised and trained, the remainder of the Rainbow Scourge found a growing ire in their souls towards nearby Rivis, the city of the Idrians. These beings had worshipped Makhleb before even the Singers, yet now turned away from that path to burrow and hide in the earth. All this could arguably be forgiven, and certainly any punishment that it merited could wait for the Day of Wrath, but they yet possessed the Earthquake Drum, one of the instruments scattered in the fall of Eupnea. Even this was not so much a thing to be punished as merely a thing to be rectified - unlike the vile Shou Tahs, the Idrians had never dared to wield the instruments of Singers against them.

With all this in mind, once the Blue Chorus was able to stand watch, the Rainbow Scourge set out to perform their first act of purification. The Idrians were filled with fear at the sight of them, and though many fought back or in some way sought to retain their own agency, many more simply bowed their heads and succumbed. Indeed, the Rainbow Scourge were fearful after the first four or five villages they overwhelmed; for surely it was not possible that the Idrians were truly defenceless, and had no secret weapon with which to turn glorious victory into shameful defeat.

It was with utter perplexion that they discovered this was, in fact, the case. Rivis fought back, but not in any organised or sensible fashion; many of the resistance were permitted to live, for the time being. A puppet state was set up, in which the new Idrian lords would each be supervised by a Singer "advisor" who used telepathy to send news to Destroyer's Peak and receive demands from it; but the common citizens did not suffer anything like the horrors of Eupnea. It was hardly worth the effort to grind defenceless weaklings into the dust - and more importantly, the Rainbow Scourge were not all Red Screamers, to go far past the demands of normal cruelty in their wild excesses. While the broken bodies of the previous administration were once again set up high upon a stage, they had received the mercy of death before being made into ornaments, unlike the angels of Eupnea who had fought the occupation.

Rivis did, however, suffer significant damage to its less expensive buildings, as the champions of the eight segments could not resist testing the Earthquake Drum after finally acquiring it. More Idrians died in this heartless experiment than during the actual invasion, and countless more were wounded or lost their homes, but there was yet more left of Rivis than there had been of Eupnea - certainly enough to be glad when the Scourge finally disappeared over the horizon, returned to Destroyer's Peak with the Drum.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4276806/) points
Power rollover: 5 points
Total 16 points

4 points: Command Race (Demons) to Accept the alliance with the Saku Rasi
4 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) - Raise Army (Fort Liberty Expeditionary Force)
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) - Raise Army (Blue Chorus)
4 points: Command City (Sanctuary) to Accept the trade "Roads & Navigation" for "Golden Magic & Rudimentary Medicine".

0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Expeditionary Force) to Defend Fort Liberty for now.
0 points: Command Army (Blue Chorus) to Defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (Rainbow Scourge) to Attack Rivis, conquering it without resistance, and retrieving the Earthquake Drum.
0 points: Command Army (Rainbow Scourge) to Defend Destroyer's Peak. With the Earthquake Drum. This can only end well.

0 points left
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4277423/) bringing me up to 23. This round will be a pass for me I'm afraid.

Nothing of interest happened with either the Stringwork or the Void in the Last 500 years, as the Stringwork's plans met unexpected resistance (somehow things just didn't go its way). This experiment would require more time...

Pass:
23 points remaining
+2 next round

[Benthesquid]

Part the First:
In Which the Werblumes are Advanced in Overconfidence
For the Werblumes, this was a golden age. They had advanced in their arts beyond what they had dreamed in the first years of their existence. They were without enemies- the eerie vineless monsters they had feared proving eager friends and trading partners. Certainly, there were occasional ominous prophecies, speaking about the Sleeper Who Wakens and the Queen of Our Damnation, but these were put out of mind. After all, how could the Werblumes, the chosen people of their god, ever be damned?

Part the Second:
In Which a New Wonder is Built, and a New City is Founded
It was in this hopeful attitude, then, that the Werblumes set out to further their mastery of beekeeping, and the manipulation of swarm minds. In aid of this, a new Wonder was established. Called the Hive of Tanasehk, it was in fact a vast number of beehives spread across several meadows and hills some fifty miles south of Adonia. Normally such a large concentration of bees in one place would be impractical, but with careful management of the hives, and frequent tending of the soil to make it more fertile, these limits were stretched.

Hundreds of Werblume Bee-Grooms and Bee-Wives traveled to the Hive to train their skills in manipulating swarms. As they swapped and combined techniques, the sizes of swarms that a single Bee-Wife could control increased, and a few were even able to control multiple swarms at once.

What was more, it was discovered that the techniques had use beyond bees. When a swarm of locusts threatened to devastate the fields of flowers that fed the hives, a Bee-Groom by the name of Kil Lifsson was able to influence the pseudo-mind of the swarm, and turn it aside.

As had been the case with Heor, the Hive of Tanasehk attracted many beyond those who had real cause to be there. Many brewers came to trade for the excellent honey reputed to be produced there, others merely to witness the intricate patterns of swarming insects, and many to sell to all those who came for any reason whatsoever. Soon, the small village of Narcissa, located just a little ways south of the Hive, swelled to rival Adonia and Myrha.

Roll=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4278026/) plus eight banked makes twenty.
Command Race: Werblumes: Found City: Narcissa (Four points)
Command Race: Werblumes: Create Wonder: The Hive of Tanasehk
Total eight-
Twelve left

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4272874/)
Current Power Points: 17

There was much talk among the Road Builders as they received confirmation on the alliances that they had extended to the Werblumes and the Demons. There had been speculation on potential collaboration with other civilizations for generations. From ideas for cities of all peoples to educating the world in the ways of the Wandering Sakura. However, the most popular idea was of trading technologies back and forth among the races, to better the entire world (and, to certain, more selfish Saku Rasi, to place their civilization at the fulcrum, making themselves vital to the world, as providers of trade).

The Road Builders sent to Sanctuary had gone ahead and put forward the first suggested trade, but with the Werblumes, they were given more time, two entire generations in total, to acclimatize to the continued interactions with Saku Rasi, before a separate envoy was dispatched to them, with the intention of putting forward a new trade agreement. This one would be to suggest the trade of the knowledge of Necromancy and Visionary Trances, in exchange for Roads and Rudimentary Medicine.

This was an interesting notion some Saku Rasi had come up with, for as they learned some of the secrets of one race, they could then use that information as a product to trade for yet more information. If the trade agreement were to be accepted, it would mean an increased demand of medicines from the Demons, and naturally the Saku Rasi would have to build more roads in exchange.

Of course, the race was only just beginning to take their strides. In the meantime, the Road Builders made sure to include Roads in their side of every single trade they set forward.


***

The Black King was dead.

The entire population of Gerki was gathered at the edge of one of the ravines north of their city, where the corpse had been allowed to drift slowly into the abyss far below. The King's son, the knew Black King, stood before the gathered masses, taking his charge by taking them in. Usually this was all there was: an old King dropped into the ravine, and a new King found standing before his Tribe. However, today, the Black King chose to speak.

"You all know of the battle many years ago, the first true battle fought on land?" To this the gathered Shou Tahs nodded or spoke confirmation, a little confused by the suddenness of the question, but receptive just the same, "No you don't. The truth of that battle was hidden from most of you to this very day. You know that the Black King of the day had sent the army out in the hope of collecting a novelty, a city on the land, but when the single warrior returned, reporting victory, he did not go forth to collect his prize. Why did he not do this? I tell you, it's because we were not victorious!"

Shock, and then angry outbursts came from the crowd at this declaration, but the King pressed on, louder, "TELL ME, THEN! Where is the King's Army that was sent to do the deed!? It was consumed by cowardice! I say to you all, this was a King's Army, a force that never loses more than a single Shou Tahs in a battle with another army beneath the sea. Yet upon the land, fourteen of their number fell! Sure, perhaps the land army fell as well, but this was something never before conceived, and the Black King was so daunted by what had become of his army, that he DID NOT HAVE THE COURAGE TO GO OUT AND FINISH THE JOB!"

The crowd was roaring now, tempestuous currents whipping around from their voices. Most were in outrage at this information, while some simply were denying it. Still, the King spoke, ever louder, "THIS SECRET WAS PASSED DOWN FROM ONE KING TO THE NEXT, AND EACH TIME AS A TALE OF CAUTION! I SAY THIS IS A TALE OF OUTRAGE. I AN ASHAMED OF MY ANCESTORS FOR LETTING THIS OFFENSE GO UNPUNISHED ALL THESE YEARS! THESE LAND CREATURES MIGHT BE GREAT FOES, BUT THEY WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO DEFEAT AN ARMY OF OUR TRIBE WITHOUT RECOMPENSE!"

He had the crowd now, all rallied with him, and he kept on, laying out a plan, "WE WILL TAKE THE LAND, TEN ARMIES STRONG. EACH ARMY THAT DAY WILL BE TEN TIMES AS STRONG AS THE ARMY OF MY ANCESTOR'S DAY, AND WE WILL ERADICATE THEIR PUNY CITY AND ALL WHO LIVE WITHIN IT. NOW GO FORTH, AND BEGIN THE WORK OF AVENGING OUR FALLEN BROTHERS!"

The Black Tribe went out from there, experimenting with new strategies in combat that same day. Most tried variations on War Songs or Pugilism, to try and reinvent the wheel, as it were. Though, a few tried knew ideas, such as fashioning crude weapons, but these did not operate well underwater, and were thus discarded as a bad idea. Others attempted to break creatures to their will, to fight for them, but that task was a difficult one, and required patience the Shou Tahs did not have. Still others simply tried to place themselves in the best positions possible in combat, or to move faster than their opponent could strike. It took many tries, but soon the Black Tribe was out in the ocean, proving themselves superior foes by out maneuvering any other Shou Tahs army. Of course, being terrible secret-keepers, soon the entire race knew the secrets of the art, as it had been with the other secrets of the Shou Tahs before them.

A new King's Army was raised in these years as well, however it would not be enough to achieve the Black King's dream within his lifetime, or his sons lifetime, for that matter. Instead, it would go on to become a longterm goal of the people.


***

Far away, in the peaceful city of the White Tribe, Ikilim, they had a longterm goal as well.

It was difficult to build structures underwater, were constant currents and falling objects from above would eventually result in the destruction of a building, and thus most Shou Tahs structures were piles of stone and bone shaped into a hovel. Some, especially those in Eramine, would Use more clever devices, like growing coral into the shape of a home. However, in the centuries since their founding, Ikilim had found dozens of methods to counteracting this instability, and to build more complete structures as a result. They would take certain oils and materials from certain fish to volcanic vents, and melt them together into a pale paste, which they would then transport back to Ikilim before it cooled, and use it as those on the land above would use plaster or mortar, for once it cooler it would be almost like stone, sealing up cracks in buildings. They would also use kelp strands and whale bone to craft simple tools to craft stone into cleaner slabs, so that edges would fit more neatly together.

If Shou Tahs visited Ikilim, they might have even compared it to the beauty of Eramine. Of course, Ikilim was a secret, and other Shou Tahs believed the White Tribe to be extinct. In fact, the only reason the Ikilim Shou Tahs retained their knowledge of recent developments, such as the art of maneuvering, was because they sent spies out to glimpse battles between armies far away. Of course, this was how the Ikilim liked it, being a secret and all, because it meant they could spend their time on their project.

Their project, ironically, was something that might jeopardize their secrecy, at least to non-Shou Tahs. Shou Tahs did not swim these waters, after all, and could not see anything the Ikilim made.

What they were making, however, was a tower, a dream of a Shou Tahs named Sulikhan Sulikhanesu. It started half a kilometer wide at the base, but was very delicate, made of bone and volcanic plaster. About a kilometer up, these stilts came together, into a lattice of coral and bone, much thinner than the foundation, and much more lightweight. This sponge was two kilometers tall, but above it, in the last kilometer before the surface, it all came together, into a ten meter wide spire which extended a full hundred meters above the sea's surface, with a room at the top made to allow a Shou Tahs to sit there, shining brilliant white, a light in a lighthouse.

This lighthouse took a hundred years to complete, and even when the structure was erect, it was unstable, and so kilometers of kelp strands had to the cultivated and strengthened via esoteric uses of the War Song, to make wires which were then fashioned to the sides of the lighthouse, and then again to the ocean floor, some kilometers away, holding the entire structure to the sea floor.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to offer a Trade to the Demon's city Sanctuary: Navigation & Roads in exchange for Golden Magic & Rudimentary Medicine.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Wetami to offer a Trade to the Werblume's city Myrha: Roads & Rudimentary Medicine for Visionary Trances & Necromancy.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Ikilim to Construct the Lighthouse of Sulikhan.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Gerki to Raise a new King's Army.

5 points to Advance the Shou Tahs with Combat Maneuverability.

4 points to Ingrain Sangromancy into the Kraith. (No mention of it above. Just needed to do it.)


Map
http://i41.tinypic.com/16jqw4h.png

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4277971/)

[ImperialSunligh]

As was typical of the Order of Eknad, another expansion of the military was conducted, incorporating further rhapsodists, who were sent to defend Figurae, the most valuable gem of the gods in all of Tyonix.

Meanwhile, Eknad spoke unto the current, most prideful, King of Axon and his court. He gave them an order, to go deep into Goldheim, the largest gold mine in Eknad's Bosom, and follow the light of the Sun within. But this was a quest given to the king alone. Eknad forbade all others from going.

King Axon II laughed at this. The mines were controlled, and so he believed that he had nothing to fear. He even questioned Eknad as to why he should waste his time when the forces of evil surrounded humanity, waiting to be culled.

Eknad gave him only his deathly silence. Axon II had to go, of course, his court heard the order of Eknad, and there is no telling what they would do to him if he were to disobey the direct order of the gods, especially Eknad. So he went down the shaft of the mine, sword in tow so that he could fight any savage beast Eknad may have set for him. He did not know that violence would do him no good.

Finally reaching solid ground, Axon II expected to see the sunlight Eknad spoke of after going this far, but he saw nothing except the glow of the empty torches lining the walls.

It was at this time that he heard a great cracking. The ground gave way and he fell, he knew not how far, but it felt like eons. Somehow, he was not physically harmed when he hit the ground, but he wished he was, upon seeing where he now found himself. Axon II was in a small, enclosed cave, barely large enough to hold him. He looked up and to his horror, the stone closed behind him, leaving him completely trapped and barely able to breathe. Soon, he knew, or thought he knew, he would run out of breath and die.

At first, he cursed Eknad, demanding that he free him. He was given no such favour from the gods. No, he was forced into solitude for his grievous insults, with only his guilt and desperation for company.

After a long time, long past when he should have died, the mortal king realized his mistakes and prostrated himself before Eknad's image carved with his bloody nails into the cold stone. The void seemed to smirk and from it emanated sunlight and a hint of red flame.

"King of fools who is not worthy to shine the feet of the gods," shouted Eknad to Axon II, "you will be the one to wield my new weapon. Its dark nature will cast fear and disgust upon you, yet you will spread my true love with it."

And from the void came screeching against the stone, a sharp, bony length, tip first. The wand grazed the king's shoulder, yet another penance for his deed, and impaled itself in the wall behind him.

Taking the strange implement and examining it, Axon II could see clearly that it was magical, not of the sort of the golden magic, nor that of the rhapsodists, no, it had an entropic weight to it that leeched at the wielder's soul, causing fatigue. Clearly it was a dark implement. And yet, even Axon II, fool that he was, could see that the wand could not be used to kill or harm. No, it could only heal.

"That is my gift to you, human king, the wand of death. With it, you shall no longer sit idly in your chambers, no, you and your descendants shall lead your armies in the defence of humanity, your pain serving as the cost for your people's well-being. And if you decide that you will question the gods again, let us say that you will not appreciate the result."

Axon II, now knowing his destiny in this world, took the wand in hand and waved it at the stone above, which was returned to its previous state. He found himself swept back to the entrance of the cave by a divine force. He left, a new man. He would wield the wand of death. Not that the gods would give him much choice.

Roll: 2d6+5=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279238/)

Command Order, Order of Eknad, Create 2nd Army of Rhapsodists, -3
Command 2nd Army of Rhapsodists, defend Eupnea.

Command Humans, Create Wonder, The Wand of Death, -4

Left: 4

[Omegonthesane]

For several years the Fort Liberty Expeditionary Force made their way through the White Mountains, flying from cover to cover, mostly unopposed by the wildlife and occasional hermits beneath. Due to needing to hunt and plan, it took them a long while of repeated flights before their destination was reached, before Destroyer's Peak stood before them, its edges carved and pockmarked by the scars from destructive spells. For ten miles around a killing ground had been made, a distance the demons could not hope to cross in a single advance.

So cross it in a single advance they did not. The demons were well aware that Singers marched in tiny armies, and would likely not expect their own kin to feel such a large force was needed; in addition, Eighth Company had, by some cruel twist of fate, happened to recruit only followers of Makhleb, who inherently could not be fully trusted in the battle against that dread god's firstborn. Therefore, when night fell it was Eighth Company who soared from the skies, flitting from hill to hill and avoiding volleys of iron shots and bolts of lightning and explosions that rocked the sky. Under such lighting, even the Singers could not aim fast enough to reliably strike home. Sadly, they did not have to; their Telepaths knew no such limits, and had learned more subtle ways of applying their art when the Shou Tahs invaded. The company's entire Lead Squad went berserk, convinced that their own fellow warriors had been flying Singers in disguise, and Eighth Company tore itself to pieces in the sky.

Fortunately, this was mostly according to plan - the distraction had both eliminated a questionable element, and given those more trustworthy sufficient time to close much of the distance in repeated low altitude trips. The remaining eleven companies found themselves in a set of haphazard stone buildings surrounding the mountain proper, and heard screaming in many strange voices from closer to the Peak. With some urgency, they ran through the desolate streets, not thinking to ask how the city - such as it was - would have emptied its streets so quickly.

The demons found themselves in a plaza, where perhaps ten or twelve innocents had been tied to great wheels, and were being worked upon by a segment of the Blue Chorus. This maneuver was cruel, but also futile; lay-sorcerers to the last, the Fort Liberty soldiers simply applied the same dark magic of the Singers to kill its own fuel. Wounds appeared over the throats of the sacrifices, who died messy but merciful deaths, and ceased to provide power for the dark deeds of the Blue Chorus.

Of course, while the altars had failed as altars, they had worked just fine as bait, and the Expeditionary Force found themselves surrounded by the Chorus. One by one they fell to bolts of lightning, or balls of fire, or architecture suddenly exploding and spraying them with shrapnel, or other such destructive things, yet they held their ground. Indeed, to take flight would put them right in the path of the Singer annihilators.

Taking flight was also their only hope of cohesion once the drumbeat began, and the earth shook. While Singers had enough appendages to mostly remain intact in an earthquake, Demons were humanoid and had no such defence, and had to take to the sky, making themselves more visible targets in the light of the fires now starting. More visible, but harder to strike once seen at the very least, for it was not quite so dark that the demons could not swoop and twist this way and that to avoid the destructive bolts if they so desired. Many did not, of course, instead choosing to launch arrows at the Singers and trust to their golden magic to protect them from the worst of the onslaught.

However, though their wings made the task far easier than it was for most races, demon flight was ultimately a thing of magic. Without access to their dark traditions, the Expeditionary Force could not stay airborne for too long, and seeing this, many accepted their probable fates in melee combat against stronger and more resilient - though less skilful - fighters.

The bitter street fighting lasted for days, and the Earthquake Drum was brought back into the Peak's walls for safe keeping, but eventually - at great cost - the Expeditionary Force was driven out and decimated, with not a single squad intact, every Champion dead, and not enough survivors accounted for to make a full company. Hundreds of slaves had been freed from that city of horrors, Idrians, Fari, Humans, Fairies, Elves, even the odd Angel or Demon. More damningly, many warriors had died in the chaos - only thirty-two of the Blue Chorus lived to tell the tale of that week, and only twenty-five of them returned to Destroyer's Peak to report the dire news and rejoin the Rainbow Scourge.

The remaining seven... they were possessed by an even more hopeless urge.

The Sanctuary Stones had never posed a serious threat to the Singer menace, but their very existence was something of an insult to the ancient destroyers. The idea that there was anywhere that the impure could hide in safety was, to most Singers, as anathema as the idea that they could ever fall in battle had been before the Shou Tahs attacked. Yet they had done little and less in recent ages, and some dared think them a myth. At the start of their journey, seven Blue Chorus deserters were among the latter group, and believed they had thought of an easy way to regain their lost pride in the eyes of their superstitious kin.

One of the seven crossed the world, cowering like a thief in the night from every shadow and every hoofbeat. It inevitably left a trail of partially disintegrated objects in its wake, as it could not starve to death, but it tried to eat as rarely as possible so that its task would be done before the tracks were fully followed. It had the misfortune to be spotted by Imps as it passed Imptopia... or rather, a team of Imps had the misfortune to spot and then pick upon a Singer without taking proper precautions, and all but one of them were torn to pieces by mighty tendrils or blown to bits with destructive spells. Yet when the object of its quest stood before it, instead of aiming and firing a destructive spell, the Singer coiled its tendrils and prostrated itself before its new master. Few normal Singers could have retained any part of themselves while in the presence of a stone which forbade violence, and fewer warriors still; none of the seven had either a strong goal to cling to or the degree of hatred needed to power through the stones' effects.

Six other journeys were made, some easier than others - a hike to a particular White Mountain being by far the easiest. Two questers scurried furtively through the demonic territories, one remaining behind when it reached a particular Troud, the other only being sighted as it swam from the beaches of Sanctuary itself to the Black Pillars. One took another route, skulking past older enemies of the Singers in Figurae, Eknad's Bosom, and Eupnea, before finally crossing the Unmappable Archipelago to enter the First Land. One made a similarly long march to the very first, though ending in a different small cave, and not passing any particular civilisation. The last approached the most blasphemous of the Sanctuary Stones, and both fought and fled from the strange, shadow-bending nightmare creatures that surely guarded its prey, before descending into the very crater of the Pure Land's volcano.

These journeys all ended the same way - not one of the seven had the correct aspects to even retain their sense of self in the face of a Sanctuary Stone. They made what they could of their new role, each attempting to make dyes with the surrounding life forms to cross out the runes of military service, and if possible, to make at least their central hubs a similar shade to the stone they served.

Had the Demons followed through, and struck the Peak again, that might have been the end of the war. But to do so would require them to mobilise armies that were strictly defensive. Many of the escaped slaves from that battle followed the few survivors of the Expeditionary Force, and a great deal of effort was spent seeing that they returned home again - effort that could have been spent raising a second force of Liberators, and was not.

For its part, Destroyer's Peak once again fell into fractious infighting. With the Blue Chorus defeated, many began to question the wisdom of the Rainbow Scourge experiment, and the loudest of these had to be brutally silenced. It was not a state in which a new military could be raised.

Thus, for a quarter-century - enough time for a newborn human to become mother or father to its own newborn humans - the two civilisations found themselves in an uneasy peace, neither party willing to provoke the other further until they could better prepare.

The Elves, in their strange, abusive love of Life, often found themselves lamenting the death of a new plaything or an old friend to particularly dangerous experiences. Indeed, founded in excess and decadence as it was, they felt it a tragedy when any being that had not first cried out for death had to suffer it. Various bands of elvish scavengers had by this time looted the many corpses of demonic soldiers left in the battles of Spider's Grave and Destroyer's Peak, and thereby discovered that wonderful things happened when they hit eachother with gold, but they had no means of controlling which wonderful things happened, a fact which irked them greatly.

Their nature being innately sorcerous, it was inevitable that the Elves would master a magical tradition eventually. Soon, the elves became synonymous with healing powers, for every one of them learned spells at their mother's knee that would reknit flesh and repair mortal wounds. It was even said that with these spells they could bring the dead back to life - a rumour which was not without truth, as their sorcery could heal a person whose heart and breath had stopped. If they were very quick about it, this resurrection was entirely effective; however, even ten minutes of delay and the resurrected person would forget important things, their mother's name, their homeland, how to walk. The elves theorised that this happened when part of the dead person's soul had already departed, and was cut off from the rest when the body rose up again.

Cruel as they were, the elves actively sought the least missable peoples of other societies - condemned criminals, orphans, demented ancients, those about to die of disease anyway - and sought to see how much of a person's soul could have departed a body without denying their arts. These experiments were as disturbing in their results as in their nature, as the most borderline successes apparently came back with no memory of their past life, as if they were blank slates.

Millennia of worship by beings other than the Singers had left a subtle, yet profound mark upon Makhleb - it was this mark that had stayed its hand, when first it realised that one set of its children sought to murder the other. It had, at some level, at last realised the folly of utter destruction as a day to day lifestyle or as a standard by which all else should be measured; if absolutely nothing else, it necessitated something to destroy, and in any case it was suffering that was needed to see through the world's falsehoods.

This change had been reflected in the Singers of the Plane of Thunder, in their strange and varied creative urges that created the many wonders of that plane; in imitation of the Belltower of Life, a new and mighty structure grew, a spherical fortress inside which those Singers who did not wish to fight could practise their artifices in relative safety, creating whatever their dreams drove them to. This place was known to its people as the Dreamforge, and from the very day of its creation, prophets in Tyonix who were not consciously aware of it began to have cryptic visions of the day when it would come to their world.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4278626/) points
Power rollover: 0(!) points
Total 13 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Elves) - Regenerative Magic
4 points: Command Race (Elves) - Ingrain Technology (Regenerative Magic)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) - Command Race (Singers) - Found City (Dreamforge)

0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Expeditionary Force) to Attack Destroyer's Peak, provoking the Blue Chorus!
Battle resolved in OOC thread - Draw! Both FLEF and Blue Chorus destroyed. (Yes, I know I originally rolled for the Rainbow Scourge, but their plusses are identical and the Rainbow really is meant to be the last-resort defence and police force.)

3 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4277971/)
Current Power Points: 11

Imptopia was flourish. Or at least moving forward, which could be argued to be the same thing, considering it was less a city and more a collection of every sort of villain the Imp race could produce. The police force, the Prank Overseers, were corrupt to the core, and while they did keep a modicum of organization and peace among the hovels of Imptopia most days, they would also occasionally allow chaos to rein for a week or two, sometimes even causing the chaos. Meanwhile, the civilians were developing a kind of economy, with hunters and bug collectors peddling meals, magic adepts peddling fortunes and charms, even a few tailors peddling outfits. While most practiced unfair business practices, they did keep a degree of respectability among each other, as they would always sell products worth selling.

Con artists on the other hand, they would trick their fellow Imps into purchasing fake charms, wood painted to look like meat, or clothing that was actually just rags. These crooks were hated among the Imp people. There were also thieves among the Imps, who would take whatever they could get their hands on, simply so they would not have to put further effort into their lives.

Now, as con artists continued on longer and longer, they began to earn reputations, and as such it became more difficult for them to continue their practice. Thus, it came to be that true con artists were adept at disguises and assuming fake personalities, so they wouldn't be recognized.

As the thieves grew also in number, eventually protectors arose, earning a part of a merchants profit in exchange for fending off thieves. In turn, even thieves had to grow skilled at what they did, sneaking past protectors with the utmost silence, snatching what they sought, and then vanishing again. Some former thieves simply gave up when hunting for oneself became easier than stealing food, but many were too stubborn and foolish for that, and would obstinately become skilled theives.

The steady increase in stealthy theives and tricky con artists eventually drew the attention of a few Prank Overseers, who careful sought out some of the most skilled thieves and con artists to bribe them into teaching others their ways. This in turn led the first infiltrator squad to rise up in the ranks of the Prank Overseers. Disguised as common civilians, they would gather information in the street or carefully assassinate a problematic Imp. The Prank Overseers were now more than capable of finding and dispatching thieves and con artists, so, as this came to be well known, it became a common practice for thieves and con artists to bribe the overseers for continued prosperity.

Thus, the city of Imptopia had moved forward, becoming ever more villainous and cutthroat.


***

Very few set foot upon the Pure Land, except for the few Singers who came seeking more Thunder Birds for their Berserker Brew, and the occasional Saku Rasi trader looking for some rare treasure to trade to the Demons or the Werblumes or the Maimec, and only a small subsection of these few went all the way into the rough mountains of this land. As such, there were hardly any sapient creatures who had ever seen a Kraith, and even fewer who had lived to speak of it. Thus, they were considered to be legends; a kind of plagued creature cloaked in blood, impossibly fast, and able to control blood with some eldritch magic.

Meanwhile, the Kraith, cloaked in this secrecy, had begun to spread out from Khral. They weren't making a new city or anything, not yet, nor were they really ready to colonize the Pure Land, but they were spreading out just the same, creating blood-drenched hovels high in the stony mountains, and practicing their magic.

Their magic had evolved, and they were becoming adept at it. They had found ways of manipulating shadows, fire, and even the mind itself. A few skilled Kraith could illicit paranoia and dread in an average mind. Others could spark fires from miles away, flushing entire herds of their prey into their path. A good few Kraith could even wrap themselves in shadows and remain hidden under even the most difficult circumstances.

Most of these magics were still in their infant stages, but the Shadowcraft had grown strong and well developed, allowing Kraith to create weapons out of solidified shadow stuff as they had once made items out of blood, or to summon up creatures made of darkness. They could shroud themselves in shadow, or fool the entire region into remaining as dark as midnight, despite the sun glowing dimly at it's noon apex. Now, Blood Magic and Shadow Magic had their overlap, as they both would be used primarily in aggression, and both resulted in items of magical composition as their primary function, but they differed in some key ways. Blood items were heavier, denser, and more difficult to break, thus being better suited to hammers, cleavers, and armor. Shadow items were impossibly lightweight, frail, and very sharp, thus better suited for cloaks, daggers, and scythes. Blood Magic also primarily affected the biology of creatures, while Shadow Magic affected the world and the atmosphere. The Kraith would always prefer their Blood Magic, as it was closer to their nature, but now, with Shadow Magic, they were becoming even more deadly than they had been before.

They weren't very advanced outside their arcane arts, though, still primitive, living in caves and surviving only on the blood of what they could slaughter, but in their arts, they were extremely adept. Kraith "scholars" would wander about stark naked, but with scars all over their bodies in the shape of runes which would help in their magic. Magic which would allow them to tear down entire groups of normal Kraith, with only a few simple spells.


***

Under the sea, Rou, the oldest and largest Shou Tahs city by a fair margin, was growing restless. The Gerki Shou Tahs were growing more bold each day, with multiple armies on par with the Rou Army of Kings. Some of the Red Tribe was growing fearful, while others were growing angry. How could the detestable Black Tribe possess a military force greater than mighty Rou?

A new army had to be raised, however, a second Army of Kings could not be, for that would have jeopardized the rule of the true Kings. They would need to find a new route instead…

Eventually, the Army of Kings reached a decision, and groups of fifteen, all potential successors to the title of "Army of Kings" were assembled. To them, they put forward a notion, offered them a new position. They could become an official Army of Rou, but not one of Kings. They would never be allowed to take the position of Army of Kings, but could also never be overthrown from this position except by an Army from an opposing Tribe.

Almost all groups scoffed and declined the offer. They intended to be the next Army of Kings for Rou, after all. Why would they accept a role which would eternally prevent them from achieving that goal? However, one group seemed intrigued, and hesitantly agreed. Some, specifically two other groups of fifteen, mocked them for it, but they were quickly silenced in traditional Shou Tahs fashion: brutal freeform combat.

When the volunteers emerged victorious without losing a single member against thirty other Shou Tahs, the Army of Kings knew they had found the group they needed, and on the spot, christened them the "Army of Princes".

5 points to Advance the Imps with Infiltration.

5 points to Advance the Kraith with Noctimancy.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Rou to raise it's first Army of Princes.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279400/)

[Neelien]

Rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279922/) bringing me up to 29... gee talk about bad rolls

The ShadowBirds bring a stange device along.
It would still be some time until the ShadowBirds flew around Tyonix. From their original world, where they were inanimate, they brought multiple objects. One of those was a powerfull tool that could preform complex mathematical operations. Such a tool, millenia ahead of its time, could prove a great asset if utilized correctly.

When the ShadowBirds became self-aware, they realized this powerful artefact was "in their hands". The 3 meter wide birds still had fragments of memory from their previous world, as they were complex machines that could store information, and from that they managed to somehow gather information of how to use this artefact.

The Stringwork waits
As time passed, there was still no solution for making Kuroba Manui into a respected personality in the Saku Rasi communities. A new approach was necessary. In the last millenia, the Stringwork had succeeded in making a Kuroba a very successful merchant, but that appeared not be sufficient. Kuroba would have to bring something new, something for which he would be remembered. That would be difficult. The Saku Rasi were navigators and merchants, and they had most of the world's resources available to them and even if a merchant family was more successful than most, this wouldn't make it extremely outstanding.

In the many years of Kuroba's existence, he had learnt of roads, navigation, trade and to some degree shipbuilding, but his experience was insufficient. He would need to become a widely known personality to be able to access the highest ranked teachers of the arts, and effectively spread the knowledge to the Stringwork. He had not yet resorted to use backhanded tactics to obtain the knowledge, but if there was no other choice, he would eventually have to.

Meanwhile the Agglomerations were thinking. What could possibly allow Kuroba to become well known? Some Agglomerations suggested creating a new material that only Kuroba could sell. Others though that Kuroba should provide a new form of service, and a few suggested destroying the Saku Rasi economies and make Kuroba be a hero. While each side pondered the details of their proposition, the next 500 years passed uneventfully.

Crunch

spend 1 point: Shape World - command race (ShadowBirds)- Create Wonder - Graphical Calculator (This is a single item, not a series of items)

28 points remaining
+3 next turn

[Benthesquid]

Roll=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279966/) plus twelve banked equals twenty-two.
Command City: (Myrha) Make Counter-Proposal: Roads and Shipbuilding in exchange for Visionary Trances, Necromancy, and Brewing

Banking eighteen

There was a great deal of discussion among the Visionaries of Myrha about the Saku Rasi offer. They were eager to cement ties with their new allies, but in the end it was decided to push for a slightly different offer. Instead of the Rudimentary Medicine offered, the Werblumes of Myrha wished to obtain the secrets of the ocean going ships, which had greatly impressed the Werblumes from the first time they had encountered the vineless race. In order to sweeten the pot, they offered to share the secrets of their advanced brewing techniques.

[ImperialSunligh]

The human nobility in Figurae continued to increase in power, having a vast presence in society. In collaboration with the merchant classes, the greedy nobles worked to find ways to become even more rich. Thus a science of economics was created, with many putting their lives into finding greater economic efficiency.

Meanwhile, the great scholars of Sophei added their expertise to the field of metallurgy, making the humans known throughout the land as the greatest workers of metal, creating blades, armor and implements that some would call divine. There is little truth to these rumors, however. The quality of human metal was the product of intense study and practice.

The military of the Order of Eknad continued to grow as it always had, adding another force of rhapsodists to its ranks, who were made to guard Figurae.

Roll: 2d6+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4281579/)

Advance Civilization, Humans, "Economics", -5
Command Race, Humans, Ingrain Technology, Metallurgy, -4
Command Order, Order of Eknad, Form 3rd army of Rhapsodists, -3
Command 3rd Army of Rhapsodists, defend Figurae.

Left: 1

[Omegonthesane]

Though the Rainbow Scourge had been able to retain a semblance of order within Destroyer's Peak despite all the pressures, there was no denying that their war machine was falling behind. Had they continued this way, pressures might have built which would have resulted in them forming a more coherent and formal culture, the kind that might have led them to leave more recognisable wonders.

Instead, they travelled to the opposite pole of the world, hunting down ancient scrolls of the sorceries of Ashatorat. These had been Suri spells, and worked with Suri magic; ultimately, the attempt to replicate the Art of Twist was utterly unsuccessful. However, it inspired some of the Singer sages to instead dredge out the scrolls of their most ancient legends, of the days of the Garden of Flies, and the opening of the gate which brought them to Tyonix. With these scrolls, they were able to derive a far weaker, far paler, but far more practical imitation of the two great portals that Makhleb had opened from their home plane. These portals were not at first practical for long-distance travel, as they could not be opened further away than the eye (or eye-analogue) of the caster could see (or "see"). However, that was plenty long enough for military applications.

With the Singers, "as below, so above" had ever been the law; the Singers of the Dreamforge soon learned the ways of Portal Magic just like their cousins in Tyonix, and used it to travel the rather smaller Plane of Thunder in a single groundside day.

Portals could not be used to directly harm one's enemies, so they did not inspire a new and profoundly different army like previous technologies had. In any case, the Rainbow Scourge was carefully regulating what new armies would be permitted to rise, and the shamed Blue Segment was unlikely to become a full-blown Chorus again any time soon. Instead, faced with the stark prospect of utter destruction by at least three hostile powers, the Scourge chose to resurrect the most terrible of the Singer armies. The new Red Screamers kept the runes that all the segments of the Rainbow Scourge were intended to have, but also wore the same devices of self-torment that the old Red Screamers had favoured; for as the old Screamers had been mad even for Singers, those who sought to imitate them were mad even for Singers.

Fort Liberty had always intended to continue along a warlike and destructive path, and when the influx of slaves were sent to their homes, they were able to do this. A new Expeditionary Force was raised, however many had shared the opinion that its formal name was a right mouthful and impractical for the historians. Therefore the 2nd Fort Liberty Expeditionary Force, in light of how exactly the 1st had been destroyed, gained the appelation of "Liberators" and were remembered by this name.

The 2nd Liberators were almost ready to mobilise when the drumbeats were heard. To see the Yellow Segment of the Rainbow Scourge so close to Fort Liberty was worrying; to see them openly marching instead of skulking through the night was surprising; but to see them flying the flag of parlay was utterly unthinkable.

As two squads of the Garrison approached, they were somewhat worried to see the Singers' fellow travellers, a band of Demons in chains, their wings held closed with metal rings. However, they were clearly well fed, clothed, and shod. A strange day this, indeed.

"You have fought well, and cost us greatly. We bring you a gift, infants of Fort Liberty," said the lead sorcerer of the Yellow Segment. "These infants have known our chains, but in our mercy we have refrained from showing them our arts. We return them to you, to show that we act in good faith."

With that, the chained demons walked forwards, into the ranks of the welcoming party. Some wept as they recognised family, alive and physically unharmed, about as well as any person who had travelled to Destroyer's Peak could be. Two of them carried a small wooden box, and made a point of presenting it to the two Squad Champions.

"Open the box. It contains our message in writing," said the Yellow Lead Sorcerer. "If this was a deception, you would already know it. Our name is black enough with our great acts; we would not blacken it further with secrets and lies."

Inside the box was indeed no trap, but a message. The champions who read it worried smoewhat at the strange texture of the paper used, but it all seemed to make sense.

While you squabble with your elders and betters, your cousins down south have built an army worthy of Makhleb's name. We feel that they are the greater threat, and will not strike at you until it is pacified. We feel that you would be wise to reciprocate.

"You misunderstand our purpose, Singer," warned the squad champion who was first to read. "This war began so that we might put your evils to an end, not out of any fear of the threat you posed. Fear will not bend our knees. Not even if you summon the gods themselves to fight for you."

"Then let fear put our evils to an end," said the sorcerer. "I am confident the Rainbow Scourge will see the necessity of compromising with others. It's what we were formed to do, after all."

Over the following twenty-five years, the Liberators not only saw no war, but saw less cause for war - the remains and trappings of those who had died in Destroyer's Peak were returned to their homes for memorial services, and though the Singers did not completely stop taking slaves, they stopped capturing Demons, and those they did capture were treated far better than in any past age, having no worse a life than the underclasses of other cities.

Singers had always had an affinity with music, despite the mockery of song inherent in their name. The Dreamforge capitalised on this, creating a school of musical instruction that encouraged the other Plane of Thunder Singers to come, learn, and think their way.

Singers being Singers, many of the songs composed here were not merely haunting chants, but force multipliers for mighty spells of destruction; if an entire cabal of sorcerers sang the same song while casting, their flows of magical power would be better coordinated, amplifying the effects of whatever they were casting. This effect scaled with the number of sorcerers far faster than the simple fact of them all casting the same spell.

By rendering cooperation into a required part of the most efficient form of destruction, this act provided the last bit of pressure that at last caused civilian Singers of the Plane of Thunder to form a society. This mostly consisted in pseudo-famiily groups of Cabals, twenty-five or so strong, who traded knowledge with other Cabals, provided mutual protection, and were forbidden from slaughtering their own members.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4281294/) points
Power rollover: 3 points
Total 14 points

5 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) with Portal Magic
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (Red Screamers)
4 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Raise Army (2nd Liberators)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (Hall of Composers)

0 points remain
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[5a Violista]

25 + 2d6=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4282373/) + 3 (Cults) + 0 (Chaos) = 33

After many millennia had passed, Beauty and Life returned to the world. During her absence, many rumors have spread along the face of Tyonix. Among her cult with the Singers, it was said she spent some time with Makhleb. The Maimec believed she descended below Tyonix to a world of perfect beauty. The truth of what happened is only known by the gods above."
- Found on a nondescript ancient scroll


Hope was, for a fairy, pretty small. Everything about her would make one think of the Cion flower: tiny, red, and very much full of heart. Even though she was much weaker than many of the other fairies, she was exceptionally good at Abjuration Magic - moreso than most. Her small size was probably why she loved hanging around the demons who would come and go through the forest once in a while.

"Don't you ever get tired of being so big?" she asks one of the demons who passed through frequently. The demon smiled and shook his head - a fairy's naivety and happiness is fairly contagious, even when things seem dark. "You know, your great-great-grandmother asked me the exact same thing. The answer's still the same: no, I don't."

Hope landed on the demon's head and asked her next question. "Then why are you so big?" Once again, he laughed. "To protect things, I suppose."

Hope then flew away and thought nothing more of it...until later that evening. She saw the most beautiful fairy by a growing tree. The beautiful fairy was singing something in some forgotten tongue, but it sounded so nice and soothing. Hope flew towards this fairy. Hope couldn't understand the words, but she understood what they meant.

Hope immediately left the scene, to tell all the other fairies what she understood. She revived the knowledge of Beauty, Life, and Grace, and how to worship her. She told the leaders of the city how the Demons helped them so many hundred generations ago. She told them how things happened before then.

Hope would never know the long-lasting results of that night, but her great-great granddaughter would be a Priestess of Aniqua teaching and training with the demons, asking the exact same curious questions her great-great grandmother asked the demon.


[Command Race: Form Alliance (Fairies - Demons) (Or, rather, Confirm Alliance)
Command Race: Trade (Demons - Fairies: Airborn Personal Combat for Abjuration Magic
Command Avatar (The Maiden): Create Cult - Fairies]



Leneus Idrist was a Idrian who dreamed of greater things. She dreamed of an age when her brother was still alive rather than killed as a political prisoner. She dreamed of retribution and justice. She learned about the history of the world and of her people at the feet of highest of the Idrian Druids. Dissatisfied with the current spineless rulers, Leneus dreamed about the old days, when The Matriarchy was in charge of the city. When justice was given to the criminals, and when the corrupt weren't in charge. Dreaming of those heroics and retribution, she prayed to The Mother of Life to know what to do. To give them strength and power.

While she was praying, she felt a presence behind her. She looked, and saw an ancient woman of an unknown race, with a bag draped over her shoulder. Leneus immediately recognized her from the old stories, as The Healer Crone, an answer to her prayers. Leneus immediately prostrated herself.

The Old Crone said nothing, but gave Leneus a small fruit from out of her bag. Then, she smiled and vanished.

Leneus stared at the fruit, not knowing what to do. She searched the ancient texts, listened to ancient stories - but nothing. She felt defeated: why give a useless piece of fruit? Unless...like most fruit, it's meant to be eaten. Not wanting to do it alone, she carefully split it into fifty tiny pieces, and shared it between her friends and family. Before eating their slice, they all prayed aloud, "Give us strength to overcome, even as The Signers have, so our leaders might be strong once again."

They all took a bite: at first, nothing happened. Then, as if out of some trick of fate, their prayer was answered exactly how they worded it: somehow, they all fused with the nearest Singer. When they woke up, they felt...different, to say the least. Full of energy. Raw, pure energy. Lightning crackled between their horns. Their hearing amplified. They even looked different - as a fusion between Singer and Idrian. With their new energy and power, they decided not to overcome the State by force, but rather to control by secrecy, in the shadows. They called themselves after her family name: the Idrist.

In the shadows, they manipulated the "adviser" and the "puppet lords" to imprison the criminals and remove the corrupted officials. They staged a religious revival: Makhleb as the god of justice and Aniqua as the god of mercy. Over the course of three hundred years, the Idrist became not only the ones behind the throne, but they became the entire ruling class of Rivis. The city was stratified between the lower class Idrian race and the aristocratic Idrist race - for they had become different enough in worship and culture to merit that distinction.

A bloodless revolution. A secret revolution. Justice was served.


-Command Avatar (The Old Crone): Command City: Political Manoeuver
Create Hybrid Race: Idrian-Singer => Idrist-


Over the past several thousand years, the Maimec continued to build flawless architecture. The rare female born was treated as a queen, with all others vying for her attention through their works.

Year by year, the Werblume continued pestering them to form an alliance. Occasionally, they traded pretty gifts, but the alliance wasn't accepted until now. The current ruler listened carefully to the Werblume and treated them as guests of honor. Finally, she consented to finalizing this alliance as well.

A hundred years later, a specific Maimec male was working on a design for the past twenty years when he thought of something amazing: why make something enormous when he could make something small? So he found a bright red stone. He carved into it, made it flawless, and dedicated it to Aniqua, The Goddess of The Gift. In response to his hard work for beauty, Aniqua blessed it - every plant and animal within several miles would grow faster, healthier, and larger. This meant a sudden bounty of food and he was able to become the mate of the highest female in the land.

To this day, this carved orb is placed in a temple to Aniqua, in the city of Aztla.


-Command Race: Form Alliance (Werblume - Maimec) (Or, rather, Confirm Alliance)
Command Race: Create Wonder (Orb of Growth)-


Aniqua looked at the humans, and felt they understood the value of beauty and life. If only they knew more, they could reach so much higher.

So she went as her Avatar, The Oracle, to descend among them. The Oracle finds a suitable host and descends upon a young woman named Andrea, who lives just in the outskirts of Sophei. Upon connecting, Andrea's dark hair turns pure white and her eyes seem to glow. She begins to go around and prophesy, preaching of love, beauty, and life.

Those that listen to her meet out at night, just outside the city to dance and make merry. They laugh, sing, and make beautiful things once a week, at night. They form a little hierarchy, with women as the leaders.

For the rest of her natural life span, Andrea is The Oracle of Aniqua, the leader of this small cult. Upon her death, the next most faithful dyes her hair white in symbol of the Oracle and she inherits the spot (but is no longer The Oracle - just an oracle).


-Command Avatar (The Oracle): Create Cult: Human city of Sophei-


Out in the middle of The Black Pillars raises a small piece of land with an eternal natural spring flowing down it. The water that comes out of it is so pure that it's white like coconut milk. It's said to taste like heaven itself. After an hour of leaving the spring, though, it turns into normal water.

Any who drink of it are cured of any diseases. Any who drink of it are said to be healed from any wound. Any who drink of it will become young again.

Upon its creation, rumors of its existence begin spreading across the world. Its location, however, is still unknown. At first these rumors spread by the mouth of Aniqua, but they soon are spread like any other legend.


-Event: The Fountain of Youth-



(4)Command Race: Form Alliance (Fairy-Demon): Finally, after several millennia
(4)Command Race: Trade (Fairy-Demon Airborn Personal Combat for Abjuration Magic)
(1)Command Avatar (The Old Crone): Command City: Political Manoeuver: Idrian Secret Revolution
(3)Create Hybrid Race: Idrian-Singer Hybrid called Idrist
(7)Event: The Fountain of Youth among The Black Pillars and rumors of it
(4)Command Race: Form Alliance (Werblume-Maimec): Finally, after several millennia
(1)Command Avatar (The Oracle): Create Cult (Human city of Sophei)
(1)Command Avatar (The Maiden): Create Cult (Faery city of Farea, the Fair Flower): Finally formed again
(4)Command Race: (Maimec) Make Wonder: Orb of Growth (Possible combat and political tech, explained in OoC)
Total: 29
33 - 29 = 4

Next round:
4 + 2d6=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4282460/) + 3/3(cult) + 1/3(chaos) = 11

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4283104/) bringing me up to 38

The Stringwork manages to find something to propose to the Saku Rasi
It took it a long time, but the Stringwork finally managed to find something that could be of interest to the Saku Rasi. It had spread all over the world, and had small Proxies on all contients and so it became aware of the world's developements. Technologies that appeared were no longer a secret for the Stringwork. It did not own these technologies but it had knowledge of them, and that in itself was a massive advantage to have.

The Stringwork still needed to extend its network a bit so that it would have full access to all technologies, so for now Kuroba Mnui remained simply a successful trader.

5 points: Advance Civilization (Stringwork) with "Technological Overseeing"
33 points remaining
+3 next round

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4279400/)
Current Power Points: 16

The mighty Angels.

They had been born of the grand Sun, within the golden city of the gods, Paradi. They had partaken in the wars of deities, seen the death of a deity, the birth of a deity, and they had brought purity to a world and done the work of the deities. However, as they built that city, they could not raise it as high as Paradi, nor as perfect, and other forces sapped their souls away. However, instead of saving the souls, maintaining their purity, they had attempted to cut away the infected parts, slaughtering their brethren, and in such, they had begun diminishing. A fallen piece of themselves became the loathsome Demons, and another had become the far less perfect Humans. Soon the power of the Sun, the magic in the gold, was no longer purely theirs to command, and their Eupnea fell into the hands of the destroyers. The Sun abandoned them and they lost the sword of perfection. They would endure an eternal tyranny of destruction, the golden towers collapsing and streets filling with dirt over the thousands of years. Their offshoots also failed. Destruction devoured the Inquisitors as it had their own. A great spider older even than the Angels consumed the Faeries, and the Humans barely managed to maintain themselves, but managed to free Eupnea in the act.

Now these weak children, these Humans, were sending help to try and restore Eupnea. Sandriel thought this to be a folly. The city was dead, it had fallen, all that remained where the dregs, the remains, the descendants of the few pitiful Angels who had come out of the other end of the agony Eupnea alive. If there had been any of the original strength of the Sun left in the race going into that tyranny, then it had vanished at some point in the ages of unspeakable horrors that followed. Sandriel was not exempt from this dreadful outlook, either. She was one of the remnants of the Angel race, and her acts would not bring back the purity of the Sun to the race, if it could be brought back at all. No, that path was lost, like the last bit of water dripping from a cloth hung out to dry, and until the Sun itself returned it's gaze to them, that water would not be replaced. In the meantime, they were still a cloth, and could still act, but hanging on the clothesline would not achieve it.

So Sandriel had chosen to leave Eupnea, to travel the world and find what the Angel race might do with it's continued existence. She had attempted to convince a few Angels to come with her, but none would move, so she had set out by himself, some ten years ago.

She had walked among Trells. She had seen the Destroyer's Peak, dented with thousands of craters, rent with cracks on one side, and tilting as though some grand force had pushed at it. She had booked passage on a Saku Rasi Sangi, and learned much of their ways while wandering their lands.

She had left the Saku Rasi after a time, to go and find something new, and took another Sangi to the south, into the First Land, as it was called, where the remnants of another race who had fallen from greatness wandered, twice as tall as Sandriel, with massive fangs. This was where she was now, wandering through the forest with a pack of these strange creatures, when she caught a glimpse of something in the distance, through a gap in a tangle of trees.

It had been two figures. One tall and gray, with long hair tangled in a tattered cloak. The other also gray, but with two massive wings and a bow upon his back. It had been an angel she had seen, she knew it, and she had to see what it was that had drawn another of her people out into the world. With a word of apology, she broke away from the group, and went to find the two.

It was only an hour before she managed to catch up behind the two, yet when she did, she didn't call out, for as she looked upon the old man and the gray Angel, she felt a sense of power, as though she stood upon the top of the highest, frailest tower in all Paradi, and these two were the void that yawned before her.

After a moment of doubt, as the two walked further away, she decided to forge on ahead, and call out to them. Yet, in that moment, just after she decided, but just before she could act, a sensation overcame her. As though the old man had decided, Sandriel would be the one to wander with them.

The gray Angel turned in that moment, not seeming the least surprised to find Sandriel standing there, and called out, "Okay then, come on. We could use some new conversation material."

Sandriel wasn't entirely certain what had just happened, but decided to go with it, and went to catch up with the two men as they walked on.


***

Jerilk was the strongest drug in all of Tyonix. A rare product of the Werblumes, it could render even a berserk Shou Tahs mellow and insensible. Nathaniel had managed to steal a fair bit of it from the Imptopia Black Market, and now lay in a cavern beside the ocean, using the drug to ease the pain enough for him to sleep, his body laying unfeeling and limp, the pain still raged in his arm, but dimmed enough that he could slowly drift away into dreams. What he would do in the morning he did not know, all he knew was that, for now, he would sleep.

Or, at least, that was the plan, but even as he settled into the peace of sleep, an explosion blasted into the cave, making him jerk to full wakefulness and even partial panic, as he staggered to his feet. He wasn't the least bit coherent, but after a moment managed to get his bearing enough to make out the last of the words exploding into the cavern like small explosions, "--little weapons! Foolish land creature! You think that those will help against us?!"

Nathaniel staggered out of the cave to see three Shou Tahs, colored black and purple, and glowing deep violet, ringed around six Idrians, who had weapons out and at the ready, prepared to fight, the foremost Idrian shouted something, but it was too far away for Nathaniel to make it out. He didn't have any intention to just listen to the back-and-forth, of course, and started down the rocky slope of this White Mountain, calling out once he got close enough, "OI, YOU LOT! I WAS TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP!"

At this the entire group turned to look at the Angel staggering down the slope of the mountain, black bags under his eyes, his gaze unfocused and his sword dragging by his feet.

After a moment of surprised silence, the Shou Tahs laughed uproariously, and one replied, far louder, yet he was not shouting, "You want to sleep? Let me put you to sleep. You watch, this will be what happens to you if you don't give us all that stone you've got with you!"

The Shou Tahs leapt up the side of the mountain, covering massive stretches of land in single bounds, dancing around Nathaniel far more than any other mortal enemy could have. It leapt forward, feigned a punch, and laughed as Nathaniel, inebriated as he was, hesitated and took a swing even as the Shou Tahs was behind him. A second pass the Shou Tahs made, this time actually throwing a real punch, and knocking the Angel down the remainder of the slope. It remained where it had been, laughing with it's allies as Nathaniel struggled to stand back up, wiping blood from his mouth with a numb hand.

A second Shou Tahs spoke up, "No need to toy with him, Zadisko, the land creatures get the point. Just finished him off.

"Eh, whatever," Zadisko replied, and charged down the slope, but this time, this time the Angel was ready, and slipped sideways intentionally, even as he lashed out with the sword of life.

He hit the ground, then pushed off, rolling and winding back up on his feet, though unsteadily, even as the others present stared wide-eyed at the now-headless corpse of Zadisko.

The other two Shou Tahs stared in disbelief, as no weapon had ever been able to harm them before, and here one had decapitated one of them in a single slice. However, the shock lasted only a moment before they roared in inarticulate rage, and rounded upon Zadisko's killer.

A few moments later, Nathaniel stood up, pushing the corpse of the last Shou Tahs off him. His off arm was broken, his ears were ringing, and blood was flooding down his entire left side. He would heal, though. He had learned many ways to ensure that he would always heal. For the present, he only concerned himself with looking around to see if the group of Idrians was still around. They were.

He pointed his sword at them, though it drifted slightly to the side even as he spoke, "Now you listen to me. That was difficult! I'd hate for it to have been in vain. So you had better live some damn good lives… or I'll be back!"

He didn't wait for confirmation, but instead turned and began staggering and limping back up towards his cave, where his Jerilk and bed rested.


***

Beneath the waves, meanwhile, the Shou Tahs were still developing themselves for war. The Indigo Tribe had raised it's own Army of Princes, in imitation of Rou, but kept their own distinction from the Red City. Where Rou Princes could never challenge the Kings, in Kaz, only the Princes could challenge the Kings. If they won, they would become the new Kings and new Princes would be chosen. If they lost, the old Kings would remain and would simply chose the next Army of Princes.

In Gerki, a third King's Army had been raised, and a new technology was ending up being traded through their ranks. This advancement was actually far more scientific than others the race had created. One Shou Tahs had figured it out when he noticed that objects he threw tended to continue soaring up for a while before slowing or falling back down.

Now this Shou Tahs was a little more thoughtful than his kin, and instead of simply ignoring what he knew would happen, he developed it into a law, a law that he articulated in an odd way for a Shou Tahs, saying "objects that are in motion tend to stay in motion until affected by an outside force".

This principal of momentum wasn't understood by all, but those who did grasp the concept realized it's magnitude, and soon, with this notion filling their minds, very interesting battles began to take place, as new maneuvers were attempted and perfected. As these maneuvers gained popularity, others who didn't understand the underlying principal picked them up, and soon the entire race had gained from the development. Of the new maneuvers, one of the most popular was one where a Shou Tahs would pick up and throw a foe, just to use the maneuverability art they had perfect so many years ago to end up at the place the foe was going to land, and punch them back the other direction. It was only useful on the land, but the Shou Tahs found it immensely entertaining nonetheless.


***

The Werblumes wanted ships.

This was a massive request, and the Road Builders had been going back and forth for the past three months, trying to reach a descision to either accept or decline the proposition. Some said that the knowledge of ships was the greatest edge the Saku Rasi had over the rest of the world, and that to give up the technology to another race, regardless of the race in question, less a true rival rise up. Others countered that the Werblumes were offering the secrets of their brewing, the secret to making the best alcohols in the world, and that would thereby give the Saku Rasi more power than they had already possessed before. Some debated that there was no reason to trust the Werblumes, for they might give false recipes as anything. Others stated that the Werblumes were offering more information than they asked for in return.

Back and forth the debate went. Tempers flared at times, and certain representatives even dropped out of the Road Builder college, but in the end, a reply was sent, in the form of a series of blueprints. The blueprints to classic Kōpopé ships.


***

The monsters of the Pure Land had perfected a new art. With only a whispered syllable and a flick of the wrist, they could create dreadful hallucinations in the minds of those nearby, giving form to their deepest fears. Not only this, but a truly skilled practitioner of this art could take the phantasms and make them partially, or even completely real. They could then recall fears they knew well, and began noticing patterns, which allowed them to predict forms which would inspire the most fear into a living creature. Dark spaces and uncertainty seemed to be the most common qualities of fear, and so many Phobimancers also because adept with Noctimancy, to help accent their skills with fear.

Some Kraith had grown tired of living only in the mountains of the Pure Land, and chose to spread out into the savanna surrounding the grand volcano as well. Many who left were magi as well, skilled in all three of the Kraith sorceries, and as such were varied and exotic in appearance. A few kept shawls of shadow wreathed around them, making them indistinct and dark, while others stood naked, scars in the shape of runes spread across every inch of their body, and others still wore shapeless cloaks made of shadow stuff, which kept their physical form indistinct, and their faces hidden. Many thought it a grand act, to have spread out as far as they had. Little did they know what lay in store for them in the near future…

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Gerki to Raise a third King's Army.

1 point to Command The Seliss to Command Kaz to Raise an Army of Princes.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to accept trade with Myhra.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Imptopia to Construct the Black Market. (No mention above, but that's because I'm tired of writing)

5 points to Advance the Shou Tahs with Momentum Principal.

5 points to Advance the Kraith with Phobimancy.

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280586/)

[ImperialSunligh]

The child of Eknad continued to undergo its tutelage by Eknad, and absorbed the love of its mother in swathes. Atop the tower of the gods, the child happened to stand, in the moment that its awakening began.

Slowly, his eyes opened thrice, beyond the normal. Through his veins and across Paradi echoed the throngs of aether that now fueled his essence. And as his awakening progressed, he began to change from the shape of a human babe into his realized aspect. Fur laced his body in the flaming red of his father, and he took on the slender sleekness of his mother. A swirling tail curled around him, mimicking the spiral of the void. Possibly as a result of his long childhood, he retained a comparatively short stature to that of his parents or even the humans and angels. He was granted the name Antike, as all now knew.

His personality took root in this time, and he became a true god, ruling over the powers of Familial Love, Whimsy, and Thievery. Indeed, he was a sly, whimsical god who had few moral qualms with stealing. He would steal from his parents if they weren't both so perceptive.

Eknad and Mam both granted upon him a pulse of power, as a celebration of his coming of age. In a stroke of vanity and playfulness, Antike created a new race of people to the west of human civilization, away from the mountain, near the coast. These people were made in his image, very short, agile, with prehensile tails and agile feet that aided in climbing. They were mostly covered in fur of many colours, and, unlike humans, often maintained a youthful vigor well into old age.

These beings became known as monkeys by most people. Most were intelligent, and organised themselves similarly to the humans, but in a less structured fashion that relied more on the individual and their living family than on long lines of complex nobility. Some monkeys, however, were cursed by Antike's youth, an error on account of his lack of judgement. They noticeably had significantly lesser intelligence than other monkeys, barely surpassing animals. These monkeys were either gifted in other areas (strength, most often), and could make a place for themselves by doing so, or would be forced to submit to slavery or life as a "pet" to humans or intelligent monkeys. These could be born of any monkey, even the most intelligent.

Slavery of these monkeys quickly became a significant cultural factor that allowed for cheap labour and swift production. They quickly formed a city built on this trade known as Herz, rivaling the human cities at their inception. While still a very clean and organised place filled mostly with hardworking people, it had a comparatively high rate of unrest and crime related to the slave trade and otherwise.

The monkeys mostly worshiped Antike, who had planted the notion of himself and the other gods in their minds from birth.

Those few humans who had contact with the monkeys to learn of Antike, such as those of the 3rd army of rhapsodists who were sent to defend them while they built themselves up, either dismissed the new god as a rebellious teen, not in line with the human's ideals, or accepted him as just another of the gods, who was only worthy of normal worship

2d6+1=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4284129/)

Create Race: Monkeys, -6
Command Race, Monkeys, Found Monkey City of "Herz", -4
Command 3rd Army of Rhapsodists, defend Herz.

Left: 1

[Omegonthesane]

Reports continued to come from the various thunderbird hunters who made the long and perilous journey to the Pure Land. While none of the strange blood drinking shadows they spoke of had yet reached the Long Road, there were now too many reports to be ignored, and Destroyer's Peak was forced to accept the reality of the Kraith. The Red Screamers howled their fury at these interlopers in the land promised to Makhleb's true servants, but they were overruled for the time being, as the Scourge wished for their rainbow to be at least a quarter complete even after any losses they took.

What really fired the flames of Singer rage and desire was the news of the Kraith's nightmare magic. Singers rarely felt truly crippling fear, and for many of them encountering this latest horror had been their first brush with the cowardice they so often inspired in others; thus, there was a renewed interest in the art of Telepathy, which had originally been used only to spread fear and horror in a similar way to Phobomancy. Those who approached the Scourge wishing to learn Telepathy were doomed to become a new unit of Nightmares, as opposed to some other designation.

The Rainbow Scourge used much more vivid dyes than the Pale Nightmare of old, however there was no questioning which of their segments would fill the shoes of the army slain by the Shou Tahs. Where the old Nightmares had been the eerie pale green of a corpse beginning to rot, the new Nightmares were a lurid and frightening green of absolutely no natural being in creation, least of all the rainbows from which the Scourge took their name. It was even said that they could be seen vaguely glowing in the darkness, not by enough to pinpoint their position, but by enough that their opponents would have whole seconds to realise the horrible fate that awaited them.

The Dreamforge was where the dreams of Singers became reality, and though they had become more friendly of late, the dreams of Singers were never pleasant. Indeed, those who lived in the Floating City were reminded of the idea of dreams in practically their every waking moment; it was inevitable that eventually one of them would think to pervert daily rest into a weapon of war.

Thus, work began on the Dream Twister, which took the form of a row of glass bowls, each larger than the one before it, which emitted certain notes when a tendril was run along their edge. These bowls were attached to a spit, akin to one for the roasting of a carcass; with one tendril the player of the Dream twister would rotate the spit, and all the bowls with it, while with as many others as they dared they would rub one of the rotating bowls to produce a note. The principle was sound for the creation of more sane works of art, but the original Dream Twister had a frightening and dissonant scale, its every note somehow eerie and wrong even on its own and far more so in combination with others.

It was not quite enough for the user of the Dream Twister to simply play the instrument, as it had been with previous Singer musical items. Indeed, no songs were remembered for this horrible creation, as the user was required to have a dream so vivid in mind that they might express it through the spinning of the bowls. In doing this, they could project this dream into the minds of any being who heard their performance or any being who they could directly sense, causing no immediately obvious effect until the victim or victims slept, whereupon the Dream Twister's dream would haunt them for days or weeks depending on the quality of the performance.

Even within the Dreamforge tiself, some of the test uses of the Dream Twister involved benevolent dreams, yet even these were of military use in the short term, as they were intense and draining to the victim despite not being torturous as well.

The demons were at first surprised to hear, after centuries, that the fairies had changed their mind about the alliance. Those older and wiser among them, especially the sages who refrained from extreme deeds in order to live long lives of understanding, were rather less shocked, for they knew that a fairy's lifespan was the blink of an eye compared to that of most demons. It had not taken long for them to forget the horrors of the battle with Vroch, and of late the worst excesses of the demonic legions had been committed exclusively against even more horrific beings - and more importantly, had been committed far away from Farea. Thus, when news of the proposed alliance came, the demons were all too eager to accept and gain what benefit they could out of the Fairies without worsening their reputation.

This led to increased tensions with the bands of Elves that shared the Bloom with both races, as they were kin to both the Fairies and the demons' Angelic ancestors, and felt a strange jealousy that their parent race had united with their bastard cousins. However, the elves were no threat - not merely due to their weakness, but primarily because by and large they simply did not have the level of genuine malice needed to make anything of their petty grudges.

Thus the alliance was sealed with the trade of secrets originally proposed by Mastema so many years ago.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4284487/) points
Power rollover: 0 points
Total 11 points

4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (Green Nightmares)
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Dream Twister)
4 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Accept the trade with Farea of ACP for Abjuration

2 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 (4) Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4284546/) bringing me up to 41 - I was hoping not to lose my +3, but oh well

A portal to the Void opens
The 2 seconds finally came to an end, some 1500 years after they started, as a portal opened, and 314 Shadowbirds flew out of it. A ship was passing by that place at about the same moment, and the observers were really stunned by what they saw. The 3 meter-wide birds did not all appear at the same time, but with a delay of roughly a tenth of a second between two. At the same time they appeared, each one breaking the sound barrier with a loud noise, they produced shockwaves so powerfull that they produced visible ripples in the air. By the time the last Shadowbird came out, some 30 seconds after the portal opened, the first one was already out of sight.

The Shadowbirds try to understand what happened
At first, the Shadowbirds were rather confused. This were their first instants of sentience after all. They had conserved some memories from their old world and as a result, understood how to fly very quickly, however there were still many things they did not comprehend. The most pressing question was : "What am I supposed to do?". Communications appeared to be offline, and there was no friendly ship to land on. They did see an old ship replica but no carrier to land on. So they just flew until they found a nice strip of flat land to land on.

The rocky island they had landed on was a few kilometers in radius and completely barren. Unused to controlling their landing, many hurt themselves and were utterly surpised when they realized they did not break or explode, but only leaked some "hydraulic fluids". Soon they understood that their nature had been profoundly altered. Communicating with each other was a priority, and as some of them remembered words, they tried to see what they should use to pronouce them. Their upper four eyes covered by a single protective layer, and they soon realised that their communicating organs were also located there. When they understood that, they began trying ask others what was happening. Their vocabulary was completely inappropriate for the situation so the process was slow and difficult, but they eventually came to a conclusion on what had happened. They had become living beings and they would need to act as such from now on.

After they experimented with their new bodies and understood how these operated, they realized they needed to eat and drink to survive. The island they had landed on, while perfect for landing did not provide any of that. They would need to see what they could and could not consume, starting with water. Many were scared of water, but a few Owtfes tried to approach it see wether it could be consumed using their beak, which was located in the center of their backs in a rather impractical fashion. While sumberging themselves was a really scary experience, they soon realised that water was indeed something they needed to survive, and congratulated themselves on remembering their previous masters dinking water.

It wasn't long before they took off once more, and began searching for a better place. Their two lower eyes were extremely precise and allowed them to fly high above ground while maintaining clear a view of what was below. Soon they realized that there were no lights at night, and that there were no such things as air strips. They saw the different races work the wood and the stone and soon realized they would have to do the same. They saw practitioners of magic arts and understood this was the only way they would regain their lost abilities.

The Shadowbirds try to reproduce weapons
Of the many things that had changed with the Shadowbirds when they crossed the void, they were highly preoccupied with having lost their weapons. Soon they tried using magic to reproduce them. With success.

Their new weapons were mostly wooden spears and as such, not particularly threatening. However, with the magic that they had developed, a magic that would become known as Engagement Magic, and extensive training in marksmanship, these were deadly weapons reaching tremendous speeds and hitting their targets from very far. Eventually, the Shadowbirds also developed a form of magic that allowed projectiles to follow their targets, but even then the ability to aim well was required.

The Shadowbirds manage to create themselves a city.
Shadowbirds lived on average 150 years, and were able to reproduce after 25. In the early years, the concept of reproduction was a mystery to them, but after some time, they realized that an Owtfe should copulate with an Owteb to produce offspring. During the early 2nd century of their existence on Tyonix, when the process was understood, many Shadowbirds were born.

It soon became clear that there were too many of them to keep flying the world as a single huge tribe. They needed to settle. Remembering the tales of their parents about carriers, the second generation set out to replicate those. Their parents had understood the basic principles of obtaining and working raw materials, but this was not enough to construct floating carriers. Having understood that, they set out to find a magic that could allow them to negate the problem. Eventually, looking at spellcasters they found a glyph that would allow things to fly. The glyphs in their original form were weak and mostly useless for what they wanted to do with them, but after years of experiments, they finally managed to produce glyphs powerfull enough to lift their replica carriers made of wood and stone high into the air.

And so was founded the first Convoy, Andromeda, composed of 20 flying carriers that could each house around 50 Shadowbirds. By the time the convoy was complete, the second generation had died out and most had forgottent their origins as an out of this world species.

The Stringwork finally manages to make Kuroba Manui a well known individual.
The process had taken a lot of time, but now that the Stringwork knew of most technologies that existed on Tyonix, it had a clear cut way of making Kuroba Manui known throughout the Saku Rasi Civilization.

As a trader, Kuroba travelled a lot, and this was a good justification for his knowledge of foreign technologies. During his stays in the major Ryokans, he eventually became known as someone that could be relied on for most kinds of work because of the wide variety of his skills and his much above average knowledge of most things.

Eventually, when the Stringwork thought Kuroba had amassed enough notoriety, it sent him to seek audience with Hahebuto.

The Stringwork prepares for negociations
For its negociations with the Saku Rasi, the Stringwork needed to prove that it would be the most powerful associate that the Saku Rasi could get. For that purpose, it would make the boldest trade proposal it could think of - to provide the Saku Rasi with any technology they desired.

Of course this was not practically feasible, as there were simply too many races. With its current Proxy for Humans and the technologies it knew itself, it could already provide a lot. However this was not enough. It would need at least another source of technologies.

After a few years of thinking, the Stringwork decided to create a Shou Tahs Proxy. It understood that this was going to be a great challenge, as the nature of the Shou Tahs was very different from its own. Outgoers were weak compared to Shou Tahs, but more importantly, their thought process was very orderly which was the opposite of Shou Tahs, whose behavior could be considered as close to random.

The First point would easily be solved by selecting the Strongest Strings and then repeating the process until the resulting Outgoer would be Strong enough.

The Second Point required many years of study. How could an Outgoer simulate chaotic behavior while conserving its integrity? Indeed, many early trials demonstrated that it was very likely that Outgoers would simply fall apart if any form of chaotic behavior was introduced into them. However, with time solutions emerged. The selected solution was simulated randomness. A single String within the Outgoer would have unpretictable behavior, and while it would be restrained by all others, it directed the Outgoer to change its behavior slightly at all times. The effect of the Random String could be adjusted depending on the needs, and after the trials proved the concept to be successful, many Outgoers were outfitted with a Random String.

With this, the Stringwork was ready to infiltrate the Shou Tahs. It spawned a Proxy and sent it to the northern oceans. While it was unlikely the Shou Tahs would notice that the Stringwork had infiltarted them, considering its understanding of societies, it was possible they would attack the proxy for no reason. That is why the Protective Outgoer was sent.

Kuroba meets with Hahebuto
The doors opened, and a man came into the hall. He was dressed in a most sober fashion, wearing a pale blue Kerami with nearly no ornaments. Many of those present, including Hahebuto himself, were surprised by that fact, as merchants, especially in Hahebuto, were known for their tendencies of dressing in all manner of exotic clothing.

The man bowed, and presented himself after saluting the Ryokan owner.

"Hahebutosama, my name is Kuroba Manui. I am a merchant who has travelled the world, and learnt many of its secrets, and to share some of them is why I came here."

After the leader nodded, as a sign of interest, the man continued:

"If my Lord read the letter I sent when asking for audience, I take it that he is aware that some of the matters that will be discussed today should remain confidential. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone that should not be hearing this would remain out of this room"

"It has already been done, you may begin."

"So, in my long years of travel, me and my family have come across an entity unkown to most. It names itself "The Stringwork". This ancient entity has spread throughout the lands and has amassed a great deal of information about the world. When I came into contact with it, as many had before me, it recognized me as worthy and gave me a task : to inform Hahebutosama of its existence. The Stringwork desires peaceful cooperation between our two races, with me as the point of communication. It whishes to prove its good will by exchanging any existing technology you might request against documents detailing our understanding of Navigation. It has already made preparations and can currently procide you with any of the following..."

Kuroba then listed all the Technologies that had been reserched by The Shou Tahs and the Humans. He added in most of the Stringworks' technologies but omitted Shapeshifting, Mapping and Memoryworks.

"All other technologies can also be provided, but it will take more time. Of course, the documents detailing our understanding of navigation will be asked for after the Stringwork provides us with the desired technologies...Uhm... If the trade, goes well, I would also like to humbly ask for a personal favor."

"Go ahead."

"There are some maps that have been made by our family that we are rather proud of, and on another side, we have been disagreeing a lot recently as to how we should be conducting trade. If his highness deems the maps worthy of his attention, my family would appreciate it if a Trade Scholar could be requested to help us sort our disagreement."

"I will think about it. You may leave now."

"I greatly thank Hahebutosama for his time and am hoping for a positive answer."

As the man existed, murmuring had become rather loud in the hall.


Crunch

1 point - Comand Demigod "Evolving Parasite" - Command Order "Agglomerations" - Miracle (Open a portal to the void)
4x4 points - advance civilization - Shadowbirds with : "Engagement Magic","Marksmanship","Lockon" (Magic Seeking),"Levitation Glyphs"
5 points - Command Race - Found City - Andromeda, a city of flying ships with flat decks and no sails (If I need to root it somewhere it would be above the First Land, but I would prefer to keep it moving)
6 points - create Order - "The Shou Tahs Proxy"
0 points - command Army "The First Protective Outgoer" (until then located in the First Core) - defend the Shou Tahs Proxy
3 points - command Order "The Agglomerations" to create army - Third Protective Outgoer (Core 1)
4 points - Command Race "Stringwork" to request Alliance with the Saku Rasi - if accept, trade proposal (Second Core/Hahebuto) : "A tech from either the Shou Tahs, the Humans or the Stringwork , or with delay a tech from any other race" for "Navigation" and "Mapmaking" for "Trade".

6 points remaining
+0 next round.

[Benthesquid]

My missed roll=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4290438/), my roll for this round=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4290450/). I have eighteen banked, for a total of thirty-six.

Create Order: The Sea Sages (Four Points)
Command City (Myrha): Found Satellite: Krokusia (Four points)
Advance Civilization (Werblumes) Canal Building (Five Points)
Command Race (Werblumes): Create Wonder: The Grand Canal (Four Points)
Command Race (Werblumes): Settle Territory (Around Myrha and along the Grand Canal) (Four points)

Total- twenty-one points, fifteen remaining.

The Werblumes were not the sort to do things by halves, and when the designs from the Saku Rasi arrived, they immediately went to work, modifying them to better suit their purposes. They had little intention, as of yet, of long ocean-going voyages, but they were fascinated by the idea of conquering the sea, and of the enormous mobile structures that could be moved upon it.

Soon a group of visionaries from the Sehkian Society was organizing a new project. By now, the idea of creating one location that served as the main hub of a given technology was well established in Werblume culture, and the Sea-Sages, as the leaders of the new project came to be called, did not intend to break from it.

The only difficulty was that while Myrha was conveniently located near several sources of fine wood, useful for building ships, it was far from ideally located for actually producing the ships, being as it was in the middle of the continent. Consequently, a debate ensued. Some suggested that the secrets of shipbuilding be shared with Adonia, which was more conveniently located on the coast. However, most of the Sea Sages had been born and bred in Myrha, and had a strong loyalty to their city. Quite simply, they wished it to excel beyond the other Werblume cities, and with the acquisition of the Saku Rasi ship designs, as well as the secrets of Roads, they saw a great opportunity to bring about that excellence.

Consequently, it was decided that a new colony would be established on the Eastern Coast of the Banana Lands, directly under the influence of the Sea Sages. These new satellite town was called Krokusia, and it would became the site of the Werblume shipyards in the years to come.

First, however, it was necessary to establish a route between the city and its new colony. Roads had been built during the city’s construction, but given the volume of wood to be transported there on a regular basis for the building of new ships, a more efficient method of transit was desired.

Eventually, a young Wereblume by the name of Kip Kipsson stepped forward with a proposal. He suggested that with the greater understanding of waterborne transport that Myrha now possessed, the best way to transport materials would be by water. He had done years of research, surveying, and planning, and now presented blueprints for an enormous canal that would link Myrha and Krokusia, allowing transportation of goods and materials between the two settlements much more quickly than would otherwise be possible.

It was a massive undertaking, and for the first time required widespread settlement of the area surrounding Myrha, as housing had to be built and rebuilt for the workers along the length of the canal, especially where variations of terrain required the construction of large locks.

As the Werblumes met and overcame challenges in the design and construction of the Grand Canal, they gained much experience in the design of such waterways, which spread, through the constant medium of the Werblume wanderers, throughout the race. Soon the cities and surrounding areas were crisscrossed with a wide network of canals, although none of the size or length of the Grand Canal.

Meanwhile, in Krokusia, construction of a variety of ships was already underway, by means of timber transported more slowly, but just as surely, by road. These were mostly huge, shallow-keeled ships, appropriate for transporting goods or travelers along the coasts, and even a ways up the larger canals, but not well suited to trans-oceanic travel.

[5a Violista]

This round:
4 + 2d6=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4282460/) + 3/3(cult) + 1/3(chaos) = 11

Aniqua looked across the great ocean and decided there could be more to it. The land was beautiful, full of life, flowers, and beauty. The sea, also, but not as much. She was sure many people would come looking for her Fountain of Youth, but very many of them would crash and fall in the waters. Who would be there to save them?

So the goddess descended upon the waters.

Sitting deep underwater near the Stringwork at Core 2, Aniqua grabbed the water and began to form it. When she was done, she had twelve beings made of water, as transparent as the water around them. Their appearance was just like Aniqua's. Every one of them looked like a beautiful young female, and they would continue to look that way for the rest of their natural life, 99 years and 45 days. As Aniqua, their exact shape could vary, looking like one race or another. Every couple decades, they would form another of their kind out of the waters around them; after their life was over, they would turn back into sea foam.

Aniqua led them out of the water to a nearby isle, and there taught them about beauty and life. Whenever they left the water, their skin no longer looked transparent but opaque. However, always, their eyes and hair was some shade of blue. Whenever they were out of the water, they longed to quickly return to it, to drink back up their Father the Ocean.

For the next couple centuries, they spread across the ocean. Beautiful objects and trinkets that fell in the ocean, they would collect on the ocean floor. Lucky mortals who fell in would sometimes find their life saved by a solitary mysterious woman.

After returning to dry and, Aniqua decided to pay a visit to the Troud Forest and admire the beauty there. Soon, she came to the city of Bloom. There she saw the playful Fairies, the fierce Demons, and the melancholic Elves. Manifesting as an elf coming from the forest, she literally danced into the city Farea, teaching all there about the art of the Eternal Dance - a way to channel Beauty and Aniqua's Grace into their lives. She started with her cult present in the city, but taught all the fairies who wished to learn it.

She taught that life was one eternal dance, a fluid motion from birth to death. By dancing all day (and dancing in their dreams at night), from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep, making every motion as graceful as a dance, they would have a small share of Aniqua's power: they could use magic to protect and give strength.

Finally, Aniqua's avatar few north, having been called by the prayers of the first race she had made. Many of the Idrians had become poor and exhausted. The Idrists had started becoming complacent and began oppressing their former brothers and sisters.

The Maiden appeared among many of the Idrians who had been out working hard, mining. They were just returning home from their long day. As soon as she appeared, they felt a calming influence. She told them it was time to leave the city. Giving them only moments to gather their families, she led them through a long-forgotten cavern.

The Maiden urged them on far west, only stopping for the night. When the mountains met the shore, they stopped and camped. In the morning, The Maiden was gone, leaving behind enough food to last several months.

Once they realized she was not coming back, they began building a city - they called it Saorsa, in honor of their pilgrimage. Half the city was above ground, enjoying the beauty of the sunset, the forest, and the mountains, and the other half was below ground, reminding themselves of their past.



Create Race (Nereids): 6
Advance City (Bloom: Eternal Dance): 4 [+1 combat]
Command Avatar (The Maiden): Command Race (Idrians): Create City (Saorsa): 1

11-6-4-1=0

For Next Time:
0 + 2d6=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4291183/) + 3/3 (cult) + 2/3 (chaos) = 10
Planned actions: Give Sea Nymphs "Enchanting Song" (Advance Race) and have Idrians build a "Fertility Idol" through Command Avatar-City-Create Structure.
Put elves in city with faries.

[ImperialSunligh]

Nothing Happens.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280586/)
Current Power Points: 20

"I still don't understand Sandriel. Why did you leave Eupnea behind?" Nameless continued, as the trio walked along a wide meadow somewhere in the Banana Land.

Sandriel grimaced, and after a moment decided in her reply, "I suppose it was kind of a desire to flee a sinking ship, part a desire to 'build a new ship', as it were. I'd say you'd understand, but you still won't tell me anything about yourselfs, so I don't know if you would."

Nameless smiled at that, "I think you have a point there. For the record, though, when you say 'build a new ship', do mean a splinter group? I thought the Angels despised their splinter groups in some way. Or at least you did."

"Well, it's complicated. On one hand, yes, we view the Demons as impure monsters, while the Humans are undeniably lesser. On the other, in my opinion, at least, the Angels are less than even their offshoots, and thus it is more desirable to become an offshoot than it is to stay simply an Angel. At the very least, a fresh start for the Angels would be desirable. Though, I still say you have to know this. You're an Angel yourself, after all."

"I am an Angel, yes, but not just that--"

They both talked too much. Not even a month and they had already completed half of the conversation.

"Just because you communicate slow, dad, doesn't mean that everyone talks slow."

"So, what are you then? Are you an Angel offshoot? Perhaps the only two of your kind?"

Nameless looked at her for a moment then back to Eull, "Can't we tell her yet?"

A long silence followed that, before they knew that the secrets would be revealed when they reached with First Land again.


---

A few years and a few flights later, they wandered through the fern forest in the north of the First Land. Sandriel might have felt inpatient at that time, but she had learned the slow nature of her companions, and would remain content until they decided to grace her with the knowledge of their identities.

Eventually, they came to a familiar clearing, altered by the century they'd been away, but still recognizable as the first place they had met. It was here that the gray man stopped walking, and suddenly Sandriel was made to know: this was the god Eull and his son, the Nameless Angel.

Sandriel wasn't entirely surprised, but the shock that she had indeed just journeyed for a hundred years with a god was enough for her to lose words in that moment, while Eull continued, elaborating that the Sun's pantheon had also vilified other deities. It was only for fear of them, however, that they did so, fear of what might be done to their children, and there was some logic in that fear, if they did not wish for any change in their children at all. However, Eull didn't see the reason to fear such a thing.

"You don't see a reason to fear anything, father. It's different for you."

That was perhaps true, and it was also true that the children of the pantheon were beginning to accept change, but nonetheless, it seemed that Sandriel had averted herself from the gods and their ancient need to keep everything within their vision of correctness. She even desired to become an offshoot, in a way. That made her perfect for what Eull needed.

Eull had brought this Angel girl around the entire world, from the Troud forests, to the heart of the Marshlands, to the Thousand Isles. She had seen thousands of aspects of life, and had been made aware of thousands of ways each of those aspects could change. Not exactly a lesson as a mortal would think of it, but wandering with a god of wandering would naturally bring such wisdom. Thus, all that was needed, would be Sandriel to accept the change she sought, and a new being would be born.

Twice so far Sandriel had dove forth into the great unknown. Once when she left Eupnea, and once when she first met Eull and chosen to follow him. A third time she would have to brave herself to face that which she would not understand or be prepared for. She was a being of change, so this night, the Ehk Rellis would come to this place and make her anew. Though she would cease to be as she was now, and begin to exist as a new entity. Could she do it?

Perhaps Eull already knew the answer, but Sandriel didn't ask if he did, for in that moment, the god expressed that he could not remain, else the choice would not be a true choice, and thus Nameless and the god departed.

She wondered if she would ever see them again.


---

Nightfall came slowly, and many times Sandriel felt afraid of the next great hurdle she had come across. She felt as she had when she had first encountered Eull: staring into the face of the unknown, unsure if she would like what was to come if she had forged ahead. This time, the danger was most palpable, for she was here for the express purpose of being changed. What if she were to be changed into something that didn't remember being Sandriel? Would that be like dying? What if this was a trick, and the other gods were evil and dark like the pantheon had said, and Eull sought to change Sandriel into some accursed form? These and many other doubts crossed her mind as she sat there, the sky darkening above her, yet no matter how she feared, she stayed in place, waiting.

Eventually the stars came. Tiny motes of light, swirling about in the sky. Three violet, three ruby, three turquoise, three white, and three too dim to make out their color. The Ehk Rellis came here on behalf the mighty Eull, who they were a part of, and found, resting in a clearing, a form of pure divine will, of nothing but divine energy, confined in the shape that the foreign god, the Sun, had given them. This energy was no longer of the Sun, but instead abstract energy, simply the same energy that made up deities, though in infinitely more minuscule force.

This particular form of divine energy desired change, which the Ehk Rellis could understand. It wanted things to become new things, and it itself wished to become something new, something more. It rebelled against the form the Sun had given it, and wished to have freedom from it's confines.

So that is what the Ehk Rellis gave it. With a few divine runes in the sky, it removed the confines, the limitations of the physical form that the Sun had placed upon the entity below, and it changed, blossoming out into a shape, a single point of golden light, not dissimilar to the Ehk Rellis itself, but much brighter.

Sandriel suddenly found herself released, changed from an Angel, into a presence, raw and simple. What she existed as now, was raw energy, raw divine will. She no longer saw, smelled, or heard, yet instead simply seemed to understand what her surroundings looked like without seeing them, what they smelled like without smelling them, or sounded like, without hearing them. She no longer had to walk or exert herself to fly, but instead simply willed herself to go somewhere, and she found herself moving there, as though she glided with every motion. She knew what she looked like, and could will herself to disappear, or to manifest into an illusory form. She could feel the growth of plants, and the thoughts of tiny creatures. She could lift stones with her will alone, and manipulate the world easily enough.

Filled with excitement and joy, she zipped away, into the forest of the First Land, to explore her newfound existence.


***

The Road Builders were in shock. A messenger had just delivered word from Hahebuto, that the Stringwork had finally made contact.

They had known about the Stringwork ever since a few decades after the alliance with the Demons had been cemented. As Saku Rasi traffic to Sanctuary and the Demon lands had increased so greatly, so hand gossip and rumors being exchanged. It was not long before the information about the Stringwork was worked out of loose tongues. At the time it had been considered a curiosity worthy of note, that the plant forms that so often tangled up their ship were actually another race to be contacted. They had begun watching the Strings, carefully, trying to discern their purposes and desires, and they learned that the strange creatures seemed to, if anything, just want to learn things, as it constantly probed and searched the world around it.

It had been theorized that the Stringwork would make an excellent ally, and plans had even been being formulated as to how the Saku Rasi would contact the tentacles. However, now the Stringwork had made first contact, and boasted an impressive list of potential assets that might be granted in exchange for some Saku Rasi assets.

The Road Builders found it suspicious that this character, Kuroba Manui, would be required as the ambassador to the Strings, and so began to watch him carefully, researching his past, and finding that the name, the exact name, was exceedingly common, and had traded in hundreds of different Demon, Werblume, & Saku Rasi locales over the past several centuries. Yet no family group was ever heard of with a Kuroba Manui in it. This led them to the simple assumption that the Kuroba Manui was not a Saku Rasi, and the much larger assumption that the Stringworks must be capable of changing shape.

A few Road Builders, the greediest ones, saw the Stringworks as a great potential rival, and thus felt a need to force the entities hand. Thus, they decided to require that no single ambassador would be had between the two, but instead dozens, if not hundreds, of trader scholars. The Stringwork would be allowed to select as many as they wanted, though no fewer than twenty could be chosen, and for each they chose, one would have to be chosen by the Road Builders as well. Thus at least forty individuals would be acting between the two races at any given point in time. This would be an absolute requirement, else no trade would ever take place. Now, this was considered immensely reasonable, even rather generous, to many, and so, if the Stringwork objected, it would show that it distrusted the Saku Rasi, and relations would be very strained in the future.

When it came to deciding the trade that would be done, it was decided that, as the Stringwork wanted such a powerful amount of information in the Saku Rasi secrets of the art of Trade, they would require double compensation for it alone, as the Werblumes had offered double compensation for the secrets of Shipbuilding. Also, it was made certain that attention would be drawn to the dozens of assets the Saku Rasi could trade as well, from modified Roads that would allow the Stringwork to move more efficiently, to Rudimentary Medicine, which would easily be adapted to help the overall health of the entity.

Thus, a list of required technologies was put forward: The Singer technology of Telepathy, the Singer technology of Portal Magic, the Human technology of Metallurgy, the Stingwork technology of Communication, the Stringwork technology of Mapmaking, the Stringwork technology of Armoring, and an art of changing one's shape, which the Saku Rasi knew existed somewhere in the world, but "simply did not know who it belonged to". They would be stated that not all of this was needed, though as much as they could agree to would be desired. The Saku Rasi would naturally grant the Stringworks adequate compensation, though Trade would be valued quiet highly as well.


***

Nightmares occupied the Pure Land.

The Kraith moved about, wreathed in shadow and enacting horrific acts upon the creatures of the savage world. However, two events had recently taken place, which together would change the way the race existed… forever.

First, the art of Phobimancy had reached a head, and a quality had been perfected: abstract fear, or fear without knowing why you were afraid. Dread, a shiver down the spine, a gut instinct that something is wrong. The Kraith were now able to manufacture this sensation, in addition to the dozens of other powers their fell sorcery gave them. The magnitude of this art would not yet be fully realized, however.

The second event was the Kraith discovering the Red Road, a band of red glass extending across the ocean, just beneath the storm which encased their tiny home. At first, this was considered an irrelevant location, but as word of it spread in the haphazard way that Kraith communicated with each other (primarily hideous insults and serious threats), many gained the idea that they should see what was on the other side of the path.

However, by the time a large group was gathered, it became apparent that others used this Red Road, the Singers, and the Kraith were not ones to fight when there was no blood to drink. So, the Kraith conjured up a cloak of darkness, and, in a stroke of brilliance, an aura of abstract fear, before they set off across the slicing glass of the pathway. Not a single Singer dared to move close to the shadow moving through the night, and the cuts on their feet were easily controlled, as blood was controlled via Sangromancy back into their bodies. Thus, the first Kraith made it across the Red Road, to find a place of immense mountains everywhere.

This was only the beginning.

Soon thousands of Kraith were traveling out, across the Red Road, some curious of what lay on the other side, some seeking more creatures to terrify, and some running from their kin. Some Kraith used the cloak the first group had used, while others, mainly highly accomplished Archmagi, marched boldly, perfectly visible, and matching blows with Singers as they encountered each other on the road.

Upon the other side, they found Destroyer's Peak, encircled by dozens of slave camps. They began preying on the slaves, them being easy targets, but soon the Singers drove the screeching Kraith off. Some Kraith, however, found abandoned, derelict hovels, where they set up permanent shrouds of darkness, and filled every inch of stone with permeations of abstract fear. From these "Haunted Houses", as the slave (and many Singers) called them, served as birthing pits for the Kraith, and places to hide when they were caught bleeding a slave dry.

Others travelled to Saorsa, to Rivis, to Fort Liberty even, and repeated this processes, sometimes infesting an entire street of Haunted Houses to serve as their homes. Eupnea soon had creatures hiding in the shadows, and even some Saku Rasi ships had storage rooms which no one would go near. Sakura had a basement in a butcher's shop which was shunned. Juqax had several homes on the waterfront which grew dim and derelict as no one would go close enough to clean them. Ruttivorat gained parts of the jungle which seemed overgrown and foreboding. Only those who built their homes underwater were safe for this infestation.

4 points to Create a Subrace of Angels, the Spirits.

4 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Accept the alliance with the Stringwork.

4 points to Command the Kraith to Ingrain Phobimancy.

7 points for Event: "The Great Kraith Infestation". Which essentially guarantees that each city which is built on the land, and which contains a fair portion of creatures with blood, now contains a tiny population of secret Kraith.

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280585/)

[Omegonthesane]

The Phobimancers of the Kraith had inspired renewed interest in the similar art of Telepathy, but many Singers felt somehow sullied by the association, and sought other ways in which this power could be used to advance their ends. What would have been instantly obvious to any other race finally, after many millennia, became realised to the firstborn children of Destruction - their arts were a means of communication more than a weapon of war. This was crystallised in the formation of the Indigo Chorus, a unit similar to the Blue Chorus of yesteryear, dedicated to ambush tactics and defeat in detail working with all information gathered, who - even more than the Rainbow Scourge - could stand as an example of Singers remaining united in purpose and action even over vast distances.

The various slaves in the surrounding buildings were the first to know, at some level. It was seen to that their overseers would learn the rudiments of Telepathy, and become able to send commands and corrections directly into their minds - and not just these, but visions and dreams with a precisely opposite purpose to ancient tradition, designed not merely to crush thoughts of rebellion but to foster active contentment with their present state.

Of course, there were those that the Scourge would consider bad eggs. These made sure that the amplified secrets of Telepathy made their way into the hands of the Singers' former kin in the Demons, and even taught it to the loathsome beings created in Rivis by the prayers of the Idrians. By the time some of these were found, and subjected to a suitably unspeakable fate, there was no way to rein the deed back in.

Nonetheless, the dark name of the Singers became whispered with yet more fear. While before they had merely been wrathful adversaries that few could fight alone, now they truly worked in unison. Among those who did not fully understand the secrets of Telepathy, a rumour spread that the Singers shared a single consciousness, based on the soon well-known fact that anything known to any loyal Singer was soon known to the Rainbow Scourge. The true profound effect was on Destroyer's Peak itself, whose inhabitants could now look forward to daily bombardments of telepathic messages spreading the Rainbow Scourge's message, encouraging Singer unity and discipline in the face of a world filled with impurity.

Fort Liberty had always been a military encampment, not a place meant for extended peace, and tensions within the streets increased as demons cried out for war, for a resumption of the battle with the Singer menace. They would not be placated with the official line, the claim that the Singers had simply chosen to become less of a menace rather than have enemies on every front, and ultimately began rioting.

Had these riots been confined to the fort itself, during what was otherwise peacetime, the Garrison would have been able to contain it. However, of course, problems and crimes began to spread across the settled territories nearby, and even the new secrets of Telepathy did little to improve matters - indeed, many felt they were somehow even worse, being shaped by the most wicked of hands. Given how they had been born, many other Demons actively and viciously rejected such notions of purity, and demanded a new army be raised to crush the insurrection.

The Demons would not have been so successful if calmer heads did not occasionally reign. A new army of Enforcers was raised from Fort Liberty, to defend the settled zone it was associated with, and to enforce such laws as the fort's Champions had voted to respect. In many ways the city had changed from the days of Sanctuary, being run by a coalition of the two - now three - Grand Champions and such advisors as they chose, instead of a council of the twelve clan leaders. As demons had interbred and interspersed, the twelve clans were so mixed and blended as to be essentially arbitrary distinctions, so Fort Liberty had simply chosen a different set of arbitrary distinctions.

The Liberators, for their part, itched for the chance to live up to their name, and were merely told that that day would come soon.

Most of the Bloom filled the elves with a strange and keen jealousy, as they saw their kin species dance and chant without any hope of themselves doing the same. Yet the Bloom was their home, and to leave the home of Life was more horrific to them than any pettiness. Naturally, it was not active effort that ultimately let them satisfy both desires; instead, a phenomenon emerged from their existing behaviours.

The elvish factions often had cause to speak with one another, when a conflict could not be resolved in battle without risking someone's life. Inevitably, a traditional meeting place became the norm, a particular clearing right on the foothills of the White Mountains, a caravan's march from the Grove of the strange and wondrous Trell. A series of treehouses were erected in this place, using wood harvested over and over from the same trees, a feat permitted by the flagrant abuse of Regenerative Magic. In these, a long council might dwell for months while a decision was reached, in more comfort than burrowing and tents allowed. A series of walkways was made between the houses, with the same trickery, and covered with leaves and twigs so as to look like simply part of the woods; the elves were no experts yet at camouflage, but they had no desire at first for the Elfmoot's location to be known to travellers.

Ultimately, however, this feat encouraged those seeking a better life to set up shop around the Elfmoot, and in the end, there simply wasn't enough space to fit them all in the trees. Wooden buildings were raised in the clearing, and at that point the city's secrecy was at an end.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4291425/)
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 15 points

1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Ingrain Technology (Telepathy)
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (Indigo Chorus)
4 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Raise Army (1st FL Enforcers)
4 points: Command Race (Elves) to Found City (Elfmoot)

0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to Defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (Indigo Chorus) to Defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (1st FL Enforcers) to Defend the Farea-Liberty Settled Zone

2 points remaining
+3 (4) Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[5a Violista]

10 points

Aniqua sat on a cloud, looking down at all the life below. Most of them, she could understand. The Singers, they sought beauty in strength. The Maimec found their structure and buildings to be beautiful. The plantlike Stringwork saw knowledge as beauty. Sure, some of them illogically amassed armies and caused death, but they still all sought after the same thing.

But the humans?

They make no sense. Their mindset is just so...alien. Their actions seem illogical. Their desires sound useless. They have no concept of beauty, and they don't understand life.

Humans are weird.

After spending a decades up there, thinking of all the reasons why the Humans are so strange and unknowable, Aniqua descends among her creations again to teach them of life.

The Nereids have been living peaceful lives, swimming around and catching sailors and hiding away lost treasures.

But, until now, they couldn't speak - not really. Of course, they could speak the language of Life, through their emotions and their smiles and their laughter, and Aniqua could understand them. The fish and algae and rocks could understand them. However, they didn't have words.

Aniqua inspired them to sing. They would sing the Song of the Sea, the Hymn of Life, the Anthem of Beauty.

Their voice was so beautiful that it would mesmerize all who heard it. All who heard their singing would feel as if they had to do as they sung. They would feel like they had to listen, they would feel like they had to find the source of the voice, and they would feel the desire to obey the singer.

Thus, the Nereids had a Voice, and Aniqua was pleased with it.

One of Aniqua's Avatars, The Oracle, manifested in the new city of Elfmoot. Inspired by Aniqua's knowledge, this young white-haired elf girl named Uruviel worked her way up into the hierarchy of the city. It took several years, but she eventually found her way up to be a leader of this fledgling city.

Uruviel told the people about the horror of the Humans, as commanded by Aniqua. How they despised life and beauty. They lived far south, and had such an alien mindset that nobody could possibly understand them. She told them how they had large armies who persecute life, how they imprison their own kind for being different. They're just so unknowable and strange, she told them.

Some believed her, some didn't. A couple traveled south to see for themselves. They returned with the news that the eldritch humans beat metal with fire to create weapons. They would use these weapons to take away life. They would create large armies, too, as Uruviel prophesied.

The elves felt the need to protect themselves. Inspired by Aniqua, Uruviel told them of a ritual they could do that would protect them, if they built a standing stone shaped like a tree. The elves spent decades carving this monolith in the center of their new city.

Now, every seventeen years, the elders of the elves gather around the stone and perform a prayer to Life. For those seventeen years, the monolith covers the city with a large shield that protects them from aggression.

The Fairies of Farea began teaching their Eternal Dance to any and every fairy they came across, until the majority of the fairies in the world brought beauty to Tyonix through dance.

Hostilities began rising between the Idrian cities of Rivis and Saorsa. The Idrists saw the "Idrian Republic of Saorsa" as cowards and, in general, loathsome people. They also blamed them for the appearance of these Haunted Houses, which caused disappearances throughout the city.

The Idrians felt the hostility, but they also felt they were safe, because of all the distance between them. However, felt they could use more protection from Aniqua.

They started to construct a small idol encrusted with jewels they had mined out of the ground. After a lengthy prayer service by the matriarchs and the leaders of the city, The Old Crone wandered into the service and blessed the idol.

So long as it remained within their city, they would be more fertile and childbearing would be made easier. As a result, their population increased at a much higher rate.



(5) Give Nereids "Enchanting Song" (Advance Civilization) (+1 in war)
(1) Give "Totem of Protection" to Elves in Elfmoot (Command Avatar-Command City-Build Wonder) (+1 to armies defending the city, if they remembered to do the ritual)
(1) Give Idrians in Saorsa the "Fertility Idol" (Command Avatar-Command City-Build Wonder) (+1 to armies based in a city with it, if they reproduce in a normal manner)
(1) Turn Farea's "Eternal Dance" power into a Faery Power.

10-5-1-1-1=2

2 + 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4291981/) + 3/3 (Cult) + 3/3 (Chaos) = 15

Planned actions next turn:
Give Nereids shapeshifting - either through trade, a political manoeuver, or advancing - whichever works, based on Stringworkage.
Ingrain "Eternal Dance" to Fairies

[Benthesquid]

*sigh* Roll=3 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4292117/) plus fifteen banks makes eighteen.

Crunch:
Command Order: (Sehkian Society), Raise Army (The One-Locked) Three Points
Command Army (The Shorn Ones): Wipe out Kraith in Adonia: Zero points
Command Army (The Shorn Ones) Defend Adonia: Zero Points
Command Army (The One-Locked) Defend Myhra: Zero Points


Fear had come back to the Werblumes. They were unsure at first what form it was taking, but as Visionary after Visionary remarked upon it, it became gradually clearer. A new race had entered their cities and villages, and was dwelling in the dark corners of their world.

In Myrha, the Visionaries of the Sehkian Society raised a new force to protect the Werblume against the dangers that had crept into their lives. This army was in many ways similar to the Shorn Ones, taking an identical set of oaths, but they left a single lock of hair growing from the top of their heads, and falling down the right sides of their

In Adonia, the response was more immediate.
***
Fir Nilsdoter's eyes were rolled up into her skull, and her vines stretched about her, twitching slightly. Each vine held a large metal pin. On the table in front of her there lay a map of Adonia. From time to time, one of the vines would slam the pin it held down into the map, and Fir would make a short remark- "Three, in the darkness below," perhaps, or "One, up in the shadows of the building's bones."

The scribes would record the position on the map indicated, and would do their best to interpret the accompanying remark, as, for example, "Three in the root cellar," and "One hiding among the rafters."

As soon as they had identified the locations in question, they would pass the notes on to a page, who would hurry them to the assembling Shorn Ones strike teams. These latter were busy preparing their tactics. The Visionaries had not been able to give them an exact description of the abilities possessed by their foes, but the Shorn Ones were confident. Nothing the Visionaries reported indicated any large-scale organization of the enemy- they merely lived, and occasionally preyed upon the citizens.

The purge was carried out in dozens of simultaneous strikes throughout the city. Shorn Ones broke down doors, pouring into the dark places that their Visionaries had identified as sheltering horrors. The Kraith fought back, certainly- numerous Shorn Ones were cut down with daggers made of shadow-stuff, or drowned in their own blood, or driven mad with visions of fear.

The Shorn Ones adapted quickly, burning down entire buildings with the Kraith trapped inside, or sending in huge swarms of biting and stinging insects. In the end, except what Kraith had escaped into the jungle, the city was free of the infestation.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280585/)
Current Power Points: 12

Ice hung heavy on the branches of the trees, deep within the First Land, as Sandriel swept slowly through the forest turned to crystal, her golden light pouring through the ice and the gaps in the sagging branches. She had been as this for many years, far longer than the lifetime of any Angel, though, she was uncertain what to do with her existence.

This day, as she marveled at the beauty of the world around her, and a quiet marsupial watched her from behind a tree, she fully puzzled on what she ought to do for the first time since she had been made this way. The joy of the power, of the freedom this form granted her had initially granted her distraction enough for her to have forgotten that, for of offshoot to exist, it had to grow. Though, how would she propagate an entire race?

As she thought on the matter, however, the answer seemed to come from the air around her, in the same way that Eull's will had been made known. Perhaps he was watching from afar. Regardless, the answer was that she was made of the same power as the deities were made of, but essentially under her own power. Thus, it was simply a matter of her using that power to create something new, as a god made new life.

So, she stopped, in that winter wilderness, and attempted to will many child Spirits into existence. It was more difficult than she could have imagined, though she felt the change take place even as she realized that it might take hours, even days.

Slowly, motes of light began to appear in the world around Sandriel, coalescing from the frozen wood and the beams of light from the sun on the horizon, just rising. Some were teal, some were dark blue, some were white, some were yellow, some were brown, and some were yet more colors. Dozens of points of light were coming together, and brightening around her. As she created them, she found that she had to define their attributes, though they could not exceed her by her influence alone. As such, she learned her exact abilities and existence as a Spirit.

She learned that she was ageless, though still mortal. She could grow sick or be slain, but would never age and thus never die of old age. She could be harmed by physical things, but such a thing would be very difficult, as such things would have to strike the exact origin of her golden light. She learned that she gained sustenance from the world she lived in, from the tree she passed by, from the creatures that followed her through the undergrowth in curiosity. Their souls offered nourishment to her soul, as though she were a part of the forest, and by simply appearing before the forest, she was made to live. She could also turn to other locations and survive through them, becoming a Spirit of a volcano, or a Spirit of the ocean. She learned that the color of her light was a reflection of her inner soul, of the personality only she could control. She learned her weaknesses and her strengths, and she learned that she would be the only Golden Spirit ever.

Her children awoke then, to look upon their mother, and swirl about in a maelstrom of joy.


---

The Spirits had spread all across the First Land, from the rocky wastes in the far south to the fern forests in the north. They were still young, still learning from their mother, as she wandered from clutch to clutch. They had begun naming themselves, from Dariel, to Kurtiel, Triel, to Heniel. They had also cultivated small stones containing amounts of gold from the mountains in the north of the First Land, which they carried around with them, practicing the art of Golden Magic their mother, Sandriel, taught them. They also attempted to hone the powerful art of influencing the world around them using their divine essence. It was not very much, concerning the divine powers that had been brought to bear in the past, but it was still far more than any other race had ever had available to their own free will. Hopefully Sandriel would be able to teach them well enough to not abuse it…


***

Eramine had raised their own Army of Princes, but this one was once again different from the others, for Eramine had grown lavish and immense, spreading out across the flat expanse at the bottom of the sea like a sheet of gold studded with diamonds. It was too much for the Kings alone to govern, and so, the Princes had been almost risen to the level of Kings themselves, but with less responsibility, as they governed any overflow of responsibilities the Kings could not handle. The position of Prince actually became more desirable in Eramine than the position of King, for it was considered more luxurious.

Meanwhile, almost as though in response to the new Army of Princes, a fourth King's Army was risen in Gerki. Sixty Shou Tahs sang in unison now, each willing to risk life and limb to protect Gerki or any other member of the sixty. No enemy force could hope to break through that sea of roaring Shou Tahs.

They grew restless as well, desiring the war they had been promised years ago, and the sixty roamed far and wide, demolishing entire mountains in their sport, creating tidal events of unprecedented power with sixty voices singing the War Song in unison. They were feared among the Shou Tahs, a force of unmatched brute force, black as night in the depths.

Meanwhile, the War Song had been sung for years and years, been developed and refined and revamped a thousand times by the impatient and inattentive Shou Tahs, and now it was truly to the point that even Shou Tahs children knew the basics of the Song, and no foe could ever hope to match them, even if they also had learned of the Wat Song.

5 points to Advance the Spirits with Divine Influence.

4 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Ingrain War Song.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Eramine to Raise an Army of Princes.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Gerki to Raise a King's Army.

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280583/)

[Neelien]

rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293104/) bringing me up to to 15.

The Stringwork tries to correct its mistake
This was unexpected. While there was no proof, the Saku Rasi seemed to have understood that Kuroba might not be part of their race. This was a problem, as it not only implied that the Stringwork did not yet fully understand their society, but also that its ability to collect knowledge unimpeded might be at risk.

It would have to continue pretending that Kuroba was a Saku Rasi, and lift all doubt about his identity. It would definitely have to accept the condition about the Saku Rasi working as middlemen, instead of only Outgoer 11. There should however be some sort of criteria that would justify only Kuroba having been selected so far.

So when Kuroba came for the next meeting, after the Saku Rasi had made their offer, he began explanations:

"You seem to have misunderstood. There is no such thing as trust or distrust when it comes the Stringwork. Any Saku Rasi could come into contact with the Stringwork if he so desired. The main problem is how to contact them. The Strings that live on the surface are very much like plants, not because they pretend to have no intelligence, but because it is indeed nearly non-existent. So tying to contact the Sringwork through them is meaningless. How I came to know of the Stringwork is through my family. I know that you have been looking into my past and have found many that shared my name. That is the name the Stringwork gives us after we contact it. I am assuming that that is related to the first individual of our family that met the Stringwork many years ago.

