Pan-aeons: a God Game

[The JoJo]

Juniper, Sunset Forest, Ebonbark Bay - 26AP

Juniper tore through the forest, the bloodied amberis knife still clutched in his hand. The now-sixteen-year-old had half a mind to throw it away, but he might still need it if his pursuers caught up with him.

If only they hadn't insulted his mother. If only he had been able to keep his anger under control. He could see her now, disappointment written across her face. His pace slowed as he reached the edge of the river, swollen by recent heavy rainfall.

He would never go back to the village, he resolved, but neither did he have anywhere else to go. Perhaps it would be best if he threw himself into the foaming waters and ended it all there and then.

"No," a voice above him said. "I have other plans for you."

Juniper started and then cowered before the great corvid. Avestra descended to the branch above him, fixing him with a beedy-eyed stare.

"He still lives, though barely. I will see that he makes a full recovery in time."

"Thank you," Juniper murmured. He let the knife fall from his grasp. "But, why me?"

"You have been raised by the Crow in accordance with my ways," Avestra said spreading a wing, "but beyond this forest, countless more of your kind live in darkness. You must take my words back to the tallheads and teach them to live as one with nature as the Crow do."

"I... I wouldn't know where to start."

"Your adoptive mother saw something in you which I didn't. I was wrong where she was right. Come, let me show you."

Avestra swept her wing over Juniper and the next thing he knew, he had been tossed into the air. The bird goddess soared above him, not in the form of a crow, but a great snowy owl. Juniper looked down and saw below him a herd of wilder beasts. Trailing the herd was a pride of big cats.

"See how the lions stalk the beasts? What do you think happens when they eat too many of the herd?"

"They... go hungry?" Juniper ventured.

"Precisely. An excess of predators causes scarcity in their prey species, which in turn reduces the predator population. Nature is self-balancing in many ways like this. Come."

Avestra swept her wing once more and this time Juniper found himself floating above a lake, crisscrossed by huts and bridges. Fishermen were hauling nets stuffed with more fish than he had ever seen in his life.

"There will be a feast tonight and probably tomorrow, but the day after that?" Avestra said in his ear. "Once the fish are gone from the lake, man's ingenuity will allow him to move onto the next pristine source. The balance of nature has been overridden."

The avian goddess spun in the air and reality itself seemed to corkscrew. When it unfurled again, Juniper found himself in the midst of a grey place thronged with people. Tallheads like himself. The stench from the huts, the gutters and the people themselves, was overpowering.

"This is a city. The nuclei of mankind. Ever growing. Ever multiplying."

"I don't understand. Where are all the trees?" Juniper asked in a quiet voice. He reached out to touch a passerby, his hand going straight through her.

"There are none here. The whole world will one day be like this, unless a different path is taken."

Avestra let out a primal cry and the city around them melted away, to be replaced by the familiar riverbank they had been standing on.

"What must I do?" Juniper asked after a pause.

"Go and teach your birth people everything the Crow have taught you," Avestra said, tilting her head sideways. "But first, you must head north and west from here until you find a great city called Al-Sinai. On the day you arrive, there will be a celebration for the birth of a child. You will bring her this."

Avestra swept her wing across Juniper and a small, ornately-carved wooden box materialised in his hands.

"Do not open the box until you reach the palace. Inside there is something that will help you gain entry. Good luck."

Spoiler: Action

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Influence 100k mortals (12 AP, 8 DC) with +2 nature and +2 birds, by founding the Way of the Divine Owl faith. Will also use the 2+ Avestra's Perch from the sanctification of Sunset Forest, if possible, as the action starts within Sunset Forest and spreads its culture to new lands.

Over the next generation, Juniper preaches the Way of the Divine Owl across central Tria. The majority of its followers are found in the Empire of the Holy Flame, but there are also communities in Grawpolis and the Toran Savannah.

The Followers of the Divine Owl believe that Avestra is the supreme deity and ultimate creator of the universe. The existence of other gods is acknowledged, though, for example Graw as the god of knowledge, or Chern as the guardian of the dead.

Followers of the Owl believe that all mortals used to live in harmony with nature, until the fox trickster Alatadriel stole fire from the Sun god Yir and gave it to humanity. This caused a great separation between man and nature. Only by adhering to the teachings of Avestra can mortals free themselves from the cycle of rebirth and rejoin the eternal flock.

Particularly devout followers will abstain from all relations that can result in pregnancy, even between husband and wife, in order to avoid adding to the world population. These followers will instead adopt unwanted or orphaned children to raise in the faith.