[IC] LoC: From Blood Divine

[ezekielraiden]

The Ends That Were Our Beginning

Before the beginning, there was...nothing. Not a nothing of absence, because that would imply a place for there to be something. This was Nothing Absolute, without even space to occupy or time to measure. Then, suddenly, there was Something, and that Something was Creation, for as soon as there was anything, it could only be through Creation, the force by which all things come to be. But as soon as there was anything, there was the answering reply, Destruction, the return to Nothing. Thus did twinned Creation and Destruction birth from the same event, but ever oppose each other in all things.

For countless eons, they rained blows down upon one another, every strike a story, every melee a myth unto itself, the rhythm of their blows the only means by which one might recon time. Ever did Creation try to trap or seize or inhibit Destruction, and ever did Destruction try to unmake or erase Creation. On and on they battled, and perhaps an infinitude of other worlds came and went, forever lost in the haze of their conflict; nothing of them, not even a whisper, remained that was not caught up into Creation and Destruction themselves. Never did they tire, for Creation always rose anew from any thing that came to be, and likewise her sibling Destruction rose anew from each thing that ceased to be.

But finally...after an age of ages, the war without end changed. Creation struck a telling blow against Destruction, and he fell, twisting and screaming in defiance. As he did, Creation had a revelation. To destroy Destruction was impossible, for he would ever arise from the very act of undoing him. Yet her own destruction was not so forestalled--to destroy Creation simply meant to never let anything new come to be. Thus, instead of permitting the possibility that she might one day fail, where her brother-enemy might not, she embraced the end of their conflict by the end of their separate lives. As Destruction fell, Creation embraced him, and commingled his essence and hers. The blood of their wounds seeped out and blended together, and the weight of their bodies transformed into new and strange forms. Thus did they roll out, like a scroll, like an undrawn map, unfurled and hungry for ink. The fires of Destruction still raged below, but the ever-changing skies above held great potential. Walls east and west, north and south held the world in, separate from the Nothing beyond.

Destruction is not dead, but lives no longer. Creation was not slain, but instead became the world, birthing the silent ocean beneath the face of the Deep. No light cut through its darkness, but soon that would change, for the mingled blood of Creation and Destruction shall ever be a powerful thing. As one struggle begat another, so do their powers beget other powers strange and wondrous in their own right...

[ezekielraiden]

The Wheel in the Sky

Far above the table set by Creation, where floated motes of blood she and Destruction shed before their transformation, a configuration emerged. Though in large part it was born of Creation's blood, desiring growth and preservation, it was not solely of her. The desire to make, not merely any works, but perfect works, flowed strongly in it: the need to do away with that which was imperfect, whether in whole or in part. Is not purification is impossible without destruction?

This mote, this desire, stretched out from its beginning, yet not along a straightwise route. The First World was only so large; to be a line unbounded served no purpose. To build up to what is better, to seize opportunity anew, one could not simply rush forward heedless of one's path. The need to check, to purify one's own works, could not be ignored. The mote curved, gently but unerringly, until it met back with itself--a circle of gold in the void. The circle beheld the First World, empty but pregnant with promise. Yet with waters like glass and heavens empty, what could mark the passage? What could be done but circle around the same path, endlessly, forever? No, there had to be more than just the heedless charge and the stillness-in-motion of the circle. There had to be a way to mark Before, so that there could be an After.

So the circle marked the world with its own first act of Creation. It thought a word, and spoke a word, and marked the passage. "OR." From this, came Light, the first light to touch the First World since its creation, a brilliant sun shining down on placid waters.

The circle reflected. It was now more than it had been. Perhaps now it needed more; perhaps it had grown in the doing.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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New deity. 16/16 AP.

Create Land (2 AP): The sun. Perhaps it will have a name, later. For now, it is light, and warmth, and all the things a useful sun should be. Its golden rays shine down on the First World and welcome the children of Creation and Destruction. [Sun (Revelation) 2/10]

Remaining AP: 14/16

[Razade]

Zhang Shu: The Void


From vapor and ash, from mist and steam, it came for in the quiet moments of war there was peace and from peace further conflict. A rolling tide that balanced until both sides fell silent. The invisible war whose battles raged eternal before time, the smoke and the fury grew cold, grew hot and poured Elsewhere. It was here in the reflection, not a mirror, of The First World Zhang-Shu dwelt. This mistborn world was but a single mountain in a sea of clouds, the peak a temple to the Lord of Steam and its sides covered in lush greenery, for it was thus the Lord saw for Creation.

On this mountain the Lord did weave, long rolls of silk and gold with edges sharp and ragged and like kites it flew them in the azure that dwelt above. In the cloudless skies they took life, The Lord of Steam and its Court of Great Dragons, and so it did look upon The First World, content that the actions were taken even if the time was not yet set for its creations to soar under a limited sky for what good was life if mortal things could not grow?

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Game Start: 16AP

Create Plane (The Harvested Peak of Zhan Shu) - 3AP: The Harvested Peak of Zhan Shu is a mountain so large that the bottom cannot be seen, surrounded by a sea of clouds so dense that climbing down into their banks plunge all immediatly into blindness. The top of the peak is hewn into a vast temple and the sides of the mountain are terraced and filled with bountiful life and pristine waters. These rivers and waterfalls seem crafted, rather than natural and the entire realm seems built to allow these waters to descend down into the clouds themselves. Great Dragons ply the skies, which are of the deepest blue. No sun can be seen, but day is present as well as night. Days are cool and mild, nights are warm and tranquil upon the Peak. [Creation (Balance) 3/10]

Create Legendary Life (The Great Dragons) - 5AP: The Great Dragons are vast creatures of serpentine body and cunning mind capable of dwelling in all but the most hostile of environments. Dragons possess strange powers, from wingless flight, to adamant scales, flaming breath and other powers that one might consider magic. With all this strength however The Great Dragons are few in number and bucolic, dwelling in and with nature and rarely bellicose or dangerous unless provoked. [Creation (Balance) 8/10]

16 - 5 - 3 = 8AP

[Feathersnow]

The Therian Epistle
Book One, Chapter One

(1)Naught was before Alpha.

(2)Yes and No summed to Naught, and they expanded to many variables, and of the First Expansion was Alpha.

(3)No by Yes begat Alpha.

(4) Alpha was without form. And Alpha spake himself unto the form of a Dog.

(5) Alpha was Alone. And Alpha spake unto himself a companion.

(6)There was no land upon which for his companion to stand. So Alpha spake unto existence Cynux, and all the kinds and kindred of Cynux.

(7) Alpha and his companion begat all the kinds and kindred of Cynux. Four legs and two, all were begat of Alpha.

(8)Cynux is the Land of Alpha. We live here.

(9)We are the Blood of Alpha.

(10)Alpha is the Blood of All.

Chapter Two

(1)In the beginning, Chaos receded into Creation. A void left behind was the mouth of Alpha.

(2)Having given himself the body of a Dog, it was meet that Alpha have a Person. So Alpha Spake one into being. The Wild One.

(3) A Person must have a Place, so Alpha dug into the floor of the world and dragged up Cynux, the Land.

(4) Cynux had trees and beasts. The fiercest was the chupacabra and the fleetest was the jackalope.

(5) The jackalopes could never live except in the shadow of the chupacabras. And then they changed, to have cunning and dexterity.. But they had no souls

(6) Alpha spake the Dream-Song, and souls fastened to the slyest of the Jackalopes, and they were otherwise. The Jaxi.

(7)the Jaxi tamed wolves to guard the from the chupacabras. The first dogs.

(8) And the Jaxi increased while the chupacabras decreased.

(9) Alpha led the greatest dam of the dogs to the greatest sire of the chupacabras in secret and in shadow, and she gave forth the first hellhounds.

(10) The hellhounds had minds without souls and could brave the Dream. The Jaxi had cunning words and could provide for them well. And, forever after, they, Jackalope and Chupacabra, would go on together

Commentary

There are two competing hypotheses for the origin of the Therian Epistle. Tradition holds it is the published memoirs of the Wild One, who adventured with the mysterious Dog God in the early days of the world. It was submitted in fundamentally the received form, and all apparent discrepancies were intended, but the shades of meaning required to reconcile them require an epistemology not readily apparent to modern students.

The second hypothesis holds they are a collection of myths of the ancestors of modern Jaxi, anthologized and submitted as received without commentary.

What is known for sure is the Jaxi bear strong superficial resemblance to jackalopes and they domesticated the dog in their earliest pre-history, and learned to harness the magical potential of chupacabra-dog crossings soon after, though that potential is latent, or absent, in both parent stocks.

Spoiler: AP actions

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1 AP- Create Mythic Concept- Magic (shared)
Travel (metaphorical) 1/10
The alteration of reality by esoteric means

Shared with: Arkhos, Uisige, Baghsandesh

1AP- Create Mythic sub-concept- Pacts
Travel (metaphorical) 2/10
Being bestowed with the power to alter reality by a third power.
Shared with: Uisige

1AP- Create Mundane concept- Hounds
Community (partnership) /10
The keeping of animals for companions, guarding, and hunting.

1 AP- Weave Plane- The Spirit World (shared)
Travel (metaphorical) 3/10
“There is a plane whose limits are only that of imagination. This plane is filled with dreaming minds and souls, both of which are the same thing except souls have become untethered from living bodies, as well as specially trained animals that can survive on the plane for short periods.”
Shared with: Uisige, Baghsandesh


2 AP- Raise Hero- The Wild One
Land (Beasts) 2/10
A wild man who accompanies Alpha. Resembles both Sasquatch and Enkidu.

2 AP- Create land- Cynux
Land (beasts) 4/10
Very closely resembles North America as it existed in 1700. Extremely flat central desert ringed by forests of varying types.


1 AP- Create monstrous life- Jackalopes
Race (Rabbitfolk) 1/10
Creatures that have limited probability manipulation powers and extreme agility. Resemble very large rabbits with pronged horns.


1AP- Create Racial sublife- Jaxi (shared)
Race (Rabbitfolk) 2/10
Small, knuckle-walking people that can skip very fast. They have small horns, that are not very gender-differentiated. If statistics existed, they would note any set attempting to map populations of Jaxi has an inexplicably large standard deviation.
Shared with Selinakos

1 AP Create monstrous life- Chupacabras
Legend (Folklore) 1/10
Bald, sleek creature similar to coyotes with lamprey heads and lizard-like spikes on their spines.


1 AP- Create monstrous sub-life- Hellhounds
Community (partnership) 2/10
Large dogs with vicious teeth and short, spiky hair.

1 AP- Blessing- The Blood of Alpha
Community (partnership) 3/10
All domesticated or trained animals that have any trace of ancestry of a monster created by Alpha can be trained as a familiar.

1AP- Blessing- Therian Epistle
Legend (folklore) 2/10
The creations and adventures of Alpha are well known around Cynux. Even new creations are perceived as having been around indefinitely and only being discovered recently.

Totals-
16 starting-14 spent= 2 AP Remain
Domains-
Magic (Foci) Starting
Animals (domestic) Starting
Travel (metaphorical) 3/10
Land (beasts) 4/10
Community (partnership) 3/10
Race (Rabbitfolk) 2/10
Legend (folklore) 2/10

[Gunhaven]

Birth of a Deity - Above Cynux
In the beginning Uisge was allowed to slumber and rest with no disturbances. It existed within the sea as nothing more than a random collection of bits of Creation and Destruction, dancing idly around each other. And then the sleep was interrupted by things emerging from their primordial birth place and those things making such a commotion. With a yawn It was born, this collection of divinity that tried to get away from the noise below by floating into the air.

This cloud of divinity slowly shed two parts of It's body and the three continued to dance around each other as they started to form more solid shapes. The largest understood Itself to be Uisge, the Ceaseless Downpour, and It's color reflected the grays of It's mood. The second was called Scamall, who's rain would change the land below for better or worse. And the third was called Neul, who's rains brought new noise to the commotion down below. The three clouds, first of their kind, began to drift through the sky above and pour down their rain on the land and sea below.