Until a few years ago, the Stringwork did not see reason for us to spread the knowledge of itself. Frankly we thought we were the only one who knew. We do not speak much of things unrelated to buisiness so we didn't really pay much attention to what was said around us when we traded in Sanctuary. But that is irrelevant. Now the Stringwork is open to our race, and will produce no artificial barrier to our communicating with it, so you may select any number of ambassadors you whish. The Stringwork leaves that choice to you.

I will now explain the process of communicating with the Stringwork. First you need to warn the Stringwork of your arrival as well as state your request. This should be done by talking towards strings located on shore. Then you will need to swim roughly one kilometer into the ocean. This is where a Small Proxy will be waiting. Unlike individual Strings, the Small Proxys can communicate by creating vibration in water to imitate our language. If you are interested in knowing why Proxies will not communicate on land, that is because they don't have the Stringth to support themselves and therefore cannot produce sound above water. They do not operate in shallow waters because the currents there are too unpredictable, so understanding of the phenomena that cause these currents might allow easier commnication.

So to come back to what I was saying, you will then need to dive deep into the waters. Being able to hold your breath for at least 4 minutes is must.

Now onto more interresting matters. The Stringwork has given us a positive reply with regards to most of the Technologies that have been asked of it. With regards to providing Communication and Armouring, these could be provided immediately. Metallurgy could be provided with a slight delay. The Singer technologies will require time to acquire, the ability to change one's shape cannot be provided as of yet. The Stringwork informed me that it will be on the lookout for this technology and will inform our race when it discovers it. Regarding mapmaking, this was my personal request and it did not involve any form of technological trade. Unfortunately, from your response I gather that you have no desire to help me sort my problem. The Stringwork said that it would trade for any technology you pocess, even such technologies as roads, shipbuilding or medicine, for which the Stringwork has no use.

This concludes my speech. If any have questions as to how to contact the Stringwork, I have managed to obtain funds to create a diving school. I realize many of our kin are already good swimmers, but trust me, diving, especially when visiting the Stringwork, is an entirely different matter."

With that said, the man left. As he exited the door, the guards very clearly saw his annoyed expression, as he muttered :

"Me... part of that monster? No way! I'm only doing this because it's our family's tradition... Cheh..."


Nothing happens with the Sadowbirds in this time.

Crunch:
4 points:Command Race Stringwork - Trade "Armouring" and "Communication" for any two technologies the Saku Rasi want to provide. The nature of these techs does not matter.

11 points remaining
+1 next turn

[ImperialSunligh]

Unrest grew like a plague in Sophei. What was once a thriving community of intellectuals was now divided and drought with doubt. The cause? The new, well-meaning cult of Aniqua that passed themselves off as mere purveyors of beauty and life. Eknad saw through this guise. He knew the nature of this group, and he reluctantly shared it with the many who prayed for this answer.

This only made things worse. History told of the cult of Aniqua that spoiled angelic civilization in the ancient age, and many still resented the returned goddess even after all this time. Many other factors made the people of Sophei angry with the cult. The matriarchal nature of the cult enraged those who saw the council of Sophei as a holy representation of the multitudinous nature (less so now) of the pantheon. The cult saw only a feminine leader.

Further, many detested the claim by the cult that beauty and life were immutably great. The beliefs passed down by Eknad tell otherwise, claiming life to be fleeting and the only immutable truth to be change itself. Eknad being the patron deity of humans, they saw these humans as rejecting their nature, the one whose goal it was to guide them to greatness, if they embrace him.

Rumours of a strange union between far flung races created by Aniqua and the demons did not help matters.

In the past, destroying the cult of the destroyers was avoidable. But now, some action would need to be taken to appease the people who cared about the pantheon. And so Eknad allowed the people of Sophei to detain the cult of Aniqua, staying the hand of only those who would do harm to them, apart from the current oracle of Aniqua, the symbolism of whom was too great to let go. She was burned at the stake in front of the council buildings of Sophei, her ashes blown by the sea breeze into the countryside. Some fledgling worshipers remained in secret, but they were few and far between, not enough to have a significant impact, and greatly disheartened by the death of the oracle.

Meanwhile, a spark of Antike's force guided the monkeys towards a new path.

Dawn's red light seeped through the cracks of the cave that would later be known as Bloody Cave, such was the nature of the acts within. This day was not a day of blood, however, at least, not in the cave itself. Today the cave was host to fifty, possibly more monkeys gathered solemnly, ignoring the lack of space, around a single small table, upon which laid papers. These papers were the outline of the great events that occurred that day.

The monkeys themselves were of various walks of life. Many were low class or of the ungifted, though many still were rich and privileged. They all appeared the same, however, armed to the teeth in makeshift armor and weapons.

They nodded to each other, not needing words. They exited the cave, and marched the short distance to the city of Herz. Herz itself lacked largely in defences at this point, having no walls and being quite disorganised. It was easy for most of the group to enter the city entirely unseen, those who failed appearing to be mere mercenaries. Upon entering the city and passing by the human defences, the monkeys reached the great palace, where the current government of Herz rested.

Herz had a strange style of government. Ever since its inception it has varied, to the point that no one knows what style of government was used first. Currently, the government had taken the shape of a monarchy echoing that of the humans. The king of the monkeys was powerful, but the current society relied more on the merchant classes and nobility. The king only intervened when necessary. Meanwhile, the slave trade that Herz was built on flourished with the king's indifference.

That was the reason for the group's mission. They climbed the walls of the Great Palace, its ridiculous arcade design making doing so without being seen simple. Reaching the office of the King, the monkeys poured in the window, seizing him by the throat and bleeding him dry.

Thus began the rule of the Republic of Free Monkeys, or as it was often called the RFM. The first act of the new republic was to outlaw slavery and integrate the ungifted back into society, regardless of their ability or lack thereof. The RFM was, despite its name, very controlling, offering very little individual freedom for the monkeys. They planned society as they believed it should be run, allowing for little deviance.


Roll: 2d6+1=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293823/)
Reroll: 2d6+1=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293827/)

Command 1st Army of Rhapsodists, Detain members of Aniqua's cult in Sophei (Practically destroying it).
Create Order of Monkeys, The Republic of Free Monkeys. (RFM), -6

Left: 2

[Omegonthesane]

Over the waters northwest of the Pure Land, a new portal appeared, and from it descended what appeared to be a pulsating sphere, perhaps ten kilometres in diameter at first glance. Many prophets had had this vision in the centuries leading up to this day, for this was the shape of the Dreamforge when it was considered ready to enter the world below. Of course, first glance failed to completely grasp its nature, as its diameter had reduced to seven and a half kilometres once its eight tendrils uncoiled, each one a kilometre in width, and twenty-two and a half in length. The coruscating glow turned out to be a set of lesser portals, as well; once the giant effigy of a Singer had fully deployed, strange protrusions came from its hide, spaced out along its four upper tendrils and densely packed along its spherical core. Most of these were utilities, for Singers did not need to sleep comfortably in the same way as other races, and so their residential areas were unfeasibly tight for the peoples of other races. As the people who had built this city were themselves Singers and had never seen a non-Singer, this lack of consideration was not really a surprise.

The structures on the outside of its four lower tendrils were rather more sparse, smaller, and made to much stricter specifications, having far thicker walls and roofs. They had to be, for these four lower tendrils plunged into four pre-existing trenches within the abyssal plain more than six kilometres below the water’s edge. They then coiled upwards, digging into the ground where necessary to anchor the Dreamforge to the sea floor. Only half a kilometre of each lower tendril remained dry at average tide, leaving most of the city the other half of a kilometre above the average sea level.

The upper tendrils, meanwhile, spent much of their time resting at sea level, and none of their attendant structures were as tall as the Core - let alone as tall as the view from the Belltower of Life, which protruded from this Core. However, as often as not one tendril would be coiled and raised above the great structure, to serve as a lookout in case someone came over the sea to strike at the Forge - though having never seen Tyonix until the time of their arrival, the Dreamforge Singers did not know precisely what might await them above the water.

More of the city was inside the Dreamforge than outside, with buildings densely located on the inner surface and a latticework of eerie glowing materials to facilitate travel and support the superstructure. This latticework was far denser in the Core, where it did not have to support a moving part, and the Core Latticework had structures built upon it. Carious hatches and mouths on the Core permitted travel between the inner and outer cities, and emergency one-way exits dotted the inside of each tendril. The lower tendril exits risked logging the Forge with water, so they each consisted of two doors enclosing a vestibule which a fleeing person would enter, only for the door behind them to close before the door to the open sea opened. With this done, it was a relatively simple matter of Portal Magic to empty the waterlogged vestibule ready for reuse if necessary. These were not likely to see use by relatively intact Singers, who could simply create portals to escape, however it was possible that Singers hopped up on Berserker’s Brew or otherwise too weak to use spells might need to escape. This was the excuse the engineers had given when they installed exits clearly meant for the benefit of non-Singers.

Those who looked very closely, with whatever senses were granted to them, would have noticed the runes within runes carved into the Dreamforge’s floors, on every inch, deeper than could even be read. Those who walked upon it would surely notice how its material gave just enough to be uncomfortable when one trod on it or poked it. Those brave souls who dared would soon realise that gravity did not quite behave properly within the city - any person within a kilometre of its surface would be dragged towards the Dreamforge rather than towards the abyss below, even if that meant falling up, while any person inside would be dragged towards either the nearest wall or the nearest latticework. Indeed, many of the buildings took advantage of this strange property, especially inside, where impossible spires were held in place by the competing gravities of two or more latticework beams rather than falling into one or the other. Most notable of these was the Hall of Composers sited in the Core, a thin spherical building with no foundations and only a ladder to connect it to the nearest wall.

These were merely a required preparation for the real wonder of the place, however. The Dreamforge’s fundamental structure appeared to be a fifty-kilometre effigy of a Singer, but in truth, it was no effigy - the engineers had simply constructed the largest Singer who ever lived, hollowed it out to construct yet more things inside it, and scribed it with runes that caused it to obey the Plane of Thunder’s laws of gravity so that it would not collapse under its own weight. Should the Forge come under attack, it would be defended not only by soldiers, but by the Living City itself, which saw all and could perfectly coordinate its defenders, as well as being one more sorcerer for their ranks, and one with the mystic potency of ten normal-size Singers at that.

Fear was not something many Singers regularly felt before the Kraith spread from the Pure Land, and the sudden prevalence of it among their slave camps was disruptive to their day-to-day life. As it happened, the wealthiest of them - which was to say Rainbow Scourge recruits, as the tyrants saw to it that warriors were rewarded for the risks they took - had access to Berserker’s Brew, but this was a temporary solution at best, and one with unfortunate side effects if you didn’t want to vandalise everything within a mile of yourself. The Yellow Segment went further than any other part of Destroyer’s Peak in exploring this escape route, creating new accessories that would allow them to flood their bodies with Brew at short notice, and reacting differently as they extended their use of a drug never meant for extended use. Their senses adjusted to continual rage, not quite by enough that they acted calmly or rationally, but certainly by enough to grant a terrifying lucidity and efficiency to their rages. They even learned to cast spells while berserk, though these were never so skilful or efficient as those cast by more sensible people.

As this escape route grew in popularity, the Yellow Segment grew in size, many Singers proclaiming that they wore the very colour of fear so that their enemies would know to tremble and yield. Filled with a desire to rip things to pieces that they never quite escaped, the segment took to attaching strange barbs and spikes to their tendrils. Unlike the self-mortification devices of the Red Screamers, these instruments were designed to increase the damage the Yellow Segment could inflict with its tendrils. Even this did not satisfy many of the burgeoning army, who added a large heavy weapon in two of their four typical weapon tendrils, usually either an axe or a hammer for maximum penetrating power.

Between their un-Singer-ish preference for melee weaponry, their atrophied magic, and the inescapable rage that their surface failed to hide, the new army came to be known as the Yellow Beasts.

Most of the wonders of the Dreamforge remained within the Dreamforge until it had had time to establish itself. The majority of the Rings of Telepathy were the exception; guided by Makhleb’s hand, they hid themselves among collections of jewellery and finery among all the various races of the world. This was not seen as a tragedy, however; in a similar fashion to the Great Bell of long-lost Ashatorat, the lesser Rings were but vectors for the true wonder, the eight Master Rings, each held by one of the eight Octarchs of the Dreamforge In truth, other than poring through the information received from the Master Rings, the position of Octarch was largely ceremonial; there was no real way to govern the city of mad wizard-engineers, and even their official concerns extended only to the structural integrity of the Living City’s superstructure, rather than its politics.

Practically none of the holders of the Lesser Rings truly understood their function at first, since they tended to be in disguise and held by those who had no reason to expect them. The project was slow to bear fruit, and the Octarchs howled in frustration after the thirty-seven thousandth time that a husband or wife among the Humans or Saku Rasi slipped on their wedding ring and began broadcasting their thoughts to the Dreamforge. Even the thoughts of these civilians were of use in preparing the defences of the Singers, however, and while they had unanimously refused to grant Destroyer’s Peak a Master Ring, the Octarchs were for the time being quite happy to tell all to the Rainbow Scourge. Even fully trained Telepaths had some small use for the items, as while the sorcery of Telepathy was as draining as any other thaumaturgic path, the Rings were so easy to use that they were physiologically safe for newborn infants, though by no means psychologically.

It was while the Yellow Beasts were approaching full conclave strength that the eight lead sorcerers of the Rainbow Scourge received a telepathic sending. A conversation followed, after which they gathered up all those Singers important enough that they had to be informed of deeds and changes. These, after all, had to be caught up with the new development. As the accepted overall figurehead and spokesman of the Scourge, the White Lead Sorcerer - the same former White Conclavist who had proposed the new system - spoke from a rocky outcrop on the surface of the Peak.

"Earlier this evening, we received a message from another city. A Singer city. Our cousins from the home plane have sent more of us down here." Cheers ensued, a sound like a thunderstorm, and then were allowed to die down. "They have offered us many new and destructive wonders, with which we might purify the world - not least of which is training in the art of unified action, in the same fashion which we have sought since the vile Shou Tahs struck down the Pale Nightmares. But their coming is by no means an unvarnished good! They have not seen the dangers which await them here in the material world, and we have no way of knowing what strange sights may have warped them in the home plane. They have not merely granted us the benefits of their Wonders, but demanded that we shield them while they come up to speed. Fortunately, a new army of the Rainbow is ready for the task. They will see their first duty and come up to speed, and the Scourge will protect our home as it always has. As for the rest… we have the tools we need. The Shou Tahs of Gerki, who nearly destroyed us, shall at last have the war they so desperately crave."

It took the aid of the Living City’s own senses to create the portals which took the Yellow Beasts to its surface. When the Dreamforge’s Octarchs realised the at best questionable gift they had been given, the Beasts were confined to the surface of the Forge, forbidden from entering a building unsupervised for fear of what they would do there. This troubled them very little, for the Dreamforge was enormous compared to their home city, and patrolling alone was entertaining enough - not least under the water, where there were plenty of sharks and dolphins and other large aquatic creatures to rip apart without particular consequence. Indeed, many of them simply landed on the Forge, unused to the localised gravity.

It is a curious fact of Singer linguistics that they have never had separate words for the concept of a fighter and the concept of a spellcaster. Indeed, to them, combat meant magic and magic tended to mean combat, and even the Yellow Beasts had not quite broken with this idiom. Thus it was that each Segment of twenty-five was divided thusly: at its head was the Lead Sorcerer, charged with directing all below them into achieving their objective; beneath them were four Sorcerers, each nominally in charge of five Warriors. This subdivision was necessary due to the natural fractiousness of the Singers; they had difficulty working together in large groups, but those who could see the bigger picture could make many small groups work in concert. This was, after all, the founding principle behind the Rainbow Scourge and the Chorus after them.

The strike on Gerki was one of unprecedented size. All three of the active expeditionary forces of Destroyer’s Peak were to attack, with the Rainbow Scourge acting as support and reserves. The Lead Sorcerers of the Scourge, in their double role as Octarchs of Destroyer’s Peak, felt that such a force ought not to be dictated to. Therefore each of the four armies was called upon to elect one or two representatives to the temporary rank of Sorcerer Lord, so that the Sorcerer Lords might convene to discuss stratagems.

The Indigo Chorus did almost exactly as was intended, save that they spent perhaps too long in gathering opinions and ensuring that all their members had an informed say in the matter. Had they been all together in a room and nominally equal, only cacophony would have been achieved; as it was, the process of each Lead Sorcerer having a telepathic discussion with each member of the Chorus took several days including sleepless nights, but ultimately a decision was reached which all members knew they could accept - the most charismatic Lead Sorcerer was one Indigo Sorcerer Lord, while the other was a mere Sorcerer, better able to communicate the concerns of the Warriors.

The Red Screamers had no problem in principle with consulting their warriors, but felt that the matter was not of a kind that required their input. By definition, surely only Lead Sorcerers could be trusted to see a big enough picture to discuss strategy, or else they would not have risen to that rank. The Lead Sorcerers debated for perhaps two hours before deciding that none of them was outstandingly more or less competent than any of the others, and thus simply drew lots; the two Screamers to draw short straws became the two Red Sorcerer Lords.

The Green Nightmares felt the whole idea of shackling themselves to a fixed plan was ridiculous, and ran counter to the power of their race, the adaptive nature of their sadistic tactics - and they subconsciously felt obligated to oppose a plan they thought the Indigo Chorus would like. Thus, as a gesture of contempt, one of their Sorcerer Lords was a monkey slave painted green, whose tongue had been cut out, and who in any case had been a slave in Herz before being taken with his master to Destroyer’s Peak. The other was a rank and file Warrior, so that someone might express how stupid the whole charade was to the Nightmares.

The Rainbow Scourge, meanwhile, generated an odd result even for its own system. Those of its mages who voted at all, all voted for the White Lead Sorcerer, and thus the Rainbow had only one Sorcerer Lord. At first, they suspected that someone had rigged the votes to curry favour, but investigation revealed that it was a ridiculously good cover-up if cover-up it was.

"You waste our time with this dance, old ones," said the relevant Nightmare Lord.
"I came in here thinking the same thing," said one of the Screamer Lords, "until you spoke, whelp! We ought to get this over with of course, but apparently Nightmares need to be taught how to listen to briefings!"
"And to contribute to them," said the greater of the Chorus Lords. "It may be that there are factors to this that one or more of us would miss working alone."
"And what are these factors, O stagnant one?" spat the Nightmare Lord. "We are each of us a match for a hundred mere mortals, and yet we shiver and plot to fight a mere sixty?"
"Shou Tahs are not mere mortals, ‘Lord’," said the junior Chorus Lord. "Perhaps you need a lesson in your own army’s history."
"What about it? Fifteen Shou Tahs climbed our peak and fifteen Shou Tahs were slaughtered!"
"Fourteen Shou Tahs," said the Rainbow Lord, "and only at the cost of one hundred and eighty Pale Nightmares, among them three of my lovers. If all ‘mere’ mortals are beneath us, that simply means those monsters are not among them."
"Indeed," said the second Screamer Lord. "For once, our advantage lies not in might, but in numbers. These beasts are smaller than us individually as well as numerically, so for once aiming may be an actual challenge."
"We have not had repeated chances to study their magics, either, as we have with the Angels or the Humans," said the senior Chorus Lord. "We know their War Song grants them abilities we have yet to replicate, abilities of which the Hall of Composers has provided us with only pale reflections. Furthermore, the Shou Tahs have a power we have not spoken of. Do those present object if I speak freely?"
"Say what you must for the good of our efforts," said the Rainbow Lord, giving their consent.
"No time for pretty words," said the first Screamer Lord, after discussion with the second. "Speak your piece so we can be done."
"This whole council is an insult. It hardly matters if you rub it in now," said the second Nightmare Lord, over the sound of the first Nightmare Lord eating an overripe banana.
"Thank you," the senior Chorus Lord said. "As you have been so very eager to demonstrate, Nightmare Lord, we are not as cohesive as the armies of Gerki. We would sooner fight as four than as one. Therefore, in order to even the odds, we must make them fight as four, not as one. I trust that the best way to achieve this is obvious to all of us present."
"All except him," said the second Screamer Lord, gesturing at the monkey.
"I don’t think he counts at this point," the Rainbow Lord interjected.
"Anyway," said the senior Chorus Lord. "For all our... philosophical differences... the Chorus recognises that the Nightmares are the first and foremost experts in the illusions needed to perform this feat. As our debased kin to the southwest might say, we are green with envy at your prowess. Therefore we would like to offer you the honour of making the first true strike."
"...Maybe this whole council wasn’t an insult after all," the second Nightmare Lord conceded.

The discussion after that mostly hinged on strategy. The most obvious question was swiftly answered - though few Singers knew it personally, they had no need to completely fear immersion in water, as they were not wholly corporeal beings that required air to live; however, the water would both slow them down and allow them and their enemies three dimensions to work in, making this a fight not quite like any other before it. The Sorcerer Lords would remain with the Rainbow Scourge reserves, playing and guarding the various instruments of war that Destroyer’s Peak wielded - for it would only compound their shame if one of these was lost in the attempt to retrieve the Horn of Winter. A segment of the Red Screamers would fall upon one another in an orgy of torture, providing the power needed for a segment of the Green Nightmares to fill the minds of the King’s Armies with the illusions needed to drive them apart. A segment of the Indigo Chorus would stalk and harry the divided King’s Armies, sending messages to the Sorcerer Lords when they were far enough apart. One army would be attacked by each of the Screamers, Nightmares, and Chorus, and if all were entirely successful, all would dogpile the last. Were the odds not favourable to this, or had they failed between them to take the Horn of Winter, the Rainbow would step in and either finish the job or cover the retreat as applicable.

In deference to the Green Nightmares’ desire to not be beholden to commands, the armies were left to decide their own battle tactics for the army they were assigned to kill.

Singer armies were small compared to most in the world, but that meant little and less in the abyssal plains where the Shou Tahs dwelt. There was hardly any light to see by for such beings as used sight in the depths, but similar to the Shou Tahs they were here to kill, the Singers provided light enough for their enemies to kill them by. Many had experimented with camouflage patterns, and if it were practical in a melee the Rainbow might have allowed it, but these were only of use when ambient light was already brighter than the glow of a Singer, which it really wasn’t in the depths. Thus, the King’s Armies had plenty of warning that Gerki was to come under attack, so they marshalled their defences and prepared to strike.

It was highly fortunate for them that they nonetheless clustered into the groups of fifteen that had trained together, instead of mixing and matching. The only way a Singer could be stealthy in these conditions was in comparison to something else, and indeed in comparison to the seven hundred warriors swimming towards the Black City, the twenty-five Green Nightmares creeping along the sea bed were stealthy. They indeed were not seen until they had begun their work, and not acted on until they had finished it; Shou Tahs halfway through their sixty-strong War Song suddenly found themselves unable to see or hear their comrades, instead finding themselves alone in strange lands. Such was the power of lying to the senses, with a little help from creatively applied Portals to divide the King’s Armies physically as well as mentally. This also served the purpose of bringing them out of the city, to four locations between which the other, even relatively stealthier Singer segment was divided. Each sent confirmation to the Rainbow Lord as they saw their quarry stumble blind through a portal, and then fled to rejoin their unit - and in two cases, to leave the glory to another.

The Horn of Winter at his side, the Black King took less time than his servants to realise what had transpired. Tragically, their minds clouded by the Green Nightmares, many of the King’s Armies did not hear his orders and warning at first.
"Heads down men! Their magic tricks are no match for the Horn!" With that, blasts of profound cold created streams of ice overhead, many of them with Singers encased in them to possibly freeze to death before even escaping.

The dance had begun.

Stealth did not come naturally to the Red Screamers. Indeed, tactics in general did not come naturally to the Red Screamers, as their defining trait was having enough power from their Cruciatic Thaumaturgy and self-mortification devices to simply power through any battle. However, that hadn’t worked when the humans attacked their predecessors in Eupnea, and it wasn’t likely to work against an enemy that had once set foot on Destroyer’s Peak itself. In any case, their Sorcerers had all trained under the Rainbow Scourge, so had at least a basic grounding in the more subtle uses of their powers.

As the first band of Shou Tahs began their War Song and marched towards the main body of Screamers, one fell through a portal into a piece of water surrounded by ten Screamers, whose dreaded spells froze the water around him and sent spears of rock and steel into his flesh, while others simply ripped him open as surely as a frenzied elephant. Yet even this was not quite enough to even subdue a Shou Tah on its own, and four of the ten discorporated from their injuries in the ensuing brawl. This tale repeated itself four more times with similar numbers before the main body of Shou Tahs had properly closed in, at which point they proved themselves by far the more skilled unarmed combatants, putting their strength to good use, moving out of every trap the Screamers set, and keeping their Song up throughout even when their echolocation was clouded by false visions. The earthquakes below shook them when they cared to stand on the ground, but that just meant the fight was mostly in the water instead; the cohesion of the Black Armies was almost enough to stop the effects of the Trumpets of Discord, but even though they were able to not target eachother in a rage, the Shou Tahs lost their usual finesse while driven berserk by those sounds, and were that tiniest bit easier to strike from behind. The tiniest bit often being enough.

Unfortunately, they were few, and their enemies many. On the surface the Red Screamers were a small elite, but against the Shou Tahs they were more like an endless tide, and as the War Song faltered, crucial bolts found their way through, or portals opened to disrupt it further. Without the War Song to multiply their power, the Shou Tahs could not hold for long against the tide.((This didn't happen unless the Earthquake Drum works))

With their godlike strength and indomitable mobility, combined with the advantage of home ground, it is hardly surprising that the King’s Army won the day. They took three casualties of their fifteen, and this was shameful for Shou Tahs, but they had driven back the scourge of the surface world and ensured Gerki would not be undefended.((This happens if I misapplied another +1 other than the Drum))

The Shou Tahs were mighty opponents, though they numbered only fifteen. On any other day, to any other species, a casualty ratio of fifteen friendlies to two hundred enemies would have been a heroic and celebrated day of victory; as it was, the death of the 4th King’s Army would not be called vain, assuming it was heard about by those on the surface who would now never fight the current crop of Red Screamers.((This is believed to be the actual outcome))

The 3rd King’s Army stumbled through a portal and was greeted with a clear vision in every direction. Somehow, the witchcraft of the Singers had cast them forward through time, denying them the chance to defend their city and do their duty. Hideous chants sounded from every direction as the broken bodies of the entire other three King’s Armies were brought living into the largest city plaza, each carried by an undiminished army of two hundred Singers. These had chunks of flesh carved off them, and forced down the throats of their wives and their children, who were next to suffer this hideous death. Not a single Shou Tah dared raise a fist against these atrocities, and between their natural reaction to the visions and the emotions being clumsily broadcast into their souls, the 3rd King’s Army was filled with utter despair once they saw the flames of the city around them burning. They tried to fight against the endless army of Singers, and even killed a few, but in the end retreated like shameful cowards; still subconsciously under the power of the Trumpets of Discord, and with no others to fight, they came to blame one another for the failure and fall on one another in an orgy of intercenine violence.

As the last member of the army suffered a mortal wound, the majority of his comrades had not yet bled to death, so there was a sound of mass laughter as the veil over their heads lifted, and they saw that the battle in fact was barely begun. Their deaths had not ended a life of shame, but merely made the coming day even harder for their brethren; all that any of their falls had achieved was to weaken Gerki further in its hour of direst need. Even trapped in a waking dream as they had been, the 3rd King’s Army had caused severe injuries to an entire segment of Nightmares, but that was one-eighth to their own total losses. The Green Nightmares even went to the trouble of force-feeding parts of each member to their second Sorcerer Lord, the first having drowned within seven minutes of the operation as monkeys cannot breathe water.

The powers of Telepathy had always had potential as a tool rather than strictly a weapon of war, but the Indigo Chorus were first to really abuse its potential. With repeated tactical updates over a horrendously wide killing ground, the Chorus were able to simultaneously see those of their number recharging from the suffering of nearby aquatic animals, those most adept with portals, those in areas it would be convenient to portal a Shou Tah into, and many other things. Sadly, the sight restriction of Portal Magic could not be directly circumvented in this way, as their arts were not so advanced as to literally share senses; but a friend - or a foe - could be guided in several hops to where they were needed. The work of the Chorus was slower than that of their competitors, and more gruelling, but they feared above all the Shou Tah advantage of cohesion and unity, being the one Singer army that truly had it and understood it. By denying it to their enemies, they were able to destroy the 2nd King’s Army without any mortal injuries, though if anything more of them were harmed than in the assault of the Green Nightmares.

The Rainbow Lord observed all that had happened, but the reports coming from the Red Screamers were worrying, and garbled - all spoke of the destruction of the enemy, but the Lord could not ascertain whether they would have a unit of Screamers for the final assault. Not until too late, anyway; the troops could not continue the assault forever, and the closest Singer camp was all the way out in the Dreamforge.

"Warriors and sorcerers of the Rainbow Scourge!" they bellowed at the reserve unit which guarded them. "Our offshoots have won glories this day, but the battle is not yet complete! The Horn of Winter is still held by the vile Shou Tahs, and our troops have paid dearly to remedy this wrong. We must not let their deeds be in vain! We cannot let the Black King’s insult to our people continue! And above all, we have too long been nothing but a defensive force; it’s about time we claimed some glory!" That last proclamation got a cheer from the segments of the Rainbow, four of them now wearing white for the four armies that had fully formed.

A portal opened nearby, and the many wounded of the Indigo Chorus stumbled through, offering up the stinging of their wounds to the Rainbow’s crusade. With this injection of power, the Rainbow Scourge opened portals all around the still-deluded army of the King himself, and struck directly at the bearer of the Horn of Winter, led by the Rainbow Lord who personally blew the Trumpets of Discord. Tragically, in their eagerness to finish the job, the Singers had completely underestimated the threat that the remaining quarter of the enemy still posed; their only hope lay in wearing the enemy down, for all of their tricks and traps were not nearly enough to close the gap between one Singer - or even ten Singers - and one of the deep dwellers.

The power of Portal Magic allowed them to disrupt the united song of their foes, but they had been slower than was wise to apply it, and slower than was wise to blind their foes in Telepathy even with the power of their wounded comrades. The oldest of the King’s Armies, the army in which the Black King himself marched, was more cohesive than the others, and took longer than any other to even be reduced in finesse under the Trumpets of Discord. In part as a result, their losses were enormous, and it would take years to replace those who had fallen. The toll was lower per head among their enemies, and indeed at least two of the fifteen escaped, but not before a berserk Singer had personally cut off the Black King’s arm, taking the Horn of Winter with it.((This happens if the Earthquake Drum works or I missed any +1s.))

There was no way that their simple numbers could have hoped to overcome a fully powered War-Singing army of Gerki, and though they took perhaps two or three of the King’s attendants with them, only a few were able to create portals through which to flee back to the Rainbow Lord’s camp where the instruments were played, and these few felt more ashamed at their fear than glad to be alive. Some might have taken a small consolation in the retrieval of the Horn of Winter, when a berserk Singer had cut off the Black King's arm and taken the Horn which it held, but others of the Black Army had wrenched the Trumpets of Discord from the Rainbow Lord's own tendrils, and thereby spoiled any victory that might have been claimed.((This is currently believed to be the actual outcome.))

The survivors from the four armies that had marched portalled their way back to where the instruments were played, to hear the final debriefing. A war on such scale was unprecedented; though the powers used were less mighty than those of the Demigods of old, for four entire armies to march as one was a feat never before dared. They had struck not at the easy prey of Elfmoot or Rivis, but at the mightiest military force other than their own kind the world had ever known, a tide of deep dwellers that now would never reach the surface. In this act, the Singers had ensured they would forevermore be as feared beneath the water as above it.

As overall commanding general of the attack, the Rainbow Lord lowered their upper tendrils in mourning as they heard the casualty lists from the Red Screamers and Green Nightmares, and coiled their lower ones in shame as they heard the much longer lists from their own Rainbow Scourge. It was in this position of mourning and shame that they addressed the troops, and with a quieter voice than before.

"Long ago, in a past age, when the Red Screamers still walked among the dwellings of Eupnea, the Horn of Winter was meant as one of their four rewards. By black and foul sorceries, the will of the Maker was undone by our own kin, and the four Instruments scattered across the world. We recovered one recently, the Earthquake Drum, but for years the Black City of Gerki has held the Horn of Winter.

"The insult they originally gave us ended today," the Rainbow Lord said, in a voice devoid of triumph. A member of the Violet Segment raised the Horn up as proof. "But this victory was sullied by the loss of the Trumpets of Discord, the gift of the Dreamforge to our city. The Shou Tahs kept the Horn from its rightful owners, and we have remedied that ancient wrong, but I say they have earned the Trumpets in war and suffering. It is no shame to retreat against the mightiest foes Destroyer’s Peak has ever known, and continuing the struggle will not bring back our fallen kin. We have slain and reaped many glories, and it may be that some other completes our vengeance, but we must face facts. Gerki still stands, and while we have taken the Horn, Gerki now holds the Trumpets. Let the deep dwellers keep them for now for all I care, we have lost more heroes than they are worth. Those of us left should defend our homes.((Mission Failed. This is currently believed to be the actual outcome.))

"The insult they gave us lasted for years. It ended today!" the Rainbow Lord suddenly roared, as a member of the Violet Segment raised the Horn of Winter high to be seen by as many as possible. "We have broken the greatest army that ever existed outside our walls, we have seized their crown jewel, and we have taken what we lost so long ago!

"Indigo Chorus, you know better than most that there is no shame to be found in defence. Through mastery of tactics, and through courage and audacity, you have done your duty without a single casualty. As such, you are to return with me to Destroyer’s Peak; we cannot trust the Demons to keep the truce with our walls unguarded, and it will take time for a new Scourge to rise.

"Red Screamers, in days of old your predecessors conquered Eupnea. Some of you are veterans from those long-past days. I grant you the honour of doing to Gerki what your ancestors did to the City of Angels. But not alone. Green Nightmares, you have earned great honours this day, and proven your place in our ranks. Aid the Red Screamers in holding Gerki while we get what we can out of its ruins. Repel the Shou Tahs who will surely come seeking our flesh.

"For now, let us all celebrate, for we have led the greatest offensive the world has ever seen, and WE! HAVE! TRIUMPHED!"

The Rainbow Lord only pitied whoever had to clean up after three mostly-intact Singer armies spent a day partying in Gerki.((Mission Accomplished, occurs if I missed at least one +1 for my side))

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4292836/) points
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 12 points

1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Living City)
4 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (Yellow Beasts)
7 points: Descent of the Dreamforge and all its wonders, including the flavour text needed for the Rings of Telepathy to make sense

0 points: Command Army (Yellow Beasts) to Defend the Dreamforge
0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) to Attack Gerki, provoking the 4th King’s Army!
0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to Attack Gerki, provoking the 3rd King’s Army!
0 points: Command Army (Indigo Chorus) to Attack Gerki, provoking the 2nd King’s Army!
0 points: Command Army (Rainbow Scourge) to Attack Gerki, provoking the 1st King’s Army and the King himself!

All Singer armies are assumed to get their +7 aggregate technology bonus (CT*2, Telepathy*2, SoD, BB, PM) and +1 for each of the Hall of Composers, Trumpets of Discord, and Rings of Telepathy. (Originally I assumed the Hall of Composers wouldn't come online fast enough while the Earthquake Drum would work, so there is no net difference in the assumptions. Fluff for all possible outcomes is present because I’m counting my posts here as time served for NaNoWriMo in case I missed a number somewhere.)
All Shou Tahs armies are assumed to get their +5 aggregate technology bonus (WS*2, CM, Pugilism, MP), +1 for being the Defenders in all cases, and +1 for the Horn of Winter.
Two of the four rolls are close enough that victory hangs on whether I missed or misapplied another +1 or not.

Red Screamers 2d6+10=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293015/)
4th King’s Army 2d6+7=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293017/)
DOUBLE KILL!

Green Nightmares 2d6+10=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293020/) +1 = 19
3rd King’s Army 2d6+7=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293021/)
Clear Victory (Singers win by 3 without Wonder bonuses, including the Drum). 3rd King’s Army destroyed.

Indigo Chorus 2d6+10=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293022/) +1 = 18
2nd King’s Army 2d6+7=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293023/)
Clear Victory (Singers win by 2 without Wonder bonuses, including the Drum). 2nd King’s Army destroyed.

Rainbow Scourge 2d6+10=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293026/) +1 = 17
1st King’s Army 2d6+7=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293029/)
Close Defeat. Rainbow Scourge is destroyed. Per Rith's request the Horn of Winter is traded for the Trumpets of Discord.

Contingent on all armies of Gerki being defeated:
0 points: Command Army (Red Screamers) to Defend Gerki with the Horn of Winter and the Trumpets of Discord
0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to Defend Gerki with the Horn of Winter and the Trumpets of Discord
0 points: Command Army (Indigo Chorus) to Defend Destroyer’s Peak with the Earthquake Drum

Contingent on at least one Gerki army remaining:
0 points: Command army (Indigo Chorus) to Defend Destroyer’s Peak with the Earthquake Drum and the Horn of Winter
0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to Defend Destroyer’s Peak with the Earthquake Drum and the Horn of Winter

0 points remaining
+3 (4) Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Benthesquid]

Roll=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4294961/)+15 banked makes twenty.


For a long time, Sehk was silent, watching over his creations, and gathering his power, as he prepared to act directly upon the world once more.

[5a Violista]

Aniqua was basking in the sun on the highest White Mountain when she heard something strange in the prayers to her. They were cries in pain.

She quickly traveled south to find the source of these cries.

Aniqua arrived in the city of Sophei just moments too late: The fire had already killed her priestess. One of the ashes blew onto Aniqua's left hand and stained it black. She left the city in mourning.

For the next three hundred years, the goddess gathered every single ash, gas, and piece of energy that was once her priestess. It was difficult - by the time she finished, Aniqua had traveled across the entire world several times; not a single inch had escaped her search.

Finally, Aniqua brought it all to the Fountain of Youth she had created, out in the stormy seas. There, she fashioned together all those elements, and soaked it in the water. That wasn't enough, though: Aniqua had to give some of her own energy to the ash. This finally fused it all together, recreating the priestess of ash. As a last touch, Aniqua breathed life into tha being of ash.

Different from her avatars, Aniqua created something new. Her avatars were all an aspect of Aniqua, but this person was separate and different. The Ashen Priestess's skin was grey and cracked, looking as if a gust of wind would blow her apart to the seven winds. She could often use this as her means of travel - moving across the world as ash in the wind. Her eyes were red, aflame with the fires of martyrdom. Her hair was pure white, just as the Water of Youth. Like Aniqua's tears, her own tears could heal any sickness and injury.

At the moment, she stayed at The Fountain of Youth.

Finally, Aniqua stopped mourning. After centuries, Aniqua smiled.
<(7) Create Demigod (The Ashen Priestess)>



In the meantime, The Oracle, an aspect of Aniqua, manifested among the Idrist in the city of Rivis.

The people were dissatisfied with their brothers who had betrayed their city, the Idrians of Saorsa. They felt it was their fault for these Haunted Houses, their fault for turning completely against the god of Justice, and their fault for a loss of honor. Feeling the gods of Justice and Mercy were on their sides, they started raising an army. They called it The Honor of Rivis.

They vowed to bring their betraying brothers back to their fold.

(1) Command Avatar (The Oracle): Command City (Rivis): Raise Army (Honor of Rivis)
(0) Command Army: Revenge of Rivis: Defend Rivis for this turn.



The Fairies had taught each other The Eternal Dance, across the entire globe. Because fairies were rarely seen not dancing, rumors began to be spread that the fairies were born dancing.

As it happens, this rumor soon became true, as rumors sometimes do.

This feeling for dance soon spread across the racial boundaries, as well. Both the imps and the elves learned of this through the fairies, and many of both those races felt the desire to dance. Some adopted this art of fluid motion in their lives. Many did not. Those that did were able to channel Aniqua's power in their lives through their motions. They soon learned how to communicate complex ideas through their movements.

Obviously, though, they did not dance in the same way as the fairies. The imps who danced did so with much more deceit and blockiness. Many of their motions were used to trick those who watched. The elves, on the other hand, were much more graceful and more focused on communicating through their dance. Their hand positions could tell stories, and so on.

The elves felt (through Aniqua's aspects) that they needed to protect the forest, their people, and their way of life. They created an army and named it Nature's Protectors. This army would protect the elders of the race, ensure that the elders continued to do their rituals, would keep peace with all the traders and visitors to the city, and defend the city from the fear of humans. This army would communicate along their lines through their dance; in fact, a prerequisite to joining this army would be the ability to channel power through dance.

(4) Command Race (Fairies): Ingrain Technology (Eternal Dance)
(1) Command Avatar (The Maiden): Command City (Elfmoot): Raise Army (Nature's Protectors)
(0) Command Army: Nature's Protectors: Defend Elfmoot and keep peace.




The Crone's attention was drawn to the Stringwork. There was many things interesting about them. For one, she couldn't decide what, exactly, they were. They were sort-of like a plant, but not exactly. Second, what did they do, exactly? They went around...just sort-of doing stuff. They didn't really need healing or protection as often as, say, the humans or the Saku Rasi or the fairies, so she didn't have the chance to interact with them as often as the other races.

What did they need?

A century later, The Old Crone was traveling between The White Mountains and the Banana Land when she saw one of the large Shou Tahs trapped up and tearing a few Strings. She stopped there and watched.

Soon, she realized what they wanted.

She soon found herself at Core 1, near an Agglomeration. Grabbing something out of her bag, she placed it within the Agglomeration; it was full of knowledge and energy from Aniqua. Two of the more curious Strings there attached to it, and found a way they could channel energy directly from the goddess, through revering her in a similar manner that the Fairies do.

Though this knowledge wasn't widely accepted throughout the entire Stringwork, it had been passed to an Agglomeration of Core 2 by way of some Communicator Strings.

(1) Command Avatar (The Crone): Create Cult (Stringwork)




Start of Round: 15 points
(7) Create Demigod (The Ashen Priestess)
(1) Command Avatar (The Oracle): Command City (Rivis): Raise Army (Honor of Rivis)
(0) Command Army: Honor of Rivis: Defend Rivis for this turn.
(4) Command Race (Fairies): Ingrain Technology (Eternal Dance)
(1) Command Avatar (The Maiden): Command City (Elfmoot): Raise Army (Nature's Protectors)
(0) Command Army: Nature's Protectors: Defend Elfmoot and keep peace.
(1) Command Avatar (The Crone): Create Cult (Stringwork)

Planned moves for next time: React to others' actions. Saorsa raises an army, Rivis attacks Saorsa. Nereids infiltrate Core 2, if possible. If points are left, have the Maimec raise an army.
OR
Have a world-wide event where Life and Beauty draws away from the world. This would make a great transition for the next age. Note to self: Ask when next age starts.

Points left: 1

Races I can command directly:
Idrians, Faeries, Maimec, Nereids, Elves, Idrist

Races with a cult of Aniqua (unless I missed a post where it was destroyed):
Idrian, Suri, Angel [destroyed], Saku Rasi, Singers, Fairies, Maimec, Shou Tahs, Humans [detained], Stringwork

Armies under control of Aniqua:
Angelic Rebel Army [destroyed], Honor of Rivis (Rivis), Nature's Protectors (Elfmoot)

Demigods I can control:
The Ashen Priestess

Avatars I can control:
The Oracle, The Crone, The Maiden

Wonders/Events and their locations:
Totem of Protection - Elfmoot
Fertility Idol - Saorsa
Orb of Growth - Aztla
The Fountain of Youth - The Black Pillars (near the Sapphire Stone)

Alliances of races under my control:
<Figure out and edit this in later, or write in next one>

Point rolling for my next turn:

1 + 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4295017/) + 3/3 (Chaos) + 3/3 (Cult) = 14

[ImperialSunligh]

The wheat of the Axon mountains shone in the blazing, golden sunlight, lighting up the vast open space of the mountainside. As if an element of the stones, Axon IV stood in all his might, the sun setting behind him. He gazed off from the great mountains into the distant fields of the Land of the Sun. He knew his fate at that moment, he saw it in the eternally solid mountains, in the hills below, in the setting sun. He would die that night.

His wisdom gave him one final task, and so his sole heir was brought to city of Sophei, where he would grow in secret, not knowing his great destiny. The wise city of Sophei served as his mentor, granting upon him all the intuition of Mam.

Without an heir to the Order of Eknad, great unrest fell over the kingdom. Many died in the ensuing famine. The knights had created an emergency government that might help to guide the people of Figurae.

A force unknown to the knights pulled the wand of death from its resting place in the palace, leaving it levitating in the center of Figurae. Any passerby who took it in their hands was turned to ash. Words appeared under the wand stating "Whoso pulleth out this wand of the air is the rightwise born king of Axon." The people of figurae soon learned to avoid the wand.

Axus, as the heir was named, meaning "from Axon", found himself in the capital city on an errand. Out of curiosity, Axus attempted to remove the wand, not noticing the various warnings posted. He was miraculously unharmed by the wand, and the onlookers brought him to the palace. He inherited his birthright, and became king of the Order of Eknad.

At first, Axus had difficulty in this position. He was a follower of Mam, and so he lacked many of the features that other kings were praised for. In the long run, however, his great wisdom proved a boon to all of human civilisation, ushering in a golden age of virtue.

Unfortunately, Axus was led into a dark relationship with his childhood schoolteacher, Melinus, who forced him to have children with her. Many years later, her child, Erdwyn, who was raised in the wilderness, out of the reach of Axus, returned to Figurae, assassins in tow. They killed Axus in his sleep, and Erdwyn took the crown for himself. But as Axus was put in his grave, he still breathed.

The following day, Axus rose, the oversight of Eknad his boon. He had not his former sense, however, and for a time travelled the land of Axon, challenging random travelers to duels, which he never lost.

The city of Herz had been in a long period of strife, many detesting the current government that attempted to control every aspect of their lives. Before the civilians could revolt against the new government, however, the RFM introduced a new technology that they had been developing in secret for many years.

None but the most high ranked officials know the true nature of the RFM Booths that now lined the streets of Herz, but when a criminal or otherwise inconvenient person is identified, they are put through the nearest booth, and upon exit are completely changed, a productive, devoted citizen and a devout supporter of the regime.

This new technology had myriad uses, from controlling the pesky population to creating a disciplined military force.

Rumors circulated among the unaffected that the technology was based on the study of the ungifted, as those whose minds were altered often lost much of their intellectual capabilities that they may not necessarily require in order to serve the RFM's ends, yet the technology, in the rare case that it was found necessary, also worked on humans.

Roll: 2d6+2=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4295665/)

Create Demigod, King Axus the Eternal.

Advance City of Herz in Behavioral Conditioning.

Left: 0

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4280583/)
Current Power Points: 13

The Sakura basked in the sun and swayed in the night. Currently one of it's forms was perched upon the tip of a Black Pillar in the night. Another, halfway around the world, near Herz, was sitting beside a road in the noonday sun. There was, as always, the eternal tree in Sakura, though also a second tree near the city, hidden behind a thick cluster of oaks. There was one in the forests of the First Land, a few Spirits and Suri sweeping by now and again. One had taken root in a pocket of soil which had settled on the shell of the Dreamforge, and one sat on a wind-whipped isle in the heart of the ocean. Quiet, peaceful places, one and all.

Now, being a plant made Sakura different from other divine entities. It had perceptions of a deity, in a way, but did not think, instead functioning on pure input/output, similarly to how it breathed in carbon dioxide and breathed out oxygen. It occasionally had spurts of opinion or emotion, when one of it's seeds grew into a mortal, but that only lasted a moment before the seed became it's own entity, and Sakura was a plant once more.

This was how the Sakura had existed for the countless aeons since it had been spawned by mighty Eull. This would be how it would always exist.

Recently, though, inputs had been coming, and there had been no preset output. Changes in the godscape which seemed to lead Sakura towards doing something. However, the something was unknown to the tree, for what it was, was to make a descision, and the Sakura could not think to decide. It only did what it did.

The plant had a hurdle to leap, a hurdle which was beyond it's perception as a plant. It would have to find a way over that hurdle soon, but in the meantime, it creaked in the winds across the world, while one of it's bodies dropped cherry blossoms upon the Fountain of Youth.


***

It had been a grievous insult, a humiliating defeat. The land creatures had matched, and as the King of old had said it had been in the first battle with these creatures, they had decimated the armies of Gerki. The Black Tribe had been proud of their sixty warriors, but then the Singers had come with eight hundred, taken the horn, and shamed the armies. Rage boiled in their hearts as a result.

Many wished to counterattack, but the current Black King knew better. Though this earned him more ridicule than he had even after having lost the Horn. It was his judgement that held the Black Tribe back, saving it from probable defeat, but unfortunately he would not be remembered for his wisdom. No, he would be remembered as the King who lost the Horn and the King who was too afraid to go fetch it back. He also proved to the Black Tribe that a man with one arm could rarely keep up with a man with two, as the King began losing almost each fight he partook in. By the time he died, some sixty years later, he would have hundreds of scars.

As the Gerkans began to lose some of their ancient unity, many went to the surface, to try and carry out their own counterattack against the Singers. These were doomed to failure, but they would deal a noticeable amount of damage before being broken as all Shou Tahs raiding forces had been, back when it was only Shou Tahs armies against other Shou Tahs. Shou Tahs who were not outright killed at Destroyer's Peak were often taken as prisoners at first, but it quickly changed, and soon they were, by default, executed instead of enslaved, for a Shou Tahs could only be bound by forces that were too valuable to waste on a slave, and if not bound correctly, the Shou Tahs was a threat to the entire city.

Beneath the ocean, the other cities saw what had become of Gerki, and, in interest of these foes who had almost brought Gerki, the city which had fielded an army of sixty, to it's knees, began to leave behind their ancient rivalries to inspect the long-neglected lands around them. Saku Rasi and Werblumes began having copious issues with Shou Tahs attacks during this time, as they were trying to see what power exactly belonged to the land-locked ones.

There were still fools who tried to take Gerki in it's weakened state, but these were few, and as the raiders went towards the land, it seemed that the war of the eight armies had ushered in a temporary reign of peace between the Shou Tahs tribes. There may have even been a chance of unity between the cities being found, but that hope was distant, and, for now, the cities either smoldered in rage, or marveled at what the land walkers had done.


***

They were burning down their homes.

Every few weeks, a new Kraith would come into Adonia, select a suitable home, carve out the birthing pits, and grab a few "meals", before the Werblumes would come and burn the home to the ground, consuming the Kraith within. Those who escaped howled and screamed in the night, mourning the loss of their home. So many of them managed to escape, however, that soon the land around Adonia was saturated with abstract fear, with the city and it's Necropolis becoming a bastion of calm before a sea of howling fear, with sentries keeping vigil at night to make sure no more Kraith stole into the city.

Now, the Kraith who survived, managed it due to the minor magic many of them had possessed for hundreds of years: the ability to control fire. They had swept some small portions of fire out of the way to allow them an avenue to escape through. This magic had remained in it's infant stages far longer than Phobimancy or Noctimancy, for several Kraith found fire was too volatile most of the time. However, now, it was time to refine the sorcery, and thus, many wildfires were soon seen around the city of Adonia, constantly glowing in the night. This haze of wet fires in the distance compounded with the screaming howls in the night, adding to the tenseness of the Werblumes.

Soon, the art was all but mastered, and so a few Kraith stole back into the city, under cloaks of sorcerous shadow, and attempted to infest the city. This time, when the Shorn Ones came with their torches, the flames always seemed to be unable to catch, or they would rebound on the torchbearers, burning them alive. The Kraith thought this to be a victory, however, the Shorn Ones were a military force, and the Kraith Magi were not, so when the flames did not work, they resorted to more basic means of extermination. Far fewer Kraith escaped this form of attack.

Those who did, saw that Adonia was lost for the time being, and set out to find new homes, spreading the art of Pyromancy with them. A few, however, decided to fill the city with dread as punishment for the deaths brought upon the Kraith, and soon the jungle around the city of the dead was the most saturated with abstract fear in the world. The fires and the howling continued as well, and soon the countryside was stained with blood placed there by Sangromancers, and the nights were made ever darker by master Noctimancers.

To make matters worse, Adonia also had to deal with the sudden influx of Shou Tahs attacks.


***

There were only three Trells remaining of that first generation.

They conversed with each other a great deal, of many things, of the future of their race, of the wisdom of their sapling Trells, of other races. They knew they would succumb to old age soon, being each 5,876 years old, and most of that first generation had already expired.

They spent most of their time under the branches of the Marrow Tree, where wisdom poured into their minds easily. Easier, in fact, than it was for the younger Trells. So easily, in fact, that they found themselves able to see larger images at once, as they obtained multiple glimpses of major events, and could thus see the larger picture that lay in the future.

One instance of the larger picture they saw in the distant future, however, was an event of divine energy snapping back. Pure creation would be launched across the world, with no true direction, and it was unclear as to what would happen. The elders spoke of this at length with any who would listen, which turned out to be a great number. Some believed this uncontrolled creation would be a grand catastrophe, while others believed it to be the beginning of a golden age. However, many felt that the power of this divinity had to be directed. There was no telling what it might do, and innocent lives may be placed in danger. So, they decided to create a conduit, to catch the influx of divine energy. They had no idea yet what they would do with the energy once it was caught, but they began the development nonetheless, as other began thinking about what would be done with the energy once focused into the conduit.

The project would require immense proportions, so, they selected six Troud seeds with the utmost care, choosing those which would grow largest and most sturdily. They also found many Titan Vine seeds which would grow thin and flexible, easy to direct and drape between the Trouds.

For each of the two dozen seeds (six Troud, eighteen Titan Vine), they carved a stone cup with thousands of complex runes, and placed the large seed inside, before planting them in a particular pattern. The six Trouds were arranged in a crescent, very far apart, with the two tips of the crescent a total four kilometers away from each other. The Titan Vine seeds were planted in a triad around each Troud Seed.

It would take aeons before the plants grew to their full size, and the three elders would not live to see the conduit's completion, but the younger Trells were adept enough to carry it forward just the same.

Several centuries later, the conduit stood proud, the Troud wood bleached white from the magic, with leaves of dark green. The two centermost trees stood six kilometers high each, dwarfing the blooming forest far below. The other four trees stood five kilometers tall, making the entire structure taller than it was wide. The Titan Vines had turned a dark bluish color as they had grown, with leaves of dark green. They coiled counterclockwise around the outermost two trees, and clockwise around the other four. One vine stayed with a particular tree, while the other two stretched between the colossal plants, forming a beautiful lattice which could be seen from kilometers away.

Once the conduit was finished, however, the Trells found that it had already begun working. It seemed that the godscape constantly flowed with energy, and their conduit was, even now, brimming with power. Power that the Trells as-of-yet had no purpose for, but which made the crescent of trees glow at night, with stunning white, deep green, and deep blue light.


***

Nathaniel stood upon the curve of the Dreamforge, inspecting it's craftsmanship, "You know, for despicable monsters, these creatures certainly made some interesting stuff."

One of the colossal tendrils was sweeping back, trying to knock the Angel off, but he simply ducked and it sailed over him. It took some time for it to pass, but he didn't mind, as it gave him time to inspect this latch.

Unfortunately, as all his previous examinations had revealed, it would require some massive effort to break into this creation. Effort he couldn't expend if he were to do any damage once he got inside.

A detachment of Yellow Beasts came roaring up the side of the Dreamforge, eight in total. Nathaniel simply danced between their attacks and cut them down as he boasted, "I killed three Shou Tahs when I was high out of my mind. What makes you think that eight Singers is gonna do to me when I'm sober?"

Once the defenders had been dispatched, Nathaniel wandered over to another hatch to see if he could get in that way. As he walked, however, his mind wandered. He didn't actually know why he was here. The pain had been driving him to act recently, to do things, to distract himself from the pain. He'd also been thinking on Mastema's words to him, his instructions to do some good while he still knew what good was. Part of Nathaniel thought it was already too late, as though he had lost sight of what might be good, and so he had decided to come here, to try and rid the world of this evil.

Destroy the city, that would get rid of an evil place. That had to be good, right?

Or was it?

Eventually, his uncertainty and inability to find a way in led him to leave the Dreamforge, and to find a cave, where he mulled on the pain, his eyes dull and his thoughts lost.


***

The Stringwork's proposal was immensely reasonable, the Road Builder's thought. Two technologies of any kind in exchange for two technologies the Saku Rasi desired. Some Road Builders thought they ought to take the opportunity to give the Stringwork technologies they would not want, while others stated that it would be in their best interest to maintain good relations and give the Stringwork something they would actually need. In the long run, a compromise was decided on: they would send one technology the Strings had desired, and one which they had not. Navigation and Golden Magic were the two which were sent, along with four dozen skilled divers who, assisted by gold talismans which used Golden Magic, managed to maintain their dive for an hour at a time, where they would converse with the Strings at length.

Meanwhile, the Road Builders were based in Wetami, and thus, all the techs that had been obtained by the Saku Rasi were isolated in Wetami, including the military technologies of Golden Magic, Rudimentary Medicine, Armoring, & Visionary Trances (including Brewing as well). Now, most Saku Rasi were fine with traveling to Wetami to pick up golden medallions to ward off disease or to grant good luck, or to purchase simple medicines, but the Kyūdōka of the world were unable to make large purchases very often, and the Sakura Kyūdōka were pressuring the Road Builders to share their secrets. Some of the organization said that they should require something from the Kyūdōka, but this was hotly debated, for this was the Sakura Kyūdōka, the holy defenders of the Wandering Sakura. In the end, not everything was sent, but enough Road Builders won through to send them Armoring, Visionary Trances, and Rudimentary Medicine.

5 points to Advance the Kraith with Pyromancy.

4 points to Command the Trells to do Create the "Divine Conduit" Wonder.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to Accept the Trade with Core 2: Armoring & Communication for Golden Magic & Navigation.

1 point to Command Ehk Rellis to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and grant Rudimentary Medicine to Sakura.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and grant Visionary Trances to Sakura.

1 point to Command The Blood Pit to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and grant Armoring to Sakura.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293977/)

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4296133/) bringing me up to 21

After having established his diving school, Kuroba lived an unremarkable life. His revenue wasn't great, for most ambassadors used golden magic to communicate with the Stringwork, and most Saku Rasi were already experienced in the sport, but some still attended as the school provided interresting tips concerning diving and some other things after lessons ended.

The loss of Kuroba was very unfortunate, but he had served his purpose. The Stringwork learned to be more creative when it came to naming its outgoers. Outgoer 11 was still around though, so while it lived unremarkable lives, it was known in most of them as a helpful person who would gladly help others for appearently no reward.

The Stringwork hoped that rumors concerning Kuroba being part of itself would simply remain rumors. As it stood, the Road Builders were mostly aware that Kuroba was very likely part of the Stringwork. However, they had decided not to spread Rumors, and as such the fact that the Stringwork had Shapeshifting Outgoers was largely forgotten. A few looks at the Road Builders' documents would be enough to restablish the truth if there was any desire to do so, but with that exception the Saku Rasi had forgotten that the Stringwork could Shapeshift.

The Saku Rasi had responded positively to the Trade. This meant that the Stringwork now had access to Golden Magic and Navigation. These concepts were stored in the Second Core, and some agglomeration experimented with them. Navigation had been requested to facilitate transport of Strings inside and outside Cores, and its acquiry allowed the Second Core to increase its efficiency. Golden magic was not practically usable by the Stringwork, but it was the first truly magic-related knowledge it acquired. This meant that despite what the Saku Rasi might have thought when they explained it to the Stringwork, this second technology was probably as valuable, if not more than navigation, despite not being of pratical use.

During the many conversations the Saku Rasi had with the Stringwork, the Stringwork taught them rudiments of many sciences. It had also asked why the Saku Rasi were not interested in the Momentum Principle, as the Stringwork viewed it as a major breakthrough in science. The answer was that this technology was not of direct practical interest as it was too abstract, and while many did see interest in the technology, they did not in fact consider it trade-worthy. They did point out that they would gladly accept it if the Stringwork simply gave it to them.

So the Stringwork set to work, obtaining the technology form the Shou Tahs. The Shou Tahs being usually rather inattentive, unlike the Saku Rasi, the most difficult part had been infiltrating their society and mimicking their behaviour. However, as there were not really any notion of non-global knowledge, obtaining understanding of the momentum principle proved rather easy.

Meanwhile the Stringwork made use of the Human proxy to obtain mettalurgy. There had been mong standing families that had been composed exclusively of Stringwork even in the cities, some of which eventually settled as blacksmiths. They often met with others in their domain of expertise, and would discuss ways to make better alloys. The Outgoers were unsuccessful at first, but many years of learning allowed them to come to an understanding of the Art that rivalled that of the most renowed human smiths. They would continue continue to be of use to the Humans, allowing their weapons to be ever sharper and their armor to be ever lighter and durable, but now the knowledge of how metal ws to be handled had spread to the Stringwork.



The Stringwork had concluded that for the good of its operations, the fact that it could shapeshift as well as connect to brains of individuals to tamper with their memories should remain a secret. So firstly it developed its ability to modify memories to such an extend that only creatures with divine powers could uncover and bring back memories modified by the Stringwork. It then proceeded with using this newly acquired ability to take control of a Nereid that had lost its way by trapping it in a thick black cage of strings through which it had no means of escaping. Analysing its inate shapeshifting abilities, the Stringwork taught the Nereid how to utilize those better. It then sent back the Nereid back into the open ocean, erasing any memories of its capture by the Stringwork. The knowledge of how to do it then rapidly spread through the entire race.

Ability to attain perfect shapeshifting came at a price however, and this was against the very ideals of Aniqua. The Nereids were more suited that the Stringwork for shapeshifting. However, they were being of nearly pure water, and as such they did not not pocess many of the elements required to make them look like other races. They would need to ingest blood and flesh if they wanted to be able to truly pass themselves as others.

The Agglomeration that first discovered a way to obtain energy by connecting to a strange magical orb was immediately seen as an immense opportunity by the Stringwork. Spreading the knowledge amongst its two cores. Many agglomerations, especially those that used Faith Sensing were arguing that spreading the green spark would corrupt the Stringwork's integrity. In the end however, the Stringwork decided that such a source of energy was too great a prospect to simply be discarded, and a few more Green Agglomerations, as they were called by the Stringwork, were concieved. Eventually, it was expected that these Agglomerations would serve a greater purpose than simply collection of energy, provided that they wouldn't do anything to threaten the Stringwork's integrity.

Since the Shadowbirds' arrival on Tyonix, the vast majority of technologies they had discovered were more fitted for the Owtfes. The Owtebs felt that they needed something to prove their worth...


3 points - Shou Tahs Proxy - Political Manoeuver - Steal Tech - Momentum principle
3 points - Human Proxy - Political Manoeuver - Steal Tech - Mettalurgy
4 points - Command Race (Stringwork) - Ingrain technology "Memoryworks"
1 point - Command demigod (Evolving Parasite) - Command Order (Agglomerations) - Political Manoeuver - Give Nereids Shapeshifting at the cost of corrupting their minds slightly, they will also believe that they created the technology themselves unless of course "Godly Power" intervenes.
0 points - Command Army Packet Protectors 3 & 2 to monitor the Agglomerations of Aniqua - if they are to do anything suspicious that would be considered a threat to the Stringwork's integrity, they will be impeded from doing this, exiled or even destroyed. giving away (or even revealing) the technology of Mapmaking or the technology of Memoryworks, revealing that the Nereids have inherited shapeshifing techniques from the Stringwork or removing from the Agglomerations the idea that the Stringwork is what they live for.

10 points remaining
+0 next turn

I've made a slight mistake in my previous post regarding the naming of Stringwork Armies. They are indeed Packet Protectors and not Protective Outgoers.

[Omegonthesane]

Though the Dreamforge was gone, the Singers of the Plane of Thunder continued their work. Their latest dire creation affected the air currents around them; it took the form of a manually operated fan, in appearance like those created by some Humans or Saku Rasi to cool oneself with. Pointing it at one’s face was not wise, however, as it did not merely push air but changed the wind around the user, to a degree proportionate to how fast the fan was blown. Worse, it required no conscious intent to activate, merely to move back and forth such that a nonmagical fan of its shape would blow air. It got its name soon after construction, when the Singer who created it folded it up and threw it away as a dismal failure, only for it to open in mid-flight and spin in many directions from how it was thrown, causing a series of gales in multiple directions that tore through the Plane.

It was a matter of simple fact that life was more brutal for many beings than the Elves wished it to be. In part, this was simply a matter of the desire they felt, a lack of ability to countenance the frequent and random injustices of the natural world. However, as with so many things, there was somewhat of an ulterior motive to the deed - the elves needed skins to make clothing and tents, and bone to make tools or mystic instruments, and meat to grant them protein. Their numbers had grown, and they had noticed there were fewer prey or plants expected to feed more elves between them. Something had to give eventually.

Other races had practised agriculture before, but as they slashed and burned the Troud Forest to create enclosures for other forms of life, the elves turned it into an art form, somehow intuiting optimal practices for the craft. Had any other race attempted the revolution of food that followed, they might have faltered or failed due to a lack of nutrients in the soil, but their various benedictions and golden blessings ensured that ancient soil was not rendered useless in a noticeable span of time.

Even this might not have been sufficient, had they pushed their luck with their choice of crops. However, it was not the farming of plants that interested the elves, but the creation of an environment that would give them more animals. Within a few centuries, they went from being glorified animals themselves to the undisputed experts in putting beasts to use, and their captive breeding program ensured they would never run out of the various resources that their chosen cattle gave them.

The crowning achievement of the elves in this field was the creation of the 1st Outriders, or rather the mounts which they rode, slim beings that looked like horses but had downright unnatural grace and agility. No completely normal steed could have casually galloped through the dense Bloom, after all.

From the beginning of the Wetami Ryokan, the Yosei had been a minor family among its traders, and one of the first to reach out to the Werblumes that so many considered so eerie. Indeed, while most Werblumes and Saku Rasi were close enough to seem pale and disturbing mirrors of one another, the Yosei saw things differently, and had never quite convincingly feigned the revulsion of their peers. Well, perhaps it would be more fair to say the Yosei tended strongly to see things differently - there were always a few degenerates of each race that saw more than trading partners in the other, but the Yosei family became known and shamed for it. Their children grew paler, shorter, and ate far less than was normally natural, barely needing more than a little protein provided they remained in the sun. Rumours of the family’s “intimate” relations with the Werblumes spread, and the by now fully hybridised Yosei suffered significant loss of standing, though nothing that was utterly irrecoverable. Even if it had been, there was always Serpent’s Den.

In an approximation of what had been planned, all but two of the Sorcerer Lords relinquished their titles at the end of the Battle of Eight Armies. As the last remaining Octarch, the Rainbow Lord retained the ceremonial title and served as an advisor to the Acting Octarchs, the eight Lead Sorcerers of the Indigo Chorus, until such time as the Rainbow Scourge could return to full strength. The first Nightmare Sorcerer Lord - an Ungifted monkey painted green and then drowned in the actual battle - was set up on a pike as the Green Nightmares' battle standard, and filled with strange preservative juices to arrest its decay; in any case it was in no state to consent to relinquishing its title.

With the lack of a truly unified Rainbow Scourge, the Indigo Chorus had had to take an increased role of enforcement within Destroyer's Peak, and this greatly increased tensions with their Green Nightmare rivals. In addition, the Yellow Beasts had explored all inches of the Dreamforge and wanted a new challenge. Fortunately, the Acting Octarchs had a potential solution to both of these problems.

More portals to and from the Dreamforge were opened, and the Green Nightmares replaced the Yellow Beasts as the Dreamforge garrison. This would put the two mutually hostile armies far away from one another so that tensions could cool - and the Peak had a task for which the Yellow Beasts, now fully combat ready, were uniquely suited.

The Kraith infestation had been allowed to fester and rot because no sane Singer could quite overcome the fear they generated without something to get angry about, and no normal Singer hopped up on Berserker's Brew was lucid enough to perform a systematic purge. The Yellow Beasts were not normal Singers in either regard - as Brew addicts they had a huge tolerance for its blinding rage and suffered no lucidity problems at all when it came to violent tasks, while the fear they felt was only strong enough to detect Kraith houses rather than overcome their bottomless fury.

Many Kraith ultimately perished in that purge, but many more suffered the fate the Singers intended - shoved through portals to the Dreamforge, where the Green Nightmares imprisoned them in specially prepared cages. A few were placed underwater, mostly to test how long Kraith could withstand such conditions, but most were installed in a secure facility at the end of one of the Dreamforge's tendrils. A two-way gate was retrofitted into this tendril, to make it easier for the Wizard-Engineers to capture fish and feed their blood to the Kraith specimens.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4294309/) points
Power rollover: 0 points
Total 13 points

1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Fan of Gales)
5 points: Advance Civilisation (Elves) with the amazing military technology of Animal Husbandry
4 points: Command City (Elfmoot) to Raise Army (Outriders)
3 points: Create Hybrid Race (Saku Rasi + Werblumes = Yosei)

0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to defend the Dreamforge
0 points: Command Army (Yellow Beasts) to round up the Kraith and deport them to the Dreamforge, where they are studied by the denizens of that place and fed the blood of fish. Flavour text leading up to a potential alliance.
0 points: Command Army (Yellow Beasts) to defend Destroyer's Peak

1 points remaining
+3 (4) Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Benthesquid]

Roll=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4297268/), plus fifteen banked makes twenty-five.
Create Demigod- Jalat Nus, The Sleeper Who Wakens (7 points)
Create Demigod- Melaina, the Great Swarm (7 points)
Command Demigod- Jalat Nus, occupy Adonia (1 point)
Command Demigod- Melaina- Command Order: (Sehkian Society) Raise Army (The Double Braids) (1 point)
Command Army (The Double Braids) Defend Narcissa (0 points)
Advance Civilization (The Werblumes): Totemic Sigils (5 points)
Command Race: (The Werblumes) Construct Wonder: The Totemic Collegium (4 points)

Zero points banked.


Jalat Nus had hovered on the edge of existence a long time, drifting aimlessly about the world, since he and she had reached out, further than any Spirit Walker but one had gone before, to touch the face of Sehk.

Vaguely, he and she remembered the secrets Sehk had revealed, and then the revelation that he and she was not to be allowed to return to Bellephorat with those secrets. Vaguely, he and she recalled the one exception, when the secret of Animating Sigils- the secret that had later slain a demigod- had been shared.

Now, suddenly, Jalat Nus realized his and her course had taken him and her to the Southern Pole, and that Urat Sur stood there, watching the amorphous Spirit Form.

"Hello, Granparent," Jalat Nus said- or rather, projected.

Urat Sur sang to him and her through the memory of the blood they shared.

"The Werblumes, yes." Nus replied, "I have seen them in my dreams. They suffer- from the shadow creatures, from the creatures beneath the waves. But I do not see what concern it is of mine. They are no blood of my blood."

Urat Sur sang again.

"Cousins? I suppose in a way you are right, granparent. They are the children of Sehk. But I still do not understand what you wish me to do about it. I am unable to act upon the world even if I wished to. I can barely stir the wind anymore."

"Grandparent, I beg of you, tell me that you are in earnest. To have physical form again- what must I do?"

There was no question scheduled to be asked of Lin Finsdotter, or the other corpses who shared the chamber with her. The Custodian of the Crypt was merely making his usual inspections, ensuring that no moisture or living creature had breached the sanctity of the tomb.

Which was why, when Lin Finsdotter sat up, vines flailing, and began gasping for air, the Custodian, who spent most of his life in the eerie catacombs of the Necropolis, screamed and leaped several feet in the air.

"Fascinating," said the corpse, its words somewhat slurred as it adjusted to the new shape of its mouth. "I will need clothes, I suppose."

Trembling, the Custodian undid his cloak and passed it to the corpse. "These extra limbs will need getting used to," she said, grasping the cloak with her arm-vines, and wrapping it about her. She glanced at the Custodian. "You may kneel," she said, "I rather believe that I'm going to have to rule, now."

Jalat Nus, secure in her new body, which was already beginning to restore itself to full vibrant life, was aware that she would not be able to accomplish all that was required of her alone.

Soon after she had strode forth from the Necropolis, she had been met by a delegation from the Sehkian Society, who had recognized in her the fulfillment of their prophecies about a great and terrible leader arising.

Had she come at another time, they might have opposed her, and forced her to kill them- that the fight might have gone otherwise never occurred to her. But now, tormented by the Kraith and the Shou Tahs, they were ready for just such a queen.

Now a dozen visionaries danced frantically, Jalat Nus reaching out her spirit to share in their vision, which contained all of the history of the Werblumes, and all of their abilities. It was a singularly powerful and difficult to maintain vision, and when one of the dancers fell to the floor, the others dared not break step to help him, or even to avoid crushing him to death underfoot.

Eventually, Nus held up a hand, and the dancing stopped. She knew what she needed to do next.

The next day, after a hard travel along the roads and canals of the Werblume country, they reached the Hive of Tanasehk. Word had spread ahead of them, and the Bee-Wives and Bee-Grooms of the hive were waiting to greet her when she arrived.

Since the discovery that the techniques of Swarm Manipulation could be extended to creatures besides bees, a small group of Werblume had been working to refine the techniques further. Known as Locust Grooms, they maintained small groups of the ravenous insects throughout the hive. Nus now added all of these to be brought together. Closing her eyes, and extending her spirit, she used the secrets she had gleaned from the trances of her followers, and caused the locusts to rise up into the air, joining in a single enormous swarm. Then, under her will, most of them began to peel away, while those that remained formed into a loosely humanoid form.

Under the awed eyes of her followers, Nus stepped forward, and spoke to locust-thing which responded in an awful buzzing voice. "This is Melaina, my lieutenant," declared Nus. "I have given her form and mind, that she might aid me in my tasks. Obey her in all things, as you would me."

As at Melaina's command, another army was raised in Narcissia- this one with two long braids down their backs- Nus was preparing a new technique for her shoulders to use. She had ordered a number of animals brought to her alive, and spent some time studying them. Now, as she stared at the bird, she dipped a small brush in ink, and carefully drew a complex series of lines on a sheet of paper.

"Bleed onto this," she instructed one of her acolytes, and proffered a small razor. Obediently, the acolyte cut his thumb and bled onto the sigil. There was a small flash as it activated, and the acolyte looked at his arms with amazement as they grew thick feathers. His fingers hooked and hardened into talons, and his nose and mouth melded into a cruel beak. There was a sound of ripping and cracking as his internal anatomy likewise adjusted itself.

"It will last only a few minutes," Nus said, addressing the rest of the assembled acolytes, "But it can be extended- I will teach you gathered here the secrets of these sigils, and you will teach others."

Within a few days, ground had been broken in Adonia on a new wonder, the Totemic Collegium, where dozens of Werblume, from all the major cities and many smaller villages, gathered to learn the secrets of this new art, whereby they could, for periods of time up to a day, gain the features and abilities of various animals. The Collegium also served as a center for research, long years of study revealing the necessary patterns for more and more types of animal.

[5a Violista]

Aniqua looked across creation and frowned: there were the Kraith. They drank blood, they set fires, they caused fear and panic. She had to do something about this.

In each city that was infected by the Kraith, Aniqua blessed a handful of individuals with lycanthropy: While they were still alive, they would turn into an enormous wolf or tiger or panther or other similar predatory creature native to their environment. They would be larger, stronger, and faster than normal, and they retained their mind and intelligence whiel as a wolf. They could do this at will, once a week for an entire day (no more, no less). To better hunt the Kraith, they would taste an affinity for blood.

When one died, it would come back as a mindless hunter each night for a month, prowling locations of the dead and dying, devouring those to ward away any other who would prey on them.

She called them, in general, Leu-Garouls, though they would individually be known as werewolves or weretigers and so on. The end result wasn't exactly as she had wanted, but she figured it was enough for now: the werewolves would be able to protect the people from creatures of the night.

Some saw it as a blessing, but many saw it as a curse. This 'blessing' would propagate on its own: any creature that killed or seriously injured a Leu-Garoul would contract the same 'blessing.'

The Kraith helped spread this across the world, for even a Kraith who killed a Leu-Garoul would become a carrier for this blessing.

- (7) Event: Werewolves/"Leu-Garoul". (In terms of fluff) in response to the Kraith



The tension between the Idrian cities of Saorsa and Rivis continued to rise. On the one hand, those from Saorsa saw Rivis as horrible oppressors, while those from Rivis saw Saorsa as a city full of traitors.

In Saorsa, a young Idrian was told to travel to the old city of Rivis by the most beautiful Idrian he had ever seen - so he went with her. When they reached Rivis, she suddenly vanished - but he saw something that terrified him. So he ran back to Saorsa and told them: The Idrians and Idrist of Rivis had a massive army and were about to march towards Saorsa.

They had little time to prepare themselves. Saorsa summoned all able adults - men and women, mostly women due to their greater size and strength - to defend Saorsa. This sudden band called itself "Saorsa's Freedom."

Then, the army of Rivis - "Honor of Rivis" marched. The first part of their army arrived mid-spring and laid siege on Saorsa. They fought and cut off food sources and fought for years. Sometimes, Rivis was winning. Other times, Saorsa was winning.

Then, Saorsa grew weak from the siege. The Honor of Rivis gathers their forces and lays devises a cunning strategy to storm the city, once and for all...

[To be continued by Rith]


- (1) Saorsa raise army through Command Avatar(The Maiden) and spying
- (0) They are to defend Saorsa.
- (0) Rivis attacks Saorsa through first surrounding the city for years then storming the city.
- Rivis (10) starts winning against Saorsa (8)
- Aftermath is left to Rith to write



The Ashen Priestess sat on the small island for a long time. She had a few ancient cherry blossoms crushed in her hand. She stayed there, looking out at the stormy seas. She spent some time bonding with the sapphire Sanctuary Stone. She thought about what her plans will be. She conversed with the occasional Nereid that would come by. She would speak to the water and to the rain, and she would learn of where it had been. She would watch the fish and learn about their life.

She heard of some things the Nereids would do. Before, the Nereids would save the sailors and fishermen who had fallen into the sea. They would use their enchanting voice solely to bring peace and calm to those near the sea. However, they "discovered" they could take more solid shapes after feasting on a sailor. How or why they ever found this out, The Ashen Priestess would never know. It just didn't seem right to her.

Nevertheless, she discovered that while some Nereids would still save drowning men and women, others would enchant the crew to leap headfirst into the sea. Those that drank the blood and flesh would appear less like water - it would be easier to see them - but they could make their form more physical, so that it could deceive almost anyone. Many would then use their forms to lure those on land out into the water.

It was sad.

The Ashen Priestess decided to leave this island. She closed her eyes and the flames in them went out. Her body dissolved into ash. In spite of the storm and the breeze and the rain, the ash blew across the sea.

She reformed on mainland, not far from the city of Sanctuary.



One very revolutionary and odd Singer decided to build something in Destroyer's Peak. Something different. Something strange.

He was going to build a specialized greenhouse. He used many of the slaves, tortured, and prisoners to help build it, find a way to keep it warm and allow the flowers to grow, removed from the normal harsh climate.

He really got this idea from one of the captured beings: on a routine incursion, a band of Singers captured a small group of elves. One of them had pure white hair - The Oracle of Aniqua. Somehow, his mindset was influenced by this being.

He told the other Singers about the destructive potential for flowers and plants. He said how he saw another race using flowers to make dangerous poisons and explosions and other deadly objects. He said that their smell can sometimes intoxicate other races, and their colors can entrance certain animals.

In reality, why was it built?

He just had started to like flowers.

- (1) Create a Structure for X city through Command Avatar(The Oracle) (Destroyer's Peak - Flowering Greenhouse)



Many of the Saku Rasi in Serpent's Den felt their life wasn't exactly how they wanted it (Seriously, who wants to keep their plundered objects in a large city full of thieves?) Thus, a band of thieves who called themselves "The Spiders" (due to "catching" treasure like a fly) got together and carried their ill-gotten gains down the west cost a little. There, they found a small cove. Many would take turns protecting their wealth while the rest traveled between Serpent's Den and this new Cove of Spiders to do "business."

Meanwhile,

In the lakeside city of Sakura, some old Saku Rasi families became notable for their acting, play-writing, and stagemaking abilities - their ability to entertain. They gained more prestige as they opened up certain buildings to show off their acting. This fever for theater soon spread throughout the entire city, and many Saku Rasi from other cities began traveling there to watch the famous troupe.

- (1) Found Satellite for X city through Command Avatar (Serpent's Den? - Cove of Spiders) (The Crone)
- (4) Advance City for X city - Sakura in Theater




14
- (7) Event: Werewolves. Possibly (in terms of fluff) in response to the Kraith
- (1) Saorsa raise army "Saorsa's Freedom" through Command Avatar, command them to defend Saorsa
- (0) Rivis attacks Saorsa, Rivis starts winning

Saorsa: 2d6+2=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4297573/)
Rivis: 2d6+2=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4297577/)
Rivis wins, unless Nathaniel changes the outcome

- (1) Create a Structure for X city through Command Avatar (Singers: Destroyer's Peak - Flowered Greenhouse)
- (1) Found Satellite for X city through Command Avatar (Serpent's Den? - Cove of Spiders)
- (4) Advance City for X city - Sakura in Theater
Remainder: 0

Next round: 0 + 2d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4297601/) + 3(cult) + 3(chaos) = 12

Idrians (Saorsa): This turn: War of Brothers
Faeries: Last turn, Ingrain Tech "Eternal Dance"
Maimec: 4 turns ago, Form Alliance (Werblume) and also make "Orb of Growth"
Nereids: 2 turns ago, Advance Civilization "Enchanting Song"
Elves: Last turn, Raise Army "Nature's Protectors"
Idrist (Rivis): This turn: War of Brothers
Suri: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Saku Rasi: This turn: Sakura - Theater, Serpent's Den - Cove of Spiders
Singers: This turn: Create "Flowering Greenhouse"
Shou Tahs: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Stringwork: Last turn, Create Cult "Agglomeration of Aniqua"
Humans: Can't affect them directly without un-detaining the cult
Worldwide: 4 turns ago, Create "Fountain of Youth"
Worldwide: This turn, Werewolves

[ImperialSunligh]

The Republic of Free Monkeys began to fear for both the security of the regime and foreign strikes. And so an initiative was created to form an army to defend Herz.

Hundeds, possibly thousands of criminals were herded together into secret facilities, where the RFM would use their new technology to change their defiance into fanaticism and utter discipline. They were made into the perfect soldiers, and while the monkeys lacked in military technology, they had a psychological advantage over their enemies.

This army became known as "drones" by civilians, though the RFM liked to call them, "Anike's Chosen", much to Anike's displeasure. When not at war, they scoured the streets of Herz, searching for criminals and other dissenters to brainwash.

King Axus continued his rampage, now fighting against a young peasant. Before he struck the finishing blow, the power of Eknad washed over him, and he opened his eyes further than when he lived. He immediately sheathed his blade and walked back to Figurae, ignoring all that was not his goal.

At first, he was met with hostility by the armies defending Figurae, but his silent indifference struck fear into the hearts of the mortal guardians, who never once struck the king.

Walking solemnly into his ancient court, he glimpsed his son's son on the throne. The corrupt usurper's son knew the moment he looked into the old king's eyes, he knew how pathetic he was. He immediately killed himself by impaling himself with his sword.

King Axus tossed aside the pathetic excuse for a king, taking up the throne once again, and for eternity.

The Order of Eknad flourished once more with King Axus at its helm, bringing great prosperity to Figurae. But on one day mere seasons after Axus' return, he called to court his closest knights to impart upon them foul news.

He presented upon them the words of the gods. They demanded that protection be granted to the city of Figurae. And so an ancient ritual was imparted upon the Order. This ritual required six persons of absolute faith, who must go to the outskirts of the city at dawn on the solstice with golden effigies of the gods, new, old and lost.

And so, the most trusted knights of the Order did so.

The Archsage, Anguis, was sent to the north with an effigy of Eknad.

The Philosopher, Avem, was sent to the northeast with an effigy of Mam.

The Revolutionary, Simia, was sent to the Southeast with an effigy of Anike.

The Berserker, Kroko, was sent to the South with an effigy of the lost Mahav.

The Paladin, Maus, was sent to the Southwest with an effigy of the Sun.

The Legislator, Turtur, was sent to the northwest with an effigy of the lost 0.

These most faithful adherents of the gods became the immortal protectors of Figurae. They no longer required sustenance, only their own faith, much like the angels. They spent every moment of every day producing a protective dome over the city of Figurae known as the Aegis. It would attempt to filter hostile forces. It is not a perfect barrier, but it prevents the brunt of projectiles sent toward the city.

The barrier could be removed completely only by killing all of the sentinels, who each meditated in their six temples around Figurae.

Roll: 2d6=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298312/)

Command Order, RFM, raise army: 1st Army of Drones, -3

Command 1st Army of Drones, defend Herz.

Command Demigod, King Axus, Inhabit Territory: Figurae, -1

Command Race, Humans, Create Wonder: The Aegis, -4

Left: 2

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293977/)
Current Power Points: 18

Nathaniel had lived a long time.

In his first fifty years, he had been a rebel Angel, worshipping Aniqua and defending the Faeries, far from Eupnea. In those years, he had faced off against the creature Vroch. Young, powerful, idealistic, he had even then possessed the power to harm and endanger the Demigod, cleaving off a limb and scarring her back terribly before she was able to shatter his offense. From there, he had planned to eventually storm the demigod's lair and slay it, and set out to train towards that goal. It had soon become clear, however, that no matter how hard he trained, he would not reach the point where he would be able to defeat Vroch single-handedly inside his lifetime. He trained nonetheless in the coming years, even having the Saku Rasi traders, who had not yet even founded Wetami, bring him a suit lined with lead so that he might build his entire body in his training.

In the many years of his life which would come, however, he learned many lessons, and eventually became pragmatic, strong, and calm. He had decided it was not in his path to defeat Vroch, and prayed that someone would one day achieve it, but in the meantime, decided to turn to his kin, for he believed he could help strengthen their broken heritage, for while he could not defeat Vroch, he might instead champion his race, and be able to defeat a few Singers so that he might recover the artifact, the Sword of Life. In a single action, however, he would demolish the highest tower of Eupnea and change his life forever.

His appointed time would come and pass, and still Nathaniel lived, the Sword of Life forged to his body, pain lancing through his arm at all hours, driving him mad. He sought healers of all sorts then, but none knew what was happening, and soon anger shot through him, and it was all that he could do to keep from lashing out the healer. The calm the Angel had built up over his thousand years held, however, but he knew that it would not hold forever, and so he fled the land of the civilized, returning to his ancient goal of defeating the Spider which had slain his brothers, donning the lead suit once more.

However, he would not have achieve the strength necessary to confront Vroch before another gained the glory instead. A Demon had been able to do in less that half a lifetime what Nathaniel had been unable to achieve in two. The Angel tried to let the actions stand, to not feel bitter, and even went to congratulate the hero Mastema, but the Demon's words enraged Nathaniel nonetheless. However, the words the true hero spoke to the bearer of the Sword of Life, would be carried forward until the end of time.

There was no point. Many called Nathaniel "the Immortal Hero", but what had he achieved? What made him a hero? He had charged the abomination Vroch and failed. He had taken the Sword of Life and been cursed for it. He had been unable to conquer Vroch before another led that way to a better world. The pain built within him at every moment. He had become depressed, dejected, and hateful. A far way from the hero that he had been ages before. He was a warrior with no war to fight. His people had been abandoned, and he could not rally them together, for what leader would he be, consumed by pain and loss? No, he saw no hope, and instead turned to Jerilk, to ease the pain so he might rest. He simply degraded, trying not to think on the lack of hope, to go on another day.

In these times, fate crossed his path, and he found himself risking his life to save a group of Idrians from three Shou Tahs. Nathaniel was mighty, of course, having trained for three lifetimes to fight a demigod, but his victory was not what he found that day, but instead that he had done something that Mastema had once said he ought to do. He had saved this group of Idrians, a good act.

This brought renewed vigor in him, but his mind had been addled by drugs for hundreds of years, and this, together with his eternal suffering, had led to dementia. He decided he could do good things, but the things his insane mind had found to be good were actually terrible. He decided that he would destroy a city of potential monsters, not considering that he would be killing indiscriminately in the act, children and peace-lovers in the same act. Still, he decided to try it. However, the child in him, that distant voice from his first fifty years, of idealism and love and beauty, had spoken doubt into his mind. Would he be no better than Vroch or the Singers themselves if he brought calamity to an entire society, or even attempted such an act? So he had fled, slipping into a pain-filled haze of confusion and instability.

Recently, however, he had found himself once more, and after some time wrestling with his doubt and the pain, had returned to the constant training he had taken part in during his first three thousand years. However, the lead suit was too little now, so he not only wore it, but fastened blocks of granite to his wrists, ankles, and waist, each weighing fifty kilograms easily enough, as he continued his drilling and combat practice. Meanwhile, his mind, still buzzing with pain, turned over the ideas of what it meant to be good, or to perform a good act.


---

The farthest south Nathaniel had ever been was Eupnea. He had lived in Aniqua's Forest for his first lifetime, and then trained in the White Mountains after he recovered the Sword of Life. He had visited Fort Liberty from time to time, and eventually even started traveling to Imptopia's Black Market for Jerilk. Beyond these, he had lived his entire life in the north, with Elves, Trell, Faeries, Demons, Idrians, and Singers. He had grown found of all these races, except perhaps the Singers, who he still believed to be the originators of his pain.

He was particularly fond of the Idrians, who lived exclusively in the White Mountains with him. As a direct result, when he learned of their two cities marching against one another in war, he was driven to act.

The siege had been going on for years by the time Nathaniel arrived on a mountaintop looking down upon Saorsa. He slipped inside the camps of the Rivis army, and, stealthily, for he had never had difficulty with hiding and sneaking, watched the happenings in the camp. Over time, he learned of a strategy to invade the city, piecing it together from briefings given to squads and conversations between officers. At the same time, he stole into the city from time to time, bringing small amounts of food from the outside camp to try and help feed those worst off, as he learned the layout of the city.

It wasn't long before he conceived a counter strategy.

When the day arrived that the Honor of Rivis pressed the aggression on Saorsa, they would find that the access tunnels they had planned to seize had collapsed down certain paths, and they were being funneled in a certain direction. The streets above ground as well were strewn about with wreckage, and drove the invaders away from populated areas and down, underground, into the town center.

When they arrived there, they found that the Honor of Rivis had entirely resurfaced on one side of the massive square, and Saorsa's Freedom was already amassed at the other end of the square, looking sheepish and battered. When they saw their enemy in sight, many Idrists in the ranks called for a charge, but they were cut across by a voice. A voice of undoubtable authority, calm, and strength, "Stay where you are, kinslayers!"

They looked up then, to the figure hanging in the air. An Angel, naked from the waist up, his right arm mangled and inflamed, clutching a magnificent blade. He spoke again when he had everyone's attention, "My name is Nathaniel, and I stand before you today, with the threat of your death should you proceed."

Some might have scoffed at this, but the way he spoke, and the way he held himself, made very few doubt that he could carry out that threat. Meanwhile, he continued, "Know this. I have walked these streets for hundreds of years, you who would call yourselves honorable, and I know: this city rose up in the same way all cities do, the same way that Rivis did, and is thus it's own, and not the property of Rivis. As such, your attempt to seize it for yourself is an act of petty theft. A lesser crime, which can be forgiven, but if you continue your route, you will become murderers. That, will be met with death to every last one of you, for today, Saorsa is under my protection, and it will remain under my protection until I feel there is no threat."

The Angel stopped for a moment. By this moment, a few had remembered legends of an Angel named Nathaniel, who carried the Sword of Life, and now whispers were heard in the crowd, of 'the immortal hero'. Nathaniel continued, however, now addressing Saorsa's Freedom, who had already been shepherded out of their barracks by the figure above them, "As for you, you were formed in a desire to defend yourself, and you have been starved for years on end, but you are an army nonetheless, and can march as easily as any other army. Pass it down among your stories, laws, and traditions: if this army ever matches against Rivis, Rivis will fall under by protection as Saorsa currently is. I will not allow two cities of a race I have come to love tear each other asunder. The siege will be lifted, and peace will reign, else there will be no army of either side. Saorsa will treat Rivis with respect as a parent, and in return, Rivis will admit Saorsa's autonomy. Is that understood?"

Silence filled the square then, before two crossbow bolts were suddenly unleashed from the Rivis side, targeting Nathaniel. He simply caught one and deflected the other with the Sword of Life, not even twitching in surprise, "I am going to assume that those were two very unfortunate misfires and not enact punishment. Now, a question still stands: Is your exact situation here understood?"


---

Later, Nathaniel was training, sweating in the sun, when an Idrists managed to find him. The Angel looked up in that instant and prepared to fight, but the man simply wished to learn from the immortal hero Nathaniel, offering his own knowledge in Crutiatic Thaumaturgy in exchange. Little did Nathaniel know that this was the first visitor of many he would gain, and soon a small school of mixed Idrians, Idrists, and even a few Elves and one Trell, would train beside the immortal Nathaniel.


***

Another generation of Trells had reached the age of clarity, when standing beneath the Marrow Tree did not give glimpses of small events, but entire visions of the future.

They were in dread. The backlash of Divine Creation would soon come, but it would still be uncontrolled. The Divine Conduit would catch the power indeed it would, but the power would simply remain within the trees, until they overflowed with power and they grew to a size that they could not sustain, collapsing and causing ruin for thousands of kilometers in all directions. It would be a catastrophe. So, they had to devise a way to direct the energy when it came, less they bring ruin upon their home.

It was the greatest challenge those of Grove ever faced. They simply did not understand the nature of the godscape enough to easily direct such an influx of power. Many poor plans came and went. It was agreed that vines would be needed to direct the flow of energy away from the Trouds, but it could not be decided what kind of vine it ought to be. they debated using the Tree Vine of the Saku Rasi Marshlands, but it would require too frail soil for the Trouds to remain standing. They thought about using the Black Pillar Vines, but, while they absorbed energy superbly, they also wouldn't let it go, making them about as bad as the current situations. Eventually, it came down to twenty ordinary Flowering Vine seeds from the Trell's own home, which they heavily modified with stone shells carved in every imaginable way.

The vines were planted, four to a Troud, and they quickly grew, remaining underground as the stone shells directed them to, and extending from among the roots of the colossal Conduit, towards a point at the heart of the crescent.

There, a half-kilometer wide carpet of magically altered moss grew, which allowed other plants to grow through it as if it itself were soil, but which also could be altered by the Trells, as by no small means, was. The moss glowed green at night, and filled all plants that grew above it with abstract potential. When the underground vines finally converged beneath this patch of moss, the power which the Divine Conduit always picked up began to feed into the plants as well, which, in combination with the itself-augmented power of potential the moss radiated, resulted in plants of uncommon qualities. A memory of the Sun would result in a tree bearing golden fruit to grow. Aniqua looking over the polar ice caps would create a bed of flowers made of ice. Mahkleb thinking about Eull would result in a flaming vine.

These plants were filled with immutable power, so much that a single leaf could enact a great spell with ease. They would not harm the world via ambient acts, however. Even if one crackled with flames, they would not burn anything. They would last forever as well, even a flower of ice would not melt, unless another plant overtook them in the patch. Some metal plants were even tougher than the metal they appeared to be made out of, and certain lights could illuminate more than simple dark places. To compound effects, these plants all responded to the Trell's Plant Charming art, which many realized gave them a considerable deal of power just in this single patch of moss.

Some feared it, some embraced it, but all hoped it would be what was needed for the Divine Creation to find it's purpose.


***

One in the Troud forest, one on the coast south of Eupnea, one in Sakura, one stunted and growing short in an alleyway beneath some rubble in Saorsa, one in the Thousand Isles, one wavering atop a Mesa in the Banana Land, and one sitting in the heart of the savanna in the Pure Land. These were the bodies of the Wandering Sakura when the event came. It had no choice anymore. It had to give an output to this bizarre, meaningless input from the godscape. The plant had no concept of what it was meant to do, but it did recognize that creation was needed, so, the first of Eull's avatars acted, and from it came a wave of uncontrolled creation, spawned on a random area of the planet.

Usually, this wave of uncontrolled energy would have triggered chaos, a thing which the Wandering Sakura would have despised had it thought, but the plant did not feel remorse, for it did not feel. As it was, it had unleashed this chaos in a very orderly fashion, a single jet of energy across the north, which struck a crescent of divine Trouds.

The Divine Conduit lit up blindingly when the energy struck it, and grass and moss suddenly erupted across the ground around their roots, all glowing and filled with raw creation. The majority of the power, however, flooded through underground routes, into a patch of moss which contained echoes of all gods across history, as well as the heavy influence of plants and Trell.

The energy gained sentience and understanding in that instant, immediately latching onto the Trell souls all around, and learning the history of the godscape as well.

The Trells tending the fantastic garden at that moment would notice several tiny figures, like naked Saku Rasi made of green light, appear in the heart of the moss, just before running into the trees in all directions, whiskers, or perhaps afterimages of their eyes, trailing after them., longer than they were tall.

These entities would come to be known as Alimta by the Trell. However, they're story would not come for a time yet.

7 points to Event: Nathaniel enforces peace between Rivis and Saorsa and learns Crutiatic Thaumaturgy.

4 points to Command the Trells to Create the "Fantastic Garden" Wonder.

4 points to Create the Alimta subrace of the Trell.

Current Power Points: 3
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293976/)

[ImperialSunligh]

Edit: Nevermind. :|

[Neelien]

rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298880/) bringing me up to 19

Something mysterious had happened. On one day, when Saku Rasi embassadors visited the Stringwork, it told them that it had obtained the secrets of metallugy and the momentum principle. However it would not share those secrects for some time. Guarantee was made that these technologies would be shared at some point, but that this would have to wait a few generations. The Stringwork apologized to the embassadors, explaining it needed time to reorganize itself in order to be more efficient, saying that this would not have been possible without the Saku Rasi contributing Navigation.

The Owtebs were feeling inferior to the Owtfes in the last millenia because they were less able than the Owtfes when it came to using Engagement magic and Lockon. Many of them set out to prove their worth by developing a new skill.

This came in the form of near complete Invisibility. The Sadowbirds were naturally disposed to stealth, as their bodies could adapt to the color of their environment. However the Owteb pushed this even further, using magic they managed to make themselves transparent and also multiplied the intensity of the light they let through to compensate for what little light was still absorbed by their skins. Only their metal bladed wingtips would remain forever visible.

He had been in the Void for a long time, but at last he was back to the real world. His experiments had changed Nios. They had proven to him that when dealing with large systems, chaos would ensue regardless, even if he used the simplest possible laws. This caused a change in his point of view. The most complex and most chaotic objects on Tyonix were living beings. He would need to reconsider what Balance was when treating with the Unpredictable, as it was very clearly part of it...

During his time in the Void he also caught a glimpse of Paradi when a portal opened to it for a fraction of a second, and what he saw in that moment did not please him... He would act to correct the wrong...

4 points : Advance Civilization Shadowbirds - Invisibility
15 remaining
+1 next round

[Omegonthesane]

Within Destroyer's Peak, a beautiful garden had been created, a place of wonder and solace which left those who saw it that much more able to cope with the daily horror that was life for non-natives in that place of profound darkness. It was not this that inspired the wonder-workers of the Plane of Thunder, however - rather, they were more interested in the excuses of the architect, excuses thinner and flimsier than leaves in a hurricane that nonetheless had been enough for the Octarchs to give planning permission. Or more accurately, to not bother to destroy the structure when there was so much other life in need of dying. It was not the thin and false nature of these excuses that interested them, neither - it was the possibility of making the lies true, of creating a true Garden of Pestilence of the kind that the Flowered Greenhouse pretended to be.

The main challenge was getting a large enough cabal of Singers to force a zone within the Plane of Thunder to follow Tyonix-side logic and laws. The Garden would be a living thing, and its every blade of grass could not be scribed with runes as the Dreamforge was; therefore, it had to be defended from the predations of other Singers while the architects completed the work. Some even created interplanar portals, summoning the seeds and serpents that were needed for the garden's proper specifications.

However, one way or another it was doomed to succeed. Once the constant trickle of Singer vandals realised they were attacking a place whose brewed poisons could simply kill them, the Garden of Pestilence was left be, like all the other wonders of this plane had been before their time to enter Tyonix had come. Like the Fan of Gales still was, sat in the corner of the entryway chamber.

In an age long ago, great instruments of war and death had been sent from another world as a reward for the army that broke Eupnea - yet the deeds of a cabal of demons stymied this dark gift scattering the great instruments across the world. One of these, a very special ocarina, had landed in a farmer's field in Eknad's Bosom, where a young boy named Lothar had found it. For the crime of daring to pick up the wrong trinket on the wrong day, Lothar had perished on his own father's sword, and theurgic ceremonies of fear had banished it into a void sat between all planes of existence.

The most sordid details of this story had been forgotten by many Humans, but not by one particular line. For Lothar had, in the follies of youth, sired a child upon his betrothed before their wedding day. The farmers of the Bosom were not noblemen or angels, to be murderously ashamed of the odd skeleton in the closet; she was quietly married to one of the stablehands, who agreed to cover up the bastard child on two conditions - time to raise it as his trueborn son, and oaths sworn to the entire Pantheon that any consensual adultery committed by either party would be pre-emptively forgiven and forgotten, to suffer no vengeance nor consequence, for each knew that love had no part in their union.

It would have ended there, but Lothar's betrothed told her firstborn son the truth about his real father, how he had been murdered for daring to be chosen by fate. This story was passed secretly down the family, who in time became prominent members of the Cult of Makhleb - indeed, some of them married into nobility, and never forgot their version of the day the Ocarina of Fire changed the destiny of their bloodline.

Many generations later, there was another farm boy named Lothar, and once again his father had been trained as a paladin of the Order of Eknad. Both were descendants of the only unbroken male line from the boy who first found the Ocarina, all other branches having either died out entirely or seen a generation of nothing but daughters. It was with only a little trepidation that the new boy approached the shiny object within the fields, and knelt down to pick it up.

But the Ocarina had profoundly changed in its time in the Void, and he had found it before it had had time to truly readjust to the laws of Tyonix. Instead of stopping at edges of solid matter, his hands entered the Ocarina. None save perhaps the gods truly know what followed, though his screams of ecstatic agony and the state he was in once it was over were all that many people needed to know. As the old Lothar's father had approached with sword drawn, the new Lothar's father approached the pillar of fire that had appeared in his crops, hoping to eliminate it. However, he was no true Paladin of Eknad, but a secret Betrayer and servant of Makhleb; rather than being a foreign abomination, the artefact he now beheld had originated from the god he followed.

When the pillar of flames had finished its work, Lothar stood naked and hairless before his father, his clothes and hair having been burnt to ash by whatever had transpired. Pieces of the black ceramic that had made up the Ocarina dotted his skin, though far too many to add up to the original instrument, and much of his skin had been permanently burnt, to such a degree that an entirely human being would have died. His eyes in particular were blinded, the corneas turned into opaque masses of scars, yet he seemed to see his father perfectly well.

"Loth?... Gods be good, what happened to you?"

"We... I... became something new. Something... more than either part," spoke the new strange being, as much Wonder as human, though the voice was unchanged.

"Something... what do you mean 'we'?"

"The Ocarina taught me many things when we fused, father. Things it learned in its journey. Fragments of the True God's will..."

In that instant he demonstrated the first truly new power the Ocarina had gained in its journey, as his ruined body appeared to heal itself. This was, of course, an illusion, a trick of the light granted by a stretch of the association between fires and light. A person who looked too closely at this glamer would notice that it flickered like a thing lit only by flames, and in any case the merest use of any part of the original powers of the Ocarina would remove the illusion instantaneously.

It took months before the burnt youth's skin settled into scar tissue; once that was done he was once more able to tolerate most clothing, though with a significant preference for the lightest and thinnest coverings due to his inner heat. The Cult of Makhleb took him to old and secret places, taught him to mastery in the ways of Swordsmanship and Golden Magic, and forged for him a pair of the finest blades of gold-enhanced steel that Human metallurgy could grant, as well as a brigandine shirt full of riveted plates of the same material, though this all tended to be hidden under thick traveller's robes. Perhaps fuelled by the dark instrument fused to his flesh, Lothar became naturally as well as supernaturally gifted, with strength, endurance, speed and grace that many duellists merely dreamed of. His new powers did not at first appear to include extended lifespan; he grew to full manhood as close to normal as could be expected, and any signs of aging he might have suffered were lost under his horrific burns when his true face showed.

This of course meant the Ocarina could not be taken from Lothar the Cursed while he yet lived, but also that no one knew what precisely would take place if any person were to dare.

In time, the location of Nathaniel's school of combat became known to Destroyer's Peak, and at first, few of them cared. What did it matter if more among the less pure races knew the methods by which others might be scourged and purified? However, things changed when a partiuclar being approached the Immortal Hero apparently seeking tutelage. Wrapped in all-covering robes as it was, its form was difficult to discern, though judging by height and gait it was either an elf, a Saku Rasi, or a Wehrblume. Probably an elf, because how could one of the latter two have crossed the sea to find Nathaniel's training grounds?

"Greetings, Nathaniel, seeker turned teacher, ever-living and ever-cursed," the being said, in a strangely deep voice for any of the threr races it probably was. "I wish some of your time. For lessons."
"Another one," the immortal said, through gritted teeth from the pain in his hand - a pain that now granted him strength. "Not teaching right now, come -
"Oh, you misunderstand me. I wish time for lessons - three lessons, to be precise - but I'll be doing the teaching."
"This better be good, I wanted to sleep," the angel said. "...What do you mean, three lessons?"
"In no particular order, a lesson in history, a lesson in the future..." As the speaker finished, its robes were consumed by a flash of flames, leaving a charred and soot-coated form beneath. Almost certainly a Werblume, judging by the black, burnt, leafless vines that extruded from its head, but what calamity made it look like that? "...and a lesson in humility."

Suddenly Nathaniel noticed there were strange black knives in the Werblume's hands, the same style as those commonly used by Kyudoka soldiers as a backup weapon for when foes got too close for their polearms. The next thing he knew, the Werblume had somehow crossed the fifty feet between them, and driven a fist into the general direction of his gut; he had already shifted to begin to block the strike, but the black Werblume was too fast, and Nathaniel found himself soaring through the air. A moment later, and the immortal hero realised his attacker was still attached to him by vines, and pulled itself closer with these. With each hand, the Werblume then slashed at Nathaniel's wings, having got close enough that each could feel the other's breath - or rather, that Nathaniel could feel the other's lack of breath, and begin to wonder at what opponent this was. While his wings were damaged, he had wielded the Sword of Life far too long to be stopped by a little thing like being ludicrously close to your enemy; a flick of his wrist, and the soot-coated Werblume found the blade bisecting him. Or her, or it, it was hard to tell in the few seconds they had been in contact.

His wings slashed, Nathaniel could not quite control his flight properly, and fell to the ground at an unpleasant angle. Or rather, he would have, had a portal not opened at his destined landing sight, such that he emerged horizontally out of a Troud, preventing his fall from being fatal. Instead, he merely scraped against the ground as his downward momentum became horizontal, taking no injury more serious than the slashes in his wings - which themselves were nothing the Sun's blessing would not relieve him of, when he got round to applying the proper Golden Magic rituals. For now, however, he checked, and found that the bisected Werblume's two pieces had followed him through the portal, still attached by vines.

Moments after seeing the bisected Werblume follow him he saw proof, if proof were needed, that this adversary was no Werblume at all. Its blackened form oozed back together, and there was another flash of flames, like the one that had consumed its robes; when this ended, Nathaniel saw what looked like a blackened elf riding a blackened version of one of their Bloom Steeds, the beasts their outriders rode which were able to maneuver in a dense forest. This time, as he got up, Nathaniel had time to take a closer look at the enemy's form - on close examination, the elf's legs were in fact fused to the steed's flanks, and similarly its hand had melted into the blackened sabre it appeared to hold rather than holding it in the usual sense.

The sabre seemed sharp enough, however, so as the steed galloped towards him Nathaniel made ready to block the first swings. The rider's blade was designed to use a steed's momentum to increase the power behind its strikes, and indeed the first strike had a great deal of momentum - but it also found itself clashing with the Sword of Life, rather than carving through flesh. The second and third strikes were faster but weaker, and Nathaniel's one counterswing met false blade again before the galloping Bloom Steed had passed him. A foe capable of quiet movement might have disappeared into the Bloom ready to strike from another direction, but even a Bloom Steed was not quiet enough that it could gallop or even canter without alerting everyone in a range longer than the distance it moved in a second, and neither was this sooty effigy of one. Nathaniel took a moment to rub one of his various golden talismans, calling down the blessing of the Sun to heal his wounds; the power that had been fuelling his Golden Magic answered the call, and his wings functioned again.

The next he knew, he was leaping up just too late to avoid being impacted by his galloping foe, though at least he was not trampled. He felt the sabre cut into his leg, but he answered it by carving through the steed's rump with the Sword of Life, causing it to stumble and fall mid-stride. As the elvish rider tried to get off its dead steed, Nathaniel placed the Sword of Life into the back of its neck.

"Something about a lesson in humility?" Nathaniel asked, followed by screaming in pain and shoving his blade another six inches forward, through the elf-effigy's neck. A moment later, as the elf-effigy began to collapse into dust, he realised the source of his pain - the rider's blade had cut off the fingers of his good hand, which even now fell to the floor.

Fortunately, the threat the elf-thing had posed was over. Had Nathaniel's hand been mutilated while he was mortal, he'd have been able to quickly reattach them with a Golden Magic talisman in his other hand, but that hand was welded to the Sword of Life, so the efficient way was basically impossible. However, there was enough of his ruined hand left to invoke a greater miracle, and the dire incantations running through his head turned his suffering into energy the Sun might use for the task. Thus, new fingers sprouted, and the old swiftly dissipated into energy like an angel's corpse.

Nathaniel looked up, and saw a trail of black dust rising up from the elven rider's remains, past the forest canopy. Well, one way or another he had to get up to get his bearings, and the sooty adversary was unlikely to leave him alone if it wasn't fleeing, so he felt no real trepidation about leaping and soaring through, a few swipes of his mighty sword cutting down those branches that got in the way.

In the sky, hovering and waiting for him at the end of the black trail, was a figure almost like a deformed angel - it had the right wings, it had the right physique, but its legs ended in scythed talons instead of feet, and while its left hand held a mighty blackened sword, its right was a hideous and engorged thing, and instead of five fingers, five glinting blades grew from it, each a foot and a half in length - good enough for most daggers, let alone natural claws. Other than those deformities, it might not have been clear that it was indeed a Demon he looked upon, rather than another Angel.