The rain from Scamall ate away at the southern (more southeastern) coast of Cynux, as best as such a thing could be called, and washed away the soil while leaving the trees. In time it would be a mangrove swamp but for now it simply meant that the natives of the area had to adjust or flee. At the same time the rains of Neul mixed with the runoff and caused small brown orbs to form. Barely alive, they seemed content to just roll around their birthplace and occasionally attack the natives of the area or, if nothing else was present, themselves. They popped into mud when killed, as if the runoff from the rain had been concentrated.

Spoiler: AP Expenditure

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Starting AP: 16/16
5AP - Create Major Utility Artifact (of Alter Land) - Scamall, That Which Washes Away - Taking the form of a deep blue cloud who's rains are the same color, Scamall changes the land that it rains upon. Scholars could debate that it drew most of the blood of Destruction that composed Uisge at first, since it's unable to create but is still too weak to outright destroy that which it touches. Going towards Ocean (Coasts)
0AP - Alter Land - The Mangrove Swamps of Cynux - Continuing with the North America analog for the continent, along the Southeast Coast roughly 200 miles inland (plus or minus a hundred miles) the land is washed away while leaving the trees behind. Vast tracts of swamp, bayou, bogs, and/or marshland are all that are left behind. Inexplicably the swamp starts a few hundred miles from the southern-most point of the continent and snakes up to roughly a few hundred miles from the eastern-most point of the continent.

5AP - Create Major Utility Artifact (of Create Monstrous Life) - Neul, That Which Births Life - Taking the form of a white cloud who's rains reflect like rainbows in the light, Neul's waters bring forth life. Unfortunately said life turns out to be hostile almost every time. For now it seems set on creating blobs of barely alive matter, at least. Going towards Life (Oozes)
0AP - Create Monstrous Life - Lliads - Born from the mud created by the falling rain, Lliads could be analogous to the brown slimes you see in starter areas of some video games. They are barely contained orbs of brown liquid that roll around the area they're born in and attack with a pseudopod. Their skin is just tough enough to survive run ins with rocks and a couple smacks but they're fairly weak. They also seem to have no intelligence, sometimes observed smacking rocks or trees with the thought that it's an enemy to be defeated. Those that they do defeat are eventually left alone as they roll off to some other place. When killed the mud that made them bursts out.

1AP - Curse - The Runoff Effect - Where Neul's rains fall, monsters form. Born from the runoff that would be created by the rain eating away at the land, these monsters continue to form until eventually they fight themselves or Neul meanders off to rain some place else. Going towards Life (Oozes)
1AP - Bless - The Rain Cycle - The rain that falls from Uisge and It's creations seem to encourage life when they depart an area. Flowers spread, creatures are healthier, and overall the land (what's left of it at least) is more vibrant. Going towards Ocean (Coasts)

The below's for the spirit world and is mainly me doing my part for the shared costs:
Shared with: Alpha, Baghsandesh 1AP - Weave Plane - The Spirit World - Uisge for It's part helps form the land on which the Spirit World operates, composed of Ectoplasm (as It calls it). Going towards Spirit (Ectoplasm)
1AP - Curse - The Long Rest - An untethered soul will eventually start to lose the drive that keeps it "alive", causing it to slowly lose it's shape. Given enough time an untethered soul will lose enough drive that it simply lays down and joins the vast ocean of Ectoplasm that fills the Spirit World. There's no real rhyme or reason with how long this process takes and it seems to differ from individual to individual. Going towards Spirit (Ectoplasm)
Shared with Arkhos, Uisige, Alpha 1AP - Create Mythical Concept - Magic - Through imagination anything is possible. Going towards Spirit (Ectoplasm)
Shared with: Alpha 1AP - Create Subconcept - Pact Magic - By forming pacts with individuals who can travel the Spirit World, they can bring back a portion of the possibility that fills the plane, and help make dreams manifest as reality. Going towards Spirit (Ectoplasm)

Ending AP: 0
Artifact Charges: 0/2

[Razade]

Zhang Shu: The Void


It was such as the golden disk rose within the Void that Zhang Shu rode out into the darkness upon the Great Dragon Whose Call Rings Out in Creation Unto a Swift. The heat blasted upon the given form of the divinity, revealing but a withered man of ancient years perched upon the head of the serpentine beast. Out from the light stretched infinite dark, unbalanced and untethered and so from the great heat Zhang Shu crafted a smaller image to hang in the sky. It was the light of the vast Sun yet cool, the fury gentled for such was existence. Creation and Destruction, Hot and Cold, Light and Void. All were in truth were one, and nothing.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 8

Alter Land (The Moon) - 1AP: The Moon is a reflection of the Sun upon the Void. It is not a true creation even though it is visible from the First World and within the Void. It has no substance, no presence in the physical reality of the Void. [The Void (Illusion) 1/10]

8AP - 1AP = 7AP

[Mechalich]

Memoirs of Synessa, the Cloudfisher

On the Earliest Ages
Loathe am I to speak of the foundation of the First World and the beginning actions of the Gods. Such things happened before my creation, and always I feel adrift, as if lost in fog, when referring to such matters. Everything that came later, even events I had no hope of witnessing in person or of even speaking to a witness, at least those I can place against some landmark of memory and thereby anchor in time. Those before, they are too nebulous, even time itself may have been treacherous in those ages. For all the lengthy breadth of my existence, I believe that the time that passed before, in the founding age, was greater, a length of time truly immeasurable when the gods first were formed and looked upon the world.

Yet speak to this time I must, for without a foundation, no story can possibly stand. Caution always in these things, however, especially regarding the words of the gods themselves. Nathces, my creator and so much more, never readily related the tales of this time. I believe, daring in my speculation, that being a fluid entity it was not then as it was later, or would become thereafter. Always changing, the deity of that formative age was another thing entirely from the one that made me, and different again from the one I came to know as the cycles turned. Its memory cannot therefore be trusted, for those are the recollections of another thing entirely. Strange as it may seem, I, being less than divine but more than mortal, stand firm against the shift of eternity in a way my maker cannot. I am myself forever, something the Ceaseless cannot be.

These caveats given, here is the tale as I was told.

Emergence
In the deep dark places where the boundaries at the base of the world thinned, the burbling effusions of Destruction percolated across the gaps into the cool blanket of Creation. There, in this place of transition, this cline of base existence, energy flowed, coiled, twisted, and shaped into a conflux of divine power. Not locked in place, but defined by motion, a consciousness awakened within the flows of this boundary, drifted into being among the channels of essence.

This mind was Nathces, known as the Ceaseless, for it was itself an agent of motion, and to stop was anathema to it. It arose in darkness, in the deepest places of the oceans, places roiled by constant change that no longer exist, buried by the interaction of Creation and Destruction. Thus, it left birth behind, and advanced across the endless scope of Creation, searching and seeking.

Long did it wander in that endless time before time, when all was still and dark and no life yet filled the oceans or trod the lands. Indeed, before land itself broke through the face of the ocean. Nathces saw the still sea in its entirety, all one and the same forever, same where Destruction and Creation mingled, and it was discontent. The empty scroll of the world was not enough, insufficient to the ceaseless hunger for all that is and shall be.

Populating
Long Nathces wandered the endless depths, the open space unformed. In the deep places, where the lingering essence of Destruction it observed strange mingling. Dark smoke spewed forth from the bounds, and streams of water rose to liquid boil. Within such twisted and melded forms emerged a seed of something new and different, a formation previously unknown, one able to change all that surrounded it. Life.

Having looked upon this in fascination, Nathces rose to the surface and turned its face to the new sun, felt the warmth and power it protected downward. It contemplated this and wondered at what might be should life drink of this new source of potency. Heeding this it reached into the depths, gathered the simple forms that spread there, and placed them upon the surface. Blossoming beneath the sun, they multiplied and changed endlessly, and gathered to themselves new material, forming stony shells and mounds in great profusion. The foundation of a new land.

Nathces spun this cycle beneath its sight, ten thousand, ten million times in the ancient eons, and from the bosom of tiny forms blossomed towering mountains, vast plateaus, and grand expanses of sand. Land formed, descended from the waves on the tendrils of the living, and in time tore into the floor below and rent forth even greater sources of material to rise and build. When all was finished, beneath the light of the new moon, Nathces refined the new land beneath the sea, and churned the formation of life to new complexity. Tweaked and twisted by exposure to new environments, these simple things multiplied, changed, and grew vast in their diversity. Crustaceans, fish, jellies, worms, and countless others wound their way through the seas. Great reefs arose from coral and shell along the shallow slopes, vast beds of grass expanded upon the sand and mud. In time pioneering beings crawled onto the island beaches and cliffs, to make homes there. As eons passed complex forms even took to the sky winging through the vast pale blue above. Others descended elsewhere, into the dark canyons and trenches behind the mountains, and formed new and strange homes in the abyss. In this way was the land called Esanca made.

Nathces watched all as unfolded, observing change and development, the myriad possibilities, those chosen, and those neglected, and it grasped at processes hidden until then even from divine sight.

Designing
Having formed and husbanded the life across many environments, land and sea and sky, Nathces learned the nature of being, and of reproduction. It came to know how life could change itself, to shifts its steps in the endless dance between creatures and all that surrounds them, and how it could not. Though wondrous, on its own the ballet between Creation and Destruction faced limitations, for it held no mind, no reasoning behind it, blind to both future and past, trapped in the needs of the now.

Once complete in its enlightenment as to the nature of life, the Ceaseless inevitably pushed past such barriers, as it must. Such limits did not apply to its own actions; therefore, it would break them. It chose for its first effort the great mantas. Why I cannot say, this much Nathces has never revealed. Perhaps it possessed a fondness for their endless migration across the waves, or mayhap it found inspiration in their fervent attacks to breach the boundary of sea and sky. Whatever the reason, they were reshaped by the divine hand. Their vast fins were strengthened and stiffened by crystalline spars, their spiraling guts expanded and blossomed to wide chambers filled with strange gases, and the thorny scales about their mouths expanded to a second flowering of teeth, a snapping net affronted to their maws. They grew vast too, more than thrice the size of their watery cousins. Once finished, Nathces cast them forth, to soar upon sea and sky alike, and feast among the great schools of the fluid realms.

Thus were the Cloud Mantas born.

Refraction of Thought
The creation of the Cloud Mantas proved that a mind could invoke design, could guide the processes of life with reason, at least for the divine. Inspired by this, Nathces flowed swiftly unto the next step, the creation of beings that could themselves reason and shape. Already it had observed beings upon the cusp of reason. Mammals returned to the seas and developed vast and potent brains capable of great complexity, it would take but the slightest touch to push them forth to true enlightened understanding. Yet Nathces knew the simple fins of such forms restricted their potential. To grasp and twist, caress and cradle, this flexibility was needed to unlock the power of thought, of reason. In the nearby islands it found beings with the necessary limbs, and forward-facing eyes to examine objects from all sides. Their form, graced with the blessing of the sea, would serve well.

Nathces took these tree-climbers and fruit eaters and changed them. Fuzzy fur stripped free, replaced with smooth, dolphin-like skin. Fin-rays were added to the limbs, webbing between fingers and toes, to empower movement in sea and surf. Gills too, were remade upon the neck, and the innards and eyes shifted to survive breaches of the lightless depths. Many other changes, unobserved, were forged by Nathces upon the flesh until the formed served the Ceaseless will, one capable of life on land and sea alike, able to travel all realms, so long as water, the substance of life, be not lost.

Thus, we, the Cesezas, were made. We awakened in the soft blue beneath the gaze of the Ceaseless. Others call us Merfolk now, an acceptable appellation, for we have always favored the sea above all other realms. Know that is not who we truly are; first among the design-gifted of Nathces.

Plumb and Grasp
Here my own memories begin. Perhaps you doubt this? Know that it is true then, for I was not born, but made, I stood among the first generation of the Ceseza and received my name from the voice of my maker sung through sea spray. I know not birth, nor childhood, and never shall. A blessing and a curse alike, fashioned by divine agency and inserted into the cycle of life from a place that never before existed. Many are my kindred in this fate, for much was made by the gods in those early eons, though few now remain who recall them. It saddens me, to consider that, though this too is both blessing and curse. Endurance is merely continuation and holds neither good nor ill.

But no matter. I should speak of those times after we were formed, raw and slick and full of struggle. Though the early world was vibrant and rich, we were simple, and held none of the comforts that would come later. Though our bodies were strong and tough, as Nathces made them, so too were those of other creatures. To find food we fought and bled and hid, every bite wrested at great effort and price. Barely did we endure.

This, it came, was not the purpose for which we had been made. Already many others filled the flow of the red wash. Unable to exercise the potential of our reason, we could not explore the possibilities it afforded us. Seeing this, Nathces bestowed upon us a gift. A simple thing at first, this art, but one that resounds down the ages and finds use still. The art of hook and rod and net and more that has earned the appellation ‘fishing’ though its power serves to catch far more than that.

Granted to us, we found our food with ease thereafter, and took from the sea and shore of fish and fowl alike, leveraged by spine and rope and trap. With this in hand the world opened to us. We went where we willed, spread wide across all seas and shores and our numbers grew.

Maker-Marked
From my earliest days I was a stalker. I killed crabs upon the beaches by throwing rocks. I wrestled eels in the shallows and stonefish in the crevices. I dug with sticks among the mangrove roots to find fingerlings. All this and more I still recall, bloody hands and scraped face in those raw times.

When Nathces gave fishing to us I adopted the path at once. I made my first hook from the spine of a hermit crab, and soon others from bone and stone. Alongside my brethren I wove nets of kelp and lines of sinew. I learned every method we could fathom, and tested strength and cunning against all possible prey, the greater the better, for the greater the beast the more bellies filled. As my confidence grew, so too my targets. All the mighty creatures of the sea were prey to my harpoon. Shark and squid and swordfish and seal and even sperm whale, I took them all. Even the seabirds were not safe, for I learned to hook and net them too, a method not much different against the blue above than within the blue below.

One day, driven by some strange inspiration I know not, I turned my sight to the greatest catch of all. High atop a great sea stack, I watched the Cloud Mantas fly past, preying on the shoals of Skuas. As the last among their pod pressed on above, I hurled my harpoon.

Carved ivory lodged true at the base of the jaws. The rope spun taught at once. Great fluid wings flexed, and the manta pulled me from my perch into the sky. Desperately I clung to the harpoon, the ridged wood my lifeline, as I hurtled forth through the clouds, dragged by the manta’s immense puissance. The wound, barely bleeding, would not swiftly bring down such a mighty beast, and I knew my arms would fail me and unleash the fatal plunge far sooner.

Yet sky and sea are alike, both bear currents in their fluid range. I was, and am, Ceseza, made to swim through reason. Twisting against the wind, I fluttered behind and bent the rope to my purpose, rising and falling in pattern. Once, twice, thrice did I wrap the corded hide about the manta’s tail, until its taught binding pulled the appendage upward and forced the great beast down to the breakers below.

When it struck, in that single moment of stunned impact, I rushed forward along the back and plunged my shark-tooth knife through the thick skin behind the jaws to cleave the brain. The cloud manta shuddered once and was still. I had fished the great soarer of blended realms.

The day Nathces watched me and marked me out. “The sky was not given to your people, but you have claimed it as your own, a thing not seen before. This must not be lost. Your sight will stand for all of yours, and be added to the flow, as it must. You are the Cloudfisher, and you shall survive so long as the horizon beckons.”

And so, I have. Though we chase endlessly, the horizon cannot be caught.

Spoiler: tl;dr

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Nathces makes a submerged continent, full of coral reefs and seagrass beds. Then it makes some giant flying manta rays. Then it makes humanoid merfolk and teaches them to fish. One of them unexpectedly harpoons a flying manta out of the sky and becomes the immortal heroine Synessa. She's the one writing this down.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Land (2AP) – Esanca – [Animal (Amphibious) 2/10] Nathces brings forth an aquatic ecology, capable of natural chemistry and biological construction. From reefs and stromatolites is born a submerged continent, roughly the size of Australia, in a tropical zone. It is 95% below the waves, but 90% less than 100 meters in depth.
Create Monster (1AP) – Cloud Mantas – [Animal (Amphibious) 3/10] Nathces modifies manta rays so that they are both gigantic, predatory, and capable of soaring flight.
Create Race (2AP) – Merfolk – [Animal (Amphibious) 5/10] Called among themselves Ceseza, the merfolk of the First World are amphibious mammalian humanoids. They have ray-finned extensions on the forearms and forelegs and sometimes about the ears along with webbed fingers and toes. They prefer warm clear water but can dive to great depths and endure considerable cold. They have lungs and are fully able to survive on land but must keep their gills and fin rays moist and are vulnerable to overheating as they have no sweat glands. Their eyes are pale and appear white due to a nictating membrane. They have hair on the scalp and eyebrows, but nowhere else on the body.
Create Mundane Concept (1AP) – Fishing – [Sustenance (Cycles) 1/10] Nathces creates the concept of fishing (also fowling, as these are closely linked) to alleviate the hunger of the Merfolk.
Create Hero (2AP) – Synessa, the Cloudfisher – [Travel (Exploration) 2/10] observing Synessa bring down a Cloud Manta, Nathces rewards her with immortality.
Starting AP 16; Spent AP 8; Remaining AP 8

[thethird]

She whose light is shed
As light starts to shine shadows start to be cast. At first it did so orderly and purposely as the only source of lgiht was the recently created sun. Suddenly there was another source of light, a will o wisp dancing around creation. From her shadows extended long and reaching.

As the light moves the shadows follow, covering the surface like a blanket. The tiny mote of light appears to be taking in creation exploring and playfully treading around. She observes the life that exists, still with two simple minds to grasp the concept. But it's then when she is traversing the surface continent that she comes upon a Janxi.

This creatures pleases she whose light is shed greatly as she realizes that it has some sense of self, some basic conscience, and it's not just a beast. She feels the Janxi's curiosity, and fear, and is attracted to it. It feels like the Janxi reaches out for her, but when they are about to make contact it draws back. That almost touch entices She whose light is shed, and she lounges for it. She stays around the Janxi observing them, in silence, only giving some light when they approach her.

It is not until an unexpected thing happens, a young Janxi separated from the rest is attacked by a chupacabra. In that moment, fear strickes the Janxi who reaches out for anything, anyone, and She whose light is shed is suddenly behind it. The Janxi forms a brief pact with her and borrows some of her power casting a long shadow that scares the chupacabra away.

It doesn't take long before the Janxi returns to its people, with a little more fire on its eyes and a story to tell.

Spoiler: AP

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Initial AP 16
Create Artifact Greater Utility (of Create Mundane Concept: -5AP) The first story is a simple telltale of a Janxi defeating a chupacabra. But it's so much more. As the Janxi tells the story, others listen to it. And those retell the story. [Trickery (Stories)]
Create Muande Concept (0AP) Storytelling is the practice of telling stories, of sharing experiences, and embellishing them changing at the whim of the narrator, and to fit the audience.

[Razade]

The Great Dragons Among the Mortal Races

So it was said among the mortal peoples that Sages walked among them and from where they came. In the early days of the Mortal Races of the First World it was said that the Jaxi were given the method of flame and the tea leaf from one of their own who walked the deserts and high mountains. To the Merfolk the knowledge of fire for those upon the shores and it was said the Sages came from one who swam the deepest oceans. In these flames and the heat of the First World itself, the Sages did say that even the Mortals were equal to the Gods. Such was the legends of many of the Mortal Races, from the wilds came those with wisdom, the stories of these Sages were many and yet to unfold. In truth each were a Great Dragon come down from the Peak in Mortal guise, simple and ragged as the early mortals under the newborn sun and moon appeared.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 7

Create Organization (The Sages of Scale) - 1AP: The Great Dragons of the Peak align and fulfill the desires of Zhang Shu. These Dragons appear as Mortals, using their magic to obscure their form and their knowledge to sway the lesser races with knowledge and power. [Creation (Balance) 9/10]

Create Mundane Concept (Fire) - 1AP: The Great Sages bring the knowledge of Fire to the mortal races, the brewing of tea. With this power, so the mortals become the equal of Gods in time. [Creation (Balance) 10/10]

Gain Domain (Portfolio): Creation (Balance)

7AP - 1AP - 1AP = 5AP

[Johnedwa]

In the beginning, there was silence. Then a great cry came, crying out from the heart of the vast ball of oxygen, aluminum, silicon, and iron. It was a sorrowful sound, a piercing sound, and while it is this author’s first memory, it is one he has never forgotten. I do not think in all my time, in the eons to come, I will ever hear a sound as mournful and content as that which came before. I call this sound Mother, for it was within her depths that I emerged, a small hum of sound, rhythm, harmony, and melody. And it is there that I sat, nestled, creating my own sound while contemplating the cry, for a long while. All was well.

It is then that I began to hear other sounds- sounds from up above. It is here that I witnessed continents form, species begin to populate the Earth, and I rose up from the depths, curious to hear more. The hiss as Cynux split off from the land itself, as the Jaxi began to discover means to survive in the wilds- and hear that I witnessed the thrum of magic. A concept so wonderful and neat, but it clashed, I think, with the rhythm of Mother. Though I now believe differently, in that time, in that first time, I wished to create a different tone, and so I set to work. I found a small part of the land rich in resources, and I moved it until I found a different timbre, and set down the land. IT vibrated with possibility, and I was excited, for a time. It was then that I noticed the land was empty, and because of this, there was no harmony, not like there had been in the other continent. And so I weaved together beings, like myself, small and wondrous, quick to learn, with inquisitive minds and an ear for music. And it is there that I went among them, my mind filling theirs with the rhythm and cadence- I admit, it is my first forays into the minds of mortals that may be responsible for the curse known as the Bleaching. Still, I was fascinated by them, and they with the world I had given them, and with Mother- they set to work creating small huts, banding together to survive- for they were small and had many predators on this new world. I taught them to play the first instrument, a small, thin reed that produced a pleasing sound when blown into. A larger (albeit still small compared to the Jaxi, the people I had met previously) gnome, known as Trace Riverbed, further developed this notion, and turned the flute into a larger weapon used for both entertainment and defense against those larger predators. That is the origin of the spear flute- and the first technology brought to my people.

They were excited for a time, reveling in exploring this new continent I had brought them. They played and invented, creating wooden trinkets known as toys, always their minds creating such beautiful music in my head. And, for a time, all was well.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Land: Aria (2 AP)
Create Race: Gnome (2 AP)
Teach Mundane Concept: Music (1 AP)
Teach Mundane Concept: Toys (1 AP)
Teach Mundane Concept: Spear- Flute: (1 AP)
Create Avatar: The Rhythm of Creation (3 AP)
Remaining AP: 16-10= 6 AP remaining

[Emperor Demonking]

Caw, In the Void

Caw blended into the darkness of the void. He watched and he thought, the small bird did not know however what to think. Even when the sun begin, the small black bird continued to blend into the void. When the Jaxi were made something stirred in Caw, then the Merfolk and then the gnomes. Caw could see something now. He could see the shining victory of accomplishment, of true accomplishment. It would be up to Caw to make that happen - in time, of course, they may have to rise up a little higher before they could be properly supported by Caw.

Caw, upon Aria

Caw flew down to Aria - to one particular place near the coast. From the earth grew a statue, a statue of Caw - tough and hard and made of the ingredients of the earth. This was important. This was Caw's stamp of ownership on the world. More things grew out of the ground as Caw stamped and pecked the earth. These were bought forth - for now - to protect the statue. Though of the earth nd retaining that same pied colouring, they did not remain so tough and certainly did not remain so immobile. These were the goblins. They were the same height as the gnomes, and had scruffy red hair with skin all the shades of the earth. They had fangs, and the women were a few inches greater than the men. These first created were the Statue Guards, but creation did not stop there are more started popping out of this corner of Aria.

Caw trilled at his Statue Guards - he ignored the rest even as they were formed out of Caw's own power - "Let nothing come here that is not permitted to come here. Watch with wisdom for the forbidden and the permitted. It is a wonderful thing to die for this place. It is a great thing to fight for this task."

The goblins were unsure what to make of the instruction. They were cowwed in silence before this bird a sixth of their size - their newly formed bones recognised their duty to Caw. Caw did not mind as long as they did not disobey. The statue glinted. The Statue Guards were stiffened.