The sooty demon swooped past Nathaniel, muttering strange words in a language which only the divine truly mastered and which sorcerers knew only fragments of, before hovering in a new location and pointing its deformed hand. Out of it came a stream of molten iron, so Nathaniel grabbed the appropriate golden talisman and watched the iron solidify and fall to the ground three feet from his face. This process repeated itself with a dart of fire which exploded into a searing conflagration, no spark of which came within a foot of the immortal angel; a series of icicles, which similarly shattered as if they hit a wall before their target; and a beam of crackling darkness, which dissipated before it made contact. Nathaniel at least had the foresight to start flying as this barrage continued, thinking he might save some of his power if he didn't simply allow every strike to be deflected by a magic shield, until a flotilla of shrapnel found itself headed towards him, and unlike prior projectiles, corrected its course to match his flight. All but one of the pieces were deflected, and the one that hit home merely bruised his knee, but it did something far more significant - from that instant on, Nathaniel knew his reserves were limited, even with the constant stream of agony-induced power from his burning hand.

Of course, the demon-thing was telegraphing its spells something fierce, so Nathaniel knew where to dodge if it didn't risk another homing spell. If he could not simply outlast its fire, then he could interrupt its spells - and indeed it interrupted the casting of yet another iron shot to dodge out of the way of the immortal hero's thrust, before lunging at him with its hideous claw. A simple swing of the Sword of Life cut the ridiculous appendage off, and it disintegrated into soot soon after leaving the thing it was attached to, but the effigy simply continued fighting with its remaining hand. What followed would last long enough to go down in legend among some sword-fighting schools, as while the black effigy presumably had enough skill to press the attack it seemed far more interested in giving ground and blocking Nathaniel's swings than in counterattacks. This defensive strategy, however, only worked for so long; with one lucky swing Nathaniel cut off its sword hand as well, and another, more vicious swing cut the effigy in half.

This time, Nathaniel got to see the transformation sequence in full first-hand. The two duellists had flown high and far in their trading of blows, so the corpse had a good hundred feet of falling to do, during which it oozed back together and into yet another shape - a soot-blackened Singer, of all things, which flailed through the air, seemingly helpless due to its lack of wings. So it seemed, until another portal opened, at the last moment, atop the forest canopy, while another opened just behind Nathaniel. Not even the ancient warrior's reactions were honed to the point of being able to prevent that charge, and within instants he felt tendrils wrapping around him, one tendril for each of his wrists, another tendril for each of his ankles, another for each of his wings, and two that remained to wrap around his neck.

Against a weaker opponent, even an angel, this sudden ambush would have been death, but Nathaniel knew there were ways to escape a Singer. He had learned from certain Fort Liberty martial arts schools, and applied it last when duelling an Idrist student due to them similarly having two tendrils to fight with; a little twist here, a little there, and he had his good hand free of the effigy's grip. On its own this would mean very little as he hurtled to the ground, short of breath, but it meant he had time to perform the proper gesture and spit out the strangled word that would perform one of the many spells he had learned in a long lifetime. This one granted him freedom of movement without respect to physical law, causing the Singer to simply pass through him like so much air until its tendrils were no longer on him.

Irritatingly, there was no time to dodge out of the way of the portal both hero and Singer were now hurtling towards. However, as the two combatants emerged about fifty feet above a field in Eknad's Bosom, Nathaniel was able to swoop past the Singer before it finished opening another portal, and cut its core in half.

The duel complete, the immortal hero flailed his wings, adjusting to land slowly and properly with a fair degree of desperation; his leg was still wounded from the battle against the elvish rider, and he had not really had time to catch his breath after being strangled by a Singer. It was while he did this that the strange slow clapping sounded in his ears, from behind him; he listened carefully, but it wasn't approaching, so it wasn't a threat yet.

"Impressive! Clearly the rumours are based in truth!" said a booming voice, from the same direction. "Yet I must confess myself… disappointed. The harrier of Vroch, the bearer of the Sword of Life, saviour of the innocent, maimed by an outrider and nearly killed by a Singer with the tactical sense of a maiden newly bled?"

Nathaniel at last turned, and felt a wave of fear and wonder wash over him as he realised the dire entity he looked upon - Makhleb the Destroyer itself, creator of so much of the world's evil. A set of symbols written in fire lit the sky, and as he looked, Nathaniel suddenly understood this was a kind of family tree, with symbols representing the races whose forms Makhleb had taken in their fight - and symbols representing other divinities. In particular, the symbol representing the strange Werblume claimed parentage from two other symbols, for the Saku Rasi and the "true" Werblumes, as well as a third from Makhleb; while similarly the Elves were shown as the triple descendants of faeries, angels, and the Destroyer that they were. The tree also included a five-pointed star and a Suri's head, each claiming descent from Makhleb alone, which confused Nathaniel - the Suri had never been the Destroyer's work.

Part of him was as much reassured as worried to see the new scars on the Destroyer's form - one across each arm, two horizontal and one vertical across the chest, and one in the neck, from all the harm it had taken in their earlier duel.

"I had expected more of the one who vexed my Singers - but, I suppose it was my Demons, lead by faithful Mastema, who stole your kill, gave her retribution in my name."

"What? No, that can't…"

"It's rude to interrupt," said the god, and Nathaniel found himself struck temporarily dumb. "Here is your lesson in humility, if such were yet needed." With that, Makhleb raised a hand, made a gesture and spoke a word, in a pattern familiar to all who had had any dealings with Elves; Nathaniel found his wounds closing, his bruises clearing, and even a reduction in the endless pain of his sword hand. "You still use golden trinkets to heal yourself. Do you imagine your god will keep giving you favours without limit?"

"The Sun has chosen to keep me alive. He has a purpose for me -

"Does he now?" Makhleb asked. "The same Sun who murdered poor Aniqua's cultists, over and over - the same cultists your army was once sworn to protect, as I recall. The same Sun who preached the wickedness of Demons not for their excesses, but for the crime of sharing holy blood. The same Sun who to this day weeps in his tower in Paradi, not for the murders and crimes he has authored, but because the Red Screamers soiled his favourite toy." There was no mistaking the contempt in the god's voice for the lesser being it described. "Tell me, why would a god so obsessed with its own idea of purity, so intolerant of the influences of others, even forgive you for the crime of protecting those who worshipped another - much less grant you the power of the Sword of Life, power that the humans would have seized but for you?"

"...You know nothing of virtue, you wouldn't understand," Nathaniel blurted, but he failed to keep out the hint of fear and defensiveness. There was no escaping the simple fact that Makhleb had asked a question he could not answer, and while the thought enraged him, it also worried him.

"Hmph, do I not? Travel the world and see. Might I recommend the Elfmoot, or the Hunting Grounds - maybe if you shake them hard enough, an elf might tell you how to take care of yourself instead of praying to forces you don't understand. Maybe you won't have to hope against hope, every time you fondle your little toy, that your god is who you think he is and will aid you again and again. Prove yourself worthy, and I might give you that lesson in history after all."

With that, the Destroyer vanished in another puff of flame, leaving Nathaniel far from home to think on its words.

There was a sudden booming laughter from all around, as the scattered pieces of soot rearranged themselves into a shape that only one partially mortal being that yet lived would recognise, though many a scholar would have heard of the terrible deeds it performed in its brief, bright lifetime. This time, the layer of soot vanished, and Nathaniel suddenly had a flash of realisation as if granted warning by the Sun - this new foe was a replica of the Wretched Star, a demigod of aeons past, who was slain by the Seliss after enacting the conquest of long-fallen Ashatorat.

As this dire warning rang in the immortal hero's mind, the memorial of the Wretched Star shone with the same coruscating light as the original. A human shepherd was close enough to watch this strange event, and to scream in despair as his flock of sheep suddenly charged at Nathaniel, possessed by the pure rage of an evil long past. Of course, sheep were not hydras, and Nathaniel had an advantage that the Seliss had lacked; even as he braced for the Wretched Star's charge, he swung the Sword of Life this way and that, destroying the berserk sheep and necessitating a great feast before the crows arrived. Of course, this was in part possible because the Wretched Star chose not to engage in melee combat, but instead to fly into the air, and emit a narrow beam of light that lowered Nathaniel's body temperature to an untenable level.

Before death was able to claim him, though, Nathaniel reached to the proper talisman, and his gods granted him a new lease of life, restoring his body temperature and maintaining it even in light of the continued shining. The light changed in colour, and Nathaniel briefly felt a terrible heat, before his protective charms allowed it to subside; he flew into the air, and slashed at the Wretched Star, which grasped the Sword of Life itself between two of its five points and slammed him with the remaining three, leaving bruises and cracked bones. However, before his body or magic gave out, the Immortal Hero was able to draw a knife and cut off the end of the reanimated demigod's limb, freeing his sword from its position - only to find himself catapulted to the ground. The next thing he knew, he couldn't feel or move anything below the neck, such was the way in which the Wretched Star had cast him down.

Yet even in defeat, Nathaniel had claimed a victory similar to that which he had sought over Vroch; in the last possible moment, his instincts from years of training had led him to swing the Sword of Life with its full dreaded power, and thereby left ten bisecting wounds in the Wretched Star's form. Now, his state was almost blissful; breathing was difficult, but for the first time since he broke into Eupnea, his hand's endless pain was completely gone.

There came another booming laughter, though this time less malicious, as the Wretched Star's segments turned back into soot, and reformed themselves into a new shape. Unable to turn his head, Nathaniel was forced to watch the transformation sequence as the foe who had harried him for at least the past three hours revealed its true nature. A pillar of flames leapt from the ground as the soot reformed itself into a humanoid effigy, naked and genderless, with eyes of a flame brighter than the sun, and it remained surrounded by an aura of fire as the pillar subsided and it descended to the ground. Suddenly, Nathaniel was overcome with a sense of terror and wonder, as he realised he had not fought some Singer trick or some spawn of Vroch. No, the being before him was Makhleb the Destroyer itself, creator of the Pure Land, father and mother of the Singers, the Red Lord, and the Wretched Star, murderer of the Suri, the most terrible of the dark gods.

"You have triumphed!" the God of Destruction boomed, in an only faintly mocking voice. "I had expected you to fall to one of my mortal forms, quite frankly - and I had never imagined you would stand a chance against the memory of my son, let alone to destroy him even in the moment of his victory! Truly, you are the Immortal Hero, Champion of Eull the Wanderer." As the Destroyer spoke, a set of flames appeared in Nathaniel's field of vision, depicting a sort of family tree showing how, ultimately, Makhleb was the ancestor of every race it had taken the form of in that duel.

"Liar... I fight for... virtue... for the Sun..." Nathaniel choked, through lungs that only partially obeyed him. His retort resulted in more booming, mocking laughter; yet, this close, he could see that Makhleb's shape shifting did not hide the damage. The once spotless form of the God of Destruction was now covered in scars, from all the ways it had been killed in the previous duel.

"You do not truly think that weak being answers your prayers, do you Nathaniel? Nor do you truly believe the God of Purity would work through impure deceptions." With that, Makhleb laid its dreadful hand upon the maimed hand-sword fusion that had tortured Nathaniel for so long, without increasing his suffering. Yet. "Think, infant. Were you not of the Rebel Angels, cast from Eupnea into my own Peak for the crime of standing between the Sun's true servants and those they would brutally murder? Do you truly think the Sun would even forgive your defiance, much less welcome you into its sight and praise you for stealing its most sacred artefact out of the hands of Humans?"

When the Destroyer put it that way, it made a disturbing amount of sense. Nathaniel had indeed spent his life before Vroch defending things that the Sun was opposed to, and the Inquisition had been born due to how the Sun wished to treat those who rebelled against his teachings; the idea that any quest could earn its forgiveness was strange, yet what other god worked through golden light?

Makhleb snorted. "Kha ha ha ha... sorry, that's just hilarious, you actually think that gods are forbidden from using particular effects when we work our will! Well, as I mentioned, your god isn't the Sun. However, there is one other lie you must disbelieve before I can show you the truth. You do not truly think it was the Red Screamers who cursed that sword, do you?"

"The cruellest army... of the cruellest people... would do it..."

"Oh, they would, the sadism of a Red Screamer was beyond mortal compare when they held your Sword. They would, if they knew how. But, why would they ever place such defensive curses on the Sword of Life, at a time when it was their own weapon, and why have they never used these curses again? Why, in fact, did their siblings on my Plane of Thunder not defend their many Wonders with these same curses?"

Nathaniel racked his brain, desperate to find some kind of retort, desperate to find a way in which to not concede a point to the ultimate source of so much despair and suffering. Yet ultimately, he could find no answer, and had to concede that his current view of events made absolutely no sense. With that, he felt a strange, uncomfortably hot thing supporting the back of his head as Makhleb grew in size, keeping its child-like proportions, and lifted him from the ground.

"Come, Champion of Eull. Let us witness the truth."

Many divine beings had a limited ability to see into the future; all had a limitless ability to see into the past, and Makhleb granted this ability to Nathaniel for the duration of its trip into various pieces of the past. Nathaniel was at first confused, as the first stop was not an event that concerned him, but the epic war between Gerki and Destroyer's Peak some decades back. What was it to him if the two greatest forces of destruction on the planet clashed with one another instead of with the innocent?

This was followed by a vision of Mastema, praying before the final battle against Vroch - praying to an altar which he first set on fire, and whipping himself with a many-tongued whip which ended in metal blades, all while murmuring a strange chant in a language he clearly did not personally understand. Yet one word of that chant repeated and repeated, and was known to Nathaniel - Makhleb. The hero who had destroyed Vroch's evil had apparently worshipped a yet greater evil, in spite of the demons' lack of evil deeds.

The next vision was familiar, though not from an outsider's angle; Nathaniel saw himself, holding the Sword of Life aloft for the first time, seeing the flash of golden light. Yet now, he saw a trail of causality normally visible only to gods, and Makhleb carried him along that trail. As the Destroyer had said, that trail had started not in Paradi, not with the Sun, but with a man ancient beyond reckoning, watched over by an angel with grey wings. As if this was not confirmation enough, Nathaniel was made to witness the queries that followed, as the Nameless Angel questioned why Eull had performed this deception, and later criticised his own father for the inherent cruelty of Nathaniel's fate.

Then Nathaniel's consciousness was taken to yet further past ages, occasionally punctuated by ages that followed. To the Black Angel who had suffered so much, only to have the purpose of birthing the Nameless Angel with Eull's help. To seven jewels scattered across the world, jewels which now had Singer attendants whose evil was burnt out by their radiance. To a strange serpentine granter of wishes, who had interacted with the Idrians long ago, and later destroyed the original White Conclave on the request of an orphaned Idrian child. To the Titan Bird which Eull altered, and how its next clutch of eggs hatched into a flock of twelve birds, who shared one consciousness and felt a need to improve their world - and to the day on which that need had driven them to do battle with the original Wretched Star, in the volcano of the First Land. Each of these had a trail of causality which began at Eull, even if Makhleb had not gone to the trouble of showing Nathaniel the births of all these beings.

Makhleb then showed Nathaniel the first scuffle between demigods, a conflict between Vroch and the Seliss, in which the former had eaten one of the latter. After that, it showed Nathaniel how the Seliss had questioned Eull about the purpose of Vroch's existence.

After that, it showed Nathaniel how Vroch had similarly asked her father, Eull, why he had created the Seliss - followed by the birth of Vroch, oldest of Eull's children, born of an Arachno in order to be their lord, a being of evil from the moment of its creation. A being of evil spawned by the same god as the virtue of the Seliss.

There were other visions as well, of the great tree that spawned the Saku Rasi and the set of dancing stars that birthed the Shou Tahs, of the Seliss' rebirth and creation of the Trell, of the drop of Vroch's blood that created the only race to rival the Singers in pure wickedness if not in damage actually caused. Yet these were less important than those before - that it was Eull who empowered Nathaniel, that it was Eull who spawned the evil Nathaniel had tried so hard to slay, and that it was a worshipper of Makhleb who put that evil to its end.

With this, Nathaniel's consciousness was returned to his body, and pain once again lanced through his hand - Makhleb could be in many places and focus on many things at once, and had taken the time to restore Nathaniel's body to full functionality with the Regenerative Magic of its elvish children. Shaken, the hero merely stumbled away as the Destroyer let him stand. Nathaniel found himself inside a cave, some way away from a lit enclosure to his right - clearly he had been carried away while his consciousness was projected across time.

"I promised you a lesson in humility. This I have given. I promised a lesson in history. This I have given. And look..." Makhleb gestured towards the light, and Nathaniel turned his head, to see a human of perhaps twenty winters, horrifically burnt, with pieces of something embedded within his flesh. Yet, the young man showed no sign of discomfort or pain, or the blindness that his opaque corneas would normally entail. "...there is my lesson in the future. Eull took a child of another god, and shackled it to a Wonder to be his Champion. When you see him, tell him I have done the same with a human, only using one of my own Wonders."

With that, the Destroyer's form shimmered and faded away, and Nathaniel noticed the cave he was in had the quality of flickering flames in a pattern not consistent with the flames illuminating Makhleb's supposed champion. In wonder, he poked a hand at the wall, and the trick of light faded away, revealing that he was in fact back at his training grounds, just in time for dawn.

During the past few decades, the people of Sophei had seen the most obvious cultists of the false god Aniqua detained and restricted. This was not an unvarnished social good - even among those true, pure, and faithful to all the gods had demanded, there was a worry that the mortal warriors responsible for enforcing the will of the most holy gods would take the opportunity to settle their pet scores or pick fights with those undeserving of the attention. There were after all those in Sophei who practised sword-fighting techniques other than the most popular school, who feared that their rivals might declare them heretics; more fearful were those with unusual orientations or desires, yet who otherwise were faithful - men and women whose love was not pointed in the same direction as their ability to make a family, many of whom allowed themselves a toy-boy or a mistress in addition to the lawfully wedded other head of their family and other parent of their children. They already faced much unspoken discrimination, and feared that it would grow worse now that the servants of Eknad had decided it was acceptable to use military force to crush deviants once again.

The last straw, however, was - ironically - the news of the Usurper's death and the new Eternal King. In his first life Axus the Eternal had been a wondrous King, blessed with wisdom and magnanimity not often granted to humans, while the Usurper had been a selfish and grasping fool who failed to take his ill-gotten responsibilities seriously. Yet, for generations Figurae had raised good kings and Figurae had raised bad kings, all in the safe knowledge that Eknad would carry them to Paradi within thirty or fourty years of their coronation, limiting the damage they could do before a new ruler had a chance to change things. If Axus was to rule forever, then there would be no such changing of the guard, no such alteration of ideas and competencies. Perhaps the gods guided him now, but all knew that divine links could be corrupted, decoupled from the good and pure gods who made Humanity and instead attached to the dark and wicked gods who lay outside the Pantheon's lands - what if Eternal King Axus was seduced into the worship of the deviant Aniqua, the mercurial Eull, or all heavens forbid, the foul Makhleb?

Those faithful to Makhleb whispered the question most dared not consciously think, adding to the tensions within Sophei - what if the Eknad gods were, in fact, as wicked and maniacal as those they worked so hard to oppose?

With all of these worries hanging over the heads of Sophei, there was a brief spike in crime, until - guided perhaps by subtle hands - the citizenry organised themselves into a new Militia, which would keep the city safe through the trials ahead and head off the worst rebellions and crimes of those not interested in playing nice. In reality, few doubted that they were looking with wary eyes not just outside the walls for the enemy without, but inside them, wary of the enemy they saw within. As such, tensions inevitably grew between the Citizen's Militia and the officially mandated armies of Sophei.

Many Saku Rasi were disgusted with the Yosei family when the extent of their, er, unions with the Werblumes was realised - it would have been bad enough had they started taking brides from Serpent's Den, but at least that wicked place was a city of the true people, of the Sakura's children. To bear the children of those who had no origin in the Wandering Sakura was beyond what many of their race dared to think, much less countenance.

Yet, ultimately, the Road Builders were merchants first. Many of them reasoned that while the filthy Yosei traditions were something that most Saku Rasi had no business repeating, neither were they harmful - not when compared to the raids of the Shou Tahs or the Kraith hiding just behind each wall. Even if they were, the only people harmed were those who consented to take part, and influence from their Demon allies had left the Road Builders more open to allowing limited deviancy within certain strict bounds. The greediest of the Road Builders defended the Yosei by pointing out how exceptionally close they were to the Werblume trade partners, how they could infiltrate the cities to the north and steal information for the Saku Rasi; these if anything hurt the case of those they sought to aid, for such thefts would surely harm the alliance in the long term, but the point was considered.

One way or another, though, the Yosei made trade agreements and lucrative offers to those who would otherwise fear to join a successful but deviant family, and sought to mark territory in Wetami, the city that had made their name.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298150/)
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 13 points

1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Garden of Pestilence)

2 points: Command City (Figurae) to Raise Army (Lothar the Cursed)
5 points: Event - Return of the Ocarina of Fire, which is gifted to Lothar the Cursed

2 points: Command City (Sophei) to Raise Army (Citizen's Militia)

2 points: Command City (Wetami) to Political Maneuver. Unless this is opposed, Wetami becomes as much a Yosei city as a Saku Rasi city.

0 points: Command Army (Elf Outriders) to defend The Hunting Grounds
0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to defend the Human Cult of Makhleb
0 points: Command Army (Betrayers) to defend Figurae
0 points: Command Army (Citizen's Militia) to defend Sophei

1 point remaining
+3 (4) Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Benthesquid]

Roll=9, (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4299172/) with zero banked makes nine.
Advance Civilization (Werblumes) The Dance of Rising Spring (Six points)
Command Race: (Werblumes): Create Wonder (The Spring Manual) (Three Points)
Total, nine points. Zero banked.


Jalat Nus walked through Adonia, surrounded by her acolytes from the Sehkian Society. In the century since her awakening, the city had changed. Trade had been a part of the city from its foundations, but it had been raised to a fever pitch by the proclamation that had gone out on the day the Collegium had opened its gates. The new ruler of the Werblume would pay handsomely for exotic animals. Now it was not unusual to see a First Lands Carnifex pacing the confines of its cage as it was hauled towards the Collegium, or a massive glass tank full of water and containing some of the odd creatures of Mahkleb, brought up from the sea.

Nor was the profusion of animals the only change. All over Adonia, and indeed, the rest of the Werblume world, there was an increased seriousness, a result of the increasing attacks by Kraith and Shou Tahs alike. Werblumes who had previously had few concerns beyond making life pleasant, and honoring Sehk, now turned their thoughts to the defense of their homes and loved ones.

It was in this spirit that a Werblume by the name of Kit Lifsdotter developed a new method of combat. Focused on holds and throws, using not only the four main limbs, but also the six vines, and emphasizing the importance of technique over brute strength- although Kit herself, and most of her followers, did advocate the borrowing of strength via Totemic Symbols for actual combat- it became known as the Dance of Rising Spring. Academies teaching Kit's techniques sprang up all over Adonia, and soon in the other Werblume cities as well.

Meanwhile, Kit continued refining and perfecting the techniques, eventually producing a series of two hundred and seven woodcuts, demonstrating the various positions and movements of the Dance of Rising Spring. This she termed the Manual of Spring, and made an offering of it to Jalat Nus.

[ImperialSunligh]

Anike looked upon the monkeys who suffered under the iron fist of the RFM and despaired. His attempts to create a society free of exploitation and suffering only resulted in new horrors. He had to try something else, and so he empowered a group of monkeys to rise against the government.

These monkeys believed in a freer society, in which monkeys could have power over that which they owned, where the government would not interfere whenever possible.

With the help of Anike, organising a coup was a simple and swift action.

Use of the booths was decreased significantly, to be used only on the most dangerous criminals and voluntary soldiers.

The new regime was led by an ambitious, charismatic leader known upon his rise to power as Emperor Uwe von Herz. He quickly became immensely popular throughout Herz as a liberator, and was worshiped along with the pantheon as a godlike figure long after his death. His character and beliefs, and the general feeling of the revolution led to a strong sense of identity, and perhaps superiority for the monkeys. Dangerously so.

Slavery remained illegal, but the attitude towards it changed significantly. There were no longer laws enforcing the employment of the ungifted, and so many were forced to take low paying jobs. The underground market of slavery also flourished in this time, the people's opinions making actual enforcement of the laws rare.

The drones, brainwashed beyond mending, remained a military organisation defending Herz, though the nature of them and their existence was something the new government didn't flaunt.

Roll: 2d6+2=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298665/)
2nd Roll: 2d6+2=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4298666/)

2nd Revolution of Herz. RFM changed to The Monkey Empire

Left: 9

[Neelien]

rolled 8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4300189/) bringing me up 23

The death of Law had long passed. However for a fraction of a second, as Nios was experimenting with the Void, he saw the very moment of her death. He realized the importance of such a god, who he thaught was similat to himself. This assumption had no basis, for law had been very different to Nios in too many respects to be considered even remotely similar. Nevertheless, he thought Law was necessary and that she was the one that should set the fundamental truths of the world. He would create a replica, of lesser power.

Right before he left the Void, Nios changed the Properties of one of the Shadowirds that hadn't gone through the portal right as it was about the be destroyed by the everchanging laws of he Void. It would become known as the LawBringer, a single Owteb that stabilized the Void around it so that life would be possible there. The LawBringer did not stay alive for long after Nios exited the void. However, when it desitegrated, the Stabilizing aura did not disappear. It now surrounded a small object that was left behind - a small oval object that the being of Tyonix would recognize as a pen.

This would become known as the Pen of Law. A pen that could inflict any law upon its surroundings. For a few minutes, the Remaining Shadowbirds existed around the pen before being sucked out of the Void. (this will only manifest much later than Nios's exiting the Void)

Nothing of interest happened with the Stringwork as it continued to reorganize itself. The Shadowbirds were not very active either. They did however finally understand the concept of tactics, realizing that many fighting together would likely be better than many fighting by themselves. This led to the first Real Army of the Shadowbirds - the United Squadron of Andromeda.


1 point Shape World - the Void - Command Race (Shadowbirds) - Create Wonder - the Pen of Law
2 points - Command City Andromeda - Raise Army - United Squadron of Andromeda (this is a "part-time" army of roughly 600 Shadowbirds)

20 points remaining, +2 next round

[5a Violista]

Across Sophei, it was clear that unrest was rising. Those who secretly worshiped Aniqua due to familial tradition wanted to avoid war and battle - after all, that wasn't what they believed their goddess wanted. So they, secretly in their houses, with all the entrances closed and barred (for that's how they learned to worship from their parents) asked Aniqua for guidance. Each one of them received the answer that they would shortly see a sign to follow. They each individually prepared for a long journey.

Soon afterwards, a woman dressed in a red robe and hood walked down the streets of Sophei. None really knew how she got in the city or what she was. Her proportions were like a human, but her eyes were aflame and her skin was a cracked grey color.

Some feared she was Makhleb or some disastrous being sent by it. Others, a trick of the two suns in the sky. In any case, many people followed her, curious or wary of what was about to happen.

The Priestess walked straight up to in front of the Council Buildings, in the exact spot she was martyred so many centuries earlier. She stood there, staring at straight at the doorways until some of the council members came out. At that moment, she took off her hood, showing her pure white hair. She caught aflame for a moment.

Before anyone dared to do anything, she dissolved into ashes. Those ashes blew away in the breeze, just as the had done before.

Those who still worshiped Aniqua saw this as her sign and promptly left the city in the ensuing confusion. They followed the ashes for months, occasionally receiving food and healing from an old wandering woman or through some other miracle. Finally, they arrived at the city of Sanctuary, far in the north.

At first, many were frightened because of their fear of the demons - but their fears were soon abated. They were taken in by the demons who took care of the temple for Aniqua. From then on, the small minority of humans a few demons in Sanctuary took care of Aniqua's Temple.

(1)Command Demigod(The Ashen Priestess): Command Cult in Sophei: Migrate to Sanctuary and demonland



Thanks to Nathaniel's intervention, both Saorsa's Freedom and Honor of Rivis were able to survive, and peace was forged between the two cities.

For the next several decades, the Idrians and Idrists from Rivis would help the Idrians reconstruct Saorsa and help get them back on their feet.

Many young Idrians and Idrists saw Nathaniel the Angel as an idol, a hero; many of them said they would be like him when they grew up: brave, courageous, strong. Eventually, legends in both cities would say how he descended from the sky and singlehandedly defeated the [other city's] army and brought peace between the two - though the exact details would vary from storyteller to storyteller.


--Mention how Saorsa's Freedom survived due to Nathaniel's intervention
(0)Command Army(Honor of Rivis) return to Rivis, defend Rivis.



Eventually, the songlike speech of the Nereids became so ingrained in the sea that they were created singing.

Many hapless sailors were drawn to the depths of the sea through this.


(3)Command Race(Nereids): Ingrain Technology(Enchanting Song)



Throughout the Banana Land, it was well-known that only really warm eggs would be born as female.

Some Maimec saw the control of the flames by the vile Kraith, and were inspired by it. Though they didn't learn to control fire, they found a way to make the inside of their mouths fireproof - and if they ate certain disgusting-tasting herbs, they could breathe fire.

Many unfortunate mistakes soon occurred.

However, after a while, they got the hang of it: it would help their cities grow faster. One city in particular, Iztec, didn't see eye-to-eye with the others: they saw it as a possible military technology.


(6)Advance Civilization(Maimec): "Firebreath"
(1)Command Avatar(The Oracle): Command City(Iztec): Raise Army(Cuetzpali Ome)
(0)Command Army(Cuetzpali Ome): Defend(Iztec)


This round: 12

(1)Command Demigod(The Ashen Priestess): Command Cult in Sophei: Migrate to Sanctuary and demonland
(0)Command Army(Honor of Rivis) return to Rivis, defend Rivis.
(3)Command Race(Nereids): Ingrain Technology(Enchanting Song)
(1)Command Avatar(The Oracle): Command City(Iztec): Raise Army(Cuetzpali Ome)
(0)Command Army(Cuetzpali Ome): Defend(Iztec)
(6)Advance Civilization(Maimec): "Firebreath"
Remainder: 1

Next turn:
1 + 2d6=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4300633/) + 3(Cult) + 3(Chaos) = 11


Idrians (Saorsa): Last turn: War of Brothers
Faeries: --Planned next turn: Raise Army--
Maimec: This turn, learn Firebreath
Nereids: This turn, Ingrain Tech "Enchanting Song"
Elves: 2 turns ago, Raise Army "Nature's Protectors"
Idrist and Idrians (Rivis): This turn: Army returns home
Suri: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Saku Rasi: Last turn: Sakura - Theater, Serpent's Den - Cove of Spiders
Singers: Last turn: Create "Flowering Greenhouse"
Shou Tahs: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Stringwork: --Planned next turn: Advance in some waterbreathing thing to help other races who want to communicate with them better?--
Humans: Cult migrated. Is there no more.
Demons: Cult arrived this turn.
Worldwide: 5 turns ago, Create "Fountain of Youth"
Worldwide: Last turn, Werewolves --Planned next turn: something with werewolves--

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4293976/)
Current Power Points: 12

"Come with me to the Grove, teacher," Derinnolom advised, looking down at where Nathaniel sat, lost in thought. He had been despondent and lost since his encounter with Mahkleb, struggling with what the encounter had been for. Why would a god take such interest in him? Why throw him across the world and die time and time again? What kind of rest had that been? What was the purpose of it? He had stopped teaching his pupils in the brooding anger that followed, and now only a handful remained, having faith that their teacher would pull through. Derinnolom was one of that handful, the ever-patient Trell.

Nathaniel looked up at the Trell, "Why, exactly? Also, who opens a conversation like that?"

"The Trell do, and because you are lost, seeking wisdom and direction. In Grove is the Marrow Tree. Stand beneath it long enough, and you might find what you seek."

Nathaniel thought for a moment, "That would put me too directly in the public eye, to take up shop in such a major city. Some would fear me and I would not be able to say that I would always be perfectly even headed. Thank you for the offer, though, Derinnolom."

"The Grove has the Marrow Tree. None who live in Grove, who stand beneath it's branches every day, would ever fall to such foolish whims as fear of you. You would be safe in Grove."

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, "You usually aren't this persistent, Derinnolom."

"I believe that you should come with me to the Grove."

Nathaniel fixed the Trell with a long, hard stare at this declaration…


---

His pupils went with them to Grove, the five Idrists, twelve Idrians, and four Elves. Setting up camp in the middle of the Trell city, and, after Nathaniel had spent some time beneath the Marrow Tree, continuing their training underneath the glowing willow.

During this time, Nathaniel seemed more at peace than he had been earlier in life, as calm and wisdom from the great tree filled his mind and he even learned to take joy in his work despite his eternal pain. Eventually, it came to be known that Nathaniel was actually older than the entire Trell race, and considering that when a Trell reached the last stages of it's life, they began seeing massive portions of the future as they stood about beneath the tree, many wished to know what Nathabiel saw of the future. The answer was strange: he had never seen any glimpse of the future since he had arrived.

This was unprecedented, as all who stood beneath the Marrow Tree at least saw some minor events in the future, yet it was as though some force was blinding Nathaniel to the future.


---

One day, a Saku Rasi trader was visiting Grove, exchanging aquariums full of strange undersea plants for some wondrous plants from the Fantastic Garden. As his crew was unloading the heavy tanks, however, he took a stroll to the Marrow Tree, as he so often did when he visited Grove.

While he had stopped there, however, he saw an angel lecturing and dueling with an Elf, who hung on his every word as though it were pure gold. As he watched, the trader walked up to an elderly Trell and, never once taking his eyes off Nathaniel, asked, "Who is that? The Angel with the sword."

The Trell turned slowly, taking in the stranger who spoke, then the scene which was referred to, and then the stranger again, before he replied, "That is Nathaniel, who is often referred to as 'the Immortal Hero'."

The trader laughed, "Is that what he's been telling you? Nathaniel is a myth."

The Trell considered the Saku Rasi for a long moment. So long, in fact, that the stranger realized that he had doubted the truth of what a Trell said before the Trell broke the silence. You see, a Trell either speaks the truth, or admits that he does not know. When this Trell said that the Saku Rasi looked upon the Immortal Hero, he was certain that he looked upon the Immortal Hero.

The trader knew how to trade information, of course. Soon he would find himself a rich man indeed, as he spread the word to Elfmoot in exchange for healing talismans, to Fort Liberty in exchange for swords, to Farea in exchange for rare blossoms, and to Sanctuary in exchange for a small amount of platinum.


---

Hundreds had come to Grove. Elves, Faeries, and Demons alike milled among the Trells who were uncertain what to do with so many others around. They had come on a rumor, that the Immortal Hero lived, and taught in this city. They had been building for days. At first, it had only been an annoyance, but now, there were too many, and none were leaving.

Nathaniel knew that he could not encourage this, however, lest he forever be followed by a crowd of fans, while Grove becomes a trampled whole in the ground from the throng of visitors. He wasn't prepared to leave yet, of course. The wisdom he sought had not come to him.

So, he had to drive these people away. To do this, he appeared before them, and just by staring out at them, quieted the cacophonous roar that had been continuing since they arrived. Once he had their attention, he spoke, "I will only speak to those who seek permanent residence here, in Grove. Anyone who wishes to return home, should return there now. There will be no middle ground on this."

This put a damper on many visits. Some tried to ignore the requirement, and they were thrust from Nathaniel's presence by his pupils. Some tried to attack Nathaniel in the name of Mahkleb or some other evil god, and these were dispatched quickly, much to the horror of those looking on. Many simply left.

Though, a full third of the Elves remained, setting up homes in the rooftops as it was in Elfmoot. A tenth of the Faeries who had come set up houses inside the trees themselves, some even managing to convince a Trell or two to allow them to place a home inside them. Half of the Demons remained, setting up traditional wood & stone homes on the outskirts of Grove. Most of these Demons were from Fort Liberty after all, and they specifically directed their fellows to arrange their houses as a wall around the true city, the dozens of trees, with the Marrow Tree at it's heart and the Divine Conduit at it's back.

Nathaniel was surprised that so many had stayed, and he found he had a much larger than usual class to teach. So, to many it more manageable, he directed his veteran students to each take a group and get them caught up to speed, while Nathaniel took a group of his own. Over the coming months, many would teach Nathaniel some of their own arts even as he taught them his.

This would be the Immortal College.


---

"This city needs protection, Urrudlum! What if the Singers or the Humans marched on this wondrous place and cut down the Marrow Tree? You would be unable to stop it!"

"The Marrow Tree harms no one, nor leads anyone to harm, young Hexor. I do not see why anyone would ever do such a thing."

"It's because you're accustomed to the wisdom it brings. There are many out there in the world who are fools and would fear the Marrow Tree without reason."

"They would be filled with wisdom before they laid a single hand upon the bark, young Demon, and know their folly."

"Even if that were true, that would be too late, and the rest of the army would likely tear down the Fantastic Garden, our homes, and the Divine Conduit itself, and we all know that that would be a calamity."

Nathaniel spoke up, "I actually agree with Hexor, Urrudlum. The city needs defenders, and besides, he's not asking you Trells to march beside him, just for permission to form a new force of the other races who now live here."

"On a purely volunteer basis at that!" Hexor added.

Urrudlum grimaced at this, but, after a long time, spoke again, "Very well, though this force may never leave Grove."

"Agreed."


---

Nathaniel had found what he had sought all those years under the Marrow Tree. He had been lost because he was incomplete, but to complete himself, he had to go through certain things by himself, and thus bid farewell to his pupils, telling them that they could not follow him, and placing a few "masters", including Derinnolom, in charge of the College in his absence.

The day he would leave, would also be the Day the new army would be christened. So, before he left, he went to the clearing where the ranks were amassed. It was quite an impressive force, with two Trell volunteers who would animate entire forests to serve as foot soldiers, while Demons operated as long range artillery, thinning out opposing forces as they fought trees. The Faeries were quick, and carried around amulets of Healing and Abjuration, planning to move to the front line and reinforcing it with impenetrable shields as they regenerated the harmed plants with the Elven healing magic. Alternatively, they operated as assassins, slipping behind enemy lines and using the Eternal Dance to take out key leaders. The elves were reserves, where, in case the tree foot-soldiers were overcome, they would ride out on their cavalry and attempt to trample any foe, as Faeries flew alongside them, protecting them with powerful abjurations. There was even a contingent of Abjuration specialists who stayed with the two Trells, making sure they remained alive, as the brunt of the military force was resting upon them.

At the christening, Hexor, the high commander of the army said some words, invited Urrudlum and Nathaniel both to speak, though both declined, and then stepped forward, "Today, the mightiest force to ever walk this world, standing in protection of what some might call the capital of Aniqua's great forest, uniting the military arts of the Demons, the patience of the Trells, the protection of the Faeries, and the grace of the Elves into a single force. Into the Might of the Bloom."

A cheer went up. Nathaniel was gone before it had faded away.


***

As the Trell had grow from the wood of the Heart Tree, so had the Alimta grown from the souls of the Trell. Short of stature, perhaps a meter tall at their highest, and consisting of nothing but pale, green light. After all, they were made of the pure divine energy the Wandering Sakura had released merely a hundred years before. The power of a plant divinity had been caught by a structure of colossal trees shaped by the Trell, and focused into a garden which held the whims of all gods across Tyonix and which had also been shaped by the Trell.

It was incredibly difficult to tell any two Alimta apart, as they all appear to be silhouettes made of green light, though one could tell men from women, as women had long whiskers which floated on the air like a strand of kelp on the ocean, and which trailed behind them when they moved, and men had visible eyes, crackling a slightly different shade of green, but so energetically that they left trails, afterimages whenever they moved.

They took this form because the gods of Tyonix saw this as the default form for a race: humanoid. Though, as their primary parent were the the Trell, this is where their essence came from. They were patient and calm, like the Trell, and possessed their love of plantlife, being able to command a flower to do their bidding from the instant they were born. They were, however, created with minimal input, and mostly remained pure divine energy, and as such, acted as energy. One would never see an Alimta standing still, even for a moment. They were always moving from place to place, frolicking everywhere throughout the Bloom, and often simply running around faster than other races could see. An Elf would occasionally simply see a green blur go by, for example.

They lived their entire lives on the move, meeting their mate, raising their children, and guiding plants to grow tall and strong as they passed by. At their most restful moments they would be seen playing in a field like small children. These moments were rare, however, and they would often move on after only a few hours. This tendency for eternal motion perfectly concealed their slow, methodical minds, and even as they ran, they considered the world.

They were still a very young race, of course, perhaps even the last race to ever be created, and they had not yet had time to develop a culture. Perhaps they would never have enough time.


***

Imptopia.

The Imps had many times before attempted to develop a functioning society, but being twisted as they were by the Blood Pit, eternally towards immorality and deceit, they could never succeed. For example, they had created markets, but soon they became riddled with liars and thieves, until even the respectable merchants had to stoop to new lows in order to maintain their livelihood, and soon the Black Market traded in the most deplorable and twisted creations of all time, from Monkey slaves to dependency-creating drugs, everything that came or went into Imptopia's market, was evil.

This was what drew the Kraith here first.

They had been in the ravine for hundreds if years, feeding on the blood of the tiny Imps as they strayed to close to the dark outlets the Kraith inhabited. However, they had only rarely conversed with the Imps above, and so, when the day came that a contingent of Kraith wandered into the Black Market, brushing by the Monkey slave traders and the Pirates from Serpent's Den, all eyes soon fell upon them. Then, the lead Kraith raised a hand and made a symbol in the air, invoking a spell of Phobimancy, to summon up a fear that he had ripped from someone's mind.

It had been a fear of a voice. A young girl had feared her father's voice so terribly that even hearing a single syllable uttered in that voice reduced her to a shaking wreck. The Kraith had found this girl, and practiced summoning up this voice within her for years, making her live through him screaming at her every day until they could recreate it without her. By that time the girl was hopelessly insane, but the act had been justified to the Kraith, as they now possessed a way to speak to the others of Tyonix.

This day, that voice rang out, "Greeting Imptopia. We are the Kraith. We are powerful and we are cruel. We come here today for we enjoy this city, and no longer wish to hide in it's shadows. We are the Kraith and we seek to live in this city with you. Will you grant us homes in this pleasant city, or shall we be forced to create our own?"

The Imps were nothing if not ones to take the easiest route, and driving these Kraith away would have been difficult…


---

There were entire neighborhoods in Myrha which had been overrun by the Kraith, to the point that they were seen walking around in broad daylight, fearless. The One-locked attempted many times to drive them away, but they were so numerous and so powerful that the ensuing combat would destroy most of the city. So, they delayed. In the meantime, the Kraith couldn't all prey upon the Werblumes, so they began to feed on the bleeding stock the Werblumes themselves fed upon. This became so common that, after a year, as to avoid losing profit, a few select herders actually went into Kraith neighborhoods to sell their wares. This trend spread, and soon entire marketplaces were offering admittance to Kraith shoppers. It was far from official, and Kraith had no voice in politics, but at the moment, Myhra was as much a Kraith city as a Werblume city.

5 points to Event: Elves, Faeries, and Demons each get a major population in Grove. Also, the Immortal College receives it's first wing and Nathaniel learns the art of Plant Charming, Aerial Combat, and Healing Magic.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Grove to Raise the Army "Might of the Bloom".

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Khral to Political Maneuver and introduce a notable Kraith population in Imptopia and Myhra.

Current Power Points: 5
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4299609/)

[Omegonthesane]

DISCLAIMER: This post is humongously long and needed to be split into two. I won't blame you if you only read the Summary Fluff paragraphs.

The Portal Labyrinth is created in the Plane of Thunder. It's a maze that involves portals, but if you hit the centre of the maze, you find a magic item control room that lets you use Portal Magic without being a trained Singer, and indeed specifically allows even a String Agglomeration to operate it. This is mainly useful for spying through the tactic of "Portal Corridors" or "Portal Tunnels", which are a lot safer to watch through than to send troops through.A third great structure had managed to survive a notable period in the Plane of Destruction. It took the form of an enormous spherical maze, its outer walls made of an approximation of steel, with eight entrances where the eight tendrils of a Singer would be. However, though they contained instructions for opening that even an unusually stupid String Agglomeration could follow successfully, these entrances were not doors of any kind, but portals, in the same vein as the Singers' sorcery. By performing the proper incantation one could enter the Labyrinth. It would be an exercise in utter lunacy to attempt to provide a full map of the contents of the Labyrinth, not least because the one explorer in a million who entered and actually found the centre of the Labyrinth found the true secret and wonder of the place. For the centre of the maze was not a petty prize or a presentation stage for a petty prize; instead, it was a control room, filled with eldritch machines beyond easily discernible function. Or, rather, it would, were there not once again a set of instructions designed to be followed by the most magically inept beings in the universe, a set of instruction swhich - when properly followed - resulted in the opening of a portal back out, a portal which depended on the technology and enchantments of the Labyrinth rather than on whether the caster even knew how Portal Magic worked. Most tellingly, from here a portal could be opened from the other side of the first portal to any place that the caster could see through that door. If there existed any limit to the number of scrying portals that could be created in this manner, it was far greater than the more practical limit of the watcher's senses, as a corridor of too many portals would ultimately be too small for any eye or eye-analogue to properly process. However, while such a corridor could not be traversed especially quickly, it made spying on places far from the Labyrinth almost too easy, an inestimable advantage if used properly.

The Dreamforge rudely evicts the Green Nightmares and cordially informs the rest of Destroyer's Peak that they have raised an army of Singers dyed black, the 1st Black Watch.The Green Nightmares had been, at best, a force of questionable value in defending the Dreamforge from potential threats. To the last, they were more interested in their own petty agendas, in terrorising the creatures or Singers around them. It was with rage that they noted, repeatedly, and at length, that the Dreamforge had no such thing as slaves for them to torment or adversaries for them to ravage; even the Shou Tahs had confined their rage to the land, to Destroyer's Peak, for some stupid reason. While the Yellow Beasts had been able to entertain themselves by savaging the assorted fish caught in the Dreamforge's gravity well, the Green Nightmares had much more refined tastes, tastes which a magical island in the sea did not possess for them to sample.

The pressure of a constant bitter resentment masquerading as a guard force drove the Dreamforge to finally recruit a new army from its own people.

Some days later, a portal opened above Destroyer's Peak, and through it the Green Nightmares were roughly thrown, one by one. Each had been carefully scarred with a single rune, and when lined up in the order in which they had been evicted from the Dreamforge, this spelled a message that would have been polite but for the paper on which it was written.

"We wish to express the gratitude which your reassuring gift of defenders merits, and to reassure you that it is no longer necessary - the first regiment of the Black Watch is now up to speed and ready to repel all unwanted invaders and malcontents. Signed, the Octarchs of the Dreamforge."

Indeed, two hundred Singers now had the unenviable task of protecting the entire Dreamforge from attack. As they could move so rapidly on a tactical scale, however, they mostly earned their name by simply watching for attackers; their vision would extend in two hundred directions until a threat came, at which point it would face Singer-related death from a different two hundred directions. In this way they lived up to their title of "Watch". Their colourings were a similar rejection of the vivid heraldries of Destroyer's Peak, though if anything less useful for concealment; the Dreamforge had discovered a skin dye which would cause the affected Singer-flesh to absorb light, rather than radiating it, and this was applied to every member of the 1st Black Watch, all over their body with the exception of the numeral "I" on their spherical core, and occasional squad markings, each of which was done in white rather than a specific vivid colour. For indeed, it was intended that there would be more than one Black Watch.

It is explained that Fort Liberty never bothered to fully implement Roads into their strategies until now, because implementing new tactics means being at reduced mobilisation for a time period during which they feared that the Singers would break the truce or the Shou Tahs or Humans would attack or the like. They choose now to actually get round to it, as they have had a long period of peace. Mention is made of "secret missives" they have received from Destroyer's Peak clarifying the strength of the truce.The warriors of Fort Liberty had spent a long time more interested in watching the horizons in fear than in learning new ways to wage the war their city was built to wage. They had heard of the innovations of Roads, but had taken longer than was wise in implementing these into their stratagems - for creating new technologies took time, time in which for all they knew the various enemies that threatened the world's innocent population would strike at Fort Liberty, the bastion of righteousness, the shield of the innocent.

However, they ultimately faced facts. The Singers showed no sign of breaking the Truce of Fear, and indeed had marched upon threats other than the Demons, taking and inflicting losses against the warrior-blobs that infested the sea. Indeed, the Generals of Fort Liberty allowed the public to know they had received secret missives in writing, clarifying that the current leadership of the Peak wished a closer alliance and were willing to make yet more concessions to get it. Now was as likely a time as any for the new technology to have enough time to spread without further interference. New supply routes began to line the Fort, ensuring that if it were to come under siege, the Garrison could quickly rush to every potential breach without having to fly - a deed that was draining enough over a long siege that the difference counted. Similar roads criss-crossed the Farea-Liberty Settled Zone, allowing the Enforcers to move around and suppress violent discord. Of course, there was only so much that could be done to restrain the unbridled passions of demons, but the Enforcers were able to ensure the various orgies, brawls, and occasional riots within the Settled Zone left no long-term damage and involved no non-consenting fairies. Anything rather than break the alliance.

Fort Liberty raises a large army of Reservists who just aren't trained up to normal standards, but are able to have lives outside of war. They go defend Farea, because the Fairies are less offended by trained soldiers who are actually civilians 90% of the time than they are by a professional army.As the population of demons grew, it became all too clear to the Generals of the Fort and the Clan-Chiefs of the Sanctuary that they could not all be defended by the existing armies; that with the way most civilians behaved, there had to be some way to keep an eye on some of them; and that there was more demand than supply for places in even the existing troops of Fort Liberty.

Thus, training camps sprung out around the Farea-Liberty Zone, in which any person was welcome to learn the ways of demonic combat. Many demons, and even a few especially murderous Fairies, attended these camps for a season and had short refresher sessions every two seasons after that. The Fort Liberty Reservists were more numerous than the six armies, four still standing, that had preceded them, being as much as five thousand combatants at full strength; however, this came at the cost of their quality of training or discipline. While the Sanctuary Militias and more professional Fort Liberty armies were branded for life and practised no craft other than war, the Reservists were civilians who happened to know their way around sword and spear, and were neither expected to serve for life, nor held to the same standards of virtue, nor granted the same benefits as a member of the other armies.

Due to being neither as obviously nor as purely violent as a better trained army, and due to being able to contribute man for man in ways other than state-sanctioned intimidation and mass killing, the Reservists were far less of a source of tension to the life-loving Faeries, and many of them were encouraged to take homes near Farea so that someone could rise up and defend the place. The Human tyrants could not be trusted to eternally leave another race in peace, and the Singers had made no fearful truces with the Fairies.

Several Eknad cathedrals are disassembled because the Eknad have clearly abandoned the Demons, and the raw materials are used in a strange twenty-year ceremony to raise a new cathedral dedicated to an ascetic path of Golden Magic which imitates the gods in order to usurp their powers rather than revering them in order to be granted them. The "ascetic" comes in as these Anti-Priests are effectively only allowed to do things that all the gods do - or else have to pick one god to imitate, and thus limit their power set.Though it was their angelic ancestors who taught the first Demons how gold was lucky, and why it was, for millennia they had wrestled with claiming a power first created by a Pantheon who seemed to reject them. Indeed, though it had once been even stronger than the Cult of Makhleb within the demonic populace, and though a disproportionate number of the Demonic Temples were dedicated to them the number of those faithful to the Eknad Pantheon had dwindled to less than fifty by the time of the Singers' unholy war on Gerki. Though the humans claimed its blessing, though the Saku Rasi had access to its talismans, it was truly the Demons, glorious and cursed, who had bent the Golden Magic to their will, mastered the craft to get the most benefit out of the merest request, and learned ways of tricking the gods into granting small prayers that would be eclipsed by their large side-effects.

In the quest to further this knowledge, seven entire Cathedrals of old - one for each of the original Eknad pantheon, and a seventh built in Antike's name when that monkey thing was born - were disassembled with the consent of all twelve of the Clans, and brought to a large site within the Sanctuary Settled Zone - specifically, a site destroyed and depopulated in the ancient wars with Vroch, rendered sufficiently infertile by Arachno venoms that no demon had previously dared to reclaim such ghost land.

Here, the slabs of gold that had made up seven of the Demonic Temples were simply piled one on top of the other. Then, a series of demons stepped forward, four times fourty-eight in number, naked as the day they were born, with strange runes carved all over every inch of their skin below the neck. In each hand they held a golden staff of the same kind used by the original Angel Priests. With these staves they struck the golden raw materials, again and again, murmuring strange incantations that evoked the various qualities of the gods without ever quite venerating them, and indeed repeatedly compared them to the mortal and the living. Through these great acts, and without the use of the traditional power source of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, the piles of gold began to quiver and change in shape.

This ritual was repeated for all twenty-four hours of every day, by four cabals of eight and fourty of these anti-priests working in overlapping shifts of twelve hours each, scheduling such breaks as were needed so that at no point was the construction site attended by fewer than twenty-four of these strangely prepared sorcerers. Through their meditations and incantations, over a course of twenty years, the Blasphemous Cathedral was raised, preaching a new and strange syncretic message - that through long prayer, devotion, and sacrifice, and through the proper rites, a mere mortal could grow closer to the divine realm and thereby more perfectly and directly compel its power through the ways of Golden Magic.

From that day on, the Blasphemous Cathedral taught the demons who attended its masses of their strange faith, but there was no questioning the results of their apparent discoveries. An army aided and guided by an anti-priest trained in this Cathedral could cut across even the counter-charms used by the Humans, to gain some small benefit from their mastery even against other users of Golden Magic. Of course, few demons chose this path of profound mastery, for so many mortal conveniences and pleasures were seen as somehow "beyond" the purest expression of the divine; some left the Cathedral living lives in imitation of a specific god, whose power could be evoked without sacrificing things like remaining still or wearing adornments or setting foot on ground that was not first ritually blessed, but these were inevitably weaker in Golden Magic - if not in other aspects - than a fully trained anti-priest.

The Singers decide that it's time to go cull the Human and Shou Tah armies before they grow too great a threat. It is decided that the Green Nightmares will march on the Shou Tahs alone, while the Indigo Chorus and Yellow Beasts do what they can to humanity while carrying the Destroyer's Peak wonders.The Dreamforge had sent more than insults and the Green Nightmares with the news that they now had the Black Watch. As a token to show that they had no lasting hostility with Destroyer's Peak, they offered the use of the Dream Twister in a future campaign. The thought of this gift was, after some deliberation, appreciated, but ultimately the lease itself was refused, citing the instrument's lack of mobility, possible fragility, and the Dreamforge's importance as the pinnacle of Singer achievement.

Naturally, this was in part because Destroyer's Peak was in effect under a tyranny of the Indigo Chorus and the Rainbow Lord. It wasn't even entirely accurate to call the Rainbow Lord a puppet, as they now genuinely believed their dreams were best served through the Chorus' approach, and had been able to argue the Chorus' lead sorcerers down on certain points. The pent-up aggression of the Singers was a problem that needed addressing, and so was the threat posed by the Human horde and the Shou Tahs. However, the Singers were hesitant to too greatly provoke the armies of sea-blobs, for if their inspiring cohesion ever went beyond groups of fifteen to the entire race they would surely be unstoppable.

However, ultimately, they could not do much to quell both threats at once, not without putting their wonders at unacceptable risk. In addition, while harrying and nibbling at the Shou Tahs might encourage some of them to jump at a weakness, another mighty hammer blow risked uniting them against a greater evil. Thus it was that the Green Nightmares were sent below the sea alone, while the Indigo Chorus and Yellow Beasts took their instruments of war and marched on the Human horde to the south.

The Green Nightmares spy on the Shou Tahs for a while by using Portal tunnels and later by sending Telepathic images disguising small groups of them as Shou Tahs civilians, and thus discover the importance of the Army of Kings in Kaz, Eramine, and Rou. As they want to cause as much harm as possible before leaving, they settle on a plan of decapitating the cities rather than trying to conquer or genocide any of them, believing that none have a way to react if their Kings are not killed "properly".

Many of the Green Nightmares who descended again beneath the waters were the same warriors who, long ago, had used illusions and deceptions in the Battle of Eight Armies outside Gerki. In that glorious and terrifying struggle they had learned that there was no hiding a Singer's shape in the waters; however, it was yet not quite impossible to prevent the Shou Tahs from detecting that anything was amiss. It was merely unusually gruelling and only worth doing to small groups.

Therefore, the Green Nightmares cheated for their initial spying. Using a similar technique to that independently invented by the Singers of the Plane of Thunder, they opened small two way portals between themselves and the city they wished to spy on, typically doing this three or four hops away. Lots were drawn, and a full segment of the Nightmares agreed to be spared the danger of battle in return for being tortured to incapacity to provide the power needed for this niche method of spying.

From such mere feeble glimpses, the Nightmares were able to confirm that there were in fact four known tribes of Shou Tahs (their spying never making it to Ikilim), and that other than Gerki, each was ruled by an Army of Kings. They then increased the size of their portals, and used many area-effect spells of Telepathy that worked to reassure ambient minds that nothing was amiss - and in this case, that the Singer who had just hopped into the middle of your city out of thin air was actually a Shou Tahs of your own tribe that you just hadn't noticed until a moment ago.

Of course, being significantly larger and weaker than the Shou Tahs, the Singer spies had to be careful to not touch any of the beings they were pretending to be. Nonetheless, merely listening to discussions and announcements gave them the information they needed to plan a strategy. Each tribe had prepared an Army of Princes after hearing of the "King's Armies" of Gerki, which apparently was ruled by a single King - presumably the whelp who had stolen the Horn of Winter, long ago. The tribe of Rou was ancient, yet apparently pioneering and filled with unrest, as theirs was the first to have an Army of Princes. The tribe of Kaz had greater unity than its rivals among the citizens, due to some dark incident in its founding that the Singers never quite ascertained. The tribe of Eramine had the greatest wealth, or at least the greatest appearance of wealth, their home based in a golden coral reef. However, most importantly, unlike the heredity of the King of Gerki, an Army of Kings could only be succeeded by a group of fifteen Shou Tahs who bested them in fair combat. Thus, if the Kings were defeated by something other than an army of Shou Tahs, it stood to reason that a succession crisis would engulf the relevant tribe of sea blobs. Thus, if all the Kings of the Shou Tahs were defeated by the Green Nightmares, the whole race would be crippled for generations to come.

The complicating factor was the roles of the various Princes, but this did not fundamentally change the virtues of the plan - how the crisis played out was not part of the objective. Only that it did.

Once they had gone all the way to Kaz to spy on the remaining Shou Tahs cities, the Green Nightmares debated which city to decapitate first, but quickly settled on Kaz. It was nearest, and it was full of indigo things; putting up with the Chorus for so long had left the Nightmares wanting to smack something indigo. Before infiltrating the city, they threw away the pike on which had been carried the rotted monkey skeleton which still bore the title of Nightmare Sorcerer Lord, for the joke was old and the grisly banner would only impede them.

The Green Nightmares acknowledge that the Army of Indigo Kings will cause the least intractable succession crisis, as their Princes are already the heirs apparent insofar as they are the only ones officially allowed to kill the Indigo Kings. However, Kaz is nearest to where they ended up after scouting all Shou Tahs settlements and the Green Nightmares hate indigo things because of the Indigo Chorus. They use a portal tunnel to find the Indigo Palace, and steal the Kings through portals like they did during the Unholy War on Gerki, beating them to a pulp in a far-off plain.
Even as they went into the city of Kaz, the Green Nightmares knew they were not completing the most important of the tasks. Though all the Kings had to die to ensure that all the Shou Tahs were crippled, the Indigo City had already established that the Army of Princes were the only ones allowed to succeed their Kings, so were most likely to overlook the little detail of how that succession came to pass. However, any succession crisis was better than no succession crisis, and no doubt some would challenge the Princes for the throne.

The segment chosen to be the power source sat out the initial attack, of course. The rest remained near them, providing the power for another portal tunnel, through which the segment chosen for glory secreted itself and showed them where the Army of Indigo Kings held court. Worse, for their next trick the casters had to keep the whole portal tunnel open while the Lead Sorcerers performed a set of calculations to work out exactly how far the thing they were actually seeing was from their current location. The powers of Portal Magic required that the distance between a pair of holes be understood; this was easy when a thing was actually in one's sight, for in such a circumstance instinct could substitute for grand-scale geometry. Watching through a tunnel of portals granted that luxury if one merely wished to extend the tunnel - but not for the purpose of creating a portal from the place witnessed to one's actual location. The Singers were well within "sight" range of the city of Kaz, and could see the palace, but if they got anything wrong they might steal a chunk of wall, or a chunk of water, or the wrong fifteen Shou Tahs putting the city on high alert ahead of schedule.

The screams of the tortured segment nearly gave the Green Nightmare camp away before the calculations were finished, and fifteen portals opened. The Kings of Kaz had to be tricked; the Telepathic delusions of the spy team were perfect for the task, and left them unprepared for what was to follow. Where the others in their court saw shimmering portals to different waters, they saw only water, and not even the warning shouts came until the Kings were already too far through the portals to escape. Twenty of the segment of spies fled through the same portals before they were closed; the remaining five died outright, slain on their way out by vengeful Shou Tahs who had realised what the Singers had done.

As the various King's Armies of Gerki had long before, the Army of Kings of Kaz found themselves in an abyssal plain some way from their city, and promptly found themselves pelted with bolts of various destructive energies, cold beyond measure, heat that boiled the sea on its way to them, iron bolts the size and thickness of a Saku Rasi's entire arm. The Green Nightmares were telepaths beyond compare, so the Army of Kings found their vision deluded as well, each believing they faced the one hundred and fifty fully active Singers alone; though they soon realised this was a deception as they saw Singers randomly fall against forces they could not see, the veil remained on their vision, preventing them from perfectly coordinating the War Song.

As mobile as they were, the Shou Tahs were not quickly slain by magic blasts, and indeed dodged the majority of the incoming projectiles, their legendary mobility aiding them in their dark hour. The Kings were even able to communicate in a limited fashion, to set up moves where they coordinated strikes to render a Nightmare helpless through the Momentum Principle. Ultimately, though, they had been taken by surprise at the end of a long day; their skilled and mighty strikes were tired, for a Shou Tah, and they could not hope to simply outlast their foes. If this were a battle between any two other foes, it would be called a tragic failure that fifteen enemy deaths required fifteen friendly deaths and fourty-five injured comrades; but Singers cared nothing for any injury lesser than death, and Shou Tahs were so few that even a two-to-one ally-to-enemy casualty rate was a victory, even to beings as few and mighty as Singers.

Strategically the Green Nightmares should have gone kingslaying in Rou next, as Rou did not figure their Princes into their succession - indeed Red Princes were forever denied the rank of Red Kings. However, Eramine was on the way, and they needed to slay its Kings for their planned campaign in any case. The Green Nightmares bunch up into fifteen huddles of ten and thus disguise themselves as fifteen clumsy Shou Tahs, and in this form just formally challenge the Kings for Kingship; when they reveal their true forms in the duel, it is at first taken to simply be a new trick of the War Song learned in another city, and the trickery works long enough to give them the asymmetric advantage they wanted.
As they swam towards the golden city of Eramine, the Green Nightmares took a moment to review the losses which they had taken. Several of them had been harmed, but that was to be expected, and their wounds were quick to heal with so much water to disintegrate and digest - even if doing so meant a trail of steam marked their passing for the first mile or five. The fifteen who had died were a far more permanent loss - it took decades to bring a new Singer warrior from spawning to battle readiness, and in any case required materials not found in the immediate area.

It took them a good few months of travel to reach Eramine, and by some quirk of fate, each of the four known Shou Tahs cities had found at least one of the many Rings of Telepathy. These apparently were not on the appendages of people who mattered, or else the Octarchs of the Dreamforge would have saved the Green Nightmares a portal tunnelling session back in Kaz, but they were explanation enough for how vague rumours of a Singer army on the rampage had reached Eramine before any survivor of the battle other than that same Singer army. Shou Tahs being loud, and Singers somewhat disciplined, their minimal deceptive shielding was up before they approached within conventional sight range of Eramine, and so their deeds were not obvious.

The power-providing segment was once again set aside, leaving the remaining one hundred and sixty Singers to discuss a battle plan. Or rather, the remaining eight Lead Sorcerers; the rest would simply obey. Ultimately, they decided that the key was to get into combat with the Kings of Eramine before anyone realised they were Singers, for they could not hope to defeat all the civilians that would come after them and still complete their task. Fortunately, most of the remaining Singers were trained to fight in groups of five.

Their plan was mad, their plan was risky, and their plan required the sacrifice of a passing captured Red Shou Tah raider to provide enough power without damaging their reserves for the one battle left after this one. All this was worthwhile, as their plan did what it was intended to.

To the vision of all the Shou Tahs in Eramine, a group of fifteen unusually clumsy members of their city paddled like children towards the palace, murmuring a strange and weak-sounding version of the War Song. The spectacle went unopposed, which was fortunate, as the deception would otherwise have broken too early; indeed, many Shou Tahs wanted to see what the Army of Kings made of such insultingly weak challengers. The sight was made all the more amusing when these throwbacks made their way into the court chamber and stated their exact wish before the fifteen Kings.

"Oi! You up there! We's gonna be Kings now!" said the apparent respected figurehead of the fifteen clumsy ones, to the amusement of the court. Indeed, that they wanted the position of responsibility instead of the position of luxury made their jest all the funnier.

"HA! You couldn't be King of a potted kelp farm never mind Eramine!" said one King.

"...Er, Grue, we can't just let 'em say that sorta stuff, even if the whole show's a dumb formality in this case," said another.

"Oh, very well. Challenge accepted! We'll see you in the battle zone!"

Eramine had many valuable-looking bits, so the duel to decide the next Army of Kings - or Army of Princes - was held somewhere where none of that would get damaged, namely in the sea above the city. Since Shou Tahs swam everywhere anyway, this didn't change a great deal. As per tradition, the fifteen current Kings entered a formation, and the fifteen clumsy challengers entered the same formation in front of them, while a crowd of witnesses watched the ensuing battle. The Army of Princes were below, administering the city in the Kings' absence, so instead a minor functionary did the countdown.

"CONTESTANTS, ARE YOU READY?" Screams and cheers followed as the clumsy fifteen raised their arms. "KINGS, ARE YOU READY?" More cheers, as the existing Kings bellowed their readiness. "THREE, TWO, ONE, FIGHT!"

"DER KA LA KA SHA RAH!" screamed the fifteen clumsy challengers, and before the eyes of all the Shou Tahs watching, each one glowed in a strange green light and turned into ten Singers, who swam in many directions and surrounded the incumbent Kings, while chanting. Was this some new trick of the War Song, learned in Rou or Kaz to defeat Eramine with?

Of course, one or two of those versed in Singer lore thought that it might be what it in fact was - that one hundred and fifty Green Nightmares had not cast a new spell, but finally ended the spell that disguised them as Shou Tahs. However, their fear of what would happen if they were wrong outweighed the possibility in their minds that Singers might try such an audacious plan.

The Kings performed a defensive form of the true War Song, while looking for a gap in this new and strange attack pattern of their challengers, and trying to make sense of the syllables of the war song they sang in their new Singer forms. A futile task, for the choral techniques of the Hall of Composers worked on entirely different principles to the Shou Tah War Song, and any shared syllables they had were almost worse than receiving no information. Thus, the Kings were unprepared three seconds later, when the Green Nightmares simultaneously opened a portal and launched a yellow bead through it, a yellow bead which bypassed the small barrier of white waters the Blue Kings made around themselves before exploding in a blast of heat and concussion that would, in an oxygen-rich environment, have been accompanied by fire. With the War Song interrupted, the Green Nightmares all ganged up on one Shou Tah, almost to the expense of tactical acumen; three of them died from the attentions of the other fourteen Kings, and another two as their desperate prey flailed and punched and kicked at them, but they denied him his mobility and they denied him his song - and while surrounded, momentum mastery didn't help him a whole lot either. Within ten seconds of the explosion, the first Blue King was confirmed dead.

There was a ritual scream of grief, and ten of the remaining fourteen Kings began the ritual chant that was to precede their suicide. Strangely, the victorious contestants, the new Kings, did not reassume their true forms, but instead remained in their Singer guises, performing a victory dance that none of the audience recognised. The other four simply looked at eachother, then back to the Singers, before one of them voiced what the four had thought.

"Uh, mates, you're bein' a little hasty there."
"Whaddaya mean?!" snapped one of the ten who had been preparing to die. "One of our fellow Kings died in a ritual duel and you want us to go on?"
"I don't think they're strictly speaking playing by the proper rules..." said the second doubter.
"We all saw that they did, fifteen Shou Tahs entered our court, fifteen Shou Tahs made challenge, fifteen Shou Tahs won with their strange war song."
"But that's the thing," said the third doubter. "I don't think War Song can do what they did with it..."
"...What are you saying?"
"Those aren't a team of our kin with a special magic trick..." said the fourth doubter.
"Oh... You mean.. oh no... oh no... OH F-" a previously suicidal King was able to utter, before the Green Nightmares finished their 'victory dance'. Fourteen portals opened, and fourteen iron bolts entered the fourteen Kings before they had time to dodge or react, while a second extinguished fireball landed in the middle of their ranks. Unprotected as they were, this one dismembered five of them, two fatally. By the time their second jig was officially up, though, two full segments of the Green Nightmares had drunk the Brew, and were grappling the remaining Kings five Singers to a King in order to deny them the focus their War Songs granted. One of the ten, then another, then a third, was able to inflict severe damage at least, striking the Singers in their cores with such precision and force that they simply fell to pieces, but ultimately the strength and number and speed of those who wished to strike them down proved too great, and though only five of the fifty berserkers swam out of the mess intact, they had done their duty - all the Blue Kings were dead, and all knew that it was by a wicked and foreign hand rather than a good honest Shou Tah one.

Portalling out was the easy part after that.

The Indigo Chorus leaves a burgeoning skeleton force of Rainbow Scourge, who coincidentally are filling their white segments first, while they and the Yellow Beasts rampage down south. After a little deliberation it's decided that they will harrow Figurae, Sophei, and Eupnea until each is defended by only one army. After spying they decide on Eupnea for symbolism followed by Figurae because between the three armies, Wand of Death, and Aegis it'll be the toughest nut to crack. The Betrayers, Citizen's Militia, Lothar the Cursed, and Axus II do not figure into the Singer tactical calculations.

In Destroyer's Peak, there were preparations that had to be made before the remaining two parts of the Rainbow could head to war. Specifically, the Rainbow Lord had to start work on new troops, starting with seven new Octarchs - for the Indigo Chorus could not guarantee that they would return, for obvious reasons. It was at first not remarked upon that the Rainbow Lord chose to fill out the three white segments of the Rainbow Scourge first, rather than the colours of the rainbow that had no armies past or present serving under them; each Singer had their biases, and clearly this was a quirk of the founder of the Rainbow. An understandable one at that, for a former White Conclavist.

Thus, two armies took up the Earthquake Drum and the Horn of Winter, reunited with the Singers at long last, and marched down south. The Chorus repeatedly had to restrain the Beasts from leaving evidence of their passing; however, they were able to turn the Yellow Beasts' desire for combat into patience, and remind them of the enormous fight they would take part in soon. As they marched, there was a little consternation about where had to die first.

"Sophei. Duh," raged an Indigo Chorister. "They have the knowledge, they have the Rhapsodists, they threw out those other cultists. They can't be as strong as the others to have to do that."
"No, Figurae, you pusillanimous weakling!" roared a Yellow Beast. "It's where their hardest defences are. It's where their Aegis is, it's where their Sword of Death -
"Wand of Death," corrected a calmer Indigo Lead Sorcerer, "and likely no more species-specific than breathing."
"That just makes it more important we go for Figurae!" continued the Beast. "We'll crush their best, we'll get their loot!"
"No," said a fourth figure, 1st Lead Sorcerer of the Yellow Beasts. "In days gone by, our ancestors broke Eupnea. What's the point of all our changes, if we cannot repeat that at lesser cost?"

For that argument, from a Yellow Beast, to be the persuasive one surprised even the Indigo Lead Sorcerers, as they realised the sense of it. Half the purpose of this operation was political and psychological instead of strategic, and there was no denying the propaganda victory of retaking Eupnea.

The Indigo Chorus argue with the Yellow Beasts about who gets the honour of attacking, and ultimately decide the Chorus can "cowardly" play the Drum and Horn to help the Beasts claim the glory. The Beasts kill and are killed by the 2nd Clerics, and the Wonders indeed are not lost.

The argument about who would be allowed to strike first ultimately went a very similar way.

"We will lead the vanguard," declared the third Lead Sorcerer of the Beasts.

"You do not have the experience, you do not know what these humans fight with," criticised a lead sorcerer of the Chorus, an acting Octarch of the Peak.

"We do not need it. All that is mortal falls against our unstoppable might. Besides which, your skills are better used in aiding true warriors," the Beast insisted. "I mean no insult - it is simple fact, we're not... magically gifted and our time is nto best spent observing the finer details of exactly which bits get crushed. Also, the Horn and the Drum work from far away just fine, and we cannot afford to lose them - that's the whole reason we teamed up." Surprisingly diplomatic for a berserk Singer. What the Beast didn't say, of course, was that the Indigo Chorus' role in this battle would be forgotten when it was told, for there was no glory for the second wave or the support staff - even if it was they who bore the Instruments.

Naturally, the Indigo Chorus assented, in part because the Chorus was not interested in glory, but mostly because there was something they weren't saying, too.

The altars of sacrifice that had been built in the first Siege of Eupnea were long gone, rotted away or stolen for other projects. That mattered little, for it was not Red Screamers who marched this time. The Indigo Chorus surrounded the city, yet all but two of them merely observed, watching for the weakest point in the defensive lines - and being pleasantly surprised when they realised the gates were opening and an army of priests were sallying forth, thousands of combatants in ring mail, a fine longsword in one hand and a golden stave in the other. It was more convenient, not least because it meant the cull could continue without lasting damage to the city walls.

The Singers beat the Earthquake Drum, and the ground shook beneath the Army of Clerics, making their marching ranks stumble and fall against one another. Their staves did benevolent things when inevitably they collided with others of their ranks, but they were unable to meaningfully rearrange themselves before the Horn of Winter sounded. Unseasonal hail beat down upon them, nearly every one suffered frostbite within an instant, for they were simply not dressed for such profound cold. The current Hornblower was, of course, somewhat aggrieved that this was so much less than was supposedly achieved by the Shou Tahs who stole this very instrument, but it was enough between two or three blasts that the humans were trapped in a snowdrift as well as unable to get up. When the Earthquake Drum ceased to beat, no doubt one or two Clerics thought it a mercy, thought that their precious Eknad had come down to save them as they began to get up, but they would have no such respite; instead, the Drumbeat had ended, and its accompanying earthquake with it, so that the charge of the Yellow Beasts would not falter at the last moment.

The skills of the Clerics meant little against the far mightier Beasts. Their staves tended to barely mark their foes, while their swords found themselves caught and torn out of their hands by the wild swings of axes. This was the tendency on an individual level, and most of their vain prayers were not to harm their enemies, but to aid their friends - for the Clerics were too densely packed, and the Beasts came from all directions. The one in perhaps ten humans who struck a meaningful blow tended to die soon afterwards, the target of their enemies' rage, usually from the application of an axe to the face; all the lauded metallurgy of the Humans did nothing at all to protect a head that was not wearing a helmet, and indeed being not entirely warriors, many Clerics had forgone such basic gear.

However, ultimately, numbers told. The Beasts' endurance was not limitless, and their already aggressive style became almost childishly easy to poke holes in as they grew tired of slaying cleric after cleric. Only a hundred pathetic humans survived that bloody melee, and most had bones broken or limbs severed; the true unfortunates were those whose severed limbs had been mangled and trampled, for the benediction of Golden Magic could reattach an intact limb relatively painlessly. It was not through bravery, not through skill, that these hundred survived, but largely through luck and relative cowardice - they happened to not be first on the line, they happened to duck when they ought to have stood, they happened to fall back while their friends fell down. One fact, and only one, comforted them after seeing the horrific and nightmarish slaughter of the Clerics - they had survived, cowards that they were, and while so many of their beloved and far more worthy comrades had not, neither had the evil Yellow Beasts; every last one had ultimately discorporated rather than see past their eternal rage and retreat. In years to come, survivor's guilt if no other social pressure would burn their joy into ashes, but for now, the surviving Clerics shambled into a puny formation, to do what they could and regain some tiny bit of glory against the charge of the Indigo Chorus that was surely to come.

No such charge came. When their more enthusiastic comrades had unquestionably fallen, the Indigo Chorus simply regrouped and marched north, abandoning the mission, leaving the weak Humans to gather up their dead. They didn't even bother to retrieve the axes and Berserker's Brew injectors used by the Yellow Beasts; these trophies were not nearly numerous enough for the Humans to reverse engineer, and in any case that mewling race had consistently rejected power that was not originally either their own invention or that of the puny angels who spawned them.

Without the Yellow Beasts to bolster their ranks, the Indigo Chorus retreat through the bloom only to be attacked at night by the Elvish Outriders - who kill none of them and just flee with the Horn of Winter, taking two casualties in the process. The Lead Sorcerers receive a telepathic message, and reassure their ranks that this is a message from their allies 'to the northwest' saying 'mission accomplished'.The great march of the Singers had not gone unnoticed. From the very moment that one of them set tendril far enough south, they had been followed from a great distance - though a distance that was as close as the Elvish Outriders dared, for they knew that their Bloom Steeds could just about sneak within a kilometre of people at a trot let alone a walk. It had been a controversial mission, requiring the personal approval of an emergency meeting of the Elfmoot, but the champions of the Outriders had felt that Elfmoot had to know first-hand what the Singers were up to.

They had, of course, put to use the three Rings of Telepathy they had access to in order to broadcast this message, being ignorant of the Master Rings in the Dreamforge - but these were not necessary over short distances, so the Octarchs were not to receive a great deal of warning. One Ring went onto a member of the Elfmoot council, a second on Ellarion, Section Lord of the Outriders as a whole. These riders had only a little stealth, but quite a lot of mobility, and were able to simply outrun the various patrols that should have hindered them - though indeed nearly all of their defences came in the form of being too fast to be worth pursuing, rather than truly not being spotted. The Singers had been focused, however, and were the ones they were most actively trying to hide from.

Thus, the Outriders witnessed a hideous battle far to the south, where a drum made the earth shake, a horn caused unspeakable destruction, and a few Singers murdered hundreds of Humans. Ultimately it was the first of these facts that Ellarion found most interesting, as the Elfmoot was nothing like as militarised as many of its potential rivals, and needed what help it could get. The Drum was nothing but unacceptable destruction, and had no clear way of directing it, but the Horn was nothing that winter did not bring, and could be more reasonably pointed to avoid harming the Elfmoot itself.

Thus, after perhaps a year of scouting, the Outriders finally struck against the Indigo Chorus in the dead of night, while the Singers were keeping watch. Or rather, a team of ten of the one thousand Outriders did, dismounting from their Bloom Steeds and walking them in near complete silence along the stones of the southern mountains until the moment came. Foolishly, the Singers had decided it was a good idea for a sleeping Lead Sorcerer to keep the Horn of Winter among their personal effects, and even more foolishly they had not set up tents, so the elves did not even need to check tent after tent in fear and panic; instead, they were able to simply grab the Horn, mount up, and flee before the Singers were fully ready. One or two died in the ensuing rage, but being an Outrider was risky, and two was far less than the hundreds that an actual battle would have taken.

In ignorance of the true nature of the tool he used, Ellarion sent word of the Yellow Beasts' demise, the Indigo Chorus' retreat, and the theft of the Horn of Winter to the Elfmoot, thereby one day dooming them - for he also sent this word to the Dreamforge Octarchs, who would one day surely want their artefact back. The secret would have got out eventually, of course, but this made it significantly faster.

For the Indigo Scourge's part, the loss of the Horn of Winter troubled them less than it perhaps should. This was primarily due to how grateful they were that they had not had to slaughter the uncontrollable Yellow Beasts themselves, as was originally planned if the human cull had somehow completely succeeded - but it was also in no small part due to the familiar pose their Lead Sorcerers took soon after, of a group receiving a telepathic message and returning it.

"What news?"

"Word from our allies in the northwest. Mission accomplished."

[Omegonthesane]

DISCLAIMER: Most of this post is the "Visions That Proved Untrue" section - i.e. things that didn't happen.



Oldest of the Shou Tahs cities, according to the information the Green Nightmares have so far received Rou still practises rulership exclusively by whichever bunch of lunatics happened to have fought and killed the last bunch of lunatics in a ritual duel. However, Rou is also the one that's on full alert, and is simply maintaining the three-day forcefields mentioned in the post where Shou Tahs invented War Song, creating two nested forcefields - one created by the Kings and one by the Princes - so that at no time is Rou not under one of them. The Nightmares create a portal while the outer forcefield is down, and maintain it until the inner forcefield is down as well, before watching through a portal tunnel to confirm which army is the Kings and emerging to kill that one at great cost in Singer lives before fleeing.

Destroying one Army of Kings had spread somewhat quickly; destroying two was a lot faster to reach the Shou Tahs of Rou, who were already on full alert by the time the remaining hundred and twenty-five Green Nightmares came within sight of them. They had, in fact, sung their most advanced War Song, creating an impenetrable barrier of foam and white water through which no invader could cross. No invader, and apparently no portal either - the Singers simply could not sense their way through the barrier to the other side, and thus had no way of simply brute-forcing their way through it with the application of sorcery. So they initially thought, anyway. They were not even able to seriously consider Telepathy messages sent through it, for such might be blocked.

For days, the Green Nightmares simply recuperated and entertained themselves, reasoning that they could no more be seen through the barrier than they could see through it themselves, and knowing that every day of rest would help. They even took the time to reorganise themselves into five full Segments instead of eight maimed ones, for a final tally indicated they had in fact lost three of their eight Lead Sorcerers in this long offensive. While they watched, they noticed that every third day the barrier would disappear for half an hour, revealing a slightly smaller barrier inside it. It didn't take more than a month of observation for them to work out there were two barriers on overlapping shifts.

After that, the entry plan was almost too obvious - during one of the half-hour gaps, they created a portal from their camp to inside the first barrier, and watched for another day and a half. This was not easy on the segment being used as a power source, but then, that was the only group to not have lost a soldier so far, so they weren't complaining. It took a day and a half, but eventually the inner barrier closed, and they saw their target - a squadron of chanting red Shou Tahs.

Logically, they decided to extend their patience for another day and a half, and then a few more days after that, capturing a few would-be raiders who were retreating from the apparently on full alert Rou to keep the portals open. It took them that long, looking only through a portal tunnel, to confirm which shift of fifteen was the Army of Kings and which the Army of Princes.

It didn't take them long after that to open the last portal they would need for the campaign of kingslaying, during the half hour in which the Army of Kings raised the bigger of the two barriers. Perhaps they could have starved out the Kings, but they were low on the only resource that mattered to Singers, and deep in enemy territory, so that was not really an option. Instead, they charged desperately through the portal, all too aware that their plan once the Kings realised their War Song was officially cancelled was "pray they don't try anything we can't stop".

Still, a hundred surprise Singers from the middle of your ranks is going to ruin just about any party. In groups of three the Kings of Rou chanted dreadful songs which sent blades of noise scything through the Singers who rushed at them, or raised shields that blocked their various destructive blasts, but once again they found their minds clouded, and their songs just enough out of sync that the Singers could just about stand it. Carving songs that ought to have spelt death merely spelt wounds, shielding songs that ought to have deflected merely dampened, and soon enough the Shou Tahs were too busy in melee combat to keep up their songs. Of course, their combat was dreadful to behold while they had space to move, dancing across the horde that sought to slay them and breaking them with a single strike each, launching them in various directions so that their fellow Kings could launch them back and keep them juggled and helpless. However, numbers told once properly applied, and the Singers could work as a segment if not as a civilisation; seven Singers could hold down a single Shou Tah King while an eighth performed the killing blow, usually with spells although one insisted on choking a King to death instead. Indeed this was the only way the Green Nightmare's reckless charge scored any kills - let alone confirming the severed heads of all fifteen Kings. Fortunately, the segment who had sat out of the conflict had kept the entry portal open, so the Green Nightmares were able to retreat rather than wait for the current barrier to drop while trapped in a city of angry Shou Tahs. Of the hundred that went through the portal, sixty came back alive, but even that was enough to declare victory when fighting Shou Tahs with so little time to prepare and while already badly under strength.

The Green Nightmares feel their task is complete and swim to the beaches around Destroyer's Peak where they originally went beneath the waves - only to find the 2nd Liberators waiting for them. They invite their kin into their camp for a celebration, followed by a slightly too dodgy signal speech by the Grand Champion, at the end of which the demons start massacring the Singers. In the end, four Lead Sorcerers are able to get a desperate warning to the Indigo Chorus, only to have it clarified that the leaders of Destroyer's Peak are in on the betrayal. Mention is made of the signal song being the Dirge of Eupnea, in a nod to past fluff.

This is not handled as an Event because I didn't have the points, so the Green Nightmares explicitly realised something was wrong with enough time to put up a fight.

The Green Nightmares took another few months to surface, on the beaches nearest to Destroyer's Peak itself, and were surprised to see a welcoming party waiting for them. As in, a literal party, with Destroyer's Peak banners flying and an assortment of Demons, Singer civilians, and even a few unusually brave Saku Rasi traders having set up camp. That word of the campaign beneath the waters had reached either Sanctuary or Fort Liberty was a mildly concerning surprise, but while the fine details of the operations were top secret, the fact that Singers were off to war was not, so perhaps the Scourge had seen fit to let their debased cousins know where to properly reward them.

"Be welcome at our humble camp, heroes of the Green Nightmares," spoke Hexas Aurelia, the apparent spokesperson for this party. Her name and rank alone would have made the Green Nightmares worry, had they known much of Demon history, but mainly out of paranoia rather than reason - they had tortured enough Singers with nightmares about demons breaking the truce, they had had to train themselves to disregard the thought that it might actually happen, even if they were hosted by the current Grand Champion of the 2nd Liberators. "We have heard of your victories beneath the waters, against the wicked and loathsome Shou Tahs, and feel this service is worthy of celebration."

Throughout the rest of the night, musicians played, 'aides' from the Sanctuary pleasure houses 'soothed' the Green Nightmares, and an assortment of strange and expensive dishes from around the world were presented before them as a victory feast. Singers could just about taste the matter they disintegrated, so this wasn't a total waste, but the preparation was shameful and shoddy by the standards of a party to be remembered. Of course, the simple nature of much of the cuisine that got remembered was that even a shameful and shoddy preparation was downright pleasant even to more functional taste buds.

So, for four hours the Green Nightmares rested and relaxed, until they were called to the main congregation tent for the finest of the dishes and a speech of congratulation from Hexas Aurelia. Naturally not all of them bothered; barely more than three segments survived, and some of the Green Nightmares might well have other nightmares to remind them of their long campaign, but the one segment that never lost a soldier was able to go to this pinnacle feast, where the one truly rare dish of the day was brought out - Kraith, served in a sauce of Troud products and with side dishes from the Banana Land, washed down with brews imported second-hand from far Myrha.

After the first course, the Singers found themselves in seats of honour, while demons took other tables. The music from the players inside stopped, at a raised hand signal from Hexas.

"My noble and heroic kin, I feel that for years, we Demons have been remiss in our actions towards you," she said. "This day has been, in many ways, only a small reciprocation of the gifts you have given us, and the ways that your deeds towards our people, and our Angel ancestors, have truly helped to shape our culture. Now, you have done us great services by striking at the foe beneath the waves." In truth, Hexas had overindulged herself writing that speech, and even as she continued with it, it started to show in the reactions of the Nightmares. Sadly, she had timed it to take as long as it took the guards to load crossbows, so simply speeding up or skipping bits was not an option. Besides, one more line would not bring them all the way from partying to battle-ready.

"My kin have fought well, and I owe them a victory gift!" said the Grand Champion, and then a victory gift of over two hundred quarrels was indeed given to the battery segment of the Green Nightmares, while the musicians played a new tune to signal the rest of the camp - the Dirge of Eupnea, a song of mourning written by the Rhapsodists, which spoke of the loss of Eupnea and the foulness of the Red Screamers who destroyed its past glories.

Of course, it takes more than two hundred quarrels to destroy outright twenty-five Singers, and not all of them even struck home. The civilians - especially the Saku Rasi - had been ushered out of the camp and most especially the feast pavilion before the grand slaughter was to begin, and warned of what was to come in the final hour. So, to finish the job, the guards dropped crossbows and surged forwards with golden knives, meeting the Singer grapplers with blades of divine wrath. Though several of them were choked in the pavilion, unable to make full use of many Demon combat techniques while under a roof, numbers told their tale once again, and ultimately the flailing Nightmares within the pavilion were all butchered at the cost of only their number in Demons.

Outside that enclosed space, the rewards of this betrayal were greater still, as the flying archers and airborne warriors and anti-priests of the 2nd Liberators were able to strike at the far more grossly outnumbered Green Nightmares outside the tent. Several Nightmares found themselves carried into the sky, held tight to one demon warrior while another drove a spear through their core over and over until they discorporated. One in particular, weak and cruel of will, was turned into salt when an Anti-Priest drove a long golden pike into its core - leaving more remains than most Singers, at least. The Singers' many spells and murderous methods found themselves deflected by the protective spells the Fairies had taught the Liberators - though no doubt there would be another PR nightmare, once the Fairies found that Abjuration had been used to aid in this massacre. Even their attempts to send messages out, to warn Destroyer's Peak that the truce had been broken, were blocked by counterspells from the demons - all but one, the desperate call that the last eight Nightmares sent to the eight Indigo Lead Sorcerers.

"The Demons have broken the truce."

"Nonsense," came the reply. "They would not risk our wrath by breaking the pact."

"I know it sounds mad but... wait, what pact?"

"We came to a new understanding. The Green Nightmares are no longer required."

One last insulting message was sent, of course, but that one was blocked by the Demons' counterspells.


With the least controllable parts of Singer society destroyed, the Indigo Chorus repaint themselves white, along with the 2nd White Chorus which is what the "white segments of the Rainbow Scourge" earlier actually were. Dignitaries from Sanctuary and the Dreamforge are present as they make a new pact, in which they act as allies. In return the Singers agree to free those slaves who were free in living memory and their descendants and family where applicable, to stop capturing new ones by force, and to improve conditions further for those that remain, including free food, water, shelter, entertainment, and limits on working hours. The Demons angst about how this isn't enough but ultimately accept that it's far more than they had before the New Pact.

Some months later, the First Company of the 2nd Liberators stood at the foot of Destroyer's Peak, as they had been destined to from so long ago, led by their new Grand Champion, Hexas Aurelia. Only, the founders of Fort Liberty would be turning over in their grave if they knew the exact method in which their successors had chosen to liberate the victims of Singer oppression. A set of civilian diplomats from Sanctuary were present, including a civilian Anti-Priest of the Cathedral, and meeting them were a segment each from the Indigo Chorus and the new defensive force of Destroyer's Peak, dyed in white, with "II" showing in black on their cores. The Rainbow Lord was also present, no longer compelled to be a part of their own dream, and would inevitably be the last Singer to wear the runes of the Rainbow Scourge. That experiment had been brave, that experiment's ideals had saved Destroyer's Peak, but that experiment had failed, noble as it was.

"Hang on, how are they the Second White Chorus?" Hexas felt obliged to ask, once formal greetings had been exchanged, over a bite of refreshment before the details of the New Pact were properly hashed out.
"The first has not been processed yet," the Rainbow Lord answered. "It was the Indigo Chorus that made me realise what our new path must be, they should have the honour of being the first White Chorus of Destroyer's Peak." They extended a tendril onto the rarest of the dishes present. "I'm still amazed you can even cook Kraith, much less make anything of it."
"It's... not my favourite, I must say, but - I don't know about your kind, but in most of the world the rulers go for expensive tastes over, well, tasty ones, even in Sanctuary."
"And Fort Liberty is any different? You can't even tell me you don't save the best for the warriors."
"Yes, I can, we value quality, not price," Hexas laughed, taking a swig of some Werblume mead imported for this special occasion. "Though... shouldn't you have sent them against the Humans as well? We didn't even dent those fanatics."
"The Shou Tahs are going to attack us sooner or later no matter what gifts and concessions we offer. That isn't even my fault, though the brutality of the War on Gerki cannot have helped." The Rainbow Lord disintegrated a cup of small beer - most liquids were indeed wasted on Singers. "They're more proud than we ever were. They wish to avenge the insult we did them by refusing to lay down and die against the Hornblower's army, too long ago. Hopefully, by the time they've chosen new Kings we might just be ready for them."
"Still, the Humans are the greater threat."
"If they mobilise. Which they haven't. Which they may well not, if they see the slain Yellow Beasts and decide they've had enough death." The Rainbow Lord's tone passed no moral judgment, to Hexas' irritation - she had hoped to be able to goad the Singers into agreeing to support future military action against the Eknadist tyrants, because the gods knew there was no other good use for Singers that wasn't better done by demons, or Idrists at a stretch.

Over the following few days, a long and exacting Pact between the Singers and Demons was established - and indeed, the Indigo Chorus took out the correct dyes to recolour themselves white, with a black numeral "I" in their central cores. The details are lost to all but the most ardent students of law, but all knew the most important details. That an attack on one significant group of Singers or Demons would be considered an attack on every member of both races. That neither race would pursue open war with the other's allies, no matter how much pressure they were under to do so. That the Singers would cease their practice of taking slaves, and release their current generation of newly seized chattel as well as any first-generation slaves with at least one parent still living. That a set of reforms would be passed which would completely bring the actual rights of Singer slaves into line with those of the downtrodden of other civilisations, including but not limited to free bread and water to be given without limit, limitations on their working hours, and regular distractions. For those not satisfied by the original Pact's terms, there was hope in the last of them - that every year from the day of the Pact onwards, at least one each of the Octarchs of Destroyer's Peak, the Octarcs of the Dreamforge, the Generals of Fort Liberty, and the Clan Chiefs of Sanctuary would convene to review the Pact in light of any changes.

Hexas had hoped for more, and left the meeting haunted by the concessions she couldn't push with the Demons' immediate military superiority, but they had at least shifted to a position she could stomach. The Singers had got out of liberating the second- and later-generation slaves, because they had successfully argued that there was not even a moral victory in freeing those institutionalised into their unfortunate fate - that, indeed, suddenly unleashing people onto other societies which had no place for them would only serve to disrupt them. It was not hard to read in the Rainbow Lord's tone that this fact was why the original Liberators had been allowed to take so many home, as it was felt that the cost to Fort Liberty of distributing and rehabilitating them counted towards the retribution they deserved for the insult. The Singers had got out of having to abolish the practice entirely, and count 'liberty' among the rights that were to be granted to their slaves, by comparing their offered rights to those granted to the citizens of Figurae, or Myrha, or Serpent's Den - though Hexas took some satisfaction when they made the mistake of using Farea as an example of a city where people lived worse lives than what was proposed, having seen it herself and seen what wonders the faeries had made of their lives with the God of Life behind them. In many other places though, it was simple fact that people starved, worked themselves to an early grave, and had to sleep on the streets every single day, and none of that would happen to Singer slaves while their overseers remained true to the Pact.

It wasn't right. It wasn't even mostly right. But it was a hell of a lot less wrong than how things had been when the 1st Liberators marched on Destroyer's Peak so long ago.

Lothar has a chat with a being he never realises is Makhleb, and decides that the Kraith have done far, far more evil than the Order of Eknad so they need to suffer retribution first, and in any case he needs to be stronger before he can liberate Humanity from the maniacs down south, so he buggers off to Elfmoot to learn elvish ways.

Of course, spies have been watching him for a while so Axus II is soon informed that the threat has run away.It was market day in winter in Figurae, so it was not all that suspicious to see two figures so heavily cloaked as to avoid easy identification, especially to those not tutored in the various things that might be suspicious about a person. This was rather crucial, as the one on the left was Lothar the Cursed, and while his glamer was on it would only fool an onlooker for so long; as for the other, his torn rags indicated him as a victim of some kind of pestilence and warned people not to come too close, a warning which Lothar had the courage to break. "Marcus the Leper" had attended the last meeting of the Cult, and come to visit Lothar personally on one of the few days when he could count on little enough attention to do things unmolested.

...Tell me something, Marc, asked the man fused to the Ocarina. "How did you learn about us? Why does my father hold you in such high esteem?"
I'm a sage, boy, though clearly cast out for my... condition, the leper answered. "There's no denying you are meant for great things - you ought to have some idea what those are."
That's obvious, isn't it? End the immortal tyrant, avenge my ancestors, free my people, rule for the people rather than a bunch of madmen.
Have you ever stepped beyond the lands you call home? the leper asked, and Lothar thought, and ultimately shook his head. Five years ago he would have lied, to impress a stranger, but he was the Champion of the Ocarina; he had nothing to prove, and everything to lose by convincing someone not to aid him. "Oh, I know, you see evil all around and you hear of past evils and your heart boils with rage. Yet there is so much other evil that lies outside these walls."
That's a lie, they just tell us that to scare us. To pen us in.
It's not a total lie, however. There are beings like speaking trees in the northern forest, whose wisdom and kindness would make you weep with gratitude. There are the faeries, the children of Aniqua, and their descendants the Elves whose lives are dedicated to Life. Across the western sea, plant-men brew the finest mead the world has ever known, and preserve their honoured dead to learn the secrets of the nether-world.
That last one doesn't exactly sound entirely virtuous.
No more so than casting them into the ground to rot, or burning them to ash. The dead are past wrong or suffering; your concern lies with the living.
So you say. But none of what you've said proves a word of their lies.
Nothing but your eyes can truly prove any of it. But you'll get the chance soon enough, the leprous sage claimed. "But, yes, evil lurks beyond as well as within these walls. The evil of the Singers, who defiled the city of angels in days long past, who took so many of every kind as their slaves and playthings. The evil of the Imps, whose Black Market contains every horror the world has to offer. The evil of the Kraith, who lurk in every shadow and terrorise those who cannot fight back."

The leper grasped Lothar's arm, through a thick sleeve and his own thicker gloves, and a series of important events flashed into his eyes and ears - he saw and heard through the eyes and ears of a helpless girl, whose father that ought to love her instead made her tremble with fear. He saw and heard in an instant what she had seen and heard over many years, how she had been kidnapped by the many-eyed Kraith, and made to suffer the words she so feared until nothing else rang through her mind. He then saw and heard through the eyes and ears of a small, petty, and ultimately quite pathetic being, and felt its fear as the Kraith spoke not with true speech, but with a voice torn from an innocent child's fears. He then saw and heard through the eyes and ears of a Kraith in one of the demon cities in the far north, and saw and heard how it had learned of and ultimately rejected Telepathy. The conclusion was obvious - the Kraith had performed this hideous torture, not to fill a gap in their abilities, but because they could.

"The evil of Vroch of old, bane of the fairies and the warriors of Sanctuary," the leper continued, while Lothar trembled from the horrors and nightmares he had just sat through. You mewl that your many times great grandfather died unjustly, but at least he died mercifully, at least he died quickly - there are so many who are denied both."

"...But... why?"
"That doesn't matter," the leper said. "All that matters is that all the horrors must be destroyed, all their dark deeds must know retribution. That no child should quake at her father's voice again."
"...How, though? Even with my power... how?!"
"There are others, who can aid you. Others who can teach you, and... one other who already walks the path destined for you. In any case, go north first. Seek the Elfmoot, make what promises you must, and learn their spells of healing."

Lothar simply nodded before almost running to the north gate, almost glad to have an excuse to end the conversation and get some space. Under the robe, Makhleb smiled.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4299843/) points
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 13 points

2 points: Command City (Dreamforge) to Raise Army (Black Watch) [on NC10]
2 points: Command City (Sanctuary) to Political Maneuver to grant Roads to Fort Liberty [tick]
2 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Raise Army (Fort Liberty Reservists) [tick]
2 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (2nd White Chorus)

3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Create Wonder (The Blasphemous Cathedral, a Golden Magic research centre. The fluff about being able to use Golden Magic against Humans is a reference to how the +1 Wonder bonus is not negated against Golden Magic users.) [tick]
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Portal Labyrinth - Portal Magic wonder) [on NC10]

0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Reservists) to defend Farea [tick]

0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to attack the Army of Indigo Kings of Kaz!
Green Nightmares 2d6+9=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301176/) (+7 techs, +2 tech-type wonders)
Army of Indigo Kings 2d6+6=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301177/) (+5 techs, +1 defenders
Green Nightmares win! Army of Indigo Kings destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to attack the Army of Blue Kings of Eramine!
Green Nightmares 2d6+8=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301180/) (+7 techs, +2 tech-type wonders, -1 fatigue) -2 objects attacked = 12
Army of Blue Kings 2d6+6=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301182/) (+5 techs, +1 defenders)

0 points: Command Army (Green Nightmares) to attack the Army of Red Kings of Rou!
Green Nightmares 2d6+7=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301185/) (+7 techs, +2 tech-type wonders, -2 fatigue) -4 objects attacked = 14
Army of Red Kings 2d6+6=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301186/) (+5 techs, +1 defenders) + >=1 Wonder >= 15
Red Kings win! Green Nightmares destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Yellow Beasts) to attack Eupnea, provoking the 2nd Clerics!
Yellow Beasts 2d6+11=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301202/) (+7 techs, +2 tech-type wonders, +2 weapon-type wonders).
2nd Clerics 2d6+9=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301204/) (+8 techs, +1 defenders
Double kill! Both armies destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Elf Outriders) to steal the Horn of Winter. Because I think the Shou Tahs do funnier more interesting things if the Singers lose the Horn to a third party, the Indigo Chorus does not oppose this, putting the Outriders on a net -1 for the rest of the turn (-2 object attacked, +1 Horn of Winter).

0 points: Command Army (Elf Outriders) to defend Elfmoot
0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to defend Elfmoot
0 points: Command Army (Betrayers) to defend the Human Cult of Makhleb
0 points: Rename Army (Indigo Chorus to 1st White Chorus)

1 point remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[ImperialSunligh]

Guess who's back? The Sun's back. Tell a friend. Also Paradi is blindingly bright. Within Eknad, a great stirring was felt, rumbling that tore at the soul of Paradi. A golden glow emanated from the tower of the gods: an omen of calamity. Six bells could be heard by all the people of Paradi from the nothing at the top of the tower.

The true event was far less subtle. With a great crack, Paradi exploded with light and celestial flames, searing all lies from the souls of its inhabitants. Truth became Law in Paradi, its inhabitants unable to hide anything from the gods, their judges, their jury, and if necessary, their executioners.

The sole Sun of Paradi returned, rising up from the tower of the gods, a hundred times brighter than before, so bright that any who looked upon it without living in its radiance were instantly stricken blind. The enlightenment of seeing the Sun after a lifetime of darkness is believed by those in Paradi to be well worth it.

The Sun, the highest of the gods, had returned.

The Sun is a mouse. Also he's PISSED and is going to kill lots of things. Like the Indigo people. Oh, look, they're already dead. The Sun stood anew in the council chambers of the gods, though he appear differently than ever before. Rather than a featureless human child, he took on a slightly older form, almost adult, though still quite short, and mouselike. More shocking, however, were the other features of his new body. While much of his form remained featureless and white, it was covered in angry flames that seared at his body and was laced by pulsing veins and crooked angles. Aspects of him transformed randomly between myriad forms, madly.

He stood there before his love, Eknad, Mam and Anike, (who the Sun knew, as a god, even in his abscence) laughing maniacally. Eknad showed worry, something the Sun had never seen him do, and Anike asked what was wrong.

The Sun paused momentarily before speaking in a rumbling growl that struck fear into even the other gods of the pantheon, a growl that could be heard through all of Paradi, even by some on Tyonix, "Demons! Devils, thieves, Singers, Imps, bloody fiends!" he paused for a raspy breath that he shouldn't have needed, "I'll kill them. I'll kill all of them. My world, my civilization, shall not be penetrated by evil forces. Never! Never, ever again! Damn them all!"

"This means war—not the kind they've seen before, no, True War. Eternal war," the Sun declared.

The gods could see the Sun's fury. They knew him. And they knew he could not be reasoned with.

The Sun spoke to the people of the human cities, to his angels and to the monkeys, "My people, I have not abandoned you. I shall keep you under my wing. And now, I believe it is time that I take a more active role in your protection. Shall I make an example? These evil beasts marched with intent to attack Eupnea. They made a blow against both our people and their own by coldly abandoning their allies to death. They shall suffer for it."

With that, from one of the suns of Tyonix shone a great light, from which descended a beam of divine flames, which struck the newly white chorus. It was similar to golden magic, but charged to ridiculous degrees. The 1st White Chorus was decimated into nothingness, but not before the Sun inflicted great pain upon them.

The Sun saw that there were some who doubted the king. Worse, they doubted his divine inspiration, their own people's way of life and perhaps the gods themselves.

The Sun spoke unto these people, "You who would question the king make a foolish decision. Axus is a puppet, a tool of the gods, used to organize and guide humanity to greatness. His word is the word of the gods. It is good of you to defend your homeland and I, the Sun, commend you for your work so far. However, I urge you not to turn against the king. He is one with the gods as you are at this moment. The humans need no mere king: They have the gods."

The court of Axus twittered with controversy after controversy, discussing the return of the Sun, and the recent battles. King Axus stood, and all were silent.

"I have brought you all here today because the gods have spoken to me, as they do constantly, and they have told me what must be done. I shall impart this knowledge upon you all, and you shall make it so.

The greatest of the gods, the Sun, has returned to us, bringing light to even these dark days. He comes with an ultimatum of war. There can be no compromise, no calm, no calling out in prayer. No, there shall be only war. And I must agree. These are the gods we speak of. We must keep faith, even if the result may seem superficially unpleasant, we shall be resolute."

He turned and spoke at the man to his right, though seemingly not to him, as if through him at the wall behind him, his dead eyes showing no feeling, "I have heard through my many sources of a group within this city... within the paladins, perhaps, within my very court, that worships," he spat the next word, "Makhleb."

He stood from his throne, something considered out of line for any other king.

"Well, my friends," he said, "Tomorrow, it shall not be so. Tomorrow, those of us who hold Makhleb dear in their heart will have their faith tested. And they, if they value their lives, should pray that they are not found wanting."

He turned and stared coldly into the faces of his new knights, all of them inferior to those who gave their lives to the aegis, "And it will not end there. Tomorrow begins our war. The gods have declared war on Makhleb, but that does not eliminate us humans from suffering for the causes of Faith, Freedom, Wisdom, Law, Change and utmost Glory. We shall start a war. It will begin by reinforcing Eupnea, the Sun's holy city, with a new kind of army composed of crusaders, a mighty combination of paladins, clerics and rhapsodists, who will keep this holiest of lands safe. Then, we take the fight to Makhleb and his servants. The demons, pale imitations of the angels, the singers, those terrible horrors... and any else that hold Makhleb dear in their heart—they are everywhere, I tell you—shall die a painful and gruesome death that they deserve."

The court seemed ready to give their opinions on these proceedings.

"Court has come to a close," Axus merely stated.

Meanwhile, in Herz, the empire did not completely idle. A new emperor had come into power since the death of Emperor Uwe von Herz, the enigmatic Empress Dietrich von Herz, not related to the previous. Dietrich proved a very eccentric leader, who spent more time meditating than ruling. She wrote a great work known as "The Herzian", which detailed her philosophy on how to live. From these came a tradition of holy martial arts that harnessed the power of Anike in combat. Aside from this contribution and its popularity, however, she lived a fairly quiet, uneventful life, and Herz in turn saw little change.

The following emperor, whose name is not known for his founding of a new tradition of secrecy made use of this new technology. He instituted an extensive imperial guard composed of soldiers who practiced the arts of The Herzian and had absolute loyalty produced by the remaining booths. The soldiers were picked in their youth from the cradles of rebellious families. This army was utterly unknown to the common citizenry of Herz.

The night after the council meeting, there was great fear in Figurae. Many of the betrayers heard of the coming conflict and tried to leave the city. They found that all roads out of the city were closed, forbidding any from leaving.

The betrayers gathered their families and hid away, or took up arms. At the crack of dawn, the loyal paladins rose with the sun, their divine orders given by the Sun and their king. Their swords were raised and they searched throughout the city, the gods identifying the corrupted ones from their true servants.

The betrayers put up a good fight. Their skill in the blade, their knowledge of golden magic and armouring were the equals of their paladin brothers. But the paladins had the support of the city, of the Order of Eknad, of the gods and of the king, who used the wand of death to aid in the survival of the paladins. He stood atop the palace, out of range of damage, healing the paladins' wounds.

The betrayers attempted to protect their families and allies, killing many of the paladins, but even more betrayers met their deaths. The blood of uncounted betrayers and paladins spilled through the streets of the city, blades clashing and rays of divine fury echoing between the great, gilded buildings.

While the actual bouts of combat occurred in mere minutes, the search throughout the city took all day, the fear of the betrayers growing to paranoia. They found themselves trapped, unable to leave the city, waiting to be inevitably found and killed by their own former allies.

In the end, the cult of Makhleb had been utterly decimated, its followers killed and its depictions and altars defaced to near indecipherability.

Roll: 2d6+9=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4302270/)
Reroll: 2d6+9=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4302271/)

Event: The Wrath of the Sun, Destroys 1st White Chorus, -5
Command Demigod, Axus, Command Order, Order of Eknad, Create 1st Army of Crusaders, -1
Command Crusaders, defend Eupnea.
Advance Civ., Monkeys, in "Martial Magics", -6
Command Monkeys, ingrain "Martial Magics", -3
Command the Monkey Empire, Create army of Imperial Monks, -2
Command Imperial Monks, defend Herz.
Command 1st Order of Paladins, attack the cult of Makhleb, provoking The Betrayers.

The Paladins [(+1 Wand of Death (Otherwise pretty much the same, I think? )]: 2d6+1=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4302826/)
The Betrayers [+1 Defenders ("")]: 2d6+1=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4302827/)

The Paladins are narrowly victorious and suffer great losses. The cult and the Betrayers are destroyed.

Left: 0

[Neelien]

rolled 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303023/) bringing me up to 29

It had taken many years, but the Stringwork had finally reorganized itself. This was an important first step towards reunifying the two cores into a single mind. That however would have to wait. Final adjustements would take many more years, but the Stringwork would soon be ready to resume trade with the Saku Rasi.

The Shadowbirds felt that they were ready to engage in meaningful interaction with the other races, especially the humans, who in ancient legends were depicted as the Shadowbirds' heroic masters. So they sent an ambassador to the great city of Sophei to request an alliance with the Humans. They knew the Humans from their Legends were not the Humans of Tyonix, but they still hoped for a good outcome.