Spoiler: AP

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Starting 16 AP
11 AP = 16 AP - 5 AP: Create Major Utility Artefact (Create Organisation): The Statue of Caw - made of Earth, accurate although many times larger, the centerpoint of the goblins in a corner of Aria [Domain: Goblinoids (Obedience) 5/10]
9 AP = 11 AP - 2AP: Create Race: Goblins - small creatures resembling earth, they have fangs and orange hair, quite timid by nature. [Domain: Goblinoids (Obedience) 7/10]
9 AP = 9 AP - Statue of Caw Charge: Create Organisation: The Statue Guards - An organisation of goblins, they live and work around the Statue of Caw, their task is to protect it and control access to it.

[zzzzzzzz414]

The Sleeping Dreamer and the Waking Dream

Her first, last, and only conscious thought was the desire to not exist.

She did not know how she had come to be, what had disturbed the perfectly tranquil nothing that had once permeated the whole essence of her unbeing, who had thrust her into this unknown paradigm of thought and time and identity; she did not care to know. All she was cognizant of was the desire to cease cognizance, to return to the infinite peace of nonexistence.

She felt the rays of light issuing from somewhere and recoiled from them; immediately, instinctively, she sought to escape them, wrapping the fabric of the horrid existence she found herself in around herself, insulating herself in folds of black, comforting nothing. A poor excuse for a true blanket, but it would have to suffice. And there, ensconced in layers of blessed soundlessness and lightlessness, she immediately fell into slumber, and began to dream. Her dream was of nothing; not the pitiful bubble she found herself in, but true Nothing, the boundless tranquility of the Before that existed now only in vaguest memory. (Another curse of this wretched existence, memory, the ripping apart of timeless peace into unreachable past and agonizing present.)

Alas, it was not a peaceful slumber; even in this place, the echoes and ripples of life and existence reached her, the flux of divine Being clashing against the dreamt Unbeing as the goddess tossed and turned. What Was wished dearly to Be Not, yet what Was Not demanded to Be. Paradox and contradiction, Inaction that demanded Action. A dreamt desire seethed, split, and Became what she could not.

The Dream awoke, and found itself able to know, to act, to be. Like her Dreamer, the Dream wished for unbeing; but unlike her Dreamer, she recognized the paradox, turned it over, considered it. For to wish was to desire, to embrace existence and to long to shape it; yet the essence of nonexistence was to abandon these things. Two desires, irreconcilable; and yet, the existence of existence, of the time used to divide it, each moment consuming the last, made it possible for one desire to consume the other. If to Become was the essence of Existence, then Existence could Become Nonexistence once more; the wish of unbeing would Devour the wish of being, and be content.

The Dream realized that this Devouring had a name, and it was the Dream’s name, and it was Baghsandesh; and she realized the Devourer too had a name, and it was the Dreamer’s name, and it was Nidramut. Satisfied with her realization and her purpose, the one named Baghsandesh turned her notice to the world below, to the great expanse of water that comprised it, the walls that surrounded it, the light that fell upon it; and in particular, the unusual bits of earth that had begun to emerge in the center of it.

She looked upon these places, and was immediately filled with horror, sorrow and pity; for here were other beings like her, scrambling upon the soil, burdened like her with the exhaustion of Being; and yet their pain was so much greater than hers. They were possessed at every moment by hunger, by thirst, by exhaustion and confusion and fear and a thousand other pains and compulsions. Death, at least, seemed to free their bodies of these burdens; and yet, even after death, she could hear some of them crying out. Baghsandesh looked closer, and discovered something truly terrible; something that existed within certain creatures of this world, a sort of ethereal existence that persisted even after the body had failed, spawned from the energy permeating this world. Even death would not permit these poor, wretched things the rest they deserved.

Seeing this, Baghsandesh was compelled to make her first Act. Reaching out to these ethereal beings, these souls, she planted a warm little gift in their heads: a guide to somewhere else, a place of rest and emptiness away from the painfully stimulating noise of this world. The folds around the one called Nidramut. It was a poor substitute for true rest; but perhaps, away from some of the light and sound of this world, they could settle into some kind of peace.

This done, she descended down to the surface of this world, wishing to observe it and its beings more closely. She wished to walk among them, to see what they saw and know what they knew; but to walk, one must have legs. So as Baghsandesh alighted in a wild forest in the center of the continent of Aria, the dappled sunlight beneath the acacia trees wove itself into something else: a large animal form, similar to some of the feline creatures roaming these lands, but different. Stripes laid themselves across sunset-colored fur, and a large tigress walked out into a clearing among the trees. She could feel the suffering even more acutely, now, in the middle of this forest; the fatigue, the hunger, the pain, the exhausting vigilance of the hunter, the exhausting fear of the hunted. All for…nothing. Agonized existence, for the sake of more agonized existence.

Hush now, small ones, and be at peace.

Baghsandesh let out a long, sighing exhale, which spread into a gentle zephyr breeze, rustling the leaves and grasses. For a moment, everything froze; and then there was a sound like a rustling whisper, quiet at first, then louder, spreading outwards from her feet. The sound of every last living being in the clearing, every hare, lion, lizard and tiny bug, as one, letting out a deep and profound sigh of relief, as the most exquisite feeling of contentment they had ever felt came over them.

Not one of them ever moved again.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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0+16 = 16AP

Baghsandesh (Create Avatar)[3AP]

The Waking Dream of Nidramut, the Sleeping Dreamer. Baghsandesh is an aspect of Nidramut's desires and essence, dreamt into existence and sent out onto the First World. She normally appears in the form of a tigress or other large cat, and is invested with practically as much power as Nidramut herself - though, unlike Nidramut, she has the will and waking awareness to actually use it.

Sleep (Magical Sleep) 3/10

Souls (Blessing)[1AP]

When the war between Destruction and Creation concluded, it released a number of powerful motes of energy, which would become the gods; however, it also released an immeasurably vast amount of loose energy-substance: a normally intangible, invisible and ubiquitous divine energy sometimes called “ectoplasm”. When a mortal being with certain qualities (a threshold of intelligence and creativity that sentient humanoids and the like pass but most animals do not), the ectoplasm latches on to that being and forms into a soul - an ethereal copy of a being’s memories and personality. This soul grants self-awareness, and persists even after the being’s physical death. The soul remains tethered to the being until death, though it may temporarily wander elsewhere, either while the being is asleep, or artificially through magic/other means.

While sleeping, a soul, absent any other influence, will be drawn to the Spirit World, a dream-plane outside of normal reality. Upon death, if the being was asleep or unconscious when they passed, the soul will simply remain in the spirit world, now untethered from its physical body. If a being dies suddenly or violently while awake, however, it is possible for a soul to be unable to find its way to the Spirit World, and to become stuck wandering the physical world instead.

It may be possible to separate a soul from a still-living being; however, the soul is the source of self-aware sapience. A being with their soul removed would simply be a husk, technically still possessing their memories and intelligence, but with no real compulsion or ability to apply them outside of very basic subsistence survival.

Spirits (Souls) 1/10

Spirit World (Weave Plane) [1 of 3 AP - Shared with Alpha and Uisge]

The Spirit World’s “base” is a pocket of folded space created and separated from the rest of reality by Nidramut. A connection between this place and all souls has been established by Baghsandesh, allowing them to travel there when asleep and remain there upon their body’s death. Absent any other specific divine compulsion or strong desires from the soul, this is where they will go. The plane began empty, nothing more than a black void with a sleeping goddess at its heart; however, the influence of Alpha and Uisge, and the influx of dead and dreaming souls, have made it into a land of dreams and memory, where the memories, emotions and wills of souls are projected onto the landscape, shaping the solidified ectoplasm into fantastical forms.

Spirits (Souls) 2/10

The Sigh (Curse) [1AP]

Divine power in the form of a gentle breeze, rolling along the ground in every direction from an origin point at the center of Aria. Every living being, plant or animal, that feels this breeze is filled with a sense of complete and utter satisfaction and contentment, to the point that they are simply not compelled to do anything at all. Animals simply fall to the ground and stop breathing; plants immediately cease all internal processes and begin to wither and break down. Any small rocks or earth passed by the breeze, meanwhile, immediately begin to crumble into soft white sand, though it will move around or be stalled at larger cliffs or mountains.

The lands that the Sigh passes through are permanently and strangely affected; all weather and winds die and stagnate in these lands, and any living creatures that spend extended amounts of time there are gradually, slowly inflicted with a contented sluggishness that eventually causes them to lapse into endless sleep, followed by death.

Though it is only experienced as a gentle breeze, it is moving somewhat quickly; if it is not obstructed or otherwise countered, the Sigh will continue to the edges of Aria and disperse.

Sleep (Magical Sleep) 4/10

The Sands of Tranquility (Alter Land) [1AP]

What remains of the lands affected by the Sigh (however large that area may be), given ample decades or centuries to rest. The landscape is nothing but rolling dunes of soft, loosely packed white sand, punctuated by occasional petrified trees half-sunk in the pale sea. This makes traversing the land on foot slow and arduous, and the total lack of rain makes the place entirely desolate and unlivable. The relative lack of weathering, or wind to shift the sands and dunes around, makes the desert’s other distinguishing and rather horrifying feature still present and visible: hundreds upon hundreds of skeletons and air-mummified corpses.

Sleep (Magical Sleep) 5/10

16-1-1-1-1-3 = 9AP Remaining

[thethird]

She whose light is shed

The light was exploring the world casting shadows around. She had left the Janxi and kept on her travel and found a new land mass. Which was suddenly covered in mists. The light didn't like the mist, it made shadows not play around. And she felt that there was little purpose on it. With such a mist no one would be able to tell stories. She didn't like that.

She dug a hole, a hole into the cool darkness of the earth. And as she did the mists followed. She kept digging with gleeful abandon. And as the mist followed it lost it's way.

Spoiler

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AP 11

Alter land (1 AP) The Underdark Under Aria, and extending beyond as the trapped Sigh keeps eroding extends a laberinthine web of tunnels. The Underdark is hard to navigate, many of its tunnels are twisted as if carved by a mad intelligence. Some tunels are collapsed under water, some are packed with loose sand, but there are others that are even worse death traps with pockets of the Sigh trapped there, the only indication of them the withered bones of unfortunate explorers [Madness (Labyrinth)]

AP left 10

[Emperor Demonking]

Caw, The Skies above Aria

Caw watched as the land of Aria begun to die out, as the life began to be still, and the bird song faded away. He considered flying down to investigate further and to see what was at the center of it, "But no, let then have their secrets for now."

He turned his eyes on the goblins, they were safe in their corner for now, but only his especially chosen had any steel in them. Only there was solidarity and glory. And even they were just their own personal potential, they were no threat to give glory to others. And that after all is the purpose for what they were made.

Caw gave a caw so loud that all the goblins looked up. Some were fortunate enough to win that race - milliseconds faster than their sisters. Those that saw Caw first - some ten percent or so - became taller, their muscles became thicker, the scraggly red hair began to cover them entirely. These lucky decimals were less timid to begin with, but what remained became arrogance as their hands developed the power of claws. The finished creature was almost twice the size that he was before. The finished creature was a hobgoblin.

Caw came down and spoke to those that were most strong, the most cunning or wise or charismatic. The hobgoblins split the lands, the recourses and the goblins. Amongst the hobgoblins, family difficulties would be handled by the family. Neighbourhood difficulties by the neighbourhood. And only nation-wide difficulties by the nation. Each hobgoblin was in himself a ruler; his own spark of glory.

Of course, this was only in its infancy as Caw flew up, and as he watched more of Aria fall still, it was up in the air whether it would ever bear fruit. for now, Caw was happy to hold out for a hero. But he kept his eyes on full alert for such a hero.

Spoiler: AP

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8 AP = 9 AP - 1 AP: Create sub-race (Goblins): Hobgoblins - Bigger, meaner, uglier: Red furred and medium sized. They have claws and arrogance. They were made to rule over the goblins. [Domain: Goblinoids (Obedience) 8/10 AP]
6 AP = 8 AP - 2 AP: Create Racial Society: The Free Goblins - Governed by hob-goblins in a laisse faire manner between themselves seeking to solve problems as local as possible. There is no formal heirachy amongst them, but some will naturally be more respected than others. [Domain: Goblinoids (Obedience) 10/10 AP]

Domain Gained: Goblinoids (Obedience)

[Zale]

The Void - Then

The moon rose, an echo upon the Void, and she ascended with it. Flicking stellar fire danced along the edges of the lunar illusion. Twining tendrils of aurora-flame, silver and blue and purple and green. They writhed around the moon like a nest of coiling snakes and spread the pale and unstable light across the night sky. As the moon reached it's zenith, the goddess stood briefly at the highest throne of the celestial sphere and beheld the world.

Looking upon it, the shining daughter of Creation beheld the sickly corruption and taint of her mother's greatest foe. Being dutiful of spirit and strong of will, Selinakos refused to accept the inevitable destruction of all things.

The aurora-shadow of the moon blazed brighter and vaster still, consuming the night for a brief moment - and then, from below, the earth gave birth to the terrestrial mirror of the moon's bright halo.

Flickering mist, silver and blue and purple and green, rose from cracks in the dirt. It rose in patches across the lands of Cynux, as it would later across the unborn lands of Aria, sparing only the land beneath the sea. As the mist flowed and pooled, moving slowly and erratically in the same direction as the moon, every living thing it touched began to change and transform. They grew more durable, more bestial and stranger than their kin.

It touched a herd of fleeing Jackalopes and made them something other than they once were, giving them a strange bipedal shape. Still others it changed, creating monsters that lurk in the sands of the deepest desert. The forests, alone, survived well- for the beasts that could climbed into the trees and avoided the touch of the heavy, slow mist. Many of the trees of western end of Cynux were tainted by the mists as they collected and pooled in pursuit of the setting moon, becoming terrifying, carnivorous and dense with wild magic.

Spoiler

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Create Land [2AP] - The Lunar Halo - An aurora that resembles many tendrils of stellar smoke that rise from "behind" the illusion of the moon. It only appears for about two hours every night, when the moon is at its zenith. (2/10) Moon (Light)
Create Greater Utility Artifact [5AP] - The Aurora Mists - These rise from the earth whenever the Lunar Halo is visible above in the sky. Their touch is highly metamorphic, but the mists are normally dense and slow enough to avoid by climbing to the tops of hills, buildings or trees. They serve as Greater Utility Artifact for Create Monstrous Life (5/10) Night (Monsters)
Utility Artifact: Create Monstrous Life [0AP] - Terror Trees - These trees inhabit the western forests of Cynux. They have mobile branches and feed on flesh by slaying creatures to use as mulch. The wood of these trees is filled with strange, untamed magical power, which the trees have no use for (but perhaps other clever people could find something to do with them?)
Create Life (Jaxi) [1AP] - Jaxi - Shared with Alpha. (1/10) Chaos (Caprice)

[ezekielraiden]

Zhang Shu: The Void


It was such as the golden disk rose within the Void that Zhang Shu rode out into the darkness upon the Great Dragon Whose Call Rings Out in Creation Unto a Swift. The heat blasted upon the given form of the divinity, revealing but a withered man of ancient years perched upon the head of the serpentine beast. Out from the light stretched infinite dark, unbalanced and untethered and so from the great heat Zhang Shu crafted a smaller image to hang in the sky. It was the light of the vast Sun yet cool, the fury gentled for such was existence. Creation and Destruction, Hot and Cold, Light and Void. All were in truth were one, and nothing.

The circle of light stayed near the new sun, for the time being, as it turned its courses around the flat world below. A flurry of activity. It did not understand. Oh, it understood that there were others like it. Beings of power birthing their own creations, shaping this newborn world to their interests. But it did not understand what their purpose was, and in particular, their choice to clothe themselves in forms and styles of various kinds. Power needed no form; yet these seemed to.

As the circle puzzled, one such sibling-mote drew near, or leastwise nearer, arising on a child of no small power itself. This, too, the circle did not understand. It did, however, understand that not knowing can itself be a tool, if upon encountering the unknown, one questions it, and how it came to be. Thus the circle sought out the withered man who stood on a serpent's head.

"Hail, Brother. What drives thee hither? Wherefore thy countenance, and thy noble steed?" To even speak the words at all was, itself, a learning experience for the circle. As it spoke, it put yet more power into the world: power to seek, power to ask, power to find, power to answer.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Current: 14/16 AP

Create Mythic Concept, Magic (1 AP, shared) [Magic (Runes) 1/10]: Magic permits beings to perform otherwise-impossible feats...assuming they actually have the ability to manipulate its raw material, sometimes called "aether," though it goes by many names. Racial life lacks the innate capacity to perform magic, to manipulate "aether," but subconcepts of magic can change this. Legendary life and monstrous life may have the innate ability to use magic, at the creator's choice. All forms of magic necessarily involve transferring these energies from one place to another, so anything which does not actually cause a flow of "aether" from a source to a destination is not Magic and is instead some other supernatural force, though flowing "aether" can take a nigh-infinite variety of forms, whether it is attached to ordinary matter or not.
Shared with Alpha, Uisige, and Baghsandesh

Bless (1 AP): Light of Inquiry. [Sun (Revelation) 3/10] The sun's light does more than simply permit vision. It stimulates the mind, bringing both curiosity and fascination. This can be very good, in that it encourages understanding, discovery, and a general openness. But it can also be bad, inducing apophenia, obsession, and delirium with overexposure, especially for anyone sensitive to such behaviors.

Remaining AP: 12/16

[Razade]

Zhang Shu: The Void

A second circle of light, one that asked questions instead of gave heat or cold above the expanse of night.

"A light shone upon Creation, unequaled. The scales have been measured and put into the proper order. A flower that knows only the taste of the sun will wither, same as a flower that knows only rain will drown. This form, like yours, is merely falsehood. Does it matter if the lie is simple or complex?" The Great Dragon reeled into the Void and with it, the Lord of Steam vanished but its presence was all around. "Yet we still converse with words, such are lies as well. It is the play, reality its stage."

[MrAbdiel]

Everything else is bitterly contested speculation; but everyone, everyone, has some kind of lasting record of the Scream.

The point of its origin has been endlessly triangulated and retriangulated with new discoveries, never agreed to; but the substance of it seems clear enough to posterity - a sound, thick and rolling like a thunderclap, that washed over the world from the tallest peak, to the deepest crevice. It began with a hushed, seething noise; like a single voice nearby breathing a harsh and hateful breath through their teeth; and rushed up to a deafening, inarticulate booming roar of thunder. The final, tail end of the Scream was tricking, gasping groan that lingered longer than any voice's utterance of such has any right to, before that, too, was gone.

At the genesis place of that Scream, a location which has been rendered in some primitive art as a flaming mountain, and others as a steaming crack in the ground, a solitary figure dragged itself together from the late-congealing embers of the celestial conflict. He did not come into the world because it wanted to; he entered in because it ought not to. He roamed the world with lazy steps, surveying the works of the divine with mocker's eyes. And he went about his first profane work; a suite of subtle, terrible contortions of the fabric of being. Nothing that would trigger a divine war, right away; but enough, at this first light of all things, to instil an ongoing, compounding wrongness in the world; and to equip the people of the world with sufficient means to begin their own corruption, and destruction.

Spoiler: OOC Actions!

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1 AP: Curse - Scholar's Bane (1pt toward Peace (Sloth))

Efforts to make physical records of history - either written, artistically rendered in sculpture, or
daubed in ochre on cave walls, are actively attacked by the entropic forces of the world. Papyrus, pook, and parchment all decay and bleach more easily. Stone chips subtly adjusts its grain to spite the chisel. Tattoos become easily infected and deformed. Fundamentally, rendering historical truth onto things has corrosive effect that bludgeons any attempt to advance past oral tradition backward, making it an extremely taxing and time consuming effort for a tribe or society to record history.

1 AP: Curse - Conspirator's Boon (1pt toward Progress (Envy))

The way sound works has been adjusted in the world, ever so subtly. Sounds that can be generally considered good or positive - genuine laughter, music, birdsong - travel a little less far and forcefully as do sounds that can be generally considered bad or negative - heartfelt insults, splintering wood, cicada shrilling. This has no immediate effect on anyone - how could it? But the perverse mind behind this curse is to lay at the foundation of the world a slight tilt in the gradient, accustoming unaware mortal peoples generation by slow generation to disappointment, disharmony, and dissatisfaction.

1 AP: Curse - The Stranger's Knock (1pt toward Prosperity (Greed))

A pervading bit of folklore worms its way into tales of speaking cultures - a warning about a lone traveller whose knock on the door, whatever the hour, ought not to be ignored. Calamity and misery are said to follow those who shun the Stranger. While this pervading myth has the side effect of seeding a hospitality culture for travellers into the First World, it is roundly abused by ne'er-do-wells and thieves the world over, forcing common people to choose between enduring paranoia and societal mistrust for 'Spurning the Stranger's Knock', or exposing one's home and hearth to an unknown person. How the myth manifests in a given culture will vary; but the likely effect is a growth in mistrust and resentment towards strangers, even as they are accommodated.

1 AP: Curse/Blessing - Blessing and Cursing (1pt toward Glory (Pride))

Mortals with spoken language slowly become aware that they possess a fragmentary measure of the power of the gods to speak things into being. While it is impossible to say for sure when or whether a blessing or curse will actually manifest, observation over time finds that a son, who curses his father's name in a moment of harsh feeling, has genuinely introduced a real and new likelihood that the father will suffer as a result of that curse, however nebulous of specific the curse may be. Likewise, a set of parents might choose their favored child to bestow their 'blessing' upon, supposing that their limited capacity is weaker when spread broadly over all the children. This, too, is correct - mortals accrue a slow trickle of instinctive divine influence, which can be dispensed rashly or judiciously, but never with true certainty. Different cultures come up with their own methods of deflector or dissuading curses, and tokens or behaviours meant to attract and retain blessings.

[Detective]

From conflict that began when time first started to tick, a new world was forged from the blood that has shed. A new age of gods has arrived, with a whole new cosmic playground for them to build, to tinker with their newfound powers and wills.

As sparks of life, creations of both wonder and fright are brought into the new world, the chance for conflict to be renewed once more is now upon the worldwide table.
A chance, a lure that called upon the interest of Grashmore, his one eye opens to fully take in the view of the world for the first time.... Looking where to first add kindles to the flame to sate his lust for battle.

Among the options, there were three places to begin: Cynux, home of the Jaxi and Chupacabras. Aria, where the goblins were placed to protect the statue of Caw while the gnomes began to dabble in the world's first musicial notes.

And lastly? The sea, and what lies beneath: The underwater land of Escana, and the merfolk who made it their home.

From among those options, the one he has decided to start with was Cynux- For the Jaxi may be less strong than the creatures who live and feed upon their land, their ability to tame them and turn the balance of prey & predator into owner & pet threatens to lessen the chances for conflict to bloom if left to their own devices.

And so, Grashmore had pondered to himself… If their kind wants to tame the wilderness so much, why not give them a taste of what it means to be wild?
With a hand of flesh waved at the skies above the world, Grashmore adds his own imprint upon the illusionary moon to act both as a concentration point for his power, as well as the trigger for the curse he shall bring forth upon the Jaxi:
A single eye, carved upon the illusionary face of the moon. And whenever the moon reaches its zenith point, the eye will shine together with the presence of the lunar halo which was created by Selinakos, and make all those affected among the Jaxi to shift into a more animalistic form, a hybrid between their jackalope features together with the hounds they try to tame.

Thus, Grashmore had left an eye in the sky, to turn tamers into predators, fueled by bestial instincts and desire to quench their hunger.

Next, Grashmore had set his sights on Aria. While the gnomes' interest in music was displeasing to his ears, the goblins in particular had caught his interest.
They were given orders to guard the statue, yet Grashmore's one eye could not see a fitting enemy across all of Aria for them to prepare for. No opposition to fight against.