1 point : Command Demigod - Command Order (Agglomerations) - spread Navigation to Core1
3 points : Command Race (Shadowbirds)- Extend Alliance to the Humans

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4299609/)
Current Power Points: 25

Nathaniel stood beneath a banana tree, looking out across this lake where a city rested, and practicing his Plant Charming by making the grass at his feet part, shift, and rearrange itself. He had been traveling for years, first a stowaway on a Sangi, then a wandering stranger in the Marshlands, then an amateur trader (he had been very bad at it), and then a stowaway again. He had been working as he went, saving the ships from impromptu Shou Tahs attacks and protecting Saku Rasi family groups from Kraith, Hydras, and Arochno in the swamp. When he wasn't saving lives, however, he often was setting up camp. After all his years in Grove, standing beneath the Marrow Tree, he had developed a preference for willow trees, as the Marrow Tree was, in fact, a willow. Over the years, had developed a bit of a reputation, being an Angel who could kill even the mightiest creatures in a single blow, much like a Basilisk could kill with a glance. The Saku Rasi had taken to calling him "the Basilisk in the Willow".

That had been the Marshlands, however. Now, he was in the Banana Land, at the edge of Juqax, and he was feeling nostalgic for his time in Grove, teaching the Immortal College. Now, this all came together and got him thinking: he had come here to learn of the further secrets of the societies of the world. That is what he had been doing, but perhaps he could also aid the people of this land as they aided him.

So, witg a great beat of his wings, he set out across the water, uncertain what would wait for him in the Miamec city ahead.


---

At first, it had been simply irritating. The lizard people were not like the tree people. The Trells had simply acknowledged Nathaniel, made him comfortable, and then continued with their lives. In Juqax, he had been a spectacle for many years. He eventually applied for a lease of an amount of property so he could live in the city, but keep from being the center of attention all the time. It was easy, the matriarch was willing to give the lease purely based on the fact that this was the Immortal Hero. He then hired many Maimec to construct a large platform on the waters he owned, and covered it in dirt and grass. Once this was done, he began holding tryouts for admittance to the second wing of the Immortal College. He didn't simply allow all who came to join because he had no veterans with which to split the burden. So, he had to get a select few up to speed before the College could be opened to the public.

It took years, and hundreds from across the Banana Land came, Weblume, Saku Rasi, even the occasional Yosei come to train under the Basilisk in the Willow. A Shou Tahs was even said to be attempting to join, but was expelled from the city before he could make it to Nathaniel's land. After about a decade, however, Nathaniel had his twenty veterans, and the school was opened to the public, while Nathaniel faded into the background, an overseer who would occasionally step out and take over a class, but more often, he wasn't even at his property. Instead he was going about to the collections of immigrants across the city.

It seemed in the rush to attend his college, so many had come, with the intent of stayed decades, that the population had changed, and now there were even other colleges that had opened up, to allow certain skilled immigrants to begin making a life. Saku Rasi armorers, Saku Rasi doctors, and Werblume Dancers. These were the colleges that the Basilisk attended most often, disguised as a Demon. It was a thin disguise, of course, but all disguises would be thin in this place, to him, for Nathaniel was over 2 meters tall, and the population of Juqax was almost entirely 1 meter tall. Still, those who figured out that the tall one was Nathaniel also realized that he was trying to avoid attention, so they left him be… most of the time.

So Nathaniel learned of the ways of the Banana Land, and, when he was content with what he knew, moved on, leaving the Immortal College once again in the hands of his students.

Three Kōpopé ships were docked at Sophei, painted black with dots of white, like stars, all across it's length. Their owners, a hundred and fifty Saku Rasi from the city of Serpent's Den were traveling through the Axon mountains, accompanied by fifty Rhapsodists "for their protection". They each carried a chest with them, and remained quiet as they went. They were bound for the court of Axus, and the king.

It took some time to get there, but when they did, the leader of the pirates stepped forward with a chest, set it at Axus's feet, head bowed and kneeling, and spoke, "Oh great gods of Paradi, I bring you an offering of all we have to offer," and with that, he opened the chest before him. It contained some clothing, navigational equipment, a cutlass, and a razor for shaving. As Axus eyed this strange gift, the pirate went on, "I pledge myself to the cause of the Humans, of King Axus, and of the Gods of Paradi, for I believe that I too, am a Human. That our ancestors were stolen from Paradi, and act that only a god, or an abomination, could achieve. The Wandering Sakura stole the Humans, and using it's foreign, inhuman power, twisted us into the form you see before you today. We come to seek peace with the Humans, to rejoin them, and to seek revenge upon that which blighted us so. If you would accept my humble request, oh Axus, oh gods of Paradi, I then put forward a second request, that you use your infinite might to free my people from the Wandering Sakura."

This was followed by one hundred and forty nine similar speeches. How would the King react?

There had been a great debate in Rou. Some of the Red Kings believed that the Green Flood which came was weak, not worth attention, and Kaz and Eramine were weak for losing to them. Some believed that they needed to raise the Wall of Currents to shield the city, as they would have with any other attack. Still others believed they ought to go on the offensive, find this Green Flood and wipe them out on the Red King's terms. These were few in number, however, as it would require Rou to be left defended by only the Princes for too long, and this generations of Princes were the the to attempt seizing power. In the end, however, they opted for the shields, keeping them running 24/7.

However, the Shou Tahs were impatient creatures, and soon the entire city was roaring and rioting, wishing to leave the confines of the shell. It was all the Kings and Princes could do to keep them from killing each other, but they managed, until the day they glimpsed the Green Flood on the other side of the wall.

The Red Kings ordered that the walls be allowed to drop as they gathered their strength, so that the Green Flood would little time to plan, and so they would be ready to attack. Once the wall was gone, hundreds of Shou Tahs all rose from the city at once, roaring in freedom as the Red Kings shot up, a wedge, straight and true, for the heart of the Green Flood. The Singers were not to be trifled with, of course, and a few Kings found themselves shifted with portals so their charge carried them headlong into a natural stone structure, dazing them and reducing the structure to rubble. However it was not enough to prevent at least nine of the Shou Tahs colliding with the Nightmares at full coherence.

The Kings threw blows so mightily that the Singers found themselves buried under ten feet of stone before their bodies had even half disintegrated. Though, the hundred & twenty five Singers were able to give as good as they got, and used portals to place Kings in impromptu cages of super-heated iron bars, boiling them alive.

Soon the combat devolved into separate struggles. Two Kings late to the battle were struck with a vision of their brothers defeated and the Green Flood, ten thousand strong, bearing down upon them. Still, the duo fought, using War Song to create a cone of destruction, tearing through the charging Nightmares even though they did not perceive it to be so. That duo was destined to die, but a second group, of four Red Kings, huddled back to back, not fighting, but simply singing, the storm of magic around them tearing Singer's apart.

However, soon many Red King bodies filled the water, and Telepathy had broken the rhythm of the War Song, making each King think he fought alone.

This just made them angry.

One king screamed in fury, foaming at the mouth, and began barking out every syllable of War Song he had ever known as he hurled colossal stones in every direction. Another ripped through the water, smashing through Singer bodies at speeds their spells could not match. A third, a true master of the War Song, simply stood stock still and sang, doing with a single voice what others would have required three to achieve.

The Green Nightmares managed to kill another king, but their numbers were down to twenty five, no - twenty, and they had only killed half of the Kings.

They ran, abandoning their telepathy, and the Red Kings found themselves alive once more. It took a few moments to realize they weren't fighting anymore, and as they did so, the ones who had sung began to stop. However, the master of War Song, Delifin Delopsa, felt a charge in the water, and waved at them to continue.

They were well into an area of the War Song that none knew, for, during the battle, syllables had been combined and interwoven without the full knowledge of the group. Destruction was sung at the same moment as Preservation, Joy at the same moment as Need and Stone, and Weight and Heat at the same moment as Self, Divinity, and Dreams. This act would never be repeated, but Del insisted that the eight of them continue, until they reached the crescendo, and they sang the same single note in unison: the note for Shou Tahs.

As they let the song fall, they noticed three red lights high above in the water. At first, they thought it was three of their brethren, but as they drew closer, the Shou Tahs drew in deep breathes. The red stars of the Ehk Rellis hovered before them, flickering, just before sinking down into the stone at their feet for a few moments, just to rise back up a moment later, one bearing a circlet of rusted iron with a large stone at it's front, the other two stars each bearing a large, grey stone laced through with veins of red, each with a hole shaped perfectly for a Shou Tahs hand. They floated forward and placed the crown upon a Red King's head and the gauntlets upon his clenched fists. Fourteen more times they repeated this process, until fifteen crowns and thirty gauntlets had been risen, the last seven being laid on the ground instead of on a corpse.


---

"Weak, indigo ones of Kaz! We are last eight the Kings of Rou," Delifin Delopsa roared above the sprawling city, "We do not come to conquer you. We come to offer you a chance. The Singers once struck at the weak, black ones of Gerki, and now they strike at each other city in turn. I say to you now: they do not care whether one of our great cities fall, but simply want all of us to join the pathetic, white ones from long ago. I say this to you: I would sooner call you all brothers, than allow them to return and become any closer to their goal! Fight beneath us, and I promise you, not only will they be driven away, but what they dreamt of us, will befall them!"


---

A voice of a new Blue King rose up from the golden city of Eramine, "Why should be bow to the weak, red ones of Rou?!"

"The mighty Red Kings were the ones to defeat the foe your weak Blue Kings so easily fell to. We survived, where your kind lost. Even the star gods themselves recognized this truth, and brought us gifts of immense power! Upon our brow and hands lay the wares of gods!"

"The wares of gods?!" a second King scoffed, "You wear rusted iron and stone!"

"You doubt their power?!" a second Red King barked, before slamming his fists together, and trails of red energy snaked out from where he had brought them together. They boiled the water around them for a moment, before Del raised his hand and they dissipated.

"We were agreed, we shall not show you the truth of their power, for our attempts to find their power destroyed half of Rou in a day. We do not truly know the full extent of these wares, but they place us above you by leagues. That, and the fact that we did what you could not, is why you will now to us."


---

The Black King sneered at this declaration, "My people once wielded the Horn of Gerki, and now the stolen Trumpets of Madness."

"You lost the Horn, and are lucky to have the Trumpets. You know this. Though, remember, we were victorious against the Singers, where you fell."

The Black King stood in rage at this, "You fought but a fraction of their number! I will not stand for this insolence!"

Del raised his hand, "I do not doubt you, but this is why we've come here. We cannot fight alone against this foe. You of all our kind, know this. Should we fight against one another now, there will be no hope."

"The King of Gerki will not bow to the flotsam of Rou!"

"You must, for we possess the power of the gods, and more strength than you. Though, I assure you one thing instead: You will recover the Horn of Winter, and then, when we return from defeating this mighty foe, we may decide who rules who."


---

The Singers would have been afraid, had they known what was taking place beneath the waves…

The Kraith evoked his Phobimancy spell and summoned up that single voice that all Kraith spoke with, "There you are, three Kraith bodies in exchange for seventeen cows."

The Werblume herder took out a pair of spectacles and looked the corpses over, "One of these three is a child."

"Our young have much more tender meat, very succulent, and their blood is thin, better for drinking than the viscous sludge that runs through our blood when we are older."

"Not as much blood, though. I'll give you ten cows."

The Kraith screamed in outrage, and the herder felt the fear rise up within him, "Seventeen cows, you dry corpse, do you think it was easy to kill this family?! My wife still lives in a nightmare they conjured up! I set the price ridiculously low! Seventeen cows!"

The herder took a moment to compose himself before he spoke again, "When your kind realized that so many enjoyed eating your kind, there was an influx of you killing each other to sell as food. Now, there are too many Kraith bodies being traded here. I cannot do more than--"

"SEVENTEEN!" the voice shrieked.

"That was the Kraith voice! Quick, gather up the rest of the squad," a voice came from a few buildings down.

"Good job, freak! You probably just blew this entire market! Now get going, unless you want to get--,"but the Kraith had grabbed the front of the trader's clothing and dragged him in close, until their faces were inches away from one another.

The voice spoke again, barely a whisper this time, "Seventeen cows. Be glad I don't kill you and take all the cows."

The Kraith left with seventeen cows.


---

The fear of the one-locked had grown great in Myrha. So many Werblumes worked with the Kraith that they were almost all hiding something from the army, even if it were just a family member who dealt with the monsters.

However, certain aggressive Kraith had ideas, of imitating the Werblumes, of creating their own army. It took quite some time, of course, with hundreds of Kraith training in the crypts of the city, to maintain discipline, and incorporate many of the Werblume tactics into their own stratagems. Soon a force of one thousand Kraith was fielded, wearing enchanted blood armor, cloaks of flaming shadow, and wielding daggers of shadowstuff. They each had such powerful auras of abstract fear, that the one-locked actually shied away from them without realizing they had done so. These Fell Magicians, as they were called, however, also utilized secrets of Visionary Trances, which they had gleaned after living so long in Myrha, as well as Totemic Sigils, which they had adapted to allow them to turn into the fear creatures they summoned with Phobimancy. Hive Manipulation was even adapted to fear swarms. Even the Dance of the Rising Spring could be utilized if the need arose, with tendrils of blood replacing the Werblumes vines.

But this was not the most terrible aspect of these magicians. For, in their time dealing with Necromancy and the preservation of dead that the Werblumes had so well mastered, they had come across ways that they could use Sangromancy to force blood back into a corpse and give it a pulse. Then it was only a matter of a few spells to give that blood a mind of it's one. A simple, dull mind, certainly, but enough to grant the preserved mummies a semblance of life.

As they refined this art, they found that they didn't need to use blood at all, and could simply raise the dead by instilling the mind into the corpse itself. Soon skeletons and zombies filled the ranks of the Fell Magicians as well.

Mortimancy had been born.

5 points to Event: Saku Rasi, Werblumes, and Yosei each get a major population in Juqax. Also, the Immortal College receives it's second wing and Nathaniel learns the art of Armoring, Rudimentary Medicine, and the Dance of the Rising Spring.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Extend an Alliance to the Humans.

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "Red Crowns" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "Red Gauntlets" Wonder.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Eramine to Raise a new Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Kaz to Raise a new Army of Kings.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Myrha to Raise an Army of Fell Magicians.

6 points to Advance the Kraith in Mortimancy

Current Power Points: 4
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301978/)

[5a Violista]

11 points


(6)Werewolves (Leu Garoul) - Advance Civilization in "Pack Hunting" to better combat the Kraiths

Aniqua looked at the Kraith and the Werblume with horror. The Kraith were especially bad. Now, not only did they burn and feed, they also raised the dead. She would have to strengthen her warriors to fight even harder against them.

She went down among many of the werewolves and other Leu Garouls spread across teh world. Disguising herself as one of them, she taught them how to fight more effectively - how to hunt as a group. Alone, they would have difficulty taking down enough Kraith to matter.

Together, they would be more able to combat their enemies, the fearsome Kraith.



(5)Nereids - Event - enter all coastal cities as a minor presence.

Many of the Nereids who drank blood and ate flesh were unable to blend in as well in the water, but they could definitely hide out of the water, disguised as the nearby citizens. So, unlike their sisters who still saved the lives of drowning sailors out at sea, the more bloodthirsty Nereids surrounded the coasts of all seaside cities. Many came up into the cities to find their prey, shapeshifted as a citizen of the city.

Inside the cities, they wouldn't talk normally for fear of drawing attention to themselves, but they would use their voice once in a while to draw their prey away from the crowded city streets and into the sea. They nigh-undetected came into the cities and towns (specifically) of Wetami, Iztec, Adonia, Sophei, Serpent's Den, Sanctuary, Saorsa, and the Cove of Spiders.

Out of water, the bloodthirsty Nereids didn't venture very far from the sea, but there was no end to the trickery they would deploy to find a meal.



(no action)The Ashen Priestess leaves the demon's cult and wanders her way to Elfmoot.

The Ashen Priestess spent some time far in the north with the demons and Aniqua's cult, but she felt it wasn't exactly the best place for her to settle down.

For the next decade, her ashes blew across the landscape, looking for a place to stop. After passing through The Grove several times, she decided to stop in Elfmoot. The people there looked remotely like humans - much more than the demons did - and, so, she felt she would fit in more.

Of course, it's pretty hard for a woman with a red cloak and hood, bright white hair, burning eyes, and ash-grey skin to fit anywhere. Most inhabitants of Elfmoot only would see her briefly, out of the corner of their eyes, as she kept away from the busier parts of the city.




Idrians (Saorsa): 2 turns ago: War of Brothers
Faeries: Do something next turn?
Maimec: Last turn, learn Firebreath
Nereids: Last turn, Ingrain Tech "Enchanting Song"
Elves: 3 turns ago, Raise Army "Nature's Protectors"
Idrist and Idrians (Rivis): Last turn: Army returns home
Suri: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Saku Rasi: 2 turns ago: Sakura - Theater, Serpent's Den - Cove of Spiders
Singers: 2 turns ago: Create "Flowering Greenhouse"
Shou Tahs: Before-I-came turns ago, Create Cult
Stringwork: Do something next turn. Create structure?
Humans: Cult migrated. Is there no more.
Demons: Last turn: Cult arrived.
Worldwide: 6 turns ago, Create "Fountain of Youth" Do something to this?
Worldwide: 2 turns ago, Werewolves Next turn, use an Event to get a large group of Werewolves in a specific city?
The Ashen Priestess: Last turn. Maybe, next turn Inhabit Land around some undecided place?


11 points

(6)Werewolves - Advance Civilization in "Pack Hunting"
(5)Nereids - Event - enter all seaside cities.
(0) The Ashen Priestess doesn't settle down yet.
Remainder: 0

Next turn: 0 + 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4304203/) + 3 + 3 = 13

[Omegonthesane]

The wonder-makers of the Plane of Thunder were, as ever, at it - though now with a strange sense of frenzy and panic, as if they felt they would not have much longer to ply their trade. It was, of course, possible that they had learned this during the testing phases of the new Lyre, considering what its effect was. When played, it created a portal, not just through space, but through time - a portal through which you were able to see another person playing it, usually yourself. Where, or rather when, the other end of the portal was changed, flickering between the future and a place of white noise. During testing, the reason for this was revealed by a future Singer, as were many of its functions - in order to obey what few laws governed time, the Lyre had to be able to reach into its own past, to the people who would one day speak to its future players. It had returned white noise after its initial creation, because being newly created it didn't have a whole lot of past to reach back to, as while a new player might speak to one yet to play, their contact in the past could only be a previous player. It was presumably also from the future that the sense of panicked urgency in the wonder's creation came, as while testing it they must have seen something that made them rush it to completion.

Traditionally, the Lyre was played until the future you saw had changed to your satisfaction. In practice, many played it for hours without receiving this satisfaction, as they simply could not find the answers they sought without looking further than their own instrument's future.

A demon entered the chapel tent she had raised, despite being the only user of it in her army. In times gone by, she would have entered barefoot in a robe after ritual ablutions, but now she marched in in full battle armour and heavy boots fresh from training. In times gone by, she would have knelt to pray, but now she took a combat stance.

"My mother, and hers before, kept the faith. Kept the faith even as you kept refusing to answer us, even as so many others turned away from your light. Kept the faith even as they ripped open your temples to make that... that thing they called a Cathedral. Kept the faith even as news reached us that the humans murdered the followers of Aniqua, who never harmed them, over, and over, and over again. When thousands cried out that the crimes of Herz were unforgivable, I stayed their hand in your name. Rather than leave the Singers to loot and despoil, I made the deal that turned them peaceful, in your name.

"And this... THIS... is how you repay my faith? Repay my service? By sending the Humans on an unending genocide against even your own faithful?!"

Hexas kicked the Sun's golden altar down, then took an axe and hacked it to pieces.

A similar, though larger, event took place in Sanctuary, in the last of the Demonic Temples that was both dedicated to the Eknad Pantheon and still had any form of attendance. The pews were simply not used for the last sermon ever to be delivered there, by one of twelve ordained priests of the one hundred and fourty-four present.

"Our lives, our existence, is owed to the Pantheon. This is known, this is seen as fact," said the priest. "For this, we worshiped for many years, even as other false gods lured our faithful away. For this, long ago, we thwarted the plans of vile Makhleb, to give unstoppable wonders to its army of murderers. Yet now, these same gods have commanded that we be slain, not for heresy, not for sin, but for the crime of existing. They are as false as all the others, it is clear now. We, who have rejected all other false deities, must now reject those we once clung to. Completely."

There was no voice of dissent as the former vicar went on to describe that their only righteous path was to go to the Blasphemous Cathedral, and offer their former place of worship as payment for instruction as anti-priests. Most betrayed of all demons by the decision of the Sun, these one hundred and fourty-four were not necessarily more competent, but pushed themselves further, carved more runes into more of their flesh, denied themselves more and for longer than had ever previously been expected of an anti-priest. As the paragons they were, they became known as the Dark Hierophants, and soon enough Sanctuary took an interest in this unconventional military force.

When the call to war came, of course, these strange zealots demanded the opportunity to strike back at the evil gods who had so cruelly abandoned them, an opportunity the 2nd Sanctuary Militia were all too happy to give them as it meant they didn't have to abandon the Demonic Temples.

By some miracle, the blast of evil light which obliterated the 1st White Chorus managed only to wound the Rainbow Lord, so the Singers did not lose their most important figurehead. Still, it was confirmation if such were needed that the forces of evil in the south had no intention of seeing sense - to the point that the human slaves, recently freed, had requested their old positions back rather than risk being killed for "impurity" by gods gone mad. In any other time the look on Hexas' face alone would have been worth bringing them all back on ten times the pay, but now the thought of willing slaves was in no way encouraging.

"...Does Sanctuary have room for them?" the Rainbow Lord asked.
"I suspect not," answered an anti-priest, "but they're somewhat obliged to find or make room. They will certainly find that less horrific than giving these humans their original request."
"Why should we spend resources taking them there?" the Rainbow Lord continued, having rather hoped that there wasn't room in Sanctuary so the humans could just be put under the protection they had asked for. "And don't say anything about principle, this is a war. We can make things right when the Sun's maniacs are dead."
"...You shouldn't," said Hexas, unexpectedly. "Make them an offer. Put whatever swords and spells you have in their hands, bring them to the battle against the army of death. Those that survive are made free."
"Intriguing, but the 3rd Chorus is already being recruited," claimed the Rainbow Lord. "They will need time to establish themselves before we call yet another army."

In Rou, from which the Green Nightmares had not reported to confirm any kills of kings, the Red Kings found their minds assailed by a Telepathic image once more, sent through a long tunnel of portals. An image of a Singer, dyed in white with runes of every colour of the rainbow marking its tendrils.

"Hear me, Red Kings of Rou!" said the Rainbow Lord. "The Singers have antagonised you many times in recent years. We have earned your retribution. The wicked Humans to the south of the Great Continent do not see it that way. They march now, not for glory or for honour, but to deny you the vengeance you are owed! To steal the fight that is yours! Do you plan to let them?" Frankly, the Shou Tahs were going to pick on the weaker side whatever happened, and it had been decided that it would be easier to appeal to their need for a fight.

Of course, Singer Telepathy was very much a one-way art, though by now the Red Kings ought to have found one of the Telepathy Rings lying around and realised its proper use. Indeed, it might even be possible that they had a few Telepaths among them, perhaps enough to staff a full Army - but certainly not enough that a full Army would survive the bonding process.

~~~

The elder Trell dreaming underneath the Marrow Tree found their dreams rudely interrupted, by a face with the brands of a Demon Grand Champion and a voice that matched its lip movements.

"The Eknad pantheon has gone mad. They have driven their servants mad in turn. The humans are mobilising to destroy all the creations of all the other gods, just like we once feared the Singers would. If you do not march, we will understand, but look to your walls, for the Army of the Sun will not spare anyone. They are under direct orders to make no compromise and give no quarter. Their gods compel them to kill their own children rather than carry the weapons of other deities, why would they spare anything of yours?"

~~~

Khral was dominated by archmages who, individually, could make a Singer shiver with their power and cruelty, but they had historically lacked the cohesion and unity of purpose that had made the Singers feared as well as reviled throughout the world. Thus, it was not lightly that a telepathic message was beamed directly into the mind of one of these figures of profound darkness and cruelty. Once again, the visage of the Rainbow Lord was sent to a wicked race.

"We are the Singers. We terrorised this world before you ever crawled out of the Blood Pit. We despoiled the city of Angels, and defiled the Sword of Life. We slew the many Kings of the Shou Tahs like cutting through so much grass. Where you hid in the shadows, we marched in the light. Where you frightened people into their homes, we burnt those homes down and made those people into our slaves. Fear us, and hear our warnings.

"An army approaches from the Human Kingdom to the south, an army which wishes to bring death to all that it considers evil, without mercy, without pity, without compromise. They will not be turned back, they will hear neither reason nor threats. They can only be fought. They must be fought, because if they strike us down, you will surely be next."

~~~

In Rivis, in Saorsa, and even in sweet Farea, the Idrist, Idrians, and Faeries received the same benevolent warning that Hexas had sent to the Trell of the Grove. She took a breath, and a swig, before looking to the Rainbow Lord.

"You are foolish to expect their aid, child," the ancient Singer said. "All three of their kinds are weak and feeble, while the Trell will forever lack the courage to march."
"I don't expect their aid, you idiot!" Hexas spat at her nominal ally. "I expect them to be ready and I expect them to save as many as they can if we fail!"
"We will not fail. We must not." the Rainbow Lord stated.

~~~

In Imptopia, the Prank Overseers had had only a little experience with the Singers, though some had no doubt heard reports of the recent march of the Singer armies on Eupnea. The Singers, in turn, knew little of how things were done in Imptopia. Thus it was a selection of random imps, with no particular pattern or common factors, who all received the vision and voice of the Rainbow Lord.

"We are the Singers. We have scourged this world for aeons, and all wise beings whisper our names in fear. Yet a more terrible threat awaits your city. We send this message not to beg your aid, nor to intimidate you, but to warn you. The Humans of Figurae, of Sophei, and of Eupnea are raising an army. They will not accept your gifts. They will not accept your servitude. There is no easy way out, for they march not to claim your territory, not to claim your wonders, not even to claim you as slaves, but to kill you. If you refuse to fight them, they will kill every Imp in your entire city, yourself included."

In the command chambers of the camps outside Destroyer's Peak, Hexas sighed, and the Rainbow Lord made a gesture like a shrug.
"It's the truth. Besides, why should you be the only one to scrape the barrel?"

"Should we warn the Stringwork?"
"No, it won't believe us, and it won't care about loss of life."

In truth, the Dreamforge wanted little part of the politics of the "landlovers" of Destroyer's Peak, yet they had been adequately convinced that the Humans' mad crusade would not leave them alone. The Octarchs had decided, unanimously, that given the choice, they would rather abandon the land and instead look downwards, to the depredations of the Shou Tahs so recently antagonised. Yet, fate had not given them that choice. Instead, it had given them a nigh unassailable city, and an already prepared army; ultimately, the Octarchs decided they had time. The ranks of the Black Watch were, as had always been intended, expanded until there were enough for two lots of them; however, as the Black Watch had always been meant as a garrison force, it was only after much deliberation that they were sent to the war camp north of Elfmoot, from where the two commanding generals had sent telepathic messages across the world.

Including, for some damn fool reason, the warning sent to the Shou Tahs, who would now know when best to burn down Destroyer's Peak. Well, the Peak was at least not undefended, having raised the 3rd White Chorus to perform the task. If they fell it was their problem, Singerdom was safe in the Forge.

"No, you do it like this, silly," said the elvish teacher, murmuring the phrase and making the gesture to close the hole in Lothar's throat. "Catch your breath, and we'll try again, big one."
"Is this really how you teach eachother?"
"Yes, why do you think we all wear scarves and wristbands in summer?... Though, usually we start kids on wrists or hamstrings, but you're special. You lot don't have as long to master it. Now. Arms wide, we'll try again."

The blade slashed, and this time Lothar just about managed to start breathing again within the five seconds. The elvish teacher actually paused for five more, allowing him to heal the bleeding wound himself now that he could breathe more easily.

"Good! You learn fast," the teacher said. "You know you can do it now, so let's work on speed."
"No, let's not," came a voice from the trees around the clearing. Student and teacher turned to see an entire squad of demons step forward, led by one in the armour and brands of a Grand Champion. "We have more important things to do. Lothar the Cursed, I assume?"

The parlay was held then and there, as Lothar refused to let the demons out of his sight after what he'd heard of their vile kin. Well, less a 'parlay', more a 'dire warning' - there was no questioning what would happen to Elfmoot, if the Sun had his way. Ultimately, though, the chiefs of the Moot chose not to contribute soldiers to the war, instead merely returning the Horn of Winter which had been stolen within living memory and considering that their contribution.

Lothar, meanwhile, spent the next year accruing a large bar tab in one of the few wine houses in the Moot, to forget the soul-crushing quandary that the humans' crusade of genocide left him with. It was inevitable he would find the Ashen Martyr eventually, as the only other long-term inhabitant of the Elfmoot who at least used to be human; however, Lothar was as much dark fire as human now, and the priestess who had been burnt to death might not want to associate with that.

Two armies and a Demigod defend, six armies invade. Three of the invading armies come out intact.

The messages had been clear. No quarter, no compromise. Such were the Human terms, terms that even the Yellow Beasts would have cried foul at - and if not the Red Screamers of old, then likely the more recent army to bear that name, who had died beneath the waters against the sea blobs.

The demons' terms were kinder, but they knew that stating them would demoralise the defenders not at all. The Singers would have given harsher terms, but the Pact had that much sway over them at least.

For the first three days of the siege, Hexas personally span the Dream Twister's spit, and played a song that on a more sane scale would be a soothing and reassuring lullaby. The same lullaby, in fact, that her parents had sung her to sleep with so many times. In the dissonant tones of the Dream Twister, however, it became a haunting funeral song, filled with regret and longing for things that had passed away, a freezing fear that yet more might be lost - but most of all, a driving fear, a fear that without swift proper action the listener's hopes and desires would forever be denied to them. Every human in Figurae, and quite a number of the less careful demons and Singers laying siege to it, had sleep-ruining dreams for all three of those days, dreams of the future that Hexas had risked so much to create - a world of peace, of liberty, where all had what they needed to pursue a happy life, where the various armies of demons could disband and retire, where the world's peoples worked and lived together in harmony without anyone having to be punished ever again. A future the Sun would never permit.

After that, the Dream Twister was put away, and other tactics were discussed.

"You should have the glory of the first charge," Hexas offered.
"That's literally the trick we performed to destroy the Yellow Beasts," complained a lead sorcerer of the 2nd White Chorus. "Besides, we covered this, there won't be a wall-breaching charge. We do it carefully this time." As they spoke, there was a sound of drums, as all sixteen of the Lead Sorcerers present pulled out a set of bongos and beat them repeatedly all around Figurae. With this ruse, they hoped to prevent snipers from accurately picking out the Earthquake Drum. The warriors of the Sun, of course, disdained ranged combat anyway, so the ruse was unnecessary - the earthquake caused the various shrines powering the Aegis to rumble, disrupting the benedictions of the seven guardians who powered them and ultimately causing the mystic shield to fade. Hopefully it would not be gone permanently, but certainly it was down for long enough.

Though the Sun's insane warriors disdained ranged combat, they did not neglect it entirely, and as the Singers and Demons approached the material walls of Figurae they were rained upon with arrows. This continued until the various demon armies suddenly took flight and swooped over or onto the walls. The Dark Hierophants instead hovered over a particularly cracked part of the wall, chanting strange prayers and tolling upon golden bells; with their dread words, the crack became a breach, and instead of charging the gate the Singers stormed over the top of it, bringing the fight firmly into the streets of Figurae.

In the eyes of the Paladins defending their home city, the Demons and Singers worshipped false and wicked gods, but their greatest abomination was their Anti-Priests, vile blasphemers who sought not merely to oppose the true Pantheon but to steal their powers. Of these abominations the Dark Hierophants had gone furthest down that wicked path, and had the Paladins known that they looked upon what had once been Pantheon worshippers their hatred would only deepen. The golden bells and charms of the Dark Hierophants protected them from arrows and from bolts of divine smiting called forth by the proper invocations and talismans, but the commanders of the thousands of Paladins prayed to the Sun for salvation and were granted the miracle of flight. With wings of sacred light akin to those of their angel ancestors, they swooped into the air and cut down the arch-blasphemers; a pale few of these scattered like the cowards all false peoples were, but the rest met their deserved fate on swords of the same gold whose power they twisted and mocked. Their unholy golden bells tolled their last as they cracked open upon the ground below.

The 2nd White Chorus, too, were warriors of profound darkness for all the glowing white of their flesh, though they fared somewhat better than the Hierophants. Surrounded by so much suffering, they had plenty of raw energy for their many destructive spells, as well as for their Telepathic spells of delusion and madness. All too often these were successful, and many Paladins died not upon the blades of their wicked foes, but upon those of their sacred comrades who saw them turn into the foullest demons before their very eyes. These wicked Singers paid dearly for their deceits and dark sorceries, and fully half of them turned into the ashes from which they and their evil god were spawned, before fleeing like the filthy cowards that all Singers were in the eyes of the Paladins.

The combat patterns of the Demons were familiar from the history books, of their ancient and ultimately futile battle against the angels of the Inquisition, but the Demons had grown since that ancient war, becoming a mightier horde than many had dared to dream. Of course, the Humans were as far from the Inquisition as the Demons from their 1st Sanctuary Militia, and the techniques of both sides had gone untested against the other until this day. Demonic blades largely failed to breach a human's defensive guard, and those that did largely failed to breach their armour and shields. The humans, for their part, could only really harm the demons when they swooped down, having no means to leap up and meet them in the air - and those who failed were trapped in the air and killed there before being dropped back onto their friends. Worst of all, though the humans knew the incancations to prevent the false ones from using Golden Magic, they seemed not to be perfectly effective against these demons, whose miracles had reduced effect rather than being completely suppressed by the Sun's power. Was this some secret of their evil priests? Or had the Sun begun to lose faith in his holiest servants?

In the end, it mattered not. Caught between the superior tactics of the 2nd Liberators, the frosts of the Horn of Winter, and the tricks, traps, and blasts of the Black Watch, the Paladins were ultimately overwhelmed and slaugtered. The demons had insisted on sparing any who might surrender, but the warriors of the Sun either truly believed their god was righteous, or simply believed they would face worse than death if they conceded anything to the enemy.

That left only the palace, from which King Axus the Eternal had waved his Wand of Death to prolong the misery of his subjects. Even among the glory-seeking Singers, few doubted that it should be the 3rd Sanctuary Militia, successors to the slayers of Vroch, who should rid the world of this new demigod of evil. They surrounded the palace, blasting it with the Horn that for so long had been Gerki's, provoking the King to leave his throne and advance upon them. He was no taller than any Human, in truth, yet he had an impression of height from his sheer physique and aura of divine power, and his blade cleaved through demons like butter while his golden stave shielded him from their foul sorceries, even from their Horn of Winter. Yet they were quite basic instruments, incapable of such wonders in any lesser hands. Vroch had done more and stranger things with her power, with her legions of spiders, but the 3rd Militia had learned from that duel, and put their numbers and flight to full advantage despite the horrifying losses they took. As each one failed to quite pierce the God-King's armour with a gold-tipped spear, they typically found themselves bisected by his blade or disintegrated by the touch of his staff.

As he fought, he began to recite rhapsodies which repelled the horde, but this was more a sign that their strategy was working, and indeed contributed to it. His song caused demons to fall from the air in confusion, or lose their sight forever, or die on their own swords as their impression of themselves was brought in line with the Sun's own feelings; but ultimately, his song ended. Thousands of thousands of bruises had added up, as had the exhaustion of using the Wand of Death from dawn till noon and fighting from dawn through dusk until the middle of the night; his reflexes were slowed down, allowing a demonic soldier to fly in from behind and stab him through the throat. Even this would not have been fatal with a normal blade, but this golden knife was the Slayer of Kings, forged in the Blasphemous Cathedral for the sole purpose of putting the lie to Axus the Eternal's name.

Axus' divine essence fled his wracked body in an instant, but he remained human, so his head could be severed and set on a pike to confirm the last kill of the day.

"Well, your lordship," Hexas said to the Rainbow Lord, as the dawn broke over a city choked with corpses. "Now we have somewhere to put those humans."

Corpses had littered the streets the previous morning, and many still did three dawns after the battle was over, despite the tireless work of the remaining warriors. They had been laid out outside the city walls, but had been denied a proper burial - not out of malice, but because the Demons were all too aware that they knew not the names of those who had died. A few buildings had been burnt, or broken into, and a few humans had suffered worse fates than they had to, so the Demons and Singers who perpetrated these deeds had been nailed to great wooden stakes in the plaza outside the King's Palace. The people had to see, nice and publicly, what happened to those who violated the moral codes of their cousins.

The bells had tolled, and after three days the human civilians had understood that the battle was over, the city had fallen - and that despite all that, life was to return to normal in many ways. Singers now garrisonned the wall instead of Humans, for the Demons had acknowledged their abysmal public image and refused them any role that was even vaguely non-military. Yet, the civilians had been allowed outside, under the watch of enough Demons to protect them but not to suppress them if it came to a riot. It was for the families of those Paladins who had died to identify them, to mourn them, and to ensure they would be named.

The primary signs of the new occupiers were the obelisks. The greatest, most opulent church of Eknad was disassembled by a set of demonic sorcerers, and its wood used to help repair civilian housing damaged in the battle, while its stone was used to build a set of obelisks where it once stood. On these obelisks were written thousands of names. Two thousand of these were the names of slain Demons who had served in the 3rd Sanctuary or 2nd Liberators, or been one of the Dark Hierophants. The rest were the names of the Paladins who had died that day. At the bottom was simply the date of the Second Battle of Figurae, and the words "Lest we forget the price of war".

The Singers by and large not only failed to see the point of these places, but refused to have their own names listed, such as they were; for only a Singer who was worth remembering in life was worth remembering in death, or else the Garden of Flies would have vanished from history as well as from corporeality after falling down a ravine. This was fortunate, as had they asked, they would have been refused.

While the roll of the dead was still being collected, those humans who would listen were brought to the central plaza, and saw the crucified demons and Singers who had done more harm than their orders allowed. The 1st Company of the Liberators stood on a stage in the plaza, and allowed their Grand Champion to speak, in a voice amplified with sorcery.

"Humans of Figurae! We, the Demons of the North, your kin, have conquered your city and slain your King. We have broken your mightiest cathedral. But rather than raise one of our own we have made memorials where it stood, memorials to your fallen as well as ours. Perhaps you wonder why we do this thing?" began Hexas, flanked by the warriors who had risked their lives for her plan.

"I was like you once. I bowed, I scraped, I worshipped the Eknad Pantheon and thanked them for granting life to my ancestors. I even curbed the excesses of the evil Singers. Yet I was not spared, when they decreed that all but their chosen were to suffer and die. I led my people here, to your lands, not for revenge, but because no other path was left to me. Because I could no longer lay down and hope, and nor could I let the world go completely mad.

"I know none of this will comfort you. You have lost your King. You have lost your families. Words... words cannot express my sorrow for your loss. If the fight could end here, if I could simply make there be peace, make things right, I would whatever the cost. I can only promise that we will do what we can to end this strife.

"We will maintain a defensive garrison here while a new government is raised, a set of Human rulers who listen to the people they serve, not to mad gods. Who are chosen by the people they serve, and only by them. We will return the Wand of Death, once the war is over and the city is ready to govern itself.

"Lest you fear that it is folly to speak with evil, let me show you a sign of good faith. It is known that the evil Singers took many slaves over the generations. Yet, I was able to pressure them into ending this practice. No free Human will ever again be taken from their homes to die far from them. And even those that once were, are now free."

The north gate of Figurae opened, and in came a column of well-fed humans, clad in the styles of Demon civilians. Many families had lost parents, children, cousins, brothers or sisters to the Demons and Singers in the earlier battle; many other families now regained family members thought lost forever, as a set of humans entered Figurae, humans who would never be slaves again.

Less publicly, Hexas entered one of the many Eknad churches that she had spared, flanked by the nine of her eleven squadmates who lived. This time she at least wiped the mud and blood from her boots, and had them do the same. When she approached the altar it was with the defiance and restrained aggression of one trying to negotiate with an enemy, not the respect and grovelling the Pantheon demanded.

"You demanded unending, uncompromising war. I know this, and I give you the benefit of the doubt that you did not know what that war would cost you," she informed the Sun's altar. "End the genocide. Call off your swords and we will leave your lands, your people, in peace. It is unlikely that demons will worship you ever again, but we will take no other vengeance for you abandoning us. If the Singers make war against our command we will destroy them. We will even demolish that disgusting Cathedral they built in Sanctuary. Just end the genocide."

At the altars to Eknad and the lost Mahav, another member of Hexas' squad was making a subtler and much less respectful entreaty. Not to the Sun, but to Eknad. This took the form of words, scrawled in blood on the cloth atop the altars.

Even gods can die.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4300012/)
Power rollover: 1 points
Total 13 points

2 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Political Maneuver to grant Abjuration to Sanctuary
2 points: Command City (Sanctuary) to Raise Army (Dark Hierophants)
2 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (3rd White Chorus)
2 points: Command City (Dreamforge) to Raise Army (2nd Black Watch)
2 points: Command City (Elfmoot) to grant Healing Magic to Lothar the Cursed only
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Lyre of Prophecy)

0 points: Fluff Shuffle - Rename Dark Hierophants to 2nd Sanctuary Militia, rename 2nd Sanctuary Militia to Dark Hierophants
0 points: Command Army (2nd Sanctuary Militia) to defend Sanctuary
0 points: Command Army (Reservists) to defend Farea
0 points: Command Army (2nd Black Watch) to defend Dreamforge
0 points: Command Army (3rd White Chorus) to defend Destroyer's Peak
0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Garrison) to defend Fort Liberty

The following battles have forgotten to impose a -2 on both armies when Demons and Humans clash to reflect each being unable to Golden Magic the other mechanically speaking.

0 points: Command Army (Dark Hierophants) to attack Figurae, provoking the 3rd Paladins!
Dark Hierophants 2d6+11=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303674/) (+8 techs, +1 Cathedral, +1 Drum, +1 Horn) +1 Dream Twister = 16
3rd Paladins 2d6+9=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303675/) (+7 techs, +1 Aegis, +1 Defenders) +1 Wand of Death = 173rd Paladins win! Dark Hierophants destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (2nd White Chorus) to attack Figurae, provoking the 3rd Paladins!
2nd White Chorus 2d6+11=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303677/) (+7 techs, +1 Rings, +1 Hall, +1 Drum, +1 Horn) +1 Dream Twister = 19
3rd Paladins 2d6+9=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303676/) (+7 techs, +1 Aegis, +1 Wand, +1 Defenders, -1 Exhaustion)3rd Paladins win again! 2nd White Chorus destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to attack Figurae, provoking everyone's favourite 3rd Paladins!
2nd Liberators 2d6+11=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303678/) (+8 techs, +1 Cathedral, +1 Drum, +1 Horn) +1 Dream Twister = 21
3rd Paladins 2d6+8=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303679/) (+7 techs, +1 Aegis, +1 Wand, +1 Defenders, -2 Exhaustion)2nd Liberators win! 3rd Paladins finally destroyed. (Unless I'm applying Exhaustion incorrectly, in which case… the 2nd Liberators still win.)

0 points: Command Army (1st Black Watch) to attack Figurae, provoking the 2nd Paladins instead!
1st Black Watch 2d6+11=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303681/) (+7 techs, +1 Rings, +1 Hall, +1 Drum, +1 Horn) +1 Dream Twister = 22
2nd Paladins 2d6+7=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303680/) (+7 techs, +1 Aegis, +1 Wand, +1 Defenders, -3 Exhaustion)
The poor souls, I'd have won that outright on a natural 2 even if they weren't exhausted...1st Black Watch win! 2nd Paladins destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (3rd Sanctuary Militia) to finish the job, provoking King Axus the Eternal!
3rd Sanctuary Militia 2d6+11=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303683/) (+8 techs, +1 Cathedral, +1 Drum, +1 Horn) +1 Dream Twister = 18
King Axus the Eternal 4d6=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4303684/) (+0 Demigod)Double kill! Though he takes the 3rd Sanctuary Militia with him, Axus is slain and Figurae is conquered!

0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Enforcers) to defend Figurae with the Horn of Winter, Dream Twister, Wand of Death, and Aegis. The Earthquake Drum is basically impossible to use on the defensive - frankly the Dream Twister is a stretch, and I'll allow it to not count if others feel it's too much of one.
0 points: Command Army (1st Black Watch) to defend Figurae at -3 for exhaustion.
0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to defend Figurae at -3 for exhaustion

2 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301978/)
Current Power Points: 14

The Saku Rasi plantations were being overrun.

It had started as simply an unusual busy season of Shou Tahs attacks, but it had increased, and now hundreds of the beasts were marauding about in the west of the continent, and the Kyūdōka of the Banana Land could barely manage to hold the tide at bay. The only saving grace of the Saku Rasi, unbeknownst to them, was the fact that the Invading Shou Tahs were only testing the waters, seeing what the land creatures would do in a situation like this. This was a training exercise.

Nonetheless, the Saku Rasi sent to Juqax, requesting that the Basilisk in the Willow be sent to aid in this defense. Nathaniel had heard word of the event, however, and left before the request for aid had ever reached him, arriving in the war torn plantation lands near the coast three weeks before was expected at the earliest.

The Saku Gōn Sho met with Nathaniel in a Edakyū at the edge of the evacuated area and caught the hero up on the situation thus far. There were all sorts of Shou Tahs attacking all across the coast: Blue, Indigo, Black, and even Red, and the scariest part was that they were working in unison. They were not doing anything in particular, of course, just fighting anything that proved to have a desire to fight back. Now, it was difficult for even a hundred Kyūdōka to take out even three of the disorganized Shou Tahs raiders who came every year, but these were organized, and numbered at nearly a three hundred, or so they estimated. These numbers daunted even Nathaniel, who was known to fight off entire clutches of Hydras in the past.

It was decided that these Shou Tahs were attempting some form of intimidation, likely in prelude to making a demand of some sort. So, they would have to be sent a counter message: that they could not bully the Saku Rasi of the Banana Land. However, the Kyūdōka did not have enough power to provide quiet that much of an offensive, so it was left to Nathaniel to devise a way to strike them down.

Nathaniel watched from afar for many days, until he decided that one group of fifteen appeared weaker than the others, and when it broke away from the others, he fell upon it. Their roars and crushing blows deafened the Angel and shattered bones easily enough, but the pain that followed was enough to fuel his Healing Magic, while he used the Dance of the Rising Spring as well as the art of Plant Charming to subdue the Shou Tahs. He did not kill them, however, for he recognized that such an act might enrage the others beyond hope of reconciliation.

When the fight was over, however, the commotion had been enough to summon the other Shou Tahs, and Nathaniel could hear them, crashing through the jungle. He knew that he couldn't outrun them, what with that incredible maneuverability he had seen as he had watched them, so instead stood above the unconscious army and, when the first group of fifteen appeared before him, spoke, "Halt! Do not fear, your allies are still alive!"

The Shou Tahs who had appeared were Blue in pigmentation, like the ones Nathaniel had just defeated, and cried out when they found the scene, completely ignoring Nathaniel's words, "The Blue Kings are dead!"

"A land creature must pay!"

"GET HIM!"

What ensued was essentially a repeat of the first battle, but with Blue Princes instead of Blue Kings, and when he was finished, thirty unconscious Blue Shou Tahs lay around the Hero, and an audience had gathered around the fight. This crowd, however, did not appear too intent on attacking Nathaniel. One of these watchers, a Red Shou Tahs wearing three rocks, one on his head and the other two on his fists, pointed at Nathaniel and spoke to a Black Shou Tahs beside him, "Now that's what I mean by training."

It seemed that the Shou Tahs had come on to land to learn of the ways of the land warriors, as Nathaniel explained to the Saku Gōn Sho. The Saku Rasi did not want to hear this, however, as several of his kind were dead. He wanted the entire army sent away. After many nights of discussion, however, the Basilisk in the Willow was able to convince the Saku Gōn Sho to allow the Shou Tahs to remain in a secluded corner of the Saku Rasi settled land, with the requirement that no Shou Tahs appear anywhere else on the coastline until a treaty were to be signed.

This secluded corner was barren rock, a wide expanse of it, large enough to field all hundred and thirty five members of the Shou Tahs armies (The Kyūdōka had overestimated their numbers). Nathaniel had wanted them to be allowed here, so that he might give them their own branch of the Immortal College. After all, this way, they got the training they desired and the rest of the countryside was kept Shou Tahs free. Nathaniel saw no other way which did not end with much destruction.

The Blue armies were resentful of the Hero before them at first, and were always trying to contradict his teachings, but as they were bested by him time and time again, they grew to at least admit that he was good. The three Red armies were the most accepting of the teachings, so much so that the newly refilled Army of Red Kings took on a new title entirely, and the as-yet unnamed army was titled the Army of Red Kings. The former Red Kings took on the name they knew Nathaniel by: "Immortal". So now the Red Tribe was ruled foremost by the Red Kings, while the whole of the Shou Tahs number were ruled by the Immortals, with Delifin Delopsa at their head.

Soon the entire race was engrossed in the teachings of Nathaniel, with even civilians coming up to join in the lessons, and as he learned of why they were training, he decided to teach them some finer details of what he knew, until they could bandage and heal as any Demon ever could, so that they might be victorious over the Singers.

The fields of rocky stone had changed over the years, pockmarked with craters, and, more importantly, decorated, ringed around it's five kilometer circumference with a series of one hundred pillars, each so wide around and heavy that even thirty Shou Tahs working in unison had struggled to erect them.

In later years, this monument, this Third Branch of the Immortal College, would be raised up as the ruling seat of the Immortals.

Nathaniel had encountered the Kraith before. On occasion they had become actively dangerous, instead of the constant, almost natural danger that their race had put forward, and they had needed some hero to dispatch them. In Juqax, this often fell on Nathaniel's shoulders, so he knew how to kill them, to ignore the fears they pumped forth, to fight in the darkness, to avoid them attaining even a spoonful of blood, to dodge flames, and to even fight the undead.

What he wasn't prepared for, however, was talking to them.

It seemed that word of the Basilisk teaching a school of monsters had spread, and a few Kraith, curious, decided to come and investigate.

The arts that Nathaniel taught were often highly valued by these wretched creations, but the principals he taught, of fairness, justice, and truth, most Kraith scoffed at these ideas, and were summarily expelled from the College. A few, however, understood, and a thin hope for the Kraith people was spotted within this field of cratered stone.

However, it was almost immediately snuffed, for ever more Kraith had learned to simply lie, and pretend like they understood the principals being taught, while, in secret, they laughed at the Angel for all his foolish talk, intimidating into silence those who actually believed what was being said.

Of course, they could not receive all their teachings for free, and soon the Third Branch was encased in shadows, as they spread about the art of Noctimancy, and Nathaniel learned all that he could.

The Black King stood with a group of three Kraith Magicians in the night. Before him he held one of the Immortal's Red Crowns. "Are you certain you can recreate it?"

"Perhaps," the man's voice came from the Phobimancy spell, "It's fairly crude, clearly made more by accident than anything, but with quite a bit of raw power. You're lucky, only five in the world have the skill to see how such a creation is made, only four of them would have the knowledge and power to actually duplicate it. Three of them are here. Give us the raw materials, some silver, and the correct… compensation, and we'll forge you a crown of five or even ten times this crown's power."

That is exactly what they did, those three Kraith Magicians, using the ancient War Song which they had learned many years back on the cost near Adonia. It was a long and arduous process, taking many years and many reweavings of the underlying spell. These three had known that the Crown had been made by accident, but had they learned that the song leading up to it had taken perhaps fifteen minutes, they would not have believed it. They used a mixture of blood manipulated by Sangromancy and shadowstuff manipulated by Noctimancy, they created leylines of energy wrapping around and inside the silver, all cumulating in a tiny, pitch-black stone at the front of the silver.

When it was finished, they brought it back to the Black King, offering it over with a flourish. As they removed the shadow curtain they had placed upon it. The Black King examined it a moment, and nodded, "You have done well. This metal is sturdy, and I can feel the magic in it… I wonder what it does…"

"You have done well yourself, the blood of the Shou Tahs is a rare delicacy to our kind, and you provided it to us every day for the last several years. However, I recommend you do not use the crowns power unless absolutely necessary. It's force is dire indeed."

"That reminds me, only you three know how this item actually works, is that correct?"

"This is true."

"Well, I don't want a rival item, and you are pretty loathsome anyways, so there are six Shou Tahs I'd like to introduce you to. You see, they're a little low on blood."

"What?" But no answer was ever given, as six Shou Tahs took their cue and erupted from the water all around, dismembering the Kraith where they stood. This was far from the coast, on a rocky islet, naturally, so there were none to watch and object.

The Black King, meanwhile, did not heed their warning, and turned out to sea, placing the crown on his brow, and seeing what he could achieve with it.

That day was recorded by scholars, as an unscheduled eclipse which, oddly, spread across the entire globe, accompanied by thousands of strange silhouette demons, laced with silver, across the entire world. This power was strange, and beyond the Black King's knowledge. This did nothing to curb his revelry in it, however.

Decades had passed, but at long last, Nathaniel felt that his Shou Tahs and Kraih students were ready to take care of the College in his absence, and so, there was only one task left to complete, and he sent for the Road Builders as well as the Banana Land Kyūdōka.

The debate was long and involved. In the end, it was decided that, while no alliance would be made, a pact of respect would be formed. The Shou Tahs would be allowed in this cratered, rocky field as their place of rulership, but in exchange, no Shou Tahs would dare attack any other part of the coast of the Banana Land, less they be punished with death, and the Immortals would have to make recompense for any damages, as well as permanent harm to trust.

The Immortals knew this arrangement would not last forever, for their people were too impulsive to hold themselves back forever, but the Saku Rasi saw it as a grand day indeed, an actual end of some of the danger of the Shou Tahs (The Kraith had no leadership in this field, so they were not discussed). As such, they showered Nathaniel with gifts, crediting him with making this pact possible.

Another year and the Hero set sail once again, unsure where he would go next.

Nathaniel stood at the prow of his personal ship, measuring the night sky above him with the instruments of navigation the Saku Rasi had given him and polishing the custom made steel & wood Kyūdōka armor as he went. All that he had was a work of art. The ship was hand painted, and could be piloted by a crew of as little as one. The armor was comfortable, perfectly shaped to his muscular form and with underclothes of the wondrous cloth uzeli. Carvings of Willow branches went across it's entirety, except the mask and helmet, which was shaped to look like a Basilisk peering out of the branches of the tree.

He was actually wearing the armor as he polished it, because he didn't like the look of the storm brewing out ahead of him. Clouds like soot and lightning like veins of blood. Nathaniel was naturally suspicious, and spoke into the wind, "Mahkleb… is that you? Come back for more?"

For the time being, the clouds that obstructed Nathaniel's vision gave no answer, merely spreading and rolling slowly across the horizon. Of course, he was right to be somewhat suspicious, for they were like smoke from a fire, rather than having the quality of a natural storm cloud, and indeed no lightning that ever struck was quite that shade of red. Of course, the genuinely suspicious storm clouds hid a much more insidious danger, in the form of much more natural fog - fog which would prevent it from being clear in exactly which direction land was only two kilometres away, not even the width of a tendril of the Dreamforge.

The unholy clouds grew, and spread, until they extended above Nathaniel's every likely direction of travel - at which point two obvious signs occured. The first, the bolt of red lightning that struck the ship directly, smashing the artwork and setting the boat on fire; the second, a portal, through which a familiar soot-black Singer was launched, as if it had fallen off a cliff and suddenly found itself falling up, against the direction of gravity. Of course, it happened to be in the exact trajectory that would send it hurtling into Nathaniel three seconds from the portal opening, barring any particular intervention or change of course.

Three second was plenty of time to Nathaniel, now. He didn't even move from where he stood, but just extended his will into the dead wood of the ship, in one instant coaxing it back to life, then convincing the flaming chunks of the ship to exit the vessel, and then convincing the now floating charcoal to erupt back into life, surging up into entire trees in only a second, encasing the falling Singer only a few meters from Nathaniel.

Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy. The Singer launched a simple spell into the wood, and it all disintegrated into a thick cloud of ash. Nathaniel expected the deity to simply continue his rush, but after a moment, he realized that there was only the ash left behind. In that moment after the spontaneous tree had grown, Mahkleb had portalled behind him. Even as the Angel spun in place, sword extended to slash at his enemy, it had already grappled him. However, this did not worry the warrior, as he sent out another whim of plant charming, and suddenly the wood underneath their feet churned and roiled, until a sudden thorny branch drove up, skewering the effigy.

Nathaniel stepped back from the dissipating form of a Singer, murmuring, "Really, Mahkleb, try something new. I won against that one last time."

"Only by the feeblest of margins," said the booming voice once again, as the black material that was once a black Singer scattered in all directions, until it could no longer be seen in the storm. However, it was not entirely forgotten - a chorus of chirping birds came to be heard from all around, while the dark clouds failed to strike once more, allowing the angel a little anticipation before the new form became visible. Over a hundred black birds, of a type native to the Pure Land and bred in captivity in Destroyer's Peak, their beaks and wingtips crackling with lightning. As they approached, their chirping seemed more like a hateful malediction than the simple natural sounds of a flock of avian beings.

The birds at first did not strike at Nathaniel's boat, not until they had blotted out what few lights remained above; only then did they all take slightly different trajectories to swoop down on the angel from every direction, their beaks wide open to spit small bolts of electricity, their beady eyes filled with the same pure unbridled madness as a real Thunder-Bird filled with real Berserkworms. They were weak, but they were many, and they were small.

To potentially worsen matters, with all the distractions, it would be no trivial matter to see the bit of fog that shimmered slightly, directly in the path of Nathaniel's boat. It led to another patch of dark fog, indistinguishable from the first until you got through it and noticed you were, of all places, in a pond. Specifically, a pond created by rainfall atop the strange rocky outcrops Nios had created to simulate, on the skyline, the place that was once Ashatorat. Obviously, the thunderbirds knew to follow the ship through the portal if it came to that.

"It matters not if the victory was by a hair, or by the widest margin. I was victorious," Nathaniel countered as the birds plummet at him from all directions. He waited a second, two, three, until the birds were almost upon him, mere inches from his still form, red lightning crackling and lighting the scene with a dire light.

In that last instant, however, the Angel moved with speed that even a god might envy, and invoked a spell of fell magic, a pillar of impenetrable shadows erupting up and engulfing his ship, himself, and the entire flock of birds. In the same motion, he launched himself off the wood of the boat, using the maneuverability the Shou Tahs had long ago conquered to rise high, hundreds of meters into the shadow pillar, cleaving through the bodies of ten thousand birds in a single slash.

There was no sight in the pillar, but Nathaniel had fought the Kraith for years, and was accustomed to the condition. Between the unadapted blindness of the birds, his Combat Maneuverability, the Aerial Combat he had learned from the Demons, and the adapted Dance of the Rising Spring which he was so fond of, he moved with a fluid grace and agility unlike anything in Tyonix, and there was no chance of a Thunder Bird landing a blow. Perhaps three bolts of lightning fired from the maws of the Birds found purchase, but the instant of immeasurable pain only fueled the Healing Magic which he wove in with his attacks, and thus, the pain of the wound led to it being healed almost instantly. Indeed, after he had sliced through the last body within the darkness, and the last flutter of wings had ended, Nathaniel still felt fresh and ready for a fight, "Come now, Mahkleb! You are a god, surely you can send me a worthy foe!"

As he dispelled the pillar of shadow and looked about, however, he saw his boat was still sitting far below, but now it was within a pond atop a rocky tower.

Stupid portals.

For any lesser combatant, even though they held the mightiest sword in the world, and for any lesser blade though it were held by a yet mightier warrior, it would have been impossible for so many of the Destroyer's bodies to fall in a single strike. Indeed, if any scholars were present to report that great duel, surely they would claim that it was blades of Noctimancy rather than a single whirling sword blade which destroyed the flock. The Thunder-Birds were beings of the air, but ultimately they were animals, unable to improve on instinct, hence why the one emulating them had felt it necessary to send so very many - it was no surprise that someone who had had time to learn the techniques of so many species could dodge and weave through the air better than a simple bird, despite being significantly larger.

Nonetheless, the Destroyer waited for the spell of darkness to end before continuing, though it would have hindered its full might not at all.

"You're a fool if you really believe that. You were exhausted after that, barely able to breathe. A peasant with a crossbow could have finished you off with trivial ease. Whereas now... now you approach fitness for the task your god demands. One so eager to challenge the divine should have their wish granted!"

There was a strange red streak, going this way, then that, just on the edge of Nathaniel's vision. This did not escape the angel's notice, but the more obvious threat was the pile of ash and soot flying into the air, taking the form of a giant starfish, then suddenly ceasing to be ash and instead becoming a strange, smooth kind of flesh. This misplaced aquatic creature suddenly glowed a brilliant, distressing cyan, and Nathaniel felt a profound cold which even numbed the pain in his hand - which once would have been a blessing, but now dampened his ability to use the Singers' techniques.

A random Suri hiker, who had been exploring the Ashatorat ruin-growths and found the pond, fell to his and her knees and began praying to Urat Sur in fear and panic; for he and she remembered the ancient legends, and recognised one of their two fell antagonists. The Wretched Star had risen over Ashatorat again. Had the Suri not suffered enough?

"Ah, but no peasant did any such thing. The fact of the matter is that - oh," the Wretched Star had just reformed above Ashatorat, "The Wretched Star. I've never fought a demigod…"

The wave of cyan struck, deadening the power of his pain even as Nathaniel shot up, rolling as he rocketed past the memory of the demigod, so that the ended up behind it but still facing it. There he sent a volley of Noctimancy blades out at the demigod. However, it just rippled as the weapons bounced off of it, and struck out with a spray of red light, covering the Immortal Hero with burns, though he did not feel them due to the cold. Nathaniel, seeing that the tactic had failed, summoned up a bit of power from a golden talisman around his neck, healing his wounds, and climbed as fast as he could managed, but Mahkleb was continuing to send light after him, and he felt his body weakening despite the fact that he felt no pain.

Once he felt he was high enough, he turned, beating his wings and powering into a steep dive, using all means he knew to increase his speed, charging into and through sprays of light which set his wooden armor to flame and made deformities appear across the exposed parts of his body. He even forwent his healing magic, pushing all his power into gaining more speed, more force behind his strike. He drew the blade back as he neared the target, and slashing forward as a colossal explosion erupted from where he broke the sound barrier.

The Hero knelt on the ground far away, the stone dented from his impact with it, his cut having gone through not only a demigod, but a tower of stone as well. Reasserting his power towards his healing, he stood, shakily, and turned, looking up even as the stone tower shifted and slid sideways.

The Wretched Star was still in a single coherent form.

The Angel frowned, and dived behind a ridge of stone tall enough to block the light, at least for a moment. This would be difficult indeed.

The voice of the god decided to set aside the philosophy argument now, as befitted its conviction that the Angel was an utter fool in this particular regard. A peasant with a crossbow did not kill Nathaniel because Makhleb had not willed its essence into such a shape at the moment of his greatest weakness.

The Wretched Star, meanwhile, had needed to cease radiating once it was bisected, but the original had had enough energy to reattach its two halves after such a blow, therefore so did the duplicate. For brief moments, Nathaniel's bisecting blow had done its work, but it took seconds for the Star to regenerate - almost half as long as it would have taken to die, had it allowed the wound to remain. This would have appreciably drained the original, so Makhleb didn't simply pretend like it had infinite reserves.

As it happened, the ruins of Ashatorat, being as they were uninhabited and only somewhat habitable for so many years, had a huge array of relatively mundane wildlfe, all the creatures of the First Land and all of lost Myra's array of birds. Nothing really likely to help, after how quickly the thunder-birds had died, but the thunder-birds had not had the backing of a demigod, and the original Wretched Star's frenzy-light had been less costly than its more direct effects. Thus, a nauseating red light glowed from the Star in every direction, followed by a flock of angry birds rising from a thousand nests to swoop into battle and almost certainly die - with likely profound side effects on the ecosystem that concerned Makhleb not at all. Even the random Suri who had watched from below started trying to break down a nearby wall, the only thing close enough to vent its frustration at.

With those distractions ready, the Star performed another technique less costly than damaging radiance, swooping towards Nathaniel with no apparent means of flight, to force his sword hand back and slap clumsily at him with the same raw strength that had ripped open the Seliss in times gone by. Had Nathaniel not been able to fly, perhaps an imitation of the Shou Tahs' method of juggling would have followed, as the Star slapped an appendage into his ribs with force sufficient to shatter them - albeit with the full expectation that they'd instead land on a shielding charm or the like, and "merely" knock him across the sky. Sadly, the form of a glorified starfish simply lacks the fine motor control for most forms of martial combat - though this had been relatively little hindrance against the Seliss.

Nathaniel indeed was knocked back, but used the momentum to swoop around in an arc, murmuring the dark words of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy as feeling began to return - of course - to his hand. Between the sunlight and the Star's baleful light, he would need more power for a more direct assault. Well, power or enough time to close back in - maybe the floating blob wouldn't be so dangerous on the back foot. Rather than let it concentrate completely, he fingered a particular golden ring forged in Wetami, and a thin shaft of some light of his own fell from the sky. It would have scorched an imp, singed a Singer, and indeed the Wretched Star's hide rippled as it regenerated the not-flesh burnt away by the divine smiting.

Meanwhile, the red streak had ceased moving, instead becoming a red figure. Specifically, a Suri with red and orange fur, that flickered like fire when blown in the wind. For now, the Red Lord's memory took no part in the duel, merely reminding the combatants that it would not end with the fall of the Star.

However, even as Nathaniel charged towards the Wretched Demigod and used his simple ring of the Holy Words, he was enacting a second spell. You see, as Nathaniel had huddled behind the ridge, he had felt the cold dissipate, and been able to use the sudden agony of the myriad mutations and burns across his body to fuel an instant rejuvenation, but he only had effected a partial rejuvenation, enough to get him battle ready, for the Sword of Life would fuel him the rest of the way, later. The majority of power he used with his Plant Charming to summon up a few seeds, and fuse them with a series of spells, before willing them to fly in all directions at once, just in time for him to whirl and cut through an rabid tiger, mid-pounce.

Now he whispered a prayer, and the trio of spells triggered on the seeds. They immediately erupted into full size and beyond, massive branches rocketing out in all directions. They grew dagger like thorns of shadowstuff, and then turned into shadowstuff themselves, at this point so tall that they blocked out the sun above, plunging the fight into a dome of shadow. Third, gold leaves shimmered upon their branches, and the Wretched Star felt a sense of foreboding in the face of these strange lights.

However, the demigod remained focused, and caught the blow from the Sword of Life easily enough. Nathaniel was quick, however, and had already aimed a second slash at the starfish, which was likewise blocked, and then another, and a fourth, and a fifth. It was no surprise, as even the mighty Sword of Life was no match for a demigod's strength. The Wretched Star had to respect the destructive power of the weapon, of course. and Nathaniel's skill was such that the demigod-memory was losing ground, being forced back, into a corner of the shadowy dome, into a web of branches whose shapes were indiscernible from the plant behind and around them. However, once it was within the heart of the cage, the branches snapped shut, and a shell of golden leaves closed around the Demigod.

The Red Lord had seen this, however, and twisted forth. In the instant that it took for it to close the distance, much happened. The Wretched Star screamed in fury and sent every bit of power it could into his divine-resistant cage, shattering several branches and even unleashing a wave of burning ice-light into Nathaniel's face, as he had paused for a split second, exhausted by the strain of this mighty spell, and again by the effort of driving a demigod back. The pain lanced across his face, and he screamed in fury, waving his blade and unleashing an arc of Noctimancy blades which would have finished the trapped starfish, had the Red Lord's twist not ended in that second, the blades of Noctimancy being deflected by her will, and the shadowstuff cage burnt to a cinder. Releasing the Wretched Star alongside the memory of his mother-sister.

Nathaniel hung in the air, his armor glowing red hot, half his face covered in blood which had been flash-frozen, and his sword arm hanging limp. He blinked at the two gods before him, and a look of rage crossed his face. He straightened his back and raised his blade to point between the demigods, before screaming, "Well, bring it on, then!"

The original Red Lord had never had the power of unsupported flight, so had only hung on so long by balancing upon one of the branches of Nathaniel's shadow trees. What followed would have put envy and fear into a Kraith Pyromancer, as flames appeared all around, providing the light that wrap-around shadow-stuff had denied. From there, she jumped from her perch, and whirled slightly; in a conventional combat her spinning kick would have been of limited use, would have been too heavily telegraphed, but she was no conventional warrior. In the instant that it would have struck a straw dummy, she Twisted to end up behind Nathaniel, granting no time for him to dodge the strike that knocked him towards her wretched brother-son. It was possible that he noticed his remaining garments catching fire as the kick struck, but unlikely given the barrage that followed. Mere mortal senses simply were not meant to operate at the speed of the Red Lord, who for the following second executed a combination of Twist-punches, Twist-kicks, and Twist-strikes with knee or elbow or in at least one case forehead and teeth, each landing in the smallest time increment a human could even vaguely detect. She hadn't acted this fast since her dying battle, and her precision was something the original could only have done while relatively calm, which it hadn't been after the work of the Spirit Walkers. Nathaniel's senses were, of course, far beyond those of an unenhanced human, but even he was unable to consciously follow the attack pattern, and all the strikes and techniques he had learned of the Dance of Rising Spring were forgotten to him for that second of concussion and pain.

The intense focus and awareness of the Dance of the Rising Spring, on the other hand, remained undiminished. He saw the pattern, and though he moved too slowly to interrupt the next move, he had already anticipated the move to come ten strikes later.

The smallest imaginable fraction of a second later, the Red Lord realised her miscalculation as her one-hundred-and-first Twist placed her directly on top of the Sword of Life. Nathaniel made a twisting gesture of his own, which placed her in the path of the Wretched Star's continued sickly pale light - a light which stopped soon afterwards, for obvious reasons, but not fast enough to avoid the red Suri's screaming as her flesh began to necrotise. Within another half a second, Nathaniel had driven a blade of shadow-stuff into the roof of her open mouth, to where the brain of a true Suri would normally be; a series of black spikes grew from it, in every direction, reducing the head to so much chunky salsa. The body slumped, dead, after that.

The Wretched Star didn't last long, either. It panicked as it realised Nathaniel's plan, and its rotting light glowed with a brightness that would have been painful to the eye even without its magical effects. The Red Corpse was reduced to particulate ash within a second, and Nathaniel felt a strange numbness - made of raw divine power forced into corporeality, angel-flesh did not naturally necrotise, but the light was powerful enough to stop it from doing the deeds that living flesh did. Deeds such as reporting bodily damage in the form of pain, importantly. Yet this did not save the Star, for as the Immortal Hero's divine blade struck home he willed its true power to manifest, and ten cleaving blows radiated from where he had thrust. By the time the Wretched Star fully realised what had happened, its body was too far gone to regenerate, and the flesh fell to the ground in pieces, discorporating into ash like the other effigies as it did so.

Nathaniel was allowed another two seconds to take stock of his injuries and begin work on them. With what should have been his last puny reserves, he healed the skin damage from the Wretched Star's final attack, and screamed the next words in a flash of agony - followed by more rapidly regenerating some of the various bruises and broken bones from the Red Lord's pummelling.

For the Immortal Hero of Eull to defeat every mortal warrior who duelled him was inspiring; for him to defeat one demigod, or even two in succession, was glorious; but for him to defeat two demigods at once was just ludicrous. In the eyes of the Destroyer he had passed the test, but it started to wonder if this being, this fiend that the Wanderer had created, could even be felled.

One second later, it decided that whether or not Nathaniel could ever be defeated, it would be easiest to do so now, before he had had time to recover. One second after that, an ashen fist slammed into the back of Nathaniel's neck, as Makhleb appeared without warning.

Mahkleb had more speed than the Red Lord, more strength than the Wretched Star, and was coming at the Immortal Hero from behind, so there was no chance for him to deflect or to dodge. He felt the bones in his spine crack and dislocate. Luckily, however, Nathaniel still had some residual healing magic pulsing through him, enough to keep him aware long enough to refill his healing reserves, and then to spin, Sword of Life outstretched, aimed straight for his attacker.

The small, childish form of Mahkleb caught the blow with a single finger, and stared at Nathaniel, surprised. Nathaniel took this moment to continue the discussion from before, "As I was saying, if something was capable of killing me while I'm tired, it's capable of killing me when I'm at full strength. As long as I remain alive, I am victorious. Every dawn I see is another day I have conquered, or else I was never in any danger to begin with."

Mahkleb's voice was soft this time, "Do you think you're not in any danger now?"

A long moment stretched between the two as they stood there, deity and hero, before Nathaniel spoke again, "Even gods can die," and with that, the gold of the Sword of Life flared with magic, and Nathaniel cut off the finger of a god.

The flash of divine will and pure destruction that followed was far more than Mahkleb would have ever used on a single mortal, but even after it, Nathaniel still seemed determined to stand back up. So, the god had to dig for a way to hold this immortal back.

It had been long years since Makhleb had filled the seas, and in truth it was no god of the waters, yet a god it truly was, and the ancestor of those who created Portal Magic. It was possible that Nathaniel was quite confused, when the reaction to all his taunting was an almost crushing torrent of water, the result of opening several portals, each leading from the floor of an abyssal plain to somewhere around him, until a set of precisely calculated jets of water pinned him in place. That would not last for long enough, but it would cover him in water, water which could then be flash-frozen by a jet like those from the Horn of Winter. Nathaniel soon found himself encased in ice, from lips to toe, a specific encasing that only a god's precision could have managed. With a mouth full of ice, he could not speak; with arms encased in ice, he could not gesture; with wings similarly trapped, he could not fly away. Of course, a mere mortal would likely have soon died, but Makhleb was confident that the Immortal Hero could last the half an hour or so it ought to take for the ice to free his casting appendages by just enough to pull yet another magic trick.

"Lesser gods can die, yes. But not me. Not while a single voice cries out for revenge. Not while one sword is drawn, not while one soul wishes another to suffer." To prove the point, it focused, and a new, red finger grew where its severed one had been. Of course, the event was not completely insignificant; as the many deaths of the duel had scarred Makhleb's corporeal form, so it would now forever have one odd finger out. "But, yes, you have more than earned your lesson in history. You deserve to know who truly gave you immortality. Frankly, I cannot believe you thought the Sun capable of it."

There was a strangled sound from the gagged Nathaniel, as he tried to dissent.

"You were a Rebel Angel, cast from Eupnea for daring to come between the Sun's true servants and those they wished to murder. You prevented the humans from ever gaining the Sun's most precious weapon of evil. For these crimes that maniac would sooner kill you than grant you eternal life.

"The Red Screamers were profoundly cruel. They might have contemplated putting such a curse on that blade as now ails you. Yet, they were also profoundly direct. If they intended to protect the Sword, and they even knew the spells that would allow them to curse objects, they would not have cursed it to hurt you; they would have cursed it to kill you.

"It is another deity who did both of these things. A deity whose servants, both virtuous and wicked, have clashed with me a number of times. Come, Champion of Eull the Wanderer. Let us witness the truth," and with that, Mahkleb reached out a hand to place it upon Nathaniel's frozen brow.

Many divine beings had a limited ability to see into the future; all had a limitless ability to see into the past, and Makhleb granted this ability to Nathaniel for the duration of its trip into various pieces of the past. Nathaniel was at first confused, as the first stop was not an event that concerned him, but the epic war between Gerki and Destroyer's Peak some decades back. What was it to him if the two greatest forces of destruction on the planet clashed with one another instead of with the innocent?

This was followed by a vision of Mastema, praying before the final battle against Vroch - praying to an altar which he first set on fire, and whipping himself with a many-tongued whip which ended in metal blades, all while murmuring a strange chant in a language he clearly did not personally understand. Yet one word of that chant repeated and repeated, and was known to Nathaniel - Makhleb. The hero who had destroyed Vroch's evil had apparently worshipped a yet greater evil, in spite of the demons' lack of evil deeds.

The next vision was familiar, though not from an outsider's angle; Nathaniel saw himself, holding the Sword of Life aloft for the first time, seeing the flash of golden light. Yet now, he saw a trail of causality normally visible only to gods, and Makhleb carried him along that trail. As the Destroyer had said, that trail had started not in Paradi, not with the Sun, but with a man ancient beyond reckoning, watched over by an angel with grey wings. As if this was not confirmation enough, Nathaniel was made to witness the queries that followed, as the Nameless Angel questioned why Eull had performed this deception, and later criticised his own father for the inherent cruelty of Nathaniel's fate.

Then Nathaniel's consciousness was taken to yet further past ages, occasionally punctuated by ages that followed. To the Black Angel who had suffered so much, only to have the purpose of birthing the Nameless Angel with Eull's help. To seven jewels scattered across the world, jewels which now had Singer attendants whose evil was burnt out by their radiance. To a strange serpentine granter of wishes, who had interacted with the Idrians long ago, and later destroyed the original White Conclave on the request of an orphaned Idrian child. To the Titan Bird which Eull altered, and how its next clutch of eggs hatched into a flock of twelve birds, who shared one consciousness and felt a need to improve their world - and to the day on which that need had driven them to do battle with the original Wretched Star, in the volcano of the First Land. Each of these had a trail of causality which began at Eull, even if Makhleb had not gone to the trouble of showing Nathaniel the births of all these beings.

Makhleb then showed Nathaniel the first scuffle between demigods, a conflict between Vroch and the Seliss, in which the former had eaten one of the latter. After that, it showed Nathaniel how the Seliss had questioned Eull about the purpose of Vroch's existence.

After that, it showed Nathaniel how Vroch had similarly asked her father, Eull, why he had created the Seliss - followed by the birth of Vroch, oldest of Eull's children, born of an Arachno in order to be their lord, a being of evil from the moment of its creation. A being of evil spawned by the same god as the virtue of the Seliss.

There were other visions as well, of the great tree that spawned the Saku Rasi and the set of dancing stars that birthed the Shou Tahs, of the Seliss' rebirth and creation of the Trell, of the drop of Vroch's blood that created the only race to rival the Singers in pure wickedness if not in damage actually caused. Yet these were less important than those before - that it was Eull who empowered Nathaniel, that it was Eull who spawned the evil Nathaniel had tried so hard to slay, and that it was a worshipper of Makhleb who put that evil to its end.

Nathaniel stirred some time later. It had seemed he had passed out during the history lesson. The ice had melted a fair deal, enough for him to even twist his torso, but the cold was such that he couldn't feel anything. Looking up, the towering shadow trees had mostly collapsed during the inferno that had passed, and the sun shined through the dome, near the horizon.

With a twist of the wrist, he summoned a spray of Shadow blades and cleaved the remainder of the ice block into several chunks small enough for him to stumble out. Looking up, however, he noticed a Suri standing before him, mouth hanging open in surprise. After a quizzical look from the Angel, the hiker found his voice, "You still live? You've been in there for hours! You fought of a copy of the Wretched Star, then the Red Lord, then the Wretched Star again, then that black demon child put his hand on your head and you passed out, and then you were sitting in there most of the day after he left. What was all that? What are you?"

Nathaniel looked him in the eye, then at the rest of him, noticing his hands were bruised and broken where he had wailed on a stone wall. The Angel stepped forward and, still numb, clumsily took those hands in his and used a small amount of power to heal the wounds, before he replied, "I'm not sure, in all honesty."

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "3rd Wing of the Immortal College" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "Dark Crown" Wonder.

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Rou to Raise an Army of Immortals.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Gerki to Raise a new King's Army.

5 points to Event: 5 points to Event: The currently existing Shou Tahs armies (except the Army of White Kings) learn the art of Rudimentary Medicine. Also, the Immortal College receives it's third wing and Nathaniel learns the art of Noctimancy and Combat Maneuverability.

Current Power Points: 1
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301981/)

[Neelien]

Previously had 25 points and a +3 for this turn (forgot to add that in my previous post).
Rolled 8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4305782/) bringing me up to 33

When the battle happened, the Stringwork was spectating. It had known of plans for the upcoming war through its human Proxy and had been interested in seeing how magics operated in combat. From the power of the Paladins it understood the power of the Golden magic it was presented with, allowing for more research options, and from the victory of the Demons and Singers it understood the importance of tactics. These lessons would go amiss. Unfortunately, many Outgoers that were posing as Humans had to fight the siege and were completely destroyed. The amount of destruction that occured meant that quite a bit of information abou the battle was lost. The Stringwork would need to work on the collected data for a while in order to restore the full picture and draw lessons from it. Combined with the renewed interest for analysing Golden magic, this process would take time.

Having seen the battle of Figurae from high in the skies, the Sadowbirds realized they would be of no help here. They would need more skills if they were to participate efficiently in this war so they raised another army, the United Squadron of Speed Raiders. With time, the two armies grew smaller but also became more skilled as a friendly rivalry increased their desire to train, compensating for lower numbers. Both armies were now composed of roughly 450 Shadowbirds.

The population of Andromeda also grew in during this time, adding 20 more Carriers to the floating city, its population now nearing 1600 individuals.


2 points : Command City(Andromeda) - Raise Army : United Squadron of Speed Raiders.
1 point : Command Demigod(Evolving Parasite) - Command Order (Agglomerations) - spread Golden Magic to Core1

30 points remaining
+3 next round

[5a Violista]

(5)Werewolves - Event - become a good presence in a specific city
(1)Command Avatar() - Command City(The Bloom) - Raise Army of Werewolves, called "The Hunt"

Many of the Leu Garouls now hunted the Kraith around The Bloom in packs. For days at a time, they would go out through the forests to hunt the dread Kraith. However, many times, the Kraith would still occasionally take them by surprise and defeat some of their packs.

So, the werewolves felt they had to make a larger group and have a base of operations. After several elf werewolves wandered The Bloom for several months, they eventually decided that The Bloom - specifically, at The Immortal College - would be a perfect place. There, they would be able to create more werewolves and go out for days at a time to hunt Kraith.

Since the werewolf blessing passed on from one to another to those who killed or seriously injured a werewolf, they began having secret try-outs for their army.

Their presence (and their army) in The Bloom was mostly undiscovered, since they took great care to only transform after leaving the city.



(1)Command Avatar(The Maiden) - Command Race(Nereids) - Create City "Shipwreck City" on the coast (half underwater half above) south of Hahebuto.

Many of the Nereids disapproved of their sisters' thirst for blood. It was, to them, barbaric. Especially since they would go to the cities and intentionally deceive the people to get what they wanted.

These felt they needed to be able to use their shapeshifting in a community, separate from the other cities, so those in their community would give off a good example and help each other in a better way.

So, over time, they started to build a city on the shore, south of Hahebuto. Most of it was underwater, but soon many of them started to build above the water and onto the sand. They copied the architecture of some of the harbors and boats they saw across the world - and, in fact, many of their actual structures were made from wrecked ships in the ocean. That's why their city soon became known by that fact.

Most of them, they would live in the underwater portion of the city when they weren't out in the ocean, saving sailors. Others, the more adventurous ones, took advantage of their shapeshifting abilities and lived in the above-water portion of Shipwreck City, disguised as creatures of nearly all races and species across the world.



(1)Command Demigod - Inhabit Territory - around Elfmoot

The Ashen Priestess continued to stay in Elfmoot. She didn't really associate with the elves or the other inhabitants; she just stayed there.

Around the city, she continued to come across Lothar here and there. She just stayed there at a distance, not speaking to him or approaching him. Whenever he approached, she would just turn into ash and blow away, to reform later.

She could feel that he was similar to him - in a way. They were both once humans, but were fused by divine power with fire. A different kind of energy, sure, but that difference made her want to follow him around and know about him more.



13 points

(5)Werewolves - Event - become a good presence in a specific city
(1)Command Avatar() - Command Race(Nereids) - Create City "Shipwreck City" on the coast (half underwater half above) south of Hahebuto
(1)Command Avatar() - Command City(The Bloom) - Raise Army (Werewolves) called "The Hunt"
(1)Command Demigod - Inhabit Territory - around Elfmoot. She also acts stalker-ish. :smalltongue:
13 - 8 = 5

Next time:
5 + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4306215/) + 3(Cult) + 3(Chaos) =19

[ImperialSunligh]

Events before the fall of Figurae:

The shadowbirds were met at the gates of the city by the council, and a group of their rhapsodist bodyguards, having been alerted to the birds' presence by lookouts. While cautious at first as to the intentions of these strange people, they saw that the shadowbirds clearly had no ties to known evil and had no ill will to the humans. Thus, the proposed alliance was accepted and the shadowbirds became the first of the humans' allies.

Axus replied to the people, "I cannot verify the truth of that statement, but you are not an evil people, not tainted as those touched by Makhleb are, and you have no ill-will, it seems. We shall accept your people if that is what you desire. You overestimate my power, however. I will fight your enemies, if I can, as you are no enemy of mine, but now my first priority is our current war against Makhleb's people. Human civilization must not fall, and dividing our forces will increase the chances of that."

The king made the necessary orders to have the Saku Rasi be more accepted in the human cities and lands. They likely were disappointed with his answer to their second request, but it is true that the request could have come at no worse a time, and that they would have little time to resent him for it.

Later that night, Axus stared out of the palace and into the North.

"I see," he said to no one, "they try to justify this... by claiming us a greater evil? No. To worship Makhleb is to be on the side of the aggressor. And there can be no mercy for the aggressor. What we plan is only self defence, something they could never understand."

Events after the fall of Figurae:

After the Fall of Figurae, the remnants of the Order of Eknad in the other cities reorganized themselves. The Order took a secondary stance as a military and religious organisation in Sophei and Eupnea. The council of Sophei took over control of the central politics of the rest of the human lands, rather than the king as previously.

The Sun sat, looking out of the tower of the gods into the blinding light. He chewed on his tail as he thought about what had just happened.

"All these events, these horrible things that should shock me, and yet the moment that truly shakes me is that woman defacing my effigy."

"No, I cannot be turned by this. The demons merely demonstrate their predisposition. They were born of Makhleb, born to betray us. This only proves the weakness of their faith."

"I have said this through my servant, who now lies dead as proof: as long as Makhleb's servants exist, we cannot have peace, as they will continue to attack our children. Fighting back is a necessary evil."

These fatalist thoughts were interrupted by the void, embracing the Sun from behind.

"Ha... Ironic, it is you, patron of man, that took my humanity away. You know, Eknad, when I was human, I was always alone. I feared for a moment that I would be again."

"You must embrace change, or perhaps you will be."

The Sun sighed, defeated.

Those who defended Figurae in the night saw a figure outside the walls breach the aegis without effort, though he was not one they had seen before, nor was he human. They realized as he approached that he was not of any known race of Tyonix, and perhaps more disturbingly, altered shape randomly, as if he was corrupted in some way.

The guards yelled out at him, thinking him some kind of demigod or warrior sent to fight, or worse. The figure ignored them, continuing to walk to the gate. The guards cried, "If you do not respond, we will have to use force!"

He did not respond. And the guards kept their promise, trying to aim for non-vital regions on the strange being. They fell straight through the figure as if he were a ghost.

He merely glanced at the guards momentarily, a sad look in his changing eyes, before moving on, phasing through the wall into the city. He slowly wandered the city and found the demon known as Hexas. She was shocked at his prescence, though there was also something familiar about him, perhaps unpleasantly so.

The being knelt before her, speaking the words she least expected to hear, "You and your people have taught me much. I cannot hope to ask for your forgiveness, nor your faith. Not now. You have taught me through this pain that faith must be earned, not taken for granted. I was a fool. I cannot ask for forgiveness."

Before she could say anything, he continued, "I am the Sun. I give to your people and mine the only thing I can hope will help fix my mistakes. Peace. There is only one condition to this. The singers and the demons must never attack the followers of the pantheon again. That was the motivation of the war. More so than racism, fear of their attacks motivated our crusade. I won't say that it was justified, but as long as the singers stay away from the humans and the monkeys, they may do as they like. And I will no longer abandon your people as I had in the past. The conduct of the better demons here has more than proven their worth. I cannot hope that they will accept me as their god anymore, but I shall watch over them. Perhaps I am not worthy of them, but... I shall try to be. Regardless, if you will accept this, the humans will not make any of their planned attacks and I shall try to guide them to tolerance. I may be a fool, but I am a spirit of honor. I will follow through on this.

The new Order of Eknad was raising another army of crusaders, originally intended to retake Figurae. The army was altered by divine inspiration into a defensive army. They were sent to protect the holy land of Eupnea, in the case that the negotiations failed.

Roll: 2d6=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4306758/)

Command Race, Humans, Form Alliance, Shadowbirds, -3
Command Race, Humans, Form Alliance, Saku Rasi, -3
Command Race, Humans, Offer Alliance, Singers, -3
Command Order, Order of Eknad, Raise 2nd Army of Defenders, -2

Command 2nd Army of Defenders, defend Eupnea.

Left: 0

[Omegonthesane]

The sense of finality and hurry that had surrounded the final stages of constructing the Lyre of Prophecy found themselves amplified as the Golem Factory was rushed into operation. This building was strange for a Plane of Thunder construction in that it actually obeyed Tyonix's physical laws, being a simple rectangular facility in which many items were contained, items which performed the same functions repeatedly when provided the proper raw materials. This factory was not merely for entertainment, but instead created Golems, mechanical servants powered by magic in a similar vein to the Willow Folk of ages long since departed. The material of these could vary, and often did depending on the specific production run's purpose - or often would, when this place entered Tyonix, for in its home plane only Singer-flesh was present to construct golems with. The Singers who constructed the place had the foresight to input a flaw into these servants, a certain part which would wear out within three years of constant use, requiring a replacement that could only be made within the Factory itself; in this way, they sought to ensure that it would be no disaster if individual Golems were to fall into enemy hands.

The act of throwing non-destructive Wonders onto the scrap heap had become a whimsical tradition among the planar Singers, who had long since learned that these were not the total failures they were once seen as. However, the air of finality about this penultimate construction left little will to repeat it, which left many of the more recently created Singers feeling disheartened - not least as the Lyre of Prophecy had escaped this tradition on excuses of being relatively fragile.

As the overall commander of the combined force that had seized Figurae, Hexas was relatively easy to find, though many hackles were raised at the wanderer's disrespect for procedure. Hackles that were replaced with shock and awe when he proclaimed his name and identity, and stated his terms. Hexas had instinctively placed a hand upon one of her swords, and had to take a breath and move back into a less combative stance before continuing to react. The Rainbow Lord had no such patience.
"This is the same being who started this. Why should you trust that he can see another way?"
"You of all people should know the answer, Singer," Hexas countered. "Though, it is ironic..." She turned back to the being she had once followed.

"Allow me to explain," the Rainbow Lord continued, now speaking to the god. "For millennia, Singers committed great evils. I once believed in this path, and aided in some of them as a member of the White Conclave. As we faced retribution, over and over again, and turned the Demons into our enemies, I began to see things differently.

"General Hexas was born in Fort Liberty, a military camp whose original purpose was to conquer Destroyer's Peak itself. A war ensued, and I saw that it was a war we would lose. The Octarchs of the Peak who served at that time shared my fear of the massing Human armies, and so I was able to convince them to offer a truce. It took centuries after that, and the self-induced demise of our most violent elements, before I was able to leverage that into an alliance." The Rainbow Lord had rehearsed parts of this speech, and grudgingly conceded that it would only make diplomats angrier if they mentioned explicitly why the Yellow Beasts had attacked Eupnea. The Sun, of course, no doubt either knew, or could review the past within instants to confirm any suspicions he might have had.

"Indeed," Hexas continued, before a polite person could interject regarding the circumstances of that "self-induced demise". "We have seen that war benefits no one. It is understandable that the humans seek compensation for the events of Eupnea, and had you not named the demons among those who were to pay in blood, we would have opened with negotiations to prevent bloodshed. As it is, we can at least prevent more.

"Unless you have a great problem with it, we will as promised retain a defensive garrison of Demons here until the human armies have regrouped, to oversee the rebuilding efforts. Other than that, no military force from Fort Liberty, Sanctuary, Destroyer's Peak, or the Dreamforge shall... march on human lands, other than on human terms." Singers being Singers, she just knew that they'd argue that the ends of their tendrils were not feet so they had indeed never set foot upon human soil. Similarly a few particularly irreverent and malicious demons would probably attempt invasions where they spent the entire time flying. "The same restriction shall be placed upon any future Demon or Singer city, on pain of the enmity of the Northern Alliance."

A longer, more drawn-out peace treaty followed, spelling out in essence that the Demon and Singer armies would be allowed to liberate Human cities if another hostile power conquered them, or to return to human lands on request to act as a garrison force; while Demon or Singer caravan guards would be treated as such, rather than as a hostile military force. In a similar vein, any army nominally part of the alliance that attacked a Human, Demon, or Singer army or anything under their protection would be considered in breach of the alliance and treated as such.

"Hear me, people of Rivis," came another telepathic sending from Hexas. "Not long ago, we warned you of the threat the Humans posed. We thought the gods mad, impossible to sway, and we marched on Figurae in a last desperate attempt. We even brought Singers to march alongside us, so desperate was our plight.

"Suffice to say, our mad plan succeeded. The Sun has embraced change, and we have made a peace treaty. I would still advise you to ready yourselves for war, lest rogue elements of one side or the other seek to destroy what has been built, but there is no longer an immediate danger."

Similar messages were sent to Saorsa, to Farea, and to the Grove, informing those present that the immediate danger had passed. As it had been the Rainbow Lord who sent the warnings to Rou, Khral, and Imptopia, it was they who was assigned to send the reassurances.

"Hear me, Red Kings of Rou!" said the image in the minds of these warrior-kings again. "It appears you are no longer in danger of having your kills stolen. The Humans have, against all odds, seen sense. Yet, do not hurry so greatly to antagonise us. We've made important pacts, which compel other warriors to rush to our defence if we are struck - warriors who once marched on our Peak as you did, warriors whose strength and skill filled us with fear."

A second message was sent - not to Khral, but to the Octarchs of the Peak.

"The immediate threat has been averted," the Rainbow Lord informed them.
"So we have heard from the Forge. The elves are so foolishly eager to use their rings," answered one. "Why does this further concern us?"
"I have been instructed to inform Khral and Imptopia of the good news, as I informed them of the bad. To put it bluntly, I don't want to. The imps were not included in the humans' peace treaty, so are not in fact protected by it, while the blood drinkers have plunged further into depths of cruelty than even the Red Screamers of old ever dared. It may be convenient for them to pose a true threat, so that all may know there are far worse fates than our camps. However, I am technically beholden to you, and I genuinely want your opinion on this."

There followed a debate within the Peak, which was not broadcast to the non-Octarch. Its conclusion was, however - the leaders of Destroyer's Peak agreed entirely with the Rainbow Lord's analysis and suggestions. Therefore, the Rainbow Lord did as it saw fit, and lied to Hexas about having told Khral and Imptopia what had happened.

It took some months, but eventually Lothar was able to accept the strange doings in the south, and the coming of Singers to Elfmoot - as coralled as they were, cowed by fear of their Demon kin, the Singers behaved like a lesser evil to the humans who preached genocide, even if it was not truly their inner nature. That simple spark filled him with faith to move on - as mass death was condemned, he had begun to question whether he was right to march on the far away Kraith. Yet, surely, if there was a way to permanently render these evil beings into less evil beings, as the Demons appeared to have done with the Singers, it was worth attempting. This combined with his increasing distaste for the ales served by the elves, and the ashen woman who kept following him around like some kind of phantasm and disappearing if he tried to address her, was enough to finally make him move on.

Before he could do that, though, preparations had to be made. The Kraith surely could not be reformed while they practised dark arts to merely communicate, so he had to learn the much less dark arts of Telepathy so that they could know a better way. He consulted with a sage of the Elfmoot, who agreed with his conclusions and donated him several barrels of elvish ale, the use of a cart and Bloom Steed, the services of the servant who was to bring them back when he was done with the ale, and most important of all the name and location of a particular Idrist noble. With these, the ragged wanderer made his way north.

The rest was rather less exciting in detail - Lothar approached the noble whose name he had been given, and offered half of his barrels in return for instruction. Some haggling ensued, and Lothar left the house a month later, with no ale remaining but with the last tool he felt he needed to purge the evil from the Kraith.

It was a long way from Rivis to the Long Road, but Lothar had heard all the tales, and if nothing else happened to have confirmation as he approached the red sand surrounded by winds - a Kraith archmage, covered in runes, coming out the other way to seek its fortune in less cruel lands. It saw the incoming human, and remembered the strange warnings of the white tendrilled being a few decades back; within seconds it crossed the hundreds of yards between them, and once more slashed Lothar's throat; his healing magic was not yet strong enough that he could close the wound before its Sangromancy tore what passed for blood from his body. Or rather, it tried to. Within half a second, more blood than could possibly be contained in two human bodies had erupted from the man's throat; but as the Kraith soon discovered to its detriment, what it was trying to consume was not blood, but a strange black ichor hotter than any mortal fire. Its death after that was more or less instantaneous.

Most of the way along the road, there was a strange blackness at the edge of perception, and a sense of fear and dread that repelled the man's instincts. However, Lothar was more than a beast of instinct, and had a ready response to any form of darkness; by his will, flickering otherworldly flames erupted to banish the darkness, burning the enchantment away like so much fuel. So he thought at the time; later, he would discover that his act was a temporary solution, which pushed the shadows and fears away rather than truly destroying them, but it mattered little as he was hardly drained.

Few humans could have survived Lothar's journey even with significant preparation. His pace was not fast, but it was unceasing, for he had found that sleep was not entirely necessary - and indeed, surely dangerous in the land of the most feared of predators. The winds were strong enough to whip at the clothes on his back, which would have mattered little had he not repeatedly clashed with Kraith and simply stumbled, cutting his clothes on the strange red sand. Torn to ribbons, his cloak and shirt soon simply fell away, carried off by the winds. His boots fared little better than his cloak, though they lasted longer than they would have before the Singers discovered the Road; about halfway down the road, though, the soles ceased being able to withstand the strange sand's sharp edges, so instead his feet took the burden. A full human would simply have had to pack more and better boots; Lothar was no pure human. At first he relied on Healing the wounds that each step caused him, but as he marched he found his skin adapting further than a mortal human's could have, ultimately taking on a hardness akin to iron while remaining no stiffer than thick leather. Perhaps inspired by the will of Makhleb, there was a temporary increase in the intensity of the Road's winds, picking up the red sand and scourging the boy with it; as he had been wearing ring armour under most of his clothing, the effect was less potent, but some flaw or rush in his healing spells caused the metal rings to fuse to his skin as the leather holding them in place was cut away. Between gold-steel rings and shards of the strange material of the Ocarina, his skin ended up armoured despite his clothes being torn to ribbons; the real inconvenience was having to actually carry the sword and dagger the Cult of Makhleb had forged for him.

There happened to be two Kraith magi personally guarding the final ramp that led from the Long Road to the Pure Land itself; they saw the strange being climbing up the rubble, and having never seen a human before, did not quite realise that it wasn't natural for so much of its skin to have interlocking metal rings embedded into it, though they knew it was holding a pair of killing tools like those they had made with Noctimancy. They thought to armour themselves in shadows, and kill the new prey with flying blades, but these simply bounced off Lothar's torso.

Having failed to simply kill the new intruder with cantrips, the Kraith guards resorted to warning him with other cantrips, rather than escalate to actually trying. The voice of all Kraith, the voice that poor girl had feared so much, rang out.
"What is your purpose here, prey-beast?" were its last words, as in response to the use of that tainted spell, Lothar charged, closing the distance barely more slowly than a true Kraith. Simple shock left the guard in place long enough to be bisected by the larger of the being's divinely empowered blades. With that, he turned to the other Kraith, and performed a spell of his own to communicate with it.
"You serve me now. I am your master."

The Kraith didn't agree, and cloaked itself in armour made of shadows before charging at Lothar's back, only to ignite and die all the same.

As Lothar crossed the savage land that his god had created so long ago, the few Singer hunters recognised the fire he wielded, and feared to cross him, recognising tracts from prophecies that had spread since the Ocarina was first banished. That, or they saw the Kraith blood on his blades and for the most part saw better than to cross him - save for one particularly foolish Singer, who found its destructive spells barely scratched the strange being who had intruded on their hunting grounds, what with the protection both divine and natural afforded by the rings embedded into his flesh. The mountains proved somewhat of a challenge, so Lothar improvised, putting his blades into two of the larger rings to act as temporary scabbards so he could climb properly; before finishing the journey, he found a cave, and simply slept for perhaps a week or three, the days he had missed. His endurance was not limitless, and he could not afford to falter at the last hurdle.

Once rested, he searched the mountains, and inevitably found the network of caves set above the never-drying blood. A strange pallor of darkness and fear hung over this place, just like it had over the entire Long Road, almost strong enough that the warrior feared to progress. Almost, but clearly not quite. Hellish flames danced in the skies, and the dark sorceries protecting Khral were pushed away again as Lothar entered. Many Kraith felt a burden lifting from them as their own spells were banished, yet those fully grown felt a great sense of perfectly natural fear that replaced the oppressive ambience, as they knew that this meant someone mighty in sorcery had removed the protective spells from their home city. The floor of the great pit was, sadly, the closest the city had to a plaza, but it was also the floor of a pit, so Lothar refused to use it, instead entering each cave in turn. The same ultimatum was made, telepathically, to each cave's family of Kraith - "I am your master. Obey me or die." Perhaps a quarter of the adult Kraith foolishly chose the latter, especially as many of them were not even on a level with the archmages Lothar had slain previously; the younger Kraith bowed out of fear once their parents died, for Kraith family ties were not naturally strong enough to fuel a need for revenge. The remaining Kraith heard of the strange tyrant who could kill any one of them individually with sword and fire, and simply bowed down. This submission was in no small part triggered by the Arch-Pyromancers of Khral - they saw that fire had banished the sorceries of their Noctimancer and Phobimancer brothers, and tried to banish that same fire with pyromancy. They tried, and they had no effect.

Over the ensuing months, Lothar tried to force the Kraith to treat one another the way he wished them to treat the other living, working in unison and aiding those weaker. In particular, the youngest Kraith were taken to the central pit, so that all would share in the spoils of the hunt. All that this initially achieved, however, was to make the Kraith hunters try everything they could to see that only their own kin survived in the communal pits, carefully refusing to pour blood upon any other's children. When he later ruled that all blood was to be shared between all the Kraith, rather than comply, many of the hunters simply feasted all the more in the wild and then claimed there was simply nothing left. Lothar needed no magic or blessing to see through their lies, however, and whistled a strange tune, in what some of the Kraith were confused to recognise as Singer-speech - a language almost never used in these latter days, for Singers tended to speak in the tongue of their Demon kin.

They were less confused when the invocation was finished, causing the Ocarina to identify faithless liars and incinerate them.

Sadly, most of the grown Kraith and even many of the normally impressionable Kraithlings were set in their ways; within the year, Lothar had exterminated every adult Kraith in their city who did not go into hiding, and the latter only survived due to him losing track and assuming they had also fallen. The younger Kraith had taken more readily to his directives of working in unison, though at first without the purest motives; some saw a chance to make others do their share, while others realised none of them stood a chance of killing their tyrant alone. Within half a decade, though, impressionable as they were, most were successfully brainwashed into their new tyrant's way of thinking. It took the brutal treatment of their own to make them see it, for a Kraith's natural empathy is close to nonexistent, but eventually they even realised why it was a bad thing that all Kraith spoke with Phobimancy, and even went so far as to agree with Lothar's logic. These new faithful instead took up the art of Telepathy, and many took delight in experimenting with the myriad new voices and images they could now speak with. Ironically, not a single Kraith used Telepathy for the purpose the Singers originally made it for, as an instrument of torture and fear - not out of any special virtue, but because Phobimancy was a much more efficient tool for that task. Some of the older converted Kraith, though still only adolescents when the Tyrant came, had learned the ways of Mortimancy; they taught these to their new master, and with them he reanimated the many dead Kraith from his invasion.

Between its psychological associations with the old ways, and the spells of fear and darkness still maintained by the many Kraith that Lothar simply never found, he eventually reached the point of deciding there was no redeeming Khral itself - even if there was yet hope for its remaining people. He explained this to the Kraithlings, and as he had served as mother and father to all those he had orphaned, few questioned his judgment. Remembering how the Road had harrowed him, he had each living Kraithling carried by one of his Kraith zombies, as well as a number of living animals to feed them with, for he doubted they would last the journey on one meal.

That left the hidden population of Khral, who came out of hiding to find that their oppressor had gone so far as to take their children from them. That detail troubled them surprisingly little, compared to how many cultures and species would have reacted, but they knew now that the strange tentacled being's warning was true - in a way. Their way of life could not continue if they were not prepared to fight and kill for it, as the Tyrant had been prepared to kill so many of them.

The labour of the Kraith zombies was good enough to build a new set of Human-looking roundhouses, using stone as this was what was available, forming a community which Lothar named Newhaven. Here, he forced his new flock of Kraithlings to act like a functional agricultural society, tending to lands that fed the beasts which they would one day feed on, and forming enclosures to pen them in. As the land Lothar had chosen to build on was relatively harsh, and close to the seas besides, the Kraith of Newhaven supplemented their diet with fish blood; there was only so much that Healing Magic could do for the fertility of the soil. The proof, as he saw it, that his experiment was successful came when some of his servants were full-grown Kraith, strong and smart enough that he could delegate some of the task of ruling to them. They were as tyrannical and cruel as he ever had been, but it mattered not, for they no longer preached cruelty and exploitation as actual virtues. As most of Lothar's otherwise viable breeding population of Kraith were not in fact old enough to breed, the death penalty he had been so fond of as Tyrant of Khral was forbidden, replaced with hideous torments brewed from Phobimancy for those of Newhaven who dared step out of line - hideous for any other race, that is. The Kraith of Khral would have been disturbed at having to show such mercy to their tortured playthings as Lothar demanded they show to criminals they were punishing. No few of the Newhaven Kraith dreamed openly of inflicting terrible fates on the evils that lay beyond their walls, their unaware minds mistaking sadism for righteous anger.

On those days when he allowed himself to falter and question his path, Lothar genuinely wasn't sure what was more disturbing - that he had created an interim state whose brutal repression would make the Inquisition of old shiver, or that it was still progress compared to Khral.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4300013/)
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 18 points

3 points: Command Race (Singers) to accept the alliance with the Humans
1 point: Shape World (Plane of Destruction) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (Golem Factory)
2 points: Command City (Rivis) to Political Maneuver to grant Telepathy to Lothar the Cursed only
2 points: Command Cult (Demons) to Migrate to the Kraith
3 points: Command Race (Kraith) to Found City (Newhaven) on the coast southwest of Rivis, overlooking the glass islands that were the original plan for the Long Road
5 points: Event - Harrowing of Khral. Lothar's attempts to make the Kraith behave end up wiping out 80% of the city's population. Half the survivors were those who truly believed his nonsense and went to found Newhaven, believing Khral to be a city of ghosts and fears; the other half helped conjure those ghosts and fears, for they simply hid and hoped to outlast the tyranny. Ultimately the only mechanical effects are that Lothar learns Mortimancy and the Newhaven Kraith learn Telepathy, as Lothar insists they use a voice that was not created with evil means.

0 points: Command Army (1st Black Watch) to defend Destroyer's Peak with the Horn of Winter, Earthquake Drum, and Dream Twister
0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to defend Figurae from non-human attackers, while allowing the Pantheon to use Command City on it
0 points: Command Army (Enforcers) to defend Elfmoot
0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to defend Newhaven

2 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[ImperialSunligh]

The city of Herz was quickly growing into a bustling metropolis, in spite of the darkness that plagued the humans in the past days. The monkeys were quickly becoming masters of the martial arts. The martial magics became synonymous with their culture. In nearly every home could be found a copy of the Herzian. Great master monks took in students from in and around Herz, bestowing their wisdom upon the new generations.

One of the clergy of the pantheon's church in Herz had a vision bestowed upon him. Ferdi, as he was called, preached to the people of a great swelling felt beneath the city. He saw a great power underneath.

Many of the monkeys questioned his sanity. Others were swayed and began digging ceaselessly. They dug so much under the ground that the city streets now took the form of winding bridges above massive chasms.

Once the diggers reached nearly five miles below the sea level, a discovery was made. A statue, made of a strange magical alloy of gold and jade, was found encased in dirt. The statue depicted Anike in meditation. Other statues were found of the five other gods, surrounding Anike. One of the Sun as a mouse of pure gold, one of Eknad in the form of a swirling void of obsidian, one of Mam in the form of a human woman of malachite, one of Mahav in the form of a massive human man of ruby and one of 0 in the form of a divine pen of carnelian.

Around these great statues was created a great temple made of stone that extended upwards all the way to the city streets. Staircases and arching pathways made traversing the distance to the bottom and back possible, though still quite a feat. Advocates of the Herzian tradition made it custom to make a yearly pilgrimage to the base of the temple once a year if possible.

The temple became known as the Silent Temple, as speaking is forbidden in the place after descending a certain distance. It is believed that the presence of the gods is felt through the place and to speak is to disturb them and incur their wrath.

While the humans had told the monkeys the news of the new age of peace, the empire continued to expand its armies for the purposes of security. The new golden age of martial magics made this a quite easy feat, as there were many clamoring for the positions in which to use these skills.

Roll: 2d6=4 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4307170/)
Reroll: 2d6=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4307171/)

Command Race, Monkeys, Ingrain technology, Martial Magics, -3
Command Race, Monkeys, Create Wonder: The Silent Temple, -3

Command Order, Empire of Monkeys, Raise 2nd army of Imperial Guards, -2

Left: 1

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4301981/)
Current Power Points: 15

Nathaniel stood upon a cliff, looking out across a canyon studded with vibrant splashes of life. There was something in the air. A sense that there was more here than what at first appeared. A feeling that his hunt was nearing it's end at long last.

After the confrontation with Mahkleb, his armor had been in shambles, the wooden bits had long ago disintegrated, and the chunks of it that had melted into his skin had to be removed. Thankfully it all could be removed, then and there, by Nathaniel himself. It was painful, but not difficult. Now, less thankfully, the wonderful boat was stranded in a pond atop a mountain, and the initial lightning strike had ruptured it's hull anyways, so he wasn't going to be able to recover it. After a few trips, however, he managed to recover a change of clothes, a traveling sack, the deed to his property in Juqax, and the navigation equipment the Saku Rasi had given him. After that was finished, he set out north, asking the occasional Suri hiker or farmer he found along the way if they knew anything about Eull, the Wanderer.

Nathaniel knew little more than nothing about the deity. Very few worshipped him. It seemed next to absurd that such a obscure god could have given birth to the horror of Vroch, the perfection of the Seliss, which itself had risen to godhood, and the far more common deities of the Wandering Sakura and the Ehk Rellis themselves. It seemed he was not alone, however. No one truly knew anything about the Gray God in these days. Perhaps their ancestors might have known how he was a powerful, originator deity, but he had not directly acted in so long that those who would have known him long ago forgot.

His search eventually took him to the city of Sanctuary, where two lonely temples to the Wanderer still stood. One was filled with priests who knew about as much of the truth about their chosen god as a Suri farmer. The other temple was very old, low slung and mostly unadorned. The interior was filled with dust, and only a single priest, a Demon nearing his tenth century, kept the faith.

It was a long time to get the tiny Demon to understand what Nathaniel was saying, but once he did, he quickly confirmed that the Seliss, the Blood Pit, the Wandering Sakura, & Ehk Rellis were simply extensions of Eull, and not gods in their own right. He also elaborated that no one believed this, and each of these vastly different Avatars was being venerated separate from Eull. The other temple of Eull had accepted this blasphemy, and as such, tried to redefine what Eull stood for, to make him a wanderer, instead of the mercurial power he truly was.

Nathaniel didn't want to hear the Demon preach, however, and asked how he might find the god Eull. At this, the Demon laughed, but Nathaniel pushed, until the old man stated that Eull could not be found unless he wanted to be found. The Angel expressed that he didn't truly follow the natural rules of the world, and again the Demon laughed.

Eventually the priest gave that, were the deity able to be found, only his children would be able to lead one to him. From there, the Angel searched, finding mountaintops where he could watch the Ehk Rellis. He found many Sanctuary Stones and talked at length with the strange Singers who acted as their emissaries. He found men who had achieved almost perfect Seliss. He even made a wish of Rel, asking to be sent directly to Eull, but the serpent seal couldn't grant that wish.

He was on his way to Sakura, now, however. He had many leads, and had even constructed a map from the navigation equipment he possessed. It all seemed to point towards Eull being in the Latticework Land for the next century. However, now, he stood upon this cliff, and felt that he may have stumbled into the place where he would corner the god.

Even as he thought about it, he looked down into the canyon, and spotted two gray figures meandering along.

Nathaniel landed just before the ancient one and his son, his face set in a cold expression. Nameless, ever polite, looked his fellow Angel in the eye and spoke, "Nathaniel I presume."

Nathaniel nodded to Nameless, "Unnamed one…"

Eull said nothing.

Nameless smiled and acted as though this were simply a chance encounter in the woods, speaking again, "So, what brings you all the way out here at this time of year?"

"Oh, just this," Nathaniel replied, holding his right hand and the Sword of Life up, "It's kind of upsetting, you see. Was wondering why it's there."

Nameless looked down for a split second, then to his father. Clearly he believed this had to be Eull's discussion. The Gray God, in the meantime, still did not speak, but instead it almost seemed he was asserting something without words.

Nathaniel had to exist.

"…I do exist. Why did you have to torture me?"

Nathaniel had to exist.

Nameless interjected, "I believe he means that you had to exist as you do today, not as you were before you received the sword."

"Surely there was another way to get me to reach this point. Why did I have to suffer for countless centuries?!"

No, Nathaniel does not yet exist. Nathaniel had to exist.

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, "I've united the societies of the world and fought off a god. I wield the Sword of Life and have combined every combat art this world has to offer. What more could I be?"

He wasn't Nathaniel, not yet. Nathaniel had to exist.

The Immortal Hero was angry now, and took a step forward, answered by Nameless doing the same, not even a second behind hin, "I am Nathaniel, I am the Immortal Hero, the Basilisk in the Willow, the 'Champion of Eull'. If I am not now ready for whatever you tormented me for, I will never be ready. Though, again, why did you insist on welding a sword of infinite power into my hand? Surely you could have contacted me, taught me, instead of driving me half mad with pain! I thought about killing myself several times, just to escape this agony, you know that?! Now tell me, WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!"

Nathaniel had to exist.

Nathaniel surged forward, clearly intent on attacking Eull, but he found his blade blocked by another piece of metal, and Nameless stood to Nathaniel's side, his halberd extended to catch the Sword of Life.

Nathaniel might have told Nameless to stay out of this, but he had seen history through Mahkleb, and knew there was no chance of that, him being what he was. So, he spun, and slashed at the demigod, but Nameless was fast, faster even than the Red Lord, and had reach on the Hero, bounding back and then forward again, aiming a jab at his chest, just to find that his fellow Angel had summoned a shield of shadowstuff, which then fanned out, and disguised his rush forward, inside Nameless's reach. At least, the rush would have brought Nathaniel into the Unnamed One's reach, had Nameless not leapt back in that instant and positioned his blade to accept any charge.

Nathaniel spotted the trap at the last instant and knocked the halberd aside with the Sword of Life, sending out a pulse of Plant Charming into a nearby vine, which leapt out to attack the Gray Angel, but for all the tricks Nathaniel possessed, Nameless beat them all with pure skill with his halberd. In a single spinning slash, he reduced all attacking vines to shreds, and returned the tip of his blade to Nathaniel's throat.

What followed was a sword fight of such speed and finesse that no mortal could ever have followed the motions as they shot to and fro across the floor of the canyon. Nathaniel had a distinct edge in mobility and overall options, but for all this, Nameless matched it in ability with his weapon.

The two Angels uplifted by Eull dueled back and forth in front of him, and he did not blink, or look away, or intervene, just staring on with cold eyes. Sparks flew from a glancing blow. Nameless scored a deadly blow, but Healing Magic kept Nathaniel alive long enough to force the blade out of his body and then close the wound. The split instant that it took to achieve this, however, led to another deadly blow. So Nathaniel was forced to summon up a distraction in the form of a series of plants attacking, giving him the split second he needed to recover and utilize his next trick.

When Nameless returned to his foe, having reduced the plants to shreds once more, he found he faced two Nathaniels. It seemed the original had coated himself in shadowstuff, then summoned a clone of himself of the same shadowstuff. A powerful spell, and very draining, as Nameless knew. However, now the Gray Angel would have to fight on the defensive. He could not manage an offensive like he had been pressing, not against two such skilled foes, even if they were drained of most of their magical powers.

Back and forth the three now dueled, a spin of a halberd, and the flash of two Swords of Life. Still Eull watched, without emotion.

Nameless was pushed back, and then further back, holding the attacks at bay and waiting for an opening. When he spotted one, he cut open the throat of one of the two, and found nothing but shadowstuff inside, and no regeneration happening, so he turned, and pushed his entire offensive on the other Nathaniel, who must have been the original.

However, in the instant he reduced his focus to a single Nathaniel. He found that it too, was disintegrating, and suddenly a pain flared across his back and legs, as he was disabled. The muscles of his legs and wings halfway severed, he collapsed. Looking up, he saw an exhausted Nathaniel, who had just manifested such a powerful spell not once, but twice. He raised his sword hand above his head, about to decapitate Nameless.

Nameless should not die.

Nathaniel paused half a second, looking back at the god, "And why not, my tormentor?"

Nameless had lived his entire life to protect Eull, the Wanderer. He never did anything to harm or better anyone, just to protect his father. To kill him for doing his life's work would be cruel. Besides, when an obstacle is removed from one's path, it is foolish to kick that obstacle out of spite. Just continuing on one's way is what is often done.

"Father, what are you doing?" Nameless asked through his pain, as he struggled onto his side, looking to where his halberd had fallen.

Nathaniel had to exist.

Nathaniel did not like those words, and resumed his mad rush at the deity, but this time, he was unimpeded.

However, when the blow would have fallen, he found himself in another place. Infinitely dark, he stood upon a road no thicker than a hair's width, and far ahead of him, upon a field of glass, stood Eull.

Find Eull before you kill Eull.

Nathaniel felt such a sense of foreboding that he almost wept in fear, but he had mighty courage, enough to face a demigod single handedly, enough to stand before a hundred and thirty five Shou Tahs and tell them what to do, enough to goad a deity even as it tested him with death. So, with this strength within him, he charged, balanced upon the blade of a knife, towards his creator. Yet, no matter how far he ran, he was no closer to the Gray God.

Cut the thread, and Eull will plummet back into the before, from which he came.

Nathaniel urged himself forward, but still, he was nowhere closer to his goal.

Eull once looked into the eyes of an Idrian cultist of Mahkleb. He hadn't believed that a mortal could survive direct eye contact with him up until that moment. Yet something about Mahkleb's presence within had granted that low cultist the grit to withstand it. It had peeled away everything he had believed, leaving only wonder for what he had seen in that instant, but he had survived. Mahkleb had been within that young Idrian. It was the essence of retribution. Now Nathaniel delivering his own retribution.

Nathaniel had been running for years, surely he must be closer to the god.

Gods are unkillable ones. However, despite this, there are gods who have died. One god who had died was named Mahav, and he once forged a golden sword. A weapon of a unkillable one who found a way to die. This is the only weapon capable of, in the hands of a mortal, killing a god. All that needs is for it to be swung.

Wait, had Nathaniel moved at all?

Nathaniel had to exist.

No, he stood before Eull still, looking directly into those eyes, and his mind had been trapped elsewhere. Though, now, his mind came back to him, and his courage came as well.

The Sword of Life fell.

Eull fell.

Nathaniel looked down as the impossibly ancient deity collapsed at his feet, and then took a step back. Why had he done this? He wanted retribution for what had been done to him, yet now, looking down, did he want to kill a god?

He heard a distant scream of pain and rage from Nameless as a haze of gray smoke erupted from Eull's wound, but Nathaniel was fleeing, and the scream faded, replaced with nothingness.

Heavy rain fell in Fort Liberty, as hundreds of Demons in the indoor marketplace touched their face, looking up, certain that there must be a leak in the ceiling. Yet there was none. Every single individual in the world with even the slightest amount of Seliss, was weeping, uncontrollably.

Trells sat down in grief, not understanding why. Spirits sparked and rain fell. Saku Rasi excused themselves from their meals to examine why they had suddenly started to weep. Shou Tahs underneath the sea roared in rage. Fari stood in the streets of Ruttivorat, their vision blurry for no reason. Alimta slowed their run to almost a walk, looking about for the source of what they had seen which would have pained them so. Entire Human guilds suddenly broke into tears simultaneously. Suri wept, Singers cracked, and Kraith screamed.

The Seliss was weeping in despair for it's father.

The Wandering Sakura was gone.

No red blossom grew, all that remained was the empty trunk of the ancient tree. Those who had been in the courtyard with it said that the tree had simply turned to ash, though they were ultimately blamed as conspirators, and would be drowned for their perceived crimes, in time. For the moment, the Kyūdōka searched, interrogated the suspects, and wept. Most for the Seliss was within them, but others for despair of failing their holy duty to protect the tree.

The Wandering Sakura was confused. It's foundation had been pulled out from under it. Eull was gone, and without it, the plant was uncertain what to do with it's existence. Inside the next ten years, it would return to it's ancient place in Sakura, as it remembered it's purpose in existence, but for now, it wandered aimless, randomly.

An Angel found itself sucked into a sudden burning hole in the ground. Then the Blood Pit shut and appeared elsewhere in the world, swallowing another Angel. Then a third, and a fourth. It kept leaping around, seeking out new Angels. It had to kill all the Angels, you see, to assuage it's pain, it's unending confusion.

It faltered, opening ten feet west of an Angel, and swallowing a wall instead. Though, it did not care, and vanished from the collapsing building, reappearing in a mountain clearing where no Angels rested. Confused, the Blood Pit vanished again and appeared in Eupnea, swallowing two Angels at once. Then three where taken at once, and then it missed, ending up near Imptopia, swallowing a giant snake and two Imps. It kept on and kept on, yet no matter how much it killed, how much it swallowed up, nothing was better.

Eventually the Blood Pit stopped, hiding in a ravine near Eull's body, and admitted to itself: It regretted not being there. It could have saved it's father. It could have committed a good act.

Fifteen stars left the night sky of Tyonix, streaking out, away from the atmosphere of the planet, looking towards other places. Surely they could find a better place, start again, build a more organized world, where they could see when the great disaster would have come. This world was not for them, no, it was terrible and pale.

Yet they saw no other worlds, not for a very long way away. Their journey would be a long one, and they set out, surging forward, moving across the vast emptiness, trying to forget, trying not to face the pain. Yet no matter how fast they ran, the pain was still ahead of them.

Still, they ran away, wanting to find something else.

Nameless knelt beside the dying figure of a god. His body had been healed as a final great act by the Gray God, and now his son whispered to him, "I knew it was a bad idea to create him. He killed you, father. Nathaniel struck you down. Why did you let him do that? Why didn't you dodge? No… no, it wasn't you, it was Nathaniel. I swear to you, father, I will find him. I will bring him low. I will avenge you father. I failed in my duty to protect you in the face of my greatest challenge, but I will avenge you…"

Tears dropped onto the myriad wrinkles of Eull's eternal visage, as the deity turned slightly looking up at the Unnamed Angel, and reaching out with an arm to touch his shoulder. In that instant, a miraculous thing happened.

"My son."

His voice was all at once an old man's croak, the sound of a loom slamming forward, the rush of a cool mountain spring, and the voice of a god. Nameless looked down into his eyes with surprise and shock, "Father? You speak?"

"Don't hunt him, my son. Let him go. Nathaniel must exist. That Angel has only just now taken the second step towards becoming Nathaniel. Leave him be."

"But… he killed you, father. I cannot live knowing that your murderer is still out there."

"You know you can. You can live through greater calamities than this."

"There is no greater calamity than this!"

"Let him go, my son, let him live."

Tears fell from Nameless's eyes once more as he struggled to find his words, "I… I can't…"

Eull stared at his son for a long moment before speaking again, but now far quieter, "Your name is Requiem."

That was Eull's last act on Tyonix. In the instant that he died, he looked confused for a moment, as though he spied something he had not expected, and then he was gone. Requiem wept beside his father for some time more, before finding a quiet grove to bury the god.

The emerald Singer approached the skull of the Titan Bird where it rested, looking out across the forests of the First Land from it's perch atop the cliff, "Seliss, please stop crying. The world needs to move forward once again, and the stone fears for those who shed your tears.

The downpour continued all around, sizzling where it struck the Singer, and sparkling in the light from the Emerald Sanctuary Stone. How could Seliss continue on, when father, the creator of what the Seliss was, had fallen. The stones were stones and could not feel the loss, the emotion of an entire world losing on of it's most powerful gods.

"The stones says that this is perhaps true, but it does understand the physiology of organic creatures, and they can't remain hydrated indefinitely. Those tears will eventually lead them to harm. Does the Seliss truly wish to inflict suffering upon it's forms?"

They were already in suffering, for Eull was gone, murdered by his own greatest creation. Though, just the same, it attempted to stem the flow of tears around the world, and the downpour slackened overhead.

The emerald Singer took a step back, "The stone will give you more time to prepare, but know that, when you are ready, it has pledged it's existence to you, in lieu of a creator to default to. It will do as you wish, whatever that wish might be."

The Ehk Rellis were almost a hundred billion megameters from Tyonix when something appeared before them, a point of light that had not been there before, like silver fire. As they neared it, they recognized the shape of their kin: Rel, his white, silver, and black form coiling within a pocket of wind and water held together by his own power in the infinite void. As they neared him and slowed to speak, they saw that he was struggling to hold back the forces of the cosmos from tearing him apart. His reserves were not limitless, so they spoke in haste, forming runes in the vacuum which Rel immediately understood, "Fool of a child! What have you come here for?! You do not have the power to return to Tyonix, and the nearest alternative is many years away!"

Rel spoke calmly, despite the strain of holding up his magic, "You should not run, cousins."

"Eull is dead, small one! The anchor of our power is gone, we have no more place upon Tyonix, we no longer belong there!"

"If that were true, that all you are relies on Eull, would you not have discorporated the instant the life fled the god?"

"Do not speak as though you know such things! He was us and we were him!" Ehk Rellis spelled out the runes in the sky, "Without him, we are lost, unaware! If we are to live, we must find another world! Away from-"

"Away from the pain? What of the Seliss, who wept for days, until she was forced to cease lest the mortals she lived within died of dehydration? What of the Blood Pit, who destroyed a full tenth of the worlds population of Angels? What of the Sakura, who even now is lost. How will they live, if they need another world?! What of the Shou Tahs, who you created?! Intend to leave them in the darkness? Intend to leave them to the ravages of time, until the Singers consume them?! What of the rest of Tyonix?! What of me, with no kin to turn to?! Seek to find a new home, do you? What of the home you fled?!"

Ehk Rellis was stunned into motionlessness. After a moment, however, it witnessed that Rel's power was almost gone, and so, with a great act of divine will, Ehk Rellis returned the entire group to the cold, empty Tyonix; the planet where Eull's grave rested. Rel collapsed against the coastline they had come up at, exhausted from it's powerful act, and Ehk Rellis returned to the sky, full of pain, but prepared to act once again.

The Dreamforge sat in the water, slowly churning it's immense tendrils around, aimless and content. However, in one instant, it perceived a threat which it remembered from long ago. A single Angel with a single sword, which had so easily evaded the swing of it's tentacles and fought of it's own defenders. However, this time, instead of sneaking up to the structure, it was shooting a ludicrous speeds, directly for the heart of the Living City. Well, defense would be a peace of cake, the city simply waved one of it's appendages to be in the path of the rocketing Angel, expecting it to splatter like an insect on a windshield.

However, Nathaniel was operating without concern for himself at this moment. With a choked sob, he screamed, "You shouldn't have told me!" and reached out with the Sword of Life, pumping every once of power he could muster into it, amplifying it with Golden Magic and Noctimancy alike.

His slash seemed to turn the world around it, and then the limb of the humongous Singer was severed, buildings and Singers pouring out of the stump like blood. Still, Nathaniel continued on, numb and lightheaded from the two-kilometer-wide slash that he had just summoned. He had drained all the power his arm granted him in a single slash, so felt no pain for a moment, but it soon returned, less an agony and more a dull ache, as he reached into the water with his considerable natural power, and summoned up plankton and Algea to go after the core of the city.

Meanwhile, a second tendril was swinging around to take a whack at the Angel. However, Nathaniel was fast, and used his Combat Maeuverability to zip around it's circumference even as it chased him, correcting it's course as it went. However, then a second appendage was spotted up ahead, clearly aiming to flatten Nathaniel between them. He couldn't cut another one off, but he did still possess the Sword of Life and his pain reserves had replenished somewhat, so instead he cut a simple hole in the surface of the structure, slipping inside and correcting his momentum enough to come to a skidding halt halfway down a hallway, surrounded by confused Singers, which he quickly cut down.

He found himself in a combat with a band of sorcerers, and struggling to win, his body straining from the constant infusions of suffering. He was able to disorient them with Noctimancy long enough to close the distance and led the Sword of Life do the work. Then he found what they had been doing in this tendril. There were thousands of Kraith in holding cells, being experimented on, here. Now, Nathaniel by no means liked the Kraitg, but he knew they could be of use, if they were to start rampaging now, and so set them free, every single one of them. A few tried to kill Nathaniel, but they were quick work for the Sword of Life.

Soon the Black Watch was upon the Kraith uprising, winning spectacularly, but Nathaniel didn't need them to win. Instead he slipped behind the Black Watch, guiding a hundred Kraith with him, and once they were through, he began going around the circumference of the tendril, placing strategical cuts in the structure, until the entire thing became unstable and broke off clean. All still within that part of the city would either be killed by the impact, crushed by the water flooding in, or drown.

Nathaniel directed the Kraith to head towards the heart of the city and cause as much mayhem as possible, and then dove off the Floyd img stub of a tendril that remained, shooting straight down, into the depths of the water far below. Once there, he looked to the algae and plankton he had sent here earlier, and found them to be in significant enough numbers to initiate the next step of his attack.

He used several Noctimancy blades to strike every pain center in his body at once, almost passing out from the torture he inflicted upon himself, and then used the power he collected to infuse the basic plantlife with greater drive. It combined together, advanced, toughened, and grew far larger. Soon cracks were forming around the base of the tentacles, and then rents in the actual core of the structure, allowing super cold water to shoot in in great quantities, destroying much.

With a few careful manipulations via Plant Charming and thin Noctimancy blades, each tendril was separated from it's heart, and dropped into the sea around it, where the advanced sea plants began attacking them and breaking them apart, into the most minute chunks, until the tendrils were all but gravel. Those who had lived inside those tendrils were fleeing the city, going as far away as they could go as fast as they could go. The armies of Black Watch, however, had survived, and rounded on Nathaniel even as he shot back up out of the water, shooting bullets of fire, ice, and bolts of lead after him. A few found purchase, but he healed those wound as soon as they appeared, before turning and summoning a vast shower of Noctimancy blades and lights of Golden Magic.

As he drifted through the air, numb and dizzy from enacting so many colossal spells in such a small time frame, he wondered where his Golden Magic came from, now that Eull was dead. As soon as he wondered about that, however, he turned away, and fired off towards the center of the Dreamforge, shooting into it through a crack in it's side. Once there, he began laying waste to every single structure he spotted. It took hours, and soon, all who had been within this area had fled, evacuating in the wake of what must be Mahkleb's vengeance itself.

The city was empty, even the Kraith had moved on, and the magic was failing, to the point that the entire structure was collapsing in on itself. In that moment, Nathaniel looked down at his hands, and whispered, "Why did you show me?"

This act had not helped him. This was pure destruction. The act of killing Eull had been pure destruction. Was he capable of nothing but pure destruction?!

His eyes fell on the Sword of Life, and a decision was made within him.

All that remained of the Dreamforge after that, was an empty orb, half collapsed, encased in algae, and submerged halfway underwater. There would be many travelers to this location in the short term and distant future, but the most immediate ones would be the Idrists, who, using their Idrian's mining capabilities, would excavate the scene, searching for a relic of use. When they found the Belltower of Life, they dismantled it and transported it back to Rivis, where it was erected back, underground. The tunnels would eternally echo with it's toll from that day onward.

The Master Rings of Telepathy were mostly destroyed, along with the Octarchs, but three survived. One was lost in the Hall of Composers, which sank to the bottom of the ocean. One drifted on a piece of wood for thousands of kilometers, until it reached Wetami, and a Yosei girl picked it up at the dockside. One was kept by Nathaniel, who found it a passing curiousity.

The Sword of Life. The item that had defined him for most of his existence. Nathaniel stared at it as he knelt in a clearing just outside of Farea. It was an item of destruction. It had done nothing except destroy in all the time that he had held it. It caused him pain, it killed a god, it rendered a city into gravel. It defined him, and as such, it's destruction would be remembered as his destruction. Mahav's Blade. Nathaniel did not lift the blame from himself, he also made the decisions to attack and to use the weapom, but perhaps that was all the more reason to abandon it…

With a twist of his magical prowess, he used the Sword itself to sever the hand that held it from his wrist. In that instant, the hand disintegrated, and his arm went from inflamed red to natural skin once more. For the first time in eons, the pain faded, and not from eldritch tampering either, the pain was completely gone. The hand refused to grow back, no matter how much Healing Magic he used, but the stump healed over cleanly as he stood back up, and turned to leave. He had been right handed, so his fighting days were gone.

The nonviolent Faeries would find the Sword of Life, and take care of it through the age.

Nathaniel went north, to a cave on the far side of the White Mountains, where darkness reigned half the year and he gazed out over a frozen ocean every hour of every day. He kept the Master Ring on at all times, of course, but, for now, this was the end of the saga of Nathaniel…

5 points to Event: Belltower of Life goes to Rivis, Hall of Composers is lost at the bottom of the ocean, one Master Ring of Telepathy is found in Yosei, one Master Ring of Telepathy is lost in the ocean, one Master Ring of Telepathy is kept by by Nathaniel, and the Sword of Life is found by the Faeries.

10 points to Catastrophe: Destroy the Dreamforge, the Living City, and all armies currently occupying the city.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4306361/)

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4308708/) bringing me up to 40

The Shadowbirds were unhapy about not being able to go to war, because it was their nature, but they understood that it was not their time to shine yet. They would need to prepare more in the mean time.

The problem with Owtebs not being superior to the Owtfes was finally solved when they created the 12-way boulder, a huge rock 10 meters in diameter. The rock was to serve as a weapon, utilizing the Shadowbirds' experience with levitation seals. It was made of 12 parts,each shaped differently, that fitted together to greate a single near-spherical rock. Each had two modified levitation glyphs inscribed. One of those would charge up energy and release it in a huge burst. It would collect energy from any source, even rain hittingthe surface of the rock. This was to guarantee that the rock, once reassembled could easily recharged, and that if dropped from high above, the energy it would gather simply by falling would be enough to reliably trigger its separation. The other could be activated to push the different parts of the boulder towards each other, making it possible for the boulder to be transported as a single object.

Soon tests were being conducted over the First Land, tests that would have consequences not envisionned by the Shadowbirds.

Nios could not believe something like this had happened. The death of God was beyond any unbalance ever created. The Death of Yellow Gods and the inactivity of others were bad enough , but a full fledged deity like the Grey one should not have been killed.

Nios would have to rehink the world before he did anything else, but such unbalance needed to be repaired soon. Besides himself, there were only two major gods and a pantheon remaining. The wonders created by the Grey god were too disturbed for now, having lost their creator. Once the situation settled, Nios would act, but until then he would wait, unless the situation became critical.

3 points : Command Race - Create Wonder "The 12-way boulder"
37 points remaining
+3 next turn

[Omegonthesane]

As they felt their duties in the south were done, the Fort Liberty Enforcers returned to their original post upholding the law within the Farea-Liberty settled zone, while the 2nd Liberators took up the duty once held by the 3rd Sanctuary Militia, to defend the lands around Sanctuary. The Aegis briefly deactivated as the six anti-priests who had been substituting for foci left their posts, but new, faithful foci were soon found. As the demons had promised, since they had no more immediate pressing need to make war upon humans, the Wand of Death was left behind, on a pedestal in the relatively unharmed palace.
It is doubtful that time meant the same thing in the Plane of Thunder that it did on the surface of Tyonix, but the aura of doom and finality had not left the place, growing all the more oppressive with each waking moment, like a funeral song blared out of every corner and every wall. Indeed, a similar aura of panic and urgency surrounded the place to that which had accompanied Bellerophat's dying moments; none knew what kind of doom was to befall them, but every player of the Lyre had warned that death was coming, and indeed towards the end, players of the Lyre received the same static in the portal to the future that they had once received in the portal to the past.

It was in the very last hour before the doom finally struck that a Singer archmage thought to pen all that they knew, in the hope that some scrap of it might escape the fate that was to befall them. Being a master of the Spells of Destruction in their ancient, efficient form, they wrote what looked like a picture book - only, instead of anything one would want to behold, the pictures were all scenes of death, some mercifully quick, some agonisingly slow, but all horrifying in their way. A person who looked more closely, and could decipher the musical staves in which Singer-speech of old was written, would realise that these pictures were in fact drawn in runes, runes which instructed the reader in a spell which would inflict the form of horrifying death portrayed. Not surprisingly, this grimoire was unimaginatively called the Book of Death, and the last rune of its last picture had hardly dried when the Doom began.
Eull was dead.

Makhleb had felt a change in the world, the instant it happened. The Wanderer had been one of the few things it could not reliably find, guarded by sorceries of unstoppable might when he wanted to remain hidden, yet now that it was over, the corpse was not so hard to find. A strange, robed figure watched from the distance, as Requiem, for so long the Nameless Angel, buried his father. All over the world, the various beings in which some shadow of Eull lived on reacted to the death, raging against beings vaguely similar to his murderer, or weeping an ocean for their lost father, or trying to flee the world, or simply fluttering away as if on a wind in confusion.

To each of them, Eull had been a parent, a creator, a relative they would never see again. To Makhleb, the Wanderer had been the ultimate source of any setbacks and conflicts - the last, in these days. Its rebellious Demon children had ceased to make war upon their Singer ancestors, and the Sun, for so long a willing and unknowing servant of Destruction, had finally seen sense. Even Nios, strange being that it was, could not be counted on to continue a destructive conflict. There was to be an inevitable struggle between the sea-dwellers and the Destroyer's descendants, the last remnant of Eull's work, but that was not the eternal strife that Destruction and Bloodshed demanded.

Who was it that was owed retribution in this? Nathaniel had done the deed, yet that had been retribution for Eull's years of torment. Makhleb's word had allowed the immortal angel to work out the truth, yet that had been a good act, by the flame's standard, an act of Purification, of removing the filth of deceit and secrecy.

Elsewhere, a part of its immortal spirit looked upon the works that were being performed in Newhaven, Lothar's pet city, a place that proved that not even the Kraith were pure in their wickedness. The city had committed terrible excesses and evils against its own, but they were the evils of its tyrannical ruler, not of its people spawned from the Blood Pit. It looked upon the interactions of Kraith death-magic and Elvish restorative spells, and it extrapolated in an instant what it would have taken another ten years for mortals to fully realise.

In that instant, it knew against whom, or rather what, it was to bring retribution - and how it could.

Hellish flames danced all over the world, in every tomb, in every graveyard. In the Necropolis of Amasehk, fully half of the Werblume mummies simply climbed out of their coffins, their eyes burning with an eerie blue light. Among the many shallow graves dug after the battle of Figurae, perhaps one in every ten dead humans was still intact enough to regrow the remainder of its flesh, and clawed his or her way out of the ground. In Farea, where few were willing to acknowledge death much less act around it, and in Elfmoot, where the dead were cast into the ground to feed new Life, once again the most recently dead got up and walked again, the same eerie blue light in their eyes. Those dead bodies in Khral which had not been reanimated by Makhleb's mightiest sorcerer similarly got up to serve again, as did a number of dead Saku Rasi, and Suri, and Fari, and Imps, and Idrians, and a Shou Tahs or five, and even a few Idrist, though their eldritch tentacles failed to regrow. The Shadowbirds were not completely spared, some of their members thought dead suddenly repairing themselves with a strange blue light in their eyes. Not even the Trell were completely spared - though there was only one of their kind who was freshly dead enough for the spell to work. The Nereids escaped this fate, for their bodies were liquid and could not be told from water; the Stringwork did as well, for it had no meaningful separation between its aspects, and in any case was made out of magic-resistant Ignea; while the Angels, Demons, and Singers skirted it by the simpler metric of not leaving corpses to be reanimated. The Spirits born of the Angels, and the strange beings made from the Trell, were not even corporeal while living, so their corpses, if any, were immune to the dark combination of Mortimancy and Healing Magic that the Destroyer was perpetrating.

Those races unfortunate enough to leave corporeal bodies found that a significant minority of their recently dead had turned into Wights, sentient undead beings which - unlike the zombies first created by Kraith mortimancers - retained the motives and drives of the living beings they once were. Their bodies walked in a pale mockery of life, however; all senses other than their "primary" ones - sight and hearing, typically - were deadened to the point of near uselessness, most importantly the sense that allowed the living to feel pain; similarly, the Wights had only those bodily functions which were both entirely essential and could merely be operated by unholy magic, rather than completely replaced or ignored; they could not reproduce in the natural fashion, though each one was reborn with the knowledge of the spell that would make more Wights regardless of its deeper knowledge of either Healing Magic or of Mortimancy.

It would not take long for a scholar to discover the other price that Wights paid for cheating the inconveniences of life. They did not simply live on nothing, but drained ambient life at a slow rate to fuel the spell that kept them animate; it was the Trell who spotted it first, when they saw that their trees drooped by the smallest margin compared to past ages, their grasses and flowers grew the faintest fraction of an inch shorter, and their quick-living guests complained just that little bit more often of sickness and weariness. Ironically, it was the Idrist who had the fewest problems with this once they realised what was going on; using Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, they could violate conservation of magic, and in this way they changed the nature of the price the Wights extracted from them.
Many would suffer, and much strife would be caused, by this deed; yet this was not why Makhleb had done it. There was one single body it meant to use this dark magic upon, now that it had perfected it. One body that its cloaked corporeal form had not stopped watching, in order to create a Wight which might know something of where the lost god had gone. It dug away the soil that Requiem had piled upon Eull, and gestured, and spoke.

"Get up. Wake up." it commanded, in the same voice with which it had created the Wights. The wounds and already-present decay of the body reversed themselves, but nothing else happened.

"Get up. Wake up." it commanded again, to no avail.

"Get up. Wake up. Get up. Wake up. Get up! Wake up! Get up! Wake up! Get up! Get up! GET UP!"

The divine flesh moved not an inch.

Despite everything, despite breaking the one law that not even the Kraith had managed to violate, Makhleb found its will denied.

For the first time, the Red God howled in despair.
Many beings, especially mystics, reported hearing a strange scream in the distance, as fell clouds gathered all over the world. There was a disagreement about the voice that screamed; some heard a deep, guttural, booming roar, others the wail of a newborn babe, still others an inhuman thing that only approximated a scream. Regardless, it was heard in all the places where the red lightning was about to strike.

The majority of these strange bolts left a pack of confused and disoriented Singers in their wake, as if summoned by the lightning flash - as indeed, they had been thrown out of the Plane of Thunder by the strike.

One red bolt struck a tree in the Grove, burning it to ash - and leaving behind the Garden of Pestilence.

Another red bolt struck in Ikilim, and left behind the Book of Death; but a second bolt struck the Book, and spirited it back away again, while a third bolt struck an unfortunate monkey in Herz. It was on this monkey's head that the Book of Death came to rest at last, there to be wielded by whichever monkey first deciphered it.

In seven places, a red bolt struck, and left behind the Lyre of Prophecy; in six of these, another red bolt struck and took it away, leaving its final location in Saorsa - atop a podium which once held a statue, an ornament which had been destroyed by the thirteenth lightning strike.

Many places reported seeing a strange ghostly building appear in one flash of red lightning and disappear in another, but it was on top of a plaza of Imptopia that the Golem Factory finally settled, to meet whatever fate the Black Marketeers could devise for it.

A Shadowbird Wight was shot down by another red lightning strike, and crashed into Andromeda; when the wreckage was searched, the Fan of Gales turned up in its broken chassis.

An odd sphere appeared and disappeared over and over, in flashes of red lightning. It finally settled in the wake of a blast that struck where the Wandering Sakura originally lay, only to be swiftly pulled into a safer place by the Saku Rasi attendants, who venerated the site even if they did not necessarily know their god would return to them. It was perhaps fitting that these firstborn wanderers were the ultimate inheritors of the Portal Labyrinth.

A bolt of red lightning struck where the Dreamforge had once stood, and plucked the Hall of Composers from the depths, leaving a wave of confused Singers in its wake; a second strike fell upon Destroyer's Peak, returning this prestigious building to those who had first created it. Some tethering had to follow, as the spherical structure at first simply rolled down the side of the Peak, taking superficial damage in the process.

However, unfortunately for the defenders, a second bolt of red lightning struck the Peak, and in its wake the Horn of Winter disappeared; a third strike delivered it to Ruttivorat, atop the stump of a blasted tree..

A hundred or more times, the red lightning struck, each time leaving behind a new band of Singers banished forever from Makhleb's demiplane. By the time the storm abated, nothing was left in that dreaded place; all the life and wonders that once dwelt there had been cast into the world below.
Power roll: 2d6+3+3=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4308345/)
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 16 points

1 point: Shape World (Plane of Thunder) to Command Race (Singers) to Create Wonder (The Book of Death, a spellbook containing all the various methods Singers have devised in which sorcery may be used to cause death)
5 points: Event - Pre-empting sorcerous developments in Newhaven, Makhleb combines Healing Magic with Mortimancy to reanimate thousands of random corpses around the world as Wights, sentient undead beings which feel no pain, feed off ambient life force, and can't reproduce the "living people" way.. By some quirk of the spell, all Wights are capable of making other Wights even if they don't have any broader knowledge of either Healing Magic or Mortimancy (i.e. every race is allowed to raise Wight armies). Of course, the one corpse Makhleb actually wanted to reanimate - Eull - refuses to play along, leading to a temper tantrum expressed as...
5 points: Event - Red lightning strikes in various places, either striking a Wonder and causing it to vanish, or else leaving either a Wonder or a bunch of Singers in the place struck. The remaining Planeside Singers are thereby banished from the Plane of Thunder. Once all the shuffling is done, the Hall of Composers is in Destroyer's Peak, the Golem Factory is in Imptopia, the Garden of Pestilence is in the Grove, the Lyre of Prophecy is in Saorsa, the Book of Death is in Herz, the Fan of Gales is on the Andromeda carrier, the Portal Labyrinth is in Sakura, and the Horn of Winter, of all things, leaves the Singers again and lands in Ruttivorat, of all places.

0 points: Command Army (Enforcers) to defend the Farea-Liberty Settled Zone
0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to defend the Sanctuary Settled Zone

5 points remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4306361/)
Current Power Points: 12

The world around her was cool, still, and silent. She knelt in a pool of water in a room of black marble no larger than a broom closet. She was distant from her body, numb and still, unaware of the hunger that filled her, she didn't feel her thirst. She was almost asleep so there was no need of that either. She was naked, all except for a single ring upon her left hand.

Yet for all this, there was turmoil within her mind. A thousand voices echoing back and forth, a cacophony within her mind. Normally, this would have caused her endless headaches, disorientation, even paranoia, as it had in her mother, but numb as she was, so far from the pounding in her head, all that existed, were the voices.

She was almost finished, however. A moment later, Kamui Yotesidotter willed herself to take the ring off, and reach forward to tap, lightly on the front wall.

After an uncertain amount of time, the wall was lifted, and though the room beyond was almost too dark to see it, Kamui blinked back the stars that appeared in her vision. Strong hands lifted her from under the arms and carried her to the bed that had been used a thousand times. Servant girls toweled her dry once she was there, and sips of pomegranate water were placed to her lips. After another amount of time that she could not discern, a man, a scribe, knelt beside her, and she whispered to him. Whispered for hours on end, as the Yosei man scribbled away at his scroll.

When she was finished, he stood, and carried the scroll to her stewards, and they took the words she had whispered and put them into motion, sending out men to collect items that many thousand Werblumes and Saku Rasi desired, sending out men to sabotage the attempts of others to gather such items, putting forward propaganda that most swiftly win over the hearts of those who doubted or which would most quickly dash the doubts of their rivals, and all around swelling their empire.

Outside the walls of Kamui's estate, the Grand Bazaar of Wetami lay. A sprawl in which all merchants had to pay their due. A place where anything in the world could be found. An avenue to riches and treasures. Kamui kept the money flowing inwards as she collected all the items in the world, and then, on occasion, sold them in vast quantities to the merchants within. Those merchants would always buy, and all the items would always be sold within the day, for the merchants knew that whatever Kamui put forward, would always sell, usually the price didn't even matter.

She had a bit of an instinct for these things, it seemed.

3 points to Command the Yosei to Construct the "Grand Bazaar" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Settle the westernmost inch of the Latticework Land.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Settle the inch just east of it's own settled inch in the Latticework Land.

[Settle Territories not included in above descriptioning, as they're essentially just reaching critical mass in numbers enough to be considered "settled". Also, further reactions to the recent mass wonder-shuffling will come next round.]

Current Power Points: 3
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4309484/)

[ImperialSunligh]

The poor monkey who was struck by the bolt and badly injured was part of a nearly starving family of monkeys living on a farm in the outskirts of Herz. His family suffered greatly from his injury as his wife was now the sole breadwinner of their family. They examined the book of death, but had no idea what it was. They certainly didn't like the images in it, being faithful followers of the pantheon. Besides that, it was a reminder of the tragedy.

Before they could destroy it in the fire, an agent of the empire happened to come to the door. The empire liked to keep a good concept of the state of its people, within reason, and they often sent their agents to conduct a mandatory census. This was truly one of those visits. The book was left open on a desk when the wife opened the door. At first, the agent merely began conducting his census, but upon seeing the book, he said, "What's that you have over there?"

"Oh, that?" she said, before explaining where it came from. Meanwhile, the agent had reached to examine it, the wife nodding that it was okay for him to examine it.

The agent realized the value of the item, seeing the bizarre craftsmanship and recognizing the text from somewhere. Especially given the story the woman told him, he couldn't leave it. He knew that the empire could use this, whatever it was.

He could easily have taken advantage of the family's poverty and ignorance as to the nature of the item, but he instead offered to pay them a massive sum for the book if she gave it to him immediately, no questions asked. She, of course, accepted, having no use for it and wanting to get rid of it anyway.


The Empire also realized the potential of the text and put a great deal of effort into studying it. Scholars were hired from Sophei and further to translate and interpret the text. Eventually they learned that what the text contained, the dark Spells of Destruction used by the singers.

Many were against the use of these secrets, claiming that the book and all notes on it should be cast away. Others claimed that it would make a good offering of peace to the singers.

The emperor had the final decision. He was a practical leader, and decided that these spells were not absolutely evil by nature. He claimed that destruction could be used for good. The empire itself was founded on the destruction of the old regime. He declared the spells a gift of fate, an indication that the monkeys are a truly blessed people that deserve to rule.

The book was placed in a secret imperial library. The book itself was to be used only for the education of destruction spell users or in case of attack against Herz.

A sect of the imperial guard began to study the spells of destruction and the Book of Death in addition to the Herzian practices. They became known as the dark monks. Their existence was rumored alone by the populace. Few could attest to having direct knowledge of their existence, which the empire kept under wraps. An army of these new warriors was already created, however. They were sent away from Herz to help keep themselves secret from the general populace for the moment.

They were sent to defend the now vulnerable Figurae. The humans knew little of both the spells and the martial magics and thus would be less suspicious. And the recent conflict would mean that the city would welcome whatever military forces it could use.

The empire wouldn't keep the secret forever, of course. Just long enough to minimize backlash against the idea. The majority of monkeys worshiped the pantheon, after all, and thus tended to be wary of the influence of Makhleb in their culture.

Another army of defenders was created by the Order of Eknad, comprised of humans from all of their settlements, using all of their technology to great effect. They were sent along with the dark monks to defend Figurae.

The family that sold the Book of Death to the empire had been given quite a large sum of money, making them disproportionately rich compared to anyone nearby.

The family formed a company known as Zuhause Agriculture, which became a powerful force that provided much of the supply of food for Herz.

A town quickly sprang up around the family's base of operations, a fairly small, tight-knit community of farmers and other agricultural workers. The town was officially named Zuhause by the emperor in honour of Zuhause Agriculture's contribution to Herz's economy.

The recent attitudes of the emperor and other monkeys contributed to a general feeling of entitlement and superiority among the monkeys. They felt that their devotion to Anike and their unique culture in the Herzian made them a significantly seperate culture from that of the humans, yet they often lived among the humans. The populations of monkeys in the human city of Figurae had grown to roughly 18%, as it was a politically important place in the past. In Eupnea as well, a large population of monkeys lived, mostly for religious reasons.

These monkeys formed a cultural movement that identified a significant amount of prejudice held by the humans against their smaller allies. The humans often didn't take monkeys seriously in scholarly settings, seeing them as being universally lighthearted and playful as their god is seen as being.

The monkeys made a serious effort to form communities where their culture could flourish outside of Herz. Outside of Eupnea, a small community of monkeys known as Atemzug was created. It was an intellectual and religious community of those dedicated to the gods. Another community, Gestalt, was formed outside of Figurae, of those monkeys who needed to live in Figurae for political reasons. Figurae may have fallen from its status as the center of human society, but it was still the home of the human nobility, a concept that was not yet wholly abandoned.

Both of these communities included the primary races of the area as well, but were mostly inhabited by monkeys.

2d6+1=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4310730/)

Command City, Herz, Political Maneuver, Steal Tech, Spells of Destruction, -2
Command Order, Order of Eknad, Raise 2nd Army of Defenders, -2
Command Order, Empire of Monkeys, Raise Army of Dark Monks, -2
Command City of Herz, Create Satellite: "Zuhause", -2
Command City of Figurae, Create Satellite: "Gestalt", -2
Command City of Eupnea, Create Satellite: "Atemzug", -2

Command Army, 2nd Army of Defenders, defend Figurae.
Command Army, Dark Monks, defend Figurae.

Left: 1

[Neelien]

Rolled 10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4310934/) bringing me up to 47


During one of the many tests involving the 12-way boulder, the shadowbirds miscalculated the power stored in the boulder at the time of impact. The result was that the boulder broke into its components. The Shadowbirds managed to collect 6 of the 12 parts, but the remainder flew very far across the globe.The event was recorded by many who saw "huge rocks flying at the speed of sound in a strait line right above the surface, destroying everything in their way". Eventually, when their energy was drained the rocks settled in various places of the world, facing random directions. Over time, they collected energy and when they reached their limit, they discharged, they were sent flying again.The cycle would repeat until all the elements were united.


5 points - event - break the 12 way bolder - now six stones fly over the world on average every 50 years.
42 points remaining +3 next turn.

[5a Violista]

This time: 19
5 + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4306215/) + 3(Cult) + 3(Chaos) =19

The Martyr felt sadness, now that Lothar was gone. The trees and the forest and the elves were all still there...but now he was gone and she had nobody to follow around.

Sooner or later, she was going to work up the courage to communicate with him face-to-face... Now, she just continues wandering around Elfmoot, feeling mostly useless.


Meanwhile,

The werewolves saw a new form of death springing up across the world: The Wights. They were cruel mockeries of life, and deserved to be torn to shreds and devoured. Those "blessed" with lycanthropy now didn't just go after solitary bloodthirsty Kraith, but they also devoured the corpses of the wights they came across. The rest, who saw it as a curse, felt their new hatred for the wights as a handy way to avoid them in direct confrontation.

By a stroke of chance, it was impossible for any creature "blessed" with lycanthropy to rise as a wight, as they already rose for a few nights after death to devour the corpses of the freshly-dead. Just a new incentive to fight savagely to the end.

((Werewolves see the new forms of death, and occasionally fight them. (5: Event. Dead werewolves don't become wights, but come alive to devour the freshly-dead for up to nearly a month during the night.: Werewolf bonus is now +1 against Wights and +1 against Kraith, and -1 against anything else. They also don't get the Defender's Bonus against non-Wight/non-Kraith.)))

Eull had died. Aniqua felt sad, even though she hardly knew the god.

While other gods rampaged or were frustrated, the God of Life felt she had to leave the world, hide in the furthest and darkest corner, and mourn. She drew much of her power and influence from the world as she was gone, to sustain her.

As a result, a new disease spawned, which spread through blood and water. Any plants that got it would bloom for a shorter time. Any fresh water with it in it would become very bitter, and people who got it would heal much more slowly.


((Aniqua grieves and temporarily withdraws from the world. (5: Event) As a result, a new disease spread in blood and water is introduced, which causes flowers to bloom for a shorter time, fresh water sometimes becomes bitter, and many people don't recover from other sicknesses as quickly.))

After several years, the fairies who would take care of the Sword of Life became a more select group. Eventually, most faeries didn't even know it was still in Farea.

Feeling that they had to dispose of this god-killing sword, they planted it well beneath a flower garden somewhere in Farea, and protected its location with their magics. The faeries who guarded its location decided to follow the cue of the demons and build their own army, sworn to keep the Sword of Life and its location a secret. They decided to not let anyone else use it.

Whenever someone asked what they were doing, gathered together and practicing fighting, they would often giggle and say, "It's a secret," before fluttering off to another flower or tree.


((Faeries hide the Sword of Life. They also create their first army, which defends the location and the knowledge of the Sword of Life. (1: through Command Avatar) Army is named "Secrets."))


With the Lyre of Prophecy in their city, some Idrians felt the need to play it. With this newfound power in their city, they decided to guard it, since they all knew what happened so long ago, the last time an object of power appeared in their city.

So the city of Saorsa recruited for another army. In reference to the Lyre of Prophecy, many felt like calling their army "Innocence Lost" - who knows what they had seen using it - but the name soon got shortened to just "Innocence."


Lyre of Prophecy in Saorsa. Build new army. (1: through Command Avatar)


With many of the Nereids living out of the sea, some felt the need to be even closer to the water. Some searched back in the memory of the sea, back to when the first Nereids existed. Back then, before their voice could be heard by others, they could speak to even the water itself.

So they relearned how to do this ancient skill. However, instead of merely speaking to the water, they used it to control the water: the more pure they were (less blood drunken), the more they could command the water to do their bidding - even having it leave the pools and move around where they wished.


Advance Civilization: the Nereids: in Waterbending (6)


Werewolves see the new forms of death, and occasionally fight them. (5: Event. Dead werewolves don't become wights, but come alive to devour the freshly-dead for a month during the night.: Werewolf bonus is now +1 against Wights and +1 against Kraith, and -1 against anything else. They also don't get the Defender's Bonus against non-Wight/non-Kraith.)

Aniqua grieves and temporarily withdraws from the world (to explain not posting last time). (5: Event): A new disease spread in blood and water is introduced, which causes flowers to bloom for a shorter time, fresh water sometimes becomes bitter, and many people don't recover from other sicknesses as quickly.

Belltower of Life found in Rivis.

Faeries hide the Sword of Life. They also create their first army. (1: Create Army through Command Avatar) Army is named "Secrets."
They defend the Sword of Life and (try to) keep the hidden location of the sword a secret.

Lyre of Prophecy found in Saorsa. Build new army. (1: Create Army through Command Avatar) Army is called "Innocence"
They defend Saorsa.

Advance Civilization: the Nereids: in Waterbending (6) (:smalltongue: Sorry, I couldn't come up with a better name.)

Points left: 19 - 5 - 5 - 6 - 1 - 1 = 1

[Omegonthesane]

Many of the people of Newhaven had been at least partially raised in the traditional Kraith manner, and were unable to completely overcome the effects of this cruel and neglectful upbringing. The innate paranoia that such ways engendered had not even completely removed itself from the children of those children that Lothar had stolen, decades ago, though they were far more able to trust eachother than their parents had been. However, any who doubted that there had been progress had only to look to the relatively crude fishing vessels that had begun appearing, flying the ocarina flag of Newhaven, as for the first time in recorded history Kraith had learned to trust one another enough to serve as a ship's crew over reasonably long distances. Indeed, a special niche was found for those Kraith unfortunate enough to be born with the mutation of blunt claws; such tragic throwbacks were typically raised only to be killed for their blood later, whereas now they were the only ones who could handle many of Newhaven's tools, for razor-sharp claws are hardly a practical gripping device.

Yet ultimately, the attempt to raise an army of warlocks to defend the city failed; the Kraith there simply lacked the trust and cohesion that Lothar required in an army. The effort did lead to them investing more in the one protector they did have, and many of the sorcerer-tyrant's servants spent long hours in speeches explaining that their mighty art of Phobimancy was no more inherently evil than the sword at his waist. It was a tool that could only directly do harm, but so was the ocarina that gave Lothar his powers; surely, they argued, it could be used to prevent greater harm.

Ultimately, Lothar agreed, and favoured the use of Phobimancers as watchers - after training them to use their art subtly and carefully, rather than sadistically. True, the most famous spells of fear-magic caused unease and paranoia, yet inspired by their tyrant, this batch of Kraith formed an alarm system based on fear magic as well as a protective shroud of foreboding. If a force with hostile intent cut through the shroud of worry and marched on Newhaven, then with a few whispered words the whole city would be jolted with the same fear and urgency associated with an alarm bell, without the need to actually ring the alarm bell and thus inform the invaders that they had been spotted. Of course, after using that bell to train his mages, Lothar deemed that it was to be left standing, ostensibly as an objet d'art, but in reality as a backup in case the Phobimancer watch failed.

As he watched his charges grow and progress, something nagged at the sorcerer who was once a farmboy. His own parents, were they still alive, would surely hardly recognise him after the changes his form had undertaken; indeed, he had counted sixty winters, give or take, since he fled Figurae, yet his flesh and bone had not deteriorated as all mortal bodies did. Was this the Ocarina's work, or the result of too much elvish craft, or something even more worrying?

It was inevitable that some of the hybrid race known as Yosei would find themselves raised more by the Werblumes than by the nominally Saku Rasi family from which they nominally originated. After all, the same spark that had allowed such counterintuitive unions to actually be fertile cared nothing for which half bore the child, so inevitably many of them were simply born into Werblume homesteads instead of Saku Rasi ones, and simply remained within that social structure without the ties of the original Yosei family to distinguish them.

Yet, ultimately, they were tied to that family through the secret affairs that first spawned them, as the family had made a point of marrying into every lesser group that shared their tastes, guided by the Destroyer's hand to ensure that they had somewhere to run to if their Werblume kin ultimately rejected them. It was inevitable that of those raised in the ways of the Werblume, some would learn their myriad technologies; however, many of these were already available to them by calling in favours from the Saku Rasi. The family therefore focused their efforts on those outlier members who had become Swarm Manipulators, or mastered the Totemic Sigils, or danced the Dance of the Rising Spring; the Werblumes inevitably learned of these efforts, and were able to exert pressure of their own to make sure their secrets did not spread. It was easy enough for them to keep Swarm Manipulation under wraps; however, this was as much for want of Yosei interest as for want of great beehives in which to practice it, for the Yosei had yet to construct or acquire a place designed to teach that art rather than to produce mead. Suppressing the Totemic Sigils was significantly harder, as they could simply be written in a book, while the Dance was openly practised by many races in the Immortal Colleges so was bound to get out eventually.

Had the various heads of Yosei family branches not been willing to pay quite so much, those of their cousins who learned these arts might have kept them secret, but the temptation of a lifetime's supply of finest mead and a holiday home on the beaches of the First Land was strong enough for many.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4309674/)
Power rollover: 5 points
Total 15 points

2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to grant Phobimancy to Lothar the Cursed only
2 points: Command City (Wetami) to Political Maneuver to steal Dance of the Rising Spring for the Yosei.
2 points: Command City (Juqax) to Political Maneuver to steal Totemic Sigils for the Yosei.
5 points: Event - Cultural exchanges between branches of the family result in the two stolen techs becoming common to all present and future Yosei, rather than being restricted to Wetami and Juqax.

4 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4309484/)
Current Power Points: 15

For the past few decades, there was a place in the Grove which baffled the Trell. A lightning bolt had struck a tree, only a few meters away from the outer branches of the Marrow Tree itself, and instead of catching fire, the tree had been replaced with a sprawl of strange, alien vines, fruits, and plants. There had also been a few Singers among the plantlife, but those had either fled quickly, or been dispatched by Demon protectors of the Marrow Tree.

In the years that had followed, the Trell had believed this to be a gold mine of new botanical information, as many of the plants in this garden had been engineered, creating entire new lifeforms. However, as they researched the plants in this garden, they soon discovered a distressing fact: every single plant in this garden could harm or kill other living things, even other plants or Trell, as a few were unfortunate enough to discover. These were plants designed explicitly for war.

However, the Trells were nothing if not masters of plantlife. They easily reverse-engineered the process of creating these plants, until they could recreate many of them from scratch if they were thusly inclined. Of course, that was not their aim, and soon they utilized the art to create plants which would have the exact opposite effects of the poisonous plants in the other garden. Perfect antidotes were crafted. Vines whose bark made perfect bandages when peeled. Salves and elixirs were even found pooling in the blossoms of large flowers.

Not only this, but some items in the Garden of Pestilence were not simple poisons, and so, the foil to these kinds of plants were not simple antidotes. For example, there were spores which rose awareness when inhaled and well as fruits which could allow the eater immense strength for a short period of time.

Naturally, the Trells maintained the Garden of Pestilence, though they did gradually move it farther away from the Marrow Tree and other highly populated areas, and closer to the Garden of Antidotes.

Aidededrūl looked down at his hands, mournfully.

Blackened bark creaked as he opened and closed his fingers, and strange blue sap shone and glittered like fire in the cracks in this bark. It wasn't his hand. It couldn't be his hand. His bark was light brown, and his sap never showed like that.

Aidededrūl was a Trell. Or, he had been, before he had been burned to death by some Kraith who had been practicing their Pyromancy. Practicing it on Aidededrūl, that is. However, after he had collapsed into a smoldering heap, something had happened, and even after he had died, he stood back up. Part of him knew he was something else, but Trell are not so easily unmade, and Aidededrūl knew that he would not harm others or make more wights, no matter how much he desired it.

Though, now, he stood in the same place where he had been burnt, forty years before. His fruit had not grown back, and looking around, he began to realize that the trees nearest him were collapsing and growing brittle, rotting through even as they sprouted from the ground. He knew, instantly, that it was his presence which had wrought this awful change.

Dimly aware of a deep sadness, he finally moved on, so the plants of this forest might recover. He didn't allow the crushing weight of what he had become to truly come down on him as he walked. He could not have faced it…

The Ryokan owners around Hahebuto were restless. Almost all of the ancient inns hated this new city, Shipwreck, which broke the traditions of their land. The fact that it was made of mostly the wreckage of Saku Rasi ships, and that occasional individuals went missing in the streets certainly did not help. It was in this age that word was being sent to Hahebuto, requesting their Kyūdōka take action.

Now, Hahebuto did not wish to destroy a primarily peaceful city, but it could not deny the will of the many Ryokans all around. Of course, the owner of Hahebuto, Suko Hahebuto, could naturally use double talk to shift the responsibility off of his shoulders. He declared that such an act of war was not in his power to commit, and that he would need blessing from the majority of the other three major Ryokans first. A vote would be asked from Sela, Sakura, & Wetami, as to whether an attack should be made.

Wetami, with it's major "alien" Yosei population, not to mention the Road Builders, sent back an emphatic "no", also stating a belief that an alliance ought to be made instead.

Sela, being very traditionalist, sent back with a wholehearted "yes", even going on to state that they would send their own Kyūdōka to help, should it come to that.

However, Sakura's reply did not come on time, and a full three weeks passed beyond the original expected arrival date, before a letter finally made it's way to Suko. It read:

Honorable Suko,

The holy Wandering Sakura has returned to us. It arrived just as we were discussing what to do with the Nereid development. We believe the timing of it's return is significant, as I and several advisors were speaking in the Sakura's courtyard. Speaking of committing the purge, in fact, when we noticed there was a blossom on one of the ancient branches. We have spent some time interpreting it's intentions, it's meaning in returning now, and we believe we now know why it came.

The Sakura saw us about to make a grave mistake, and needed to show itself to us, to remind us that we are wanderers. It reminded us where we came from, and who we are meant to be. We should not condemn those who wander into our land.

-Until the next time we meet.
-Signed the Honorable Ukomi

This letter was all that Hahebuto needed, with it's clever propaganda, to diffuse the tension in his lands. Soon, all the Ryokan leaders were too busy rejoicing over the return of their god to care about the fact that the Road Builder's had come, and extended a hand of friendship to Shipwreck City.

The Immortala were in a rage with the Black King.

It had almost completely dissolved their alliance, the fact that the Black King had gone behind their backs to acquire his own crown to rival the Red Crowns of the Immortals. It was all but an act of war, after all. It was only the continued mocking from the Singers which drove the Shou Tahs to even attempt to continue their allegiance.

Of course, even as the political turmoil flew back and forth, other tribes were paying attention. It seemed that the Black King had used some Kraith who knew War Song to create his crown, and, from the rumors, the Red Crowns were also created in a bought of powerful War Song. This led the Blue Tribe to the belief that, if this magic could be made with the War Song, they could make one for themselves, and wedge themselves into the power struggles, perhaps even take the seat of the Immortals, instead of simply following orders.

So, the greatest Blue masters of the War Song met, and began devising the most complex and intricate and powerful War Songs they could imagine. Soon, they had hundreds of voices singing in unison for weeks on end, attempting to summon up a Sapphire Crown.

However, the magic that went into such items was not to be trifled with, and the Blue Tribe was not even using the correct magic.

It seemed like it was going to come to a head, and their work might be for something, but instead of a Crown rising from the bottom of the sea as they had expected, blue lightning flashed through the water, and white-blue light seemed to permeate from all around, as the War Song was dropped from all voices, except from the voices of one Shou Tahs.

Her Song continued on, endlessly. A dozen voices worth of Song erupted from her constantly, and magic spilled from her lips with each syllable. However, her mind was gone, replaced entirely with the chant. Others tried to wake her, but she would not be woken. Eventually it was realized that she was using her chant to illicit magic effects, demonstrations and defensive acts, and she even went about the world of her own accord.

The Blue Kings didn't know what to do with her. That is, until one foolish Shou Tahs boy attempted to join in the song with her. Though, instead of interference, his voice instantly fell into sync with hers, and he too became mindless.

This would be the Sapphire Song. To sing it would be to give up your life. Though, there would have to be those who did it, for it was decreed that the song had to be carried, as Eramine's answer to the Red Crowns and the Dark Crown.

3 points to Command the Trell to Create the "Garden of Antidotes" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Extend an Alliance to the Nereids.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Settle the Territory that encompasses Sakura & Serpent's Den.

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "Sapphire Song" Wonder.

Current Power Points: 3
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4311589/)

[Neelien]

rolled 11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4313371/) bringing me up to 53

It took some time, but all the other gods had reacted in some way to the death of the Grey God. The Red God destroyed, the Green God mourned and the Yellow Gods simply ignored the event. Nios would take the only remaining path, creation.

The Gray God had been the major creative force on Tyonix, with multiple embodiements of his power actively interacting with the world. In the early ages, those where Nios had been most active, he had created long living beings and difficult terrain. As Nios understood the importance of live, he understood that Eull was a wanderer. Nios would create wanderers to replace the dead God, wanderers that would not be bound to a single god, but an entity that was above even them deciding heir fate.

They would become known as the Wandra, a race of grey immaterial creatures that were often confused with dust as they rode the winds. They had tall humanoid figures when they stood still, but that only rarely happened. They travelled the world, and soon every civilization knew of them and called them something along the lines of "The Spirits of Grey Wind" or "The memories of Eull". They were not bound to anything but each had different memories, memories acquired when they were born from creations of the Grey God as these died.

They existed as a separate civilization that all gods could influence, a civilization that could replace a god by making the remaining gods work together with the will of the Grey God. Places where they gathered would be known as Pathways to the Spirit Realm. It is said that the most ancient Wandra alive is a fragment of Eull's sentience, but this remains unproven.


It had long been dormant, but now the Stringwork was ready to trade with Hahebuto once again. To the few ambassadors that were still active at the time, it told that it would give them knowledge of the momentum principle, and trade the "Nereid" Art of Shapeshifting for any one technology the Saku Rasi were ready to offer. Of course for the Saku Rasi, it would make use of Golden magic rather than innate abilities for changing one's shape.

The Owteb finally managed to find a use for themselves. Even if they weren't as powerfull as Owtfes on the battlefield, they were more endurant, could see further and fly higher. They would provide information on their enemies' positions and defences from high up without ever being seen.

It didn't take long, after that, for the Owtebs to become masters in the arts of Scouting, and in the time it took them to travel from their target back to Andromeda, they would think about how they could bypass the defenses, and beak the enemy, often discussing strategies in flight. This eventually led to them becoming the masterminds behind the attacks (which for now where simply spars between the United Squadron of Adromeda and the United Squadron of Speed Raiders) - master Strategists.


15 points - Create Race - Wandra
5 points - Event - All players get control of the Wandra
13 points - Create World - the Spirit Realm
1 point - Command demigod - Command Order (Agglomerations) Trade (Hahebuto) : Give Momentum Principle to the Saku Rasi and Trade Shapeshifting for any one Saku Rasi technology.
12 points - Advance Civilization x2 (Shadowbirds) Scouting and Strategy - That's going to be it for Shadowbird techs.

41 points spent - 12 remaining
+0 next turn.

[ImperialSunligh]

The gods were pleased to see that the sword of life was no longer being used to spread destruction. While the gods, especially the Sun, distrusted Aniqua for her actions in the early days of this world, they thought that perhaps the the sword is best in the hands of the faeries where it might be forgotten forever. The destruction it causes, they agreed, is not worth its power. After all, none of its users ever found happiness, instead meeting destruction.

The gods saw the death of Eull, but still conversed about it very little. While they found the event moderately unpleasant, reminding them of the limits of their own semi-mortal existences, they had not formed a clear opinion of the strange god. He had never made a truly significant affront to the people of the pantheon, but he had never been an ally either. He was merely there. The pantheon hoped that his death meant the elimination of a possible future threat and not the loss of a possible companion.

Regardless of these events, the gods remained quiet in this time, not needing to act on them. The peace between the humans and the demons was going better than they could have hoped, and as long as both races continued to cooperate in the future, it seemed they might become close allies.

Meanwhile, the unease between the monkeys and the humans prompted the current emperor to offer a formal treaty of alliance to the humans. The monkeys and humans were both followers of the pantheon, despite their differences. The emperor saw this and wanted to prevent their differences from causing any further problems.

Roll: 2d6+1=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4313803/)

Command Race, Humans, Form Alliance, Demons, -3
Command Race, Monkeys, Form Alliance, Humans, -3

Left: 2

[5a Violista]

1 + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4313834/) + 3/3 + 3/3 = 15

Aniqua still hasn't fully returned from her mourning and solitude.

Though Shipwreck City wasn't completely, one hundred percent...perfect and peaceful, it was still a gathering place for some of the more peaceful and kind Nereids.

Those hungry for sailors, living in other seaside villages, and roughly half of those still living out at sea, could easily see the advantages of living in large groups. Soon, without any warning, the Western Sea had the largest tribal population of bloodthirsty Nereids. As a result, entire ships and their crew fell to their voice, leaving the ships drifting in the middle of the ocean.

Since their body was no longer completely pure water, it became harder and harder for them to remain unseen, so they migrated closer and closer to land. Eventually, they found a large cave system. There, they started building shelters to hide in during the day, while at night, they would hunt down ships across the entire Western Sea.

Soon, this gathering place grew larger and larger and was filled with the skulls of lost sailors. Many learned to avoid completely the place known as Skull Cove.

(1)More bloodthirsty Nereid City: Skull Cave: in Western Sea on coast, south of the Sho Tah city of Kaz

Back in the city of Shipwreck, some Saku Rasi had approached the Nereids for an alliance. Because the Nereids don't really have a form of government, it was rather hard for them to accept: every Nereid did as she wanted.

However, after speaking with enough Nereids, the message began to spread itself and, one by one, the majority of the Nereids accepted the alliance.

Many, if not all, found this to be a great potential experience: with this new alliance, many Nereids decided they would go with some Saku Rasi on their ships across the world - this time, on the ships, not under them.

They would shapeshift themselves to look like a Saku Rasi before they entered the crew. Their speech - song - would bring peace and calm, their ability to control water would sometimes save a damaged hull, and men thrown overboard were quickly saved.

Many a sailor's life was saved by having a Woman of the Sea aboard.


(3)Shipwreck City (Nereid) accepts alliance to Saku Rasi

The Wandra quickly spread across the entire globe. It was soon discovered that their music - hummed, played, or anything - would bring rest and peace to the tired traveler.

As they continued to spread across the world, there were several particular cities that became locations of gathering. Namely, Sanctuary, Shipwreck CIty, Grove, Iztec, and Eupnea. Each one of them had one of their Pathways to the Spirit Realm which had grown larger and larger that it became a dominant feature in each of the cities.


(5)Event: Wandra become a large (enough) presence in Shipwreck City, Sanctuary, Grove, Iztec, Eupnea, through "Pathways to the Spirit Realm" that grew really large
(6)Advance Race: Wandra: Restful Music (Music created by them helps listeners rest peacefully) (I'm imagining this as a Diplomatic Technology)


Actions:
(1)More bloodthirsty Nereid City:Create City (through Command Avatar), called Skull Cave: in Western Sea on coast, south of the Sho Tah city of Kaz. In a cove, with many parts above water and many parts below water.
(3)Shipwreck City (Nereid) accepts alliance to Saku Rasi
(5)Event: Wandra become a large (enough) presence in Shipwreck City, Sanctuary, Grove, Iztec, Eupnea, through "Pathways to the Spirit Realm" that grew really large
(6)Advance Race: Wandra: Restful Music (Music created by them helps listeners rest peacefully) (I'm imagining this as a Diplomatic Technology)
Remainder: 0

[Omegonthesane]

Over the years, the demons'… habits… had left them with an enormous population compared to either of their ancestor races. In the ancient days of Sanctuary, this had resolved itself due to the many dangers of the Bloom, and later in the dangers of war; in the latter days of Fort Liberty, many armies had risen to keep the demons from doing too much to disrupt their elders' plan. Yet, it was literally impossible for any of these to be a permanent solution - not least because the humans and their gods, once thought mad, had against all odds agreed to General Hexas Aurelia's peace terms.

The clans had long since devolved into internally democratic political parties, rather than internally democratic biological families, to the point that a significant minority of demons did not even consider themselves members of any one of them. Meaningful distinction between all twelve became difficult over the centuries - to outsiders at least - as the most successful politicians had settled into being more interested in winning votes and doing their job than in pushing any particular ideology. Thus, when they discussed the available solutions to the food crisis facing Sanctuary the debates were those of detail, rather than of broad strokes; whether divided according to income, or birth order, or a lottery, the most palatable solution that would actually work was without a doubt to civilise the remainder of the expansive Bloom.

Naturally, work had begun on this project without their blessing, by a third-party organisation calling themselves the Thirdborn, who had pushed for expansion into the "savage" lands for centuries. However, they were initially backed only by such trading houses as the demons could support; their efforts were multiplied manyfold when they received the backing of the Clans, and soon clearings and great eyries dotted the eastern half of the great jungle, as nearly three million demons cut down trees to provide space and wood for their homes. Fortunately for the surrounding environs, demons were entirely comfortable living in different floors of a tower rather than different houses on a plain, due to their extensive cultural emphasis on flight; as a consequence, very few of these dwellings left permanent damage to any part of the forest other than the one they were constructed in. The primary exceptions to this rule were the great roads, built in the style of the Saku Rasi, along which land-bound cargo and mortals who lacked wings could nonetheless travel to any part of the Settled Northern Lands, as many demons called their nameless nation, without fear of the many beasts and strange plants that infested the Bloom. The increased trading prospects from the humans made this even more important, as until then there had not existed a safe route between human territories and any demonic city for a caravan to exploit.

Without a doubt the pinnacle of the expansion was the city of Southport, constructed as a hub of trade and a launching point for those demons fed up of life on the Great Continent, better placed by far than Sanctuary for holidays and trading journeys to the First Land or the dwellings of the Saku Rasi. The Thirdborn had enough staff spare to provide mercenaries to keep order in this place; though by no means up to the high standards of professional demonic armies, their contract was their bond, and the inevitable bribes demanded and blind eyes turned were not numerous or significant enough to limit the enterprise - or more accurately, to limit the enterprise anything like as severely as the simple lack of a proper, organised demonic navy in the style of the Saku Rasi.

In years past, demons might well have simply walked past the Grove without ever realising it was truly a settlement. That was then, however; now, there was a branch of the immortal Nathaniel's college there, which necessitated buildings the Trell had not previously needed. The strange multi-racial army which guarded that place of learning did not hurt, either.

A squad from the 2nd Sanctuary Militia First Company marched towards the Grove, in decorative regalia rather than battle gear; in the middle of them was a thirteenth demon, whose far less athletic body and ceremonial robes were clearly setting the pace; indeed, his honour guard were visibly more than a little frustrated at having to move so slowly compared to what was required of them in the training yard. They were watched carefully by several faerie assassins of the Might of the Bloom, but permitted to approach within twenty paces of one of the most ancient surviving Trell, and within sight of the Marrow Tree itself. Once there, the procession stopped, and the civilian functionary drew a scroll from his robes, unrolling it to read a speech.

"Peoples of the Grove, greetings and welcome from the Twelve Clans of Sanctuary, through their humble mouthpiece, Mote," said the diplomat, presumably named Mote. "As you may be aware, over the past many years, we have sought to bring an end to the wars and threats facing the great forest, and the North in general. We have succeeded in convincing the Humans to make peace with us and with all those under our protection, and we have made pacts and treaties to put Singer wickedness to an end without bloodshed. All this we have achieved in the last century, but the threat of the Kraith remains, as expressed by their new hive to the southwest. The Idrians, peaceful though they are, have not agreed to any pact, and we know little of how to appeal to them. Most pressingly, however, the task was not to bring peace to our times, but to bring peace to all future generations. We cannot finish this task - we cannot put a lasting stop to the pointless conflicts raging across our shared lands - without the aid of the Grove, and the wisdom of the Marrow Tree."

The introduction was followed by descriptions of the various gifts and advances the Demons could offer, and how these would benefit the Trell in particular, with much emphasis on how the use of Golden Magic would allow the Divine Conduit to operate far more efficiently; how demonic Medicine was far easier to learn and use than Healing Magic, allowing for the truly mighty to save their strength for truly grievous wounds; and extolling the virtues of Roads for transport, and how the use of Plant Charming could render obsolete the more disruptive road styles currently in use throughout the demonic territories. As ever, they remained quiet about the masochistic Singer traditions they had practised for so long, though more out of politeness than any kind of secrecy after so many centuries; they similarly did not make a sales pitch for Telepathy, though for far more cynical reasons - if the Trell rejected their offers as too meager, they wanted something more to add to the table. The techniques of Aerial Combat were both inherently violent and inherently required wings to use, which rather limited their usefulness for peace-loving flightless beings like the Trell.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4310697/)
Power rollover: 4 points
Total 19 points

5 points: Event - Abjuration and Roads become universal to all demons
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Found City (Southport) on the bit of the eastern coastline that's nearest to Core 2.
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Settle the southeast of the continent, in a circle emanating northwest from Southport
2 points: Command City (Southport) to Raise Army (Thirdborn Mercenaries)
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to cement the alliance with the Humans. (No separate batch of fluff, as this wasn't a profound change of flavour; it just gets brief allusions in the bit about Southport)
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Form Alliance with the Trell

0 points: Command Army (Thirdborn Mercenaries) to defend Southport

0 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4311589/)
Current Power Points: 15

The Kroop Troop was a band of Kraith entertainers in Imptopia. They were fairly famous and successful, for they had a one-of-a-kind show. The only one like it in the entire world. Theirs was the only show where actual murder was incorporated into the routine. At the end of every performance, a member of the audience, or sometimes multiple members, would be torn limb from limb. Now, usually, you would expect such a show to utterly fail in popularity, but there were quite a few users of Crutiatic Thaumaturgy in the world, and so a heavy handful of individuals in the world had gone off the deep end, seeking ever greater sources of agony. These deranged individuals often brought business to the Black Market as well, so the Imps actually promoted the Kroop Troop. They didn't actually push the fact that audience members died, but there was enough left in the entertainment that they could be referred to as the greatest torturers in history by the Imptopian advertisements, and with a fair degree of accuracy at that.

Of course, the Kraith in the show, they didn't want the fame, they didn't want the money, they just believed that they were demonstrating the purpose of Kraith in the world. Hundreds came, from across the world, after all, simply knowing it was their place to come. Like cattle to the slaughterhouse. The Kraith were the reapers, the predators, the top of the food chain in Tyonix. Others might believe themselves to be dominant or powerful, but they all eventually died in the hands of the Kraith. This is what the Kroop Troop believed.

However, a day came when word of a place called Newhaven reached Imptopia. As they learned of this place, how Kraith acted in cooperation, and not as the dominant creatures in the world, the Kroop Troop became enraged. These Kraith had been corrupted by this ruler, this Lothar. They were no longer strong enough to be called Kraith. However, the Kroop Troop was not without mercy. They would find a way to return these poor twisted creatures to Kraithhood, instead of just killing them.

The Troop closed their show, and went off towards Newhaven, adopting some of the Infiltration arts of the Imps once they got there to slip into the city unnoticed. It was a little difficult to get used to acting so… weak, but they eventually got the hang of it, and faded into the background of the city, even using some of their more boring jokes at the bar in the evenings. All the while they watched, trying to discern what was precisely wrong with their kin.

Eventually they came to a consensus: The Newhaveners had somehow fallen out of touch with the base essence of the Kraith. The medium through which to recover this essence was easy to realize: it would have to be blood. Manipulation of it was the first art the Kraith ever possessed, their food supply was built upon it, everything that made a Kraith a Kraith, was blood. Though, specifically, to find the base essence of the Kraith, they would need the original blood the Kraith had ever drank: the blood of the Blood Pit.

It would take decades of searching before they finally zeroed in on their deity, the Blood Pit. Yet, when they did, there was no communion, no conversation, no confrontation. The Blood Pit knew why the Kraith were here, and was fine with giving up some of it's blood, while the Kraith knew better than to attempt to speak with anything more evil than themselves.

So the Kroop Troop now possessed about a quart of blood from the Blood Pit. From there, they weaved thousands of fell magics upon the red fluid, until they believed that it would do what they wanted it to do.

The blood was still liquid, but now flowed in currents that acted like threads, or perhaps veins. This fluid structure could would hang on an individual creature like a long veil or a mask, though it could only be removed and placed on another via Sangromancy. The blood of the Blood Pit was not just Kraith blood, of course. It was the blood of every living thing on the planet, and thus, anything which wore it, would have their blood memories awakened.

A blood memory is a complex thing. It usually simply manifested as a random ancestor of the one wearing the veil taking charge of the body for a short time. Other times, it might be several visions of past events which happened to the wearer's ancestors. Sometimes it would just amplify an emotion the wearer felt a long time ago, and bring it back to the top.

Regardless, in all three cases, this would make a Kraith act like a Kraith.

Word of the Blue Tribe's Sapphire Song had gotten out.

The Red Immortals were in a rage, lashing out at every tribe, calling them traitors and imitators. In response, the Black King was threatening to return home and begin collecting his forces once again for the war of their history. Then the Blue Kings held that they refused to be left outside of the power struggle, which only enraged the Immortals more, as there was not supposed to be a power struggle at all.

Feraom Ferai was not happy about any of this.

Fera was one of the Indigo Kings, and a history buff. She knew that the Indigo Tribe had only been forced into Kaz by the ancient war which was clearly sparking, getting ready to take flames once more. She knew that the Red Tribe had been the greatest aggressors for the major portion of the war. She knew that it had taken many years for Kaz to get a functional Army of Kings. She knew that there had to be leadership qualities and restraint.

She knew that the Red Immortals were not fit to rule.

So, after much deliberation with her fellow Kings, they approached the Immortal College, where the Red Immortals were in a row with the Blue Princes, and Fera called out, cutting through the discussion, "We challenge the ability of this Red Army to hold the seat of Immortals!"

Delifin Delopsa, now an old man for a Shoy Tahs, turned to look at the Indigo Army, rage in his eyes, as the Blue Princes shook their heads and stalked out of the College, "What did you say?"

"I believe the tradition is mortal combat, until one warrior of the King's army dies, or until the entire challenger army dies," Fera went on, ignoring the question altogether, "but since there has never been a challenge between two who have each, separately, learned to stand as Kings in their own right, and the Immortals began with only eight members, I believe it ought to be until either army is completely dead."

"You are a fool, Feraom Ferai! We have defeated a foe that your tribe failed against, and we have the Crown and the Gauntlets! We will destroy you, and leave our redemption force one army weaker upon the cusp of our attack!"

"Either you will leave here after giving us the title, in shame and fear, or you will leave here after you have become flotsam!"

That insult had the desired effect, and Del tapped his Gauntlets together, serpents of boiling, red energy shooting from where they were brought together. "You seek death, Indigo bitch? You will have it," Del spoke before he charged, his colleagues just inches behind him, tapping their Gauntlets together in unison. However, the Indigo were prepared, and used a quick War Song to creat a wall of wind before the charge, as they sprinted with their maneuverability, to form a circle around the Immortals.

When the wall dissipated, however, the snakes of red energy had coalesced, into ghostly red arms, which sprouted from each of the Immortal's shoulder's. Four arms apiece, they looked about at the thin circle, and each chose one target to charge, and charged.

Some Indigo Kings had no Immortals charging them, others had on or two, and Fera herself had five. Two of her fellow Kings grouped with her, and used a simple song to stave off the charge, using Combat Maneuverability to put more room between the two groups, and draw these five Immortals away from the rest of their Army.

The Indigo Kings with no one charging them used a select few verses of War Song and well-placed punches to take out Immortals with their backs turned. Five Immortals fell to this first round of attack, and two Indigo Kings were unable to remain alive. This strategy was used a second time, after the two armies regrouped, and the Red Kings, in their rage, charged again. This time no Kings fell, but four more Immortals did, leaving six members of the Red Tribe standing, and thirteen of the Indigo.

Del held off the charge this time, finally catching on, but instead, he directed his fellows to bring their Gauntlets together, and this time instead of tapping, they slammed their fists together as hard as a Shou Tahs could throw a punch. Afte the maelstrom of red snakes disappeared, the Immortals each had eight ghostly arms, ten arms in total, with the red arms being clearly oversized, reaching almost a full meter beyond that of any normal Shou Tahs. The Immortals backed together, forming a defensive formation, and began singing their own War Song.

Fera didn't know what to do. Those arms have them a clear tactical advantage. The Indigo Kings would not be able to get close enough to take out another Immortal.

Thinking quickly, she directed ten of her fellows to run interference on whatever War Song the Immortals might be formulating, and the other three, herself included, were to sing up winds that would blow in a thick enough sandstorm that no one could see anything.

After about fifteen minutes, visibility was almost zero, and that was when Fera directed almost everyone to stop singing, and run about, until they saw red, and then attack. The reach would mean nothing without sight. The playing field would be equal.

Eight Indigo Kings died in this strategy, though also five of the remaining six Immortals, leaving only Delifin Delopsa himself behind.

However, Del was known as a master of the War Song for a reason, and only three Kings were running interference on him anymore, so he was able to summon up a wind strong enough to blow the wind away.

However, when Fera regrouped with her other four Kings, she noticed that Del was not falling into a defensive stance of position, and was instead just singing. His mouth straining as he barked out syllable after syllable, a song worthy of eight voices… and the Crown was glowing.

The sky had turned red, as Fera made for a mad rush at the Master of the War Song. Three steps, barely enough time for a human to blink, and the sky had seemed to turn to stone, a dusty, red stone, as though the entire world were within a cavern. Nine steps, and then the stone high above split, and molten magma poured from above, threatening to drench the entire world in the most destructive flames. Mahkleb would surely be envious of such power.

Twelve steps, the magma was close enough for Fera to actually feel the heat, and the Indigo Kings were shouting in surprise and terror. She placed a single, powerful punch, and the Crown flew from Del's head.

Then the magma was gone, and the sky had returned.


***

Fera had things sorted out in a years time.

The Red Princes had been given the Red Gauntlets and Red Crowns, and raised to Res Kings, in the tradition of Kaz. Rou was not very fond of this change in their tradition, but Fera made the point that they had been given back the two most powerful relics known by the Shou Tahs, and they agreed. Then the new Red Kings selected new Red Princes, and the Rou tradition became the same as the Kaz tradition.

The Blue and Black Tribes were still belligerent, but Fera provided an even hand, and intimidated only when it was the correct thing to do, and soon enough they were accepting of the Indigo Kings.

Fera took ten members of the Indigo Princes to fill out the new ranks of the Indigo Immortals, raising the remaining five to Indigo King and telling them to refill their own ranks and to select a new Army of Indigo Princes at the same time.

In the meantime, Fera knew that ruling all tribes of Shou Tahs would be a daunting task, no matter the occurrences of the era, and so began settling out tablets which held instructions to future Immortals, on how to rule in peace time, how to resolve conflicts, and how to lead massive numbers of warriors in combat.

She titled it "The Immortal Manual."

For a long time now, the Stringwork had sat, rearranging itself, as far as the Saku Rasi could tell. In all honesty, even those Saku Rasi who spent a fair portion of their lives communing with the great conglomerations did not understand the creature. It was never hungry, it did not feel pleasure, it did not dream, and it did not feel fear. There was nothing for it to love, for there was only one Stringwork. There was no tradition for it to follow for it had no ancestors. It seemed to want to have information, and it gave away this information freely. It did not build with this information, however. It did not seek anything other than collecting data and then dispensing it back out among the creatures which it was in contact with. The life of a creature which spanned the globe hinging around tedium. What could it desire?

The Road Builders, however, did not need to know the inner workings of the Stringwork. When news arrived that their ally had asked for any technology in exchange for Shapeshifting and the Momentum Principle, they were ecstatic. You see, the most recent generation of Road Builders were highly… ambitious, and believed that they could trust the Stringwork to dispense a technology they gave to it to the far corners of the world. So, they sent back plans for Roads, modified in such a way that the Stringwork might make use of them, underwater. Then, almost before the information had ever reached the Stringwork, they released the plans that the Road Builders had been sitting on since their inception.

Saku Rasi understood Roads better than anyone, yet theirs had never been any better than any other race which built Roads. This was simply because there had never been given the instruction to build superior roads. For thousands of years, the status quo was to build roads that weren't quite perfect. The ones who actually built the roads found this odd, but they were often dishonored for disobeying their instructions when they attempted to compact and adjust the stones so that not even an earthquake could budge them, or make them follow the pathways that would be easiest to walk. Though, now, the Road Builders sent out their instructions, and soon all those who had received roads from the Saku Rasi would find that they had subpar pathways, and that they would want actual Saku Rasi roads, made by Saku Rasi hands, instead of the ones they made themselves.

Rellunborlu was an ancient Trell indeed. His age was only exceeded by one other Trell from a separate generation. The wisdom he gleaned while under the Marrow Tree was valued very highly among all who knew him, which, generally speaking, was everyone in Grove, so he was as close to a leader as the peaceful society could have.

It had been many times that Rellunborlu had advocated attentiveness and focus upon whatever lay before them, so it was highly odd that the ancient Trell seemed so much in a haze as the waddling Demon presented himself and put forward his nation's proposition. Rellunborlu even seemed unaware as the Demon continued to prattle on about potential gifts that might be granted.

The Demon's guards might have pointed out that this Trell didn't seem altogether present, but they knew this dignitary better than to interrupt him in the middle of speech. So they just enjoyed the scenery, and watched their fellow Demon's of Grove as they went about some unorthodox drills.

Then Mote finally reached the end of his spill, and, after about three seconds, realized that the Trell was not looking at him. However, multiple other Trell in the Grove were. Well, not at Mote, but at Rellunborlu. After looking about in indignation and confusion, he spike to his guards as he turned to go find another ancient Trell, "Come. This is humiliating, to have been so thoroughly ignored."

However, before he had even gone ten meters, an ancient rumble of a voice called after him, "Mote."

Turning back around, the Demon saw a massive change in the elderly Trell. Eyes gone from unfocused to sharp. Energetic posture instead of the slack lean he had possessed before. His voice was certainly that of a leader, now that it was being used, "The Trell are at peace with all living things, regardless of who or what they are. Though, if you wish for this peace to be formally acknowledged, then so be it. We are at peace with the Demons. Though, I have much more pressing matters to discuss with you, Mote.

"In fifty to a hundred and fifty years time, I am uncertain precisely when, a hairless child will come bursting in through the east window of the library in your home while you are reading a passage on the Hero Nathaniel in a book not exactly related to Nathaniel. You will wish to act in outrage and call your house guards to detain this child. Do not do this, else your entire house will fall. Run to the kitchens, take the child with you. Put a rope of sausage around his neck, a bag of hard bread on his back, hand him a jug of the cider on the counter, then take him to the door and tell him to 'keep running'. The world will rely on this. 'Keep running'. Say nothing more and nothing less. Do you understand?"

3 points to Command the Kraith to Create the "Blood Weave" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Shou Tahs to Create the "The Immortal Manual" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Saku Rasi to Ingrain Roads.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to confirm a trade of Roads to the Stringwork in exchange for Momentum Principal & Shapeshifting]

3 points to Command the Trell to Accept the Alliance with the Demons.

Current Power Points: 2
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4314127/)

[Neelien]

rolled 6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4315795/) bringing me up to 18.

The spirit realm was a peculiar place, designed to compliment the Wandra, a race dedicated to the memory of Eull. For now it was empty. Wandra would go back and forth between the worlds, but they would only rarely settle in the spirit realm for good. When they did settle, they lived lives of absolute peace, simply floating aimlessly forever. Besides these Wandra however, there was nothing except blue mist.

Nios was unsure of what to do with the Spirit Realm. In some sense, it had opposed some of his ideals by being a world for magic beings. This had to change, he thought, and after some thinking, he decided to change it in such a would leave its nature and inhabitants intact, but would make an impact on Tyonix.

From that point onwards, any individal who travel to the Spirit Realm could only come back at a cost. That of all of its magical properties and abilities. For purely magical beings like the wandra, this would spell death, for others that didn't use magic it would not be a great problem. As the knowledge of the "danger" spread, fewer Wandra choose to travel to the Spirit Realm unless they were ready to forget Tyonix.

Meanwhile Nios was still unsatisfied with the state of the Spirit Realm, so he decided to create something in it, a form of life that would become the symbol for that world - a race that would become known as Kiosa. In the Spirit Realm they would take the shape of humans and there they would use their magic powers, but on Tyonix they would for the most of them take the form of a oarticular animal, a three tailed fox. They were intelligent and highly resourceful, and while they could easily go into the Spirit Realm when no other option was available they were unable to use any other form of magic on Tyonix. Intead they would use their wits to adapt to new environments. For now they would only be considered as exotic wildlife, but that would eventually change.

The Saku Rasi had said that they had adapted roads for the Stringwork. This was highly unexpected and the Stringwork still had no understanding of how it should use them, even with the modifications. Only Outgoers moved around while the rest of the Stringwork was mostly stationary, and even they did not really need roads underwater, and used already existing roads on the surface. After many years of Agglomations pondering the subject, it was decided that Roads were useful for transporting the materials needed to build more roads. This would be good enough and so the Stringwork began looking for materials that could be used to build roads, and after many more years, the Road connecting the First and Second Core was built for the sake of its existence, and a new strain of Strings was designed for the road - a strain called Rollers.

Rollers would coil around themselves into blacks balls that could each carry a single item. However, after the completion of the road, there was nothing for them to carry. However, The Stringwork did not want the Rollers to disappear. So it simply gave them one order : to continue rolling on the Road until they were needed, becoming better with each generation.

The Road had become the only thing ever built directly by the Stringwork so far, because it was suggested that it was adapted for the entity. This was not be the case, as the Stringwork still did not have a use for roads besides building more roads. But the creation was there, made of compacted sand and runing on the bottom of the ocean floor, existing for the sake of existing, very similarly to the Stringwork itself.

1 point : Shape World - Spirit Realm - Create Race Kiosa - Humans in the Spirit realm, three-tailed foxes on Tyonix

17 points remamining
+1 next round.

[5a Violista]

2d6=6 (“http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316146/") + 3/3 + 3/3 = 12

Actions:
Advance civilization:Idrians:in Mountaineering (combat-applicable near mountains, cliffs, and caves)
Command avatar:command city(Grove):raise another werewolf army. Now there‘s two: The Pack and The Hunt. The Hunt is an elf-centric army, The Pack is demon-centric. I‘ll have them attack after I can figure out their combat bonuses.
Command Race - Idrians - Ingrain tech Mountaineering [so Idrist get it too]
Remainder: 2 points

During the day, the immortal college in Grove continued to house the secret werewolf population. At night, they went off hunting abominations of Life throughout the forest. Their numbers continued growing.such that they had to split into two large groups. They organizes themselves according to their races - after all, it was less suspicious to see an elf conversing with an elf and a demon with a demon.

These small packs started traveling farther and farther to learn about the Kraith appearing across the.world. They were preparing for a massive.strike.



Meanwhile, up in the mountains, where roads were difficult and inefficient to make,
The Idrians continued traversing their caves, mountains, and cliffside beaches. Roads didn‘t exist between Saorsa and Rivis. Travelers could find their way based on the skies, the.direction of nature, and geographical landmarks
Instead of crossing flat, easy ground, both Idrians and Idrist spent their entire lives climbing, moving across rock, leaping, and so on. Their bodies actually lent itself to this activity quite easily. The Idrist, growing up, take a little longer to become expert mountain climbers, due to the awkward placement of the extra limbs.

However, you would be hard-pressed to find someone better at traveling through difficult mountains and cliffs than an Idrian or Idrist.

[ImperialSunligh]

The pantheon continued to be largely silent, for what reason is not known.

The humans accepted the alliance with their brothers and sisters of the faith with zeal. Both humans and monkeys watched from the streets of Sophei as the emporer shook hands with the members of Sophei's council to formalize the alliance and usher in a continued age of prosperity for both peoples.

Roll: 2d6+2=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316281/)

Command Humans, Accept Alliance with Monkeys, -3

Left: 8

[Omegonthesane]

There was a sound of drums outside Newhaven, as a procession approached. The Phobimancer sentries sounded the alarms for a yellow alert, for the banners of Rivis were flying in large enough numbers that there was a vague potential threat, but they stopped outside the city gates. On closer examination, most of the procession were civilian Idrians and Idrist, rather than warriors.

"Hear me, O wise people of Newhaven!" intoned a robed Idrist, from a scroll, in a booming voice. "We seek audience with your lord, Lothar, the Champion of Justice!

"Audience, you may have," the diplomat suddenly heard, as if from nowhere. Looking up at the nearest double gates, she realised that Lothar was stood atop them, watching the procession. "What do you want?"

"We come with gifts, of the great knowledge of the Idrist family of old, that shall aid you in your quest for Justice!" the diplomat transmitted into Lothar's ears. "We come with portents, that you must heed, of dark deeds performed in the land of the imps!"

"I'm listening."

"For some years now, a vile show has been performed within the dark city. A band of torturers and murderers, who claim the title 'The Kroop Troop'. Their display of profound wickedness is defined by its climax, in which audience members receive the fate of death!"

"It seems to me that any person dying in such a performance is getting what they deserve," transmitted Lothar. "Imptopia must fall one day, but why should I hurry?"

"My lord!" hissed the telepathic emanations of a Kraith retainer, to whom Lothar had broadcasted both sides of the conversation to this point. "This work of entertainment, this 'Kroop Troop', glorifies the old ways. The wicked and futile ways that you taught us to abandon. Surely, you cannot let this insult stand!"

"I am not a preening rhapsodist, to be moved by mere insults," Lothar responded to his advisor, though his sending betrayed the doubt in his mind.

"This is not just a mere insult, lord. Many of the peasantry resent the... vehemence... of your methods. Many innocents could be seduced by their evil way of thinking. Do you want more innocents to die?"

"Of course not," Lothar responded, "but neither can I leave our haven defenceless." With that, he turned to the diplomat, and transmitted again. "Tell me, what do I gain from hurrying this deserved purge?"

"The Kroop Troop has created a great artefact of terrible evil with their wicked blood-magic," the diplomat transmitted back. "In their hands, it is a tool for death... but in yours..."

"Enter our city. I accept the deal."

Newhaven was a large place. Formal administration of it had not been necessary in the early days, but increasingly, Lothar had ceased to be enough of an infrastructure on his lonesome for the many and varied disputes and functions of government. The requirement that he abandon the city was as good an excuse as any to perform the task that would soon be necessary. He hand-picked ten of the most loyal of Newhaven's inhabitants, forming them into the Security Committee of Newhaven. These were divided into five pairs of two Kraith Archmagi, one of which would lead and oversee the Security Committee of All Newhaven. To each of the other four pairs was granted the privilege of leading one of the North, South, East, or West Quarters of Newhaven, and each leading pair was granted the right to elect four more pairs of magi, to form the Branch Committees of Northside, Southside, Westside, and Eastside Newhaven, while the two Lords of the overall Committee chose a cabal of eight Magi to lead the Special Branch Committee, which oversaw matters affecting the whole city which did not merit a full Security Committee meeting. Each Branch was then arranged in the manner their leaders desired. Northern Branch was simply two hundred Kraith servants of equal rank, Southern Branch a confusing array of factions and committees such that many members had at least three ranks and at least one way of outranking any other member. The East and West Branches followed slightly more sane patterns, with each subordinate member of the Branch Committee serving as the leader of a sub-committee containing twenty-four other Kraith, in a similar fashion to Singer army segments, while the Special Branch never publicised exactly how their one hundred and fifty civil servants were organised. Doinng so would have compromised their purpose as enforcers.

This elaborate exercise in rank and title and regulation was in many ways a defence mechanism against Kraith tendencies that Lothar had failed to extinguish - in such a strict, stifling, hierarchical environment, their rages and power plays were unlikely to spill outside of the Security Committee itself. The only thing that truly united them was that the burgeoning bureaucracy of the Security Committee was trained to act as an army, should anyone dare to attack - after all, they would be first to go if the city fell, and had to have something to look forward to. Much propaganda from Special Branch followed, encouraging hatred against various obviously evil targets from Outside as a healthy outlet for Kraith sadism.

With these sorcerer-warrior-politicians in place, the Tyrant felt comfortable leaving his city at last.

The Kroop Troop performed their strange brand of entertainment, if it could be called that, in one of the various arenas that commissioned them - this one with the distinctive appearance of one built by Factory golems, as many imps had claimed some of the Golem Factory's products and found they - somehow - had the same way of doing things if given similar orders. As was the standard, great wondrous sprays of Sangromancy-moved blood wowed the audience, while the petrified screams of the slaves who provided that blood while simultaneously being tormented with Phobimancy gave a distinctive flavour to the whole event.

Among the crowd were the throng of Imps and Kraith expected in Imptopia, as well as a few particularly depraved Demons, a few perfectly ordinarily depraved Singers who happened to be unable to live in Singer communities for whatever reason, a few Elves who either disagreed with their culture's reverence of Life or else failed to realise how much death was involved in this otherwise wonderful show of torture and suffering, and a small number of outcast Humans from nearby Sophei. At first, these had been mistaken for the army of darkness the Singers had once warned of, but the Imps had decided the immigrants were not nearly numerous enough to hurt them, and in almost all cases, they were right.

In all cases, in fact, save for the one immigrant in the front row, in a heavy cloak and a leper's torn clothes, who had somehow found his way to the front row.

One of the Kroop Troop, a certain Falrithgar, kept looking at that one, thinking there was something amiss; this tainted the Phobimancy projections that formed part of the performance, filling them with the caster's actual and genuine unease rather than the artificial cathartic utter horror the audience had come for. He could have sworn that he could see just a bit of that front row leper's face under the hood and scarf, and that it flickered as if lit by flames, but only during the final moments of the performance did he finally remember the person whose disguise spell had that flaw.

"No! NO! STOP!" he screamed, too late, as the cloak and the glamer were cast off. Three Kroop Troopers had charged straight at the leper to kill him, only to find themselves bisected by the gold-steel sword of Lothar the Cursed, while two more ignited despite the simple fact that living Kraith flesh was not flammable. The Pyromancers had checked. The leader of the troop had made the mistake of wearing the Blood Weave to the performance; she found herself decapitated whilst reciting an ancient and terrible spell of Phobimancy, and Lothar took her head and the veil with it before leaping around the arena, personally killing every Kroop Trooper who failed to flee. Most of them were accomplished blood mages, and one in particular would at least leave with a good ten pints of the black ichor that passed for Lothar's blood, but ultimately, their spells of horror and suffering were utterly lost on the fearless, almost masochistic fanatic who had gatecrashed their performance, while their claws took more than a single swipe to penetrate his iron hide and had no time to carve him open.

The lunatic beings watching this macabre show failed to realise anything was wrong, and applauded Lothar as he bowed, using his glamer spell to cover his face and make up for his terrible acting. They saw a smiling, humbled performer who happened to look like he was illuminated by flickering flames, instead of a snarl of rage and frustration of a man who knew he could not yet simply take the city. It was some days before the Imptopians realised that the Kroop Troop was temporarily out of business, or rather a few days before they believed Falrithgar's repeated insistence that his former troop needed to replace about half its members to return to business.

Over the next month, in Newhaven, experiments were performed on the Blood Weave. It would not leave the face of the severed head Lothar had brought home until a trained Sangromancer coaxed it off, and even then it required the same care and attention to place onto another wearer. Tests were performed on those Kraith scheduled to die for their crimes anyway, who were bound before having the item attached to them; these were consistent with the artefact's original purpose, and caused the wearers to be even more aggressive and unstable. Hypothesising at first that it might amplify the wearer's nature, they began testing it on the most trusted of the Security Committee, only to find that no, it brought out the wearer's blood ancestry - not a thing that the Newhaven Kraith much wanted.

However, Lothar was a human by blood, not a Kraith. Thus, they reasoned that he might be able to actually benefit from the item, and coaxed him into his original plan of wearing it despite everything.

Somewhere, a child trembled, not merely from cold - although it certainly was cold in the cell, and her captors had hardly clothed her at all, much less adequately. Not even from the pain of iron shackles cutting into her flesh. No, it was the way they brought her father back, every day, to kill her like he'd killed mummy, like he'd killed auntie, only he wanted to torture her first, every day she knew it would be it, that she had only this cell until her father cut her down.

Reliving, over and over, the vision that Marc the Leper had shown him, Lothar boiled with rage, and ultimately with mad resolve. Every law of the world could be broken with magic. With mere cantrips, demons broke the law of gravity. With torments, Singers broke the law of conservation of energy. With the Art of Twist, the Suri of old had broken the laws of motion, with their Eternal Dance the faeries broke the law of fatigue, with Healing Magic the elves broke the laws of mortality. Lothar resolved to go further. Somewhere, he knew, were the spells that would allow him to break the laws of time itself; he would travel back, and the tortures of the Kraith would never have been.

"NO!" the Tyrant of Newhaven suddenly screamed, before grabbing at his face to tear off the Blood Weave. It did not come easily - in fact, his entire lower jaw came with it - and indeed, he ultimately needed to draw the gold-steel main gauche to cut through some of his own bones to get rid of the cursed thing. However, in doing so, he regained his senses, so it had been worth it.

"No... that way lies madness," the Kraith within Lothar's court heard, as he broadcast to them with telepathy, before slumping in his throne. Later, he would need to heal the gaping wound; it was fortunate that he had learned the ways of the silent Kraith, or else he would be doomed by the inability to speak. However, for now, the vision and the pain had been too physically and emotionally exhausting.

Worst of all, for all his acknowledgement that it was madness, the idea was stuck in his head...

The Blood Weave was eventually thrown into the sea - but wonders have a way of not staying lost, especially when no particular effort is made to banish them.

The population of Destroyer's Peak had fallen noticeably for the first time since the Rainbow Scourge, even despite the population surge from civilians fleeing the Dreamforge disaster. In part, this was directly caused by the diaspora of Singers created when Makhleb emptied the Plane of Thunder, as many of the Peak's population simply joined the wandering mystics that now dotted the world. Even the Rainbow Lord had left the Northern Continent entirely, apparently overseeing some other project far away.

This was not helped by the prophecies of doom that began spreading around the Peak, as those struck mad with the ability to see glimpses of the future claimed that death was coming to the ancient home of the Singers, the long overdue retribution of the lesser races finally at hand. This exacerbated the most pressing problem - that of the slaves, many of whom resented their treatment. Few of the current generation remembered the deal made with the Demons, and the many reductions in the horror of their life that had resulted; many heard news of other realms, where some lived far better lives than them, without hearing that most lived in more squalor and less de-facto freedom.

Rather than try to simply crush the inevitable slave riots - a battle they were in no way guaranteed to win - the Octarchs of the White Chorus took a certain few thousand slaves of many different races aside, offering them a bump in prestige, a bump in living conditions, and even personal slaves of their own to service their desires - an unprecedented step backwards, as Singers had until that day only used their slaves as labourers and torture fodder. This new over-underclass would even be taught in the Singer way of war, so that they might expect to crush rebels the Singer way. In return, they would defend the slave camps against any invaders.

These warriors took pride in their official name of Thalla'klat'mor, an approximation of a phrase in the old Singer language, which only Singers and Idrians had any of the proper apparatus to speak, though Shou Tahs who somehow learned the old tongue could theoretically approximate thunder crackling with the noisy muscle mass that gave them their name. Of course, none of the slaves understood the old Singer language, so they did not realise they had taken pride in being called War Meat.

"All these centuries... Years of spreading fault, just so they could claim money..." Hexas crumpled the confirmation scroll, and threw it at the waste paper bin, missing and knocking it over. The Saku Rasi spy who had delivered the message to Fort Liberty tried not to tremble, knowing all too well the stories of demons and their extreme passions, and having tested his endurance to near its breaking point in the pleasure houses of Sanctuary. "Very well. We made a pact with the Road Builders, and they are acting within their side of it. So, we shall act within our side."

Signed, sealed orders from the Major-General of Fort Liberty, formerly the Grand Champion of the 2nd Liberators, were carried to many villages by winged messengers. These detailed a plan of research and digging, to find exactly how to make Demon roads superior to those of the Road Builders.

Objectively, there was no hope of the plan's success - the Saku Rasi had mastered the ways of road building, while the Demons hardly even walked. However, the orders resulted in a series of great highways, along which a person could walk in their nameday gown from any city of the Northern Alliance to any other city without fear of any foe greater than the ground rock beneath their feet. These roads were designed with carts in mind rather than walkers, for it was freight rather than people that the Demons had always had difficulty transporting, but simply being great marked routes made the Demonic Highways far from useless for all possible travellers.

Another set of possible troublemakers were instead raised as an army, this time an army that would get to travel far and wide - and back and forth, as they protected the great Demonic Highways. The Highway Patrol were unlikely to see any combat, unless the Saku Rasi took a truly ridiculous degree of umbrage at the prospect that someone might be building only slightly worse roads than they did.

Or, more realistically, the Singers or Humans broke the truce. Or even more so, the Shou Tahs decided not to stop at the unpopular surface target, or somehow mistook demon supply lines for Singer ones.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4311848/)
Power rollover is for not-Makhlebs this turn
Total 13 points

2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Raise Army (Security Committee)
2 points: Command City (Rivis) to Political Maneuver to grant Cruciatic Thaumaturgy to Lothar the Cursed only
2 points: Command City (Destroyer's Peak) to Raise Army (War Meat), a 50,000-strong horde of poorly trained slaves of various races which counts as a Singer army due to being trained exclusively in the Singer way of war.
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Create Wonder (Demonic Highways), a Tech-type wonder which never counts as being contained in a particular city (and consequently needs separate defenders).
2 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Raise Army (Highway Patrol)

0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to attack and steal the undefended Blood Weave, only to abandon it in the sea.
0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to defend Newhaven
0 points: Command Army (Security Committee) to defend Newhaven
0 points: Command Army (Highway Patrol) to defend the Demonic Highways

TO CLARIFY: The Blood Weave is NOT lost in the mechanical sense, it is undefended and can be nicked by whoever wants the plot cookie next, since just about anyone can justify it drifting along the sea into their hands.

2 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[5a Violista]

Finally, after many years, Aniqua returned to the world. Suddenly, the world felt more alive - more beautiful.

She descended up in The Bloom, near the city of Farea. As soon as her feet touched the ground, flowers suddenly bloomed and life became more vibrant in that area. She also created life, which originated from the Faeries.

These creatures which were created were similar to the Faeries, in spirit, but they looked much more diverse. Some, like the Bean Sidhe and Leanan Sidhe and the Baobhan Sith and the Dullahan looked more humanlike, while others, such as the Cait Sidhe or the Selkies, looked like cats or other creatures.

Aniqua's favorites were the Leanan and the Baobhan - women full of beauty, who loved arts and dance and music, who lived out in nature. Sadly, they often drained the life of men they came across, but they also inspired these men to greatness and beauty: men worthy of legends.

Because of their massive diversity, they quickly spread out among the entire world.



One particular Nereid, nicknamed Sam by the Saku Rasi she journeyed with, noticed something odd in the ocean one day. It smelled of blood, but it was much different than most kinds of blood she had.

She dove down into the depths of the sea and found this object - the Blood Weave - and brought it up for the crewmates to look at. She played with it for a while. Since Nereids don't have any actual blood of their own, it didn't make her remember the past of the Nereids - rather, she saw the distant past of all different animals and creatures and even a few Saku Rasi from that one time she had absorbed blood from an injury on the boat.

She didn't like it.

It was strange. There were all sorts of memories that she didn't understand. So, when the Ship Captain, a Saku Rasi, asked to see it, she quickly handed it over to him.



2 + 2d6=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4317366/) + 3 + 3 = 19
(I can't think of anything, right now, so I'll do a...)
(10)Create Subrace of Faeries: Sidhe, who are a very diverse lot; mostly human-like. Just think of any other type of fae.
(5) Event: Sidhe spread across all cities and wildernesses, under the control of whomever would normally control that city.
(0) Nereid finds the Blood Weave

[Neelien]

rolled 11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4317640/) bringing me up to 28

When the Kiosa were created, the Spirit Realm was a misty place with no defining, and for the most part, it would remain that way forever. However, a few years after they first ventured out on Tyonix, the Kiosa became frustrated with the state of their original world. It was so empty, compared to Tyonix. The Kiosa decided that they would bring shape to this world, make it a more interesting place.

And so they began experimenting with their magic powers. Soon, they found that they could control the very mist was everywhere in the Spirit Realm. They called this ability Spirit Forge, and its existence resulted in the appearence of the first objects in the Spirit Realm.These objects served no purpose outside of providing something to look at. They were always located in small areas with no mist, as that mist had been used for their creation.

The Spirit Realm was immense, so for anyone entering it for the first time, the chances of running into one of these objects were nearly nonexistent.


In the mean time, not much of interest happened to either the Stringwork or the Shadowbirds. The first was preparing for something and the latter were searching for their boulder fragments, managing to find one out of the six lost. Andromeda also grew in size during this time, now nearing 2500 inhabitants with and numbering nearly 60 carriers.

6 points: Advance Civilization (Kiosa) - Spirit Forge
22 points remaining, +2 next round

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4314127/)
Current Power Points: 15

The Ruby Singer came to the edge of the forest, collecting flowers and humming, soft and melodically, which was miraculous for a Singer. The farmer's daughter spotted him, but no one else did. When she told her family, they set up watches, but the Ruby One did not return, not until after the threat was deemed to have passed, and the watches were taken down. That was when the daughter spotted him again, and that night, the watches went up again. This pattern repeated itself two more times, and then, when the daughter told the family, they did not believe her, and in fact, they were angry with her, for they believed her to be lying and causing them countless nights without sleep.