Now, if that wasn't a task for Grashmore to provide, then who will? To begin, all Grashmore had to do, was to bite hard enough into his thumb until blood could be shed, and let a single drop fall upon the continent of Aria.
The single tear had fallen upon a land outside of both gnome and goblin territory, splashing and spreading out until the land had been covered with a pool of Grashmore's blood. From it, whenever the mood would strike? Grashmore shall be able to raise monsters out of the blood pit to move and battle the residents of the continent. For what is a monster's goal if not to fight?

The red pool already had an effect upon the continent when Neul's rains fell upon the lake of blood. Instead of the brown slimes known as lilads, they were instead crimson red, and traveled away from the pool to seek out living beings to feed upon their blood.

Then, when it came for Grashmore to set his sights on Esanca? The god was left impressed by the creation of the cloud manthas, as well as the hero who slew one in battle.
It appears that the tidings under the sea are already moving with conflict and struggle without him needing to get it involved. As such, Esanca ends up the only land untouched by the meddling of him of one eye.

Spoiler: AP actions!

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Alter Land (The Eye Of The Moon)- 1 AP: Part of vanity, and part out of him wanting to let others know that he is the cause of the curse given to Jaxi, Grashmore has carved an eye similar to his own upon the moon. | Moon(Lycanthropy) 1/10

Curse (Jaxi Lycantrophy)-1 AP: Two hours every night, when the moon reaches its zenith point, the eye of the moon shines, turning the Jaxi affected into a more animalistic form that is a hybrid of their jackalope origins with that of the hellhound. In truth, only a few of the Jaxi populace had been affected, around ten percent or even less. However, when the transormation is one that draws out your animalistic instincts and feels you with bestial hunger? Many of them unwittingly become blood crazed, unable to control themselves. |Moon(Lycantrophy) 2/10

Greater Combat Artifact (Moon-Eye-Laser) 5AP: Admittedly, an addition to the eye Grashmore had added in an afterthought. If he had put his mark upon the face of the mountain, then he should have the means to protect it from prying eyes. To guarantee it, Grashmore had spared more of his divine power to turn the eye into an orbital weapon that will be able to concentrate the light in its vicinity, and fire at whatever might displease Grashmore enough to warrant it. | Moon(Lycanthropy) 7/10


As of now, there are only two ways of acquiring the curse for a Jaxi if he wasn't among those originally affected: Either be born to one that's affected and inherit it genetically, or be bitten by one.
Currently, there is no knowledge about whether the lycantrophy can be passed on to other races such as the goblins or gnomes on the continent Aria. | Moon(lycantrophy) 2/10

Alter Land (Pool of Blood/Grashmore's Tear)-1 AP: A pool made from a drop of Grashmore's own blood placed upon Aria. What better way to claim a piece of land for your own purposes? |Creation(bloodcraft) 1/10

Create Greater Utility Artifact(Grashmore's Tear)-5AP: The pool, that may one day be known as Grashmore's Tear, also served a more practical purpose: A focused point in the first world from which Grashmore shall be able to create new monsters with greater ease. After all, Grashmore should know his own blood best- And know how to mold it to his exact preferences. |Creation(bloodcraft) 6/10

Create Sub-Life(Lliads[Monsterous life]->Hemats[Monsterous life]) 1 AP: A variation of the Lliads, created unintentionally when Neut's rain fell down upon the pool of blood. A red variant that while it may have a similar strength to the overall weak Lliad, the difference lies in its personality: The Hemats are more active in seeking out prey, and while they too have no intelligence? They possess the ability to sense sources of blood in their vicinity, allowing them to pinpoint and move directly to their ideal targets while avoiding non living things such as trees or rocks.
The psuedopod can also prove more deadly if one is not careful, acting like a needle to suck out its target's blood to either refill or overfill itself.

Thankfully, it appears that there is a limit to the size of those creatures. Once a Hemats has gathered enough blood, it splits its mass into two smaller ones. |Creation(bloodcraft) 7/10

AP spent:14 AP left, 2.

[Emperor Demonking]

A Goblin Party, The Outskirts of the Free Goblins

There had been another death. A violent death. An odd death. There was a witness this time. One that spoke of a blood-red creature of a pike that sucked out the blood and grew even stronger. Qath was a hob-goblin. It was a goblin that was under her protection who died. She would avenge it, and put an end to this threat. She set off along with only four goblins with her. She went out only a few hours when she found the creature, or perhaps the creature found her. It was large, but Qath went for it. She smashed it and she clawed it and she squashed it. But then she was still. So was the battered Hemat. A goblin went to approch, but then he two collapsed still. His sister went to investigate. The two others fled.

They had returned to the center of their clan as they spoke of what they had seen. But then more fleeing goblins came tapping, and even fleeing hobgoblins and soon there was a tiday wave talking of the stillness, of the breeze and of the white sand. They fled away leaving their lands. By all accounts, this was not a threat that could be fought.

Caw, The Free Goblins

As the panic approached its zenith, Caw looked down upon them complacently. As it finally reach the peak, then Caw came down and Caw trilled"Oh, you foolish ones, do you expect me to protect you forever? Have I not taken for you this land, given to you your powers and your rulers. I have blessed you with my statue. Would you know anything of the sun or the rain or meat if not for me. I shall intervene this once more. I am to be served. Your lives are mine. You are mine. All you have is mine. You exist for a purpose. You will fulfill that purpose."

The goblins had stopped running as Caw began to speak, and Caw flew a little bit past them. He pecked the ground. At once a massive wall began to expand from the ground, cutting off The Free Goblins from the rest of aria. This wall would block the gentle breeze that terrified the goblins, but the wall was lousy with archways from ones eight hobgoblins-abreast wide to some that a goblin would have to squeeze and crawl through. The archways would not stop the breeze, apart from the fact that it did. Indeed it did more than block it, it trapped it and changed it. To step through the archway would give a temporary immunity to the breeze and add some pluck and reduce some fear and malice. To bathe in it could cure the breeze, produce a longer immunity and produce even greater virtue.

"Well, go out there and rescue your fallen!" Trilled Caw before flying away. Only some responded to Caw's decree. Some hob-goblins were brave and gave their orders, some goblins were brave and either went alone or obliged their hob-goblin to come through fear of embarrassment. As they went through the archways, they felt braver. They dragged their still brothers to the arches and they returned to movement. Most so rescued ran back out, but some ran away with even more speed trying to outrace their own desires. Of those that went out, some continued going to they could be alone before dropping down to make their own selves still. Some tried this, but in boredom came back before the immunity could wear off. Some went out to rescue others. The tales of these survivors were passed down in oral legend - to be exaggerate for sure, but to always ensure there were always some curious about the desert beyond the wall.

This chaos was awkward for the Free - at least at the border - even when all was done. There were still many lost. And there were many clans whose lands had been across the border of the wall. There were goblins who had separated from their liege, if their liege even still lived. Yet, Caw was not watching them anymore. A chaos increased as curiosity drew the Free from all across the land to discover the explanation of the foreboding wall.

Caw, Grashmore's Tear

The breeze, the scream and the tear. Caw had a curiosity about all three, but it was to the tear that he flew too. He put his beak to the blood and lifted it out again. He trilled in a tone that only the gods could hear. "How wonderful. Siblings, I am Caw! You may know me as the patron of the goblins. I assure you that I am much more. We may have more of a common aim than you think.

Spoiler: AP

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5 AP = 6 AP - 1 AP: Alter Land: The Great Wall - This hard wall about three meters thick rises from the earth separating the land of the Free from the rest of Aria. The wall is quite porous with many archways of different sizes. [Domain: Earth (Defenses) 1/10]
3 AP = 5 AP - 2 AP Counter-Bless (The Sigh): The Comfort - The Sigh is caught and changed by the archways in the great wall. Going through the comfort provides immunity to the affects of the The Sigh and The Sands of Tranquility. It also produces a sense of contentment and comfort to discourage negative feeling and encouraging positive ones - particularly fear and courage.[Domain: Earth (Defenses) 3/10]

[Johnedwa]

Spoiler: Disclaimer

Show

So, I have this whole short story about how the gnomes split off in my head, and I still intend to write it, but with the deadline in two hours there's no way I'm going to finish. So here's the Sparknotes version.

The Sigh spreads across the land. Many gnomes die. Few escape enough to tell others, but the great wave continues forth. The gnomes argue about what to do.

Meanwhile, two chosen of Tlian, with the Rhythm of Creation sounding in their heads, come to to different conclusions. One, Melinda Silverbell, begins digging in secret, against her Father's wishes. She's obsessed with the caverns that she finds there (the underdark), and begins creating maps of the place. Eventually, her father discovers her act, leading to a confrontation. She lets out that she's discovered a way to escape the Sigh, and leads about half of the surviving gnome population down into the tunnels.

Her father, Roberthoon Silverbell, on the other hand, is filled with worry. He hasn't been able to sleep for days, creating this massive musical instrument that has suddenly, urgently filled his mind. The whole town has been frantically following his instructions- everyone but his daughter, that is. On the day that it is to be completed, he finds his daughter in the caverns below- and they argue for her safety. He's seen the tunnels himself, and knows very well the dangers of the tunnels- cave- ins, tunnels that look different at different times of the day, the dark. Still, she takes half of the gnome population into the tunnels with her. He begins to work. At the last minute, he completes his large, several feet high instrument. He prays.

Tlian knows that Roberthoon's instrument is also a scientific marvel. It filters the wind through it, and as the cool breeze of the shoreline blows through the instrument, it forces the wind to coalesce. When it hits the hot wind of the Sigh (breath is warm), it creates a front, and the hot air rises over the cool air, saving the few remaining gnomes from the Sigh.

Or, at least, he hopes it does.

Spoiler: AP actions

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Alter Land (Create Stonehenge/ a really big wind tunnel): 1 AP
Counteract the Sigh: 2 AP
4-1-2= 1 AP remaining

[Feathersnow]

The Therian Epistle
Book Two

(1)Of the first hellhounds born, two survived. A female and male. And the female was barren.

(2) Alpha and the Wild One surveyed this and were not satisfied.

(3) There were seven children in the clan of Jaxi that held the hellhounds. Dubh, Sorrel, Orains, Buidhe, Waine, Gorm, Fiolet

(4) And Sorrel saw the Wild One watching the Hounds, and invited him by fire.

(5) She was blessed the Great Dog, and the clan prospered.

(6) And the Jaxi were joined by Alpha and his person. For six months, they traveled with the Jaxi.

(7) Sorrel taught the sire hellhound to retrieve things from the Spirit World, but the greatest treasures she could not keep.

(8) After six months, the female hellhound gave birth, for the first and only time. And she had seven pups. Zikuros, Dhumos, Kitumos, Chuuon, Evrukos, Xulon, Schulon

(9)Each pup was given to a child. From each pup was the root of a breed of Hellhound. And each child was the founder of one of the great priestly orders.

(10) The clan reached the sea, and, as he went to draw water from the mouth of the river, Dubh saw a nessie. It was a sign to him and to all the Jaxi, that a new order had come

Spoiler: AP actions

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1 AP Create racial society TBD (shared)
Details to be determined. Shared with Tafillah
Race (Rabbitfolk) 3/10

1 AP- create organization- The Sorrelite Priesthood of Dhumos. A group of priests that minister to the less fortunate and specialize in conjuration and fertility magic.

Race (Rabbitfolk) 4/10

2 AP- Blessing (countering Stranger's Knock) Virtue of Charity: Blessed Wanderers
Those who show hospitality are blessed with good fortune in hunting, magic, and agriculture.

Travel (metaphorical) 5/10

1 AP- Blessing- School of Conjuration: Heaven's Gate. Members of the Sorrelite Priesthood who foreswear other forms of magic and take vows of charity have familiars that can create wealth, provided they do not profit from this in any direct way.

Community (partnership) 4/10

1 AP Create Monstrous Life- Nessies
Mysterious, lithe, aquatic creatures. Though superficially resembling reptiles, they are mammals. They are very shy, but have cosmopolitan distribution across all but the hottest and coldest regions.

Finding one is a mark of destiny and kingship. One intentionally revealing itself is an omen of a falling government.