So, every day, the Ruby Singer returned to the edge of the forest, at a time when the daughter could see him, but none others would chance to glimpse him. The daughter learned to stop talking about him. Eventually, she figured that, if he was up to no good, he would have done it already, so, one day, she went up to talk to him. She asked him why he needed so many flowers, that he came every day. He told her that he didn't need them, he just liked them, being so frail and beautiful. She asked him why he had appeared to her but none of the others. He told her that he could not risk being found, but he had come her for her, because a life in this farm was important, and he had come to help her begin it.

She didn't believe him, of course, but they spoke every day after that. They spoke of the Ruby Singer's extensive memories, of his time in the Singer Armies, and of his work protecting the Ruby Sanctuary Stone. They spoke of the happenings of the girl's life, of how her sisters were so cruel and unfair, of the boys and their antics, of the cows and their temperaments. Eventually the girl became quite fond of the Singer, as she entrusted all her deepest secrets to him. She had indeed begun to believe the Ruby Singer's assertion that he was here to help her begin her life.

For years they kept up continuous contact, until the girl came of age, and her father spoke of suitors and marrying her to another family. She did not like this talk, for it would mean she would lose contact with her secret friend, as he told her that he would not be able to find her in her at other farms. She was on the edge of rebelling, of trying to run away from her home, but the Singer told her not to, that he would leave her with a way to remember him.

The marriage was rushed before she started showing, to make it seem like the coming child was legitimately one of her new husband's progeny. However, after nine months, the child came out, a girl, with tomato-red skin, miniscule horns, and eyes like black windows with her pupils like candles burning in them.

Some may have killed the child, terrified of what it might be, but, luckily, the girl's father was a kind man, and, after he made sure the midwives would report this as a miscarriage, they sent the girl north, with a Saku Rasi caravan, bound for Saorsa. Sadly, the farmer's daughter never saw her again, or her secret friend.

The girl was named Sera. She had grown tall and grown long, black hair as she was raised in an Idrian orphanage. She learned the ways of the Idrians as she grew. She learned how to climb as easily as any of the Goat-people, though she had no interest in mining, which was the main occupation in the city.

When she became of age, she left the orphanage, and attempted to make a name for herself as a street performer in Saorsa. She was fairly skill with the lyre, after all. She felt some fulfillment, wandering from venue to venue, and her distinctive appearance led her to more than a small amount of success. However, she felt that she wasn't doing enough.

There came a harsh winter, when there was no one on the street and thus no one to pay her for her performance, she found herself staying in a less-that-savory part of town. One day, as she was sitting beside an oil lamp, trying to warm up, she felt a sharp increase in her sense of foreboding, just before a dark figure slinked out of the cracks in the wall.

However, when the Kraith made a lunge at her, she didn't simply die. No, she lashed back out, kicking her adversary in the face, before grabbing the oil lamp and using the hot glass as a weapon. It had been a rough few months, so she likely put more punishment into the Kraith than was strictly necessary. She allowed it to live, however, battered and dazed though it was, as it slinked back out through the crack it had climbed in from.

She remained in this room for several more weeks, beating down the Kraith every time it attempted to kill her in a new fashion. One day came when the Kraith came out through a new crack in the wall, and this time, did not attack, instead summoned up that ancient voice, "Okay, look. I have children in these walls who need to eat. If you're not going to die, could you at least leave so I can kill the next thing that comes in here?"

Sera didn't even turn her head as she tuned the lyre, "Nope. This place is all I can afford until spring comes back around."

The Kraith growled in anger for a moment before it continued, "Very well, then I suggest a trade. You offer some of your blood in exchange for... lessons."

This actually intrigued the Human-Singer hybrid, and she turned to look at her adversary, "Lessons? In what?"

"There are many magics that the Kraith have mastered. I could educate you in one of them."

Sera thought on this for a moment, before replying, "Sangromancy. I want to learn Sangromancy."

The Kraith all but screamed in outrage, "Our most ancient magic?! I cannot--"

"Then you won't eat," Sera interrupted.

So, at first, Sera was bled a small amount, and then, when she learned enough of the art of Sangromancy, she went about town, to butchers shops, and collected canteens full of blood by bespelling it out of the building. She was never a friend with the Kraith in the wall, and over time had to beat it back down as it decided she wasn't worth teaching anymore. However, they did discuss things fairly often, and she was learning Sangromancy fairly well.

One day they were discussing Sera's ability with the Lyre as she practiced making wires out of blood. It seemed even the Kraith thought she was skilled, as it spoke, "Not many Kraith appreciate music. I do, though, and, while you're a good player, you need a better instrument."

"Well, spring is only a few weeks away. Maybe I'll get a lucky streak and be able to buy a new lyre."

"Now now, do you really think you're supposed to stay here, fleshbag?"

This took Sera off guard, "What? What do you mean?"

"Well, look at you. I doubt nothing in the world looks exactly like you. Look at what you're doing. You're learning Sangromancy, and for what? You have great skill with the lyre, and, honestly, I think it's clear you have no idea what your future is supposed to be."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"The Lyre of Prophecy. In your hands, it could reshape the future, grant you a path to immortality."

"Don't be foolish," Sera rebutted before the Kraith attempted several more times. Now, the Kraith was simply trying to convince Sera to do something foolish, to get herself killed, but the thought stuck in her mind.

She was no master thief, but the warriors of Saorsa were not master guardians either. Just the same, when she made her move on the lyre, a year later, she had to flee the city as quickly as she could, using small amounts of her own blood to cut through and destabilize tunnels so that they would collapse and slow down her pursuers, unknowning that another individual, named Nathaniel, had once used this same tactic in this same city, but to guide his adversaries forward, and not to slow them down.

When the Kraith learned of what it's pupil had done, it was half frustrated and half amazed.

When Sera played the Lyre of Prophecy, her future self was clever and skilled, and spoke of a man, but she would not say where she met him or who he was. The paradox of the lyre allowed her to discover something about herself, something that her future self only learned when it was told to her by her future self. The future self spoke, "I am a wanderer. I have to see the world. It's why I, uh, we, perhaps that's the word. Why we enjoyed going around Saorsa so often. It was the next best thing to going around the world."

"So, where do we go next? I'm at a loss."

Her future self had been the product of what had happened when she had wandered aimlessly for many years. Now, in the act of asking where to go, she had changed her future self, for the future self was bound to give an answer of which way she had eventually ended up. As such, she had not wandered aimlessly, but instead gone straight to the place that she would have eventually ended up: Southport.

The new future self was lewd and aggressive, as it spoke, "Southport. Lots of fun there, but be careful about your limits, and those stupid ass mercenaries, or you'll never live to be me."

Sera was confused for a moment. She wasn't sure what had just happened. She had liked the old future self, and wasn't sure she had liked this new one. However, in the instant before she was certain she liked this new Sera, in the instant she had reconsidered, the future changed again.

This time, the future self was trembling and dead-eyed, "I'm going to die. I went to Khral, looking for more arts of the Kraith--," but she never finished, for Sera had terrified, and had already rethought.

Future Sera was calm and serene looking, "I went to the city of Grove and found peace. I decided to never leave," as unsettled by the previous two futures as she had been, this future only spooked her further, for hadn't the first one, the one she had liked the most, said she was a wanderer. Why wouldn't she wander? No, all the paths seemed jumbled. Perhaps if she went far away, across the ocean?

Static.

Okay, maybe not that far away. What about Herz?

The new future Sera was almost exactly like the current Sera, if Sera had been born a normal human, and spoke quickly, "I went to Herz and stole the Book of Death. I didn't just do it, however. I spent two years there and learned the ways of Martial Magics. After I was comfortable with that, I went went to Imptopia and learned Infiltration, and then back to Herz to steal the book. You want to follow this path. They never caught me. See you when you're here."

Sera stopped playing, bewildered. Though, events did unravel just as the future self had said, and in four years time, she had learned to disguise herself perfectly with the art of Infiltration, and to fight perfectly with Martial Magics, and she now possessed the Book of Death, as she wander off, north this time.

The time had come for the Shou Tahs to march. Feraom Ferai felt it. For years, countless years, they had built their might, higher and higher, always fighting one another instead of their foes. An entire tribe had been lost to this war, and their forces being divided had led to ruin when their enemies came to attack. They had learned, the hard way, that they were not unstoppable, that other races were stronger than them, that they had to hold together if they were to emerge victorious above their true enemies.

Not everyone perceived this as she did, as was to be expected, considering they were the Shou Tahs. So, they had to move, before their enemy realized the threat was mounting once more, before their task became too great to surmount. So, the Immortals rallied the eight armies they commanded. Red Kings wearing their crowns and their gauntlets and Red Princes glowering at the Indigo Immortals with resentment for what had transpired in the past. Blue Kings and Blue Princes with their three members lost in the Sapphire Song. The two Black King's Armies standing with a clear air of superiority, the Black King himself standing at their forefront, wearing the Dark Crown. The Indigo Kings and Princes standing proud, for their predecessors skill and prowess which had allowed them the position of Immortals.

Fera stepped forward and raised her arms, "Today, we march."

She let the sound sink in for a moment, before, in unison, the hundred and twenty Shou Tahs erupted into cheers, a sound which made the land tremble for a hundred kilometers in all direction. Fera allowed the sound to dissipate before she continued, "Know this, we march on a foe which has fought our kind for eons, and won every time. When the first Black King's Army went up against their number, only one Shou Tahs returned. When their armies marched on Gerki, only the Black King's own army survived. When two hundred of their number came beneath the waves of the sea, my own predecessors fell, the Kings of Eramine fell, and the Red Kings had to act so strongly that they created the two greatest items up to that point, with their song. Do not underestimate these creatures! They may appear weak, they may appear cowardly, but you will have to fight with the strength of that one Black Shou Tahs, with the strength of the King's own Black Army of ages past, with the strength of the Red Kings who summoned the star gods with their might. Any less and you will fall, any less and you will disgrace your tribe. Now, will you fall? Will their tricks and their spells make you doubt yourself? Will you be flotsam in the wave? OR WILL YOU BE SHOU TAHS?!"

If the roar at the declaration that they were going to war was an earthquake, the cry of "SHOU TAHS!" was the breaking of the world. Yet Fera held out her arms and spoke, "What was that? I couldn't hear you." Many Saku Rasi far inland lost their hearing that moment, unfortunately.

"Good," Fera continued, her own ears ringing, "Now, the Black Kings have the most experience fighting these creatures, and they have helped us by letting us know that they dwell in a giant rock which is today rent with cracks from their own assault on the place. Arround it lies an actual city. It is said that the decrepit ones who live in the hovels in this city don't ever act in combat. Do not doubt that the Singers will use these things to strike at us, should we let them. Cut them down as you see fit. We also know that they use false visions and tricks to divide our song. You have been trained to keep your song in perfect sync with others even when you cannot hear the others. Do not forget this training.

"We cannot outthink them, so we must overwhelm them before they can think. But then, we are few, and they are many. As such, the fight will take some time, so they will be able to think before we can overwhelm them, unless we discern who is doing the thinking. Even among our armies, one Shou Tahs is looked to for guidance, to lead the force. In the Singer armies it can be no different. Whenever you see a group of our foe, look for one who is leading their motions, and cut him away. The rest will fall quickly enough.

"For the actual assault, The Kings will march first. Blue Kings will come in from the east. Indigo will come down from the north. Red Kings will come in from the west. Black King's own Army will come up from the south. Red Kings will use the full power of their Gauntlets and Crowns. All but the lead Blue Kings will share in the Sapphire Song in full. Allow it as much power as it needs to act out the will of the Blue Stars. The Black King will use the Dark Crown to full effect. My own Indigo Kings will simply march. Keep your eyes open. If you see an ally faltering, you diverge and flank the foe who dares impede their punishment. The Princes will be being briefed here while you make your journey. Now, head out, and once more: What are you?"

"SHOU TAHS!"

The Red Kings slammed their fists together and lit up their crowns. Far away, a crowd of mixed races was on their usual rounds about the Slave City, when suddenly the sky went from the black of night to a dusty red, as though it had turned to stone. Yet there was something else, as the Dark Crown interplayed with the Red Crowns. It was as if, in the enormous cavern that had just started existing, there were splits, rents in the stone, through which silver tracings of light could be seen, and, despite the fact that it was night and the sky had turned to stone, there was a disc hanging there, just above Destroyer's Peak, black with a blinding silver corona.

The Thalla'klat'mor immediately perceived an attack, and rushed to their defensive positions, Humans taking up swords, Fari calling their birds, even a few Saku Rasi picked up bows and arrows and climbed to the rooftops. A few were detained and set up on racks to be tortured for Crutiatic Thaumaturgy. Their leaders took up the positions on the tallest buildings and began their Spells of Destruction, Portal Magic, and Telepathic attacks. Yet, even as they took up their final positions, spectral, red fists came crashing in through buildings.

A few clever portal placements retrieved many slaves who had been onset from certain destruction, but the Shou Tahs were too violent for all to be saved. However, this frontal assault only distracted the defenders from the second threat.

They didn't realize it until it was too late, and a wave of molten lava was pouring down the side of the mountain at their backs, forcing them forward, lest they boil. A few used the copious power provided by the tortures going on around the area to summon up icy Spells of Destruction, and freeze the lava as it progressed, but even this only stopped a part of the flood, and only temporarily at that. The others had to portal into the newly created safe zone, but not all were fast enough. Meanwhile, this new distraction had allowed the Red Kings time to decimate their foes while pursuing them into the safe zone.

However, the Thalla'klat'mor were not without their tricks, and soon spells of destruction were coming in at the Red Kings from all sides, and their War Song barrier was not enough to block them all. A king fell to the rain, but the others moved about with their maneuverability, and used their understanding of momentum to barrel through walls which would stop the projectiles coming at them.

Soon, the remaining fourteen Kings faced down the leaders of the Thalla'klat'mor, but before they could place a victory blow, the slaves placed a few portals, and the group was gone, down the slope of the mountain, and outside the edge of the Slave City, even beyond the flood of lava. However, the Shou Tahs now had the high ground, and could clearly see where the Thalla'klat'mor had fled to, so as the slaves regrouped and tried to think of a new strategy, the Red Kings simply cut the sky once more, and a waterfall of magma fell upon the cluster of War Meat. Only three had the speed to dive through new portals, and these were quickly incinerated by the lava which splashed through their own portal.

With a wave of their hand, the Red Kings dispelled the lava, leaving only a half melted mountainside and a field of ashes behind. They turned and expanded out, seeking Shou Tahs in need of aid.

The White Chorus was the embodiment of all attributes that made the Singers what they were: Singers. When the sky turned silver, black, and red, they immediately went to their positions via portal, prepared their tormented ones, sought their enemies and thought up telepathic visions as well as strategically placed spells of destruction, and a few prepared their Berserk's Brew.

Far below, the Blue Kings marched in from the east. All but one king had selflessly begun singing the Sapphire Song, knowing that, in doing so, they would never be themselves again. Though, so many voices had never joined into the Sapphire Song at once, and blue lightning flashed before and around them, smashing down and vaporizing stones, as the blue Shou Tahs charged, dead eyed, forward, up the side of the mountain. In their minds, they were witnessing the ground fall away before them, or traps claim their allies in single gulps, but the sentient song within them was not fooled, and compelled them on, forward.

"It is not working," the otarch spoke.

"Send the rain," another replied.

A hundred and twenty five Singers filled the sky with fire, ice, sound waves, lightning, lead, and acid. Though, it all came crashing down upon a slicing shield of sound summoned by the Sapphire Song. The shield trembled, but held, and the Blue Kings continued to charge, not even concerned about the wave of destruction only centimeters above their heads.

The otarchs were likewise unafraid, and, in a few seconds, had brought together the greatest spellslingers in the White Chorus through portals. They were directed to use all their training in the Hall of Composers to unify their efforts, and focus it all into a single spell. It took perhaps two minutes, as those Shou Tahs ran, before a single bolt of raw, uncontained Will of Mahkleb was unleashed upon that shield that was held up, and the thing shattered with the sound of a thousand Shou Tahs shouting.

The Blue Kings did not falter, and continued running, even as three of their number fell from the shockwave, and summarily consumed in new waves of destruction, along with four who had kept running. In response to the attack, the remaining singers of the Sapphire Song combined their voices, and strange pitches were mixed together, until a bolt of blue lightning was fired up the same path that the Will of Mahkleb had followed, petrifying the greatest spellslingers of the White Chorus all in a single spell.

"They're getting close."

"Melt the stone before them and release the berserkers," the leader said with a tenseness in his voice.

Fifty Singers hefted massive blocks of granite incased in steel in their tendrils as their berserker's brew was administered, and portals to the field of battle were opened before them. The charged, blindly, into the midst of the Blue Kings.

The remaining eight Blue Kings split apart as they ran, keeping equal distance from one another as the White Berserkers fell upon them. One attempted to bludgeon a king with them, but the king was too fast, and even as the granite bounced off his song shield, he ripped bodily through his aggressor. Another blocked a dozen hurled stones with an arm and spoke a wave of lightning to take out the throwers. A third king simply dodged between the attackers, using the Sapphire Song to increase his speed and mobility.

The Singers attempted to use portals to increase the Berserker's position on the field, but the Shou Tahs Combat Maneuverability was too great, and no position could be gained. Another berserker fell, then another dozen, and still eight Shou Tahs ran up the mountain.

Portals were summoned in front of the runners, designed to send them into the air, or at least in the wrong direction, but the Blue Kings leapt over them, slipping between the cracks. After some persistence, however, four were managed to be launched into the sky, where clever use of portals to redirect thrown stones bludgeoned the Shou Tahs back and forth through the air above Destroyer's Peak, until their shields weakened, and they had no choice, but to dispel their shields to unleash a wave of lightning which eliminated the last bersekers, but left the airborne Shou Tahs vulnerable to a few precision Spells of Destruction.

Now, with only four singers of the Sapphire Song present, they could not keep their impenetrable shields active, yet they still would not be stopped.

They outran Spells of Destruction, dodged Portal Magic, ignored Telepathy, and simply lashed out with lightning at anything they saw as they ran. The remaining otarchs bellowed, enraged, "STOP THEM! STOP THEM!" as the attackers made their way to the otarch's position.

A Singer got a lucky shot, and three Shou Tahs were running. Twelve Singers fell in ice and lightning.

A portal summoned a block of granite directly in the path of a Shou Tahs, and two Shou Tahs were running. A chunk of the mountain was replaced with smoking crater.

A wave of destruction engulfed one, but by then, the last Shou Tahs was upon the cluster of otarchs.

They portaled away, each to a different location, but the last singer of the Sapphire Song used the last bit of his War Song to send a bolt of lightning through each portal, wasting his body in the process and killing all but one otarch. Though, even as the Shou Tahs died, the song could still be heard, faint, but drifting away on the wind like a scrap of cloth.

As the remaining ninety two Singers regrouped, one came to the last otarch and spoke, "Sir, another fifteen approach from the south."

There was a whisper on the wind as the Indigo Kings crested the second to last rise before the White Conclave's entrenched position in their run. Now, these kings had intended to fight with nothing except their learning in the Immortal College, yet as the voice flitted into their ears, two realized what they were hearing, and those two Indigo Shou Tahs began to sing along. Their leader did not complain, as this was not the time or place, but instead continued their run.

Their eyes went dead as they ran the last few meters to their target, witnessing what had happened here. There were smoking craters and massive blocks of stone all down the side of the mountain, and all fifteen Blue Kings were gone. Though, only one otarch still stood, and the other forces of the White Conclave had been reduced to less than half their original numbers.

With a smile, the group charged. Spells of Destruction were launched at them, but their maneuverability allowed them to dodge what they could not deflect with War Song. Soon the Shou Tahs were among the ninety Singers, tossing them aside and dashing their bodies like so many pastry balls.

Meanwhile, the two Amethyst Singers had not charged, but instead their song was coalescing into armor or vibrant amethyst, as massive swords appeared in their hands, and kite shields formed upon their arms. As soon as this was finished, they sang six quick words, and sprinted forward, impossibly fast and light for all that armor, cutting through scores of Singers even as their shields shattered beneath powerful spells.

After the quick clean-up skirmish the Blue Kings had left, there were nine Shou Tahs remaining, and their leader made vocal note that, clearly, the Sapphire Song had different effects in different tribes.

The sky was silver, red, and shadowy. Black lightning, quite similar to the magic summoned up by Vroch in ages long past, struck the north side of Destroyer's Peak, reducing buildings and rock formations alike to rubble while the Black King's army snuck up through the cover of the stones, singing their War Song as they sprinted from cover to cover, and keeping attacks at a safe distance as the Black Watch rained fire and ice upon them.

However, the Black King was not in this force as it made it's way up the mountain. He was at the peak of another White Mountain, singing and focusing entirely upon the Dark Crown. He directed the black lightning, and drenched the air with selective shadows which blocked the sight downhill, but not uphill. He had practiced this magic a long time now, but the next step was still difficult.

As he concentrated, figures of eclipse-stuff formed amidst the Black Watch, before slashing out with their searing, flat, scythe-like arms, just to be dispelled a moment later with a single spell as the King's Army far below made further progress up the hill, this time unconcerned with defending against spells which had been directed to another source, and instead using War Song to launch sonic attacks up the hill at their targets, sending at least one whole group of Singer's flying.

These eclipse creatures kept coming, each one cutting down one or two Singers before falling, and would continue to come until someone found the Black King and dispatched him, not that such a thing would be likely. As the Singers tried to devise a way to stop the eclipse ones, however, the black Shou Tahs fell upon them. They attempted to disrupt the attacks of the Shou Tahs with Telepathy, but they had prepared for this, and even when a more creative avenue of distraction was attempted, this focus left them distracted from the onslaught of the eclipse.

The Gerkans were the only army that day to not lose a single warrior, and when it was complete, the King's Army stood together, and roared for long-delayed revenge.

When the Princes arrived, with the Immortals hot on their tail, they found a mountain smoking and smoldering, and thirty eight of the original sixty Shou Tahs were wrestling and joking about how easy the fight had been.

Feraom Ferai barked them into more Immortal conduct fairly quickly, however, before having them catch everyone up to speed on the first wave. The Blue Princes were grieved to learn that their leaders were dead, and that the Sapphire Song was now sung by the Indigo Tribe, but the Immortals quickly promoted them to Blue Kings and sent them home to find replacements for the Blue Princes. Many of those who remained, however, felt that this had simply been a test of their strength, a demonstration of their power as a race, to make the sky bleed and to utterly destroy the only race to have ever threatened the Shou Tahs.

Fera would not hear this, however, and began instead giving orders. The three remaining Prince Armies would remain here, to protect their prize as the Immortals decided what would be done with it. One of each Army, Prince, King, even the Immortals themselves, began singing the Sapphire Song, to ensure it's continued survival. The Black King insisted on staying with his King's Army which would remain, and so one Shou Tahs was shifted from the second to the first to replace him. Then the Red Princes were given the Gauntlets and the Crowns.

Each King Army returned to their own city to protect it, and the Immortals returned to the Immortal College.

The Shou Tahs had tasted war. They would want another.

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Lyre of Prophecy and learns Sangromancy as well as Mountaineering.

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Book of Death, and learns Martial Magics as well as Infiltration.

Also, combat rolls for the Shou Tahs Offensive:

Red Kings: 2d6+13=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316642/)
War Meat: 2d6+9=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316648/)

Blue Kings: 2d6+13=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316649/)
White Chorus: 2d6+9=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316650/)

Indigo Kings: 2d6+13=24 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316659/)
White Chorus: 2d6+8=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316656/)

Black Kings: 2d6+13=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316651/)
Black Watch: 2d6+9=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316662/)

Current Power Points: 5
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316638/)

[ImperialSunligh]

The Empire, once they had realized the loss of the Book of Death, was furious. Any information on the culprit was made public immediately, a massive fine going on this person's head and wanted posters spread throughout the city. Though little could be deduced clearly about the culprit beyond a humanoid form.

Voices echoed in the streets:

"How could the thief get past our defenses?"

"I heard rumours that the thief could be a human! Well, if it was them, I'll pray to the gods that they be punished."

"How can we defend our homes from that lunatic?"

"I hear that that demon could use her own blood to kill you if she had to!"

The imperial court was held promptly, to put an end to the constant protests claiming that the government wasn't acting fast enough.

"Your imperial majesty, what do you command we do about this criminal?" the Head of Defence said, bowing reverently, "They have powers of infiltration that we have never seen. That we were even able to detect them is a feat. And now that they have taken the Book of Death, they may have already learned something of the spells of destruction."

Unfortunately, this emperor was not an especially hardworking one. He disliked the work of his position, preferring to simply relax and enjoy the benefits. The head of defence knew that this meeting was a mere pleasantry and would amount to nothing.

"Do as you will," he said.

"Of course, majesty."

So the Head of Defence spent what little of the budget could be spent on hiring a detective that might determine the culprit and pursue them.

Many of those interviewed for the job were capable intellectually and could likely handle the challenge of identifying the culprit, but were not strong enough in a fight to apprehend the criminal, or vice versa.

He didn't want to admit it, but he had to. He had to use him.


Cell block B of the imperial prison. There were only two blocks to the prison, and neither was very large, as Herz was less restrictive legally in general than elsewhere in the continent.

The head of defence kicked the bars of cell 17.

"Hey. Hey! Get up."

The monkey inside was older than imaginings. His skin clung to his bones and what was left of his fur was tattered and worn. Yet somehow he had a handsome, wizened look to him still. He looked away from the bars, his arms raised in prayer.

"Listen to me when I talk to you!"

The monkey turned slowly, an unsettling grin on his face and said, "You know... they don't talk to me. Not anymore. Keheheh. Not in this place. No one but you. You pale in comparison."

"You shouldn't have broken the law if you didn't want to go to prison."

The monkey laughed for a long time, peering out the barred windows at the moon.

"The laws of your emperor are not the laws of the gods. It is this empire that deserves to burn."

"I don't have time to waste on you. I have come here because the one who held my position previously told me things about you, that you had resisted the conditioning of the military, used it to achieve a state of ascendance. Is it true that you have an intelligence and discipline greater than any other monkey? And that you cannot die of old age?"

"...you wouldn't be asking these questions if you didn't intend to free me. Just tell me what it is you need me for if you're in such a rush."

"There is a criminal, a thief code-named, "Bloodcrazed One". The name comes from traces of blood that seems to have been used for some kind of magic. We don't completely understand it. And we haven't the resources to hire anyone else who could do the job."

"What did this one steal that makes them so important?"

The head of defence whispered, "The Book of Death."

The monkey's grin became a nostalgic smile.

"I shall do this for you, if you free me and pay me."

"Done. Now get up and I'll let you out."

The monkey in the cell was freed and outfitted with whatever he desired, then sent to discover the identity of the culprit. If he returned past the week for him to investigate the city, he would not be allowed inside.

He took only a night to sweep the city fully for clues, interviewing key individuals and examining the bloodstains. He was able to deduce that the thief had gone north.

Under cover of night, he followed quickly. He eventually found a female figure on the northern road, while walking through some ruins. He was concealed under a robe, enough to completely obscure his identity, though his stature gave away his race.

The woman ignored his stalking for quite a while, and the monkey almost thought she might not have noticed him. She spoke, "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"Keheh. Some called me Ewald once. Others call me number 17. You can call me the scourge of the gods," he said, preparing his stance, "pleased to meet you. As for what I want, I want my freedom, and I want to bring you to justice for your crimes against the empire, and, mostly, against the gods. Now..."

Ewald kicked the ground, letting out a blast towards Sera that could tear a normal man to pieces. Her training in the martial magics prepared her for this, however, and she cartwheeled gracefully out of the way of the blast, behind a large ruined wall.

"That magic," she gasped.

"Indeed," he said, "it goes beyond the level of regular martial magic. A combination of that holy art and the less holy art contained in that book you carry. A book that I must retrieve in order to eke out my freedom."

Ewald sent another blast straight through the wall. When the dust began to settle, a destructive slash of blood was sent careening back in his direction. It didn't hit him, but prevented him from following for a few moments. In that time, Sera was far from there, running away and cloaked in darkness.

"Blasted coward!" Ewald yelled, "Damn you."

He continued to follow in her direction, hoping to pick something up on her elsewhere. If he had to follow her forever, he had time.

Meanwhile in Herz, the project that had taken much of the resources of the city that would normally go to taking care of the criminal was completed. Another monkey city, known as Drachenfutter, was founded in the east of the continent, on the mountainside overlooking the ocean. The city began as a secret facility of the emperor to conduct experiments into obscure topics of a dark nature. Though the experiments led to no major advancements, the project soon attracted more people than would be logical for a secret facility, and so was quickly converted into a city to cover up. The city is fairly small, carved into the cliff face in such a way that takes advantage of the monkeys' climbing abilities. The population that was attracted to the city made it something of a center for learning and scientific experimentation for the monkeys. An army of dark monks were defending the facility and remained to defend the city.

The city was governed in a loose manner, allowed to organize itself as long as it paid its dues to the emperor. The city had a mayor who generally implemented laws that differed little from those of Herz.

In this time, an initiative was made to expand the human armies in order to defend the previously defenseless monkey areas of the cities. These small monkey districts were now patrolled by defenders day and night, in case of attack. The alliance treaty prevented major qualms between the races, though some monkeys still resented their human guardians and their somewhat more restrictive laws and beliefs.

Roll: 2d6+8=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4318023/)

Command Race, Monkeys, Create City: "Drachenfutter", -3
Command Order, Order of Eknad, Create 3rd Army of Defenders,-2
Command City: Herz, raise 2nd Army of Dark Monks. -2
Command City: Figurae, raise 5th army of defenders, -2

Command 2nd Army of Dark Monks, Defend Drachenfutter
Command 3rd Army of Defenders, defend Atemzug
Command 5th Army of Defenders, defend Gestalt

Left: 5

[Omegonthesane]

The set of techniques now taught as the technique of Aerial Combat had not originated as a school of combat; instead, they had simply been the result of demons acting according to their nature, with their wings. Flight was as much part of civilian as military life, to the point that nearly all demonic structures were now designed to be entered from the air - most notably in Southport, much of which had but recently been constructed.

However, it was only the pressure of the emergent Shou Tahs threat that finally drove this art to its pinnacle. Demonic warriors were all too aware that flight was their primary advantage over mere humans, and about their only advantage over the Singers of old and the Shou Tahs who had now finally emerged in force on the Northern Continent. Techniques long practised were now perfected, to the point that even the Faeries, long staunch allies and fellow fliers, could no longer keep up.

This advancement was displayed physically in the form of a new set of eyries on the highest flat roof of Fort Liberty, a series of obstacle courses through which demons could train themselves in the unnaturally tight and precise maneuvers now required of the most elite demonic soldiers. This was matched with a ground-level Academy, so that those demons to be selected for the elite Sky Troopers could be selected for both mental and physical perfection, and deliberately filled with many academic courses that had no direct relation to combat. The theory was that demonic passions would be more likely to act in defence of the world, and less likely to lash out against it, if the Academy gave soldiers a deep knowledge of what they were fighting for. In practice, this meant they gained more funding streams, as some lazy demons, some faeries, and even a few non-fliers signed up for the lectures of the Flight Academy and no intention of receiving the benefit or cost of gruelling physical conditioning. This was perhaps for the best, as within its first decade the Flight Academy had suffered twelve fatalities from demons who had simply pushed themselves too hard to try to qualify for selection as one of the Sky Troopers.

At no point in Kairos' life had he felt anything like the rush of flight, and it had always left him sad how little chance there was to indulge this. In Sanctuary, even the tallest Demonic Temples were barely high enough to perform ten Days of Flight in a row, while in Southport even taking the balconies four at a time while spiralling around the towers they were attached to did not quite do it for him in the so-called City of Pleasures, and naturally everywhere else there was no competition. He had even earned some infamy - and a significant barrage of destructive spells from overenthusiastic Singer security - trying to fly to the very top of Destroyer's Peak, not something he could do in a single bound but disturbingly possible when he only had to get there and get away alive. Even if he had had to stop at Elfmoot afterwards, and give them a few hits of Torment so they'd grow him a new leg.

Yet, even this flier's flier looked with some trepidation at the course he was expected to fly. Supposedly, the array of glowing cables and spikes that formed the Flight Academy's obstacle course was formed from the innards of the Dreamforge, retrieved from the deep sea after Nathaniel destroyed that majestic city. It hardly mattered on its own, and it mattered not at all compared to what the materials had been used for, a writhing, coiling course of rings and spaces, lined with undodgeable tripwires that would send somewhat more dodgeable quarrels flying at him as he flew. As this was to be the test, he had been outfitted in full heavy plate, right down to the iron-soled boots for emergency landings and the rarely-used 'Plumber Kick'.

Nonetheless, there was no use in panic. Kairos breathed, deeply, as the announcer shouted, three, two, one, launch; on the last word, he leapt from the starting board, and his wings unfurled as he swooped up into the obstacle course. The initial tunnels were tighter than any civilian had any business using, barely twice an average demon's wingspan and filled with sharp bends, yet they were child's play to the flight fanatic, even encumbered as he was; he swooped and dived in every direction, with a precision that would have left many in awe, not even scraping the edges of the tunnel before reaching its end half a kilometre up. Landing, he panted, allowing himself two seconds of rest before leaping from the next plank to the next stage - similar to the last, save that in addition to performing twists and turns that were barely feasible he had arrows and quarrels to dodge. Many of these came from automatic machines, capable only of responding to a twitched wire, which merely required that Kairos be ready to duck or roll at the merest brush of string or sound of whistling; a few came instead from demonic archers, placed on platforms along the tunnels, requiring that he instead become difficult to aim at. Had one arrow landed on him, it would have entailed a failure of the test, for he was not meant to have any priorities but speed and safety in the maneuverability test. At last, the platform came in sight, on the other side of a ring that could barely fit two humans side to side; Kairos dived, carefully, and folded up his wings at what he felt was the last possible moment, still not completely certain that he would pass that step of the test - not until he found himself through and onto a new plank, for another two-second breather.

More sequences of tunnels followed, tighter and tighter, putting to use every single maneuver that Kairos had learned in the last ten years and many more he had learned before ever joining the Flight Academy. They shrank, as was expected, until he could feel the material brushing against his unfurled wings even as he careened and rolled through them; at last, drained and sweating, he came upon the last two hundred fifty metres of the test run. During this final breather, instead of merely stopping, he drew the bow he had carried from the beginning of the test, for this last tunnel was lined with targets twenty-five or more yards away from the tunnel's racing line. Twelve targets, and indeed the Flight Academy had granted him twelve arrows; at this range, even flying past, merely hitting the target was relatively easy. Almost disappointing. A good thing, too, for many demons had failed in this step and been offended to learn that they were in fact expected to hit all twelve targets, and therefore to enter the final chamber with all twelve arrows.

There was cheering as the potential Sky Trooper landed on the victory plank. Just the Combat Test tomorrow, and the Endurance Test the day after that, and he'd be one of Fort Liberty's finest.

In military matters, Fort Liberty was the de facto capital of the Demonic Cities, and by extension the Northern Alliance, even if it was generally accepted that the Trell Grove was the de jure political and commercial centre. A position gained for its prestige, not its geographical location. Nonetheless, the Alliance was not so beautifully close that they could count on the armies of other members to do their dirty work - if nothing else, the Singers and Demons were the military might of the North in all but name, as Newhaven had refused their diplomats entry while the Might of the Bloom would only act if death came to their very door.

Thus it was the Generals of Fort Liberty who, with some stress, received and processed the news.

"Destroyer's Peak has fallen to an entire cohort of Shou Tahs. The White Chorus and Black Watch have been destroyed for all intents and purposes. They didn't even spare the slaves. The Rainbow Lord is missing in action." There followed a list of estimated numbers of Singer and innocent dead, as well as the names of those known to be lost to the invaders - many, but by no means all, for Fort Liberty had had another great influx of immigrants fleeing death and slavery.

"We cannot let this stand," demanded one of the nine. "They march on our ancestors, they march on our allies."

"They have done only that which we dreamed of doing when we built this city!" hissed a second of the nine. "We ought to be grateful!"

"I concur," said a third, "and we should not forget the power they wield. We should not lightly make enemies of these sea-blobs, treaty or no treaty."

"What is our word worth, if we break it at the whim of a bunch of invertebrates?" said a fourth. "Our own treaties demand that we strike. If we do not strike, we call all of our other alliances into question and place everything we have built at risk!"

"Are the Shou Tahs, at this very moment, pursuing war against our nominal allies?" asked the now greying Hexas, First General of the fort, her body covered with glowing scars from her earlier days. "If they have stopped, we are not required to act. In any case, judging by their past... behaviour, I feel there is a better course of action. A thing we can do more productive than either of your proposals."

"And… and what is this great claim, that you think it better than obeying the spirit of our oaths?" asked the first speaker, restraining his rage as the words had come from a respected public figure.

"Absolutely nothing," the First General answered, to a hubbub of murmuring that stopped at a raised hand from her. "According to our xenologists, the Shou Tahs will make enemies of anyone who antagonises them in any way, real or perceived, even if they are the aggressor. This war is recorded as starting when one of their cities attacked the Peak, centuries ago, wielding the then-lost Horn of Winter."

"The now-lost Horn of Winter, in case you forgot the earlier word from the Peak," interjected a sixth speaker. "We all saw the red storm."

"Precisely," said Hexas. "If they had their trinket, they might simply slink under the sea and give us the time we need to prepare for their next move. We cannot even give it to them, as we ourselves do not have it. Even with our newly strengthened forces, we cannot risk a war yet. We wait. We see if they do not fall upon themselves, stripped of a common enemy - as we for so long suspected we would fall upon the Singers, once our two civilisations stopped sharing a common enemy. Assuming no other great change, once we have superiority, we go to them with our terms."

"What 'terms'?"

"The exact details are a matter for the lawyers, but they can have the same fundamental terms we gave the Rainbow Lord, that convinced them to make the pact and betray their brothers. Peace in life, or peace in death. Their choice."

The Rainbow Lord was indeed missing in action, and had been for decades, in a location that they had revealed to random patches of the Singer diaspora through long portal tunnels and telepathy. This savage place had regressed to a point similar to that of the Pure Land before its defilement, with even the Suri of old blasted back to being hunter-gatherers; as such, being a Singer, and one of the oldest and strongest Singers at that, the Rainbow Lord was very much the apex predator. Which was good, as they were also alone for the first decade, as none of the answerers had the bravery to simply leap back through the portal tunnel used to spy on them.

Of course, as one of the first Singers to be built in Tyonix instead of the Plane of Thunder, the Rainbow Lord had long since learned patience. They had built themself a den of sorts, more an emergent feature of a set of sharp wooden poles on which Suri had been placed to die, their hands and feet impaled and their body left hanging so the thirst killed them before the wounds' infections. It was to this den that one other Singer, then two, then two hundred finally came, answering the various strange whispers of doom and escape that had entered their hearts. Most of these knew the Rainbow Lord only by reputation, even those who had dwelt within the Peak, for one did not simply casually bump into the de facto political leader of one's home.

Some of these were the ones that were actually tendril-picked, and for the next five years this strange tribe simply dwelt, hidden from most ambitious eyes, as the Rainbow Lord and their chosen companions did their work. On the fifth anniversary of the fall of Destroyer's Peak, the tribe were gathered again, to witness the Rainbow Lord and their new cabal of eight.

"Many of you surely wonder what I am doing here, instead of at the Peak," the Rainbow Lord said. "I was granted visions, myriad and strange. That place had been doomed for some years now, for Makhleb witnessed the future that was to unfold, and could not change it. Yes, the Destroyer itself came to me. I've seen things… things you wouldn't believe. Inspiring things.

"Some of you may wonder who these eight are. They are eight of those who worked on the Lyre of Prophecy, lost in the Red Storm. This artefact required the ability to see the future, and thereby, to change it. It also gave the ability to see the past."

With that, the cabal of nine performed a slow and deliberate dance, like a young Singer desperately trying to master its first spells - only, their precision was as expected for archmages, so it was not the fumblings of youth that they feared. A portal opened in the middle of them, in front of the Rainbow Lord. At first glance, it seemed to simply be a child's practice portal, with no destination that could not be reached by walking, until the watchers listened carefully, and heard the hustle and bustle of a Suri village on the other side of the portal, and the subtly different shapes of Bellerophat and Ashatorat on the skyline. Nios' imitations had not, after all, been perfect.

"This is a one-way portal," said the Rainbow Lord. "Not through space, but through time. We cannot travel through it, and neither can the Suri on the other side, nor can they even react to us - for their past is set in stone. Yet, we can witness their past. In this way, we can witness their secrets, and learn them ourselves, faster than we could hope to advance on our own.

"The younger and more traditional among you may wonder what good is this art of seeing what happened long ago? Those observant of you will instead take note that you are now surrounded."

The audience turned their focus, and indeed, twenty-four practically identical Rainbow Lords surrounded the hundreds gathered, in addition to the one in the middle.

"Do not fear, this is not a trap, it is a demonstration. When I began this speech, I planned to travel back in time twenty-five times. Each of those, up there, is a part of my future. More precisely, my next hour - after much, dangerous testing, we found that after a mere hour, time becomes too stable for our new powers to change it. But, well, a lot can happen in an hour. Easily enough time to fix a simple mistake. Unfortunately, we found… something else… that happens once time has stabilised," the central Rainbow Lord said, before opening and stepping through a second time portal, seemingly disappearing from sight.

A pop-science lecture followed, with many trinkets and tricks, until at last one of the twenty-four Rainbow Lords portalled back into the middle of the audience.

"Those of you looking carefully will notice that it has been twenty-five minutes since I began the sequence of time portals that created my dopplegangers up there. Look carefully at them now. Five, four, three, two, one."

On the count of one, one of the remaining twenty-three Rainbow Lords simply faded away, like a trick of the light. The twenty-fourth, the one continuing the speech, simply kept counting down five, and their duplicates all faded one by one.

"Duplicates such as they were cannot exist for more than an hour at a time. We do not know why yet, not for certain, but it is consistent with our existing theory that time stabilises after an hour and cannot be travelled into. For now, all that matters is the observed property - only the most recent version of a time traveller will persist, if two copies of them are present long enough to enter stabilised time. We have no way of knowing what fate awaits you, if you fade away like that - but neither have we a reason to suspect it is any more terrible than death.

"However, obviously, you were not brought all the way to the First Land to watch a demonstration. Destroyer's Peak has fallen at last. With its loss, the Singer nation has ceased to be. We have run here, where no civilisation persists, where no one can hope to stand against us, because the Shou Tahs will destroy any target we create for them. We are not yet strong enough to stand against them, and our past tricks and plots have failed to divide them against themselves. The Demons, weak of faith and endlessly defiant, are no doubt celebrating our fate, for they do not know that we are Singers."

"What's that meant to mean, now?" cried a heckler. Well, we say heckler - more of a plant, as this was part of the plan. "We do not stand unbroken, we do not crush all our enemies. We flee like frightened babes before the first thing that dared spot what we are!"

"Singers always survive. We have antagonised every creature of the earth and until now have never faced retribution," said the Rainbow Lord. "Singers always endure. We alone of all the beings of the earth are completely untouched by the ravages of age," they continued, ignorant of the Spirits created as descendants of angels. "Singers always prepare. We fight only on our terms, only when we are ready. It doesn't matter that the Peak is gone; that rock was not our kind. We are our kind. We know the Shou Tahs now. Faced with our might, they will join forces. Faced with our absence, they will stagnate in petty wars. Let us stay our tendrils, let them grow complacent, until we are prepared, until the stars are right.

"Then we will show them what we are. Then we will show them that when Singers fight, Singers always win. Even if we must first tend to our wounds."

There was not precisely a cheer; there did not need to be, only a mere rumble of applause. It was not a speech of battle, but a speech of endurance. On cue, the cabal began singing an entirely mundane song as the crowd dispersed back to their business - the Dirge of Eupnea, written by the Rhapsodists of Sophia to mourn fallen Figurae. The anthem the Singers had once deserved, the anthem they would yet earn again.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4317469/)
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 15 points

3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Create Wonder (Air Force Academy) in Fort Liberty, a training ground in which Aerial Combat is perfected.
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Ingrain Technology (Aerial Combat)
2 points: Command City (Fort Liberty) to Raise Army (Sky Troopers), an elite company of 12 squads of 12 martial badasses similar to how there were only 144 Dark Hierophants.
6 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) with Time Portals

0 points: Command Army (Sky Troopers) to defend Fort Liberty
0 points: Command Army (Fort Liberty Reservists) to defend Fort Liberty

1 point remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[5a Violista]

Most people don't know how the Sidhe spread across the world. However, the gods and a few scholars know that they are, in fact, all the same species. Their individual forms vary, but that's because they adapted to their environment - and they were much more like the faeries than their appearances would suggest.


The Sidhe who spread to the continent out West were particularly frightening. Many of them lived in the rivers and jungles. Some of them were the Joint-Eaters: those who drained the life from those who slept by water. They lived in the rivers and swamps and would climb out when everyone was asleep. From their short absence of life since their creation, they felt dependent on it from others. Of course, they wouldn't kill, but those who slept there would feel more tired when they awoke.

Others near the rivers were the hags: unsightly women who would live there near the rivers and swamps and the ocean and drag unsuspecting and lonely travelers into the water. However, they would also sometimes save drowning victims as they were passing by.

Wandering throughout the land were thin, starving men called Gortach, as well. They would be harbingers of famine in the usually-bountiful land. Some believed they caused the famines; others saw them as the saviors who foretold them to save everyone.



Deep undersea, there were small timid maidens - much smaller than the Shou Tahs, anyway. They had webbed hands and feet, and were often called Asrai. They were, at first, found across the entire ocean like the Nereids, but were soon driven out by many of the nereids and by the fishermen as well: they were deathly afraid of being captured and brought above the water, where it was much too warm for them.

Their touch was extremely cold, and it is said that they are extremely beautiful just like the fairies', but they are also very much shy, maybe even more so than they were beautiful.

Ultimately, the only place were they could survive was in the cities near the Shou Tahs - because most Nereids and most sailors avoided those places. The Shou Tahs, of course, laughed at them because of their small, weak, timid nature, but the Asrai accepted that because, at the very least, they didn't have to worry about sailors and fishers.



Those Sidhe who stayed in The Bloom spread across it, but mostly avoided the larger cities. The Baobhan women traveled in small groups, dancing with small groups of men before sucking their life. The Gille Dubh were tree guardians who were extremely kind to lost children. Often, a Yangant could be seen wandering through the forest trails and roads at night, with candles on each finger. He was rather mischievous, dousing the flames of those with light but giving small candles to those without.

Then, there were the Nix, named after the world itself: river maidens who would teach music to travelers. The songs they taught were about ancient legends and histories of heroes and valor.



In the cities of Saku Rasi could be found some rather strange Sidhe of all sorts. The most remarkable part was that, sometimes, they would replace their own children with unattended Saku Rasi children. Nobody has any idea why this happened, but the occasional Saku Rasi would unwittingly raise a Sidhe of some sort as his or her own child.

There were also large cats that begun roaming the cities - large cats that could give themselves a Saku Rasi form temporarily. Most unusually were the Leanan, who were essentially muses. They lived in far-away caves, but occasionally came into the cities to seduce aspiring artists. The artist would become a creative genius due to her influence - but at a cost: Day by day, his (or her; artists come in both genders) life would start slipping away. The artist would ignore other duties in life, would sometimes even forget eating. If the sidhe ever left the artist, though, the artist would likely waste away in sadness and uncreativity.



In the Human continent, there were frightening or beastly sidhe. Rumors spread of the Bean Nighe - a washer woman who would simultaneously grant wishes and foretell the death of the listener. Some saw that as good fortune; others, as bad.

The Water-Horse was specifically frightening. It appeared as a damp horse, willing to be ridden to its rider's destination at amazing speed. However, the instant it saw a large body of water, it ran towards it and often threw its rider deep underwater.

A much nicer one was the Selkie: a seal who took the form of a woman (or is she a woman who takes the form of a seal?) out of water. She sheds her seal skin to play above water, and retreats back to the safety underwater.

Most ironically, the Dullahan was often found riding around this land. The Dullahan appeared as a headless human riding on a horse. Each one of them carried around a whip and would, like the Bean Nighe, signify the death of those near them. However, the ironic part was that the Dullahan had a dread fear of gold. It would flee from the slightest glimmer of gold - which, the humans had already a large use for.




Far up north, where the Idrians and Singers (and demons) live, the Sidhe there seemed the least human-like. There's the Barghest, monstrous dogs with flaming eyes whose movement was heard by the sound of rattling chains. Then, there were others who lived underground: for example, the Bluecap (a kind flaming Sidhe who warned miners of cave-ins and troubles) and the Coblynau, who caused cave-ins and rock-slides and troubles across the north.







The Lyre was an important part of the city of Saorsa. There was even an army watching over it - in fact, the lyre was even shown on their banner. Without it, morale was lost.

The perpetrator had to be brought back to Saorsa and the Lyre, returned.

The city was partially put under military rule - of course, not everyone agreed with Innocence ruling the city. Especially those who served in the other army.

The army began sending their soldiers all across the world, looking for the Lyre. Because of their experience with the Lyre and their prayers to Aniqua, they learned how to determine the future using tarot cards and other 'chance' objects.


-Reaction of Saorsa Army Innocence to the Lyre disappearing:
-Began sending scouts across the world to find it.
-Advance Civilization (Idrians): Aniqua's Tarots




The two werewolf armies were growing restless. They've been hearing deeds of the Kraith and of their city. So, both The Hunt and The Pack left the city of Grove. The elves went towards Elfmoot and the demons towards Sanctuary.

((Note: Players of Demons, Elves, and Kraith: Feel free to react however you'd like. Unless the armies there stop them, I'll have the Elfmoot and Sanctuary nigh-purged of Kraith. Of course, there'll still be the few here and there, but the majority will be slain.))

-Werewolf Purge:Elfmoot
A large group of elves suddenly arrived in Elfmoot at once. Their clothing, accents, and mannerisms showed they came up from Grove, from the college there, but there was something odd about them. For one, they all arrived at the same time, though few came from the same direction into the city. Did they have relatives? Who would they stay with? Why were they coming? Uncertainty and questions raced throughout the city.

However, though they seemed strange, they didn't do anything obvious. Though, at night, howls could be heard all around the city. When people woke up in the morning, one more of these Kraith's Haunted Houses would be destroyed. There'd be fires and burnt buildings, fear across the population, and who-knows-what-else. Sometimes, there'd be a dead Kraith lying on the streets. Other times, an elf. Those who went out at nights would even see glimpses of large wolf-like beasts running through the shadows.

-Werewolf Purge:Sanctuary
As in Elfmoot, the same occurred in Sanctuary: Strange foreign demons suddenly arrived in the city. Their arrival was spaced out in terms of time rather than distance, but it was still essentially the same:

Blood, fire, and the howling of beasts.

Meanwhile,
In an entirely unrelated location and happenstance,
Out west in Skull Cove, the bloodthirsty Nereids continued gathering in large numbers. Their group grew so large that they were essentially an army: they could take out entire ships where they went. Working together, they could even sometimes kill and devour an unsuspecting Shou Tah, with their control over water.

They called themselves the antithesis of Aniqua - Death at Sea - but some knew them as the Sea Kraith, because of their thirst for blood.

-Command City (Skull Cove) => Raise Army (Death at Sea)




Aniqua looked across the world and still felt a little sadness. The people were there, growing and spreading out, but...
...
...the same thing might happen to them that happened to Eull. They could die. Be wiped out.

So the goddess descended across Tyonix and made made every species slightly more fertile.

She also sent her three avatars - the Maiden, the Crone, and the Oracle, to three specific cities (Elfmoot, Rivis, and Saorsa) to get them to spread out more. If they remained in large, bustling cities...who knows what would happen?

So Elfmoot made the town of Pua. Many from Saorsa moved to the above-ground town of Vita, and Rivis created the underground town called Lapis.

-Command Avatar (Maiden) => Command City (Elfmoot) => Found Satellite
-Command Avatar (Crone) => Command City (Saorsa) => Found Satellite
-Command Avatar (Oracle) => Command City (Rivis) => Found Satellite





0 + 2d6=8 ("http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4319615/) + 3 + 3 = 14

(0) Command army: The Hunt (mostly elf werewolves) goes to Elfmoot to purge the Kraith there.
(0) Command army: The Pack (mostly demon werewolves) go to Fort Liberty to purge the Kraith there.
(-) Description of Sidhe
(0) Saorsa Army "Innocence" sends scouts around the world looking for the Lyre

(1) Command Avatar (Maiden) => Command City (Elfmoot) => Found Satellite
(1) Command Avatar (Crone) => Command City (Saorsa) => Found Satellite
(1) Command Avatar (Oracle) => Command City (Rivis) => Found Satellite

(2) Command City (Skull Cove) => Raise Army (Death of the Sea)
(6) Advance Civilization (Idrians): "Aniqua's Tarots" (Combat applicable)

Remainder: 3
Plans: Make a current list of all the artifacts, cities, armies, etc under my control, as well as the bonuses to each army.
Have someone do something with the Blood Artifact

[Neelien]

rolled 8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4319852/) bringing me up 30

It had been many years since the Shadowbirds had learnt marksmanship. Over the years, training after training had ensured that the discipline became part of the Shadowbirds' traditions. Some of them had even begun using bows, as opposed to the more conventional spears. Over the course of a few years, effectively using a bow became a symbol of ability, as bows were increadibly difficult to use.Amongst those who pushed the development of bows was an Owtfe named Mark.

Mark was already very old when bows finally became widespread. His skill with the weapon was high above anyone else's, and during his entire lifetime not once was his accuracy bested by any other Shadowbird. So great was his skill in the use of Engagement Magic and Lockon that it is said he could hit a target that was beyond the horizon, but even without these, he could be more accurate than any other Shadowbird that was using these skills. His greatest achievement however was not a mere feat. No, his greatest achievement was his personal bow and the arrows it used. He named it the Warhead.

The Warhead was an six meter long bow, with a specifically designed bolt holder. It was capable of withstanding the tremendous strains that were required to propel the 20 kg bolts at speeds above thespeed of sound. It also used levitation sigils to allow a single Shadowbird to operate it without any help. The bolts themeselves were far from ordinary as well. They used modified levitation sigils to rotate around their axis. This rotation was used to both stabilize the bolt's direction and accelerate it through means of a fan that would deploy once in flight. These bolts could be further accelerated by by the skills of the user in the area of Engagement magic.

For his accomplishement, Mark received a great reward. After his death, the best title of the best marksman would be his name. His first sucessor, Aaon would become known as Mark II and he would be as adamant, if not more than Mark, about continuing development of the Warhead.


3 points: Ingrain Technology Marksmanship into the Shadowbirds. This goes along with the development of huge bows known as Warheads. These barely qalify as bows, being bigger than most balistae.

27 points remaining, +3 next round

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4316638/)
Current Power Points: 19

The Kroop Troop had left Imptopia, it's principal members finally deciding that simply demonstrating their superiority to the rest of the world was a vain act, especially when so many other races openly disrespected and rebelled against their kind. No, they could no longer flaunt their strength and depravity and believe that this alone would open the eyes of others to the respect that ought to be given. It was time to show them what happens when respect to the Kraith is denied.

Now, the Kroop Troop were accomplished magicians, but were not brazen enough to act as an army. So, instead, they had decided to rally the rest of the race to action. Of course, the Kraith were pragmatic, and would not listen to a voice unless they clearly saw the reason that voice ought to be heard. Thus, the Kroop Troop had decided to devise an entirely new magical art, which they would spread, and once they had the ears of their fellow Kraith, they would spread the words of punishment for the lesser creatures.

But then there was the question of what magic art they might make. Others, many others, had attempted just such an undertaking in the past, and all but a few had failed. Sangromancy, noctimancy, pyromancy, phobimancy, and mortimancy were the five arts of the Kraith, but tens of thousands of arts had been attempted through the years. The Kroop Troop, however, believed they had something of an edge. After all, they had delved deeper into the blood history of the species than any other members of the species, both as they had reached into the depths of the Blood Pit itself, and as they had used the Blood Weave for years before it was stolen by the runt at the show. They believed that if they saw back, further than anything, they might find secret magics they had never before dreamt of. Though, to do this, they would need the Blood Weave.

It was in a Demon's mansion in Southport. The Demon noble, Telok, had traded a king's ransom in select relics from the Dreamforge to a Yosei at the Grand Bazaar in exchange for it, and the majority of Lothar's head & face now rested within a glass case on his mantle. Telok was, unfortunately, rather talkative, and was always bragging about the unique items he had collected in his home. It was easy enough for the Kroop Troop to trace the grapevine back to where it sat, and then to slaughter all living things within the mansion, just to take back the Blood Weave.

After they had fled Southport, leaving the authorities to discover the dismembered bodies in the morning, the Kroop Troop found a quiet place in the White Mountains to set down and begin experimenting.

Months they kept at it, focusing the spells and attempting to lens the magic of the Blood Weave so that it would reach to the primal beginnings of the Kraith. On and on, until the runt on which they had chosen to perform this exercise expired, and they obtained a new one, and so one.

Then, one day, the fourth runt to wear the Blood Weave screamed a scream so terrible that three of the Kroop Troop simply fell over, dead. It was not the voice of the Kraith either, but something older, more primal, "MY CHILDREN!"

The runt threw off the bonds that held her down, and dashed a member of the Kroop Troop against the wall, then a second, until she looked down at it's hands in confusion, and looked back up at the ring of Kroop Troop around her, "How have you placed me in this body?"

The head of the Kroop Troop stepped forward nervously. They had not expected a creature other than a Kraith to be summoned up with the Blood Weave, nor believed that even it's effects could have turned a runt like this into a clear killing machine. The leader did not answer the question, however, and instead asked his own, "What is your name?"

The runt turned to look at the speaker, rage etched in every line of her face, black lightning crackling in rifts around her body. She stared at him in malice for some time before she spoke again, "I am Vroch."

Vroch had not truly returned. Only her memories, of fell magic, of rage, of her brood, though none of the memories of her defeat. When the Kroop Troop attempted to explain the truth to her, however, she did not believe them, did not believe that such things were even remotely possible. However, after some time of showing her around the world, which was so different from her memories, she began to believe. However, she did not yet believe that these Kraith, cowardly and weak, hiding in the holes within cities, could truly be her blood, and she said so. This was when the Kroop Troop replied, saying that's why they sought her out, to find arts, magics that would allow them to conquer the world, as her Arochno had once done.

Vroch eventually acquiesced to this idea, and, seeing as her children, her Arochno, had not had anyone to guide them for untold ages, she taught these children of the Blood Pit the secrets of their language, of how to call them, to raise them, to alter them into greater, more powerful Arochno. This was a powerful magic, and one that no Kraith had ever dreamed of. Soon, however the Kroop Troop was experimenting, and rode about in a small hut on an Arochno the size of a Capri.

Soon they were recognized everywhere, upon that colossal spider, as they passed near Grove, Saorsa, Eupnea, Southport, Herz, Sophei, even what remained of Destroyer's Peak. As they crossed near Soarsa and Eupnea, however, they sent out spider messengers into the city. Baby Arochno, small enough to be mistaken for regular spiders, stole in through cracks in the walls, seeking Kraith in the bones of the buildings. Once there, they wove webs which spelled out simple messages in the Kraith written language: Come to the clearing south of town at midnight.

These gatherings of Kraith were met by the Kroop Troop and the memory of Vroch, who together taught the Kraith the art of Arachnimany and played upon the dark urges within the mind of every Kraith, upon the belief that they were entitled to what they did, and upon the fact that they had been hiding for ages. When these gatherings were over, the Kraith went out, to the wilderness around the city, gathering up all Kraith in caves out there, and then snuck back into Eupnea and Saorsa. The following mornings, the city would be overrun with Kraith in certain districts, not killing or attacking, but instead simply going about their lives in broad daylight, and they would not be moved.

Of course, the Kraith living in the open of multiple cities was not to go lightly. Soon, in Eupnea, the Human authorities would come and try to evict them, while in Saorsa, there was already Innocence staring down their necks. If the Kraith were to rise up, they'd have to make their own path up.

In Eupnea, the Kraith drew together around this new art of Arachnimancy, and summoned up entire colonies of Arochno into the cluttered Kraith districts. The ancient ruin of Eupnea was soon overrun with spider webs and dark cellars full of the detestable Arochno, and the Kraith who raised them banded together, titling themselves the "Spyders", and even used the ancient art of Golden Magic to outfit their mounts, intending to defend their district from whatever purge might come.

In Saorsa, the ancient art of Sangromancy was refined, and used in conjunction with the heavy stones and minerals that were so commonly mined in the city. Steel armor was coated and reinforced with strengthened blood sheets, and their cleavers were weighted with dense packets of blood. They kept vials of blood-soaked needles in their belts, so that they might summon one up and fire it like a bullet at their foes, usually making a deep enough wound to draw more blood, and gain a bit of an edge upon their foes.

However, the Idrians would not simply allow such a thing to happen, but between distrust, and the main armies being preoccupied with tracking down the Lyre of Prophecy, the civilians felt it was necessary for them to keep an eye on these bold Kraith. This tense militia titled themselves the 'Watchers', and spent day and night simply tailing the Kraith as they crawled about the city.

In Imptopia, the Kraith had learned of the acts of other Kraith in other cities rising up their own armies, from the unstoppable Fell Magicians of Myrha to the dark Spyders of Eupnea, and they were outstripping the Imptopian Kraith. What came next was a force which was seeking death of all others. The Band of Lunatics, they were called, they were not much of an army, as they refused to defend or act in peace, instead simply using every art of the Kraith to the most gruesome, most violent means imaginable.

Sera knelt, disguised as an Idrian, in an empty forest near the southern coast of the Sun's Land. She had been playing Lyre for a few hours now, but her future self was still nothing but static. She had learned how the Lyre worked in the past few years, and had been using it in the face of doom to find the perfect path out of danger. Though, with both Herz and Saorsa on her tail, that path was becoming narrower and narrower. Now, however, she was exhausted and couldn't think, and thinking about one's future was what opened up new paths in the Lyre. Without the ability to think, it seemed that she was destined to pass out here and be executed by something in the night, or something to that effect, judging from the static produced by the portal.

She was almost okay with that idea. She was so tired of running, so tired of everything. Exhausted as she played, eyes half lidded while her fingers barely plucked the strings. Though, maybe she could find a way out of the impending capture and death. Maybe she could drown herself out there in the ocean...

"You need to wake up!"

The voice was hers, she blinked into half wakefulness and looked up, at a sopping wet version of herself, "What?"

"The mercenaries are hot on your tail. As soon as you finish this commune, you'll hear them, now wake up just like I did a while ago! Run due south when you stop playing, don't stop for anything, and when you come to the edge of the cliff, don't hesitate, just jump."

She wouldn't jump - Static.

Okay, maybe she would jump - "See, don't hesitate. When you hit the water, you'll see wood, grab the golden amulet in the third chest on the right and put it on, it will help you stay alive underwater. See you when you're on the island I'm on."

That's what happened. The sounds of the mercenaries behind her, the running, the jump, the crashed Saku Rasi ship, and the chest with the golden amulet. It was strange how the Lyre worked for her. All the stories she had learned had not described such complex interactions of past and future.

She slept at the bottom of the water, and when she woke, she found a fish, and, using a bit of blood, skewered it. She swam for a ways until she found the island she had mentioned, climbed up, played the message back to her past self, started a fire, cooked the fish, and ate the fish. However, as soon as she was finished, she spied a long String rise up out of the water a ways away...

The next few months consisted of Sera swimming from island to island in the Unmappable Archipelago, finding food and water, setting decoys for the mercenaries and armies who even now chased her down, playing the Lyre to find the best course of action, and watching the Strings as they moved about in the ocean. The Lyre even allowed her the path which directed towards completely avoiding the gaze of the Stringwork, despite how close she was to their very core. Though, one day came when she spied a figure that the Lyre had not foretold: a lone Shou Tahs, show up at the edge of a massive cluster of strings. Terrified and uncertain, for she had never encountered a Shou Tahs before, but knew of their terrible destructive power. However, instead of destroying an island or whatever they were supposed to be capable of doing, it broke apart into a thousand Strings.

When she next played the Lyre, her future self gave her directions around the world, to different locations, and instructions as to how to avoid detection by any other living creature. It was not said what would be at the locations, but Sera felt she already knew, and indeed, at each was another creature who was actually comprised of Strings. Sera took note of their appearances and mannerisms, and began following them, but always immediately broke off the instant the creature, or maybe another band of mercenaries seemed to be catching her trail. She practiced her theft as she went, nabbing a pie from a shop on lazy days, or a gem from a display when she felt ambitious. She was caught a couple of times, but always managed to get away, though those times she had to go hungry longer than she would have necessarily liked.

It was strange, as she spied on the String-people, she felt as though she shouldn't be capable of, so often, being successful in the spying, yet every time she found one, she remained perfectly hidden and was able to take a thousand notes on what exactly was being done before she had to part ways. She believed that she couldn't possibly be that skilled, but the truth was, that she was in fact that stealthy, that even the Stringwork could not pin her down.

Eventually, she compiled a large enough amount of info that, with a little bit of Sangromancy and her makeup kit for Infiltration, she could perfectly imitate the Shapeshifting that the Strings had long ago mastered. Not only this, but in watching the day-to-day lives of the String-people, she had actually managed to begin to understand how they thought, and in that, she learned to think in the same way, to a degree. After a year's time, she had learned to adopt entirely new forms of language with minimal explanation, and, her being her, she could even affect accents and mannerisms that would be entirely believable in that language.

By the time she had these skills mastered, she had developed a frank curiosity about what might lay within the String Cores...

Cautiously, Sera stood upon the shore, staring out at the thickest tangle of Strings she had ever seen. This was their first Core, and there was no path through that clump which did not include being detected. Thus, she had salvaged a thousand dead String bodies which had been floating on the waves, and tied them to her. She kept frail wires of blood active through each String, and had managed to get them to behave and release chemicals as though they were still alive. She had no chance to learn the Stringwork's communication, however, so she would be winging it when she got inside.

With a bit of Sangromancy and, the gracefulness of her Martial Magics discipline, and the Stringwork's own Shapeshifting, she spun, and slipped into the ocean, becoming unmistakable from a small agglomeration returning to the main body of the Core. However, when she slipped into the tangle, the messages she sent out were gibberish. Luckily, the Stringwork was essentially a colossal brain, and the messages she sent out were simply gibberish thoughts. Ie, as she passed into the Core, the Core suddenly felt silly.

Which was something the Core had never felt before. Then again, it felt too silly to entirely care.

Sera slipped through the Core bit by bit, drifting and sweeping through the waves with the utmost care, the golden necklace around her neck keeping her alive underwater. Eventually, though, she spied a glint of metal in the black tangle. The instant she spotted it, however, it twitched, and she felt the irresistible urge to dance.

And dance she did, for all of two seconds, making the Core suddenly think "NORTON", very loudly. This sudden, unnecessarily stupid and dominant thought alerted the majority of the Core to the presence of a unclean influence. However, the Stringwork always acted in a slow, methodical manner, and by the time the Core had identified the agglomeration that had introduced the nonsensical thought, it had already left, taking the Dancer's Bells with it.

In the confusion following "NORTON", Sera had decided that she didn't know what that metal object was, but she wanted it, and she managed to slip all four bells into a muffling cloth she had just happened to bring along. With that, as Strings began prodding her more persistently, she began to make her way out of the Core, learning how to more convincingly lie to a Core as she went.

When she surfaced again, she used a small blade of blood and instantly cut loose all the String corpses, feeling giddy and powerful. If she could slip into the Stringwork itself, and back out again, what couldn't she do?!

1 point to Command the Ehk Rellis to Command Eramine to raise a new Army of Kings (Not represented in the flavor above).

6 points to Advance the Kraith in Arachnimancy.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Imptopia to Political Maneuver and introduce a considerable population of Kraith to Saorsa and Eupnea.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Saorsa to Raise an Army of Blood Blades.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Saorsa to Raise an Army of Watchers.

2 points to Command Eupnea to Raise an Army of Spyders.

2 points to Command Imptopia to Raise an Army the Band of Lunatics.

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Dancer's Bells, and learns Shapeshifting as well as Communication.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: ???

[ImperialSunligh]

The establishment known as Drachenfutter Laboratories was, at this point, more than abandoned, it was completely under the concealment of the empire. The experiments that occurred there were stricken from all known records, and whatever discoveries were made, lost forever.

Or so the empire would have everyone believe. There was one in the imperial family that knew of that place still, knew the potential it had, and wanted more than anything to explore it: Dr. Krause Krueger. The doctor was a near relative of the now old and dying emperor, and one of the finest minds of Herzian civilization. He had overseen all of the major technological developments in recent years, though most of them were rather negligible. But he had been the lead researcher on deciphering the Book of Death, the loss of which troubled him greatly, but was something he could do little about himself. Instead, he put his focus into studying the closure of the eastern laboratories in Drachenfutter, trying to find a way to convince his brother to consider reopening the secrets in the facility to scientists.

Which actually ended up being a fairly easy task, given their family ties and the emperor's indifference. Within a few weeks, Dr. Krueger was in the old laboratory with a team of professionals who could attempt to decipher the lost documents in the laboratory.

At first, it became abundantly clear to him what was preventing the facility from making its breakthrough discovery. They were afraid to get their hands dirty. They had many psychoanalytical theories about the application of the exotic art of "brewing", which allowed the creation of mind-altering substances. The humans' allies, the Saku Rasi, had access to these things. A secretive squad of dark monks was immediately sent to retrieve the necessary knowledge.

Upon their return, Dr. Krueger learned about the brews and learned just how close the researchers were. The nature of the brews met speculation nearly exactly, remarkably so. He immediately set out to recreate the failed experiments with their originally intended components.

The first experiment was to submit a monkey, in this case a criminal was used, to intense amounts of hallucinogenic drugs, barely keeping them alive and restraining every possible motion of their body. The intent of the experiment was to have the subject become so helpless to act with their body, while desperately restless and horrified, needing to act, that they move with their minds and control the external universe through thought alone.

The results were more than they could have hoped for. The subject not only survived the treatment, somehow largely unharmed, but at the climax of the treatment's effects, seemed to have caused every glass object in the room to shatter, including the glasses of one of the researchers, who was unfortunately blinded. The restraints on the patient also broke, but the patient luckily passed out moments later.

Following this experiment, many more occurred as Dr. Krueger attempted to find ways to decrease the traumatic nature of the initiation and the willing usability of the psychic abilities of the subjects while not in a state of trauma. Many of the subjects went insane and killed themselves or others while in the holding cells, where they would be constantly monitored and treated like lab rats, as they were. Eventually, Krueger had some success at developing the psychic abilities of a subject to the point that they could be used reliably without causing them to go completely insane, but not before many cruel tests that began to addle even his sadistic mind. This new science became known as psionics, and could match, or even outmatch the magical arts in terms of sheer power, though not in reliability. It was soon implemented into the monkey empire's military program, behind closed doors, of course. Any who would attempt to betray the empire and reveal the secret to the general public was swiftly removed from the ranks of the living.

Brewing, however, was a technology made readily available to the people,and many used it for recreation, or to make money, something which the empire encouraged, as it only benefited the economy.

Roll: 2d6+5=14 (http://orokos.com/roll/152192)

Command City, Drachenfutter, Political Maneuver, Steal Tech: "Brewing", -2
Advance Civilization, Monkeys: "Psionics", -6

Left: 6

[Omegonthesane]

Southport was, in many ways, the result of demons no longer being in a state of war or preparations for war. Neither the accrual of ad-hoc structures and buildings that was Sanctuary, nor the fortress that bore the name of Liberty, the port had been designed to maximise living space. To demons, that meant layering. Thus, places that would once have been entire small buildings were now simply rooms of enormous stone towers, each having ten to twenty floors, each having walls two rooms thick, and each enclosing a plaza for whatever use the occupants desired. There was a balcony around each floor, inside and outside, that effectively served as another plaza - for Demons could fly, and thus had a use for all these promenades. As well as tunnels between the inner and outer balconies, to match the ground floor tunnels from the road to the plaza, there were ramps provided on the outside of the buildings of Southport, so that the various first-floor or higher hotels, guilds, pleasure houses, and the like of the Port could service flightless customers, be they ancient Demons nearing their end, Saku Rasi come from their relatively nearby home, Humans wandered in from Figurae, the odd member of the Singer diaspora, or even the odd Kraith - though these latter two populations found themselves most welcome in the most neglected parts of the city, mainly populated by criminal organisations lucrative enough to pay the Thirdborn Mercenaries into keeping off "their turf". It was to here that the Imps shipped the most wicked products of their Black Market - their less wicked ones being completely legal in the City of Pleasures.

The most prominent and successful of Southport's criminal organisations was the chain of pleasure houses known as Ecstasy Mansion. The recruiting practises of these places were widely reputed to be exploitative to the point of enslavement, and even in the seediest corners of most sane cities, the most extreme offerings on the menu were only hinted at. In reality, this was a Fort Liberty covert operation - a place where the details of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy could be studied and fully understood in relative secrecy, either upon customers, upon staff volunteers, or upon downtrodden immigrants in return for what might be a better life if they ever forgot their time in the Mansion. The crowning achievement of the place was also its secondary source of income, for the Ecstasy Mansions produced a specialist drug, with a long and forgettable scientific name, marketed by its street name of "Torment". Extracted through niche applications of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, consuming but a thimbleful would cause rapturous agony without the risk of further injury or the requirement for special equipment, as well as being no harder to store than grain.

That was the commercial version; the military release was significantly more painful, and the few samples of it that were ever stolen from the demonic armies were fenced only on the Imptopia Black Market.

In ages long since past, the Suri of Ashatorat had mastered a method of sorcery based on sound. The Singers had been taught rudiments of this directly by Makhleb, rudiments with which three of their many wonderful and terrible artefacts had been created - the Dancer's Bells long held by the Stringwork, the Trumpets of Discord lost to Gerki, and the Dream Twister lost in the fall of Destroyer's Peak. The third and the second of these had seen use in anger, in the invasion of Figurae and the purge of Gerki, respectively, but no one had ever personally witnessed how theoretically useful the Dancer's Bells might be.

This hardly mattered, for this was not the information the Singers now sought. Guided by their spiritual and now official leader, the Rainbow Lord, the ancient death-bringers sought to reverse engineer this ancient technology. Their temporal portals could not quite reach into the Plane of Thunder, but all three of these artefacts had been used on the world they could access; more importantly, they now had open access to the ruins of Ashatorat, and could see back to those heady days when the first Suri walked in the first city, and the Great Bell rang.

Many of these years had been spent learning to comprehend Ancient Suri, for the Singers and the two-legged cats had never had diplomatic contact before the Rainbow Lord's exodus. The rest were spent spying on lectures long since past, relearning the ancient lessons, finding and bringing up to speed that which was lost long ago. Unlike the bellowing war song of the Shou Tahs, the noise magic of the Suri had little visible effect; but unlike that bellowing noise, it could be sung without their special noise-generating physiology, and above all things had the vital property of actually being available to the Singer remnant. The construction of bells would require infrastructure that could be targeted, so the Singers refused; instead, a new caste of Acoustic Sorcerers emerged, who honed their sound generation to such a precise level that they could in fact simply sing the hypnotic notes that triggered the ancient Suri magic. In this way, the hypnotic sound became a tool of hunting and hiding, as the Singers simply knocked out any Suri troglodyte who came too close to perceiving a significant group of their people, reducing the chances that any reports of the Exodus would quickly escape the First Land.

There was always the possibility that some mad god would spill the beans, but there was no hiding from the gods, who could see all if they so desired. Indeed, it was this very property that had allowed Makhleb to cheat the usual restrictions on Portal Magic in the most recent battle above Ashatorat - though it could not open portals to places beyond its vision, it was capable of seeing both the abyssal plains and the hero Nathaniel.

"...and the new art of Arachnomancy has been fully implemented into the Committee's combat training, my lord." It was unlikely that the outsider Kraith were ever going to keep that new sorcery a secret - in addition to its minority of Old Way sympathisers and persons who simply emigrated to follow the Old Way, Newhaven had spies with this exact cover, hiding among the Old Way Kraith as those same Kraith hid among the civilised. It also had spies who had never been there, New Way sympathisers among the traditionalist population - useful idiots for the most part, who were convinced that the Kraith had subtly manipulated their sorcerer-king into serving their ends. Those few who truly believed, understood, and were willing to fight for their people's souls in the heartland of the enemy were a rare and treasured resource.

"Thank you for the update, chamberlain." Lothar had not been so active since tearing off the Veil; even with the masochistic arts of the Idrist, the pain had been crippling, and the regeneration process draining. "Branch heads. You came to me for something?"
"You are, I trust, aware of the military situation outside of our fine city," said the senior head of Southern Branch. "Namely, the military situation among our... cousins. Three more armies of Old Way followers have risen."
"Three more victories that await the eternal crusade, when the time comes. Is that all?"
"We have analysed these armies," said the junior head of Southern Branch. "The Fell Magicians, as you know, have not done anything remarkably evil for their kind and beliefs - indeed, it was after them that we originally modelled our existing codex of tactics. They have seen a glimmer of the value of cooperation and trust. Similarly, while there is almost no objective standard that would refer to either the so-called Spyders of far away Eupnea or the so-called Blood Blades of Saorsa as 'organised' or 'cohesive' they are doing far better than can be expected for two mobs raised in the Old Way."

"So the true concern is the other one?" Lothar interrupted.
"...Yes, my lord, it is," the junior head of Southern Branch continued, allowing a hint of irritation into the obsequious tone of his telepathic sendings. "An army has risen in the den of iniquity known as Imptopia. Frankly, my lord, I am not certain why you have waited quite so long to crush this den of evil, especially now that you have already attacked there once."
"Until your ranks are swelled, I am honour bound to protect what I have created," Lothar stated. "That's the beginning and the end of that matter. Now, about this new Imptopian Kraith army?"
"Yes... to call them an 'army' is, strictly speaking, a quite profound insult directed against all true armies, even their three competitors," the junior Southern Branch head continued. "They do not even call themselves an army, merely a 'Band of Lunatics', and their stated purpose is to spread gruesome and horrifying death. They are the Old Way made flesh. We must destroy them."
"Indeed. Man your posts, I will march there now."

"No, my lord," said one of the identical twin heads of Special Branch. "It is not merely a war against evil that we fight, but a war for the very souls of the Kraith. A philosophical and spiritual as well as a temporal war. If you, the Human Sorcerer-King of Newhaven, destroy the Band of Lunatics, you will indeed have proven that you are the greater combatant - or at least, the surviving combatant. Yet you are unique, one of a kind, and this makes it... difficult to use your victory as a proof of anything. We are many things, wiser, more noble, more unified, but none of us are the Champion of Justice. None of us have any supernatural power other than your teachings. Therefore, we, the true Kraith, must defeat them, the false Kraith. Only thus can we prove that your wise philosophy - the way of life you have taught us - is inherently superior to the Old Way. Only by showing that it makes us stronger than the Old Way ever did."

"A... crude proof, but a compelling one in many cases," Lothar conceded. "Yet, one point I must modify. If things go wrong, if - by some miracle of their devil-god - the Lunatics force you into retreat, their act cannot be allowed to go unpunished. Their victory must not be unalloyed."
"...I see the wisdom in this... Very well. Watch if you must. But I... respectfully suggest that you do not interfere until the philosophical point is lost."

It was often dark in Imptopia - more often than ,,the typical 'once per day cycle', what with the significant populations of Kraith and the hasty, shoddy construction that left areas shaded over by buildings put on top of other buildings. None of this was helped by the smoke that came from the poorly operated Golem Factory; with no true understanding of its workings, the Imps had begun using it as a place to recycle rubble and scrap; anything that didn't rot naturally went into the "in" funnel and came out as a Scrap Golem, an almost humorously shoddy contraption, no two of them quite the same, and therefore never reliable for anything except a good laugh. For the imps, this plus the ability to dispose of entire houses at need was enough to justify their continued use, and they would play a small part in events to come.

For indeed, it was particularly dark on the night when one thousand more Kraith were present than should have been, not least because of how they chose to hide, in cloaks of flickering Noctimancy which left their forms unclear and difficult to distingyish from the dark. In this form they stalked the trail of bloodshed, stalked the Band of Lunatics, they stalked their prey. The Band of Lunatics were distracted by their vocation, and were not the first to spot those that hunted them - not over the sound of the Black Market's commerce, not over the sound of their own screaming victims, not over the sound of the clanking Scrap Golems that wandered the city awaiting whatever instructions came their way.

The Band of Lunatics did not hear them before they were approached by a particular enterprising Prank Overseer, anyway.
"I know something you do-on't!" the Imp infiltrator suddenly informed the Lunatic, interrupting the latter's kill. With a flourish and a leap, she danced out of the way of the predator's enraged flailing slash, and stuck her tongue out at him for trying, while not ceasing to move as she entered the Eternal Dance.
"Speak, insect! Or die!" the Lunatic said, in that same ancient voice.
"I don't like your tone," she continued. A lash of fire failed to strike her, as did a spray of blades of shadow-stuff, and in the time it took the Lunatic to concentrate enough to simply exsanguinate this annoyance, she had disappeared into the shadows. "What'cha gonna give me?"
"A Kraith does not give things freely, worm!"
"You're not giving it free, silly, I'm telling you things in exchange." Several mystic blasts of the various Kraith flavours proceeded to crash into nearby buildings, in one case causing a balcony to fall and take a depraved elf with it.
"...Fine!" the thing at last growled, and threw a coin into the air; the dancing Imp flashed into sight, caught it, and flashed out of the way of another spray of dark blades.
"I gave my word. You're surrounded by Newhaven wimps, that's what I know that you don't," she said, and stuck her tongue out at him again before fleeing. She had seen the Security Committee's comparatively pitiful attempts at stealth, and a strange combination of pity and amusement stopped her from simply warning their quarry. Mainly amusement, she was a creation of the Blood Pit after all.

This time, the Lunatic's rage was expressed through a wave of Pyromancy - not merely out of actual rage, but because this was the standard Kraith countermeasure against Kraith stealth techniques. Indeed, the light of supernatural fire - and soon after that, the light of ordinary fire - revealed the five shadowy shapes that were enveloping that particular Lunatic, as well as the three shadowy shapes of Lunatics following this particular squad of the Committee. At first, they all looked at eachother and wondered if they weren't just more Kraith, before the Committee declared themselves in the one fashion that was without doubt.

"The child will scream no more!" they roared, in a voice that no Kraith outside Newhaven had used, a voice not created with Phobimancy, but projected directly into the minds of listeners with Telepathy. This was the way Lothar insisted that all Newhaven Kraith speak, and this was the way the Security Committee were used to speaking. For additional rhetoric value, the voice they had chosen could plausibly, under different stars, have been the same little girl who feared her father's voice - if she had become a grown woman with the iron, fearless heart and unshakeable resolve of Lothar the Cursed himself. They had learned it, and practised it, during the Blood Weave experiments; where the original child's voice had quivered with every syllable, the voice of what she was denied the chance to become was as rich and commanding as the Sun himself.

With that war cry, the battle across the city of Imptopia began in earnest. As did a fire that would surely consume much of Imptopia, leaving a great excuse if the Prank Overseers wanted to start a construction program of some kind, while being not more than a few months of work undone in any particular position due to the laziness encouraged by Imptopia's culture.

Unnaturally fast, clawed predators danced a bloody and brutish dance among the burning streets, equal in almost every capacity. Blades of shadow-stuff clashed back and forth, as notcimancers on both sides realised they could block with dark matter more quickly than with their claws. Spider fought spider as an accompaniment to brother fighting brother, with a hatred that only kinship could bring.

In one back street, a pair from Northern Branch found themselves immolated by a trio of the Lunatics, two of whom had gotten away by the time the third caught fire from their counter-spell. In another, two Lunatics held a Committee member's arms back while a Scrap Golem flailed with pieces of rusty metal. On the rooftops, two groups of six Phobimancers simply stared at one another, their eyes barely quivering as horrors beyond all mortal imaginings raged around them, Kraith trying to find what would scare hostile Kraith. Bloody duels of Sangromancy erupted, in which fighters boiled one another's blood, or shaped it into blades that burst out of the victim's very veins, or simply forced it down the throat to prevent breathing. The dead arose to spread more death, both those killed in the battle and those killed in the general underlying violence of Imptopia.

Amidst all this chaos, the Security Committee had a significant advantage - with Telepathy, they could communicate with one another practically instantly, and without having to alert the Band of Lunatics. They did not put its original intended uses into play, for they had been taught the art by Lothar, who had learned it from the relatively sane Idrist and in any case had been raised by Paladins. That they were Paladins of Makhleb instead of the Sun did not diminish the value they had taught him to place on honour and integrity, and so he had never learned or taught the more esoteric and cowardly uses of Telepathy.

The Band of Lunatics, however, had advantages of their own - Imptopia was their city, and they knew every back street and every corner better than any visitor or invader ever could. The Prank Overseers had not been willing to commit to the battle, but were quite happy to send the Scrap Golems into battle in their stead, and even these strange devices tended to distinguish friend from foe even among Kraith.

Ultimately, the Security Committee compeltely overestimated the disarray of the Lunatics. Where they had expected a fractious and treacherous lot, completely unprepared for outside assault, they instead found a set of small cohesive cells with a nominal unifying structure, able to quickly - though inefficiently - adapt to any plan. Indeed, the Lunatics had outmaneuvered them at every turn, being able to predict their entire battle plan from watching their actions and sending Phobimancy spells to inform their cell leaders. Had they not spread themselves so thin, and counted on the followers of the Old Way doing the same, perhaps they might have at least better acquitted themselves; alas, they were outnumbered in every battle, able to be divided and conquered by those they sought to hunt. Of the one thousand that marched, three hundred died, and over five hundred would need outright magical healing to ever fight again.

Far fewer would have escaped, had Lothar not determined that the philosophical battle was lost.

A Prank Overseer had, of course, been tracking a particular "Kraith" for several hours by the time it was clear that the Security Committee had failed. This particular Overseer had been at the Kroop Troop performance gone horribly wrong some time ago, and had seen under the cloak, and had seen what was wrong with that particular audience member. Something similar was wrong with this one, as well; it was hard to see in the dark, since everything flickered as if illuminated by flame due to in fact being illuminated by flame, but this Kraith's flickering did not match its surroundings.

So, the Overseer knew to stay far away when the "Kraith" suddenly jumped out of a first-floor window, its disguise evaporating as it landed sword-point first on one of the Archmagi of the Band of Lunatics, with a sickening crunch as the dead body soaked the shock of a man in half plate on top of embedded metal rings landing. Lothar withdrew his sword from the corpse, and looked around to see that he was, in fact, surrounded - he had, purely by accident, or perhaps by divine providence, picked the largest concentration of Lunatics to land among, and they were ready.

Well, so much the better - he had denied one of them an honourable death. The burnt, eerie figure simply smiled as a wave of strange fire lit up the Kraith surrounding him; it was hard to tell in a vacuum, but next to the perfectly natural flames caused by Pyromancy, the unnatural flames of the Ocarina of Fire stood out as strange even to his own human senses. The Committee had been right, there would have been questions if they had won with his secret aid.

The Lunatics soon realised something was wrong, not least because the Scrap Golems started wildly gesturing and stopping them from pursuing the Committee, making strange noises as they tried to emulate the languages of those around them. Some went as far as to carve letters into the dead, or cleverly arrange the body parts of those who were in no state to reanimate - they had received a message straight from the Factory.

"CURSED BOY IN TOWN PLAZA. FIRE. KILL." read the most cogent of the warning messages written for the Lunatics. Had they been asked to help, to protect, they would no doubt have refused, but this was not a request for aid - it was a warning of more death come on their tails, and a convenient way for the Prank Overseers to hopefully rid themselves of this inconvenience at no harm to themselves.

The Lunatics had learned from the two previous battles between Kraith and Lothar. Their Sangromancy was no good for simply ridding him of blood, for the black ichor in his veins was poisonous to them and seemingly limitless in supply. So, instead, a team of their Sangromancers tore a torrent of blood from his useless eyes, and then redirected it against his flesh, where it seeped into the gaps of his armour and further burnt the flesh underneath. It was painful in the extreme, but pain was power to a person taught in Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, and Lothar knew the elvish spells that would arrest the corrosion of his flesh, murmuring them even as he leapt the distance to slash and hack his way through the Kraith.

Tendrils of night suddenly clamped around his arms and legs, holding him in place while great blades made ready to pierce his head, yet the Noctimancers behind this display had underestimated the combination of sorcery and strength borne by Newhaven's impetuous sorcerer-king. Flames danced and pushed the dark away, and weakened by light, the tendrils were no longer strong enough to hold him in place; he managed to duck, and the blades sailed over his head harmlessly.

Spiders without number came after him, those who had survived the intercenine warfare brought onto them by the Committee and Lunatics. Many of them were killed by the poisonous ichor still clinging to his armour and rings from the earlier Sangromantic attack, many by the fires of the Ocarina that engulfed them as he reacted. Those who ran these two gauntlets were simply killed by ingesting that same black ichor when they bit into his flesh, and their poisons were not enough to mean anything to a self-healing mage.

The spiders did, however, slow him down long enough for a hastily arranged cohort of the dead to block both ways out of the street, and for all the ladders and ropes to be cut down to stop him climbing up. Had Lothar been a demon, or a Singer, these would have been all of no use, for such beings as they were could fly or portal their way ouf of the noose; instead, he drew upon his experience reanimating dead beings of his own, and cut them apart with insulting ease, adapting his techniques of Swordsmanship to best slay the already dead.

Yet the least successful attack was that of the Phobimancers. They tried to conjure that which Lothar feared most in all the world, and simply created the ancient voice of all Kraith, not truly knowing the set of visions and traumas that had turned him into what he was. Worse, the fear response of "flight" had been burnt out of him by the Ocarina's blessing and curse, leaving only the ability to respond to fear by destroying its source. This was not an unvarnished defeat for the Kraith in the long run, for by analysing Lothar's behaviour they learned tactics by which Phobimancy could be put to use even against the functionally fearless, yet this was small comfort to the Phobimancers who died.

These attack patterns repeated themselves, and chipped away at Lothar's resolve. His blade became slower, as the effort of constantly healing the corrosion of his own skin became too much. His own flames of sorcery burnt less brightly as the battle raged, and raging at every use of that ancient voice left him wasted and drained, yet he continued the attack until a band of Kraith thought of simply ambushing him. It would have been futile, at the start of the day, but from behind against an exhausted boy, they managed to close in, they managed to fit their blades between his metal plates, they managed to cut off his free arm at the shoulder, a grisly trophy to commemorate the day.

So it would have been, had Lothar not spun around, cutting them all in half with the sword in his remaining arm. Yet, it was the turning point. He sheathed his blade, picked up the arm, and murmured the words to Heal the flesh and bone that had been lost in its severing, so that it might be whole again; but after that, he simply limped home, killing and destroying only those Kraith and Scrap Golems who tried to obstruct his retreat. It all felt meaningless, for he did not realise what he had achieved - the Band of Lunatics was reduced to three-quarters of its ranks, and had fallen upon itself with vicious abandon as the dead quarter consisted of a disproportionate number of their respected leaders.

As Lothar limped out of the city, he was greeted by the various maimed Security Committee survivors, and grunted as he realised what he'd have to do for them to finish the journey home. It had been a long enough day already, without having to regrow multiple limbs and put the lie to hundreds of mortal wounds. There was no question of continuing the fight.

After so much death, it was odd how quickly the old life returned to Newhaven; the Committee were able to refill their ranks, in part because the worst of the horrors inflicted on their flesh had been healed. It was possible that Lothar might have been able to finish the job in Imptopia, but not without leaving his own city too poorly defended, so instead he simply stared at the wall, wondering what had gone wrong.

The war wasn't lost while Newhaven stood. He had to remind himself of that. While that beacon of truth remained, while a spark of virtue could be found even in the most evil species, there was some hope for a solution other than wanton slaughter.

Power roll: Power roll (http://orokos.com/roll/152178): 2d6+6 14 points
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 15 points

3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Create Wonder (Ecstasy Mansion) in Southport
5 points: Event - The Singers use Time Portals and their past experience with the Dancer's Bells, Trumpets of Discord, and Dream Twister to spy on and steal the Ashatorat technology "Acoustic Thaumaturgy", claiming it for the remnant of the Singer race.

0 points: Command Army (Security Committee) to attack the Band of Lunatics!Security Committee +8 Kraith technologies, +2 Telepathy (http://orokos.com/roll/152180): 2d6+10 12
Band of Lunatics +8 Kraith technologies, +1 Defenders, +1 Golem Factory (http://orokos.com/roll/152181): 2d6+10 17
Band of Lunatics win! Security Committee destroyed.0 points: Command Army (Lothar the Cursed) to attack the Band of Lunatics!Lothar the Cursed +8 Human technologies, +1 Ocarina of Fire, +2 Healing Magic, +1 Mortimancy, +2 Telepathy, +0 Phobimancy (http://orokos.com/roll/152182): 2d6+14 20
Band of Lunatics +8 Kraith technologies, +1 Defenders, +1 Golem Factory, -1 Exhaustion (http://orokos.com/roll/152183): 2d6+9 16
Lothar wins! Band of Lunatics sent into (quite a bit more) disarray.
2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Raise Army (regroup the Security Committee after that farce)

3 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 11 (http://orokos.com/roll/152354) bringing me up to 38.

After Sera had left the Stringwork along with the Dancer's Bell, it took some time for the Stringwork to realize what heppened. After it did realize that an outside element had infilitrated its Cores, it understood that "Infiltration" was a much more powerful tool than what it originally thought. Something had to be done to prevent further damage and avoid the Outgoers' ability from becoming widely known. Many agglomerations were tasked with finding a solution.

The result was a new skill for the Stringwork, known as Counter-Espionage when combined with other skills such as memoryworks or simply Awareness when used on its own. This skill could allow the Stringwork to know immediately that a being was not part of itself. Such beings would undergo extensive search and if necessary, memory alteration. The main manifestation of the skill was the Appearence of Sensor Strings.

Sensor Strings had many abilities related to perception.One of them relied on their ability to percieve minute modifications to magic field that surrounded them. Indeed these strings had retained the primordial Ignea property of using magic as a source of energy, and by analysing how much energy they produced, they could know when anything magical was at hand. Another was their ability to identify Stringwork elements. They could do so by comparing a special sequence that all Strings would send out when communicating with each other. It would not be until the appearence of tools for numerical analysis that this code could be deciphered. Their third and arguably most important ability was that when a few of them worked together as part of an outgoer that knew Combat Anatomy, they could easily compare creatures and notice the imperections in disguises. Finally Sensor Strings also inherited the ability of Faith Sensing.

As an additional measure, the maps of the Cores were made more accurate and record was kept of all Strings that made them up. However, all of this together did not mean that the Stringwork was completely closed off the rest of the world. It still accepted Rogue Agglomerations if they wanted to join it, provided that they were indeed Agglomerations, and most of these measures were used only around cores to protect the integrity of the Stringwork.

With the Possibility of getting infiltrated nearly completely eliminated, the Stringwork could focus on finding the infilitrator, and removing it. Its initial plans of killing the creature were opposed by the Agglomerations of Aniqua. These argued that death was too harsh a punishement for now, and that simply removing its ability to cause harm to the Stringwork was sufficient. After some consideration, the Stringwork agreed, and it was decided that a specially trained outgoer would be sent. Outgoer 6537 would be the one tasked with the operation.

Outgoer 6537 was skilled with all of the Stringwork's abilities. Its Shapeshifting speed was amongst the fastest amongst the Outgoers, its memoryworks was potent enough to remove memories without trace and it knew of Armoring and Combat Anatomy in case it would need to fight. It had been outfitted with most kinds of Strings - Thinker Strings, Power Strings, Mana and Heat Absorber Strings, Sensor Strings and even a few Roller Strings - and as a result, it had extended knowledge of Communication, Faith sensing, Mapmaking and Awarness. Its downside was that with that many Strings, it was huge, and had to move around as separate components, only using those that were necessary. This meant that it often moved as small group of adventurers, sometimes breaking up into many animals moving in disordered fasion when crossing dense forests or other places where population density was too low. In heavily populated areas it would use its knowledge of Civil Sociology and combine it with information gathered from Technological Overseeing to never stand out too much.

However, even with all of this, it would take time for the Outgoer to find Sera whom it called the "Norton bringer", for she had something beyond simple ability. She had the Lyre of Prophecy, and unless Outgoer could create a scenario with no possible escape, she would not be caught.

6 points: Advance Civilization Stringwork with "Awareness", which when used alongside approppriate other skills becomes "Counter-Espionage"
32 points remaining, +3 next turn.

[ImperialSunligh]

The ancient organization of loyalists had been silent for thousands upon thousands of years. Many believed that they had been lost to the singer invasion. Yet a small remnant of the order remained all these years, in hiding. This order spent all of these years in deep meditation and contemplation, thus finding new ways of dealing with their issues, whether it be through the power granted through their purity or by more subtle things. The order learned by watching the struggles of the humans that purity is something found within oneself through deep struggle. They no longer wished to impose this purity on others, as they saw it would only breed more corruption and suffering. Instead, they turned inward for eons. And now, with these tools in hand, they rose again.

The Loyalists reorganised themselves, emerging as a religious order that guided the people subtly, and more peacefully than before, in their ways and the ways of the pantheon, of the reformed Sun. They called themselves Apostles of the Sun, and had the power to speak to and gain power through him. They preached of their conversations to the people in temples and helped those who wanted to change to reach greater purity.

All angels in the city of Eupnea were effected by the Apostles of the Sun's teachings, even those who were not members or did not follow the pantheon. The power of purity was used to focus a person on what they believe absolutely, removing doubt, fear and suffering. It was not punctuated by the loathing for others that plagued the ancient ideas of purity, but was instead a personal belief spread through the city, one of spiritual wholeness. Warriors would be more focused on defeating their enemies, farmers could focus their lives entirely on agriculture and scholars could focus their lives entirely on the persuit of higher knowledge, all with unsullied reverence.

The Apostles of the Sun offered to the people a group of divine guardians. They would not seek out evil in their society as the ancient loyalist inquisitors had, but instead would defend the city and all who called it home. The were known as Guardians for this reason. They were a force of angels that wielded golden weaponry and used golden magic to defeat their foes. They studied the concepts of purity each day, to focus them on their task of defence.

The Apostles had formed a solid governing force that could organize the city of Eupnea, and so the city became independent of human control for the first time in many years.

It was not contempt that pushed the humans out, however. The humans and angels were not only related, as told in the ancient tales, but were bonded in their devotion to the gods. And so the moment Eupnea became once more independent, it formed a formalized treaty of alliance with the humans.

The alliance between the monkeys and the humans had begun to cause their peoples' disdain for each other to lessen significantly in this time. The humans would often go to herz, and study under the monkeys in techniques of The Herzian, and monkeys would study metallurgy in the great libraries of Sophei. Humans also often bought brews in Drachenfutter, where they had grown very popular, though the human government had made such things illegal for civilian use. This was rarely enforced, however, and many learned to brew for themselves from the monkeys. Some monkeys also began studying under teachers of swordplay, though there was not much of the same casual bloodshed going on in the streets of Herz as there was in Figurae, the monkeys seeing it as an art of war, not recreation, similar to their views on the martial magics. This was all part of what was remembered as the great event known as The Great Cultural Merging, in which the many technological feats of the three races of the pantheon became known to the others.

In the Paladin's Repose, a seedy pub in Figurae's less reputable district, a monkey sat at the bar, his head hung in silence.

The massively muscular barkeep walked out of the back room and spoke to him, "Hey, little guy," he said, hiccuping a bit from his drink, "What'll it be?"

Ewald stared at the man in a long, contemptuous silence, "Brews?"

"Heh, only the best," he said, opening a secret compartment under the bar.

He reached over to the monkey with a powerful hallucinogen.

"How about this?" he asked.

"Sure, that'll be fine," Ewald said, grasping the man's hulking wrist.

The man gasped and fell to the floor, dead, the only sign of death being his stopped heart.

Ewald sighed and walked away before anyone sober enough to notice came along.

"He wouldn't have had any useful information," Ewald muttered under his breath, "Regardless, a lawbreaker like him had little to live for. Damn, how will I find her now? There have been no clues at all since our confrontation."

He looked up to realize that a rather attractive woman had approached him and was trying to get his attention.

"Hey, are you in there?"

"What is it you want, human?"

"Well, the bard's playing my favorite song, would you like to dance?"

"...I suppose I won't have accomplished much elsewhere anyway. I'd love to, my dear."

He would soon learn that her name was Ariane, and forget it just as soon.

Roll: 2d6+6=16 (http://orokos.com/roll/152430)

The Loyalists are reorganized into "The Apostles of the Sun"

Advance Angels: "Purity", -5
Command Figurae, Trade with Drachenfutter, Swordplay for Brewing, 2
Command Sophei, Trade with Herz, Metallurgy for Martial Magics -2
Command Angels, Form Alliance with Humans, -3
Command The Apostles of the Sun, Raise Army of Angelic Guardians, -2

Command Angelic Guardians, defend Eupnea

Left: 2

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=9 (http://orokos.com/roll/152487)
Current Power Points: 9

I'm going to simply roll my roll for this round and put my actions for this round in with my actions for next round.

Current Power Points: 9
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://orokos.com/roll/152488)

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://orokos.com/roll/152488)
Current Power Points: 22

Grove had many friends across the north, yet none of it was official. Simple, benevolent coexistence was all that the Grove desired from it's companions. However, the most ancient Trells beneath the Marrow Tree had seen a future in which they would need to take a more active stance in the interactions within the north, and, without formalized interactions having already been established, those necessary steps would falter and fail. So, the Trell were sending out emissaries to Elfmoot and Farea. Many Trell found these actions pointless and degrading to all independent creatures involved, but they still cooperated, for their most ancient said that it was necessary.

The emissary to Elfmoot put forward the idea of an official alliance with the added commentary that they were both creatures of the forest, who loved and protected the green world with all their heart. Together, they might strengthen it such that none could ever burn or break it.

Multiple emissaries were sent to Farea, and all spoke in short, simple fables, which the Faeries were so fond of, and could understand more easily than the long-winded diplomatic speeches that other races were fond of. In these fables, the Trell attempted to paint a larger image of continued, large-scale interaction between the Faeries and the Trell, and friendship which would last for thousands of the Faeries usual lifetimes.

With any luck, this would be enough formalization to make the future that the Trell saw more feasible.

It was an old routine for Sera by this point. A few weeks watching the inhabitants of a city, then a few more to develop her persona, and then she was part of the society. This time it was in Elfmoot, and she was pretending to be a young elf maiden with dreams of becoming a professional dancer.

She still practiced her thieving skills while she was here, nabbing a few items here and there, never being caught, and she also continued to play the Lyre, to see if she had to get out of town quickly, but she was in a fairly silent few months for her numerous pursuers, and she was able to learn the art of the Eternal Dance in this time. Her instructor thought her completely without grace, but he was a good teacher, the best that money could buy, and she had needed to part with several choice gems lifted from a Demon noble in Sanctuary to pay for them.

She had wanted to learn this art so that she might be able to control her dance, inflicted by the Dancer's Bells, enough that she could, mid dance, stop the ringing of the bells. However, once she learned that skill, she continued on, adapting her personal discipline of Martial Magic into her dance, until the instructor actually praised her art, but included the caveat that she ought to switch to battle dancing, instead of performance dancing.

This was all she needed to hear. However, the day she would have left, disappearing back into the forest, a Singer came into town, babbling and half-mad. Curious as to what could make one of the feared Singer's panic, she stuck around.

The Singer spoke of the fall of Destroyer's Peak, of how, for months, all that had been done was the Shou Tahs destroying layer after layer of the mountain, until now, all that remained was rubble, ringed by a few standing slave homes. Some of the Elves listening offered condolences, others cruel statements that it was deserved. Sera, however, spotted an opportunity.

With how few Shou Tahs there were in the war band, and how brash and inattentive they were, it was child's play to lift the Earthquake Drum from their ranks, not to mention a few tablets which detailed the use and manifestation of Portals. However, she did not feel lucky enough to continue stealing after that, even considering how immensely easy it was, as she heard, quite clearly, some Shou Tahs bellowing something about the Earthquake Drum.

She quickly departed those ruins, practicing with portals as she went, and not thinking about how she had likely just made foes from both the Shou Tahs and the Singers.

The Fell Magicians of Myrha were an ancient force by this time. Living in the catacombs beneath the city, they were both feared and respected, as they quietly controlled the city through intimidation and sheer power. Their time in the Werblume city had taught them many things.

Combining Mortimancy and Necromancy led to some of the most bizarre undead the world over, such as the prophetic heads, as they were called: a series of heads mounted on plaques which were kept in a constant state of awareness, where they screamed portents of the future and secrets from beyond the grave for months on end. Another was the gargantuans, or towering Frankensteins of elephant, capri, even Shou Tahs corpses, which, using secrets obtained through Necromancy, were made functional as zombies.

Bringing together Phobimancy and Totemic Sigils allowed them to bring horrors beyond comprehension into reality. They could take any monster from under the bed, and using blasphemous, tainted sigils, physically transform into that creature.

The art of Swarm Manipulation and the recent onset of Arachnimancy came together to form entire colonies of Arochno which were under the swam of a single Kraith.

Sangromancy allowed the Kraith to create massive armor created from solidified blood, not to mention veils of blood chains which trailed from their face, covering where their nose and mouth would have usually gone, to their mid-chest. They would manipulate these chains so that they could effectively use the Dance of the Rising Spring.

Brewing allowed them the ability to create chemicals which would magnify and intensify the flames that they had long ago mastered with Pyromancy, until they were of an intensity such that even stone would melt.

They had even utilized Visionary Trances, and, together with Noctimancy, learned ways to actually obscure facets of the future from other sources of divining sight. The power of the Fell Magicians was mostly from this outstanding ability, as they hid their power plays such that, when it came time to enact them, others were entirely caught off guard.

They had even learned the secrets of Roads and Shipbuilding from the streets above.

This ancient and proud force of Kraith was always aware of the other deals of the Kraith around the world. However, when they learned that the Kraith of Imptopia had been fighting other Kraith, and had effectively lost, they decided that something had to be done to remedy this embarrassment, for the Imptopian Kraith had been in Imptopia for as long as the Myrhish Kraith had been in Myrha. For their fellow bloodmates to lose in their own home, that could not stand.

So, almost the entire army uprooted, constructing large ships from whalebone, and set out, to refound themselves in the fallen city of their brethren.

The construction was going swimmingly, and a unisex bathhouse would be very nice in this part of town, or so Uki thought. Just across from the messy wrestling arenas and uphill from the Jerilk dens. He was proud to have snagged this spot before any of the other Prank Overseers had laid claim to it. It had taken some time for his crew to clear away the Arochno pile that had been there, but it would be worth it.

Though, as he hovered there, twitching and side-shifting in the Imp Eternal Dance, he suddenly felt a shadow pass over him, and a fear unlike any fear he had ever felt clutched his heart. Such an immensely powerful Phobimancy spell he had never known to exist, that it was all he could do to turn and look up at the figure that now stood behind him.

It was a towering Kraith, as would be expected, but it wore armor of hardened blood, with wide shoulder plates which gave the illusion of size which no Kraith would ever possess. It wore a cape of shadowstuff, which was aflame, combining light and shadow into a single, audacious fashion statement. It wore a veil of blood chains around the lower half of it's face, but did not look at Uki, but instead at the place before Uki, the location of the future bathhouse. Or, it would have been a future bathhouse, if the Kraith had not nodded in that instant, turned to Uki - those eyes were like to stop his heart - and spoke, that ancient voice dripping with more than the strictly-necessary amount of fear, "We are taking your property."

All Uki could say was, "Okay."

From that day, the first catacomb base of the Fell Magicians was constructed at that location, with underground tunnels being erected beneath Imptopia, across the entire city, secret passages which would allow the Fell Magicians to utilize their knowledge of Roads to full effect.

In their first underground base, they simply set up the bare bones of what they had possessed in Myrha. In their second, this one entirely underground, with no accesses except those of the secret tunnels the Fell Magicians had crafted, they set up a gallery of zombie flesh, with screaming prophetic heads on the walls and a floor where gargantuans would be constructed. In the third, they set up a colossal nest of Arochno, which would be fed barrels of Imps from the city above every day.

Soon the entire city was littered with towering undead, echoing with the screams of eternally aware heads, and full of a fear far greater than what had been before.

Meanwhile, in Myrha, there was a power vacuum created by the sudden absence of the Fell Magicians, and before too long, weaker Kraith occupied the now-empty halls of the ancient army, calling themselves the new Fell Magicians.

Aidededrūl wandered through the fern forests of the First Land. He had actually wandered across the bottom of the ocean to get here, initially going forth simply to see what would happen. He had not drowned, but grown heavy and waterlogged. He had enjoyed it, at first, walking along the ocean floor, for there was little life for him to drain, and thus little sadness that he would inflict upon the waking world. However, after some time, he grew depressed, being a Trell separated from life, and eventually decided that it could witness the land once more, perhaps for a year out of every twenty.

So, it had wandered ashore, constructs of coral built up upon his chest shoulders, a crab living in a hollow of his left arm, seaweed dangling from his head like hair, but his body the same, black wood and dark blue sap. He wandered around the First Land like this for some time, until he found something that he had not expected. He had known that Suri would be in this place, as well as Spirits, those quiet entities, but he had not thought to see Singers in such high numbers. He began to trace them closer and closer to their home base. However, when he drew especially close, they mounted their defenses, and used every art in their arsenal to stop the invader. However, something about being an undead plant made Aidededrūl particularly unstoppable, and even as they attempted to freeze and immolate him, he simply walked on, gently sidestepping their defensive positions, making apologies for anything he knocked over, and generally ignoring the Singer attempting to bludgeon his feet.

This continued on until the Rainbow Lord himself, seeing no progress being made against the intruder, yet no malicious intent from it, stepped out and ordered the defenses to be put to a stop. Then, with the smoldering Trell standing before him, the Singer spoke, "What do you want?"

Aidededrūl answered easily enough, with his own question, "What are Singers are doing here?"

3 points to Command the Trell to Extend an Alliance to the Faeries.

3 points to Command the Trell to Extend an Alliance to the Elves.

Shou Tahs completely destroy Destroyer's Peak. (heh)

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Earthquake Drum, and learns Eternal Dance as well as Portal Magic.

5 points to Event: All techs in Myrha are granted to the Fell Magicians.

Fell Magicians migrate to Imptopia.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Myrha to raise a replacement army of Fell Magicians.