Legend (folklore) 3/10

Totals-
2 starting+4 rollover
6 spent= 0 AP Remains
Domains-
Magic (Foci) Starting
Animals (domestic) Starting
Travel (metaphorical) 5/10
Land (beasts) 4/10
Community (partnership) 4/10
Race (Rabbitfolk) 4/10
Legend (folklore) 3/10

[Detective]

The Sigh that howls through the winds of Aria proved too troublesome for Grashmore to burn a blind eye to. While he at first thought that letting it stay would help read out the weak so that the more powerful will remain?

The signs of how the wind has affected the lands it passed, crumbling rocks and withering plants? It made him fear the consequences of letting the Sigh reach his pool of blood, before he even had time to toy with it!

So, when the Sigh made his way towards his own creation upon the continent of Aria? Grashmore went down to the earth to face it, his fleshy arms stretch forth to claw his fingers into the ground to hold his footing.

The god opened his maw towards the sky, sucking in the air towards the near bottomless pit of his stomach until he has gathered enough, and then lowers his gaze back towards the impending Sigh… And he huffed, and puffed, and blew against it with enough force to push its direction away from the pool of blood, away from Grashmore Tear's, and the rest of the land that stood behind it.

But that wasn't the end of his breath: The clash has not only pushed the Sigh away from his creation, but it caused Grashmore's breath to break and separate across the continent, filling it with harsh, howling winds that sail across the land- And giving the residents of Aria another thing to worry about.


Caw's arrival to Grashmore's Tear
As Caw spoke to the rest of the gods near Grashmore's own creation, Grashmore was among the first to speak:

"The patron of the goblins has to come to my claim upon this land? You claim our aims may be more common than we think?" The voice of Grashmore asks in a gruff, deep voice, coming from the depths of the pool of blood.

"You seek discussion? State your desire, for mine is nothing but endless conflict."

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Counter- The Sigh (2 AP):: The breath of Grashmore against the Sigh had pushed it away from Grashmore's Tear, and as a result indirectly protected the land behind it. |Tempest(Winds) 2/10

Alter Land- The Breath(Aria) (1 AP): As a side effect of Grashmore's huff and puff to blow the Sigh away, harsh winds now plague the continent of Aria. Strong currents of air that pass across the contient. From gentle gusts of winds to ones that can push and pluck away both living and inanimate beings that aren't firmly attached to the ground or have the weight to resist it. |Tempest(Winds) 3/10

AP spent: 3, AP left: 13/16

[Mechalich]

Memoirs of Synessa, the Cloudfisher

Reflections on the First Cycle
Tumultuous, there is no better word for that early era when the gods ran riot across the First World. With their power much was fashioned, much was ravaged, and much was bent and twisted. Hardly had the lives of the first peoples: the Ceseza, the Jaxi, the Gnomes, and the Goblins begun but that divine hands reached out to grasp and distort all that they were. The same pattern likewise afflicted the lands of the world. Rain washed great expanses of stone out to sea, and terrible winds arose in the heart of continents to leave only devastation in their wake. Many suffered, though there were also triumphs. The Sages emerged in that time, and granted the potent but dangerous gift of flame to all. They hid their true natures then, for reasons I could not pierce, though my maker knew their true form, revealed in the flow.

Many of these shapings were strangely ephemeral, forged from formless being. Wandering clouds, frightful mists, deadly winds, unending stories, mind-bending light, and other phenomena, all intangible. Worst of all was the terrible, mind-wracking Scream, the emanation of some blighted being born of horrors that shall never depart my memory no matter how great the infinity of existence stretches. Such a departure these works from those of my maker, and curious. Nathces, a being without form, fashions solidity from the malleable. Perhaps the divine ones who chose the opposite were born in consistency rather than mixing? A question for another mind, or perhaps the Sages. Myself, I am only disappointed in the inability to reach such substance-less visions. How I would like to reach the halo that surrounds the moon, but one can neither walk nor swim among scattered motes of dust. The great sea serpents are more to my taste, few other creatures are so difficult to stalk as they, or as majestic in their bearing. I have ever endeavored to slay few among their number, in respect. A far cry from the oozes, miserable creatures one cannot eat when the hunt is done, such a cheat.

Though the First World shuddered beneath the power of the gods in those days, and even the moon's shape bent beneath their power, they were yet distant creatures. Few were known by name among the peoples, nor had any songs risen to their heights. An unstable condition, one that would change with swiftness.

Gathering the Void
As the gods acted upon the First World they unleashed their influences through great blessings and curses, each one a new permutation upon being, a shift in all that was and would be. The great flow of existence yanked back and forth by divine whim. All things changed, often rapidly. Chaos spread far and wide, and even those actions not meant to bring harm unleashed great upheaval. I recall this well. Suffering spread widely in those ages, some desired, some inadvertent.

The lives of mortals are as nothing to the gods, brief as they are, small as they are. Even those who are inclined towards kindness can offer but little attention. Other thoughts, other needs always pull upon them. Nathces is not a being of malice, but neither did it offer succor against those strange shifts, not directly. The ever-altering world intrigued it, and it observed and adjusted in response, fascinated by the possibilities of world-alteration, of the new rules that might unleash all adjustment among land and life.

Not content with merely the First World as a canvas for such plays of being, it sought to form a greater expanse and set forth many flows at once, a tandem formulation of existence. Reflecting upon the alternate worlds crafted by other deities, it comprehended the principles by which the boundaries of the void might be breached, new realities bubbled into being. Yet Nathces knew that such actions were not attempted lightly. The cost behind such makings was grave indeed, and it was not willing to compromise in the number of its spawned seas. The flows must form unrestrained.

A lesson this, most pertinent. Even the power of the gods is not without limit. The vastness of Creation and Destruction together is beyond even their capacity to grasp all at once. The universe stands mightier than its masters. None have strength inviolate. Hold this truth tight in hard times, that it may shelter you.

Knowing this, Nathces fashioned a being capable of aiding in the manufacture of worlds. It drew upon the smallest of seeds and the endless resources of the void above. There are tiny creatures in the oceans, called larvaceans, that spread out vast billowing nets of slime with many folds. These natural nets catch all they touch, and feed that slender form in their center. In time, these mucosal homes become clogged with debris and are cast aside. In this way they feed others and raise the sea floor.

Nathces took one such creature, smaller than my littlest finger, took it far out into the endless void above the sky, and expanded it unto the size of the moon. The house it built then stretched of such breadth as to match the First World itself, and it fed upon the primordial ether of the void to sustain itself. Debris too it found, dust and gas and stranger things. These were bound up within the world of slime it spread, and in time they too were cast off. Each such discard was taken by Nathces and served as the core of a new world.

Suspended high above at the barest edge of sight, I do not think the Void Filterer Ordaeus knows she is the mother of countless worlds, but I am grateful for her hunger all the same.

Iay, the Pure Sea
First of the children of Nathces and Ordaeus was Iay, the Pure Sea. Formed from the fragments of the Void above the First World untouched by later changes, she was a world purely of water. Even ice did not take hold in her endless expanse, for she lay within the embrace of the sun, and was warm from surface to center. No night existed there, only gradations from bright to dim based upon the expanse of water between the observer and the sun.

Nathces filled the great liquid orb with life, as was its wont. The living forms found there were strange to those from the First World, for the purity of Iay made for an absence of all surfaces save that life itself might create. The resulting beings were often vast and gelatinous, and grew out in all directions, unbounded by weight or edge. They defied the base principle of symmetry in their profusion, even growing around each other, engulfing without consumption.

Hardened beings there were also, gathered about in carapace and shell, and built upon each other, living foundations. These came to grasp and tear and feast upon others, and the natural cycle of life emerged in full. Great webs of softness interspersed with nuggets of solidity, and the system grew about these contrasts, rising to new complexity with every iteration, until the vast ocean squirmed from end to end.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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Create Utility Artifact (Major, Weave Plane) (5AP) – Ordaeus, the Void Filterer - [Life (Cosmic) 5/10] a giant larvacean (this is a real thing) expanded to the size of a moon, Ordaeus' discarded 'houses' provide the raw material for the production of new, watery, planes. Ordaeus can be seen from the First World, but appears only as a blurry speck moving slowly across the sky.
Weave Plane (2AP) – Iay, the Pure Sea - [Life (Cosmic) 7/10] this is a planet comprised entirely of water (and dissolved materials), bound into a sphere and floating in the void. Lacking any appreciable surface due to pervasive warmth, it is filled with strange life in its endless waters. Iay hangs in the void above the First World near the sun, but is not presently visible.
Starting AP: 8 Rollover Gain: 4 Spent: 7 Remaining: 5

[zzzzzzzz414]

Grashmore's Tear, Aria

"I suppose," a low voice purred, "it had not occurred to me to wonder if there were others. I suppose it is a comfort to know that I am not alone in this wretched state. Though it would be rather more of a comfort to know the meaning of your actions upon this world."

It was not exactly accurate to say Baghsandesh appeared; the shadows beneath the nearby baobab tree shifted, as if the branches had stirred in a light breeze, and suddenly it would be quite hard to say whether the sunset-colored tigress lounging at its base had been there the whole time or not. She yawned, and turned to consider the other divinities with calm, half-lidded eyes.

"I am, in particular, quite curious to know why my gift has been blocked, twisted, or scattered to the four winds. Many yet suffer who would find well-deserved rest and contentment, were it not for these deeds. I can understand, I suppose, the fear of some of the mortal creatures; their instincts teach them to fear stillness and quiet, to claw for light and agitation even as it burns and destroys them, for it is all they know. A tragic thing. But I do not believe the same applies to any of you. So, why? And you-"

She turned to Grashmore - her expression remained impassive, but something like fire danced behind her golden eyes. "Your words, I am afraid I do not understand at all. Conflict? To what purpose? Is there something against which to conflict? Some source for all of this agitation and noise and..." She waved a paw vaguely at her surroundings, "...existence that has so disturbed our slumber? If there is, please tell us, that we may eliminate it and return to our endless rest. I, for one-" she paused momentarily, letting out another yawn, "-already grow quite tired of existing. As do we all, I expect. Or, so I had assumed, at least?"

[GameOfChampions]

Antares, the Shining Law

As creation and destruction moved so too did the divine beings. Many were born in the time after the end of the age of Titans, Antares one of them. The being was born in the dying light, one last shine from the meeting of creation and destruction.

As the flash died down it knew itself to be born. Antares the being named itself, the Shining Law. It looked upon the new First World and found it wanting. Chaos abounded everywhere. Other beings like him creating and destroying on a whim, curses and blessings. They were all new to this world and took to it with enthusiasm.

Antares however looked to the great darkness above, soon filled with sun and moon. Antares looked upon the sun for a long time, admiring and thinking. His own form was a being of bright light to be seen from afar, a great eye in the centernof his body. He breathes his first breath out, not needed but more to understand the movement of the cosmos.

He looks to the distant skies beyond the sun and moon, and breathes out once more. This time though the breath is no mere experimentation. Antares breathes out shining order into the distant reaches. Small glittering lights into different patterns and orders.

It wasn't enough though. Anything in the first world would be able to be muddled with. The Stars were a start but maybe he needed something close but not in the forst world.

He ponders the problem before looking to the works of his compatriots created. The spirit world. While among his new stars Antares weaves his power, creating and slowly expanding a new plane mirroring the many stars. On and on, seemingly endless allowing one to drift through the lights of order for ever.

Antares drifts through, appreciating the order and light of his new home. Satisfied... for now.

Spoiler: Spoiler

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AP: 16/16
Alter Land (2 AP): The Stars

Weave Plane (3 AP): Heavens Law

AP: 11/16

+4 Rollover

AP: 15/16

Domain: Heavens (Light): 2/10
Domain: Civilization (Order): 3/10

[Razade]

The Great Dragons: The New Planes

From the Peak, the host of Dragons moved to stretch their bodies and minds. To the Pure Sea went Ebon Blossom of the Heavenly Right, to Heavens Law went Ivory Thorn of the Left Terrace and to the Spirit World went Fallow Spring Breeds Bountiful Autumn who followed the spirits of the dead to their abode. There they would dwell at least in part, returning to the Terrace to spread their knowledge to all upon the Peak.


The Great Dragons: The Peak

With their kind spread across the Void and beyond, the Great Dragons began their great work. From the many Planes they drew forth string and upon a mighty loom they wove with talon'ed hands a great work upon a tapestry of Void. Such was their work that the creatures they wove moved and dance and sang, and some sprang forth from the tapestry fully formed. Mighty were the Deva who protected the Peak, astride long legs and broad chest they rose their lungs to the azure sky and praised Heaven and Earth, Spirit and Void. They were a mighty host.

The Great Dragons: The Mortal World

The host of Dragons continued to work within the fledgling races, wearing the faces of the mortal kind they sought to foster. Where the Ring of Scale went, they soon saw the worrying decline even of the oral stories that mortals told around the fires they had brought. Even as more of their kin moved into the camps of the Gnomes and Goblins, bringing to them the secrets of fire, the rot maintained. So it was that the Great Dragons, high in their Peak, began to work in secret, their memories long and the Deva's time thus open and free. So on the Peak the stories of mortals were told around lakes and rivers, and into the azure skies above.

Spoiler: AP Actions

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AP: 5 + 4 = 9

Create Greater Artifact (The Loom of the Void) {Legendary Life} - 5AP: The Great Dragons of the Peak in their idle life, exploring and expanding through the Planes and the Void build a vast Loom to recount all life they find. The Loom can be found on the top of the Peak, attended to by the strongest of Deva. [Law (Wisdom) 5AP]

Create Legendary Life (The Deva) - 2AP{Planar Life}: The Deva are a host of scholar kings that dwell upon the Peak where they wile away their time maintaining the vast terraces and reciting sutra so that the air is filled with the stories and legends of the Great Dragons and Zhang Shu. Deva stand roughly 12 feet tall, are broad of shoulder though have no apparent gender. Each are equipped with powerful magic spells etched into their bronze skin, their hair aflame and each wielding a golden weapon. [Law (Wisdom) 7/10AP]

Bless (The Sage's Oath) - 2AP {Countering Scholar's Bane}: The Great Dragons and Deva, being non-mortals, weave their magic to prolong and make solid the histories of the Mortal and Divine world. The Sages of Scale maintain these records, keeping them to repeat to mortal kind when the time is right. [Law (Wisdom) 9/10AP]

5AP - 2AP - 2AP = 0AP

[thethird]

She whose light is shed, the Underdark

The caverns under Aria were white, pristine stone, and empty. Until they weren't. Merfolk had found entrances into the grotoes. At first it had proved a safe space, a point to breath air. Make fire. But as they had explored further they had found pockets of the Sigh. Even if it was erradicated above ground some of it had been trapped underground. And that was death.

Most had seen the deeper caverns as cursed. Many had turned back to the sea, while some had remained on the edges of the underdark where it was safe building crude walls against the underdark. Still few advanced undaunted. Called for exploration of the deeper caverns.

They carried with them sea life, but for substenance but also for a darker purpose. They soon found out that the Sigh was lethal, a complete lack of sensation. They fought that with an almost lethal saturation of sensation. Poison and venom from the deadliest creatures from under the sea. It didn't give them inmunity. But they could brave the outskirts of the Sigh and not die, they would die later, from too much poison buildup.

It was then that She whose light is shed found them. Trapped against a particularly ferocious pocket of Sigh that seemed to shallow any brave that tried to navigate it. None of their poisons seemed to keep them moving long enough to pass through it. Some had in fact overdosed, and killed themselves. She heard them and she liked them, they were smart, thinking. Like the Janxi she had found earlier.

She observed as they thought. They had drawn some lines on the dust, with salt water trying to track the path of those that had been unable to cross. And she liked that. She wanted to help.

She submerged herself in the pool of poisonous creatures that the merfolk had carried. And started touching the beasts. As she did she touched the creatures and changed them. From outside it looked like an ember had fallen into the pool. And it had driven the sea creatures into a frenzy. Jumping at each other biting and tearing apart at them.

When the waters calmed only one creature remained. It looked like a squid, it's body small and almost invisible as it adopts the coloration as what is behind it. It's tentacles were thin tendrils that disappeared in the water.

As a merfolk saw it and reached into the water to grab it the squid lit up in bioluminscence, at first white, blue, then a black so dark nothing can be seen from the end of its tentacles, that were pointed like barbs. As they grace at the merfolks arm the squid creature seems to enter a panic contracting itself and expletting some of its bioluminscent in filling the pool. It's black, and oily, but as the merfolk pulls its arm away some other colors can be seen, blue, red, yellow...

The merfolk quickly stood up and raised his arm just to stop himself observing it. Looking at the fire and closing his eyes. Feeling his heart pounding. Breathing hard. And ran. Ran accross the Sigh. Jumping and volting on an apparently random pattern.

While he does their compatriots cheer. And as he crosses the caverns explodes in joyful celebration. The other merfolk would soon follow but first they grab the ink of the tinny creature and use it to scribe a simple representations of the steps the brave took to cross. And a circle, a dark botch of darkness around a light. She whose light is shed sees that and is pleased.

Spoiler

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Initial AP 11, Rollover AP +4

Create Monsters (AP 1) Inklings are very small squidlike creatures. They have natural capacity to manipulate their own skin color, easily disappearing and camuflaging. They can also manipulate their own bioluminscence and excrete some of it when threatened. The first inklings produce an oversaturation of colors, resulting in a black mixture but all the colors are there and can be filtered out. This ink is poisonous when in contact with wounds or soft tissue and produces, over stimulation, hallucinations, visions, and even small bouts of futuresight. The visions don't always make sense and can leave one wanting for more. The ink is also ink, and is a great medium to paint. Inklings can be selectively bred to produce more colors, based their diet. Without divine intervention, or careful management of the original bloodlines, pure black is impossible to breed. White would require extensive breeding and science. When inklings produce their ink it emits light, and some of the faint bioluminscence remains if properly stored. Even when the ink completely loses its light, if porperly treated, it can recover it if exposed to a light source, like a torch. [Craft (Painting)]

Create mundane concept (AP 1 - 1 from artifact) Painting is the art of drawing and coloring things. While the first painters are Merfolk cavesmen it can soon catch on on other races. Merfolk use it to represent things they see and experience. But also other things, such as the bottom of the sea and sea lifes being drawn in inland caverns, or drawings showing how to traverse a cavern, or She whose light is shed favourite, a simple black circle.

Left over AP 14.

[Gunhaven]

Neul - The Skies Above the World
Slowly Neul split off from Uisge and Scamall in It's wanderings to the northwest; eventually It'd reach the edge of the world and make It's way to the other continent cursing the beauty that was nothing but oceans. It still rained down and seeded the swamps and forests with further Lliad but soon enough It meandered above the large central desert. Here It's rains brought forth a new small orb, this one the light yellows and whites of the sand that made up the desert. This time, however, when It left the first of these Gaineamh the orbs continued to gorge themselves on the sands they wandered. Eventually they would pop into two more, when they finally reached the size of large ball 2 feet in diameter, and the four roughly foot in a diameter balls would go off in separate directions. Soon enough any slimes or oozes would share this trait of eating what they were made of, ballooning up in size, and eventually popping into more of their kind.

Uisge - The Spirit World
Disgust was the closest feeling the Ceaseless Downpour had for the blossoming life that It rained upon. With "That Which Births Life" beginning It's journey and adding to the cacophony, Uisge focused inwards and found one place still blissfully quiet. With almost a pop, much the same sound as one of the slimes bursting into more of it's kind or being killed, It left the world behind and instead found Itself in a strange rolling plane that was blissfully quiet. It took the form of much of Neul's creatures, a silvery ball that rolled through the landscape and simply observed, until others started to arrive. Shapes made of the same material as the land and capable of shaping the land with their thoughts. Uisge never bothered getting close enough to intrude on others but seemed content to just watch, shaping these souls into small balls before they finally popped and joined the land they manipulated.

Spoiler: AP Expenditure

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Starting AP: 4/4 (+4 Rollover)
Artifact Charges: 2/2 (Alter Land, Create Monstrous Race)

0AP - Create Monstrous Life - Gaineamh - Created by Neul's rains falling upon the unnamed desert of Cynux and the edges of the Sand of Tranquility on Aria, Gaineamh are shaped like any other slime and attack in much the same way as Lliad with a bludgeoning pseudopod. Unlike other slimes, though, Gaineamh are harder to pop thanks to their stony diet. Because of this hardened exterior, though, it takes longer form them to form gouges in the land they wander.
1AP - Create Monstrous Life - Eitear - Born from the last shreads of a soul, Eitear are oozes made from the ectoplasm that make up said souls. They could be considered the last stage of a soul's life cycle, as close as such a thing could be called. Their real purpose of existing is to visit the dreams of those who interact with the Blessing and Cursing and as a means to do Pact Magic when a familiar isn't available. Either way they pop themselves in order to bring about the dreamer's will, making it manifest in the waking world. Most Eitear's unspoken price is the ectoplasm that makes up other's souls, since most of the time it takes more than the piddling bit of ectoplasm that makes up a freshly formed Eitear to do anything in the real world. Going towards Spirit (Ectoplasm)
1AP - Curse - Ooze Trails - Slimes and oozes slowly consume whatever they're made of as a means of feeding until they eventually reach something that they can't eat or die. Eitear consume ectoplasm/aether as they roll through the Spirit Plane, Gaineamh consume pebbles and sand, Hemats suck up any free standing mortal blood, and Lliad consume dirt and mud as they roll around the Real World. Going towards Life (Oozes)
1AP - Bless - Slime Split - Slimes and oozes will naturally split into more of their kind once they grow big enough. Their natural size is about the size of a basketball and they'll grow to be about the size of a yoga ball before they split into a total of four of their kind. In the interim while they feed the slimes and oozes are progressively harder to destroy (since there's more to slice through compared to a freshly formed ooze). The four then wander off for a few minutes in each cardinal direction so that they don't attack each other right after forming. Going towards Life (Oozes)

Ending: 1 AP, Alter Land Artifact

[Zale]

The Skies Above Cynux and Aria

The serpentine goddess of venomous change beheld the death that swept over Aria, draining life and color from the soil, leaving utterly lifeless desert behind. It slew indiscriminately and for no purpose, not even in service the known evils of consumption and survival.

It was heinous. It was instructional. Her siblings wrought their defenses, saving their wards, but the world still bled. The sweeping, white dunes of the Sands of Tranquility lay, full of powder siphoned of anything that could provide life.

Were she a goddess of healing, of growth, Selinakos would reach out a hand and jungles would grow, rivers would flow, life would explode once more- returning the world to a bounteous state. Were that the truth. However, that was just a dream for the goddess of painful metamorphosis.

Yet, one of her siblings reached out and brought life to the lifeless place. Rolling orbs that drank the sand and grew rocky hides soon inhabited the sands, growing in the empty plane. Heartened, when the moon next rose and the mist dances across Aria's sister-continent, Cynux's deserts exploded as small centipedes grew vast and monstrous, horse-sized and with dozens of dragonfly-like wings. These terrible monsters began their first, awful flight- but then came a wind.

A storm unlike any the desert had ever faced, as the vaults of the heavens opened up with the furious winds of the Void. It stirred the sand like waves and swept the monstrous sand-creatures away, into the sky and across the sea. The wind sent waves through the lifeless Sands of Tranquility, depositing the monsters of the moon as it did so. They survived, barely, through flight and cracking exoskeletons.

Released upon this new habitation, they soon began to pursue the stony Gaineamh as their natural predators, forming the basis of a crude - but balanced - ecosystem.

Life persisted and death's purchase on the world was weakened, ever so slightly.

Spoiler

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AP (8/16) + 4 (rollover) = (12/16)

0 AP - Create Monstrous Life - The Sand-Stalkers - These are monstrous centipedal creatures, roughly the size of a horse. They have an asymmetrical number of dragonfly-like wings that allow them to fly at great speed in bursts, but not very far above the ground. They are capable of eating almost anything, and can survive for years in a stasis-like state between meals. They have a strong venom with anesthetic properties, and dwell in the deserts of Aria.

1 AP - Alter Land - The Lunar Winds - Every decade or so, the wind of the Void descends down to stir up the sands of the desert of Cynux, then flow across the sea to the deserts of Aria. This often drops both sand and wildlife (and possibly people). (1/10) Deserts (Survival)

AP (11/16)