5 points to Event: Aidededrūl winds up in the First Land, and makes contact with the Rainbow Lord. Essentially, no mechanical effect, except what Omegonthesane decides. Essentially, this is 5 points donated to Mahkleb which can only be used on an Event which involves Aidededrūl. Note: Aidededrūl is meant to be an immovable object. He never is moved to war, but is never killed either.

Current Power Points: 0
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=6 (http://orokos.com/roll/152497)

[Omegonthesane]

The Singers had wandered for years, and there was no new structure forthcoming However, there was an agglomeration of workshops - Singers had no need for comfort, but often found that their creations would be blown away by the wind or soaked by the rain if they were not properly stored. By coincidence or providence, many of these workshops were raised around a particular mound, two metres high, near the foot of the polar volcano. It took a few years before the Singer exiles at large noticed that a wall was beginning to form, a kilometre away from the most recent workshop of each kind, as well as a series of guard towers inside the walls.

When the first set of wooden walls were complete, construction immediately began on a set of stone ones; meanwhile, the Rainbow Lord called for recruits for a new army, and was quickly answered, as many of the surviving Singers were veterans of the ancient wars. For reasons that would take some time to become clear, this new army was called the Star Chorus, and their colours were the blue fading to black of the night sky, dotted with white points to represent stars. On their cores were dyed rank markings, as well as a symbol of four pairs of two lines radiating from a circle, a simple and easily produced depiction of a Singer.

Their structure changed somewhat, compared to the traditional Singer armies - a new cabal structure had become accepted, of nine members, a core and eight limbs, though other than leadership the core tended to serve the purpose of being tortured to provide power for their servants. However, this only truly changed the top tiers of the command structure, due to the implicit class divide between the ambitious Singers, like the Rainbow Lord, and those who simply wanted the old life back. With so much uninhabited and relatively safe First Land, it had become a lot easier for fractious Singers to simply avoid eachother while they calmed down than to remain together, and infinitely easier than it had been when they had spent their days cooped up in Destroyer's Peak. Therefore, the smallest accepted cabal size was a squad of just four - enough that each could watch the other's back, and the number of tendrils a Singer typically had available for fine manipulation as opposed to walking.

Thus, the 1st Star Chorus was led by a single Sorcerer Lord, whose responsibility it was to coordinate the eight limbs of his cabal. Or her cabal, or their cabal, or its cabal, depending on what gender pronouns the Sorcerer Lord in question preferred - gender being something of an arbitrary concept among the children of the Destroyer. Each of the limbs of this command cabal was a Lead Sorcerer, who nominally served as the core of their own cabal of nine - however, each of their nominal limbs was themselves a Sorcerer, and the leader of a squad consisting of themselves and three Warriors. Thus the Chorus contained eight divisions of eight squads of four Singers each, two hundred and fifty-six soldiers, plus a command cabal of nine making two hundred and sixty-five in all.

Surprisingly, the Rainbow Lord made only a quiet ceremony to mark this emergence, raising banners all around the hodgepodge of workshops, and naming the emergent city "the Mound" after the barrow in the middle of it. Many Singers were confused and aggrieved that their city was named after something which, for some months, they were not even allowed to visit.

While many Singers had simply built workshops around the mound in the south, many others felt that it was not worth building houses instead of simply digesting caves into existing rock formations. The strange features which approximated Ashatorat even made a decent city, if one avoided the lava flows - and indeed, the far past of Ashatorat contained one of the technologies the Singers wished to reverse engineer.

Thus it was that a series of caves were dug into the strange rock formations that Nios had created so long ago, to create the roofed chambers which Singer artisans needed, and to create places where they could reproduce in safety to swell the numbers of the warriors to come. The Suri troglodytes who hunted the wildlife below were hardly aware of the Singers who had come to infest their home of aeons past, until they had reached a certain critical mass.

Having observed and approved of the Rainbow Lord's immediate plans, the army that rose up with the new city named themselves the Star Hunters, and dyed themselves in respect of the new symbology - black or dark blue as the night sky, with white dots representing a field of stars, and regiment and rank markings on their cores. By prior agreement, their rank marking was a solid circle, representing a portal opened to pursue prey through.

At first, the Singers continued to call Ashatorat by its original name, but they did not have anyone of note to please by doing so, and so the pronunciation quickly changed to more easily come out of their thunderous cores. Thus the city of Astaroth was born.

Relatively recently, in Singer terms, a great factory had been constructed in the Plane of Thunder. To this very day, the Golem Factory continued to churn out Scrap Golems at the command of the Imptopians.

However, they had not truly understood - several of the key mechanisms of the Golem Factory had essentially been black boxes, created with divine power and impossible to reproduce. As it happened, these black-box implements were the reason for the inevitable obsolescence of the Golem Factory's products.

That had been a work of art, and not a quest for knowledge. With the new Time Portals, and having entered the First Land in part of their own volition, the Singers were in a far better position to truly understand what Makhleb had contributed to the Golem Factory, as well as being in dire need of new expendable servants. The Suri population had never recovered from the Fall of Bellerophat, and neither had their skill base; they were neither numerous enough, nor skilled enough, to be suitable labourers, and the Singers were not numerous enough to support a caste of unskilled Singers.

Instead, a number of them watched carefully the creation of the Willow Folk and Rope Babies of old, and learned the art of Golem-Making, inscribing sigils onto mud sculptures as the Suri had in days gone by. With the most subtle of their spells of fiery destruction, they improved on these ancient designs, such that the Servitors made by the Singers were almost universally of clay instead of barely shaped mud. Their Homonculi were barely improved from the Suri model, however, and used only in scribing - Singers had little demand for the removal of either complex or military tasks from their life, especially in their age of darkness. The Rope Babies were pressed back into service, as they were expendable warriors formed from known technology; Time Portals in theory granted a limitless number of time-displaced duplicates, made expendable by being doomed to die an hour after they stopped being the most recent, but this was not enough for the Singers. Tests of what happened if the most recent duplicate was killed had been promising, but small-scale and possible to falsify.

The Rainbow Lord quickly heard the alarms, or rather sensed them - the Singers had long since switched from noisy destructive spells to telepathic panic sendings as an alert system. An intruder had found the Mound, a non-Suri. They could not be allowed to escape with this knowledge, not before the walls were ready - what if they told the Shou Tahs, and the ancient war resumed before the Singers were ready?

The continued sendings became less a matter of simple alert, and more panicked, as repeated blasts failed to deter the intruder - and confused, as the intruder refused to retailiate and apologised for such destruction as it had caused, marching straight through a section of palisade and smashing a too-thin alleyway into being less thin. When finally the Rainbow Lord personally witnessed the intruder, they realised the most efficient course of action - they had a level of cognitive empathy for the "others" atypical among Singers, not least because few Singers really saw much of other races on an even nominally equal footing. It was a Trell, of all things, far away from home - indeed, a Trell Wight, by the light in its eyes, though the burnt black wood-flesh was a hint.

With a few telepathic messages, it commanded the aggressive defence to stop, and then spoke.

"What do you want?"
"What are Singers doing here?" asked the intruder, and perhaps the most ancient 'mortal' left in the world paused. They knew their next words ought to contain exceptional care, lest this new intruder take offence and demonstrate their strength more decisively.

"Fleeing death," the Rainbow Lord answered, truthfully, without revealing the whole story.
"Fleeing death, says the rainbow warrior," the Trell-Wight repeated. "Have you tired of bringing it, then?"
"That would be a long story," the Rainbow Lord answered. "Tell me your name, young one... Why do you smile like that?"
"My kind persist for millennia at a time, and I am... immortal, now," the intruder said, with a pause and a sigh of mourning. "I am named Aidededrūl, and I know who you are." Indeed, there was not a single other Singer now with that exact set of dyes; white had always been rare among them, reserved for the warrior classes, and there simply was not enough to even sate the needs of highly powerful would-be imitators. Nor had any new group been granted the runes of the Rainbow Scourge days. "Who are you, to call me young?"
"You don't know who I am at all, to even ask that question," the Rainbow Lord answered, in disdain. "Did you walk the earth, when the cities of Ashatorat and Bellerophat made ready for war? Were you there to watch the Garden of Flies, and how it learned to speak with the angels? Did you bear witness when the hateful star-gods rose into the sky, did you watch their blob-children go from five tribes to four, from a living joke to the greatest threat the world has ever known? Were you on patrol in your home when the Blood Pit opened over the Pure Land of old, and spewed the filthy Kraith upon it? Did you witness the rage of the red star in the sky, as it burnt down the cities to the north? Did your spies watch Vroch's battle with the Demons, and did your forger... did your parent tell you the news of the Wretched Star's battle against the Seliss when it was news, not a myth?"

Aidededrūl's eyes widened, to hear such claims of such ancient deeds.
"...How can that be?"
"Singers endure," the Rainbow Lord answered. "Singers survive. We came to this First Land for no purpose but to survive. Hah... I've survived longer than the Peak ever did, now." The Singers of the Mound had not been completely isolated, and had long practiced the exact variables required for the sequence of time portals that would let them witness the reports of messengers to the rulers of other races. In volume of information, it was far inferior to the ancient Rings of Telepathy, but the noise to signal ratio was significantly better.
"You... truly... How can you live with yourself, ancient Singer?" Aidededrūl suddenly asked, with only a flicker of anger. "You, who condoned the rape of Eupnea? You warrior of the White Chorus, who slaughtered and kidnapped the innocent? You lord of the slavers of the Peak, who imprisoned people in bondage for no crime? You accursed one, wounding the lives of so many others, for so many aeons, how can you live with yourself?"

The Rainbow Lord contemplated this for a moment, and its meaning in Trell terms. Much evil had been prevented by their leadership policies, by their acquiescing to the mighty Demons and later the Humans of the far south, by their improvement of the conditions of the slaves. Yet much evil had also been caused by their actions - in aggregate, over their entire lifetime, perhaps more suffering and despair than any single Kraith had managed to spread. War had come to their door in the form of Rel, kin to the hated star-gods, in retribution for their dark deeds, yet Destroyer's Peak had remained, and from the ashes they had forged Singerdom into a more stable society, a more capable society.

Ultimately, the fact was, though by all measures they were a force of profound darkness, the Rainbow Lord cared nothing for good or for evil. They cared for their purpose alone, and their purpose - the purpose for which the Garden of Flies gave birth to them, the purpose for which they had aided in the translation of Angelic and the purpose for which they joined the White Conclave - was to make sure that Singers survived. Even the horrors that awaited the hateful sea-lords were not revenge, but simply the removal of a threat. Perhaps, if an angel were to approach, they might be awed - or horrified - by the Singer King's purity.

Yet they also realised that Aidededrūl's question was not meant for their own sake. A little kindness would not hurt, might even make the prisoner less rebellious.

"It is difficult, sometimes," the Rainbow Lord said, and it was true, but not for the reason the wording implied. It was difficult for them to live with themselves due to their failures, not their atrocities. "But my work is not yet done. That is the thought that keeps me walking, when every ounce of me wishes to sleep." Again, the words were true, the tone was true, and the message was false, and in the same way as before.

"That 'purpose' justifies all that you have done? It will all be worth it if you succeed?"
"Yes," the Rainbow Lord answered, and that part was true.
"...I am in no place to judge you, now," Aidededrūl at last snarled - it was the only true response. Merely by existing, he was an affront to Life, and had decided that his own continued existence justified itself - or else, had decided that he was too weak, too cowardly, to seek the only cure. He turned, and began to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To resume my travels," the Trell answered, with sorrow and an undercurrent of righteous anger.
"Not with our defences so woefully incomplete, you aren't," said the Rainbow Lord, who had telepathically signalled several of the Star Chorus to begin the only defence pattern that would stop the unstoppable. A portal cage opened around Aidededrūl, four overlapping holes, each leading to the one opposite, so that he might advance a thousand years and be no further ahead unless the portals were dropped. Any Singer who wished to interfere would likely as not walk through the outside of one of the portals, and simply find themselves outside the other side of the cage. Thus it would be while two Singers maintained each pair of two-way portals,

Thus it was for several days. It was ended by an enterprising Aniqua cultist, who was horrified at the imprisonment of a sincere servant of Life - and dismayed at the effects of a starved Wight remaining sat in place for several days in a row. To solve both problems without risking her own capture, this cultist created a portal tunnel leading into the cage. It was too small for Aidededrūl himself, but it was large enough to push through a book. With nothing else productive to do, he read the book, and learned the ways of Portal-making - even the ways of creating portals through time. When he tried to create ones that led too far into the past, as the book warned, he found them impenetrable, blocked as if by impenetrable glass which held a translucent spiral symbol heading from the portal's centre to its edges. Portals to the future, however, were more feasible, and gave him a way to skip through months and years without continuously existing and draining the life around him. As he watched the future unfold, he knew the best course of action.

When the Singers realised he had escaped, they searched, but could not and would not find - not until they scanned the past in the place where he had been imprisoned. It turned out, he had learned their arts, and had travelled to a point far northwest and a time several months in the future, when the Mound's defences were complete and their Rainbow Lord was giving a speech.

They saw more than that, but they knew what was planned, and were already sworn to secrecy.

It was far from difficult to convince the elves of the wisdom of the alliance. Many of them had been considering extending just such an alliance to the Trell, for just such a reason, yet somehow life kept getting in the way, over and over again. Now that the Trell themselves were the ones coming to them, they could hardly refuse.

It felt like the Band of Lunatics had only just been crushed when news reached Lothar's palace.

"The Fell Magicians of Myhra?"
"Yes, my lord. With new and... interesting forms of Mortimancy constructs," said the joint heads of Northern Branch, "new chemicals of unprecedented foulness; they have spent their aeons well, and mastered the many sorceries of the Latticework Land."
"Well? Do you have a solution?"
"...We do not have time to catch up with them, my lord," the Northern Branch heads conceded. "Only one military force in this city is strong enough to stand a chance of purging them."
"...You can't mean it... What happened to proving my way?"
"That's still on the table," said one head of Special Branch, "but will take significantly longer. The fact is, right now the pinnacle of their way has them mastering all the works of the Werblume as well as their own. As long as that beacon remains, defeating any lesser force proves nothing."
"...I will seek the power to make that possibility a certainty," said Lothar. "Perhaps it is time this city ruled itself."

In preparation for their sorcerer-king's departure, the Committee swelled their ranks, gaining enough trained agents and soldiers to make Newhaven far from easy pickings.

Power roll: Power roll (http://orokos.com/roll/152348): 2d6+6 17
Power rollover: 3 points
Total 20 points

5 points: Event - The Singers use Time Portals and their past experience with the Golem Factory to steal the Bellerophat technology "Animating Sigils", claiming it for the Singer race. Singer Tech bonus at +10.

3 points: Command Race (Singers) to Found City (The Mound) at the northern foot of the Polar Volcano, around the barrow where the Wretched Star is buried
2 points: Command City (The Mound) to Raise Army (Star Chorus)
3 points: Command Race (Singers) to Found City (Astaroth) right where Ashatorat used to be
2 points: Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (Star Hunters)

3 points: Command Race (Elves) to accept the alliance with the Trell

2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Raise Army (Expanded Security Committee)

0 points: Aidededrūl encounters the overlord of the Singers, and in the ensuing events learns Portal Magic and Time Portals.

0 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 12 (http://orokos.com/roll/152793) bringing me up to 44

Two and a half years had passed since Sera got away from the Stringwork. In all her time playing the Lyre, she had never even once seen any interactions with it, and there were times where she wondered why not a single timeline she looked at through the Lyre ever featured any Outgoers. Those doubts were easily brushed aside by her conviction that she had not been identified, even though her intuition told her that there migh be trouble ahead in that particular matter.

Her intution was right, however, for Outgoer 6537 was on her trail. It had used methods that would at the very least seem unethical to obtain information about Sera, sneaking up on unsuspecting citizens of various cities, looking through their memories and searching for any information that could be relevant. After it spoke directly to individuals, it would systematically wipe their memory of the encounter, replacing it with something else, usually more trivial. As a result, nothing except the Stringwork and the gods ever knew that 6537 was searching for a way to capture Sera.

From its many encounters, 6537 learned that its target posessed a remarkable artefact, The Lyre of Prophecy, which allowd her to see right into the future and choose the path that fitted her best. This meant a much longer than expected mission for 6537. Slowly but surely it would locate Sera, not by actively looking for her, but by asking at random (and then wiping the question from history). It would take time, but ultimately it would have a good enough idea of her location to leave no openings that could be avoided by use of the Lyre.

Soon, a strange phenomenon occured when Sera played the Lyre. Static. For no appearent reason. Confused she played a bit more, and soon enough the future became clear once again. "What was that?", she thought to herself, but decided it was nothing of importance. Maybe in that timeline, she'd tripped, got knocked unconsious and someone took the Lyre? It wasn't anything too extraordinary - it had happened in the past. However what was more perplexing was that the phenomenon kept repeating, and she began to notice that shee needed to play longer and longer before she could get rid of the static. At this point she began to worry. Clearly there was something after her, something that somehow managed to never show itself before it was too late.

Even after months, this did not stop, only becoming worse and worse. Somehow, she had a feeling it was the Stringwork. She felt that the Stringwork always watched her, but it was impossible to prove, and what remained for the next four years until 6537 eventually got what it had come for was a growing sense of insecurity.

Andromeda kept growing. There was seemingly nothing oppose its growth, but soon it became clear that any more carriers would be too difficult to coordinate if nothing was done. So the oldest and wises Owtebs and Owtfes gathered and discussed. There was need to get a centralized gouvernment, like those cities the Land-dwellers had. Many were against the proposal at first, but as they learned of the details of the proposed plan they soon came to an agreement. The Admiralty was necessary. It would not bring with itself a set of rules designed to enforce decrease of freedom, but instead it would coordinate the various carriers when needed, propose new ideas for developement of technology, and supervise the battles that could be fought by the two armies.

The Kiosa were begining to roam around the larger cities. They looked at the Human metallurgists and the Saku Rasi shipbuilders with envy, and soon these found some of their tools taken from right in front of them by some sort of weird three-tailed fox that would disappear right after stealing the item. They often blamed it on brews. It had to be, for there was no such creature in this world. Often, this ended in petty quarrels and got forgotten about a few weeks later.

The Kiosa did not care for all those small things however. The tools they collected were much more interesting - simple, yet surprisingly complex and particularly well fitted for their purpose. Evenually the Kiosa would create tools of their own, but that would be for later. In the mean time, they often praised the developements of the two races and mocked all those other magic arts that were "clearly inferior" to what they could do in the Spirit Realm.

4 points: Create Order : Admiralty for the Shadowbirds
40 points remaining
+3 next turn

[5a Violista]

The faeries of Farea loved listening to the Trells and their stories - they made so much sense. Soon, despite the massive differences between the two races, the Faeries began seeing more similarities between themselves and the Trell - soon, many of the Trell who came to Farea to propose the alliance became very good friends with the Faeries.

In fact, some of those Trell were named as "Honorary Faeries" - Faeries in all but appearance.

It was a great honor.


3: Command Race (Faerie): accept alliance with Trell




The goddess had been evaluating her knights - the werewolves. They heartily fought against death and the Kraith - against the antithesis of life.

It took a long time to decide on one in particular that would be Her Champion. It was difficult to choose, but she eventually chose a brave werewolf. She was an elf who had gone to Grove to study, but quickly became enthralled by fighting prowess and grace of the werewolves. They came to her under the cover of night and she proved herself worthy to become a werewolf.

Soon, she had led much of the pack against lone and small groups of Kraith.

One night, Aniqua visited her while she was dreaming. She infused much of her own power into her and gave her a new name: She would no longer be known as her old elf name, but as Fenrir the Demonheart, for she was as fearless in the face of death as any demon.


9: Create Demigod: Fenrir the Demonheart




3 (leftover) + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320225/) + 3 ('cause I still qualify for Chaos?) + 3 (cult) = 17

Actions:
9: Create Demigod: Fenrir the Demonheart
3: Command Race (Faerie): accept alliance with Trell
Remainder: 5

Next time: I totally need to go on the offense against Kraith armies. Let me catch up, first.

[ImperialSunligh]

The cultural mingling of the humans and monkeys continued in this time. Smiths of the monkeys learned advanced armouring techniques from the humans. Meanwhile, the spells of destruction, originally only known by military veterans of the monkeys, their knowledge since spread, has began to spread to the human cities as well. The source of these techniques had long been forgotten to most people, and so even many of the more intolerant of the humans put these spells to use.

Roll: 2d6+2=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320267/)

Command Drachenfutter, Accept Trade with Figurae, Swordplay for Brewing, -2
Command Herz, Accept Trade with Sophei, Metallurgy for Martial Magics -2
Command Figurae, Trade with Drachenfutter, Armouring for Spells of Destruction, -2
Command Humans, Accept Alliance with Angels, -3



Left: 1

[Omegonthesane]

There had been relatively little actual use of poisons in either combat or politic over the years, even among the most aggressive civilisations. Especially among them, in fact - Demons, Singers and Shou Tahs all wielded mighty weapons and mightier magics which did the job better than any product of the Garden of Pestilence, while the various children of Eknad disdained the use of any tactic that did not meet with their arbitrary and utterly foolish notions of honour and pride.

Of course, once, long ago, the Singers had had a disturbing approximation of honour and pride. It had waxed in the streets of Eupnea, as the Red Screamers defiled the Sword of Life and murdered and tortured the Angels of old. It had waned in the fields of Figurae, and under the rage of Rel, and it had wavered under the strain of the Shou Tahs war and the demonic threat-offer, but the Fall of Destroyer's Peak had destroyed it completely. Therefore they began experimenting with the military feasibility of the wonders of the Garden of Pestilence.

Many of that Garden's products had been conjured forth out of whole cloth, rather than replicated from existing natural horrors. The Singers, mystics that they were, soon hit upon the idea of simply conjuring these compounds at need, rather than building up a stockpile. This evolved into a whole branch of sorcery, related but distinct from the Spells of Destruction - many of them took the form of blasts of venom, but the majority of these did their true work by striking a weak point of their enemy and allowing the venom to enter their body, rather than through simple brute force like the majority of the destructive spells. In the study of this dangerous art, the Venom Mages discovered a variety of conjured poison which simply glowed with baleful light in the vein of the Wretched Star, and inflicted pestilence and decay upon every single thing the light shone upon; irritatingly, this included the caster, but the manipulation of poisons inherently included the removal of poisons from an infected body, so the testing was far from suicidal.

(That didn't stop them using Suri guinea pigs, of course. Even in the days of the original Red Screamers, the Singer culture had not been the sort to encourage its members to take risks themselves that they could instead force others to take.)

As far as many were concerned, the first pinnacle of this new art was the Poison Arrow, but ultimately this was its union with a spell of destruction - a bolt of injurious venom so potent, and so sharp, that even Wights had something to fear from the physical portion of it. It was far less efficient than a normal destructive spell against targets who had no natural reason to avoid being poisoned, but it meant that a Singer venom mage who had neglected their other arts would never be completely defenceless.

The stone walls of The Mound had been completed, and so the Rainbow Lord gathered many of the civilians into a plaza located in the long, undeveloped stretch of land between the furthest workshops and the actual walls.

"For no small number of years, we have wanted for a home. We have wandered and hidden in the First Land, too afraid to settle down, never knowing what would come of our deeds or whether the hateful creatures of the depths would continue to spare our lives. Never knowing for sure if we would ever set right the wrong done to us. It is known that we wander no more. Yet, now, we need not even hide.

"You are all aware that this place is named after the Mound in its centre, the mound which you were not permitted to visit. This was not out of great secrecy, but to avoid the disruption of my plans for this city. As you are still permitted to look upon the Mound, you will surely have noticed that it has been dug up, and that we have exhumed from it a pathetic five-pointed thing, barely as wide as a core. A thing long dead, yet which has not rotted. This is the corpse of the Wretched Star, a child of our creator, slain by the Seliss during the first days of the old Suri nation. It fell here, and its broken body was not touched after its burial, for not even the rot-vermin dared feast upon its form. Or at least, those who made a meal of it never ate again.

"We who fell, landed here, where the star fell. The Mound is no more; I name this city Starfall."

The rally did not see the ceremony that was proceeding around the Wretched Star's broken body. When they dug it up, it was covered in rat bites (which had been fatal to the rats) and patches of rotted flesh (the bacteria having decomposed that much of it before dying from what they ate). The holes in its flesh were patched up by strange blackened flesh, as an elvish explorer worked on it, the price he had agreed to pay for being let out of Starfall alive. Held in place by two Singer guards, a Suri Wight similarly watched the proceedings, knowing what its part in them was to be and having accepted a cessation of its unlife as payment.

"It may be that some of you feel that naming this city after past losses is a step backwards, that we should not still be looking to the past. I tell them to look up, and to see why our armies have taken the icons of the stars themselves.

With a strange howl, the five-pointed corpse arose, behind the set of workshops that lay between it and the Rainbow Lord. Horrific blue light glowed from the eyespots on its reanimated limbs, and its flesh was pallid in the places where its healer had not attended to it, but it was recognisable as the same being - even if it was kept animate by a false soul, a cruel mockery of a soul. After all, the Wretched Star's original soul was beyond the reach of all gods.

"You see before you the Wretched Star, reborn as a Wight. This is the purpose for which we exhumed it. As its soul has been changed forever by its experience, so we will never be the Red Screamers again. Yet, do not fear. As it has risen again, so shall we rise again, and again, and again, until all who would stand against us are dead, innocent, guilty, strong or weak, faithful or false, all of them, dead."

The Undead Star shrieked again, as if in agreement.

In Astaroth, the experiments of the Yellow Beasts of old were being repeated, and refined. New drip-feed devices were perfected, as well as tests of willpower that would separate out those who were truly capable of taking on the burden of being such profound berserkers. There was no doubt that such an elite force was useful, but also no doubt that they were not people one wanted around when not actively at war, after all the diplomatic incidents the originals had caused. Therefore in addition to the more stringent willpower tests, the Star Beasts had an in-built turnover rate - no Singer was permitted to serve in their ranks for more than five years without then taking at least a year off to purge their system of trace levels of Berserker's Brew. As Singers practically speaking served for life, workarounds for this were planned into the unit's very structure - one redundant Sorcerer Lord, two redundant Lead Sorcerers, sixteen redundant Sorcerers, and fourty-eight redundant Warriors were recruited in addition to the required two hundred and sixty-five. The two Beast Sorcerer Lords were to serve in alternating four-year periods, while every year the two longest-serving divisions would take a sabbatical and make room for the two "redundant" divisions, so that at all times the Star Beasts would be at full strength and have fully trained, worthy replacements ready, while never becoming irreversibly too violent for even Singer society.

That was the theory at least. In practice? Time would tell. The only certain thing about the new army's divergent decisions was its insignia; where the Star Chorus had a symbol of a Singer, and the Star Hunters a symbol of a portal, the Star Beasts had a stylised representation of a Suri's open and fanged jaws from the perspective of a person about to be crushed in those jaws.

The formal alliance had brought with it increased traffic between Elfmoot and the Grove, and indeed there was no longer any pretense of hiding the ancient elvish city. Instead, the elvish chieftains decided to make something of their new resource, immediately if not sooner.

They had shared the northwest of the forest with the Trell for longer than the Demons, and knew better than to curry favour with great ostentatious shows of strength and wealth. Instead, they simply sent their diplomats to make a frank request of those under the Marrow Tree - the Trell sorceries and botanical expertise, in return for instructing the Grove's people in their life-giving Healing Magic and in the Golden Magic first mastered by the angels.

This was not a lie. Their primary, most important purpose was indeed to make this exchange of gifts. They spoke nothing of their secondary purpose, to better prepare themselves against Kraith or Monkey incursions; nor of their tertiary in offering Golden Magic as opposed to their mastery of animals or the Eternal Dance. The Humans and Demons were both strong potential rivals, while the Faeries if anything needed protecting from the oncoming storm; giving up the Dance would have further weakened the latter as a trading partner.

The Trell, for their part, simply explained that they could already call upon the Elves and Demons of their own city if they needed golden or healing sorcery, but that the diplomats were welcome to study under the Marrow Tree. Whatever wisdom they learned there, it did not include the idea that Trell secrets should remain Trell secrets, and the Elfmoot was not displeased with the outcome.

Power roll: Power roll (+3 Chaos, +3 Cults) (http://orokos.com/roll/152516): 2d6+6 16points
Power rollover: 0 points
Total 16 points

6 points: Advance Civilisation (Singers) with Poison Magic gained from the makers of the Garden of Pestilence. Singer Tech Bonus at +11.
0 points: Fluff Shuffle - Rename City (The Mound -> Starfall)
2 points: Command City (Starfall) to Raise Army (The Undead Star - Counts as an army of Singer Wights)
2 points: Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (Star Beasts)

2 points: Command City (Elfmoot) to propose Trade with Grove - Healing Magic & Golden Magic for Plant Charming & Botany.

0 points: Command Army (Star Beasts) to defend Astaroth
0 points: Command Army (Star Chorus) to defend Starfall
0 points: Command Army (Undead Star) to defend Starfall

4 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=6 (http://orokos.com/roll/152497)
Current Power Points: 6

Big Plans for next round, so I'm saving up my entire terrible roll this round. Might edit in the Shou Tahs marching on some city or another, but likely going to save that, so the battles can go long.

Current Power Points: 6
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320761/)

[Neelien]

rolled 10, bringing me up to 50

There was still one year until 6537 would catch up to Sera. Until then, she found herself needing to play the Lyre longer and longer to get rid of the static. She was slowly becoming paranoid, but it was still nothing her ego couldn't crush.

The Shadowbirds did not do much in this time either. The Admiralty was slowly establishing itself, thinking about how to best direct the carrier city. Most shadowbirds had accepted its presence but there were still some that thought that it was taking away their freedom. However, they were the minority and they had no meaningful arguments to prove their point, so their numbers were in decline.

The Wandra were still wandering, not doing anything meanigful, except occasionally helping travellers with their restful music.

The Kiosa were still learning. There would still be a long time until they created something themselves besides what they created with Spirit Froge. As a result, nothing noteworthy hapened to them either.

A noteworthy event is that this year, an Armoured fish that was about to achieve the feat of going around the world by gliding got knocked out of the air by one of the pieces of the 12-way boulder. This very unfortunate event however would not be remembered.

In other news, the Singers discovered that the Suri had strange creatures - Shadow lurkers - following them everywhere they went. It seemed like most of them were unaware of that fact, having lost quite a bit of their general knowledge when their cities got destroyed.

Pass
50 points remaining, +3 next round

[ImperialSunligh]

The humans spoke often of the great plane of Paradi where the gods reside. They tell stories of the humans and angels that still remain there, who can truly experience the gods' protection.

So, when the time came that the council of Sophei elected to replace the ancient and crumbling government houses where they resided, they took inspiration from these stories. Among them, there are tales of a great tower, at the center of the endless paradise. This tower, made of pure gold and unfathomably tall, is the place where the gods would commune with one another and decide the fate of the mortals.

The council wanted to remain subservient in the eyes of the gods and their subjects, however, and so, a tower in the commonly understood image of the Tower of the Gods was built, not out of gold, but out of common stone. It was fairly tall, indeed, but reasonably so. It served as a defensive mechanism as much as a council hall, being of sound defensive design, and keeping the governing body of Sophei safe so they can continue to command their subjects in times of war.

The council moved into the tower swiftly, and in it, they conducted all their business. The Tower contained a decent library for them to consult and any other commodities necessary for their responsibilities. Every day, couriers carry food up the 800 winding steps to make decent pay and feed the council members.

Figurae became fearful in this time of the Shou Tahs. They did not want to act rashly and provoke them, but reinforced their defences regardless.

The greatest scholars of golden magic in the city worked with the most knowledgeable in the spells of destruction, as well as natural philosophers, metallurgists and other experts relevant to their mission.

They invented a strange device that would allow sentries on the walls of Figurae to activate premeditated spells of great destruction, both holy and mundane. Special alloys were used to create vessels that would prevent these blasts from harming the user, and to direct the force into a powerful projectile. These were made able to swivel around on an axis in such that they could point in any direction quickly, away from the city, in the air, or at some kind of threat within.

No less than twenty of these great cannons were mounted on the top of walls around Figurae, useful for defence against foes on the ground and those in the air. They could be used while the aegis remained, as it recognized their holy nature.


Roll: 2d6+1=5 (http://orokos.com/roll/153283)
Reroll: 2d6+1=11 (http://orokos.com/roll/153284)

Command Drachenfutter, Accept Trade with Figurae, Armouring for Spells of Destruction, -2

Command Sophei, Create Structure, The Council Tower, -2

Command Figurae, Create Structure, The Holy Cannons, -2

Left: 3

[5a Violista]

<Aniqua does nothing this round. I know, this means I lose my Chaos roll bonus. However, I'm too busy right now to really do anything well. So sorry.>

This time:
5 + 2d6=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4321858/) + 3/3 + 3/3 = 22


Next time:

22 + 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4321860/) + 0/3 + 3/3 = 32

I need to:
1. Make list of armies, bonuses, cities, and so on, and reread the combat rules
Reminder: the two werewolf armies came from Grove
2. Find out where The Lyre is and have Idrians move against them. [The Idrians won't move against the Kraith.]
3. Raise a werewolf army with the Saku Rasi, and one more (probably from The Grove again). Find out where Kraith armies are and have two werewolf armies move against them.
4. Have that one Maimec army conquer take another Maimec army. Have them raise another army.
5. Have them make a new city, use an event to put Maimec, Saku Rasi (Pirate version), and Nereids together in that city.
6. Have the current Nereid army attack one city in The Big Good Guy Alliance and a Political Manoeuver (along with Shapeshifting) to convince them that it was another faction in that alliance that attacked.
7. Do something else? More Aniqua-related.
8. Write out the post.

Sorry, guys, but I just can't do it right now.

[Omegonthesane]

The Elves' love of Life was perverse, compared to that of their ancestors or their allies - their expression of it disturbing and harmful in many cases. However, there was one cabal of them who took this far enough that the Elfmoot were truly ashamed, rather than merely knowing that curbing their worst instincts meant that the other people played nice. These sorcerers travelled the world, obtaining samples of every form of life the world had to offer - most infamously in the form of slaves and cast-offs. In Imptopia, a Kraith civilian had trouble with two of the Prank Overseers, only for all three of them, weakened and drained, to be dragged off and bound by a squadron of elf mercenaries - along with a particularly drunk and depraved Faerie, who had come to witness the Kroop Troop's latest wickednesses. In the tributary villages around Figurae and Herz, farmers barely able to feed their wanted family willingly gave up their unwanted third children when offered fine talismans of divine power in exchange, and told that these children would have a good future. Some even did so without the latter, false reassurance. In Southport, there were many impoverished demons come to chase their dreams, who had burnt bridges with their homes only to fail; some were tempted by the offers of money, only to wake to a fate more terrible than that which they left behind. The Suri were numerous enough in the First Land, though they came with a thing that hid in their shadow, as did the Suri-like things in the farthest west. The Saku Rasi, Werblume, and Maimec specimens were available due to a real stroke of luck, as a ship containing all three had made an emergency docking in the mountains near Elfmoot, after being hit by one of the spells of destruction fired in the doomed defence of Destroyer's Peak. The real difficulty was hunting down an Angel, but they had and took an opportunity to do that before the lab was fully constructed.

All these samples of different kinds of Life were taken to a cellar hollowed out under a set of quite dense trees, and inside the Fleshworks was constructed, a place of experimentation and cruelty where all forms of Life would have their limits fully tested in ways that might, just, make a Kraith shudder if a Kraith heard of them. Indeed, a Kraith came up with some of them, as some of the Kraith specimens insulted the sorcerers by suggesting more painful forms of torture, one of which turned out to be a perfectly scientifically valid test.

When the Fleshworks was discovered, all the unfortunates present were granted the mercy of death if they asked for it, or else restored to as close to full health as was possible, and the Fleshworks themselves were burnt to ash lest the Trell ever learn of this work of evil. Yet, the Elfmoot kept the research notes, feeling that it would only deepen the horror of the day if otherwise relatively sane people ever had a motive to make a new Fleshworks.

The Elves had heard much of the many wonders created by the Singers, as well as the gifts granted to the southern Humans and the Marrow Tree of the nearby Grove. They had even, rather obviously, heard of the Fleshworks, and taken steps to destroy it while salvaging some small good from that horrendous place of evil. Affected all their life by their initial envy for races who had had, in their eyes, slightly better starts, the pressure built and built until the Elfmoot sanctioned official testing.

They did not quite know where to start, however, and commissioned a great competition, at which the elves were to perfect their Eternal Dance, the most graceful and swift dance gaining whatever wish the actual moot proper could grant. The resulting competition lasted for hours, but it was not out of exhaustion that competitors began to drop - in contravention of the rules, a group of eight competitors had begun striking out against the others. Arrows were fired at them to make them stop misbehaving, but they simply dodged or parried these - so it seemed at first, until the audience looked more closely, and found a small cyclone around each of the eight dancers whipping up dust and pushing projectiles away.

These eight never managed to stop their rampaging Arrow Dance, as it was called, and were granted long swathes of empty land where they could practice it in relative safety. Several more elves, intrigued, came to join them, and indeed found themselves performing the same murderous storm-calling dance that had ended the competition. As more elves joined the dance, it appeared that they had begun to share more than their moves, as they started speaking in the plural when addressing outsiders; however, none could confirm exactly what was going on without actually joining in the Arrow Dance, and most elves were not willing to dance the dance of death for the rest of their lives.

It was only through a quite convoluted sequence of journeys that, under existing standards, the Eknad Union could officially communicate with the Elfmoot - while in all common understanding the Northern Alliance was one nation, technically the treaties involved required that such a communique be routed past the Demons, who would then have to be cajoled into passing it on to the Trell, who would probably but nnot assuredly pass the message on to Elfmoot.

Unofficial communications had no such need to respect treaties. A human noble, the last of his name after all his brothers and sisters married into other families, found himself disgraced when it was revealed that his father had funded the Betrayers of old over the centuries. Embittered against the people of Figurae, he was willing to betray them to the Elves of the Elfmoot, believing that by instructing them in the Spells of Destruction he might galvanise them into extracting the revenge he desired upon his home.

After they had fully extracted the curriculum from him, the elves held a great feast to celebrate the new knowledge, after which the drunk and stuffed man was granted a night and day with an elvish courtesan of his choice. No poison was actually used that he did not know about - after falling asleep, he was gently carried to the Kraith ghetto, with written instructions that his exsanguinated flesh was to be fed to wolves, and that there would be a purge if his body was ever seen again.

For many years the elves had been the first word in how to take care of animals, and often the last word as a result, as those whow ere not their enemies had little to no reason to distrust their advice. Over that time, they had for the most part preferred to keep pristine and lovely ranges, where animals could persist in a manner practicaly identical to life in the wild.

One family changed all that, by the simple and effective metric of making unholy amounts of money from their divergent practices and then buying out their competitors. Within a year of the tipping point, the tangled hunting grounds that had only previously been navigable with feet or Bloom Steeds had a Demonic Highway running through them, for it turned out that intensive farming was simply more effective at creating wealth than the old ways. Being more effective, it granted more wealth, wealth which was then used to acquire the lands that did things the old way.

The elves kept the least hospitable sections of the Old Hunting Grounds in their previous only slightly spoiled state, however. This was in part a cynical move, as these were inevitably the most marginal areas, least suitable for intensive farming; however, it was also born of a recognition that greed had destroyed a place of natural beauty, and the guilt that resulted.

Southport was a place where desires were granted. Some people's desires were rather different to the norm, opposed even. Some of these people were mages. All of these things would have added up to create, at worst, a niche subculture of sadomasochists, were it not for the ancient dark arts of the Singers, the ways of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy, as practised by many and varied servants of many and varied agendas in the present age.

For aeons this technology had combined with the natural wild passions of the Demons to provide a massive pressure for individuals to accept pain as a fact of life. Those who actually naturally took pleasure in it had a significant advantage, but most of the demonic military had been interested in the physical and mental capacities of soldiers, rather than their ability with sorcery. Southport was the exception, and already had the Ecstasy Mansions - it was, in fact, an experiment of theirs that ultimately created the character-defining elite unit of the City of Pleasures.

None of the original Ecstasists had had the training required of a Fort Liberty warrior, or even a Sanctuary warrior - none of them had even the martial skill of the Thirdborn Mercenaries. They were simply a sample of the courtesans of Ecstasy Mansion who happened to have been professional sorcerers before falling on hard times; the copious amounts of Torment they consumed turned out to be an excellent source of raw magical power, and the will that their sorcerous training had granted them left them able to remain sane while partaking of the wonders the Mansion offered.

Secret military operation that it was, the Mansion was quite happy to retrain and supply this new order of sorcerers. There were no immediate opportunities to test how dangerous the Ecstasists could be, once their attendants had prepared their various instruments, but supplies of Torment reduced their emergency deployment delay to under a minute. The demons had more than enough data from the Ecstasy Mansion's research to conclude that the Ecstasists were efficient enough to take the same risk the Red Screamers had taken outside Eupnea, of generating so much raw power that it threatened to tear their bodies apart.

"You are resolved?"
"Yes," said Lothar, for what felt like the thirteenth time. "I cannot defeat the Fell Magicians alone, and even if I could, there remains far too much evil in need of dying. Your city has adequately prepared, in my estimation. The Security Committee will rule with wisdom in my absence."
"Very well," said the joint heads of Special Branch, the only ones of the ten councillors to actually simply accept Lothar's decision. "Let that which you built never falter. Let your quest meet only with victory. Yet... le us also see to improving the chances of that victory."
"What do you mean?"
"You are not fully instructed in Kraith sorcery. I appreciate, there is not enough time for you to master all the arts... but our two most ancient, our two most useful? These you ought to learn, for your own sake."

Thus, while Kraith servants packed his great backpack, Lothar learned the strange blood magic and shadow magic practised by his Kraith minions, and the Kraith present mourned to see him gone. Without his disruptive influence, though, the city if anything became more stable - Lothar had been a young and passionate boy, while the various Security Committee members were consummate politicians who shared only the core of his ideals. Within the year, Newhaven's worst excesses had been curbed, as the Security Committee determined that there were severe diminishing returns on resources spent rounding up and torturing dissenters.

Lothar felt the Elfmoot had taught him what it would, little knowing of their recent thefts of knowledge, and that the peace-loving Faeries and Trell would impede his murderous intent against all reason. Fort Liberty was many things, but a place for travellers was not one of them; thus, it was to Sanctuary that he went, as the nearest place known to have secrets he could use.

Of course, the demons present had not been entirely ignorant of his past record, with the result that arrows were pointed at his flickering form before he was within a hundred paces of the gatehouse.

"Look what the cat dragged in!" a guard shouted. "Tell the council we've got the Tyrant of Newhaven himself here!"
"What is the meaning of this?" Lothar openly shouted back. "I have done you no harm nor injustice!"
"Not us, no," the gate guard said, "but we've heard how lovely you are. How virtuous you are. How you nobly invaded the Pure Land, nobly butchered a people who had done nothing to you, and nobly took their children to be your slaves."
"You're defending the blood drinkers now?!"
"We're defending the principles our civilisation was built upon. Principles that you have violated with your every deed."
"I wonder, would you admire me more if I had instead murdered every last one of them, given them no chance to learn a different path? Where do you honestly think Kraith were going to suddenly get guidance from?"

The argument neither concluded nor erupted into violence before the gates opened, revealing a squad of the 12th Company of the Sanctuary Militia. They were to watch Lothar, and sound the alarms if he went absolutely anywhere the Council did not want him, but not to impede him within those restrictions.

Indeed, Lothar was not impeded, making exchanges with a fairy explorer to learn how navigation was done and how the protective spells of Farea worked, before buying a one-man ship outright and casting off in the direction of the Black Pillars, to seek his destiny on another continent.

Power roll: 2d6+6=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4321557/) points
Power rollover: 4 points
Total 17 points

3 points: Command Race (Elves) to Create Wonder (The Fleshworks Research Notes)
3 points: Command Race (Elves) to Create Wonder (The Arrow Dance)
2 points: Command City (Elfmoot) to Political Maneuver and steal Spells of Destruction from the Monkeys. Or the Humans, it makes little difference.
3 points: Command Race (Elves) to Settle Territory (The Hunting Grounds, a 1" area centred on Elfmoot. Summary fluff only, this is something I thought I'd done ages ago)
2 points: Command City (Southport) to Raise Army (Ecstasists, 144 absurdly masochistic magi whose attendants can have them battle-ready and in dangerously rapturous agony at a minute's notice, because I felt each demonic city needed an elite unit to define it)
2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Political Maneuver to grant Noctimancy and Sangromancy to Lothar the Cursed only
2 points: Command City (Sanctuary) to Political Maneuver to grant Navigation and Abjuration to Lothar the Cursed only

0 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320761/)
Current Power Points: 24

Something was wrong.

Aidededrūl had formed the portal, and gazed out at the scene before him, of the same place he was imprisoned now, but from a different angle, and built up into a city. He witnessed the corpse of the Wretched Star rise up, and scream. He saw a new light within it. A blue light, like the deep blue sap that glowed within Aidededrūl himself. A distant part of his mind, the wight part, rejoiced in this knowledge, in seeing such a powerful wight spring into existence. However, the part that was Aidededrūl simply recoiled in horror. He had to do something, and so, without thinking, stepped through the gate.

He should have come out on the hill overlooking the new city. He should have stood before the reborn Star and realized that he had acted rashly. He should have needed to run like no Trell had ever needed to run before.

The portal must have been weak and unstable. Crafted by a single amateur when a dozen professionals would have doubted it. The portal seemed to flash as he stepped forward, he saw the past, himself walked forward, apologizing for any destruction he accidentally caused, with a clear spiral spanning the width of the portal. However, he was already halfway through the portal at this point, and the spiral had formed just before his face, cutting through his arm above the shoulder and his leg above the knee. He had outstretched his arm in that instinctual rush to stop the Star, and now looked down, to where it had been.

Yet... it was still there.

Before he could process this new information, the portal snapped open, and the world around Aidededrūl vanished, as well as the world he had witnessed on the other side of the portal. All that was left was the clear spiral that cut through part of Aidededrūl's body, and Aidededrūl's body itself, both suspended in a great void.

Then he woke up.

There were five figures standing before him. An ancient crone with myriad wrinkles on her face, with eyes which were two points of golden light. She was clad from the neck down in a tattered cloak of faded gold printed with murals of events that Aidededrūl had never known to pass. There was a figure wearing a leaden helmet and wearing a cloak of lead sheet printed with patterns of stars and waves, with two dim points of red light for it's eyes. The last three appeared to be triplets. Each had the head of something akin to a Kraith, with no nose and no mouth, but their flesh was not the flesh of a Kraith, but seemed to be burnished bronze, with silver hair. If it weren't for that, they might have been Humans. They each wore a robe of pristine white, and their eyes were points of light of a powerful green hue, however, the one to Aidededrūl's left had only the left eye, and the one to his right had only the right. The middle triplet had both eyes shining brilliantly.

Aidededrūl attempted to ask what was happening, but found himself unable to. However, after a moment, the crone spoke. Well, it wasn't speech, but was instead something that made Aidededrūl want to fall to his knees in worship, but what the crone was expressing, could have also been expressed in words. A lot would be lost in translation, but it could have been expressed in words, "This thing is strange. Two souls. The first soul died, and was well on it's way to an afterlife, but then the second came along, and it wasn't a full soul, so it latched to the slow, lumbering one, and dragged it back to the body. The second soul is weak, starved. The first was too strong for it, and has been starving it of fulfillment."

Then the lead one spoke, "It's nature is beside the point. It's purpose here is greater. I see a plan built around this thing. A plan made of strings, almost. Powerful strings. The creation of a god of strings perhaps? Regardless, it's a powerful plan. I can't see it's entirety, in fact. I just know that this traveler did not come here by accident, and is meant to continue traveling past this point."

The triplets stared forward, unmoving and strange. The one to the left spoke, "I see a past of confusion, self-denial, fire, and sadness. Trees, a Marrow Tree. A Conduit. His kind if genuinely skilled, though they lack ambition."

The one to the right spoke next, "I see a future of untold vastness. He will witness the forms of gods, of a war that will shatter the world, of structure and many conversations. He will use the power of his heritage to reshape the world, but he will be met with many failures. I see a familiar cage. I see irrational fear. I see a spider in a primordial land."

The middle spoke, "I see a present of need. You are here to learn. The strings hold you before these few deities so that we might teach you the secrets of time. Be silent, gaze into our eyes, and you will know all that you must know."

Aidededrūl did so, and found the light to be more than it had before. He did not know how long he hung there, witnessing the interior workings of time, or whether time even meant anything anymore, but when he had taken all the knowledge that his mind could contain, he began to look again, and saw that the five were no longer there. They hadn't been there for some time, and only his frail control of time had allowed him to witness what had passed.

He didn't know where he was, or even if the place he was in existed at all, but he knew how to leave. He did know that this place had no orientation in regard to his proper timeline, so he had to take a blind leap in order to reintegrate himself into time. So, he twisted and went into time, without adjusting his place in space.

The world was ending. Thousands of seven-headed hydras rushed past him, swarming up the side of the erupting volcano, towards the immense plume of black smoke, where the Seliss warred with the Wretched Star, and meteorites rained from the sky.

Aidededrūl simply ran...

It was time to march again.

Ferai Feraom gathered the armies at her command together, in the center of the field of gravel which had once been Destroyer's Peak. Some might have mourned the loss of the ancient and proud city, of the destruction of so much art, of the shattering of the (albeit frail) peace of a society. Not the Shou Tahs. They found joy in the eradication of this place, and had, over many years, just practiced their combat arts, knocking down floor after floor after floor of the mountain. Usually it was simply the garrison, the Princes, but an Army of Kings would come along every once and a while to enjoy in the obliteration as well. When it was gone, reduced to rubble, the Shoy Tahs had played with the toys of the Singers for a time. The Dream Twister was an unusual creation, in the hands of a Shou Tahs, for they never dreamt complex dreams. Instead, they dreamt as they did everything else: simply, but with extreme vigor. Thus, the Dream Twister did not grant profound, opinion changing dreams, but instead simply put the listeners to sleep. The Hall of Composers, on the other hand, as they had left it standing, achieved essentially the same goal as it originally had. The War Song, when synchronized with the magic of the Hall, seemed to have an greatly magnified effect. The Earthquake Drum, however, while it had been a popular item, had vanished after the fall of the mountain, much to the rage of the Shou Tahs. Many had accused other Shou Tahs of having stolen the device, but this led them nowhere, and they eventually decided that some Singer must have ran off with it, as they had used to run off with the tablets of Singer secrets before they could be smashed.

Though, lost relic aside, the Sea Blobs had nothing more to stay in this ruin for, and had long ago descended back beneath the waves, until today, when Ferai Feraom had called them all together, Princes and Kings alike. She stood before them and shouted, "So, how have the last four years been on you pieces of flotsam? Been keeping fit? Been trying to refrain from killing each other too much?!"

This got a mixture of shouts of anger and laughs from the collected armies, but Fera cut through them, "That's what we do, after all. It's what we've always done! However, I say that those days should be past! Let us Shou Tahs not destroy other Shou Tahs! But instead, let us destroy the other races!"

The Shou Tahs were almost entirely silent in response to these words, which was saying something. Fera was getting them to think, "Forever, we have only ever known the fight with ourselves, and with the Singers! There are the weakling Saku Rasi, and the small ones on the coast, but they are not foes! No, only the Singers have been worthy opponents so far! Though, there must be more than these few, I say! There must be foes out there worth mention! I say we simply haven't found them yet! So, we will test them, and try to find a new foe! I know of two who we will march upon: A place called Elfmoot, full of strange creatures who love plants, and a place called Farea, full of tiny things with wings! This is where we march today! Let us find a fight worthy of remembrance!

There were reports of Shou Tahs attacking the Hunting Ground.

Entire fields had been laid to waste, herds set free, crops lost, settlements destroyed, by groups of one or two blue Shou Tahs. No one knew what they were doing this far inland, but everyone was afraid, for they were only now beginning to hit their stride as a society, and it was said that the Shou Tahs could reduce mountains to gravel.

The two armies of Elfmoot were kept at high alert, the Outriders riding in circuits around the city, atop ridges and in thick copses of trees, where they would have a good eye of incoming attack, but incoming attack wouldn't be able to see them. The Nature's Protectors filled the city, staring out from the treetops for the slightest disturbance in the forest out there.

The Black King's Army came first. Or, rather, the shades summoned up by the Dark Crown. They suddenly appeared, wreathed in silvery halos and black lightning, sliding through the trees and terrifying all animals in their path. The Outriders saw them, and sent a probing attack to test the strength of these creatures. However, for every ten they cut down, twenty rose up from the shadows. The testing attack only barely managed to get out with their entire squad intact, and reported their findings to their superiors, saying that the shades weren't real, and they would have to find their source, before they reached the city and overran it.

So, the outriders rode out, searching for the fell sorcery that had summoned these dark entities. Eventually, they found a part of the forest where the sky had seemed to have gone dark, and the suns were eclipsed and turned silver. There, they spied a gathering of some thirty Shou Tahs, Some Black, some Red, and some Indigo.

After a quick assessment, the Outriders silently surrounded the gathering, and, fired a few Spells of Destruction which flashed and blinded the Sea Blobs, before several more attacks were sent out, with needles of lava being driven into anatomical weak points that had been discovered through the Fleshworks. The Shou Tahs were not prepared for this, and four even fell, including the Black King himself. However, many present had been singing the Sapphire Song, and they reacted to the sorcery with their own. The Black singers roared in confusing tones, and suddenly a blank fog rolled in, eliminating the Outrider's aim. The Red singers spoke out words of fire, and suddenly the entire forest was ablaze. The Indigo singers summoned up crystal armor and weapons, and suddenly bounded forward, into the ranks of the confused Outriders, cutting them down even as they recoiled in shock from the sudden flames.

The elves were masters of their steeds, however, and simple flames would not scatter their formations. A few Outriders had even adopted the Arrow Dance, and, with instinctual movements, guided their steeds to circle around the Indigo singers of the Sapphire Song. Song squared off against Dance, and slashes were directed, just to be dodged or sidestepped or directed into the ground. The Arrow Dancers summoned up gales that buffeted the armored Shou Tahs, and drove them back. Then, golden spears were brought up, and driven into the necks of the Song singers, and the Outriders were victorious in that one battle.

But by then, the others had recouped, and the blank fog was lifted, revealing a new Black Shou Tahs wearing the crown. In an instant before the elves could resume their pelting of spells, black lightning rang out, and four fifths of the Outriders fell, roasted and shriveled. Those who survived the attack, however, survived for a reason, and in the Eternal Dance that had guided them to slip out of the way of a lightning strike, they rushed forward. Black Shou Tahs also rushed forward to meet this charge, raising fists to crush the puny creatures, but the mounts leapt while Elves slashed, and Elves dropped from their mounts to spin and cut the attackers as they ran. Myriad wounds appeared on the Shou Tahs, as dozens of Elves fell. One Shou Tahs fell, bleeding into the forest, and then another, and a third, and then there were only five Black Shou Tahs left, including the Crown bearer, but in that instant, the shades returned, and clouded the charge, and then Red Shou Tahs were suddenly bursting through the mass of shades, with arms of magma waving about, smashing into Elves, crushing them and setting them to fire at the same time.

It was too much for the Elves to withstand, and while they had fought valiantly, they had to flee. In the meantime, Ferai Feraom directed the remnants of the Black army to return home, crown the King's son, and refill their ranks, while the rest of the attack on Elfmoot continued.

Soon, the Indigo Kings and Immortals were seen before the edge of Elfmoot, and Natures Protectors sounded the alarm. Elves rushed to their defensive positions, atop trees and buildings, and rained down Spells of Destruction and Golden Magic upon the attackers, while bears and wolves and wolverines were being coaxed into charging the Shou Tahs.

However, the singers of the Sapphire Song were expecting attack, and a shield of Song blasted away the rain of destruction, while the wildlife that charged them was simply crushed by fist and War Song. A moment more, and the Shou Tahs bounded forward, impossibly fast, and burst through walls and tree trunks. Soon, entire sections of the city were falling, and Nature's Protectors could not seem to fight against the onslaught.

Then there was ash in the air, and a woman seemingly made of cracked black soot appeared before them, menacing them. The Shou Tahs were halfway into their charge, when the heat came, blasting them backward. A wave which turned the grass to soot and made trees creak and begin to collapse as pillars of charcoal. The Sapphire Song attempted to shield the singers, but it was a lesser force, not on par with the flames of a demigod. Their shields broke, shattering in the wind, and Shou Tahs were suddenly covered in burns. Those who had not had the Song, were simply disintegrated. A total six Shou Tahs of the Kings and three of the Immortals had fallen in that single act. Fera called the remains of the Immortals to her, and directed the Kings to continue attacking Nature's Protectors and to avoid the conflict with this strange new force.

The Martyr rose up, through the air, standing upon a pillar of coiling soot before the Immortals, and simply stared forward, ash curling like snakes around her arms and legs. The Immortals knew they could not simply charge, lest that heat envelope them again, and so, they instead began to roar out the War Song, and summon up a cyclone for their protection, as they fired out sonic spears at the Ashen Martyr. She only waved a hand, however, and they were deflected, careening into the sky. The woman glared down at the gathered attacked, and swooped forward, forcing the Immortals to scatter lest they be engulfed in heat. As they ran separate directions, however, the Martyr stopped, and summoned up several creatures of soot, to go chasing after the Shou Tahs. As such, the Immortals were unable to mount a counter offensive, being too focused upon fighting these soot things to sing a proper War Song to send projectiles towards the creature. Soon, she had swooped upon several unsuspecting Immortals and roasted them alive, reducing the twelve to seven.

The Immortals had no way to break through this defense, but they had to, for all their might lay in their melee ability. It was Fera, however, who cam up with the answer to this conundrum.

The Immortal College taught the arts that Nathaniel had long ago mastered, such as Crutiatic Thaumaturgy and Dance of the Rising Spring. None of these, however, were any help in the current situation, save for one.

The Shou Tahs had no major understanding of Golden Magic, but Fera did know enough of it to find a golden pendant of cold in a house she happened to be fighting through. Taking it, she took it to the three remaining Indigo singers of the Sapphire Song, handed it to them, and bellowed, "Sing!"

As they began to sing, the Ashen Martyr was seen rising up above the treetops, holding a struggling Shou Tahs by the throat in each hand, as they quickly turned to ash and fell apart. Then, the woman turned and looked to the collection of four Shou Tahs, with Fera at their front, and, with a new glare, she swooped down once again.

The ice song was almost not enough to hold back the heat of the Martyr, but instead of heat enough to instantly disintegrate anything, it was the heat of an oven. The woman seemed surprised when the Shou Tahs didn't fall down in agony, and in the instant of realization, Fera struck out.

A fistfight with a demigod is nothing to scoff at, and Fera took many broken bones in the fight, but, miraculously, though use of Pugilism, Combat Maneuverability, Dance of The Rising Spring, and Momentum Principal, she was able to give as good as she got, while the singers bounded around to keep her in the radius of the cold spell.

After a full hour of Fera and the Martyr pummeling each other, the demigod at last faltered long enough for the Shou Tahs to get a grip around her neck, and, with a single motion, snap it. As the woman fell to the ground, she almost seemed sad. Thinking of something, of some memory... of perhaps a regret? It didn't matter to Fera, she nodded to the demigod, who had been a good foe, and turned back to her people.

The fight was finished, and Ferai Feraom found that Nature's Protectors had fallen, and the remaining Shou Tahs were exhausted, with Kings at perhaps half strength of eight, and only four Immortals remaining. One of the Kings decided to speak, "This was a good fight."

And it had been.

Meanwhile, across a wide span of forest, lay the city of Farea, within the bounds of an ancient territory, settled long ago, shortly after the fall of Vroch. This territory, however, unlike the hunting ground around Elfmoot, was guarded, and by a new kind of opponent. A kind that Ferai Feraom had not warned about. Now, the Blue Kings, disgraced for having been the only force to entirely fall during the attack of Destroyer's Peak, was being sent to clear a path to the city of Farea, a task which had been reserved for Princes at the city of Elfmoot. Blue Princes.

Yet, as they went about, ripping buildings apart and knocking towers to the ground, they found themselves with more resistance than they had been expecting. A few arrows landed in the back of one Blue King, who quickly turned around, and spotted two Demons flying there, bows at the ready and preparing to fire again. The King did not like this, and launched a wave of War Song into their path, just for them to barrel roll out of the way with ease.

The Shou Tahs had it's own maneuverability, however, and danced out of the way of the new, oncoming arrows, as another King came up and asked, "What's going on here, Unu?! Why haven't you taken those two out of the sky yet?!" His answer came as two arrows to the chest, to which he simply looked down at for a moment, before vocalizing his disapproval, "OW!"

So, the new Shou Tahs King joined Unu, and as more projectiles were launched and dodged with no real effect, one might have thought the entire scene to be comical, if it hadn't been arrows, sonic waves, and boulders that were being thrown back and forth.

Eventually, after about an hour, the remainder of the Blue Kings came to see what the hold up was, and, with their combined force, they were able to drive the Demons away. Over the next few days, the Shou Tahs treated their wounds, and continued on their work. However, before too long, more arrows came raining down, hundreds this time, and two Blue Kings fell before they even recognized where the arrows had come from.

After this, the Blue Kings kept together, all thirteen in a single group, with at least five watching at all times to make sure the Demons did not get the drop on them.

When the arrows flew once again, the Shou Tahs were prepared, and a wall of sound knocked the arrows away, while six Shou Tahs leapt into the trees the arrows had come from. The ensuing battle was quick and bloody, and two more Shou Tahs fell before the remaining Demons fled. This pattern repeated itself many more times. It came to the Shou Tahs attention that they had no idea how many of these Demons were in these woods, but they kept on just the same, marching, taking out a settlement or a farm, and fighting Demons once more.

Eventually, it came that the groups that attacked them were growing smaller, but so were the number of Blue Kings. In the final confrontation between the two, there were three Blue Kings, and perhaps a hundred Demons. This time, the Demons fought with reckless abandon, swooping as they fired their weapons, to add momentum to their blows, which granted the Shou Tahs extra time to grab them and snap them in half. What the Shou Tahs didn't know was that this was a last ditch effort to finish off the Blue Kings, and that many of the Demon leaders had accidentally fallen in the previous conflicts, leaving the Demons desperate and panicked. The Shou Tahs, on the other hand, were stressed and angry, and were likewise pushing the offensive.

In the end, twelve Demons left the fight, leaving behind three arrow-riddled Blue Kings behind. Two were dead, but one was still alive, and he was, in fact, the first to have encountered the Demons. One by the name of Unu, or Unukolo Unufisham.

After he had recovered from his wounds, he went on, and finished the job that the Blue Kings had entrusted to him. At the end of it, he returned to where the Red Kings were, and they mocked the Blue Kings further, speaking that it was too much for them to even kill a few farmers and settlers. Unu could do nothing but endure the humiliation.


---

The Faeries could do nothing before the onslaught of the Red Kings, when they came to fight. They didn't even need to summon up the power of their relics to crush the tiny creatures. The Eternal Dance was not fast enough to match the speed of the Shou Tahs and their Combat Maneuverability. Abjuration shields simply shattered before the roaring War Song. Their Aerial Combat was second hand, and could not stop the progress of the Red Kings in their march. In fact, the conflict was almost finished before even a single Shou Tahs fell, and that was not at the hands of a Faerie, but at the hands of a relic.

The Faeries had panicked, and, to try and protect their homes, unearthed the secret they had so long ago sworn to hide: the Sword of Life. Twelve Faeries had to hold it's handle and act in tandem in order to swing it, but when they did, two Shou Tahs fell. The Red Kings didn't believe what they were seeing: The blade of the Immortal Hero himself, removed from his hand and being wielded against the Shou Tahs. The rage that followed, dwarfed their previous attack, and while five more Red Kings fell in their insane rush, they took the Sword of Life back, and Farea fell.

This fight had not been satisfactory to the Shou Tahs, and they felt this place was not worth their time, and so, without further ado, they left, taking the Sword of Life with them, and leaving the city of Farea a ruin.

The Shou Tahs armies met back up in Elfmoot, and Ferai Feraom looked at their reduced numbers. Of the seventy five who had been in major conflicts, only twenty five remained. One Blue King, eight Indigo Kings, eight Red Kings, four Black Kings back in Gerki, and four of the Indigo Immortals. This was still a victory, however, and Fera made sure that these few enjoyed it. They marveled at the Sword of Life, they enjoyed the food of the Elfmoot, they examined the Elven dancers, one of which was an Arrow Dancer, which allowed them to steal the art, after some days, and even read some of the Fleshwork's Research Notes.

However, something happened, and Unu and the Sword of Life vanished before the festivities ended. This only heightened the shame of the Blue Tribe, and the Indigo Immortals were reluctant to send word to Eramine that they would need to raise a new Army of Princes, with the current Blue Princes raised up to King status.

At the end of the festivities, each relic belonging to the Shou Tahs was entrusted to the four Prince armies, who were left with the garrisoning of Elfmoot. Each King army was sent back to their respective cities, and the Immortals returned to the Immortal College.

In a month's time, the Banana Land Kyūdōka actually tried to attack the Immortals, to punish them for attacking their allies: the Demons. However, even a thousand Kyūdōka against the seven Immortals (as they had recruited three from the Indigo Kings) was a laughable conflict, and the Kyūdōka fell, much to the dismay of those who lived in the plantation lands.

The Kroop Troop was speaking before a clutch of Kraith outside of Sela. The former Kraith entertainers were standing upon a wooden platform fastened to the back of their mount, the colossal Arochno that the memory of Vroch had raised up. Before them, around eighty Kraith stood, waist-deep in the primordial bog. It was not the greatest turn out they had ever had. Outside of Eupnea there had been a rally of two thousand Kraith. However, even a group as small as this deserved to hear the words of the Kroop Troop.

They spoke words they had spoken across the world, a thousand times before, and once they were finished, they introduced the memory of Vroch and allowed her to step forward and speak to the clutch before her.

However, even as the body which housed a mind which remembered being Vroch stepped forward, the Blood Weave seemed to lift up, and the body beneath seemed to wake up, the runt appearing terrified for a moment, before two members of the Kroop Troop screeched and, using Sangromancy, forced the Blood Weave back down upon the runt's head, before she could run.

Meanwhile, suspecting someone in the audience, the leader of the Troop turned around, brandished it's claws, and screeched in a menacing tone. Most of the audience recoiled in fear, but one, the most dominant among them, screeched in defiance, and then the two Kraith were upon each other.

The audience member was no match for the leader of the Kroop Troop, and was a corpse after only a moment. However, in the instant that the leader was lifting up the body to dump the blood all over his body, the blood seemed to lift free, and float for a moment, before pouring upward, towards the face of the runt who wore the Blood Weave.

It engulfed her head for a moment before Sangromancers could push it away. However, when they did, they discovered the runt was unharmed, but the Blood Weave was gone, and it had not been lost in the flood of blood from the body.


---

Far away, Sera held out her hand just below the portal, and guided the Blood Weave through it with Sangromancy, giggling at how easy Portal Magic made theft. She looked back up towards the Kraith gathering in the distance, shook her head, and turned away, straightening her blood red Kerami and adjusting her shapeshift so that the Blood Weave would not be discernible from her Saku Rasi disguise.


---

The first time she put on the Blood Weave, she was confused, as she had received a memory where she had no sight, where her body was fire and she had eight limbs instead of four. It took her a moment to realize that this must mean she was a descendant of a Singer after all. She almost hadn't believed it. Yet, the evidence was there. In fact, this was a memory of her father, who had been so skilled at Telepathy. The second time she wore it, she received a memory of her great-great grandfather, who had apparently been a very enthusiastic and fairly skilled duelist.

She had never known her parents, and very often found herself using the Blood Weave to relive their lives. She learned much about Telepathy, of the ways of the Singers, of the Sanctuary Stones and their overpowering aura, in those times, and of the myriad parents on her mother's side. Many of her ancestor seemed to be fond of swordplay, actually. After a year she figured out that this was due to the fact that her mother's mother was the descendant of a long line of duelist families, and her mother's father was simply a fairly wealthy farmer who had been lucky to have married into the daughter of such a prestigious family. Through this, she learned her heritage in Swordplay.

However, as she was enjoying the marvel of the Blood Weave, she neglected the Lyre of Prophecy, and for the first time in many years, began taking paths that would lead to her trail being easily picked up. Those who hunted her, the Kroop Troop included, would soon find her trail hot in Sela.

Sera went from Sela to Hahebuto, and from there to Southport, where she burgled some jewels and fenced them so that she would have enough money for the next few months. After that, she just struck out, wandering aimlessly, and playing the Lyre as she went.

She found herself in Farea, amidst the destruction that the Shou Tahs had caused. She was shapeshifted and disguised as an Elf, so no one payed much attention to her when she started trying to help the few Faeries she knew how to help. Elves were known for their Healing Arts, after all. As she went, she talked to different Faeries, and tried to find out what had happened. She quickly found out that it had been the Shou Tahs in a brutal, nonsensical attack. Many seemed surprised that she, an Elf, was here, when Elfmoot had also fallen. Others confirmed that she was lucky, for the Shou Tahs still occupied Elfmoot.

One Faerie seemed lost, babbling about how the Shou Tahs had taken the "Secret". When she asked others, they mentioned that the Faerie was a member of elite force known as the "Secrets", and that the secret they had guarded for ages, had turned out to be the Sword of Life itself, and, after they had attempted to use it against the Shou Tahs, the Shou Tahs had simply taken it.

Sera's eyes lit up at this news, and immediately knew that she was going to steal it. Partly for greed, and partly because she knew that the Shou Tahs could not be allowed to keep such a weapon.

After a few Faeries taught her some Abjuration in exchange for her help, she went from Farea to Elfmoot, staying shapeshifted into an Alimta along the way, so others would not wonder when she didn't stop along the road, nor would they try and speak to her.

Closer to Elfmoot, she could drop the pretense of shapeshifts, for there were only eighty five Shou Tahs here, and the Elves were all hiding in their homes which hadn't been burnt to the ground. As she wandered about, in her natural form, cherry-red skin and eyes of fiery yellow and shadowy black, she watched the pavilions where the Shou Tahs were enjoying their victory feasts. As she watched, however, she saw a Blue Shou Tahs step outside, and in it's hand was the Sword of Life itself.

It looked like this particular Sea Blob had stepped outside to admire the weapon in privacy, and Sera immediately felt that this was going to be her best and likely only chance to retrieve the item. That was her mistake. She should have used the Lyre to seek the best possible path. She should have been cautious. She should have shapeshifted into a Shou Tahs. Instead, she simply went for it, opening a portal, sending out a telepathic wave of confusion, making the Shou Tahs drop the weapon into the portal, while she caught it and used another portal to stash it in her backpack.

Yet, she was not far away, within the range of Unu's tremorsense, and he instantly felt the sword-shaped change in the world before him. He could not bear the shame of having lost the Sword of Life before ever using it, not on top of everything else, and so, with a snort, he charged. He didn't speak a word, for he was strangely thoughtful for a Shou Tahs, and didn't want to alert the others to the fact that he had lost the Sword of Life in the first place.

Suddenly aware that a Shou Tahs was charging her, Sera panicked, and opened a portal, leaping through as fast as she could. However, a Shou Tahs is not something to be outrun when it's at full strength, even with portals, and as Sera blinked across the forest, from ridge to ridge to ridge and then up the sides of a mountain, and out into a valley, Unu leapt from ridge to ridge behind her, charging up the mountainside and then down into the valley. They covered many kilometers over the next hour, as Sera, panicking, attempted to discern a way to get more ground on the raging Shou Tahs behind her, and, in sudden clarity, perceived the difference between Portal Magic and the Twist of old. It was almost as though one were simply using their interior muscles for the runes of Portal Magic, and opening the portal inside herself. It could not be achieved by the Singers for they did not possess muscles to replace the runes.

With the sudden increase in speed this realization brought her, she found herself outpacing Unu. However, Unukolo Unufisham was not finished, and would run after her for years to come, until he caught her and recovered the Sword of Life...

The Fell Magicians had completed two marvels in their drive to salvage the ruin that was Imptopia. These marvels were above and beyond anything they had crafted in Myrha, for in the Werblume city, they had not needed a strong presence. Here, however, they did, and so, they had been focusing their efforts to create these wonders.

The first was a hall, at the back of one of their deepest catacombs, where the breed of undead, the Screaming Head, as it was called, had been perfected. Rows and rows of heads mounted on plaques were present here, like a grim library, where all the books murmured or shrieked their secrets to the world. Heads of every known species were present here. Idrist, Idrian, Saku Rasi, Trell, Werblume, Nereid, Angel, even a piece of Singer which had been attached to the plaque and preserved while it was still alive, and then severed. A Shou Tahs had needed to have half of it's vocal chords ripped out before it was more a source of information than a weapon. All Kraith were allowed into this hall, to ask whatever secrets they wished, but, for each visit, one would need to provide a new head for the collection, with total time granted in the library gauged from the quality of the head provided. For example, the head of leader of a nation would likely earn free visits for life.

The other appeared to be a simple box made of greasy black wood. However, the closer it came to an individual, the more and more apprehensive that individual became. They became certain that the box was alive, that it was asking them to open it. Though, this was simply an illusion of Phobimancy. Should the box be opened while an individual is looking at it, however, they would be sucked into it's illusion. The box was empty, you see, but when opened, the viewer perceived a magic which pulled them into the box, into a world populated by only what they feared. If a Kraith were to touch the box while another mind was trapped inside, they could witness the deepest secrets of that mind, from fears to desires, and twist it all towards dread and hatred. While a mind was trapped inside the box, however, the only way to break it free would be to show the box to his physical form, while open, and then close it. What happened while he was inside the box would likely remain, however.

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Blood Weave, and learns Swordplay as well as Telepathy.

5 points to Event: Sera steals the Sword of Life, and upgrades Portal Magic to Twist, not to mention learning Abjuration.

3 points to Command the Kraith to Create the "Hall of Head" Wonder.

3 points to Command the Kraith to Create the "Fearful Chest" Wonder.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Eramine to raise another new Army of Blue Kings.

Combat Rolls:

Black King's Army: 2d6+15=27 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323443/)
Outriders: 2d6+10=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323446/)+2=19

Red Kings: 2d6+15=24 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323448/)
Nature Protectors: 2d6+11=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323450/)+1=18

Indigo Immortals: 2d6+15=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323561/)
Ashen Martyr: 4d6=17 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323560/)

Red Kings: 2d6+15=25 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323452/)
Secrets: 2d6+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323562/)+1=12 (or 13)

Blue Kings: 2d6+15=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323564/)
2nd Sanctuary Militia: 2d6+15=19 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323565/)+1=20

Banana Land Kyūdōka: 2d6+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323606/)
Indigo Immortals: 2d6+13=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323604/)

Military Positions:

Indigo Immortals: Defending the Third Wing of the Immortal College. -4
Red Kings: Defending Rou. -3
Blue Kings: Defending Eramine.
Indigo Kings: Defending Kaz. -3
Black King's Primary Army: Defending Gerki. -3
Red Princes: Occupying Elfmoot.
Blue Princes: Occupying Elfmoot. -2
Indigo Princes: Occupying Elfmoot.
Black King's Secondary Army: Occupying Elfmoot.

Current Power Points: 7
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320756/)

[Neelien]

rolled 15 (http://orokos.com/roll/153610) (wohoo) bringing me up to 65

At last the prepartions, that had been going on for quite some time were done. They had been interrupted by the Norton-bringer, but now the expansion of the Stringwork was possible. It woudn't be a massive expansion just yet, but the Third Core would be the start of it. Unlike the two other cores, the Third would not serve the purpose of simply storing information, but would provide the Stringwork with the energy it needed for the rest of its plan. It would be located right on top of the South Pole Volcanoe. Its density would be greatest at the top, where it would collect great amounts of energy by covering the crater with a thick webbing of Heat Absorber Strings.

When it was complete, the third Core was smaller than the two others, but was much more dense and contained just as many Strings. It was located on top of the volcanoe, and because it was so large the concentration of Strings at its base was nothing outside the norms. This colonization happened slowly enough for no-one to notice that all the Strings in the first land were actually moving towars the volcanoe, as it took two entire years for the first string to reach its destination.

The third Packet Protector were sent to protect the Third core. A new Fourth Packet Protector would replace them for defending the First Core.


It was late at night that Outgoer 6537 attacked Sera. It had intended to take some of her memories away from her, but things did not exactly go its way. The Art of twist was the addition to Sera's arsenal that the made the difference.

Sera noticed the Outgoer before it was too late, and managed to avoid the effects of its first attack - contact with Heat Absorber Strings. These were meant to freeze her in place, and as she barely dodged the attack, she saw that the place she had been before was covered in ice. At that point, she saw her agressor - a humanoid figure wearing the clothes typical for magic users. The agressor was not alone. She noticed 20 more figures lurking the shadows, clearly ready to strike. At first, she tried to take on her enemies with her recently aquired skill of swordsmanship but it proved insufficient, as her attacks simply bounced of what she thought was magic armour. Indeed, to prevent damage, the outgoer had decides to wear armour. It was composed of steel plates embedded into its surface, making it seem as though it was wearing no armour at all.

When the other figures began attacking her, each contact frozing her skin and even rendering her magic powers nearly useless for a fraction of a second, she realizd that there was no way she could win against so many skilled opponents, and fled. 6537 had been prepared for that and had placed other "individuals" to intercept her, but she managed to evade them with her newfound art of twisting, that let her go much faster than the Outgoer had predicted.

When she felt she was far enough, her body frozen at different places and her magic powers drained to near exhaustion, Sera realized that humans would never be so well coordinated. She knew only one race that could shapeshift well enough to even make her not relialize the nature of the enemy at a glance - the Stringwork. So it had sent someone to capture her in the end. She had been lucky this time that it hadn't predicted everything.

6537, on the other hand did not expect its trap to fail. After it did, it understood that Sera had probably recognized it as Stringwork, so with the element of surprise lost, against an opponent that could see the future, it was clearly at a disadvantage. This meant changing tactics. 6537 would stop actively hunting her. Instead it would monitor her actions, removing traces of anything that the Stringwork did not want to be widely known after her passage, while waiting for an opportunity to access her brain and remove the information.


3 points : command Race : Stringwork Create the Third Core
0 points : 3rd Packet Protectors - Defend the Third Core
2 points : Command City First Core to raise army : Fouth Packet Protector
60 points remaining,
+3 next round

[ImperialSunligh]

In this time, the gods were comparatively silent, and few major developments occured. Ewald continued to search for Sera, to little success, and the growing alliance of angels, humans and monkeys continued to grow closer and more powerful for it.

Roll: 2d6+3=7 (http://orokos.com/roll/153668)
Reroll: 2d6+3=14 (http://orokos.com/roll/153669)


Left: 14

[5a Violista]

The Saorsan Army Innocence continues their search for the Lyre. Some were searching all across the world, while others stayed at home and asked the future using the tarots.

Of course, using the Tarots to predict the future is nowhere near the same as using the Lyre, but they can find out small, random details here and there: They find out the thief still has it. They find out who they need to contact to recover the Lyre and capture this thief. Using the tarots, the army discovered that they they monkeys would be able to help them out: they may have some knowledge of the location of the Lyre.

While the army Freedom continues to defend Saorsa and its inhabitants from any outside army, Innocence travels far to the south and remains in the borders of the Monkey Empire, the city of Herz, while a select few of them offer an alliance with the Monkeys, giving the reasons that they'll be able to better regain what they both lost.

(0) Command Saorsan Army "Innocence" to look for Lyre. Sera still has it, but Herz may know what happened to it.
(-) "Saorsa's Freedom" still defends Saorsa and its population.
(3) Command Race (Saorsa, specifically) => Alliance with Monkeys.




Fenrir the Demonheart decided where they should bring their assault to: the human city of Eupnea. There, she discovered, there's the army called the Spyders. There's particular relevance for the demon and the elf army to attack them, as they honored the Spider that savaged the forest so long ago.

She wouldn't fight in the battle with The Pack and The Hunt, but rather she was called by Aniqua to travel across the sea to Sela, the Saku Rasi city. There, she gathered together the Leu Garouls by night, being able to pick out their scent distinct from normal Saku Rasi. Unlike her own population, these ones were snakes. She trained them to hunt the Kraith and other abominations against Life; she called their army The Devourers.

Meanwhile, Back in Eupnea

The Hunt arrived first, in a trickle. They camped out in the wilderness surrounding Eupnea. All night, until the entire army arrived. Each night while they waited, howling all night long. These howls simultaneously directed their plans and were attempts to intimidate the Kraith. Their howls pierced the very core of anyone listening.

Days before the full moon, The Hunt sends in their first wave of elf werewolves. They sniff out small groups of Kraith: small families, ones wandering alone at night. The attacks hadn't yet entered the city.

The next day, all the humans found were bloody, disfigured corpses of Kraith.

The other Kraith felt this threat had to be dealt with, so they gathered together in the more ruined part of the city, with the Spyders.

The Kraith felt this had to stop, and quickly. It was slowly progressing closer and closer to the city.

They send out a large band of Kraith and spiders, waiting for the killers to approach again. At the first sight of these monstrous wolves, the Kraith spies and spiders sent messages back to the band: Attack here, here, and here. Surround them there.

The Kraith stalked up around the werewolves, and sent their spiders forth to lay powerful webs across the planned battlefield.

The elf werewolves didn't notice the webs or the spiders until some began to be caught in the webs. They struggled to get out, but had no success. They howled to warn the other assailing werewolves of the webs.

That was the signal for the Kraith and their spiders to descend on the werewolves: The werewolves, unprepared, are completely smashed, as they get caught in the webs and are unable to escape. The Kraith and their pets had a large feast on werewolf blood for that victory. Then, they burned the drained corpses and brought back those still with blood.

Right before death, one of the werewolves, still caught in the web, gave a single lone howl: "We're dead."


The Kraith, pleased with themselves, returned to their hideout in the ruins.

The second band of werewolves saw this as their chance: they followed the Kraiths' scent
back to their hideout. They all howled revenge in unison and stormed into the base.

This time, though, this small band of werewolves were against the entire Spyder army: most of them, fresh and ready for battle. The Kraith spread fear throughout the werewolf army, causing them to lose concentration and run out of their pack structure. It was pretty much a massacre. Many of the corpses were left there, for later, as there was no sense in wasting that much blood: they could clean up later. They felt pretty confident.

The next night came.
That night, the full moon rose.

The rest of the two werewolf packs saw this as the signal for the end.

They circled the city and all howled in unison.

At that moment, the corpses of the dead werewolves began to stir. They rose as beasts: there was no intelligence in their eyes. Only hunger. Hunger, and here they were, in the midst of the army that killed them: Hungry monsters versus a buffet.

The Kraith tried to attack retaliate, but they were caught off guard. These beasts didn't fear. These beasts didn't run. They all had a single-minded purpose, as if controlled by the same thought of hunger.

Nothing the Spyders tried would work. Sure, they took them down every so often, but the beasts wouldn't stay dead. Moments later, they would rise again and resume their devouring.

These Kraith had caused so much fear - fear in the humans, and fear everywhere - and now they were fleeing in fright. The entire city was surrounded by howling, and this howling pierced them with abject horror. The monstrous wolves: they just wouldn't stop. Not under spider poison, not when entangled in a web, not with fire, not with anything.

Any Kraith who tried to flee the city were mercilessly cut down by the packs surrounding the city.


The entire battle was finished by morning. The residents of Eupnea awoke to their city's streets running with blood and filled with the corpses of Kraith, spiders, and a few elves here or there.

The Pack and The Hunt both stayed in the wilderness surrounding the city, taking care of any stray Kraith who they forgot.


(1) Command Avatar => Command City (Saku Rasi City) => Raise Werewolf Army called "The Devourers"
Fenrir the Demonheart
(0) Command both The Pack (Grove Demon werewolf) and The Hunt (Grove Elf werewolf) to attack Spyders (Kraith) in Eupnea [read post 205] (The Hunt attacks first)
(0) Command The Pack to remain in Eupnea and eliminate the Kraith population in that city.

Roll: The Kraith were really unlucky and got 2d6=2 + 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325543/)
The Elves, on the other hand, got 2d6=10 + 14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325552/).




The Maimec of Iztec decided their empire needed to grow. The would have to spread across the world and conquer.

It was from this thought that they decided to attack their brothers. They didn't attack Juqax - that city was too strong; it held the Immortal College there. Rather, the army Cuetzpali Ome marched on Aztla, the northern city, to conquer them.

There were no defenses.

They decided to expand their horizons. For some time, Iztec had been a temporary port for the pirates of Serpent's Den, and the citizens of Iztec would gain some of the profits. They decided to cement this alliance by creating a new city, almost next to Iztec, but due west. The pirates, at the risk of their own life, invited the Nereids from Skull Cove to join them. Some of them did.

They called this city Mictlan, after its founder.

From there, Iztec raised an army called "Chok Balam" - meaning, "The Scatterers" - and lent it to Mictlan. There, this army kept a rough rule of democratic law and planned together with the leaders of each race.

«Iztec's army is called Cuetzpali Ome.
Juqax is the one with the Immortal College.
Aztla is the one that gets conquered.
Mictlan is the new city
Serpent's Den is the Pirate Saku Rasi place
Skull Cove is the Bloodthirsty Nereid faction
Chok Balam is the new army

The warmongering Maimec city takes over the other Maimec city (the one that doesn't have the Immortal College in it). (Juqax and Iztec?)

They form an alliance with pirate Saku Rasi and the bloodthirsty Nereids, and a few Sidhe, and build a city called Mictlan.

Juqax(?) raises another army, who also uses a lot of firebreathing. Alliance is called "Sea Terror" or something like that.»

(1) Command Avatar => Command Warlike Maimec city => New coastal City Called Mictlan.
(0) Command Maimec army to take over other Maimec city
(2) Command City (Maimec) => Raise another army called "Chok Balam"
(5) Event: Maimec New City becomes a Pirate Saku Rasi and Warlike Maimec City and Bloodthirsty Nereids (and a few Sidhe) city.
(0) Command Chok Balam to go to Mictlan.




The new alliance thought of a plan. Compared to the rest of the world, they were still weak. But, if they could get everyone else to destroy themselves in fighting...it would be perfect. The Nereids from Skull Cave volunteered to be the first wave. They would go on land and convince the alliances to splinter and fall apart.

Every single one knew this was a suicide mission: As of yet, no Nereid had ever willingly gone far inland. Nobody knew what would happen, but they were certain it would be death. Beyond that, they would be going against some of the mightiest armies on the world.

The army "Death at Sea" joined the pirate Saku Rasi and went along with their boat. There, they traversed the world and learned more about the human culture. They practiced their shapeshifting and acting as the humans until their disguise was flawless. They picked up some human swords and armor. Of course, they didn't really know how to use them, but that was no matter.

Upon arriving near the Demons' land, this sacrificial army went up with the pirates onto land. They sunk their ship - knowing they would never take it back - and all marched up the demons' roads. The pirates carried jars of water around for the Nereids to use as both life and weapon.

Every time they met a lone person - elf, faery, demon - on the road, they would quickly strike at him or her with their enchanting voice and their cutting water. Then, they would pockmark the corpses with their swords, as if the swords were the killing blow. Soon, though, they ran out of water, so they began marching as an army proper - as if they were an army straight from Eupnea, on direct orders from their gods.

With no water left, there was no chance for them.

Fortunately, their mission was a success: a few demons flew back to Sactuary to warn them that a human army - joined with their allies, the Saku Rasi, were breaking the treaty and brutally leaving a wake of destruction in the land.

The response was quick: the ragtag shapeshifted army was quickly vanquished.

However, to the dying moment, they appeared exactly as a human army. Convincing.


«The Nereid Army ("Death at Seas"(?) get a few of the Pirate Saku Rasi to come along with them. They travel across the sea, and finally reach the place where they find the Demons patrolling the roads.

They shapeshift themselves as Humans and Saku Rasi, knowing they'll die in the end. However, it's a sacrifice they have to make for the sake of the alliance. So, the Nereids attack the demons on the road.

They successfully kill a few due to their powers, but they are trying to pretend to be humans. They make it convincing that they represent the general populace of Eupnea, and that the Saku Rasi and Humans are siding together to wipe out the Demons from the face of the earth, and they were only the first wave of many.

The Political Maneuver tries to convince the city of Sanctuary that Eupnea broke the alliance.»


(0) Bloodthirsty Nereid army attacks Demon Road army.
(2) Command City (Demon City) => Political Maneuver Convince Demon Road army that they're a human army, such that <Demon city> is convinced that the <Human City> broke the alliance and was aided by many Saku Rasi.
Battle:
Road Demons: 2d6+16=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325577/)
Nereids disguised as Humans and Saku Rasi: 2d6+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325579/)




Most of the elves disliked having the Shou Tahs occupying their territory. There was just so much senseless destruction.

So long as they remained here, they thought, they would continue destroying things. But the elves weren't strong enough to drive the Shou Tahs out of their cities. They hardly had much infrastructure left to even call a city.

So, using their magic, they helped the trees regrow. Unfortunately, an occasional Shou Tah would shout and knock down the young trees anew - so, a young elf had an idea. She thought showing the Shou Tahs the beauty in this city - things they would like. She told her plan to other elves, and gathered them to go with her. They tried to persuade the Shou Tahs that destroying - even accidentally - more of the city and the place would be useless and futile, but if they treated the nature with respect, they could find so many things that they liked: strong trees, agile warriors, the strength of the sun shining down on them, the power of the wind blowing through the forest, and so on.

Unfortunately, she and her companions were unable to convince many of them - but at least one army, the Blue Princes, were at least entertained by her idea, and admired the strength and beauty of nature.


«Some elves think the best way to keep the Shou Tahs from destroying the remainder of the city is by placating them. They have success with one army, the Blue Princes, and keep them from destroying the rest of the city for now.»

(1) Command Avatar =>
- Do something with the Elves (Command City => Political Maneuver to detain a single Shou Tah army for 1 turn: Blue Princes)




Once again, Aniqua looked across the world. She felt the beings she had created were falling behind all the others across the world. She looked at her creations, and felt this was evidenced by the great destruction in the Bloom by the Shou Tahs.

They would need more help.

So, she blessed two of the races she had created: First, the Faeries. She blessed them with the ability to use their magic silently. Any magic they learned, they could also learn to use it without speaking aloud or making other noises. Through this, she made it much easier for her Faeries to hide from the Shou Tahs and other creatures who searched out for them.

Then, she blessed the Maimec with knowledge. They learned how to put incredible traps in their amazing architecture. These traps rarely were lethal, but they often incapacitated intruders. Resultingly, they soon learned how to put their traps anywhere - even in the jungle. All they had to do was imagine the jungle was as a great pyramid or other building, and it became easy for them.


«Advance these two civilizations through a blessing by Aniqua
Maimec: Traps, they've learned how to put dangerous traps in their architecture, and consequently, traps in general
Faeries: Silent Magic, to better hide from the Shou Tahs»

(6) Advance Civilization: Maimec, Trapmaking
(6) Advance Civilization: Faeries, Silent Magic




This round: 32 points

(0) Command Saorsan Army "Innocence" to look for Lyre. Sera still has it, but Herz may know what happened to it.
(-) "Saorsa's Freedom" still defends Saorsa and its population.
(3) Command Race (Saorsa, specifically) => Alliance with Monkeys.

(1) Command Avatar => Command City (Saku Rasi City) => Raise Werewolf Army called "The Devourers"
(0) Command The Pack (Grove Demon werewolf) and The Hunt (Grove Elf werewolf) to attack Spyders (Kraith) in Eupnea [read post 205] (The Hunt attacks first.)
(0) Command The Pack to remain in Eupnea and eliminate the Kraith population in that city.
Result: The Kraith were really unlucky and got 2d6=2 + 9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325543/)
The Elves, on the other hand, got 2d6=10 + 14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4325552/).

(1) Command Avatar => Command Warlike Maimec city => New coastal City "Mictlan"
(0) Command Maimec army Cuetzpali Ome to take over other Maimec city Aztla
(2) Command City (Iztec) => Raise another army called "Chok Balam"
(5) Event: Maimec New City becomes a Pirate Saku Rasi and Warlike Maimec and Bloodthirsty Nereids (and a few Sidhe) City.
:Alliance is called "Sea Terror"
(0) Command army: Chok Balam defends Mictlan

(0) Bloodthirsty Nereid army attacks Demon Road army.
(2) Command City (Demon City) => Political Maneuver Convince Demon Road army that they're a human army, such that Sanctuary may be convinced that the Eupnea broke the alliance and was aided by Saku Rasi.

(1) Command Avatar =>
- Do something with the Elves (Command City => Political Maneuver to detain a single Shou Tah army?): Detain the Blue Princes for 1 round.

(6) Advance Civilization: Maimec: Trapmaking
(6) Advance Civilization: Faeries: Silent Magic
Remainder: 5



If still have time, make 4 lists: Races and their advancements and alliances (and if I have a Cult in them), Wonders and Structures under the control of my races, armies under my control, and cities/races that I can control (with Red for "No control", Green for "Control natural through creation" and Yellow for "Control 'cause of presence of a cult"). In races where I can only control one city, list out what city I can control.

[Omegonthesane]

There were storm clouds over the ruined Elfmoot, as the Shou Tahs celebrated their conquest; as had happened a long time ago, red lightning struck, suddenly and without proper warning. This time, it left no bewildered Singers behind, but the Dream Twister and the Trumpets of Discord were missing once the two flashes were done.

Similarly, two flashes of red lightning killed a Maimec and a Nereid in Mictlan, and each one had an ancient Singer weapon of death sat atop their corpse.

The Nereids' deception did not instantly lead to war, as there were factors they had not accounted for. It did, however, immediately lead to provocations, as two letters were sent, one to Figurae, and one to the Sakura Ryokan.

To the King of Figurae

Human soldiers have been sighted attacking demonic settlements in the area of the Highways. This constitutes a breach of our past treaty.

As your people have previously shown to be slightly more intelligent than a rat in heat - or at least slightly more honourable - we will give you the benefit of the doubt that this is the work of a rogue faction, and a disturbingly fanatical one at that, for not one of them retreated. I look forward to seeing their flayed, still living forms hanging by the ankles from the walls of Figurae, assuming you do not wish to share the fate of the Shou Tahs currently stationed in Elfmoot.

Yours sincerely
Hexas Aurelia
Lead General of Fort Liberty

Four variations of a second letter were sent to the four great Ryokans of Sakura, Sela, Wetami, and Hahebuto. The Serpent's Den was practically a separate nation, and thus not a party to the ancient deal.

To the chief families of the Sakura Ryokan

Saku Rasi fanatics have been sighted attacking demonic settlements surrounding our Highways, and giving their lives in the name of this betrayal. Obviously, this violates the terms of our trade pact. As your people are traders, unused to the ways of war and uneager to partake of it, I assume this is the work of a renegade faction - perhaps the Serpent's Denizens have grown tired of conforming, or the Road Builders are that determined to stifle developments for the common good. One way or the other, it is your problem, not ours. Large scale trade will resume when you confirm the deaths of the perpetrators.

Yours sincerely
Hexas Aurelia
Lead General of Fort Liberty

A third ultimatum was sent in the same age - not to a landbound race, but to a carrier of the Andromeda colony, and not on a standard ship, but in the tendril of a Singer using a portal. This letter was nailed into the roof of the carrier, before the Singer delivering it portalled back to the ground.

Careful with your peashooters, or we might have to use our actual weapons. We wish to negotiate an area where you might test your playthings in safety, and restitution for those of our kind you have already killed. Send a diplomat to land on the beaches east of Astaroth, at the following coordinates, where our negotiators are already waiting. Failure to do so within fourteen days of the delivery of this letter will be considered a declaration of war.

Signed
The Rainbow Lord

The attacks on Elfmoot and Farea did not go unacknowledged - to ignore the alliance with Destroyer's Peak and the hated Singers was dishonourable, but to ignore the alliance with the beloved Faeries was not even an option. There had been ample opportunity to observe Shou Tahs battle tactics in the fall of Destroyer's Peak, the fall which Fort Liberty had originally risen to perpetrate, and more data had been acquired from the remaining Enforcers and the odd stragglers from Elfmoot itself, informing the plan of those who would attack.

The 2nd Liberators and the Sky Troopers were deployed for a first strike. They would in no way be enough to even potentially shift the entire invasion force, but merely to dent it would be a significant victory, given its relatively small numbers compared to the hordes of the Northern Alliance - especially if the time ever came that the Might of the Bloom stopped cowering and actually helped. The Demons had, by this time, spent long enough preparing for war that to attack a new foe was not a great and profound deed in its own right - indeed, they had been party to the plan which ultimately provoked the Shou Tahs into surfacing en masse. Some in Sanctuary, particularly the star god cultists, claimed that this was just and righteous retribution against the blasphemers who plotted to harm the Ehk Rellis' chosen people. Some, but by no means all.

The 2nd Liberators knew the Shou Tahs were faster than them, stronger than them, and had strange sorceries based on shouting which were beyond their replication. They knew, also, from a 'debriefed' Singer warrior, that the Shou Tahs bands were amazingly cohesive, and had even learned to remain in sync for their dreadful songs when all fifteen members of an army had their vision and hearing clouded by the false images of Telepathy to bring them out of tune.

With these in mind, a far less impressive use of Telepathic illusions was implemented. The Red Princes had no special ability to sort false images from true, and though trees were felled by the shockwave of their battle hymns, though stone cracked as they impacted it while dancing this way and that, they wasted their efforts. No doubt their hearts swelled with pride, as thousands, even millions of demons appeared to die beneath their blasts, but even a Shou Tahs tires eventually, especially on land. It was only when their screaming had grown ragged, when their movements and reactions had slowed to a manageable level, that a wave of over a thousand truly existing demons attacked - and even then, each company broadcast the presence of two more nonexistent companies, so that approximately a third of the Shou Tahs blasts of song or artefact would strike air instead of demon. The effort was not easy even with this advantage, for keeping telepathic delusions up for so very long had taxed the demons - but there were a lot more demons to keep up the illusion, and there were a lot more demons to ensure that at least one was truly coming from a blind spot once the Shou Tahs were exhausted. Even then, the demons were careful not to close in, and instead to pepper them with arrows - indeed, their ruse began to fail, as some of the Princes realised that only one-third of the arrows were actually landing. However, it hardly saved them; twelve Princes died in arrow fire before the Liberators called it mission accomplished and fell back, a twelfth of their own ranks depleted and a full quarter of the remainder injured.

The Sky Troopers were not so successful. Much of their training and tactics had been with the expectation that they would be outnumbered by an inferior force - they had received no special training in how to outnumber a foe, and there was simply not enough room for them to all dogpile one Indigo Prince at a time, nor were there enough of these elite warriors for Cruciatic Thaumaturgy to be a great deal of good. The Shou Tahs were not fast enough in their leaping to overcome the demons' mastery of aerial combat, but those who relied on the air soon found that concussive waves of sound flew their way, or that they were buffeted this way or that by the winds kicked up from the Arrow Dance, while their enemies used half-comprehended bits of research from the Fleshwork to quickly mitigate the wounds caused by their arrows. As two extremely mobile forces clashed, most of the surrounding forest was left with some kind of mark, mostly from the War Song's ruinous power or the crash landings of the Sky Troopers, almost absurdly heavy encased in armour as they were. Those who tried to engage one of the fifteen in melee found their swords snatched or broken by impossibly quick fists, or their armour cracking under the force of the blows. Filled with martial pride, the Sky Troopers failed to retreat until there was no doubt that it was too late, by which point barely a third of them were still mobile enough to run.

Several times as they fell back, the Liberators attempted to bellow a parting message to the inevitable pursuit force, but the Shou Tahs were having none of it; they had come out of the sea to make war, not diplomacy, and they had no interest in permitting their enemies to make speeches. After the fourth attempt was shut down, they simply nailed a note to a tree before fleeing.

Mess with the Northern Alliance, and you die. That was but a taste of our anger.

Sanctuary had, over the years, grown into something of an intellectual centre for the demon population, by comparison to the far more rigid and structured Fort Liberty or the downright anarchic Southport. As the place of the Demonic Temples and the Blasphemous Cathedral, it was unquestionably the place most strongly associated with religious teachings and with the more esoteric philosophies espoused by the anti-priests, many of whom ound that they required some kind of almost religious fervour to truly channel the Golden Magic they so desperately wished to master.

Elfmoot was not a direct ally of the Demons - while all of them raged against it, the objections were almost universally moral in nature, rather than springing from the oaths they had taken and the price of keeping their word. Sanctuary was more associated with philosophers and mystics than with warriors. Thus, a unit of the most extreme students found they could not ignore the evil being perpetrated outside their walls by the sea dwellers. Out came the knives of scarring that had been forged by the last Eknadist demons, as the Clan Council recognised the need for action; a new unit of Hierophants was formally organised, twelve squads of twelve, filled with the most martially capable of the fanatics who wished to stand against the sea-blob invasion.

Many of the merchants and nobility in Southport did not particularly care about the destruction wrought in the ancient elvish city, but neither were they precisely eager to lose a potential mark trading partner. The Thirdborn remained the most powerful guild, both politically and financially, and felt that they had much to lose by being seen as the only set of demonic leaders not to react to the atrocities of the Shou Tahs. They also saw that they had much to gain by reducing the exact number of completely unregistered street gangs in the city - the merchant guilds played by the rules, by and large, but the same could not be said for the real criminals.

The most problematic of these was the Brazen Skulls, actually a fairly small gang by the city's standards, but bloated with wealth due to making deals with the Kraith ghetto and cornering markets that would be termed "horrific atrocities" by most of their rivals, their members marked under their clothing by a skull brand on their left breast. These were rounded up by the Thirdborn Mercenaries, who at last were paid enough to insulate them against gang bribery; each Brazen Skull was given a choice, to suffer immediate execution or to enlist in the new Brazen Skulls Mercenaries army being raised to react to the sea-blobs. Little was made, in the sales pitch, of the goodness of the cause or the suffering of the elves; much, instead, was made of the loot the sea-blobs had left behind, and how the starved, shocked, nubile elves would surely be grateful enough to properly service their saviours in return.

In truth, even the amoral mercantiles of the Port had no interest in maintaining such scum as these longer than the war lasted - the nine in ten Brazen Skulls who chose future glory over immediate death had merely chosen a more useful form of execution.

A boat sailed from Sanctuary to Wetami, and as it travelled, a squad of the Star Hunters appeared on its decks. They glared at the passengers, many of whom flinched - but one of those passengers was Lothar, who drew his swords and shed his magic disguise, a polite fiction in this context rather than a true deception - the sailors knew who he was. His disguise was not quite that of the adolescent who had picked up the Ocarina, as dark ascension had not stopped the last vestiges of human growth, but it was recognisably the same being plus a few years. A stand-off ensued, but the Singers simply portalled elsewhere before it broke, as Lothar was not willing to risk the deaths of the innocent passengers by starting the fight.

Once the ship landed, Lothar found he had forgotten to resume the disguise, and was immediately approached by a strange, wide-eyed band of Saku Rasi. They claimed that they were ecstatic seers, and were unworthy to kiss the feet of the Sorcerer-King of Newhaven; Lothar reassured them that he demanded no such devotion, and even went to the trouble of talking them into accepting payment for the devotion they wished to show him. He taught them the ways of elvish healing and Kraith shadow magic, and in return they taught him how to witness the future in a trance, as well as the sigils used in Werblume sorcery. Had he remained, perhaps the exchange would have lasted longer and borne more fruit.

In the time of its construction Wetami had naturally had a number of parks, as the Saku Rasi wished for there to be space in their city; urban development had turned these into paved plazas, but they were still public places. It was in these public places that announcements from the governing families could be shown in public, engraved into plates of steel and nailed to great pillars. All but the most important of these updated only once a week, for it took almost as long to work the plate steel as it did for enough news to gather.

It was in front of one of these, ultimately, that Lothar learned of the fate of Elfmoot, rather than from some mystic fanboy or telepathic vision quest. Initially, he cared relatively little - the evils of the Shou Tahs were great, but nothing compared to the evils of the Fell Magicians who had invaded Imptopia. It was unacceptable that so many could die and suffer without having done anything wrong, but it was also unacceptable that the blood drinkers still practised the old way and sought to torture the other races, and it was not possible to simply will the two problems into being solved.

Ultimately, what moved him was the confirmation of the death of the Ashen Priestess. The girl had been a massive creep, but she had never given the impression of meaning any harm; Lothar had never consciously reciprocated her interest, but somehow the death of someone who had wanted to be close to him hurt far more than theoretical proclamations about aggregate suffering.

So, onto a boat he went, to a small port town near Drachenfutter, hardly more than a village.

In Astaroth, a new army had arisen, whose sigil was a simple line with a point at the top - there had been much debate about which projectile should be the symbol of the army that focused on destructive spells, but ultimately the name Star Spears had won out, and so it was the sign of the spear which garrisoned the northern city while the Star Hunters and Star Beasts travelled further north. It was not a specific target they sought there, but a cliff.

Atop this cliff were situated a series of civilian xenologists, students of the ways and customs of the 'lesser' races, dyed in various colours as scholarship had no special uniform. Chief among them was a Singer in a series of browns and greens, designed to hide it in woodlands during the day; it was less useful at night, when the soft glow of Singer flesh was brighter than the ambient light. This scholar of scholars, the Ossuary of Confusion, had travelled the world and gathered much of the data that informed Singer xenology in the days before portals, let alone the new dark age; it was well understood that he was sponsoring the operation, and as was traditional, there was a speech to kick off the event.

"Many of you will surely wonder why I have chosen to act against the Rainbow Lord's advice," the Ossuary began. "I tell you that they did not listen to mine. They believed that the sea-lords could be intimidated with direct force, that any significant number of them would bow, that any one of them would disagree with their ancient grudges. You'd have an easier time cowing a frenzied Star Beast than a Shou Tahs civilian, even if you slaughtered all of his kin. You'd have an easier time making a fairy forget to dance than making a Shou Tahs forget a grudge. Conquest will not work, for the sea-blobs are insane, and cannot be made to see reason. Slaughtering some will only galvanise the others, as we learned in the campaign of kingslaying. Therefore, we must go further. Therefore, we must attempt what has never been attempted. Therefore, we must take their star-gods from them.

"We commit this audacious act not out of insane heroism, but craven cowardice. Not for glorious death, but for ignominious life. Not because it is a risky or prestigious option, but because it is the path of greatest caution. I will say this for the sea-blobs - they have officially driven the world mad.

"Warriors, we have completed the formulae. Implement them."

The two Sorcerer Lords drew lots, after which the Beast Lord glared at the Hunter Lord, placated only when the latter pointed out the importance of what they hunted, and how its theft would not be ignored. With that assurance of coming battle, and resulting prestige, the Beast Lord consented to his role in the proceedings. The Star Hunters, squad by squad, jumped off the cliff, and in each case the Beasts opened a great portal beneath them with as short a time window as they dared, cutting it as close as a single second for the very last wave. Almost immediately after that, reports began coming in - the portals had been through time as well as space, and timed so that all the Star Hunters would emerge in the same instant fifteen minutes before the first wave left, in positions around the world that would ensure that at least one of them saw the thing that they hunted. That long they had been given to fully comprehend, and to send a telepathic message that would reach the Beasts no matter where in the world they were.

Unsurprisingly, in some ways, the prey's exact location turned out to be above the great sea, beholding the four cities of the hated sea-lords. The Star Beasts travelled through another portal, pre-empting the entire cliff-jumping ritual, and informed the Star Hunters of where they were to find their prey, using the information that they had gathered from a different timeline.

After ten minutes of deliberation, a new series of portals were created, portals which opened thirty minutes before the armies had decided which one would be performing the chase and which one coordinating the first movement of it. More importantly, these portals opened and sent the Singers onto the decks of a series of ships, rather startling the Saku Rasi and occasional Werblume who sailed them. Fortunately for the Singers, they had had no personal history with either of these civilisations, so there was no majority gut reaction to their presence based on hate - all the stories had generated a gut reaction based on fear, and the crews decided it was foolhardy to attack Singers who had not forced them to fight or die.

Most of the calculations for the day had been in working out formulae, which were then memorised - or at least enscribed into portable objects. From their new vantage points aboard wooden ships, the Star Hunters could fill in the missing variables of these formulae, to enact the great plan their Lead Sorcerers had envisioned with the Ossuary's blessing.

The Singers had spent their hidden time gathering great volumes of knowledge using their time portals. Among this was a theory on how their prey might be caught - the Ehk Rellis appeared to be too fast to be chased, and able to flee to places beyond, but unable to ignore its children or to remain long in one place. There was no possible way of directly comprehending a divinity's mind, but the Star Hunters had watched their prey for months, and had noticed patterns in its motion - things it reacted to in a certain way, sights it would chase, sights it would flee, and most importantly, the approximate limits of its momentum. Never had the Ehk Rellis been seen to come instantly to a stop, or to change direction without decelerating. The calculations based on this had, if anything, been hurried - the Star Hunters were not entirely sure of how the fifteenfold star gods would react, and the error bars on their calculations were wide, but not as wide as their portals.

No creature had walked Tyonix which was as large as the portals the Star Hunters opened that day. Madmen had long whispered of a place at the very axis of time itself, the land of the truly dead, which contained inhabitants nearly so tall as these portals were wide - yet, this was the width required by their theories of the Ehk Rellis. At the other end of each portal, the Star Beasts collaborated to open more, to trap each of the fifteen star gods in a portal cage. Eight portals, larger than any being had thought possible, were opened directly in the path of the star gods, and one of the fifteen went through each one, only to duck and weave this way and that as each of the eight sub-Cabals of the Star Beasts opened a series of smaller and smaller portals, to try to imprison the prey. Eventually, however, they instead thought to simply open a colossal portal cage, of the same volume as the Star Hunters' hunting portals, which would contain the eight captured star gods and leave them no room to escape.

It took four entire squads of the Star Beasts to maintain those enormous portals, but they devoted eight to the task - so that when the fifteenth star was caught, they could shrink the cage to a level manageable for feeble civilians.

After that, a rather smaller portal opened, between the hull of a Saku Rasi trading ship and the cliff in the First Land.
"Fourth Hunter Sorcerer to Beast Command. One of them's escaped."
"Incompetence!" yelled the Star Beast Lead Sorcerer fielding the call. "We would have kept the chase up!... Very well. Keep pursuing, and find their next landing point!"
"Actually, don't," interrupted the Beast Sorcerer Lord. "Surely this doesn't require fancy mathematics. The star gods know now that we want them. They know now that their numbers mean nothing. There are seven of them left. What else are there seven of?!"
"...Of course!" said the Hunter Sorcerer making the call, with a sudden twitch of realisation. "Redeploying to perform overwatch at the sanctuaries. Estimated delay one hour realtime, twelve hours metatime."

Many of the ships must have felt a profound relief, as the Singers aboard simply left without further incident. They might have been less relieved if they followed the star-gods, of course.

The last time Singers had set tendril within range of the Sanctuary Stones, they had been enslaved by the power of those strange instruments. Rather than risk the same outcome, the Star Hunters emerged at seven points which were within several miles of being between where they had started the chase and each of the Sanctuary Stones. These were portals through time as well as space, to give them as long as possible to correct their travel plans. They had already travelled back thirty minutes, and had only spent ten minutes of realtime in the previous stream before portalling again, so they only gained twenty-five minutes of travel time by this method. Frustrated at the difficulty of the calculations without a corresponding sequence of death and destruction all around, the Singers took comfort in the idea that Shou Tahs heads would probably be swimming at all the vector calculations involved in capturing their star gods.

The hard part was working out the travel vectors to tunnel back to base, especially with enough precision that the Ehk Rellis would be trapped there and not free at the point of the first hop. So, as an entire division of thirty-two cabalists and a Lead Sorcerer was at each of the seven intermediary sites, that was their first action. The Star Beasts got increasingly frustrated by the time the sixth and seventh divisions had requested that they shrink the first portal cage, since they needed time and energy to create and maintain potentially seven more small ones; however, even they were lucid enough to appreciate at some level that none of the seven had had time to communicate with eachother over the vast ranges involved.

"...Lead Sorcerer," said a Hunter Sorcerer of the Third Division. "Permission to speak freely?"
"Granted," the division commander said, with a hint of amusement.
"The troops in my squad, and several others, wish to express that this seems needlessly complicated. We…"
"Are you saying that we did not prepare them? That they are too weak, too feeble for such tasks as our kind require?"
"No, Lead Sorcerer, I am saying that there is an easier way."
"...What easier way?" the Lead Sorcerer asked, disbelieving.
"We needed to send all the star-gods south when it was a matter of catching them all, we could not have both kept up with them and maintained a portal cage of the full size needed to ensure their capture, and fifteen portal cages was out of the question. Now, we personally are only trying to capture one more."
"...That's a very good point. Have your squad inform the other divisions. Use telepathy, we don't need to send star-gods to them."

Requiring a ten-minute ritual as opposed to several hours scribbling on whatever engraving material was to hand, telepathic communication across the world was indeed a faster way to inform the other divisions; within half an hour of receiving the order, the sorcerer in question had confirmation from the other six Lead Sorcerers that they were switching to the new tactic.

The reduction in complexity was timely, but it was not enough. The seven interceptor divisions had only barely enough time to confirm that their star was within sight range, let alone attack range, when the Ehk Rellis realised that its current route to the Sanctuaries was no longer safe.

Of course, the chase was soon over after that. Each division opened a time portal to the future, leading to the Sanctuary Stone they were watching over. By this means, they saw the direction the Ehk Rellis would use to travel there. Following this, they found proper vantage points nearby - a passing Werblume ship north of Ruttivorat, abandoned Kraith holes on the side of the Pure Land Volcano, a plateau in the mountains near Figurae and Elfmoot, another plateau overlooking the blasted plains that had once been Destroyer's Peak, the tops of thirty-three of the Black Pillars, and a clearing around one of the eyries created by the recent demonic expansion.

The seventh vantage point took slightly longer in metatime to be occupied, though no longer in realtime. The Rainbow Lord was not meant to hear about these deeds until they were completed, yet the optimal vantage point to intercept the star escaping to the Emerald Stone was Starfall itself. The division spent half an hour of realtime getting permission from the Sorcerer Lord to compromise the operation's secrecy.

Of course, the seven strikes were not simultaneous, as the seven vantage points were not equally distant from their Sanctuary Stones. Several times, the Star Hunters had to find new vantage points, as they looked into the future and found that the successes of their comrades had changed the route the Ehk Rellis took. It was a matter of no small amount of confusion that Starfall was among the three sites that did not have to be abandoned - perhaps that lone star had seen the full extent of the plan, and felt that revealing it to Singerdom was worth being captured for. Nonetheless, within four days metatime - and two days realtime - of the operation's beginning, the star gods themselves were captured as planned, eight trapped in one portal cage, and seven trapped in a portal cage each. It was perhaps slightly less torturous than any other imprisonment might have been for the wandering stars, for the walls of their cages would not stop them moving; instead, if a solitary star tried to break down one wall, it would emerge from the opposite wall, its speed unchanged.

The Star Beasts made an impressively careful task of swapping the one giant cage for eight tiny ones, for two reasons - they feared that even eight of the star-gods could create some kind of rune to break out of the prison with, and it was easier to maintain twenty-one tiny portals than three colossal ones.

"What is the meaning of this?" thundered the Rainbow Lord, from the streets below, before opening a portal and travelling to the roof, where two squads of Star Hunters oversaw the maintenance of a portal cage by their comrades. "Who ordered this action?"
"I did," said the Ossuary, ceasing to transmit the telepathic signal that had hidden him from sight.
"We discussed this," the Rainbow Lord said. "I made a decision, and you defied it."
"You refused to hear reason. I find it strange that you, of all people, clung to your preconceptions on this matter, when faced with evidence that countered it. Every day we wait is a day the sea-lords come closer to striking at us - they have already obliterated a northern city, how much longer can it be until they see that they didn't finish us off the first time?"
"I did hear reason," the Rainbow Lord said. "I heard you explain why none of my plans would work at this time, so none of them were implemented. I didn't hear you explain to my satisfaction why we should escalate to attacking the gods themselves - or why we should do it now, rather than waiting until the sea-blobs are an immediate threat once more. Had you in fact explained that, perhaps I might have approved."
"What difference does it make, if they slaughter us all in ten years or they slaughter us all today?"
"Had we acted later, it is possible that we could have had more effect for less effort... Enough. What's done is done. Perhaps it's time I stopped expecting the whole species to obey my every whim - were it up to me, we would not have the star-gods as hostages."

Power roll: 2d6+6=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4323703/)
Power rollover: 0
Total 14 points

5 points: Makhleb's red lightning strikes, stealing the Trumpets of Discord and Dream Twister from Elfmoot and delivering them to the Bloodthirsty Nereids

0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to attack the Red Princes of the Shou Tahs!
2nd Liberators 2d6+15=25 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4326431/)
Red Princes 2d6+16=24 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4326432/)
2nd Liberators win! Red Princes destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Sky Troopers) to attack the Indigo Princes!
Sky Troopers 2d6+15=20 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4326434/)
Indigo Princes
Indigo Princes win! Sky Troopers destroyed.

0 points: Command Army (Star Hunters) to attack and capture Ehk Rellis

2 points: Command City (Sanctuary) to Raise Army (Hierophants)
2 points: Command City (Southport) to Raise Army (Brazen Skulls)
2 points: Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (Star Spears)

2 points: Command City (Wetami) to grant Totemic Sigils and Visionary Trances to Lothar the Cursed. As a side effect of my planned flavour text, Wetami can now justifiably steal Healing Magic and Noctimancy if it could not before.

0 points: Command Army (Star Hunters) to defend the captured Ehk Rellis at -2
0 points: Command Army (Star Beasts) to defend the captured Ehk Rellis at +0
0 points: Command Army (2nd Liberators) to defend Fort Liberty at -3
0 points: Command Army (Hierophants) to defend the Sanctuary Settled Zone
0 points: Command Army (Brazen Skulls) to defend the Southport Settled Zone
0 points: Command Army (Star Spears) to defend Astaroth

1 points remaining
+3 Chaos to next roll
+3 Cults to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 14 (http://orokos.com/roll/154516) bringing me up to 74

When the letter sent by the Singers was presnted to the Admiralty and translated by probably the only Shadowbird that was able to read it, most were outraged by how mocking the letter was. Despite that, a mere insult was no cause for war. The idea of designated testing grounds did not realy please the Shadowbirds. After all, they had been using the First Land for some time, and now the uninvited guests were making demands out of them. However, for now the Shadowbirds would not act rashly. They would make it clear that they are willing to let the weird creatures live, but that they are the ones in command.

So the Owtfe that could speak to the Singers was sent to the designated location to deliver the following message:

"You creatures seem to misunderstand the situation you are in, those things you call 'peashooters' are the most poweful weapons on this planet. For creatures such as yourselves, our bolts are near impossible to dodge, because the time it would take you to notice them is longer than the time they need to reach you, and your magic cannot help you when you are dead.

"Now that this is out of the way, we would like to apologize for removing some of your kin from existence. While we are usure how it happened, we believe that the cause is the coloration of your... skin. It resembles the targets we use for testing, and is easy to mistake.

"We agree with the proposed plan of not using the entirety of the First land as testing grounds. However, we will be the ones deciding where we do our testing, and you will notified of location of these areas. Rest assured that we will be fair in choosing those grounds, leaving you with enough space to test your own 'playthings' as you call them. he current plan is for 30% of the First land, divided in 6 areas, to be reserved for our testing."

High above the scene, way beyond what a Singer would notice, 12 Owtebs were waiting, fully cloaked, looking for any sign of sign of aggressiveness towards the "diplomat". If they noticed something like that, then the Singers would be impaled by their bolts long before they would even notice that they had been shot.

What the Shadowbirds had been developping were indeed powerful weapons and saying that they were the most powerful was not too far from the truth. They did lack he versatility of Singer Magics, but the Shadowbirds were of the idea that raw power beats trickery. In that sense, the last year of testing had yielded one of the most effective killing utilities yets. This was known as "Arrows of Resonance", bolts with a very specific kind of spell engraved on them.

The spell would trigger when the arrow traversed an area with high mana density (such as a living being able to use magic). Upon triggering, the spell would consume all the mana in an area, producing a massive shockave followed by the appearence of a short lived orb of destruction, the power of both being proportinal to the amount of magic it consumed on impact. The black orb was a guarantee for the desruction of anything within a 3 meter distance from the impact. This included the surrounding terrain and air, leaving rather frightening perfectly spherical marks where they hit. While this is rather spectacular, the shockave was not to be ignored either, as its power was similar to that of a Shou Tahs shout.

Only a few of these powereful bolts were produced for now, but they had been proven functional and could be easily deployed in greater quantities in case of war.

For a long time, the Kiosa and the Wandra were the only things that existed in the Spirit Realm. Now after many years of existence, a few Kiosa decided it was time to create a place were Kiosa would truly belong, a city. 50 of them, using Spirit Forge, created a flat area, built walls on top of it and covered it with another flat surface. After that was done, they filled it with the Blue mist to sensure that everything in the closed area was perfectly lit.

The Stack, as it later became known, was roughly 1 kilometer wide and 20 meters in height. It had a rather complex geometrical shape but a good approximation of that would be a rectangle. In the first two years of its existence, most of its inhabitants were its creators, but others would come to populate he city and discuss what they were learning from the "outside world".

The Stack would also serve as the basis for more extravagant buildings and become the place where lifeforms of the Spirit Realm were most concentrated and diverse.

In continuing its expansion, the Stringwork would need more Packet Protectors, so it began a massive spawning program that would allow to produce more Outgoers and Packet Protectors. For now, it did not yet yield results, but in the mean time, a new Packet Protector was created to prepare for the Stringwork's next expansion.

6 points: Advance Shadowbirds with Resonance Arrows, particularly effective against magic users.
1 point: Shape World Spirit Realm Command Race Kiosa to create their first City, "the Stack"
2 points: Command City First Core to Raise the Fifth Packet Protector.

65 points remaining, still +3 next round, and I'm not sure when I'll get enough time to devise a decent strategy of spending those points.

[5a Violista]

((I had decided that I wouldn't do anything this round unless I had finished all the last turn's post descriptions at least 12 hours in advance. Since I still had 1 left, I'm not doing any specific action this time. BUT! Fortunately, today was my last day of classes! Now all I have left are my finals, so I will definitely post tomorrow for next round.))

So, Aniqua does nothing this round. Next round, though...you better watch out, you better not cry, 'cause Santa Claus is comin' to town!


This Round: 5 + 2d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4329836/) + 1/3 + 3/3 = 15
Aniqua does nothing for now, while I go finish the last section of my last post.

Next round: 15 + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4329838/) + 0/3 + 3/3 = 26

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320756/)
Current Power Points: 19

There came a time of preparation. The Shou Tahs were laughing and enjoying the festivities of the recent battles, but debating what they would do next. Grove was debating the mobilization of a war front, with the Trells opposed, but the Demons, Faeries, and Elves in favor of it. The Saku Rasi states were gearing up for a different kind of war. Sera was preparing for another grand heist, but would never reach it's conclusion, for as surely as she carried the Sword of Life, she was doomed to destruction.

Yet, in this brief interlude, nothing truly came to pass.

Current Power Points: 19
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320757/)

[ImperialSunligh]

The monkeys are incredulous to the Saorsians searching for the Lyre, distaste for races connected to Aniqua still slightly present in all of the pantheon's cities. Yet none made acts against them and let them search. Though, it was impossible for them to find anything significant in the city without interacting with the authorities.

Upon making a request for an alliance and asking about the lyre and the thief, the reaction was one of hesitance. The lower levels of Herz's bureaucracy were very slow moving, and to gain an audience with the emperor, required of an interracial alliance, people who were not entirely trusted would have to wait through a great amount of paperwork, possibly for a year or longer. Besides this, the emperor was currently away from the city. If they were patient, however, the monkey government assured them that they had a good case and that the new emperor would likely be very cooperative.

This new emperor was an ex soldier, known throughout Herz as a great and wise man. Though he was not one of the brainwashed ones (a factor in his eligibility for the imperial throne), and did not actually see battle, many lauded his strength in combat. Yet it was not his strength, but his mind, that gave him this edge. The emperor had empathy, and could easily predict the feelings of another, and their actions. He was a devout follower of the pantheon, understanding their role as protectors of his people, seeing their actions of protecting and enriching their own people, and only taking military action on those who would threaten them, as an example for how he should guide his own people. He currently secretly lives on the coast near Drachenfutter, where he, in solitude, works on a text that will grant other monkeys the gift of empathy.

Ewald wandered Figurae still. He had tried to learn from a master of the sword in the time he was here, but ended up storming off, finding the discipline lacking in discipline, when compared to the martial magics. It was invented by rowdy boys in the days of old and still retained its childishness.

One day, Ewald wandered into a temple of the pantheon. The design was more ostentatious than those in his home city, covered in gold and overly dramatic portrayals of scenes of religious significance. In his homeland, the gods were represented by mere symbols, statues at the most. But it still was made to glorify the gods, and so called him in. He knelt before Anike's representation and spoke aloud, caring not who heard, "Why have you abandoned me? Why do you not speak to me like you did when I stood in the silent temple, and for years after? I have been faithful."

An oddly hairy human spoke to him, "Have you, my child?"

"Who are you to talk, priest?"

The priest ignored the question and continued, "Look inside yourself, and you will see. See that you have caused trouble for the gods. Taken the power of the gods into your hands and used it to steal, to kill."

"How the hell do you know!?"

The priest's flesh fell apart, revealing a blinding light which faded, leaving the form of a monkey.

"Yes, my son, I am Anike. I have long looked upon your sins. They are my sins as well. I am young and foolish, and my ideals of freedom are not well understood. Perhaps when I spoke to you, I was not clear enough. Stealing is forbidden by the pantheon. It is an act of foolish cowardice. Killing without proper judgement is also, in this advanced age."

A single tear escaped the eye of Ewald.

"I only wished to serve you, my lord, to eliminate tyrants and to make Herz more free for all monkeys."

"You may serve me by bringing the light of forgiveness to the world, my son, by seeing that under all thieves lies a paragon waiting to be shaped."

"Will you leave me again?"

"You must apologize to me, simply apologize. You cannot blame the world for your mistake, Ewald. We did not choose to abandon you of our own accords, no, you brought that upon yourself and only you can fix it."

"I should have said so long ago. What a fool I am. I am sorry and beg forgiveness."

"I know that already, my son, but it is good to hear you say it. Now, to bring you back to the way of the gods, there is a task you must do."

"Anything, my lord."

"Good, let us talk on the way."

And so, Ewald left the human church. The other worshipers saw only Ewald, and so thought him quite insane.

Though her normal evasive abilities would have made her nigh impossible to find for Ewald only recently, he had the gods on his side now, and as he was poised to their righteous actions, their arms flowed in his, granting him immense power and knowledge beyond any mortal.

He found her within days. She hid in a cave in this time, disguised in the form of those tribal people who lived in secluded areas of the Sun's Land, the Suri. He supposed he had learned that they held cities elsewhere, but that was where he knew them from.

"Hello, Sera. it has been a long time. I would love to see some of your new tricks."

Sera merely laughed at him, but then realized that he knew her through her disguise.

"How—"

"The gods are great."

Afraid of the implications of this, Sera attempted to teleport away, to somewhere safer.

"Not this time, you coward."

"This is impossible. There is no technology that I have ever heard of that can... so it must be true."

"Indeed. The gods guide my hands, and they use a new kind of magic that makes firm the fabric of reality, such that teleportation is impossible in the area for a time. To any mortal man, it is limited, and only works in exact ways, but the gods are not as weak. Now, then, I have had enough of this talking. You will come with me now, or I shall make you come with me."

"Not so easily."

Sera created a sangromantic blast that tore through the wall of the cave and attempted to run away through it, using the smoke to cover her escape. But after going so far, she ran into an invisible wall of some kind.

"Also the work of your gods, I take it?" Sera asked.

"Naturally."

"Can't you do anything without them?"

Ewald frowned and disappointedly shook his head. He leapt at her with impressive speed, using a great flying kick aimed at a location that might knock her out. She easily dodged this using her own marial techniques, catching his leg in her arm, then using her sangromancy on it. She let go, avoiding touching the explosive place.

Ewald smirked at this, "Hmm, well, that hurt a lot. Great job."

"You liar."

Ewald once again swiped at her, and they fought for an extended period. Sera put up as good a fight as a mortal could be expected to. Her dancing bells had no effect on the divinely moved Ewald, and her spells of destruction glanced off of him. But she parried nearly all of Ewald's blows, and even managed to get some shots in that really hurt. The fighting calmed down for a moment, and Ewald commented, "You're good, kid, but your technique is off."

"It's my own personal strain of martial magic; I've improved it."

"The soul of martial magic is in discipline, in reverence for the gods and the world. Your strain is bankrupt of wisdom and filled with dirty tricks."

"Is that why I can get through your defense even when you have your gods to help you?"

"It's nothing," Ewald said, cleaning some of his blood off of his cheek.

Ewald struck in what looked like a lethal blow to the face, provoking her to take defensive action. But the gods aided him. He fazed through her body and turned to grab her neck, through which he transmitted a divine coil that held her entire body in place.

"Now, bloodcrazed one, you're coming with me."


Ewald forced the trapped thief down at the feet of the emperor, who gazed away, in contemplation. The gods had informed him that the emperor was staying near Drachenfutter, in this secret facility, and so he had brought her here. The emperor turned to face the criminal in the eye.

All the objects that she hadn't the time to hide, such as the book of death or the earthquake drum, were taken and kept in a room adjacent to her intended cell. The dancer's bells were taken on the only trade caravan to Herz nearby at the time.

Ewald, who the gods had not informed, noticed now that he was the head of security who had put him on this job.

"I see that you have succeeded in your ordeal, number 7, or should I say, Ewald? Well, then, bloodcrazed one—do forgive us for calling you that, it is all we had—you have done quite a few misdeeds. I have someone here that you might be interested to hear from."

A figure that all could see appeared from the dark corners of the hall, it was a mouselike being, though formless and white.

It spoke, "Sera, I am the Sun, and I once pitied your upbringing. You were so far outside of your home, an outcast from both the singers and the humans, Living in a place where the light and glory of the gods would never shine. I did pity you. But you turned to theft, stealing and hubris. I cannot help you now. But I still consider you a child of the pantheon, of Eknad, who has, I'm afraid, less of a way with humans. And so I implore you to do the one thing you can do: apologize. Lay before us your many wrongdoings and we shall absolve you of them. Regardless of what you do, however, as long as you do not continue your actions, your theft and your cowardice, you were never taught the teachings of the pantheon, and so can, nay, must be forgiven."

The Sun faded away, and the emperor continued, "Sera, the punishment for theft of this nature is life imprisonment in a cell."

"If I might be bold, your majesty, she has the ability to easily—"

"You mightn't, Ewald. Leave this place, immediately. You have done your task; you are free."

And so, Ewald let her go, and she was led into the small cell. She did not bother trying to resist, as she knew she could easily escape, and that it would be easier to avoid bloodshed that way.

Roll: 2d6+3=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4329938/)
Reroll: 2d6=6 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4329939/)


Event: Ewald gains great power for this time from the gods. Sera is confronted and a great battle occurs, at the end of which, Sera is restrained out and taken to the emperor's secret hideout, where she is made to speak with the gods, then left in a mundane cage. The dancer's bells are taken. The rest of the wonders are either on her person or in the room nearby. I assume that Omegon will do the part described with Lothar in which she escapes as I have not the time tonight to go back and make sure that I do his character justice (he is one of the things I really need to get caught up on), during which she escapes with most of her wonders excluding the dancing bells. Event probably not needed since there is no mechanical gain for Lothar necessarily and she's meant to easily be able to escape. -5

Left: 1

[Omegonthesane]

Lothar's powers of disguise were limited, even when combined with his new knowledge of shadow play - through the night, he could go unnoticed by any completely mundane eyes, though that meant little and less as the world advanced further and further - most of all in the place where his vision quests had guided him. Many tools of great power resided in a secret dwelling near the city of Drachenfutter, the city where the monkeys were rumoured to research things that ought not to be known. Many, but most of all the one that he was directly obliged to seize. He knew not precisely the nature of the other wonders hidden in the secret retreat - a place he would never have looked, had the wonders concentrated there not drawn his visionary trances - but the Sword of Life, a weapon of horror and destruction older than the Singers' spells of death, was well known in certain circles to bring destruction upon its bearer. The ancient priests of the Angels had died in battle against the Red Screamers, who in turn had been slaughtered by human paladins after immortal Nathaniel stole the blade. Nathaniel, for his part, had literally met Destruction - multiple mad preachers had claimed to witness his battle against Makhleb itself, either through visions and dark dreams, or through literally being there to watch. It had then fallen into the hands of the faeries, who found that even hiding it would not protect them from its curse, as the Shou Tahs struck them down.

This doom Lothar knew. But, he had dedicated his life to eternal war against evil - his limbs were doomed to one day falter, his attention to one day flicker for just a single fatal moment. Though it was a goal worth striving towards, his quest was futile in the long run, for evil could never literally be completely destroyed. Thus, he was already doomed to suffer destruction before his impossible dreams were realised. Thus, surely, bearing the Sword of Life was no threat to him. Thus he thought, anyway.

Most of the Monkey guards around the secret retreat were simple thugs, trained to deter casual thieves. This was not merely a concern of budget - it was easier to train thugs than to train true warriors - but also a concern of secrecy, for it would be downright suspicious if properly trained soldiery were present in any real numbers. Of course, their eyes would have been good enough to pick up a cloaked and furtive human, especially a cloaked and furtive human whose features flickered under his cloak; however, Lothar walked in a cloak of Noctimancy as well as a cloak of thin wolfskin, and was thereby indistinguishable from the night from any reasonable distance even under fairly good light.

Lothar was in no way an expert infiltrator, and the monastic wizards who guarded the actually important parts of the area already knew there was hostile magic in the air, though not the fine details. The monkeys' defining way of magic was inherently one of martial discipline as well, and so not one of these wizards would be so weak of mind as to immediately dismiss their concerns once they actually saw Lothar, and the telepathic signals began making sense in their subconscious minds. Of course, one of these was more prominent than any other, and had been granted a night as a guest in the Emperor's dwelling rather than travel through the dark. A team of monks might have located Lothar, but it was Ewald alone who found him, identified him outside the cell blocks, determined that he stood a chance in such a battle - and determined that maybe, just maybe, it didn't have to be battle.

As the ancient monk looked into Lothar's eyes, it would be inaccurate to say he felt a twinge of fear. Indeed, Lothar quickly noticed the ancient monk, and whispered spells of Phobimancy, spells which amplified the effect of his already present reputation as a highly dangerous individual. Under the weight of such feelings, a less disciplined person - even one of the monks - might have fled in terror, but Ewald's will was stronger than that, and only a hint of that fear entered his voice as he accosted the intruder.

"Lothar, prodigal child, what is your business here?"
"I want the Sword of Life," the sorcerer said, dropping his cloak and startling the guards who he had previously eluded. "I don't know what else is in there with it."
"That's a pity," said Ewald, "I thought maybe you had come to confess your sins. You have murdered, you have enslaved, you have turned your back on the gods."
"Which gods would those be?" the boy said, his own voice now quivering with a flicker of something. The thugs took it for anger, but Ewald was ancient and wise, and could tell flickering anger from deep-seated hate. "The same gods who murdered an innocent child, for no crime but picking up the wrong trinket? The same gods who butchered those who dared revere any life not spawned from their own backsides?"
"The same gods who even now watch over you, boy," Ewald retorted, a flicker of his own rage beginning to suppress his fear. "The same gods who protect their people from the subtle whispers of corruption and evil that surround them."
"And what a job they've done!" Lothar screamed, drawing his swords. "Where was your Anike, when the Singers kept human and monkey as their unwilling slaves? Where was Eknad, when the Shou Tahs murdered them for daring to follow orders? Where was Mam, to guide Mairwen away from Teodor before it was too late?" Ewald did not know the names, but was not quite stupid enough to ask what they meant in the middle of a mad rant. "Was the Sun protecting Lily, when she watched her father beat her mother? Was the Sun watching when Mairwen died, leaving no one to protect Lily from Teodor? Or did he start watching when Lily fled, only to be caught by the Kraith?"

With that, Lothar performed another spell of Phobimancy - not to harm, or to torment directly, but to finish the rant in the Kraith's ancient voice. Teodor's voice.

"The Kraith speak with the voice of Teodor. The voice Lily feared more than anything in the world. They took a broken, vulnerable little girl, a person who needed the Sun's protection more than anyone else in the world, and they tortured her to insanity with total impunity. WHERE WAS THE SUN THEN?!" the voice of all Kraith bellowed, as tears of strange black ichor began rolling down Lothar's face.

"You overreach yourself, boy," Ewald said, as he silently murmured the mantras for the fight of his life. "Who are you to judge the gods? Were you there when the Sun's Land rose from the sea? Were you there in the days of angels, did you walk in the spires of Paradi at the beginning of time? Have you created and guided life, as they have?"

"What difference would it make if I did?!" Lothar said, in his natural voice rather than in Kraith speech. "Makhleb is a god. It created and guided the Singers to commit evil. The Blood Pit is a god. It unleashed the Kraith upon the world to torment us and feast on our blood. The Ehk Rellis star-gods are gods, thanks to their power the Shou Tahs now threaten us all. Being gods proves less than nothing about their worth as moral authority!"

"...I see now that you are truly lost," Ewald said, with slight regret. "If you are truly only here for the Sword of Life… I should stop you, but I have better things to do with my life, now that it's gone."

"...Gone?!" Lothar said, after a few deep breaths, after he'd calmed down somewhat. Somewhat.

"Gone," said Ewald. "While you were rambling, Sera escaped, as I knew she would. The Emperor refused to hear my warnings, so it is hardly my fault."

Lothar looked, and saw it was probably true, as Sera was visibly chain-teleporting away across the horizon.

"...You've got to be kidding me," growled Lothar, before simply sheathing his blades and turning north, towards the thief. He couldn't hope to close the gap her head start had given her, but there was no deterring his course now.

By some miracle, some of the elves who escaped the sack of Elfmoot knew the spells they had stolen from the humans and Trell. They made a point of instructing their fellows in the arts, as without the protection of the forest they could not rely on the old ways to the same degree.

Most of the survivors gathered in the furthest west reaches of the continent, where it began to crack and form the misplaced lands, finding that their Bloom Steeds were surprisingly capable in the rough terrain. As it was a time of war, and they had no formal alliance with any of the beings nearby, a garrison was one of the first things this set of towns developed, even before a name - they ultimately chose Palorem, after the family who had done the most to ensure they retained knowledge of charming plants and working destructive spells.

The first time the meeting happened, the Shadowbirds found a group of eight clustered Singers. The second time it happened, they were slightly more spaced out. The third time it happened - the time that the Shadowbirds would remember - there were sixteen Singer negotiators, and they left a good ten feet between every two of them. In order to test the precautions of the Shadowbirds, the Singers had simply sent warriors from the Star Chorus forward in time half an hour, and had them attack the diplomat in a time that had not yet occured, then come back to before they left and report on their findings. Merely preventing their earlier selves from ever travelling forward would not stop the portals from opening, so each batch of disruptors from the Star Chorus had left three full minutes between arriving in the future and portalling to attack the negotiation, minutes during which they could be told to call off the attack.

"You underestimate our power, young ones, to think that our magic stops helping us when we die. We know about the twelve who protect you, whose swift rage would fall upon us if we were stupid enough to try anything. You are so eager to give your secrets away," countered the primary speaker. "You mistake our purpose, as well. Most of the First Land was meant to be inhabited, not used as a glorified target range. If you fire upon so much of it, we cannot promise you that you will not start wars in ignorance with other would-be settlers. As such, you will use only the north-northwest beaches of the First Land for your testing. This is two or three hundred square kilometres of marginal terrain, unlikely to be occupied or settled to any meaningful degree, and should be enough for your purposes. Scout it yourself if you think this a trick. If you prove true, then once our operations in the Bellerophat rock formations are complete, you may start testing there as well."

Power roll: 2d6+6=10 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4330440/)
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 11 points

5 points: Event - Spells of Destruction and Plant Charming, already held in Elfmoot, spread to all present and future Elves
3 points: Command Race (Elves) to Found City (Palorem) near the east side of the Continental Break
2 points: Command City (Palorem) to Raise Army (Palorem Garrison)

0 points: Command Army (Palorem Garrison) to defend Palorem

1 point remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[5a Violista]

Since it made no sense for the entire army to wait on the monkeys' response, they went back to Saorsa, leaving only a select few to fill out the paperwork and receive an audience with the emperor.


Meanwhile:
Rivis and Saorsa continued trade between them. An enterprising young Idrian in Rivis had an idea that could help their armies grow: he decided that they could enchant some of the many gems they mined out of the ground, enchanted with magic from Aniqua.

Soon, he started up a trade company between the two: Rivis would mine up the gems. His company would bring them to Saorsa, where they would be enchanted. Then, he sold them there and brought them back to Rivis. He picked up all the profit as the middleman.

These enchanted gems were attached to strings and worn as necklaces. Right before a lethal attack would strike its wearer (be it a mining accident or a millitary accident), the glowing gem's magic flares up and protects the wearer from a single strike. After that, the gem would fade away and burn out; they couldn't be reenchanted or reused.

These "Shield Amulets", as they were called, became pretty popular in the Saorsan millitary, while in Rivis, it was mostly the rich and the aristocrasy who could afford them, due to the higher prices: they almost cost double in Rivis than Saorsa!


(1) Command Avatar: Rivis gains another army called Second Army of Rivis.
(0) Saorsa army Innocence returns to Saorsa for now.
(2) Command Race (Idrians): Create Wonder: Shielded Amulet (Enchanted gem creates a 1-time use life-saving shield around wearers)




The Alliance of the Sea Terror felt pretty confident: their first millitary strategy was a complete success, and their second one...well, they'll have to wait to see the end result of it.

In any case, this raised the morale of this fledgling alliance. More people flocked to the cities of Iztec, Mictlan, Skull Cove, and Serpent's Den. Feeling confident, they were able to raise an army in each of these cities.

However, the Maimec in Aztla still occasionally struggled against the rule of the Iztec - so their army (of Iztec) remained there to keep control over the people.


(2) Mictlan gains a compost army called The West Traders
(2) Iztec gains an army called Necalli
(2) Skull Cove regains an army called Death at Sea
(2) Serpent's Den gains an army called The East Traders




In Juqax, the plight of their brothers in Aztla reached their ears. Fear also arose: that this growing city of Mictlan would overtake their city, just as was done in Aztla, and destroy their beloved Immortal College.

So, they rose an army to defend themselves, calling themselves Cualli, or "Good."


(1) Command Avatar: Juqax gains a compost army called Cualli




Aniqua felt the need to help the elves even more, especially after there was so much death in their old lands.

She blessed the elves with the ability to survive in the wilderness: away from civilization. She gave them the ability to find water and food out there while traveling in desolate areas, just as she had blessed the Idrians with the same thing in the mountains.

Then, she helped the Palorem elves to build Ritual Stones in their city, just like the one that was made in Elfmoot so long ago. As before, these stones would protect their city so long as they remembered to hold a ritual around it every ten years.

Then, she inspired all the elves across the world to carry around a small seed to use when their life's on the line: A small seed which grows into a vine, which they placed in tiny jars and boxes (almost like a phylactery), which they should always keep close to their mind, their heart, or their arms.

Using their Plant Charming, they could easily make it grow to act as a trap or to tie up advancing foes. As a result of this new technology, a new army was created as well.


(6) Advance Civilization (Elves): Wilderness Survival (+1 Combat bonus out in the wilderness)
(2) Command City (Palorem): Create Structure: Palorem's Ritual Stones (gives a +1 bonus to defending Palorem armies, so long as they continue to do the ritual. Just like the one in Elfmoot.)
(3) Command Race (Elves): Create Wonder: Hidden Seed (Carry around a vine seed in a small jar, which can be Plant-Charmed to create a vine trap or to tie up advancing foes: +1 combat)
(1) Command Avatar: Palorem gains another army called Force of the Wild



26 points

Actions:

(1) Command Avatar: Rivis gains another army called Second Army of Rivis.
(0) Saorsa army Innocence returns to Saorsa for now.
(2) Command Race (Idrians): Create Wonder: Shielded Amulet (Enchanted gem creates a 1-time use life-saving shield around wearers)

(2) Mictlan gains a compost army called The West Traders
(2) Iztec gains an army called Necalli
(2) Skull Cove regains an army called Death at Sea
(2) Serpent's Den gains an army called The East Traders

(1) Command Avatar: Juqax gains a compost army called Cualli

(6) Advance Civilization (Elves): Wilderness Survival (+1 Combat bonus out in the wilderness)
(2) Command City (Palorem): Create Structure: Palorem's Ritual Stones (gives a +1 bonus to defending Palorem armies, so long as they continue to do the ritual. Just like the one in Elfmoot.)
(3) Command Race (Elves): Create Wonder: Hidden Seed (Carry around a vine seed in a jar, which can be Plant-Charmed to create a vine trap or to slow down advancing foes: +1 combat)
(1) Command Avatar: Palorem gains another army called Force of the Wild


Remainder: 2 points. 3 cult bonus, 1 chaos bonus.
I really need a list of all my armies and their bonuses. Should hopefully be up soon.
I also need to advance that Wandra race again.

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320757/)
Current Power Points: 31

The Shou Tahs were enjoying themselves.

The conquest of Elfmoot had provided them no end of entertainment. First had been the battle to take the city itself, and it had been glorious. Then there had been that light show in the sky, after which they had lost two weapons, granted, but it had been fun to watch none-the-less, and what did the Shou Tahs need with little toys? However, after that, there had come a foe who had proved truly worthy of fighting the Shou Tahs. The Demons had given them a truly glorious conflict, and had even managed to retain an impressive portion of their numbers even after a meeting with the Sea Blobs. In the meantime, their festivities had reduced the once proud city to rubble, though many of the Elves still hung around, half afraid of the invaders and half attempting to appease them.

Now there came reports from the nearby wilderness of a new military force coming to match themselves against the might Shou Tahs.

The three remaining Armies of Princes, the Indigo, the Blue, and the Black, prepared themselves, as the crowns and gauntlets where donned by non-red warriors, and the surviving Elves backed away to a safe distance.

It couldn't be said exactly what the Shou Tahs were expecting to come at them through the woods, but it could be said that they weren't expecting a tangle of vines rolling over itself.

Lava, shadows, and fists were fired into the strange assailant, and, though it proved fairly resilient, it fell quickly enough. However, no sooner had it stopped moving than a towering tree made of fire emerged from the forest, and then a field of beautiful flowers no taller than half a meter, which fired silvery beams of power from their blooms, and then some odd kind of tree, like a palm tree, but instead of coconuts, it bore orbs of darkness which it dropped, transporting whatever they landed on into the Void. However, as they knocked down these foes, patient and thoroughly, they soon discovered that the original foe, the tangle of vines, was standing back up.

Soon all these strange plants were standing back up, while more kept coming from out in the woods. The Shou Tahs were frantic, using everything in their power to keep the bodies of their assailants down, while trying to handle the oncoming attackers as well. In the chaos, it wasn't noticed that a Black Shou Tahs had dropped here, and an Indigo Prince there, not until they were down to half strength, and the remaining Shou Tahs noticed that their fallen comrades had arrows in their necks. Arrows that they recognized.

Looking up, they saw the Demons in the air, who had been sniping the Sea Blobs while they were preoccupied with the plants. It was strange, however. Before, it had taken twelve or fifteen arrows. Now, it was single arrows that killed the Shou Tahs. What they didn't know was that this was due to poisons from the Garden of Pestilence, so potent that nothing, not even a Shou Tahs, could survive them for long.

Filled with rage, the Shou Tahs fired everything they had into the Demons high above, attempting to knock them out of the sky, but finding that their attacks stopped short, and that there were Faeries there, holding up shields which seemed to stop everything in their path.

Between the poisoned arrows and the unstoppable onslaught of plants, the Shou Tahs began to fall, quicker and quicker, until all that remained were ten of the Blue Princes, making a stand atop a ruined building. In that instant, however, many Elves came running forward out of the trees, and called for the attackers to stop.

They pleaded with the Might of the Bloom to spare these few Shou Tahs, that they had learned the beauty of the forest and that they weren't like the others, that they ought to be allowed to survive. The Demons and Elves in this army might not have been convinced, but as it stood, they deferred to the far wiser Trell leader, Reditulum, to pass judgment in this instance.

Reditulum stepped forward, looking into the eyes of the Shou Tahs, "It gives us no pleasure to kill other sentient beings, but for what you have done to the North, it was deemed necessary, to make you appreciate the gravity of your foolish actions. Today, not a single warrior of the Might of the Bloom has fallen, while two of your armies collapsed like tinderwood. I do not know the Shou Tahs, so I cannot know if you can truly learn, or if you will stay away after we let you go, or if you will come back and force us to kill you again. Now leave, and take your weapons," the Trell spat the word, "with you."

The Blue Princes went, for they were the Blue, the most dishonored, the supposed weakest, as the others had told them, and they actually possessed doubt in themselves. They did, however, plan to rally the forces beneath the ocean, and come back, driving this "Might of the Bloom" into the ground.

When they arrived back at their homes, however, they found a sight they could not believe.

White Shou Tahs stood in the streets of Eramine, in Rou, in Gerki, and in Kaz. Many civilians simply stood, staring on in fear, some whispering things about 'ghosts'. What scared the Shou Tahs, however, was not the existence of the White Shou Tahs, but the stone tablets that had been brought with them.

Ancient beyond compare, these tablets were written in an ancient dialect of Shou Tahs, and possessed a message: "The day these tablets are unearthed, is the day the Ehk Rellis has been taken. Do not hunt the godthieves yet. Now is the time for silent contemplation. The White have returned to you so that you will not stumble into a mistake. You will free your gods, but not today. Instead, you must do what you did in ages past, and prepare."

So, they prepared.

Aidededrūl adjusted his fedora as he walked forward, across the paved street, pressing through the throng of Humans, Saku Rasi, and Suri in this city. Skyscrapers towered to either side of him, blimps buzzed by overhead, and a train could be heard in the distance. This place was known as Tuyome, and this was the Golden Age of Peace. It had taken some time for Aidededrūl to learn how to adjust to culture shock, but after a few hundred years, had developed a system to help him learn the new cultures whenever he arrived at a new time period, and now, as the current time period held a very strong prejudice against Kraith and Wights, he wore a suit and tie to cover the blue sap of his body, not to mention sunglasses to hide his startlingly blue eyes. To any onlookers, he might have been any Trell bouncer from any club in town.

However, anyone who was paying particularly close attention to him might notice that he was going to an odd location for a bouncer to visit in full uniform. A building called "The National Museum of Ancient Cultures". As he passed through the halls, he stopped to examine several exhibits, including one of a jar of honey labeled "The Mead of Poetry. Given to the Saku Rasi city of Wetami by the Werblumes to seal the ancient alliance between the two races", a piece of stucco engraved with a mural which was labeled "An artistic rendition by the Elves, depicting the myth in which the ancient thief Sera lost her life to the Angel known as Requiem", before finally arriving at a set of three tablets, two in perfect condition, the last broken in half. These were labeled "The remains of the five prophecy tablets, written in a dialect of the extinct Shou Tahs race. No one has any idea what message they hold, but it is said that they hold the prophecy of the race's doom."

The thing was, Aidededrūl not only knew how to read the language, but recognized the handwriting: it was his own, and it was no prophecy of doom either, but a set of instructions, a cautionary message. Aidededrūl knew that, in the current age, the Shou Tahs were not extinct, just hiding, in the distant north, beneath the northern ice cap, so he had no fear of his placing these tablets leading them to doom, so, after examining a few more exhibits, he decided to go ahead and act. Leaving the museum, he went to a back alley, and, finding it deserted, created a portal into the distant past, and far below the ocean.

After he had carved the five tablets and hidden them, the Trell decided to wander about in this time period for some more time. It was after Vroch and Nameless first clashed, but before the Trell had first found Grove. In fact, it was supposed to be about this time that the Trell first walked Tyonix. However, Aidededrūl did not go looking for them straight off. No, he stayed beneath the water, for he actually was quite fond of this place, where he didn't grow hungry and he didn't see the world dying around him. As he wandered, however, over the years, he found that he came across the area of the sea floor where Gerki had been founded. As he wandered away from there, he actually came across Gerkibasio Gerkiselio himself, wandering away from Gerki in his fabled death march, with the Horn in tow.

At first, the founder of Gerki was suspicious of Aidededrūl, who was still wearing a suit and sunglasses, despite the fact that most of it had disintegrated at this point, and would not speak to the Trell, even trying to kill him with the Horn when the Shou Tahs grew irritated with the persistent attempts at conversation. Yet, that unstoppable weapon barely phased the Trelll Wight, and, instead of counterattacking, he simply tried to continue speaking.

Eventually, they began to speak to one another, and even became close friends, the ancient Shou Tahs and the ancient Trell. However, Gerkibasio Gerkiselio had been ready to die when he had met Aidededrūl, and was still in that mindset, even several months after the fact. When he spoke of this to the Trell, who now only wore the sunglasses, Aidededrūl suggested that Gerki need not die at all. He told him of a miraculous place in years to come, which a single sip of it would make you immortal. The Shou Tahs didn't believe at first, but eventually became excited, eager even, to gain immortality. So, the Trell took him forward in time, on the requirement that the Horn of Winter be left in the crevice beside them, to the Fountain of Youth, and Gerki was made immortal. After this, Aidededrūl left him in this time period, only a few years after he had first gained his ability to travel time (5 rounds after this round).

Aidededrūl went back to the crevice where the Horn had been left off, several hundred years later, and took the Horn up, before finding a few wandering Black Shou Tahs, and placing in their path. This was the act that led that first Gerki army to attack Destroyer's Peak. He did not condone it as a good act, but it was required for him to take it so that he would exist, for that rivalry put him in the location and situation in which he gained the power he now possessed.

There were the crashes and shouts of a Shou Tahs battle ongoing across the Axon Mountains. A boulder flew here, a portion of the land was restructured there, and beneath it all, Sera flew around, teleporting, leaping, crouching, rolling, dodging, portaling, pirouetting, parrying, planning, adapting, sneaking, dancing, and blocking whatever this crazed Shou Tahs was throwing at her.

Unukolo Unufisham was full of rage. He had tracked this thing down after many hundred highly frustrating attempts at gathering information from a world full of creatures that were utterly terrified of his species. Now that he had it, he wasn't going to let it get away, and was actively rearranging the mountains around it to try and block any possible escape route. It was difficult work, the work that even a Shou Tahs would be usually cowed by, and it was a credit to Unu's strength as a Sea Blob that he was able to do it with such consistency. Strength which would never truly be appreciated, at least for several more years. Back home, he was still believed to be a craven traitor of the weakest tribe that there was.

Sera, meanwhile, was panicking and trying to simply stay alive as the beast continued to uproot parts of the mountains to try and squash her underneath them. She had to get it in closer, she had to find a way to use some trick on it, to survive. She couldn't get a good look at it long enough to open a portal, and was too occupied using Twist to evade the flying boulders to employ it.

She didn't have to think long, however, as she made a single misstep, found herself in the path of an oncoming boulder, had to Twist away with little planning, and found herself in a location without a bearing on her surroundings. The instant it took her to reorient herself, Unu had bounded forward, and was about to place a blow which would easily kill her, had she not sensed it through her Martial Magic, and popped up a simply Abjuration spell at the last second.

The blow would have killed her. Instead, as it smashed through the impromptu shield, it broke several ribs, scattered her belongings across the mountainside, and disoriented her enough that she could not rely on Portal Magic or Twist. As she lay there, she became vaguely aware of a large blue figure standing over her, and the Blood Weave sitting next to her face.

She wasn't sure what she was thinking, but as Unu reached back for a finishing blow, she Sangromancied the Blood Weave onto his face.

A look of confusion passed over Unu's face, and then the creature's hundreds of pounds of muscle suddenly relaxed all at once, and it went from a humanoid figure, to a puddle of muscle. A moment, and that puddle of muscle spasmed in such a way that it leapt into the air, a good ten meters, and then came back down, a little ways downhill. A moment, then this happened again.

Sera stared after it, slack-jawed, and wondered out-loud, "What the hell is that thing descended from?"

Sera collected her belongings and went on her way, stopping by a home belonging to some friendly Elves to heal her up before too long.

Unu eventually found the ocean, and began behaving like a jellyfish.

5 points to Event: Aidededrūl controls many different points in history.

5 points to Event: Unu gains the Blood Weave from Sera.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Rou to raise a new Army of Princes.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Gerki to raise a new King's Army.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Kaz to raise a new Army of Princes.

Combat Rolls

Might of the Bloom: 2d6+22=29 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4332770/) (+1 SoD, +1 Silent Magic, +1 Hidden Seed, +1 Wilderness Survival) =33
Black King's Army: 2d6+16=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4332771/)

Might of the Bloom: 2d6+19=27 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4332788/) (+1 SoD, +1 Silent Magic, +1 Hidden Seed, +1 Wilderness Survival) =31
Indigo Princes: 2d6+16=18 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4332789/)

Current Power Points: 18
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320759/)

[Neelien]

rolled 10 (http://orokos.com/roll/155278) bringing me up to 75

When the Singers expressed their ideas on the matter of testing ground, the Shadowbird replied that he was only a diplomat and that reconsidering was not up to it, but it did remark that
"The Admiralty would likely not agree to what you propose, even though I am not sure how much 200 square kilometers is. We use another form of measurements."
After the Singers explained how much a kilometer was,It said it would notify the Admiralty that negociations were still ongoing, and would come back with an answer a few days later at the same place.

As promised, after having notifed the Admiralty the Shadowbird came back with the following message: "The Admiralty belives your argument to be very sensible and accept reducing its areas of operation to 3% of the First land. However, any less is simply unacceptable. However, it would like to point out that Shadowbirds had already been avoiding highly populated areas and that the casualities were the unlucky ones and it believes that marking the danger zones should be enough to prevent further casualities. The Shadowbirds will not agree to any less."

The fact that the Singers knew about the 12 Invisible Owtebs that were supposedly impossible to notice made the Shadowbirds realize that the Singer tricks extended beyond what they though possible. So in the few days between the two discussions, they though about how it would have been possible for them to know. They knew that Singers could use magic portals, because the singers used them on many occasions un the recent years, but they did not know about them being magic portals. If the claims that the Singer magics could help them even after death was true, they concluded that they likely had some form of revival magic, which shouldn't be too difficult to deal with with the new Resonance Arrows. Portals could still prove a problem though, so they concentrated on trying to develop a new glyph to put on their arrows that would negate the effects of portals. However it was impossible that they would discover a way in the few days between the diplomatic discussions.

In this year, noticing the Stack, Nios decided to create something upon its surface. This particluar lifeform would become known as a Waybush, a blue bush that changed the color of the surrounding mist from blue to purple. These bushes would become the first real way points in the spirit realm as they could be seen from afar, and would only grow on contensed mist.

The Stringwork Spawning program was yielding results. In just under three years, two new Packet Protectors were assembled. For now, they would each stay in their respective starting Cores. Each Core now had two Packet Protectors protecting it.

1 point Shape Spirit Realm: Create Life : Waybush
2 points command city : Core 2 to create 6th Packet Protector
2 points command city : Core 3 to create 7th Packet Protector

Shou Tahs Proxy : PP1
Core 1 : PP4 and PP5
Core 2 : PP2 and PP6
Core 3 : PP3 and PP7

[ImperialSunligh]

Ewald stayed for a few days at the emperor's secret hideout. He attempted to spy on the proceedings of the inner court, but the power of the gods had left him by now, and he could not get close enough without arousing suspicion. The new emperor was, while eccentric in his methods of dealing with Sera, better than the previous one. This troubled Ewald greatly. He needed to be sure of whether he was like all the others.

Unsuccessful in this, he returned to Herz. He descended to the depths of the silent temple, hoping to amplify the voices of the gods, that had been with him still, even now that he no longer brought their will into the world. He stayed there for a long time, disappearing from the living world.


The branch of the Apostles of the Sun in charge of archiving important information was examining ancient texts detailing the happenings in the time of the Loyalists when they discovered something rather bizarre. These texts described at length the encroachment of stringlike organisms. These were truly strange. The creatures tried to reach the land, but were cut up by the ancient angels' weapons. The academic community of Eupnea quickly did all they could to investigate this aberration, but could find little of value.

Still, the existence of such creatures became something of an urban legend, and the investigation quickly spread from Eupnea to the other pantheon cities. Monkeys and humans quickly joined those looking for strings. At this point, none were discovered, but the idea of a great network of stringlike monstrosities inspired many works of fiction written in this time.

The emperor returned to Herz with the dancer's bells in a few months. He had finished what he was working on in the east, but was not yet ready to share it with the world. It would take time, fermentation, and then an open-minded revision, before he could call it complete.

The few idrians that remained in Herz were guided to the emperor's court, now that he was once again in the city, where he would tell them the status of their proposal and make a final ruling.

He informed them that there is no reason for the people of the pantheon to oppose Aniqua's people in this advanced age, as long as they do not interfere with the business of its people. As such, he immediately rectified the alliance between the idrians and the monkeys.

He then acknowledged the reason for their visit, information on the thief of a lyre of some kind. He told them that the thief stole from this city as well, that she was a woman named Sera, and that the pantheon had recently moved to detain her. He proceeded to explain that she escaped, with the clear implication that this was intended. He noted that she did indeed have a lyre with her, likely the one that they sought.

He made a final note, "I suggest that your people be careful in how you deal with this. The girl is foolish and prideful, but she deserves some degree of mercy. For now, the people of the pantheon are not making another move against her, as long as she refrains from further thievery, though we cannot force anyone else to do otherwise. And given her recent theft of the fabled sword of life, it may be unnecessary. Indeed, she may have already sealed her fate."

Roll: 2d6+1=9 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4333323/)

Command Monkeys, Accept Alliance with the Idrians, -3

Angels reveal the stringwork's existence to the humans and monkeys.

Left: 7

[Omegonthesane]

"It is good to hear that the Admiralty sees it this way," the Singer diplomats said. "We believe that the danger zones may need slightly more active deterrents than a few signs, as many beings exist who cannot understand the signs." Were they talking about a mine, the Singers would have given specific warning about the mad sea-lords, who would probably take warning signs to mean there was a fight for them within the firing range; however, any set of events that ended with dead Shou Tahs was not a total loss. "Posting a guard would be wise, especially if you have some way of hearing an alarm from ground level - we could round up some Suri, they'll serve you if you give them a comfortable life."

The Singers were able to quickly telepath the two sets of Octarchs, and the Rainbow Lord, to confirm the proposals. They received orders not to back down for several years about how large the firing range could be - the Shadowbirds had to learn, and learn early, and if possibly learn peacefully, what the Singers had only learned in recent years after millennia of war. That they were not strong enough to take what they wanted.

(No mechanical effect)

The Singers had some knowledge of Protective Sigils already, having utilised certain runes to insulate the Garden of Pestilence against its own plane, and the Dreamforge against the world it entered. This was an imperfect and specific application, but it was enough that simply stealing the technology from the Bellerophat dig site was entirely feasible, as it had been for Acoustic Thaumaturgy and Animating Sigils.

From that day on, the various Star armies resumed the ancient tradition of daubing themselves with runes, but with a practical focus this time - the Singers had known how to protect large objects from physics, but with yet more stolen lore, they could reproduce reasonably small sigils that nonetheless had a genuine practical effect.

In many ways, this was not merely an advance, but the end of an era - there were other lost sorceries in the Bellerophat site, but none that the Singers could quickly adapt. Even the Fan of Gales had fundamentally been founded in destructive spells, rather than in the weather control practised by expert Spirit Walkers; indeed, a Singer's corporeal body was its spirit, and they had quickly found themselves physically unable to spirit walk in that way.

(Event - Singers steal Protective Sigils from the past)

The Rainbow Lord's new schema of a Star Legion expanded to as large as was feasible in this age. In Starfall, a new army of Singers took the seal of a serpent eating its own tail, and recruited primarily venom mages; these were the Star Vipers, a pestilence upon any who dared to fight them. In Astaroth, another army took the seal of a four-spoked wagon wheel, of the kind on which a person might be broken; however, they took up further strange traditions, wrapping their bodies in barbed wire as the Red Screamers of old once had. The Red Screamers were a symbol of a past glorious, but fatally mistaken, and so the Star Martyrs refused to take on the name of the army they so obviously emulated.

Once these armies were completed, the Octarchs of Starfall and Astaroth spread the Rainbow Lord's decree - that the Star Legion was now complete, and the Singers had no need of a larger offensive force. That if they felt particularly threatened, new Watches would be raised from the remaining civilian populations, in the same black as the watches of the lost Dreamforge.

At this point, it was actually valid - there was now one star army for each of the symbolic methods of warfare used by the Singers, the same principle behind the Rainbow Scourge.

(Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (Star Martyrs), which is then Commanded to defend Astaroth)
(Command City (Starfall) to Raise Army (Star Vipers), which is then Commanded to defend Starfall)

The mood in Elfmoot was one of relief, at the very least, as the warriors of the Grove came to liberate them after the unsuccessful attempts of the Saku Rasi and the Demons. Some of them feared what that force might do if bent to evil, but most remembered that the endlessly wise and pacifist Trell were in command of that mightiest of war machines, and so long as this was the case they had little and less to fear from them.

The ruins could not be instantly rebuilt, but the elves had mostly made them of wood, and wood was both living and a plant; therefore, it could be repaired with their powers of Healing and grown into specific shapes with their stolen arts of Plant Charming. They enacted these repairs, taking exceptional care to repair the protective totems that they had failed to use for so long, and a new band of Elvish Rangers stepped forward to defend the city - formerly a group of guerillas, who had protected the refugees as they fled the Shou Tahs invaders.

(Command City (Elfmoot) to Raise Army (1st Rangers), which is then Commanded to defend Elfmoot)

Long ago, in the early years of the First Age, a flint axe had been placed under the guard of a creature of dreadful power. This axe sang to all those in range, imploring them to come test their luck. It had been guarded by a serpent almost as long as the Dreamforge, a serpent said to have divine powers with which to protect its Paragon of Axes from capture. All this had been said, and none of it had been put to the test. The Singers knew better than to risk unprovoked combat with a demigod, and knew that a flint axe was a terrible and obsolete weapon. All of their servants knew this as well. All of their servants with the exception of the Undead Star.

In life, the Wretched Star had been barely more than an animal in intelligence, and undeath had not sharpened its wits. Worse, its primary sense, the one sense that its unlife granted it, was not the sight or hearing of the living but the raw understanding of divine beings. It simply understood that an item of great power, which would bring its wielder great power, lay in the lake to the north. In the first days of its reanimation it had felt shrivelled and weak, denied the raw power it had enjoyed as a living being, but the Singers had taught it things, sorceries, and it had found them as easy as breathing had once been. It could no longer wield raw power, it could no longer simply bend reality to its will, but it was mightier in sorcery than even the white one they all served. The Singers ought to have known better than to think that a master of Portal Magic could be bound with chains, especially chains with such slack as the ones they found - it opened portals around itself, shuffled so that some of the slack was on the other side of the portal, then closed the portal. A closed portal was like an infinitely sharp blade to anything caught halfway through, and so in this way the bonds holding the Undead Star down were chopped open, allowing it to soar into the sky, where it could safely remove the rest with magic blasts before portalling to Caralatis' lair.

The Horror of the Deep sensed a sort-of living being descending from the heavens, and its instincts kicked in. It rose from the depths, easily a hundred feet high, to attempt to simply devour the pathetic little being that had dared to interrupt its long and docile lifestyle; however, the Undead Star was relatively swift, and had plenty of time to see the attack coming. This pattern repeated itself thrice more, largely because the Star never quite had enough time to finish a great big blasty destructive spell, nor quite enough sense to realise that perhaps a weaker but quicker one would be the best approach. After the fourth time, however, Caralatis realised its folly, and saw about the task of ensnaring the assailant.

Unpronouncable maledictions left its maw, half sorcerous incantation, half prayer to the King on the Tree. Sigils carved themselves onto the Undead Star's flesh, "granting" two of its five points the aspect of serpents, turning them into long tendrils that ended in the heads of snakes - long snakes, under Caralatis' control, which flew towards their creator, to tether the Star to it and ensure an easy kill. If these were anything like the protective sigils that were already written on the Undead Star's flesh, ready to be triggered by a blood splatter, then it already knew it needed only to outlast the spell - yet it was a creature of instinct, not thought. It radiated a baleful red, and the two snakes went berserk; Caralatis' divine will was too strong to be affected by the weakened spell, but it found the two snakes meant to serve it were instead gnawing its obsidian hide.

With another invocation, Caralatis conjured forth a team of basilisks, which sat on the shorelines and glared their death gaze at the Undead Star; but, this merely harmed rather than instantly killing their foe, for it was both Demigod and Wight and thus resilient against life-draining attacks. They proved to be less resilient against the Undead Star's toxic radiance, a spell of Poison Magic that had once simply been instinct; their bodies erupted in buboes and pus-filled spots, and even Caralatis' hide began to be filled with deathly fluids.

These had been mere and feeble distractions, but they had served one purpose very well - the purpose of distracting the Star, who now found Caralatis' open jaws hurtling towards it, too fast to be dodged. The great serpent would simply change course if the Star tried such a simple trick. So, it tried a less simple trick; with its three remaining points, it opened a great portal at the last possible moment, so that Caralatis' head and about ten feet of its length instead travelled to a patch of land at the Deep Lake's edge. Then, the Undead Star closed the portal, severing Caralatis' head.

For a moment, the Star rested, as the totemic sigils wore off and its two snakes turned back into limbs. It rested, certain of its victory, until it noticed that Caralatis' body had not actually slumped down. Indeed, it was growing a new head, and keeping away from the Undead Star for the minute or so the new head would take to stabilise. The Star took the opportunity to cast its divine vision upward, past the atmosphere to the vacuum of space, and to open a portal between that void and the regrowing head; a half-grown, skinless maw screamed in pain and outrage as the vacuum held it in place, and tore chunks of its flesh away, though more slowly than it could grow new ones. Had a wiser mind possessed its senses, the Star might have noticed what the majority of Caralatis' length was doing, under the waters, where so much blood was falling. It might, in fact, have noticed that Caralatis was forming an animating sigil.

The Deep Lake itself then rose up, animated by the demigod's power, and rushed upwards, towards the wight, to imprison it in a whirlpool. Filled with panic, the Star stopped maintaining the portal to space, and started rattling off rapid fire spells of boiling destruction, blasts of heat that turned the animated water into vapour. Once it could think clearly, it thought to Caralatis' pain, and murmured the rote spells of Cruciatic Thaumaturgy that would make that pain an advantage.

Caralatis was then bombarded with Telepathic signals which deluded its divine vision, and caused it to understand that five more Undead Stars had emerged, one from each of the original's five points. However, it was a beast, and little understood that any of them might be false; thus, it swallowed the original whole, and was suddenly aware that the other five had been illusions as the Telepathy stopped addling its mind.

Had Caralatis been much more than animal, though, it might have understood that a foe swallowed was not a foe defeated. Indeed, the digestive juices of its maw were hardly damaging to the Undead Star, which simply blasted its way out a hundred and fifty feet down the great serpent's length, leaving a great chunk of exposed innards behind it - innards which quickly filled with poisoned seawater, for it had managed to open up a piece of the fiend that was actually underwater. The great serpent understood, on some level, that it had been badly poisoned, and needed to purge its systems, yet it was still in combat. It turned its head towards the Star, and murmured a dark incantation in the last moments before biology compelled it to vomit; the stream of effluence became far more concentrated, and this time actually ate through the shield put up by the star's protective sigils, though it failed to do much damage to the star's actual flesh.

Its second acid stream was less fortunate, for it was struck by a rune-shaped spell of destruction, which carved an Animating Sigil into it - an animating sigil that placed it under the Undead Star's control. This stream of acid was not actually capable of defying gravity, but it could be guided to land on Caralatis' scales and boil them away, causing the demigod to expend yet more energy on the task of not dying from its wounds. After that, it found itself woozy and distracted, as the Undead Star radiated not light, but sound - sound of the kind used in Acoustic Thaumaturgy, sound which tugged at the nerves and drove the listener to rest. Already weakened, Caralatis was surprisingly vulnerable to this attack - but not vulnerable enough, as it turned out.

Well, the Undead Star couldn't have that. It opened a new portal, and travelled back to its own past, so that for the next hour there would be two Undead Stars. The two of them repeated this procedure, then the four of them, then the eight, so that there were a total of sixteen; eight of them sang Caralatis to sleep, while the other eight kept it distracted until the spell of Acoustic Thaumaturgy finally wore down its divine defences.

Once the beast was snoozing on the lake floor, it was a relatively simple matter to open a portal, and cast its slumbering body into the polar volcano. Even the Seliss, and the living Wretched Star, had feared that heat when they danced in that dome; surely, Caralatis would be unable to regenerate so quickly when its flesh was boiling away before its senses.

Left without other foes to fight, the sixteen Undead Stars got bored and chased eachother through the skies above the Deep Lake, until fifteen of them faded away as was expected. With its temporary playmates gone, the remaining Undead Star remembered what it had come for, and swooped down, taking the Paragon of Axes between two of its points and flying back to Starfall with it.

Of course, the Shadowbirds had every reason to be observing the airspace in which the two demigods fought. They had likely seen the Undead Star duplicate itself, and seen the duplicates fade away leaving only one to continue existing; whether this was enough for them to work out the limits of the Singers' time portals remained to be seen.

(For the sake of completion - Undead Star defeats Caralatis and steals the Paragon of Axes)

The Hierophants were an innately passionate and driven bunch, but no more innately violent than the other demons; the species was merely innately very capable of being driven to violence, due to their master passions, as many a footnote in history had learned to their cost.

When the news from Elfmoot came, Sanctuary initially celebrated, as was to be expected - not merely for the victory over a cruel and fearsome adversary, but for the perceived as rare event of the Trell actually realising that sometimes action was needed, that not every problem could be talked over. Many of the Hierophants were convinced to celebrate, as well, for a burden had been lifted from their shoulders - they were no longer obliged by their own beliefs to risk their lives in combat against the Shou Tahs.

(No mechanical effect)

The news that the Might of the Bloom had crushed the Shou Tahs invasion was in no way joyful for the Brazen Skulls. Worse, they would never be welcomed into Southport proper again - not if they were caught, anyway.

A brief mutiny followed, as the majority of the unit's officers were loyalists installed by Southport rather than members of the original gang; once that purge was complete, they simply sneaked into the unwalled city, and bought outright a boat and enough supplies to go east. Far east, past the Serpent's Den, to a place that was even more infamous in certain circles.

It was, in fact, in the docks of Mictlan that they landed, and deployed. It was clear to many of those present that, militarily, they were greatly outmatched - even if the various Saku Rasi, Nereids, and Maimec in the city were significantly more cunning between them than the thugs who had come to their supposedly secret port.

The Brazen Skulls had a disproportionate population of mutants, compared to most demons. One in every three of them had scales, or claws, or talons, or horns, or fangs, or some other bestial feature. Their leader was hairless, covered in slick serpentine scales, and clothed in baggy, ostentatious robes of fine silks, an ostentatious and silly look when contrasted with his barrel-chested, muscular body.
"Allow me to introduce myself, and my followers. I am K'turgah, leader of the Brazen Skulls. I hear you've got a nice, money-making firm here. We're in, or you're out."

(Command Army (Brazen Skulls) to defend Mictlan)
(Donate Army (Brazen Skulls) to the Saku Rasi... of Mictlan)

A legal dispute between two trading guilds had escalated to the point of legal action. As a result, debt collectors from the theoretically neutral Thirdborn rifled through the Latticework Import Company's archives, trying to find proof that they could or could not pay their outstanding debts to the Southport Gazette, and whether or not they had in fact accrued quite as much as the latter group claimed. This would have been a footnote in history, had the Latticework Import Company not acquired and then forgot about a letter from Herz, offering formal alliance, dated not long after the fall of Figurae.

This letter was delivered to the Thirdborn directorate, who in turn called an expert telepath to send the news to Sanctuary, and to Fort Liberty. Hexas showed disdain and suspicion that such an offer should come to light after so long, but the clan council of Sanctuary was more open to action. They decided that it would be them who sent the response, and that if Southport was playing them false, they would know it before long without any significant bloodshed. After all, the demons were hardly unguarded.

(Command Race (Demons) to cement alliance with the Monkeys)

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=15 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4332580/)
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 16 points

5 points: Event - The Singers use Time Portals and their experience from protecting the Garden of Pestilence from the effects of their home plane, and later the Dreamforge from the effects of Tyonix, to steal the Suri technology Protective Sigils.
2 points: Command City (Starfall) to Raise Army (Star Vipers)
2 points: Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (Star Martyrs)
2 points: Command Army (Elfmoot) to Raise Army (1st Rangers)

3 points: Command Race (Demons) to cement alliance with the Monkeys

0 points: Command Army (The Undead Star) to steal the Paragon of Axes, provoking the anger of Caralatis!
Undead Star 2d6+12=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4333344/)
Caralatis 4d6=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4333343/)
Undead Star wins! Caralatis slain. Paragon of Axes claimed by the Singers and taken to Starfall.

0 points: Command Army (Star Vipers) to defend Starfall
0 points: Command Army (Undead Star) to defend Starfall at -4 (-2 attacks, -1 combat, -1 Wights)
0 points: Command Army (Star Martyrs) to defend Astaroth
0 points: Command Army (1st Rangers) to defend Elfmoot

0 points: Command Army (Brazen Skulls) to defend Mictlan
0 points: Donate Army (Brazen Skulls) to the Saku Rasi... of Mictlan

2 points remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320759/)
Current Power Points: 29


What Post?

Current Power Points: 29
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320760/)

[Omegonthesane]

In some ways, the age was something of a lull - the Singers raised no more armies, no great preparations were made to spread war and death, no mighty Wonders were created with dangerous and powerful magic.

In others, rather less so, as a few years of peace left no violent outlet for expanding populations.

The Elves had managed to regroup many stragglers and refugees scattered by the Shou Tahs Invasion, and elves being the master healers they were, not one elf who got away from combat alive had died from their injuries. Thus, despite their relatively slow reproductive rate as the children of angels, they soon had a large enough population mass to exert a foothold over Palorem's surrounding areas, in particular the cracked mountains from the Continental Break.

The Demons of Fort Liberty had long dreamed of settling the White Mountains, and when the Shou Tahs ceased to threaten their Northern Alliance, they got their chance. However, as quickly as their camps and villages and mining operations began to rise, they found competitors for this rich and barely exploited natural resource - the Yosei trading families, tired of having to mooch off of the territories of their parent nations, had sailed north and raised their banners over a wide area, some of which had once been Destroyer's Peak.

Power roll: 2d6+6=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4335835/)
Power rollover: 2 points
Total 16 points

3 points: Command Race (Elves) to Settle Territory around Palorem
3 points: Command Race (Demons) to Settle Territory in the White Mountains, northeast of Fort Liberty
6 points: Command Race (Yosei) x2 to Settle Territory in the White Mountains, due north of the Banana Land

4 points remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=11 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4320760/)
Current Power Points: 40

For years and years, Ilikim had developed, steadily becoming more and more distinct from other Shou Tahs cultures over the years. Having been the Tribe to admit defeat and run away, and then being eternally separated from the eternal battles that had consumed so much of their history, they changed from raging juggernauts, to passionate artists, wanting little more to create their own sculpture, their own dance, their own new form of War Song. They had grown perhaps too passionate over the years, and had grown rivalries which could be likened to the grudges of the old Tribes, but they were quickly reminded of how that behavior had ruined their Tribe.

Now, they had returned to the other Tribes and explained their history, how they refused to die, despite being defeated. The other Shou Tahs admired their resilience, but still referred to them as cowards. They were admitted into the Shou Tahs alliance soon enough, and were allowed to examine the Crowns and Gauntlets the Red Tribe had created ages ago.

These items sparked the artistic instincts that the White Tribe had developed over the years, and what came next was a thousand different attempts to create items of power to best the Gauntlets and Crowns. Of course, the only item that even came close was not any such attempt, but instead an attempt to recover the Ehk Rellis.

Fuviomstibit Fuviorellis was famed in Ilikim for his teleportation War Song, which had surfaced in years past, and was now constructing several white stone archways, using every single trick he knew, attempting to create a doorway which would lead to exactly where the user wanted by reading the user's mind as they stepped through. However, Fuvio kept "failing", and instead created portals to strange, far away worlds, such as a place of pink clouds, beyond which a colossal, rotund figure with an elephant's head occupied all possible vision. Another led to an underwater city full of rotten books and glowing angler-fish people who seemed to be insane. Another seemed to empty out onto a cube of gold perhaps ten meters to a side, floating above a giant ball of fire. There was a garden of headless statues, a forest of crystal with murmuring heads floating around, and even a strange, metal room with glowing dots all over the walls.

Fuvio, despite the fact that he believed every single door to be a failure, left them all standing, until the Field of Doors had been erected. A plain covered in hundreds of archways of white stone, each one leading to a stranger place.

Other Ilikimites, however, greatly enjoyed traveling to these strange places, and over time, began to learn skills that denizens of other worlds taught them. One was a way to create and cultivate living energy, which would act like a pet or a worker, or which could be harvested like a plant. Soon, Ilikim was filled with playful creatures of yellow energy, while trellises of green energy vines dangled from the beautiful, white buildings.

Another art was the ability to turn fortune to one's favor through careful manipulation of invisible cords of energy in the world. Gambling houses in Ilikim all but went bankrupt as a result.

Lastly, and this was not a unanimous decision, the Ilikimites learned the ways of Code of Honor, of holding oneself above whatever base desires might overcome the body. Naturally, very few who embraced their newfound Code of Honor stooped to using Luck Control, and vice versa, but the two categories became individually stronger nonetheless.

The Kroop Troop was on Sera's tail.

She couldn't sleep, couldn't focus long enough to play the Lyre, and couldn't stop looking over her shoulder. The sky was dark. It had been dark for days. The Kraith wouldn't let the sun rise. There was fire in the distance, spiders in the trees nearby, and Sera was certain she could feel the march of a thousand Kraith footsteps catching up to her. She was too scared of potential traps, not to mention their ability with sorcery, to attempt Twisting or Portaling away.

The Kroop Troop meandered along in their home, lashed to the back of their colossal Arochno. They were filled with rage. Their wondrous item, the Blood Weave, had been first stolen by that bile bag, Lothar, and then by a lowly Human? It was so humiliating. For years, they'd been tracking that Shapeshifting Human fool, and now knew that it was close. They kept a constant aura of impenetrable darkness and insurmountable fear up for kilometers in all directions. She knew what she had to do. It was only a matter of time until she decided to hand the item back over.

Weeks they chased Sera through the Troud forest, until she slumped against the roots of a great Troud, and knew, she had to counterattack, lest she die out here. It took her a few minutes of laying there, exhausted, to come up with a basic plan. Another few hours and that plan became a complex plan.

There was a book sitting in the middle of a clearing up ahead. As the Kroop Troop approached it, they could immediately identify the sorcerous writing across every inch of the cover, and knew that this was an item of great power. Now, the Kroop Troop was greedy, and they knew they had to have this book, but, being suspicious, sent a Phobimancy creature forward to retrieve it instead.

As soon at it touched the book, however, a Sangromancy spell upon the cover was activated, and the pool of blood it was sitting in suddenly leapt to life, firing to far ends of the clearing, and forming complex symbols there, creating a massive portal beneath them, which dropped them from the air some two kilometers east. Of course, those blood runes were too complex to be simple portal runes, and indeed, a new portal opened up at their destination, Portaling them another two kilometers east, and so on and so forth, until they were well out over the ocean and motion sick, before it dropped them into the water.

Sera had had to let the Kraith have the Book of Death for the trap to work, but as she ran into the night, she knew she had lost a lot more. Weeks under such powerful Phobimancy spells had unhinged her mind somewhat. She wouldn't ever sleep well again, would always tremble in the dark, and would always hear those Kraith footsteps, wether they were real or not.

The Alimta ran all over the world, now. Some were seen sprinting across even the ocean, seeking new shores. They were considered a pest in the Latticework Land, with all the Saku Rasi being overtaken on the road by green blurs. They were a good omen in the Banana Land, where they charmed plants to grow larger fruits. They were considered to be their ancestor's ghosts by the Fari, who saw they flying across the ground.

The race actually had a considerable handicap, as they had to eternally continue running, and thus never built, never really came together long enough to start being more than a curious crowd of green blurs. Yet, one thing could be said of them: they certainly knew how to run. In fact, the go-to saying meaning "That's impossible" was "Yeah, and next you'll outrun an Alimta."

3 points to Command Ilikim to Construct the "Field of Doors" Wonder.

5 points to Advance Ilikim in Living Energy.

5 points to Advance Ilikim in Luck Control.

5 points to Advance Ilikim in Code of Honor.

5 points to Event: The Kroop Troop receives the Book of Death from Sera.

6 points to Advance the Alimta in Running.

3 points to Command the Alimta to Ingrain Running.

Current Power Points: 9
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4336855/)

[5a Violista]

In which Saorsa's army of Innocence corners Sera, she panics, loses the Earthquake Drum, and gets away.
Hopelessness

Sera's mind was still in fear. She couldn't think straight - the memory of the Kraith was still fresh on her mind. She found herself unable to think straight, and she soon discovered she was being pursued by an army that could somehow predict her moves.

Because of her fear, she fled until she was cornered in a mountain. Luckily, there were several caves in this mountain, but...there was no other way out besides these caves.

In a deep cavern, she played the Lyre, trying to find a way out that wouldn't result in her being captured.

What if she - "It's cold and dark. They're closing in. Please, please..."
No. Then what if she went - "I only have a minute before they find me."
But wh- "I tried Twisting away, it's like they knew what I"
Wait - Sera could only hear herself sob.
But... - "The entire army was waiting there!"
If... - "I'm sorry, but I..."

------

The Captain of the army Innocence walked into his tent. "She's been in there for two days. Is it time?" he asked the sibyl.

She shakes her head and shows him one of the cards of chance. "No, not yet. Still undecided."

-------

Sera curled into a ball, giving up playing the Lyre. No matter what she did - or, rather, no matter what she will do - nothing brought her to freedom. She would be captured every time. Even worse, she could still hear the Kraith in her mind, dancing in the shadows of this dark cave.

There was nothing left she could do. After all this time...after defying the both the present and the future, it all converged on one thing.

She started crying, waiting for the worst.

------

"The decision's made."

The captain nods and turns away from the tent.

The sibyl looks once more at the tarots. She turns on sideways and looks at the cards again... "Wait!"

He turns.

"Remember what the Emperor of Herz said."

The Captain nods. "Of course," he says. He turns away from the tent and tells some of his men that it's time.

-------

Sera hears the Idrians entering the cave. Or were they Kraith? She can't tell. It's dark and she can hear them. They're just over there.

Suddenly, an idea comes to Sera. The drum. Not the lyre, but the drum. Rather than depend on the future, she took chance into her own hands, like she did before she had the Lyre.

The earth shook, and rocks started falling. The entrance to the cavern she's in was covered in rocks, a crack behind her opened up to freedom, but she was also thrown unsteady. Both the Lyre and the Drum were flung in different directions, and who knows how much longer it would take before they would get through those rocks...so she had to make a choice: the Drum or the Lyre?

Habit took hold of her, and she leaped for the the Lyre. Then, hearing the Captain breaking through the cavern, she Twisted out of there.

A large rock had fallen on his leg, but he still dug out the stone to the cavern. He only saw her for a moment before she got away.

-----

Rather than chasing the thief, the army immediately reacted to the earthquake. As soon as they determined it was safe, many ran in to rescue their Captain and the Idrians who went in there. The dug out both the dead and the survivors, and found the Captain clutching the Earthquake Drum, so none else would play it before they all got out.

Rather than continuing their pursuit, they returned to Saorsa to hold honorable funeral services for those fallen during the 'quake.




In the which Aniqua blesses the Wandra again.

Once again, Aniqua looked at those Memories of Eull, the Spirits of the Grey Wind. She felt they needed something more. Thinking of the Nereids, she blessed the Wandra with a similar fluid gift: however, instead of speaking to and controlling water like the Nereids, the Wandra could now form weapons or walls or other objects, solidified from the wind.

One object in particular, they decided to build: the Dust Chariot, named so because it makes its riders look like dust just as the Wandra did when moving. It allowed the Wandra to take others along with them in their travels.




This time: 2 + 2d6=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4337566/) + 3(cult) + 1 (chaos) = 14
Actions:
(0) Innocence meets up with Sera and they gain the Earthquake Drum, but Sera gets away.
(6) Advance Civilization (Wandra): Wind Forming (Able to make wind into solid objects) (Military Advancement)
(3) Command Race (Wandra): Create wonder: Dust Chariot (A formed object that allows them to bring a non-Wandra along wherever the wind blows them) (Political?)
Remainder: 5

Next time: 5 + roll + 3/3 + 2/3

[Omegonthesane]

The Yosei soon found that they could not fully exploit the many mines they had created in the White Mountains without a proper centre of administration. Though they had no desire to wage war themselves, and little access to trustworthy mercenaries from more warlike factions, they ultimately planned massive growth for the otherwise unremarkable crossroads village of Nordhelm, naming it as the capital of the Nordhelm Mining Company.

Unlike other cities brought forth by the influence of the Red God, this one did not instantly raise an army to defend itself. It was an age of peace - the most warlike of the northern races, the demons, had sublimated their rage into a desire to enforce peace and create great wonders. A day might come when it would be necessary to become their protectorate, as the Yosei had no desire to wage war themselves, and the demons had proven themselves both terrifying in battle and reasonably trustworthy.

(Command Race (Yosei) to Found City (Nordhelm) in the White Mountains)

The Wandra had much in common with the winds that buffeted the world - they literally transformed into gas when they moved from the spot, as was often necessary to achieve their will one way or another. In watching this, Makhleb felt that there were surely secrets hidden in the laws of sorcery which they were in the perfect position to unveil. Indeed, the Fan of Gales had been more than an artefact of Destruction - though unlike the Garden of Pestilence, it was too rooted in Destruction for the Singers to unlock its deeper secrets even having built it.

So, Makhleb instead sowed seeds of ambition and desire in a few elect Wandra, fuelled by a complementary rage at their present state. Fear of the many stronger beings they shared the world with, or a vision of great works to come, would also have worked, but rage was the only driving passion the Destroyer fully understood, and thus the only one it could directly instil.

Around the world, cold, biting winds began to blow whenever a Wandra was threatened, as they found the most efficient means of working their will upon the world. Those kinder of the elect, or those who learned from Makhleb's original targets, occasionally made subtler winds, to scatter seeds in an efficient way or to ensure a nearby ship made it home safely, but Aeromancy would never be a completely peaceful art - indeed, the Aeromancers found their wanderlust amplified to levels which would once be thought absurd, as they chased the very winds they sought to control, in particular an eternal storm in the depths of the sea.

(Advance Civilisation (Wandra) with Aeromancy)

Word had eventually reached the Serpent's Den of what had taken place on the Great Continent. An alliance they were never part of had been broken by Saku Rasi, and apparently they were to blame. In truth, the city was factionalised enough that there was almost certainly some obscure group that would perpetrate that kind of stupidity, maybe the Spider's Cove raiders or the ones who had run off with those bloodthirsty Nereids, but if that was the case it was the Serpents' business, not a concern for the traditionalists.

A curt missive was sent from Serpent's Den to Sakura, informing the majority Saku Rasi that the Serpent's Fangs were launching a full investigation and purge of oath-breaking elements within their Den, and that giving this purge time to work would benefit them more than shaking a nest of vipers.

Expecting that this would buy them no time at all, the Den did not waste any time at all in setting up further defences. A series of walls and towers rose between the Sela Ryokan and the Serpent's Den, and several of the less efficient or more soft-hearted would-be pirates were conscripted to serve as a naval patrol, in case the loyalists attacked by sea. This second Dark Kyudoka took the name "Serpent's Coils", and indeed coiled around their Den, ready to slaughter all oncomers. The Serpent's Fangs continued to man the walls, now with the help of the Angel Killers militia, who had been seeking a target and a purpose from the day it became clear that there would be no Angels for them to kill. The Reavers were more of a religious order than a military force after so many centuries of protecting Makhleb's worshippers; they did nothing to assist in the defence of the unfaithful.

(Command Race (Saku Rasi) to Settle Territory (an inch circle around Serpent's Den, including the waters))
(Command City (Serpent's Den) to Raise Army (Serpent's Coils)
(Command Army (Serpent's Coils) to defend the Serpents Settled Zone)
(Command Army (Angel Killers) to defend Serpent's Den)

There were parts of the Security Committee of Newhaven which were suspicious, when the architect Voldrok demanded planning permission to construct a lighthouse in one of the smaller plazas. At first, he merely requested this permission, but when it was refused him he showed he would go further than was traditionally considered sensible to get it, going so far as to challenge the two heads of Special Branch to a ritual duel to surrender or death to resolve the matter. (This is the sort of red tape cutting measure that occurs when you let Kraith and a Paladin of Makhleb write the city laws.)

Since Voldrok had also allowed his designs to be double checked and caveatted to the Spirit Realm and back, the heads of Special Branch surrendered on the spot, granting the required permission that was the stake of the duel. The lighthouse arose as requested, but it did not point a beam of light at the sea - instead, it pointed a beam of Phobimancy at the land. The spell worked into the lighthouse was not subtle or precise, but it made up for this with raw power, filling those under its baleful light with an undefineable panic. It could be set to cause slow-building unease, in order to break a besieging army, but this was not a measure to be taken lightly, as the Newhaven Kraith knew well how sadistic they could get.

(Command City (Newhaven) to Create Structure (Beacon of Despair)

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=16 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4338054/)
Power rollover: 4 points
Total 20 points

3 points: Command Race (Yosei) to Found City (Nordhelm) near where Destroyer's Peak used to be
6 points: Advance Civilisation (Wandra) with Aeromancy
3 points: Command Race (Saku Rasi) to Settle Territory (an inch circle around Serpent's Den, including the waters)
2 points: Command City (Serpent's Den) to Raise Army (Serpent's Coils)
2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Create Structure (The Beacon of Despair)

0 points: Command Army (Serpent's Coils) to defend the Serpent's Den Settled Zone
0 points: Command Army (Angel Killers) to defend Serpent's Den, if they aren't already

4 points remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[ImperialSunligh]

Nothing Happens.

Roll: 2d6+1=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4339040/)

Left: 8

[5a Violista]

Aniqua sat around in the forest for a while. What to do? she thought.

Then, she remembered: she could bless some of the races with more magic. Hopefully they spread them across the world; that would be helpful.

So, she first went to Shipwreck City and across the sea, and began blessing every Nereid she found with Water Magic. This was different than the water control they had; with water control, they could shape the water in whichever way they wanted (through speaking to the water), even so it could cut or act as a wall or something else. Water Magic, on the other hand, wasn't done through speaking with the water and asking it to react. Instead, it was done through force of will. It didn't shape the water, either: it changed the properties of it. It could heat it up to boiling, cool it down to freezing, purify it, poison it, or even change it into a similar liquid.

Next, she went to the Banana Lands and began blessing her Maimec. In reality, she was pretty indiscriminate in which ones she blessed: whether they were from Juqax, Aztla, Iztec, or who knows where else, she blessed them with the magic to affect each other using dolls, an incantation, a ritual, and a scale (or hair or...whatever else) from the target.

It was meant to be to help each other get out of trouble when one gets stuck, but it was sadly not very well-thought out and could easily be twisted for worse purposes.



5 + 2d6=5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4339417/) + 3/3 + 2/3 = 15


Just because I can and have no idea what to do...

(6)Advance Civilization: Maimec in Voodoo Magic

(6)Advance Civilization: Nereid in Water Magic
Remainder: 3

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=12 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4336855/)
Current Power Points: 21

The Road Builders had been silent on the political fiasco that was the attack on the Demon roads for many years now, and, as a result, tensions were rising between the Demon cities and the Saku Rasi traders who even now continued to make their rounds in those parts. However, recently a letter had arrived at the houses of the most powerful Demon leaders. It simply read:

Honorable Demons,

The Road Builders have found the source of the attack upon the magnificent roads your people built. We would like to extend the courtesy to you that you might decide upon their punishment yourself. If you agree to this, come to Wetami upon the first day of Spring. There will be adequate accomodations, naturally.

--Your humble servants, The Builders of Roads.

Uluthriel whizzed about in the clouds, high above the First Land. He was a Spirit of the Clouds, and as such, blended in with them with perfect camouflage. Up ahead was the city Andromeda, which had meandered these skies for so long. Below, and just on the horizon to the east, was the new Singer city Astaroth.

Uluthriel simply watched, enjoying the winds of it's chosen domain. The Spirits had hardly changed since they had, ages ago, come to this land via Sandriel. They had, however, grown more comfortable in their ways. Today, they hardly had to think in order to change the world around them as a god might have. Uluthriel, for example, created birds out of thin air with the same ease as a Saku Rasi sailor might have tied a knot.

They, had, however, had difficulty in the finer manipulation of things, such as directing the creatures they summoned up with the Divine Intervention, or using the fire they could create towards any sort of real effect. Thus, the Spirits needed to adapt and discover new magics, whatever they might be.

After so many years, one such magic was close to fruition. Each Spirit had their own prefered terrains, prefered creations, and prefered styles, but regardless of how they differed, they all were able to communicate with their prefered creations. Even Spirits of Rot could communicate with the termites and ants they summoned up. It wasn't so much actual words that were being traded back and forth, but instead notions and emotions.

It was actually somwhat difficult for the more sapient mind of the Spirits to direct the minds of animals or creatures barely setient, but those who mastered the art of Empathy could soon not only direct the creatures they spawned, but any other creatures in the world that they felt inclined to reach out towards.

3 points to Command the Spirits to Ingrain Divine Intervention.

6 points to Advance the Spirits in Empathy.

Saving points this round.

Current Power Points: 12
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4339795/)

[Neelien]

Since I haven't poseted in a while, I assume I lost my roll modifier so I rolled 7 (http://orokos.com/roll/156389), bringing me up to 77

From what they had heard from their Human allies, the Shadowbirds were under the impression that Singers were bent on destroying the world. Yet somehow they were being diplomatic, and seemed to not want to go to war. This was very suspicious and they began watching their mouvements from high above. After some time, they noticed that the Singers were using portals to look into the past and steal technologies. It was clear that these portals could not be used to travel, but this alerted them to the fact that Singers were building up their arsenal. Then they saw how the Wretched Star went out of its way to collect an ancient artefact they had no real knowledge of but was clearly powerful. This could only mean one thing: the Singers were not sure if they could beat the Shadowbirds and were taking steps to ensure victory in a future battle. This had to be countered.

A new massive research project was set in motion, one that would capitalize on the knowledge gained from the fight between the demigods. It appeared that the Singers had the ability to temporarily clone themselves. This was probably what the Singers meant when they said that their magics could help them even after death. It had been a ruse. Their magic could not in fact help them after death, but it didn't matter if a clone died, since the original would still be alive, making it appear as though it was resurected.

(no mechanical effect)The research lasted for ten years until the Shadowbirds managed to create a set of techniques that could counter the Singers.

The first was the Mark Arrow, and arrow that would travel faster than any other arrow type by negating air resistance, allowing it to reach tremendous speeds without disintegrating. Unfortunately, these arrows were much more difficult to aim with than regular Shadowbird arrows and spears. While these arrows on their own were not a counter to any Singer magic, if used with enough precision, they could hit an enemy nearly instantly which along with another result of the research, would turn portals against the Singers.

The second part of the research focused on observing the effects of portals, to find a way to notice them easily. Realising the fact that Portals were in fact modifying the Space around them, they began trying to find a technique to see that disturbance. The result was a particular kind of lens that would allow its wearer to sees space disturbances. These lenses were fully opaque and as a result allowed the used to see only the Space disturbances. Taking them off and putting them on proved quite the challenge because of the Shadowbirds' anatomy, so after some time, some of them managed to develop the ability to see space disturbances when they wanted to. This required great amounts of training, but it could be done by any individual that used these lenses long enough. Since these lenses were percieved as a great asset, some of them were immediately donated to the Humans.

With these two new advancements, the Shadowbirds were now able to detect portals and immediately attack what was coming out of them. Obviously, these techniques would not be tested on Singers unless war broke out.

One last advancement was the creation of a new war tactic known as Blitzkrieg in the Human lands. The Shadowbirds themselves did not really name the tactic that consited of attacking without leaving any chance for the target to react, but when they explained it to the Humans, they saw the need to name it that way. For all races except Shadowbirds and Singers, this technique involved the use of mounts.

(Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Mark Arrows - Military tech)
(Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Space Sight - Military tech with possible political use maybe)
(Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Blitzkrieg - Military tech)
(Create Mass Wonder Space Sight Lenses - Same effect as Space Sight; does not stack)
('Trade' Offer : Shadowbirds to Humans : Space Sight Lenses and Blitzkrieg)In all these years, the Shadowbirds did not budge from their position regarding the 3% either, and as suggested by the Singers, they notified the local Suri so that they would warn others of the danger. They also asked them to build a few fences with warning signs. At first, the Suri refused, but when the Shadowbirds explained to them this was being requested for their own good by showcasing the destruction caused by arrows travelling at tremendous speeds (even regular Shadowbird arrows leave small craters in the ground), many agreed that it was best to have warning signs. The Shadowbirds did help in constructing the fences, but the Suri did most of the work.

(no mechanical effect)
The Stack had been growing for some time, and it now had three layers, and had also expanded in other directions. For anyone unfamiliar with it, it was an impossible to get out of maze, but the Kiosa lived there without much trouble. As more and more of them arrived, it soon became clear that they had trouble communicating, because even though they used the same language, they all measured things differently. Soon a council was established to make sure that every Kiosa used the same conventions. The result was massive standardization. This would allow the Kiosa to start developing their own technologies with much more ease than any other Race, even though for now it only serve the purpose of classifying the various objects and magics used across Tyonix.

(Advance Civ. Kiosa with Standardization - Military and Political tech)
After some time, the Stringwork realised that there was a race that was outside of its reach: the Shadowbirds. The Stringwork had acess to all land and all seas, but it did not have access to the airspace. Yet somehow the Stringwork had to be able to access the Shadowbirds' knowledge. By chance an Outgoer managed to catch a Shadowbird while it was on the ground. There was no fight. The Outgoer simply fell from the trees right onto the Shadowbird's upper side and immediately connected to it at every possible location.

Things did not go as planned for the Outgoer that for some reason could not understand and therefore edit the memories of its target. The Shadowbird struggled, took off into the air, but there was nothing it could do against the Outgoer, and it died a few seconds after having landed on Adromeda, nearly completely covered in black Strings.

Outgoers did not usually kill, but in this situation, where it could not possibly comprehend and edit the memories of its target, there was no other option. If it did not do that, there would be a chance of the Shadowbirds realising that the Stringwork could edit memories, and as it tried to escape from the Convoy, not shapeshifting in the process, it fell under heavy fire from the Shadowbirds.

Only a fraction of the Outgoer escaped but it was enough. Analysing the memories of the Shadowbird would take time as the thought format of Shadowbirds was massively different from. In the mean time, The Shadowbirds warned their human allies that the Strings were in fact very dangerous, and were not simply a plant. This resulted in some pretty great losses for the Stringwork when humans started clearing out Strings outside of their cities. Fortunately, the humans did not yet know that the Stringwork had infiltrated their society and was posing as members of the race. Indeed, the Shadowbird Report did not contain any information regarding the matter of shapeshifting or memoryworks, for they had no means of knowing that those two abilities were part of the Stringwork's arsenal.

(Humans now know that Strings are dangerous and can recognize them - but they still do not know that the Stringwork is a single organism) The Stringwork had been planning to expand for quite some time and now was the time to do it. Despite the major setback it had with the Shadowbirds, there was still really not much to oppose it. So two new Cores were created, one in the Northern mountains, spread over a large area, and undetectable under the Snow, and another one in sea between Myhra's Land and the Banana Land. To protect that core, two Packet Protectors were sent. Another was sent to protect the North Core, and three replacement Packet Protectors were raised.

(Command Civ. Stringwork. Found City "Fourth Core" north of Sarsoa.)
(Event : The Fourth Core now requires an event to be attacked)
(Command Army Packet Protector 4 to protect the Fourth Core)
(Command Civ. Stringwork. Found City "Fifth Core" somewhere between Wetami and Kaz)
(Command Army Packet Protector 5 to protect the Fifth Core)
(Command Army Packet Protector 6 to protect the Fifth Core)

(Command City: First Core to Raise Army "Packet Protector 8")
(Command City: Second Core to Raise Army "Packet Protector 9")
(Command City: Third Core to Raise Army "Packet Protector 10")

18 points (6x3): Advance Civ. Shadowbirds x3 (Mark Arrows, Space Sight and Blitzkrieg)
3 points : Command Race Shadowbirds to create Wonder (Space Sight Lenses - does not stack with Space Sight)
2 points : Command City Andromeda to Trade Space Sight Lenses and Blitzkrieg with Figurae (I'm assuming that's where the center of Human gouvernment lies)
6 points : Advance Civ. Kiosa with Standardization
6 points (3x2): Command Race Stringwork to Found Cityx2 (Core 4 and Core 5. Locations described above)
5 points: Event - Core 4 can now only be discovered through the use of an even.
6 points (2x3): Command City Cores 1,2 & 3 to create 3 armies: Packet Protectors 8, 9 and 10.
0 points: Command Army PP4 to protect Core 4
0 points: Command Armies PP5 and PP6 to protect Core 5

Shou Tahs Proxy : PP1
Core 1 : PP8
Core 2 : PP2 and PP9
Core 3 : PP3 and PP7 and PP10
Core 4 : PP4
Core 5 : PP5 and PP6

46 points spent, 31 remaining
+0 next round

[Omegonthesane]

When the architect Voldrok came to them again, the Security Committee took a closer look at his plans before judging them, and this time fully saw the sense in the first iteration of planning. A series of thin black towers were his next project, built in a cordon just within the outer walls of Newhaven, in the area where people were forbidden to officially dwell. These towers could communicate with one another through a series of coloured flags, and when manned and activated, they cloaked the city in a shroud of solid darkness, which would repel siege works and could be used to fire Noctimancy blades at besiegers. In addition, if enemies did breach the walls, the black towers could create more large black walls within city limits so long as two of them stood watching the area where the wall was to be. Together, they formed a defence system known as the Nightshroud.

(Command City (Newhaven) to Create Structure (The Nightshroud))

The Yosei of the Nordhelm had originated as a Saku Rasi trading family; they already had the plans to reproduce the ships of their ancestors, but had never previously gone to the effort of gaining raw materials and training skilled craftsmen in meaningful numbers. Nordhelm was entirely a Yosei project, politically, and there was not yet a significant population in the city that considered itself to be Saku Rasi.

However, they were all too aware that a single trading family, even one with ties to one of the world's major powers, could not stand alone for long - least of all against that same major power, which might have preferred the Yosei to act as bootlicking spies. Thus, a team of salesmen were sent to Wetami, ostensibly to negotiate a more formal treaty with the Road Builders before all lingering family ties withered to nothing.

(Command Race (Yosei) to Form Alliance with the Saku Rasi)
(Command City (Nordhelm) to Political Maneuver and steal Ships from the Saku Rasi)

A team of diplomatic aides attended the Road Builder summons, flanked by an honour guard consisting of the third company of the Liberators. Their demand was simple - those responsible for the attack on the Highways were to die; everything else was up to the Road Builders, but the price of crossing the Demons was death.

What they tried not to mention was that the diplomats had all been selected from the ranks of the Sky Troopers, and their extravagant formal wear had been modified to hide several daggers and a full suit of chain mail underneath. They had no intention of breaking the truce, but they had considered the possibility of attacking negotiations, so felt it necessary to be ready if the Road Builders had in fact set a trap.

(No mechanical effect)

Faced with an extended period of what could almost be termed peace, the Singers expanded south of Starfall, setting up shrines and memorials to the great duel between demigods that had taken place on the Polar Volcano, millennia ago. A unit in the old colours of the Black Watch was raised to protect this sacred ground.

Had the Singers known that they had just blockaded a Stringwork Core, they might have been more careful about where they settled; but alas, the shrines were built. Somewhere in the void, Makhleb smirked at its handiwork.

(Command Race (Singers) to Settle Territory the slopes of the Polar Volcano, around Core 3)
(Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (1st Black Watch))
(Command Army (1st Black Watch) to defend the Polar Volcano Zone)

Since the Battle of Eupnea, the Singers had envied the power of Golden Magic; in their various struggles alongside and against the Demons, this envy had grown in magnitude, but for many years they had had other, better dreams to focus on.

Now, the Singers had become aware of the advancements of the Shadowbirds. The air creatures were building to something, that much was clear, perhaps an invasion and slaughter of their people as the sea-lords once perpetrated. This alone would not have been enough pressure, had they not detected evidence of Golden Magic use seemingly out of nowhere - Singer vision did not natively detect Spirits, and it took cross referencing with the relatively moronic Undead Star's divine understanding to confirm that these Spirits were real.

With this spur, the Singers observed the principles, looked up their notes, gathered their gold supplies, and at last formed the connection to Makhleb that allowed them to wield the power of gold. Many Singers began wearing great gold rings on their tendrils, to channel this ancient and powerful magic.

Power roll: 2d6+3+3=14 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4340664/) points
Power rollover: 4 points
Total 18 points

2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Create Structure (The Nightshroud)
3 points: Command Race (Yosei) to Form Alliance with the Saku Rasi
2 points: Command City (Nordhelm) to Political Maneuver and steal Ships from the Saku Rasi
3 points: Command Race (Singers) to Settle Territory the slopes of the Polar Volcano, around Core 3
2 points: Command City (Astaroth) to Raise Army (1st Black Watch)
5 points: Event - The Singers use their extensive history with the Demons and their more recent sharing a continent with the Spirits to steal Golden Magic, claiming it for the Singer race.

0 points: Command Army (1st Black Watch) to defend the Polar Volcano Zone

1 point remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Rith]

Power Roll: 2d8+4=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4339795/)
Current Power Points: 25

The Demon dignitaries were treated to every luxury under the suns during their stay in Wetami. The finest silks, the most exotic pleasure houses (most of which actually were imports from the Demon lands), and gifts every day. It was suspected that doubts would be had by both sides, but the Saku Rasi made no attempts to investigate, and indeed, the Demons had a lovely time during their stay, regardless of if they kept their guard up the entire time.

Then the day came, and the Demons were directed to a secluded courtyard in one of the Wetami Ryokans, where a large sphere rested. With a few simple acts, the Saku Rasi escorts opened up a portal into the sphere, and then further in, leading the Demons down a long memorized path of portals, to the heart of the labyrinth.

Once there, they met several Saku Rasi "portalkeepers", who spent twelve hour shifts looking through the portal tunnels at happenings across the world.

Naturally, the hosts explained that the secrets of this wonder would be shared equally, but the mastery of it had only been achieved in the last few years. Of course, even in that short time, they had discovered many secrets, including the origin of the attack on the Demon Highways.

As they watched portals to remote locations far across the world, Saku Rasi explained how they had sent Saku Rasi spies, armed with the art of Shapeshifting, to infiltrate the city of Mitclan, to sow distrust by having particular Saku Rasi leaders in the city been seen engaging in wanton destruction, by sending in whispers out of the lips of trusted figures in the society, that Mitclan was using them, that Wetami was just as good a hub as Mitclan, but Wetami had less of a target painted on it's forehead, or that Wetami had less competition in the form of piracy.

First they had come as a trickle, then a flood, and the vast majority of simple pirates had been easily identified and imprisoned, but not until after Mitclan had been thoroughly emptied of the bulk of the Saku Rasi, until even the West Traders and the East Traders, the Saku Rasi armies of Mitclan, came, and attempted to swear allegiance to the "pirate lords" of Wetami, who had been a plant, a diversion, to lure the armies into a trap, where the portalkeepers had used their mastery of the Portal Labyrinth to drop them into a specially dug cavern, only reachable by portal.

This is where the party was directed to travel next, into the cavern where the armies, stripped of weapons and confined for weeks, rested. The prisoners had been made adequately comfortable, to help mitigate the horrid conditions, and, surprisingly, the cavern did not smell terrible.

The Saku Rasi hosts then gave the Demons a choice: A choice of what execution would be acted upon these prisoners.

1 point to Command the Wandering Sakura to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and take control of the East Traders.

1 point to Command the Seliss to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and take control of the West Traders.

1 point to Command the Blood Pit to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver to shake the commitment of the Saku Rasi of Mitclan and thereby remove them from the population of the city.

2 points to Command Wetami to Political Maneuver and disband both the East Traders and the West Traders.

2 points to Command Sela to Political Maneuver and prevent Mitclan from raising new armies for one round.

2 points to Command Hahebuto to Political Maneuver and prevent Iztec from raising new armies for one round.

2 points to Command Serpent's Den to Political Maneuver and prevent Aztla from raising new armies for one round.

6 points to Advance the Saku Rasi with Espionage.

Current Power Points: 8
Next Power Roll: 2d8+4=16 (http://orokos.com/roll/156690)

[Omegonthesane]

The Nordhelm Trading Company was more than a little worried to see the Road builders not even acknowledge their overtures; naturally, this resulted in actual concern for their own security, concern which manifested in the form of a unit of armed police. Ostensibly, these were to enforce the law and uphold public safety; in reality... they were certainly to uphold public safety, but had a significant reserve division of troops fit only for war as opposed to peace.

By this point, Voldrok's credentials were beyond compare in the admittedly narrow field of Kraith architecture, so his third great project was actually directly commissioned by the Security Committee rather than requiring a permission request. Apparently, they had had complaints of increased unease and despair throughout the city since the construction of the Beacon of Despair, even though it spent most of its time deactivated. Mere test firings of that great weapon of war were apparently painful to the surrounding Kraith, and required a new great artefact to counteract - as well as giving the opportunity to add another means of peacefully quelling rebellion.

New broadcast towers rose up, white in contrast to the black towers of the Nightshroud. These emitted a faint hum of Telepathy which cloaked the whole city, at a pitch and volume they were not fully aware of. In this way, it continually reminded the citizens of the nature and duties of the Security Committee, quelling their fears and countering the occasional feeble thought of rebellion.

Strangely, once the Beacon of Hope was fully established, more of the inevitable travellers and traders began to stay in Newhaven and set up shop. The largest of these, in influence if not in simple numbers, was the population of Trell wanderers - even among that wise race, some were disenchanted with the slow and careful pace of the Grove, and preferred Newhaven's more interventionist approach to dealing with threats to the common good. The fact that the Newhaven Kraith were opposed to everything that mainstream Kraith stood for did not hurt in the least, nor the fact that Trell had no blood and thus could not become prey if a citizen lost control.

We have control
We keep you safe
We are your hope

Power roll (+3 Chaos, +3 Cults) (http://orokos.com/roll/156746): 2d6+3+3 10
Power rollover: 1 point
Total 11 points

2 points: Command City (Nordhelm) to Raise Army (Nordhelm Police)
2 points: Command City (Newhaven) to Create Structure (The Beacon of Hope)
2 points: Command City (Grove) to Political Maneuver and introduce a Trell population to Newhaven

5 points remaining
+3 Cults to next roll
+3 Chaos to next roll

[Neelien]

rolled 5 (http://orokos.com/roll/156932) bringing me up 36
While the Shadowbirds had come up with technologies that could counter Singers, they understood that portals would likely not be their only problem when it would come to actual battles. So they continued their research. A few very interesting ideas soon emerged.

The first one was condensation of Magic. By extrapolating the magic they used in Resonance Arrows, they managed to collect Magic in liquid form. Liquid Magic was soon found to have a great variety of applications. First and foremost, it could be used to increase the power of Shadowbird glyph-based arrows. Indeed, having a source of magic power, these arrows could now be much more powerful. For example, a single Resonance Arrow modified to have a 1 ml compartiment holding Liquid Magic was on average 5% more powerful than a regular Resonance Arrow. Once they'd seen the power of liquid mana in small quantities, the Shadowbirds decided they would not test Liquid Mana on a large scale, and would keep that as a trump card in case of war. They also did everything in their power to ensure that the research would not spread, because they understood that its applications were much broader than simply use in weapons, for many of these were described by old legends.

Another side of the research focused on materials with high magical capacity. Such materials were percieved as great counter to any sort of directly destructive spell that the Singers likely had. Many materials were tested, and ultimately, a material known as Sturin was discovered. This was a composite material made of multiple layers of different more common materials that when combined together had massive magic absorbing properties. Interestingly enough, this composite was also polarised, meaning that only one side absorved Magic, while the other did not do anything particular. This meant that powerful armour could be made with it, and while it wasn't as resilient a steel against physical damage, it was by far the best way to protect against magic attacks. This material could also be to some degree used in weapons to destroy magical items.

With all those new technologies, the Shadowbirds could afford to decrease their army size, which led to the formation of a third army, the Squadron for Frontline Tactical Operations.

The Shadowbirds also turned to the humans for ideas. Maybe their knowledge of Metallurgy, Armouring and Swordmaking could give new ideas to teh Shadowbirds. Of course the Shadowbirds were ready to provide some of their own understandings in exchange if the Humans were not in the mood for free exchange. They were ready to teach the humans Lockon and Marksmanship as well as some their more basic Levitating Sigils.

(Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Liquid Magic)
(Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Anti-magic Armour)
(Command Order Admiralty to raise army Squadron for Frontline Tactical Operations)
(Trade: Figurae (Metallurgy, Armouring, Swordsmanship) to Andromeda (Lockon,Marksmanship, Levitating Sigils). The Humans may choose which of these they want, but the more they take, the less relations between the two races are going to be good (it's not that big of an impact but it does have one). To complement their research, the Shadowbirds build a huge weapon that accelerated projectiles weighing on average 20 tons using modified Levitation Sigils. This weapon became known as the Horizontal Levitation Accelerator or Horlev for short. It was so huge it required its own carrier that could only carry a few projectiles.

(Command Race Shadowbirds to create Wonder "Horlev", a carrier that can fire huge projectiles to bombard cities from a very safe distance)
When the Third Core was begining to be blockaded by the Singer Shrines, the Stringwork rapidly came up with a plan to negate the effects of it without attacking the Singers. Finally, after so many years, Roads now had a use. The Stringwork began an huge construction project to connect the top of the Volcanoe to the ocean by a series of underground flat tunnels. Considering the vast quantities of energy the Stringwork absorbed from the Volcanoe, the project would only 20 years to achieve, at which point the Third Core would be reconnected to the rest of the Stringwork.

(Event. The Third Core negates the Blockade by building a huge underground tunnel. This will come into effect 4 turns from now.)

12 points : Advance Civ. Shadowbirds with Liquid Magic and Anti-magic Armour)
3 points : Command Race Shadowbirds to create Wonder "Horlev"
2 points : Command Order Admiralty to raise Army "Squadron for Frontline Tactical Operations"
2 points : Command City Adromeda to trade with Figurae (details above)
5 points : Event - The Stringwork will have negated the blockade of its third core 4 turns from now.
5 points : Event - The Stringwork takes the Lyre of Prophecy from Sera and modifies her memory so that she does not remember that the Stringwork has Memoryworks and Shapeshifting.

29 points spent
7 points remaining, +0 next turn

[5a Violista]

Then, she remembered: she could bless some of the races with more magic. Hopefully they spread them across the world; that would be helpful.

Next, Aniqua journeyed along with the faeries. She taught them more forms of magic; this time, she taught them how to use illusions and mirages, which they cleverly incorporated into their life as well. With these illusions, they were able to appear as large as a demon or an elf, making speaking with them much easier. (After all, who respects someone you could step on without a second thought?)

With the arrival of the Earthquake Drum in the Idrian territory again, she decided to help them with their construction, as she had done earlier with the Maimec. However, instead of teaching them large and ornate buildings (the Idrians already had plenty of beauty in their cities), she taught those Idrians how to keep their buildings and mines from caving in, especially from earthquakes and so on.



3 + 2d6=7 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4342261/) + 3/3 + 3/3 = 16


(6) Advance civilization: Faeries, in Illusions. (Unless, of course, some other race has already done this. In that case, I'll change it for something better.) (+ Political?)
(6) Advance civilization: Idrians, in Earthquake-proof Buildings (their buildings become much more likely to stand against destruction and earthquakes that often happen)

Remainder: 4